Obama's Pastor's Farrakhan

Twenty years is a long time. You get to know someone in twenty years. Rev. Wright praised Farrakhan at his recent Press Club speech. We know that Reverend Wright and Barack Obama have known and heard Louis Farrakhan for at least ten years. Reverend Wright, along with Barack Obama went to the Farrakhan "Million Man March" ten years ago.

Reverend Wright, at his Press Club rant, talked about the US government complicity in creating AIDS. Where did he get that idea and how prevalent an idea is that in the black community? Should we believe that Monday was the first time Barack Obama heard the Reverend's theories?

Listen to what Farrakhan has to say and what he preaches.

Prince Barack Decides to be King and Banishes Rev Falstaff

I Know thee not, old man . . .

When thou dost hear I am as I have been

Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast,

The tutor and feeder of my riots.

Till then I banish thee, on pain of death. . . .

(Henry IV, Part 2 5.5. 45, 60-63)

(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama said he is "outraged" by comments his former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, made Monday at the National Press Club and "saddened by the spectacle."

Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday denounced comments made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"I have been a member of Trinity Church since 1992. I have known Rev. Wright for almost 20 years," he said at a news conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "The person I saw yesterday is not the person I met 20 years ago."

Obama said he is outraged by Wright's remarks that seemed to suggest the U.S. government might be responsible for the spread of AIDS in the black community, and his equation of some American wartime efforts with terrorism.

"What particularly angered me was his suggestion somehow that my previous denunciation of his remarks were somehow political posturing," said Obama, who added that Wright had shown "little regard for me" and seemed more concerned with "taking center stage."

Obama said Wright's comments were not only "divisive and destructive," but they also "end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate.

( more here)

Is Obama's Black Church that Black?

White liberal praying it ain't so.

There are a lot of blacks including Oprah Winfrey that were part of Reverend Wright's church. Just a couple of weeks ago we heard that it was the church to go to in Chicago if you wanted credibility in the black community. Me thinks that Reving'em up Wright, is probably more main street in that community than many liberals would like to believe.

Wright is telling it like it is, but picked an inconvenient time to do it. He has torn back the curtain and a lot of people are pretending shock. Wright said "blacks are different" and that unspeakable is anathema to multi-culturalism. That is not the Obama message but is also much closer to the truth.

Recall the reaction in white America when OJ Simpson was found not guilty. Whites were shocked and blacks went into a delerium of ecstasy.

Those same type of pictures are on every clip of the Rev on every youtube clip. The parishoners who were present at the Press Club yesterday are the same folks who were in Church with Barack Obama.

Obama sat and absorbed that for twenty years. Barack Obama was mesmerized by this very bright and very seductive man. What does that tell you about a President Obama?

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Wright Says Criticism Is Attack on Black Church

Attacks on him are really attacks on the black church, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. said in a speech to the National Press Club in Washington on Monday, in which he mounted a spirited defense of views and sermons that have become an issue in the presidential campaign because Senator Barack Obama attended his church for many years.

Mr. Wright told the press club audience that the black church in America grew out of the oppression of black people, and that his sermons reflected that struggle.

Snippets from his sermons have been used in Republican commercials seeking to depict Senator Obama as unpatriotic, and the Democratic presidential candidate has given a carefully calibrated speech seeking to distance himself from Mr. Wright’s more inflammatory statements.

Speaking Monday, Mr. Wright said that political opponents of Senator Obama were exploiting the fact that the style of prayer and preaching in black churches was different from European church traditions — “Different, but not deficient,” he said.

(more)

The Carter Center Knows Best.

"On the way home from monitoring the Nepalese election, I, my wife and my son went to Israel. My goal was to learn as much as possible to assist in the faltering peace initiative endorsed by President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice."

Most Presidents, at the end of their terms, are pleased to return to privacy. Few become addicted to celebrity. I doubt we will hear much from George Bush as we didn't from his father and for that matter Reagan, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Eisenhower and Truman. Then there is Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Neither Clinton or Carter seem capable of exiting stage left. Clinton needs the light and Carter fears the darkness. Carter cannot accept the fact that he is not needed, and not invited. He also has devolved into that weird Bob Dole state of referring to himself in the third-party. With Carter it is "the Carter Center". I guess that is the point; Carter being in the Center.

Here's Jimmy:

____________

Pariah Diplomacy

By JIMMY CARTER
Published: April 28, 2008

A COUNTERPRODUCTIVE Washington policy in recent years has been to boycott and punish political factions or governments that refuse to accept United States mandates. This policy makes difficult the possibility that such leaders might moderate their policies.

Two notable examples are in Nepal and the Middle East. About 12 years ago, Maoist guerrillas took up arms in an effort to overthrow the monarchy and change the nation’s political and social life. Although the United States declared the revolutionaries to be terrorists, the Carter Center agreed to help mediate among the three major factions: the royal family, the old-line political parties and the Maoists.

In 2006, six months after the oppressive monarch was stripped of his powers, a cease-fire was signed. Maoist combatants laid down their arms and Nepalese troops agreed to remain in their barracks. Our center continued its involvement and nations — though not the United States — and international organizations began working with all parties to reconcile the dispute and organize elections.

The Maoists are succeeding in achieving their major goals: abolishing the monarchy, establishing a democratic republic and ending discrimination against untouchables and others whose citizenship rights were historically abridged. After a surprising victory in the April 10 election, Maoists will play a major role in writing a constitution and governing for about two years. To the United States, they are still terrorists.

On the way home from monitoring the Nepalese election, I, my wife and my son went to Israel. My goal was to learn as much as possible to assist in the faltering peace initiative endorsed by President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Although I knew that official United States policy was to boycott the government of Syria and leaders of Hamas, I did not receive any negative or cautionary messages about the trip, except that it might be dangerous to visit Gaza.

The Carter Center had monitored three Palestinian elections, including one for parliamentary seats in January 2006. Hamas had prevailed in several municipal contests, gained a reputation for effective and honest administration and did surprisingly well in the legislative race, displacing the ruling party, Fatah. As victors, Hamas proposed a unity government with Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah as president and offered to give key ministries to Fatah, including that of foreign affairs and finance.

Hamas had been declared a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel, and the elected Palestinian government was forced to dissolve. Eventually, Hamas gained control of Gaza, and Fatah is “governing” the Israeli-dominated West Bank. Opinion polls show Hamas steadily gaining popularity. Since there can be no peace with Palestinians divided, we at the Carter Center believed it important to explore conditions allowing Hamas to be brought peacefully back into the discussions. (A recent poll of Israelis, who are familiar with this history, showed 64 percent favored direct talks between Israel and Hamas.)

Similarly, Israel cannot gain peace with Syria unless the Golan Heights dispute is resolved. Here again, United States policy is to ostracize the Syrian government and prevent bilateral peace talks, contrary to the desire of high Israeli officials.

We met with Hamas leaders from Gaza, the West Bank and Syria, and after two days of intense discussions with one another they gave these official responses to our suggestions, intended to enhance prospects for peace:

• Hamas will accept any agreement negotiated by Mr. Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel provided it is approved either in a Palestinian referendum or by an elected government. Hamas’s leader, Khaled Meshal, has reconfirmed this, although some subordinates have denied it to the press.

• When the time comes, Hamas will accept the possibility of forming a nonpartisan professional government of technocrats to govern until the next elections can be held.

• Hamas will also disband its militia in Gaza if a nonpartisan professional security force can be formed.

• Hamas will permit an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants in 2006, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, to send a letter to his parents. If Israel agrees to a list of prisoners to be exchanged, and the first group is released, Corporal Shalit will be sent to Egypt, pending the final releases.

• Hamas will accept a mutual cease-fire in Gaza, with the expectation (not requirement) that this would later include the West Bank.

• Hamas will accept international control of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, provided the Egyptians and not the Israelis control closing the gates.

In addition, Syria’s president, Bashir al-Assad, has expressed eagerness to begin negotiations with Israel to end the impasse on the Golan Heights. He asks only that the United States be involved and that the peace talks be made public.

Through more official consultations with these outlawed leaders, it may yet be possible to revive and expedite the stalemated peace talks between Israel and its neighbors. In the Middle East, as in Nepal, the path to peace lies in negotiation, not in isolation.

So Much for Conspiracy Theories

9/11 Conspiracy Theories 'Ridiculous,' Al Qaeda Says

Barbie Erotic Fantasies Pose Threat to Iran

Barbie denounced as destructive by Iranian prosecutor

Guardian

The blonde-haired, scantily-clad Barbie doll and other western toys will lead to "destructive and cultural consequences" for Iran, the country's leading prosecutor was quoted as saying today.

In a letter to the Iranian vice-president, published in the Mardom Salari daily newspaper, the prosecutor general, Dori Najafabadi, wrote: "The appearance of personalities such as Barbie, Batman, Spiderman and Harry Potter and ... computer games and movies are all a danger warning to the officials in the cultural arena," Reuters reported.

Najafabadi, a high-ranking cleric, said Iran was the world's third biggest importer of toys, and suggested this posed a threat to the "personality and identity" of the new generation.

"The unrestrained entry of this sort of imported toys ... will bring destructive cultural and social consequences in their wake," he wrote.

He added that many toys were smuggled into Iran, accusing importers of concentrating on profits at the expense of cultural values.

This is not the first time Barbie has become the focus of Iranian disapproval. In May 2002, the Komiteh - the public morality police - cracked down on sellers of the doll, arresting shopkeepers and saying Barbie was improperly dressed.

At the time, one shopkeeper told the Guardian that the Komiteh had taken $11,000 (£5,534) of his goods during the raids. "Iranians love everything Barbie. I just can't understand it," he said.

An Iranian version of the doll, called Sara, was launched. She follows Islamic rules of dress and her brother, Dara - much like Barbie's boyfriend, Ken - is the male version of the doll.

Too attractive for Iranian tastes.

Rev. Wright Continues to Give. “A Change is Gonna Come”

"Africans have a different meter, and Africans have a different tonality," he said. Europeans have seven tones, Africans have five. White people clap differently than black people. "Africans and African-Americans are right-brained, subject-oriented in their learning style," he said. "They have a different way of learning."

- Rev Wright to the NAACP

Update: Rev Wright is speaking to the National Press Club. Rev Wright is cranking it up. He has his own agenda and is using the moment to run for something himself. He has the stage and he is not getting off. This is bad news for Obama and very bad news for the country. This is not the way that we want this election to go. I cannot say that I am surprised.

Obama has some problems.

__________________

Rev. Wright Delivers Fiery Address to NAACP

April 27, 2008 11:28 PM ABC News

Speaking in Detroit, at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's 53rd annual "Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner," Rev. Jeremiah Wright took on his critics even while he spoke of a new, unified day coming.

You can watch the speech HERE.

Addressing a local Republican official who'd called Wright “divisive," Wright told the welcoming crowd in his keynote address, "I am not one of the most 'divisive.' Tell him the word is 'descriptive.' I describe the conditions in this country -- conditions divide, not my description."

Wright's appearance guaranteed more media attention for the former pastor of the Democratic president frontrunner, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, who likely had hoped the issue -- and Wright -- would go away. In more news that would no doubt trouble Obama, Wright mentioned that he was working on a book.

"I'm not here for political reasons," Wright said. "I'm not a politician." He said that might surprise in the crowd of 10,000 since "many in the corporate-owned media have made it seem that I'm running for the Oval Office. I am not running for the Oval Office; I've been running for Jesus for a long, long time, and I'm not tired yet."

Most of Wright's speech addressed the theme of the dinner, “A Change is Gonna Come,” talking about the differences between different cultures and races, saying "a change is coming because we no longer see others as being deficient…Different doesn't mean deficient."

"The black religious tradition is different," he said in comments that seemed to address the controversy about his sermons. "We do it a different way."

Wright discussed how different groups have seen other groups as "deficient." After saying English-speakers saw Arabic-speakers as "being deficient," Wright mentioned Obama almost as an aside.

"Please run and tell my stuck-on-stupid friends that Arabic is a language -- is a language, it is not a religion," he said. "Barack HUSSEIN Obama," he said, emphasizing the Illinois senator's middle name dramatically, "Barack HUSSEIN Obama, Barack HUSSEIN Obama. There are Arabic-speaking Christians, there Arabic-speaking Jews, Arabic-speaking Muslims and Arabic-speaking atheists. Arabic is a language, it is not a religion. Stop trying to scare folks by giving them this Arabic name like it's some disease."

The bulk of his remarks addressed, however, different groups seeing each other as deficient. He acted out the differences between marching bands at predominantly black and predominantly white colleges. "Africans have a different meter, and Africans have a different tonality," he said. Europeans have seven tones, Africans have five. White people clap differently than black people. "Africans and African-Americans are right-brained, subject-oriented in their learning style," he said. "They have a different way of learning." And so on.

After jokingly mocking the Boston accents of former Presidents John F. and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., Wright said, "nobody says to a Kennedy, 'You speak bad English,' only to a black child was that said."
Wright said that he believes "a change is going to come, 'cause many of us are committed to change how we see others who are different."

Earlier in the day, Wright delivered two sermons at the Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, referring to his "public crucifixion," according to the Houston Chronicle. Wright will address the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Monday morning.

- jpt

Wake Up McCain. You Think Republicans are Tough?

I don't know what the future holds...

Karzai Survives Deadly Attack in Kabul.

Afghan Troops Fleeing the Scene - AFP photo

Afghan president escapes deadly parade attack
27/04/2008 08:05:03 AM GMT


KABUL (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped unharmed Sunday after militants attacked a high-profile military parade with explosions and gunfire, killing at least one and wounding 11 including legislators.

___________________

The BBC has this video. It looks eerily similiar to the setting when Sadat was assassinated in Egypt three decades ago. One day ago this was the headline:

Karzai wants US to stop arresting Taliban suspects:

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged US forces Saturday to stop arresting suspected Taliban and their sympathizers, arguing that these arrests and past mistreatment were discouraging Taliban from laying down their arms.
The New York Times said the Afghan president, in an interview, also criticized the allied conduct of the war and demanded that his government be given the lead in policy decisions.
Karzai said the real terrorist threat lay in sanctuaries of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Pakistan. He argued that civilian casualties needed to end completely.
"For the success of the world in Afghanistan, it would be better to recognize this inherent character in Afghanistan and work with it and support it," The Times quoted him as saying in the interview. "Eventually, if the world is to succeed in Afghanistan, it will be by building the Afghan state, not by keeping it weak."
Karzai, who has been in office six years, is facing re-election next year. With the polls approaching, some diplomats have even expressed dismay that, for lack of an alternative, the country and its donors may face another five years of poor management by Karzai, the paper said.
But the Afghan president was quick to reject such criticism, pointing out "immense difficulties" his government had faced, according to The Times.
"What is it we have not gone through?" Karzai was quoted as asking.
The president also called for greater respect for Afghanistan on the part of its foreign partners.

VOA is reporting:


Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other dignitaries have survived a Taliban attack on a ceremony in Kabul.

Defense Ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi says Mr. Karzai as well as scores of Cabinet members and foreign diplomats were evacuated Sunday after automatic gunfire broke out.

Government and military hospital officials said at least nine people, including two lawmakers, were wounded in the attack.

The gunfire erupted after Mr. Karzai and other dignitaries had taken the stage following an inspection of troops.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid quickly claimed responsibility for the attack, saying his fighters had fired rockets and automatic weapons at the dais where the dignitaries were seated. The spokesman said three Taliban fighters were killed.

President Karzai appeared on national television soon after the incident saying authorities have arrested several suspects.

Afghan state television abruptly cut its live transmission of the high-profile ceremony, marking the 16th anniversary of the fall of the communist government in Afghanistan to the mujahedin and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country.

Al Sharpton to Close down NYC. Obama Must Be Pleased.

The only thing worse for the Obama candidacy would be for Reverend Wright to use his pastoral skills to help Al Sharpton shut down New York. That ought to be good for another 5-7 point drop for Obama in the upcoming primaries. Sharpton has a keen sense of timing and knows just when to be diplomatic.

_________________________

Sharpton vows to 'close this city' after officer acquittals


Apr 26, 4:42 PM (ET)

By VERENA DOBNIK

NEW YORK (AP) - Hundreds of angry people marched through Harlem on Saturday after the Rev. Al Sharpton promised to "close this city down" to protest the acquittals of three police detectives in the 50-shot barrage that killed a groom on his wedding day and wounded two friends.

"We strategically know how to stop the city so people stand still and realize that you do not have the right to shoot down unarmed, innocent civilians," Sharpton told an overflow crowd of several hundred people at his National Action Network office in the historically black Manhattan neighborhood. "This city is going to deal with the blood of Sean Bell."

Sharpton was joined by the family of 23-year-old Sean Bell - a black man - and a friend of Bell who was wounded in the 2006 shooting outside a Queens strip club. Two of the three officers charged were also black.

The rally at Sharpton's office was followed by a 20-block march down Malcolm X Boulevard and then across 125th Street, Harlem's main business thoroughfare, where some bystanders yelled out "Kill the police!"

Fifty of the marchers carried white placards bearing big black numbers for each of the police bullets fired at Bell and his friends.

Sharpton urged people to return for a meeting this coming week "to plan the day that we will close this city down" with the kind of "massive civil disobedience" once led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

"They never accused Sean Bell of doing anything. Then why is he dead?" Sharpton asked, his voice roaring with anger. Authorities "have shown now that they will not hold police accountable. Well, guess what? If you won't, we will!"

"Shut it down! Shut it down!" the crowd chanted, standing up and applauding wildly.
Sharpton didn't say exactly how they would protest the acquittals of the officers who fired the 50 shots. He said Bell's supporters could demonstrate all over the city, from Wall Street to the home of Justice Arthur Cooperman, who on Friday acquitted the three detectives after a nonjury trial.

Sitting behind Sharpton as he spoke were Bell's parents, his sister and Nicole Paultre Bell, who took her fiance's name after his death.

"The justice system let me down," Paultre Bell told the crowd in a soft voice. "April 25, 2008: They killed Sean all over again. That's what it felt like to us."

It was her first public comment since she stormed out of a courtroom Friday after the NYPD detectives were cleared in Bell's killing as he left his bachelor party.
One of Bell's companions, Joseph Guzman, also spoke briefly on Saturday, saying: "We've got a long fight."

Kardashian at party for Girls Gone Wild Magazine, endorses Obama.

"It wasn't just him and I. I was at an event,"said Kardashian.

"I had dinner with him (Obama) once, and he just seemed very firm about the change, and that's, like, his motto,"

Kim Kardashian Reveals Details Of Dinner With Barack Obama
By Brian Andrews Published 04/24/2008 Reality TV Star News
Barack Obama Hoping To Gain Democratic Nomination

Kim Kardashian has been seen in a sex tape which has made her the focus of many men. The one she is focusing on these days is presidential hopeful Barack Obama. The Senator apparently made an impression with her while having dinner together.

Kardashian revealed at a launch party for Girls Gone Wild Magazine, that she is endorsing Senator Obama for president. The move came at the party that was held in Los Angeles.

"I had dinner with him once, and he just seemed very firm about the change, and that's, like, his motto," she said. When asked about the dinner, she quickly pointed out that the two were not alone. "It wasn't just him and I. I was at an event,"said Kardashian.

She is not the only one in her family to be backing Obama in his quest to become the next president. Her stepbrother, Brody Jenner, also has come out in support of Obama.

Obama was hoping to lock up the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania on this past Tuesday. That did not happen, however, as Hillary Clinton defeated Obama by almost ten points. The battle now heads on, in search of a winner who will eventually battle John McCain to be the next president.

Our Guy Retaliates.

Iron Mike Tyson. He Almost Made It.

Iron Mike Tyson KO'd his first 19 opponents, 12 before the end of the first round, but this is now.

Here is how it used to be:

Past Time to Rethink Transportation and Fuel

Alternative Transportation Need Not Be all That Bad

Car sales last year were up 60 percent in Russia, up 30 percent in Brazil and up 20 percent in China. Imagine India with $2500 cars. Friends, the era of getting 300 miles on a twenty gallon gas tank is rapidly coming to an end. Electricity, propane, hydrogen or perhaps a motorbike are in the future. What is clear is that the existing automobile fleet is going to be replaced sooner than you think. Ford (F) closing at $7.50 may be the buy of a lifetime.

_________________________________

Oil prices to double by 2012: Canadian study Breit Bart

U.S.: biodiesel usage to increse to 1 billion gallons per year by 2012.

The price of oil is likely to hit 150 dollars (Canadian, US) a barrel by 2010 and soar to 225 dollars a barrel by 2012 as supply becomes increasingly tight, a Canadian bank said Thursday.

The CIBC report says the International Energy Agency's current oil production estimates overstate supply by about nine percent, since it wrongly counts natural gas liquids -- which are not viable for transportation fuel -- in its numbers.

Analyst Jeff Rubin in his report noted accelerating depletion rates in many of the world's largest and most mature oil fields. He estimates oil production will hardly grow at all, with average daily production between now and 2012 rising by barely a million barrels per day.

"Whether we have already seen the peak in world oil production remains to be seen, but it is increasingly clear that the outlook for oil supply signals a period of unprecedented scarcity," said Rubin.

"Despite the recent record jump in oil prices, oil prices will continue to rise steadily over the next five years, almost doubling from current levels."

The CIBC report also notes that while production increases are at a virtual standstill, global demand continues to grow.

An expected drop in demand in the United States due to higher prices and a weak economy will be more than offset by demand growth in developing nations, it says.

Rubin cites, for example, the recent launch of Tata's 2,500-dollar car that will allow millions of households in India to soon own automobiles.

He also notes that car sales last year were up 60 percent in Russia, up 30 percent in Brazil and up 20 percent in China.

Transport fuel now accounts for half of the world's oil usage.

Although US oil consumption is likely to fall by over two million barrels a day over the next five years as pump prices rise, he says, more drivers on the road in Russia, China and India will surely pick up the slack in demand.

Tweety Came From a Tough Family

Closest living relatives of the mighty predator Tyrannosaurus rex are modern birds.

I know there is some ironic Kantian lesson to be learned here, but that is best explained by someone else. (Bobal, please be a chap, step forward and explain this to us.) If there is a political lesson, it is the ability of all living thinks to adapt to almost any change.

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Tests Confirm T. Rex Kinship With Birds

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD New York Times
Published: April 25, 2008

In the first analysis of proteins extracted from dinosaur bones, scientists say they have established more firmly than ever that the closest living relatives of the mighty predator Tyrannosaurus rex are modern birds.

The research, being published Friday in the journal Science, yielded the first molecular data confirming the widely held hypothesis of a close dinosaur-bird ancestry, the American scientific team reported. The link was previously suggested by anatomical similarities.

In fact, the scientists said, T. rex shared more of its genetic makeup with ostriches and chickens than with living reptiles, like alligators. On this basis, the research team has redrawn the family tree of major vertebrate groups, assigning the dinosaur a new place in evolutionary relationships.

Similar molecular tests on tissues from the extinct mastodon confirmed its close genetic link to the elephant, as had been suspected from skeletal affinities.

“Our results at the genetic level basically agree with what has been seen in skeletal data,” John M. Asara of Harvard said in a telephone interview. “There is more than a 90 percent probability that the grouping of T. rex with living birds is real.”

Dr. Asara and Lewis C. Cantley, both of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, processed the proteins from tissue recovered deep in bones of a 68 million-year-old T. rex excavated in 2003 by John R. Horner of Montana State University. Mary H. Schweitzer of North Carolina State University discovered the preserved soft tissues in the bones.

For the molecular study, Dr. Asara and Chris L. Organ, a researcher in evolutionary biology at Harvard, compared the dinosaur protein with similar protein from several dozen species of modern birds, reptiles and other animals.

Dr. Organ was the lead author of the journal report, which concluded that the molecular tests confirmed the prediction that extinct dinosaurs “would show a higher degree of similarity with birds than with other extant vertebrates.” The researchers said they planned to extend their investigations to include comparisons of T. rex protein with more species of birds, reptiles and other dinosaurs.

Dinosaur paleontologists were not surprised by the findings. An accumulation of fossil evidence in recent years had given them increasing confidence in their contention that birds descended from certain dinosaurs.

Jenna Bush, Keeping Up Family Traditions (UPDATE)

They will be missed by the Democrats

George Bush did more to wreck the Republican Party than any Democrat could even dream possible. I guess it is appropriate that one of his less than gifted daughters would continue the process.

UPDATE ( hat tip gag reflex): Look at the tape. She did not say what CNN said she did. I will leave my original post so that everyone can see how wrong I was about the girl. 

Speaking on Larry King Live last night, first daughter Jenna Bush, who appeared alongside first lady Laura Bush, confessed that she's not sure if she'll vote for the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Sen. John McCain, and even left open the possibility that she'd support either Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. Hillary Clinton.

CNN

Nuclear Power is Inevitable in the Middle East

"There was no Syria-North Korea co-operation whatsoever in Syria", said Bashar Jaafari, Syrian ambassador to UN. Here is a pdf of The Institute for Science and International Security report that says differently.

Syrian oil reserves have been declining and Syria has been switching power plants over to natural gas so that they can continue to export oil at new and rising prices. This poses a dilemma for Israel and the West. Nuclear proliferation will not be limited to Iran.

With all the oil revenue flowing into the Middle East and as we get further into the period of "peak oil", the ME has the resources to purchase and the need for nuclear power plants. It is simply not going to happen that Israel or any other power will be able to prevent every Arab country from obtaining nuclear power. China, Russia, France, Germany, the UK and the US will all be encouraging the use of nuclear power. It is a new growth industry.

The US when it had a nuclear monopoly could not prevent the Russians and the Chinese from acquiring nuclear technology in the fifties. Nuclear power in an age of $120 oil is inevitable. Nuclear is coming to the ME. How do we work with that?

_______________________

BBC

N Korea 'linked to Syria reactor'

Officials say the site was the target of an Israeli attack last year
North Korea was helping Syria build a nuclear reactor, US officials are to tell lawmakers in a closed session.

Unnamed officials told a number of US newspapers that the US had video footage of the Syrian facility with North Koreans inside.

Syria has repeated denials that it has any nuclear weapons programme, or any such agreement with North Korea.

It follows an unexplained air strike by Israel last September on a target inside Syria.

According to the Washington Post, the alleged nuclear facility was the target of the bombing.

'Not operational'

The video footage - said to have been obtained by Israel - also showed striking similarities between the Syrian facility and the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, reports said.

However, the facility was not yet operational and there was no fuel for the reactor, officials said.

The White House has not commented on the reports, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates said information on the issue could be made public "soon".

Syria's ambassador to the UN, Bashar Jaafari, denied the links.
"There was no Syria-North Korea co-operation whatsoever in Syria. We deny these rumours," he said.

North Korea has previously denied transferring nuclear technology to Syria.
In a landmark deal reached in February last year, Pyongyang agreed to close its main reactor and divulge the full extent of its nuclear programme by December.
However, it missed the deadline, and while it is taking steps to close its Yongbyon reactor, it has yet to produce a declaration of nuclear activities to the international community's satisfaction.

The Truth About Darwin

You Can't Handle The Truth

Slimslowslider said over at BC: "are we or aren't we the roll of the dice, that is the question.'


OK, the opening is a little melodramatic but the fact is that people on both sides of the issue of Darwin's theory of evolution can't or won't handle the truth. But I know the truth about Darwinism and I can handle it.

Darwin's theory stated as succinctly as possible is:

Random Mutation operating through Natural Selection explains the Origin of the Species.

When I was first asked about the scientific validity of Darwin's theory I had to say that I did not dispute the concept of evolution. After all, it is easy to see one's biological antecedents in other, older species. But I did question Darwin's theory of it. I thought Darwin's theory needed to be tested scientifically. And, so, the first order of business was to see if any of the terms within the theory could be tested objectively.

The terms available for testing are Random mutation, Natural selection, and Species. I rejected Natural selection and Species because the definitions are too loose to be called objective. That left Random mutation. But I was leery of the 'mutation' part of the term as also being too loosely defined.

That left the term 'Random.' Now this is a term that one can work with objectively, that is, if you think of mathematics, actually Statistics, as scientifically objective.

In Statistics, probability is the relative possibility that an event will occur, as expressed by the ratio of the number of actual occurrences to the total number of possible occurrences.

Take, for example, a roulette wheel. It has 36 numbers and a couple of zeros making for 38 possible spots for a ball to land on when the wheel is spun.

It is assumed that the chance of landing on any particular number is the same as any other number. So the chance of landing on any particular number is 1 in 38.

1 in 38 isn't much of a chance but people do win. To win twice in a row the chance increases the chance to 1 in 38 x 38 which = 1 chance in 1444.

To win 10 times in a row the chance increases to 1 in 38 x 38 x 38 x 38 x 38 x 38 x 38 x 38 x 38 x 38 which = 1 chance in (Well, you know what? My calculator can't handle the truth)

Let's back off to the biggest truth my calculator can handle: 5 wins in a row. So, the chance of winning 5 times in a row are 1 in 38 x 38 x 38 x 38 x 38 which = 1 in 80 million. Now, if a guy told you that he won 5 straight rolls on the roulette wheel you would say that the guy is full of shit.

Now a statistician might say it could be true if the guy played one spin of the wheel every minute of every day for for 152 years. Then there would have been 80 million spins of the wheel and, so, there would have been an even chance of that happening or not happening. (Please, no nit pickers here. I'm trying to get the major point across)

If you've followed me this far (wake up, Doug) then maybe you can see that I became suspicious of, say, human DNA, which has 3 Billion base pairs, assembling itself randomly. Still, an intuition is not proof. And the proponents of Darwinism say that I just don't comprehend how much time nature has had to do this. We need hard numbers.

The first and hardest number to be determined is: How many "spins of the wheel" or events has nature had to work with?"

Here's how I eventually worked it out. Truth is, I don't know and will never know how many events nature has had to work its magic. But I have found a way to calculate the maximum number of events that she has had to work with and if the maximum number does not give an even chance of assembling Human DNA then no lesser number will accomplish it either.

So, let's have a go at finding out that number. It's really not that hard when physicists have already done all of the heavy lifting, as it were.

Let's define an event. It's when something happens. Physically, something must move.

How many "somethings' are there in the universe?
Answer: no. of Particles in the universe: 10^80

How long have they been moving, in seconds?
Answer: Age of universe in secs: 3600 x 24 x 365 x 15,000,000,000 = 10^17

How fast are they moving?
Answer: Speed of light in m/sec: 10^8

How far must they move?
Answer: Smallest measurable distance in universe: a Planck length: 10^-35 m

Question: How many times could all of the particles in the universe moving at the speed of light for 15 billion years travel a distance of one Planck length?

Answer: 10^140

I can calculate what the odds are assembling Human DNA randomly but I would rather start with a simpler analogy from which we can infer the truth.

A typewriter has 26+ keys; Let's say 32 for convenience. How many keystrokes could be typed accurately using a random selection process before the chance of success exceeded 1 in 10^140?

I've worked it out for you: 93 keystrokes.

Now, consider the 3 billion base pairs that make up of human DNA. That's the equivalent of typing 3 billion 2 keystrokes sequences accurately using a random key selection process. What are the chances of that happening? 10 doubles = 1024 or 10^3 We have 300,000,000 of these. Our chance of hitting these 6 billion keystrokes accurately? 1 in (300,000,000 x 10^3) or 1 in 10^900,000,000. There is only one word to describe these numbers: preposterous.

So, does random mutation over a long time produce the life forms we see today? Ain't no way.

If the universe was a trillion times older and a trillion times bigger and if light travelled a trillion times faster it would only make the maximum no. of events possible to 10^176. Then our analogy would only rise to 105 keystrokes. It is not possible for the theory of random mutations operating through natural selection to explain anything about the evolution of life. In fairness to Darwin: he never heard of DNA.

So, if life was created non-randomly, what is the mechanism driving evolution?

I have a theory about that, too. But won't go into that now. This post is hard enough to digest as it is. You didn't think that this was going to easy, did you? Serious people will make the effort.

Obama's Running Shoes

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning", well being a REMF AF type, I never smelled it, but I do love MSM being glum in the morning. It is a rare day when I wake with a smile, and look forward to seeing Chris Mouthews and Tim Russet Potato Head. I think I will grind some coffee beans and cook up some blueberries and maple syrup to put on a waffle. Thank you Pennsylvania.

Good stuff from Maureen Dowd. No waffles for that girl.

__________________________________

Wilting Over Waffles

By MAUREEN DOWD NY Times
Published: April 23, 2008

He’s never going to shake her off.

The very fact that he can’t shake her off has become her best argument against him. “Why can’t he close the deal?” Hillary taunted at a polling place on Tuesday.

She’s been running ads about it, suggesting he doesn’t have “what it takes” to run the country. Her message is unapologetically emasculating: If he does not have the gumption to put me in my place, when superdelegates are deserting me, money is drying up, he’s outspending me 2-to-1 on TV ads, my husband’s going crackers and party leaders are sick of me, how can he be trusted to totally obliterate Iran and stop Osama?

Now that Hillary has won Pennsylvania, it will take a village to help Obama escape from the suffocating embrace of his rival. Certainly Howard Dean will be of no use steering her to the exit. It’s like Micronesia telling Russia to denuke.

“You know, some people counted me out and said to drop out,” said a glowing Hillary at her Philadelphia victory party, with Bill and Chelsea by her side. “Well, the American people don’t quit. And they deserve a president who doesn’t quit, either.”

The Democrats are growing ever more desperate about the Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. With gas prices out of control, with the comically oblivious President Bush shimmying around New Orleans — the city he let drown — and Condi sneaking into Baghdad as rockets and mortars hail down on the Green Zone, beating the Republicans should be a cinch.

But the Democrats watch in horror as Hillary continues to scratch up the once silvery sheen on Obama, and as John McCain not only consolidates his own party but encroaches on theirs by boldly venturing into Selma, Ala., on Monday to woo black voters.

They also cringe as Bill continues his honey-crusted-nut-bar meltdown. With his usual exquisite timing, just as Pennsylvanians were about to vote, Hillary’s husband became the first person ever to play the Caucasian Card. First, he blurted out to a radio interviewer that the Obama camp had played the race card against him after he compared Obama’s strength in South Carolina to Jesse Jackson’s. And then, with a Brobdingnagian finger-wagging on the screen, he denied it to an NBC News reporter.

“You always follow me around and play these little games, and I’m not going to play your games today,” he said, accusing the reporter of looking for “another cheap story to divert the American people from the real urgent issues before us.”

If there’s one person who knows about crass diversions, it’s Bill. But even for him, it was an embarrassing explosion, capped with some blue language to an aide that was caught on air.

The Democrats are eager to move on to an Obama-McCain race. But they can’t because no one seems to be able to show Hillary the door. Despite all his incandescent gifts, Obama has missed several opportunities to smash the ball over the net and end the game. Again and again, he has seemed stuck at deuce. He complains about the politics of scoring points, but to win, you’ve got to score points.

He knew he tanked in the Philadelphia debate, but he was so irritated by the moderators — and by having to stand next to Hillary again — that he couldn’t summon a single merry dart.

Is he skittish around her because he knows that she detests him and he’s used to charming everyone? Or does he feel guilty that he cut in line ahead of her? As the husband of Michelle, does he know better than to defy the will of a strong woman? Or is he simply scared of Hillary because she’s scary?

He is frantic to get away from her because he can’t keep carbo-loading to relate to the common people.

In the final days in Pennsylvania, he dutifully logged time at diners and force-fed himself waffles, pancakes, sausage and a Philly cheese steak. He split the pancakes with Michelle, left some of the waffle and sausage behind, and gave away the French fries that came with the cheese steak.

But this is clearly a man who can’t wait to get back to his organic scrambled egg whites. That was made plain with his cri de coeur at the Glider Diner in Scranton when a reporter asked him about Jimmy Carter and Hamas.

“Why” he pleaded, sounding a bit, dare we say, bitter, “can’t I just eat my waffle?”

His subtext was obvious: Why can’t I just be president? Why do I have to keep eating these gooey waffles and answering these gotcha questions and debating this gonzo woman?

Before they devour themselves once more, perhaps the Democrats will take a cue from Dr. Seuss’s “Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!” (The writer once mischievously redid it for his friend Art Buchwald as “Richard M. Nixon Will You Please Go Now!”) They could sing:

“The time has come. The time has come. The time is now. Just go. ... I don’t care how. You can go by foot. You can go by cow. Hillary R. Clinton, will you please go now! You can go on skates. You can go on skis. ... You can go in an old blue shoe.

Just go, go, GO!”

Hillary by 10%

Newsmax/Zogby Poll: Hillary Takes 10-Pt. Lead in Pa.

Monday, April 21, 2008 10:35 PM

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton continued to pull away from rival Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois as the campaigning in Pennsylvania ended and voters prepared to cast ballots Tuesday, the latest Newsmax/Zogby daily telephone tracking poll shows.

Clinton now leads Obama, 51% to 41%, having gained three points over the past 24 hours as Obama lost one point, pushing her beyond the poll’s margin of error to create a statistically significant lead for the first time in the Pennsylvania daily tracking poll.

Meanwhile, 6% remained undecided and another 3% said they preferred someone else in the two-day tracking poll. It was conducted April 20-21, 2008, using live operators working out of Zogby’s on-site call center in Upstate New York, included 675 likely Democratic primary voters in Pennsylvania. It carries a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percentage points.

Thank God, It's Pennsylvania Tuesday

President "Bobby": Mr. Gardner, do you agree with Ben, or do you think that we can stimulate growth through temporary incentives?
[Long pause]
Chance the Gardener: As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden.
President "Bobby": In the garden.
Chance the Gardener: Yes. In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.
President "Bobby": Spring and summer.
Chance the Gardener: Yes.
President "Bobby": Then fall and winter.
Chance the Gardener: Yes.
Benjamin Rand: I think what our insightful young friend is saying is that we welcome the inevitable seasons of nature, but we're upset by the seasons of our economy.
Chance the Gardener: Yes! There will be growth in the spring!
Benjamin Rand: Hmm!
Chance the Gardener: Hmm!
President "Bobby": Hm. Well, Mr. Gardner, I must admit that is one of the most refreshing and optimistic statements I've heard in a very, very long time.
[Benjamin Rand applauds]
President "Bobby": I admire your good, solid sense. That's precisely what we lack on Capitol Hill.

'It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession.
I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.'
Ronald Reagan

This is a day that I thought would never come. It was like waiting for Christmas. Only without the payoff. I hope that I never see another campaign season as long as this one. Day after day for a year now, the candidates have provided the daily meals for the talking heads who night after night have dined on the empty calories of politics.

If there is an upside, it is the fact that in such a long protracted campaign, the candidates will expose themselves even if a fawning media does not. Hillary has proved beyond any doubt that she will say and do anything to get elected. One good thing about a two year long interview process is that you get to see the real person and not just the packaged persona. She's real alright. She's the real deal...in all her corrupt human glory, she seems to know no shame.

Obama on the other hand is seen as just about the most brilliant man to run for the Presidency in the history of the republic. How else to explain a phenomenon not seem in the last 50 years of American politics. Not since Chance the Gardener has the country been so receptive to a blank canvas on which to paint their own hopes and aspirations. Every enthralling uttered word is believed to be Solomaic in its extraordinary wisdom and insight. People who should know better, have been charmed by the soaring rhetoric. To them, Obama is Martin Luther King, Jr. , John F. Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt and everyman all rolled up in one. He is wise and handsome and a god-fearing family man; loyal even to his undeserving friends. He's the total package. Young, good looking, Harvard educated. Ubermensch. Those of us less enthralled with the phenom see him as a first-class grifter.

The Democrat primary has become torturous but in life, occasionally you have to take a bitter medicine in order to get better. Our suffering is nearly done.

Thank God, it's Pennsylvania Tuesday.

Pakistan Gives US a Sharp Stick to the Eye.

Will he be missed?

The TNSM is a militant Wahabi outfit whose primary objective is the imposition of Sharia in Pakistan.

Ideologically, it is dedicated to transform Pakistan into a Taliban style state.

In an August 1998-speech in Peshawar, Maulana Sufi Mohammed, its leader, reportedly declared that those opposing the imposition of Sharia in Pakistan were wajib-ul-qatl (worthy of death). He is reported to have organised thousands of people to fight the Northern Alliance (NA) in Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban in 2001, after 911.

A majority of them were either killed or arrested by the Northeren Alliance in Afghanistan. Sufi Mohammed, managed to get his sorry ass back to Pakistan, where he was arrested by the awful Musharref.

Well after a recent commitment of seven or eight billion in US aid, our good friends the Pakis gave Sufi Muhammed a get out of jail pass. How nice.

________________________________

Pakistanis free Islamist who fought U.S.

By Ismail Khan and Carlotta Gall Published: April 21, 2008


PESHAWAR, Pakistan: IHT

The new provincial government here released the leader of a banned Islamist movement from prison Monday after he agreed to denounce violence and work to bring peace to the area.

The released prisoner, Maulana Sufi Muhammad, is the leader of a radical movement, the Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi, or TNSM, which has fought the government for nearly 20 years in a campaign to establish Koranic law in the Malakand district north of Peshawar. He was detained six years ago, along with some of his followers, on his return from Afghanistan after leading hundreds of men there to fight against United States forces in November 2001.

Muhammad's son-in-law, Maulana Fazlullah, took up the leadership of the movement during his detention and led an armed uprising in the tourist valley of Swat last fall. The army routed the militants over the winter, but they remain in the mountains and still oppose the government.

The agreement, which was signed on Monday at the house of the province's chief minister, appears to be an attempt to pacify the region through negotiation. That was one of the main election promises of the Awami National Party, which is leading the coalition government in the North-West Frontier Province.

Under the agreement, Muhammad and seven other radical leaders agreed that the TNSM would respect the government and state institutions, "so that peace and the writ of the state is restored in Malakand region," according to the text of the agreement.

The TNSM acknowledged that army and police personnel and government officials were their Muslim brothers and that any violence against them was contrary to Islam and Shariah, its legal code. According to the agreement, the movement pledged to use only peaceful means in pursuing its aim of establishing Shariah.

"The government has taken the right decision and it will help in restoration of durable peace in the region," Muhammad told journalists after his release. He added that disputes should be resolved through dialogue rather than force.

Four members of the provincial government signed the agreement, withdrew all pending cases against Muhammad and commuted what remains of his 10-year prison sentence. His organization, formed in 1989, was banned in 2002 when he was convicted.

The chief minister, Amir Haider Khan Hoti, said that the TNSM had pledged to forbid participation in militant activity by any of its members, and to work toward restoring peace to the troubled region. "We have full agreement that issues cannot be resolved through the use of force," Hoti said.

Ismail Khan reported from Peshawar and Carlotta Gall from Kabul, Afghanistan.

Oil at $117 a Barrel. What is a Farmer to Do?

Two-Horsepower Solution

At some price, oil will become too expensive to burn as a fuel, at least for some applications. If you believe in free markets, you accept the facts as they are, oil is always at the correct market price. While the world seems to tolerate high fuel prices, rising food prices are more problematic. In many parts of the world the rising price of food is approaching the red line. People look at food as a right and oil as a commodity, but you need oil to produce food. 

Not all oil is distributed based on price. It is sold at a deep discount within Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela, Iraq, Kuwait and Iran. The producing countries are extracting a targeted tax on the oil consuming countries. The consuming countries seem unable to respond. 

The contradictions compound. The squeeze continues.

________________________

Farmers eye options as fuel, fertilizer costs soar

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) Washington Times—

Maryland farmers are facing record-high diesel fuel and fertilizer costs this plant season, the result of the escalating costs for crude oil and natural gas.

Diesel prices Friday averaged a record $4.168 a gallon nationally, more than triple the price last year for fuel widely used to power farm equipment.

U.S. prices for natural gas — a major component in the production of the nitrogen fertilizer anhydrous ammonia — have nearly doubled since late August, boosting field-preparation costs.

Brian Clark, a University of Maryland Cooperative Extension agent in Clinton, said the increasing costs of inorganic fertilizers has resulted in many farmers in Maryland's farm belt and the region turning to such alternatives as manure.

"But there is little they can do about record diesel prices," he said.

Chuck Fry, a Frederick County turkey and dairy farmer, said he pays $120 to $140 to refuel his diesel-powered, poultry-litter spreader, compared to $30 to $40 last year. The increase has made Mr. Fry use his large equipment more judiciously, he told the Frederick News-Post.

Ragina C. Averella, a spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said farmers also are dealing with higher livestock feed costs.

The increased production costs, plus the higher cost of transporting farm goods to market on diesel-powered trucks, are ultimately passed on to consumers, she said.

"It is a horrible cycle that translates to higher transportation costs to the marketplace and still higher prices for the eggs, milk, fruits, vegetables and other consumables," Mrs. Averella said. "All of this while we all continue to grapple with higher pump prices, too."

According to the American Farm Bureau Federation's Marketbasket Survey, retail food prices increased about 9 percent in the first quarter of 2008.

Historically, diesel fuel was cheaper than gasoline because it was easier to refine, according to industry researchers. Since the Environmental Protection Agency issued mandates in September 2004 requiring major reductions in the sulfur content of diesel fuels to improve air quality, the price generally has been higher than that of regular gasoline, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Mrs. Averella said retail diesel fuel prices are likely to remain high as long as crude oil prices and world demand for distillate fuels remain high, according to forecasts by the EIA.

Democrat Talking Points

Zawahiri says Iraq will become 'fortress of Islam': audio

Fri Apr 18, 10:19 AM ET

Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri urged Muslims to make Iraq a "fortress of Islam" in an audio message marking the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion.

In a nearly 16 minute message posted on the Internet, Zawahiri accused Shiite Iran of seeking to annex southern Iraq and slammed the Egyptian government for "starving" its people as part of a "Zionist-American plan

He called on extremists to fight to create a greater Muslim state after US President George W. Bush had admitted the "failure of the Crusader invasion".

"We will only get our rights back with our own hands and not through beggary or fraudulent elections," he said, according to a summary released by the US-based SITE monitoring service.

The message posted on Islamist militant websites contained a reference to April 8 testimony to the US Congress by the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus.

"Bush declared that he will give Petraeus all the time he needs ... which allows Bush to escape the decision to withdraw forces. By passing the problem to the next president, Bush is declaring the failure of the Crusader invasion of Iraq," Zawahiri said.

He mocked the US-backed Sunni Arab local groups formed to fight Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"So where are the Awakening Councils that Petraeus announced six months ago will achieve victory in Iraq? ... Are these Awakening Councils in need of someone to defend them and protect them?" Zawahiri asked.

On Thursday, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd mourning two members of one of the councils, killing at least 51 people in one of the biggest insurgent attacks this year.

"Very soon Iraq will become the fortress of Islam, wherefrom will start missions and brigades for the liberation of Al-Aqsa Mosque" in Jerusalem, said Zawahiri, considered the leading ideologist of the Sunni organisation.

"Iran has clear goals, which is the annexation of southern Iraq and the east of the (Arabian) Peninsula, and to expand in order to be able to communicate with its followers in southern Lebanon," Zawahiri said.

He said a plot against Iraq by the United States and Iran would lead to the Middle East region exploding.

"If an understanding with it (Iran) is reached on the basis of accomplishing all or some of its goals in return for keeping a blind eye on the American hegemony in the area, this understanding will add fuel to the fire ... The situation will explode an already enflamed region," Zawahiri said.

While Zawahiri lambasted Iran, a senior hardline cleric there was trumpeting what he said should be the Shiite country's role in defending Islam.

"In a not so distant future, we should reach a point of having the most powerful military equipment in the world so that no one even think about invading our borders," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said in a Friday prayer sermon.

"And not only that of the Islamic republic, but also the borders of Islam ... We must defend oppressed Muslims everywhere so that the enemies do not dare to attack Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq."

Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant referred to clashes between protesters and police in the Egyptian industrial city of Mahallah earlier this month, implicitly accusing the Egyptian government of conniving with Israel and the United States to keep the Hamas-run Gaza Strip under siege.

"Those who steal the livelihood of the people of Egypt are those who are denying food to the people of Gaza under the pretext of suspect international commitments with the Jews and the Americans," he said.

"In so doing, Israel achieves monopoly over supplies to Gaza to force its people to surrender to their conditions," Zawahiri said in the audio attributed to him.

"Starving the people of Egypt .... is part of a Zionist-American plan."

It was Zawahiri's second audio message this month. On April 2, he launched a blistering attack on the United Nations. He also said that bin Laden, who like him has evaded capture, was still alive.

On the Move.

Exodus from UK shows little sign of slowing

By Peter Pallot
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 17/04/2008

Any idea that the exodus from Britain of those settling abroad might be waning appears wildly premature.

The latest survey predicts 1.8 million Britons retiring abroad by 2025 and 3.3 million by 2050.

The survey, on behalf of NatWest International, provides further evidence that the majority of those making the lifestyle change do not look back.
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Nine in 10 expats said they enjoyed better quality of life and six in 10 said they did not intend to return to the UK.

Canada was rated the best country to emigrate to, followed by New Zealand and Portugal.

However, beneath the glitz lurked a less happy picture. Three quarters of those surveyed admitted to feeling homesick some or all the time, missing friends, the British culture and sense of humour.

What the survey might usefully have expanded on are health concerns, especially among older expatriates.

Many of those retiring to the sun are doing so at a time when body and brain begin to disintegrate at increasing speed. Local provision of healthcare may be either inadequate or inaccessible to the expatriate.

The language barrier can loom large. Hospital practices may disturb - the National Health Service in Britain has its critics but patients do not generally rely on relatives bringing in lunch, which is routine in some Mediterranean states.

Canada was the most popular destination in the survey

Most expatriates can benefit from medical insurance. For others it is a must. Unless expats are guaranteed full access to healthcare in their adopted state, and standards there are acceptable, skipping cover is flirting with disaster.

Distress and financial hardship can strike when expats are denied care expected as a right. Since NHS access rules were tightened in 2004, the individual who seeks to return to the UK for "free" treatment may also be in for a disappointment.

Just like its continental neighbours, Britain has clamped down on "health tourists". France, the Netherlands, Spain and several Swiss cantons have taken similar steps.

However, these countries offer generally excellent medical services, with hospital-acquired infections much less common than on NHS wards. The gap is recognised by insurers.

David Pryor, senior executive director at MediCare International points to "consistently better" healthcare across much of Western Europe compared to Britain. He said: "The French are rightly proud of their healthcare system and it is still true that access to specialists is quicker, waiting times for operations are lower and certainly hospitals and clinics are cleaner."

Insurers have responded by offering schemes aimed at people who spend most of their lives in continental Europe but a proportion in their home state - in many cases the UK. Limiting the scope helps limit the premium.

As the name implies, Exeter Friendly Society's Spain Residents Plan is mainly restricted to treatment within the country, but limited benefits apply in UK. A 40-year-old would pay €60.67 a month and a 45-year-old would pay €70.76 a month.

Another plan aimed at Spain's burgeoning expat community is Bupa International's Health Plan Complete. It gives comprehensive acute cover in Spain and another, designated, European country.

Obviously, policyholders tend to select their home country as their designated state. But this is not essential. Unusually, the plan differentiates between genders. A man aged 40-45 would pay €76.90 a month and a woman 40-45 would pay €103.70 a month.

Beyond Europe, in the Middle East and the "White" Commonwealth expatriates are being asked to prove they will not burden overstretched national health services.

People who emigrate to Australasia and North America are unlikely to get a visa if they are seen as likely to take more from the economy than they put into it. Mandatory health cover is one solution. In Australia, medical insurance premiums attract substantial tax breaks.

Most top spots for emigration in the Natwest survey offer quality of care that makes medical repatriation benefit unnecessary. However, once you move beyond the developed world, repatriation and/or air carriage assumes vital importance.

Assistance companies, contracted to insurers, specialise in emergency medicine. Their job is to get the patient to a suitable hospital with minimal delay.

Their responsibilities may go further than the purely medical. For instance, during the recent inter-tribal strife in Kenya, an American policyholder whose wife's ethnicity put her at risk, faced the threat of extreme violence.

The insurer's assistance company organised an armed police team to escort the couple to the local airport and then on to a safe haven in Nairobi.

Very Nice behind

This beauty has dimensions of 576 x 768 pixels @ a resolution of 72 pixels per inch. The file size is small at 44k.

Basra, an "unmitigated disaster at every level"

British liaison team was sent to the Iraqi army headquarters during the battle. "They were greeted by a group of Iraqi generals sitting around a large desk, shouting into their mobiles without a map in sight. Chaos ruled."

Battle to retake Basra was 'complete disaster'
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent Telegraph
Last Updated: 11:02pm BST 19/04/2008

The British-trained Iraqi Army's attempt to retake Basra from militiamen was an "unmitigated disaster at every level", British commanders have disclosed.

Senior sources have said that the mission was undermined by incompetent officers and untrained troops who were sent into battle with inadequate supplies of food, water and ammunition.

They said the failure had delayed the British withdrawal by "many months".

Their comments came as the Iraqi army, this time directly supported by American and British forces, began a second operation in Basra in an attempt to find insurgent weapons caches.

The push, which was met with fierce resistance, took place in the Hayania district of the city, where there were clashes two weeks ago.

In the first operation, it is understood that one Iraqi brigade became a "busted flush" after 1,200 of its soldiers deserted.

At one stage during the battle, stories were circulating at the British headquarters that Iraqi troops were demanding food and water from coalition forces at gunpoint. "It was an unmitigated disaster at every level," an officer said.

Gen Mohan Furayji, the Iraqi commander who was in charge of troops during the operation, was described by a senior British staff officer as a "dangerous lunatic" who "ignored" advice.

The British officer, who is based at the coalition headquarters at Basra Air Station, said that the decision to allow Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister of Iraq, to run the operation had been a "disaster which felt as though an amateur was in charge".

More than 15,000 Iraqi troops were ordered to seize control of the city last month following an uprising by the Mehdi Army, the powerful militia group which is largely trained and financed by Iran.

President George W Bush described the battle for Basra as a "defining moment" for Iraq, while British officials at the time praised the professionalism of the Iraqi army.

However, the operation ended in a stalemate, with the Iraqi government agreeing to a ceasefire.

Criticism of Britain's involvement in Basra resurfaced last week during Gordon Brown's visit to America.

The New York Times reported, incorrectly, that British troops were refusing to help the Iraqi army, which the newspaper said was "deeply embarrassing for Britain".

In a devastating critique of the Iraqi military, British commanders have disclosed that "chaos ruled" the operation to retake Basra.

One officer said the Iraqi army's 14th Division had only 26 per cent of the equipment necessary to take part in combat operations.

He said: "There were literally thousands of troops arriving in Basra from all over Iraq. But they had no idea why they were there or what they were supposed to do. It was madness and to cap it all they had insufficient supplies of food, water and ammunition.

"One of the newly formed brigades was ordered into battle and suffered around 1,200 desertions within the first couple of hours - it was painful to watch.

"They had to be pulled out because they were a busted flush. The Iraqi police were next to useless. There were supposed to be 1,300 ready to deploy into the city, but they refused to do so. The situation deteriorated to the extent where we [the British Army] were forced to stage a major resupply operation in order to stave off disaster.

"The net effect of all of this is that the British Army will be forced to remain here for many months longer."

The Sunday Telegraph has also learnt that British commanders had devised a plan for Gen Mohan. The plan came with the caveat that it should not be started until mid-July because Iraqi troops were not ready. But the officer said that the Iraqi general had ignored the advice.

He said that a British liaison team was sent to the Iraqi army headquarters during the battle. "They were greeted by a group of Iraqi generals sitting around a large desk, shouting into their mobiles without a map in sight. Chaos ruled."

Basra was handed back to Iraqi control last year after the Army withdrew from its last military base in the city.

The Ministry of Defence had hoped to reduce the number of troops serving in southern Iraq to about 2,000 this spring, but that plan has been shelved and British troops are once again patrolling the city's streets.

Shovrim Shtika, Breaking the Silence. Truth or Propoganda?

Breaking ranks with U.S. Jewish 'establishment' on the occupation

By Paul Katz Haaretz.com

A few weeks ago, I learned that I am anti-Israel, which certainly came as a surprise to me. The cause of the accusation was an exhibit exploring the effect of military service in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on ordinary Israelis.

I have always considered myself strongly Zionist and have devoted much of my time at Harvard to advocating for policies to bring the only Jewish, democratic state in the world closer to its most inspiring ideals. Yet, in the wake of the decision by the Harvard College Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA) to host to an exhibit by Israel's own "Shovrim Shtika" ("Breaking the Silence"), I found PJA - and by implication, myself - the target of denunciation.

To quote a recent open letter by the president of the Zionist Organization of America, Morton Klein, by facilitating the exhibition, we are guilty of "inciting hatred of Israel" and "playing into the hands of Israel's enemies."

The strangest aspect of much of the criticism PJA has received has been its source - individuals outside of the campus community who have not seen the exhibit themselves.

Of course, Shovrim Shtika's exhibit, which includes some 60 photos and several videos, was explained and contextualized by two former Israel Defense Forces soldiers with combat experience in the West Bank, was not uncontroversial on campus.

Although it was not sponsored by Harvard Hillel, the exhibit was housed in Hillel's building, a decision which made some members of the campus Jewish community uncomfortable.

Many students disagreed with what they saw as the exhibit's negative characterization of the occupation. Others expressed their concern at the exhibit's lack of context, which they felt would leave students uninformed about the conflict with an unduly negative view of Israel's commitment to human rights.

Nonetheless, at Harvard these reasonable criticisms were expressed respectfully and intelligently, and PJA's desire to promote a more just Jewish state was never questioned. Only in the broader national and international press did we morph into self-hating Jews seeking to undermine Israel.

The most virulent criticism of the exhibit came from Klein himself, who was quoted in Jewish Week as saying that, "Harvard Hillel should be ashamed of itself and should immediately rescind giving legitimacy to a program that only promotes hatred against Israel and Jews."

His criticism was echoed in a recent column by Isi Leibler in The Jerusalem Post, in which Leibler argued that Hillel's "post-modern" commitment to pluralism and free expression led it to allow "a ferociously anti-Israeli exhibition on Hillel premises."

Leibler went on to express his outrage that Klein was the only major voice within the American Jewish community to publicly condemn the exhibit. This silence, he claims, is evidence of "the extent to which post-modernism has penetrated the Jewish agenda and blurred distinctions between good and bad."

This criticism stems from the belief - one which PJA strongly contests - that the only appropriate role for American Jews to play in their support of Israel is neatly bounded by one word: Hasbara, or, the promotion of Israel's image abroad.

We believe that a real commitment to Israel should be characterized not only by educating others about the strength of Israel's ideals, but advocating for change when those ideals are being obscured by destructive policy decisions as well.

Now is a time when an end to the occupation of Judea and Samaria is widely seen as a distant prospect. The failure of unilateral withdrawal from Gaza has bred a frustration in the American Jewish community that translates into a pessimistic refusal to look beyond the status quo: continued occupation and the strategic expansion of settlement blocks in the West Bank.

Yet American Jews must understand that the status quo is not a costless alternative to the difficult and risky prospect of negotiated withdrawal. Shovrim Shtika's exhibit is about measuring its cost in real, human terms.

A constructive approach to the current conflict demands an honest Jewish dialogue about the nature of occupation and its costs, instead of the image-centered marketing campaigns that have become the bread and butter of the Israel programming of many of America's major Jewish organizations, including the ZOA.

This sort of dynamic conversation is just what Shovrim Shtikva has been promoting at Harvard and in the Boston community at large.

More than most places, Harvard is a forum for open debate and intellectual engagement. Far from alienating Jewish students from supporting Israel - as Klein fears Shovrim Shtika has already done - the exhibit has proven to the Harvard community that it is possible to both support a just and secure Jewish state and criticize policies plainly destructive to that end.

Such a position not only expresses our faith in Israel's capacity to fulfill its democratic vision, but also reflects the fact that we at Harvard understand our community. Our willingness to criticize Israeli policy in the name of the state's Jewish and democratic ideals represents a much more effective response to those at Harvard who attack Israel's legitimacy than Klein's blunt and anti-intellectual attempts to stifle dissent in the name of hasbara.

In fact, the potential of Shovrim Shtika to positively influence "our enemy's" thinking was poignantly illustrated to me by a Muslim friend's reaction to the exhibit.

"When I lived in the West Bank, I despised the Israeli soldiers," she explained on the Harvard International Review's online blog. But her tour of the photographs and videos, and her conversation with her guide, a former soldier, changed her perspective.

"They helped me understand so much why the IDF does what they do in the territories," she wrote. The exhibit, her blog entry explains, helped her to see Israeli soldiers not as impersonal objects of hatred but as human beings pushed into a pattern of behavior by the tactical demands of a dehumanizing policy.

This sort of "re-humanization," possible only when we acknowledge rather than ignore the true nature of occupation, is the first step toward understanding and coexistence.

Paul Katz, an undergraduate student at Harvard, is Co-Chair of the Harvard College Progressive Jewish Alliance.

This week in Mexico

State Department issues travel alert for Mexico border region
New Mexico Business Weekly - NMBW Staff

The U.S. State Department has issued a travel alert for northern Mexico citing increased violence in cities such as Tijuana, Juarez and Chihuahua City.
The missive urges U.S. citizens to be alert when visiting the border region, although it also notes that Mexican citizens are "overwhelmingly the victims of these crimes."
The violent criminal activity is being fueled by a war between criminal organizations struggling for control of the narcotics trade along the border, said the State Department. Attacks are aimed primarily at members of these organizations, Mexican police forces, criminal justice officials and journalists.
However, foreign visitors and residents also have been victims of kidnappings and homicides in the border region. Dozens of U.S. citizens were kidnapped and/or murdered in Tijuana in 2007. Public shoot-outs have occurred during daylight hours near shopping areas, according to the alert. There is no evidence, however, that U.S. citizens are being targeted because of their nationality.
Gov. Bill Richardson recently sent a letter to President George W. Bush urging him to extend Operation Jump Start, the National Guard deployment along the U.S.-Mexico border. It is scheduled to end on June 15. There are 284 National Guard troops deployed along the New Mexico border. They are to withdraw in conjunction with the addition of 6,000 new Border Patrol agents, but those agents are not yet in the field and Richardson said he fears that will leave the New Mexico border vulnerable, particularly in light of increased violence in Chihuahua.
The State Department alert supersedes another dated October 24, 2007. This latest alert expires on October 15, 2008.

Tijuana doctors protest violence
Fri Apr 18, 7:22 PM ET
TIJUANA, Mexico - Doctors in the Mexican border city of Tijuana have walked off their jobs for 12 hours to protest a wave of kidnappings against colleagues.
About 300 doctors still wearing their white medical robes are holding a demonstration outside state government offices on Friday.
Tijuana doctors association president Jose Patino says at least one doctor is kidnapped each week for ransom in the border city across from San Diego.
Pediatrician Daniel Trujillo says the walkout and protest are to pressure authorities to do more to stem the kidnappings.

Mexico agents detain border police chief
By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer Fri Apr 18, 4:13 PM ET
Mexico's military performed checks on all city police weapons in the border town of Reynosa on Friday after federal officials detained the police chief for questioning about possible links to drug traffickers.
Reynosa Police Chief Juan Jose Muniz Salinas was whisked off to Mexico City by federal authorities late Thursday for questioning on "evidence that links him to organized crime and fomenting drug trafficking," the federal attorney general's office said in a statement.
City officials said soldiers were conducting a routine check of city police weapons in Reynosa, which is near the Texas city of McAllen. Such inspections have been carried out in the past to determine if any of the weapons are unregistered or linked to crimes.
But Miguel Angel Garcia Ahedo, the city council secretary, said in a news release that the detention had not affected city operations.
"The city is calm, and we are operating normally with police patrols in all parts of the city, in coordination state and federal authorities," he said.
Federal prosecutors have less than four days to either charge Muniz Salinas, release him or ask a judge to place him under house arrest without formal charges.
Last month, soldiers arrested nine police officers from Ciudad Juarez, across the U.S. border from El Paso, Texas, for allegedly carrying drugs in their patrol cars.
The Gulf cartel is based in Tamaulipas state, where Reynosa is located.

From the LATimes, On the border with Michael Chertoff

This month, making use of the powers given to him by Congress, Chertoff announced that his department would bypass federal laws to speed construction of 370 miles of fence, angering environmentalists and border groups.

From the Dallas Morning News, Environmental Groups Challenge Border Plan

DALLAS -- The U.S. Supreme Court may get a chance to join the fractious debate over building fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.

A legal challenge by two environmental groups seeking to limit enhanced Department of Homeland Security powers to suspend more than 30 laws to build the fence is gathering support in Congress.

Mexican helicopter crash kills 11 soldiers

Sat Apr 19, 2008 1:45am IST
By Miguel Garcia Tinoco
URUAPAN, Mexico (Reuters) - A Mexican army helicopter crashed during anti-narcotics operations in western Mexico on Friday, killing 11 soldiers, local authorities said.
The helicopter went down at around midday in a rural area in Michoacan state, a major front in the government's army-led war against drug cartels, Michoacan's state attorney general's office said, without giving the cause of the crash.
"There are 11 men dead, including a colonel, and one soldier was injured. We do not yet know the cause," a spokesman said.
The helicopter wreckage lay on the ground in several chunks, surrounded by dozens of police. A child at the scene told Reuters he saw it plummet out of the sky and hit a tree.
President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of troops to Michoacan and other hot spots further north along the U.S.-Mexico border to combat violent drug cartels who are fighting over smuggling routes.
Some 900 people have been killed in drug violence this year, and 2,500 were murdered in 2007, including soldiers.
Drug gangs have become increasingly brazen, engaging in open air gunbattles with troops and federal police. The powerful Gulf Cartel this week openly advertised for army troops to desert the army and join its squad of Zeta hit men.

Mugabe's Chinese Death Ship Sails On.

Shall we name it the "Olympic Spirit"?

Actually it is an AP photo of the "The An Yue Jiang" anchored outside Durban harbor, South Africa, on April 17, 2008. It is a symbol of the worst in human beings. The arms and munitions in this Chinese ship are going to kill the Rhodesians who are trying to escape the tyranny of the criminal Robert Mugabe. Did I say Rhodesians? I forgot. The West sanctioned the terrible and white Ian Smith and changed Rhodesia to the wonderful Zimbabwe.

To accomplish the overthrow of Ian Smith, the left ruined the economy of Rhodesia, which at the time was a huge agricultural exporter. The West banned such exports as Rhodesian tobacco.

That was before the Chinese were to make their grand entrance to the world scene. 

Zimbabwe went on to become more corrupt than anyone thought possible under the black criminal Robert Mugabe. The unfortunate starving Zimbabweans (there's a mouthful), who are still alive, thought they got Robber Mugabe out  by voting him out of office, but not so fast. Other intervening things have happened to the world.

The West opened up China and gave them a free pass to export into all free economies, ostensibly to have them become a team player in the world economy and politics. The same was true of the hideous and pretentiously named "Olympic Movement".

The Chinese, concerned about their image and the "Olympic movement", are cleansing dissent in China. I guess they thought a few more yuan would come in handy to help defray the expenses . Sail on Olympic Spirit. On to Zimbabwe.

_________________

The Chinese ship carrying a consignment of 77 tonnes of weaponry for Zimbabwe left South African waters yesterday after a court blocked the onward overland shipment of the cargo.

South African dockers had refused to unload the arsenal of small arms, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

But the Durban high court in any case ruled that the shipment could not be dispatched north across the border into Zimbabwe.

Several hours later, the An Yue Jiang weighed anchor and left Durban harbour, reportedly headed for Mozambique.

The court ruling followed an application brought with the support of the South African Litigation Centre under legislation prohibiting the supply of arms to "governments that systematically violate, or oppress ... human rights and fundamental freedoms".

The director of the centre, Nicole Fritz, said: "It is hard to imagine clearer circumstances in which South African authorities were obliged to refuse to grant any conveyance permit."

Helen Zille, the leader of South Africa's opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, warned that the shipment could result in carnage of "genocidal proportions".

Pointing out that a consignment of Chinese machetes had prefaced the genocide in Rwanda, she said: "The mind boggles when one considers the damage that could be done with the consignment of arms sitting in Durban harbour."

The Congress of South African Trade Unions said the vessel "must return to China with the arms on board, as South Africa cannot be seen to be facilitating the flow of weapons into Zimbabwe at a time where there is a political dispute and a volatile situation"

A Tough Planet. Eagles and Mountain Goats

This is Blakean.
This is an illustration that we have been born into a chaos of the sea.
But, being humans, we must rise up, and swim to shore, as fast as our little limbs will carry us, lest we remain animals. We have that good sense within us. Let us use it.

This is a wonderful illustration of exactly what we want to get away from. So we can get a place for everyone, and sit around, and talk about it.

- Bobal

Here's a Question for You

The Yearning For Zion sect, 10,000-strong, dominates the towns of Colorado City in Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. The YFZ sect split from the mainstream Mormon church more than a century ago. Members believe a man must marry at least three wives in order to ascend to heaven. Women are meanwhile taught that their path to heaven depends on being subservient to their husband.

If two people of the same sex can be married, why can't polygamists?

Meet Putin's new wife-to-be, Czarina Alina Kabaeva

Alina Kabaeva, 24, the rhythmic gymnast

Putin dumps wife
Staff Reporter Times co,za:Apr 18, 2008

A recent issue of Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper claims that Russia’s outgoing 57-year-old President Vladimir Putin is to marry a girl 30 years his junior.

The newspaper wrote that Putin secretly divorced his wife, Lyudmila Putin, in February . La Repubblica said that Putin would remarry on June 15 .

His new bride? Alina Kabaeva, 24, the rhythmic gymnast who won a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics and numerous European awards, the newspaper said.

Kabaeva’s press secretary denied the rumours.

According to the newspaper, “Russians consider Kabaeva to be sexier than Sharapova and Kournikova.” After the Olympic Games in Athens Kabaeva gave up sport and decided to try her hand at cinema.

According to the newspaper, “Putin divorced his wife in a St. Petersburg registry office.” The only disclaimer was voiced by Kabaeva’s press secretary, but it sounded so unconvincing as if it had been motivated by fear to unlock some mystery, since Putin still remains the most powerful personality in Russia.

The newspaper concluded that Putin’s plan concerning Kabaeva had been implemented long ago: Kabaeva became deputy head of the State Duma Committee on Youth Affairs and chaired the supervisory board of the National Media Group - Russia’s new media-holding owned by Yury Kovalchuk, who is a close friend of Putin’s. she was elected to the Duma - the Russian parliament - in elections in December 2007 as one of ’Putin’s babes’, four former athletes turned topless models who become deputies.

It was not incidental that Russia’s state-run TV channels and newspapers highlighted the story of Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni – their story is similar.

Russian, Italian and French blogs have been inundated with comments on the allegedly forthcoming wedding of Putin and Kabaeva, Moskovsky Correspondent newspaper wrote with reference to a Moscow-based company that specializes in organizing solemn events. A tender for organizing this wedding has been reportedly announced. The wedding is due on June 15.

 

Check her out eating the sashimi.

Hillary and Barack Debate in Philadelphia. McCain Wins.

It was not pretty to watch. At moments, I felt unease as if I were at dinner with a couple that started to argue. I just wanted the evening to end. They both lost but Obama lost more. Too bad actually. He does seem to be a pleasant guy. Hillary is far tougher. Ruthless.

Given the choice to throw his pastor or grandma under the bus, Barack chose grandma. He continues and persists with that mistake. It was a good night for McCain.

US To Pay Tribute to Pakistan. Only $7 Billion.

“Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.”
- Congressman Robert Goodloe Harper of South Carolina in 1789

You will be happy to hear that we have a new policy for Pakistan. We will borrow lots and lots of money and bribe them. They will hate us more and do less than they have in the past.

_______________________

US offers Pakistan government $7bn in non-military aid to fight terrorism

• Civilian cabinet told drone air strikes will be curbed

• New strategy marks break with Musharraf and army

Julian Borger in Islamabad

The Guardian
Thursday April 17 2008

The US has promised to curb air strikes by drones against suspected militants in Pakistan, as part of a joint counter-terrorism strategy agreed with the new civilian government in Islamabad, the Guardian has learned. That strategy will be supported by an aid package potentially worth more than $7bn (£3.55bn), which is due to go before Congress for approval in the next few months.

The package would triple the amount of American non-military aid to Pakistan, and is aimed at "redefining" the bilateral relationship, US officials say.

Pakistan will also be given a "democracy dividend" of up to $1bn, a reward for holding peaceful elections and forming a coalition government. Of that, $200m could be approved in the next few days.

The aid package, being put together by the Democratic senator Joseph Biden, will mark a decisive break in US policy on Pakistan, which for much of the past nine years focused on President Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistani military as Washington's primary partners in the "war on terror". Officials in Washington said yesterday that the shift had already been made.

"Senator Biden wants to show the relationship is much broader than a military one, and that we are willing to sustain it over time," one of the senator's senior aides said yesterday.

A US administration official said: "Each day Musharraf's influence becomes less and less. Civilians are in control. People aren't meeting with Musharraf any more ... we are very pleased with the new civilian government."

Pakistani officials say much of the new counter-terrorism aid will be spent on civilian law enforcement institutions, such as the interior ministry, the intelligence bureau and the federal investigation agency, rather than being channelled almost exclusively through the army and the military-run Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) organisation.

The new government says it has also won American support for its policy of opening a dialogue with Pashtun tribes along the Afghan border, led by an ethnic Pashtun group, the Awami National party, that is part of the government coalition.

The new understanding on air strikes by US Predator drones is seen in Islamabad as a critical benchmark for the new relationship.

In January senior US intelligence officials flew to Islamabad and struck an agreement with Musharraf to give the American military a freer hand in the use of Predators against targets in Pakistan's tribal areas, which have become havens for al-Qaida and other foreign jihadists as well as Taliban forces fighting Nato forces and the government in Afghanistan.

The subsequent increase in Predator strikes - estimates of the number range up to eight - caused outrage in Pakistan. Britain also broke with Washington over the reliance on air strikes often guided by uncertain intelligence.

Pakistani officials say they have been given assurances by Washington that there will be close consultation with the civilian government, not with Musharraf, before any future strikes.

However, the use of Predators is held as a closely guarded secret and US intelligence is reluctant to share information about targets, and there is some scepticism in Islamabad over whether the deal will stick.

"We'll have to take them at their word, won't we," said the new information minister, Sherry Rahman, in an interview in Islamabad. She added that Washington's previous emphasis on ties to Musharraf and the Pakistani military "hasn't provided the results that were supposed to happen on the ground".

The US has given Pakistan about $10bn in military aid during the past seven years, but it has not diminished the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, while Pakistani extremism is also on the rise. Some officials in Washington believe most of the money has been used to build up Pakistan's conventional forces for use in a possible future conflict with India, rather than spent on counter-insurgency.

Furthermore, much of the money being used for counter-terrorism is being misspent, both Pakistan and US government officials say. As an example they say that Musharraf distributed the $25m reward money for capturing or killing "high value" al-Qaida targets in the form of an "inverted pyramid".

"A few thousand would go to the police constable on the ground who actually spotted the guy, but the millions go to the generals up the chain," a Pakistani official said. No wonder, he added, that the tip-offs stopped coming in and the number of high-profile arrests dropped.

Defense Minister - No military experience, 37 years old, Socialist, Pregnant

Spain absorbing shock over new, pregnant defense minister

Spain's defense minister Carme Chacon reviews troops in Madrid, Monday April 14, 2008. Cha...
By DANIEL WOOLLS, AP
Wed Apr 16, 2:07 PM EDT

Here's an image Spaniards will not soon forget: their new defense minister, reviewing trim, crisply uniformed soldiers, with her baby bump on display.

The surprise appointment of Carme Chacon, age 37 and with no military experience, is the boldest statement yet from a Socialist government that has made gender equality one of its top priorities.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who won re-election in March, unveiled a Cabinet Monday that not only gives Spain its first female defense minister but also features nine women to eight men. That compares to a 50-50 split in his first term, when there were 16 ministers.

Photos of Chacon — who is seven months pregnant — reviewing the soldiers ran on the front page of seven national newspapers on Tuesday, and footage of the appearance dominated Spanish television. Her photo was also on the front page of the International Herald Tribune.

Although women's rights advocates have Chacon's appointment, some conservatives have raised objections. A group of retired officers criticized her lack of military background while insisting her pregnancy was not a problem.

Chacon is now one of the most visible members of a government that has enacted sweeping social legislation designed to rid traditionally male-dominated Spain of gender discrimination.

It legalized gay marriage, streamlined divorce procedures, forced political parties to field more female candidates and passed a law designed to promote women in the workplace and pressure companies to put more of them in their boardrooms.

This time Zapatero even created a new department, the Equality Ministry, to press these goals. The portfolio went to a 31-year-old woman, Bibiana Aido.

Women's advocacy groups are delighted with the prime minister's choice of Chacon to oversee a military force that was not even open to women a generation ago. Now 15 percent of its 130,000 troops are women.

Feminists see a twin statement from the prime minister: Not only can a woman hold a senior position in government or business, but she can do it while expecting a baby.

"Perhaps the message is that even the highest responsibilities have to be compatible with the issue of individual and personal responsibility. That is the real political message behind this," said Marisa Soleto, vice president of a Madrid-based advocacy group called the Women's Foundation.

Chacon, who was housing minister in the last government, wore heels, a black pant suit and white maternity blouse as she reviewed troops Monday at a ceremony in which she officially took over her post. Her husband is Miguel Barroso, who in the past has worked in Zapatero's press office.

She called the troops to attention, ordered them to join her in saying "Long live Spain, long live the King," and gave a brief speech in which she said her appointment was a sign of progress.

"The fact that a woman is taking over responsibility for the Defense Ministry is proof of integration between Spanish society and its armed forces," Chacon said.

Spaniards are now wondering how the military will digest having a female boss.

A senior military official told the newspaper El Pais anonymously that "we receive her with the same respect as her predecessors, and with even more politeness."

The Association of the Spanish Military, made up of retirees, called Zapatero's decision a mistake — not because of her pregnancy but because it feels she is too inexperienced.

The conservative newspaper El Mundo said it has no problem with seeing a female defense minister, but a pregnant one raises all kinds of concerns, such as whether she will take all of the 16 weeks of leave she is entitled to when the baby is born in June.

The combination of a crisis situation among Spanish peacekeepers in Afghanistan or Lebanon and a defense minister on maternity leave would leave Spain in an "absurd" situation, it said an editorial. Plus, Chacon has no knowledge of military affairs.

"All signs are that Zapatero is using the armed forces as a guinea pig for a provocative experiment," it said. "Time will tell if this is major progress or nonsense."

Vitamins Will Kill You, Have an Apple.

Vitamin pills 'increase risk of early death'
By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent telegraph
Last Updated: 12:01am

Popular vitamin supplements taken by millions of people in the hope of improving their health may do no good and could increase the risk of a premature death, researchers report today.

They warn healthy people who take antioxidant supplements, including vitamins A and E, to try to keep diseases such as cancer at bay that they are interfering with their natural body defences and may be increasing their risk of an early death by up to 16 per cent.

Researchers at Copenhagen University carried out a review of 67 studies on 230,000 healthy people and found "no convincing evidence" that any of the antioxidants helped to prolong life expectancy. But some "increased mortality".

About 12 million Britons supplement their diets with vitamins and the industry is worth £330 million. But little research has been done on the long-term health implications.

The Department of Health said yesterday that people should try to get the vitamins they need by eating a balanced diet and advised care in taking large doses of supplements.

A spokesman said: "There is a need to exercise caution in the use of high doses of purified supplements of vitamins, including antioxidant vitamins, and minerals. Their impact on long-term health may not have been fully established and they cannot be assumed to be without risk.

Antioxidants, including vitamins A, E, C and beta-carotene and selenium, are said to mop up compounds, called free radicals, which cause disease. It is this action that researchers believe may cause problems with the defence system.

The Danish research, released by the influential Cochrane Library, applied only to synthetic supplements and not to vitamins that occur naturally in vegetables and fruit.

It found that vitamin A supplements increased the risk of death in healthy people by 16 per cent. Taking beta-carotene was linked to a 7 per cent increased risk, while regular users of vitamin E supplements increased the risk of an early death by four per cent.

Although the review found no significant detrimental effect caused by vitamin C, it found no evidence that it helped ward off disease. Millions take it in the hope of avoiding a common cold.

Goran Bjelakovic, who led the review, said: "We could find no evidence to support taking antioxidant supplements to reduce the risk of dying earlier in healthy people or patients with various diseases.

"If anything, people in trial groups given the antioxidants beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E showed increased rates of mortality."

But Patrick Holford, a nutritionist who has formulated supplements for the company Biocare, said: "Antioxidants are not meant to be magic bullets and should not be expected to undo a lifetime of unhealthy habits.

"When used properly, in combination with a healthy diet full of fruit and vegetables, getting plenty of exercise and not smoking, antioxidant supplements can play an important role in maintaining and promoting overall health."

A spokesman for the Health Supplements Information Service said: "People should get all the vitamins and minerals they need from their diet, but for the millions who are not able to do that, vitamins can be a useful supplement and they should not stop taking them."

However, Catherine Collins, of the British Dietetic Association, said: "This study is deeply worrying and shows that there should be more regulation for vitamins and minerals.

"The public can buy vitamins as easily as sweets. They should be treated in the same way as paracetamol with maximum limits on the dosage."

How Obama Blew Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania according to Obama

For awhile, a week ago, I thought Obama would pull it off. He looked good. He sounded good. Then as often happens in politics or a sales pitch that lasts too long, Obama bought it back after he sold it. Every salesman should know that after you make the sale, quit talking. Obama made some missteps and his adversaries are not going to let it go. I doubt that many people in Pennsylvania really think that much about it, but one thing is clear; the magic is gone. A discordant note broke the spell.

__________________

In Darkest Pennsylvania
by Human Events, Patrick J. Buchanan
Posted: 04/15/2008

It was said behind closed doors to the chablis-and-brie set of San Francisco, in response to a question as to why he was not doing better in that benighted and barbarous land they call Pennsylvania.

Like Dr. Schweitzer, home from Africa to address the Royal Society on the customs of the upper Zambezi, Barack described Pennsylvanians in their native habitats of Atloona, Alquippa, Johnstown and McKeesport.

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and ... the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them.

"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."


This is the pitch-perfect Hollywood-Harvard stereotype of the white working class, the caricature of the urban ethnic -- as seen from the San Francisco point of view.

As Linus clung to his security blanket, Barack is saying, out-state Pennsylvanians, bitter at the world that has passed them by, cling to their Bibles and guns and naturally revert to ancestral bigotries against "people who aren't like them" -- blacks, gays and immigrants.

Though he sees himself as a progressive who has risen above prejudice, Barack was reflecting and pandering to the prejudice of the class to which he himself belongs, and which he was then addressing.

A few months back, Michelle Obama revealed her mindset about America with the remark that, "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country." Barack has now revealed how he, too, sees the country. The Great Unifier divides the nation into us and them.

The "us" are the privileged cosmopolitan elite of San Francisco and his Ivy League upbringing. The "them" are the folks in the small towns and rural areas of that other America. Toward these folks, Obama's attitude is not one of hostility, but of paternalism. Because time has passed them by, Barack believes, they cannot, in their frustration and bitterness, be held fully accountable for their atavistic beliefs and behavior.

Though neither mocking nor malicious, Barack's remarks are, nonetheless, steeped in condescension. Inherent in his words is that these folks in Middle Pennsylvania are in need of empathy, education, assistance and perhaps therapy.

His remarks are of a piece with his address on civil rights that liberals have compared favorably to Lincoln's Second Inaugural.

Note, from that Philadelphia address, the highlighted words.

"Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race ... as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything. ... They ... feel their dreams slipping away ... opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense.

"Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism."

In Barack's mind, black anger and resentment at "racial injustice and inequality" are "legitimate." But the anger and resentment of white folks, about affirmative action, crime and forced busing are born of misperceptions -- and of "bogus claims of racism" manipulated and exploited by conservative columnists and commentators to keep the racial pot boiling and retain power, so the right can continue to do the bidding of the corporations that are the real enemy.

Barack has stumbled into the eternal failing of the left-wing populist. He cannot concede that the anger of white America -- that its right to equal justice has been sacrificed to salve the consciences of guilt-besotted liberals -- is a legitimate anger. The truth that Barack dare not speak is that reverse discrimination is pandemic and that the folks in Middle Pennsylvania have a valid grievance that ought to be addressed.

So, Barack sought in Philadelphia to redirect their anger.

"(T)hese white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze -- a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many."

Barack is not wrong here. Corporations, out of naked greed, have deserted America. And the Clinton and Bush administrations have been unresponsive to the social impact of deindustrialization. But Barack cannot concede that white Americans are today's victims of state-sanctioned racism.

A gifted candidate, Barack, after stumbling for 48 hours, has regained his footing with his witty ripostes about Hillary being "Annie Oakley" with her "six-shooter," spending her Sunday mornings "out on the duck blind."

Obama's remarks about small-town America told us little about small-town America, but a lot about Barack. He is yet another cookie-cutter liberal who has absorbed and internalized the prejudices of that blinkered breed. He is an African-American John Lindsay, the great liberal hope of the Nixon-Agnew era, of whom Frank Manckiewicz once said: He was the only populist he knew who played squash every day at the Yale Club.

What Do Arabs Think as They Enjoy $110 Oil?

Not Scranton

Poll shows Arabs' dislike for US

By Kim Ghattas
BBC News, Washington


Most Arabs feel Iraqis would be able to bridge their differences if US troops left.

Eight out of 10 people in the Arab world have a negative view of the US, according to a new poll.

By extension, governments supported by the US are unpopular, found the survey, which was released in Washington.

A recent BBC World Service survey found views of the US had started to improve by 4% globally, although they remained negative in the Arab world.

Only 6% of Arabs believe the US troop surge in Iraq has worked, according to the latest poll.

It was carried out by the University of Maryland and Zogby International.

A majority of Arabs believe that if US troops withdraw from Iraq, Iraqis would be able to bridge their differences, the survey found.

In contrast, an ABC/BBC poll conducted in Iraq and released in March, appeared to show a 20% increase in the number of Iraqis who felt the surge was succeeding and described the security situation as good.

Nasrallah's popularity

While the Western-backed Lebanese government has reasonable appeal in its own country, the latest survey indicates it has barely any support in the Arab world.

Some 30% of Arabs sympathise with the Lebanese opposition, led by Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran.

Across the Arab world, Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is also the most popular leader, followed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The three leaders are seen as the only ones standing up against US influence in the region.

And while Sunni rulers in the region worry about Shia Iran's growing influence, ordinary Arabs don't seem to view Iran as a threat.

Almost half of Arabs believe that if Tehran acquires nuclear weapons the outcome for the region would be more positive than negative.

Democrats Pander to Unions and Left ; Punish Colombia

Although not news, this was an old entry in the post queue that I wanted to share. I think Bush summed up the Dems pretty well.

_____________________

House Puts Off Vote on Trade Agreement
By JIM ABRAMS

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic-led House, in an election-year showdown with the White House, on Thursday effectively denied President Bush a vote any time soon on a free trade agreement with Colombia, a key South American ally.

"the message Democrats sent today is that no matter how steadfastly you stand with us, we will turn our backs on you when it is politically convenient." George Bush.

CIT Is Too Important to Fail.

There were many bad decisions that were made in the banking and financial areas. The consequences reveal themselves daily. Jefferey Peek was an absolute disaster for CIT, but CIT is too important for thousands of businesses, to let it fail.

Commercial financing is a complicated vital business that is best not left to commercial banks who are mostly unqualified to understand the many businesses that are served by CIT and other commercial finance companies. CIT should be saved.

___________________________________

CIT is everyone's headache
Instability at the century-old finance firm could bring Wall Street's pain to Main Street businesses that depend on it.

By Marcia Vickers, contributor

(CNN) --

CIT Group's advertising slogan may sum up its problem: "At CIT, we are Capital Redefined." Thanks to its recent foray into subprime mortgages, CIT's capital has been radically redefined. On March 20 it was forced to draw down a $7.3 billion backup credit line. Its stock has plunged from around $60 a share earlier this year to $13 on April 9, and CIT shuttered its student loan business and is trying to sell off non-core businesses to keep afloat.

The decline of the century-old finance company has not gotten as much attention as the Bear Stearns bailout, but its instability could bring Wall Street's pain to Main Street. How? Factory owners, car dealers, dry cleaners, and many other businesses depend on specialty lenders like CIT for capital.

"Small and medium-sized companies struggling with cash flow are in for a hard time. Lenders may want them to shut down and liquidate their assets rather than work with them to refinance as in the past," says Kenneth Posner, a Morgan Stanley analyst.

When Jeffrey Peek became its CEO in 2004, CIT (CIT, Fortune 500) was a stodgy $9.5 billion (market cap) lender to the small businesses historically eschewed by Wall Street. (Its market cap is now $2.8 billion.) CIT obtained capital mostly from raising unsecured debt, using the integrity of its loans as collateral. Its steady performance was based on the loyalty its service commanded from its customers.

Peek, who headed the investment managers division at Merrill Lynch (MER, Fortune 500) and later financial services at CSFB, almost immediately started gussying up the company for growth. He created a health-care financing group and began lending to technology and media companies. But CIT also started selling mortgages to credit-risky folks, and it bought a student loan company right before the government cut subsidies last year. Also, CIT had increasingly been securitizing its loans and selling them off, making a sizable profit, but that market has now dried up. And its ability to raise debt from the capital markets has been deeply eroded as investors fret about CIT's borrowers' stability.

"Peek wanted to even out CIT's cyclicality by diversifying into consumer vs. commercial businesses," says Michael Taiano, an analyst at Sandler O'Neill & Partners. "His timing was obviously bad."

Mortgage fallout. CIT's problems didn't really come to light until last summer, when the mortgage meltdown began. Wall Street analysts say the company was slow to react, and some say it now needs to be bought by a company with ample liquidity if it's going to survive. GE Capital and community banks including Wachovia (WB, Fortune 500) and Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) are the suitors most frequently mentioned.

On April 4, two Chinese banks said they had backed off from purchasing CIT because of concerns that it couldn't continue to finance itself. A CIT spokesman declined to comment on that point, but told Fortune, "Our decision to draw down our bank lines ensures that our clients have the financing they need to operate and grow their businesses successfully."

Even CIT's direct competitors are rooting for it. Says Mark Sunshine, president and chief operating officer of First Capital: "We're hoping someone comes in and buys it. If it fails, it could take 3,000 or 4,000 businesses down. No one wants to see lives destroyed. It would be a train wreck."

The Power of Prayer in Iran - Allah Akbar

Marilyn Monroe Hard Core Sex Film Surfaces.

HARD-CORE MARILYN
FBI'S MONROE SEX FLICK SOLD FOR $1.5M
By HASANI GITTENS NY Post



April 14, 2008 --
Some really like it hot.

In the sordid tradition of peddling raunchy video footage of celebrities à la Paris Hilton, a long-buried sex movie of Marilyn Monroe recently hit the market, a top collector told The Post.

An illicit copy of the steamy, still-FBI-classified reel - 15 minutes of 16mm film footage in which the original blond bombshell performs oral sex on an unidentified man - was just sold to a New York businessman for $1.5 million, said Keya Morgan, the well-known memorabilia collector who discovered the film and brokered its purchase.

The footage appears to have been shot in the 1950s. When it came to light in the mid-'60s, then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had his agents spend two weeks futilely trying to prove that Monroe's sex partner was either John F. Kennedy or Robert F. Kennedy, according to declassified agency documents and interviews, Morgan said.

The silent black-and-white flick shows Monroe on her knees in front of a man whose face is just out of the shot.

He never moves into the shot, indicating that he knew the camera was there, but Monroe never looks at the lens, said Morgan, who saw the footage.

Morgan said he discovered the film while doing research for a documentary on Monroe, after talking with a former FBI agent who told him about a confidential informant who tipped G-men to the existence of the film in the mid-'60s.

The feds eventually confiscated the original footage - but not before the informant made a copy of it, which is what was just sold by his son, Morgan said.
There are heavily redacted, declassified FBI documents talking about a "French-type" film.

They state the informant "exhibited [to agents] a motion picture which depicted deceased actress Marilyn Monroe committing a perverted act upon a unknown male," Morgan said.

The informant was with at least one mobster at the time, the documents state.
According to the documents, "Former baseball star Joseph DiMaggio in the past had offered [the informant] $25,000 for this film, it being the only one in existence, but he refused the offer.

"Source advised that [redacted name of the mole] informed them that he had obtained this film prior to the time Marilyn Monroe had achieved stardom."

Morgan said he got the deceased informant's name from the former FBI agent who tipped him off to the flick - and was floored after he found the mole's son in Washington, DC, and the man retrieved a film canister from a safe-deposit box and spooled it up.
"You see instantly that it's Marilyn Monroe - she has the famous mole," Morgan said.
"She's smiling, she's very charming, she's very radiant, but she's known for being radiant," he said. "She moves away, and then it [the footage] stops."

Last month, he brokered its sale, leading the informant's son to a wealthy New York businessman who wants to keep this unseemly part of Monroe's past buried.
"He said he's just going to lock it up," Morgan said.

"He said, 'I'm not going to make a Paris Hilton out of her. I'm not going to sell it, out of respect.' "

37 senior police officers ranging in rank from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general fired in Basra.

1,300 Iraqi troops, police dismissed
By BUSHRA JUHI, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government has dismissed about 1,300 soldiers and policemen who deserted or refused to fight during last month's offensive against Shiite militias and criminal gangs in Basra, officials said Sunday.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said 921 police and soldiers were fired in Basra. They included 37 senior police officers ranging in rank from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general.

The others were dismissed in Kut, one of the Shiite cities where the fight had spread.

Last month, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the security forces to confront armed groups in Basra, Iraq's second largest city.

But they met fierce resistance and the attack quickly ground to a halt as fighting flared across the Shiite south and Baghdad.

Since then, government officials have revealed that about 1,000 members of the security forces — including an entire infantry battalion — had mutinied, on some cases handing over vehicles and weapons to the militias.

The majority of Iraqi soldiers and police are Shiites.

Speaking in Basra, Khalaf said those dismissed included 421 police officers and 500 soldiers who had not returned to duty in the southern port city and would be tried by military courts.

"Some of them were sympathetic with these lawbreakers, some refused to (go into) battle for political or national or sectarian or religious reasons," Khalaf said.

But he said that those who returned in coming days and could prove they had been prevented from doing so by the militias would be reinstated.

In Kut, a senior police officer said 400 local policemen have been sacked for refusing orders to combat the militias, including the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the Interior Ministry in Baghdad had ordered the policemen removed from duty on Saturday.

Although fighting in Basra eased in late March, security operations are continuing.

Fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City, a stronghold of al-Sadr's militia, has been ongoing for the past two weeks. Fresh clashes were reported Sunday and at least two rockets or mortar rounds were fired at the capital's Green Zone, which houses diplomatic missions and much of Iraq's government.

A senior military commander said Sunday that Iraqi forces in Basra were expanding their sweep of six neighborhoods, with army and police cordoning off the areas while searching for illegal weapons, ammunition and criminal elements.

Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji said the operation, which started on Saturday, had netted significant amounts of weapons, roadside bombs and drugs. He said a large number of suspects had been detained, but he provided no figures.

Al-Sadr, who is believed to be in Iran, repeated on Saturday his demand for American soldiers to leave the country and urged his fighters not to target fellow Iraqis "unless they are helping the (U.S.) occupation."

Despite the strident rhetoric, however, there were signs that al-Sadr was trying to calm his militia to avoid all-out war with the Americans. Al-Sadr is also under pressure from al-Maliki, also a Shiite, to disband the Mahdi Army or face a ban from politics.

Meanwhile, an Apache helicopter accidentally destroyed a U.S. Humvee in eastern Baghdad when a Hellfire missile missed its target and struck the armored vehicle instead, the military said Sunday.

Two U.S. soldiers and three Iraqi civilians were injured in the incident on Saturday, the statement said.

Iranian Mosque Blows Up During Service. Not a Bomb.

Watching from above.

Just a bad day for the religion of peace. Media reports says blast was caused by live munitions, not bombs, still ten people killed and 160 wounded, Iran's state-run television reports the explosion happened in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz during Saturday services.

Don't you just hate it when you go to church and someone mishandles the munitions and the place blows up? God that annoys me. I suppose that I should be more empathetic. These things can happen when you are celebrating "Sacred defense". Clearly this is not just an Islamic thing. I used to go to this excellent local deli that would be filled with Jews after Temple and they got very roudy and loud over bagels. So these things do happen.

The news report says that the mosque was filled with 800 young men and they were listening to something spiritually uplifting like "death to the Bahai and Wahabi" and the next thing you know ten of the flock is dead and 160 are gone to the hospital. I do recall an Amish picnic where some potato salad was off...

_____________________________

Deadly blast in Iran caused by munitions

(CNN) --

An explosion in a southern Iranian mosque that killed 10 people and wounded 160 after evening prayers Saturday night was caused by negligent handling of live munitions, not a bomb as first suspected, Iranian media reported.


The blast and subsequent fire occurred about 6 p.m. Saturday in the men's section of a mosque in the city of Shiraz, Iran's Fars news agency reported.

Fars initially reported the explosion was caused by a home-made bomb.

Provincial Police Commander Ali Moaeyri later told Fars it "was not sabotage."

"Some live munitions may have been left behind at that location which could have been the cause of the explosion," Moaeyri said.

The police commander said the munitions were apparently left behind after a "Sacred Defense" exhibition was held at the mosque, which also serves as a cultural center.

Local militia groups -- known as Basij -- often use the mosques for meeting places.

Iran's official news agency, IRNA, put the number of casualties at 10 dead and 160 wounded. Survivors were being treated at 12 hospitals, IRNA reported.

Fars estimated 800 people, mostly young, were gathered at the mosque Saturday evening to hear a cleric's sermon denouncing Bahai and Wahabi faiths -- both of which are considered heresies by some Shiites.

Bombings are unusual in Iran, thought the predominantly Shiite Muslim country has endured sporadic attacks in recent years.


The last major bombing occurred in February 2007, when a car bomb blew up near a bus carrying members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Corps, leaving a dozen dead and injuring dozens more in southeastern Iran.

Shiraz -- a historical city of more than 1 million people -- is well known for being home to many scholars, artists, poets and local craftsmanship of rugs and metalwork. The tourist city is about 400 miles south of Tehran, the capital.

'Distrustful have-nots' and 'bitter in Pennsylvania' - Obama

Small town Pennsylvania: Pottstown.

Obama: some Pennsylvanians 'bitter'

BY MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
Saturday, April 12th 2008, 4:00 AM

Barack Obama described small-town Pennsylvanians as "bitter," distrustful have-nots who "cling to guns or religion" - prompting his foes to accuse him of being a condescending snob.

During a private fund-raiser last weekend in San Francisco, Obama said "the jobs have been gone now for 25 years" in a lot of small towns.
"They fell through the Clinton administration and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate. And they have not," Obama continued in the riff first reported by the Huffington Post Web site.

"And," he concluded, "it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
The remarks could be political dynamite, with the Keystone State voting in just 10 days.

"Pennsylvanians don't need a President who looks down on them. They need a President who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families," Clinton blasted.

"As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive, who are rolling up their sleeves," she added. "They are working hard every day for a better future, for themselves and their children."

Steve Schmidt, a senior McCain adviser, described Obama's statement as "remarkable" and "extremely revealing."

"It shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking," Schmidt said. "It is hard to imagine someone running for President who is more out of touch with average Americans."

Obama stood by his comments and shot back at McCain - and Clinton.
"She says I'm out of touch? No, I'm in touch," he told voters in Indiana last night. His point, Obama said, was that "working-class people" are "frustrated and for good reason." He did not explain his remarks that they are hostile to "people who aren't like them."

Another Navy Tailhook Scandal. This Time a Navy Hooker Sells Tail.

Dickinson’s civilian lawyer said she understands her career is over.

Navy officer testifies in D.C. Madam case
By Chris Amos - Staff writer Navy Times
Posted : Friday Apr 11, 2008 12:22:15 EDT

A Navy supply officer and former Naval Academy instructor testified Thursday that she moonlighted as a prostitute for the D.C. Madam, a California woman accused of running an escort service that prosecutors say netted her several million dollars over a 13-year period.

Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Dickinson told federal prosecutors at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., that she had sex with nearly every client she met while working for Deborah Jeane Palfrey from October 2005 until April 2006.

Several other women who testified said they were paid between $250 and $300 for 90-minute appointments at Washington-area homes, hotel rooms and offices, and were required to forward as much as half of that by postal money orders to a Northern California post office box rented by Palfrey.

Palfrey is charged with multiple counts of racketeering and money laundering and could face as many as 55 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

Navy spokesman Capt. Jack Hanzlik told Navy Times that Dickinson, 38, was fired from her position as an instructor at Naval Supply Corps School in Athens, Ga., earlier this month after she gave detailed information about her involvement in the case to superiors.

After her statement, Dickinson also received nonjudicial punishment and was given a punitive letter of reprimand. Hanzlik said she could face additional punishment in the future and has been placed on leave. When she exhausts her accumulated leave time, Dickinson will revert to unpaid leave status and remain there until she is separated from the Navy.

“We expect the men and women who serve in our nation’s Navy to adhere to a standard of conduct that reflects our core values of honor, courage and commitment,” Hanzlik said. “Lt. Cmdr. Dickinson’s conduct will prevent her from wearing this uniform again in the service of our country.”

Dickinson’s civilian lawyer said she understands her career is over.

“She told the truth on the stand and really regrets this episode in her life. Even if she is not prosecuted, she will be paying a price for the rest of her life. We are trying to preserve what we can,” attorney Jonathan Gladstone said Thursday afternoon. “We aren’t expecting her back in uniform. All things considered, we are happy with that.”

Hanzlik said the Navy first found out that Dickinson was a potential witness in the case in May 2007 and began sharing information with federal prosecutors, but in deference to federal prosecutors, the service declined to launch an investigation at that time.

Palfrey told Navy Times last year that Dickinson worked for her company, Pamela Martin and Associates, under the stage name Renee for nearly two years while she was stationed at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

While at the academy, Navy officials say, Dickinson worked as food services officer, responsible for feeding more than 4,000 midshipmen each day, from 2004 until 2007. She also taught one class — Naval Leadership — for a semester, Navy officials said.

A Navy officer familiar with the case said Dickinson had an exemplary Navy career until the allegations surfaced last year; Dickinson had two Navy/Marine Corps Commendation medals and four Navy/Marine Corps Achievement medals, according to records provided by Navy Personnel Command. The officer said Dickinson’s decision might have been motivated by financial issues — she had filed for bankruptcy in the months before she responded to an advertisement placed by Palfrey in a local newspaper. Palfrey told Navy Times the woman had difficulty caring for her three children, missed work frequently because one had been sick, and had marital problems.

>More Here

GE whiz

How the Housing Surge Will End the Iraq War.

Comes with GPS so you can find the kids.

There is a lot of debate about how to win the Iraq war, end the Iraq war or quit the Iraq war. Take your pick but the point is moot. The Iraq war will end for the mundane reason that we will not be able to afford it to continue. The war was financed with cheap borrowed money as was much else in the American economy over the last seven years. The cheap money window for American borrowers has closed. It is all a consequence of the housing mess, exasperated by the deficits in trade, oil, consumer spending, government spending and common sense.

There is not a day goes by without visible and painful consequences being felt because of the mortgage and housing mess. Today it is GE who is taking a hit for it's part in being exposed to some of the toxic waste buried into the financial system. Oil is up, dollar is down and the troubles have just begun.

Call it the revenge of the McMansion or the super-sizing of stupidity but almost all aspects of American life, economics and politics will be affected by the huge misallocation of resources into housing.

Are Hillary and Obama Economic Illiterates or Just Shameless Democrats?

Bob Zawacki and I once served on the same duty post. He is not allowed to say where.

He brings up a good point on the economic plans of Clinton and Obama. The last thing we need is anything that reduces capital formation. We are also in the unenviable position that we require foreign markets to provide capital. Any increase in capital gains taxes will not help. The time has arrived where continued deficit spending is obviously unsustainable. Any future President will be forced to unwind spending programs. That is never any fun for politicians.

Increasing taxes is no solution.

_________________________

Guest Post- Robert Zawacki

As a retired Business Professor from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and before that the Air Force Academy, I can no longer sit by and listen to Hillary and Barack put forth their tax increases as solutions to our current economic downturn. Let me use just one example taken from Obama's recent statements on Capital Gain Taxes. These quotes and some of my paraphrasing are extracted from and supported by an op. ed. article in the Wall Street Journal, April 5-6, 2008, p. A8.

Recently Obama was interviewed by Maria Bartiromo of CNBC and asked how much he would increase capital gains taxes because he previously stated that it is necessary to restore fairness to the tax code. The current capital gains tax rate is 15% for long term investments. Obama replied,

"When I talk to people like Warren Buffett or others and I ask them, you know, what's how much of a difference is it going to be if it's 20 or 25%, they say, look, if it's within that range then it's not going to distort, I think, economic decision making."

He further stated that, "a higher rate would allow the federal government to redistribute "relief to middle class and working class families."

I will make 4 points about Obama's policy of increasing the capital gains tax. These same points can be make for most of the other numerous taxes proposed by Obama and Clinton.

1. When capital gains taxes are decreased on the individual, the total taxes on capital gains received by the federal government increases by a factor of 2.5 or 3. For example, when Republicans lowered the rate to15% in 2003, this increased Treasury income from CGs from $49 billion in 02 to $110 billion in 06.
2. Capital gains are not the exclusive benefit of the wealthy. Buffet and Hillary may be wealthy but this tax increase will impact on households with $50,000 to $200,000 income. "In recent decades the U.S.has become a shareholder society, and average Americans increasingly rely on investment income to save for retirement or even to pay bills."
3. Obama and Clinton do not define the "wealthy super rich." The truth is that in 2005, 8.5 million households paid taxes on capital gains and 47% had incomes of less than $50,000. 79% had incomes of less than$100,000 - most of our families have 40lKs which are invested in the stock market and will be affected by these proposed tax increases.
4. With our weak economy, this is not the time to increase taxes. Obama and his fellow Democrats should be reducing taxes, or "indexing it to inflation so average investors are not taxed on so called gains in their mutual funds (401Ks).

Robert A. Zawacki, Ph.D. Univ of Washington
Professor Emeritus of Management & International Business, Univ of CO, Colorado Springs

Money, patience and time

TESTIMONY BEFORE THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS
COMMITTEE ON IRAQ
By William E. Odom, LT General, USA, Ret.
2 April 2008

Good morning Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. It is an honor to appear before you again. The last occasion was in January 2007, when the topic was the troop surge. Today you are asking if it has worked. Last year I rejected the claim that it was a new strategy. Rather, I said, it is a new tactic used to achieve the same old strategic aim, political stability. And I foresaw no serious prospects for success. I see no reason to change my judgment now. The surge is prolonging instability, not creating the conditions for unity as the president claims.

Last year, General Petraeus wisely declined to promise a military solution to this political problem, saying that he could lower the level of violence, allowing a limited time for the Iraqi leaders to strike a political deal. Violence has been temporarily reduced but today there is credible evidence that the political situation is far more fragmented. And currently we see violence surge in Baghdad and Basra. In fact, it has also remained sporadic and significant in several other parts of Iraq over the past year, notwithstanding the notable drop in Baghdad and Anbar Province. More disturbing, Prime Minister Maliki has initiated military action and then dragged in US forces to help his own troops destroy his Shiite competitors. This is a political setback, not a political solution. Such is the result of the surge tactic. No less disturbing has been the steady violence in the Mosul area, and the tensions in Kirkuk between Kurds, Arabs, and Turkomen. A showdown over control of the oil fields there surely awaits us. And the idea that some kind of a federal solution can cut this Gordian knot strikes me as a wild fantasy, wholly out of touch with Kurdish realities. Also disturbing is Turkey’s military incursion to destroy Kurdish PKK groups in the border region. That confronted the US government with a choice: either to support its NATO ally, or to make good on its commitment to Kurdish leaders to insure their security. It chose the former, and that makes it clear to the Kurds that the United States will sacrifice their security to its larger interests in Turkey.

Turning to the apparent success in Anbar province and a few other Sunni areas, this is not the positive situation it is purported to be. Certainly violence has declined as local Sunni shieks have begun to cooperate with US forces. But the surge tactic cannot be given full credit. The decline started earlier on Sunni initiative. What are their motives? First, anger at al Qaeda operatives and second, their financial plight. Their break with al Qaeda should give us little comfort. The Sunnis welcomed anyone who would help them kill Americans, including al Qaeda. The concern we hear the president and his aides express about a residual base left for al Qaeda if we withdraw is utter nonsense. The Sunnis will soon destroy al Qaeda if we leave Iraq. The Kurds do not allow them in their region, and the Shiites, like the Iranians, detest al Qaeda. To understand why, one need only take note of the al Qaeda public diplomacy campaign over the past year or so on internet blogs. They implore the United States to bomb and invade Iran and destroy this apostate Shiite regime. As an aside, it gives me pause to learn that our vice president and some members of the Senate are aligned with al Qaeda on spreading the war to Iran.

Let me emphasize that our new Sunni friends insist on being paid for their loyalty. I have heard, for example, a rough estimate that the cost in one area of about 100 square kilometers is $250,000 per day. And periodically they threaten to defect unless their fees are increased. You might want to find out the total costs for these deals forecasted for the next several years, because they are not small and they do not promise to end. Remember, we do not own these people. We merely rent them. And they can break the lease at any moment. At the same time, this deal protects them to some degree from the government’s troops and police, hardly a sign of political reconciliation. Now let us consider the implications of the proliferating deals with the Sunni strongmen. They are far from unified among themselves. Some remain with al Qaeda. Many who break and join our forces are beholden to no one. Thus the decline in violence reflects a dispersion of power to dozens of local strong men who distrust the government and occasionally fight among themselves. Thus the basic military situation is far worse because of the proliferation of armed groups under local military chiefs who follow a proliferating number of political bosses.

This can hardly be called greater military stability, much less progress toward political consolidation, and to call it fragility that needs more time to become success is to ignore its implications. At the same time, Prime Minister Maliki’s military actions in Basra and Baghdad, indicate even wider political and military fragmentation. We are witnessing is more accurately described as the road to the Balkanization of Iraq, that is, political fragmentation. We are being asked by the president to believe that this shift of so much power and finance to so many local chieftains is the road to political centralization. He describes the process as building the state from the bottom up.

I challenge you to press the administration’s witnesses this week to explain this absurdity. Ask them to name a single historical case where power has been aggregated successfully from local strong men to a central government except through bloody violence leading to a single winner, most often a dictator. That is the history of feudal Europe’s transformation to the age of absolute monarchy. It is the story of the American colonization of the west and our Civil War. It took England 800 years to subdue clan rule on what is now the English-Scottish border. And it is the source of violence in Bosnia and Kosovo. How can our leaders celebrate this diffusion of power as effective state building? More accurately described, it has placed the United States astride several civil wars. And it allows all sides to consolidate, rearm, and refill their financial coffers at the US expense. To sum up, we face a deteriorating political situation with an over extended army. When the administration’s witnesses appear before you, you should make them clarify how long the army and marines can sustain this band-aid strategy.

The only sensible strategy is to withdraw rapidly but in good order. Only that step can break the paralysis now gripping US strategy in the region. The next step is to choose a new aim, regional stability, not a meaningless victory in Iraq. And progress toward that goal requires revising our policy toward Iran. If the president merely renounced his threat of regime change by force, that could prompt Iran to lessen its support to Taliban groups in Afghanistan. Iran detests the Taliban and supports them only because they will kill more Americans in Afghanistan as retaliation in event of a US attack on Iran. Iran’s policy toward Iraq would also have to change radically as we withdraw. It cannot want instability there. Iraqi Shiites are Arabs, and they know that Persians look down on them. Cooperation between them has its limits. No quick reconciliation between the US and Iran is likely, but US steps to make Iran feel more secure make it far more conceivable than a policy calculated to increase its insecurity. The president’s policy has reinforced Iran’s determination to acquire nuclear weapons, the very thing he purports to be trying to prevent. Withdrawal from Iraq does not mean withdrawal from the region. It must include a realignment and reassertion of US forces and diplomacy that give us a better chance to achieve our aim. A number of reasons are given for not withdrawing soon and completely. I have refuted them repeatedly before but they have more lives than a cat. Let try again me explain why they don’t make sense.

First, it is insisted that we must leave behind military training element with no combat forces to secure them. This makes no sense at all. The idea that US military trainers left alone in Iraq can be safe and effective is flatly rejected by several NCOs and junior officers I have heard describe their personal experiences. Moreover, training foreign forces before they have a consolidated political authority to command their loyalty is a windmill tilt. Finally, Iraq is not short on military skills. Second, it is insisted that chaos will follow our withdrawal. We heard that argument as the “domino theory” in Vietnam. Even so, the path to political stability will be bloody regardless of whether we withdraw or not. The idea that the United States has a moral responsibility to prevent this ignores that reality. We are certainly to blame for it, but we do not have the physical means to prevent it. American leaders who insist that it is in our power to do so are misleading both the public and themselves if they believe it. The real moral question is whether to risk the lives of more Americans. Unlike preventing chaos, we have the physical means to stop sending more troops where many will be killed or wounded. That is the moral responsibility to our country which no American leaders seems willing to assume.

Third, nay sayers insist that our withdrawal will create regional instability. This confuses cause with effect. Our forces in Iraq and our threat to change Iran’s regime are making the region unstable. Those who link instability with a US withdrawal have it exactly backwards. Our ostrich strategy of keeping our heads buried in the sands of Iraq has done nothing but advance our enemies’ interest. I implore you to reject these fallacious excuses for prolonging the commitment of US forces to war in Iraq. Thanks for this opportunity to testify today.

__________________

ht: Cutler. In Iraq, we have done what we set out to do and much more. Saddam is gone and we would have been justified in leaving when we pulled his lifeless body from that spider hole. Instead, per Colin Powell's admonition, we took it upon ourselves to pay for what we had broken. We tried and it's doubtful if we'll ever be able to put humpty dumpty together again.

A dysfunctional Islam is at war with modernity and embroiled in a brewing civil war between sects. With the end of a bipolar world, the restraints on militant Islam have been eased while at the same time, an increasingly secular and nihilistic west has wanted only to enjoy the "peace dividend." The US military has done an admirable job in Iraq but as has been pointed out here at the EB, other aspects of the interagency effort have been dismal. It is obvious to all but the blind that the world has little interest in battling jihadism in any way other than police work.

Even though the total US expenditures in Iraq amount to only one month of GDP (out of the sixty since the invasion) the cost in money and blood is seen as too high. Our allies have been of little or no help in Iraq and are unwilling to commit enough fighting troops in Afghanistan which may be "a bridge too far anyway." It's ironic that the picture is improving in Iraq while the stars are aligning against a long term US military presence in the Muslim world. The Iraqi Sunni are awakening but will the nation reconcile before it implodes? No one knows.

Money, patience and time are running out for the US expediton in the heart of the caliphate. .

Petraeus Testimony and the Candidates

• "We haven't turned any corners, we haven't seen any lights at the end of the tunnel. The champagne bottle has been pushed to the back of the refrigerator. And the progress, while real, is fragile and is reversible."-Petraeus

• “massive strategic blunder” and “I’m not suggesting that we yank all our troops out all the way, I’m trying to get to an endpoint,” -Obama

• "the height of irresponsibility" (to withdraw US troops prematurely, as his Democratic rivals propose.) -McCain

• "It is time to begin an orderly withdrawal of our troops," -Hillary

Mysteries of the Animal World. Can Anyone Explain This to Me?

"If al-Qaida was not in Iraq before we invaded, why did we invade?" Buchanan serves it up.

We have some real zingers from Buchanan this morning. Buchanan must have dined at the Palm for inspiration for this column. - Hat tip: Cutler

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Onward the Revolution!
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Having cheerfully confessed he knows little about economics, John McCain is advancing himself as a foreign-policy president, a "realistic idealist," he told the World Affairs Council of Los Angeles.

But judging from the content of his speech, McCain is no more a realist than he is a reflective man.

Speaking of our five-year war in Iraq, McCain declares, "It would be an unconscionable act of betrayal, a stain on our character as a nation, if we were to walk away from the Iraqi people and consign them to the horrendous violence, ethnic cleansing, and possible genocide that would follow a reckless, irresponsible and premature withdrawal."

Fair point. There is surely a great risk in a too-rapid withdrawal.

But if a U.S. withdrawal, after 4,000 dead and 33,000 wounded, and a trillion dollars sunk, runs the risk of a genocidal calamity, what does that tell us about the wisdom of those who marched us into this war?

What threat did Saddam ever pose comparable to the cataclysm McCain says we face if we pull out? Who, Senator, put American on the horns of so horrible a dilemma?

"Whether they were in Iraq before is immaterial," McCain warns, "al-Qaida is there now." And that is surely true.

But if al-Qaida was not in Iraq before we invaded, why did we invade? And if al-Qaida is there now, what was the magnet that drew them in, if not the U.S. occupation McCain himself championed?

Like Condi Rice, who regularly disparages the policies of every president from FDR to Bill Clinton, McCain enjoys parading the higher morality of his devotion to democracy-uber-alles.

"For decades in the Middle East we had a strategy of relying upon autocrats to provide order and stability. We relied on the Shah, the autocratic rulers of Egypt, the generals of Pakistan, the Saudi royal family. ... We can no longer delude ourselves that relying on these outdated autocrats is the safest bet." Speaking of self-delusion, does McCain believe the "democrats" lately elected in Pakistan will be tougher on al-Qaida and the Taliban than Pervez Musharraf, who has twice escaped assassination for having sided with us?

Does McCain think this new crowd in Islamabad will be more pro-American than the general, when the people who voted them in are among the most anti-American in the Islamic world?

From Richard Nixon to George Bush I, we expelled Moscow from Egypt, won the Cold War, brought peace between Egypt and Israel, and created a worldwide alliance, including Hafez al-Assad of Syria, that drove Saddam's army out of Kuwait.

What has the Bush-McCain democracy crusade produced, save electoral victories for the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah and Hamas? And if we dump the sultan of Oman, President Mubarak, and the king of Saudi Arabia, who does McCain think will replace them?

If undermining Arab autocrats is good for America, why is that also the goal of Osama bin Laden?

McCain proposes a "League of Democracies" to unite a hundred nations for peace and freedom. "Revanchist Russia," however, is to be black-balled from McCain's league and thrown out of the G-8.

What would this accomplish other than undoing the work of Reagan in bringing Moscow in from the cold, driving Russia into the arms of China, restarting the Cold War and recreating the Beijing-Moscow axis it was Nixon's great achievement to break up?

What McCain is proposing is a re-division of the world into the forces of light and the forces of darkness. Moral clarity at last! Has he forgotten the fate of that earlier rabbit warren of the righteous, the League of Nations?

Does our "realistic idealist" think a NATO of 25 nations that has mustered a piddling 16,000 soldiers, most of them noncombatants, to stand beside us in Afghanistan is going to confront a nuclear-armed Russia?

"Nations have no permanent friends and no permanent enemies. Only permanent interests," said Lord Palmerston.

What is critical, especially in wartime, is not whether a regime is autocratic or democratic, but whether it is hostile or friendly.

Gen. Washington, at war with democratic Great Britain, is said to have danced a jig when he heard we had Louis XVI as an ally. During our Civil War, Britain built blockade-runners for the Confederacy, while the czar docked his ships in Union harbors. Russia "was our friend/When the world was our foe," wrote Oliver Wendell Holmes.

When Nixon launched his airlift to save Israel in the Yom Kippur War, autocratic Portugal let us use the Azores. Democratic France denied Reagan over-flight permission in the 1986 raid on Libya. Two brave U.S. pilots died as a result. When McCain was in the Hanoi Hilton, British and French ships were unloading goods in Haiphong, while Ferdinand Marcos and the South Korean generals sent troops to stand with us and fight beside us.

To root one's attitude toward nations based upon their internal politics rather than their foreign policies is ideology. And policies rooted in ideologies, from Trotskyism to democratism, end up on the Great Barrier Reef of reality.

_____________________________

AMEN.

Hillary Vanishing Fast

Hard to ignore the trend now...

Ashish

Following another weekend of mostly bad news that revolved around two more incidents of people questioning her stories and the resignation of her chief strategist Mark Penn, Monday kicks off with...well, more bad news.

ARG has their new poll of Pennsylvania out, conducted on April 5th and 6th and making it the latest poll done of the state, and the news is stunning. Barack Obama 45%, Hillary Clinton 45. Last week, Clinton led 51% to 39%. That means that ARG has her falling six points and Obama moving up six points in ONE WEEK. The poll is also right in line with three other polls from last week that have the race as a virtual tie. Clinton led by 20+ points in PA just a few weeks ago and it now appears that lead is all but gone.

As I stated last week, her collapse in the state is happening due to a few reasons, I suspect. One, the media is now reporting that Clinton has virtually no chance of winning, and that results in many of her supporters becoming demoralized and thus they begin to tell pollsters that they no longer plan to go and vote (and thus they are not factored in polls). Two, her credibility is being destroyed by all the stories of her being caught exaggerating or making up stories, first with Bosnia, then with the healthcare story that was exposed a few days ago, then with her claim that she opposed the War in Iraq before Obama did in the Senate, only to have that proven wrong. Third, she is running out of money as I wrote about a few days ago and therefore can't do much to counter all the ads Obama is running in the state.

And the most troubling news for her is that two weeks remain until voting day. If Obama is going to maintain a 5-to-1 spending advantage over her for those two weeks, it's hard to see her stop this trend and regain a big lead. Because remember, she doesn't just need to win, she needs to win by 10+ points. Obama has already stated that he will view any loss of less than 10 points in PA as a victory. We saw Obama get to this point, a virtual tie after being down 20+ points, in both Texas and Ohio, but he didn't have the time to close the deal. Now, he has caught up to Clinton and still has plenty of time left to campaign in the state, run his ads, etc. The big question is whether he goes for the kill in PA, a state that very few still expect him to win, or continue to share his time between PA, NC, and IN. I suspect he'll wait to see how his numbers look next week before deciding whether to spend all his time the week before PA voting in the state or to shift focus to NC and IN.

But the main point to take away from this poll is the race in PA is very close now, and that by itself makes the entire state a loss for Clinton already unless she turns things around. She has to win big, and what looked like a likely 10+ point win for her a few weeks ago now doesn't seem so likely.

Warming Side Doubles Down - I'm out!

80 Meter rise according to CyArk High Definition Heritage Network.

The climate change debate has ratcheted to new levels today. The Guardian.Co.uk. has a front page article:

Climate target is not radical enough - study

Nasa scientist warns the world must urgently make huge CO2 reductions

One of the world's leading climate scientists warns today that the EU and its international partners must urgently rethink targets for cutting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because of fears they have grossly underestimated the scale of the problem.

In a startling reappraisal of the threat, James Hansen, head of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, calls for a sharp reduction in C02 limits.

Hansen says the EU target of 550 parts per million of C02 - the most stringent in the world - should be slashed to 350ppm. He argues the cut is needed if "humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilisation developed". A final version of the paper Hansen co-authored with eight other climate scientists, is posted today on the Archive website. Instead of using theoretical models to estimate the sensitivity of the climate, his team turned to evidence from the Earth's history, which they say gives a much more accurate picture.

The team studied core samples taken from the bottom of the ocean, which allow C02 levels to be tracked millions of years ago. They show that when the world began to glaciate at the start of the Ice age about 35m years ago, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere stood at about 450ppm.

"If you leave us at 450ppm for long enough it will probably melt all the ice - that's a sea rise of 75 metres. What we have found is that the target we have all been aiming for is a disaster - a guaranteed disaster," Hansen told the Guardian.

At levels as high as 550ppm, the world would warm by 6C, the paper finds. Previous estimates had suggested warming would be just 3C at that point.

Hansen has long been a prominent figure in climate change science. He was one of the first to bring the crisis to the world's attention in testimony to Congress in the 1980s.

But his relationship with the Bush administration has been frosty. In 2005 he accused the White House and Nasa of trying to censor him. He has steadily revised his analysis of the scale of the global warming and was himself one of the architects of a 450ppm target. But he told the Guardian: "I realise that was too high."

The fundamental reason for his reassessment was what he calls "slow feedback" mechanisms which are only now becoming fully understood. They amplify the rise in temperature caused by increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases. Ice and snow reflect sunlight but when they melt, they leave exposed ground which absorbs more heat.

As ice sheets recede, the warming effect is compounded. Satellite technology available over the past three years has shown that the ice sheets are melting much faster than expected, with Greenland and west Antarctica both losing mass.

Hansen said that he now regards as "implausible" the view of many climate scientists that the shrinking of the ice sheets would take thousands of years. "If we follow business as usual I can't see how west Antarctica could survive a century. We are talking about a sea-level rise of at least a couple of metres this century."

The revised target is likely to prompt criticism that he is setting the bar unrealistically high. With the US administration still acting as a drag on international efforts, climate campaigners are struggling even to get a 450ppm target to stick.

Hansen said his findings were not a recipe for despair. The good news, he said, is that reserves of fossil fuels have been exaggerated, so an alternative source of energy will have to be rapidly put in place in any case. Other measure could include a moratorium on coal power stations which would bring the C02 levels to below 400ppm.

Hansen's revised position will pile yet further pressure on Britain over plans to build a new generation of coal power stations. Last year he wrote to Gordon Brown urging him to block the first such power station; the Royal Society has made similar suggestions to the government.

______________________________________

Oh crap! We're screwed. Even if this guy is totally whacked and totally off the wall, we're still screwed. I expect to soon see him in a world tour with Al Gore, Prince Charles and a retinue of Hollywood stars and starlets. Can you imagine the panic with Gore preaching climate change and Hansen prophesying a 30 degree rise in temperature and a 250 foot rise in sea levels over the next 100 years? Get ready for massive and irresistable change.

Go to church, say your prayers, go home, kiss your ass goodbye.

Petraeus Testimony Should Twist Some Democratic Knickers

This only happened three weeks before the Basra battle. Go figure.

Iran joined militias in battle for Basra
Sarah Baxter and Marie Colvin Times on Line

IRANIAN forces were involved in the recent battle for Basra, General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, is expected to tell Congress this week.

Military and intelligence sources believe Iranians were operating at a tactical command level with the Shi’ite militias fighting Iraqi security forces; some were directing operations on the ground, they think.

Petraeus intends to use the evidence of Iranian involvement to argue against any reductions in US forces.

Dr Daniel Goure, a defence analyst at the Lexington Institute in Virginia, said: “There is no question that Petraeus will be tough on Iran. It is one thing to withdraw troops when there is purely sectarian fighting but it is another thing if it leaves the Iranians to move in.”

US defence chiefs are concerned that the troop surge has overstretched the military. Admiral Mike McMullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, warned that the army and marines were at risk of crossing an “invisible red line” if the burden on forces remained. He said deployments of 15 months had to be reduced to a year “as fast as possible”.

Petraeus is likely to announce that combat tours will be reduced from 15 months to 12 months.

The number of US troops in Iraq is set to fall from 160,000 to 140,000 by July, but Petraeus is expected to recommend an indefinite pause in further troop cuts.

Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shi’ite cleric, has called for 1m people to march on Baghdad on Wednesday – the fifth anniversary of the fall of the capital – when Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador to Iraq, will be briefing Congress.

A senior Iraqi official who met Petraeus last week said, “It will be difficult to show that the situation is improving.” Another Iraqi source described the US general as “furious” that al-Maliki moved against the militias into Basra without consultation and had to rely on US forces to bail him out.

Abu Ahmed, a senior military commander with the Awakening, the Sunni tribal movement cooperating with US forces, said progress was largely the result of al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army ceasefire.

“When the Mahdi Army decides to resume its activities, neither the American troops nor the Iraqi government will be able to stop it,” he said.

Additional reporting: Hala Jaber

Name That Weapon

An interesting follow up to the mini dust-up between Colombian and Venezuelan, the near war that was settled in eight days. You gotta love the Latins. What caught my eye was the photo of the cowboy with a very impressive looking weapon. It sure looks like business. What is it?

______________________

Venezuela Steps Up Efforts To Thwart Cocaine Traffic

Elite soldiers were deployed in an anti-drug operation to destroy the 157 clandestine airfields discovered in Apure state in southwestern Venezuela. (Photos By Juan Forero -- The Washington Post)

By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 7, 2008; Page A08

ELORZA, Venezuela -- Facing criticism that cocaine trafficking is out of control, Venezuela's government this year has embarked on an aggressive program to track drug-smuggling planes and destroy clandestine airstrips used by Colombian drug clans, Venezuelan drug enforcement and military officials said in a series of interviews.

In what appears to be a sharp shift from last year, Venezuelan aircraft and munitions experts have destroyed 157 dirt strips here in the grassy plains state of Apure, most of them in the last two weeks. The government has installed three new Chinese-made radar stations and plans to put up seven others that will completely cover Venezuelan airspace and permit authorities to track unidentified flights originating in neighboring Colombia.

"As a state, we are showing that there is a policy to fight narco-trafficking," said National Guard Col. Nestor Reverol, president of the National Anti-Drug Office, which coordinates the programs. "We're not saying it's just a problem for Colombia and the United States. We're assuming responsibility. That's why we're doing this."

More

Jesus comes to Philadelphia via Tehran

Jesus with blonde locks.

Film festivals give an opportunity for filmmakers to display some of their more exotic and creative, if not commercially viable, artistic works. I have often enjoyed small films with unknown actors, low budgets and off-off Hollywood. The 17th Philadelphia Film Festival is in progress and is featuring an Iranian film, “Jesus, the Spirit of God”. I have not seen this film, but I suspect that we will hear more about it. It is in Persian with English sub-titles. The film portrays Jesus from the Muslim perspective which includes the belief that it was not Jesus who was crucified, but Judas. The title, “Jesus, the Spirit of God”, is in itself a telling diversion. Interesting.

_________________

TEHRAN Times --

Acclaimed movie “Jesus, the Spirit of God” directed by Nader Talebzadeh was screened at the Cinema of the Muslim Worlds section of the 17th Philadelphia Film Festival on Friday.

“Jesus, the Spirit of God” which is in Persian with English subtitles was screened on Saturday for the second time and its third day program will be on Monday.

According to American critic Raymond Murray, “Jesus, the Spirit of God” is one of the more unusual entries in this year’s festival.

“Jesus, the Spirit of God” is an Iranian drama on the life and works of Jesus Christ as recounted in the scriptures of the Holy Quran. The result is a serious, non-polemical and thought-provoking look at the man who Christians revere as the Son of God, and Muslims see as a holy man sent to the Earth to announce the coming of the Prophet Muhammad (S).

“The film seeks to find the common ground among Christians and Muslims. Director Nader Talebzadeh sees his movie as an Islamic answer to Western productions like Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ’, a film he has publicly praised but sees as quite simply ‘wrong’. This is especially evident in the film as it depicts the Muslim belief that Jesus was not crucified, but rather it was Judas who was hung on the cross. The film presents Jesus with a fair complexion and dark blond hair, and his preaching is recounted in a serious fashion.”

“Jesus, the Spirit of God” was presented the “In Memory of Don Silvio Franch” award at the 10th Religion Today Film Festival, which was held in Trento, Italy from October 6 to 20, 2007.

The 17th Philadelphia Film Festival hosts films from 49 countries. The event opened with “Young@Heart” by director Stephen Walker on April 3 and will close on April 15 with “Patti Smith: Dream of Life” by director Steven Sebring.

“Buddha Collapsed out of Shame” directed by Hana Makhmalbaf is another Iranian entry in the Cinema of the Muslim Worlds section.

Obama on National Health Care. Telling.

This guy is a committed socialist. Listen carefully to his words. Is that what the country wants?

Hillary and Obama Raw

The New "New Deal"

___________________

---

Franklin Roosevelt's
First Inaugural Address, 1933

I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impel. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.

More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.

Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.

Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.

Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.

Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly.

Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people’s money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.

There are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the several States.

Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment.

The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in all parts of the United States—a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that the recovery will endure.

In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others—the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.

If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife.

With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.

Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations.

It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.

I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.

But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.

For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less.

We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life.

We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.

In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.

Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933, as published in Samuel Rosenman, ed., The Public Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volume Two: The Year of Crisis, 1933 (New York: Random House, 1938), 11–16.

---

_______________________

Everything old is new again. Doesn't Roosevelt's speech seem eerily applicable to today? Credit crisis, banking crisis, confidence crisis, a nation in despair looking for a messianic figure. A candidate with the promise of hope and happy days here again. It's looks like deja vu but I believe this current crisis has been fueled and aggravated by the steady onslaught of bad news purveyed for political and ideological reasons. This pervasive and sustained fearmongering has once again become pandemic and brings despair, panic and riot.

I don't mean to claim that the credit crisis isn't real or that food prices aren't rising but I believe that the real crisis is within ourselves. This is a problem humans have had since the beginning of time. For the developed world, it is a fear of material loss, for the third world, it is food insecurity. But such is the nature of man. No matter how advanced or intelligent or educated or rich we think ourselves to be, we have the same human nature that the first man had. One generation after another is caught up in the continuous historical loop of boom and bust, good times of excess followed by bad times and repentance. It's the same as it ever was and for now, we'll just have to take our medicine as our "chickens come home to roost."

Found While Looking for Something Else

While I was researching fearmongering, stampedes, shortages, and manipulations of markets, I came across this informative video.

ABSOLUT - SALUT

The Swedish/French company, Absolut, has some ideas on a change in the US Map. It is a crappy vodka anyway. Let them sell it somewhere else.

Obama's 2007 Judgment and Statement on Nato Missile Defense Wrong.

I can hardly wait to hear from Obama advisor"Know it all" General Tony McPeak.

The Bush Administration has been developing plans to deploy interceptors and radar systems in Poland and the Czech Republic as part of a missile defense system designed to protect against the potential threat of Iranian nuclear armed missiles. If we can responsibly deploy missile defenses that would protect us and our allies we should – but only when the system works. We need to make sure any missile defense system would be effective before deployment. The Bush Administration has in the past exaggerated missile defense capabilities and rushed deployments for political purposes. The Bush Administration has also done a poor job of consulting its NATO allies about the deployment of a missile defense system that has major implications for all of them. We must not allow this issue to divide “new Europe” and “old Europe,” as the Bush Administration tried to do over Iraq.”

-Barack Obama 16 July 2007

This is a huge win for George Bush and John McCain and Donald Rumsfeld. It is a huge win for national security.

Today NATO leaders endorsed a controversial US missile shield for Europe yesterday, and US and Czech officials agreed on deployment of the first element – an advanced radar, despite strong Russian opposition. Had Barack Obama been President, this never would have happened.

US officials have confirmed a final communique on the missile defence system, parts of which will be stationed in Poland and the Czech Republic, and said the deal would "recognise the substantive contribution to the protection of the allies".

_____________________________

In case it sounds easy let's see what was said in the NY Times on February 4, 2001:

U.S. Tries Defusing Allies' Opposition to Missile Defense

By MICHAEL R. GORDON New York Times

MUNICH, Feb. 3 — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the first senior Bush administration official to visit Europe, tried today to defuse opposition to the administration's antimissile plans by offering to help European nations and other allies to deploy missile defenses.

But while Mr. Rumsfeld assured European allies that the United States would consult with them on its antimissile plan, he did not address in any detail one of the Europeans' principal concerns: how an antimissile defense can be reconciled with strategic arms control and a productive relationship with Moscow.

"The United States intends to develop and deploy a missile defense designed to defend our people and forces against a limited ballistic missile attack, and is prepared to assist friends and allies threatened by missile attack to deploy such defenses," Mr. Rumsfeld said in a speech to a conference of top political officials and defense specialists.

Mr. Rumsfeld underscored that the Bush administration was determined to proceed with an antimissile defense of United States territory even if it could not overcome the objections from the Russians, the Chinese and the Europeans. He described a missile defense as nothing less than a moral imperative.

Missile defense was hardly the only sensitive issue today. The European Union's move to develop a 60,000-member rapid reaction force by 2003 has drawn a wary reaction from the Bush administration.

While not opposing the initiative, Mr. Rumsfeld was clearly skeptical, and stressed the need for great care to ensure that the European Union does not detract from NATO.

Mr. Bush's fatigue with the Balkan peacekeeping mission also remains a continuing source of anxiety in Europe. Mr. Rumsfeld said little on the subject today, saying that the matter was under review at the White House. The United States and Europe also have to decide how to proceed with NATO expansion, a topic that greatly worries the Russians.

But as European leaders have challenged the missile defense plan in recent weeks, the issue has risen to the fore. The main European concern is that deployment of an antimissile shield will undermine the framework of nuclear arms control and spoil relations with the Russians. Or as President Jacques Chirac of France put it last month, an American missile defense "cannot fail to relaunch the arms race in the world."

Mr. Chirac has not been the only critic. Rudolf Scharping, the German defense minister, has questioned the technological feasibility of the missile defense plan, and on a recent visit to Moscow urged that arms control agreements be preserved.

The Russians have sought to stoke the Europeans' fears, warning that they may abandon the strategic arms constraints they have negotiated with Washington if the Bush administration abandons the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty and deploys an antimissile system.

The head of the Russian Security Council, Sergei Ivanov, is due to address the conference on Sunday, raising the specter of an American-Russian tussle for European opinion.

In his attempts to sway European opinion, Mr. Rumsfeld presented several arguments. He suggested that antimissile defenses could be reconciled with some arms control treaties, avoiding the bluntness of comments he made in Congressional hearings — and even on the plane flying to the conference — that the ABM treaty was an anachronism.

Mr. Rumsfeld also sought to turn long-standing European concerns about American isolationism or military intervention into arguments for missile defenses.

Without a missile shield, he suggested, future American leaders might turn isolationist in a crisis and shrink from confronting a missile- wielding third world aggressor. Alternatively, he warned, America might have to carry out a pre-emptive strike against a rogue nation.

"A system of defense need not be perfect, but the American people must not be left completely defenseless," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "It is not so much a technical question as a matter of a president's constitutional responsibility. Indeed, it is, in many respects, a moral issue."

Mr. Rumsfeld's case was helped by Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, who told the meeting that there was a general consensus in Washington that some sort of missile defense should be deployed. "The question from an American point of view is not whether we will have a national missile defense but when and how," Senator Lieberman said. "This is not a technologically feasible program now. We are some years away."

Senator John McCain and former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger also called for missile defenses, adding to the sense of inevitability.

The European response to Mr. Rumsfeld's proposal today was respectful, if restrained. Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, appeared to speak for most of his fellow European foreign ministers when he said that European nations were glad that Washington wanted to consult with them on the antimissile plan but that a missile defense must not come at the expense of arms control. That is a difficult balancing act that neither the Americans nor the Europeans were prepared to discuss in detail.

In general, neither European nor American officials seemed inclined to quarrel openly today about missile defense or the European Union's rapid reaction initiative.

"The United States has made it clear it intends to develop a missile defense system," said George Robertson, the NATO secretary general. "We have to take the sincerity and commitment of the United States seriously."

European officials cling to the hope that an American missile defense might be compatible with a modified version of the ABM treaty. Mr. Rumsfeld was careful not to exclude that option, but it may well be put to the test once the scale of the administration's plans are known.

Former President Bill Clinton proposed limited defense, involving 100 interceptors and a battle management radar in Alaska, which he planned to reconcile with an amended ABM treaty. There is no reason to think, however, that the Bush administration will settle for such a limited system, which was still too much for the Russians.

Mr. Rumsfeld, a former American ambassador to NATO, has only been in office for two weeks, and the Bush administration as a whole has not yet had time to develop comprehensive missile defense proposals.

Still, Mr. Rumsfeld's offer to help the Europeans and other allies deploy defenses raised a number of tricky questions, such as which land- based, sea-based or space-based systems might be used. As a result, it is impossible to say how long it would take to develop a system, what it would cost or to what extent it would require modification of the ABM treaty.

Mr. Rumsfeld did not say how much the Europeans would have to pay for antimissile defenses of their territory — no small concern for a continent whose military spending has lagged — and what Washington might contribute.

Mr. Rumsfeld has been something of a hard-liner on arms control. While Bush administration officials have previously talked of making deep, even unilateral cuts in the American nuclear arsenal, he had no specific arms control proposals to offer Moscow today. Yet he insisted that the Russians were mistaken to perceive an antimissile defenses as quest for strategic advantage.

He said a limited American defense could not neutralize the Russian nuclear arsenal, and he suggested that the Russians understood that but were pretending not to understand to build opposition to the American plan in Europe.

"The idea of an arms race between the United States and Russia ought not to be front and center in our thinking," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "It is something that is a leftover, a relic in our thinking."

Waterboard Them With Hydrogen Peroxide

The Fruit of Islam

8 Accused British Muslims Targeted Seven Flights in Transatlantic Bomb Plot, Court Told

By Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 4, 2008; Page A14

LONDON, April 3 -- Seven transatlantic flights, all leaving Heathrow Airport within 2 1/2 hours of one another, were to be simultaneously blown up in midair with the goal of killing on "an almost unprecedented scale," jurors were told at the opening of the long-awaited trial of eight British Muslims.

The men intended to smuggle liquid explosives onto the planes, including United Airlines Flight 925 to Washington, prosecutor Peter Wright said in court. By his account, flights to New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal and Toronto were also to be targeted.

Hydrogen peroxide, dyed to resemble a sports drink and carried in plastic bottles, was allegedly to be combined with other ingredients in flight and triggered by the batteries of everyday devices such as disposable cameras, Wright alleged.

(Islamic cockroaches)

Iraq - SNAFU

AP is reporting that al-Maliki

...pledged Thursday to expand his crackdown on Shiite militias to Baghdad, despite a mixed performance so far against militants in the southern city of Basra.

The U.S. ambassador, meanwhile, said that despite a "boatload" of problems with the Basra operation, he was encouraged that the Shiite-led government was finally confronting extremists regardless of their religious affiliation.

Does anyone really know what is going on in Iraq? Sure, Basra is a mess with various thugocracies competing for control of not only Shia souls but more particularly 80% of Iraq's oil wealth which comes from the southern provinces.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who will appear before Congress on Tuesday with top commander Gen. David Petraeus, said he was surprised at the way the Basra campaign unfolded.

"I had the understanding that this was going to be an effort to get down, show they were serious with additional forces, put the squeeze on, develop a full picture of conditions and then act accordingly," he told reporters Thursday. "I was not expecting, frankly, a major battle from Day One."

Still, Crocker said he was encouraged that the Iraqi government was willing to take on Shiite militias, some of which maintain close ties to major political parties in the national leadership.

"Were there problems? There were a boatload of problems, and they still have a long way to go," Crocker added.

The cleric has also called on Shiites to converge on the holy city of Najaf next Wednesday — the fifth anniversary of the U.S. capture of Baghdad — to protest the American military presence in Iraq. Al-Sadr urged for a "million-strong" turnout.

Another million man march...We'll see.

The Perfect Espionage Storm. China Is Killing US.

This is just the beginning and it has done more damage to US security than 911. China is a dangerous adversary and with our open trade policy with China, it is pay as we go. We are paying for their military expansion and espionage. This is a calamity far worse than anything we have done and wasted in Iraq and will have far greater long term consequences to US security.

- Hat tip: Bobal

_____________________

A US Department of Defense official pleaded guilty [DOJ press release] Monday in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia [official website] to one count of conspiracy for disclosing national defense information. Gregg William Bergersen, an analyst at the DOD's Defense Security Cooperation Agency [official website], who was charged and arrested [JURIST report] in February, is accused of providing classified military information to Tai Kuo, a Louisiana businessman, who in turn gave the information to a Chinese foreign official. A sentencing hearing has been set for June; Bergersen could face up to 10 years in prison.

The same day that Bergersen was arrested, officials also arrested Dongfan "Greg" Chung, a former Chinese-American engineer at Boeing, for allegedly stealing corporate trade secrets related to the space shuttle and other aerospace programs and turning them over to China . Chung's arrest was reportedly related to the case of Chi Mak , a Chinese-American engineer sentenced last month for conspiring to smuggle sensitive naval intelligence data to China.

- Jurist

_______________________

Chinese Spy 'Slept' In U.S. for 2 Decades
Espionage Network Said to Be Growing
By Joby Warrick and Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, April 3, 2008; A01

Prosecutors called Chi Mak the "perfect sleeper agent," though he hardly looked the part. For two decades, the bespectacled Chinese-born engineer lived quietly with his wife in a Los Angeles suburb, buying a house and holding a steady job with a U.S. defense contractor, which rewarded him with promotions and a security clearance. Colleagues remembered him as a hard worker who often took paperwork home at night.

Eventually, Mak's job gave him access to sensitive plans for Navy ships, submarines and weapons. These he secretly copied and sent via courier to China -- fulfilling a mission that U.S. officials say he had been planning since the 1970s.

Mak was sentenced last week to 24 1/2 years in prison by a federal judge who described the lengthy term as a warning to China not to "send agents here to steal America's military secrets." But it may already be too late: According to U.S. intelligence and Justice Department officials, the Mak case represents only a small facet of an intelligence-gathering operation that has long been in place and is growing in size and sophistication.

The Chinese government, in an enterprise that one senior official likened to an "intellectual vacuum cleaner," has deployed a diverse network of professional spies, students, scientists and others to systematically collect U.S. know-how, the officials said. Some are trained in modern electronic techniques for snooping on wireless computer transactions. Others, such as Mak, are technical experts who have been in place for years and have blended into their communities.

"Chi Mak acknowledged that he had been placed in the United States more than 20 years earlier, in order to burrow into the defense-industrial establishment to steal secrets," Joel Brenner, the head of counterintelligence for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said in an interview. "It speaks of deep patience," he said, and is part of a pattern.

Other recent prosecutions illustrate the scale of the problem. Mak, whose sentence capped an 18-month criminal probe, was the second U.S. citizen in the past two weeks to stand before a federal judge after being found guilty on espionage-related charges.

On Monday, former Defense Department analyst Gregg W. Bergersen pleaded guilty in Alexandria to charges that he gave classified information on U.S. weapons sales to a businessman who shared the data with a Chinese official.

In March, the Reston company WaveLab pleaded guilty to violating export laws when it shipped militarily sensitive power amplifiers to China, according to court papers. A lawyer for the company said it neglected to get proper licenses and did not engage in "underhanded" behavior.

Dongfan Chung, a Boeing engineer arrested in February for allegedly passing classified space shuttle and rocket documents to Chinese officials, was accused in court documents of responding to orders from Beijing as long ago as 1979 -- making him a second alleged longtime agent.

Yesterday, federal prosecutors in Chicago indicted a software engineer for allegedly stealing business trade secrets and trying to take more than 1,000 paper and electronic documents from a telecommunications company on a one-way trip to China last year.

The cases are among at least a dozen investigations of Chinese espionage that have yielded criminal charges or guilty pleas in the past year. Since 2000, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have launched more than 540 investigations of illegal technology exports to China.

The FBI recently heightened its counterintelligence operations against Chinese activities in the United States after Director Robert S. Mueller III cited "substantial concern" about aggressive attempts to use students, scientists and "front companies" to acquire military secrets.

Recent prosecutions indicate that Chinese agents have infiltrated sensitive military programs pertaining to nuclear missiles, submarine propulsion technology, night-vision capabilities and fighter pilot training -- all of which could help China modernize its programs while developing countermeasures against advanced weapons systems used by the United States and its allies.

"The intelligence services of the People's Republic of China pose a significant threat both to the national security and to the compromise of U.S. critical national assets," said William Carter, an FBI spokesman. "The PRC will remain a significant threat for a long time as they attempt to develop their military capabilities and to develop their economy in order to compete in today's world economy."

While military technology appears to be the top prize, the Chinese effort is also aimed at commercial and industrial technologies, which often are poorly protected, several officials said. "Espionage used to be a problem for the FBI, CIA and military, but now it's a problem for corporations," Brenner said. "It's no longer a cloak-and-dagger thing. It's about computer architecture and the soundness of electronic systems."

Calls placed to the Chinese Embassy in Washington requesting comment on recent spy cases were not returned. But Chinese officials have repeatedly denied that their country is stealing military technology. "We have reiterated many times that allegations that China stole U.S. military secrets are groundless and made out of ulterior motives," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a recent news conference in Beijing, commenting on the Mak case.

But U.S. intelligence and defense officials say China has been able to use technology of U.S. origin in a new generation of advanced naval destroyers and quiet-running, stealthy submarines.

Some of those secrets may have been obtained with the help of Mak, a 67-year-old electrical engineer who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1985 along with his wife, Rebecca Chiu Mak. The two settled in Southern California, where Mak eventually accepted a job with Power Paragon, a defense contractor that specialized in advanced naval propulsion technology. In 1996, Mak was given a security clearance at the "secret" level, which gave him access to sensitive engineering details for U.S. ships and submarines.

In 2003, Mak became the subject of an intensive federal investigation that included court-ordered wiretaps, secret property searches and the clandestine installation of a video camera inside his home. Through surveillance, FBI agents discovered that Mak was in the process of copying thousands of pages of technical documents onto computer disks, which he arranged to send to China using his brother and sister-in-law as couriers.

According to court documents, the Maks encrypted the disks to avoid detection and used coded words to arrange a drop-off of the disks to a Chinese intelligence operative. In one phone conversation, the brother, Tai Wang Mak, intimated that he would be traveling with his wife and a third companion he described as his "assistant" -- a reference, prosecutors said, to the disks, hidden in his luggage.

The plan was foiled on Oct. 28, 2005, when agents arrested Tai Wang Mak as he was preparing to board a plane at Los Angeles International Airport. Chi Mak and his wife were arrested at their home the same day.

A key piece of evidence was a to-do list of apparent intelligence targets, written in Chinese script. The note, which had been shredded, was retrieved from Chi Mak's garbage and painstakingly reassembled to reveal what prosecutors said were instructions from Beijing on the kinds of technology Mak should seek to acquire.

Mak, who testified in his defense at his six-week trial, denied he was a spy and said the information he copied was available from nonclassified sources on the Internet. Defense witnesses said that much, if not all, of the documents acquired by Mak were not officially classified, though transmitting them to China was prohibited under U.S. export laws. Mak's attorney, Ronald O. Kaye, said his client was a scapegoat for other U.S. intelligence failures and a "symbol of the government's cold war against the Chinese."

In another recent case, former Northrop Grumman scientist Noshir Gowadia, who helped build the B-2 bomber, was indicted last fall for allegedly sharing cruise missile data with the Chinese government during a half-dozen trips to China. He is scheduled to go on trial in October.

A defense lawyer for Gowadia did not return calls, but Gowadia's family in Hawaii has told local journalists that the charges stem from a misunderstanding.

Robert Clifton Burns, a Washington lawyer who specializes in export cases, said the Chinese acquisition of sophisticated U.S. technology "is fast coming out from under the radar" as authorities crack down on such shipments to foreign powers. But Burns, who closely tracks prosecutions in the area, said the government sometimes overstates the risks of exporting U.S. items.

"People who violate export laws should be thrown in jail, no question about it," Burns said. But he added that there are also people "who would be better addressed by . . . a civil result where they get a small fine."

Stepping Out on a Limb. Obama Will be President.

A Deuce or an Ace? We shall see.

Here we are on April 3, 2008 and like it or not, this is my prediction for this political year. Times have changed, they always do and too many of us have not. The boomer era is at its end.

Hillary will effectively lose Pennsylvania. There is no excitement for her. At best there is resignation. Obama is going to every small town and college and in a personal way is showing himself to be smart, reasonable and more pragmatic than a doctrinaire wild eyed raging liberal. He has a reasonable chance of winning Pennsylvania, but a small loss will finish Hillary.

The Clintons are over. Reluctantly, I am convinced that the Republicans have done themselves so much damage, that the best of them would have had a very difficult time winning the 2008 Presidency. There is no excitement within the Republican ranks  for McCain. Without that excitement from within, there is not enough political independents that are sold on the idea that we need more of what we have had for the last eight years. Obama is not scary enough.

Then there is always that one moment of truth. For me it was when McCain assisted a frail and diminished Nancy Reagan out to the garden to announce her support, I knew we were over.

McCain will not have the energy nor the ability to convince enough Americans that any Republican deserves four more years. Obama will argue that a change is worth trying and enough Americans will concede that he is right. Life will go on.

I for one will support McCain, the way I did Bob Dole and to equal effect.

The Basra Aftermath, A Humiliating Iraqi Disaster.

The Fruit of Nation Building

Iraq: In Al-Basrah Aftermath, Iran's And Al-Sadr's Gain Is Al-Maliki's Loss
By Sumedha Senanayake Radio Free Europe

Al-Sadr remains a force in Iraq
(epa)

The Iraqi government's operation in Al-Basrah was billed as a decisive battle to regain control of the southern city from what it called armed gangs and criminals. But the real focus of the operation seems to have been radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, the Imam Al-Mahdi Army.

The intense response by al-Sadr's followers across southern Iraq and Baghdad seemed to catch the government off-guard. As the violence and instability spread, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government faced what appeared to be a widespread insurrection. At that point, a military option did not seem feasible.

On March 30, after nearly a week of fighting, al-Sadr issued a nine-point statement calling on his followers not to attack government forces. He urged the government to stop its random raids on Sadrists, called for an amnesty for fighters in the Al-Mahdi Army, and the release of all imprisoned members of the Sadrist movement who have not been convicted of any crimes.

Iran Plays Both Sides

Several days after al-Sadr's cease-fire call, it emerged that Iran helped broker the truce that ended the bloodshed that left nearly 500 dead and 900 wounded. In the aftermath of the Al-Basrah conflict, Iran clearly emerged as the big winner.

Several sources indicated as early as March 28 that a representative of al-Maliki's Al-Da'wah Party, Ali Adib, and Hadi al-Amiri, the head of the Badr Organization, the military wing of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), traveled to the Iranian city of Qom to meet with Iranian officials.

According to McClatchy Newspapers, the aim of the trip was twofold: to press al-Sadr to restrain his militia and to call on Iran's Qods Force to stop supplying weapons to Shi'ite fighters in Iraq. It was also revealed that the two men went to Iran without consulting with the prime minister.

Haidar al-Abadi, a member of Al-Da'wah, said that the delegation was from the Shi'ite-led United Iraqi Alliance, which is dominated by Al-Da'wah and the ISCI, "and the prime minister was only informed. It was a political maneuver by us."

The role of Iran in brokering the truce clearly demonstrates the Islamic republic's influence in Iraq, particularly in the Shi'ite community. Based on what was discussed in Qom, Iran was playing both sides of the fence, as peace brokers and instigators of the violence.

Al-Sadr Remains Strong

While the military confrontation ended essentially in a stalemate, al-Sadr came away with a political victory. His militia remains intact and he has demonstrated that it can withstand a major assault by the Iraqi military.

The aftermath of the clashes also showed that al-Sadr still has control over his militia. There had been much speculation that al-Sadr had lost control of the Al-Mahdi Army and that some breakaway factions were not heeding his authority. The Al-Basrah clashes and subsequent cease-fire demonstrated that he was still in charge.

While his militia were clearly not a passive actor in the Al-Basrah violence, their armed struggle was framed in the context of self-defense. The Iraqi security forces were seen as the aggressors in launching the military campaign, which many Sadrists described as politically motivated.

As it became clear during the Al-Basrah operation that the Al-Mahdi Army was the main target, al-Sadr continued to adhere to the truce he declared for the militia. The truce was instituted in August 2007 after his forces clashed with police in the holy city of Al-Najaf. There were concerns recently that the increased pressure on the Al-Mahdi Army might push al-Sadr to end the truce.

Maintaining the truce gave the appearance that al-Sadr was willing to place Iraq's benefits above his own political ambitions, which he stressed in the nine-point statement that led to the current cease-fire. In it, he supported Iraq's unity by calling for an "end to armed appearances in Al-Basrah and all other provinces."

Considering his bravado when his militia took on the U.S. military twice in 2004, al-Sadr's actions during the latest confrontation suggested his growing maturity as a political leader.

Huge Blow To Al-Maliki

For al-Maliki, the results of the "Battle for Al-Basrah" were certainly humiliating, given that he personally oversaw the military campaign. Al-Maliki hoped to erase the perception that he is a weak and ineffectual leader, particularly in dealing with al-Sadr and his militia. However, soon after the operation began, it was apparent that al-Maliki greatly overestimated the abilities of his forces and underestimated the tenacity of al-Sadr's militia.

Al-Maliki had vowed to crush the Shi'ite militias, armed gangs, and criminals that effectively controlled the city for three years. He initially gave all armed elements in Al-Basrah 72 hours to disarm, but after this was ignored, the deadline was extended to 10 days, coupled with an offer of cash in exchange for weapons.

In an operation that was planned to be completed quickly, Iraqi security forces were met with strong resistance from al-Sadr's militia, despite U.S. air support. Defense Minister Abd al-Qadir Jasim admitted on March 28 that the government had been "surprised" by the militia's resistance and the government's battle plan and tactics had to be altered.

More troubling for al-Maliki, "Al-Azzam" reported on March 31 that several thousand police officers had refused to fight the militia and two Iraqi Army regiments reportedly defected to the Sadrists. If numerous acts of insubordination and desertion indeed took place during the operation, this would indicate the low level of morale among the security forces.

In the end, al-Maliki declared the operation a "success." However, his words may ring hollow since he failed to disarm and crush al-Sadr's militia, and this may have weakened him politically in the eyes of his ruling Shi'ite alliance.

The revelation that members of his own Shi'ite alliance, including from his own Al-Da'wah Party, went to Iran against his wishes to broker a truce further undercuts his authority and ultimately his credibility.

Thorn In Washington's Side

U.S. support for the Al-Basrah operation has become considerably more muted since it was first launched. On March 30, CIA Director Michael Hayden told NBC News that he had no prior knowledge that the Iraqi government planned to launch such a campaign. In fact, he even indicated that U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and U.S. commander in Iraq General David Petraeus were also left in the dark about the operation.

This could be a sign of tacit disapproval of al-Maliki's handling of the operation as well as the administration distancing itself from it in order to offset any potential embarrassment before Crocker and Petraeus testify before Congress in June.

The failure of the operation also makes clear that the Iraqi military is far from prepared to take over responsibility for security. This does not bode well for the United States, since it is an indication that troop reductions maybe further delayed.

Al-Sadr's performance again shows that the young cleric is a major political force in Iraq who cannot be ignored. Many saw the Al-Basrah campaign as a means of weakening al-Sadr before the provincial elections now set for the fall. Now it seems that he may be a long-term political player and the United States may have to work with him, whether it likes it or not.

Finally, in terms of Iran, the United States can't be too pleased that Tehran was where Iraqi Shi'ite leaders turned to in a crisis -- yet another stark indication of the growing Iranian influence in Iraq.

Superdelegates and Democrats - Who's On First?

March 31, 2008
Superdelegates are Another Dysfunctional Liberal Fix
By J.R. Dunn American Thinker

The most striking thing about the Democrat's superdelegate fiasco is how typical it is of liberalism. If modern liberalism -- the style of liberalism that has existed since FDR's New Deal -- is characterized by anything, it's the fixation on addressing "problems" with massive, grotesque, Rube Goldberg schemes that simply don't work.

This began with FDR's National Recovery Act (NRA), a 1933 scheme to set up a government-run, national industrial collective consisting of virtually every last American company in an attempt to bootstrap the economy out of the Depression. As Jonah Goldberg has pointed out in Liberal Fascism, the NRA was adapted almost in toto from Mussolini's "corporative" system. That is, it was a direct product of fascist philosophy.

It was also a disaster, along with most other New Deal policies. By early 1938 the country was in worse economic shape than it had been when Roosevelt took office five years previously. The NRA (along with the AAA, the CCC, and on through the alphabet) had proven so mesmerizing that the Roosevelt administration neglected to carry out the most basic economic responses to a slowing economy such as lowering taxes, ending tariffs, and easing credit. New Deal economic policies were the equivalent of putting a 500 horse engine in a car after siphoning out all the gas.

Liberals learned nothing from the New Deal. Every last liberal program since, with no notable exception, has followed the same pattern -- urban renewal, the War on Poverty, criminal justice reform, affirmative action, energy policy, federal welfare, the War on Drugs, and so on to the point of insanity. All shared the same recomplicated nature, all were disastrous.

So when it came time to "reform" Democratic nominating procedures in 1982, there was a tradition. The same procedures had been reformed only ten years earlier, but unfortunately this "democratization" had made it possible for any loon with enough financing and a convincing line of patter to stampede the gullible party faithful into giving him the nomination. This was not merely a theoretical concern, as attempts by such figures as the Rev. J---- J------- and the Rev. A- S------- revealed.

The solution was superdelegates. As we all know by now, the superdelegates consist of roughly 790 Democratic notables, including public officials, party stalwarts, senators, and congressmen, who have been awarded permanent delegate status and allowed to vote as they please, beholden to no constituency. If a dubious candidate appeared -- say, a junior politician with little experience, shady associates, and a habit of making vast public claims to be a racial reconciliator while secretly belonging to a racist "church" -- the superdelegates could vote as a bloc to stymie him.

(One result of this setup is that it makes the reactionary, authoritarian GOP far more democratic than the Democrats themselves, but who would ever bring that up?)

Enter the Clintons. Madame Hillary has been trailing Obama by just enough delegates -- a little over a hundred -- to tantalize. This situation will probably continue until the Denver convention. As we are all well aware, to the Clintons, everything -- everything without exception: family, religion, party, country -- is a tactical resource, and can and will be used as such, as circumstances warrant. The sole criterion is: does it involve something that the Clintons want?

Here we have something the Clintons want: the presidency of the United States. We have an obstacle: Barack Obama. And we have a tactic: suborning the superdelegates.

Need we say more?

The media has been full of reasons why this can't happen. All of them trumped by two reasons why it can, neither mentioned in any of these analyses.

First: the FBI files. If dirt exists on any superdelegate, we can sure the Clintons know about it. (Eliot "Sportin' Man" Spitzer was a superdelegate, for one example.)

Second: the character of the Clintons, the sole current national figures allowed to behave with naked self-interest and get away with it. (A situation for which the national media can take considerable responsibility.) No purer examples of power addiction can be found in American political history. When August rolls around, if there is a door, they will go through it. If there is not, they will make one.

What this means for the November election was revealed by the Gallup Organization on March 26. In recent polling, Democratic voters have stated that, in the case of the opponent being nominated, 19% of Obama supporters and 28% of Hillary supporters will vote for John McCain.

It's altogether appropriate that the Democrats should come to ruin as a result of the same type of gimmick they've subjected the country to for seven decades. There's a Shakespearean phrase for the Democratic Party's dilemma: "Hoist with his own petard" -- that is, being blown up with your own landmine. But it's not often you see a petard hoist several thousand people at once (including two presidential candidates), and in front of an audience of millions, too.

I'm looking forward to it.

J.R. Dunn is consulting editor of American Thinker.

Pakistan Rethinking "War on Terror" Strategy.

In a speech outlining the government's policies, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani emphasized social and political reforms to address the causes of militancy.


Pakistan rethinks US policy on militants

By Barbara Plett
BBC News, Islamabad

The new prime minister says the fight against terrorism is his top priority
There is a buzz of excitement in the wood-panelled assembly hall of Pakistan's parliament.

After eight years of military rule, the new legislators feel empowered by an enormous popular mandate.

And they are ready to tackle unpopular policies, especially Pakistan's participation in what is called the War on Terror.

"We've gone through enough problems because of following different agendas of different countries - we need to follow our own agenda," said one parliamentarian from the governing coalition, speaking to a crush of reporters outside.
"Pakistan must get out of America's fatal embrace," said another.

Out of the loop

Comments like these alarm the Americans, because Pakistan is crucial to their Afghan policy.

Since 9/11 they have relied on President Pervez Musharraf and the army for cooperation against al-Qaeda and the Taleban, in exchange for billions of dollars.
Until now parliament was out of the loop.

"No one in this country knows what General Musharraf has agreed with the Americans or anyone else!" says Ahsan Iqbal, a minister in the new cabinet.

The president apparently agreed to an increase in US air strikes in the Taleban strongholds near the Afghan border.

Militants killed almost a thousand people in suicide attacks last year
These have killed around 50 people this year, including militants.

Like everyone else, Mr Iqbal read about the tacit understanding in the newspaper.
Such heavy handed tactics "give a cause for these militants to fight for", he says, "so therefore I think whatever strategy we work out, the sovereignty of Pakistan must be respected and we should not give more fuel to these militants".

Security

Pakistanis believe a deadly bombing campaign in the country is the price they are paying for missile strikes and large scale army operations against the militants.
Nearly a thousand people were killed in suicide attacks last year.

And massive injections of American aid have made little difference to their security.

"The general perception in Pakistan is that the deal over the War on Terror was favourable only to one party and unfavourable to Pakistan," says Aseff Ahmad Ali, a member of the governing Pakistan Peoples' Party and a former foreign minister.

"The Americans give us a billion dollars a year for the War on Terror. But where has the money gone? We don't know, maybe to the army.

"But we do know there's been no trickle-down effect - there is neither internal (security) nor food security nor development.

"To the common man the US-Pakistan deal looks absolutely awful. It has to be renegotiated."

Negotiation

In a speech outlining the government's policies, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani emphasized social and political reforms to address the causes of militancy.

He also said the government would negotiate with those who laid down their arms.
Some of his coalition partners go further, like the Pashtun Awami National Party (ANP), which has gained power in the North West Frontier Province near the Afghan border.

"This problem is not going to be solved by my going to talk to the tribal elders only," the provincial chief minister, Amir Haider Khan Hoti, told the Dawn newspaper.

"Unless we somehow approach the one who has taken up arms, or is involved in suicide bombing or has gone to the other extreme, and reach an understanding with him, the problem would not be solved."

'Clear and present danger'

This is a long term solution, but does America have the patience to wait? The head of its Central Intelligence Agency is sounding very impatient.

"The situation on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border presents a clear and present danger to... the West in general and the United States in particular," Michael Hayden said during a recent interview on NBC television.

"It's very clear to us that al-Qaeda has been able for the past 18 months or so to establish a safe haven along the border area that they have not enjoyed before.
"Operationally, we are turning every effort to capture or kill that leadership from the top to the bottom."

Tanvir Ahmed Khan, a former Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan argues that "the Americans have leverage (in Pakistan), but not the same degree as before".
"There would be a restive parliament. There is no strong opinion in parliament for reversing the policy, but there is a strong opinion for moderating it, for a better mix between military and diplomatic measures."

Military wary

But will Pakistan's powerful army agree?

President Musharraf's attempts at peace deals only strengthened the militants and put the military on the back-foot, says retired General Shujaat Ali Khan. The military would be wary of going down the same path again.

"There may be an (initial) agreement on the part of the militants, to sort of pull back their punches", he says, "but during this two or three month period there is a danger that they may regroup.

"And if the armed force is withdrawn, there may be a resurgence, and they'll strike again."

Many here also believe that peace inside Pakistan will be difficult, as long as American and Nato troops remain in Afghanistan.

On Sunday the Pakistan Taleban Movement (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) responded to the government's overtures.

It said it was ready to end attacks inside Pakistan if the authorities showed flexibility, but the 'jihad' against America would continue in Afghanistan.
"Our war is with America", local Taleban leader Maulvi Faqir Muhammed told a rally. "Whenever Pakistan will work for American interests as its ally, we will oppose it."

Thousands. Repeat. Thousands of Iraqi Cops Would not Fight. Two Regiments Desert.

It is good to know that the Iraqi police have your back.

Muqtada and the Mehdi Army will emerge from this crisis stronger than they were before. How could it be otherwise? The first major Iraqi display of Iraqi power and thousands desert speaks volumes to a US mission that is in shatters. 

Get the hell out of Dodge.

_____________________

Iraqi police fired for failing to fight

Published: March 31, 2008

BAGHDAD, March 31 (UPI) --

Thousands of Iraqi police officers who allegedly refused to fight against Shiite militias have been relieved of duty, Iraqi's interior minister said Monday.

The decision by Jawad al-Boulani covers units operating in Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad and the predominately Shiite areas in southern Iraq, including Basra.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered Iraqi forces to crack down on militias affiliated with cleric Moqtada Sadr and other influential Shiite leaders, sparking widespread violence that rippled throughout the country last week.

Thousands of Iraqi police officers refused to fight the militias and two Iraqi army regiments allegedly joined the militias in Baghdad, the Iraqi daily Azzaman reported.

The move, the newspaper said, may further boost the ranks of the Shiite militias as those police officers relieved of duty may join them.