Jet Skiing Among the Corpses, Iran's Clean Bill of Nuclear Health, Fraud Task Force Five...

Dana Milbank
Steve Clemons
Eugene Robinson

"So much for the Obama team's pledge to be transparent, forthright and accountable for their actions." - Steve Clemons

"The guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea." - Chairman Mao

"Only dead fish go with the flow," - Sarah Palin

So, you are a rich, young Iraqi, whose family made lots of money in bribery and skimming off of American military aid, what hobbies are there for you to do? How about jet skiing along the Tigris River? Perfect: "Lingering violence and raw sewage in the water are no deterrents for a group of wealthy, young Iraqis who spend their free time jet-skiing along the Tigris river in a burst of white foam and spray.


Unfazed by reports that everything from chemical waste to bodies are dumped into the river, young men in life vests zoom through the muddy waters as curious bystanders on the banks look on. Speedboats and the occasional water-skier also swish by." Hey, it sure beats planting bombs among your enemies...

did Iran pass the test?
The IAEA just got done inspecting in Iran, where they warned that there maybe more hidden facilities that nobody knows about. Well, duh. The Iranians so much as told us so, that all of the places where parts are made for their nuclear program are spread out around the country, so that one bombing raid wouldn't destroy the program. And they told this to the IAEA back in 2005.

It's already too late, Iran has all of the information, knowledge, and hardware to make nuclear weapons, we've known this since 2005 also. It's called having a virtual bomb, where you have all of the tools you need to convert to making weapons, but you don't because the threat is enough. Israel has this capacity, too. Iran is just a short time away from being able to produce weapon grade nuclear material, and we have lost the window of opportunity for being able to coerce them, thanks to the pig-headedness of Dick Cheney's views and the distraction that Iraq had on George Bush from 2003 on.

Regular sanctions won't work anymore, either. What Obama is doing is about the only thing we have left, to get Iran's major economic trading partners, and the ones who sold them their current nuclear technology, to publicly try and bring them to the negotiating table, or no more goodies. Russia was helpful because they stand to gain from the solution of letting them refine the nuclear fuel for Iran's reactors. What was surprising was China just agreeing to help, which isolates Iran without any superpower allies, not even North Korea can come to their aid.

Iran reacted to the IAEA's report on their site at Qom: "The report by the agency showed that there was no deviation in Iran's peaceful nuclear programme... In the report it is clearly said that no centrifuge machine has been installed in the site and no nuclear fissile has been used there." And to the statement that the IAEA doesn't really trust them about not having any other facilities : "We reject this 100 per cent. This kind of judgment is absolutely wrong, unfair, political and beyond the [IAEA's] mandate. There is no justification for it." 


Next, the IAEA went to Syria, asking them why there are traces of uranium in their turbines? The last thing we need is the rest of the Middle East all working on their own nuclear programs, or hiding part of Iran's...


Here is a link to Transparency International's list of nations, listed from the least corrupt to the most corrupt. I have never heard of this organization before, couldn't tell you if they do good work or are just a shell corporation... New Zealand ranks as the most honest, Somalia is the worst. Afghanistan is the second worst, and the US ranks the 19th most honest...

yet another task force...
The administration announced that they are forming a huge task force that will concentrate on economic fraud that led to the recent market collapse. The Justice Department is going to have a meeting with HUD and the SEC, and they are planning on working together on bringing to justice any other Bernie Madoff's floating out there in the ether.

What is wrong with this picture. Yes, we all want crooks brought to justice, but shouldn't these government groups been communicating among themselves all along? When asked why its taken a year to get their act together, Eric Holder gave some BS of an answer, saying it took this long to coordinate things. If our government has become this dysfunctional, maybe its time to take a page from the conservative play sheet and shave down the bureaucracy. We need one that works well, and it won't matter the number of bills introduced to Congress on financial rule reform if you can't enforce the damned things or get information from another department.

Its bad enough that our intelligence agencies can't play with each other and there still is constant turf battles and withholding information. With the number of information leaks to the press by members of Obama's team, I wouldn't tell them diddly either... But we also have to begin ending corruption at home, and the government has to start ending the dishonest practices it uses in giving government contracts and allowing companies like KBR to overcharge billions of dollars. We have to stop dishonest bribes through lobbing and not allow members of Congress to rip us off and not pay the money back. Who will watch the watchers when they can be bought off for the price of a few rounds of golf and an expensive car?

I'm still waiting for some honest change. I can believe in that, not the politics as usual that is going on right now.


Oh yeah, the Army announced that the suicide rate among military forces will be higher this year than last year. When asked if the unusual amounts of stress from multiple deployments might have something to do with it, the talking head said, no,  he really had no clue...