Time to Drop the **M** Bomb in Middle East, The Devil and Mitch McConnell

Norman Ornstein
Geoffrey Stone
Dmitry Medvedev




The first two links above are to opinion pieces that I agree with, wish I had written them myself. The last one is a propaganda piece written by the Russian President, trying to hype up the upcoming meeting of the BRIC coalition, or Brazil, Russia, India, and China. If this alliance flourishes, it will rival the EU in terms of world economic influence, and is intentionally not including any US interests.

The wind has been rustling across the plains for the past week, stirring up a lot of dust, affecting people's allergies. I have been under the weather today, slept late, and have gotten a late start on today's chores. Many times articles are placed in the newspapers that set up piece of analysis, like the NY Times published today on Obama's foreign policy, which I still disagree with and think that he has too many people reacting to events instead of planning ahead effectively. Of course, with Israel and Palestine, nothing ever works as long as we keep giving Israel over $3 billion a year in foreign aid. Egypt will keep it's status quo as long as we give them over $2 billion, one of our dirty little secrets. In fact, you might notice that our most successful strategies during the Iraqi war was when we paid monthly bribes to Sunni insurgents. It gave the Iraqi government time to stop paying them later on and try to kill off the leaders one by one in the true spirit of Middle Eastern loyalty and cooperation.

“His legacy in domestic policy is likely to be health care. But his legacy in foreign policy is likely to be this nonproliferation agenda.” - Nancy E. Soderberg

If it holds, the success of the recent nuclear summit, with its goal of securing nuclear materials and emphasizing non-proliferation, may well be his greater legacy. "If there is an Obama doctrine emerging, it is one much more realpolitik than his predecessor’s, focused on relations with traditional great powers and relegating issues like human rights and democracy to second-tier concerns. He has generated much more good will around the world after years of tension with Mr. Bush, and yet he does not seem to have strong personal friendships with many world leaders." On our military responsibilities, he is echoing the thoughts of General David Petraeus:

“It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower. And when conflicts break out, one way or another, we get pulled into them. And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure.”  

“For a president coming out of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, it’s remarkable how much he has pursued a great power strategy. It’s almost Kissingerian. It’s not very sentimental. Issues of human rights do not loom large in his foreign policy, and issues of democracy promotion, he’s been almost dismissive of.” - Stephen G. Rademaker, a former official in the George W. Bush administration

This is why he can sit down with people we consider our enemies and talk to them, and why he enjoys debating a roomful of Republicans.

As for Iran, I would be sitting down with every other Shia cleric and asking them for their opinions on how to handle them. I would ask countries like Syria, Pakistan, India, China, and Russia on how they might use their influence beyond the idea of sanctions. The idea is to try for an approach that is the consensus of the countries and clerics who deal with Iran already, and may have ideas that we have overlooked. It's how Obama treats the Republicans, getting a better idea of their psychology and current ideals before engaging them. I would also publicly announce an ambassador to Tehran and ask that they set up an ambassadorship in Washington on a trial basis, better yet if we could get them to pronounce the idea so that they gain face instead of following the Great Satan's orders... When dealing with a paranoid nation, you need to use the same tactics that work with a paranoid individual, instead of being called the Great Satan, we would be known as the Great Therapist...

The only way I can see to get Israel and the Palestinian Authority to sit down is to hit them in their pocketbook. No more foreign aid to either group until they sit down and make substantial progress in negotiations. We are the largest contributor to the PA, and I previously mentioned that we give over $3 billion per year to Israel, and it would make the boldest statement that we mean business and want the stalemate to end. As it is right now, Obama has just admitted how limited his influence really is. So, time to drop the money bomb...

"The truth is in some of these conflicts the United States can't impose solutions unless the participants in these conflicts are willing to break out of old patterns of antagonism," - Barack Obama

The next task that the Senate is taking on, is financial reform. The Republican strategy, again led by Mitch McConnell, is to come out blasting with both barrels, saying that it smacks of government takeover, and that regulation will cause another meltdown instead of preventing one.

“We cannot allow endless taxpayer-funded bailouts,” Mr. McConnell said in a floor speech. “That’s why we must not pass the financial reform bill that’s about to hit the floor. The fact is this bill wouldn’t solve the problems that led to the financial crisis. It would make them worse.” - Mitch McConnell

Ahh, Mitch. Try making specific criticisms of the proposed bill instead of general negativities and you might get some sympathy. Instead, you are looking just as pathetic as you were blasting the health care bill. But, he is being consistent, supposing that it is the best way to gain some more seats in Congress this year.

The bill, created in the Senate Finance Committee, would: "... give the Federal Reserve oversight of the largest financial institutions, those with at least $50 billion in assets. And it would let the Treasury secretary — with support from regulators and the approval of a special panel of three bankruptcy judges — take over any giant company that posed systemic risk to financial stability, and essentially force it out of business." The weakness of the bill rests in how good the current regulators are in doing their jobs. The ones under the Bush administration sucked badly, worse that the mining regulators, and their irresponsibility put us in this mess we are in today.

Again, more important than how large the government is, and just like pruning your backyard trees and bushes, cutting down the bureaucracy every few years makes us healthier, but a more responsible government is even more important. Make sure that every department is actually doing their jobs in a responsive, efficient manner should be the next domestic agenda. Our negative reaction to an inefficient government brings on candidates who think running our government like a business would be better, but the model doesn't matter. Making sure you have the right people and keeping them motivated might stop the next economic meltdown or the next mining disaster, get a quicker response time to the next humanitarian disaster, or not allow the next rogue state to develop. Quite a task, but it's what really is needed to make our country one to be proud of...

Local Wins Pulitzer, Idiots in Pentagon and State Dept,

Timothy Geithner
Dana Milbank
Howard Fineman

“Germany is no longer, as a matter of course or of principle, the motor, heart and savior of Europe. This isn’t the Europe we signed up for. It’s much larger, much poorer, and we have to take care of our own.” - Constanze Stelzenmüller

"The Germans haven’t changed,” - Nicolas Sarkozy

Congratulations to Craig F Walker, photographer for The Denver Post, for winning a Pulitzer Prize: "Denver Post photojournalist Craig F. Walker, who chronicled in intimate, affecting detail a young man's journey from a high school student in Lakewood to a soldier fighting in Iraq and then back home, won the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography Monday." The subject of the journalistic piece and his family was sneaked into the Post building so that they could share the limelight when the winners were announced. Craig followed Ian Fisher around for for two years, from his senior year in high school to volunteering for the Army, through his training to produce an intimate story that was good reading along with the excellent photos... A reported for my local newspaper was also a finalist for his darker story on soldiers who came back from Iraq and committed violence once they were discharged. It became the basis for an HDNet video documentary that interviewed one of the soldiers in prison, where he stated that he learned that he enjoyed killing while in Iraq, became good at it, and couldn't stop once he returned...

"In a speech, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, said 'I am the first here to admit I've made mistakes.' Then the stripper giving him a lap-dance said it will still be 20 bucks." –Jay Leno

"There's a rumor going around that Hillary Clinton could be Obama's choice for the next Supreme Court justice. That's a lifetime appointment that would take up all of her time, or as Bill Clinton calls it, 'She'll take it.'" –Jimmy Fallon

"all those kilos pressed, waiting for my order, never took the time to turn around"... barry mcguire
It's going to be a bloody summer along the Texas - Mexican border, possibly worse than it has been, if you can believe it. Two rival drug cartels have formed an alliance against the Zetas drug cartel, so the expected turf wars will spill out into the streets and farms adjoining the border to act as dumping grounds for the bodies. In the meantime, the demand for marijuna has been cut in half, due to the rise in local growers in California and Colorado who service the medical marijuana dispensaries there. The DEA estimates that over half of Colorado's marijuana consumption needs are met through the medical marijuana model, which means less profit and demand for buying it on the streets. It has also cut down on heroin use, but I have no statistics on methamphetamines. It would be nice if Texas Governor rick Perry stopped his political grandstanding and sent more National Guard along the border to contain the violence, but he will act only after some more Americans are slaughtered by mistake, and he is pressured to do it. Hey, let's send some of these homegrown militias on down, give them a chance to be both racist and patriotic at the same time...

"Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said of his time in office, "I was wrong 30% of the time." Well that's not bad - for a weatherman - or a free throw shooter - but you were the Chairman of the Fed. We need the Fed to be on the pill and you ran it on the rhythm method." –Seth Meyers

"In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai is mad at the United States. We said his government is riddled with bribes, corruption, and pay-offs. I guess they're trying to pass healthcare over there too." –Jay Leno

"According to the Pentagon, al-Qaida has been so weakened financially that they're turning to crimes like drugs, prostitution, and adjustable-rate mortgages." –Jay Leno

lord of the flies?..
With the numbers of people working at the Pentagon and the State Department running in the tens of thousands, how do you determine which ones have the ability to learn about the countries they are paid to focus on? Many of them are recruited fresh out of college, without any real life experience to mature them, and many were planted by the Bush administration to kill the very departments they worked for. The results being that our diplomats and military never seem to learn much needed lessons, culminating in the recent shooting of a public bus at sunrise in Kandahar, causing a public outcry against the US, and the bullshit coverup that military spokesmen tried to spin on the incident: "The shooting, which killed as many as five civilians and wounded 18, occurred on the eve of the most important offensive of the war. In coming weeks thousands of American, NATO and Afghan troops are expected to try to take control of the Kandahar region, the spiritual home of the Taliban. It was the latest case in which NATO or American forces fired on and killed civilians near a checkpoint or military convoy because they were perceived to have come too close or to be approaching too fast.


... The governor of Kandahar Province, Tooryalai Wesa, called for the commander of the military convoy that opened fire to be prosecuted under military law.“If you want to stop the bus, it should be shot in the tires,” Mr. Wesa said. “Why shoot the people inside?”

I feel for the young soldiers, and too much is expected of them at too young of an age. Mistakes like this happen all of the time, during every war, and these heartbreaking moments may haunt both the soldiers and the victims for the rest of their lives... "General McChrystal has sought to emphasize to troops how such cases undermine Afghan support. But he has also stressed his sympathy for troops who have to make critical decisions in an instant. “We really ask a lot of our young service people out on checkpoints because there’s danger, they’re asked to make very rapid decisions in often very unclear situations,” he told troops in a video conference last month.


“However, to my knowledge, in the nine-plus months I’ve been here, not a single case where we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it and, in many cases, had families in it.”

So, it seems that no matter how hard Stanley tries, we are not learning from our mistakes. As Gareth Porter sums it up in the Asia Times: "After eight years of operating in Afghanistan, the United States military still has no understanding of the personal, tribal and other socio-political conflicts at play. Though the US admits to its ignorance, it continues to carry out raids based on faulty intelligence from informants of unknown reliability that result in civilian deaths." Bummer, dudes.

This ineptness continues in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. Barack Obama gave an impressive speech in Cairo, but nothing followed it up, leaving many leaders to wonder if the Americans were capable of honoring their promises and commitments. We constantly send out conflicting messages to leaders like Karzai and Ahmadinejad, which only serves to piss everyone off. I have yet to see any intelligent handling of their situations, just reactive sound bites.

It all reminds me when, several years ago the savings and loan industry was deregulated, and young men were hired right out of college to travel to foreign countries and make million dollar loans to them. The results, after many of the countries defaulted on those loans, were the bankruptcies of many savings and loans, many people's savings disappeared, and many senior citizens were left out in the cold, worse than any death panels, that's for sure. Time to take a look to see if we aren't bankrupting our foreign policy, making empty promises, dropping the ball, or whatever metaphor you wish to add to the list; we are doing a pitifully poor job and not getting it done...

"Bristol Palin is continuing her campaign about teen pregnancy. It's funny that she's going around telling kids not to get pregnant when her mom is telling people, 'Drill, baby, drill.'" – Jimmy Kimmel

"Bristol was a pregnant teen herself. She named her baby 'Tripp,' with two p's, which is reason enough for teens not to have kids." – Jimmy Kimmel

It looks like Sarah Palin is having the last laugh, after all. She quit her job as Governor of Alaska, which paid $125,000, and since July she has raked in over $12 million, a hundredfold increase. Well, when I used to be a public servant myself and became frustrated at my bosses, we always said that those folks who failed in the private sector, then became public servants...

Job Situation Looks Grim, the Kyrgs, the Repubs, the al-Awlakis

Paul Krugman
Robert Reich
Marc Thiessen

"The United States have developed a new weapon that destroys people but it leaves buildings standing. It's called the stock market." — Jay Leno

"Things do not look good. The economy's gone south, we're at war, people are out of work. In fact, George Bush Sr. picked up the newspaper and thought, 'Hey, I must still be president.'" — Jay Leno

"How much do you think Senators make? They now make $154,700 a year. But they say it will stimulate the economy because eventually that money will trickle down to the liquor stores, the hookers, the brothels ... then it will get back in the community." — Jay Leno

Both Paul Krugman's and Robert Reich's articles deal with our economy. Reich says what I've been thinking lately, and does a better job of articulating and pulling out statistics like a rabbit out of a hat. The success or failure of the stock market may be a false indicator of how well our economy is. It's nice that it is trading at a good pace, just that the money being generated hasn't seemed to trickle down into the local economy, it seems to be going into the outrageous salaries and bonuses that the CEO's are pocketing.

In the last several years, 80% of jobs created were from small businesses. Large corporations and the federal government didn't create many at all. Now that many of those small businesses are gone, the feds are trying to plug the gap with temporary jobs, which Robert Reich explains very well. As a rule of thumb, it takes a small business about five years to establish itself. During this five year period is when most businesses fail. The owners need capitol for at least those five years, and even now the banks won't loan it to them. The SBA had a limit of $35,000 for loans they made, which would pay for a year's salary for one person, much less keep a company afloat. Until there is a way to help establish small businesses, our job market will remain depressed, and the unhappiness with the government will continue to grow, along with rising violence, both on the personal and social level. Enjoy your summer...

the kyrgs...
It's turning out that the dirty little secret behind the Kyrgystan revolution is oil profits for Vladimeer Putin. The NY Times is reporting that all of the contracts to sell airplane fuel to Manas airforce base were controlled by the son and relatives of the ousted Prime Minister, who is whimpering and playing the victim in the southern part of the country. The oil is produced in Siberia by Gazeprom, the Russian government-run company that has Mr Putin as its major shareholder. Russia was supporting the opposition, and now that they have won and taken over the country, the oil contracts can be re-negotiated, with a larger profit margin for the Russians, and another few mansions and estates bought around the world for Mr Putin...

the repubs...

While John Boehner and other Repubs will be using the "repeal health care"  as a rallying cry for the upcoming midterm elections, it will probably end up a failed strategy and they will have to move on to Plan B. A writer in the NY Times Magazine said that while most people polled about the health care reform bill liked different parts in the package, they were reluctant to accept it as a whole. We don't like sudden, big change in our lives, we prefer our changes in small, incremental ways. I'd rather be gradually phased out of a job to give me time to plan for an alternative, than to be laid off tomorrow. We are such creatures of habit and repetition that big legislation makes us unhappy until a few years down the road, when we have gotten used to it and tweaked out the bugs, just like each new version of Windows...

The Republican strategy should not be depending on Mr Boehner or Mitch McConnell, who came up with the lame strategy of "Just Say No" and Just Say Hell No!" Dump all those who worked on John McCain's failed campaign, put to rest the dumb ideas of the evils of socialism and the government, stop riling up the hicks, and come up with a better, more modern, inclusive version of the Republican ideals. We have countless web sites where the authors feel that they are the only true patriots and everyone else who disagrees with them are treasonous bastards. I have just as much love for my country, but I will not wrap myself up in the flag for homopatriotic fantasies. I prefer to practice what the poet Richard Hugo wrote, when he titled a book of poems What Thou Lovest Well, Remains American in response to this canto of Ezra Pound's:

What thou lovest well remains,

the rest is dross

What thou lov'st well shall not be reft from thee

What thou lov'st well is thy true heritage...

Ezra Pound, Canto LXXXI

the al-awlakis...

The Yemeni cleric who went to college here in Colorado and lived in Denver before moving back to Yemen, where he made the CIA's assassination list, is in hiding. His father has reached out to the US, publicly saying that his son would stop any inflammatory speech: "The father of Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni religious scholar who has reportedly been added to a US hit list, says his son will halt his anti-US messages if Washington removes him from the list.


Al-Awlaki, accused by the US of having links to al-Qaeda's Yemeni offshoot, was added to the CIA's list of targets to be killed or captured for directly plotting against the US, a US intelligence official said last week.


His father, Nasser al-Awlaki, a former minister of agriculture and rector at the University of Sanaa, called on the US on Sunday to end the hunt for his son."If Washington stops targeting [him] by threatening to abduct, capture, or kill him, Anwar will cease his statements and speeches against it."

The official Yemeni government's position is that the US has not furnished them with any proof that al-Awlaki has any ties to al-Qaeda or has ever tried to recruit for them: "Anwar al-Awlaki has always been looked at as a preacher rather than a terrorist and shouldn't be considered as a terrorist unless the Americans have evidence that he has been involved in terrorism," Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, the Yemeni foreign minister, said. Of course, the al-Awlaki tribe in Yemen is not too happy and would plan on defending him, creating another headache for the government.

Al-Awlaki rose to prominence last year after it emerged he had had prolonged communications with Major Nidal Hasan, a US army psychiatrist accused of opening fire on colleagues at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people.

He is also accused of having had ties to the September 11, 2001, hijackers, and to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound flight with explosives on December 25.

Personally, this is one of those incidents where I am disappointed with the Obama administration, the very fact that there is still a kill list sucks from any humanitarian point of view. It's like the US's no-fly list, there are so many mistakes on it and innocent people are being inconvenienced all the time. If the same diligence is used to create a kill list, there must be just as many mistakes made. I write this thinking, oh dear God, a CIA hit team will show up at my door any day now, or worse, it could be some Christian Crusaders from Blackwater - I know they will show no mercy...

Iran To Lodge Complaint Against US in UN,

Frank Rich
Josh Rogin
John Lundberg

"Do you remember Obama saying after the health care bill was signed into law, 'Hey, the earth is not opening up, the birds are chirping, the sky's blue'? Well, I think the earth just opened up and swallowed Bart Stupak." - Rush Limbaugh

"I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church website. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice are code words [for Communism and Nazism]. Am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!" - Glenn Beck

Haiku response to Glenn Beck:

Do you have to check

your church website for justice

to know that it's there?

Why does Glenn exist?

Even the Body of Christ

has to have an ass

It should be obvious by now that the contentious aspect of the tea party challenges in this upcoming election has caused many incumbent Congressmen to drop out or retire. The usual excuse is that they have decided to spend more time with their family, but the prospect of an ugly campaign, with mean, personal attacks launched at them, has more to do with it. I certainly wouldn't be comfortable with Sarah Palin coming to my district and saying snarky things about me, god knows what she would say if I were on her vindictive list, as she evidently never forgives, and never forgets...


More foolishness coming out of Iran today: "Iran will lodge a complaint with the United Nations about what it sees as U.S. President Barack Obama's threat to attack it with nuclear weapons." Their logic is that the nations who possess nuclear weapons are the ones who pose an actual threat to the rest of the world. OK, they have a point. But it makes us really uncomfortable when countries who have an institutional paranoia about the US obtains a nuclear weapon. Like North Korea. Then there would be two countries to form an axis of evil, looking for another one to complete the base. Who else out there hates our guts?

To be honest, being an ally of the US is like dancing on a double-edged sword, We have foreign policy goals that shift every four years, and can abandon you all too easily. After the bribe money and aid dries up, then where will you be? Or, if you accept our aid, get used to buying a few jets and can afford that Mercedes you always wanted, the next thing you know we are asking to build an airforce base or have you chase down and turn over some American guy that we just put on some death list that the President keeps in his back pocket... Life would be so much simpler if you could only host a Tiger Woods golf tournament or let Lady Gaga perform in front of some sacred shrine...

"In reading the guest list for the big deal nuclear summit this week in Washington, I guess somebody forgot to invite North Korea and Iran. Doesn't matter though because I'm sure they'll gladly and voluntarily abide by the warm and fuzzy resolutions that will be produced." - Tom Korologos

Today I really am pretty grumpy. I am finding that in so many little ways that Barack Obama is letting me down. Perhaps its because I had such high expectations that not only could he walk on water, but he could float above the cesspool that is Washington.  Rand Paul may be getting a lot of flack for wanting to get rid of certain government departments like Education and Commerce, but he doesn't go far enough. We really need to through out the whole infrastructure and rebuild it, questioning each stick we add to the pile if we need it or not. Personally, I think it was a mistake to create the Department of Homeland Security. It's a dumb name and not needed. It invokes metaphors of how Nazi Germany referred to itself and is more related to the conspiracies of the New World Order than anything that Dan Brown has written. All of the hysteria that Obama has a socialist agenda and is seeking vast powers over you is all smoke and mirrors. In reality, it was the Bush administration that has closer ties to the lizards who seek domination over your life, and it's the right wing that has closer ties to the soulless corporate groups who would influence legislation to those ends. They see the tea party as puppets to manipulate under the guise of patriotism, and will use them if they get elected to take away more of your freedoms and liberty while trying to convince you they are doing the opposite... Got all that? Fight against extremism in all its forms, and never let the bastards get you down. Time to make another cup of coffee, maybe that will help...

CIA - 1 Iran - 0, My Local Tea Party

Dana Milbank
Gail Collins
Zbigniew Brzezinski & Stephen Solarz

"It’s hard to overestimate how much oxygen Palin, and now Bachmann, take out of the political conversation... There’s a feeling abroad that politicians can only get attention by sounding a little nutty." - Gail Collins

“Something is way crazy out there,” - Michelle Bachmann

"Do you remember Obama saying after the health care bill was signed into law, 'Hey, the earth is not opening up, the birds are chirping, the sky's blue'? Well, I think the earth just opened up and swallowed Bart Stupak." - Rush Limbaugh

Why is this man not in jail?

China is becoming Iran's largest trading partner, and helping her to become more oppressive. The picture is of a high-tech vehicle made to disperse large crowds, as reported in Wired's Danger Room: "One Iranian opposition site reports that the vehicles “have a capacity of 10,000 liters to shoot cold and hot water, and three 100 liter tanks to shoot burning chemical liquids” at a distance of up to 70 meters. Manufactured by Dalian Eagle-Sky Co., the vehicles cost an estimated $650,000. The site also said that “a lot of extra burning liquid, paint, and tear gas was purchased” in addition to the vehicles. The riot stoppers are another example of how China is surpassing the European Union as Iran’s biggest trading partner.Iran is also using paint in more low-tech suppression tactics. Having successfully restricted the digital flow of information by cutting off access to GMail, the Iranian government is using spray paint and paintball guns to mark protesters in order to easily identify and arrest them later." Many of these vehicles were stationed around Tehran during the last attempted protest. Tea Partyers, Beware at your next gathering!

The recent flap over Iran's nuclear ambitions run the risk of being a farce if it didn't have such dire consequence. The US having a nuclear summit in Washington, and then Iran announces its own nuclear summit, with six countries attending so far... President Obama announcing a change our nuclear policy with the exemptions of Iran and North Korea, followed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling him a doody-head whose sweat hasn't dried... To be fair, Obama has drifted away from offering to treat Iran with mutual respect to adopt a more Bushian philosophy, and the Iranians, for their part, stage temper tantrums in public.

Iran touted its intelligence network after two recent operations that involved Pakistan. One was capturing Abdulmalik Rigi, head of the US-backed Jundallah, an ethnic opposition leader who was based in Pakistan, and the second involved sending an intelligence team into Pakistan and freeing an Iranian diplomat. In a response designed to rub their noses in it, the CIA issued a report on Iran's nuclear program before the IAEC went to investigate, based on information obtained from an Iranian nuclear scientist who went missing a year ago when he was visiting Saudi Arabia. Tehran was pissed and angrily replied that: "They [US] had many months to work on their inmate and they probably used all their sophisticated tools for modifying his behavior. It is a familiar Cold War tactic. The [late] Imam [Ruhollah] Khomeini referred to it as sheitanat-e sheitan-e bozorg [devilishness of the Great Satan]." They then announce that the three American hikers in their prison would be put on trial for spying.

Unfortunately, as long as someone as childish as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remains in power in Iran and backed by people who think having a dictatorship shows strong leadership skills, this situation will only get worse, especially after next week, when Tehran will again be publicly embarrassed by the turnout at it dog and pony nuclear summit. Everyone who attend gets a free ride on one of their new centrifuges...!


The two Republicans who didn't show up in New Orleans for the Palin/Gingrich lovefest maybe jockying for position as the next Republican presidential ticket in 2012, with Mit Romney running for president, and Tim Pawlenty for vice-president. Sarah Palin is emerging as head cheerleader/booster/kingmaker/pig wearing lipstick, and Newt Gingrich as the sad, old John McCain figure...

And the fun is just beginning if Barack Obama and Sarah start trading disdaining quips like the ones that TPM reports: "Palin had said on Sean Hannity's Fox News show on Wednesday night that Obama's new nuclear policy was "kinda like getting out there on the playground, a bunch of kids ready to fight, and one of the kids saying, 'Go ahead, punch me in the face and I'm not gonna retaliate.'"


Asked for a response, Obama said:


I really have no response to that. The last I checked, Sarah Palin's not much of an expert on nuclear issues." Life can only get better... and in a face to face, I think I know who thinks faster on their feet and has a better sense of humor...

I recently picked up and read my local Tea Party newspaper. Thankfully, it was free. Here is a link to their web site The Constitutionalist Today. I was pleasantly surprised at how low key it is, barely an over-the-top anger rant in there. In some way it reminds me of several New Age publications out there, where grandiose  claims are made that are not supported by the arguments, or, well, by scientific facts... But, it was nice to peruse, and I will probably show up at our local April 15th gathering at the park. I went to the last one and took some good pictures, and hope to do the same again. Ours was a well-dressed, mellow crowd, it will be interesting to see if the carpet-bagging agitators like the Tea Party Express or the 9/12 movement can stirs us old coots. Hint, if you buy us all double-lattes, it will help the cause...

Nuclear Friday, Is My Complexion Glowing Yet?

Peter Feaver
John Avlon
Marwan Bishara
Mathias Mossberg

"Next week, the president of China will be at the White House. And good news — he has no plans to foreclose." –Jay Leno

"And in a major reversal of U.S. policy, President Obama has narrowed the conditions under which we would use nuclear weapons. He said we'd only use them against Iran, North Korea or Fox News." –Jay Leno

The most technical opinion piece above deals with the wording of the new non-proliferation treaty, by Peter Feaver. His position is that the new wording isn't much of a break from the old wording, and that the Obama administration has left itself some wiggle room if it needs to go against its publicly stated goals of not using nuclear force on any non-nuclear state.

The biggest problem about the new treaty will be how will we dispose of all that plutonium? The US vows to deal with 35 tons of plutonium, Russia with 34 tons. We haven't even touched the surplus that was created by previous treaties, and: "... the Energy Department plant that disassembled the bombs, in Amarillo, Tex., may be filling up. The plant, called Pantex (for Panhandle of Texas), stores the plutonium “pits,” the softball-sized spheres at the heart of the bombs, in bunkers built by the Army in the 1930s for artillery shells. But the audit said the storage capacity was unclear because plant managers did not know how much space had already been consumed." Why they don't know how much space they have left in their storage space smacks of laziness and bureaucrats that need to be removed, having been put in place by the Bushies for their incompetence...

It gets worse. Not only is the only storage facility filling up, but for the last 13 years the US has been trying to build a plant in South Carolina that would convert weaponized plutonium into fuel that can be used in civilian reactors. They have spent $4.8 billion dollars so far, and its still in the framing process, which means that the contractor has his head up his ass and wasted an awful lot of money, which in certain other countries he would be sent to jail. Here, he is a patriot...

They have yet to build a facility to deal with the radioactive metal that housed the plutonium. The process calls for oxidizing the metal so that it can be ground into powder, which can then be formed into pellets. This process is flawed, and engineers are reconsidering which metals that can be used in the oxidizing. Last, plutonium isn't as good to use in energy reactors as uranium is, and few current reactors have the capacity to use the plutonium. Of course, there is the glitch that any stolen plutonium could be rather easily reconfigured into a nuclear weapon, while it is much more difficult, if impossible to do with uranium. Uranium can be weaponized through a difficult process, as the Iranians are learning, but once it is made into a lower grade for civilian reactors, it can't be weaponized by any technology we currently have.

Russia also hasn't done anything with its stockpiled plutonium, the US was supposed to have helped finance a similar set of plants, but nothing has happened yet. If we had facilities to deal with the plutonium, it would take 15 years to transform the stockpiled tons of plutonium, then we could begin to deal with the tons taken from the warheads dealt with in the current treaty. And all bets are off if a different administration takes over either country...

Don't get me started on how we dispose of depleted uranium, besides putting it into the metal of humvees and missile warheads. At least we have one facility that will be off limits for the next 10,000 years, unless some future generation decides to build condo on top of it. We haven't begun to put our waste into 55 gallon barrels and heave them off of the coast of Somalia like the French and Italians have done...

Of course, to ease everyone's minds about Iran's nuclear ambitions, today they staged a National Nuclear Day, where they unveiled a third-generation nuclear centrifuge, which can process uranium up to ten times faster than the ones they have. OK, technologically, it is more advanced than sending a worm into outer space, but nothing I would march in a parade or drink mint tea over:
"There have already been technical problems with the existing models, so whether it can quickly put the new one into mass production and operation remains to be seen, our correspondent says.
Most of Iran's uranium is enriched to a level of 3.5%, but it requires 20% enriched uranium for its Tehran research reactor, which produces medical isotopes. A bomb would require uranium enriched to at least 90%. The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a report in February that Iran had achieved enrichment levels of up to 19.8%, which added to concerns about "possible military dimensions" of its nuclear programme.


Experts say the technical leap required to get to 90% enrichment from 20% is relatively straightforward, because it becomes easier at higher levels. Going from the natural state of 0.7% enrichment to 20% takes 90% of the total energy required, they add. The IAEA report said 8,610 centrifuges had been installed in known enrichment facilities in Iran, of which 3,772 were operating. Iran says it will eventually install more than 50,000 centrifuges at Natanz, and build 10 more enrichment facilities at protected sites."


Finally, just to show how ungracious a right-wing leader can be, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has bowed out of returning to the US for a meeting of nuclear securities issues. Two days ago he had announced that he would attend, saying that Israel wasn't a rogue or terrorist state, and that he had nothing to fear. Now, he looks like he is all bluster, a man who makes statements with little substance to back him up.

He had wanted to stress the Iranian threat to Israel, but found out that Egypt and Turkey was going to ask that Israel sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. The other three countries in the world that haven't signed it are India, North Korea, and Pakistan. According to former President Jimmy Carter, Israel has over 150 nuclear warheads, and they want to expand their amount, not limit them. This will be troublesome later on, because Israel wants to build a civilian reactor to generate electricity, and who will help them build it if they still haven't signed the treaty? It gives Iran greater legitimacy, despite our fears...

I just hope that we never have to go back to practicing the stupid bomb drills we did as a kid at my elementary school. Whenever the air raid siren in an adjoining field went off, we had to crawl under our desks and put our hands over our necks. It sure wasn't going to protect us very much, but at least it was easier to kiss your ass goodbye...



Letterman's Top 10 Thoughts That Go Through Every Accountant's Mind On April 15

10. 'If I see one more tax return, I'm gonna jam a No. 2 pencil through my eye'
9. 'I think my calculator is talking to me'
8. 'If I screw up, they go to jail, not me'
7. 'Why didn't I become something exciting like a claims adjuster?'
6. 'Should I wear the navy blue suit or the navy blue suit?'
5. 'Get through today and then a 364-day weekend'
4. 'Who knew the bright-eyed little boy I once was would grow into such a bitter man with a soul crushing job'
3. 'Time to fake my death and move to the Cayman Islands'
2. 'Why did I waste time doing a stupid Top Ten at Letterman?'
1. 'This would be a lot easier if I was sober'

Cynicism of the RNC, Confederate Dreams, Karzai the Drug Fiend

Helene Cooper
Dana Milbank
Joe Conason
Mark McKinnon & Lawrence Lessig

"You know what happened in Las Vegas today? Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska, was speaking at the alcohol convention in Las Vegas, Nev. Because, I mean, let's face it, nothing says family values like gambling and liquor." – David Letterman

"The iPad has only been out for a few days and it has revolutionized the publishing industry. You can download books, you can read them and store them, and for religious fundamentalists, there's a new app that lets you burn them." – Jimmy Kimmel

Lots of food for thought in the opinion pieces linked above. I have always been attracted to intelligent women, and Helene Cooper is in a class by herself. She is the wizened, old lady that you often see sitting in the front row during Presidential press conferences. Except during the Bush administration, when they tried to bury her and never saved a seat for her. She is one of the few people I'd love to have coffee with and talk to if I ever got to Washington, along with Martin Indyk and Zbigniew Brzezinski... oh, and of course, Dana Milbank, who is the best fly on the wall... Joe conason makes an argument for rebuilding America, and Mark McKinnon makes a case for holding a Constitutional convention...

A couple quick takes on items in the news. Rachel Maddow has a good theory on why stories about Michael Steele are being leaked to the press all of a sudden. She thinks that it is being orchestrated by folks that no longer want him as chairman of the RNC. The original stories about the sex club was leaked to a conservative blog, and from there it spread like wildfire. It's unfortunate that the hiring and firing of people at this level has to be done in the public eye. Michael has had to contend with the cynical fact that the RNC chose him because he was a Black man, in imitation to the election of a Black President. He wasn't chosen because of his qualifications, and the Republicans had been imitating what the Democrats had successfully been doing during the entire election campaign. It's like watching a dysfunctional reality television show, where they hire someone because they know their bad decisions makes good viewing, and we enjoy how appalling they are. Unfortunately, the RNC needs a good therapist, and the healing should be done behind closed doors...

My brother-in-law were arguing about this last night, over the Virginia governor's declaring April as Confederate History month. His family roots are in Tennessee and his reaction was GOOD! My family roots are from Utah and Kentucky, but I disagreed with him; I thought that promoting anything Confederate is silly. I then mentioned that perhaps my great great grandfather, who helped raise a company here in Colorado for the Union Army, well, he may have fought and killed an ancestor or two in my brother-in-law's family... Which is where he admitted that his family had also fought on the Union side....

If that is so, I asked him, why is he so romantically attached to the idea of the Confederacy? I was raised in Los Angeles, close to Hollywood, and instead of choosing up loyalties of the Union or Confederate, I take an outsider's point of view. I know that they no longer exist in real time, and that they are nothing more than somebody's movie. So much of our cultural attachments come from our fantasies, the dreams we have of belonging to a certain subculture or mindset. So, people believe that they are part of a Confederate culture, or that they are cowboys, living the cowboy way, even though the period that we consider to be the wild west that spawned cowboys lasted for a mere 40 years in US history. Most of what we know now have come from movies, and Zane Grey books. Remember that John Wayne was a fictional character, his private life was a lot different than the image he portrayed in public and onscreen. In private, he was a coward, an alcoholic and drug abuser, and a racist who violently abused women...

We all have fantasies about ourselves, most of them are ideals that we could never live up to. If your ideals are rigid, the tension you create from forcing yourself to live on such a narrow path also causes anxiety and guilt every time you fall short. So many politicians who preach a rigid, right wing viewpoint often fall short in public, hence the recent stream of embarrassing events from conservative repubs who preached a strict set of family values. To sum up, Plato was talking about right wingers when he created the parable of the cave dwellers...


To illustrate the cave dweller mentality, here's a real situation. President Obama signing a nuclear non-proliferation agreement with Russia's President Dmitry Medevedev:

And here is how the cave dwellers saw it:

Peter Galbraith has been dissing Afghan Hamid Karzai, most recently in today's Wasington Post. He has also claimed that Hamid is a drug fiend, and that has distorted his personality, his ability to make decisions, and clouded his mind, bwaaa-ha-haaa!

Being a drug fiend is a time honored Middle Eastern tradition, as I touched on yesterday in reporting the shortage of hashish in Cairo. I remember with fondness, back in my college days, of obtaining Afghan or Blond Lebanese hash... Now here is a business opportunity that Colorado can take advantage of. We could use our own medical marijuana growers to begin producing hashish of our own, Rocky Mountain Hashish or Pike's Peaked, and market it throughout the Middle East. Not only do we fill in a cultural need to accelerate their dreams and fantasies, but we help get ourselves out of debt. If we are successful enough, we could put an end to all state taxes, making the Libertarians among us proud and happy...

Sean Hannity asked on his show last night if we were ready for a Sarah Palin / Michelle Bachmann ticket come 2012. I had predicted it several months ago. OK, I didn't predict it, I made the thought in jest, put it as a bumper-sticker in a post. It's weird how a random thought can pick up steam over time and percolate all the way into Sean's brain. I wonder what Sean's brain might look like on drugs: