IAEA Report, Writing Off Bad Czechs

Paul Krugman
David Schenker
Dana Milbank

"On the Fox Business Network, a host chided a vice president of WellPoint, which has told California customers to expect huge rate increases: “You handed the politicians red meat at a time when health care is being discussed. You gave it to them!” - Paul Krugman

"You cannot make war in the Middle East without Egypt and you cannot make peace without Syria" - Henry Kissinger

The past head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Muhamed ElBaradei flew back to his native Egypt and was greeted by a pleasant surprise at the airport: "Hundreds of people across Egypt’s political spectrum greeted the Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei on his arrival at the airport here Friday and called on him to run for president, a daring political gesture in a country where unauthorized political demonstrations are illegal.


Crowds greeted Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, upon his return to Egypt on Friday.
Dr. ElBaradei’s plane landed several hours late, at 6 p.m., marking his first return to Egypt since leaving his post at the end of last year as director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Though opposition politics in Egypt are constrained by laws that restrict freedom of speech and the right to assemble, a grass-roots effort has emerged to try to draft Dr. ElBaradei to run during the presidential election in 2011.


The broad nature of Dr. ElBaradei’s appeal — as an outsider of international renown with no ties to a political system widely seen as ineffective and corrupt — was on display at the airport. Those gathered included people who said they had never been involved in politics, prominent actors and writers, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, men and women, as well as leading members of groups calling for democratic change."

The question is, what will the 81 year old president Hosni Mubarak do, besides try and nip this movement as soon as he can concoct an evil plan? He may run again, but is feeling the strain of impending old age. He would like his son to take over in a dynastic fashion, but there is already organized opposition to that; it seems that the recent emphasis on free and open elections is spilling over into Egypt. It should prove to be an interesting debate, especially if Mr ElBaradei decides to run for office. Think of him as the John Mellencamp of Cairo...

The new director of the IAEA, Yukia Amano has wasted no time releasing a report that says that Iran has been tinkering with making a nuclear warhead for some time, and contained information that was new, even to US intelligence. It agrees with the Obama administration's assessment that: "... an escalating series of steps are being taken by Iran: the enrichment to 20 percent, its acknowledgment of a secret enrichment plant in Qum, its efforts to metalize uranium and its rejection of a deal to enrich its uranium outside the country.


The report also reiterated evidence that Iran appeared to have tested ways of detonating weapons and to have worked extensively to design warheads small enough to fit atop a missile."

Metalizing uranium is used as the core of an atomic bomb. The Obama spin guys also added some info of their own: "... suspect that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps or its leading religious leaders are betting that an escalation of the nuclear confrontation might distract attention from the protests that have rocked the government, while unifying the country against outsiders supposedly trying to suppress Iran’s rise as a significant power.


The report buttressed that view by indicating that Iran had moved most of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium into an above-ground storage plant at Natanz, where it is vulnerable to military attack.

“It’s odd, and there is no technical explanation for it,” the senior administration official said at a briefing. “There must be some other explanation.” He and other Obama administration officials declined to speculate why the Iranians would deliberately place their stockpile in a place where, with relatively little effort, Israel or another country could strike it." Well, we can speculate. The language that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently used almost dared someone to make an attack. What would Iran gain if Israel or the US or someone else bombed their sitting ducks? They might be hoping to generate a lot of sympathy in the Arabic world, right now they are pretty much isolated. This approach is the lazy way, it takes a lot of work to try and present their case diplomatically. But then, Iran may have jailed anyone who could help it, leaving only the crazies who cannot listen to others, and only lecture or put their foot in their mouth like Mahmoud... Iran also may hope to galvanize its citizens in a burst of patriotic fervor, burning away any arguments and sentiments of opposition to the saviors of Iranian culture, meaning the ayatollahs and the Revolutionary Guard. Hoping that the ruse is good enough that its citizens won't further turn on them because they led Iran into this disaster. Last, a war always seems good for a troubled economy, just ask Ronald Reagan or George Bush... the result of the report and the weak Iranian response has prompted the UN Security Council to begin drafting sanctions. And of course, it all could be a horrible mistake, and the friendly Iranians are just trying to provide power for its citizens, so they can play games on the Internet...

"The West's accusations are baseless because our religious beliefs bar us from using such weapons ... we do not believe in atomic weapons and are not seeking that" - Ayatollah Khamenei

"None of the documents had any confidential or secret stamps on them, and thus it was proved that all of the documents have been fabricated and are baseless and thus do not have any validity.”  - Ali Asghar Soltanieh

"The question is not who has a bomb, but who has hangmen who carry out executions. The Iranians are hangmen trying to get a bomb and it's time to call the hangman by his name, to call a dictator - a dictator," - Shimon Peres

bad czechs...

The Czech Republic may be the smartest country ever: "A Czech court has banned the far-right Workers’ Party, the first time a political party has been outlawed since the Czech Republic was founded in 1993.


In its 120-page ruling on Wednesday, the Supreme Administrative Court said the Workers’ Party, established in 2003, was a threat to Czech democracy. The court described the party as xenophobic, anti-Semitic and homophobic and said it shared the ideology of Hitler’s Nazi party and maintained links to openly white-supremacist and racist groups.


“This ruling needs to be understood as a preventive one, to maintain the constitutional and democratic order in the future,” Judge Vojtech Simicek said in issuing the ruling. Noting that the party held up an uncomfortable mirror to Czech society, he added: “Society must realize that the causes for the Workers’ Party lie deeply within itself. The Workers’ Party is not an external enemy to society, but one of its faces.”

This flies in the face of just about everywhere else in the world, where right wing extremism is on the rise. Which is sad, because right wing extremists are mentally ill, and adjusting their meds won't help. You can be a conservative without being a fundamentalist, whose mental processes have been shortened through operant conditioning watching television (see Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, by Jerry Mander). Right wing extremism may also be the result, at least in America, from the widespread abuse of prescriptions of drugs like neuroleptics and viagra, or even any other popular drug advertised on the tube...

Why is the Czech Republic so smart? They have flat screen tvs and ipods and cell phones like the rest of the world, their doctors write just as many needless prescriptions as any other country?... It's the beer. They drink more beer per capita than any other nation on earth, about 35 gallons per person per year.

Oh, aren't they a nation of drunks, then? Ahh, not quite, because the important factor is that they drink really good beer, carefully crafted, made with love and attention to details. People who drink such an exceptional beverage are more relaxed and able to talk ideas to each other. They take more care and pride in the settings where they drink, and the interest in the details of how your beer was made creates an intellectual spark that carries over into other areas of your life.

By putting attention to details, and adding care and love to what we eat, we become healthier and more compassionate. This is why even the best of chefs prefer a home-cooked meal, and the better restaurants all have creativity and the attention paid to crafting the meal in common. People who smoke cigarettes, which are made by machine rolling, smoke when they are nervous, using the nicotine to hype up the nervous system, while smokers of fine cigars have relaxing rituals, and the longer lasting cigars often go with good conversation and the finer things in life. The only bad part about cigars these days is how much the damned things cost, when even a Cuban shouldn't cost you more than $5...

"What This Country Needs is a Really

Good 5-Cent Cigar"   - Thomas Marshall

Texas Tax Turnover, Wanted by Interpol, Niger Love Call

Joe Klein
Steve Coll
Tariq Alhomayed

"Which brings us back to Cheney. He and his hard-line allies are rooting for Obama to fail. The leaders of Hamas — and other potential interlocutors, like the Syrians — need to understand that this may be their last best chance for progress. After Obama, the deluge." - Joe Klein

"Therefore this war, should it take place, is Iran's war, and it is up to Iran – which has not attempted any wise acts – to defuse this." - Tariq Alhomayed

start the revolution without me...

So much has happened that wan't in my morning newspaper, I feel like events are passing me by at an alarming rate. It had to happen in Texas, where a disgruntled man flew his single engine airplane into the Federal Tax Building. He left a note on a website that was taken down at the request of the FBI, here is a link to the text of the note. At the same time the plane crashed into the building, a home belonging to the registered owner of the plane also caught on fire. Unfortunately, this seems to be a single act, and the rest of the Texas tea party patriots haven't taken to the streets, engaging in armed resistance with Governor Rick Perry leading the way.

I love how the Austin Statesman says that the plane crash and the note suggests that Joseph Stack was disgruntled with the IRS. Do you think? Here's the title of his note:

"Well Mr. Big Brother IRS man…. Take my pound of flesh and sleep well”

He spent at least 10 years in trouble with the IRS for tax evasion, with regular audits. The last few years were spent drifting from LA to Austin and San Marcos, Texas, which the good-old boy capitol of the world. Everything is racist and corrupt in San Marcos, so I'm sure his dissatisfaction got a boost, fueled by 100+ heat this last summer, eating fiery barbecue in the local restaurant run by a family of racists, and hassled by drunken, corrupt cops: “So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done,” the note says. “I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work." But, the beer is good and cold...

This morning at 6:42 am he saved his website for the last time, set the timer that would set fire to his house, and drove to the airport and got into his plane: "... nothing changes unless there is a body count... I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at ‘big brother”’ while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.” So, is he a sad excuse for a criminal or a martyr to the cause? Will Sarah Palin do his eulogy? Or will the candidates for the Republican primary for Governor fight over the dubious honor? Well, Texas, the eyes of the nation are upon you...


wanted by interpol...

Here are the pictures of the 11 people wanted by Interpol and the police in Dubai. Recognize anyone? The British Foreign Minister had the Israeli Ambassador in to explain the abuse of British passports and identity theft of Britons who had emigrated to Israel. The next step may be to kick him out of the country if he cannot make up a good explanation.

The Dubai police are having fun with all of this, first releasing the passport photos, then some of the surveillance videos, all watched over by machines of loving grace. They are also teasing the press, saying that they have more information but they will only release it bit by bit over the next few days. Even with a lot of pressure by citizens of Israel, who also are pissed that innocent people have been used and had their identities stolen in this worst case scenario, the Mossad is keeping quiet.

And the biggest question still hasn't been answered: what in the world was Mr Mabhouh doing in that expensive hotel room? Hamas is keeping quiet on that one, having previously said that he was on a mission. No mention of what that mission was, guesses center around buying missiles from Iran to be smuggled into Gaza. That would make him out to be a bad dude, an international man of mystery, but it has also been said that Mabhouh was sent there to film another interview with al Jazeera news organization. Al Jazeera has been silent, and nobody has located where he was all day long until he returned alone to his hotel room shortly after 6 pm. And Hamas has not told why they withdrew their bodyguards that had greeted Mr Mabhouh at the airport, maybe the Dubai police will enlighten us on Friday or Saturday... I'm afraid that many of the questions will be glossed over until the book comes out...

to sir, with love...

Last item, be careful what you wish for in Africa. The current dictator of Niger, a land of mostly desert and uranium production, had dissolved his country's parliament last June, saying that he doesn't serve at the will of the legislators, he serves at the will of the Niger people. Evidently, the people of Niger no longer have any goodwill towards their tinhorn dictator, who has served since 1998. This morning the military captured Mamadou Tandja in a coup, suspended the constitution, and dissolved all state institutions. Mr Tandja has been taken and is being kept somewhere the sun doesn't shine until he resigns of his own free will, however long it takes...

Ukraine Election Results Suspended, Identity Thefts in Dubai Murder, Baradar Betrayed

Viktor Yanukovych
Dana Milbank

"We are a nation capable of great things but we will accomplish none of them if we continue to bicker among ourselves and ignore the enormous challenges that we must confront." - Viktor Yanukovych

"Demonization of our president for partisan gain leads some deranged people to pray for his death. Hate is a cheap and easy recruiting tool, but it can be murder on a democracy." - John Avlon

ukraine election put on ice...

This world is such an interesting place, so full of contradictions. I have a link to the Ukraine's president-elect Viktor Yanukovych's victory speech, published in the Wall Street Journal. But this morning a court has accepted to consider a complaint from the person he beat, Yulia Tymoshenko. So the election results are in limbo until Feb 25, which is when the judge will issue his ruling on the complaint, which is one of fraud and ballot-box stuffing. Yulia had won the last election over the entrenched incumbent, who was none other than Viktor. Viktor has been claiming that because of his better relations with the Kremlin, he will make a better bridge between Russia and the US, putting a twist on the reason why he lost last time; that his friendship with Russian authorities was hurting the Ukraine's chances of joining the European Union and relations with other western countries like the US. also, Yulia like the power and authority and doesn't want to concede defeat. She is one tough cookie, but since her policies lost her this election, perhaps she is too tough for the Ukranian people to swallow...


fake passports cause strain on allies...

Evidently the footage of the assassination team released who killed Mahmoud Mabhouh by the Dubai police, showing members of the team doing dumb things like going into a public bathroom and wearing a fake beard when they came out, has proven to be embarrassing to the Mossad. They appear almost as bumbling as the CIA under George Bush was... And the release of the identities of 11 people who used fake passports when they left Dubai is causing a strain on relations between Britain and Israel, not to mention paranoia among citizens of other Israeli allies, who wonder if there identities have been stolen, too.  It's bad enough that international gangs of thieves steal your credit card information, now you can become an instant spy and assassin...

Seven of the passports came from British citizens living in Israel. They had the numbers and personal information taken from their passports and put on a fake passports with a picture of one of the hit men. The only way that could happen is by going into government files in the immigration offices in either country, or someone went into their houses and made photos of their passports for the information.

It is causing quite the debate inside of Israel, too: "While few people are privy to the cloak-and-dagger operations of the Mossad, senior Israeli security officials not directly involved with the affair said they were convinced it was a Mossad operation because of the motive and the use of Israeli identities. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a government order not to discuss the case, characterized it as a significant Mossad bungle.


The suspicions ratcheted up pressure on Israel to be more forthcoming over the killing of Mahmoud Mabhouh, a man it claims supplied Gaza's Hamas rulers with the most dangerous weapons it possesses. Israeli critics pointed the finger at Mossad, accusing it of sloppiness and endangering Israeli citizens."

"I don't know why we are assuming that Israel, or the Mossad, used those passports, Israel never responds, never confirms and never denies. There is no reason for Israel to change this policy." - Avigdor Lieberman

Mabhouh was one of the founding members of Hamas, and his brother claimed that there had been three other previous attempts on his life. Israel claims that he was in the process of buying rockets from Iran to smuggle into Gaza. If set up there, they would have the range to target Tel Aviv, Israel's capitol city.

It looks troubling for Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Not only have allies been pissed off, but identity theft is a federal crime in Israel. And this is not the first time that an administration of his used assassination as a political tool: "Netanyahu's first tenure in the late 1990s was marred by the Mossad's botched attempt at assassinating the man who now is Hamas' supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal.


The affair could have unwanted diplomatic repercussions for Israel if it indeed used the foreign passports of its own nationals. Several British lawmakers on Wednesday called for the Israeli ambassador to be summoned to the Foreign Office immediately to explain what happened." In another weird twist, Israel just created a Ministry of Information and is creating a campaign its increasing negative image abroad. They want you to know that they are not a poor nation of hummus eating camel jockeys, incredibly enough, not addressing that they created an apartheid nation that has not been resolved in over 40 years.

Just another screw up that monkey-wrenches further negotiations between Palestinians and Israel, not to mention the egg on the face of the Dubai tourist industry... at least the name Dubai rhymes with the word "die" for any aspiring poets out there...

mullah baradar captured...

All of the newspapers crowed that the Afghan Pashtun Taliban's second in command, pictured covering his face with his hand at the left,  had been captured in Karachi, Pakistan in a raid with CIA and Pakistani intelligence officers: "Pakistan’s arrest of the top Taliban military commander may be a tactical victory for the United States, but it is also potentially a strategic coup for Pakistan, officials and analysts here and in Afghanistan said... Pakistan has removed a key Taliban commander, enhanced cooperation with the United States and ensured a place for itself when parties explore a negotiated end to the Afghan war."

Boy, this will change the face of the Afghan war! Maybe the loss of its strategic commander will weaken the Taliban enough to negotiate for peace! Just one small problem, of all of the Taliban commanders who have been debating whether to negotiate with the Karzai government, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was about the only major player who was in favor of it.

The ISI, or Pakistani intelligence service has known where Mullah Baradar was for some time, they used him to communicate between themselves and the Taliban, he was their friend. When they found out that the US wanted only themselves and Afghanistan to be in on any formal negotiations, their feelings were hurt and they got pissed off.

“On the one hand, the Americans don’t want us to negotiate directly with the Taliban, but then we hear that they are doing it themselves without telling us. You don’t treat your partners like this.” - senior Pakistan official

What better way to curry favor and get back in the game as a major player than to set up an ambush to give the Americans some major face? Pakistan will now be at any formal negotiations, Mullah Baradar is being kept in jail in Pakistan, where, hopefully, he won't be tortured or mistreated. They can always use the threat of turning him over to the US if he is uncooperative with them, and they want to repair the lack of trust they created in their relationship with the Afghan Taliban, which they have nurtured since their beginning.

There is evidence that Mullah Muhammad Omar and other senior leaders are suffering from Pol Pot Syndrome. In Pol's case, living in the jungle eating bark and bugs, moving constantly for years, living in constant fear of being captured made him quite crazy. You see it with just about every group that has waged warfare for a number of years; after awhile you can't talk logically and sensibly to them, they have become addicted to soldiering and killing as a way of life. This actually was an assessment of a Saudi Prince who had met with Mullah Omar to try and bring bin Laden back to Saudi Arabia for justice back in 2001, before 9/11. Previously, the Saudis let bin Laden stay in Afghanistan because he had been so annoying when he was in Saudi Arabia, they made a deal with the Taliban to let him stay only if he kept a low profile and stopped making public statements, which he ignored. Mullah Omar refused to give him up, saying that he had given him hospitality and it was wrong to betray that custom. Later, the family bin Laden's construction company expanded the caves near Kandahar for Osama to have a headquarters and to live a bit more comfortably while he was eating those bugs and bark, alienating his wife and children enough so that they would leave...

other quick tidbits...
Iran announced today that the three American hikers probably did just wander over the border when they arrested them, and that their parents were now welcome to visit them in jail until their case goes to court. Every time you think they are really the axis of evil, they throw out a bone of kindness...

And Haiti will release eight of the ten American prisoners who tried to cross the border with 33 kids they thought were orphans, and let them go home. The woman who organized the mess, Laura Silsby, and her ex-nanny will stay behind for more questioning, a clever euphemism for holding them as hostages...

Fake Words, Fake Names, Fake Tears

David Brooks
Henry Paulson
Jim Hoagland

"The president has shown himself indifferent to Europe, sentimental and somewhat conflicted about Africa, perplexed by the Middle East and largely oblivious to Latin America." - Jim Hoagland

"It seems like everybody is out of work except for bank lobbyists." - Lobbyist

"As a culture, shouldn’t we be more compassionate to innocent people–especially those who are less fortunate?” - Bristol Palin

fake words... 

When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Irqan was suddenly a nuclear nation, he also announced that Iran was planning on building 10 more nuclear plants. Take that, America! Od course, the reality is that Iran as a nuclear nation is similar to their announcement that they were now advanced in satellite technology because they sent some kid's poor pets into space... Yesterday Hillary Clinton made a public statement, saying that Iran was in danger of becoming a military dictatorship: “We see that the government of Iran, the supreme leader, the president, the Parliament is being supplanted and that Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship,”

Bouncing right back, Ahmadinejad today dissed back: "We don't take her comments seriously,” Ahmadinejad said at a press conference Tuesday. "These comments she is making are not wise.” He added: "If anyone does anything against Iran, then our response won't be the same as in the past. No, we will definitely react and make them regretful." He is not too happy about the necklace of missiles we are placing around Iran along with seismic monitors.

Then, a government spokesman sent out the zinger: "We are regretful that the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tries to conceal facts about the stance of the U.S. administration through fake words,”

Whenever Ahmadinejad has the attention of the press, which he does clamor for, despite banning reporters from entering Iran, he brings up the subject of the UN's plan for trading uranium rods for fuel: "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated that Iran was ready to suspend enrichment if it could exchange its low-enriched uranium stockpile for processed fuel rods from abroad. But he said the swap should be “simultaneous” — a demand already dismissed by the United States and its allies.


“We are still ready for an exchange, even with America,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said, according to Reuters." We should take him up on his offer, see if he's bluffing or not. But Iran's need for nuclear fuel is be greater than it is currently able to create, especially if it builds 10 more Russian-made reactors. so he is posturing and trying to maneuver events so they can get the fuel sooner. Al Jazeera reports that: "Ahmadinejad said Iran had not planned to produce the further enriched uranium domestically, because it had a low amount of uranium stocks that it wanted to enrich and the move was not economical, but was forced to do so." He also is trying to avoid sanctions, after all, ruling members of the Revolutionary Guards don't want to see their foreign bank accounts frozen, then they would not be able to afford their toys, driving their BMW's and Land Rovers through the mean streets of Tehran. Just ask the military junta of Burma how happy they are...

The Saudis see sanctions as taking too long to achieve a goal, it wants a more immediate solution, especially as they are much closer to Iran than the US is. Oh, and they would like Israel also to give up their nuclear warheads, then they might think about giving up the ones they possess. Both countries are undeclared to having nuclear weapons of mass destruction, it's common knowledge that Israel has them, and an even bigger secret that the Saudis have some buried in the sand.

Just like he is doing to the Republicans in Congress, Barack Obama will reach out again to try and engage Iran, and this time it's in their interests to accept. We can accept the bluff and ignore the fake words, if it leads towards the negotiation table. That's what patient diplomacy is all about. Let's hope Hillary can be as successful as she was with the English and Irish...


and fake names...
Remember the senior Hamas figure that was Killed in a Dubai hotel room? And the Dubai police sent the passport information on 11 people to Interpol? Well, British and Irish officials are saying that the passports were fakes: "We have run the passport numbers and names through our system and there are no passports in those names or with those numbers," a department spokesman said."

There are two suspects in custody, and, surprise, they are Palestinians, which might mean that the hit squad was hired by Hamas itself, who is crying loudly that the Mossad did it: Two Palestinians have been arrested over the killing, but the Hamas movement, which governs the Gaza Strip, has blamed Israeli agents for Mabhouh's death.


Dhafi Khalfan, Dubai's police chief, said on Monday that he had not ruled out "the involvement of Mossad [Israel's intelligence agency] or other parties in the assassination"

Mahmud al Mabhouh entered Dubai also on a fake passport, and the hit squad knew his itinery, renting a room across the hall from his. I have read conflicting stories about what he was up to, the Jerusalem Post claims that he was forced by Hamas officials to give another interview to al Jazeera here, Hamas claims that he was buying weapons, and we can't rule out that he could have engaged in some extra-marital hanky-panky,  a subject where all Muslim countries are in denial... Perhaps revealing the extent that Dubai has security cameras placed all over and the extent that they have embraced modern technology: "The group were believed to have rented a room across the corridor from al-Mabhouh around the time of the murder, spending just 24 hours in Dubai without using credit cards or local phone lines, the police chief said. Khalfan showed a news conference airport surveillance video of the alleged assassination team arriving on separate flights before checking into separate hotels.


In the footage, which also included images from the hotel where al-Mabhouh was killed, the one woman among the group of suspects appears to be wearing a wig and at times wears a big hat and sunglasses. Others were seen apparently posing as tourists, wearing tennis clothes and carrying rackets."


I said before how this is playing out like a spy novel, and who knows if any of the suspects will now be caught?  Perhaps some are in some country's criminal database. It also looks real good that the Mossad was involved, though I keep thinking that they would have been more professional and stealthy, since they are one of the world's elite intelligence agencies. Only time will tell, so we'll see what happens next week...


beck book...

"Is Glenn Beck America?" All ages have their charlatans. The fact that Beck's stew of venom and fabrication has been such a triumph probably says less about Beck than about us. He has merely captured the moment."  - Dana Milbank

One of my favorite columnists, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank has announced that Doubleday will publish his book on Glenn Beck later this year, titled "Tears of a Clown." I will be looking on Amazon Books for the preorder information. thanks to Politico for the info and Milbank quote.

Samba Pre-Queen, Preemptive Israeli Striking

Paul Krugman

Eugene Robinson
Dick Cheney

"In the real world, the Obama administration inherited an unnecessary and ill-advised war in Iraq whose main geopolitical impact has been to strengthen neighboring Iran and its dangerous regime. But in Bizarro Cheney World, apparently, Obama somehow owes his predecessor "a healthy dose of 'thank you, George Bush.' " - Eugene Robinson

"There is no middle ground." - Dick Cheney

"John McCain knew that it was Sarah Palin's birthday, and he did something very nice for her. He bought her a Toyota." - David Letterman

julia lira...
... and the overwhelming response in Brazil was a shrug and acceptance.
Much controversy out of Brazil, though the actual samba competition is over, the leader of one of Rio's largest samba schools chose his seven year old daughter to lead the 3,200 member school of dancers, drummers, and incredible floats. The previous dance queen had asked out of her contract because she had gotten a role in a soap opera on Brazilian television.

The Carnival parades in Brazil run the gamut from wildly imagined costumes that the participants spend all year making, to skimpy, topless attire to parading in body paint. Samba is considered a national dance and kids learn it when very young, and will dance it for the rest of their lives. It's often considered a sensual, if not sexual dance, and this is where the controversy began, along with the notion that a little girl could direct such a large amount of people: "Rival samba groups scoffed, saying Julia was too young to provide the “sensual” inspiration that leads to winning performances. But child protection advocates took the case more seriously, accusing the samba troupe of child exploitation. Reportedly, it took a judge’s ruling to clear Julia’s path, putting a gap-toothed, pint-sized dancing queen at the head of her 3,200-strong samba school in the hotly disputed samba competition at Rio’s Sambodromo.

"Just before 1:30 a.m. Monday, Julia showed up, dressed in a feathery purple miniskirt, rhinestone belt, rhinestone halter top and rhinestone tiara. She had a “minor” ID tag hanging from her neck. She was surrounded by dozens of reporters and cameras. She broke down and cried, and was briefly held in the arms of a woman from her samba troupe and then by her father. She finally walked up the side, escorted by her parents, and began to dance..."

“We are in favor of children taking part in Carnaval,” said Carlos Nicodemos, the president of the Rio State’s Child and Adolescent Protection Council. “It is a part of the culture and tradition of Brazilians.” But, he added, “This type of participation does not fit with the principle of child development. Putting her in this role in Carnaval is effectively putting her in an eroticized position.”

"She is the embodiment of all the love in our school. Normally a famous person is the drum corps queen, but her father is our president and she is the center of our family," - Samba school drummer

preemptive strike on iran...

While Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Qatar, warning that Iran is on the four-lane highway towards military dictatorship, pundits in Israel are debating the wisdom and folly of striking at Iranian nuclear facilites: "The thinking within the Israeli military community is that when the chips are down, at the precise moment when Israel believes it has no choice but to attack Iran and no better operational window within which to do it, the US cannot stand in Israel’s way, cannot give Jerusalem a red light... America won’t want Israel to fly through its red light all the way to Natanz, Isfahan and other such sites, placing its troops in the region in danger of Iranian retaliation, and scuttling President Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world."

Clinton and Obama have been trying to repair the US relationship with Egypt and Saudi Arabia, forging new relationships with Syria and Turkey, and bolster its relationship with Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE. But it remains to be seen how they would ultimately react to a preemptive strike on Iran. While Russia is currently supporting sanctions on Iran, it buys oil and has contracts with Iran. China is one of its largest trading partners, and gets over 15% of its oil from Iran.

"Russia won’t want Israel to fly through its red light to Bushehr, which it is currently building at an enormous profit. Israel won’t want Russia to cross a red light and deliver the fearsome S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to the Iranians. But if the Russians feel that they simply must cross that red light (the Iranians have already paid for the system, at enormous profit to Moscow) then they’ll cross it, and Israel will have to find a way around the S-300, which will be, at the end of the day, just another technical puzzle to solve, like so many others.


But what would happen to US-Israel ties if Israel flew through a US red light to attack Iran’s
nuclear facilities? Not much, according to one school of thought. While officials in the US administration would cry foul and may even impose some penalties, some experts argue that popular American opinion would be understanding of Israel, even sympathetic."

America is quickly trying to set up a containment perimeter around Iran, and probably at the first sign of underground nuclear testing, Israel will spring into action. There will either be passive name-calling like when Israel bomber a nuclear facility being built in Syria, or, WW111 may break out as Iran strikes out in all directions. This could be a very intense year... Joe Biden is scheduled to visit the Mideast in a couple of months, good luck Joe and Hillary... again, thank God Dick Cheney is no longer in charge, though he would attempt to waterboard Ahmadinejad...


I wanted to write about the Biden - Cheney wars on Sunday, but it has already been over-written, and I doubt I could add to the level of snark. I do have the link to the Cheney interview at the top of the page.
The only other cool tidbit is Joe the Plumber admitting to hating John McCain for popularizing him as Joe the Plumber. He said that McCain has ruined his life and that he no longer supports Sarah Palin because she will be stumping for McCain in Arizona. What with ol' Samuel having a moment of lucidity and Dick Cheney supporting the abolishment of Don't Ask Don't Tell in the military, the weekend has had some pleasant surprises...

Wall Street Plan to Own Europe, Face of Fraud

Marion Tupy
Ezra Klein

"Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy." - George Carlin

"If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little." - George Carlin

more than greek to me...

We haven't heard the gory details here, but in the newspapers in Europe and Germany, they're pissed. Turns out that Wall Street banks and financial institutions like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs created "financial instruments" that helped put countries like Greece into over $300 billion in debt, and enabled them to hide it from investigators: "financial derivatives played a role in the run-up of Greek debt. Instruments developed by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and a wide range of other banks enabled politicians to mask additional borrowing in Greece, Italy and possibly elsewhere.


In dozens of deals across the Continent, banks provided cash upfront in return for government payments in the future, with those liabilities then left off the books. Greece, for example, traded away the rights to airport fees and lottery proceeds in years to come. Critics say that such deals, because they are not recorded as loans, mislead investors and regulators about the depth of a country’s liabilities." Imagine that, you buy a Greek lottery ticket these days and the money goes directly to Goldman Sachs...

Goldman Sachs had been doing things like this for awhile. As far back as: "2001, just after Greece was admitted to Europe’s monetary union, Goldman helped the government quietly borrow billions, people familiar with the transaction said. That deal, hidden from public view because it was treated as a currency trade rather than a loan, helped Athens to meet Europe’s deficit rules while continuing to spend beyond its means."

If the US Congress won't create some regulations required for our aggressive financial institutions, it looks like the rest of the world soon will... unless they collapse under the weight of debt they now owe JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs... makes you feel so proud and patriotic... Of course, this could all be a CIA economic plot to bring Europe to its knees, then letting the state of Israel move out of Palestine and take over the first to fall, then we'd have to give Goldman Sachs a patriotic medal instead of stricter regulations...


the face of fraud the world over...
There is an opinion piece in the Moscow Times that begins: "Elections in Ukraine as well as in Russia have shown that impoverished people are incapable of making sober decisions and voting responsibly in a popular election." The recent election for prime minister of this august country ended with the Russian sympathizer Victor F Yukonovitch winning. Maybe.

How did the current prime minister react? By claiming massive fraud during the election, even though it was praised by European election monitors as being fair and free. “Yanukovich is not our president,” Ms. Tymoshenko said in a televised address to the nation. “He will never become the legitimate elected president of Ukraine under any circumstances.” Gotta love a prime minister who can say that, and won't let the gavel go until it's pried from her cold fingers...

This current crop of world figures sure seems to cling to power a lot, there's no dignified acceptance of losing. I mean, the government of Iran seemed to put a third of its young people in jail before the last birthday party for the islamic republic, and beat the crap out of any who were left over. Because raiding a family in the middle of the night to take a loved one away to a secret prison is something you would expect more in Afghanistan than Tehran... There is a worldwide trend here, from the halls of Afghanistan and Iran, where there really was fraud, to India, Honduras, and Florida. I expect the Texas governor Rick Perry to do the same, except he might kick it up a notch and secede from the Union if he loses... But the worst gonif must be the president of the Ivory Coast. This old rat's presidential term ended in 2005, and an attempt to hold an election has been made every year since. And every single year he declares the election committee a fraud and dissolves the parliament, which he did again last week.

“It runs in the face of all the peace accords we’ve signed since 2004, that today the president thinks he has the powers to do this gives the impression that we’ve gone back 20 years into the past.”

Of course, the situation is a bit more complex, they also have been trying to determine for the past five years who is considered to be a citizen and who should be eligible to vote, in a nation that is largely composed of immigrants: "Before its brief civil war, Ivory Coast was one of Africa’s economic stars, luring tens of thousands of immigrants from poorer neighboring nations. At least a quarter of the nation’s 20 million people have been disqualified from voting based on the electoral law’s convoluted definition for determining eligibility." But I wonder how many more years Laurent Gbagbo thinks he can keep up the pretense, especially since every other political party in the country has announced they no longer consider him to be president... I wonder if this will be one of the countries that the African Union has agreed to send some Haitians, to stir up the pot even more...


India - Pakistan summit...

On February 25, India and Pakistan will meet and try to relaunch talks over subjects that concern them. The bombings in Mumbai had a strange way of ending any dialogue after 2008. The US will play a part being the scapegoat for various political groups, who get to accuse both governments of bowing down to   pressure from America to resume communicating. Their has been an escalation of bombings in India of late, the most recent one at a bakery popular with western tourists. The German Bakery is near the ashram of that dead old fake, Osho, who changed his name from Bagwan Rajneesh after he was kicked out of the US on tax evasion and gun charges. It's possible that the Oshoites were a target, but a nearby Jewish Center claimed that, hey, they just as easily could have been the target since they heard the bomb too, and nothing will deter them from their crucial mission... It's hoped that the talks can lower the paranoia level in this part of Asia before another nuclear arms race develops, what with India, Pakistan, Iran and Russia all in the market for a newer generation of lethal toys.


Finally, Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority had to let one of his top aides go because of a sex scandal. Who knew that Palestinians had a sex life?

Dominican Lawyer Disappears, Sarah Takes The Money and Runs

Roger Cohen
Rami Khoury
Fareed Zakaria



haitian update...
The man who claimed to be the lawyer hired by the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, to represent the 10 child abductors has disappeared and is wanted for questioning. The NY Times reports that: "Salvadoran police say they want to question Mr. Puello in connection with a sex trafficking ring that was broken up last year in which women and girls from Central America and the Caribbean were lured into prostitution through offers of modeling jobs... Public records and court documents in the United States also indicate that a person with the same name and birth date is considered a fugitive and is wanted by the Miami police, the United States Customs and the United States Marshals Service.


An order is listed in the United States national crime database for a man with that name and birth date to be arrested on sight and reported to United States immigration officials. Those records say he is wanted in connection with crimes including bank fraud in the United States and Canada, and theft of American government property. Police records say he has violated parole."

If its as easy to scam Americans in jail in Haiti and the Dominican Republic as it appears, I can't help wondering about the many others who are in jails awaiting trials in every other country in the world. Maybe it's time to ask Amnesty International or the State Department to issue a report. In America, a child is abducted every 40 seconds...

The American abductors will remain in prison at least until Monday, when the judge is supposed to make a ruling letting most of them go back to the US, while keeping Laura Silsby in jail until the case is resolved. But if the authorities cannot find Jorge Puello by then to fingerprint him and see if they match Interpol's and El Salvador's files, then the timeline will remain undefined.

other updates...
It looks like Germany, which experienced zero economic growth last quarter, is just saying no to bailing out Greece. The Greeks themselves say they are too lazy to care and create a program themselves to get out of the hot water. If Greece falls first, maybe Israel can take it over instead of Spain and Portugal, sort of a reverse Trojan horse. Israeli ingenuity and American cash can turn it around, the Greeks will be thankful and not really care that much about being occupied, and Israel gets its butt out of the Middle East, where it has failed to establish a peaceful nation. A win/win all around...

A suit against Blackwater by two ex-employees claims that it overcharged the US government by millions, brought alcohol into Iraq and Afghanistan, hired strippers and kept a hooker on as staff, also charging the US for her plane ticket over from the Phillipines, and her patriotic services. I guess all we can say is xie xie, guys... If the US wants to really trim the Federal budget, it should look into and cancel these inflated contracts with private mercenaries...


go on, take the money and run...

"My only goal is to support the grassroots activists who are fighting for responsible, limited government -- and our Constitution. In that spirit, any compensation for my appearance will go right back to the cause." - Sarah Palin in USA Today

Sarah Palin has been in the news a lot since her historic tea party speech, where she said that she was going to give the $100,000 for her 40 minute speech back to conservative causes. Of course, when an organizer from the tea convention called her people to ask where to send the money, her people replied that no determination had been made and to send it on in... Does anyone really think she will give it away? Not now that she is the sole breadwinner in the family, gotta get Todd that new snowmobile and condoms for Bristol...

Other people who have organized tea party groups and who didn't participate in the tea party convention, were critical of Sarah's involvement. Out of Houston comes Dale Robertson, who said that she wasn't a true conservative and just a failed Republican Party hack: "Tea Party members are being eyed as just another piece of voting meat. Tea Party members are targeted for filling the rank and file of minion laden political operations, most of which are lead (sic) by failed Republican hacks... She represents a growing insider's attack to the heart of the Tea Party. Very much like a wolf in sheep's clothing entering in at the gate as an ally, but for all intents and purposes there to seize and capture, not only one or two stray sheep, but the whole flock!" Everyone knows that roasted sheep tastes really good alongside an elk shot from a helicopter...

It doesn't matter if you are a liberal or a conservative right now, if you take a public stand on any issue, you will be condemned by the press, demonized by the small minority that is angry at everything. I enjoy making fun of public figures, too, but I hold no rancor towards them. I often feel a bit like Mort Saul, taking the daily newspaper and seeing what act I can come up with for my blog. What I lack is the instant response a live audience gives, so I often don't know if I have scored a hit or miss. So, of course Sarah is getting pelted by both the right and the left, even bad spellers like Dale Robertson, who is seeking some notoriety from that cup of tea in the sky.

We have two years until campaigns for the next presidential elections get underway, sponsored by your favorite corporation. Will Coke sponsor Tea? Will Nike sponsor Obama, getting him to say "just do it" in his speeches? Will the constant ragging on Obama be able to keep up its frantic pace, or will the naysayers realize that, they too, are wearing no clothes? On the GOP side, Mit Romney is wisely staying low profile, and will begin his campaign at the best strategic time, so he can build a steady momentum all the way until its time to stuff the ballot boxes. Tim Pawlenty is probably the most well balanced of the candidates, so he will loose because of the fringes. Watch for Rudy Guliani to make an ass of himself, and will Newt ever realize that he's forgotten all that he ever read before, coming down with Alzheimer's, or Lou Dobbs Disease as it's more commonly known...

Newt is predicting a Republican sweep in this year's midterm elections, but only if: "the state of the economy, the Democrats’ response to the dissatisfaction, and whether Republicans can successfully cast themselves as the alternative party rather than the opposition."


The state of the economy will remain in fluctuation, remaining bad for us middle to lower class folks. The Republicans, who naturally will gain some seats this election, may gain even more if people blame Democratic policy for it. The Republicans are pumping out press releases hourly trying to make you forget on who's watch all of this misery began, trying to make it seem that Obama is an incompetent who cannot do anything right because they have to obstruct each and every bill with a filibuster. If you are still angry at the government, like you have been for the last 10-15 years, you will vote against any Democrat. What you should be doing is voting out any Congressperson who has had over three terms in office, both Democratic and Republican...

I doubt that with the likes of John Boehner and Charles Grassley, folks will see in Republicans an intelligent alternative to anything. The Republican strategy has been negative and portrays their members as whining obstructionists who cannot hold a candle to Obama on the debating floor. They had a chance to build the ranks of the Party with a platform that was attractive to a younger, more diverse sector of people, but have further alienated them and branded themselves as the Party of the brain-dead old fogeys, which is where we left Newt..