DHS Criminal Minds, Build Baby Build!, Xe Xe Very Much

Paul Krugman
Fareed Zakaria
EJ dionne Jr

"Spend now, while the economy remains depressed; save later, once it has recovered. How hard is that to understand?" - Paul Krugman

"The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question, is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, "Hey - don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride... And we... kill those people." - Bill Hicks

This week's Republican talking points are the Liberal Lefties in the Democratic Party are stuck on a train and the wheels are about to come off. Any minute now they will all crash and die a horrible death, taking Obama's domestic policies along with them. The truth is, over the past 30 years, the extreme left has been getting older and mellowing out, their children are more balanced and moderate in their views, even more tolerant of conservative views. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for those who hold extreme right wing views. Because they are based on fear and paranoia, they have bred and festered, becoming more virulent instead of moderate when exposed to calm logic and emotional balance. The image that is being touted is that we have become a center-right society, and that conservatism is the normal lense to view our world. But conservatism creates a slow mind that reacts violently against change, and is becoming associated to older people who obsess with their failing physical health. Because they fear their own mortality, they are hawkish and willing to send your children (not their own children, mind you) off to their deaths, as if it could superstitiously prevent their own death. See John McCain's current speech on Iran...

Obama is a moderate who likes to know all sides to an argument, and, even more rare, is willing to listen before making up his mind. Some decisions are liberal, some are not, and both sides of the political spectrum gnash their teeth and call him names. He is young and in many ways inexperienced, and has mad rookie mistakes, even given one bad speech that was mediocre. As a result, his foreign policy has been trashed and those pesky anti-health care opponents are still pissing and moaning. The mentally ill right wing cannot stop obsessing over his name, his father's ancestry, his birth certificate, or that he is an intelligent black man, and the dittoheads keep making personally mean and vitriolic remarks. Rush Limbaugh doesn't have the self control to stop saying anything mean on his radio show for even one week, and we can't blame that on behavior change due to excessive oxycontin intake...

new slogan needed for dhs...

So, how well is the new Department of Homeland Security performing since it was formed? Not well, according to Government Security News, who obtained a copy of a report released last May by the Office of Inspector General: "Child abuse, human and drug smuggling, bribery, money laundering… These are just some of the crimes committed by employees at the Department of Homeland Security. The report, which divided up the crimes based on which agency the employee who committed them was working for, held some shocking revelations. United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers were convicted of such crimes as alien and narcotic smuggling, bribery, providing fraudulent documents, sexual exploitation of a minor, credit card fraud and sending child pornography over the Web. Meanwhile, Citizen and Immigration Services (CIS) employees were convicted of identity theft and trafficking in counterfeit labels. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers (ICE) were convicted of money laundering, corruption, an overseas sexual exploitation of a child, smuggling drugs into prison as well as selling them on the street. One ICE officer was even caught on NBC’s “Operation Predator” and another was accused of bringing over 700 illegal aliens into the country. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials were accused of forgery, drug smuggling and theft while a member of the Coast Guard (USCG) plead guilt to extortion. Numerous members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) – government employees tasked with getting money to the people who need it most during disasters – were convicted on numerous charges of fraud." This might tell why lower crime statistics have been reported in the border states like Arizona, that most of the crime is now being committed by our government employees who have become corrupted by the drug cartels. Will the added troops sent along the border help, or will they step up to the illegal buffet, too? Makes Ken Salazar's problems seem quaint... Maybe we could now call Janet Napolitano a true crime czar, let's give her jurisdiction over medical marijuana, too...

one step forward, two steps back...

Just like Arizona passing its racial profiling law to bait and embarrass our federal government, so is the East Jerusalem municipality trying to stir things up after the liberalizing of the Israeli government's Gaza policy. Jerusalem is going to bulldoze 22 Palestinian homes: "The Jerusalem municipal planning committee approved Monday a contentious plan to raze 22 Palestinian homes to make room for a tourist center that Palestinians fear would tighten Israel's grip on the city's contested eastern sector. Barkat first floated the plan months ago, but agreed to a last-minute request from Israel's prime minister to consult Palestinian residents before breaking ground. Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes has in the past provoked harsh reaction from the United States.


Palestinians hope to build the capital of a future state in East Jerusalem and see any Israeli construction there as undercutting their claims to the land.


Although Israel claims it is simply enforcing the law by knocking down illegally built structures, many of the unapproved homes have gone up without authorization because Palestinians have a hard time obtaining construction permits in East Jerusalem. The plan calls for the construction of shops, restaurants, art galleries and a large community center on the site where some say the biblical King David wrote his psalms. The 22 displaced families would be allowed to build homes elsewhere in the neighborhood, though it's not clear who would pay for them.


Israel annexed East Jerusalem immediately after capturing it from Jordan during the Six-Day War in 1967. Israeli sovereignty there has not been recognized by the Palestinians or the international community, and the fate of the city is one of the core issues dividing the two sides. Nearly 200,000 Jews have moved to East Jerusalem since Israel captured it, living in an uneasy coexistence with 250,000 Palestinians." Evidently, the slogan for Israeli settlers is " Build, Baby, Build!" 

Finally, TPM reports that the mercenary company Xe, known formerly and more popularly as Blackwater, has just been awarded a $120 million contract from the State Department to guard the consulate in Kabul: "Whether or not Erik Prince is fleeing America for the United Arab Emirates, his military contracting company continues to thrive on lucrative government contracts... The company has been racked with legal problems -- because of episodes in both the U.S. and Afghanistan -- in recent months. Its former president was indicted on weapons charges in April, and two employees of Xe subsidiary Paravant are facing murder charges for an incident in which two residents of Kabul were killed." Xe has some current contracts in Afghanistan, manning some drone sites and performing mercenary work in the wilds for the CIA. Eric Prince was already a wealthy man when he founded Blackwater. He didn't need the money, his company helped fulfill a comic book desire of his to be a top spy, America's James Bond, with eventual books and movies made about his daring, patriotic exploits. Except he could end up in jail, and certainly will have to stand trial, for his lax attitude towards personnel. Maybe he can tweet us from Dubai...

Flotilla Fizzles, Russia Hopes to Earn Your Trust, Jane Norton Panders 9/11

Kathleen Parker
Maureen Dowd
Peter Grier

Joe Nocera

"Fatherhood is more than a drop of DNA." - Kathleen Parker

"Many people were suspicious of Father’s Day. Some religious figures thought it was just a plot to sell hats. Some men thought it was just a plot to make them come in from the garage and get cleaned up for dinner." - Peter Grier

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

I forgot to comment on Colbert King's opinion piece yesterday, where he contrasted President Obama's fatherhood and marriage experience with two of his loudest opponents, Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich. Barack Obama, he says that: "He married and, equally important, has stayed married to Michelle Robinson, a Princeton graduate and Harvard Law alumna. He lives with his wife, two children and his mother-in-law. Obama: constitutional law professor, civil rights lawyer, state legislator, U.S. senator, 44th U.S. president, family man."

I have to admit that I think Rush has gone off the deep end, and is broadcasting his mental illness five days per week. All he does is say hateful things, never any well thought out arguments. Unfortunately, the Republican Party uses these hate phrases as a template for their own Congressional behavior and strategy, which is why they became nicknamed "the party of no."King says of Rush: "Limbaugh, who dropped out of college after one year, married his first wife, a sales secretary, in September 1977. She filed for divorce three years later; it was granted in July 1980. Limbaugh next married an usherette in 1983; they divorced in 1990. In May 1994, he married an aerobics instructor he met online. They separated in June 2004 and divorced that December. Two weeks ago, Limbaugh married a Florida party planner. He's still wedded to her as far as I can tell."

"Gingrich is one nuptial behind Limbaugh. But he started earlier. In 1962, at age 19, Gingrich married his 26-year-old former high school geometry teacher. Gingrich left her in the spring of 1980. He did return to see her at the hospital where she was getting treatment for cancer. He was there to discuss divorce terms. Formally divorced in 1981, Gingrich remarried six months later. That marriage lasted until 2000. By his own admission, Gingrich started an affair with a woman 23 years his junior during his second marriage. It was around the time he was taking Bill Clinton to task over Monica Lewinsky. Gingrich's second marriage ended in 2000, and he married his girlfriend the same year. "


Congratulations to Barack Obama this Father's Day, a man who is a good father and husband, a believer and practicer of solid family values, unlike the vain men with shallow hearts who oppose him. It's ironic that Obama is the example of the kind of values that the evangelicals wish that we all would follow, yet they spend every waking hour trying to demonize him...


It looks like the flotilla frenzy may have run its course for now, with the Israeli cabinet revising its list of forbidden items into Gaza and opening the land borders with a liberal policy. Israel's debkafiles reports: "Barring surprises, the sea campaign against Israel's naval blockade of Gaza spearheaded by Turkey may have run its course.  Beirut is close to abandoning the Lebanese convoy, Damascus has turned away requests to use its ports, Cyprus is negative and even the Iranian expedition appears snarled. In the last 24 hours, Israel won US, European and Mahmoud Abbas' support for its sea blockade after its cabinet approved the delivery of all civilian goods to Gaza over land." This is geared towards allowing small businesses to order and receive commercial goods, and new schools can be built. Inspections for items that could be beneficial to Hamas will still take place.

"Israel seeks to keep out of Gaza weapons and material that Hamas uses to prepare and carry out terror and rocket attacks toward Israel and its civilians. All other goods will be allowed into Gaza." - Benjamin Netanyahu

Of course, the spokesman for the impotent and discredited Hamas said that this was not enough, as Haaretz reported: "Hamas minister Ziad al-Zaza characterized Israel's decision as "deception", and said that the blockade must be lifted completely to allow Gaza to import all necessary materials, particularly cement, iron, raw materials for industry and agriculture, as well as import and export between Gaza and the world." But these are significant steps for Israel to take, the most it has done in awhile. Mr Netanyahu will next jet off to Washington for some high level schmoozing with the Obama administration. And, in response to that, a Hamas official was taped saying: "that Hamas would never change its policy of 'resistance' against Israel," and that Palestinians in the West Bank should be firing rockets into Israel...

Now that Russia's Prime Minister Vladimer Putin has gotten as much as he can to stabilize his personal fortune by partially nationalizing the successful oil companies, President Dmitry Medvedev is attempting to broaden the economy so that foreign investors would feel more welcome. Realizing that basing an economy solely on gas and oil may lessen profits in a changing global market that is seeking alternative sources for energy, and enamored with the US's development of high technology, he wants to play catch up: "Economic diversification has been a top priority for Russia, the world’s largest energy-exporting nation, since its oil-dependent economy faltered in the autumn of 2008, though there have been few results so far. What is new is the policy of linking the goals of diversification and modernization with improved access for foreign investors."

“Creating a comfortable climate for investors is essentially our most important task. These are the goals of our modernization."  - Dmitriy Medvedev”

"Mr. Medvedev said Russia would cut capital gains taxes, reform white-collar criminal law and privatize state enterprises, all to make the country more attractive to investors in sectors other than the boom-and-bust oil and mining industries. The government, he said, would reduce the number of wholly owned state companies to 159 from 230, though this reform would not cover the largest state companies like Gazprom because they already had private shareholders. Mr. Medvedev noted changes in legislation requiring prosecutorial oversight of police enforcement of financial crime, apparently intended to curb widespread police corruption." The biggest problem will be corruption, which is at all levels of the government and police. Convincing someone to invest in a Russian enterprise that won't turn around and steal your profits and put you in a Russian jail or on a show-trial will be a pretty tough sell. Even the past head of BP in Russia had to leave two steps ahead of the police, thanks to Mr Putin...

jane norton...

Politico reported on the latest dumb idea from Colorado's Jane Norton and how the Democrats plan to jump all over her pandering butt: "THE 9/11 CARD: Democratic veterans in Colorado plan to target Republican Senate candidate Jane Norton Friday for posting what they'll call a "deeply offensive web video that seeks to exploit the tragic events of September 11th and politicize the brave service of our men and women in uniform." In the video, Norton warns that "liberals in Washington seem to have forgotten" -- at which point the screen goes dark, and the sound of airplane jets is briefly heard before Norton returns to view and concludes: "But we haven't. Let's win the war on terror."


State Rep. Joe Rice, an Army reservist, and retired Army Capt. Jason Crow, a Democratic attorney, will circulate a petition calling on Norton to pull the video and return any contributions given in response. "We believe that the events of that day are to be met with solemn reverence; Jane Norton seems to believe they are to be met with a campaign contribution," they write. "Jane, you have done a disservice to our troops by degrading their effectiveness and bravery. You should be ashamed." This is more than a tactical drive-by against Norton: it's a preview of how Democrats will take advantage of the increasingly strident rhetoric the former lieutenant governor's using as she attempts to fight off a primary challenge from conservative Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck." This is where all of the fun is, the fight between Norton and Buck, on who is the most conservative, dammit. Some of it is posturing, I haven't met Ken Buck yet, but Jane isn't the brightest lightbulb in the package, so she should easily be baited. The major problem with Jane, many feel is that: "... state Republicans have voiced resentment over what they see as Washington insiders picking their candidate for them. They're probably right — the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee purchased two Internet domain names for her weeks before she decided to run."  For some reason, locals like to make their own choices, not dictated to by the Republican national Committee. Which reminds me, we haven't heard from Michael Steele in awhile. Time for him to make some more public gaffes...


late night jokes:

"There is a new bill in the Senate that is upsetting a lot of people. This bill would give the President the power to shut off the Internet. Al Gore is strongly opposed to it. Not because he invented the Internet. Because he did. But because he just signed up for Match.com." –Craig Ferguson

"Well, the big story, President Obama will set aside $20 billion to pay the victims of the oil spill in the Gulf. Well, that is good news. The bad news — it still comes out to less than, like, a dollar a gallon." –Jay Leno

"These British Petroleum guys can't do anything right. The chairman of BP, Carl-Henric Svanberg, told reporters that sometimes large oil companies are greedy and don't care, but 'not BP. We care about the small people.' That's what he called the residents of the Gulf — 'the small people.' But to be fair, English is not the guy's first language. Money is." –Jay Leno

"See, the problem is I do believe they care about the small people. Problem is, they don't care about the big leak." –Jay Leno

"Tony Hayward. You read about this guy? He's a little weasel guy. Well, he was testifying before — why do they even call it testifying? Testi-lying, that's what it was." –Jay Leno

"Well, the sad part is, environmentalists say if this leak continues unabated, some species might become endangered, like Democrats." –Jay Leno

"And now the other oil companies are turning on BP While testifying in Washington this week, Exxon executives blamed the Gulf oil spill on lapses by BP See, that's when you know things are bad, when Exxon is lecturing you on oil safety, huh? That's like Heidi Montag saying, 'Just be yourself.'" –Jay Leno

Top Ten Signs Your Father's A Loser


10.Whenever you say, "Dad", he says, "Shh, not so loud"
9.At your baseball game cheers for someone else's kid
8.Couldn't drive you to camp because he swallowed the car keys
7.The only thing he's ever given you is a receding hairline
6.Spends most weekends blowing his own vuvuzela
5.Destroyed country's economy and standing in the world along with his vice president Dick Cheney
4.His job is sledding on an ice track -- sorry, that's a sign your father's a "luger"
3.Hasn't left the basement since '77
2.Taught you how to smoke (videotape of Smoking Baby)
1.Has late night talk show on CBS

Bad News For Israel's Dopers, Flotilla Warfare, Colorado Tea Party and Moose-Turd Pie

Colbert King
Benjamin Sarlin
Ilene Prusher



Before I begin today, I want to report some serious news: that marijauna sources in Israel are drying up, causing some serious Jonesing among that nation's potheads: "If you are one of a significant proportion of Israelis that regularly flouts the law to use marijuana, you may be experiencing attacks of nerves, sleepless nights, mood swings and a general lack of get up and go. Why? Reasons for this year's grass shortage are several: A slew of successful drugs busts by the police and border guard; cooperation between Egyptian cartels trying to boost profits; a dearth of growers; low rainfall. Conspiracy theorists even claim a secret government program to combat apathy and stir the nation's fighting spirit... Whatever the reason, the cost of getting high in Israel has never been higher." Pray that it will never happen here... I just realized, that if the Palestinians in Gaza wish to boost their economy, they should start asking the next crop of humanitarian flotillas for some hydroponic equipment...

Sellers' market: How Israel's marijuana prices have rocketed

Grass:
Pre-drought price: NIS 150 for 50 grams
Today: NIS 35 per gram

Hashish:
Pre-drought: NIS 200 for 10 grams
Today: NIS 500 for 10 grams

Hydro (hydroponic marijuana):
Pre-drought: NIS 45 per gram
Today: NIS 110 per gram

Chares (high-grade Indian hashish):
Pre-drought: NIS 450 for 10 grams
Today: NIS 800 for 10 grams

the new face of warfare...

The use of video cameras during the commando raid on the Gaza flotilla, and the ability to broadcast those images during real time has directly resulted in the easing of the land border crossings into Gaza. It has made the Muslim world giddy at finding a cheap, non-violent way to wage warfare, and several other flotillas are now in the planning stage, while Lebanon and Iran have immediately reacted by sending ships that should arrive this weekend. The Israelis are freaked out, have vowed not another ship will enter their space or get through the naval blockade, and have recalled up retired frogmen to fight the good fight. They are especially worried what may happen come August, and the month of Ramadan. There is even a group of German Jews who are planning on sending aid, but it's unclear if they will jump on the flotilla bandwagon or simply fly it in cargo planes... And the Israeli defense minister is cynically saying that opening up the borders into Gaza weakens Israel's position in trying to get back Gilad Shalit, who is still being held prisoner by Hamas, as if he was a previous bargaining chip...

There is also discontent between the Palestinian Authority, who rule in the West Bank, and Hamas, who rule in Gaza and is the reason for the blockades in the first place. There will be bickering as long as their social views are so far between. The PA is trying to build a successful economic infrastructure in the West Bank that will seamlessly continue once they become a state. Hamas hasn't had an opportunity to create anything for the Palestinian people in Gaza, and probably would be voted out if an election were allowed to be held. Weirdly enough, it is Fatah who just canceled elections that were to be held in the West Bank next month. These creaky, old leaders are even afraid of losing to some independent candidate, since Hamas declared it isn't participating, and blaming Israel on this lack of courage. Dudes, let some younger people with a better vision take over, elect a few women who aren't the wacko equivalent of a Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachmann or Sharron Angle to counter all of that musty testosterone...

Although Mahmoud Abbas has asked for the US to pressure Israel to end the blockade last Thursday, hoping that he showed he had some cojones still working, all Hamas has to do is make a public statement renouncing their previous violent ways and their intention to work alongside the Jewish state for the sake of the people of Gaza, and suddenly, they can become heroes and the blockade will end. But will Hamas give up their ego and inability to listen to reason? I doubt it. Once any group of people have some power, they will create an infinite amount of excuses to hold onto it, or as a modern Sufi saying goes: If God wants to destroy an ant, he gives it wings... if these ants want to create a home for their people, some ants will have to give up their wings...


go fish...

The propaganda that Afghanistan is suddenly sitting on a King's Ransom in mineral wealth is paying off. Delegations from companies in India, Russia, China, and Japan have been flocking to Kabul. I haven't seen any reports if the giant Bin Laden Construction has tendered any contracts, since they did such a good job with the caves at  Tora Bora. You could say there is some kind of prior relationship between the two... It will be interesting to see how many other fish will bite, and how this new found wealth will be extracted, how it will change the landscape beginning just when the American forces are being called back to the US...

get mah boots and ten-teabagger hat...

A recent Rasmussen Reports declared that our fine state of Colorado has the most amount of Tea Party activists, and I believe it. From the Huffington Post, who never answers my e-mail requests and won't include my blog in their list of Colorado blogs on their webpage: "According to a series of surveys from Rasmussen Reports, Colorado has a greater percentage of voters who consider themselves members of the "Tea Party" movement than any other state. 33% of likely voters surveyed in Colorado in April claimed to be a part of the right-wing movement. That's two points higher than Alabama and Kentucky, where Senate candidate Rand Paul recently shocked the Republican establishment by riding Tea Party support to landslide victory in the GOP primaries. In Colorado, Tea Party-backed candidates have overcome poor name recognition and lackluster fundraising to turn Republican Senate and gubernatorial primaries into competitive races." To be honest, maybe one of our Republican candidates could be called tea party material, a cut from the flow-through bag. The others are just conservatives who would like to court the vote. Jane Norton, a former Lieutenant Governor, is appalled that she isn't considered conservative enough for them, and the front runner, Scott McInnis, has refused to attend any debates arranged by the tea party: "While the Norton, Buck and Maes campaigns confirmed and replied with emails and phone calls, there wan’t a peep out of the McInnis campaign. On June 1st, when Chris Davis was sent to hand-​​deliver yet another invitation to McInnis’ Denver office, he was told by a McInnis campaign that, “The Constitutionalist Today is pretty strongly with Dan Maes.”


We absolutely proceeded with the debates; did McInnis think our event would be contingent upon the confirmation of his appearance? This will stand as one more example of McInnis failing to appear, and an empty chair on stage will speak volumes to Fox News, the Associated Press, the Gazette, Colorado news stations and, of course, the voters. We also have inside knowledge that McInnis had nothing on his calendar for the date in question at the time he received our first invitation; another event has since appeared on his calendar for that date.


On June 14th we finally received our first official correspondence from the McInnis campaign. The letter, sent on behalf of McInnis, informed us of a scheduling conflict that would prevent him from attending the debate and offered to send a surrogate instead. (If anyone is aware of any official communication that predates this letter, please send along the information.)" So, it might be that we have a lot of right-wing rebels without candidates, eventually canceling them out as an elective force.

Here in Colorado Springs, the tea party even has its own newspaper, the Constitutionalist Today. On the aggregate site, blognetnews, the sites are pretty about evenly mixed in a 50/50 ratio. All of the conservative ones have been blogging since before the tea party phenomena. I captured this list today, the red ones are the uptight ones:

The Drunkablog
Not My Tribe
The Daily Blogster
Mark Hillman
Rocky Mountain Right
Notes From a Grumpy Old Man
SquareState.net
ColoradoPols.com
2008 Democratic Convention Watch
Haley's Comment
Steam Powered Opinions
Wash Park Prophet
Nature Blog
Peoples Press Collective
bestdestiny
Bob's Blog
Eryn Gable
udallvschaffer
Colorado Confederatarian
5280 Magazine
Liberal and Loving It

Although I have only met tea party activists at the rallies in the park or at tables in front of the library, I rarely have met any of them socially. Our local newspaper, The Gazette, has a stated Libertarian bent, mostly expressed in its opinion pages, and is losing subscribers daily. Right wing extremists talk a lot about the right way to govern but always mess it up when they get elected, they're house of cards fall apart at the first stress test. Our local government is chock full of Libertarian and extremist conservatives, and has let the infrastructure go to ruin, the roads are full of potholes, the police helicopters were sold, a lot of the police force and government workers have been laid off, businesses are leaving, and they are thinking of selling the municipal hospital and privatizing most governmental services. As one Huffington Post reader put it: "Colorado Springs. Home of "Focus on the Family", etc. Which is turning into a third world country because the city government and the budget have been basically eliminated by the conservatives down there. No parks (which are turning into unkept landscapes with trash), no museums, no street lights, no money to fix roads, minimal to nonexistent buses, no schools, minimal police and fire emergency services, minimal civil government, etc. etc. Yep! That's America's future folks. A libertarian Tea Party dream come true. Think about it when the time comes to vote this fall  - laresistance 4 hours ago (12:30 PM)"


The kindest thing I can say about living here is the water tastes really good. Of course, Colorado has the largest amount of toxic mine sites, and heavy metals like uranium may have leached into the water table along with traces of prescription drugs and methamphetamines, a problem that affects most of American cities' water supply. I drink about eight glasses of water per day, haven't noticed too many side effects... it's good, though.

Which reminds me, have you heard the Utah Phillips joke of moose turd pie?:

Years ago I worked on a crew laying tracks for the railroad. There was no assigned cook, the cook was the last person who complained about the previous meal. Once when I was the cook I went into the woods to look for berries to make a pie, but instead I found a big old moose turd. I took it into the cook shed and made a moose turd pie for desert knowing that somebody would complain and I wouldn't have to cook any more. After dinner I brought out a large pie and all the guys eagerly waited for a piece. The biggest, strongest, meanest guy on the crew pushed his way to the front so he could get his first. He sat down, got a forkfull, and hollered,
" HEY! THIS IS MOOSE TURD PIE!!! It's good though...

There is the possibility that the mixture of so many Army and Air Force personnel with evangelical Christians and Texas good-old boys and Left-coast hippies all stomping through the forests, skiing down the hills, rafting down the rivers of this fair state while imbibing in medical marijuana, have created a new breed of tea-sipping eco-warriors, who are more interested in preserving the freedoms and beauty of Nature, the sentiment so aptly expressed by the late Utah Phillips:

"The earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses."


"You are about to be told one more time that you are America's most valuable natural resource. Have you seen what they do to valuable natural resources?! Have you seen a strip mine? Have you seen a clear cut in the forest? Have you seen a polluted river? Don't ever let them call you a valuable natural resource! They're going to strip mine your soul. They're going to clear cut your best thoughts for the sake of profit unless you learn to resist." "The state can't give you freedom, and the state can't take it away. Freedom is something you're born with, and then one day someone tries to deny it. The extent to which you resist is the extent to which you are free."

Hayward Replaced by Smoky Bear At BP, Barton Backlash,Israel Opens Land Crossing To Individuals

David Brooks
Dan Barry
Dana Milbank
Joe Klein

David Letterman's "Top Ten Things Overheard During President Obama's Meeting with Tony Hayward"

10."So, what's new?"
9."Careful, you're getting oil all over the Oval Office"
8."Before I start kicking asses, would any of you like some sparkling water?"
7."Speaking of leaks, where's the men's room?"
6."Thanks for giving my administration something to worry about besides two wars, a crushing debt, global warming and the worst economy in 70 years"
5."$20 Billion? Hell, I got that on me!"
4."Tony, I forgave you the second I heard that dreamy British accent"
3."Gotta keep this short, I'm meeting with the president of Indonesia about that smoking baby" (Videotape of Smoking Baby)
2."Biden, please, enough with the vuvuzela"
1."How can we blame this on Bush and Cheney?"

I didn't post anything yesterday, I ended up spending the day as a playmate to our neighbor's Brindle Boxer. He has escaped from his house and came directly to my front door. My sister has three small chihuahuas and one Brussels Gryphon, who were alternately excited to see him and terrorized by his size. So, I spent the whole day keeping him by my side, and he took advantage of the situation by breaking all of his house rules. I had a determined 100 lb dog climbing up on my lap on the couch, and literally hugging me and licking me all over my head and arms. At other times I had to control him so he didn't step on a small dog in his excitement to play with them. All in all, an instructive day in animal behavior, and I now know why old men also prefer owning smaller dogs...

The press's focus today seems to be mostly on BP's Tony Hayward five hour grilling before Congress yesterday. I almost feel sorry for the guy, waking up one morning to become the most hated man in America. But every time he opens his mouth he makes us hate him more and more. Both Dan Barry and Dana Milbank relate the story, with mr Barry's piece being the closest to gonzo journalism the NY Times will allow. I guess at one time, the chairman Henry Waxman got fed up with Mr Hayward's non-answers  that he asked if Mr Hayward had read the list of questions that the committee had sent him before the hearing... If he had his lawyers write down the answers, Mr Hayward could then read them off like a script, and at least give some authoritative answers instead of his constantly saying that he didn't know, he wasn't involved in that decision, that's not his area of expertise...

Ever since Barack Obama was campaigning to become President, the Republican strategy has been to "just say no" to all of his ideas and policies. This automatic negative reaction to everything Obama says or does often backfires in the realm of public opinion, but since it's the only trick they know, they keep repeating it, and it's why Mitch McConnell and John Boehner so often look like fools in front of the cameras. The most recent nabob of negativity came from Representative Joe Barton, from Texas, and who has accepted the most money in contributions from oil companies, including BP, than any other Republican, in his opening remarks: "I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday," the Texan said of BP's offer, under pressure from President Obama, to set aside $20 billion to pay damages to Gulf Coast residents ruined by the oil spill. "I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown."


Heads of the other committee members spun, cartoon-like, in the direction of Barton. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) froze, her coffee cup suspended equidistant between tabletop and lips. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the panel chairman, scrunched his face and shook his head as though he had just witnessed a bloody wreck.


In a sense, he had. And Barton wasn't done. The $20 billion BP would pay to those who are now out of work because of the spill is a "slush fund," he said. Then he did the unthinkable: He apologized to the man whose company is destroying a large piece of the nation. "I apologize," he said, adding that he doesn't "want to live in a country" that does such things to poor BP."

Joe was just articulating what the Republican Central Committee had previously criticized after Obama got BP to set up the $20 billion trust account, and people like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman have criticized demonizing BP.  But, instead of solidarity over Joe's remarks, he's being attacked by his own party and some have asked for him to step down from his being the ranking Republican on the energy committee, and he was made to go back at the end of the meeting and apologize for his apology to BP: " "If anything I've said this morning has been misconstrued," he said, "I want to apologize for that misconstrued -- misconstruction." Again, this is where I whine that our elected officials need to pass a basic literacy test... The Republicans will continue to automatically make negative statements over anything else Obama will do while in office, then throw one of their own under the passing train of public opinion if it isn't accepted well. Joe Barton may have ended his political career for being loyal to the oil lobby and expressing his love in public.

The other result from the hearing is that Tony will get his life back - he's being recalled back to Britain, where he will fade back into obscurity. Which means that BP thinks it has a more sympathetic spokesman lined up. I believe they are bringing Smoky the Bear out of retirement for a few quick commercials: "OK Smoky, say your lines 'I am the Walrus!' "

MMMMM, BP, IT'S FINGER LICKING GOOD!

Another fine mess is developing over the Gaza blockades. Hamas has finally relented and is now letting the humanitarian aid that was off-loaded from the flotilla ships to enter into Gaza and be distributed by UN run charities. This includes the pre-fab housing units that have been promised to incredibly poor families living in worse conditions than the Haitians are, if you can believe it. Suddenly, the rest of the Arab world has discovered their compassion for the Palestinians living in Gaza, and more flotillas have been planned. Of course, nothing will be sent to the Palestinian refugees living in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, where their living conditions have not improved in over 50 years because the governments of those countries treat them with contempt and have refused to improve their lot, hoping to embarrass Israel...

Israel has decided to open up the barricades at the land crossings into Gaza, but will allow only people carrying personal items through. Businesses hoping to bring commercial items across will have to stick to the smuggling tunnels for now. The Egyptians opened up their side of the border, but seem to have no set rules as to who and what can go across the border, people are randomly searched and items confiscated without any reasons given, so you go across at your own risk... I couldn't find any mention of the Iranian lawmakers who were supposed to have visited and caused a scene, so perhaps that was diplomatically avoided. The Iranian aid ships are still on their way, they plan on sneaking into Egyptian waters and sailing to Gaza that way, to avoid Israeli ships. Israel has asked Egypt to detain them, but so far Egypt has declined. Egypt is trying to show some backbone here, as the next phony election season is gearing up. Creating phony election results is what Egypt and Iran have in common, in fact, its common practice throughout the region, and is why such a cynical attitude is popular towards elections and any so-called democracies...

Iran is trying to become a major international player, and the recent sanctions could hurt the economic expansion of the Revolutionary Guard. Look forward to confrontations between US factions and Iranian factions in Latin America and the Caribbean this Summer, as members of an elite tactical unit within the Guards have been roaming in Brazil and neighboring countries, perhaps even influencing recent remarks made by an old and feeble Fidel Castro from Cuba... Looks like I won't be legally obtaining any Cuban cigars anytime soon...

Beam Us Up Kimmy, Michelle Grants Demonic Powers to Obama

Maureen Dowd
Eugene Robinson
Dana Milbank

"If respect is what oil executives seek, they'll have to do better than phantom walruses and dead professors." - Dana Milbank

"There's some good economic news here. Employers plan to hire 5 percent more college graduates this year than in 2009. Unfortunately, almost all these jobs involve rubber gloves, paper towels, and a one-way ticket to the Gulf of Mexico." –Jimmy Fallon

It seems that nobody really liked President Obama's speech last night, that it was a piece of fluff lacking content or bite. Eugene Robinson does a good job dissecting the speech, and Dana Milbank relates the session in Congress where the five heads of the oil companies testified, looking like completely clueless idiots. If it wasn't an act that all CEO's put on when performing before Congress, we are innocent deer in the headlights with even less information than you schtick, then our world is run by incredibly stupid individuals... Watching their testimony on television last night, the cynical part of my sense of humor was renewed. BP's written plan on what to do if a disaster occurred, required by the government, was exactly the same as all of the other companies. Each company just put their own cover on the report, and it was approved by the idiots running the MMM. The most glaring facts that showed that the report was cut and pasted from reports for other areas and not even changed to reflect the Gulf region, is the mention of the possible danger to walruses if a spill should occur. It was pointed out by the committee chairman that walruses haven't been in the Gulf of Mexico for over 3 million years... Also, all reports included the name and phone number of a technical expert, Peter Lutz, who had died five years ago: "Markey asked Exxon Mobil's Tillerson why in 2009 he filed "a response plan having a person who has been dead for four years."


"The fact that Dr. Lutz died in 2005 does not mean his work and the importance of his work died with him," Tillerson answered." Stuff like this could have been written by the scriptwriters of 30 Rock, and I guess there's room for the argument that the world of big business is devoid of humor or irony...

What is it about Iran's plucky little Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his thirst to be in the spotlight? I'm beginning to wonder if the Grand ayatollah is content giving him enough rope that he'll eventually hang himself, or if their government thinks that he is boldly giving the Great Satan the tail tweaking it deserves. Every day since the UN declared sanctions against his best buddies in the government, he has been in the Arabian press, shouting defiant to whomever will record him for broadcast. The latest is his declaration to punish the US and that Iran will now sit down and negotiate nuclear matters, , to be announced later: "You showed bad temper, reneged on your promise and again resorted to devilish manners," he said of the powers that imposed sanctions. "We set conditions [for talks] so that, God willing, you'll be punished a bit and sit at the negotiating table like a polite child," he told a crowd during a visit to the central Iranian town of Shahr-e-Kord. His speech was broadcast live on state TV.


Ahmadinejad also attacked the U.S., saying Iran needs to save Americans from their "undemocratic and bullying government." He charged there was no freedom in the U.S. and newspapers in America were not authorized to write against Israel or hold rallies against the "crimes" committed by their government."
Of course, this cracked up many Muslims watching it, at the thought of the US sitting like a school-child, to be seen and not heard. Of course, Mahmoud may have been indulging in some kinky personal imagery, thinking of Hillary in the child's role. You never know about those repressed leaders from religious splinter groups... And, of course, he is totally wrong about the lack of freedom in the US papers. Criticism is launched against our government hourly, and everyone from the big newspapers down to the lowly blog writer such as myself, has been critical of the right wing wackos who make bad policy in the Israeli government. But, somehow, I get the impression that if we locked Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Benjamin Netanyahu in a room together for several hours, and stripped away their nationalism for their respective countries, they'd end up good drinking buddies because of their aggressive and flamboyant personalities and their right wing rhetoric. Maybe their behavior is really being psychically controlled by that master soccer coach, Kim Jong-Il, who just has to face towards their countries and beam them instructions just like he does for his soccer team in South Africa... "beam us up, Kimmy..."



flotilla madness...

Next to make the fictional best-seller list this Summer, will be the competing investigations into the commando raids on the humanitarian flotilla. Israel, of course, is initiating one, the UN is starting another, and now Turkey has announced that it will produce one because it doesn't trust the others. It will be interesting to see the sequence of events and their interpretations through these very different mindsets... I'm expecting to see a reality TV show come out of this, since it has captured so much of the public's attention, Turkish flags are everywhere. It may be called Flotilla Madness, aired on Tuesday evenings at 8 pm... Israel has put the organizers of the flotilla on its terrorist watchlist, the Turkish organizers are threatening to send more ships, Iran is also sending a ship or two, and the people in Gaza still have not received any of the humanitarian aid. OK, the UN has begun to load up the stuff into trucks this morning, and they might be let through the checkpoints unless there are more hostilities or name-calling in the next two days... The Israeli cabinet met today to discuss letting building materials into Gaza, but came to no conclusions. At least you will be glad to know that chocolate and the spice cinnamon has been taken off of the list, God be praised...

no, thank you, michelle...

No offense to all of the women now involved in politics, but these days you can randomly throw a dart and land on some weird crackpot story, like Nevada's Sharron Angle. Which got me to wondering what one of the original crackpots has been up to lately... Michelle Bachmann never disappoints. She and her husband have a hobby, as reported by the Michigan Independent: "Bachmann and Associates, Inc., a counseling center that receives state funds and is owned by Rep. Michele Bachmann and her husband, Dr. Marcus Bachmann, uses counseling methods steeped in fundamentalist Christianity." The clinic has received state funds for treating low income families for mental health problems, drug dependency, and family counseling. It's possible that this is against the law, receiving state funds for religious preaching: “It’s wrong for the government to buy clinical services that include submission to God or proselytization,” said Luchenitser. “This appears to be a textbook case of taxpayers funds for religious purposes.” The clinic also only hires Christians, which may be a discriminatory violation in hiring practices. Hey, maybe when Michelle gets re-elected, she can use her influence to get her husband transferred to a prison closer to where she can visit...

Politically, Michelle hopes to organize a group to work for her, comprised of home-schooled conservative Christian teenagers in her re-election campaign, whom she has used before, and calls Generation Joshua...

On the recent statement that BP had agreed to set up an escrow account for future payments from the Gulf oil spill, Michelle said: "The president just called for creating a fund that would be administered by outsiders, which would be more of a redistribution-of-wealth fund. And now it appears like we’ll be looking at one more gateway for more government control, more money to government. If there is a disaster, why is it that government is the one who always seems to benefit after a disaster, and that’s of course what cap-and-trade would be."

But my favorite quote of hers came when she tried to expand on the subject and gives demonic powers to Barack Obama, revealing the comic-book kind of Christianity she practices: "They shouldn’t have to be fleeced and make chumps to have to pay for perpetual unemployment and all the rest — they’ve got to be legitimate claims.


The other thing we have to remember is that Obama loves to make evil whatever company it is that he wants to get more power from. He makes them evil, and what we’ve got to ask ourselves is: Do we really want to be paying $9 for a gallon of gas? Because that could be the final result of this." 

Top Ten Reasons Americans Don't Like Soccer

10.Too many foreigners

9.Loud horns make it hard to nap through boring parts

8.Bench clearing brawls not as much fun without bats or sticks

7.No theme song asking if we are ready for some soccer

6.Not enough 'roids

5.Lots of players with umlauts in their names

4.Americans too busy reading

3.Doesn't have the heart-pounding action of a 5-hour baseball game

2.No TV timeouts means fewer snack breaks to stuff our fat faces

1.Too much kicking, not enough rasslin'

EU And Congress Want More Sanctions, Iranian Lawmakers to Demonstrate Along Gaza Border

Reuel Marc Guerecht
Dana Milbank

The strange chess game with Iran continues this week. At the UN's Human Rights Committee's meeting in Geneva this morning, a resolution signed by 56 countries was introduced, calling on Iran to investigate the violence that happened on the streets of Tehran during the protest rallies after their fake election. Iran protested, not wanting to be the only country to have ever been singled out along with Israel at these meetings.

The European Union and the US Congress are going to approve even more sanctions against Iran, aimed at their oil and gas sector. Iran has to import 15% of its natural gas from Turkey, and it can always sell its oil to China.

Iran and Israel are drawing each other as dance partners so much lately, you'd think that their might be a fatal attraction between these youngsters. The right wing leader of the Iranian parliament has requested visas from Egypt for 200 Iranian lawmakers: "... if Cairo allows the delegation to enter Gaza, it would be the first time a high-ranking Revolutionary Iranian delegation was ever permitted to tour the Gazan-Israeli border under the eyes of IDF border positions. Larijani is planning to stand up at some point on the border fence, flanked by the enclave's Hamas rulers, and deliver a message of hate for Israel and support for the Palestinian Hamas extremists.


Tehran has another ulterior motive for grandstanding in this style. One is to steal the international limelight Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan attracted by his blockade-breaking flotilla of May 31 - and go one better. The scenario Larijani has scripted will take his flock of Iranian lawmakers right into the Gaza Strip and show themselves on the Israeli border as a provocative challenge for the Israeli patrols on the other side." This is in addition to the Iranian container ship that is headed for Gaza and will try to also sail past the Israeli blockade. A second ship is scheduled to leave Iran on Saturday: "The Iranian ships will not be in international waters but instead in Egyptian waters and then technically in Gaza's territorial waters - which are under the control of the Israeli navy," he said.


"[This is] unlike the Turkish flotilla, which entered international waters when the raid happened. Therefore these Iranian ships will be subject to Egyptian naval control and ultimately when they get into Gaza will have to face the Israeli navy."

These theatrics are hoping to bolster Hamas as a tough, pro-Palestinian force among Arabian countries, and not the irrelevant, impotent bunch of thugs that it is currently portrayed. The Israeli head of Shin Beit has said that Hamas has stockpiled over 5000 missiles, and is currently buying land around Jerusalem. If any of this provokes the Israelis into another hot-headed action, oh, say, launching some missiles at Iran from their nuclear subs stationed in the Persian Gulf, then Iran wins a public relations war as well as seen as a victim by the aggressor Israel, and even the US won't be able to extricate them from the loving grip of the tar baby... As I predicted, it's going to be a long, hot Summer, tighten down your wigs...

Iran's population is split about 50% for the Green Movement, and 50% pro Ahmadinejad and his policies. Many of the more talented young people are immigrating to other countries, or are planning to after they graduate from college. This brain drain will be costly a few years from now. Reuel Guerecht makes a good suggestion that the best way for the US to support the Green Movement is to spend $50 million for communications: "More specifically, the opposition needs access to satellite-fed Internet connections across the country. Unlike landline connections, satellite-dish communications are difficult for the government to shut down. Just monitoring them would be a technical nightmare for the regime. The opposition needs more access to the wide array of satellites that are accessible from Iran — including Arabsat, which was founded by the Arab League in 1976, and France’s Eutelsat.

THE democracy movement also needs a large supply of digital-video broadcasting cards, which function much like prepaid telephone cards and allow downloading and uploading of digital content from satellites. The Green Movement’s technology experts have done back-of-the-envelope calculations: just $50 million per year could open the entire country to the Internet. Millions less would still allow the diverse range of pro-democracy groups to communicate with each other and more effectively counter the regime’s security forces. Compared to what the United States peacefully did to help anti-Communists during the cold war, such aid would be a pittance, financially and operationally." Hillary has gotten her sanctions, and more are on their way, but Obama can help in a big way by the aforementioned communications satellite and Internet connections. If the Green Movement can communicate with each other without being shut off by their government, they will be able to keep alive and spread future ideas.

getting older while keeping you head above the oil level...
Last week I read conflicting reports on the joys of aging. One said that by the time a person reaches 50, they have gotten comfortable with who they are, and by the time they reach 80 or so, they are pretty happy with themselves. My first reaction to this was that I will bet that prescribing anti-depressants to this age group is pretty high among doctors. I know that among my father's group of professional friends, everyone of them took something to lessen the psychic pain of missing a loved one who had died before them, be it child or spouse.

Another report I read stated that currently, the highest age group for suicides is in my group, 50 - 65. I will admit to entertaining suicidal thoughts lately, but I think that everyone goes through that as their bodies begin to fail and the amount of medications you have to take daily mount up. I have also been fighting some mild dementia, hence, this blog, to try and keep my mind sharp and bring back my sense of humor. Then, there are the depressing moments that yo have no control over. One old friend of mine that I used to work with suggested I FRIEND on Facebook another person we both worked with. When I did this, she responded that sorry, she didn't remember me... which I found depressing, that I was becoming a figure like Zelig, fading from the old histories and memories of old acquaintances... Because I really want to be remembered with brilliance and fondness. So, I guess the truth is some grey area in between, that a person's happiness depends on accepting their lot in life. I find that I'm more emotional than I was 10 - 15 years ago, and I can cry over some dumb television show just as easily as over a beautiful sunrise, and have more compassion for other people's stories and the hardships they have faced.
There was a book of photographs of old people i saw in the 1970's, who's title just about sums it up: Getting Old Is Not For Sissies..

I find the BP spill incredibly depressing, especially the same old ways their officials have of lying and trying to deflect hard questions. When their chief engineer was asked why they were using the same old technology from thirty years ago to clean up the oil reaching land, and why there hadn't been any advances made in those thiry years, he replied that it was because they hadn't had any really major oil spills to force them to make those advances, but in squirrelier words... I think most of our country feels impotent and hostage to BP and whatever they use to clean things up. And each time their attempts fail to contain the oil spill, we see fish and plants, and an incredible diversity of life-forms dying. And yet, what alternative to oil and more drilling do we have? For the amount of money that is in the black budget of the Pentagon, we could attach solar panels to every existing house and commercial building in the US. I just haven't seen any pragmatic plans to offer alternative energy, and a lot of BS commercials promising a better way... If BP goes bankrupt or out of business as a result, it may put Britiain into an economic tailspin it can't get out of, so many pensions are invested in BP. I think that the kind of person who becomes a CEO of these large companies is morally bankrupt. Lies come out of their mouths, it's second nature to BP, Goldman Sachs, AIG, GM, and that's barely scratching the surface. How could you believe anything that's said if you were a shareholder or an investor? The whole idea that less regulation is what is needed because the industries are better at regulating themselves is such a sham when the industries are always full of lies. It's just not the kind of culture I want to see our grandchildren inheriting.

late night BP jokes:

"There is good news! BP today finally managed to almost completely stop the flow of information." –Bill Maher

"There is good news. Scientists sent a probe down there in the Gulf of Mexico today and they found traces of seawater." –Bill Maher

"The first big match of the World Cup is the U.S. vs. Britain. The loser has to clean up the Gulf." –Jay Leno

"BP's stock has dropped 51 percent since the oil spill. Now that they're leaking money like they're leaking oil, maybe they'll get up and do something about it." –Jay Leno

"A review of BP's 582-page plan to deal with a catastrophic oil spill was found to be full of errors and severely flawed. BP listed their lead drilling specialist as a Mr. Jed Clampett of Beverly Hills." –Jay Leno

"A lot of people are upset and wondering why President Obama is willing to sit down with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but not BP CEO Tony Hayward. I think Obama is afraid — Ahmadinejad only threatened to destroy the world and Hayward is actually doing it." –Jay Leno

"Thanks to BP, the Gulf now has two new islands: self-service and full." –David Letterman

"This afternoon, President Obama met with Bill Gates at the White House to discuss energy reform. It was very cool. Bill Gates offered to plug the Gulf Coast oil leak with five billion unsold Zunes." –Jimmy Fallon

"BP, which of course stands for 'Born Polluted,' is spending $50 million on a PR campaign to make themselves look good. In fact, they said they would burn the midnight oil if they hadn't spilled it." –Jay Leno

"According to a new report, BP has the worst safety record of all the oil companies. They've paid over $372 million in fines. Oh, they don't call them fines. They call them 'campaign contributions.'" –Jay Leno

Real Rape Of Afghanistan To Begin, Iranian Ships Sailing To Gaza

Ross Douthat
EJ Dionne Jr
John Avlon

"America is now a country where social conservatives are as comfortable as liberals with the idea of women in high office. More strikingly, they’re comfortable voting for working mothers..." - Ross Douthat

"Certainly there's no good news for Gulf business owners. They've been trying to get BP to process their claims. BP today said that they're on the way. These are the two big lies in life, remember? The check is in the mail, and I won't spurt in your gulf." –Bill Maher

"This week we had primaries and they say this is 'The Year of the Woman.' The women dominated. As opposed to the last election cycle, which was 'The Year of the Closeted Gay Republican.'" –Bill Maher

This is one of those stories that you have to wonder about, the announcement that Afghanistan is sitting on over $1 trillion of minerals. That's more than enough for every citizen to get a satellite TV dish and a new Toyota pick-up! "The report, which was produced by the American military and the United States Geological Survey, found that Afghanistan had at least $1 trillion in mineral wealth. In a news conference primarily with Afghan reporters, President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman, Waheed Omar, described the report as “the best news we have had over many years in Afghanistan.”


“The Afghan government is actively looking to its Ministry of Mines, to its Ministry of Commerce and to other entities in the Afghan government to start to bring these to the benefit of the Afghan people,” he said."

Our counterinsurgency thingy isn't going so well, it would take years to actually do what Gen McChrystal hopes to do in Kandahar Province in a few months, and if lucrative mineral rights get involved, you will never be able to develop an honest government in the area. As Blake Hounshell, in Foreign Policy,points out: "But I'm (a) skeptical of that $1 trillion figure; (b) skeptical of the timing of this story, given the bad news cycle, and (c) skeptical that Afghanistan can really figure out a way to develop these resources in a useful way. It's also worth noting, as Risen does, that it will take years to get any of this stuff out of the ground, not to mention enormous capital investment." He also said that the US Geological report has been on its website for the last three years, and it also has been on the Afghan Ministry of Mines website. Why is it news all of a sudden, reported in the Times? Something stinks...

So, our military stays until lucrative contracts have been signed by the most corrupt division in the Afghan government ( there was a $30 million bribe by the Chinese for a copper contract. The minister was fired, but the contract was given to the Chinese, and the bribe was not returned), then the country gets developed by giant international companies who strip mine the hell out of the mountains, flushing out any hiding places for extremists who want to impose sharia law somewhere. Because the new wealth will corrupt any Taliban, who will find it easier to rest their bones in hot tubs and drive Mercedes to and fro into Pakistan, buying their turbans on some local version of Home Shopping Network... The US figures that greed will have a more stabilizing force on the population, because the mineral deposits are in some of the Taliban strongholds. So quit the Taliban and get on the gravy train; besides, the Taliban leadership are safely living hundreds of miles away from the fighting, telling you what to do by cell-phone, cowards that they are...

Welcome To Pashtunland:

more ships to gaza... 

Iran plans to mess with Israel by sending two aid ships to Gaza. The ships are said to be filled with toys, clothing, construction supplies, and anything else they can think that will embarrass the Israeli government. The ships will be crewed by young volunteers who were offended by the commando raid on the turkish ship, and are willing to spark incitement for a similar situation to happen on their ships. Already there are calls by hot-headed Israelis to blow the ships out of the water, because they must be carrying guns for Hamas, neatly falling into the trap and what Iran is hoping for, more martyrdom of innocent people. Oh yeah, they might be allowed to unload without incident, deflating the whole affair, but then again, it's supposed to be a humanitarian gesture for the poor people of Palestine, who once again will be used as pawns... as a piece of street-theater, it should be interesting.