March 31, 2009

Juan Cole Knows Afghanistan

This Could Be Interesting...

Former president George W. Bush to throw out first pitch for Texas Rangers - ESPN
Former President George W. Bush will throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day for the Texas Rangers.

Bush will become the third U.S. president to throw out the first pitch for a Rangers home opener when Texas plays the Cleveland Indians on April 6.


Gotcha!

Latest Woe
Banks are quietly declining to take possession of properties at the end of the foreclosure process, most often because the cost of the ordeal — from legal fees to maintenance — exceeds the diminishing value of the real estate.


March 30, 2009

Big Pharma Has 1 in 10 US Kids on Ritalin

Life: A medical condition
If you look at the American Psychiatric Association 'bible', you'll see almost every piece of human behaviour can be classified as being in some way aberrant."

International Terrorists

BBC NEWS | Africa | Mystery over Sudan 'air strike'
Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, did not confirm any raid but said Israel hit everywhere to stop terror.

"That was true in the north," said Mr Olmert, "and it was true in the south ... Those who need to know, know there is no place where Israel cannot operate."

Giving a speech in the coastal town of Herzliya, the outgoing prime minister said: "We operate in many places near and far, and carry out strikes in a manner that strengthens our deterrence."

No More Cars For You!

GM, Chrysler recovery plans 'not viable'

As if we didn't know that a decade ago.

You know, what we have here is a fundamental loss of faith in the magic of the markets, but also a fundamental loss of faith in the government's ability to govern the markets.

And how did that happen eh? Let's make a list of all the stupid, irresponsible, criminally dangerous things the US government has done since Whenever.

Or not.

March 27, 2009

International Terrorists

BBC NEWS | Africa | Mystery over Sudan 'air strike'
Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, did not confirm any raid but said Israel hit everywhere to stop terror.

"That was true in the north," said Mr Olmert, "and it was true in the south ... Those who need to know, know there is no place where Israel cannot operate."

Giving a speech in the coastal town of Herzliya, the outgoing prime minister said: "We operate in many places near and far, and carry out strikes in a manner that strengthens our deterrence."

March 26, 2009

The Pointy End Of AIPAC?

BBC NEWS
Dr Colm O'Mahony, a sexual health expert from the Countess of Chester Foundation Trust Hospital in Chester, said the US had an "obsession" with circumcision being the answer to controlling sexually transmitted infections.

I'm So Old I Remember When Oliphant Was Drawing Cartoons Here In Oz

The Raw Story | Oliphant Israel-Gaza cartoon called 'hideously anti-Semitic'
As of late Wednesday, Oliphant had not responded publicly to the ADL's criticism of the cartoon.



Israel in late December launched a three-week offensive in Gaza which left over 1,300 Palestinians dead and countless of homes destroyed.

See, They Return...

Neocons Launch New Foreign Policy Group - by Daniel Luban and Jim Lobe
The blandly-named Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) – the brainchild of Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, neoconservative foreign policy guru Robert Kagan, and former Bush administration official Dan Senor – has thus far kept a low profile...

UK Gets Iraq War Inquiry

Results already looking predictable:
But he indicated the inquiry would be held in private, something opposed by many politicians.

And July 31 falls shortly after the House rises for its summer recess, meaning the process could not begin until October at the very earliest.


March 25, 2009

Real News

March 22, 2009

Famous Alumni

Looks who's on the books at Goldman Sachs

Malcolm Turnbull - Australian politician, currently the federal leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.
Maybe not a good time to be strapped to the mast (see links below plus this from Glenn Greenwald)

Who Could Have Predicted...?

The Big Takeover : Rolling Stone
It's over — we're officially, royally f*cked...

So it's time to admit it: We're fools, protagonists in a kind of gruesome comedy about the marriage of greed and stupidity. And the worst part about it is that we're still in denial — we still think this is some kind of unfortunate accident, not something that was created by the group of psychopaths on Wall Street whom we allowed to gang-rape the American Dream.


Well, not ALL of us....But yeah.
People are pissed off about this financial crisis, and about this bailout, but they're not pissed off enough. The reality is that the worldwide economic meltdown and the bailout that followed were together a kind of revolution, a coup d'état. They cemented and formalized a political trend that has been snowballing for decades: the gradual takeover of the government by a small class of connected insiders, who used money to control elections, buy influence and systematically weaken financial regulations.

The crisis was the coup de grâce: Given virtually free rein over the economy, these same insiders first wrecked the financial world, then cunningly granted themselves nearly unlimited emergency powers to clean up their own mess. And so the gambling-addict leaders of companies like AIG end up not penniless and in jail, but with an Alien-style death grip on the Treasury and the Federal Reserve — "our partners in the government," as Liddy put it with a shockingly casual matter-of-factness after the most recent bailout.
Sounds familiar?

Yeah, who saw that coming eh?
Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques - IDF fashion 2009 - Haaretz - Israel News

What's the idea behind "Only God forgives"?

The soldier: "It's just a saying."

No one had a problem with the fact that a mosque gets blown up in the picture?

"I don't see what you're getting at. I don't like the way you're going with this. Don't take this somewhere you're not supposed to, as though we hate Arabs."
Why the Banking Crisis Is Far From Over | Newsweek Business | Newsweek.com
In our forthcoming book, "This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly," we compare the U.S. crisis with earlier banking-crisis episodes in Spain, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Colombia and Argentina over the past three decades. It may seem like hyperbole to compare the United States with emerging markets, but hard evidence suggests it is not.

March 06, 2009

Deep Thought

I'm too big to fail.

Juan Cole's Grim Conclusion

Informed Comment:
There will not be a positive outcome in the Mideast. We are in for a fifty-years war, which Israel is very likely to lose in the long run, and during the course of which there will be enormous violence and terrorism, including, probably, further attacks on the United States for its knee-jerk support of Israeli expansionism and aggressive total wars on Arab civilian populations.

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