International pt. 9

9001. jexster - 6/9/2008 8:23:17 AM

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Tehran. The presence of US forces in Iraq is the country's main problem, Khamenei has told Malik

9002. jexster - 6/9/2008 11:02:55 AM

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq is on a state visit to Iran (which began on Saturday evening), his third since he assumed office in 2005. He was, as is customary for Muslim heads of state (and prime ministers), granted an audience with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The photographs below show Maliki with President Ahmadinejad and in his subsequent meeting with the Supreme Leader.

What is of note is the absence of a tie around his neck, a tie that he normally wears daily, in that second meeting. His not wearing one is both a sign of respect for the leader of a regime that believes ties are a symbol of western influence and decadence (or "westoxification", in the revolutionary lexicon), but perhaps, more importantly, a sign that he really didn't want to piss off the Supreme Leader of Iran.

Now, any questions on Iran's influence in Iraq?

9003. jexster - 6/9/2008 11:04:42 AM

Good Ole Ruhollah lookin down from Heaven

9004. jexster - 6/9/2008 11:06:44 AM

No doubt receiving instructions for Iran's sockpuppets on the Potomac!

9005. jexster - 6/9/2008 11:16:15 AM

This should come as no surprise

Surrender Monkeys Prepare for the Coming of the Caliphate:




A poll in late May of five major countries -- Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia -- showed Sen. Obama getting 52% support, compared with 15% for Sen. McCain. In France, 65% favor Sen. Obama, compared with 8% for Sen. McCain, according to the poll for the United Kingdom's Daily Telegraph newspaper. Another poll published online Saturday in Belgium's Le Soir newspaper showed Belgians prefer Sen. Obama over Sen. McCain 74% to 12%.

9006. jexster - 6/9/2008 5:51:14 PM

Ayatollah's Sockpuppet Surrenders


Damn. Kahmeni only delivered the orders yesterday.


Fast work




The Bush administration is conceding for the first time that the United States may not finish a complex security agreement with Iraq before President Bush leaves office.

Faced with stiff Iraqi opposition, it is "very possible" the U.S. may have to extend an existing U.N. mandate, said a senior administration official close to the talks. That would mean major decisions about how U.S. forces operate in Iraq could be left to the next president, including how much authority the U.S. must give Iraqis over military operations and how quickly the handover takes place.

The official said the goal is still to have an agreement by year's end. And the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, said he feels no pressure from the U.S. political calendar, and that Dec. 31 is "a clear deadline."

9007. jexster - 6/9/2008 7:20:03 PM

Darling of the Cheese Eaters: Obama Holds Mirror Up to the French
(Financial Times)

9008. jexster - 6/10/2008 5:14:13 PM

"We can't win, can't lose and can't leave," said a former CIA official with experience in the region, who requested anonymity. "We're stuck. It will be too unthinkably humiliating if we leave."


Iraq?
Guess again

Try Afghanistan

9009. jexster - 6/11/2008 9:45:06 AM

Bush Bombs Pakistan: 11 Pakistani Soldiers Killed

9010. jexster - 6/11/2008 10:26:03 AM

DEATH TO PAKISTAN!
Death to Macacans

9011. jexster - 6/11/2008 12:53:33 PM

Pakistan: George McBush is a cowardly low life pile of elephant dung

9012. wonkers2 - 6/11/2008 1:49:02 PM

Madeline Albright in a NYT op-ed today says the concept of national sovereignty is making a comeback!

9013. jexster - 6/11/2008 5:41:02 PM

Xena Warrior Princess? Hillary's chief FP adviser? That one?

Guess she's polishin the ole resume

9014. jexster - 6/11/2008 5:41:47 PM

I just want to kill macaca people

They called George Bush a coward today

9015. jexster - 6/12/2008 2:58:17 PM

Same old surrender monkeys...

French Fried Appeasement - Sarko Invites Assad to Bastille Day

9016. jexster - 6/12/2008 7:05:27 PM

President of the Planet

Foreign nations overwhelmingly prefer Obama, survey finds

9017. jexster - 6/14/2008 1:21:42 PM

And McBush says they hate our values!


A regular fucking Hollywood Blvd, cept the heroin is cheaper

and the ho's too!

Sex trade thrives in Afghanistan



The girl was 11 when she was molested by a man with no legs.

The man paid her $5. And that was how she started selling sex.

Afghanistan is one of the world's most conservative countries, yet its sex trade appears to be thriving. Sex is sold most obviously at brothels full of women from China who serve both Afghans and foreigners. Far more controversial are Afghan prostitutes, who stay underground in a society that pretends they don't exist.

Customs meant to keep women "pure" have not stopped prostitution. Girls are expected to remain virgins until their wedding nights, so some prostitutes have only anal sex.

9018. jexster - 6/15/2008 11:01:02 AM

McBushWar Pakistan....

A Sober Assessment of Afghanistan
Outgoing U.S. Commander Cites 50% Spike in Attacks in East

9019. jexster - 6/15/2008 12:58:02 PM

La révolution Obama




D'ores et déjà, Barack Obama a gagné son pari. En quelques mois, il a révolutionné la politique américaine. Porteur d'un message d'espoir, il s'est placé au dessus des lignes partisanes et a réussi à entrainer derrière lui des centaines de milliers d'Américains.

9020. jexster - 6/16/2008 11:57:49 AM

6 wars, 11 defeats...


US is uneasy as Pakistan bargains with militants

American and NATO officials fear that truce negotiations in tribal areas will result in more violence in Afghanistan.

The Idiot of the US said the other day that they should have one of them jirgas

There having beaucoup jirgas

9021. jexster - 6/16/2008 11:59:02 AM

They're having jirgas too!


What a mess

9022. jexster - 6/17/2008 2:06:39 PM

How many more humiliating defeats will American tolerate?

Old-Line Taliban Commander Is Face of Rising Afghan Threat

9023. jexster - 6/18/2008 9:36:57 AM

Sixth War
11th Defeat

One PO'ed pak of Macacas


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Pakistani military is so angry over the American airstrikes here last week that it is threatening to postpone or cancel an American program to train a paramilitary force in counterinsurgency for combating Islamist militants, two Pakistani government officials said.


President Pervez Musharraf, left, last year with his successor as army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The alliance between the United States and Pakistan has depended on the relationship between President Bush and Mr. Musharraf, whose power is waning. General Kayani has refused every suggestion of letting American forces operate in the tribal areas.

Some Pakistani officials are convinced that the Americans deliberately fired on their military, killing 11 men from the very paramilitary force the Americans want to train, an accusation the Americans deny.

The uncertainty over the program reflects how deeply scarred the United States’ alliance with Pakistan, already strained, has been since the June 10 airstrikes, Pakistani officials and Western diplomats said.

The $400 million training program is intended to combat militancy by fielding a paramilitary force, called the Frontier Corps, from among the tribes that live in the border areas. It was a compromise between American and Pakistani officials looking for the least intrusive way to fortify security in an area where the Pakistani government has rejected the idea of American soldiers and where even the regular Pakistani Army is often not welcome.

Ending or delaying the program, which is already under way, would deny the United States what little leverage it has in the tribal areas to combat a rising number of cross-border attacks from Pakistan into Afghanistan against American and NATO forces this year.

9024. concerned - 6/19/2008 10:24:29 AM

Europe Turns Back to Coal, Raising Climate Fears

Say, AC - looks like Yurrup is kissing any CO₂ reduction goals good-bye.

9025. jexster - 6/19/2008 12:40:08 PM

Not John McShame!

The Turning point on Global Warming
By John McShame
Joe Mentum

9026. jexster - 6/19/2008 12:41:26 PM

That's a nucular plant TD

9027. concerned - 6/19/2008 2:00:11 PM

Re. 9026 -

Did you overdose on idiot pills this morning, rejexst? Or just addicted to pathological lying?

That's the Niederaussem lignit coal-fired power station.

9028. jexster - 6/19/2008 4:05:26 PM

Severe Weather to Increase as Earth Warms
Report says storms, drought will take increasingly heavy toll on N. America as Earth warms.




Concerned....

You and Larry Sinclair have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Do you understand?
Anything you do say may be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand?
You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future. Do you understand?
If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. Do you understand?
If you decide to answer questions now without an attorney present you will still have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney. Do you understand?
Knowing and understanding your rights as I have explained them to you, are you willing to answer my questions without an attorney present?

9029. concerned - 6/19/2008 4:27:15 PM

Sinclair says Hussein is unfit for office.

I have to agree with that.

9030. jexster - 6/19/2008 4:28:01 PM

That's why our Founding Fuckers gave you both the right to remain silent

9031. concerned - 6/19/2008 9:32:04 PM

Sinclair in your face until November, jexster.

Suck on that - you'll like it.

9032. jexster - 6/20/2008 4:03:37 AM

I don't think they let prisoners hold press conferences

9033. jexster - 6/20/2008 11:46:59 AM

McBush Army in Brzezinski's Afghan Trap

9034. jexster - 6/20/2008 11:55:07 AM

Was 9/11 the most effective single military operation in the history of the world?


With a single strike al Qaeda changed the course of the world’s hegemonic state, by many measures the most powerful nation (relative to its time) that the world has ever seen. They did this at a negligible cost in money and manpower — never have so few changed so many with so little effort. Our counter-strikes have damaged or crippled al Qaeda, but its leaders may see al Qaeda as the vanguard of their movement, not its body — and hence expendable.

9/11 changed the course of America in terms of both internal and external policy, changing both in ways almost certainly inimical to our long-term strength and prosperity. Al Qaeda manipulated America as a matador does with a bull, waving a cape to so that the bull charges into position for the thrust of the sword.

9035. concerned - 6/20/2008 8:07:54 PM

If 'Rats think 9/11 was a 'military operation', that multiplies their inadequacy to lead US policy.

9036. jexster - 6/20/2008 8:11:22 PM

Not a rat...a DOD defense analyst

9037. jexster - 6/20/2008 8:11:58 PM

Suckered Bush with the entire US army into two quagmires.

Brilliant!

9038. jexster - 6/20/2008 8:12:32 PM

Now even the Israelis are abandoning us

They ain't dumb

9039. jexster - 6/20/2008 8:17:56 PM

The fact that Concerned is clueless on the point that 9/11 was a military operation speaks volumes of his and McBush's manifest ignorance of the type of war this really is - 4th Generation War in which they've lost and wrecked a 2nd generation army in the process


The track record of defeat since 2001 speaks for itself

9040. concerned - 6/20/2008 8:23:18 PM

Rejexst - you're talking just like Tokyo Rose did in WWII. And we know how that ended.

9041. concerned - 6/20/2008 8:25:04 PM

Murdering 2000 plus innocent civilians without warning is a military operation?

I don't think so, rejexst. It's mass murder.

9042. concerned - 6/20/2008 8:27:43 PM

That's one of the things that's so repulsive about you, rejexst. You are always taking the side of those whose modus operandi primarily consists of intimidating and murdering innocent civilians.

You're a throwback to an age that the civilized world wants to leave forever.

9043. jexster - 6/20/2008 8:28:54 PM

Certainly is. The bombing of Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the fire bombing of Tokyo, the 900 Day Siege of Leningrad, the terror bombings of Guernica and London....


All military operations

Why do you think we've spent 500,000,000,000 in Iraq alone

Tiddly winks?

9044. jexster - 6/20/2008 8:29:46 PM

Objective analysis

I'll leave the pompoms and flag waving to the idiots.

9045. jexster - 6/20/2008 8:30:08 PM

This is war not your high school homecoming game

9046. jexster - 6/20/2008 8:32:39 PM

If it makes it any easier and not that it changes a goddamm thing...

That's the Pentagon you simple shit

McClellan was right. McBush depended on idiots like you to get us into the mess we're in

9047. jexster - 6/20/2008 8:34:35 PM

This one failed to protect you and thanks to his wars..been downhill ever since

9048. concerned - 6/20/2008 9:45:41 PM

And rejexst is supporting the mass murderers, why....?

9049. concerned - 6/20/2008 9:46:38 PM

Rejexst's side is hell on innocent civilians - there's just no way around that.

9050. jexster - 6/22/2008 9:21:38 AM

Carla

9051. jexster - 6/22/2008 9:39:19 AM

Why did John McShame make propagand videos for the NV Commies?

Why did Jane Fonda man an anti-aircraft gun?

Why did McBush sell out the US to Iranian spies?

9052. jexster - 6/22/2008 9:39:34 AM

Somebody HATES AMERICA

9053. concerned - 6/24/2008 10:26:18 PM

Hussein says USA should invade Zimbabwe

Isn't he the same guy who reportedly dropped the following pearls of wisdom? "As I've said about the flag pin, I don't want to be perceived as taking sides, there are a lot of people in the world to whom the American flag is a symbol of oppression. And the anthem itself conveys a war-like message. You know, the bombs bursting in air and all. It should be swapped for something less parochial and less bellicose. I like the song 'I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing.' If that were our anthem, then I might salute it."

9054. alistairconnor - 6/25/2008 2:52:08 AM

Looks like your link is broken, Con. The article it points to says something completely different :

The candidate says the runoff election scheduled Friday should be put off until it can be conducted “under a strong international monitoring presence and, to the extent possible, meaningful civil protection.”

If that is impossible, Obama said Tuesday,“regional leaders backed by the international community should pursue an enforceable, negotiated political transition in Zimbabwe to make sure Mugabe goes.”

The US Ambassador to Zimbabwe sounds like a dangerous man, too : he's saying the same things as Obama :

McGee said the Southern African Development Community, and South Africa as a leading member of that bloc, should speak out with words as “firm and as hard-hitting” as Monday’s U.N. Security Council statement.

Zimbabwe’s neighbors may have more influence than the U.N., McGee said, adding that Zimbabwe is a landlocked country and vulnerable to actions such as border closings.

“Regional bodies have tremendous influence,” McGee said. “There are so many things that could be brought to bear, that could have a tremendous, immediate impact on the government of Zimbabwe.”

Bottom line : South Africa has to take Mugabe out behind the shed and beat the crap out of him. Figuratively of course.

9055. wonkers2 - 6/25/2008 7:23:12 AM

Why figuratively? He deserves to have his balls cut off, literally.

9056. concerned - 6/26/2008 4:42:38 PM

Here's something that jexster & cllrdr can get into:

9057. jexster - 6/27/2008 3:55:02 PM

21 years in captivity...body abused, mind still free

9058. jexster - 6/27/2008 4:00:05 PM

Isn't he the same guy who reportedly dropped the following pearls of wisdom?

"As I've said about the flag pin, I don't want to be perceived as taking sides, there are a lot of people in the world to whom the American flag is a symbol of oppression. And the anthem itself conveys a war-like message. You know, the bombs bursting in air and all. It should be swapped for something less parochial and less bellicose. I like the song 'I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing.' If that were our anthem, then I might salute it."

No

9059. jexster - 6/27/2008 4:02:23 PM

And no O'bama hasn't called for the invasion of Rhodesia

Neither did I realize TD was a Mugabe supporter


Kinda fond of him myself...he knows how to do turnout

9060. concerned - 6/27/2008 4:13:02 PM

Re. 9058 -

Lots of people reported that Hussein said that:)

9061. jexster - 6/28/2008 12:21:19 PM

Monkey See Monkey Do


Not unlike Our Brave Leiter

News Analysis: After Brutality, Mugabe Offers an Olive Branch

9062. jexster - 6/29/2008 12:18:49 PM

The New Emperor and His Ho-ness




L'Emperor et L'Imperatrice de Yurrup

9063. alistairConnor - 6/29/2008 1:18:41 PM

Lots of people reported that Hussein said that

People reported that Obama wanted the US to invade Zimbabwe? Then why didn't you link it?

9064. jexster - 6/30/2008 9:01:53 AM

Cause he's now making it a regular practice to make things up on his own, not content with simply repeating lies he receives through the ether

9065. jexster - 6/30/2008 9:02:13 AM

That's what we call American ingenuity

9066. jexster - 6/30/2008 9:03:16 AM

More proof that elections aren't magic


Turkey's Dangerous Constitutional Crisis

9067. concerned - 7/2/2008 1:16:03 AM

People reported that Obama wanted the US to invade Zimbabwe? Then why didn't you link it?

Why should I link it? Because you're too lazy to look for yourself? Sorry - that's not sufficient reason.

And rejexst: why don't you go intercourse something instead of making up lies about me?

9068. concerned - 7/2/2008 1:17:07 AM

Btw, any discussion here that George W. Bush has caused North Korea to destroy the cooling tower at its nuclear fuel enrichment facility?

This represents a huge step forward especially compared to the less than nothing that Xlowntoon accomplished wrt North Korea.

9069. alistairconnor - 7/2/2008 8:26:19 AM

Well gee, I googled the internets, "Obama invade Zimbabwe", and found nothing, not even a blog, suggesting that Obama said the US should invade Zimbabwe.

But Con can surely find us a link from places where Google can't reach. Like, out of his...

9070. concerned - 7/2/2008 2:35:05 PM

AC - you're out of your...

An invasion and occupation of Zimbabwe would be necessary to force independent elections, dimwit.

9071. jexster - 7/2/2008 5:42:21 PM

How appropriate! Bush heads for his last G-8. His first - his Sister SoulMan encounter with Putin...


I saw three of those hot little slav gay boiz on the bus the other day..here to enjoy the SF Pride festivities....Send MORE

Medvedev: The US Can Kiss My Russian Ass

MOSCOW — Russia’s new president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, less swaggering than his predecessor but as touchy about criticism from abroad, said in an interview that an America in “essentially a depression” was in no position to lecture other countries on how to conduct their affairs.

As soaring oil revenues bolster the Russian economy and Kremlin confidence, Mr. Medvedev brushed aside American criticism of his country’s record on democracy and human rights. He also declared that a revived Russia had a right to assume a larger role in a world economic system that he suggested should no longer be dominated by the United States.

Slavsya, Otechestvo nashe svobodnoye

9072. jexster - 7/2/2008 6:46:47 PM

Mullen "Troubled" by Afghanistan
Joint Chiefs Chairman has insufficient forces because of Iraq


Guess GWB won't be invading Zimbabwe to spread his democracy revolution

9073. jexster - 7/2/2008 6:49:26 PM

I don't know about TD, but I am not going to rely on FRANCE to save us from the Coming of the Caliphate

I am learning a new national anthem

9074. jexster - 7/3/2008 10:15:50 AM

Move over Rafa...

Lorenzo Betancourt

Someone kidnap him and I'd get a subprime to pay the ransom!

9075. alistairconnor - 7/3/2008 10:26:37 AM

goddam Ingrid Bettencourt blah blah blah

nothing else on the news over here.

9076. jexster - 7/3/2008 1:01:44 PM

This too shall pass

Lafayette, he be comin

Obama the Realist
»
by: Le Monde | Editorial

9077. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 7/3/2008 1:47:51 PM

9078. wonkers2 - 7/3/2008 2:21:40 PM

Seymour Hersh's 'Preparing the Battlefield' (Iran)

9079. jexster - 7/3/2008 3:55:17 PM

The French have all the luck!

Quite the little etoile I see

9080. jexster - 7/3/2008 3:58:56 PM

9081. wonkers2 - 7/3/2008 4:38:12 PM

Hersh says Cheney is pushing efforts to find a way to provoke Iran into a "causis belli" i.e., a justification for a U.S. attack (or an Israeli attack?) against Iran. Seems to me an Israeli attack is more likely although they may not have what it takes to complete the job of destroying Iran's alleged nuclear weapons programs. (Which the most recent National Intelligence Estimate said have been stopped).

9082. wonkers2 - 7/3/2008 4:39:03 PM

Cheney is apparently frothing at the mouth about Iran. Meanwhile the generals are dragging their feet. (For good reason.)

9083. jexster - 7/3/2008 4:57:34 PM

Yes Wonkers ....I've read the article. The Big Deal is HCon Res 362 coming up for a vote in a week or two.

It's all of a piece with Mullen's tightrope walk (Iran bad but no troops) and the Jizzraelite war drum banging..


You know Cheney means to go out with a bang. He just can't get away with it

9084. jexster - 7/3/2008 4:58:03 PM

We won't get jewed again

9085. wonkers2 - 7/3/2008 5:14:32 PM

It's disappointing that our Dem leaders didn't object to the $400 million finding to be used to provoke Iran.

9086. jexster - 7/4/2008 4:25:03 PM

Ingrid Betancourt's son, Lorenzo Delloye, kisses his mother at Paris City Hall, Friday, July 4, 2008.

How much for the boy?

9087. jexster - 7/6/2008 11:24:57 AM

Bush Kowtows to Chicoms


Goin out like he came in.





At least he's not ashamed to wear Old Glory.

9088. jexster - 7/7/2008 8:35:00 AM

Bush: Russia's new president is 'smart guy' (AP)


With DISH DiVR you can play. You can recordificate. Oh and look at this button. A French word for "stop" - "Powoozay"

9089. jexster - 7/8/2008 2:48:50 PM

After a hard day discussing the world food crisis, a guy gets hungry

9090. jexster - 7/11/2008 8:25:50 AM

South Korea Offers Appeasement Talks with Axis of Evil

9091. jexster - 7/12/2008 5:47:42 PM

The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.” He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

Shock and Awe Swansong

9092. jexster - 7/12/2008 5:53:46 PM

Not exactly a hard act to follow


Europe promises cheers for Obama

Barack Obama is coming: Europe can scarcely contain itself. The Democratic contender for the White House is crossing the Atlantic to burnish his credentials as a world leader. Europeans just want to cheer....

When he steps out of his pre-presidential limousine Mr Obama can expect to be greeted as a messiah.

As far as Europe is concerned, the US has made its choice. The pundits in Washington may only now be speculating about the possibility that Mr Obama could win by a landslide. Europe has already decided: it will get the American president it deserves. The ballot on November 4 is no more than an irksome formality.

9093. jexster - 7/13/2008 3:29:07 PM

Joyeux Quatorze Juillet!

France Seeks to Dominate Middle East - NyT

9094. jexster - 7/14/2008 5:10:12 AM

Sarko Busts a Move
Burns a Little Bush

Gives Assad Place d'Honeur at Bastille Day Parade

9095. jexster - 7/14/2008 5:12:14 AM

9096. jexster - 7/17/2008 8:22:41 AM

a tonic to his country and the most important European leader of his time.


And now that he has Carla,even Wonkers is a huge fan

9097. jexster - 7/19/2008 8:19:11 AM

Gazprom negotiating major contract with Iran
Deal would run afoul of US sanctions

9098. jexster - 7/23/2008 9:29:55 AM

I think we've seen this movie


Russia's not only making nice with Hugo's security pact entreaties, they're also considering sending bombers to Cuba

Heckuva job Georgie

9099. jexster - 7/25/2008 6:11:12 PM

COMITÉ FRANÇAIS DE SOUTIEN À
BARACK OBAMA

9100. jexster - 7/29/2008 1:23:18 PM

Whatever became of our resident Moron and sometime Slerbian pig farmer - Rosie Stone????

Probably demonstrating.

Thousands converge on Belgrade to protest extradition of pig farmer and murderer Karadzic


The Slerbs are ever the asshole of the assholes of Yurrup, a land aptly described by one Austrian general in WWI as a "nation of pigshit and fruit orchards"


Rosetta Stone
RIP

9101. jexster - 8/1/2008 7:05:44 AM

ISI Linked to Nato, Indian embassy attacks
McBush Pal Musharraff implicated

9102. jexster - 8/8/2008 9:53:08 AM

It's about time

Russia Attacks!

9103. jexster - 8/8/2008 10:39:49 AM

An expert on international security today warned that all-out war between Russian and Georgia would amount to "the worst crisis in Europe since the end of communism".

Dr Jonathan Eyal, director of studies at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), described Georgia's decision to shell the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, as a brazen effort to humiliate the Russians.

He claimed the sudden escalation in tensions in the region heralded a dangerous possible return of "East-West confrontation".


Crush em

Kazakhstan's threatening to come to Russia's aid against the cowardly criminal in Tbilisi


Leaving McLame flapping his toothless gums ....

9104. jexster - 8/8/2008 10:47:36 AM

Liberate South Ossetia!
They even have a flag.




A few hundred t-90's bring to a boil

9105. jexster - 8/8/2008 10:56:17 AM

Pravda: "Russia Strikes Back!"

9106. alistairconnor - 8/14/2008 5:05:20 AM

The Georgia debacle may well be seen as the nadir of US influence in world affairs.

(Unless it falls even lower, which it undoubtedly would under a McCain presidency, but I'm not prepared to countenance that possibility.)

A foolhardy Caucasian president overplays his hand, thinking that he has US backing and that this enables him to make the Russians back off. The US, absolutely powerless to intervene in the Russian sphere of influence, sits on its hands. The Europeans, deeply divided, wring theirs, and play appeasement. Cool heads in Europe thank their lucky stars that they recently beat back US demands to admit Georgia to NATO... which would have pitched them into war with Russia, when Sakashvili launched his foolhardy adventure.

Of course, this is all playing out exactly as the Kremlin wanted it. Everyone, including McCain, has played into Putin's hands perfectly. It's all part of the modern Great Game -- control of Central Asian oil and gas.

And when the dust settles, Georgia will either be a docile Russian satellite again, or it will be so unstable as to be useless as a conduit to get Central Asian oil while bypassing Russia.

i.e. this little war is the clincher that enables Russia to lock up an effective monopoly on Eurasian oil and gas. Game, set and match.

9107. alistairconnor - 8/14/2008 5:16:49 AM

Condi isn't wringing her hands... she's sternly wagging her finger.

"There are any number of opportunities for Russia to reverse course and to demonstrate that it is trying to behave according to 21st century principles," she said. "But, I can assure you that Russia's international reputation and what role Russia can play in the international community is very much at stake here."

Rice stated that the time, when the world would have to deal with the consequences of what happened in South Ossetia and Georgia, would come, although she did not specify what consequences Russia may eventually face.

The US Secretary of State repeated several times that Russia had a lot to lose, including its international reputation and its role in the international community.

Well, she certainly ought to be an authority about great powers who lose their international reputation and role in the international community due to military adventures with a subtext of control of oil supplies...

So how come she gets it so wrong? Russia has indeed demonstrated that it knows how "to behave according to 21st century principles", as inaugurated in 2002 by the USA...
But they have learned some lessons from their precursor, and will not suffer the negative consequences that she foretells.

9108. wonkers2 - 8/14/2008 5:44:09 AM

"ISI linked to NATO, India attacks"--sounds like our Pakistani friend pseudoerasmus' work.

9109. wonkers2 - 8/14/2008 7:17:45 AM

More troops for Afghanistan--another big mistake?? Futile nation-building trap?

9110. wonkers2 - 8/14/2008 7:22:59 AM

I wonder what our former Afghanistan guru, pseudoerasmus, thinks about the situation?

9111. jexster - 8/14/2008 8:30:02 AM

Medvedev: I wipe my ass with Georgian territorial integrity

9112. jexster - 8/14/2008 8:32:13 AM

9113. jexster - 8/14/2008 10:53:46 AM

9110

God Damn Mongorians

9114. alistairconnor - 8/14/2008 11:26:18 AM

I wonder what our former Afghanistan guru, pseudoerasmus, thinks about the situation?

Oddly enough, Wonk, he thinks it's gone extraordinarily well. He is now in favour of the intervention, having opposed it originally.

9115. wonkers2 - 8/14/2008 12:54:01 PM

As a result of 9-11, few people here in the U.S. question the wisdom of our efforts to democratize/civilize Afghanistan, but our efforts are beginning to look like a mistake to me or at least not in our interest to send a bunch more troops there as Obama and McCain are proposing to do. It's a very tough place that has brought about the downfall of other countries.

Where is pseudoerasmus hanging out these days?

9116. marjoribanks - 8/16/2008 1:16:30 AM

Well, with Afghanistan as with other geopolitical matters, it really depends on your perspective. From the American and allied Western point of view, I would not say the ongoing post-9/11 campaign has gone very well. It has been extremely costly, has provided a rallying point for the extremists, and has made the country just safe enough for business that it is now set for world-record harvests of opium in the coming years. More troops, etc, will not particularly help. Plus, I suspect that the US military is angling towards an envisioned day when the US tries to pacify the NWFP and Baluchistan from bases in Afghanistan, which will be another grand historical error on an epic scale.

Then, from the point of view of Pakistan, this whole campaign has been a total disaster which has massively degraded the country's reach and influence in the region. From Iran's point of view, it is a mixed bag. From India's, it has been a great thing.

Putting aside all of that, I might be inclined to agree with Pseuder (if AC has his position right) if he is talking about the Afghans themselves, who have some degree of engagement with the outside world after a very long time. They now enjoy receiving quite vast international aid - much of which is coming in the form of vital infrastructure - and society in the larger towns and cities is being forcibly cracked open, almost at gunpoint, so that some human development advances are undeniably taking place, and it is possible for hundreds of thousands of refugees to return.

9117. marjoribanks - 8/16/2008 1:25:04 AM

Wonk, please remember that if (I regret to admit that I think it is more a case of when) the next large-scale terrorist attack takes place in the West, that it is almost inevitable that the fingerprints will lead straight back to Afghanistan or possibly the NWFP or Baluchistan in Pak. Please reckon with your own thoughts and sentiments in such an instance.

Isn't it better to engage, however ham-fistedly and expensively, rather than abandon? Are there no lessons learned from the last time the US washed its hands, and walked away from Afghanistan after helpfully setting it awash in dollar bills and high-end armaments?

9118. marjoribanks - 8/16/2008 1:48:35 AM

Now, as for the Georgia situation, leaving aside moral and other related compulsions, the swift Russian movements have been rather brilliant, decisive geopolitical hardball from Putin. In the short and medium term he is a big winner, with only the possibility of an eventual cost in the long term.

Biggest loser, besides the largely symbolic whack to American hegemonistic posturing, is the international legal and diplomatic framework. Now mere paper, and shredded at that, we could well be in another era of big fish relentlessly eating little fish for a good long while. China, India, Iran and Turkey, even Brazil, it's going to be regional powers calling the regional shots, with functional carte blanche to operate with impunity.

9119. marjoribanks - 8/16/2008 2:01:44 AM

Wombat,

A few days ago, you asked (me) in the Politics thread:

"You don't Obama would be more likely to back away from Pakistan--given their equivocation toward US interests and the infiltration/institutionalization of radical Islam in the upper reaches of their intelligence and military organizations--all to India's advantage?"

The Pakistan issue is only one part of the Indian relationship with the US, which now includes a robust and diverse economic equation. There is no doubt that Obama will be worse than Bush in the context of the economic equation, for the simple reason that it is impossible to be better, leave alone the nativist noises he has already made on issues such as outsourcing.

But on Pakistan, I see Obama positioning a much, much closer relationship with whatever regime coalesces in Pakistan than anything Bush engineered. We see in retrospect that the Bushites basically repeated the same historical error that the Americans have blundered into again and again in Pakistan, they gave Musharraf (huge) money and armaments, and let him handle everything because he promised him everything. The Americans were played like a fiddle by Musharraf, just as they have been played as chumps for a solid thirty years and counting now - he got what he wanted in full, and the US got a slow trickle of what they wanted, enough to keep the cash flowing, and the tacit blessings for dictatorship intact.

Obama will be more hands on than previous Presidents, but I believe that this is even more problematic. From the American point of view, it is a tough tough call to become the nanny state and guarantor for a country like Pakistan, but that seems to be the way things are going.

And, naturally, a massive American engagement with Pakistan is not in India's interest.

9120. marjoribanks - 8/16/2008 2:07:53 AM

BTW, Wombat, some time ago I reviewed 'Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons'
by Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark, a stomach-churning book that laid bare a lot of the inside story of the US-Pakistani relationship over the past 30 years.

I highly recommend that you read this book, and would like to hear back from you if you do get your hands on it.

9121. alistairconnor - 8/16/2008 4:32:54 AM

And, naturally, a massive American engagement with Pakistan is not in India's interest.

I really wonder about that. I hardly think it's a zero-sum game, where anything which is good for Pakistan is bad for India and vice-versa. On the contary, I think that if an intelligent US engagement with Pakistan can stabilise and strengthen its institutions and democracy, then that's got to be good for India. (obviously, current US policy has done the opposite, because they played the strongman against the institutions, and lost.)

So, what about Kashmir? It's looking grim, being used as a domestic political football by both sides. It looks to me like the confused political situation on both sides of the border has resulted in bellicose nationalism emerging as a unifying force, a lowest common denominator.


Or am I reading the wrong sources?

9122. alistairconnor - 8/16/2008 4:43:34 AM

Georgia :

Biggest loser, besides the largely symbolic whack to American hegemonistic posturing, is the international legal and diplomatic framework.

Well, that's tit for tat. I was highly amused to see Ms Rice lecturing Putin about how this is not the way international affairs are conducted in the 21st century... On the contrary! First Iraq, then Kosovo. I think that was the real trigger for Putin : seeing Serbia dismembered, its sovereignty trampled by the recognition of Kosovar independence. He had very bluntly warned that this would be intolerable to Russia. Now perhaps he will be taken seriously.

There will be no particular cost to Russia in the medium term. In fact, Russia has re-emerged as a great power sooner than expected.

It is to be hoped that US re-engagement in multilateral institutions can prevent the future anarchy you project, Marj. It may be too late, the damage is pretty deep (almost unnoticed, the disastrous failure of the WTO Doha round, after seven years of negotiations, is a fitting legacy for GWB).

9123. marjoribanks - 8/16/2008 5:03:46 AM

AC,

Please read the book I cited in 9120. In light of its reportage, I'd call the odds quite impossible for "an intelligent US engagement with Pakistan." I mean, what kind of change are you expecting, even if Obama wins? Personally, I can't be that wild-eyed.

As for Kashmir, broadly, it's only one (though important) part of the Indo-Pak relationship, which is now inevitably set towards increasing openness and trade. I doubt anything is going to change that.

9124. marjoribanks - 8/16/2008 5:13:02 AM

It is to be hoped that US re-engagement in multilateral institutions can prevent the future anarchy you project

The international order is pretty broken, AC. Even if an Obama administration brings new heft to the UN, the other powers - and now we talk about other powers - are not very enamoured by that highly dated early-20th century construct. And with the US, the sole military superpower, exhausted and bleeding and likely to remain so for a long time, it's a bit of a dangerous and unknown territory we're entering here.

9125. alistairconnor - 8/16/2008 5:27:54 AM

Well, in a multipolar world, international institutions are useful to everybody. The Bush (rather, Rumsfeld) doctrine of deliberately breaking them, on the grounds that US interests are better served by direct bilateral relations, and build-em-up and knock-em-down ad-hoc coalitions, is a historical aberration. I think there is a lot of pent-up desire and anticipation for a return to an improved status quo. The Rumsfeld model having been so thoroughly discredited. We shall see.

(For example : Sakashvili, who clearly believed in the Rumsfeld model, expected aid from his big ally... too bad : that coalition has already been knocked down, it seems.)

9126. wonkers2 - 8/16/2008 8:46:05 AM

Marjoribanks, how much money and how many lives is it worth to spend to avoid a terror attack or a few terror attacks. The biggest terror attack to date was 9-11 where 3,000 were killed--that was one of our excuses for invading Iraq as well as Afghanistan where upwards of 100,000 have died and countless billions spent. Terror attacks are unfortunate and a great nuisance, much like airlier crashes, but not a vital threat unless nuclear weapons are involved. Moreover, I'm not sure that the blunt weapon of military invasion is the most effective method of eliminating or reducing terrorism.

As soon as we start using the phrase "war on" something, an important part of our brain shuts down and we focus on narrow, military solutions that tend to bring their own costs and problems, greater than the problem they are intended to solve. The U.S. has quite a history of using our military in misguided efforts to solve alleged problems. I commend to your attention "War Made Easy" by David Solomon and the movie by the same name.

9127. wonkers2 - 8/16/2008 8:48:22 AM

War Made Easy by Norman Solomon [Norman Solomon, not David]

9128. jexster - 8/16/2008 10:52:23 AM

Chasing the Dragon
Rob Riggle, The Daily Show

9129. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/17/2008 10:09:44 PM

9130. alistairconnor - 8/18/2008 4:06:51 AM

Musharraf to resign, flee Pakistan

Wow. On the surface, it's a triumph of democracy and republican institutions. In practice, can they hold it together?

9131. jexster - 8/18/2008 11:32:48 AM

This is unprecedented. This is historic. This is a momentous time in the history of this nation. It has successfully forced accountability - through peaceful and legal means - on its leaders. The people of Pakistan - lawyers and all - have exercised their agency.

And like every other such exercise - be it the election of 2000 or the upcoming election of 2008 in the US - the outcome is up in the air. And hence, the hope is not in the fate of this particular dictator, it is in the accountability to the Pakistani publics, of their representative. If we really want a secure ally in Pakistan, we would do our best to strengthen the people of Pakistan.

PS. If you are curious about Musharraf's speech, I live-blogged it. Well, most of it.

Agency
Manan Ahmed

9132. marjoribanks - 8/19/2008 5:23:58 AM

This is unprecedented. This is historic. This is a momentous time in the history of this nation. It has successfully forced accountability - through peaceful and legal means - on its leaders. The people of Pakistan - lawyers and all - have exercised their agency.

Half-true at best.

Pakistan's civil society definitely demonstrated a powerful resilience in the last couple of years, partly due to the unleashing of the media etc by Musharraf. The backbone shown by the lawyers and judiciary, in addition, was really impressive and is enough reason to become cautiously optimistic about Pakistan's prospects in the medium term.

But the missing fact here is that this exit for Musharraf has been engineered by two thugs of the lowest order, and the future of Pakistani politics rests in the hands of possibly the two worst, most venal men in the whole country.

Both of them are unelected, just like Musharraf, which is a final irony. The whole "triumph of democracy" line is total bullshit. Pakistan has lost a benign, largely competent dictator, and reverted to a kleptocracy controlled by the two biggest goons of all.

9133. marjoribanks - 8/19/2008 6:18:18 AM

Ahmed Rashid on Pakistan.

The resignation of President Pervez Musharraf yesterday after nine years in office is a major victory for Pakistan's long-battered and still fragile democratic forces. But particularly given the meltdown the country has endured in recent weeks, there are still many obstacles to effective civilian governance. Although the United States will expect things to change in a hurry, they are unlikely to do so right away.

Three of Pakistan's past four military rulers have been driven from power by popular movements, but the politicians who followed the military all failed to take advantage of the people's desire for democracy and economic development and were eventually forced out by the military on charges of corruption and incompetence.

The most pressing issues today involve the long-standing tension of Pakistan's politics and the relationship between the civilian government and the military. The government is led by the Pakistan People's Party, now run by Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, but his party governs through a complex coalition of parties.

The PPP's main antagonist is former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, who never misses an opportunity to try to pull down the PPP, his longtime rival, rather than working with it to consolidate the few democratic gains the country has made.
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Overthrown by Musharraf in a 1999 coup and humiliated by the army, Sharif rejects concessions to the army and offers no support to the war against Taliban extremists. Busy pandering to his right-wing supporters, he has little time for American demands.

Sharif believes that his popularity and the parliamentary seats he controls in the majority province of Punjab will eventually regain him the prime ministership.

In the next few days, internal coalition battles will continue as key questions arise, including where Musharraf should live, whether impeachment should proceed, how the senior judges Musharraf dismissed last November should be restored to their offices and who should become president.

Sharif is taking a hard line, while Zardari wants to move slowly and not confront the army by further humiliating Musharraf, a former army chief.

These power struggles within the coalition are magnified by the enormous mistrust that exists between the army and both parties. The army's mistrust of the PPP has a nearly 40-year history, and the military dislikes Sharif.

Etc. Rashid is far more harsh that I was, above, on Musharraf. No doubt he is right.

9134. marjoribanks - 8/19/2008 6:29:19 AM

This brief article by a member of the Bhutto clan gets to the main points with more style:

The one thing that is absolute when dealing with the dregs that run my country is this: nothing is ever as it seems. Nowhere is that more true than in the current scenario involving President Musharraf's likely impeachment by the ruling coalition.

"It has become imperative to move for impeachment," barked Benazir Bhutto's widower, Asif Zardari, at a press conference in Islamabad last week. Sitting beside the new head of the Pakistan People's party was Nawaz Sharif, twice formerly prime minister of Pakistan. Zardari snarled every time Musharraf's name came up, seething with political rage and righteousness, while Sharif did his best to keep up with the pace of things. He nodded sombrely and harrumphed every once in a while. The two men are acting for democracy, you see. And impeaching dictators is a good thing for democracies, you know.

But Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari are unelected. They're not just unrepresentative in that they don't hold seats in the parliament - they have absolutely no mandate in Pakistan. They head the two largest, and most corrupt, parties in the state but hold no public office. Pots and kettles.

9135. wonkers2 - 8/19/2008 4:38:43 PM

Good government is a scarce commodity.

9136. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/19/2008 5:00:16 PM

There's the rub: democracy vs. "kleptocracy"

In a a genuine democracy the cream can rise to the top, but in our new world order, the kleptocrats like Bush, Cheney, et al--shit floats!

9137. wonkers2 - 8/19/2008 5:57:43 PM

HA! Very true.

9138. jexster - 8/19/2008 8:15:14 PM

9132

The ugly face of Hindu exceptionalism

9139. jexster - 8/19/2008 8:17:25 PM

Oh those Bhutto's....money grubbing cricket playing plutocrats

9140. jexster - 8/23/2008 11:43:25 AM

Afghanistan: US Airstrikes Kill 50 Children

How many airstrikes before these numbnuts realize that bombing is a hallmark of defeat in counterinsurgency

9141. jexster - 8/24/2008 2:01:12 AM

Marji nails it
Nothin but net


Pakistain Ruling Coalition on Verge of Collapse



Guess Musharaff will have to step in and restore order or some other member of the General Staff eh?

9142. robertjayb - 9/9/2008 12:00:35 PM

Is Il ill?

WASHINGTON — (AP) - Intelligence officials are watching signs that North Korea's unpredictable dictator Kim Jong Il may be gravely ill.

Incapacity of the man North Koreans call the "Dear Leader" would have serious implications for the international effort to get North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons.

There was no sign of Kim at a parade and celebration today marking the 60th anniversary of North Korea's founding, and the country's state media was silent about his absence. His last reported public appearance was in mid-August.

9143. concerned - 9/9/2008 4:06:14 PM

Looks like another Bush foreign policy success in the offing with NK.

9144. concerned - 9/9/2008 4:08:46 PM

Green activists 'are keeping Africa poor'

Hey, they’re just ‘respecting African traditions’, aren’t they? Can’t have dirty capitalists actually making money by exploiting Africa's farmlands, now.

9145. concerned - 9/9/2008 11:04:17 PM

Well, in a multipolar world, international institutions are useful to everybody. The Bush (rather, Rumsfeld) doctrine of deliberately breaking them, on the grounds that US interests are better served by direct bilateral relations, and build-em-up and knock-em-down ad-hoc coalitions, is a historical aberration.


You have it backwards. It was Bush who insisted on multilateral negotiations with NK, and Bush also who was careful to follow UN mandates regarding Iraq, as unpopular as admitting that is on the Left.

Clowntoon was much more unilateral than Bush, most particularly in his actions regarding Kosovo where he completely shut the UN out of the decision making process.

So much for your bigotry and ignorance.

9146. alistairconnor - 9/10/2008 10:13:11 AM

Looks like another Bush foreign policy success in the offing with NK.

You mean, you think he was poisoned by the CIA?

Sounds like a foreign policy plan to me.

9147. anomie - 9/10/2008 10:59:18 AM

I'm quite sure Kosovo was a NATO effort, and I'm not sure the UN was completely shut out either. Your comments are a good example of Republican revision of history, not to mention speaking out of both sides of your mouth - ridiculing the UN while holding hands with it.

9148. jexster - 9/11/2008 8:45:51 AM

Pakistan premier backs army chief's rebuke to US



Pakistan's prime minister on Thursday backed a harsh rebuke of the U.S. by the Muslim nation's military chief, a sign of a strain in relations seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks forged the two countries' anti-terror alliance.

Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the powerful but media-shy army leader, said nearly a week after a deadly American-led ground assault in Pakistani territory that Pakistan would defend its sovereignty and that there was no deal to allow foreign forces to operate inside its borders.

He said unilateral actions risked undermining joint efforts to battle Islamic extremism.

"Reckless actions" which kill civilians "only help the militants and further fuel the militancy in the area," he said.

"The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country will be defended at all cost and no external force is allowed to conduct operations inside Pakistan," he said in the Wednesday statement.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, in comments reported Thursday by state media and confirmed by his office, said Kayani's words reflected government opinion and policy.

The ground assault last week, and a barrage of suspected U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan in recent days, suggest growing American impatience with Pakistan's progress in eradicating militant safe havens in its semiautonomous tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

9149. jexster - 9/21/2008 8:40:13 AM

German Left Stands up to anti-Muslim Fascists;
Clashes in Cologne

3,000 progressives in Cologne clashed Saturday with far rightwing protesters trying to stop the building of a mosque. There are about 3.3 million Muslims in Germany, about 4 percent of the population. The Jewish population of the US is 2%, so this would be as though American rightwingers tried to stop a synagogue from being built. The far right said they were upholding the 'Western values and Christian traditions' as the heritage of Europe....I am proud of my German cousins for making a stand against this ugly recrudescence of religious bigotry and racism (the mayor of Cologne rightly used the latter word).

blahblahblah

Isn't that where we came in....Cole


Yes Juan but that is before we had socialism in one country. Before all we had was virulent nationalism. Now that we have the means to effect the motive, we can lead our German friends back to greatness Meine Freunde

9150. jexster - 9/22/2008 11:24:36 AM

Guess who's coming for cocktails!!!

Russian Naval Squadron Sails for Exercise with Venezuelan Navy


Russian nuclear-powered missile cruiser Pyotr Velikiy (Peter the Great)

9151. jexster - 9/27/2008 8:16:48 PM

Sarko Feasts on Uncle Sam's Corpse

MORE FRENCH TREACHERY!

PARIS - In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy says the death knell has rung for freewheeling, U.S.-style capitalism. German's finance minister calls it downright "dangerous." Even the leader of more Wall Street-friendly Britain says financiers need closer watching, maybe on a global scale.


What Europeans call, often with a hint of derision, the "Anglo-Saxon" model of capitalism — with less rules, less government and, for years, more growth — is now being called fatally flawed as the financial crisis strengthens advocates of tighter regulation of banks and financial markets in Europe.

It's a political shift that could recalibrate the economic direction of Europe as it braces and tries to survive the financial aftershocks from the earthquake that has rocked and destroyed financial institutions across the Atlantic.




France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, welcomes Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez at the Elysee palace in Paris, Friday, Sept. 26, 2008

9152. Marc-Albert - 9/28/2008 7:34:05 AM

"Acts of piracy are on the increase off the shores of Venezuela" warns the Quai D'Orsay. "Therefore, we now advise against yatching inside Venezuelan waters"


Venezuela – Frenchman killed in attack of sailboat

"According to diplomatic sources, this is the 4th attack of this kind against French boaters inside Venezuelan waters since the beginning of the year."

The three most unsafe waters of the World:

Off Somalia
The Strait of Malacca and surrounding waters
Off Venezuela

In Hugo Chavez domnain, crime offshore is only a reflection of what goes on inshore. Caracas - capital of the Bolivarian Republic - is now one the the most dangerous cities in the world.

As would say Jexter: Keep on the good work, Hugo!

9153. Marc-Albert - 9/28/2008 7:40:17 AM

Mr Lee said they were sailing through choppy waters about two miles off the coast of Venezuela when he saw a battered, unmarked fishing boat speeding towards them.

As they approached, one of the five men aboard fired a shot at him but he still decided to ram them and try to get away.

It was only after a second shot whistled past his head that....




Shot and stabbed: The hero dog who helped round-the-world couple fight pirates of the Caribbean

9154. Marc-Albert - 9/28/2008 8:09:25 AM

Nearly 10 years after the election of Mr Chavez:

Higher homicide rate in Venezuela than in Colombia. A reversal of the situation in 2000.

The government has stopped publishing crime figures, but last year the UN said that per capita there were more deaths from guns than anywhere else in the world.



Airships to tackle Caracas crime

9155. jexster - 9/28/2008 7:01:57 PM

Russia Today: Russian Warships Head for Venezuela

9156. jexster - 9/28/2008 7:08:15 PM

I am surprised that the slimy judaizer Sarkozy didn't send the Charles de Gaulle to join the Ruskies in Aruba.

Sneak attack

The bastards know Sarah's guarding the Bering Straits

9157. marjoribanks - 9/29/2008 12:28:12 AM

John Gray at the Guardian puts it exactly the way I would have:

The fate of empires is very often sealed by the interaction of war and debt. That was true of the British Empire, whose finances deteriorated from the First World War onwards, and of the Soviet Union. Defeat in Afghanistan and the economic burden of trying to respond to Reagan's technically flawed but politically extremely effective Star Wars programme were vital factors in triggering the Soviet collapse. Despite its insistent exceptionalism, America is no different. The Iraq War and the credit bubble have fatally undermined America's economic primacy. The US will continue to be the world's largest economy for a while longer, but it will be the new rising powers that, once the crisis is over, buy up what remains intact in the wreckage of America's financial system.

I can scarcely believe how the American papers are glossing over what has occurred in the last two weeks, instead seizing at obfuscatory words like "bailout." In fact, what we are seeing is the dismantling of the heart of the American capitalist system, and a kind of acknowledgement that the model itself (certainly the model that has run for nigh on 30 years) is broken, and must be replaced.

I read the bare bone outlines of this plan that has been verbally agreed upon, and it feels like my head is going to explode. The landscape it anticipates is totally unrecognizable, inconceivable. The whole high finance apparatus of the US has gone down the drain in the span of a few short weeks.

9158. alistairconnor - 9/29/2008 7:09:35 AM

Dr Pangloss (a.k.a. Pseudoerasmus) is still talking about business as usual in the best of all possible worlds. Apparently the US didn't need no stinkin' investment banks after all.

9159. jexster - 9/29/2008 9:47:54 AM

I can't believe they don't see the Franco-Russian plot right at our doorstep but then again, the American people fell for Sarah Palin if only for a couple of weeks

9160. marjoribanks - 9/29/2008 11:58:51 AM

Dr Pangloss (a.k.a. Pseudoerasmus) is still talking about business as usual in the best of all possible worlds.

Is he now? That's mildly interesting. I suppose his eyes are on the macroeconomic (global) picture, which is fine and dandy but small consolation to the American taxpayer.

Moving back to the nitty-gritty of the real world, I suggest a look at the analyses of NYU's Nouriel Roubini, the brilliant economist who has been consistently (and amazingly presciently) right about this debacle from the first.

You can check the blog here : http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini/

9161. marjoribanks - 9/29/2008 11:59:46 AM

But here are some relevant excerpts from an article he has in today's Guardian. I am fighting the urge to post it in very, very large flashing neon font, because is getting genuinely scary that the media (and public opinion) is just so lost on this:

the claim by the Fed and Treasury that spending $700bn of public money is the best way to recapitalise banks has absolutely no factual basis or justification. It is a total rip-off that will mostly benefit – at a huge expense for the US taxpayer – the common and preferred shareholders and even the unsecured creditors of the banks.

Even the late addition of some conditions is a fig leaf of dubious value, as they are totally vague and fuzzy.

With $700bn of public cash the pockets of reckless bankers and investors have been made fatter under the fake argument that bailing out Wall Street was necessary to rescue Main Street from a severe recession. The rescue could have been achieved with a cheaper and better use of public money.

Indeed, neither does the plan address the need to recapitalise those financial institutions. This could have been done via public injections of preferred shares into these firms; via required matching injections of tier one capital by current shareholders to make sure that such shareholders take first-tier loss; via suspension of dividends payments or via a an unsecured debt-for-equity swap.

All these actions would have implied much lower fiscal costs, and they would have been cheaper and shared the burden of responsibility more equitably.

For example if the private sector had done its fair share, only $350bn of public money would have been required; and of this $350bn, half could have taken the form of purchase of bad assets and the other half should have taken the form of injection of public capital in these financial institutions.

So instead of purchasing (most likely at an excessive price) $700bn of toxic assets, the government could have achieved the same result, or better, by spending only $175bn in the direct purchase of toxic assets.

And even after the government bail-out, banks that have not yet provisioned for such losses and writedowns will be even more undercapitalised than before. So this plan does not even achieve its basic objective.

The treasury plan also does not explicitly include an HOLC-style programme to reduce the debt burden of the distressed household sector. Without such a component, the debt overhang of the household sector will continue to depress consumption spending and will exacerbate the current economic recession.

9162. marjoribanks - 9/29/2008 11:59:58 AM

Thus, the treasury plan is a disgrace: a bail-out of reckless bankers, lenders and investors that provides little direct debt relief to borrowers and financially stressed households and that will come at a very high cost to the US taxpayer. And the plan does nothing to resolve the severe stress in money markets and interbank markets that are now close to a systemic meltdown.

It is pathetic that Congress did not consult any of the many professional economists that have presented – many on the RGE Monitor Finance blog forum – alternative plans that were more fair and efficient.

This is again a case of privatising the gains and socialising the losses; a bail-out and socialism for the rich, the well-connected and Wall Street. And it is a scandal that even Congressional Democrats have fallen for this treasury scam that does little to help millions of distressed, debt-saddled home-owners.

Meanwhile, the NYTimes is peddling the idea that taxpayers might actualy make a profit out of the deal! What a joke.

9163. marjoribanks - 9/29/2008 12:47:17 PM

Can it get worse? Unfortunately, my friends, we are seeing it get much worse right before our eyes (the Dow is down nearly 300 points already today!), and it looks like this 700 (alleged) billion plan isn't going to make any difference. Can it be that the very soul of free-market capitalism has died in this month of October, 2008?

Roubini again:

When a nuclear option of a monster $700 billion rescue plan is not even able to rally stock markets (as they are all in free fall today) you know this is a global crisis of confidence in the financial system. We were literally close to a total meltdown of the system on Wednesday (and Thursday morning) two weeks ago when the $85 b bailout of AIG led to a 5% fall in US stock markets (instead of a rally). Then the US authorities went for the nuclear option of the $700 billion plan as a way to avoid the meltdown together with bans on short sales, a guarantee of money market funds and an injection of over $300 billion in the financial system. Now the prospect of this plan passing (but there is some lingering deal risk the votes in the House are not certain) -as well as the other massive policy actions taken to stop short selling “speculation” and support interbank markets and money market funds - is not sufficient to make the markets rally as there is a generalized loss of confidence in financial markets and in financial institutions that no policy action seem to be able to control.

The next step of this panic could become the mother of all bank runs, i.e. a run on the trillion dollar plus of the cross border short-term interbank liabilities of the US banking and financial system as foreign banks as starting to worry about the safety of their liquid exposures to US financial institutions; such a silent cross border bank run has already started as foreign banks are worried about the solvency of US banks and are starting to reduce their exposure. And if this run accelerates - as it may now - a total meltdown of the US financial system could occur. We are thus now in a generalized panic mode and back to the risk of a systemic meltdown of the entire financial system. And US and foreign policy authorities seem to be clueless about what needs to be done next. Maybe they should today start with a coordinated 100 bps reduction in policy rates in all the major economies in the world to show that they are starting to seriously recognize and address this rapidly worsening financial crisis.

9164. jexster - 9/29/2008 1:49:53 PM

Let Europe FAIL!

9165. jexster - 9/29/2008 7:14:19 PM

Guardian: US Vote Throws World Markets N2 Turmoil

9166. jexster - 9/29/2008 8:08:32 PM

Americans are SO provincial and self absorbed that they NEVER see the larger picture or the danger

1. Sarkozy welcomes Chavez
2. Russia sends squadron to Venezuela
3. SPANISH financial giant Santander buys belly up brit bank Bradford and Bingley


Now how does that fit your worldwide Spanish conspiracy Mandrake???

9167. jexster - 9/29/2008 9:21:30 PM

Wall Street crisis spreads through Europe's banks
Governments forced to bail out banks as turmoil widens

9168. wonkers2 - 9/29/2008 9:38:09 PM

Cap'n Dirty sez "Grab yer ass!"

9169. marjoribanks - 9/30/2008 12:01:35 AM

Signs of change:

1) My daily newspaper here - I live in a (very) small city in a (very) small state in the subcontinent - carries a front-page article recommending that locals pounce on real estate bargains in the USA and points out that two-bedroom apartments in decent neighborhoods in a half-dozen pleasant Yank cities are far cheaper (sometimes less than 1/3 the price) than here.

2) I advise a publishing house that is franchisee of a major global brand. Today, we got offered the mother ship! And it was easily affordable! And we sat around talking about it seriously for two hours, and turned it down because no one wants to move! And I'm the oldest on this team by three years! What the fuck is happening?

The world has just turned on its head in the span of less than three weeks, totally to the advantage of the younger generations in India and China.

All I can say is Holy Shit.

9170. alistairconnor - 9/30/2008 3:58:12 AM

Hang in there a few more weeks... they'll come back cap in hand at a cheaper price... that's the plan eh?

It's an ill wind etc.

9171. alistairconnor - 9/30/2008 4:10:11 AM

So, is this a localised US meltdown, or the start of a global depression?

Is the drop in the price of oil a realistic measure of medium-term drop in global demand, or simply the result of panicked speculators dumping contracts?

Is the real economy of the US seriously harmed by the meltdown? Or is it just financial parasites getting blown away?

The reason I am pessimistic about US economic prospects in the medium term, and uncertain about world prospects, is that this is, surely, the moment when the US has to come to terms with the fact that it has indeed been living beyond its means. Hugely profitable investment banks and an army of rich Wall Street traders were the equivalent of the millions of people who used their houses as ATMs. Fundamentally unsustainable, pumped up with foreign loans.

9172. marjoribanks - 9/30/2008 6:08:32 AM

AC,

Those are solid, fundamental questions.

I am also pessimistic about American economic prospects in the medium term, partly for the reasons you state, and partly because Paulson and Co. are clearly handling this crisis with an eye to get back to status quo (when everything was presumably hunky dory) rather than building a new framework. It is an ideological, psychological barrier (see House vote yesterday) and that does not bode well at all for the Yank taxpayer who will undoubtedly shoulder a burden far greater than the numbers being tossed around now.

Is the real economy harmed? Of course it is. I'd say we're pretty damn perilously close to a run on the dollar, for example. If I were a betting man any more (which I am not, thankfully) today my money would be on the odds that it will happen, and then we're going to see a nosedive into a full-blown recession. No one wants to see it, but can it be avoided with these chumps taking flamboyant stances on "socialism" etc?

But naturally the global picture is much more mixed. From my seat in a surging economy, in an exploding marketplace, it looks like there will be clear winners, and many of them are right here next to me. But the losers will inevitably multiply also, I would not want to be a European central banker right now...it's going to be white-knuckle stuff now, and likely for a few years.

9173. marjoribanks - 9/30/2008 6:10:02 AM

As for my team, mentioned above, what we have learned today is that there is no such thing as an offer you cannot refuse!

9174. alistairconnor - 9/30/2008 6:39:34 AM

I've always found Thomas Friedman's insights to be shallow and facile, at best. It's a measure of the headless-chicken atmosphere that he now sounds like a visionary :

The point is, we don’t just need a bailout. We need a buildup. We need to get back to making stuff, based on real engineering not just financial engineering. We need to get back to a world where people are able to realize the American Dream — a house with a yard — because they have built something with their hands, not because they got a “liar loan” from an underregulated bank with no money down and nothing to pay for two years. The American Dream is an aspiration, not an entitlement.

Green the bailout

9175. marjoribanks - 9/30/2008 7:07:21 AM

Well, there's no doubt that it was a flat out mistake for so many of my best and brightest contemporaries to go do MBA's and become finance jigglers of one kind or another. A number of them cashed out, made their "nut." But so many of them are leveraged up to to their ears, and now stuck fighting for a place in the few seaworthy lifeboats.

Two of my brothers-in-law among them. Luckily they (took my advice and) heavily paid down their mortgages in 2006 when they both reaped the benefit of that year of record bonuses.

But why the fuck are they in finance, is the fundamental question. They should not have been, it was the lure of easy money that duped them.

Relatedly, it is going to be really ugly in Britain in the next few months. A huge part of Britain's sustained economic surge was due to record City profits and paydays, and the finance sector sucked in a preponderance of the smartest, best-qualified graduates in the country for a solid 8-10 years. They all went out and participated in the greatest real estate boom that the UK has ever seen - London real estate prices are bat-shit crazy out of control - and now it is going to be very, very bad indeed.

9176. jexster - 9/30/2008 8:35:29 AM

Now Angela Snirkel is BEGGING us to pass a bailout. Let the Euros Fail too or make em pay

A shattering moment in America's fall from power
The global financial crisis will see the US falter in the same way the Soviet Union did when the Berlin Wall came down. The era of American dominance is over

9177. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/30/2008 9:02:07 AM

This has been a cheery read!

9178. anomie - 9/30/2008 12:13:12 PM

I wish the Euro would fall against the dollar a little. Maybe that's the silver lining in a European recession.

9179. jexster - 9/30/2008 4:52:55 PM

Nouriel Roubini's RGE Monitor!



I figger the best way to know if you are, as WONKERS would say, being JEWED is to ask an Ayrab



FREE TRIAL!

9180. jexster - 9/30/2008 7:04:15 PM

That's a heapin helpin of bengan bartha

Corporate AmeriKa just lost a chunk of wealth the size of India's economy

9182. marjoribanks - 9/30/2008 11:15:39 PM

Wizardo,

I was shimmying back-and-forth in my seat to the great, great calypsonian The Mighty Sparrow's entertainingly wonky tribute to Obama, when I saw one of your images embedded in this video.



BTW, calypso has always been an extremely political musical genre.

9183. marjoribanks - 9/30/2008 11:16:58 PM

What happened to my post 9182?

9184. wonkers2 - 10/1/2008 12:23:15 AM

Fire and Ice


Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Robert Frost

9185. wonkers2 - 10/1/2008 12:23:37 AM

Fire and Ice


Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Robert Frost

9186. wonkers2 - 10/1/2008 12:25:14 AM

9187. wonkers2 - 10/1/2008 12:26:16 AM

Fire and Ice

9188. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/6/2008 9:59:29 PM

9189. jexster - 10/9/2008 11:58:54 AM

SEOUL, Oct. 9 -- With its toxic securities and its insistence on open markets, the United States has a lot of nerve and a lot to answer for. That, at least, is what South Korean Finance Minister Kang Man-soo argued as he prepared to leave for a weekend meeting in Washington of finance officials searching for ways to calm the global financial crisis.


Where is the love?


We liberated them with American blood and just like the French, they spit on Old Glory

9190. alistairConnor - 11/7/2008 6:16:14 PM

ha. Heard President (of Europe) Sarko on the radio tonight, after the Euro 27 summit preparing for the G20 in Washington next week. He was making pointed remarks about "we know where this world crisis came from, we who are facing the consequences demand to be heard, we want our place at the table, the days of a single world currency are numbered".

Apparently the Europeans have decided that the new world economic order (regulated capitalism) has to be signed and sealed in 100 days, starting next week.

Should give Polson and Obama something to think about.

9191. alistairConnor - 11/7/2008 6:17:03 PM

I just voted... at least I think I did... by fax, from my kitchen table in France.
Midnight here... midday on election day in New Zealand.

I'll follow the counting over breakfast.

I've got a strange feeling it's going to be tight as heck!

(but I'm usually wrong about these things)

9192. alistairConnor - 11/7/2008 6:55:58 PM

This full-page ad was in NZ's largest circulation daily today

Starting from the top right corner, counting down six and left two, you can see my elder daughter up a tree, overhanging a beach.

9193. marjoribanks - 11/8/2008 1:41:19 AM

8am on the 5th here (late night USA time on the 4th) and I made my way up the beach to the shack where we normally eat breakfast. It’s long holidays for Diwali here, and I have been profitably teaching my two older boys to boogie-board in the waves that lap up on our favourite stretch of sand.

This is a remote spot. There are visitors but there is very little concrete infrastructure. Instead bamboo huts and palm-thatch cottages, and thick jungle all around that reaches to the bay. Rugged, beautiful, other-worldly, it does not feel anything like civilization.

The television is working for a change at the beach shack. Breakfast with CNN, and then that astonishing moment when the election is called for Obama. The shack is empty but for us, and the waiters and cooks are bemused at the high-fives going around the table.(I’ve been discussing politics with the older boy (almost 9) these past few days)

And then that goosebump moment, as we all fall silent, and Barack Obama emerges on stage with his family.

Cynical I am, seen it all I have, burned by politics I do feel – but what an unforgettable, spine-tingling moment of high drama to see that beautiful black family take centre-stage in America.

The emotion was literally too much to bear, and I am not ashamed to say that the tears flowed and came again as Obama made that superb, nuanced speech. I thought of W.E. du Bois and James Baldwin and Richard Wright and Malcolm X and Jim Brown. I thought of my one-time mentor and colleague who helped desegregate the top tiers of American newsrooms whose fierce anger at racism still colours his emails at age 85. I missed Harlem at that moment, and thought of Bayard Rustin and MLK.

Then, so far away from America that it might well be another planet, the staff of the beach shack filed out of the kitchen and stood around me in silence, visceral reminder of another day when the world gathered around their television screens, and a literally palpable global feeling grew that “we are all Americans.”

In my own lifetime, I did not imagine there would be another chance like the post-9/11 one – so full of potential for a better new world with the nations of the world standing together, so pregnant with hope – but here it has happened again. Congratulations America, you've still got it.

9194. alistairConnor - 11/8/2008 5:57:29 AM

Yep, it's clearly an epochal moment, beautifully captured, Marj. I just got off the phone with my sister in New Zealand, we were both still elated about Obama, the loss of the election in NZ seems minor in comparison.

9195. alistairConnor - 11/8/2008 6:03:05 AM

So : in NZ, after nine years of Helen Clark's Labour government, we get a centre-right/hard right coalition government.

The hoped-for result was for a weakened Labour to hang on, bringing a strengthened Green Party into coalition and government. Not This Time.

My main satisfaction at the results : the 5% threshold has finally done for charismatic, mildly corrupt centrist Winston Peters. The wily beggar has bitten the dust after thirty years. Christ, he turned out to harder to kill than Rasputin. My nightmare scenario was that a Labour/Greens coalition government would have to rely on him for a parliamentary majority... another 15000 votes, and that might have been the case... I prefer honorable defeat.

9196. jexster - 11/8/2008 7:55:20 AM

Berlusconi's a Buffoon

9197. wonkers2 - 11/8/2008 10:55:21 AM

Moving comment 'banks. I felt much the same way. My sister had an election watching party the evening of November 4. It was a joyous occasion as the electoral votes piled up for Obama. And his acceptance speech was quite moving, cooler than MLK but almost as good.

9198. jexster - 11/8/2008 11:19:27 AM

Wipe the Pollack Entity off the map

CHICAGO – President-elect Obama has spoken to the president of Poland about relations between the two countries but didn't make a commitment on the multibillion-dollar missile defense program undertaken by the Bush administration, an Obama aide said Saturday.

That contrasts with a statement by Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who said Obama told him the missile defense project would continue.

9199. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/8/2008 2:12:44 PM

9200. wonkers2 - 11/8/2008 7:52:29 PM

I wonder who's telling the truth--Obama or Kaczynski? The project is a waste of money IMHO and unnecessarily provocative.

9201. Marc-Albert - 11/8/2008 10:17:21 PM

I hope the Palestinians and other Ayrabs are not putting too much stock in Mr. Obama and his trusted Chief-of-Staff to help find a solution to the Jewish occupation of Palestine.

On n'est pas sorti de l'auberge.


He will be our man at the White House (Maariv)

9202. Marc-Albert - 11/8/2008 10:19:24 PM

I think a reality of US politics is that you can't get into the White House unless you are somewhere between staunchly and rabidly pro-Israel. (Bela in Random International)

9203. alistairConnor - 11/9/2008 5:40:25 AM

That is the conventional wisdom, M-A... But then again, there was that famous anti-Semite Jimmy Carter... Had he been a little bit more skilful and realistic, and got the Syrians on board, the whole bag of knots could have been ancient history by now. There's no fundamental reason why it should be harder now, a mere couple of decades later, to solve problems that are millenia old.

The major reason why nothing will progress in the next couple of years is named Netanyahu.

9204. jexster - 11/11/2008 1:08:54 PM

EuroTolerance? Apparently not. prominent EuroTrash calls our spade a spade!

9205. wonkers2 - 11/12/2008 4:43:17 PM

Letter to NY Times Reader Opinion Blog

39. November 12, 2008 12:24 pm Link

Twice in recent weeks otherwise excellent NY Times editorials endorsing and congratulating Barack Obama referred to the “necessary war in Afghanistan” without explaining what is so necessary about the war, what we expect to accomplish by it, at what cost and what the likelihood of achieving our goals there is, and whether to goals are worth the cost. Dexter Filkins outstanding recent report on Afghanistan didn’t inspire confidence in the likelihood of success of our policies there.

In the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq, the NY Times let the country down, lending it’s front pages to misinformation about WMD and its editorial page in support of Bush’s foolish, costly, counter-productive invasion of Iraq. I urge your editors to re-examine your position on Iran. The lack of public discussion of this issue is unfortunate, in my opinion.

Moving troops from Iraq to Afghanistan may well be be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.

W2

9206. jexster - 11/13/2008 7:49:32 PM

EuroTrash Credit Insurers Pull Plug on GM and Ford

9207. wonkers2 - 11/13/2008 11:21:19 PM

Paulson was on the Lehrer News Hour tonight. He appeared worried and not at all confident that what he's doing is working. The U.S. economy is in quite serious trouble in my opinion. My view may be jaundiced due to the huge black cloud over Michigan thanks to Jexter and his buddies in California driving Lexuses to dinner at the French Laundry.

9208. alistairconnor - 11/14/2008 10:17:12 AM

Let me spell it out, Wonk.

Guilty : the Bush administration, whose tax cuts on RVs gave a perverse incentive to Americans to buy damn great tanks that Motown built for them, rather than downsizing to prepare for an oil-poor future.

Guilty : Ford and GM strategists who took the easy money building damn great tanks (which they had a monopoly on, since no other auto maker on earth is insane enough to make them their strategic product line; but which are unexportable, for the same reason) rather than developing cars for the future.

Out of luck : the workforce who, through union power, maintained their earning power against a sinking tide. They are now stranded.

In crisis : every car maker in the world, because nobody's buying.

DOA : the American car industry, because when people start buying again, they have an unattractive product line.

9209. wonkers2 - 11/14/2008 11:30:01 AM

Very true. GM, Ford and Chrysler were shortsighted in betting so heavily on SUVs. Also, they missed the boat on diesels. GM and Ford have been skating on thin ice for a long time because they are so heavily leveraged. They lobbied successfully with the help of the UAW and Iron John Dingle against improvements in fuel economy standards.

9210. wonkers2 - 11/14/2008 11:41:39 AM

However, the failure of the U.S. auto companies will have a cataclysmic effect on the American economy.

9211. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/14/2008 12:17:47 PM

The cataclysm is coming one way or the other. Paulson is a still a whore for Wall Street and ineptitude continues to be rewarded because cronyism still rules in this administration.

As Claudius said: Lance the boil and let the puss run out.

9212. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/14/2008 12:18:25 PM

a

9213. jexster - 11/14/2008 8:13:34 PM

I'm likin this Frenchman more and more!!!

Nicolas Sarkozy saved the President of Georgia from being hanged "by the balls" — a threat made last summer by Vladimir Putin, according to an account that emerged yesterday from the Élysée Palace. . . .

The Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. "I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls," Mr Putin declared.

Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. "Hang him?" — he asked.

"Why not?" Mr Putin replied. "The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein."

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: "Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?"

Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: "Ah -- you have scored a point there."

9214. jexster - 11/14/2008 8:14:46 PM

However, the failure of the U.S. auto companies will have a cataclysmic effect on the American economy.


Earth to Honkers...they already HAVE failed..that's why they want me and Wizzer to bail their sorry asses out

They've been failing for three decades

9215. jexster - 11/14/2008 8:17:39 PM

FYI Chevron and me is going to Cyrus and Allah willing the French Laundry in January....we'll be saving the planet by drinking champagne and eating brunch in a hot air balloon



Balloon Ride in the Wine Country From USD
$205.95
Come fly with us in a hot air balloon over the beautiful Sonoma Valley. Let the breeze usher you along the corridors of grape vines and between the mountains of one of the most magnificent valleys on earth.

9216. jexster - 11/15/2008 6:47:58 PM

Sarko, Medvedev Plan World Domination

9217. Dubai Vol - 11/15/2008 7:15:28 PM

Just checking in, as it's been a while. Thanks for some nice ammo to use on the republitard boards I troll.

And the grammar Nazi in me just has to beg you, PLEASE learn to use apostrophes!



And Jexster, you're still an asshole. Fuck off and die already.

And a funny to share, if you haven't seen it:

9218. jexster - 11/15/2008 8:05:16 PM

Dubai Goes Bust;
Is there a Silver Lining?

9219. wonkers2 - 11/16/2008 10:48:03 AM

Is that a photograph or an architect's rendering of a proposal?

9220. jexster - 11/16/2008 12:27:49 PM

Artist's rendering Dubai Towers, Lagoons Dist. completion 2010 or so...


Who has the HVAC contract?

9221. jexster - 11/16/2008 12:29:06 PM

The Holy Martyr

9222. jexster - 11/21/2008 10:52:50 AM

More on Dubai's dynamic bldg

9223. jexster - 11/24/2008 3:47:47 PM

Financial Times: Euro Socialists Should Look to Obama

9224. jexster - 11/26/2008 2:47:50 PM

Is Mumbai Burning?

Piyush Jindal mobilizing LA Natl Guard

9225. alistairConnor - 11/26/2008 3:10:56 PM

yeah my girlfriend is on the case. Night shift. They asked her to go in early.

9226. jexster - 11/26/2008 4:23:44 PM

Sheesh I figured Marji would be upset over the outcome of her Piglin Prognostication but I never thought she'd act out

9227. jexster - 11/27/2008 1:09:23 PM

Can't those people speak ENGLISH!


From Mumbai Twitter

asanghi: Can you imagine a conversation between Pranab and say....um Obama? I'd pay to see that komma phool shtop #mumbai

9228. jexster - 11/27/2008 1:12:00 PM

Werry Bollyvood

gsik: The official NSG website has some funky background music http://www.nsg.gov.in/ #mumbai

9229. jexster - 11/27/2008 1:31:20 PM

After all this,the Hindi movie"Wednesday" strikes d right cord-hw long cn v hav politicians take us 4 a ride? #mumbai

Except I can't understand a damn syllable

9230. jexster - 11/27/2008 1:32:56 PM

SUBTITLES!!


A Wednesday

9231. jexster - 11/27/2008 3:25:59 PM

Sir! The Psycho has arrived. Somebody's going to die today!!

Our Hero

Hooray for Bollywood!!

9232. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/27/2008 5:11:31 PM

This is interesting . . .

War on Terror turns Moderates into Extremist! Deepak Chopra

9233. jexster - 11/27/2008 5:17:53 PM

FUNNY!!!

I was just finishing Wednesday - cool movie


When a Twitter....

nagster: Deepak Chopra's comments on the Mumbai attacks are ludicrous. A man who owns the Kama Space lounge in NYC talks of spirituality. Fraud!

9234. jexster - 11/27/2008 5:22:33 PM

I think it was the Mossad...they got caught and fled to the Chabad place


Just kidding..someone on Twitter is pushing that one

9235. jexster - 11/27/2008 6:07:51 PM

I didn't say it...someone on CNN did

"This doesn't reflect well on the intelligence of the Indians"

9236. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/27/2008 6:17:28 PM

Wonder what marj thinks and how it will affect him?

9237. wonkers2 - 11/27/2008 6:38:03 PM

Marj is in Goa which I don't think is near Mumbai. I'll look it up.

9238. wonkers2 - 11/27/2008 6:51:10 PM

Goa is quite a way south of Mumbai. It is a big tourist center which could make it a target. It is a former Portuguese colony but majority Hindu and 25% Christian and 7% Muslim. Maybe we'll get a report from Marj?

9239. jexster - 11/28/2008 11:10:25 AM

Doesn't Goa belong to Portugal?
If not it should

Beautiful Mumbai - Nariman "Beach"

9240. marjoribanks - 11/29/2008 2:32:47 AM

Yes, I am indeed several hundred miles away from dear old Bombay.

But this attack took place far too close to home nonetheless - I am South Bombay born and bred, and many family members live in the area which was targeted in this audacious sea-borne commando attack. The gunmen strolled down Colaba Causeway to Cafe Leopold (where many victims were gunned down) and then into the Taj - a route I must have taken at least 5000 times, and the bloodbath that ensued has accounted for at least three people that I personally know (which wasn't the case even at 9/11, even despite the proximity then).

The sight of armed gunmen striding Columbine-style through the landscape of my childhood has been an ugly, stark reminder of the times we live in, and the wrenching loss of even the illusion of safe haven that has at many times, and in many places, sustained me with its promise.

Bombay, now Mumbai, has astonishing resilience like no other place I know. Business will be as usual in a week, if that. The flow of money that animates the city will resume uninterrupted, if it hasn't already. But this attack has hurt - the marvellously open city of my childhood and early adult years is gone forever, and all these landmarks have become "targets" which will inevitably be "hardened." My children - who love this area, Colaba, where I grew up and where they often visit - will know a different place altogether, one that is no longer shielded from the killing winds that blow over our planet.

It is very sad.

I've lived through a lot already in my 40 years - outright war, devastating terrorist attacks, murderous riots, stick-ups and extortions and attempts at blackmail. But this astonishingly bold incident has me thinking bleak thoughts indeed, and I am extremely fearful about the world my sons are set to inherit.

9241. anomie - 11/29/2008 4:58:14 AM

I'm sure many share your sentiments whether they are locals or not. Stay safe.

9242. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/29/2008 9:39:31 AM

Thanks for the insight, marj and you're right on.

Angry young men without hope has become the lethal epidemic of our time--always ignored by those in pursuit of yet more money and power.

9243. judithathome - 11/29/2008 11:07:45 AM

Great to hear from you, Marj, and glad you and yours are okay.

9244. jexster - 11/29/2008 11:08:38 AM

Cafe Leopold looks like a fun place

Thanks for the update Marj...

9245. jexster - 11/29/2008 11:40:07 AM

I am confused.

Cafe Leopold boast that its "beef chilly and fried rice combo is a must have"

1. Is beef chilly, beef tartare?
2. Does "must have" mean that it is a sacred cow?

9246. Ms. No - 11/29/2008 11:49:48 AM

Marj,

Glad to hear that you are well and safe. I've been thinking of your family since the first news came through --- although I suspected you weren't in the immediate vicinity I did think of how this city is such a part of your life and how devastating it is to see your heritage and history hit by such violence.

9247. jexster - 11/29/2008 12:37:33 PM

Why didn't this get 24/7 sturm und drang coverage?

9248. jexster - 11/29/2008 12:46:01 PM

India: the fight is on for pluralism


The air is still thick with tragedy in Orissa state. Someone just told me the story of a Christian widow he chanced upon in the state capital, Bhubaneswar, who chokingly related the story of her husband's death. She said that he fled from an angry mob that came to his house in the night of August 28, but he was caught and told that he and his brothers and all their families must convert to Hinduism or he would be killed. He resisted the pressure, so they tied him to a tree, took kerosene from his brother's house, poured it over him and set him on fire.

9249. jexster - 11/29/2008 1:13:09 PM

I am Concerned

The Hinduvata Flag

9250. vonKreedon - 11/29/2008 4:30:27 PM

Marj - Came here hoping to hear that you and your family are well; thanks for posting. The tide of global terrorism has certainly left its mark on your life.

9251. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/29/2008 11:25:04 PM

How do we stop ignorant men from this kind of behavior?

9252. wonkers2 - 11/29/2008 11:53:18 PM

That's a good question. Their civilization is not very civilized. The Muslims aren't the only religion that teaches that women must be subservient, however.

9253. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/30/2008 12:06:09 AM

It drives me nutz to see this kind of abuse.

9254. wonkers2 - 11/30/2008 12:15:49 AM

I agree. However, women in the U.S. only got the right to vote in 1920 when the 19th amendment was passed. Pakistan is not a very civilized country. Apparently terrorist groups there were behind the attacks in Mumbai. Catch 22 should be translated into Urdu and made required reading in the schools there and passed out free on every street corner with the objective of replacing Mohammad with Yossarian as a societal role model. And they could show The Big Lebowski free in every movie theater for a few months to encourage the fanatics to be a bit more laid back.

9255. jexster - 11/30/2008 2:00:46 PM

Indians worship snake gods...killed 2000 Muzzies in a pogrom...killed a hundred Christians, chased 30,000 into refugee camps

9256. jexster - 11/30/2008 2:01:17 PM

The entire country looks like a dump

9257. jexster - 11/30/2008 3:26:38 PM

And I thought India was fuckt up

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) --

Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved Sunday a move to make permanent the country's pioneering program to give addicts government-authorized heroin.

At the same time, voters rejected a proposal to decriminalize marijuana.

Sixty-eight percent of the 2,264,968 voters casting ballots approved making the heroin program permanent. It has been credited with reducing crime and improving the health and daily lives of addicts since it began in 1994.

Some 63.2 percent of voters voted against the marijuana initiative.

9258. jexster - 12/1/2008 2:09:25 PM

Every dark cloud has a silver lining. Mumbai Massacre was tragic but at least CNN called in its Chief Asia Crisis Correspondent!!!




Just did a bit from Victoria Station (not the nice one, the India one)

9259. jexster - 12/1/2008 3:07:48 PM

Indian Muslims Refuse Terrorists Burial in Muslim Cemeteries

9260. wonkers2 - 12/1/2008 5:47:11 PM

Interesting. Juan Cole is a good source.
Does anybody else think the Indian commandos should have been a bit more patient in dealing with the terrorists at the Jewish Center. A bit more waiting and negotiating might have resulted in saving the lives of the the Rabbi and his wife. Moreover, would it not have been better to capture the terrorists alive rather than killing them. Shades of Waco, Texas.

9261. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 12/1/2008 6:07:40 PM

Haste makes waste.

9262. jexster - 12/1/2008 6:21:19 PM

No it wouldn't have done any good. The Black Cat Commandos knew the terrorists were Mossad

9263. JJBiener - 12/1/2008 7:00:28 PM

Wonk - "A bit more waiting and negotiating might have resulted in saving the lives of the the Rabbi and his wife."

I am trying to figure out what you are basing this on. It would seem you are relying more on hope than on experience. I am having trouble remembering the last time there was a successful negotiation with terrorists. Can you help me out on that one?

9264. wonkers2 - 12/1/2008 8:02:19 PM

Plenty of hostages have been rescued alive or ransomed from the FARC in Colombia. I doubt that ransom would have moved the terrorists in the Jewish center in Mumbai. Before coming in with guns blazing I would have cut off the water, and electricity and waited for a couple of days before shooting the place up. This might not have worked but waiting doesn't cost anything. Catching a couple of more terrorists alive would have been useful, not to mention the saving the lives of the Rabbi and his wife. It would have been worth a try.

Do you remember the disaster at Waco where the BATF and Janet Reno got impatient and needlessly burned up a bunch of women and children. And for that they were roundly criticized, justifiably so.

Waco Shootout

9266. JJBiener - 12/1/2008 8:40:39 PM

Wonk - I am sure there have been successful negotiations with the Basque separatists as well, but it was clear early on the terrorists in Mumbai were on a different level.

I hope you aren't expecting me to defend Reno over Waco. She should have resigned over it. She was a lot of what was wrong with the Clinton Administration.

9267. wonkers2 - 12/1/2008 10:14:12 PM

Perhaps you're correct. But a bit more patience wouldn't have cost anything other than the risk of critical public opinion. And it might have worked either to save the Rabbi and his wife or to capture the terrorists alive. The commandos apparently didn't wait until the finite amount of ammunition, food and water was exhausted. They could have done so.

9268. robertjayb - 12/1/2008 11:47:40 PM

I want someone to prepare and publish an illustrated tick-tock that will explain how twelve (or is it ten?) men were able to wreak such havoc. Step-by-step, minute-by-minute? How did they do it? Was there any timely resistance at all?

9269. JJBiener - 12/2/2008 12:14:21 AM

RJB - My understanding is that it wasn't just 10-12 men. That is how many came in from Pakistan for the attack. I don't think they know how many were already on the ground in Mumbai. This was a well planned operation. They would have had plenty of time to get people in place.

9270. JJBiener - 12/2/2008 12:18:49 AM

Wonk - "But a bit more patience wouldn't have cost anything other than the risk of critical public opinion."

I don't think we know this. The whole thing was happening very quickly. I don't think the police could have known when the terrorists were going to start executing hostages. This wasn't exactly the kind of hostage situation we are used to in the US.

9271. jexster - 12/2/2008 3:33:17 AM

Where's Marc-Albert?

Seems that asshole Harper's screwed himself. Oppo Bloc Sets Terms for Government

Nice! Vive le Québec libre !

9272. alistairconnor - 12/2/2008 9:32:59 AM

Objectively, the Mumbai thing is looking like a strategic Al Qaeda operation.

I thought their goal was to provoke trouble between Hindus and Muslims in India, and incidentally to stir trouble between India and Pakistan. But if you think through the probable effects, another picture emerges.

The Indian government has no choice but to blame Pakistan, and make hostile moves in that direction. If not, the government will most likely fall, AND there will probably be major Muslim/Hindu strife with many deaths. Going to the brink of war is their best hope of keeping the lid on the domestic situation.

This puts the government of Pakistan in a tough spot : yes, their military intelligence should have prevented the massacre, but the government have little control over the military, and none at all over military intelligence... who may or may not have been complicit or turned a blind eye. So they can give no guarantees that it won't happen again. If they try to assert control over the military, they may well provoke an islamo-military coup.
What they will have to do is shift troops to the Indian frontier if India picks a fight. And where will they shift them from?

... from the northwest, where they have been putting pressure on Al Qaeda and co-operating in the fight against the Taliban.

How to avoid this outcome, which is clearly positive for AQ?

9273. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 12/2/2008 11:26:49 AM

The malevolent efficacy of the terrorists is worrisome. They always seem to outwit us in strategy and guile.

9274. jexster - 12/2/2008 3:58:50 PM

Mumbai - International Dick Move

9275. robertjayb - 12/2/2008 4:01:33 PM

Mombai police wouldn't shoot, photographer claims...

"There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything," he said. "At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back."

9276. wonkers2 - 12/2/2008 5:56:26 PM

Maybe the Bombay policemen aren't allowed to carry loaded weapons without authorization???

9277. jexster - 12/2/2008 8:35:28 PM

The Raj Mahal

9278. jexster - 12/2/2008 8:36:51 PM

9279. jexster - 12/4/2008 10:34:08 AM

I can't keep track of all AC's gambling activities but I recall something on the price of oil now estimated heading for $25/bbl if China joins in the Great Recession

9280. wonkers2 - 12/4/2008 10:39:19 AM

To demonstrate his intention to break with the failed Bush policies and improve our international relationships Obama should join the majority of civilized nations and sign the anti-cluster bomb treaty ASAP! CLUSTER BOMBS

9281. wonkers2 - 12/4/2008 11:52:18 AM

More on cluster bombs--Obama--Sign the treaty ASAP!

9282. Wombat - 12/4/2008 1:20:51 PM

From what I've been reading, it seems more Kashmiri-related that Al Qaeda. That's too bad, in a sense, because all parties can get behind blaming Al Qaeda instead of each other. If the attackers were linked to Kashmiri groups, then it becomes tricky.

Pakistani regimes in the past sponsored Kashmiri groups in part to make life difficult for India, and in part to give Islamicists someone to fight instead of--potentially--the Pakistan government.

India seized and continues to hold Kashmir against the wishes of the majority of the region's population. Indian government repression in Kashmir is far removed for the picture of Democracy that India presents to the world.

The attack strikes directly at the thawing of relations between India and Pakistan that has been taking place since Musharraf stepped down. The current Pakistani government can correctly deny that they had a role in the attack, but they cannot deny that elements in the military and intelligence communities played a role in training and protecting Kshmiri militants--and may still be doing so.

India can justifiably blame Pakistan for its role--however indirect--in the attack, but they canot evade their own responsibility for keeping the conflict over Kashmir bubbling away.

The US can usefully attempt to mediate between the countries and work toward a joint investigation. Hopefully Condolezza RIce retains enough influence to get that process going.

There will not be progress toward a longer-term solution until India and Pakistan are able to admit their roles in feeding the conflict, and not evade their responsibility for the conflict by inflaming nationalist and religious sentiments instead.

9283. wonkers2 - 12/4/2008 3:16:32 PM

That's my impression from what I've read. Condolezza Rice would very much like to blame it on Al Qaeda, but it doesn't like this will fly.

9284. wonkers2 - 12/4/2008 10:17:46 PM

Looks to me like he trail for the Mumbai terrorists leads straight to fanatics in Pakistan Pakistan groups appear to be source of Mumbai terror

9285. alistairconnor - 12/5/2008 6:55:12 AM

From what I've been reading, it seems more Kashmiri-related that Al Qaeda. That's too bad, in a sense, because all parties can get behind blaming Al Qaeda instead of each other. If the attackers were linked to Kashmiri groups, then it becomes tricky.

Wombat, don't confuse the proximate cause with the big picture. Sure, the Kashmir issue motivated the suicide squad. But what links exist between Lashkar-e-Taiba and Al Q? Is it not likely that they made common cause for this attack? The level of discipline and expertise, and the strategic implications, make links strongly probable, surely.

I've seen analysis that points out the parallels between the Mumbai attack and the NY "landmarks" plot by Al Qaeda in the 90s (which was only prevented because the group was infiltrated, and would have played out much like Mumbai).

9286. Wombat - 12/5/2008 10:49:28 AM

Lashkar and Al Qaeda were close a decade ago; there are plenty of reports of individuals going to train to join the former, and ending up in the latter.

I would question the viability of the links today. Lashkar has carried out coordinated attacks with a similar MO before in India (the attack on Parliament, for example). Pakistan has most likely never voluntarily provided training or sanctuary to Al Qaeda, they have certainly done both with Lashkar.

I would caution you against ignoring the proximate cause for the "big picture."

9287. alistairconnor - 12/8/2008 7:25:43 AM

Good news from Pakistan :

Arrest of Zakiur ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the supreme commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba

It will be interesting to see how hard the Pak government can crack down on them, without generating a backlash from their own intelligence services.

9288. alistairconnor - 12/8/2008 9:23:32 AM

Pakistan has most likely never voluntarily provided training or sanctuary to Al Qaeda, they have certainly done both with Lashkar.

Yes, but Lashkar and Al Q have certainly exchanged training and sanctuary. The transitive link to the ISI is not strong in an operational sense, but embarassing. Likewise, the transitive link between the ISI and the Mumbai atrocities.

Will this give the civilian politicians an opportunity to clean up the ISI?

9289. wonkers2 - 12/8/2008 10:49:47 AM

Applying Bush's preemptive strike policy India has cause to attack or invade Pakistan. Fortunately, Obama will have an opportunity to deep six the Bush theory, if he's inclined to do so. My worry is that he's going along with the escalation of our original mission in Afghanistan which was to capture/kill Bin Laden into the impossible or at the very least long and costly task of subduing the Taliban and democratizing a barbaric country that doesn't want to be democratized or civilized by western standards, at least.

9290. wonkers2 - 12/12/2008 1:03:47 PM

Bush Nuclear Deal with U.A.E. It sounds plausible on the surface to me. But I'm suspicious of nearly everything with Bush's name on it.??? Opinions??

9291. vonKreedon - 12/12/2008 1:36:12 PM

I share your suspicion of anything this administration does; if not outright corruption, there's the pervasive incompetence.

That being said, based on the information in the article, this looks like a smart move. The US is shown to be very cooperative and supportive of a Gulf Arab state developing nuclear energy when that state cheerfully accepts all the international safeguards one would wish to ensure that the technology does not migrate to weapon production. As the "senior U.S. official" says, "This is a real counterexample to what Iran is doing," said the senior U.S. official Thursday. "We're seeking commitments from nations within the Middle East that they're going to rely on the markets for nuclear fuel." This could work to further isolate Iran for its intransigence.

9292. wonkers2 - 12/12/2008 2:06:37 PM

Our reactions were the same. Anybody else? There must be a downside!!

9293. robertjayb - 12/13/2008 5:41:35 PM

AP has Mumbai gunman's confession...

Mohammed Ajmal Kasab's seven-page confession, given to police over repeated interrogations, offers chilling new details of the three-day rampage through India's commercial center that left 164 people plus nine gunmen dead.

9294. wonkers2 - 12/15/2008 11:03:32 AM

Angela Merkel hasn't gotten the word on the causes and remedies for the crisis

9295. robertjayb - 12/18/2008 9:35:22 AM

Brit Split...

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown rejected calls for an immediate inquiry into the Iraq war on Thursday and confirmed that Britain will start withdrawing troops from the country by the end of May.

Brown went before parliament to announce the end of Britain's involvement in the Iraq war, bringing an end to one of the most controversial episodes in recent British history.

"The fundamental change of mission will take place at the latest by May 31, 2009. At that point we will start a rapid withdrawal of our troops."

9296. wonkers2 - 12/18/2008 10:00:14 AM

HOORAY!

9297. robertjayb - 12/18/2008 12:27:00 PM

Oil Slides...

Crude oil for January delivery fell $2.14, or 5.3 percent, to $37.92 a barrel at 10:07 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures touched $37.71, the lowest since July 1, 2004. (Bloomberg)

9298. wonkers2 - 1/3/2009 10:04:28 AM

Global Peace Index

9299. robertjayb - 1/6/2009 3:33:30 PM

Israeli shelling kills 42 at school...(Reuters)

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli shelling killed more than 40 Palestinians Tuesday at a U.N. school where civilians had taken shelter, medical officials said, in carnage likely to boost international pressure on Israel to halt a Gaza offensive.
.................................................

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, at least 631 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,700 wounded since Israel began its offensive.

Ten Israelis, including three civilians hit by rocket fire, have been killed in the conflict. At least five rockets landed in Israel Tuesday, including one that hit the town of Gadera, 28 km (17 miles) from Tel Aviv. A three-month-old baby was hurt.

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