Benazir Bhutto was focused on the Pakistani Tribal Areas during her campaign. She was optimistic her government could reconnect with them...

... bringing about national security rather than violence. Her widower would know her plans. So would her son. They can bring about stability in Pakistan in all regions that are void of terrorist influences. And in the regions that remain unstable and problematic, it just may be that is where al Qaeda and the Taliban have a strangle hold. The new Pakistani government must be given a chance.

(click title to entry, thank you)...Most of these fighters are probably drawn to the region to kill NATO troops and their local allies in Afghanistan. Indeed this is a big reason why the reconstruction effort there may be failing. Some 1,500 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan this year—roughly half of them by Western troops. In a bleak assessment of the progress of the war, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of America’s joint chiefs of staff, this month suggested that “time is running out” to turn things around....

Enough is enough. Its time to bring them home. Mental Health Issues are rampant. This is outrageous.

Two U.S. Soldiers Shot on Base; Another Soldier Held (click title to entry, thank you)

By Sudarsan RaghavanWashington Post Foreign Service Thursday, September 18, 2008; 2:20 PM
BAGHDAD, Sept. 18 -- A U.S. soldier is being held in connection with the shooting deaths of two fellow Americans on Sunday at their patrol base south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement Thursday.
News of the deaths came on the same day that seven American soldiers were killed in the southern Iraqi desert when their helicopter crashed. Military officials said that the early morning crash was not caused by enemy fire. They also said that two other U.S. soldiers died in two separate incidents Wednesday, not as a result of combat but under circumstances that have not yet been disclosed.
In total, that means 11 U.S. service members have died since Sunday for non-combat-related reasons....

Can't keep a good man down. He is the man with the answers and has been for years now !

To Barak, "Change" is a commitment, an ethic and a life-style. To everyone else 'Change' is a cliche. He is a great man and will make an incredible president. Barak has been "Walking the Walk" most of his life. It is his time. It is our time, too. I'm a believer.


...In recent days, Democrat Obama has seemed to regain his footing amid Wall Street's chaos and a renewed focus on the economy, a Democratic strength with a Republican in the White House. Also, McCain's late-summer boost, credited to his choice of Palin as his running mate, has appeared to dissipate....

The graph is from the New York Times. I told you so. Didn't even last 36 hours this time.

Bailout Fails to Stem Global Stock Slump

...and I know this sounds ridiculous and outrageous and completely paritsan, but, I know what will turn this around. The federal officials clamoring to get this straightened out, can't do it, can they? Nope.

But.

In order to achieve it, Barak Obama has to be at the top of the Executive Branch. He has the ability to turn this mess around. I can help and a lot of others can help, but, I ain't helpin' McCain because he hasn't got what it takes.

Just.

That.

Simple.

Obama and the Democrats in 2008 !!!

Think about it.

AIG Hong Kong. Appropriate, China still has money.

AIG Tower
Photographer, Niels Jakob Darger

Oh, look, the market is going up again. Now watch after all the bartering today, it will fall again tomorrow. We've been here before and an $85 billion bailout is nothing compared to the $200 billion for Fanny and Freddie. The 'bailouts' are a bounce that never sustains. Institutions are collapsing folks, the 'bailouts' are meerly a down payment on what is actually happening globally.

When bailouts occur there is contracture of the market place because there is consolidation of middle management that is duplicated in the take-over. The company being bought out is cannabalized and its products marketed under a new name that no one recognizes. A 'take-over' or 'bailout' succeeds in doing one thing, it cuts the jobs in the market and synthesizes assets into liquid and the demographics of the 'business/fiscal' world changes.

The 'bailout' of AIG will bring what every other measure by the FED and US Treasury has brought, a 'bounce' that lasts about 36 hours. That is all that is going to happen here.

Look, this is serious. These are long standing financial institutions that once garnered a great deal of respect. They are gone. That is trauma and loss of fiscal clout within the infrastructure of the USA. Barclay's is welcome to obtain whatever advantage it can find by purchasing Lehman, but, its a British Company and its not purchasing Lehman to keep the doors open, so much as salvage its assets.

This is bad news no matter which way one looks at it and I just can't wait until the federal notes come due and the USA Treasury has to print more money without any commodity to back it up. These programs are only 'stop-gaps' to disaster and nothing more. The markets will bounce today, but, will stagnate again by Friday. This market is not going to recover. The reason the markets haven't completely collapsed yet is because they are bouyed by promissory notes that appear to have a degree of integrity. It won't last and in the meantime, Bush and his administratin is trying to figure out why the tax cuts aren't working the way they should.

This isn't terribly different than the 'negative feedback loop' of Human Induced Global Warming. An institution fails, it is rescued and hacked apart placing more people out of work, hence creating more problems with mortgages and so on and so on. This entire mess is a house of cards and it ain't over yet !!!

Barclays to pay $1.75 bln for some Lehman assets (click here)
Reuters , Wednesday September 17 2008
...Most of the price tag was accounted for by Lehman's New York headquarters and two data centers, while the British bank will pay just $250 million in cash for Lehman's North American investment banking and capital markets businesses....

Supporters flock to rally, take aim at Palin, McCain

..."This election is going to be a game-changer," Clinton said. "We have the opportunity to go beyond the failed policies of the past eight years, or continue them."
She spoke in broad terms about encouraging companies to provide health and retirement benefits and creating jobs through green energy.
Clinton also slightly reshuffled a line from her Democratic National Convention speech in which she urged her supporters to become Obama supporters: "No way, no how, no McCain and no Palin."...

'Hillary's women' reject McCain's VP choice (click here)
By Leonard Doyle in Washington

Wednesday, 17 September 2008
The National Organiastion for Women has decided endorse Barack Obama and Joe Biden's bid for power, snubbing Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin (above)
America's largest women's rights organisation delivered a snub to Sarah Palin's history-making candidacy yesterday by endorsing Barack Obama and Joe Biden's bid for power.
The National Organisation for Women (NOW) is 500,000 strong and hugely influential. The feminist organisation almost never supports a presidential candidate, but the Alaska governor's Christian fundamentalist faith and her opposition to abortion rights has forced its hand.
Other women's rights organisations are also campaigning against Governor Palin, pushed along by a spontaneous anti-Palin movement among women.
In Alaska at the weekend, a Welcome Home rally for Mrs Palin was dwarfed by a demonstration organised by Alaska Women Reject Palin, which was held on the lawn of a downtown Anchorage library....

Palin's Bridge to Wasilla. That is what I call change. People die in bridge collapse in the lower 48, but, Palin cronies receive gov't subsidies .

Palin supports $600 million 'other' bridge project
By GARANCE BURKE – 18 hours ago
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Sarah Palin may eventually have said "no thanks" to a federally funded Bridge to Nowhere.
But a bridge to her hometown of Wasilla, that's a different story.
A $600 million bridge and highway project to link Alaska's largest city to Palin's town of 7,000 residents is moving full speed ahead, despite concerns the bridge could worsen some commuting and threaten a population of beluga whales.
Local officials already have spent $42 million on plans to route traffic across the Knik Arm inlet, a narrow finger of water extending roughly 25 miles northeast of Anchorage toward Wasilla. The proposal exists thanks to an earmark request by Republican Rep. Don Young, whose son-in-law has a small stake in property near the bridge's proposed western span....


Bridge repairs going nowhere (click here)
by Alyson E. Raletz
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Gov. Matt Blunt called on highway officials to initiate an overdue statewide bridge repair program Monday.
The plea came one year and 15 days after he stood on an Interstate 29 overpass in St. Joseph and signed legislation that enabled the work on 802 of the state’s worst bridges.
Dubbed one of the oldest bridges in the state, the deck of the U.S. Highway 169 bridge that runs over Interstate 29 was slated for a makeover, Mr. Blunt said on Sept. 5, 2007, during a special ceremony.
Mr. Blunt had called a special session that summer to hasten the repairs.
Virtually untouched, the local bridge still resembles a patchwork quilt in September 2008.
“We’ve put it off long enough, but we want to make sure we have a great value for the citizens of Missouri,” Missouri Highways and Transportation Commissioner David Gach, of St. Joseph, said of the entire project....

That is a heck of reality in the USA. First people die and then bridges are repaired beyond what is even expect. Something "W"rong here !!

Wis. bridges safer after I-35W collapse (click here)
By: Sara Lieburn
The Daily Cardinal - September 16, 2008 A little over a year since its collapse, the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis will open Thursday. The tragedy sparked an inspection of similar bridges in Wisconsin.
The Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, which collapsed last summer, is scheduled to reopen Thursday, and officials say Wisconsin has taken appropriate measures to protect against a similar tragedy.
The collapse of the bridge in August 2007 killed 13 people and initiated a special set of inspections on 16 similar bridges in Wisconsin.
Beth Cannestra, spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, said the design error responsible for the I-35W bridge collapse was isolated to that bridge.
According to Cannestra, Wisconsin has taken a proactive approach with the special inspections following the collapse....

NTSB close to identifying cause of 35W bridge collapse (click here)
Last update: August 29, 2008 - 8:36 PM

The National Transportation Safety Board is close to identifying the cause of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse and plans to discuss its findings at a public hearing in Washington on Nov. 13.
The board said Friday that investigators are moving ahead with a draft of a final report after meeting Thursday with the parties to the official investigation.
They include the Minnesota Department of Transportation; the Federal Highway Administration; Jacobs Engineering, which acquired the bridge's original design consultant in 1999, and Progressive Contractors Inc., whose crews were resurfacing the bridge when it fell on Aug. 1, 2007.
Thirteen people died and 145 were injured in the collapse....

Overweight rig blamed in collapse of Kaufman County bridge; 3 hurt (click here for video)
06:51 PM CDT on Thursday, September 11, 2008
By DAN X. McGRAW / The Dallas Morning News

dmcgraw@dallasnews.com
A construction contractor pulling an oversized load estimated at 100,000 pounds disregard the posted weight limit of 24,000 pounds, causing a bridge in Kaufman County to collapse, authorities said. Three people were injured.
The bridge, on FM 1836 just north of FM 90 near the town of Prairieville, collapsed about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday when a crew from R.K. Hall Construction Co. drove a tractor-trailer hauling a backhoe over the bridge, said Kelli Petras, a spokeswoman with the Texas Department of Transportation.
The bridge had earlier been deemed deficient by TxDOT and was going to be demolished....

Bush envoking a new 'War Strategy' in the Tribal Regions of Pakistan will most likely fail.

Darren McCollester/Getty Images
U.S. troops near the Afghan-Pakistani border

It might prove first to be beneficial to defeat anarchy 'post Musharraf' before taking on the Warlords that flourished under him. The USA invasion without the consent of the Pakistani government may turn into a challenge to sovereignty and the USA will again be an unwelcome entity on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan Border. With additional USA troops promised to Afghanistan, it would be best to secure NATO's position and move from that vantage point. Shooting from the hip in the Tribal Regions of Pakistan cannot result in a good outcome. Not at this juncture. It would be helpful is Russia was a willing partner to secure the region and stop violence. I take it asking Russia for assitance is out of the question for Bush.

Analysis (click here)
The Pakistani army has ordered its forces to open fire on any U.S. troops attempting to cross the border from Afghanistan, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said Sept. 16. Using the words “open fire,” Pakistan is clearly trying to deter continued unilateral U.S. action inside its borders, as it has been doing with talk of firing on U.S. helicopters and intercepting U.S. “spy planes” in South and North Waziristan....

Bush wants to capture or kill Bin Laden before he leaves office. An admirable goal, however, one that is being met with resistance by Tribal leaders, especially since the recent Pakistani elections. The Bush Redress of the Afghanistan mess seeking to enter Pakistan's tribal region comes at a time when the new government has yet to build a strong concensus among the people of this region.

Pakistan, with its new leadership, is strongly positioned to reach out to allies such as Afghanistan and close the gap on cooperation with India, hence, focusing on Kashmir. But, if the people of this area become disgruntled with the new Pakistani government, the progress to greater stability will surely be met with instead greater unrest.

For as much as the tribal areas need to be addressed to rid the world of terrorist elements, turning the people of Pakistan into enemies is not the way to 'stability.'

Kabul needs to join with New Delhi and Islamabad to close the gap of unrest. Strong ties between these leaders can begin to defuse the circumstances now faced with expanding reaches of the Taliban and the ever disconcerting violence of Kashmir. With the assistance of the United Nations, regional border differences with Kashmir can be settled and new ways of governing can be found.

Pakistan now has a reasonable government, it is time to allow that to 'take hold' while bringing a strategy that will disarm terrorist networks forever.

Pakistani tribal chiefs threaten to join Taliban (click title to entry)
US warned of uprising if armed incursions continue
New counter-terror policy backfires on Washington
A controversial new US tactic to mount counter-terrorist operations inside Pakistan has met with fresh hostility, it emerged yesterday, as Pakistani tribesmen representing half a million people vowed to switch sides and join the Taliban if Washington does not stop cross-border attacks by its forces from Afghanistan....



Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during a ceremony marking the seventh anniversary of the assassination of Ahmad Shah Masood, Afghanistan's national hero who was killed by al Qaeda operatives two days before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, in Kabul September 8, 2008.

Chevy's Return of the Electric Car. YES !!!! I want it, I want it, I want it.

GM unveils Volt on company's 100th anniversary

The Democrat's Plan is Working

...Speaking to reporters at GM's 100th anniversary celebration, Wagoner said the $25 billion in loans were approved last year as part of an energy bill and should now be funded to help the industry build next-generation automobiles and meet government fuel economy standards....

How is it that revenue can fall 51% and there is still profit taking?

Goldman Sachs Group CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, looks on as he attends a session at the World Economic Forum WEF in Davos January 24, 2008. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

Goldman - Sachs knows that there just is nowhere else to go. When profits take a downturn and all your peers are posting "Going Out of Business" signs, it is a sure bet that GS has all the assets that can be had and there just ain't any more money around except what's in their treasury, pockets and balloons. Maybe Lloyd can explain why he is STILL "The Last Man Standing." I thought that was a strategy exclusive to Bin Laden.

...AIG has hired Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to seek the $75 billion. (click here) However, they must find the $75 billion by tomorrow. If they are unable, AIG is expected to declare bankruptcy. Response by AIG’s stock was immediate following the downgrade by S&P last night. This morning AIG is trading at $2.95...

GS is the only game left in town. Paulson will pull some strings to make a gesture of good will, but, with falling value anything at this point in time is simply a bandaid. It's over. The market is dead. Gross mismanagement by Republican legislators for 6 long years. You can't empty the treasury, continue to raise the USA debt ceiling and still expect to find gold in Fort Knox. It doesn't work that way.

Rather than trying to adhere to a Republican strategy of lower taxes to increase business's potential for expanding the economy, maybe its time to actually pay off the debt and take back the money Wall Street squandered to bouy Bush's economy in 2004. Maybe, just maybe, the folks with the money need to put it back. Read my lips, NO NEW TAX BREAKS !

Women in Alaska are voting for Obama. Look at this tee-shirt. Get yours today. Holy Smokes.

Get the feeling she was shopping for a new job anyway?


Palin Drilling to Nowhere !!!!

Not bad quoting.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: "The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism-- ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power." (Corporations)

‘Alaska Women Reject Palin’ Rally is HUGE!

14 09 2008
I attended the Welcome Home rally for Sarah Palin this morning. Hooo. It was an experience. About a thousand (maybe) hard-core Palin supporters showed up to hear her speak at the new Dena’ina Convention Center in downtown Anchorage.
After shaking it off with a good double shot of espresso, and a brisk walk back to my car, it was time to head to the Alaska Women Reject Palin rally. It was to be held outside on the lawn in front of the Loussac Library in midtown Anchorage. Home made signs were encouraged, and the idea was to make a statement that Sarah Palin does not speak for all Alaska women, or men. I had no idea what to expect....

Senator No is facing his toughest foe, Senator O

...Now Winfrey has squared off against Coburn, who has blocked S. 1738, the Combating Child Exploitation Act.
Winfrey asked her viewers Monday to call and write the Senate to demand their support for the legislation, sponsored by Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden (Del.).
Winfrey, herself a victim of sexual abuse, has asked viewers to sign and send a letter posted on her website calling for action on the bill.
Winfrey’s show is the top recipient of campaign advertisements after the leading news programs.
Coburn initially blocked it because it would have authorized nearly a billion dollars over eight years to fund a law enforcement crackdown on child exploitation. Coburn has insisted that new government programs be offset with spending cuts, a budget-saving device Biden’s bill lacked....



20 months ago: In this Tuesday, Jan. 2 2007 file photo, U.S. talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, second left, and students are seen during the opening of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in the small town of Henley-on-Klip, South Africa. A dormitory matron at Oprah Winfrey's school for disadvantaged girls in South Africa has been suspended amid allegations of serious misconduct, The Star newspaper reported Friday Oct. 19, 2007. South Africa's Child Protection Services have been notified and U.S. and South African private detectives have been engaged to investigate the allegations, the newspaper quoted the school's CEO John Samuel as saying.

McCain is a great patriot, but, he lacks the capacity to be a President. An Iconic President, but, not a leader. He openly admits bias against Gays.

Gays in the military (click here) : “To protect our servicemen and women and ensure that America’s Armed Forces remain the best in the world, we affirm the timelessness of those values, the benefits of traditional military culture, and the incompatibility of homosexuality with military service.”


McCain: 'Wall Street Is The Villain' (click here)
July 27, 2008 1:28 PM

Basically, he and Bush agree on the subject. They deregulated the financial district of the USA Infrastruture and then complained because it reacted to deregulation with complete abandon.

That facilitated Goldman-Sachs (click here) a clear field to be the Wall Street Carpetbagger. Let's see, GS can afford to appear to 'take a hit' on any given day, they have eliminated Bear-Sterns, Lehman Brothers, Merril-Lynch is nearly there, then comes AIG, and with a little distance to destruction comes Morgan-Stanley. Did I get that right?

Crashing the USA economy did many things, it loosened available monies for those prepared to exploit others' losses and misfortune, it demised any and all infrastruture causing a rush in housing and freeing up prime real estate otherwise unaffordable.

McCain may as well have called Wall Street 'Drunk' no different than Bush. He blames deregulation failures on greed.

Like.

No kidding.

What I want to know is that once Goldman-Sachs has the corner on the financial markets, will the SEC step in to investigate? Or maybe they'll just get 'a pass' on surviving the day. What do you think?

I've never seen Mike make "The National Enquirer." A little too responsible for that, huh, Mike? September 23rd, "The Slacker Uprising"

Go, Mike, Go !!!!

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

How 'Bout a Free Movie? ...from Michael Moore (click here)
Friends,
As you may have heard, I've decided to make my new film, "Slacker Uprising," available for free to everyone in the United States and Canada. It is the first time ever that a major feature-length film is debuting as a free download on the internet -- legally. I am doing this for two reasons:
1. Next year it will be 20 years since my first film, "Roger & Me," so I'd like to give those of you who've supported my work over the years a thank you gift in the form of a brand new movie; and
2. I hope the release and wide distribution of this new movie will help to bring out millions of young and new voters on November 4th.
"Slacker Uprising" takes place in the wake of "Fahrenheit 9/11," during the run-up to the 2004 election, as I traveled for 42 days across America, visiting 62 cities in a failed attempt to remove George W. Bush from office. My goal was to help turn out a record number of young voters and others who had never voted before. (That part was a success. Young adults voted in greater numbers than in any election since 18-year-olds were given the right to vote. And the youth vote was the only age group that John Kerry won.) ...

To John McCain. "We know incompetency when we see it."

The nation's transportation infrastructure needs an overhaul.

Vijay Vyas holds a photograph of his late son Atul Vyas, 20, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008, in Simi Valley, Calif., who died in a commuter train crash on Friday. Federal investigators worked Sunday to unravel what caused the collision of a train with a freight locomotive that killed at least 25 people, urging caution as a transit company blamed its own engineer for the horrific accident. (AP Photo/Ric Francis)

There is no sense to place technology on any rail services today, unless, the USA doesn't care about the potential of rebuilding. They need to be replaced with a national project to build "High Speed Magnetic Rail (click here)." With the replacement of the current passenger train infrastructure there will be new technology that will not only create a booming economy for some time, but, also provide a level of safety the USA has yet to enjoy. Sometimes a nation's lessons are learned the hardway.

Train-Safety Technology Could Take Years to Deploy Nationwide (click here)
By CHRISTOPHER CONKEY, ANDY PASZTOR , ALEX ROTH and PETER SANDERS
Federal regulators and railroad officials said a nationwide deployment of technology that could prevent accidents like last week's deadly Metrolink crash in California would cost over $2 billion and could take years because of technological challenges.
Government and industry leaders on Monday cited a host of cost concerns and technical challenges preventing widespread adoption of "positive train control," or PTC, technology designed to prevent collisions by automatically slowing or stopping trains if engineers speed through stop signals.
On Friday, a Metrolink commuter train that wasn't PTC-equipped crashed into a Union Pacific freight train in the Chatsworth suburb of Los Angeles, killing 25 people. Investigators are focusing on the commuter train's engineer and whether he missed a red stop signal.
Shortly after the crash, Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said the agency was at fault because the engineer had failed to heed a red-warning signal. On Monday, Ms. Tyrrell resigned and Metrolink distanced itself from her remarks by calling them "premature." The agency declined to comment directly on her departure....

One might want to pay attention to the Caribbean Sea and its current vortex, noted in this picture. It's anti-cyclonic. Just thought I'd mention it.

September 14, 2008

1530z

UNISYS Water Vapor GOES East Satellite

What good is offshore drilling? Oil is the worst form of fuel this nation can have.

Ike (click here)


Boats and debris piled up in Galveston, Tex., after Hurricane Ike. (click here)


Ike's death toll reaches 32 (click here)


September 15, 2008 13:11 EDT
CHICAGO (AP) -- Hurricane Ike is being blamed for a weekend of devastation in nine states.


The storm and its remnants are responsible for 32 deaths and power outages from Texas to Illinois, on to Ohio, Kentucky and New York.


Nearly one and a half million homes and businesses have no electricity today. Flooding touched off by a half foot or more of rain is reported in parts of Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. As many as 5,000 people are being evacuated from Munster, Indiana, where the town manager says they've "never had flooding like this."


Farmers fear all the rain could wreck what may already be shaky corn and soybean crops.









"Freak" Hurricane Ike Will Cost $22 Billion (click here)


Willie Dryefor National Geographic News
September 15, 2008
Hurricane Ike will be entered into the record books for the severe damage it inflicted in and around Galveston, Texas, experts say.
"This one's going to be famous for a long time, if for no other reason than it hit Texas, which hadn't gotten a strike by a damaging hurricane in 25 years," said Jeff Masters, director of Weather Underground, a private commercial forecasting service....






Ike pushes U.S. retail gasoline price -gov't (click title of entry, thank you)


...The EIA said the national average price for regular, self-service gasoline surged to $3.84 in the week ended Monday, Sept. 15, from $3.65 the previous week.
Hurricane Ike was the second hurricane to slam into the Gulf Coast in recent weeks, shutting 99.9 percent of Gulf of Mexico's oil output. According to a Reuters survey 16 refineries were closed Monday, representing 24.6 percent of U.S. capacity.
Despite Hurricane Ike, crude oil prices closed below $100 for the first time since March on Monday. Lower crude prices did not offer Americans much relief at the pump, however, with the average price of gasoline $1.05 higher than a year ago....