The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is very warm and there is no AGED Ice in the Arctic anymore.

This undated photo provided by the U.S. Geological Survey shows polar bear by a whale bone pile in Alaska.

This is a good opportunity to bring greater protections to the Polar Bears. So long as Alaska is stating, in opposition of even their own decades of state records, that the Polar Bear is not worthy of protections, the Protection Groups need to update their research and submit the data that will move the Polar to Endangered from Threatened based on the fact more and more of their 'home' is lost year after year. Currently the Arctic has NO 'Aged Ice,' the home of the Polar Bear. That interprets into profound danger for the species that may reach a 'tipping point' where it is unretrievable.

Keep in mind, genetic diversity is paramount to any species survival. A quick and vast reduction of that diversity will CRASH the species in the face of numbers today !!!!

Alaska fights to reverse polar bear protection listing (click title to entry - thank you)
Local Time: 4:52 PM AKST on November 16, 2009
...As Alaska North Slope wells dry up, the state is turning to potential offshore discoveries to refill the trans-Alaska pipeline and ensure the long-term prospects of a $26 billion proposed natural gas pipeline. Protections for polar bears under the Endangered Species Act could thwart that, Parnell says, adding that they're not needed....

Lat/Lon: 58.8° N 137.0° W

Elevation :: 33 ft

Temperature :: 34 °F

Conditions :: Overcast

Windchill :: 26 °F

Humidity :: 87%

Dew Point :: 30 °F

Wind :: 10 mph from the NNW

Pressure :: 29.05 in (Falling)

Visibility :: 1.8 miles

UV :: 0 out of 16

Clouds :: Overcast 800 ft
(Above Ground Level)

There is moral decay in the USA and it has nothing to do with spirituality. I ain't a preacher and don't intend to be.

There is a right and a wrong in this life. The path the USA has been traveling has been one of immoral indulgence of wealth AT THE COST of overseeing the well being of us all. It is going to stop.

There is no faith on this planet that has THE RIGHT TO DICTATE to another. NONE.

There no is man or woman alive that has THE RIGHT to pass judgement on another. NONE!

There is no political party with THE RIGHT to judge any citizen in this country as worthy of their own thoughts or their own well being. There is NO political party that has the right to deprive any citizen of this country the right to health and hence life. NONE!

Democractic US Senate contenders (from left) Michael E. Capuano, Stephen G. Pagliuca, Martha Coakley, and Alan Khazei addressed the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization’s concerns last night at Bethel AME Church in Jamaica Plain. (Photos By Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff)

There WAS a very healthy division of church and state in this country and it needs to be reclaimed while political influence with the Republican Party would see themselves in a 'high moral ground' to turn the USA into a theocracy. It is going stop.

The race to fill the shoes of the Late Senator Edward Kennedy is a daughting one. He loved the people of Massachusetts as family and viewed the greater society of the USA the same way. I think one of the candidates running for US Senator to fill the shoes of the Late Senator Edward Kennedy had something interesting to say.

Attorney General Martha Coakley: "The American dream has been turned upside down . . . and it is time to answer yes, yes, yes, yes to all these questions,’’ she said."

I want you to look what 'the paranoid Senate' did to the page where Bill S1796 was. (click here) That link ONLY yesterday took anyone clicking on it to the Baucus Bill. That is called CENSORSHIP. Censorship is being practiced in the USA regarding the Baucus Bill.

Hello, America.

Hello?

Whatever happened to transparency and DEMOCRATIC participation in government?

Huh?

Sorry, there is no www.senate.gov web page matching your request. The address may have been typed incorrectly, the page may no longer exist, or the file may have been moved to a new location during our recent redesign.
Your request will be automatically redirected to the www.senate.gov Home page after 10 seconds.
If this problem persists, please contact the Office of the Secretary Webmaster at webmaster@sec.senate.gov.

Now, look at this (click here). Where, oh, where did the Senate Health Care Bill go, oh where oh where did it go?

Why there it is. Redirected in hopes no one could find it. AH, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Let's see if the NEW link, less than 24 hours old, opens now.

Why, there ya go (click here). Better download it to my computer before it disappears again.

My, my, my, my. Shame on them.

Page 1 seeks to capture the 'spirit' of the bill IN SMALL PRINT:

To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.

Well, they may have changed the 'statement' to ORIGINAL, rather than amending SSI LAW. It reads as below. It will show up soon enough if the bill amends the SSI laws or not. It will have to state so in the text of the bill. I don't think this was changed completely overnight either. ?????????

At any rate, I have downloaded the text as it appears today at this computer site on November 16, 2009 at 7:39 PM. There will be no additions, deletions or alterations to the bill as it appears today by me. There is no other person that accesses this computer LEGALLY either. It is my personal desktop and it is a magnificent computer. Custom made so I could read satellites and do some online gaming and accumulate large volumes of information without deleting it. Currently when I need to transfer information off this DATA BASE, I have an 80 Gig hard drive that is a peripheral for PERMANENT storage. It isn't connected to this computer EXCEPT for OFFLINE transfers.

So, with that, I can now read the bill uninterrupted. Unless the paranoid government does something stupid to it like consider it a SECURITY risk. It might be. TO THE GOP that is. Well, enough of all that.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
OCTOBER 19, 2009
Mr. BAUCUS, from the Committee on Finance reported the following original
bill; which was read twice and placed on the calendar

I got a problem with the first page. Good reason to hide it, I suppose.

A BILL
To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.

I have a problem with the SHORT Title on the First Page:

‘‘America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009’’

This isn't about THE FUTURE. This is about changing the face of health care insurance and health care delivery and the quality of that delivery to enhance the quality of life of all Americans. It isn't about 'futures as in stocks either.' It is not about the well being of health insurance companies OVER and ABOVE the well being of the people that are suppose to receive care, so given those words BOTHER me, I think there is a better SHORT Title to be discerned here!

Page 1, lines 6 & 7 being the Table of Contents to the Bill and it continues to the top of page 13. I am not interested in the Table of Contents or its 'correctness' to the actual content of the Bill. I don't intend to 'skim' through this babe. So. With that....

Ah, PAGE 13. PAGE 13. PAGE 13. What a damn remarkable choice of verbiage. Dear God, does anyone really consider the Baucus bill ORIGINAL or benevolent to the well being of the people of this country. LUCKY 13 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Page 13, lines 1 through 13. What is it with this 13 junk? Someone's idea of a joke. I can't wait to see page 666. Coincidence I am sure.

TITLE I—HEALTH CARE COVERAGE
Subtitle A—Insurance Market Reforms
SEC. 1001. INSURANCE MARKET REFORMS IN THE INDIVIDUAL AND SMALL GROUP MARKETS.
The Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 301 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:
‘‘TITLE XXII—HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE
‘‘SEC. 2200. ENSURING ESSENTIAL AND AFFORDABLE HEALTH BENEFITS COVERAGE FOR ALL AMERICANS.

Does anyone want to actually call this language legitimate? I mean really. This ONLY addresses individuals and small groups? Medicare is not an individual entity nor is it a small group, how can a bill with such BROAD interest in the people of the USA be amended into issues of small groups or individuals? That doesn't make sense.

Insurance Market Reforms? Insurance Market Reforms? This isn't about the insurance market. It is about providing ACCESS to ALL Americans REGARDLESS of the Insurance Market. This isn't about supporting corporations or conglomerates in the market place. It is about the well being of the American people and access to QUALITY and affordable health care REGARDLESS of the provider.

I WANT A PUBLIC OPTION. WITHOUT QUESTION THERE IS TO BE A PUBLIC OPTION TO BE SURE THE PEOPLE OF THE USA AREN'T 'TRAPPED' IN 'REFORM' THAT DOES NOT BENEFIT THEM IN ANY CONFIGURATION OF THE MARKET.

The Baucus Bill is ILLEGIMATE. The private insurance sector of the USA is NOT to be the beneficiary of ANY legislation of the people of the United States of America. This Bill is illegitimate. It is not about THE PEOPLE as the USA Constitution dictates, it is about 'the market' (an intangible and fluctuating entity). It isn't constitutional. It does NOTHING for the people and the laws of this land are supposed to be BLIND to private entities that are ALLOWED to exist within the SOVEREIGN boundaries of the USA. Our laws are about the PEOPLE, not Wall Street. Wall Street is allowed to exist. It is NOT guaranteed rights under the Constitution of the United States of America over and above the well being of the citizens of this country.

Page 13, lines 14 through 20 and Page 14, lines 1 and 2:

‘‘It is the purpose of this title to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable and essential health benefits coverage—
‘‘(1) by requiring that all new health benefits plans offered to individuals and employees in the individual and small group markets be qualified health benefits plans that meet the insurance rating reforms and essential health benefits coverage requirements established under parts A and C;

WHERE IS THE ATTORNEY GENERAL? Where is Eric Holder !?!?!?!?!?!?!

This is not about Insurance RATING reforms, it is about putting forth a law that protects the people of this country. Not reforming insurance RATES. Reforming insurance rates is not the business of the USA Constitution or its laws. Providing affordable access to the ALL the American people is what this legislation is supposed to provide.

I WANT A PUBLIC OPTION. THERE IS NO LEAVING IT OUT OF ANY BILL AND THESE "Rate Reforms" are an illegitimate use of the powers of the USA Legislature. Insurance rates are up to the companies and if they LOSE subscribers because they can't provide quality insurance at reasonable rates that is THEIR problem.

This is illegitimate use of the laws of the USA. This is practicing business with government authority.

You know what is going to happen here? There will be sculpted out some kind of understanding to provide some kind of 'RATE reform' to provide for individuals and small groups in the SSI laws and will abandon reform to those insurances that provide coverage to employees of businesses. As a consequence, the rates charged to companies for their insurance will go up without mercy and the people that work for large employers will have their rates unmercifully increased while services will diminish.

This is unacceptable law. Completely. It interfers in the private sector of this country in an inappropriate manner.

Page 14, lines 3 through 15:

‘‘(2) by establishing State exchanges under part B that provide individuals and employees in the individual and small group markets greater access to qualified health benefits plans and to information concerning these health plans;
‘‘(3) by making health benefits coverage more affordable by establishing premium credits and cost sharing subsidies under part C for individuals enrolling in a health benefits plan through an exchange; and
‘‘(4) by establishing the CO-OP program under part D to encourage the establishment of nonprofit health care cooperatives.

There is nothing comprehensive or worthwhile here. It divides benefits according to the SECTIONS of the Medicare Law. There are some benefits provider to individuals and small groups and there are some that are not. It is bad law.

To understand better what this bill does one has to realize the different aspects of the SSI law when it comes to health care. There is nothing comprehensive for people under the Baucus Bill. It divides up 'interest' in even the 'reform' it states it provides.

Part A, B, C, D 2009 (click here)

Part A: (Hospital Insurance) Premium

Part B: (Medical Insurance) Premium

Part C Overview (Medicare Advantage Plan)

Part C is the combination of Part A and Part B. The main difference in Part C is that it is provided through private insurance companies approved by Medicare. With this program, you may have lower costs and receive extra benefits.

Part D Overview
Part D is stand-alone prescription drug coverage insurance. Most people do have to pay a premium for this coverage. Plans vary and cover different drugs, but all medically necessary drugs are covered. You can choose what drug plan will be best suited to your needs.

The ONLY way small groups and individuals will receive HOSPITAL coverage under the Baucus Bill is if it is provided by private insurance companies that currently qualify under Medicare Advantage. How convenient. How much money did Medicare Advantage throw to the people that wrote this mess?

And the coop for Part D, is for PERSCRIPTION DRUG COVERAGE ONLY.

I don't think so.

How is Medicare Part D ever going to provide for medical coops? Part D is about perscription drug coverage. It isn't about medical ANYTHING. Is this a joke? Because if the Baucus Bill is a joke it is a very bad one.

This has gotten on my last nerve tonight. I'll pick up again tomorrow. For now, I have something to do really worth my time.

Speaker Pelosi takes her clout to the country.

I thought Speaker Pelosi did her job and did it well. Perhaps that is why she is accompanying others around the country to promote the legislation until it is finished.

Tomorrow is supposed to begin the work on the Senate health care insurance reform bill. McConnell is promising to prolong debate. I can't imagine in anything that needs to be said that wasn't already debated in the House, unless, McConnell is indicating his House cohorts are incompetent in bringing issues of brevity to the House floor.

I will start reading all 1504 page of Senate Bill 1796 (The Baucus Bill) tomorrow evening. (click here) Until then.


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gerard A. Compito, MD, Princeton Radiology Associates, Representative Rush Holt and David C. Youmans, MD, Chairman UMCP Department of Radiology take a tour of the University Medical Center at Princeton where Pelosi spoke about healthcare reform.

Secretary Geithner sends memo to Bernanke from Japan.

The 'authority' under current laws of the USA to 'break up' banks too big to fail falls under "Anti-Trust." Obviously the practice of Anti-Trust has been weakened and avoided since the days of "Ma Bell."

When a single 'private' entity, such as Goldman Sachs, becomes so invasive through a fiscal infrastructure it becomes a single authority that can seek 'leverage' from government. That is exactly what occurred during the YEARS of Bush/Cheney. The private sector was 'preferred' and there was vast deregulation that began with Clinton but enhanced under the majority of Republican 'clout.'

Quite literally, with so much money OWED to the USA by these banks the soverignty of the country can fall into question if they 'fail again.' And they don't care if they 'fail again' because their executives will have scalped the USA for everything its worth and left on the first plane THEY OWN out of town. "Too Big to Fail" is best defined "Too Big to Exist." It is up to the government of a free market economy to not 'just' regulate them, but, rid the danger of their influence from its people and that of their allies.

If Japan wants a stronger USA dollar, then the USA wants a stronger USA dollar, especially if that was verbalized by the Secretary of the Treasury in an official visit.

Government 'authority' has to return 'back to the people.' This mess has to end. The USA can't be the 'petty cash' to Wall Street. The country needs regulation, the 'REPUBLICAN' economic of privatization of every aspect of life DOES NOT WORK !

The fact of the matter is the USA Treasury should never have been involved in any bailout. We compromised the only company worth its salt in J. P. Morgan when we bailout out the incompetents of Wall Street. All of it should have imploded and the country would have started over with a clean slate and a reasonable treasury.

Right now, the country has more invested in the outcome of these banks than it should and Morgan stands to lose all its gains through its practices of 'free market' if there are issues with any of the others that received the monies.

The TARP funds were required for Morgan to take because without them their 'capacity/assets' would have been diminished while the other banks were allowed to regroup for yet another attack with more ricidule than Morgan had. Morgan had to take TARP to 'KEEP' its viability. I am glad they did take the funds and they are still doing well. I found it interesting that Paulson and Co., didn't sell their shares in Morgan, but, couldn't wait to get out of Goldman to buy Citigroup.

Governors of the Federal Reserve (click here)

All I ask of any 'change to a single authority' is to picture it operating under Bush and Cheney. Then 'secure' the sovereignty of the nation and Middle Class to exist. Okay?

January 2004
Bush-Cheney Energy Strategy: Procuring the Rest of the World's Oil (click here)
By Michael Klare
Foreign Policy In Focus
When first assuming office in early 2001, President George W. Bush's top foreign policy priority was not to prevent terrorism or to curb the spread of weapons of mass destruction--or any of the other goals he espoused later that year following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Rather, it was to increase the flow of petroleum from suppliers abroad to U.S. markets....

Republican exploitation of the USA is NOTHING without exploitive wars. General Eisenhower developed the USA Military Industrial Complex, Vietnam Nixon, Iran-Contra Regan, Iraq Bush. DO NOT give Executive Power over the USA fiscal infrastructure. DO NOT ! Don't even give it access.

Single US banking regulator proposed (click here)
The Federal Reserve should be stripped of the bulk of its banking regulation powers and hand them to a new banking regulator, according to draft legislation being proposed by a powerful US Senator.
By James Quinn, US Business Editor
Published: 9:42PM GMT 10 Nov 2009
...Senator Dodd's aim is to eliminate what he calls the "alphabet soup of multiple bank regulators that has led to weak, confusing regulation where it's easy for problems to fall through the cracks and difficult to know who is responsible."
His proposals are the most wide-reaching in addressing some of the root causes of the financial crisis, and go much further than existing proposals backed by the US Treasury....

It would appear as though in carrying out the 'will of the people,' Secretary Geithner is in for a 'show down' with Mr. Bernanke and his former social network on Wall Street.

Ya see, there isn't any reason to continue down this road with "The Fed" as its actions, direct actions by Bernanke, CAUSED the fall in the USA Dollar. Bernanke at the time of "The Goldman Sachs Emergency (You emergency is not mine.)" flooded the USA dollar circulation with $1 Trillion of 'loose cash.' It still remains to be realized if that will 'cause' rampant inflation in the USA while company CEOs are grabbing all they can before everything goes south.

Secretrary Geithner needs to live up to his word and not hand out major policy statements like candy to a baby only to take them back when he returns to the pressure of his peers in DC and Wall Street. Change is change and given the history of his family, I am sure Secretary Geithner will reflect on the loyalities of those people.



Secretary Geithner has an interesting family history according to Wikipedia. According to Wiki his family may have met President Obama's mother some time ago. But, reflecting on that and the fact his family had ties to another beloved President, former five star general and President Eisenhower (Cardiac Patient while President. He did have Nixon as a VP though.), that simply couldn't get enough of the American People and their Middle Class (maybe that was FDR.), Secretary Geithner needs to seek to control the fiscal infrastructure of the USA and stop the financial excoriation of the country's treasury by entities that once provided him a very nice living.

Nov 11, 2009
Strong dollar vital to US (click title to entry - thank you)
TOKYO - US TREASURY Secretary Timothy Geithner said here on Wednesday that a strong dollar was 'very important' to the United States, seeking to reassure Asian nations concerned about the greenback's recent slump.
'I believe deeply that it's very important for the US and the economic health of the US that we maintain a strong dollar,' he told reporters.
Given the dollar's key role in the world financial system, 'we bear special responsibility for trying to make sure that we are implementing policy in the US that will sustain confidence' among global investors, he said.
US officials regularly express their backing for a 'strong dollar' but have done nothing to arrest its slide, which many see as necessary to reduce the big US trade deficit.
The dollar has plunged about 15 per cent against a basket of six other major currencies from a peak earlier this year, sparking concern among Asian countries who have big holdings of dollars in their foreign exchange reserves....


Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pays lip service to keeping dollar strong (click here)
The Obama administration may prefer a weaker currency because it's a boon to U.S. exporters, but no one is going to say so for fear of waving a red flag at markets....
...Besides, the administration has to be figuring there's no reason to mess with success.
Consider: One long-term concern about a falling dollar is that it could undercut U.S. financial markets by scaring away foreign investors, whose dollar-denominated assets lose value as the greenback falls.
But the Treasury bond market isn't suffering from a lack of investor demand even though the administration is borrowing record sums. And the U.S. stock market, too, remains robust, as investors see dollar weakness as good news for American multinational firms. The Dow Jones industrials rose to a fresh one-year high Wednesday.
"It's the best of everything right now," says Win Thin, a currency strategist at Brown Bros. Harriman in New York.

UPDATE 2-Fed's Tarullo--Idea of big bank surcharge appealing (click here)

Mon Nov 9, 2009 8:26pm EST

By John Parry
NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo on Monday endorsed the idea of requiring big banks to hold more capital and renewed his suggestion that direct efforts to limit the size of banks may be worth considering.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and other officials have raised the idea of a capital surcharge to prevent banks from getting so big that the government is compelled to prop them up in a crisis.
The idea "has substantial appeal," Tarullo said in remarks prepared for a speech at New York University.
Tarullo did not comment on the outlook for the economy or interest rates in a speech on financial regulation.
The Fed governor said that in the debate over reforms to prevent a repeat of the recent financial meltdown, policy-makers could also focus on changes to the structure of the financial system as well as regulations.
He said both regulators and the financial industry were to blame for the crisis.
He renewed his suggestion that directly limiting the size of financial institutions may have merit....

US bank reform bill seeks to strip powers from the Federal Reserve (click here)

By Tom Braithwaite and Sarah O'Connor in Washington
Published: November 11 2009 02:00 Last updated: November 11 2009 02:00

An influential US Senate committee has proposed a sweeping overhaul of the country's regulatory architecture that would strip powers from the Federal Reserve and create a single banking regulator....

...Mr Dodd said most institutions would benefit from a regulator that would provide "clarity, cut red tape and make it easier to compete" but banks would "no longer be able to shop for the weakest regulator"....

...The Senate draft legislation creates an agency to oversee systemic risk, which could call for banks to be broken up if they threatened the entire financial system. The proposals, although more radical than other versions, stop short of forcing the break-up of healthy banks, which has been advocated by some economists.
Republicans declined to support the proposed legislation, which Mr Dodd said was vital to cracking down on abusive selling of mortgages and credit cards. But he said he was still "optimistic" that the Republicans could be brought on board.

"...just doing God's work." No one at the New York Times asked if Hasan said those were his words or if he had financial problems ????????

Blankfein thinks he is God?

He hasn't met God yet !

Paulson and Co. dumped Goldman Sachs stock to buy Citigroup shares. No it isn't the company that belongs to the former Secretary of the Treasury. Literally, Paulson and Co. simply gave Goldman Sachs back its stock to purchase their holdings of Citigroup. Interesting isn't it? Just one of those paper things.

Paulson & Co Takes $1.45 Bil Citigroup Stake - Update (Click here)
11/14/2009 3:40 AM ET
(RTTNews) - Hedge fund Paulson & Co., held 300 million shares of Citigroup Inc. valued at $1.45 billion on September 30 and also let go its entire stakes on Goldman Sachs Group Inc. , according to form 13-F filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission late Friday....


Paulson and Co. - The Hedge Fund (click here)
Chester L.F. Paulson, Founder, Chairman, President (click here)

This is where it gets interesting. It just goes to prove that only a few people run the financial systems of the global markets. They aren't just getting ONE bonus from one program either. Next time Wall Street wants a bailout? Remember these folks are running the entire show and are manipulating their outcomes the way they want it.

There aren't mistakes being made that the government needs to 'bailout.'

None.

This is done purposefully.

The people of the USA need to have the GUTS to 'Just say NO."

These people had the audacity to BLAME THE CONSUMER for the implosion of 'BAD ASSETS.'

Hello? America? Hello, is anyone listening?

BOARD MEMBERS AFFILIATED WITH John Alfred Paulson * (click here)
Alan Greenspan
Deutsche Bank AG
Board Affiliations
Paulson & Co. Inc.

Rufus Putnam Coes
Chief Operating Officer, Paulson & Co. Inc.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEMBERSHIPS
Director
Managed Funds Association (click here)
Website of Managed Funds Association in Washington, DC (click here) with Richard Baker as Chief Executive Officer and President.
Richard H. Baker has been Chief Executive Officer and President at Managed Funds Association since February 2008. Mr. Baker has represented Louisiana's sixth congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1986, is one of the most respected voices in Congress on financial services and capital markets issues. He has been a Senior Member of the House Financial Services Committee where he has played a leadership role on the many debates that have taken ... place in Washington in recent years and championed the objective of safety and soundness in financial industry regulations.

The February 2, 2008 resignation of Republican Richard Baker triggered a special election for Louisiana's 6th district. In anticipation of this election, party qualifying occurred before Baker's resignation. The timeline mirrored that of the 2008 special election for the 1st congressional district. The two elections were the first Louisiana congressional elections not based on Louisiana's jungle primary system since the 1970s.

The egos here are just not to be believed. While "The Ed Show" is calling for a moritorium on Home Foreclosures, the executives at Goldman Sachs are rolling in dough.

...Just when it seemed Wall Street’s most powerful banker (click title to entry - thank you) had jumped headfirst into the transatlantic hullabaloo over the Almighty’s place in the Goldman Sachs bonus pool, we get word from atop 85 Broad Street that Goldman’s chief executive officer was only kidding.
Yes, it’s true, Blankfein did tell a reporter for the Sunday Times of London that he’s just a banker “doing God’s work,” a quote the newspaper couldn’t help but use for the headline of its 6,900-word opus about Goldman last weekend. And, no, Blankfein didn’t mean for these words to be taken seriously, according to the bank’s spokesman, Lucas van Praag.
It was “an obviously ironic, throwaway response,” van Praag told me in an e-mail. “Sort of like saying, ‘I’m living the dream’ in response to a question about how you’re doing.”...


Citicorp Building in New York City skyline.

This is just so cool. I want the astronauts to bring back a frozen moon rock. Go ahead, try.

I think they said something like, -200 and some odd degrees? Right? Sure.

I wasn't going to comment any further today until I saw this article in the New York Times. (cilck title to entry - thank you)

The importance of the military carrying out this investigation should be obvious so I won't beleaguer the point here.

However, I believe a word of caution is in order when the media is discussing Nidal Hasan. I don't believe talking about the tragedy or reporting facts voluntarily offered by the investigators is inappropriate, however, there is this 'thread' of 'mind speak' that accompanies some of this discussion that should be averted.

In the NYTimes article it is stated there was more evidence that leads to the belief Nidal Hasan was a very disturbed man. I believe the article is done well and speaks to many possibilities as to why Nidal Hasan decided to kill so many people that day.

Nidal Hasan acted alone. He wasn't on orders from any extremist Islamic group or affiliated with any foreign entity. He acted no different than Timothy McVeigh did. He acted in violence against a 'thought/ideology' he had and felt compeled to 'handle' for whatever deranged reason exists.

Men like McVeigh, and it is primarily men, don't accept their own reality. They seek to change it inappropriately by blaming a 'monster' they can't control. That monster is usually the government. The government or military lacks compassion or outreach in a way that would change the lives of those angry for whatever reason, valid or otherwise.

Nidal Hasan, no different than McVeigh or others like them was seeking control. Their own 'comfort zone' was displaced and they blamed others for their circumstances. Their personal circumstances. I find the 'idea' that Nidal Hasan was having business cards printed at the same time he was losing control rather interesting. Somewhere in his thinking there was an 'idea' there was a greater need for his 'ability' in a society that would reward his talents.

A business card is a form of 'offical document' of one kind or another. It is an expression of whom one is and how that person can provide services. I am assuming the address on Nidal Hasan's business cards stated his home address and not an address in Yemen. A business card says one is important and valuable.

If the media doesn't report on Nidal Hasan well, it will be exhibiting bias toward Muslims. Why would the media treat him differently than McVeigh and extrapolate his acts into a international network of terrorists? Why? Because it exists and it is a ready explanation when all other explanations seem unavailable.

Nidal Hasan was an American and from what I can gather his parents were immigrants. People that immigrate to the USA do so to seek a better life. Immigrants often have strong emotional ties and sometimes even relatives in their country of origin and it is not unusual for immigrants to send monies and gifts to their relatives when their 'good fortune' allows them to do that. If that is the activities of Nidal Hasan's family it does not predispose him to violence. All to often it is in the USA that ethnic misfortune finds resolve.

If Nidal Hasan was upset over things in the news and felt he had to act, then he wasn't living with reality, but, a sense of himself derived from a need for feeling control and an 'authority' in that control. He made up his own mind while telling himself he was correct. He never stopped to ask if his belief system was perverse or imperfect. He granted himself the right to kill through some magical thinking that will be discovered by the military investigation. That magical thinking was no different than the magical thinking of mass murderers that came before him. It is not crazy or certifable. It is however a perversion of 'self' in a way that elevates the 'idea' of self righteousness, almost god-like.

When reporting about Nidal Hasan it has to be done with the removal that there was some greater danger than just the man. He was conflicted. He isolated himself in that personal conflict and 'decided' with full authority of his mind and self will to murder. Do not grant him the opportunity to be 'something greater' than he is by starting to lump him together with unknown individuals that are 'learning' to act similarly in society. When a discussion like that opens then one is talking about White Supremists and Black Trench Coat Mafia as well.

And we know White Supremists murder and they murder in large numbers in a gathering called a lynching. This is not a concept the FBI, Military Intelligence or the CIA is disfamiliar.

If Nidal Hasan was 'anything' he was an American Male with a huge identity crisis mired in a 'culture of violence.' It isn't a 'military thing' it is however a 'violent thing' in trends throughout this American fabric. Reflect first on that and then discuss Nidal Hasan.

"Morning Papers" - Its Origins

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

There are some journalists that sincerely love this country and believe in the strength of a Middle Class. Albeit, they are few and far between.

Labor in the USA needs to pay attention to some of its staunch supporters.


Op-Ed Columnist
Free to Lose (click here)
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: November 12, 2009
Consider, for a moment, a tale of two countries. Both have suffered a severe recession and lost jobs as a result — but not on the same scale. In Country A, employment has fallen more than 5 percent, and the unemployment rate has more than doubled. In Country B, employment has fallen only half a percent, and unemployment is only slightly higher than it was before the crisis....

Bob Herbert has been an Op-Ed Columnist through some of the most difficult political times of our day. He has been steadfast and when the chips were down in 2004, he, Krugman and Michael Moore (From "Slacker Uprising, "There is no crying in politics.") refused to 'give up the ship,' no matter how bleak the future of the USA was appearing to many of us.

Why Bob Herbert isn't celebrated for his strong views, especially in Civil Rights is yet for me to understand.

Just in the last two day, these gentlemen have written stark Op-Eds that I believe President Obama and his advisors should be paying attention to as well as the 'economic numbers' in front of them. If the people that need their attention the most, including the attention of Vice President Biden, aren't getting that attention there is little benevolence being directed to the economy, so much as simply 'profits to Wall Street.'


Op-Ed Columnist
A Recovery for Some (click title to entry - thank you)
By BOB HERBERT
Published: November 13, 2009
President Obama’s strongest supporters during the presidential campaign were the young, the black and the poor — and they are among those who are being hammered unmercifully in this long and cruel economic downturn that the financial elites are telling us is over....

NASA discovers water on the Moon. Yeah, but, can you irrigate with it?

Being this was found at the poles, it makes complete sense there should be some trace of anything that can be frozen there.

BUT.

One has to stop to realize, the Moon was declared to have no atmosphere. So. Like. What gives?

Realizing as well there is 'organic mass' picked up by the instruments, it was a blastedly good idea, NASA had the foresight to put the returning astronauts of the Apollo project in 'DeCon,' huh? Right? Smart folks at NASA.

NASA The plume at about 20 seconds after impact

Moon strikes found significant water (click title to entry - thank you)
David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
Friday, November 13, 2009
(11-13) 13:28 PST MOUNTAIN VIEW -- The spacecraft that sent a used-up rocket crashing into a crater near the moon's south pole last month uncovered "significant" quantities of water and possibly organic chemicals that may have come from comets that slammed into the lunar surface over billions of years, mission scientists announced Friday....
...Colaprete estimated that the impact churned up water vapor and tiny fragments of crystalline ice equal to about 25 gallons of pure water and said the instruments aboard the spacecraft revealed the presence of many organic chemicals yet to be identified in the debris....
...As to the water itself, Colaprete said the Cabeus crater, where temperatures are as low as 365 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, is probably "a little wetter" than Chile's Atacama desert, the driest of any deserts on Earth....

Nidal Hasan is crippled by the soldiers that stopped his raging madness.

He is lucky to be alive and speaks to the 'civility and sanity' of the soldiers at Fort Hood. The sanctity of life is important to them and justice to its loss, no doubt, paramount.


Saddam statues are melted down
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — When Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq, a pair of monuments stood as symbols of his iron-fisted domination: towering bronze statues depicting a heroic Saddam as the mighty conqueror, on horseback, sword aloft. But U.S. troops blew the statues off their pedestals after the invasion of Iraq, giving the soldiers who pulled Saddam out of his hiding hole a keepsake to bring home.
The 50-foot-tall statues were melted down and recast by a skilled Iraqi artist who turned them into a new memorial that depicts a GI mourning his fallen comrades while a young girl tries to console him. The new statue, mounted on a black granite base, is the centerpiece of an Iraq war memorial being built outside the 4th Infantry Division's museum at Fort Hood in central Texas. 7/14/2004
http://1-22infantry.org/current/4idmonument.htm


Legally, 'we're in for a long haul' (click title to entry - thank you)
Case against soldier accused in mass shooting faces many hurdles
By LYNSI BURTON and STEWART M. POWELLWASHINGTON BUREAU
Nov. 9, 2009, 9:57AM
UPDATE (10:52 a.m. Monday): An Army hospital spokesman says the Fort Hood shooting suspect is conscious and able to talk.
WASHINGTON — As Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan lay under heavy guard at Fort Sam Houston on Sunday, military prosecutors and the accused Fort Hood gunman's family were preparing for what could be a long and complicated legal proceeding.
Military justice experts told the Houston Chronicle that Hasan, if he recovers, could face the death penalty in a military court-martial — unless civilian prosecutors conclude that he was part of a terrorist plot that would justify moving his case into federal criminal courts under U.S. anti-terrorism laws.
But veterans of the military justice system say that any case against Hasan could take many months and could be delayed by medical assessments of the Army officer's physical and mental health. And even if a death sentence is handed down, the military justice system's lengthy appeals process has effectively thwarted all executions since 1961....

Reality television has done a great deal of damage to children. Their parents become disoriented from reality to a world one can hardly call 'real.'

The issue here really isn't 'the parents' it is the audience and the willingness of a 'couple' to exploit their family for wealth.

It should be the concern of the viewership that the children aren't effected by the 'reality' of their exploited lives.

I think privacy for the children of this program and the other one...what was it "Kate and John" or something? I think privacy is what they children need and a return of some form of normalcy.

I believe this exploitation of children is wrong. If exploitation of children is wrong for 'Octomom' then it is wrong for everyone.


"Balloon Boy" hoax parents Richard and Mayumi Heene leave district court after pleading guilty to charges stemming from the incident at the Larimer County Justice Center in Fort Collins, Colorado on November 13, 2009. UPI/Gary C. Caskey...

Richard and Mayumi Heene Plead Guilty (click title to entry - thank you)
By GINA DINUNNOTV GUIDE
Friday, November 13, 2009
Last updated 11:02 a.m. PT
Richard Heene, the father of "Balloon Boy" Falcon Heene, pleaded guilty Friday to a felony charge of attempting to influence a public servant stemming from the families' Oct. 15 hoax, according to CNN.
Heene lawyer: Arresting Heene parents in front of kids "would be 'child abuse'"
His wife, Mayumi Heene, is charged with one misdemeanor count of false reporting to authorities.
According to the Larimer County sheriff's office, Heene turned himself in Thursday and was released on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond.
The penalty range for the felony is two to six years in prison with a fine ranging from $2,000 to $500,000. His wife's misdemeanor range is six months in jail with a fine of $50 to $750, according to a statement issued by the district attorney's office.

Al Qaeda members going on trial. Legitmate law applied to legimate prisoners.

He was born (click title to entry - thank you) in Kuwait to a family from the Pakistani region of Baluchistan, returning to Pakistan as a teenager and then studying at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University...

(That is in Greensboro, North Carolina by the way. It is a minority university with many distingished graduates. Unfortunately, the notoriety here isn't good. We bring people from other lands to learn and to return to their countries to better the quality of lives of their people. I guess the USA doesn't count on hatred and bigorty toward the very diversity we enjoy in the USA to be an issue for its generosity.)

...in the US where he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1986.
In the late 1980s he moved to Peshawar in Pakistan from where he fought with his three brothers alongside Osama bin Laden against the Russians in Afghanistan....

...In 2003 he was working on a plot to hijack aircraft and crash them into Heathrow airport, Big Ben and Canary Wharf when he was captured in March at a house in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Mohammed was subsequently waterboarded 183 times before he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006.
Behind closed doors at a combatant status review at Guantanamo Bay in 2007 Mohammed issued a statement in which he confessed to involvement in 31 separate plots, adding: “I was responsible for the 9/11 Operation from A to Z.”...

It will no doubt be a long and protracted trial. There will be issues with torture and whether or not any confession is actually valid.

I remember the 'affect' of Mr. Padilla (...not your usual website for information - click here) when he stood trial. By that point, what was the purpose? He didn't know what his life was about or what it had transpired to be.

But, the reason for the trial was not about his 'mental state' or his diminished capacity, it was about his crimes and the people that suffered because of his heinous acts.

If issues of 'competency' manifest there are folks like Richard Cheney the nation can thank for that being an issue at all. If the facts to his prosecution are compromised due to torture conducted illegally and with some sort of validity because some screwed by 'team of Bush lawyers' repeatedly stamped approval within their inner circle of 'good 'ole boy' understanding, the the nation can realize how completely the competency of their Constitution was compromised when it should have been upheld beyond a shadow of a doubt.

No judge in their right mind will ever allow this idiot to walk free, BUT, the 'competency' of the evidence and the person might determine the sentence he will receive.

General James Jones arrives in Pakistan. The Pakistani government has a history of being effective with USA backing.

Twin Suicide Bombings Hit Northwest Pakistan (click title to entry - thank you)
By Sean Maroney Islamabad13 November 2009
Pakistani security officials say two suicide car bombings killed at least 16 people and wounded scores of others in northwestern Pakistan on Friday. The attacks come as U.S. National Security Advisor Jim Jones is in the country for meetings with civilian and military leaders.
The first attack early Friday morning targeted the regional headquarters of Pakistan's spy agency, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), which is overseeing the anti-militancy campaign in the country's tribal regions bordering Afghanistan....

The goal is to achieve stability in this region of the world. Pakistan is a nuclear country. Non-proliferation needs to be a mandate in countries burdened with extremist regimes within their borders. The nuclear capacity of Pakistan is a direct threat to its sovereignty and a reason the Taliban and/or al Qaeda won't stop their assaults.

ISIS Technical Assessment: Pakistan's Stock of Weapon-Grade Uranium (click here)
byDavid Albright, PresidentKevin O'Neill, Deputy Director
June 1, 1998
On May 28 and May 30, 1998 Pakistan conducted up to six nuclear tests. A Pakistani government statement said that the nuclear test devices contained "uranium-235," commonly referred to as "weapon-grade uranium" (WGU; uranium enriched to 90 percent or more of uranium-235). The statement said that this uranium was produced at the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), called the Kahuta facility, near Islamabad. While Pakistan's tests remove any doubt about its ability to produce nuclear weapons, significant uncertainties surround estimates of Pakistan's WGU stockpile....


From an edition of "Meet the Press" in September of this year.


...MR. GREGORY: Let, let me go through a few other hot-button issues (click here) in our remaining moments. In Pakistan an important al-Qaeda figure, a Mehsud, who was the head of Pakistan's al-Qaeda leadership, reportedly killed. Are you able to confirm that today?
GEN. JONES: I wish I could, to be honest with you totally. We think so. We, we put it in the 90 percent category, if you want. But Pakistan has confirmed it. We know there are some reports now from the Mehsud tribe that, that he wasn't. But the evidence is pretty conclusive.

MR. GREGORY: What, what does it mean to the United States' security?

GEN. JONES: Well, I think it's a--this is a big deal. And, and it's not only--by the way, it's not only happening in this part of the world, it's happening in other parts of the world as well with some--with a gradual coming together by the family of nations to reject terrorism as something that's acceptable. In terms of the region, it means that the Pakistani armed forces and the Pakistani government are doing quite well in terms of their fight against extremism. This was--Baitullah Mehsud was the public enemy number one in, in, in Pakistan, so it's their, their biggest target. And we've already seen evidence of dissension in the ranks about who's, who's going to follow him. This is--if this is--if this happened, and we think it did, this was a good thing.

MR. GREGORY: Is it still your belief that Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan?

GEN. JONES: That one's a little bit more elusive. We are still very much on the hunt. We think that he's still in that general region. But that's a, that's a tougher nut to crack....


ISIS warns of Pakistan's latest nuclear drive (click here)
Wed, 20 May 2009 00:42:48 GMT
A US arms control institute has warned that Pakistan's nuclear weapons programs could threaten the region.
"Pakistan is indeed progressing in a strategic plan to improve the destructiveness and deliverability of its nuclear arsenal," the Institute for Science and International Security said.
The institute released satellite photos on Tuesday that showed the expansion of a chemical plant complex near Dera Ghazi Khan.
The plant produces uranium hexafluoride and uranium metal, materials used to produce nuclear weapons, the ISIS report said....

Mr. Independent goes independent. Why? Because he couldn't get control over the electorate to raise his ratings. He lost the election, you know?

In the year 2009, are journalists seeking control over the message to their viewership or listening audience rather than reporting the news?

Another one bites the dust. (click here)

...The longest-running anchor on CNN's air, Dobbs was one of the nation's leading financial journalists before turning his program in a more opinionated direction. His persistent advocacy against illegal immigration angered many....

It would be interesting if all the news was reported, rather than just the chosen topic.

Sympathy for Gordon Brown in row over misspelled letter of condolence (click here)
Nov 11 2009 By Magnus Gardham
GORDON BROWN bared his soul yesterday in a bid to quash the most tawdry allegations yet thrown at him.
The Prime Minister said he "felt the pain" of grieving parents after losing his baby daughter Jennifer in 2002.
Brown has always been loath to talk about his private suffering.
But he made the comment at his monthly press briefing after a second day of astonishing personal attacks led by the Sun newspaper.
They were faithfully followed up by feckless BBC reporters who were lambasted on their own website for propagating the scandal....

An official letter to a grieving parent isn't a place for the inconsideration of misspelling. The loss of a soldier and a son should require more than a 'fast note' to the postmaster.

So, who else is inhibiting 'the change' the American electorate has demanded?

Greg Craig is in the chair to the left of President Obama. The guy chewing his fingernails. I guess there are more than one remnants of the GOP still hangin' around. They need to 'get with the program...or plan their retirement. That is, IF they still have enough from the bailout to retire.

Posted: 10:08 a.m. Nov. 13, 2009
Top White House lawyer Greg Craig quitting (click title to entry - thank you)
By JENNIFER LOVENASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO — The White House’s top lawyer plans to return to private practice and being replaced by a longtime adviser to Barack Obama.
...It was the highest-ranking resignation so far in Obama’s 10-month presidency, and became public just as the president was arriving in Asia for a weeklong tour. It also came just hours before Attorney General Eric Holder was set to announce that self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantánamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, while five other suspects will be prosecuted in military commissions. This was revealed to The Associated Press by an Obama administration official earlier Friday....

Ida keeps the title of "Killer Storm" even in remnants.

Rough weather blamed as surfer dies off Rockaway Beach (click title to entry for videos at Newsday site - thank you)
November 12, 2009
By CARL MACGOWAN
carl.macgowan@newsday.com
As the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida threaten to wreak havoc on Long Island's coastline Friday, the system is already being partially blamed in the death of a surfer in the waters off Rockaway Beach.
The unidentified 36-year-old man's leg strap attached to a surfboard became tangled and the rough surf pushed him toward a jetty, officials said. Emergency medical technicians attempted to revive him, but he was pronounced dead at a hospital.
With winds forecast to gust up to 35 mph and rain expected to fall all day, Nassau and Suffolk officials closely watched the storm Thursday as it crawled up the East Coast after drenching the Carolinas.
Freeport and Nassau County emergency management officials said they were ready to evacuate residents from low-lying areas south of Atlantic Avenue if conditions worsen....

Getting the "Hasan Thing" right is vastly different than exploiting it for political gain.

...But he suggested one argument for premeditation when he told reporters that Hasan did not have any legitimate reason to be at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center last Thursday....

Nidal Hasan used his religion as a mask for an existence. He used it as an excuse for his life. He wasn't brave enough to confront life and accept his responsibility as a soldier in the USA Army. He was a coward in every measure of the word. It is the plague of a Lone Wolf and always will be. They have no validity to their 'empty' definition for breathing, except, to be a marter to their own pathetic values. He is no different than the gunman at the Holocaust Museum, except, he had access to a military instillation in a way that would be that of any officer.

Nidal Hasan was NOT a terrorist. Not even close. He was a man desperate to stay away from war and out of danger.

HE WAS A WOOSS. A CO and nothing more. Only cowards kill their peers while acting in violence. What he did that day was murder not terrorism.

What went through his mind that day at Fort Hood is still in question and I hope at first opportunity the USA Army finds out exactly what he was thinking when he pulled the trigger. It is 'that truth' that will faciliate expeditiously any change the Army needs to make to undo the infrastructure that nurtured him to that moment.

Nidal Hasan wouldn't have the guts to be a terrorist.

I am confident all the people at Fort Hood would agree, "Everyone, no matter their role that day were heroes."

When a military is functional, they move as one. That is what occurred at Fort Hood that day, they moved as one to secure their perimeter and defeat the gunman. They are tough as nails, INCLUDING, the ladies.

The GLOBAL Changing of the Guard

The 'dream' of finally rebuilding Lower Manhattan. Hard to do with chronic terrorist wars to pay for.

The best political outcomes to the elections of 2010 is to focus on the future and not the past.

The leadership of President Obama cannot be measured by only a domestic front still stuggling to repair the corrupted insults to it over the last eight years, but, an initiative that is more than well received globally by every leader of every country.

Placing Democratic leadership in the majority of the USA Legislature with a President dedicated to 'the truth' and bringing the USA back to global leadership with initiatives to peace and nuclear non-proliferation was NOT a mistake. No way was it a mistake.

We are witnessing enormous shifts in paradigms globally that will impact the USA domestically. A country, whether it be the USA, China or Russia, cannot mount the challenge of the future without 'relief' from the burdens of fighting terrorist networks and dedicating huge amounts of its nation's assets to war and military. Every country knows that and what occurred under Bush and Cheney was a 'return' to Cold War methodologies that set progress to the future of our children back at least five decades. There is no more going back and the immediate and welcomed response from the global community to President Obama's initiatives and challenges shows leadership that was ready to pounce on the opportunity.

Every leader in any country knows that economic opportunity lies in the expansion of opportunity to its people NOT the contraction to war economies. Who in their right minds would not want to be tourists to Russia to view the modern version of the country with such magnificent architecture to make any city envious?

That is the future that lies before us. A future of peace and cooperation with sovereign countries secured from the inside out. Not bad. Non-proliferation rules the day with the knowledge that Einstein's invention doomed the world and never secured it.

To build economies that 'consent' to cooperation and expansion means defeating those that would use those opportunities to defeat civilization. It is why Russia cooperates with the USA over Afghanistan and it is why NATO insists on being secure from terrorist networks or even their potential TO EXIST in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Changing paradigms isn't easy. But. It is necessary. And. The leadership has to be consistent.


They have decided to build this big thing, and named it Galaxy Building, in one of the areas of Moscow. Construction costs exceed $300 million, but there are plenty investors interested in participation.
It would be one of the weirdest buildings in modern Russia.

Medvedev tells Russia to get with the times (click title to entry - thank you)

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has used his annual state of the nation address to call on the country to modernise more quickly.
In a comment reminiscent of US President Barack Obama's presidential campaign, Mr Medvedev stressed the need for change.
He told his country, which was hit hard by the global financial crisis, that it is time to stop living off past achievements and modernise.
Before an audience of government and church leaders, including his predecessor and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Mr Medvedev outlined where he believes Russia has fallen behind - and what it needs to do to get ahead.
He says Russia has been too reliant on raw materials exports and should develop a smarter economy.
Mr Medvedev says infrastructure and key areas that the country was once renowned for, such as scientific research, need to be improved.
He also referred to corruption, saying intolerance of this must become part of Russian culture.
Mr Medvedev says Russia needs to modernise based on democratic principles so it can become a society of free, intelligent and responsible people.

This article was reported by ABC, an Australian non-Murdock news agency.

Now. About the wars Bush and Cheney lost.

Clinton: U.S. concerned about Afghan corruption (click here)
Thu Nov 12, 2009 5:50am EST
By David Alexander
MANILA (Reuters) - The United States is concerned about corruption and poor governance in Afghanistan and has raised those issues with the administration of President Hamid Karzai, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday....

...an “or else.” (click here)

WHERE does anyone in the USA ever get the 'idea' that wars to defeat al Qaeda are supposed to last longer than it took defeat Hitler? The stupidity of diluting the Afghanistan War to fight an oil war in a disarmed country cannot be understated. I mean, STUPID. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I guess 'bailing out' Halliburton and satisfying Wall Street started long before October 2008.

Wilmington pair arrested in major heroin bust (click here)
Published: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 7:14 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 7:14 p.m.
Wilmington Two Wilmington men were arrested and 230 bags of heroin stamped “death wish” were seized Monday, concluding a five-month investigation by the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, according to a news release from the office.
The arrest by detectives from the sheriff’s office Vice and Narcotics Division occurred as a search warrant was executed at 5010 McClelland Drive, Apt. 202, the release from Deputy Charles Smith said.
The seized heroin, which was packaged for sale, has a street value of more than $8,000 Smith said....


Postmortem Afghanistan: The iron law of a world-class election farce (click here)
Innocent Afghanis will, as usual, pay the heaviest price by the hundreds
By Chibli Mallat Daily Star staffThursday, November 12, 2009
It is time for a postmortem analysis in Afghanistan. With all the misery that has befallen the wretched peoples of Afghanistan over 40 years of invasions and civil wars, the mess is far from over. By all accounts, the elections were heavily rigged by the president....


US envoy warns against troop surge in Afghanistan (click title to entry - thank you)
James Meikle, Ewen MacAskill in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 November 2009 07.56 GMT
Eikenberry claims extra US troops 'not a good idea' until Karzai government shows willingness to tackle corruption, says reports.
The US ambassador in Kabul has warned against plans to send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan, until President Hamid Karzai's government demonstrates that it is willing to tackle the corruption.
Karl Eikenberry sent two classified cables to Washington in the past week expressing his concern over proposals to deploy as many as 40,000 extra troops while the Karzai government remains dogged by accusations of incompetence and corruption, according to reports from Washington.
The existence of the memos was revealed as Barack Obama held a war council at the White House to discuss the final four options for deployment of extra US troops in an effort to stave off defeat at the hands of the Taliban.
Eikenberry is a former US commander in Afghanistan and his caution over a further troop build-up puts him at odd with senior generals in the Pentagon....

McCrystal's War Strategy is to 'pair' Coalition Forces with Afghanistan Forces

Part of the 'issue' at hand is that General McCrystal is seeing a deteriorating country with insufficient troops for his effort, while President Obama sees a prolonged encounter that will prove to be unwinnable, regardless, of General McCrystal's best effort. General McCrystal is needless to say 'frustrated.'

...Last week, General Stanley McChrystal (click here) shocked political leaders with a blunt speech in London on the war.
Gen McCrystal, who heads the 68,000 U.S. troops as well as the 10,000 Nato forces in Afghanistan, rejected proposals for a strategy more reliant on special forces operations against al-Qaeda.
'Waiting does not prolong a favorable outcome. This effort will not remain winnable indefinitely, and nor will public support,' he said in London....

General McCrystal's strategy is to bring Coalition Troops in 'partnership' with Afghan Troops to bring consistency in the power of the 'entire' of the country's military. As a result and in response to the increased violence during the elections, General McCrystal has removed troops from 'distant' and 'sparcely populated' areas to areas of larger populations to bring greater impact of the Coalition efforts.

The change in priorities within Afghanistan is NOT to fight a prolonged war but to 'empower' a strong affiliation with the people to the Coalition and Afghan forces to remove support from the 'infrastructure' of the Taliban. All this is complicated by the insurgency of the Taliban in Pakistan and that country's determination to remove their influence and violence from the Pakistani people.

The entire region is unstable and it is due to this chronic 'allowable' fluidity of violence by the Taliban and demanded by al Qaeda. If General McCrystal is successful, the Afghan forces will begin to 'push back' against the Taliban and find a 'core' of resistance between Pakistan and Afghanistan to end the war entirely while the two countries enforce 'rule of law' and end the corruption of the Taliban to bring more viable economies that benefit civilization rather than barbarism.

The tape above shows a Coalition base in a distant hamlet where I doubt sincerely the troops were welcome visitors, but, that is somewhat true of anywhere USA troops have fought before, including, South Korea. Military presence among the people where guns and munitons are at the 'ready' is not a 'reasonably friendly' environment.

The bunker was a place where troops were stationed to 'hold' a place in the 'stretched' fabric of coalition war front. The munitions probably should have been destroyed, but, that might have cost more coalition lives.

No doubt the 'donkey' is being dispatched to people that will become suicide bombers. It is that 'dynamic' that is simply a 'high priority methodology' to the Taliban and al Qaeda. They can't do it any other way and it is part of what needs to be defeated in order to stop the 'influence' and 'ability to exist' of al Qaeda compliments of the Taliban.

The Taliban are drug lords.

They are the Afghan Mafia.

Karzai has been a 'figure head.'

Primarily.

General McCrystal is literally 'starting over' in Afghanistan and he is a 'lone voice' to the effort while so many other advisors to the President are an opposition to the initiative, including the people of the USA. The USA has been exploited by the Republicans to result in illegal wars that saw General and Commander one after the other resign from service into retirement, with a General at the onset to Iraq that decried any initiative without sufficient forces. That General was proven time and again TO BE CORRECT.

To add insult to injury to the people of the USA, the fiscal exploitation of 2008 was just the frosting on the cake. NATO on the other hand is receiving General McCrystal's strategy well because they want and need to fight this war as Pakistan and Afghanistan are in their backyards and they have received 'wrath' from al Qaeda attacks in their cities.

To say General McCrystal's strategy is unpopular among Americans is to realize his own 'officers' mess' is a point of frustration for him. He seeks discipline to 'war' and 'effort' and not 'resignation' to the reality of 'corruption.' President Obama and Secretary Clinton have an ally in their concerns of corruption with McCrystal. If they can bring him 'justice' in his strategy we might actually get somewhere with this mess.

For as much as Americans 'want out' of Afghanistan and Iraq, reflection on their reality should center around the REAL corruption within their own political system that brought them Bush and Cheney and not around accepting defeat in a strategy NATO is investing more of their own troops to fight.

The sincerest of realities is that President Obama is receiving pressure from within his own party to 'end it' in Afghanistan as well as Iraq to stop 'bleeding' from their electorate to possible political losses in 2010 elections that will 'put the country right back where it came from.' What Stanley McCrystal has to realize is that his Commander and Chief is fighting a war in the USA as well as Afghanistan. The USA was exploited for eight long years and HIS profound reality with his President is to come to terms with the reality he wouldn't even be required to have a strategy if HIS military wasn't USED for FISCAL exploitation by The Republican Party within his own country.