The 3rd Infantry Divisions 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.
Now theyre training for the same mission with a twist at home.
Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.
As in rioting in the streets after Obama gets smashed? Or...
It is not the first time an active-duty unit has been tapped to help at home. In August 2005, for example, when Hurricane Katrina unleashed hell in Mississippi and Louisiana, several active-duty units were pulled from various posts and mobilized to those areas.
But this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.
After 1st BCT finishes its dwell-time mission, expectations are that another, as yet unnamed, active-duty brigade will take over and that the mission will be a permanent one.
Right now, the response force requirement will be an enduring mission. How the [Defense Department] chooses to source that and whether or not they continue to assign them to NorthCom, that could change in the future, said Army Col. Louis Vogler, chief of NorthCom future operations. Now, the plan is to assign a force every year.
The command is at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., but the soldiers with 1st BCT, who returned in April after 15 months in Iraq, will operate out of their home post at Fort Stewart, Ga., where theyll be able to go to school, spend time with their families and train for their new homeland mission as well as the counterinsurgency mission in the war zones.
Stop-loss will not be in effect, so soldiers will be able to leave the Army or move to new assignments during the mission, and the operational tempo will be variable.
Dont look for any extra time off, though. The at-home mission does not take the place of scheduled combat-zone deployments and will take place during the so-called dwell time a unit gets to reset and regenerate after a deployment.
The 1st of the 3rd is still scheduled to deploy to either Iraq or Afghanistan in early 2010, which means the soldiers will have been home a minimum of 20 months by the time they ship out.
In the meantime, theyll learn new skills, use some of the ones they acquired in the war zone and more than likely will not be shot at while doing any of it.
They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.
"Civil unrest" What are they expecting?
Training for homeland scenarios has already begun at Fort Stewart and includes specialty tasks such as knowing how to use the jaws of life to extract a person from a mangled vehicle; extra medical training for a CBRNE incident; and working with U.S. Forestry Service experts on how to go in with chainsaws and cut and clear trees to clear a road or area.
The 1st BCTs soldiers also will learn how to use the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded, 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.
This suggests US civilians...not terrorists.
Its a new modular package of nonlethal capabilities that theyre fielding. Theyve been using pieces of it in Iraq, but this is the first time that these modules were consolidated and this package fielded, and because of this mission were undertaking we were the first to get it.
The package includes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons; and, beanbag bullets.
Again, what are they expecting? Riots in the streets whether or not the Messiah wins the election? Or has some Doomsday scenario been threatened we do not know about (and is apparently so scary no one wants to mention it)?
I was the first guy in the brigade to get Tasered, said Cloutier, describing the experience as your worst muscle cramp ever times 10 throughout your whole body.
Im not a small guy, I weigh 230 pounds ... it put me on my knees in seconds.
The brigade will not change its name, but the force will be known for the next year as a CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force, or CCMRF (pronounced sea-smurf).
I cant think of a more noble mission than this, said Cloutier, who took command in July. Weve been all over the world during this time of conflict, but now our mission is to take care of citizens at home ... and depending on where an event occurred, youre going home to take care of your home town, your loved ones.
While soldiers combat training is applicable, he said, some nuances dont apply.
If we go in, were going in to help American citizens on American soil, to save lives, provide critical life support, help clear debris, restore normalcy and support whatever local agencies need us to do, so its kind of a different role, said Cloutier, who, as the division operations officer on the last rotation, learned of the homeland mission a few months ago while they were still in Iraq.
Sooo the US Army is planning on restoring order...after exactly what happens?
Some brigade elements will be on call around the clock, during which time theyll do their regular marksmanship, gunnery and other deployment training. Thats because the unit will continue to train and reset for the next deployment, even as it serves in its CCMRF mission.
Should personnel be needed at an earthquake in California, for example, all or part of the brigade could be scrambled there, depending on the extent of the need and the specialties involved.
The active Armys new dwell-time mission is part of a NorthCom and DOD response package.
Active-duty soldiers will be part of a force that includes elements from other military branches and dedicated National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Teams.
A final mission rehearsal exercise is scheduled for mid-September at Fort Stewart and will be run by Joint Task Force Civil Support, a unit based out of Fort Monroe, Va., that will coordinate and evaluate the interservice event.
In addition to 1st BCT, other Army units will take part in the two-week training exercise, including elements of the 1st Medical Brigade out of Fort Hood, Texas, and the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade from Fort Bragg, N.C.
There also will be Air Force engineer and medical units, the Marine Corps Chemical, Biological Initial Reaction Force, a Navy weather team and members of the Defense Logistics Agency and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
One of the things Vogler said theyll be looking at is communications capabilities between the services.
It is a concern, and were trying to check that and one of the ways we do that is by having these sorts of exercises. Leading up to this, we are going to rehearse and set up some of the communications systems to make sure we have interoperability, he said.
I dont know what Americas overall plan is I just know that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, there are soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that are standing by to come and help if theyre called, Cloutier said. It makes me feel good as an American to know that my country has dedicated a force to come in and help the people at home.
A convicted sex offender died Sunday during a struggle with a father who found the naked man in or near his 17-year-old daughter's bedroom, police said.
Police responding to a call from the city's northwest side about 3:20 a.m. found 64-year-old Robert McNally on the hallway floor with his arm around the neck of 52-year-old David T. Meyers, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police spokesman Sgt. Matthew Mount said Meyers had a heart condition and may have had a heart attack. An autopsy was planned.
Police said Meyers was naked except for a mask and latex gloves and had entered the home through a window near the girl's bedroom with rope, condoms and a knife. He was familiar with the home's layout because it belonged to a relative, police said.
The girl awoke and screamed when she saw the man in her room, police said. The father responded and struggled with the intruder while the girl's mother phoned 911.
Police did not anticipate any charges against McNally.
"If a person breaks into your home, you are justified in using deadly force in defending your family," said Mount. "In this situation, I don't think he was trying to kill him, he was trying to hold him down."
Meyers had served 10 years in prison for criminal confinement and sexual deviate conduct and was wanted in Boone County for failure to register as a sex offender. He was registered as a sex offender in Marion County.
Police said Meyers lived with his mother and had recently lost his job.
The death is under investigation and will be reviewed by a Marion County prosecutor.
"Nobody wins," McNally told The Indianapolis Star. "It's a lose-lose situation for everybody. He has family also." Uh, no, Mr. McNally. Your daughter wins big time. Armed sex offender loses. And that is a very good thing.
#1
Well done, Mr. McNally. It is quite possible you may never again do anything quite so extraordinarily important for your family. This citizen thanks you for removing a clear and present danger from our society.
Let's add up the total: perp dead, no trial costs, no incarceration costs, small burial cost, scumbag removed from opportunity to commit further outrage...sounds like the citizenry wins BIG TIME!
#2
Well done McNally. You did your job, the perp did his, by dying. Hope he was scared at the end, since that's what he intended for his victim(s). Bury him in an unmarked grave in a swampy area.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/28/2008 20:21
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#3
The whole family will prolly need counseling, he's right, nobody ever wins in a scene like this.
#4
Sorry Jim, can't agree with you. There would have been much more damage to the victim and her family if the perp had had his way. At least the perp died and was not allowed to take anyone else with him.
The country's two far-Right parties, which campaigned on anti-immigrant and anti-European Union platforms, took almost 30 per cent of the vote to deliver a stunning blow to Austria's political establishment.
The Freedom Party, headed by Heinz-Christian Strache, who was accused of xenophobia during the election campaign, took 18 per cent of the vote.
A new far-Right party, the Alliance for the Future of Austria, founded by Jorg Haider, Mr Strache's former mentor before a 2005 split from the Freedom Party, won 11 per cent of the vote.
The election has been a catastrophe for Austria's moderate parties, with the centrist Social Democrats capturing only 29.5 percent and the conservative People's Party taking only 26 per cent of the vote.
Both parties, which have ruled Austria either alone or in coalition since the end of the Second World War, faced the worst election results in their history as their votes dropped under 30 per cent each for the first time.
Austrians went to the polls after a "grand coalition" between the Social Democrats and the People's Party collapsed after 18 months of a government that was paralysed by constant disputes and rifts.
Most Austrian commentators expect that the Social Democrats will try tod form a new government by either attempting to revive the grand coalition or by entering into a deal with the far-Right, a move that could provoke international condemnation.
Many Austrians still have bitter memories of the international isolation and pariah status Austria faced eight years ago, including European Union sanctions, when the far-Right Freedom Party - then led by Mr Haider - participated in a conservative coalition government.
Mr Strache, 39, has proved to be a popular figure with younger voters but he has been tainted by alleged links to the neo-Nazi scene, which he denies.
Mr Strache rose to prominence as the protégé of Mr Haider, 58, but fell out with him after a series of election defeats. The younger far-Right leader blamed Mr Haider for turning off nationalist voters by making compromises to form a coalition with the People's Party in 2000.
He has allegedly been pictured in his youth at militant gathering of far-Right groups dressed in uniforms and bearing guns.
After Mr Haider left the Freedom Party, Mr Strache has put it back on a hard-Right track, demanding a halt to immigration, a ministry for repatriating foreigners and the return of powers conceded to the EU.
Mr Strache has campaigned for a ban on Islamic dress which, he said, made women look like "female ninjas". He also seeks to overturn strict Austrian laws banning the display of Nazi symbols, such as the swastika.
Senior Freedom Party officials used the elections to mourn the days when immigration turned Austria's sausage stands into kebab shops and to lament the good old days when Austrians ate schnitzel instead of "falafel, couscous or whatever that stuff is called".
Austria introduced two constitutional novelties for the elections: the age limit for voting was lowered to 16 years, a move that might have benefited the far-Right, while the new parliament will be elected for five years instead of four.
#1
Far Right? Great, they're no better than the far left. Far anything gets old real quick. By far right I suppose europeans mean nationalist. Nationalism is a splendid thing, when not taken to excess.
Eight down, thirty-five to go
Eight kidnappers of a group of European tourists and their Egyptian guides led soldiers on a high-speed desert chase Sunday, ending in a firefight that killed all but two of the gunmen, Sudan's military spokesman said.
The two surviving kidnappers told Sudanese soldiers that the tourists were being held by 35 more gunmen in Chad, said the spokesman, Sawarmy Khaled.
The desert safari tour of 11 Europeans and eight Egyptians was seized by gunmen deep in the southern Egyptian deserts Sept. 19 and the victims have apparently been shuttled around in the remote region where Sudan, Chad, Egypt and Libya share borders.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/28/2008
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#1
It sounds like the tourists are getting an awful lot of safari for their money. One hopes they appreciate that properly.
The House overwhelmingly gave final approval yesterday to a landmark civil nuclear agreement with India, putting the Bush administration in reach of a substantial foreign policy achievement. The legislation, which passed 298 to 117, still faces obstacles in the Senate, where it has been approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but several senators have blocked it from coming to the floor for debate. The administration has pressed for final action before Congress adjourns, even though the 2006 bill that gave preliminary approval to the deal called for a much longer period of discussion and debate.
"I urge the Senate to quickly take up and pass this important piece of legislation before their October adjournment," President Bush said yesterday. "Signing this bipartisan bill will help strengthen our partnership with India."
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) promised a vote on the agreement in his chamber perhaps as soon as tomorrow.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2008
14:05 ||
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From the Daily Mail. It won't get the publicity it deserves.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2008
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#1
It won't get the publicity it deserves
Because, after all, how could publicizing this help the Democrats win? This is what the left would be talking about if they truly cared about the values they proclaim.
Thanks for the post, Steve. This is an example of what Big Journalism can be, should be, but seldom is.
#5
More of 'em, so it will take longer. The western press will ignore it. But it won't end well.
Possibly because of the internal problems China will have once the full effects of this mortgage bailout start to be felt. The repercussions will be profound.
#6
IIRC CNN > THE END OF CHEAP CHINA? China's continually dev business sectors desire to keep upgrading to evermore advanced sales and tech levels while at the same time being forced to realize that it may be necess to outsource [e.g. INDIA, AFRICA] in NEAR-TERM DUE TO RAPIDLY CHANGING CONDITIONS ESPEC CURR US FINANCIAL CRISIS + INTERNAT COMPETITION. SOME OF CHINA'S MAJOR COS. = FACTORIES MAY BE FORCED TO REDUX THEIR PERSONNEL BY 20-30% IN NEAR-TERM, WHILE AN AVERAGE OF ONLY 10% OF CHINA'S UNIV GRADUATES WITH ADVANCED TECHS DEGREES [approxi 5.0Milyuhn per year] ARE ABLE TO FIND WORK AFTER GRADUATION, AND INSTEAD MUST GO OVERSEAS = OUTSIDE OF CHINA TO FIND WORK.
#8
See CHINESE MIL FORUM Thread > INDIA MAY STILL BREAK APART IN THE END. Recent HINDU-CHRISTIAN troubles or violence are symptiomatic of a deeper, nearly hidden or covert, POTENT INDIAN SOCIO-CULTURAL MORASS WHICH THREATENS AND UNDERLIES THE EVERY NATIONHOOD OF INDIA ITSELF.
Nutshell > IICC, India's Hindus and Muslims don't want to change or reform, while the Catholics, Christians, and other are not willing to wait anymore for changes to the Establishment-Cultural "status quo". THE NEWEST CONVERTS TO INDIA-SPECIFIC SECUL SOCIALISM ARE, IRONICALLY, LOYAL ADHERENTS OR BELIEVERS OF INDIA's MAJOR RELIGIONS, I.E. THE FAITHFUL AND SPIRITUAL, WHOM ARE WILLING TO RISK NATIONAL STRIFE FOR CHANGE.
#9
The Chinese aren't bothered by minor details like morality, nor are they impeded by an electorate. The job of the Communist Party in China is to bring the country a rising standard of living and some baubles to make the masses proud (Olympics, space walk). They're doing it. Until they fail at those tasks, no one in China will give a damn and the criticism from outsiders will have about as much effect as a snowflake on a granite wall. They'll have no problem being as ruthless and unscrupulous as they need to be to make sure they get what they want from Africa. Anyone, either in Africa or China, who complains too loudly about the issues Mr. Hitchens describes will simply disappear permanently.
#10
ION TOPIX > BRITISH EXPERT [IISS]: SOUTH KOREA FACING SERIOUS THREAT OF UNCONTROLLABLE MIGRATIONS FROM NORTH KOREAN COLLAPSE, GLOBAL WARMING, AND MUSLIM WORKERS [e.g. Pakistan].
Tycoon Hugh Hefner has been advised to cut back on staff at his multi-million dollar glamour empire as it struggles to cope during the global economic turmoil. The 83-year-old has been told to lay off some of his staff at his Los Angeles and New York offices as soon as this month or go bankrupt.
The company has recently seen shares fall from £6.20 to £1.55.
An insider at the company told the Daily Star that bosses had been aware of the worsening situation for "a while". "Only the top brass has known for a while how bad things have been for Hef recently."
Spokeswoman Elizabeth Austin would not confirm the sackings, saying: "It is our policy not to comment on corporate matters such as employee issues."
The news will be another blow to Hefner who recently discovered that two of his "bunnies" may have been cheating on him.
Holly Madison, who has previously been named as Hefner's "No.1" girlfriend, is alleged to have had an affair with magician Criss Angel and another bunny, Kendra Wilson, is reportedly dating football star Hank Baskett. Playboy spokesman Rob Hillburger denied the rumours, saying: "The rumours that Holly left Hef for Criss Angel are not true. Holly and Kendra are all still living at the Mansion."
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/28/2008
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#1
More than meets the eye. X-band radar can also strongly interfere with both missile and warhead electronics. It is a high energy type radar on the end of the microwave band.
OpenSecrets.org has many, many resources for anyone interested in following the money as Washington policymakers craft their solution to the shakeout that continues on Wall Street. Here's a guide to what we at the Center for Responsive Politics have for you online:
* Overviews of federal campaign contributions and lobbying by the finance, insurance and real estate sector
* Within that sector, we have similar data for the two industries getting the most attention right now: the securities and investment industry (contributions, lobbying) and commercial banks (contributions, lobbying)
* How much have members of Congress received from these industries? OpenSecrets.org can show you: securities/investment, banking. Play around with the dropdowns and slider menu to change the timeframe or see totals to specific members of the House and Senate.
* Which companies are the biggest contributors within these industries and how do they split their money between Democrats and Republicans? Banking. Securities/investment.
* For the biggest givers in American politics, which would include most of the major investment firms and commercial banks in the news right now, OpenSecrets.org has detailed "Heavy Hitter" profiles. You can review their contributions and lobbying over time and see how much they've contributed to particular politicians. Here's the full list, and here's direct access to Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America and American International Group (AIG).
* Don't forget Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. We have a list of politicians who've received contributions from their PACs and employees. And we have profiles of contributions and lobbying by the mortgage banking industry.
* In addition to all that's linked above, we've posted a number of other analyses in our Capital Eye blog over the last couple of weeks. You can find these posts here.
#3
Thanks 3dc, I've been looking for something like this to try to make sense out of the influence peddling going on in Washington in other words who gets what?
#4
Am I correct in assuming the heavy hitter monies went largely to the blue state recipients--than would be the donks. Unions, real estate, lawyers association, etc.; the usual suspects in the base of donks.
#5
Nancy Pelosi had some serious holdings in AIG. Would it be correct to say that because of the bailout that her losses are, er, ah diminished now? Talk about conflicts of interest.
#1
I'm not sure what all that means, but at least the giveaways to the democrat political machine have been removed from the bill. Does Pelosi know this ? She will never go along without a dollup of democrat corruption to smooth out the voting.
Don't these donkeys know that we are watching them ?
#2
It is not you Lollypop, these government folks are still using double-speak of financese and governmentese language. Part of the same problem we got into with the "invented" investment instruments that ended up having no value. Which resulted in a few getting very rich by trading worthless paper for worthless paper and then leaving after the company started into a downward spiral. Wall Street and Washington weasels.
#4
Agreed, the voters need to have the option of retribution at the ballot box. Whoever is President should have to defend his actions up to that point in responding to the fiscal mess. Three years would be good.
#1
McCain needs to get an ad out that uses this clip from You Tube. Also "Burning Down the House" describes debacle brought on by mismanagement, corruption, and campaign fund kickbacks from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; the great flirtation--no it was a passionate love affair with social engineering and socialism.
Political correctness is driving this thing too--there is the political correctness notion in this country that corrupts everything it touches and that is that no one can fail; that no one should suffer any consequences and no one should have to work for anything.
Adolph Hitler came to power during the Great Depression just because people thought he was the messiah and who would bail them out. The rest of the world suffered greatly. The U.S. and allies had to make it right at great cost. Not making it right would have cost far more in the generations to come. We had principles forged by our forefathers and we had an abiding faith that there was something greater than ourselves that guided us. These principles and faith was far larger than the idea of making a buck, partisan politics or getting elected.
#3
What bothers me is the condition has not been addressed honestly. I know where the blame lies, but I want an open admission from a party I see as reckless. And I would like another bill to meet what Barons: Memo on the street found as well as the communities reinvestment act.
If you want markets to work, you fix the cause.
P.S. a small bill would work, one that actually regulates or deregulates properly. Screw all of your pork.
Scientists may have found a safer way of giving a flake of skin the biologically alchemical powers of embryonic stem cells. They turned adult cells into versatile, embryonic-like cells without causing permanent damage -- potentially solving the central problem of a promising but uncertain field of stem cell science.
"This is certainly a major stem cell milestone," said Advanced Cell Technologies chief scientific officer Bob Lanza, who was not involved in the research. "It's the first ray of light that iPS cells could soon be used to treat patients."
These iPS cells -- short for induced pluripotent stem cell -- debuted less than a year ago: By using viruses to insert key developmental genes, researchers coaxed human skin cells into an embryonic state, capable of growing into almost any other type of tissue.
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#4
But the endometrial stem cells from menstrual blood appear a lot better choice. Abundantly available and biologically superior without any poking with virus. Really want to know? Read the research publication by Xiaolong Meng, Thomas E Ichim, Jie Zhong et.al. Endometrial regenerative cells: A novel stem cell population, Journal of Translational Medicine 2007, 5:57 doi:10.1186/1479-5876-5-57. This is an open access article available from: http://www.translational-medicine.com/content/5/1/57
Annon.
#5
The problem wiht that ANon, is that you don't get an abortion industry kickback and payoff liek you do with embryonic stem cells. That's a very big business that thrives on death and will not allow anyone to come close to limiting it.
#6
You'd think it would be a no-brainer that your own stem cells would be far better than someone else's for treating your diseases. They're guaranteed to have the same proteins as your other cells and be able to communicate accurately with your other tissues. Somebody else's: maybe, maybe not.
Posted by: James ||
09/28/2008 22:07
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#7
What James said, although I don't even play a biologist on tv. The kickback with the abortion stem cells, though, is more likely the vicarious pleasure of throwing it in the faces of those who object. That feeling of 'speaking truth to power' is more valuable to some than actual money.
#1
On a spring day in 2004, Nadhmi Auchi, one of the world's richest men, flew in to Midway Airport on a private jet. Met by a welcoming party that included Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn (there at the request of the Blagojevich administration) and businessman Tony Rezko, Auchi was brought to a downtown hotel where he was the guest of honor at a reception hosted by Blagojevich.
The Iraqi-born billionaire -- who lives in London -- had come to Chicago on business. He would go on to invest nearly $170 million in a prime piece of vacant land in the South Loop -- 62 acres along the Chicago River that Rezko wanted to develop.
Chicago politics keep coming up. Resko is connected to BO. Aren't Rezko and Blagojevich under indictment? Does this mean that if BO gets elected that Chicago politics have a new D.C. address?
#5
he has an October sentencing date. Any deal has to be done before that ;-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/28/2008 16:56
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#6
You're a bit naive, Betty. I take it you haven't had much experience with the judicial system. If you ever do, be sure to have a lot of money available.
There is a market. The businesses holding the mortgages do not like the market because if they sell in that market they will not recover most of their original investment. That is not lack of market.
In fact, the businesses holding mortgages are wagering that a government bailout will pay more for these mortgages than the market. So much so that they are refusing to participate in an existing market.
I have $5.00 in my wallet. I will pay $5.00 for any $1,000,000 portfolio of American mortgages held by any entity. There, I have created a market for mortgages. [more at link]
#1
Right. Just remember to make those property tax payments on time otherwise that other American institution, the sheriff's sale, is going to make that piece of paper just a piece of paper.
#2
I don't have a mortgage (worked hard, paid it off, paid my bills on time through the years thanks to Mrs. JohnQC's diligence) but I have a feeling I am going to get mugged, robbed, and strong-armed nonetheless.
#3
In fact, the businesses holding mortgages are wagering that a government bailout will pay more for these mortgages than the market. So much so that they are refusing to participate in an existing market.
And mortgage holders currently behind on payments, credit card debt, Escalade payments.... will also soon be "refusing to participate in the market" ie, PAY THEIR PHUECHING BILLS "wagering" that the Obamessiah and affirmative action by ACORN and the donk congress will bail them out.
#4
Besoeker, you're right. What political party wants to be in charge of foreclosing? Cash flow from the mortgages may drop to zero without repercussions.
#5
I don't think our government is qualified to run a neighborhood lemonade stand. Can anyone think of anything Washington does well other than overspend, blow the budget, look they other way at corruption, and be fiscally irresponsible?
The same people that got into this financial mess are making the decisions on the bailout. That is crazy and scary. We are becoming the country of bailouts. Their is no penalty for failing or being very risky or imprudent anymore in government or business.
#6
Can anyone think of anything Washington does well..
Well, your military has shown remarkable abilities for a bureaucracy to self correct, reform, and clean its own house. That's not healthy in the long run for a republic, cause work eventually seems to flow toward competency.
#7
For my money, the repository of the national honor is now in the U.S. military. They represent the old-fashioned virtues of duty, honor, country in a way that the politicians couldn't imagine doing, much less the glitterati of this society.
It's not supposed to be that way. The military is supposed to be inspired by the citizenry. When you invert that flow, bad times are ahead for both the citizens and the military, and the country they represent is headed for ruin.
#8
As a national institution, certainly the most trusted with our honour, Jolutch Mussolini7800. But there are plenty of organizations -- companies, churches, community groups -- and plenty of individuals who strive daily to live those virtues. Just because the scum rose to the top does not mean there isn't a lot of cream in the U.S. even now.
#11
Hellfish, I'm not. I have a son in the Army, totally respect their mission, and their mission in America is under civilian administration. You're welcome to take that shit elsewhere. Thx
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/28/2008 19:59
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#12
What would it take for a military take-over of Washington? Not very much I'd wager. There's a lot of congress critters that belong in jail or the river. Their undermining of America has gotten to the point of doing real damage, I think only the military can clean out government. Would they then have what it takes to step down and turn it over to civilians again?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/28/2008 20:39
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#16
We still vote here and can handle this by voting. For all the lefties and other loons around, remember that GWB won the vote in 2004. Remember that the Democrats have only held the presidency for 12 of the last 40 years. Most voters know how to vote sensibly. All is not lost.
As for Congress, what have you done lately to throw out the Democrats? If your answer is little or nothing, shut your trap about the military. You're just an armchair anarchist.
#17
P2K, the way that's written it sounds like you are not a legal American. Am I confused?
Rhetorical flourish. I don't own it, it belongs to the people. It's their military not mine though I did my time in service when it was even more unpopular among the usual suspects. I hung around for the rebuilding from its nadir.
#18
But isn't Pakistan the kind of country where the military periodically clears away the corrupt civilian government? That's not the kind of place I want to live in. I prefer our military being equal citizens, not a foreign body. (Which makes Procopius2k mine, even though he appears to have become a civilian. However, I am willing to share.)
In a significant development, which will affect the future relations between US and Pakistan, highly placed government sources have told TIMES NOW that US President George W Bush has cautioned Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against taking Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari at face value.
Govt sources have told TIMES NOW that Bush told Manmohan Sing that he had huge doubts about Zardaris ability to deliver on assurances made to India on curbing cross border terror.
Bush shared his assessment with Manmohan Singh during the course of their bi-lateral meeting when the two discussed terrorism in South Asia. The Prime Minister in turn is reported to have told Bush that though the Indian government didn't push Zardari too hard India did convey to him its strong views on terror from Pakistan soil.
Highly placed government sources have told TIMES NOW that Zardari went out of his way to tell the PM that India needed to give him some time as he was only a week-old President.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/28/2008
11:08 ||
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#1
OMG, did Bush slip up again and tell it like itis? With his blunt Texan manner of speech he tends to do that.
#3
Bush speaks truthfully to an ally, and probably causes a few cases of striped-trouser wettings at Foggy Bottom as a result. Nice two-fer Mr. President.
As for foreclosure prevention measures, Pelosi's office said the legislation would allow the Treasury to work with cash-strapped homeowners whose mortgages are purchased by the federal government to refinance into a more affordable mortgage.
Other foreclosure-prevention measures include an extension of the tax holiday for homeowners who face foreclosure, as well as a tax break for community banks that held shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The rescue plan will allow affected banks to take an immediate tax deduction on losses from investments in the two firms, which were taken over by the federal government earlier this month.
Is this the means for the Democrats to fund ACORN and other similar entities by using them as proxies or contractors to execute these policies? In addition, there is no detail as to the policies for new/affordable mortgages. Are new appraisals made and the Taxpayer eats the loss for difference in the appraisals?
Just these two paragraphs look to be possible deal breakers to fiscal conservatives.
#3
This is a way for donks to buy votes from scoundrels who take out mortgages they can't afford and then want me to pay for the privilege. Screw 'em and the bank that lent it.
#1
Tina Fey, today's Chevy Chase of the President Ford era but without the klutziness. I only watch SNL when I can't go to sleep; it is sleep inducing--it tends to be sophomoronic and often not very funny.
#6
I happened to surf by ABC "News" tonight. The two anchors were laughing about the Tey SNL skit, and played a long clip. One said, when Palin gets on SNL it's going to be hard to tell her apart from Tey. The other said, yeah, it's really great that Tey's back on again. The first wrapped with, "Yeah, really cool." Media bias? Whatever are you talking about?
#7
I actually watched a goodly chunk of SNL last night before falling asleep. They had a skit on the Obama/McCain debate, and really did a good, balanced job. My notes from that moment: Rezko, earmarks, McCain surprises, maverick, BEACH BOYS!!
(Bomb, bomb Iran = Ba ba Barbra Ann)
It was clear Al Franken was not involved in writing that skit. It's just that Tina Fey doesn't want to do political skits for the next four years... and that ABC News, etc won't play anything that brings up dear Tony Rezko, who is reportedly ready to confess all his sins at the top of his lungs.
Thirty-nine years ago I was shot in an ambush while a Marine on a night patrol in Vietnam. I had potentially fatal wounds to my chest and a serious wound to my right leg. To put matters bluntly, I had never been more terrified in my life. Would I die? And if I died, would I go to heaven?
I also thought about the buddies I was leaving behind. Somehow, I wanted to believe that they would be better off without me to slow them down.
The next morning I woke up at a hospital in Da Nang. The doctors told me that my days as a fighting Marine were over. Somehow, I felt that I had more to give but wouldn't get the chance.
My history is relevant only because there are huge differences between then and now when it comes to our Wounded Warriors. For the past couple of years I have had the privilege of knowing Col. Jack Cox (USA, ret.) who is a stalwart in the Wounded Warrior Program at Fort Bragg. He has been a great friend and mentor, and has taken the time to introduce me to some of this generation's wounded.
There are at least two important differences between my generation and the young men I have seen at Fort Bragg's Womack Hospital which is near where I live.
For openers, the Army acts as if the wounded person is going to remain forever a soldier. That is their basic operating assumption moving forward.
Second, the attitude of these kids is amazing. These brave warriors, no matter how badly wounded they are, believe that they will soon be backwith their units fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Today, there are 17 Marines who are amputees fighting in Iraq. I am certain that there are as many soldiers doing the same for the Army. Recently, I received a widely distributed email from Col (Dr.) Brett Wyrick. He was a trauma surgeon at Balad Air Base in Iraq.
He wrote: "If I ever hear (anyone) griping and complaining, I jump into them pretty quickly, now. Most people over here have nothing to gripe about compared to Marines. Marines are different. They have a different outlook on life.
"One Marine Private was here for several days because he was a lower priority evacuation patient. He insisted on coming to attention and displaying proper military courtesy every morning when I came through on rounds. He was in a great deal of pain, and it was a stressful to watch him work his way off the bed and onto his crutches. I told him he was excused and did not have to come to attention while he was a patient, and he informed me he was a good Marine and would address '. . . Air Force colonels standing on my feet, sir.' I had to turn away so he would not see the tear in my eye. He did not have 'feet' because we amputated his right leg below the knee on the first night he came in.
"I asked a Marine Lance Corporal if there was anything I could get him as I was making rounds one morning. He was an above the knee amputation after an IED blast, and he surprised me when he asked for a trigonometry book.
'You enjoy math do you?' He replied, 'Not particularly, sir. I was never good at it, but I need to get good at it, now.' 'Are you planning on going back to school?' I asked. 'No sir, I am planning on shooting artillery. I will slow an infantry platoon down with just one good leg, but I am going to get good at math and learn how to shoot artillery.' I hope he does.
"I had the sad duty of standing over a young Marine sergeant when he recovered from anesthesia. Despite our best efforts there was just no way to save his left arm, and it had to come off just below the elbow. 'Can I have my arm back, sir?' he asked. 'No, we had to cut it off, we cannot re-attach it,' I said. 'But can I have my arm?' he asked again. 'You see, we had to cut it off.' He interrupted, 'I know you had to cut it off, but I want it back. It must be in a bag or something, sir.' 'Why do you want it?'
I asked. 'I am going to have it stuffed and use it as a club when I get back to my unit.' I must have looked shocked because he tried to comfort me, 'Don't you worry now, colonel. You did a fine job, and I hardly hurt at all; besides I write with my other hand anyway.'
Now, please tell me that these young guys aren't the Greatest Generation that has ever lived.
#1
'I am going to have it stuffed and use it as a club when I get back to my unit.'
"... was a centurion with a terrible reputation, Lucilius Fabilus. Nicknamed Cedo Alteram ("Fetch me another") for his habit of breaking his cane on the backs of legionaries he would beat for various infractions..."
#2
That story does indeed make one well up. Such stories inspire me and make me wonder why I bitch about anything. The story frames what's really important--men such as are in this story and what they stand for--they are the very finest we have.
#3
God bless them and watch over them, and bring them all back to those who love them when they've finished the task they set themselves. I am proud to be part of the nation such men and women think worth fighting for.
#4
"We had been told, on leaving our native soil, that we were going to defend the sacred rights conferred on us by so many of our citizens settled overseas, so many years of our presence, so many benefits brought by us to populations in need of our assistance and our civilization.
"We were able to verify that all this was true, and, because it was true, we did not hesitate to shed our quota of blood, to sacrifice our youth and our hopes. We regretted nothing, but whereas we over here are inspired by this frame of mind, I am told that in Rome factions and conspiracies are rife, that treachery flourishes, and that many people in their uncertainty and confusion lend a ready ear to the dire temptations of relinquishment and vilify our action.
"I cannot believe that all this is true and yet recent wars have shown how pernicious such a state of mind could be and to where it could lead.
"Make haste to reassure me, I beg you, and tell me that our fellow-citizens understand us, support us, and protect us as we ourselves are protecting the glory of the Empire.
"If it should be otherwise, if we should have to leave our bleached bones on these desert sands in vain, then beware of the anger of the Legions!"
Marcus Flavius,
Centurion, 2nd Cohort of the
Augusta Legion, to his cousin
Tertullus in Rome
Jean Larteguy quoted this in his novel, The Centurions, about the Algerian War. We now have a real problem in both Washington and Wall Street. If the Left gets elected in November they'll make it worse. Then this quote comes into play. Men such as this won't take the squandering of their sacrifices lying down, and squandering those sacrifices is exactly what the Left intends to do.
To quote Thomas Jefferson, "I fear for my country when I remember that God is just."
#5
While it is laudable that our soldiers are willing to return to battle after losing a limb, even back in the days of the US Civil War, it was noted that such men almost invariably have permanent personality changes, and need to spend a long time to find their new niche where they can perform to their own satisfaction.
#6
Where do they come from? They come from Montana, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, and the other forty five states and the U.S. territories. Many of them in their youth watched the Twin Towers fall, some at the beginning of their life journey. They chose to defend our country, not for glory but out of a sense of obligation to defend our freedoms, our nation, and our way of life. One day they build roads and visit schools in far away lands. The next they experience the unimaginable horror of close combat with a inhumane enemy. They make sacrifices that our "betters" in Hollywood, on Wall Street, or Martha's Vineyard could not even comprehend. They are the best of us, our sons an daughters who make us better by knowing they are on the gun line manning the walls to keep the barbarians at bay. To quote Winston Churchhill, after reading the U.S. entry into World War II, "I have read of the American Civil War, and I sleep the sleep of the saved." God bless them and their families, may He hold them close to his heart and grant them safe passage. Thank you to all of the veterans and their families here on Rantburg.
#7
my eldest son volunteered for the Army, two years ago, based on 9/11/01, which occurred when he was 13. Don't write our coming generations off. They are volunteering in a hot war to fight America's enemies, knowing full-well what that means.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/28/2008 20:26
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#8
We should assemble an entire unit of disabled soldiers and set them loose in Berkley, kicking hippies.
Congressional leaders and the Bush administration reached a tentative deal early Sunday on a landmark bailout of imperiled financial markets whose collapse could plunge the nation into a deep recession.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the $700 billion accord just after midnight but said it still has to be put on paper.
"We've still got more to do to finalize it, but I think we're there," said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who also participated in the negotiations in the Capitol.
"We worked out everything," said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., the chief Senate Republican in the talks.
The plan calls for the Treasury Department to buy deeply distressed mortgage-backed securities and other bad debts held by banks and other investors. The money should help troubled lenders make new loans and keep credit lines open. The government would later try to sell the discounted loan packages at the best possible price.
At the insistence of House Republicans, some of the program's $700 billion would be devoted to a program that would encourage holders of distressed mortgage-backed securities to keep them and buy government insurance to cover defaults.
The legislation would place "reasonable" limits on severance packages for executives of companies that benefit from the rescue plan, said a senior administration official who was authorized to speak only on background. It would affect fired executives of financial firms, and executives of firms that go bankrupt. Some of the provisions would be retroactive and some prospective, the official said.
The proposed legislation also calls for the financial sector to help make up the difference if the government does not recoup its investment in five years, the official said, but details were unclear.
Also, the government would receive stock warrants in return for the bailout relief, giving taxpayers a chance to share in financial companies' future profits.
To help struggling homeowners, the plan would require the government to try renegotiating the bad mortgages it acquires with the aim of lowering borrowers' monthly payments so they can keep their homes.
The measure's main elements were proposed a week ago by the Bush administration, with Paulson heading efforts to push it through the Democratic-controlled Congress. Democrats insisted on greater congressional oversight, more taxpayer protections, help for homeowners facing possible foreclosure, and restrictions on executives' compensation.
To some degree, all those items were added.
At the insistence of House Republicans, who threatened to sidetrack negotiations at midweek, the insurance provision was added as an alternative to having the government buy distressed securities. House Republicans say it will require less taxpayer spending for the bailout.
But the Treasury Department has said the insurance provision would not pump enough money into the financial sector to make credit sufficiently available. The department would decide how to structure the insurance provisions, said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., one of the negotiators.
It was not immediately clear how many House Republicans might vote for the measure. With the election five weeks away, Democrats have said they would not push a plan that appeared sharply partisan in nature.
WOW, WE'VE MADE QUITE A MESS OF THINGS here on Wall Street: Fannie and Freddie in conservatorship, investment banks in the tank, AIG nationalized. Thanks for sending us your new trillion dollar bailout.
We on Wall Street feel somewhat compelled to take at least some responsibility. We used excessive leverage, failed to maintain adequate capital, engaged in reckless speculation, created new complex derivatives. We focused on short-term profits at the expense of sustainability. We not only undermined our own firms, we destabilized the financial sector and roiled the global economy, to boot. And we got huge bonuses.
But here's a news flash for you, D.C.: We could not have done it without you. We may be drunks, but you were our enablers: Your legislative, executive, and administrative decisions made possible all that we did. Our recklessness would not have reached its soaring heights but for your governmental incompetence.
THIS MEMO PROVIDES A BRIEF HISTORY OF your actions that helped create this crisis. We on Wall Street do not deny our part.
rtwt at link for a 10 year history. A lot of this remains and needs to be fixed.
We created these securities, we rated them triple-A, we traded them without understanding them. Now that they have gone bad, we are real close to getting the rest of the country to take them off our hands. Thanks, D.C. None of this would have been possible without you.
Very truly yours,
Wall Street
In my opinion, the greatest fault with the $700 billion bailout is that it encourages more moral hazard on the part of the financial community and our whole culture. No one is held responsible. No one will suffer for their individual greed and error. But everyone will suffer to the tune of $ 2,300 for every man woman and child to fix it. And that's just for starters.
There needs to be a lot more judgment of and consequences for these malefactors as individuals. If it doesn't start till after November 4, that's OK with me. But it's time people were held responsible for the errors on their watch. Should have started with Tennant and Mueller. Casey and Abazaid.
There will be consequences for these failures. What is being debated in Washington is who bears the burden of those consequences. The current plan does not allocate the burden appropriately. I prefer inaction to this plan.
#1
Typical of wall street and current America. "It's not my fault". It IS wall street's fault. Not our Congress, they were just too stupid to see this comming. When 30% loans were allowed, I did not buy. My home loan is fixed and affordable, not an interest only or ARMM. Wall street needs to stand up and be accountable for their greed.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/28/2008 11:15
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#2
...they were just too stupid to see this coming.
Nah, there's a difference between being blind and looking the other way. Best Congress money can buy.
#3
rtwt. They weren' blind and they didn't look the other way. They were a prime contributor helping to spread the corruption. Think CRA, repealing Glass Steagal, failing to fix Fan and Fred, appropriating more for the Smithsonian than the SEC. The list goes on and on. They're as guilty as Wall Street. That's why Wall Street gives them so much money. Coongress of Whores led by the Slut of the House.
#4
In the last three days, conservatives have turned against this deal big time. While I generally agree that it is blackmail, and damned unfair, to make matters worse I will mention two things:
1) Treasury officials are saying if it doesn't happen, the stock market could lose 1/3rd of its value in short order. And,
2) It is unlikely it will work in any event.
So the big question is not really one of moral outrage. It is, "Will it work, and if not, then what?"
Ironically, this is only a rhetorical question, because it won't work. It is a band aid over a bullet hole.
#6
Many of these Congress Critters are like crack whores who will do anything to feed their habit. With these Congress Critters votes, money and power = crack. Not all of our Congress fits into this category but we should remember all that do on November 4th and then again, again, and again at each subsequent election until these Toxic Congressmen/women are removed from the taxpayer-financed Congress welfare roster.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/28/2008 13:30
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#8
1) Treasury officials are saying if it doesn't happen, the stock market could lose 1/3rd of its value in short order.
That would be okay, short lived, and a great buying opportunity. Maybe if we spent the time it takes for the stocks to fall investigating who is at fault here, democrats, democrats, democrats, and democrat supporters, just maybe we can elect a responsible Congress in November.
This is the result of corruption and immoral behavior. Without a full accounting and corrective measures, nothing is gained. We are at opportunity's door and it is open.
#11
Of our instruments of power, Diplomatic, Informational, Economic, and Military, we as a nation are broken on three fronts. Sad situation. JQC is right, Nov 4th is a very important day.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/28/2008 16:22
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#12
Some of my best friends are crack 'hos.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/28/2008 17:51
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#13
well, at least they aren't Democrat office-holders.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/28/2008 17:55
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Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/28/2008 9:58
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#3
Quite frankly, I'm sick of it all. The Palin drama is meaningless compared to the CLASS=ED HREF='HTTP://http://governor.mo.gov/cgi-bin/coranto/viewnews.cgi?id=EkkkVFulkpOzXqGMaj&style=Default+News+Style&tmpl=newsitem'>thuggish tactics of Obama's campaign and his Bill Ayers communist/marxist/ Acorn connections. Not to mention the welcome his cronies gave mass murdering tyrant Ahmadinejad in NY.
#4
The first time I read the Times of London, I thought that it was a shoddy rag not fit for fish wrap, compared to American tabloids. Silly gossipy articles like this that impute base motives where none exist merely reinforce that opinion. I believe the phrase "brutal Afghan winter" was coined here.
#6
The Palin family issues are the Palin family issues. It is for them to decide. I would pray that for them in their decisions.
These side issues reported by the British media don't have much to do with our elections. The $700 billion bailout and how it is handled is a far more important issue for this country and ultimately others in this world than some insipid little gossip article from the UK.
This murder brought to you by the Brave Lions of Islam
Gunmen in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar have killed the country's most prominent policewoman, officials say. Lt-Col Malalai Kakar, head of Kandahar's department of crimes against women, was shot in her car as she was about to leave for work. Her son was also wounded in the attack, and is said to be seriously injured.
Ms Kakar, who was reported to be in her early 40s and had six children, was one of the most high-profile women in the country. She has figured prominently in the national and international media, partly due to a famous episode in which she killed three would-be assassins in a shoot-out - although she said her everyday life involved tackling theft, fights and murders.
Ms Kakar joined Kandahar's police force in 1982, after her father and brothers were also police officers. But when the hard-line Taleban regime took over Afghanistan she was prevented from working.
SAN FRANCISCO - Not even $700 billion will be enough to spare the United States from more economic anguish if the government's proposed banking bailout pans out like similar desperation moves during the past two decades.
It usually takes years to recover from a financial crisis severe enough for politicians to ride to the rescue with truckloads of taxpayer money.
Take, for example, the U.S. government's August 1989 bailout of the savings-and-loan industry. The stock market fell by 12 percent within the first 14 months of the rescue plan while the economy slipped into an eight-month recession that began in July 1990. Housing prices that had just begun to erode continued to fall for another three years.
There's little reason to believe it will be dramatically different this time around, particularly since this bailout involves harder-to-value assets and comes with the U.S. economy already on the edge of a recession, if one hasn't begun already.
"This is going to take years to work out and it will be incredibly complicated," predicted banking consultant Bert Ely, who has extensively studied the U.S. government's 1989 bailout.
Although lawmakers are still sparring over the precise details, the proposed bailout would authorize the government to borrow up to $700 billion to buy the toxic assets poisoning banks. Most of these holdings are tied to mortgages made to borrowers who either can't afford to make their monthly payments or have simply chosen to default because they owe far more than their homes are worth. No one seems quite certain how much these assets are worth, but the government is betting that with time it can get a handle on it and eventually profit.
Even as the government tries to clean up the mess left by reckless home lenders, borrowers and investors, more problems are likely to stack up.
The trouble could include longer unemployment lines as struggling companies faced with declining sales and limited access to credit trim their payrolls. That could lead to even more bank failures as cash-strapped borrowers don't repay loans. And most experts think there's still a good chance the downturn in the housing and stock markets will deepen to further spook already frightened consumers.
The government is hoping its intervention will unclog the lending pipeline, but that isn't a certainty either, said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University, Channel Islands.
"If I am a medium-sized bank on Main Street, simply because the government is bringing a bailout package to Wall Street doesn't mean I am suddenly going to change my mind and start lending money again," Sohn said.
That suggests the economic statistics won't even capture some of the collateral damage all the lost lending opportunities that occur as banks try to bolster their rickety balance sheets. Many banks have curtailed their lending because they are already swimming in losses and don't want to risk drowning by taking chances on more borrowers.
"The real tragedy is we will never know how many businesses would have been started or how many businesses might have expanded if all this hadn't happened," said Jonathan Macey, deputy dean of Yale Law School, who wrote a book about a government bailout in Sweden during the early 1990s.
In a best case scenario, Macey said the United States will bounce back within two years, like Sweden did after the government spent billions of dollars to salvage the country's troubled banks and prop up a slumping housing market.
Before the medicine took effect, Sweden suffered through a 20-month recession that saw nearly 60,000 companies go bankrupt, housing prices fall by 19 percent and the country's bellwether stock market index plunge 45 percent from its peak. Once the hangover ended, the good times resumed; Sweden's economic growth has averaged 3.2 percent since 1994.
Sweden spent 65 billion kronor (about $10 billion at the time), but made most of the money back because it bought a stake in some of the troubled banks. The government still owns nearly 20 percent in one bank a stake that is now up for sale. U.S. lawmakers also have been debating whether it makes sense to acquire stock in some of the banks that the government intends to help out.
In a more sobering situation, the payoff from the U.S. bailout might take much longer. That's what happened in Japan after its government finally intervened in a real estate and banking crisis that began in the early 1990s.
By the time the government acted in 1997, the economic hole was so deep that it took another seven or eight years to climb out. The net public outlay to clean up mess was 18 trillion yen ($168 billion), according to the Financial Services Agency.
The abysmal times in Japan during the 1990s are now known as the "lost decade." Even though the economy is better now, the Japan's stock market still hasn't returned to its peak before the bubble burst. And Japan still has about $9 billion worth of property held as collateral that needs to be sold.
It seems unlikely that the United States will have to wait as long for a recovery because the government is wading into the financial muck much more quickly than Japan did.
It was difficult deciding whether to post this article under Politix, Culture Wars, Lurid Crime, or Terrorism. There wasn't a category of "ALL." Maybe the article is unduly pessimistic but maybe not. As of late Saturday, it didn't sound like a done deal. The Democrats have enough votes to pass the bailout in the House. I think they are looking for a shared blame scenario since elections are coming up.
#1
I've have never seen such a rush to get this taxpayer bailout bill railroaded through with so little transparency and accountability. The same people that got us into this mess are still making decisions about the bailout. CSPAN is so very interesting. Today, callers called in to talk with Barney Frank. Virtually all of them were pi$$ed to one degree or the other. Frank wiggled, squirmed, deflected, blamed the Republicans, spun the issues, and disembled. One guy that called in said he was running for office as an independent for the first time and he thought all the people that got us into this debacle should just step down. Frank said that would not be the democratic way but what he meant was the Democratic Way (wink, wink). He dodged questions about Fannie Mae and Freddie Man and the fact that James A. Johnson and Franklin Raines ran Freddie and Fannie into the ground while making a fortune. Nothing was said about investment deregulation in 1999 under Clinton that led to this financial mess. Frank made it sound like he was a hard working public servant that was amazed at how the Republican administration got us into this mess.
I don't know what pony George W. has in this race, i.e. why he is pushing the Paulson package and the subsequent compromise package--maybe he doesn't have a horse in this race since he will only be in office a few more months.
I can see the donks looking at my accounts--although they are meager, and telling me what I can have left after they get done with redistributing my wealth and the rest of the country's.
#2
I can see the donks looking at my accounts--although they are meager, and telling me what I can have left after they get done with redistributing my wealth and the rest of the country's. Posted by: JohnQC
A very predictable trend actually....... having experienced for nearly 45 years, the non-receiving end of welfare benefits, affirmative action, housing assistance, minority scholarships, food stamps, income tax credits, job application preference, employment promotion and selection, economic cash incentives, government cheese, and midnight basketball.
I STILL managed to sock away nearly $150. Come hither you sorry communist bastards, NOW YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL!
#3
If I'd known this was coming, I would have told the IRS to keep my refund check earlier in the summer. Thanks but no thanks. If it looks too good to be true, it probably isn't true or good. There are no free lunches or free homes.
#6
Past USG bailouts of Airlines and Auto companies only resulted in higher corporate management salaries while doing little to stop the loss of domestic or international market share. Poor economies of scale ended up being protected and promoted, not eliminated. ITS GOOD ELECTION YEAR POLITICS BUT IN THE END US TAXPAYERS STILL END UP PAYING FOR YEARS AND DECADES FOR NOTHING.
June was Gypsy Rose Lee's more talented sister. At one time she was down and out, and found work as a marathon dancer. She never really hit the big time like Louise (Gypsy Rose) did, but she did hit the fairly large time with her own teevee show in the '50s.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008 10:46
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#4
I helped support Gypsy Rose Lee's career. I went to see her in the 50s. By today's standards, the burlesque show was rather tame. I don't know whether or not any of you are old enough to have visited a burlesque house but it was interesting. Usually these shows were in old theaters. The women in the show were artful. The striptease show (emphasis on tease) was mixed with a fair number of standup comedians, some of which were quite funny and often had a unique talent that was featured. Many of our earlier comedians got their start in Vaudville or burlesque.
The United States, Russia, China and key European powers agreed Friday to press for a U.N. Security Council resolution that renews previous demands for Iran to halt its enrichment of uranium but includes no new punitive measures to compel Tehran to do so.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:24 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday denied that American and Pakistani forces exchanged fire along the Afghanistan border this week, even as the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff acknowledged that the two sides engaged in a brief firefight.
Zardari told The Washington Post in an interview Friday that Pakistani border forces shot warning flares Thursday at two U.S. helicopters that he believes inadvertently crossed into Pakistani territory from Afghanistan. He said there was no gunfire exchanged between the two sides.
"We fired flares at them," he said.
Zardari spoke at about the time that Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Washington that Pakistani forces fired on two U.S. helicopters supporting a ground unit Thursday and that American troops responded with small-arms fire.
"There was a cross-border fire incident yesterday," Mullen said, corroborating reports from U.S and NATO military officials. He urged both sides not to "overreact to the hair-trigger tension we are all feeling. Now, more than ever, is a time for teamwork, for calm."
One day after blasting the United States for violating Pakistani territory in a speech before the U.N. General Assembly, Pakistan's new leader sought to defuse tensions between the two countries and present Pakistan to the American public as a reliable ally in the U.S.-led fight against terrorism.
Zardari played down the significance of American incursions into Pakistan in recent weeks, referring to a Sept. 3 operation that led Pakistan to accuse U.S. commandos of killing 20 people in a South Waziristan village as a "one-off" incident.
He praised President Bush's leadership in the fight against terrorism. "Obviously, the world is a safer place," he said. "It could have been worse."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:24 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
Taliban blew up the houses of a provincial minister and his brother, killing three of the minister's servants, in the Dosha Gram area of Matta tehsil on Saturday. According to residents, Taliban blew up the houses of NWFP provincial minister Ayub Ashari and his brother. Meanwhile, Inter-Services Public Relations officials told Daily Times that the 11-month curfew in all districts of Swat would end from today (Sunday).
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:24 ||
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#1
???? Blow up houses, kill servants, get curfew ended. Did I miss something? (grin)
A top U.S. envoy is planning to travel to North Korea shortly in a last-ditch effort to salvage a faltering accord to end Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs, sources said Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:24 ||
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#1
Complete waste of time and effort, send a loaded B 52, on second thought send many loaded B-52's, and see they return empty THEN ask if they'd like to "NEGOTIATE" any further.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/28/2008 12:15
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#2
RJ - just a single Tomahawk missile with a high-penetration warhead into the containment vessel. The Israelis did that to Iraq's Osirak reactor, and it never restarted. I expect them to do something similar to Iran. If the containment vessel is breached, it's hard to control the nuke reaction, and you have a choice between continuing to operate and becoming a radioactive cloud, or shutting down totally and starting again somewhere else.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/28/2008 14:22
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#6
Osirek was, as I recall, above ground. The Iranian reactors are deep below ground, in the best bunkers (?) the Germans can design... or perhaps it was the French, or the Russians, or... North Korea keeps their missiles deep in their mountains, I thought; where do they keep their nuclear stuff?
At least 35 Taliban and other criminals were arrested during a daylong operation in the suburbs of the provincial capital as security forces drove Taliban out of the area on Saturday, police said.
The operation was launched amid a curfew imposed in the Badaber and Mattani police stations areas.
Peshawar Police Rural Circle Senior Superintendent Nasirul Mulk Bangash said 14 'hardcore criminals' were also arrested, adding 35 Taliban hideouts were also destroyed.
He said the police followed the Taliban up to the Kala Khel tribal area leading to a heavy exchange of fire between the two sides. Locals said one Taliban was killed and another injured.
Taliban centre: Also, the political administration raided and demolished a Taliban centre in Landikotal. A Khasadar official said the Taliban had vacated the building because they had advance information about the raid.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:22 ||
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(PTI) At least 81 LTTE cadres were killed as Sri Lankan armed forces using fighters and artilleries pounded Tigers' stronghold, with troops reported to be on the outskirts of the key Kilinochchi town.
The fighter jets targeted female 'Black Tigers' training facility at Rathnapuram, Kilinochchi, as well as LTTE logistic centres and vehicles storage areas in a major escalation of the country's ongoing civil strife.
The Defence Ministry said that at least 81 Tamil Tigers were killed as jets pounded Black Tiger' training facility in the embattled northern Lanka.
The rise in the heat of the battle comes amidst reports that Sri Lankan forces are within sights of the town, considered to be administrative and military headquarters of the LTTE.
"Sri Lankan Air Force fighter jets have launched a precision air strike at the LTTE's main female 'Black Tiger' training facility located at Rathnapuram, Kilinochchi this afternoon," an official said.
"The target was located 1.5 km East of the A-9 trunk road and North of the Iranamadu Tank," Air Force spokesperson Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said, adding the target was acquired on real-time ground information.
According to available information, serious damages were caused to the facility as intense activity was reportedly taking place during the time of the attack.
"The site is known to be the main female 'Black Tiger' training and coordinating facility and a most frequented location by LTTE's intelligence wing chief, Pottu Amman, the Defence Ministry quoted military sources as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:22 ||
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#1
No doubt there will be plenty items of interest subsequently found in the rubble. Let us pray for cell phones and laptops! ;-)
(PTI) An alert was today sounded at the airport in this eastern Pakistani city after airline officials received a threat of a possible terrorist attack.
The lounges and parking lot of the airport were evacuated and security agencies carried out a search after Pakistan International Airlines officials received an anonymous phone call that warned of a terrorist attack.
Officials told TV channels that nothing suspicious was found during the search. Several flights were delayed by up to 30 minutes due to the alert.
The scare at the Lahore airport came two days after a threat of a possible suicide attack at the airport in Islamabad. In that incident too, airline officials had received an anonymous phone call about a possible attack and the airport was evacuated.
Pakistani security agencies have been on high alert since the September 20 suicide bombing at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that killed over 50 people and injured 266.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:22 ||
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Nineteen militants and two Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were killed in a gunbattle between security forces and militants in Dera Bugti on Saturday, Aaj TV reported.
The channel quoted official sources as saying FC personnel were on a patrol in the Gandoi area of Dera Bugti district in Balochistan early on Saturday morning when the militants opened fire on them. A security official said the fighting continued all day long. Four FC personnel were injured.
BLA: The channel said Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) spokesman Sarbaz Baloch told reporters in Quetta that militants had killed 17 security personnel in the fighting.
The clash happened 25 days after a unilateral ceasefire was announced by three militant outfits -- the BLA, the Baloch Republican Army and the Baloch Liberation Front -- on September 1. The channel reported that the clashes were still continuing and both sides were using heavy weaponry including machine guns and rocket launchers against each other.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:17 ||
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The Taliban, NATO and the US "are all equal for us", said Malik Manasib Khan, the leader of a lashkar, called up to help Pakistan's army expel the Taliban and anyone else. "We will fight against America until the last soul if they come to our country," Khan told reporters in Raghagan, 12 kilometres northeast of Khar. The military took reporters to the Pashtun tribal fighters in the tribal region on Friday to show it has the support of locals.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:17 ||
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#1
well, Malik, we don't want to, so don't make us.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/28/2008 7:18
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#4
They're not doing a real good job of ejecting the Talibs and al-Qaeda, who they say are no different from us. We kick Talibass. What makes them think they'll do better against us?
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008 10:34
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#5
What is not equal is the amount of return firepower and crunch that each party can put on the house. The usual approach is to take on the one with the less effective reply [other than the Pak Army, which is a given].
#6
"We kick Talibass. What makes them think they'll do better against us?"
A complete disconnect with reality, Fred.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/28/2008 16:03
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#7
Actually, this stand is due to a natural failing of human nature : when facing an enemy, one tends to assume that they will operate like similar foes in the past. The only "regular military" that most of the tribals have ever dealt with in the past is the Paki Frontier Corps, so the tribals have a very low view of national troops because of that. They will be in for the shock of their {albeit short} lives if they ever do confront NATO and/or US troops with the Western standard of fire support and close air support.
Security forces have cleared areas around Rashkai and Loi Sam in Bajaur Agency following the killing of 16 Taliban and injuries to 20 others on Saturday, officials said. Government official Iqbal Khattak said the Taliban faced the casualties during clashes with security forces backed by helicopter gunships, AP reported.
"The security forces are successfully making advances today," Reuters quoted army spokesman Major Murad Khan as saying. "They have cleared the areas around west and north of Rashkai and Loi Sam areas," he added. Helicopter gunships fired rockets at Taliban positions in and around their strongholds in the Loi Sam and Rashakai areas.
Three soldiers, including two army officers, were also killed in the fighting that began on Friday.
Separately, security forces arrested 10 Taliban during a search in Darra Adam Khel. Arms and ammunition was seized from their possession, confirmed a statement.
Frontier Corps chief Major General Tariq Khan said on Friday that the Taliban had forced families to give up their sons to fight against security forces, AP reported. "All families were asked to give their one male child to the [Taliban] movement, and this was done forcibly, and if a family doesn't do it, their house will be destroyed," Tariq told reporters visiting the region on an army-organised trip.
The claim could not be confirmed independently as media access to the area is restricted.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:16 ||
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Pakistani forces claim to have killed 30 al Qaeda and Taliban loyalists in a strategically important tribal region on the Afghan border.
Officials said on Saturday that three soldiers, including two army officers, were also killed in the fighting, which began Friday, in the Bajaur region described by the military officials as a 'center of gravity' for the militants.
The security forces backed by helicopter gun ships pounded their positions in the Loi Sam and Rashakai areas.
Military spokesperson Major Murad Khan said 25 militants were killed in fighting on Friday. A military official said five more insurgents were killed on Saturday.
In other news on Saturday , security forces continued search operations against militants in different localities of Mathni and Adezai Union councils near Darra Adamkhel and arrested at least 35 suspects sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:15 ||
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Hamas has denounced a "pro-Israeli" statement made by the Middle East Quartet, saying the group is heavily biased towards the regime.
"Expressing concern over Jewish settlements and criticism of increased settler violence and then describing the legitimate Palestinian resistance as terrorism showed complicity with the Zionist occupation and the full bias in favor of it," Hamas Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said on Saturday.
In a ministerial session in New York, the diplomatic group which is made up of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, called on Palestinians to put an end to "acts of terrorism" against Israel.
Hamas however slammed the committee's final words saying, "It is perfectly unjust to qualify as terrorism the Palestinian resistance, which is perfectly legitimate".
Barhoum also criticized the US dominance on the group's biased decisions in favor of Israel and said the statement which "reveals very clearly the American hegemony,... aims to form a public opinion hostile to the Palestinian people and aims to discredit them".
"The US-backed crimes (in the Gaza Strip) are programmed to liquidate the Palestinian people, their cause, and their rights."
Regarding the acceleration of the Jewish settlement expansion by Israel, Hamas said "It is not enough for the Quartet to express its concern over settlements, action is needed".
Under the road map peace plan, Tel Aviv has committed not to establish new settlements in East Jerusalem (al-Quds) and the West Bank. The regime also pledged to halt all settlement activities in al-Quds and the West Bank during the Annapolis conference in November 2007.
In addition to the construction activity, Israeli military forces regularly launch operations against Palestinians in the occupied land and kill civilians. Last week the troops killed a 14 year old Palestinian boy and a 60 year old woman in the West bank.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:15 ||
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#1
In other words, Hamass is upset because the "Quartet" won't give them diplomatically what they couldn't win militarily. ARCLIGHT Gaza NOW, and continue for four or five days. When it stops, ask the survivors if they still want to play "Gotcha".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/28/2008 15:39
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The Taliban have started imposing fines on women who do not wear the veil in the suburbs of the provincial capital and some Mohmand Agency areas, locals said on Saturday. Locals said the Taliban had first warned people about the fines on September 15. The Taliban said they would impose a fine of Rs 10,000 on any woman not wearing a veil and the driver of any public transport vehicle carrying an unveiled woman. A resident of Kas Korrona said he had paid Rs 10,000 to the Taliban for the release of his wife who was held after she violated the 'veil law'.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:15 ||
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David Miliband says the world stood ready to assist in Zimbabwe's reconstruction if a new government respected democracy. Commenting on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's call for a lifting of what he called "illegally imposed sanctions" on his government, Miliband said: "the world stands ready to help with the reconstruction of Zimbabwe" in the wake of the September 15 power-sharing deal in Harare.
UK's top diplomat said this would happen only if "the democratic process is respected, the new government is formed reflecting that process and action on the ground reflects a new approach."
He said financial and travel sanctions imposed by European countries and the United States targeted only "individual members of the (Harare) regime."
"It is very important that a clear message goes out that there are definite expectations of a significant transfer of power reflecting the results of the parliamentary and presidential elections which were won by the (Tsvangirai-led) opposition," Miliband said.
In the wake of the power-sharing accord, he signed with his opposition, Mugabe told the UN General Assembly Thursday: "I would like to appeal to those members of the international community who have imposed illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe to lift them so that my country can focus, undisturbed, on its economic turn-around."
"We deplore the vindictive approach which often is characterized by self-righteous finger-pointing, double standards and the imposition of unilateral sanctions to coerce smaller and weaker countries to bow to the wishes of militarily stronger states," Mugabe added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:14 ||
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#1
Condition 1: Shoot Mugabe.
Condition 2: Shoot his cronies.
I'm not picky, though - hanging's good too.
I wouldn't give Zim-Bob a goddam dime until that entire crew is gone.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/28/2008 1:43
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#2
How about relief and aid for the the American taxpayer?
AMISOM has confirmed significant damage to Somalia's Aden Adde International Airport during attacks by al-Shabaab fighters, report says.
Eight Somali soldiers died in the airport terminal building which was bombarded by mortar fire from al-Shabaab resistance, Press TV correspondent in Somalia said.
The attack was confirmed by an African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) spokesperson.
The airport building was targeted after Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein announced the resumption of operations at the airport in the wake of 64 civilian deaths and 150 serious injuries resulting from violence when Ugandan peacekeepers secretly escorted President Ahmed from the presidential palace to the airport so that he could attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.
Al-Shabaab (the military wing of the Union of Islamic Courts) was formed in Somalia after the UIC was deposed by the currently ruling Transitional Federal Government and its backers -primarily the military of Ethiopia and the US- in a war in the East African nation which has raged since 2006.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:14 ||
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Troops backed by helicopter gunships killed five Taliban in a central Afghan province where seven policemen have been found dead in two days, an official said on Saturday. The Taliban targeted late on Friday, had been spotted laying mines on a road in the central province of Ghazni, provincial government spokesman Ismail Jahangir told AFP. "The helicopters targeted them and killed them," he said. Separately, around 150 Afghan labourers, abducted in the western province of Farah a week ago, have been freed, with 118 released on Friday and 30 more on Saturday. Authorities accused the Taliban of the kidnapping, the largest in the post-Taliban conflict, which has also seen the emergence of criminal gangs who kidnap for ransom.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:13 ||
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Sri Lanka's military killed at least 66 Tamil Tiger insurgents during a siege of the rebel capital and in air and ground assaults along the northern battlefront, the military said on Saturday.
Two soldiers were also killed in Friday's fighting, some of the heaviest since the military three months ago stepped up an advance into an area held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the north of the Indian Ocean island country. Most of Friday's fighting centred around the LTTE's headquarters town of Kilinochchi, a symbolic and strategic target for the military about 330 km (205 miles) north of the capital, Colombo. "Troops killed 52 LTTE terrorists in heavy battles in Kilinochchi on Friday," a military spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity. Four rebels and 21 soldiers were wounded in the clashes, the spokesman said.
In other battles along the curving frontline stretching from coast to coast, the military said 14 guerrillas and two soldiers were killed, while 36 rebels and eight soldiers were wounded. On Saturday, the air force said jets blasted a training camp for female "Black Tigers", elite insurgents chosen for suicide missions. They gave no details of casualties. The rebels could not immediately be reached for comment.
Getting a clear picture of death tolls in the war is difficult, since the military bars nearly all journalists from the battle zone and both sides have for years been engaged in a heavy propaganda duel. The LTTE, on US, EU, and Indian terrorism lists, has since 1983 fought the government to establish a separate homeland for the minority Tamil people in Sri Lanka. It has eliminated moderate Tamil political groups during a 25-year-old war that has killed 70,000 people.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has vowed to wipe the Tigers out militarily and offered some devolution of power to the north, along the lines of what his government did after routing the Tigers from the east of Sri Lanka last year. Since independence from Britain in 1948, Sri Lanka's governments have been led by politicians from the Sinhalese majority that makes up 75 percent of the country's 21 million population.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:13 ||
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Taliban hostilities show no sign of abating despite the deployment of 8,000 troops in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the army's claim of killing 1,000 Taliban, according to The Times.
The newspaper said in a report on Saturday that a constant supply of fresh fighters from inside the country and across the border in Afghanistan is helping the Taliban to stay in the fight.
Bajaur Agency is a main operating base for Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Pakistani intelligence believes that Ayman al-Zawahri, the second-in-command of Al Qaeda, has been a visitor. The report says the roots of the Marriott hotel attack and other incidents of violence across Pakistan, however, are to be found in Taliban strongholds such as Bajaur.
"Militant groups that have been banned have mutated into small cells and found a common cause with Al Qaeda," the report said, and cited Pakistani security and intelligence officials believing the attack at the Marriott had signaled the beginning of a new phase of the Al Qaeda offensive in Pakistan.
The newspaper also quoted former NWFP chief secretary Khalid Aziz as saying in a statement that Pakistan's co-operation in the war on terror would cost it dear.
Many believe the Marriott attack was in reprisal for the military campaign in Bajaur, which has turned into full-blown guerrilla warfare, according to the report. "With growing numbers of civilians paying the price, the fear is that the motivation to turn against the authorities - perhaps by carrying out another hotel bombing in another big city - is increasing for many," the report says concerning the impact of the operation on the population.
It says that the Taliban in the agency are not a problem for Pakistan alone as a critical US coalition forces supply line runs through FATA that are de facto under the Taliban control. Increase in fighting multiplies attacks on convoys carrying supplies for US forces in Afghanistan.
A key dilemma is the growing conflict between Pakistan and the US over the US violations of Pakistani borders, the report states. Pakistan has said that attacks from across the western border, which have caused civilian casualties, have hindered its own antiterrorism efforts and increased support for the Taliban.
"Pakistan is caught between more aggressive military actions by the Americans on the one hand and the [Taliban] on the other," said Maleeha Lodhi, the former Pakistani envoy to Washington and London. "Pakistan's leadership confronts the challenge of reconciling domestic opinion with international demands, squaring this circle is going to really test the Zardari-led Government," Maleeha said concerning public resentment to Islamabad's policy on war on terror.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:13 ||
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Eight years since the start of the al-Aqsa Intifada, Israel has killed 5,389 Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
Marking the start of the second Intifada (uprising), two local Palestinian organizations, Al-Haq for Legal and Human Rights, and the Health Action Committee held a press conference in Ramallah on Saturday. During the conference the groups outlined Palestinian casualties since the second "popular uprising."
Of the 5,389 killed by Israeli forces, they said, 194 were women and 995 children. During the same time 135 Palestinian patients died at 630 Israeli military checkpoints throughout the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
The groups said that 32,270 Palestinians were injured over the last eight years, and 3,530 of those injured have suffered permanent handicaps, and at least 220 Palestinians have died waiting for treatment abroad.
General Director of the Health Action Committee Shatha Au'da, said that Israel has also destroyed entire infrastructures in Palestinian lands, from road networks, to health, government and security installations consequent to their occupation and siege strategy. He said Palestinian lands and lives have been dissected by road-blocks, concrete walls, settlements and discriminatory policies.
And they still don't get the message.
Au'da noted that Israeli settlements have expanded 30% since the November 2007 Annapolis conference alone, and from 2000, 7,934 Palestinian homes have been demolished. 450 kilometers of the wall separating the occupied West Bank from Israel proper is in place and 45% of West Bank lands are not accessible to Palestinians.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:08 ||
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#5
An unnecessary, counterproductive, costly, and tragic waste. My goodness, if they'd just've signed a bloody peace deal, they'd be getting freakin' voting rights in Israel proper by now, and could vote the Jews out. Maybe it's just not heroic enough.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/28/2008 14:04
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#7
"An unnecessary, counterproductive, costly, and tragic waste."
That pretty much sums up everything from the 1973 Arab-Israeli (Yom Kippur) War through the present. Even with Arafat gone, the Palestinians are stuck on stupid.
#8
Over 200,99 Blacks have been killed in Sudan. People who unlike Palestinains didn't try to bomb maternities. People, that bunch of national-socialistras couldn't care less about.
A massive crackdown on IM-SIMI activists and arrest of a number of them across the country for their alleged role in several recent blasts may have dented their capacity but a larger network remains in place and can be activated by a fresh leadership.
Strategic think tanks and intelligence officials claim there are hundreds of activists who can be used for terror-related activities and who can still carry on with their covert war against India.
"While the Indian authorities have arrested many of these people, there are still others, perhaps hundreds of them, still on the loose," says Stratfor, a leading US-based strategic think tank, also known as the "shadow CIA".
The arrests of senior SIMI leaders do not appear to have affected the larger SIMI network's operational ability. It pointed out that in the immediate aftermath of the first round of arrests, the "tempo of militant activity seems to have increased following the arrests of Nasir, Nagori and others".
Saturday's attack in Mehrauli, within two weeks of the serial bomb blasts in the national Capital that had killed 26 and left hundreds injured, reinforces some of these assertions. The desperation of jihadi outfits is such that they seem unmindful of being intercepted in busy market places, virtually dumping bombs amid high alerts. Some could be taking the help of local criminals in terms of logistics.
The concerns were also reflected in a security review meeting, chaired by Union home minister Shivraj Patil, on September 14 (a day after the serial blasts in Delhi) when Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief P C Haldar himself explained as how it was difficult to reach each and every terror module of the outfit which enrolled a number of local people in every city having a substantial figure of Muslim population.
Haldar is learnt to have mentioned that the modules of IM which were busted in the wake of the Ahmedabad blasts did not throw much light on other sleeper cells which might be there waiting to strike after getting command from top -- the structure (organizational) of which is still unknown.
The modus operandi of terrorists is similar to Bangladesh-based outfits that employed similar tactics in 2005 when 400 bombs went off in a synchronised terror attack in that country. B Raman, former RAW official, says some terror groups like LTTE, Taliban, Kashmiri terrorist outfits, Maoists and Ulfa of Assam use both regular weapons and IEDs. Others like al-Qaida have tended to prefer IEDs and suicide bombers even as they do engage in fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:08 ||
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Activists of a Bara-based militant organisation detained a would-be suicide bomber in Khyber Agency on Saturday. Amr Bil Maroof Wa Nahi Anil Munkar spokesman Munsif Khan said the would-be bomber was being trained for a suicide attack planned for Eid. The spokesman said an explosive-laden delivery van was also seized. Separately, one Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) activist was killed and three others injured in a clash.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:08 ||
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Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and United States Deputy Secretary of State John D Negroponte will co-chair the third meeting of the US-Pak Strategic Dialogue in Washington on Monday.
According to the State Department, the strategic dialogue is "a symbol of our commitment to a stable, broad-based and long-term relationship serving the interests of both the United States and Pakistan. The Strategic Dialogue's working groups -- education, economic growth, energy, science and technology, and the new agriculture working group -- develop specific proposals for joint action by the US and Pakistan to achieve our shared objectives. At the conclusion of the meeting, Deputy Negroponte and Foreign Minister Qureshi will release a written joint statement".
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:07 ||
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#1
Our overriding interests in Pakistan should be eliminating the ISI and closing madrassas. The rest is irrelevant.
A jirga of Kurram Agency Toori and Bangash tribesmen on Saturday signed an agreement to cease fire and resolve disputes through dialogue. The jirga, consisting of 50 members from each tribe, met in Islamabad and announced a ceasefire until December 31. The next meeting of the jirga will be on October 6 in which various issues, including the re-opening of Thal-Parachinar Road, are expected to be discussed.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:07 ||
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The United States is getting 'good actionable intelligence' on Al Qaeda in Pakistan's Tribal Areas but not the Taliban, a senior official co-ordinating with Washington in the war on terror told Daily Times on Saturday.
"The US has good intelligence on Al Qaeda members in our Tribal Areas, and Washington also appears more interested in Qaeda than Taliban," the senior official said, asking not to be named.
The killing of Abu Khabab al-Masri, head of Al Qaeda's weapons of mass destruction programme, in the first week of August in South Waziristan speaks volume for the good intelligence the US is getting.
Since early this year, the US has carried out around a dozen strikes through unmanned spy planes in Bajaur and the Waziristan agencies. Washington suspects Al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri might be hiding in Bajaur.
The official did not say whether Pakistani intelligence agencies were behind the reliable information or if the US itself was using "own human intelligence on ground" or electronic equipment to track down the terror network.
In the last eight months, the US has eliminated some key Al Qaeda operatives, including Abu Sulayman Jazairi, an Algerian operative who directed Al Qaeda's external operations, and Abu Laith al-Libbi, during drone-led strikes in the Tribal Areas. "I think the tribal people are also willing to pass on actionable intelligence on foreign elements of Al Qaeda," said a tribal elder in Azam Warsak, South Waziristan. "The same level of success is, however, not coming as far as the Taliban are concerned," the official said.
Bigger threat: He added that the US did not view the Taliban as a bigger threat than Al Qaeda. "Washington is only looking for Al Qaeda operatives and it does not like to fire expensive Hellfire missiles on other than Arab elements of Qaeda." Except for one case when the US drone killed Taliban leader Nek Muhammad in South Waziristan in June 2004, there has been no other instance to suggest how important the killing of Taliban leaders is to Washington.
"If Washington takes out the Al Qaeda threat completely and the terror group no longer poses any security danger to the mainland of America, the US may open channels with Taliban leaders in Afghanistan to find peaceful solution to the Afghan problem," the official went on to add.
Earlier, NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani had said, "political stability will only come to Afghanistan when all political power groups, irrespective of the length of their beard, are given their just and due share in the political dispensation in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:07 ||
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#2
In other words, the U.S. should magically remove the Taliban problem so that Pakistan can go back to peacefully abusing the native tribes as is the custom?
An Istanbul court on Saturday charged six more people with membership of an alleged terrorist organisation suspected of plotting to overthrow Turkey's Islamic-oriented government.
The court ordered the six, including prominent former officials, to be detained. They are the latest of about 100 people facing trial for alleged involvement with a shadowy nationalist group, or of plotting an armed uprising. The opposition say the criminal case is an act of political revenge by the ruling party against the secularist opposition, which has accused the government of trying to increase the role of Islam in Turkey.
Turkey's Constitutional Court in July narrowly voted against disbanding Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party over accusations it was plotting to impose Islamic rule. But judges still cut off millions of dollars in state aid to the party. Police detained the six, who included a former senior policeman and an ex-mayor, on Tuesday and the court ordered them held Saturday to await trial.
They are accused of being part of a nationalist network called Ergenekon, which takes its name from a legendary valley in Central Asia believed to be the ancestral homeland of Turks. Arrests of alleged members and plotters began last year, and included two former military generals, prominent government critics, a politician and a best-selling author. The first of a series of trials is due to start Oct. 20.
Many of the suspects are known as fierce opponents of Erdogan's government and organised anti-government rallies attended by hundreds of thousands of secular Turks. Some of the suspects are charged with attacks or attempted attacks on institutions and prominent Turks to create chaos and lead to the government's overthrow.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
00:07 ||
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British police arrested three men on Saturday in connection with a fire at the offices of the publisher of a blasphemous book. The men, aged 22, 30 and 40, were arrested in north London under anti-terrorism legislation after the fire on Saturday morning at Gibson Square's offices. Police were also searching four addresses in east London. Britain's domestic Press Association news agency said some residents, whom it did not identify, reported that the incident may have involved a petrol bomb being pushed through the firm's letterbox. Gibson Square is responsible for the publication of 'The Jewel of Medina' by American author Sherry Jones. Random House announced last month it had cancelled publication of the book in the United States because of fears of violence. 'The Jewel of Medina' was re-released in Serbia earlier this month after being withdrawn in August under pressure from Islamic leaders. Gibson Square could not be immediately contacted for comment on Saturday's fire and subsequent arrests. The firm is known for having published other controversial books such as 'Blowing Up Russia' by former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
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#1
I saw Jeremy Brett portray Sherlock Holmes on commie TV yesterday. His performance, and those of the other actors, were unparalleled, and portray not a perfect Britain, but one that would is almost unrecognizable.
#2
It would be grand if Scotland recreated one of its old prisons carved in live rock, where prisoners were served a bowl of cold oatmeal a day and had all the water they could drink that trickled through the rock, which was also the sewer. No central heating, however.
#3
The people that do this sh$$ have a serious lack of understanding of Western ways, and the fact that, regardless of what their little muzzie minds think, we don't want to give up those ways. I think it's time for some serious re-education - applied to the face, neck, and upper back with an axehandle at close range. When they start demanding haggis with a Scottish accent, we'll quit pummeling them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/28/2008 12:46
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The British can read about this in their own papers, regardless where the esteemed Mr. Pruitt found the information. The BBC is merely television. I went to the DrudgeReport, and down in the left margin they have a listing of various news outlets from around the world. I found articles about this in five of the major English newspapers listed there, including the Guardian, plus AFP and the Press Association, the British version of our AP.
Acids are sold freely at the city's Tantibazar, only a quarter of a kilometre away from Deputy Commissioner's (DC) office which is responsible for controlling production, transport, storage, usage and sale of acids. Taking advantage of the authorities' inactivity, the acid market s running rampant increasing incidents of acid crimes in the country.
"You only have to pay Tk 30 for a pound of sulphuric acid and Tk 40 for a pound of nitric acid. As you have not brought any bottle, you can take this jar for Tk 200," said an acid seller of Goalnagar in Tantibazar showing a little jar capable of containing five pounds of sulphuric acid. He said the price of acid is not fixed and they charge as much as they can from people. He does not face any problem selling acids to those who do not have a licence to use acids or buy acids as the government monitoring is poor.
So there's always a way to retaliate against an uppity ex-girlfriend ...
Sources said like Tantibazar, acids are also sold at Armanitola and Hatkhola in the city and a number of places in the country. Neither a licence nor cash memos are necessary to buy acids from any market.
A car carrying more than 400 pounds of explosives blew up in Syria's capital on Saturday, killing 17 people in at least the third deadly attack this year in the tightly policed Arab country.
Interior Minister Bassim Abdel Majid said "terrorists" were responsible for Saturday's attack but told state television that officials did not know who carried it out. "We cannot blame any party," he said.
The bomb exploded Saturday morning in a neighborhood around the capital's Sayida Zaineb shrine, ripping the fronts off buildings and shattering car windows. The shrine attracts Shiite pilgrims in the majority Sunni Muslim nation. The apartments lining the crowded streets around the mosque are home to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees, many of them poor, unemployed and undocumented.
News reports from Syria said the bombing occurred near a state security post. There were conflicting reports as to the nature of the post, with one opposition web site saying it was no more than a car park used by state security services.
Police barred all journalists except state television crews from the scene. Syrian television said all of those killed were civilians.
The attack follows a car bombing in February that killed Imad Mugniyeh, a security chief for Hezbollah, a Lebanese-based armed political movement that the United States and Israel consider a terrorist organization. Last month, a gunman shot to death a Syrian general who the Syrian opposition and Israeli officials said had been a top liaison between Syria and Hezbollah. Syria has not announced any arrests in those killings, and the identity of the killers and their motives remain a mystery.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
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I take it that it's all quiet on the Thai front since S-L-I have replaced them at the bottom of the pile.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/28/2008 8:06
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#3
If you've noticed, Jack, the amount of space allotted to Afghanistan and Iraq has all but disappeared, while the amount of space allocated to Pakistan and India has grown significantly. The war in Iraq is all but over. Afghanistan has a long way to go, but most of the action has shifted to the Pakistani Tribal Areas. With that causing problems for the government in Islamabad, the mighty Pak army has stepped up nuisance attacks on the Kashmiri Line of Control. Attacks in Thailand are sporadic, and if the Thais ever get their act together and start really HURTING the "insurgents", will probably disappear altogether. As Ramadan ends, expect things to pick up a bit.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/28/2008 14:17
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YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- About 100 Buddhist monks in a western Myanmar city staged a peaceful protest march Saturday to mark the anniversary of last year's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.
Meanwhile, in the country's biggest city, Yangon, recently released political prisoners helped celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the party led by detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, while police and other security personnel kept a close watch. No protests directly related to the crackdown anniversary were noted in Yangon, where last year's demonstrations attracted up to 100,000 people. The junta put down the protests with force, killing at least 31 people and detaining thousands.
But in the western port city of Sittwe, about 100 Buddhist monks marched peacefully in a heavy rain for about 30 minutes, according to witnesses who asked not to be named for fear of being harassed by the authorities. The monks' march took the form of their morning round of begging for alms, but it is widely understood that such a large number of monks marching in an organized fashion represents a veiled protest.
Thein Hlaing, vice chairman of the dissident National League for Democracy Arakan, said one of the monks who organized the march told him it was staged to mark the anniversary of the crackdown and to recall those people killed or detained during it. Buddhist monks spearheaded last year's protests.
Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state in western Myanmar, is known for its strong anti-military sentiment. It was the city where Buddhist monks first joined anti-junta rallies that swelled into nationwide protests last September.
In Yangon, witnesses said three to six members of the National League for Democracy who were walking to the party's headquarters for its founding anniversary celebration were detained by a vigilante group that acts as security auxiliaries for the ruling military junta. Party officials said the members were forced into a truck and taken to their homes.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2008
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BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi police fatally shot a Kurdish politician in one of Iraq's most volatile provinces Saturday, a killing that underlines the growing tensions between Kurds and Arabs in parts of the north. Riya Qahtan, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, was killed Saturday morning in Jalula, a small town 80 miles northeast of Baghdad in the ethnically mixed province of Diyala, said Jabar Yawer, a spokesman for the Kurdish military, or peshmerga. Jalula has a mostly Sunni Arab population with a substantial Kurdish minority.
The incident occurred after two Sunni Arab policemen stopped three members of the Kurdish secret service at a market and demanded they show identification. They refused, and within minutes police reinforcements arrived at the scene, arrested them and took them to police headquarters, Yawer said.
Qahtan then went to the police station and persuaded officers to release the detainees, who had been working as guards for his party. But as the group was leaving, two policemen opened fire and shot Qahtan, Yawer added. The two policemen were being investigated as suspects in the shooting, a police official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2008
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#1
The notion that it's "one man, one ballot", not "one man, one bullet" just doesn't seem to penetrate.
Europe's anti-terror chief has launched a stinging attack on the political correctness that he says is hampering the campaign against militant Islam.
Gilles de Kerchove, the EU counter-terrorism co-ordinator, said last week that concern about stigmatising Muslim populations was hampering policy-making and thus prevention. 'One of the problems ... is that some member states are extremely reluctant to be explicit about the link with religion,' said de Kerchove. 'Religion has been hijacked and distorted for political ends.'
De Kerchove's statement comes against a background of infighting within the EU over counter-terrorism policy. The European Commission has been working for several years on a paper analysing militancy in Europe and outlining policy to combat radicalisation. The Council of Ministers is still waiting for the now long-overdue paper, on which future policy will be based.
EU officials claimed last week the delay was because Jacques Barrot, the French Commissioner for justice, freedom and security, had grave reservations about the definition of terrorism in the commission's policy paper and had delayed signing the policy document as it 'went too far in blaming Muslim communities'.
A spokesman for Barrot refused to comment. 'There is a paper that is being prepared. Our services are working on it and there is no fixed timeframe at the moment,' he said.
De Kerchove praised the Home Office's emphasis on countering the extremists' message through the media. 'We have to provide an alternative narrative,' he said. 'A lot of research is showing that young people being radicalised are looking for thrills as much as anything ideological. We need to show the violence for what it is, bloody and indiscriminate, and the people who do it for what they are, ugly criminals not heroes.'
#1
God Bless your efforts Gilles de Kerchove, it sounds like you "get it", loads of good fortune dude, you'll need a couple of tons every morning for the next few years Sir!
Please kick "Red Ken" in the Ass so hard his brains migrate up to his head, where they're needed!
#4
We can all be grateful Red Ken was retired from the London mayoralty in the last election, RD. His brains, I'm sure, haven't moved at all since then.
Unidentified helicopters have been tracking the Faina, a Ukrainian military supply vessel hijacked by Somali pirates on Thursday.
In an exclusive telephone conversation with Press TV's Somalia correspondent, a member of the pirate group responsible for the capture of the Faina said that choppers were hovering over the ship which was in waters off the northern Harardheere coastline 400 kilometers north of Mogadishu in the Gulf of Aden.
The representative, identified only as "Garaard" added that the pirates in command of the vessel would not hesitate to set fire to it and kill the crew if military forces pursue them.
Faina and her crew were commandeered on Thursday whilst transporting military equipment, including 33 T-72 tanks, munitions, grenade launchers and other armaments to Kenya.
US and Russian naval vessels are also in pursuit of the ship which has been offered for a ransom of 35 million dollars.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
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#1
"Faina and her crew were commandeered on Thursday"
I do not think that word means what you think it means....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/28/2008 0:17
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#2
I hear that the $35 million is in the Paulson package.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/28/2008 5:34
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#3
Jack wins the 'Understated Snark of the Day' award!
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2008 10:46
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#4
I am looking forward to a glut of cheap T-72s on eBay.
#5
#3 Jack wins the 'Understated Snark of the Day' award! Posted by Steve White
too early!!1! I have a big bag of unfunny understated snark to unload....but if the day's award is already given out....well.....damn
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/28/2008 11:45
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#6
Pirates commit illegal acts with impunity on the high seas, and we sit around trying to figure out a so-called legal way to deal with them. The ultimate in non-survival behavior on our part.
They have a base, a port. Take it out if you do not want to level the town. The pirates evacuate the ship and release the prisoners on 1 hour, or the town is leveled, burned, and salted. ONE operation like that and your problems are probably solved. Lather, rinse, and repeat until they get the message.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/28/2008 14:20
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#7
You are assuming the pirates give a rat's ass about the town, AP.
#8
Fox has reported the captain has died of hypertension--high blood pressure--after calling and reporting he could see several ships from his location, including one with a US flag.
#10
The pirates have a safe haven. A little surveillance work will determine where that is. Take out the safe haven. Just like Wazoo.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/28/2008 17:34
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#11
Horsefeathers, when these pirates commandeer an Iranian boat loaded with toxins or a Russian weapons shipment they do a service for mankind. If the CIA isn't giving them pointers, at least the seals should teach them how to shoot straight.
Can you recall a US flagged ship being affected by these "pirates"?
A small bomb exploded in a crowded hardware and electronics market in the southern part of the Indian capital Saturday, killing one person and wounding at least 18 others.
The explosion took place around 2:15 p.m. in a neighborhood where both Hindus and Muslims live and near a historic 12th century stone minaret. No group has asserted responsibility for the attack, which came two weeks after a series of bombings ripped through the capital, killing 21 people.
Police said two men on a black motorcycle dropped a plastic bag containing a lunch box and sped away. Inside the lunch box was a crude, low-intensity bomb, they said. "The bag was picked up by a young boy and it exploded. And the boy lost his life," said Y.S. Dadwal, the city's police commissioner.
Sanjay Dhingra, who runs a kitchenware store in the area, said the boy was standing in the street watching television. "When he saw the men on the bike, he called out, 'Uncle, you have left your bag behind' and picked up the bag," said Dhingra, whose clothes were stained with blood from helping the injured. "Then the explosion took place. We heard a loud bomb and everything went black for a moment. The boy died right there."
A spokesman at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences trauma care center said that seven of the injured were in critical condition.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
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#1
the boy was standing in the street watching television. "When he saw the men on the bike, he called out, 'Uncle, you have left your bag behind' and picked up the bag," .... The boy died right there."
Real heroic act by these lions of Islam. Must be quite a feat to kill a helpful child like this.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/28/2008 11:17
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Little Santosh paid a huge price for being late for tuition. The nine-year-old was blown apart by two bike-borne killers in a blast as the Saturday curse that bloodied the capital a fortnight ago struck again.
An eyewitness said the boy yelled at the bikers speeding away from the narrow lanes of the Mehrauli flower market that they had dropped a plastic bag when it exploded on him.
I saw his neck being ripped apart, Pankaj Khattar shuddered. There was blood everywhere.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/28/2008 14:40
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LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - President Evo Morales says a second Bolivian region has asked the United States to withdraw its aid programs as diplomatic relations between the two countries continue to sour.
Morales on Saturday congratulated local indigenous groups in the southern Bolivia province of Chuquisaca for becoming "territory free of ... American imperialism" after deciding this week to expel the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. He did not offer futher details.
Earlier this year Bolivian farmers asked USAID to leave the coca-growing Chapare region. Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador earlier this month, accusing him of encouraging the leftist leader's conservative opposition. The U.S. ambassador has denied the allegations.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2008
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#1
First one has to ask just who's shit list Goldberg found him self on to get sent to La Paz in the first place
NEW DELHI A young boy was killed and 17 people were injured when a bomb flung by two men from a motorcycle exploded on Saturday with a deafening roar in a crowded area of Mehrauli in south Delhi.
At least three of the injured were in critical condition, a hospital spokesman said, as private vehicles and ambulances raced the injured to the Safdarjang Hospital and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) some 10 km away. Police said the boy, believed to be 13-year-old Santosh Kumar, had his head blown off when he picked up the bomb concealed in a lunch box and wrapped in a black polythene bag in the congested Mehrauli Sarai electronics market.
The blast took place around 2.15 p.m. outside an electronics shop. Delhi Police Commissioner Y.S. Dadwal told reporters at Mehrauli that the men who threw the bomb on a road were riding a black Pulsar motorcycle. They wore jeans, had covered their heads with helmets and sped away. Barely a minute later, the bomb exploded. The motorcycle was reportedly found abandoned a few kilometres away.
The explosion rattled shops and houses in a large area close to a flower market sparking panic, as smoke rapidly enveloped the street, almost blinding everyone. Residents complained that the police took more than an hour to reach Mehrauli, a sprawling historic area on the citys southern fringe which is home to the 13th century Qutab Minar monument.
Two youths on a motorcycle left a packet in a polythene bag outside an electronic shop and sped off. It began smoking and soon afterward there was a huge explosion, said Pritam, an eyewitness.
The impact of the blast was so devastating that glass panes of several shops were shattered. As many collapsed on the narrow road, pools of blood formed on the street. Sanjeev Goel, a doctor at AIIMS, said a total of 17 people were injured, with three of them in critical condition.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2008
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The Election Commission's (EC) efforts to ensure registration of the political parties before the December 18 polls have run into difficulties with Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ) of the BNP-led alliance opposing some of the criteria.
Despite the EC's latest move to ease the registration procedure, BNP continues to be in a quandary over the issue for its allies' strong objections to the conditions that restrict registration of the religion-based organisations, sources in the four-party alliance said.
It was the opposition of Jamaat and IOJ that led to retreat from Tuesday's announcement that BNP would get registered on meeting the criteria stipulated in the revised Representation of the People Order (RPO), added the sources.
Against this backdrop, secretaries general of the four parties might meet today to decide on the next course of action.
The uncertainty over registration of the major political parties before the national election might go only if BNP manages to make Jamaat and IOJ change their mind.
According to the EC's new proposals unveiled last week, the political parties will not have to organise national councils to amend their constitutions to meet the criteria for registration, now mandatory for the parties seeking election to parliament.
Those unable to hold councils at this time can still register by amending their constitutions provisionally. However, they must have the changes ratified at their national councils within six months since the first sitting of the ninth parliament.
Awami League (AL), Jatiya Party and some other political parties have already agreed with the proposals and announced they would apply for registration after Eid.
Given a relaxed registration process, BNP too does not face any major problems in fulfilling the criteria. But Jamaat and IOJ will have to bring major changes to their constitutions to get registered as political parties.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.K. authorities are working with Bradford & Bingley PLC to consider the firm's future, as the beleaguered lender grapples with a loss of investor and ratings agencies' confidence, The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Saturday.
Citing a spokesman, the report said the treasury and the Financial Services Authority and the Bank of England are assisting Bradford & Bingley to consider the implications of the recent financial turmoil on the business. Shares of B&B , which is facing a loss of confidence in the wake of profit warnings and twice restructuring a capital raising plan, have hit new lows in recent days. Its problems were made worse by the recent downfall of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and by renewed rating downgrades, calling into question its ability to fund itself, the Journal reported.
The report said more details on the talks would be announced before Monday's market open, citing a person familiar with the situation.
Options for the lender include nationalizing the bank, taking it over and selling off parts or all of its assets or finding a private sector solution, which is thought to be the government's favored option, the Journal reported.
Media reports have said the government could merge Bradford & Bingley with Northern Rock, the U.K. lender that was nationalized in February, the Journal reported.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2008
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Some members of the US Republican Party are opposing to the bailout plan due to be signed by President Bush to save the country's economy. Republicans in the House of Representatives object to the cost of the president's bailout plan and they want an expanded insurance system to cover failing mortgage-backed securities, VOA reported Saturday.
Insurance makes no sense. You buy insurance for things that might happen, not for things that have already happened or are very, very likely to happen.
Though most Democrats and Republicans in the Senate signaled that they are willing to accept a modified version of the president's bailout and said they agree to the broad principles of the bill, a group of conservative Republicans insisted on significant changes to the USD 700b bill.
The US Treasury wants to spend up to USD 700b to buy broken mortgage-backed bonds from banks and dump them into a vast government portfolio, betting that the move will help thaw out frozen capital markets.
Some House Republicans argue that the plan is a risky approach that may rain down blame on the Republicans if the bailout collapses and the markets go sharply even further south.
The chief negotiator for the House Republicans Roy Blunt of Missouri said they still wish to see Wall Street pay more of the cost, adding they want to solve the problem as soon as possible.
The longer we wait, the more it costs. Keep the credit markets frozen and the investors panicked and on the sidelines, keep the banks sitting on cash, keep the money market funds from being able to roll over paper, and we'll see bank runs and pension fund collapses. Guess who'll get blamed for that?
One-third of the Senate and the whole House are facing re-election on the 4th of November and some US lawmakers said they were facing a grass-roots reaction to the plan seen as providing a safety net for powerful banks.
In a radio speech on Saturday, Bush said "the entire US economy is endangered" and added he understands why taxpayers may not want to foot the bill.
Many Americans are upset with the situation and feel it is unfair to pay for mistakes by Wall Street investors when many taxpayers are struggling to meet mortgage payments.
In New York, dozens of noisy foolsrubessimpletons protesters rallied from Times Square waving banners that read "No Money for Wall Street, No Money for War, bailout the Workers and the Poor."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
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#1
The trunks in Teh House confuse me. Opposing the bailout because it's unpopular makes sense from a political perspective, but when pension funds go bust, it's far worse for their chances. That only needs to happen to one pension, just one and the MSM will pound it until the election.
If any house trunks are reading this, I would advise you to remember how long they dragged out Enron.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/28/2008 0:16
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#2
Opposing the bailout because it's unpopular makes sense from a political perspective, but when pension funds go bust, it's far worse for their chances. Although I'm afraid of a potential economic crash, I am kind of enjoying the spectacle of a real important national issue intruding on the national entertainment spectacle called the election. The politicians are stumbling all over themselves.
#3
Jittery Money-Market Investors Await Treasury Guarantee Details
"Murali Iyer and his wife haven't slept much since Sept. 17. That's when they got a call from TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. that made them worry about their life savings.
Iyer, who thought his $400,000 at the brokerage was in a government-insured bank account, learned that it was really in the Reserve Primary Fund" -- RPF, a non-FDIC money market fund, is now frozen after a run on it. If Mr. Iyer had studied the paperwork associated with RPF or searched on the internet, he would have easily been able to learn the truth. Diversification of savings is important, do not put all your eggs in one basket.
"Consumers have been using money-market mutual funds for three decades as a kind of bank account. The funds aren't FDIC- insured, but they do follow rules enforced by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission designed to keep them in conservative investments. Alongside bank accounts and U.S. Treasury bonds, they are considered one of the safest places to put money. I doubt this will be the case any longer.
Like other investors in the Primary Fund, TD Ameritrade customers will have to wait until the Reserve permits withdrawals. Money-market funds are usually allowed up to seven days to honor requests for cash. In this case, because of the credit market freeze, the company received a waiver from the SEC for a longer delay. ``We anticipate that the SEC order will remain in effect until sufficient liquidity returns to the markets,'' said the Reserve's spokeswoman, Ming Hatch, in an e-mailed response to questions. "
#4
Sausage-making in Congress this weekend: Republicans, under pressure from Democrats to deliver 70 to 100 votes from their side, were scouring the ranks and focusing on the two dozen Republicans who were retiring this year...Both parties were also scouring the political map to identify lawmakers who face little or no opposition for re-election in November, knowing they would be more willing to vote yes. Democratic officials warned that Democrats in potentially tough races could not be counted on to provide the votes to put the package over the top when, and if, it reaches the floor. Sen. Conrad D-ND, said in a speech on the floor: Its not just going to be Wall Street. The chairman of the Federal Reserve has told us if the credit lockup continues, three million to four million Americans will lose their jobs in the next six months.
#5
"Iyer, who thought his $400,000 at the brokerage was in a government-insured bank account"
Ummmm, NO.
I don't have $400,000 or a brokerage account, but I do know that (1) brokerage accounts - "money market" or otherwise - ain't secured by the FDIC, and (2) deposits in actual FDIC-secured accounts are only insured up to $100,000.
Bzzzzzzt. Nice try, Mr. Iyer. Thanks for playing. Next time, read the not-so-fine print.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/28/2008 1:39
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I cant tell you how many members of Congress were stunned at that news, and were stunned that none of their local bankers were calling them. And then they called their local bankers, as I called my local bankers, and my local bankers said, I think things are just fine. I talked to one banker who said, Gosh, weve got money, and were liquid, and were making a profit. And were in the market selling loans, and weve got competitors trying to sell loans against us.
So, at that point, theres a disconnect. Secretary Paulson is claiming that this is a catastrophe of generational proportions that could go worldwide. And none of what we were hearing back home matches that. And Im not speaking just for myself, but also for many of my colleagues who were making similar calls. They werent being called by their bankers, or by any of the businesses back home saying, I cant borrow any money.... If, in fact, Paulson had struck a chord with the American banking community, wouldnt you think that after he announced on Friday that there was a crisis of liquidity that threatens the entire nations financial solvency and Americans jobs from coast to coast, that my community bankers in Arizona wouldnt have been picking up the phone by Monday morning, if not over the weekend, to say that I share the Secretarys concerns?
#13
the House Reps are trying to remove some of Chris Dodd's pork for ACORN, and keep taxpayers protected by paying off the debt with profits, rather than fund Donk special interests. If this bill was so great, the Donks would pass it without Republican votes or cover
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/28/2008 7:36
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#14
If I need a loan, I must make proper application. I don't go to my Congressman for the money. Where are the Wallstreet loan applicants? The "punishment" for failed CEO's and firms should come in the way of NO MORE INVESTEMENTS. NO MORE MONEY!
#16
If we punish who it seems we should it might throw us into a serious recession or worse. That would probably drag the rest of the world into recession.
This is a shit sandwich and we're all going to get a bit.
#19
My question is...why is virtually NO ONE in Congress screaming to the heavens about all the pork being attaced to this bail out by both Dimocrats and RINO's??? Just curious, ya' know?
Taxpayers are naturally suspicious that political insiders and contributors on Wall Street are going to make out like bandits once Washington starts spending the $700 billion in the financial market rescue. But Democrats have already decided to spin off potentially billions of taxpayer dollars from the bailout fund to their own political buddies -- not on Wall Street but on nearby K Street.
The House and Senate Democratic drafts contain an indefensible and well-hidden provision. It would mandate that at least 20% of any profit realized from the sale of each troubled asset purchased under the Paulson plan be deposited in either the Housing Trust Fund or the Capital Magnet Fund. Only after these funds get their cut of the profits are "all amounts remaining . . . paid into the Treasury for reduction of the public debt."
Here's the exact, amazing language from the Democratic proposal, breaking out how the money would be divided and dispensed:
"Deposits. Not less than 20% of any profit realized on the sale of each troubled asset purchased under this Act shall be deposited as provided in paragraph (2).
"Use of Deposits. 65% shall be deposited into the Housing Trust Fund established under section 1338 of the Federal Housing Enterprises Regulatory Reform Act . . . ; and 35% shall be deposited into the Capital Magnet Fund . . .
"Remainder Deposited in the Treasury. All amounts remaining after payments under paragraph (1) shall be paid into the General Fund of the Treasury for reduction of the public debt."
What we have here essentially are a pair of government slush funds created in July as part of the Economic Recovery Act that pump tax dollars into the coffers of low-income housing advocacy groups, such as Acorn.
Acorn, one of America's most militant left-wing "community activist groups," is spending $16 million this year to register Democrats to vote in November. In the past several years, Acorn's voter registration programs have come under investigation in Ohio, Colorado, Michigan, Missouri and Washington, while several of their employees have been convicted of voter fraud.
Along with other potential recipients of these funds, including the National Council of La Raza and the Urban League, Acorn has promoted laws like the Community Reinvestment Act, which laid the foundation for the house of cards built out of subprime loans. Thus, we'd be funneling more cash to the groups that helped create the lending mess in the first place.
This isn't the first time this year that Democrats have tried to route money for fixing the housing crisis into the bank accounts of these community activist groups. The housing bill passed by Congress in July also included a tax on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to raise an estimated $600 million annually in grants for these lobbying groups. When Fannie and Freddie went under, the Democrats had to find a new way to fill the pipeline flowing tax dollars into the groups' coffers.
This is a crude power grab in a time of economic crisis. Congress should insist that every penny recaptured from the sale of distressed assets be dedicated to retiring the hundreds of billions of dollars in public debt that will be incurred, or passed back to taxpayers who will ultimately underwrite the cost of the bailout.
The idea that special-interest groups on the left or right should get a royalty payment for monies that are repaid to the Treasury is a violation of the public trust. We're told the White House and House Republicans are insisting that the Acorn fund be purged from the bailout bill. The Paulson plan is supposed to get us out of this problem, not start it over again.
#1
Sadly, this surprises not a single solitary soul.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/28/2008 0:22
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#2
Well, maybe there won't be any profits realized on the sale of troubled assets -- real estate has been so grossly overpriced it must fall further, and this may happen to MBS (mortgage backed securities also).
#3
The price of housing became so much higher than housing's actual value as a result of two things:
1. The home mortagage interest deduction, which in effect makes real estate (at least two homes' worth) a taz-subsidized investment and
2. An interest rate which was held artificially low (vs the true cost of borrowing) for about 10 years too long.
In the absence of these two things, the attitudes and events and legislation that led up to this mess would probably not have happened.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/28/2008 6:46
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#4
'tax', not 'taz', PIMF.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/28/2008 6:46
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#5
nmu,
mortgage interest has been tax deductible since the inception of the current income tax in 1913. So the problem it creates is not a recent one and it is difficult to assign it any specific responsibility for this crisis to it.
Your point about interest rates is more appropriate as the Federal Reserve, also established in 1913, kept interest rates far too low far too long. Greenspan's reputation will be as the worst Fed Chairman since Miller.
#7
Agreed on the history of HMID, NS, but the fact of the matter is that making real estate an investment which is federally subsidized in a way that other investments are not has altered the real estate - and mortgage - market in ways that prevented market forces from working as efficiently as they might have otherwise.
In the absence of other factors, it was never enough of an intrusion to do more than artificially elevate the price of real estate with respect to the value of stocks, bonds, commodities, etc. But adding everything else, including foolishly tweaked interest rates, made it suddenly loom large.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/28/2008 9:36
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#8
This is a great time for winter wheat, winter rye, etc., Besoeker.
There must be a pertinent analogy in there somewhere.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/28/2008 9:37
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#9
It aint gonna be good, I'll tell you that much. Not for buyers or sellers.
But adding everything else, including foolishly tweaked interest rates, made it suddenly loom large.
I don't see how you can make this statement our of clear air. The everything else caused the problem, not the inflated, subsidized price which had been consistently subsidized for 90 years.
#11
Thought the Conservative Republicans in the House forced the removal of the ACORN provision or horse-swapped for the restrictions on CEO golden parachutes. Any way it is cut, it is not going to end for a long, long time and I can't see where are not going to ultimately foot the bill.
#12
It was the gradual removal of reserve requirements down to next to nothing that allowed the credit bubble to form.
When you halve the reserve ratio, you double the amount of credit.
As there are now no reserves left, then you cannot manoeuvre them down to cope with a recession. I've been worried by the credit bubble since 2003, so it takes a lot longer to kill the economy than I thought!
#13
The reductions in the reserve ratio is definitely the big problem, and without that this crunch may never be. And if you buy a house for the going market price, but that price is 20% higher than the house value, then, you buy debt. You gamble. Some houses sold for 30 to 50% above real value. No doubt American educated college grads bought them. Now, if they could get that job...
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has claimed Baghdad is getting very close to signing a security deal with the United States. "I think it is in the final stages," Zebari said in New York where he held talks with his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Saturday.
The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) which is being negotiated by Baghdad and Washington would determine the status of US troops in Iraq after their UN mandate expires on December 31. Under the deal US forces would reportedly be granted immunity from legal prosecution in Iraq. The issue of immunity however has been a main hurdle to the finalization of the deal.
Rice and Zebari said there was progress in negotiations and they hoped for a conclusion soon, AP reported. The foreign minister also urged the country's political leaders to support the treaty saying, "it will need the support of all the political leaders to get this agreement.''
A majority of Iraqi parliamentarians and political leaders however are against signing the deal which they believe would turn Iraq into a US colony. Parliament speaker Mahmud Mashhadani had earlier said that no Iraqi official was allowed to sign the treaty unless it was ratified by two-thirds of the lawmakers.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008
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#1
The "US elections clause" in that document must be impressive.
Crude-oil futures dropped Friday on concerns that a U.S. bailout of financial firms wouldn't be enough to reverse declining oil demand. Light, sweet crude for November delivery settled $1.13, or 1%, lower at $106.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Oil futures, like other commodity and currency markets, were in limbo Friday as traders waited for congressional leaders and President George W. Bush to settle on a final bailout package for troubled financial firms. Investors see the $700 billion plan as the best hope of avoiding a full economic meltdown, a fear punctuated by the seizure of Washington Mutual Inc. by regulators.
Traders nervously bid crude lower in the absence of a deal, though few were willing to take bets on a big price move in either direction. "The prospect that a deal gets done helped support the market," said Andy Lebow, senior vice president for energy at brokerage MF Global Ltd. in New York. "It doesn't mean the price is going to rally...the market is still grappling with near-term demand issues."
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2008
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#1
Traders nervously bid crude lower in the absence of a deal,
Does this mean as soon as "the deal" is signed oil prices will skyrocket? Lovely second-order effect.
#2
So basically the middle class is screwed no matter what happens. Deal, no deal, good deal, bad deal, we get the shit end of the stick. The richest 1% and poorest 5% come out fine.
#4
Congress is probably the most culpable, as they enacted the legislation then enabled the irresponsible financing. Then Wall Street and their buddies ran with it.
The problem is that members of Congress have little accountability, other than getting turned out of office. But even with that, their bennies are secure. How many of you Rantburgers have that kind of cushy deal with your employers?
I just see no real way out of this in the long term until we start doing the public business based upon sound financial principles, and that will not happen until present members of congress are removed and independents come into office.
Then you can reform congress and the rules under which it operates. Once that is done, then you can attack the federal bureaucracy.
But you cannot get good people to run for office because it is nothing but a massive slimey environment that you would not want to put your family through, witness the Palins.
So we middle class taxpayers are all f*cked, which can lead to #3. And violent revolution does not work in the long run very often.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/28/2008 15:16
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#5
Actually, #3 is sort of the conventional Pakistani approach. We don't need that.
We need term limits. Two terms max in the Senate (12 years max) would clear it for some useful folks to serve. There should be no way to be a career politician at the federal level.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/28/2008 17:45
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#9
Problem is, how do you convince sitting members to essentially vote away their own cushy jobs?
There is one way to make it happen Constitutionally. It still is the United States of America. Consequently if the smaller states call for a Constitutional Convention to avoid the utterly corrupt big ones, you can convene a body to write amendments which would then be sent back to the states for ratification. That way the few large states, beyond redemption, can not inhibit change through their numbers in the House of Representatives. Thus the political machines of IL, MA, NY, CA, NJ, and the like can not stop such a movement to remove their pawns from the game. The mechanism exists, just lacks the will.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
by Joseph Kinney
Pakistani forces claim to have killed 30 al Qaeda and Taliban loyalists in a strategically important tribal region on the Afghan border. 
British police arrested three men on Saturday in connection with a fire at the offices of the publisher of a blasphemous book. The men, aged 22, 30 and 40, were arrested in north London under anti-terrorism legislation after the fire on Saturday morning at Gibson Square's offices. Police were also searching four addresses in east London. Britain's domestic Press Association news agency said some residents, whom it did not identify, reported that the incident may have involved a petrol bomb being pushed through the firm's letterbox. Gibson Square is responsible for the publication of 'The Jewel of Medina' by American author Sherry Jones. Random House announced last month it had cancelled publication of the book in the United States because of fears of violence. 'The Jewel of Medina' was re-released in Serbia earlier this month after being withdrawn in August under pressure from Islamic leaders. Gibson Square could not be immediately contacted for comment on Saturday's fire and subsequent arrests. The firm is known for having published other controversial books such as 'Blowing Up Russia' by former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko.
Selling continues freely despite 'stringent' law
A car carrying more than 400 pounds of explosives blew up in Syria's capital on Saturday, killing 17 people in at least the third deadly attack this year in the tightly policed Arab country. 
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- About 100 Buddhist monks in a western Myanmar city staged a peaceful protest march Saturday to mark the anniversary of last year's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi police fatally shot a Kurdish politician in one of Iraq's most volatile provinces Saturday, a killing that underlines the growing tensions between Kurds and Arabs in parts of the north. Riya Qahtan, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, was killed Saturday morning in Jalula, a small town 80 miles northeast of Baghdad in the ethnically mixed province of Diyala, said Jabar Yawer, a spokesman for the Kurdish military, or peshmerga. Jalula has a mostly Sunni Arab population with a substantial Kurdish minority.
Unidentified helicopters have been tracking the Faina, a Ukrainian military supply vessel hijacked by Somali pirates on Thursday. 
A small bomb exploded in a crowded hardware and electronics market in the southern part of the Indian capital Saturday, killing one person and wounding at least 18 others. 
Crude-oil futures dropped Friday on concerns that a U.S. bailout of financial firms wouldn't be enough to reverse declining oil demand. Light, sweet crude for November delivery settled $1.13, or 1%, lower at $106.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
