#2
7. I. Lewis Scooter Libby: Libby, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000 for lying and obstructing the Valerie Plame CIA leak investigation.
Except the gentleman in question was a staffer, not a politician... and it was a gotcha, not corruption. Perhaps that's why Mr. Jefferson got bumped, mhw.
apparently the list is based on Judicial Watch's agenda (although I can't figure out what that agenda is - unless its just an ego driven exercise based on the ease of the target)
Hat tip puppy-blender
Lately it has been said that the Arabs are in a panic over the growing power of Iran. We are told that Arab rulers so fear the rise of Iran that this fear has eclipsed all othersits the sum of all fears. And its making a new Middle East
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Every few years, a prophet arises to proclaim a new Middle East, including Israel. ... A few months ago, we were told that the Iranian threat would turn the Middle East into a zone of political and military allianceincluding Israel.
This latest new Middle East has had the shortest life of them all. Apparently, new Middle Easts just arent what they used to be.
Pentagon officials are increasingly worried that China's military is advancing its clandestine anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons program by building a submarine-launched direct-ascent missile system.
New information indicates the secret ASAT program, which Chinese leaders refused to discuss in recent meetings with visiting U.S. military leaders, will involve a space-capable ASAT warhead for the new JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missile. The new missile is being readied for China's new ballistic missile submarine, called the Jin-class, or Type 094. The ASAT submarine will provide the ultimate in stealth weapons and could cripple U.S. satellites.
The reports about submarine ASAT basing followed comments by Gen. James E. Cartwright, the former U.S. Strategic Command commander and current vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told Congress last year the U.S. military is prepared to use conventional missile strikes on land-based Chinese ASAT launchers if Beijing began shooting down U.S.
satellites.
China successfully tested a direct-ascent ASAT missile from a mobile ground-based launcher a year ago, sending thousands of pieces of debris from a destroyed weather satellite into low Earth orbit and threatening U.S. satellites and others.
The new information bolsters theoretical writings by Chinese military officials, which were disclosed in a report to Congress last year by Michael Pillsbury, a former Reagan administration defense official and specialist on China. Mr. Pillsbury stated in his report, "An Assessment of China's Anti-Satellite and Space Warfare Programs," that China's sea-based and submarine-based ASAT were mentioned in 2004 by Liu Huanyu of the Dalian Naval Academy.
"Nuclear submarines are not only well concealed but can sail for a long period of time," Mr. Liu said. "By deploying just a few anti-satellite nuclear submarines in the ocean, one can seriously threaten the entire military space system of the enemy."
Surface ships also can be built for "anti-satellite operations," he stated.
Mr. Pillsbury's report was produced for the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
#1
I thought we shadowed all enemy boomers when they left port? Or was that just some novel I read? The thing starts launching missiles, it gets sunk immediately.
#4
China only has a couple of boomers IIRC. They might be readying this for use if war goes hot, since the boomers will be sunk quickly since they are most likely shadowed. Now if the Chinese figure out how to launch them underwater quickly or through the torpedo tubes and still take out a satellite...
#6
I seriously doubt they are shadowed by one of our patrols. More likely SURTASS monitoring.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/22/2008 15:24 Comments ||
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#7
See FREEREPUBLIC this AM > AIRFORCETIMES [US] > A HYPOTHETICAL ATTACK AGZ THE US OUTLINED BY CHINA -ENTERING THE "DRAGON'S LAIR".
FR Poster > argues that iff China were smart, they'd get NORTH KOREA to get into a mil conflict wid the US where the NOKORS will fire and detonate a high-atmosphere EMP weapon to damage US elex-energy and SPAWAR grids-networks. CHINA WILL THEN ANALYZE THE US RESPONSE TO NK AND PERHAPS USE ANY PERCEIVED WEAKNESS AS CAUSE TO ATTACK TAIWAN???
OTOH, WFORUM Poster > argues NOP WAY IN HELL THAT CHINA WILL STOP ONLY AT TAIWAN - US AIR AND NAVAL BASES THROUGHOUT THE PACIFIC AND EVEN US WEST COAST MUST ALSO BE ATTACKED vv CHICOM FIRST- STRIKE. Others - NORAM-CONUS must itself be invaded.
DRUDGEREPORT > PUTIN LAUNCHES[Testfires] LR MISSLES INTO THE ATLANTIC. The BAY OF BISCAY near FRANCE-SPAIN, as part of Russ NAVEX + AIREX.
#8
Any country using a boomer for something like this deserves to lose said boomer. You simply do NOT use a boomer in an ASAT role or even tactical ballistic missile role unless you have literal command of the seas surrounding it. Theres nothing to be gained from a sub launched ASAT in this particular case versus a normal ground launch, in fact you're risking a primary strategic asset needlessly.
#9
IIUC, the Chinese think they could launch a sufficiently massive blow to our satellite infrastructure that it would cripple our overall capability instantaneously.
#10
I just don't see war between the US and China. I see war between Taiwan and China that would start as a trade war and blockade and non-nuclear missiles and end with Taiwan giving in before the US gets involved. This would happen after the Olympics and only if the oil prices remain high and the Chinese need to deflect their peoples attention.
The other option in that scenario is Tianamen 2. The people just get sick of the communist party and stand up. They are either repressed or the communist party reorganizes and the older generation steps aside so the younger can pretend there is something different.
#11
WAFF.com + MEMRI > as based on the MEMRI article from Iranian website TABANAK, IRAN China]MAY USE SYRIA + LOCAL TERROR ORGS [North Korea]AS PROXY TO LAUNCH ATTACKS AGZ ISRAEL [USA][China-Taiwan] in the wake of any initial Israel missle attack agz Iran.
I intend to write a text called Ten Reasons to Get Rid of the European Union This text will be written with me as editor and contributor, but not necessarily sole writer. I will post some ideas here which can be expanded upon by blog readers. I will then post a second, more elaborate draft, make some changes to that, and then post the final version. It is my intention that this text should be translated into major European languages and be republished or reprinted in various EU countries. If you post comments here, you thus give your permission to allow your writings to be incorporated into this text and republished elsewhere.
The proponents of the European Union claim that it is a peace project. But the EU is not about peace, it is about war: A demographic and cultural war waged against an entire continent, from the Black Sea to the North Sea, in order to destroy European nation states and build an empire run by self-appointed and unaccountable bureaucrats. This is supported by national politicians in order to enhance their personal power, by creating a larger political entity than their individual nation states and by ridding themselves of the constraints of a democratic society. The EU thus corrupts national political elites into betraying the people they are supposed to serve and protect.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Oh and number 11. When the crap hits the fan again in Europe and if the Americans do come back to clean up the mess a third time, there will already be a management structure for the American Proconsuls to operate the place afterwards.
#2
A dirty little secret is that we won't go back. When a family has 3 or 4 sons, they can lose one and go on with the memory. When they have only one or two, the loss is too great. Americans (and Chinese) have too few sons and will not sacrifice them in the numbers necessary to reconquer the continent again. But we might be persuaded to find out if there's enough sand in Europe to glass it.
#3
Nimble, that's not really a secret, at least not in America.
I imagine when the tipping point reaches the "good" Europeans will flow out to North America in large numbers and a few years later Eurabia will be born by default. Either that or lots of riots are brutally repressed and immigration ended and Mosques destroyed.
#4
I suspect that Europe will devolve into what it was for hundreds of years: individual states with mercenary armies.
This is an evolution from where they are now. To start with, there can be no EU military, because no one will pay for it, unless they control it, and there are large factions that don't want one at all.
National armies, however, are also failing, because they are too expensive to maintain along with excessive social programs. This leaves corporate and private armies such as Blackwater, and the French foreign legion to carry out national external policies.
A great secret of Europe is that these mercenary armies have never really disappeared, just moved offshore. Copenhagen is notorious as a place to secure men, equipment, and skill for mercenary operations. The leaders and NCOs were European, but most of their soldiers were African and Asian.
Mercenary armies are very cost effective, and can give individual European countries the muscle to have a foreign policy outside of Europe. I suspect that they will begin on a small scale, doing things like anti-piracy operations, then just keep growing.
Whatcha mean "when" the tipping point has been reached? That point has already been reached: look at the emigraton figures from each and every Western European country? The numbers will boggle your mind. It's astonishing. We're there already.
I'm not convinced we (American blood) won't be back - again - to try to save Europe from itself. There is alot of history we draw upon in Europe...texts...manuscripts..architecture..All of which is worth preserving though it won't be the reason we go back to Europe.
If/when we go back it will be to take the nukes away from the muzzies. Put another way...to prevent the muzzies from having the nukes.
My grandsons will be the ones to return to Europe - again. We (the USA/OZ - given present trends not so much Canada) won't allow Europe to fall to islam without a fight. The question shouild be: is Europe worth the blood of more American sons. I think the answer is yes...it is.
Does Europe deserve the spilt blood of American youth? No. But that has never stopped us before.
The Defenses Must Hold.
We'll be back again. Not in our lifetime. But we'll be back soon enough. Think in terms of a Catholic Polish King named Sobieski in 1638. He answered the call and crushed the muslim onslaught. History repeats itself.
#6
Do not mistake hte point of no return with the tipping point. I'm not sure either has been reached but when/if a tipping point happens it will happen quickly.
YOu can look at all the demographic numbers in the world and that doesn't change the fact that a well armed majority could slaughter and expel people if pushed to far. The Europeans have a history of this and the longer they wait the more likely the response, if there is one, will be brutal.
I wrote not long ago about Bill as the Clinton Albatross, but now it is more apt to compare him to an attack dog unleashed. His (not her) victory speech in Nevada was quite extraordinary: He went on and on, while she stood next to him, mute. He gloated over her comeback, took digs at the other candidates, referenced himself of course, and was reluctant to give up his iron grip on the microphone.
Her expression was that of a classic Dont dare ask me to muzzle that Doberman! frozen bystander. If she cant control him, how could she control the country or is that a fair comparison, given that his pathologies are far greater than those of our collective nation? It defies the laws of physics for such a narcissist to recede into the shadows, or yield to his wife, or play a private role, quietly calling in political debts. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
01/22/2008 12:27 ||
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#2
I am just waiting for Obama to turn to Hidebeast and say "why don't you curb you husband before I have to send my wife after him to keep his fairy tales in check?"
I predict the phrase "Fairy Tales" will be used as a soundbite again sometime soon, and it has the potential to turn into this years "Don't taz me bro"
#2
The senior management of the parties must have sucked up all the same old executives from Detroit. They've spent too much time worrying about maintaining their holdings that they've forgotten they're suppose to offer the public what the public wants not what 'management' wants to give them. And the local party captains are no better than the franchise dealers hawking their wares. The same old stuff with new tint and flaring and no substance. If there is ever a 70s style oil crisis in politics in which the public gets to know an alternative product that is not only economical but also has integrity, somebody's party is doomed.
#4
An excellent summary of Barry's shenanigans and his pro-Muslim leanings. This black power church he attends claims to be Christain oriented, but if affiliated/associated with Farrakhan, it's Muzz light. Just camo Muzz. His close ties to the Syrian Rezko needs to be brought out. Hill mentioned it last night, but not in the correct way. I've heard Rove expound on this lately and I can tell that not only is he digging, he already is down into the hole several feet. This surely will be provided to the Pub candidate (for a small tip, no doubt).
#5
Why does it seem that with an increasingly out of touch ruling elite and constant propaganda against good old American values which made this country great that we are sliding more and more towards a CWII as more and more average Americans view's are not being represented?
#1
Buying into universities, as pointed out, has been ongoing for decades. And, the sickening support they get from these limp wristed academics makes you puke. looh at Britain. They also encouraged this. Now their universities and breeding grounds for radicalization in their midst. They just now are taking some action to staunch this. Now the Arabs are after finance and infrastructure. Let them dump cash in , then we snatch it, just like they did to the oil wells, their only ongoing source of influence.
#2
The short and long term effect of the infusion of Soddy $$$ into the university system is far worse than anything you can imagine. When is the last time you read anything critical of islam coming from academia - academia suported by Soddy $$$? You can't can you? That's my point.
By Randa Abu Naeem
To understand the reasons behind the rapid deterioration of the Palestinian Left, especially following Hamas June 2007 take-over of the Gaza Strip, one needs to scrutinize the verbalized positions of its leaders. Interviews and media statements made by Abdul Rahim Malouh, Deputy Secretary General of the PFLP, following his release from Israeli prisons, indicates that the PFLP has chosen to support the right-wing within Fatah. Amazingly, this is also the position of the DFLP and the Peoples Party, in spite of the pro-American agenda spouted and supported by Mahmoud Abbas and his cabal within Fatah.
The U-turn taken by the Palestinian Left should not come as a surprise since it has historically expressed an undemocratic world-view, both in general and in relation to its Palestinian agenda in particular. This lack of democracy is, of course, the outcome of its Stalinist ideological orientation. As a result of this dominant orientation, both the Peoples Party (which has recognized Israel since its inception) and the DFLP (which made the proposal that led to the interim solution later accepted by the PLO), could not accept the results of the January 2006 Palestinian elections. These elections, in fact, are the only non ethno-religious elections in the entire Middle East to date. Contrary to popular Western myth, these elections once again proved that Israel is NOT the only democracy in the region. Israel on the other hand, is a democracy for Jews only, exactly like South Africas Apartheid democracy was for Whites only. Instead of building on this unprecedented achievement for peoples power in the Arab World, the Palestinian secular forces chose to focus instead on creating convoluted justifications for their own failure to secure convincing electoral gains. They went on to turn a blind eye to the open secret of General Keith Daytons widely circulated plan to orchestrate a coup de tat using the PA security forces against the Hamas government - in effect colluding in a plan to subvert the democratic choice of the people.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
[T]he January 2006 Palestinian elections... in fact, are the only non ethno-religious elections in the entire Middle East to date. Contrary to popular Western myth, these elections once again proved that Israel is NOT the only democracy in the region.
That a mafia of religious sociopaths were the ones elected is besides the point...
#4
I hear there is a position waiting for her in London's city government.
Posted by: ed ||
01/22/2008 8:07 Comments ||
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#5
He talks about the death of the Stalinist left like it's a bad thing.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/22/2008 8:11 Comments ||
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#6
Israel on the other hand, is a democracy for Jews only, exactly like South Africas Apartheid democracy was for Whites only.
Excepting the part where Arabs, Druze, Muslims, Christians and pretty much anybody else gay or straight, ultra orthodox or secular can vote and form political parties.
#1
The US should go flexifuel and allow the third world to generate our methanol/ethanol and cut Iranian/Russian oil money at the knees. It would also help the Chinese so we can tear a rift in their axis.
#3
Putin has been pulling the puppet strings behind the curtain all along. I agree, let the A-rabs go back to camel love. It's the only thing they do well.
#4
Excalibur, the beauty is I understand the Saudi's have wired up their own oil fields to prevent their being taken. If that is true all we have to do is figure out the trigger mechanism and watch.
Over in the Corner, Kathryn [Lopez] looked at poll numbers for the number of Americans who were okay with an African-American and woman president. The African-American numbers are up, but Americans aren't more sure that the country is ready for a woman president; among African-American women, the number actually dropped from 2006.
Kathryn wonders about the pop culture effect (Geena Davis, etc.).
Let me throw out another example: Since 2006, we saw a second African-American President rise to the occasion to deal with a crisis on 24. (Although in the world of 24, it appears pretty much guaranteed that each Palmer presidency will include at least one nuclear bomb going off on American soil, and at least one attempted coup by the Vice President. In the same day.) We were supposed to see a woman president played by Cherry Jones this year, but the episodes of this season that are completed are on hold until the writer's strike ends (the creators of 24 don't want to show only nine hours of a full day)... and may not be seen for a long, long time.
A bad bit of luck for the Hillary campaign. Right about now, we were supposed to be watching Jack Bauer get instructions from a (presumably) tough, in-command woman in the Oval Office...
Posted by: Mike ||
01/22/2008 13:19 ||
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#1
A woman President will happen when a woman who is qualified runs for election. I'd vote for a Thatcher-type.
A black President would already be a fact if Powell had run.
The problem is the average woman/black candidate is so wrapped up in identity politics and the far left that goes with it that they generally become unelectable. It has little to do with their sex or color.
#4
Jack Bauer is doing 48 days in county lock up for DUI.
It's all undercover. He's insinuating himself with the radical imams. Double agent kinda stuff. Sadly, he'll give himself away because the MAN likes his ribs and he eats with both hands.
I dont look forward to today. Plunging markets, trading brakes, B roll footage of traders shouting on the floor of the Stock Exchange, top-of-the-hour radio news with the newsreaders using their Important Concern inflection because God forbid the story should speak for itself. Then tomorrow there will be an editorial cartoon that has someone selling apples. Panic. Stupid, useless snowballing hysteria. Im not worried about the economy at this point; Im worried what people will do save it. Rebates! Oh, thats grand. Nothing restores fundamental consumer confidence like shoving money in their hands and yelling SPEND IT! SPEND IT NOW! ON ANYTHING! THROW PILLOWS! STEEPLY DISCOUNTED HD-DVD PLAYERS! BLOWN-GLASS GEEGAWS! TRAILER HITCHES! BUCKETS OF PICKLES! IT DOESNT MATTER! Or you could tax everyone more so they feel poorer, so they spend less, then wonder why retail sales are down, commercial property is soft, and business tax receipts have cratered.
Just leave it all alone, please. Its like a cold. You can put it off and cover it up but youre going to have three miserable shuddering days of congestion and hacking no matter what you do. Unless you take zinc, of course.
Thats it! Spray the markets with zinc!
Im not an economist, but Ive noted something interesting. Since we decided that ethanol would be the cure to our addiction to oil, we managed to bump up the cost of corn, encourage a shift to corn production, and raise the price of foodstuffs. Which fueled inflation fears. Now that we have increased inflation, we have a fear of a recession, which drives the price of oil down, since demand is expected to slump. The price of gas has gone down a quarter in the last ten days, and its idling in the low $2.8x range. As others have noted, the cure for $100 barrel oil is $100 barrel oil. It all works out. Theres a boom and then theres a bust. Having lived through a few, its annoying to hear the same fargin end-of-the-world hairshirt orations, especially from those who have spent their entire lives walking around with a bucket of black paint and a brush looking for good news to deface.
While looking through some old papers I was reading about the recession fears of 1948. There were ads in the paper telling people not to turn the thermostat up in January because there wasnt enough heating oil. There was also a steel crisis, which worried analysts. Imagine anyone worrying about a steel crisis today. In any case, The Republic struggled through and came out the other side. Now? Were not even in a recession, but youd think the morning sun was about to be blotted out by the rain of money managers hurling themselves out windows. Of course the news is bad. The news is always bad. Even the good news is bad, eventually. If they cured cancer tomorrow it would take a day before analysts worried about the impact on Medicare, what with people living so damned long and all.
I think markets are inevitably rational, but its odd how the eventual rational judgments seem comprised of a million individual irrational freakouts.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/22/2008 06:33 ||
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#1
While looking through some old papers I was reading about the recession fears of 1948.
Cause you know fear and loathing sell. The art of 'journalism' is so pathetic that it can not sell good news. That takes real work and skill. So the dead tree industry and the entertainment broadcast industry keep the advertising subsidies flowing in by scaring people. We've been through how many recessions since then? Look at the holdings and life expectancy of the average citizen in 1948 and today. Who's better off?
Look life is chaos with some control. With a reasonable degree of control but with a marked degree of chaos you get progress. You understand adaptation to environment. The more successful the adaptation, the more there is of it. Things improve over the long run, though some pay the price in the short term as the system adapts, improvises, and overcomes shifts in the economy and society. There is a point when in trying to control the vagaries of life you place too many controls in place to dampen the chaos, you introduce entropy. You undermine the adaptation process trying to preserve the past, a statis, a status quo. That in turn creates stagnation and eventual decay destroying the entire environment for the vast majority of people. The key is to be able to ride the chaos without choking it.
#2
I am avoiding the news today, and even felt guilty clicking on this link. Fortunately it was the the sound of good old Dr Lileks snapping latex glove of reality, convincing me it is "more better" to bend over than to not.
I will just bite my fist, and repeat the words "It will be OK" in the voice of Ben Stein until this passes.
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.
Hello from Fjordman.
