March 2008 archive

Mar 29 2008

Weekend News Digest

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 ‘Standing up’ Iraq army looks open-ended

By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent

47 minutes ago

Iraq’s new army is “developing steadily,” with “strong Iraqi leaders out front,” the chief U.S. trainer assured the American people. That was three-plus years ago, the U.S. Army general was David H. Petraeus, and some of those Iraqi officials at the time were busy embezzling more than $1 billion allotted for the new army’s weapons, according to investigators.

The 2004-05 Defense Ministry scandal was just one in an unending series of setbacks in the five-year struggle to “stand up” an Iraqi military and allow hard-pressed U.S. forces to “stand down” from Iraq.

The latest discouraging episode was unfolding this weekend in bloody Basra, the southern city where Iraqi government forces – in their toughest test yet – were still struggling to gain the upper hand in a five-day-old battle with Shiite Muslim militias.

Year by year, the goal of deploying a capable, freestanding Iraqi army has seemed always to slip further into the future. In the latest shift, with Petraeus now U.S. commander in Iraq, the Pentagon’s new quarterly status report quietly drops any prediction of when homegrown units will take over security responsibility nationwide, after last year’s reports had forecast a transition in 2008.

Mar 29 2008

Globalization: Argentinian Farmers Strike, Food Prices Increase

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

Photobucket

Argentinian Farmers Protest

Argentinian farmers, whose strike for more than two weeks has crippled the country, have agreed temporarily to break off their strike, to negotiate with the government.  Details via the BBC:

 Farmers in Argentina have suspended a crippling strike called in protest at rises in export taxes on farm products.

A farmers’ spokesman said the 16-day protest – which included roadblocks and caused food shortages – had been halted to allow talks with the government.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner had refused to negotiate with the until the action was stopped.

She says the taxes will redistribute wealth, but farmers say they and their communities will be hit hard.

Does any of this matter to the US, and if it does, where is the reportage about this strike in the traditional media?

Join me in BA.

Mar 29 2008

“a whole nation called Iraq, now it’s wiped out.”

One of my worst sins in the Blogosphere is not reading Greenwald everyday. Today I went over to his place to atone…and found this. What can and cannot be spoken on television

Turkana mentioned the other day that we don’t hear from people inside Iraq. In fact we hear very little from inside Iraq. Which is pretty amazing when you stop to think about it. It’s not like we don’t have the technology…and now that the surge is working (hahahahahahaha-sob) reporters should be able to travel freely and report on conditions there and the mood of the people…and maybe even the people who are sort of miffed that their country has been destroyed for no reason, right?

Here is the clip on his page, please watch and read…and Greenwald has posted more of the transcript here.

Mar 29 2008

And dem shout out: “Barack..Obama……..”

Cocoa Tea and me, we say, “One love, y’all.”

Mar 29 2008

Letter from Venezuela’s Communications Minister to the Washington Post w/poll

Original letter by Minister of Communication and Information for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Andrés Izarra via Commondreams.org :

Jackson Diehl

Deputy Editor, Editorial Page

The Washington Post

1150 15th Street NW

Washington, DC 20071

March 25, 2008

Dear Mr. Diehl,

Mar 29 2008

Pony Party: Morning Groove

While my Memphis Tigers were winning, C and I were spending her gift certificate at a pricey downtown restaurant. We ate well, sucked back a bottle of wine and then headed off to see Jill Scott do her thing.

Jill started the evening by saying,”Are you ready to step out of the box and move the parameters”?

Good question. Are you?

Oh, and I am sucking wind in the tournament pool…. My only solace right now is that nobody has been knocked out of my final four yet.

Please don’t rec pony party, especially this ultra, super lame one. Hang out, chit chat, and then go read some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

Mar 29 2008

This is the face of the war in Iraq

PhotobucketThe mind behind it will never be the same.

The Troubled Homecoming Of The Marlboro Marine


Only one face, of the tens of thousands, radically changed by their experiance in a War Of Choice, Choice by those who don’t fight them, not Absolutely The Last Resort! In Wars Of Choice most start questioning the Why? of their being ordered there, Survival becomes the ‘Nobel Cause’, theirs and those around them, and Survival comes with Deep Costs! Once having normal trained minds, absorbing more knowledge and experiances, the Nightmares of Death and Destruction take over, haughting many for the rest of their lives!

Mar 29 2008

Docudharma Times Saturday March 29



There is unrest in the forest,

There is trouble with the trees,

For the maples want more sunlight

And the oaks ignore their pleas.

Saturday’s Headlines: Endorsement of Obama Points Up Clinton’s Obstacles:  Treasury Wants to Reshape Regulation:  Politkovskaya’s killer identified by prosecutors: It’s war, Mugabe says, as opposition prepares for battle: Fear keeps South African exiles away: Castro opens new era by lifting mobile phones ban: No end in sight to Andean conflict:  US rapper Jerome White Junior aka Jero finds enka stardom in Japan: Plague of rats brings threat of famine to millions in Mizoram: 19 Tense Hours in Sadr City Alongside the Mahdi Army

American warplanes join Iraqi troops in taking the fight to Shia militia

· Sadr stronghold in capital comes under attack

· British army holds fire as battles intensify·

US aircraft attacked Shia militia in Basra for the first time in the current round of fighting as intense battles continued between supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr and tens of thousands of Iraqi forces in a crackdown personally supervised by Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.

British troops, based at the city’s airport, were kept away from the operation described by George Bush as “a defining moment in the history of Iraq”.

American fighter jets dropped bombs on a mortar team and a militia stronghold in Basra, said Major Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman. The number of casualties was unknown.

As protests spread across Iraq, US aircraft also attacked Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, killing at least five civilians, according to Iraqi police and hospitals.

Mar 29 2008

Docudharma Times Saturday March 29



There is unrest in the forest,

There is trouble with the trees,

For the maples want more sunlight

And the oaks ignore their pleas.

Saturday’s Headlines: Endorsement of Obama Points Up Clinton’s Obstacles:  Treasury Wants to Reshape Regulation:  Politkovskaya’s killer identified by prosecutors: It’s war, Mugabe says, as opposition prepares for battle: Fear keeps South African exiles away: Castro opens new era by lifting mobile phones ban: No end in sight to Andean conflict:  US rapper Jerome White Junior aka Jero finds enka stardom in Japan: Plague of rats brings threat of famine to millions in Mizoram: 19 Tense Hours in Sadr City Alongside the Mahdi Army

American warplanes join Iraqi troops in taking the fight to Shia militia

· Sadr stronghold in capital comes under attack

· British army holds fire as battles intensify·

US aircraft attacked Shia militia in Basra for the first time in the current round of fighting as intense battles continued between supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr and tens of thousands of Iraqi forces in a crackdown personally supervised by Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.

British troops, based at the city’s airport, were kept away from the operation described by George Bush as “a defining moment in the history of Iraq”.

American fighter jets dropped bombs on a mortar team and a militia stronghold in Basra, said Major Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman. The number of casualties was unknown.

As protests spread across Iraq, US aircraft also attacked Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, killing at least five civilians, according to Iraqi police and hospitals.

Mar 29 2008

Meet Barney Frank, the point man in Congress on the economy!

Crossposted from another fine community, SwordsCrossed



At the height of the housing bubble in 2005, Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank gave a boilerplate speech on the House floor in support of a meaningless resolution to honor National Home Ownership Month.  This speech, forgettable at the time, reveals much of what is wrong with our legislative process, and gives insight into the complacency that has found us at the precipice of the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Mar 29 2008

Random Japan

WHAT WAS ON THE TUBE (March 17-21)

The following are the lengths of time six “wide shows” on four channels in the Tokyo area devoted to certain topics. The programs cover everything from politics to celebrity gossip.

The listing is provided by Reservia Corp.



1. Rioters and authorities clash in China’s Sichuan province, as protests in support of demonstrations led by monks in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa spread to the neighboring area. Chinese authorities mobilize armed police to clamp down on the protesters. But it is difficult to grasp the entire picture of what is happening because of China’s control over the media. 6 hr, 26 min, 1 sec

2. After the opposition-controlled Upper House rejects a nominee for Bank of Japan governor because of his past in the Finance Ministry, the government offers up a new candidate–another ex-Finance Ministry bureaucrat. Not surprisingly, the BOJ’s top post becomes vacant for the first time in postwar history, and also at a time when global markets are in turmoil. 5hr, 49 min, 56 sec

3. The ruling coalition and the opposition camp continue their standstill over road-specific tax revenues. Minshuto insists that the current higher rates, which are to expire March 31, should be abolished. The step would allow the price of gasoline to be lower by 25 yen a liter. But the ruling coalition wants to extend the “temporary” rates for yet another 10 years. 3 hr, 26 min, 9 sec

Mar 29 2008

White House Seeks New Power to Keep Markets Stable

From The New York Times: White House to Seek New U.S. Power to Keep Markets Stable

The Bush administration will propose on Monday that Congress give the Federal Reserve broad authority to oversee financial market stability, in effect allowing it to send SWAT teams into any corner of the industry or any institution that might pose a risk to the overall system.

The proposal is part of a sweeping blueprint to overhaul the country’s hodge-podge of regulatory agencies, which many specialists say failed to recognize rampant excesses in mortgage lending until after they triggered what is now the worst financial calamity in decades.

I think this is precisely what Naomi Klein warned about in her book, The Shock Doctrine. I suspect the Bush administration is going to try to use the shock of the collapsing economy to quickly deregulate the entire economy to make it easier to loot.

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