March 6, 2009 archive

Let’s Look at the Numbers: Afghanistan edition

17000–that’s the main number folks have been talking about lately–the number of additional young men and women the US government is presently sending into harm’s way in Afghanistan.

$2,080,000,000–that’s one that caught my eye recently. It was in a NY Times article entitled “U.S. Plans Afghan Effort to Thwart Road Bombs.”

Actually you had to do a little math to come up with it. Thom Shanker reports that

the Pentagon is planning to buy 2,080 heavily armored vehicles that are more maneuverable than the 2,000 larger models in place. Each costs about $1 million. The more unwieldy version of the troop transport, known as a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle, or M-RAP, has trouble negotiating Afghanistan’s rough terrain.

2080 vehicles at a million per (before cost overruns, of course) is over 2 billion dollars. For armored trucks. Because the 2000 the brass already bought won’t work in Afghanistan. And that’s just one small line item in the tab that is being run up for the expanded and prolonged occupation it sure looks like that poor country has in store.

I know 2 billion can seem like chicken feed when we read how much is being shoveled into AIG’s trick or treat bag, but this is a damn wake-up call. As each day brings new signs that the depression we are spiraling into will be long and ugly, we should think very carefully about how smart it is to pump billions and billions into trying to dominate the country they call The Graveyard of Empires.

Crossposted at DailyKos.

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Tonight, we will be covering….

Wall Street: The Criminals on High.

Are right wing Militias on the rise?

Who’s in charge of CPAC, anyway (and are they encouraging the above?)

Afghanistan, clusterfuck approved by most Americans.

Then our very special guest will again be Dr. Assaf Oron to discuss his fury at Lieberman’s racist agenda in Israel.

Please join us, and call in!!!

Four at Four

  1. The LA Times reports the U.S. Unemployment soars to 8.1% in February according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “More than 650,000 people lost their jobs last month, pushing the unemployment rate up from 7.6% in January.” This is the highest joblesss rate since 1983.

    The Washington Post adds “An estimated 12.5 million Americans were unemployed in February, the data show, an increase of 851,000 since January. More than 4.4 million people have lost their jobs since the recession began in December 2007, U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said.”

    The NY Times reports the Continuing job losses may signal a broad economic shift.

    Most economists now assume that the American fortunes will not improve before near the end of the year, as the Obama administration’s $787 billion emergency spending program begins to wash through the economy…

    The acceleration has convinced some economists that, far from an ordinary downturn after which jobs will return, the contraction under way reflects a fundamental restructuring of the American economy. In crucial industries – particularly manufacturing, financial services and retail – many companies have opted to abandon whole areas of business.

    Summary: these jobs are not coming back. The U-6 Alternative measures of labor underutilization has February 2009 unemployment at 14.8 percent.

Four at Four continues with Poland’s strategy in Afghanistan, going after ‘small scale’ theft of Iraq emergency money, and the end of privatized tax collection.

The Supreme Court and Mr. Al-Marri, It Could Be Worse.

By now you probably know that the Supreme Court has dismissed the case of Mr. Al-Marri, which is a bad thing of course. Mr. Al-Marri was arrested on charges of credit card fraud by the FBI in December of 2001. He was in this country with his wife and five children to attend college in Peoria, IL. So far nothing really that out of the ordinary, but in June of 2003, 18 months later on the eve of a hearing to suppress illegally sized evidence in his criminal trail, he was declared an “enemy combatant” by the criminal President  Bush.

He was then taken not to Guantanamo Bay like most so-called enemy combatants, but to a military brig in South Carolina. There he sat for nearly six years without any further charges against him. He filed suit to in Al-Marri v. Spagone to under the theory that a legal US resident could not  be held indefinitely by the government without charges. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals found that based on the facts of this case, the President could indeed name anyone, citizen or not, as an “enemy combatant” and then hold him or her without charge for as long as the President felt.  

Obama’s ICC Move Does Not Go Unnoticed

Via Think Progress

The International Criminal Court (ICC) yesterday issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Today, the AP reports that, based on the legal principles the ICC used to arrest al-Bashir, former President George W. Bush could be next on the list:

  David Crane, an international law professor at Syracuse University, said the principle of law used to issue an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir could extend to former US President Bush over claims officials from his Administration may have engaged in torture by using coercive interrogation techniques on terror suspects.

   Crane is a former prosecutor of the Sierra Leone tribunal that indicted Liberian President Charles Taylor and put him on trial in The Hague.

   Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Programme at Human Rights Watch, said the al-Bashir ruling was likely to fuel discussion about investigations of possible crimes by Bush Administration officials.

More on the ICC

ICC Now by: RUKind

International Criminal Court – second of an unending series by: RUKind

Friday Constitutional 18 – Amendments 18,19 And 20

Happy Friday and welcome the 18th installment of Friday Constitutional! For those who are joining this program already in progress, this series takes a layman’s look at the United States Constitution. It is shameful for the Dog to admit, but prior to this series he had never read the entire document. Sure he knew his Bill of Rights and had the basic mechanics of the Federal Government down, but that is in no way the same thing as actually reading it and thinking about it.  Being a gregarious hound, the Dog decided to share his thoughts on the Constitution with anyone that might wonder by. If you are interested in the previous installments of this series, you can find them at the following links:  

August 31, 1969

Crossposted from Antemedius

(four months after their debut album was released)

March 6, 2009

(forty years later)

General Motors yesterday warned it would go bust within 30 days unless the US treasury swiftly gives it a further multibillion-dollar loan. The dramatic warning from America’s biggest car group came after its auditors, Deloitte & Touche, raised substantial doubts about its ability to continue as a “going concern”.

It coincided with an admission that GM paid Rick Wagoner, its chief executive, $15m last year – mainly in now-worthless stock options – despite losing almost $31bn. This year he will be paid only $1.

[snip]

The White House said it was “working round the clock” to produce “the most thoughtful approach possible to the situation”.

It’s getting tough out there.

August 31, 1969

(four months after their debut album was released)

March 6, 2009

(forty years later)

General Motors yesterday warned it would go bust within 30 days unless the US treasury swiftly gives it a further multibillion-dollar loan. The dramatic warning from America’s biggest car group came after its auditors, Deloitte & Touche, raised substantial doubts about its ability to continue as a “going concern”.

It coincided with an admission that GM paid Rick Wagoner, its chief executive, $15m last year – mainly in now-worthless stock options – despite losing almost $31bn. This year he will be paid only $1.

[snip]

The White House said it was “working round the clock” to produce “the most thoughtful approach possible to the situation”.

It’s getting tough out there.

Open Thread

 

Thread comes in like a lion.



Zenda and Isis at the Brookfield Zoo (h/t SFGate)

Food dehydration and storage instructional video

Ding Dong Skool for all you

Foxfire readin’, gun packin’, homebrewin’ and solar power hackin’

seemingly harmless suburban housewives erm, survivalists out there.

Dee Griffith and her flyin’ ants are smiling down from Heaven, I am sure.

*– explained below the cut.

By the way, readers on Dandelion Salad don’t like the Excalibur because it’s trays have teflon.

I am quite happy with my 5 tray Nesco, which has the fan on the bottom and uses plastic dishwasher safe trays.





More info on her youtube channel Dehydrate2store.

Major props once again to Lo Auer, the news wolverine behind Dandelion Salad.

Angelic Trumpets?

Do you hear any majestic music?  Have to be still, quiet and reflect inwards.

Tune out the daily din.

Docudharma Times Friday March 6

House Republican Leader John Boehner  

And His “Alien” Economy

Must Be From Mars




Friday’s Headlines:

It may be a decade before Dow’s back to 12,000, oracle says

Intelligence failures crippling fight against insurgents in Afghanistan, says report

South Korea tells North to withdraw airline threat

Judge’s stolen land taken back from him – by Mugabe’s wife

A million face starvation as Sudan shuts down

The Big Question: Who is Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and why is he on trial again?

Revealed: Franco’s desperate attempt to hide the truth about Guernica

Driver Shot Dead After Rampage in Jerusalem

US officer ‘stole Iraq aid funds’

Tourists weigh Mexico drug violence

Quiet Layoffs Sting Workers Without Notice



By STEVE LOHR

Published: March 5, 2009


With the economy weakening, chief executives want Wall Street to see them as tough cost-cutters who are not afraid to lay off workers. But plenty of job cuts are not trumpeted in news releases.

Big companies also routinely carry out scattered layoffs that are small enough to stay under the radar, contributing to an unemployment rate that keeps climbing, as Friday’s monthly jobs report is likely to show.

I.B.M. is one such company. It reported surprisingly strong quarterly profits in January, and in an e-mail message to employees, Samuel J. Palmisano, the chief executive, said that while other companies were cutting back, his would not. “Most importantly, we will invest in our people,” he wrote.

At the Heart of North Korea’s Troubles, an Intractable Hunger Crisis



By Blaine Harden

Washington Post Foreign Service

Friday, March 6, 2009; Page A01


SEOUL — Behind the long-range missile it is preparing to launch and the stockpile of plutonium it claims to have “weaponized,” North Korea has an embarrassing and insoluble weakness.

Under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, the country cannot feed its people. Perennially dependent on food aid, North Korea has become a truculent ward of the wealthy countries it threatens. It is the world’s first nuclear-armed, missile-wielding beggar — a particularly intricate challenge for the Obama administration as it begins to formulate a foreign policy.

The “eating problem,” as it is often called in North Korea, has eroded Kim’s authority, damaged a decade of improved relations between the two Koreas and stunted the bodies and minds of millions of North Koreans.

 

USA

Loudly and colorfully, opposing sides debate Proposition 8

Attorneys argue, demonstrators shout and entrepreneurs hawk as the debate over same-sex marriage fills the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza.

By Maria L. LaGanga

March 6, 2009


Reporting from San Francisco — God was in the eye of the beholder Thursday morning at the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza, where hundreds of spectators gathered to watch the California Supreme Court on a massive outdoor TV screen and wrangle over the sanctity of marriage.

The occasion: Attorneys from both sides of the gay-marriage debate were arguing the merits — or demerits — of Proposition 8, the November ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage in California. The dress code: dreadlocks, nose rings, rabbit costumes, clerical collars, wedding veils, hair colors not found in nature (and some that were), rainbow stripes, American flags, suits. The demeanor: loud.

“You’re bigger, God, much bigger than the small religious boxes that we put you in,” Bishop Yvette Flunder of San Francisco’s City of Refuge United Church of Christ declared at an al fresco, pre-hearing interfaith service. “We ask you for the freedom today . . . to have our relationships boldly without fear of reprisal.”

Across the broad, rain-damp plaza, Los Angeles contractor Ruben Israel held in his right hand a sign that declared “Homo-sex” a “threat to national security.” In his left hand was a bullhorn.

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