July 2009 archive

Nikai Thursday

So let’s get this straight.  Somali pirates capture an American civilian ship captain, and Obama sends in the Navy Seals to kill the kidnappers.   Obama’s the Big Man for this.

Iran has a near-revolution, and Obama vehemently supports the rioters, talking a big game about human rights, and Democracy, and all that stuff …  

But Israel captures one of our American citizens, kidnaps her right off a boat which is carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, something Obama recommended we do, and he says not a damn word.

Not only is this woman an American citizen, she’s a former House member and was a Presidential Candidate.  Furthermore, another person kidnapped off this boat, by Israel, was Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire.

When it comes to Israel, Obama is nothing but a big pussy.

Why is that?  

Adapted from original post at Firedoglake

Sometimes people can be too smart for their own good.

According to recent news stories (see Spencer Ackerman’s article in the Washington Independent), the Obama administration task force on interrogations is likely to recommend “small, mixed-agency teams for interviewing the most important terrorist targets.” Moreover, according to former Deputy Attorney General  and Intelligence Science Board member Philip Heymann:

… interrogators from across the military, CIA, and FBI, would be charged with creating a “syllabus” of best interrogation practices that fall within the boundaries of the U.S. Army Field Manual on Interrogations, which complies with the Geneva Conventions.

moar funny pictures

As always, “Pony Party is an Open Thread.  Please do not rec the party.*

& please feel free to post your own pics, or recaption any of my lols, or post vids or whatever in the comments.

Original article, by Steve Kelly,UNITE London Construction Branch member, via Socialist Appeal (UK):

On Monday 29th June the workers at Lindsey agreed to return to work with heads held high.It was a magnificent result and all those involved deserve a great round of applause. The dispute began when 51 scaffolders were sacked at Lindsey and refused employment with another contractor on the site. They were regarded as troublemakers by management.The rest of the workers immediately downed tools in support of them.

From The Washington Post:

Thousands of U.S. Marines descended upon the volatile Helmand River valley in helicopters and armored convoys early Thursday morning, mounting an operation that represents the first large-scale test of the U.S. military’s new counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan.

The strategy is different this time around:

Once Marine units arrive in their designated towns and villages, they have been instructed to build and live in small outposts among the local population. The brigade’s commander, Brig. Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson, said his Marines will focus their efforts on protecting civilians from the Taliban, and on restoring Afghan government services, instead of a series of hunt-and-kill missions against the insurgents.

“We’re doing this very differently,” Nicholson said to his senior officers a few hours before the mission began. “We’re going to be with the people. We’re not going to drive to work. We’re going to walk to work.”

I hope they do a better job “protecting civilians” than we’ve done with our drone planes.

A Woman Injured Monday In An Anti-Coup Demonstration

The Thursday confrontation between deposed Honduran president Manual Zelaya and the Roberto Micheletti and his Honduran military coup has been delayed until Saturday.

CNN reports:

Ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya said Wednesday he will not return to his home country until at least Saturday, after a three-day international deadline to reinstate him.

Zelaya had said earlier he would return to Honduras on Thursday. Provisional Honduran President Roberto Micheletti said Tuesday that Zelaya would be arrested on multiple charges if he returns.

The Organization of American States passed a resolution early Wednesday saying that Zelaya should be returned to power within 72 hours. The United Nations unanimously passed a similar resolution Tuesday afternoon.

The refusal to reinstate Zelaya, according to the OAS, will cause it to suspend Honduras’s OAS membership.  Many OAS members have already withdrawn their ambassadors and cut off relations with the Micheletti coup government. The US has had nice words to support democracy, but has taken little if any action to restore Zelaya.

Unfortunately, and despite virtually universal condemnation, Micheletti continues to talk tough.  In an interview with AP he continued his bravado and his defiance:

A defiant Roberto Micheletti said in an interview with The Associated Press late Tuesday that “no one can make me resign,” defying the United Nations, the OAS, the Obama administration and other leaders that have condemned the military coup that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya….snip

[The OAS’s three day] period for negotiation prompted Zelaya to announce he was putting off his plans to return home on Thursday until the weekend.

Micheletti vowed Zelaya would be arrested if he returns, even though the presidents of Argentina and Ecuador have signed on to accompany him along with the heads of the Organization of American States and the U.N. General Assembly.

Zelaya “has already committed crimes against the constitution and the law,” said Micheletti, a member of Zelaya’s Liberal Party who was named interim leader by Congress following the coup. “He can no longer return to the presidency of the republic unless a president from another Latin American country comes and imposes him using guns.”

1. The LA Times brings news of an amazing survival story of a 14-year-old girl of the Yemeni plane crash: ‘Daddy, I don’t know what happened‘. Bahia Bakari is the lone survivor of the 153 people aboard Flight 626. When the jet crashed into the Indian Ocean, she was “was thrown from the plane and into the waves, where she heard voices but saw no one in the darkness”.

   “She is a very, very shy girl. I never thought she would survive like that,” Kassim Bakari said of his daughter. “I can’t say that it’s a miracle. I can say that it is God’s will… When I had her on the phone, I asked her what happened and she said, ‘Daddy, I don’t know what happened, but the plane fell into the water and I found myself in the water . . . surrounded by darkness. I could not see anyone’.”

   The NY Times adds Bahia clung to wreckage for more than 13 hours before she was rescued. ‘Officials said that the search for survivors continued in the deep waters around the crash site, about 10 miles off the coast of the island of Grand Comore, but they said that heavy winds and rough seas diminished the chances of finding anyone else alive.”

Four at Four continues with former top CIA official in Algeria charged with sexual assult, ExxonMobil funding climate change deniers, and the EPA releases list of 44 toxic coal ash sites.