January 9, 2010 archive

Ya Mon, Yemen

Yemen.  Who wants to bet there is more to Yemen than meets the eye?  Come on, it’s easy money.  Bet me!  

Winner!  A cupie doll to those who bet. I can’t give you anything better because, after all, it was an easy bet.  

“The strategic significance of the region between Yemen and Somalia becomes the point of geopolitical interest. It is the site of Bab el-Mandab, one of what the US Government lists as seven strategic world oil shipping chokepoints. The US Government Energy Information Agency states that “closure of the Bab el-Mandab could keep tankers from the Persian Gulf from reaching the Suez Canal/Sumed pipeline complex, diverting them around the southern tip of Africa. The Strait of Bab el-Mandab is a chokepoint between the horn of Africa and the Middle East, and a strategic link between the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean.”

http://www.globalresearch.ca/i…

But that’s not all folks:

“In addition to its geopolitical position as a major global oil transit chokepoint, Yemen is reported to hold some of the world’s greatest untapped oil reserves. Yemen’s Masila Basin and Shabwa Basin are reported by international oil companies to contain “world class discoveries.”[10] France’s Total and several smaller international oil companies are engaged in developing Yemen’s oil production. Some fifteen years ago I was told in a private meeting with a well-informed Washington insider that Yemen contained “enough undeveloped oil to fill the oil demand of the entire world for the next fifty years.” Perhaps there is more to Washington’s recent Yemen concern than a rag-tag al Qaeda whose very existence as a global terror organization has been doubted by seasoned Islamic experts.”

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cabs/Wo…

Oh my, it is becoming all too predictable.  I think if I was an imperialist, I would be amazed that those Al-Qaeda fellers keep popping up in the most opportune places.  Well, maybe not, I suppose I would completely understand it, since I fucking would have engineered it!  

Somalia.  Black Hawk Down.  

“The infamous Somalia military operation of 1993, popularly depicted in the Philadelphia Inquirer series (and subsequent Hollywood film) “Blackhawk Down,” was not a humanitarian mission, but an undeclared UN/US war launched by the George H.W. Bush adminstration, and inherited by the Clinton presidency. The operation was spearheaded by Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Howe (who remained in charge of the UN operation after Clinton took office), and approved by Colin Powell, then head of the Joint Chiefs.”

Why Somalia, such a poor country.

“As laid bare in the January 1993 report by Mark Fineman of the Los Angeles Times, “The Oil Factor in Somalia,” US oil companies, including Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Phillips were positioned to exploit Somalia’s rich oil reserves during the reign of pro-US President Mohammed Siad Barre. These companies had secured billion-dollar concessions to explore and drill in large portions of the Somali countryside prior to the coup led by warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid that toppled Barre. The US Somalia envoy at the time was CIA operative Robert Oakley, a chief “counter-terrorism” officer during the George H.W. Bush presidency, and veteran of the Afghanistan and Iran-Contra operations of the 1980s. Conoco’s Mogadishu office housed the US embassy and military headquarters.”

http://www.globalresearch.ca/i…

Full Spectrum Dominance.  Class.  Class!!  CLASS!!!  

“Joint Vision 2020 addresses full-spectrum dominance across the range of conflicts from nuclear war to major theater wars to smaller-scale contingencies. It also addresses amorphous situations like peacekeeping and noncombat humanitarian relief. Key to U.S. dominance in any conflict will be what the chairman calls “decision superiority” — translating information superiority into better decisions arrived at and implemented faster than an enemy can react.”

http://www.defense.gov/news/ne…

Right now, I’m seeing Eddie Murphy impersonating Fred Rogers.  “Can you say, Military Industrial Complex?”  I don’t know, if I was Eddie Murphy, I’d like to think I would be very angry at the United States causing such death and destruction to those of my own color. Want proof?

Darfur.  Genocide.  Why?

“When Darfur does occasionally make the news — photographs of burned villages, charred corpses, malnourished children — it is presented without context. In truth, Darfur is part of a broader oil-driven crisis in northern Africa. An estimated 300 to 400 Darfurians are dying every day. Yet the message from our media is that we Americans are “helpless” to prevent this humanitarian tragedy, even as we gas up our SUVs with these people’s lives.”

Ah, we’re helpless alrighty.  But at least it was Bush.

“In short, Sudan embodies a collision between a failed state and a failed energy policy. Increasingly, ours is a planet whose human population is devoted to extracting what it can, regardless of the human and environmental cost. The Bush energy policy, crafted by oil companies, is predicated on a far different future from the one any sane person would want his or her children to inherit — a desolate world that few Americans, cocooned by the media’s silence, are willing to imagine.”

http://www.commondreams.org/vi…

Oh wait, maybe not.  Obama seems to be proceeding down the same path.  Courtesy of a mentally incompetent 23 year old Nigerian kid.  I demand that every black person in this country be interrogated to see if they are indeed affiliated with Al Qaeda or not.    

Random Japan

THEY DID A BAD, BAD THING

South Korean J-pop singer Shion was arrested in Yokohama after she admitted to snorting ketamine.

A 47-year-old Tokyo man whose meishi billed him as “supreme advisor” to a major Kyushu-based yakuza group was arrested for packing stimulants, weed and a weapon.

Don’t mess with the Mick! A pair of Chinese men were arrested in Tokyo after trying to get cash refunds for fake Disneyland tickets.

A couple in Kyoto forged a Toto BIG soccer lottery ticket in an attempt to claim a ¥450 million prize. When the duo got busted, the husband admitted to the ruse while his wife maintained that she really thought they had won.

A 27-year-old Fukuoka man who was arrested for pouring boiling water on his wife’s head and chest told investigators, “I didn’t think she would die.” She did.

Kanagawa police nabbed a couple of pervs for operating a cellphone-based website containing child pornography. The site was called the Prohibited js (joshi shogakusei, or primary school girls) Image Storehouse, and it got about 660,000 hits before it was shut down in March.

On Pots And Kettles, Or, Peter King: Tool Of Terrorism, Victim Of Irony

As a result of a recent event involving an aircraft and underpants Representative Peter King (R-Not From Iowa), the senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, has again come forth to bring his expertise on questions of international terrorism to the national debate.

King, a Congressman who represents a district that straddles New York’s Long Island (NY-3), previously served as the Comptroller of Nassau County and a member of Hempstead, New York’s Town Council, which wouldn’t seem to be the kind of résumé that would give you much credibility in this arena-but Mr. King is a special case.

You see, Mr. King knows a great deal about terrorism…from the inside…because for many years the personal cause that drove his life was to be an active and public supporter of a terrorist group.

And that’s why, today, we’ll be connecting the dots between Congressman King and the Irish Republican Army.

Funkalicious Friday

Never forget, never forgive

Nearly four and a half years ago this nation experienced the two worst disasters of this past decade: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans’ federal flood. Today many consider them old news, if not history, but they still are present in the lives of those who survived them.

Marcy Winograd Nails Waxman and Harman

Congressman Waxman wrote a vicious attack on Marcy Wingrad and in support of blue dog Jane Harman.  

Here is part of his disgusting letter attacking a progressive:

To me, the notion that a Member of Congress could hold these views is alarming. Ms. Winograd is far, far outside the bipartisan mainstream of views that has long insisted that US policy be based upon rock-solid support for our only democratic ally in the Middle East.

In Marcy Winograd’s foreign policy, Israel would cease to exist. In Marcy Winograd’s vision, Jews would be at the mercy of those who do not respect democracy or human rights. These are not trivial issues; they cannot be ignored or overlooked. Jane’s victory will represent a clear repudiation of these views.

http://news.firedoglake.com/20…

Here is Marcy’s response to Waxman:

VP Biden’s Mother, Jean, Has Died

Vice President Biden’s Mother, Jean, Dies at 92

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Jean Biden, who raised her son Vice President Joe Biden to believe in what he called ”America’s creed … everyone is your equal,” died Friday after falling seriously ill in recent days. She was 92.

In a statement, the vice president said she died in Wilmington surrounded by her family and loved ones. She had suffered a broken hip in a fall in March 2009.

”Together with my father, her husband of 61 years who passed away in 2002, we learned the dignity of hard work and that you are defined by your sense of honor,” he said in the statement. ”Her strength, which was immeasurable, will live on in all of us.”

Joe Biden Jr. was first elected to the Senate in 1972, shortly before his 30th birthday. His mother helped out by organizing coffee klatches — part of a family effort that also included Biden’s father, sister and brothers.

Blessed Be. May the Goddess guide her on her journey to the Summerlands. May her family and friends find Peace.

Blessed be

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