Watching it go by… 20 September 2009
Posted by marisacat in Afghanistan War, Divertissements, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Pakistan, WAR!.trackback
From a cat blog… and I see the subtitle for the blog is a quote from Wendell Berry:
“To be sane in a mad time is bad for the brain, worse for the heart.”
That makes sense.
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What a shock. Spies and counterinsurgency surge in Casablanca. Gambling too… and internet cafes (in Kabul, that is, along with spiraling rents). Don’t mind the roadside bombs.. just the current unpleasantness. We’re not to blame… No.
LAT:
Reporting from Washington – The CIA is deploying teams of spies, analysts and paramilitary operatives to Afghanistan, part of a broad intelligence “surge” that will make its station there among the largest in the agency’s history, U.S. officials say.
When complete, the CIA’s presence in the country is expected to rival the size of its massive stations in Iraq and Vietnam at the height of those wars. Precise numbers are classified, but one U.S. official said the agency already has nearly 700 employees in Afghanistan.
The influx parallels the U.S. military expansion and comes as the nation’s spy services are under pressure from Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal to improve intelligence on the Taliban and find ways to reverse a series of unsettling trends.
Among them are a twofold increase in the number of roadside bombs, a growing sophistication in the kinds of assaults aimed at coalition troops and evidence that a Taliban group has developed an assembly-line approach to grooming suicide bombers and supplying them to other insurgent organizations. snip
And more…
The intelligence expansion goes beyond the CIA to involve every major spy service, officials said, including the National Security Agency, which intercepts calls and e-mails, as well as the Defense Intelligence Agency, which tracks military threats.
And this…
“The Taliban is at its most capable level since 2001, when it was ejected from the country,” said a Defense Department official who has access to classified intelligence estimates. The official, and others, spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
A long time ago I read in Harper’s, when the war was less than 2 years old, we had only knocked the Taliban off radio broadcasting for a total of two months.
We went to war? For what?
I think only to kill and maim. Blood and glory. Tally ho. Til we fall flat and the Treasury is beyond empty.
Wtching Stephie. I am a little surprised, Ob is nervous. Odd.
What’s he talking about? (please- you watch it, so I don’t have to..)
mostly health…. but also race, Carter comment… and Afghanistan. Ths shows are on all at once here, So I watched Steph and will catch MTP on the rerun.. but I dipped into MTP just to check… and it seemed exactly the same.
Big surprise. The serial killer the cops here couldn’t catch for years was a police informant:
Yet it happens all the time. The cops show little interest in violent crime, ESPECIALLY when the victims are poor women.
exactly… just don’t rob a federally insured bank.. AND take the money across state lines. THAT does upset them.
Obama on Afghanistan:
So that’s the actual reason for this surge? And just how well did that work out?
McClatchy. Nobody should be too surprised… and I am pretty sure a lot of teachers are not surprised. He was cagey about merit pay and test scores in the primary AND in the GE. Just not in front of teacher groups (that I caught) …
GOOD LUCK! Clap!
And bridges for sale. yeah I so buy her concern for the children. More like payola in hand to stand with the Socialist Green Nazi.
they’re stuck in those schools because of HOW SCHOOLS ARE PAID FOR … and vouchers to hand them over to pederast priests only makes that worse.
exactly. The whole game is to bleed the public school system of money… and imo it goes back 50 years… when they started jacking the pay of the too often lousy admin and school hierarchy way up. Bleed bleed bleed. Of course they found a thousand ways to bleed the shcools over the years.
AND Mrs O is a product of a charter school in Chicago. That worked out so well.
Bizarre trend I’m seeing on this website, People of Walmart:
http://peopleofwalmart.com/?p=3270
etc.
I’ve never seen this sort of thing before. Is this some kind of new trend in the Heartland… gluing useless consumer detritus all over one’s vehicle as some form of self-expression? Weird, weird, weird. This country is a lot farther gone than I think we realize…
sorry NYCO… got it out of Spam File…
😳
we have an anti-abortion nut here who covers his car w/ placards and other assorted stuff.
You are what you buy.
I may have a post in moderation, methinks.
Useless.
Oh if only Sully were straight, he could be right up there in lights with Friedman.
Life is so cruel.
*****
(hmmm ABC Evening News has on Matt Taibbi of RS, I see… odd breakthru!)
HA! Well…. it is not as if EITHER he or GWBush had a truly fact checked run OR presidency.
via The Hill. Full text.
😆 …. 🙄
ANYTHING can happen! We live in exciting and impoverishing times!
The Page
Salud
Ummm, hello? They gave him (in your own words) a “strategic assessment”.
They so don’t want to make this Obama’s war.
Slap some triggers on it. Send Baucus over to analyze it for fifteen or twenty years and come up with a compromise.
I thought this was an interesting quote:
Then who is?
Don’t make me laugh too hard.
I saw that piece. We will just up the paramilitaries. They need mild headlines in The Homeland as the state of affairs and the poll numbers are not too hot. Or they ARE too hot. However one looks at it. Plus, you know, cheering crowds in Old and New Europa (free bratwurst and rock bands!)… but we are not growing the coalition of the willing. or whatever we called the dupes we pulled in to Iraq.
How’s everybody enjoying their War Serfdom today?
How’s everyone makin out with the Tribute-payin’ to Zion?
I wonder how my subsidized substitute in the killing effort is doing?
They really should have them provide a letter and a photograph with a thank you, no?
You, too, can sponsor a needy Mercenary. But more importantly, help subsidize the Mercenary’s masters. Afterall, teak and brass on fine private vessels need polishing for the Autumn day-sailing, yes?
From stolen wages…to wholesale commercial pillaging …to usury….to taxes and the plunder of public funds allegedly meant for the common good… Just draw breath in the U.S.. The Draft is so passe.
And the Zionists with their goy gardners , just laugh their ass off having sold yet another stupefied lot on the gated community lifestyle.
The bees are being busy:
The Page.
All this shit to BailOut Insurance Companies.
Those respected minders of Health, Pension, Life and Annuitiy benefits.
EPople will get it. Frankly, just like the left base is plowed under, that’s where a lot of the angst on the right of center is coming from…Plenty of small biz types – what’s left of them – intuitively know the ass-fucking is coming..Not particularly articiculate – neither they or my way of putting it. So..common ground! Post Partisanship!
I see Spiegel has popped up with two stories on Bagram prison. Geesh, where is the Luv for Ob.
LINK
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Human Rights Lawyer on Bagram Prison: ‘The Obama Administration Has Completely Failed’
Send her some Kool Aid.
LINK
Seems very unfriendly! Too little free bratwurst? The rock bands left town?
he does more than “tolerate Bagram”, his Administration actively DEFENDS our government’s human rights abuses there.
leading the world around by a carving knife.
Pretty much.
Distance, Distance.
But really wanting The Bickersteins to go for it.,
backed by good ole Uncle Shmuel..
Well played, Vlad. “Looked into their eyes”” – ? A Nice touch.
Fuckin Obama…. and Hillary. What a joke, playing at “running” our NeoCon apparatus of State. The deal to forgo next gen Missile shield for Europe no doubt had Russian assurances thta they would not backdoor supply Iran when Israel strikes Iran.. LOL. Fools. Medvedev and Putin are making fools of the Sacred Relationship.. Because in this Liar’s poker, Russia too, – – > like Ob < — would have cited the need to publicly distance themselves from Israel as part of the agreement. No matter.
Because when the shit goes down, Russia will be doing
every god damn thing- whoopsie! –
to supply Iran,
perpetuate the War,
and benefit fromk the windfall that accrue to them because of the crush on the Oil Markets…
And what the fuck are we going to do? Sanction them?
Try and enforce a backdoor deal? LOL. – What?
????- > Pray for our “leaders”, the one time doves ,
trying to fly in now with the Hawks?
With any luck they’ll be plucked from the sky.
What are we gonna do?
Pray that the NeoCon engineers are right?
And flopdruple double down on the moral propoganda?
Or the new MilProp that Israel’s New! Improved War capabilities are, well New!. And Better! — And make it a winner?
Smart Bombing 12.0? ……….12.09?
Good.
Fucking.
Luck.
what’s with the Zbig lines out today… Did you see that? (no link handy, but it’s around).
Headline grabbing i guess. More Carter era angst… or something.
I wish they would ALL leave us the fuck alone.
No… what’s Mica’s Dad up to? LOL.
What’d he shave to say?
here is a round up of it
http://news.google.com/news/search?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=brzezinski+iran
and Ha’aretz http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1115891.html :
Thanks. went a lookin , too.
And I agree with him a 100%.
NTIM. It’s taken on a life of it’s own.
Our money and bloodlusting overlords will proceed as they wish…as they must, from their POV.
They will not give a nickle from their plutocratic coffers. They are entitled. Chosen. And their cheaply had servants will do their bidding.
yeah but did you notice: “our air space”.
I hope everyone understands we are never leaving Iraq.
What a joke it all is.
So Obamalama backed away on missile defence to get Russia to get Israel to back off of attacking Iran? Am I reading that right?
could be, it gives me a headache… sort of “you go.. you stop… you go”.
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If BHHM is still around, saw this on Namazee…. no embedded links, for whatever reason
My take is we did the deal with Russia to LET Israel do the deed.
Of Course the Russians know we’re fools, know we’ll destroy ourselves, so they get the run up in the Oil and Gas markets and can plausibly say they were’nt a party to it.
We’re the only SuperPower™ on Earth, afterall.
They can then plausibly say , that, “like US” they were “hoping” for a peaceful resolution .. in fact followed “our lead”….And just like we’ll deny we’re leading the charge, bankrolling it in full, proceeding with the Cheneyite Agenda…THEY’LL also talk of de-escalation while supplying countervailing assistance to the Iranians .
Ooo- WELP!
JTA sure as hell had it!
Way to go, Zbig!
This calls for nothing less than the top shelf Orville Redenbacker’s.
Or Eddie Rickenbacker’s.
hmmm mmm mmm
Well his TV show is boring and dull these days… so… gotta make a living. Or more living… I guess.
And his momma is a preacher woman, it probably felt just like CHURCH.
Fantastic Photos of our Solar System
thanks for that.. I had just seen one on some news segment… a long ribbon… and meant to hunt up more from the series, then forgot…
the second one, the one looking back at Saturn, backlit by the sun, is just stunning.
Cops taze wheelchair-bound double amputee.
Clearly a danger to the cops.
he could have pulled out a spoke from one of the wheels and shanked one while his daughter grabbed the gun.
It’s only fun until somebody loses an eye.
U.S. charges Obama fund-raiser in $290 million fraud
Stealing from the rich to give to the rich. He puts the “hood” in Robin Hood.
Fuckin Hilarious.
Anne Kornblut at WaPo has a piece up,
White House Eyes State Races”.
Paterson in New York mentioned? Check.
Deeds in Virgina? Check.
Arlen in Pa? Check.
The sitch in Colorado? Yep.
Not a fuckin peep about Corzine. Fuckin Crickets. LOL.
Where’d he GO?
Had to be a deal with the story.
The latest Quinipiac Poll is due any day.
Corzine meanwhile is getting slammed for Hedge Fund investments in the Casinos. That are always claiming losses , going under, and ramming the Unions, then declaring bankrupcy. Gotta love it. The hedgers renegotiating with the banks who underwrite these high flying scams.
Well the Core Dems, the shtupes, will stick with him. Always @40% on one side or other of the clueless partisan divide. So For that reason I bet his numbers don’t fall through the floor, …But he has yet to break 40 in the polls. And clearly the Rahm and David and Ob and the entire DNC has written him off…hoping no one notices. LOL.
Poor clammyc. If only clammy shammallamma ding dong and those 3 other guys he blogs with were better shills.
Hmm.
Same article placed with Zeleny and Nagourney at the NYT.
Nothing on Corzine either..
be quiet eveyone…they might not notice…
They’re Looking Ahead™. To NEXT Year’s MoBetta.
Couldn’t be another big shoe is about to drop here?
Picking up on Mcats link to Ben Smith at Politico on Nemazzi ..
Whoa. They’re saying its @ 292 Million that he looted from the banks… CitiCorp provided him the bridge loan when he first got busted, HSBC got stung big…a Robert Rubin / GS Op when you cut through the shell game crap…
Nothing on Corzine either..
well it is glaring as the R are only to happy to link the distinction between Paterson and Corzine. One, Lamaluvbaby is asking to come down from the ledge (feigned concern for Paterson’s well being, hahahahah) the other is sent ice water and sandwiches and huzzahs for the effort on the ledge.
May they all claw each other to death.
I also see references to Paterson being the “only black governor”… so Deval is chopped liver? I guess so!!
😎 … 🙄 … 😆 ………………
well he’s like NoKo with the bomb (Goldman Sachs) as I see it. We make fun of NK but we sure don’t invade.
G20 in Pittsburgh.
PGH Cops tossing houses and vehicles w/o search warrants citing NATIONAL Security. Fuckin dicks. They seem to be focusing on Lawrenceville , the Hill, and the South Side.
Extraordinary geographical advantage IMO for the PTB. The approaches into downtown easily controlled , no working class residential downtown, easily controlled in corridor fashion. . The Hill and the Bluffs seperated by what else – hills – Lawrenceville Bloomfield more than a mile away seperated by the Strip District…
Specter escorting Half of Squirrel Hill to the Club Spots will have no problem tho. It’s such a joke as Pgh is home to perhaps the sharpest Jewish criminals in the world. And home away from Brooklyn home to others. I’m sure Romoff and his Doctor and Lawyer minions will be hosting events courtesy of Organ Transplant Dollars and Insurance Fraud. Not a peep yet about PNC’s insider who cleared 50 million in 2 kited checks to Solomon Dwek, the Rebbes son.. Crickets.
Nobody quite seems to know how that kind of float was ever arranged. And the Media isn’t interested in finding out, either.
this lanquished in Mod… so will move it forward to the new thread……………… 😎
Nu
LINK
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