Thursday…

Thursday… 27 November 2008

Posted by marisacat in Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, India, WAR!.
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Turkeys stand together in a barn, Duxbury, Massachusetts [Getty]

Speaking of hostages, turkeys and others, the Guardian has an on-going live blog from Mumbai… and NYCO posted the twitter link in the last thread: “Good live Twitter coverage of Mumbai attacks from local people.”

From one of the Times Online reports:

Later, as the night progressed, it became clear that several of Bombay’s keenest anti-terrorist strategists had perished in stand-offs with the terrorist gunmen, several of whom are thought to have escaped. Hemant Karka, the head of the city’s anti- terror squad was among the dead, together with two of his most senior officers.

…

Across the city, the incidents brought back memories of the last serious terror attacks to hit Bombay: the bomb blasts of July 11 2006.

On that day, seven blasts on the train network in 11 minutes killed more than 200 people. “We thought we had escaped,” said Anjan, a street trader close to the Taj. “But now we know. We should have learned — Bombay can’t escape the terror.”

Many felt that Bombay was overdue a terror strike. The most cosmopolitan and charismatic city in India, a country which last year trailed only Iraq in terms of the number of people killed in terror attacks, Bombay is no stranger to violence. Over the summer, the managers of the Taj Mahal Palace had ramped up security measures, stopping vehicles from pulling up to the lobby entrance for fear of a carbomb of the type that recently took out the Marriot hotel in Islamabad. Only in the last couple of weeks had the Taj relaxed this rule. …

A bit more:

Several major cities — including Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Bangalore — have been hit by elaborate bombing campaigns that have claimed more than 150 lives over the past five months. The Indian Mujahideen, a previously unknown group now notorious for its brutality, has claimed responsibility.

“Eye for an eye. The dust will never settle,” said an e-mail sent by the group to the media after a bombing in Delhi. …

Last, the report included a timeline:

History of bloodshed

— In July 2006, 190 were killed and 625 injured in bomb blasts on trains at seven Bombay locations. Police blamed the Kashmiri separatist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)

— Bombs killed 260 in Bombay in March 1993 in an attack blamed on gangs avenging Muslim deaths

— At least 44 were killed in August 2003, when several bombs exploded in the back of taxis in Bombay. Police blamed the SIMI and Lashkar-e-Taiba

— At least 70 people died in three blasts in Delhi in October 2005. Two bombs went off in markets, one in a bus. Pakistan-based Islamic militants were blamed

— A series of blasts in Varanasi killed at least 15 and injured more than 100 people in March 2006.

— Many of the victims were pilgrims, caught in the first blast in Sankat Mochan temple on a holy day. Wali Ullah and five accomplices were arrested

Sources: Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies; Times archives

One report floating around that the Taj hotel has been brought under control…

I have not run into mention of this in print reports.. but a news segment I caught indicated – and had what was purported to be photos – that some or all of the gun men used rubber dinghys to land at the S tip of Mumbai. The whole of this must just flip global security out of their minds. It so easily seems a big trial run or a template for possible future plans. Hard to avoid seeing that as a possibility…

Quite aside from the ongoing full throttle siege that is…

Comments»

1. marisacat - 27 November 2008: Norman Solomon on that pesky no-ideology-ideology.

Competence can be very good. But “free of ideological preconception”? I want to meet these guys. If they really don’t have any ideological preconceptions, they belong in the book of Guinness World Records.

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2. penlan - 27 November 2008: Interesting how these terrorists landed in Mumbai. Coast/shorelines are the most difficult to protect as they are so vast.

We (N.A.), among other nations, cannot “protect” everything & in this financial meltdown I will be curious to see what “speechifying” & supposed financing the govt.’s will want to come up with for more intense coastal protection. In the end it may just be all talk. Business as usual.

Have been glued to CNN for the last few hrs. & reading twitter.

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3. marisacat - 27 November 2008: ABC News is reporting the story of the rubber boats, for tansporting both the gunmen and their materiel.

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4. penlan - 27 November 2008: Yes, it’s now being reported all over the news – even Canada stations.

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5. penlan - 27 November 2008: With yesterday’s reports on “possible” terrorist attacks on NYC subway system & this coastal landing it makes me wonder if Homeland Security wants more money.

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6. penlan - 27 November 2008: Or WILL want now.

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7. penlan - 27 November 2008: Happy? Thanksgiving btw

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8. NYCO - 27 November 2008: Nobody in the West would have even cared about this if it weren’t for the (fact? rumor?) that British and Americans were targeted. But I suppose this was inevitable. I’m kind of surprised it took a terrorist group this long to go this route. In strategic terms… if there was such a thing as a global terrorist mastermind organization, which there isn’t… 9/11 would have been regarded by any strategist as a colossal fuck-up. Too big, too dramatic, too much collateral damage, and difficult to “top.”

I think as time goes by, and people compare something like this Mumbai attack to 9/11, the essential amateurism of Al Qaeda will become clear. These Indian terrorists seem to be professionals (and not terribly suicidal, you may notice).

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9. NYCO - 27 November 2008: And yeah, I feel rather squeamish for coldly dissecting “strategy” this way, since it’s very clear that none of these groups care who they kill.

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10. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 November 2008: Happy Thanksgiving everybody …

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11. ms_xeno - 27 November 2008: No Christmas Gifts This Year.

I wonder if I could just buy everyone donations to Malik Rahim‘s race for the House ? Too bad it’ll be at least a couple more weeks before my good friends in Unemployment get around to disgorging another $180 from my freshly re-reopened claim. [sulk]

Last claim-time, they got surly with me because I obtained a job on a Monday that didn’t start until Wednesday the same week. They sent me $23 with a sternly-worded warning against actually doing anything with the check. They followed with a four-page form to fill out. That was four weeks ago. The check is still sitting in the junk drawer, waiting. These are the same mental giants whom I once spent 45 minutes on the phone with explaining over and over that if a temp agency offers you a job only reachable by auto and you don’t have an auto, it doesn’t really make any sense to accept the job.

Bourbon, anyone ? It’s never too early.

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12. ms_xeno - 27 November 2008: Take Two: [blush]

No Christmas Gifts This Year.

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13. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 November 2008: ROCK STAR! (Brought to You by HUGE ADVERTISER!)

Klein: I’m not sure we should be worried about radio coping in the face of that as much as the whole music industry. And I would hesitate to blindly panic about this because what we’ve known is that, for years, most artists signed to major labels have not been making money from record sales. They’re making money from touring; they’re making money from T-shirt sales. So who this is really affecting the most, it seems to me, is the major players: the labels and the executives, not necessarily the musicians. I think, if this should make us step back and question anything, it’s to question the system that has already been in place and been exploiting artists for decades.

M-M: So what do we do about the labels?

Klein: (A long, heavy sigh.) What do we do about the labels? I’m not sure that I have specific answers for that, but my broader answer about the industry is to encourage more transparency in terms of media policy, media production and media regulation for the public to think about and deliberate on these issues. It’s kind of astounding when you think about how infrequently any regulatory issues are in the public eye; and when they are, they tend to be deeply moralistic issues, like the Parents Music Resource Center Senate hearings (in 1985, which resulted in the Recording Industry Association of America’s “explicit content” warning labels on CDs). You get a debate like that, which is really about protecting you from a certain kind of culture, but you almost never get issues in the public eye about allowing you to be exposed to as many different types of culture (as possible). This is what the debate about media deregulation would extend to, but the public knows almost nothing about it. I say that I don’t have specific solutions because I think it’s up to the public, the citizens, to make those decisions — which they can’t do without any knowledge about how things work.

Always the clampdown, almost NEVER the expansion of debate and culture, and the “public” doesn’t WANT to know.

M-M: How, exactly, were labels falling short?

Klein: Major labels function with the assumption that 90 percent of artists they sign are going to fail — that should have been a red flag for everybody. I mean that’s a bizarre business model in any arena. But particularly in the cultural arena, the idea that the system through which culture is transmitted is dictated entirely by profit should concern us, because that’s going to narrow the types of culture that are transmitted. And then, on top of that, the alternative venues of distribution are stuck in the shadows of these major labels. So it’s not like there’s a viable alternative, necessarily, for artists who don’t fit into this very narrow range that can become the 10 percent that are profitable and popular.

M-M: It also seems like there’s something missing: some kind of entity or service, either on the Internet or through another vehicle, to make up some of the ground that major labels have lost in bringing new music to consumers. Do you get that sense?

Klein: Yeah, I think you’re exactly right. One of the advertising creatives that I spoke to talked about doing away with the middlemen of record labels, that ultimately music could be released straight through advertisers. And I just thought, “God, that’s so curious that he would see that as doing away with the middleman when it’s clearly replacing the middleman.” And I can’t say for sure whether advertising executives are worse than record executives, but I don’t think they’re better. So, yeah, I think there is a gap here. And what the Internet offers is some possibility of — if not completely removing a middleman — creating a more transparent middleman and one that doesn’t take away so much of the money. We’ll have to see if cases like Radiohead releasing their music the way they are now (their 2007 album, In Rainbows, was released as a digital download that customers could order for whatever price they chose), whether that starts to change the paths for other artists. I’m still not sure.

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14. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 November 2008: 11 – Hey Ms_x!

Don’tcha know that it is un-American not to have a car, and that you should stop eating in order to maintain your VEEE-hickle? After all, you can live in it if you have to.

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15. ms_xeno - 27 November 2008: Too late, Madman. I’ve missed my shot at a cheap Hummer now that gas prices are falling again. >:

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16. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 November 2008: well, if you’d been a good American, like Suzy Ormand and the rest of her ilk recommend, you would have had 10 years of savings built up, your dowry gold would still be secreted away and you would have completed that “home healthcare provider” correspondence course, JUST IN CASE. I see that you still have money to spend on intoxicants!! For SHAME!

Bad, bad little drone!

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17. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 November 2008: Jonathan Turley on The Rachel Maddow Show: We’re all complicit in Bush’s war crimes if we ignore them”

TURLEY: You know, Rachel, there has never been a brighter line. This has always been a crime. It’s always been a war crime. It’s always been immoral. The question is not whether the act is immoral, but whether moral people will stand forward and say, “We’re not going to act like politicians for once. We’re going to act like statesmen and we’re going to stand by principle and we’re going to say, ‘Yes, let’s investigate.’ And if there are crimes here, let’s prosecute.” And I think it’s so very, very simple. You know, we have third world countries that when they have found that their leaders committed torture war crimes, they prosecuted them. But the most successful democracy in history is just, I think, about to see war crimes, do nothing about it. And that’s an indictment not just of George Bush and his administration. It’s the indictment of all of us if we walk away from a clear war crime and say it’s time for another commission.

We all know that THAT troublemaker won’t be advising anybody in teh One’s White House, or sitting on any court.

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18. ms_xeno - 27 November 2008: Fuck you, Madman. I shoplifted that bourbon fair and square !!

[raises glass] More Xanax, I say ! These holiday cookies won’t bake themselves, you know !

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19. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 November 2008: Oh, shoplifted? Well, good on you then.

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20. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 November 2008: Worried Sick: How Vulnerable Are You Really to Heart Attack, Stroke or Breast Cancer?

Who is Nortin Hadler, and why he is saying these terrible things about screening and early detection? Hadler is a scientist and a physician. He started his career as a geneticist, moved on to study immunochemistry, and spent his first decade on faculty as a physical biochemistry professor. Today, he is a professor of medicine and an attending rheumatologist at UNC hospitals. He has closed his laboratory, but he retains “a keen appreciation for the scientific method at its most rigorous.”

At the same time, Hadler knows how fallible medical science is. A student of Karl Popper, the philosopher of science who taught that “truth is only the hypothesis that is yet to be disproved,” Hadler knows that today’s received wisdom may be replaced tomorrow.

Not long ago, he points out “tonsils were removed because they were swollen and uteruses because they were lumpy.” We were wrong. Throughout the 1990s, oncologists thought that bone-marrow transplants would help breast cancer patients — and thousands of women suffered needlessly. More recently, we are realizing that when you consider the risks as well as the benefits, we may have been overly optimistic about mammograms as the answer to breast cancer. A few women are saved; many others are hurt. Or as an Australian study declared not long ago: “Benefits and harms of screening mammography are relatively finely balanced.”

Until quite recently, the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society recommended PSA testing for early-stage prostate cancer for average-risk men over 50. Now, they don’t.

In medicine, scientific progress is not simply a matter of accumulating of knowledge. Often, advances mean unlearning what we thought we knew — and replacing that knowledge with a new, temporary truth. Sometimes the new truth is misleading; sometimes it will apply only to some patients. Always, we have to be ready to see it replaced.

Hadler explains that he wrote Worried Sick, not for people who are seriously ill, but for the “worried well.” Hadler wants to help us cope with knowing that we are mortal without letting the fear of death shadow our lives as we fret over each and every symptom — be it “heartburn, a peculiar sensation or a realization of our physical limits.”

His goal is “bolster the personal resources that facilitate coping” with the ills that flesh is heir to. “And our coping is in dreadful need of bolstering,” he adds. “The wealth of information disseminated by all sorts of health care vendors, including those in the medical profession, may be intended as helpful but often is not. Much of this information does violence to our sense of invincibility without doing equivalent good for our health or longevity…

“Your sense of well-being requires conviction to withstand the badgering assaults of health-promotion programs,” Hadler adds. “Yes, we will all die. The issue for me is not so much how or why we die, but when and how we lived.” But in our health care system, and in the mind of the laymen, “the proximate cause of death is foremost, so that great energy and great wealth is expended trying to spare you death from a particular cause without considering whether you will die at the same time from some other cause. “

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21. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 November 2008: Press Bubble: How the media covered Citicorp’s fatal 1998 merger

It’s now generally deemed that the 1998 merger between Citicorp and Travelers Group was a pivotal moment in the current implosion of the nation’s economy. “The combination of Citibank with Salomon Smith Barney under the bright red umbrella of Travelers Insurance was accepted with a regulatory wink and nod by the Federal Reserve until Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan could persuade Congress to make it legal,” Steven Pearlstein wrote in the Washington Post today. “The hurdle was the Glass-Steagall Act, put in place during the Great Depression to prevent another market crash like that of 1929. Now that another market crash has required the government to rescue a commercial bank done in by its investment banking subsidiary, there will certainly be those who wonder whether the New Dealers didn’t have it right all along.”

So how did the nation’s editorial pages cover the merger at the time? Very sympathetically, based on a review of coverage on Nexis.

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22. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 November 2008: LOL — Lieberman Contributed to GOP Senate, House Candidates

When Democrats gathered last week to decide the fate of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), a pair of senators-elect, Tom Udall of New Mexico and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, stepped up to offer symbolically important speeches.

Having ridden the wave of support for President-elect Barack Obama, Udall and Merkley spoke out in favor of the spirit of reconciliation and moving on from the campaign, in which Lieberman was one of the highest profile supporters of the Republican presidential ticket.

But no one in the room knew, as Merkley spoke, that Lieberman had supported Merkley’s opponent, Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.). Lieberman, through his Reuniting Our Country PAC, gave Smith’s reelection bid $5,000 on Oct. 10, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Lieberman’s support of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for the presidency was well known, punctuated by his nationally televised speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul criticizing Obama as not prepared to be president. His endorsement of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has served as the top Republican beside him at the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, also was well known in Democratic circles.

But not even Merkley knew of Lieberman’s backing of Smith in their critical Senate race, until Capitol Briefing alerted his staff today.

“We were surprised to hear this news, but it’s time to put the election behind us. Jeff Merkley is looking forward to working with all his new colleagues on an agenda that will put our nation back on track,” said Julie Edwards, spokeswoman for Merkley.

Oh, they are just so damned fucking funny.

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23. marisacat - 27 November 2008: Madman… sorry WP serially snagged you… 😉 They are all out now…

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24. marisacat - 27 November 2008: 22

Yeah ain’t it a hoot? But Ob has commanded, the faithful are to love Lieberman.

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25. marisacat - 27 November 2008: 20

“Your sense of well-being requires conviction to withstand the badgering assaults of health-promotion programs,” Hadler adds. “Yes, we will all die. The issue for me is not so much how or why we die, but when and how we lived.”

Yes and any stub of the toe of pseudo health care that the nation gets is going to be geared to living under the US system of “protocols” which will be/are overly response to cost inducing here-today-gone-tomorrow things like what Hadler lists. Vioxx anyone? Killed 58,000. A number that was muted, muted, muted…

Hormone replacement for another, for menopausal women… now they don’t prescribe it after it was found to be causing cancer.

I don’t think they know much at all about most illnesses except to dole out a prescription (have a statin!) nor do they know much about brain chemistry…

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26. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 November 2008: Thanks for your help – now go away

Now, as Democrats on Capitol Hill reorganise for the new session, battle lines between proactive progressives, Republican-lite Blue Dogs and the spineless Rest of Them (unfortunately, the leadership is largely made up of the Rest of the Them) is becoming more rancorous by the day.

After Joe Lieberman spent the last year trashing his own party, supporting Republicans and becoming one of John McCain’s most visible supporters, Democrats simply rolled over to allow him back into the fold and in charge of the same committees he poorly administered previously.

“They can rant and rage but they still do not put the fear into folks to actually change their votes,” one Democratic aide told the Washington Post, about the progressive bloggers of the Netroots.

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27. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 November 2008: The Cuban president, Raul Casto, has offered to meet Barack Obama – and end a diplomatic freeze going back more than 40 years – in an interview with Sean Penn

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28. marisacat - 27 November 2008: Full text:

Indian Navy boards ship off Mumbai

AP
Thursday, 27 November 2008

The Indian navy says its forces are boarding a cargo vessel suspected of ties to the Mumbai attacks that killed 101 people.

Navy spokesman Capt. Manohar Nambiar said Thursday that the ship, the MV Alpha, had recently come to Mumbai from Karachi, Pakistan.

Nambiar says the navy has “located the ship and now we are in the process of boarding it and searching it”. He gave no other details.

More than 100 people were killed and 300 injured when suspected Islamic militants attacked 10 sites in Mumbai.

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29. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 November 2008: Police Taser 54-Year-Old Woman Sitting in Wrong Seat at Football Game

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30. marisacat - 27 November 2008: 26

Dodd – who I believe is chair of the Banking Committee and previously would have been ranking member – was even more blunt, on with Rose last night.

In response to a guestion from Charlie about some reaction to the picks… Dodd said people have real problems, jobs housing, and if they hve problems with Ob’s picks then “they need to get over it” those are not problems.

So glad I left the roaring barking shitting assholes.

Dodd and all long serving senators and leadership and long serving in the House should be DRIVEN FROM OFFICE for fiduciary incompetence and failure to lead. Hell if I care about minority majority status.

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31. marisacat - 27 November 2008: 21

well I think Harper’s was lousy in covering the GE. They pretty much by passed the primaries… which as a somehwat to the left side org, fine. Who cares. Going to get some Dem party excretion whether Ob or Hill…

But they aided and abetted Ob.

I was appalled when I went in and looked around in late October and with a subscription pass wandered around.

All is fine iwth Ob. No problems here. They simply barely covered him.

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32. marisacat - 27 November 2008: 8

Not enough US or UK nationals died in the hit on Bali…. it got some extra attention as Western media worked to fully link it to AQ, but it also slipped away from consciousness, quite quickly…

The Mumbai assault does have some interesting aspects. No question, aside from the ability to name westerners who will have died in it and the targetting.

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33. mattes - 27 November 2008: MC, did you catch Dodd saying that for all the money they have given AIG, congress has gotten ZERO in return. Rose then asked about oversite, and Dodd played dumb. SO WHY THE FUCK GIVE THEM MORE MONEY?

Dodd is s fucking joke.

Reminds my of all the money lost in Iraq. Same accounting.

As for Lieberman…NO one goes after AIPAC and survives with their life.

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34. marisacat - 27 November 2008: mattes

well that is exactly right on lieberman… no one was about to take on his constituency, either domestic or in Israel. They would nto be doing it.

Oh Dodd made me crazy. And I have on the repeat… jsut to remind myself of the lies (LOL). They mollify the stupefied public by claiming to be duped.

We wuz taken! We did not know! playing from an old RCA 78 recording.

it is so fucking OLD and smells of death and rot.

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35. marisacat - 27 November 2008: I never bothered to fish on Favreau’s back ground, but what a shock (not)

–N.Y. Times’ Jeff Zeleny, ‘Wordsmith in Residence’: ‘President-elect Barack Obama’s wordsmith is moving to the West Wing. In his latest round of White House staff announcements, Mr. Obama said Wednesday that he was naming Jon Favreau as his director of speechwriting. Mr. Favreau, 27, has had a hand in practically every speech that Mr. Obama has delivered over the last four years, following Mr. Obama from his Senate office to the presidential campaign. While many believe [the version on ‘The Caucus’ blog said ‘legend has it’] that Mr. Obama writes his own speeches longhand on a legal pad, a better historical account will show that he offers input and Mr. Favreau actually writes them. Mr. Favreau, a 2003 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., began his writing career for Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign. He is moving from Chicago to Washington.’

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36. mattes - 27 November 2008: “claiming to be duped”….oh, I completely agree. Hands in air….”what dooooo, we dooooo?”

The committees are a joke. Stuffed with gatekeepers.

Just like dk.

But there is a part of me that says Obama is smarter than all of them and he is playing their game, but will truly right to bring some significant change. I give him six months before I give up on him.

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37. marisacat - 27 November 2008: From Holy Cross tracking their “crusaders” (that’s what they call them} on the move…

[“T]here is a lot of policy writing in these speeches, and Obama always works to put the poetry back, which is great,” he says.

Favreau also notes that he still talks to his political science professors at Holy Cross to get their input on those policy speeches.

When asked what his next steps are, Favreau immediately responds, “The White House, of course!”

“If we go to the White House, I’ll be there for a couple of years,” he says. “Beyond that, I will leave politics at some point and just write. You can get tired of politics, but I don’t know if you can get tired of writing

This is heresy. Why does he need more than Ob?

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38. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 November 2008: Freakin’ Friday’s Silver Lining

Mark posted on Boing-Boing last year this article on Fake News that I wrote, which examined the retail numbers cited by the National Retail Federation about sales over Thanksgiving, and so-called Black Friday. I made the point that this news is fake news, coming from a press release generated by a retail trade organization and then spoon-fed to us by uncritical reporters. While the stories credit the source, the headlines give the impression that the retail industry wants, using numbers they provide. (Reporters like a story with specific numbers, no matter how contrived they are. Independent backup for the numbers is never provided.) There’s every reason for NRF to present numbers that favor their view that consumers will be buying more. It’s like asking the fox to count the eggs in the hen house and report on the health of the chickens.

It’s all PR, all of it, including the blather from Dodd.

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39. marisacat - 27 November 2008: The best measure of retail is to take a camera crew downtown and to neighborhood shopping streets… in the case of San Francisco… or to malls for the burbs.

There is one thing that was obvious in outlying areas here, years ago, esp to the north, in Marin… stores were moving back to the shopping streets in the towns – and out of the malls. Indicates change was on the way, aside from financial and economic collapse.

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40. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 November 2008: Beyonce, Jay-Z and more set for celeb-soaked Barack Obama inauguration

While Obama and his crack team of political heavy hitters will take center stage at the event, half of Hollywood is clamoring for a chance to shine in his reflected glory. Beyonce Knowles wasted no time in clearing her diary for the ceremony in the hope of being invited to perform.

“I’m there. I can’t wait. I feel like all of us, we’re ready to do whatever we have to do. Whatever they want. If they need me to volunteer, they need me to sing, I’m there, and I’m ready,” the R‘n’B superstar told reporters on November 5, just one day after Obama’s historic win.

And she might make the evening a family affair amid rumors that her husband, hip-hop heavyweight Jay-Z, is also in talks to perform.

A source close to British singing sensation Leona Lewis also claims, “various inquiries have been made to Leona’s people about her availability on January 20,” according to British newspaper, The Sun.

Other high-profile names including Diddy and Mary J Blige have also been thrown into the mix of possible performers.

Bruce Springsteen, meanwhile, revealed that his hotly-anticipated forthcoming album is due for release “around the time of the Presidential Inauguration in January 2009,” suggesting a performance from The Boss could make for the most high profile record release party in history.

And there promises to be as much star power radiating from the assembled crowd as there will be on the stage during the landmark swearing-in ceremony.

A whopping 52 celebrities have already confirmed that they will be attending the inauguration ceremony as guests of The Creative Coalition, an organization dedicated to partnering the entertainment industry with social and political issues.

Their guests will include Anne Hathaway, Spike Lee, Kerry Washington, Susan Sarandon, Jane Krakowski, Alfre Woodard, Barry Levinson, Dana Delany, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Wendie Malick, Josh Lucas, Matthew Modine, Rachael Leigh Cook, Alan Cumming, Connie Britton, Richard Schiff, Ellen Burstyn, Giancarlo Esposito, Gloria Reuben, Lynn Whitfield, Tamara Tunie and Tom Fontana.

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41. marisacat - 27 November 2008: … marketing.

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42. diane - 27 November 2008: abcd puppy?

lmno puppy…….

Mike P…(early seventies Pittsburgh/east LIBERTY (h on the end Pittsburgh, not quite the same as the “Pittsburg” so close to the California Naval facility, or the southern (AL?) “Pittsburg,” for one all that steel was initially forged in Pittburgh….yet they all share a profound bleakness and misery) Pennsylvania….painting walls, but if he knew someone…he would likely be in the Smithsonian by know

If it doesn’t feel like kindness and empathy….it likely isn’t..

take care all…………………see ya’ll at the end of the day…?

I would hope that energy never dies…..just ends up directed toward better things..if it was headed in the wrong direction….

apropos of being a human bean

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43. marisacat - 27 November 2008: 42

hey hey diane…

welll Pittsburg no ‘h” CA tried to rename part of itself to Bay Point a few years ago. Don’t think it ever took. Still hear of Pittsburg but not Bay Point. Sorta like the “renaming” of Cape Canaeveral to Cape Kennedy. Never took, drifted off…

😉 …

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44. diane - 27 November 2008: Oh and by the way (dedicated to the SF Chronicle)…do you think that we might want to mention that Richard Blum…the leader of the obscenely gluttonous UC (C for like to be tagged crazy and loopy, California) systemto the detriment of educating common folk is the hubby to the illustrious Dianne?…..apparently?….a member of the REAL Estate…

Oh and how sweet…. brack passing out turkeys with his heirs…………..

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45. BooHooHooMan - 27 November 2008: OmiGawd! { squeel } Wow!
I’ve been invited to just about
THE. MOST. EXCLUSIVE. Inaugural Bash!
~ how DID they get my name as I didn’t donate this year?
.
.
.
Anyways, It’s at some guy Nick’s House . In New Jersey. LOL.
Apparently, the New President is looking for my input
and a suggested donation of Twenty bucks.
Nick and “his BFF” Claudine suggest (but do not require)
“Business Casual”, Frankfurters and/or Potato Salad.

I am conflicted though, as the exclusive side of me wants to go for the “access” and, of course, the food.

But the inclusive side of me almost feels a tinge of guilt, wondering about “the little people”, and even the outsiders pushed off the A-List. I’m told Hillary won’t be there. Nor once famous party crashers like Gates Hayden and Lieberman. ( I guess they’ll be watching the “In Crowd” at Nick’s on T.V., – maybe at home in the Sit Room)

Sigh. I could say What the Hell, Go! – rationalize it by saying it’s not the MOST Exclusive gig, the one’s reserved for those with real pull now, the true kingmakers….
The Blahhhhhhhhhwgers.

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46. diane - 27 November 2008: don’t forgot those dockers hon they are so all important …………..

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47. diane - 27 November 2008: and ……be sure not to bother ironing them to let anyone one feel that you cared about making them feel at ease….we live in a world where all our energy is directed towards those things that kill and hate, rather than hug and validate simple meaning and worth………………..

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48. marisacat - 27 November 2008: BHHM

migod

how often does a mere mortal get to see the likes of NJ. You’ve GOT to go.

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49. diane - 27 November 2008: well you must admit (if you like corn) New Jersey has some delicious sweet corn……a tad different than the profound and vividly colored North American Indian corn……..(or, what we eat vicariously; but might not, if we knew what it consisted of, feed corn)…………………..and delightful wild berries with boocoo pesky thorns……………………..

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50. diane - 27 November 2008: or is that boo coup?

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51. BooHooHooMan - 27 November 2008: #36
mattes, you are far too generous.…there is a part of me that says Obama is smarter than all of them and he is playing their game, but will truly right to bring some significant change. I give him six months before I give up on him….

That’s the part of me that’s in it for the potato salad.
Sorry to use the term, “DOA”, realize the evocative nature , but as The PTB have already given a pass and it’s not about the man, Ob’s Admin is DOA – was after they ran with the ball Super Tues, long before the day the gauntlet was put down at the DNC meetup.

Clear as day, they roasted his nuts,
else The Ascension be scuttled in Denver.

I’m still not convinced that originally there wasn’t some type of accord, there were indications Hill wouldn’t clear 270 without a makeover,so between testy friends The Big Dawg and the Daleys,
BO could serve as her spoiler and inoculation…but whoops, Iowa, the Chi guys turned out to be not so shy after all..

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52. NYCO - 27 November 2008: As for me, I don’t think there were any secret agreements.

I just think they’re all not very imaginative.

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53. marisacat - 27 November 2008: 49

There are quite a few things I eat, still, from childhood summers in NJ… and sweet corn is one of them. Also iceberg lettuce. LOL I will defend it to the death! But i like bitter greens (dandelion, too)… I think NJ state is actually quite a mixed bag (very good to very bad), but i know what its public image is… unfortunately.

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54. BooHooHooMan - 27 November 2008: #52 You’re prolly right. NYCO prolly just a strait up run for the Roses- er, kneeler – in the Primaries, but clearly there will be some interesting reads on how Teh Clinton applied the cock ringand walked with the Admin. I’ve gandered at the Orange Side and they really are nutz trying to rationalize being so thoroughly punk’d.

LoL Diane, Dockers are Formalwear to me.
And Mcat, as for Jersey, it could be known as
The State That Puts the Mortality in Life Expectancy.

….Back to the Thanksgiving Carrol and the
Mortals of Campaigns EverPresent.

Ah well, all worked out in the end. ouch

Funny, they seem to have gotten everybody , Edwards was too easy, Richardson, LOL, got it in BOTH ends. ..By the looks of it , Biden too, they’re going to turn him into a Bust.
Not so hard to do..

…if only, oh Lawdy Black Jesus, they had read
their Old Testament,
chortle ::::

And they cast lots for their offices, all alike, as well the small as the great, the teacher as the scholar. – 1 Chronicles 25:8

that the prophesy may be Fulfilled :

“Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part……They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.” (John 19:23-24)

What to wear, what to wear…kind of like Dodd’s scam:
The Pro’s are in it for the Suit.

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55. BooHooHooMan - 27 November 2008: Jersey Sweet Corn is to die for at the farm stands in season…
.. almost right there with Loved One’s in the Life’s Worth Living category…unless of course one of the loved one’s – be they bipeds or four legged friends – happens to pillage more than their fair share. Fuckers. LOL.

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56. diane - 27 November 2008: 48

..beefsteak tomatoes warmed by the sun with a bit, or even more, of salt sprinkled with the hand of a child………………….

(and that pungent green smell of the remaining vine, slightly similar to cut grass..not at all similar to today’s GREEN$$$$$$$$$$$$$)

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57. marisacat - 27 November 2008: oh tomatoes. I STILL eat tomato sandwiches… love them in fact. One fo the things I feed myself when depressed.

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58. BooHooHooMan - 27 November 2008: Little tid , funny thing about Philly / Jersey, the street vendors always bark Get your BeeSteak Tomotoes! BeeSteak Tamates!

SowPhilly particularly, the dropping of the last syllable in a first word, then slurring right into a second word at about 70 Miles an Hour.
BeeSteak Tamates.
Doesn’t matter if you’re from SowPhilly, NorPhilly,
NorJersey, whatever.
You down the shore in Summer?
They’re all over SowJersey.

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59. diane - 27 November 2008: 54

Ahhhhhh….what to wear to the Grande Ball?…..love me some sackclothe …and then….there is nothing quite like wearing clothing that other’s wore before me…my favorite is a deep green v-necked sweater of my oldest ro…I wear it with the v in the back…ying yang hon….

;0)

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60. diane - 27 November 2008: apropros of the day….

I’m listening to Nat King Cole sing……..

of nights divine……oh ever green….I will die with you on my lips….gladly!

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61. BooHooHooMan - 27 November 2008: So on a lighter note, any guesses how long it takes before we are in a combined forces strike with India against Peshawar?

Seems like we just elected the perfect guy to sell it.

Bloody Expensive Real Estate play indeed..

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62. diane - 27 November 2008: ….yes and what of those upright, some not so upright…conifers of joisy?

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63. BooHooHooMan - 27 November 2008: #59 more like the Grande Cabal —

though Any suit could scootyoot ska do…

it Looks like it’s time for the Brown Pantsuit overseas now…

Yeh, This should go well…

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64. diane - 27 November 2008: 61

You mean like the war the US has waged, yet not declared in its mindless, humanity free droning….

yes…the worst…and that passionate intensity……

a tricky lot they…

again if kindness and mercy appear missing, most likely..it is so….

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65. BooHooHooMan - 27 November 2008: LOL. The conifers of Joisy
Ah yes, the pristine Pine Barrens
better known as Soprano’s National Cemetery.

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66. marisacat - 27 November 2008: So on a lighter note, any guesses how long it takes before we are in a combined forces strike with India against Peshawar? — BHHM

HA! He sold himself to the rich (28,500 for the top tier event here in late summer) S Asians here, subcontinent of India, etc., as “desi” meaning first gen immigrant. Said he is aligned (or allied, who knows) with htem from his (can we stop hearing about it?) time in Indonesia.

We can land the marines at the S tip of Mumbai… after years in Iraq they will have found a littoral!

[you’ve got to laugh to stay sane]

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67. diane - 27 November 2008: …..you always dive to the depths hon…….

it could give a person the fears………….

;0)

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68. BooHooHooMan - 27 November 2008: 64 true, I am the dullard. It, of course, has been “on” for some time.

The Congress sold its soul to the MIC many years ago.
We have utterly abandoned Congressional Declarations of War .
Oversight? Pfft.

Nobody really wants to break it to the people
that Arms + Nuke Prolif, ah, got a little out of hand…
Yep, we really led the way there.
Allowing folks , our buds, Teh Good Guys©, folks
just as happily engaged in Pawnbrokering deal in weapons,
WMD at that.

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69. marisacat - 27 November 2008: Just a big ol’ cosmic “Ooops!”..

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70. diane - 27 November 2008: on conifers

well shucks….I’d rather be fertilizer for a sequoia sempervirens (don’t hold me to that latin) than live forever as a bot, bleeding viscous defatted milky looking fluid for a cold and heartless, yet “perfect”, creepy, ruley lovey thing, ….not to pardon any mirror loving weak souled gangstas, coldheartedly burying bodies under the faint light of La Luna……

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71. diane - 27 November 2008: …well…and viscuous, viscyouus, viskyoous, et. al., too….as youns, whichever way, like it!

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72. BooHooHooMan - 27 November 2008: Yet we blithely carry on. The country is so fucked up and addicted to pablum that most people can’t tell WHERE, WHEN, or IF they’re living. Like today, when the prevalent comforting perception is that we’re all somewhere over the Steaming Turkey Rainbow in the Norman Rockwell painting, off to the side perhaps, but most assuredly In It and – Golly ‘Cause We Have To© –
Gonna Win It at the Righteous (War) Table.

Of course most don’t contemplate that too long ( or God Forbid, talk about it, our perceptions and assumptions about life, Society, each other)… Nah, it’s head for some other consuming distraction. The Ball Games today, the cheap shit tomorrow. Good thing for most, for NOW at Least, the ball games and the cheap shit squeeze out images of Mumbai , discussions of Iraq or Afghanistan,
Promises Made-
the need to read, to ponder, to question, to know…

Makes me wonder how many in the Roaring Twenties, even after the Crash into the early ’30’s, knew or understood the possibility that whole towns wold have Stars in their Windows… or that that was the minimum cost to the “justified”, that that was the minimum assured cost
to the winners…

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73. diane - 27 November 2008: kisses to all…..actually I think Dickens got one thing right, the most important thing…..love reigns, rains, rayns, et. al. whichever way you want to spell it, that which lives forever is kindness and mercy….what say you brack? “brack”, as in gooey sewer ego stuff, that all you and your ilk are lookin like to folks who have spent their lives within the boundary of humanity……………………….

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74. BooHooHooMan - 27 November 2008: Kisses Back.

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75. NYCO - 27 November 2008: Depressingly… I’m now of the mind that America’s attitude toward the world would never change unless war actually comes to American soil. And not a terror war (although that may be the way war is prosecuted now)… a war where Americans actually find themselves being told what to do and where to go by foreigners with weapons (either airborne, or paraded in their faces).

That would be an “American exceptionalism”-killer for sure. But, I don’t think that will happen sooner than internal unrest would ramp up the cause of “states’ rights” or whatever.

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76. diane - 27 November 2008: Farewell to Cucullain?….

Oh Danny Boy ….you haven’t seen the best of it yet….

Historically, folks have died gruesome deaths because they chose to align themselves with a, for the most part, kind and merciful to others, lifestyle……..

Just guessing..but all that loving energy they built up until they physically died had to go somewhere………………well fuck me for a fool for thinking it, but.it certainly wasn’t for nothing…….some unexplained force has been much empowered by so many little people……………………..we all know that to be true… there is mercy………..however merciless it may seem at tmes ………………………

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77. marisacat - 27 November 2008: hmmm don’t miss this tidbit… blithely lobbed by Stephen Cohen at the clos od a News Hour segment today…

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/july-dec08/mumbai_11-27.html

STEPHEN COHEN: The U.S. policy has been — on terrorism has been to work with the Indians, but I don’t think there’s been that much cooperation, in fact, between the two governments.

At least the Indians have complained to me about this, but I’m not sure whether or not we might increase our cooperation, whether it would be any good.

The real issue for India is, in a sense, what its decision is going to be vis-a-vis a failing Pakistan, whether it wants to work with Pakistan to make it a viable state, or whether it wants to finish off Pakistan.

I think that decision is yet to come, but you could see Indian politics going either way on that.

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78. marisacat - 27 November 2008: Two nuclear powers… and thanks to us.

Oh how sweet it is… (not)

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79. diane - 27 November 2008: 74

yeah well, …..we all like to sing along with….The Thrill is Gone….but it hasn’t quite yet ……..has it hon?

;0) Fock mindless blood letting………………..AND, MINDFULL, blood letting……….

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80. BooHooHooMan - 27 November 2008: #75 Economic collapse could do it if and only if people made the nexus between Mil Spending and Corporate Enmeshment with Da Gubment. More than likely the populace would double down on xenophobia and plunge us all off the deep end…

Mcat had a piece or a cite up a bit back – exploring the all too plausible resurgence of Christofascists, not that it was conceded they are in much retreat…

It really is scary in such a Low Info Society.
It is for me at least, while viable but not insulated by wealth or position, knowing enough, and being proximate enough to see consequences of unsustainability economically, socially, and environmentally in my little Slice of the SuperFund State.

Mcat must really be freaked. Mcat has under one fingernail more grip on the political and socio-economic context of current affairs than the majority of Members in Both Houses on the Hill. Most don’t read the Bills. Have no understanding and leven less interest in the legislative history. they like their constituents are looking for their next little piece of cheese. And while its true that a small cadre like Dodd et al scam us by feigning ignorance, many of the elected ARE REALLY as low bandwidth, shallow and lazy as they appear. Their constituents love them. No wonder.

Prior to the Election, I remember clear as day,
scratching my head talking to an older African American ,
vet of THE Movement who told me :

“Obama isn’t going to do Shiiiit.
So the young people will elect a “Brother” that prolly has a 30 year cover story built by the CIA. They’ll Learn.”

I Laughed out Loud. Then.

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81. marisacat - 27 November 2008: Indian commando troops launch an attack on a Jewish centre in Mumbai where several people are being held hostage.

For more details: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

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82. diane - 27 November 2008: I mean…we are not done yet are we?…there is something we really want to clarify..and that thing is an everliving fondeness, adoration, if we we will, of all things that make one feel like they are a part of a profound eternal love…..

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83. diane - 27 November 2008: fondness also/too (ya fockin brits)…..

;0)

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84. diane - 27 November 2008: 80

hmmmm, well gee …I thought all those philanthropists….sucking off fine wine and living GREEN in Cali …brought so much prosperity to India?…..ya mean something is yet unbalanced in towns where folk transplanted from Sly Con valley have banned meat eaters, when they perhaps are the biggest devourers of flesh on the block?

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85. NYCO - 27 November 2008: Black Friday is tomorrow, but many retailers are already throwing in the towel, knowing they can’t possibly sell all of their pre-ordered inventory. The stuff is already being sent to the liquidators (which means you’ll probably see a lot of it for sale on eBay in a few months). Pass the Crap!

Some retailers giving up on Black Friday

As the monks wrote during the Black Death… magna mortalitas.

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86. BooHooHooMan - 27 November 2008: Yeh well, where’s my football?
Headin towards the Championship, it looks like its gonna be the Christians, Jews, and Hindus
Playin the Godless ‘Stanis , Chinks, and Russkies.

Ooo- Maybe a Bowl Game in Caracas, too.

Wait, no- I accidentally had on Fox…

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87. sean marsh - 27 November 2008: 75: exactly, NYCO.

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88. mattes - 27 November 2008: BHHM, I am sure there were back door dealings. But, like I said we will find out shortly just how much of a puppet BO will be.

BTW, you know Kashmir has oil, right?

I also found this interesting, from New republic:

Obama might appoint Bill Clinton as special envoy on Kashmir
November 06, 2008

NEW YORK – US President-Elect Barack Obama might consider appointing former President Bill Clinton as special envoy on Jammu and Kashmir in an effort resolve the decades-old Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, according to media reports.

Obama indicated his intention to make such a move in a recent interview with Joe Klein of ‘Time’ magazine ahead of his election as president. He told the weekly magazine that he has sounded out Clinton, who has had first-hand experience dealing with the Subcontinent, having played a role in ending the Kargil issue in the summer of 1999.

When asked specifically about Clinton playing a role in redefining Pakistan’s relations with India, Obama was quoted as saying, “Might not be bad. I actually talked to Bill, I talked to President Clinton about this when we had lunch” at Harlem in New York recently.

In the interview, he also wondered why India wants to ‘keep on messing’ with the Kashmir issue which is a ‘potential tar pit diplomatically’.

Working with Pakistan and India to try to resolve the Kashmir “crisis in a serious way are critical tasks” for the next administration, he said.

And in a television interview last Friday, Obama also said the United States should help resolve the Kashmir dispute as part of efforts to deal with the problem of militancy in the region.

“We should probably try to facilitate a better understanding between Pakistan and India and try to resolve the Kashmir crisis so that they can stay focused not on India, but on the situation with those militants.” he told MSNBC.

snip
Obama’s Kashmir comments hit a raw nerve in India – November 3rd, 2008 – “As Obamamania grips much of the world, including India, the man who might become the next President of the United States has ideas on Jammu and Kashmir that should cause some concern to New Delhi,” wrote Indian analyst C Raja Mohan in the Indian Express.

While India would agree that a Pakistan secure within its own borders would be good for the region, “India’s problem with the Obama thesis is in the simplistic trade-off it sets up between Kashmir and Afghanistan,” he said. American activism could backfire by undermining the current bilateral peace process, convince the Pakistan Army to harden its stance on Kashmir, and give a fresh boost to militancy there.

In contrast, Obama’s comments were welcomed by Kashmiris, both inside the Kashmir Valley and among the Kashmiri expatriate community in the United States. “I welcome the growing interest of Barrack Obama in resolving the Kashmir dispute,” Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the separatist Hurriyat alliance, told the Greater Kashmir newspaper in Srinagar. ”The US and international community is gradually recognizing that resolution of Kashmir dispute was imperative for peace in South Asia.”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2126783/posts

And these comments from a different blog, the timely of this attack seems suspect.

Obama: India ‘Messing’ With Kashmir
In Kashmir, News on 7 November, 2008

Obama seems determined to solve the Kashmir issue, his remark on India’s behavior with Kashmir was:

he also wondered why India wants to ‘keep on messing’ with the Kashmir issue which is a ‘potential tar pit diplomatically.’ Free Republic

He also considers solving the Kashmir issue ‘critical task’ for his administration.

Working with Pakistan and India to try to resolve the Kashmir “crisis in a serious way are critical tasks” for the next administration, he said.

And plans to devote serious diplomatic resources for Kashmir

Saying that Kashmir is now in an “interesting situation”, Obama is ready to explore the option for the U.S. “to devote serious diplomatic resources to get a special envoy in there, to figure out a plausible approach”. Yahoo

His plans on appointing Bill Clinton (who as the President of United States called Kashmir, the most beautiful prison in the world) as an envoy to Kashmir has made India all jittery, it will be seen how India responds to America’s renewed interest in Kashmir. It is pertinent to mention here that it was the Democrat Presidential Candidate Adlai Stevenson, who was supposed to have been talking with Sheikh Abdullah for a possible independent Kashmir. Sheikh Abdullah’s meeting with Adlai Stevenson was one of the reasons why Abdullah was arrested.

What is most interesting about his remarks is that he has not called the movement in Kashmir Islamic Terrorism, all efforts by India to portray Kashmir as an Islamic Jihad have failed to impress the most powerful man on earth; the presence of American-Indians in his team, which the Indian Media is celebrating as an achievement, has made no effect on his thoughts and planned efforts on Kashmir either.

It will be interesting to see how Pakistan will re-jump the Kashmir wagon now, having almost gotten rid of it!

Obama: India ‘Messing’ With Kashmir

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89. BooHooHooMan - 27 November 2008: Whole Lotta Shit Unbalanced.

A Big Part of “the Problem” –
the Perennial One Crisis to The Next Problem , here, is we don’t
have much vernacular in use to describe what is most thrown around as ‘Globalization”, the easily grok’d message let alone compelling, credible messenger to call out the interests at play in that false dichotomy of “domestically” or “abroad.”

The CW still holds that a Dominant yet “Loyal” (think Skybox- Building), nominally “American” “investor” / corporate class sees the benefits of Peace as essential to their Business cycle, far outweighing the costs of War.

Wrongo on Two Counts. Simply a cost of doing business, as long as there’s more value in the Labor and Resources to rip-off elsewhere.. moreso, if the cost can be pushed off onto patriotic suckers..

But exploitive warmongering capital is old as something that’s really really old and makes for a great pig-bashing , instructive metaphor. That said – LOL- there’s more to it that perpetuates the Benevolent Ultimately Nationalist Myth that serves monied interests so well…

The ignorant American Prole buys into it, never called out or allowed even a little embarrassment over their ignorance…And wrapped in our Flag or particular brand of mouthbreathing Faith ( God, Money, Machismo, Stuff , Heterosexuality – Faith in Fluff all the same), the Imbecilery we call the Majority of Americans, those that Obama will soon call “My Fellow Citizens” ( unless SCOTUS sides with the Wingers -LOL ) — Astoundingly , it seems there is an inexhaustable willingness here to work, finance, fight and die for the a Lifestyle of Exploitation: Our Own.

Funny, I started rubberneck on DK now and again as it came closer to the Election while the market crashed. Sorry but it IS hilarious (there at least )- it’s still filled with peeps who have yet to really feel the 2×4 to the forehead. The same old Big Mouths are a lot of retainers of one sort or other, guv workers or dependents largely, the lesser courthouse jockeys, other bourgeois academics, teachers, etc, their kids , people largely who have yet to feel the pinch ….

The lawyers there are really a clueless lot, a real hoot, not the foggiest, you can almost tell the damn fools who lost their shirts given their ardent advocacy for Bailout 1 and their exposure elsewhere given their callous piss off to proposals for Detroit.

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90. BooHooHooMan - 27 November 2008: #66 after years in Iraq they will have found a littoral!

Not lost on me.

Not found recently, but not lost on me either. LOL.

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91. marisacat - 27 November 2008: 87

sorry you got caught in Moderation mattes… it’s out now… 😉

***

86

sean marsh

WP scooped yours into Moderation as it was a first comment… I have ti set so first time comments go to moderation, as a brake on spam…

and, hello, btw… 8)

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92. marisacat - 27 November 2008: Jesus… this thing in Mumbai just does not end… explosions from the Taj hotel, where apparently commandos are still moving thru. Not under control.

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93. mattes - 28 November 2008: Just heard India had 7% growth last year and next year expected 9%. Wonder how that will go down.

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94. marisacat - 28 November 2008: HA! They may find that a pumped and primed “middle class” of 300 million is not q u i t e enough in a country of a billion.

What will they do?

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95. marisacat - 28 November 2008: neue post…

LINK

……….. 8) …………….

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