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I’m looking at it this way… 30 December 2009

Posted by marisacat in 2008 Election, 2010 Mid Terms, 2012 Re Election, AFRICOM, Culture of Death, DC Politics, Democrats, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, WAR!.
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Pigeons gather on a city steam grate in Toronto, Canada [Nathan Denette/AP]

Can 2010 be… worse?

All that yelling and screaming back in the campaign over McCain and his “bomb bomb bomb Iran”… so we get “Bomb Yemen”, now declared the center of the universe for Al Qaida.

Neat, how they work it all out.

Comments»

1. marisacat - 30 December 2009

Ray McGovern has a timely piece up at Cpunch… asking if Pretzels, even those compared to Jesus, are afraid f the CIA…

HA! I’d say the CIA is on a long list of who manages Pretzels… and who can take them down.

[D]ulles and Dallas

Dulles could hardly have expected to get Truman to recant publicly. So why was it so important for Dulles to place in CIA files a fabricated retraction. My guess is that in early 1964 he was feeling a good bit of heat from those suggesting the CIA might have been involved somehow in the Kennedy assassination. Indeed, one or two not-yet-intimidated columnists were daring to ask how the truth could ever come out with Allen Dulles on the Warren Commission. Prescient.

Dulles feared, rightly, that Truman’s limited-edition op-ed might yet get some ink, and perhaps even airtime, and raise serious questions about covert action. Dulles would have wanted to be in position to flash the Truman “retraction,” with the hope that this would nip any serious questioning in the bud. The media had already shown how co-opted—er, I mean “cooperative”—it could be.

As the de facto head of the Warren Commission, Dulles was perfectly positioned to exculpate himself and any of his associates, were any commissioners or investigators—or journalists—tempted to question whether the killing in Dallas might have been a CIA covert action.

Did Allen Dulles and other “cloak-and-dagger” CIA operatives have a hand in killing President Kennedy and then covering it up? The most up-to-date—and, in my view, the best—dissection of the assassination appeared last year in James Douglass’ book, JFK and the Unspeakable. After updating and arraying the abundant evidence, and conducting still more interviews, Douglass concludes the answer is Yes.

And it’s like Meese was on the 9/11 Commission.. nto that the line-up was anything to be excited about. I have even seen shows and news segments that carefully simply don’t mention or even show Meese as sitting there.

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2. marisacat - 30 December 2009
Madman in the Marketplace - 30 December 2009

makes me want to scream, every time Teh One plays that game. He’s such a fucker.

That’s a good piece, not that anybody ever really takes seriously that hippie dippie shit from the xtian bible, but it’s always a nice surprise to see a minister actually try.

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3. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 December 2009

Some context that bed-wetting Americans ignore: Odds of being a terrorism victim on a flight

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4. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 December 2009

Schneier actually gets an editorial up on CNN’s website: Is aviation security mostly for show?

Reviewing what happened is important, but a lot of the discussion is off-base, a reflection of the fundamentally wrong conception most people have of terrorism and how to combat it.

Terrorism is rare, far rarer than many people think. It’s rare because very few people want to commit acts of terrorism, and executing a terrorist plot is much harder than television makes it appear.

The best defenses against terrorism are largely invisible: investigation, intelligence, and emergency response. But even these are less effective at keeping us safe than our social and political policies, both at home and abroad. However, our elected leaders don’t think this way: They are far more likely to implement security theater against movie-plot threats.

A “movie-plot threat” is an overly specific attack scenario. Whether it’s terrorists with crop dusters, terrorists contaminating the milk supply, or terrorists attacking the Olympics, specific stories affect our emotions more intensely than mere data does.

Stories are what we fear. It’s not just hypothetical stories — terrorists flying planes into buildings, terrorists with explosives strapped to their legs or with bombs in their shoes, and terrorists with guns and bombs waging a co-ordinated attack against a city are even scarier movie-plot threats because they actually happened.

“Security theater” refers to security measures that make people feel more secure without doing anything to actually improve their security. An example: the photo ID checks that have sprung up in office buildings. No one has ever explained why verifying that someone has a photo ID provides any actual security, but it looks like security to have a uniformed guard-for-hire looking at ID cards.

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marisacat - 30 December 2009

KGO, this afternoon, pushed for full body scanners… holding out threat of invasive pat down as the alternative. And it sounds like the scanners are up and running for all departing flights at Schiphol…

I’m relieved I can’t really fly anymore.

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5. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 December 2009

Washington’s Proposal To Legalize Marijuana And Sell It At State-Run Liquor Stores

Under her bill, marijuana would be sold in Washington state’s 160 state-run liquor stores, and customers, 21 and older, would pay a tax of 15 percent per gram. The measure would dedicate most of the money raised for substance abuse prevention and treatment, which is facing potential cuts in the state budget. Dickerson said the measure could eventually bring in as much to state coffers as alcohol does, more than $300 million a year.

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6. marisacat - 30 December 2009

hmm

BBC:

Eight US ‘CIA agents’ killed in Afghanistan bomb attack

Eight CIA agents have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in south-eastern Afghanistan, US reports say.

A bomber was wearing an explosive vest managed to enter Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost Province, on the border with Pakistan.

Several other people were reported injured by the blast.

In a separate attack, four Canadian soldiers and a journalist died when their vehicle was blown up in the southern province of Kandahar.

It is the worst fatal incident affecting Canadians in Afghanistan for more than two years.

The BBC’s Lee Carter in Toronto says the incident will be especially worrying to Canadians, as a civilian was among the dead.

The journalist has been identified as Michelle Lang, 34, from the Calgary Herald. She was on her first assignment in Afghanistan.

The armoured vehicle the group were travelling in was touring local reconstruction projects. ….

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7. BooHooHooMan - 30 December 2009

{ Sorry. My previous .02 Corrected for HTML }
::

catnip: “Our damn Con PM has shut down parliament for 2 months.

Now that the PTB has ducttaped the story together ….
the 8 American Dead – 8 CIA “employees” – nice – associate the CIA with having a good job – and 5 Canadian killed.

No wonder Harper sent Parliament home…feels like the
shades are being drawn on the overnight trains on the way to the Vancouver Olympics.

The Hawks begging for more are in quite a dilemma…
Frankly the stampede won’t work here (the U.S.) without a substantial loss…Which would be as likely to spark domestic outcry to GTFO of the ME, “sacred” fucked up “relationship” or not.

They are facing a certain certain tee time situational ethics here…

similar to turning to support friends whose youngster was injured, lets face it, more likely for a change of casual plans (wanting peace) to happen ( the public back on a war footing) with sopmething happening to a neighbor over anything ( any attack regardless of scale) at this point ….No the baby boo-boo’s here (provocative but contained incidents ) aren’t going to cut it.
let alone elsewhere with a relatively minor scratch.

There’s some kind of hook goin on.
Workin us. Workin us all.
Frankly to get people back on board for the GWOT,
short of catastrophic results and special effects? .
It isn’t going to happen over an attack on US .

The meme propogation is obvious, I think:
“Poor weak Ob.” “All alone”. “Vulnerable.” “No One to help him.”
It’s a set up.
As are these memes: “Oh security is so lax” …in GB..in the Netherlands..etc…
All variants of “We just can’t get people to cooperate…”

I. tell. you. what.
There are folks who would DELIGHT in a Vancouver reminder of the Munich 72 Olympics right about now..
They are hell bent on dragging us all into this.

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marisacat - 30 December 2009

John Burns has a piece in the NYT about how the problem is as much London – and I guess permissiveness with ME/non UK national ingrates whose father owns a 2, 3, or 4 million value flat… – as it is with Yemen.

Quite a comment…

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marisacat - 30 December 2009

Found the link o the Burns piece…

NYT link

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BooHooHooMan - 30 December 2009

Jeezis. Talk about an infowar…

That view, if confirmed, would offer a stark reaffirmation that Britain, the United States’ closest ally, continues to pose a major threat to American security.

The Deiciderers so want a do-over at roping everybody else in…
And have the bloody hatchet out for any ill tempered direction the UK’s Iraq Inquiry might take…influencing that will be easy I think…

The former tho? Another pass of the collection plate and body cart… …not a chance **without orchestrating some panic…

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marisacat - 30 December 2009

It’s a humdinger of a piece isn’t it?

America, at war with EVERYONE.

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

I see Mike Allen in Politico and the NYT are reporting that the UN is moving non locals out of the Pakistan station.

Not a good sign.

But then waht is?

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

via TPM full text:

AP source: CIA base chief killed in attack

AP source: CIA base chief killed in attack

AP source: Suicide bombing in Afghanistan killed CIA base chief for Khost Province

PAM HESS and ADAM GOLDMAN
AP News

Dec 31, 2009 11:58 EST

The Associated Press has learned that the chief of the CIA’s base in the Khost province of Afghanistan was among those killed by a suicide bomber along the Afghan-Pakistan frontier.

Seven CIA employees were killed and six others were injured Wednesday when a suicide bomber struck inside Camp Chapman, a CIA post near Khost.

The former CIA officials say the Khost chief was the mother of three. As base chief she would have directed and coordinated CIA operations and intelligence gathering in the province, a hotbed of Taliban and insurgent activity because of its proximity to Pakistan’s lawless tribal region

The former officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Source: AP News

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marisacat - 30 December 2009

hmm I don’t know if this is a “response” to the foolish Burns NYT piece or not… Patrick Cockburn in the Independent.

[I]t is in this fascinating but dangerous land that President Barack Obama is planning to increase US political and military involvement. Joint operations will be carried out by the US and Yemeni military. There will be American drone attacks on hamlets where al-Qa’ida supposedly has its bases.

There is ominous use by American politicians and commentators of the phrase “failed state” in relation to Yemen, as if this some how legitimised foreign intervention. It is extraordinary that the US political elite has never taken on board that its greatest defeats have been in just such “failed states”‘, not least Lebanon in 1982, when 240 US Marines were blown up; Somalia in the early 1990s when the body of a US helicopter pilot was dragged through the streets; Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein; and Afghanistan after the supposed fall of the Taliban.

Yemen has all the explosive ingredients of Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan. But the arch-hawk Senator Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, was happily confirming this week that the Green Berets and the US Special Forces are already there. He cited with approval an American official in Sanaa as telling him that, “Iraq was yesterday’s war. Afghanistan is today’s war. If you don’t act pre-emptively Yemen will be tomorrow’s war.” In practice pre-emptive strikes are likely to bring a US military entanglement in Yemen even closer.

The US will get entangled because the Yemeni government will want to manipulate US action in its own interests and to preserve its wilting authority. It has long been trying to portray the Shia rebels in north Yemen as Iranian cats-paws in order to secure American and Saudi support. Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) probably only has a few hundred activists in Yemen, but the government of long time Yemeni President Ali Abdulah Salih will portray his diverse opponents as somehow linked to al-Qa’ida.
…………………………

I think all we care about is some mad dash, across the decades, to gain hegemony over as much land and people as we can.

This is not going to go well………………

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

Every body wants in.

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

Bali Governor Warns of Possible Attack on New Year’s Eve [03:41 a.m. ET]

For more on this and other breaking news go to ABCNews.com: http://abcnews.go.com?nwltr=bn

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8. BooHooHooMan - 30 December 2009

Well some things aren’t so bad…

All I can say is DIE, motherfucker, DIE.

—> Limbaugh hospitalized with Chest Pains…in Hawaii for the holidays…Maybe HE was over at Ob’s crib the other day, and MO rocked his world with some afternoon delight…RFLMAO…Sure Would explain the mystery Whaaambulance and all….

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marisacat - 30 December 2009

oh but I find him so entertaining. I don’t wanna be left with what passes for his opposition. Really I don’t.

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BooHooHooMan - 30 December 2009

oh but think of the SAVINGS!
a minimum 25% OFF all DK /Olberman/ Maddow and Al Franken wares!

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marisacat - 30 December 2009

sorry, WP keeps throwing you into Spam File…

😳

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9. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 December 2009
marisacat - 30 December 2009

desperado, is all I can say. Because it did not come down that way, at all….

The Democrats need to constantly lead cheers and hurrahs for Bill C. Without him… there is nothing. Til post service they work to make Ob Little Mandela, or soemthing.

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10. catnip - 31 December 2009

I love our President too (0+ / 0-)

As I’ve mentioned, we have his framed pic with a candle before it and a hovering angel (with dark skin, we were lucky enough to find 😉 figurine embracing the frame, with a mount that says “angels protect him.”

It’s displayed prominently in our home.

We love Obama. We think he’s loving, caring, decent, brilliant, and ethical. We listen carefully to his speeches. We’re very proud of him.

We also think his powers are limited, and that unless the left gets pushy, the only forces upon him will be from the right.

If you can find money to kill people, you can find money to help people. –Tony Benn

by rhetoricus on Thu Dec 31, 2009 at 09:59:06 AM MST

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Madman in the Marketplace - 31 December 2009

a nation full of frightened, superstitious children.

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

that’s why they just flip the ”parties’ back and forth – holding power…. so many fucking nutz believers.

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11. Madman in the Marketplace - 31 December 2009
12. marisacat - 31 December 2009

I’ve seen references to this, but not with a link… just saw this at Angry Arab, he links to this Wired article… and btw, the document was NOT CLASSIFIED…:

If this happened in Russia, the New York Times would have put it on the front page

“Two bloggers received home visits from Transportation Security Administration agents Tuesday after they published a new TSA directive that revises screening procedures and puts new restrictions on passengers in the wake of a recent bombing attempt by the so-called underwear bomber. Special agents from the TSA’s Office of Inspection interrogated two U.S. bloggers, one of them an established travel columnist, and served them each with a civil subpoena demanding information on the anonymous source that provided the TSA document.” (thanks Laleh)

Posted by As’ad at 9:25 AM

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

Here is a bit more from the Wired article:

The document, which the two bloggers published within minutes of each other Dec. 27, was sent by TSA to airlines and airports around the world and described temporary new requirements for screening passengers through Dec. 30, including conducting “pat-downs” of legs and torsos. The document, which was not classified, was posted by numerous bloggers. Information from it was also published on some airline websites.

“They’re saying it’s a security document but it was sent to every airport and airline,” says Steven Frischling, one of the bloggers. “It was sent to Islamabad, to Riyadh and to Nigeria. So they’re looking for information about a security document sent to 10,000-plus people internationally. You can’t have a right to expect privacy after that.”

Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Suzanne Trevino said in a statement that security directives “are not for public disclosure.”
….

*****************************

AND I am probably behind with this… as I slept thru most of the morning.. but I just heard on the news that the suicide bomber at the CIA HQ near Khost was invited onto the base and was not searched.

For this we will endure invasive ex rays and pat downs…

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Madman in the Marketplace - 31 December 2009

I’m sick of CIA operatives being called “civilians”.

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

We’re in a hell of mess.. ntohing “civil” about any of it.

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13. marisacat - 31 December 2009

Here is something more from As’ad…. Angry Arab… I am just linking to his post as he links to three a UK report, an All Africa report and a Veterans Today report:

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Here we go: a conspiracy theory without evidence

“We do know a couple of things. Dad, back in Nigeria, ran the national arms industry (DICON) in partnership with Israel, in particular, the Mossad. He was in daily contact with them. They run everything in Nigeria, from arms production to counter-terrorism. Though Islamic, Muttalab was a close associate of Israel. He has been misrepresented. His “banking” is a cover.”

But how do you know that he was in daily contact with them? How do you know that Muttalab was a “close associate of Israel”. I am for resorting to conspiracy theories but only when we have evidence. (thanks Dale)

Posted by As’ad at 9:08 AM

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14. Madman in the Marketplace - 31 December 2009

It’s as good a theory as most I’ve heard. He starts out talking about children of privilege he met in college, people who went into science or art or some other field instead of taking up whatever “family business” they inherited.

Then:Who gets the treasured stock exchange seat? The Skull & Bones membership? The golf games with Illuminati board members? I even probed about this a couple of times, when I felt the friendship could stand it. Clues showed up, when I would accompany a friend to some family gathering, and met relatives. Soon, I observed enough to stoke a growing suspicion.

Who got the power and influence?

Dim-witted siblings. That’s who. The family dullards, who are not lured by adventures in science or innovation or the arts. The brother who, if left in charge of a restaurant or small business would run up the mortgage and leave it bankrupt, in months. The sister for whom preening and partying with Paris Hilton actually seems important. The kind who drift toward crony dealing, because genuine market competition might be way too challenging. Who will clasp their (reflex-genetically-inherited-by-all-of-us) notions of born-privilege, and justify them with mantras of smug superiority.

Look, I am really, really not interested in making enemies of any of these rich/spoiled/dumbasastone fellows, so in case any of them just happen to read this obscure blog, will you accept a pre-apology? Or assume I am talking about someone else? Thanks.

Nevertheless, seriously, don’t we all know what families are like? Typically, each one has its bright bulbs and dim ones. In fact, one of the ways that families work best is that the bright sons and daughters wind up taking care of everybody else. If there’s a shared business, they make sure the taxes get paid and the workers are happily creative and that customers remain content. They see too it that the whole thing doesn’t get leveraged too far to weather the next storm, and they refuse to let company officers vote themselves lavish bonuses, diminishing value that could be re-invested in growth. They use their prefrontal lobes to look ahead and invest not in wild ass get-rich-fast schemes, but in things that will enhance product or service, engendering more wealth — for everybody — down stream.

You see this in almost any family-run business. Sometimes, the other siblings resent it. Often, they know what’s good for them and help the smart-bro or wise-sis, however they can. (Heck, we saw it in “The Godfather,” right? Well, maybe that’s not such a great example, after all.)

Only here’s the point. An awful lot of American family businesses don’t get to benefit from this process. They lose the natural leader, for a reason that’s ultimately ironic — because the bright siblings may get a little too bright. Having been raised in some comfort and privilege, with all the education they could possibly want, lo and behold, they want – and get – a lot! Moreover, they look around for where exciting stuff is happening, and they soon come to recognize the places where human endeavor is really achieving important things, pushing back the envelope. Challenging the unknown, breaking molds, inventing the new, and unrolling the very blueprints of God.

Sure, sometimes these challenges can be found right there, in the family business. Making the products and services way-better. Terrific. Still, there is a natural human tendency for the smartest kids to wander off, away from all the privileges and assumptions, to prove they can make it on their own, perhaps even in a field where some of humanity’s top minds may acknowledge their talents and hard work with the greatest of all rewards… that nod of genuine respect.

It doesn’t have to be science, though that is where I found these refugees from the aristocracy, most often. It might also be the arts, or starting a new company from scratch, in a completely different field. Any way you look at it, this trend has to be viewed with admiration.

Alas, it may also be one of the principal reasons that American capitalism is going down the toilet. Because… who is left behind, minding the store? Oh. Yeah. I already answered that question.

The betrayal of the smart sons

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Madman in the Marketplace - 31 December 2009

Darn it … pasted in the blockprint in the wrong place. after “Then:” should have been blockquoted under the link.

Sorry!

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

think I fixed it… did i get it right?

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Madman in the Marketplace - 31 December 2009

Thanks!

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

And some bright bulbs just want to get away from their family…………………….

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15. catnip - 31 December 2009

Boober calls the waahmbulance:

The only progressives who get on teevee and radio are bombthrowers who attack the president (and blacks that got confused and became Republican shills). You never see supportive progressive bloggers on television or radio. Never.

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

IMO if Boober calls an ambulance, one with 4 flat tires will arrive.

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catnip - 31 December 2009

2 birds with one stone in that little screed:

1) racist bullshit (and I’m not kidding about the racism this time)

2) a blatantly desperate attempt to be somehow relevant (if they’d ONLY call him to be on teevee! I’ll bet he has a little Obamalama shrine w/ angels too…)

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16. Madman in the Marketplace - 31 December 2009

Why Is Michael Chertoff So Excited About Full-Body Scanners?

In 2009, Chertoff founded the Chertoff Group, a security consulting agency. The Chertoff Group’s client list is unknown—Chertoff refused to talk about it in an interview—but he admits in the clip above that some of his clients manufacture full-body scanners.

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

I am sorry… WP is slamming everyone, including me, to Spam, at times.

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

AND ALL OF THIS is moving us to global full body scanners for International flights…. it is DISGUSTING. I noted particularly that KGO has pushed for it almost from the afternoon of the 26th.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 31 December 2009

I’ve heard several operatives, including Chertoff, describe opposition as being from “privacy kooks”.

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

Well one of those “kooks” is a Republican in the House… who raises the issue of why must his 8 year old son be seen in such fashion, by anyone.

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catnip - 31 December 2009

The ACLU had a post up at the Big Orange Fear factory opposing the scanners and several people chimed in with comments about not being puritans about being seen naked.

They just don’t get it.

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

well the issue is being made a suspect. At least every time i had trouble traveling I saw it that way. Took me years to figure out that traveling alone I was an easy mark to be pulled aside. Among other things.

In comments at Slate to an actually good article by Hitchens on the idiocy of all this, was a description of the security at of all places, Maracaibo Venezuela, the airport…. It was horrific. No desire to live like that… surrounded by police, or operatives or the state military.

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catnip - 31 December 2009

well the issue is being made a suspect.

Exactly. And it seems to me the cops have to provide grounds for a search. Just being an airline passenger doesn’t exactly meet that test, afaic.

The other “argument” I see is that flying is not a “right”. IOW, if you don’t like the scanners just walk or take the bus etc.

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

Yes but they use the fact that on one has to fly. hmm I don’t see it quite that way either.

I mean, INTELLIGENCE and procedural follow-thru failed here (let’s stick to the official story for the moment) and I still don’t see why the flying public (as well as airline stock) has to pay.

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catnip - 31 December 2009

It’s just a dog and pony show – right along with ObamaCo threatening to bomb Yemen again.

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catnip - 31 December 2009

I don’t have a problem with the bodyu scanners (0+ / 0-)

It’s not as if they’re actual photographs someone could print out and jerk off to (and if they did, who would it really hurt?). WHY are Americans so hysterical about that sort of privacy? I’d prefer them to a patdown (and, yes, I’ve had a couple of very careful body searches in my time; one was in Madrid in 74 when there’d been an issue a few days earlier–they searched everyone boarding a plane).

As for #3, why doesn’t someone TEST them to see if they’d be able to reveal anatomically congruent padding or plastic explosives? Wouldn’t that be the way to settle the issue?

The last time we mixed religion and politics people got burned at the stake.

by irishwitch on Thu Dec 31, 2009 at 01:28:15 PM MST

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

well I don’t want to be too nasty here, but irishwitch had revealed she is into sub and dom games.

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catnip - 31 December 2009

That’s fine. Just keep them out of the airports. 😉

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

Well I agree… she can do what she wants… but being subjected to a pat down, and in some case repeated pat downs… and or invasive imaging is suited to a submissive.

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17. catnip - 31 December 2009
18. catnip - 31 December 2009

US judge dismisses charges in Blackwater Iraq killings

Can’t have Blackwater on trial while the Pentagon has ongoing contracts with them.

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19. marisacat - 31 December 2009

BTW thsi appeared last night in a Independent report… don’t think I have heard it state side… they not only missed he had a valid 2 year visa for multiple entries they missed he had USED it. Or so it would appear….

* It emerged last night that Abdulmutallab spent two weeks in Houston last year attending a seminar conducted by an internet-based Islamic education center. Waleed Basyouni, vice-president of the AlMaghrib Institute, said Abdulmutallab registered online in April 2008, then attended a two-week programme hosted by the institute in Houston four months later. Records show the Nigerian identified himself as a 21-year-old student at UCL and the London School of Economics.

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20. catnip - 31 December 2009
21. marisacat - 31 December 2009

I see they also have found a 1000 lb bomb stashed in Northern Ireland.

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catnip - 31 December 2009

al qaeda, no doubt. 😉

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

yeah celtic division.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 31 December 2009

erin go boom

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catnip - 31 December 2009

😆

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BooHooHooMan - 31 December 2009

Headed, of course, by O’Seamus bin Laden.

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22. catnip - 31 December 2009

A once-in-a-blue-moon New Year’s Eve

PARIS — For only the second time in nearly two decades, December will end with Earth illuminated by a “Blue Moon,” the name given to the second full moon appearing in a single month.

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23. marisacat - 31 December 2009

PD James the mystery writer, surfaces in real life. I don’t know the outcome, down the line, but catching reports and news from UK and the Continent they seem more serious, possibly, about huge pay and bonuses…

From The Times January 1, 2010

P.D. James attacks BBC over ageism and executive pay

Alexi Mostrous, Media Editor

Lady James compared the BBC to a ‘large, unwieldy ship’ that has lost direction

“What the detective story is about,” P. D. James once said, “is not murder but the restoration of order.” Yesterday the 89-year-old crime writer attempted to bring some order to BBC finances by giving its DirectorGeneral a grilling over six-figure pay packets awarded to top executives.

Baroness James of Holland Park criticised Mark Thompson for paying staff “extraordinarily large salaries” that were “very difficult to justify”, when she interviewed him as a guest editor of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. “It is really quite extraordinary that 375 BBC employees earn over £100,000,” the Tory peer and former BBC governor said. “An organisation that has 37 of its managers earning more than the Prime Minister surely ought to ask itself ‘Is this justified?’.”

Official figures released last month showed that 37 BBC staff were earning more than the Prime Minister’s salary of £198,000. There was “immense concern”, Lady James said, “about the salary structure, if indeed there is a structure. Somehow the people who are making the programmes don’t receive this largess — it seems to be a huge great waste of middle management, which is very difficult to justify. …..

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24. Madman in the Marketplace - 31 December 2009

David Byrne – The Limits of Multiculturalism

I was told that a powerful rabbi based in Williamsburg objected strongly to the bike lanes that run alongside their ghetto on Bedford Ave. We were informed that the sight of hipster girls, their heads uncovered and sometimes their lower legs as well, is just too much to bear — though it’s winter now, and surely the gals are bundled up this time of year? Well, that was what, we were told, was the problem initially.

So, the powerful rabbi insisted to the DOT that the lanes had to go — and shortly thereafter they did.

Sure enough, some (Jewish) hipsters repainted the lane by hand, and the rabbi’s wrath was aroused once again — his neighborhood watch (vigilante) group detained the hipsters until the cops came. After no subsequent action against the perps was taken by the city, he demanded that the kids be re-apprehended, which they were — they voluntarily turned themselves in.

OK, on the face of it this is all pretty silly if you live in NY. Hasidic men are not supposed to see scantily clad women. (The man in the photo above has turned his head, but the gal is having a good long look.) In the past they’ve also complained about sexy billboards (ads for Sex and the City) on the BQE and elsewhere. How do they manage when they travel to Manhattan to deal diamonds and cameras? Are they blindfolded until they enter B&H? In addition, that corridor alongside the Hasidic ghetto is just about the only way to cycle from Williamsburg to Dumbo, Vinegar Hill or Brooklyn Heights. The stream of sexy cyclists will therefore continue, though at greater risk to their own safety. Maybe there could be a service offering wigs and wraps for cyclists passing through the No Skin zone.

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

So fucking tired of the religious leaders… ALLL OF THEM… rabbi imam priest minister telefuckingevangelist… all of them

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25. Madman in the Marketplace - 31 December 2009
26. Madman in the Marketplace - 31 December 2009
marisacat - 31 December 2009

I got the feeling from just the Wired article that TSA, the agents that went o the two homes… and whatever HLS office they were attached to, felt insecure about how far they had gone.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 31 December 2009

I think nobody knows how far they can or are supposed to go, and the White House is so wishy washy … I’m sure that doesn’t help.

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

Obama is weak. It’s a big problem.

And we can all smell the panic…

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27. marisacat - 31 December 2009

in case it matters… Telegraph

“Further investigations by the Nigerian government have revealed that Abdulmutallab spent less than 30 minutes in the Nigerian airport before boarding the flight to Amsterdam,” said Dora Akunyili, the information minister.

“He arrived in Nigeria on 24 December from Ghana via Virgin Nigeria. His passport was scanned on entry into Nigeria at 20:08 and was scanned in at check-in for departure to Amsterdam at 20:35,” she said. …

Sounds like: passport in hand…

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28. BooHooHooMan - 31 December 2009

Judge Drops Charges From Blackwater Deaths in Iraq

New Years Eve the Judge hands it down.
I wonder how much he got paid.
So who is this Judge Ricardo M. Urbina ?

Get this…
Less than two weeks ago he signed a habeus corpus for a kid from Yemen , they say- Saeed_Hatim, who was rendered out of Afghanistan to Gitmo in 2002 at the age of 16. 7 and a half years…

This stinks like shit, the whole thing…
– the Habeus ruling – (he still isn’t released) gives Obie and the Hawks some post Peace Prize Herk Jerky Headline COVER as they escalate the War…
– so this Urbina – who heretofore has made NO impact whatsoever on the Federal Bench since Bill – let’s be blunt, shall we?
– — > handed him the slot to appease the affirmative action villagers of DC.

So This Urbina has the one substantial decision the other week over a long miscarriage of Justice resulting in NOTHING for the detainee, while he gets his liberalish lackey street cred to let Blackwater walk…and they can call the whole thing “Jurisprudence”, ~
~“See Heeyah, Judge Urbina actually ruled in favor of a detainee He’s all ABOUT rule of law…” ETC. The guy – ANOTHER FOUNDLING- was more invisible on the bench throughout his career than Clarence Thomas.

Fuck we’re as likely to collapse under our own hypocrisy as anything else.

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29. BooHooHooMan - 31 December 2009

Hopefully correct HTML here…

Judge Drops Charges From Blackwater Deaths in Iraq

New Years Eve the Judge hands it down.
I wonder how much he got paid.
So who is this Judge Ricardo M. Urbina ?

Get this…
Less than two weeks ago he signed a habeus corpus for a kid from Yemen , they say- Saeed_Hatim, who was rendered out of Afghanistan to Gitmo in 2002 at the age of 16. 7 and a half years…

This stinks like shit, the whole thing…
– the Habeus ruling – (Hatim still isn’t released and the order is sealed- ) gives Obie and the Hawks some post Peace Prize Herk Jerky Headline COVER as they escalate the War…
– so this Urbina – who heretofore has made NO impact whatsoever on the Federal Bench since Bill – let’s be blunt, shall we?
– — > handed him the slot to appease the affirmative action villagers of DC.…

So This Urbina has the one substantial decision the other week over a long miscarriage of Justice resulting in NOTHING for the detainee, while he gets his liberalish lackey street cred to let Blackwater walk…and they can call the whole thing “Jurisprudence”, ~
~“See Heeyah, Judge Urbina actually ruled in favor of a detainee He’s all ABOUT rule of law…” ETC. The guy – ANOTHER FOUNDLING- was more invisible on the bench throughout his career than Clarence Thomas.

Satim is still in limbo, Still in GITMO, Judge Urbina’s order sealed, leaving Obie and HIS Masters to diddle whither they shall appeal while already having received the much needed PR benefit for Obama, the Peace Prize Winning War Whore.

and Blackwater walks for massacring civilians…

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30. marisacat - 31 December 2009

ugh… the media is basically Yemen TV, all around the clock…

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31. BooHooHooMan - 31 December 2009

Spam. Duplicate posts on Blackwater ruling.
Second one corrected for HTML ..
(I think.) 😯 😳

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

got it out and moved a copy of it to the new thread…

SO SORRY it was languishing in Spam… 😳

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32. catnip - 31 December 2009

The Independent: Exclusive: Secret Army squad ‘abused Iraqis’

A secret army interrogation unit accused of being responsible for the widespread abuse of Iraqi prisoners is being investigated by the Ministry of Defence.

Fourteen fresh claims of torture against the British Army include detailed accounts of a shadowy team of military and MI5 interrogators who are alleged to have authorised the physical and sexual abuse of Iraqi detainees.

The new allegations bring the total number of cases being investigated by the Government to 47.

Many of the Iraqis allege they were abused after they were sent to a unit called the Joint Forward Intelligence Team (JFIT) based at the Army’s Shaibah Logistics Base, 13 miles from Basra, between 2004 and 2007. Nearly all the men say they were beaten, denied sleep and then dragged around the prison compound before facing multiple interrogations.

In one account the interrogators are accused of creating an image superimposing a suspect’s head on the body of a man who is sexually abusing a child, and then threatening to disseminate the image throughout Basra.

In another, a detainee, held in solitary confinement for 36 days, alleges that interrogators threatened to rape his wife and kill his children.

Many of the detainees’ witness statements appear to corroborate each other by referring to named soldiers responsible for their alleged torture.

According to the Iraqis’ solicitors, Public Interest Law (PIL), the men were all held in solitary confinement in a “compound within a compound” guarded by a specialist detachment of soldiers. The lawyers claim that the JFIT interrogators were a mix of members of the military, MI5 and civilian staff and that they took their orders directly from London.

In 2003 the Americans raised concerns that the British were failing to secure intelligence from Iraqi prisoners held at the UK/US Camp Bucca in southern Iraq who were suspected of having close links with extremist militias. They urged their British counterparts to take a tougher line.

etc…

Rasmussen: 58% Favor Waterboarding of Plane Terrorist To Get Information

Fucked up world.

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marisacat - 31 December 2009

I’ll move this forward to the new thread.

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33. marisacat - 31 December 2009

gnu

New…

………….. 🙄 ……………

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