Staying the Course (to failure)

As related in What 'staying the course' really means by Robert Dreyfuss:

Nearly three years into the war in Iraq, the Bush administration tells us that it wasn't about weapons of mass destruction or Iraqi ties to al-Qaeda, but about America's holy mission to spread democracy to the benighted regions of the Middle East. However, postwar Iraq is anything but a democracy. In fact, if Iraq manages to avoid all-out civil war, it is likely to end up with a government that is fiercely undemocratic - a Shi'ite theocratic dictatorship that rules by terror, torture, and armed might.

The policy of the Bush Administration is a Failure for the US; but a sucess for Iran. I'm sure glad the money the federal government robs from my paycheck, and will continue to rob, is going to the betterment of the Iranian Government. The incompotence is a truly amazing endless sourse of amusement. At least I'm getting something for my tax dollars.

Gloom and Doom

In Doom and gloom sweeps over the GOP but Dems aren't home free Doug Thompson relates the fall of the Republican Party and the failures of the Democrats. All losers.

The Grave Threat of the Bush Administration by Paul Craig Roberts relates that even if US troops might Withdraw from Iraq (I'll have to see it to believe it), the police state at home is going full speed ahead. Maybe we'll get lucky and the Chinese refuse to fund it.

Excerpt:

Does anyone really believe that al Qaeda leaders would conspire with an American college student to assassinate President Bush? Indeed, President Bush has been Osama bin Laden's greatest benefactor. Why would al Qaeda want to kill the man who is doing them so much good?
Before Bush launched his war on terror and invaded Iraq, the vast majority of Muslims thought bin Laden was a nut case and supported the US. Today Muslims think Bush is a nut case and support bin Laden.

Worth Reading

Worth Reading:

Ahmed Rashid.

The ties that tangle Iraq and Iran.

The Grave Threat of the Bush Administration.

No Internal Peace

Read MARKET-STATE vs. SHARIA-STATE ? This discussion regards the "passing away" of era of the sovereign nation-state. The cause is due to

1. The Moral Claim of Human Rights
2. Nuclear Weapon proliferation
3. Rise of global and transnational threats
4. Globalization of liberal capitalist economic model
5. Rise of the global communications network

I would have to add cultural decadence and economic decline to the list. In addition, government is becoming more incapable of providing its obligations like the maintainence of infrastructure and ensuring internal peace.

Looking Around

I will be away for a few days, so here's a few links:

Three Who see the War Clearly. The DLC is trying to cover its collective ass. Frankly, despite my strong dislike of the republican agenda, I would rather see the DLC bite the dust. At least the Republicans are honest fascists. See Also and Also.

Juan Cole relates the sordid tale of Bush's plans to bomb Al-Jazeera. I'll bet it isn't just their editorial slant that threatens Bush, but their lack of being embedded. He'll probably try to go after Robert Fisk next. See Also.

Here's another article concerning the Zetas. Your previous tax dollars are well at work.

Check out Unknown News. Always informative.

Read Asia Times Time to talk: US engages the Taliban. They're back.

Goodbye M3

In M3 becomes a liability for the Fed, as the author explains:

If an increase in the money supply is the cause of a rise in the general price level than M3 is an important measure of price inflation simply because it is considered to be the broadest measure of money and, hence, the best measure of price inflation.

And Continues:

If an increase in the money supply is the cause of a rise in the general price level than M3 is an important measure of price inflation simply because it is considered to be the broadest measure of money and, hence, the best measure of price inflation. With M3 crossing the 10 trillion dollar level the Fed has decided to stop publication of this important data.

And goes on:

My basic premise is that any increase in the money supply robs someone of the purchasing power of their medium of exchange (money) simply because someone else has produced more of the same medium of exchange without working for it. That is unless you consider running a printing press or pecking the keys of a computer keyboard to create money to be legitimate work.

So a policy decision has been made to hide the economic rot. For a time, it may work, but reality has a habit of biting the deluded right in the ass.

Roosting

Coming to a country near you: Mexico is Becoming the Next Colombia. The border area and other regions have certainly become more Chaotic. Watch for it. It ain't just Killer Bees moving North. US policy has been to keep Mexico stagnant. Those chickens are coming home to roost.

See Also via herd or not to herd.

Word of Wisdom

Three Various Links:

unknown News presents Words of wisdom from U.S. leaders. They sure are an all-knowing bunch.

The Black Commentator presents Riots are a Class Act And Often They're the Only Alternative. As someone who enjoys riots, I say right-on! I feel most free in confrontations with the riot line. On occasion, I hear someone ask "why do they burn their own neighborhoods to the ground?" Such people obviously do not hate where they live. Who cares about change when you can eliminate it?

I was shocked to hear a politician not talk like a whore. Of course, he still talked like a politician but here's John Murtha's 'War in Iraq' speech - Transcript. The Administration is systemically incapable of admitting its failures. Legitimacy is hanging by a thread.

Japanese Racism

In "Hating the Korean Wave," a young Japanese woman says, "It's not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today!"

-The New York Times.

Apparently, Japanese racism toward the Koreans and Chinese is alive and well. According to the New York Times, "... two comic books, portraying Chinese and Koreans as base peoples and advocating confrontation with them, have become runaway best sellers in Japan in the last four months." I think Japan had better watch itself. I have been told by Koreans that they long for nothing else than to unify the two Koreas and pay Japan back. The Chinese are also very anti-Japan for the same reasons. Keep it up, and they may find Hiroshima and Nagasaki revisited.

Twin Failures: Talking Gila Monster and the Democrats

The Talking Gila Monster has described as "dishonest and reprehensible" accusations from opposition Democrats that the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to justify the war in Iraq. Finger pointing: such is the price of failure. The fact is the Democrats, who voted for the war, had to have known the case for war was week. They just didn't care. As the letter to the editor (middle of the page) by Thomas Westman states:

Too bad Democrats have nothing better to offer I am completely tired of reading complaints about the Bush administration and the behavior of the Republican-controlled Congress. Newspapers, so-called columnists, bloggers, and radio "personalities" report and comment on new and old acts of deceit, cronyism, mismanagement, etc. By now everyone in the world except for the ultraright, the president and Republican cronies all know this country is in disastrous circumstances. The failures of this administration are no longer a main topic for discussion.But what is more disastrous for this nation is the total collapse of the Democratic Party. Does it even exist as a party? In 2004, they began with the leading candidate being Howard Dean, now perceived to be a total doofus with a big ego. And they could only field John Kerry as a presidential candidate. While Kerry is a nice guy, he seems unable to decide anything for very long. Now Howard Dean is Democratic Party chairman, seemingly unable to gather much in the way of campaign funding or to effectively refute the lies and misstatements emanating from the White House. Compounding their problems they are also seemingly incapable of formulating and promoting programs that will be realistic alternatives to the present Bush catastrophes. Now we read that Hillary Clinton is the leading Democratic presidential candidate for 2008. She is the darling of the ultraliberal wing of the party, yet poll after poll say she has no broad support from moderate Democrats, independents or liberal Republicans. Like lemmings marching to the sea, the Democrats continue their own march to oblivion...

It pretty well sums up their abject failure as a party. In any case, only real losers could lose twice to Bush and Cheney.

Here's another rant about both parties.

300th Post

That's right! 300 posts in about a year. I though it appropriate for the 300th to say absolutely nothing.

(Currently blogger does not let me look at anything past the last 300 posts without a bother.)

The Receiving End

According to The Scotsman and other news sources, Al-Qaeda may have gone too far:

AFTER years of al-Qaeda terror attacks in which thousands have been killed, many of them Muslims - the people they wish to recruit - voices of dissent are starting to be heard in the Middle East. As moderate Muslims dare to protest at daily death tolls, even the prospect of one of Osama bin Laden's most feared cohorts, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, being handed over is being discussed. Faced with the unprecedented outburst of fury among Muslims over its latest atrocity, al-Qaeda's concern about reaction in the Middle East was evident last week when it came the closest yet to an apology. It offered an "explanation" for one of worst attacks to hit Jordan in modern history, in which suicide bombers turned wedding parties into scenes of destruction, killing at least 60 people and injuring 96 at international hotels in Amman. At first al-Qaeda announced that "a group of our best lions" had carried out the attacks to punish Jordan for supporting "the Jews and Crusaders". Then late at night it posted a second statement on the internet "to explain to Muslims part of the reason the holy warriors targeted these dens." It said it had ordered the suicide attacks on the hotels "only after becoming confident that they were centres for launching war on Islam and supporting the Crusaders' presence in Iraq and the Arab peninsula and the presence of the Jews on the land of Palestine." A third statement on Friday also had a defensive tone. It said the bombers were four Iraqis, who had chosen the hotels "after a month of surveillance and information gathering". Al-Qaeda's volte-face was caused by an unprecedented emotional outpouring of anger against the terrorist organisation in Jordan. On Thursday thousands of Jordanians protested across the country to denounce the head of the al-Qaeda terrorist group in Iraq, Zarqawi, America's most wanted enemy. They marched through Amman chanting: "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!"

It's not so great when you are on the receiving end. These people sound like the British or Americans or the French...

Typoglycemia

Here's an amusing email someone sent me.

Typoglycemia

Don't delete this because it looks weird.

Believe itor not you can readit.I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrdwaht I was rdanieg. Thephaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to arscheearch at CmabrigdeUinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteersin a wrod are, theolny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteerbe in the rghitpclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitllraed it wouthit aporbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raedervey lteter byistlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh andI awlyas thoughtslpeling was ipmorantt.

Normal?

Here's an excerpt from an AP article titled Police Guard Paris Treasures From Rioters:

``We returned to an almost normal situation in Ile de France,'' said Gaudin, referring to the Paris region. He said that 86 vehicles were burned, which he said was about normal.

So in other words, it's normal to have 86 vehicles torched on a typical weekend evening in Paris? I guess it gives new meaning to "City of Lights."

"So Twentieth Century."

The Rioting in France and the Decline of the State By Fabius Maximus makes good points about the French Riots.

It leads:In many nations, both rich and poor, the State’s governing mechanisms remain strong; but its hold on the hearts of its subjects weakens every generation. And it was only that loyalty that allowed the machinery to get built. When that loyalty goes, this machinery will seize up and then rust away.

Someday kids will refer to the state as "So Twentieth Century."

Dick Cheney: Sabotaging America relates how the political leadership is the US's worst enemy. It would be amazing where it not so obvious. The mediocre can't even use Maximum Advantage well.

Meat

Juan Cole has something to say about honkies who only hang around other honkies. In particular, he is referring to the Archetypal Idiot Intellectual. It comes in degrees and all shades. This particular subtype live in a mythical fantasy land where their world will last forever. At best (we might just say "touched"), they are just unaware but opinionated. Their world has ceased to exist. At worst (full blown stupid), their thoughts are a carbon copy. When faced with ruin, these latter people are inept at basic survival skills. Their only value is as meat.

Reaping

It would appear that the situation is France is more serious than simple rioting. According to Matt Reichel, an American expatriate studying and working in Paris, these events are the consequences of France's colonial past and the cultural chauvanism of French society. The French blame the immigrant community but seem to easily forget that most of the families living in the french suburban ghettos are decended from people who were forced to leave their homelands after France fucked them up in the first place. If you don't want immigrants, you probably shouldn't colonize them.

Global Guerrillas has a few interesting observations regarding Open Source Warfare in France Here and Here.

French Riots

The French Riots continue to highlight the deep divisions within French society. The fact is France has just as many problems as the US. The only reason France is not viewed as great a threat by the rest of the world is because it is smaller.

See Also via to herd or not to herd.

No Air

Regarding the quote from This article:

I have a nagging sense, and think I have accurately observed, that many of these people have made a separate peace. That they're living their lives and taking their pleasures and pursuing their agendas; that they're going forward each day with the knowledge, which they hold more securely and with greater reason than nonelites, that the wheels are off the trolley and the trolley's off the tracks, and with a conviction, a certainty, that there is nothing they can do about it.

Jomama makes the following observation:

I expect that last paragraph applies to very few Power Freaks and, like fish that live in water, they have no concept of air.

I would definitely agree with Jomama's observation. They are a clueless bunch, because their beliefs are constantly being reinforced by their own kind, and (besides servants and flunkies) are not in contact enough with anyone else to hear anything different. They own the mass media and it reinforces their perceptions. They hear what they want to hear. In addition, they all go to the same schools where they are all taught the same things. For the elite, their Verbal World appears to be the real world. Of course, they can't all be idiots. Perhaps the author mearly knows some such. I would say an indication might be how they have recently arranged their finances. Since no financial panic has occurred (beyond the usual) most are clueless.

O-Sauma-Clause

Here's my early X-Mas gift by Captain Lightning.

As he explains:

Here by popular request, is a nice little christmas poem for you and your family. You qill find it suitable for framing, and you might just want to place this 'Christmas Carol' on your Christmas cards! Send it to the White House, or place it in the out house, what ever, it is sure to be a family favorite for the years to come!!

O-Sauma-Clause
(An arab Christmas Story)
By Al-Quaida's "One-Who-Can-Read"
(Translated from Arabic to Farsi by Ahilitola Shee-it Ali)
(Translated into English by Bubba)
‘Twas the eve of Ramadan and all through the night,
only the Coalition was stirring—Al-Quida slept tight,
I and my Brothers were snuggled in our beds,
with visions of sweet Martyrdom running through our heads,
I dreamt that we'd all taken turns on His knees,
asking: "Oh please, O-Sauma-Clause, some W.M.D.s!"
When outside in the desert there rose such a clatter,
I shot out of my robes to see what was the matter!
And what should my blood-shot, astonished eyes see?
but fifteen tanks and a bunch of Humvees!
The Coalition Infidal had drawn up so near,
in hopes of finding O-Sauma-Ben-Clause here!
I ran back to the cave, but what should appear?
a sign that O-Sauma had really been here!
Right there, ‘neath His picture, so shiny and bright,
RPGs and Kalishnakovs had appeared in the night!
As I pondered this miracle, I heard a scrambling sound,
and my hair stood on end—I spun completely around!
From the rock chimney above an AK tumbled and fell,
and from the ceiling came O-Sauma-Clause like a bat outa Hell!
He dusted Himself off as he rose from the ground,
"Fuck this," shouted O-Sauma, "I'll see you around!"
I heard through His dust, as He disappeared:
"Hang on to your guns boys, and I'm fucking out of here!
"Fatwah!"