Category — Uncategorized

when FEMA has a disaster?

Weston Kosova at Newsweek covers The Real Fake News. [Not Maru or TBogg, but not bad.]

The BBC notes: IAEA findings on Iran dismissed

France and the US have dismissed a finding by the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog Mohammed ElBaradei that there is no evidence of Iran building a bomb.

French Defence Minister Herve Morin challenged Iran to allow UN inspectors unlimited access to sites.

A White House spokeswoman said Iran was “enriching and reprocessing uranium, and the reason that one does that is to lead towards a nuclear weapon”.

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Just so you know: Argentina’s first lady wins poll

Argentina’s current first lady, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, has secured victory in the country’s presidential election.

With most of the ballots counted, Mrs Kirchner had an unassailable lead with 44.9% of the votes.

Her nearest rival, former lawmaker Elisa Carrio, has admitted defeat, trailing on 23% of the vote.

Mrs Kirchner will succeed her husband Nestor Kirchner and become Argentina’s first elected female president.

Argentina wants you to know that this had nothing to with Eva Perón, but they wouldn’t say no to a visit from Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Maybe Exxon will be able to pay the fine in a week: Oil price settles at record high

By close of trade in New York, US light crude for December delivery rose by $1.67 to $93.53 a barrel, marking a record settlement price.

We have to attack Iran because the oil market responds so well to things going boom in the region. This is the price for December delivery, but it will be reflected in your price at the pump tomorrow.

The BBC tells us that if you are a big oil company, the Supreme Court feels your pain: Exxon can appeal $2.5bn oil fine

Exxon Mobil has won the right to appeal against a $2.5bn (£1.21bn) damages bill relating to a 1989 Alaskan oil spill.

The US Supreme Court said it would hear the appeal against record damages due to victims of the Valdez oil spill.

The case has dragged on since 1994 with the US oil giant fighting to reduce the bill, which it has called excessive.

In what was one of the biggest ever oil spills, 11 million gallons of crude were released into Alaska’s wilderness after the Exxon tanker hit a reef.

About 1,300 miles (2,080km) of coastline was contaminated as a result of the oil spill.

It takes Exxon a couple of weeks to earn the money for the fine, and people have been waiting for 13 years to settle this case. Maybe Congress will grant them immunity to make the whole thing go away.

Ian Welsh at Fire Dog Lake does a nice job explaining why things went to hell after the Iraqi army stopped fighting in the post: The Rules of Power.

This is very old knowledge and applies not simply to wars, but to policing everywhere. If you think about it, this is also the reason that schools should be aggressively stopping bullying, and why it is so hard to uproot gangs.

The minute that the US forces allowed looting to continue, they lost control. It is a lot easier to maintain control than to regain it.

that they didn’t have an exit plan, and went in anyway. This is a rookie mistake. Every flag officer who went along with this is an amateur not worthy of any respect for military ability. They were Judas goats leading their troops to disaster.

The BBC is running a two part television show: No plan, no peace in Iraq

“Iraq will be better,” declared Tony Blair five days after the fall of Saddam.

“Better for the region, better for the world, better, above all, for the Iraqi people.”

That contrasts starkly with the 100,000 or so civilians dead, four million refuges inside and outside Iraq, 4,141 coalition solders who have died and the cost to the UK of well in excess of £5bn.

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Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

On the surface Barack Obama is a great candidate with a lot going for him – he’s young, energetic, intelligent, hasn’t sold out to the lobbyists, hasn’t had enough time to be tainted by inside the Beltway thinking. Going in he looked really good, and a fine choice, but it has been down hill ever since.

While you can find out who his campaign advisors are, you can’t really know who he’s listening to when they give their advice. As a result, whatever comes out has to be assumed to be his thinking and his opinion.

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…but the new US passport is too cute by half.

Michael Currie Schaffer of The New Republic wrote an op-ed, An Embarrassingly Patriotic Passport, that contained a link the new e-Passport at the State Department site. [Warning: it’s an animation and you have to put your cursor on it to get it to stop.]

Using graphics to prevent counterfeiting is one thing, but this is going to be easy to counterfeit because it is so “busy” and distracting.

If you live in the Hudson Valley of New York, you may want to spend Monday in your basement. “Dead-eye Dick” Cheney is rumored to be murdering small caged animals in Dutchess County on that day.

If you are a lawyer, you might want to consider filing amicus briefs with the Hawaii supreme court next week or wearing a vest with your suit to avoid embarrassment.

Oh, yes, keep your birds, hamsters, gerbils, or any small animal in a cage away from your windows.

TBogg explains why President Speed Bump should have stayed home.

You can show your concern with a video conference, a few stills of watching the coverage on television, and statement of concern. A statement that you don’t want to interfere with the recovery by showing up at ground zero and disrupting operations would be nice.

Andante of Collective Sigh celebrates Islamofascist Awareness Week.

Cat Daddy & Dr. Squeeky celebrates making friends.

Danger Room runs a contest for a new Blackwater logo, while Lurch at Main and Central notes their IRS problems.

Der Verrückte Philosoph has been posting some of the ‘Nets strangest sites and videos at Peripetia.

Over at Altercation it is going to be Lieutenant Colonel Bob Bateman, a military historian in and for the military, versus Victor David Hanson, PhD, formerly respected classics professor who has morphed into a neocon wingnut. Colonel Bateman is tired of VDH distorting history for political purposes and intends to fact check the history that supposedly supports Hanson’s views.

I wonder how Hanson reconciles his admiration of William Tecumseh Sherman and his personal transformation into a political shill when Sherman is rather well know for saying of political office: “If nominated, I will not accept; if drafted, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.”

Sherman was not exactly a fan of the chattering classes either: “If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world but I am sure we would be getting reports from hell before breakfast.”

Douglas MacArthur or Curtis LeMay would be much better choices.

Tune in and bring popcorn.