Christine O'Donnell is you

Video isn't 100% safe for work, so I'm linking to it instead of embedding it. Read the rest of this post...

'Private Security Contractors in Afghanistan Fueling the Taliban, Senate Report Concludes'

From Scott Horton, who watches this stuff:

The American decision to rely more heavily on contractors and to downplay the use of uniformed military in Afghanistan has led to a sharp detour in the process of nation-building, a Senate Armed Services Committee report (PDF) has concluded. To meet their security concerns, the contractors have turned to “warlords and strongmen linked to murder, kidnapping [and] bribery.” The report also documents incidents in which contractors have tendered payments to the Taliban.

There's more detail at Horton's site, and in the embedded links. Senator Carl Levin's conclusion: "This situation threatens the security of our troops and puts the success of our mission at risk." He's too polite, making it sound like an accident.

Horton's conclusion:

[P]rivate security contractors often work at cross purposes with U.S. counterinsurgency policy.

My conclusion? Welcome to money as a motivator, for all parties concerned; sends a tingle up my Galtian spine.

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Drill reaches Chilean miners

Now that is seriously good news. Hopefully the miners will be able to make it out soon now.

Sixty-five days after the mine's collapse, officials on Saturday announced that the drill reached the miners as sirens blasted through the mine site to signal the achievement.

But the moment of pure happiness was shadowed by the fact that it may take hours -- possibly days -- of hard work and tough decisions before any of the miners can be pulled to safety.

"We have not yet rescued anyone and there is much ground to cover," cautioned Chilean Mining Minister Laurence Golborne, who also told reporters that the families of the miners "are aware of the process still expected."

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China angry over jailed dissident receiving Nobel Peace Prize

Sounds like a personal problem. Get over it.

China has angrily condemned the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

The Beijing government summoned the Norwegian ambassador in protest. It called Mr Liu a "criminal", saying the award violated Nobel principles and could damage relations with Norway.

The Norwegian Nobel committee said Mr Liu was "the foremost symbol" of the struggle for human rights in China.

US President Barack Obama called for Mr Liu's immediate release.

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Gates, not Obama, 'will be making the call on DADT in December'

In Kerry Eleveld's latest column, she analyzes the prospects for legislative action on DADT this year, which has been promised repeatedly by the Obama administration. I posted this at AMERICAblog Gay, too.

Kerry examines the track record of Team Obama on the public option and the BP oil spill to arrive at and draw some conclusions that are accurate, but don't bode well. And, it's clear that the Secretary of Defense, not the Commander-in-Chief, is calling the shots:

First, this administration seems to arrive at any bargaining table ready to make a deal. That may be seen as a virtue by some or a weakness/strategic misstep by others, but it is nonetheless something administration officials consistently telegraph that can be exploited by those sitting across from them.

Second, what they are saying is not always an accurate reflection of what is happening, even on some of the most pressing issues of their administration. In other words, better for outsiders to look for clues rather than take things at face value.

Despite the fact that a White House spokesman indicated that they fully “expect” the Senate to act on the National Defense Authorization Act by year’s end, neither of the aforementioned axioms bode well for “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal.

The White House has always signaled that they are in lock step with the Pentagon on repeal. If you go back to the statements released from the White House (via former OMB director Peter Orszag) and the Pentagon (via Defense secretary Robert Gates) the week of the vote in the House and Senate Armed Services Committee, they are almost identical.

Both letters say that “ideally” Congress would not take action until the Pentagon report is released before Orszag concedes that the bill’s language “meets the concerns” raised by top military brass and Gates says he could “accept” the compromise language.

That’s why it’s best to pay attention when Gates told reporters a couple weeks ago that he and the president both held the opinion that “the best legislation would be legislation informed by the review” that’s due out in early December. You can bet that Gates wasn’t freelancing that answer and that it's likely a truer reflection of White House intent on repeal.

And, her powerful -- and disconcerting -- conclusion:

Bottom line, when it comes to most negotiations between the White House and the Pentagon, what Gates wants, Gates gets. Quite frankly, it wouldn’t be outrageous to think that the president is willing to let DADT linger as he works to simply get the answers he’s looking for in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

It’s not only a terrible scenario for DADT, it’s a frightening scenario for our country – the idea that officials at the Pentagon would be so openly defiant of the commander in chief.

Passing “don’t ask, don’t tell” in the lame-duck session would take a Herculean effort that involved Secretary Gates giving his blessing, President Obama using his bully pulpit, and the Senate Democrats displaying extraordinary leadership. If past is prologue, all three of those seem a tad fantastical. But Gates is key — he will be making the call on DADT in December. Without his buy in, it isn’t happening.

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'A decade of slow growth, followed by two decades of slow growth'

From Bloomberg Businessweek (via Annie Lowrey at The Washington Independent; my emphasis):

Robert J. Gordon of Northwestern University belongs to the committee of distinguished economists who officially declared on Sept. 20 that the U.S. recession ended way back in June 2009. Don't mistake that pronouncement for optimism. According to Gordon's research into the long-term determinants of growth, America's next two decades are going to be disappointing. He predicts that between 2007 and 2027, gross domestic product per capita will grow at the slowest pace of any 20-year period in U.S. history going back to George Washington's Presidency. Although the data he examined closely go back only to 1891, he says that based on his knowledge of early American economic history, he thinks it is fairly safe to predict that the period will witness the slowest growth ever in GDP per capita and, therefore, American living standards.

Gordon isn't out on a limb. His prediction is based on several strands of existing research on workforce demographics, educational attainment, and technological change. His contribution has been to pull the strands together and draw the logical conclusion. According to data Gordon prepared for Bloomberg Businessweek, based on research he published earlier this year, GDP per capita in the U.S. grew at a robust 2.44 percent annual rate from 1928 to 1972. That slowed to 1.93 percent from 1972 to 2007 and is likely to slow further, to 1.5 percent from 2007 to 2027. At that rate, GDP per capita would increase by a total of 35 percent by 2027. That's far short of the 62 percent that it would grow if the 1928-1972 pace of growth had continued, or the 47 percent increase if the 1972-2007 pace had continued.

Ms. Lowrey notes that, when looking at that 1.93% GDP growth rate from 1972–2007, you have to remember that most of that growth went to the top, especially in the latter years:

But most workers have experienced no income gains at all. Instead, the income gap has widened, with wealth accruing disproportionately to the very, very well-off.

So the two slow decades Gordon predicts follow the already slow Bush decade just ended. In fact, if you factor in the increased grip that billionaires have on the current economy, I'd expect even less of that shrunken 1.5% pie to go to the "small people". Why waste it?

The Bloomberg Businessweek article concludes:

If living standards do rise more slowly over the next couple of decades, it will become even harder for the U.S. to fix costly problems, from carbon emissions to poverty.

Assuming the Barons of the New America even allow us to try. Batten down, folks.

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Wife of new Nobel Peace Prize winner 'disappears' and phone service cut

There's the world's business partner in all its glory! Yes, this is a regime that can be trusted. The world leaders need to step up and become much more aggressive with calling for the immediate release of Liu and his wife.

The world's newest Nobel Peace Prize winner remained unreachable in a Chinese prison Saturday, while his wife's mobile phone was cut off and the authoritarian government continued to censor reports about democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo's honor.

Police kept reporters away from the prison where Liu is serving an 11-year sentence for subversion, and his lawyer said that Liu's wife — who had been hoping to visit him Saturday and tell him the news of the award — has "disappeared" and he is worried she may be in police custody.

Chinese authorities, who called Liu a criminal shortly after his award Friday and said his winning "desecrates the prize," sank Saturday into official silence.

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John Lennon

For those who have crazy ideas such as preferring peace, check out this link as the Imagine Peace Tower in Reykjavik will be lit. What a nutty idea. Read the rest of this post...

And yet another deadly attack on a NATO fuel convoy

This is getting ridiculous.

Gunmen in south-western Pakistan have attacked and set fire to nearly 30 tankers carrying fuel to Nato troops in Afghanistan, officials say.

The gunmen torched the convoy parked near a roadside restaurant near the town of Sibi in a pre-dawn raid.

The Pakistani Taliban have carried out a series of similar attacks since last week, when the authorities closed the main border crossing to Afghanistan.

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