“If Obama Fails, America is Saved”
?!? WTF? Looks like somebody is off his meds!
Why don’t you help him out? Go into your medicine cabinet, dig out any old painkillers, and send them to:
Rush H. Limbaugh, III
1495 N Ocean Blvd
Palm Beach, FL 33480
I’ll start it off, I think I’ve still got some vicodins from a surgery a few years back!
(CEOs Kenneth Lewis of Bank of America, Richard Davis of U.S. Bancorp, John Mack of Morgan Stanley and Vikram Pandit of Citigroup, among others, in front of the White House on Friday, via the Wall Street Journal.)
A month ago in this space, I expressed skepticism about President Obama’s announced plan for withdrawing from Iraq — not so much because he was backing down from the timeline he campaigned on, but rather because the generals assigned to implement the plan might think he was.
This report today from Jane Arraf of the Christian Science Monitor doesn’t make me feel any better:
In an exclusive interview, the top US ground commander in Iraq says that while Iraqi forces have made huge strides, Iraqi officials are likely to ask for US help in the key cities of Baquba and Mosul, meaning that American troops may stay there after the deadline for redeployment to major bases. Senior military commanders say US troops will also likely stay on in the southern city of Basra.
“In Mosul and Diyala [Province], as we do a combined or joint assessment of the situation on the ground, I have every expectation that both sides will say we need to stay with this a little bit longer until this improves,” says Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, echoing sentiments of Iraqi officials concerned about ongoing fighting in those areas. . . .
“I think the Iraqis know that there are some things that have to occur before we leave,” he says. “They know that there are some capabilities that they have to develop. I think they’ll be up to task when we do leave by 2011.“
Despite the wrangling it took for the Iraqi government to impose a withdrawal deadline on the Bush misadministration, I’m not surprised that they might turn around and ask for extensions. I kept trying to tell people during last year’s negotiations that Prime Minister Maliki’s goal wasn’t necessarily to force the Americans out, but rather to ensure that if they stayed, it would be on the Iraqi government’s terms.
By that, I mean that instead of supporting a (mythical) nascent democracy as it gains momentum, U.S. troops would more likely be subcontractors used by a partisan/sectarian regime to suppress its opponents. As the Maliki government reneges on promises of political reconciliation, that fate becomes more likely. By the time it become obvious to everyone, though, the Obama administration may feel too inextricably bound to its commitments to abandon our supposed Iraqi allies.
Oh, well. At least we’re not getting ourselves mired in deeper in Afghanistan at the same… ooooops!
(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)
Forget bothering to get perscription medicine, just eat more medicine-laden fish:
“Fish caught near wastewater treatment plants serving five major U.S. cities had residues of pharmaceuticals in them, including medicines used to treat high cholesterol, allergies, high blood pressure, bipolar disorder and depression, researchers reported Wednesday.”
Shame that doesn’t make a saner, healthier population of fish.
It looks like Silent Spring redoux – 1/3 of US bird species are rapidly heading towards oblivion. Sorry to have to post yet another bummer update to my earlier war on other species post.
(Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke preparing to testify before Congress this morning, via the Associated Press.)
While every talking head from Capitol Hill to the late night talk show hosts are focussed on how the corruptly crafted and rushed-through bailout legislation led to the infamous AIG executive incompetence bonuses, the real problem is far more insidious – nothing precludes the TARP recipient firms from using our cash to lobby for favorable legislation – which they have apparently taken to doing with gusto.
I’ve never really bought the argument that corporate lobbying is a form of ‘free speech.’ However, getting that banned is a change I doubt I’ll see in my lifetime. Still, even the stupidest Federal Judge should be able to see how dangerous it is to allow a private firm to ‘recycle’ tax dollars into lobbying efforts to craft favorable legislation for the recipient. It’s the type of feedback loop that distorts the market and creates institutional ‘winners and losers.’
For the period of time in which the government is a large stakeholder in a private firm, the organization becomes, to some extent, a quasi-governmental organization. It would be like having the US Post Office spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby Congress to expand their budget!!
The Repugs, riding the wave of public indignation, are having a field day with the AIG executive retention bonus crap. And why shouldn’t they? It was a Dem legislature that stripped out the provision to cap the bonuses of firms getting Federal bailouts to keep afloat?
I mean, $163 Million sure is a lot of money, right?
Well the public should get a sense of perspective, and call the Repugs out for their feigned amnesia – I mean where the fuck was all the ‘indignation’ when goddman Shrubya & the Repug Congress of the day lost $12 Billion in the ” biggest transfer of cash in the history of the Federal Reserve” in a ‘rebuild Iraq’ program that had Zero oversight and accountability?
It’s time for a reality check here – that is 2 orders of magnitude larger than when the Dems just pooch-screwed away, and what’s more – at least we know where the $163 Million ended up (and we might be able to get it back through a special tax)!! The $12 Billion just vanished without a trace.
And that’s not including another $10 Billion spent on no-bid contracts with unenforced oversight handed out to Shrubya cronies on “questionable or unsupported charges in Iraq reconstruction contracts.”
There are days when I believe they put funny pills in the American drinking water supply. Seriously.
The key justification for the crackdown on the Palestinians in the Gaza and the West Bank spouted by the pro-Israeli camp is that the Palestinians are terrorists, because their suicide bombings and other attacks ‘target civilians.’ Frankly, I fail to see the ‘fine point’ these apologists put on it when, for example, in the recent ‘put down’ of the Hamas rocket launchers, the Israeli army killed an estimated 960 civilians out of a total of 1434 total dead – 67%!
Israel, of course, immediately and automatically disputed the number of civilian dead. The ultra-nationalist message of the country’s leaders, however, was undercut by direct testimony from members of the IDF, who are coming forward with tales of policy-driven slaughter of civilians, including unarmed women & children.
It’s hard to take the moral high ground after the US did all this and worse during the dark years of the Shrubya Iraqi fiasco. However, now that we are under new management, I really hope (but sadly doubt) Clinton will put some pressure on Israel to investigate their war crimes.
Several years ago I suggested that the Kurds could negotiate a deal with Turkey to gain their support for an independent Kurdish state (sorry, haven’t restored those old posts yet). One of the conditions I had laid out was that Kurdish leaders disavow the Kurdish separatist movement in Turkey.
In fact, it looks like they may be going one step further, and helping negotiate a disarmament of the PKK. Don’t get distracted by Talabani muttering his support of Iraqi Federalism towards the end of the article, he’s just giving lip service to the concept – I think Barzani’s grumbling over an increasing Iraqi army presence in the ‘disputed zones’ of Kurdistan to be a better indication of where things stand in that regards.
If Obama is set on leaving troops in the region, and remains attached to the Iraqi Federalism concept, he might consider putting the bulk of the troops in the Kurdish north.
*Update* Turkey ‘acknowledges existance of’ Kurdish Regional Government