Category Archives: Politics

This is for general news.

The World Turned Upside Down

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From the Telegraph….

The CIA has already spent 18 months developing a network of agents in Britain to combat al-Qaeda, unprecedented in size within the borders of such a close ally, according to intelligence sources in both London and Washington.

And why are they doing this? From later on in the article….

Jonathan Evans, the director general of MI5, admitted in January that the Security Service alone does not have the resources to maintain surveillance on all its targets. “We don’t have anything approaching comprehensive coverage,” he said.

In other words, America is sending spooks to its historical ally because they can’t handle their own internal threats.

But America is getting crazy enough on its own. From the Common Room….

I just came back from my local thrift store with tears in my eyes! I watched as boxes and boxes of childrens books were thrown into the garbage! Today was the deadline and I just cant believe it! Every book they had on the shelves peior to 1985 was destroyed!

The reason the books are being destroyed is that they can no longer be sold without being tested for lead first because of a law called CPSIA. We already covered this insane law earlier so hopefully you all are familiar with it. If not just go over to the Common Room and you will learn more then you ever wanted to about the law.

And speaking of insane, there is also this from Bloomberg….

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance companies seized by regulators, may need more than the $200 billion in funding pledged by the U.S. government if the housing market continues to deteriorate, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart said.

The companies’ needs will depend largely on the direction of home prices, Lockhart said in an interview in Las Vegas yesterday. His comments followed statements from Fannie Mae in November and Freddie Mac Chairman John Koskinen last week that the government’s funding commitment through 2009 may fall short of what the companies need to make good on their obligations.

This is hardly surprising and that is what is so insane. Not to long ago, the idea that 200 billion dollars might not be enough would have been front page news. Now it is hardly news worthy.

A union is only truly tested in times of trouble.

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From the Telegraph…..

The European Central Bank’s refusal to follow the lead of the US, Japan, Britain, Canada, Switzerland and Sweden in slashing rates shows how destructive Europe’s monetary union has become. German orders fells 25pc year-on-year in December. French house prices collapsed 9.9pc in the fourth quarter, the steepest since data began in 1936. “We’re dealing with truly appalling data, the likes of which have never been seen before in post-War Europe,” said Julian Callow, Europe economist at Barclays Capital.

Spain’s unemployment has jumped to 3.3m – or 14.4pc – and will hit 19pc next year, on Brussels data. The labour minister said yesterday that Spain’s economy could not “tolerate” immigrants any longer after suffering “hurricane devastation”. You can see where this is going.

Ireland lost 36,500 jobs in January – equal to a monthly loss of 2.3m in the US. As the budget deficit surges to 12pc of GDP, Dublin is cutting wages, disguised as a pension levy. It has announced “Rooseveltian measures” to rescue the foundering companies.

The ECB’s obduracy has nothing to do with economics. It fears zero rates as a vampire fears daylight, because that brings the purchase of eurozone bonds ever closer into play. Any such action would usher in an EMU “debt union” by the back door, leaving Germany’s taxpayers on the hook for Club Med liabilties. This is Europe’s taboo.

This is why I don’t think the EU will survive the current economic crisis intact. The various economic interests are just too divergent. It is possible that northern Europe will hang together. But there is no way they will be willing to hang with Club Med in the long term.

Must Be Iran Reads Congressional Reports

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From Defense Tech…..

But there is another reason American military and national security officials are so worried: in at least two earlier ballistic missile launches, the Iranians launched in ways that “appear they were designed to optimize an EMP burst,” according to a Pentagon source with detailed knowledge of the Iranian’s efforts and of space technology.

I wonder if Iran read this report and decided that they would get more bang for their buck by setting off the big one in low orbit as opposed to nuking some city. If the hype is in any way correct, the vaporizing of one city would be easier for the US to recover from then one successful EMP attack.

If this is what amateurs can do, what could professionals accomplish?

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This from the Telegraph….

French fighter planes were unable to take off after military computers were infected by a computer virus, an intelligence magazine claims.

Another story from the Telegraph details what another hacker was able to do to US computers without really trying.

These stories are nothing by themselves. But they make you wonder what a bunch of disciplined professionals working with the backing of a national government could accomplish via computer hacking if they put their mind to it.

The nationalist cyber mob that Russia throws at nations that annoy it does not count as professional in my book.

Russian Games

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From Danger Room….

So now it’s official: Kyrgyzstan ain’t bluffing. On Tuesday, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev caught the Pentagon off guard, saying his country planned to close Manas Air Base, a major logistics hub for supporting U.S. operations in Afghanistan.

A defense official tells the Wall Street Journal: “Frankly, we thought it was a negotiating tactic, and we were ready to call their bluff … But it’s becoming clearer that, no kidding, they want us out.”

Fingers are now pointing at Moscow. The New York Times reports that the State Department and the Pentagon have concluded that Kyrgyzstan was doing the Kremlin’s bidding by kicking out the Americans.

Yet there is this from The Nation…..

Russia granted transit rights to non-lethal U.S. military supplies headed to Afghanistan but only after apparently pressuring a former Soviet state to close an air base leased to the Americans. The signal from Moscow: Russia is willing to help on Afghanistan, but only on the Kremlin’s terms.

The bottom line seems to be that Russia is not trying to force the US out of Afghanistan at the moment. But they want the supply lines to depend entirely on their good pleasure.

By the way, non-lethal supplies is all the US really needs to ship in by truck. Ammunition and the like can easily be flown in by air as those are only a tiny part of the total supply needs. But fuel, concrete, and other such supplies really need to be shipped in by truck. It is just too expensive to fly those things in and in any case the US does not have enough cargo planes to support a large fighting force in the field.

Losing The Mandate From Heaven?

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From the Times….

The worst drought in half a century has parched fields across eight provinces in northern China and left nearly four million people without proper drinking water.

Not a drop of rain has fallen on Beijing for more than 100 days, the longest dry spell for 38 years in a city known for its arid climate.

And from later on in the article….

The drought could hardly have come at a worse time for the leadership, which is already gearing for possible social instability with some 20 million rural migrants now out of work after losing their jobs in coastal factories and in cities. Many have returned to work their farms while they wait for the economic climate to improve but may now find they are unable to grow a harvest with no water for irrigation.

“The duration, scope and impact of the drought are rare,” said Zheng Guoguang, chief of the China Meteorological Administration.

Among the worst hit provinces is central Henan, the most populous in China and source of the highest number of migrant workers. No rain has fallen in the province for 105 days, state media said today.

If you don’t know what the Mandate From Heaven is read about it here. Drought was one of the tradtional ways in which it became apparent that the Mandate From Heaven was lost. But I will bet that economic depressions help the idea along as well.

If I was a Chinese ruler I would be on my best behavior just in case. It has a better chance of working than their weather control technology.

I guess he won't be getting a job anytime soon

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From Abu Muqawama…..

General Jim Jones offered Zinni the Baghdad post. But a week later, Zinni was still twisting in the wind. We now know he was passed over in favor of Christopher Hill, leading the New Republic to describe the final exchange thusly:

an Obama appointment gone awry, which concludes with a respected general suggesting the national security advisor perform an anatomically difficult feat.

Not very nice perhaps. But we have to agree with Charlie. That was a good euphemism.