02 January 2010

i'm going to bed

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I'd switched on Moyers' latest thing about Lincoln and, pfeh, people in the arts can be so tiresomely shallow, while waxing, of course, transcendentally deep.... As you well know, I was pretty sure the Lap Bomber was no lap bomber, but, well, listening to that interview with Kurt Haskell, which is now also near the top of my sidebar for a while, just blew out all my pipes. This is another false flag. There isn't a particle of doubt left in my mind. And that's just so huge it blew all my tolerance for the people out there just getting on with their lives as best they can under this pall clean out my window and far over the sea.

I want to bite nails in half at the thought of a playbill and a cocktail at intermission. Society dames throwing parties to raise money for a new wing of an art museum, I feel, just now, ought to be lined up and shot. It's still okay with me if farmers are out in their fields, and maybe doctors and nurses still doing their things, but I think that's about the limit of my tolerance at this moment.

I can't begin to express how appalled I am, or all the maniacs running around inside my skin to make this stop forever. If people don't start howling now, there just isn't any hope. I saw somewhere, probably in the comments on that AntiWar Radio post, that everything big and awful that has ever happened was this kind of fakery. At first blush that seems a little over the top, but then you consider for half another beat and you realize we're a great sleeping beast and we never do this stuff. Someone does it for us like this. We can't get off our butts while the president stands in front of us on camera, ripping the constitution to shreds. So there's no impediment to grasping this fruit whenever somebody deems it time.

I just can't shake off this vision of seedy fucks out there in some dark motel room, cackling about blowing that Hajji kid's nuts off... and, so... you might agree. I need to go to bed.

All of it, from start to finish, pure horseshit:
Obama: al-Qaida link to Christmas terror suspect
By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer – 29 mins ago

HONOLULU – President Barack Obama laid blame Saturday on an al-Qaida affiliate for a Christmas Day terrorist attack that has prompted a top-to-bottom review of how the nation's intelligence agencies failed to prevent the botched bombing aboard a Detroit-bound airliner.

In his most direct public language to date, the president described the path through Yemen of 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian accused of trying to destroy Northwest Flight 253. The president also emphasized that the United States would continue its partnerships with friendly countries — citing Yemen, in particular — to fight terrorists and extremist groups around the globe.

Obama's homeland security team has been piecing together just how Abdulmutallab was able to board the plane. Officials have described flaws in the system and by those executing the strategy and have delivered a preliminary assessment.

A senior administration official had said the United States was increasingly confident there was a link between Abdulmutallab and an al-Qaida affiliate, but Obama's statement is the strongest connection between the two.

"We're learning more about the suspect," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address that the White House released on Saturday as the president vacationed in Hawaii.

"We know that he traveled to Yemen, a country grappling with crushing poverty and deadly insurgencies. It appears that he joined an affiliate of al-Qaida, and that this group — al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula — trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for America," the president said.

Officials have said Abdulmutallab's father warned the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria that his son had drifted into extremism in the al-Qaida hotbed of Yemen. Abdulmutallab's threat was only partially digested by the U.S. security apparatus and not linked with a visa history showing the young man could fly to the United States.

Obama has ordered a thorough look at the shortcomings that permitted the plot, which failed not because of U.S. actions but because the would-be attacker was unable to ignite an explosive device.

Intelligence officials prepared for what was shaping up to be uncomfortable hearings before Congress about miscommunication among anti-terror agencies and sweeping changes expected under Obama's watch. The president has been vocal in his criticism of the agencies and against extremists who would harm the United States.

"This is not the first time this group has targeted us," Obama said. "In recent years, they have bombed Yemeni government facilities and Western hotels, restaurants and embassies, including our embassy in 2008, killing one American."

"So, as president, I've made it a priority to strengthen our partnership with the Yemeni government — training and equipping their security forces, sharing intelligence and working with them to strike al-Qaida terrorists," he said.

The United States provided Yemen $67 million in training and support under the Pentagon's counterterrorism program last year. Only Pakistan got more, with some $112 million.

Obama said the money had been well spent: "Training camps have been struck, leaders eliminated, plots disrupted. And all those involved in the attempted act of terrorism on Christmas must know — you too will be held to account."

At the same time, administration officials warned this week that Obama also would hold accountable his own government. To that end, Obama has summoned homeland security officials from across the government to meet with him in the White House Situation Room on Tuesday.

Obama was expected to run the meeting and press his team on how they missed what appears to be clear connections.
Aaaaaaaaagggggh!
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3 comments:

  1. I started to watch it this morning, couldn't hang with it.

    Much to be learned here:

    http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik31-2009dec31,0,7045615.column

    Real leaders, Drucker observed, are leaders of teams showing respect for people and their work. Nothing destroys that as efficiently as excessive CEO compensation. He maintained that the appropriate pay range was 20 to 25 times what the rank and file earned -- it's now in the hundreds. That level of inequality foments disillusionment among mid-level managers, as he said in a 2004 Fortune interview, and corrodes mutual trust between the enterprise and society.

    Excessive compensation, he wrote in 1974, is designed to create status rather than income. "It can only lead to political measures that, while doing no one any good, can seriously harm society, economy, and the manager as well."

    And when a financial benefit accrues to managers who lay people off, he stated in 1996, "there is no excuse for it. No justification. This is morally and socially unforgivable, and we will pay a heavy price for it."

    ReplyDelete
  2. "...terrorism on Christmas..." Oh, man, I can't stand it! Abomina's even sneaking in duhbaya's "crusade"!!! Come on over, folks, while you can still leave the country!!!

    ReplyDelete

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