i blame barackhenaten

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Al Jazeera has been replaying everything over and over and over and over... and specifically to include Hillary Clinton's non-statement regarding the situation in Egypt. It's like watching planes crash into the World Trade Center, okay? I am traumatized. All night the Egyptian Army has been building road blocks, and just generally looking to be gearing up for a lot more control, and people are trickling into the square now, stepping over the supine campers who were up chanting all night, now sleeping it off in place. So. What does al Jazeera do? Why, they play the same clips and interviews over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over ... with occasional snippets of live footage of the action. But the Clinton part is the absolute worst. It's a goddam controlled demolition. It's an inside job. It's a fat fucking lie drilling at my third eye until I want to strip all layers off and go screaming naked off that cliff out there....

I'm snapping this puppy off for now, and will hope to time my next foray for when there might be some GOOD news. I'll add it to this post if.... The cyclone about to hit Queensland has nothing to do with my mood.

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11:00am PST: Old Uncle Dave offers THIS LINK as confirmation of my suspicions, and it is emblematic of the trouble brewing in my muddled brain, so I'm glad he brought it up. I had not bothered to peak at Groupthink until late last night, but I was noticing too many Egypt-related headlines coming up on the feed for my comfort. If it gets heavy rotation on the AP and Reuters, that means only one thing. The controllers want us to be concerned for the overthrow of a government, want popular solidarity behind a "regime change". All the points Lendman brings up have been on my mind, and I think you should give him your eyeprints.

I'm not sure I agree that the other recent uprisings were not welcomed by our controllers, were not managed by them, but mayhap the cables put out by WikiLeaks really did nudge them into it. Being that Mubarak is 82, there can be NO doubt, his replacement has been a priority for the people who have no business controlling anything, but DO control everything.

Other signs that we should be concerned are that Al Jazeera has not only stuck to this with very little attention to the Israeli end of it until today... and it is pretty benign stuff being aired today... and that our cable and satellite services are airing al Jazeera suddenly. It serves to keep them off the MSM so people will think they're the subversive news, but we have seen for quite some time that al Jazeera is no longer the voice of the Middle East, that they have modulated their coverage and commentary to such an extent that they are now only something like a marriage between PBS and CNN, only rarely airing things that give real insight into world affairs. If I hadn't known it already, my visceral reaction to having it on for so many hours every day would have told me.

Added to my wall-to-wall coverage today is the news that Omar Sharif is very, very old. He has not left Cairo. He is 100% in favor of the revolution... but no longer so gorgeous it makes my knees go all wobbly.

Basically, I would feel better if Hu Jintao or Dmitry Medvedev were backing the revolution, if the hairdos on al Jazeera were looking to them for comment on this matter—not that I think they are great humanitarians, but that I think they are more concerned for the real welfare of humans than the controlling elite in the West. That would make me feel more like there is a chance for all of us. As it is, with everyone looking to the imposture who abdicated upon inauguration and the harpy he didn't really supplant, this really does feel like watching airliners smack into skyscrapers.

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Nomi Prins....

Around 2005, Egypt decided to transform its financial system in order to increase its appeal as a magnet for foreign investment, notably banks and real estate speculators. Egypt reduced cumbersome bureaucracy and regulations around foreign property investment through decree (number 583.) International luxury property firms depicted the country as a mecca (of the tax-haven variety) for property speculation, a country offering no capital gains taxes on real estate transactions, no stamp duty, and no inheritance tax.

But, Egypt's more devastating economic transformation centered around its decision to aggressively sell off its national banks as a matter of foreign and financial policy between 2005 and early 2008 (around the time that US banks were stoking a global sub-prime and other forms-of-debt and leverage oriented crisis). Having opened its real estate to foreign investment and private equity speculation, the next step in the deregulation of the country's banks was spurring international bank takeovers complete with new bank openings, where international banks could begin plowing Egyptians for fees. Citigroup, for example, launched the first Cards reward program in 2005, followed by other banks.

According to an article in Executive Magazine in early 2007, which touted the competitive bidding, acquistion and rebranding of Egyptian banks by foreign banks and growth of foreign M&A action, the biggest bank deal of 2006 was the sale of one of the four largest state-run banks, Bank of Alexandria, to Italian bank, Gruppo Sanpaolo IMI. This, a much larger deal than the 70% acquisition by Greek's Piraeus Bank of the Egyptian Commercial Bank in 2005, one of the first deals to be blessed by the Central Bank of Egypt and the Ministry of Investment that unleashed the sale of Egypt's banking system to the highest international bidders.

The greater the pace of foreign bank influx and take-overs to 'modernize' Egypt's banking system, inevitably the more short-term, "hot" money poured into Egypt. Pieces of Egypt, or its companies, continued to be purchased by foreign conglomerates, trickling off when the global financial crisis brewed full force in 2008, though not before Goldman Sachs Strategic Investments Limited in the UK bought a $70 million chunk of Palm Hills Development SAE, a high-end real estate developer, in March, 2008.

Lest you begin to believe I'm too harsh on Western oligarchs....

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love, 99
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australia swims up for air

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I am sure they'll be dunked again, but at least they're still thrashing.

Robert Stary, Assange's Melbourne-based lawyer, thinks his client's defense should be pretty straightforward, because he considers Assange to be a journalist, protected by U.S. First Amendment guarantees of free speech.

But Stary is worried about some possibilities: "Our main concern is really the possible extradition to the U.S. We've been troubled by the sort of rhetoric that has come out of various commentators and principally Republican politicians — Sarah Palin and the like — saying Mr. Assange should be executed, assassinated."

On her Facebook page, Palin suggests that Assange should be "pursued with the same urgency as al-Qaida and Taliban leaders."

Anyone who incites others to commit violence against his client, even outside Australia, Stary says, is violating Australian law, and can be held accountable for it.

"Certainly if Sarah Palin or any of those other politicians come to Australia, for whatever purpose, then we can initiate a private prosecution, and that's what we intend to do," Stary said.

Poor Sarah. Her bloody rhetoric keeps taking hits lately.

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And, it appears I'm getting some support from a Russian author for my assertions about the intertubes NOT going to be taken away:

Part of the argument I'm making in the book is that authoritarian governments have immensely benefited from the web, and I point to three features. One of them is propaganda; one of them is new ways of censorship; and one of them is increased surveillance, more sophisticated surveillance.

So relax....

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love, 99
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bad time for a rowboat malfunction

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You don't want police boats pulling up to your house when your husband has just gone to the shop to make sure the sandbags are holding.

Butcher Steven Bateman spotted two bull sharks swimming near his Goodna shop yesterday — one of several reports of a sharks in Goodna's main street.

Ipswich local councillor Paul Tully confirmed it was a bizarre but true story out of Queensland's flood disaster.

"It would have swum several kilometres in from the river, across Evan Marginson Park and the motorway," Cr Tully told The Queensland Times.

"It's definitely a first for Goodna, to have a shark in the main street.

"I know Steve (Bateman) and he wouldn't say he saw a shark unless he really saw one."

The local MP Jo-Ann Miller also said she believed Mr Bateman’s sighting was genuine.

“Steve wouldn’t lie about something like that. He’s very well known in the community," she told The Queensland Times.

Bull sharks are the third most likely shark to attack a human being. They are noted for their aggressive behaviour and often swim in shallow waters along coasts and rivers.

They can tolerate fresh water and have been known travel long distances along rivers.

What a damn drag. I hope that on top of everything else this isn't polluting the ocean like with the L.A. floods, or that the loss of life does not become as epic as in Brazil.

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love, 99
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no, really

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Something's up.

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love, 99
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we are cowing our friends

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The with-us-or-with-the-terrorists thing is still alive and "well" throughout our entire diplomatic structure.

Intelligence chiefs fear nuclear war between Israel and Tehran
Philip Dorling
December 13, 2010

AUSTRALIAN intelligence agencies fear that Israel might launch military strikes against Iran and that Tehran's pursuit of nuclear capabilities could draw the US and Australia into a potential nuclear war in the Middle East.

Australia's top intelligence agency has also privately undercut the hardline stance towards Tehran of the United States, Israeli and Australian governments, saying that Iran's nuclear program is intended to deter attack and that it is a mistake to regard Iran as a 'rogue state'.

The warnings about the dangers of nuclear conflict in the Middle East are given in a secret US embassy cable obtained by WikiLeaks and provided exclusively to the Herald. They reflect views obtained by US intelligence liaison officers in Canberra from across the range of Australian intelligence agencies.

"The AIC's [Australian intelligence community's] leading concerns with respect to Iran's nuclear ambitions centre on understanding the time frame of a possible weapons capability, and working with the United States to prevent Israel from independently launching unco-ordinated military strikes against Iran," the US embassy in Canberra reported to Washington in March last year.

"They are immediately concerned that Iran's pursuit of nuclear capabilities would lead to a conventional war - or even nuclear exchange - in the Middle East involving the United States that would draw Australia into a conflict."

Australian concerns about a unilateral Israeli military strike against Iran are also recorded in another US embassy cable, sent to Washington in December 2008, reporting on discussions between the then chief of Australia's top intelligence agency, the Office of National Assessments (ONA), Peter Varghese, and the head of the US State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), the assistant secretary of state, Randall Fort.

The embassy's report of the meeting, which included senior officers and analysts from both intelligence agencies, says that "ONA seniors and analysts were particularly interested in A/S Fort and INR's assessments on Israeli 'red lines' on Iran's nuclear program and the likelihood of an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities"'.

A cable sent in July 2008 further records that the former prime minister Kevin Rudd was 'deeply worried' that the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's intransigence concerning Tehran's nuclear program meant that the window for a diplomatic solution was closing and that "Israel may feel forced to use 'non-diplomatic' means".

Last week Mr Rudd called on Israel, which has a large undeclared nuclear arsenal, to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty as part of a broader effort to head off the development of an Iranian nuclear weapons capability and to establish the Middle East as a nuclear weapon-free zone.

The US embassy's report in March last year told Washington the Australian government was "more broadly concerned about the potential for renewed nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, driving south-east Asian states to abandon the [nuclear non-proliferation treaty] and pursue their own nuclear capabilities, which could introduce a direct threat to the Australian homeland".

Australian intelligence views on Iran were solicited by US officials in response to a request from Washington to ascertain reactions to the possibility that the US might seek to engage Tehran in dialogue on security.

The cables confirm the presence in Canberra of representatives of all US national intelligence agencies - the CIA, National Security Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, National Geospatial Agency, Defence Intelligence Agency and the FBI.

US intelligence liaison officers engaged all their Australian counterpart agencies on the Iran question - including ONA, the office of the National Security Adviser, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, the Defence Intelligence Organisation, the Defence Signals Directorate, the Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation, the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

In its July 2009 report to Washington, the embassy noted that the Australian intelligence community "has increased its collection and analytic efforts on Iran over the past decade, demonstrating Australia's strategic commitment to engage substantively as a significant US partner on Iran".

US diplomats expressed "high confidence" that the Australian government would have no objections to US efforts to engage Iran, noting that while Australian troops remained stationed in Afghanistan "the Australians will look to increased US engagement with Iran to improve upon creating a realistic framework for an accelerated reduction and eventual cessation of Iranian support to the Taliban, al-Qaeda and related groups, and Hezbollah. Simultaneously, Australia will look for increased US-Iranian engagement to lead to a more stable governance environment for Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and the Levant".

The cable on the December 2008 intelligence exchange on Iran reported Mr Varghese's view that possible conflict between Israel and Iran "clearly represented the greatest challenge to [Middle East] stability - and ONA was focusing most of its attention on Tehran because of it".

ONA analysts expressed the view that the Iranian government appeared determined to acquire nuclear weapons, though this would probably be driven by the desire to deter Israel and the US than an intention to strike against other Middle East states.

"ONA viewed Tehran's nuclear program within the paradigm of 'the laws of deterrence', noting that Iran's ability to produce a weapon may be 'enough' to meet its security objectives," the US embassy reported to Washington.

"Nevertheless, Australian intelligence viewed Tehran's pursuit of full self-sufficiency in the nuclear fuel cycle, long-standing covert weapons program, and continued work on delivery systems as strong indicators that Tehran's preferred end state included a nuclear arsenal."

ONA analysts told their US counterparts that they were not alone in this assessment, asserting "while China and Russia remain opposed to it, they view Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons as inevitable".

But ONA urged a balanced view of Tehran as a sophisticated diplomatic player rather than a "rogue state" liable to behave impulsively or irrationally. Mr Varghese said ONA was telling the Australian government: "It's a mistake to think of Iran as a 'rogue state'."

The embassy cable reported: ''ONA analysts assessed that Tehran 'knows' about its lack of certain capabilities, but plays 'beyond its hand' very skilfully. ONA analysts commented that Iran's Persian culture was a key factor in understanding its strategic behaviour, commenting that a 'mixture of hubris and paranoia' pervades Iranian attitudes that in turn shape Tehran's threat perceptions and policies.

"ONA judged that Iran's activities in Iraq - both overt and covert - represented an extreme manifestation of Iranian strategic calculus, designed to 'outflank' the US in the region."

However, the Australian intelligence analysts "asserted that 20 years of hostility [towards the US] and associated rhetoric aside, regime attitudes 'have fairly shallow roots', and the most effective means by which Tehran could ensure its national security would be a strategic relationship with the US via some 'grand bargain'."

Plus, our diplomats are spies on top of all the rest of the filthy stuff they spread to every corner of the earth.

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love, 99
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tap dance on her forehead

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Scream, break things, go postal, but do NOT let this continue. Get Julian the hell OUT of custody and make these fucks too afraid to pull this shit. EVERYTHING DEPENDS ON IT! People on the streets of India are protesting our TSA. People in the streets and in parliament in Australia are protesting the illegal and immoral treatment of Julian Assange. Glenn Greenwald has stood up and hollered that this stuff has been "extra-judicial" and "illegal". Paul Craig Roberts is screaming bloody murder. Daniel Ellsberg is touring the world to talk sense into everyone. It isn't just me. Even if yer jealous or suspicious, or jealous and suspicious, the TRUTH is blaring in your face as hotly as the sun on the most unforgiving day. This is CLEARLY wrong, all the way through and it is an OUTRAGE upon each of us. STOP IT.

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love, 99
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road to wwiii

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Better take note.

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love, 99
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why not just box both their lights out

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She invokes Obamaesque capitulation to fascists and he "doubts climate science"... meaning, they're both SHIT candidates to lead Australia. Maybe I'm just dreaming of an Australia long gone, but I thought they were a nation of tough rebels. Looks to me as though they're squabbling over the same left-fascism/right-fascism we are.

Vote for Hatfield!

No, no, vote for McCoy!

The better idea is to just vote for yourself and go rip these people out from behind their desks in person.

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No, really. What bigger of a jackass consensus could you have than the battle between left and right, the feuding of Hatfields and McCoys?

I hate to tell you, but I was born into the world with the IDENTICAL view of things as one of Collier's Andromedan space aliens, the oldest one, the sage, the one who submitted that he couldn't understand why anyone would have to pay to live on the planet where they were born.

I HAVE NEVER UNDERSTOOD THIS.

When my mother first explained it to me, you could have knocked me over with a feather.

I have never recovered from the shock.

Your consensus about what reality is REALLY sucks... planets... plus, it's not real... wrong.

[For furriners who might not understand the reference....]

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i don't want to think about these fucks

[click image, and don't forget to note that eternally clenched fist, as omni-present as Bubba Clinton's pointing finger....]

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They make me waaaaaaay too angry. Found this last night, another odious peace offensive from the Palestinians and my brain just snapped it off and said, "Get in bed with your magazines RIGHT NOW." Sage advice. I took it.
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Australia expels Israeli diplomat....

Sydney Morning Herald....
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let's send police from everywhere

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Australian police and passport officials are being dispatched to Israel to meet with three dual Australian-Israeli nationals whose passports were used in the slaying of a top Hamas operative in Dubai, a spokeswoman for Australia's department of foreign affairs said Tuesday.

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