Jane's Addiction
Been Caught Stealing
To plunder, to slaughter, to steal:
These things they misname empire;
and where they make a wilderness,
they call it peace.
~ TACITUS
ALL HAIL GLOW BALL DHIMMING!World leaders react to the announcement by US President Barack Obama of a "comprehensive new strategy" for both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
AFGHAN PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESMAN HOMAYUN HAMIDZADA
We particularly appreciate the recognition that the al-Qaeda threat mainly emanates from Pakistan and it poses a danger to Afghanistan and our international friends here. For the moment we have a very warm and positive welcome for the outcome of the review.
PAKISTANI FOREIGN MINISTER SHAH MEHMOOD QURESHI
Pakistan is willing to play an active, constructive role in this because we feel our peace and security is linked to Afghanistan's... there is spill-over. I think the new Obama administration's approach is a very positive approach.
PAKISTANI AMBASSADOR TO THE US HUSAIN HAQQANI
The government of Pakistan... believes that it is an extraordinarily positive sign that the Obama administration is thoroughly re-examining its policy toward our region, re-evaluating and re-invigorating our common efforts to contain terrorism and extremism. We have been especially pleased by the new level of consultation and partnership that the administration has demonstrated in producing this new strategy and President Obama's personal engagement at this critical time.
RUSSIAN PRESIDENT DMITRY MEDVEDEV
I believe that today a number of threats are still there. And in that sense we are ready to participate in the efforts directed at putting things in order, at preventing terrorist attacks. On the other hand, I do believe that sooner or later, there must be a normal political system in place in Afghanistan. It is impossible... to rule Afghanistan from abroad. Afghanistan should find its own path to democracy.
JOHN McHUGH, REPUBLICAN LEADER US HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE
All eyes now turn to the upcoming NATO summit and the administration's efforts to sell this strategy to our allies. Some will attempt to reach back to the Iraq surge debate, dust off the arguments used to oppose the successful strategy, and apply them to [the] president's new Afghanistan strategy. We cannot allow this minimalist approach.
AFGHAN MP SHUKRIA BARAKZAI
Do not focus more on troops because as long as their number increases, humanitarian aid and assistance will be ignored and undermined. So what Afghanistan needs to have more is humanitarian aid and assistance. Afghan men... what is important for them is standing on the front line and fighting for their sovereignty. Right now the insurgent side have very sophisticated weapons. But on the Afghan side you have old Kalashnikovs from the Soviet invasion - these things are not matching each other.
US HOUSE REPUBLICAN MEMBER MARK KIRK
Because it will take over a year for these additional forces to be trained, President Obama's commitment of US troops will bolster the commitment of the Afghan government and NATO to stay the course.
NATO confirms first high-level meeting with Iran on Afghanistan Iran and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held their first secret and informal talks in 30 years in Brussels where NATO is headquartered, focusing on Afghanistan, the alliance confirmed here Thursday.The meeting took place on March 9 between NATO's Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Martin Erdmann and Iran's Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union, Ali-Asghar Khaji, NATO deputy spokeswoman Carmen Romero told Xinhua.
MYTHICAL MODERATE GLOW BALLIN' KHATAMI SEZ:
Israeli nukes are the problem
Khatami calls nuclear row ‘a satanic conspiracy’
Satan naturally being the Juden.
He also hailed the election of Barack Obama as a “phenomenon” that the American people had been “praying for”.
Iran Plans to Attend Forum on AfghanistanUS welcomes Iran in Afghan meeting
Russia urges crackdown on Afghan drugs, insurgents
Bad Vlad, he must to break you.
Medvedev to hold talks with UN, OIC heads at meet up on Afghanistan
OIC and Russian cooperation important
Russia, Islamic world can't be opposed to one other - OIC leader
UN body adopts the OIC resolution on "religious defamation"
A United Nations forum on Thursday passed a resolution condemning "defamation of religion" as a human rights violation, despite wide concerns that it could be used to justify curbs on free speech in Muslim countries.The U.N. Human Rights Council adopted the non-binding text, proposed by Pakistan on behalf of Islamic states, with a vote of 23 states in favour and 11 against, with 13 abstentions.
Gorbachev upbeat on US-Russia ties after Obama visitThe New York Times Drumbeat Against Jerusalem
Within the span of just 24 hours, two New York Times Op/Ed writers continue the drumbeat for re-dividing Jerusalem.Blast kills 50 at Pakistan mosque
RELIGION OF PEACE!
Guyana's president in Jordan
The Obama administration purges the language of warHow very... GramscianWhorey.
Saul Alinsky, Obama’s community-organizing inspiration, wrote at length about words in Rules for Radicals, about their power to inspire and to enervate. “In communication as in thought, we must ever strive toward simplicity” when it is our purpose to inspire. Such a purpose calls for “a determination not to detour around reality.” An opposite purpose, Alinsky writes, calls for an opposite approach. Avoid the “force, vigor, and simplicity” of the right word, and “we soon become averse to thinking in vigorous, simple, honest terms.” Instead, “We strive to invent sterilized synonyms.” Such “new words,” Alinsky taught, “mean something different, so that they tranquilize us, begin to shepherd our mental processes off the main, conflict-ridden, grimy, and realistic power-paved highway of life.”
Tranquilized, we will sleep. As we found the last time we tried this, our enemies won’t.
IAEA fails to elect new leaderTwo men with differing visions for the International Atomic Energy Agency failed Friday to win enough support to become its new chief, splitting the vote among the agency's developed and developing countries.Japan OKs deployment of missile defense systemA meeting of the agency's 35-nation board was adjourned prematurely after neither Yukiya Amano of Japan nor Abdul Samad Minty of South Africa got the required two-thirds majority needed for victory.
With an inconclusive initial attempt to find a successor for IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, board chairwoman Taous Feroukhi of Algeria was expected on Monday to invite member nations to submit — or resubmit — candidates within the next four weeks before a new meeting.
"The slate of candidates is considered to have been wiped clean," she told reporters.
Unleash The Sashimi of Scorn!
AMERICAN THINKER: UN Climate Change plan would 'reorder' world economy
The longer you know me the less insane I will seem.
THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF KYOTO:A United Nations document on "climate change" that will be distributed to a major environmental conclave next week envisions a huge reordering of the world economy, likely involving trillions of dollars in wealth transfer, millions of job losses and gains, new taxes, industrial relocations, new tariffs and subsidies, and complicated payments for greenhouse gas abatement schemes and carbon taxes — all under the supervision of the world body.
Those and other results are blandly discussed in a discretely worded United Nations "information note" on potential consequences of the measures that industrialized countries will likely have to take to implement the Copenhagen Accord, the successor to the Kyoto Treaty, after it is negotiated and signed by December 2009. The Obama administration has said it supports the treaty process if, in the words of a U.S. State Department spokesman, it can come up with an "effective framework" for dealing with global warming.
The 16-page note, obtained by FOX News, will be distributed to participants at a mammoth negotiating session that starts on March 29 in Bonn, Germany, the first of three sessions intended to hammer out the actual commitments involved in the new deal.In the stultifying language that is normal for important U.N. conclaves, the negotiators are known as the "Ad Hoc Working Group On Further Commitments For Annex I Parties Under the Kyoto Protocol." Yet the consequences of their negotiations, if enacted, would be nothing short of world-changing.
UN panel touts new global currency reserve systemA UN panel of expert economists pressed Thursday for a new global currency reserve scheme to replace the volatile, dollar-based system and for coordinated steps by rich countries to stimulate their economies.Bachmann Bill Would Ban Global Currency:"A new Global Reserve System -- what may be viewed as a greatly expanded SDR (Special Drawing Rights), with regular or cyclically adjusted emissions calibrated to the size of reserve accumulations, could contribute to global stability, economic strength and global equity," the panel said.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has introduced legislation that would "bar the dollar from being replace by any foreign currency." A statement from Bachmann's website:
“Yesterday, during a Financial Services Committee hearing, I asked Secretary Geithner if he would denounce efforts to move towards a global currency and he answered unequivocally that he would," said Bachmann.
"And President Obama gave the nation the same assurances. But just a day later, Secretary Geithner has left the option on the table. I want to know which it is. The American people deserve to know."
On Monday, Geithner and Bernanke both rejected the idea of a global currency in Congressional testimony. But in remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday, Geithner indicated he was open to the idea.
Multitudinous Sound & Fury, Signifying Absolutely Zero:
House Republicans have released their response to President Obama's deficit-laden budget -- but the spending plan includes little in the way of specifics.
Budget moves through Senate committeeLike shit through a goose.
Geithner Is Overreaching on Regulatory Power
Ya think?
SIFMA interested in Treasury's resolution-authority plan
So, WTF is a SIFMA?
SIFMA is a non-profit industry association that represents the shared interests of participants in the global financial markets. SIFMA members include international securities firms, U.S.-registered broker-dealers, and asset managers.
The Association represents the industry on regulatory and legislative issues and initiatives, and also serves as a forum for outreach, training, education, and community involvement. Member participation is the very core of who we are and the key to our effectiveness. SIFMA has offices in New York, Washington, London, and Hong Kong, where our sister organization, the Asia Securities and Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA), is located.
Rep. Manzullo to Geithner: Your Plan Is 'Radical'Thrift Regulator Probed for BackdatingIn testimony before the House Financial Services committee that just adjourned, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner just had to defend his institutional takeover plan against charges of radicalism.
"Do you realize how radical your proposal is?" Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.) asked.
"It's not radical. . ." Geither began, before Manzullo interrupted him.
"You're talking about seizing private businesses and you don't consider that radical?" Manzullo replied, his voice rising.
Manzullo is trying to get Geithner to give details of the plan -- that's where Geithner got stung before -- but Geithner doesn't have them yet.
If the plan were not radical, Manzullo said to Geithner, "you would have answers to some of my questions, such as, what size business would be subject to this?"
Thrifts or savings and loan institutions are retail financial companies that typically offer basic banking activities as well as mortgage lending. Thrifts do not have capital markets or investment banking arm like their larger, more diverse financial counterparts.The regulator came under pressure last August after it was learned that the OTS had allowed now-defunct mortgage lender IndyMac, which had a thrift subsidiary, to backdate a May $18 million capital infusion to the end of the first quarter. IndyMac failed in July.
Treasury set to reveal top reformsIs that what they call it nowadays? We used to just call it stealing.
Willem Buiter Takes Fed and Treasury to Task
Not that they listen to him, sadly. Buiter famously told the Fed in a presentation at its Jackson Hole conference that it was guilty of cognitive regulatory capture.Fed Buys $7.54 Billion of It's Own Debt in Hypnotic Gesture of Futility:
Buiter argues that the games the Fed and Treasury are playing, with the Fed providing loans and guarantees that properly should come from the Treasury, is bad for accountability and puts Fed independence at risk.
The idea of the Fed chief appearing jointly with the Treasury secretary to pitch an initiative to Congress would have been completely unthinkable pre Greenspan. Buiter also argues that if the Fed sustains too much in the way of losses, it will need to go to the Treasury for recapitalization (while it in theory can simply print money, in practice it can undermine monetary policy)
The Federal Reserve bought $7.541 billion of Treasuries in its second outright purchase of U.S. government debt in three days as part of the central bank’s efforts to lower consumer borrowing rates.The majority of the purchase was $5.625 billion of the 1.375 percent note due March 15, 2012, that was issued this month. Seven of the 18 securities maturing from April 2011 through April 2012 listed for possible acquisition were bought, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New YorkWeb site.
Central banks in the U.S., U.K. and Japan are buying government debt in the latest step to broaden efforts to unfreeze credit and end the recession after cutting benchmark interest rates close to zero. The Fed bought $7.5 billion in debt on March 25, the first purchase since the early 1960s by the central bank under a $300 billion plan announced March 18. “The Fed’s monetization of government borrowing is in economic terms a hugely powerful liquidity tool,” said Lena Komileva, head of Group of Seven market economics in London at Tullett Prebon Plc, the world’s second-largest interdealer broker. “It also helps to address investor fears, by depressing government yields and private sector borrowing costs and signaling a firm commitment by the Fed to keep monetary liquidity flowing for a long time.”
SEC Seeks Expanded Authority Over Hedge FundsBTW...they must find a way to make all these "Hedge Funds" sharia compliant.
Which was why the Gold Man postponed their hedge fund conference back in February.
Critics Say Senate Bill to Rescue Newspapers May Invite Government Control of News
NO! Unheard of! Absurd!
TURKISH ENERGY MINISTER MEETS WITH CHAIRMAN OF GAZPROM
Oil watchers see stage being set for surging prices
US Oil, Gas Rig Count Down 46 To 1039 This Week
The Nabucco Conspiracy
The $10 billion Nabucco pipeline story reads like a Bourne-style political thriller. Since its conception in the early 1990s the project’s narrative has been full of international intrigue geared to helping Europe plot its escape from the ‘tyranny’ of Russian energy supremacy. But almost two decades on we are still not at chapter one and the future remains uncertain, spawned in intrigue, in no small part due to the sabotaging efforts of the EU’s anti-Nabucco “fifth column”: Germany.
AIG, GM, & Raytheon Stock Climb in EuropeDHS awards Raytheon contract for Stand-Off Radiation Detection System (SORDS)
"The purpose of SORDS is to develop an advanced nuclear sensor that can determine the type and location of radiation sources at much greater distances than current systems. We are excited about helping DNDO accomplish its mission to protect the homeland," saidShiver Me Timbers, More Pirate Tales from the Gulf of Aden:Michael Del Checcolo , vice president of Engineering for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems.
The Bow-Asir, a Norwegian chemical tanker captured by pirates off the Somali coast, is travelling north, the ship's owner Salhus Shipping said Friday, adding it had not yet received a ransom demand.33 Filipino seamen seized in Somalia in two separate pirate attacks
Gov blames zealots for militia report
Gov. Jay Nixon on Thursday blamed the "overzealousness" of a Missouri State Highway Patrol unit for a report slammed by conservatives because it links various right-wing organizations with the modern militia movement.
Fargo Flood Waters Break Record, Spur EvacuationsPray for the Righteous in Fargo.
AP: Jewish groups denounce Oliphant Gaza cartoon
Just Jewish Groups?
No one at AP found it offensive?
[ crickets ]
UK: Channel 4 plans 'animal autopsies' programme fronted by Richard Dawkins
Serial killers everywhere are setting their TIVOS...
NY: End of Rockefeller drug laws
Investigators Get Government Approval for Fake Medical Product
The Government Accountability Office was able to register with the Health and Human Services Department a fictitious institutional review board and panel of doctors and scientists that was led by a dog named Trooper.
Alaska volcano erupts againWiped clean: Volcano turned fertile island to sterile lump
Dozens of small earthquakes continue to shake the desert of SoCal
6.0 strikes off Japan
5.8 shakes northern Peru
The Salton Sea Swarms
Israel bong bust nets 15000 marijuana water pipes
Steal Away
Mahalia Jackson & Nat King Cole
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