Cairo, Kasr Al Nile Bridge

Sublime. Someone should get an award.
It's an unattributed photo.
(h/t BagNewsNotes)

Blame the messenger

The pathetic courtiers at the NYT find the true culprit behind the ongoing collapse of US policy in the Middle East. Al Jazeera!

As news outfits go, Al Jazeera is pretty much like the others, and not radically different in style and substance from the norm. Their blinders are just adjusted differently, so rays of light can shine through occasionally that escape the mainstream.

But there must be someone to blame here, not Clinton (the two of them), nor Bush (the two of them), nor Obama, nor even Bill Keller who has served so well as the faithful toady to the mover and shakers who've murdered and tortured thousands, propped up worthless dictators, and generally messed with people that would probably like to be left to their own devices for a while.

But there's the rub for Keller and his ilk, all must kowtow to their lords and masters, and even to their courtiers (themselves kowtowing feverishly). Al Jazeera has failed in their duty, thus they must be punished. There rays of light must be dimmed, so we can sleep well, and Keller can keep his job.

How long?

Sen. Rand Paul today called for an end to all foreign aid, including that to Israel.

This has not yet been reported in the mainstream US press, so the heats not on, yet.

How long before he retracts? Days, weeks, months, never?

As long as the media ignores it.
UPDATE: It's being reported by AP

SOTU reaction

What a fucking clown show. Obama's defeat in the election has allowed him to drift even further off into the land of USA fantasy. He managed to fit a boatload of platitudes into an hour long speech this time, God help us next year.

UPDATE: 'Win the future'? Has there ever been a lamer, more meaningless, selected by committee motto to hang a speech on?

Famous last words?

Hillary Clinton, today:

The demonstrations prompted US secretary of state Hillary Clinton to assert during a press conference that "Egypt's government is stable."

It's early to know how far the unrest in Egypt will spread, they have a huge, US funding security apparatus that has never had any qualms about brutalizing the population. In Tunisia the game was over for Ben Ali when the police and military started hugging the demonstrators.

Whatever happens, the US is incapable of modifying its policies in the region. Israel dictates, and Obama obeys. Lebanon's change in government, done in the best parliamentary tradition, gets the same treatment as any other election that doesn't go Israel's way. Democracy seems to be a one-way street, and the farce is seemingly wearing on the people in the region.

It can only get worse, these people (the US administration) never learn until is too late. If then.

The T word

There is a steady drumbeat building to screw state government retirees out of the pensions by having the states go bankrupt. Today's NYT does its part with an article in its best propaganda style, discussing the issue without ever using the word tax.

It's true that the pension funds now are often underfunded, huge losses were sustained by the frauds engineered by the banksters, while the states have raided the funds to... lower taxes.

Along with the other whammy of gutting Social Security, the movers and shakers in the US seem determined to reduce large portions of what used to be the middle class to penury. The need to pay out giant bonuses to banksters, fight insane and hopeless wars forevermore, and imprison much of the non-white population, while keeping taxes at historic lows, necessitates this, evidently.

It will be interesting to see if the oldsters, when they realize they are up shit creek without a paddle, get feisty. At present they seem so addle-brained from watching Fox News that they think its all Mexican's fault. If they do ever start to figure things out, it certainly won't be from reading the New York Times.

Celebrate

I suppose to celebrate MLK's birthday, the Pentagon is asserting that he would support the current war in Afghanistan.

Yes, he probably would be high-fiving Obama for this shit:
Afghan village before:

Afghan village after:

Looks real peaceful now, don't it? Note the eradicated orchards. Hearts and minds!
(h/t Moon of Alabama for the pics, Corrente)

Joe eats crow

Touted as one of the administration's least hawkish birds on Afghanistan, and after saying with conviction that the US would definitely pull out by the end of 2014, VP Joe Biden has toed the line and said the US 'might' stay the course indefinitely.

That, along with some love and affection, was supposed to make Karzai happy enough to quit his whining and complaining about dead soldiers, civilians and officials being sent to their just rewards not by the Taliban, but by his erstwhile allies, the US and NATO.

We shall see, Karzai's habit of going off the reservation seems ingrained, and Joe is hardly the one that will convince him for long.

Biden is now off to Pakistan, to do more convincing of the Pakistanis to stand up and slaughter more of their own people. We know they'll do it for the right price, but maybe not the right people, at least on US terms.

But that should prove the end of Joe's humiliation in this round, he must just hope that Obama doesn't send him to Arizona. But no, Obama himself is taking on that onerous task.

Hope and change

Republican style:

Republicans, who won control of the U.S. House with pledges to slash the federal budget deficit, are already under fire for backpedaling on their promises.

They say they intend to cut spending this fiscal year by about $60 billion, not the $100 billion they promised during last year’s campaign as part of their “Pledge to America.”

The Republicans also decided that they will ignore budget analysts’ estimate that a vote to repeal the administration’s health-care overhaul would add billions to the deficit. And yesterday, they weakened the House’s anti-deficit budgeting rules to make it easier to approve tax cuts that would add to the government’s fiscal shortfall.

I suppose I should be heartened that as soon as anyone gets to Congress or the Presidency they will miraculously forget all the promises they made in order to get there. Consistency is reassuring in a certain sense, at least it confirms my resolution to vote no more.

Good news!

Free money forever! (If you are a bankster.)

The Fed is going to keep 'easing at "full throttle"' until the jobless rate goes down, or the second coming, whichever comes first. Glory!

Who they are, not what they do

Greenwald points out that leading neo-cons, Rudy Giuliani, Michael Mukasey, Tom Ridge, and Fran Townsend all met with a designated (by the US State Department) terrorist organization, MEK or Mujaheddin-e Khalq. Why, he asks plaintively, are they not accused of material support of a terrorist organization, something that would happen lickedy-split if you or I did something similar.

His answer, that Terrorism is OK if it's done to advanced US interests is at best half-right. It's not what they are doing, it's who they are that is the primary reason that the DOJ will not investigate the matter. They are, like many others, untouchables. Greenwald and other bloggers can squawk all they want, but neither the press nor the government will take any notice.