That's messed up.

If these guys don't deserve to be granted citizenship, then none of us have any more right to the honor.

Bush's broken promises hit war vets

February 24, 2008

PressTV

US President George W. Bush sparks an outcry after breaking promises to grant citizenship to the immigrant members of the US military.

According to the New York Times, the Department of Defense and the Citizenship and Immigration Services are refusing to consider pending citizenship applications of more than 7,200 service members.

"If what I have done for this country is not enough for me to be a citizen, then I don't know what is," said former Marine Abdool Habibullah, a Guyanese immigrant who has been waiting for a citizenship since he returned from Iraq in 2005.

“I've pretty much given up on finding out where my paperwork is, what's gone wrong, what happened to it,” he added.

After the September 11 attacks, Bush signed an administrative order which allowed non-citizens on active duty to apply for citizenship. The broken promises have infuriated migratory affairs lawyers and congressional officials.

“These are men and women who are risking their lives for us,” said Democrat Sen. for New York Charles Schumer.

“They've met all the requirements for citizenship, they have certainly proved their commitment to our country, and yet they could lose their lives while waiting for a bureaucratic snafu to untangle,” he concluded.

Iran seeks world ban on nukes

Wow, a shocking turn of events.

From correspodents in Geneva

March 05, 2008 01:52am

IRAN wants to ban all nuclear weapons through an international treaty, the country's foreign minister said at the UN's Conference on Disarmament.

"The time has come to ban and eliminate all nuclear weapons," Manouchehr Mottaki told the conference.

The UN Security Council on Monday slapped another round of sanctions on Iran over its refusal to suspend nuclear enrichment activities, while in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency attempted to convince Tehran to cooperate.

Western states have accused Tehran of pursuing a nuclear program under cover of energy production, a charge it has firmly denied.

Iran's foreign minister said during Tuesday's meeting in Geneva that it is necessary to "start negotiations to reach a convention on the ban of stocks and the production of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction".

During the conference, he questioned the right of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to possess nuclear arms.

"The winners of the Second World War have claimed this right and imposed it on the international community," he said.

"Today, the right of veto and the right to possess nuclear arms has become a monetary exchange to obtain illegitimate rights," he added.

Iran, which confirmed that it had launched its first rocket to space February 4, also supported a proposal from Russia and China to ban weapons in space.

The project, which was presented on February 12 by Russia during the Conference on Disarmament, suggested banning the deployment of all types of arms in space. The US has opposed such a treaty.

The UN Conference on Disarmament brokered key Cold War accords such as the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, but has made scant progress over the last decade as the 65 members remain at odds on future priorities.

Bank failures may be in the near future

Oh wow, this is just plain bad news for anybody that has a checking account right now.

FDIC Girds For Bank Failures
Debra Borchardt
02/26/08 - 04:16 PM EST


Shaky loan portfolios continue to darken the landscape for the nation's banks, as federal regulators prepare for the possibility of an uptick in failures of financial institutions, according to recent government reports.

A record-high $31.3 billion set aside by banks for loan losses, record trading losses and goodwill expenses dragged down fourth-quarter net incomes of insured banks to a 16-year low, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s quarterly banking profile released Tuesday. The cumulative increase to loan-loss provisions was the largest increase in 20 years.

The FDIC report comes on the heels of study from the Government Accountability Office made public last week, which found the FDIC recorded an estimated liability of $124 million at the end of 2007 for the anticipated failure of some insured institutions and also identified potential losses of $1.7 billion should vulnerable insured institutions also fail.

All of this is happening as the FDIC, established during the Great Depression to provide a backstop to depositors during a rash of bank failures, solicits banks' input on ways to accomplish as orderly a wind-down as possible in the event of a major bank's demise. The FDIC sent a notice out to banks requesting their ideas last month.

"The notion that a bank is too big to fail shouldn't be out there," says Jim Marino, of the FDIC's Division of Resolutions and Receiverships.

The grim picture for banks was reiterated by FDIC's report Tuesday. It noted that non-current loans exceeded reserves for first time since 1993. Loans that are 90 days past due, jumped 32.5% to $26.9 billion, the single-largest increase in a quarter in 24 years. The only loan category with an improving picture was farm loans, no doubt aided by soaring commodity prices.

The fourth quarter was notable for several other firsts and record-breaking numbers. Trading losses came to $10.6 billion, making this the first quarter the industry has ever reported a net trading loss. Less than half of the insured banks reported improved earnings for 2007, making this the first time in 23 years that a majority of the banks have not posted earnings increases. It's also the first time since the mid-1970s that non-interest income has declined. On a positive note, domestic deposits rose to $170.6 billion, the largest quarterly increase. But the bad news is that the industry's ratio of deposits to total assets hit an all-time low.

While no major banks have yet failed in the current crisis, some big names have experienced significant troubles. Washington Mutual(WM - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) is one national bank that has been particularly hard hit by poor mortgage and other loans. WaMu cut its dividend and set aside $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter to cushion against greater delinquencies on subprime mortgages and home-equity loans. A number of regional banks, like National City(NCC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and KeyCorp(KEY - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) also recently increased loan-loss provisions.

"The problems are in all categories, and given the thin coverage of the banking system for such losses, rising charge-offs and loan loss reserves are likely to bite deeply into earnings," wrote John Hussman in a September market comment for Hussman Funds.

FDIC spokesman David Barr pointed out that even as assets increase, the agency is restricted in its ability to get more income for the Depository Insurance Fund (DIF). The DIF is administered by the FDIC and is funded through investments and payments by insured banks. The payment is calculated both on the balance of deposits as well as on the degree of risk posed to the insurance fund. However, Congress sets the ratio level and even though it was raised last year to 1.25, the current level of reserves to insured deposits is only at 1.22. In 2006, it was 1.32.

"Ninety percent of the banks haven't been paying in because the reserve ratio isn't low enough," he said. "Congress increased the number last year, but exempted older banks. We're restricted to income on Treasuries."

So the FDIC is going to be hitting up banks for more money at a time when many can least afford it. The goal for the DIF ratio is to be at 1.25 by 2009. "The number of problem banks is increasing, but still historically low," Barr said. "However, the assets are increasing."

A rise in bank failures exemplifies the burgeoning problem. Douglas National Bank in Missouri failed in January and the three banks that failed in 2007. The FDIC's Marino said that typically three to six banks fail each year, but there were no bank failures during 2005 and 2006, when banks were raking in fees for loans.

Last month, the FDIC issued a two-part Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, seeking comments related to the potential failure of large insured depository institutions. Marino has been working on this project for two years.

When a bank fails, the FDIC has to be able to look at all the accounts of a depositor and figure out how much is insured. "Banks do not know the insurance status of their customers, nor do they really care," Marino said. "What we're saying to larger institutions is that you're going to have to help us out."

Marino said banks with regulatory problems typically used to fail on a Friday, allowing the FDIC to step in and sort But with liquidity issues, failures can come at any time. Moreover, electronic banking leads to a lot of nightly processing, so it's usually not until 4 a.m. in the morning that the FDIC gets a glimpse of the balances.

The proposed rule the FDIC is considering would require the largest institutions to modify their deposit systems so that the FDIC could calculate deposit insurance coverage quickly in the event of failure.

Today's trouble in the banking sector has a long way to go before it rivals the Depression, when 4,000 banks failed. But the symptoms then were similar: banks were bogged down with foreclosures and left with unsalable assets. The banks struggled with liquidity issues, which the Federal Reserve did little to help.

Today's Fed is bending over backwards to create liquidity. Just last month when the Fed's own reports noted that banking reserves had gone into negative territory, the Fed stressed that by making short-term liquidity available through its term auction facility, the banks would have plenty of money. But that money is achieved through loans and not real capital.

Hussmann in September observed that reserves had fallen to their lowest level relative to non-current loans since the third quarter of 2002 and non-current loans experienced the largest uptick since the fourth quarter of 1990 -- representing the last two notable economic downturns.

"Recall that 1990 and 2002 were periods when recessions were already well underway," he wrote. "If we're already seeing these signs of credit stress at the peak of an economic expansion, the figures we observe in a recession are likely to be a lot worse."

Prince Harry is in Afghanistan

Yeah! I'm glad to hear this news, this young prince sets a fine example. Give 'em hell Harry!

ROUNDUP: Britain's Prince Harry on frontline in Afghanistan

dpa
dpa - International News Service in English

Feb 28, 2008 14:58 EST

London (dpa) - Britain's Prince Harry has been fighting Taliban forces on the frontline in Afghanistan for the past 10 weeks after a long and controversial debate in Britain over whether the 23-year-old should do active service in a conflict zone.

Harry, 23, the younger son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, was stopped from fighting in Iraq last year on security grounds.

A lengthy public debate on the deployment prompted the appearance of T-shirt among insurgency groups in Iraq displaying Harry's head as a target.

The Sandhurst-trained prince, who serves in the Household Cavalry, always insisted that he wanted to "fight with his men."

On Thursday, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in London confirmed that Harry had been fighting in Afghanistan's Helmand province for the past 10 weeks.

The news was leaked on the US website Drudge Report, after the British media had adhered to an agreement with the royal palace that the deployment of the prince should be kept secret.

The head of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, said he was disappointed that the news had come out.

"I am very disappointed that foreign websites have decided to run the story without consulting us," he said.

The move was in "stark contrast to the highly responsible attitude" displayed by the British media, said the general.

Harry, who has a reputation as a "party prince," was understood to have threatened to leave the army if he was not allowed to go on active service.

He is the first senior member of the royal family to serve in a conflict since Prince Andrew, his uncle, fought as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands in 1982.

Harry, third in line to the throne, was told by his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, that the decision had been taken for him to serve in Afghanistan.

The queen had always been supportive of his wish, the prince said in an interview Thursday.

He believed the fighting experience in Afghanistan would change his life. "I finally get the chance to do the soldiering that I want to do," the prince said.

In an interview in the restive southern Afghan province of Helmand, Harry talked about life as a soldier on the frontline.

"I haven't really had a shower for four days, I haven't washed my clothes for a week.

"It's very nice to be sort of a normal person for once, I think it's about as normal as I'm going to get.

"I am still a little bit conscious of the fact that if I show my face too much in and around the area - luckily there's no civilians around here because it's ... a no-man's land.

"But I think that if, up north, when I do go up there, if I do go on patrols in amongst the locals, I'll still be very wary about the fact that I do need to keep my face slightly covered just on the off- chance that I do get recognized, which will put other guys in danger.

The fear that Harry might prove to be a "bullet magnet" - or that his deployment might place his comrades in additional danger, returned Thursday with confirmation of his deployment.

The MoD said no decision had been made on whether it was safe for Prince Harry to remain in Afghanistan, where he was meant to complete a four-month tour.

"The operational chain of command is now looking at a variety of options," said a spokesman. dpa at pmc

Source: dpa - International News Service in English

Treaties need the approval of the senate

The Senate should have had to approve this, it's a treaty between us and someone else, this is bullshit.

Welcome to the North American Army
By Judi McLeod Monday, February 25, 2008

Will historians one day record that “It happened on Valentine’s Day” when chronicling the timetable of the North American Union (NAU)?

With no warning, a significant military agreement was signed by the chief Armed Forces commanders of both the U.S.A. and Canada on Feb. 14. The agreement allows the armed forces from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation during a domestic civil emergency.

And as Jerome R. Corsi writes of the range of domestic civil emergencies, in WorldNetDaily, “even one that does not involve a cross-border crisis.”

The Valentine’s Day pact got zero coverage in the mainstream media whose investigative reporters must have been out hunting down chocolate and posies.

Were it not for a USNORTHCOM photo that surfaced depicting a beaming U.S. air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, USNORTHCOM commander and Canadian Air Force Lt. Gen. Marc Dumais, commander of Canada Command, the public the media serve would have been left in the dark.

Perhaps the generals won’t get to tell North American Union suspecting citizens that the NAU is the province of only the conspiracy theorist.

Paperwork always comes in handy when bureaucrats cry “Conspiracy Theory”.

Defined by its architects as a “Civil Assistance Plan”, the agreement was never submitted to Congress for approval.

“Nor did Congress pass any law or treaty specifically authorizing this military agreement to combine the operations of the armed forces of the United States and Canada in the event of a wide range of domestic civil disturbances ranging from violent storms, to heal epidemics, to civil riots or terrorist attacks.” (WorldNetDaily, Feb. 24, 2008).

Mind you, reporter David Pugliese, had the story published by CanWest News Service on Friday.

Imagine an agreement that paves the way for the militaries of the U.S. and Canada to cross each other’s borders to fight domestic emergencies not being announced by either the Harper government or the Canadian military.

“It’s kind of a trend when it comes to issues of Canada-U.S. relations and contentious issues like military integration,” Stuart Trew, a researcher with the Council of Canadians told the CanWest News Service. “We see that this government is reluctant to disclose information to Canadians that is readily available on American and Mexican websites.”

“This document is a unique, bilateral military plan to align our respective national military plans to respond quickly to the other nation’s requests for military support of civil authorities,” Renuart said in a statement published on the USNORTHCom website.

“The signing of this plan is an important symbol of the already strong working relationship between Canada Command and the U.S. Northern Command,” said Lt. Gen. Dumais.

“Our commands were created by our respective governments to respond to the defense and security challenges of the twenty-first century,” he stressed, “and we both realize that these and other challenges are best met through cooperation between friends.”

While Canadian citizens opened their homes to Americans stranded on September 11, 2001, there was no military aid sent to the U.S. from Canada, whose then Prime Minister Jean Chrétien remained silent.

In a program on the first anniversary of the deadly hijackings, Chrétien told CBC TV that a clear signal had been sent to all Western countries: do not abuse your strength or wealth.

“You cannot exercise your powers to the point of humiliation for the others,” Chrétien said. “And that is what the western world—not only the Americans, the Western world—has to realize. Because they are human beings, too.”

Truth is the Chrétien crony Liberals haven’t gone away. They are merely waiting in the wings to bring down the Harper minority government.

The same Liberals who join the Canadian New Democrat Party (NDP) whose mantra is to bring the troops home from Afghanistan.

Some Liberal and NDP MPs continue to hold anti-American sentiments.

That’s a strange environment from which to forge a plan whose “challenges are best met through cooperation between friends”, Lieutenant General Dumais.

U.S. Northern Command was established on Oct. 1, 2002, as a military command tasked with anticipating and conducting homeland defense and civil support operations where U.S. armed forces are used in domestic emergencies.

Canada Command was established on Feb. 1, 2006, to focus on domestic operations and offer a single point of contact for all domestic and continental defense and securities partners.

Meanwhile, since the North American Union is a three-nation initiative, when will the Mexican Army be brought in during a domestic civil emergency?


Posted 02/25 at 07:27 AM Email (Permalink)

UAV xbox skills

The Air Force should create a video game for the xbox and PS3 to train up young recruits while they are still in Junior High. Eventually we'll be able to find the guy w/ the best current score on XboxLive and patch him into the cockpit in real time. Saving on training costs and time to fight calculations for the resource planner, thus driving value for the war fighter and budget planner. Eventually the entire defense dept could lower their training costs by publishing force specific software titles.

UAV Jocks Get Respect
February 25, 2008: A year ago, the U.S. Air Force created a new job specialty, UAV pilots. Before that, it was just "temporary duty" for underemployed fighter pilots. Late last year, the air force began recruiting people to be career UAV operators. The new air force program expects to attract those who had applied to be regular pilots, but had been denied because of minor physical faults (eyesight not sharp enough being the most common). But the air force is also aware that the current crop of recruits are the X-Box generation. They grew up on video games, and the military has already found that all those thousands of hours wasted (according to parents) playing video games, developed skills that are quite useful in the military.

Classroom instruction is almost identical to what pilots of manned aircraft get. Flight instruction, however, will take place on a customized version of Microsoft Flight Simulator (MFS), which will emulate the Predator (and perhaps other UAVs as well). The air force was satisfied that MFS had an accurate enough flight model to be used for UAV pilot instruction.

The three month Undergraduate Remote Pilot Training (URT) is training 30 students a year, and in two years will be turning out over a hundred pilots a year. After URT, UAV pilots (who will get wings) will get two or three months instruction on Predator or Global Hawk aircraft. There are also now UAV classes and a school for senior air force officers.

The air force also created a sensor operator job category for the enlisted troops who work with UAV operators. Until now, the airmen who operated the cameras on UAVs were given the imagery analyst job title. This made little sense, but it was just an improvisation. But now UAVs are a career path, and many air force officers and troops see it as the future.

Currently, the air force is getting about two pilots applying for each opening for UAV pilots. That's because the air force is downsizing, and a lot of pilots are forced to choose between retraining on another aircraft, trying a few years of UAV work, or leaving the air force. However, few pilots of manned aircraft want to make a career of operating UAVs. The new training program for UAV pilots will be for people who are stick with UAVs until retirement. At the moment, the UAV pilots appear to have brighter long range career prospects than the folks flying manned aircraft. It will take about a decade before all the UAV operators are people with no prior experience in manned aircraft. In the meantime, every fighter and transport pilot who has done a three year tour as a UAV operator, acquires a database entry showing a "secondary skill" as a UAV operator so that, when they return to their F-15 cockpit, they can be recalled if there is an emergency need for more UAV jocks.

Marx cafe tonight!

All right, no really bad weather, it's not an upcoming holiday weekend, so it's on for sure tonight!

10pm
3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW

Hope to see YOU there!

Party in Havana!?

Can we US citizens join the rest of the world and vacation in Havava?!?! Please!?

No change in Cuba policy, U.S. says
Posted on Tue, Feb. 19, 2008

By FRANCES ROBLES AND ALEJANDRA LABANCA
frobles@MiamiHerald.com

The Bush administration ruled out on Tuesday any immediate change in policy toward Cuba, deriding Fidel Castro's most likely successor as president of Cuba, his brother Raúl, as ``Fidel-lite.''

''He is simply a continuation of the Castro regime, of the dictatorship,'' State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters, according to the Associated Press. ``There are some very clear indications out there that what this transition would potentially become . . . is a transfer of authority and power from one dictator to dictator-lite, from Fidel to Raúl.''

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said in Washington he could not even imagine the U.S. lifting the embargo ''any time soon''. The trade embargo against the island has been the centerpiece of American policy toward Cuba since it was first imposed in 1960 and strengthened in 1962.

Cubans on the island, on the other hand, hoped Fidel's decision not to seek reelection may be just the break Raúl had been waiting for to make significant changes in the economy.

''I don't think it will be more of the same,'' dissident economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe said by phone from Havana. ``It's not what we in Cuba want -- we want democracy and freedom -- but this could be the time for some economic changes and maybe, long-term, some political changes.''

Although Raúl has been ruling Cuba for the 19 months that Castro has been ailing, Cuba watchers say he's had his hands tied with the looming presence of his brother. And with Tuesday's announcement that Cuba's 81-year-old leader was stepping down after nearly 50 years in office, Raúl could use the opportunity to enact economic reforms that Cubans so desperately crave.

Castro announced in a letter to the Cuban people Tuesday that his health will not allow him to accept another term as president of the ruling Council of State. His move came five days before the National Assembly meets to elect the new Council of State and its president -- Castro's top official title since the council was established in 1976.

In his letter, Fidel acknowledged that his failing health means he was not up to the job.

''My wishes have always been to discharge my duties to my last breath,'' Castro wrote in a letter published in Tuesday's editions of Cuban newspapers. However, ``it would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer.''

''This I say devoid of all drama,'' he wrote.

At Miami International Airport, scores of passengers arriving on flights from Camagüey and Havana Tuesday said they saw nothing different on the streets or at the airport and were unaware of the significant development on the island when they arrived in Miami in the early afternoon. Most learned the news from reporters gathered outside the U.S. Customs waiting area at MIA.

''Everything seemed normal. There was nothing different as we headed for the airport. It looked like a normal day in Cuba,'' said María Luisa Morales, 60, of West Palm Beach, who spent three weeks visiting relatives in Camagüey in central Cuba.

''I don't think people know,'' Morales said.

Rafael Almeida, 45, a trucker from Hialeah who was on the same flight, was stunned to hear of Castro's resignation.

''Really? They didn't say anything there. I noticed nothing different at the airport. Are you sure?,'' Almeida queried reporters.

The Associated Press reported that, as radio spread the news across the island, Cubans went about their business as usual, accepting the inevitable with a mix of sadness and hope.

''It is like losing a father,'' said Luis Conte, an elderly museum watchman. Or ``like a marriage -- a very long one that is over.''

Reaction was subdued in Miami's Cuban-American community. Most exiles dismissed Castro's resignation as an insignificant development.

''That's nothing, that's a farce,'' said Jorge Alonso, 79, who was watching other men play poker at Calle Oche's Domino Park on Tuesday. ``With Raúl, there is no solution.''

Miami's arch-conservative Radio Mambí, the Spanish language anti-Castro station, hit on the same skeptical notes they've preached the last two years: This does not represent real change.

News Director Armando Pérez-Roura said Castro's move was a ''pantomime'' typical of ``communists.''

''This is not a change,'' he said in Spanish. ``It's a play by the Cuban government with the help of the European Union and [Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez] Zapatero.''

Castro remains a member of parliament and is likely to be elected to the 31-member Council of State on Sunday, though he will no longer be its president. Castro also retains his powerful post as first secretary of Cuba's Communist Party.

Although there was no indication that the resignation could trigger a mass migration headed for Miami, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez said the county was prepared for any unexpected event.

''Earlier today, I spoke with Gov. Charlie Crist to assure him that Miami-Dade County is prepared for any issues that may arise. As always, we'll continue to monitor the activities of the Cuban government, which are of great interest to our community,'' he said.

Most Cubans believe that the presidency will wind up in the hands of Raúl, the world's longest-serving defense minister. As head of the armed forces, he wields tremendous power not just over troops, but State Security, the Ministry of Interior and the economy.

''This is Raúl's opportunity to consolidate power,'' Espinosa said.

Laura Pollán, a member of the dissident group Ladies in White, said this is Raúl's chance to prove that he is really interested in reform by freeing the more than 200 political prisoners in Cuba. Pollán's husband, Héctor Maseda, is serving a 20-year sentence.

In Africa, a visiting President Bush said he hoped this was the beginning of democracy and called for the liberation of all political prisoners in Cuba.

''First step, of course, will be for people put in these prisons to be let out. I've met with many of the -- or some of the families of prisoners. It just breaks your heart to realize that people have been thrown in prison because they dared speak out,'' he said.

``I view this as a period of transition; that -- and it should be the beginning of the democratic transition for the people in Cuba.'''

On the presidential campaign trail, Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and Republican John McCain also demanded the release of political prisoners in Cuba.

It remains to be seen whether the 76-year-old Raúl will be elected as the new president, although Castro is widely expected to retain a strong voice in the country's strategic decisions for the time being.

Raúl also may opt to wield power from his current positions and allow the Council of State to choose a younger leader, like the ones Castro alluded to in Tuesday's letter.

''Fortunately, our revolution can still count on cadres from the old guard and others who were very young in the early stages of the process,'' he wrote. ``Some were very young, almost children, when they joined the fight in the mountains and later they have given glory to the country with their heroic performance and their internationalist missions. . . . They have the authority and the experience to guarantee the replacement.''

But his absence from the political scene raises many new possibilities for the revolution, particularly considering that nearly two-thirds of the country's 11.2 million people were born after 1959 and have known no other leader but Fidel.

Castro's successor also will take office amid increasing complaints about the system's shortcomings, particularly high prices and low wages.

When Castro was struck by an intestinal illness in summer 2006, he ''temporarily'' turned over the title of president and several others to Raúl. Castro has not made any public appearances since then.

The jubilation felt on the streets of Miami that summer night that Castro ceded power quickly petered out when Raúl's hold on the job proved firmer than exiles in Miami expected. Raúl's 19 months in office were marked by remarkable stability, which served to underscore the strength of Cuba's military and Communist Party.

Castro began hinting late last year that he did not plan to hold on to his job forever. In a December column, he suggested it was time to make way for newer and younger leadership.

Some experts believe the Council of State will tap Vice President Carlos Lage, 54, as president. But others say it's unlikely both Castro brothers will retire at once. Many on the island think Lage will actually succeed Raúl as Cuba's next No. 2.

The Castro brothers swept into power in 1959 after winning a guerrilla war against Fulgencio Batista. Once in office, Fidel, a former lawyer, nationalized properties as the country's elite and middle class fled. He fostered strong ties to the Soviet Union, but watched his economy collapse when the Soviet bloc came apart -- taking its $4 billion to $6 billion in annual subsidies with it and ushering more than a decade of economic hardship on the Cubans.

Experts say Fidel's decision not to seek reelection to the presidency offers hope that it may become the first step in what could be a long process toward change on the island.

''It took the Soviet Union a generation after Stalin and it was three or four years after Franco before there was change in Spain,'' said Dario Moreno, a Cuba expert at Florida International University. ``The challenge for the Cuban community in Miami is patience. The Cuban government has had a year and a half to work on this transition. The lessons of this period we've gone through is that the Cuban revolutionary institutions are strong enough.''

One lingering question is whether Fidel's less charismatic brother can keep the socialist revolution going in the long-term.

Raúl is known as a man who leads by consensus. Most experts believe he will use the strength of the military, the Communist Party and National Assembly to keep a tight rein on political power while embracing economic changes to improve the daily lot of Cubans.

''Although they have some differences, they are one of a kind. They have the same interests, to stay in power,'' said Tony Alfonso, 70, a former political prisoner in Cuba. ``As long as there are no consequences, nothing is going to change. Liberate all the political prisoners, set the foundation for free elections, other than that it will just be cosmetic changes.''

And again, no one is totally counting Fidel out of the picture. Experts agree it's unlikely that anyone - even Raúl - will even command as much influence as his brother.

''I don't believe someone as narcissistic as him will be absolutely removed from power,'' said Andy Gómez with the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies. ``He will continue to be consulted. What you may see now are some newer, younger faces.''

Fidel has long been the revolution's icon. While Cubans are fed up with shortages and low salaries, he is still admired and respected as the charismatic chief who defied the United States and kept Cuba afloat despite the post-Soviet economic collapse.

''We are all very sad. We are all Fidelistas in this house. But we understand that he's sick, and physically he doesn't have the strength to continue even though he still has the mental capacity,'' María Cecilia Colón, a woman from Havana told The Miami Herald in a telephone interview.

As for where Cuba needs to go from here, she says, she wants to see ``the country continue to progress. I want to see an elimination of the blockade so that Cuba can be like any other country. We know the a revolution is difficult and rife with challenges, but I believe we can succeed.''

Fidel himself has not taken himself completely out of the picture. He said he plans to continue being a soldier for the revolution, although his weapons this time will only be words.

''This is not my farewell to you,'' he wrote. ' I shall continue to write under the heading of `Reflections by Comrade Fidel.' It will be just another weapon you can count on. Perhaps my voice will be heard. I shall be careful.''

Miami Herald staff writers Luisa Yáñez, Adam Beasley, Jacqueline Charles, Oscar Corral and Alejandra Labanca contributed to this report from Miami.

Marx on hold, for a week...

Hey all, it's down right nasty outside tonight, ice, freezing rain, all sorts of ugliness. So I elected to stay put and stay dry. See you all next week!

-Matt

Marx Cafe tommorow nite!

Hey all, barring any personal emergencies or unfortunate accidents, I'll be at Marx Tomorrow night at around 10pm or so to make your ears bleed. We're back to every Tuesday night now I'm happy to note, the short lived "Scoop!" is no more. The bar owner has offered me Tuesday night if I wanted to do something exclusive, not sure what to think of that. Anywho, hope to see you there!

3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW

Get a charge out of walking!

Great, now if we can just get this attached to a neon shirt and some laser pants we'll be all set. Look ma, no batteries! wee...

Scientists make unique knee-brace power generator
Thu Feb 7, 2008 5:38pm EST

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Talk about a knee-jerk reaction. Scientists in the United States and Canada said on Thursday they have developed a unique device that can be strapped on the knee that exploits the mechanics of human walking to generate a usable supply of electricity.

It generates enough power to charge up 10 cell phones at once, the researchers report in the journal Science.

Researchers have been working on ways to harness the motion of the human body to create power.

A shoe-mounted device was nice and light, but did not generate much electricity. A backpack device that generated power as it bounced up and down while a person walks generated a lot of electricity, but was heavy to lug.

The new energy-capturing knee brace, its inventors said, seems to find a happy medium -- generating decent amounts of power while still being relatively light.

The scientists envisioned numerous applications for such a device. It could be of value to hikers or soldiers who may not have access to electricity, they said. It also could be built into prosthetic knees or other implantable devices whose users occasionally must undergo surgery for a battery replacement.

Arthur Kuo, a University of Michigan mechanical engineer who worked on the device, said it works similarly to the way that regenerative braking charges a battery in hybrid cars.

These regenerative brakes collect kinetic energy that normally dissipate as heat when the car slows down. The knee device collects energy lost when a person brakes the knee after swinging the leg forward to take a step, the researchers said.

"It generates a fairly substantial amount of power compared to previous devices and it does so in a way that doesn't affect the user very much," Kuo said in a telephone interview.

"You could easily power 10 cell phones at once. There are some low power computers that you could power. You could imagine devices like GPS locaters, satellite phones," he said.

With a device placed on each leg, volunteers walking on treadmills generated about 5 watts of electricity walking at a leisurely 2.2 mph (3.5 kph). Each of the devices weighs about 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg), which Kuo said was still too unwieldy.

"Even though we've demonstrated this new way to generate power, we don't mean to say this is a usable product at this time. The principle limitations are that our prototype is pretty heavy and bulky," Kuo said, adding that he thinks it can be made smaller and more practical.

(Editing by Maggie Fox and Eric Beech)
© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Important case in CDS debacle

Tripped across this article noting a case decided last year that very well may be cited during future civil action related to the credit default swap market collapse. Lots of work for lawyers as this mess unwinds! It's a good read.


http://overhedged.blogspot.com/2008/01/little-noted...

SEC bails out mortgage crooks.

Methinks this isn't going to help foster an environment of accountability.

Subprime Lenders Get Big Accounting Break at SEC: Jonathan Weil

Commentary by Jonathan Weil

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Just when it seemed as if the mortgage mess had hit a new low, now comes this: The Securities and Exchange Commission's staff has granted the subprime-lending industry a huge exemption from the normal rules for off-balance- sheet accounting.

In effect, the move will let home lenders keep their balance sheets looking much smaller and less leveraged, even while the off-the-books loans they made get a makeover.

For months, banking regulators and politicians have been pressing lenders to freeze the interest rates on many adjustable-rate subprime mortgages that are scheduled to reset soon at higher interest rates. The idea is to minimize defaults and foreclosures.

While that's a noble objective, all good deeds must be accounted for, and that's been a sticking point for many banks. Through September, just 3.5 percent of subprime mortgages that reset in the first eight months of 2007 had been modified, according to Moody's Investors Service. Even lenders inclined to help don't want to hurt their financial results. And now they might not have to, thanks to a Jan. 8 letter from the SEC's chief accountant, Conrad Hewitt.

Here's the background: Many lenders recorded upfront profits by selling loans in bulk to off-balance-sheet trusts -- known as qualified special purpose entities, or QSPEs -- which then repackaged the loan pools into mortgage-backed securities. The trusts are supposed to be beyond the lenders' control. And if the companies servicing the loans tinker with them in ways that aren't spelled out in the trusts' charters, the sales must be reversed, and the trusts must come onto the lenders' books, under the Financial Accounting Standards Board's rules.

Financial Constraints

That would mean much more assets and debt, possibly limiting banks' ability to make new loans. Not surprisingly, some of the biggest mortgage lenders, including Washington Mutual Inc., Countrywide Financial Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co., had been pushing regulators for a break.

By following new guidelines issued last month by a banking- industry group called the American Securitization Forum, Hewitt said servicers will be allowed to modify subprime mortgages where defaults are ``reasonably foreseeable,'' without jeopardizing the trusts' off-balance-sheet treatment.

Hewitt's letter came in response to requests by the ASF, as well as the Treasury Department and others. On Dec. 6, the ASF published a ``streamlined'' framework for evaluating subprime mortgages issued from January 2005 to July 2007, where the initial rates are scheduled to reset before August 2010.

Loans that meet certain criteria -- based on things such as low credit scores, the number of days delinquent, and high loan- to-value ratios -- are eligible for ``fast-track'' modifications, on the basis that it's foreseeable they'll default, the ASF said.

Losing Status

The wholesale approach includes lots of room for discretion. For instance, if a borrower's credit score is too high, mortgage servicers can use an ``alternate analysis'' and consider a ``tailored modification for a borrower.''

Hewitt said such modifications wouldn't cause the QSPEs to lose their off-the-books status, though he did call for more disclosures by lenders about QSPEs' activities.

Hewitt said he realized there's no way to know how accurate the ASF criteria might be at predicting actual defaults, because there ``is a lack of relevant, observable market data that can be used to perform an objective statistical analysis of the correlation.'' Still, he said the group's criteria looked reasonable, ``based upon a qualitative consideration of the expectation of defaults.''

Hewitt declined to be interviewed, as did FASB officials.

Little Discretion

The accounting standard at issue is FASB Statement No. 140. Its rules had envisioned QSPEs as brain-dead vehicles, akin to wind-up toys. Their actions are supposed to be automatic responses that ``were entirely specified in the legal documents that established'' the trusts. When servicers do exercise discretion, it must be ``significantly limited.''

``I do not believe mortgage modification in such a wholesale and proactive fashion can be reasonably viewed as significantly limited,'' says Stephen Ryan, an accounting professor at New York University, who specializes in financial instruments and institutions.

According to the ASF, many QSPEs' legal documents say loan modifications are permitted where default is ``reasonably foreseeable.'' However, the ASF framework wasn't published until last month. So there's no way the activities it describes could be fully specified in the charters at any of the affected QSPEs.

While it may be a good thing under current circumstances to give servicers incentives to modify lots of subprime mortgages, Ryan says, ``I think the chief accountant should have indicated he was providing an exemption to, rather than interpreting a vague area in, FAS 140.''

Changed Rules

The ASF's executive director, George Miller, says that ``the framework itself cannot be specified in trust documents that existed before the framework was issued.'' However, he says ``it does not need to be'' and that Hewitt's letter is ``not an exemption, just an interpretation'' of whether applying the group's criteria would comply with Statement 140.

This might be a slippery slope. Perhaps the auto industry could be saved, for example, if only we devise new accounting ``interpretations'' of the rules governing their massive pension liabilities.

Hewitt couldn't call his Jan. 8 letter an outright exemption, of course. Unlike the SEC itself, he doesn't have the authority to overturn the FASB's rules. Practically speaking, however, that's what he did.

The SEC and the FASB at least should acknowledge this subterfuge for what it is. Don't count on it, though.

(Jonathan Weil is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Jonathan Weil in Boulder, Colorado, at jweil6@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: January 30, 2008 00:06 EST

Chaos in Iraq

Wow, how was this allowed to go so completely wrong?!?!

The state of the (Iraqi) union
By Pepe Escobar

I say this to the evil Bush - leave my country.
We do not need you and your army of darkness.
We don't need your planes and tanks.
We don't need your policy and your interference.
We don't want your democracy and fake freedom.
Get out of our land.
- Muqtada al-Sadr, Iraqi Shi'ite leader

The George W Bush-sponsored Iraqi "surge" is now one year old. The US$11 billion-a-month (and counting) Iraqi/Afghan joint quagmire keeps adding to the US government's staggering over $9 trillion debt (it was "only" $5.6 trillion when Bush took power in



early 2001).

On the ground in Iraq, the state of the union - Bush's legacy - translates into a completely shattered nation with up to 70% unemployment, a 70% inflation rate, less than six hours of electricity a day and virtually no reconstruction, although White House-connected multinationals have bagged more than $50 billion in competition-free contracts so far. The gleaming reconstruction success stories of course are the Vatican-sized US Embassy in Baghdad - the largest in the world - and the scores of US military bases.

Facts on the ground also attest the "surge" achieved no "political reconciliation" whatsoever in Iraq - regardless of a relentless US corporate media propaganda drive, fed by the Pentagon, to proclaim it a success. The new law to reverse de-Ba'athification - approved by a half-empty Parliament and immediately condemned by Sunni and secular parties as well as former Ba'athists themselves - will only exacerbate sectarian hatred.

What the "surge" has facilitated instead is the total balkanization of Baghdad – as well as the whole of Iraq. There are now at least 5 million Iraqis among refugees and the internally displaced - apart from competing statistics numbering what certainly amounts to hundreds of thousands of dead civilians. So of course there is less violence; there's hardly any people left to be ethnically cleansed.

Everywhere in Iraq there are myriad signs of balkanization - not only in blast wall/partitioned Baghdad. In the Shi'ite south, the big prize is Basra, disputed by at least three militias. The Sadrists - the voice of the streets - are against regional autonomy; the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC)- which controls security - wants Basra as the key node of a southern Shi'iteistan; and the Fadhila party - which control the governorate - wants an autonomous Basra.

In the north, the big prize is oil-rich Kirkuk province, disputed by Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Turkmen; the referendum on Kirkuk has been postponed indefinitely, as everyone knows it will unleash a bloodbath. In al-Anbar province, Sunni Arab tribes bide their time collaborating with the US and controlling the exits to Syria and Jordan while preparing for the inevitable settling of scores with Shi'ites in Baghdad.

Obama and Hillary vs Iraqis
Meanwhile, in the Democratic party presidential race, Hillary Clinton, who voted for the war on Iraq, viciously battles Kennedy clan-supported Barack Obama, who opposed the war, followed at a distance by John "can a white man be president" Edwards, who apologized for his initial support for the war. Obama, Edwards and Clinton basically agree, with some nuance, the "surge" was a fluke.

They have all pledged to end the war if elected. But Edwards is the only pre-candidate who has explicitly called for an immediate US troop withdrawal - up to 50,000, with nearly all of the remaining out within a maximum of 10 months. Edwards insisted Iraqi troops would be trained "outside of Iraq" and no troops would be left to "guard US bases".

For their part, both Clinton and Obama believe substantial numbers of troops must remain in Iraq to "protect US bases" and "to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq". This essentially means the occupation grinding on. Both never said exactly how many troops would be needed: they could be as many as 75,000. Both have steadfastly refused to end the "mission" before 2013.

It's hard to envision an "occupation out" Obama when among his chief advisers one finds former president Jimmy Carter's national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski - the "grand chessboard" ideologue who always preached American domination of Eurasia - and former Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross, who always fought for Israel's dominance of the "mini-chessboard", the Middle East.

So far Obama has not given any signs he would try to counter the logic of global US military hegemony conditioned by control of oil; that's why the US is in Iraq and Africa, that's the reason for so much hostility towards Venezuela, Iran and Russia. As for Clinton - with the constant references to "vital national security interests" - there's no evidence this twin-headed presidency would differ from Bush in wanting to install a puppet, pliable, perennial, anti-Iranian, peppered-with-US-military-bases regime in Iraq.

But more than US presidential candidates stumbling on how to position themselves about Iraq, what really matters is what Iraqis themselves think. According to Asia Times Online sources in Baghdad, apart from the three provinces in Iraqi Kurdistan, more than 75% of Sunnis and Shi'ites alike are certain Washington wants to set up permanent military bases; this roughly equals the bulk of the population in favor of continued attacks against US troops.

Furthermore, Sunni Arabs as a whole as well as the Sadrists are united in infinite suspicion of the key Bush-mandated "benchmark": the eventual approval by the Iraqi Parliament of a new oil law which would in fact de-nationalize the Iraqi oil industry and open it to Big Oil. Iraqi public opinion as a whole is also suspicious of what the Bush administration wants to extract from the cornered, battered Nuri al-Maliki government: full immunity from Iraqi law not only for US troops but for US civilian contractors as well. The empire seems to be oblivious to history: that was exactly one of ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's most popular reasons to dethrone the Shah of Iran in 1979.

Too many fish in the sea
It's impossible to overestimate the widespread anger in Baghdad, among Sunnis and Shi'ites alike, for what has essentially been the balkanization of the city as negotiated by US commanders with a rash of militias; the occupiers after all are only one more militia among many, although better equipped. Now there are insistent rumors - again - in Baghdad that the occupation, allied with the government-sanctioned Badr Organization - is preparing an anti-Sadrist blitzkrieg in oil-rich Basra.

The daily horror in Iraq has all but been erased from US corporate media narrative. But in Baghdad, now virtually a Shi'ite city like Shiraz, Salafi-jihadi suicide bombers continue to attack Shi'ite markets or funerals - especially in mixed neighborhoods, even those only across the Tigris from the Green Zone. Sectarian militias - although theoretical allies of the occupation, paid in US dollars in cash - continue to pursue their own ethnic cleansing agenda. And the "surge" continues to privilege air strikes which inevitably produce scores of civilian "collateral damage".

The Sunni Arab resistance continues to be the "fish" offered protection by the "sea" of the civilian population. All during the "surge", the Sunni Arab guerrillas always kept moving - from west Baghdad to Diyala, Salahuddin, Nineveh and Kirkuk provinces and even to the northern part of Babil province. After the collapse of fuel imports from Turkey used to drive the Iraqi power grid, Baghdad and other Iraqi major cities are most of the time mired in darkness. Fuel shortages are the norm. In addition, the Sunni Arab resistance makes sure sabotage of electricity towers and stations remains endemic.

Contrary to Iraqi government propaganda, only very few among the at least 1 million Iraqis exiled in Syria since the beginning of the "surge" - mostly white-collar middle class - have come back. They are Sunni and Shi'ite alike. People - mostly Sunni - are still fleeing the country. The Shi'ite urban middle class fears there will inevitably be a push by the Sunni Arab resistance - supported and financed by the ultra-wealthy Sunni Gulf monarchies - to "recapture" Baghdad. This includes of course the hundreds of thousands of Baghdad Sunnis forced to abandon their city because of the "surge".

As for the Sadrists, they are convinced the 80,000-strong Sunni Arab "Awakening Councils" - al-Sahwah, in Arabic - gathered in Anbar province are de facto militias biding their time and practicing for the big push. It's fair to assume thousands still keep tight connections with the Salafi-jihadis (including most of all al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers) they are now supposedly fighting.

Considering the sectarian record of the US-backed Maliki government - which, as well as the Sadrists, considers the Awakening Councils as US-financed Sunni militias - there's no chance they will be incorporated into the Iraqi army or police.

One of the Awakening Council leaders, Abu Marouf, a Saddam Hussein "security officer" before the 2003 invasion and then a commander of the influential Sunni Arab guerrilla group the 1920 Revolutionary Brigades, all but admitted to The Independent's Patrick Cockburn the consequences will be dire if they are not seen to be part of the so-called "reconciliation" process. All this amounts to a certainty: a new battle of Baghdad is all but inevitable, and could happen in 2008.

Occupied of the world, unite
As the occupation/quagmire slouches towards its fifth year, it's obvious the US cannot possibly "win" the Iraqi war - either on a military or political level - as Republican presidential pre-candidate John McCain insists. Sources in Baghdad tell Asia Times Online if not in 2008, by 2009 the post-"surge" Sunni Arab resistance is set to unleash a new national, anti-sectarian, anti-religion-linked-to-politics offensive bound to seal what an overwhelming majority of Iraqis consider the "ideological and cultural" US defeat.

Already now a crucial Sunni-Shi'ite nationalist 12-party coalition is emerging - oblivious to US designs and divorced from the US-backed parties in power (the Shi'ite SIIC and Da'wa and the two main Kurdish parties - the Kurdish Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party ). They have already established a consensus in three key themes: no privatization of the Iraqi oil industry, either via the new oil law or via dodgy deals signed by the Kurds; no breakup of Iraq via a Kurdish state (which implies no Kurdish takeover of Kirkuk); and an end to the civil war.
The 12-party coalition includes almost all Sunni parties, the Sadrists, the Fadhila party, a dissidence of Da'awa and the independents in the Iraqi Parliament. And they want as many factions as possible of the Sunni Arab resistance on board - including the crucial tribal leaders of Awakening.

The ultimate success of this coalition in great measure should be attributed to negotiations led by Muqtada al-Sadr. The Sadrists are betting on parliamentary elections in 2009, when they sense they may reach a non-sectarian, nationalist-based majority to form a government. This would definitely bury Iraq's Defense Minister Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassim's recent estimate that a "significant" number of US troops would have to remain in Iraq at least for another 10 years, until 2018.

Even barring a possible Dr Strangelove-like attack on Iran, Bush is set to leave to Obama or Clinton, apart from a nearly $10 trillion black hole, a lost war in Afghanistan, total chaos in Pakistan, an open wound in Gaza, a virtual civil war in Lebanon and the heart of darkness of Iraq.

Both Obama - still unwilling to defend progressive ideas on progressive grounds - and drowning-in-platitudes Clinton owe it to US and world public opinion to start detailing, in "the fierce urgency of now", how they realistically plan to confront such a state of (dis)union.

Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007). He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.

(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

No marx tonite.

Hey, I'm staying in tonight, Tuesday night. Be back in force next week fo sure.

Meanwhile, check out some crazy videos on the web. I mean like anything, it's all good. Try youtube, or metacafe. that's the stuff.

Medically unfit troops sent into battle

Is our military in such bad shape that we really need to be sending soldiers who are medically unfit to carry out their missions into a war-zone? This is despicable.

Report: Troops to war despite broken leg, torn rotator cuffs

The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jan 17, 2008 11:45:49 EST

DENVER — Soldiers who were medically unfit or considered borderline have been sent to the Middle East to meet Army goals for “deployable strength,” The Denver Post reported Thursday.

Quoting internal Army e-mails and a Fort Carson soldier, the newspaper said that more than 50 troops were deployed to Kuwait en route to Iraq while they were still getting medical treatment for various conditions. At least two have been sent home.

Capt. Scot Tebo, the surgeon for Fort Carson’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, wrote in an e-mail obtained by the newspaper that “We have been having issues reaching deployable strength, and thus have been taking along some borderline soldiers who we would otherwise have left behind for continued treatment.”

Master Sgt. Denny Nelson said he was sent to Kuwait last month despite a severe foot injury. He was sent back to Fort Carson after a military doctor in Kuwait wrote that he never should have been shipped out.

Maj. Harvinder Singh, the 3rd Brigade Combat Team’s rear detachment commander, said he did not believe medically unfit soldiers have been sent to Iraq. He said soldiers with medical problems are deployed only if they can be assigned to light-duty jobs and if medical services are available at their destinations.

Fort Carson spokeswoman Dee McNutt said she knew of no Army policy defining “deployable strength” levels that Army commanders must meet.

Singh said commanders have goals, “but there is no repercussion if you don’t hit that goal.”

Nelson, a 19-year Army veteran who was given the Bronze Star, said he fractured his leg and destroyed tendons in his feet while jumping on his daughter’s trampoline.

He said he was sent to Kuwait last month even though Fort Carson doctors ordered that he not run, jump or carry more than 20 pounds for three months.

Nelson said two other soldiers were deployed with torn rotator cuffs, another was deployed even though he was taking morphine for nerve damage and another had mental health issues.

Nelson said the soldier with nerve damage was sent home after medical staff at a clinic in Iraq turned down his request for more pain medication.

Nelson said that while he was in Kuwait he was told by superiors he would be in charge of 52 soldiers who were receiving medical treatment.

“I expected to find a whole bunch of people, but when I got there, they were all gone. They were already all in Iraq,” Nelson said.

Singh said those soldiers would have received medical treatment in Iraq.

Nelson was sent back to the U.S. after a physician in Kuwait, Maj. Thomas Schymanski, sent Fort Carson officials an e-mail saying, “This soldier should NOT have even left [the continental United States] ... In his current state, he is not full mission capable and in his current condition is a risk to further injury to himself, others and his unit.”

Nelson said he feared he would be a liability to fellow soldiers because of his inability to carry full combat gear.

“I’m not going to Iraq not being able to wear any of my gear, not carry a weapon,” he said. “I become a liability to everybody around me because if they get mortared, they’re going to have to look out for me because obviously, I can’t run. I can’t look out for myself. Now I’ve got soldiers worrying about my welfare, instead of their own.”

Tell Bill O'Reilly he's wrong about homeless veterans

Bill claims the Department of Veterans Affairs is wrong to say there are 200,000 homeless veterans on any given night in the USA. Submit the letter and let him know how these people have been overlooked and discarded by the country they so selflessly served. Thank You!

read more | digg story

Sir Edmund Hillary RIP 1919-2008

Wow, rip aged explorer dude. Are there any explorers left in the world any more? Is that still a viable profession these days? Where can I buy a pith helmet?

Sir Edmund Hillary dies
Stuff.co.nz | Friday, 11 January 2008

Sir Edmund Hillary, who was born in Auckland on July 20, 1919, died aged 88 at Auckland City Hospital at 9am today, the Auckland District Health Board said.

The New Zealand flag will be flown at half-mast on all Government and public buildings from today until midnight Saturday to mark Sir Ed's death. Flags will also be flown at half-mast on the day of his funeral, the date of which is to be confirmed.

Announcing Sir Ed's death, Prime Minister Helen Clark said his passing was a profound loss to New Zealand.

"My thoughts are with Lady Hillary, Sir Edmund's children, wider family, and close friends at this sad time," Miss Clark said.

Miss Clark said Sir Ed always described himself as an average New Zealander.

"In reality, he was a colossus. He was an heroic figure who not only knocked off Everest but lived a life of determination, humility, and generosity."

Sir Ed's 1953 ascent of Mt Everest brought him world-wide fame and Miss Clark said the legendary mountaineer was the best-known New Zealander ever to have lived.

"But most of all he was a quintessential Kiwi. He was ours - from his craggy appearance and laconic style to his directness and honesty. All New Zealanders will deeply mourn his passing."

Miss Clark said Sir Ed had not basked idly in celebrity, drawing on his international prestige to highlight issues and values which he held dear.

She paid tribute to Sir Ed's humanitarian work with the Sherpa people of the Himalayas.

He established the Himalayan Trust in the early 1960s and worked tirelessly until his death to raise funds and build schools and hospitals in the mountains.

" The legacy of Sir Edmund Hillary will live on. His exploits continue to inspire new generations of New Zealanders, as they have for more than half a century already," Miss Clark said.

New Zealand's cricket team will wear black arm bands and observe a minute's silence along with the crowd before play starts on day one of the second test against Bangladesh at the Basin Reserve in Wellington tomorrow.

- with NZPA

Guitar hero turntable?!?

HAPPY NEW YEAR

hey All,

I'll be at Marx cafe tonight, don't know if I'm playing. The owner gave every other Tuesday to a pair of BritPop dj's, and I'm not sure if this is an on tuesday or an off tuesday as it were. I'm not to happy about that, but we'll see how long they last.

So, I'll be there around 9 either way. Seeya!

-Matt