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Open Thread

The Pirate King

While the world has been watching the rise of the left – from Obama’s ascendancy to the reorganisation of political parties across South America, another game has been in play – the ascendency of the Pirate King.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.
We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot,
Drink up, me ‘earties, yo ho.
We kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot,
Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho.

While Johnny Depp brought smiles to our faces though the Pirates of the Caribbean, it’s the Somali Pirates who are writing the script in 2009. On the 7th April this year hijackers off Somalia’s coast seized five ships in 48 hours. The pirates eluded the armada of warships from more than a dozen nations patrolling Somalia’s seas.

According to Wikipedia piracy off the Somali coast has been a threat to international shipping since the beginning of Somalia’s civil war in the early 1990s. Since 2005, many international organisations, including the International Maritime Organization and the World Food Programme, have expressed concern over the rise in acts of piracy. Piracy has contributed to a rise in shipping costs and impeded the delivery of food aid shipments. Ninety percent of the World Food Programme’s shipments arrive by sea, and ships have required a military escort. According to the Kenyan foreign minister, Somali pirates have received over US$150 million during the 12 months prior to November 2008.

Where things get interesting is in the analysis of cause and effect. According to an article over on the New York Times Somali officials said piracy started about 10 to 15 years ago as a response to illegal fishing. The country’s tuna-rich waters were plundered by commercial fishing fleets soon after its government collapsed in 1991. Somali fishermen turned into armed vigilantes, confronting fishing boats and demanding they pay a tax. In 2008, more than 120 pirate attacks occurred in the Gulf of Aden, far more than in any other year in recent memory. Experts said the Somali pirates netted more than $100 million, an astronomical sum for a war-racked country whose economy is in tatters.

UPDATE: 12 April 2009
Rachel Maddow provides a roundup on the Meet the Press.

UPDATE: 13 April 2009
John J. Kruzel of the American Forces Press Service reports Hostage Captain Was in ‘Imminent Danger’ at Time of Rescue

1,477 replies on “The Pirate King”

gaffers @ 1199-
bet you my house that they are not the photos that are being suppressed, awful as they are.
No one is under 12.

Who knows Jen?

There is a video available on the Washington Post as well but i think we may have seen some of the video on Dateline here a few years ago. My puter will not play it and i can’t be bothered downloading the player required to do it.
I am sure those photos were from SBS and Dateline as well but they are saying some of them have not been released yet in the US.
No doubt there will be hundreds of other photos lurking in the backblocks and they will certainly come out in time.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/mmedia/nation/052104-1vv.htm

gut feeling? – Obi has pulled the pin because they are so uanacceptable that they will ignite a bomb. Everywhere – Arabic and Westerner alike. We’ve all seen hooded people with electrodes, and waterboarding.
I suspect we haven’t even scratched the surface.
Children.

Now I’ll give it 12 hours.

Just landed in my email inbox:

“Don’t know if this is just coincidence but….
2007 – Chinese year of the Chicken – Bird Flu Pandemic devastates parts of Asia
2008 – Chinese year of the Horse – Equine Influenza decimates Australian racing
2009 – Chinese year of the Pig – Swine Flu Pandemic spreads around the globe.

Has any one else noticed this???!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It gets worse……..
next year……

2010 – Chinese year of the Cock – what could possibly go wrong?
Uh Oh!!
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
They once said that a black man would be president when pigs fly. His first 100 days and wham….. Pig’s flu! “

jen,

You seem to be making a huge jump from some comments that Hersche made to the notion that there were US-sanctioned – by which I assume you mean sanctioned by Bush and Cheney – rapes of children occurring.

My suspicion is that your extreme dislike of Bush and Cheney is leading you to this interpretation, not anything else. Indeed, a part of me harbours the dark thought that you *want* this to be so, as that would further justify your extreme dislike of the dastardly duo.

Let the sunshine in….

Reuters

Australia plans to build the world’s largest solar power station with an output of 1000 megawatts in a $A1.4 billion ($US1.05 billion) investment, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.

The plant would have three times the generating capacity of the current biggest solar-powered electricity plant, which is in California, Rudd said during a tour of a power station.

Tender details will be announced later in the year, and successful bidders will be named in the first half of 2010. Rudd said the project was aimed at exploiting the country’s ample sunshine, which he called “Australia’s biggest natural resource”.

It was also aimed at helping the country become a leader in renewable, clean energy, he said.

“The government plans to invest with industry in the biggest solar generation plant in the world, three times the size of the world’s current biggest, which is in California,” Mr Rudd said.

“Why are we doing this? We are doing it in order to support a clean energy future for Australia, we’re doing it to boost economic activity now and we’re doing it also to provide jobs and much needed opportunities for business as well.”

The project should eventually lead to a network of solar-powered stations across the country, Mr Rudd said, with locations chosen to fit in with the existing electricity grid and ensure good access to sunshine.

“We don’t want to be clean energy followers worldwide, we want to be clean energy leaders worldwide.” Mr Rudd said.

The $A1.4 billion dedicated to this project was part of a wider $A4.65 clean energy initiative by the government, he said.

Mr Rudd also said Australia would become a full member of the International Renewable Energy Agency, which will have its first global meeting in June.

Talk is cheap, Kirri, even though it’s the right kind of talk from Solar Tin-Tin re AusSol. Also, plenty of employment scope for laid-off Big C workers in this forthcoming burgeoning Renewables Sector. Jobs need not be lost if workers are wised-up and re-trained early.

Btw, from your opening line, did you catch the Sharman show when it played at the Kings Cross Metro all those years ago, man?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8BqBK2RAmw&feature=related
—————–
Dept. of Ah, Der!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/18/2573325.htm

David, knew about your studies in Principia Mathematica, but your current foray into Speculative Psychology at 1207 is redolent of the No Shit, Sherlock! School of Epistemological Rectitude. 🙂

Afterall, mon ami, none of us are particularly fond of The Imbecile around here, n’esct-ce pas?

True, but personally I find it very hard to believe that the US command authorised the rape of children, and there does not seem to be any evidence that they did. Indeed, there is no evidence that US personnel were involved at all. That is why I find the fact that jen’s outrage about it is directed at Bush and Cheney a little problematic. I do not doubt her outrage; I just feel the targetting of that outrage to be a little too speculative.

Megan, just checked.
Hehe humorous but totally wrong.
It’s year of the Ox right now.

DG at 1212: “Indeed, there is no evidence that US personnel were involved at all.”

Not true, David. There’s plenty of evidence, much of it blood-soaked. Try this for starters.

Former Abu Ghraib Commander Brigadier General Janis Karpinski said that “from the beginning, I’ve been saying these soldiers did not design these techniques on their own.”

N.B. this report is via the MSM and not some bunch of leftoid, lunatic woo-woo festers 🙂

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30343776/
——————————-
May 18:
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/nonsequitur;_ylt=A0WTUd9B.xBKuSkAiwgDwLAF

May 17:
http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/tomtoles;_ylt=Albq7fmOBx4fkNpmCJMN4szV.i8C

May 18:
http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/tonyauth;_ylt=ApgqTE2SFXNqsZUcTwuUUbXmcLQF

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/70755

David, on second read I see you were referring to the aggravated sodomy of minors in front of their mothers. Mis-thought for a mo that you were denying your common or garden gnome variety of torture had transpired on a numerically large, widespread and serial basis in U.S. controlled “detention facilities”.

1,000MW of solar is no small beast Ecky, a few watts more than a token gesture I would have said.

yeah, I vaguely remember some disheveled cast emerging from rehearsals one afternoon in another age, one in which I had considerably more hair myself.LOL

1209
Ah memories of aquarius ecky.
Kings Cross was always a hoot.
I still remember (vaguely) being in grip of a drug-crazed dose of the hungry’s. Trying to decide which was more impressive. The box of chocolates in my lap, or the naked hippies leaping around on Sharman’s stage.
The chocolates won! :mrgreen:
Mind you, the Cross seems to have lost some of it’s “multicultural elan” lately.
🙁
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/814694/man-shot-twice-in-leg-in-inner-sydney

David , I do NOT hope children were raped.
Long bow there buddy.
(And i don’t need further reason to despise Bush and co. There’s already ample.)

Paddy, Bob Dyer reckoned you could have the money OR the box; you chose the chocolates right out of the box over oggling cosmic cocks.
AC/DC entrepreneurs assert that one can have it all!

The money, the box the cocks and the chocs. 🙂

Yeah, Darlinghurst Rd. is like Beale St. Memphis these days, strictly for tourists. Although if Min and I ever have to move back to Sydney for a spell (3 aged parents between us) we’d happily live in Wooloomooloo not only because it’s close to the old darlings but because you can walk most places; cafes, theatres, bookshops, galleries, The Basement. And public transport is abundant including cabs at a hail off-peak.

1212

David
Does this fit the scenario at all?:

(8) the term “sexual abuse” includes the employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement, or coercion of a child to engage in, or assist another person to engage in, sexually explicit conduct or the rape, molestation, prostitution, or other form of sexual exploitation of children, or incest with children;

If there were US service personel witnessing the incidents and they failed to stop it would they be assisting?

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00003509—-000-.html

gaffers- yes it bloody well would.
And if it is true (and at this stage it’s only rumour – and let’s hope it’s not true) then if any member of any government that we elected knew about it then they should have the wrath of people everywhere and the full power of the law visited upon them.
And if it’s not true then thank the gods.

1219 & 1221
If you have a bit of spare time i could probably tell you a few stories about Wooloomooloo and surrounding burbs, and how the boys in blue from the lovely Darlinghurst Beat used to deduct 10 shillings from our wallets when they let us free at around 2-3am without charges for being under the influence.
But yes many fond memories of the X and it started goin to the pack when they opened the George Bush Tavern to cater for the Seppos on R&R. Must admit that the local ladies used to fall in love with a Seppo and a wallet full of Greenbacks.
It was almost tempting to cross dress for the night for a free night on it.

EC
Harry’s is too modern now.
Oh for a bucket of blood and a maggot bag with haemorage and green at about 4am.

EC I especially liked this one the best. That gives the Democrats 4 boogie men (persons) at minimum for 2010. Bush, Cheney, Limbaugh and Palin. They are just the ones that speak up. Then there’s Rumsfeld. If the Dems doesn’t play the boogie man card in 2010 on top of all the positive news I’ll eat my hat.
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/70755

Jen – I have 19 working days to make a transformation of national significance. After I’ve done that I’ll be back!!

(but don’t read to much into that “national significance” thing – too many dark puppies in play)

By Post Author

Ah, gaffers, those were the days, my friend. The R&R Seps were a fascinating bunch. Away from the pack many behaved quite differently.
As a temporary hedge against starvation, an esrtwhile acquaintnace of checkered socio-legal circumstances and I drove Red De-Luxe Managed Cabs from the base behind the Victoria St. Fire Staion. Nightshift, naturally. We were deemed by our peers to be “Cowboys” and buzzed on the notoriety. My 2-way aerial, coiled at the base for extra whip, was tip-fitted with a roadkill acquired fox tail.

We figured the best way to turn an honest dollar and do the right thing by all concerned was to ensure that the Seps, many of ’em draftees, were availed of all the hospitalty this fine land could offer. Like little league Milos from Catch-22, whatever they wanted, we knew where they could get it. Anything at all. It was a nice little earner for a while (war profiteering) but in the end after all their whoopin’, hollerin’, whorin’, drankin’ and druggin’ were done, what most of the poor bastards wanted to do was to talk about the people they loved “back in the world”, to someone they’d never see again. Guiltily, I listened.

Geezus Cat – you are such an enigma.
new name….Catwoman.
go get’em girl.

And David- i am really pissed at you. Cheap shot.

Indeed, Cat, Roe V Wade looks pretty safe now, and i’ll keep the radar tuned around June 14 to glom furthur clues about a “transformation of national significance”.

A pie and peas tastes friggin’ awful these days, eh, gaffy?! Still get a nice coldie at the Frisco though, I’d venture.
The music died for me in that part of town when Juanita Nielsen was snuffed. There is a community centre adjacent to the pub named in her honour as is my eldest daughter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juanita_Nielsen

1232
A lot of those names on Wiki ring a bell but i had gone to NZ for a workin holiday when all that shit was going down.
If the Memory serves me right i recall the Frisco being an early opener and if it was it is the joint where i saw the best pub fight in my life. Two lovely indigenous ladies and bare knuckled it for about 40 minutes about 5.30 am. We were just passin by and having a couple of schooners for brekky on the way back to GI.

Been gentrified it has, gaffy. The Bloodhouse days are long gone. Not a bad “counter lunch” on the first floor wooden balcony though; relaxed ambience and a third of the price and almost as nice yummywise as the foodie joints in upper Macleay St.

This is what I like to hear. Although I already new it was going on.

GOP sounds alarm on Latino voter gap.

The Republican Party has scarcely begun to repair a wound that threatens to confine it to minority status: its 2006 collapse among Hispanic voters.

Driven by some Republicans’ sharp attacks on illegal immigration and — as many Hispanics perceived it, immigrants in general — Latino voters fled the GOP en masse in the midterm elections, then turned on John McCain, as well.

He got 31 percent of the Latino vote to the 44 percent that George W. Bush took in 2004, according to exit polls. And it was enough to put much of the West and Southwest out of reach for the Republican Party, to give Florida to the Democrats and to hand Barack Obama the presidency.

Now, as Obama moves to solidify his advantage, Republican leaders are sounding the alarm on what could be the party’s most pressing national challenge.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22586.html#ixzz0FrMZZcUF&B

Interesting. The last coupe of times I have done a cut and paste from Politico, it has automatically put in the Read more: and the URL above. Without me doing anything.

Ooo! Look, it comes out with yellow highlighter all over it. (Wasn’t there before). Must be my fault.

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/70758

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/70782

THE TORTURE 13:

Author, Marcy Wheeler, came to prominence with her blogsite The Next Hurrah (now quiescent) with her coverage of the Scooter Libby trial. Her other main claim to fame was her coverage of the torpedoing of Ted Lamont in the 2006 CT Dem race by Joey “The Rat” Lieberman. Joey retained his Senate seat after some A-grade establishment bastardry…… as an Independent Democrat. Lieberman is a super hawk and Lamont was strongly anti the Iraq war. (Ed.) 🙂

See how many you can guess before checking the 13. I got ten of the swine.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/05/18/torture/
——————
Chris, re 1226:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6LVI1gDswg

Texas a swing state?
===============

Hard to believe. But the state’s changing demographics, the rise of Latino influence and the disconnect between Republicans and Latinos make it a possibility. It is part of what happened here in Colorado as the state went from red to blue.

Here’s the Cox story about it that moved today:

LONE STAR STATE SLOWING TURNING BLUE?
EUNICE MOSCOSO — Cox — WASHINGTON – It’s all in the numbers.
If current trends continue and Republicans do not fare better with
Latinos, Texas will become a swing state within a few election cycles,
political experts say.

Latinos are the fastest growing sector of the electorate and are increasingly trending Democratic. In the latest election, President-elect Barack Obama won 67 percent of the Hispanic
vote nationwide, a significant increase for Democrats from 2004, when Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts received about 55 percent of Latino votes.

In Texas, 63 percent of Latinos voted for Obama, according to exit polls. Among young Hispanics, 18 to 29 years old, 67 percent voted Democratic. Kerry won about half of the Latino vote in Texas in 2004.

A Latino judge may help that.
Denver Post

GOP Losses Span Nearly All Demographic Groups.
—————————————————————-

The decline and fall of the Republican Party in recent years has been so widespread that the party has lost support among nearly every major demographic subgroup of likely voters across the country, according to a new Gallup poll.

The party lost support among a broad swath of Americans, from conservative to liberal, low-income to high-income, married to unmarried, and elderly to young.

The only subgroup in which the party saw a slight increase in support from 2001 to 2009 was frequent churchgoers.

Continued, but the article seems to finish in mid sentence.
<a href=”More on the Huffington Post

Yes! Yes! Yes!
—————–

John Weaver: GOP “Headed For A Blowout” In 2012 If Cheney, Limbaugh, Palin Lead.
Another leading Republican strategist has voiced concerns about the direction of the GOP.

John Weaver, a top adviser to Utah Governor John Huntsman, said this week that the Republican party is headed for an electoral “blowout” if it continues to be defined by “Palin and Limbaugh and Cheney.”

The Washington Examiner reported:

“If it’s 2012 and our party is defined by Palin and Limbaugh and Cheney, then we’re headed for a blowout,” says strategist John Weaver, who advised Huntsman and was for years a close adviser to Sen. John McCain. “That’s just the truth.”

The Huffington Post

But what about Texas? 😈

Every fathers dream
————————

Obama: Dating My Daughters Will Be “An Issue”
At ages 10 and 7, Malia and Sasha Obama are daddy’s girls, but the president is already preparing for what might be his biggest challenge: the dating scene. In a recent Newsweek Q&A, President Obama mentioned his dating policy, with an emphasis on the inherent advantage of armed Secret Service guards. The Daughters Obama won’t be sneaking out of any White House windows.

The Huffington Post

The news just keeps getting better and better.

Will Oklahoma – Sen Be a Race to Watch?
Political Wire got an advance look at a new Public Policy Polling survey in Oklahoma that shows next year’s U.S. Senate race could actually be competitive — if Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) retires. The poll will be released tomorrow.
Last month, Coburn said he had not made up his mind on retirement, though his lackluster fundraising suggested he would not run again.

Politcal Wire

Back on the slippery slide as April is record month for Credit Card defaults.

Credit card lenders are trying to protect themselves by tightening credit limits, raising standards and closing accounts. They have also been slashing rewards, increasing interest rates and boosting fees to cushion against further losses.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/30767901

Report card on American capitalism
=========================
October 12, 1837 – The Panic of 1837 (sparked by over-extended credit/defaults.) The House sanctioned the use of Treasury notes for a bailout, provided that they didn’t exceed $10 million; Congress’s efforts to stabilize the nation’s currency failed to lift the depression which lasted seven years.

August 24, 1857 – Panic spared by the failure of New York branch of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company which had loaned $5 million to railroad builders, had been swindled out of millions by the manager of its New York branch and was unable to pay extensive debt to Eastern bankers.

September 24, 1869 – “Black Friday” crash of gold prices as Grant administration foiled attempts by financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk try to corner the gold market. Several brokerage firms went bankrupt; national economy was severely disrupted for months.

September 18, 1873 – The Panic of 1873 began with collapse of Jay Cooke and Co., one of the country’s most reputable brokerage houses of it’s time, known as the “financier of the Civil War.” The Panic of 1873 exposed over-speculation which continued to wreak havoc on the nation’s economy for months. The New York Stock Exchange closed for ten days to wait out the worst of the crisis. The secretary of the Treasury pumped $26 million of new currency into the economy, swelled the amount of paper money in circulation to $382 million. Panic did not subside, economy continued its slump through the end of the decade.

May 5, 1893 – Panic was once again sparked due to reckless speculation and over-leveraging. Panic swept the New York Stock Exchange and the stock market crashed; by year’s end the country was in a severe depression.

November 9, 1903 – Panic of 1903 (known as the “Rich Man’s Panic”) reached its low; Dow dropped to 42.15; stocks of industrial companies fell to single-digit prices; fiscal crisis dragged on for the rest of the year, took severe toll on banks, many steel and iron producers.

October 1, 1907 – The nation plunged into the Panic of 1907 which lasted for a year – sparked by a run on Knickerbocker Trust in New York, which lacked resources to pay out to the demanding public, ultimately toppled the economy; President Roosevelt enlisted the aid of his one-time enemy, financier J.P. Morgan, who capitalized on his considerable reputation to borrow $1 million in gold from European countries. Outside U. S. Subtreasury building at Wall and Broad St. in October 1907

October 24, 1929 – “Black Thursday:’ stock prices plummeted, a record 12,894,650 shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange Followed by “Black Tuesday” the markets tanked. Thousands of investors were wiped out as America’s Great Depression began; 1932 – stocks were worth only about 20 percent of their value in the summer of 1929; 1933, nearly half of America’s banks had failed, and unemployment was approaching 15 million people, or 30 percent of the workforce.

1985-89 – The Savings and Loan collapse… $167 billion in federal bailouts required.

October 19, 1987 – The stock market crashed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508 points, or 22.6 percent in value – its biggest-ever percentage drop; inflation and rising interest rates, the announcement of a surprisingly steep trade deficit and news of an American attack against Iran were both blamed for Wall Street’s woes.

1998 – The Long-Term Capital Management failure. The Fed had to intervene to avoid sparking a worldwide panic over the condition of giant hedge fund companies like LTCM.

2000 – The Dot.com bubble crash

2007 – The housing bubble crash

2008 – The “Toxic Assets, Market Crash

http://www.newsforreal.com

I’d post the Alzheimers Australia website link here. But what’s the point? They won’t remember where it is.

Chris B, good to see you scoping Steve Pizzo’s stuff. Had an exchange of perceptions via email with him a couple of years ago about the relative menace of North Korean nukes. He lives on the the NW coast of the lower 48 and consisdered them a clear and present danger. I politely suggested in my tangentially diplomatic manner that he get his hand off it and we went at it hammer and tongs before ending up having a good laugh. He (ie his cyber-robot) sends me newsforreal each day by email. Some days they are corkers like your post at 1259 on AmCap’s report card. Think he’d go well if he set up a blog a la Len “Existentialist Cowboy” Hart. They are both great journos and jolly decent chaps, imho.

Ah, the French were so right to be concerned, as Clive Hamilton tells it today in crikey:

Bush is believed to have told Chirac: “This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins”.

The story has been confirmed by Chirac himself in a new book yet to be published in English by French journalist Jean Claude Maurice. Chirac is said to have been stupefied and disturbed by Bush’s invocation of Biblical prophesy to justify the war in Iraq and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs”.

…bloody cheese eating surrender monkeys, huh? Didn’t want to go on another Crusade a thousand years after the first one, under the banner of the Grinning Chimp? LOL

(BTW Ecky, the Curveball story is so utterly byzantine you’d swear it was all a fantasy, until you get to the bit where Wolfowitz refused to give up on Chalabi after the NSC dumped him as a propagator of rubbish ‘intelligence’ and moved him to the care of the Pentagon who, as we know, bought it all hook line and sinker.)

Kirri, I’m beside myself with intrigue. Ahmed is a confidence man par excellence. That lovely Mr. Gould in Can-berra would be awful impressed at his mathematical achievements.
After all Uncle Ahmed has done….. the weasel is still alive! Ripley himself would have difficulty believing it. Toss Curveball into the mix and the volatility becomes far too much for your average human unit to bear. What about a lil’ ‘ol post on it?
Pretty please with sugar on top. 🙂

Kirri,

We’ve had
The sub-prime credit crisis (I’m mathematically and pedantically inclined 🙂
The prime credit crisis

and now, as I was certain of as night follows day,
The credit card crisis
What is it with many people, particularly those 20+ years younger than me? Did they think the credit card companies would be “nice” when they got into financial trouble?

I have a nephew who has an income (because of a permanent disability) of about $25-26K a year. Last week he had a credit card debt of $16,300. And other debts of about $8,000!

So fuck me, I’m paying of the lot and putting him on a strict budget. Without this he’d lose his house – which he only has because he needed $21K from me to sort things out on a far grander house nearly 10 years ago.

It seems that too many people mirror this story – they have no fucking money sense & many of those are fucking economists advising innumerate politicians. Talk about the Bind leading the Blind.

All of the lawyer/s jokes can be reinvigorated by replacing that relevant word with economist/s – excluding Steve Keen, of course.

Maybe when I’m finished the excellent account I’m reading Ecky. When Chalabi enters the picture you just know it’s going to get messy, (or more precisely, even messier.)

What’s hard to digest is that this ‘source’, as obviously unreliable as he was, set off a chain of events that led ultimately to Colin Powell waving a phial of talc at the world and Dubbya embarking on his own personal Crusade.

It’s too, too bizarre.

Oh yes Cardy, the credit card companies (of which your moniker plays wild and woolly with the name! LOL) are nobodies friend. I just noticed this evening a $25 charge for going over my limit last month (by about the same amount for all of a day or so when I’d realised), so I know what you mean!

In the US they are all girding their corporate loins for massive losses and sacking and burning wherever they can. One guy reckoned his interest rate jumped about 20% when his cheque arrived a day late, after years of dutiful payments.

yep, ‘credit’ is going to become a very dirty word soon.

Kirri,

There is a great “Boston Legal” episode in the 2nd? series which puts a spotlight on the nefarious practices of the Credit Card Companies.

Apparently, they bought enough Congress votes so that
1) you can’t declare yourself bankrupt over credit card debt

2) If you have (say) a credit card debt of $500 they can raise the interest rate by 20% if you even enquire about a loan to buy a car

Also, I’d be a “deadbeat” credit card user in the good old USA – according to the Credit Card Companies – for I commit the sin of paying off the balance at the end of each month.

Kirri, you’re such a tease. The weirder the better. Can never figure out why US special forces only roughed him up a little for his troubles. Yes it’s truly bizarre. Talk about a political Svengali. The best consistently succumbed to his high-powered bullshit. A-mazing. Very few civilians Play and survive in that rat’s nest of greed-heads without very special skills.
—————————————-
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2009/05/19/tomo/

Stuff credit cards! Only use one to book planes and theatre tickets these days. As soon as the transaction is made I top the bastard off online so I don’t owe ’em a zac. Costs me $50 a year for the service fee. Pay for everything else in cash and don’t owe anybody any money.

Of couse I’m a complete fuck-up in other aspects related to the human condition, but sussed the trap in plastic many moons ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/business/19credit.html

Did Chirac reveal this stuff about Bush being a lunatic at the UN when the French objected to the Iraq invasion? The whole thing just gets more and more extraordinary – and all too believable.
I still can’t believe that those responsible are simply going to quietly retire and get away with the whole thing. That’s even more bizarre.

Good one H.
No doubt Hannity would have screamed him down a bit louder if he weren’t in the studio, but a bit different sitting at the table where he could have leaned over and whacked a bit of sense in to him.

Isn’t it so obvious that the Repug talking heads are preaching from the same bible as the Malbull Libtard talking heads.

Credit Card Bill Passes Senate Overwhelmingly.
=================================

The Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to rein in credit card rate increases and excessive fees, hoping to give voters some breathing room amid a recession that has left hundreds of thousands of Americans jobless or facing foreclosure.

The House was on track to pass the measure as early as Wednesday, paving the way for President Barack Obama to see the bill on his desk by week’s end.

“This is a victory for every American consumer who has ever suffered at the hands of a credit card company,” said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Banking Committee. The bill passed the Senate 90-5.

We should pass identical legislation in Australia.
The Huffington Post

From Stockholm to Sardinia, Waterford to Warsaw, a noisy and eclectic band of nationalists and eurosceptics are on the campaign trail hoping to unseat their mainstream rivals in the European Parliament.

Dutch anti-Islamists, Hungarian nationalists, Italian separatists and an Irish-backed anti-Lisbon Treaty party are all clamouring for seats when Europe goes to the polls between 4 and 7 June. And a combination of dismally low voter turnout and the economic downturn looks set to play into their hands in the vote. Job losses and the grimmest economic forecasts in decades have created the ideal conditions for single-issue candidates and marginal groups hostile to the EU to win seats in the Strasbourg assembly.

“It’s a worrying trend” says Urszula Gacek, a centre-right Polish MEP whose country is itself home to several arch-conservative Catholic parties and headed by a eurosceptic President, Lech Kaczynski. “The extremists are better at mobilising their voters, by playing on citizens’ fears and talking up the need for protectionism and the closing of borders.”

To wake them up, put George Bush in charge for 5 years.
For years everyone was laughing at the USA for it’s low polling turnout. The trend has now reversed. USA gets big turnouts and the EU gets the complacency! Guess who’s laughing now?

The Huffington Post

1278

Ecky, that’s truly a corker of an article, and not just to make ham (err, dog?) sandwiches out of a truly awful car. But just this bit alone is worth the price of admission:

But I cannot see how making a car with two motors costs the same in terms of resources as making a car with one.

The nickel for the battery has to come from somewhere. Canada, usually. It has to be shipped to Japan, not on a sailing boat, I presume. And then it must be converted, not in a tree house, into a battery, and then that battery must be transported, not on an ox cart, to the Insight production plant in Suzuka. And then the finished car has to be shipped, not by Thor Heyerdahl, to Britain, where it can be transported, not by wind, to the home of a man with a beard who thinks he’s doing the world a favour.

Why doesn’t he just buy a Range Rover, which is made from local components, just down the road? No, really — weird-beards buy locally produced meat and vegetables for eco-reasons. So why not apply the same logic to cars?

…and it actually gets better thereafter when he talks of the Honda hydrogen car, a machine he really thinks IS a viable alternative, notwithstanding the slight problem of infrastructure to support it:

There are problems to be overcome. Making hydrogen is a fuel-hungry process, and there is no infrastructure. But Alexander Fleming didn’t look at his mould and think, “Oh dear, no one will put that in their mouth”, and give up.

…hahah!

Really funny, thoughtful and provocative for a guy who’s not convinced that human made carbon dioxide is a problem.

Kirri, the Honda Dog review provided the best online belly-laugh I’ve had in a while. Wit that formidable is both rare and delightful. Not familiar with author Jeremy Clarkson’s other work, but couldn’t find anything apart from tongue-in-cheek stuff about perpetual troublemakers,The Dutch, cf. gaffy, which indicates he’s “not convinced that human made carbon dioxide is a problem.” Jerry finishes positively:

“The only hope I have is that there are enough fools and madmen out there who will buy an Insight to look sanctimonious outside the school gates. And that the cash this generates can be used to develop something a bit more constructive.”
————————-
May 20:
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/mattbors;_ylt=AiGkj7bA28.wqd1bzelvYQXmcLQF

May 20:
http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/tomtoles;_ylt=AstCZB1BSbNPn.WKnXGvJEDV.i8C

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/70819

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/70833

D.C. Capers in association with MIC & Big C Productions proudly announces this season’s most anticipated Feature Pre-senataion:

“The Manicurist”
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/70853

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/70857

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/70867

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/70855

Kirri 1287

That article is a very good read, but like so many articles like it, the conclusion is so ambiguous as to make it practically worthless.

Am i wrong?

I mean, there are 34 comments under the article which contain about 30 different interpretations and about 30 different inevitable conclusions.

I’m nearly convinced that either:

A) no-one has got a bloody clue how anything works in the big picture, either when it is working well or when it is exploding in their face

B) the conspiracy theorists must be right, and to help increase production in this economy they should mass produce pitchforks

Harry, I’m with you as to the precision of economist’s theories in general. What’s not really in dispute is the fact that fiat money has produced wildly unbalanced international finances. Ultimately, the US dollar will crash.

Now, tell me when! (Or even how? Inflation or deflation?)

Too many dollars, too much capacity, and a rapid global de-leveraging is a pretty volatile mix, and even if we see some stability in the short/ medium term, I’m almost convinced it won’t last and we’ll be revisiting the meltdown all over again.

Ya just gotta hand it to Jon Stewart, his velvet fist sneaks up on them:

Newt Gingrich: you can’t trust Washington to run health

Stewart: but you trust them to run the military, wars!

Ka booom! For a couple of seconds poor old Newt was literally speechless.

He’s just too good.

Kirri, i think it is a given that fiat money is a disaster waiting to happen but as you said in your next line:

when?
where?
how?

everyone(in public) has a different theory…then BANG

I personally am tending to believe that there might be a dollar crash during Obama’s 2nd term…t’will be engineered such to “restore Republican credibility” by “hurting the credibility of the others”.

It is almost inconcievable the juggling act that Obama has been asked to perform. And i , like all, have no idea how it will end up.

Our lives will go on in all its mundaneness, while the rest is a mystery.

The system is way too corrupted to even comprehend.

My own hunch Harry is that they will do what all over-indebted nations do, try and inflate themselves out of it. And of course it will work, and then like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, it will go on and on, and ….you know the rest. But first we have to go through the deflation.

1289
EC
I am sure that Jeremy Clarkson is that 6 foot 12 inch 140kg giant that runs the “Top Gear” car show on SBS. He is quite witty and clever if it is the same guy that wrote that article.
It reads like his kind of descriptive language that he uses on Top Gear.

Silvio Berlusconi bribed British lawyer, say Italian judges

Silvio Berlusconi was tonight under withering fire from opposition leaders in Italy after a court declared that he had bribed his lawyer, David Mills, so that he could avoid conviction on corruption charges and hang on to “huge profits made from the conclusion of illicit corporate and financial operations”.

The judges were giving the reasoning behind their decision in February to sentence Mills, husband of the British Olympics minister, Tessa Jowell, to four and half years in jail for taking a bribe.

Mills was found guilty of accepting a $600,000 (£387,000) bribe in a case in which he had been indicted alongside his former client, who was alleged to have paid the cash.

But since Berlusconi furnished himself with immunity from prosecution after returning to power last year, the court was unable to reach any conclusion with respect to him.

1298 GhostWhoVotes I just went to post this and I thought I’d better check first!

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