Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Mubarak To Die a Bitter, Broken Man, Afghan Govt Gives Up On Corruption,

Gene Dodaro
Dana Milbank
Condoleezza Rice
"Dick Cheney presented Donald Rumsfeld with a Defender of the Constitution Award. And, yes, the irony was lost on both of them." – Seth Meyers
"This whole revolution was started by a Facebook page. So Mubarak wasn't so much as deposed as de-friended." – Bill Maher
"Egyptian officials say that Hosni Mubarak is going through a 'severe psychological condition.' It's called 'getting dumped a week before Valentine's Day.'" – Jimmy Fallon

The Middle East is still the focus, protests have sprung up in Bahrain, Libya, Iraq, and Iran, with continued protests still holding in Yemen. In Bahrain, the King tried to deflect the protesters by stating that there would be reforms, and, in an act inspired by watching Oprah, every citizen would receive a check for  the equivalent of $2,500 dollars. Then, the government said that it welcomed peaceful demonstrations, but its police hunted down every group of three people and over, bombarding them with rubber bullets and overdoses of tear gas. People died, and it only made the Bahrainian protesters more determined, and today they are still holding out. Similar to demands in Egypt, the protesters want a new constitution, more human rights, and the resignation of the Prime Minister, but not the King.

Violence has broken out during the protests in many other countries, but so far the ones in Bahrain and Iran are committed to non-violence, which is amazing. Ghandi is rolling over and chuckling from his grave, now that the uplifting power of non-violent protests have been proven as fact, no longer listed in the realm of obscure possibilities. Perhaps old Gaia is giving us a moment of hope and reprieve before she shakes humankind off like fleas in 2012... Unfortunately, the dark side is emerging with the sexual abuse of CBS correspondent Lara Logan by a crowd of Egyptian men. She had to be rescued by a crowd of women and some Egyptian soldiers. And Hosni Mubarak remains a broken man, having lost the will to live and just wants to die in opulence at his Red Sea resort, surrounded by the billions of dollars he loves...

What can be said of the leaders of Iran? they demonstrate how narrow minded and pathetic they are in comparison. They have shown that they don't have the moral capacity to lead anyone anywhere in the Middle East compared to a fruitseller on the streets Of Tunis and Cairo... This is a real life demonstration of a Sufi teaching story writ large, and perhaps the Ayatollah Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would do well to spend some time learning how to weave carpets or become a prison doctor... Instead, the puppets in their Parliament call for the hanging of the opposition leaders because they continue to call for demonstrations in the streets.

Or, as bobby Darin sang:

Now, no doubt some folks enjoy doin' battle
Like presidents, prime ministers and kings
So, let's all build them shelves
Where they can fight among themselves
Leave the people be who love to sing.

Come and sing a simple song of freedom
Sing it like you’ve never sung before
Let it fill the air
Tell the people everywhere
We, the people here, don’t want a war.


Two developments in Afghanistan indicate that the Karzai government will not remain in power much longer. The first, is that the government wants to take over running all of the women's shelters, which are almost all privately funded. Thoughts are that the government would like to appropriate the millions of dollars donated by private charities, and that they also want to stop the good work the shelters are doing for women. If the Taliban came back into power and instituted their unique, medieval version of sharia law, it's easier to disband the shelters if they are run by the current government that those meddling women from Western countries...

Also, the International Monetary Fund released a report today on the troubled Kabul Bank: "An International Monetary Fund review of the Afghan government’s progress in determining what went wrong at the nation’s largest bank and the steps necessary to fix it has concluded that so little has been done so far that there is no possibility of renewing the fund’s program here, diplomats in Kabul said.


What is needed is an array of measures to deal with the Kabul Bank’s problems, as well as those of the banking system, and putting the Kabul Bank into receivership, the I.M.F. said in a statement issued after its experts left the country.


“This will be followed by a process where the bank will be rapidly sold or wound down and the Central Bank is recapitalized with government resources as needed,” the fund said." The Kabul Bank had been used as a personal piggy bank by many of its directors, losing several billion dollars and making no attempt to reclaim the money. Foreign countries, including the United States, won't send any more foreign aid, which totals over a billion per year, unless there is a responsible banking program vouched for by the IMF. So, if the Taliban does come back to power, they won't be able to raid the treasury, because that has already been done by the Karzai government. I wonder if he will flee the country and move to Dubai, or will he attempt to move back to Quetta, Pakistan, a town the Karzai family shared influence in with the Mullah Omar..?


From the crazy in the USA dept:


  • There is a bill going through the South Dakota legislature that would make it legal to shoot and kill an abortion provider. Makes me wonder if they are desiring to annex their state as part of Arizona...
  • Anti-Muslim crusader Frank Gaffney was dis-invited to speak at this year's CPAC conference because of his allegations that CPAC has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Too crazy after all these years...
  • Michelle Obama has recently come out in favor of breastfeeding for babies, and the IRS said that breast pumps and other nursing supplies could be tax deductible, to which Rep Michele Bachmann responded on the Laura Ingraham radio show: "I've given birth to five babies, and I've breastfed every single one of these babies," Bachmann said. "To think that government has to go out and buy my breast pump for my babies, I mean, you wanna talk about the nanny state -- I think you just got the new definition of the nanny state." Remember, Ms Bachmann would like to be your next president, willing to sit up at night, waiting for that 3:00 AM phone call...


If you love dark roasted coffee and live in Colorado Springs, check out BB Bean on North Tejon. It's owned by a family from Indonesia, and they are graced by having a master roaster, who can coax more flavor from his roasting than anyone I've ever met, and I have become quite the coffee snob. I didn't even know that Bali grows coffee beans, but the Balinese coffee they sell is one of the most complex and aromatic I've ever tasted. Definitely my new favorite...

and if you are a fan of the smaller cigar, robusto or toro size on down, then go online to Cigar International for some of the best deals I've ever come across...















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