Ahmad Chalabi: Yankee Go Home

From today's New York Times:

Nonetheless, President Bush’s democratic approach to Iraq has, in many ways, succeeded. Iraq has the strongest constitution, the fairest elections and the most democratic government in the Islamic Middle East. This success stems from the democratic ideal expressed by the United States, through the uncountable sacrifice of American and Iraqi lives, and through the Iraqis’ profound belief in the gift of our nation. Iraqi freedom is a debt to America we will never forget.

This is true despite President Bush’s manifest failure to honor his word. At one time, the liberation of Iraq was to be the centerpiece of a new regional order in the Middle East founded on a new American emphasis on democracy, human rights and free enterprise. Instead, Iraq has endured occupation, the authoritarian installation of a prime minister, the strong-armed removal of an elected leader, the indiscriminate arrest, torture and killing of Iraqi civilians without recourse to law, and an utterly corrupt reconstruction program that oversaw one of the biggest financial crimes in history, which has left average Iraqis with little water, power, health care, education or even food.

Yet there are still those in Washington’s corridors of power who want to reduce Iraq to being an American puppet state, like Jordan or Egypt, nations governed through a corrosive mix of covert intelligence and military support spoon-fed to a permanent oligarchy. Iraq will not accept this.

Barack Obama has every reason to support Iraq’s efforts to greatly increase the world supply of oil, expand trade with the United States, and raise a new generation of Iraqis focused on education, achievement and cooperation. We must not be asked to focus on military expansion and arms purchases, which would mean raising yet another generation of ill-educated soldiers fit only for internal repression and external aggression.

Iraqis want the closest possible relationship with the United States, and recognize its better nature as the strongest guarantor of international freedom, prosperity and peace. However, we will reject any attempts to curtail our rights to these universal precepts.

We welcome Mr. Obama’s election as a herald of a new direction. It is our hope that his administration will offer Iraq a new and broader partnership. Iraq needs security assistance and guarantees for our funds in the New York Federal Reserve Bank. But we also need educational opportunity, cultural exchange, diplomatic support, trade agreements and the respectful approach due to the world’s oldest civilization.

We also hope that Mr. Obama will support the growing need for a regional agreement covering human rights and security encompassing Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran (and any other neighbors so inclined). We have all been victims of terrorism. The mutual fears that have been festering for decades, augmented by secret wars and the incitement of insurrection, are no longer acceptable.

The United States has agreed to Iraq’s request to inscribe in any regional pact a prohibition against the use of Iraq’s territory and airspace to threaten or launch cross-border attacks. This laudable commitment gives us hope that America has a new collective vision of security in our region as not exclusively a function of armed force but also dependent on a profound comprehension of others’ fears.

Sudden Debt

Someone I know told me the blogger known as Sudden Debt predicted the current financial crisis.

Finance is essentially finished as a business model for the foreseeable future because deleveraging will go on for years. Investors should look elsewhere for returns; my choice is renewable energy and sustainable resource utilization, particularly proven technologies such as wind, organic farming and the peripheral opportunities arising from them. Sorry, no stock tips from me - you must do your own research. And be prepared for the long haul, because there won't be any instant gratification out there. Another intriguing area is genetic/molecular medicine, but I am woefully ignorant on the subject. Biology was my worst subject in school.

Hillary's Blackwater Connection

Bits of baggage have started to fall off the Hillary conveyor belt. Here's a link to The Politico's story about Hillary's Blackwater connection:

Hillary Clinton found herself defending her chief strategist Friday after The Associated Press reported that the public relations company Mark Penn runs had helped prepare the chief of the controversial military contractor Blackwater USA for his congressional testimony.

“Mark Penn did no work on the Blackwater account,” Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said Friday afternoon.

Burson-Marsteller, of which Penn is Worldwide President and CEO, “has cut its ties to Blackwater and that was the right thing to do. Mark is and remains a valuable member of our team,” Wolfson said.

Penn’s unusual dual role as corporate executive and presidential strategist has been a running source of distraction for Clinton’s typically single-minded campaign. Though her supporters believe that voters will ultimately be unlikely to make their choice based on the actions of a consultant who is little known outside political circles, Penn has drawn a steady stream of criticism from other campaigns and from key Democratic groups.

Labor leaders objected to his firm’s work against union organizing, and Burson-Marsteller’s work for clients that include the tobacco industry and a leading, troubled subprime mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial, have also drawn fire.

“Bush has been a perfect example of cronyism, because Blackwater has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republicans and to President Bush. I also saw this morning that Sen. Clinton’s primary adviser, Mark Penn, who is like her Karl Rove — his firm is representing Blackwater,” former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards said in Iowa Friday.

Clinton reportedly owes Penn 5.4 million dollars for campaign work, while Burson client Blackwater still has a multi-million dollar contract to protect US State Department officials. Does this look like a manifest conflict-of-interest for a potential Secretary of State?

This story is the first of a drip-drip-drip. While Bill might be powerful enough to pull strings to get her the job, IMHO Hillary honestly should not be able to pass any reasonable person's "smell test" for the position of Secretary of State..

Fight Somali Pirates--Reopen the Kirkuk-Mosul-Haifa Oil Pipeline

Closed due to the Arab League's Anti-Israel boycott, reopening the Kirkuk-Mosul-Haifa oil pipeline could provide a land-based alternative to shipping oil via tankers open to Somali pirates. Eventually, the existing pipeline network might be expanded to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, linking Israel to the Arab world in a mutually beneficial relationship.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

(ht Althouse)

I Don't Question HIllary's Patriotism, I Question Her Judgement

Yet one more reason not to pick Hillary as Secretary of State, newspaper stories with headlines like this: Clinton: Obama Not Winning Over "Hard-Working Americans, White Americans"
The Huffington Post | May 8, 2008

Some vox populi from the Washington Post blog:

It makes ya sick Ha. I feel like I just voted for George Bush. In six months Obama will known as the White House pet that Hillary and Bill keep around for show. I can't believe I've spent the last year helping Obama get elected.


Posted by: HemiHead66 | November 21, 2008 12:56 PM |

From Our Life Imitates Art Department...

Joshua Goodman's Bloomberg.com report::

Barack Obama's election as America's first black president is fueling worldwide demand for a forgotten 1926 science-fiction novel from Brazil.

Jose Bento Monteiro Lobato's ``O Presidente Negro'' (``The Black President'') tells the story of Jim Roy, a brilliant and charismatic leader who is elected America's first black president in the year 2228.

Out of print for 40 years, the pulp novel was republished in March by Brazil's largest media conglomerate, Organizacoes Globo, at the height of the Democratic primary battle between Obama and New York Senator Hillary Clinton, a contest that drew comparisons to Roy's race against a fictitious white feminist named Evelyn Astor.

Now the obscure work -- controversial for what some critics see as its defense of racism -- is going international. Last month, it was published in Italy by Edizzione Controluce under the title ``Il Presidente Nero.'' The book is being translated into English and Spanish from Portuguese.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in a June interview with the Sao Paulo newspaper Gazeta Marcantil, said Obama's victory was foretold by Monteiro Lobato.

`Pure Coincidence'

The book was rushed to publication in March after its antiquated Portuguese was updated for modern readers. Full-page advertisements in national magazines under the tagline ``Any resemblance to actual events is pure coincidence'' have spurred sales of 7,000 copies for 28 reais ($11.73) each. They printed 15,000 copies, the same amount as the original printing.

Brazilian bloggers debate the book's racial ideology as well as its prediction of the rise of China and a technology system much like the Internet.

``We knew we were sitting on a gold mine,'' said Lucia Machado, an executive at Globo Books, adding that sales were double the amount considered a commercial success for a new book in Brazil.

Monteiro Lobato is famous in Brazil for the children's fable ``Adventures of Little Nose.'' The ``Black President,'' when read at all, was criticized for its association with eugenics, a philosophy of human improvement through genetic engineering that was embraced by the Nazis.

The H.G. Wells-like storyline takes place in an age of racial purity, where black people are subjected to selective breeding, forced whitening and sterilization...

More information can be found in Manuela Zoninsein's article about O Presidente Negro published by Slate in September:

Of course, there are several differences between Lobato's story and the circumstances surrounding the 2008 election. In Lobato's fictional world, the United States prohibited the mixing of races—believing it would lead to "disintegration" or "denaturalization"—and thereby conserved white and black races in "a state of relative purity." Lobato also failed to predict the civil rights movement, which undid his predictions of an extreme version of "separate but equal." Unlike Roy, born in a supposed age of "pure races," Obama, born of a white mother and black father, witnessed America's social revolution.

In the 2228 of the novel, the white women's party, the Sabinas (a reference to the Roman legend of the rape of the Sabine women), has apparently reached feminism's pinnacle: Women are no longer considered equal to men—they are simply different and entirely independent. Homo, the ruling white men's party, and the Sabinas each command 51 million voters.

In previous elections, voters sided with their gender, with no regard to race. But with the creation of the Black Association, black men and women unite to create the largest political party, giving Roy 54 million supporters. Kerlog is forced to broker an alliance with Roy: black votes in exchange for easing the "Código da Raça" ("Race Code"), which set limits on the growth of the black population through selective breeding and genetic manipulation. To Kerlog's frustration, when the time comes to cast ballots, citizens loyally vote with their identity group, and the black man wins the presidency.

In response, Kerlog threatens race war. He persuades Astor to protect the interests of the white race and encourages an alliance. Lobato, at his most sexist, writes that Astor accepts this proposal on the grounds that man "is woman's husband for thousands of reasons ... long live man!" With hardly a second thought, she shepherds the 51 million female voters to the cause of the Homo Party. Kerlog demonstrates to a despairing Roy that his race will never assume control, and on the morning Roy is set to assume the presidency, he is found dead in his office. (Lobato hints at murder.) Kerlog calls for a re-election and emerges victorious. White leaders then mastermind the end of the black race in America, using a senseless and tragic sterilization technique, and Roy's dream of serving as the first black man in the nation's most powerful post is left by the wayside.

Al Qaeda Blasts Obama

Looks like Al Qaeda is more scared by Obama than Bush, from this MSNBC report:

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri has criticized President-elect Barack Obama, calling him a demeaning racial term implying that Obama is a black American who does the bidding of whites.

In an audio message which appeared on militant Web sites Wednesday, al-Zawahri said that Obama is "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X. He called Obama a "house negro."

He added that Obama's plan to shift troops to Afghanistan is doomed to failure, because Afghans will resist.

The BBC added (ht Drudge) that the Al Qaeda leader charged Obama with apostasy, which carries the death penalty:

He also criticised Mr Obama - whose father is Muslim - for abandoning his Islamic roots.

"You were born to a Muslim father, but you chose to stand with the enemies of Muslims," he said.

Let's see if Obama does better with his vow to "stamp out" Al Qaeda than Bush did with his promise to get Bin Laden "dead or alive."

Another Reason Hillary is Not Qualified

This headline on today's AP story: Democrats: Clinton to help Hillary get State job.

If her husband is reportedly making concessions then obviously Hillary's not even able to negotiate the terms of her employment without help from someone else--namely Bill Clinton. And, if Hillary can't negotiate credibly on behalf of her husband, how could she speak credibly for the United States of America or the Obama administration?

This whole episode is an embarrassment. The sooner Obama puts Hillary to rest, the better.

BTW, David S. Broder agrees with this blogger that Hillary should not become Secretary of State, in today's Washington Post:

What, then, is the problem? Clinton is the wrong person for that job in this administration. It's not the best use of her talents, and it's certainly not the best fit for this new president.

What Obama needs in the person running the State Department is a diplomat who will carry out his foreign policy. He does not need someone who will tell him how to approach the world or be his mentor in international relations. One of the principal reasons he was elected was that, relying on his instincts, he came to the correct conclusion that war with Iraq was not in America's interest. He was more right about that than most of us in Washington, including Hillary Clinton.

Of course, he will benefit from the counsel and the contacts that his secretary of state can offer. But remember, he provided another and probably more expert source of that wisdom when he picked Joe Biden, the veteran chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as his running mate. The last thing Obama needs is a secretary of state carving out an independently based foreign policy. He needs an agent, not an author.

Have You Heard the One About The Polish "Diplomat?"

Britain's Daily Telegraph reports that the husband of Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum, a former fellow at the American Enterprise Instiute, is in political hot water for telling ethnic jokes about America's President-Elect: (ht Drudge)

Radek Sikorski, an Oxford-educated politician who has lived in the US, was reported to have made the jibe by an opposition politician, Ryszard Czarnecki.

Writing in his blog, Mr Czarnecki, an MEP, quoted the foreign minister as saying: "Have you heard that Obama may have a Polish connection? His grandfather ate a Polish missionary."

A spokesman for the Polish foreign office conceded that Mr Sikorski had made the controversial comment, but denied that the foreign minister had intended to insult Mr Obama, whose father was Kenyan.

"Mr Sikorski did not tell a racist joke," said Piotr Paszkowski, the spokesman. "He was only giving an example of the unpalatable and racist 'jokes' that surround President Elect Obama."

Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, has made no comment on the affair. It appears that Mr Sikorski's position is not under threat despite calls from opposition politicians for an investigation to deter if the foreign minister broke anti-racism laws.

Stop Hillary Now!

More reasons Hillary would be a mistake as Secretary of State:

1. What has she ever done? What are her actual individual accomplishments? She didn't even have an opponent when she ran for Senator. During the primaries, Obama himself ridiculed her claims to have been closely involved in foreign policy.

2. Wouldn't Bill Clinton--an impeached former President--be perceived as an American version of Benazir Bhutto's husband, "Mr. 10 Percent," if Hillary were selected as Secretary of State? Is that the image of America Obama wants to project to the world?

3. Doesn't widespread publicity before an official decision has been made make things look more like the Old Clinton Administration than the New Obama Administration? Is that the Chicago way?

4. Speaking of which, Hillary's office was notorious for leaks.

5. Last but not least, unlike Obama, Hillary was in favor of the invasion of Iraq.

Charles Morris: America Needs a Recession

In yesterday's Washington Post, Charles Morris made the case for some creative destruction in the US economy:

Our economic model is broken, and trying to restart it will just dig us deeper into a hole. The massive changes that are required can be made only through the violent rejiggering that takes place during recessions. That may sound coldhearted, but there's a precedent.

From 1979 to 1981, then-Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker masterminded a nasty slowdown that broke stagflation -- the noxious combination of rising prices and no growth. Among other moves, Volcker pushed the yield on three-month Treasury bills up to an unheard-of 20 percent, stopping the economy in its tracks. Millions lost their jobs; Volcker was burned in effigy on the Capitol steps.

But when Volcker finally broke inflation's back in 1983, healthy growth resumed almost immediately, and Ronald Reagan rode the result to a landslide victory in 1984 -- a little fact that people worried about a one-term presidency for Barack Obama should note.

A good reason to put Paul Volcker in charge of the Treasury in an Obama administration--he's done it before...

BTW, Ann Althouse pointed out that Peter Schiff called for a recession to clean the "phony wealth" out of the US economy over a year ago on TV: Here's a link to Schiff's company website: EuroPacific Capital, which carries opinions like this:

Bait and switch

Reminiscent of his Bazooka maneuver, quick draw Paulson reversed course quickly with his decision to not use any TARP funds to buy the assets that the plan was specifically funded to procure. Instead, he will simply dole out the loot to his buddies on Wall Street and use it for whatever seemingly worthy initiative strikes his fancy.

Although Congress loves to grandstand about oversight, it has thus far shown no courage to interfere, or even question, the change in strategy. Paulson claims that he is simply rolling with the punches. The truth however, is that the original plan was flawed from inception, as I clearly pointed out in a string of commentaries following his proposal. How could the Treasury Department, with all its funding and PhD’s, not make similar predictions? Paulson is either a liar or completely incompetent. My guess is he is both.

AAARGH...Obama Please Don't Pick Hillary for Secretary of State...

I hope this rumor goes the way of the John Kerry gossip...Reasons:

1. She is incompetent. She failed to get Health Care legislation through Congress in her own husband's administration. She failed to beat Obama despite every advantage in this election cycle. She did a really bad job on behalf of the arts in the Clinton administration--I was there and saw it. She just doesn't have good radar or people skills. Bad instincts. We need a diplomat, not a bully as Secretary of State.

2. She is a polarizer. She gets people mad, seriously.

3. She has baggage. Huma Abedin, plus who know what else we don't know about--not to mention Bill Clinton and sleazy international business deals like Kazakhgate and the Marc Rich pardon. Do you really want to open that can of worms?

4. She's not a fresh face. We are TIRED of Clintons and Bushes in Washington.

5. If you have to do something, send Hillary as Ambassador to France or the Court of St. James...but please don't appoint Hillary Secretary of State.

6. Forget the "Team of Rivals" fantasy. Pick the best people for the job.

7. Remember that America voted for CHANGE. Clinton would be the same old, same old...

Nikolai Timkov in Washington, DC

Enjoyed an exhibition of landscapes by Russian painter Nikolai Timkov now on display at the White-Meyer House in Washington.

Moody riverscapes, snowscapes, and townscapes. Brrrrr....

From Alison Hilton's catalog notes:

The beginning of Timkov’s career coincided with the establishment of Soviet Socialist Realism as the only authorized style of art. Prominent artists and writers joined political authorities in declaring that art and literature must depict the “reality of Revolutionary Russia.” Many artists turned to landscape painting as a way of avoiding overtly political subjects and glorification of Soviet leaders, while still celebrating a Russian identity. Unlike many of his peers, who adapted to the regulations by including appropriate, life-affirming genre motifs in their landscape paintings, Timkov concentrated firmly on the landscape itself. He kept his artistic integrity, perhaps at the expense of lost opportunities for advancement. Although he was admitted into the Union of Artists and participated in many exhibitions, he did not gain the prestige of colleagues who fulfilled the Party’s plans for monumental, representational art.

Which Private School for First Daughters?

Today's Washington Post reports it's one of three: Sidwell Friends, Georgetown Day, or Maret.

You can check their ratings at GreatSchools.com

Onion News Network Covers the Treasury Bailout

In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?

Sarkozy Bashes Bush

From the BBC. For failing to resolve the Georgian crisis:

Receiving a prize in France for "political courage", he asked his audience "who defended human rights?" after the war erupted in August.

"Was it the president of the United States... Or was it France?" he asked.

Mr Sarkozy led a mission to Moscow that resulted in a ceasefire between Georgia and Russia.

Picking up the prize, awarded by Politique Internationale magazine, at a ceremony at his own Elysee Palace in Paris, Mr Sarkozy suggested the American president did not want to stake his credibility on a push for peace.

"When on 8 August someone had to leave for Moscow or Tbilisi, who defended human rights?" he asked rhetorically.

"Was it the president of the United States, who said 'This is unacceptable'? Or was it France which kept up the dialogue" between the leaders of Russia and Georgia, he asked, in a speech covered by the French AFP news agency.

"I remember the American president's call the day before our departure for Moscow: 'Don't go there, they [the Russians] want to go to Tbilisi, they're 40km away. Don't go, [just] condemn it'.

"I did go, along with [French Foreign Minister] Bernard Kouchner, and, as if by coincidence, while we were there the ceasefire was declared," Mr Sarkozy said.

.

FOIABlog Releases FBI 9/11 Videos

FOIA Blog has a scoop--10 previously unreleased 9/11 videos from the FBI.

The FBI recently released 10 videos of 9-11 footage to my client, Scott Bingham. The videos can be seen here.

Posted using ShareThis

Michael Lewis on the Wall Street Crash

Michael Lewis explains how Meredith Whitney and Steve Eisman predicted the collapse of the subprime mortgage industry--and why a rating company 20-percent owned by Warren Buffett bears responsibility:

The funny thing, looking back on it, is how long it took for even someone who predicted the disaster to grasp its root causes. They were learning about this on the fly, shorting the bonds and then trying to figure out what they had done. Eisman knew subprime lenders could be scumbags. What he underestimated was the total unabashed complicity of the upper class of American capitalism. For instance, he knew that the big Wall Street investment banks took huge piles of loans that in and of themselves might be rated BBB, threw them into a trust, carved the trust into tranches, and wound up with 60 percent of the new total being rated AAA.

But he couldn’t figure out exactly how the rating agencies justified turning BBB loans into AAA-rated bonds. “I didn’t understand how they were turning all this garbage into gold,” he says. He brought some of the bond people from Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and UBS over for a visit. “We always asked the same question,” says Eisman. “Where are the rating agencies in all of this? And I’d always get the same reaction. It was a smirk.” He called Standard & Poor’s and asked what would happen to default rates if real estate prices fell. The man at S&P couldn’t say; its model for home prices had no ability to accept a negative number. “They were just assuming home prices would keep going up,” Eisman says.

As an investor, Eisman was allowed on the quarterly conference calls held by Moody’s but not allowed to ask questions. The people at Moody’s were polite about their brush-off, however. The C.E.O. even invited Eisman and his team to his office for a visit in June 2007. By then, Eisman was so certain that the world had been turned upside down that he just assumed this guy must know it too. “But we’re sitting there,” Daniel recalls, “and he says to us, like he actually means it, ‘I truly believe that our rating will prove accurate.’ And Steve shoots up in his chair and asks, ‘What did you just say?’ as if the guy had just uttered the most preposterous statement in the history of finance. He repeated it. And Eisman just laughed at him.”

“With all due respect, sir,” Daniel told the C.E.O. deferentially as they left the meeting, “you’re delusional.”

This wasn’t Fitch or even S&P. This was Moody’s, the aristocrats of the rating business, 20 percent owned by Warren Buffett. And the company’s C.E.O. was being told he was either a fool or a crook by one Vincent Daniel, from Queens.

Google Earth Adds Ancient Rome

Google Earth now doubles as a time machine, according to this BBC report:

popular 3D map tool, Google Earth, offering millions of users the chance to visit a virtual ancient Rome.

Google has reconstructed the sprawling city - inhabited by more than one million people as long ago as AD320.
Users can zoom around the map to visit the Forum of Julius Caesar, stand in the centre of the Colosseum or swoop over the Basilica.

Researchers behind the project say it adds to five centuries of knowledge.

"This is another step in creating a virtual time machine," said Bernard Frischer of Virginia University, which worked with Google on the Roman reconstruction.

Here's the link to Google Earth for Ancient Rome.