Topic: WE'RE STUFFED!!!

[Jahn]

Watch how the story continues:
"What's disturbing about this is we're almost nine years after 9/11 and billions of dollars have been spent and we don't have in place a system which can make us safe in the air,"

One might say that one good thing with the hype after 6/11 was that security arrangements got better. Now they even take your fingerprints when entering US. If that is going to make things better then it is OK but it take a hell of a waiting time for each flight to pass.

The number of US citizens that will die because of real terrorism (not false flag op.) is probably not many. The greatest threat to the North Americans regarding loss of potential life years is obesity.

The obesity pandemic in the US is even a substantial threat  to the economy. So if public health is the priority more efforts should be spent on reducing obesity and less on terrorism. But that will not be the case.

[Jahn]

When I read Al-Quixa I read AIC. I have some gut feeling telling me they collaborate.

[Michael]

Times change.

God changes cord, the melody calls to a new emotion.

We don't always know what that change is.

But we do know a few things.
We know when we are in a constricting situation, we build resentment for the walls that confine us.

We know when we work in a place full of petty-minded, soap-opera watching, ignorant, mundane, conservative and stupid people, that a storm of desire arises within us to be reach beyond - to be more!

We know when we are suffocating, that we fight like a wild, wounded tiger for air and freedom.

So to does the human race.

And within that arising of desire that spreads like a virus, the opportunities for personal perfection abound.

Then again we know when we are comfortable, and things are easy, that we grow lazy and docile.

Then again we know when we are in denial of reality, that we resist the message of escape, or even preparations for survival.

So too in human cultural phases. And we are but a small fish in a huge ocean current that is swirling or be-stilled, cascading or brooding, around us.

We too often make the mistake of thinking things are as they always have been. Old people know that times change.

What are these times?

Are we living in times of lotus-land of complacency, or denial of impending disaster?
Are we living at the end of an age, or the beginning?
Are we living in times of repressed anger, or superfluity and comfort?
Are we living in times of change?

We think our own path is a personal one - that we foster it in isolation from the turmoil of the world. Yet we forget that all things are connected, and our doorways or blockages could well be thrust upon us by the very energetic topography of our times.

That is why we watch the world, like a surfer.

Not the times of our neighbourhood, or our city, or even our social class. Beyond that - the times of vast changes upon the psych of our species.

Watch and strain to catch a glimpse of the dark currents.

[Jennifer-]

Namaste'

[xero]

Capt Paul, Capt Paul,
There is a great dark ocean beneath the broken white water of rage.

It is still - it is silent with sea-song.

There is a great elegance in violence. It produces such fine designs and nobel gestures.

But beneath lies ....lies unbroken consistency. Deep - deep is the ball-room of whales.

One day we will remember. Dismembering / Remembering / Dismembering / on and on and down it goes.

May your beard grow long with wisdom.
x

[Firestarter]

May we not go out as phantoms in the dust.

[Jahn]

May we not believe in mainstream lies.

Such as ... you know what.

[xero]

Where are the Warriors -

 Antarctica?

What do you think...

[Michael]

And speaking of warriors.
if you have the time to salute another:

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/americas/2010/01/08/amazon-defender-gone

[Michael]

Massachusetts

[Nichi]

This is a crying shame, that one must stuff the Dalai Lama into a closet..

Dalai Lama's White House visit about appearances


WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama plans a muted meeting with the Dalai Lama on Thursday in deference to Chinese anger that he is welcoming the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader into the White House at all.

What the Dalai Lama and Obama say to each other behind closed doors will matter less than how the White House portrays the president's symbolic meeting with the Buddhist monk considered a separatist by Beijing.

Chinese officials will be watching closely to see how great a stage Obama offers to his fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The Chinese want to know: How long will the meeting last? Will the first lady attend? Will the White House put out a written statement or answer questions about the visit at daily press briefings? Will cameras be allowed to film any part of the encounter?

"The optics of this thing are incredibly important to the Chinese," said Michael Green, former President George W. Bush's senior Asia adviser. "The Chinese government is preoccupied with protocol and how things look."

China's feelings matter because the Obama administration needs Beijing's help to confront nuclear standoffs in Iran and North Korea, to fight climate change and to boost the world's economy. U.S.-Chinese relations have been strained, most recently because of the Dalai Lama's visit and the Obama administration's approval of a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island that Beijing claims as its own.

Obama has to balance Chinese anger against criticism from U.S. lawmakers and activists that he buckled to Chinese demands by not meeting with the Dalai Lama when he came to Washington in October.

It may not seem inflammatory to Americans accustomed to presidential meet-and-greets, but a public Dalai Lama-Obama appearance would enrage China, which believes that official foreign contact with the monk infringes on its sovereignty over Tibet.

With China in mind, the White House appears to be opting for a low-key meeting. There is unlikely to be a joint public appearance or photo opportunity before reporters. Instead, the White House will release an official photo. The visit will take place in the Map Room, where presidents stage private meetings, not the more stately Oval Office, where Obama frequently meets with world leaders.

The Dalai Lama's envoy, Lodi Gyari, said even a private meeting with Obama is a boost for Tibetans feeling marginalized by China. Green said just the "fact that they spend time together in an intimate setting means everything for the Tibetan cause."

Although the Dalai Lama is revered in much of the world, Beijing accuses him of seeking to overthrow Chinese rule and restore a feudal theocracy in the expansive mountainous region. The Dalai Lama and analysts say that is untrue.

The Dalai Lama has met with U.S. presidents for the past two decades, but mostly in private encounters.

George W. Bush also met behind the scenes with the Dalai Lama. Bush broke with tradition in a big way, however, when he appeared at the public presentation in 2007 of a Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland to India in 1959 with members of his family and fewer than 100 other Tibetans during a failed uprising against China. Chinese troops had taken over Tibet in 1951.

Charles Freeman, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said that while he does not believe Thursday's meeting will cause lasting damage to U.S.-China relations, short-term repercussions could include a postponement of Chinese President Hu Jintao's expected visit to Washington in April.

Despite China's angry words, recent U.S.-China tension may be easing. On Wednesday, five American warships were allowed to dock for a port call in Hong Kong, a possible indication that Beijing does not want relations with Washington to worsen.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100218/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_dalai_lama

[Michael]

Despite China's angry words, recent U.S.-China tension may be easing. On Wednesday, five American warships were allowed to dock for a port call in Hong Kong, a possible indication that Beijing does not want relations with Washington to worsen.

That is interesting as I have been viewing this as an escalation.
It is true that the US has never been happy with China, but we are witnessing a new situation currently.

China is growing stronger, more politically assertive internationally, more aggressive commercially and that includes it's naval interests, more belligerent in the IT area, and what is most concerning, more aggressively demanding all expatriate Han Chinese become agents for the Chinese Communist Party.

This has finally coincided with a situation in which it is of local political interest for Barack Obama to act overtly against China.

Financially, despite China recently significantly reducing its ownership of US Bonds, they are still joined at the hip - thus nullified. Japan is now the biggest holder of US Bonds.

One of the biggest concerns for the US is that they made a strategic mistake when they built their naval fleet - all the ships are critically interconnected via network. If that network is taken out, the US ships are rendered essentially useless. China has always been concerned that the US's readiness to interfere in any war with Taiwan, is a real obstacle to its designs on Taiwan.

Thus it has zeroed in on using its hacking skills to disable the US fleet, in case of a battle with Taiwan. US response has been to allow billion dollar sales of munitions to Taiwan, to bolster its own defences. This sent China ballistic, much more than the Dalai Lama visit. That was just the US rubbing China's nose in the fact that the US will not allow China to take over without a fight.

What has really concerned the Western nations, is that China has been using hacking skills on an unprecedented massive scale to steal Intellectual Property from Western companies. The reason is that although the goods are made in China, Chinese companies do not have the design and technical knowledge to make these goods themselves - they just make the final physical stage. By stealing the background knowledge to this huge industry, it can bypass the Western companies altogether.

Next has been an extreme concern by India over what it calls the 'string of pearls'. China is surrounding India - Burma, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and the Indian Ocean island ports. In response India has been accelerating its Naval build-up. Recently the US fired another shot at China by declaring India its policing agent in the Indian Ocean.

All told, the rise of China, and the aggressiveness of its policies and methods, is causing high alarm across the world - including the Developing nations.

On a positive front - there is currently great pressure on China to adjust it's currency up. And there does seem to be a likelihood that will happen soon.

[Jahn]

In the Twin Peaks series a man stand on a scene and says "And it is happening again", meaning another murder has taken place.

Now we have an other earthquake, actually two, there was one in Japan too.

Santiago today February 27




Disaster in Chile, covered by CNN

Massive quake, aftershocks hit Chile

[Michael]

A curious twist. Again from Al Jazeera:

Obama's Mideast Game Changer: Healthcare
By Clayton Swisher in Middle East on March 21st, 2010

This one is for all the marbles. Democrats seem poised to squeak through President Obama's landmark healthcare legislation late on Sunday, and the repercussions could be profound, especially on America's Middle East policy.

Forget for a moment that Obama's domestic approval ratings are at their lowest - less than 50 per cent - or that he has disappointed many around the world by failing to fulfil major objectives, like the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison. 

By scoring a victory of this scale - one that has eluded American presidents for close to 100 years -  Obama could not only bring the bounce back to the step of his administration, but provide himself the bandwidth to focus on some of the changes he campaigned on.

He can now begin to fulfil his promise to recalibrate America's relations with the Arab and Muslim world, starting with the Arab-Israeli conflict, as he promised in his Cairo speech in June 2009.

Passing healthcare reform will mean that he (or in this case, Secretary Clinton), can stride into events like Monday's AIPAC annual conference with self-confidence that they otherwise could not.

Nethanyahu had to be hoping that Obama's healthcare reform would fail. But if it passes, there is no denying that Obama will be stronger and Netanyahu will be weaker.

Consider how former President Bill Clinton failed at his biggest domestic agenda - healthcare - which not only took the wind out of his sails at home but also put him in a position of weakness with the congress in 1993 when the then-controversial Oslo negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians had only begun.

In the years that followed, it was Prime Minister Netanyahu (first iteration) who was masterful in playing to Clinton's shakiness with the US congress via AIPAC, especially when Clinton tried to gain Israeli concessions during the Lewinsky scandal. Using truly asymmetrical warfare, Netanyahu was able to court America's right-wing, which in turn frustrated Clinton's ambitions.

Clinton missed both grand prizes in the end: a healthcare law to memorialise his domestic legacy and a final status Arab-Israeli agreement to secure him a Nobel Prize.

Obama's already got one of those, deservedly or not. And if he adds healthcare to his resume, it will be much harder for Netanyahu to pull the same shenanigans should Obama finally decide to assert himself on Middle East peace.

In the end, it will come down to a simple calculus. General David Petraeus recently testified before the US Senate that Israel's ongoing violence towards Palestinians is creating a hostile atmosphere that is endangering the lives of American troops stationed in the Arab and Muslim world.

That's a simple truth that many have long believed but few dared to speak. And while some in the Jewish community have spoken out against Petraeus, the remaining two years of Obama's presidency will present an even more historic opportunity: to decide if America values its own security more than Jewish settlers and their lust for Palestinian land.

Should Obama succeed at healthcare, Americans will remember him for doing so when all others could not.

But for many around the world, the prize of an indepdendent Palestine will be the most telling, and perhaps, rewarding legacy item he could ever hope to fulfil.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2010/03/21/obamas-mideast-game-changer-healthcare

[Michael]

One aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian issue is that you may notice the Palestinians are not making huge fusses about getting their separate state. Sure, that would be nice, they think, but if they just wait, the issue of a separate state becomes ridiculous as they lose more land to the Israelis. I have seen some estimates of a matter of months - some wall building I gather will tip the balance.

Then what? Then it becomes a question of democracy. The quest then would be international pressure that Israel becomes a democracy - ie. that they give the vote equally to all citizens.

At that point, the Israelis will be outnumbered by the Palestinians.

Pakistan.

Heard a lecture this morning at the university about another non-democratic state, Pakistan.

He said that the Pak Army created the Taliban, with US assistance. The US actually made and published the training manuals used in the Madrassas where the Taliban trained (Taliban means 'student').

When the Taliban finally attacked the Pak Army in no uncertain terms last year - especially the GHQ - the Army went after them (for the fifth time!) with earnestness. They knew exactly where they were because they were their sponsors.

He says the Pak Taliban are now wiped out. It's over except for a few skirmishes.

He also said the Afghan Taliban are also wiped out, except for cleaning up a few remaining areas. The war is over.

So why the huge build-up of US troops?

Because the US is now nation building to embed their influence for the future. The US realise they have lost their moral authority. They still want influence in this area as it will become critical for oil and gas supplies. So they are attempting to gain influence in a 'hearts and minds' approach. The US is building roads and dams and hospitals etc.

He says the big players now are Russia, India and China, in Afghanistan.

I remain a bit sceptical - it sounds too simplistic to me. Even he admitted that after the lecture - there are so many problems, in Afghan as well as Pak, aside from the Taliban.