Justice Has Been Done

As ABC interrupted what I was watching on Sunday night with a special report, I thought someone really important must have died. I can honestly say my jaw dropped when I heard. I was also very happy that we finally got that bastard.

I put on my Facebook page: The US finally got the bastard. Osama bin Laden is dead!

I thought President Obama's speech was very strong and very good. I especially liked this:

So Americans understand the costs of war. Yet as a country, we will never tolerate our security being threatened, nor stand idly by when our people have been killed. We will be relentless in defense of our citizens and our friends and allies. We will be true to the values that make us who we are. And on nights like this one, we can say to those families who have lost loved ones to al-Qaida's terror: Justice has been done.

Below are some pictures of front pages that the Newseum puts out each day.

Action on Libya

I guess I should add finally some action on Libya.

I have to say I was surprised last week that that Arab League said a no-fly zone was something that should be done.

And the UN acted quickly in taking up the issue and passing a resolution about the no-fly zone.

The U.N. vote on Thursday night was 10-0 with five countries abstaining including Russia and China. India, Germany and Brazil also expressed misgivings about approving military action.

Interesting that so many countries abstained. Yet at the same time any one of them could have voted no and scuttled the whole thing.

This from the US ambassador to the UN:

U.S Ambassador Susan Rice said the resolution “should send a strong message to Colonel Gadhafi and his regime that the violence must stop, the killing must stop, and the people of Libya must be protected and have the opportunity to express themselves freely.”

The problem of course is that Libya is not heading to the cease fire at all. It is moving with all deliberate speed to win the war before anything can be done against it. But the French have acted quickly:

French fighter jets streaking over Libya on Saturday bombed a military vehicle and walled off a 600-square-mile sanctuary over the eastern city of Benghazi in the first military engagements in support of the no-fly zone authorized two days ago by the U.N. Security Council.

The only way to stop this land grab is for swift action. I have to assume this will not be the last French mission in the next couple of days against Gadhafi's forces. The only way he'll learn anything is if his forces get a good kick in the teeth.

Gadhafi's government of course says the rebels are the ones breaking the cease fire:

Libyan government spokesman Ibrahim Musa said rebels, not government forces, were the ones breaking the cease-fire by attacking military forces, the Associated Press reported. “Our armed forces continue to retreat and hide, but the rebels keep shelling us and provoking us,” he said.

And that is just so believable.

The problem is that this might be too little too late. I hope not. It is time the Mr. Gadhafi is off the world stage.

Not Taking Responsibility

That’s certainly been a theme lately. We had a great example of that when all those wonderful financial geniuses from Goldman Sachs testified on the Hill a couple of weeks ago. Essentially they said we did nothing wrong and what we did do didn’t cause the financial melt down. Another example of tin ear.

It reminded me of when the big three auto executives came to town in their private jets asking to be bailed out. The second time they came hat in hand they drove.

It just makes you wonder who advises these people. Or do they really and truly not care what the public thinks.

The latest example of this is the testimony on the oil rig disaster being played out in the Gulf.

Everyone was suffering from finger pointing syndrome. Someone else was at fault but not my company.

BP blamed the failure of Transocean’s blowout preventer and raised a new question about whether Transocean disregarded “anomalous pressure test readings” just hours before the explosion. Transocean blamed decisions made by BP and cited possible flaws in the cementing job done by Halliburton. And Halliburton said that it had faithfully followed BP’s instructions and that Transocean had started replacing a heavy drilling mud with seawater before the well was sealed with a cement plug.

From Transocean chief executive Steven Newman:

He said it was BP that directed that drilling mud used to counter pressure from the well be replaced by seawater. And he added that the blowout preventers might have failed because of damage inflicted by debris made of cement and steel blown upward from the well.

Then on to Halliburton:

Halliburton’s Tim Probert also tried to deflect blame, saying, “We understand that the drilling contractor . . . proceeded to displace the riser with seawater prior to the planned placement of the final cement plug.” That plug was designed to keep the oil and gas in the well, one of the last steps before pulling the drilling rig away from the well. Probert said that the cement plug, which he said would have been “a final barrier,” was never set.

At some point in time, you have to wonder why these hearings are held at all. From reading the news reports nothing was learned about what happened. And certainly no one was stepping up and taking responsibility for what happened. But then I realize these are Congressional hearings and this is a great photo op for the Senators. Those who opposed drilling get to say I told you so. Those in favor of drilling well they get to wring their hands and try and figure out how to get out of this PR disaster.

In the end, the hearings could have been canceled. The money saved could have been sent to help out people in the Gulf who’s livelihood is directly threatened by the oil spill.

The Nuclear Summit

It certainly turned DC on its head. This was true when it came to the re-routing of traffic especially around where I worked.

Besides bringing in heads of states from all over the world, what did it accomplish. It was interesting that in my spinning class on Wednesday we talked about the traffic and what, if anything, was gotten of it. Several people said it was just a bunch of words and people would go back to their respective countries and just forget about everything.

I don’t think that that is a fair assessment. Some very positive things did come out it:

The first tangible results of the summit came as Obama held a series of meetings with foreign leaders, including Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, who announced Ukraine would get rid of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium by 2012.

The move by Kiev is designed to make it harder for terrorists to get hold of nuclear material. Ukraine will also convert its civil nuclear program to operate on low-enriched uranium, Yanukovich said.

Any nuclear material that can come under lock and key as in away from the bad guys is a move in the right direction.

As for security, well it was impressive. I work a couple of blocks from the White House. There were fences placed along New York Avenue from the White House to the Convention Center where the summit was held. There were National Guard trucks on every corner usually at least two sometimes three. There were also National Guard troops on every corner. Police cars and police like you wouldn't believe. There were even two in the lobby of my gym on Monday and Tuesday. I haven't seen security this tight since 9/11. The interesting thing was that by Wednesday morning everything was gone. Almost like it never happened.

I think in the end it was a good attempt by the Obama administration.

Saved by an iPhone Application

The images that come out of Haiti continue to be overwhelming. It is hard to imagine such complete and total devastation unless you actually see the pictures.

But in all the devastation and ruin come some amazing stories. This is one of them.

Dan Woolley used an application on his iPhone called Jive Media Pocket First Aid & CPR. He accessed information that told him how to treat his injuries.

... he found recommendations for how to self-treat his injuries.

"So I used my shirt to tie my leg and a sock on the back of my head. And later used it for other things, like to diagnose shock," he added.

Woolley also used the iPhone's more traditional functions, setting its alarm to go off every 20 minutes to keep him from falling asleep.

Eventually, after about 66 hours trapped under the rubble, Woolley was pulled out alive by French rescuers.

Isn't modern technology something!

A True Heroine

The dictionary defines heroine as: a woman of distinguished courage or ability, admired for her brave deeds and noble qualities.

In today's world I think we would most think of heroes and heroines as athletes or politician.

But the true heroes and heroines are every day ordinary people who do things that are people are afraid or cannot do.

We lost such a person last week. Her name was Miep Gies. I think very few people will recognize her name. But I think most people will recognize the name of Anne Frank. Miep Gies helped hide Anne Frank and her family and others from the Nazis for two years. Gies was:

the last of the "helpers," the six non-Jews who smuggled food, books, writing paper and news of the outside world to the secret attic apartment of the canal-side warehouse where Anne, her parents, sister and four other Jews hid during World War II.

Gies tried to bribe police to release the Franks but it was to no avail. She went back to the room where the Franks were hidden and it is then she discovered Anne's diary. The world has Gies to thank for saving such an important book. When Otto Frank returned to Amsterdam, Gies gave him the diary. She helped in compiling the diary and then was a tireless worker campaigning against Holocaust deniers.

But she never considered herself a hero:

Gies brushed aside the accolades for helping hide the Frank family as more than she deserved. "This is very unfair. So many others have done the same or even far more dangerous work," she wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press days before her 100th birthday in February.

She resisted being made a character study of heroism for the young.

"I don't want to be considered a hero," she said in a 1997 online chat with schoolchildren.

"Imagine young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I am afraid nobody would ever help other people, because who is a hero? I was not. I was just an ordinary housewife and secretary."

But Geis is a hero. She acted with incredible humanity and courage. While other people let the Nazis take whomever, Geis risked her life to help the Franks without a second thought to her safety. And that is being a hero. She described herself as an ordinary housewife and secretary. Well let me say, we could do with a few more of those ordinary housewives and secretaries today.

God speed Miep Gies. God speed.

Miserable Excuses for Human Beings

The tragedy in Haiti seems to know no bounds. And yet we have two bozos, Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh, saying well here's what they said:

“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it,” the televangelist said. “And they got together and swore a pact to the Devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’ True story. And so the Devil said, ‘Okay, it’s a deal.’ . . . But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another.”

Fox News anchor Shepard Smith played a clip of Robertson’s comments and offered this take: “The people of Haiti have been used and abused by their governments over the years. They have dealt with unthinkable tragedy, day in and day out. And we’re in the middle of a crisis that the Western Hemisphere has not seen in my lifetime. And 700 miles east of Miami, hundreds of thousands of desperate human beings need our help, our support, our money and our love. And they don’t need that.”

“This will play right into Obama’s hands -- humanitarian, compassionate,” Limbaugh said. “They’ll use this to burnish their, shall we say, credibility with the black community, in both the light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country. It’s made to order for him.”

Limbaugh was equally suspicious and cynical about Obama’s call for donations.

“Would you trust that the money is going to go Haiti? But would you trust that your name’s gonna end up on a mailing list for the Obama people to start asking you for campaign donations for him and other causes?”
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He added, “Besides, we’ve already donated to Haiti. It’s called the U.S. income tax.”

On Thursday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs responded to Limbaugh’s comments, saying, “In times of great crisis, there are always people that say really stupid things. I don’t know how anybody could sit where he does, having enjoyed the success that he has, and not feel some measure of sorrow for what has happened in Haiti.”

If you didn't see the pictures, it would be hard to fathom the devastation. And these two guys use it for their own ends. Robertson's remarks imply that somehow the Haitian's deserve what happened to them. That revolting from an oppressive colonial power was somehow wrong.

As for Limbaugh even a disaster on this scale cannot stop him from his vendetta against Obama.

It seems to me if you were a good Christian, a decent human being you would be saying hey listeners please give some money to help these people.

Every time when I think they can't sink any lower they do. They are two miserable excuses for human beings.

Afghanistan the War We Forgot and Now Have to Remember

I’ve long thought that this should have been the only war we were in. Iraq was a mistake. I won’t go into the reasons why because they are many and not what needs to be discussed now. But we forgot about the war in Afghanistan and because of that we are in the situation that we are today.

I liked the fact that Obama is honest about the war. That it won’t be a walk in the park (as opposed to the notion of we’ll be greeted as liberators):

Now, let me be clear: None of this will be easy. The struggle against violent extremism will not be finished quickly, and it extends well beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan. It will be an enduring test of our free society, and our leadership in the world. And unlike the great power conflicts and clear lines of division that defined the 20th century, our effort will involve disorderly regions, failed states, diffuse enemies.

I like the fact that there is a time line. That there is a goal of when we will get out. Now is it going to be hard and fast maybe not. But it’s better than lets stay until conditions are just completely right. After all the Bush administration opposed a time-line for withdrawal from Iraq. McCain did as a candidate and then along came the Iraqi government and said ah we like the idea of a time line.

Now we all have to hope that the new strategy works.

I was in a Confined Space

Oh my goodness I was in a confined space today. Not just once but several times. OH NO!!!

As our Vice President said earlier in the week:

"I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now," Biden said when Matt Lauer asked whether he would advise family members to use public transportation.

"I would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now. It's not that it's going to Mexico, it's you're in a confined aircraft when one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft. That's me. I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation suggesting they ride the subway. "

And I've been on the subway not once but twice today. Then I went to my gym which is in a confined space. Further I went to a spinning class which is in and even more confined space. Oh no. Oh NO.

Oh no is right.

I'm beginning to get the feeling that the Swine Babe Flu reaction is getting just a little out of hand. The VP's remarks certainly didn't help matters. Closing of school districts when a few kids in a few individual schools might have been exposed to Babe Flu is a little over the top too. I think an important point was raised about this. Where do all these kids go if they are not in school? Is it possible they are just as likely to be exposed to the flu as if they stayed in school?

Then there's the coverage of the death of the toddler in Texas. This was breaking news on CNN when I was at the gym around 8 in the morning. It was till breaking news when I got home from work nine hours later. Somehow that not still breaking news.

Then there was the general coverage of this whole very tragic event. The first death in the United States. Well yes and no. It was the first death of someone who died from the flu from the U.S. But it was not the first death of someone from the US from the flu. This is a huge difference.

This flu can be scary enough as it is. The comments and reporting on it need to be done very carefully. So far there've been a couple of stumbles along the way. Hopefully they will be last.

Renaming the Flu

This seems rather silly in a way but I guess it makes some amount of sense. There is an ongoing attempt to rename the Swine Flu the H1N1 Flu Outbreak. Or h1N1 for short.

Producers of pork are concerned about the use of Swine Flu:

Groups representing the pork industry _ including the National Pork Producers Council, the National Pork Board and the American Meat Institute _ have all been in talks with the Agriculture Department asking officials to discourage the name "swine flu" and to reassure the public that pork is safe.

Read more about it here.

I can't see the media changing to saying the H1N1 flu virus.

A friend came up with a great idea. Call it the Babe Flu. The Babe Flu you say. Yes the Babe Flu. If you know your movies then you know that Babe was a movie about a pig. Thus the new name Babe Flu. Certainly a lot easier to remember and much catchier than the H1N1.

Swine Flu

Well I knew I would get around to this issue sooner or later.

The first thing when CNN talked about will be hearing from WHO soon. I thought is this an Abbott and Costello skit or something out of Dr. Seuss.

But it is no longer a laughing matter with all the deaths in Mexico. Follow the coverage here at the Post.

From that article today a representative from WHO said:

Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s assistant director general for health security and environment.

“At this time, containment is not a feasible option,” Fukuda said. “This virus has already spread quite far.”

“With the virus being widespread,” he said, “closing borders or restricting travel really has very little effect in stopping the movement of this virus.”

I’m sorry but I don’t get saying that at all.

How did infected people get to Scotland and Spain and Israel and New Zealand.

Did they walk there? No.

Did they drive there? No.

Did they take the train there? No.

But they did take a plane.

Everyone single one of the cases outside of Mexico so far have been related to people traveling in and out of Mexico City by plane. Why not stop all flights in and out of Mexico City?

Would it completely stop the virus from spreading? No.

But it seems to me this would reduced the ability of the disease to spread to other countries especially where there are no cases currently.

More on Pirates

Seems this has been a busy week in and around the waters of Somalia. Eight ships have been hijacked this week alone. Since the beginning of the year there have been a total of 39 ships taken. You can read a story from USA Today about it here.

The story reports that:

17 vessels remain in the hands of pirates along with more than 300 crewmembers, including a Ukrainian ship loaded with weapons and the Saudi supertanker carrying $100 million in crude.

I have to say again this seems like a strange story. Hard to believe in this day and age that this is going on.

The Indian navy scored a victory by destroying a pirate mother ship:

A patrolling Indian navy frigate quickly identified the vessel as a "mother ship" _ a mobile attack base used to take gangs of pirates and smaller speedboats into deep water _ and ordered it to stop and be searched.

By the time the battle was over, the mother ship had sunk _ the Indian gunfire sparked fires and a series of onboard blasts, possibly due to exploding ammunition _ and the speedboats were racing into the darkness.

As several American navy spokes people have said this is a very large area. Naval ships of whatever country can't be everywhere at once. The problem is in all likelihood going to continue until conditions in Somalia improve. However, Somalia's been in turmoil since the 1990s so it looks like this problem is not going to be going away anytime soon.

Avast, ye maties

Yes, there are pirates.

But they're not in the Caribbean.

They are off the horn of Africa near Somalia.

It's hard to believe but in this day and age piracy has taken on a life of its own. The latest victim:

The 1,080-foot Sirius Star was seized by Somali pirates Sunday off East Africa. Its owner, Vela International, said the tanker is now believed to be anchored off the coast of Somalia.

More than 80 pirate attacks have been registered this year. Last month, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved resolutions calling on nations to send naval ships and military aircraft to Somalia's coastline and allowing foreign powers to enter Somali waters to fight piracy.

You can read more about it here from the Post and from CNN. You can also see an AP video about here. Both ABC and NBC network nightly news casts had stories on this.

The reason for this increase in attacks is because Somalia has essentially fallen into anarchy. And pirates can operate with impunity.

Makes you think if somehow these pirates were actually organized say by a terrorist group what they could do to the supply of oil. But then again with the developed world in or about to be in a recession the impact might not be as great.

But still it is hard to accept the idea of pirates. I wonder if anyone's had to walk the plank.

News of the Paranoid

It seems that the Russians believe that the recent events in Georgia were done to help one of the presidential candidates (guess which one):

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he had reason to think U.S. personnel were in the combat zone during the recent war in Georgia, adding that if confirmed, their presence suggested "someone in the United States" provoked the conflict to help one of the candidates in the American presidential race.

This is from a story in the Post. Putin goes on in the story to say:

"If my conjecture is confirmed, then it raises the suspicion that someone in the United States deliberately created this conflict in order to worsen the situation and create an advantage . . . for one of the candidates for the post of president of the United States," he said. "And if this is a fact, it is nothing other than the use of so-called administrative resources in a domestic political struggle, and in the worst, bloodiest form as well."

You do have to hand it to the Russians in coming up with something so off the wall. It reminds me of those thrilling days of yester-year when the Soviets were completely paranoid about anything the U.S. did. Seems what's old is new again.

What is of concern is is this just a reaction to what Georgia did (which was very foolish) or is this just a first step in recreating the old Soviet Union. Perhaps a better example would be the old Russian Empire with Putin playing Czar.

Not that the US can do much about it. We are spread far too thin. Our rhetoric sounds very tired ans shrill in light of what we've done in Iraq. All we can really do now is watch and wait and hope for the best.

The Dictator Leaves

As Franklin Roosevelt once said about a dictator: "Yes, but he's our bastard."

Well the US's bastard, Pervez Musharraf, has left Pakistan. Washington is now all in a tizzy about what will come next. Will the current civilian government in Pakistan continue the policies of Musharraf toward terrorism? But what exactly is Musharraf record against terror. This from a story in USA Today:

Critics such as journalist Ahmed Rashid, author of Descent Into Chaos, maintained that Musharraf was playing a double game all along. They said Pakistan's intelligence agencies secretly supported the Taliban or at least looked the other way while Taliban fighters launched attacks from safe havens in Pakistan against U.S. and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan. And on Musharraf's watch, militants have seized power in tribal lands along the Afghan border and terrorized the nation with suicide attacks, including the one that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December.

So our great big wonderful strongman in Pakistan who we supported with billions upon billions of dollars really wasn't that much of an ally after all.

One wonders when the US will learn from history. Learn that no matter what the short term gains we achieve by supporting a dictator in the long run we come up on the short end of the stick. Seems the Bush administration didn't learn that lesson.

Here's hoping the next administration will.

Russia Expands

Russia it seems is on its way to taking over Georgia.

It seems Russia is flexing its muscles and ignoring the international community as Russia takes back something that was once theirs. As a quick aside doesn’t ignoring the international community have a familiar ring. Georgia has the only oil pipeline in that part of the world not controlled by Russia. Hmm finding a pretext for a war when what you’re really after is oil. Wow now there a sense of deja vu all over again.

But seriously folks.

This is something to be concerned about. The questions does have to raised is this the first step by Mr. Putin (the realy power in Russia not Dmitry Medvedev the “president” of Russia) in reassembling the Soviet Union. But of course Mr. Bush has looked into his soul and could trust Putin. Here’s the latest on the Russian offensive.

This is a great quote:

Zbigniew Brzezinski tells Nathan Gardels of Huffingtonpost.com: “The United States, particularly, shoulders the major burden of mobilizing an collective international response. This invasion of Georgia by Russia is a very sad commentary on eight years of self-delusion in the White House regarding Putin and his regime. Two memorable comments stand out. First, when Bush first met Putin and said he looked into his soul and could trust him. Second, not long ago, Condi Rice claimed that American relations with Russia have never been better in history!”

What can the U.S. do? Not all that much. There’s very little pressure that we can put on Russia. Bush is trying:

“I am deeply concerned by reports that Russian troops have moved beyond the zone of conflict,” Bush said. “It now appears that an effort may be underway to depose Georgia’s duly elected government.”

Bush also said recent actions by the Russian military, including a drive into civilian areas and alleged plans to bomb the airport in Tbilisi, “would be inconsistent with assurances that we have received from Russia that its objectives were limited.’’

But words are about all the Bush can use against Russia. If Russia wants to take Georgia there's very little that can be done to stop them. Bush once promised the people of Georgia:

The path of freedom you have chosen is not easy, but you will not travel it alone. Americans respect your courageous choice for liberty. And as you build a free and democratic Georgia, the American people will stand with you.

I'm sure the people of Georgia are wondering when America will stand with them.

Markets tank

Seems the subprime mess is coming home to roost. Here's an article about what's happened overseas. Another on how there is more room to fall.

The Fed this morning cut by .75% the federal funds rate.

It seems to me that if a little more attention had been paid to the subprime market this would not have happened. It also seems to me that this should not have come as such a huge surprise. As the prime went up so did the rate people with this type of mortgage would pay once the lower rate lapsed.

But the Fed has always been more concerned about inflation, which never seems to rear its head, then what is actually happening on the ground.

The Fed will meet next week. There is talk of dropping the prime rate by half a percentage point. They may need to do more than that if it going to make any significant difference on the markets.

Evil in the World

It is the only way I can describe what happened today in Pakistan. See this story in the Post for more information.

I have to say I was completely stunned at the death of Benazir Bhutto. She seemed to offer Pakistan a better tomorrow. A tomorrow where democracy and the rule of law would hold sway rather than the whims of a general.

Hopefully the people of Pakistan can withstand this cruel and horrible blow and come out in the end better.

Although right now that seems a very long ways away.

The Problem with Iran

It seems the Bush administration is having a hard time selling the idea that Iran is supplying weapons to Iraqis (see story in the Post.) And just as much trouble convincing people that this is not a run up to an invasion of Iran. They seem to be very exasperated at all this. I think this sums up the situation very well:

“In the old days, if the U.S. government had come out and said, ‘We’ve got this, here’s our assessment,’ reasonable people would have taken it at face value,” the official said of the Baghdad briefing. “That’s never going to happen again.”

The Bush administration has only itself to blame for this. It also seems that the very background briefing in Baghdad over stated some of the evidence of the involvement of the Iranian government (imagine that). In his news conference Bush continued to push the involvement of the Iranian government in supplying the weapons. The evidence seems rather weak.

Is some elements in Iran supporting Iraqi insurgents? Of course they are. You’d be a fool not to think that.

But to use a phrase my grandmother used to use they are adding two and two and getting seven. Last time around everyone swallowed it and took it as gospel. Thankfully, this time around the Bush administration is being challenged on its addition.