No Plan.
At first I figured the 90-6 Senate rejection of an $80 million funding request from the Obama administration to close GITMO was just a matter of obedience. When the Obama team submits a plan to the Senate, the Senate will fund it. That is the party line. Now, after the president's GITMO/torture speech at the National Archives, it occurs to me that the center of the problem is not EIT, or Cheney, or the jihad. It's Guantanomo. The Obama administration does not know where to put the prisoners. There are 240 of them at GITMO. One hundred of them are Yemenis (as was Bin Laden). Seventeen of them are Uighurs from East Turkistan, in rebellion from Beijing. Three of them are very bad guys, KSM, Ramzi Binalshibh and Abu Zubaydah -- the only three were are told who have been subject to EIT back in 2002. Nevertheless, nobody much wants any of them. Europe won't take them unless the US takes some. And none of the states of the Union have stepped forward to take a single of the 240. Not yet. POTUS seems to believe he can work a deal with one of more governors to take the prisoners. But not even Supermax in Florence, Colorado is 
volunteering for the job. It comes to this inert fact. The Senate voted "No," because there is no plan. The Obama team talks and talks, because there is no plan. There is no plan because the governors of the fifty states say nimby, not in my back yard. Until and if someone comes forward with a way to distribute and dispose of all 240, GITMO stays GITMO, home of the pariahs, a timeless, meaningless, endless Devil's Island, mon amour -- in defiance of all the King's horses and all the King's men.
volunteering for the job. It comes to this inert fact. The Senate voted "No," because there is no plan. The Obama team talks and talks, because there is no plan. There is no plan because the governors of the fifty states say nimby, not in my back yard. Until and if someone comes forward with a way to distribute and dispose of all 240, GITMO stays GITMO, home of the pariahs, a timeless, meaningless, endless Devil's Island, mon amour -- in defiance of all the King's horses and all the King's men.
Before coming to India this time around, I packed the recorder I had been presented in third grade by our music teacher (perhaps in recognition of the notion that sound came first). I thought it would be a good way to while away the hours while waiting for the tropical Chennai heat to subside. As the instrument is nearly sixty years old and has formed blockages in key internal pockets, I find it only allows me to play six or seven notes (which is hardly enough for most songs).
Having become somewhat familiar with Indian music over the years, I understand (particularly as pertains to the raga) that it invariably begins with a thorough exploration of a given set of notes. During this time, patterns will begin to emerge – patterns that can be repeated and repeated again. Enter the tabla, and you have the makings of real music.
Similarly, my six or seven notes suffice as elements to explore. Eventually, patterns present themselves (sometimes unexpectedly) – patterns I try to repeat, merging these with other patterns – and soon, I find myself gleefully engaged.
It occurs to me that during last November’s election, most of us simply wanted to add another note – a black face – to the music of America. We thought it would enhance our already successful American experiment; give it depth and open ourselves up to exciting new variations. Some of us had been made to feel guilty and we felt Obama would soothe that wound as well.
What we hadn’t counted on was that the new note would clash with our old ones; that Obama’s patterns would throw off our own. We made him chief executive and didn’t realize that the post holds real power. We wouldn’t have known it from our experience with Bush. We got so used to mocking him, we felt empty when it ended. Obama is not Bush. Obama can’t be mocked.
What do we do now as we try to come to grips with all the changes Obama is inflicting on our nation? Our old songs no longer fit. Dylan, Seeger, Young, all made a careers of mocking authority. After all that, are we really prepared to embrace “Freude, schöner Götterfunken”?
"No plan" appears to be the plan; also known as "good cop/bad cop". Obama promises something stupid; the Dems block it (at Obama's request). The strategy benefits the president in two ways: (1) He can appear as trying to appease the kook fringe of his supporters and (2) It makes him appear human.
I have never seen an American president in a more powerful position. That in itself scares people. In order to take the edge off, just plant a few legislative defeats in his resume. And the people will sleep through all the rest of it. The word "dictator" just doesn't poll well anymore. Besides, the rubber stamp Congress could use a boost as well right about now.
On Tuesday, China signed a $10 billion deal with Brazil under which Petrobras will supply 200,000 barrels of oil per day to China's state-run Sinopec for the next 10 years,
Gabrielli said in a Reuters report that China agreed to provide the funds at an interest rate below rates that the company has agreed to pay for other debt, although he declined to give further details.
Gabrielli also said it was feasible to produce oil from from Brazil's pre-salt fields for a price of $45 per barrel.
On Friday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose government is facing cash shortages as oil revenues plunge, is negotiating loans from Brazil's state development bank to fund projects, according to local media reports.
The investment projects, which involve the participation of large Brazilian companies, would allow Chavez to stimulate economic growth without having to tap his nation's dwindling cash reserves, the Folha de Sao Paulo daily said.
BNDES, a state bank and Brazil's biggest lender to companies, could commit up to $4.3 billion in loans, Folha quoted BNDES President Luciano Coutinho as saying.
Speculation has been growing that Venezuela's external and fiscal finances are quickly deteriorating, a Reuters report said.
Ratings company Standard & Poor said recently the government may be forced to devalue the currency, which is pegged to the dollar at a fixed rate, as falling oil prices cut revenues by $10 billion.
Until and if someone comes forward with a way to distribute and dispose of all 240, GITMO stays GITMO, home of the pariahs, a timeless, meaningless, endless Devil's Island, mon amour -- in defiance of all the King's horses and all the King's men.
I can't imagine that someone would be so careless as to put the prisoners on a ship bound for the mainland during hurricane season. Here's how I imagine meetings between the White House and the military happen under this administration - the Chicago way.
agreed. the congressional blockage of Gitmo funding is an inside job. congress looks efficient and thoughtful and BO gets to claim he really really tried to close Gitmo but just couldn't get anything through that darned old congress.
neat deal. and he gets call it Bush's mess in perpetuity.
Speaking of Energy: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8044620.stm
When the world's most powerful laser facility flicks the switch on its first full-scale experiments later this month, a tiny star will be born on Earth.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California aims to demonstrate the feasibility of nuclear fusion, the reaction at the heart of the Sun and a potentially abundant, clean energy source for the planet.
A pea-sized spherical capsule is filled with fusion fuel
This comprises a 150-microgram mix of deuterium and tritium
The NIF laser set-up pulses for 20 billionths of a second
For that time, it generates about 500 trillion watts
That's equivalent to five million million 100-watt light bulbs
All the laser power is focused on to the capsule's surface
The fuel is compressed to a density 100 times that of lead
It is heated to more than 100 million degrees Celsius
Under these extreme conditions, fusion is initiated
Video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8044620.stm#video
Obama would look stronger vis the party and the Congress if he would tell his left-wing whiners to bugger off. Where they gonna go? Their netroots' vaunted power to put like-minded cranks in Congressional offices is a fairy tale told by the older generation unsettled by the power of new media to grab headlines from old media, another frightened institution.
STICK THE JIHADIS IN ALCATRAZ
Retrofit the old prison. This will create jobs. Also, have the federal gov't pay CA for
using 'the rock'. This will give bankrupt CA some additional income. Make Alcatraz a
military prison -- so the guards will remain military, not state or federal personnel.
Maybe the above should read: STICK AL QAEDA IN AL CATRAZ
I think the President is standing on principal. Unfortunately, he has no plan to turn the Principal into action and his own Senate is bucking him. Not a catastrophe, but it is a setback and not a necessary one.
"As was bin Laden"? You know something you're not telling us, JB?