Saturday, November 28, 2009

Nobody Got E-Mail 100 Years Ago

Nobody Gets E-Mail---100 Years ago...Obama was just a thought in his mother's Burke
Hey, we all survived black Friday right?
As you might guess, I'm the last person you would find standing in line for over 4 hours just to get $25.00 off a microwave.
Of course they SAY there are sales, but... they lie. You know they do. It's almost become a national addiction....lying, and shopping. So thank god for beer.
Anyway, I had the BEST thanksgiving,(I learned there was such a thing as Polar Bear Crack from a 7- year old, bet you didn't know that.) So this week, I'm posting one of those common e-mails that everyone gets, and just for fun, added my own "opinions" in red...
________________________________________

Show this to your children and/or grandchildren
That is, if Al Gore lets you.
1909 FORD Model R
My grandmother had one! Really!

THE YEAR 1909

The year is 1909.�
One hundred years ago.�
What a difference a century makes!�
Here are some statistics for the Year 1909 :
************ ********* ********* ******

The average life expectancy was� 47�years.
Life expectancy in 2009? Whatever they decide, which if left up to them would be right around nine weeks.
Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.
Only 14 percent of humans use them now, so not much of a difference.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
Tell that to your daughter when she doesn't get the latest I-phone.
"When I was your age, we walked to the phone!!"
There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles
Of paved roads.
Give us just ten years, and we'll be right back there.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
We don't even drive in the cities now, for fear of being shot.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!
The tallest structure in the world is now in Dubai, and no thanks due to George Bush, (why of course, you have to blame somebody) it will never be finished. But hey, that's at least taller than the "not ever built" World Trade Center.

The average wage in 1909 was 22 cents per hour.
Which is what most Americans will be making after taxes in 2011.

The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year .
Show-offs.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,
Now, a dishonest accountant can expect to make 347 million per year. Finally, improvement.

A dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
Dentist make $2,500 every time they say the words "open."
My Vet makes enough to buy sponsor his own elephant herd in Kenya, and I suspect that's exactly what he does.
And the positions of mechanical engineer no longer exists in the U.S. They all live in Sing-a-pore and drive yellow vipers.

More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME.
What a mess!
On the other hand, we will be getting back to that noble tradition soon. Our government is training Mexican women as we speak to come into the United States and deliver their own babies at home, so that they can grow up to work for ACORN! Saving all of us taxpayers from having to pay any doctors!

Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!
Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which
Were condemned in the press AND the government as 'substandard. '
And nobody ever got sick. Now they just look at you...and give you a pill, which kills you quicker. The government had already started on getting that Universal Health Care passed, back then. It took them a 100 years, but it looks like it's finally coming...let's hope India really likes us.

Sugar cost four cents a pound.
Which means, we don't get enough sugar, because everyone was thinner then. Pass the pie.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
Now their fourteen cents an egg.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
So, what was the price of cocaine?

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used
Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
Now, we have dreadlocks covered in gook, and you can go for at least three months without washing...an improvement.
I once washed my hair in beer...it works pretty good.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from
Entering into their country for any reason.
Now, I am getting sick. Yes, let's just kick out the poor, and save ourselves some money on our taxes. Let's send them to Canada.

Five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke
Now, it's food poisoning, from China, and the upcoming new U.H.C. (Universal Health Capers)

The American flag had 45 stars.
According to Obama, we now have 57 stars...it's looking up.

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!
This is a lie. There were at least 31, counting Frank Sinatra.

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea
Hadn't been invented yet.
Neither had the New York Times, Taco Bell, and Diet Coke...which explains the dumbing down of the entire nation.

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
BUT, there was a George Washington Day, and you didn't have to buy him a present.

Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write.
Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
Okay, tell me how this has changed?

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, " Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind,
regulates the stomach and bowels and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.
( Shocking? ) No.
Well, we...foolish nation...will soon the the Utopia of George Soros' wet dream...a nation where all marijuana is sold over the counter, morphine will be administered on request, and heroin, will be given to hyperactive kids in school.
This will also mean that they will have to outlaw guns, due to too many stoned people getting mad when they don't get their governmental drugs...on time.
Eighteen percent of households had at least
One full-time servant or domestic help.
This one is true...once upon a time, even the middle classes could afford household help. My middle-class grandmother always had an Irish maid..and then they came along with liberating women...they had the peachy idea that women should not only do their own housework, but do a full day's real work at the same time! Thanks Gloria.

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.!
Now, there are that many on a Saturday night in Chicago. Don't worry, they put a serial killer on TV to help us get those numbers up.

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years.
In another hundred years, we will, according to the latest reports...be chipped, live in energy efficient homes where we will work for the government, and watch big screen 3-D T.V.s most of the day. We will have camera's in our TV to make sure we are doing our morning exercises, and eating right. George Orwell, will be double speaking commands, and we will have a Global "President" and a global army, and no one will be allowed to reproduce, unless they go to Harvard.
If we get out of line, we will be forced to wear ankle bracelets, and listen to old reruns of Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Rosanne.
Nevertheless, we will still be allowed to watch reruns of the Three Stooges on holidays.
IT STAGGERS THE MIND

Yes...my mind was staggerd just thinking about why they failed to mention, that NOBODY had to take up half their day, getting through their e-mail box.
And soon, it will cost you the price of a stamp just to send one. That's one prediction you know will come true. You can bet on that one.
100 years from now, your e-mail will cost you a small fortune. So, think about that next time you read YOUR favortie e-mail.

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Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Happy Puppies, Happy Turkeys













Nobody Cares: Everyone and their mother-in-law has been preaching all week about how we should all just count our blessings...you know, forget 2012, or go see the movie so you can prepare yourself for the end...and when it doesn't come, you will be oh-so-grateful that WHEN or IF you lose your job, you will remember that you did NOT die in 2012, therefore...you will just be thankful to accept that wel-fare check...or something like that.
In all in the new Mind Control...just ask Barney Frank.
And like most Americans...I can't WAIT to see the movie! A place where cell phones never lose their connections, even in the event that the whole world is destroyed...the cell phones would still be working, and someone will have a car accident because they were talking on the cell phone and did NOT dodge that telephone pole.
But, when I get down and out, (which sometimes happens on holidays, and bad body days) I just think of my adorable American Eskimo...Zippy. (That's her on her back. She likes the cool air coming in through the door.)
I've had a lot of dogs in my lifetime, but Zippy, is just about the happiest creature walking on the planet. She keeps my soul up, wakes me with a big sloppy kiss every morning, and there is nothing in life that gets her down.
I figure she's my instant Karma.
Not even 2012...would dampen this little spirit.
And this other picture is one of my most favorite pictures...
Just look at those little faces!
"Okay, what are we gonna do now?"
"How'd you get out there?"
"What did you say? There's dog treats?"
"Hey, where's mom?"
Okay, thank God for my dogs. And if Disney kills another dog in a film I think I'm going to sue them for emotional reparations.
(As you can tell, Zippy is sleeping at the moment)
Everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving! And I'll see you after Black Friday!

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Nobody Knows the Final Goal




Nobody Knows--
The Final Goal

Soon the great and wonderful OZ will make his announcement that he will be increasing troops in Afghanistan, much to the bemoaning of not only liberals, but just about everyone else on the map.

But what do they tell us about Afghanistan? What do we really know? If you go by everyday news, they just don’t tell us much of anything, and that’s done on purpose.

I got this in my e-mail box…so, if you are like me, just plain curious, this might help you out when listening to the entire normal BS coming from just about everyone.

Because…nobody knows what the goal REALLY is. Is it global market domination? Oil? Drugs? Or like they all say, we will not be attacked HERE if we just keep the war going over there?

As we all know, that one is wearing thin.
Anyway, thanks to Ant for the e-mail!
And please excuse me, I have pies to cook!

Just read ...

In 2009 alone, after many billions of dollars had already gone into the construction, expansion, and maintenance of U.S. bases in Afghanistan, American taxpayers were called upon to pay for more than $1 billion in construction contracts — and based on the evidence at hand, including those future options, this may prove just a drop in the proverbial bucket.

All of this has been happening without a clear plan laid out in Washington for the future of U.S. military operations in that country, without a legitimate national government in Kabul, and of course with no shortage of infrastructural repairs needed at home. Americans curious to know much of anything about the Pentagon’s Afghan building boom beyond Bagram would have found little on the nightly news or in major newspapers. It has essentially been carried out in the dark, far away, and with only the most modest reportorial interest.

Forget for a moment the "debates" in Washington over Afghan War policy and, if you just focus on the construction activity and the flow of money into Afghanistan, what you see is a war that, from the point of view of the Pentagon, isn’t going to end any time soon. In fact, the U.S. military’s building boom in that country suggests that, in the ninth year of the Afghan War, the Pentagon has plans for a far longer-term, if not near-permanent, garrisoning of the country, no matter what course Washington may decide upon. Alternatively, it suggests that the Pentagon is willing to waste taxpayer money (which might have shored up sagging infrastructure in the U.S. and created a plethora of jobs) on what will sooner or later be abandoned runways, landing zones and forward operating bases.

2014 or Bust: The Pentagon’s Afghan Building Boom
Nick Turse and Tom Engelhardt, November 06, 2009
Email This Print This Share This Comment Antiwar Forum

In our day, the American way of war, especially against lightly armed guerrillas, insurgents, and terrorists, has proved remarkably heavy. Elephantine might be the appropriate word. The Pentagon likes to talk about its "footprint" on the geopolitical landscape. In terms of the infrastructure it’s built in Iraq and Afghanistan, perhaps "crater" would be a more reasonable image.

American wars are now gargantuan undertakings. The prospective withdrawal of significant numbers/most/all American forces from Iraq, for instance, will — in terms of time and effort — make the 2003 invasion look like the vaunted "cakewalk" it was supposed to be. According to Pentagon estimates, more than 1.5 million (yes, that is "million") pieces of U.S. equipment need to be removed from the country. Just stop and take that in for a second.

Of course, it’s a less surprising figure when you realize that the Pentagon managed to build, furnish, and supply almost 300 bases, macro to micro, in Iraq alone in the war years. And some of those bases were — and still are — the size of small American towns with tens of thousands of troops, private contractors, and others, as well as massive perimeters, multiple bus routes, full-scale PX’s, fast-food outlets, movie theaters, and the like.

In many ways, Iraq-style war has now become the gargantuan template for the Afghan War build-up that Nick Turse describes below. (His is the sort of summary picture of a less-than-adequately-covered situation that Tom Dispatch specializes in, based in part on investigative Internet reporting and the mining of Pentagon contracts, government and corporate websites, and military publications.)

In fact, some percentage of those 1.5 million pieces of equipment will undoubtedly simply be sent Afghanistan-wards. As the Bush administration built the world’s largest — and shoddiest — embassy in Baghdad, our own mother ship, mission control center for the region, and modern ziggurat, so now, the Obama administration is about to do the same (at approximately the same startling cost) in Islamabad, Pakistan, as a monstrous mission control center for the Af/Pak theater of operations.

In Iraq, structures like Balad Air Base or the ill-named Camp Victory just on the edge of Baghdad are so massive, so permanent-looking — so clearly built for long-term occupation — that it’s still hard to imagine how the Pentagon will abandon them to the Iraqis.

Now, as Turse reports, the U.S. military seems intent on beefing up another network of bases for another surging war, involving another heavy presence in another distant land — and these bases, too, the Pentagon will undoubtedly be loath to turn over or evacuate. Every army carries a version of its society on its back into battle. We emphasize poundage. Like our culture, our wars are spendthrift and consumption-oriented. If continued, they will someday bust us.

Tom
2014 or Bust

The Pentagon’s Building Boom in Afghanistan Indicates a Long War Ahead
By Nick Turse

In recent weeks, President Obama has been contemplating the future of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. He has also been touting the effects of his policies at home, reporting that this year’s Recovery Act not only saved jobs, but also was "the largest investment in infrastructure since [President Dwight] Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s." At the same time, another much less publicized U.S.-taxpayer-funded infrastructure boom has been underway. This one in Afghanistan.

While Washington has put modest funding into civilian projects in Afghanistan this year — ranging from small-scale power plants to "public latrines" to a meat market — the real construction boom is military in nature. The Pentagon has been funneling stimulus-sized sums of money to defense contractors to markedly boost its military infrastructure in that country.

In fiscal year 2009, for example, the civilian U.S. Agency for International Development awarded $20 million in contracts for work in Afghanistan, while the U.S. Army alone awarded $2.2 billion — $834 million of it for construction projects. In fact, according to Walter Pincus of the Washington Post, the Pentagon has spent "roughly $2.7 billion on construction over the past three fiscal years" in that country and, "if its request is approved as part of the fiscal 2010 defense appropriations bill, it would spend another $1.3 billion on more than 100 projects at 40 sites across the country, according to a Senate report on the legislation."

Bogged Down at Bagram

Nowhere has the building boom been more apparent than Bagram Air Base, a key military site used by the Soviet Union during its occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. In its American incarnation, the base has significantly expanded from its old Soviet days and, in just the last two years, the population of the more than 5,000 acre compound has doubled to 20,000 troops, in addition to thousands of coalition forces and civilian contractors. To keep up with its exponential growth rate, more than $200 million in construction projects are planned or in-progress at this moment on just the Air Force section of the base. "Seven days a week, concrete trucks rumble along the dusty perimeter road of this air base as bulldozers and backhoes reshape the rocky earth," Chuck Crumbo of The State reported recently. "Hundreds of laborers slap mortar onto bricks as they build barracks and offices. Four concrete plants on the base have operated around the clock for 18 months to keep up with the construction needs."

The base already boasts fast food favorites Burger King, a combination Pizza Hut/Bojangles, and Popeyes as well as a day spa and shops selling jewelry, cell phones and, of course, Afghan rugs.

In the near future, notes Pincus, "the military is planning to build a $30 million passenger terminal and adjacent cargo facility to handle the flow of troops, many of whom arrive at the base north of Kabul before moving on to other sites."

In addition, according to the Associated Press, the base command is "acquiring more land next year on the east side to expand" even further.

To handle the influx of troops already being dispatched by the Obama administration (with more expected once the president decides on his long-term war plans) "new dormitories" are going up at Bagram, according to David Axe of the Washington Times. The base’s population will also increase in the near future, thanks to a project-in-progress recently profiled in The Freedom Builder, an Army Corps of Engineers publication: the MILCON Bagram Theater Internment Facility (TIF) currently being built at a cost of $60 million by a team of more than 1,000 Filipinos, Indians, Sri Lankans, and Afghans. When completed, it will consist of 19 buildings and 16 guard towers designed to hold more than 1,000 detainees on the sprawling base which has long been notorious for the torture and even murder of prisoners within its confines.

While the United States officially insists that it is not setting up permanent bases in Afghanistan, the scale and permanency of the construction underway at Bagram seems to suggest, at the least, a very long stay. According to published reports, in fact, the new terminal facilities for the complex aren’t even slated to be operational until 2011.

One of the private companies involved in hardening and building up Bagram’s facilities is Contrack International, an international engineering and construction firm which, according to U.S. government records, received more than $120 million in contracts in 2009 for work in Afghanistan. According to Contrack’s website, it is, among other things, currently designing and constructing a new "entry control point" — a fortified entrance — as well as a new "ammunition supply point" facility at the base. It is also responsible for "the design and construction of taxiways and aprons; airfield lighting and navigation aid improvements; and new apron construction" for the base’s massive and expanding air operations infrastructure.

The building boom at Bagram (which has received at least a modest amount of attention in the American mainstream press) is, however, just a fraction of the story of the way the U.S. military — and Contrack International — are digging in throughout Afghanistan.

Rave Reviews for Kandahar

In March, according to Pentagon documents, Contrack was awarded a $23 million contract for "the design and construction of [an] Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance ramp, Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan." Last year, in the Washington Post, Pincus reported that a planned expansion at the airfield, also once used by the Soviets and now a major U.S. and NATO base, was to accommodate aircraft working for a Task Force ODIN — an Afghanistan-based version of the Army unit which used drones and helicopters to target insurgents planting IEDs in Iraq.

Today, Task Force ODIN-Afghanistan — the acronym stands for "observe, detect, identify and neutralize," with a nod to the chief Norse god — is up and running, and still reportedly piloted out of "Bagram in one of two small, nondescript ground control stations."

Whether ODIN aircraft are also operating out of Kandahar Airfield is — like so much information about the U.S. military in Afghanistan — unclear. Certainly, though, many more NATO and U.S. aircraft will be flying out of the base once Contrack, as it notes on its website, completes its "[d]esign and construction of replacement runways with asphalt and touch down areas with concrete pavement" and "rehabilitation of 6 existing taxiways," among other projects.
Contrack’s Kandahar contract is set to be fulfilled by late December, but like Bagram, the base already gives every appearance of permanence. "It’s one of the busiest single runways in the world," Captain Max Hanlin from the 2nd U.S. Army Division’s 5th Stryker Brigade told Agence France-Presse recently.

Originally built to house 12,000 troops, Kandahar Air Base now supports 30,000 or more NATO and U.S. personnel. Some do battle in the inhospitable terrain of the surrounding region, while others have never been outside the wire and wile away their time in the base’s cafes and small shops (where troops reportedly can buy, among other items, belly dancer costumes), party in the "Dutch corner," play roller hockey in the base’s central square, or dance the night away at a Saturday rave. "They are shaking glowsticks as if they have no concept of the mines and the war outside," said one U.S. officer, watching troops on the dance floor.

In recent days, U.S. forces announced a decrease in recreational perks and an imposition of more austere circumstances — salsa and karaoke nights have already been cut at Kandahar — prompting worries by NATO allies that their recreational facilities will be overrun by entertainment-starved U.S. troops.
A Mob of FOBs

It seems that no one outside the Pentagon knows just exactly how many U.S. camps, forward operating bases, combat outposts, patrol bases and other fortified sites the U.S. military is currently using or constructing in Afghanistan. And while the Americans have recently abandoned a few of their installations, effectively ceding the northeastern province of Nuristan to Taliban forces, elsewhere a base-building boom has been underway.

In April, Contrack was awarded another $28 million contract for work on airfields — to be performed at unspecified sites in Afghanistan.

In June, Florida-based IAP Worldwide Services was awarded a $21 million contract to enhance electrical power distribution at the U.S. Marines’ still-growing Forward Operating Base (FOB) Leatherneck in Helmand Province, a Taliban stronghold. Scheduled for completion in June 2010, that project is only part of IAP’s work, which has involved "almost two dozen power plants at U.S. Army bases in Afghanistan and Iraq" that, according to the company’s promotional literature, its teams have "delivered, installed, operated and maintained."

FOB Dwyer, also in Helmand Province, is fast becoming a "hub" for air support in southern Afghanistan, according to Captain Vincent Rea of the Air Force’s 809th Expeditionary Red Horse Squadron. To that end, Marine Corps and Air Force personnel are building runways and helipads to accommodate ever more fixed-wing and rotary aircraft on the base. The two services collaborated on the construction of a 4,300-foot airstrip capable of accommodating giant C-130 Hercules transport aircraft that increase the U.S. capability to support more troops on more bases in more remote areas.

"With the C-130s coming in more frequently, more Marines can travel at a given time and will definitely help Camp Dwyer and other FOBs and COPs (Combat Outposts) to build up," says Capt. Alexander Lugo-Velazquez of Marine Light/Attack Helicopter Squadron 169.

In September, the Air Force reported the completion of the first phase of a six-phase construction project at FOB Dwyer which will eventually include additional fuel pits and taxiways, increased tarmac space, and the lengthening of the runway to 6,000 feet.

In October, according to government documents, the Army also began soliciting bids — in the $10-$25 million range — for construction of fuel storage and distribution facilities at FOB Dwyer. These, like the infrastructure upgrades at Bagram, are not scheduled to be completed until sometime in 2011.

In Helmand, as well as Farah, Kandahar, and Nimruz provinces, between June and September the Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan alone established four new forward operating bases, "10 combat outposts, six patrol bases, and four ancillary operating positions, helicopter landing zones and an expeditionary airfield."

In October, defense contractor AECOM Technology signed a $78 million, 6-month extension contract with the Army to "provide general-support maintenance as well as the operation of maintenance facilities, living quarters and offices at two U.S. military bases as well as forward operating bases and satellite locations" in Afghanistan.

Defense contracting giant Fluor has also been hard at work landing lucrative deals in Afghanistan. In March, the Army reported that, in accordance with President Obama’s spring surge of troops, Regional Command East in Afghanistan had tasked Fluor to expand four existing forward operating bases and, if need be, build another eight new ones.

In Regional Command South, it was reported that "[e]mergency work to expand eight FOBs [wa]s underway after being competitively awarded to Fluor under LOGCAP IV." This is the current version of a military program first instituted by the Pentagon in 1985. It has been the key means by which military logistics and supply functions have been turned over to private contractors. (The previous version of the program, LOGCAP III, was awarded solely to Kellogg, Brown and Root Services or KBR, then a division of the oil services giant Halliburton, primarily in support of U.S. operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait and was plagued by scandals.)

In Afghanistan, companies like Fluor are clearly digging in. Fluor, in fact, describes itself as "co-located with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, where the team coordinates, provides oversight, and implements Fluor’s execution plan to provide the necessary resources and labor to accomplish this mission" of "providing multi-functional base life support and combat services support (CSS) to the U.S. and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan."

The company is "simultaneously constructing and managing the expansion of eight Forward Operating Bases[...] in Southern Afghanistan. This includes the construction of an FOB to accommodate 17,000 to 20,000 U.S. Military personnel." Fluor, no doubt, expects to be "co-located with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan" for a long time. In July 2009, the defense giant was awarded a $1.5 billion contract for LOGCAP IV services in Afghanistan; in October, the Army reported that the LOGCAP program was responsible for erecting 6,020 units of containerized housing known as relocatable buildings or RLBs in Regional Command South.

In July, under an existing LOGCAP IV contract, scandal-tainted defense contractor DynCorp International, along with partners CH2M Hill and Taos Industries, received a one year $643.5 million order to "provide existing bases within the Afghanistan South AOR [area of responsibility] with operations and maintenance support, including but not limited to: facilities management, electrical power, water, sewage and waste management, laundry operations, food services and transportation motor pool operations," as well as "construction services for additional sites." With an eye to the future, the Pentagon has included four one-year options in the contract which, if taken up, would be worth an estimated $5.8 billion.

Just recently, the Australian military indicated it was also digging in for a long stay, announcing a $37 million upgrade of its main base near Tarin Kowt in Oruzgan province, to be completed by mid-2011. As at other NATO facilities, increasing numbers of U.S. troops have been operating out of Tarin Kowt recently and, in late September, the U.S.-based company Kandahar Constructors signed a $25 million deal with the Pentagon for runway upgrades there, also to be completed in 2011.

Speaking the Language of Occupation

In 2009 alone, after many billions of dollars had already gone into the construction, expansion, and maintenance of U.S. bases in Afghanistan, American taxpayers were called upon to pay for more than $1 billion in construction contracts — and based on the evidence at hand, including those future options, this may prove just a drop in the proverbial bucket.


The building and fortifying of bases in Afghanistan isn’t the only sign that the U.S. military is digging in for an even longer haul. Another key indicator can be found in a Pentagon contract awarded in late September to SOS International, Ltd., a privately owned "operations support company" that provides everything from "cultural advisory services" to "intelligence and counterintelligence analysis and training" to numerous federal agencies. That contract, primarily for linguistic services in support of military operations in Afghanistan, has an estimated completion date of September 2014.

Nick Turse is the associate editor of TomDispatch.com and the winner of a 2009 Ridenhour Prize for Reportorial Distinction as well as a James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Nation, In These Times, and regularly at TomDispatch. Turse is currently a fellow at New York University’s Center for the United States and the Cold War. A paperback edition of his book The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives (Metropolitan Books) was published earlier this year. His website is NickTurse.com.
Copyright 2009 Nick Turse
Read more by Tom Engelhardt
• Too Big to Fail? – November 1st, 2009
• Why Obama’s Iran Policy Will Fail – October 29th, 2009
• The Great Superpower Meltdown – October 26th, 2009
• Obama’s Choice – October 22nd, 2009
• Three Cheers for the War Dividend – October 20th, 2009

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Monday, November 23, 2009

Nobody's Perfect: Levi Johnson

Nobody's Perfect:
Levi Johnson

"President" Obama has been on this list just too many times in the last month and I'm getting bored with him...so since Thanksgiving is coming up, I'd thought a change was due.

So, here's the "Hollywood Joe" that gets the Nobody's Perfect award for this week...and why?

BECAUSE of this quote: "I don't want to look like as if I'm someone who is getting naked for fame."

So he poses for Playgirl?

Yeah, nakedness is not something you would see there. Good going Levi.

So, if he's not getting naked for fame...then what's the reason? Can we say he is getting naked to embarrasses his mother-in-law? Is he getting naked for...money? Is he getting naked for Elton John?

He doesn't want to "look?" What...does he want to be remembered for his outstanding philosophical musings? I'm confused.

Playgirl is sold mostly to "gay" men. I'd say God jumped in just in time to save Bristol, but that's me. (He does that kind of stuff alot)

If a guy doesn't think he's naked when he's standing in the shower, then he probably doesn't bathe much.

Levi, may I also add, must not be perfect in other areas either, for rumor has it, he covers up. All we can do is imagine that the reason for this is because of...his imperfections.

I'm just saying.

I'm just thankful he's not in my family...and although there were many worse villians in the fold this week...we all needed a break---from me. I COULD have written a LOT about this guy, and what a scum he is...but why?

You're welcome!

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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Nobody Reports on a Monday: THE Star


Nobody Reports on a Monday:
Here it is--the star you have all been waiting for.
You know that moment when you start putting up your Chrismas decorations, and you and your neighbor try to out do each other every year?
Well...top this.
This 550 pounds Swaravski crystar star is going on top of the Rockefellar Center Chrsitmas tree...very soon.
The girl on the side is going to put it there---at least, she would if she lived in MY neighborhhood.
I don't know about you, but...I'm tempted to fly to New York just to see the tree. I think we can all agree, New York deserves it.
(see more info here)

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