spoiled sausage breakfast sandwich

Too Little, too late...

Students renew protest in Iran.
Beef recall expanded in several states.
Family of Amanda Knox are outraged that justice has been served to a convicted murderer. By foreigners. Roman Polanski remains abroad.

All the irritating facts of "ClimateGate" inspire knee-jerk rhetoric on both sides. Luckily, we have the smart and selfless people of the upcoming Climate Summit to tell us what's really up.

It's official, car exhaust is bad for you. Verdict is still out on cell phone radiation though.

We're broke. Far unspeakably beyond the concept normally imparted by the phrase "broke." And today we're starting the Surge in Afghanistan, mobilizing the entire stateside Marine Corp. And, not that it's new or surprising in any way, but what the hell is this.
"Some of the items that commanders may now leave behind [in Iraq], including passenger vehicles and generators, are among what commanders in Afghanistan need most urgently, according to Pentagon memos. "

Iraq's state military, now independently operating under it's own sovereign government, is notorious for selling equipment exactly like this or anything given them into the black market.
"Every type of gun that the Americans give comes to the market,” said Brig. Hassan Nouri, chief of the political investigations bureau for the Sulaimaniya district. “They go from the U.S. Army to the Iraqi Army to the smugglers."

So. We're leaving behind valuable, much needed equipment so that it can be sold directly into the hands of drug dealing warlords and a manipulated populace of suicidal zealots who will in turn employ it against our own troops, peace-keeping or otherwise. Fascinating. I'm sure this is more efficient in some way for somebody, but it ain't us.

Meanwhile, in exciting Afghanistan, the poorest goddam country in the world, $10 million sweet black market dollars in cash is smuggled out every day. Through the airport. On planes. Mostly for heroin. Our Heroin. Keep in mind that that much cash in one place, in say, $10 bills, would weigh 220.5 pounds and would make a continuous stack almost 36 feet tall, or it could be rearranged into a cube with 18-foot sides. I guess it's as easy to move that much drug money through an occupied militarized zone as it is to waltz through a secret service attachment at a formal state event.

Speaking of Heroin, our boy Karzai, newly elected in Afghanistan's first act of what we are told was democracy, completely denies, in feigned ignorance or diplomatic assurance of place, the recently revealed records indicating that his brother is The Major Player in moving all that poppy blossom powder around. Also unsurprising is the footnote that he did and does so while on the CIA payroll, has been for quite awhile.

"Ahmed Wali Karzai told the Times that he cooperates with American civilian and military officials but does not engage in the drug trade and does not receive payments from the CIA.
Karzai helps the CIA operate a paramilitary group, the Kandahar Strike Force, that is used for raids against suspected insurgents and terrorists, according to several American officials. Karzai also is paid for allowing the CIA and American Special Operations troops to rent a large compound outside the city, which also is the base of the Kandahar Strike Force, the Times said.
Karzai also helps the CIA communicate with and sometimes meet with Afghans loyal to the Taliban, the newspaper reported.
CIA spokesman George Little declined to comment on the report."

Of course, it gets confusing for everybody. If it was simple there would be a solution. But it's not, so there isn't.