Canadian troops raid a Taliban compound at dawn in Afghanistan, video by
embedded journalist Scott Kesterson.
** PING PONGING AROUND THE WORLD. After the New York stock exchange followed the Chinese market in a plunge, the Nikkei average in Tokyo plunged over 700 points upon opening.
** TALIBAN EMBARRASS DICK CHENEY. The Taliban released a statement saying that today’s suicide bombing at the massive former Soviet Bagram air base in Afghanistan was targeted at Vice President Dick Cheney. The truth is, the bomber never really got close to Cheney. The earth-bound kamikaze detonated his explosives at the first checkpoint, a few concentric circles of security away from the VP. Nevertheless, the act caused Cheney to hurry into a bomb shelter, and caused a system-wide “red alert” on what is the largest military base in Central Asia. The attack also killed 23 members of coalition forces, including two Americans.
** SAN FRANCISCO’S “BLOOD ALLEY” APPROACH TO THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE NEEDS SOME BOND MONEY. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom held a press conference this morning at the former Army helicopter base in the Presidio to publicize the need for more Big Bang Bonds infrastructure money from the California Transportation Commission for safety improvements to the Doyle Drive approach to the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s very picturesque, it’s narrow, it’s from the 1950s, and it’s dangerous.
When LA officials screamed last week about insufficient funding coming from last year’s infrastructure package to deal with traffic congestion, they got some action. It didn’t hurt that the screaming was coming from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s friends, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who were quite helpful to him in the election last year. Newsom, who played more of the Democratic game backing the ill-fated nominee, Phil Angelides, is friendly with the governor but not nearly so helpful. But the Doyle Drive problem is very real. I’ve driven it a lot heading to the Golden Gate, and it is dangerous. The governor doesn’t drive much in San Francisco, of course. In fact, he doesn’t drive much anywhere. So he doesn’t have the first hand experience. Hopefully, the message gets through.
** EARLY CALIFORNIA PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY MOVING FORWARD. The early California presidential primary moved forward through the process again yesterday, passing the state Assembly Appropriations Committee on an 11-5 party-line vote. After zipping throught the Senate earlier on a 31-5 vote with heavy bipartisan support, it’s slowed down some in the Assembly, where there is more opposition among the more conservative Assembly Republican Caucusc, which doesn’t like to spend money and fears various nefarious scenarios which might occur in the context of an early presidential primary. (Too numerous and arcane to go into in the course of a short item, though they are not uncredible.) But top Assembly Republican leaders tell NWN on background that the bill will pass.
** U.S. TO FORMALLY MEET WITH IRAN AND SYRIA AS PART OF REGIONAL STABILIZATION TALKS ON IRAQ. According to the Washington Post, and to no surprise here, given the many reports of “back channel” discussions passed on here on NWN, the US is slated to meet in March with Iran and Syria in the context of regional discussions to stabilize the mess in Iraq.
** MAIN U.S. BASE IN AFGHANISTAN ATTACKED DURING CHENEY VISIT. An apparent Taliban suicide bomber attacked the main US base in Afghanistan, the former Soviet Bagram air base, during a visit there by Vice President Dick Cheney, killing from 14 to 23 individuals, whose nationalities are not yet entirely known, or at least reported.
The resurgent Taliban chose an opportune moment, with the visit of Cheney, leading warhawk vis a vis Iraq and Iran in the US government, to remind that the swiftly achieved US victory in Afgthanistan is in danger of unraveling. Some Afghans are not unmindful of the fact that the US has actually won not one but two wars in Afghanistan in the last 20 years. The first being the war that may well have shattered the Soviet Union, the covert war successfullly rolling back the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Islamic jihadists are particularly loathe to acknowledge the central role of the US in defeating the Soviets in Afghanistan.
Cheney, who reportedly took little note of the massive deadly blast going off in his vicinity, served as US secretary of defense in the administration of the current president’s father but never wore the uniform himself, receiving a series of deferments and telling the Washington Post in 1989: “I had other priorities in the ’60s than military service.”
** Monitor computer memory prices on a daily basis. Prices are relatively stable.
** Track global and national energy prices on a near real time basis via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices are in the $59 to $60 per barrel range. Fears of an attack on Iran disrupting the oil markets have subsided, for the moment.
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On Romney, it is not easy to see him beating any Democrat next year.
Will do Barbara!
I won’t Mr. Bradley …I am going to try to keep everything in perpective! ….but it is REALLY interesting!!!
Thank You Carole!!!!
What on earth happened to the stock market?
I would love to watch a video of Cheney scuttling into a bomb shelter.
well I did not want to be chicken little yesterday but this was predictable…
just look at it as a good time to buy….
from yesterday:Hedge Funds have gotten caught up in this sub-prime loan mess thru mortgage backed securities…which is not good because Hedge Funds help make the Global Econ go round and round”
God knows what is going on in China…it is not if China will crash …it is when
I imagine it’s been said before but I would like to take note of the fact that virtually NONE of the neocons who invented this war have ever served in combat and only ONE ever served in uniform.
With that said, I would like to pose to the group a trivia question:
Can anyone tell me which of the following neo-cons ever served in uniform? Was it Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rumsfeld or Hadley or
The winner gets a cement bicycle and a week’s vacation at the Green Zone Spa in beautiful downtown Baghdad.
CADTS – I believe the Mike Royko term, “war wimps” is the preferred moniker on this site.
If I recall correctly I think Rumsfeld served in the Air Force?
Rumsfeld was a naval aviator.
Hap and BB are the lucky winners….
Therefore, you have your choice of prizes…who wants the Spa Vacation?
How many times did Rumsfeld crash? lol
All this talk of Rummy reminds me of Robert McNamara. Did you know he entered the Army Air Corps as Captain, leaving as Lt Colonel during WWII.
Will McNamara and Rumsfeld become the bizzaro universe’s answer to Kennedy and Lincoln? I heard that McNamara’s and Runsfeld’s secretaries had the same golf handicap…
Well, ah, actually, the Air Force is not the Navy, CADTS. Now we know you really are a Democrat.
This globe-straddling stock market decline is most worrisome.
Used to be that folks parked money in the Pound or the Dollar or the DOW. Now portfolios are heavily divested by geography, but heavy on stocks, so these “corrections” bounce from market-to-market now.
I’m a bear at heart, but I think that the bulls will be bargain hunting shortly. Look at the intraday trading trends — it may already be happening. If you’re shorting, get out now and don’t get greedy.
I just read very interesting analysis which asserts that what happened in China was an ” engineered drop” (“In January the number of total traders on the exchanges grew by 1.38 million an increase of 134 percent from a MONTH before while turnover was up 700 percent from a year earlier”!!!!) Of course, this is an absurd surge…..the fundamnetals are not there in their banking or economy and now there is a great deal of corruption …So in order to drive down speculative investing, yesterday the government created a “special task force” with the task of impeding speculation …the problem is their cure started a global meltdown!…the rest of the world did not care WHY they did it …just that it happened! which made many nervous…today we did not set the “global trade tone” like usual …China led the rest of Asia into a disasterous day, margin calls ensued, Europe followed then US!
This report claims rocky days ahead for the 3 reasons below:
1.That China will do this again as it needs “to dampen” its market and it is going to do what is best for China, the heck with the rest of the world 2. After people catch their breath an think about why China did it and that China was not particularly worried about the rest of the world that will make people wake up in the mornings with one th one idea in their head i.e., ” sell!”
3.”trading in 800 of the 1,400 stocks on the Shanghai exchange was suspended during the sudden drops [today], they have a lot farther to fall, even without any engineered drops caused by panicky selling”
I am so glad I sold yesterday…after I saw that Bloomberg report and read about the “task force” and looked at a few other things …so I almost have a year of living and studying in Europe financed!…and I shall be looking to buy tomorrow!
OH THOSE CROSSCUTS!!!
BB, I believe the question was….”Can anyone tell me which of the following neo-cons ever served in uniform?”
Where he served was not relevant…
And I am not sad to say, I voted for Arnold.
Cheney was in the permanet student/marriage/having a kid NOW brigade.
Of course you’re a Democrat, CADTS. So what if you voted for Arnold? A lot of Democrats I know who know Phil Angelides did the same thing.
Air Force does not equal Navy.