Comments on: Viktor Bout Arrested

By: prostratedragon

prostratedragon — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:03:42 +0000

Laura Rozen has picked up on more pressure on Iran, of a very familiar sort, although totally different from what’s been talked about here: legitimate, very above board, something against which it would be very hard to argue.

By: bigbrother

bigbrother — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:35:27 +0000

Ian Welch posted last week on FDL about a downward spiral caused by these factors.
Also as property prices decrease equity is squeezed…causing no equity securing the notes so now we have prime markets coming into play. These notes are held in investment bank portfolios that have to pony up for reserve requirements that are growing and the margin calls from borrowers (S&Ls and hedge funds.
The credit crunch has been addrressed in part by central bank issuing new greenbacks…devaluaing the dollar savings and reserves.
Carlyle is deep in the weapoms industry and is benefited by escalation of hostilities.
There is an underlying neocon strategy to bankrupt progressive government as earlofhuntingdon March 6th, 2008 at 1:45 pm 69 also points out.
Thsi is not possible without their defacto takeover of the US military so hope is Admiral Fallon stands his ground.

By: masaccio

masaccio — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:32:58 +0000

The Carlyle problem may be greater than it appears. The margin call was “only” $37 million. One of the commenters at CR says it may be beyond the mortgage backed securities (MBS), and that it looks to him like a derivatives problem. This isn’t being dismissed, and those commenters are quick to dismiss teh stupid.

By: bobschacht

bobschacht — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:45:04 +0000

“sharing power in an informed, durable way for the benefit of the governed… “

I think you have put your finger on the problem here. The Bush & Cheney regime regards “the governed” with great disdain as the unwashed masses (which includes, of course, the DFHs) which are to be manipulated for the benefit of rich white folks, i.e. their friends in Halliburton, Exxon, etc. Toadies like AGAG and Condoleeza are the modern-day servants who know their place, and who will do as they’re told.

I just hope there’s no October surprise.

Bob in HI

By: Leen

Leen — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:41:53 +0000

thanks. It is an important read. Do you think Mukasey will interfere in the upcoming Aipac/Rosen espionage trial that dare not speak its name in the MSM or in the so called “progressive” blogosphere?

By: klynn

klynn — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:14:21 +0000

Ah, the communications angle reappears…..nice pattern…Gee,. all in less than a month.

Goodness.

Leen @ 67 & 68…Thanks for the links - interesting to read…I found these too:

http://www.globalpolicy.org/in.....21bout.htm

http://www.globalpolicy.org/in.....ntagon.htm

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/s.....ry_id=3600

By: Rayne

Rayne — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:55:03 +0000

Anti-American…which is why I think this also served as nose-thumbing to Putin, although Bout’s arrest is not necessarily driven by this, likely a roll-up as GregB observed.

I’ll be curious to see what Larisa says about it.

By: klynn

klynn — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:50:45 +0000

I look forward to what you have found. Somewhere on an Ohio political blog (I’ll retrace to find it and post the link) I read something about the incredible number of FEC inquiries regarding costs because activities were listed as $0. I cannot believe the lawyer is stating, “There were no red flags..”

Righhhhhhht!

By: earlofhuntingdon

earlofhuntingdon — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:45:11 +0000

The Horton comments about Mukasey are not all original; we’ve exchanged many on these pages before, though few as well written. But Scott has come full circle. At first, he expressed hope that Mukasey would bring rational, objective legal judgment to the fetid atmosphere of the Bush DOJ, that he might open the window of a front parlor turned mortuary. He doesn’t think so any more. Mukasey may be better at applying the wax and make-up than Gonzales, but the parlor’s still a mortuary.

The long and bloody debate about the rule of law vs. the rule of kings that Scott summarizes is essentially a political argument. It is a claim that the judgment of the governed counts, not just the whim of the king. It is about sharing power in an informed, durable way for the benefit of the governed vs. having the power to abuse and torture, to take away the private as well as public lives of those who oppose them.

George Bush started his presidency wanting to fulfill the wealthy elite’s seventy year-old dream. He wanted to get all of America into a time machine and return it to a fantasy version of the 19th century Gilded Age: pre-civil rights, pre-FDR and his socialist programs, pre-Teddy Roosevelt and his trust busting regulators. Pre-income tax and pre-Union. All for me and none for thee.

Like most things George does, he didn’t get it quite right. He’s taken the clock back not a hundred years, but four hundred. To a time of religious war, divine rule and anointed successors, and constant warfare, where the only diplomacy comes from the barrel of a ship’s canon.

But we are not cargo chained between decks going wherever the ship takes us. We can start the time machine moving forward again. Let’s get a real Democrat back in the White House and more in Congress, and let’s stop George from doing any more damage until he goes.

By: Leen

Leen — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:44:46 +0000

I knew I had read an article somewhere last year about Viktor
http://www.motherjones.com/int.....-bout.html