The Watercooler for 11/06/09 5:00 PM

A tad more complicated then normally dsicussed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/will-marshall/the-talibans-ties-to-al-q_b_348584.html

[snip]
What this suggests, of course, is that a Taliban restoration in Afghanistan could easily lead to al-Qaeda's return. It also means, according to Elias, that the Taliban probably can't be split or co-opted the way Sunni insurgents in Iraq were.

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A lot of 4GW experts state that making a better deal with the Taliban to give up bin Laden is the preferred method. This may not work.

Another article indicates that as long as the opium money flows, the Taliban has enough cash to buy weapons and continue to survive. Perhaps McChrystal is right to insist we need to ramp up the troops to allow help and protect the NGOs.

Perhaps it is more then us being there that triggers anger. It may be our non-muslimism culture; or our disdain for any cultures other then our own.

The question is as always; What is the Grand Strategy?

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29132.html

The White House continued its fence-mending with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday — very quietly — dispatching Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to speak to the group’s board of directors.

But the White House didn’t widely publicize the session, and Emanuel’s remarks were off the record.

The speech represented an olive branch of sorts to the business group, of which the White House has been harshly critical in recent weeks. Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett denounced the group as “old school” and said the White House was going around it to work directly with CEOs....

excerpted, see link for full article.

Art Garfunkel used to sing a song with these lines:

Endings always come at last,
Endings always come too fast,
They come too fast,
And they pass too slow,
I love you
And that's all I know.

*******************

I love you, Anni, and I miss you and your letters...and your Friday afternoon music trivia questions.

This Hasan attack is going in a direction that makes me increasingly uncomfortable.  All of a sudden, the fact that he's a Muslim is given a lot of press...and that he yelled Allah Ak-bar when he started shooting.  Is that even true?

What if this is twisted by our craven critters/media to be like a false flag, riling up the already scared Americans about the *evils* of Muslims, thereby justifying continued and escalating wars?

This killing of our soldiers comes at a very convenient time, doesn't it?  The people are against more war, Obama is in the process of making a decision, the military is yelling BOO as usual and wanting to invade everybody. 

In politics, big things are timed to coincide with other big or bigger things.  I'm paranoid and skeptical and admit it.

If this is used to add more troops...........:-(

Hoh is coming on on Hardball.

Sensationalism is often blamed for the 'infotainment style' of many of the news programs broadcast over radio and television. Yet the news has always been enjoyed for as long as it has been exchanged (Stephens, 2006:15). The debate of sensationalism used in the mass medium of broadcasting is based on a misunderstanding of its audience, especially the television audience. Thompson (1999) explains that the term 'mass' which is connected to broadcasting, suggests a 'vast audience of many thousands, even millions of passive individuals'. When sensationalism used through broadcasting is combined with this concept of the passive mass audience, it is assumed the audience consumes all information fed to them. However Thompson continues that the recipients of a message, no matter how sensationalized it is, ' make with it what they will, and the producer is not there to elaborate or to correct possible misunderstanding' (1999:195). Thus it is the misinterpretation of the broadcast audience as passive consumers which is problematic for the use of sensationalism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensationalism

-excerpted-

- cont.- excerpted.

Further more, while the newspaper is often seen as a more credible source than television news because of televisions use of footage over spoken information; they are both sensationalized to the same extent. Television news is restricted to showing the scenes of crimes rather than the crime itself because of the unpredictability of events. Whereas newspaper writers can always recall what they did not witness. "No act of violence is beyond the reach of the still formidable magic of words" (Stephens, 2006:280). Furthermore, television news writers have room for fewer words than their newspaper counterparts. Their stories are measured in seconds, not column inches and thus even with footage, television stories are undeniably shallower than most newspaper stories. And because their words are intended for a less acute, less painstaking sense — hearing — television news writers must forswear the more complex formulations a newspaper reporter might hazard (Stephes, 2007: 281).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensationalism

I just discovered last week that my "Silver Sneaker" Kaiser health plan includes a free membership in a health club.  Yes!  I swam and sat in the jacuzzi today. 

There are bennies to getting older.  I thought of one last year too.  :-)

That's about as nasty and cynical a thing to say as I've ever seen.  Half of his family *is* Muslim. . . .

Do you *ever* listen to what you say?

Yes, I'm cynical about war-mongers in our gov't and what they might do with this tragedy.

Nasty?  Not a chance.  I'm a sweetheart.  :-)

The inspiring account of one man's campaign to build schools in the most dangerous, remote, and anti-American reaches of Asia

In 1993 Greg Mortenson was the exhausted survivor of a failed attempt to ascend K2, an American climbing bum wandering emaciated and lost through Pakistan's Karakoram Himalaya. After he was taken in and nursed back to health by the people of an impoverished Pakistani village, Mortenson promised to return one day and build them a school. From that rash, earnest promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time—Greg Mortenson's one-man mission to counteract extremism by building schools, especially for girls, throughout the breeding ground of the Taliban.

Award-winning journalist David Oliver Relin has collaborated on this spellbinding account of Mortenson's incredible accomplishments in a region where Americans are often feared and hated. In pursuit of his goal, Mortenson has survived kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, repeated death threats, and wrenching separations from his wife and children. But his success speaks for itself. At last count, his Central Asia Institute had built fifty-five schools. Three Cups of Tea is at once an unforgettable adventure and the inspiring true story of how one man really is changing the world—one school at a time.

Florez Joins Huerta In Fast For Health Care Reform http://www.turnto23.com/politics/21545343/detail.html

Virginia and New Jersey Follow Historical Pattern     Permalink

Republicans Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie won their gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, respectively. With stories spinning in all directions about the predictive value of yesterday's elections, perhaps a look at the historical record of the Virginia and New Jersey off-year elections will prove of interest. In all eight gubernatorial elections since Ronald Reagan's first term, Virginia has given the party of the incumbent President a loss. In New Jersey, the President's party has lost six gubernatorial elections in a row`. Here are the data.

Al Gore is now on Rachel show.

Ignore me.  Keeps everyone happy.

I'm simply thinking war mongers and bigots might try and use this.  If you watched Keith, it's already starting.  The nutjobs are making this about Muslims infiltrating our military.

And now off to dance.  :-)  Maybe I can dance off my

The racists will react to the Fort Hood killings but someone on DKos or Andrew Sullivan (sorry, no link) brought up Christian terrorists such as Timothy McVeigh, abortion doctor killers and of course, Hitler.  But the wingnutty racists will never see that...

Hope y'all have a good night.  I fear it will be a long one in our household.  My son's little Kitty ate a ribbon.  Rushed to Vet, etc.  No blockages but don't think this little fellow can pass this canvas ribbon on his own - he's under two pounds - just a little guy.  I feel awful since I gave it to him to play with in the first place -- just hoping we won't be taking another trip to the Vet ER in the middle of the night.  Sigh...