Just to let you know that I'm now a contributor on the Palestinian Pundit as well, and part of the team composed of Tony Sayegh, Molly and Zarathustra. Needless to say that I feel honored that they, having asked me to join them, deemed worthy any input from my part at all..This, in no way, is going to impact negatively on this blog, rather the opposite! I'm very excited about the prospect. The two blogs will be complementing each other, no doubt about it. For me it feels like this blog has made a step forward in linking, via Molly and I, to a valuable source like the PP. Besides, I always felt some type of kinship between the two anyway, but today it feels more so..A bit like ..family.
Needless to say that your comments on the PP as well are most welcome of course! Yasmin and VAA are already doing just that.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Congratulations, Tgia!
ReplyDeleteHeyyy! Welcome back vza!! We missed you (no really!)!! How have you been?
ReplyDelete<span>We missed you (no really!)!</span>
ReplyDeleteHa ha. Right.
I'm very busy, Tgia. I am knee deep into a project and must be very disciplined. But I have been reading your posts!
Congratulations! I'll head over there and annoy y'all soon 8-)
ReplyDeleteSome breaking news:
ReplyDelete<p>The UN Security Council is set to discuss whether to hold an emergency session on the Goldstone report on the conflict in Gaza nine months ago.
<p>
Libya, the only Arab state on the 15-member body, will request the session in a closed-door meeting.
Palestinian officials voiced their "full support" for the meeting - after leaders were excoriated for requesting a deferral of a UN debate last week.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8294880.stm
Thanks DO for this. I'll make it a post tomorrow. It's very late now and am going to bed..
ReplyDeletePlease do come and "annoy" us over there! We'd love it!
http://www.youtube.com/v/CBi9iLspoRc&feature
ReplyDeleteThe banking sector’s assets shrunk by about $300 billion per quarter in the first half of 2009, a sign of banks hoarding cash in anticipation of additional future losses, according to Whalen. “The real economy is shrinking because of a lack of credit.” The shrinkage will continue into 2010, Whalen predicts, suggesting the banking sector hasn’t yet seen the peak in loan losses. Institutional Risk Analytics forecasts the FDIC will ultimately need $300 billion to $400 billion to recoup losses to its bank insurance fund.
ReplyDeleteMara, I think another leg down in the financial crisis is coming, even though the worst seems to have been averted.
ReplyDeleteDO (Diamond Offshore) recently issued a 5.7% coupon 30 year bond:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Diamond-Offshore-Drilling-Inc-bw-3617563730.html?x=0&.v=1
This suggests that the credit markets have significantly opened up . . . for now.
TGIA, PP is honored to have you. Truth be told you are the star of this blog and that one. Yasmin does contribute quite a bit now, which is good. VAA and Mara make good comments. VAA is okay, but oh la la that temper.
V, gotta love V. Flemming . . . needs some help. I actually get along ok with the Michael Savage types. Flemming thinks he is one of them in his mind . . . which is why he needs some help.
TGIA et all, could you post and discuss code pink reconsidering withdrawal from Afghanistan?:
ReplyDeletehttp://iraqimojo.blogspot.com/2009/10/code-pink-rethinks-its-call-for.html
Code Pink to my very pleasant surprise will "advocate for more funding for aid and humanitarian projects" for Afghanistan. Go Code PINK!!!
I have run some spreadsheets on Afghanistan. I think the Afghans will need $250 billion in international grants over the next 20 years to:
1) win the war (refering the the $120 billion I think the ANSF will need to win) ANSF = Afghan National Security Forces
2) increase Afghan GDP sufficiently to reach per capita tax revenue of $150/year. I think Afghanistan needs this to even begin to approach balancing their budget 20 years from now. I think $130 billion in economic grants will be needed to achieve this.
In addition, to the $250 billion in international grants (much funded by countries other than the States), Afghanistan will also need:
1) A civilian surge of tens of thousands of foreigners (many being Chinese, Indian, other Asian, European, North American)
2) Tens of thousands of trainers for the ANSF (these would teach ANSF and not be embedded mentors)
3) Tens of thousands of embedded advisors and mentors that super embed inside the ANSF (realize that this is contravertial with those who believe that police and armies should never use violence no matter what; such as the Gandhians)
It looks like Code Pink agrees with this position more or less.
There are some Gandhian types who believe that the ANA and ANP should volutarily disarm and practice sathya graha to inpire Al Qaeda and the Taliban to transform themselves into the good people they truly are deep inside. I deeply respect these people.
It just might be "showdown" time in my neighborhood:
ReplyDeleteTop commonwealth [of Puerto Rico] officials said Tuesday that protesters who block ports during next week’s general strike would be breaking federal anti-terrorism laws. The warnings came following comments by Truckers Front leader Víctor Rodríguez, who said that no products, including food and gasoline, would be allowed to be transported through island ports during next week’s general strike. “Nobody, nothing will leave,” he said. “Not water, not gasoline, not any supplies.” Police Superintendent José Figueroa Sancha said Rodríguez expressions alone were sufficient for federal authorities to begin an investigation. Meanwhile, La Fortaleza Chief of Staff Marcos Rodríguez-Ema said, “this administration will not tolerate terrorist acts. “This is heading toward anarchy, toward past acts of sabotage,” Rodríguez-Ema said of Rodríguez’ comments.
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Top Hamas leader Ismail Haniya has not commented publicly on the losses to tunnel investors. </span>
ReplyDelete<p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“There is no transparency, no public records, no regulators, none of the mechanisms that would let you trace what happened to all the money that people invested in the tunnels,” said Samir Abdullah, the Palestinian Authority’s former planning minister. “The smugglers provide essential revenue for Hamas.” </span>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Hamas isn’t offering enough to cover losses, said Ghabin, 43, whose husband is blind and who has five children. She blames Hamas for encouraging the investments. </span>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“The imam told us that we wouldn’t regret joining this blessed business,” she said in her apartment in an unfinished 12-story high-rise overlooking the Mediterranean as her husband played the lute. “This happened in mosques all over Gaza.” </span>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Support for Hamas has fallen amid dissatisfaction over its stewardship of Gaza, where the United Nations estimates that three-quarters of the population has insufficient food and more than 40 percent are unemployed. </span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A poll published Aug. 17 by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research said Hamas would get 28 percent of the vote if an election were held, down from 33 percent three months earlier. Rival Fatah’s support rose to 44 percent from 41 percent in the same period, according to the survey of 1,270 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The margin of error was 3 percent. </span>
ReplyDelete<p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> Holding Hamas ‘Responsible’ </span>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“You can feel the frustration because thousands of families lost their money and they hold Hamas responsible,” Pal-Think’s Shaban said. </span>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the absence of formal records of transactions, Shaban based his “educated-guess” estimate of losses to investors of $300 million to $500 million on professional contacts as well as friends and relatives who lost money. He himself did not invest. </span>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Digging and operating a tunnel, typically about 50 feet (15 meters) deep and 250 feet long, costs as much as $100,000, according to Shaban. </span>
TGIA, VAA, V, VZA, Mara, Molly et all, why is Fatah so popular (44% versus 28% for Hamas)?
ReplyDeleteI get why Hamas' popularity has fallen. They are corrupt thugs more interested in fighting Fatah than serving Palestinians or uniting Palestiine to stand up for Palestinian rights with respect to Israel.
However, couldn't you say almost the exact same thing about Fatah as Hamas. Aren't they both really carbon copies of each other with a partisan divide between them?
Why are Palestinians backing Hammas and Abu Mazen? Why don't Palestinians dump both the Hamas and Fatah goons, and support a real patriotic wise leader such as Mustafa Barghouti?