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Dec 18 2010
Democratic Congressman Says “Fuck the President” During Caucus
From Roll Call…
The frustration with President Barack Obama over his tax cut compromise was palpable and even profane at Thursday’s House Democratic Caucus meeting.
One unidentified lawmaker went so far as to mutter “f— the president” while Rep. Shelley Berkley was defending the package the president negotiated with Republicans. Berkley confirmed the incident, although she declined to name the specific lawmaker.
Not in private. Not off the record. Not in a bar.
In the full Caucus of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives.
Dec 18 2010
Dari Phrasebook for Americans in Afghanistan
Me bakhshi!
Excuse me!
Nafahmedum.
I don’t understand.
Sharmanda!
I’m sorry!
Mefaamom ke da Afghaanestaan amneyat ney-s.
I know there is no security in Afghanistan.
Ke khana borom.
I want to go home.
Khoda hafiz!
May God protect you!
Ba amone Khuda.
Goodbye.
Dec 17 2010
Women’s Work
A Baluchi rug from Nimruz Province, Afghanistan
“But the longer I stayed, the less consistent the answers became. Yesterday’s Aimaq could be today’s Taimani. I mention all this as a way of explaining how very difficult it is to get a clear understanding of rug weaving in Afghanistan. There are still plenty of real Turkoman and Baluch to talk to – and real work to be done, perhaps by Western women with language skills. Weaving is part of the womens’ world and men will always be outsiders.”
-Jerry Anderson
Dec 14 2010
Selling Children For US “Success” in Laghman Province
Nine-year-old Khalida Shah was eventually sold in Jalalabad, but her transformation into collateral began in Laghman Province, where her father pledged his poppy crop for a $2000 loan, and when those poppies were eradicated in a successful episode of America’s unending War on Drugs, Khalida became a “bride” of the 45-year-old creditor.
“It’s my fate,” the child says.
Dec 13 2010
“Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.”
Forward loading bay of a C-5B at “Camp Marmalade” in Mazar-i Sharif
The city of Mazar-i Sharif was created because a local mullah dreamed that the first Shia Imam was buried there, and after another weird quirk of fate, more than 5000 NATO soldiers are now stationed at nearby Camp Marmalade.
Aircraft based at Camp Marmalade provide close air support for NATO operations all over northern Afghanistan, like the airstrike which killed ten people in Takhar Province on September 2, 2010.
President Hamid Karzai said the victims were campaign workers seeking votes in this month’s parliamentary elections.
Earlier, Takhar Gov. Abdul Jabar Taqwa said the car in which candidate Abdul Wahid Khorasani had been riding was fired on by helicopters following an initial pass by fighter jets. He called the incident an obvious mistake, saying there were no Uzbek militants, foreigners or members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in the convoy.
“There aren’t even any Taliban in this area,” Taqwa said. “They were all working on Mr. Khorasani’s campaign.”
NATO predictably denied all charges even from its own allies in Takhar Province.
After careful planning to ensure no civilians were present, coalition aircraft conducted a precision airstrike on one sedan and later followed with direct fire from an aerial platform. The vehicle was traveling as part of a six-car convoy, but no other vehicles were hit in the strike,” the military said.
But instead of issuing yet another absurd contradiction of all local authorities every time we kill another crowd of civilians, wouldn’t it be better if the United States simply proclaimed the fundamental principle of the American occupation of Afghanistan once and for all?
“Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.”
Dec 11 2010
Goat-Grabbing in Samangan Province, Afghanistan
The sport of Buzkashi consists of grabbing the carcass of a goat off the ground while you ride at high speed in a stampede of 40 or 50 horses and riders, and then depositing the carcass across a finish line in the “Circle of Justice” while all the other riders try to knock you off your horse.
This is an image of the American “mission” in Afghanistan.
Dec 11 2010
David Sirota’s Distant Early Warning About Obama
As far as I know, the very first writer who really nailed Obama was David Sirota, in October, 2007, when he was virtually the only reporter who picked up an item from MSNBC about Obama endorsing FTA-Peru, even though 4,000,000 Peruvian farmers and workers had gone out on a general strike against it, and the “labor and environmental standards” which Obama celebrated were obviously bogus.
And Sirota also reminded dozing progressives and liberals that Obama had been “the keynote speaker at the launch of the Hamilton Project — a Wall Street front group working to drive a wedge between Democrats and organized labor on globalization issues.”
So David Sirota did his due diligence, while the rest of the media recited horse-race trivia from the polls, and here we are.
Dec 10 2010
Work and Play in Sar-e Pol Province, Afghanistan
What kind of game are these idiots supposed to be playing?
Nobody knows, and on the original tablet (circa 3000 BCE) in Sar-e Pol Province, Afghanistan, an inscription only explains that “Anubanni the Great and Mighty King of Lullubia carved himself and the Goddess Ninni on Mount Badir, and if anyone defaces this tablet, may Anum and Anat, Enkit and Belkit, Adad and Ninni, Sin and Shamas kill and curse him.”
It would be an understatement to say that nobody knows much about the Lullubians and their kings, and after describing a lot of scholarly speculation, the Encyclopedia Iranica admits that “It is impossible to indicate the boundaries of the land of the Lullubians.”
So all we really know about Anubanni the Great and Mighty King of Lullubia is that he carved himself a ridiculous monument once upon a time and vanished, and many another king and kingdom likewise in the very old world of Afghanistan, but for hard-working children on the streets of Sar-e Pol City, how much has changed in the last 5000 years?
Dec 08 2010
An Image of Islam
Sheikh Lotf Allah Mosque, Isfahan, Iran
Two gangs of imbecile boys are apparently planning some kind of rumble in the vicinity of Isfahan and other sites in Iran, so it’s probably time for the grown-ups in Iran and America to take charge, before the imbecile boys break something that they can’t fix.
Dec 08 2010
Souls of Pigs and Wolves in the Bodies of Men
Glenn Beck now proclaims the decline and fall of America on exactly the same trajectory as the early Roman Empire, but he missed the most salient parallel.
Souls of pigs and wolves in the bodies of men.