QUOTE OF THE DAY (Thanks to John Perry Barlow)

“It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than “try to be a little kinder.”

–Aldous Huxley, novelist, philosopher, psychedelic pioneer (1894-1963)

2007 LOOKING WITHIN
ASIA REMEMBERS THE BIG WAVE
GLOBAL ECONOMY: DANGER AHEAD

At year’s end, some of us look back, others ahead while some peer within. An email from a psychiatrist got me thinking: “As a busy psychiatrist, “she wrote, “I always see cases of the holiday blues in December, but this year the depressions are more widespread, and deeper.’

Perhaps that’s because the change we want and need seems to be moving at such a glacial pace (Not like the glaciers shown disintegrating in Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth”). The force of the status quo seems unmovable. Stubborn dolts adorn the world stage, leaders who can’y themselves, much less the rest of u. Hope seems in short supply.

The war is getting worse with more deaths, chaos, and ethnic cleansing. The Democrats prevailed this year but many sound and act more Republican than the GOP. In Congress, very few of the “honorable members” have the guts to take on the power structure and are media cheerleaders. Presidential politics feels more like a ritual than a passion.

The courts are standing by their MAN and upholding Bush Law as opposed to the constitution. Economic inequality is deepening. The media is devolving….etc etc. I will spare you the litany.

If you read this blog, you are familiar with the daily details of our devolution. Hence, the collective depression, the looking for light in darkness, and the ongoing struggle to find the resolve we will need. We are not in a race but a marathon. If we are to prevail, we have to be long distance runners, patient and determined. Have faith: history happens.

IT WAS ONLY A YEAR AGO….

The danger of a new tsunami seemed to have passed yesterday after a powerful earthquake was felt off the coast of Japan setting off fears of a wave hitting the Philippines. It didn’t. Meanwhile, in Asia, Al jazeera reports:

Asia commemorates tsunami

Countries around the Indian Ocean have been marking the second anniversary of the Asian tsunami that left 230,000 people dead in 13 countries.

On the Indonesian island of Bali, although it was unaffected by the 2004 disaster, a drill was staged to demonstrate a new tsunami alert system. As sirens wailed along the beachfront, thousands of people walked briskly inland.

BIDEN WANTS TO QUIZ CONDI

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Joseph Biden, the incoming chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he has invited Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to testify during three weeks of hearings in January about the Iraq war.

Biden, a Delaware Democrat, told reporters Tuesday that the proponents of different plans for Iraq will be invited to the hearings that are to begin on January 9.

Rice has not announced whether she will appear before the committee, primarily because President Bush has not announced his plans regarding Iraq

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SADDAM’S SENTENCE UPHELD; COULD HANG IN 30 DAYS

Aljazeera reports:

An Iraqi appeals court has confirmed the guilty verdict and death sentence against Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity, according to Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national security adviser.

“The appeals court has ratified the sentence,” Judge Raed al-Juhi, a spokesman for the High Tribunal court that convicted Saddam, said on Tuesday.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AB14A91A-048E-49A8-9FCB-35DF0447F091.htm

RGHTS GROUP SAYS NO TO EXECUTION
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061226/ts_alt_afp/iraqsaddamtrialus

INDIA SAYS: DON’T HANG HIM
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1880996,0008.htm

JOHNATHAN CHAIT IN THE LA TIMES: BRING BACK SADDAM
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-chait26nov26,0,6657405.column?track=mostviewed-homepage

Juan Cole: Top Ten Myths about Iraq 2006

Myth number one is that the United States “can still win” in Iraq. Of course, the truth of this statement, frequently still made by William Kristol and other Neoconservatives, depends on what “winning” means. But if it means the establishment of a stable, pro-American, anti-Iranian government with an effective and even-handed army and police force in the near or even medium term, then the assertion is frankly ridiculous.

http://tinyurl.com/ydkn83

Mail & Guardian: Shattered Iraq limps into 2007

A shattered Iraq limps into 2007 after a year in which a bloody insurgency escalated into brutal sectarian war, forcing Washington to contemplate a major policy shift to halt total disintegration.

WILL WE USE MORE MERCENARIES NEXT?

The Boston Globe reports:

WASHINGTON — The armed forces, already struggling to meet recruiting goals, are considering expanding the number of non citizens in the ranks — including disputed proposals to open recruiting stations overseas and putting more immigrants on a faster track to US citizenship if they volunteer — according to Pentagon officials.

Foreign citizens serving in the US military is a highly charged issue, which could expose the Pentagon to criticism that it is essentially using mercenaries to defend the country. Other analysts voice concern that a large contingent of noncitizens under arms could jeopardize national security or reflect badly on Americans’ willingness to serve in uniform.

IS SOMALIA, ETHIOPIA’S IRAQ?
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-somalia26dec26,0,203858.story?coll=la-home-headlines

BUSH WHITE HOUSE FINDS NEW ENEMIES

Consortium News reports:

“With almost no notice in Official Washington, Bush has inserted this new standard for judging who’s an enemy as he lays the groundwork for a wider conflict in the Middle East and a potentially endless world war against many of the planet’s one billion adherents to Islam.

Indeed, it could be argued that the “war on terror” has now morphed into the “war on radicals…”

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/122206.html

Sarah Meyer: Haditha: A Mylai in Iraq

http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2006/12/haditha-mai-lai-of-iraq.html

Crooks and Liars: New Katrina Scandals

Investigations have revealed the Bush Administration wasted more than $2 billion of the money allocated for Katrina, the Associated Press reports today. Much of this waste is the result of lucrative contracts awarded with little or no competition. Hope Yen of the AP writes:

Federal investigators have already determined the Bush administration squandered $1 billion on fraudulent disaster aid to individuals after the 2005 storm. Now they are shifting their attention to the multimillion dollar contracts to politically connected firms that critics have long said are a prime area for abuse.

In January, investigators will release the first of several audits examining more than $12 billion in Katrina contracts. The charges range from political favoritism to limited opportunities for small and minority-owned firms, which initially got only 1.5 percent of the total work.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/

WHO WLL PARDON PATAKI?

(AP)Lame-duck Gov. George Pataki, eyeing a run for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, said Tuesday there will be no Christmas-season clemencies from him this year.

It marks the third time in his 12-year tenure that Pataki has issued no clemencies during the holiday season. There were no executive clemencies granted in 1998 or 2004.

Pataki’s decision drew a rebuke from an advocate for inmates. “He’s going out as Ebenezer Scrooge before the ghost of Jacob Marley appeared rather than the Ebenezer Scrooge who has seen the light of what Christmas should be — a joyful and merciful season,” said Robert Gangi, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York. “This is very disappointing.”

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COMMENT: “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?

Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven — Matthew 18:22

PAKISTAN’S FENCE SOLUTION

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Tuesday it would fence and mine parts of its border with Afghanistan to try to stop Taliban rebels crossing to wage their growing rebellion.

Afghanistan, increasingly critical of Pakistan for not doing enough to stop cross-border incursions, immediately rejected the plan as neither helpful nor practical.

BBC: FIDEL SIN CANCER
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6210435.stm

OUTSIDE THE BLAST ZONE

”Location, Location, Location”

Winchester and its neighbors along Interstate 81 in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley have much to recommend themselves to potential employers, including a low cost of living, access to a major highway and views of the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains.

More recently, though, the area has been successfully trumpeting another attribute: It is just outside the “blast zone.” In a little-noticed migration with implications for both greater Washington snd the valley, several federal agencies, including the FBI, are relocating operations to the I-81 corridor. Helping drive the shift is the government’s emphasis on security in a post-Sept. 11 world, which turns Winchester’s location 75 miles from Washington into a geographic ideal.

It is far enough from the capital to escape the fallout of a nuclear explosion — a distance often estimated at 50 miles — but still close enough so that employees can get to the District relatively easily when they need to.

“There’s a certain distance they need to be out from the strike zone – and Winchester is outside of that,” said Jim Deskins, economic redevelopment chief for the 26,000-person city.

The moves represent a level of dispersal even beyond other recently announced federal moves, including the military’s planned relocation of 22,000 jobs from the District and inner suburbs to Fort Belvoir in southern Fairfax County and the FBI’s relocation of its Northern Virginia field office from Tysons Corner to Manassas. Local officials and planners have criticized those moves, saying they will worsen sprawl and traffic congestion by moving jobs away from downtown and mass transit.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/25/AR2006122500637.html?nav=rss_business

ECONOMIC INEQUALITY FILE

Wall St. Bonuses: So Much Money, Too Few Ferraris ( NY Times)
http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=170702

GLOBAL ECONOMY FACES A DANGEROUS YEAR
http://www.atimes