Cascajun

CSPAN footage of congressional oversight hearings held in 2004 and 2005. The regulators were predicting the mortgage industry meltdown and DEMOCRATS blocked the REPUBLICAN efforts to enact regulations to prevent it.

Today the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, called the democratically elected leaders of Georgia a “special project of the United States“, thereby equating all those Georgian citizens who support their government to a “virtual project.”

“We understand that this current Georgian leadership is a special project of the United States, but one day the United States will have to choose between defending its prestige over a virtual project or real partnership which requires joint action,” Lavrov told reporters.

Note to the media: Stop covering this VIRTUAL news and go back to the REAL news…like the Olympics or John Edwards’ alleged bastard child.

The Russia-Georgia conflict illustrates how powerless the UN, NATO, and EU are when faced with military force. In clear defiance of the recently negotiated cease fire, Russian military forces continue to operate in Gori and other areas outside South Ossetia. As the reports of ethnic violence continue to appear in the press, the only assistance Georgia will receive from is from the US. So far, their European neighbors have offered nothing but generic, diplo-speak platitudes.

In a videotaped statement Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, disclosed some shocking details of the housing bailout legislation being rushed through Congress:

• The two troubled federal mortgage agencies, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, will be given unlimited access to the U.S. Treasury without requiring any further approval from Congress.
• The U.S. national debt ceiling will be raised by $800 billion, which suggests that the bailout is expected to cost a lot more than the country is being told.
• All credit card transactions will have to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service, as if the country isn’t under enough government surveillance already.

“…dealing with bad politicians is like playing Space Invaders. The more you zap the more they come. Still, everyone plays simply because they have to and in the vague hope that maybe, just maybe, they can beat the game.”

Richard Fernandez

The Telegraph writes:

The Russian state was behind the killing of the former secret agent Alexander Litvinenko, a senior official has disclosed in private.

“We very strongly believe the Litvinenko case to have had some state involvement, there are very strong indications that it was a state action,” the senior security official told the BBC.

Marina Litvinenko, the widow of the murdered agent, has been pressing for official recognition that the use of radioactive polonium 210 must have been state-sanctioned.

To date the Government has remained silent on the responsibility for the killing merely requesting the extradition of Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB bodyguard who is the main suspect in the case.

Referring to a later attempt to assassinate the businessman Boris Berezovsky, who employed Litvinenko, the security source said the “continued willingness” of the domestic security branch the FSB to “consider operations against people in the West” was causing major diplomatic problems.

The Arizona Republic reports:

Six men with guns and body armor ambushed and killed a man in his Phoenix home Sunday, firing over one hundred rounds into the house.

[…]

As more investigators came to help, they noticed a red Chevrolet Tahoe driving suspiciously in the neighborhood. Detectives followed the vehicle to 7th Street and Coronado Road where Daniel Garcia-Saenz, 24; Manual Garcia-Trejom, 25; and Rodolfo Madrigal Lopez, 19, jumped out and ran from the vehicle before being apprehended by authorities.

All three suspects were wearing law-enforcement-like body armor. Helmets and various weapons were recovered from the suspect’s vehicle.

Stratfor has analysis:

The fact that the Mexican men involved in the Phoenix case were heavily armed and dressed as police comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed security events in Mexico. Teams of cartel enforcers frequently impersonate police or military personnel, often wearing matching tactical gear and carrying standardized weapons. In fact, it is rare to see a shootout or cartel-related arms seizure in Mexico where tactical gear and clothing bearing police or military insignia is not found.

[…]

While it now appears that the three men arrested in Phoenix were not former or active members of the Mexican military or police, it is not surprising that they employed military- and police-style tactics. Enforcers of various cartel groups such as Los Zetas, La Gente Nueva or the Kaibiles who have received advanced tactical training often pass on that training to younger enforcers (many of whom are former street thugs) at makeshift training camps located on ranches in northern Mexico. There are also reports of Israeli mercenaries visiting these camps to provide tactical training. In this way, the cartel enforcers are transforming ordinary street thugs into highly-trained cartel tactical teams.

[…]

Although the victim in the Phoenix killing, Andrew Williams, was reportedly a Jamaican drug dealer who crossed a Mexican cartel, there are many other targets in the United States that the cartels would like to eliminate. These targets include Mexican cartel members who have fled to the United States due to several different factors. The first factor is the violent cartel war that has raged in Mexico for the past few years over control of important smuggling routes and strategic locations along those routes. The second factor is the Calderon administration’s crackdown, first on the Gulf cartel and now on the Sinaloa cartel. Pressure from rival cartels and the government has forced many cartel leaders into hiding, and some of them have left Mexico for Central America or the United States.

[…]

Other cartel targets in the United States include Drug Enforcement Administration and other law enforcement officers responsible for operations against the cartels, and informants who have cooperated with U.S. or Mexican authorities and been relocated stateside for safety. There are also many police officers who have quit their jobs in Mexico and fled to the United States to escape threats from the cartels, as well as Mexican businessmen who are targeted by cartels and have moved to the United States for safety.

[…]

However, the aggressiveness of cartel enforcers and their brutal lack of regard for human life means that while they do not intentionally target civilians, they are bound to create collateral casualties along the way. This is especially true as they continue to conduct operations like the Phoenix killing, where they fired over 100 rounds of 5.56 mm ball ammunition at a home in a residential neighborhood.

Russel Shorto of the New York Times examines Europe’s declining population.

Will Europe as we know it just peter out? Will ethnic Greeks and Spaniards become extinct, taking their baklava and paella to the grave with them, to be replaced by waves of Muslim immigrants who couldn’t care less about the Acropolis as a majestic representation of Western culture? Venice has lost more than half its population since 1950; its residents believe their city is destined to become a Venice-themed attraction. Is the same going to happen to Europe as a whole? Might the United States see its closest ally decay into a real-life Euro Disney?

Hat tip: Richard Fernandez

The historic focus on the Translatlantic slave trade has fostered ignorance of the other ones.

It’s one of history’s supreme ironies that the Moro Campaigns were in part caused by the need to suppress the slave trade in South East Asia. Mindanao was the Darfur of it’s day. The difference was the UN didn’t exist yet. Of course today, not only Americans but most Filipinos are ignorant of this history of human trafficking, and we’re talking the early 1900s.

Slavery did mean Simon Legree and all that. But even today there are dozens of ruins of Spanish fortifications lining the Philippine coast which are mute testimony to the need to defend against the slavers. You can visit them if so inclined.

In 52 seconds why Obama MUST become the next president:

Obama is the only candidate now offering such specific assurances to act to de-alert and abolish nuculear weapons, prevent the madness of Missile defence, and the \ weaponization of space and save the world and all future gerations from nuclear destruction.

What a fantastic idea! Senator Obama should also apply the same logic and strategies to fighting crime and stopping gun violence in his home district by disarming the police, cutting police funding, and banning the manufacture and/or sale of all firearms.

He would be the only candidate to offer specific assurances to abolish firearms, prevent the madness of self defense, and the armament of our cities. This would save thousands each year and show the world and all future generations how senseless gun violence really is.