…While on his visit to Afghanistan, Gates was briefed by Karzai and General Stanley McChrystal, the US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, on the Marjah operation that began in February and is billed as the biggest since the 2001 US-led invasion.
He also sought details from McChrystal about his next target: restoring control over Kandahar, the Taliban’s spiritual home.
McChrystal told reporters troops would mass gradually in Kandahar over the next few months to reassert full control but he said he does not plan an abrupt assault like the one on Marjah.
“Militarily it will not look much like Marjah,” McChrystal said.
“There won’t be a ‘D-Day’ that is climactic. It will be a rising tide of security as it comes. Slightly ahead of that there needs to be a lot of preparatory work in terms of governance.“
So how is that ‘Government-in-a-Box’ working for ya, General…?
…“They’re not here to occupy our country,’’ Zahir said of the US Marines who now control key commercial and residential sections of Marja. “They’re just here to bring you peace.’’ Read the rest of this entry »
A 14-foot-high black metal fence cuts through nearly two miles of downtown Eagle Pass, Texas. The “border fence” separates Eagle Pass from its neighbors in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande. The fence skirts a golf course, a park and a flea market. It is considered by many residents on both sides of the border to be an ugly symbol of divisiveness. I visited the border fence on February 22, and the first thing I noticed was the large gaps in the fence. The fence is less than two miles long, and there are fifteen gaps including open, unlocked gates and openings for roads. I also was surprised to hear the price tag for this two-mile stretch of border fence – $11 million.
Read the Statesman’s report about the border fence in Eagle Pass here.
Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said on Sunday that any results of the parliamentary elections that are to be announced from any other organizations or officials would be “incorrect.”
“Any mass media that would announce the results of today’s parliamentary elections would not be correct,” the IHEC was quoted by al-Iraqiya TV.
“The IHEC is the sole organization that will announce the correct results of Iraq’s legislative elections,” it added.
That ‘Independent’ commission would be the same one co-chaired by Ahmed Chalabi and Al Lami, whom I feature prominently in this prior post of mine…
He still owns his baby toys piles and piles of things he won’t let anyone throw out. Cassie made a stab at helping him de-junkify (so she could fit her stuff in), but succeeded only in making him take it all back to his dad’s. Now he has dump truck loads stuff filling rooms at two houses.
I, on the other hand, am not nearly that bad. Not unless you count the closets and the surfaces.
In all seriousness, my next move is to sell off books in large quantities. Then the CD’s that are now safely part of multiple computer systems. Then the old chargers that belong to a cellphone we lost 3 years ago. And the yards and yards of telephone and internet wire.
Tonight is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oscar presentation. It’s the movie’s big night, all the stars will be out in all their finery, putting on their best smiles and pretending that it’s an honor to be nominated. I don’t know who they think they’re kidding, you know they all want to win! I haven’t been to a movie not made by Pixar in 10 years, but I love watching the Oscars. It never ceases to amaze me that people who have unlimited resources, designers falling all over themselves to give away beautiful clothes, jewelery to die for and hair and makeup people coming out of the woodwork can still manage to show up at the Oscars looking like an unmade bed As I sit on my couch in ratty sweats and an old t-shirt, drinking box wine, it somehow gives me a happy to snark on the wardrobe choices of the rich and famous. Yeah, I’m shallow. Whatever.
But some people actually care about the movies that are up for consideration tonight. So, I’ve got the nominees for each of the big categories, and who I think will win.
Best Picture
There are 10 films up for consideration this year.
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up In The Air
I think we can knock a few of these right off the top. An Education, A Serious Man, District 9 and Up can go. Much as I love Pixar, the Academy does serious film. Up is not serious film. District 9 is sci-fi. Also a non-starter. I’m willing to bet that most of the voting members haven’t even seen the other two, along with most of America. Avatar is starting to get some backlash, and Precious has been kicking ass in the other award shows so far this season. Up In The Air seems just a bit fluffy, and Inglorious Basterds is an odd comedy/war movie hybrid. I think it will come down to Hurt Locker and Precious, with Blind Side as a dark horse.
Do you ever play tourist in your own town? It doesn’t count if you’re playing tour guide for visiting friends. Do you ever just go to your town’s tourist attractions? I did today, much as I did a few weeks ago in Gnomeville. I have a friend who is not able to travel at the moment but loves traveling and loves being a tourist, so we’ve been seeing Austin a lot from a tourist’s perspective — traveling without ever leaving town.
As I kid, I grew up less than ten miles from New York City and my parents never considered us tourists since we always slept in our own beds. In that area, we were able to visit thousands of sites plus beaches, mountains and parks within a two hour radius of home. I don’t think I’ve ever taken anywhere near that much advantage of the cities I have lived in as an adult, but I feel like I need to.
It’s been a crazy week. I had a walk-through by district personnel on Monday. We were originally scheduled to have it back in November and started getting ready for it back in October, so we’ve been at DefConEleventy-Seven for entirely too long. I’m also doing Home/Hospital teaching of one of my students for an hour after school most days and then going home to tag my hubby out so he can go to work. MM is getting…treated unfairly…at work and has only the comic stylings of the little guy to brighten her mood. Sharonlee’s car is staging a protest over the upcoming forced retirement upon the Fiesta’s summer debut. Gnome’s computer/internet are not cooperating on a regular basis and she’s been reduced to using dead critters as retrieval toys for her puppehs. NDFG is being treated like a red-headed stepchild at work and having to run up and down stairs to use the printer…while half blind! Betsy’s busy and in pain and without a canoeing partner. Gordon is hiding from blood-thirsty Campbells…or at least he should be. CT is running up and down mountains, screaming like a little girl and wearing something I’m too chicken/wise to click on to see. Barbara’s poor little dog probably still can’t go very far outside before getting lost in snow drifts. (insert doggie lost in snow emotie here) Cassie’s had great news and Pellora made a splash at the wet place in a good way, but they’re definitely in the minority around here.
Bakerella has some peanut butter cookies that are cute as buttons. (go look and groan)
I know that some of the Beach Bumz prefer ice cream, so how about some serious vanilla ice cream? It’s from Alton Brown, so it has to be good!
No self-respecting self-medication list would be complete without pie, so how about coconut cream pie? My personal favorite pie is Boston Cream Pie, but I suppose it could be argued that it’s not really pie. Still my favorite and I’m still annoyed that Marie Callender’s stopped making it.
If you remember this post, you’ll also remember that I’m a big fan of Nutella, so I think the Nutella pound cake will be made soon. Like maybe tomorrow.
Enjoy, everyone. It’s been a rough week and we deserve a treat.
Over 6,000 Iraqi candidates are competing on numerous different ‘lists’ or slates for elected office running the gamut from local dog catcher to whom decides Maliki’s fate as PM…
This update was originally Dubai 2.5, but the news blew by 2.5 without even a blip on the intertoobz screen. We are now at Dubai 3.0 because the number of suspects has a bit more than doubled, and their travel around the world both before the assassination and after has been found out, and the cause of death has been revised and is much more sophisticated than was previously thought. And now, because of this morning’s news, I’ve made the post a range of 3.0 to 3.5. No end in sight because I’m sure this last bit of news will cause more news by the end of the day and into tomorrow, all by itself. I will add it at the end, to keep things in somewhat chronological order.
It is surprising how much information there is about the murder. Depending on the news source, it is called a murder or an assassination. The Dubai hotel had a full complement of CCTV cameras, and to date there are any number of videos, posted on news sites as well as on YouTube, that show the suspects looking like anything but spies and assassins. [Of course, would most of us know a spy or an assassin if we saw one?] Dubai appears to have a very able police investigation department. They have spent many hours putting together the event over days and weeks. The planet is quite small really, and technology has made it smaller. Once the investigators determined that there were numerous suspects for the murder, they gathered the television evidence, pieced that with the passport evidence, and kept on going from there. Read the rest of this entry »
MARJA, Afghanistan — The black, red and green flag of Afghanistan was hoisted over the center of this onetime Taliban stronghold on Thursday, as Afghan officials symbolically claimed control after a major American-led military offensive.
Symbolic indeed! The clear phase is over, somewhat, and at a high cost!
As today’s Daily Outlook notes the GoA’s dog and pony show rolled into town…
Khalili Visits Helmand, Invites Taliban to Join Reconciliation
The second deputy president Karim Khalili on Monday invited the Taliban to join the peace and reconciliation process and play their role in the reconstruction of the country. Khalili said this during his visit to the southern province of Helmand. Civilian representative of the NATO alliance to Afghanistan Mark Sedwil, deputy Interior Minister Munir Mangal and other senior government officials were accompanied him to the restive province. The delegation met the elders and officials in the provincial capital of Lashkargah and expressed grief ove the loss of civilians in the recent operation in Marjah district of the province. Talking to the people, he said the government was trying to avoid civilian casualties in such operation. He said areas vacated from Taliban would be manned by the security forces and they would not allow the miscreants to return there again. On this occasion, he urged upon the Taliban to start talks with the government to win peace for the people of the country. He said they were ready for all possible cooperation if the Taliban agreed for peace and reconciliation. Governor of Helmand province Muhammad Gulab Mangal, on this occasion, told journalists that the recent visit of the deputy president and the earlier visit of the president proved that the government was taking serious interest in improvement of the situation in the province.
As I sit on my couch in ratty sweats and an old t-shirt, drinking box wine, it somehow gives me a happy to snark on the wardrobe choices of the rich and famous. Yeah, I’m shallow. Whatever.
It’s been a crazy week. I had a walk-through by district personnel on Monday. We were originally scheduled to have it back in November and started getting ready for it back in October, so we’ve been at DefConEleventy-Seven for entirely too long. 
I’m also doing Home/Hospital teaching of one of my students for an hour after school most days and then going home to tag my hubby out so he can go to work. MM is getting…treated unfairly…at work 
and has only the comic stylings of the little guy to brighten her mood. 
Sharonlee’s car is staging a protest over the upcoming forced retirement upon the Fiesta’s summer debut. 
Gnome’s computer/internet are not cooperating on a regular basis and she’s been reduced to using dead critters as retrieval toys for her puppehs. 
NDFG is being treated like a red-headed stepchild at work and having to run up and down stairs to use the printer…while half blind! 
Gordon is hiding from blood-thirsty Campbells…or at least he should be. 
CT is running up and down mountains, screaming like a little girl and wearing something I’m too chicken/wise to click on to see. 
Barbara’s poor little dog probably still can’t go very far outside before getting lost in snow drifts. (insert doggie lost in snow emotie here) Cassie’s had great news 
and Pellora made a splash at the wet place in a good way, 
but they’re definitely in the minority around here.
How about some 
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