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Wednesday, November 17, 2004 |
 Business-oriented Beacon Hill Institute: MA tops the list of the best states for business (a competitiveness index). Of course, MA is the bluest state in the union.
5:15:37 PM 
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Another sign of the security system meltdown in Iraq (see GG). The use of Iraqi soldiers to search and control mosques has been abandoned, and it led to this incident (greatly exacerbated in its PR impact because it was in a mosque).
2:56:09 PM
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Will China trump UN/US sanctions on the Sudan? It's likely. China get's 6% of its oil imports from the Sudan (60% of Sudan's production). It also is rumored to have thousands of soldiers in country guarding the pipelines. China's Iran deal will likely serve as a model for it's Sudan relationship. With Iran, China was able to secure long-term supplies of LNG and soon oil (China gets 14% of its imports from Iran). It is also using Iran to build an export market for Chinese products in the ME. In exchange, it promised to block all UN action on the country over nuclear enrichment. The fight for secure supplies of oil continues.
1:19:39 PM
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General Charles Krulak. "The Strategic Corporal: Leadership in the Three Block War."
As often as not, the really tough issues confronting Marines will be moral quandaries, and they must have the wherewithal to handle them appropriately.
12:08:33 PM
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WP. "We are without allies amongst the Iraqi populace, including those who have benefited from the ouster of Saddam," said this Special Forces veteran, who speaks Arabic. "Across Baghdad, Latifiyah, Mahmudiyah, Salman Pak, Baqubah, Balad, Taji, Baiji, Ramadi and just about everywhere else you can name, the people absolutely hate us. . . . The Iraqi people have not bought into what the Americans are selling, and no amount of military activity is going to change this fact." NOTE: I would modify this analysis. We still have the Kurds.
I think much of the current analysis is wide of the mark. The elections mean little. The dynamics of global guerrilla conflict indicate that even if a small set of groups remain opposed to establishment of a Shia state, they can keep the country in failure. System attack changes everything. This isn't Mao redux.
10:05:07 AM
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Jeff Jarvis breaks some original news on his weblog.
8:53:20 AM
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Cool. It looks like Ken Sands is building a regional news organization that can withstand the future. This has been something I have been talking about for a while (and talked to more than a few local news organizations about). Frankly, I think this is the way to build a very profitable local advertising and classifieds business (if it is done correctly, Google would even drive traffic).
8:16:51 AM
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© Copyright 2004 John Robb.
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