Saturday, December 11, 2004

LOL.  Kerik proves there is money in Homeland insecurity.  He made millions (an interesting twist for someone that was so bad with money) but lost a shot at the top shot.  Of course, it's probably a good thing that he isn't going to take the job.  Given his job performance in Iraq working for Bremer, he doesn't look like the right man for the job.  BTW, this plays into conservative plans to tank Guiliani in 2008. 9:08:47 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

Reuters.  An acute fuel and electricity shortage in Iraq is the key to a legitimacy crisis for the government (and likely any elected government).   The cost of paraffin for heating has risen fivefold in the capital and bottled cooking gas tenfold, causing serious hardship for the many Iraqis without jobs or regular income. Lines several km (miles) long snake from the city's petrol stations where drivers can fill up for a subsidised 3 U.S. cents a litre. The choice is to pay 20 times as much to profiteers. Anger has boiled over, fights and shooting have broken out.  System attacks impact everyone as opposed to random terrorism which impacts very few.  Any government that can't deliver the basic services necessary for societal function loses legitimacy.  People ultimately blame the government.  This will be a key to the destabilization of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.  7:45:03 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

Exploiting weakness.  The list of dead nationalities in the Jeddah consulate attack demonstrate how important outsourcing activity is to US and Saudi operations.  A Yemeni, a Sudanese, a Pakistani, a Filipino, and a Sri Lankan (most from the motor pool) were killed in the attack.  7:32:40 AM    Comment_ Trackback []