|
 |
Friday, April 01, 2005 |
 BBC. The EU proposes a 15% duty on select US products as punishment for inaction on the Byrd anti-dumping ammendment. Another example of the loss of control of nation-states over their economies.
6:14:27 PM 
|
|
Hopefully anti-spyware companies will move quickly to allow people to disable the shared objects "feature" of Flash MX. This exploit is just stupid.
6:10:38 PM
|
|
BBC. Brazilian death squads kill 30. This is what happens when the activities of loyalist paramilitaries (corruption, theft, drugs, etc.) put them at odds with the state.
6:04:38 PM
|
|
One thing most people aren't talking about is what will happen if this "democracy" trend hits Pakistan (it's already starting). I am certain we wouldn't like the result -- and the state decides to crack down.
5:47:11 PM
|
|
Inside the Pentagon. Hilarious. News is finally leaking out how the US warplan for Iraq lacked (until recently) specific benchmarks. Rapid changes in course can be characterized as flexibility if those changes are slaved to defined objectives. If those objectives don't exist, it's chaos.
Of course, these new benchmarks are classified. This means that they are effectively useless in this conflict. In order to fight a decentralized insurgency, decision making must be pushed down to the lowest levels. Every soldier in Iraq should know what these objectives are so they can adapt their effort to accomplish them.
The top U.S. officer in Iraq, Army Gen. George Casey, lately has been garnering plaudits behind the scenes from his military and civilian colleagues for adding measurable benchmarks to his campaign plan, a classified document in which a commander typically delineates security objectives and how subordinate units will attain them. But some officials say the nearly two-year delay in laying out clear and realistic security goals in a single military plan has taken a toll on the Iraqi stability and reconstruction effort.
8:50:59 AM
|
|
National Guard/Reserve Health Care. This program should be extended to all members of the Guard and Reserve on a full time basis rather than just as gap coverage. The problem is that with we are heavily reliant on the Guard and Reserve. Many of these people don't have any (or bad) health insurance in their civilian jobs. The result is that when they are activated, they turn up in Iraq with chronic untreated conditions that make them unable to preform their duties in Iraq's hostile environment.
8:38:26 AM
|
|
WSJ. National Bolsheviks. Working towards the collapse of the Russian state. Nomadic armed gangs and an attempt to set up an enclave of ultranationalists in Kazakhstan. Though his followers number only 15,000, Mr. Limonov's party is a rare phenomenon in Russia today: an opposition movement the Kremlin seems genuinely afraid of. Today the National Bolsheviks boast more members behind bars than any other major political party. Forty-seven of Mr. Limonov's supporters are in prison, most for serious charges like creating mass disorder.
7:20:19 AM
|
|
Guerrillas (unclaimed) dug a hole, placed explosives, and destroyed a 6-foot section of Pakistan's sparse natural gas pipeline system. Again.
6:48:25 AM
|
|
© Copyright 2005 John Robb.
|
|
|
