President Obama promised us change, and change we get.  The White House official website, whitehouse.gov, has changed its CMS (Content Management System) to the open source platform Drupal.

Drupal is, quite frankly, a pain in the butt if you don’t know any php, and aren’t comfortable learning the architecture of a site.  For most individuals who just want to blog, or have a small business website, I still think WordPress is king.  It’s easy as hell to understand and it’s quite flexible.  Nearly every site I’ve ever created I did with WordPress. I’m a mathematician, not a web developer.

But, for large websites needing lots of features or, in this case, for a large government, Drupal is well worth the learning curve.  It can do pretty well anything you want it to do.  It’s more secure than most CMS’s. And, it’s got a large community of developers backing it up.

WhiteHouse.gov’s switch is part of an effort on the part of the Obama Administration to make the white house a more interactive and “Web 2.0″ friendly place.  He is the first President to be addicted to his Blackberry after all.

by Eric Margolis

In 1975, physicist Andrei Sakharov and a group of fellow Soviet academicians warned the Kremlin leadership that unless the nation’s ruinous defense spending was slashed and funds refocused on modernizing the nation’s decrepit, obsolete industrial base and its wretched state agriculture, the Soviet Union would collapse by 1990.

Their grim warning was prescient. Twenty years ago this week – 9 November, 1989 – boisterous German crowds forced open the hated Berlin Wall, Communist East Germany collapsed in black farce, and the once mighty Soviet Empire began to crumble.

This was one of modern history’s most dramatic and dangerous moments. No one knew if the dying Soviet Union would expire peacefully, or ignite World War III.

In November, 1989, the vast empire built by Stalin that stretched from East Berlin to Vladivostok was on its last legs. The USSR had 50,000 battle tanks and 30,000 nuclear warheads, but could not feed its people. Military spending consumed 20% of the economy. As I saw for myself while traveling around the Soviet Union in the late 1980’s, conditions were often primitive, even third world outside the big cities.

Afghanistan’s “mujahidin” had all but defeated the mighty Red Army. Poland’s Solidarity Union, secretly funded by Pope John Paul and the CIA through Panamanian shell companies, had risen in revolt. So, too, ever rebellious Hungarians, joined by Lithuanians and East Germans.

The old joke in Moscow was that the East Germans were the only people who could make Communism work. Now they were in revolt.

The reformist Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev had to make a fateful decision: allow events to take their course, or order the Red Army and KGB to crush the spreading uprisings – and run the risk of war with NATO, particularly so if the Warsaw Pact’s armies turned their guns against the Soviet occupation forces and fighting spread across the Inner German Border.

Unlike his brutal Soviet predecessors, Mikhail Gorbachev was a man of profound moral values, a genuine humanist and idealist who believed he could reform the USSR through democratic socialism and patient, open debate – his “glasnost and perestroika.”

After a violent incident staged by Communist hard-liners in the Baltic, President Gorbachev refused to use force against his own people.

But once fear of repression was removed, the Soviet Union, a nation of 120 languages spread over eleven time zones, shattered. Gorbachev simply could not control the ensuing whirlwind of nationalism his reforms had sown.

Today, most Russians revile Gorbachev for wrecking the Soviet Union. The sinister Communist era, including Stalin’s monstrous crimes, are being sugarcoated with nostalgia.

Russia’s Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, called the collapse of the Soviet Union “the greatest tragedy of the 20^th century.”

In truth, the Soviet Union was history’s most brutal, murderous tyranny that killed three times more victims than Hitler.

Gorbachev did not plan to destroy the Soviet Union but to reform and revitalize it. But by refusing to hold it together by force, he brought about its doom.

Gorbachev did the world a huge favor.

In any event, the Soviet Union was destined to crumble, Gorby or no Gorby. Like the old Ottoman Empire, the USSR could only survive by gobbling up its neighbors.

In 1989, the state that had run on virtual war footing since 1945, died of exhaustion. As Voltaire said of Prussia, the Soviet Union was an army, disguised as a state.

For me, Gorbachev was one of the greatest men of our time. He put international law, basic humanity, and civilized behavior before the demands of brute power. We must also salute Gorbachev’s chief lieutenant and powerhouse behind the reform movement, former Georgian KGB chief and Soviet Foreign Minister, Eduard Schevardnadze, who urged total de-communization and disarmament.

Later, as president of independent Georgia, Shevardnadze was overthrown – ironically – by a US-organized revolution.

Gorbachev purged hardeners from the Soviet military-industrial complex, vetoed an antimissile system, sharply downsized the Soviet military, and wisely ended the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, a lesson Nobel Peace Prize Winner Barack Obama has yet to learn.

But when Gorbachev and Shevardnadze sensibly sought total nuclear disarmament, President Ronald Reagan, obsessed by the unworkable Star Wars antimissile project, refused Russia’s offer that would have eliminated all nuclear weapons and missiles.

Other courageous Russians reformers who helped end the Cold War deserve to be remembered: Anatoly Chernayev; Georgi Shakhnazarov; former ambassador to Canada, Alexander Yakovlev; and Gorbachev’s brave, cerebral wife and confidante, Raisa.

Germany’s Chancellor Helmut Kohl and President H.W. Bush also merit kudos for their able management of the Cold war’s end. By contrast, Britain’s Margaret Thatcher shamefully relapsed into Europe’s evil old ways by trying to block German unification.

President Gorbachev kept begging the western powers to launch another Marshall Plan to rescue the dying Soviet Union and democratize it. Tragically, they did not. Instead, the Clinton administration chose to treat the new, battered Russia as a client state.

Communist die-hards launched a farcical, drunken coup against Gorbachev that was thwarted by the courage of the then still sober Russian president, Boris Yeltsin; Aviation Marshall Yevgeny Shaposhnikov; and – a story that is still little known in the west – KGB moderates.

In 1990, I was the first western journalist ever allowed into the dreaded Lubyanka Prison, the headquarters of KGB, to interview senior KGB officers of the elite First Directorate (from whence came Vlad Putin) who had turned against the Communist Party and were seeking to reform Russia.

In the end, Gorbachev was left the leader of a nation that had ceased to exist, the USSR, the object of popular wrath, a great statesman without a country, a Russian King Lear on a blasted heath.

Twenty years later, the world owes Gorbachev an enormous debt of gratitude for ending the Cold War, and freeing Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. Thank our lucky stars Gorbachev was in power when the Soviet Union met its inevitable collapse – or we could have faced World War III.

Mikhail Sergeyevitch Gorbachev showed that once in a millennium a great political leader can rise above the law of the jungle.

November 10, 2009

Source: http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis168.html

Design for Obama. Posters for Change: A Grassroots Anthology was released on Nov. 4th, one year after the election of Barrack Obama.
This collection was curated by Spike Lee and Aaron Perry-Zucker. I have 3 pieces in this one. Here’s One
Taschen published Design for Obama. Taschen is a class act, they even sent me a nice letter via luftpost and addressed to “Mr. Eddie”. There is some really good design work in the volume. Check it out.

Having a bias is an easy thing to be a part of and when you are in the media, it is even more enticing. So what is Fox news is ( out loud) biased against the Dems!

It was only yesterday we were discussing the classification of US presidents. One would Bill Clinton in one of those orator kinds and Bush into some lower level then that. Don’t blame me for that, his English ( remember the time when you get news saying “InternetS”) is terrible for being American. But the fact is for Obama you can’t find a category.

If I could go in the future and see what category future generations of US have put Obama in, it would most expectedly be in the ranks of Lincoln. I am super sure about it. And fox ended up saying that Dems, especially the comment that Obama is racist.

I am out and proud that I like Obama. But atleast I am not slave of my prejudice and I can stand upto him and say you are wrong here or you need to do this better! Grow up Fox!

I am still reeling a bit over the fact that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize a week or so ago.  As even Democrats have stated, “WHY???”  All he has accomplished so far was to let his campaign managers use “HOPE” as a tagline.  And he moved troops to Afghanistan…and is probably about to add more troops (wait, I thought all of that was going to disappear once he was in office!  For shame!)  And he lifted the ban on federal funding for abortions in international countries a few days after his election.   This  doesn’t quite scream “peace” to me…

As regards the Nobel Peace Prize committee, by far the most enlightening thing about this puzzling news was that the nominations for the Peace Prize came out only twelve days after Obama was elected.

If anyone argues that Obama did in fact deserve the prize for what he has done in the approximately ten months of being president, well, I’m afraid that that argument is officially moot.

Here’s the really sad part.  All my life I have believed that a Nobel Prize was the most prestigious award a person could recieve.  It was a prize so grand, so lofty, that a person had only about a one in a billion chance of even being nominated for it.  It was a prize that elevated you to the heights of one of the gods on Mount Olympus.  It, in short, was the highest distinction any individual could hope to recieve.

Why did Obama win it?  Here’s the most likely answer: because he isn’t George W. Bush.

And now I can never view the Nobel Peace Prize in the same way again.  Because I have seen that personal prejudices–and liberal prejudices, at that–can influence the way they choose a candidate.  There is no objective evaluation of the worth of a person’s actions, only a very, very elite thumbing of the nose to George W. Bush.

This is your brain:

This is your brain when you have gone waaay overboard on hating George W. Bush for eight straight years: 

Any questions?

By Michael MacLeod

A SCOTS squaddie is being pulled out of Afghanistan less than a fortnight after leaving Scotland – having been accused of an axe attack.

William Townsley, 18, was supposed to appear at court today in connection with a brutal assault said to have happened in April.

When his lawyer said he had just jetted out to Afghanistan with the Army, a Sheriff declared: “Send him home immediately.”

The Edinburgh teenager serves for the Royal Regiment of Scotland and left the capital’s Dreghorn Barracks on October 1.

He was described as an “important” member of the military by defence agent Mark Hutchison at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today.

He pleaded for the court case to be put off until Mr Townsley’s six-month tour came to an end in April.

But Sheriff Mhairi Stephen cut his trip short, saying that she had to bear in mind his co-accused, John Blyth, 22, was being held in custody over the same allegation.

The pair deny charges of hitting Stuart Campbell on the head with an axe in Edinburgh’s Caledonian Road on April 25.

Mr Hutchison said: “Mr Townsley is currently serving with the British Army in Afghanistan for six months.

“I know that in situations such as these the Army regard everybody as an important member and do not like removing anybody when they have plans made.

“However, he was advised not to go to Afghanistan by my office.

“The Army too were aware of this, but took the view that they want him out there.

“They can bring him back if the court requires.”

Fiscal Depute Melanie Ward said she would have to call for a warrant for Mr Townsley’s arrest, but Sheriff Stephen intervened.

She said: “The Army ought to have been told that a warrant could, and most likely would, have been granted today.

“All I can say do is to ask that you (Mr Hutchison) ask the Army to send him home immediately.”

The first diet hearing was continued until next Tuesday for Mr Townsley’s personal appearance.

Mr Blyth, whose address was given as Edinburgh Prison, was remanded in custody.

See more of our pictures at our Flickr site and videos at our dedicated channel,  Deadline TV.

Obama got compliments for his Nobel prize from unusual quarters ,none other than Fidel Castro has prized Obama for this.He says its a good move, and he mentioned it as Repudiation of  Obama’s predecessors.

For complete entry  on Fidel Castro’s  column

http://embacu.cubaminrex.cu/Default.aspx?tabid=14681

News story at

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-cb-cuba-obama-nobel,0,6526462.story

I strongly feel Barrack Obama should achieve at least what he is talking.I admire Obama for other reasons may be, I admire him because he didn’t use the word Black or African American to get into the white house. His speeches were designed Positively , but whatever be it, he should show some stern stand  on certain things.Look how much he is ditching India in Nuclear treaty and helping Pakistan by giving them more fund just for the sake of war against terrorism , what he is thinking, will Pakistanis do Suicide or what?(they themselves are much more Terrorists) still I wonder how all American presidents are supporting Pakistan,I really feel Pakistan isn’t a Hypocrite , they always how their real face where as America  is a hypocrite country when it comes to war on terrorism, Obama is no different from any other president in this matter. There are lots and lots of people who are truly working for Peace(without any personal goals like becoming President.. blah blah) they deserve it. Obama should achieve something at least some thing before  he goes to the Podium to collect Nobel prize

Two days ago from now, the Nobel Prize committee announced that the peace award this year would be given to Barrack Obama, the president of the united states and who is just 8 months into the presidency. The world is shocked.

Firstly, why do you care? If you are american, let us put aside the patriotically-motivated pride an American feels at the thought of yet an American winning the award. (Of course, he is not just any american, but let us further say this is irrelevant). The answer to the question would be that the Nobel prize has always been associated with a sort of admiration one feels for the “winner”. After all, he or she is human, just like you and me, but accomplished so much more. But, if you are anything more than a common man, and not completely ignorant how many great people surround us, you would quickly dismiss the Nobel as being the greatest award in the world. In the category of Physics, for instance, we know some of the most eminent physicists we study at school possibly won the Nobel Prize for Physics. But later on one learns that many of these physicists relied on earlier results by mathematicians, and of course they go unrecognized at least with respect to the Nobel prize (since there is none for math). More importantly, most of the online auctions and transactions work on cryptographic protocols, invented by computer scientists. Robots walk about in space because their software code is thoroughly checked by model checkers. Of course, computer scientists are recognized by Goedel and Turing awards, but how many of them are known beyond those who study computer science? Yet another example: the McArthur awards are given to people who have made extraordinary contributions in fields of geography, archeology, poetry, art, physics, mathematics and the list goes on.

So clearly, the Nobel alone should not be the matter of utmost reverence to all of us who are aware that there are other prizes that capture the great.

Now you are probably nodding your head and declaring “OK, fine. I agree with you. But why Obama? He has only made promises so far”. Actually, you reason further. You think, the Nobel committee is full of these smart old people, who have seen so much. Clearly, they want more than just promises. Why they are so enthralled by Obama? That is, because you associate the Nobel peace prize with Nelson Mandela, Mother Terresa, and Kofi Annan. But the Nobel peace prize has been so much more. It is a remark by the committee about what they feel can make the world a better place. For instance, Dalai Lama was awarded the prize, and yet you had the entire population of China firmly protesting this award. Menachem Begin was awarded the Nobel peace prize, and you know well much of the Middle east was heavily disturbed by this move. George Marshall was awarded the prize, and there are still those who criticize his policies today. Then, there is Barrack Obama.

It is not revelation that Obama has it right in his head. Sure, he talks a lot, talks well, but we know he means well. He began his presidency by declaring that he will attempt to close Guan. Bay. Yes, he didn’t get it done, but this is what he started. He didn’t have to, he could have taken it easy for the first few months. Instead, he looks at the G. Bay with disgust, as is right, and says “Let us close this shit.”. Of course he is opposed by in a million directions by a hundred morons, but he is trying – trying as much as his administration will allow him. He speaks promise, he speaks humanity. The Nobel committee could not have not waited another year, who knows how many might have run him down. This award is not premature. Its a statement, that we should just listen to Obama a little more, with a little more patience, and with enough luck something so humane will result. Here is to Obama. Well deserved.

Congratulations to President Obama for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize today (and Happy Birthday Bo! ).

This is a big accomplishment. President Obama is being honored for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples, according to nobelprize.org.

He took this time to talk about everything he was trying to accomplish, versus what he already has already done.

Take a look at what he had to say….

He is  the fourth US President to win the awards, and the third African American. Ralph J. Bunche (1950) was the first African American to win for his work with the United Nations, and Martin Luther King Jr. (1964) for his non-violent approach during the Civil Rights Movement!

For more information about past U.S Presidents who have won the award keep reading….

Here are some details about the other three, according to Nobelprize.org:

* Jimmy Carter won in 2002 as ex-president for what the Nobel prize committee said were “his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development”.

* Woodrow Wilson won the 1919 prize in recognition of his Fourteen Points peace programme and work in achieving inclusion of the Covenant of the League of Nations in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War One. “The President succeeded in bringing a design for a fundamental law of humanity into present-day international politics,” the Nobel Committee said.

* Theodore Roosevelt won the 1906 prize for his role in ending the bloody 1905 war between two of the world’s great powers, Japan and Russia. The result was the Treaty of Portsmouth signed by Russia and Japan on Sept. 5, 1905, at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Sorry Mr. President to use this language, but this is what comes to my mind,

Or has the Norwegian Noble Committee made an blunder ?

In the last nine months after coming to power, what has the president truly accomplished ?

Can somebody tell me one good thing that he has done to win such an award.

The committee in its release mentions ‘Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.’

Let me share some facts,

Vandana Shiva in an interview said “Something Americans don’t know much about, the nuclear deal with India has a twin agreement, and that twin agreement is on agriculture. It’s called the Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture, and on the board of this agreement are Monsanto, ADM and Wal-Mart. So a grab of the seed sector by Monsanto, of the trade sector by the giant agribusiness, and the retail sector, which is 400 million people in India, by Wal-Mart. These are issues that are preoccupying us for about democracy in India right now.”

The nuclear deal with India, shows the double standards of US nuclear policy. Everybody knows Iran wants to build Nuclear bomb. For this Iran is the axis of evil, They got this technology from the old US friend Pakistan. For India through this nuclear agreement, will separate civilian use and military use. Military use will be India’s sovereign decision. Don’t you think all this is being done to put an check on ‘China’. In addition to that, India becomes a nuclear market for sale of nuclear technologies and fuel.

We need to contextualize this in the context of the climate debates. We can’t keep messing up the atmosphere and pumping more carbon dioxide. But nuclear doesn’t become clean automatically just because carbon dioxide has destabilized the climate. Is nuclear energy a clean development mechanism ?, not only will it spread nuclear risks and hazards in India, it will also allow corporations, like General Electric and others who pollute with carbon dioxide, as well as them, get quotas through emissions trading and markets for nuclear technology.

There is also one report on the web which says the deadline for nominations for the prize, was the First of Feb. 2009, less than two weeks after Obama took office and before he launched initiatives on nuclear non-proliferation and rebuilding U.S. ties to the Muslim world.

(Vandana Shiva, world-renowned environmental leader and thinker. She is also a physicist and ecologist and the Director of the Research Foundation on Science, Technology, and Ecology. She is the founder of Navdanya–“nine seeds”, a movement promoting diversity and use of native seeds. Dr. Shiva was the 1993 recipient of the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize–the Right Livelihood Award. And she is the author of many books, her latest is “Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace.”)

In the recently concluded ‘The Bangkok Climate Change Talks 2009′ in a  joint statement by the group of 130 developing countries referred to as G-77 and China, notes that the US and EU are attempting to terminate the Kyoto Protocol and all relevant international negotiations over its next phase.

Negotiators will also have to work out how to deal with the United States — the only rich nation not to have signed up to Kyoto.

A U.N. climate panel agreed last year that the world needs to halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in order to stave off potentially catastrophic changes to the weather system, that will bring more storms, droughts and higher sea levels.

So can anybody explain what has Mr. Barrack Obama done for climate change.

A report on the website of the International Energy agency clearly states ‘The United States national strategy is to find solutions largely through technology. It is a world leader in R&D and is driving development of carbon capture and storage and second-generation biofuels. But thus far, no federal government policy is in place to establish as a target an absolute reduction of CO2 emissions. The resulting uncertainty risks holding back investments into new technologies and may delay projects that are urgently required.’

The nobel press release also states ‘Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future.’

This is something I would agree upon, I never knew these qualities are required to win an noble peace prize.

Please share your views with me in the comments section.

Links to related articles,

Underqualified for the overrated

Zimbabwean PM among tips for noble peace prize

Analysis: Obama’s Nobel honors promise, not action

This is what the press release on the site http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/press.html said.

Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world’s leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama’s appeal that “Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.”

I dag har det vært en internasjonal nyhetsdag.

Som alle har fått med seg fikk Amerikas president Barrack Hussein Obama Nobels Fredspris.

NASA har kræsjet to tomme romferger i månen.

Og sist men ikke minst; Jeg slapp å ta sprøyta. Føler dette er en internasjonal begivenhet, ja!

Først, det at Obama vant fredsprisen er i mine øyne ikke noe negativt. Mannen har ikke utført så mye at han kanskje kunne fortjent prisen enda, men alle løftene hans er jo helt fantastiske. Som president er 9 mnd ikke all verden når man skal rette opp etter en mann som kanskje ikke har gjort verdens beste jobb… kremt…

Så alt i alt mener jeg Fredsprisen kom til rett mann, selv om det var mange andre ekstremt gode kandidater. Med prisen blir han jo litt presset til å innfri løftene han har gitt. Det er neimen ikke en enkel jobb.

Jeg satt og så denne direktesendingen fra NASAs romferger som kræsjet i månen. Jeg forventet store biter som skulle fly irundt, at man så at skipene borret seg ned i overflaten osv. Det jeg fikk var en gjeng hakkende bilder av månens overflate, stadig nærmere og nærmere, og noen sekunder av bakdelen av fartøy En. Så gikk det over til mange mennesker i ett rom, som gikk rundt og jublet. Og ikke minst; Tre kjekke karer sittende irundt et bord og snakke.

Var alt over? Hadde det buffet akkurat da magien skjedde?

Neida… Det var bare jeg som  har sett for mange Hollywood-filmer. Om de fant is, det fikk jeg heller ikke med meg. Jeg ser det hele på nyhetene i kveld “Day well spent”.

Det siste: Nei jeg tok ikke sprøta, fordi helsesøstra var forsinket, og jeg ville hjem å se hvem som vant fredsprisen.

*Catchy Phrase*

The news is official: our prez of the U.S. of A. just won the Nobel Peace Prize. The voting over at Oslo came up with him for his outreach to the Muslim world and efforts to persuade nuke-crazies to not arm their missiles.
The people at Oslo thought it was way too soon to give the prize to Obama, as it’s only eight months since his election. But they gave him the prize anyways. Good job on that, Mr. Prez.

Image Source:USA Today

Spotted @Elitaste

This is cute!! Nothing political, or end timesy, just … cute !!

Ah, Barack Obama… so much to say and so little blogspace. From his wonderful doings in Guatanamo Bay to his tremendous appointing skills of government officials, one thing is for sure: the man is hard to ignore. For starters, his approval rating is down more than 60%. That alone seems to be enough evidence of the fact that there are many, MANY things he is doing wrong. But, let’s start from the beginning..
He ran a hell of a campaign. Not only is he naturally a great public speaker, but he was also funded by numerous organizations and pretty much all of Hollywood. From Jay Z to Lil’ Wayne; you name them, they funded him. The millions of dollars that rolled in for various advertising strategies proved to be the key to winning over America. Secondly, his competition was slim. John McCain didn’t stand a chance to begin with simply due to the fact that America was scared of a Republican. Bush’s reign left America in so much terror that they would rather invest their faith in the hands of an inexperienced candidate, than a Vietnam veteran who served the country in more ways than one for decades, simply due to judgement of the party. As for Hillary Clinton, it seems ironic, if not suspicious, how she suddenly decided to withdraw from the race, especially at the peek of her prime. And while we may never know the reasoning behind Clinton’s logic, I’m sure you can use your imagination to figure it out. Once Clinton was gone, the rest was history — Obama was a shoe-in..
After waltzing his way through the campaign and being elected as the 44th President of the United States, the $787 billion economic stimulus plan came about, a big portion of which consisted of unnecessary spendings. Many Obama-supporters would argue that the stimulus plan funded the stock market, public schools and services, and prevented thousands of lay-offs. I agree that those are all fabulous deeds, but realistically, does it really take the full $787 billion American dollars which will later be paid of by the taxes of the citizens? Perhaps, Obama makes a great lawyer, but he’s far from a mathematician.
Next comes the health reform: the sole act of misinformation and miscalculation. The program and its agencies will costs much more than projected, as every United States program has in the past. In addition, the American public has been so misinformed about various aspects of the program, and all for a good cause: so we don’t understand the consequences of it. While Obama may claim that raising the cost of health care is the only solution to rebuilding our economy, the truth is that raising the cost of health care will only hurt it. If Americans spent more money on health care than they do currently, that means that they will spend less money on other priorities, from food to entertainment. Hence, if more money goes to health care, less money will be circulated socially and eventually, it will result in either public debt or an ongoing economic crisis — two marvelous options, don’t you think?
So here we are today: living in a country which is facing The Great Depression Part 2, starring Barack Obama as the villan, with no superhero to save the day. Let’s hope that by 2012, there will still be something left of our oh-so-tragic economy and perhaps this time, we will try something different: let’s elect a president who is aware of how many states are in America (see link).

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/barackobamavideos/youtube/obama-57-states.htm

Saturday and Sunday nights are now reserved for reading and research. My work-a-day routine has taken a turn for the worse with a new assignment, perhaps the worst in my military career. Much more busy than before, but with nothing to really do but go through the motions and hope for the best. By far the least challenging, least rewarding assignment I’ve ever had, with perhaps the least constructive guidance and the most uninspiring and disinterested leadership.

It could be a deal breaker for me — once the organization you trust and love turns its back on you, with the cold shrug of institutional impunity, it’s time to move on. (I believe the term used in the familiar patois of my organization would be to “suck it up”. I never “suck it up” for very long. I’m not that kind of Marine.) To be fair, the USMC has invested a significant amount of time and treasure in me…all the more reason for me to wonder why it seems so passive about this investment. I took it seriously. I believe I’ve demonstrated this amply. To no avail. On a personal level, a colonel has made a deliberate decision to sacrifice my career in order to satisfy a temporary but non-urgent requirement. (We have a phrase for that: “Needs of the Marine Corps”.) So be it.

I try to remind myself that this is what happens in any large organization, when the bureaucracy tends to sacrifice purpose and creativity to process and procedure at precisel the wrong time for a useful asset. Despite the logic and actions of the individual who has condemned me to this posting, perhaps I’m after all just a number, a statistic, a check in the box, a code on some staffer’s spreadsheet back in Quantico or DC. Perhaps my perception of my own value to the organization is overestimated. Nobody is irreplaceable, after all. There are more than 200 thousand people in this organization now and its strategic focus has been stretched in unprecedented ways. Not surprising that a few of us who were once promised bright futures should languish in the inertia of what is still a government agency trying to find its way in “uncertain times” — whatever those may seem to be to the decision-makers.

Anyway, the point is that I’ve had to sacrifice a bit of personal time to maintain my commitment to what has become a passion. It is a bitter pill for wifeykins, but she is on board as long as I am careful and don’t overstretch. I’ve been in tighter spots before. I know I’ll succeed. I will balance family, friends, profession, person and passion once again. With a little moto riding and maybe some lolcats surfing in between.

Enough of the throat clearing. The markets seem nervous. We seem to be in the eye of the storm right about now. Winds have abated. The sails are slack. The tell-tails are fluttering in no particular direction. The skies seem clear, but there is an uneasy pressure and smell in the air. The light is a bit strange. “Not quite right,” as wifey would say. Ambient noise seems oddly attenuated, muffled. What will happen to the USD? What will happen to equities in the US, Europe and Asia? What will happen with crude, gold and ags? Where are the funds? Where is the real money? What is following what? Who is following who? We know the other side of the storm is coming. What will be the best course of action?

As for the who part, I think hedge funds are following the real money. In the US markets, the funds are late to the risk party and will probably get hammered (again) unless the rally extends through the end of the year. Bravo to those funds who were winners. This has been a tough year for them and we aren’t even on the final lap yet. Most of the flows are still moving out of USD and US equities to MOE — markets other than Europe. This is one of the reasons I added to the short EURUSD trade — because the flows certainly aren’t going into Europe as far as I know. There is little yield to be had there and risk aversion trading will gain substantial momentum starting in October, if not this coming week, and continue into 2010. Probably helpful for my EURUSD short, but not very much for the USDJPY long, as another unwinding of too hastily taken young carry trades will benefit both USD and JPY. Probably the former less than the latter. But when will this unwinding occur? And then at what level will it be good to get back in? (Note to self: Watch NZD and AUD, as well as treasuries.)

I would like to build a large-ish short ES position in the 1180-1100 area, but I think I’ll stay tactical for now because markets usually tend to move further than any rational explanation would allow. (One of the principles behind the Knotty positioning strategy, but I’m not well capitalized enought to execute this strategy in the futures markets and would get a margin call holding ES over a several thousand tick range!) My expectation is that the S&P could move as high as 1150, but that it will eventually retrace to 750 at least. I may also take tactical shorts 6E over the same time horizon. But what about the yen? This is what I’m trying to make sense of at the moment.

FM Fujii has made some careless but revealing remarks, and I like them. Letting economic conditions determine the value of the yen more than narrow interests and cronyism would allow me to get a better feel for general direction. Time will tell if Hatoyama’s regime can make it a reality. I don’t think Fujii’s remarks mean the yen will appreciate to wild and wacky levels, but I doubt the yen will weaken much in the near term. We certainly won’t see 100 anytime soon. (I’m still hoping for 97.40, however.) And then there is the meeting between President Obama and President Hu ahead of the G20 meeting. Both are very formidable minds from very different intellectual spaces. Wish I could be a fly on that wall. In any event, I’ll be paying attention to the buzz around that meeting.

Leading indicators coming out that will put that meeting into context as well. I’m interested in what the Fed will say about an exit strategy — or what it won’t say. I can’t imagine the Fed will extend QE much more. I just can’t imagine it. Seems something would snap. The G20 itself will probably be a sleeper. The sideshows during and after will be interesting, however. Probably lots of the typical BS from China, Russia and Japan and lord only knows from who else. And of course, our own brand of it here in the US — hard to tell which branch of government is more full of it, these days. Most of the stink will probably be about trade. China’s predatory practices vs. our protectionism, is how the MSM will probably frame it. In reality, it is China’s predatory practices and its protectionism, vs. our protectionism. This is why the US and others will have no choice but to do what they do. China itself has no choice. It cannot develop internal markets fast enough so it must engage in predatory trade. Financed by our debt. It is a matter of survival for China’s regime, which has no intention of letting go of power. I digress. Any progress between Obama and Hu in the meetings ahead of and after the G20 session will be good for risk appetite. I’ll be watching for that from a tactical standpoint.

Check out the remarks made by Almunia with respect to Chinese diversification into the euro. To sum up: “No bueno.” Developing…