The end's not near, it's here

Good-bye to The OC.

"There are Klingons in the White House"

My last post ripped on the U.S. Congress and this one is a continuation of that theme. My theory is this: 90% of Congress-persons are idiots or insane. As evidence, I present this video from the House of Representatives.

Suddenly I want to be a Congressman

My newfound urge to represent a state in the Senate stems from a recent article in the Washington Post with the title "Congress Has So Little to Do, And So Much Time to Do It" by Dana Milbank. Here is an excerpt:

Consider yesterday's schedule for the people's representatives. Not only did they have to pass H.R. 99, "commending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln volleyball team," but they had to do it immediately after passing H.R. 72, celebrating the achievements of meteorologist Max Mayfield. Then it was on to legislation in support of the African American spiritual, remembering a deceased NASCAR driver, naming a courthouse in Duluth, Minn., and honoring the grandfather of two congressmen.

That left time for a full debate over the day's signal legislative achievement: H.R. 130, congratulating the Indianapolis Colts for winning the Super Bowl."

Wow. That sounds awesome. I present this as evidence that 90% of Congress-people are insane or idiots.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/07/AR2007020702143.html?nav=emailpage

The birth of a dictator

I always get uncomfortable when people mention Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela. Usually this is because he is mentioned as a rare hero who has stood up to the overwhelming evil of the United States. Well today the Venezuelan Congress gave President Chavez the ability to rule the nation by decree for 18 months. The justification for this move is to give the President the ability to continue his transformation of Venezuela into a socialist paradise. Or more likely, Chavez will use the power to further centralize authority in Venezuela and further cement his power. The Congress that granted Chavez the power? Comprised completely of pro-Chavez legislators, as the opposition boycotted the 2005 elections.

Prediction: 18 months from now Chavez's new powers will be extended. Indefinitely.

Venezuela's Chavez gets powers to rule by decree by Christian Oliver. Reuters.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2007-01-31T205202Z_01_N30340466_RTRUKOC_0_US-VENEZUELA-CHAVEZ.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C2-TopNews-newsOne-8

Awesome video II

"Is there a point we should stop this?"
"Yeah..........when it stops being cool?"

Awesome video I

In a strange sort of pagan ritual, I watch this video whenever I want to have God on my side.

Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the world

I feel there is no larger threat to global stability than Pakistan. Recently, the Director of the CIA testified that Al'Qaeda is regrouping and launching operations out of the tribal agencies of Pakistan. Since the government signed a peace deal with insurgents in the region bordering Afghanistan, deadly attacks in Afghanistan have increased. Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are widely believed to be somewhere in the tribal agencies. There is a strong undercurrent of fundamentalist Islam in Pakistan. There have been multiple attempts on Gen. Pervez Mussharraf's life. And they have nukes.

Currently Pakistan is counted as one of the US's key allies in the war on terror. But Musharraf's assistance to the US is widely resented. It has also been largely ineffective. For example, when Osama Bin Laden was believed to be trapped in the Tora Bora mountain range, Pakistan sent its forces to cut off any potential escape into Pakistan. However, the Army and intelligence apparatus, the ISI, is sympathetic to Bin Laden, and it is widely believed that Bin Laden and other Al'Qaeda fighters were allowed to escape into Pakistan.

Now imagine for a moment if Gen. Musharraf was assassinated or that his rule was overthrown by a coup. Radical Islamists seize power in Islamabad. They are sympathetic to Al'Qaeda. They have nukes. Al'Qaeda is actively seeking biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons to use against the United States. Scary. Even if Musharraf isn't overthrown, there is the possiblity of Pakistani nukes making it into the hands of terrorists. Take, for example, A.Q. Kahn, the nuclear scientist credited with running a nuclear black market and selling technology to not only Iran, but North Korea.

Recent events are only serving to further illustrate the instability of Pakistan. A recent article titled "Controverisal Clerics Receive Death Threats From Authorities" by Syed Saleem Shahzad reports that after "last week's deadly bomb blasts in the Pakistani cities of Islamabad and Peshawar, well-placed sources in the capital told Adnkronos International that president General Pervez Musharraf asked the Pakistani Air Force to carry out an airstrike on the largest Islamic seminary or madrassa in Islamabad." The article goes on to say that those "attending reportedly disagreed categorically with the idea of an air strike in the captial city..." and pointed out that the Islamic students were "...a force to be reckoned with."

This recent example just goes to show how tenuous the situation of Pakistan is. The government is, at the top with Musharraf, trying to clamp down on fundamentalist Islamists, while at the bottom many sympathise with the Islamists. The ultimate question is what to do about Pakistan to make it less of a threat to the world as a whole.

Here's the link to the article:

Pakistan: Controversial Clerics Receive 'Death Threats' from Authorities
by Syed Saleem Shahzad, 1-29-07
http://www.adnkronosinternational.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.381167776&par=0