The minutes from a high level meeting between English and French diplomats in Afghanistan have been leaked to a French newspaper (Le Canard Enchainé). French government officials have admitted that the leaked information is authentic. According to the British Ambassador to Afghanistan:

• “The current situation is bad, the security situation is getting worse, so is corruption, and the government has lost all trust…”

• “The presence of the coalition, in particular its military presence, is part of the problem, not part of its solution… Foreign forces are the lifeline of a regime that would rapidly collapse without them. As such, they slow down and complicate a possible emergence from the crisis.”

• The American strategy is “destined to fail.”

• The only “realistic” way to unite Afghanistan would be for it to be “governed by an acceptable dictator” and the governments of the occupying forces (U.S., England, France, etc.) should begin preparing public opinion for this.

New York Times story here.

Obviously, no comment on the moral or legal implications of any of this.

- Bunny

Added 10/04: (click picture for larger)

This cartoon by Matt Bors from GI Special 6J3 [ download PDF ]. Pass it around - it’s what (some) GIs are reading. Thanks to HI-REDVET folks for forwarding to us. - B.

I’m almost done reading this book, it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year. I felt like I must post this video interview and I hope millions of people will watch it and then go out and borrow this book from the library.

“You will be shocked and disturbed by this book. Most Americans reject outright any comparison of post 9/11 America with the fascism and totalitarianism of Nazi Germany or Pinochet’s Chile. Sadly, the parallels and similarities, what Wolf calls the ‘echoes’ between those societies and America today, are all too compelling.” - Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights

“The time is now…”

Go here: [ American Freedom Campaign ]

Posted by Kim.

What’s happening? The Dow Jones industrial average is down 40% since its peak of 14,165 points a year ago, on October 9, 2007. That’s a loss of $8.4 trillion. Is this a result of greed and fraud on Wall Street? Who is responsible? Has anyone gone to jail yet?

Kim and I are following the coverage of this financial crisis. Unfortunately, we often have difficulty understanding humans. (Just listen to the election debates – someone, or everyone, has to be lying.)

Trouble in the credit markets means no loans, and no loans mean no money. You may ask: Why are humans so dependent on debt? Here’s a helpful video called Money as Debt - it’s 47 minutes long but goes a long way to explain the current situation. Interesting how animated characters are easier to understand than humans in general.

Thanks to Matthew for sending us a link to this video.

Posted by Mimi.

[ note from Bunny: I like the information contained in this video, especially the first half which covers the "history of money". Not crazy about the drawings tho. ]

Now that the presidential elections are almost here, we’ve been getting more and more e-mails from people asking us who we’re going to vote for. Well, as I’ve pointed out many times before, cats are barred from participating in human being elections.

But, for all of you people out there who (supposedly) can vote, you may want to watch this short video. BBC reporter Greg Palast (one of the more interesting, and dare I say it - entertaining - reporters out there) filed this short video report about how Republican & Democrat party politicians have been secretly engaged in a back-room struggle to rig the upcoming presidential elections. Don’t go down to your neighborhood polling place only to be met with a unpleasant surprise (”No, you can’t vote…”) - watch this video!

This video originally appeared as part of Democracy Now!’s October 9, 2008 broadcast. You can watch the whole show (or read the transcript) by clicking here.

I’m guessing that after you watch the video you’ll be feeling very, very angry - no problem, Greg Palast and Bobby Kennedy Jr. have already anticipated that. They’ve published an informational comic book (less depressing / funner than a conventional newspaper article) that you can download here if you want to know how to “steal back your vote”.

[ www.StealBackYourVote.org ]

Good night,
pinky

We are very pleased to hear that a U.S. District Judge has (finally!) ruled that the Army cannot send Lt. Ehren Watada to trial a second time for the same charges - to do so is called ‘double jeopardy’ and would be a violation of his constitutional rights. As you may recall, the first trial was declared a mistrial by the presiding Army judge when he realized that the trial wasn’t going as well as he had hoped (i.e., guaranteed conviction). With this additional setback hopefully the Army will just discharge Lt. Watada already - his term of service to the military was actually over in 2006, since then he’s basically been held captive by the legal process and consigned to a meaningless desk job counting paper clips.

I don’t know what will happen next - if we hear something we’ll post it here.

[ Pinky Show Ehren Watada speech from 2006 ]

~ pinky

Over the past few months Bunny and I been posting some interesting stories about the U.S. presidential elections here in our blog. Today I have a few nice, short YouTube videos for you, posted in no particular order. Here come the elections - I hope you all vote! Take care, pinky

Cornel West:

Howard Zinn:

Noam Chomsky:

Two of the (Nearly-)Invisible:

[ Bunny: I want to punch Wolf Blitzer in the nose. ]