Andrew Olmsted, who also posted here as G'Kar, was killed yesterday in Iraq. Andy gave me a post to publish in the event of his death; the last revisions to it were made in July.Andy was a wonderful person: decent, honorable, generous, principled, courageous, sweet, and very funny. The world has a horrible hole in it that nothing can fill. I'm glad Andy -- generous as always -- wrote something for me to publish now, since I have no words at all. Beyond: Andy, I will miss you.My thoughts are with his wife, his parents, and his brother and sister.What follows is Andy's post: a bit here; the rest below the fold. [UPDATE: I'm adding links to Andy's last post at his Rocky Mountain News blogs, from about a week ago, where friends and family are expressing support in comments; to an article from yesterday that I believe is about his death; and to a post he wrote on his reasons for going to Iraq last June.]Read the post http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2008/01/andy-olmsted.html
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Friday, January 4, 2008
Kenyan Violence Threatens Once Thriving Economy
Nairobi
04 January 2008
The World Bank is warning that post-election unrest in Kenya is threatening east Africa's largest economy and could wipe out impressive gains the country has achieved in recent years. As VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu reports from the Kenyan capital Nairobi, widespread violence, triggered by allegations of vote-rigging in last Thursday's hotly-contested elections, has disrupted transportation and closed businesses, creating food and fuel shortages in Kenya.
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| Convoy of vehicles escorted by police in town of Burnt Forest, some 35 kilometers from Eldoret, Kenya, 4 Jan 08 |
Mr. Kibaki, a member of Kenya's dominant ethnic Kikuyu tribe, was declared the winner of an election that was too close to call before the December 27 vote. The opposition, led by Raila Odinga, an ethnic Luo who has the support of many other tribes, charged the election was rigged. International observers have also questioned the final tally.
Battles between protesters and police and ethnic clashes have killed more than 300 people in Nairobi, the Rift Valley, and the coastal town of Mombasa and have paralyzed the country.
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| Opposition supporters hold machetes and crude weapons next to a poster of opposition leader Raila Odinga during riots in the Mathare slum in Nairobi, 2 Jan 08 |
Grocery stores in Nairobi and other parts of the country are reportedly running out of basic goods such as flour, oil, milk, and bread, and gas stations have started to close because trucks have not been able to make fuel deliveries.
Jane Wangui owns a hair salon in downtown Nairobi, one of a handful of shops in the area open for business on Friday.
She says she fears a prolonged political crisis could mean financial ruin for her and many other small business owners.
"Everyday, we are losing money, we are losing clients, and it gets to a point where we cannot pay our employees because there is no money coming in. So, we have to work. What I am doing right now is praying to God that things will come back to normal," she said.
On Wednesday, the World Bank expressed concern that Kenya's impressive economic growth, averaging about six percent per year since 2005, could be erased if the unrest continues.
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| Tourists at Moi International Airport in Mombasa, Kenya, check in to return home, 4 Jan 08 |
A Nairobi-based economic analyst and commentator, Robert Shaw, says although Kenya has been rocked by riots and ethnic fighting in previous years, the unrest this time has been particularly damaging because Kenya had been steadily attracting foreign investors, eager to participate in the country's booming economy.
"And now, that confidence is being put into question," said Shaw. "Even if things are resolved tomorrow, you cannot forget what has happened in the last week and whether it will repeat itself."
To avert a nation-wide fuel and banking crisis, the Kenyan police have offered to provide free escort to companies transporting money to banks and trucks carrying fuel.
Local media say fuel shortages have stranded hundreds of motorists and commuters in towns along the Mombasa-Nairobi highway and in some rural parts of Kenya.
US Unemployment Hits Two-Year High
White House
04 January 2008
Unemployment in the United States rose sharply last month and government figures released late Friday show the number of new jobs was at its lowest level in four years. As VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns reports, President Bush is considering more tax cuts in an effort to boost the nation's sagging economy.
American unemployment rose to five percent last month, the highest rate since 2005. And new employment statistics released Friday show the U.S. economy added only 18,000 new jobs in December, far fewer than most economists expected.
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| President Bush, flanked by VP Dick Cheney, left, and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, meeting with members of President's Working Group on Financial Markets, 4 Jan 2008 |
"This economy of ours is on a solid foundation, but we can't take economic growth for granted, and there are signs that will cause us to be ever more diligent and make sure good policies come out of Washington," he said.
The president says consumer spending is still strong and core inflation is low, but home values are declining and gasoline and food prices are rising.
Mr. Bush warned opposition Democrats in Congress against raising taxes, saying that is the worst thing lawmakers could do. But he did urge them to pass legislation that could help more Americans refinance their homes.
"When Congress comes back, I look forward to working with them to deal with the economic realities of the moment and to ensure the American people that we will do everything we can to make sure we remain a prosperous country," he added.
The ongoing financial crisis over adjustable-rate mortgages continues to affect the overall economy and not just home sales. There has been a cut in jobs in the building industry and the Labor Department report also shows a drop in factory jobs.
President Bush is considering an economic stimulus package that could include more tax cuts. In a Thursday interview with the Reuters news service, Mr. Bush said he and his economic team are considering all their options and he probably will not decide whether to act until his State of the Union address later this month.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer is urging the president to take action to avoid what the lawmaker says could be the economy tumbling into recession.
Al-Qaida Uses Women As Suicide Attackers
BAGHDAD — It goes against religious taboos in Iraq to involve women in fighting, but three recent suicide bombings carried out by women could indicate insurgents are growing increasingly desperate.
The female suicide attacks come as U.S.-led coalition forces are increasingly catching militants suspected of training women to become human bombs or finding evidence of efforts by al-Qaida in Iraq to recruit women, according to military records.
With coalition forces pushing extremists out of former strongholds and shrinking their pool of potential recruits, the militants are being forced to come up with other methods to penetrate stiffened security measures, said Diaa Rashwan, who follows Islamic militancy for Egypt's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
"There's a sense that this is an act of desperation," said Col. Donald Bacon, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.
Female suicide bombers are a small part of the insurgents' battle to force U.S. troops from Iraq and rattle Shiites from newly acquired power. Women have been responsible for 14 of 667 suicide attacks since May 2005, or 2 percent. They have caused at least 107 deaths, or 5 percent of the 2,065 people killed during this time period, according to Associated Press statistics.
But those attacks appear to be increasing.
In November and December, women carried out three suicide bombings in Diyala province, one of Iraq's most violent areas, where al-Qaida in Iraq has a stronghold. The last female suicide bombing had been in July.
On Nov. 4, a woman detonated an explosives vest next to a U.S. patrol in Diyala's regional capital, Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, wounding seven U.S. troops and five Iraqis. On Dec. 7, a woman attacked the offices of a Diyala-based Sunni group fighting al-Qaida in Iraq, killing 15 people and wounding 35. Then, on Dec. 31, a bomber in Baqouba detonated her suicide vest close to a police patrol, wounding five policemen and four civilians.
Devastating attacks continue in Iraq even as Iraqi casualties are down by 55 percent nationwide since June 2007, according to an AP count. American and Iraqi forces, and thousands of Sunni tribal groups who turned against al-Qaida in Iraq, have pushed the extremist group from Baghdad and Anbar province west of the capital. The al-Qaida fighters have moved into Diyala northeast of Baghdad and farther north into Mosul, 225 miles northwest of the capital.
The tightening noose — at least for now — appears to be prompting the militants to turn to women attackers, Rashwan said, noting that extremist Muslim groups use women only when they see no alternative.
"Women should be in the last rows" of fighting, he said. "So to see women (suicide bombers) shows an abnormal situation — the absence of men."
Women have acted as suicide bombers for other causes. The first known female suicide bomber was Sana Mheidali, a Lebanese who killed two Israeli soldiers in 1985. Female Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka have carried out at least 60 suicide bombings in 24 years. Palestinian Muslim militants send out women suicide bombers, as does the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has waged a guerrilla war since 1984 for autonomy in Turkey's southeast.
Because of Muslim cultural sensitivities, women can be excellent candidates for suicide attacks when there are no female security guards. Most Iraqis are conservative Muslims who believe physical contact is forbidden between women and men not related by blood or marriage. As a result, women are often allowed to pass through male-guarded checkpoints without being searched. In October, the U.S. Army trained 20 women to work as security guards in a Baghdad suburb after a female suicide bomber entered a nearby building without being searched.
"We know it's a tactic that al-Qaida in Iraq is trying to use," Bacon said.
At least twice in December and once in August, al-Qaida members suspected of training women to use suicide belts were captured, the U.S. military has said. There are no military reports before August indicating suspicion of al-Qaida in Iraq training women attackers.
Some female bombers appear to be motivated by revenge, like the woman who killed 15 people in Diyala province on Dec. 7. She was a former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath party whose two sons joined al-Qaida in Iraq and were killed by Iraqi security forces.
But other women may be ideologues, just like their male counterparts, said Mohammad Hafiz, a University of Missouri professor who focuses on Muslim extremism.
Still others are influenced by relatives and spouses, "especially those dependent on them emotionally or materially," Hafiz said.
One of them, Sajida al-Rishawi, was married to a suicide bomber. The Iraqi woman tried unsuccessfully to detonate her explosives belt in an Amman, Jordan hotel on Nov. 9. 2005. Her husband and their other accomplices succeeded in blowing themselves up, however. Three hotels were bombed, and 60 people were killed.
Although use of women can be a sign of desperation, female suicide bombers also help extremist groups attract male recruits. Militants exploit the image of desperate women fighting because there aren't enough brave men, taunting would-be male suicide bombers into action, Hafiz said.
"Women," Hafiz said, "make great propaganda."
Let’s Stay In Iraq For “100 Years”!
Q: President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years — ” (cut off by McCain)McCain: “Make it a hundred.”
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Clemens: Injections Were Vitamin B-12 & Painkiller
In an interview to be broadcast Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes," Roger Clemens told interviewer Mike Wallace that he never used banned performance-enhancing substances but was injected by former trainer Brian McNamee with vitamin B-12 and with lidocaine, a painkiller. When pressed further - "Swear?" Wallace asked. "I swear," Clemens replied.
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Bank keeps woman's life savings
Chase is refusing to honor a cashiers check for $19.700.22, 82-year-old widow Willie Floyd's life savings. Willie stored the check in a $10 per year safe deposit box at the local bank. When she tried to shift the funds into a regular savings account last year, she was told that cashiers checks expire after 5 years
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Fall of China
Largely ignored by the media, the latest story to come out of Washington changes the world. The story's unlikely source was the staid World Bank, which published updated statistics on the economic output of 146 countries. China's economy, said the bank, is smaller than it thought. About 40% smaller.
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AT&T offers $20 naked DSL,
Just like it's $10 DSL option, AT&T has quietly introduced its $20 "naked" DSL option--that is, DSL with no landline and (allegedly) no contract. We are having a hard time finding that exact combo on AT&T's website, though.
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Our torturous vice president
Yesterday, Attorney General Mike Mukasey announced a DoJ probe into the CIA’s torture tape destruction. The Washington Post’s Dan Froomkin raises the question of whether the probe will investigate the roles of Vice President Dick Cheney and his chief of staff, David Addington
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Japan proposes Net censorship
The Japanese government may begin to more heavily scrutinize websites mobile content and file sharing if a series of proposals go through. "Harmful" content could be censored and copyrighted files would be watermarked under two of the proposals.
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