Far East Cynic

And to tell the truth, to tired as well. I just can’t hang anymore! A big night out takes two days to recover.

Too many of these:

Which leads to none of these:

Have a good weekend!

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Is a happy man. On the road again. Partly for business, partly for peace of mind. Heading down to the not so fragrant harbor to do some serious thinking about life and its current direction. As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for, someday yoou may surely get it.

After that on my way back east for business and maybe some decent mexican food.

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Saw a great quote in a recent time magazine. Who would you rather be stranded with on a desert island: Ann Coulter or Katherine Harris? I agree with Al Franken’s answer, Katherine Harris because there is more meat on the bone. ( and elsewhere…….)

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Speaking of meat on the bone, I have been watching the commentary on the leak of sections of the National Intelligence estimate. On the one hand there is the obvious violation of law, by someone in the service of the goverment-for it could only have come from somone with clearance and access to the document-and the potential damage that it does by revealing sources and methods of gathering intellingence. On the other hand it is heartening to know that our Intelligence agencies are actually returning to the idea of providing clear headed analysis and thought, instead of simply packaging the ideas that they have been told to. To me, its a vindication of sorts. I published a post a few months back about the revolt of the professionals, which quoted the disgust of seaseoned intelligence professionals at having their work so callously disregarded by the current cabal that resides on the E-ring. I see this report as simply another signpost of that trend. It also proves to me what I have felt for a long time. Terrorism can mutate and mestatize creating more bad cells than what you started with.

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Man, I love the beer machine here in the lounge! It pours a perfect beer every time! I’ll be back in minute……………

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Finally I think you should go over and check out the fine words of Hemlock……..on that curse of the Western World, Krispy Kreme! That and coffee would make a fine breakfast. Have to check it out!

Ja ne!

Is it just me, or are you just as confused over the flap about Bill Clinton losing his temper with a Fox news reporter?

See when Bill loses his temper-which is reputed to be quite easy-he is judged as having “lost it”, “overstepped his bounds”, and “guilty of an ego trip”.

However when Bush does it, which seems to be anytime any reporter from any network has the termerity to ask how getting shot at in an Arab hell hole, full of religious nutjobs arguing about the successor to the prophet who died 1300 years ago, somehow contributes to the American security in the world and he gets every bit as feisty; its considered strong, powerful leadership.

Lets face it. People either love or hate Clinton. If you hate him, then you feel that he lost it. Could he have done more to stop OBL? Hell yes, even he admits that. However, I applaud him for sticking it to a Fox news reporter, who decided a long time ago to go to the dark side, simply because Rupert Murdoch pays a few more bucks.

If you like him, well you will be like some in the Democratic party who see this as a rallying cry. My problem with that line of thinking is: “A rally cry behind whom? With the exception of James Webb, the Democrats have no one of stature to rally behind.” Hillary? – give me a break. Nancy Pelosi? Not a chance. Ted Kennedy? -Now I need a drink!

I always felt Clinton could never make up his mind which type of Democrat he wanted to be- Scoop Jackson or Bella Abzug. If he tried to be like the former, he would have had to renounce the two “f’s”-Fags and Feminism. If he gave in to trying to be like the latter, well that did not quite fit in with “retaking the center”.

Which brings me to one key observation one should bear in mind, no matter which party you belong to. As I said to the Phibian the other day:

There is an issue of context. People are looking at what Clinton did in a pre 9-11 world through the lens of a post 9-11 world. Should he have firebombed Aden killing as many Yemenis as possible after the Cole? Yea he should have. But with the election 2 weeks away and no clear proof of who did it? Bush was able to invade Iraq because of 9-11. If that event had never happened, there would have been no way Bush could have invaded, no matter how much he wanted to. I remain convinced that was one reason Bush chose to go (into Iraq) as early as he did, because he felt the stars would not be aligned properly the longer he waited. Short strikes on selected targets? Reagan and GHWB did the same thing. It was the accepted paradigm. Putting troops on the ground after Somalia was just not in the public vocabulary.

So many of these back seat drivers forget that, but for 9-11, much of what we are doing would be unacceptable in the world of 9-10. That does not mean there were a lot of things that to like about Clinton, but in this area, would Bob Dole have done anything differently? Or GWB’s Dad? No. We just were not ready for anything different. And at that, what has GWB’s really aggressive tactics bought us? 2600+ Americans dead in Iraq, the place still a mess and Bin Laden dying in his sleep. Afghanistan still in tatters, and the world just as unsafe and paranoid as before.

I’m no Clinton fan. But we need to remember the environment he worked in.

Now lay into me! But remember, I watch real news-NHK……………

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It was all Abe all the time at our place last night. NHK had a special news broadcast to celebrate the election of Shinzo Abe ( pronounced AH be, not Abe). The 52-year-old president of the ruling LDP is the youngest postwar prime minister and the first to be born after World War II.

He has already named his cabinent. What is left to be discovered are such weighty questions as these:

1) Since Koizumi was “Bush’s poodle“, what canine moniker will the new Prime Minster pick up?

2) Does the new PM like Elvis?

3) When will be the best day to piss off both the Chinese and Koreans by taking a jaunt through Yasukuni?

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For those of you paying attention to this blog lately, and to borrow a phrase from Bob Uecher, “And judging by the attendance figures, a lot of you haven’t!”, I thought I would point out that not everything here is sheer drivel.

Sometimes, rarely I will admit, I actually write something useful.

So. From time to time, I plan to give you some links to the posts I am particularly proud of. Hopefully, like wine, you will enjoy them with age. If not, there’s always here to go to.

So here we go. Enjoy:

A new meme!

The 10 stages of drunkeness!

The maid’s day off.

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If you are Gloria Macdangalang Arroyo that is. On the outside she exhibits confidence, but you know she has to be watching the US response to the coup in Thailand very carefully. Now mind you it has nothing to do with the fact that Thaksin may have deserved it, being both a crook and a buffoon. ( Maybe now the bars can stay open later!).

Its no secret that there are factions of the Philippine Army that are just chomping at the bit to make GMA go away. After all as I pointed out several months ago, surely you don’t expect her to actually do something about the sorry state the Philippines is in. No, not her. She would rather find ways to make sure Filipina maids be better trained before they go overseas to get raped work for peanuts.

Then again, old GMA may have learned a thing or two from Philippine history, or from the man she supposedly despises:

Spike kind of summed up the options last year when he ghost wrote three versions of her State of the Nation speech last year. Seems like it still applies now:

1 – I’m really a good president. I’m sorry about the last election thing but I did nothing wrong. You elected me fairly and I am going to serve out the entire term. Sorry if I have no ideas about how to mend the fucked economy or deal with the terrorists in the South. Bite me. Thanks.2 – I’m declaring martial law and becoming a tyrant to end all this silly impeachment talk. Bite me. Thanks.

3 – I’ve thought it over and realize the country is in a terrible crisis. Our economy continues to stand still, our problems are no nearer to being solved, and nothing can move forward at all while the entire debate is centered on my honesty and ability to lead the country. So for the good of all, I resign my post as President and hand the reigns over to soft-core porn star Patricia Javier, who at least will look hot when she gives her speeches. See if you’re not begging to have me reinstated inside of three months. Bite me. Thanks.

That was written a year ago- has anything changed?

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The Navy launched its Littoral Combat Ship this weekend..
Love them or hate them, they are expensive. This poster kind of captures the feeling:

For you Navy folks just take out the words B-52, and substitute LCS for F-22 and the meaning remains the same.

Nuff said on that!

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I finally got off my ass and reorganized and updated the links. Hopefully I got everyone and they are correct. If you know someone I missed, who should be a part of the “Fair haired fraternity of expat ragers against the Man!” let me know.

E @ L ‘s caveat applies however:

“I no longer seeks permission to link other blogs here, nor expects notification of linkages in return. That is the most stupidest “netiquette” crap ever.
You are on-line? You are fair game for being linked to, deal with it.”

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I’ll bet the Democrats are wishing they could “waterboard” Kofi Annan about now. Because this year’s General Assembly session is a die hard Republican’s wet dream. And all it cost Karl Rove is a couple of Noam Chomsky books…………..

If he could get Hugo and Mahmoud Whasshisname to come along on a tour of the South and Midwest, the President could probably get back above a 50% approval rating.

As was pointed out in another blog, “President Bush can talk about his national security plan and foreign policy all day long……….but no one makes a more compelling case than the duo of Mahmooud and Hugo.”

The comment was meant in jest, but in truth, their coming here and giving their speech was a Godsend for Bush and the Republican party. Does anyone remember what the President of the United States said? No. And there has been precious little coverage of him saying it. However watching Hugo Chavez play the role of latino buffoon crossing himself and calling Bush the devil, that’s priceless. Both of them make the perfect set up figures, to arouse the jingoistic impulses in all of us. To steal a line from Animal House, “Hey! They can’t do that to our politicians pledges! Only we can do that to our pledges.”

Hugo needs to go back to public affairs school. Cheap theatrics only backfire. ” Oh no, don’t shoot him. You’ll just make him mad…!” Both these guys need to talk with Musharev, who picks Bush’s pocket while playing the slick “friend of the war on terror”. All the while dropping indiscrete hints that he was bullied into it, and he really does not know what all those Taliban are doing walking around free and clear in his country. And did anyone but me notice how really empty the assembly was when they were speaking? A far cry from the packed house when Kruschev was banging his shoe. The applause only seemed loud, in reality it was no applause at all.

Talk about the issues? No need to as long as Hugo is around. He makes the perfect punching bag. Mahmooud Whassisname, hell he looks scary. Imagining him with nukes makes one break out into a cold sweat……….

Wonder how many books Karl would have to buy to get these guys to campaign till November. The Democrats should lead the drive to get these guys back on the plane immediately….with a gag in each mouth. Because every time they open it, its a 5 point drop for the Democrats. Namely because they have no one who can make a better case.

And it probably has not hurt Chomsky’s book sales either………….

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And you know what that means………….

Time for one of these:

And then go look at the top ten list of these:

Have a great weekend!

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Every service has problems with evaluations. The folks at Chairforce.com have put a new meaning in the term truth in reporting (Click on the picture to make it readable):

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From Wonkette. Wonder if she was the last person to throw up in the back of an F-14?

Bathroom gossip and war pornographer Kyra Phillips was reportedly the last journalist (or TV announcer, whatever) to be flown around in an F-14 so that she’d do a fluff feature on how great it is to do a fluff feature on the military. Some Kyra highlights from the transcript:

–>“Maybe because I’m addicted to it, and I just can’t get enough of it. I feel like this is my life in another lifetime, Carol.”
—>“But it’s been — I tell you what, it’s a piece of history, happening right here before our eyes. I mean, naval aviation goes back decades. It’s participated in all the major wars.”
—>“I can see you guys coming in now. Why don’t you give our viewers a taste of what we’re going to do once we’re airborne?”

Hardly what I call insightful reporting. But she gets to fly in the Tomcat and I don’t. What’s up with that?

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Have been watching all the coverage of Hugo Chavez and Iranian President Nameicannotpronounce about their speeches in the UN. Its simply amazing for a whole host of reasons. Mainly because both leaders are living examples of what is wrong with the world economy today and why we cannot make more progress in advance United States interests than we do.

Lets look at Chavez. This man’s country gets 10 Million US dollars a day in petro dollars. The United States forks it over to feed its oil habit. Same principal exists in the Middle East. Yet in Venezuela at least there are still way too many people living below the poverty line. In the Arab countries, they treat their citizens with contempt because they can afford to pay others to do all the hard work for them. Countries like the PI, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh feed this economic imbalance, ergo they make no progress in their own societies because they don’t have to. It becomes a self defeating cycle that continues on and on -fed by oil money-up and till their is some event that shakes up the status quo.

Consider some other examples. In Iraq, if the US had been able to deliver on the services the Iraqi’s expected from the start, it would have probably done a lot to short circuit the insurgency. Because of the security situation being as tenuous as it is, Iraq makes no economic progress. It needs a stable infrastructure more than it needs democracy. Unfortunately its democratically elected government seems unable to deliver it.

The rich may be getting richer due to globalization, but for the rest of us: the people who do the working, the sweating, the living and the dying median income is actually going down. That gap is not poised to narrow anytime soon. And worse, the rich who hold the money are doing nothing to close the gap. If anything the seeds are being sewn for a massive breakdown. America’s addiction to allowing others to hold its debt, particularly its main enemy China, is very troubling. Righting this situation will be tricky, and having a President who is committed to increasing those imbalances through wartime and other deficit spending does not help the process.

Iran, for all its bluster is an structurally imbalanced country. It makes huge revenues from oil that are being misspent. Thus Iran has some serious social and other problems it turns a blind eye to, or hides under a Muslim veil. It cannot do so forever.

That is what is really sad. No one, anywhere, is making an effort to address this imbalance. The war on terror is fixing a symptom of economic distress, without curing the main cause of the disease: frustration that makes people susceptible to the mouthings of Muslim wakcos.

In the old days, we had European empires to keep this in check and at the least, keep the money in the hands of the West. Now it seems we have to be resigned to seeing the West vicimized while the parts of the east rise-others do not.

So in the end, I’m stating the obvious. Want to fix the rights of women and others in outside countries? Wean them off the spending for conflict and provide some balance in their workforce. “Business as usual” simply feeds the causes of discontent. That’s what folks were trying to say at the UN. Provide some equity in the global market place and you will go a long way to reducing the root cause of the current violence in the world.

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Deputy to the Deputy”? As an Flag Officer? I’m sure RADM Fox is a fine officer, but c’mon… this should serve as a wake-up call to everyone who sees it that the Navy just has too many Admirals. Maybe NAVPERS can come up with a “Drawdown Game” for Flags — but of course they won’t. One of the most jealously-guarded items within each service, and for each community within the services, is the number of General and Flag Officer billets they get — no one wants to give up a slot, because that would mean they’d be perceived as becoming less important. The Navy has well over 200 Flag Officers for a force of 282 deployable battle force ships — most of which are commanded by O-5s. The Army has 25 General Officers for each division — or about 1 per battalion/regiment, which are also commanded by O-5s. At least the Air Force is looking at cutting their numbers of Generals — although I doubt it will actually happen, for the aforementioned reason.

And don’t even get me started on the number of O-6s with no apparent function other than to keep people below them in the chain of command from working efficiently…

Its 279 Flags to be precise. The same number we had in 1991……………….

One side note. What has always amazed me is that in Japan, the submarine and P-3 flags split their duties between 7th and 5th fleets. Why? Why not have an O-6 for each fleet? Have an O-6 command the Task Force in Fifth fleet and an O-6 run the one in 7th fleet. After all in the case of the P-3 guy, he is commanding 1/3 as many aircraft as a TACAIR O-6 commands. Go see above for why not.

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Under the category of “While you were out………” , the military in Thailand staged a good old fashioned Coup de Etat. People are “shocked!, Shocked” that this happened. I don’t understand why. Thaksin has been asking for this for about 6 months now. Thaksin was supposed to have stepped down in April. He did not, however. In Thailand, as in Turkey, the military always holds the trump card. Its the fourth coup in 60 years that I can think of.

What does amaze me is that people are asking the question about,”what does this do for the US -Thai relationship?” Nothing. The US would be stupid to make something of this. So long as the bars in Pattaya stay open and we can use Utapao AB, it is really none of our business. That is what worries me. People will try to make more out of this than it really is…………..

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If really needed one of these, why would you GIVE IT BACK?

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Finally, here is what George W. wishes he could do to critics of his GTMO plan. Courtesy of Hemlock:

The new-look, Foreign Affairs wannabe Far Eastern Economic Review can finally look its critics in the face. Like any publication of integrity, it is being sued by the drooling geriatric despot Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s de facto President for Life. When I read the magazine’s interview with opposition politician Chee Soon Juan a few months ago, it crossed my mind that this might happen. Chee mentioned the National Kidney Foundation scandal, in which the leadership of an institution supposedly founded for the public good massively overpaid themselves, lived in luxury and issued defamation suits against nosy outsiders – in other words, acted just like the Lion City’s government. And he gave his opinion, as he has before, about the country whose ruling family have sued him, had him declared bankrupt, and had him jailed.

Meanwhile, the World Bank and IMF accuse the Singapore authorities of reneging on an agreement to allow members of non-governmental organizations access to their Annual Meeting being held in the city state. A few months back in a Canadian court, a defendant in a commercial case argued against local enforcement of a Singapore court decision on the grounds that the Lion City’s judiciary is rotten, allowing itself to be used to persecute government opponents like Chee. It would be interesting if, for a change, a media company faced with the wrath of the senile, nepotistic bully who passes himself off as visionary elder statesman and Minister Mentor stood its ground and told the old goat to take a hike. Then the FEER could actually look down on a few people.

That will never happen by the way. If only GW knew he could be a “Minister Mentor”.
Then we would never leave Iraq. And the New York Times would be just like the Straits Times….”All the adds that we can fit”. Problem is that job is currently held by Clinton, who has yet to realize he’s not the President anymore…………………………..

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Rock on baby!

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For a guy who had 3 times the legal limit at the Naval Academy, I felt pretty good when I got up to go to work this morning. So there, Helen Dunn, one can drink and still make it to work on time. ( In case you have not figured it out, I’ve picked the good CAPT to be my whipping girl for at least the next few days. Enjoy it! Its a privilege few get to share….).

I went and had some beers with the Yankee Sailor tonight. He’s a good guy. Doing a hard job that is made harder by the mis-management of his superiors. His TIMBWA ( Time at Home in Bed With Mama) is going to suck for the next few months. So without a doubt he is working harder than me. He’s a shoe too, so he deserves extra sympathy. They do eat their young. Send him some greetings!

One final point before I close. Can someone explain to me why the Pope has to apologize to a bunch of worthless Muslims? Should it not be the other way around? Perhaps he should remind them, that Ishmael came from the “black sheep” side of the family, not Isaac. Accordingly you should just go suck ( Halal) eggs! Muslims have to be the most easily offended people on earth! I’ll tell you what offends me. Americans getting blown up by useless Arabs. Any time you worthless Islamic f**ks want to answer for that, I’m all ears. And please don’t blame it on that useless piece of excrement, Mohammed. History, proves that quite wrong, if you worthless as*h**les had bothered to study it.

That felt good! So too did realizing that I cannot change the eventual outcome, but I can go kicking and screaming to the destination! He’s back! And just as ornery as ever……………….

Because E @ L told me so…………….

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