I arrived in Ahmedabad about an hour ago. Of course, I saw the cloud of pollution hanging over the city, obscuring buildings, long before I got off the train. I'm not sure if Delhi or Ahmedabad is more filthy. I'll know more tomorrow. However, I won't be here long as I am catching to 1100am train to Jodhpur in the hopes of making it to Jaisalmer by the Holi Festival. That's the one where the Indians throw tikka powder at each other. And you can bet I will be participating, with photos, of course.

By the way, there are about three pages of new photos up. Some are from Bijapur, others are from Ellora. Hopefully I'll get the Ajanta photos up in the next two days. I especially like this one (really, what's not to like about a painting that is a 1,000 years old and looks like it was done yesterday and this one--which is a photo of me! This one of the Gol Gumbaz isn't half bad, either. And this one too.

I love this shot of some Indian schoolgirls as well. They were tickled to see their own photo. And the Mount Kailash cave was very impressive. Worth the day and a half detour just to see it. And this last one is just a classic Indian photo.

So now I am going to go take a shower and get rid of three or four layers of accumulated filth. Ahhh, the small pleasures in life!

The Obama administration has a rather odd view of bipartisanship. Barack Obama has gone out of his way to schmooze Republican politicians, in the vain hope of attracting even a handful of votes for his stimulus package. When he finished addressing the Congress for the first time as president, he headed immediately to the Republican side of the aisle to shake hands and dole out hugs. His entertainment schedule at the White House is filled with private dinners and intimate chats with key Republican Congressional leaders.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the White House – it is presumed to emanate from the office of chief of staff Rahm Emanuel – a sting operation was mounted to trap Republicans into acknowledging Rush Limbaugh as their party leader. Various Democratic party officials goaded Limbaugh into ever more outrageous claims, and when he finally admitted he wanted President Obama to fail, the Democrats pounced. They organized a nationwide campaign, using party officials, newspaper reporters, bloggers, and television personalities, to put Republicans on the spot: did they want the president to fail, or did they renounce Rush Limbaugh? Newt Gingrich ought to be proud, since he invented this game of phony indignation over an inconsequential issue, all part of his take-no-prisoners, slash-and-burn brand of politics.

Michelle Boorstein | Mar 9

WaPo - Fewer Call Themselves Christians; Nondenominational Identification Increases

The percentage of Americans who call themselves Christians has dropped dramatically over the past two decades, and those who do are increasingly identifying themselves without traditional denomination labels, according to a major study of U.S. religion being released today.

The survey of more than 54,000 people conducted between February and November of last year showed that the percentage of Americans identifying as Christians has dropped to 76 percent of the population, down from 86 percent in 1990. Those who do call themselves Christian are more frequently describing themselves as "nondenominational" "evangelical" or "born again," according to the American Religious Identification Survey.

The survey is conducted by researchers at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., and funded by the Lilly Endowment and the Posen Foundation. Conducted in 1990, 2001 and last year, it is one of the nation's largest major surveys of religion.

The increase in people labeling themselves in more generic Christian terms corresponds strongly with the decline in people identifying themselves as Protestant, the survey found. People calling themselves mainline Protestants, including Methodists and Lutherans, have dropped to 13 percent of the population, down from 19 percent in 1990. The number of people who describe themselves as generically "Protestant" went from approximately 17 million in 1990 to 5 million.

Meanwhile, the number of people who use nondenominational terms has gone from 194,000 in 1990 to more than 8 million.

The only group that grew in every U.S. state since the 2001 survey was people saying they had "no" religion; the survey says this group is now 15 percent of the population. Silk said this group is likely responsible for the shrinking percentage of Christians in the United States.

** Shifting religious identities ~ interactive graphic
** Little-Known U.S. Document Signed by President Adams Proclaims America's Government Is Secular/The Treaty with Tripoli ~ Zuma

Alexandra Marks | Wethersfield, Conn. | Mar 9

CSM - Unlike banks on Wall Street, these smaller banks didn’t invest in risky mortgage-backed securities or complex derivatives.

Despite dire headlines about the credit crunch and the shaky state of financial giants like Citigroup, the vast majority of banks in the United States are doing well.

In fact, many are actually thriving and still making loans to help to grow local businesses and keep families in their homes.

Think of it as a modern-day version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” – the 1940s movie in which local banker George Bailey gives up his own dreams to save his hometown from greedy businessman Mr. Potter.

Today, there are more than 7,000 community banks that are small, community oriented, and determined to keep their assets local.

They’re the Main Street banks, which, unlike those on Wall Street, did not invest in risky mortgage-backed securities or complex derivatives. And so their balance sheets remain relatively healthy.

While they account for less than 10 percent of America’s total banking assets, their traditional, values-based approach contains plenty of lessons for their larger Wall Street counterparts, some analysts say.

Boston Globe, By Jenn Abelson, March 8: The Loss Generation.

Their first decade out of the school will be remembered not for its unprecedented boom, but for the striking string of bubbles that have burst: technology, housing, stocks. This recession's stunning job losses, plunging home values, and plummeting portfolios have turned 30-somethings uncharacteristically cautious. It's a sweeping shift in psychology for a group that is entering its prime earning and spending years - one that could turn them into a generation of savers and have a lasting effect on the economy.

I climbed the Matanga Hill to survey the remains of of Vijayanagar's 'Sacred Enclosure.' It was on this hill, after many years of wandering and after losing his wife to Ravanna, the evil king of the Rakshasas, that Rama and his brother Lakshmana were approached by the exiled brother-in-law of the monkey King Vali. Sugreeva, Rama and Lakshmana hatched a plot to overthrow Vali and use the monkey army at his disposal to wage war against Ravana and re-take Sita, Rama's lost wife. As I looked out over the ruins of Vijayanagar I was reminded why this area was orginally called Kiskinda, the Monkey Kingdom. At the summit temple dozens of monkeys lounge around in the shade, begging for bananas and grapes.

The cream colored layers of the Sri Virupaksha temple in the valley below absorbed the withering heat from the sun. It's nine in the morning and already the mercury reads ninety-four degrees. The main street of Hampi's bazaar crawled with Indian tourists, Sadhus and gypsies, in town for a music festival. Thousands of boulders, "left over after Rama had reclaimed the ocean for crossing on to Lanka," lay littered, helter-skelter, for miles in every direction, creating a landscape that looked like a pebble-garden to the gods. What remained of Vijayanagar's 'self-reliant' walls could be seen everywhere, all in a state of disrepair and disuse after 500 monsoons and countless villagers quarrying them for stones. It is nine-thirty in the morning now and the Tunghabadra River is a shimmering ribbon of quicksilver in the hazy distance. In thirty minutes the temperature has risen five more degrees: it's time to get out of the sun.

More after the jump.

Sabbath eve, March 6, 2009

Today I drove a highway between Seguin and Lockhart. The scenery resembled moonscape. Cattle stand on barren fields waiting for someone to feed them. The radio speaks of financial disaster—people around the land lose jobs in record numbers. The stock market falls in stair step fashion—any temporary gain is followed by losses that not only wipe out gains but further propel the market downward. Businesses fold one after another after another; seemingly everyone waits for a government bailout.

I hear of people gathering on courthouse steps to pray for rain. Others pray that they get to keep their job or that somehow they won’t lose their house.

What are you listening to? (first posted February 28)

Serena Ng & Carrick Mollenkamp | Washington | March 7

WSJ - The beneficiaries of the government's bailout of American International Group Inc. include at least two dozen U.S. and foreign financial institutions that have been paid roughly $50 billion since the Federal Reserve first extended aid to the insurance giant.

Among those institutions are Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Germany's Deutsche Bank AG, each of which received roughly $6 billion in payments between mid-September and December 2008, according to a confidential document and people familiar with the matter.

The Borowitz Report

Huffington Post - In remarks that seemed guaranteed to create controversy, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said today that he was "rooting for the planet Earth to explode" because it would help the GOP retake the White House.

Mr. Limbaugh elaborated on his planet explosion theory, explaining that if the world blows up in the next four years "it will happen on Barack Obama's watch."   more

No, he's not a cat, but he'll do. Here's a shot of a Hanuman Langur I snapped today at the Caves of Ellora. More pics and a post coming very soon. I know, I am way behind. Just been busy--and I have been doing lots of stuff, not just lots of nothing.

Jack Healy | Washington | March 6

NYT - Another 651,000 jobs were lost in February, adding to the millions of people who have been thrown out of work as the economic downturn deepens.

In a stark measure of the recession’s toll, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that the national unemployment rate surged to 8.1 percent last month, its highest in 24 years.

Why do I get the war mongering deja vu feeling when reading about Pakistan these days? Instead of our covert actions everyone knows about when will we just drop the pretenses and start going against any and all perceived enemies within Pakistan? Feel free to prove me wrong. :)

Feb 25

Mar 6

Intelligence failures crippling fight against insurgents in Afghanistan, says report

A highly critical analysis of the US-led coalition's counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan has raised serious questions about combat operations in both countries - and the intelligence underpinning them.

The confidential document presents a bleak picture of a counterinsurgency effort undermined by intelligence failures that at times border on the absurd.

Mar 5

As many as 360,000 US troops may have suffered brain injuries

The number of U.S. troops who have suffered wartime brain injuries may be as high as 360,000 and could cast more attention on such injuries among civilians, Defense Department doctors said Wednesday.

The estimate of the number injured — the vast majority of them suffering concussions — represents 20 percent of the roughly 1.8 million men and women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, where blast injuries are common from roadside bombs and other explosives, the doctors said.

Kurds Seize Iraq Land Past Borders in Blow to U.S. Pullout Plan

Just north of Mosul, Iraq’s second- biggest city, an ornamental metal gate spans the highway. Beyond it, the sunburst-on-tricolors of the Kurdistan flag proliferate in this region 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of the Kurds’ agreed-to autonomous zone in the country’s far northeast.

Neither Iraqi police nor soldiers venture beyond the gate.

The changed scenery reflects the slow, relentless expansion of Kurdish forces into territory far from their officially sanctioned region. The Kurds say that they are simply recovering land where they lived before the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein expelled them during his harsh 24-year rule.

Please post new stories and comments about the coalition's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on this thread. Prior update threads are here

George Miller and Katharine Reeve | March 4

How the authors of the new "Rough Guide to Food" lost their appetites for the food industry.

TimesOnlineUK - A surprise consequence of writing a book about food was that we lost our appetite. A month in, we realised we had underestimated just how devastating the effects of our industrial food systems are on our health, animal welfare, climate change and the earth's resources.
[]
Thankfully, a few trips to some farmers markets with their good news story of artisan baking, handmade cheeses and fresh-from-the-ground veg offered the escapism we needed and helped provide a sense of perspective.

Colombo | First posted Mar 3

AP - Former Sri Lanka coach Trevor Penney never believed there'd be a terror attack on a cricket team in Pakistan because the people were so passionate about the sport.

Yet Sri Lanka's decision to tour Pakistan after teams such as Australia, India and the West Indies had refused ended in a deadly attack Tuesday that has been condemned by governments and cricket players and officials around the world.

A dozen men used rifles, grenades and rocket launchers to attack a bus and van carrying the Sri Lankan team and officials to the Stadium for the third day of the second cricket test, injuring players and killing six police officers and a civilian.

• Who carried out the Lahore attack?

Mar 4: We were sitting ducks', security disappeared    hmmmmm

Oy, internet access has been extremely spotty the last few days. Hampi was great and I will post about it soon. Until then, here are some photos. Enjoy.

I'm in Bijapur today and heading off for Aurangabad tomorrow morning. Will post Bijapur photos soon as well.

The Republican party is imploding around the black hole of Rush Limbaugh's ego, and it was completely predictable. This is the inevitable endgame of a party that based its appeal on a fifty-year campaign of demonizing anybody outside of the extreme fringes of its own membership.

There used to be real moderates among Republicans. They are now gone, purged. There used to be fiscal conservatives. They were pushed out by BushCo's greedy corporatists. Today all that is left is those that chant the mindless mantras of Limbaugh: Free markets! Tax cuts! America knows best! They are zombie puppets, utterly disconnected from the most obvious realities. Rush himself proudly dubbed them "dittoheads," some call them Rushbots. Point is, none dare disagree with any little thing Rush says, lest they be cast out of the tight little circle of the faithful.

By Hannes Artens

When the first results of the Iraqi government elections of January 31 came in, there was great rejoicing in Baghdad and Washington. The American press unison declared Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Barack Obama the big winners at the polls:

-Al-Maliki, not until long ago and presumably still a puppet on Iran's strings, for having abandoned religious sectarianism and by adopting a pragmatic, secular garb saving himself, if not his party, from sound defeat.

-Obama, because the strong showing of secular nationalist alliances would allow him to abide by his campaign promise to withdraw combat troops from Iraq ASAP.

Consequently, when President Obama revealed his withdrawal plans at Camp Lejeune last week, there was a big furor. The liberal press shouted betrayal, and General Nancy Pelosi, joined by the brilliant military strategists Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid, voiced her lack of understanding why 50,000 troops would have to remain in Iraq past the 19 months timeframe the president had decided on to withdraw all major combat troops. Conspiracy theorists had a heyday, alleging Generals Petraeus and Odierno to have carried out a clandestine putsch.

No need to worry, the civilian control over the military hasn't been reversed.

The simple reason why the president has opted for a phased out drawback is that he has come to understand the realities of Iraq and America's responsibilities there, while Pelosi, Schumer, and Reid care little about what happens to the Iraqi people as long as they can keep their comfy positions by ensuring a Democrat majority in Congress.

He'll provide Netanyahu with the fig leaf he's been desperately looking for. Thus the right-wing government will find it much easier to evade Barack Obama's pressure. Barak, an egomaniac, narcissistic flip-flopper with the strategic foresight of a blind owl has bungled Camp David before. And now this. I have nothing but contempt for him - Hannes Artens

Barak tells MKs: We must join coalition

Gil Hoffman | March 2

Jerusalem Post - Labor chairman Ehud Barak has called Labor MKs in recent days and told them that the party should join a national unity government led by Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu, sources close to Barak said Sunday. Barak's associates confirmed a Channel 2 report that he had called Labor MKs to check whether he could obtain a majority in the faction for joining the government, but that he might try to bring Labor into the coalition without his faction's support.

"We have to go in," Barak told the MKs. "Be on my side. I don't care if I don't have a majority in the faction. I can pass it in the central committee." A source close to Barak said the party leader felt it would be better for the country and for himself to remain defense minister, and that it was now a matter of persuading his party that this would not harm Labor.     more

Two remarkable events took place in recent days involving the war against the Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban, and al Qaeda. Neither event augurs well for US/NATO efforts in Afghanistan, though important opportunities may arise. In any case, recent events signal a new phase in the war in Afghanistan.

First, the Pakistani government negotiated a pact with the Pakistani Taliban in the Swat Valley of the country’s turbulent and increasingly independent North-West Frontier Province. The agreement allows for the imposition of Islamic Law in the region, which the Pakistani Taliban had been imposing on its own through threats and violence. Second, on the heels of the Swat agreement came the announcement that a few previously antagonistic Islamist groups had put aside differences, forged an alliance – the Council of United Holy Warriors – and proclaimed common cause with and allegiance to Mullah Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban.

Well that's one prediction already come true. It certainly wasn't that hard to predict. The question now is, how low will it go? I've been out of the loop for well on a week now. Anyone got any idea where it's headed?

Dow at Close:

6,763.29
–299.64
–4.24%

Michael Collins

I first wrote about Susan Lindauer's struggle against the Bush-Cheney regime in October 2007, "American Cassandra: Susan Lindauer's Story." This was initially published in "Scoop" Independent Media (complete series) and carried by a wide variety of concerned Internet news sites and blogs. This interview follows the full dismissal of charges against her just before President Obama's inauguration on January 20, 2009. This is the first in depth interview that Lindauer has offered regarding 9/11. Below is part one of the interview.

I asked Ms. Lindauer to make her own statement about why she's willing to go into detail now about 9/11 and the government's handling of pre 9/11 intelligence.

"For five years, I was the poster child for President Bush's retaliation against Americans who opposed his War Policy in Iraq. In March, 2004 the Justice Department indicted me for acting as an "unregistered Iraqi Agent" (not espionage), because I delivered a prescient letter to my second cousin, Andy Card, former Chief of Staff to President Bush, warning of the dire consequences of War.

"More dangerously, I had decided to talk. In February, 2004 I approached the senior staff of Senators Trent Lott and John McCain and asked to testify in front of the new blue ribbon Presidential Commission on Iraqi Pre-War Intelligence. Within a month, I was astounded to wake up one morning to hear FBI agents pounding on the door of my house in Maryland with an arrest warrant.

"The indictment called me "Symbol Susan." It was a bizarre notation unsupported by any evidence or action in the indictment. It did however have one crucial purpose-to communicate a warning that anybody breaking ranks from the Bush White House should expect to be brutally crushed like I was.

To speak the truth under President George Bush was the worst crime of all. It was treason.

'But what exactly was the U.S. government trying to hide?         

After they heard Obama gave AIG another huge wad of their money, they knew it was time- nymole

The Onion -
Drawn by a strange force they could neither resist nor describe, millions of Americans reportedly dropped what they were doing today and, acting as if by instinct alone, gathered into one massive nationwide breadline.

According to witnesses, citizens across the country exited their homes in near unison, leaving behind growing stacks of bills, empty kitchen cupboards, and what was once a life of comfort to form the spontaneous, 2,000-mile-long queue.