ken Hatch |
|
|
Links and Writings:
Art, Aviation, Photography,
Photoshop, and Politics
email Kenneth M. Hatch
Houston Center for Photography Photoshop Restoration & Retouching Buzzflash Media Whores Online Brad DeLong's Simi-Daily Journal Talking Points Memo The Daily Howler Archives 
|
Thursday, April 29, 2010
This blog is now located at http://kmhatch.blogspot.com/. You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here. For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to http://kmhatch.blogspot.com/rss.xml. Sunday, July 27, 2003
From the Daily Kos: CLELAND: It is a quagmire. SESNO: Why? Why? CLELAND: Because. There's so many similarities here. You have an assessment, which even Wolfowicz now realizes we underestimated the enemy. That was Dean Rusk's view a few years into Vietnam. You get the big land force in there. You know. You don't cure the problem. And you're exposed. And then the guerrilla warfare comes after you. That's Vietnam. That's the quagmire we're in in Iraq. There is no exit strategy. Why? Because we want to do a pre-emptive war. We want to do it all alone. ....... CLELAND: First of all, you got to go back and get the UN in there. we've got to go back to the very people we dissed. And we got to say to Russia and Germany and France and the UN and the Security Council, "We're in deep trouble. Help us out." We got to make a UN protectorate, and that's gonna take a long time. When they attack you from inside a children's hospital you have a lot of problems. Nixon killed over 20,000 American troops to win the 1972 election. Of all the evil things Nixon did that was the one that I will never forget. My question is how many Americans will Shrub kill during his illegal occupation of the White House. Monday, June 30, 2003
From the Moscow Times. I’ve read the quotes in other articles but this one cuts to the chase. Is it just me and my knee jerk reaction to any one who claims god tell them what to do or does Bush, with his hand on the button, scare the fuck out of you also. Hell I have to admit I would find Bush’s statement frightening if it came from the leader of almost any nation that was not Third World. Thursday, June 26, 2003
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
It has been awhile between posts...the usual excuses, work and overload of outrage. The day job sent me to Florida to cover a temporary pilot shortage. The Florida base has a LearJet 36XR. The 36 is an interesting airplane, 19600 lbs. GTOW, over 8000 lbs. of fuel, and it will stay in the air for over 5.5 hours. The problem is it still has a Lear cockpit, after about 3.5 hours my butt would be numb, my legs wouldn’t move and I’m looking for a jar to pee in. I made a small contribution to the Dean campaign yesterday, if you have a favorite now is the time to give. Early money is very important. BTW if you want to send Dean a buck or two http://www.deanforamerica.com/contribute will make it easy. Monday, June 02, 2003
Sunday, June 01, 2003
Let’s pass on rage and bewilderment over the latest Bush and/or Republican outrage and link to something important. Saturday, May 31, 2003
Josh Marshal is on a roll. He has the goods on the R’s abuse of power in Texas and if you want to understand Iraq his Washington Monthly articles are a must read. Here and here for Iraq and check out TPM for the ongoing Texas story. Thursday, May 29, 2003
Monday, May 26, 2003
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Robert Scheer on “Saving Private Lynch: Take 2.” You will have to register with the Chicago Tribune but it is worth it. Monday, May 19, 2003
Saturday, May 17, 2003
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
From the Daily Kos : Let's get to the heart of the matter, the Saudis are scared to death of Osama and even more scared that we will find out how deeply supported Al Qaeda is in Saudi society. The Bush Administration can neither protect the Saudi princes from themselves nor destroy Al Qaeda. In the same year that the US devoted its entire military and intelligence apparatus to finding and destroying Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, which has now boiled down to a mobile brewery and some scrapings from a tank, Al Qaeda is not only not destroyed, but nearly as strong as it was on September 10, 2001. Stories of the return of the Taliban ran in the papers during the Iraq war and were ignored by most people. The pronoucements from Osama have been treated like a trick from the last couple of episodes of 24 and not a real and ongoing threat to national security. Throwing hundreds of people into our Cuban gulag at Gitmo may have been able to prevent some immediate attacks, but it clearly has not killed the Al Qaeda organization, much less the driving force of Islamic revivalist thought (the proper name for what we call fundamentalism) rampant in the region. Tossing out thousands for minor immigration violations has only caused hardship and resentment in Pakistan and around the Arab world. And given the absolute ineptness of US policy in Europe over the last year, we find ourselves more isolated and alone than ever. Our president is hated by the citizens of our allies, our inept management of Iraq is about to take another turn for the worse: Tuesday, May 13, 2003
Myths die hard even when there has never been a reasonable expectation that they are true. When the myth serves the ruling class it is even harder to kill. Monday, May 12, 2003
If you are an economics geek and get all sweaty and wiggly thinking about liquidity traps this is a good link . Wednesday, May 07, 2003
Sunday, May 04, 2003
Thursday, May 01, 2003
From Newsweek: April 30 — Even as White House political aides plot a 2004 campaign plan designed to capitalize on the emotions and issues raised by the September 11 terror attacks, administration officials are waging a behind-the-scenes battle to restrict public disclosure of key events relating to the attacks... I wonder if it has anything to do with AWOL and Company being asleep at the wheel? Wednesday, April 30, 2003
Humm...where have I heard the name N. Gregory Mankiw ? N. Gregory Mankiw (1998), Principles of Economics (New York: Dryden: 0030982383). Thinking Like an Economist: Why Economists Disagree: Charlatans and Cranks: pp. 29-30: An example of fad economics occurred in 1980, when a small group fo economists advised presidential candidate Ronald Reagan that an across-the-board cut in income tax rates would raise tax revenue. They argued that if people could keep a higher fraction of their income, people would work harder to earn more income. Even though tax rates would be lower, income would raise by so much, they claimed, that tax revenue would rise. Almost all professional economists, including most of those who supported Reagan's proposal to cut taxes, viewed this outcome as too optimistic. Lower tax rates might encourage people to work harder, and this extra effort would offset the direct effects of lower tax rates to some extent. But there was no credible evidence that work effort would rise by enough to caues tax revenues to rise in the face of lower tax rates. George Bush, also a presidential candidate in 1980, agreed with most of the professional economists: He called this idea "voodoo economics." Nonetheless, the argument was appealing to Reagan, and it shaped the 1980 presidential campaign and the economic policies of the 1980s.... Tuesday, April 29, 2003
More 0n Korea, Nicholas Kristof in the NYT . Other than his “...Mr. Bush's refusal to reward North Korean bad behavior is perfectly admirable, but it's also entirely impractical...” line it is a pretty good op-ed. There is nothing admirable about stupidity and if Bush misses this opportunity the blood of the world will be on his hands. From the New York Times : “Workers in other industries could only dream about the rules of everyday conduct established by agreements between the major airlines and their unions over the last few decades. Pilots worked 80 hours or less during an entire month. Mechanics were paid for waving planes away from gates. Flight attendants got to stay in luxury hotels on the road...” Such a short paragraph, so much Bull Shit. Pilots are paid by the hour flown and they bid airline established “lines” that usually run from 70 hours to 100 hours per month. That doesn’t sound like much until you add in the fact that most “lines” are for 4 day trips and the duty days are usually over 10 hours each. On most lines the duty day will be close to fourteen hours, the maximum allowed by FAA regulation. Do the math; a 4 day line at an average of 12 hours on duty per day is 48 hours per week or 192 per month and that doesn’t include the 3 nights spent away from home. Airline management is getting away with only paying for 80 hours when their pilots are working at least twice as many hours. Some dream work rules. Mechanics “waving” planes away from gates gives the image of a high paid mechanic doing a “Queen Elizabeth” wave as the plane pulls away. The mechanic waving she so airily dismisses is using very specific hand signals to guide the pilot and the aircraft out of a crowded ramp area. During the “push back” phase the pilot can’t see where he is going. Yep real feather bedding there. Airline management wants to turn the job over to baggage handlers? Like I say fish stinks from the head. Those damn Flight Attendants and “luxury “ hotels, she may have a point if you think any hotel nicer than a Motel 6 is a “luxury” hotel. Flying the line is a tough job and the only thing that makes it bearable is the airline workers unions have fought very hard for pay and work rules over the years. It pisses me off to read management’s mau-mauing of their workers repeated by reporters. It makes for a nice catchy opening paragraph but doesn’t serve the public. I expect more from the Newspaper of Record. What am I missing on North Korea? They are signaling by almost every means at their disposal except standing on the street corner with a “I will give up nukes for food" sign that they will exchange their nuke program for security and economic help. If that isn’t a no brainer I don’t know what is. How can Shrub blow this one? From TPM: (On Korea) “...the real question is this: it seems likely to a lot of people now that Colin Powell, Armitage and Kelly could give President Bush a very big diplomatic victory in Northeast Asia over the next year or so. The price, however, would be going back to the basic model that was pursued by the previous administration. Tougher, more comprehensive, to be sure. But the same basic idea: aid and security guarentees in exchange for getting out of the nuclear biz. Can the White House swallow its pride? And will the AEI Fedayeen ever sit still for it? Monday, April 21, 2003
I first posted about the Israeli pipeline April 5. Today I’m seeing posts on the Mosul to Haifa pipeline in TPM and the Daily KOS. The Rs started us on this road to becoming Mexico in the 80’s. If Shrub has his way we could be there in a couple of generations. Sunday, April 20, 2003
From TPM : “Here is a key part of America's strategic vision for Iraq coming into focus. According to this article in The New York Times, the Pentagon is expecting to secure long-term access to four key Iraqi military bases...” In its perverted way this is one of the few things that make sense of the Iraq Turkey Shoot. The question is will the gain be worth the cost. Wednesday, April 16, 2003
It is reported that more than half of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein is responsible for the terrorist attacks of 9/11. This means that the U.S. media have utterly, spectacularly, shamefully and pathetically failed...More Monday, April 07, 2003
Sunday, April 06, 2003
From the New York Times: “Shortly after Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld issued a stark warning to Iran and Syria last week, declaring that any "hostile acts" they committed on behalf of Iraq might prompt severe consequences, one of President Bush's closest aides stepped into the Oval Office to warn him that his unpredictable defense secretary had just raised the specter of a broader confrontation. Mr. Bush smiled a moment at the latest example of Mr. Rumsfeld's brazenness, recalled the aide. Then he said one word — "Good" — and went back to work...” If this doesn’t give you the night sweats you have been drinking the neo-con Koolaid. Saturday, April 05, 2003
Does this have the sound of truth? “An Israeli daily, Ha'aretz, has reported that Israel is seriously considering restarting a strategically important oil pipeline that once transferred oil from the Iraqi city of Mosul to Israel's northern port of Haifa. Given the Israeli claim of a positive US approach to the plan, the Israeli project provides grounds for a theory that the ongoing war against Iraq is in part a joint US, British and Israeli design for reshaping the Middle East to serve their particular interests, including their oil requirements...” More. Friday, April 04, 2003
Monday, March 31, 2003
Time Magazine has a long-thumb sucker on how we ended up in this mess. As usual, they are too kind to the major players, but it gives a pretty good outline. The “First Law of Holes” is if you find yourself in one is to stop digging. Robin Cook understands; now if the boy idiot from Midland can stop pumping his fist long enough to see the ground disappearing under his feet maybe we can get out of this mess. Sunday, March 30, 2003
From :Josh Marshal ."President Bush's aides did not forcefully present him with dissenting views from CIA and State and Defense Department officials who warned that U.S.-led forces could face stiff resistance in Iraq, according to three senior administration officials. Instead, Bush embraced predictions of top administration hawks, beginning with Vice President Dick Cheney, who predicted Iraqis would joyously greet coalition troops as liberators and that the entire conflict might be over in a matter of weeks, the officials said." That's the devastating lede of Warren Strobel's piece on the administration meltdown..." Unfucking real. From ABC News: "They may be the ones facing danger on the battlefield, but US soldiers in Iraq are being asked to pray for President George W Bush. Thousands of marines have been given a pamphlet called "A Christian's Duty," a mini prayer book which includes a tear-out section to be mailed to the White House pledging the soldier who sends it in has been praying for Bush..." |
