All the Stuff I've Been Too Lazy to Blog About

Yeah...well, I'm finding it hard to keep blogging on a daily basis, sometimes you feel like it and sometimes you just want to read a book or not type, or have a beer, or play poker and then watch cartoons *ahem* I mean CNN. (phew). Usually I can do it all AND blog, but dammit...

Oh oh, my eyes are getting a little droppy so I better make this a quickie:

From a couple days back (the backlog is that long): Syria threatens to close its border into Lebanon

HELSINKI, Finland - Syria has threatened to close its border with Lebanon if U.N. peacekeepers are deployed along the frontier, Finland's foreign minister said Wednesday.

"They will close their borders for all traffic in case U.N. troops will be deployed along the Lebanon-Syria border," Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said after meeting his Syrian counterpart Walid Moallem in Helsinki.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has rejected the U.N. deployment along Syria'sborder with Lebanon, saying such a move would create animosity between the two countries.

So...Is that supposed to be a threat to Lebanon, to the US, to Israel, to anyone? So your telling me that if the UN moves peacekeepers near the Syrian border Syria will close its borders? And that's a threat how exactly? In fact keeping the border closed makes it a lot easier to stop shipments of arms to resupply Hezbollah from Iran via Syria. It conceivably could make the job of UN easier - if tasked to interdict arms shipments - by reducing the overall amounts of traffic coming in, making any contraband Syria tries to sneak in even easier to stop.

Oooooh but Syria says it will create animosity between the two nations. What, years of Syrian military occupation and overwhelming control of Lebanese politics and government has not created such animosity already? As if animosity did not already exist. I don't think it should really matter to Lebanon or the UN what Syria says. It should station troops near the frontier and if Syria wants to close its border...Good!!

Economist says that 2007 will bring nasty US economic Recession more deep than 2001 recession

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The United States is headed for a recession that will be "much nastier, deeper and more protracted" than the 2001 recession, says Nouriel Roubini, president of Roubini Global Economics.

Writing on his blog on Wednesday, Roubini repeated his call that the U.S. would be in a recession in 2007, arguing that the collapse of housing will bring down the rest of the economy. Read more.

Roubini wrote after the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday that sales of existing homes fell 4.1% in July, while inventories soared to a 13-year high and prices flattened out year-over-year.

That some bad news if it turn out that way. A new recession would be a disaster for the United States and the world. I'm no economist so I couldn't tell you whether this will happen or otherwise verify this economists assertions.

Amnesty International accuses Israel of committing warcrimes during its conflict with Lebanon - They accuse Israel of warcrimes for its purposeful destruction of a lot of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure. They themselves concede they deliberately targeted such infrastructure although they claim it was to hamper Hezbollah.

Some have accused Israel of bombing that infrastructure in order to make Lebanese civilians turn on Hezbollah (an absurd proposition to believe that bombing a nations infrastructure would magically turn them against Hezbollah. Dolts.)

In either case, I might be inclined to agree that some rule of war may have been violated -- certainly the destruction of this infrastructure is a massive travesty for Lebanon and its vitality. A UN investigation must be launched to see if the damage was not "collateral damage" but I doubt Israel can blame it all on "collateral damage."

If the Seymour Hersh is correct -- that its was done to turn civilians -- than I would definitely agree that it constitutes a warcrime. I'll see how this develops, but I'll await an inquiry to state anything conclusively about warcrimes.

And Last: A Possible Al Qaeda Connection in Kidnapping of Fox Reporter in Gaza?

The kidnapping of a 2-man Fox News television crew in Gaza has the hallmarks of an al-Qaida operation, terrorism experts tell ABC News.

The U.S. reporter and New Zealand cameraman were taken at gunpoint Aug. 14, and nothing was heard of them until Tuesday when a videotape and note were given to the Arabic media. The kidnappers set a 72-hour deadline for all Muslim prisoners to be released from U.S. prisons, and included exhortations of Islam and threats to infidels.

Fawaz Gerges, a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Sarah Lawrence College said that was a clue it wasn't traditional Palestinian jihadis.

The rhetoric is vintage al-Qaida, Gerges said. This is consistent with what we have seen in Iraq and other places.

Additionally, last March, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed concern over an al-Qaida incursion to the Al Hayat Arabic daily newspaper, the report said.

"We have indications about a presence of al-Qaida in Gaza and the West Bank. This is intelligence information," Abbas said.

What goes unsaid in this article and what truly makes it very disturbing -- as if it wasn't already -- is that if true, this would constitute the first time (to my knowledge) that Al Qaeda will have operated in Palestine. If true this could mean the beginning of a new phase in Palestine and Israel, where the more sophisticated techniques, tactics, and technology of Al Qaeda will herald bigger and deadlier attacks against Israel. I can't imagine that Hamas or Fatah would appreciate the meddling of Al Qaeda and its ilk in the conflict, especially considering that it would bring the focus of the international terror war on them. If Hezbollah believes it is being pressured now, imagine when nations -- fairly or unfairly, truthfully or untruthfully -- connect Hamas to Al Qaeda. If true, get rid of the meddlers I say.

Now back to my book, and perhaps some Colbert Report, then later some Shin-chan (on Adult Swim) before I knock out.

Peace!