Tune in to John Batchelor’s West Coast show by 11:00 p.m. EDT. In case Larry joins the panel early, start listening at 10:30 p.m. via KFI 640 AM. From John Batchelor’s schedule for tonight’s show:

Sunday 1105P (805P Pacific Time): Roundtable, Larry Johnson, No Quarter, Craig Unger, Vanity Fair, Jeff Bliss, Forbes.com, re the Antioch, California abduction mystery, re the POTUS takes command?

Sunday 1120P (820P Pacific Time): continued re Afghanistan and the anti-war Democrats.

Check out the full slate of guests and topics tonight.

If this is your first time listening, you’ll want to visit the site early in case you need to download an easily installed program to hear the show.

Tune in to John Batchelor’s West Coast show at 11 p.m. EDT. According to the schedule, Larry Johnson joins the panel at 11:20 but, last week, Larry was on the air earlier, so we recommend you begin listening by 11:05 p.m. via KFI 640 AM.

Besides Larry Johnson, the panel includes John Avlon of The Daily Beast, and Craig Unger of Vanity Fair. The segment will cover Obamacare and who over-reached, Obamacare and the polls, the polls and the beer party, Sotomayor and the Senate, Honduras, and Kaye Bailey Hutchinson vs Rick Perry for Texas.

Check out the full slate of guests and topics tonight.

If this is your first time listening, you’ll want to visit the site early in case you need to download an easily installed program to hear the show.

The West Coast edition of John Batchelor’s nationally syndicated radio show begins at 11 p.m. EDT via KFI 640 AM.

At 11:20 11:05 p.m. EDT, Larry Johnson joins Batchelor’s program to discuss the brouhaha over Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, Mass. police department, as well as Obama’s escalation of the incident. (See Larry’s post, “Teachable Moment My Ass!!.”) Larry, an expert on Central America, will also weigh in on the political crisis in Honduras. (See Larry’s NoQ stories on Honduras: “Hillary Rescues Honduras,” “The Leftist Bullying of Honduras,” and more, including John Batchelor’s post, “Wandering Bananas Zelaya.”)

Check out the full slate of guests and topics tonight.

If this is your first time listening, you’ll want to visit the site early in case you need to download an easily installed program to hear the show.

I am sure I am opening a can of worms here, but what the hell. The U.S. Government did not plan or execute the attacks on 9-11. Here’s the simple truth–the Bush Administration entered office dismissing terrorism as a significant threat and devoted most of its energies to promoting a ballistic missile defense. They ignored warnings from Richard Clarke and the CIA, Condi Rice demoted Richard Clarke, who had been in charge of coordinating interagency counter terrorism policy, and President Bush waited until September to convene a meeting to sketch the outlines of his Administration’s counter terrorism policy.

When 9-11 happened the Bushies recognized they faced political peril for their negligence. That’s why they suddenly become more Catholic than the Pope on the issue of fighting terrorists. That’s why they fought having a 9-11 Commission. They failed to protect America from terrorism but eventually persuaded most Americans that Bush’s number one priority was protecting America from terrorists.

But that is too logical, too simple. Some Americans prefer a complex conspiracy. We do not want to believe that Government, by virtue of its size and multi-layered bureaucracies, is inherently incompetent. Nope. We want conscious, organized malevolence.

Here is one of the more recent conspiracy nuts:

Here’s the basic problem with Gage–he has zero experience with actually doing controlled demolitions. People like Gage do not understand that a controlled demolition is the result of weeks of work, lots of detonation cord (aka DetCord) and visible explosives. You cannot hide the preparation required to do a controlled demolition.

Also, let’s ignore the challenge of prewiring three massive buildings–WTC 1, WTC 2 and WTC 7. Plus you have to place the explosives in the towers in two different precise locations so that the demolitions start at the points where the planes struck the towers. Let’s not forget we need the hijackers to cooperate and hit their “marks”. You can’t have the pilot of the plane that hits the North Tower hitting the 50th floor when you have place the explosives around the 70th.

Did I mention how good the Government is at keeping a secret? They have kept us in the dark about black prisons, torture in Abu Ghraib and Bagram, and . . . Whoops!! I guess the Government is not that good at keeping secrets.

Here are a couple of fascinating videos debunking the conspiracy crazies:

and this:

We know for a fact that four airplanes were hijacked by Saudi and Egyptian extremists with ties to Osama Bin Laden. We know that three of those planes struck buildings. The planes striking the World Trade Center were clearly visible and recorded from multiple angles.

There is no denying that the Bush Administration used the tragedy of 9-11 to gin up a case for war in Iraq. But let’s not forget Bush could not have achieved this without the full cooperation of the media. That wasn’t a conspiracy per say. The mainstream media just prefers access to power brokers and invites to White House Christmas parties rather than run the risk of being excluded or cut off. The incompetence actually is pretty easy to explain. But the truth is banal. It lacks the pizzazz of a Government directed effort to hijack four planes, carry out near simultaneous attacks on three targets and initiate the controlled demolition of three World Trade Center structures with cameras rolling.

Yep. That makes sense.

For the sane among us there are always the facts to consider. I recommend the Debunking 9-11 site.

UPDATE: I encourage you to take a look at what is required to execute a controlled demolition of a large building. Take a look at the site linked here. There is no evidence whatsoever that there was any work to pre-weaken the WTC towers or WTC 7. A controlled demolition requires that, among other things.

Wow. I imagine teachers everywhere just cringe when they hear about stories like this. Parents, too, I expect. And especially the latter when the child who was sexually assaulted says things like this:

The victim asked the judge not to give him the maximum sentence because he was a nice man.

Holy smokes. “A nice man.” Hardly. Her father didn’t think so, either. This was his response:

Her father then told the judge that his daughter was emotionally and psychologically scarred and that Judy had a power over her, Strickland said. (Strickland is the spokeswoman for that court district.)

I think we can agree that it goes without saying that the child is “emotionally and psychologically scarred…”

At least Judy acknowledged what he had done:

Judy admitted during the hearing to having sex with the girl, who was 14 at the time, and said he knew what he did was wrong, Strickland said.

I suppose that’s something. Better than him insisting the girl was lying, I guess.

Here’s the thing – this man COULD have gotten up to 20 years in prison. He has affected this child’s life in ways the extent of which cannot possibly known for years to come. Here are the legal particulars:

Tracy Lee Judy, 38, pleaded guilty to criminal solicitation of a minor and two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor during an emotional hearing that included testimony from the 15-year-old victim and her father.

Circuit Judge Perry Buckner sentenced Judy to five years in prison and two years probation upon completion of the prison sentence. He also will be on the sex offender registry for life.

Five years in prison, two on probation. That just does not sound like enough to me. And yes, I know he will have a tough time in prison. No doubt, he will be in Protective Custody. That may, or may not, save him. Inmates have their own codes, after all (I worked with prisoners, both men and women, and had the Protective Custody Unit as part of my duties, so I do actually have some experience with that. I just didn’t want you to think I was writing, “words, just words.” Ahem.).

Oh, and there is one other little piece of this:

Judy tried to kill himself by overdosing on painkillers on May 10, the night before his trial was to begin. In a four-page suicide note, Judy described himself as a mentally ill Gulf War veteran struggling with “panic anxiety disorder, depression, agoraphobia and other undetermined social disorders.”

As part of his sentence, Judy must receive counseling through Veterans Affairs, Strickland said.

Let me say right off the bat that I have no doubt whatsoever Judy is experiencing those symptoms. No doubt. And it is terrible the long-lasting effects too many of our men and women in uniform carry with them after their service is done. Too many denied or ignored or minimized by the very entity that sent them in. That being said, it is NOT an excuse for this man to sexually assault this child. Good that he is going to get counseling – clearly he needs it, as the list above indicates, as does the “undetermined social disorders,” though I think we have a BIT of a clue as to what ONE of those is, and it is no longer “undetermined”: child sexual molestation.

That girl is going to need therapy, too. Probably her parents will also have to participate. Even still, that girl’s life will never, never be the same again. Never.

How does this happen? The paper the next day had an article announcing that “Violent Crime Is Down 12%,” but rape is up. I’m sorry, but when, exactly, did rape not qualify as a “violent crime”???

This can happen because this kind of mindset is cumulative. You rank rape below, say, bank robbery; have a president make a huge speech abroad in which he minimizes women’s rights and human rights (”Yo, Bitches, Wear That Hijab,” and “Cairo: The Emptiness Of Obama’s Rhetoric” address that issue nicely); and a teacher who gets all of 5 years for repeated sexual molestation of a 14 year old girl. That is some message here in the Good Ol’U.S. of A. to women, isn’t it? (I have also written about the use of rape as war tactic, and the treatment of women in other countries numerous times before, but this time, my focus is closer to home.)

Judy gets 5 years in prison, probation, and on the Sex Offender Registry for sexually assaulting this child. And the girl gets life without parole.

O P E N   T H R E A D   T O O

John Batchelor’s show begins at 10 p.m. ET. Then, at 10:30 p.m. ET, DON’T MISS LARRY JOHNSON TONIGHT on the Batchelor show, via KFI 640 AM.

Check out the full slate of guests and topics tonight. John Batchelor’s KFI show begins at 7:00 p.m., so tune in early.

If this is your first time listening, you’ll want to visit the site early in case you need to download an easily installed program to hear the show.

(1) “Barack, Get Your Facts Right,” published on June 12, 2008

(2) “An Update on the Michelle Obama Rant, on June 7, 2008

(1) “Barack, Get Your Facts Right,” published on June 12, 2008

If Barack’s first foray into setting the record straight is a sign of how he would handle the weightier matters of the presidential office, boy are we screwed. Here’s what Obama considers a “lie”:

Lie:
Blogger Larry Johnson wrote on May 31st that he would add „New and dramatic developments. This is a heads up. I‚ll post the news Monday morning by 0900 hours. Now I know why people who have seen the videotape say it is stunning. Barack‚s headaches are only starting.‰

Read the post

Truth:
Johnson posted no such update.

Barack? DUDE. Open your eyes brother. Here’s what I posted on Monday morning (17 minutes earlier than promised) on 2 June:

Michelle Obama and Louis Farrakhan Take On Whitey
By Larry Johnson on June 2, 2008 at 8:43 edt AM in Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Minister Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., Whitey Tape | Edit
I learned over the weekend why the Republicans who have seen the tape of Michelle Obama ranting about “whitey” describe it as “STUNNING.” I have not seen it but I have heard from five separate sources who have spoken directly with people who have seen the tape. It features Michelle Obama and Louis Farrakhan. They are sitting on a panel at Jeremiah Wright’s Church when Michelle makes her intemperate remarks. Whoops!! When that image comes out it will enter the politcal ads hall of fame. It will be right up there with the little girl plucking daisy petals in the famous 1964 ad LBJ used against Barry Goldwater.

That ain’t a “lie” Barky. It is a fact. Of course, most Barack supporters have trouble grasping this concept. Maybe that’s why they support Barack–does not require much intellectual effort. Simply close eyes and hold your nose.

(2) “An Update on the Michelle Obama Rant, on June 7, 2008

The recording that shows Michelle Obama saying disparaging things about white folks is for real. It is not part of some elaborate dirty trick. The people who have seen her comments describe it as “stunning” or “devastating.” I have not spoken directly with the people who have seen the tape, but I have spoken to two of my friends who are friends with those who watched the tape/dvd.

Are they playing me? No, but it is a valid question to ask. Two of my sources, who have recounted the reactions of their friends who have seen the Michelle “performance,” live on opposite sides of the United States geographically and politically. They do not know each other and had no way of knowing that each of them was talking to me. This is one reason I believe the report of the “tape” is true.

I also have learned that Obama campaign knew about this “tape” at least two weeks prior to my first blog item on the matter. And they are not laughing it off as a joke. (Note to Barack: There are leaks in your campaign.) Ben Smith’s report on the matter only tells part of the story.
The woman from McClatchy who dared ask the question was verbally assaulted by Obama aides. She was treated as if she had made a death threat.

Then there is the matter of the email/disinformation campaign the Obama folks are trying. First they sent some of their bloggers an email claiming that Michelle said “WHY DID HE” rather than use the pejorative, “WHITEY.” And now the excuse is being circulated that somehow I, or someone else, is cribbing from some silly book I have never heard of until now. A campaign does not react this way to a fabrication.

I apologize for any confusion generated from our effort to get on top of this. We made the mistake of putting up the claims from Hillbuzz, but have no way of verifying Hillbuzz’s claim that it is a recording that features Michelle Obama with the wife of Louis Farrakhan. That is not what the sources who have seen the “tape” have reported to me.

The sources who have seen the tape report that Michelle says disparaging things about “whites” and that Louis Farrakhan is visible. There is no identifying information on the segment they have seen to identify the location or time when this was recorded.

Why does this “tape” of Michelle Obama matter? The folks who have it are working to elect John McCain. They are using it now to raise money for a 527 effort that will attack Barack Obama. I am told that they fully intend to keep this “off-the-market” until after the Democratic Convention. The Republicans involved with this believe that Barack Obama is a more beatable candidate than Hillary Clinton and see the tape as reinforcing an image of racial division that will hurt Obama.

I support Hillary Clinton for President. I believe she will be a stronger candidate. And if I had the tape I would put it out in a heartbeat. Getting the tape out now does one of two things–either it persuades Super Delegates that Barack is not electable or it gives the Obama campaign time to repair the damage.

I now appreciate somewhat how Cofer Black, the head of the CIA’s Counter Terrorism Center, must have felt as he tried to warn Condaleeza Rice and the Bush White House about a brewing terrorist attack in the days leading up to September 11th. And please, I am not equating the Michelle tape with the attacks of 9-11. Rather I am focused on the point of what happens when someone has incomplete information, which warns about a future event, and tries to raise the alert. Just because Cofer Black could not say in late July 2001 that the coming attack would be carried out by 19 hijackers on four commercial airliners did not mean his intelligence was wrong.

Those who want to vilify me for having the audacity to raise this warning can have at it. I ran up against similar attacks and skeptics in May of 2003 when I warned that the Bush Administration had cooked the intelligence on Iraq. It is only now that we get a Senate Intelligence Committee Report and a book from Scott McClellan confirming what I said five years ago.

I caught more heat in October of 2003 when I defended Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA officer. Again, we had to wait until the trial of Scooter Libby to learn that the claims she was just a glorified secretary were lies. And once again Scott McClellan, Bush’s former Press Secretary, confirms that he was lied to as well about Valerie’s status and who was involved in spreading her name around town.

My efforts on those two issues earned me the enmity of many on the political right. On at least two separate occasions the Wall Street Journal editorial page attacked me by name and accused me of being part of a CIA effort to sabotage the policies of President Bush. Those charges were repeated and amplified in a subsequent book by Kenneth Timmerman,

Shadow Warriors

.

Now it is some on the left who are attacking me and behaving in the same manner as those who rejected my reports on Iraq and Valerie Plame. Now I am a Republican tool. Here’s a small, but representative sample of the “love” letters coming my way:

From: KC Broberg
Sent: Jun 6, 2008 7:17 PM
To: Larry Johnson
Subject: WHERE IS THE VIDEO BIG SHOT?

more lies from mr. johnson it appears. no video on whitey? shocker
keep up the good work – swift boating is really going to work well this time…..

or this

On 6/6/08 9:57 AM, “Ben Bulloch” wrote:

Crawl in a hole and bury yourself. You fucking toolbag.

and finally:

On 6/6/08 12:49 PM, “Alejandro Queral” wrote:

On May 26, you wrote in your blog: “I know for a fact that Barack and Michelle Obama would like the tape of her blasting “whitey” during a rant at Jeremiah Wright’s church to never see the light of day.”

Really? If that’s the case, where’s the video? You and I know that if such a video exists it would have appeared on YouTube by now. But the truth seems to be there’s no such tape not because it hasn’t appeared on the web but because you can’t even keep your story straight. If you knew anything for a fact, your story would at least be consistent. I especially love how your sources are “all Republicans with access to knowledge but who do not know each other.” How convenient. But you and I also know that most insiders with access tend to know, or know of, each other. I suspect you made this up to cover your ass: since you name no names and you say the Republican insiders don’t know each other, there’s no way for anyone to disprove you. How clever. I’m also amazed at the bold face lie you tell your readers: that Michelle Obama was at Trinity Church when she made the speech, only to recant later and admit that you “do not know where this [the alleged panel discussion] occurred.”

Please stop using your blog to spread lies and rumors. It is not making this country any better.

Alejandro Queral

Now for the shocker. If the election comes down to a choice between John McCain and Barack Obama I will vote for Bob Barr. I live in Maryland and my state is very likely to vote overwhelmingly for Barack. I continue to believe that Barack is not qualified by experience or temperament to be President. I will be happy to be proved wrong on that count. But, if elected, he is likely to revive memories of the failed Presidency of Jimmy Carter. How apropos that Jimmy endorsed Barack.

And I cannot support John McCain, who is staffing his national security team with many of the bozos who were instrumental in bringing us the debacle in Iraq. Of particular concern is Randy Scheunemann. A confidant of Douglas Feith, Scheunemann represents a continuation of the disastrous Bush policies in the Middle East. I’ll devote more time later to these issues.

Let me conclude with this–I think there is at least one tape/recording that will be released sometime after the August convention and is likely to be very damaging to the Barack Obama presidential campaign. While I hope that Super Delegates wake up and realize that Hillary is their best shot for victory in the fall, I realize I am swimming upstream. So word to Barrack and team–the tape is coming at some point and you folks better be ready to deal with it because, unlike the situations with Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger, you cannot divorce your wife in the middle of a campaign.

O P E N   T H R E A D   T O O

John Batchelor’s show begins at 10 p.m. ET. Then, at 10:30 p.m. ET, DON’T MISS LARRY JOHNSON TONIGHT on the Batchelor show, via KFI 640 AM.

Check out the full slate of guests and topics tonight. John Batchelor’s KFI show begins at 7:00 p.m., so tune in early. Here are the topics and fellow guests during Larry’s appearance:

If this is your first time listening, you’ll want to visit the site early in case you need to download an easily installed program to hear the show.

GO HERE to view the full line-up of guests and topics tonight on KFI, from beginning to the program’s conclusion.

O P E N   T H R E A D   T O O

John Batchelor’s show begins at 10 p.m. ET. Then, at 10:30 p.m. ET, DON’T MISS LARRY JOHNSON TONIGHT on the Batchelor show, via KFI 640 AM. [CLICK on this map to see it full-size. The map is from Bill Roggio's Long War Journal. Roggio is a guest with Larry Johnson tonight.]

Check out the full slate of guests and topics tonight. John Batchelor’s KFI show begins at 7:00 p.m., so tune in early. Here are the topics and fellow guests during Larry’s appearance:

If this is your first time listening, you’ll want to visit the site early in case you need to download an easily installed program to hear the show.

HERE is the full line-up of guests and topics tonight on KFI, from beginning to the program’s conclusion:

705P Pacific Time:  Tim Starks, Congressional Quarterly, re the Obama adminsitration release of the Torture Memos and the Byzantine debate between the Hil and the White House and the GOP.

 920P:  Joseph Sternberg, Asia Wall Street Journal, re Chinese official warns US on protectionism  A top adviser to the Chinese government warned the US that a proposed border tax on carbon sensitive materials ’smells of protectionism’ and could spark retaliation from developing countries

 Read more…

articlesortdate="0261694418.000000" articlesorttitle="orthodox easter sunday april 19, 2009 in ny, dc, sf, la." articlesortsource="" sourceindex="0" articlesortid="00000000000000000029" articlelocaldate="0262456484.377621" articleid="557304734dd991c2ea2a81a8464b24f61045432b">

Orthodox Easter Sunday April 19, 2009 in NY, DC, SF, LA.

John Batchelor

Is the Recession Over?  (Smile.)   705P Eastern Time:  Jon Hilsenrath, Wall Street Journal, re Ben Bernanke became Federal Reserve chairman intent on making the central bank less personality-driven than it was under Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker. But as he confronts an economic crisis that has pushed the Fed to shatter precedent and lend trillions of dollars, Mr. Bernanke is waging a public-relations offensive that casts him in the starring role.   Bernanke PR Push Rewrites Fed Script  720P:  Joe Bel Bruno, Goldman CEO: New Pay Standards Needed  Really wrote on Mon, 04/13/2009 – 1:43pm.  So lets see:
1. Mark to maybe
2. Post bonus amounts later
3. Get an overnight…

Apr 17, 1:53 PM

Is the Recession Over?  (Smile.)   

705P Eastern Time:  Jon Hilsenrath, Wall Street Journal, re Ben Bernanke became Federal Reserve chairman intent on making the central bank less personality-driven than it was under Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker. But as he confronts an economic crisis that has pushed the Fed to shatter precedent and lend trillions of dollars, Mr. Bernanke is waging a public-relations offensive that casts him in the starring role.   Bernanke PR Push Rewrites Fed Script
 

720P:  Joe Bel Bruno, Goldman CEO: New Pay Standards Needed  Reallywrote on Mon, 04/13/2009 – 1:43pm.  So lets see:
1. Mark to maybe
2. Post bonus amounts later
3. Get an overnight deposit from the Fed to bloat the Balance Sheet
4. Postpone all accts payable (issue IOUs)
5. Send a big check to O
6. Pay HP his ghost retainer.  

735P:  Professional Roundtable with  Jodi Schneider, Congressional Quarterly, John Fund, Diana West, DianaWest.net, re Tax Day and the Teabag parties, re Obama and MExico, re the new Border Czar.

750P: Continued re Homeland Security targets veterans?  Re the Obama administration   hesitates about waterboarding.

805P: John Bolton, AEI, Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, re North Korea breaks off with the IAEA and the Six Party Talks, re what is to be done?  North Korea to Boycott Six-Party Talks

 

820P: Roundtable on North Korea continues, re the United NAtions Security Council, re Beijing refuses to agree to new sanctions, re the farility of the North Korea regime.

835P:  Jim McTague, Barron’s, Financial Roundtable, John Tamny, Realclearmarkets.com, Tom Donlon, Barron’s, re the banks report profits, can we trust the banks?  Re Goldman Sachs aims to pay back TARP, will the Obama administration accept the money?

850P:  Continued re the bank stress tests are due May 4, does everyone pass?  And what then?

905P:  Malcolm Hoenlein, re Durban II conference opens in Geneva, re the United Nations and organized and hysterical anti-Israel propoganda.

920P:  Aaron Klein, WND, re the Obama administration commits to the Saudie plan for parallel talks for a two-state solution, Israel and PA, Israel and Syria.

935P:  Richard Beeman, author, Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution, re the drama and opera of the writing and rewriting of the Constitution by cranky, devious, sophisticated, ambitious young men, led by the bold and tireless James Madison in the spring and summer of 1787.

955P:  Exeunt with Joseph Menn, Financial Times, re Computer hackers stole more sensitive records last year than in the previous four combined, with ATM cards and PIN information growing in popularity as targets.

___________________________

KFI-AM 640

705P Pacific Time:  Nicholas Casey, Wall Street Journal, re next month, shipping giant AP Moeller-Maersk will make a move that was unlikely ten years back.  A line of 6000 container ships that now goes to Southern California will go instead dock at Seattle. Why?

720P: Dawn Kopecki, Bloomberg, re Fannie, Freddie Face Pressure to Revamp as Housing Collapse Wrecks Profits:  Say good-bye to Fannie and Freddie as you know them. The bailed-out mortgage finance companies will emerge from their travails combined as one, broken up or with substantially reshaped missions. 

 

735P: Professional Roundtable  Larry Johnson, No Quarter, Bill Roggio, Long War Journal, Hussein Yusuf, Somali national, re the pirates of Somalia, re Somali Extremists Have al Qaeda Ties  By Ali Soufan
Another failed state has become a training ground for terrorists.

750P: Continued re the pirates of Somalia continued, re the prospect of a stable Somalia government.

805P:  Barbara Kolm-Lamprechter, Hayek Institute, re the Austrian School of economics, re the prospect of recovery from the financial crisis. 

 

820P:  Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution, re the California economy and the sharp rise in unemployment, re the housing market collapse, re the 

835P:  Mark Rudd, author, “Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen,” re the 40 year travail of the outspoken and precocious leader of the Columbia University protest 1968, his life in the Weathermen, his life as a fugitive.  Nostalgiac, sparse, banal, fascinating.

850P:  Bob Zimmerman, author, “Universe In A Mirror,” re NASA prep for Hubble rescue mission, re Kepler opens its eye and sends initial pics of its portion of the sky in Cygnus, re the aimless space policy of the Obama administration.

905P:  Jim Rogers, Rogers Investment, from Singapore, re the prospect of a China led worldwide recovery, re the continuing commodity bull market, re the coming bull market in farm food.

 920P:  Joseph Sternberg, Asia Wall Street Journal, re Vietnam and the Obama administration, re Vietnam and the worldwide downturn in trade.

935P: Dave Cullen, author, “Columbine,” re the April 20, 1999 massacre and ten years after, the continuing silence of the parents, the remains of the mystery, the measure of Harris as a psychopath and Klebold as a companions in the homicial dyad like Bonnie and Clyde, re the still damaged lives of the victims, the survivors, the loved ones of the lost.

955P:  Exeunt:  Lou Ann Hammond, re the GM shedding of Saturn, Hummer, GMAC, Saab, and?

Special thanks to H., the spouse of Truthtelling007, whose site, CheneyWatch.org is a must-visit!

Editor’s Note: DON’T MISS LARRY JOHNSON TONIGHT on the Batchelor show at 10:30 p.m. ET, via KFI 640 AM. Check out the full slate of guests and topics tonight. John Batchelor’s KFI show begins at 7:00 p.m., so tune in early. Here are the topics and fellow guests during Larry’s appearance:

Also: If this is your first time listening, you’ll want to come early in case you need to download an easily installed program to hear the show.

HERE is the full line-up of guests and topics tonight on KFI, from beginning to the program’s conclusion:

705P Pacific Time:  Nicholas Casey, Wall Street Journal, re next month, shipping giant AP Moeller-Maersk will make a move that was unlikely ten years back.  A line of 6000 container ships that now goes to Southern California will go instead dock at Seattle. Why?

 920P:  Joseph Sternberg, Asia Wall Street Journal, re Vietnam and the Obama administration, re Vietnam and the worldwide downturn in trade.

For today’s A.P. story, “Obama draws praise, but piracy escalation feared,” Larry Johnson was telephoned and interviewed extensively by London-based A.P. reporter Gregory Katz:

[...]

Some military strategists believe it may ultimately be necessary to attack the pirates’ base in Somalia, much as the British used to do two centuries ago. But few have the appetite for another land operation in Somalia, where a U.S. military foray in the early 1990s ended in humiliation. And the cost in civilian casualties would likely be extremely high, some warn.

“That would be nuts,” said Larry Johnson, a former CIA agent and State Department counterterrorism specialist. “These people are not organized into any military force, they are intermingled with women and children. You’re talking about wiping out villages.”

He said the U.S. action—and a French attack a few days earlier on a pirate-held yacht with hostages on board—were corrective measures that did not solve the underlying problem.

“When you allow a bunch of Somali clans to grab their weapons and head to sea and collect millions of dollars in ransom, you can’t be surprised when it gets out of control,” he said. “You need an international coalition, with all the countries that have flag ships, to make it impossible for the pirates to get in a boat and leave the shore. Otherwise the ships will continue to be sitting ducks.”

Johnson has in the past criticized Obama as inexperienced, but he said the new commander in chief deserves credit for using established national security procedures to deal with the crisis while refraining from making comments that would have inflamed the situation.

“He stepped back and let the professionals do what they are supposed to do,” Johnson said. “Since the 1980s we’ve built national security doctrine for how to handle these matters, and Obama allowed these procedures to operate.”

Charles Heyman, a defense specialist and former British army officer, said the Obama administration showed its resolve by refusing pay ransom for Phillips’ release.

“That would have been disastrous,” he said. “America would have been a laughingstock and we really don’t need that.”

But he said history shows pirates can only be defeated if nations unite, which is not happening.

“As long as governments don’t come together and defeat it, it goes on like a plague,” he said. “People have to be very, very tough with this.”

The U.S. rescue effort was a clear success in tactical terms, but Vice Adm. Bill Gortney, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, warned that it could lead to increased violence in the region. … Read all.

h/t American Girl In Italy

At 10:35 p.m. ET, don’t miss Larry Johnson, a regular Sunday night expert on the great KFI AM radio show hosted by John Batchelor, one of the sharpest analysts in all of radio (or television). John’s provocative show is dashing, daring, and thoughtful (a rare AM offering). Tune in early at 10:05 p.m. ET via Los Angeles’s KFI-AM 640. If you haven’t listened via KFI before, come early to download small, easily installed software. Here are TONIGHT’s TOPICS:

705P Pacific Time:  John Stoll, Wall Street Journal, re  the car czar Steven Rattner negotiates hardball with the GM bondholders, forcing rugged terms, as the GM bankruptcy saga continues.  With Simon Constable Dow Jones. 

Blankfein called for new compensation standards for Wall Street executives and said he understands why the public is angry about industry pay.  China Limits Executive Pay  China’s government disclosed that it had set limits on executive pay for 2008 at state-owned financial companies  With Simon Constable Dow Jones.  

James Lambright, chief investment officer of TARP, at right in the photo, is an embodiment of how power in the economy has shifted — for good or ill — to Washington.  Real Time Econ:TARP Diagnostic

 920P:  Mary Kissel,   Thai Summit Halted Amid Protests 

Check out the full slate of guests and topics, all starting at 10:05 p.m. ET.

The Slow Motion Farce of the Newspapers.  

The thrilling headline in the WSJ.com is that the NYT is threatening to disappear its step child the Boston Globe.   The issue is union give-backs, but that is just the start of the argument.  Newspapers no longer make sense.  Newspapers are especially aimless here in the deeply wired and Iphoned up Northeast.   The NYT geniuses paid $1.1 billion for the Globe in ‘93 and have watched the money burn ever since, so that what remains may be worth $12 million.  Meanwhile the NYT is playing a version of the Chekhov story about a man in a troika running from wolves who feeds the pack everything until he is what’s left to feed them.

Why do newspapers resist doom?  Embrace it.  The notion of opening and reading my NYT, WSJ and FT in the morning is silly.   I will make them go away before they go away.  Online is the world.  There is no meaning to printed paper.  The New York Times and the Boston Globe are dead trees walking.  Did you notice that POTUS didn’t call on you at the last White House presser?   POTUS doesn’t read your greasy paper version.  Show up as videographers who blog, waving a Mino Flip and a wi-fi Macbook, and you will get attention.  We are supposed to wait until tomorrow morning to learn what you just heard me say?

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From my blog and show site, “The John Batchelor Show.”