« February 05, 2012 - February 11, 2012 | Main | February 19, 2012 - February 25, 2012 »
February 17, 2012
Double Secret "3-Way" Talks: Yanks, Afghans and Taliban?
With Kabul and Washington pushing for peace talks, Pakistan is regarded by both capitals as a major obstacle in the process. Afghan and American officials maintain that Pakistan's intelligence community continues to actively support Afghan Taliban insurgents.
"Taliban" always sounded to us like name of a Western child's toy--but it is anything but. And the Taliban, which the current Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai seeks to engage in talks, appears to have played this one expertly. It's clear that Taliban leaders based in both Afghanistan and Pakistan will negotiate with the West--but it seems extremely unlikely to us that anyone (except the U.S.) wants or needs to talk to President Karzai, a decent and smart human and snazzy dresser who is also a major tool. The Taliban laughs the guy off. See the Los Angeles Times today: "Afghan leader Hamid Karzai seeks Pakistan help in Taliban talks".
On the Good Foot: Last night in Islamabad, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani get ready to hit a few bars, discos and clubs, tip a few and pretend that Karzai has a real job. (B.K. Bangash/Associated Press)
Posted by JD Hull at 06:47 PM | Comments (0)
February 15, 2012
Besides, who else at your shop can make floral vests, khakis and wing tips work?
Just kidding. Old Boomers at WAC/P? continue to evolve. So please visit Schumpeter at The Economist and his/her excellent "Of Companies and Closets: Being Gay-Friendly is Cheap and Good for Business", a gem we missed published four days ago. Eye-opening, timely, brave and very well done. Excerpt:
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), an American pressure group, measures corporate policies towards sexual minorities in its annual “equality index”. Of the 636 companies that responded to its survey this year, 64% offer the same medical benefits for same-sex partners as for heterosexual spouses. Some 30% scored a fabulous 100% on the group’s index.
Progress has taken place in a wide range of industries. The 100% club predictably contains plenty of talent-driven outfits such as banks and consultancies (including Mitt Romney’s old employer, Bain & Company). But it also includes industrial giants such as Alcoa, Dow Chemical, Ford, Owens Corning and Raytheon.
Lord Browne, the boss of BP who resigned after his sex life made headlines in 2007, said he always remained in the closet because “it was obvious to me that it was simply unacceptable to be gay in business, and most definitely the oil business.” Today Chevron, one of BP’s toughest competitors, has a 100% rating.
Graphic: The Economist/Brett Ryder
Posted by JD Hull at 11:55 PM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2012
Say it ain't so, Scott Greenfield.
Head Counselor at Camp Bedlam hangs up his keyboard. For now, anyway. Squeezing it all in between moments of a full-time upper-tier criminal defense practice, he woke up early each day and gave us five (5) years of smart, funny and enduring excellence in blogging on real issues at Simple Justice. Day-in day-out, and in one of the worst and least soul-searching neighborhoods on earth (i.e., the Web or Internet, Bubba), he wrote lots about lawyering done right, and pounded home that there is no shiny app or a shortcut for any of it on our new digital terrain. Yesterday morning, Scott Greenfield said he's done blogging. But writers--even with day jobs as fancy lawyers--well, "writers gotta write". Greenfield's a gifted writer and humorist, too. Expect to see more of the boy.
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Above: Greenfield in 2005--a few days before tragic hunting accident.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:54 PM | Comments (0)
St. Valentine's Day: You Gotta Serve Somebody.
"Romeo and Juliet" by Ford Madox Brown (1821-1893). Climb up out of yourself. Serve.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
February 13, 2012
"Counteracting declines" in the EU: Greece's austerity measures prompt some world markets gains. But...
We must show that Greeks, when they are called on to choose between the bad and the worst, choose the bad to avoid the worst.
--Greece Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos
But will that do it? Yesterday in Athens, while being guarded by riot police, the Greek Parliament passed its austerity legislation for a nation edging toward fiscal collapse. The passage was tied to Greece's request for a second bailout for 130 billion-euro ($172 billion). See, via the San Francisco Chronicle at the consistently just-the-facts Bloomberg News, "Greek Parliament Passes Austerity Bill as Rioters Burn Buildings."
Above: Northern Ireland.
Posted by JD Hull at 07:09 PM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2012
New York Times this Sunday morning: Outsourcing Risk and Death in the Afghan War.
I'm reminded of the shockingly high percentage of deployed U.S. Merchant Marine civilian seamen--from old hands to students at Kings Point--who during World War II were killed or wounded at sea, generally unsung and almost always uncompensated. German U-boats coveted Allied supply ships. Merchant Marine vessels were frequent targets. It's true that both governments and the private sector "count funny" during wars. But based on new DOD and DOL statistics, more employees of civilian contractors than U.S. soldiers died last year in Afghanistan. See in the New York Times this morning "Risks of Afghan War Shift from Soldiers to Contractors". Excerpts:
Last year, at least 430 employees of American contractors were reported killed in Afghanistan: 386 working for the Defense Department, 43 for the United States Agency for International Development and one for the State Department, according to data provided by the American Embassy in Kabul and publicly available in part from the United States Department of Labor.
By comparison, 418 American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year, according to Defense Department statistics compiled by icasualties.org, an independent organization that monitors war deaths.
.......The biggest contractor in terms of war zone deaths is apparently the defense giant L-3 Communications. If L-3 were a country, it would have the third highest loss of life in Afghanistan as well as in Iraq; only the United States and Britain would exceed it in fatalities.
Over the past 10 years, L-3 and its subsidiaries, including Titan Corporation and MPRI Inc., had at least 370 workers killed and 1,789 seriously wounded or injured through the end of 2011 in Iraq and Afghanistan, records show.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for L-3, Jennifer Barton, said: “L-3 is proud to have the opportunity to support the U.S. and coalition efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. We mourn the loss of life of these dedicated men and women.”
Other American companies with a high number of fatalities are Supreme Group, a catering company, with 241 dead through the end of 2011; Service Employees International, another catering company, with 125 dead; and security companies like DynCorps (101 dead), Aegis (86 dead) and Hart Group (63 dead). In all, according to Labor Department data, 64 American companies have lost more than seven employees each in the past 10 years.
Late 2010: Civilian contractors at the ABP Border Center in Spin Boldak, Afghanistan. Photo: Sgt. Richard Andrade.
Posted by JD Hull at 01:26 PM | Comments (0)