Remembering A Musical Genius

Terminal Velocity in Norway

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo

Imperial History of the Middle East

From Maps of War

US Carrying Out Secret Assassinations

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Seymour Hersh recently broke a story on secret US assassinations during the Bush administration. Death squads went to dozens of foreign countries and took out "high-value" targets without knowledge of both the local CIA station chief or the US Ambassador. Apparently and to no surprise, these were conducted under the direction of Dick Cheney. Such killings are in direct opposition to the Constitution, international law, and basic ethics. Moreover, under the guise of the "War on Terror", executions also took place far from any battlefield in Central and Latin America.

This should be really alarming, but we are all quite used to it now. In fact, these extradjudicial murders still take place with drone attacks on Pakistani soil and missile strikes in various parts of the world such as the Sudan. Just add this to the long list of George W Bush's reknowned legacy. This leads to a more important question: Is Barack Obama also continuing this illegal and illicit Bush policy?

Noam Chomsky on the Economy and Democracy

theRealNews.com

What Sakib's Reading

Osama and Orientalism: Where Islamophobes Meet Al-Qaeda | Religion and Theology | ReligionDispatches [www.religiondispatches.org] Posted: 30 Mar 2009 05:27 AM PDT The deeper problem is that many Muslims, at least in the United States, are internalizing this Orientalism. The result is that the Muslim community is not fighting this fight as equals and partners, but instead act as mere bystanders. They remain frustrated, wishing to do more, but do not have the capacity to get involved. Their understanding of the faith can be defined as much by CNN as anything else.

Drone Count: March 2009

Barack Obama ramped up his drone war on western Pakistan in the month of March. The frequency of attacks has increased since our previous update. Here are the most recent documented bombings on the allegedly sovereign state of Pakistan:

Mar 1 2009 - At least 8 people killed and 9 wounded in the village of Hebat Khan in the Sararogha area of South Warizistan, after 2 consecutive missiles were fired.

Mar 12 2009 - Obama's drones strike upon the Kurram agency with at least 24 new deceased. 4 missiles struck a residential building.

Mar 15 2009 - US unmanned Predator aircraft attacked in the Bannu district of NWFP in Pakistan. The village of Chota Janikhel was hit killing at least 5 people.

Mar 25 2009 - 2 missiles from a US drone kill at least 8 in Makeen, south Warizistan.

Mar 26 2009 - The town of Mir Ali in Sokhel, north Warizistan was attacked by a drone missile strike killing 5 and injuring the same number. It marked a drone attack on consecutive days.

These attacks have resulted in at least 50 killed since our prior report--for a total of 134 deaths from 8 strikes since the beginning of the Obama administration. Drones are undeniably an efficient killing machine. However, the efficacy of the amplification of this Bush-Obama policy that has resulted in the murder of dozens of innocent civilians, remains unproven.

What Sakib's Reading

The secret war against American workers [Salon] Posted: 30 Mar 2009 03:40 AM PDT

Jim Webb's courage v. the "pragmatism" excuse for politicians [Salon: Glenn Greenwald] Posted: 28 Mar 2009 06:02 AM PDT

Palestinian Land Loss

The above is a simple graphic of Palestinian land loss. Green represents Arab (Muslim and Christian) land that is inhabited by and belongs to the Palestinians. White represents Jewish controlled territory. The first snapshot is from 1946, the last from 2000. The picture speaks for itself.

The Guardian (UK) Investigates Israeli War Crimes in Gaza

Palestinian children used as human shields

Medics, ambulances, and hospitals targeted

Drones used to kill children, civilians

The Sweet Science

Can we all at least agree that Mike Tyson is the "baddest man on the planet"? Iron Mike was the most dominant heavyweight fighter ever and arguably the best of all time. In his prime, Tyson was absolutely unstoppable--raw, relentless, brute, and powerful. His entrance into the arena--shirtless or in a cut-out towel draped around his neck sent a bone-chilling fear into this opponents. They cowered in the ring, in anticipation of the most vicious uppercuts in the history of mankind. Referees counting to ten and the relative comfort of being face-down on the mat, were the only sense of relief and escape, for those that dared to face him.

Tyson created an aura that was unmatched. The ringside was electric, closed circuit/PPV homes at a premium, and kids with Mike Tyson's PunchOut, the most popular. Heavyweight boxing was at a pinnacle because simply put, Tyson was there and boxing mattered. The spectre of impending doom of his opponents filled the seats and minted money. A strong argument can be made that Muhammad Ali was equally entertaining, and the best heavyweight champion ever. Ali, was the polar opposite of Tyson--nimble, quick, flashy, and full of guile. He was without a doubt equally important for the sport and brought it to the heights that enabled Tyson to become a superstar.

Who's the best of all-time? We'll never know but this can be argued until the end of day. The mythical Tyson-Ali fight remains the most desired of matchups. You can't go wrong with the butterfly quick Ali, but I'll hang my hat on the man who eloquently stated: "Everybody has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth." Iron. Mike. Tyson.

The Fast and the Furious: Audi R8

Construction America

Driving to work yesterday, I passed 2 separate construction crews. The first was a 6-man team with large trucks and lumber equipment. In this group, 2 members were being used to direct traffic holding "STOP/SLOW" signs on the road, on either ends of the site. They were not more than 25 yards apart. 1 member was cutting a log, or at least looked like he was partaking in some sort of actual physical activity. Around him, 3 other men who were huddled together watched. About 15 miles down the road another crew had 4 members and one piece of heavy machinery. The machine operator cleared some debris from the side of the excavated road. The other 3 members carefully watched the machine operator.

This typical scene of construction workers embodies the American work ethic. It is not the work ethic that Obama so glowingly praises and refers to all of the time. Construction serves as a microcosm of what is a nationwide epidemic. Unskilled laborers making $45/hour for simple assembly line jobs, business consultants spending over half their days chatting on AIM, corporate executives playing Ponzi with client's hard earned monies--this is the reality. Is it any surprise that jobs have been shipped overseas to places like India and China where workers actually work? Utter laziness is just one of many causes of America's diseased economy. Perhaps the one with the hardest cure.

Norman Finkelstein on Gaza Massacre

Crossing Rafah

The recent Israeli massacre in Gaza has resulted in the death, carnage, and destruction that has become a recurring theme for both the Palestinians and Lebanese. The barbaric crimes committed by the Israeli Defense Forces is obvious. What has often been overlooked is the complicity of neighboring Arab states, mainly Egypt, in this unrelenting assault.

Israel and Egypt have enforced the land-sea-air embargo which has been in effect since June 2007--after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip. Under the pretext of declaring Hamas a terrorist organization, the war-torn coastal strip has been under a virtual siege for nearly two years. Very little goes in or out of Gaza through official border crossings. Nearly every consumer good from a can of Coke to oil, is smuggled through a series of tunnels along the Egypt-Gaza border. It is essential to the survival of people living in what is commonly referred to as the "world's largest outdoor prison."

The official border gate between Egypt and Gaza is in the town of Rafah. This border has been essentially sealed since the blockade was instituted in 2007--limiting the influx/outflux of both goods and people. Israel reduced the number of commodities allowed in, including foodstuffs such as lentils and macaroni, from 9000 to 20 during this time period. Furthermore, in late 2007, Israel began to cut fuel supplies to this embattled territory. In January of 2008, due to a lack of fuel, the only power plant in Gaza shut down its operations. This led to a breach of the wall at Rafah by Palestinians on January 23, 2008. It is estimated that almost half of the 1.5 Million residents of Gaza crossed into the Egyptian side of Rafah to purchase essential foods, medicines, and other goods of survival.

Crossing the Rafah border into Gaza remains a very difficult task, even for humanitarian aid or medical personnel. During the recent Israeli bombardment of Gaza, civilian refugees of war were not allowed into Egypt to escape air strikes and a looming ground invasion. An overstressed and embargo-weakened medical system was unable to adequately serve the Gazan population in the recent attacks that left over 1300 dead, and 6000 wounded. Egypt allowed a select few of the injured and maimed to cross the Rafah gates, to receive treatment in its own nation. Furthermore, Egypt denied passage for numerous casualties destined for treatment in Europe and abroad. These patients, predominantly children, were turned back to the inadequate care provided by the collapsing Palestinian health system. In addition, the Israeli border was completely closed as well, with an exceptionally limited number of people who even dared to venture near its checkpoints and heavily fortified Apartheid Wall.

To add insult to injury, Egyptian border officials made the entrance of humanitarian aid extremely difficult during this crisis. At the Rafah terminal, numerous international volunteer medical teams waited for weeks to gain entrance to Gaza, if they were allowed in at all. Convoys of donated aid from nations as wide-ranging as Venezuela to the United Arab Emirates, also waited for weeks before being allowed in. The Egyptian enforcement of the Israeli-led blockade undoubtedly led to preventable suffering, hunger, and death of the Palestinian population.

Despite claims of an open border by Egyptian officials--numerous first-hand accounts from American, South African, and Turkish medical teams prove otherwise. A litany of media reports by the international press also documents quite well, the virutal sealing of Rafah. There are a variety of reasons why Egypt may be enforcing this crippling, inhumane policy--covert agreements with the Israelis, US funding to an annual tune of up to $1.7 Billion, fear of populist ideology spreading to Egypt and threatening the established dictatorship, or profiteering from the smuggling industry. This much is clear--the underground tunnels will remain the lifeblood of the Gazan people until Crossing Rafah is no longer a myth, but a reality.

Crisis of Credit

Aspiring "polymaths",

Below is a video explaining the origin of the credit crisis. Who said economics is just for economists?


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo

Obama Wars: Attack of the Drones

A quick update on Obama's war on Pakistan:

Jan 18 2009 - Obama takes oath in office: "To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect."

Jan 23 2009 - Obama orders his 1st drone attack on Pakistan. At least 22 killed in North and South Waziristan

Feb 14 2009 - Obama's 2nd drone attack by a US Predator kills at least 32 in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan

Feb 16 2009 - Obama orders 3rd attack on Pakistan, in the Kurram agency, killing at least 30

In a flagrant violation of both human rights as well as Pakistan's sovereignty, that results in a total of at least 84 murdered since the Inauguration--many of whom are women and children. Please help us keep tally as we will continue to update the Drone Count

Will an "economic adjustment" mean a renewed American humility?

It's a fundamental question based on a fact pattern universally known and fairly well understood. The nation has been spending too much, producing too little, for too long. Debt is high, credit is low. There is little utility to delving further into the specifics before asking, what happened to the America we grew up reading about in history books? And more importantly, can it come back?

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From the lay person's perspective, the American economy has two fundamental problems. The first is that there are vast, established parts of the economy which are wholly phantom in nature. (The second will be addressed at a later date and time.) Bernie Maddoff's ponzi scheme is one such piece. Sub-prime mortgage backed securities are another. But sadly, the phantasm doesn't end there. Large national law firms, for example, are engaging in massive layoffs as work stops coming in. The phantom component to their business plans wasn't some non-existent client--it was inflated value for the work they were providing. Ideally, when a client hires a consultant or retains an attorney, fees are paid for a service which will ultimately save the client money. The value added to the client must excede fees charged. Billing that works off of a percentage of value-added (ie attorney/consultant takes home 10% of value-added) has been discussed for years, but the difficulty and uncertainty in actually quantifying the value-added leads clients and consultants to choose hourly billing instead.

Regardless of how fees are calculated, the ratio of fees to value-added is the most important decision making factor when deciding to retain services in most cases. The problem with law firms and other struggling service providers is that their rates are too high for the value that they add. That's why business has slowed. While no one may actually have quantified value-added, clients are often more savvy than metrics. They know their bottomlines and have a sixth-sense for where their profits actually come from. They've stopped buying because the fees to value-added ratio is simply too high.

So, why doesn't service-providing America simply drop prices? It's incredibly humbling for a professional who has built his or her livelihood for charging for their time and spent decades preparing to charge a high rate, to accept that maybe their work/their time/their effort is simply not as valuable as previously thought. If the market will require, in order to stay in business, an adjustment in prices, will the result correspond with a Darwinian selection of the humblest surviving and the arrogant dying off?

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Recessions, and especially depressions, are times for soul-searching and a reevaluation of the metrics by which we determine our own success. If before, the pursuit of material things allowed us to self-value, now with their evaporation and without practical opportunity to pursue them at will, we find value in new things. We revalue our time, what it is worth. What before might have been a $500/hr services, is now $250. Not because quality or effort has dropped, but because the value to the client never actually supported $500. We are in this mess because we moved away from our equilibrium, our pricing, lending and investing was not sustainable.

Sustainable pricing has been ethically necessary in some form or another since the beginning of professional services ethics. Engineers, lawyers, even auto mechanics engage in it all the time. I took my car to the body shop once, to ask if a scratch could be touched up. The previous shop I had taken it to gave me a $300 estimate. At the second auto shop, the mechanic took a look at the scratch, grabbed a towel and some de-greaser, and cleaned the scratch out to the point it was barely noticeable. By doing so, he lost the $299 he could have charged me by bidding less than the first shop. But he was honest, so he did the job at lowest cost to me. I now take my car to his shop only.

As we move forward, we need to realize that there is little difference between the a mechanic charging me $299 for a service he could to for $5 and a lawyer charging $500 for a service that only adds $3000 to the client's value (assuming the maximum sustainable ratio of fees:value-added is less than 1/6, which I believe it might be) or a doctor charging $600 for a procedure that he could charge $400 if HMOs or Medicare weren't footing the bill. What was the additional money going to pay for before for the client? The prestige and ego of retaining a pricier service?

Ultimately, inflated prices for professional services will have to go the way of mortgaged backed securities and magical Madoff funds. Hopefully, the void left will be filled with a renewed sense of honesty and humility.

Critical Points of Philosophy in Nevada v. Simpson

This post originally appeared on EagleIOnline, Boston College Law School's student blog.

EagleIOnline has been too understaffed to provide in-depth legal analysis of the upcoming critical, groundbreaking case: State of Nevada v. Orenthal James Simpson, et. al. Unfortunately for our readership, green and virginal 1L Sakib, EagleIOnline’s newest opinion columnist, has been tasked with this assignment.

NEWTON, MA State of Nevada prosecutors filed charges, 1 misdemeanor and 7 felonies, against OJ Simpson and 3 of his associates in relation to his storming of a Las Vegas hotel room. The mildly entertaining fact pattern is as follows:


• Simpson and his girlfriend, a creepy dead-ringer for his late ex-wife, were staying at the Palms Las Vegas in a humble $250 per night room. The Goldman family has yet to claim ownership of all complementary shampoos and soaps.
• Ex-con, Thomas Riccio, the man who displayed impeccable scruples in his auctioneering of Anna Nicole Smith’s diaries, contacted OJ about memorabilia OJ suspected had been stolen from him, including the “Trial of the Century” suit he wore at his acquittal hearing.
• “The Juice”, feeling the squeeze of the $33.5 million dollars in civil liability owed to the Goldman family, did not rent a car in Vegas. He arranged for an old golfing buddy, Walter Alexander, to put together a crew and get a truck to aid Simpson in the recovery of his stolen personal property.
• Alexander assembled the crew. AC Collins was unavailable, so Alexander recruited “helpers.” (Use your imagination… your vivid imagination.)
• The crew reached the Place Station casino-hotel, a class A dump, and Riccio led them to a room where memorabilia dealers Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong were waiting for a prospective buyer.
• Chaos ensued as Simpson’s motley crew rushed into the room with the gusto of the famed “Electric Company” offensive line.
• One of the gang, probably the one playing the role of Scooby, yelled, “I’m a cop and you’re lucky this ain’t L.A. or you’d be dead.” EagleIOnline failed in efforts to contact Mark Fuhrman for comment.
• Simpson added quisitive insight: “Don’t let nobody get out of here. Motherfucker, you think you can steal my shit and get away with it?”
• Simpson had his men grab up all of the memorabilia in the room and fled to the parking lot. Only then did Simpson check what it was that Beardsley and Fromong had–the scheme recovered only one Simpson item.

Any solid legal analysis would begin by spotting the issues and then applying facts to precedent. The facts of this case beg the question, why is there even a prosecution? Sure, guns were drawn, but they weren’t fired. Sure, there was an intent to take property from someone who had possession, but it was assumed to be wrongful possession. OJ was given a chance to take what was rightfully his, and he took it. Are OJ Simpson’s actions anything other than American?

According to the State of Nevada, there are several minor, ancillary laws on the books: burglary, assault, robbery, kidnapping, conspiracy, etc. which the facts might support OJ violating, in technicality. Many states have “blue laws”, but prosecutions tend to follow evil, anti-American wrongfulness, like killing your ex-wife and her boyfriend in cold blood.

As any 1L worth their liberal arts degree can tell you (or in my case, worth my minor in Middle Eastern Cultures), this issue is not of law, nor of fact, but rather of philosophy. A diligent researcher need not delve far into the annals of philosophy to find classical precedent. In Euthyphro, Socrates inquires as to why Euthyphro seeks to prosecute his father for murder. When Euthyphro explains that he’s doing it because he’s being pious, The Socratic Methodologist asks for more. “Piety is what I am doing now; that is to say, prosecuting any one who is guilty of murder, sacrilege, or of any similar crime.” Our analytical Athenian uncle did not accept this shallow argument, and neither shall we.

Why is the Clark County prosecutor bringing the Simpson case despite the fact that Fromong has been quoted as saying, “Never at any time was I ever, [sic] did I feel threatened by O.J.,” and Beardsley requested that charges not be filed? Piety is what he is doing now? But piety to what? To the Law! To the law? But what does the law gain from turning OJ into prison pulp? Respect in the eyes of others? Who are these others? Respect by who and for who? By the citizenry for the government? By blacks for whites? By C-list celebrities for the tabloid cabal? By adoring fans for some soon-to-be-famous prosecutor? These are critical points not of fact, nor of law, but of philosophy.

Bibliography:
“OJ Got Stung Going in with a Sting,” by Stacey Silberman, Hollywood Today, October 1st, 2007.
“Accounts reveal how alleged Simpson caper crumbled,” Associated Press on CNN.com, September 23rd, 2007.
“OJ Simpson has some wiggle room for second great escape,” by Tony Allen-Mills, The Sunday Times, September 23rd, 2007.
“A Timeline of the Latest OJ Simpson Case,” Associated Press, September 22nd, 2007.
Criminal Complaint, State of Nevada v. Orenthal James Simpson, et. al., September 18th, 2007.
Apparent Tape of O.J. Released in Vegas, Associated Press, September 17th, 2007.
Euthyphro, Transcribed by Plato circa 380 B.C.E., Translated by Benjamin Jowett.

Class division, the economy, and public radio stealing my blog entries

This post originally appeared on the now defunct blog, Team Sakib.

One of my favorite shows on NPR is Marketplace, NPR's daily business review. While most business or economics media outlets (like WSJ) target their programming for affluent and powerful businessmen (who, I'm sure, command a strong demand in the advertising sector), Marketplace tends to make that pull a little less. Yes, Marketplace is still economics skewed for the rich, like CNBC, but it makes that assumption that these rich might want to hear a slightly more balanced approach.

Anywho, last night's Marketplace show stole a couple of ideas I had for posts. Or rather, featured other people who had the same ideas that I did, and got the job done fleshing them out much sooner and better. I'll discuss the larger issue one now and save Cal-Berkeley's analysis of Facebook vs. Myspace for later.

The financial gap is everyone's problem

by John Authers, investment editor, The Financial Times

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. And that could be a problem — for the rich.

That's not an original observation. It goes back at least as far as Karl Marx, who talked of "two great hostile camps" that could sort out their differences either through revolution or in "the common ruin of the contending classes."

Nobody on Wall Street is advocating revolution. But if UBS, the biggest bank in Switzerland, can say it finds that "low-income Americans have been in a recession all this century" that says something.

UBS believes that inequality is a deepening problem for everyone, and not just the poor.

And Wall Street is right to be worried. First of all, it makes the job of investing harder.

That's because numbers on the aggregate economy become meaningless when you have two separate economies, one built around the rich and the other around the poor.

So, good luck on deciding where to put your money. If you want to lend, look no further than the subprime mortgage debacle. The headlines show the U.S. economy barely slowing down, and yet the subprime mortgage industry is in crisis.

The theory is that diversification will look after you. Mortgages and other loans are now packaged up and sold on as securities. If you buy a security representing a range of mortgates, defaults should stay at a manageable rate.

But that assumes all borrowers are living in the same economy. If they are living in two, one of which is in crisis, such comfortable assumptions go out of the window.

And if you want to invest, luxury goods are a good investment but there is a limit as to how many of those goods the rich will buy. Selling to the increasingly poorer economy looks risky.

Marx said that inequality could be a problem for everyone. He proposed his own solution, which would certainly not go down well with the wealthy. But remember his other option was "common ruin."

Wall Street is taking that more seriously than you'd think.

The economy has been absolutely rosy from my vantage point, the upper class vantage point that is. Yet, it is not hard to believe that as gas prices rise, and with them the price of any basic good that has to be shipped, the price of heat and hot water, and the cost of simply getting to work everyday, that the lower class economy is struggling. It's ironic how it seems that affordable energy is a key element to development--see Iran's struggles with subsidized gas prices as the country regresses from developing third world country (a rare breed) to militaristic economically-stunted third world country (see Pakistan). In the US, we've seen high gas prices the last seven years, and with it we've seen a slow-down in all sectors of the economy, except on the street, where luxury consumer goods seem to be more prevalent now than ever before (I have no citation).

The trend seems to be rather entrenched, and the result imminent, though not through drastic discrete events. Over time, it seems the rich will continue to get richer, the poor will continue to get poorer. More than terrorism, more than the war, more than civil liberties, this should be the foremost concern of American Muslims. Yes or no?