Monday, October 22, 2007

BLACKWATER AS GOLDFINGER



Yesterday was Sunday, usually a quiet day for news with an eye to the networks. So perhaps it was a deliberate decision on the part of CNN to briefly crack open the door on an astonishing fact: Erik Prince, the CEO of Blackwater has financed with this own money a prototype humvee said to be inpervious to IEDs. MOREOVER, this enterprising ex-Navy seal has organized the development of a “privately funded surveillance airship to fly around the world”.

I will be curious to see who if anyone, picks up this story today, and whether any of our stalwart presidential candidates considers it worthy of attention. Maybe the Clintons consider Prince’s efforts part of a worthy cause: making the world safe for investment while raising the means of as many would-be consumers as possible. So that the presence of Mark Penn at the head of Hillary’s campaign is no contradiction to his also being the CEO of Burston Marsteller, the PR firm that defends Blackwater’s practices on the ground.

Barack Obama wants desperately to close the money gap with HIllary, but as I wrote in a return email, what good is money if your mouth isn’t in the right place?

Meanwhile, such are the serendipities of semi-compulsive TV watching, the original Goldfinger nemesis, Sean Connery, appeared this week-end in a 1999 caper with Catherine Zeta-Jones in which the latter exclaims, upon contemplating the favelas and skyscrapers of Kuala Lumpur: “Isn’t it beautiful?!” The film chronicles the efforts of the pair to enter into possession of “billions”, each time upping the ante of their exploits, oblivious to the question of what they could do with all that money. As the hub of millennium financial transfers, Malaysia teems with police in riot gear, a preview of what awaits all of us if the stock market continues heedless of the “health” of the world economy.

4 comments:

  1. Just wondering if you have blogs on any other niche as i really like this blog?

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  2. Hi John,
    This blog also appears on Daily Kos. Glad you like it.

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  3. I really like your template, its simple but easy on the eyes and easy to navigate was it a paid or free template?

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  4. A friend designed it using an old photograph.

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