Mumbai and aftermath

195 and counting..
That's the number of people killed in this mumbai massacre. This exposes the pity state of intelligence and security in India. Having said that, it's tough for any country to protect it's citizens if you've enemies with in. Fuck I ain't being politically correct. Muslims in this country should change.

Here're few pictures of the victims in Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus and Taj Mahal hotel.
Boston Globe
Daily Mail

I'm not gonna rant about Pakistani influence or the muslim traitors in India. I vented my anger enough in the last 2 years. I want to write about two articles/views.

I read an interesting article in TIME magazine on Wed night.
to paraphrase few lines

Still, many South Asian Muslims insist Islam is the one and only force that can bring the subcontinent together and return it to preeminence as a single whole. "We [Muslims] were the legal rulers of India, and in 1857 the British took that away from us," says Tarik Jan, a gentle-mannered scholar at Islamabad's Institute of Policy Studies. "In 1947 they should have given that back to the Muslims." Jan is no militant, but he pines for the golden era of the Mughal period in the 1700s, and has a fervent desire to see India, Pakistan and Bangladesh reunited under Islamic rule.

"People are hungry for justice," says Ahmed Rashid, Pakistani journalist and author of the new book Descent Into Chaos.

Keep jacking off to your Islamic Society, suckers. There's no way you'll win this war. And just to make it clear to these retarded muslim suicide bombers; you wouldn't be greeted by Virgins in heaven. You'll be sucking a dick in hell for the eternity.

Muslims in India got all they needed. Reservations in colleges and Jobs. Could the readers believe that they have their own Islamic courts and they can give divorce by uttering Talak 3 times. And here it is. Government gives aid/subdisdy to people who goes on Mecca pilgrimage. Every year terrorists kills numerous Hindus who goes to Vaishno Devi temple in Kashmir. No one really bothers these people. I'm not sure what they achieve in these bomb blasts and killings.

And to the pseudo-intelligent reporters of TIME, India is a country of Hindus. It's called Hindustan. Mughals ruled India for only few hundred years. It's not that they own this land. Like any other kingdom, they met their end. British gave India to people to right people i.e. Hindus. But to wrong leaders Gandhi and Nehru. If Sardar Vallabhai Patel had became First Prime Minister of India, things would've been lot better. I'll save that discussion for later.

And then there're these Human Right Activists and intelligent liberal writers in India. To name one, Arundhati Roy. I've few words for her. STFU, bitch. This woman is all over Indian Media condeming an encounter of Muslim terrorist, calling it a Human rights violation. Back in '98 when India tested a nuclear bomb, she's all over media decrying that.

Arundhati, what if your loved one is in Taj Mahal or CST? Just coz you won a booker prize doesn't mean that you've to bitch about everything in India. Save your pearls of Wisdom for fiction writing. Leave the Law and Order for the Police and Government

And the media in India. For the love of the God, please don't cover up the Muslim/Pakistan hand in this massacre for your political correctness. Longer the people suffer, harsher the backlash. Remember Gujarat circa 02.

All the innocent people who died in Mumbai, may their soul Rest in Peace. And I salute to all the brave Police men and commandos who fought for the country. I hope the Govt. takes care of your families of the slain Police.

And to all the traitors in India, just wait for next Gujarat.
Jai Hind.

Happy Diwali

One of my favorite Indian festivals. Wish you all a very Happy Diwali

W

Watched W movie this evening. It's a good movie. But didn't see anything new about W, except that he and his staff has to pray after every meeting.

Being a avid watcher of PBS frontline, I watched/read all about Cheney, Rumsfield, Wolfowitz & Rove. For me it's like watching a movie based on a novel which I read.

But, I've to say that Oliver Stone is back in form. I made a choice not to watch his last two movies Alexander and World Trade Center. I immensely liked his two president biographies, JFK(yeah, I was 22 then) and Nixon. He didn't take any liberties in script this time. Everything is factual and well documented. Stone potrayed issues between HW and W in very effective way. It's pretty much clear for all of us that W always looks up for God and Reagan for direction, rather than his old man. There's a clear angst in him to prove that he is better than his dad.

Colin Powell's role is well written. And movie clearly shows how Powell tried to stop W from going into war and how he failed. Casting is very good, specially Thandie Newton as Condi and Richard Dreyfuss as Cheney. Josh Brolin is amazing as W.

In a way this movie is like a Deja Vu. Back in '04 I was cheering for Fahrenheit 9/11. Movie made good money but failed to change the verdict. That movie addressed my angst against war in a a better way. W is the 4th movie this weekend in Box office collections. I hope, at least this movie will change few voter's minds.

As Oliver Stone said, Bush made an enormous impact on USA and whole world in the last eight years. We all know that it's not a good thing, but we've to live with it. (We can blame it on Karl Rove, Katherine, Harris, Ralph Nader ...). All the visitors of this blog knows me as a Bush basher. But last two years, my hatred and despise of Bush simmered down and increased on these 4 evil people. Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfield and Rove.

Even though we can't blame Bush solely for the Iraq war, History wouldn't treat him right. All I can wish is that 4 evil people will be served justice.

Peace

Here's the Roger Ebert's review
Watch PBS coverage on Bush's war, on Frontline

when i say ‘obama’ you say ‘ayers’...

SNL was awesome last night

Amy Poehler rapped for our fav bimbo....err Sarah Palin.
For those who missed it last night...




and here's the lyric

my name is sarah palin you all know me
vice president nominee of the gop
gonna need your vote in the next election
can i get a ‘what what’ from the senior section
mccain got experience, mccain got style
but don’t let him freak you out when he tries to smile
cause that smile be creepy
but when i be vp
all the leaders in the world gonna finally meet me

how’s it go eskimo
eskimos
tell me what you know eskimo
eskimos
how you feel eskimo
ice cold
tell me tell me what you feel eskimo
super cold

i’m jeremiah wright cause tonight i’m the preacha
i got a bookish look and you’re all hot for teacha
todd lookin fine on his snow machine
so hot boy gonna need a go between
in wasilla we just chill baby chilla
but when i see oil lets drill baby drill

my country tis a thee
from my porch i can see
russia and such

all the mavericks in the house put your hands up
all the mavericks in the house put your hands up
all the plumbers in the house pull your pants up
all the plumbers in the house pull your pants up

when i say ‘obama’ you say ‘ayers’
obama. ayers. obama. ayers.
i built me a bridge - it ain’t goin’ nowhere.
[ohhh]

mccain, palin, gonna put the nail in the coffin
of the media elite
she likes red meat
shoot a mull humpin moose, eight days of the week

[three gunshots]
now ya dead, now ya dead,
cause i’m an animal, and i’m bigger than you
holdin a shotgun walk in the pub
everybody party, we’re goin on a hunt
la la la la la la la la
[six gunshots]

yo palin, i’m out!

sarah palin

I was thinking about right words to describe sarah palin. Yeah, she's a bimbo.... But that ain't enough.

Last Friday, Dana Gould coined this word on 'Real Time with Bill Maher'.

Evangelical Dominatrix !!
This would sum up her whole appearance, folksiness, stupid ignorance, darn rights, you betchas...

Here's the clip.



and the money line from Bill Maher "She is with out the gene, which tells you that you should be embarrassed"

Peace

What a moron !

Please watch this



Rape or incest victims, she wants to counsel them. No, abortion ain't right for them.

She's OK with morning after pill, oh wait she is not endorsing that contraceptive!

Just think about this Moron being the next VP. As if Dick Cheney isn't evil enough.

Gosh, what's she talking about!!

Chintakayala Ravi - Movie review

Just watched chintakayala ravi. In simple words, this is a typical venky film. It's a routine film with good comedy. The audio wasn't an instant success, but the songs looked a lot better on screen.

Most of the film is shot in the US, almost the entire first half and half of the second half. The first half of the film is pretty good with nice comedy. The only real emotional/sentimental scenes are in the last 15 minutes of the first half. All the three songs are pretty good. They are not different from the usual venky style songs.

The second half of the movie moves at a fast pace initially and all the remaining 3 songs are over within the first 45 minutes. The last 30 minutes moves to India and is pretty predictable, but not as heavy as you would imagine. Overall, the second half is good too.

I somehow don't digg venky's get up so much. But on the whole, its a tailor made film for Venky and he is as usual at ease. Anushka and Mamata Mohandas are good. Jr.NTR's guest appearance is okay. He looked very good, and its nice to see venky and Jr.NTR on the screen together. Overall, chintakayala ravi is not a great movie, but it's a timepass movie, definitely worth a watch.

Tina Fey - Sarah Palin, CNN compares

CNN compares Tina Fey parody to real Palin interview

Lipstick on a Pig

Looks like party is over for Sarah Palin.

She got Cliff notes training in foreign affairs for two days. Then she showed up for interview with Katie Couric.

And here's a good Q by Katie and Sarah's response to that..

COURIC: Why isn't it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the—it's got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.

Here's the youtube video



Can anybody pls translate Sarah's response into comprehensible English.
WTF is she talking about. In a way, Tina Fey job is very easy on SNL. Just talk like palin, you look like a dumbwit with out a clue.

We had enough of dumb people in White House. Please America, vote for Obama. He might not be flawless, but Obama-Biden is better than this McCain and Palin ticket.

Courtesty: Good Commentatory by Fareed Zakaria on Sarah Palin.

Peace.

Wall St, FUBAR ! 2

Now that the dust is settling (hopefully) and capitol hill is busy in finalizing the mother of all bailouts, I'll try to explore the causes for the crisis.

As I see it, these're the causes.

Insanely low interest rates from 2004 to 2006
Sub prime Lending
Predatory Lending
Derivatives
Lack of Regulation

and the Housing bubble burst.

Low Interest Rates
Post 9/11 Fed decreased the rate consistently. And from Jun '03 to Jun'04 the rate is 1%. Alan Greenspan advocated that rate cut would help the Housing. But too much cash flow to bankers made'em look out for more people to lend their easy money.

Sub prime Lending
Sub prime is jargon for people with bad or avg credit history. Usually this group wouldn't be eligible for housing loans. But as there is too much money to lend, realtors and mortgage bankers lend the money to this group.

A couple making 75G per year bought a 450G home without a down payment in SoCal. No income verification! How is this possible? Here comes the different types of Mortgage Products. ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage) is one of them. With this kinda mortgage, lenders can pick their payments for the first 3 years. Obviously people paid interest only for the first 3 years. And then the Bankers used all the Predatory Lending practices.

Predatory Lending
So Bankers convinced this public that they can refi or sell their house after 3 years if they can't afford the payment. But apparently they're not informed that they can't refi the home before 3 years. So after 3 years the teaser rates ended and the real payments kicked in. As many people didn't pay any Principal in the first 3 years, you can imagine how much the monthly payments would go up. Now this public couldn't get their homes refinanced coz of the credit crunch, new lending standards and the phenomenal loss of house values. Even though the borrowers are really foolish, Mortgage lenders had intentionally hidden these details in their paper work.

Derivatives
As there is risk in all the sub prime loans, these loans we're sliced and repackaged as Derivatives ans sold all over the world. this reduces the risk to lending firm. The problem here is that no one really knows, which toxic loan effects a derivative. When Fed was trying to convince Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley AIG, they couldn't figure out how many toxic derivatives are in AIG books and how they would be affected.
And they backed out. Warren Buffer once called'em Weapons of Mass Destruction. Here's a pic which shows how loans are packaged into Derivatives. (Courtesy wikipedia)

These Derivatives are the main reason for Bankruptcy of walls st firms. As the housing foreclosures are increasing, these derivatives are losing their value. Panic on the wall st brought down the share value. It's just another illustration of Domino effect.

Lack of Regulation
Every year Wall st contributes millions of dollars to the both parties. In return they get no regulation or regulation of no use. This is the Free Market capitalism at it's best. When the street is making profit, they lobbied for lower taxes on Capital gains and got the 15% tax rate and tax cuts. Now they got the bail outs. AIG is just an insurance company. But it got involved into Derivatives trading and insurance. Reason, no regulation.

Dick Fuld, CEO of Lehman Bros got 180 Mil in compensation last year. CEOs of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae got the golden parachutes on their compensation package already. Thank God, Fed fired'em already and the chances that they'll get any severance package are very low. I saw Henry Paulson's and Bloomberg's take on CEO pay on Meet the Press this morning. watch it here

Like all good things, Housing Bubble came to an end in 2007. Home Prices're in Free fall mode. Bankruptcy of sub prime mortgage companies signaled the incoming financial storm. Apparently we saw that very late.

Some one on wikipedia, put all this mess into a good pic.


Peace.

Wall St, FUBAR !

What a week!

Where to start! Sunday night Lehman brothers filed chapter 11. Feds didn't bail out this time (?!). AIG bailed out by Feds. Meryl Lynch is part of BofA now. And then Dow Jones lost so many points and again rallied at the same pace. Everything which Americans thought risk-free is at risk now.

Banks, Money Market funds. (could you imagine that few money market share values went below $1.) I can't believe my bank Wachovia anymore.

Bail outs Season
Bail outs. USA is now the most socialist economy in the world.
Let's see the numbers
Bear Sterns $29B
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae $200B
AIG $89B

and as I write this Bush and his team are pitching $700B bailout plan to the congress.
The total tab $1.018 Trillion. Yes, that's 12 zeroes fellas.

and 700B is a very rosy estimate. God knows how much more money Fed is gonna put in. And Detroit auto companies are in line for their Bail out.

My first Question. Where's all this money coming from? Our economy is in deficit of $407 Billion. And the National Debt $10.6 trillion. See this video Money as Debt. As we see, USA economy isn't fundamentally strong.

Henry Paulson, the treasury secretary is leading the effort and he is pulling all the stops to face this crisis. He's doing a good job. In a way I can't oppose these bail outs, coz otherwise the whole economy might tumble down.

But again rich corporations were not held accountable for this mess. Imagine you or me, abusing our credit cards on big screen TVs, shopping, bad mortgages and file for bankruptcy. Would the Feds come for your resuce? F NO!!. But corporations did that and yes Fed rescued'em.

Interesting point here. SEC banned shorting of Financial stocks for 3 weeks. For the beginners, shorting is a kinda trading in which you profit if the stock price goes down. But wall st made billions in the last decade in shorting with their hedge funds. Isn't it ironical that the same companies destroyed so many companies with their shorting techniques.

It's not 'Surge' which is working in Iraq. It's the money US govt is giving to Shiite militants to stop attacks. And Dems VP candidate Joe Biden is putting a bill in Congress asking for 1 Billion aid to Georgia. Are they outta their F'in mind. How in this world are we gonna send aid when our economy itself is in direness.

US Govt doesn't have money to upgrade infrastructure, schools, health care in USA. Could you believe that FAA is still using 50 year old Radar based navigation for civilian flights in USA. FAA can't afford 150 Billions budget to upgrade it to GPS system. And we had already spent $580 Billions in Iraq war.

Now imagine John McCain being elected in November. McCain has been big backer of Deregulation bills until last tuesday. Suddenly, he's asking for more regulation of Wall st now. So if McCain goes to White house, he's gonna ask Social Security privatization. And medicaid, your retirement everything is at risk. As I see it, we're not even at the end of crisis. This is just the beginning !

And I've to use a line from Bill Maher
"Please don't call this crisis as Market correction, it's a catastrofuck."

to be contd...

Political Pundits and their BS

Sarah Palin huh...

The gun trotting, bible thumping, Pro-life extreme Right wing Hockey mom (what is hockey mom anyway...)

She sounds like second coming of W. And the abc interview shows her understanding of today's issues..which is zero. Now the conservative Political Consultants wants to Project her as able leader who might not be sharp but ABLE. Just like they projected W in 2000 and '04.

So I was watching Real time with Bill Maher on youtube. Bill asked John Fund (conservative reporter of WSJ) whether Sarah Palin would know anything about Sarabanes Oxley. His answer, "are we here for a trivia contest ?".

John, listen up dude. Since when, SOX became trivia in corporate America ? Corporations are spending Billions of dollars for the compliance of these regulations. (This SOX in reality is just a pay check for auditing firms). And is it too much to ask for a VP candidate's view on SOX.

There's no end in sight for this Right wing Spin.

Peace.

What is India waiting for ?

Another bomb blast in India. This time it's in Capital city. Same Modus operandi. Send a mail to news outlet and trigger the blasts.

I feel so sad and shameful on how these muslims/terrorists are killing innocent people. What can be done to prevent this and what's government doing about these.

Police didn't make any significant progress in last year's Hyderabad Blasts. Jaipur, Ahmadabad, Banglore, Delhi...Terrorists are changing locations and here we're living with fear everyday and just waiting for blasts to happen in some other city.

Is there any intelligence team in India which is actually doing it's job. Or Terrorists too smart. Government, is that in a position to guarantee the safety of civilians lives. I didn't read any outrage about this blasts this time. Civilains and govt, are they considering this as part of their life.

And for the love the God, would at least one politician come forward and ask all these muslims to go F themselves. Life in India is all about fucking political Correctness. In the movies, if the Villain happens to be muslim, then honest cop also needs to be a Muslim.

This whole post is just an anger outburst. My anger is deep rooted and started right from college days when I heard that muslims in Hyderabad celebrate Pakistan's victory against India in cricket. I'm just looking for a civilian movement to start. Or a vigilante.

God Bless India,
Jai Hind

Ashta chemma - Movie review

Just got back from Ashta chemma. The promos looked very promising and though the movie might not be a great hit, it sure is a very good entertainer. Simple story, simple narration and a short(by indian standards) movie. The run time is close to 130 mins. All the artists/actors gave good performances. No big twists, the music is good, the songs could have been better. Both the heroes did good. Its hard to believe its their debut movie. Nani(Rambabu) and Srinivas(Anand) both were good, but Nani imitated Rajiv kanakala in many scenes, especially in his intro and the following scenes his dialogue delivery, modulation and action resembles Rajeev Kanakala. Swathi is cute. Bhargavi is okay (adequate hehe)

Overall, Ashta chemma is a time pass flick. A simple story with some good laughs.

Indian Hockey at Olympics

I was reading about Indian hockey the other day. I knew we were a good team once upon a time. I was really amazed at our olympics record. It is unfortunate that we did not qualify for Beijing. Here is a list of past olympic results -

1928 Gold Amsterdam
1932 Gold Los Angeles
1936 Gold Berlin
1940 Games not held
1944 Games not held
1948 Gold London
1952 Gold Helsinki
1956 Gold Melbourne
1960 Silver Rome
1964 Gold Tokyo
1968 Bronze Mexico City
1972 Bronze Munich
1976 Seventh Montreal
1980 Gold Moscow
1984 Fifth Los Angeles
1988 Sixth Seoul
1992 Seventh Barcelona
1996 Eighth Atlanta
2000 Seventh Sydney
2004 Seventh Athens
2008 Failed to qualify Beijing

courtesy:
yahoo! sports
worldhockey.org/olympics

India at olympics

Congratulations to Abhinav Bindra, India finally gets an olympic gold medal. It is a great achievement by Bindra. While the celebrations are understandable all over India, one gold medal does not justify the 1 billion population. While we blame cricket for everything since it overshadows all the other games and sports, the main culprit is the politics involved at every level. The olympics offer a perfect stage for all sports. A victory here can capture the public’s attention and bring more young talent and more funds into the sport. It brings identity to the sport. I hope we have more leagues and competitions in all sports just like we have IPL/ICL for cricket. But with the media and the networks in india crazy with cricket, it might take a long time before the public can get to watch the other sports.

In another news, India is thrashed by Sri Lanka in the ongoing one day series.

Hyderabad : Does it belong to India

Past few days, I'm really bothered by bomb blasts. I really feel powerless and defeated. Called up my friend in India to talk about these.

Then he mentioned about this incident in Hydereabad city.
http://www.eenadu.net/archives/archive-27-7-2008/panelhtml.asp?qrystr=htm/panel3.htm
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200807261965.htm

My friend/owner of this blog's intention is to keep this blog as PG-13. But It's really tough for me to hold my words today.



So now we've a muslim mothertrucker MLA who opened fire, since corporation officials tried to demolish a encroachment. And his entourage started beating corporation workers. People, ambulances got stuck up in traffic for 6 hours. Other legislators, CM has to mediate to reduce the tensions. And yes, case has been filed on the officer who orderd the demolotion of these buildings

This all happened on the day after 45 people're killed in Ahmedabad, beacuse of bomb blasts perpetrated by muslim SOBs. I've to ask, where is India heading. Every day I read how many high end retailers are opening shops in India and how many luxurys cars are being bought. And now this is the reality, on how much we progressed.

And, what would it take to ban this MIM party, put these muslim legislators behind bars, kill all the SIMI members. My choice of words today is very bad, coz of the anger I've today. Why these muslims are getting free ride every day, every year and every century. And why Hindus has to remain like this. I'm not a War supporter, but Justice has to be served. Sometimes, Modi might be right. Let the people take law into their hands!

And I wonder what's the CBI, RAW, IB's take on old city in hyderabad. What's their plan to clean up this mess. This is like a pakistan inside India.

Rang de Basanti really caught younger generation's imagination and did some good. And now I pray for a film maker with balls to show the reality.

And my request to all my friends, readers. Please stop patronizing Paki/bangladesh/muslim restaurants. You're contributing money to these bomb blasts.

Jai Hind.

Hare Ram - an exhibitor's view

There were two things on my mind that almost prevented me from watching Hare Ram. The first one is Kalyan Ram himself. Unlike many of his generation heroes, I always thought KR lacked the ease in front of camera. His boy next door look is his asset as well as a drawback. The second one is Harshavardhan, the guy that directed Vijayendravarma, who changed his name from Swarna Subbaro. But it is in fact, these two guys that make Hare Ram worth watching.

It is hard to go into the details of the movie without spoiling your experience. Unfortunately, many of the reviews have already done that. About the movie, all I can say is look out for Kalyan Ram, both as an actor and a producer. The movie might have many interesting twists and turns, but the biggest of them all is KR's performance. The scenes with Sudha and Chalapathi Rao at the start of the movie show the ease in his performance. His body language and dialogue delivery have improved a lot. It is always risky to play a double role. Since he is also the producer he must have known this and we can see the difference in both the roles. He put his heart and soul in this movie to come up with an extraordinary performance. This definitely is a turning point film for Kalyan Ram.

The next biggest asset for the movie is the director, Harshavardhan. I still cannot believe it is the same guy that directed Vijayendravarma. The direction is completely different. He seems to have worked hard on each and every scene. The picturization of some of the scenes is awesome. His screenplay is very good especially the flashback episode. The camera angles and close up shots used in some scenes are awesome. He maintained good tempo throughout the film and just when we things are a little slow there is a twist. He handled the climax very well. The last 20 minutes especially is very impressive.

Mickey J Meyer's music is big plus. My personal favorites are Pyar karma seeko na, Laalijo Laalijo and Sariga Padani. On the screen Jairam Jairam song is awesome. Look out for Priyamani in that song ;). The background music is good. Mickey J Meyer's music is different from all the others. His style resembles AR.Rehman, though the orchestration is different and with Hare Ram, he seems like he is here to stay. Mickey J Meyer and Harshavardan, both complemented each other well. Great music and lovely visuals. I cannot stress enough about the rap song Jairam Jairam.

As for the others, Priyamani was a good choice for the role. She was perfect. Just imagine what would have happened to Asadhyudu if she was the heroine in that movie. Some of the episodes involving Brahmanandam and Raghu babu are good and Ali's rain episode clicked well too. Kota as always gives a very good performance. It is sad that he is often ignored.

Overall, this is a very good film to watch and hats off to Kalyan Ram for daring to be different. He did say during the audio function that he will let the audience and fans speak after they watch the movie, and I am pretty sure the talk is unanimous. This movie should also be a good film to watch for all the wannabe directors and producers. But if there are any wannabe producers reading this and looking for a director, feel free to email me (just kidding…but seriously?!).

US airstrike kills 47 civilians in Afghanistan

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7501538.stm

Imagine if this happened in the US. A missile from Afghan or any other country accidentally landed in a mall or any other public place and killed 47 people. What would be the public reaction? How would the US react? This is not the first time this has happened and the way things are it will not be the last time either. I can’t wait for Bush to complete his term. The US does not participate in the International Criminal Court, but I wish Bush and Cheney are tried for war crimes. From torture to killing civilian casualties, they have done everything they shouldn’t have. I can’t wait for Bush to finish his term, but I am not sure if the next President will do any better.

SOS

Got an e-mail from northwest airlines, asking me to visit this website stop oil speculation now. So now airlines also joined the bandwagon. Even they need some one to blame for their poor customer service, airline delays (lemme say it again, new york area airports sucks...aah I feel better)

But seriously this website is a coalition of all the airlines, freight operators etc. and they raise some important points "....As speculators continue to dominate the market, the volume of oil traded “on paper” has been as high as 22 times greater than the volume of oil consumed...". This isn't a good sign

And they've suggestions also. The point I want to make here is I'm not a airlines fans, but I've to take their side in this issue. An there're some rules in this commodity trading lobbied by Enron. Duh.

People who follow this blog(if there're any out there..) might be pretty bored with oil speculation topic. Few guys in Connecticut, New York and London are taking us for a ride. that particular thought is killing me.

Anyways if you're convinced, please write to your local senators.
Thanks
Peace.

Stupidest biased article ever read

Read this article this morning. I've to disagree with the writer

Ok I'm not a wall street guy, I'm just an average Indian IT guy with too much negative energy. But this guy is really insulting the readers intelligence.

Let's look at his argument. Since the speculators are not taking the physical delivery of the oil, they're not responsible for the exponential growth in oil prices. But if too much money is chasing too few oil contracts, wouldnt' that raise the price

Say a Goldman sachs guy bought an august's oil futures contract for X dollars for the hedge fund in june. He'll sell the contract to a refienry in the month of June for ...say X+Y dollars. So isn't he making a profit of Y dollars and wouldn't that make a difference in the oil price. Now Y dollars is in billions.

Pardon my french here, but how the F in this world speculators arent' causing the increase. Isn't this taught in Economics 101, too much demand and less supply will increase the price.

Now again a stupid theory that india and china are the reason for oil prices. if demand is increasing at 10% why the prices are increasing at 50% rate.

I've to agree that it's free market economy and every one is in here for profit. Commodities trading has been around for ages, but in the last few years only hedge funds started dumping billions. It wouldn't really matter matter if people are hedging gold and silver. But now the commodities traders are after food supplies and oil futures.

Read the readers comments here
Peace.

offshore oil exploration, speculation, oil prices...

so now all right wing conservative wants the congress to lift the ban on oil exploration at offshore and antarctica. enlighten me here, I'd be very glad if I'm wrong.

even if they start drilling in offshore and Alaska (screw the environment and make the oil companies even more rich) wouldn't this oil enter the commodities market and get traded by speculators.

if that's true, how the F in this world this additional supply would reduce the price. these food and oil prices are fueled by excessive money channeled into commodities market by speculators. not by "increasing demand in india and china" as media is projecting main stream media is really a bitch. c'mon people, how would demand increase so much in 4 months.

if dubya and all other world leaders are sincere they can stop all this excessive money coming into commodities market. it's not easy as I said or i'm not a financial analyst. but if middle class people in usa are struggling to make the ends meet, what's gonna happen in so called third world countries.

on the side note Bush Sr signed for the ban on offshore exploration and dubya is so keen on lifting that ban. dubya and evil cheney at the end of their second term, aren't leaving any stone unturned in helping oil companies or screwing the environment.

all I can do is countdown the days until the inauguration of next president
peace.

bollocks to comcast

What's the use of a blog, if I don't air my personal grievances...eh here's mine

So two weeks ago, we don't have internet for the whole week, cause of the 'comcastic' (my ass) customer service. I spent 3 hours on customer service calls. If i had one more hour of their BS customer service pitch, I could've been ready to drive their vans across those town and fix those shitty modems.

Anyways talking about those vans, heres some news which will make you sick. Two comcast technicians're doing some good ol' fashioned drag racing in Huntsville, Al and hit a girl. I was thinking that Comcast is all about their BS customer service, no it's not.

I couldn't wait for Huntsville to sue comcast

Peace

Darfur Genocide

Folks,
I watched a very grim and depressing program on PBS Frontline about Darfur crisis. Please spare 1 hour to watch this program. I can't really write how shocked I'm, about the executions and way they doing'em.

Darfur crisis is an amalgamation of Genocide and Ethnic cleansing. Sudan denies that it's supporing the militia killing and raping the civilians but it's role is clearly documented. The reasons and causes for this genocide are very complex. Read'em here

After watching this program I'm starting to question Kofi Annan's integrity in his role as UN General. UN as by itself is very weak organization with ridiculous Veto Rule. But china kept vetoing all the resolutions about Sudan or Darfur until 2007.

China has so many Economic interests in Sudan, and it is their biggest offshore oil drilling base. Naturally its stopping all the economic sanctions on Sudan with its Veto right. Same with Russia which has almost the same bad record of human rights violation in Chechnya.

I can't really express my frustration on how china gets way with it's Human rights violation. It killed it's own civilians in Tiananmen Square. Then the attacks on Tibet monks. I'm very glad at all the bad publicity china is getting now for it's olympic torch. US has so much economic dependence on China for its economy. In other word China frickin owns US economy. So US don't want to anger China govt.

The last ray if hope in this crisis is the civilian activity and awareness. God bless all the people who're working on the case. Spielberg brought so much attention to this cause by quitting his adviser job for Beijing Olympics.

One thing I want to complain is US media. Darfur was never given importance in the Cable news or Network news. It's all about Paris Hilton and britney's Drama. God dammit America. There's so much crap in this world which is more important than American Idol. Last year an MSNBC anchor refused to cover Paris Hilton's news and tried burning that news report on the air. Around the same time AP deliberately stopped covering Paris Hilton news. Not sure why they ended it. Unfortunately not even a single day would pass without lindsay, paris or britney's news. And did you ever watch those retarded 10.30 news on FOX channel. As per them, American Idol is the most import thing on this world right now. Global Warming, Darfur crisis, Food prices, gas prices can wait.

I can just pray that this Darfur crisis ends soon and much love for the folks working for this cause.

Peace.

Please find more info about Darfur here.

wikipedia
sudanreeves
frontline
ushmm

Hold on people : another mortgage crisis

Folks, it ain't over till it's over.
Read this interesting piece from slate.com

So what if all these upper middle class and upper class people just walk away from their homes.. even though they can afford the payment.

I've mixed feelings for people who lost their homes cause of the sub-prime crisis. Many of them bought homes which they can't afford with ARM loans and few other lost coz of predatory lending. If just the sub-prime crisis caused this much damage imagine what's the pain with the next wave of crisis.

And I can't really blame all these SoCal residents (Few Southern California pricks loved this word, trust me) walk away from their overpriced 5 BR homes. Coz the money they're paying to lender is more than the worth of the home. Moral aspect aside, I might be tempted to do this.

Recently heard on a businessweek podcast that few lenders in cleaveland and the Rustbelt are actually abondaning foreclosed homes. It's a write off for them. But this causes a domino effect. Obviously this will become a hangout for drug peddlers, petty thieves and solicitations. Property values goes down in that community and again people become skeptic about Negative amortization.

Not sure when're we gonna come out of this recession. The problem here is, no one is willing to catch a falling knife.

Peace.

Other people's money, baby!!

Just read this

While VA employees are busy spending YOUR money in Sharper Image (I always ask my friend; who'll buy this overpriced stuff at this store) and departmental stores Veterans returning from Iraq are struggling for proper health care in Walter reed. Imagine how a veteran feels when he wasn't getting proper treatment after getting injured in a Iraqi civil war

This is all peanuts when compared to what Bush did to this country. Now avg debt for each American is $16,500. I mean to say, total national debt divided by population.


Share the pain, people.
Peace out.

5 years in iraq

It's been 5 years since USA invaded Iraq. More than 4000 US soldiers died. 1,197,469 iraqis died. This is not something which is on neocons mind when they're pitching this war on to us.

What did we achieve from this war? not every one lost something. haliburton, blackwater made hell a lot of money. All the dick cheney's buddies might've got few oil contracts. for every one else this is a $12 trillion expenditure with no real reason/result.

I've so many things on my mind. Space isn't a constraint on this blog but John Cusack spoke his mind beautifully. Many thanks to youtube.

All the civilians and soldiers who died in this war, RIP.
Hope this war ends one day and I pray that people would remember how they got into this war, before voting this year.

Peace.

Pakistan proposes lifting ban on Indian films

Just read this news.
Yeah I know, it's good for Indian economy, good for building up friendship between India and Pakistan, yada yada yada..

But I wonder how a Hindi movie will shape up with this new revenue avenue. Imagine a movie opening in Pakistan on the same Friday it's hitting screens in India and elsewhere. Already Yash Raj movies and Karan Johar movies are made for NRIs (read south Asian diaspora aka muslims).

Seriously, Hindi Film heroes might be named as Salim/ali/hussein..instead of eternal prem/rahul/rohit... Throw in a Hindu villain and ahhh..a Hindu heroine name wouldn't hurt either.

Before the readers come into a conclusion that I'm a racist, please recall this movie. main hoon na Here is the plot in nutshell. A army major rescues another major's daughter from a hindu extremist ...WTF. Director Farah Khan intelligently establishes the Hindu Extremist Raghavan's charecter with this scene. Raghavan (played by sunil shetty) kills a innocent Pakistani kid in Point Blank range just for crossing the border. And the intelligence continues in character names also. Sharukh and Zayed characters are named as Ram and Lakshman.

If my memory is not wrong, Kamal Hasan rejected this hindu extremist's role coz of the characterization. Any sensible actor would do the same thing. Now I'm not the only one complaining. Please follow this link.


....there are increasingly large numbers who charge there is undercurrent of pro-Islamist and subtle anti-Hindu messaging in Khan's brand of cinema planted within the rest of the entertainment. An industry observer points out that while Shahrukh Khan has never made a film targetting Islamic terrorists, the villain in Khan's previous high profile production, Main Hoon Na also was instead a 'Hindu terrorist' of none other than the Indian army itself.

Hope the Hindi movies remain close to Indian/Hindu tastes and sentiments.

Jai Hind.

Mega fanatics!

2007 was one of the worst years in Chiru's career. Not only did he not have a successful movie, but personally he suffered the loss of his father and also his younger daughter. Anyone that believes in Karma relate his youger daughter's episode to that of Uday Kiran's. An upcoming hero and a hard core fan of chiru almost became his idol's son-in-law and a mega-alludu; Uday Kiran's career would have been very different had things gone his way. Chiru's political aspirations made Uday an instant star, an inter-caste marriage would have fetched chiru good support, however it is believed that due to the force from his community, chiru had to call off the wedding. Unfortunately, Uday was made a scapegoat. Coming back to Karma, chiru got back his dues in the form of Srija. It's hard to blame chiru in this episode, there probably is nothing he could have done, but, nobody knows what exactly happened behind those closed doors when Srija was locked up. 

During that whole episode, there was nothing chiru could have done better. He handled himself well and fast forwarding to the current episode, between Chiru and Rajasekhar, there is nothing he could have done here either. Like Srija said, it is not just about Chiru. It's his fans that she was afraid of. Chiru's fans are probably the worst anyone can have. Some of them love chiru so much that they hate everything about others. They view all others as chiru's enemies. I could hardly find fault with Rajasekhar's statement. When asked if he would join Chiru's party, RS said he would not and when asked for the reason he said, Chiru does not have political experience. An ordinary person would see that as a true statement. However, chiru's so called fans who cannot think straight are hurt by that statement and decide to prove a point and attack Rajasekhar and his family. They also shoot this entire episode and send it to TV9 so they can get their point across? What exactly is their point??? Anyone who speak against chiru, even if it is the truth will not be spared and will be attacked?! Is that what they were trying to say?

I am pretty sure, Mohan Babu is next on their list. If there is a list that mega fans maintain it would definitely be incomplete without his name. It's time for chiru to make up his mind. He exactly might not be responsible directly to any of this, but the way he treats his fans and the way he interacts with his various fans associations, he is sending them wrong messages. He is probably misled by his brothers and brother-in-law. He is getting carried away and is blinded by the people behind him. Unfortunately, he will never be able to realize this. But if he really wants to help people and enter into politics he should look beyond his fans and family. He should start ignoring those fans who expect to be noticed by doing stupid things like this. Democracy and dictatorship cannot coexist. Unfortunately, for Chiru, he has to choose his path before he enters politics. If he truly believes in democracy, he should stop encouraging his stupid fans. Chiru's brother Nagababu issued a statement saying these fans that attacked Rajasekhar and his family are not registered Chiru fans. I wonder what he exactly meant. Something definitely is fishy the way things are. I cannot mention this enough, but Chiru should wake up!!!

For more info and videos:

http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/telugu/gallery/events/14328.html