Kuwaiti Fears of US Seen in Post 9-11 Study Abroad Enrollment #wlfind

The number of Kuwaiti students enrolling in US universities dipped after 9/11 amid fears of harassment according to a recent Wiki-leaks cable dump.

On cited source told the Embassy they feared “their children might end up in Guantanamo.”

The cables, signed by then US Ambassador to Kuwait Joseph LeBaron, also cites the increase of American universities setting up shop in the Middle East, and competition form Canada and Australia.

This is nothing shocking, but offers an interesting peak at fears of retribution or harassment (physical or bureaucratic) as expressed in this chart of Kuwaiti enrollment figures:

Fiscal Year	Apllications	Issuances	Kuwaiti Issuances
1998	2046	1918	1641
1999	2056	1742	1421
2000	1361	1202	845
2001	1564	1247	851
2002	1236	627	425
2003	1559	852	634
2004	1300	861	635
2005	1201	759	577

Clearly there was a sharp drop in 2000, which is not greatly discussed. But the huge dip to 425 Kuwaiti students studying in the US and the failure to return numbers to 2001 levels reveals a strain on foreign relations as unrelated as study abroad numbers might seem.

05KUWAIT4811 and 05KUWAIT4776 summarize factors in the decline of study-abroad enrollment.

Perry Comes Out Slinging

Presidential candidate Rick Perry fired his first salvo at the Obama administration.

While a Republican base may be energized with a  candidate attacking the president instead of other Republican candidates, savvier audiences -including most Texans- may be getting their first whiff of how off-base Perry can be.

His video (see below) includes some real gems, touting Perry as “America’s jobs governor” and “conservative to the core”.

The real chutzpah comes when the ad cite “record debt and the president’s refusal to control spending led to our nation’s credit rating being downgraded for the first time in history.”

Standard and Poor released the following reasoning on Aug. 5, 2011:

The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics.

We could lower the long-term rating to ‘AA’ within the next two years if we see that less reduction in spending than agreed to..

I’m no financial soothsayer, but I’d say that’s bending the truth quite a bit. Can’t wait to see how the folks at PolitiFact or FactCheck rate that one; I’ll go with “Pants on Fire”.

If Perry wants to lay the blame for the debt solely on Obama, he will have to take sole responsibility for doubling Texas’ debt over in his first decade as governor. Like Obama, Perry inherited some leftovers from Bush, so no excuses there either.

Perry is no stranger to biting the hand that feeds him. Perry railed against the Recovery Act while quietly accepting it to cover almost all of  Texas’ $6 billion budget shortfall.

The attack on Perry’s transparent claims has already begun. In all likelihood these articles were written weeks ago, waiting for him to finally come out of the candidate closet. Paul Krugman’s column “The Texas Unmiracle” succinctly laid to waste much of Perry’s entire platform – and did so with numbers, not rhetoric.

With all that in mind, here’s Perry’s ad. Anyone who watched Josh Brolin play W. will notice the similarity to Rick Perry.

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As Carmageddon Sets In, Cyclists Race Jet to Prove Point

What happens when a major highway closes a major highway in a city famous for its traffic jams? The L.A. Times calls it Carmageddon and goes absolutely bonkers with coverage from every angle. Looks like there’s been no “give the traffic report the interns” this weekend.

We’re talking Google maps with current traffic conditions, a countdown box for when the 405 will re-open, timelines, lists of roads to avoid, and lots of news about people taking the time to try and jog, cycle, or do whatever on the 405 -some of which ended with arrest. Did I mention photos, slideshows, and videos on the construction and LA residents freaking out.

The best thing I’ve seen out of the fuss is the push for cycling and alternative transportation. A group of cyclists is racing a commuter flight from Burbank to Long Beach.The hashtag #FlightVsBike was used to update followers and fans to see who won.

To see a condensed version of how the race unfolded, go here.

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Derrr loves info-graphics and The Economist has a nice one up on attacks in the Middle East and northern Africa. What’s great is that this can be viewed using their carousel, which now has 31 slides of info-graphics on the “Arab Spring”.

Gay Perry

The most widely-known rumor in Texas, especially among the press, links Gov. Rick Perry to several gay trysts. For years though, this rumor has remained just that with no MSM willing or able to publish a story with credible sources. A presidential run could change that.

While the national press awaits Perry’s announcement, articles anticipating the Big Gay Story are already coming in, most notably in today’s New York Magazine. The tone of that article however, is ‘much ado about nothing’, which begs the reader to ask why it was written. (Web traffic, dummy)

Once he does announce, and he will, the rumors will continue. Some will be articles about the rumor, which passively keep the rumor alive. If a story, a story with evidence, would likely come from The Texas Tribune. Their staff is like an all-star team compiled from Texas political press corps.

[ The Tribune's PerryTracker displays Perry's out-of-state excursions in the midst of a special session he demanded. That's enough evidence that he is done focusing on Texas.]

All this fuss about his sexuality distracts from the point that politically, he is anti-gay.

In a 2005 TV interview, Perry responded to a question about gay veterans, saying “Texans made a decision about marriage and if there’s a state that has more lenient views than Texas, then maybe that’s a better place for them to live.” [Daily Kos]

Gay marriage gets only a slightly softer response.

Political Chameleon

Believe it or not, Perry backed Al Gore back in 1988. Texas politics demand anyone with aspirations of advancement join the party of power, which (roughly) until Bush unseated Gov. Ann Richards, was the Democratic Party. (Think Southern Democrats).

But after taking over the governor’s seat vacated by George W. Bush, Perry began his long transformation into more of a libertarian-Republican.  This is grandstanding, and he is a political chameleon, trying to please the broadest base to advance his career. In essence, he’s been running for president for a decade.

One glaring example from the 2007 legislative session where Perry’s political opportunism trumped his staunch beliefs.

In a race to be the first governor to pass a bill providing HPV vaccines to young girls, Perry jumped the gun and mandated every 11-year-old girl get one. The legislature and Lieutenant Governor quickly pointed out that in Texas, the governor has no such power, and any moderate HPV-access legislation bore the stain of ‘big government’ after the backlash against Perry came in.

The HPV vaccine, Gardasil, was produced solely by Merck. Merck’s lobbyists included Perry’s former chief of staff, and had ties to other staff members. Merck’s return on investiment of $5,000 to Perry and other legislators would have been astronomical at over $300 per vaccine.

By 2009, Perry flirted with secessionist sentiment to appease his tea party audience.

On huge topics like education and the environment, Texas is abysmal. But that never hurt W., so maybe he does know what he’s doing.

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Well this screws up the laziness stereotype: Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal cracked down on immigrant labor and lined up workers on probation to fill that labor demand. Turns out it was too demanding and several probationers walked off the farms. Not sure I see the fiscal responsibility of $1 billion of food rotting in those fields.

McCain: AZ Fire Caused by Mexicans’ Smoke Signals

Former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has become a one-trick pony, relating all issues to border security. The largest forest fire in Arizona history is no different.

In a Saturday press conference in Phoenix, McCain turned a reporter’s question about future prevention into a political stump speech.

“There is substantial evidence that some of these fires are caused by people who have crossed our border illegally,” McCain said. “So the answer to that part of the problem is get a secure border.”

McCain gave no evidence for this blame. Days ago investigators suspected “an escaped camp fire“, according to USA Today.

Other possible factors include:

• severe drought
• high winds
• budget cuts to Smokey the Bear’s prevention campaign

But not John McCain, he blames the brown ones who come to the U.S. to light fires for warmth and send smoke signals to each other.

Despite All the Reporting Errors, Osama bin laden Appears to be Dead

NPRs Web editors kill Obama instead of Osama.

In the race to break the news of Osama bin laden’s death, several outlets published varying stories citing unnamed “officials”, while others just made typos.

The best typo, which lasted quite briefly, went to NPR whose headline beamed “OBAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD, OFFICIALS SAY”. There is an off chance that is accurate, and that the official was a tea party member. [Thanks to Sam Peterson for the quick screengrab.]

Fox New Corp. and it’s undying devotion to the spelling Usama, reported he was killed “a week” ago by “a US bomb”. They maintained that story for a good hour after President Obama’s speech which gave an altogether different time-line and explanation.

I have heard the wait list for DNA search is backlogged, but something tells me this verification request would be expedited.

It seems from all the convoluted errors the story of the decade -the last decade- fell victim to several misconceptions from news organizations prioritizing time over accuracy.

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To anyone reading between the lines of multiple reports, and ignored the “official story” vaguely given by Obama,  it seemed probably that the CIA operation was on a “shoot first, call later” basis.

One of today’s consistent news themes is how much Pakistan knew. Most reports conclude they were not informed before the mission was launched, or maybe even completed.

No way would the US jeopardize such a valuable mission by raising an alarm with the little-trusted Pakistani military and intelligence services, especially with a new CIA chief in place.

The strike team appears to include  members from SEAL Team 6, according to the Washington Post.  Since SEAL Team 6 does not exist, I guess it does not matter that they are now called U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group (NSWDG)/DEVGRU.

In all likelihood their raid looked much like this:

Huffington Post has some of the maps as well as a link to the ABC video showing the aftermath.

Weather Gods Mock TX Gov’s Prayers

After thousands of wildfires and a century-worst drought for many parts of Texas, the state’s governor has thrown his arms up in defeat and called on a “Hail Mary” for relief.

On April 21, Gov. Rick Perry proclaimed the Easter holiday weekend as “Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas“.

“The people of Texas should join together in prayer to humbly seek an end to this devastating drought and these dangerous wildfires,” Perry’s statement says.

And the answer from the heavens came, and that answer was…not enough rain. Texas is a large state and surely Perry hedged his bet knowing that some form of precipitation find itself falling onto Texas territory.

A severe storm warning issued the same day as Perry’ s proclamation made it clear at least the Dallas/Fort-Worth area would get some rain, but even that was more dangerous storms with fire-starting lightning and possible tornadoes. Not exactly the help for which most Texans would pray.

In short, we’re doomed!

A dry-line map by the National Weather Service shows Texas is well on its way to becoming hell on earth, and more than 8,000 wildfires have not helped:

Texas has been under an “ongoing disaster declaration” since December 2010. Presumably this ‘disaster’ is a result of wildfire conditions and not related to Perry’s term in office.