The other surge
October 17, 2007 at 2:48 pm by Andisheh Nouraee in Randomly NotedFrom the BBC:
The scale of the overall displacement is unprecedented in the modern history of the Middle East.
The huge displacement of people inside Iraq appears to be contributing to the further fragmentation of the country.
There are now an estimated four million Iraqis who have been forced to flee their homes, and the numbers continue to rise, according to the UN refugee agency.
And this country has spent the last month debating the appropriateness of Gen. David Petraeus’ nicknames.
October 17th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
To offer some perspective, the UN says around 900,000 Arabs fled or were kicked out of the land that became Israel in 1948. Over the following decade or so, a similar number of Jews fled or were kicked out of Arab lands. Obviously, the numbers of both groups have risen since then. But the bottom line is that, in four years, the American invasion and the Iraqi civil war have created twice as many refugees as did the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Scary.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
While we’re crunchin numbers, Let’s buy McClatchy? If the current trend continues and they keep ignoring World War III and the polar ice caps meltin 25% since 2005, i’m point & figure-swing rule charting that we can pick it up for around $3 bucks a share, vs today’s close of $17.95. Currently, with the $2.68 billion debt load, only $25 million in cash and current market cap of $1.48 billion, the writing is on the wailing wall.
With 82 million shares at $3 bucks a pop, that’d be like $240 million; peanuts compared to the $4 billion plus $2 Billion debt assumption that McClatchy paid for Knight Ridder back in June of 2006. I’m sure once the share price gets near $3, we can renegotiate the debt and have a “WHOLLY WRITER OWNED,” media empire, just like Rupert & Erick Erickson think think they have, except we wouldn’t have been so questionably remiss as to pay market peak prices for a paper like Rupert did.
With a McClatchy & Creative Loafing combo we could probably end the World War III. Please run these numbers by Thomas W & John S and get back with me. We need to start planning for tomorrow, today. When McCreLoaf speaks, everyone listens…