The right right

Billmon has a selection of recent quotes from old-fashioned conservatives about the dangers of the Bushies and their brownshirt followers. This one hits the nail on the head:

From the first days after 9/11, the Bush administration created a mythology that would spur reverence for both the president and the government. Bush wrapped himself in a flag drenched with the blood of Americans who died due to the failure of the federal government he commanded, and sadly the people bought it — and still continue to buy it.

-- James Bovard, September 17, 2004

Jay Leno is stealing my material!

From Left I on the News:

President Bush is denying reports today that he has plans to invade Iran. Oh we're still going to invade. We just don't have any plans! You know. Like Iraq."

- Jay Leno

I refer the jury to my post of Friday, February 18, which included this:

Bush: No plans to attack Iran (He's not saying he's not going to attack Iran, just that he doesn't have plans. After Iraq, I can believe that.)

Well, that's okay. As long as the message gets out.

The Thing About Venezuela

Estimated Prophet sums it up pretty well, going over the US-backed 2002 coup attempt, the oil, and continued US media efforts to discredit Chavez. He ends with a quote from Woodrow Wilson which pretty succinctly summarizes the American approach to the world:

Since trade ignores national boundaries and the manufacturer insists on having the world as a market, the flag of his nation must follow him, and the doors of the nations which are closed against him must be battered down. Concessions obtained by financiers must be safeguarded by ministers of state, even if the sovereignty of unwilling nations be outraged in the process. Colonies must be obtained or planted, in order that no useful corner of the world may be overlooked or left unused.

Let them eat mud

It's been a year since the US-backed coup in Haiti put democracy on the march right out of that unfortuante country. People are now eating mud there, and that's not the worst of it.

A logical explanation

From Boondocks.

I wonder where the insurgents got that much explosive

To kill 125 in Hilla. Oh, right. And it wasn't the only violence in Iraq, by a longshot. CNN's report describes bombings elsewhere, the deaths of several American soldiers, a shootout between Iraqi soldiers and Sudanese "militants" in Baghdad, and the bombing of an oil pipeline. I assume that "Operation River Blitz," the military's effort to Fallujacize Ramadi, continues unabated (and unreported in that article).

The New York Times continues its service to empire by calling the attack "the deadliest single attack since the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003." Of course, nobody counted the dead in Fallujah from the US assault on that poor city back in November, but it seems clear that far more than 125 people were killed there.

And, no surprise here, the dollar is falling and oil is rising ($51.84, up 35 cents for the day).

Round, round, round, round I get around...

Via Cyndy, a list of where I've been and lived:

bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state you're in now...

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

Just missing two red states and one blue state! I've also been in Canada, Mexico, Belize (airport only), El Salvador (airport only), Costa Rica, Venezuela, Jamaica, Ireland (airport only), England, Spain, West Germany, East Germany (there were two Germanys when I went), and Austria. I was conceived in Japan!

It's peak oil, stupid!

That's my reaction to this headline on CBS Marketwatch: Oil price surge defies forecasters (registration required). The article begins:

As crude-oil futures climbed above $51 a barrel this week, analysts threw up their hands and wondered why.

"None of the historical correlations analysts have used - inventories primarily for oil, storage for natural gas, natural-gas and oil prices for rig counts -- work," said Jim Wicklund, managing director of energy research at Banc of America Securities.

"No one can really explain, with anything but a very broad brush, why crude oil prices are as high as they are."

Pointing to the Energy Department and American Petroleum weekly U.S. inventory reports, James Williams, an energy economist at WTRG Economics, said nothing in the data supports prices at this level.

Actually, just a few paragraphs below this an analyst explains it fairly well (emphasis added):

"But we're still too low [in our forecasts]," said Marshall Adkins, managing director of energy equity research at Raymond James. "There has been a fundamental shift in the oil markets."

One reason for the disparity between forecasts and the current price of crude is a bias on the part of analysts. Most analysts believe that oil will return to normal levels, though he said there's no longer a good way to gauge what is normal.

"This time is different than other times," Adkins said. "We've always had an oil bubble in our existence, where there was more supply capacity than demand, and that's essentially not the case anymore."

Secondly, demand from China has skyrocketed. And thirdly, in some areas of the world, supply growth has hit a wall.

Analysts are biased in another way.

"We're as guilty of this as anyone," Adkins said. "As analysts, you would rather be too conservative on your forecasts than too aggressive because you have to do more explaining on the high side than on the low side."

When Adkins talks about the absence of an oil bubble, he's talking about something very close to peak oil. It's possible that supply could continue growing for a few years, just not as fast as demand, which would mean shortages but not peak oil. But the disappearance of the bubble and peak oil are likely to happen about the same time.

And when he says "in some areas of the world, supply growth has hit a wall," he should really say "in almost all areas of the world." (Stealing from a post I made last July:) Richard Heinberg's The Party's Over has a list of the peak oil years for various countries and groups of countries. The years listed are when that nation's oil production was or will be at its maximum. You'll notice that an awful lot of these years exist in that part of time commonly known as "the past."

• US 1970, Canada 2006, Mexico 2005, Total North America 1983
• Argentina 1997, Brazil 2003, Colombia 2004, Ecuador 1997, Peru 1979, Trinidad & Tobago 1977, Venezuela 1970, Total South & Central America 2006
• Denmark 2004, Italy 1997, Norway 2004, Romania 1976, UK 2000, Total Europe 2006
• Former Soviet Union 1987
• Iran 1976, Iraq 2009, Kuwait 2010, Oman 2005, Qatar 2004, Saudi Arabia 2017, Syria 1995, UA Emirates 2009, Yemen 2005, Total Middle East 2009
• Algeria 2006, Angola 2002, Cameroon 1985, Congo 2004, Egypt 1993, Equatorial Guinea 2003, Gabon 2004, Libya 1969, Nigeria 2007, Tunisia 1981, Total Africa 2006
• Australia 2005, Brunei 1979, China 2007, India 2004, Indonesia 1977, Malaysia 2003, Papua New Guinea 1993, Thailand 2004, Vietnam 2004, Total Asia-Pacific 2004
• Total World Peak 2006

(pp 103-104)

So, by the end of the decade the entire world outside of Saudi Arabia is projected to have hit the wall.

Anyway, be wary of headlines, and even opening paragraphs. The author interviewed several "experts" on oil prices, and chose to lead with the ones who had no explanations, rather than with Adkins, who had several. Maybe this was bias on the part of CBS Marketwatch's Lisa Saunders towards lower oil prices, or perhaps just some sort of rough "democracy" where she figured "I've got two guys who are clueless, and one who isn't, so I'll lead with the clueless ones."

Wi-Fi All Around!

Free wireless Internet access is becoming more common, some of it intentional (I do see a lot of lights blinking on my wi-fi router even when I'm not using the computer, but haven't powered down the router). For students, faculty and staff of the University of Michigan, there are many wi-fi sites on campus. The Ann Arbor District Library currently has wi-fi at three of its four branches. And there are 19 more sites around Ann Arbor listed on this free wi-fi in Michigan page.

The most interesting spots I see on that list? First, the Meijer gas station on Saline Road, which may currently be the only place in the world where you can purchase biodiesel, automotive natural gas (for those Honda Civic GX's), AND check your e-mail on your laptop! The other one that caught my eye? The downtown area of Grand Rapids, near Rosa Parks Circle. Grand Rapids is the center of the red part of this blue state, and it surprises me that there is a "Rosa Parks Circle" in Grand Rapids, since Rosa made a name for herself in Montgomery, Alabama and has since lived in Detroit for many years. That Rosa Parks Circle in Grand Rapids is wi-fi enabled just boggles my mind!

Where "Christian" blowhards come from

There were times that Dad’s pranks bordered on cruelty. One of his oil-company workers, a one-legged man he nicknamed “Crip” Smith, complained about everything. Dad and Crip’s co-workers got tired of the old man’s bellyaching and decided to take revenge. One morning Crip called in sick and Dad volunteered to send by lunch to his grateful but suspicious employee. Dad and his chums caught Crip’s old black tomcat, killed it, skinned it, and cooked it in the kitchen of one of Dad’s little restaurants. They called it squirrel meat and delivered it to Crip on a linen-covered tray. When Crip returned to work the next morning, Dad and his co-conspirators asked him how he liked his meal. They knew he would complain even about a free home-cooked lunch, and when Crip called it “the toughest squirrel meat” he had ever eaten, they were glad to tell him why.

That's from Jerry Falwell's 1987 autobiography, Strength for the Journey, via the New Yorker via A Tiny Revolution.

So Falwell's dad was in the oil business, owned a bunch of little restaurants, and still found time to kill the pet of a disabled man. Explains a lot. "Borders" on cruelty?

Ramadi--the next Fallujah?

RAMADI, 24 February (IRIN) - Residents of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province some 100 km east of Baghdad, have started to flee the city following the latest offensive launched by US Marines and the Iraqi army.

The military have carried out raids in the province over the past few days in an attempt to crack down on insurgents, with the main focus of operations eing Ramadi, a rebel stronghold.

Worried that the offensive could proceed as it did in nearby Fallujah, where he majority of the city's population was forced to flee during a near hree-month long campaign, many Ramadi families are taking personal effects and food supplies and heading to relatives' houses in the capital, or to the same camps where residents from Fallujah fled.

A number of checkpoints have been set up around the city of 400,000 and a curfew has been established. It runs from 2000 to 0600. Vehicles are being inspecting carefully and any suspect is being taken for further interrogation, Marines' spokesman Lt-Col Paul Brathen told IRIN.

This is punishment?

Egypt jails an opposition leader, and instead of punishing Egypt by withholding some of the billions in foreign aid the US sends there, we're rewarding them by withholding Condiliar! There are probably several German politicians who would have volunteered to be arrested if they'd known it would have kept Condi and aWol out.

From Tom Toles.

Wal-Mart Unionization Fails

From Reuters:

Wal-Mart -- which recently shut down a Canadian store that voted in favor of a union -- said tire and lube express associates at its Loveland supercenter voted 17-1 to reject representation by the United Food & Commercial Workers Union.
...
"Wal-Mart did what it does best. It scares people. They are very good at putting the fear of God in their employees," said Dave Minshall of the UFCW.

He said the union would file several charges with the National Labor Relations Board, officials of which oversaw the balloting.

Minshall said the UFCW would wanted to charge Wal-Mart with interfering with the balloting. He said the retailer had barred the union from sending its own representative to observe the vote.

But Terry Srsen, vice president of labor relations for Wal-Mart, said in a statement: "Many of our associates are former union members -- they know better than anyone that the only guarantee a union can make is that it will cost the members money -- and that is why they continue to reject the UFCW."

I don't get how they could get the union all the way to a vote and have it lose 17-1. Wouldn't there have to have been more that one organizer amongst the workers? And Srsen, whom I'm tempted to buy a vowel for, doesn't hide his/her contempt for unions. I mean there's really only one guarantee that Wal-Mart provides its workers: "Always low wages. Always."

Dollar headed back down, oil headed back up

Bro Jim sent me a link to Bloomberg's energy prices page, the first free online page I've seen with oil futures prices (I've always just gotten the price from news articles before, which aren't always current). Bloomberg still doesn't have the neat graphs for oil prices like you can get on most financial web sites for stocks, but it's an improvement. Thanks, bro!

Currently Nymex Crude is at $51.49. I've noticed local gasoline prices are back over $2. And the euro is climbing against the dollar (meaning the dollar is falling), pushing near its high for the day of $1.3245 after falling as low as $1.3143 earlier today.

W's W I still killing

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- Taliban insurgents launched three attacks in southeastern Afghanistan in heavy combat that left 19 dead -- including 10 rebels killed by U.S. troops, officials said Friday. An American soldier was wounded.

At least nine Afghan soldiers were killed when rebels ambushed their vehicle in Helmand province on Thursday, said Haji Wali Mohammed, a spokesman for the governor.

Wal-Mart Watch

Twenty Wal-Mart employees in Loveland, Colorado are voting today on joining the United Food and Commercial Workers union. If the union wins, it would be the first Wal-Mart union in the U.S.--sort of. From the article:

Meatcutters in Texas conducted a union vote in 2000, but shortly afterward, Wal-Mart eliminated the position companywide, insisting the move was not related to the election. Earlier this month, the company said it would close a store in Quebec, Canada, because of what company officials called "unreasonable demands" by workers trying to negotiate the first-ever union contract with the retailer.

Also this week, Wal-Mart was successfully kept out of New York City, and lost a $7.5 million lawsuit. And the battle continues against a new Wal-Mart in Saline, Michigan, Ann Arbor's neighbor to the south.

Three soldiers killed, eight wounded

In blast north of Baghdad.

Perfectly Explained

From AP, I see that aWol got challenged by an actual reporter:

Bush and Putin hoped to keep their joint appearance focused on their agreements and close ties. One curious, rambling query gave them something to unite around — irritation with their questioner.

"The regimes in place in Russia and the U.S. cannot be considered fully democratic, especially when compared to some other countries of Europe, for example — for example, the Netherlands," the Russian reporter said, his preamble taking so long that Bush pursed his lips in apparent impatience.

He then asked Bush how the "great powers that have been assumed by the security services" in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks square with democratic values.

"We could probably talk at length," the journalist said.

Bush clearly wasn't interested in that. He offered a brisk retort that democracy is doing just fine in America.

"I live in a country where decisions made by government are wide open and people are able to call people to me to account, which many out here do on a regular basis. Our laws and the reasons why we have laws on the books are perfectly explained to people," he said.

Ah, just write your own commentary. I'll be pulling my hair out.

WIIIAI has aWol's visit with Pooty-Poot covered. An excerpt:

Bush: “the sign of a healthy and vibrant society is one where there’s an active press corps”. But enough about Jeff Gannon’s sex life. He added, “democracies have certain things in common: They have a rule of law and protection of minorities, a free press and a viable political opposition.” For example, we’ve got Guantanamo, a ban on gay marriage, Fox News, and the Democratic Party. So we’re set.

He adds, “I live in a transparent country.” Dude, you’re back on the weed again, aren’t you?

WIIIAI is funny.

All Aboard Amtrak!

You may have heard that Amtrak is one of the many great programs on W's chopping block (why not those stupid robot soldiers or "missile defense" or one of your idiotic wars, moron?). Via Cyndy, I came across this great page which details the reasons this country needs Amtrak and debunks the lies told about it. My recent Amtrak experience wasn't the greatest, but that had a lot to do with it being woefully underfunded--not the opposite. And for the shorter Ann Arbor to Chicago trip, the train may be, even now, the best way to get there.

The Final Jeopardy answer is...

Soviet-style single-party politics, state-run media, and repression of opposition voices.

"What is: How do I run my country?" Hey, you both got it right! But Vlad, you only wagered 15 years of corrupt gangsta capitalism, while George bet the last, best hope of mankind, a 240-year experiment in freedom. So George continues as our "Put the world in Jeopardy!" champion! Tune in tomorrow, if there is a tomorrow.

By the way...

People are still being killed and wounded by the dozens daily in Iraq. From the NY Times:

At least 21 people, including two United States soldiers, were killed today as insurgents struck to the north and south of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official and the American military said today.

A suicide car bomber attacked a police station in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, at 9 a.m., leaving 10 people dead and 12 wounded. Some of the casualties were civilians passing by the station, the ministry official said.

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An hour later, another car bomber targeted a two-vehicle police convoy in Kirkuk, north of Baghdad, leaving two policemen dead and one wounded, the official said.

In Hilla, south of Baghdad, a third suicide bomber exploded his vehicle in front of the headquarters of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, a leading Shiite political party.

Seven people were killed in the blast and another eight wounded, the ministry aide said.

An American soldier was killed and two were wounded in a roadside bomb blast this morning north of Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, the American military said.

Another soldier died near Tikrit, also as a result of a roadside blast, the military said.

Today's attacks follow the deaths of 22 people on Wednesday across a 200-mile stretch of central and northern Iraq.

Oh, to be a monkey's uncle

From the LA Times via Bob Harris:

The Iraq war helped bring record earnings to St. Louis-based defense contractor Engineered Support Systems Inc., and new financial data show that the firm's war-related profits have trickled down to a familiar family name — Bush.

William H.T. "Bucky" Bush, uncle of the president and youngest brother of former President George H.W. Bush, cashed in ESSI stock options last month with a net value of nearly half a million dollars.

"Uncle Bucky," as he is known to the president, is on the board of the company, which supplies armor and other materials to U.S. troops. The company's stock prices have soared to record heights since before the invasion, benefiting in part from contracts to rapidly refit fleets of military vehicles with extra armor.

From Tim Menees.

From J.D. Crowe.

Exactly how it's done

From Boondocks.

$51.61

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures scored fresh gains Thursday, rising ahead of key weekly U.S. petroleum inventories data.

In electronic trading, crude for April delivery added 44 cents to stand lately at $51.61 a barrel.

Cretin par excellence

This afternoon's NY Times homepage.

Five-hundred Iranians killed in a devastating earthquake, and all Dumbya can talk about is trying to start a war with them.

If you need security this tight...

Chances are that you're a real jerk. Some photos from a German news web site showing the extraordinary security today in Mainz for the temporary invasion of aWol and his band of goons:

Autobahn closed.


Huge traffic jams, cops everywhere.


Bicyclist has to find a detour.


Schnelle Boot Veterane für Wahrheit.

Of course, there has been some reaction:



Kyoto, not war.




One sign I can't agree with. Bush, stay there.


Several thousand people in the streets of Mainz (the ones not closed down, anyway).

Help Wanted!

I'm hoping to get going on my solar power project soon, and I'm looking for recommendations for contractors. I need, probably, a roofer and an electrician, although an all-around handyperson would probably work, too. The project involves reroofing the south side of my roof with a combination of Unisolar solar shingles and regular shingles, wiring them together in the attic, and running wires to the basement where they would connect with a charge controller, batteries, and inverter, and then to my electrical load center.

If any local readers know of people able and willing to do such work, please e-mail me. I'm looking for people willing to do something a little different, and who will make sure that I have a safe system which will pass inspection. Hopefully they can show me how to do some of the grunt work (like connecting the wires in the attic), but I don't really trust myself to do the whole job properly.

Thanks.

Why Europe Ignores Bush

Tony Karon writes in Time:

Machiavelli's advice to political leaders was that it's more important to be feared than to be loved. That's no help for President Bush on his European tour; in spite of the warm words he's exchanging with European leaders, the reality is that the Bush administration is neither loved nor feared in growing sectors of the international community — increasingly, it is simply being ignored.

The rest of the article explains how the credibility lost with the lies about Iraq and the difficulty the Bushies are having resolving that mess has led the Europeans and others to ignore aWol's ramblings about Iran, Syria, China, wherever.

In the service of empire

The NY Times has a snarky article belittling the efforts of Latin American countries to keep or make public utilities public. They still seem to pretend, after decades of evidence to the contrary, that foreign investment actually offers hope to poor countries.

In Peru, despite major economic growth, foreign investment fell to $1.3 billion last year from $2.1 billion in 2002. Ecuador has also seen investments sag, as oil companies that once saw the country as a rosy destination have faced the increasingly determined opposition of Indian tribes and environmental groups.

Argentina, which has taken a decidedly leftist path in the economic recovery following its 2001 collapse, has recouped only a fraction of the investments it attracted just a few years ago.

Across the region, companies are more than ever weighing political risks when considering expansion plans. Political leaders, meanwhile, are having to weigh the need for foreign investment against the demands of citizens who are increasingly quick to hit the streets.

The "need" for foreign investment is in reality the desire by the wealthy elite in both rich and poor countries to reinstate the colonial system of exploitation. The IMF, World Bank and globalization in general have done incalculable damage to the abilities of people and their countries to be self-sustaining.

Just read everything Paul Craig Roberts writes

He'd probably be one of my favorite columnists even without his conservative biography. He certainly doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the Bushies. From his latest:

Why isn't Bush looking for a way out of the greatest strategic blunder in American history? Why, instead, is Bush and his government doing all they can to spread the conflict into Syria and Iran?

The neoconservatives' goal is the same as Osama bin Laden's--to spread instability in the Middle East. The neocons seek to foment instability in order to justify more US invasions in an insane quest to remake the Middle East in the American image. Bin Laden seeks instability in order to topple the secular rulers and recreate Islamic rule. Bin Laden does not want US troops out. He wants to suck America in deeper in order to create revolutionary insurgency throughout the Middle East.

The Bush administration is moronic enough to oblige bin Laden.
...
Despite the disaster they have caused, neoconservatives still hold the reins of power in the Bush administration. They have made their agenda clear: war throughout the Middle East. Their orchestrated invasion of Iraq was merely a stepping stone to their wider aim. The neocons seize every opportunity to use provocative accusations, bellicose threats, and propaganda to stir up ever more American enemies in the Middle East. Their goal is to provoke a "Pearl Harbor," as Christopher Manion terms it, that can be used to bring back the military draft.

This policy plays directly into bin Laden's hands. Osama has succeeded in tricking America into spending $300 billion in an unsuccessful act of revenge that has ruined America's reputation while recruiting tens of thousands of recruits for bin Laden.

The neoconservatives are the greatest threat America has ever faced, and they control the Office of the President, the Office of the Vice President, the Department of State, the Department of Defense, and the police state apparatus known as "Homeland Security."

The working hungry

Richard Manning writes in Counterpunch about hunger in Missoula, Montana:

It has become increasingly difficult to work at small-town food banks because often one knows the client not as a beggar from beneath the bridge, but as a neighbor or colleague. Food banks today cater increasingly -- and a sociologist's survey of our town bore this out -- to people who are employed, the class we now call the working poor.

These people earn so little they barely get by. Catastrophic medical bills or Missoula's escalating housing costs can chew up their inadequate paychecks so that by the end of the month there is no money left for food.

If we are to really do anything about the shameful matter of hunger in our town, we must address these larger issues. What at first looked like a little hole to plug now appears to be a bottomless chasm, ever widening.

There is something fundamental buried in all of this: where these people work. Many of them, report the food bank people, work full time for minimum wage and no health insurance at the ring of chain stores that has suburbanized this once unique mountain town. The big-box retail business has exploded in Missoula, making us a regional market center, part of the cause of our prosperity. That is, hunger is increasing in our town not in spite of our healthy economy, but because of it.

The Collapse of Empire

I mused about it earlier. Now I find an article by Kirkpatrick Sale on Counterpunch describing the four ways in which empires collapse, and how the American empire appears to be on schedule in at least three of the four:

1. Environmental degradation
2. Economic meltdown
3. Military overstretch
4. Domestic dissent and upheaval

On the last point, Sale seems to agree with me on the chances for number four leading the way:

It's hard to believe that the great mass of the American public would ever bestir itself to challenge the empire at home until things get much, much worse. It is a public, after all, of which, as a Gallup poll in 2004 found, 61 per cent believe that "religion can answer all or most of today's problems," and according to a Time/CNN poll in 2002 59 per cent believe in the imminent apocalypse foretold in the Book of Revelation and take every threat and disaster as evidence of God's will.

Sale's conclusion?

Those four processes by which empires always eventually fall seem to me to be inescapably operative, in varying degrees, in this latest empire. And I think a combination of several or all of them will bring about its collapse within the next 15 years or so.

As I've said before, the next couple of decades may be horrible, but they won't be boring.

$50.76

The April light crude futures actually hit $51 before closing at $50.76.

$49.86; Dollar down; Economic collapse as the least-worst option

The April light crude oil contract is flirting with $50. And the dollar is dropping quickly:

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. dollar was under siege on Tuesday after reports overnight that South Korea's central bank may sell some of its U.S. currency reserves triggered a wave of dollar selling against the major currencies.

U.S. currency traders returned from a three-day holiday to find the euro more than 1.1 percent higher on the session, trading lately at $1.3206.

The dollar traded at 104.18 yen, off 1.2 percent, marking the large one-day fall for the dollar-yen since October.

I've read and heard many lefties suggesting various ways out of our current dilemma, that being the complete takeover of our government and media by insane militarists intent on destroying this country and the world. Some say we need to abandon the Democratic party, others say we need to reform it, others suggest we should do both. Some say we should write to Congress, write letters to the editor, talk to our neighbors, protest in the streets.

I'd suggest we should probably try all of these things, but I'm not sure any of them will work. The Bushies apparently won't be brought down by our outrage. But I think there are two things that will bring them down. One is for their wars to be brought home on a massive scale, either through a draft and huge numbers of casualties, or huge terror attacks which make September 11 look like February 21 in comparison. The other is a general economic collapse.

Neither possibility is at all appealing, but I consider economic collapse to be far and away the preferable of the two. Here are my reasons:

• Economic collapse seems inevitable anyway, given the huge budget and trade deficits, the approach of peak oil, and the general trashing of the US economy through outsourcing that has happened in the past twenty years.
• Our capitalist economy is destroying the world as it is through global warming, resource extraction, pollution in general, and the ever-growing exploitation of cheap labor. While keeping it afloat for the next decade or two might make life more pleasant for many of us during that time, the damage done will make the consequences for the future that much worse.
• A collapse, while it could easily lead to violence in many ways, offers the possibility of derailing the neocons' imperialist war agenda. Having the war come home in a big way before economic collapse would likely lead to such a collapse anyway. So I think the unsavory possibilities we face are either economic collapse, or total war with economic collapse.

At the moment, I feel fairly powerless to affect the large-scale flow of the world. Whatever happens is likely to happen no matter how much blogging I do, or letters I write, or signs I carry, or causes I support. But, as a cheerleader, I'm kind of pulling for economic collapse as the least-worst possibility, and trying to prepare myself for it as best I can. In the most immediate sense, high oil prices and a falling dollar may be the signs that the surgery needed to rid us of the malignant Bush cancer is coming.

Almost makes our system look good

Juan Cole explains the backroom dealing that will tell the Iraqi people what their will was on January 30. Bottom line? Criminal Chalabi and terrorist Comical Allawi are still in the running.

Update: Chalabi out.

Quoting Bush Quoting Camus

WIIIAI has read aWol's speech in Brussels so we don't have to. Here's a selection from WIIIAI's commentary:

You know the old joke

In heaven:
The English are the police,
The Germans are the mechanics,
The Swiss are the administrators,
The French are the lovers,
The Italians are the cooks.

In hell:
The English are the cooks,
The French are the mechanics,
The Swiss are the lovers,
The Italians are the administrators,
The Germans are the police.

Well, according to Bush, “the Afghan people know the world is with them. After all, Germany is providing vital police training. ... Italy is giving assistance on judicial reform.”

WIIIAI also quotes Bush quoting Camus, badly out of context. He adds in a later post:

More from the Bush speech: “The Palestinian people deserve a government that is representative, honest and peaceful.” So do we, but look what we’re stuck with instead.

From Corky Trinidad.

From Drew Sheneman.

From Steve Benson.

That cartoon doesn't strike me as particularly funny, but it's the FIRST one of dozens I've seen about Dean taking over at the DNC that doesn't make fun of him, suggesting that the problem is with the party, not its new chairman. Cartoonists from both the left and right have been lampooning Dr. Dean mercilessly, which I find absurd. I'm not a huge Dean fan, but he's got as much credibility as most Democrats (and much more than losers like Kerry and Hillary). His downfall as a presidential candidate was clearly orchestrated by the media, and they're not going to stop until they've destroyed all chances for the Democratic Party to actually become an opposition party once again.

Correction! I just found another!

From Signe Wilkinson.

That one's better.

From Steve Breen.

John and Hillary Lying in Iraq

Yak yak yak yak yak yak yak.

"We're planning on running against each other in 2008, and we're not about to say anything controversial while we're here in Iraq that might prevent us from getting the hundreds of millions in corporate dollars it's going to take to win."

Phoney Bush "opponents" like these two shills are probably more dangerous than pure buttkissers like DeLay and Frist.

Just Because He Was Absolutely Right Before...

...doesn't mean that the mainstream media will take Scott Ritter seriously this time. The former Marine and UN weapons inspector told anyone who would listen back in 2002 that Iraq had no significant quantities of WMD's, nor did they have programs. Ritter is now saying that the Bushies plan to bomb Iran in June, and that the Iraqi election results were manipulated by the US. Both seem all too plausible (the election results are pretty much a no-brainer).

Michelle links to a couple of related articles--one suggesting that Iran's plans to open a euro-based oil exchange is the immediate motive for attacking Iran, and the other suggesting that Iran is fully prepared to fight back--hard.

No wonder the right hates him

If you want to be secure, if you want to be able to live a human life, in all of its full dimension, if you want to have the security of that to pass along to your children, if you want to be valued, in other words, as a human being, I don't want to get Biblical here, but do unto others as you would expect to have done unto yourself. That's my first proposition. If you want to be secure from that natural and inevitable response to what it is America's putting out on the world, start with stopping the killing of their babies. Afford them the fundamental dignity of being human, not 'collateral damage.' And America's been able to provide the world with an endless stream of glowing rhetoric, but how, on that basis ­ since they've violated all of it, since they've always said one thing but acted precisely the opposite ­ is anyone out there going to believe anyone here if those insurances are made? Here's my real, crushing blow. Here's the real radical finale of the whole thing: let's just try pretending for a moment that the United States of America, like every other entity on the planet, is bound to obey the law.

-- Ward Churchill

From Tom Toles.

Dumbo Goes to Europe

You'd better lock up
You'd better shut down
Better yet get the hell outa town
W is coming to town.

His goons will come too
They'll frisk you all down
All to protect an idiot clown
W is coming to town.

He knows not what you're thinking
He cares not who you are
He just wants your own government to back his wars both near and far

Yes you'd better look out
You'd better duck low
Bush's SS* is runnin' the show
W is coming to town.

*Secret Service

Read some of the security measures being taken for Dumbya's visit to Mainz, Germany this Wednesday:

Four motorways are being completely closed, rail travel restricted, navigation of the rivers Rhine and Main halted, schools and local offices closed down. The historical centre of the city of Mainz will be totally blocked off. Helicopters will fly overhead, while the city is besieged by police units and snipers.

The rerouting of traffic and closure of the main routes between Frankfurt airport and Mainz will force tens of thousands of employees in the region, including workers at the huge Opel auto works at Rüsselsheim, to change shifts or take a day’s holiday.

Air space over Frankfurt airport is to be closed for nearly an hour. All private airplanes within a radius of 60 kilometres from Mainz are to be grounded for the entire day. For the first time ever, fighter planes of the German Air Force will be on standby to take off and attack in the event of any disturbance of air space.

US snipers will be posted on balconies and roofs along the route from the airport to Mainz and its city centre—this in a country that normally forbids foreign security forces, even bodyguards, from carrying weapons in public. Days in advance, US Secret Service agents have been surveying the region, and huge armoured cars, helicopters and hundreds of American “specialists” have been flown in.

A high security wall has been erected in the Mainz city centre around the historic cathedral, the castle, the regional parliament, the state chancellery and the world famous Gutenberg Museum. The city centre has been criss-crossed with barricades and placed under the control of armed policemen. Thousands of residents and those working in the city centre can leave or gain access only on foot, after showing their IDs. The central link over the Rhine to Wiesbaden, the Theodor Heuss bridge, is to be totally closed, even for pedestrians.

Some 1,300 gully and manhole covers have been welded shut, while free-standing mail boxes, garbage cans, electrical connection boxes, and even bicycles have been removed. City residents have been expressly forbidden from going onto their balconies or looking out an open window. They have been banned from parking their cars either in the street or in their own garages. Many garages have been sealed. The police have warned that they will break into and tow away all vehicles found in the restricted area beginning early Tuesday morning.

Garbage disposal and road cleaning will be halted on Wednesday. The university hospital, including its emergency ward, has been vacated and is being kept free for possible emergency use. Other hospitals have organised onsite overnight accommodation to make sure physicians, anaesthetists and nursing staff can be available for work.

I'm at a loss to understand why the Germans would put up with this Nazi crap, especially for this moron. The WSWS quotes several letters to the editor from German papers indicating the widespread anger, but apparently their government doesn't care.

Urbina's Mother Rescued in Venezuela!

Good news for all of you Detroit Tiger fans, and Venezuela fans, and human being fans. The mother of Tiger pitcher Ugueth Urbina, Maura Villarreal, was rescued by Venezuelan police after having been kidnapped 5 1/2 months ago. Apparently it was quite an operation, with the cops sneaking up on an abandoned tourist camp where she was held and engaging in a shootout with the kidnappers. One kidnapper was killed. Sra. Villarreal said that she was treated neither well nor poorly during her 5 1/2 months of captivity.

The Detroit Free Press had lots of the details on the operation, while the Ann Arbor News (at least the online version) just had a few short sentences about Sra. Villarreal being rescued, and spent the rest of the article speculating on how it might affect the Tigers' 2005 season. Gotta keep those priorities straight.

From Pat Oliphant.

The War to Create Terrorism

From the WSWS:

Both CIA Director Goss and Vice Admiral Lowell E. Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, conceded that the war in Iraq has strengthened Al Qaeda and associated Islamic terrorist groups by inflaming anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East.

“Islamic extremists are exploiting the Iraqi conflict to recruit new anti-US jihadists,” Goss told the Senate Intelligence Committee. “These jihadists who survive will leave Iraq experienced and focused on acts of urban terrorism,” he added. “They represent a potential pool of contacts to build transnational terrorist cells, groups and networks in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries.”

Goss, a former Republican congressman, tried to draw back from the obvious implications of this statement, declaring, “The Iraq conflict, while not a cause of extremism, has become a cause for extremists.”

But DIA Director Jacoby dispensed with this political spin, admitting that the war in Iraq is fomenting anti-American sentiment. “Overwhelming majorities in Morocco, Jordan and Saudi Arabia believe the US has a negative policy toward the Arab world,” he said.

He added that the Iraq insurgency has grown “in size and complexity over the past year,” and he provided figures to back up this assessment. Iraqis opposed to the US occupation were mounting an average of 60 attacks per day, more than double the rate a year ago. On January 30, Iraq’s election day, more than 300 attacks were carried out, despite the nationwide shutdown of transportation and the all-out mobilization of US troops and Iraqi police.

The statements by Goss and Jacoby constitute a crushing refutation of the claims that the Bush administration invaded and occupied Iraq in order to protect the American people from the threat of terrorism. The invasion, and the accompanying atrocities, murder and torture by American forces, have dramatically increased the hatred of America throughout the Middle East and in Muslim countries generally, boosting the public support and recruitment for reactionary terrorist groups like Al Qaeda.

The WSWS concludes that "the US invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with fighting terrorism." I'd go farther than that. While perhaps not the main reason (cough-oil), increasing the risk of terrorism is most likely seen as a benefit of the war by the Bushies. After all, look at all the political capital they reaped from just one big terror attack. Dick Cheney said the "war on terror" would probably last fifty years. He didn't seem to be at all upset by his prediction. War is the most effective means known to the wealthy elite to consolidate and expand their wealth and power. Endless war means endless misery for most of the world's people, but for the Bushies and their friends it means endless prosperity and power.

Aiding and Abetting the "Enemy"--a Bush Family Tradition

Senator Carl Levin disclosed on Tuesday that the Bush administration "directly abetted Jordan's efforts to build up its strategic reserves with smuggled Iraqi oil in the weeks before the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003."

The illicit oil exports took place outside the Iraq oil-for-food program, which the United Nations administered from 1996 to 2003. While allegations of corruption and mismanagement in that program are under investigation by five congressional committees, the Justice Department and a U.N.-appointed panel, the illicit oil exports outside the program have received less scrutiny. According to investigators, Iraq received more revenue from those exports than from the alleged oil-for-food kickbacks.

"The bulk of [Saddam Hussein's] illicit oil sale revenues actually came from the money he received from unregulated sales of Iraqi oil, entirely outside of the oil-for-food program, primarily to Turkey, Jordan and Syria," Levin said at a hearing Tuesday on the U.N. management of Iraqi oil revenue. "We and the rest of the world looked the other way from those sales even though they were prohibited by the U.N. sanctions regime."

--Washington Post

Of course, we now know (and many of us knew then) that Iraq was NOT our enemy, posing no threat from 8000 miles from either the WMD's it did not have or the conventional weapons it did; nor were they supporting al Qaeda. But that's not what the Bushies said, repeatedly. They thought Iraq was so much an enemy that it justified bombing and invading that country at the cost of tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars. So, on their terms, Iraq was definitely the enemy. And they were definitely aiding and abetting Iraq by allowing them to circumvent the UN sanctions. US soldiers have probably been killed with bullets purchased with that money.

There's a simple word for what the Bushies did: Treason.

It's clear now that the US, both Bush and Clinton administrations, use the UN as a tool to get their way (just like they use the Democrats). They insist on sticking to UN principles and resolutions when it suits them, ignore them when it doesn't, and insult and abuse the UN as an institution as a matter of course. The UN sanctions on Iraq didn't prevent Saddam from selling oil--they only allowed the US to control whom he sold it to.

Amazing how this story of high treason has made front-page news this week, isn't it? I just heard of Levin's disclosures this morning from reading Bob Harris' blog post from Friday.

And remember, Bush's granddad was involved in financing Hitler, and his father was neck-deep in the arming of both sides of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980's (and is probably still involved in all sorts of evil deeds through the Carlyle Group). The Bush's are the most successful crime family in history.

From Pat Bagley.

Blogging the Headlines

In three years of blogging, I've learned that if you just read the headlines, not only do you not get the whole story--you frequently get the wrong story. But the headlines on CNN's web site tonight are entertaining, in a macabre, we're all gonna die kind of way:

• Officials: Shiite mosques targeted in bombings
  (I guess their first clue was that bombs have been going off at Shiite mosques)
• Bush: No plans to attack Iran (He's not saying he's not going to attack Iran, just that he doesn't have plans. After Iraq, I can believe that.)
• Crash test dummies inventor dies (Smothered by an airbag, no doubt.)
• U.S. senators heading to Iraq (Must be in the reserves.)

Unemployed Blogger Questions Bush

In his dreams, and mine. I just discovered the blog Love America, Hate Bush, and I really liked this post where he imagined being able to ask aWol questions in a press conference. Excerpt:

Mr. President -- one question and a possible follow-up. You were in New Hampshire on Wednesday promoting your Social Security plan, and you said that your idea is nothing new, that federal employees have long had the kind of investment options you're proposing. You said, and I'm quoting, "I'm the kind of guy who believes if it's good enough for federal employees, it oughtta be good enough for younger workers." My question, sir, is since every federal employee is covered by health insurance of some kind, what about the 45 million Americans who have no coverage at all? Why aren't you pushing for federal-type health insurance to be extended to them?

At least 29 killed by bombs in Iraq

Condiliar Rice immediately recalled the US Ambassador to America, the occupier of Iraq that has clearly destabilized the country.

Michelle is back in action after Blogger screwed up her postings yesterday, and she has an intriguing post on the situation in Lebanon. It turns out, according to a Lebanese newspaper, that Syria may have been about to begin a large-scale withdrawal of troops from Lebanon, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1559. Did Syria need to be framed before this happened?

Ask...what your country can do for you

Fox "News"' Brit Hume has apparently been cutting and pasting sentence fragments from old FDR speeches to suggest that FDR himself supported private accounts over social security. Bob Harris and Jonathan Schwartz have taken Hume's methods and run with them, and I've added a few of my own.

From aWol himself:

"The man and women of our Armed Forces have delivered a message...to...the United States: ... you will not escape the justice of this nation."

"Thanks to the work of our law enforcement officials and coalition partners...tens of thousands of trained terrorists are still at large."

"...the United States...States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world."

(all above from 2002 SOTU)

And one that needs no editing:

"Bring 'em on."

And a couple of others:

"Ask...what your country can do for you." -- JFK

"I am...a crook." -- Richard Nixon

Porto Allegre on the Huron

From my e-mail:

Announcing the ANN ARBOR AREA SOCIAL FORUM
on Saturday, February 19th, 1:00 p.m.
at 310 S. Ashley, Ann Arbor, "Hathaway's Hideaway"

Come for an afternoon of learning and sharing ideas for social & economic change in Ann Arbor's First Annual Social Forum. By exploring the root causes of current problems in the world, workshops will show the inter-connections among issues and encourage collaboration among progressive groups.

The forum begins with reports from participants in the World Social Forum, Brazil, followed by workshops on globalization, environmental justice, creating a self-reliant community, US imperialism, intentional communities, local media, and work by Artists for Peace.

The forum is sponsored by a coalition of local progressive and activist groups. Admission is free, tea and snacks provided.

1 p.m. Introduction & report from World Social Forum, Brazil
2:45-3:45 Workshops session I
4:00-5:00 Workshops session II
5:15-6:00 Reports from workshops and discussions for future directions

Workshops:
- What is globalization?
- Creating intentional communities
- Iraq & U.S. imperialism
- Ending the occupation of Palestine
- Ann Arbor: a Living Economy Community
- Natural building
- Environmental Justice
- Zero Waste
- Artists for Peace
- Community radio
- Where does the progressive movement go from here?


This event is being sponsored by Solidarity, the Greens, People's Progressive Network, Students Organizing for Labor Equality, Ann Arbor Coalition Against the War, Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, Women's International League for Peace and Justice, Town Meeting, and Welfare Rights Union.

Crime Pays

That should be the motto of the Bush administration. AWol today appointed master criminal John Negroponte as Director of National Intelligence. "National Intelligence" has surely become an oxymoron when applied to this country. For some background on what Negroponte did in Central America in the 1980's, read this article.

It's also interesting, I guess, that Negroponte, currently US Ambassador to Iraq, seems more than happy to leave that democratic paradise after only eight months on the job, just as Paul Bremer and Bernard Kerik am-scrayed as soon as they could.

The Gestapo Probably Had Similar Authority

Rick wanted me to make sure that everyone knows that the House of Reprehensibles recently refused to remove a section from the "REAL ID Act of 2005" which empowers the Secretary of Homeland Security to:

Waive any federal laws, without limit, in the course of building barriers along the nation’s borders. If enacted, this bill would grant the Homeland Security Secretary unbridled authority to act however he sees fit, without consequence. His actions also would be exempt from judicial review, making him unaccountable to any authority.

Laws that protect the environment, safeguard public health, ensure consumer and workplace safety, prevent unfair business practices, and ban discrimination – none of these laws, or any others, would apply to the Department of Homeland Security.

From OMB Watch.

Rubbing Our Noses In It

In the category of outrageously unnecessary provocation of already disheartened liberals, the nominee is: Secretary of the Interior Snowmobiling in Yellowstone.

Secretary of the Inferior Gale Norton, endorsing the notion that nature is to be annoyed, not enjoyed.

God, that pisses me off. Read my previous rants about snowmobiles in Yellowstone to see why.

Anniversaries and Milestones

I don't pay too close attention to various anniversaries, but I've passed a few lately:

• As of December 18, 2004, three years as a vegetarian.
• As of sometime recently, my longest stretch ever in a single job--over 4 1/2 years in my current job, surpassing the 4 1/2 years that I worked for the Alabama Historical Hysterical Commission.
• Perhaps the most difficult--as of tomorrow, four weeks without cookies, candy or other sweets.
• Perhaps the most depressing--yet another birthday, coming up this Sunday.
• And, as of February 3, three years of blogging! Here's a replay of my first ever blog post:
  

February 3, 2002

Bin Laden speaks
From that Al Jazeera interview CNN has been airing:

"I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. government will lead the American people and the West in general into an unbearable hell and a choking life." Can it be spelled out any more clearly? This isn't just about bringing down skyscrapers and murdering civilians and wreaking havoc and discord--it's about setting into motion a chain of events through which we end up doing irreperable damage to ourselves, to that part of our society which can only be destroyed from within, to the very ideals which define us.

The trap lies in wait before us,