From Mark Cohen.

From Sandy Huffaker.

From Mike Keefe.

Tony Bliar

Last night, Tony Blair added to his lengthy record of lies by adding this one:

"I have never told a lie. No. I don't intend to go telling lies to people. I did not lie over Iraq."

Let Jonathan at A Tiny Revolution explain to you why this one is a whopper.

Neoliberalism Robbing Nicaragua Blind

An interesting article by Toni Solo. Excerpts:

The pitiful legacy of 15 years of neo-liberal barbarism is a national phenomenon. The inhuman effects of extreme poverty spread far beyond the sprawling slums of the capital Managua. A more thorough indictment of the role of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Inter-American Development Bank would be hard to imagine.

And it is all deliberate. Not in the sense that the living-dead managerial class who draw their salaries in those institutions set out intentionally to starve millions of people and deny them access to education and healthcare. Like the bureaucrats of Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany or imperial England and France, they just obey orders and care little about the consequences.

These imperialist enforcement agencies impose suffering on hundreds of thousands in Nicaragua because their corporate masters decided decades ago that North American big business needed a huge pool of slave labour in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. They needed to cut costs so as to compete with emerging economies in Asia and undercut European competitors. The principal means to achieve that aim have been to seek to try and destroy those countries' domestic agricultural economies and to privatize their State sector resources.
...
In tandem with all this, the United States uses trade measures like the mis-named Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) to guarantee an investment framework enabling US corporations and their local clients to exploit Plan Puebla Panama infrastructure and local slave labour to the limit. It is puzzling why so many people in the United States seem to think these arrangements will benefit them. The whole idea is to shift business out of the United States to where costs are cheapest.

Tough Calls

Once you start to fear your own government, or the corporations it serves, you begin to see the need to protect privacy--to fight against attempts at national ID cards, retinal scans and such. If they can track you, they can round you up whenever they want. On the other hand, you can still recognize the benefits of having license plates, driver's licenses, credit cards and such. If your car is stolen, the license plate or the vehicle identification number may be your best chances of ever getting it back.

That's one tough call. Another is the issue of paying for roads. I have long been an advocate for substantially raising gasoline taxes or having more toll roads, requiring those who are using precious resources to pollute our air and warm our planet to pay a more substantial price for doing so. However, I recognize that the open road, unfortunately, is a critical element of freedom in America. "Socialized" "free"ways cost the same for the rich guy in the Escalade or the poor guy in the '88 Escort--nothing, a small degree of balance to the overwhelming advantages that the rich have in most areas. (High-quality mass transit would be a better leveler, but many of the places where it is available in this country, like New York, Boston and San Francisco, are very expensive places to live.) Still, gas prices are rising and will continue to do so, eventually making driving like flying private aircraft is now--a luxury only the wealthy can afford. So, in balance, I still think that making driving more expensive now would be a good thing, even for the poor, by helping to direct more interest and money into mass transit and more compact communities.

These two issues, privacy and paying for roads, come together in two recent articles. The San Antonio Express-News reports that there's a bill in the Texas legislature to require RFID tags on all cars in Texas. The given reason of making sure that every car has insurance is onerous enough, but these tags could clearly be used for nefarious purposes--id'ing everyone who drove to a Kucinich rally, for example. On the other hand, it would become very easy to track your stolen car. It would also greatly facilitate converting roads to toll roads, which is the subject of a NY Times article today.

The freeway in places is no longer free. From the backed-up pools of frustration in Chicago's adjacent counties, to the farthest Virginia fringes of the commute to Washington, to Texas, where plans are under way to build a 4,000-mile network of toll roads, the United States has outgrown its highway system.

But state and federal governments, beset by deficits, say they have barely enough money to service the existing system, let alone build new roads. As a result, nearly two dozen states have passed legislation allowing their transportation systems to operate pay-as-you-go roads, and in many cases, letting the private sector build and run these roads.

And that, of course, is the key element to the Bushies, who strongly support this trend, according to the article. The worst of possible outcomes, as far as I'm concerned--private roads everywhere.

Outfoxed

A million people in the streets and the contempt of the vast majority of his citizenry has apparently caused Mexican President Vicente Fox to back down on his craven attempt to remove the most popular contender in next year's presidential election:

The legal proceedings that threatened to knock Mexico's most popular politician off next year's presidential ballot and to plunge this country into turmoil seemed to come to a sudden end on Wednesday night, when a beleaguered President Vicente Fox announced the resignation of his attorney general and a review of the government's case against the politician.

In a nationally televised address, Mr. Fox said he had accepted the resignation of Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, who oversaw the prosecution of the politician, Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico City, and thus became one of the most polarizing figures in the government.
...
His resignation was widely considered a kind of peace offering to Mayor López Obrador, whose political career was threatened three weeks ago when Congress voted to lift his official immunity and remove him from office so that he could stand trial in a land dispute.

Striking an uncharacteristically stiff posture and formal tone of voice, President Fox said he considered defending democracy his government's most important responsibility, and wanted to guarantee that next year's presidential elections would be fair, transparent and open to all qualified figures.
...
Indeed while the proceedings against the mayor, known as a desafuero, caused his popularity to soar, it plunged Mr. Fox's lackluster government into open conflict. In interviews earlier this week, aides to the president described the case against the mayor as an enormous mistake and said the president was looking for a way out.

The toll became clear Tuesday during a trip by Mr. Fox to Oaxaca State, in the south. After a lunch with business leaders and the governor, the president stopped to confront a young protester carrying a sign that described him as a "traitor to democracy."

Clearly agitated, the president asked over and over again for the protester to explain. The protester did not answer.

"I am not some traitor to democracy," Mr. Fox said. "On the contrary, I have worked for democracy for all."

Unfortunately, our pResident wouldn't have even seen the sign, and if he did would have dismissed it as a focus group.

When your democracy is crappier than Mexico's, you really shouldn't be trying to export it.

Anyway, it looks like a great victory for the people of Mexico. Still, I'd recommend that AMLO stay out of small planes.

From John Sherffius.

Kiss my gas

From Mark Cohen.

If you think that's a little harsh, then you probably missed seeing this photo:


Well, who can blame him? I mean, only 15 of the alleged 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. It's not like it's Afghanistan or Iraq, which provided none at all. How's a guy supposed to be re-elected that way?


From J.D. Crowe.


From Mark Streeter.

If I had time to blog today...

I would write about the Orwellian rhetoric coming from Rummy and Myers, like WIIIAI and Michelle did. Or maybe I'd write about the new "New Europe" members of the European Union, and why their inclusion strengthens the arguments against the European Constitution, even for those of us who like to see a strong, liberal Europe, like Doug Ireland did. Or I might write about the threat to liberalism in our neighbor to the north, like Xymphora and the WSWS did.

Over 1 Million March for AMLO

I mentioned a couple of days ago that CNN was reporting hundreds of thousands marching in Mexico City to protest the "desafuero" of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), meaning there were probably millions. Well, Knight Ridder reports that Mexican police estimated 1.2 million:



It's beginning to sound like this power play will backfire on current Mexican President Vicente Fox, and thus on his "free trade" buddies in Washington, George and Condi.

Yeah, right

U.S. troops nearly captured Iraq's most-wanted terrorist -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- earlier this year, officials say. The incident took place in February near Ramadi after a tip that al-Zarqawi might be in the area, sources said. At one point, the officials said, troops chased a suspicious car and determined al-Zarqawi had been in it but had escaped.

That's CNN.com's lead story right now--Officials say that troops may have come close to catching a guy they claim to be a bad guy two months ago. Must be a slow news day.

The Zarqawi story about the resistance is all a crock, anyhow. Thousands of Iraqis are now actively involved with the resistance, with at least the passive support of millions of others. Catching or killing one guy wouldn't make one bit of difference. The only issue is how long it will take the US to get a clue and get out of Iraq.

Gannon Fodder

I could say this:

Fake reporter "Jeff Gannon" apparently spent many hours at the White House, well beyond the times of press briefings, and even on days when there were no briefings.

Or, more suggestively, I could say this:

Real male prostitute "Jeff Gannon" apparently spent many hours at the White House, well beyond the times of press briefings, and even on days when there were no briefings.

Oh, how I long to hear brainless leader say these words to the press: "I did not have sex with THAT man."

From Chris Britt.

From Mark Streeter.

From Drew Sheneman.

From Monte Wolverton.

Let's you and him fight

A couple of weeks ago, I said that I'd probably need Chalmers Johnson to explain the recent tension between Japan and China. Well, the WSWS does a pretty good job of tackling the subject, and guess what: The Bushies are behind a lot of it.

The essential basis for the Bush administration’s policy was laid out in an influential bipartisan document issued in October 2000 entitled “The United States and Japan: Advancing Towards a Mature Partnership”—more usually known as the Armitage-Nye report. Richard Armitage, who became Bush’s deputy secretary of state, and another study group member, Paul Wolfowitz, who was installed as US deputy defence secretary, played major roles in implementing its recommendations.

Both the Democrats and Republicans in the study group agreed that the “prospects for conflict in Asia are far from remote” and concluded that the US had to ramp up its alliance with Japan. “Japan remains the keystone of the US involvement in Asia. The US-Japan alliance is central to America’s global security strategy,” the report stated. It went on to declare: “We see the special relationship between the United States and Britain as a model for the alliance”. In other words, just as London had become Washington’s loyal instrument in Europe, Tokyo was to play a similar role in Asia. The unnamed, but unmistakable, target was China.

Many of the report’s elements—closer cooperation between the two militaries; reorganisation of US military bases in North East Asia; broadening the scope of US-Japan missile defence cooperation; encouraging Japan to play a larger international role; US support for Japan’s bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat—read like a recipe book for the Bush administration’s subsequent relations with Japan. Its most controversial aspect was the open advocacy of constitutional change in Japan. While paying lip service to the need for the Japanese people to decide, it bluntly declared: “Japan’s prohibition against collective self-defense is a constraint on alliance cooperation. Lifting this prohibition would allow for closer and more efficient security cooperation.”

Busy, Busy, Busy

Sorry, not much time to blog today.

From Slowpoke.

Hundreds of thousands march for AMLO

That's what CNN says about the protest in Mexico City on Sunday, meaning there were probably millions opposing the "desafuero" of Mexico City's mayor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO).

Elsewhere in Latin America, Venezuela has arrested several Americans for photographing refineries and military installations. And Ecuador's deposed president has fled to Brazil.

Springtime in Michigan!

Actually, we've had about three weeks of absolutely wonderful weather leading up to this mess.

I just went down to the Earth Day fair at the Farmers' Market. I think it was the first time in four years that I wasn't staffing a table myself--all I had to do was walk around and look at the displays and talk to the nice people. The biodiesel people were there, as were the Ann Arbor Clean Cities people, the Sierra Club, the Ann Arbor Greenway folks, the UM Solar House Project students, and a guy with an electric motorcycle. In the making lemonade from lemons department, the Southeast Michigan RC&D Council presented finished wood samples from Emerald Ash trees, the trees that are being killed by the thousands by the emerald ash borer insect (including the one in my curb lawn). While the ash borer kills the tree, it doesn't impact the quality of the wood. So, rather than landfilling or burning the dead trees, they are running them through sawmills to make usable (and pretty good-looking) lumber, with the scraps being shredded into mulch.

I told the lady there that I, too, was deriving a benefit from the death of the ash trees--without the ash in the curb lawn, I'll have full sun on my south-facing roof year round, except of course on days like today.

Get out of your car...and into a bus

I've noticed more riders on the buses I take to and from work lately, and apparently it has become a trend nationwide due to gas prices. I haven't noticed any reduction in traffic on the roads--that will take a much larger migration (and probably much higher gas prices).

Here in Ann Arbor, May is officially Curb Your Car Month, with a variety of programs and activities to encourage biking, walking, carpooling and transit use.

From James Casciari.

From Clay Bennett.

From Jim Morin.

Miller Low Life

Dennis Miller was on the Daily Show a couple of days ago. What a total turd. He was so full of himself, rattling off unfunny right-wing one liners about ANWR ("Nobody goes to Alaska except delinquent fathers," or something like that), global warming ("If the temperature goes up 3.6 degrees, I'll just tell the family we moved to Phoenix.") He was doing this so fast he must have been on speed. And Jon Stewart was just laughing away like the ditziest ditz you've ever met, times two. Pathetic. Miller's excuse for the war in Iraq, which he backed all the way, was something like "the number of Saddam and his sons came up."

He was awful on Monday Night Football; he was awful on the Daily Show. I assume he's also awful on his own show on CNBC, but don't expect me to research that for you.

Health Care

Part of Dennis Kucinich's standard stump speech was that Americans are paying for universal health care, they're just not getting it. Paul Krugman explains why.

Think about how crazy all of this is. At a rough guess, between two million and three million Americans are employed by insurers and health care providers not to deliver health care, but to pass the buck for that care to someone else. And the result of all their exertions is to make the nation poorer and sicker.

Why do we put up with such an expensive, counterproductive health care system? Vested interests play an important role. But we also suffer from ideological blinders: decades of indoctrination in the virtues of market competition and the evils of big government have left many Americans unable to comprehend the idea that sometimes competition is the problem, not the solution.

Auto-terrorism

This happened last week:

A motorist sped through a stop sign in Superior Township Sunday evening, slamming into two bicyclists and killing a teenager from Novi, authorities said.

Washtenaw County Sheriff's Cmdr. Dave Egeler said police are awaiting blood alcohol tests on the 34-year-old Northville man who was driving the car, and charges will be sought. Police are trying to determine the speed of the 2005 Ford Mustang when the crash occurred, but a preliminary estimate was that it was traveling between 70 and 100 mph, Egeler said.

The crash occurred shortly after 8 p.m. at the intersection of Plymouth-Ann Arbor Road and Gotfredson Road in Superior Township. Three bicyclists were pedaling east on the right side of the road when the Mustang, which was southbound on Gotfredson Road, failed to stop at the stop sign at Plymouth-Ann Arbor Road, Egeler said.

Now, I'm willing to bet that the driver of the Mustang was just some idiot who likes to drive too fast. He wasn't out there trying to scare cyclists off the road. But that will certainly be the impact of his crime. Already wary cyclists will be scared into staying off the roads, and parents will tell their kids not to ride their bikes. In recent years, there has been a trend to impose harsher sentences for crimes which have an impact beyond the immediate victim--so called "hate crimes" and "terrorism." (Recently a judge gave a college student who vandalized a bunch of Hummers a stiffer sentence because he was "trying to send a message.") I'm not sure this is right, especially since it is very hard to prove. One guy could beat up another guy because he was black or gay, or maybe just because he didn't like him. A car bomb may be used to indicate your hatred for a country, or maybe just for a driver.

And, like I said, there was probably no intent at all in this case; just extreme carelessness with a deadly weapon (cars kill more people in this country than guns). So taking it all out on the driver, convicting him of murder instead of manslaughter, for example, may not be the way to deal with this (and probably won't be). But somehow there needs to be something done aggressively by the county or state to counteract the negative impact a killing like this has on bicycling. Denial of driving privileges for life might be a start; also road modifications like speed bumps to bring the dangerous weapons under control.

Many countries, especially in Europe, have aggressively pursued policies to make the roads friendly for bicycles. Here in the US it has been mostly the opposite. Not only the roads and laws, but a large percentage of drivers, are hostile to cyclists, and millions of people choose to drive rather than bike and face that hostility. And we're running out of oil, polluting our air, and baking our planet because of it.

Preemption

[T]he government was fed false "intelligence" by officials with their own agenda, who, in turn, were given information ... by a number of "defectors."

No evidence of illegal weapons was found, but the demonization of the "enemy" was so complete that the brutal attack was carried out with the cheerleading of the media and the support of much of the American public. Lots of innocent people, including children, were killed. Since the perpetrator was the US government, nobody was brought to justice.

But enough about Waco.

"Commercial" helicopter crashes

Technically speaking, the chopper which crashed today in Iraq wasn't owned by the Pentagon. It was owned by a company called "Skylink:"

A statement issued by Blackwater USA described Skylink as operating under contract to Blackwater "in support of a Department of Defense contract." The statement added, "The specifics of the crash are not yet known and there does not appear to be any survivors." The names of the victims are not being released pending notification of the next of kin.

It was carrying six Blackwater security guards (aka mercenaries), two Fijian guards, and a three-member Bulgarian crew. According to the NY Times,

While several military helicopters have been downed by insurgent fire, it is apparently the first time a commercial helicopter has crashed in post-war Iraq from hostile actions.

Being pretty specific there, aren't we? You forgot to add "on a Thursday." And "post-war Iraq?" People are being killed by at least the dozens every day (probably way more than that, since we rarely here about the casualties from US bombing raids).

From Drew Sheneman.

From Gary Markstein.

From Walt Handelsman.

From Nick Anderson.

"Ricin Plot" was pure Blairs**t

The WSWS reviews the case of the supposed "ricin terror plot" in England. Eight men had been arrested based on "information" gained by torture in Algeria. The British government and press trumpeted the story as evidence of Islamic terrorism directed against Britain, using it as a reason to go to war with Iraq. It turns out that there was no plot, just one loner guy who had the recipe and some materials to make ricin in his apartment (although he hadn't made any). The other seven had nothing to do with it and were acquitted. No links to either Iraq or al Qaeda were found, other than the torture-induced "confessions" of one guy.

However, back in the winter of 2003, this "plot" was paraded by Tony Blair, and subsequently Colin Powell at the UN, as part of the casus belli for the criminal invasion of Iraq.

President Ousted in Ecuador

All I know about this is what I've read in three articles: From CNN, the NY Times, and Narco News. As the NY Times explains it, it sounds like ousted president Gutierrez got elected by pretending to be Hugo Chavez, but turned into Vicente Fox once he was in office:

Mr. Gutiérrez, who had run as a populist friend of the poor, had lost much of his public support almost as soon as he took office. Ecuadoreans felt increasingly alienated with Mr. Gutiérrez's implementation of austere economic policies, which pleased the International Monetary Fund, and his relatively warm relationship with the United States. Wall Street gave Mr. Gutiérrez solid marks - the economy grew at more than 6 percent last year - and the Bush administration appreciated that Ecuador permitted an expansion of the American military presence along the troubled border with Colombia.

I think we'll see more and more of this--countries trying to extricate themselves from the American economic and military claws.

ZIPPER NEGATOR

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I make anagrams on the new pope's old name
And then I don't feel so bad

Here's one on "POPE BENEDICT XVI": Veep tied in PC box

Got a few hours to kill?

Peak Oil Goes to Washington

When I heard Richard Heinberg speak about peak oil at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair last summer, he mentioned that he had discussed it with his congresswoman, Lynn Wolsey (one of the most progressive members of the House). He asked Wolsey why peak oil was never discussed in Congress, even by her or Kucinich or Barbara Lee or anyone. Heinberg said that Wolsey replied that it would be political suicide--peak oil was a topic no politician would touch.

Well it turns out that peak oil has been discussed in Congress recently--by a couple of Republicans from Maryland. This video shows Rep. Wayne Gilchrest introducing Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, who then speaks for about an hour. (Here's the transcript.)

The money quote from Bartlett?

Let me mention that M. King Hubbert looked at the world situation. He was joined by another scientist, Colin Campbell, who is still alive, an American citizen who lives in Scotland. Using M. King Hubbert’s predictive techniques, oil was predicted to reach a maximum in about 1995, without perturbations. But there were some perturbations. One of the perturbations was 1973, the Arab oil embargo. Other perturbations were the oil price shocks and a worldwide recession that reduced the demand for oil. And so the peak that might have occurred in 1995 will occur later. How much later? That is what we are looking at this evening. There is a lot of evidence that suggests that if not now, then very quickly we should see world production of oil peak.

(emphasis added)

BTW, Bartlett builds solar homes, drives a Prius, and voted against drilling in ANWR. Here's a statement from his web site:

I have been a consistent advocate of energy efficiency and greater reliance upon less polluting renewable energy resources. I voted for passage of H.R. 6, the 2003 House Energy Bill. I did so for the provisions promoting energy efficiency and renewables. I voted against drilling in ANWR, arguing that those resources should be preserved for future.

With regard to greenhouse gas emissions and their climate impact, I will continue to advocate for improved energy efficiency and increased reliance on clean, emission free solar, wind, ocean and bio-energy resources as a sensible way to address these concerns.

A Republican in the House talking about peak oil and global warming. Maybe there's hope after all.

Gotta Love the Markets

I don't know how much comes from players in the markets and how much from the "say something all the time" financial media, but some of the explanations for market moves are bizarre, to say the least. Earlier today a consumer prices report showed signs that there is more inflation than expected--in other words, the dollar is weakening. But, according to CBS MarketWatch:

The dollar advanced after an unexpectedly strong March consumer prices report stoked dollar proponents' hopes that the Federal Reserve could switch to a more hawkish interest rates policy.

That is, the dollar was rising because it was falling. That has since changed, since crude oil and gasoline are getting tight again. Gasoline futures, after having dropped about a quarter per gallon over the past week, have regained about 8 cents in just the last day. And oil, after having flirted with sub-$50 prices, is now solidly back above $52. (See, I can write like a financial reporter too!)

The New Iraq

From Juan Cole:

A tearful member of the Iraqi parliament, Fattah al-Shaikh, stood up before other MPs and told the story of how he was attacked and detained by US troops when he attempted to enter the Green Zone, the heavily fortified area near downtown Baghdad where parliament is held and the US embassy is situated. Wire services report that he said, '“I don’t speak English and so I said to the Iraqi translator with them, ‘Tell them that I am a member of parliament’, and he replied, ‘To hell with you, we are Americans.'" '

Al-Hayat reported that al-Shaikh, a member of the Muqtada al-Sadr bloc, said the US troops put their boots on his neck and handcuffed him. The Iraqi parliament was thrown into an uproar by the account, and demanded a US apology from the highest levels of government. Others demanded that the site of parliament meetings be changed. (This is not the first complaint by a parliamentarian of being manhandled).

Parliament speaker Hajim al-Hasani condemned the assault, saying that members of parliament are symbols of national honor and must be respected.

Parliament adjourned on hearing the news.



The incident will seem minor to most Americans and few will see this Reuters photograph reprinted from al-Hayat (which is not the one featured at the Reuters story on the incident on the Web). But such an incident is a serious affront to national honor, and Iraqi male politicians don't often weep.

Only one way out of this mess--GET OUT NOW!

DeLay "Defends" Himself

Hammer the Bugman sent an e-mail to his constituents--2540 words which could easily be summarized as "Dey got nuttin' on me."

One of the many cases of probable unethical behavior by DeLay was his apparent attempt to bribe and threaten Michigan Congressman Nick Smith into voting for the 2003 Medicare boondoggle. (See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here) DeLay's "defense" against this charge is just to quote an ethics committee report, as follows:

“The Nick Smith Complaint”

Dismissed: “The issues raised by the conduct of the Majority Leader in this matter are novel in that conduct of this nature and the implications of such conduct have never before been addressed or resolved by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. Indeed, the Majority Leader’s testimony indicates that he did not believe he acted improperly under House rules during his encounter with Representative Nick Smith. In addition, the Investigative Subcommittee believes that the relevant facts related to the Majority Leader’s conduct-described in detail in this Report - already have been fully developed. In the view of the Investigative Subcommittee, these factors mitigate against further investigation and proceedings in this matter.” (Oct. 4, 2004 Report, p. 43).

DeLay adds no personal assurances to his constituents that he did not bribe or threaten Smith--he just lets the committee's decision not to investigate further based on DeLay's testimony saying he didn't believe he acted improperly stand for itself.

The rest of his "defenses" are just as slippery. See WIIIAI and the Progress Report for further analysis of DeLay's e-mail.

Setting the record straight

Corrections department:

I got an e-mail from Loren Beard, a chemist for DaimlerChrysler whom I misrepresented as an engineer in my post on the biodiesel tour last week. It sounds like I was a bit harsh on the Jeep Liberty--I'll let Loren set the record straight:

Bob,

I read your post on April 11. Thanks for taking the time to listen to our ideas. I'd like to make just a couple of points.

1. I am not a DaimlerChrysler Engineer, but am a DaimlerChrysler Chemist.
2. If I appeared "inordinately" proud of the Liberty, it reflects the pride I have in my colleagues for the work they have done in bringing this very customer-friendly vehicle to market.
3. Before you compare the Liberty diesel to the Escape hybrid, you should be aware of a few things. The Escape has a rated towing capacity of 1,000 pounds. The Liberty can tow 5,000 pounds. The off-road capabilities of the Liberty diesel and Escape hybrid are worlds apart. 21/26 is actually best-in-class for a vehicle this size with these capabilities. Within the industry, and people who follow it, there is a huge debate about the EPA stated fuel economy numbers for hybrids. Since the principle value of a hybrid is in its ability to recapture energy lost to heat during breaking to charge the battery, these vehicles tend to show much lower fuel economy on highway cycles, where driving is steady state, and the electric motor and battery are just added weight, while the downsized engine is working harder and less efficiently. Hybrids are at their best under cyclic city driving under fairly low load conditions. Evidence: The biggest practical market for hybrid vehicles is the growing mass transit bus fleet, which, due to its cyclical driving patterns is experiencing very big fuel efficiency gains with hybrids.
4. I was at OU to talk about diesel and biodiesel. This is not my only area of interest. We are also looking into hybrids, and have recently announced a joint venture with GM to develop a generation of hybrids which will leap-frog the Prius-type technology. Different customers have different needs. If a customer wants a small SUV, with some 4WD capability - maybe to get out of a snow-drifted driveway in Oakland County in March, needs limited (or no) towing capacity, then the Escape hybrid might be their car. If you want tow a boat to Cheboygan, and then drive some of the sand/mud roads up there, or if you want to deal with a truly nasty snow storm, you might want to consider the Liberty diesel. A typical suburban commuter may experience very big fuel economy benefits from a hybrid passenger car, and we will offer one soon.

Keep up the good work, and thanks again for taking an interest in our new Jeep.

Loren

I'll add, also, that although DC doesn't yet warranty running the Liberty on 100% renewable American-produced fuel, it is certainly possible, which is not the case with the Escape. Please note that Loren did not endorse this addition!

I think he means you, Thomas Friedman

"Outsourcing America" is a powerful work. Only fools will continue clinging to the premise that outsourcing is good for America.

That's from Paul Craig Roberts' latest column, reviewing the new book Outsourcing America by Ron and Anil Hira. (Scary note: the entire first page of results on Amazon for the search term "outsourcing" is ten books on HOW TO outsource.)

I'm continually amazed at how well the "free trade" nonsense has brainwashed so many Americans, even as their jobs and job prospects disappear down that black hole. Probably because our two corporate parties are fully on board with it (they're funded, after all, by the corporate bosses, not the workers). Some liberals defend it because they think it is somehow good for the struggling masses in the rest of the world, which it mostly is not. "Free trade" is cheap-labor conservatism, or reverse Robinhood-ism, at its worst.

I doubt if the workers of the world will ever unite under a socialist banner as the World Socialist Web Site calls for at the end of just about every article. But pocketbook issues supposedly get votes, and this is an issue where the center (Clinton-Gore-Bush-Kerry) is both wrong AND bad for most Americans' pocketbooks. Those opposed to "free trade" include right wingers like Pat Buchanan and Paul Craig Roberts and left wingers like Dennis Kucinich. Were it not for the mainstream babble of fools like Thomas Friedman (who is also an insufferable twit, from what I saw on the Daily Show), this is one issue that should be a "slam dunk." That it's not shows just how much power the corporations really have in this world.

Hitler Youth to Holy See

Pope Benedict XVI.

When I think about the aspects of Christianity that appeal to me, I think of Jesus' statements in the sermon on the mount ("blessed are the poor," etc.) and his emphasis on helping those in need rather than judging others. A few decades ago, a movement called Liberation Theology arose in the Catholic church, mostly in Latin America, which focused on these aspects of Christianity--not the smiting of the Old Testament, the sometimes confusing morality of Paul's letters, or the bad drug trip of Revelations. Liberation Theology offered a Catholicism that could truly have been a major positive force in the world. And John Paul II, ably assisted by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (the new Pope Benedict XVI), basically killed the Liberation Theology movement.

Billmon has more.

What Little Chance We Had...

...for decent news coverage for the next week or two just went up in smoke.

Comedy Peripheral

Some recent lines from the late-nighters, via The Hamster:

"Friends say that each day President Bush spends two hours playing video games. Now let's think about this -- there's a war in Iraq, gas prices have never been higher and what is he working on? Getting Spiderman to the third level. ...Yeah George loves video games. His favorite? Grand Theft Election." David Letterman

"They claim now that President Bush spends two hours a day playing video games. Here's the good news -- that's two hours less than he spends being president." David Letterman

"Down in Washington D.C. the feds jumped a guy who was behaving suspiciously and carrying two large suitcases. Turns out it kind of had a funny ending: he's not a terrorist and the suitcases were full of cash for Tom Delay." David Letterman

"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned Iraq's new leaders against hiring their friends and family members for government jobs, and then Majority Leader Tom Delay gave the rebuttal." Jay Leno

"Forty members of Congress also went to the [Pope's] funeral. They said it was great to be out of Washington and to get a break from all that prayer and Bible quoting." Bill Maher

MaxSpeak on the Estate & Gift Tax

He provides some of the facts.

Ewwwww...Gross!

Don't say I didn't warn you.

What Xymphora Said

I don't know who or what Xymphora is, but the blog by that name is one of the more interesting ones I have come across. The author gives no hints about who he or she is, where he/she lives, etc. Just some really provocative posts. Today's post deals with recent currency controls which have been put in place as part of the ludicrous "war on terror," the cover story for just about any governmental crime. There's a bit more to the post, but I am copying over half of it here:

The effect of requiring more banking data from international banks dealing with Americans will just be to discourage them from dealing with Americans. It's a soft way of introducing currency controls, which would otherwise be politically unpopular. Apparently, everything is possible if it is part of the 'war on terror'. Soft currency controls will be necessary to manage the upcoming crisis with the American dollar. Some American war in the Middle East will cause the cost of oil to rise so much that Asian countries will have to sell their U. S. treasury bills in order to pay for it, and that will signal the end of Asian central bank support for the American dollar. Once it starts to fall, it will fall fast.

The 'creeping fascism' in the United States is no longer creeping, it's on a full run. The Bush Administration doesn't want to stop spending money on wars and allowing its friends like Halliburton to make out like bandits on war profiteering, and certainly doesn't want to stop its class warfare in the ongoing transfer of money from everybody else to the plutocrat class. Currency controls are needed because the Bush Administration doesn't want to deal with the double deficits, trade and budget, as that would require giving up the war addiction and putting an end to the tax cuts for the rich. The bankruptcy bill has to be seen in the same context of class warfare. Most Americans get into bankruptcy trouble due to health care costs, and bankruptcy has been the only way out. By limiting the only way out of permanent slavery to lenders the Bush Administration makes the average American even less secure, and makes employer-provided health insurance even more vital. As such insurance is almost never portable, and it is increasingly difficult to find a job with such insurance, the interplay between the bankruptcy bill, the insane American health care system, and employer-provided health insurance means that more and more Americans are completely denied any chance of labor mobility, which of course decreases the cost of labor.

Which jurisdiction is going to manufacture the most North American vehicles in 2005? Michigan? Ohio? How about . . . Ontario? Why? Health care costs. The Bush Administration is so interested in pursuing it's cheap labor/high commodity price policies that it is prepared to see GM either disappear or at least be forced into manufacturing outside the United States. GM is a bad example anyway, as it provides its employees with good benefits and a decent salary. Conservatives feel that companies like GM give too much money to their employees. It is much better to have employers like Walmart.

All of the seemingly inconsistent and certainly insane policies of the Bush Administration can be explained in the class warfare known as 'cheap-labor conservatism'. Nothing else matters as long as the cost of labor can be decreased at the same time that commodity prices are increased. Middle East wars, the war on terror, the bankruptcy bill, the tax cuts, the failure to address the deficits, the crazy inefficient health care system - it's all part of the same package. Much of the real-world realities of these policies has been shielded from the American public by the recycling of money paid for oil into the American economy, followed by the recycling of money paid for Asian consumer products into the American economy. Once the recycling stops, and Americans see the full price of conservative policies, it will be interesting to see what their reaction will be.

Bloody Anniversary

Twelve years ago today: The FBI-ATF assault on The Branch Davidians' complex in Waco, Texas, which killed approximately 80 people (I see different numbers in different articles).

Ten years ago today: The bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City by Gulf War veterans Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.

230 years ago today: The American Revolution began.

First Kenny Boy, now the Bugman

From Jeff Danziger.

From Stephane Peray.

From Monte Wolverton.

The Housing Bubble

The LA Times reports on the boom in interest-only mortgages in California.

Interest-only loans, and other forms of so-called creative financing that are far riskier than the traditional 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, have allowed more people to afford homes in California even as prices have skyrocketed.

When the price of houses in California soared 17% in 2003 and 22% in 2004, a curious thing happened: Instead of home ownership decreasing because fewer people could afford houses, it rose to record levels.
...
An interest-only loan offers the ability to defer for three, five or seven years any payment for the house itself. That allows a potential buyer to stretch to afford a place that otherwise would be out of reach.

Of course, everyone else using an interest-only loan can stretch too. The result is that prices keep rising. That, in turn, encourages still more people to use interest-only mortgages, which fuels still more appreciation.
...
What's propelled the market up in California, some experts worry, could just as easily speed its descent.

"In the last few years, rates went down and values went up. It's like you were paid to live in California," said analyst DeFranco, who works for LoanPerformance. "People got so used to refinancing. They'd think, 'No problem. My house will be worth twice what I paid, and I'll refinance my way out of trouble.' That's not going to be a good approach going forward."

Here's how he thinks a collapse could occur: Rising interest rates put a brake on price appreciation and refinancings. People realize their interest-only period is coming to an end, raising their monthly payments substantially. Since they have no equity in the house, they choose to default.

"If housing prices go down or even are flat, heaven help us," said DeFranco.

I'm continually amazed to see new McMansions popping up all over the place. On the Biodiesel Bus Tour last week, we went from Lansing to Flint to Pontiac to Ann Arbor. Of these cities, only Ann Arbor could be said to have anything like a healthy economy. Several recent articles have highlighted the dire financial trouble that Michigan is in. Still, there are new subdivisions everywhere. And not only are many of these people not going to be able to pay off their mortgages when interest rates go higher and the economy stagnates further--the houses themselves will become unaffordable at almost any price because they are completely dependent on cheap gasoline and electricity.

My brother tells me that the same thing is happening in California's central valley--low-mortgage-rate sprawl with SUV's scurrying about like ants in an ant farm. When this bubble bursts, which it will soon, it's going to burst hard.

Doom? Probably. Gloom? You betcha!

I just discovered the blog of James Howard Kunstler, author of Geography of Nowhere and the upcoming The Long Emergency. Here are some choice quotes (emphasis added):

Last week, the International Energy Agency, after years of dithering, warned of an imminent global oil shortage and made a list of surprisingly draconian recommendations, from lowering speed limits in all the advanced industrial nations, to a reduced work week, to a ban on using privately-owned vehicles (!). Nobody in the American government dared comment on that because it might unravel the web of delusion that we can continue living as a nation of tanning hut managers who qualify to buy 3000 square foot suburban McHouses (while making monthly payments on GMC Yukons).

But those rising prices at the gasoline pump send a message that is cutting through all the static of American Idol, Fox TV News, and the attempted panderings of vindictive little pricks such as Tom DeLay. Message: our standard of living is headed down. Fast.

Now, there is every reason to believe that the public will come to misinterpret that message, too, because the whole nation -- including many enviro-progressives, by the way -- have bought into the notion that, whatever else reality offers, we are entitled to a life of easy motoring and Ditech Miracle Mortgages, and an awful lot of people are going to lose their personal revenue streams when that illusion falls away.

What will remain is a continental-sized angry mob wanting to pole-axe the people who are running the show. Since the Democratic party has ceded its opposition by failing utterly to promote and alternate vision of reality, a new opposition is certain to form out of this mob. Unfortunately, it is in the nature of mobs to think not in terms of policy but of rolling heads.

The warm part of 2005 is shaping up to be a time when the center no longer holds, or even ceases to exist.
***
Over in Vermont last week, I ran into a gang of biodiesel enthusiasts. Biodiesel is oil extracted from vegetable crops that can be used to run engines and do other things as a replacement for petroleum. They were earnest, forward-looking guys who would like to do some good for their country. But their expectations struck me as fairly crazy, and in a way typical of the bad thinking at all levels of our society these days.

For instance, I asked if it had ever occurred to them that bio-diesel crops would have to compete for farmland that would be needed otherwise to grow feed crops for working animals. No, it hadn't. (And it seemed like a far-out suggestion to them.) Their expectation seemed to be that the future would run a lot like the present, that bio-diesel was just another ingenius, innovative, high-tech module that we can "drop into" our existing system in place of the previous, obsolete module of regular oil.

Note, as a biodiesel enthusiast myself, let me note that I don't think that there's any chance that biodiesel, or ANY fuel, will be able to support driving on anywhere near the scale it exists today. But I think it offers one way to keep the trains, trucks, ships and ambulances running to some degree, and maybe even allow us a car trip every month or two. It also is a politically and economically viable "bridge fuel" to help us get from the high-energy mess we're in currently to the low-energy mess we face in the future.

More from Kunstler:

The stock markets and the oil futures markets sank in tandem last week as the global economy responded to increasing strain by wobbling. Oil dipped below $50 a barrel. Don't expect it to linger there long, as the summer driving season approaches. (Memorial Day weekend is the traditional start.)

Americans will travel compulsively even in a darkening economy. They may not go to Europe right now, with coffee at five bucks a cup there, but they will keep driving around the US because the suburban wastelands where most Americans live are so unendurably depressing that their denizens will pay almost any price for gas to get away for a while -- if only to hyper-artificial destinations like Las Vegas and Disney World. In any case, virtually all American cities (or metroplexes, since the city part is now the least of them), are so designed that stupendous rates of daily motoring are unavoidable.
...
The spring of 2005 has that 1914 feel. In Iraq and the rest of the Middle East, the current hiatus has settled nothing. The various tribes and factions are still pissed off at each other and at us. America is still left with its huge oil import addiction and a suburban way-of-life that no amount of "energy conservation" can appease. The tectonic stresses of economic distortion have been building under the surface of the Wal Mart/China partnership. For those of you contemplating a vacation in Las Vegas, don't bet on the status quo.

Back in Michigan: Dow buys its way out of bad publicity

From Bhopal and napalm to dioxin in Michigan rivers, Dow Chemical continues to poison the planet and get away with it. Brian McKenna describes how Dow's bribes to colleges and politicians have bought silence about its crimes.

FDR to GWB: The decline of the American idea

Bob Herbert quotes from FDR's 1944 State of the Union address:

[Every American should have:]
"The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation.

"The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation.

"The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living.

"The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad.

"The right of every family to a decent home.

"The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.

"The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment.

"The right to a good education."

Herbert goes on:

Roosevelt was far from a perfect president, but he gave hope and a sense of the possible to a nation in dire need. And he famously warned against giving in to fear.

The nation is now in the hands of leaders who are experts at exploiting fear, and indifferent to the needs and hopes, even the suffering, of ordinary people.

"The test of our progress," said Roosevelt, "is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

I guess we've failed that test.

A Little Late, Folks...

AWol's popularity is going down as fast as the stock market:

The last month has not been a good one for President Bush and the Republicans. Most people have opposed the President's proposals for reforming Social Security and most were unhappy with the positions taken by Republicans in the Terri Schiavo case. The result is that the president's job ratings have fallen to 44 percent positive, 56 percent negative, the worst numbers of his presidency, and a drop from 48 percent positive, 51 percent negative in February (and 50% positive, 49% negative last November).

This is one of the results of a new Harris Poll of 1,010 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone by Harris Interactive® between April 5 and 10, 2005.
...
While Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is not nearly as popular as her predecessor, Colin Powell, she is the only cabinet member currently enjoying positive ratings -- by 54 to 39 percent.

Vice President Dick Cheney's ratings are currently 37 percent positive, 60 percent negative, down sharply from 45 percent positive, 52 percent negative in February.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's ratings are 42 percent positive, 56 percent negative, identical to his February ratings.

Too bad the Democrats didn't run a viable candidate in November, one who promised something besides committing Bush's mistakes more competently: they might have won.

From Mike Thompson.

From Doonesbury.

Your World On Bush

Blood continues to flow copiously in the "New Iraq," with large-scale hostage taking now occurring. Tensions grow between China and Japan--I have no evidence, but I suspect that the US "government" is encouraging the reactionaries in Japan to stir this pot. Given that either Japan or China could sink our economy in a heartbeat by refusing to finance our debt, this would be a dangerous game indeed (not to mention the possibility of World War III (or is it IV or V?)). Cat-killer Frist is attempting to portray Democratic filibusters on reactionary judges as attacks on "people of faith," trying to destroy both an important check on one-party rule and the first amendment at the same time.

This all on top of the bankruptcy bill and the repeal of the estate tax, both of which make it easier to be rich and harder to be poor. It took over 200 years to make a country with some semblance of freedom and justice for all--Bush may succeed in destroying that in eight years. And that's the optimistic scenario, since the entire world is at risk from his insane actions.

Arrest 'em all; Let Gonzo sort 'em out

You probably saw the headlines about the arrests of over 10,000 people in an operation led by US Marshalls and involving federal, state and local cops. The WSWS points out that many of these arrests would have been made anyway, but that this combining them into one massive dragnet was likely a PR ploy for the Patriot Act. WSWS suggests that there may well have been something more sinister going on as well:

[W]as Operation Falcon a dry run for a plan to be executed in the face of intensified political crisis or a resurgence of mass opposition to the government? Was this extraordinary federal, state and local coordination of mass arrests a dress rehearsal for a modern-day version of the Palmer Raids?

(The Palmer Raids were a similar operation taken against Communist and other leftist organizations in 1919, organized by red-baiting Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer.)

From Lalo Alcaraz.

From