the Associated Press quoted Goss as saying, "The jobs that I'm being asked to do, the five hats that I wear, are too much for this mortal... I'm a little amazed at the workload." Goss also reportedly said there was such "ambiguity" in the intel-reform bill that he didn't know what his official relationship was supposed to be with John Negroponte, the newly named director of National Intelligence....
I'm sure Black Spot will help him out with that.
Sunday, March 06, 2005
Friday, March 04, 2005
Greenspan is a NeoTheoCon Hack
Four years ago, Alan Greenspan urged Congress to cut taxes, asserting that the federal government was in imminent danger of paying off too much debt. On Wednesday the Fed chairman warned Congress of the opposite fiscal danger: he asserted that there would be large budget deficits for the foreseeable future, leading to an unsustainable rise in federal debt. But he counseled against reversing the tax cuts, calling instead for cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid...
Bush celebrated the budget's initial slide into deficit. In the summer of 2001 he called plunging federal revenue "incredibly positive news" because it would "put a straitjacket" on federal spending.
To keep that straitjacket on, however, those who sold tax cuts with the assurance that they were easily affordable must convince the public that the cuts can't be reversed now that those assurances have proved false. And Mr. Greenspan has once again tried to come to the president's aid, insisting this week that we should deal with deficits "primarily, if not wholly," by slashing Social Security and Medicare because tax increases would "pose significant risks to economic growth." Really? America prospered for half a century under a level of federal taxes higher than the one we face today. According to the administration's own estimates, Mr. Bush's second term will see the lowest tax take as a percentage of G.D.P. since the Truman administration. And don't forget that President Clinton's 1993 tax increase ushered in an economic boom. Why, exactly, are tax increases out of the question?
Aside from the fact that all the robber barons are making wheelbarrows full money, and their loving sycophants think they are getting ahead (Ponzi scheme, anyone?), we know why.
Rove knows that to force the reactionary order, Bush must borrow. He must place a millstone around the necks of the next generation of government, and then make it so that to make those payments, the Republicans must be in charge.
If the Democrats take the presidency by accident, the Republican Congress will merely stop doing the behind the scenes financial juggling - of budget borrowing, shuffling of money between accounts, raising the debt ceiling, passing huge unfunded mandates - that keep the economy alive.
There will, in such a case, be a massive recession, and the Republicans will take power again. The government will become a massive protection racket, with the public held hostage...
Bush celebrated the budget's initial slide into deficit. In the summer of 2001 he called plunging federal revenue "incredibly positive news" because it would "put a straitjacket" on federal spending.
To keep that straitjacket on, however, those who sold tax cuts with the assurance that they were easily affordable must convince the public that the cuts can't be reversed now that those assurances have proved false. And Mr. Greenspan has once again tried to come to the president's aid, insisting this week that we should deal with deficits "primarily, if not wholly," by slashing Social Security and Medicare because tax increases would "pose significant risks to economic growth." Really? America prospered for half a century under a level of federal taxes higher than the one we face today. According to the administration's own estimates, Mr. Bush's second term will see the lowest tax take as a percentage of G.D.P. since the Truman administration. And don't forget that President Clinton's 1993 tax increase ushered in an economic boom. Why, exactly, are tax increases out of the question?
Aside from the fact that all the robber barons are making wheelbarrows full money, and their loving sycophants think they are getting ahead (Ponzi scheme, anyone?), we know why.
Rove knows that to force the reactionary order, Bush must borrow. He must place a millstone around the necks of the next generation of government, and then make it so that to make those payments, the Republicans must be in charge.
If the Democrats take the presidency by accident, the Republican Congress will merely stop doing the behind the scenes financial juggling - of budget borrowing, shuffling of money between accounts, raising the debt ceiling, passing huge unfunded mandates - that keep the economy alive.
There will, in such a case, be a massive recession, and the Republicans will take power again. The government will become a massive protection racket, with the public held hostage...
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Would You Buy a Used Currency from this ManDate?
Bonddad at Kos notes our Asian bondholders are getting a little uneasy about Bu$hCo's long term economic strategery .
Perhaps that's why Bu$hCo has decided to push for Wolfie to head up the IMF.
Asian regimes who don't tow the line know they would face repercussions with Wolfie in charge.
Which might be a workable- if unethical and evil- approach for the little guys.
But China could care less.
China currently is lending the US the money to buy Chinese production.
For example, as the "boom" of President George W Bush takes off, puzzled American commentators are asking where are all the extra jobs that the apparently positive indicators should be creating. In fact, they are being created abroad - mostly in China.
China recycles trade surplus into US Treasury bonds
American companies may have forgotten what Henry Ford propounded when he first built his Model T: If you do not pay high enough wages to your workers, they can't afford to buy your product. One simple basis for that Bush boom is that China is recycling its US$100 billion-plus trade surplus with the US back into dollars, and especially into US Treasury bonds. Almost half of the US Treasury bonds are now owned in Asia. So China is financing Bush's bold economic experiment: running two or more wars simultaneously with a huge budget and trade deficit, and equally huge tax handouts for the richest Americans.
One has to question the long-term economic rationale for China of putting its long-term assets into very low-interest bonds in a currency that has already dropped recently by a third - and is going to drop even more. It certainly makes strategic sense: if push came to shove over, for example, the Taiwan Strait, all Beijing has to do is to mention the possibility of a sell order going down the wires. It would devastate the US economy more than any nuclear strike the Chinese could manage at the moment.
If the Chinese don't care, and are sympathetic, and have an increasingly strong economy, do we really think the Little Tigers would rather deal with us?
While our currency value is tanking?
Again, is our current government totally clueless or the most corrupt in American history? Or both?
So Bu$hCo's pushing either Wolfie or the woman who ran Hewlett-Packard into the ground.
Which would you like to run your henhouse- a Wolf or a Hyena?
Perhaps that's why Bu$hCo has decided to push for Wolfie to head up the IMF.
Asian regimes who don't tow the line know they would face repercussions with Wolfie in charge.
Which might be a workable- if unethical and evil- approach for the little guys.
But China could care less.
China currently is lending the US the money to buy Chinese production.
For example, as the "boom" of President George W Bush takes off, puzzled American commentators are asking where are all the extra jobs that the apparently positive indicators should be creating. In fact, they are being created abroad - mostly in China.
China recycles trade surplus into US Treasury bonds
American companies may have forgotten what Henry Ford propounded when he first built his Model T: If you do not pay high enough wages to your workers, they can't afford to buy your product. One simple basis for that Bush boom is that China is recycling its US$100 billion-plus trade surplus with the US back into dollars, and especially into US Treasury bonds. Almost half of the US Treasury bonds are now owned in Asia. So China is financing Bush's bold economic experiment: running two or more wars simultaneously with a huge budget and trade deficit, and equally huge tax handouts for the richest Americans.
One has to question the long-term economic rationale for China of putting its long-term assets into very low-interest bonds in a currency that has already dropped recently by a third - and is going to drop even more. It certainly makes strategic sense: if push came to shove over, for example, the Taiwan Strait, all Beijing has to do is to mention the possibility of a sell order going down the wires. It would devastate the US economy more than any nuclear strike the Chinese could manage at the moment.
If the Chinese don't care, and are sympathetic, and have an increasingly strong economy, do we really think the Little Tigers would rather deal with us?
While our currency value is tanking?
Again, is our current government totally clueless or the most corrupt in American history? Or both?
So Bu$hCo's pushing either Wolfie or the woman who ran Hewlett-Packard into the ground.
Which would you like to run your henhouse- a Wolf or a Hyena?
Either the Most Corrupt or Most Clueless Administration in American History
You choose.
Bill Maher on Gannon. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's hilarious. And all true.
Also, Tom Tomorrow has a good take on it.
Bill Maher on Gannon. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's hilarious. And all true.
Also, Tom Tomorrow has a good take on it.
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
A Thousand Princes in the Sand
How can the Government of Saudi Arabia be both supporting terrorism and the careers of the Bu$h family?
I think there's some confusion among those equating a Government to the Rule of Law.
In some societies, Government means Who Has the Strongest Arms.
Oligarchy is a government in which a small group exercises control, especially for corrupt and selfish purposes. In Saudi Arabia, the few are the royal princes who are descendents of the founder of the modern Saudi Kingdom, King Abd Al-Aziz bin Sa'ud who, upon his death in 1953, left behind 44 sons (and an uncounted number of daughters) by 17 wives.
The Saudi royal oligarchy is a unique and unprecedented form of oligarchy, whose members are connected through a bloodline to Saudi Arabia's polygamous founder. The ruling princes have treated the country's wealth of oil as their personal domain and some have made themselves famous, or notorious, for their extravagant life style and uncontrolled squandering of national assets...
Th seven brothers still hold the majority of political power. However, six of the brothers are in their 70s and King Fahd himself is 82. It stands to reason that in the not too distant future, a new generation of princes, including Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi Ambassador to the United States, will compete for the top positions of power, and the competition could be destabilizing and, perhaps, even brutal...
...fewer than six dozen princes, accountable only to themselves, control the lives and well-being of 22 million Saudis.
What happens when so many Princes have a line on controlling a quarter of the world's oil?
There's Chaos.
And Corruption.
And Hubris.
And Intrigue .
And Disaster for those caught up in the game.
I think there's some confusion among those equating a Government to the Rule of Law.
In some societies, Government means Who Has the Strongest Arms.
Oligarchy is a government in which a small group exercises control, especially for corrupt and selfish purposes. In Saudi Arabia, the few are the royal princes who are descendents of the founder of the modern Saudi Kingdom, King Abd Al-Aziz bin Sa'ud who, upon his death in 1953, left behind 44 sons (and an uncounted number of daughters) by 17 wives.
The Saudi royal oligarchy is a unique and unprecedented form of oligarchy, whose members are connected through a bloodline to Saudi Arabia's polygamous founder. The ruling princes have treated the country's wealth of oil as their personal domain and some have made themselves famous, or notorious, for their extravagant life style and uncontrolled squandering of national assets...
Th seven brothers still hold the majority of political power. However, six of the brothers are in their 70s and King Fahd himself is 82. It stands to reason that in the not too distant future, a new generation of princes, including Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi Ambassador to the United States, will compete for the top positions of power, and the competition could be destabilizing and, perhaps, even brutal...
...fewer than six dozen princes, accountable only to themselves, control the lives and well-being of 22 million Saudis.
What happens when so many Princes have a line on controlling a quarter of the world's oil?
There's Chaos.
And Corruption.
And Hubris.
And Intrigue .
And Disaster for those caught up in the game.
Monday, February 28, 2005
More Pravda from Talon
Via a comment by THB:
"Remember that tinfoil hat stuff about American Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon? How some said there was no airplane because there was no wreckage?"
More reliable people saw the airliner as it came down on the Pentagon- right?
"Well, one of "the most vivid eyewitnesses" was Bobby Eberle of GOPUSA, none other than the head of the organization that set up James Gannon/Jeff Guckert in the WH Press Pool.
Guy sure is at the center of some interesting stuff."
Vivid stuff, too...
So if you haven't seen this video- and you're like me, you did see the hole in the Pentagon and the pristine lawn in front of the hole, you need to download and watch this.
You'll need a Shockwave/Flash or RealPlayer to view it.
"Remember that tinfoil hat stuff about American Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon? How some said there was no airplane because there was no wreckage?"
More reliable people saw the airliner as it came down on the Pentagon- right?
"Well, one of "the most vivid eyewitnesses" was Bobby Eberle of GOPUSA, none other than the head of the organization that set up James Gannon/Jeff Guckert in the WH Press Pool.
Guy sure is at the center of some interesting stuff."
Vivid stuff, too...
So if you haven't seen this video- and you're like me, you did see the hole in the Pentagon and the pristine lawn in front of the hole, you need to download and watch this.
You'll need a Shockwave/Flash or RealPlayer to view it.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Another reason for Bu$hCo to shun science:
Bacteria that live in very extreme environments with little nutrients or oxygen often produce large amounts of methane (natural gas).
In the deepest darkest part of the ocean, and underneath the surface of the earth, and they're probably also involved in the "abiogenic" ( certainly a misnomer- here it means non-fossil ) production of oil.
Their genomes and some types of enzymes they produce are often used in biotechnology- google up "polymerase chain reaction extremophile" if you don't believe it.
An industrial process starting with methane producing bacteria to produce massive amounts of inexpensive hydrocarbon fuel would end the hegemony of the energy consortiums.
That's the end of the conservative movement's economic base. Cheap energy means no barrier to development of the third world. It means no barrier to the exploration of space. It provides for broad economic development and the re-establishment of a manufacturing-based economy.
How can you be a robber baron when everyone's successful?
No wonder they don't want kids thinking about science or their world.
In the deepest darkest part of the ocean, and underneath the surface of the earth, and they're probably also involved in the "abiogenic" ( certainly a misnomer- here it means non-fossil ) production of oil.
Their genomes and some types of enzymes they produce are often used in biotechnology- google up "polymerase chain reaction extremophile" if you don't believe it.
An industrial process starting with methane producing bacteria to produce massive amounts of inexpensive hydrocarbon fuel would end the hegemony of the energy consortiums.
That's the end of the conservative movement's economic base. Cheap energy means no barrier to development of the third world. It means no barrier to the exploration of space. It provides for broad economic development and the re-establishment of a manufacturing-based economy.
How can you be a robber baron when everyone's successful?
No wonder they don't want kids thinking about science or their world.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Bad Moon on the Rise
The Rise of Rove's Republic.
A constitutional order has three parts: mandate - what the government should do - and meaning - how the public views the role of its duties, rights and options in relationship to the government. These are tied together by mechanism - how the government functions. In American history, and to no small extent world history, the most important mechanism is money. Not in the sense of who gets money - but in the sense of how money works...
... the path to constitutional crisis runs through financial crisis...
The crisis then begins on the day where there is the last great compromise - in 1782 when the Articles of Confederation are created, in 1850 with the compromise of 1850, and in 1921, when the new Republican conservative administration agreed not to repeal, but would not extend, the half finished architecture of the Roosevelt-Taft-Wilson progressive-liberal era of government...
And, in 1990, when the pay go rules were put into place, as part of a series of revenue increases to pay off the ballooning budget deficit - and to bail out the bankrupt savings and loan system.
The 1780's, 1850's, 1920's and 1990's were consumed with efforts to prop up the old monetary order. But all of them failed, because none of them addressed the basic problem. Instead matters get worse, because every time a solution is converged on, a large minority that will have its interests gutted or reduced in importance has every reason not to cooperate. The reason Clinton was impeached was to prevent what needed to be done, from being done.
Then comes the moment when the bottom falls out...
Now there are many who would scoff at this idea, saying that big things don't happen. It is the strong version of the Copernican thesis - where ever you are is, by definition, unimportant. As far as I can tell there is exactly one person who has agreed with the reverse of that thesis all along, that instead we are at an important moment, and has methodically pursued the chance for the Republican Party to be the one that determines the shape of the new constitutional order.
His name is Karl Rove, perhaps you've heard of him...
Rove knows that to force the reactionary order, Bush must borrow. He must place a millstone around the necks of the next generation of government, and then make it so that to make those payments, the Republicans must be in charge. If the Democrats take the presidency by accident, the Republican Congress will merely stop doing the behind the scenes financial juggling - of budget borrowing, shuffling of money between accounts, raising the debt ceiling, passing huge unfunded mandates - that keep the economy alive. There will, in such a case, be a massive recession, and the Republicans will take power again. The government will become a massive protection racket, with the public held hostage...
Think about it, the government is borrowing more than a million dollars a minute - in order to produce hiring growth which is just keeping even with population growth. It's the Red Queen's Race. The Republicans are now building bridges to Europe, because it is Europe that will allow them to keep this up for a little while longer. And European leaders will be the biggest fools on the planet if they think that going along with Bush ends anywhere but their own ruin. The US played patsy to Europe in the 1920's - lending to fill the hole that Versailles and a foolish attempt at restoring the gold standard left. It meant the US was dragged down with Europe when the collapse finally hit.
The basis of Rove's Republic will be the massive debt, which can only be financed by back door agreements with Japan, China, Europe and Saudi Arabia. Since the money system won't actually work - merely present the illusion of working, as the real market will be what parts of America's future is being sold off this year in order to keep the money flowing from abroad...
The intent of the Republican Party is to make it so that the only ways that money enters the economy is through them. The genius of the Liberal Democracy is that money was created by land value. As people did things, at the ground level, that made houses and buildings and factories worth more - that allowed banks to lend more, and that created more money. While the Federal Reserve had the foot on the break, and the Congress the foot on the gas pedal - in a very real sense the money system of the liberal democracy was the most democratic that has ever existed, because everyone could, if they could figure out how, get some of what economists call "seinurage" - profit from creating money. As cities and towns had better communities, more people wanted to live in them. This increased housing prices, and that meant more lending, which meant more money.
But the flip side of every virtuous circle is a vicious circle. This entire system rested on manufacturing. Because, ultimately, it is manufacturing which allows exporting, or reduction of importing - and ultimately creates the "basic industry" which brings monetary base into a community to do all this magic with.
The drive is to break American manufacturing - and instead make it so that all new middle class hiring comes from either the security industry - which means only good republicans get hired, rather than the kind of people who worked the dot com boom - or the securties industry, which is dependent on the federal reserves interest rate policies, and on the retirement industry - pensions, 401ks, and, they hope, social security borrowing.
If people must be in line with the political ends of the Republicans to earn a good living, the nation will, because it must, become more like the Republicans. Those who do not want to play along must be poor, be careful, or be moving along to other nations...
The key change in the economy that has pushed the rise of the Republican party since 1969 is a change of the money system away from being based on assets - which is under the control of the people in their day to day economic, community and social activity, a truly grass roots money system in that the basic supply of money is governed by the value that people create - to one being based on oil. Oil is not something that people can create. Nor does conservation at the grass roots level help - because someone else will simply use the oil or energy you save to compete against you. Oil comes from a few places, and the money system is then under control of those places. The President became, in effect, the minister of oil.
And to keep the oil coming we had to borrow back the money we paid for the oil with. It went out, and came back. With each trip back it meant that financial sector had to eat a bit more of American life - because the dividends from the financial sector are what paid those who lent us the money. And with each round of paying more to the rich abroad, we had to lower the taxes on the rich here, so that they could stay even with the rich of other nations. It has been a vicious circle, this oil and money addiction, that has lasted for 30 years, and has now reached the every accelerating point from which there is no turning back.
And once an economic system is not about general activity, but about the control of some particularly scarce resource, it must become conservative, since economics is, on any given small time scale, zero sum...
... there are only two ways to pay off this debt. One is to sell everything in America - the national parks, government lands, the airwaves, the profits of our labor, the fruits of our agriculture, the mortgages that we pay on our houses - to foreigners so they will keep our economy lubricated with money and oil - or it will be to create new forms of industry and commerce will create more wealth and dwarf what was borrowed. The first is the Republican way - to strip the country bare to pay for present consumption. The second must become the proposal of the Democratic Party...
Read it all. It's that important.
I would only add that it's not just Karl Rove thinking this way.
There's Grover Norquist, who wants to get the part of government he can't control down to the size where he can "strangle it in a bathtub". There's old guard cons like Robert Bork who once said another Great Depression might be needed to force this nation into the proper social agenda. There's even crackpot intellectuals like our new Secretary of State, Dr. Rice, who specialized in the Great Game against Russia in her academic career.
This isn't just a conspiracy.
It's an attempt at a New World Order, which somehow looks and smells and tastes and tortures and wages war like the worst of the old feudal empires.
A constitutional order has three parts: mandate - what the government should do - and meaning - how the public views the role of its duties, rights and options in relationship to the government. These are tied together by mechanism - how the government functions. In American history, and to no small extent world history, the most important mechanism is money. Not in the sense of who gets money - but in the sense of how money works...
... the path to constitutional crisis runs through financial crisis...
The crisis then begins on the day where there is the last great compromise - in 1782 when the Articles of Confederation are created, in 1850 with the compromise of 1850, and in 1921, when the new Republican conservative administration agreed not to repeal, but would not extend, the half finished architecture of the Roosevelt-Taft-Wilson progressive-liberal era of government...
And, in 1990, when the pay go rules were put into place, as part of a series of revenue increases to pay off the ballooning budget deficit - and to bail out the bankrupt savings and loan system.
The 1780's, 1850's, 1920's and 1990's were consumed with efforts to prop up the old monetary order. But all of them failed, because none of them addressed the basic problem. Instead matters get worse, because every time a solution is converged on, a large minority that will have its interests gutted or reduced in importance has every reason not to cooperate. The reason Clinton was impeached was to prevent what needed to be done, from being done.
Then comes the moment when the bottom falls out...
Now there are many who would scoff at this idea, saying that big things don't happen. It is the strong version of the Copernican thesis - where ever you are is, by definition, unimportant. As far as I can tell there is exactly one person who has agreed with the reverse of that thesis all along, that instead we are at an important moment, and has methodically pursued the chance for the Republican Party to be the one that determines the shape of the new constitutional order.
His name is Karl Rove, perhaps you've heard of him...
Rove knows that to force the reactionary order, Bush must borrow. He must place a millstone around the necks of the next generation of government, and then make it so that to make those payments, the Republicans must be in charge. If the Democrats take the presidency by accident, the Republican Congress will merely stop doing the behind the scenes financial juggling - of budget borrowing, shuffling of money between accounts, raising the debt ceiling, passing huge unfunded mandates - that keep the economy alive. There will, in such a case, be a massive recession, and the Republicans will take power again. The government will become a massive protection racket, with the public held hostage...
Think about it, the government is borrowing more than a million dollars a minute - in order to produce hiring growth which is just keeping even with population growth. It's the Red Queen's Race. The Republicans are now building bridges to Europe, because it is Europe that will allow them to keep this up for a little while longer. And European leaders will be the biggest fools on the planet if they think that going along with Bush ends anywhere but their own ruin. The US played patsy to Europe in the 1920's - lending to fill the hole that Versailles and a foolish attempt at restoring the gold standard left. It meant the US was dragged down with Europe when the collapse finally hit.
The basis of Rove's Republic will be the massive debt, which can only be financed by back door agreements with Japan, China, Europe and Saudi Arabia. Since the money system won't actually work - merely present the illusion of working, as the real market will be what parts of America's future is being sold off this year in order to keep the money flowing from abroad...
The intent of the Republican Party is to make it so that the only ways that money enters the economy is through them. The genius of the Liberal Democracy is that money was created by land value. As people did things, at the ground level, that made houses and buildings and factories worth more - that allowed banks to lend more, and that created more money. While the Federal Reserve had the foot on the break, and the Congress the foot on the gas pedal - in a very real sense the money system of the liberal democracy was the most democratic that has ever existed, because everyone could, if they could figure out how, get some of what economists call "seinurage" - profit from creating money. As cities and towns had better communities, more people wanted to live in them. This increased housing prices, and that meant more lending, which meant more money.
But the flip side of every virtuous circle is a vicious circle. This entire system rested on manufacturing. Because, ultimately, it is manufacturing which allows exporting, or reduction of importing - and ultimately creates the "basic industry" which brings monetary base into a community to do all this magic with.
The drive is to break American manufacturing - and instead make it so that all new middle class hiring comes from either the security industry - which means only good republicans get hired, rather than the kind of people who worked the dot com boom - or the securties industry, which is dependent on the federal reserves interest rate policies, and on the retirement industry - pensions, 401ks, and, they hope, social security borrowing.
If people must be in line with the political ends of the Republicans to earn a good living, the nation will, because it must, become more like the Republicans. Those who do not want to play along must be poor, be careful, or be moving along to other nations...
The key change in the economy that has pushed the rise of the Republican party since 1969 is a change of the money system away from being based on assets - which is under the control of the people in their day to day economic, community and social activity, a truly grass roots money system in that the basic supply of money is governed by the value that people create - to one being based on oil. Oil is not something that people can create. Nor does conservation at the grass roots level help - because someone else will simply use the oil or energy you save to compete against you. Oil comes from a few places, and the money system is then under control of those places. The President became, in effect, the minister of oil.
And to keep the oil coming we had to borrow back the money we paid for the oil with. It went out, and came back. With each trip back it meant that financial sector had to eat a bit more of American life - because the dividends from the financial sector are what paid those who lent us the money. And with each round of paying more to the rich abroad, we had to lower the taxes on the rich here, so that they could stay even with the rich of other nations. It has been a vicious circle, this oil and money addiction, that has lasted for 30 years, and has now reached the every accelerating point from which there is no turning back.
And once an economic system is not about general activity, but about the control of some particularly scarce resource, it must become conservative, since economics is, on any given small time scale, zero sum...
... there are only two ways to pay off this debt. One is to sell everything in America - the national parks, government lands, the airwaves, the profits of our labor, the fruits of our agriculture, the mortgages that we pay on our houses - to foreigners so they will keep our economy lubricated with money and oil - or it will be to create new forms of industry and commerce will create more wealth and dwarf what was borrowed. The first is the Republican way - to strip the country bare to pay for present consumption. The second must become the proposal of the Democratic Party...
Read it all. It's that important.
I would only add that it's not just Karl Rove thinking this way.
There's Grover Norquist, who wants to get the part of government he can't control down to the size where he can "strangle it in a bathtub". There's old guard cons like Robert Bork who once said another Great Depression might be needed to force this nation into the proper social agenda. There's even crackpot intellectuals like our new Secretary of State, Dr. Rice, who specialized in the Great Game against Russia in her academic career.
This isn't just a conspiracy.
It's an attempt at a New World Order, which somehow looks and smells and tastes and tortures and wages war like the worst of the old feudal empires.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Ragnarok a la carte
Since Dear Leader is shaking his Nukular MoJo at Iran, Syria, and North Korea this week, and to a lesser extent at China, Russia, and the European Union (well, France, anyway), and since RDF got me going over at Corrente with a post about Survivable Nuclear War, it's probably a good time to look at this issue.
Who in their right mind would count on surviving a nuclear exchange?
First: a list of nuclear weapons websites for your intellectual stimulation. Note that's a pro-Wrepublican paranoia site: with links to get you scared about Saddam and the Bomb.
That ought to put your fears about Iran in context right away.
A bit more rational source and compilation of policy informations may be found here at the Natural Resources Defense Council site.
But what about the other guys? And what about Dear Leader's puffy chest in Europe this week, alternately smirking and browbeating a lot of Foreigners who all speak English better than he does?
The root of Bu$hCo's love of packin' nukes comes from Rumsfeld's long standing conviction that really, for all you folks out there, nuclear war isn't so bad. He's been convinced it's quite survivable since the Days of the Gipper.
Rumsfeld and Cheney were principal actors in one of the most highly classified programs of the Reagan Administration. Under it U.S. officials furtively carried out detailed planning exercises for keeping the federal government running during and after a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The program called for setting aside the legal rules for presidential succession in some circumstances, in favor of a secret procedure for putting in place a new "President" and his staff. The idea was to concentrate on speed, to preserve "continuity of government," and to avoid cumbersome procedures; the speaker of the House, the president pro tempore of the Senate, and the rest of Congress would play a greatly diminished role.
In 2002 Rumsfeld submitted a (mostly) Classified Nuclear Posture Review to Congress. Bits and pieces of it have been declassfied- mostly embers to stoke the fires of the American Enterprise Institute and other bastions of Imperial Philosophy. But an outsider can pick out the interesting tidbits that serve as rationale to those who daily dream of the unthinkable:
Early on, we recognized that the new security environment demanded that the Department go beyond the Congressional mandate in developing a strategic posture for the 21st century. President Bush had already directed the Defense Department to transform America's military and prepare it for the new, unpredictable world in which we will be living. ...
Nuclear weapons … provide credible military options to deter a wide range of threats. … Greater flexibility is needed with respect to nuclear forces and planning than was the case during the Cold War. … Nuclear-attack options that vary in scale, scope and purpose will complement other military capabilities.
You know. Suitcase nukes. Burrowing nukes. Neutron bombs. Nice low yield weapons that the boys at General Dynamics and Raytheon and General Electric can mass produce. Nuclear hand grenades, no doubt. Or depleted uranium ones, anyway- but that's a subject for another post.
All these things become thinkable if you're convinced God is on your side, and the Apocalypse has to follow the Game Plan.
Who in their right mind would count on surviving a nuclear exchange?
First: a list of nuclear weapons websites for your intellectual stimulation. Note that's a pro-Wrepublican paranoia site: with links to get you scared about Saddam and the Bomb.
That ought to put your fears about Iran in context right away.
A bit more rational source and compilation of policy informations may be found here at the Natural Resources Defense Council site.
But what about the other guys? And what about Dear Leader's puffy chest in Europe this week, alternately smirking and browbeating a lot of Foreigners who all speak English better than he does?
The root of Bu$hCo's love of packin' nukes comes from Rumsfeld's long standing conviction that really, for all you folks out there, nuclear war isn't so bad. He's been convinced it's quite survivable since the Days of the Gipper.
Rumsfeld and Cheney were principal actors in one of the most highly classified programs of the Reagan Administration. Under it U.S. officials furtively carried out detailed planning exercises for keeping the federal government running during and after a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The program called for setting aside the legal rules for presidential succession in some circumstances, in favor of a secret procedure for putting in place a new "President" and his staff. The idea was to concentrate on speed, to preserve "continuity of government," and to avoid cumbersome procedures; the speaker of the House, the president pro tempore of the Senate, and the rest of Congress would play a greatly diminished role.
In 2002 Rumsfeld submitted a (mostly) Classified Nuclear Posture Review to Congress. Bits and pieces of it have been declassfied- mostly embers to stoke the fires of the American Enterprise Institute and other bastions of Imperial Philosophy. But an outsider can pick out the interesting tidbits that serve as rationale to those who daily dream of the unthinkable:
Early on, we recognized that the new security environment demanded that the Department go beyond the Congressional mandate in developing a strategic posture for the 21st century. President Bush had already directed the Defense Department to transform America's military and prepare it for the new, unpredictable world in which we will be living. ...
Nuclear weapons … provide credible military options to deter a wide range of threats. … Greater flexibility is needed with respect to nuclear forces and planning than was the case during the Cold War. … Nuclear-attack options that vary in scale, scope and purpose will complement other military capabilities.
You know. Suitcase nukes. Burrowing nukes. Neutron bombs. Nice low yield weapons that the boys at General Dynamics and Raytheon and General Electric can mass produce. Nuclear hand grenades, no doubt. Or depleted uranium ones, anyway- but that's a subject for another post.
All these things become thinkable if you're convinced God is on your side, and the Apocalypse has to follow the Game Plan.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
National Security Threat
Bird flu
In Asia, there have already been a number of deaths among people who caught the flu from chickens or ducks. The mortality rate is very high — about 72 percent of identified patients, said Gerberding. There also have been documented cases of this strain of flu being transferred from person-to-person, but the outbreak was not sustained, she said.
Don't give me any nonsense about Acts of God.
This thing has a unique surface antigen- the H5 hyaluronidase moiety- and that means you can make a vaccine for it.
In fact:
The government has ordered 2 million doses of vaccine that would protect against the known strains of avian flu.
It kills 3/4 of the people that get it, which is why it hasn't spread much further. What happens if some bright maniac gives it to someone, puts 'em on an airline, and walks 'em through O'Hare? Coughing themselves literally to death?
Dear Leader, his closest friends, and maybe 2 million "others" get the vaccine. They ought to be ordering 200 million doses of it. It's less expensive than a week of fighting in Iraq.
It's what a government is good for. Unless it's run by Republicans. Who's "private contractors" couldn't even get the right formulation together this year.
More facts about avian influenza here.
In Asia, there have already been a number of deaths among people who caught the flu from chickens or ducks. The mortality rate is very high — about 72 percent of identified patients, said Gerberding. There also have been documented cases of this strain of flu being transferred from person-to-person, but the outbreak was not sustained, she said.
Don't give me any nonsense about Acts of God.
This thing has a unique surface antigen- the H5 hyaluronidase moiety- and that means you can make a vaccine for it.
In fact:
The government has ordered 2 million doses of vaccine that would protect against the known strains of avian flu.
It kills 3/4 of the people that get it, which is why it hasn't spread much further. What happens if some bright maniac gives it to someone, puts 'em on an airline, and walks 'em through O'Hare? Coughing themselves literally to death?
Dear Leader, his closest friends, and maybe 2 million "others" get the vaccine. They ought to be ordering 200 million doses of it. It's less expensive than a week of fighting in Iraq.
It's what a government is good for. Unless it's run by Republicans. Who's "private contractors" couldn't even get the right formulation together this year.
More facts about avian influenza here.
Funny, all this time thinking it was the Constitution...
The hostilities began last month, when Goss tried to install a former CIA analyst named Michael Kostiw as the agency's executive director, the No. 3 spot.
Someone—likely a CIA official who opposed Kostiw's appointment—leaked an embarrassing tidbit to The Washington Post: years earlier Kostiw had been accused of shoplifting. It was enough to derail Kostiw's appointment. The sabotage infuriated Murray, who stormed into the office of the CIA's chief of counterintelligence, a respected undercover official known as "Mary."
According to two people familiar with the encounter, Murray told her the leaks had to stop, and put her in charge of making sure they did. If there were any more damaging leaks about future Goss appointments, Murray warned her, "I am going to hold you personally responsible." Mary's boss, Michael Sulick, and Sulick's boss, Stephen Kappes, confronted Murray. "Look, don't treat us like we're Democratic staffers on the Hill," Sulick told Murray, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
Murray responded by ordering Kappes to fire Sulick. Kappes refused. Instead, both Sulick and Kappes resigned last week. The men received a five-minute standing ovation from CIA employees. Goss and Murray declined to comment, but people close to them say there are others at the agency who should fear for their jobs...
Goss's supporters insist he was merely stating the obvious: the CIA does, after all, exist to serve the president.
Don't we all?
And the president wants to serve man...
Thanks to Truthout.
Someone—likely a CIA official who opposed Kostiw's appointment—leaked an embarrassing tidbit to The Washington Post: years earlier Kostiw had been accused of shoplifting. It was enough to derail Kostiw's appointment. The sabotage infuriated Murray, who stormed into the office of the CIA's chief of counterintelligence, a respected undercover official known as "Mary."
According to two people familiar with the encounter, Murray told her the leaks had to stop, and put her in charge of making sure they did. If there were any more damaging leaks about future Goss appointments, Murray warned her, "I am going to hold you personally responsible." Mary's boss, Michael Sulick, and Sulick's boss, Stephen Kappes, confronted Murray. "Look, don't treat us like we're Democratic staffers on the Hill," Sulick told Murray, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
Murray responded by ordering Kappes to fire Sulick. Kappes refused. Instead, both Sulick and Kappes resigned last week. The men received a five-minute standing ovation from CIA employees. Goss and Murray declined to comment, but people close to them say there are others at the agency who should fear for their jobs...
Goss's supporters insist he was merely stating the obvious: the CIA does, after all, exist to serve the president.
Don't we all?
And the president wants to serve man...
Thanks to Truthout.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Hunter S. Thompson
"How many more of these goddam elections are we going to have to write off as lame but 'regrettably necessary' holding actions? And how many more of these stinking double-downer sideshows will we have to go through before we can get ourselves straight enough to put together some kind of national election that will give me at the at least 20 million people I tend to agree with a chance to vote for something, instead of always being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils? I understand, along with a lot of other people, that the big thing, this year, is Beating Nixon. But that was also the big thing, as I recall, twelve years ago in 1960 - and as far as I can tell, we've gone from bad to worse to rotten since then, and the outlook is for more of the same."
- 'Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972', Hunter S. Thompson
...My hero died tonight. He was a flawed man, a maniac, in so many ways the antithesis of what a journalist is supposed to be. Worst of all, he told the truth. There is now one less warrior on this planet filled with Guckert clones, drones who get fed shit and regurgitate it wholesale for the masses because that is what we are trained to eat.
Syntallic also has a fitting requiem for our Warrior-Hero.
- 'Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972', Hunter S. Thompson
...My hero died tonight. He was a flawed man, a maniac, in so many ways the antithesis of what a journalist is supposed to be. Worst of all, he told the truth. There is now one less warrior on this planet filled with Guckert clones, drones who get fed shit and regurgitate it wholesale for the masses because that is what we are trained to eat.
Syntallic also has a fitting requiem for our Warrior-Hero.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Black Spot for Homeland Intelligence Czar
Yes indeed.
Billmon has spotted the inconsistencies between what the CIA's released and what Black Spot says about the Honduras.
More about Black Spot here.
Death squads coming to a home near you soon.
Billmon has spotted the inconsistencies between what the CIA's released and what Black Spot says about the Honduras.
More about Black Spot here.
Death squads coming to a home near you soon.
PoMo White House Ho's
And they damned Clinton for liking fresh young girls with big hair.
Maureen Dowd breeches the unbreechable today in The New York Pravda:
I am very impressed with James Guckert, a k a Jeff Gannon.
How often does an enterprising young man, heralded in press reports as both a reporter and a contributor to such sites as Hotmilitarystud.com, Workingboys.net, Militaryescorts .com, MilitaryescortsM4M.com and Meetlocalmen.com, get to question the president of the United States?
Who knew that a hotmilitarystud wanting to meetlocalmen could so easily get to be face2face with the commander in chief?"
Bu$hCo has given justification to the term Media Ho's.
Ms. Dowd- or MoDo to those of us that like to laugh at her the same way she laughs at everyone else- goes into the details you won't hear on FOX:
"Jeff Gannon" was waved into the press room nearly every day for two years as the conservative correspondent for two political Web sites operated by a wealthy Texas Republican. Scott McClellan often called on the pseudoreporter for softball questions.
Howard Kurtz reported in The Washington Post yesterday that although Mr. Guckert had denied launching the provocative Web sites - one described him as " 'military, muscular, masculine and discrete' (sic)" - a Web designer in California said "that he had designed a gay escort site for Gannon and had posted naked pictures of Gannon at the client's request."
And The Wilmington News-Journal in Delaware reported that Mr. Guckert was delinquent in $20,700 in personal income tax from 1991 to 1994."
More details on the Gannon story than MoDo covers here.
The real cause of MoDo's righteous indignation is revealed below:
" At first when I tried to complain about not getting my pass renewed, even though I'd been covering presidents and first ladies since 1986, no one called me back. Finally, when Mr. McClellan replaced Ari Fleischer, he said he'd renew the pass - after a new Secret Service background check that would last several months.
In an era when security concerns are paramount, what kind of Secret Service background check did James Guckert get so he could saunter into the West Wing every day under an assumed name while he was doing full-frontal advertising for stud services for $1,200 a weekend? He used a driver's license that said James Guckert to get into the White House, then, once inside, switched to his alter ego, asking questions as Jeff Gannon. "
Hell hath no fury like a MoDo scorned. But she does get to the meat in the end:
" They flipped TV's in the West Wing and Air Force One to Fox News. They paid conservative columnists handsomely to promote administration programs. Federal agencies distributed packaged "news" video releases with faux anchors so local news outlets would run them. As CNN reported, the Pentagon produces Web sites with "news" articles intended to influence opinion abroad and at home, but you have to look hard for the disclaimer: "Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense." The agencies spent a whopping $88 million spinning reality in 2004, splurging on P.R. contracts.
Even the Nixon White House didn't do anything this creepy. It's worse than hating the press. It's an attempt to reinvent it. "
MoDo is a liberal feminist progressive at heart, and I love her for that.
But like a lot of us, she turned on both Clintons when she realized their hypocrisy, mocked Al Gore, and gave only half-hearted support to Kerry's run.
MoDo may understand the real nature of the game being played in Washington, and the Big Reasons behind it.
So it's hard for me to damn her for damning the relatively good guys, too.
Even though her post modern relativism has given rise to the running joke:
MoDo is a PoMo Mofo fo sho.
I suspect if she'd made up that joke she'd be cattily smirking about it, too.
But damn it all, sometimes the difference between flawed and worse is bigger than the difference between good and better.
If only it were easy to judge, we wouldn't be heading into Endless World War for oil.
Maureen Dowd breeches the unbreechable today in The New York Pravda:
I am very impressed with James Guckert, a k a Jeff Gannon.
How often does an enterprising young man, heralded in press reports as both a reporter and a contributor to such sites as Hotmilitarystud.com, Workingboys.net, Militaryescorts .com, MilitaryescortsM4M.com and Meetlocalmen.com, get to question the president of the United States?
Who knew that a hotmilitarystud wanting to meetlocalmen could so easily get to be face2face with the commander in chief?"
Bu$hCo has given justification to the term Media Ho's.
Ms. Dowd- or MoDo to those of us that like to laugh at her the same way she laughs at everyone else- goes into the details you won't hear on FOX:
"Jeff Gannon" was waved into the press room nearly every day for two years as the conservative correspondent for two political Web sites operated by a wealthy Texas Republican. Scott McClellan often called on the pseudoreporter for softball questions.
Howard Kurtz reported in The Washington Post yesterday that although Mr. Guckert had denied launching the provocative Web sites - one described him as " 'military, muscular, masculine and discrete' (sic)" - a Web designer in California said "that he had designed a gay escort site for Gannon and had posted naked pictures of Gannon at the client's request."
And The Wilmington News-Journal in Delaware reported that Mr. Guckert was delinquent in $20,700 in personal income tax from 1991 to 1994."
More details on the Gannon story than MoDo covers here.
The real cause of MoDo's righteous indignation is revealed below:
" At first when I tried to complain about not getting my pass renewed, even though I'd been covering presidents and first ladies since 1986, no one called me back. Finally, when Mr. McClellan replaced Ari Fleischer, he said he'd renew the pass - after a new Secret Service background check that would last several months.
In an era when security concerns are paramount, what kind of Secret Service background check did James Guckert get so he could saunter into the West Wing every day under an assumed name while he was doing full-frontal advertising for stud services for $1,200 a weekend? He used a driver's license that said James Guckert to get into the White House, then, once inside, switched to his alter ego, asking questions as Jeff Gannon. "
Hell hath no fury like a MoDo scorned. But she does get to the meat in the end:
" They flipped TV's in the West Wing and Air Force One to Fox News. They paid conservative columnists handsomely to promote administration programs. Federal agencies distributed packaged "news" video releases with faux anchors so local news outlets would run them. As CNN reported, the Pentagon produces Web sites with "news" articles intended to influence opinion abroad and at home, but you have to look hard for the disclaimer: "Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense." The agencies spent a whopping $88 million spinning reality in 2004, splurging on P.R. contracts.
Even the Nixon White House didn't do anything this creepy. It's worse than hating the press. It's an attempt to reinvent it. "
MoDo is a liberal feminist progressive at heart, and I love her for that.
But like a lot of us, she turned on both Clintons when she realized their hypocrisy, mocked Al Gore, and gave only half-hearted support to Kerry's run.
MoDo may understand the real nature of the game being played in Washington, and the Big Reasons behind it.
So it's hard for me to damn her for damning the relatively good guys, too.
Even though her post modern relativism has given rise to the running joke:
MoDo is a PoMo Mofo fo sho.
I suspect if she'd made up that joke she'd be cattily smirking about it, too.
But damn it all, sometimes the difference between flawed and worse is bigger than the difference between good and better.
If only it were easy to judge, we wouldn't be heading into Endless World War for oil.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Heading towards Little Big Horn
When the Professionals quit the Company, you know it's bad.
Custer Battles was introduced to you below.
These fine examples of Bu$hCo's drive to privatize war (among other things) are examined more fully in their claims to be immune from fraud charges (among other things) here and here.
Thanks to the farmer at Corrente and also here.
Custer Battles was introduced to you below.
These fine examples of Bu$hCo's drive to privatize war (among other things) are examined more fully in their claims to be immune from fraud charges (among other things) here and here.
Thanks to the farmer at Corrente and also here.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
One of these things is quite like the other, both of these things are kind of the same...
Releases of photographs of two different WMD installations in Iran and Korea at CNN are the same.
Smarter war profiteering criminal robber barons, please.
I would say "smarter chimps, please", but these relatively noble simians have had to bear the brunt of this comparison for far too long now.
Billmon rightly cites this as being another example of Down the Memory Hole. You should read what he's got to say.
CNN did post a correction after being laughed at by a couple of hundred emails. An "honest mistake", or just another instance of honest contempt for the facts? After all, the Koreans really have nukes.
It would be so much easier to sell a war in Iran if they had shots of a real nuke installation there...
Smarter war profiteering criminal robber barons, please.
I would say "smarter chimps, please", but these relatively noble simians have had to bear the brunt of this comparison for far too long now.
Billmon rightly cites this as being another example of Down the Memory Hole. You should read what he's got to say.
CNN did post a correction after being laughed at by a couple of hundred emails. An "honest mistake", or just another instance of honest contempt for the facts? After all, the Koreans really have nukes.
It would be so much easier to sell a war in Iran if they had shots of a real nuke installation there...
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Private Security paid in a gunny sack from Saddam's basement
Senate Democrats are investigating one of the greatest crimes in American history: the outright theft of uncounted billions of tax dollars perpetrated by GOP-connected corporations with the assistance of the Coalition Provisional Authority.
U.S. officials in postwar Iraq paid a contractor by stuffing $2 million worth of crisp bills into his gunnysack and routinely made cash payments around Baghdad from a pickup truck, a former official with the U.S. occupation government says.
Because the country lacked a functioning banking system, contractors and Iraqi ministry officials were paid with bills taken from a basement vault in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces that served as headquarters for the Coalition Provisional Authority, former CPA official Frank Willis said.
Officials from the CPA, which ruled Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004, would count the money when it left the vault, but nobody kept track of the cash after that...
Calling it looting by mercenaries sounds so coarse, doesn't it?
But do read all Athenae has to say, it only gets more interesting.
U.S. officials in postwar Iraq paid a contractor by stuffing $2 million worth of crisp bills into his gunnysack and routinely made cash payments around Baghdad from a pickup truck, a former official with the U.S. occupation government says.
Because the country lacked a functioning banking system, contractors and Iraqi ministry officials were paid with bills taken from a basement vault in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces that served as headquarters for the Coalition Provisional Authority, former CPA official Frank Willis said.
Officials from the CPA, which ruled Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004, would count the money when it left the vault, but nobody kept track of the cash after that...
Calling it looting by mercenaries sounds so coarse, doesn't it?
But do read all Athenae has to say, it only gets more interesting.
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