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The Myth of AQI Fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq is the last big argument for keeping U.S. troops in the country. But the military´s estimation of the threat is alarmingly wrong. --By Andrew Tilghman
Like most of us, I learned about and participated in fire drills at a very early age, starting in primary grades, then continuing all through middle and high school, in the military, and in the work environment. Fire drills are important, they prepare us to react to a dangerous situation, to remove ourselves from harm's way as safely and quickly quickly as possible. But fire drills do not prevent fires, nor do they guarantee to always protect us from sustaining casualties, nor do they extinguish fires. Fire drills are in essence an ad hoc response to an unplanned event, with temporary effect, minimizing but not always preventing casualties.
Common sense helps us to realize that in addition to fire drills, good management of fire protection involves fire prevention efforts, and effective fire suppression tools and tactics. Effective prevention includes knowledge of cause and effect coupled with appropriate proactive planning actions, effective suppression includes developing appropriate tactics to respond to individual and diverse situations, acquisition and training of effective manpower, acquisition and mastery of appropriate tools; taken together, this all adds up to effective strategic thinking by those charged with the responsibility to protect us from fires.
Over the course of the past seven plus years both the Bush administration and Congress (whether a Republican or democratic majority) have led our country through a series of fire drills, at varying degrees of success, but arguably, lacking in strategic thinking and action. Or have they? Has the strategy all along been to back the American people in to a corner through fear and intimidation garnered from natural events and human actions in order to consolidate power in to the office of the president, and perhaps more significantly consolidate the power and reach of corporate interests, who pull the strings of the Oval Office and both houses of Congress? All in service to the fulfillment of ever greater corporate greed. The 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center should have been a wake-up call, and the intelligence about Al- Qaeda available to our government prior to the 9/11 attacks should have led to appropriate, proactive, strategic planning and action, instead government and civilian resources were left scrambling, in a catch-up effort at protecting the security of our nation in the intervening years. Then based upon fear and misinformation the Bush administration hoodwinked the country in to an invasion and start of a five year war in Iraq in which our military assets have been exhausted, been disabled from protecting us in other parts of the world, lead to needless casualties of Americans and Iraqis, and put future generations of American tax payers on the hook to the foreign nations that have loaned the money to the United States to conduct the folly that is the Iraq war. All the while enriching war profiteering corporations (Haliburton, Blackwater, KBR, et al).
In the midst of all of the damage done to our economy, to human life, to our reputation and influence in the world because of the Iraq war, our government has taken us through more fire drills:
The natural disaster that was hurricane Katrina and the bungled fire drill that followed, including the complete mismanagement of the situation by the local, state and federal government entities and in particular FEMA.
The fire drill that has followed 9/11 and the pursuit of the "war on terrorism" has resulted in the suspension of our constitutional protections, when prisoners of the United States have been denied the right of habeus corpus, and where, playing upon fear and claiming urgency the FISA rules were overridden and the government allowed to listen and read virtually all of our telecommunications at will. The Constitution has been discarded in this fire drill.
Now capping an era of uncontrolled corporate greed, an era in which many demanded less government oversight in to various facets of life in the United States (in the financial sector, in protection of the environment, in mine safety, in health care, etc.), an era in which government intervention in the form of sound regulation has been ridiculed and avoided, an era in which the government, corporations and individual American citizens pursuing short sighted, greedy financial gains, have resulted in the latest fire drill, with a claimed immediate need to inject as much as or more than $700 billion of our hard earned cash in to the financial system. In essence saying to those who put the country in to this situation, "OK, you screwed up, but we will bail your asses out, and let you go back to playing your games all over again". The bailout bill as it seems to be presently constituted does little, if anything to address the root cause of the current financial disaster facing our country, it just, at best, restarts the economic cycle. It does not mandate any true change in behavior in the financial markets or in the conduct of business in the United States, it is simply just another fire drill, going through the motions of evacuating the financial industry principals, who through their playing with matches have started this conflagration, and evacuating them so they can play another day.
Is this really how we, as intelligent American people, as fathers and mothers responsible for providing a safe, nurturing environment compatible with a thriving life for our children want our society to operate, as one fire drill after another. With never an effort to embrace long term, strategic thinking, planning and actions. Never giving sufficient time, thought and effort towards building a better infrastructure, whether financial, medical, energy, transportation or telecommunications, to live safely and thrive in this county, but just constantly responding in a reactive, fire drill mode to the next crisis?
It is time that we, as American citizens, active in our role as owners of this society demand an end to governance by fire drill, time that we impose our will upon those who serve us in all governmental offices, whether elected or appointed, time that we say to the greedy, profit driven corporations and their lobbying agents that we have had enough of the fire drills, and that we demand more and smarter fire protection, that we demand fire suppression that serves not greedy corporation interests, but the greater good of all of the people.
And, Say, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, How Can I Get An Unlimited Credit Line That Never Goes Away No Matter How Much I Screw Up?
Stuff Dubya's ass with cash, I guess. See, if you're a nanosecond late on your low-interest credit card, they jack it up to what used to be known as usury-level rates, before the corporatists eliminated that Biblical term from our legal lexicon: It's what very bad people charge you to borrow money, you know, like Vinny the Nose? (Creditors can charge pretty much anything they want now, according to the Feds.)
But the bankers don't have to pay anything when they're late. In fact, if they totally default, YOU have to pay. At least, that's what the Republican Administration of George "Dubya" Bush in Warshenden DEE-see says. If you don't like it, you can vote for the tame corporatist Congressional Democrats Bushco suckered into supporting the bail-out. Or, you can move to Tierra Del Fuego. Your choice. The boat leaves in half an hour.
The good news is, we won't be able to afford the war any more. The bad news is, we never could. And now we can't afford anything else. Thanks, McBush.
[continued] .
. For now, duplicating dollars on the Federal Reserve copy machine may stabilize markets. Or not. But, in the long run, it will drag the dollar down from its' sudden new heights, caused by trashing nearly every other economy in the world. A high dollar coupled with decreased foreign demand for US good & services could inch us into recession, whatever else happens. The Fed will have to pull those extra bucks back in eventually, causing yet another crunch in the credit markets. More of us won't be able to borrow as much money as cheaply or as easily for buying stuff, less stuff will get sold, companies will have to lay off workers, resulting in even lower sales for all industries, and, hey, isn't this what we call a race to the bottom?
It will take financial genius and a delicate hand on the wheel if we're not all going to be a lot poorer in the very near and not-too distant future. Not the kind of hands, or brains, that McCain or Palin have. Are we ready for a smart President, yet? Or will it be four more years of Zippy the Republican Pinhead? Are we having fun yet?
In the meantime, I mean, until we get rid of Bush, the sh*tstorm continues. With no Congressional accord on any solutions, thanks to the extreme right-wing Repukelickin's, the Bushco bureaucrats at Treasury and the Federal Reserve are free to write ginormous checks in your name with no, as McSame like to parrot, "preconditions." So, don't worry pretty baby, the bail-out is proceeding at full tilt, and without any oversight. Which is exactly what the Repukes wanted all along. And they've hung the whole thing on the Dems. If it weren't so FREAKIN' STUPID, I'd say it was brilliant.
' The Federal Reserve and foreign central banks moved Monday to pump billions of dollars to cash-strapped banks at home and abroad in a dramatic bid to break through a credit clog and spur lending. Under one new step, the Fed will boost the amount of 84-day cash loans available to U.S. banks. The Fed is increasing the amount to $75 billion, up from the current $25 billion starting on Oct. 6. Banks bid on a slice of the loans at an auction. That move will triple the supply of 84-day loans to $225 billion, from $75 billion, the Fed said. Meanwhile, the Fed will continue to make $75 billion worth of shorter, 28-day loans available to banks. All told, the total amount of cash loans — 84-day and 28-day — available to banks will double to $300 billion from $150 billion, the Fed said. Moreover, the Fed made an extra $330 billion available to other central banks. That boosted to $620 billion the total amount available to the central bank through currency "swap" arrangements, where dollars are traded for their currencies. That total is up from $290 billion previously being made available through such arrangements. '
' To be sure, some of the problems in the credit markets, where corporate borrowers go to find loans, have been feeding on themselves. Much of the recent tightness in the markets has been caused by investors waiting for the outcome of the rescue package, which proposed to allow the Treasury to spend up to $700 billion buying banks' souring mortgage-backed debt. "I think everybody focusing on Washington froze the credit markets," said Howard Simons, strategist with Bianco Research in Chicago. Potential buyers figured the government under the plan would buy mortgage-backed securities, he said, but they did not know how it would go about it, or how much it would pay — and that kept them in wait-and-see mode. Furthermore, few companies have even tried to issue debt in the current environment. But while it is possible that fears are overblown, even the most daring investors appear hesitant to make contrarian bets — particularly given how many times academics, government officials and bank executives called a bottom to the global financial systems' woes, only to have their predictions blow up in their faces. The global financial landscape continues to change, keeping large and small investors alike on edge. '
' Uncertainty about what comes next, and whether the U.S. Congress can agree on legislation to relieve the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression sent investors into gold and U.S. Treasuries. Oil fell on fears of further economic slowdown, and the Japanese yen hit a 4-month high. Investors worried that a collapse in financial markets would tip the United States economy into a painful recession that drags the rest of the world down with it. World stocks, as measured by the MSCI's world index lost about $1.7 trillion on Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average posted its largest point decline ever while the benchmark S&P 500 had its worst day since the 1987 crash with an 8.8 percent drop. Latin American stocks tumbled 13 percent, their biggest decline in more than a decade. The shakeup in the financial landscape spread to Europe from the United States, with Belgian-French financial services group Dexia the latest to receive a bailout when three governments and key shareholders on Tuesday injected 6.4 billion euros ($9.18 billion) into the firm. That followed government rescues of Belgian-Dutch group Fortis NV, Germany's Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, British mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley Plc and bailout deals in Iceland, Russia and Denmark. Global central banks scrambled to relieve a severe squeeze in money markets by more than doubling the amount of dollar funding to $620 billion as banks hoarded cash, bracing for more trouble ahead in the worsening credit crisis. "With the financial storm as strong as ever and investors now looking to scramble and seek shelter, many see the Fed coming in and cutting rates to stimulate some confidence," Martin Batur, deputy head of dealing at IG Markets wrote in a note. '
REUTERS "Fed's Hoenig: keeping dollar value key despite crisis" The sky isn't falling? I guess our heads are all just shooting up into the stratosphere, where they will soon explode. Nothing to worry about, move along, move along.
' The Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank president said the Fed must stay focused longer term on holding down inflation to protect the dollar's value even though financial market turmoil is creating a sense that the "sky is falling." "It is imperative for monetary policy to maintain the value of the dollar," Thomas Hoenig told local business leaders at an economic forum in Gering, Nebraska. He said it was important not to overreact to financial market turmoil, which led to Monday's record points fall for the Dow Jones industrial average after a Congressional move to bail out the financial sector was voted down. "When I read and watch the news, I get a definite sense that the sky is falling," Hoenig said. "But we need to take a deep breath and think about what is happening." Exports remain a significant source of strength for U.S. growth, but are likely to tail off somewhat in the face of weaker global growth, he said. Despite risks to growth, Hoenig said the Fed cannot lose its focus on inflation, especially as recent high commodity prices work their way through to final product prices. "Inflationary pressure is one of the concerns I have," he said. "At 5.5 percent, (headline) inflation is too high, and will have a long-term impact on the economy." "I'll be more anxious than others to reduce excess liquidity" and start raising interest rates when that is feasible, Hoenig said. In response to a question, Hoenig said the Fed's massive injections of liquidity into gummed-up money markets are not inflationary for now but risk an inflation bubble if not reversed in a timely fashion. The central bank faces "a very delicate, difficult piece of surgery" to raise rates at the right time, Hoenig said. "It is a balancing act that requires great skill, great judgment." '
' The euro fell further against the dollar on Tuesday as fears grow about the health of European banks amid global turmoil after the failure of a US financial rescue plan, dealers said. The European single currency slipped to 1.4376 dollars from 1.4432 in New York late on Monday. Against the Japanese currency, the dollar rose to 105.06 yen from 104.03. The euro slid after US lawmakers rejected the 700-billion-dollar financial rescue plan touted by Washington as vital to avert economic collapse. "Credit worries are deepening over the European financial system... after the US bailout plan was rejected," said Saburo Matsumoto, chief foreign exchange strategist at Sumitomo Trust Bank. '
' The dollar slid to a four-month low against the yen on Tuesday as investors fled risky positions after the U.S. Congress failed to pass a $700 billion bank bailout package, sparking the biggest stock market rout since 1987. The dollar dropped as low as 103.53 yen on trading platform EBS, down 0.6 percent from late U.S. trade after having tumbled 1.8 percent on Monday. The yen and Swiss franc are seen as a safe-haven currency in times of financial market turmoil. '
' Business lobbyists scolded the U.S. Congress and threatened political payback after lawmakers handed the financial services industry a stunning defeat by killing a $700-billion Wall Street bailout. The vote Monday in the House of Representatives to reject the rescue plan, proposed by the Bush administration September 20 and modified by congressional leaders over the past week, came as a rude shock to powerful and deeply entrenched interests. House members who supported the bailout have received about 50 percent more in campaign contributions from the finance, insurance and real estate sectors in their congressional careers than those who opposed the emergency legislation, said a campaign finance watchdog group after the vote. The Center for Responsive Politics, using data going back to 1989, said members of Congress who helped defeat the bailout had, on average, collected nearly $590,000 from the industries most affected over their careers, while the bailout bill's supporters had received $883,000. '
CNN MONEY "FDIC asks to boost deposit limits" Whew! Now the rich won't have to open a second bank account! You've saved them a trip! Thanks, peasants!
' The federal agency that guarantees bank deposits is asking Congress for temporary authority to raise the limit on the amount of money it insures for individual bank accounts. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Shelia Bair put out a statement late Tuesday afternoon asking that Congress allow her agency to increase the $100,000 limit per account that has been in place since 1980. "Unfortunately, there is an increasing crisis of confidence that is feeding unnecessary fear in the marketplace," Bair said. "To address this crisis of confidence, I do believe that it would be helpful for the FDIC to have the temporary ability to raise deposit insurance limits." '
' U.S. lawmakers and President George W. Bush eased pressure on financial markets on Tuesday by starting work to revive a $700 billion bailout plan to stem a credit crisis that has spread beyond Wall Street to claim more European banks. U.S. stocks roared back -- a day after their worst sell-off in 21 years -- and the dollar rallied as investors bet Washington would manage to salvage a package to stabilize the financial sector after Monday's shock defeat on Capitol Hill. The Standard & Poor's 500 index shot up by more than 5 percent, the biggest one-day gain for that measure of the broad market in six years. '
' Astounded by the U.S. government's failure to resolve the financial crisis threatening the foundations of the global free market, fingers of blame are pointing at America from around the planet. Latin American leaders say the U.S. must quickly fix the financial crisis it created before the rest of the world's hard-won economic gains are lost. "The managers of big business took huge risks out of greed," said President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, whose economy is highly dependent on U.S. trade. "What happens in the United States will affect the entire world and, above all, small countries like ours." In Europe, where some blame a phenomenon of "casino capitalism" that has become deeply engrained from New York to London to Moscow, there is more of a sense of shared responsibility. But Europeans also blame the U.S. government for letting things get out of hand. Amid harsh criticism is a growing consensus that stricter financial regulation is needed to prevent unfettered capitalism from destroying economies around the globe. And leaders of developing nations that kept spending tight and opened their economies in response to American demands are warning of other consequences — a loss of U.S. influence globally and the likelihood that the world's poor will suffer the most from greed by the biggest players in global finance. "They spent the last three decades saying we needed to do our chores. They didn't," a grim-faced Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Tuesday. Even staunch U.S. allies like Colombian President Alvaro Uribe blasted the world's most powerful country for egging on uncontrolled financial speculation that he compared to a wild horse with no reins. "The whole world has financed the United States, and I believe that they have a reciprocal debt with the planet," he said. "This crisis underlines the excesses and uncertainties of a casino capitalism that has only one logic — lining your pockets," said German lawmaker Martin Schulz, chairman of the Socialists in the EU assembly. "It also shows the bankruptcy of 'law of the jungle' capitalism that no longer invests in companies and job creation, but instead makes money out of money in a totally uncontrolled way." The U.S. government's failure to apply rules that might have prevented the crisis is seen as a betrayal in many developing countries that faced intense U.S. pressures to liberalize their economies. In some developing nations, state enterprises were privatized, currencies were allowed to float against the U.S. dollar and painful measures were taken to bring down debts. These advances are at risk now that credit is drying up. Countries with commodities-based economies are particularly vulnerable since more industrialized nations could reduce their demand for everything from soy to iron ore. "It doesn't seem fair to me that those of us who endured so much hunger in the 20th century, who began to improve in the 21st century, should have to suffer due to the international financial system," Silva said. "There are going to be a lot of people going hungry in the world." "What's to blame? Imperialism, the United States, the irresponsibility of the United States government," said the self-avowed socialist and frequent U.S. critic. "From this crisis, a new world has to emerge, and it's a multi-polar world." China's influence in the outcome of all this could be profound because it is a huge investor in U.S. debt. It is already calling for strict new international regulatory systems to apply to globalized financial markets. '
' As Wall Street collapses and politicians in Washington struggle to agree on a rescue package, credit markets across America are grinding to a halt, leaving many business owners and would-be borrowers alike without money to get by. Anger and blame are everywhere. While outraged voters besieged members of Congress with calls and e-mails demanding lawmakers reject a White House plan to bail out a sinking Wall Street, some experts believe the resulting stock crash and credit panic may spur a new rescue campaign. The House of Representatives voted the plan down on Monday, but top lawmakers said they hoped a revised bailout bill could clear in the near future. "Some of the folks in Congress ... will start to hear it from the other side now," said Al Kugel, chief investment strategist at Atlantic Trust in Chicago. Without a new plan, Kugel worries the credit shortage will get worse: "It will be like a boa constrictor has got the economy and just keeps squeezing." '
I posted this on my blog earlier today. And I'm wondering if anyone has heard about this?
I wrote: In her book The Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein describes scenarios that have happened all over the world, instigated by amerikkkan economists and backed up by the CIA where whole populations were held hostage, intimidated, murdered, disappeared so that draconian economic agendas could be hatched and then carried out, imposed on the citizenry of countries in latin amerikkka but also in places like china, russia, poland, south africa...I'm including japan because it's so clear what was done to that country's economy and to its citizens after hiroshima and nagasaki.
Finally, with all their research abroad completed to disastrous effect elsewhere they are now ready to bring everything they've learned home.
Don't fantasize about heading north to kkkanada. Whatever happens south of the 49th eventually happens here in some way shape or form as well. Besides, anyone who pays attention to kkkanadian politics will tell you that our pm bears a striking resemblance to georgie the village idiot.
I can't say "And so, it begins...." because this has been unfolding for decades. I'll just say it continues...
For the first time ever, the US military is deploying an active duty regular Army combat unit for full-time use inside the United States to deal with emergencies, including potential civil unrest.
Beginning on October 1, the First Brigade Combat Team of the Third Division will be placed under the command of US Army North, the Army’s component of the Pentagon’s Northern Command (NorthCom), which was created in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks with the stated mission of defending the US “homeland” and aiding federal, state and local authorities.
The unit—known as the “Raiders”—is among the Army’s most “blooded.” It has spent nearly three out of the last five years deployed in Iraq, leading the assault on Baghdad in 2003 and carrying out house-to-house combat in the suppression of resistance in the city of Ramadi. It was the first brigade combat team to be sent to Iraq three times.
While active-duty units previously have been used in temporary assignments, such as the combat-equipped troops deployed in New Orleans, which was effectively placed under martial law in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, this marks the first time that an Army combat unit has been given a dedicated assignment in which US soil constitutes its “battle zone.”
The Pentagon’s official pronouncements have stressed the role of specialized units in a potential response to terrorist attack within the US. Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, attended a training exercise last week for about 250 members of the unit at Fort Stewart, Georgia. The focus of the exercise, according to the Army’s public affairs office, was how troops “might fly search and rescue missions, extract casualties and decontaminate people following a catastrophic nuclear attack in the nation’s heartland.”
“We are at war with a global extremist network that is not going away,” Casey told the soldiers. “I hope we don’t have to use it, but we need the capability.”
However, the mission assigned to the nearly 4,000 troops of the First Brigade Combat Team does not consist merely of rescuing victims of terrorist attacks. An article that appeared earlier this month in the Army Times (“Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1”), a publication that is widely read within the military, paints a different and far more ominous picture.
“They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control,” the paper reports. It quotes the unit’s commander, Col. Robert Cloutier, as saying that the 1st BCT’s soldiers are being trained in the use of “the first ever nonlethal package the Army has fielded.” The weapons, the paper reported, are “designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.” The equipment includes beanbag bullets, shields and batons and equipment for erecting roadblocks.
It appears that as part of the training for deployment within the US, the soldiers have been ordered to test some of this non-lethal equipment on each other.
“I was the first guy in the brigade to get Tasered,” Cloutier told the Army Times. He described the effects of the electroshock weapon as “your worst muscle cramp ever—times 10 throughout your whole body.”
The colonel’s remark suggests that, in preparation for their “homefront” duties, rank-and-file troops are also being routinely Tasered. The brutalizing effect and intent of such a macabre training exercise is to inure troops against sympathy for the pain and suffering they may be called upon to inflict on the civilian population using these same “non-lethal” weapons.
According to military officials quoted by the Army Times, the deployment of regular Army troops in the US begun with the First Brigade Combat Team is to become permanent, with different units rotated into the assignment on an annual basis.
In an online interview with reporters earlier this month, NorthCom officers were asked about the implications of the new deployment for the Posse Comitatus Act, the 230-year-old legal statute that bars the use of US military forces for law enforcement purposes within the US itself.
Col. Lou Volger, NorthCom’s chief of future operations, tried to downplay any enforcement role, but added, “We will integrate with law enforcement to understand the situation and make sure we’re aware of any threats.”
Volger acknowledged the obvious, that the Brigade Combat Team is a military force, while attempting to dismiss the likelihood that it would play any military role. It “has forces for security,” he said, “but that’s really—they call them security forces, but that’s really just to establish our own footprint and make sure that we can operate and run our own bases.”
Lt. Col. James Shores, another NorthCom officer, chimed in, “Let’s say even if there was a scenario that developed into a branch of a civil disturbance—even at that point it would take a presidential directive to even get it close to anything that you’re suggesting.”
Whatever is required to trigger such an intervention, clearly Col. Cloutier and his troops are preparing for it with their hands-on training in the use of “non-lethal” means of repression.
The extreme sensitivity of the military brass on this issue notwithstanding, the reality is that the intervention of the military in domestic affairs has grown sharply over the last period under conditions in which its involvement in two colonial-style wars abroad has given it a far more prominent role in American political life.
The Bush administration has worked to tear down any barriers to the use of the military in domestic repression. Thus, in the 2007 Pentagon spending bill it inserted a measure to amend the Posse Comitatus Act to clear the way for the domestic deployment of the military in the event of natural disaster, terrorist attack or “other conditions in which the president determines that domestic violence has occurred to the extent that state officials cannot maintain public order.”
The provision granted the president sweeping new powers to impose martial law by declaring a “public emergency” for virtually any reason, allowing him to deploy troops anywhere in the US and to take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of state governors in order to “suppress public disorder.”
The provision was subsequently repealed by Congress as part of the 2008 military appropriations legislation, but the intent remains. Given the sweeping powers claimed by the White House in the name of the “commander in chief” in a global war on terror—powers to suspend habeas corpus, carry out wholesale domestic spying and conduct torture—there is no reason to believe it would respect legal restrictions against the use of military force at home.
It is noteworthy that the deployment of US combat troops “as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters”—in the words of the Army Times—coincides with the eruption of the greatest economic emergency and financial disaster since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Justified as a response to terrorist threats, the real source of the growing preparations for the use of US military force within America’s borders lies not in the events of September 11, 2001 or the danger that they will be repeated. Rather, the domestic mobilization of the armed forces is a response by the US ruling establishment to the growing threat to political stability.
Under conditions of deepening economic crisis, the unprecedented social chasm separating the country’s working people from the obscenely wealthy financial elite becomes unsustainable within the existing political framework.
Thursday afternoon we first heard that there had been an agreement in principle struck by criminals and thieves masquerading as politicians in Washington to stick their greedy little fingers in your pocket and give Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke nearly a trillion dollars of your money to bail out their buddies on Wall Street.
We then later in the day heard that there had been a hastily arranged meeting in the White House with both presidential candidates invited by Bush in which John McCain had "destroyed" chances of an agreement in a desperate political stunt of an attempt to bolster his failing campaign. McCain's involvement, in the words of House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, was compared to "Richard Nixon blowing up the Vietnam peace talks in 1968."
Country first my ass.
McCain's stunt was not a stupid stunt. It was part of a shell game. A setup designed to con you. Designed to con you by giving top Democrats, Pelosi, Reid, et al a reason to support Bush's plans to rob you blind while looking like they are saving you from a Republican plan to kill the bailout.
Think about that for a minute. Remember who passed all the Iraq Occupation funding bills for the past two years?
Oppose Bush my ass.
They are on his side. They are part of the scam. How clear does it have to be?
Now Wall Street financial analyst and historian Dr. Michael Hudson, Distinguished Research Professor at University of Missouri, Kansas City, cuts through all the crap to say bluntly that the proposed bailout is an empire buster likely to virtually destroy an already very shaky US and global economy, and is nothing more than a pyramid scheme, a blatant Once In A Century Rip-Off intended as a last ditch effort to save, at your expense, the finally and utterly discredited neocon "philosophy" of economics and governance, and George Bush and his criminal friends. The crooks attempting to steal every last cent they can bullshit you out of before republicanism and the disastrous presidency of George W. Bush finally go down in flames and ignominy. Taking you down with them.
If there is one overriding reason to oppose this "bailout" with everything in you, it's this - it's A Once In A Century Rip-Off.
Bailout talks stall as Bush meets with Congressional leaders and Presidential candidates. German Finance Minister says US will no longer be the financial Superpower. French President Sarkozy says the days when "the all powerful market is always right are over". The Real News Network spoke to economist and historian Dr. Michael Hudson who says that it's not a "bailout" but a "giveaway" and will create a new kleptocracy of billionaires.
Dr. Michael Hudson is a Wall Street financial analyst and historian. Dr. Hudson was Dennis Kucinich’s Chief Economic Advisor in the recent Democratic primary presidential campaign, and has advised the U.S., Canadian, Mexican and Latvian governments, as well as the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). A Distinguished Research Professor at University of Missouri, Kansas City, he is the author of many books, including Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire and of Super-Imperialism and of The Myth of Aid .
The view around the world of the banking crisis and Paulson's bailout proposal appears to be much less as panicky as closer to home, if at all, and more of recognition of the realities of the situation with a general attitude of encircling and isolating a cancer to keep it localized.
With the creation of the so called Mortgage and Financial Institutions Trust (MFI), the unfolding financial crisis, considered by many to be the worst in over 60 years, has become ever-more dangerous.
While such an institution has not existed in any country, the MFI could prove to be disastrous for US public finance, economic growth, the dollar, relations with major foreign holders of dollars, the global financial system, and could ignite the worst inflation in the economic history of the United States and reverse globalization to levels not seen since the Great Depression.
The initial cost of the MFI, put at US$700 billion, could easily escalate to trillions of dollars. At the same time, the Congressional Budget Office had previously projected a record fiscal deficit of US$500 billion for 2009. The MFI will further blow up the deficit to an unprecedented level, exceeding US$1.4 trillion. US debt, jumping with the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to 86% of GDP, has moved to an unsustainable level.
The financing of previous large fiscal deficits under the George W Bush Administration has already caused external deficits (current account) to widen to 5-7% of GDP, turned national savings negative, sent the dollar plummeting, and ignited rapid inflation, particularly in food, energy, and housing prices. Further financing of extraordinary large fiscal deficits, as required by the MFI, can only disrupt economic stability both in the US and world-wide. It will only further undermine the dollar, exacerbate widening external deficits, soaring energy and food prices, and rising unemployment.
Nonetheless, the main architects of the MFI, Messrs Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary and Federal Reserve chairman respectively, are determined to protect Wall Street. They have decidedly transformed the US budget and the US central bank into vehicles that only care for the welfare of Wall Street and divert public resources to bankers, under the guise of protecting the economy and averting systemic risk.
Albeit evidence of a systemic risk has not been established, vast public resources have so far been devoted to bailouts at the expense of growth-generating spending. The Fed has been pouring billions of dollars into financial institutions, buying worthless paper, and incurring huge losses. To quote Paulson "I am convinced that this bold approach [that is creation of the MFI] will cost American families far less than the alternative - a continuing series of financial-institution failures and frozen credit markets unable to fund economic expansion."
Contrary to Paulson’s claim, domestic credit is still expanding at a fast rate, at 9% per year as of July 2008, and the notion of frozen markets cannot be supported by Fed’s published monetary data. Banks have excess liquidity and are still extending loans to safe customers. Certainly they are no longer in the mood of reigniting a new speculative euphoria by lending to speculator and impaired credit.
And contrary to Paulson’s belief, the MFI will in the end cost American families more than other alternatives.
[snip...]
All of this cannot but impair the global financial and economic reputation of the US. Just in a matter of days the dollar has declined from $1.39 to $1.48 to the euro, oil has climbed from $90 to over $120 (at one point rising by more than $20 in one day, September 22) and gold has jumped from $750 per ounce to over $900 .
The declining value of the dollar will adversely affect the value of foreign holdings in the US. China Investment Corporation (CIC) and a number of other sovereign wealth funds are major stakeholders in US financial and non-financial sectors, as holders of US government securities, debt of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and owners of manufacturing companies.
Asia and Persian Gulf oil exporters will no longer continue to trust the United States with their money. Financial trust, a needed but already a rare commodity in finance, will evaporate. Countries will withdraw from participating in the global financial system and autarchy will once again raise its ugly head. Moreover, oil exporters with large financial surpluses, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, may cut back their oil exports. Why would they want to sell their depleting oil reserves for worthless paper?
..................................
Hossein Askari is professor of international business and international affairs at George Washington University. Noureddine Krichene is an economist at the International Monetary Fund and a former advisor, Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah.
Wall Street and corporate America can't lose in Congress -- they never do -- for one very simple reason: they own Congress and the "leaders" of it. Just listen to Rep. Marcy Kaptur; she's been in Congress for 26 years and she knows how it works:
To Wall St. insiders . . . you have perpetrated the greatest financial crimes ever on this American Republic. You think you can get by with it because you are extraordinarily wealthy and are the largest contributors to both presidential and Congressional campaigns in both major parties.
Awfully hilarious. I wonder if she told Muslim Karzai that "Jesus loves him"? Or that her Mom has an afghan, they're so warm & cozy, $49.99 on the Home Shopping Network, dontchya know? Did she tell South American Uribe that she and McCain would drop by his "casa" when they went to neighboring Spain? Or how much she loves the spicy Mexican food, like Doritos? Or maybe she just said, "Good job, Poncho. Let us know who you need us to bomb next." (And these were the only two Bush-installed mutts that could be relied upon to come when called, sit, stay, roll over, play dead, fetch, and beg for a foto-op.) Foreign policy is the McPalins' strong suit? What's their weak suit? Counting? The alphabet?
[continued] .
. No wonder Palin has been hidden from the media. Even the tamest corporate network talking heads will have a hard time concealing the Governor's lack of knowledge and experience on all things non-Alaskan. In fact, why doesn't she just run for Vice-President of Alaska? Oh, wait, she has that job. Exxon is the President of Alaska. So, why doesn't she just fick off?
Oh, right, her Grampa John needs someone to change his diapers. Well, she's a good grand-daughter to do that, especially given all the moose he's been eating lately. And all the crow he'll be eating in the debates. Speaking of which, if our first female President-In-Waiting can't answer a few questions from Larry King or Baba Wawa, how's she going to handle Vladimir Putin or the Fed Chairman? Yeah, how is she on multiple debentures, derivatives, indexing with LIBOR, you know, all that boring Lower-48 economical kinda junk, ay? Hm, 'Cuda?
On the other hand, Palin's first "international" outing (If you count New York as foreign territory, as most Republicans do) was a raging success, by past Republican Presidential standards: She didn't throw up on anybody, or put her head in their lap. She didn't forget their names or their countries' names or where their countries were. And she didn't compare them to waiters, busboys or dishwashers. She didn't even bomb any of them. (Yet.) So, she's more than qualified than Bush I, Bush II or McCain, at least at small talk. That's all there is to the job of President of the United States of America, isn't it? Chit-chat? Girl talk? Hm?
' Sarah Palin met her first world leaders Tuesday. It was a tightly controlled crash course on foreign policy for the Republican vice presidential candidate, the mayor-turned-governor who has been outside North America just once. Palin sat down with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. The conversations were private, the pictures public, meant to build her resume for voters concerned about her lack of experience in world affairs. lengths Tuesday to maintain that distance as Palin made her diplomatic debut. The GOP campaign, applying more restrictive rules on access than even President Bush uses in the White House, banned reporters from the start of the meetings, so as not to risk a question being asked of Palin. McCain aides relented after news organizations objected and CNN, which was supplying TV footage to a variety of networks, decided to pull its TV crew from Palin's meeting with Karzai. Overheard: small talk. '
' Sarah Palin was on the fringes of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday at the start of a three-day crash course on international affairs to address concerns, even within her Republican party, that the Alaska governor’s knowledge of the outside world is shaky. The schedule of the vice-presidential nominee included meetings with five presidents, a prime minister, Henry Kissinger, doyen of former US secretaries of state, and Bono, the fund-raising activist. '
' During a quick stop at a diner in Cleveland, Ohio, Sarah Palin was asked for her reaction to the AIG bailout. “Dissapointed that taxpayers are called upon to bailout another one,” she said. “Certainly AIG though with the construction bonds that they’re holding and with the insurance that they are holding very, very impactful to Americans so you know the shot that has been called by the Feds its understandable but very, very disappointing that taxpayers are called upon for another one.” Told that her traveling press corps was getting lonely in the back of her campaign plane, Palin said, “Are you getting lonely? Gee, yeah, come on up then!” Though she has been on the campaign trail for nearly three weeks, Palin has yet to hold a press conference, and this morning’s stop marked the first time she answered a question from the press on the fly, prompting concerned looks from staffers. Palin did have a two-day interview with ABC News’ Charlie Gibson and sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity in Cleveland this morning. The media is sure to take the governor up on her offer to chat at the front of her plane, assuming the campaign is willing to comply with the boss’s wishes for more face time with journalists. '
' The pool report, from WSJ's Elizabeth Holmes: Again, your pool was in the room for half a minute. Peter Hamby and his outstanding sound tech, picked up this part of the conversation. Kissinger: (something about a speech, not sure to whom he was referring) “And I'm going to give him a lot of credit for what he did in Georgia.” Palin: “Good, good. And you'll give me more insight on that, also, huh? Good.” Palin emerged from the building at 3 p.m., making this by far her longest meeting (others were roughly half an hour). She was accompanied by Kissinger and the two hugged and she gave him a peck on the cheek. CNN’s Peter Hamby (the star of today) yelled, “Governor, how was your meeting?” and she mouthed “It was great.” '
' Sarah Palin’s Foreign Policy adviser, Stephen Biegun met with the press to give more details on Palin’s meetings today with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, and Former Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger. Biegun said that Palin is aware that she is a candidate for office and not the President of the United States, “So rather than make specific policy prescriptions, she was largely listening, having an exchange of views, and also very interested in forming a relationship with people she met with today.” With Colombian President Uribe, Palin spoke about the security situation and violence in the country, “They were in full agreement that a very important step in ameliorating the conditions that the FARC guerillas are exploiting is to address issue of increased economic opportunity. And both governor Palin and Sen. McCain, on Sen. McCain’s behalf, Gov. Palin emphasizes her and Sen. McCain’s strong support for Colombia free trade agreement and the degree to which it will contribute not only to economic prosperity but also social stability in Colombia which is critical to finally winning the war against terrorist elements of the FARC.” '
' Controversy erupted when the McCain-Palin campaign tried to bar reporters from attending a brief photo session preceding a meeting between Palin and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. CNN, which was providing pooled video of the encounter for the other television networks, threatened to withdraw its cameras, according to network officials, thus denying the campaign the pictures it wanted of Palin-as-diplomat. The campaign relented. Peter Hamby, a CNN producer, wrote in a pool report that journalists were allowed into the room where Palin and Karzai met for 29 seconds. Above the click of cameras, the two were overheard discussing Karzai's 20-month-old son, Mirwais. Since GOP nominee Sen. John McCain chose Palin as his running mate, his campaign has tried to shield her from unscripted encounters with the media and the public. Jon Alterman, a scholar at the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Palin's New York diplomatic mission could both help her and hurt her. "It cuts both ways. On the one hand, she can say, I've met with all these people, I know how to do this," Alterman said. "On the other hand, it underlines that she hasn't done it until the end of September," less than two months before she could be elected vice president. "The challenge is getting things out of your meetings and getting people to do things they wouldn't otherwise do," he added. "That's not the kind of meeting she's having. They're courtesy meetings." Karzai, however, who depends on U.S. backing to sustain his fragile government in Kabul, had warm words for Palin. The meeting was "very good. I found her quite a capable woman. She asked the right questions on Afghanistan," Karzai said in an appearance later before the Asia Society in New York. '
' Sarah Palin swooped into New York Monday night to meet world leaders, but New York won't be meeting her. The GOP veep hopeful has served as a crowd magnet in other parts of the country - she drew 60,000 to a Florida rally on Sunday. But the Alaska governor will be kept largely under wraps during her stay in New York, where Dems outnumber GOPers 5 to 1. She's just too busy for that kind of retail politicking, say aides, who add that Palin andMcCain are due back in mid-October for a major fund-raiser. She and Bristol toured the New York Stock Exchange and met business executives, charging Alaska taxpayers for three nights in a $707-a-day hotel room, state records show. Her trip home was not so great. "I left New York City yesterday morning, and I hate to admit it but I am wearing the same clothes," she told a news conference back in Alaska. "They lost my luggage." '
. EVEN IN DEATH, A JARHEAD CAN'T HARDLY CATCH A BREAK
HAWAII HERO MARINE DENIED HIGHEST HONOR
Dubya Grabs Foto Op, Dumps "Wetback's" Body On Mom's Lawn
United States Marine Corps Sergeant Rafael Peralta, 25, of San Diego, California, with the Third Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Kaneohe, Hawaii, was denied the nation's highest honor today by George Dubya Bush, deserter, traitor and coward, and his minions in the Satanic Pentagon.
Mr. Peralta died in Falluja, Iraq, in 2004 after taking multiple gunshot wounds to the face and body, and then throwing himself on an enemy hand grenade to save his fellow Marines. He was successful in his last mission. By taking the initiative and sacrificing himself, he saved the lives of five other men. To those men, and their fellow Marines, and all their families, Sergeant of Marines Peralta will always be a hero, no matter what the Crotch says. .
.
The Commanding General of the First Marine Division took the initiative, also. Rather than simply honor the sergeant, General Natonski had the bullets dug out of Peralta's body and forensically identified. Since some evidently came from "friendly fire" by other U.S. troops, Sergeant Peralta's sacrifice was downgraded by the top brass, Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
This may have had something to do with the fact that Peralta was, in effect, from the Halls of Montezuma. Peralta was born in Mexico, and moved to San Diego with his family as a child, without proper documentation. He was dark-skinned and had Indian features, and probably spoke English with an accent. He did not become a citizen until after enlisting in the Corps, and his mother and sister only followed his example much later. His mother still does not speak English. Not exactly a Republican poster boy. In any case, he didn't get the Medal of Honor.
Peralta's Mother was shocked and hurt by the deliberate humiliation of her dead son. After all, Dubya himself had called her to try to clinch a few Hispanic votes in the next election. But, since most Latino's, like most everyone in America, are trending Democratic, the "President" dropped the pretense, and spit in Mrs. Perata's grieving face instead. Rush Limbaugh would be proud.
What difference it makes that a man who covered a live grenade with his own body was first hit by accidental fire from his own side, only Satan knows. God Himself is flummoxed on this one. Speaking as a former gyrene myself, all I can say is "F*CK THE SUCK!!!"
Semper Fi, Peralta. Guard those streets of Heaven well, Marine.
' Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter will award the Navy Cross medal — the nation’s second-highest combat award for valor in combat — to Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who pulled an enemy grenade to his body before it exploded, the Marine Corps announced Wednesday. Peralta, 25, died Nov. 15, 2004, while he and members of Alpha Company of 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, were in the second week of fighting in the Battle of Fallujah when he barged into a house with a rifle squad. They immediately came under fire from insurgents inside the house. “Peralta was caught in a deadly crossfire between insurgents and his Marines, leaving him mortally wounded,” officials said in an announcement released by I Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton. “After the initial exchange of gunfire, the insurgents broke contact, throwing a fragmentation grenade as they fled the building.” The grenade stopped near Peralta’s head, they said, and “without hesitation and with complete disregard for his own safety, Peralta reached out and pulled the grenade to his body, absorbing the brunt of the blast and shielding fellow Marines only feet away. Peralta succumbed to his wounds.” '
' The family of Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who was posthumously nominated for the nation's highest military honor, told the North County Times of Escondido, Calif., they were disappointed he was not receiving the Medal of Honor. "I don't understand why if the president has been talking about him," his mother, Rosa Peralta, told the newspaper, which was the first to report the bestowing of the Navy Cross. Rosa Peralta said she was informed during a meeting with Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Richard Natonski that a committee could not agree on awarding the Medal of Honor to her son, who Marine Corps officials say was first wounded by friendly fire. She said the general mentioned the friendly fire aspect as part of her son's death during the discussion. '
' A rare decision by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to reject a Marine Corps recommendation that one of its heroes receive the Medal of Honor has angered Marines who say Sgt. Rafael Peralta sacrificed his life to save theirs. Peralta's family was notified of the decision Wednesday by Lt. Gen. Richard Natonski, a top Marine Corps commander. Col. David Lapan, a Marine spokesman, said he was unaware of any recent award nomination that was denied in this way. '
' On Memorial Day 2005, President Bush singled out Peralta for his valor, saying he "understood that America faces dangerous enemies, and he knew the sacrifices required to defeat them." Rosa Peralta previously said an undersecretary of the Navy had told her the Medal of Honor had been approved and needed the president's signature. "I don't want that medal," Rosa Peralta said yesterday, referring to the Navy Cross. "I won't accept it. It doesn't seem fair to me." The decision is "almost like somebody called me a liar," said Marine Sgt. Nicholas Jones, 25, who was with Peralta on the day of the firefight. Jones, a recruiter, said Peralta's actions have become part of Marine Corps lore, as drill sergeants and officer-candidate instructors repeat it to new Marines. "His name is definitely synonymous with valor," said Jones, who was wounded by shrapnel from the grenade blast. "My honest opinion (of the medal decision)? It's BS," said Robert Reynolds, a corrections officer and former Marine who credits Peralta with saving his life that day in Fallujah. "I was in that house. I was next to Sgt. Peralta," Reynolds, 31, said. "I saw him with my own eyes reach out and pull that damn grenade in." Peralta did exactly what other Marines did who have been awarded the Medal of Honor, Reynolds said. "You know honestly how I think it is (that he didn't receive the Medal of Honor)?" Reynolds asked. "I think it's because he's an immigrant. I think it's because he's from Mexico." Reynolds said the Corps never once called him to talk about his eyewitness account. "Last year, I got a call from Headquarters Marine Corps," Sabga said. "They were asking me, 'What's the immigration status of Mrs. Peralta and the rest of her family?' I thought it was kind of weird. Why would they be inquiring about that?" '
' “Eyewitness accounts verify that he knowingly picked up the grenade and absorbed the full impact with his body,” the members of Congress wrote in their letter, which is being delivered to the White House on Friday. “Clearly, Sergeant Peralta, as confirmed by the award citation, made a deliberated decision to absorb the grenade blast in order to protect the lives of Marines fighting directly by his side,” the letter said. The letters signers include Reps. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine; Susan Davis, D-San Diego; Bob Filner, D-San Diego; Brian Bilbray, R-Carlsbad; Darrell Issa, R-Vista; and Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino. '
' From the Halls of Montezuma To the shores of Tripoli We fight our country's battles In the air, on land, and sea; First to fight for right and freedom And to keep our honor clean; We are proud to claim the title Of United States Marine. Our flag's unfurled to every breeze From dawn to setting sun; We have fought in every clime and place Where we could take a gun. In the snow of far-off Northern lands And in sunny tropic scenes; You will find us always on the job -- The United States Marines. Here's health to you and to our Corps Which we are proud to serve; In many a strife we've fought for life And never lost our nerve. If the Army and the Navy Ever look on Heaven's scenes, They will find the streets are guarded By United States Marines. '
A “Lady Liberty” dinner honoring long-term ACLU President Nadine Strossen?
First, we have Nino getting a hug from Nadine, while fellow Supreme Court Justice David Souter DOES look like he’s going to hurl. Or crap his pants. Or like he's already crapped his pants.
Or, maybe he's struggling to hold in a bad joke.
But, that’s not the best!
HERE’S the best. Nadine making love eyes at Nino.
Nadine, did you smoke a cigarette afterward? Did you use protection? Did you ask him to lock you up in a mock Gitmo cell? Did he offer to waterboard you?
Anyway, back to the rhetorical question:
Why was Nino Scalia at a “Lady Liberty” dinner honoring long-term ACLU President Nadine Strossen?
That would be like the Sierra Club inviting Dick Cheney to a Carl Pope dinner. (Of course, that, too could still happen, given the last six months at Sierra.)
OK, that would be like Defenders of Wildlife inviting Sarah Palin to a fundraising banquet.
I saw this with my own orbs on page 11 of the summer 2008 issue of “Civil Liberties,” the ACLU’s national newsletter, and then Google Imaged for the pics.
This is the same issue where hypocritical Executive Director Anthony Romero (after being hired as ACLU’s executive, he was teaching major U.S. companies how to comply with the Patriot Act, and when an ACLU board brouhaha broke out, Strossen supported him) has the P1 column entitled “Fighting for Justice at Guantánamo.”
Excuuusseee me, but hasn’t your biggest adversary in the judicial branch been Antonin Scalia?
Maybe if the ACLU had Dick Cheney’s shotgun to raffle, with part of the prize including a free shot or two at Nino, but otherwise …
Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, China, Palin's Ready To Fight 'Em All
Unfortunately, she has no clue about the situation with any of these countries. Unfortunately for us McCain will be almost certainly be dead within a year. Look what the job did to far younger men. He seems to be relieved that he doesn't have to really run or prepare or pretend to be the President now that Governor Barracuda has stepped into his tired old shoes. All she had to say was: "WOW! WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY!" .
Unfortunately, the 'Cuda just ain't up to the job. (She couldn't even handle college on the Big Island of Hawaii, at lame-o rich kid tanning university HPU.) Being Commander in Chief of the planet's most deadly military machine, and enforcer for its' increasingly monstrous economy, the job of President of the United States of America, the richest and most powerful country in the history of the world, is a teeny bit more complicated than following orders from the oil companies and the Alaska Republican Party (population 100,000) while skinning a moose.
Unfortunately, the job requires that you take an interest in economic, trade, diplomatic and military strategy and tactics. It's not enough to be able to say, like a precocious five year old, "Oh, Russia, I know where that country is! It's right over there!" You have to know what it means to be playing chicken with them in the Black Sea, and now the Caribbean. It's not enough to be able to parrot the notions, "Bush good," and "terrorism bad."
Unfortunately for Sarah, and the world, you have to actually know what the so-called Bush Doctrine (more like a cocktail napkin) did to warp and wreck our military and foreign policy in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, Israel and Turkey, Poland and Georgia, North Korea and Burma. You have to read a few headlines, and maybe even a couple of paragraphs of the news stories that they put under them sometimes. You know, the wordy things next to the pictures? Or maybe you could even read one of those book thingies they used to have in the lieberry before you closed it down and burned all the books, in your dreams.
Unfortunately, this will all come out when Joe Biden debates Sarah Palin on national TV. Unless, as usual, they have one of those softball not-hardly-in-the-same-room affairs where no one actually says anything for a whole hour or more. If they did get to exchange ideas, once she ran out of "zingers" and pat phrases, Palin would be easy pickins for Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Biden. She could barely handle herself with warm and fuzzy Good Morning America eunuch Charlie Gibson. She kept calling him "CHAR-lie," like a first-year kindergarten teacher trying to control her class, and her anger at her class.
Unfortunately, the Repukelickin's have run raw rank incompetents and arrant fools for high office before. In fact, that's what they usually run. And they win. Stupid people love 'em, smart people get too disgusted to vote. But this time, the even lamer half of the ticket has the background of a bowling champion, and she WILL have to do the Biggest Job In The World for real in a matter of months. She crows arrogantly that she's ready for it. "Never batted an eye" when McCain asked her to run with him. That's her idea of wise consideration of complex problems fraught with danger: Never bat an eye. What's the female equivalent of ignorant stupid macho bravado? Macho bitcho?
Unfortunately, we may be about to find out. The illiterate beauty queen's "moose in the headlights" act may not play so well when she tries it on Hu or Putin, Kim or Khamenei. And they will come a-knockin' soon as McCain croaks. They're right next door, dontchya know?
' When everyone's attention was focusing on Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's less-than-reassuring interview about foreign policy with ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson, the Republican nominee for vice president was off delivering a speech in which she suggested a dramatically greater ignorance of recent history and international affairs than was on display in the interview. Speaking at Alaska's Fort Wainwright on Thursday, where she hailed the combat deployment of her son's Army unit to Iraq as a "righteous cause," Palin explicitly and repeatedly renewed the discredited claim that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was initiated as a necessary and credible response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. '
Well, actually, the TPM honchos freebies are for the Obama-Biden campaign on Georgia, as Josh claims it has a significant difference with McCain-Palin on this issue.
Here’s Josh:
It's true that Obama and Biden both favor Georgia's accession into NATO -- a very bad policy position, as I've argued before. However, I do not think that their positions and McCain's positions are equal. The best analogy I can point to is the nominal agreement on Iraq policy (embodied in the Iraq Liberation Act) between the Clinton administration and the most radical neocons in the late 1990s. Nominally, they shared a policy. In practice, however, it was one group that was completely nuts and gung-ho in favor of a reckless idea and another that was sort of dabbling in and passively favoring the same policy. Not that that is saying much in the latter's favor. But there's a big difference.
And, here’s my response:
Given the ultimate reason WHY both political campaigns of the “bipartisan foreign policy establishment” want Georgia in NATO — a three-letter word called “oil” — I think your “Clinton ain’t a neocon” analogy doesn’t carry the freight, Josh.
BOTH campaigns favor the same thing — NATO membership. Neither has proposed NATO observer status or some other “NATO lite.”
Both campaigns, in essence, we’re willing to back Georgia in a war against Russia.
(Either that, or they’re lying through their teeth.)
As I’ve said before on my blog, this bears a lot of parallels to Iraq, which Obama criticized in 2002. In this case, we’ve got a “friendly” regime already in power, it’s just a question of keeping it in power for oil access, which NATO membership would ramp up.
It breaks my heart to hear that people still think the US invasion and occupation of Iraq is a response to 9/11 or that it is "protecting" us from further violence.
How can we say that it is the "first" terrorism on this soil, when enslaved people were kidnapped, and brought on a hellish journey to experience "servitude" in this New World?
Were not the acts of domination (to be euphemistic) committed against the Indigenous people of this continent (and all of the islands)terrorism?
Thursday afternoon we first heard that there had been an agreement in principle struck by criminals and thieves masquerading as politicians in Washington to stick their greedy little fingers in your pocket and give Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke nearly a trillion dollars of your money to bail out their buddies on Wall Street.
McCain's stunt was not a stupid stunt. It was part of a shell game. A setup designed to con you. Designed to con you by giving top Democrats, Pelosi, Reid, et al a reason to support Bush's plans to rob you blind while looking like they are saving you from a Republican plan to kill the bailout. 
First, we have Nino getting a hug from Nadine, while fellow Supreme Court Justice David Souter DOES look like he’s going to hurl. Or crap his pants. Or like he's already crapped his pants.
HERE’S the best. Nadine making love eyes at Nino.
