The flow of history has cut a new and unexpected channel and a new historical course has been carved out.
For month and months and months I have been telling all my friends that the election for President of the United States is rigged and John McCain will be elected the next President. For me the ruling class was content to continue looting the country ad infinitum and John McCain was going to keep their party going.
Predicting human events is fraught with surprises and this election year is beyond exception. The inability of the Bush administration to contain the continued collapses of the financial markets coupled with the the growing recognition that John McCain has no answers makes it clear to any one with half a brain that we are at a monumental crossroads in American history.
This is what we are facing: deflation of commodity value which means general world wide depression or hyper-inflation which translates into the collapse of the the value of the dollar. Will we have lots of cash but nothing to buy or will we have lots of cash which can’t buy anything? In either case, we the people are in deep kimchee.
A young Afro-American with one cultural foot in Africa and another in America will be the next President of the United States. I no longer have any doubt about the truth of that sentence. The issue now is will Barack Obama succeed ala Franklin Roosevelt and save capitalism from it’s greedy excesses or will he be another clueless free market ideologue like Herbert Hoover and John McCain forever trapped in a business cycle like Sisyphus fatally pushing a rock up hill only to have the rock roll down hill forever and ever. Will America, realizing its historical democratic and republican self, evolve from a dog-eat-dog capitalist economy into a social democracy or will the ungodly rich continue to rob the people in an endless but unstated and officially unrecognized class war.
Better yet could America evolve farther into a full blown Socialist society where justice prevails over profit and all are free to decide their futures; where no one is at the mercy of the economically rich and politically powerful? Or will sociialism come by Revolution? By 2012 we will know.
October 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
McCain the Maverick?
According to the American Heritage Dictionary a maverick is a lone dissenter, a politician, who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates. On October 18, 2001 McCain was on the David Letterman Show where he joined the Bush-Cheney invade Iraq chorus:
LETTERMAN: How are things going in Afghanistan now?
MCCAIN: I think we’re doing fine .... I think we’ll do fine. The second phase — if I could just make one, very quickly — the second phase is Iraq. There is some indication...some of this anthrax may — and I emphasize may — have come from Iraq.”
A maverick is a nonconformist, independent, loner. One that refuses to abide by the dictates of or resists adherence to a group; a dissenter. On October 28, 2001 McCain was interviewed on CNN where he said,“... Shed a tear and then get on with the business of killing our enemies as quickly as we can and as ruthlessly as we must.....I'm proud of the president and the job that he and his team have done and are doing....I have great confidence in the leadership of this country....the important factor here is that Saddam Hussein continues to acquire weapons of mass destruction. There are credible reports of involvement between Iraqi administration officials, Iraqi officials, and the terrorists. There's very little doubt about what Saddam Hussein is trying to do.”
A maverick is independent in thought and action or exhibiting such independence: maverick politicians; a maverick decision. On December 6, 2001 when asked if the United States might need 100,000 or more troops to invade Iraq, McCain told MSNBC, that a larger invasion force was not necessary agreeing with the positions taken by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and directly contradicting Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki policy of “Great Efficiency, Great Force.”.
The word maverick is thought to be an in allusion to Samuel A. Maverick (1803-70), Texas cattle owner who was negligent in branding his calves. The word evolved from "...calf or yearling found without an owner's brand," to a sense of an "individualist, an unconventional person, masterless."
An unbranded range animal is traditionally considered the property of the first person who brands it. If John McCain and Sara Palin were mavericks, it now appears they have been rounded up by the far right of the Republican Party and both have had the Celtic Cross burnt onto their rumps.
September 2008
LETTERMAN: How are things going in Afghanistan now?
MCCAIN: I think we’re doing fine .... I think we’ll do fine. The second phase — if I could just make one, very quickly — the second phase is Iraq. There is some indication...some of this anthrax may — and I emphasize may — have come from Iraq.”
A maverick is a nonconformist, independent, loner. One that refuses to abide by the dictates of or resists adherence to a group; a dissenter. On October 28, 2001 McCain was interviewed on CNN where he said,“... Shed a tear and then get on with the business of killing our enemies as quickly as we can and as ruthlessly as we must.....I'm proud of the president and the job that he and his team have done and are doing....I have great confidence in the leadership of this country....the important factor here is that Saddam Hussein continues to acquire weapons of mass destruction. There are credible reports of involvement between Iraqi administration officials, Iraqi officials, and the terrorists. There's very little doubt about what Saddam Hussein is trying to do.”
A maverick is independent in thought and action or exhibiting such independence: maverick politicians; a maverick decision. On December 6, 2001 when asked if the United States might need 100,000 or more troops to invade Iraq, McCain told MSNBC, that a larger invasion force was not necessary agreeing with the positions taken by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and directly contradicting Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki policy of “Great Efficiency, Great Force.”.
The word maverick is thought to be an in allusion to Samuel A. Maverick (1803-70), Texas cattle owner who was negligent in branding his calves. The word evolved from "...calf or yearling found without an owner's brand," to a sense of an "individualist, an unconventional person, masterless."
An unbranded range animal is traditionally considered the property of the first person who brands it. If John McCain and Sara Palin were mavericks, it now appears they have been rounded up by the far right of the Republican Party and both have had the Celtic Cross burnt onto their rumps.
September 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The DNC and the DLC
In an article by Steven Thomma titled “Liberal Positions Gaining Popularity” pub- lished Friday 22 August 2008 in the McClatchy Newspapers, Thomma says (Demo- crats) are, in short, more liberal than at any time in a generation and eager to end the Reagan era, which dominated not just the other party, but also their own, for nearly three decades (italics added). Thomma last phrase is the key to understanding why Ba- rack Obama choose Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate and why Hillary Clinton was passed over.
Earlier I had argued that two distinct political parties were vying for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States; the more liberal Democratic National Committee (DNC) was represented by Obama while the the Reagan-isk Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) championed Hillary Clinton. At the end of my June letter I wrote, “If Barack Obama becomes the DNCʼs Presidential nominee, will he chose another DNCʼer for Vice President or will he pick a DLC type? The answer to that question will tell us how unified the Democrats really are.”
When I wrote those words I assumed that since the DLC had won two presidential elections (1992 and 1996) and had put forth two more well funded presidential campaigns (DLCers Gore and Lieberman 2000 and DLCer Kerry and Edwards 2004), the DLC was still a mighty force in national politics. Despite the national news mediaʼs obsession with identity politics and itʼs focus on empty distinctions, Obamaʼs choice of Joe Biden, who is not a DLC member, tells us that should the DNC take the presidency in November, the DLC and perhaps after nearly thirty years, reactionary Reaganism, will be quietly declared over and done with.
Thomma concludes his article by writing, “Republican George W. Bush turned into one of the most unpopular presidents in modern history. Just as American revulsion at Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1980 helped usher in the Reagan era, rejection of the Bush era could help swing the pendulum the other way.” I might add the election of Obama-Biden will also usher out the Clintons once and for all.
August 2008
Earlier I had argued that two distinct political parties were vying for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States; the more liberal Democratic National Committee (DNC) was represented by Obama while the the Reagan-isk Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) championed Hillary Clinton. At the end of my June letter I wrote, “If Barack Obama becomes the DNCʼs Presidential nominee, will he chose another DNCʼer for Vice President or will he pick a DLC type? The answer to that question will tell us how unified the Democrats really are.”
When I wrote those words I assumed that since the DLC had won two presidential elections (1992 and 1996) and had put forth two more well funded presidential campaigns (DLCers Gore and Lieberman 2000 and DLCer Kerry and Edwards 2004), the DLC was still a mighty force in national politics. Despite the national news mediaʼs obsession with identity politics and itʼs focus on empty distinctions, Obamaʼs choice of Joe Biden, who is not a DLC member, tells us that should the DNC take the presidency in November, the DLC and perhaps after nearly thirty years, reactionary Reaganism, will be quietly declared over and done with.
Thomma concludes his article by writing, “Republican George W. Bush turned into one of the most unpopular presidents in modern history. Just as American revulsion at Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1980 helped usher in the Reagan era, rejection of the Bush era could help swing the pendulum the other way.” I might add the election of Obama-Biden will also usher out the Clintons once and for all.
August 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
“Finance is a gun and politics is knowing when to pull the trigger.”
In the movie Godfather Part III Michael Corleone is trying to leave his mafia connections behind by moving his looted wealth into legitimate businesses. In a moment of candor Michael angrily tells his sister Connie, “The higher I go in society, the more crooked it becomes!”
With oil at $135.00 per barrel and gasoline approaching $5.00 per gallon, there has been a lot of Sturm und Drang among politicians over what is causing these prices. One thing is clear, explaining the entire mess as being due to supply and demand is simply insulting. The actual cause for high oil prices are many and involve a confluence of events that begin with that secret conference Vice President Cheney had with the energy industry during the spring of 2001. During those meetings Cheney agreed to rein in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The CFTC is the federal agency that regulates oil trading. The CFTC in 2001 began exempting financial firms from rules that limit speculative buying. The CFTC has also waived regulations on U.S. investors who trade commodities on overseas markets, allowing them to accumulate large quantities of the future oil supply by making purchases on lightly regulated foreign exchanges. Oil futures are then bundled into securities and sold off to investors, mostly big banks and hedge funds.
After deregulating the oil futures market, Bush and Cheney conned the American people into the Iraq war and financed the war on borrowed money thereby weakening the dollar. Since oil is purchased on the international market in dollars, a weaken dollar drove the price of oil up. On top of all these high finance shenanigans, the Federal Reserve continued following it’s policy of low interest rates. Other central banks then drove up their interest rates in order to attract more investment in their currencies which further weaken the dollar. Then Saudi Arabia took a several hundred billion dollar drubbing in the United States sub-prime real estate market.
Finally, the Bush government is pumping millions of barrels of oil into the Strategic Oil Reserve (SOR). If Bush instead pumped out a million barrels per day over the entire summer, the SOR would by depleted by a mere 15% and oil prices would come way down.
Near the climax of the Godfather Part III, Don Lucchesi, interlocker of the Italian political establishment and the mafia, tells Michael Corleone’s bastard nephew Vincent Mancini, “Finance is a gun and politics is knowing when to pull the trigger.” In our America today George Bush and the political establishment are pulling the trigger but only a bang flag pops out.
June 2008
With oil at $135.00 per barrel and gasoline approaching $5.00 per gallon, there has been a lot of Sturm und Drang among politicians over what is causing these prices. One thing is clear, explaining the entire mess as being due to supply and demand is simply insulting. The actual cause for high oil prices are many and involve a confluence of events that begin with that secret conference Vice President Cheney had with the energy industry during the spring of 2001. During those meetings Cheney agreed to rein in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The CFTC is the federal agency that regulates oil trading. The CFTC in 2001 began exempting financial firms from rules that limit speculative buying. The CFTC has also waived regulations on U.S. investors who trade commodities on overseas markets, allowing them to accumulate large quantities of the future oil supply by making purchases on lightly regulated foreign exchanges. Oil futures are then bundled into securities and sold off to investors, mostly big banks and hedge funds.
After deregulating the oil futures market, Bush and Cheney conned the American people into the Iraq war and financed the war on borrowed money thereby weakening the dollar. Since oil is purchased on the international market in dollars, a weaken dollar drove the price of oil up. On top of all these high finance shenanigans, the Federal Reserve continued following it’s policy of low interest rates. Other central banks then drove up their interest rates in order to attract more investment in their currencies which further weaken the dollar. Then Saudi Arabia took a several hundred billion dollar drubbing in the United States sub-prime real estate market.
Finally, the Bush government is pumping millions of barrels of oil into the Strategic Oil Reserve (SOR). If Bush instead pumped out a million barrels per day over the entire summer, the SOR would by depleted by a mere 15% and oil prices would come way down.
Near the climax of the Godfather Part III, Don Lucchesi, interlocker of the Italian political establishment and the mafia, tells Michael Corleone’s bastard nephew Vincent Mancini, “Finance is a gun and politics is knowing when to pull the trigger.” In our America today George Bush and the political establishment are pulling the trigger but only a bang flag pops out.
June 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Hillary and Joe Lieberman
Traditionally only two political parties have dominated the competition for power in the United States . What most Americans don’t realize is that since 1985 a third political party has been vying for power and has actually won the Presidency of the United States. The American corporate media ignores this third party pretending that is is nothing more than a wing of one of the other parties. On the far right the Republican National Committee (RNC) dominates. In the center, because there are no viable left-wing social democratic political parties in the United States, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) rules the roost. In between, employing the strategy of “Triangulation” the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) has staked out its piece of the political landscape.
The present Chairman of the DLC is Harold Ford. Mr. Ford last year lost his bid to represent Tennessee in the United States Senate. Past DLC chairs reads like a whose-who of conservative democrats: Sam Nunn, Bill Clinton, John Breaux, Joseph Lieberman, Evan Bayh, and Tom Vilsack. Prominent national DLC members today include Max Baucus, Hillary Clinton, Kent Conrad, Byron Dorgan, Terry McAuliffe, John Edwards, Rahm Emanuel, Al Gore, and John Kerry. California DLC members are Juanita Millender-McDonald, Loretta Sanchez, Adam Schiff, Susan Davis, Cal Dooley, Ellen Tauscher, Gavin Newsom, Jane Harmon, Lois Copps, and Dianne Feinstein.
Paul Wellstone, criticizing the DLC said,"I'm from the democratic wing of the Democrat Party." According to Howard Dean, the present chair of the DNC, DLC operatives actively worked to sabotage his candidacy for the US Presidency in 2004. Senator Barack Obama opposes the DLC. In 2003, he discussed why his positions against NAFTA, the War in Iraq, and in support of universal healthcare were at odds with the DLC, saying that "...these positions make me an unlikely candidate for membership in the DLC. That is why I am not currently, nor have I ever been, a member of the DLC."
It was reported in the New York press last summer that Hillary Clinton quietly funneled money into fellow DLC’er Joe Lieberman’s successful campaign to become an Independent Democratic representing Connecticut in the U.S. Senate.
If Barack Obama becomes the DNC’s Presidential nominee, will he chose another DNC’er for Vice President or will he pick a DLC type? The answer to that question will tell us how unified the Democrats really are.
June 2008
P.S. Obama picked the DNC Joe Biden for his Vice President. After winning the election in November 2008, Obama stacked his cabinet and under secretariats with DLCer.
The present Chairman of the DLC is Harold Ford. Mr. Ford last year lost his bid to represent Tennessee in the United States Senate. Past DLC chairs reads like a whose-who of conservative democrats: Sam Nunn, Bill Clinton, John Breaux, Joseph Lieberman, Evan Bayh, and Tom Vilsack. Prominent national DLC members today include Max Baucus, Hillary Clinton, Kent Conrad, Byron Dorgan, Terry McAuliffe, John Edwards, Rahm Emanuel, Al Gore, and John Kerry. California DLC members are Juanita Millender-McDonald, Loretta Sanchez, Adam Schiff, Susan Davis, Cal Dooley, Ellen Tauscher, Gavin Newsom, Jane Harmon, Lois Copps, and Dianne Feinstein.
Paul Wellstone, criticizing the DLC said,"I'm from the democratic wing of the Democrat Party." According to Howard Dean, the present chair of the DNC, DLC operatives actively worked to sabotage his candidacy for the US Presidency in 2004. Senator Barack Obama opposes the DLC. In 2003, he discussed why his positions against NAFTA, the War in Iraq, and in support of universal healthcare were at odds with the DLC, saying that "...these positions make me an unlikely candidate for membership in the DLC. That is why I am not currently, nor have I ever been, a member of the DLC."
It was reported in the New York press last summer that Hillary Clinton quietly funneled money into fellow DLC’er Joe Lieberman’s successful campaign to become an Independent Democratic representing Connecticut in the U.S. Senate.
If Barack Obama becomes the DNC’s Presidential nominee, will he chose another DNC’er for Vice President or will he pick a DLC type? The answer to that question will tell us how unified the Democrats really are.
June 2008
P.S. Obama picked the DNC Joe Biden for his Vice President. After winning the election in November 2008, Obama stacked his cabinet and under secretariats with DLCer.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
"an ass-kissing little chicken shit"
Robert Burns writing for the Associated Press in an articlepublish on January 5, 2007 confirmed “President Bush is putting the finishing touches on his new Iraq plan, reshuffling his military leadership in the war-torn country.” The President’s new Iraq plan known as the “Surge” would include an additional “...9,000 troops to be deployed to the Baghdad capital alone.” Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, and Gen. George Casey, the chief general in Iraq would be replaced by Adm. William Fallon, the top U.S. commander in the Pacific and Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, who headed the effort to train Iraqi security forces.
Writing in The Nation, Michael Klare reported on January 8, 2007 Gen. John Abizaid and Gen. George Casey were being replaced because they, “...had opposed an increase in US troops in Iraq and argued for shifting greater responsibility for the fighting to Iraq forces, thereby permitting a gradual American withdrawal....If engagement with Iran and Syria was even remotely on the agenda, Abizaid is exactly the man you'd want on the job at Centcom....if you're thinking instead of using force against Iran and/or Syria, then Admiral Fallon is exactly the man you'd want at Centcom.”
Nine months later Gareth Porter writing for Inter Press Service in an article titled “ Fallon Derided Petraeus, Opposed the Surge,” (9/12/2007) Porter writes Petraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March. Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chicken shit" and added, "I hate people like that", Fallon further demonstrated his independence from the White House when he refused in February to go along with a proposal to send a third naval carrier task force to the Persian Gulf. Fallon also privately vowed that there would be no war against Iran on his watch, implying that he would quit rather than accept such a policy.
On March 11, 2008 The New York Times reported, “Adm. William J. Fallon, the top American commander in the Middle East is retiring early.”
On March 13, 2008 The U.S. Navy announced the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) gets underway for a scheduled seven-month deployment to the 5th Fleet area of Operations.
May 2008
Writing in The Nation, Michael Klare reported on January 8, 2007 Gen. John Abizaid and Gen. George Casey were being replaced because they, “...had opposed an increase in US troops in Iraq and argued for shifting greater responsibility for the fighting to Iraq forces, thereby permitting a gradual American withdrawal....If engagement with Iran and Syria was even remotely on the agenda, Abizaid is exactly the man you'd want on the job at Centcom....if you're thinking instead of using force against Iran and/or Syria, then Admiral Fallon is exactly the man you'd want at Centcom.”
Nine months later Gareth Porter writing for Inter Press Service in an article titled “ Fallon Derided Petraeus, Opposed the Surge,” (9/12/2007) Porter writes Petraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March. Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chicken shit" and added, "I hate people like that", Fallon further demonstrated his independence from the White House when he refused in February to go along with a proposal to send a third naval carrier task force to the Persian Gulf. Fallon also privately vowed that there would be no war against Iran on his watch, implying that he would quit rather than accept such a policy.
On March 11, 2008 The New York Times reported, “Adm. William J. Fallon, the top American commander in the Middle East is retiring early.”
On March 13, 2008 The U.S. Navy announced the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) gets underway for a scheduled seven-month deployment to the 5th Fleet area of Operations.
May 2008
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