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October 29, 2004
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We had recently the discussion on China. I don’t remember whether I have this link from our site. It’s from socialistworld.net, but is much richer on data than anything in the business press.
The surge in Chinese demand in 2003 drove world prices for industrial raw materials up by 73%. China consumed half the world’s concrete output, a quarter of its steel and one third of its iron ore.
Just imagine that. Consuming HALF the world’s concrete. They must be putting it literally on everything.
In 2003, China also became the world’s third largest market for motor vehicles with sales growing 60%. But here too, capacity growth is outstripping demand. Driven by herd mentality (a fear of being left behind), transnationals like GM, Volkswagen, Toyota and Honda have stormed into the Chinese market, announcing more than $20 billion of new investment in 2003. By 2007, capacity is forecast to reach 15 million vehicles, against sales of 7 million. In this case, China’s pool of unsold cars would be greater than the entire Japanese market (6 million cars per year).
So here you have it. China’s economy will hit the wall between 2005 and 2007. Car makers will have to reduce capacity to cut costs, autonomous investment will freeze. (Unless the sales are _underestimated_ in the forcast.)
Posted by: MarcinGomulka | Oct 29 2004 13:49 utc | 2
Life in Iraq Beats Vietnam Experience, Vets Say
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Oct 29 2004 14:06 utc | 3
@Marcin
If China has capacity for 15 million cars and in country sales of 7 million that leaves 8 million cars for exports. Even if they triple the wages, they will be cheaper than any car from US / Europe / Japan.
Could it be its not China hitting the wall, but car manufacturers in the “west”?
GM and Ford face ‘junk’ status
GM to idle 5 plants, 10,300 of its workers
Posted by: b | Oct 29 2004 14:29 utc | 4
An open letter to the American citizen – from the Pravda. My how the times change! here
As citizens of the United States of America, who have the power to endorse or to dismiss the policies of the Bush regime, you have a collective responsibility not only unto yourselves, but to the world, which will hold you accountable for your decision.
…
It is not for foreigners to dictate to the people of the United States of America how to vote, however since the media in the USA is controlled and since people do not have access to the current of opinion in the international community, it is an act of friendship to inform the citizens of the USA how the world feels about the state of affairs today and it is our right as citizens of the world to express our concern, for the Bush administration does not confine itself to its shores.
…
The raw truth is that Saddam Hussein was the man telling the truth and that George Bush was the one who “stiffed the world”.
…
George Bush and his government have managed to divorce Washington from the international community. He dare not step off an aircraft in most countries and even in the home of his closest ally, the UK, he was the only visiting Head of State to have to run out of Number 10 Downing Street by the back door, because he was too scared to leave by the front, given the fury of the demonstrators against him.
Posted by: Fran | Oct 29 2004 15:03 utc | 5
FTI for New York City Readers: George Butler is graciously allowing a free screening of Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry for those New Yorkers who missed this wonderful film in the theatres. It will be shown on Friday, October 29th, at 8 pm at The Frying Pan at Pier 63 on the Hudson River. The pier is tented, heated, and cozy, has a 12′ projection screen, and the bar and restaurant will be open for the thirsty and hungry. Pier 63 is located at 23rd Street and the West Side Highway, at the north end of Chelsea Piers, just after Basketball City. There is seating for 200, so bring friends and family.
Posted by: conchita | Oct 29 2004 15:04 utc | 6
The world is indeed upside down when the Pravda lives up to its name!
China: They’re in a crazy drive to increase their industrial capacity. My bet is that their goal is to have a national capacity superior to the American one. There was a time during the 19th century where Britain amounted to half the world’s industrial output. After WWII, the US was close to that as well, and was worth 50% of Earth’s GDP. Though the technological edge (or leadership) has been maintained in many areas (though not all, think robotics, stem cell, and some missile technologies), the rest of the world has seriously increased its abilities. China is on a build-up probably unseen since Japan during the late 19th, and that was on a smaller scale since the country was smaller with a smaller population. That seems awfully close to a collision course to me, btw.
I also would like to see what India is doing; would make an interesting comparison with China.
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Oct 29 2004 15:58 utc | 7
As for Billmon’s post……..
Looks like the Kerry machine is going into fifth gear.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Oct 29 2004 18:56 utc | 9
China Touches the Brakes With Higher Interest Rates. The dollar has to continue its slide downward. The US will have to raise interest rates to pay the federal debt. Adjustable Rate Mortgages will skyrocket. Homeowner Insurance rose abruptly due to 9/11 and stock market collapse. Gasoline and heating oil costs escalate. If I was a fiscal wizard, I would say that the only driving force in the US economy, the housing bubble, will collapse soon.
If the faith based, infallible GOP leadership continues on its way, the Bush Administration will get its wish and we all will be transported back to the Nineteenth Century to revisit the 1896 Depression.
Posted by: Jim S | Oct 29 2004 19:42 utc | 10
when seeing the headline – FBI investigating Halliburton died anyone else think Spiro Agnew? either Forbes-Heinz///Kerry wins outright or ’72 the sequel…
Posted by: jj | Oct 29 2004 19:53 utc | 11
The barkeep is back in fine form…and everything is wrote anout is so sadly true.
Posted by: ByteB | Oct 29 2004 20:07 utc | 12
billmon, please stay for a while, at least till after the election.
Posted by: annie | Oct 29 2004 20:07 utc | 13
With all this election stuff going on other important things are being overlooked.
EU leaders sign constitution
Posted by: Fran | Oct 29 2004 20:09 utc | 14
jj: The Spiro Agnew thought crossed my mind too. And boy, it’s nice to hear from B’mon again.
Posted by: ralphbon | Oct 29 2004 20:17 utc | 15
Could this be the October surprise?
Aljazeera airs Usama bin Ladin message
Posted by: Dan of Steele | Oct 29 2004 20:33 utc | 16
Dan of Steele
Given that OBL is an ex CIA employee and his family are major Carlyle investors………..yes
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Oct 29 2004 20:39 utc | 17
US security depends on policy, not Bush or Kerry: bin Laden tape
DOHA (AFP) – Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden told the American people that their security is not in the hands of either George W. Bush or his Democratic challenger John Kerry, but depends on US policy, in a video aired by Al-Jazeera TV.
Bin Laden also threatened new attacks against the United States similar to the September 11, 2001 strikes on New York and Washington, in a message to the Americans four days before the US presidential elections.
It was his first video appearance since the eve of the second anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Posted by: b | Oct 29 2004 20:58 utc | 18
Bin Ladin: Bush deceived Americans
Usama bin Ladin appeared on Aljazeera television on Friday accusing US President George W. Bush of deceiving the American people.
In an address just days ahead of the US presidential election, bin Ladin also said the US administration resembled “corrupt” Arab governments.
He accused Bush of reacting slowly to the September 11 attacks, saying: “I never thought that the supreme leader would leave 50,000 of his people in the two towers to face the terrifying events alone at the time they were in need for him.”
Refering to next week’s elections, he told Americans: “Your security is not in the hands of (Democratic candidate John) Kerry or (President George W.) Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands ….”
He accused Bush of “misleading” the American people four years after the September 11 attacks.
Claiming responsibility for the attacks, bin Ladin said, “we decided to destroy towers in America,” because “we want to regain the freedom of our nation.”
He added that “the reasons to repeat what happened” on 11 September 2001 remain.
Posted by: b | Oct 29 2004 21:00 utc | 19
Does a new video of bin Laden hurt or help Bush? Strange how nothing harms Bush; not a goddamn thing.
No two death suckers ever belonged more to each other than Bush and bin Laden, like Pynchon’s characters Tchitcherine and Enzian headed toward the Kirghiz Light.
“the world is ugly, and the people are sad.” Wallace Stevens
Posted by: slothrop | Oct 29 2004 22:30 utc | 20
How many votes for this as Oct. Surprise?
Al Qaeda American warns US streets will ‘run red with blood’ :
A MAN claiming to be an American member of al Qaeda has apparently warned that the US will be attacked “at any moment” and “the streets of America will run red with blood”.
http://207.44.245.159/article7171.htm
This art. made me remember how relieved I’ll feel when election day passes w/out a major Mossad etc. whoever terrorist action here at home. Keep reminding myself to breathe…breathe…breathe…
I’m also very nervous about the Irish-Iraqi woman who was kidnapped. Arab goon squads said they don’t have her, which makes sense – she’s spent last 30yrs. working to promote welfare of Iraqi citizens. Esp. after last Sun. expose in Italian press about Ital/Syrian intel. running an “Al Q-” outfit, I worry that similar outfit might want to slaughter her as justification for looming attack on Falluja, as Oct. surprise, or whatever. I pray for her safety.
Just hrd. Dave Lindroff report that Bu$hCo spent the last year fully staffing the dormant draft boards. They’re all ready to go now, just waiting for the already written legislation to be passed by Congress. I recall Forbes-Heinz///Kerry saying no draft would be passed while he’s Pres. – which translates into Eng. as it’ll be passed before he’s sworn in.
Posted by: jj | Oct 30 2004 0:48 utc | 21
Thought experiment (lifted from Letters To WRH):
The Guardian reports, “About 100,000 Iraqi civilians – half of them women and children – have died in Iraq since the invasion, mostly as a result of airstrikes by coalition forces, according to the first reliable study of the death toll from Iraqi and US public health experts.”
According to the CIA Factbook, the July 2004 population of Iraq was approx. 25,374,691. The July 2004 population of the United States was approx. 293,027,571. In other words, the U.S. population is 11.5 times larger than Iraq’s (a country about the size of California).
The 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians equate to 1,150,000 dead Americans. How would we feel if a foreign invader had killed one million, one hundred fifty thousand of our citizens in the past year and a half, with more killings and chaos every day, all based on barefaced lies?
Clearly the population-based equivalency of 11.5 to one is not understood. The conversion rate is instead in the other direction: the deaths of 100,000 Iraqis, mostly women and kids, don’t rate as much news coverage as one Nick Berg or four mercenaries. Same as it ever was, but still… feeling almost too disgusted to breathe.
Another October suprize: Eight U.S. Marines Killed, Nine Wounded in Iraq
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Eight U.S. marines were killed and nine wounded in action west of Baghdad on Saturday, the U.S. military said.
It gave no details on the circumstances of the deaths, which it said occurred in the restive western province of Anbar, which includes the rebel-held cities of Falluja and Ramadi.
The latest deaths bring to 858 the number of U.S. troops who have been killed in combat in Iraq. The total number of deaths, including accidents and other causes, is almost 1,120.
U.S. marine commanders said on Friday they were preparing for a major assault on Falluja and Ramadi.
U.S. warplanes and artillery pounded targets in Falluja amid clashes with insurgents on Saturday, witnesses said.
Posted by: b | Oct 30 2004 14:27 utc | 24
A poster at Steve Clemons
“I was in Iraq for a month last November-December, embedded mainly with the 101st in and around Mosul. Everything the soldier on the plane told Steve Clemons is absolutely true. Anger among troops at Bush was VERY high when I was there, and that was a time when insurgent attacks and U.S. casualties were about 1/3 as bad as things are now.
The biggest gripe the troops had was about the “missions” they were sent on several times a day. I was with a company in a small basecamp in a former social security building in downtown Mosul, surrounded by a jerry-built wall that wouldn’t have stopped the blast from a grenade, much less a car bomb. Troops were sent out day and night, on foot and in un-armored Humvees on so-called “presence patrols.” None of their Humvees had even canvas doors, and all of them were among the first Humvees every built, back in 1985 or so (how many reading this are still driving a 1985 car, and moreover, how many of you would be eager to go to war in a 1985 vehicle with several hundred thousand miles on it?)
I asked several colonels and the commanding general, MG David Petraeus, (currently in charge of training the new Iraqi “army”) what was the purpose of a “presence patrol,” as I had never heard the term before. Sheepishly, each of them found a way to say it was a form of “showing the flag” to the locals. I asked them what the actual combat purpose was — in other words, what did they actually expect such a “presence patrol” to accomplish, since during none of the patrols I went on (several dozen) were we given an actual “mission,” such as, go and look for this bad guy, or search for weapons, or go shoot the hell out of that house full of bad guys, because no one knew where any bad guys were, no one knew where any weapons were, no one knew where any houses full of bad guys were. No one knew ANYTHING about enemy insurgents, and even the commanders themselves admitted this. Again, sheepishly, the senior commanders hummed and hawed, but no one had a good answer as to what the actual combat purpose of a “presence patrol” was.
Several lieutenants and sergeants, and MANY lower ranking enlisted soldiers told me exactly what presence patrols were: they were make-work, do-nothing, chicken-shit operations. The troops had nothing else to do in Mosul, since they couldn’t find the guys who were setting IED’s all over the place and mortaring and shooting RPG’s at base camps with impunity, so they were told to go outside the walls and the wire and walk around or drive around for awhile and come back after a couple of hours…and then go out and do it again.
The only “patrols” that I went on that had an actual purpose were the so-called “logpac” missions twice a day, around 5 am and 4 pm, when three vehicles and about 10 guys had to drive five miles over to the Brigade Support Area to pick up breakfast and dinner from the KBR dining facility and bring it back to the company base camp. In other words, twice a day, ten guys had to risk their lives driving down the very streets where almost daily they found IED’s, in order to pick up food from the CIVILAN CONTRACTORS who lived and worked deep within a heavily fortified base camp and lived and worked in air conditioned comfort.
That’s what’s going on in Iraq right now. A bunch of bullshit, do-nothing, make-work chicken-shit so-called “combat missions” which amount to exactly nothing. A friend of mine here in LA recently returned from a month in Baghdad where he worked for one of the major networks. He told me the Army has pulled everyone out of the small base camps in the inner cities of Mosul and Baghdad (not to mention Fallujah, Ramadi, Najaf, etc etc) and put them in heavily fortified base camps some distance outside of town. When I was in Mosul, the 101st was sending out a total of about 200 so-called presence patrols a day. According to my friend, very, very few patrols go out these days, and as he put it, a combat patrol is considered a big success if no one gets killed or wounded.
Ask yourself this question: what was the last war we won when the measure of victory or success was that nothing happened on a combat mission and no one was killed or wounded?
As for the presence patrols in the 101st, the troops had their own name for them: Target patrols. As one sergeant told me, “You know, sir, where we’re the target?”
Lucian K. Truscott IV”
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Oct 30 2004 20:37 utc | 25
Moment of embarrassment story. Some Canadian friends of mine (serious sailors) passed through town yesterday on their way to points South. There were two couples, two boats — one was my e-pen-pals, the others were strangers to me. The strangers were somewhat elderly — in their 60’s, probably late 60’s though I had no occasion to ask: the gentleman is Dutch-immigrated-to-Canada, I believe, and the lady is Canadian-for-several-generations. Nice folks — plain serviceable boats, not floating gin palaces — modest lifestyle, seeing the world on a very small budget, marvelling at how expensive everything is in California. Anyway it is of the more elderly couple I speak now.
When I met them all at an outdoor cafe, the elderly lady was chastising her white-bearded, heavily-bespectacled husband for being too outspoken about his dislike for Bush and his outrage about the Iraq invasion. I walked up to their table partway into the disagreement, so I have no idea what he actually said. This is more or less what I overheard [OK, I confess I paused just a little bit to eavesdrop because it sounded interesting :-)] before they registered my presence, shut down the quarrel, and became graciously social in the blink of an eye:
She: “You can’t go around saying things like that here. You know how it is in America these days, they can lock you up for saying bad things about Bush. And we’re not citizens! For heaven’s sakes, at least think of me. What would I do if they locked you up without a lawyer or a phone call, and I didn’t know where they had taken you?” He: “Come on, I was just joking with the bus driver. And he agreed with me!” She: “But all these other people on the bus heard you, and besides, you don’t know that that bus driver isn’t some kind of informer. They had this program to make the postmen into informers, remember? And what if there was an off duty policeman on the bus and he overheard you? I just wish you’d be more careful what you say! You just don’t think!”
[Yes, she does talk a lot faster than he does :-)]
When we had conversed enough to set their minds at ease — i.e. that I was not a Bush supporter and in fact probably disliked him even more than they did, since he and his regime are a more clear and present danger to me — they spoke more freely again, though I couldn’t help noticing that they lowered their voices when saying the words “Bush” or “America” or “Iraq”.
This was embarrassing, yes, very embarrassing. It was embarrassing that foreign visitors now think of the US as one of those repressive states where you have to “watch what you say” and refrain from any remark that might be interpreted as criticism of the Government. It was embarrassing that they think we all must just be tamely accepting this kind of repression. It was embarrassing that they eyed me with kindly concern, with a kind of “gee, I’m glad I don’t have to live here, it must be so hard on you” compassion. I told them that there was a culture of resistance in this country that they would never see on US TV, that they would have to use the Internet to see photographs of the many demonstrations, art projects, legal battles, etc. being gamely undertaken in defiance of the regime. This reassured them — watching American TV for a couple of days had made them perceive America as a nation of zombies. It made me wonder, speaking as the anecdotal frog, just what water temperature I’ve become accustomed to.
Oh I forgot, the other thing the Canadians remarked upon was the number of homeless beggars on the streets. “It’s like Calcutta!” said the fiery old gentleman, “It’s a disgrace. How can the voters allow this to continue?” But the lady disagreed: “It’s not nearly so bad as Calcutta, dear. We were in Calcutta back in ’85, remember? It was much worse there.”
I don’t know about you, but being tactfully reassured that my hometown is “not nearly so bad as Calcutta” did not give me much cheer. And it did make me realise that over the last two decades I have indeed become accustomed to seeing beggars on the streets, homeless people huddling under bridges, soup kitchens in operation morning and evening, cars parked in obscure locations with people obviously living in them. More frog thoughts.
De,
My cantankerous anarchistically-bent husband has been saying for a long time now that the US more resembles Third World nations than those of the First World … death penalty including those sentenced to die as juveniles. Even many Third world countries don’t do that. The US is in a club of about five that do. Then there is the lack of universal healthcare. The US infant mortality rate is still abyssmal … and then of course there is the rampant theocratic groups wielding influence in government, and the rampant government corruption. These all stand right along with the number of people living in poverty, without any or adequate housing and food.
The next time some jingoistic bozo tells me that the “terr’ists” hate the US for all that the US has, I’m gonna laugh in his/her face.
Water in frog pot … more than lukewarm.
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Oct 30 2004 23:09 utc | 28
@DeA ; Your post is stunning…..I vote for Bernhard clipping out a parag & putting it on the front page margin… “You know how it is in America these days….”
Today I read art. by Sen. Tom Harkin on the return of the draft and have been thinking about how they’d impose it, or more precisely, how they’ll motivate it. Dems. prob. by call to hope & “our higher selves” – ie. Nat’l Service for all. Repugs will prob. use their usual terrorize the masses into compliance routine. Remember that garbage they recently aired by a supposedly Am. MaleMuslim Fascist promising blood running in the streets of America…. In’t that the Malevolent sound of the Repugs readying the draft?
Posted by: jj | Oct 30 2004 23:37 utc | 29
@Kate great Index idea you have there (as in Harper’s, or the BAS cover clock) — Frog Pot Temperature! It should be a web site… a big temp gauge labelled in deg C and F.
I had the good fortune today of spending a few minutes with a Polish couple, living in North Carolina. I am here to help Moveon hassle the “slackers” of record into voting. We go house-to-house according to a list of registered democrats who have skipped theur duty in the past.
Couple in question was glad to speak openly (sort of) given their experience from communist homeland. They are more open to my suggestions of crime in high places than the natives are. So few of the regular home-folks can bring themselves to face the truth. It hurts too much.
We are seeing numbers here, on early voters, that indicate a Dem blowout. This is in a state that has been written off as terminally repub by both parties. Cross your fingers. If No’calina goes Dem the election is in Kerry’s pocket.
Posted by: rapt | Oct 31 2004 1:14 utc | 31
That’s a rather heartening post rapt! It’s interesting actually that people from the Old Europe (or the so-called New Europe) are much more aware — whether cynically or with outrage — of corruption in high places. I sometimes dare to dream that the Cult of the Leader is dead in Euroland, that enough lousy experiences have been piled high over the decades to cure people, finally, of worshipping demagogues or imagining that all persons in government are angels of altruism. The Europeans have had to face quite a few very painful truths 🙁 Maybe practise helps? Americans, as we were chatting about earlier, a few threads ago, have not really come to terms with large ugly chapters of their history. OTOH an article I read a while ago about Kosovo-in-recovery suggested that denial was alive and well there. So maybe I should can that brief flash of optimism… Anyway, from our limited anecdotal data points here, on a scale of N-Korea to full glasnost, the US is still more free-feeling than the Soviet satellites or the Motherland back in the day; but less free-feeling than contemporary Canada. Maybe if BushCo is handed their pink slips we will claw our way back up the charts a bit closer to Canada and further from occupied Poland? here’s hoping. If Kerry doesn’t revoke the Patriot Act, dismantle whatever TIA is calling itself, and close down Gitmo, then I fear hoping is all we’ll be doing.
Very good idea, De … I think I’ll use it the All Spin Zone … a regular feature until we don’t need it anymore. Along those same lines … I made a few desktop images back when the film “Magnolia” debuted, in the style of The Weather Channel… a beautiful partly cloudy blue sky with frog raining down… the text read:
Chance of frogs, 80%.
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Oct 31 2004 2:45 utc | 33
I’m listening to Mark Crispin Miller on booktv now. He said Mike Medved told him something most interesting about Mike Savage (nee Weiner) – the Jewish Nazi who lost his tv show when he told a gay male caller he should get AIDS & die. (Savage still rants on right-wing radio.)
Allen Ginsberg’s papers @Stanford were just opened up. They contain love letters Savage wrote to Allen!!
For those who thought comparing these bastards to Nazis was a bit of hyperbole, Savage discussed Clinton in these terms – “vile, disgusting, soft….reminds him of the Weimar Republic.”
Posted by: jj | Oct 31 2004 8:41 utc | 34
De
Your story about the Canadian sailors is the saddest thing I have read in my life.
I can only hope the frog jummps out of the pot on Nov 2. Bush victory = boiled frog.
Posted by: Dan of Steele | Oct 31 2004 9:39 utc | 35
@ Fran
The signing of the constitution by the heads of state or government was more a formal thing they have been involved in the drafting process, the important part comes next when the parliaments of the member countries will ratify it. Some will also use referendums. It is mostly the referendums that is exciting, because the people doesn´t always follow the manuscript. If many small or some big country rejects it, there will be renegotiations, or it will be dropped.
Posted by: A swedish kind of death | Oct 31 2004 10:02 utc | 36
Kevin Drum exerpts the following from Ellen Goodman in today’s Boston Globe:
“As recently as two weeks ago, the Harris Poll showed that 41 percent of Americans still link Saddam Hussein with the hijackers. What’s more disheartening is the gender gap of misinformation: 51 percent of women compared with 29 percent of men connect Iraq and al Qaeda.”
Sooooo… on this particular score, American women are more credulous than American men. That’s dismaying.
Actually, that’s rather frightening, since the administration itself never argued that Hussein had shit to do with those hijackings. Where are these women (and men, for that matter) getting their information?
Yikes. We ARE a mess.
Posted by: Pat | Oct 31 2004 14:58 utc | 37
Wretchard at belmontclub.blogspot.com has an interesting piece up on Falluja and the whole enchilada of al Anbar.
Posted by: Pat | Oct 31 2004 15:38 utc | 38
why do people believe the lise of the bush cheney junta. well that is quite easy to answer. when all & i mean all the means of the mass media are controlled by the friends of bush who protects their interest in every way – & when this media without pause replays & replays the nonsense uttered by this criminal administration with its sole intent being to deceive the people – then it is not so surprising that people swallow that shit
& since fear is a factor that the demoniac sociopath karl rove is a ‘master’ of & since fear not honest argument or the facts themselves is the only way the bush cheny junta can win this election – then yes people will swallow this shit
& since their is clearly a symbiotic relationship between the bush cheny junta & the small minded cleric osama & their business is the business of fear. since the bush/osama are in the business of constructing the instititutions of fear & they do so with whatever means they have at hand – then yes people will swallow this shit
& when the people are forced by their culture to choose absolutes instead of multiplicity – then they go for the absolute no matter how blooddrenched that absolute is. when their culture reproduces all the time & with all the power at its command – that the people are simple & that they cannot make complex decisions & this is repeated, screamed at them, yelled at them by the cretinous commentators of cnn or the false fearorists of foxnews – all the time and at each moment – then some people will swallow this shit
when the real facts are hidden, are never uttered or are marginalises by the sanitised commentaries of clowns commanded from some godforsaken thinktank who take their orders directly from the whitehouse – then people will swallow this shit
& the ‘great military commander’ osama – who has only ‘won’ one moment & that moment which he admits himself was facillitated by the incompetence & uncaring bush – then what has he been capable of doing since then – close to fuck all
indonesia, spain, morroco, tunisia – were obviouslly done by people who have no connection with bin laden – they were ‘easy’ – they did not require great organisation or even much money if it come to that – i would say that the military aptititude was & remains minimal
i also think the old fascis is sick – very sick & i feel this video telocommanded from the white house will be his swansong. osama as a man is not a threat- his time has finished – the corrupt little cleric will live on in the minds of those enemies that the united states & its criminal policies creates. but as giap himself would have noted – the concrete conditions on the ground are creating american’s enemy at this moment – & these groups possess a military understanding that is even clear in this chaos
when they were used by the west as their proxy army against the iranians they began to lean their lessons militarily & as much as foxnewsbbccnn would like to paint arab military leaders specifically & arabs in general as forms of subhumans — they will soon leanr the lesson – that these people since antiquity have developed the means, moral, politically & militarily to defeat the forces of a u s criminal power
yes they may destroy fallujah or through brutality force a ‘peace’ but it will not last long – not long at all -they are condemned tyo defeat the americans – it is their destiny & it will be a bloodbath unlike any other
at this moment of time i advise a reading of the excellent ‘ bright shining lie’ about the soldier vann in vietnam & the reality of him & the reality of his time. he knew dishonesty? he knew incompetence & lack of comprehension but even he would have been surprised by the inhumanity & corruption inherent in this armed invasion of a sovereign state
i imagine even from his position as a soldier, as a cia aid worker that he would have been horrified by the lies that are being told – there are soldiers like him who refuse to swallow this shit that the softbellied commentators crap out of their mouths so easily behinf their desks in atlanta & elsewhere
& pity the population that swallows this shit knowing it is a lie because there will be bill to be paid
but it won’t be the errand boy osama there to collect it – there will the deaths in their thousands or tens of thousands of americans soldiers in a folly that need never have been – that will be the bill for the americans
& yes the salafists & their friends – small tho they may be – will effect actions all over the world – that will be terrifying in their resonance & there will be recruitment throughout the islamic world of people who would have never thought of this engagement & that will continue until the world is drawn into the american psychopaths deathwish
i am frightened for myself & i am frightened for others. & my sick body does not support well these fears i utter
but whomever can think that we are in a normal time – with normal possibilities is out of their mind – they speak from the bible of tom clancy – wherre all americans have doctoral degrees from harvard, postdoctoral workl at georgetown, bodies of steeel, steel pricks that could fuck god, wives who run grande hospitals, children that obey – where everyone sleep with a glock semi automatique under the bed – this american created by the popular novel is directly proportionated to the actual decadance of that same american
it is so strange – the very people you have victimised – whether it was we dubois, paul robeson or a fred hampton offered their hearts to renew you as a people – to clean your hearts from the sickness that you allow to invade you – it is from your oppressed that the voice of reason of moderation has often come – their natural decency & their real devotion to being citizens – cannot be hidden by the sordid shot that a bill o reilly or his friend wolf blitzer would like to call the truth
their ‘truth’ is shit
& to swallow it on & on & forever to kindom come will lead not only to your country’s isolation but finally to the extinguishing of its evil imperial desires
still steel
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 31 2004 16:40 utc | 39
gret analysis r’giap
will lead not only to your country’s isolation but finally to the extinguishing of its evil imperial desires
Those desires will probably only vanish after some nuclear incident which I hope will never happen. I would be happy enough if those desires are supressed by economical means and I see a chance for that.
Posted by: b | Oct 31 2004 17:13 utc | 40
@rgiap I have never read quite such a succinct, apt, and devastating deflation of the Clancy school of fantasy literature! [obviously he inherits from his literary and intellectual fore-runner Ayn Rand — the obsession with cartoonish superheroes and material wealth, hardbodied “superfitness”, and all the rest.] … anyway, I almost spit milk on the keyboard (late breakfast here) due to serious laughter attack, when I got to your para about the Clancy version of America — well done mon ami
merci
dea
& though very fragile
my thought & force
with you
still steel
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 31 2004 18:37 utc | 42
“The coalition’s handling of this crisis is wrong. It’s like someone who fired bullets at his horse’s head just because a fly landed on it; the horse died and the fly went away,”
says Iraqi President Yanwar Link
Posted by: b | Nov 1 2004 15:51 utc | 43
Maybe there is hope!!!
Upoc Poll of Mobile Phone Users Shows Kerry as Favorite for Tuesday’s Presidential Election – More Than 16,000 Respondents (More Than 6% of the Total Sample) Give Kerry 57% to Bush’s 26%
Posted by: Fran | Nov 1 2004 18:35 utc | 45
Interesting! how the time change, now there are Russian and Polish elections observers traveling to the US.
World election monitors face obstacles at U.S. polls
For the first time, machinery created at U.S. government prompting to foster the spread of democratic elections throughout the former Soviet bloc will be used to assess how freely and fairly America chooses its chief executive.
…
Under its commitments as an OSCE member, the United States is required to invite the outside scrutiny of its electoral process.
What the observers will be able to see firsthand, though, is still unclear.
Konrad Olszewski has flown to Florida as part of the international team, but the elections adviser from Poland said Saturday he might not be able to get very close to the ballot box.
Olszewski and another foreign observer from Canada were received courteously the previous day by Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood but told that under the laws of this state poll-watchers must be registered voters in the county where they desire to observe the voting, and must submit written applications in advance, said Alia Faraj, Hood’s spokeswoman.
…
During a trip last week to Pennsylvania, Bruce said he and a fellow election monitor from Russia had tried to meet with that state’s secretary of state and director of elections in Harrisburg, the state capital, but had to settle for a telephone conversation with the secretary’s chief of staff.
“There is so little awareness of the OSCE here,” Bruce said. “People in the Balkans know a lot more about us.” In former Soviet republics, including Armenia and Azerbaijan, where the organization has sent election observers, they’ve been received by the prime minister, Bruce said,
…
The idea of outside observers at a U.S. election doesn’t sit well with all American politicians.
“It strikes me as somewhat presumptuous that someone from a foreign land who is unfamiliar with our institutions and traditions would come in here and act as judge and jury on our elections,” said Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas.
Rep. Ron Paul seems a little touchy – it seems he believes that the US understands how other countries function and can judge, but that foreigners are not able to understand and judge how the US functions.
Posted by: Fran | Nov 1 2004 19:31 utc | 46
A swedish kind of death:
I still think the signing of the constitution is noteworthy. Remember, just a while ago they could not even agree on something to sign, and now almost below the radar they have signed it – even Blair. So this is some progress. But you are right, the exciting part will be the referendums.
Posted by: Fran | Nov 1 2004 19:35 utc | 47
A new post by Riverbend – and I believe that it is important not to forget what is going on in Iraq over all this election drama or is it comedy?
Help Someone…
Posted by: Fran | Nov 1 2004 20:26 utc | 48
@annie you and me both. checking electoral-vote.com every hour or so. shenanigans in Florida — nationally known reporter James Henry punched, knocked down and arrested for taking pictures of voters standing in line in Florida… one more lawsuit for the coming weeks. at voteprotect.org 9500 reported incidents of voting irregularity — malfing evoting machines, voter intimidation, “lost” forms, etc. their server will be staggering by tomorrow morning. Doug Ireland smells a Bush win, but a recent SMS poll of the youth vote suggests a surprise turnout for Kerry among the draft-age set (gee, what a surprise — watch out kids, you may get drafted anyway but thanks for the vote). Canadian friends ask me whether they should prepare to be invaded if BushCo remains in power… I feel like getting drunk, which is not my wont… and it’s late on the West Coast and the Moon is empty, I’m drinking alone (virtually speaking) and watching the polls with fascinated dread. it’s kinda like watching an ATC meltdown in slo-mo, wondering if those 2 747s are going to just barely miss, or….?
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