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US vs China/Venezuela/Iran ?
In this morning’s Financial Times: Venezuela enlists Iran to steer oil to China
Venezuela has enrolled Iran to help it accelerate a strategy to steer its oil exports to China and away from its traditional market of the US. A team of traders from Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state-owned oil company, is to be trained in London by Iranian advisers in how to best place oil in Asian markets, according to industry sources. The action is part of efforts by Venezuela, the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, to strengthen ties with China at the expense of the US, with whom relations are strained again after two-years of calm. Iran is Venezuela’s closest ally in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which at the weekend agreed to keep output quotas unchanged in the short term to support oil prices.
So, what should we make of this?
Cont. reading: US vs China/Venezuela/Iran ?
US’s best weapon against terrorists: France
It is not because we make fun of the “War on Terra” and criticise the catastrophic war in Iraq that the fight against terrorism is not real and does not need to be pursued. Quite to the contrary. Of course, and despite all the public pronouncements that “everything has changed”, and criticisms of “September 10” mindset, this is mostly a matter of law enforcement and intelligence gathering. And in that business, despite the occasional noise from the usual suspects, guess who the US can count on more than any other country?
France.
Cont. reading: US’s best weapon against terrorists: France
Iraq Election
Writing elections in italics seams appropriate to me because an election
- where candidate names are unknown to the voters
- lists are based on ethnic/religious divisions
- the real political questions, occupation and future economic system, are not addressed by those lists
- voters in significant regions will not have a chance to vote
will not give a decent, sustainable legitimation to those elected.
I am happy for those who can vote, but I believe their hopes will prove too high. Those who vote have less influence, than those who count the votes and the outcome is probably already determined.
Here are some Iraq blogs with opinions about these election
Raed Jarrar esp. the January 27, 2005 entry
His mother, Faiza Jarra
Free Iraqi
Free Iraq
Not so Useless Speculation
Barfly SusanG has an interesting find and blogs about it in her diary at DailyKos.
Jeff Gannon, a Washington journalist for an obscure news agency named Talon and known for softball questions on White House news conferences may be the one who came up with the memo that uncovered CIA agent Plame in the Wilson / Nigeran Uran / Iraqi mushroom cloud case.
Cont. reading: Not so Useless Speculation
Billmon: Major Strasser Has Been Shot
Billmon: Signs of the Times
Signs from not only the NY Times
(Billmon’s second quote is from January 29, 2005)
Billmon: A “New” Form of Capitalism
Billmon on Bill Gates’ China vision
Alberto Gonzales
Open Thread 05-12
Thththe old one is filling up really quickly…
Billmon: 2 New Posts
How many times do we say “never again”?
Billmon: Newspeak
The Facilitators
Is it impossible to characterize the Democratic Party as an opposition party? To me they look just like relative stupid facilitator of the untamed fire of freedom ®
Too many Republican senators allow Bush’s top aides "to get away with lying" said Sen. Mark Dayton, a Democrat who opposed the war and will face reelection next year in the swing state of Minnesota.
WaPo: Democrats Criticize Rice Over Iraq War
—
Condoleezza Rice was easily confirmed as secretary of state today, overcoming charges from some Democrats that she had been a disingenuous architect of a failed administration policy in Iraq
…
Twelve of the Senate’s 44 Democrats and the chamber’s lone independent, James Jeffords of Vermont, voted against Ms. Rice. No Republican voted against her.
NYT: Senate Confirms Rice as Secretary of State on 85-13 Vote
What is there to loose for 32 democrat senators by voting against Rice?
Indeed:
"In some cases tame opposition parties are created by the governing groups in order to create an impression of democratic debate."
This seems to characterize the state of the union if we read this international policy position one Neodem uttered some weeks ago (copyright Sharansky):
"In light of the fact that we’re now in Iraq, with all the problems in terms of perceptions about America that have been created, us launching some missile strikes into Iran is not the optimal position for us to be in," he said.
"On the other hand, .. I guess my instinct would be to err on not having those weapons in the possession of the ruling clerics of Iran. …"
Link
Is there any chance for a future progressive and rational US policy? I doubt and fear the consequences.
Billmon: 40 Acres and a Mule
New Whiskey Bar post,
and I did miss the one that Billmon posted before The Vision of Democracy and after Hate Rally –
Billmon: The Least of These
Open Thththread
Billmon: A Vison of Democracy
Billmon on how other nations adopt the Bush vision of democracy.
368 + 80 = 427
– US budget deficit estimated at 368 billion dollars in fiscal 2005
The US government will run a budget deficit of 368 billion dollars in the current fiscal year, excluding costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office(CBO) predicted Tuesday.
– Bush Seeks $80 Bln for Military Operations
President Bush on Tuesday asked for more than $80 billion in new funding for military operations this year in Iraq and Afghanistan, shattering initial cost estimates and pushing the total for both conflicts to nearly $300 billion so far.
– W.House Projects 2005 Deficit at $427 Billion
The White House estimated on Tuesday that the U.S. budget deficit for 2005, including an extra $80 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan operations, will total $427 billion.
Please take note: 368 + 80 = 427
No to Gonzales
Moon of Alabama wholeheartedly supports the call by dailyKos to oppose Gonzales’s nomination as AG. Torture is evil, it is illegal and an explicit proponent of torture should certainly not be AG of the US.
(The link to this post has not been provided to dailyKos. See below the fold for the earlier version of that post and the comments section for the discussion on whether we should have linked or not)
Cont. reading: No to Gonzales
“You forgot Poland”
An interesting thing is happening with Poland in Europe, and by extension, with the US. Long seen as the US’s best ally in Europe, the clear leader of "new Europe", grateful for the long fight against communism and for freedom in the cold war, and trusting US-led institutions such as NATO more than wimpy European ones like the European Union, Poland was to be America’s new privileged partner in continental Europe and a useful ally in the fight against Franco-German plots to build an independent Europe.
Well, here’s the news – thanks to America’s magisterial fuck up in Iraq (where Poland is the third largest member of the CoW), and thanks to the relentless and cash-rich grind of the Brussels bureaucratic machine, Poland is having second thoughts. Here’s how.
Cont. reading: “You forgot Poland”
Still A Democracy?
In its recent issue ‘Die Zeit’, my favorite German weekly, published an essay by Paolo Flores D’Arcais, an Italian philosopher, asking:
Is America Still a Democracy?
In the United States the majorities populism is threatening freedom
Cont. reading: Still A Democracy?
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