But [Bush] expressed astonishment that people constantly refer to "Bush’s plan": "I haven’t laid out a plan," he said. "I’ve laid out some ideas that I think ought to be considered for a plan, and that’s what’s important for people to know."
Bush Won’t Budge on Private Accounts about a March 15, 2005 briefing

 

THE PRESIDENT: I have not laid out a plan yet, intentionally. I have laid out principles, I’ve talked about putting all options on the table, because I fully understand the administration must work with the Congress to permanently solve Social Security.
President’s Press Conference March 16, 2005

www.whitehouse.gov

via WaPo: White House Briefing

Caspian Follies…

(This beats The Onion!)

Which one?

"If the system were fair," says Larry Mumper, sponsor of the Ohio bill, "Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity would be tenured professors somewhere."

Will we be running out soon?
What with Deanander’s reckless consumption of Open Threads, and blatant desire for more, will we have enough?

the world has been consuming oil faster than discovering it since 1986. (IHS Consulting)

[It is] "no longer tenable" to continue placing environmental issues, including climate change, "in a category separate from the economy and from economic policy" (Gordon Brown, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer – i.e. Finance Minister)

"The economy might be too strong in terms of demand growth. The question is whether the market is underestimating how much work the Federal Reserve is going to have to do" M. Mussa, IIE.

Cont. reading: Oil Prices – Who’s Worried – or Not.

David Horowitz’s (Losing) Battle
With the Truth
After reading Billmon I´d say he lost that battle a long time ago.

Forgive and Forget

I quote the Financial Times a lot. That’s because (i) that’s what I actually read, (ii) they have some really good articles, and (iii) it’s a paper that not too many of you read here. Oh and (iv) I enjoy reading it. It’s what I do when I get to work, just before going to get my coffee. It’s actually a nice way to start the day… Actually, I also have to connect my computer to the bank’s servers, which is pretty slow. I am usually going through page 2 (European News) when I finally have access to internet and click on dailyKos and Moon of Alabama. I then go back and forth between the three…

Anyway, this is just to introduce you to tomorrow’s FT column on Happiness. (Yeah, I cheat – many articles are available online the previous evening already. That’s enjoyable too – the feeling of being there before all others).

Here goes…

Cont. reading: ‘Pursuit’ not the Best Way to Happiness

News, views, opinions …

and a link to the forerunner.

Well, to be precise, he was first elected to a public function 40 years ago (in the municipal council of the small village of Sainte-Ferreole in central France).

He was a cabinet member for the first time under de Gaulle in 1967, and Prime Minister (i.e. really in power) for the first time in 1974, more than 30 years ago.

He has been a canditate for the presidency all his life, and, mostly accidentally, President for the last 10 years. People under 50 in France have never voted in a presidential election when he was not a candidate.

And now, in yet another negative consequence of your elections, he is still seen as a possible candidate for re-election in 2007, thanks to his international prestige as the leader of the Coalition of the UN-Willing.

Thank you, Mr Bush.

Cont. reading: 40 Years of Chirac. Pauvre France!

It’s laundering, basically: Signed Sealed Delivered

The Camera as Weapon: Home Movies

Channeling Moon of Alabama (again 😉 ): Modernizing Hemingway

Billmon is really great at finding the right contrast to demask the issue.

The Kilimanjaro as it has not been seen (without snow) in 11,000 years (The Guardian)

(Hat tip to Dismal Science)

Cont. reading: Global Warning – Believe It!

Last October a Reality Based News (RBN) piece, "Strategic Campaign Extended", was published here. It reported about the obscure "European Security Advocacy Group" that puts millions into terrorizing ad campaigns in 10 European countries. My RBN piece quoted a Senior Administration Official. 

Bjørn Stærk, a Norwegian blogger, complained that the quotes were of a reality different than his and warned that people could get confused.

Now some more folks have picked up my RBN piece and today Bjørn complains again.

There were hundreds of stories in major news outlets citing Senior Administration Official confirming the reality of huge WMD stocks in Iraq. For two years a reality in the White House press room wrote anti-gay news for a fake GOP news agency while advertising himself as a gay male prostitute. Today’s NYT has a long piece about reality news. Actors payed by the administration claiming to be journalists report administration friendly news which is proliferated through hundreds of local TV stations. That is news  reality!

Bjørn says I did lie in my piece. I did not. I highlighted the modus operandi of the US administration and the US media using the appropriate rhetoric tool of imitation.

In Bjørn’s reality ESAG’s claim to be "advised by a diverse group of communications professionals and academics from six countries" without naming one of them is a different reality than my RBN piece claim of a Senior Administration Official.

It is not. To think so is simply naive.

Do you remember General Massud? The leader of the Northern Alliance, and the last obstacle to full control of Afghanistan by the Taliban, after having been the leader of the resistance against the Soviet occupation in the 80s, he was assassinated on 9 September 2001, in a move which has been widely associated with 9/11.

Last week, Aslan Maskhadov, the elected President of the Chechens, was also assassinated, by Russian forces. There are many troubling similarities between Massoud and Mashkadov – honourable men engaged in a thankless fight for their countrymen against a massively superior force, sometimes supported by the West but most of the time ignored and forgotten in the name of realpolitik. Both were also moderates in a fight increasingly dominated by extremist Islamists. I am not predicting another event like 9/11 in the wake of this assassination, but some parallels are eerie and some lessons for the West are stark.

Below is the scathing indictment of our cowardly behavior by André Glucksmann, a French philosopher long involved in fighting causes like Bosnia and Chechnya, as well as other viewpoints on the topic.

Cont. reading: Mashkadov and Our Lost Honor

I am sorry to inflict upon you yet another energy story, but this one is pretty big:

It’s the first time that the International Energy Agency, the body created by Western countries after the first oil shock in the 70s to advise on energy and try to prevent such shocks from happening again, has accompanied its monthly report on the oil market with a stark warning that oil supplies may not be sufficient and changes in oil demand are required.

IEA says world must turn away from oil

(see more details below)

While it is always pleasant to be vindicated by such an august body, it would be nicer if we actually did something about it… I’ve been told that I preach to the choir here. So, choir, let’s make good use of this thread: what are the smartest way to conserve? Bring your own!

Cont. reading: My Birthday – Not Happy to Be Right

Billmon takes credit for Back to the Future

One $ one vote …

Link to the forerunner …

From Marc Faber and Jim Puplava (links found by Bernhard) come the following graphs which explain in no uncertain terms why the current economic situation is worrying:

My analysis of these graphs, and other scary ones, below.

Cont. reading: Greenspan’s bubbles – more scary graphs

1) Please provide arguments against the usual retort: “but poor means having 50% of the median revenue, which, in the US, is quite significantly higher than elsewhere, so being poor in the US is not so bad“

2) What do you think of having a new statistical tool whereby the wealth of a country would be measured not by GDP per capita but by GDP per capita of the lowest 10% (or 25%) of the population?

From today’s Asia Times: Sulawesi Sea row dredges up defenses

Indonesia has sent four F-16 fighter planes and three more warships to join the four already stationed in the oil-rich waters off Borneo Island. The Royal Malaysian Navy has also deployed two warships to the area, further adding to the tensions. Though both governments continue to insist that the dispute over conflicting claims as to who controls the resource-rich offshore area will be resolved diplomatically, the buildup of military forces in the waters continues to be a cause for concern.

(…)

Oil concessions add fuel to the fire
On February 16 Malaysia’s state oil firm Petronas awarded oil-exploration rights in two exploration blocks in the disputed Ambalat area to its own exploration arm along with Anglo-Dutch giant Royal Dutch/Shell. However, Indonesia already had granted a concession to US-based oil giant Unocal Corp in November to pump liquefied natural gas (LNG) from deepwater blocks in that area.

Meanwhile, one wonders why, the US Department of Energy has raised its forecast for oil prices in 2005 to 49$/barrel (its forecast for 2005 made a year ago was 29$/barrel)…

Cont. reading: War in Paradise

"You get respect with this"

Please use as an open International Woman’s Day thread