Just saw Episode III (early afternoon, empty theatre, original language). It’s a big cartoon with lots of fireworks and some interesting future Lego models.
The best lines are from Yoda the Buddhist (Scene 56 (pdf)):

YODA
Careful you must be when sensing the future, Anakin. The fear of loss is a path to the dark side.

ANAKIN
I won´t let my visions come true, Master Yoda.

YODA
Rejoyce for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of gread, that is.

ANAKIN
What must I do, Master?

YODA
Train yourself to let go of anything you fear to lose.

Fidel Castro will celebrate his 79th birthday in August. His brouther Raúl is supposed to replace him as President. But Raúl is not young either. So what is the perspective for Cuba, the country with the best health care system of any developing country? Another Haiti, another Puerto Rico, another Venzuela?

In the 1995 Uruguay round of the World Trade Organization talks, developed countries agreed to phase out quotas on textiles imports within 10 years. But countries kept most of their quotas in place right up to the end of last year, leaving their industries unprepared for the change. In January quotas vanished and textile imports from China "surged" in the U.S. and in Europe – or so the media say.

First quarter textile imports to the United States valued US$ 22.6 billion this year. The first quarter 2004 imports were US$ 20.3 billion. The 2004-2005 first quarter "surge" was 11.5% – significant, but not extraordinary.

Cont. reading: Import “Surge”

A distinguished fellow at the Cato Institute, a senior research fellow at the Hoover Insitution, a stint as Wall Street Journal editor and columnist, a position as assistant secretary of the Treasury under Reagan –  this is the quite impressive conservative bio of Paul Craig Roberts.

He writes:

Cont. reading: Thank You Mr. Roberts

News, views, etc. …

There is an Associated Press message running on the tickers right now about Iran Said to Be Smuggling Nuclear Matter.

A critical read immediately debunks the story. But don´t expect any editor to do a critical read before publishing this mess.

Cont. reading: June or July?

Washington Post, May 20, 2005:
Army Warns Iraqi Forces On Abuse Of Detainees

Reign Man (detail) by anna missed
18"x14" – pigment/spraypaint/pyro on wood
Full size (180 KByte)

New York Times, May 20, 2005:
In U.S. Report, Brutal Details of 2 Afghan Inmates’ Deaths

A sketch by Thomas V. Curtis, a former Reserve M.P. sergeant, showing how Dilawar was chained to the ceiling of his cell.

Iraqi soldiers discovered the bodies of seven blindfolded men who were shot in the head and dumped on the roadside in the Sunni Triangle town of Amiriyah, some 25 miles west of Baghdad, said Mohammed al-Ani, a doctor at Ramadi General Hospital.
Seven More Bodies Found West of Baghdad
AP, May 16, 2005

Following [the Salvador model], one Pentagon proposal would send Special Forces teams to advise, support and possibly train Iraqi squads, most likely hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen, to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers

‘The Salvador Option’
Newsweek, January 8, 2005

Cont. reading: Patterns

news, views, visions …

What is this Nuclear Option stuff about?

There are many international readers on this blog and, like me, they may wonder what this is all about. I will explain what I, so far, found out. Please add to it in the comments.

The narrow issue right now is the consent or non-consent of the U.S. Senate for two of President Bush’s court nominees. The wider issue goes back into the history of law interpretation and also far into the future. It is the stacking of the U.S. Supreme Court with judges that interpret the historic constitution as an absolute word, a return of the "Constitution in Exile", a voyage back to the 1880s. This could well change the United States we know today into something very strange. But that will have to be discussed in a later post.

For now just a bit on the procedures that will most probably follow in the next days and weeks.

Cont. reading: Filibuster Drama

George Galloway, British Parliament Member, to the American Senate oil-for-food subcommittee of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs; May 17, 2005:

Now Senator,

I gave my heard and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted.

I gave my political-life’s blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq – which killed a million Iraqis, most of them children.

Most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis. But they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis. With the misfortune to be born at that time.

I gave my heard and soul to stop you committing the disaster, that you did commit in invading Iraq.

He has more to say – read on …

Cont. reading: “No Credible Witness”

Is Kunstler behind the curve? McAmerica Uber Alles

Khodorkovsky guilty of fraud and tax charges

A Moscow court on Monday found Mikhail Khodorkovsky, formerly Russia’s richest man and founder of the Yukos oil company, guilty of fraud and tax evasion. The judge has passed a guilty verdict in four out of a possible seven charges, the hearing was adjourned until Tuesday. The long-awaited judgment in the case of Mr Khodorkovsky, has been the most closely followed legal action in Russia since the trials of Soviet dissidents in the 1970s.
(…)
Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Alfa Bank, said the government and Mr Putin had recently been attempting to portray the case as "Russia’s Enron", thus shifting perceptions it was an attack on Russia’s oligarchs or big business.

Please, let’s not fall for the "the- Russians- put- their- fraudsters- into- jail- Bushco- doesn’t" line, it could not be further form the truth.

Cont. reading: Khodorkhovski = Enron?

Scenes We’d Like to See

The remaining defendants were sentenced to life terms at the Guantanamo War Crimes Penitentiary — the same facility used to imprison the remaining leaders of the Al Qaeda terrrorist organization, whose own war crimes trial began shortly after this picture was taken.

Newsweek reported on May 9 about interrogators flushing a Qur’an down a toilet in Guantanamo Bay. This short report lead to deadly unrests in several countries and threats of a renewed jihad in Afghanistan.

Today Newsweek did issue a follow up to the story.

Some headlines now claim: Newsweek: Koran Story Untrue, Newsweek backtracks over Koran report and Editor admits Koran story in doubt and you can be sure to see many more like these by tomorrow.

But does the new Newsweek piece, How a Fire Broke Out, really retract the story? I do not think so and you should not either, so please read on.

Cont. reading: Non-retraction Retraction

James Bennet has written an excellent column in the NYT’s ‘Week in Review’. Here is a RBN decoded excerpt:

The Mystery of the Occupation

Resistance forces in Iraq have often been accused of being slow to apply hard lessons from Vietnam and elsewhere about how to fight an occupation. Yet, it seems from the outside, no one has shrugged off the lessons of history more decisively than the occupation forces themselves.

Cont. reading: Black Is White

“He may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.”

– Democracy in Action –

For your week-end enjoyment.

I am pinching whole a comment by Stirling Newberry which is a great summary of why economic statistics are so easy to manipulate:

In the world of econometrics – that is, finding ways to measure economic activity – the question of cooking numbers is a delicate one. One man’s "adjustment" is another man’s "cooking the books". Within the range of what we know, some numbers can be, arguably, to either side. All economic numbers have error bands.

Cont. reading: Lies and Statistics

Why is this important?

From an international view Bolton should be nominated and get the job as UN ambassador. By now everybody knows he is an asshole and can not be believed a bit. He would thereby be ineffective for the further neocon projects as far as these depend on international support. So please let him be nominated, but make the process as long and devastating as possible.

From a national U.S. view a loss on the Bolton nomination can be interpreted as a loss of influence for Bush. A recognized lame-duck Bush would have serious problems to push his other projects – from Social Security to nominating judges.

Update 03:35

I have watched the nomination hearing in the Senate Foreign Relation Committee on John Bolton and blogged some of things that were said below the fold. Bolton was vote out of the committee to the Senate floor without recommendation.

Some further thoughts on the issue:

The Senate should "advice and consent" on the President’s nominations. In the hearing many Republicans said things like "it’s the presidents choice", "he will have to work with him" etc. Is that "advice and consent"? Are these Senators fulfilling their constitutional duty if they make such an argument? I do not think so. To consent is more than to say ‘yes’ to someones choice just because its her/his choice. It needs some degree of conviction the choice is the right choice.

Senator Voinovich explained very early in the hearing that he will not recommend Bolton but would vote him out of the committee to the Senate floor to decide. The frame was set after that (or probably earlier as Lugar seemed to know what Voinovich would say).
For Voinovich this is some lame "I voted no before I voted yes" wiggle that keeps him out of the fire. If he is really against Bolton he should have voted No on a recommendation.

The possibilities now are interesting. On the Senate floor the Democrats can now filibuster Bolton. This would make the issue part of the "nuclear option" discussion giving the Republicans another argument for blowing the filibuster away.

Another option for Bush is to make a recess nomination effectively bypassing the Senate. This of course would give Bolton even less aura at the UN and therefore would be my preferred solution. When Bolton finally arrives at the UN there should be as many Plato’s Retreat stories as possible and the most minuscule political cloud.   

Cont. reading: Bolton Nomination