Egad, what a farce! “Even the Democrats wouldn’t–“! Why wasn’t that “Why don’t the Democrats–“?

Posted by: The Truth Gets Vicious When You Corner It | Sep 21 2006 6:32 utc | 4

Up is down…
Lose is win…
Reuters, 3:17 p.m. Eastern:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In a rebuke of President George W. Bush, a U.S. House of Representatives panel on Wednesday rejected his plan for interrogating foreign terrorist suspects. The bill, however, will still go to the full House for consideration.
The House Judiciary Committee, in a surprise move, rejected the measure 20-17. The Republican-led panel had been widely expected to back the bill pushed by Bush while he battles with some key Republicans in the Senate for similar authority.
Reuters, 5:02 p.m. Eastern:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In an abrupt reversal, a U.S. House of Representatives committee narrowly voted on Wednesday to endorse President George W. Bush’s plan for tough interrogations and trials of foreign terrorism suspects after Republicans rounded up enough members.
About an hour earlier, the House Judiciary Committee rejected Bush’s plan, with three Republicans joining committee Democrats. Embarrassed Republicans then summoned absent members, called for another vote, and approved it 20-19.
Does it even matter at this point…
CIA-Sponsored Death Squads Rampant in Iraq

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 21 2006 7:26 utc | 6

Thanks Bernhard for pointing out Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s speech at the UN yesterday.
I read the whole thing, it was great. If you liked Stephen Colbert calling out US President Bush at the White House Correspondents Dinner last summer, you will love Chavez taking down Bush at the UN. He said Bush is the devil, asked if the room still smelled of sulphur after Bush’s address, and gave the sign of the cross (blessed himself).
I’m no rhetorician but I know a master when I see one. Chavez also named his supporters and asked for endorsement for Venezuela’s election to the next non-permanent seat on the Security Council. And criticized the US veto on the Council’s resolutions against Israel.
Here’s a link to the text of Chavez at the UN.

Posted by: jonku | Sep 21 2006 7:54 utc | 8

The world’s economy rests on the solid foundation of the dollar, which rests on the solid foundation of the oil trade. America doses and overdoses on the ocean of petrodollars that flow through our economy, and America’s military defends that river of petrodollars and the consequent foreign investments in our T-bills it brings.
That’s the Dollar System. That’s the way the world works. It’s an American monopoly, and it belongs entirely to the wealthiest five percent of Americans. The Dollar System is what lets our elites run up an insane $8.3 trillion national debt, and keep right on printing green paper money as if it were real. It’s taken for real, all over the world, day after day, so what’s the difference? A worldwide infrastructure of globalized capital and corporations and livelihoods and nations and civilization rests on the Dollar System. Lo, it is sacred above all else.
Nothing — repeat — nothing will be permitted to threaten, block, or break this monopoly, this Dollar System. That is absolutely negatory, good buddy. No elections, no ethics, no humanity, no rules, no laws, no international treaties, no civil unrest, no melting ice caps, no protesters, no drowning polar bears, no guerillas, no army, and no nation will be permitted to stand against it — absolutely nothing is off the table, including nookyuler war, says Mistah Bush.
The coming war on Iran, whether it is this October or next spring, is to preserve the American dominance of Middle East petro development and market trading, and to open the way to further American political and economic dominance northward from Iran, into the gas and oil belt of the Caspian Basin. Then it’s on to Venezuela! Wherever the planet’s petro products are, that’s where the American petrodollar has to stand tall, or fall hard.
This coming war on Iran is unnecessary. If Iran would roll over, appoint the late Shah’s son their King, and invite Exxon to privatize their oil industry, this war need not happen. But, they won’t. That makes them evil. Saying no to America is the most evil, awful thing that can happen. Anywhere. Ever. Even on other planets, when we get there, they had better not say no. That’s just evil.
If America’s political and economic elites fail to destroy Iran and its allies — Syria, the Shia of Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and any other freedom loving fools over there who stand against the total sway of the Dollar System — well, these American elites might as well hand in their school ties and water boards and limo keys and pinstripe suits and Cuban cigars and their keys to the Watergate Hotel’s poker suite right then and there because the party’s over from that moment, including both political parties. As they say around the halls of Congress, “Ya can’t make salad without lots of green!”
The Dollar System is why China and Russia are willing to join in the current Security Council pressure on Iran to cease their nuclear enrichment, which enhances Iran’s independence, which enhances the Middle East’s independence, which threatens the Dollar System. China and Russia are not currently prepared to lose the Dollar System, any more than Europe is. Some day, certainly. Not yet. Not right now, anyway.
China in particular has a symbiotic economic relationship with America. They use us to grow their economy 20 times faster than they could hope to otherwise, and we use them to live on borrowed monies and borrowed tomorrows. It will eventually come to an unpleasant end, but not during this election season, which is as far as anyone in America can see into the future so party on WalMart, and Shell, and Wachovia, and Boeing, and Halliburton and ABC and Donner and Blitzen . . .
The Dollar System is why the Democratic Party is not fighting the GOP on anything serious, and never will. This is their Dollar System, too. This is the way the world works. Do you seriously expect them to upset it? They want to be in charge of it, not upset it.
Gentle Reader, do you seriously expect the Democrats to actually choose America’s defunct unions, dying middle class, imaginary manufacturing base, suffering small business sector, and its uninsured and undereducated masses over the oil and banking and defense industries? Aw, come on now . . . pull the other leg. In fact, pull my finger.
A genuine opposition party in American politics has not existed since 1980, when the Democrats became a wholly owned partner to the GOP. They now operate AS opposition, but are careful to provide no real opposition. That would give the Dollar System heartburn. Prominent people get shot in such times. Small planes crash. People are spoken to firmly about their options. Honorable gentlemen shake hands, and the world works as it has before.
The Dollar System is why the New York Times, the WaPo, and every other major media outlet are onboard with this Iran shakedown, and anything else the Dollar System may need for its explication, explanation, furtherance, sustenance, daily care and feeding. This is their Dollar System, too.
Six major corporations own and operate over 85% of the newspapers, radio stations, TV stations and magazines in the USA. None is in disagreement with the way the world works. None of them thinks twice about the way the world works. They look after the Dollar System, no matter what it does to the country. No matter what it does to the country, they will be fine, as long as they keep reporting that there are two sides to every issue, and no hard facts. The facts are the No Man’s Land, between the trenches. Journalism has become the art of keeping the population firmly in their opposite bunkers and trenches, lest facts be discussed, or the future perceived.
In America, the future is next week. History is yesterday.
What in hell do America’s wealthy elites and internationalized corporations care about America’s future, anyway? They have disconnected their financial survival from the USA, and have less and less stake in its citizen’s safety or success with every passing tick of the clock. All they care about is continuing the political passivity and the spending and borrowing habits of the American consumer. I mean citizen. I mean prey.
They keep that consumer culture going by endless media ads for consumer goods, consumer lifestyles, consumer politicians, consumer cars, and consumer wars to fuel them.
It’s the Dollar System. It’s the way the world works.
So, what’s not to like?

Posted by: Antifa | Sep 21 2006 11:20 utc | 10

Also, re: Putin’s recent threats to nationalise Shell & BP oil interests in Russia – is it sticking it to the US again by reminding them they really fucked up by ousting the nationaliser Old Mossy in 1953?

Posted by: Dismal Science | Sep 21 2006 12:15 utc | 12

hannah & jonku
with what passes for rhetoric in the states of modernity comrade chavez’s work at the u n was a triumph of sense & clarity, pinned with references that must have been painful for others to hear & as i said it was not without humour
his simple reversing of who is extremist, just so
& the invitation to read noam chomsky – a masterful touch
it is clear that he has also understood his marti
i’ve been too scared & busy to watch the devil himself give his adress at the u n but i imagine it was simply a repeat of what he has so unthoughfully spoken for the last half decade

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Sep 21 2006 13:31 utc | 14

America’s Africa Corps

The United States is moving closer to setting up an Africa Command to secure the rear flank of its global “war on terrorism”, with eyes trained on vital oil reserves and lawless areas where terrorists have sought safe haven to regroup and strike against its interests.
At a Monday briefing on plans to restructure US defense policy, Under Secretary of Defense Eric Edelmen disclosed that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top military brass were close to a decision over a proposal to anchor US forces on the African continent, creating a new command to encompass all security operations.
…
A Pentagon spokesman tempered the announcement with the caveat that such a move required an official process that would take time and had yet to begin. But one official noted that talks were “intense” and another stressed that internal debate was stronger than it was six months ago and appeared to be on the verge of a positive verdict.
The United States at present oversees five separate military commands worldwide, and Africa remains divided among three of them: European Command covers operations spanning 43 countries across North and sub-Saharan Africa; Central Command oversees the restive Horn of Africa; and Pacific Command looks after Madagascar. All three maintain a low-key presence, largely employing elite special operations forces to train, equip and work alongside national militaries. A perceived vulnerability to al-Qaeda and other transnational terrorist organizations, however, has fueled calls for a more aggressive security posture in Africa.
…
Other observers say that thirst for another kind of security is the driving force behind a probable Africa Command: energy.
Nigeria already stands as the fifth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, and energy officials say the Gulf of Guinea will provide a quarter of US crude by 2010, placing the region ahead of Saudi Arabia (other major producers include Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Gabon and the Congo Republic). A surging demand for fossil fuels in Asia and an unpredictable political climate in the Middle East prompted the administration of US President George W Bush four years ago to call West African oil a “strategic national interest” – a designation that reserves the use of force to secure and defend such interests if necessary.
The question then arises as to where exactly the new command would be best headquartered. The answer may be Sao Tome and Principe (1,2), one of Africa’s smallest countries, consisting mainly of two islands at the western bend of the continent. Concerns over fanning anti-Americanism, proximity to oil reserves – some of which are said to be untapped beneath its own waters – and overall security make this the obvious choice, John Pike, director of military studies group GlobalSecurity.org, told Asia Times Online. “This island seems destined to be America’s unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Guinea, much like Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and Guam in the Pacific.”
Military planners like the idea of an offshore presence since its reduces the impression of a neo-colonial maneuver, Pike said, adding that so far there has been a clear preference within EuCom and CentCom to lie low and work through African institutions to train troops and strengthen security.

Empire of Oil: Capitalist Dispossession and the Scramble for Africa

Although Africa is not as well endowed in hydrocarbons (both oil and gas) as the Gulf states, the continent “is all set to balance power,” and as a consequence it is “the subject of fierce competition by energy companies.” IHS Energy—one of the oil industry’s major consulting companies—expects African oil production, especially along the Atlantic littoral, to attract “huge exploration investment” contributing over 30 percent of world liquid hydrocarbon production by 2010. Over the last five years when new oilfield discoveries were scarce, one in every four barrels of new petroleum discovered outside of Northern America was found in Africa. A new scramble is in the making. The battleground consists of the rich African oilfields.

very informative article
also see
A Warning to Africa: The New U.S. Imperial Grand Strategy

If there is a New Great Game afoot in Asia there is also a “New Scramble for Africa” on the part of the great powers.12 The National Security Strategy of the United States of 2002 declared that “combating global terror” and ensuring U.S. energy security required that the United States increase its commitments to Africa and called upon “coalitions of the willing” to generate regional security arrangements on that continent. Soon after the U.S. European Command, based in Stuttgart, Germany—in charge of U.S. military operations in Sub-Saharan Africa—increased its activities in West Africa, centering on those states with substantial oil production and/or reserves in or around the Gulf of Guinea (stretching roughly from the Ivory Coast to Angola). The U.S. military’s European Command now devotes 70 percent of its time to African affairs, up from almost nothing as recently as 2003.13
As pointed out by Richard Haass, now president of the Council on Foreign Relations, in his foreword to the 2005 council report entitled More Than Humanitarianism: A Strategic U.S. Approach Toward Africa: “By the end of the decade sub-Saharan Africa is likely to become as important as a source of U.S. energy imports as the Middle East.”14 West Africa has some 60 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. Its oil is the low sulfur, sweet crude prized by the U.S. economy. U.S. agencies and think tanks project that one in every five new barrels of oil entering the global economy in the latter half of this decade will come from the Gulf of Guinea, raising its share of U.S. oil imports from 15 to over 20 percent by 2010, and 25 percent by 2015. Nigeria already supplies the United States with 10 percent of its imported oil. Angola provides 4 percent of U.S. oil imports, which could double by the end of the decade. The discovery of new reserves and the expansion of oil production are turning other states in the region into major oil exporters, including Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Principe, Gabon, Cameroon, and Chad. Mauritania is scheduled to emerge as an oil exporter by 2007. Sudan, bordering the Red Sea in the east and Chad to the west, is an important oil producer.
At present the main, permanent U.S. military base in Africa is the one established in 2002 in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, giving the United States strategic control of the maritime zone through which a quarter of the world’s oil production passes. The Djibouti base is also in close proximity to the Sudanese oil pipeline. (The French military has long had a major presence in Djibouti and also has an air base at Abeche, Chad on the Sudanese border.) The Djibouti base allows the United States to dominate the eastern end of the broad oil swath cutting across Africa that it now considers vital to its strategic interests—a vast strip running southwest from the 994-mile Higleig-Port Sudan oil pipeline in the east to the 640-mile Chad-Cameroon pipeline and the Gulf of Guinea in the West. A new U.S. forward-operating location in Uganda gives the United States the potential of dominating southern Sudan, where most of that country’s oil is to be found.
In West Africa, the U.S. military’s European Command has now established forward-operating locations in Senegal, Mali, Ghana, and Gabon—as well as Namibia, bordering Angola on the south—involving the upgrading of airfields, the pre-positioning of critical supplies and fuel, and access agreements for swift deployment of U.S. troops.15 In 2003 it launched a counterterrorism program in West Africa, and in March 2004 U.S. Special Forces were directly involved in a military operation with Sahel countries against the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat—on Washington’s list of terrorist organizations. The U.S. European Command is developing a coastal security system in the Gulf of Guinea called the Gulf of Guinea Guard. It has also been planning the construction of a U.S. naval base in São Tomé and Principe, which the European Command has intimated could rival the U.S. naval base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The Pentagon is thus moving aggressively to establish a military presence in the Gulf of Guinea that will allow it to control the western part of the broad trans-Africa oil strip and the vital oil reserves now being discovered there. Operation Flintlock, a start-up U.S. military exercise in West Africa in 2005, incorporated 1,000 U.S. Special Forces. The U.S. European Command will be conducting exercises for its new rapid-reaction force for the Gulf of Guinea this summer.
Here the flag is following trade: the major U.S. and Western oil corporations are all scrambling for West African oil and demanding security. The U.S. military’s European Command, the Wall Street Journal reported in its April 25th issue, is also working with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to expand the role of U.S. corporations in Africa as part of an “integrated U.S. response.” In this economic scramble for Africa’s petroleum resources the old colonial powers, Britain and France, are in competition with the United States. Militarily, however, they are working closely with the United States to secure Western imperial control of the region.

one more article on sao tome and principe
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: Mercenaries, corruption and poverty complicate the road to an oil boom

Posted by: b real | Sep 21 2006 14:55 utc | 16

Sorry to gallop off on my hobby horse, but
Richard Chichakli has surfaced once again, and seems to be seeking dialogue. See also
his own site which has been recently updated.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Sep 21 2006 15:57 utc | 18

She summed it up well in her diary on European Tribune that she is apparently too modest to link to (why?).

Posted by: Guthman Bey | Sep 21 2006 16:27 utc | 20

text of ahmadinejad’s address to the united nations

Posted by: b real | Sep 21 2006 18:25 utc | 22

RFKjr. has new article on Diebold & election hacking w/a lot of new info. link
“Every board of election has staff members with the technological ability to fix an election,” Ion Sancho, an election supervisor in Leon County, Florida, told me. “Even one corrupt staffer can throw an election. Without paper records, it could happen under my nose and there is no way I’d ever find out about it. With a few key people in the right places, it would be possible to throw a presidential election.”
Happily, the recent Maryland primary, where so many Washingtonians live, has woken up the WaPo to the Disaster, but there are so many sleep walkers in the way….link
The Post is leading with the story that Gov. Ehrlich [MD] is suggesting that he may call a Special Session of the Legislature to put a paper ballot in place for November. The Democratic Speaker of the House and the State Senate President, also a Democrat, are saying that it will never happen, that they should be working to “fix the current system.”
But far too many people are yakking about “paper trail/records” which is another dead end, leading to endless paralyzing litigation about when & how they should be counted, not to mention that elections can be stolen w/out anyone noticing. System will only work if a) it’s not loaded w/guy not determined to fix it (ha!) & b) it’s strictly paper ballots produced however.

Posted by: jj | Sep 22 2006 1:08 utc | 24

chossudovsky: Who benefits from the Afghan Opium Trade?

The United Nations has announced that opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has soared and is expected to increase by 59% in 2006. The production of opium is estimated to have increased by 49% in relation to 2005.
…
The Vienna based UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that the 2006 harvest will be of the order of 6,100 tonnes, 33 times its production levels in 2001 under the Taliban government (3200 % increase in 5 years).
Cultivation in 2006 reached a record 165,000 hectares compared with 104,000 in 2005 and 7,606 in 2001 under the Taliban.
…
According to the UN, Afghanistan supplies in 2006 some 92 percent of the world’s supply of opium, which is used to make heroin.
The UN estimates that for 2006, the contribution of the drug trade to the Afghan economy is of the order of 2.7 billion. What it fails to mention is the fact that more than 95 percent of the revenues generated by this lucrative contraband accrues to business syndicates, organized crime and banking and financial institutions. A very small percentage accrues to farmers and traders in the producing country.

Posted by: b real | Sep 22 2006 3:15 utc | 26

At least some workers are defending their self-interest against Kleptocrat’s predations:
The biggest strike in the health service for nearly 20 years began last night at depots across England, where Unison, the public service union, is fighting a government decision to privatise NHS Logistics, the hospital supply agency.
Pickets were put in place outside the agency’s five big distribution centres in Derbyshire, Cheshire, West Yorkshire, Kent and Suffolk to prevent lorries from leaving to deliver medical equipment and supplies to NHS trusts.
The first one-day strike will be followed by a second on Wednesday, when Dave Prentis, the general secretary, is due to lead a revolt at the Labour party conference in Manchester against the government’s “headlong rush” to turn the NHS into a competitive market.
Mr Prentis said: “It is a sad day when workers in the NHS think they have to go on strike. They are not militant, but they are angry and upset about the proposed transfer of NHS Logistics to the German delivery company DHL. I will be joining the picket line in Maidstone to show they have the full backing of the union.” Just Win Baby…

Posted by: jj | Sep 22 2006 5:08 utc | 28

@ jj and Guthman Bey
Chichakli, and especially his allegations with regard to the KAM Air
Boeing 737 crash have become something of an obsession for me. Trying
to confirm or refute them has, so far, proved impossible for me despite
numerous attempts. In early 2005 I had a (very) small part in the
internet posse that was “outing” Viktor Bout’s operations in the United Arab Emirates. I now think that I was naive in that effort (and am probably again naive now).
Full disclosure: via the e-mail link provided at Chichakli’s site, I wrote to him and have had several e-mail exchanges
with him. I have never met him or any of the people mentioned at his
site or the sites mentioned in my EuroTrib diary.
I suggest looking at
Mole’s comments
from another section of Chichakli’s Web site.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Sep 22 2006 7:41 utc | 30

Join the navy, because joining the army is just stupid
mp3 spoof

Posted by: edwin | Sep 22 2006 14:09 utc | 32

another good robert parry article on the crimes of president stinky
Bush Shields Dad on Chile Terrorism

Chilean investigators say the Bush administration is undercutting their case against former dictator Augusto Pinochet for his alleged role in the terrorist assassination of a political rival on the streets of Washington three decades ago, a crime that then-CIA Director George H.W. Bush appears to have tolerated and then helped cover-up.
Now, George W. Bush has picked up the mantle from his father for protecting the 90-year-old Pinochet from ever facing justice for the murder of former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and an American co-worker, Ronni Moffitt, who were killed by a car bomb on Sept. 21, 1976, as Letelier drove down Massachusetts Avenue.
Six years ago, near the end of the Clinton administration, an FBI team reviewed new evidence that had become available in the case and recommended the indictment of Pinochet. But the final decision was left to the incoming Bush administration, which has failed to act while also withholding relevant documents from Chilean investigators.
“Every day it is clearer that Pinochet ordered my brother’s death,” human rights lawyer Fabiola Letelier told the New York Times. “But for a proper and complete investigation to take place we need access to the appropriate records and evidence.” [NYT, Sept. 21, 2006]
By frustrating the Chilean investigation, the Bush administration also is protecting former President George H.W. Bush against possibly being implicated in this act of terrorism, conceivably as an accessory after the fact for diverting suspicion away from Pinochet.

Posted by: b real | Sep 22 2006 14:50 utc | 34

@Noirette, thanks. Can you clarify from whence came the uproar? Lackeys of Western Kleptocrats, domestically? From across the political spectrum, only the right? etc.
I heard that there’s footage of Chirac rolling his eyes as Bozo spoke. And others sat there w/their arms folded across their chests, which is diplomatese for shut up & go away.
Does anyone know if Chirac spoke, and, if so, is that available? Or any other anti-xUS speeches of distinction? (From reception Chavez got, it sounds as though he spoke for the majority. I heard Greg Palast discussing his speech on Randi Rhodes show yesterday. He said that Chavez does not come from leftist tradition but from Liberation Theology, hence his reference to sulfur, the Devil, etc.)

Posted by: jj | Sep 22 2006 18:00 utc | 36

chomsky’s hegemony or survival is currently amazon’s #1 bestseller, thanks to chavez!

Posted by: b real | Sep 23 2006 3:31 utc | 38

Top secret: Banff security meeting attracted U.S., Mexico officials
A North American security meeting was secretly held in Banff last week, attracting high-profile officials from the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The North American Forum was hosted with the help of the Canada West Foundation and the Canadian Council of Chief Executives.
Among the attendees at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel affair was Stockwell Day, Canada’s minister of public safety.
The gathering may not have made headlines, but it is still the talk of Banff.
Taxi Driver Chris Foote said he first learned of the meeting when he stopped into a submarine shop for a late night snack last week and heard rumours U.S. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld was in town.
“Here they are talking in my backyard, no media to tell Canadians, Mexicans and Americans about what’s going on. [I am] completely outraged,” he said. “This is an assault on democracy.”

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 23 2006 9:13 utc | 40

It is Definitely Pack Your Bags Time…
We’ve discussed that the Wall St. Predators are taking over & plan to eliminate our country, merging it w/Canada & Mexico For the Sole Purpose of Increasing Their Profits. It’s so much worse than even I imagined – THEY will be able to REWRITE ALL OF OUR LAWS, INCLUDING THE CONSTITUTION.
It is incredible, but just four years from now — if the CFR template is followed — the United States may cease to exist as an independent political entity. Its laws, rules, and regulations — including all freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution — will be subject to review and nullification by the North American Union’s governing body.Sure, the United States will still be here in name. American soldiers will still fight, mostly, under the U.S. flag. There will be a U.S. president and both houses of Congress will continue to meet and pass legislation. Nevertheless, in very important ways, the United States will become nothing more than a province — albeit an important one — in the emergent North American superstate. PREDATORS TO DESTROY USA

Posted by: jj | Sep 23 2006 17:39 utc | 42