There has been massive industry intervention to stop or modify the global warming report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It will be out today and will report that global warming indeed has human causes and will lead to significant higher temperatures and sea levels.

This will necessitate massive migration of people from desertificating and flooding areas into other places. Poorly managed, as it will likely be, such migration will result in further conflicts like the one in Darfur – only bigger.

The Guardian reports that ExxonMobil, through the American Enterprise Institute, has offered scientists $10,000 plus expenses for writings that attack the report:

Cont. reading: Unstoppable? Not!

William Pfaff, a longtime foreign affairs columnist, has a long thoughtful piece in the current New York Review of Books: Manifest Destiny: A New Direction for America. I recommend to read it in full.

As it touches on some discussions we had about a policy of nonintervention being effete and naive, I excerpt some parts and add emphasis to some thoughts that caught my attention.

It is something like a national heresy to suggest that the United States does not have a unique moral status and role to play in the history of nations, and therefore in the affairs of the contemporary world. In fact it does not.

[…]

Cont. reading: Manifest Tragedy

by Uncle $cam
lifted from a comment

Where a community has embarked upon organized lying on principle, and not only with respect to particulars, can truthfulness as such, unsupported by the distorting forces of power and opinion, become a political factor of the first order. Where everybody lies about everything of importance the truthteller, whether he knows it or not, has begun to act.

~Hannah Arendt, ‘Truth and Politics’

A Question of Two Truths?* (pdf)

Michel Foucault’s last works tell us that parrhesia is the act of fearlessly speaking the truth. To engage in parrhesia is never, however, a ‘neutral’ act. Parrhesia simultaneously incorporates aesthetic and ethical dimensions. The parrhesiast is someone whose fidelity to the truth becomes the pivot of a process of self-transformation. [For themselves and others, I might add].

Cont. reading: We are all Oskar now

by Rick
lifted from a comment

Uncle, I checked out your link Is There Something Wrong with the System? and found an excellent discussion there at Huffington Post. I would say the system is broken, but that would imply it was working correctly before. That is not to say some things haven’t gotten better for “We, The People”.

In the two to three hundred years that our country has struggled to become an exemplary nation, there certainly have been successes. There have been definite improvements in human dignity regarding race and creed, definite improvements in social programs for the poor, and generally (except during specific instances of war and economic depressions), definite improvements in our standard of living. In fact, overall, one would have to admit that some positive implementations of socialism have improved many lives here in America.

In that respect, as noted months ago, I don’t necessarily subscribe to the “Ratchet Effect” theory, at least as experienced in the long term. The effects of advanced technology and larger populations work together to require additional socialistic solutions no matter what political persuasion one subscribes to.

I have problems with politicians of the left and of the right, with those who call themselves conservative and those who call themselves liberals. In short, I have problems with political labels, and more recently, I have deep misgivings with those who directly support one party over another without true examination of our broken and corrupt “Two Party System”. Political misuse of labels certainly contributes to our broken political system.

Let me explain by an example:

Cont. reading: Stalemate?

The
presentation, Khalilzad said, would include details about who the
detained Iranians are and what they were doing in Iraq, as well as
information about alleged contraband coming across the Iran-Iraq
border.

"We are working to put something together and we will have something for you in the coming days," he said.
Details on Iran’s activity pledged, LAT, Jan 25, 2007

AFTER SECRETARY OF STATE Colin L. Powell’s presentation to the United Nations Security Council yesterday, it is hard to imagine how anyone could doubt that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction.
[…]
Mr. Powell’s evidence, including satellite photographs, audio recordings and reports from detainees and other informants, was overwhelming. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, called it "powerful and irrefutable."
Irrefutable, WaPo Editorial, Feb 6, 2003

The Powell evidence will be persuasive to anyone who is still persuadable.
Powell’s Smoking Gun , WSJ Editorial, Feb 6, 2003

more

Is Libby, with Cheney’s backing, fighting to kick Karl Rove out of the White House? Is this a proxy-fight for the big one? Cheney versus Bush? VP vs. P? Who will win?

To follow the story Murray Waas, firedoglake, Isikoff at Newsweek seem to be good sources.

Isikoff writes:

.. defense lawyer Ted Wells shocked the courtroom and all but tossed the “pardon strategy” out the window. Seeking to rebut Fitzgerald’s contention that Libby had lied about his knowledge of Plame’s CIA employment in order to save his job with Cheney, Wells shot back: “Mr. Libby was not concerned about losing his job in the Bush administration. He was concerned about being set up, he was concerned about being made the scapegoat.”

Cont. reading: VP vs. P

In an analysis, filled with truthiness from "senior administration officials", the Washington Post explains how The Surge happened:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had a surprise for President Bush when they sat down with their aides in the Four Seasons Hotel in Amman, Jordan. Firing up a PowerPoint presentation, Maliki and his national security adviser proposed that U.S. troops withdraw to the outskirts of Baghdad and let Iraqis take over security in the strife-torn capital. Maliki said he did not want any more U.S. troops at all, just more authority.

But Bush did not listen to Maliki, his own Generals or the Baker-Hamilton commission:

Cont. reading: Plan B

Several [Baker/Hamilton] commission members, including some Democrats, are discussing proposals that call for a declaration that within a specified period of time, perhaps as short as a year, a significant number of American troops should be withdrawn, regardless of whether the Iraqi government’s forces are declared ready to defend the country.
Panel to Weigh Overture by U.S. to Iran and Syria, NYT, November 26, 2006

Saudi Arabia is so concerned about the damage that the conflict in Iraq is doing across the region that it basically summoned Vice President Cheney for talks over the weekend, according to U.S. officials and foreign diplomats. The visit was originally portrayed as U.S. outreach to its oil-rich Arab ally.
Civil War in Iraq Near, Annan Says, WaPo, November 28, 2006

Just a few months ago it was unthinkable that President Bush would prematurely withdraw a significant number of American troops from Iraq. But it seems possible today, and therefore the Saudi leadership is preparing to substantially revise its Iraq policy.
[…]
Abdullah may decide to strangle Iranian funding of the militias through oil policy. If Saudi Arabia boosted production and cut the price of oil in half, the kingdom could still finance its current spending. But it would be devastating to Iran, which is facing economic difficulties even with today’s high prices.
Stepping Into Iraq, WaPo OpEd, November 29, 2006, Nawaf Obaid is an adviser to the Saudi government

CNN’s The Situation Room mentioned "senior administration officials" who suggested Bush wants more time because he "is planning to do something big" namely, he is "very seriously considering agreeing with John McCain and increasing troop levels."
Bush Planning "Something Big" On Iraq, US News, December 13, 2006

The first wave of additional US troops is set to arrive in Iraq at the end of the month, it was reported today, with George Bush scheduled to lay out his "new strategy" for the conflict in a televised address tonight.
Bush to address US on new Iraq strategy, Guardian, January 10, 2007

by b real
lifted from a comment

If you haven’t read Michael Klare’s article, The Global Energy Race and Its Consequences, it’s good. But before I get to that, today SecDef Gates gave a very relevant answer to the question of what this ongoing buildup for a military attack on Iran is really about:

Gates said the time is not right for diplomatic talks with Iran, but left open that possibility for the future.

After meeting with senior officials at NATO headquarters, Gates was
asked at a news conference what was behind the Bush administration’s
decision to deploy a Patriot missile battalion and a second aircraft
carrier to the Gulf region – moves announced in connection with a
further buildup of ground troops in Iraq.

He noted that the United States has taken a leading role in Gulf security for many decades.

Cont. reading: The Global Energy Race

As Glenn Greenwald points out, Bush/Cheney believe they do not need congressional authorization to attack Iran. In this they are supported by the legal opinion of the author of the torture memos, John Yoo. He argues:

"As a matter of practice and history, presidents have used force abroad without any congressional authorization, [..] including the war in Kosovo, which I do not recall Senator Biden challenging as a violation of the Constitution."

Yesterday Laura Rozen wrote about possible findings and/or directives Bush may have signed for an attack on Iran.

Bush certainly has signed a finding allowing the CIA to counter Hizbullah in Lebanon. Secretary of State Rice confirmed authorization by Bush to arrest Iranian diplomats in sovereign Iraq. The recent direct military intervention with U.S. special forces on the ground in Somalia was done without specific congressional authorization (and without any protest.) The administration sees that operation as a blueprint for further missions.

Given the above, there is hardly any doubt that Bush would start an attack on Iran without an explicite authorization by Congress. To threaten the administration with "constitutional conflict" like Senator Biden has done will not deter it. The White House already prepared for this when it recently lawyered up with a specialist for presidential conflict with Congress.

While some like Senator Hagel think that an attack on Iran would be comparable to Nixon’s attack on Cambodia, a last "surge" to cover a retreat, I believe the plan is different and bigger.

Cont. reading: Iran Timing

Watching CNN-Intl. – "Bush Speech – The World Reacts" – this 30 minutes before the speech starts – weird.
8:40pm – blogtime

Top headline on whitehouse.gov: President Bush Marks Fifth Anniversary of No Child Left Behind
8:46pm

WaPo "preview": Bush to Warn That New Iraq Campaign Could Be Bloody – well – with 700,000+ dead Iraqis and 3 million refugees, wasn’t this bloody enough yet?
9:03pm

Bush on:

GWOT, terror, al-qaida, Sunni insurgence is responsible, situation
in Iraq unacceptable, "where mistakes have been made, responsibility
rests with me" (consequences?), failure not an option, 9/11,

Cont. reading: Just Another Speech

by slothrop

We’ve had some tit for tats here whether there exists a global capitalist class. I want to argue there is such a class, even 
though doing so requires occasional leaps into abstraction. There is a class of hyper-globalized elites. The caricatures 
have changed, though. The Man was once the traditional monocled, bejowled fatcat in spats and beaver high hat, crushing the 
head of a worker under monstrous black wingtips. Today it is the time-space displacement of capitalist power shared by waning
and waxing fortunes of virtually itinerant wealth: think Brian O’Blivion with a Carlyle Group investment account. Stateless, 
temporal-less capitalist accumulation built on leveraged finance, speculation conducted less by strategy, least by 
entrepreneurialism, and more by exparte bureaucratic contact and insiders with no historical memory. Long live the new flesh.

Cont. reading: Nice on Top

As I didn´t get much news or reading-time the last two days (I was herding cats …) just two thoughts on the shuffeling within today’s administration and military leadership.

Negroponte going back to State as deputy may look like a downgrade, but it is a preparation to kick out Rice and to elevate him to Sec. State. She is ineffective for the Cheney/Bush projects and will have to leave. I expect her to resign for personal reasons and to again move into some academic position.

An alternative, but less likely, thought would be a resignation of Cheney for health impediments and Rice taking up his position but without the influence.

An Admiral taking over as commander of Central Command is quite weird. The U.S. is involved in two (three if you count in Somalia) land/guerilla wars in Central Command’s region and that Admiral has no idea or experience in this.

The only reason for this can thereby be an air/sea, bombing and blockade, campaign against a Central Command adversary with the only reasonable candidate being Iran.

Unfortunately, none of this is good news.

by b real
lifted from a comment

ladies, have i got a makeover for you
… or so went the pitch

reuters: Infamous Guatemalan army unit confronts new foes

A picture of a fierce-looking gorilla emblazoned with
the words "Welcome to Hell" once hung over the entrance of Central
America’s toughest military training center, the notorious "Kaibil"
school in Guatemala.

Now, visitors to the base in the Peten jungle are greeted by a
cheery painting of a soldier holding hands with a blonde-haired girl.
It says, "The Guatemalan Kaibils, respected by their adversaries, loved
by the people. Have a nice trip!"

The red-bereted fighters, who once ate dog guts as training, want to
leave behind a sordid past of human rights crimes and project a new
image as international peacekeepers and a front against rampant drug
gangs.

Created in the 1970s to fight a counter-insurgency campaign against
Guatemala’s leftist guerrillas during a 36-year civil war that left
over 200,000 dead, the Kaibils were infamous as one of the most brutal
special forces units in Latin America.

of course, the two reporters that crafted this pitch omit the
historical fact that the founder of the kaibiles, pablo nuila hub, was
a graduate
of the united states’SOA, or of the long record of u.s. support that went beyond financial & weapon assistance to counterinsurgency
forces in guatemala throughout the cold war period, or that human
rights watch reported "parachute and jungle-survival training by U.S. Special Forces for
Guatemala’s elite Kaibil counterinsurgency troops in the Petén in
November 1988", and into the 90’s "Green Berets openly trained the Kaibil massacre force", etc etc. just pointing out the influence to help fill in some details, ya know.

Cont. reading: Makeover

by Uncle $cam
(lifted from a comment)

It has always been my habit to ignore traditions such as New Years resolutions due to the intrinsic value of drunken promises.

This year I have decided to compose a set of fifteen resolutions prior
to beginning my yearly ritualistic alcohol fest. They go like this:

I resolve to remember:

1. In America: We elect Representatives not leaders or kings
2. Corporations are not living breathing natural persons and thus should never enjoy Constitutional rights as persons.
3. The first ten amendments of the Constitution of the United States (also known as the Bill rights) are not amendable.
4. Taxes collected and then spent against the will of the people constitutes taxation without representation.
5. The Constitution of the United States of America contains no language declaring America "Policeman to the world".
6. True American Patriots support and defend the United States Constitution NOT a political party or even FOX news.
7. Defending the United States Constitution is not a criminal terrorist act regardless
   of any legalese contained in the Patriot Act.
8. A fascist government by definition; cannot enact the will of the people.
9. If George Bush could become President ANYONE of us could also be President.
10. Electing lawyers to serve in congress is akin to appointing Mark Foley Boy Scout Troop leader.
11. The original intent of the FCC was to prevent monopolization of the
    air waves, not to squelch free speech or hide Janet Jackson’s nipples.
12. Jesus is not a republican.
13. Jesus is GW Bush’s favorite philosopher not his God.
14. Statutory law often runs ruff-shod over the United States Constitution.
15. There is no measurable difference between Republicans and Democrats.

Happy New Year.

As several barflies, MoA and Whiskey Bar commentators, join with me today for some new years eve celebration, there’ll be no time left to put up an elaborate piece.

But let me say thanks to all of you, dear readers and commentators, for the thoughts, ideas and links you have given here over the past year.

My very best wishes to you and the world for the new year.

Cont. reading: On The New Year

The Moonbat Sonata or Whiskey Barflies Retreat is about to take place next week.

Some eight to ten Moon of Alabama commentators will meet in Hamburg on the 31st. Anyone who wants to join anonymously you can meet us at the Cafè Buenos Aires on the evening of January the 3rd, or in Berlin on the 4th and 5th.

You can still join! For traveling and accomodation details please contact me via MoonofA _at_ aol _dot_ com (Hamburger & ASKOD please contact me in any case.)

Currently females are a bit overrepresentated in the event. So I would appreciate if any of the gents care to get off their asses and help me out.

No, nononono, not what you are thinking. Global orgasm day is today. Next week the task is to look after drunk and hangovered ladies …

by b real

At counterpunch on wednesday is a piece that fits in w/ what our compañero r’giap reminds us is one of the primary functions of this site – remembering.

the article is a remembrance of & rumination on the recent passing over of the seneca activist scholar john mohawk, John Mohawk and the Power to Make Peace. mohawk was an editor & reporter at akwesasne notes, the largest native american newspaper at the time & which was right there to capture & contribute to much of the revived american indian activism in the late-60’s thru the 1970’s. he was later a columnist at indian country today. he also contributed a lot to the seminal volume basic call to consciousness, a classic work, part of which can be read  here. (indian country today’s obit)

the counterpunch article brings up the role of the peacemaker & the parallel to today’s sitch, which is a connection i made in the autumn whispers thread. and it also reaffirms one of the themes of the text that i laid out there.

Cont. reading: Remembering

"Weekly attacks in Iraq are now at an average of 11,343."

No, that is not from a major newspapers, though it should be.

Those all have top-pieces today about a DoD report to Congress and highlight that report’s numbers of recorded attacks in Iraq. As stenographed by the fishwraps and according to the DOD report there were on average 959 attacks per week during the last three month.

But only two weeks ago the Iraq Study Group explained that these DoD numbers are systematically skewed to reflect only some 8.5% of the real number of attacks in Iraq. Still none of the papers reports puts any doubts on the DoD numbers or relates them to the ISG findings.

But they inform the public.

Quotes:

Cont. reading: Weekly Attacks in Iraq: 11,343

The Iraqi Red Crescent accused U.S. forces on Friday of carrying out a spate of attacks on its offices over the last three years during operations to flush out suspected militants.
[…]
"The main difficulties we are facing, first of all, is the presence of MNF, the multinational forces, which sometimes gives us a hard time. They are attacking some offices and detaining some volunteers," Karbouli told a news conference in Geneva.

"The last example was about seven days ago in Falluja. We had our offices attacked by American forces, they detained the volunteers and staff more than two hours and they burned the cars and even the building which belonged to us," he added.
[…]
"Fortunately we have a good reputation with Iraqis on both sides. Both of them respect us and trust us as a neutral organisation," Karbouli said.
Iraqi Red Crescent accuses U.S. forces of attacks, December 15, 2006

Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms burst into Red Crescent offices on Sunday and kidnapped more than two dozen people at the humanitarian organization in the latest sign of the country’s growing lawlessness.
[…]
[G]unmen in five pickup trucks pulled up at the office of the Iraqi Red Crescent in downtown Baghdad and abducted 25 employees, police said. A Red Crescent official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns, said the gunmen left women behind.
[…]
"We don’t know who they are. We don’t know why they did this," said Antonella Notari, a Red Cross spokeswoman in Geneva.
28 kidnapped from aid office in Baghdad, December 17, 2006