how much are Bush & Cheney's "blind' trusts worth?

I should have stopped to fill up the tank yesterday. It was at $2.92 a gallon. I didn't thinking I'd just do it today.

Today it's $3.09 a gallon. That's 17¢ more in less than 24 hours!

The price of a barrel of oil closed at $96.24, the highest yet. They are predicting that it will be at $100 by the end of the year.

The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 provides that the administration and congressional members place holding in a blind trust to prevent any possible conflict of interest or suggestion of inappropriate influence in their decision making.

Of course, the parties themselves set up the trusts and name the trustees. Soooooo, the question is, how much are George W and Dick's trusts worth? It would be totally within reason to believe that they still have substantial holding in the oil industry.

dontcha think?

just asking...

more signs of inevitable legacy...?

Steven C Clemons over at the The Washington Note is commenting on some major, and very quiet, changes happening over at the Bush White House that may be additional signs that George W, or at least some of his minions, are taking steps to secure a different legacy than can be easily forecast at the moment.

Why is it only in the twilight of this administration that we are seeing highly sensible appointments -- and a new commitment to healthy "deal-making"? It is regrettable that someone of [David] Gordon's [National Intelligence Council Vice Chairman] intellectual capacity and stature now has just a year and half to try and do something constructive in his new role. The reality is that America's place in the world seems to be slipping -- perhaps from a globally hegemonic, ordering role to something like another better-than-average great power -- and most of George W. Bush's political capital has been spent, often on low-return battles like the recent Wolfowitz struggle.

Others on this new team, according to Clemens, are Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Deputy Secretary John Negroponte, Under Secretary of State R. Nicholas Burns, Legal Adviser John Bellinger, Secretary of Defense Bob Gates, Gordon England, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Mike McConnell and Michael Hayden at the Directorate of National Intelligence.

The danger?

There are a lot of new good people -- working together finally -- in this administration. But Vice President Cheney, and his national security spearcarriers -- David Addington, John Hannah, and David Wurmser -- will be out there to sabotage and oppose him at every turn. These rivals can't be seduced to support David Gordon's logic.

The hope?

They need to be out run, embarrassed, exhausted, pushed out of the room, or crushed.

That's how one wins against Cheney's followers. David Gordon's appointment is a sign that smart realists are ascendant.

As the Hopi Native-American adage goes, When hope is gone, life is over.

We can only hope...

flumoxed...

I've been watching the PBS special series America at a Crossroads. If you're not aware of it, check the link or find out when it's on your local PBS station. It's not a one topic series, ie Iraq. It is a series of eleven shorter films dealing with different topics. Here is the description from the website:

America at a Crossroads is a major public television event premiering on PBS in April 2007 that explores the challenges confronting the post-9/11 world — including the war on terrorism; the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; the experience of American troops serving abroad; the struggle for balance within the Muslim world; and global perspectives on America’s role overseas.

It's not easy to watch. It's graphic; it's honest; it's frustrating.

The graphic nature is not meant to be a scare tactic or to give it a liberal/progessive slant. It just tells the truth like it is. The MSM filters what it shows the American people. This series does not filter it. Of course, the American people don't want to see it either. Without a doubt, those who back the administration's positions are going to cry foul and label it as either liberal or Democratic propaganda. Maybe it is. The problem is: the camera does not lie.

Watching this, I am haunted by one accusation that we hear over and over from the Bush administration: that the liberals/progressives/Democrats do not want to win this war. Why am I flumoxed? I'm not really sure what we are trying to win.

Mssrs. Bush and Cheney repeatedly say we're fighting to safeguard America's borders from terrorists. That may have been true in 2001 but how accurate of a description is it today?

Not a single member of the White House can explain what a win in Iraq would mean. I hear a lot of comments like this war is keeping America free from attack. This is absurd! The same people pushing this spin are keeping our borders open to any terrorist who wants to strike us from within. How stupid do they think we are?*

We're trying to bring democracy to the Middle-East. It's been under theocratic and dictatorial forms of government based on religion for hundreds of years. How did invading Iraq help to spread democracy? It's a civil religious war in all but name only to everyone except the Bush administration. They will not or do not want to admit it.

Is it not possible to leave Iraq to the people involved and let them sort out their own democracy? It might mean that a civil war will be recognized (versus a civil war not recognized) and the winner takes all.*

There are many people who believe that we are in Iraq for the oil. If the US had access to all that oil, wouldn't that bring the price of fuel down? How would BP, Exxon, et al react to lower prices at the pump? They're showing larger profits than at any time in economic history. It's also cannot be factually backed up:

Despite claims by some critics that the Bush administration invaded Iraq to take control of its oil, the first contracts with major oil firms from Iraq's new government are likely to go not to U.S. companies, but rather to companies from China, India, Vietnam, and Indonesia. And Iraq's big oil contracts go to ...

Of course there are also the cynical reasons. The one that is the most absurd is to defeat Islam and spread democracy. The saddest one, and it probably is true for some people:

Many Conservatives that I communicate with on my own network of addresses tell me that they want to see the end of Islam in the Middle East. I’ve been told that Islam outnumbers us (whatever “us” is, or are) and it would mean a world war encompassing 80% of the nations on the planet. Another viewpoint is that the Middle East must be introduced (read “forced”) into a Democracy, which often means “mob rule.*

We hear that this administration lied to get the US into the war. There were no WMD's or even evidence of continued development.

Safety on US soil? Bush again yesterday said that the purpose it to secure the country's safety from terrorists. A reader on the Daily Dish today pondered:

I had a thought; if anyone can get a gun, and shoot people, even teenagers, and obviously psychotic people, then why haven't any Islamist terrorists done so?

The Revolutionary war was fought to secure freedom from a despotic government. The Civil War was fought to secure the Union from being torn apart. WWI was fought to stem the world conquering desires of the Kaiser. WWII was fought against the totalitarian regimes that wanted to conquer the world. The Cold War was fought to stop the spread of Communism.

Maybe we're fighting to bring down the price of oil? Maybe we're fighting to spread democracy? Maybe we're fighting to bring peace to the Middle East? Maybe, we are trying to save face for the United States, but how did we lose it to start? I'm not sure. As I said, "I'm flumoxed."

What do you all think? What is it exactly that we're trying to win?

kill 'em with kindness & love...

An op ed in this morning's New York Times by Robert Wright entitled Easter Sermon makes a point I've referred to on a few occassions.

Consider a teaching of Jesus that seems on its surface devoid of strategic import. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

Christians often cast this verse as innovative, a sharp break from Jesus’ Jewish tradition. But the same idea can be found in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), and here it is clear that the point of the kindness is to thwart the enemy: “If your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat; and if they are thirsty, give them water to drink; for you will heap coals of fire on their heads.”

This was the major stepping off point for a little unkown radical group called Christians two thousand years ago that helped bring about the fall of the mighty Roman Empire. A small group with the radical idea of love over all - and the peace it brings.

The world is facing another of those small unkown groups - radical islam. Here's the money quote from the op ed that sets it all in perspective:

The ultimate in viral marketing was Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice. Deemed a threat to the social order, he was crucified under Roman auspices. But the Romans forgot one thing: If you face a small but growing movement that threatens the imperial order, you shouldn’t attack the men in ways that help the memes.

Mr. Bush says his favorite philosopher is Jesus. One way to show it would be to spend less time repeating the mistake of the Romans and more time heeding the wisdom of Christ.

George W has done everything to keep the radical islamists in the limelight, proven every idea they have concocted against the west, recruited more and more believers to their cause, and given them the ability to keep the focus on the cruelty that the US spreads.

George W acknowledges that he was not a good student. I guess he slept through most of his history classes. Don't you think that insead of clearing brush and parasailing at his ranch this week he should be reading Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire? just asking...

what's going on here (part XIX)...

can someone explain...

72-year old Gay bashing victim dies from injuries

Earlier this week, Andy at Towleroad made us aware of the brutal and senseless gay bashing of a 72 year old resident of Detroit. Today, the victim, Andrew Anthos, died from his injuries....

Don't tell us hate crimes don't matter. Don't tell us we don't need protections. Don't tell us we need to move on. Don't tell us that while members of our community are still being bashed. And, don't be mistaken: We're still not safe in America.

And a quick note: The religious right is lying to you. They say they oppose hate crimes legislation. No they don't. There already is a federal hate crimes law, and it covers the religious right (race, color, religion or national origin). What we're proposing is that the current federal law be broadened to include everyone (gender, disability and sexual orientation). The religious right is crowing about how this will make it a crime to criticize gay people. News flash, I criticize the religious right - they're a bunch of hateful loons - every day on this blog, and I'm obviously not going to jail. They're liars. If we're going to have a hate crimes law, it should cover everyone. Fair is fair. Joe Sudbay over at Americablog

What was the man doing that set the killer off? He was singing! On the bus. The attacker asked him if he was gay. The killer followed him when he left the bus and hit him in the back of the head with a metal pipe. What was the guy doing on a bus with a metal pipe? I agree with Sudbay. Fair is fair. Everyone no matter who they are is supposed to be protected. Even convicts and prisoners seem to have more protection than the elderly, women, the disabled and gays. What is it going to take to make these wingnut christians understand that they aren't very christian? just asking...

Ex-pastor defends acts

The attorney for a former Baptist church leader who had spoken out against homosexuality said Thursday that the minister has a constitutional right to solicit sex from an undercover policeman.

Authorities allege that Latham asked the undercover policeman to come up to his hotel for oral sex.

Latham’s attorney, Mack Martin, filed a motion to have the misdemeanor lewdness charge thrown out, saying the Supreme Court ruled in the 2003 decision Lawrence v. Texas that it was not illegal for consenting adults to engage in private homosexual acts.

“Now, my client’s being prosecuted basically for having offered to engage in such an act, which basically makes it a crime to ask someone to do something that’s legal,” Martin said.

Let's get this straight. [pardon the pun] This man is opposed to gays. He worked against anything that supports gay rights. He wanted gays to reject their “sinful, destructive lifestyle.” He meets an undercover policeman in a bar. He asks him to come up to his room for gay sex.There is no request for money. The pastor is arrested for lewdness. He then says that what he did was okay because Lawrence v. Texas gives him the right to engage in private consensual homosexual sex. There seems to be two problems here. One, the pastor is using a court case with which we have to assume he was totally opposed in his own defense. Two, the Kansas City Police & prosecutor are saying that they have a right to arrest and prosecute anyone for wanting/having gay sex. How is that following the dictates of Lawrence v. Texas and isn't the pastor calling the kettle burnt? just asking...

'Secretive' Christian conservative club 'dismayed at the absence of a champion to carry their banner in the next election'

"A group of influential Christian conservatives and their allies emerged from a private meeting at a Florida resort this month dissatisfied with the Republican presidential field and uncertain where to turn," David D. Kirkpatrick writes. "The event was a meeting of the Council for National Policy, a secretive club whose few hundred members include Dr. James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family, the Rev. Jerry Falwell of Liberty University and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. Although little known outside the conservative movement, the council has become a pivotal stop for Republican presidential primary hopefuls, including then-Gov. George W. Bush on the eve of his 1999 primary campaign."

Kirkpatrick adds, "But in a stark shift from the group’s influence under President Bush, the group risks relegation to the margins. Many of the conservatives who attended the event, held at the beginning of the month at the Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island, Fla., said they were dismayed at the absence of a champion to carry their banner in the next election."

Okay. Let's see what's more surprising. That there is a Secretive Christian Conservative Club? Nahhhh... That there isn't a dufus they can choose to pander to them? Posssssibly... That there isn't anyone dumb enough to believe that he/she needs them? Probbbbably... That there isn't a conservative that meets all of their qualifications for conservative? Defffffinitely... That King George W won't be able to kiss their collective asses after January 20, 2009? Absssssolutely... That they may loose any influence to make more money for their pulpits? Aye, there's the rub...

U.S. can't afford another war: Iran - Chicago Sun-Times
Pentagon drafting plans to bomb Iran - Americablog.com

Iran's foreign minister said Saturday the United States was in no position for another war, and maintained that negotiations -- not threats -- were the only way to resolve the standoff over its nuclear activities.
Manouchehr Mottaki was responding to Vice President Dick Cheney, who renewed Washington's warning to Iran earlier Saturday that "all options" were on the table if Tehran continues to defy U.N. demands to halt uranium enrichment.

Mottaki said the United States could not afford to settle its differences with Iran by launching a third war after Afghanistan and Iraq. - Chicago Sun-Times

and

What the hell. We can't win two wars, so let's have three! These people are seriously nuts. Oh, but the plans are to "just" bomb Iran's ability to help the insurgents in Iraq. Uh, ok. And what do we do when the Iranians decide to flood across the boarder and hit us back? Of course, this is exactly what Bush wants to have happen - he wants all out war with Iran. The problem is the Iranians know that we don't have the ability anymore to fight a third war against them. So what the hell is Bush doing? We have an idiot as president. - Americablog.com

We have an idiot for a president. I don't think it could be said any better. Oh, wait...

Impeach the bastard!

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. - Oscar Wilde

Sources: Americablog, Kansas City Star, The Raw Story, Americablog & Chicago Sun-Times

what's going on here (part XVII)...

can someone explain...

Putin Says U.S. Is Undermining Global Stability

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia accused the United States on Saturday of provoking a new nuclear arms race by developing ballistic missile defenses, undermining international institutions and making the Middle East more unstable through its clumsy handling of the Iraq war....

The world, he said, is now unipolar: “One single center of power. One single center of force. One single center of decision making. This is the world of one master, one sovereign....”

“They bring us to the abyss of one conflict after another,” he said. “Political solutions are becoming impossible....”

Of course the Americans in attendance were quick and vociferous in their denials and cry of Putin trying to restart the Cold War, but what they fail to realize is that this is the way he, and quite probably most of the rest of the world, see it. One of the things that the Bush administration can easily be accused of is tunnel vision and viewing the world with blinkers on their heads. They tout global economics and policies but only in the way that they want it to be. F*^# the rest of the world. We know best. We are the ultimate democracy. We are the example the rest of the world should use. We should tell everyone else how to live. We must control the world's resources (or at least set the policy.) So, what happened to diplomacy? Good neighbors? Leadership by good example? Sharing? a democratic world? if the US wants to spread democracy of any kind, shouldn't the US be doing it democratically? just asking...

Gay question is 'not central to faith' says Tanzanian bishop

THE Bishop of Central Tanganyika, the Rt Revd Godfrey Mdimi Mhogolo, has dissociated his diocese from the statement issued in December by the House of Bishops of Tanzania, the province where the Primates Meeting is to be held this month....

Bishop Mdimi goes on: "We live in our cultural context where gays and lesbians are regarded as criminals, punishable by long-term imprisonments. We also live in a country where gays and lesbians are violently persecuted, mistreated, hated, and ostracised. . . We as Black Africans know the hurts and permanent damage caused by our past experiences, which still linger on to the present. . . We have gone through that, and we don't want to go that way again."

If the day ever comes when Jesus comes down from heaven to oversee the final judgment, I would love to be there when the self-righteous wingnuts with the sweep of JC's hand they are sent to damnation for lacking christian charity and tolerance, for not keeping the commandment of love thy neighbor, and for using god's name to foster their own self-deluding agendas. I would just love to see their faces. They will be the true whores of Babylon at that moment. can you just see it?

'Air Pelosi': Payback for 5-Day Week?

One of the lesser-known aspects of the "Air Pelosi" controversy is the degree to which the fuss is payback for the House speaker's decision to hold legislators to a five-day workweek instead of the three- or four-day schedule adopted by the Republicans in the past....

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow has sided with Pelosi. But GOP insiders say the issue has a lot to do with Pelosi's work-week requirements, which many legislators consider a PR stunt that imposes a real burden on them getting home to be with their families and constituents.

My job is literally considered a 24/7, 364 day position. Literally. I am on call all the time. Over the years I have been at the school at 2, 3, 4 o'clock in the morning either with the police or waiting for the canine unit because the alarm has gone off or someone actually did break in. Most all of you probably have 9 - 5 jobs that exact a 5-day week schedule. In what would seem to me to be one of the most important jobs in our country, legislator, I should think that there would be more in terms of dedication and skill than a lot of other jobs. So, the Republicans are bemoaning the fact that they are being asked to earn their salary along with the myriad of perks that goes along with being a legislator? I mean, when the Morning Agenda starts at 2:00 pm some days, what do you expect from us? Empathy? I have only one thing to say to these legislators:

It's the job, stupid!

US accuses Iran over Iraq bombs

The US military has accused the "highest levels" of Iran's government of supplying increasingly sophisticated roadside bombs to Iraq's insurgents.

They said US intelligence analysts believed the bombs were manufactured in Iran and secretly sent into Iraq on the orders of senior officials in Tehran.

The US has claimed in the past that Iranian weapons were being used in Iraq, but have never before accused Iranian government officials of being directly involved....

Now, is this a bargaining chip in the nuclear negotations going on between the US and Iran? Or is it just plain stupid? What would be the purpose behind the Bush administration pursuing another conflagration in the Middle East? Oil? Supremacy? Cowardice? Stupidity? (There was enough stupidity in the previous post, sorry.) Oh, wait. Oil? If I were to choose one of these possible reasons, or any other one for that matter, I would probably opt for...

Stupidity!

"Who will rid me of this meddlesome president?" a la Henry II

Preacher Appeals To Supreme Court To Erect Homophobic Billboard

In 2003 New York billboard company PNE removed the sign bought by Okwedy after then-Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari wrote a letter of protest to the company.

Okwedy paid PNE Media about $2,500 to design billboard signs that quoted a passage from Leviticus: "Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind. It is abomination."

In his letter to PNE's president Molinari, a Republican, said "I want to inform you that this message conveys an atmosphere of intolerance which is not welcome in our borough." He went on to remind the company made a lot of money from billboard signs in Staten Island.

Yes, I agree that the billboard is homophobic. Yes, I agree that Mr. Molinari, the Republican, may have come close to issuing a threat, but no, I do not like what this is all about. It definitely smacks of a denial of freedom of speech. It butts up against separation of church and state in reverse: the state saying a religion can't believe/espouse something. It, also, puts the community in a struggle that we are trying to combat of using tactics that are pernicious and hateful - mainly, silencing our opponents. The right wingnuts, in their ostentatious, sefl-righteousness (twice in one blog entry) employ tactics to subvert free speech and freedom of religion, rather than freedom from religion, to push their agenda of denial, hatred, and discrimination and to destroy a segment of the populace. Even if I find these tactcs obnoxious and anti-democratic, more important, though...

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Evelyn Beatrice Hall in The Friends of Voltaire, 1906.

can i be assuaged? just asking...

Sources: New York Times, Sunday, February 11, 2007, Virtue Online: , USNews.com, bbc,com, TEXT, 365gay.com

what's going on here (part XV)...

Gay Icon Embraced By Anti-Gay Vatican

While the Vatican continues to condemn homosexuality, lobby against same-sex couple rights, and purge its seminaries of gays one of Pope Benedict's closest aides has published a book paying tribute to gay icon Oscar Wilde....
Fr. Leonardo Sapienza, the head of protocol at the Vatican and a close ally of the Pope, has compiled a book called "Provocations: Aphorisms for an Anti-conformist Christianity" that is chock full of Wilde quotes....
According to Sapienza Wilde is remembered more today for his plays such as "The Importance of Being Earnest" and "An Ideal Husband" as well as what Sapienza called Wilde's moral tales such as "The Picture of Dorian Gray" rather than for his promiscuity.

I'll let Oscar Wilde comment himself on this development:

I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.
--Oscar Wilde

Every great man has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes the biography.
--Oscar Wilde.

nuff said?


Archbishop quits, admits communist-era spying

WARSAW, Poland (Reuters) -- The newly-appointed archbishop of Warsaw resigned on Sunday after admitting he spied for Poland's former communist regime, in a major embarrassment for the Vatican and the powerful Polish Catholic Church....

The Vatican's diplomatic mission in Poland said in a statement that Wielgus was asked to resign.
A spokesman for the Polish episcopate said the legal basis for the resignation was a part of church law requiring a bishop to resign if he is "unable to properly exercise his office (and therefore) is strongly requested to submit his resignation."

okaaaay... First Oscar Wilde, now communist collaboration. What's the church coming to?


Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran

ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.
Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.

Let's get this straight. They are reporting that Isreal [though officially denying the rumor] is going to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities using nuclear weapons? bit of overkill, if this is the case. don't you think? And where is the US on all this? take a guess...


Interview with Heinz Dieterich:
"In Venezuela, Conditions for Building Socialism of the 21st Century Have Been Created"

Q. In short, what does this new socialism consists of?

A. In brief: a socialism in which the majorities have the greatest historically possible degree of decision-making power in the economic, political, cultural, and military institutions that govern their lives....

Q. In your opinion, has there been any socialist country in the modern era?

A. It depends on the criteria that are used for such judgment. As a scientific economist and sociologist, I prefer the parameters that Marx and Engels used: economy of value and participatory democracy. And under those criteria, there has been no socialist society since the French Revolution, although, yes, there have been many heroic and tragic attempts to achieve it.

Talk about putting the right-wingnuts on notice. "...no socialist society since the French Revolution...?" The Reign of Terror as socialism? What an intriguing idea. [Che may not have been that far off, after all.] Europe has been having a love-hate relationship with socializing certain aspects of the society since WWII - health care and work rules, basically. They have had their problems with it; yet they are not about to abandon socialism completely. Oh, and liberal/progressives in the US are in favor of guaranteeing minimum wages, universal healthcare, etc., while the right and corporate America are fighting it tooth and nail. what is the problem with providing guarantees that everyone have basic needs met so as to improve their lives? again, just asking...


finally, i couldn't pass this one up...

Self-Cleaning Underwear Goes Weeks Without Washing

Self-cleaning fabrics could revolutionize the sport apparel industry. The technology, created by scientists working for the U.S. Air Force, has already been used to create t-shirts and underwear that can be worn hygenically for weeks without washing.
The new technology attaches nanoparticles to clothing fibers using microwaves. Then, chemicals that can repel water, oil and bacteria are directly bound to the nanoparticles. These two elements combine to create a protective coating on the fibers of the material.
This coating both kills bacteria, and forces liquids to bead and run off.

No more need for Tide, Gain, Oxydol, Shout.... What must Proctor & Gamble think about this?

Sources: 365Gay.com, cnn.com, timesonline.uk, Monthly Review mrzineonline, LiveScience.com

it always comes down to money (II)...

Iraq oil contracts to be delivered on silver platter to Big Oil
from AMERICAblog.com:

And who says the war wasn't about oil? What good American wouldn't want to die for the honor and juicy contracts of Exxon, BP or Shell? At least they die knowing that they are securing the comfortable retirement plans of retired Big Oil CEOs. All of those Iraqis who are being killed every day must also be ecstatic over this deal which helps Big Oil realize their dreams and leaves the Iraqi people with the short end of the stick once again.
The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972.

The huge potential prizes for Western firms will give ammunition to critics who say the Iraq war was fought for oil. They point to statements such as one from Vice-President Dick Cheney, who said in 1999, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010. "So where is the oil going to come from?... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies," he said.

Oil industry executives and analysts say the law, which would permit Western companies to pocket up to three-quarters of profits in the early years, is the only way to get Iraq's oil industry back on its feet after years of sanctions, war and loss of expertise. But it will operate through "production-sharing agreements" (or PSAs) which are highly unusual in the Middle East, where the oil industry in Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world's two largest producers, is state controlled.
Where would we be without Big Oil and their many contributions to the world?
originally appearing in theindependent.uk

dis-donc?*

are we surprised?

just asking...

*loose French idiomatic translation - say what?

because a vision softly creeping...

A friend's son joined the Reserves. He is 20 years old. None of us really understands why he did this. We support his decision 100% though. He's almost completed all his training. With talk about a surge, he is now saying he is sure that he is going to have to go to Iraq. He is telling his friends that if he goes, he will die...

hello, darkness, my old friend...

Update: I just watched This Week on ABC. Near the end of the program, they do a section called In Memoriam. It lists the deaths of people this week who made a difference in the world. It always stops with the names of service members who died in Iraq this past week.

There were 13. The oldest was 26 years-old!

hello, darkness, my old friend...

if Mr. Bush is so worried...

...about his legacy and how history will review his presidency, he needs to take a bold step and follow the lead of Richard Nixon.

As derided and disliked Mr. Nixon was, he opened a dialogue with Communist China. That is Nixon's real legacy. The U.S. has gone from shunning and fighting China (read Korea & Viet Nam) to owing it billions of dollars for the money that Mr. Bush has borrowed from China to run his war.

The editorial in Le Monde today said it best: Bushe reste Bush - "Bush Remains Bush."

Instead of listening to the American people, his generals, his diplomats, and the Baker-Hamilton report on Iraq, he chooses to send more American service members into a situation that even the ground troops are comparing to the Viet Nam fiasco.

Can Mr. Bush be so blind to the obvious?

He could have a resounding effect if he sat down, or even had Condi Rice sit down, with Iran, Syria, Muqtada al-Sadr, Hezbollah, Hamas... and said, "Look, y'all. If we put our minds and resources to it, we could put the Middle East in a space that would economically, politically and socially put it on a par with the rest of the world. You can have your religious differences; you can puff your chests and fluff your plumes; and you can disagree all you want on who succeeded the Prophet. Don't y'all think it's time to start doing something for your people. And, while were at it, let's bring in the French, the Italians, the Chinese, the Japanese and the Russians together with us and see what we all can do together to help ya'll."

If he is that concerned about his legacy, he could make the biggest change in the world ever.

I want to pose: is it too much to ask? or could anything be more simple? or why can't he see the obvious?

but I think already I know the answers.

so, why should i even bother to ask?

just asking...

let me get this straight...

The debate in the last couple of months has been whether or not Iraq is actually a civil war, right?

A civil war is a war between citizens of the same country; a war between opposing groups of citizens of the same country; the warring groups must be from the same country and fighting for control of the political center, control over a separatist state or to force a major change in policy.

Wikipedia also states that at least 1,000 people must have been killed in total....

As far as the last part it's way over 1,000 Iraqi's dead.

As for the major change in policy, the Sunni's want Iraq to be Sunni and the Shia want Iraq to be Shi'ite. The Kurds seem to want their little piece of the north but also some of the oil that is in the rest of the country.

Now, Sunni, Shia and Kurd are religous factions/sects of Islam and the three of them have a long (1000 year+) history of conflict over which of them is the true inheritor of the Prophet's word. So maybe this is a religious war.

By definition a religious war is a war justified by religious differences. It can be the legitimate forces of one state that has an established religion against those of another state with either a quite different religion or a different sect within the same religion, or, at the level below a state, it can be a faction motivated by religion attempting to spread its faith by violence either within the state or elsewhere.

I don't understand the real issue between Sunni & Shi'ite. It comes across as quite complex. They seem all to believe the same thing; it's just that they are fighting over the Prophet's, what, estate, legacy, history?

Maybe what's going on is really a religious civil war?

or... has the entire business really come down to one thing? oil?

just asking...

what's going on here (part XI)...

Scientist Fights Church Effort to Hide Museum's Pre-Human Fossils

Famed paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey is giving no quarter to powerful evangelical church leaders who are pressing Kenya's national museum to relegate to a back room its world-famous collection of hominid fossils showing the evolution of humans' early ancestors

Faith, in one definition, is having a strong belief in god or religion based on spiritual apprehension. Apprehension is anxiety or fear. To apprehend means to understand or perceive. What is it that evangelical/fundamentalists fear understanding? just asking...

Iran Reacts Favorably to the Baker-Hamilton Plan

Responding to the Baker-Hamilton report's proposal that Washington move quickly to engage Iran on talks over stabilizing Iraq, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki dangled an offer of cooperation in a statement published by an Iranian news agency. "Iran will support any policies returning security, stability and territorial integrity to Iraq," he said, "and considers withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq and leaving security to the Iraqi government as the most suitable option." In an interview on Al Jazeera, Mottaki added that if the U.S. needs an "honorable way out of Iraq," and Iran "is in a position to help."

At face value this reads as "Of course Iran would, they want to say the opposite of what W. says." You have to take a second look. At the moment, the radical President Ahmadinejad is facing some internal questions. There are two elections coming up and the outcomes may not be in his favor. The Supreme Council makes all election decisions and it is signalling a spiral back to some moderation. They have disallowed quite a number of Ahmadinejad's choices. Of course, they did the same to moderate candidates as well, but you have to look at the fact that they reinfranchised quite a number of voters. Ahmadinejad's support comes from the uneducated base outside of the cities. Consequently, if the vote is kept low, he would succeed. The Supreme Council's decisions will allow more citizen's to vote. What do you think they have up their collective sleeve? just asking...

Drag goes mainstream

"We're not adult use," said Jim Flint, owner of the Baton Show Lounge, where drag queens have performed for nearly 38 years. "We have no profanity, no lewdness. We have 80-year-olds who come with their families. I don't want to be lumped in with strip bars and places that offer lap dancing."

Felicia [oops, I knew Mr. Flint in a previous life] thinks drag should be considered respectable. I agree. I have never done drag and have no desire to at this point in my life, but I have known some of the performers [Chili Pepper told me I was a bitch once. She was right.] and can attest to the fact that they make real women jealous because they look so good. I can also verify that they are just as normal and boring in everyday life as everyone else; some are even more than boring. I've seen some of the 80-year old ladies at the performances and they, like the impersonators, know how to have a good time. I say, if no one is getting hurt by it, why make a big deal out of it? just asking...



Sources: LiveScience.com, TIME.com, Chicago Tribune

the season of peace...

Warning: the following video contains photos that may cause more sensitive readers to cry.

what part of the message that Jesus, Ghandi, King and others brought to the world is still not understood?

what part of Love thy neighbor... is not clear?

what part of suffer the little children...?

what part of Peace of Earth...?

just asking...



Source: thanks to Nicole at Crooks and Liars for bringing this video back into my life.

It may be criminal...

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) rose in the Senate to make what some are calling a remarkable speech regarding the circumstances in Iraq. He laid things out on the table that usually are relegated to talk-show punditry rather than on either floor of Congress and, especially, not by a senator from the President's own party.

In his speech [You can see it on the Senate television site: src.senate.gov], Sen. Smith left no one with any doubts about his remarks:

I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal. I cannot support that anymore. I believe we need to figure out how to fight the war on terror and to do it right. So either we clear and hold and build, or let's go home.

This is the part that is being given the most play, and appropriately so, but there is a quote early in his speech that is insightful:

I was greatly disturbed recently to read a comment by a man I admire in history, one Winston Churchill, who after the British mandate extended to the peoples of Iraq for 5 years, wrote to David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of England:

"At present we are paying 8 millions a year for the privilege of living on an ungrateful volcano."

When I read that, I thought, not much has changed. We have to learn the lessons of history and sometimes they are painful because we have made mistakes.

Brings to mind something we've all heard:

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it - George Santayana

plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose, n'est-ce pas?

just asking...

what's going on here (part VI)...

sanity?


US 'open to Iran talks on Iraq'


will someone please tell me...

please...

is there hope? is it too much to ask?

just asking...



Source: BBC News Online

what's going on here (part IV)...

U.S. Jobs Shape Condoms’ Role in Foreign Aid

Alabama firms were given an almost exclusive contract to produce condoms for foreign aid. The purpose was to keep jobs in the US rather than using cheaper more cost-effective condoms from Asia. They can't keep up with the number of condoms required. The federal government begins buying the cheaper condoms. In effect, it out-sources just like many American companies. American lay-offs are to begin soon. Sen. Jeffers (R-Ala) wants a law to use only US made condoms. He'll probably get it. What's the price of millions of people in Africa and Asia dying of AIDS when we can save a couple of hundred Alabaman's jobs? just asking...



GOP at a loss? Karl Rove has an 11th-hour plan to win

be afraid... be very, very afraid. Not of the terrorists but of the promised October Surprise. [There are still three more days in October!] Rather than focusing on issues, this man focuses on power, getting it, keeping it, and abusing it. No tactic is above consideration. He consistently uses tactics that scare not only little babies but full-grown adults. Anybody counting down the number of day? Can he spill over into November if he doesn't have enough time? just asking...



Relief for Nasa as Discovery makes a textbook landing

Did anyone know that Discovery had even launched, let alone returned safely? This makes the news in the UK and you can't find it in the NYT, LA Times, Chicago Sun-Times...? Have we become so inured by space travel in the US that it is now routine? Or are we being led to only read certain things in the news? just asking...



Tearing Down The Walls

al-Jazeera in English? The station may have an idea here. Many people in the US don't have an inkling on the thinking going on in the heads of people who actually live in the Middle East. Democracy is based on free speech & dialogue. Yet, we seldom hear a word, let alone have any kind of dialogue, from the people of the Middle East. Is this part of Homeland Security? just asking...



Gay Cruises Are on the Seas and in the Mainstream

They're everywhere! They're everywhere! I hadn't gone on any cruise, let alone a gay one, until this past January. My friends kept telling me I would like it. I didn't want to believe them. I had no idea that a cruise could be so relaxing and enjoyable. I venture onto a gay cruise this coming March 10-17. [shhhh, it's a secret.] Anyone else going to be there? just asking...



Une jeune femme grièvement brûlée dans l'incendie d'un bus à Marseille

On the first anniversary, the rioting returns in France with a bus being burned, damage to property, injuries to rioters, and the death of one young lady. What have the French learned in one year? Appeasement? Ignorance? Stay the course? just asking...



Sources: New York Times, Telegraph.co.uk, Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine - Europe Edition, Le Monde

what's going on here (III)...

can someone please explain?

Opera Canceled Over a Depiction of Muhammad

Journal: Agency blocked hurricane report

New York City Plans Limits on Restaurants’ Use of Trans Fats

Council urged to duck repeal of foie gras ban

Many Rights in U.S. Legal System Absent in New Bill

Coast Guard's live-ammo drills on Great Lakes raise ire


can someone please explain what exactly is it that I'm being protected from? ducks? weather information? fat? torture? tiger mussels in Lake Michigan? off-pitch singers?


just asking...