The U.S. is finished's topics - tribe.net

USDA says "eat your poison and shut up"

2007-08-17T17:35:50Z

The new amendment to the Farm Bill makes it illegal for states to prohibit "the sale of USDA inspected products."

As worded, if this passes, the impact at the state level would be:

-Unable to pass state/local laws which prohibit sale of foods from inhumane sources (force fed geese, tortured veal, etc.)
-Unable to pass state/local laws which prohibit sale of foods with GMOs, chemicals, or any ingredient which the USDA does not prohibit
-Even the inability to condemn spoiled or contaminated foods at the state and local level, where 90% of food inspection takes place

I urge you to sign the related petition, and I warn you to uncheck the "alerts" section to avoid eco-spam. Sigh:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/135387058

Please feel free to repost....

posted in The U.S. is finished - 1 reply

Anyone in Maryland?

2006-09-28T05:27:56Z

A new radio ad from the National Black Republicans Association is airing in Maryland. It features some African American women discussing how Democrats started the KKK, how Martin Luther King Junior was a Republican, and more! You can read about it and hear the actual ad here:

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2006/sep/21/md_sen_republican_group_ad_claims_dr_king_a_republican

Meanwhile, a Senate race, also in Maryland, hits hard on the big issues: does the Republican candidate love puppies?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7wjJyMDUH0&mode=related&search=

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Iran's Oil Bourse

2006-06-06T15:26:41Z

This will destroy the US Economy more than any nuclear proliferation.

www.energybulletin.net/7707.html

posted in The U.S. is finished - 4 replies

Interesting tie-in back to this tribe's description: 2004 Election back in the news

2006-06-02T20:25:58Z

[...]

What's more, Freeman found, the greatest disparities between exit polls and the official vote count came in Republican strongholds. In precincts where Bush received at least eighty percent of the vote, the exit polls were off by an average of ten percent. By contrast, in precincts where Kerry dominated by eighty percent or more, the exit polls were accurate to within three tenths of one percent -- a pattern that suggests Republican election officials stuffed the ballot box in Bush country.(39)

''When you look at the numbers, there is a tremendous amount of data that supports the supposition of election fraud,'' concludes Freeman. ''The discrepancies are higher in battleground states, higher where there were Republican governors, higher in states with greater proportions of African-American communities and higher in states where there were the most Election Day complaints. All these are strong indicators of fraud -- and yet this supposition has been utterly ignored by the press and, oddly, by the Democratic Party.''

[...]

Full article is in the Rolling Stone here:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Cheney reignites Cold War and this time the U.S. is losing

2006-06-02T17:25:28Z

http://www.alternet.org/story/36881/

One of the oddest reactions to Vice President Cheney's now-infamous speech in Lithuania, the one which many Russians believe officially heralded the start of a new Cold War, came from the mainstream American media. What was so strange? They actually did their job.

Instead of simply parroting the Administration's latest pieties, they actually allowed themselves to smell a rat. And what a putrid, bloated, rotting-in-a-flooded-Manila-gutter rat odor it was! You'd have to have been literally brain dead not to have smelled it.

The rat of course was the insane hypocrisy of a foaming fascist like Dick Cheney suddenly getting all Amnesty International righteous over a bad regime that does bad things. The fact that Cheney flew straight to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan right after squirting over Russia's human rights problems turned the rank hypocrisy into a bad black comedy routine, barely fit for even a Tom Green. Kazakhstan is a country where opposition politicians and media aren't merely jailed, exiled or cowed as they are in Russia, but are shot and dumped in forests, Miller's Crossing-style, on behalf of a despot whose family runs the country like its own fiefdom.

Azerbaijan is even worse, if such a thing can be imagined not only because the Azeri authorities brutally suppress pro-democracy protests, but because it is the first and only post-Soviet state to officially create a despotic family dynasty. After former leader Heydar Aliyev died in office, he passes power (along with control over the country's vast oil wealth) to his son, Ilham Aliyev, in 2003, a dynastic transfer that was then "legimitized" by rigged elections that the Bush administration somehow manages each time to view as a democracy cup 1/100 full rather than 99/100 empty.

Incredibly enough, a few members of the mainstream American press were shocked into action by Cheney's crackpipe hypocrisy. On May 9th, the normally anti-Putin New York Times published an editorial titled, "Cheney as Pot, Putin as Kettle," tepidly calling into question Cheney's bizarre meta-irony act: "spearing Russia while flirting with its even more undemocratic neighbors confuses the message, especially when done by a vice president identified with oil interests." Tepid, but at least a rare acknowledgement of Cheney's insane logic.

The hypocrisy was so bizarre and brazen that even bland newswire agency AP got in on the outting bandwagon, with a May 8th article, "Analysis: Cheney promotes democratic reform everywhere but oil-rich Kazakhstan." You'd almost think that the American media actually questions its leaders' motives!

Even the pro-Cheney Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by Andrew Kuchins, although in a clever ruse he tried to diffuse it by pointing out how obvious it was: "Alert the media: We've identified double standards in U.S. foreign policy!" he sneered, before moving on to the "real" issues raised. As if obvious evil is somehow less pernicious than the kind of evil you have to look for.

Cheney's speech raised a lot of questions and a lot of debate, but no one asked one of the most obvious questions of all: Why did Cheney choose to flaunt his hypocrisy in everyone's faces? Why not try faking it, the way most Western leaders operate when they mix righteous words with rapacious policies? Why didn't Cheney choose to put a bit of space in between his speech attacking Russia's record on democracy and his visits to the despotic Central Asian states?

Or put another way, what if it wasn't a mistake. What if the blatant, insane hypocrisy was the real message... and always has been all along?

The best way to answer this is to go back and retrace how Russia and America wound up in this once-unimaginable situation. It would seem to be a massive policy failure, allowing Russia to become a Cold War enemy again, perhaps the greatest American foreign policy failure of our time. Unless, of course, you put all the blame on Putin's evil little authoritarian shoulders, which is the natural tendency of nearly every American commentator.

They say Americans' memories are short, but that's like saying a Nazi's sense of compassion was fleeting. Americans literally rewrite their memories over and over. Case in point: Just four-and-a-half years ago, Vladimir Putin was treated as a rock star in America. You probably forgot about it, so I'm going to remind you because it's not a pretty memory.

After 9/11, Putin became our biggest, bestest friend in the world when he made his famous first-to-the-phone call to Bush and green-lighted American forces entering Central Asia for the war against the Taliban. I was in America at the time, and I remember all too well how happy Americans were to have the mysterious, morally ambiguous yet effective evil guy joining our side.

In fact, I can say that I've never, ever in my lifetime seen a foreign leader more adored than Putin was in that brief period, from September through December of 2001. Articles like the November 21st "To a Russian, with Lust," by Boston Globe staffer Joanna Weiss, capture the rather embarrassing Pootiemania: she described the man who had shut down the formerly independent TV station NTV, quashed the free media and consolidated power as "Compact and athletic, with a Mona Lisa smile," "visibly buff," "balding, in a cute Jean-Luc Picard sort of way... or maybe a Thorn Yorke sort of way." Even heavyweights like the Los Angeles Times, which now tries to out-anti-Putin its rivals, wore out their kneepads fawning over Putin.

In its November 24th editorial, "In a Word, Zdorovo," the L.A. Times concluded, with full Spielberg happy ending and John Williams score accompaniment, "Never mind for now the remaining political and policy differences between the two countries and the savvy public relations. ... If Americans could feel real terror at times about an opponent's evil 50 years ago, then there's nothing wrong with reveling for a warm moment in the changes today. 'Wow' is one word for it. 'Zdorovo' is another."

Ah, it's so vile it's is fun. For me anyway. God, I hope whoever wrote that has to read it again. Read it and weep, folks.

Yes, Putin had literally charmed the socks of America, because, well, let's admit the shameful truth we were scared shitless then. We had a big yella stripe running up our backs. We didn't know if we'd actually win in Afghanistan, or if we'd be plunted into a new Dark Age of fire and plague. In that sense of insecurity and existential crisis, a man like Putin was exactly what Americans, even liberals, felt they needed. Strange, but Russians, who experienced total collapse over the past 20 years, are called savages for supporting Putin for the same reasons. But at least Russians support him without that sphincter-twisting sentimentality found in that L.A. Times Op-Ed.

When Putin reached out to Bush and gave him everything he asked for post-9/11, his base was furious. Particularly the Siloviki -- the Russian officials from the old Soviet intelligence and military services who came into power in the late Yeltsin and Putin years -- who saw it as yet another in a series of betrayals, a repeat of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, whom they believed had betrayed Russia's interests in order to earn a pat on the head from America. They argued that Putin was being naive and foolish just as his predecessors were; and that in the end, the Americans would fuck him like they fucked Gorby and Yeltsin. Russia would get nothing for helping, neither would Putin; nothing but problems, just like what happened in the '90s.

The argument wasn't simply a matter of pride. The Gorbachev-Yeltsin years were among the most catastrophic of any nation in peace time. Russia was literally dying off -- its economy plunged by over 60 percent, and its death rate soared to unheard of levels. Another repeat of that could destroy Russia for good, they argued.

So it was a huge risk for Putin to cozy up so closely to America post-9/11. He went out on a limb, made a bold move against his own powerful base, in the hope that the benefits of a mutually-supportive relationship with America would in the end prove him right and make him, and Russia, stronger. And at first it looked like he might be right, as America was undergoing Pootimania.

But then America won the war in Afghanistan much more easily and quickly than we or anyone else thought. And that war victory went to our heads. Suddenly, we decided we didn't need Putin's help anymore.

In fact, as the Newsweeks triumphantly declared, we didn't need anyone's help anymore. America was not just a superpower, it was a hyperpower, perhaps the most powerful (and benign) empire that the world had ever seen. We were finally the true "Number One!" That kind of thinking went to our heads and turned us into assholes. Really Stupid assholes. Overnight, America became what can only be described as "If the Death Star were piloted by Gary Coleman."

And here is where the Timeline for a New Cold War really begins. On December 13th, 2001 after it was clear that Afghanistan had fallen to our allies, Bush announced that America was unilaterally withdrawing from the ABM Treaty.

Putin went on national television, clearly stunned and weakened, calling Bush's move a "mistake." It was a painful broadcast, egg dripping from his face. I've never seen Putin so clearly pimp-slapped before or since.

I remember being shocked at what assholes we'd turned out to be. I couldn't understand why Bush didn't wait even, say, two or three months, at least for the victory dancing to settle down in Afghanistan, maybe throw Russia a bone or two. What was behind the timing?

I contacted a good friend of mine in the Defense Department to ask him why we chose to withdraw from the ABM treaty in such a time and manner as to maximally embarrass Putin for having sided with us. Why didn't we wait?

My Pentagon friend seemed surprised. "We didn't even consider the effect on Putin," he answered. "We only considered what's in our own interest, which is to withdraw now. Besides, we got rid of the Taliban, that was a favor enough for the Russians in our opinion." At the time, Russian anger over Bush's decision to start building a missile shield was dismissed as old Russian paranoia, a holdover of Cold War thinking. Russia had "nothing to worry about," we said.

In fact, the Russians were entirely right to be shocked and paranoid. As Professor Kier Lieber, one of the authors of the recent controversial Foreign Affairs article "The Rise of US Nuclear Primacy," admits that the shield is offensive in nature and only makes sense as a weapon aimed at an enemy like Russia or China. With the sole aim of allowing America to launch a first strike against Russia... and win it. Otherwise, it makes no sense.

"The missile defenses that the United States might plausibly deploy would be valuable primarily in an offensive context. If the United States launched a nuclear attack against Russia (or China), the targeted country would be left with a tiny surviving arsenal if any at all." As for deterring North Korea, Dr. Lieber told me, "You wouldn't have a shield for them, you'd put AEGIS ships all around the Korean peninsula and hit the missiles upon launch." This is where the bad blood started. At America's darkest hour, we reached out to Russia and got full cooperation and trust. And literally the second we felt tough again, we announced our intention to build a weapons system that targeted Russia for total annihilation.

A couple of months later, in early 2002, Bush announced that he was sending Green Berets into Georgia to fight against alleged Al Qaeda terrorists in the Pankisi Gorge. I visited Georgia then, and literally no one on the ground believed that there was a real Al Qaeda threat. What it had everything to do with was training up a strong pro-American Georgian army to secure a planned Caspian Sea oil pipeline, which was due to be constructed through southern Georgia's territory on its way to Turkey, a route chosen to bypass Russia and stay Western (i.e., American).

When the Green Berets were first announced, the Russians, particularly the Siloviki base that first warned Putin against trusting America, went ape shit. First America took East Europe, the Baltics and its former wealth; now the Americans were moving in on what was left, working through the Caucasus and Central Asia, while Russia still couldn't even pacify Chechnya (a conflict which America would now be in an even better position to manipulate).

Just like with the ABM treaty, Putin kept a low profile for the first few days after the Green Berets-in-Georgia announcement, then said that there was no reason to get hysterical. His hand was weak, and he saw no gain in reacting hysterically.

As time went on, it was becoming clear that Bush really didn't plan to leave the military bases he was setting up in Central Asia. I remember working on an Op-Ed piece at the time for the San Jose Mercury News about this, and when I suggested to my editor that the thinking in Russia was that Bush was planning to stay in Central Asia and take what he could, Russia be damned, she was horrified: "No, we couldn't do that," she said. "That would be so wrong of us."

"Yeah, but what can Russia do about it? Nothing," I said.

"But... we're just not like that," she argued. "We're not that ungrateful. The American people would not be happy." Well, we did it. And as usual, the American people didn't care.

The rest of 2002 was about the lead up to the war in Iraq. This is when neocons were genuinely outraged, feeling a sense that they were getting stabbed in the back by a merely-spiteful Russia for not supporting the war. Of course, the fact that Russia stood to lose potential tens of billions in oil contracts and that America stood to gain those tens of billions also played a roll. But most Americans dismissed Russian (and French) objections to the war as mere jealousy and spite.

From Russia, however, America looked like it had literally gone insane, with no limits to its war aggression; part Wermacht, part Napolean's Army. And now America was building up its military capability all around Russia's southern flank in Central Asia and Georgia, and expanding further.

It was at this time that the real battle in this new "Cold War" that the Yukos struggle was coming to a head. Yukos was fast becoming one of top three or four oil companies in the world. Its chairman, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was feted by the very top elite circles of American/Western power, regularly hobnobbing with Bill Gates and Dick Cheney among others.

What we didn't know until later was that Khodorkovsky already deep in a high-stakes struggle with Putin over control of Russia's pipeline network. Owning pipelines was the Kremlin's one stick it wielded over the oil oligarchs.

Khodorkovsky understood that for Yukos to further boost its position, it would need to at the very least wrest control of the pipeline network away from the Kremlin. Khodorkovsky wanted to build up Yukos' value quickly to sell a huge chunk of it to one of Cheney's Texas oil buddies, reportedly either Exxon or Chevron. The reason this was so important for Khodorkovsky was that, since he essentially stole the company during the loans-for-shares privatization scheme in the 1990s, it meant that his hold on the asset was tenuous. The Kremlin could just steal it back any time, as it later did. But the Kremlin would be loathe to steal a massive asset from Exxon or Chevron.

At the same time, Cheney was formulating a worldwide oil grab which he had been working on going back to the 1990s at least. In a speech in 1998, then-CEO of Halliburton Cheney said, "I cannot think of a time when we have had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian." The reason is simple: The Caspian Sea basin, particularly Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan's shares, holds upwards of $5-10 trillion worth of oil, perhaps more given today's prices.

Meanwhile, Russia emerged as the world's second-largest oil producer, but not much of that was getting to the US. At an Russia-American oil summit held in Houston in late 2002, an agreement was signed to build a pipeline from the rich oil fields in western Siberia to Murmansk, where it could be easily shipped to the US. The pipeline was to be Russia's first private consortium, and Yukos was essentially going to lead it. This was it, the first big play to free up Russian oil from Kremlin control, and get it to the US.

But there was a hitch. Putin and the Siloviki saw this pipeline as an American oil grab. Putin was no longer inclined to like or trust the US after the ABM disaster and the Green Berets in Georgia scandal. No more illusions.

Now you can see where the chips were lining up. Both Cheney and Khodorkovsky had a serious interest in seeing control of the pipelines taken away from the Kremlin and handed to the "free market," where the US would have an advantage; and both of them wanted to see Yukos get bought by a US major, and both wanted to secure that US stake in Russia's oil wealth by every means possible, including political means. Khodorkovsky was transforming both Yukos and himself into a model Westernerizer, and he was becoming increasingly critical of the Kremlin's role in holding Russia back. If Khodorkovsky really was able to transform Russia into a pro-American state, it would obviously be better for Cheney and the oil companies than if the FSB controlled the state, and the oil.

This is what led to Khodorkovsky to allegedly try to buy off and retool the Russian political system. Without political control, he might not keep and grow his assets. While the Kremlin kept the oil companies from becoming even bigger and richer simply so that the Kremlin wouldn't lose control of them.

The Siloviki saw it as a struggle for Russia's survival and independence (and their own too). If Khodorkovsky, working with the most powerful people in the US (the Cheneys and the Houston oil oligarchs), took control of Russia's resources and its power, it would become little more than an appendage of American capitalism, they believed.

In March 2003, America invaded Iraq, turning Russian public opinion decidedly against America as a nation of Huns. That same month, Khodorkovsky was allegedly working with Duma parties he had paid off in order to change the Constitution and weaken the powers of the President in favor of parliament. It was a kind of constitutional coup in the works, a coup which would serve his and the Bush people's mutual interests.

It all ended in July 2003 when Putin jailed Khodorkovsky's business partner, Platon Lebedev, and Yukos was finished. With its destruction went Cheney's hope of getting control of Russian oil.

It's odd now to look back and consider how quietly Bush people reacted to it. My sense is that they didn't expect it -- and that they were too busy with their oil grab in Iraq. I did see the significance of Lebedev's arrest in my column "Russia Thaws" in July, 2003, when I predicted that everything had completely changed after Lebedev's arrest. I'm gloating now because, well, that's what you do when you're right. But I think Cheney and his goons were too busy mired in the unfolding debacle in Iraq that summer, when the dead-enders were first getting their insurgency on, to react to Russia.

Today most of Yukos is in Kremlin hands; Putin's power is uncontested; and Khodorkovsky is in jail. The Murmansk pipeline was canceled. Now the Siberian pipelines, secure in Kremlin hands, are taking oil to Asia.

You could see why a guy like Dick Cheney wouldn't like Putin.

That is the real story behind this mini Cold War. The other part of it is, of course Cheney's longstanding desire to get ahold of Caspian Sea oil. With Russia seemingly lost, this meant that the fight for Central Asia took on more importance. Indeed in 2001, Cheney advised President Bush to "deepen [our] commercial dialogue with Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and other Caspian states." Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan: the two countries he visited right after his Cold War speech last week.

In 1994, Cheney was a member of Kazakhstan's Oil Advisory Board.

He helped broker a deal between Kazakhstan and Chevron, a company where Secretary Condoleeza Rice served on the Board. Today, US oil companies have large stakes in Kazakhstan's oil fields. But most of the oil being pumped goes through Transneft lines out of the Russian port in Novorossiisk. America has been battling with Russia to get Kazakhstan to pump its oil through an alternate pipeline, the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, that goes through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

In order to secure that pipeline, powerful American oil/politics figures, led by Bush family consigliore James Baker, ingratiated themselves into oil-rich Azerbaijan. Despite that nation's atrocious record on democracy and human rights, in 1996 oil majors like Exxon, Chevron and Amoco, set up the powerful United States Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce (USACC). Its board members include or included Cheney, Baker, top figures in the oil majors, and top figures in Azerbaijan's government (even crazed war-monger Richard Perle had a place on the board of trustees!).

The task was to get Azerbaijan to agree to the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, whose stated goal was to ship Caspian oil out of Russia's reach and into the Mediterranean for Western consumption. It worked the pipeline is now operational. And a big event in late 2003 was the key to securing it: Georgia's Rose Revolution.

This was the first of the "color revolutions," and it quickly became apparent that, although it was rooted in genuine dissatisfaction, it was accomplished with massive American aid.

To recap: then-President Shevardnadze was showing signs of drifting away from the US and towards Russia in the summer of 2003. Suddenly, Bush became concerned with Georgia's "backsliding" on democracy, and he sent Baker of all people to tell Shevardnadze that he'd better hold "free and fair elections" or else. The elections were rigged; a carefully coordinated revolution (in fact a coup) was staged to overthrow Shevardnadze; and a pro-Western, US-educated president, Saakashvili, was installed. Shortly afterwards, control over a region of Georgia where the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline passes was taken out of a pro-Russian leader's hands, and given to a pro-American.

The Russians were oddly slow in reacting to the Rose Revolution. They were taken by surprise: in the Siloviks' paranoid way of thinking, the "people" are irrelevant, and everything is manipulated by a tiny elite and outside interests. To them, the entire Rose Revolution was nothing but an American-manufactured coup, which was only partly true.

The same month that Bush and the US denounced the rigged elections in Georgia, they praised even worse-run elections in next-door Azerbaijan, and kept mum over the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protestors. Why? Because Azerbaijan was giving Cheney what he wanted: oil. Both for his favored oil companies, his friends, and for the West.

In other words, in classic Cold War maneuvering, Aliyev became "our bastard."

If Putin's first real counterstrike in Cold War II was against Khodorkovsky, then his second major counterstrike took place in mid-2004, when Georgia tried to start asserting its control over two Russian-backed breakaway ethnic regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Putin drew a line in South Ossetia, where war started to break out again in the summer of 2004 when Saakashvili tried to assert federal control over it.

It was strange how that war's coverage evolved: in the big Western press, article after article dismissed the notion that there is any legitimate Ossetian grievance, calling it an entirely manufactured Russian ploy to maintain control over Georgia and keep it weak (oddly similar to Russian belief that the Rose/Orange Revolutions were entirely manufactured by cynical American interests). But I happen to know some Ossetians.

Believe me, they exist, and the tensions with the Georgians are very real, and very deep. And valid. The West bleeds for oppressed minorities in literally every corner of the world, even every corner of the Caucasus, except for the Ossetians and the Abkhaz. Why?

Could it be... because they're aligned with Russia?

When Saakashvili tried retaking South Ossetia, Russian-backed troops repelled them. Putin was not going to lose anything else to pro-American interests.

In the summer of 2004, the Georgians realized that the US wasn't going to support a hot war against Russia, so they stood down... and then in September, Chechen terrorists seized a school in North Ossetia, leading to the massacre of hundreds of children. Connected?

If you recall, at the time Putin essentially blamed the West, and specifically, the US, for helping make the Beslan attack happen. He said it was funded with the goal of "weakening Russia" in order to seize and control the region's resources.

It seemed crazy at the time, but looking at the big picture... is it? Putin was widely criticized for post-Beslan moves to cancel gubernatorial elections. But put in this context, it seems like a genuine wartime move to consolidate power in the face of an attack. Not Chechen attacks. But American Cold War-II attacks.

The last great American victory in this Cold War-II was certainly the Orange Revolution. But it was a hollow victory, shocking the Russians into action. Since then, Ukraine has turned into a political, ideological, and geopolitical swamp. The fight is still on; neither side has won yet.

The Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan was the first one to go bad. Since then, it's been nothing but setbacks for the US as it lost its huge military base and its influence in formerly-anti-Russian Uzbekistan, now Putin's bestest buddy in the region. Kyrgyzstan is also showing signs of moving closer to Moscow. Bush's people recently made incredible claims about democracy moving forward in Tajikistan, but it's unlikely that the whitewashing will do much good since the country is under pretty solid Russian control.

Meanwhile, Putin, now completely and forever disabused of any illusions that he would ever be anything to Bush and Cheney but an obstacle standing between Siberian oil wells and Houston oil oligarch bank accounts, has seen his country become wealthier and bolder. He's fighting back, not just in Russia and its neighbors, but also for example by selling weapons to Venezuela and nuclear plants to Iran. Cheney lost out in his bid to secure Russia's oil, but the Caspian oil is still being fought over, especially as Kazakhstan hasn't started pumping yet most of its upcoming oil streams.

That's what this Cold War hype is about and the bleating about democracy, and the seemingly clumsy display of hypocrisy. It's not a Cold War, it's an oil grab gone bad.

I don't think a jackal like Cheney is capable of recognizing hypocrisy. I think he meant everything he said, with a straight face, and that he saw it as both rationally and morally right to chastise Russia's record on democracy while praising Kazakhstan's and Azerbaijan's in the same trip.

Democracy isn't about voting. It's about serving America's interests.

And serving America's interests is more tightly defined a serving the interests of the oil oligarchs in Houston, where Cheney spent the previous 10 years. In fact, it's even more simple than that. It's personal. America's interests are Cheney's interests. Il est l'etat. In that sense, Putin is indeed a genuine menace.

And that's what makes this Cold War so different: Whereas the last one was a mortal struggle over two different systems, this is a struggle between two short, balding, bloodless men, and the oil -- other people's oil -- that made them as powerful as they are today.

Mark Ames is editor of the Moscow English alt weekly, The eXile. He is the author of "Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion--From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond" (Soft Skull, 2005).

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Is it possible that the Iran Contra operatives are back in action??

2006-06-01T03:17:24Z

1st, 5 and 1/2 TONS of cocaine is intercepted on it's way to the US:
http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles/2006/04/28/Navigation/177/206247/DC-9+seized+in+Mexican+drug+bust+was+SkyWay+in-flight+broadband+entertainment.html (or http://tinyurl.com/pbjor in case it wraps)

Then, $500,000 in cash gets confiscated from a Bechtel subcontractor:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06110/683609-57.stm

Is this reaching Faux News??? Not likely.

posted in The U.S. is finished - 1 reply

Military recruiter convinces autistic teenager to join the Army

2006-05-10T07:33:10Z

"When Jared first started talking about joining the Army, I thought, `Well, that isn't going to happen,"' said Paul Guinther, Jared's father. "I told my wife not to worry about it. They're not going to take anybody in the service who's autistic."

http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/roberts050806.html

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Urgent!!! Please help

2006-04-11T05:39:46Z

I am posting this everywhere I can, Please help us.
There are thousands of good people who could potentially lose their lives very soon.

Since the release of the information on the Sujiatun concentration camp in China, which is reported to do live organ harvesting on Falun Gong practicioners. More people have been stepping forward to reveal information. Recently, a veteran military doctor in the region of Shenyang said that the Sujiatun Concentration camp is just one of 36 such camps. Another camp in Jilin Province referred to as 672-S is said to hold over 120,000 people.

According to the Integrated Committee's announcement, transplant hospitals in China are now telling patients to "come in quickly" to get transplants. Patients are told that matching organs can be found at this time in as short as one or two days. The hospitals are also reported to say that, "it will be difficult after this batch of organs is used up."

We fear that there is going to be a mass execution to “hide the evidence” and get rid of witnesses. PLEASE HELP us, Falun Gong practitioners around the world are requesting an international investigation while there is still time.

This is the US petition, please sign it. It can save someone’s life.
http://www.fofg.org/act/act_petition.php?pid=1

you can also help by going here:
http://publicpetition.unvcc.com/UN/index.php
this is an easy, fill in the blank letter that with a click is automatically
sent to the senators and representatives of your choice
And it would also greatly help us if you would please pass this information on.

Thank you,
Joshua

You can learn more about this at:
The Epoch Times
http://www.theepochtimes.com/211,111,,1.html
Amnesty International
http://web.amnesty.org/report2004/chn-summary-eng
Falun Dafa Information Center
http://www.faluninfo.net/why/index.asp
or, you can ask me any questions you have by sending me a message.

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

AP: Many Defendants' Cases Kept Secret - Yahoo! News

2006-03-05T20:52:08Z

http://www.sierratimes.com/rss/newswire.php?article=/news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060304/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/secret_justice&time=1141491668&feed=us
Posted: Saturday March 4,2006 - 09:01:08 am

By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN and JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writers Sat Mar 4, 3:36 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Despite the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of public trials, nearly all records are being kept secret for more than 5,000 defendants who completed their journey through the federal courts over the last three years.

Instances of such secrecy more than doubled from 2003 to 2005.

An Associated Press investigation found, and court observers agree, that most of these defendants are cooperating government witnesses, but the secrecy surrounding their records prevents the public from knowing details of their plea bargains with the
government.

Most of these defendants are involved in drug gangs, though lately a very small number come from terrorism cases. Some of these cooperating witnesses are among the most unsavory characters in America's courts — multiple murderers and drug dealers — but the public cannot learn whether their testimony against confederates won them drastically reduced prison sentences or even freedom.

In the nation's capital, which has had a serious problem with drug gangs murdering government witnesses, the secrecy has reached another level — the use of secret dockets. For hundreds of such defendants over the past few years in this city, should someone acquire the actual case number for them and enter it in the U.S. District Court's computerized record system, the computer will falsely reply, "no such case" — rather than acknowledging that it is a sealed case.

At the request of the AP, the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts conducted its first tally of secrecy in federal criminal cases. The nationwide data it provided the AP showed 5,116 defendants whose cases were completed in 2003, 2004 and 2005, but the bulk of their records remain secret.

"The constitutional presumption is for openness in the courts, but we have to ask whether we are really honoring that," said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and now law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. "What are the reasons for so many
cases remaining under seal?"

"What makes the American criminal justice system different from so many others in the world is our willingness to cast some sunshine on the process, but if you can't see it, you can't really criticize it," Levenson said.

The courts' administrative office and the Justice Department declined to comment on the numbers.

The data show a sharp increase in secret case files over time as the Bush administration's well-documented reliance on secrecy in the executive branch has crept into the federal courts through the war on drugs, anti-terrorism efforts and other
criminal matters.

"This follows the pattern of this administration," said John Wesley Hall, an Arkansas defense attorney and second vice president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "I am astonished and shocked that this many criminal proceedings in
federal court escape public scrutiny or become buried."

The percentage of defendants who have reached verdicts and been sentenced but still have most of their records sealed has more than doubled in the last three years, the court office's tally shows.

Of nearly 85,000 defendants whose cases were closed in 2003, the records of 952 or 1.1 percent remain mostly sealed. Of more than 82,000 defendants with cases closed in 2004, records for 1,774 or 2.2 percent remain mostly secret. And of more than 87,000 defendants closed out in 2005, court records for 2,390 or 2.7 percent remain mostly closed to the
public.

The court office also found a sharp increase in defendants whose case records were partly sealed for a limited time. Among newly charged defendants, the numbers in this category grew from 9,999 or 10.9 percent of all defendants charged in 2003 to 11,508 or 12.6
percent of those charged in 2005.

But the AP investigation found, and court observers agree, that the overwhelming number of these cases sealed for a limited time involve a use of secrecy that draws no criticism: the sealing of an indictment only until the defendant is arrested.

AP's investigation found a large concentration of both kinds of secrecy at the U.S. District Court here: limited sealing of records and extensive sealing that continues even after the courts are done with a defendant.

"When the sentences are sealed, that's a con on the community," said Lexi Christ, a Washington defense lawyer for a man acquitted in a crack cocaine case.

In that case, all the defendants' names became public when the indictment was unsealed. But all other records for six defendants who pleaded guilty remained sealed more than two years after the public trial in which two of the drug dealers were convicted.

One of the cooperating witnesses admitted to seven murders and testified in open court against co-defendants who had committed fewer, Christ said. But like the others who pleaded guilty and cooperated, that witness' plea deal and sentence were sealed.

"Cooperating witnesses are pleading guilty to six or seven murders, and the jury doesn't know they'll be sitting on the Metro (subway) next to them a year later. It's a really, really ugly system," Christ said.

Prosecutors argue that plea agreements must be sealed to protect witnesses and their families from violent retaliation. But Christ said that makes no sense after the trial when the defendants know who testified.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press found the U.S. District Court here has 469 criminal cases, from 2001-2005, that are listed by this court's electronic docket as "no such case." An AP survey over a shorter period found similar numbers here and got
oral acknowledgment from the clerk's office that the missing electronic docket numbers corresponded to sealed cases. However, these figures include an unknown number of sealed indictments that will be made public if arrests are made.

"That's horrifying," said Loyola's Levenson. "When I was a prosecutor from 1981 to 1989, I never heard of secret dockets."

No matter how few turn out to be almost totally sealed after the defendant's case was completed, "it's still significant," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee and a pioneer in campaigning against court secrecy.

"The Supreme Court has said that criminal proceedings are public," Dalglish added. "In this country, we don't prosecute and lock up convicts and have no public track record of how we got there. That violates the defendants' rights not to mention the public's right
to know what it's court system is doing."

Although Justice Department does not keep comprehensive nationwide statistics on secrecy in federal prosecutions, it does track how often prosecutors ask permission from headquarters to hold a secret court proceeding, like an arraignment, hearing, trial or
sentencing.

The department estimates it got 100 such requests from October 2000 though October 2004, Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said. Another 100 arrived during the 12 months that ended October 2005, he said.

Sierra said the large recent increase occurred because the department sent a memo to all federal prosecutors in 2004 reminding them they need Washington's approval before requesting or agreeing to secret courtroom proceedings. Filing of secret papers in cases
doesn't require such permission.
___
On the Net:
Reporters Committee: http://www.rcfp.org/

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Feels like I've been sleeping on the job.

2006-02-25T20:06:59Z

Seems like I've been slacking on pointing out more of the recent events that show "the U.S. is finished." So I'll try to catch up with a few today. Please assist and add any monumental stories you run across yourself.

And stay tuned....

posted in The U.S. is finished - 1 reply

Welcome Gestapo

2006-02-23T01:42:42Z

An interesting article from a Red State newspaper, the Boise Weekly:
http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A158729

A sample:
By Nicholas Collias 15 Feb 2006 (ID) "Officer: Sir, I'm here to tell you now that you have to remove those signs. Dwight Scarbrough: Was the law just changed? O: No, there was no law just changed. DS: Then it's not a violation... This is a fascist state. At least, it's the beginning of a fascist state.'"

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Women soldiers in Iraq die because of fear of being raped.

2006-02-07T19:15:28Z

The Fear That Kills: www.alternet.org/story/31584

Appalling new evidence reveals that female soldiers serving in Iraq made
fatal decisions in their attempts to avoid rape.

From the story:
"Last week, Col. Janis Karpinski told a panel of judges at the Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New York that several women had died of dehydration because they refused to drink liquids late in the day. They were afraid of being assaulted or even raped by male soldiers if they had to use the women's latrine after dark.

The latrine for female soldiers at Camp Victory wasn't located near their barracks, so they had to go outside if they needed to use the bathroom. "There were no lights near any of their facilities, so women were doubly easy targets in the dark of the night," Karpinski told retired U.S. Army Col. David Hackworth in a September 2004 interview."

and

""It was out of control," Karpinski told a group of students at Thomas Jefferson School of Law last October. There was an 800 number women could use to report sexual assaults. But no one had a phone, she added. And no one answered that number, which was based in the United States. Any woman who successfully connected to it would get a recording. Even after more than 83 incidents were reported during a six-month period in Iraq and Kuwait, the 24-hour rape hot line was still answered by a machine that told callers to leave a message."

Sick, but totally in keeping with this administration's actions.

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Just a goddamned piece of paper...

2005-12-10T18:57:17Z

GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

"I don't give a goddamn,"; Bush retorted. "I'm the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way."

"Mr. President," one aide in the meeting said. "There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution."

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!

read the full story here

tinyurl.com/9d8fw

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Has American Democracy died an electronic death in Ohio 2005's referenda defeats?

2005-11-18T05:26:50Z

This November in Ohio, votes on a couple of referenda appear to be a virtual statistical impossibility.

See the full article at http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1559

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

GAO report upholds Ohio vote fraud claims

2005-11-10T08:26:54Z

http://www.rockrivertimes.com/index.pl?cmd=viewstory&cat=2&id=11529

posted in The U.S. is finished - 2 replies

Remember that pledge to "buy blue" (or to buy local??)

2005-11-08T18:49:23Z

Well? It's probably a year later. Are you sticking to it?? Maybe now is the time to re-examine what you've been doing.

I just ran across an interesting commentary on the subject on the blueOregon blog. Check it out here: http://www.blueoregon.com/2005/11/buying_local_an.html

I discovered it via the Solari Action Network email list. They're an AMAZING organization, or should I say Catherine Austin Fitts is an amazingly knowlegeable person. She's served as Assistant Secretary of Housing/Federal Housing Commissioner at HUD during the 1st Bush administration, and has an extensive professional background in the economics realm. So she knows what she's talking about (full details at http://solari.com/about/ca_fitts.html if you want to find out more.)

Anyway, if you think buying from the chains is actually SAVING you money, even in the smallest view of that single transaction, you may be surprised if you actually look into it. I compared prices on a handful of items from Safeway (that I actually EAT. Do YOU call what's generally at Safeway food?) with a local market just a block away at 30th St and Church, and I found that the local market was actually cheaper on these items. Try doing the same in your neighborhood!!

In the article linked above, there's discussion of office supplies that mentioned this:<i>
"'Our research has shown, time and time again, that most local independent office supply companies are substantially lower in overall cost to the consumer.'

'The pricing gap between the independent and the chains is so wide, and the consumer perceptions are so engrained that the chains have the lowest prices, that some independents have chosen to match the chain store prices using our services.'

Yes, you read that right. Some independent suppliers raised their prices by matching the national chains. National chains have successfully changed the perception of the consumer that they are the lowest price through advertising and price juggling. Clearly, local is better here."</i>

But in any case, remember to really think about who you are supporting in your choice of who to buy your goods from. Maybe even think about exploring the option of barter! :)

Thanks!

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Scrap the "secret" ballot and return to open voting

2005-11-05T03:28:10Z

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_114.shtml
I especially like the idea of a Parallel Election (details at http://www.ecotalk.org/ParallelElections.htm ) as a means to validate the results. I'd imagine that it would also re-establish the accuracy of exit polls.

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

I hope this is not a hoax

2005-10-24T20:23:49Z

http://www.tomflocco.com/fs/CiaPlameCaseIndictments.htm

posted in The U.S. is finished - 2 replies

Alternatives to living in the U.S.

2005-09-28T16:19:14Z

My current list:
Buenos Aires
Prague
Paris
Melbourne (haven't visited yet)
Belize (haven't visitied yet)

What are yours??

posted in The U.S. is finished - 6 replies

Getting us prepared for martial law?

2005-09-25T21:02:05Z

Private security firms, fresh from Iraq, operate in NOLO with impunity:
www.thenation.com/doc/20051010/scahill

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Gasoline, Natural Gas & Grain prices to skyrocket if RITA continues on current path!

2005-09-21T20:29:33Z

If hurricane Rita stays on it's projected path towards the Houston-Galveston area and remains at least a category 3 hurricane by landfall our nation will experience skyrocketing gasoline & natural gas prices that could go well beyond the prices seen after Katrina hit landfall in the gulf. While Katrina slammed 9 oil refineries and dozens of oil platforms in the gulf, Rita is taking a path directly through 134 oil platforms and could hit an area containing 26 oil refineries. The houston-galveston area is home to our nation's largest oil refineries. Expect gas prices to skyrocket if the storm maintains it's strength and lands in the Houston-Galveston area. We could see nationwide gas prices average over $4.00 a gallon starting next week. Depending upon the damage the higher prices ($4gallon) may be temporary or could last a few weeks.

This week is the beginning of harvest season in the American midwest and any disruption or shortage in diesel could greatly impact farmers ability to harvest in time. If harvest season is disrupted American grain prices could also skyrocket, further squeezing Americans budgets. Hurricanes have difficulty maintaining category 4 and 5 status for long, so the storm could possible weaken before landfall.

Our failed politicians have done nothing to end our addiction of choice- oil. Our failed politicians have done nothing to further develop & implement renewable energy. Our failed politicans have done nothing to address global climate change.

Now is the time to stand up and fight!

www.newamericanindependent.com

tribes.tribe.net/NewAmericanIndependent

peace,
michael

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

New Orleans "rescue" accounts

2005-09-13T19:33:47Z

Please distribute widely.

From some people who were in town for a paramedics convention:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9324538/

And a story from some people who "made it" into the dome, so to speak:

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/9/7/14956/47318

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Rove: Guilty as charged

2005-07-12T18:14:35Z

http://www.freep.com/news/nw/rove12e_20050712.htm

And it looks like Independent Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald will be handing down indictments real soon.

Karma's a bitch, itsn't it??

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Supreme Court allows local governments to seize private property for corporate use

2005-06-25T02:25:17Z

From my friend Ned's blog.

The local government in this case wants...pardon me, gets to seize property on behalf of Pfizer.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/23/AR2005062300783_pf.html

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/23/scotus.property.ap/index.html

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Reports Purged From the Website of the Civil Rights Commission

2005-06-19T04:40:04Z

from http://www.thememoryhole.org/usccr/purged.htm:

As of 7 January 2005, the website of the US Commission on Civil Rights has been purged of 20 reports that didn't meet the approval of the agency's Republican majority.

The site says that you may still order copies of these reports, but, tellingly, they require that you give them a physical mailing address. In other words, they'll send you a paper copy of a report, not an easily-postable electronic copy.

The Memory Hole was able to locate 19 of these deleted reports. They have been posted below. (If you can find any of the other three, please send them.)

US Commission On Civil Rights links:
http://www.usccr.gov/
http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/notvoted.htm

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Industry Aims to Strip Local Control of Food Supply

2005-06-18T20:03:17Z

http://environmentalcommons.org/seed-law-preemption.html

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Looking for an easy way to protest Bush foreign policy week after week?

2005-05-30T19:11:54Z

Looking for an easy way to protest Bush foreign policy week after week? And an easy way to help alleviate global poverty? Buy your gasoline at Citgo stations.

And tell your friends.

Of the top oil producing countries in the world, only one is a democracy with a president who was elected on a platform of using his nation's oil revenue to benefit the poor. The country is Venezuela. The President is Hugo Chavez. Call him "the Anti-Bush."

More: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0516-25.htm

There's a list of Citgo stations in the bay area at the bottom of this article:
http://sfbayview.com/052505/buycott052505.shtml

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Photographer for White House child sex ring arrested after Thompson suicide

2005-05-03T19:27:08Z

http://fpiarticle.blogspot.com/2005/03/photographer-for-white-house-child-sex.html

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Support our ribbons

2005-04-29T02:35:58Z

Someone sent me this link today...hilarious.

http://www.supportourribbons.com/

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Is ranked choice voting the only savior of democracy?

2005-04-20T18:54:11Z

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0112-23.htm

posted in The U.S. is finished - 1 reply

The U.S. Plan for World Domination

2005-03-24T18:17:11Z

from http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/zbig.html

An examination of selected quotes from "THE GRAND CHESSBOARD - American Primacy And It's Geostrategic Imperatives," by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Basic Books, 1997.

" in the context of current events reveals the darker agenda behind military operations that were planned long before September 11th, 2001.

"...The last decade of the twentieth century has witnessed a tectonic shift in world affairs. For the first time ever, a non-Eurasian power has emerged not only as a key arbiter of Eurasian power relations but also as the world's paramount power. The defeat and collapse of the Soviet Union was the final step in the rapid ascendance of a Western Hemisphere power, the United States, as the sole and, indeed, the first truly global power... (p. xiii)

"... But in the meantime, it is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus of also challenging America. The formulation of a comprehensive and integrated Eurasian geostrategy is therefore the purpose of this book. (p. xiv)

"The attitude of the American public toward the external projection of American power has been much more ambivalent. The public supported America's engagement in World War II largely because of the shock effect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. (pp 24-5)

"For America, the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia... Now a non-Eurasian power is preeminent in Eurasia - and America's global primacy is directly dependent on how long and how effectively its preponderance on the Eurasian continent is sustained. (p.30)

"America's withdrawal from the world or because of the sudden emergence of a successful rival - would produce massive international instability. It would prompt global anarchy." (p. 30)

"In that context, how America 'manages' Eurasia is critical. Eurasia is the globe's largest continent and is geopolitically axial. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world's three most advanced and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail Africa's subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral to the world's central continent. About 75 per cent of the world's people live in Eurasia, and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for 60 per cent of the world's GNP and about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources." (p.31)

It is also a fact that America is too democratic at home to be autocratic abroad. This limits the use of America's power, especially its capacity for military intimidation. Never before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and the human sacrifice (casualties, even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization." (p.35)

"Two basic steps are thus required: first, to identify the geostrategically dynamic Eurasian states that have the power to cause a potentially important shift in the international distribution of power and to decipher the central external goals of their respective political elites and the likely consequences of their seeking to attain them;... second, to formulate specific U.S. policies to offset, co-opt, and/or control the above..." (p. 40)

"...To put it in a terminology that harkens back to the more brutal age of ancient empires, the three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together." (p.40)

"Henceforth, the United States may have to determine how to cope with regional coalitions that seek to push America out of Eurasia, thereby threatening America's status as a global power." (p.55)

"Uzbekistan, nationally the most vital and the most populous of the central Asian states, represents the major obstacle to any renewed Russian control over the region. Its independence is critical to the survival of the other Central Asian states, and it is the least vulnerable to Russian pressures." (p. 121)

Referring to an area he calls the "Eurasian Balkans" and a 1997 map in which he has circled the exact location of the current conflict - describing it as the central region of pending conflict for world dominance - Brzezinski writes: "Moreover, they [the Central Asian Republics] are of importance from the standpoint of security and historical ambitions to at least three of their most immediate and more powerful neighbors, namely Russia, Turkey and Iran, with China also signaling an increasing political interest in the region. But the Eurasian Balkans are infinitely more important as a potential economic prize: an enormous concentration of natural gas and oil reserves is located in the region, in addition to important minerals, including gold." (p.124) [Emphasis added]

"The world's energy consumption is bound to vastly increase over the next two or three decades. Estimates by the U.S. Department of energy anticipate that world demand will rise by more than 50 percent between 1993 and 2015, with the most significant increase in consumption occurring in the Far East. The momentum of Asia's economic development is already generating massive pressures for the exploration and exploitation of new sources of energy and the Central Asian region and the Caspian Sea basin are known to contain reserves of natural gas and oil that dwarf those of Kuwait, the Gulf of Mexico, or the North Sea." (p.125)

"Uzbekistan is, in fact, the prime candidate for regional leadership in Central Asia." (p.130)

"Once pipelines to the area have been developed, Turkmenistan's truly vast natural gas reserves augur a prosperous future for the country's people. (p.132)

"In fact, an Islamic revival - already abetted from the outside not only by Iran but also by Saudi Arabia - is likely to become the mobilizing impulse for the increasingly pervasive new nationalisms, determined to oppose any reintegration under Russian - and hence infidel - control." (p. 133).

"For Pakistan, the primary interest is to gain Geostrategic depth through political influence in Afghanistan - and to deny to Iran the exercise of such influence in Afghanistan and Tajikistan - and to benefit eventually from any pipeline construction linking Central Asia with the Arabian Sea." (p.139)

"Turkmenistan... has been actively exploring the construction of a new pipeline through Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea..." (p.145)

"It follows that America's primary interest is to help ensure that no single power comes to control this geopolitical space and that the global community has unhindered financial and economic access to it." (p148)

"China's growing economic presence in the region and its political stake in the area's independence are also congruent with America's interests." (p.149)

"America is now the only global superpower, and Eurasia is the globe's central arena. Hence, what happens to the distribution of power on the Eurasian continent will be of decisive importance to America's global primacy and to America's historical legacy." (p.194)

"Without sustained and directed American involvement, before long the forces of global disorder could come to dominate the world scene. And the possibility of such a fragmentation is inherent in the geopolitical tensions not only of today's Eurasia but of the world more generally." (p.194)

"With warning signs on the horizon across Europe and Asia, any successful American policy must focus on Eurasia as a whole and be guided by a Geostrategic design." (p.197)

"That puts a premium on maneuver and manipulation in order to prevent the emergence of a hostile coalition that could eventually seek to challenge America's primacy..." (p. 198)

"The most immediate task is to make certain that no state or combination of states gains the capacity to expel the United States from Eurasia or even to diminish significantly its decisive arbitration role." (p. 198)

"In the long run, global politics are bound to become increasingly uncongenial to the concentration of hegemonic power in the hands of a single state. Hence, America is not only the first, as well as the only, truly global superpower, but it is also likely to be the very last." (p.209)

"Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat." (p. 211)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to his resume Brzezinski, holding a 1953 Ph.D. from Harvard, lists the following achievements:

Counselor, Center for Strategic and International Studies

Professor of American Foreign Policy, Johns Hopkins University

National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter (1977-81)

Trustee and founder of the Trilateral Commission

International advisor of several major US/Global corporations

Associate of Henry Kissinger

Under Ronald Reagan - member of NSC-Defense Department Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy

Under Ronald Reagan - member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board

Past member, Board of Directors, The Council on Foreign Relations

1988 - Co-chairman of the Bush National Security Advisory Task Force.

Brzezinski is also a past attendee and presenter at several conferences of the Bilderberger group - a non-partisan affiliation of the wealthiest and most powerful families and corporations on the planet.

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism

2005-03-05T03:26:27Z

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism
by Lawrence Britt
Spring 2003
Free Inquiry magazine

Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt recently wrote an article about fascism ("Fascism Anyone?," Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, page 20). Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), Dr. Britt found they all had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The excerpt is in accordance with the magazine's policy.

The 14 characteristics are:

Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottoes, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.

Controlled Mass Media
Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

Obsession with National Security
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

Corporate Power is Protected
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

Labor Power is Suppressed
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed .

Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

Fraudulent Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

......

http://www.veteransforpeace.org/The_14_characteristics_030303.htm

Copyright © 2003 Free Inquiry magazine
Reprinted for Fair Use Only.

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

So, Ward Churchill is receiving death threats

2005-02-07T22:04:30Z

Here's the article that seems to be generating so much "interest" in him:
http://www.darknightpress.org/index.php?i=news&c=recent&view=9&long=1

What I find most interesting is the fact that we, as a populace, have been ignoring (for the most part) the pain and death that we have been inflicting on Iraq for some time now. Mr. Churchill chose to parallel that with how the Germans generally ignored the same in how Germany was acting during the holocaust and WWII.

I sometimes like to take a active approach with the right wing types and ask them a question along the lines of "So, if a foreign army one day ended up coming into your town and started bombing you and shooting at you, how would you react?" Might help them on the road to enlightenment. :)

And did anyone notice the recent survey of HS students and how they don't feel that the first amendment (freedom of speech) is all that important?? If there's anything that really indicates how bad the future may be, that's definitely one of them.

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Is It Time For A Corporate Death Penalty Act?

2005-02-01T20:37:26Z

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0128-22.htm

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Thanks Faux News

2005-02-01T20:15:58Z

The Triumph of Marketing Over Dialogue Results in a President Leading Much of the Nation Where it Doesn't Want to Go:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0130-01.htm

posted in The U.S. is finished - 1 reply

The No Bush Left Behind Act

2005-01-27T06:07:10Z

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0501/S00212.htm

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Open letter to G.W.

2005-01-26T05:50:48Z

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/16/151543/626

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Flip off a Hummer for mother Earth

2005-01-24T21:18:56Z

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=603975

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

War on privacy (what's left of it anyway) is heating up

2005-01-14T19:22:59Z

http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,66242,00.html?tw=rss.TOP

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

11 year old terrorist

2004-12-17T21:26:18Z

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6373-2004Dec16.html
(Those police forces have to document things to get their share of the patriot act money.)

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Pre-Iraq war style news coverage again

2004-12-17T20:14:56Z

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_12_12.php#004257
More reasons to tune out mainstream media. Blogs are the defacto independent media source of the day it seems.

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Voting fraud??

2004-12-16T08:44:29Z

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/11/con04482.html

posted in The U.S. is finished - 2 replies

Sure you want to fly?

2004-10-28T20:13:12Z

http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/S3723.html?cat=1

Remember, we're talking 380 TONS of this stuff. One pound was used to take down Pan Am flight 103. That means this stuff can take out 760,000 similar planes (that one was a 747 no less.)

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Take a peek into the Bush campaign's inner workings

2004-10-27T22:04:51Z

Thanks to some errors in domain name usage in email addys: http://www.georgewbush.org/deadletteroffice

Looks like some illegal actions get exposed there even.

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Hmm. Global implications here. Economic crash imminent?

2004-10-27T22:04:02Z

http://globalresearch.ca/articles/BOR410A.html

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

More intimidation in Fl.

2004-10-27T01:16:14Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/3956129.stm
See page 5 of the photos in my profile for a picture that ties in with this story.

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

The Separate Realities of Bush and Kerry Supporters

2004-10-22T20:58:45Z

http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Pres_Election_04/Report10_21_04.pdf

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

SURPRISE! George Bush doesn't believe in civil rights

2004-10-22T08:56:45Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/comment/story/0,14259,1332231,00.html

Passing almost without notice earlier this month, the public release of The Civil Rights Record of the George W Bush Administration - the official staff report prepared by the US Civil Rights Commission - whose submission is required by federal law, was blocked by the Republican commissioners. None the less, it was posted on the commission's website: "This report finds that President Bush has neither exhibited leadership on pressing civil rights issues, nor taken actions that matched his words."

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Protecting Civil Liberties is against the law?

2004-10-21T22:01:16Z

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1015-06.htm

The women said they were angered by reports of peaceful protesters being thrown out of previous Bush-Cheney events. They said they chose the phrase, "Protect Our Civil Liberties," because it was unconfrontational.

"We chose this phrase specifically because we didn't think it would be offensive or degrading or obscene," said Tania Tong, 34, a special education teacher.

The women got past the first and second checkpoints and were allowed into the Jackson County fairgrounds, but were asked to leave and then escorted out of the event by campaign officials who allegedly told them their T-shirts were "obscene."

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

The Iraq honey pot

2004-09-20T07:35:22Z

http://tinyurl.com/4u2y7

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Know who you're dealing with

2004-09-12T03:15:57Z

Some of you may know a little of the Bush clan's history. Some may not. A hint can be had here:
http://www.nhgazette.com/cgi-bin/NHGstore.cgi?user_action=detail&catalogno=NN_Bush_Nazi_2

This only scratches the surface of who they are.

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Florida is at it again

2004-08-19T19:23:39Z

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/16/opinion/16herbert.html

(Go to http://www.majcher.com/nytview.html to view it without registering.)

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Bush Family history (BBC documentary)

2004-08-10T00:49:04Z

There are 4 wmv files that highlight Bush Jr., from Midland Texas and forward. Might be some tidbits you don't already know about, or have forgotten about.

http://freecache.org/http://www.fucksuvs.com/bush_family_fortunes_chunk_1.wmv
http://freecache.org/http://www.fucksuvs.com/bush_family_fortunes_chunk_2.wmv
http://freecache.org/http://www.fucksuvs.com/bush_family_fortunes_chunk_3.wmv
http://freecache.org/http://www.fucksuvs.com/bush_family_fortunes_chunk_4.wmv

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Watch out this election.

2004-08-08T01:58:43Z

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2004/07/21/notes072104.DTL

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Good tribe!

2004-08-08T00:28:48Z

Jeez, this is an idea whose time has come. I want to smack every person wh says we live in the freest country on earth. It's total hogwash. This is a police state and an oligopoly. American's are free to watch TV, go the mall in their SUV, and not much else. I think Jefferson's heart would break if he saw this country today.

posted in The U.S. is finished - 3 replies

Bush Family history

2004-02-15T07:26:37Z

http://www.spectrezine.org/resist/bush.htm

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

GW's brother Marvin Bush a principle in security co. for United and at Dulles

2004-02-15T06:53:09Z

http://www.utne.com/web_special/web_specials_2003-02/articles/10292-1.html

And here's a reprint of the missing American Reporter article on the story:
http://www.uwsa.com/pipermail/uwsa/2003q1/035020.html

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Bush took FBI agents off Laden family trail

2004-02-15T06:36:13Z

"The report, which the BBC claimed was based on a secret FBI document, numbered 199I WF213589 and emanating out of the FBI’s Washington field office, alleged that the cynicism of the American establishment and "connections between the CIA and Saudi Arabia and the Bush men and bin Ladens" may have been the real cause of the deaths of thousands in the World Trade Centre attacks."

http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/articleshow?art_id=1030259305

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

The aristocrats

2004-02-15T06:33:53Z

"Phillips's chronicle of four generations of the Bush and Walker families is part expos and part thoughtful political analysis. Those interested in unflattering stories about the first family will find them here in abundance: the Walkers' financial dealings with the Nazis as well as their financial stake in Fulgencio Batista's Cuba; young George's disappearance from National Guard service for a year; his father's role in strengthening the regime of Saddam Hussein in the 1980s; and the family's bizarre financial ties to the Unification Church of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon in the 1990s. Although Phillips clearly relishes these tales, he is generally careful about distinguishing facts from allegations."

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2004/02/08/the_aristocrats/

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Cheney's future at stake after leaking of CIA agent's name

2004-02-15T06:31:05Z

"The leaking of an undercover agent's identity is a serious crime under US law. The hearings are leading justice department investigators towards the vice president's office, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

"Three of the five people who are targets work or worked in Cheney's office," the source said."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1145390,00.html

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

A cloud over Cheney

2004-02-15T06:28:32Z

"THE JUSTICE Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, French prosecutors, and the Nigerian government are all investigating allegations that a Halliburton subsidiary paid millions of dollars in bribes to Nigerian officials during the 1990s, when Vice President Dick Cheney was the Halliburton CEO."

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/bush/articles/2004/02/10/a_cloud_over_cheney/

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

CBS in Mr. Bush's pocket?

2004-02-15T06:14:27Z

July 10, 2003 7:36pm EST:
http://www.independent-media.tv/images/story/bushknew.jpg

July 11, 2003 06:48:35:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/25/eveningnews/main560449.shtml

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Saving Bin Ladens

2004-02-15T06:05:58Z

"Imagine if the day after Timothy McVeigh blew up the building in Oklahoma that Clinton flew the McVeigh family out of the country without being questioned, and then find out that Clinton had a financial relationship with the McVeigh family that went back to the 70's?...The press would have had a field day with that....Well, that is exactly what happened after 9/11. With White House approval, while no one in the country was allowed to fly, the 24 members of the Bin Laden family were flown out of the country without being questioned...There also has been a financial relationship between the Bush's and the Bin Laden's since the 70's."

http://www.thenation.com/outrage/index.mhtml?bid=6&pid=941

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Diebold Memos' Smoking Gun; Gore lost 16,000 votes in Florida

2004-02-15T05:56:08Z

"DELAND, Fla., Nov. 11 - Something very strange happened on election night to Deborah Tannenbaum, a Democratic Party official in Volusia County. At 10 p.m., she called the county elections department and learned that Al Gore was leading George W. Bush 83,000 votes to 62,000. But when she checked the county's Web site for an update half an hour later, she found a startling development: Gore's count had dropped by 16,000 votes, while an obscure Socialist candidate had picked up 10,000--all because of a single precinct with only 600 voters."

- Washington Post Sunday , November 12, 2000 ; Page A22

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0310/S00211.htm

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Nice Veep we've got here

2004-02-15T05:49:05Z

http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=5651&fcategory_desc=Under%20Reported

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

Bush Appoints Iran-Contra Figure To Head Up Iraq "Intelligence" Probe

2004-02-15T05:45:46Z

An in-depth look at Judge Laurence Silberman, the man President Bush appointed as co-chair of the commission to investigate intelligence failures prior to the Iraq invasion. Silberman is a longtime Republican operative who is said to have orchestrated President Reagan's "October Surprise," overturned Oliver North's Iran-Contra conviction and helped pursue sexual misconduct allegations against President Clinton.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/12/1550232

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies

China Ownz

2004-02-15T05:38:47Z

That is all. Please drive through.

posted in The U.S. is finished - 0 replies