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2 Nov 2004 @ 08:13, by ov. Politics
Tonight on CBc's "Ideas" Naomi Klein gave a talk on her one month journalism expedition to Baghdad last April, the details which can be found in this Harpers magazine article Baghdad Year Zero, but I liked the radio title better, "War and Fleece." This article clears up a lot of mysteries about what and why is currently happening in Iraq.
Naomi opened her talk by saying she was going to discuss the details of an illegal invasion and occupation by fundamentalist terrorist, and that these were economic fundamentalists and the terrorists were the United States government. She said it wasn't true that Bush didn't have a post war plan, he had a plan, it just wasn't a good plan. The plan was to disappear the previous culture and in its place install a "gleaming showroom for laissez-faire economics, a utopia such as the world had never seen. Every policy that liberates multinational corporations to pursue their quest for profit would be put into place: a shrunken state, a flexible workforce, open borders, minimal taxes, no tariffs, no ownership restrictions."
Paul Bremmer lead the US occupation of Iraq from May 2 2003, and initiated an economic and cultural shock and awe campaign to the reconstruction. In one summer he was able to make more changes in Iraq than the IMF had been able to make in three decades in Latin America. While the fires were still burning, his first job was to fire 500,000 state workers (without even giving them back pay), and With unemployment running at 67% and no social assistance. Back in the western world we hear of $18 billion in reconstruction but there were no cranes, no bulldozers, no electricity in Baghdad, but in the military controlled green zone construction was going non-stop on 16 permanent military bases. Then within a month Bremmer had thrown the doors of the country wide open to unrestricted foriegn investment. The theory of placing an entire country under such an extreme state of shock that the population would be unable to resist was based on the same torture theory for individuals, and it's worth while reading the article for the details.
Iraqi exciles that were pushing for the invasion were divided into two camps, the pragmatists "who favored getting rid of Saddam and his immediate entourage, securing access to oil, and slowly introducing free-market reforms"; and the Year Zero camp "who believed that Iraq was so contaminated that it needed to be rubbed out and remade from scratch. The prime advocate of the pragmatic approach was Iyad Allawi, a former high-level Baathist who fell out with Saddam and started working for the CIA. The prime advocate of the Year Zero approach was Ahmad Chalabi, whose hatred of the Iraqi state for expropriating his family’s assets during the 1958 revolution ran so deep he longed to see the entire country burned to the ground—everything, that is, but the Oil Ministry, which would be the nucleus of the new Iraq, the cluster of cells from which an entire nation would grow."
On the American side of the table the pragmatists were Colin Powel and the military generals who wanted to hold quick and dirty elections and then establish permanent military bases on the model of the Phillipines. The PNAC crowd wanted this plus an idealist free market that delivered everything on a multinational corporation's wishlist.
One problem with the pillage plan was that it was illegal. UN resolution 1483 did give US and Britian the position of legal occupiers but there was also the provision that they had to abide by the Geneva convention and the Hague resolutions, both of which had safeguards to prevent this kind of massive theft. The corporations were reluctant to come swarming in to the newly opened market because the insurance companies wouldn't give them political risk insurance against future nationalization.
Time is ticking away and the privatization of Iraq, with it's 40 year contracts needs to get in place before the elected government takes over in the promised six months which was the original plan A. The reason for the alternate plan B of the appointed interim government, ala Allawi was to create a loophole and solve the resolution 1483 problem. The interim government could make the privatization deals and subsequent governments would be stuck with them for the next 40 years. This was why the people were so adamant about not having the interim government and why they wanted an election rather than a selection.
Naomi delivered a great talk and cleared up a lot of little mysteries about why the neo-cons continue to keep repeating lies that have already been proved to be untrue, namely because there are serious legal implications down the road once this finally lands up in the world courts, and it will land up in the world courts. My personal opinion is that the only thing that can delay this is by Bush staying in power and which is why I think he will steal the election tomorrow and it will be the last election the US has for a long time. More >
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2 Nov 2004 @ 01:01, by magical_melody. Energy Sources
As a Spiritual Intuitive I tune into the galactic and earthly patterns emerging, for occasional energetic weather reports, (helps one not to take it all so personally), and as a conscious Navigator working to keep balance as I fly strong through the dense, it tease, I am committed to bust a move through the spells here and to create from a higher heart dream, a conscious life where Essence reigns supreme. More >
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1 Nov 2004 @ 04:14, by bkodish. Politics
God only knows.
Good and moderate people will vote for both Kerry and Bush.
I'm voting for Bush. In spite of mistakes, I believe we will be better off with him at the helm for another four years. I am working against Kerry because I do not trust his ability to lead and see his "always know better" positions as unworkable and dangerous.
Mark Steyn puts some of what I perceive and fear about Kerry into words:
" In another perilous time - 1918 - Lord Haig wrote of Lord Derby: "D is a very weak-minded fellow I am afraid and, like the feather pillow, bears the marks of the last person who has sat on him." It's subtler than that with Kerry: you don't have to sit on him; just the slightest political breeze, and his pillow billows in the appropriate direction. His default position is the conventional wisdom of the Massachusetts Left: on foreign policy, foreigners know best; on trade, the labour unions know best; on government, bureaucrats know best; on defence, graying ponytailed nuclear-freeze reflex anti-militarists know best; on the wine list, he knows best."
See He was complacent, arrogant and humourless. How they loved him More >
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1 Nov 2004 @ 00:10, by ov. Politics
Is there any doubt that Vice President Cheney is an influential person in the Bush government, and yet there is almost a total absence of media coverage concerning him, or at least in the American controlled mass media. Lately all attention has been focused on the George and Kerry horse race as each attempt to outdo the other on how severely they will smite the 'evildoers' once they are elected, nobody even knows who Edwards is, and the mass media is valiantly trying to keep Cheney out of the spotlight. Cheney's profile from "Project for an Old American Century" a PNAC watch group (also the source of the above picture).
HalliburtonWatch.org is one of the sites that keeps up to date on the latest tricks and dirt of Halliburton and its number one man in the White House, Dick Cheney. Dick claims there is no conflict of interest between himself and Halliburton but the facts beg to differ. Dick still receives a deffered salary, and he still has stock options in the company.
Halliburton has also been given no bid contracts for military support that cost plus, which means the bill is determined by expenses plus an additional percentage of expenses as profit, and yes that means the more money you waste the more profit you make, what a sweetheart deal that is, eh.
There have been attempts to bring him to justice, even to the point of subpoena but those apparently don't apply to vice presidents. As long as Dick stays within the boundaries of USA he is exempt from the law. Halliburton on the other hand is subject to law and sanctions by other countries, and Dick as well through his connections as former CEO.
The list just goes on and on, it never ends, so I'm opening this topic to serve as a repository more than anything. However, if anybody does want to jump into the frey to discuss this, please do.
enron hesitation on an end run and too late
if press house pets turn into feral hyienas
barking at barbarian pounding down the gate
multiple coverups play out political arenas
fools peekaboo and poke persuasive rhetoric
at the naked president whereas the big dick
and kenny boy are artfully dodging subpoena
More >
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31 Oct 2004 @ 12:23, by jazzolog. Politics
Lives based on having are less free than lives based on either doing or on being.
---William James
The River moves, moon travels rock,
Streams unreal, clouds there among the flowers.
Sails go: They can't know where.
---Tu Fu
Let each one turn his gaze inward and regard himself with awe and wonder, with mystery and reverence; let each one work his own influence, his own havoc, his own miracles.
---Henry Miller
Guerrilla Warfare (Picket Duty in Virginia), 1862
Bierstadt, Albert
A very dear, caring and empathetic Internet friend in Scotland advised me yesterday to remember: all this is not "your very own responsibility". She was referring to the flurry of activity in my life now, particularly as the Election approaches. I'm sure many of us in America are feeling the intensity, even if we're not particularly busy volunteering. Harvest may be done, but there's cleanup and lots of preparation for winter in the northern areas. There always are assignments at school and duties at church or synagogue this time of year. Caroline particularly of course was referring to my recent surgery and continuing health concerns. More >
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31 Oct 2004 @ 05:32, by skookum. Ideas, Creativity
Hallowe'en
I walked among the tombstones,
One dark and stormy night.
There was a chill deep in my bones,
My hair swirled 'round in fright. More >
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30 Oct 2004 @ 09:30, by jazzolog. Legal, Justice
God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.
---Dag Hammarskjold
Keeping on and on,
a traveler gets farther, farther away;
dust without cease
follows a horse through the world.
---Chia Tao
The butterfly counts not
months but moments,
And has time enough.
---Rabindranath Tagore
Les photographies de l'éclipse du 27 octobre 2004 seront bientôt disponibles ici par Sébastien Gauthier.
[link]
My title attempting summary doesn't intend grandiosity. Far from it. I think most of us here---both parties plus 3rd parties and independents...and we've got plenty of all in Southeast Ohio---are nearly fried with last minute efforts to phonebank, canvas, contribute, get to rallies (Jesse and Michael Moore will descend on OU this afternoon), avoid talk radio, only very selective TV, dress up for Halloween, and figure out what all to take with us when we attempt to vote Tuesday. What about Saturday chores? Groceries? Firewood? A ton of political mail piles up on the dining room table. Where can I find a space to eat supper tonight? More >
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29 Oct 2004 @ 12:47, by fleer. Broadcasting, Media
I have had this general idea about the aftermath of the cold war that somehow there was a system that needed a climate of fear. Seeing the BBC programme The Power of Nightmares clarified my perception. More >
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29 Oct 2004 @ 00:47, by ov. Globalization
It is quite evident by now that the Iraq war was about oil. In 1997 the US national security advisor Brzezinski wrote the book The Grand Chessboard. In it, Brzezinski claimed the US must take control of the world’s oil and gas reserves to gain total control over the world - or “full spectrum dominance” (yes, the very same “full spectrum dominance” Bush, Rumsfeld and Powell have referred to several times in the past 4 years.) In 1999 the Pentagon declared readiness to wage an oil war. Another part of the plan for global domination, a new American empire, is to stop any regional power, friend or foe, from becoming powerful enough to rival US hegemony. The book says the greatest threat to US hegemony would be a united Europe, or worse, a united Eurasia: Europe and Asia working together peacefully. The Neocons, who have hijacked the White House, have made this idea of worldwide US hegemony, an American empire, their declared policy goal. That explains why Rumsfeld tried to drive a wedge between European countries with his “old” Europe and “new” Europe comment.. It also explains the madness behind the US policy to pre-emtively shoot down European satellites, if or when they will threaten US space superiority. Shortly before the Iraq war, Cheney and his close buddy Baker announced that the US was facing an unprecedented energy crisis and that the US had to gain access to Iraq’s oil, by military force if neccesary. Notice, in that policy statement, there was nothing mentioned about Iraq posing a threat to the US with WMD. Instead, the policy paper states that Iraq is a threat to the US, because Iraq has a lot of oil, which the US may not be able to get under Saddam. And today we know that every word about the WMD was a lie. There were no WMD. Iraq was not a threat to the US. Those WMD claims were delusional. Cheney held a secret energy meeting about Iraq’s oil fields. Then, during the war, the first objective was to secure the oil fields and the oil ministry. And while American tax payers have to pay billions for this war, that money goes straight into the pockets of Halliburton and other war profiteers. At this point, anyone with at least half a brain can see that the Iraq invasion indeed was all about oil and profit. So, what is the rest of the world doing about it? For one, even our oldest allies no longer trust us. US reputation is at an all time low. And sooner or later, the rest of the world may very well unite against us, and use economic pressure, rather than military force, to end American imperialism. More >
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28 Oct 2004 @ 14:03, by scotty. Spirituality
"Compassion is where peace and justice kiss," says the psalmist...We're divine, start acting divine--that means start acting compassionately. It's not very complicated.
"Please Call Me By My True Names" by Thich Nhat Hanh
Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow
because even today I still arrive.
Look deeply: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a catepillar in the heart of flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.
I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
in order to fear and to hope,
the rhythm of my heart is the birth and
death of all that are alive.
I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the
surface of the river,
and I am the bird, which, when spring comes,
arrives in time to eat the mayfly.
I am the frog swimming happily in the
clear water of a pond,
and I am also the grass-snake who,
approaching in silence,
feeds itself on the frog.
I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks,
and I am the arms merchant, selling deadly
weapons to Uganda.
I am the 12-year-old girl, refugee
on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean after
being raped by a sea pirate,
and I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.
I am a member of the politburo, with
plenty of power in my hands,
and I am the man who has to pay his
"debt of blood" to my people,
dying slowly in a forced labor camp.
My joy is like spring, so warm it makes
flowers bloom in all walks of life.
My pain is like a river of tears, so full it
fills up the four oceans.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and my laughs
at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart can be left open,
the door of compassion. More >
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