"Last week, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the United States could fight two wars at once if it had to, against Iraq and North Korea. Mr. Rumsfeld emphasized that the United States preferred peaceful solutions to international differences..." - David Stout, The New York Times, 12/30/2002
Is it just me, or does Rummy's statement ring hollow? After all, the US is positioning enough in the way of troops, supplies, armor, and aircraft to turn Iraq into a parking lot, in and around the Persian Gulf.
North Korea has admitted that it has a nuclear, not nukyuler as some have taken to saying, weapons program, the US blows it off as an international incident, nothing to worry about. Yet rumors of Iraq having such a program sends the Bush administration into an apoplectic fit, and results in the situation regarding Iraq we now find ourselves.
The difference is that North Korea has no oil reserves. Iraq, on the other hand, is sitting on nearly 25% of the worlds proven oil reserves. Imagine that, a failed Texas oil-man going to war over oil.
Matters became clearer when Colin Powell, in an interview on "Meet the Press" said, "The oil fields are the property of the Iraqi peopl. And if the coalition of forces goes into those fields and make sure they are used to benefit all the people of Iraq and are not destroyed or damaged by the failing regime on its way out the door." He went on to further say that the the income produced by the oilfields will be used "In accordance with international law and to the benefit of the people of Iraq." And, let's not forget, for the benfit of the oil companies which so generously supported Bush's presidential campaign.
British Labour MP, George Galloway said of Colin Powell's interview that "The point of invasion is to steal Iraq's oil. This is naked confirmation that they intend to seize it, ramp up production, and thus cut the price of oil...They are going to reap a terrible whirlwind from all of this."
But this view from abroad never made it into the US media, which continues in supporting the administrations continuing drumbeat of war.
Tuesday, December 31, 2002
Sunday, December 29, 2002
What has become of the "compassionate conservatism" which Howdy had as a plank in his campaign platform?
"Yes, this holiday season--even as Bush prepares the nation for war--selfishness is back in style for those at the top of the economic pyramid. Sacrifice and "compassionate conservatism" are out.
It almost calls for resurrecting the phrase "ruling class," a notion once popular in left-wing circles that claims that the primary function of the highest levels of government is to protect the interests of the very rich. According to this view, big business and the ultra rich influence government at various levels through campaign contributions, personal relationships and ideological affinity. Policy-making becomes not a "mediation" of competing interests but a not so subtle capturing of policy-making institutions by the rich and powerful.
While the Bush Administration is doing all it can to focus our attention on the threat of Iraq and Al Qaeda to the "American way of life," a close look at the current Republican domestic agenda makes you wonder whether this crude radical theory warrants a closer look. Ironically, while the GOP and much of the media apply the term "class warfare" any time the Democrats and their allies in the labor and environmental movements push for even the most timid reform, it is the Bush Administration that perfected the most blatant version of ruling-class politics.
During its first two years in office--from its $1.35 trillion tax cut (including elimination of the inheritance tax), which primarily benefits the wealthiest 2 percent of the population, to its repeal of Clinton-era "ergonomics" standards, affecting more than 100 million workers, that would have forced companies to alter their work stations, redesign their facilities or change their tools and equipment if employees suffered serious work-related injuries from repetitive motions--the Bushies have acted without shame to serve the interests of their friends in corporate board rooms and the very rich." - Kelly Candaele & Peter Dreier, The Nation, 12/23/2002
In the first two years of Howdy's occupation of the White House, his legacy has been one of fattening the purses of his campaign contributors, gutting environmental regulations, tossing aside worker safety rules, and generally screwing the average American.
For the complet text, go to: http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20030106&s=dreier
I've said it before, and I'll say it again; It's time to put aside the rhetoric of war and move beyond the politics of the current administration. Bush and his merry band must be called to task, and if they will not act responsibly either vote them out of office or dig up the evidence they have tried so hard to bury and offer them a simple choice: Resign or be impeached. Either solution is acceptable, so long as the power in this country is given back to we, the people.
In all fairness though, it is "We, the people..." who bear much of the blame for bring the nation to its current state of affairs. By failing to accept the responsibilies that living in a rfree an democratic society impose upon us, namely casting a considered and informed vote, as well as failing to hold our elected officials accountable for their actions, we have America as it has come to be. We have an America whose domestic and foreign policy directed more by the goals of a few monied interests rather than the goals and interests of all of its citizens. It is time for Americans to awaken and once more take up our responsibilites to help secure life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all. The dream of our forefathers is fading, and will soo be nothing more than a vague memory if we fail to do so.
"Yes, this holiday season--even as Bush prepares the nation for war--selfishness is back in style for those at the top of the economic pyramid. Sacrifice and "compassionate conservatism" are out.
It almost calls for resurrecting the phrase "ruling class," a notion once popular in left-wing circles that claims that the primary function of the highest levels of government is to protect the interests of the very rich. According to this view, big business and the ultra rich influence government at various levels through campaign contributions, personal relationships and ideological affinity. Policy-making becomes not a "mediation" of competing interests but a not so subtle capturing of policy-making institutions by the rich and powerful.
While the Bush Administration is doing all it can to focus our attention on the threat of Iraq and Al Qaeda to the "American way of life," a close look at the current Republican domestic agenda makes you wonder whether this crude radical theory warrants a closer look. Ironically, while the GOP and much of the media apply the term "class warfare" any time the Democrats and their allies in the labor and environmental movements push for even the most timid reform, it is the Bush Administration that perfected the most blatant version of ruling-class politics.
During its first two years in office--from its $1.35 trillion tax cut (including elimination of the inheritance tax), which primarily benefits the wealthiest 2 percent of the population, to its repeal of Clinton-era "ergonomics" standards, affecting more than 100 million workers, that would have forced companies to alter their work stations, redesign their facilities or change their tools and equipment if employees suffered serious work-related injuries from repetitive motions--the Bushies have acted without shame to serve the interests of their friends in corporate board rooms and the very rich." - Kelly Candaele & Peter Dreier, The Nation, 12/23/2002
In the first two years of Howdy's occupation of the White House, his legacy has been one of fattening the purses of his campaign contributors, gutting environmental regulations, tossing aside worker safety rules, and generally screwing the average American.
For the complet text, go to: http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20030106&s=dreier
I've said it before, and I'll say it again; It's time to put aside the rhetoric of war and move beyond the politics of the current administration. Bush and his merry band must be called to task, and if they will not act responsibly either vote them out of office or dig up the evidence they have tried so hard to bury and offer them a simple choice: Resign or be impeached. Either solution is acceptable, so long as the power in this country is given back to we, the people.
In all fairness though, it is "We, the people..." who bear much of the blame for bring the nation to its current state of affairs. By failing to accept the responsibilies that living in a rfree an democratic society impose upon us, namely casting a considered and informed vote, as well as failing to hold our elected officials accountable for their actions, we have America as it has come to be. We have an America whose domestic and foreign policy directed more by the goals of a few monied interests rather than the goals and interests of all of its citizens. It is time for Americans to awaken and once more take up our responsibilites to help secure life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all. The dream of our forefathers is fading, and will soo be nothing more than a vague memory if we fail to do so.
Thursday, December 26, 2002
Yesterday, Dr. Rowan Williams made a blistering criticism of Tony Blair's and George "Howdy-Doody" Bush's drumbeat of war against Iraq. His speech was to have been broadcast just after midnight last night to co-incide with an appeal for peace in the Holy Land and the Middle-East by Pope John Paul II.
Follow the link:
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=364419
for the full text of the article.
Further exerpts from his Christmas message can be found here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2606971.stm
It is a refreshing contrast to see the leaders of two of the world's great churches standing against the seemingly inevitable war in Iraq. It is a stark contrast to the Southern Baptist Convention here in the US, which is all in favor of bombing Iraq back into the stone-age, regardless of the cost. After all, they're just godless heathen over there. And besides, America is blessed by God, and George "Howdy-Doody" Bush is one of us. "Us" being white, wealthy, and giving only the most fleeting of lip-service to Christian ideals.
But we must remember that war with Iraq is not inevitable, and we the people must speak out to stop it before Howdy and his merry band take action unilaterally. Call, e-mail, snail-mail, do whatever you can to make your congressional representatives understand that the course being plotted by the adminstration is the wrong one. It is not too late...yet.
Follow the link:
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=364419
for the full text of the article.
Further exerpts from his Christmas message can be found here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2606971.stm
It is a refreshing contrast to see the leaders of two of the world's great churches standing against the seemingly inevitable war in Iraq. It is a stark contrast to the Southern Baptist Convention here in the US, which is all in favor of bombing Iraq back into the stone-age, regardless of the cost. After all, they're just godless heathen over there. And besides, America is blessed by God, and George "Howdy-Doody" Bush is one of us. "Us" being white, wealthy, and giving only the most fleeting of lip-service to Christian ideals.
But we must remember that war with Iraq is not inevitable, and we the people must speak out to stop it before Howdy and his merry band take action unilaterally. Call, e-mail, snail-mail, do whatever you can to make your congressional representatives understand that the course being plotted by the adminstration is the wrong one. It is not too late...yet.
Wednesday, December 25, 2002
The Bush Administration's Christmas Gift to the Third World:
"Dick Cheney, the U.S. vice-president, last night blocked a global deal to provide cheap drugs to poor countries, following intense lobbying of the White House by America's pharmaceutical giants.
Faced with furious opposition from all the other 140 members of the World Trade Organization, the US refused to relax global patent laws which keep the price of drugs beyond the reach of most developing countries.
Talks at the WTO's Geneva headquarters collapsed last night after the White House ruled out a deal which would have permitted a full range of life-saving drugs to be imported to Africa, Asia and Latin-America at cut-price costs.
'The United States has announced that it cannot join the concensus'..." - Larry Elliot and Charlotte Denny, The Guardian, 12/21/2002
For the full text: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1221-01.htm
Bush's Christmas gift to the third world?...A big, fat "Fuck you!"
Merry Christmas.
"Dick Cheney, the U.S. vice-president, last night blocked a global deal to provide cheap drugs to poor countries, following intense lobbying of the White House by America's pharmaceutical giants.
Faced with furious opposition from all the other 140 members of the World Trade Organization, the US refused to relax global patent laws which keep the price of drugs beyond the reach of most developing countries.
Talks at the WTO's Geneva headquarters collapsed last night after the White House ruled out a deal which would have permitted a full range of life-saving drugs to be imported to Africa, Asia and Latin-America at cut-price costs.
'The United States has announced that it cannot join the concensus'..." - Larry Elliot and Charlotte Denny, The Guardian, 12/21/2002
For the full text: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1221-01.htm
Bush's Christmas gift to the third world?...A big, fat "Fuck you!"
Merry Christmas.
"By raising the specter of nuclear use, President Bush is already defining the war he is about to initiate as a war without moral limit. Having imagined choices and consequences to that extent, alas, he does not seem to have considered what follow from an American return to the exercise of power by nuclear terror: a savage century. To his credit, though the president has given the world and his nation a fair description of what he imagines he might do. A fair warning, and not only to Hussein.
Have we heard it? On this Christmas Eve, which is nearly the eve of an aggressive American war, the nation goes down on its knees to pray for peace. We worship memories of our own virtue. What lies we tell ourselves! Santa Claus is coming tonight. We are the forces of good arrayed against evil. Yes, and Nixon's Christmas bombing brought us peace with honor." - James Carroll, The Boston Globe, 12/24/2002
In the face of President Bush's doctrine of preemption, his claims of Jesus being his "role model" ring hollow, especially at the celebration of Christ's birth. He, like so many others in both Democratic and Republican ranks, don the garb of sanctimonious piety so that they may appear as good and decent people. People who share a common set of values represented by the teachings of Jesus. But nothing could be further from the truth, they simply give a wink and a nod towards Christian values in order to secure the votes of those masses who fail to truly understand Christ's message of peace, tolerance and charity.
Being a Buddhist, I can only shake my head sadly, and wish them success on the path to enlightenment, for it seems certain that they will not reach it for many lifetimes yet.
I wish you, and the world, peace in the coming year.
Have we heard it? On this Christmas Eve, which is nearly the eve of an aggressive American war, the nation goes down on its knees to pray for peace. We worship memories of our own virtue. What lies we tell ourselves! Santa Claus is coming tonight. We are the forces of good arrayed against evil. Yes, and Nixon's Christmas bombing brought us peace with honor." - James Carroll, The Boston Globe, 12/24/2002
In the face of President Bush's doctrine of preemption, his claims of Jesus being his "role model" ring hollow, especially at the celebration of Christ's birth. He, like so many others in both Democratic and Republican ranks, don the garb of sanctimonious piety so that they may appear as good and decent people. People who share a common set of values represented by the teachings of Jesus. But nothing could be further from the truth, they simply give a wink and a nod towards Christian values in order to secure the votes of those masses who fail to truly understand Christ's message of peace, tolerance and charity.
Being a Buddhist, I can only shake my head sadly, and wish them success on the path to enlightenment, for it seems certain that they will not reach it for many lifetimes yet.
I wish you, and the world, peace in the coming year.