Wow. That's Big.

Time to clear the boards in prep for Clemsy's Corner's Anniversary Edition, coming up as soon as it's done. In the meantime, the question below is worth a thousand words, at least half a billion dollars, your outrage and consternation and serves as proof positive for exactly how long the U.S. plans to hang around Iraq.

Cheers,
Clemsy

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

What covers 104 acres, cost about $600,000,000 and, when completed, will be bigger than Vatican City and, according to architects, visible from orbit? ANSWER (Sit down with a drink. A strong drink. Tequila will do.)

QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

You've performed so poorly I'm surprised that you haven't given yourself a medal. You're a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire city to rising water and snakes. On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon, and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you're just not lucky. I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side. ~Bill Maher

Three years later we know, courtesy of the Army Corps of Engineers, that our corrupt, Enron-like Iraq reconstruction effort has yielded at most 20 of those 142 promised hospitals. But we did build a palace for ourselves. The only building project on time and on budget, USA Today reported, is a $592 million embassy complex in the Green Zone on acreage the size of 80 football fields. Symbolically enough, it will have its own water-treatment plant and power generator to provide the basic services that we still have not restored to pre-invasion levels for the poor unwashed Iraqis beyond the American bunker. ~Frank Rich

Here's a few precious quotes from Stephen Colbert's routine at White House Correspondent's Dinner, coutesy of Editor and Publisher:

I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq.

...reality has a well-known liberal bias.

When the president decides something on Monday, he still believes it on Wednesday - no matter what happened Tuesday.

You should spend more time with your families, write that novel you've always wanted to write. You know, the one about the fearless reporter who stands up to the administration. You know-- fiction. (Directed at the press.)

[Here I am] surrounded by the liberal media who are destroying this country, except for Fox News. Fox believes in presenting both sides of the story — the president’s side and the vice president’s side.

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Once the reality of the president's claimed lawbreaking powers starts to be truly discussed in our national political dialogue, I believe there will finally be accountability for what this administration has done. ~Glenn Greenwald (Yes, but should I hold my breath or not?)


QUOTES FROM THE HIVE MIND

The Security Council is the primary and most important institution for the maintenance of peace and stability and security, and it cannot have its word and its will simply ignored by a member state. ~Condi Rice (When did we give the U.N. that job? I thought that was our job.)

PICK OF THE WEEK

Our monarch, above the law by Scot Lehigh

HAS GEORGE W. Bush come to believe he's king?

That's the question that springs to mind upon reading Charlie Savage's front-page report in Sunday's Globe detailing the president's sotto voce assertion that he can disregard laws if he thinks they impinge on his constitutional powers.

Distractions, Distractions

When will they learn? When will the feckless democrats learn to stay on message? They are as distractable as a ten year old off his meds. Immigration? Where the hell did this issue come from all of a sudden? And isn't it just eating up the airwaves!

Goodness! Someone's singing the national anthem in spanish! Such a disgrace! Someone should pass a consitutional amendment!

Hey, I'm sure Mexicans slipping over the border is a problem. When wasn't this a problem? I do recall that back during the Clinton era (the good old days) a bill strengthening penalties against companies who hired 'illegals' was defeated by the Republican controlled Senate, pretty much telling us that such people were legal at work (working for slave wages and no bennies), but illegal out on the street.

Now it's a BIG issue. Republicans NOW need to CRACK DOWN. The President has to come up with an ACCEPTABLE ANSWER. Immigrants far and wide are marching in the streets against possible draconian legislation and are planning to shut down major American cities on May 1st, which will inconvenience those typically liberal cites and incite typically conservative, xenophobic racism out in the 'heartland'.

People should take to the streets. All of us. The streets of Washington D.C. That's the city that needs to be shut down.

The politics of distraction. Republicans trawling for better poll numbers on a divisive domestic issue.EVERYBODY LOOK OVER HERE NOW! Not at Iraq. Not at the same behavior toward Iran we saw leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Not toward all those pissed off generals wanting Rumsfeld's head on a platter for misusing the military and getting too many people dead and maimed.

...And not at the oil problem. Not at the one issue that hits everyone right where it hurts: their ability to pay their monthly bills. Don't consider that the cost of everything is going to skyrocket. Don't worry about there not being any magic fix, no new quick fix oil gushers, no viable alternative energy sources on the horizon.

According to James Kunstler, we all need to prepare for some major changes, such as no longer planting McMansions on subdivided farmland which we'll need to feed ourselves when economies become quickly local due to the cost effectiveness of mass produced, long hauled goods going out the window.

Meaning desert cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix will need to no longer exist.

I know, I know, this is all alarmist. Relax. It won't be an issue until it's too late so why worry? We need to keep all those low paying jobs for documented minorites. That's the problem.

Of course, the price of diesel will eventually put truckers out of work, so those too expensive for anyone to buy tomatoes will no longer have to be picked by people coming over the border.

In fact, the price of oil will likely cure America of its illegal immigration problem, once there are no jobs for them to come to.

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Now, if anyone's curious as to what may be happening in that part of Iraq now known as Kurdistan...

Shiite Militias Move Into Oil-Rich Kirkuk, Even as Kurds Dig In

Rice warns Turkey to keep out of Iraq

Cheers,
Clemsy


QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

It was the biggest profit ever posted by the Texas-based oil behemoth in the first quarter, but it still fell short of Wall Street forecasts. ~Reuters (See George's amusing quote below.)

The Bush people and the oil people are indistinguishable. Condoleezza Rice, a former Chevron director, even had an oil tanker named after her. ~Bob Herbert

President Bush on Friday rejected calls by some lawmakers for a tax on oil company windfall profits, saying the industry should reinvest its recent gains into finding and producing more energy. ~ABC News (Translation: Taxes bad. Finding more oil good.)

With gasoline at over $3 a gallon in some areas, Bush said there was "no evidence" of price-gouging of consumers. ~ABC News (Translation: The oil industries obscene profits, corporate salaries and retirement packages are just good old American capitolism at work, even if it drives the economy into the ground.)

Report says that 11,000 attacks worldwide shows the war has become driving factor for extremists. ~Times Online (Good going, George. Keep up the good work. Sheesh.)


QUOTES FROM THE HIVE MIND

This administration will not tolerate manipulation. ~George Bush, referring to the oil industry (Where's that laughing-out-loud emoticon?)

The key issue is oil, and a regime change in Iraq would facilitate an increase in world oil. ~Laurence Lindsey – President Bush’s senior economic advisor in 2002 (...and lower oil prices and an improved economy and they will all live happily ever after. The End.)

Midweek Quotes and a Few Snide Comments

Republicans Anxious as Midterm Elections Approach
Facing loss of majority in Congress, inevitable investigations, arrests, prosecutions, convictions, prison sentences, hard time in dank, rat-infested cells. ~Ironic Times


Shiite Militias Move Into Oil-Rich Kirkuk, Even as Kurds Dig In (Whose side are we on, anyway?)

...Mr. Bush feels that kicking out Mr. Rumsfeld would mean "open season" on the administration. ~Insight (Hunting license optional.)

If $75 a barrel of oil and a $3 average for a gallon of gasoline isn't a wake-up call, then what will be? ~Sen. Chuck Schumer (Answer: Getting heatstroke while hitchhiking to work in January.)

The Trust for America's Health, a nonprofit group focused on public health and disease prevention, recently gave the federal government a D+ for emergency preparedness. ~U.S.News & World Report (Hey, that's a passing grade.)

In time, one wearies of foolishness, but not soon enough. ~Garrison Keillor

I want to be able to buy my vodka without having to look left and right. I want to be able to walk with my girlfriend in the street while holding hands together without people glaring at me. Is this TOO MUCH to ask? ~Zeyad, Iraqi dentist

QUOTES FROM THE HIVE MIND

I based a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things that I think are true. One, I believe there's an Almighty, and secondly, I believe one of the great gifts of the Almighty is the desire in everybody's soul, regardless of what you look like or where you live, to be free. ~George (Except sometimes, dang it all, ya give some folks democracy and they, like, elect bad people, like Hamas, and the Lord doesn't like Hamas, so ya have to sorta erase all that, and start, you know, from scratch, til ya get someone I, er, I mean the Lord, likes. That's freedumb. ;)

PICKS OF THE WEEK:

Shifting Footprints and Messianic Missions: Staying In Iraq 'Till Kingdom Come
by Maureen Farrell

Nuts 'n Crazies

People move along in their daily routine as if what the BIG PEOPLE do will have, at most, minimal effect on their lives. The lights will stay on, food will be delivered to the stores and TV will continue to fill our brains with sludge.

Well, the Cuban Missile Crisis didn't result in a nuclear winter, did it? Sane people eventually disentangled us from the human catastrophe that was the Vietnam War. Christ, even Hitler and godless Soviet communism were stopped!

Why worry? Be happy! It all works out. All the time. Pass the popcorn. Tom Cruise is a daddy! Like, are Brad and Angelina still together or what?

La dee da.

Me? I'm cursed with an unavoidable impression that if someone doesn't grab the shovels from the crazies at the top of the power pyramid, We The People are going to slam into a significant population correction.


NUTSHELLS (cont.)

Hmmm. I wonder if buying stock in Pfizer, think Zoloft here, isn't a damn good idea.

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The price of oil is over $75 a barrel. Gasoline has been going up 2 to 3 cents a gallon every day for about 3 weeks. I'm profoundly relieved at the urgent call for conservation, the auto industry rapidly moving to smaller, fuel efficient hybrids, the offering of tax credits for the installation of photovoltaics, which has finally become a household word, plans for renovating our rail system for the long distance transport of goods, and the national decision that we'll get used to windmills mucking up our scenic views.

Did you believe all that for a moment? Didn't it feel good?

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Do you think Bush realizes how happy he makes Jon Stewart every time he says something precious like, "I'm the decider"?

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Let's see, Rummie and Co. shut General Shinseki down for calling for a few hundred thousand troops to stabilize Iraq. Shinseki was right. Rummie was wrong. People are dead.

You're fired.

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Here's a logic train headed for disaster: Osama does 9/11, inspiring Bush to invade Afghanistan and Iraq (plus Gitmo, Abu Graib, etc.) which leads to the world hating America which makes Osama very happy.

Therefore, Osama likes George as much as he hates him.

Okay, 9/11 allows BushCo to maximize political, economic and military power.

So, George likes Osama just as much as he hates him. (After all, we never did "get him dead or alive".)

BushCo is in serious trouble.

If you were Osama, what would you do?

(Hint: George won't need to nuke Iran.)

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I mean, think about it: Ancient Rome was relentless in its pursuit of whatever it wanted. Architecture, territory, pesky rebel band... it was always just a matter of time. Yet here we are, claiming to be the most powerful nation the world has ever seen and we can't find one diabetic hiding in the mountains.

Unless he's a piece more valuable on than off the board.

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Exxon/Mobile's profits for last year were $36,000,000,000.
Exxon/Mobil's chairman Lee Raymond's retirement package is $400,000,000.
Exxon/Mobile's revenue has increased to $97,000,000 per day.

More tax breaks for Exxon/Mobile I say!

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"GM officials say they even plan a small increase in Hummer production to keep pace with demand for the large SUV." LINK

We're insane.

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Seize the day, folks.

Cheers,
Clemsy


QUOTES:

"We said: 'Well, what about the intel?' And they said: 'Well, this isn't about intel anymore. This is about regime change'." ~Tyler Drumheller, who headed CIA covert operations in Europe during the run-up to the Iraq war

There was understandable reluctance in the Congress to begin a serious investigation of the Nixon presidency. Then there came a time when it was unavoidable. That time in the Bush presidency has arrived. ~Carl Bernstein

On May 29, 2003... President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by U.S. and Kurdish troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile "biological laboratories." ...A secret fact-finding mission to Iraq -- not made public until now -- had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before the president's statement. ~NY Times

Sooner or later, should Bush go unpunished, somebody in power is going to try to cancel a presidential election. When they do, they'll cite national security and the need for stable and experienced political leadership in a time of war, and when they do, they'll cite the precedents set by George Bush and permitted by the Congress, courts, and American public of his day. And our country's long, mostly successful experiment in representative democracy will be over. ~Geov Parrish

As it happens, rumors of a new war coincide with the emergence of evidence that appears to confirm our worst suspicions about the war we're already in. ~Paul Krugman

I now regret that I did not more openly challenge those who were determined to invade a country whose actions were peripheral to the real threat — Al Qaeda. ~Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold

I have a sneaky feeling this Bush won't be punished any more than his Dad or Grandad were. ~Tony Hendra

So, Who's Holding the Football?

Speaking of China floating the U.S. national debt, check this out:

China has kept up its share of the economic compact by accumulating a gigantic treasure chest of U.S. dollars from its export sales and reinvesting most of those dollars in U.S. Treasuries and corporate bonds.

The recycling of dollars, though less visible and less publicized than the trade deficit, is just as essential in the economic relationship because it provides U.S. consumers and businesses with the credit they need to keep on buying Chinese and other goods...

...China recently surpassed Japan to become the largest holder of dollar reserves, with a war chest of $833 billion. Most of that is thought to be invested in U.S. instruments. Altogether, Japan, Russia, China and other Asian countries hold two-thirds of the world's dollar reserves, which they have amassed through years of large trade surpluses with the United States. (LINK)

Somehow this situation reminds me of....



Thanks whaleshaman, for that Wash. Times link.

Washington Times? Hey! They do good stuff! ....Just don't put the good stuff on the front page. Remember this oldie but goodie?

Cheers,
Clemsy

Nationalism: Better Than Sex But More Expensive

How can these fools who have bungled Iraq so badly even think that targeting Iran would be a good idea? How can this administration, in the face of Nixonian poll numbers, damning criticism by respected former military leaders, and relentless, if overdue, excoriation in the press continue to act as if he has unlimited "political capital"?

Easy.

Political or military commentators, like astrologers, can survive almost any mistake, because their more devoted followers do not look to them for an appraisal of the facts but for the stimulation of nationalistic loyalties. ~George Orwell

Please note that as of the beginning of April, Bush was still adored by about 80% of the Republican Party, a bunch of folks who get jollies by having their nationalistic loyalties fondled.

If the U.S. had a parliamentary government, Bush would have been "disappeared" some time ago. As it is, the flaws in our so-called republic are currently glaring. After all, a 60% disapproval rating should indicate that our elected representatives have the go-ahead to punish the president, tooth and nail.

No, no. Not yet. We must wait for something really awful. Like, you know, oral sex and semen stained dresses.

In the meantime we continue on the downward swirl. When Clinton left office, the national debt was around 5.3 trillion dollars, an increase of a little over one trillion over the course of his administration. At the moment, the debt stands at 8.4 trillion (LINK ), and increases at a bit over one hundred thousand dollars per second, or about 2.2 billion dollars a day.

About 50% of the Bush increase is due to tax cuts, 30% due to military expenditures. About 5% are due to entitlement programs.

This number works out to around $28,000 for every man, woman and child in the country.

At this point, China holds five hundred billion dollars of that debt. Japan holds one trillion.

No matter. Just tickle my nationalistic loyalties a little more, George. It's just like sex without all that Christian guilt. Following the metaphor a little further, nuking Iran would be one hell of an....

Clemsy

Ahhh, Sweet Relief

Stocks soared Tuesday on news that Federal Reserve policymakers believed their run of interest rate hikes is likely nearing an end, propelling the Dow Jones industrials up nearly 200 points. The report helped offset the effects of oil prices that passed $71 a barrel. LINK

Gosh. Don't you feel much better? I mean, if I don't consider that the skyrocketing gasoline prices will only result in skyrocketing prices for EVERYTHING, which will only and royally screw the economy, then I can believe everything is just dandy.

I'm going to sleep so well tonight.

Nutshells

Abortion in America will always be an issue because the so-called Right to Lifers do not only want to regulate conception and birth but also contraception and sex. Their reasons for this are fundamentally religious in nature because...

Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate. ~Monty Python

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The coming tsunami of retiring baby-boomers is a profound threat to the American economy. The Bush Administration's solution to this, if you're paying attention and reading between the lines, is simple if not draconian: make them work longer and die sooner.

Whether this is for God and Country or payback for the sixties is open to interpretation.

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Question: As long as "health care" is a "for profit" industry, it's primary mission won't be "health care."

Is this socialism, common sense or a comfy combination of the two?

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Why is the United States the only two-party republic on the planet? Why is a parliamentary system good for everyone other than us?

Well, everyone other than Iraq, apparently.

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I'm concerned that if the Democrats win back a majority in November, they'll act like a dog that's finally caught a car.

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Nationalism and religion will be the death of us.

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Geronimo's skull is adorning the Skull and Bones "tomb" at Yale University. Apparently Dubya's grandpappy, Prescott, had a hand in getting it there.

My, that doesn't sound very good: The President's grandfather was a grave robber.

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QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

No Child Left Behind Law Forcing Out Study of History, Science From Schools
Just like in White House. ~Ironic Times

'Neoconservative' is used by the American right to describe a radical policy doctrine, while the European left uses it as a handy alternative to 'Yankee imperialist pig-dog'. ~The Observer

But the former senior intelligence official said the attention given to the nuclear option has created serious misgivings inside the military, and some officers have talked about resigning after an attempt to remove the nuclear option from the evolving war plans in Iran failed, according to the report. ~Yahoo News (Serious poll numbers require serious actions, I guess.)

Martino told me that if he was able to obtain a copy of a contract then he would have earned a lot of money from an unspecified ‘intelligence’ organisation. ~Laura Montinim assistant to the Nigerian ambassador (Anyone for a slice of yellowcake?)

For the second time in two weeks, a former general has called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld over what both generals described as serious mistakes made in the war in Iraq. ~The New York Times

Succumbing to scandal, former Majority Leader Tom Delay intends to resign from Congress within weeks... ~Associated Press (Finally, some good news.)

Despite the unsettled time and the obvious importance of intelligence both in investigating the 2001 attacks and preventing new ones, Bush, hewing to a practice of other presidents, stocked the [Intelligence Oversight Board] not only with former senior government officials but also with political insiders and wealthy campaign donors with no evident intelligence expertise. ~Chicago Tribune

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and other top officials chose to pump up al-Qaeda into a global enemy worthy of a new Cold War, a generational struggle that might comfortably be filled with smaller, regime-change-oriented, "preventive" hot wars against hopelessly outgunned enemies who -- unlike in those Cold War days -- would have no other superpower to call on for aid. ~Tom Engelhardt

The Pentagon has revealed that coalition forces are spending millions of dollars establishing at least six "enduring" bases in Iraq - raising the prospect that US and UK forces could be involved in a long-term deployment in the country. It said it assumed British troops would operate one of the bases. ~Independent (Enduring = Permanent. Clever fellows.)

Some military analysts wonder if 20 or so years from now the US will still have costly "enduring" bases in Iraq. ~The Christian Science Monitor

I've stood too many times with my feet in an inch of blood. ~Capt. Carl Impastato, an Air Force nurse

Why would a man universally described as kind and intelligent suddenly start acting like a dodo? Presidential ambition, of course. ~Joe Klein on Bill Frist

Today, a leading power such as the United States approaches theocracy when it meets the conditions currently on display: an elected leader who believes himself to speak for the Almighty, a ruling political party that represents religious true believers, the certainty of many Republican voters that government should be guided by religion and, on top of it all, a White House that adopts agendas seemingly animated by biblical worldviews. ~Kevin Phillips

By counting golf course ponds and ornamental lakes as wetlands, the federal government announced Thursday a massive gain in the number of wetlands nationwide, the first such gain ever reported. ~St. Petersburg Times

This administration has taken us on a path to nowhere replete with hyped intelligence, macho slogans and an incredible failure to see the obvious. ~Wesley Clark


THE ADMINISTRATION LEAKS ON AMERICA

So there it is. We have Bush authorizing the disclosure of classified information, and we have that disclosure taking place for no other reason than to discredit an administration critic. ~William Rivers Pitt

US President George W Bush authorised the leak of secret intelligence to a newspaper to help defend the Iraq war, a former White House aide has said. ~BBC

But I want to tell you something -- leaks of classified information are a bad thing. And we've had them -- there's too much leaking in Washington. That's just the way it is. And we've had leaks out of the administrative branch, had leaks out of the legislative branch, and out of the executive branch and the legislative branch, and I've spoken out consistently against them and I want to know who the leakers are. ~George Bush (Though a hive mind queen, I felt this George quote deserved to follow the one above, no?)

Much of the information that the administration leaked or declassified, however, has proved to be incomplete, exaggerated, incorrect or fabricated. ~The Mercury News


QUOTES FROM THE HIVE MIND

If these issues are not addressed, you'll see values voters stay home by the millions. And then the Republicans and others who have been the beneficiary of the values vote are going to lose. ~Rev. Rick Scarborough

The good news is Democrats don't have much of a plan. The bad news is they may not need one. ~GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio

Our goal is to balance safety and security, rerouting doesn't mitigate the risk, it simply moves it to another location. ~Darrin Kayser, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration (In other words, routing a tanker of chlorine gas around rather than through a major city is a waste of time.)

Q: What is the biggest lesson you have learned from the Iraq war?

A: The ingratitude of the Iraqis for the extraordinary favor we gave them — to release them from the bondage of Saddam Hussein’s tyranny. They have rapidly interpreted it as something they did and that we were incidental to it. They’ve more or less written us out of the picture. ~Daniel Pipes

This is something I've been working on for twenty-two years. I mean, we got it. ~Tom DeLay on the stopping of the 2000 Florida recount, in which he had a significant role.


PICK OF THE WEEK:

Intelligence watchdog slow to bite

When a privacy-rights group requested records to show how many times a secretive presidential oversight board had asked the Justice Department to investigate possible violations of intelligence-gathering laws since 2001, the answer that came back last month was as simple as it was startling.

Zero.

The Next Level

Knowledge is power, and while the truth may be spurious and slippery and messy and deep, the pursuit of it is just about the only thing we have left. Give that up, and all that's left is spiritual numbness, emotional stasis and death. So what are you waiting for? ~Mark Morford

Facts, links, quotes... rehashing a swirl of data skimmed with a personal spin from the top of the Web available to anyone so inclined to look. To those not so inclined, it all seems dug from deep beneath the thick crust of paying bills, getting to and from work and getting a new pair of baseball cleats for the kid's new shoe size. To those it's all either shocking or unbelievable. The venom of fair and balanced gives everything another side as if there were no facts, only perception.

Joseph Goebbels would have been so much more successful today, don't you think? He would have had ample opportunity to voice his side of the Jewish Question.

The surface of data is fogged with rhetoric. Lies, half-truths and denials drown facts and reinforce whatever one needs to believe to keep the crust of the planet beneath one's feet stable.

If what's shallow to one is deep to another, what then when one goes even deeper?

A confluence of events, stories and quotes demands a deeper look into the churning magma that drives the continents across the face of the planet. A look into a world in which one shrivels in such utter insignificance as to justify a retreat into the comforting arms of blind ignorance. Or blind faith.

This is where we're going today, gentle readers.

Liberty. Wonderful word. How many truly know what it means? How many of the five freedoms can you name? A recent poll reveals that about 22% of Americans polled could name all five Simpsons. How many knew all five freedoms? One out of one thousand or .1%.

Remember Willful Ignorants and Blind Faithers?

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Corporations are supposed to be public servants and the wealthy kept in check by taxing the hell out of them (after which they are still wealthy). While this has slowly been reversed, the oxymoronic term 'corporate citizen' found its way into the language.

Roll this one around your pre-frontal lobes: "Exxon is a good corporate citizen but it does not work for the welfare of the country. (LINK)"

Bizarre enough to consider a profit driven entity entitled to all the rights of a person, but to consider this in a global economy renders it just plain absurd, and the daily stock market report a flagrant slap in the face to anyone who has to walk down Main Street.

K Street steers the country. The Abramoff scandal won't bring it down. Our legislature won't allow that.

And K Street is Big Money.

K Street is the military industrial complex President Eisenhower warned us of.

K Street is Exxon/Mobile, the "good corporate citizen" that "does not work for the welfare of the country."

K Street is where democracy is turned into a bad joke and the sound of patriotism becomes the bleating of sheep and the lowing of cattle.

History is a narrative punctuated by the powerful who use people like a carpenter uses nails. Here's the simple lesson Blind Faithers and Willful Ignorants refuse to learn: More often than not, the powerful couldn't care less about the people they use to achieve their goals. We ride the bloody, frothy crest of the wave of that narrative. The nails are being pounded in Iraq. The nails are being pounded on the Gulf Coast of America.

The powerful don't care, or have convinced themselves that your sacrifice is justified by their goals and objectives.

Goals and objectives that benfit who?

September Eleventh

Were three thousand nails pounded on 9/11?

What? Oh no Clemsy, don't go there!

Too late. Look. Go on and look. Read the whole damn thing. I've avoided the questions. Good questions. Uncomfortable questions. Questions like:

Why did the towers fall as they did?

Why were large amounts of American and United Airline stock moved the day before the attacks?

Why did NORAD and the FAA fail so miserably that day?

Who benefitted from the result? Who benefitted?

There are more questions. All the theories illustrated in the linked article aren't credible, but to walk away from it without the least bit of discomfort would be... common. Like I said, blind faith is comfortable and your puny, insignificant existence can't do a damn thing about it anyway.

Baaa. Mooo.

Global Warming

I've always considered the narrow environmental parameters within which humanity thrives to be worthy of erring on the side of caution. Is that a no-brainer or what? But that's not what we're doing is it? This is another area where keeping your head under the covers and not thinking about it is just so easy.

This week's Time Magazine's cover story is titled, Polar Ice Caps Are Melting Faster Than Ever... More And More Land Is Being Devastated By Drought... Rising Waters Are Drowning Low-Lying Communities... By Any Measure, Earth Is At ... The Tipping Point

Sucker punch of a title, isn't it? The first paragraph kicks you while you're down:

No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth. Never mind what you've heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is upon us.

Here, let me ruin your day a little more:

By one recent measure, several Greenland ice sheets have doubled their rate of slide, and just last week the journal Science published a study suggesting that by the end of the century, the world could be locked in to an eventual rise in sea levels of as much as 20 ft. Nature, it seems, has finally got a bellyful of us.

I heard one scientist say that if such a change in sea level occurred over thousands of years, we would naturally adjust to it. However, he continued, if it takes only a couple centuries, as it now seems, then we would have to start moving population centers. Now.

Twenty feet turns Florida from a thumb to a pinky. Twenty feet eliminates New York City, Washington D.C., LA, Boston, San Franciso... Almost every coastal city on the planet.

Here's a new story: Significant Warming of the Antarctic Winter Troposphere

New Orleans? We're rebuilding New Orleans?

Why does America continue to act like it has all the time in the world? Back to those Powerful Few. Why should they care? Won't they always be okay? Won't they, and their families, always have the resources to turn such adversity into an economic benefit? Don't think so? Look HERE.

Baaa. Mooo.

Make no mistake, George Bush and Company aren't the problem, just an insultingly obvious symptom of a runaway situation. They keep the attention of the sheep and cattle on the convenient "terrorists" and state with straight faces that "we're at war" so everybody LOOK OVER THERE and pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

Look up, people. They have a hammer over your head.

What can you do? Not much, but even that is better than nothing. Go back to the opening quote. Read What Every American Should Know About Who's Really Running the World. Convince some sheep and cattle that the slaughterhouse isn't the best of all possible destinations.

No need to run for the Paxil, although it may be tempting. There is something larger than ourselves no? Call it what you will, but it's where hope resides. The Arthurian Tradition gives us the view that it is up to us to venture into the Dark Forest alone to find our way to the Grail.

If enough of us take up the challenge, just by who we then become, we may provide our children with a way through whatever is heading our way.

Cheers,
Clemsy


QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

Report: Cheney Gets All His Information From Fox News
Which gets all its information from Cheney. ~Ironic Times

...A small group of extremists -- many of whom have worked together before -- are redesigning the mechanics of this country. They are trying to redraw the world, and they are shrinking our rights in the process. The media has stopped holding the powers that be accountable for this action, and the legislature, where many extremists now hold powerful seats, is an arena where some are trying to upset the balance of power -- including attempts to disempower the courts. And meanwhile, lying is so common it's nearly acceptable, and those who point out the lies are drowned out by official denials. We're losing the truth, we're losing perspective, we're losing the original ideals of this country and our birthrights are vanishing with them. ~Melissa Rossi

The men were taken away and the women were screaming and crying, and I just remember thinking: this was exactly what Saddam used to do - and now we're doing it. ~Michael Blake, veteran

We have no real idea how to address global warming, the draining of jobs overseas, the influx of illegal immigrants, our growing indebtedness to foreign lenders, our addiction to petroleum, the rise of Islamic terror... To put it bluntly, we don't know what to do, and so we do nothing. ~Jay Bookman

Faced with the unappetizing reality of Iraq, Bush and Rove are relying on that grand old reliable strategy—attack the media. It doesn’t play as well as it used to. Everyone who wants an alternative reality is already watching Fox News. The rest of the country is worried. ~Molly Ivins

Keeping our attention on Iraq has allowed this administration to do what it came to do under cover of darkness. ~William Rivers Pitt

Nixon's illegal surveillance was limited; Bush's, it is developing, may be extraordinarily broad in scope. ~John Dean

Our neoconservative policy makers are still willing to risk the U.S. Army in a mad Middle East imperial scheme that composed the real reason for the Iraq war in the first place. ~Gary Hart

We're losing because the cavemen in the Bush administration don't understand the difference between strength and bellicosity, and they don't understand that increased bellicosity will only compound the already grave threat of terrorism. ~Rosa Brooks

Americans aren't against the war in Iraq because it is wrong; they are against it because we are losing. ~Scott Ritter


QUOTES FROM THE HIVE MIND

Yes, I know we have made tactical errors, thousands of them. ~Condoleezza Rice


HEADLINES

'If you start looking at them as humans, then how are you gonna kill them?'

They are a publicity nightmare for the US military: an ever-growing number of veterans of the Iraq conflict who are campaigning against the war. To mark the third anniversary of the invasion this month, a group of them marched on Katrina-ravaged New Orleans.

Area Still Unprepared for Terror Attacks, Senate Panel Is Told

Nearly five years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Washington region still lacks a strategic plan to guide preparations for any future attacks or to effectively spend hundreds of millions of homeland security dollars, federal and local officials told a U.S. Senate panel yesterday.

Justices Hint That They'll Rule on Challenge Filed by Detainee

As the justices of the Supreme Court took their seats Tuesday morning to hear Osama bin Laden's former driver challenge the Bush administration's plan to try him before a military commission, one question — perhaps the most important one — was how protective the justices would be of their jurisdiction to decide the case.


McCain Woos the Right, Makes Peace With Falwell

He assured Falwell, however, that if the federal courts were to strike down state bans on gay marriage, McCain would back a federal amendment defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. McCain's outreach to conservatives on marriage is politically important because of the way he sharply denounced a federal constitutional ban on gay marriage when it was considered in 2004. (Did McCain just lose the independent vote for a marriage of convenience?)


Conservatives' new books have Bush in crosshairs

Conservatives who charge President George W. Bush has imposed a theocracy, risked US bankruptcy and fanned flames of anti-Americanism are flooding US booksellers with their irate tomes.


BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING

FBI records show terrorism focus includes activists

The FBI, while waging a highly publicized war against terrorism, has spent resources gathering information on anti-war and environmental protesters, and activists who feed vegetarian meals to the homeless, the agency's internal memos show.


SCANDAL CORNER

Bush Was Set on Path to War, Memo by British Adviser Says

In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war. (NY Times is a few months late on this story.)


OCCUPATION: IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

U.S., Canadian soldiers die as Afghan violence surges

Violence has intensified in Afghanistan in recent months and the Taliban have vowed to launch a spring offensive as part of their campaign to oust foreign forces and the Western-backed government.

Iraq parties demand U.S. cede control

Iraq's ruling parties demanded U.S. forces cede control of security on Monday as the government launched an inquiry into a raid on a Shi'ite mosque that ministers said saw "cold blooded" killings by U.S.-led troops.

Wave of Violence Kills at Least 81 Iraqis

Police found 30 more victims of the sectarian slaughter ravaging Iraq _ most of them beheaded _ dumped on a village road north of Baghdad on Sunday. At least 16 other Iraqis were killed in a U.S.-backed raid in a Shiite neighborhood of the capital.


OPINION

Fool Me Twice
By Joseph Cirincione

Does this story line sound familiar? The vice president of the United States gives a major speech focused on the threat from an oil-rich nation in the Middle East. The U.S. secretary of state tells congress that the same nation is our most serious global challenge. The secretary of defense calls that nation the leading supporter of global terrorism. The president blames it for attacks on U.S. troops.