Do you want this Palin person to be only one (feeble) heartbeat away from becoming the President of the only remaining Super Power on earth?
World Events
Americans Voting Abroad
Ireland in Isolation
This article highlights a danger for Ireland Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization. Ireland is an Island! Almost everyone I’ve met in Ireland never think of Ireland as an Island (the center of the universe maybe, just not an Island). We have become so complacent about the availability of foreign goods and produce, we have forgotten that without cheap oil, we will have to live within our own agricultural means. Something the Lisbon “Yes” folks don’t seem to get yet. They believe that the mobile economy will balance the trade products and that putting fishermen and farmers out of business will not harm Ireland as a whole. Cheap oil has made this possible, and is no more. No more cheap fruit, and beef, no more massive highways and individual car ownership.
John Lennon sang Imagine, just Imagine no Oil.
The Civil war of Europe
One effect of the Lisbon treaty is to bring into stark relieve the different perceptions of politicians and citizens. More than a century ago in the United States there was a Civil war. And while the popular belief was that this war was over slavery, it was not. It is an issue which Europe faces now and in the future. What faced the U.S. was not an issue, but a right to deal with an issue locally, within the individual states representing the members of the United States. A confederacy of independent but unified States joined in common defense. The E.U. is currently just such a confederacy, but the Lisbon treaty seeks to move that into a Federalist, Centralist Nation. In the U.S.A. the Federalists sought to force the freeing of slaves on all the states, a centralist decision, which the State governments of the South had previously supported Slavery and while the topic was abhorrent, the subject could just as well have been health food or something. The central Federal government forcing decisions on State governments.
This is the fundamental goal of the Lisbon treaty, to allow the creation of laws created in the Federated European Parliament to be issued to member State/Countries superseding local control. Just as in the U.S., this was the trigger for the Civil War. The Confederacy lost the argument, and a more ridged Federal, Central government was established. As in the U.S. a decision will have to be made, will Europe be a Federal Government, or will it retain it’s individual Nations in a loose Confederacy of United Nations. War is an alternative to this decision making process.
The only government that has allowed it’s citizens to vote, to allow them to choose what they wanted, were the Irish. But the politicians of the member states want a federal government and have decided that their citizens shouldn’t be allowed to choose. They now seek to ignore the ‘No” and force another vote again until they get their ‘Yes’ because a for them, a ‘No’ will restrict their power. There is no up side for the peoples of Europe, very government seeks to restrict and control it’s citizens the question is who will do the controlling. Will the Irish control the Irish, or will Brussels.
The choice is ours!
Lisbon
Why did all the politicians believe that a constitution that had been voted down by the French, could be rename and sold to the Irish?
Why do Politicians now try to pass off the Irish No vote as not representative of the rest of the population of Europe who didn’t get to vote?
Why did the Politicians believe that a childish ‘Because it’s good for you‘ argument that doesn’t work on children, would work on the Irish Adult population?
Big questions. Questions that will never be answered by the current crop of Politicians because they don’t know any part of the Why in these questions.
I can think of a few, here’s one
A) It was only good for politicians
The Real McCain 2 — doing my part
And the GOP voters in the U.S. want this guy to be President?
Something else we didn’t know, the truth.
It looks like the truth does come out, in the end, but why are we surprised when someone does a Study: False statements preceded war about something we already knew. That the President of the United States wasn’t telling the truth. Can we impeach this administration now? Does anyone doubt the need to demonstrate to the world that America CAN be trusted again, by eliminating the liars, and restoring the trust?
More fear being seeded
It looks like more fear is being seeded as Hackers Cut Cities’ Power. So, without actually naming the cities, or the methods of ‘hacking’ the CIA is now claiming without proof that there are hackers ‘outside’ the U.S. that have shutdown power to cities, and extorted money.
So, fear, is the next best thing to the truth. Tell an American audience, that rarely hears international news, that ‘cities’ have had their power shutdown by ‘Terrorist hackers’ fully expecting that population will not know any better. In most cases the CIA would be accurate, most americans don’t have a clue what is going on in the rest of the world.
Great. What next? Hackers under the bed? Terrorist boogyman hackers under every bed in America?
Hero’s are what we wish leaders to be.
And when we seek leaders, in our politicians, or in any person during a crisis and even even in a fellow worker in our day to day work lives. Hero’s brighten our lives, lighten our loads and renew our spirits. On the average we never seem to have enough hero’s, and we often seek them in our dreams, the theater, and on the television.
In this coming election season, the hopes and dreams of the world seek a hero in Barack, Hillary, Fred, Ron, Dennis, Mike and Al and/or any of the rest. And the goal of those politicians will be to appear to be, those hero’s, to win our hearts and minds. But hero’s aren’t heros by selling themselves, but by proving themselves, not by convincing us to trust them, but by earning our trust.
We shouldn’t be looking for the lesser of the evils, but the best hope for the future.
…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Monopoly’s new game, or how to profit from Global warming.
Having seen the Christmas Ad’s starting up, and this years crop of children being introduced into corporate finance in the form of the old board game of Monopoly, I was inspired to create a new variant Global Warming Monopoly What a great new way to teach our children how to profit from the future disasters of our new world.
GOP to win the U.S. Presidency in 2008
I have not predicted the race, but I am now concerned that the balance on Democrats in the House and Senate will not reach the goal of two thirds majority, veto override power, in Congress. With Hillary looking to win the democratic nomination and loosing the Presidential race to ANY GOP NOMINEE. Congress will have to buck-up and grow some in a genuine effort to bring the U.S. back into a Constitutional Checks and Balances which forms the foundation of the Republic.
This GOP win shouldn’t happen, but Hillary is tainted by real or illusionary propaganda that the republicans have been seeding for years. And because she holds the largest bag of money, she could buy her own nomination. But in an article earlier this month, she would need to pull 24% of the female REPUBLICAN voters, and I don’t believe that she could pull 24% of the female DEMOCRATIC vote. She just can’t win, in fact I’m sure the democratic party heads know she can’t win. I suspect that they don’t want to win the presidential race and face the albatross that Iraq has become.
So, unless Al Gore throws his hat into the ring, or gets drafted (and maybe linked with Edwards as Vice President) the Democrats will loose the Presidential race.
The real goal for the Democrats will be to blast the Republicans out of the House and Senate.
War with Iran, via MoveOn.org
I’m reposting an email I received from MoveOn.org this morning (the contents of which I mostly agree with).
Dear MoveOn member,
To be honest, I don’t even like to think about the possibility of war with Iran. But here’s the unfortunate truth—plans for an aerial attack have been drawn up.1 There’s nothing stopping Bush from launching that attack any day. And right now the progressive movement’s main strategy for preventing it is simply to hope that it doesn’t happen.
To paraphrase my ninth-grade sex-ed teacher, “Hope is not a method.” We need to do something. There are increasing indications that war with Iran may be imminent. And experts agree it would be a catastrophe.
So today we’re proposing a major campaign to expose the danger of a new war with Iran (see below for details). It’ll cost about $200,000, and if we can raise the money, we’ll start today. Can you chip in $25?
https://pol.moveon.org/donate/irandonate.html?id=11491-3984041-9M7Z8C&t=2
War would be a disaster. Military officials who’ve gamed-out a war with Iran say it’s a very, very bad idea. “Iran would hit back against US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and activate terrorist allies in the Middle East, further destabilizing a region already struggling with two major wars.”2 US troops in the region, Israelis and American civilians abroad and at home would all be at risk.
And it’s a real possibility. For months, there’s been a stream of leaks and revelations by former Bush administration officials that paint a scary picture: Vice President Cheney and the neocons are quietly maneuvering us toward war with Iran—just as they did with Iraq.3,4
Now, the New York Times reports that Freedom’s Watch, a $200 million propaganda machine headed by former White House insiders, has started to press for an attack.5,6 And this past week, Bush and Cheney upped the ante with aggressive statements, even invoking the specter of “World War III.”7
Observers across the political spectrum, from Senator John McCain to former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross, say the threat is closer than it appears.8,9 And it’s never a good idea to underestimate this president’s capacity for recklessness.
We can’t run the risk that they’re crazy enough to do it. That’s why it’s so important that we make sure policymakers understand the cost of war, and we pressure Congress not to roll over on Iran. If we can raise the money today, here’s what we’ll do:
A number of top retired generals and military experts are willing to say publicly that attacking Iran would be a strategic disaster. We’ll put them on tour to speak to political leaders, editorial boards and big audiences.
We’ll run ads challenging the Bush administration and key presidential candidates—and remind people that the last time we heard many of these phony arguments was in the lead-up to war with Iraq.
We’ll commission polling to show wavering politicians that if they stand up against war with Iran, the public will stand with them.
We’ll run a major grassroots campaign urging Congress to confront the administration on Iran.
None of us know how likely a strike against Iran really is. But I’m going to do more than just hope it doesn’t happen. The signs and signals have become too glaring. We have to act.Please join in launching this campaign:
https://pol.moveon.org/donate/irandonate.html?id=11491-3984041-9M7Z8C&t=3
There have been a few leaders and organizations within the progressive movement who’ve consistently sounded the alarm on this issue. Now it’s time for the rest of us to join them.
Thanks for all you do,
–Ilyse, Justin, Marika, Matt, and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007Sources:
1. “Shifting Targets: The Administration’s plan for Iran,” The New Yorker, October 8, 2007.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3097&id=11491-3984041-9M7Z8C&t=42. “Cheney Targets Iran,” Rolling Stone, October 18, 2007.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3098&id=11491-3984041-9M7Z8C&t=53. “The Redirection,” The New Yorker, March 5, 2007.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3099&id=11491-3984041-9M7Z8C&t=64. “The Secret History of the Impending War with Iran That the White House Doesn’t Want You to Know,” Esquire, October 18, 2007.
http://www.esquire.com/features/iranbriefing11075. “Big Coffers and a Rising Voice Lift a New Conservative Group,” New York Times, September 30, 2007.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3100&id=11491-3984041-9M7Z8C&t=76. “Freedom’s Watch targeting Iran,” Media Transparency, October 17, 2007.
http://www.mediatransparency.com/story.php?storyID=2167. “Nuclear-Armed Iran Risks World War, Bush Says,” New York Times, October 18, 2007.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/washington/18prexy.html8. “Cheney Targets Iran,” Rolling Stone, October 18, 2007.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3098&id=11491-3984041-9M7Z8C&t=89. Video clip of Sen. McCain in Republican Debate. October 9, 2007.
PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
Vietnam body counts all over again.
If you need any further reason to think of Iraq as George Bush’s ‘Vietnam War‘. Just read this article 19,000 insurgents killed and remember that not a single body has been confirmed by independent counts. Just like in Vietnam, the actual body counts were always inflated by several orders of magnitude. So applying the same rule, read 19,000 as 1,900 tops, which is smaller than the number of coalition force causalities, Dead causalities, not just the 25,000 Wounded coalition forces.
So who is winning in Iraq?
Now I know the ‘Fix’ is in.
Well now I know where Osama Bin Laden receives his finances, The Republican Party as Bin Laden says US should convert! This is the best Republican GOP propaganda that money can buy. Talk about a promotion for their War Everlasting campaign. Wow, it’s no wonder that Bush let Osama Bin Laden’s family leave the country after September 11, he was sending his employees on a holiday.
UPDATE: This Latest Bin Laden Video Is a Forgery, well it did seem too good to be true. Besides it was a bit vain of Bin Laden to dye his beard the shade it was several years ago.
One torturer down, three more to go.
One torturer down as, Chief Torture Architect Resigns Embattled Attorney General Resigns. Now just George Bush, and Dick Cheney are left. Once the U.S. is rid of these criminals, then American can begin to reclaim their honor.
Karl Rove hasn’t Left yet.