John Butler Trio is confirmed to perform on
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,
Tuesday, July 31st - 11:35pm on NBC
Labels: John Butler Trio; Jay Leno; Tonight Show
Submit To Propeller
posted by mettle at
7/28/2007
Wesley Clark appeared on Keith Olbermann's Countdown last night and stated that "the orders came from the very top" to murder Tillman as he was a political symbol and his opposition to the war in Iraq would have rallied the population around supporting immediate withdrawal.
The new AP revelations DO raise the possibility that Tillman's death may have been a deliberate act of fragging, rather than a friendly fire accident.
To take a leap from there to wild speculations about it being "ordered" from on high is somewhat excuseable, if a bit over the top.
But to put words in General Clark's mouth that he DID NOT SAY to support your theorizing is absolutely INexcuseable -- it is irresponsible and mendacious.
Labels: Afghanistan, friendly fire, Iraq, Keith Olbermann, Pat Tillman, Wesley Clark
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/28/2007
Exec orders 11051, 11310, 11049, 11921 outline the bypass of the current leftovers of the US three branch gov't (technically, four branch since Cheney has swung himself onto a new vine last week) and install his own in its place.
In these exec orders, Bush consolidates the entire US gov't into a few dept's of his own which will oversee without any recourse the carrying out of his other exec orders that take over the US and thin the herd.
[...]
The US TVs pump the same lies. The web returns 505. No one knows a thing on the street but suddenly the dollar is no more. People fear but for themselves. Probably some bombs explode and the US media reminds everyone "the US is under attack". Bush blames the evil overseas terrists (sic) for conspiring against the US currency and promises to bring on help with some Amero food stamps programme. Meanwhile, Canada and Mexico become the US but no one knows, not even most of Canada. By the time people work it out, it's too late.
[...]
Blighted areas are cordoned off and under the guise of protecting the rest of the US communities, fatal power is authorized against the starving mobs. Some areas are razed and executive order 11004 goes into effect: "communities are relocated"
The other thing we saw early on was the establishment of an underground government-within-a-government, though the activation, following 9-11, of the so-called "Continuity of Government" protocol, which saw heads of federal agencies moved secretly to an underground bunker where, working under the direction of Vice President Dick Cheney, the "government" functioned out of sight of Congress and the public for critical months.
It was also during the first year following 9-11 that the Bush/Cheney regime began its programs of arrest and detention without charge-mostly of resident aliens, but also of American citizens-and of kidnapping and torture in a chain of gulag prisons overseas and at the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay."
AMY GOODMAN: Noam Chomsky says that a superpower can exert its power most effectively, not by being rational, but by being irrational, where others in the world cannot predict what this number one superpower in the world, in this case, the United States, will do. What do you think of that?
ROBERT JAY LIFTON: Well, he's certainly right about it being non-rational. In some ways, though, it is almost predictable. I don't think that our behavior has been so unpredictable once we saw its general direction. And part of the argument in my book [Superpower Syndrome] is that it's part of an ideology which pulls together a kind of military fundamentalism from a more or less secular influence, people like Rumsfeld and Cheney, together with a religious fundamentalism, the influence of the Christian Right to create a doctrine and a policy that has a certain consistency. And it polarizes the world into good and evil. It seeks to dominate militarily and it can employ cynical manipulations because they're in the service of what is perceived as a higher truth. So, in some ways the behavior is certainly consistent. It's certainly non-rational. It's a kind of fantasy of omnipotence, but it is consistent. We're doing this again and again and what we're doing fits into this category.
Labels: 2008 Election, balance of powers, Bush Administration, Conspiracy theories, Dick Cheney, domestic terrorism, George W. Bush
Submit To Propellerposted by mettle at
7/28/2007
Citing a "period of heightened threat" to the U.S. homeland, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell asked Congress to "act immediately" to make changes in current law to permit the interception of messages between terrorist targets overseas, which he said now requires burdensome court orders.
[...]
Stepping up the pressure on lawmakers after the recently released terrorist threat assessment, McConnell said that "clarifications are urgently needed" in the law to enable the use of "our capabilities to collect foreign intelligence about foreign targets overseas without requirements imposed by an out-of-date FISA statute."
* FISA has been updated many, many times. FISA may have been passed nearly three decades ago, but it's been amended repeatedly to adapt to evolving threats and circumstances.
† In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration demanded a whole slew of changes to FISA which expanded the President's eavesdropping powers and which the administration claimed were necessary in order to bring FISA into the 21st Century by allowing surveillance of modern communication methods. Congress, needless to say, complied in full, and in October of 2001 ... it enacted, and the President signed, sweeping "modernizing" changes to FISA.
Labels: 9/11, Bush Administration, Congress, domestic surveillance, FISA, Michael McConnell, NSA, terrorism, warrantless domestic wiretapping
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/28/2007
The Bush administration will announce next week a series of arms deals worth at least $20 billion to Saudi Arabia and five other oil-rich Persian Gulf states as well as new 10-year military aid packages to Israel and Egypt, a move to shore up allies in the Middle East and counter Iran's rising influence, U.S. officials said yesterday.
The arms deals, which include the sales of a variety of sophisticated weaponry, would be the largest negotiated by this administration. The military assistance agreements would provide $30 billion in new U.S. aid to Israel and $13 billion to Egypt over 10 years, the officials said. Both figures represent significant increases in military support.
The United States last year provided nearly half of the weapons sold to militaries in the developing world, as major arms sales to the most unstable regions -- many already engaged in conflict -- grew to the highest level in eight years, new US government figures show.
According to the annual assessment, the United States supplied $8.1 billion worth of weapons to developing countries in 2005 -- 45.8 percent of the total and far more than second-ranked Russia with 15 percent and Britain with a little more than 13 percent.
[...]
The United States, for instance, also signed an estimated $6.2 billion worth of new deals last year [2005] to sell attack helicopters, missiles, and other armaments to developing nations such as the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, Israel, Egypt, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. Developing nations are designated as all those except in North America, Western Europe, Russia, Australia, and New Zealand.
In addition to weapons already delivered, new contracts for future weapons deliveries topped $44 billion last year -- the highest overall since 1998, according to the report. Nearly 70 percent of them were designated for developing nations.
Labels: Bush Administration, Defense Department, defense industry, egypt, Middle East, military-industrial complex, Saudi Arabia, U.S. arms sales
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/28/2007
A high-level manager for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles directed nearly $800,000 in contracts to his brothers and three politically connected firms without competitive bidding or after rigged contests, a Times review has found.
The manager, Victor Taracena, oversaw more than 150 contracts worth about half a million dollars that went directly to companies his brothers created, contract files show.
Seven other contracts worth $289,000 were awarded to non-family firms, two of which had little or no expertise in the work they were hired to do.
These firms — all with ties to current or former Los Angeles City Council members from the Eastside — won their contracts in bidding processes fraught with irregularities. In one case, a losing bid was submitted by a nonexistent company. Other such bids came from actual companies which, when contacted by The Times, said they were surprised to learn that bids had been submitted in their names.
Labels: corruption, crony capitalism, no-bid contracts, stewardship
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/28/2007
Wesley Clark appeared on Keith Olbermann's Countdown last night and stated that "the orders came from the very top" to murder Tillman as he was a political symbol and his opposition to the war in Iraq would have rallied the population around supporting immediate withdrawal.
Labels: Afghanistan, friendly fire, Iraq, Keith Olbermann, Pat Tillman, Wesley Clark
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/27/2007
Dark powers, the sequel
The president's recent executive order allows the CIA to detain anyone the agency thinks is a terrorist -- or a terrorist's kid.
[...]
The president of the United States just issued a public pronouncement declaring, as a matter of U.S. policy, that a single man has the authority to detain any person anyplace in the world and subject him or her to secret interrogation techniques that aren't torture but that nonetheless can't be revealed, as long as that person is thought to be a "supporter" of an organization "associated" in some unspecified way with the Taliban or Al Qaeda, and as long he thinks that person might know something that could "assist" us.
But "supporter" isn't defined, nor is "associated organization." That leaves the definition broad enough to permit the secret detention of, say, a man who sympathizes ideologically with the Taliban and might have overheard something useful in a neighborhood cafe, or of a 10-year-old girl whose older brother once trained with Al Qaeda.
This isn't just hypothetical. The U.S. has already detained people based on little more. According to media reports, the CIA has even held children, including the 7- and 9-year-old sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. In 2006, Mohammed was transferred from a secret CIA facility to Guantanamo, but the whereabouts of his children are unknown.
It's dark out there, all right.
Labels: Al Qaeda, CIA, Dick Cheney, George Bush, Guantánamo, Karl Rove, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Taliban
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/27/2007
briefly, here are the three possible scenarios for the next 18 months that the vips and dr. frank constructed during the course of their discussion...
- George W. Bush is without conscience, and it would require a lengthy series of clinical sessions to find out what happened to it. By identifying himself as all good and on the side of right, he has been able to vanquish any guilt, any sense of doing wrong.
- George W. Bush seems also to be without shame. ... He does whatever he wants. ... He lies—not just to us, but to himself as well. What makes lying so easy for Bush is his contempt—for language, for law, and for anybody who dares question him.
- Bush has a profound fear of failure and humiliation. He defends himself from this by any means at his disposal—most frequently with indifference or contempt. ... He will not change, because for him change means humiliating collapse. He is very fearful of public exposure of his many inadequacies.
- The president’s contempt defense protects his belief system, a system he clings to as if his beliefs were well-researched facts. ... Helen Thomas has said that of all the presidents she has covered over the years, Bush is the least changed by his job, by his experience. This is why there is no possibility of dialogue or reasoning with him.
- His certitude that he is right gives him carte blanche for destructive behavior. ... His comfort with cruelty is one reason he can be so jocular with reporters when talking about American casualties in Iraq.
- Bush likes to break things, needs to break things. ... If George W. Bush wanted to destroy his own family, he could scarcely have done better. Thanks to him, no Bush is likely to be elected to high office for generations to come.
Scenario A: Destructive Attack on the Green Zone
[...]
[I]f there were an embarrassing attack on U.S. installations in the Green Zone or some other major U.S. facility, [Bush] would immediately order a retaliatory series of air strikes, and let the bombs and missiles fall where they may.
The reaction would come from deep within and would warn, in effect: This is what you get if you try to make me look bad.
Scenario B: Israeli Attack on Nuclear Targets in Iran.
With the U.S. Congress firmly in the Israeli camp, Cheney might see little disincentive to giving a green-light wink to Israel and then let the president “worry about cleaning up.” ... Senior U.S. military officers have warned against the folly of attacking Iran, but Cheney has shown himself, time and time again, able to overrule the military.
With impeachment under way, such senior officers might be reminded that all officers and national security officials swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States—NOT to protect and defend the president.
[...]
Psychologically, Bush would almost certainly need to join the attack, mainly to sustain his illusion of safety and masculinity. And Cheney, knowing that, would be pushing him hard on U.S. energy and other perceived strategic interests.
Scenario C: Congress Cuts War Funding This Fall
If Congress cut off funding for war in Iraq, Bush might well cast about for a casus belli to “justify” an attack on Iran.
Would the senior military again go along with orders for an unprovoked, unconstitutional war on a country posing no threat to the U.S.? Hard to say. [...] With Cheney egging him on from the wings of the “unitary executive,” but Congress no longer bowing to that novel interpretation of the Constitution, Bush will be sorely tempted to lash out in some violent way, if further funding for the war is denied.
Labels: Congress, Dick Cheney, George Bush, Impeachment, Iran, Iran war planning, Iraq, Iraq war funding proposal, Justin Frank, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/27/2007
Korey Rowe, the Afghanistan and Iraq combat veteran and producer of Loose Change, who was arrested on Monday under charges of desertion, presented his honorable discharge papers to the arresting officers and yet was grabbed after a sophisticated operation where police staked out his house from the woods and cut his phone lines.
Labels: false arrest, Korey Rowe, Loose Change, military desertion
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/26/2007
Iraq's oil minister said Iraq's oil unions are not legitimate and have no more standing in the debate over the oil law than an ordinary citizen.
"There are no legal unions in Iraq," Hussein al-Shahristani said Wednesday in response to a question about various factions' positions on the controversial oil law. "Those people who call themselves representatives of the oil workers have not been elected to the position."
[...]
Saddam Hussein outlawed worker organizing in the public sector; subsequent U.S. occupying powers and now the Iraqi government do not recognize the workers' rights to organize.
Iraq's Parliament has approved a law privatizing the country's oil-refining sector in order to lure investment and stem a fuel shortage.
The law, approved Tuesday, is a step toward relinquishing government involvement in the refining sector and, when poverty is alleviated, moving Iraqi consumers from state-subsidized to market prices for fuel.
Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani told United Press International Wednesday from his mobile phone in Baghdad that the government will provide incentives to both domestic and foreign private oil companies whose refinery plans the ministry approves.
"This is a law that will privatize the refining sector in Iraq and allow the private sector, whether it's local or international investments, to be able to invest in refining activities in Iraq, including building refineries," Shahristani said.
Labels: global oil companies, Hussain al-Shahristani, Iraq, Iraq oil law, Iraqi workers unions, oil, privatization
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/26/2007
*In Macedonia, one person died and 20 were evacuated from burning houses near Bitola, the country's second-largest city, as temperatures reached 42 C amid a declared national emergency.
Thousands of firefighters and local residents battled into Tuesday to contain the huge blaze, while President Branko Crvenkovski ordered army units mobilized to help with the effort. Firefighting airplanes and helicopters were expected to arrive Tuesday from Croatia, Turkey and Austria.
"We managed to defend the city and now have the fire under control. There is no threat to Bitola any more," Ivica Bocevski, a government spokesman, told The Associated Press.
Labels: Argentina, Balkans, Buenos Aires, Great Basin, high desert, Macedonia
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/26/2007
In his two years living in Steere's end-stage dementia unit, Oscar has been at the bedside of more than 25 residents shortly before they died, according to Dr. David Dosa of Brown University in Providence.Submit To Propeller
[...]
Raised at the nursing home since he was a kitten, Oscar often checks in on residents, but when he curls up for a visit, physicians and nursing home staff know it's time to call the family.
posted by profmarcus at
7/26/2007
Senate Democrats called for a perjury investigation against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Thursday and subpoenaed top presidential aide Karl Rove in a deepening political and legal clash with the Bush administration.
"It has become apparent that the attorney general has provided at a minimum half-truths and misleading statements," four Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote in a letter to Solicitor General Paul Clement.
In response, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said, "Every day congressional Democrats prove that they're more interested in headlines than doing the business Americans want them to do. And Americans are now taking notice that this Congress, under Democratic leadership, is failing to tackle important issues," he said.
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, constitutional crisis, Democrats, Karl Rove, Patrick Leahy, perjury, Senate Judiciary Committee, subpoenas, Tony Fratto, U.S. Constitution, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/26/2007
Democrats urge perjury probe of Gonzales
By LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democrats called for a perjury investigation against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Thursday and subpoenaed top presidential aide Karl Rove in a deepening political and legal clash with the Bush administration.
"It has become apparent that the attorney general has provided at a minimum half-truths and misleading statements," four Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote in a letter to Solicitor General Paul Clement.
They dispatched the letter shortly before Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., announced the subpoena of Rove, the president's top political strategist, in remarks on the Senate floor.
"We have now reached a point where the accumulated evidence shows that political considerations factored into the unprecedented firing of at least nine United States Attorneys last year," said Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
[...]
Gonzales is at the center of the U.S. attorney controversy, but the call for a perjury probe involved alleged conflicts between testimony he gave the Judiciary Committee in two appearances, one last year and the other this week. The issue revolves around whether there was internal administration dissent over the president's warrantless wiretapping program.
As for the firing of the prosecutors, e-mails released by the Justice Department show Gonzales' aides conferred with Rove on the matter.
Leahy also said he was issuing a subpoena for J. Scott Jennings, a White House political aide.
"For over four months, I have exhausted every avenue seeking the voluntary cooperation of Karl Rove and J. Scott Jennings, but to no avail," the Vermont lawmaker said. "They and the White House have stonewalled every request. Indeed, the White House is choosing to withhold documents and is instructing witnesses who are former officials to refuse to answer questions and provide relevant information and documents."
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, domestic spying, Karl Rove, loyal Bushies, Senate Judiciary Committee
Submit To Propellerposted by jburke6000 at
7/26/2007
Chapter One
WAR IS A RACKET
WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.
How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?(emphasis added)
Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.
And what is this bill?
This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.
For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.
Again they are choosing sides. France and Russia met and agreed to stand side by side. Italy and Austria hurried to make a similar agreement. Poland and Germany cast sheep's eyes at each other, forgetting for the nonce [one unique occasion], their dispute over the Polish Corridor.
The assassination of King Alexander of Jugoslavia [Yugoslavia] complicated matters. Jugoslavia and Hungary, long bitter enemies, were almost at each other's throats. Italy was ready to jump in. But France was waiting. So was Czechoslovakia. All of them are looking ahead to war. Not the people – not those who fight and pay and die – only those who foment wars and remain safely at home to profit.
There are 40,000,000 men under arms in the world today, and our statesmen and diplomats have the temerity to say that war is not in the making.
Hell's bells! Are these 40,000,000 men being trained to be dancers?(emphasis added)
Not in Italy, to be sure. Premier Mussolini knows what they are being trained for. He, at least, is frank enough to speak out. Only the other day, Il Duce in "International Conciliation," the publication of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said:
"And above all, Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace... War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the people who have the courage to meet it."
Undoubtedly Mussolini means exactly what he says. His well-trained army, his great fleet of planes, and even his navy are ready for war – anxious for it, apparently. His recent stand at the side of Hungary in the latter's dispute with Jugoslavia showed that. And the hurried mobilization of his troops on the Austrian border after the assassination of Dollfuss showed it too. There are others in Europe too whose sabre rattling presages war, sooner or later.
Herr Hitler, with his rearming Germany and his constant demands for more and more arms, is an equal if not greater menace to peace. France only recently increased the term of military service for its youth from a year to eighteen months.
Yes, all over, nations are camping in their arms. The mad dogs of Europe are on the loose. In the Orient the maneuvering is more adroit. Back in 1904, when Russia and Japan fought, we kicked out our old friends the Russians and backed Japan. Then our very generous international bankers were financing Japan. Now the trend is to poison us against the Japanese. What does the "open door" policy to China mean to us? Our trade with China is about $90,000,000 a year. Or the Philippine Islands? We have spent about $600,000,000 in the Philippines in thirty-five years and we (our bankers and industrialists and speculators) have private investments there of less than $200,000,000.
Then, to save that China trade of about $90,000,000, or to protect these private investments of less than $200,000,000 in the Philippines, we would be all stirred up to hate Japan and go to war – a war that might well cost us tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives of Americans, and many more hundreds of thousands of physically maimed and mentally unbalanced men.
Of course, for this loss, there would be a compensating profit – fortunes would be made. Millions and billions of dollars would be piled up. By a few. Munitions makers. Bankers. Ship builders. Manufacturers. Meat packers. Speculators. They would fare well.
Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn't they? It pays high dividends.
But what does it profit the men who are killed? What does it profit their mothers and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts? What does it profit their children?
What does it profit anyone except the very few to whom war means huge profits?
Yes, and what does it profit the nation?
Take our own case. Until 1898 we didn't own a bit of territory outside the mainland of North America. At that time our national debt was a little more than $1,000,000,000. Then we became "internationally minded." We forgot, or shunted aside, the advice of the Father of our country. We forgot George Washington's warning about "entangling alliances." We went to war. We acquired outside territory. At the end of the World War period, as a direct result of our fiddling in international affairs, our national debt had jumped to over $25,000,000,000. Our total favorable trade balance during the twenty-five-year period was about $24,000,000,000. Therefore, on a purely bookkeeping basis, we ran a little behind year for year, and that foreign trade might well have been ours without the wars.
It would have been far cheaper (not to say safer) for the average American who pays the bills to stay out of foreign entanglements. For a very few this racket, like bootlegging and other underworld rackets, brings fancy profits, but the cost of operations is always transferred to the people – who do not profit.
Labels: Bush Administration, Buying the War, elites, neocons, war profiteers
Submit To Propellerposted by jburke6000 at
7/25/2007
Labels: 9/11 conspiracy theories, 9/11 doubts, 911, domestic terrorism, Ron Paul, Scholars for 9-11 Truth and Justice
Submit To Propellerposted by jburke6000 at
7/25/2007
An Oneonta [NY] man who helped produce a 9/11 conspiracy documentary ["Loose Change"] that became an Internet hit was arrested Monday for allegedly deserting the Army.
Korey Rowe, 24, a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, was picked up by deputies at about 10:45 p.m. Monday, Otsego County Sheriff Richard Devlin Jr. said.
The Associated Press reported last month that deserters are rarely court-martialed by the Army.
Although 3,301 soldiers deserted in the 2006 fiscal year, there were just 174 troops court-martialed.
The AP report said some deserters are returned to their units, while others are discharged in non-criminal proceedings.
Desertion rates have been rising since 2004, but the Army does little to seek out deserters and instead relies on a database that can be cross-checked by local law-enforcement agencies during encounters such as traffic stops, the report states.
Labels: Korey Rowe, Loose Change, military desertion
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/25/2007
In a 22-17 vote, the House Judiciary Committee approved “a Resolution and Report Recommending to the House of Representatives that Former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten be cited for Contempt of Congress.” The AP reports, “a vote by the full House would most likely happen after Congress’ August recess.”
Labels: Congress, constitutional crisis, contempt of Congress, Harriet Miers, House Judiciary Committee, Iraq government, Joshua Bolten, recess appointment, U.S. Constitution
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/25/2007
Labels: Franklin Roosevelt, George Bush, Prescott Bush, Smedley Butler, The Corporation, White House coup
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/25/2007
We must also give Conyers a backbone transplant. Let's flood Conyers and other House Judiciary Democrats with more emails than ever:
http://www.democrats.com/topelosiandjudiciary
Our constitutionally-based, democratic republic is in grave danger. The damage already done in the past 6 1/2 years of the criminal Bush administration is disastrous enough, but what can conceivably take place in the next 18 months is terrifying to contemplate. As citizens, we must exercise our constitutionally-granted powers to replace the government when it no longer adheres to the premises and principles upon which it is based. Under the provision of separate but equal powers, the legislative branch, specifically the House of Representatives, has the duty and obligation to act on behalf of the citizens to defend the United States Constitution. The Bush administration must be removed as expeditiously as possible and we demand that Congress act immediately to save our country.
Labels: Congress, constitutional crisis, House Judiciary Committee, House of Representatives, Impeachment, John Conyers, Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Constitution
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/25/2007
Gonzales loses ground on the Hill
His explanations leave senators questioning his candor and honesty.
WASHINGTON — Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday accused Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales of repeatedly misleading Congress and suggested that he had perjured himself in connection with statements to lawmakers about an anti-terrorism program.
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, George Bush, Impeachment, LA Times, lies, obstruction of justice, perjury, Senate Judiciary Committee
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/25/2007
Speaking to about 300 troops at Charleston Air Force Base, Bush said that Al Qaeda in Iraq was essentially the same organization that attacked the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, and that it was by far the biggest threat facing Iraqis and U.S.-led coalition troops there. Bush said that its leaders took orders from Al Qaeda officials coordinating the organization's worldwide jihad, or holy war, and that they would be killing civilians somewhere else if they were not in Iraq.
"Those who justify withdrawing our troops from Iraq by denying the threat of Al Qaeda in Iraq and its ties to Osama bin Laden ignore the clear consequences of such a retreat," Bush said. "If we were to follow their advice, it would be dangerous for the world and disastrous for America.
"Here's the bottom line," he said. "Al Qaeda in Iraq is run by foreign leaders loyal to Osama bin Laden. Like Bin Laden, they are coldblooded killers who murder the innocent to achieve Al Qaeda's political objectives.
"Yet despite all the evidence, some will tell you that Al Qaeda in Iraq is not really Al Qaeda and not really a threat to America," the president continued. "Well, that's like watching a man walk into a bank with a mask and a gun and saying's he's probably just there to cash a check."
* Bugs Bunny
Whatta maroon! Whatta ignoranimus!
Labels: Al Qaeda, Bugs Bunny, false flag, fear-mongering, George Bush, Iraq, jihad, Osama bin Laden
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/25/2007
Forget about the politicization of the Justice Department. Forget about the falling morale there. Forget about the rise in violent crime in some of our biggest cities. Forget about the events leading up to the U.S. Attorney scandal and the way he has handled the prosecutor purge since. Forget about the Department's role in allowing warrantless domestic surveillance. Forget about the contorted and contradictory accounts he's offered before in his own defense.
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales deserves to be fired for his testimony Tuesday alone...
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, Department of Justice, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys, warrantless domestic wiretapping
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/24/2007
The exchange started with Whitehouse getting Gonzales to agree that the most likely avenue of improper influence in ongoing investigations was the White House...
[...]
Then he goes on to review a memo that Gonzales himself signed, actually extending the structure Ashcroft set in place. And while Ashcroft's memo made several attempts to tamp down this structure, in key ways he opened it up, explicitly for the Fourth Branch. Whitehouse describes how the memo describes that the lines of communication open to the White House will "apply in parallel fashion in communications with the OVP." And then he points specifically to a paragraph at the end of the memo reiterating the communications open to OVP. Gonzales, typically, claims to have no idea how those items got into a memo he signed personally.
[...]
Lovely. Cheney--whose own Chief of Staff was indicted and convicted for impeding an ongoing investigation--now has usurped access to ongoing investigations, for himself, his Chief of Staff, and his Counsel, courtesy of AGAG. David Addington, the architect of the Unitary Executive, now gets to know what DOJ is doing with ongoing investigations.
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Bill Clinton, David Addington, Department of Justice, Dick Cheney, George Bush, John Ashcroft, protocol, Senate Judiciary Committee, Sheldon Whitehouse, Vice President, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/24/2007
[T]he real challenge is to look AHEAD. What are Bush/Cheney likely to do in the coming months if the impeachment process does NOT begin?
One often hears, Oh, they will do what they want anyway, impeachment process or not. Not true.
If we the people and our representatives in Congress choose the course given us by our Founders and impeachment proceedings begin, important swaths of our body politic AND military will be less likely to follow illegal orders from the White House.
Labels: Cindy Sheehan, Dick Cheney, George Bush, House of Representatives, Impeachment, John Conyers, Lennox Yearwood, Ray McGovern
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/24/2007
In his testimony today before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was asked by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) to address inaccuracies in his 2006 testimony in relation to the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.
[...]The disagreement that occurred was about other intelligence activities and the reason for the visit to the hospital was about other intelligence activities. It was not about the terrorist surveillance program that the president announced to the American people.
Today’s testimony contradicts what Gonzales had said previously. In June, Gonzales claimed that both he and Comey were referring to the same domestic spying program. “Mr. Comey’s testimony related to a highly classified program which the president confirmed to the American people sometime ago,” he said.
If Gonzales’ testimony is accurate today, then he is confirming the existence of a new administration spying program.
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Arlen Specter, Department of Justice, domestic spying, James Comey, John Ashcroft, lies, Senate Judiciary Committee
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/24/2007
The government is monitoring your phone calls and can read your e-mails and open your snail mail.
The government can access records of your large financial transactions, such as buying a house.
Law enforcement officers can bust into your home when you're not there, riffle through your belongings, plant a recording device on your computer, and leave without notifying you for at least thirty days -- and maybe a lot more.
You no longer have the right to protest where the president or vice president can see you, or at major public events when they aren't even present.
Law enforcement officers can now monitor you in public if you are merely exercising your political rights.
They can infiltrate your political organizations.
And they can keep track of you at your place of worship. The government can find out from bookstores and libraries the material you've been reading, and the bookstore owner and the librarian can't talk about it, except to their lawyers, for a whole year -- or more.
The government can hold you in preventive detention for months on end as a "material witness."
If you're not a citizen the government can deport you on a technicality or for mere political association.
If you're not a citizen the government can label you an "enemy combatant" and send you to secret prisons around the world, where you may never see the light of day again -- much less a lawyer or a judge. And even if you are a citizen, the government can label you an enemy combatant and hold you in solitary confinement here in the United States.
Under George W. Bush's interpretation of the president's powers during the so-called war on terror he can do just about whatever he wants.
Labels: Bush Administration, Civil liberties, constitutional crisis, domestic spying, enemy combatant, George Bush, U.S. Constitution, warrantless domestic wiretapping
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/24/2007
The [GPI is the] first study to rank countries around the world according to their peacefulness and the drivers that create and sustain their peace...
[...]
The Economist Intelligence Unit measured countries' peacefulness based on wide range of indicators - 24 in all - including ease of access to "weapons of minor destruction" (guns, small explosives), military expenditure, local corruption, and the level of respect for human rights.
After compiling the Index, the researchers examined it for patterns in order to identify the "drivers" that make for peaceful societies. They found that peaceful countries often shared high levels of democracy and transparency of government, education and material well-being. While the U.S. possesses many of these characteristics, its ranking was brought down by its engagement in warfare and external conflict, as well as high levels of incarceration and homicide. The U.S.'s rank also suffered due to the large share of military expenditure from its GDP, attributed to its status as one of the world's military-diplomatic powers.
The main findings of the Global Peace Index are:
-- Peace is correlated to indicators such as income, schooling and the level of regional integration
-- Peaceful countries often shared high levels of transparency of government and low corruption
-- Small, stable countries which are part of regional blocs are most likely to get a higher ranking
121 GPI rankings
Countries most at peace ranked first
Rank Country Score
1 Norway 1.357
2 New Zealand 1.363
3 Denmark 1.377
4 Ireland 1.396
5 Japan 1.413
6 Finland 1.447
7 Sweden 1.478
8 Canada 1.481
9 Portugal 1.481
10 Austria 1.483
11 Belgium 1.498
12 Germany 1.523
13 Czech Republic 1.524
14 Switzerland 1.526
15 Slovenia 1.539
16 Chile 1.568
17 Slovakia 1.571
18 Hungary 1.575
19 Bhutan 1.611
20 Netherlands 1.620
21 Spain 1.633
22 Oman 1.641
23 Hong Kong 1.657
24 Uruguay 1.661
25 Australia 1.664
26 Romania 1.682
27 Poland 1.683
28 Estonia 1.684
29 Singapore 1.692
30 Qatar 1.702
31 Costa Rica 1.702
32 South Korea 1.719
33 Italy 1.724
34 France 1.729
35 Vietnam 1.729
36 Taiwan 1.731
37 Malaysia 1.744
38 United Arab
Emirates 1.747
39 Tunisia 1.762
40 Ghana 1.765
41 Madagascar 1.766
42 Botswana 1.786
43 Lithuania 1.788
44 Greece 1.791
45 Panama 1.798
46 Kuwait 1.818
47 Latvia 1.848
48 Morocco 1.893
49 United Kingdom 1.898
50 Mozambique 1.909
51 Cyprus 1.915
52 Argentina 1.923
53 Zambia 1.930
54 Bulgaria 1.936
55 Paraguay 1.946
56 Gabon 1.952
57 Tanzania 1.966
58 Libya 1.967
59 Cuba 1.968
60 China 1.980
61 Kazakhstan 1.995
62 Bahrain 1.995
63 Jordan 1.997
64 Namibia 2.003
65 Senegal 2.017
66 Nicaragua 2.020
67 Croatia 2.030
68 Malawi 2.038
69 Bolivia 2.052
70 Peru 2.056
71 Equatorial
Guinea 2.059
72 Moldova 2.059
73 Egypt 2.068
74 Dominican
Republic 2.071
75 Bosnia and
Herzegovina 2.089
76 Cameroon 2.093
77 Syria 2.106
78 Indonesia 2.111
79 Mexico 2.125
80 Ukraine 2.150
81 Jamaica 2.164
82 Macedonia 2.170
83 Brazil 2.173
84 Serbia 2.181
85 Cambodia 2.197
86 Bangladesh 2.219
87 Ecuador 2.219
88 Papua New
Guinea 2.223
89 El Salvador 2.244
90 Saudi Arabia 2.246
91 Kenya 2.258
92 Turkey 2.272
93 Guatemala 2.285
94 Trinidad and
Tobago 2.286
95 Yemen 2.309
96 United States of America 2.317
97 Iran 2.320
98 Honduras 2.390
99 South Africa 2.399
100 Philippines 2.428
101 Azerbaijan 2.448
102 Venezuela 2.453
103 Ethiopia 2.479
104 Uganda 2.489
105 Thailand 2.491
106 Zimbabwe 2.495
107 Algeria 2.503
108 Myanmar 2.524
109 India 2.530
110 Uzbekistan 2.542
111 Sri Lanka 2.575
112 Angola 2.587
113 Cote d'Ivoire 2.638
114 Lebanon 2.662
115 Pakistan 2.697
116 Colombia 2.770
117 Nigeria 2.898
118 Russia 2.903
119 Israel 3.033
120 Sudan 3.182
121 Iraq 3.437
Labels: Global Peace Index, Larisa Alexandrovna
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/23/2007
Labels: Argentina, Buenos Aires
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/23/2007
I'm tired
I'm tired of fighting.
I'm tired of writing impeachment diaries.
I'm tired of fighting folks about me writing impeachment diaries.
I'm tired of people attacking me personally for writing Impeachment diaries.
I am tired of people questioning my character.
I am tired of people calling other people traitors.
I'm tired of folks saying I call people traitors when I never have.
I am tired of people taking what a small percentage of proponents of impeachment have said and ascribing it to all proponents of impeachment.
I am tired of folks trying to twist every word I write into a way to attack me for what I write.
I'm tired of people flaming impeachment advocates....and then acting surprised when they get flamed back.
I'm tired of asking people what their plan is to hold Bushco accountable and not getting an answer.
I'm tired of people arguing that the 'right' thing to do is let the clock run out and let the criminals head on out to the book tour.
I'm tired of people posting what they fear might happen if we actually do something to oppose Bushco.
I'm tired of people not realizing that the fear they feel is the fear that Bushco has 'installed' to quash resistance to them.
I'm tired of people saying they are tired of impeachment dairies.
I'm tired of impeachment diaries too.
I'm tired of not knowing what else to do but to write impeachment diaries.
I'm also tired of the 'press' blindly accepting Republican spin as fact.
I'm tired of the press ignoring Bushco's crimes.
I'm tired of Bushco committing new crimes daily.
I'm tired of our President thinking and acting like he is above the law.
I'm tired of subpoenas being ignored.
I'm tired of justice being obstructed.
I'm tired of the politicization of every branch and department of our government.
I'm tired of being spied on by my government.
I'm tired of my government kidnapping people.
I am tired of my government torturing people.
I'm tired of my government imprisoning people without trials.
I'm tired of my government ignoring real terrorists, both at home and abroad.
I'm tired of my government invading other countries.
I'm tired of war profiteering
I'm tired of Iraqi children getting blown up.
I'm tired of their parents getting blown up.
I'm tired of my government creating a mercenary army to blow them up.
I'm tired of the threats on Iran.
I'm tired of our rights being stolen.
I'm tired of the Constitution being destroyed.
I'm tired of thinking about Giuliani with Unitary Executive Powers.
I'm tired of thinking about Hillary with Unitary Executive Powers.
I'm tired of impeachment diaries too.
I'm tired of not knowing what else to do but to write impeachment diaries.
Labels: Bush Administration, George Bush, Hillary Clinton, Impeachment, Presidential resignation, Rudy Giuliani, U.S. Constitution
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/23/2007
Two years into a fraud investigation, veteran federal prosecutor David Maguire told colleagues he'd uncovered one of the biggest cases of his career.
Maguire described crimes "far worse" than those of Arthur Andersen, the accounting giant that collapsed in the wake of the Enron scandal. Among those in his sights: executives from a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment empire overseen by billionaire Warren Buffett.
In May 2006, he felt strongly enough about his case that he prepared a draft indictment accusing executives from a Virginia insurer, Reciprocal of America, of concocting a series of secret deals to hide its losses from regulators. Although he didn't name anyone from Berkshire Hathaway's subsidiary, he described the company as a participant in the scheme.
But Maguire never brought those charges.
Months after preparing the draft, he was removed as the lead prosecutor on the case and reassigned.
Labels: Arthur Andersen, Berkshire Hathaway, Department of Justice, Enron, McClatchy, Reciprocal of America. David Maguire, Warren Buffet
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/23/2007
Labels: 2008 candidates, 2008 Election, Democratic debate, Democrats, John Edwards, YouTube
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/23/2007
Karl Rove writes to Moby.
Moby recently told Politico.com about how his mom once gave a baby up for adoption and he therefore has a half-brother somewhere. “I jokingly said, ‘Maybe it’s Karl Rove,’” Moby said. After the story appeared online, Moby said he received a letter from the White House:
“The envelope looked as if it was from 1952,” he said. The letter was from Rove and said, “Dear Moby (or is that Mr. Moby), It’s not me. I have no musical ability and am 19 years older (assuming you’re 37). So you can breathe easier. On the other hand, James Carville is musically inclined and bald, too. Do you like crawfish etouffee?” Moby, a liberal vegan, wrote us, “Needless to say I was a bit stunned. A letter from President Bush’s brain? The man without whom [Bush] would be doing the alligator on the floor of a Hooters in Biloxi? I was also a bit stunned because the letter was funny.”
Labels: Bush Administration, constitutional crisis, corruption, Karl Rove, NSA
Submit To Propellerposted by jburke6000 at
7/23/2007
There has lately been an alarming rise in diaries and comments that seek to impugn (without evidence) the motives of those they disagree with on various issues.
[...]
This points to a serious breakdown not just on civility, but in the ability of people to properly debate various issues. As such, it presents a serious threat to the integrity of this site.
[...]
This is my one and only warning on the matter. I'll try to be an optimist and hope that this is the last time I'll have to address it. I won't let this site become as nasty as your typical usenet forum, and those who encourage that sort of environment should consider themselves duly warned.
Update: And no, Bush won't cancel the next round of elections to remain in power. That's about the most ridiculous conspiracy theory I've seen in a long time. Some people on our side can be just as "out there" as the "black helicopter" crowd.
Labels: civility, Daily Kos, Markos Moulitsas
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/23/2007
Given how intent the president is on expanding his authority, it is startling to recall how the Constitution’s framers viewed presidential power. They were revolutionaries who detested kings, and their great concern when they established the United States was that they not accidentally create a kingdom. To guard against it, they sharply limited presidential authority, which Edmund Randolph, a Constitutional Convention delegate and the first attorney general, called “the foetus of monarchy.”
[...]
When they drafted the Constitution, Madison and his colleagues wrote their skepticism into the text. In Britain, the king had the authority to declare war, and raise and support armies, among other war powers. The framers expressly rejected this model and gave these powers not to the president, but to Congress.
The Constitution does make the president “commander in chief,” a title President Bush often invokes. But it does not have the sweeping meaning he suggests. The framers took it from the British military, which used it to denote the highest-ranking official in a theater of battle. Alexander Hamilton emphasized in Federalist No. 69 that the president would be “nothing more” than “first general and admiral,” responsible for “command and direction” of military forces.
The founders would have been astonished by President Bush’s assertion that Congress should simply write him blank checks for war. They gave Congress the power of the purse so it would have leverage to force the president to execute their laws properly.
[...]
The Constitution cannot enforce itself.
[...]
Members of Congress should not be intimidated into thinking that they are overstepping their constitutional bounds. If the founders were looking on now, it is not Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi who would strike them as out of line, but George W. Bush, who would seem less like a president than a king.
Labels: Commander in Chief, constitutional crisis, Constitutional Democracy, George Bush, Harry Reid, James Madison, Nancy Pelosi, The Founders, U.S. Constitution
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/23/2007
His approval rate is 18 percent among independents.
Labels: American Research Group, Daily Kos, Markos Moulitsas, polls, Presidential approval ratings
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/23/2007
Former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolten, the current Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush, will likely be charged with contempt by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday this week.
"This investigation, including the reluctant but necessary decision to move forward with contempt, has been a very deliberative process, taking care at each step to respect the Executive Branch’s legitimate prerogatives,” said Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, in a statement. "I've allowed the White House and Ms. Miers every opportunity to cooperate with this investigation, either voluntarily or under subpoena. It is still my hope that they will reconsider this hard-line position, and cooperate with our investigation so that we can get to the bottom of this matter."
Labels: contempt of Congress, Harriet Miers, House Judiciary Committee, Inherent Contempt, John Conyers, Joshua Bolten, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/23/2007
The legal drama over five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor -- earlier condemned to death in Libya for supposedly infecting hundreds of children with AIDS -- could be nearing its end. After months of tough negotiations, a diplomatic offensive by the German government and the EU has led to a breakthrough.
[...]
Not only has a crisis task force in Bulgaria been working for the nurses' freedom, but so too have high-ranking negotiators from the European Union and Germany. And the deal that could soon lead to the release of the Bulgarians is a textbook example of effective European diplomacy.
Labels: AIDS, Bulgaria, diplomacy, Germany, Libya, Palestine, the EU
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/23/2007
In June, Colonel [Stephen E.] Abraham became the first military insider to criticize publicly the Guantánamo hearings, which determine whether detainees should be held indefinitely as enemy combatants.
[...]
Colonel Abraham arrived at the Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants during a chaotic period in September 2004.
[...]
It was obvious, Colonel Abraham said, that officials were under intense pressure to show quick results. Quickly, he said, he grew concerned about the quality of the reports being used as evidence. The unclassified evidence, he said, lacked the kind of solid corroboration he had relied on throughout his intelligence career. “The classified information,” he added, “was stripped down, watered down, removed of context, incomplete and missing essential information.”
[...]
In a hearing on Oct. 26, 2004, a transcript shows, one detainee was told that another had identified him as having attended a terrorism training camp.
The detainee asked that his accuser be brought to testify. “We don’t know his name,” the senior officer on the hearing panel said.
[...]
“Anything that resulted in a ‘not enemy combatant’ would just send ripples through the entire process,” [Abraham] said. “The interpretation is, ‘You got the wrong result. Do it again.’ ”
[...]
As it turned out, lawyers at his sister’s firm, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, began representing detainees in 2006. Though she is not involved, she mentioned that her brother had worked on the hearings.
Last month, one of the lawyers, Matthew J. MacLean, a former Army lawyer, called Colonel Abraham and asked him to look at an affidavit filed in May by Admiral McGarrah.
Colonel Abraham said the admiral’s affidavit, describing the hearing process as orderly and considered, had convinced him that he had to step forward. He began to describe his experience.
“This was it,” Mr. MacLean said last week, “the first evidence of how these tribunals operated from the inside.”
Mr. MacLean called Colonel Abraham for the first time on June 8. The detainees’ lawyers filed his seven-page affidavit in court on June 22. It was sharply critical of the hearings and the evidence they used, saying “what purported to be specific statements of fact lacked even the most fundamental earmarks of objectively credible evidence.” On June 29, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear the detainees’ case.
every person who summons the courage to speak out serves as an inspiration for others who may be reticent to come forward... it is these people who are the true heroes of our republic, because they must may be the ones who will ultimately save it...
- He has been called a whistleblower and a traitor.
- Pentagon officials say his account indicates that he misunderstood the purpose of the hearings, known as combatant status review tribunals or C.S.R.T.’s, which the officials say “afford greater protections for wartime detainees than any nation has ever provided.”
- [A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. Chito Peppler of the Navy said], “Lieutenant Colonel Abraham was not in a position to have a complete view of all the evidence used in the C.S.R.T.’s, as well as the process as a whole.”
- Pentagon officials have said such criticism is not meaningful because a combatant status hearing “is not a criminal trial.”
Labels: Combat Status Review Tribunal (CSRT), detainee rights, Guantánamo, Stephen Abraham, Supreme Court, unlawful enemy combatant
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/23/2007
Labels: Atrios, Salon, Tom Friedman, Tom Tomorrow
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/23/2007
1) Bush has used the government spying apparatus to dig up dirt on all or most of the Democrats and is blackmailing them into submission. 2) Elements of Bushco have threatened the lives of anyone who gets out of line (remember the anthrax attacks on Daschle and Leahy?).
My third theory is that Democrats hunger for the powers Bush has stolen for the Presidency, and so don’t want to rein him in.
I believe that all three of these theories are true to some extent but whatever the final explanation is the fact remains that we the people are out of luck. No one is thinking about us.
Brothers and sisters, it’s time to impeach the President and his criminal minions. It is the only way to restore democracy, it is the only way to redeem our nation, and it is the only way to reclaim our country.
Don't let the politicians stall for time! Don't let them run out the clock! WE are the one's who are getting screwed!
Do your part! Stand up for America!
dudgeon
Function: noun
Etymology: origin unknown
: a fit or state of indignation -- often used in the phrase in high dudgeon
Labels: anthrax, censure, Congress, Democrats, Dick Cheney, George Bush, Impeachment, one pissed off liberal, Patrick Leahy, Russ Feingold, Tom Daschle
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/22/2007
Gas Prices Rise on Refineries’ Record Failures
Oil refineries across the country have been plagued by a record number of fires, power failures, leaks, spills and breakdowns this year, causing dozens of them to shut down temporarily or trim production. The disruptions are helping to drive gasoline prices to highs not seen since last summer’s records.
[...]
American refiners are running roughly 5 percent below their normal levels at this time of the year.
“You have a system that is taxed to the limit,” said Adam Robinson, an energy research analyst at Lehman Brothers. “This is what happens when spare capacity is eroded.”
After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita disrupted the nation’s energy lifeline two years ago, oil companies delayed maintenance on many of their plants to make up for lost supplies and take advantage of the high prices. But, analysts say, they are now paying a price for deferring repairs.
[...]
The refining crunch has pushed wholesale gasoline prices up 35 percent this year and has contributed to a 23 percent gain for crude oil prices. Oil futures in New York closed at $75.57 a barrel on Friday.
Some critics of the industry have theorized on Internet blogs that the squeeze on gasoline and other refined products points to a deliberate effort among oil companies to bolster profits by keeping supplies tight. But experts point out that the companies have little incentive right now to hold back on fuel supplies.
“Every refinery would like to run as much crude as possible but they simply can’t,” said David Greely, senior energy economist at Goldman Sachs, who in a recent report compared the drop in domestic refining with an “invisible hurricane.” “These are more complex systems. There are more chances for things to go wrong. And when things go wrong, they tend to back up the system.”
Meanwhile, refiners have been scrambling to meet a raft of environmental regulations, phase out toxic additives, add ethanol to the fuel mix and introduce new ultralow sulfur standards for gasoline and diesel. Industry insiders attribute much of the fragility of refining operations to the difficulty of making these cleaner fuels.
[...]
“It’s a marvel we can continue to run refineries the way we do these days given the many requirements and specification changes we have,” said Charles T. Drevna, executive vice president of the refining industry’s main trade group, the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association. “There comes a time when the piper has got to be paid.”
[...]
No refineries have been built in the United States in over three decades, because refiners say they are too costly. Instead, they have been expanding their existing refineries.
All this is happening as the industry goes through another golden age. After 20 years in the doldrums, the refining business has never been so good for oil companies. Refining margins — the difference between the price of crude oil and the value of refined gasoline made from it — have shot up as much as $25 a barrel for some types of crude oil, compared with about $5 a barrel just a few years ago.
Basically, oil company profits are used for two purposes: to pay dividends to shareholders in the business and to pay for capital investments to find, produce, process and deliver energy products to consumers.
Exxon Mobil, the world's biggest oil company, said profit climbed 10 percent to a first-quarter record after higher gasoline and diesel prices increased refining profit.
Profit rose to $9.28 billion from $8.4 billion in the comparable period a year earlier, the Irving, Tex., company said in a statement yesterday. Revenue fell 2 percent, to $87.2 billion.
Refining profit rose 50 percent, as the company increased fuel output at its 45 plants and as growing demand and breakdowns held back competing producers.
ExxonMobil, the world's biggest oil company, announced that it earned more than $8 billion in the first three months of the year. The news follows Conoco Phillips' announcement that it earned $3.3 billion during the first quarter of 2006. Chevron is set to announce its quarterly profits Thursday.
Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said yesterday that second-quarter profit rose 32 percent, to $7.64 billion, as Asia and North America used more crude oil and gasoline.
The quarterly profit was the third-highest in the company's history. Revenue climbed 25 percent, to $88.57 billion, Exxon said.
Labels: global oil companies, oil, oil prices, oil refineries, transnational corporations
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/22/2007
An alternative look at NEWS THAT MATTERS: current events, politics, opinion, perspective, discussion, analysis, issues, debate, and insight - national and global.
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