In a rather horrifying instance of deja vu, Obama is following in Dick Cheney's footsteps

i keep getting 4-5 solicitations every day asking me to donate or otherwise support obama's re-election, but my enthusiasm is at a low ebb, to say the least, and reading things like this certainly doesn't help...

michael t. klare in tomdispatch...

Through his speeches, Congressional testimony, and actions in office, it is possible to reconstruct the geopolitical blueprint that Cheney followed in his career as a top White House strategist -- a blueprint that President Obama, eerily enough, now appears to be implementing, despite the many risks involved.

That blueprint consists of four key features:

1. Promote domestic oil and gas production at any cost to reduce America’s dependence on unfriendly foreign suppliers, thereby increasing Washington's freedom of action.

2. Keep control over the oil flow from the Persian Gulf (even if the U.S. gets an ever-diminishing share of its own oil supplies from the region) in order to retain an “economic stranglehold” over other major oil importers.

3. Dominate the sea lanes of Asia, so as to control the flow of oil and other raw materials to America’s potential economic rivals, China and Japan.

4. Promote energy “diversification” in Europe, especially through increased reliance on oil and natural gas supplies from the former Soviet republics of the Caspian Sea basin, in order to reduce Europe’s heavy dependence on Russian oil and gas, along with the political influence this brings Moscow.

[...]

This four-part geopolitical blueprint, relentlessly pursued by Cheney while vice president, is now being implemented in every respect by President Obama.

When it comes to the pursuit of enhanced energy independence, Obama has embraced the ultra-nationalistic orientation of the 2001 Cheney report, with its call for increased reliance on domestic and Western Hemisphere oil and natural gas -- no matter the dangers of drilling in environmentally fragile offshore areas or the use of hazardous techniques like hydro-fracking.  In recent speeches, he has boasted of his administration’s efforts to facilitate increased oil and gas drilling at home and promised to speed drilling in new locations, including offshore Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.

[...]

In virtually every respect, then, when it comes to energy geopolitics the Obama administration continues to carry out the strategic blueprint pioneered by Dick Cheney during the two Bush administrations.  What explains this surprising behavior?  Assuming that it doesn’t represent a literal effort to replicate Cheney’s thinking -- and there’s no evidence of that -- it clearly represents the triumph of imperial geopolitics (and hidebound thinking) over ideology, principle, or even simple openness to new ideas.

When you get two figures as different as Obama and Cheney pursuing the same pathways in the world -- and the first time around was anything but a success -- it’s a sign of just how closed and airless the world of Washington really has become.

if the u.s. had taken the initiative to develop alternative and sustainable energy sources when jimmy carter first put them on the national agenda over 40 years ago, the world of energy would look nothing like it does now... instead, we have a perpetuation of greedy oilmen, exploitative oil companies, and a world full of gadgets and machines that either suck up oil products or are made from them... we tend to think only in terms of oil as fuel... but look around you... virtually everything you see that's made from plastic or uses synthetic materials is an oil-based product... we have steadily built our dependence on oil to unimaginable levels, so much so that, if oil suddenly went away, the world would grind immediately to a stop...

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Odds & ends, Tuesday, 15 February - read 'em and weep...

yeah, i know, i talk a good story but i sometimes don't follow through... back in early january, i said i was going to "post links to things i've come across in my day's reading that i think might be worthwhile to share with others but don't quite grab me enough to bother putting up a dedicated post"... yeah, well... < cough, cough > i think i managed to put up two or three posts along those lines and then i sorta drifted away...

well, today, as i'm getting ready to depart for africa on friday, and given the increasing number of stories that are pointing to the imminent dissolution of the country i've known and lived in all my life, i am wondering just what i will find when i come back at the end of may... it's looking really grim, i gotta tell ya...

GOP Sending Women Back to the Back Alley

South Dakota Wants to Legalize Murdering Abortion Providers

Missouri GOP Wants to Repeal Child Labor Laws

Tuscon Minuteman Found Guilty of Murdering 9-Year-Old Mexican-American Girl

Wisconsin Governor Launches Attack on Public Sector Employees and Unions; Threatens to Deploy National Guard to Quell Labor Protests

President Obama to award George H.W. Bush the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Obama's Budget Betrayal

what THE FUCK, he asked, is going on here...? oh, never mind... we're all being hung out to dry... silly me...!

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The media feeds us information about what's good for our super-rich elites but not what's good for us

more confirmation of what those of us who have been paying attention already know... and, yes, confirmation is indeed the real value of things like this which helps ease the burden of suspecting that i'm really a paranoid, closet, conspiracy-theorist nutcase...

Former Assistant Secretary of Housing under George H.W. Bush Catherine Austin Fitts blows the whistle on how the financial terrorists have deliberately imploded the US economy and transferred gargantuan amounts of wealth offshore as a means of sacrificing the American middle class. Fitts documents how trillions of dollars went missing from government coffers in the 90's and how she was personally targeted for exposing the fraud.

Fitts explains how every dollar of debt issued to service every war, building project, and government program since the American Revolution up to around 2 years ago - around $12 trillion - has been doubled again in just the last 18 months alone with the bank bailouts. "We're literally witnessing the leveraged buyout of a country and that's why I call it a financial coup d'état, and that's what the bailout is for," states Fitts.

Massive amounts of financial capital have been sucked out the United States and moved abroad, explains Fitts, ensuring that corporations have become more powerful than governments, changing the very structure of governance on the planet and ensuring we are ruled by private corporations. Pension and social security funds have also been stolen and moved offshore, leading to the end of fiscal responsibility and sovereignty as we know it.

Fitts explained how when she was in government she tried to encourage the creation of small businesses, new jobs and new skills to compete in a globalized world otherwise the American middle class was toast, only to be forced out by the feds using dirty tricks. The elite instead wanted Americans to take on more credit card, mortgage and auto debt that corporations and insurers knew they couldn't afford, while quietly moving their jobs abroad in the meantime.

i really like the community-based approach... making community the basis for personal financial transactions would quickly return us to the fundamental principle of the common good, a principle that can and should serve as the real essence and strength of the human spirit...

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Fair is Fair

This story from OpEdNews.



Headlined on 3/23/08:
Obama's Minister "Hates America" But When My Father Said the Same Sort of Things He Became a Hero To The Republicans

by Frank Schaeffer

When Senator Obama's preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father--Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer--denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr.

Every Sunday thousands of right wing white preachers (following in my father's footsteps) rail against America's sins from tens of thousands of pulpits. They tell us that America is complicit in the "murder of the unborn," has become "Sodom" by coddling gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children. They say, as my dad often did, that we are, "under the judgment of God." They call America evil and warn of immanent destruction. Obama's minister's shouted "controversial" comments were very much like things pastors on the right say too.

[...]

The hypocrisy of the right attacking Obama, because of his minister's
words, is staggering. When my late father and I were the guests of Jerry Falwell at Liberty Baptist College, Falwell said to us quite casually and seriously, while speaking of the "homosexual problem," that: "If I had a dog that did what they do I take it out and shoot it." And when it came to saying God was damning America he and Pat Robertson sided with the 9/11 hijackers by saying the terrorist's actions served America right and were God's punishment. Yet John McCain went to Liberty Baptist College and spoke for Falwell, in order to "mend fences" with the Religious Right. He said he no longer believed that Falwell was "an agent of intolerance." And Rudi Giuliani gladly accepted Robertson's endorsement. So much for the Republican "mainstream."

This cuts left too. Fair is fair. So where are the clips--playing incessantly next to Hillary Clinton's picture--of her antiwar friends and Bill Clinton's fellow draft dodger members of the New Left, cursing and damning America during Vietnam War protests and since? The company that Bill and Hillary kept in the late 1960s through the 1970s was defined by damning America and sometimes by rooting for the North Vietnamese. Clinton said he "loathed" the military. We still made him commander in chief.

[...]

Want to play this smear-by-association game? Okay, while McCain was a prisoner of war a bishop in his church was rooting for McCain's torturers. Episcopal Bishop Moore, in his autobiography, Presences: A Bishop's Life in the City, wrote that the end of the Cold War had left the United States "like a wounded rooster crowing on the top of the dung heap." Blaming "corporate greed and lust" as well as "unbridled
nationalism" for manufacturing causes for war, Moore cursed America as often as he served communion.

If we want to get really silly let's ask this: McCain is an Episcopalian so where are the clips of the anti-American rantings of Bishop Moore and not a few other Episcopalian pastors and bishops, next to McCain's picture? How can McCain be a member of that denomination?

[...]

I think Obama is worth fighting for. History has thrown America an unlikely lifeline. Do we have the decency, the sense, the last glimmer of sanity needed to open hearts to change?

Obama offers civility in the midst of a national bar fight. Obama speaks in complete sentences, well-turned paragraphs, offers thoughts with intellectual depth, nuance, humility and compassion. Obama is a reasoned essay cast before sound-bite swine who seem ready to tear anything that falls into their sty to shreds.

What's good for the goose, is good for the gander.

Thanks, and a tip o' the hat to Betmo, at Life's Journey.

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Reaching out to George H.W. Bush - sometimes Obama's "inclusiveness" creeps me out

larry king interviewing barack obama on thursday...

KING: A couple of quick things, Senator. Would you, in your administration, make use of Bill Clinton?

OBAMA: Absolutely. I think that, you know, Bill Clinton is a brilliant statesman and politician, and I think that any president would want to use his skills and his relationships around the world.

By the way, I would reach out to the first George Bush. You know, one of the things that I think George H.W. Bush doesn't get enough credit for was his foreign policy team and the way that he helped negotiate the end of the Cold War and prosecuted the Gulf War. That cost us 20 billion dollars. That's all it cost. It was extremely successful. I think there were a lot of very wise people. So I want a bipartisan team that can help to provide me good advice and counsel when I'm president of the United States.

[...]

KING: The McCain campaign has suspended a staff member -- did it this afternoon -- for distributing a YouTube video that questioned your patriotism. It included footage from Reverend Wright's controversial sermons. Any comment on Senator McCain doing that?

OBAMA: Well, you know, Senator McCain actually has generally operated in an honorable way. We've got obviously strong disagreements, but when, for example, there was a supporter that kept on just repeating my middle name over and over again, obviously trying to implicate, you know, suggest somehow that I was not the kind of candidate that America would want, Senator McCain spoke out forcefully against it.

So I respect that he, I think, so far, has run an honorable campaign, and I intend to show him the same courtesy when we meet in the general election.

ok, look... i know obama's running a campaign and i know he doesn't want to trash-talk anybody, a strategy that would totally negate his positive message... i also understand that a message of light and love (my words, not obama's) will ultimately vanquish the dark, but reaching out to george h.w. bush...? particularly bothersome is that was a piece of information that obama VOLUNTEERED, and wasn't in response to a question from king... george h.w. bush, imho, is, even in his dotage, a potent dark force, and i, for one, would have preferred that obama simply didn't mention him at all...

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The campaign satellite tour, circa 1992

barbara bush and the big dog...

from brasscheck tv...

Behind the scenes from Propaganda USA Inc.

Footage you weren't supposed to see.

Politicians at work. Mama Bush pimping for George Sr.

Plus a Bill Clinton bonus.

btw, the big dog walked through a flood-damaged neighborhood near here in fernley yesterday, since he happened to be in the area, stumping for hillary... i don't like the man and i don't trust him as far as i can throw him, but, credit where credit is due... it was a demonstration of personal connection and compassion that i seriously believe george bush is incapable of...

Beneath a bone-chilling fog, former President Clinton wandered the muddy streets of Fernley on Sunday afternoon, surveying the damage from the Jan. 5 levee break.

It was a brief stop on the road between campaign rallies for his wife, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton. But his mood reflected the grimness of the disaster scene before him.

With a stiff jaw, he scraped the muck from his boots before walking into the ruined home of Susan Camp.

"Sir, you don't have to wipe your feet," her son, Brad, said as the former president stood in the doorway.

"Of course I do," Clinton answered.

[...]

"I wanted to see the damage and express my support," Clinton said. "Disaster management response is one of the most important things a government can do. If you do it well, people feel that they are a part of our country--wherever they live, whatever the politics are, whatever the income is.

"And if you don't, people feel profoundly let down."

you don't think he had any particular thing in mind when he said that, do ya...? nah...

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Accountability under Hillary? Not a chance!

when i posted on this ridiculousness earlier, this major implication escaped me... robert parry sets me straight...

“The first thing she intends to do is to send me and former President Bush and a number of other people around the world to tell them that America is open for business and cooperation again,” said Bill Clinton, who has accompanied the senior Bush on international humanitarian missions over the past several years.

What was perhaps most stunning about the remark was its assumption that Americans would be impressed that the country’s two dominant political dynasties would team up in early 2009 to tidy up some of the mess created by the headstrong son of the senior dynasty, the Bush Family.

The Bushes and the Clintons – who have held pieces of the nation’s executive power for more than a quarter century dating back to George H.W. Bush’s election as Vice President in 1980 – essentially would be keeping matters within the board rooms of the Washington Establishment.

In responding to Bill Clinton’s remark, George H.W. Bush issued a statement making clear he would not join in any slap at his son’s foreign policy. That also means Hillary Clinton’s “first thing” is unthinkable if her new administration were trying to exact any accountability from George W. Bush for his wrongdoing.

So, to get the senior Bush’s cooperation on the worldwide tour, there would have to be an implicit understanding that the second Clinton administration wouldn’t investigate the younger Bush’s crimes – from authorizing torture, ordering warrantless wiretaps, exposing CIA officer Valerie Plame’s identity, waging war under false pretenses and other abuses of executive powers.

yeah, it simply hadn't occurred to me that hrc was signaling that accountability wasn't on her agenda if she becomes president, but that interpretation makes perfectly good sense... when bill and george h.w. teamed up after the tsunami, i scratched my head, but chalked it up to two former presidents trying to do the right thing, but, after they kept it up and had clearly become best buds, i began to see them as cut out of the same cloth, which, i have come to understand, is absolutely the correct view...

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If Bill is hoping to reassure us about HRC, THIS sure as hell doesn't do the job

ofercryinoutloud...

Former President Bill Clinton said Monday that the first thing his wife Hillary will do when she reaches the White House is dispatch him and his predecessor, President George H.W. Bush, on an around-the-world mission to repair the damage done to America's reputation by the current president — Bush's son, George W. Bush.

look... let me be completely clear... i have absolutely no intention of either supporting or voting for hrc... i think her damn husband was damn near as complicit in the mess this country is in as has been george bush and his despicable father, although admittedly bill did it with a lot more grace, charisma, and schmooz-ability... but bill and george h.w. engaging in an around-the-world mission to restore america's reputation...? she-e-e-e-e-it, vern... just THINKING about it gives me the creeps... talk about sending two foxes out to repair the damage done to the henhouse... bill has REALLY got to think we're complete MORONS to buy that load of bollocks... bill AND george h.w. AND hrc can quietly but firmly place it in that unsanitary repository where the sun does not shine...

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This isn't the first time the U.S. has been exposed to a coup d'etat

some things simply can't get enough exposure... i posted on this bbc documentary [RealPlayer file] back at the end of july... it links george bush's grandfather, prescott bush, to the attempted coup exposed by general smedley butler in 1933, during the presidency of fdr... we seriously need to keep in mind just what kind of family is running our country...

The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.

scott horton wrote this in harper's at about the same time as the bbc documentary was aired...

A key element of the plot involved a retired prominent general [Smedley Butler] who was to have raised a private army of 500,000 men from unemployed veterans and who blew the whistle when he learned more of what the plot entailed. The plot was heavily funded and well developed and had strong links with fascist forces abroad. A story in the New York Times and several other newspapers reported on it, and a special Congressional committee was created to conduct an investigation. The records of this committee were scrubbed and sealed away in the National Archives, where they have only recently been made available.

The Congressional committee kept the names of many of the participants under wraps and no criminal action was ever brought against them. But a few names have leaked out. And one is Prescott Bush, the grandfather of the incumbent president. Prescott Bush was of course deep into the business of the Hamburg-America Lines, and had tight relations throughout this period with the new Government that had come to power in Germany a year earlier under Chancellor Aldoph Hitler. It appears that Bush was to have formed a key liaison for the group with the new German government.

Prescott Bush, of course, went on to service as a U.S. Senator from Connecticut, and his son, George H.W. Bush emerged from World War II as a hero.

The Plot Against America portrayed in this episode of the BBC series “Document” gives fascinating insight into a dark and little known piece of American history in which the nation stood on the brink of betrayal. The role of the most powerful political dynastic family in the nation’s history in this whole affair is shocking.

it's truly astounding that prescott bush went on to become a u.s. senator AFTER his involvement in the plot... and no less astounding that the records were sealed...

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Three generations of war profiteering, genocide, gangsterism, corruption, and rape of the U.S. Constitution

that about sums it up, eh...?

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The tears of 41

aw, george h.w. is just a big softie...

During an extensive interview with Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday (11-4-07), former President George Herbert Walker Bush teared up while recalling how nobly the American soldiers behaved towards prisoners in the 1991 Gulf War.

and who can ever forget THIS poignant moment last december...?

Former President George H.W. Bush broke down in tears as he cited his son, Gov. Jeb Bush, as an example of leadership.

Bush was addressing lawmakers, his son's top administrators, and state workers gathered in the House chamber Monday for the last of the governor's leadership forums.

no shit... if my last name was bush, i'd be cryin' too...

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Are the records from the Clinton's Secret Service details available to the White House?

now, HERE'S a damn good question...

Since they left the White House in 2001, Bill and Hillary Clinton – as the former President and First Lady – have been under the protection of the Secret Service, a branch of the Treasury Department. Records are maintained showing where they go and, to an extent, whom they meet.

Ordinarily, those records are kept as closely held secrets, but theoretically at least, President George W. Bush – with his expansive view of his powers as “unitary executive” – could gain access to them, either formally or informally.

His father did much the same when his subordinates scoured the passport files of then-Arkansas Gov. Clinton in 1992, looking for a “silver bullet” that would kill off the Democratic nominee’s presidential hopes.

President George H.W. Bush later acknowledged to FBI investigators that he was “nagging” his aides to push for more information about Bill Clinton’s student travels to the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia and about right-wing rumors that Clinton had sought to renounce his U.S. citizenship.

“Hypothetically speaking, President Bush advised that he would not have directed anyone to investigate the possibility that Clinton had renounced his citizenship because he would have relied on others to make this decision,” according to an FBI report on its interview with the elder Bush. “He [Bush] would have said something like, ‘Let’s get it out’ or ‘Hope the truth gets out.’”

i mean, fercryinoutloud, given the unshackled criminality of the bush administration's domestic spying efforts, why the hell WOULDN'T bush be spying on the clintons...? the better question would be, why would he NOT be spying on them...?

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If BAE (British Aerospace) was forking over cash to Prince Bandar, you can bet the same thing is happening in the U.S.

this story hasn't received nearly enough coverage in the u.s...


Prince Bandar bin Sultan
of Saudi Arabia appears on
Meet the Press, April 25, 2004

item...

[T]he OECD Working Group on Bribery reaffirmed its serious concerns about the United Kingdom’s discontinuance of the BAE Al Yamamah investigation and outlined continued shortcomings in UK Anti-Bribery legislation. It urged the UK to remedy these shortcomings as quickly as possible and decided to conduct a further examination of the UK’s efforts to fight bribery.

[...]

The recent discontinuance of a major foreign bribery investigation concerning BAE SYSTEMS plc and the Al Yamamah defence contract with the government of Saudi Arabia has further highlighted some of these concerns. The Working Group notes that the UK has stated that the discontinuance was based on national and international security considerations and that the matter is subject to judicial review in the UK. The Working Group underlines in this respect that bribery of foreign public officials is contrary to international public policy and distorts international competitive conditions.

does attempting to halt an investigation based on "national security" ring bells with anyone...? and we're not talking chump change here either... according to the guardian...

£30m a quarter - for at least 10 years - was paid into accounts controlled by Prince Bandar at the Riggs bank in Washington.

The money was paid from an account at the Bank of England into accounts in Washington controlled by Prince Bandar. Details of the transfers were discovered by the Serious Fraud Office during the marathon investigation into BAE.

holy crap...! £30m A QUARTER...!! by current exchange rates, that's $58,968,058.97 U.S. DOLLARS EVERY THREE MONTHS...!! great god almighty...!! and OVER TEN YEARS, THAT'S £1.2 BILLION or $2.4 BILLION U.S. DOLLARS...!! DAMN...!!!

among other things, just look at what that kind of money can buy...


Glympton, Oxfordshire. The 2,000 acre manor house
and sporting estate purchased by Prince Bandar
after he arranged the al-Yamamah arms deal.
Photograph: INS News

a little history...

• The British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, negotiated with Bandar to clinch the so-called al-Yamamah deal for BAE in 1985.
• Over the past 20 years, the warplane programme has brought £43bn in revenue for BAE. The deal made the career of BAE executive Dick Evans, who rose to chair the company on the strength of it.
• Police later calculated that more than £6bn may have been distributed in corrupt commissions, via an array of agents and middlemen.Newly obtained documents and our own investigations have revealed details of where the money may have gone.
• Millions went to Bandar, according to US sources. Up to $30m (£15m) at a time is alleged to have been paid into his dollar account at Riggs Bank [see below] in Washington.
• More millions were paid by BAE into Wafic Said-linked accounts in Switzerland.
• Bandar's father, Prince Sultan, was described by a British ambassador as having "a corrupt interest in all contracts".
• Legal sources say BAE disguised many of the payments by making them through an anonymous offshore company, Poseidon. Large amounts were also alleged to have been transferred in this way to Mohammed Safadi, a Lebanese politician. He acted for Sultan's son-in-law, Prince Turki bin Nasser, who controlled the Saudi air force. At least £1bn is said to have gone down the Poseidon route. More payments were allegedly disguised in inflated bills to BAE from local subcontractors.
• A relatively minor, although colourful, aspect of this torrent of cash was a £60m "slush fund" maintained by BAE to keep Prince Turki bin Nasser sweet on his visits to the west. The arms firm provided him with extravagant holidays, fleets of classic cars, planeloads of shopping and blond girlfriends. BAE claims these treats were "paid for under the contractual arrangements". But in fact bills went to the al-Yamamah contract at the MoD under the misleading phrase "support services.
• The cash for all these payoffs came, simply enough, from overcharging.
• Accidentally released UK documents [article] reveal that the basic price of the planes was inflated by 32%, to allow for an initial £600m in commissions.

in case riggs bank sounds familiar, it should...

In October 2002, the directors of Riggs Bank received an internal memorandum listing $1.9 million in suspicious cash withdrawals by former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet from 2000 to 2002 -- the board's first official notification of a relationship that bank regulators were investigating.

The directors did not question the nature of the bank's relationship with Pinochet, who only a year before had eluded a Spanish criminal indictment on genocide and torture charges, according to sources who have seen minutes and transcripts of the meeting. No internal procedures were changed. The board took no action.

so, the uk and bae bribe prince bandar, who puts the money in accounts at riggs bank, which, at the time, was holding money from a brutal dictator, pinochet, and bandar is really good friends with - guess who? - the bush family... yes, it's all circumstantial, i know, but entirely TOO circumstantial to suit me...


George Bush and
Prince Bandar bin Sultan

here's craig unger writing in the boston globe back on april 11, 2004...

Let's go back to Sept. 13, 2001, and look at several scenes that were taking place simultaneously. Three thousand people had just been killed. The toxic rubble of the World Trade Center was still ablaze. American airspace was locked down. Not even Bill Clinton and Al Gore, who were out of the country, were allowed to fly home. And a plane bearing a replacement heart for a desperately ill Seattle man was forced down short of its destination by military aircraft. Not since the days of the Wright Brothers had American skies been so empty.

But some people desperately wanted to fly out of the country. That same day, Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States and a long-time friend of the Bush family, dropped by the White House. He and President George W. Bush went out to the Truman Balcony for a private conversation.

now, back to bandar's appearance on meet the press...

Tim Russert: 140 Saudis leave the country, two days after September 11, and nobody knows who gave permission. You don't know anything about it? You didn't ask anyone for permission? You didn't facilitate it in any way? The planes were just allowed..

Prince Bandar: Tim, no, no, no. This is becoming exotic now. We had those people in the country, and a lot of them were relatives of the bin Laden family going to school, from teenagers to some people in college. And we asked the FBI, that those people are scattered all over America and with tempers high at that time, and rightly so, and we were worried that someone getting emotional would hurt them.

Tim Russert: So, who did you call for permission?

Prince Bandar: We didn't call them, we asked them, is it possible..

and, in closing, again craig unger...

Never before in history has a president of the United States had such a close relationship with another foreign power as President Bush and his father have had with the Saudi royal family, the House of Saud. I have traced more than $1.4 billion in investments and contracts that went from the House of Saud over the past 20 years to companies in which the Bushes and their allies have had prominent positions -- Harken Energy, Halliburton, and the Carlyle Group among them.

gee... BILLIONS OF DOLLARS...? weren't we just discussing that at the beginning of the post...? hmmmmm... < scratches chin > nah... just conspiracy thinking...

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I don't care what Bill Kristol says, George, DON'T PARDON LIBBY

george, you're a miserable, rotten, s.o.b., and damn near everybody knows it, even bill kristol... your polls are in the toilet - 29% according to pew - and you've turned about as radioactive as a president can get... you may think you've got nothing to lose by pardoning scooter, but i beg to differ... yes, as outrage has piled on outrage, i've thought that, certainly, THIS ONE would be the straw, and i've been repeatedly proven wrong... but, george, might i remind you that there are such things called odds, and even YOU aren't immune... this one may be it, george... think about it...

President Bush: Don't Pardon Scooter Libby

Scooter Libby, former Assistant to the President and Vice Presidential Chief of Staff, has just been sentenced to 30 months in jail for obstruction of justice and perjury during the investigation of who revealed the identity of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. Libby disclosed during the trial that he was acting on the orders of "his superiors." Others in the White House may still face indictments.

President Bush is probably considering pardoning Libby, just as his father did more than a decade ago for six high-level officials who broke the law in providing arms to Iran and the Nicaraguan contras.

This isn't a failed real estate deal, or a stained blue dress -- this is the national security of the United States. Valerie Plame was a covert agent working to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Her husband, Joe Wilson, tried to expose the administration's lies in rushing us into the invasion of Iraq; in petty retribution for his efforts, Bush administration officials leaked his wife's identity to the press.

The former President Bush called those who reveal the names of covert operatives "the most insidious of traitors." Regrettably, we cannot be sure that justice will be served in this case. His son, President G.W. Bush, has the unilateral power to pardon Scooter Libby, Karl Rove and anyone else involved in leaking Plame's identity.

Sign this petition and add your name to the list of Americans calling on President Bush to publicly renounce the use of his presidential pardon for Scooter Libby. Then, forward the petition link on to some friends -- let's ALL tell the President that his "get out of jail free" card should NOT be used in cases of endangering national security.

(click here to sign the petition...)

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Wow...! George Bush's horoscope from the Hindu zodiac...

phenomenally detailed, chillingly perceptive, and, given that it was put together pre-election 2004, disturbingly accurate...

and, yeah, it's a bit longish...

An Essential Indian Astrological Analysis of G. W. Bush (and the country he is leading for the time being)

[...]

First of all, this is not a horoscope of a true ruler, it is rather that of a puppet being forced to perform because he has no choice (even though he may well have been a soldier or warrior in his past lives). The planets in his first house would give you a hint of who is moving him: mainly oil and mining, and thirdly, pharmaceutical interests. In fact, it has always been relationships and friends who managed his life so far; these relationships and friends have been simply extreme, however.

This native simply does not have an independent personality at all, wanting to live up to his father’s formidable image, he has a minority complex. He is full of unbelievable fears all the time, and cannot live up to his father’s image (where secrecy and destructive power originates). He was probably quite neglected emotionally in his first years, especially by his father, and spent a lot of time alone. Destructive forces are so strong around him that he may actually destroy more than you can believe: he has already been participant of the destruction of a civilization – or a planet – in one of his previous incarnations. (He is not conscious of this trait in himself at all, though. As far as we know, he nearly destroyed a company or two before he became US president).

It is very likely that he has been an Arab in more than one life, and an important Native American in another life – betraying his people/tribe to the white man/the Westerners. He has also been one of those who massacred Indians in America. The karma of believing that America would be is the land of the white conquerors has been with him for many lives already (indeed, he is one man who has spent a great deal of time in North America in other lives). The only good thing that can be said about him is that he truly loves his country and his family.

This idea that America (the USA, specifically) is a unit that belongs mainly to the (white) people who founded it is coming to a close in this lifetime. However: he will be forced to realize that since land has been stolen from the Native Americans, white civilization must give it back some time – in a way (Or perhaps found new countries upon its dissolution, based upon ideas closer to Indian values.) Indeed, it is possible that the whole country will break up under or soon after his second term ... , which he is probably not going to complete in office.

He is bound to be sacrificed by those that move him, which experience will change him deeply and force him to come to realizations from unseen quarters – but this realization may only mature by as late as 2011. We do not think he will be killed, but he may perhaps stay in confinement for a while, and it is certain that he will have to face some sort of judgment for his deeds. He will face the wrath of people for wars, the economic collapse and for his lies – which he believes have been committed for the sake of the nation.

He is an alcoholic – it is next to impossible to remain sober for a long time with this constellation. ... Even though he says he is sober since he met Jesus when he was forty (the exact time is more like his early forties), he probably drinks now as well. (Or those who control him hand the stuff out to him time to time.)

He is unsure of himself as a man and his wife uses pills. His daughters betray him in a see-saw fashion: when one is good, the other one is making scandals to discredit him and gets into things like drug abuse, then they reverse the roles. The same seesaw pattern is true of Bush and his own father, Bush Sr.: his fate soars up only when his father’s fate sinks down.

The sign of the Twins (Gemini) is traditionally the sign of America (July 4 in sidereal astrology) – and Bush’s Sun is in the 12th house, the house of destruction and loss (of all worldly values). Also, 9/11 happened to the Twin Towers when Jupiter (Lord of the house of Enemies) and Rahu (the Northern eclipse point) were transiting the sign of the Twins, opposed by Mars (God of War), and joined by the Moon (ruler of masses). (To top this all, Bush has twin daughters.) This constellation (based on Sun in Gemini in the 12th) also creates an interesting situation: he fortifies his enemies with all his fighting. He does not know why, but the more he fights any party, the stronger his enemies become. Since he is more fanatical than his handlers realize, this will bring America into bitter and unnecessary conflicts. It was oppression and war that he was put into office for ... . The duality that the sign of the Twins marks will force a lot of people to take sides under his rulership, changing collective karma.

He should have avoided all power, even that of a mayor or a frat president – he is bringing a dark quality into it ... . There are past lives rich in fighting, but he is presently weak and cowardly. Being forced to go on, however, he has no other choice. Under his presidency the rich get richer and the poor get poorer – large masses will sink down into poverty, and debts of unheard quantity are and will be amassed. This will be a primary reason for his downfall, which can be stalled for a year or two (a lot of double communications, accusations, leaks and denials will take place even until then), but starting from 2006, it is a good idea to collect gold and silver and property in remote lands.

[...] At a certain point his handlers will abandon him and it will be open season on Bush. (In fact, that can be the day of his first glimpse towards a spiritual understanding which may follow in other lives). In his case, however, it is very difficult to stay clean for time enough to gain understanding. All relationships are dependent upon power, a person of this kind is tough to those under him and soft to those above.

He is generally heartless, without much emotion, extremely narrow-minded and dogmatic, ruthless and operates invisibly sometimes. Bush cannot let go of tradition and the past at all; in fact, he is not normal in his fanatical illusions, but since the larger part of America presently accepts this particular type of madness, he is not going to be brought down from office due to sheer mental incapability. He has giant problems with his masculinity, and a constant desire for power and riches which – in his perception – he rarely gets. [...] The wars he will bring about can cause the very dissolution of the country: the issue fought for is an old one, probably a war on religion, the Crusades etc.

In spite of the orders of his consigners, he will not stop when war or attacks are hopeless: the main reason is religious fanaticism (and illusions on acquisition of land for the control of the USA). This tradition will be forced to change (the entire order of values he grew up with will undergo a radical change until 2030), and Bush will probably live long enough to see everything he fought (and lied) for crumble to dust. If he came to this astrologer for advice, we would have to be very careful in what we say or signal to him – he would be dangerous and possibly vindictive.

As far as his opponent, Kerry is concerned: we are surprised to learn – looking at his chart – that he is moved by the same Plutonian forces, which means he would have been the executor of the same will as Bush. [...] [E]ven though Kerry is truly a nice man, an independent personality, and probably a better economist and soldier than Bush, the powers behind him are – would have been – quite the same.

(thanks to sarah kernochan at the huffpo...)

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This is the giant bed they all sleep in

i don't often laugh out loud, but this got me going...

jon stewart on paul wolfowitz' attorney. robert bennett...

Robert Bennett who represented Bill Clinton in the Lewinsky case, and is the brother of Bill Bennett, former drug czar under George H.W. Bush, father of President George W. Bush, who appointed Wolfowitz to run the World Bank, and this is the giant bed they all sleep in.

(click here to view the clip)

(thanks to raw story...)

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A case study in disingenuousness - Bushco and Saudi Arabia

..

the headline itself is disingenuous, but, hey... it's the nyt...

A Saudi Prince Tied to Bush Is Sounding Off-Key

they just don't GET it...? aw, c'mon... you MUST be kidding...

Prince Bandar has mentored Mr. Bush and his father through three wars and the broader campaign against terrorism, reliably delivering — sometimes in the Oval Office — his nation’s support for crucial Middle East initiatives dependent on the regional legitimacy the Saudis could bring, as well as timely warnings of Saudi regional priorities that might put it into apparent conflict with the United States. Even after his 22-year term as Saudi ambassador ended in 2005, he still seemed the insider’s insider. But now, current and former Bush administration officials are wondering if the longtime reliance on him has begun to outlive its usefulness.

Bush administration officials have been scratching their heads over steps taken by Prince Bandar’s uncle, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, that have surprised them by going against the American playbook, after receiving assurances to the contrary from Prince Bandar during secret trips he made to Washington.

well, let 'em "scratch their heads" all they want... if they can't figure it out, they're dumber than advertised... even the nyt at least has a clue...

Since the Iraq war and the attendant plummeting of America’s image in the Muslim world, King Abdullah has been striving to set a more independent and less pro-American course, American and Arab officials said. And that has steered America’s relationship with its staunchest Arab ally into uncharted waters. Prince Bandar, they say, may no longer be able to serve as an unerring beacon of Saudi intent.

“The problem is that Bandar has been pursuing a policy that was music to the ears of the Bush administration, but was not what King Abdullah had in mind at all,” said Martin S. Indyk, a former United States ambassador to Israel who is now head of the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy.

it's crystal clear... any middle east state that chooses to continue to stand foursquare behind bushco is going to have severe credibility problems, and, in fact, the same can be said of most countries around the world... there isn't a head of state anywhere that isn't trying to find ways to put some distance between his or her country and george bush in a way that doesn't earn a free pass to bush's "axis of evil..." meanwhile, prince bandar will keep kissing the bush family's ass out of respect for a myriad of convoluted behind-the-scenes ties that aren't visible to use mere mortals...

scratch away, fellers...

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Condi tips her hand about where her head is REALLY at

for a united states secretary of state who also happens to be ranked as the most powerful woman in the world by forbes magazine in 2004 and 2005 and number two in 2006 to make such an obvious and damaging gaffe and then to not catch herself, tells me as much as i want to know about condoleezza rice...

"The idea that somehow 10 interceptors and a few radars in Eastern Europe are going to threaten the Soviet strategic deterrent is purely ludicrous and everybody knows it," she told reporters ahead of the Oslo meeting. "The Russians have thousands of warheads. The idea that you can somehow stop the Russian strategic nuclear deterrent with a few interceptors just doesn't make sense."

perhaps she's just pining for the days when her expertise was actually relevant...

From 1989 through March 1991 (the period of the fall of Berlin Wall and the final days of the Soviet Union), she served in President George H.W. Bush's administration as Director, and then Senior Director, of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council, and a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In this position, Rice helped develop Bush's and Secretary of State James Baker's policies in favor of German reunification. She impressed Bush, who later introduced her to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as the one who "tells me everything I know about the Soviet Union."

or maybe she was distracted thinking about going shopping for some new ferragamos later in the day...



Condoleezza Rice...........Ferragamo shoe

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Opposed to Bush? "The rule of law is out the window. Wild West hangin' justice is in."

bush and his criminal compadres present themselves as the saviors of the american people, protecting us from the horrors of global "terrorism," which, if not confronted at exorbitant financial and human cost in iraq, will cross the ocean and attack us on our homeland... sadly, far too many people in the united states have swallowed this nonsense, hook, line and sinker, without stopping to consider that the fight is not between u.s. citizens and "terrorists..." rather, it is between those who support vs. those who resist the interests of the bush family and its highly interconnected networks of money and power... no one has documented this better than robert parry... what follows are the four paragraphs introducing parry's latest post on his consortium news, chronicling the staggering hypocrisy of george w. bush in the context of the recently released anti-castro terrorist, luis posada carriles...

George W. Bush likes to present the “war on terror” as a clear-cut moral crusade in which evildoers who kill innocent civilians must be brought harshly to justice, along with the leaders of countries that harbor terrorists. There are no grays, only blacks and whites.

But evenhanded justice is not the true core principle of the Bush Doctrine. The real consistency is hypocrisy: violence which Bush favors – no matter how wanton the slaughter of innocents – is justifiable, while violence that goes against Bush’s interests – even an insurgency against a foreign military occupation – must be punished without remorse as “terrorism.”

In other words, if Bush hates the perpetrators, they are locked up indefinitely without charge and, at his discretion, can be subjected to “alternative interrogation techniques,” what most of the world considers torture. The rule of law is out the window. Wild West hangin' justice is in. Even the ancient fair trial right of habeas corpus is discarded.

However, when the killers of civilians are on Bush’s side, they get the full panoply of legal protections – and every benefit of the doubt. Under this Bush double standard, therefore, right-wing Cuban terrorists Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, though implicated in a string of murderous attacks on civilians, get the see-no-evil treatment.

parry's conclusion is stark...

[T]he Bush family regards terrorism – defined as killing civilians for a political reason – as justified or at least tolerable in cases when their interests match those of the terrorists.

Terrorism is only a moral evil to the Bushes when the violence against civilians clashes with the Bush family’s interests.

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"A cataclysmic fight to the death" over congressional subpoenas

yes, yes, i know... i've been beating this dead horse for weeks, but... we MUST NOT FORGET that the bush administration laid out its unequivocal strategy for how it would respond to any congressional attempts at exercising oversight or exacting accountability BEFORE the november elections...

In fact, when it comes to deploying its Executive power, which is dear to Bush's understanding of the presidency, the President's team has been planning for what one strategist describes as "a cataclysmic fight to the death" over the balance between Congress and the White House if confronted with congressional subpoenas it deems inappropriate. The strategist says the Bush team is "going to assert that power, and they're going to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court on every issue, every time, no compromise, no discussion, no negotiation."

you can go to the bank on the fact that bushco will be doing exactly what they said they were going to do, henry waxman notwithstanding...

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) sought yesterday to pressure the Bush administration into divulging sensitive policy information, scheduling a committee vote for Wednesday on his plan to issue four subpoenas for the information.

[...]

"I never found it necessary to issue subpoenas to either President Bush's father's Administration or the Reagan Administration," Waxman said in a statement. "We were always able to reach an accommodation that respected our legitimate interests. I hope that will continue to be the case with this White House" and the information will be provided voluntarily.

mr. waxman's hopeful sentiment is touching, but surely he knows there are only two scenarios that are likely to transpire here... one, his committee will issue the subpoenas and they will be ignored by the white house (or justice department or the state department or whatever other executive branch agency they're directed to)... that will force a consideration to declare contempt of congress, a judgment that would require enforcement by the justice department... since the justice department is peppered with bushco infiltrators, that won't happen, and the case would eventually have to be pushed up to the supreme court, another bushco enclave, with a positive outcome equally unlikely... the other scenario is that the subpoenas won't be issued and waxman will continue to huff and puff and nothing will be accomplished...

so, what's a body to do...? hell if i know... what i keep hoping is that, subpoenas or not, several truly damning revelations (there would have to be more than one) backed by hard evidence come into the possession of one or more house or senate investigative committees that will blow the whole bushco criminal enterprise wide open... this business of working piece-meal with condi, gonzo, rove, et al, may be good for chipping away at the power base of these arrogant criminals, but, by the time such efforts bring down any walls, 20 january 2009 will be upon us, and the damage done between now and then may very well be irreversible...

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