The National Taxpayer’s Union nearly gets it right: http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2007/06/16/ntu-straw-poll/
Dunno where they got the idea that Hollywood Fred is strong on taxes… Don’t they know that’ll be Bush II with a Hollywood touch?
Yes on Dr. No!
A candid interview with the good doctor…
http://innworldreport.net/video_launcher.php?2007-06-14i
“If you give up your freedoms, you’re less safe.” — Congressman Ron Paul
Filed under Ron Paul
Starstruck Morons and the Continuation of the Ron Paul Media Blackout
Today four Republican 2008 presidential candidates addressed the second day of the annual National Right to Life Convention (NRLC) in Kansas City, Missouri.
There were only four. Julie-Annie, of course, was not there because he thinks “pro-choice” is more popular than pro-life, but whatever…
Out of the four candidates one of them is a doctor. And not just any kind of doctor, but an OB-GYN, the kind that delivers babies… And this particular candidate doctor has deliver more than 4,000 babies over the last 30 years…
Of course, they reported on what he had to say right? Right?
No! Not a f#$*ing word…
Instead they reported on what Mitt (Double Guantanamo) Romney and a video (the asshole wasn’t even there) of Fred Thompson.
I have yet to see a source report on what Dr. Paul said at this event.
Astonishing!
Two Neoclown Hit Jobs on Ron Paul and Why They’re Dead Wrong
Two neocon mouthpieces have vented frustration at the success of the Ron Paul campaign, success that takes away from the support for the RudyMcRompson puppet candidates. To counter this, these loons are smearing Dr. Paul, the only decent man in politics, a real patriot and defender of the Constitution, with a decade long voting record and 30 years in and out of Congress…
WorldNutDaily says that Paul doesn’t understand the threat of global jihad, blah, blah, blah… The same neocon jihad-obssessed rant we’ve heard over and over for the last five years while they spend our money like drunken sailors and turn our country into a police state. Nevermind the fact that there have been no credible jihad threats of attack against the US since 9/11…
Speaking of reasons (NOT justification!) that we were attacked on 9/11, the author says that, “Paul calls this blowback” and there-by demonstrates his ignorance… “Blowback” is a recognized CIA term to describe exactly the phenomenon which the good doctor was explaining.
While the right-wingnuts are desperate to paint Paul as weak on defense. Ronald Reagan (who Paul supported in 70s while he was otherwise unpopular) had this to say about him:
“Ron Paul is one of the outstanding leaders fighting for a stronger national defense. As a former Air Force officer he knows well the needs of our armed forces, and always puts them first. We need to keep him fighting for our country.” -Ronald Reagan
Another neocon over at Clown Hall takes a different approach and smears Paul as a wacko and says he’s not a conservative…
If supporting the Constitution is ‘wacko’ then so be it… this neoclown Hawkins probably thinks so… Again, Paul’s voting record speaks for itself:
He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never taken a government-paid junket.
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.
Congressman Paul introduces numerous pieces of substantive legislation each year, probably more than any single member of Congress.
Not a conservative? Nuff, said.
The author desperately tries to link Paul to fringe goups and calls him a racist… with a few minutes of research it’s obvious that these charges just don’t stick. Paul has spoken out against racism on many occassions, the charge is a baseless smear. And Paul, who gets attention from fringe groups for his constitutional and libertarian ideas is not directly affiliated with any of them. The man is as wholesome as it gets.
The article in typical neocon fashion puts the ‘cut-and-run’ distortion on Paul’s sage idea to get out of the civil war in Iraq and stop the bloodletting of our soldiers…
Look at the comments on the article if you need further refutation.
Nothing more needs to be said about this trash… we’ll let the wind carry it away…
Meanwhile Paul’s support steadily increases everyday. Liberty starved Americans are hungry for his message.
If You Don’t Watch Another Ron Paul Video, Watch This One — Tells You All You Need to Know
This is a man with real integrity. How many politicians can you say that about?
They deceptively try to dismiss him as a nut, a wacko. Don’t fall for it.
This man has more sense in his little finger than the rest of the GOP combined. He’s a champion of the Constitution and a patriot.
Filed under Ron Paul
Support Ron Paul in 2008!!!!
Visit http://ronpaul2008.com or http://goronpaul.blogspot.com
Dr. Paul is the Cure
The US Government is infested with cancerous growths, bloated bureaucratic leviathans, cronnie capitalists sucking the government teet, and ill-gotten powers that infringe on personal liberties. Only Dr. Ron Paul has the courage and expertise to remove these parasites…
The Department of Homeland Security with 185,000 employees and $44.6 billion dollar yearly budget, that does very little to actually secure the homeland.
The IRS and the Income Tax, which complicate, harass, and extort from US citizens and businesses.
The Federal Reserve that steals your wealth by printing more and more money, making the dollars you have worth less everyday.
The Defense Contractors that extract billions from the American taxpayers each year for unnecessary gizmos and war machines.
The Patriot Act, that expands Executive power to dangerous and unwarranted levels.
The Drug War that costs billions and incarcerates hundreds of thousands of non-violent offenders that could be dealt with in much more effective and efficient ways.
Pork, pork, and more pork. Ron Paul is nicknamed ‘Dr. No’ because as a Congressman he never votes for any spending that’s not stipulated in the Constitution.
The list goes on and on.
No other presidential candidate has the guts to rein in these out-of-control government excesses. Most of these entities have been created within the last 50 years and are contrary to the intent and design of the founding fathers.
Only Ron Paul will secure our borders, downsize government, and increase liberty and economic prosperity for all Americans.
More Neocon BS
Paul Wolfowitz is famous for his Iraq War cheerleading… stating that Iraq could pay for the US’s war tab and it’s own reconstruction. Haaa!
It was this sort of financial forecasting ability that earned him a position as head of the World Bank courtesy of King George.
Over at the World Bank fiefdom he rules in the neocon tradition… thinking they own the world, and don’t have to follow the rules of normal mortals…
Wolfie was juicing his long-time girlfriend’s salary up to nearly $200k a year for a position that would otherwise never command that level of salary…
Filed under Neocons
Delusional Cheney Still Ranting About Saddam – Al Qaeda Connection
VP Cheney blubbering with neocon pal and right-wing loon Rush Limbaugh continued to perpetuate the myth that there were pre-invasion connections between Saddam and Al-Qaeda.
Even FauxNews knows this is BS: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,264542,00.html
“However, a declassified Pentagon report released Thursday said that interrogations of the deposed Iraqi leader and two of his former aides as well as seized Iraqi documents confirmed that the terrorist organization and the Saddam government were not working together before the invasion.
“The Sept. 11 Commission’s 2004 report also found no evidence of a collaborative relationship between Saddam and Usama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network during that period.”
Cheney has evidently slipped into a delusional psychosis where the reality that he wants has done away with any acknowledgement of the real world.
Can the vice president continue to function as such going around compulsively lying to anyone who will listen…?
Luckily for Cheney though, even purposefully lying to the American people in such a way that leads to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, and billions of dollars wasted making the US less safe, is not a crime at all… It’s merely “inappropriate”…
“The report, which had been released in summary form in February, said that former Pentagon policy chief Douglas J. Feith had acted inappropriately but not illegally in reviewing prewar intelligence. Levin has claimed that Feith’s intelligence assessment was wrong and distorted but nevertheless formed part of the basis on which President Bush took the country to war.
“Although Feith’s assessment in mid-2002 offered several examples of cooperation between Saddam’s government and Al Qaeda, the report said, the CIA had concluded months earlier that no evidence supported the existence of significant or long-term relationships“.
They’re Terrorists, but They’re Our Terrorists…
Hypocrisy knows no bounds in the Bush Administration’s bumbling war machine.
Yet another story surfaces about the aiding and abetting of Middle Eastern terrorist groups by our government: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/04/05/protected.terrorists/index.html
This terrorism has so far been directed at Iran, so it’s okay…
Absolutely no lessons have been learned from Afganistan in the 80s when the US supported the muhajadeen against the Soviets, this support spawned the likes of Bin Laden, Zarquai, and Al-Qaeda which obviously came back to bite us later.
I’m glad that we are preparing a whole new generation who’s allegiances will almost assuredly shift…
“Wait, I Didn’t Sign-up for the ‘International’ Guard…”
Has Iraq become the 51st state without anyone telling me? No. Well, why are 12,ooo ‘national’ guard being sent there? They’re not the ‘international’ guard…
Oh, I’m just being silly… They’re “defending the homeland”…
But wait, their motto is “always ready, always there”. Well, they will be ‘there’, but they won’t be there for us when, you know, maybe something happens… a natural disaster comes and ravages a US city, sort of like New Orleans… something like that…
Underage Sex and the Perverts Who Love Hearing About It
Why is it that we always see these child sex stories in the mainstream media (ie. FoxNews) these days? That kind of stuff used to be off limits even to the tabloids… And I’m not even talking about the teacher/student sex stuff either, just consensual underage sex.
Two things could be happening:
1. These media hacks want to show the sexualizing, moral corruption of American society…
2. The sensationalism and out-right ‘naughtiness’ of child sex stories sells newspapers and generates online traffic to sell adspace.
Either way these hacks are merely feeding the beast.
Whatever the causes, the results are to embarrass and possibly permanently damage some unwise and unlucky youngsters. Sure, they don’t put their names in the paper. But you can be damn sure that in the community they live in, everyone knows who they are…
Did sex under the age of 18 happen back in the old days…? Of course it did. But people didn’t go around shooting their mouths off about it, notifying the press…
When these incidents happen during school hours, yes, there was negligence on the part of the teachers or school officials, and that needs to be dealt with.
But the press, especially the national press should have the dignity to stay away from these stories…
When very young people do embarrassing things, decent people should keep quiet about it, and not terrorize and ruin a young life just to expose someone else’s negligence or take the moral high ground…
Filed under Bad Media
“Britain Should’ve Attacked Iran!”
As Iran has expediently released the 15 British soldiers neocon media and pundits are scrambling for reasons to hate Iran for doing so… They complain about Tehran’s silly grandstanding… but not finding much else, they hate on the Brits instead.
“Britain looked weak in this incident… They should’ve attacked when they suffered the provocation of their solders being taken into custody,” they say… “We would’ve fought ’em!”
With their usual mind-numbingly chickenhawk bravado, they play Monday morning quarterback without any sense of realism or consequences.
Filed under Iran, Iraq War, Middle East, Neocons
Democrats Not to Be Out-Done on War Profiteering
No conflict of interest is too absurd for the current crooks in office, as long as it’s lining their pockets…
“Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California silently resigned from her post on the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) late last week as her ethical limbo with war contracts began to surface in the media, including an excellent investigative report written by Peter Byrne for Metro in January. MILCON has supervised the appropriations of billions of dollars in reconstruction contracts since the Bush wars began.
“Feinstein, who served as chairperson for the committee from 2001–2005, came under fire early last year in these pages for profiting by way of her husband Richard Blum who holds large stakes in two defense contracting companies. Both businesses, URS and Perini, have scored lucrative contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last four years, and Blum has personally pocketed tens of millions of dollars off the deals his wife, along with her colleagues, so graciously approved.”
Filed under Iraq War, War Profiteering
USA, a State Sponsor of Terrorism Under the Bush Regime?
An ABC News special report from Pakistan states that the CIA is funding and lending support to a militant Pakistani group, called Jundullah, to stage deadly raids into Iran.
“Jundullah has produced its own videos showing Iranian soldiers and border guards it says it has captured and brought back to Pakistan.
“The leader, Regi, claims to have personally executed some of the Iranians.
“”He used to fight with the Taliban. He’s part drug smuggler, part Taliban, part Sunni activist,” said Alexis Debat, a senior fellow on counterterrorism at the Nixon Center and an ABC News consultant who recently met with Pakistani officials and tribal members.
“”Regi is essentially commanding a force of several hundred guerrilla fighters that stage attacks across the border into Iran on Iranian military officers, Iranian intelligence officers, kidnapping them, executing them on camera,” Debat said.
“Most recently, Jundullah took credit for an attack in February that killed at least 11 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard riding on a bus in the Iranian city of Zahedan.”
The article goes on to say:
“Pakistani government sources say the secret campaign against Iran by Jundullah was on the agenda when Vice President Dick Cheney met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in February.
“A senior U.S. government official said groups such as Jundullah have been helpful in tracking al Qaeda figures and that it was appropriate for the U.S. to deal with such groups in that context.”
This is reminicient of disasterous policies that funded and trained Osama Bin Laden, armed Saddam Hussein, touched off a horrific civil war in Nicaragua etc etc…
Giving money and weapons to bad guys because we have the same enemies nearly always ends up biting us in the ass.
Filed under Middle East, Neocons
Will Iran’s Goodwill Be Immediately Squandered?
Iran is releasing the 15 British soldiers it took prisoner two weeks ago…
The civility with which the prisoners were treated, other than the kangaroo confessions and the media exposure (but that did them little harm), and the expediency of their release, should be a lesson to the US and UK…
This gesture of goodwill on the part of the Iranians should be used as a building block for serious diplomatic efforts on the part of the US and UK. But I’d be very surprised if they actually do take advantage of this moment… like so many other chances it will almost assuredly be squandered.
Bush has repeatedly rebuffed the entreaties from within his own party for opening diplomatic relations with Iran and Syria. And he now criticizes such efforts by Nancy Pelosi and other democrats. The diplomatic track record of this administration is abyssmal, why would anything change now?
Even if it was indeed a prisoner swap… It’s something to build on. Let’s at least hope that they do.
Filed under Bush, Iran, Iraq War, Middle East
Delusional Cheney Still Ranting About ‘Victory’
Bloviating attack dog Dick Cheney made his usual belligerent comments at a fat-cat $1,000-a-plate Club lunch to raise money for Alabama GOP operative Senator Jeff Sessions… His comments can be summed up to the following: “Don’t mess with my war.”
Cheney does not want the war effort to end while he’s in office, that would spell disaster for his place in history… As long as it passes to the next administration Cheney is in the clear because he can blame that administration for the impending failure.
Neocons like Cheney will do and say anything to continue and expand the war effort… As we speak a third aircraft carrier is making it’s way from California to the Persian Gulf to further escalate US military pressure on the region. If the American people are against further escalation as they are, and the polls all show it, why does this administration continue to send more troops, more war machines, and spend more money on this war?
From our perch at Neocon BS we laugh and thumb our nose at this administration and it’s phoney yet tragic war. In a deranged and naive way we actually think we might make a difference… Ha.
Our fellow mankind, the Iraqis, are getting slaughtered like pigs… Our country’s leaders are responsible. Did they do all the killing? No, but they assuredly let the cat out-of-the-bag… And we are complicit. We did not do enough in the beginnning. Hell, we’ve fled overseas, way south of the border, to get away from it all. And from here we see even more clearly what a foolish venture this entire Iraq War has been.
While they won’t admit it, and it’s been verified by prestigious American Universities like Johns Hopkins, that the real death-toll in Iraq is at a minimum of 350,000… a minimum… and our vice-president is talking about “victory”! It’s too much, just too much…
IRAN’S PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE
Gary North’s REALITY CHECK
www.GaryNorth.com
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Question format: age, location, occupation, annual
income, net worth, #1 goal, question in 24 words or
fewer.
Issue 638 April 3, 2007
IRAN’S PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE
No, I don’t mean its arrest of a dozen or so British low-
rank military people who were taking a boat ride in long-disputed
waters dividing Iraq and Iran. That was just a bit of old-
fashioned tail-twisting of the British lion, which has been close
to toothless ever since 1945. I mean this:
Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, will
stop pricing oil in U.S. dollars, with less than half
of its oil income now paid in the American currency,
Iran’s central bank governor said.
http://www.GaryNorth.com/snip/147.htm
This March 29th article belonged on the front page of every
daily newspaper, above the fold. You probably missed it. That’s
because you don’t read “Al-Jazeera,” the Arabic newspaper. The
editor at “Al-Jazeera” spotted a major story. The only
mainstream media outlet that bothered to run this story was “The
International Herald Tribune,” which is owned by the “New York
Times.” The story appeared in the Trib’s business section (March
28).
http://www.GaryNorth.com/snip/148.htm
The fact that Iran is openly calling on oil buyers to settle
their accounts in currencies other than the United States dollar
is reminiscent of Saddam Hussein’s similar decision in September,
2000. This was one month after Hugo Chavez met with Hussein in
Iraq. He was the first head of state to visit Hussein since the
1991 Gulf War. Oil was then around $30.
[A good introductory book on this whole question is
William Clark’s “Petrodollar Warfare.” Read especially
Lt. Col. (ret.) Karen Kwiatkowski’s Afterword.]
On April 10, 2001, the Council on Foreign Relations and the
James A. Baker III Institute issued a joint, bipartisan
publication, “Strategic Energy Policy: Challenges for the 21st
Century.” Baker is a former Secretary of State under Bush, Sr.,
and was regarded as the number-one advisor to Bush. He also ran
the Reagan White House whenever Reagan did not lay down the law
on a specific issue. When the CFR and Baker issue a joint
report, we had better take it seriously as a statement of what
the Powers That Be are thinking — or want the public to think —
about government policy. The CFR’s press release summarized the
report’s findings.
Ironically, the economic boom of recent years has
exacerbated the potential for an energy crisis. Strong
growth in most countries and new demands for energy
have led to the end of previously sustained surplus in
hydrocarbon fuels.
As a result, the world is now precariously close to
using all its available global oil production capacity.
If an accident or other disruption in production
occurred — whether on the Alaskan oil pipeline, in the
Mideast or elsewhere — the world might be on the brink
of the worst international oil crisis in three decades.
http://www.GaryNorth.com/snip/149.htm
The invasion of Iraq by Bush and the resistance to the
occupation have created just the kind of disruption that the CFR
warned about. It is no accident that when the Establishment’s
independent Iraq Study Group presented a supposedly practical
alternative to the Administration’s Iraq policy, Baker was co-
chairman. The problem is, the report was yada, yada, yada — the
standard Establishment bloviation, which offered no meaningful,
clear-cut solution to the problem because there is no agreement
within the foreign policy Establishment regarding America’s
Middle East policy, and hasn’t been since May 1, 1948.
Concern about a looming war with Iran is continuing to force
oil prices upward. An actual war will drive prices much higher,
just as the Iraq war has.
THE EURO WORRY
The euro was introduced in 1999 at an exchange rate of
$1.17. It started falling almost immediately. It bottomed in
October, 2000, a few days after Hussein’s announcement, at 83
cents. It stayed low until October 2001, after the 9-11 attack,
when it started rising. So, initially, Hussein’s announcement
did not have any visible economic effect on the dollar/euro
exchange rate. A month before the Iraq war began, the euro was
around $1.10. It continued to rise after the war began in March,
2003. It was at $1.16 in May.
The U.S. dollar is the world’s reserve currency. About 65%
of all central bank foreign exchange reserves are held in the
dollar. A March 30 report on Bloomberg provides the figures.
The dollar’s share of global foreign-exchange reserves
fell to the lowest level in at least eight years as
central banks accelerated their purchases of euros, the
International Monetary Fund said.
Dollars accounted for 64.7 percent of reserves last
quarter, down from 65.8 percent in the prior three
months, the IMF said today in Washington. The share of
euros climbed to 25.8 percent from 25.1 percent,
reaching its highest proportion since the single
currency was introduced in 1999. . . .
The euro climbed 11.4 percent against the dollar last
year, its fourth annual gain in five. The advances have
enhanced the attractiveness to central banks of the
currency now shared by 13 European Union nations.
Reserve holdings in euros climbed 8.3 percent last
quarter, the most in two years, IMF data show.
What the report does not mention is that these figures are
essentially unchanged since the end of 2004. The dollar was then
66% and the euro 25%. The big change has come since 2002. In
early 2002, the euro figure was 10%.
THE SAUDI CONNECTION
The dollar has been supported by Saudi Arabia ever since
1971. When Nixon unilaterally broke the United States
government’s agreement to sell gold at $35/oz, the dollar has
floated against other currencies. Foreign central banks have
held T-bills as foreign exchange reserves because of the dollar’s
universal acceptability for international trade.
The Saudis could have undermined the dollar’s role in trade
if they had accepted yen or pounds sterling in addition to
dollars. But the Nixon Administration negotiated a not-so-secret
secret agreement. The Saudis would accept the dollar, and only
the dollar, in oil sales, no matter who was buying the oil. At
any time, the Saudis could have bailed out, but they didn’t —
not even during the OPEC oil embargo. Look at the chronology.
August 15, 1971: Nixon closes the gold window, imposed
price and wage controls, and floated the dollar.
September 22, 1971: OPEC directs members to negotiate
higher prices for oil due to the falling dollar.
December 5: Libya nationalizes British Petroleum’s
holdings.
January 20, 1972: Six OPEC nations raise prices 8.49%
to compensate them for the falling dollar. Saudi
Arabia is one of them.
June 1: Iraq nationalizes the foreign-owned Iraq
Petroleum Company’s holdings.
October 27: OPEC announces 25% ownership of Western oil
operations in six countries, with 51% by 1983. Saudi
Arabia is one of them.
March 16: Shah of Iran nationalizes all foreign-owned
oil companies.
September 1: Libya nationalizes 51% of all other oil
companies.
I don’t want to belabor this. You can see what happened.
The nationalizations continued for another year.
On October 6, 1973, the fourth Israeli-Arab war broke out.
On October 17, OPEC’s six Middle Eastern nations raised the price
of oil to $365 from $3.12. On October 19, they declared an oil
embargo against the United States. On October 19, they embargoed
the Netherlands. The Netherlands is where the world’s oil
exchange operates. Oil rose. On December 22, the six Gulf
states raised the price from $5.12 to $11.65, effective January
1, 1974. You can see the chronology here.
http://www.GaryNorth.com/snip/150.htm
The initial domino in the sequence is clear: the closing of
the gold window on August 15, 1971. But at no time did the
Saudis or OPEC officially abandon the dollar as the sole unit of
account.
This was when the flow of petrodollars began to accelerate.
The Saudis sold their oil for dollars, but they deposited the
money mainly in multinational banks headquartered in New York
City. The banks then lent the money around the world.
The Saudis could have pulled the plug at any time. All they
had to do was allow other currencies in exchange for oil. Then
they could have ceased doing business with U.S. banks. They
could have switched to London, Germany, and Switzerland. They
didn’t.
There had to be a reason. But what reason makes sense?
PROTECTION MONEY
The Saud family runs the country. It is a fiefdom. The
family cannot protect itself militarily without weapons. It also
needs a buffer against enemies. It gets both from the United
States.
After the fall of the Shah in 1979 and the capture of the
American embassy by Iran’s revolutionary guards, the Shi’ite
threat to Saudi Arabia grew. The Saudis support the Wahhabi
Sunni sect, which has always been officially supportive of the
Saud family. This goes back over two centuries.
Iran under the mullahs became an immediate threat to the
Saud family. The oil fields of Saudi Arabia are in the east,
which is where Shi’ites are dominant.
The military equipment and other support given to Hussein by
the U.S. in the Iraq-Iran war (September 1980 to August 1988) was
a shield for Saudi Arabia. It kept a pro-Sunni leader in power
in an otherwise Shi’ite-dominated country on Saudi Arabia’s
border. When Hussein moved into Kuwait in 1991, the Saudis
agreed to help fund the Gulf war. When Bush encouraged the
Shi’ites to revolt after the war ended, and they did, the United
States let Hussein’s troops slaughter them. This was a benefit
for the Saudis. They did not want Shi’ite forces on their
border. They still don’t.
The Shi’ites and Kurds will be the bin winners if and when
the U.S. departs. The Saudis will then have a Shi’ite state on
its border. Across the water is Iran, which is facing a crisis
within a decade, as its oil exports decline, possibly to zero.
Iran will have to make its move soon. The prospects of a Shi’ite
kingdom are fading.
The quid pro quo for the dollar’s sole acceptability in
Saudi Arabia and the other Sunni members of OPEC is protection.
As long as the United States keeps the State of Israel on a tight
leash beyond its own borders, the Saudis need fear only the
Shi’ites.
This is why there has been no hue and cry from the Saudis
regarding the second American invasion of Iraq. This is why
there is silence regarding the two carrier task forces in the
Gulf, with the third leaving San Diego today to join the other
two.
IRAN BREAKS THE STRANGLEHOLD
With Iran now selling oil only for other currencies, it has
offered a challenge to the other OPEC exporters. They can get
out of the petrodollar trap by switching to the euro. Iran is
about to set the precedent. Iraq did, but it was invaded. Then
the old arrangement was reimposed by the Americans: oil for
dollars only.
By telling other oil exporters that it’s a good idea to do
business in other currencies, Iran threatens to cause a shift in
central bank holdings. If the euro continues to rise, central
banks are better off by buying euros. At the margin, they will
make money. But the dollar will fall: reduced demand for
dollars. The downside of this is two-fold: (1) a falling dollar
means fewer exports to America; (2) a falling market price of
their existing holdings of T-bills. This will hurt Japan and
China the most.
This threat to U.S. foreign policy is great. The threat to
the domestic economy is worse. The dollar has been subsidized by
OPEC nations for 35 years.
The dollar’s looming fall in value in relation to other
currencies is a minimal threat to the American economy compared
to rising oil prices. We are importers of oil. If gasoline
prices rise, voters will seek vengeance. Republicans know this.
So, Iran is now a threat to Bush and the Republicans in 2008.
Let us return to the article in “Al-Jazeera.”
Almost all of Iran’s European and Asian oil customers
started paying in currencies other than the U.S. dollar
late last year as Tehran moved to diversify its foreign
exchange reserves away from the U.S. dollar.
Zhuhai Zhenrong Trading, a Chinese state-run company
that is the biggest buyer of Iranian crude oil
worldwide, have begun paying Iran for its oil in euros.
Then what about Japan? The nation has been paying in
dollars.
Japanese buyers, who buy almost a quarter of Iran’s
2.2-million barrel daily shipments, continue to pay in
dollars but are willing to shift to yen if asked.
“We are looking at it so that we can switch the
currencies any time, but we have not gotten any
official requests from them,” said Fumiaki Watari, the
chairman of Japan’s top refiner, Nippon Oil.
http://www.garynorth.com/snip/147.htm
Japan has now been officially asked to pay in some other
currency.
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CONCLUSION
The Israelis would like Iran removed as a regional center of
power. On this point, they are in full agreement with the
Saudis.
The Administration does not want to see a dramatic fall of
the dollar in relation to the euro.
An attack on Iran will produce a spike in the oil price, no
matter what currency is used to settle accounts. Oil importers
don’t want that. Oil exporters will cry crocodile tears, and
then hike their prices. It’s called “meeting the market.”
The potential for disrupting the flow of oil has never been
greater.
If I were James Baker and his associates at the Council on
Foreign Relations, I would be ordering several cases of Depends.
They are running out of time to reign in Junior.
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Filed under Bush, History, Iraq War, Middle East, Oil, The Dollar, World
The Project for the New American Century Continues Forward
It’s the tenth anniversary of the founding of The Project for the New American Century and to celebrate the Bush Administration just keeps following the plan to the letter…
Despite the complete lack of support by the American people for escalation of the current conflicts in the Middle East, this adminstration continues to push forward the neoconservative agenda of remaking the region in the image of the USA.
Efforts by Daddy Bush to cut junior’s losses in Iraq with recommendations from the Iraq Study Group report and other more moderate GOP influences have come to no-avail.
The November Congressional elections where the Republicans received a decisive thumbs-down from the American people… an unprecendented loss of incumbant seats… did NOTHING to change the policies of this run-away train of an administration.
One would think after five years of failure, fiasco, and loss of blood and treasure that the neoconservative strategy would be discredited. But that is far from the case deep within the Bush administration’s slimy underbelly… Look at the facts…
* More troops continue to be sent to Iraq.
* More aircraftcarriers, warships, and aircraft are in the area, than have been since the original invasion…
* We are closer than ever to war with Iran. And hawks are beating the war drums as loudly as they can.
* Now there are reports of the administration secretively doing everything to undermine and topple the Syrian government: http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/17002420.htm
Bush can still do a lot of damage in the next two years he’s in office. And it looks for all intents and purposes that he will…
Cheney and other neoconservatives within the administration have not deviated from the plans of the neocon agenda to setup democracies throughout the region (‘democracies’ friendly to the US at least). They believe every word they say no matter how estranged from reality it may be…
They think they’re bringing stability to the region. When the reality is that the region has probably never been more destabilized, dangerous, and negative to American interests.
Who will stop them?
The ‘opposition’, the Democrats cringe at taking any real action, it’s too politically risky…
It’s a sad time for America.
McCain Takes a Stroll in a Bagdad Open-Air Market (protected by a massive security entourage)
Presidential nomination contender John McCain took a trip to Bagdad to back-up statements about the safety of certain parts within the war-torn city… Protected by 100 soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead McCain went for a pleasant stroll in an open-air market in Bagdad.
I think this trip proved nothing with regard to the safety of Bagdad. But it did illustrate quite clearly that McCain is a typical politician with no respect for taxpayers or voters.
Here’s the video: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/01/mccain-iraq-stroll
Bush’s Iraqi Blogger Pals Happily Live Under the Boot
I came across the blog Bush mentioned in his speech the other day… the happy Iraqi bloggers who it turns out had visited the White House back in 2004…
They posted about a fun and friendly search of their house and cars by US troops: http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2007/03/midnight-company.html
I find this reaction to search to be quite unusual and certainly a minority opinion… How would you like it if a foreign army’s soldiers came in your house and searched it while you were having a BBQ with friends, no matter how professional they are?
I don’t disagree that most of our troops are probably courteous and professional about how they conduct themselves in Iraq.
But because of the difficult position that this administration has placed them in… as occupiers in a foreign land in the midst of civil war… they are unnessarily in harms way and the subject of hatred by the majority in the region. We need to get them out of there as soon as possible.
NeoCon BS -- We've Had Enough 