Sunday, October 28, 2007

Omar Torrijos, leader of Panama, in 1978


In 1981, he died unfortunately in a plane explosion.
The talked-about sea-level canal never developed.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

First Lady of Iran


Or possibly, Press Secretary.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Why Haven't the Aliens Invaded Yet?


Once they used up all their oil, their civilization collapsed.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Five million dinar (currency)


Excuse me, that cookie is 8 million dinars and you only gave me 5.
Hyper-inflation: coming to a country near you.

Communist


to robber barons in 17 years.
You like the new Gazprom headquarters? The new energy Tsar?
Chechnya

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Vietnam


is cutting its purchases of US Treasuries

Telegraph

State of the Union


"The Yank and the Brit could not be less prepared or more poorly positioned. They already live beyond their means. They can expect no wage gains. Their costs are rising. And with three billion Asians hard on their heels, they can’t expect a breather – prices will continue to rise; wages will not. What’s worse, the street value of their most cherished asset – their houses – is going down."
The Oil Drum

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Junie B Jones


Boo! ... and I mean it.

The Secret Plan


The government has a secret plan.
Continue as usual for as long as possible.
What a Way to Go

Saturday, October 06, 2007

We are not too dependent on foreign oil


We are too dependent on oil period

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Oil Corrupts


The day that the Burmese military shot into the unarmed rally was also the day that the Indian Oil Minister was in Rangoon, signing oil and gas contracts with the military junta.
Pakistan Daily Times

Free Burma!

Occupation is liberation


for which see

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Monday, October 01, 2007

The Learning Curve


"You have to ask yourself what interest we had 40 years ago for going to war in Vietnam. You’d think that in this country with so many smart people, that we can’t possibly do the same dumb thing again. I have this theory in life that there is no learning. There is no learning curve. Everything is tabula rasa. Everybody has to discover things for themselves."
Seymour Hersh, in an article about the break-up of Iraq.
-----
“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” Aldous Huxley

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Ten steps to get from A to B

1. Invoke an external and internal threat
2. Establish secret prisons
3. Develope a paramilitary force
4. Surveil ordinary citizens
5. Infiltrate citizens' groups
6. Arbitrarily detain and release citizens
7. Target key individuals
8. Restrict the press
9. Cast criticism as "espionage" and dissent as "treason"
10. Subvert the rule of law

Carolyn Baker

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Units of measure to know / Oil

One million barrels of Oil per day: mb/d
--as-in--
85 = world production (Dec, 2005)
53 = consumed where produced, 32 = exports
21 = USA demand, 25% of world production
13 = USA imports, 40% of export market
09 = Saudi production (9.5), 07=exports, 05=the Ghawar field
08 = USA production
05 = from Mexico 1.6,Saudi Arabia 1.4, Venezuela 1.1, Nigeria1.0
02 = from Canada (50% from tar sands)
04 = Gulf+Texas+Louisianna production
02 = Alaska Pipeline capacity (01 is being used)
---
Other useful numbers
.3 mb/d = fuel bought by DoD mostly jet fuel (4200/42)/365
SPR = 724 million bbl, 1 month's US use, 9 days' world use
30 billion bbl/year world oil production rate

Now for something completely new
and different


Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones

Run up to the business in Iraq


Black Bush *

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Iran HAS the atomic bomb


Oil.
Stop pumping oil for a while and watch what happens.
Back to the stone age.
So does China: Bonds

Can Congress pardon the President?


News to me...

Sunday, September 23, 2007

5. Love your parents

What kind of pathetic commandment is that?
He must think we are hopeless.
Like "Don't kill anybody"; there's another one.

WAR

Business by other means.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Sociopath


A good commentary on the Macleans cover story.
Alas, the title and cover photo for the story are somewhat misleading; the article does not really focus too greatly on how Bush is equal to Saddam. One can come to such a conclusion obliquely, but Graham doesn’t really focus on it. However, it does become apparent through inference. If anything, Bush is actually worse then Hussein was. Like Hussein, he is playing factions within Iraq against each other; he is threatening war with Iran; he is running prisons with torture and rape rooms; he is killing off large portions of the populace. One can defend Bush by saying that these are not policies, but then again, Baathists could have tried to make the same claims about Saddam–yet another similarity.

War protest


War debate in the House

Friday, September 21, 2007

Blackwater


Bring our trigger-happy troops home.
Yahoo news
Jeremy Scahill of The Nation, video

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Monday, September 17, 2007

They will have won


If we reflect on this event,
change what we do in any way,
stop shopping,
they will have won.

Has the Federal Government seceded?

Source

I'm sorrier than you are

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Maybe it is time


to book a vacation to Burma.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Deportee , written by Woody Guthrie

The story of a plane crash that killed 48 farm workers.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Waiting

Blowback

Say what?


Daily Show
We spend every day gathering information to locate Osama Bin Laden

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Steve Kurtz


Strange Culture
A little movie about our storm troopers' search for justice.
TruthDig audio on the War on Freedom.

Friday, September 07, 2007

Counter Insurgency Manual


Powerlessness corrupts.

Manifest Destiny


"What exactly do you find preposterous?" James K Polk

Reminder


Her place in Rangoon.

Monday, August 27, 2007

History will be the judge of that

"Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father's best days," Gonzales said.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Wiseacre?


click
The German ambassador to the Vatican at the end of WWII. While working for Germany, he was involved in saving 7000 of the 8000 jews in Rome.
Also see book: Special Mission.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

''Don't hate me cause I'm beautiful
Why the fuck not?''


The story of the first designer drug for women, called Roulette!, written on an electric-diesel typewriter.
Out of the meat grinder into solitary.

Elizabeth Wurtzel's previous book was Prozac Nation.
click

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The Taco Bell terrorist


Padilla to be sentenced Wednesday.
------
Judge Michael Mukasey concluded that “[t]he duty to disclose knowledge of crime rests upon all citizens” and “is so vital that one known to be innocent may be detained, in the absence of bail, as a material witness.”
In re Application of the United States for a Material Witness Warrant, 213 F. Supp. 2d 287, 299 (S.D.N.Y. 2002).
--
"In the absence of bail" means "if bail cannot be arranged".
In Mr. Padilla's case, unfortunately, it could not be arranged.
And he can be cuffed and hooded, as appropriate...

What

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Friday, August 17, 2007

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Break-up


Cf: Nine nations, 1981.

Senseless


Jose Padilla, in the control of US agents, deprived of his senses,
in solitary for 43 months.
We are a bad country, soon to go the way of the dodo.
Leave now, before you have to take the debt with you.
Is he still even in there?

Friday, August 03, 2007

Where are they now?


H Rap Brown. Jailed for life.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Rachael Stantons blog


Bitterness is like swallowing poison
and then waiting for the other person to die.
Citation

Sunday, July 15, 2007

One more war-time president

Lincoln fought to save the union, not to free the slaves. Is it ok to kill so many to save the union? Probably not.

Does a country have a right to exist, despite the will of its people? No.
Can it constrain the right to secede?

The Declaration of Independence was an act of secession. And isn't it self-evident that when a government "becomes destructive of those ends", the people may alter or abolish it,
or try to.

Monday, July 09, 2007