jonreese(or how i learned to stop worrying and love the blog)

America is over.

"Gas prices can only go up. Oil production is at or near peak capacity. The U.S. must compete for oil with China, the fastest-growing colossus in history. But the U.S. also must borrow $2 billion a day to remain solvent, nearly half of that from China and her neighbors, while they supply most of our manufacturing ("Benson's Economic and Market Trends," quoted in Asia Times Online) – so we have no cards to play with China, even militarily. (You can't war with the bankers who finance your army and the factories that supply your stores.) China now determines oil demand, and the U.S. has no long-term way to influence prices. That means $4 a gallon by next spring, and rising – $5, then $6, probably $10 by 2010 or thereabouts. Their economy can afford it; ours can't. We may hobble along with more or less the same way of life for the next dollar or so of hikes, but at around $4 America changes. Drastically.

The "exburbs" and the rural poor will feel it first and hardest. Exburbians moved to the farthest reaches of suburbia for cheap real estate, willing to drive at least an hour each way to work. Many live marginally now. What happens when their commute becomes prohibitively expensive, just as interest rates and inflation rise, while their property values plummet? Urban real estate will go up, so they won't be able to live near their jobs – and there's nowhere else to go. In addition, thanks to Congress' recent shameless activity, bankruptcy is no longer an option for many. What happens to these people? Exburb refugees. A modern Dust Bowl."

$4 a gallon by Michael Ventura

related:

the long emergency

the end of the age of oil

the end of oil?

louisiana national guard troops not in louisiana???

oh yea...

“More than 3,000 members of the Louisiana National Guard’s 256th Brigade serving in Iraq can only watch from Baghdad as Hurricane Katrina bears down on their families and homes in New Orleans and the other south Louisiana communities from which they hail. The deployed soldiers and their equipment, which includes high water vehicles, Humvees and generators, will be sorely missed as Louisiana attempts to prepare for and recover from the historic Category Five storm...”

http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1093

republicans say the darndest things

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." --Governor George W. Bush (R-TX)

"I had doubts about the bombing campaign from the beginning . . . I didn't think we had done enough in the diplomatic area." --Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)

"If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy." --Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of George W Bush

"You can support the troops but not the president." --Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

"Well, I just think it's a bad idea. What's going to happen is they're going to be over there for 10, 15, maybe 20 years." --Joe Scarborough (R-FL)

"[The] President . . . is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation's armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy." --Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)

"Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?" --Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/6/99

funny, these were all republican statements when clinton went to war.

it cant happen here

well, i guess it kind of did.

here's a link to the video of a rave getting raided in utah.

fascism in utah, who knew?

9,000 dead US soldiers

ted rall, brilliant as usual.

related- death: redefined

Stand With MOVE On Sunday August 7th

from The Free Mumia Coalition NYC :

August 8, 2005 marks twenty-seven years of unjust imprisonment for the MOVE-9. Innocent MOVE family members have been kept in prison all these years despite the evidence, despite the facts and despite legal appeals. Officials, like District Attorney Lynne Abraham, have adamantly refused to even consider an investigation into this case, not because she's sure that the MOVE 9 is guilty, but rather because she knows MOVE is innocent and that she's the guilty one. She knows that she is knee-deep in the conspiracy to kill MOVE people in August of 1978. It is baseless warrants signed by her when she was a judge in May of 1977 that provided the appearance of justification for the police attack on MOVE in 1978. Lynne Abraham is letting innocent MOVE people rot in prison (one of our sisters was even killed while in prison, Merle Africa), because she doesn't want to be exposed for the criminal she is, she doesn't want her role in this vicious conspiracy to be exposed. Anybody (whatever your career, position, social status may be) that can be aware of such wrongdoing and ignore it as if it's irrelevant, unimportant, needs only to look around them at the condition of the world today to see the result of that kind of apathy. This is NOT a MOVE problem, this is a problem of injustice that affects us ALL.

The Free Mumia Coalition NYC demands a full investigation into the death of Officer James Ramp.  There is irrefutable evidence of innocence clearing the way for the release of MOVE 9.  If you don't
have plans already for Sunday August 7th join us as we demand justice in the matter of MOVE 9.  The demonstration will be held in front of Constitutional Center (5th & Market Phila) from 11:am –
4:00pm

Wolverines!!!

"Cheering for the underdog is as American as fatty food. In the movies we love heroes who simply want to be left alone--but are willing, like Charles Bronson in "Death Wish," to dish out double-sized portions of blazing revenge when the baddies cross the line. Why, then, don't we pull for the Iraqi insurgents? They are, like Clint Eastwood in his '70s and '80s action flicks, fighting back against overwhelming odds. And most, like Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen in "Red Dawn," are high school kids who, at first resigned to the U.S. invasion, take up arms in disgust at an increasingly abusive and hostile army of occupation. Americans play opposite roles in the two scenarios, yet we identify with Americans in both. Where the heck is our sense of empathy? Why can't we see ourselves in the faces of those kids firing RPGs at convoys of Halliburton trucks stealing Iraqi oil?"

ted rall: got empathy?

fuck you - from bush

hey, he did it, not me

and watch the video of it here

bush is not an american

"Bush, in my opinion, is criminally insane, a pill-popping dry drunk whose erratic behavior and reckless actions threaten world peace and the future of this nation far more than any Islam-spouting religious fanatic. He is an enemy of the state, a mood-swinging despot who threatens the very freedoms that form the foundation for this country. He has created a police state where basic American freedoms have vanished under an politically-exaggerated threat to national scrutiny, milked the human tragedy of 9/11 for his personal agenda and ripped the Constitution to shreds through the USA Patriot Act, a rights-robbing piece of legislation put together by his former attorney general, the bible-thumping John Ashcroft, an inept former Senator who couldn’t even win an election against a dead man."

read on

postsecret

funny, enlightening and depressing as hell.

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

treason

"We don't need a law to tell us that unmasking a CIA agent, particularly during wartime, is treasonous. Every patriotic American--liberal, conservative, or otherwise--knows that."

Who Murdered 32 Iraqi Children?

from the investigation:

- Children from neighboring streets came upon hearing of the sweets and free bags (as well as a rumor that Pokemon toys were being given out).

- After a period of about 15 minutes from them entering the street, the US forces dumped the remaining toys/sweets in a pile in the middle of the street and frantically drove off hitting 4 children in the process with their vehicle.

- Seconds later, the KIA vehicle exploded killing 32 children and wounding about ten others who were gathered in the street.

read the rest of the article here

brit hume: what an asshole

"My first thought when I heard - just on a personal basis, when I heard there had been this attack and I saw the futures this morning, which were really in the tank, I thought, 'Hmmm, time to buy.'"
- Fox News's Brit Hume, 7/7/05

Brit Hume Goes On TV & Says He Wants to Profit Off the Terrorist Attack

al-Qaida? lets wait and see

"But MSNBC TV translator Jacob Keryakes, who said that a copy of the message was later posted on a secular Web site, noted that the claim of responsibility contained an error in one of the Quranic verses it cited. That suggests that the claim may be phony, he said.

"This is not something al-Qaida would do," he said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8496293/

karl rove: worse than osama bin laden

"The right points to critics like Michael Moore, yours truly, and Ward Churchill, the Colorado professor who points out the gaping chasm between America's high-falooting rhetoric and its historical record. But these bête noires are guilty only of the all-American actions of criticism and dissent, not to mention speaking uncomfortable truths to liars and deniers. As far as we know, no one on what passes for the "left" (which would be the center-right anywhere else) has betrayed the United States in the GWOT(Global War on Terrorism). No anti-Bush progressive has made common cause with Al Qaeda, Hamas, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan or any other officially designated "terrorist" group. No American liberal has handed over classified information or worked to undermine the CIA.

But it now appears that Karl Rove, GOP golden boy, has done exactly that."

ted rall strikes again: read on

death: redefined

"Has the Bush administration drastically understated the U.S. military death count by redefining "death"? The following article suggests that it has, and it calls for a nationwide campaign to honor deceased service members by naming and counting them.
According to the article: "...DoD lists currently being very quietly circulated indicate almost 9,000 U.S. military dead"; this far exceeds the "official" death count of 1,831. How can this be? It's largely because "U.S. Military Personnel who died in German hospitals or en route to German hospitals have not previously been counted."

In other words, "death" has been redefined."

WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW

STAMPing out racism?

not quite:

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- The Mexican government has issued a postage stamp depicting an exaggerated black cartoon character known as Memin Pinguin, just weeks after remarks by President Vicente Fox angered U.S. blacks.

yikes

The World Can't Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!

worldcantwait.org

Mobilize for November 2, 2005

Your government, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights. 

Your government is openly torturing people, and justifying it. 

Your government puts people in jail on the merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night. 

Your government is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule. 

Your government suppresses the science that doesn’t fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price. 

Your government is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.

Your government enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.

People look at all this and think of Hitler – and they are right to do so.  The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come.  We must act now; the future is in the balance.

Millions and millions are deeply disturbed and outraged by this.  They recognize the need for a vehicle to express this outrage, yet they cannot find it; politics as usual cannot meet the enormity of the challenge, and people sense this. 

There is not going to be some magical “pendulum swing.”  People who steal elections and believe they’re on a “mission from God” will not go without a fight.

There is not going to be some savior from the Democratic Party.  This whole idea of putting our hopes and energies into “leaders” who tell us to seek common ground with fascists and religious fanatics is proving every day to be a disaster, and actually serves to demobilize people.

But silence and paralysis are NOT acceptable.  That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn – or be forced – to accept.  There is no escaping it: the whole disastrous course of this Bush regime must be STOPPED.  And we must take the responsibility to do it. 

And there is a way.   We are talking about something on a scale that can really make a huge change in this country and in the world.  We need more than fighting Bush’s outrages one at a time, constantly losing ground to the whole onslaught.  We must, and can, aim to create a political situation where the Bush regime’s program is repudiated, where Bush himself is driven from office, and where the whole direction he has been taking society is reversed. We, in our millions, must and can take responsibility to change the course of history. 

To that end, on November 2, the first anniversary of Bush’s “re-election”, we will take the first major step in this by organizing a truly massive day of resistance all over this country.  People everywhere will walk out of school, they will take off work, they will come to the downtowns and town squares and set out from there, going through the streets and calling on many more to JOIN US.  They will repudiate this criminal regime, making a powerful statement: “NO!  THIS REGIME DOES NOT REPRESENT US!  AND WE WILL DRIVE IT OUT!”

November 2 must be a massive and public proclamation that WE REFUSE TO BE RULED IN THIS WAY.  November 2 must call out to the tens of millions more who are now agonizing and disgusted.  November 2 will be the beginning – a giant first step in forcing Bush to step down, and a powerful announcement that we will not stop until he does so – and it will join with and give support and heart to people all over the globe who so urgently need and want this regime to be stopped.

This will not be easy.  If we speak the truth, they will try to silence us.  If we act, they will try to stop us.   But we speak for the majority, here and around the world, and as we get this going we are going to reach out to the people who have been so badly fooled by Bush and we are NOT going to stop.

The point is this: history is full of examples where people who had right on their side fought against tremendous odds and were victorious.  And it is also full of examples of people passively hoping to wait it out, only to get swallowed up by a horror beyond what they ever imagined.  The future is unwritten. WHICH ONE WE GET IS UP TO US.

These next two months are crucial.  The call you are reading has to get out to millions right away – on the internet, passed out as flyers in communities, published as ads in newspapers.  DO NOT WAIT!!  GET ORGANIZED!!  If you agree with this statement, add your name to it!!!  And do more than that: send it to friends, get them to sign it, organize a meeting, take it to your church, your school, your union, your health club, your barber shop, to concerts and libraries and family gatherings, everywhere you go.  Raise money, lots of money.  Get people together, make plans to be there on November 2, and to build for it. GET IN TOUCH WITH US AT OUR WEBSITE, worldcantwait.org

the lost liberty hotel

"Weare, New Hampshire (PRWEB) Could a hotel be built on the land owned by Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter? A new ruling by the Supreme Court which was supported by Justice Souter himself itself might allow it. A private developer is seeking to use this very law to build a hotel on Souter's land.

On Monday June 27, Logan Darrow Clements, faxed a request to Chip Meany the code enforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New Hampshire seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road. This is the present location of Mr. Souter's home."

probably not happening.. but still funny as hell. read the press release

downing street memos in plain english

"It is now possible to accurately compare what top British officials believed about the case for war months before the invasion and what US and UK citizens were being told at the same time by Bush and Blair.

What is new, significant, and very incriminating for Bush and Blair is this: the memos conclusively document (many months before the invasion) that top British officials’ beliefs about the case for war were FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT than the case being stressed and sold by Bush, Blair and mainstream media at the time.

Comparing the memos with what Bush and Blair were telling the public at the time provides strong primary-source evidence that the two men purposely and systematically deceived the American and British people in their case for war."

read on