SENATOR BILL CLINTON?
Hilary has apparently been invited to serve as Secretary of State, and if she accepts, she will have the opportunity to serve her country during an historic period.
It would be a bad idea to appoint Bill Clinton to fill her Senate seat. It would be too much of a temptation for Bill and Hilary to work both sides of the street, trying to create their own version of a foreign policy. But this would lead to mistrust and contention within the Obama administration - confusion that we do not need in these precarious times.
It would be better for Bill to take his turn at Hilary''s side, as a respected advisor within the next Administration, free to speak his mind within the private councils of the Executive Branch. In foreign policy, it is vital to show the world a clear and unified determination of purpose. For Hilary to be Secretary of State, Bill must play a supporting role this time.
I like Caroline Kennedy for the job, myself.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
SOME PERSPECTIVE
In the 1970's, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger began a series of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, and enacted several SALT agreements with the Soviet Union.
The first, SALT I, limited defensive systems (ABMs) to small areas around capital cities and missile launching sites.
Later agreements brought actual arms reductions and supervised dismantling of nuclear missiles. Great, huh?
Unfortunately for us, the SALT I treaty included a provision that the President could unilaterally suspend it if he thought that would be in the national interest. And that is exactly what George W. Bush did, in December 2001.
Why?
Well, the deployment of a Star Wars system would be in violation of the SALT I treaty, and Star Wars was really, really important to the defense moguls pulling the strings of the Bush administration. They wanted Star Wars because it meant truckloads of money, and because it wouldn't work.
Even the hawkiest hawks had to admit we had enough nuclear weapons to wipe out the world several times over. They just couldn't sell Minuteman III, where we put nuclear missiles on trucks and trains and kept them circling around our prairies to keep them from being targeted. They just couldn't sell the N-bomb, which killed people by enhanced neutron radiation but would be detonated high enough to leave buildings standing. Our European allies wouldn't allow it. Sure, it would kill invading Russians in their tanks, with minimized collateral damage. But that collateral damage included our own allies in their own houses, and they just didn't like the idea.
But defensive systems can still be sold. And defensive systems that don''t work are even better. Once you get a few billions invested, you can go back to Congress year after year, exposing vulnerabilities, scaring people, asking for a few billions more. You'll get it.
That's why.
Star Wars has no chance of working. It's a 21st century Maginot Line. It's pork barrel politics combined with the utter insanity of Dr. Strangelove (a character rumored to be based on dear Dr. Kissinger himself).
So why are we doing this? Because it means billions and billions of dollars of federal spending, and it won''t work. It's a scam, and what's worse, it's a deadly threat to our national security.
If you''re a defense contractor, these are the good times. If you're a loyal American, or even a decent human being, you have to ask Why are we doing this to ourselves?, Why have we sabotaged the SALT treaties?, Why are we reigniting the Cold War and stimulating nuclear proliferation around the world?
Why?
The conflict in Georgia is only the first bloody mess we face unless we stop the Star Wars madness.
In the 1970's, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger began a series of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, and enacted several SALT agreements with the Soviet Union.
The first, SALT I, limited defensive systems (ABMs) to small areas around capital cities and missile launching sites.
Later agreements brought actual arms reductions and supervised dismantling of nuclear missiles. Great, huh?
Unfortunately for us, the SALT I treaty included a provision that the President could unilaterally suspend it if he thought that would be in the national interest. And that is exactly what George W. Bush did, in December 2001.
Why?
Well, the deployment of a Star Wars system would be in violation of the SALT I treaty, and Star Wars was really, really important to the defense moguls pulling the strings of the Bush administration. They wanted Star Wars because it meant truckloads of money, and because it wouldn't work.
Even the hawkiest hawks had to admit we had enough nuclear weapons to wipe out the world several times over. They just couldn't sell Minuteman III, where we put nuclear missiles on trucks and trains and kept them circling around our prairies to keep them from being targeted. They just couldn't sell the N-bomb, which killed people by enhanced neutron radiation but would be detonated high enough to leave buildings standing. Our European allies wouldn't allow it. Sure, it would kill invading Russians in their tanks, with minimized collateral damage. But that collateral damage included our own allies in their own houses, and they just didn't like the idea.
But defensive systems can still be sold. And defensive systems that don''t work are even better. Once you get a few billions invested, you can go back to Congress year after year, exposing vulnerabilities, scaring people, asking for a few billions more. You'll get it.
That's why.
Star Wars has no chance of working. It's a 21st century Maginot Line. It's pork barrel politics combined with the utter insanity of Dr. Strangelove (a character rumored to be based on dear Dr. Kissinger himself).
So why are we doing this? Because it means billions and billions of dollars of federal spending, and it won''t work. It's a scam, and what's worse, it's a deadly threat to our national security.
If you''re a defense contractor, these are the good times. If you're a loyal American, or even a decent human being, you have to ask Why are we doing this to ourselves?, Why have we sabotaged the SALT treaties?, Why are we reigniting the Cold War and stimulating nuclear proliferation around the world?
Why?
The conflict in Georgia is only the first bloody mess we face unless we stop the Star Wars madness.
THE WAR ON TERROR
America can not afford to lose the War on Terrorism.
Our problem right now is that the Bush administration has always treated the War on Terrorism as a political program, like the War on Poverty or the War on Drugs. They have used it shamelessly as a political tool to advance their own agenda, and especially as a source of nearly limitless money to pour into the pockets of their cronies.
We have MORE private contractors in Iraq than troops, getting paid princely sums that far exceed what a poor reservist gets. We spend $BILLIONS in contracts to build bases, to operate oil facilities, to protect civilian personnel. Why is the administration negotiating with the government of Iraq for permission to STAY LONGER? Because it''s worth $BILLIONS to them for us to stay there!!!
A REAL War on Terror would be over by now, if we had used the worldwide sympathy and good will that followed 9/11 to build alliances and intelligence networks and international police agencies to combat terrorism. All legitimate governments fear terrorism, and would cooperate to allow terrorism no safe haven.
But, sickeningly, this corrupt administration has been willing to terrorize its own population in order to advance its right wing dreams: a vast expansion of executive powers, huge sums of money showered on their cronies in the name of national security, occupation of the second largest oil reserves in the world.
We need to win the War on Terror. And to do that we need to get these neocon war criminals out of our government.
America can not afford to lose the War on Terrorism.
Our problem right now is that the Bush administration has always treated the War on Terrorism as a political program, like the War on Poverty or the War on Drugs. They have used it shamelessly as a political tool to advance their own agenda, and especially as a source of nearly limitless money to pour into the pockets of their cronies.
We have MORE private contractors in Iraq than troops, getting paid princely sums that far exceed what a poor reservist gets. We spend $BILLIONS in contracts to build bases, to operate oil facilities, to protect civilian personnel. Why is the administration negotiating with the government of Iraq for permission to STAY LONGER? Because it''s worth $BILLIONS to them for us to stay there!!!
A REAL War on Terror would be over by now, if we had used the worldwide sympathy and good will that followed 9/11 to build alliances and intelligence networks and international police agencies to combat terrorism. All legitimate governments fear terrorism, and would cooperate to allow terrorism no safe haven.
But, sickeningly, this corrupt administration has been willing to terrorize its own population in order to advance its right wing dreams: a vast expansion of executive powers, huge sums of money showered on their cronies in the name of national security, occupation of the second largest oil reserves in the world.
We need to win the War on Terror. And to do that we need to get these neocon war criminals out of our government.
GOODBYE SANTA
There's not really an argument about one fact: in the absence of other factors, increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere will raise the surface temperature of the earth. And we have been increasing the concentration of one greenhouse gas - carbon dioxide - since the Industrial Revolution caused humankind to switch from firewood to fossil fuels like coal and oil.
(If you disagree with this, please try your own little greenhouse experiment. Park your car in the summer sunshine, roll up all your windows, and sit there for a while. Your car windows absorb infrared energy even more effectively than carbon dioxide gas does, and you've just put yourself inside a little greenhouse. Wait there for a while. See what happens. Please don't bring any pets or small children with you.)
However, since a planetary climate system IS complicated by so many other factors, and since the future is ALWAYS uncertain, it becomes possible for vested interests to confuse any reasonable discussion of the issue. That doesn't change the facts, or the future we face. It only protects those vested interests by delaying the pressure they would face from an informed public.
What vested interests?
Why the Blood for Oil people of course. The ones controlling the present Republican administration and right wing media machine. They've sold out their country and our children''s future - for record profits, though!
It won't be this summer. It might be next summer. But it won't be long now.
The North Polar Ice Cap is going to melt away completely during some summertime in the next few decades. There will be open seas at the North Pole.
Goodbye, Santa.
There's not really an argument about one fact: in the absence of other factors, increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere will raise the surface temperature of the earth. And we have been increasing the concentration of one greenhouse gas - carbon dioxide - since the Industrial Revolution caused humankind to switch from firewood to fossil fuels like coal and oil.
(If you disagree with this, please try your own little greenhouse experiment. Park your car in the summer sunshine, roll up all your windows, and sit there for a while. Your car windows absorb infrared energy even more effectively than carbon dioxide gas does, and you've just put yourself inside a little greenhouse. Wait there for a while. See what happens. Please don't bring any pets or small children with you.)
However, since a planetary climate system IS complicated by so many other factors, and since the future is ALWAYS uncertain, it becomes possible for vested interests to confuse any reasonable discussion of the issue. That doesn't change the facts, or the future we face. It only protects those vested interests by delaying the pressure they would face from an informed public.
What vested interests?
Why the Blood for Oil people of course. The ones controlling the present Republican administration and right wing media machine. They've sold out their country and our children''s future - for record profits, though!
It won't be this summer. It might be next summer. But it won't be long now.
The North Polar Ice Cap is going to melt away completely during some summertime in the next few decades. There will be open seas at the North Pole.
Goodbye, Santa.
Monday, February 18, 2008
WHY IRAQ?
There were no weapons of mass destruction. There was no connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.
Years of effort - and human torture - have produced no evidence that Saddam Hussein was in possession or close to possessing nuclear weapons. And the "weapons of mass destruction" obfuscation, designed to allow liars in the Bush administration to talk about poison gas in one sentence and mushroom clouds in the next, didn't even save them. No stockpiles of nerve gas were ever found; no weaponized infectious agents were ever discovered. That hasn't stopped right wingers from continuing to spew lies like "The nerve gas was hidden in Syria!" But sane people realize that there was no imminent threat from Iraq.
Years of effort -and human torture - have produced no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the Al Qaeda attack on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. This makes perfect sense. Saddam Hussein was a dictator, who remained in power only by intimidation and violence. He was a ruthless murderer, and although that is not a technical disqualification from being a religious zealot these days, he was not, in fact, connected with any religious movements. For him to be working with Al Qaeda would be like Ralph Reed to be working with Jack Abramoff - oops, bad example. But, despite the vicious and criminal efforts of the Bush administration to manufacture evidence of a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11, there has been nothing added to the false claims that were being made many years ago. There was no connection between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of 9/11.
Well, there is a connection, now. The tragic attacks of 9/11 have been used - cynically and falsely - as an excuse by the Bush administration to pursue their own fascist agenda and to expand executive powers far beyond all legal and Constitutional limits. It is worth asking whether the utter failure of the Bush administration to protect our nation from these attacks was the result of incompetence - certainly supported by an abundance of other examples - or treason - if warnings were ignored so that greater powers could be seized in a crisis.
So what was the reason for the U.S. invasion of Iraq?
It wasn't retaliation for the attacks of 9/11. Our intelligence services knew then - as we all know now - that there was no connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.
It wasn't protection of our national interest from a rogue state. Our intelligence services knew then - as we all know now - that there were no nuclear weapons in Iraq and that there was no cooperation between the atheistic dictator and the religious mujadeen.
The answer can be found, finally, now http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/11/20071126-11.html
Here is another Bush administration attempt to subvert the Constitution, this time by writing a treaty that isn't a treaty, that somehow binds our country to an agreement with Iraq that will never be ratified by Congress.
What does it say?
Permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq and preferential treatment for U.S. corporations.
That's what it was all about.
First, relocation of American military forces out of Europe where they are no longer needed and out of Saudi Arabia where they are endangering a friendly Saudi government. Second, as always with the corporate whores of the Bush administration, protection of the economic interests of their corporate sponsors.
Blood for oil; government of, by, and for people who have sold themselves out to Halliburton or Blackwater or other corporate criminals.
That's what is was all about. That's what it has always been about.
Disgrace is too mild a word.
There were no weapons of mass destruction. There was no connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.
Years of effort - and human torture - have produced no evidence that Saddam Hussein was in possession or close to possessing nuclear weapons. And the "weapons of mass destruction" obfuscation, designed to allow liars in the Bush administration to talk about poison gas in one sentence and mushroom clouds in the next, didn't even save them. No stockpiles of nerve gas were ever found; no weaponized infectious agents were ever discovered. That hasn't stopped right wingers from continuing to spew lies like "The nerve gas was hidden in Syria!" But sane people realize that there was no imminent threat from Iraq.
Years of effort -and human torture - have produced no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the Al Qaeda attack on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. This makes perfect sense. Saddam Hussein was a dictator, who remained in power only by intimidation and violence. He was a ruthless murderer, and although that is not a technical disqualification from being a religious zealot these days, he was not, in fact, connected with any religious movements. For him to be working with Al Qaeda would be like Ralph Reed to be working with Jack Abramoff - oops, bad example. But, despite the vicious and criminal efforts of the Bush administration to manufacture evidence of a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11, there has been nothing added to the false claims that were being made many years ago. There was no connection between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of 9/11.
Well, there is a connection, now. The tragic attacks of 9/11 have been used - cynically and falsely - as an excuse by the Bush administration to pursue their own fascist agenda and to expand executive powers far beyond all legal and Constitutional limits. It is worth asking whether the utter failure of the Bush administration to protect our nation from these attacks was the result of incompetence - certainly supported by an abundance of other examples - or treason - if warnings were ignored so that greater powers could be seized in a crisis.
So what was the reason for the U.S. invasion of Iraq?
It wasn't retaliation for the attacks of 9/11. Our intelligence services knew then - as we all know now - that there was no connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.
It wasn't protection of our national interest from a rogue state. Our intelligence services knew then - as we all know now - that there were no nuclear weapons in Iraq and that there was no cooperation between the atheistic dictator and the religious mujadeen.
The answer can be found, finally, now http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/11/20071126-11.html
Here is another Bush administration attempt to subvert the Constitution, this time by writing a treaty that isn't a treaty, that somehow binds our country to an agreement with Iraq that will never be ratified by Congress.
What does it say?
Permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq and preferential treatment for U.S. corporations.
That's what it was all about.
First, relocation of American military forces out of Europe where they are no longer needed and out of Saudi Arabia where they are endangering a friendly Saudi government. Second, as always with the corporate whores of the Bush administration, protection of the economic interests of their corporate sponsors.
Blood for oil; government of, by, and for people who have sold themselves out to Halliburton or Blackwater or other corporate criminals.
That's what is was all about. That's what it has always been about.
Disgrace is too mild a word.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
WHAT REALLY MATTERS
Have you noticed it too?
We live in a world that bombards us with information - images, noise, logos, celebrities, pundits, graphics, jingles, on and on and on.
And yet, it feels empty.
Over the past few months, we have been treated to the usual sports coverage of the election process by prating fools who cover polls and percentages more than the real choices facing us.
Over the next few months, we will be treated to show trials from Guantanamo, leading to death penalties just before election day, just as Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death three days before the last national election.
And in the meantime, our national leaders send our jobs and especially our children's jobs overseas, as our industrial base is modernized and rebuilt on foreign shores. And in the meantime, the nuclear arms race is being rekindled as our country pursues billion dollar boondoggles to pour federal dollars into the pockets of defense contractors. And in the meantime, any realistic plans to seek energy independence and respond to global warming threats are thwarted by cynical oil company connections within the government. And in the meantime, our American ideals and heritage - freedom, human dignity, government of the people, by the people, and for the people - are being savaged by the intellectual heirs of Jefferson Davis and Nathan Bedford Forrest.
And yet, our media still finds time for OJ and Britney and Paris and, still, once in a while, poor Princess Di.
What really matters anyway?
What matters to me is that we humans could make this world a better place to live if we all agreed to seek peace through justice, and prosperity through fairness. Sadly, there are predators among us who seek power by intimidation and violence, and wealth by conquest and theft.
It may be that the decent among us will ultimately prevail; that the meek will truly inherit the earth. Or it may be that the sky is darkening and the future we are about to experience will be fearsome indeed.
Perhaps it would help if those of us who care about peace and justice and decency and honor decided to focus our thoughts on finding a hopeful vision for the future, and to join forces in moving towards this dream. Whether we succeed or fail, it might make our brief journey through this life a little brighter, and in some small ways the world that we live in a better place. It might make the time we spend on this earth worthwhile.
And isn't that what really matters?
Have you noticed it too?
We live in a world that bombards us with information - images, noise, logos, celebrities, pundits, graphics, jingles, on and on and on.
And yet, it feels empty.
Over the past few months, we have been treated to the usual sports coverage of the election process by prating fools who cover polls and percentages more than the real choices facing us.
Over the next few months, we will be treated to show trials from Guantanamo, leading to death penalties just before election day, just as Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death three days before the last national election.
And in the meantime, our national leaders send our jobs and especially our children's jobs overseas, as our industrial base is modernized and rebuilt on foreign shores. And in the meantime, the nuclear arms race is being rekindled as our country pursues billion dollar boondoggles to pour federal dollars into the pockets of defense contractors. And in the meantime, any realistic plans to seek energy independence and respond to global warming threats are thwarted by cynical oil company connections within the government. And in the meantime, our American ideals and heritage - freedom, human dignity, government of the people, by the people, and for the people - are being savaged by the intellectual heirs of Jefferson Davis and Nathan Bedford Forrest.
And yet, our media still finds time for OJ and Britney and Paris and, still, once in a while, poor Princess Di.
What really matters anyway?
What matters to me is that we humans could make this world a better place to live if we all agreed to seek peace through justice, and prosperity through fairness. Sadly, there are predators among us who seek power by intimidation and violence, and wealth by conquest and theft.
It may be that the decent among us will ultimately prevail; that the meek will truly inherit the earth. Or it may be that the sky is darkening and the future we are about to experience will be fearsome indeed.
Perhaps it would help if those of us who care about peace and justice and decency and honor decided to focus our thoughts on finding a hopeful vision for the future, and to join forces in moving towards this dream. Whether we succeed or fail, it might make our brief journey through this life a little brighter, and in some small ways the world that we live in a better place. It might make the time we spend on this earth worthwhile.
And isn't that what really matters?
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