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NYT Op Ed -- Mikhail Gorbachev: Russia Never Wanted a War

08-20-08

Yes, he wrote one for the Post a week ago, but things have changed and he has more to talk about this time anyway. I recommend that we hear him out.

Mo Dowd: Two Against the One

08-20-08

Well, you have to wonder.

Thomas Friedman: What Did We Expect?

08-20-08

The experts of the Clinton and Bush administrations got the whole Post Soviet period wrong by trying to cram NATO down the throat of Russia, and thinking we would never actually have to risk anything by actually having to protect our new allies. Plus Friedman has advice for US and Russia leaders going forward.

Allegations: Florida Republican Representative Forced Employees to Contribute to His Campaign

08-19-08

My Thoughts: The sad part is, apparently the man had money given to the workers so that they could contribute, apparently from his car dealership, ie from himself. If he had given his campaign the money himself, I believe it would have been as legal as Diet Soda, but from what I learned reading about the Romney campaign, it donating to your own campaign makes a good news story about how you can't attract outside money. (Except in CA where you can loan your gubenatorial campaign millions and take money after you're elected from the Indian and prison guard unions you promised not to take money from before you were elected and the great mainstream press never says a word -- if you're a Republican prince of Hollywood.)

Luckovich: John McCain channels Reagan in Bush's Office

08-19-08

Frank Rich: The Candidate We Still Don’t Know

08-19-08

Excerpt: Most Americans still don’t know, as Marshall writes, that on the campaign trail “McCain frequently forgets key elements of policies, gets countries’ names wrong, forgets things he’s said only hours or days before and is frequently just confused.” Most Americans still don’t know it is precisely for this reason that the McCain campaign has now shut down the press’s previously unfettered access to the candidate on the Straight Talk Express.

McCain is Completely Nuts! He Wanted to Invade 4 Nations For 911!

08-17-08

The man is a lunatic warhead. Obviously, he wouldn't have used overwhelming force in Iraq because he would be going into Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Iran all at the same time, once he got his dander up. There will be crises in every administration. Apparently the solution to crises according to John McCain is to go out and kill thousands, hundreds of thousands of people, and destroy nations. Aren't we already carrying enough burden from the glory hungry president (and his puppet) that we have now? Article also shows that McCain actually decided on his current path of hyper international antagonism when he and advisers were planning his presidential run in 2000 and wanted to appeal more to conservatives.

NY Times: Russians Melded Old-School Blitz With Modern Military Tactics

08-17-08

Those evil Russians had plans and conducted military exercises they might need if the people of Ossetia were attacked by Georgia. This article screams outrage as it presents the Bush administration talking points on the Russia Georgia war.

Bill Boyarsky-- Truth Dig: McCain Is More Dangerous Than Bush

08-17-08

Excerpt: Forget the moderate image, promoted by an admiring media. Forget the so-called straight talk and independence. With the Russian-Georgian war winding down, McCain has firmly established himself as an old-fashioned Cold Warrior and a supporter of the huge oil companies that have a big stake in Georgia and the rest of the Caucasus.

Barry Obama's Family Vacation

08-17-08

Photos

Inventory of Conflict and Environment: Maps, History, Ethnic, and Environmental Details on Georgia-South Ossetian Problem

08-16-08

Are the Ossetians immigrants to the area or the real natives as they claim? This site predates the current flare up and seems to have a balanced report on the history of South Ossetia and it's relations with Georgia. The Ossetians mostly share the same religion with Georgians, but are of darker, Persian stock.

Bus Lifted by New Yorkers. Baby Saved

08-16-08

The report says that 30 men lifted a bus off an off duty traffic cop who had been hit and was under a city bus. The men were able to lift the vehicle enough to pull the woman, who was 6 months pregnant, out. She was rushed to the hospital where the baby was born by caesarian section before the mortally injured woman died. Okay, You guys are tough. We get it. Too bad about the woman though.

Rosa Brooks: Who got Georgia into this?

08-14-08

We've heard a lot of this, but Brooks put it together the best I've ever heard.

Council on Foreign Relations: Wilted Rose (Revolution)

08-14-08

As early as January 2006 CFR reported: The bloom is off the Rose Revolution. Saakashvili’s accomplishments have been undercut by the excessive concentration of power in his own hands—what the intelligentsia calls the “Putinization” of Georgia. Saakashvili combines his lust for power with a blustery patriotism, a particularly troubling mix. He vows to restore Georgia’s territorial unity by defeating separatist movements in South Ossetia as well as Abkhazia, and he has backed up the confrontational rhetoric with a major increase in military spending. And concluded: As in other countries in the midst of political transition—such as Russia, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Egypt—the Bush administration’s freedom march has focused too much on democratic elections and not enough on what comes next. Much more at the link.

Cindy McCain Miss Buffalo Chip? John suggests Cindy join a Biker Beauty Pageant

08-13-08

Blogger Anti-McCain has a video of last years pageant. Warning Parts of pageant get pretty offensive. John's anti-women campaign continues.

Bob Herbert: An Empty Promise

08-13-08

Excerpt: Public officials should be disabusing the electorate of its delusions, not encouraging them. The widespread mistaken notions about the potential impact of offshore drilling on gasoline prices reminds me of the large percentages of Americans who were encouraged to believe, and did believe — erroneously — that Iraq and Saddam Hussein had something to do with the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Barack Obama's VP Choice Could Be Text Messaged to You

08-12-08

New York Daily News article tells you how to sign up. Ignore the cheesy Valley Girl rap about it.

Study: You Can Be Fit and Fat at the Same Time

08-12-08

Looking at heart health studies researcher are seeing indications that more "heavy" people are healthy that they had assumed, and some normal weight people have heart problems. This is not a shocker to those of us whose active life style means we have extra muscle while the BMI (body mass index) tends to make us seem to be health risks. It's nice to know that we have some science now backing us up.

Another Ivins Colleague Has Doubts -- Gerry Andrews: Open Questions on a Closed Case

08-10-08

I think Mr. Andrews makes a strong case against Ivins' guilt.

Charles M. Blow: Racism and the Race

08-10-08

Obama: star of his own movie

08-09-08

What he said

Paul Krugman: Know Nothing Politics

08-08-08

What I mean...is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”

Glenn Greenwald: Aug 5th update (last before the 'revealed evidence')

08-06-08

These are analyses of the case as revealed at the time of writing, and of the treatment of the leaked 'facts' as handled by mainstream news. I highly recommend this.

Glenn Greenwald: Aug 4th Update on the Anthrax Case

08-06-08

The Next Cheney: McCain's Seven Dwarves Hoping To Become Vice President

08-06-08

Glenn Greenwald: Who fed false news to ABC about Bentonite in the anthrax?

08-04-08

The false news of Bentonite in the anthrax made it appear that Iraq was responsible for the anthrax attacks. Greenwald says ABC identified their sources as 4 distinct people within Ft Detrick.

Paul Krugman: Can This Planet Be Saved?

08-02-08

Environmental matters expose John McCain's crass hypocrisy: "he was against offshore drilling before he was for it" says Mr. K. It all seems to depend on what role the Senator wants to play at the time.

Bob Herbert: Running While Black

08-02-08

I agree with Mr. Herbert. The conjunction of the McCain ad showing Britney, Paris, and Senator Obama with the ad against Harold Ford earlier makes it clearer that the ad was playing the race card.

Where Was Senator McCain When Veterans and Wounded Troops Needed Him Most?

07-31-08

He had the position and power to bring the problems to the light of day so they could be fixed. Why didn't he?

Play Station 2 Promotes New Blood Diamond Problem

07-31-08

And it's not just Play Station 2, but it's the console that needs the product the most. I only mention this to help keep us aware of how our gadgets affect the world. And also to remind us if our leaders insist on expending our military's strength on grabbing more oil, that there are problems in this world as heavy or more so than a posturing Iranian president.

McCain Camp is Lying About the "Obama" Electricity Tax.

07-31-08

Both candidates would raise the cost of fossil fuel derived energy

FactCheck.Org: McCain ad says Obama's the guy to thank for emptying our wallets at the filling station. We say that's ridiculous.

07-29-08

More Experts Take on Assertions by the President on Tuesday Regarding Congress' and Energy Policy

« H E » email

posted 05-01-08

Well, our president/comedian who a couple of months ago didn't know what the nightly news had told us a few days earlier that gasoline prices would be near $4 a gal by summer held a news conference Tuesday to let us know he knows how to fix things, but that Congress is standing in the way. Marketplace, the business news program takes on his assertions by going to experts in the field of energy and fuel prices:

Kai Ryssdal: I don't know the last time the President pumped his own gas, but he's probably got staffers who filled him in on how much it's costing because he wasted no time this morning telling Americans he feels our pain.
Gas is up $1.40 a gallon over the past year, he said, and he knows why:
President Bush: One of the main reasons for high gas prices is that global oil production is not keeping up with growing demand.
Our senior business correspondent Bob Moon's been spending some time today going over the president's remarks.
Hi Bob.
Bob Moon: Hello Kai.
Ryssdal: Alright, so let's get to the fundamentals, as the economists like to say: supply and demand. Is that really what's going on here?
Moon: Well, we got a leading industry analyst on the phone, Kai: Barbara Shook at the Houston research firm Energy Intelligence and she begs to differ with the president:
Barbara Shook: The U.S. market is well supplied. Do you see anybody waiting in line at the filling station?
If our little Bushie heard that, it probably made his head hurt and sent him seeking out Bro. Cheney to 'splain why his song and dance Tuesday didn't work on everyone (though I'm sure it worked on the right wing radio types).

You can read or listen to the rest of the expert analysis on Bush's speech vs reality at Marketplace "Bush speaks, we read between the lines".

Other reasonings Ms. Shook deals with:

Bush's asserted that supplies are tight because no new refineries had been built in 30 years.

Ms. Shook said refining capacity is being added for "half a million barrels of refining capacity a day and there are plans for 100,000 barrels more capacity in the next half year.

The existing refineries are expanding, and demand is going down:

Moon: And Kai, remember what I just said about demand going down. We're actually using less gasoline lately. Well that means refineries here in the U.S. have actually been cutting back on production because their margins are tightening up.

So, in the midst of a crunch refineries are cutting back? In 2002 the US Senate completed a study that found that the post refinery gasoline market was easily manipulated by just such tactics.

What Ms. Shook concludes are the real reason for the high price of oil and therefore, gasoline are

Speculation (We've heard about the bubble in commodities before, but it's no less valid for all that.)

Falling dollar

In earlier posts I've noted that other experts say Bush's stuffing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve with oil (a very important analyst says specifically the light sweet crude that every refinery wants) adds to the bubble by making an artificial shortage of the desired raw material we all need. I read recently that just the shortage, falling dollar, and inflation aren't enough to cause the actual spike we are seeing, but that the rapid stuffing of oil into the SPR makes investors think an attack on Iran is imminent. Whether Bush intends to attack Iran, or to manipulate the market so that reliable Republican donors in the form Big Energy have another windfall year on the backs of consumers, we are stuck with the results.

tags: gasoline prices oil prices iran strategic petroleum reserve

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