Yeah, I know it’s an American thing to do this. Yeah, I know it’s awkward for a president to do this. Yeah, I know that he still hasn’t visited a single funeral of a fallen American Soldier - but hey - at least he gave up Golf to show solidarity with the families who lost someone in the war …
No, I am not kidding.
Keith Olbermann once again points out the truth: the US Goverment made huge efforts to legalize their perverse desires and allow torture again as a means of interrogation.
It is such a sad story.
Finally the boss of the American Federal Reserve confronts reality -and uses the dreaded ‘R’-Word.
How much more obvious does American decline to be to get Washington and the public to act?
The US Dollar is weaker then the Canadian Dollar.
The Euro has eclipsed the Dollar and stands good chances to become the dominant currency for reserves.
The US infrastructure is crumbling and underfunded.
The middle class is slowly disappearing, instead tent cities are appearing.
Even Wall Street and big banks are in serious trouble.
The Industrial-Military-Complex has worked in the past - but only because it employed massive amounts of people. Today’s streamlined and outsourced manufacturing no longer is a benefit to the American masses (only to the stockholders).
Who is to blame? A lazy US congress, a very bad President, the huge American deficit, the expensive war in Iraq and the total lack of good oversight of the financial markets and big business.
I wonder if most Americans will ever understand how long the Bush legacy, deficit and his idiotic war will burden their lives?
Once again Frontline delivers an excellent documentary about current US affairs. Once again solid work offering many insight. Once again Frontline helps us to put many pieces of the puzzle into one big picture. Once again - thank you Frontline for the great work and allowing us bloody foreigners to watch the whole thing online.
More? Watch it all online with many bonus interviews you won’t see on TV.
It’s now the last year of his regency - the Age of the Ape is coming to an end. Aren’t we all happy?!
But how will clean up all the poo left behind? Will anyone be brave enough to maybe impeach the Ape just before the end? I think this Ape is mostly surrounded by chickens …
“Tell me Darling, that little war made you even richer? You just wait - a 100$ per barrel is nothing I tell ya … by the way I got some nice guns for ya too …”
Just one more year with this most terrible of modern American Presidents and his evil Overlord Dick Cheney. The list of scandals and deaths in his name is incredible. But I am really wondering if a regime change will really change anything?
The military addiction and capitalist mechanism of congress and the industry won’t be changed.
Unless the US military MASSIVLY reduces it’s foreign bases - and it’s budget get’s cut in half (and it would still be the biggest on this planet) nothing will change.
Click image for closer look.
Apart from the many unsolved questions of 9/11 and mysteries surrounding this even - this is one amazing image.
I am a big fan of Frontline and it many great documentation - not only because you can watch so many great reports online. This one is important, because it shows what really happened at Abi Graib and HOW it happened. I still can’t belief that Rumsfeld is still in Office and this Gonzales guy got even a bigger job.
I hope that one day they will be brought to justice, like Osama or any other terrorist - because what Rumsfeld ‘allowed’ was political terrorism - nothing else.
Since the introduction of the Euro the Dollar has lost almost a quarter of it’s value. George Bush’s terrible trade politics and the war based on mostly foreign credit is responsible for the weakness.
Now China - who has huge reserves and has bought many US government bonds - is sounding the alarm. After all: the US are China’s biggest customer. But a weak dollar means less income and profit for the Chinese economy. And China hardly is interested to follow the fall of the Dollar - especially since petrol is still paid in Dollars.
Several times now China has warned the US Government to bolster the weak Dollar - but America has reacted with an ignorant sneer so far.
If China would retreat from the Dollar it would have enormous consequences for the US. But this would be a home made fiasco.
“The American Christian fundamentalists are nothing like the Taliban.”
The Taliban used football fields to execute people. They enforced stoning and other cruel laws of the Sharia. They suppressed women, they disliked music, drugs and movies - all that fun stuff. A terrible regime of orthodox believers. Agreed the Taliban were terrible.
American Christian fundamentalists so far haven’t killed anyone - their actions are within the law of the land. Physical violence isn’t anywhere near the Talibans bloody actions. So the American fundamentalists are ‘better’ then their afghan counterparts?
Measuring a society or group just by their usage of physical violence is a bad and not very precise tool.
The basic concept of fundamentalism is that their version of ‘reality’ is the only truth that is acceptable. Anything else can (maybe) tolerated, but never accepted.
Visit www.americanfundamentalists.com to view the image in a larger size - and learn some other stuff as well.
But acceptance of plurality is the most important cornerstone of our modern democracies. This very acceptance is shown in the rule of law that everyone is the ’same’: we all have the same rights, the same obligations - although we are different individuals and by no means the same.
Religions fundamentalists and modern states both have laws and rules, which more or less make sense. But the very difference is who made the law: either they are eternal, because they were made by some God or they are in constant development, because they are made by man and still adapted, expanded and changed.
This also shows a very basic psychological element of the fundamentalist: with a rule set given by your eternal Overlord you have a ‘perfect’ and static system to live by. Not much surprise there. Very different to a pluralists society that continuously changes itself. Although your life might be difficult at times you at least know with a fundamentalist mindset what is right or wrong.
We are right! We are right! We are right!
Here we encounter another problem with fundamentalists: anything that is ‘wrong’ according to his/her believe basic system has to be changed. These people are on a holy mission. Now this is very contrary to ‘in the name of the people’ when you want to change society ‘in the name of the Lord’.
In a Democracy you need the consent of the majority, you need to agree. In a fundamentalist system there is nothing to agree on, no need for debate or even change. Anything that comes from the Lord is not open for discussion. This is especially explosive when a Priest or any other Leader ‘claims’ to speak the Lord’s words. How do you ask God if that person is really his Prophet? You can challenge any law, policeman and politician in court, but again there is no discussion with the word of God.
Lets come back to our American Christian fundamentalists. They are much smarter then the Taliban. They won’t use physical violence to change society - they simply change the laws so society has to adapt. Instead of accepting plurality they use lobbyism, votes and money to enforce only their fundamentalist views.
This is one of the greatest weaknesses of Democracy, that it’s very openness to change and populism allows it’s own destruction. Once again it is important to mention the Hitler lesson (Newsflash: Orangeguru says Christians are Nazis). He was voted into power and slowly abolished democratic laws one by one with popular consent until there was only ‘ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer’ (one people, one country, one Führer).
How the erosion of American pluralist consent is progressing can best be documented by the fierce fight about ‘intelligent design’ and abortion. Slowly the fundamentalists ideas are introduced and cemented into popular opinion as the only truth in small steps. I especially admire the propaganda and rhetoric’s to actually use pluralism to enforce fundamentalism: hey, why don’t you teach ‘intelligent design’ - it’s just another form of science?!
Abortion is wrong / terrible for other reasons - not because your God said so.
But the war on abortion speaks even louder: here pressure groups have been working for decades to enforce their mostly religious point of view onto American society. On PBS.org is an excellent documentation ‘The last abortion Clinic’ that show you how fundamentalist lobbyism can work wonders against pluralism.
So, is there such a thing as an American Taliban? Yes, there is! The methods might be different, but their attitude is very much the same. Most of all over the recent years we can see the ‘just anger’ and aggression against anything liberal and pluralistic getting fiercer and fiercer.
And it’s that religious righteousness I am most afraid of.
AP: Iran says it’s safe from US attack
Yeah, right. I think this must be a generational problem in Iran. All current political and military leaders have fought through the Iran-Iraq war, which was mostly a bloody ground war - almost all WWI style. This old (revolutionary) guard still clings onto their belief that they can hold their own against a US ground attack.
But the US won’t commit any ground troops. Like with Serbia it will bomb Iran back to the stone age. Sure - Iran has many missile defenses (bought from China and Russia). But the US has many missiles and bunker buster that thirst for war.
The US Army is certainly very busy and overstretched at the moment with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - but the US Airforce and the Navy felt a bit left out of loop and want some of the action too. This would be their chance to shine and show that all these supergimmicks they have bought in recent years are quite nice too.
The Iranian defense budget (2005 = 6 billion Dollar) is a joke compared to the American. Check out also the lists of Weapon systems of the Iranian Navy, Army and Airforce. Most stuff is actually American made and was bought by the Shah an totally outdated.
Some newer stuff is from Russia - but hardly in huge numbers or very sophisticated. It’s navy is hardly larger or as powerful as an American carrier group.
And the Americans have had a lot of practice the recent years …
Another excellent documentation from the PBS Frontline crew! It’s about the current Iran and USA situation - and how the current Shrub administration once again missed the chance for diplomacy.
You can watch the whole show online.
See also BBC News Iran vs USA timeline for some background.
Hey Al, you have been cheated out of your Presidency - but the rest of the world loves you and appreciates your tireless effort to save humanity. Not many politician are so dedicated and willing to fight again for an important cause after they received a kick in the butt.
Can’t wait to see all the venom and hate you get from the American rightwing for winning the Peace Nobel Price. Peace seems a hard thing to swallow for some people …
More? BBC some early reactions
The US wants that Iran, North Korea and many other countries give up their atomic bombs. On the other side they recently started new programs to build such weapons of mass destruction (or even smaller tasks like bunker busting). Plus recent events have shown us, that the US adopted a new doctrine to strike first …
Anyone surprised that even more countries want nukes?!
[Warning: long rant ahead ... skip if you are bored by politics ...]
For years now political blogs have branded the Bush regime as a fascist elite - transforming the US of A into a Brown State.
If you search Hitler+Bush on Google you get a gazillion articles and images - plus reports like that (father of a fallen soldier beaten up by pro war citizens) and this (student gets tasered by the police asking annoying questions) seem to support the argument. The US is slowly turning into a new Nazi Germany.
I think it’s fundamentally wrong to compare modern forms of Fascism always with old ones from the Hitler era. Like Democracy all forms of government change and adapt - even the bad ones.
For example: today society ‘exists’ more in a virtual form instead of ‘the street’. So you no longer need many thugs or brown shirts to push your agenda. Mental control and groupthink work today much better then 1933 - especially in a ever more complex and diverse media world. There is much more entertainment, hobbies and consumerism out there to distract you from ‘real’ life and politics then 1933.
Most people are afraid of real freedom and complexity. They love almost anything that ‘makes nasty stuff and thoughts’ go away. It doesn’t matter if it’s a pill against restless leg syndrome or immigrants - something easy to swallow is preferred over anything complicated or personal involvement.
Dude, this Democracy stuff is hard work …
Typical right wingers or conservative have this symptom ("We are the good ones, all others are bad.") as well as those who are so called green and progressive types ("Back to nature, modern science and/or corporations are destroying us!").
BBC News: Dollar hits new low against euro
What did people expect to happen? The ever growing American trade deficit, the costs of the War on Terror and simply bad fiscal policy will weaken the Dollar more and more:
The dollar has been weakening for some time.
The fundamental problem is the growing US trade deficit, now more than $700bn, as the US economy has imported far more goods than it has exported.
This has long been seen as unsustainable, and in the long-run some kind of currency adjustment has been seen as both inevitable and desirable.
But the recent change in policy by the US central bank has accelerated the decline, because people who put their money in dollars no longer get such a high rate of return.
So it will be only a matter of time until some oil nation will trade only in Euros instead of Dollars. China won’t be so stupid and ruin it’s big market and put pressure on the Dollar as well, but I am sure they will diversify their cash reserves as well.
If there is going to be another recession of black Monday or something the reason will be most likely bad American monetary policy.
The 9/11 anniversary past almost unnoticed last weekend. Some articles here and there … it is already yesterday’s news.
BBC News - US surge ‘failure’ says Iraq poll
Anyone surprised?
While President Shrub is busy scrubbing the Generals report the BBC, ABC News and NHK asked 2.000 Iraqis what they had to say.
Here is another comment by the BBC: Petraeus buys time for Iraq strategy.
This conflict has been ranging since 2003 longer then WWII - and it won’t go away any day soon. Hardly anyone supports this war in the US of A. Finally all american magazines, TV stations and almost all political pundits have turned from being pro-war to anti-war … or at least do some more serious reporting.
Europe has been much more critical from the beginning - since we cheese eating surrender monkeys had our fair share of it.
This is the first blogged war: soldiers, voters, journalists and civilians tell their stories in a gazillion postings. YouTube has tons of war pr0n and charming calls for peace …
I dare to ask: made it ANY difference?
The Bloggers have lost this war. No matter how well these arm chair activists have debunked every talking point of President Shrub and his cronies - the war is still raging. The political fallout was minimal, because the US Democrats are spineless and the american public mostly ignorant for what is done in their name.
Overall it is almost amusing how the political american left and right blogosphere has used the war to establish itself - celebrating it’s self proclaimed importance. This is satire at best when I read the continuing phoney rage against the war and the political opponents.
Muuuu … there is cash for you!
Discussing the war is now a business and therefore contributes to the economy of the industrial military complex. Daily Kos profited as much from it as Michelle Malkin.
Although politicians read blogs and have their own it is still money that makes the political system go round. Grass roots poltical funding has made the Howard Dean a phenomenon in the 2004 US elections, but it has turned just into another cash cow. And the biggest and baddest money fountains are still in the hands of companies and lobby groups.
So blogs are just political opinions and unless you can translate that into serious money and votes it won’t change ANYTHING.