Blue Collar Politics

[BREAK] If you're a fan of the pithy, you'd be hard put to find a few paragraphs of minimal mainstream media verbiage that can so succinctly describe the fundamentally flawed ethos of an entire administration as well as the 5 paras from today's NY Times below!

- - - SNIP Mr. Bush, his presidency still marred one year later by the slow government response to the storm, spent the afternoon demonstrating his empathy and optimism in meetings with residents and officials along the storm-wracked coast. The trip marked an attempt by Mr. Bush to recast the legacy of the year before, when he lingered on the other side of the country before cutting short his vacation to deal with the crisis. Mr. Bush acknowledged that, for some, rebuilding may have been so gradual as to seem non-existent. But, Mr. Bush said: “For a fellow who was here and now a year later comes back, things have changed.” “I feel a quiet sense of determination that’s going to shape the future of Mississippi,” he continued. And then, in comments that could have been as applicable to the other main challenge of his administration — Iraq — Mr. Bush said: “As this part of the world flourishes, and businesses grow, people will find work and have the wherewithal to rebuild their lives.” Mr. Bush delivered his remarks at an intersection in a working-class Biloxi neighborhood against a carefully orchestrated backdrop of neatly reconstructed homes. Just a few feet out of camera range stood gutted houses with wires dangling from interior ceilings. A tattered piece of crime scene tape hung from a tree in the field where Mr. Bush spoke. A toilet seat lay on its side in the grass. - - End of SNIPPET

In almost everything this regime of bumbling war criminals and failed businessmen has touched, from Iraq through Katrina, from Social Security through the handling of security post 9/11, the US can fairly be portrayed as a Marx Brother's comedy . . . with sub-par performances by the third string buffoons filling in for the genius brothers. Unfortunately, the cast change has been accompanied by a total change in genre. Instead of a comedy piece, this real life production has become a very sad drama, bordering on the edge of horror. The same man who held a plastic turkey for his Thanksgiving photo op in Iraq now stands before a another prop, a few new buildings hiding the overall shame and ruin. I give the Times some credit here. It isn't often that the mainstream media strays from reporting just what the White House press office hands out in the press packet. By allowing the readers to get even the briefest peek behind the Bush administrations propaganda curtain, reporters Anne E. Kornblut and David Stout have gone where few of their peers dare to tread. They have, we can only hope, opened a few eyes to a fact many of us have known for a long time. Where perception is paramount, the Bushies perform swimmingly. But where progress is the prime parameter, Bushie BS fails to float. [/BREAK]

[BREAK] Meanwhile, back in the US, the wealthy, having been given huge government sponsored bonuses by shifting the tax burden from those who have to those who ain't, are driving gas guzzling Hummers to Starbucks for their morning latte! [/BREAK]

Guardian Unlimited Business | |
Brussels warns carmakers: meet targets to slash CO2 emissions or face tougher laws *Manufacturers on course to miss pledge of 25% drop *Treble annual reductions, says commissioner Nicholas Watt in Brussels Wednesday August 30, 2006 The Guardian Car manufacturers were given a blunt warning yesterday from Brussels, which said companies would face stringent laws if they failed to abide by their commitment to cut carbon dioxide emissions. European, Japanese and Korean carmakers were threatened with the "stick" of mandatory cuts in the polluting emissions after figures showed that they were on course to miss a 25% reduction in CO2 levels by 2009. Gregor Kreuzhuber, the European commission's industry spokesman, said: "The [commission] will not hesitate to replace the carrot with the stick. This would be regulation. The car industry should be aware that we are watching the situation very closely." More Here

[BREAK] Could we look any dumber to the world community?

Smog above Phoenix, Arizona
US report suggests reflective dust could reduce warming.
Photograph: Deirdre Hamill/AP US answer to global warming: smoke and giant space mirrors Washington wants scientists to develop giant space mirrors and reflective dust to block sunlight. The US government wants the world's scientists to develop technology to block sunlight as a last-ditch way to halt global warming, the Guardian has learned. It says research into techniques such as giant mirrors in space or reflective dust pumped into the atmosphere would be "important insurance" against rising emissions, and has lobbied for such a strategy to be recommended by a major UN report on climate change, the first part of which will be published on Friday.

I guess Bush thought the old Jerry Lewis film, "Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River" was an inspired documentary? I guess that any plan, no matter how daft, that doesn't ask us to cut down on our use of oil or investigate new renewable energy ideas, that might (God help us) cause some lowering of oil company profits, is a plan the current administration would fund. Of course, even were this a plan that deserved discussion, would not the other countries on the planet have a right to be consulted, BEFORE WE TURN OFF THE SUN? All this reminds me of an old, politically incorrect joke. So, I'll change it a bit. GW Bush to Nasa chief: "I want you to build a rocket that I can pilot to a landing on the sun." Nasa chief: "But Mr. President, you can't land on the sun. It would burn you up!" GW: "Well, you're not too bright. I'd land on it at night!" Only, with GW as our President, this type of joke becomes a sobering reality. [/BREAK] =====

US answer to global warming: smoke and giant space mirrors | Climate change | Guardian Unlimited Environment The US government wants the world's scientists to develop technology to block sunlight as a last-ditch way to halt global warming, the Guardian has learned. It says research into techniques such as giant mirrors in space or reflective dust pumped into the atmosphere would be "important insurance" against rising emissions, and has lobbied for such a strategy to be recommended by a major UN report on climate change, the first part of which will be published on Friday. Article continues The US has also attempted to steer the UN report, prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), away from conclusions that would support a new worldwide climate treaty based on binding targets to reduce emissions - as sought by Tony Blair. It has demanded a draft of the report be changed to emphasise the benefits of voluntary agreements and to include criticisms of the Kyoto Protocol, the existing treaty which the US administration opposes.

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[BREAK] There is one difference between the attack on Iraq and the coming attack on Iran. The time span between demonstration and attack this time will probably be shorter . . . say 2-3 weeks. In February 2003, many of us marched in the huge anti-war demonstration in NYC while others marched around our nation and around the globe. Bush (and the media) paid little attention, and the US illegally attacked Iraq approximately 5 weeks later. We violated international law and UN regulations, killed over a half-million innocent Iraqis (Bush would say we liberated them?), lost over 3000 of our most precious young warriors and misspent/lost.gave away hundreds of billion$ that our future generations will need to make up. We've performed so poorly, even Bush's Russian pal (Pooty Poot) Putin is now chastising us for making the world less safe.

Russian President Vladimir Putin blasted the United States today for acting in a unilateral, militaristic fashion that he said "overstepped" its role and made the world a more dangerous place than during the Cold War. "Nobody feels secure anymore, because nobody can take safety behind the stone wall of international law," he told an international security conference here attended by dozens of foreign and defense ministers and other officials, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates and a congressional delegation.

And, the reasons given for attacking Iraq, though now known to be lies and exaggerations, seem to mirror the reasons we now hear for attacking Iran. Just this week, in a much delayed report, we were told:

. . . a Defense Department inspector general's conclusion that a Pentagon policy office produced and gave senior policymakers "alternative intelligence assessments on Iraq and Al Qaida relations" that were "inconsistent" with the intelligence community's consensus view in the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

On March 18, there will be a similar march in NYC, and other environs. If you live in an area where a demonstration is being held, and you find you have other things to do on that day (things beside having open heart surgery, birthing your child, heading into danger in Iraq etc.), washing the blood of the future dead innocents from your hands may become a 24/7 job. And, if this demonstration has as little effect as its predecessor(s), I hope that some truly courageous leader (which really lets out the top contenders for the Presidential race in '08, sans Chuck Hagel and, just maybe, an Edwards, Gore or even Vilsack) will use the term "General Strike" in an upcoming speech. For when a war is called not as a vital national security interest, but to appease corporate interests by throwing fiscal sanity to the winds (when it comes to humongous contracts) and to guarantee a short term boost in fossil fuel for the victors, thereby stalling renewed efforts to find a desperately needed alternative source(s) of energy, the best way to get the corporate leaders attention is to hit them in the pocketbook. (Yes, you offer up a days pay. But, as any corporate leader can tell you, a day spent on a general strike takes more than a day from the corporate finances.) WE HAVE TO TAKE DEMOCRACY BACK! Impeach the Cheerleader (Bush),
Save The World! [/BREAK] =====

Target Iran: US able to strike in the spring | Iran | Guardian Unlimited Despite denials, Pentagon plans for possible attack on nuclear sites are well advanced Ewen MacAskill in Washington Saturday February 10, 2007 The Guardian
A second battle group has been ordered to the Gulf and extra missiles have already been sent out. Meanwhile oil is being stockpiled. Photograph: Reuters US preparations for an air strike against Iran are at an advanced stage, in spite of repeated public denials by the Bush administration, according to informed sources in Washington. The present military build-up in the Gulf would allow the US to mount an attack by the spring. But the sources said that if there was an attack, it was more likely next year, just before Mr Bush leaves office.

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