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We went to war for oil in Iraq.
Dick Cheney said so….
Though hailed as heroes upon marching into Baghdad, we squandered our good will in our grab for the oil rights. Iraqi’s sat up and said, “wait a minute, this is our oil”…
Americans changed presidents and Iraqi’s had the last laugh….
Blew that one.
Cheney was the person responsible.
What the fuck are we in Afghanstan for… Poppies?
Actually no.
Rare earth elements… know about them?
Currently China has a monopoly on rare earth elements. These materials at the bottom of the periodic tables are the responsible for almost all electronics being made today. They are the reason electronic packages have gotten so much smaller this last decade. Today’s phone carries more data as a large stand-alone did in 2000….
“The mineral resources in Afghanistan have the potential to completely transform the nation’s economy,” — said Regina Dubey, DOD Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO).
In total, the USGS studied 24 formations, the most prominent being the giant copper and cobalt deposits near Kabul, the iron-rich areas in central Afghanistan, the copper and gold resources in southeastern Afghanistan, and rare-earth element deposits in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. Many other precious and base metal deposits as well as industrial mineral deposits also are highlighted in the newly released reports.
To see maps of individual deposits, go here….
Quickly said, this is about as good as finding gold on the moon, a correlation with which many of our servicemen will identify.
We can rest assured that under the competent Democratic leadership of Obama and Clinton, these minerals WILL remain the property of Afghans, and therefore, will not be subject to the same claims of imperial conquest which were corroborated in Iraq.
It is correct to say, this is no Vietnam. America’s investment interest in Afghanistan has surpassed the dollar investment we have already sown. WE have to make sure we exit in such a way that they choose to show us the good will as did the Japanese, Germans, Chinese and South Koreans… We should take care not to piss them off as Dick Cheney was so good at doing to his ilk.
Perhaps a good diplomatic session is in order, with the punch line being:… you can choose your future and you have two options: work with us as did South Korea, or… fight against us… and remain impoverished as their neighbor to the north….
When your mom gets cancer. You don’t hate your mom. You hate the cancer.
Likewise, it was hard not to like the German people during WWII. It was easy to hate the fact that they were trying to kill you.
And so it is with Republicans… 99% of them are just like us. They too love their country; they too want it fixed; they too are angry, frustrated that events are not moving at fast-forward..
They are wonderful people; who also, happen to be Americans. We can never forget that if we were together in a bar with beer, wine, and spirits flowing like milk and honey, we’d all have a “gay ole time” (Flintstones’ reference) …
We want the same things, and we should be working together on fixing America… but we can’t….
Because of the Cancer…..
That cancer is not necessarily the Republican Party, but it is, the force that IS currently manipulating the Republican Party. That cancer is not a single person in the Republican hierarchy… It is instead that revision of the old cancer, that originally was against recognizing new states into the Federal Union. It is that old cancer that kept slavery legal for thirty years beyond when it should have been eliminated. It is the revision of that old cancer that kept blacks as second class citizens across the South. It is the cancer that fought against giving the Negro their Civil Rights. It is that cancer that denied Tobacco caused cancer. It was the same cancer that encouraged the killing of 4 students at Kent State, to teach those dirty hippies who listened to the Doors, a lesson they wouldn’t forget. It is the same cancer that denied the process of evolution, denied birth control, denied NPR, and ran rampant against all evidence of global warming…… Each time; they were wrong.
It is the same cancer that blew up a building in Oklahoma City.
It is the same cancer that fired bullets into working men and women who were refusing to work, until they got a raise…
It is the same cancer that took out Gabby Gifford……
With all these offenses, it is easy to point your finger and say, “Damn you Republicans..” It is in fact, way too easy.
But is not the people voting Republican who are to blame… They, like the German people, are bystanders. often gaping wide eyed when shown the truth, of what their support for the force of evil did to innocent men and women.
It is easy to turn all Republicans into demons if you don’t talk to them. But listening to them talk, (and we’re talking real people here, not their David Korsch’s) it is very easy to find common ground.
That common ground is this: sure, you tax the wealthy, and we’ll cut spending and together we’ll have high revenue with less expense, and be out of this mess in no time….
This is what every card carrying Republican is telling me, that is of course, if they don’t subscribe to the “cult-like” Republican meetings…. They say: “tax the fuckin’ wealthy; it won’t affect me; Just make sure that extra money is not wasted but is used to pay down the waste we already spent!”
Democrats have already offered to cut Medicare, Social Security, Defense Spending, all those things dear to their heart… So the problem isn’t them.
The problem is with the Republicans, who have balked on the tax issue, especially when it comes to raising taxes on millionaires… yet they have no qualms raising taxes on the middle class and poor. Republicans have shut down the Federal Government four times this year. Four times! They did so each time because the obvious was about to happen. WE were about to get a consensus among the rational members of both parties on how we were going to raise taxes and cut expenses (at the same time) which would bring us into line.
They pulled out of negotiations and said: we will not raise taxes one penny… and also, we will not do any business either in the House or Senate, until the Bush Tax Cuts are permanent.
And that,in one sentence, is why nothing gets done.
It’s as if a terrorist broke into your workplace. Under gunpoint he straps C4 to several of your firm’s employees, and starts firing his gun out the window to get everyone’s attention….
Rule Number 1: You don’t negotiate with terrorists.
That is the problem Obama and the rest of America is faced with, raising this question:
Do we attack (shut down government) and later clean up, or do we negotiate something we can both live with?
What do you do with cancer… Leave it? live with it?
There’s your answer to today’s political gridlock.
Removing all Democrats will be like having the Brits flee France across the channel, leaving the Nazi’s to run France without contention….
Removing all Republicans will be like marching triumphantly into Berlin.
It is pretty obvious who is the cancer and who is not. WE, THE PEOPLE, can’t let it linger any longer. The cancer must go, preferably without killing its host in the process…
Never give up. In fact, the two comeback teams who took out giants, both had players who said the same things…. “When we were told it was over, we decided to start playing our best, just so we could save face. Who knew it would be enough to get us in..”
If you believe in America, the Constitution, the middle class, it’s time: you need to start playing your best. We are under attack.
It takes a lot of effort to sort out the truth. The truth is out there and that truth is: all our woes come from Republicans. Perhaps they think they truly think they are doing the right thing (because for the wealthy, they are), but they represent such a minority, that what seems right for them, comes as an expense to us.
And without effort on our part, they’ll win. We’ll lose.
Republicans have ground effective government to a halt. The Senate can’t even get a vote together to open or adjourn.
Anyone who has ever watched Star Wars knows exactly why they are doing it…. In that movie, it was to blame the Jedi.
Today, it is done in the pretense of blaming Obama for these failed two years…
But all one has to do, is sit the chambers one day to know they are the ones to blame: they are the “evil” that has stymied the forces of good…
Just one person can halt legislation for 36 hours, and Republicans never fail to use it. It never used to be that way.
With every vote, even those of routine matters with no political consequence,(such as adjournment of the Senate for an earthquake), the Republicans have invoked the rule of cloture, basically requiring all members to be present in two days to have a formal vote, just so that the normal business of the Senate can go forward… .
Here is Wikipedia’s version of what the rule of cloture does:
The procedure for “invoking cloture,” or ending a filibuster, is as follows:
A minimum of sixteen senators must sign a petition for cloture.
The petition may be presented by interrupting another Senator’s speech.
The clerk reads the petition.
The cloture petition is ignored for one full day during which the Senate is sitting. For example, if the petition is filed on Monday, it is ignored until Wednesday. (If the petition is filed on a Friday, it is ignored until Tuesday, assuming that the Senate did not sit on Saturday or Sunday.)[12]
On the second calendar day during which the Senate sits after the presentation of the petition, after the Senate has been sitting for one hour, a “quorum call” is undertaken to ensure that a majority of the Senators are present. However, the mandatory quorum call is often waived by unanimous consent.
The President of the Senate or President pro tempore presents the petition.
The Senate votes on the petition; three-fifths of the whole number of Senators (sixty with no vacancies) is the required majority
Allowing this scenario:
Democrat: Mr. President: I would like to leave to pee for a moment and return shortly to finish my speech…
Republican: Mr. President: The minority files for a rule of cloture on this measure.
President of the Senate: Are you Republicans mad?
Republicans: We remind the acting president of the chamber, that it is within our rights based on Senate Rule 22 to invoke the rule of cloture.
President: But the poor man just wants to pee.
Republicans: It is our right, it’s in the rules, and there is no amendment to those rules excusing this from that application.
Democrats: Surely the Republicans are not going to hold up this inconsequential act for something so minor, so routine, as having the poor Senator go to the Bathroom?
Republicans: Here is our petition Mr. President. Signed by the following: Minority Leader Mitch McConnell; Minority Whip John Kyl; Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander; Policy Committee Chairman John Thune; Conference Secretary John Barrasso; Campaign Chairman John Cornyn; Richard Shelby; Jeff Sessions; Marco Rubio; Mike Crapo; Rand Paul; Pat Toomey;Jim DeMint…..
President: All seems to be in order; Will the Clerk please read the petition.
Clerk: Mr President, we the following do protest this atrocity to the American way. If the express words are not hand-written into the Constitution, then it doesn’t belong in government. We can find no paragraph in the Constitution where it says a Senator may leave the floor to pee… Before this moves forward we invoke the rule of cloture to require the full Senate to vote on this matter of grave Constitutional Concern. Signed: The Republicans….
Democrats: We request that the offer to invoke cloture be rescinded. It is a matter of human decency that this Senator be allowed to pee….
Republicans: We will not, Mr. President. It is a Constitutional matter, and the problems of one little Senator have no bearing here. It does not specifically say in the Constitution that a Senator can leave the floor to pee and so we must have that matter go before the full body in order to prove it musters the required approval under the rules, of the American people.
President: Under the rules, I am powerless to override it. This matter will be taken up not tomorrow, which being Friday, means it will be taken up on Monday, at some time post one hour after the Senate has convened, provided there is no rule of cloture being offered by Republicans to halt that convening. There will be not further hearings on this matter till then… (Gavel sounds) The floor is open for new business
Democrat: Mr President, now I have to poop. May I please be excused…
Republican: Mr. President: The minority files for a rule of cloture on this new measure. ……
….
And so nothing gets done in the Senate for 36 hours. It is a fact that this rule of cloture has been invoked more since the Tea Partiers came to town, than over the entire history of Congress…..
Republicans are a problem.
Lesson learned from the Wild Cards? Never give up; in fact now is the time to start playing our best…. Who knows what may happen? But giving up? Sets our fate in stone…. as in tombstone…. RIP Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves.
This is the proper response to Mitch McConnell’s, Eric Cantor’s, and John Boehner’s calls to financier Warren Buffet to show his tax returns.
The intimidation comes from the fact that some things are meant to remain private… Ewwww.
Income tax forms are one, especially to a financier…even if to just prevent crap like this… “Mr. Buffet!.. Why did you invest in Sears while they owned K-mart which sold R-rated movies to children not over 18?”
Income Tax Returns are kept private to prevent stupid people who inhabit caves like those at the Sleezer Sloddy Sinstitute from perverting hard data into personal slights.
Anyone can pervert anything. Most of America knows that by now. We learn that by third grade. It is just that most of us have the decency to know that such perversion is pointless and that stooping to that level, actually is demeaning to us, and not to those victims we are trying to bully and torture.
Most Republicans never graduated past second grade, however, which is why you have to resort to their levels sometimes.
So, Senator Mitch McConnell, Representative Eric Cantor, and John Boehner… Why are their never any women around you when photo ops occur? Why do you always have what look like neutered Voldermorts as your support staff? Is it really because between the 3 of you, you can’t even muster 9 inches, so naturally, no women has any inclination to hang around you?
And why is it, that you don’t get measured in public? You afraid of the truth?
C’mon, Stumpies… why are you so chicken? (2 inches?) You pretend you are so tough, but yet, you won’t even attempt to man up? You pretend to be so tough, asking Warren Buffet to show his tax returns… and yet when your own manhood is questioned… silence?
Stumpies…
It has nothing to do with facts. It is about power.
Troy Davis, whose conviction had plenty of doubt surrounding it’s authenticity, was put to death… just because.
Because they could.
They could also have stayed his execution…
I remember George W. Bush doing the same thing. I remember Rick Perry actually bragging about himself doing the same thing. It is almost that they would rather be seen as unwavering or decisive, than be seen as right or correct in what they do….
History is full of their other miscalculations.
Yellow cake is in Iraq.
Nuclear weapons are in Iraq.
Chemical weapons are in Iraq.
Al Qaeda and Saddam are in cohoots.
Nuclear Power is the safest energy source available.
Wind and Solar are too expensive of commercial application.
Drilling off Florida’s beaches will drop gas prices today.
And yet when someone provides real information that doesn’t fit in their narrow view of the world, such as… “Osama Bin Laden seeks to attack US (August 6 CIA brief)… they ignore it.
This disregard for truth, and penchant for fantasy, is disastrous…. I would not be surprised if Rick Perry said America would be safe because Iron Man was an American and would protect us. He knows it in his heart to be true…
Well, I have news for Mr. Rick Perry. The heart sometimes lies. The heart sometimes is wrong, and the heart can make people do absolute crazy things they regret later….
Just ask Casey Anthony’s daughter…
Cold logic. facts, balancing and weighing alternatives, long, arduous negotiations, sanctions, are the real impetus of long lasting change.
And cheaper. Iraq? $1 trillion mistake. Afghanistan? $1 trillion mistake…. But the impetus of action by Republican leadership, caused this nation to be hit by two torpedoes. …
“Damn the torpedoes” makes a good story… when one gets it right… as supposedly did David Farragut in the Battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864….
But getting it wrong?
Which is why Troy Davis is so tragic.
Exactly one year ago tomorrow… September 23, Delaware Libertarian posted it’s last post.
Diametrically different.
On the opposite end is Norway. The Norwegian Corporate Rate is 28%. Their Income Tax rate is 48%. They are one of the highest taxed nations in the world. They also have been ranked as the nation with the highest standard of living for several years in a row.
Ireland got a lot of press by the Investment Papers because of it’s low corporate tax rate. It was an economic miracle.
Then came the crises.
Here are the unemployment numbers out of Ireland June 2004: 4.4%; July 2011: 14.1%….
Here are the unemployment numbers out of Norway..June 2004%:4.4%; July 2011: 3.3%
During boom times both nations had equally low unemployment. One nation taxed heavily; the other taxed very lightly. One nation was run democratically; the other was run as Republicans wish they could run the USA……
The Democratic country, currently has an unemployment level of 3.3% … The USA has an unemployment level of 9.1%… The Republican run country, currently has an unemployment level of 14.1%….
Why?
The reason is simple as the Aesop’s fable: the grasshopper and the ants. While Republicans are frivolously playing around during times of plenty, Democrats with higher taxes are investing in their future for rainy days…..
Taxes are a means of stabilizing the economy. Norway did just that. The nation with the highest level of taxes, has the lowest unemployment and the highest standard of living on this planet.
Throw that in Mitch McConnell’s face when he says high taxes cost jobs. Truth is: they don’t.
Jobs go where taxes are highest. In both good times and bad, if taxes are high, a nation’s people stay employed…….
We are approaching the 45 anniversary of one of the foundations of our development. Even if we weren’t followers, quite often our bosses, mentors, or best friends were, so we had to deal with the consequences and irregardless, were shaped in some ways by this event…..
This past September the Eighth, marked the 45th birthday of the series Star Trek. Who would have guessed it would have spawned 5 more series for a total of 6, 11 full length movies, dozens of games, hundreds of novels (all read by Hube of course), and a Las Vegas theme park?…..
It took me a while to “get it”… As a science fiction buff, I was into the special effects, the glory of something new every week, and believe or not, we discussed the concepts found in Star Trek in our higher math classes….
But coming back to it later… (it was cheesy seeing the special effects of the 60s with bulbous Christmas lights representing massive computers)..I see a fundamental truth illustrated that pretty well defines all mankind throughout our species’ existence…..
When confronted with a crises, the decider(Kirk)listens to reason (Spock) and emotions (Bones) and then determines a best guess, and luckily each week it was the right one….
The interaction is hyped between the characters so one can plainly see that at times listening only to emotions will get one in trouble; at other times, listening only to reason will get one in trouble, so neither approach to such an argument is sacrosanct…….
Interestingly, reason or pure logic gets portrayed by an outside influence, a Vulcan in this case, someone not human…. At first glance this person representing “reason and logic” appears weird, possibly untrustworthy…..
But usually he is right.
The lesson carries today. Our conservative friends may quaff at the reason being given by one who is on the surface, different in appearance.
They, like Bones, are governed by emotions: fear, loathing, and hatred and sometimes, yes, love….. (seems to happen a lot in airport bathroom stalls)….
It will be a combination of both, that pulls us out of this weeks crises. Next week, stay tuned… same time; same channel…
I’ve now written 1600 posts.
Cool.
Facts are a Republicans worst nightmare…..
Republicans zero’d out the Interagency Council on Homelessness. This agency is what makes churches and private taking care of homeless possible.
Republicans zero’d out $1.1 billion from Head Start. Putting 200,000 toddlers on the streets, and eliminating 55,000 teachers.
Republicans zero’d out the Administration on Aging, and cut out block grants which keep Meals on Wheels and Senior Centers alive.
Republicans cut out 81,000 people from getting food each day, by zeroing out the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides food to low-income Americans….
Republicans zero’d out money being sent to poverty-focused international assistance programs, which will largely hurt women and girls who have no other source of food or medical help.
But they will not raise one penny on millionaire and billionaires…
These guys are really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, … sick.
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