Nathan

A Spy Speaks Out - CBS News

Any more signs of smoke needed so we can finally put out this evil fire for good?

Rolling Stone : The Worst President in History?

Well, the worst in my short life I will say. And, like so many things these days, he had so much opportunity in front of him.

But let me say again: he is merely a puppet for a very large machine out of his control and the machine seems to be doing very well indeed.

Dallas Morning News News for Dallas, Texas Business Columnist Danielle DiMartino: "'Who wants to burn cash heading into a possible economic slowdown?' Merrill asked. 'Executives do.' "

Dallas Morning News News for Dallas, Texas Business Columnist Danielle DiMartino

About buybacks for those interested.

-THE CUNNING REALIST-: "Ready For Anything": "The prices of both oil and gold continue to rise; the former is now trading at nominal all-time highs, while the latter has been hitting new quarter-century highs day after day. This is excess liquidity coming home to roost. While the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates to mollify foreign central banks, it's made it clear that any weakness in either the stock market or the economy will be met with massive infusions of liquidity, and dollar-denominated debt will be inflated away. The world is waking up to this..."

Must read.

Google Enterprise Solutions : Google Search Appliance

Wow.

Warming melts Arctic natives' culture of cold - World Environment - MSNBC.com

The intuit keeps talking, but it seems no one is listening. Or acting.

Bush Spokesman Quits and Rove Loses a Post - New York Times

I guess he is not THAT loyal.

ESPN.com: Page 2 : Curious Guy: 'Rounders': "'People are smart.' Tommy interrupts. 'No,' he says, 'a person can be smart. People are stupid.' "

What we were talking about last night BIL though just in a different, more fun context.

The ongoing desecration of Pat Tillman: "The sparring between those who loved Pat Tillman and those who appreciated his propaganda value has been painful to watch. For months, Tillman's divorced parents -- his father, Patrick, and mother, Mary -- kept their anger and agony to themselves. "

Another short prayer goes out for Pat from this one blogger.

The Blog Raymond J. Learsy: The Gouging Starts At The Oil Well The Huffington Post: "The price of crude (which makes up more than 60 percent of the price of gasoline) has doubled in the last two years. Through a series of manipulated price hikes and phony production constraints orchestrated by the OPEC cartel and abetted by big oil companies and the lobbyists and politicians that serve them. These players have persuaded us and lulled our government into accepting and repeating the fiction that crude prices are out of our control and dictated by free market forces. And the media has for the most part accepted this as gospel without a critical nor questioning eye."

VANITY FAIR : FEATURES : CONTENT: "The administration tried to attach themselves to his virtue and then they wiped their feet with him"

Quinn: The Price of Our Oil Addiction - Newsweek Business - MSNBC.com: "That puts the oil-dependent countries in a serious bind. We're all jockeying for control of oilfields, in a vast game that runs the risk of turning mean. China and Japan are running warships near disputed oil and natural-gas deposits in the East China Sea. China is doing deals in Sudan, Venezuela and Iran (our 'bad guys'). Russia looks less friendly as we continue to invest in the oil countries around the Caspian Sea - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan.

Nobody really knows how much oil there is. State-run companies don't disclose their true reserves. But clearly there's not enough to cover long supply disruptions, and that puts future economic development at increasing risk. 'Terrorists have identified oil as the Achilles' heel of the West,' says Gal Luft, head of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. The world market is losing maybe 1.5 million barrels a day to political sabotage. In February, the Saudis foiled an attack on one of their major oil installations. Had it succeeded, it could have been an 'energy Pearl Harbor,' Luft says. No one can foresee how world markets would respond if we attack Iran, but traders are clearly running scared (oil touched $70 a barrel last week)."

Frankly I believe that this has turned very mean right now, but we are not yet seeing the full stripes of the struggle in our public papers and magazines. We are seeing it in other ways however.

Oldest ice shown, could hold climate clues - World Environment - MSNBC.com: "A million-year-old ice sample drilled from nearly two miles under the Antarctic and unveiled in Tokyo on Tuesday could yield vital clues on climate change, Japanese scientists said."

Now that is some old ice.

From the article, 'Research based on a previous study of Antarctic ice and published by Nature magazine last year said concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane were far higher now than at any time in the last 650,000 years.'

It will be interesting to see what the million year old ice has to say to us.

Bush: 'All options' possible with Iran - Mideast/N. Africa - MSNBC.com: "Bush was asked if his administration was planning for the possibility of a nuclear strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.
'All options are on the table,' he said."

Super heated rhetoric from a super dumb administration.

Las Vegas SUN: Reid says recent calls for Rumsfeld's ouster aimed at Bush: "'President Bush and (Vice President) Dick Cheney are two of the most isolated individuals I know,' the Senate Democratic leader said.
'I come back to Nevada to meet with people and hear what they're thinking.
'President Reagan was shot when he was out meeting people. President Clinton would walk through crowds. This man's father was outgoing,' Reid said. 'If Bush appears in public, people in the crowd are all screened. If they have an anti-Bush T-shirt, they don't get in. I think the president is totally isolated.' "

Bombs That Would Backfire - New York Times: "WHITE HOUSE spokesmen have played down press reports that the Pentagon has accelerated planning to bomb Iran. We would like to believe that the administration is not intent on starting another war, because a conflict with Iran could be even more damaging to our interests than the current struggle in Iraq has been. A brief look at history shows why."

Oil Prices Settle at Record, Above $70 - Yahoo! News: "ABN Amro broker Lee Fader said the trigger for Monday's rally was 'heightened fear about military action' against Iran, which has said it would go ahead with plans to enrich uranium, defying the United States, Europe and United Nations nuclear experts. Iran says its nuclear ambitions are peaceful, but the West fears the country is intent on arming itself with nuclear weapons.
'If somehow this got resolved diplomatically,' Fader said, 'that would definitely take a few dollars off' the price of crude oil."

How odd eh? The oil administration's push for war is increasing oil prices now. How convenient.

-THE CUNNING REALIST-: In Xanadu Did Kubla Khan

Unreal. we are building a vatican for our religious war.

american short-timer: "Satan's Spawn doesn't get it. Nothing new there. They never did get it. Never will. STAYING in Iraq now is the modern equivalent of keeping wartime Washington in the hands of Nazis you dumb twittering goose stepping greyhaired Himmleroid. Arrogant contemptuous fuck. YOU'RE the motherfucking NAZI shitbag Don. And too goddamned superior and fucking above it all Ubermensch Lebensraum-craven Heim Ins Reich insane to realize it. "

I love these ramblings.

Ex-Exxon CEO's Massive Pension Draws Fire - Yahoo! News

How much money is enough? Is a good question.

I like this picture. Via.

Okay, so here’s my question: why do people flush a toilet with their foot when they put their ass down on a ring that has touched a thousand asses? Seriously, I would like an answer. Especially considering to me this totally increases the risk of losing your balance and dunking your foot – what could be worse than that?

More and more I really am beginning to fundamentally believe my fluid position early on and that this effort is and was about oil and in that respect it has been EXTREMELY successful. The reason I say this is due to the evidence we now see:

The oil ministries and oil fields being extremely protected during this ongoing war while soldiers did without appropriate body armor
The ongoing drumbeat of war with Iran now to seize their strategic resources. Even though our own intelligence estimates say they are at least 10 years away from a bomb it seems we are stuck in a negative feedback loop with them where all roads lead to war.
The amazing record profits by Exxon and other oil conglomerates during this conflict.
The interesting situation whereby CNOOC (the Chinese government) placed a bid for Chevron that was immediately pounced on by our government and others. I think this example over most shows how these oil conglomerates seem to be more valuable than almost any amount of money or, sadly, blood?

I do not mean to say I have it all figured out, but I think there are a lot of things happening in the background right now in regards to this increasingly scarce resource of oil and perhaps what we really are struggling against right now is not fundamentalist Islam or the Russians or anything like that, but rather we are trying to have the means to slow down China and the far east rise?

My thinking, as you know, is that man’s dominion in general will be increasingly challenged by mother nature herself. We are ants struggling for hills as the colony languishes.

Fineman: Iran holds Bush, GOP hostage - Howard Fineman - MSNBC.com: "In 1979, young Islamic radicals (Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have been one of them) imprisoned 52 Americans in Teheran for 444 humiliating days. Today, the whole world is hostage - not only to Iran's fanaticism but, ironically, to America's diminished power, and the president's diminished standing, in the aftermath of the invasion and occupation of Iraq."

We have seemingly lost the war in more ways than just one.

Johnny Cash Highwayman lyrics: "I fly a starship across the Universe divide
And when I reach the other side
I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can
Perhaps I may become a loving kitty once again
Or I may simply be a single drop of rain
But I will remain
And I'll be back again, and again and again and again and again.."

TIME.com: Why Iraq Was a Mistake -- Apr. 17, 2006 -- Page 1: "With the encouragement of some still in positions of military leadership, I offer a challenge to those still in uniform: a leader's responsibility is to give voice to those who can't--or don't have the opportunity to--speak. Enlisted members of the armed forces swear their oath to those appointed over them; an officer swears an oath not to a person but to the Constitution. The distinction is important."

Is US considering using nukes against Iran? csmonitor.com: "Bush sees 'saving Iran' as being the key to his legacy once he finishes in office."

Can someone come save us?

White House Faces Barrage of New Questions About Intelligence Leak - Los Angeles Times: "The White House faced a barrage of questions Friday over the timing of President Bush's decision to declassify intelligence that was then leaked to the press by Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff."

The Blog Eric Boehlert: Did You Hear Katie Couric Is Leaving NBC? The Huffington Post: "Which is where the obvious double standard comes into play. Reporters want to treat the likes of Couric's new job hunt as essential, yet refuse to raise uncomfortable questions about it. The approach is more akin to celebrity reporting: Commercial triumphs are trumpeted, and while some chatter is allowed about whether the star's next vehicle will be a hit or a flop, the more pressing and potentially unpleasant questions are politely ignored."

DeLay succumbs to a poisoned chalice - Financial Times - MSNBC.com: "The bigger question is whether Mr DeLay's ousting foreshadows a larger defeat for his party in the congressional elections this autumn or whether Republicans can rebound from the loss as they did when Mr Gingrich stepped down."

The bigger question is: are we going to solve this bullshit once and for all or we headed to the inevitable revolution, Russian style?

Obama: Dems Should Stress Oil Independence - Yahoo! News: "'Saying that America is addicted to oil without following a real plan for energy independence is like admitting alcoholism and then skipping out on the 12-step program,' said Obama in a reference to one of the principal themes of Bush's State of the Union address."

A note to the republican uncle after much back and forth. Sorry you also had to be involved in that mess pops:

Thanks for the note and the call - I was out playing some poker with friends last night wasting my money and my time. The weather here is really starting to get to me: it is starting to feel like 40 days and 40 nights. I shit you not.

'For a moment, let's pretend we all live in Seattle.' It isnt hard. Even on Sunday when it was really cloudy almost all day I went for it to try and get some running in out on the basketball court and sure enough about 2 minutes after arrival the skys opened up again.

So please do pardon me some of my recent wild-eyedness. I think it is going around a bit here cause we are sissys and aren't used to this bullshit weather.

In regards to the topic at hand I am glad that we do agree on the core problem for whatever reasons. Global warming is but one aspect that I worry about (due to its potential implications), but to your point there is great uncertainty surrounding this topic. The one topic that I think many could agree with me on and see the factual science behind if desired is the sad amount of extinctions going on. We could be much better stewards of this planet and, by extension, our human future.

I hope that others soon might start to see the light. It might be hard though what with all those profits that are currently being raked in at the expense of our environment.