Category: Politics

Boomer Entitled Selfishness

Robert J. Samuelson – Entitled Selfishness – washingtonpost.com
It’s no secret that the 65-and-over population will double by 2030 (to almost 72 million, or 20 percent of the total population), but hardly anyone wants to face the implications:

? By comparison, other budget issues, including the notorious earmarks, are trivial. In 2005, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (the main programs for the elderly) cost $1.034 trillion, twice the amount of defense spending and more than two-fifths of the total federal budget. These programs are projected to equal about three-quarters of the budget by 2030, if it remains constant as a share of national income.

Opportunities for gradual change have been squandered. These public failings are also mirrored privately. I know many bright, politically engaged boomers who can summon vast concern or outrage about global warming, corporate corruption, foreign policy, budget deficits and much more — but somehow, their own Social Security and Medicare benefits rarely come up for discussion or criticism. Older boomers (say, those born by 1955) are the most cynical, hoping their benefits will be grandfathered in when inevitable cuts occur in the future.

A Brief History of Oil

Conversion from using whale oil to crude oil (rock oil) for ilumination Mid 1800″s( John D Rockefeller’s Std Oil that was its origin)and later the utilization of gasoline (a byproduct of refining to make kerosene ) to power automobiles (Henry Ford cars for the masses ) 1908 first Model T and the British Royal Navy converting from coal to oil almost overnight courtesy of Winston Churchill 1912.WW 1 won on a sea of oil. Sets off the scramble for energy assets see Iraq today.100 years of unprecedented economic growth powered by fossil fuels and now the sleeping giant China powering up using even greater amounts of fossil fuel.The world is now at a point in time using 1000 barrels of crude oil every second! James Watt perfecting the steam engine harnessing the power of steam generated by Coal to run the pumps 1756 to enable the miners in England to keep the deep pit coal mines dry from water flooding to fuel the industrial revolution of UK. England goofs sides with the hashemite kings against the whabbi kings over the deserts of Arabia and forever loses the trust of the Saud family(Whabbi Sunni) paving the way for Chevron, then Texaco to put togeather the energy giant1938-48 now known as Saudi Aramco but until 1973 owned lock stock and barrell by Exxon MObil, Chevron, Texaco and Gulf. Continue reading “A Brief History of Oil”

He’s Only Fifth Worst President

He’s Only Fifth Worst – washingtonpost.com
It’s unfair to claim that George W. Bush is the worst president of all time. He’s merely the fifth worst. In the White House Hall of Shame, Bush comes behind four other Oval Officers whose policies were even more disastrous: James Buchanan (in picture), Andrew Johnson, Richard M. Nixon and James Madison.

What makes a president horribly, immortally bad? Poor luck is not enough. Some of the greatest presidents, such as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, have inherited crises and risen to the occasion. The damage must be largely self-inflicted. And there’s another test: The damage to the nation must be substantial. Minor blunders and petty crimes do not land a president in the rogues’ gallery.

Obama Shapes an Agenda Beyond Iraq War

Obama Shapes an Agenda Beyond Iraq War
Senator Obama’s early opposition to the war in Iraq is the best known of his views, but voters taking his measure as a potential president will discover that he is a leader in securing stray weapons from the former Soviet Union, a key backer of American aid to the Congo, and that he would tend to support a missile strike on Iran if other methods fail to get Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.

Key advisers in Mr. Obama’s foreign policy orbit include Ms. Rice; a Pulitzer Prize-winning anti-genocide activist, Samantha Power; a national security adviser to Mr. Clinton, Anthony Lake, and Senator Obama’s foreign policy staffer, Mark Lippert. Continue reading “Obama Shapes an Agenda Beyond Iraq War”

Pakistan gets Nuked, after US…

Scripps Howard News Service

Some unthinkable possibilitiesQuick! Name the country we turn into a parking lot the next time al-Qaida’s network pulls off a 9/11. If your knee jerks toward Pakistan instead of Iran, your instincts are sound because conditions are falling into place for that scary scenario to unfold.

No, we won’t be toppling a regime – much less nation building – anytime soon in a country of 170 million Muslims (eight times the size of Iraq). But the United States could readily find itself unleashing the “gravest possible consequences” (remember that spooky Cold War phrase?) inside Pakistan’s borders – specifically the federally administered tribal areas that border Afghanistan. Continue reading “Pakistan gets Nuked, after US…”

Saudi Lawyer Takes On Religious Court System

Saudi Lawyer Takes On Religious Court System – washingtonpost.com
Over the past three years, Lahem has taken on the country’s most controversial and sensitive cases and turned them into high-profile indictments of the justice system. He has been thrown in jail several times and banned from traveling abroad. But he continues to fight what he considers an antiquated judiciary, out of step with basic human rights.

Saudi Arabia’s legal system is based primarily on the principles of sharia, laws derived from Islam’s holy book, the Koran, and on the Sunna, examples from the life of its prophet, Muhammad. Saudi judges follow the official Wahhabi doctrine, the most puritanical and conservative interpretation of Islam, and have wide discretion in handing down sentences.

Lahem’s latest client is a 19-year-old woman who was in a car with a male friend when she was kidnapped and gang-raped by seven men. In November, four of the men received prison sentences ranging from one to five years and 80 to 1,000 lashes, and three are awaiting sentencing. The rape victim was sentenced to 90 lashes for having been with a male friend, which is illegal in this strictly segregated country. Continue reading “Saudi Lawyer Takes On Religious Court System”

Iran’s oil exports may disappear

Report: Iran’s oil exports may disappear
Iran is suffering a staggering decline in revenue from its oil exports, and if the trend continues income could virtually disappear by 2015, according to an analysis released Monday by the National Academy of Sciences.

Iran’s economic woes could make the country unstable and vulnerable, with its oil industry crippled, Roger Stern, an economic geographer at Johns Hopkins University, said in the report and in an interview.

Iran earns about $50 billion a year in oil exports. The decline is estimated at 10 to 12 percent annually. In less than five years exports could be halved and then disappear by 2015, Stern predicted. Photo of shop in Esfahan, Iran. Continue reading “Iran’s oil exports may disappear”

Police killer suspect fled Britain in a veil

Police killer suspect fled Britain in a veil – Britain – Times Online
A man who was being hunted for the murder of a policewoman is understood to have escaped from Britain by disguising himself as a veiled Muslim woman.

Mustaf Jama, a prime suspect in the fatal shooting of PC Sharon Beshenivsky, assumed his sister’s identity — wearing the niqab and using her passport — to evade supposedly stringent checks at Heathrow, according to police sources.

The use of the niqab, which leaves only a narrow slit for the eyes, highlights flaws in British airport security. At the time, Jama was Britain’s most wanted man, while Heathrow was on a heightened state of alert after the 7/7 terrorist atrocities in London five months previously.

Iraqi soldiers eat frogs, rabbit at handover ceremony

Iraqi soldiers eat frogs, rabbit at handover ceremony | International News | Reuters.com

Click on picture to enlarge
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraqi soldiers bit the heads off frogs and ate the heart of a rabbit as signs of courage on Wednesday at a ceremony to transfer Najaf province, home to one of Shi’ite Islam’s holiest shrines, from U.S. to Iraqi control.

Politicians, tribal and religious leaders and soldiers watched displays of military prowess and one demonstration, hailed as a display of courage, in which five soldiers stopped before the grandstand to bite the heads off frogs.A sixth holding a live rabbit slit open its stomach and ate its heart before tossing the carcass to his comrades to chew on.

There are only three options in Iraq.

There are only three options in Iraq. – By Christopher Hitchens – Slate Magazine
In 1991, which is also the year when the present crisis in Iraq actually began, it was Saudi influence that helped convince President George H.W. Bush and Secretary of State James Baker to leave Saddam Hussein in power and to permit him to crush the Shiite intifada that broke out as his regime reeled from defeat in Kuwait.

Many people write as if the sectarian warfare in Iraq was caused by coalition intervention. But it is surely obvious that the struggle for mastery has been going on for some time and was only masked by the apparently iron unity imposed under Baathist rule. That rule was itself the dictatorship of a tribal Tikriti minority of the Sunni minority andconstituted a veneer over the divisions beneath, as well as an incitement to their perpetuation

Continue reading “There are only three options in Iraq.”