Liberal Protest Vs Armed Resistance

by max blunt
Review of Pacifism as Pathology | By Ward Churchill

This short book outlines how pacifism in the US is connected to a practice that poses no threat to the status quo.

And gives the illusion the state gives a damn about candlelight vigils and symbolic arrests; that actively undermines people doing effective organizing and action against the state.

Ward Churchill underscores the urgency of situation today: the American empire sustaining its rule by exploiting and dominating the world, abroad and at home.

Understanding that, how can we categorically foreclose even the idea of the use of violence? And how can we blame the victims of state violence for being too militant?

This is a small but indispensable volume for anyone seriously interested in social change, and who sooner or later may have to consider the place of violence in the general scheme of things.

As the title implies, and wasting little time in preparing the audience for what will surely be a disturbing argument to many, the author lays out his case against white progressives.

Or, to be precise, the liberal/social democratic complacent legions of mostly well-educated middle and upper middle class activists.

They are deemed "delusional" not only in the ineffectual tactics and strategies they pursue (which the ruling elites are only too happy to accommodate as per a well-scripted minuet), but in the belief that they are actually performing revolutionary acts...LINK

The Farce on the War on Drugs

by Frosty Wooldridge

My brother Howard Wooldridge served as a decorated police officer and detective in Lansing, Michigan for 18 years. During that time, he collared killers, drunk drivers, child molesters, rapists, wife beaters and drug dealers. What he learned launched him on a crusade to stop the federal government’s useless 35 year “War on Drugs.”

My brother stands so passionate about his cause that he rode his horse Misty 3,300 miles coast to coast across America in 2005. To gain attention, his sweat-stained T-shirt read, “Cops Say Legalize Drugs: Ask Me Why.”

The drug war costs American taxpayers $70 billion a year and over the past 35 years, costs approach a trillion dollars. Result? Drugs remain CHEAPER and MORE available than 35 years ago.

“The war on drugs,” said Howard Wooldridge, one of the founders of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition at www.leap.cc. “How is that working for us in America? Is it reducing crime? Is it reducing rates of death and disease? Is it effective in keeping drugs and drug dealers away from our children? Is it making America safer and more prosperous? As my profession chases drugs, what are we missing? These are important questions as this prohibition approach costs us taxpayers some 70 billion dollars this year.”.....LINK

Imagine a Country, Free

by Matt Kjeldsen

America has always been the land of the free and the home of the brave, composed of vast expanses of countryside, herds of bison and pronghorns, economic expansion, and freedom of will and destiny from birth until death. But alas, this country that we were taught to value above all others and pridefully defend as the one true beacon of righteousness on a planet full of greed, small-mindedness and intolerance does not actually exist. If it were not for the television programming, we all, as a country, would already realize this. But as it is, we collectively await our fall, in love with the vision of ourselves, but oblivious to the ominous curtain closing on our American stage.

We’ve been arguing about women’s rights and homosexuality and gun laws, while the system has been pilfering our freedoms, one by one. Extremely wealthy and powerful, un-elected entities have been deciding who our representatives will be and how they will vote on an agenda decided out of public sight for so long now, that we’ve come to accept it as normal. Each year, thousands of new laws are passed. All of them cost the American citizen two things; money and freedom.

Unfortunately, there are needed laws. Unfortunately, people murder, rape and steal, and corporations pollute, murder, rape and steal and so, we must have laws to deal with these abhorrent behaviors. However, what is the justification for the other thousands of laws added in every state House, in every city and county, and nationally each session? Behind the scenes some group is spending enormous amounts of money to buy legislation in order to make much more money or attain control over something that will provide power. The legislation will be funded by the people and the restrictions will be handed down to the people.....LINK

What If the Middle & Working Classes United to Bring Down Capitalism?

by max blunt
Divide and conquer.

That's what they are afraid of; common cause between the lower and middle classes against the upper. It's always been this way. But, in America, the middle class finds itself in its weakest position since the Great Depression.

As a matter of fact, our economy, pinned as it has been on the Petro-dollar, is one or two Bush follies away from a major "correction."

The middle class has been so screwed over the last generation or so by the "market" that the elite can no longer ignore the numbers and the stress suffered by worker bees.

The November election was a shot heard around the world. Though Iraq was a huge issue, so was America's sense that the social contract with the government, the economy and, yes, the future itself was a potential house of cards in a hurricane.

People understand, even if they can't articulate it, that the difference between civilization and barbarism is thin ice in an ever warming world.

We see it on TV everyday, everywhere, not just Iraq. The incongruity of shopping mall America and shantytown World is bound, if unconsciously, to cause stress, guilt perhaps, that we have plenty, while others have none.

And, then, as we see our own fortunes dwindle and necessarily support the lifestyle to which we have become accustomed upon credit, debt and interest, and find ourselves poorer and poorer while the rich get richer and richer, why, it may occur to some that something is out of kelter.....
LINK

A Nation in Silent Anger

By Manuel Valenzuela

Reverberations

05/09/07 "ICH " -- - Can you hear that deep, silent anger inside you, pounding like a heavy iron fist on a wooden door, banging relentlessly every time you notice the America of your dreams vanish more each and every day, instead becoming a most unwelcome nightmare that you are impotent to wake up from? Can you feel the hollow pain in your bones, the restlessness running through your veins every time another freedom is gutted or another right is eviscerated, every time your government climbs one more step up the stairwell of corporatism?

Can you feel the reverberations of resentment echoing in your mind every time a politician votes to expand the power of the elitist and corporate world, once more ignoring the will of the constituency? Can you feel the frustration of being impotent to the machinations of a government once defined as of, by and for the People serving only the interests of money and becoming a government of, by and for the corporatist world?

Can you feel the collective anger of millions as the embedded myth of American exceptionalism is quashed through the attainment of knowledge, transforming the fictions of good into the realities of wickedness, mutating what we once believed into an inconvenient truth? Can you feel the betrayal of millions who for decades have been made to believe in the American myth of a nation benign and altruistic, only to become aware that only wickedness, greed and criminality define the Empire, that beyond the smoke and mirrors America’s government is ruthless, corporatist and concerned only for the interests of the elite?....LINK

Finding Hope In A Dismal World
by Joel S. Hirschhorn

For so many, hope is down the drain. Hard to fault them. Abundant evidence shows our insane world sliding down a global cheese grater.

Fish are dying in the Great Lakes. Bees have disappeared. Polar ice caps and glaciers worldwide are melting faster than ever. A global pandemic of a drug-resistant strain of TB is coming at us. Much of the U.S. food supply is highly vulnerable because of imports and totally inadequate government scrutiny. Politicians keep lying. Americans keep dying. Too many senselessly in the insane Iraq war that our delusional president cherishes and our cowardly Congress refuses to stop. Others die because of lax gun laws. Even more because they can’t get quality medical care. And the icing on the fungus-infested cake: the richest one percent of Americans captures 19 percent of the nation’s income. As the rich become super-rich, economic injustice and inequality punish most debt-loaded Americans, with millions facing bankruptcy and home foreclosure.

Our crisis-filled, threatening world offers these existential choices.

Distraction: Pay little attention to bad news. Escapism prevents pain, such as compulsive consumerism, Internet surfing, gambling, drugs, cell phone and iPod oblivion, religion, etc. Stay politically disinterested and disengaged. Selfishness prevails.

Denial: Psychologically block out awful, disturbing information. Stay focused on personal needs and pleasures in a socially and politically disconnected world. Why bother voting? Why think about a world tumbling into the toilet? Why keep up with all the shitty news? Better to watch American Idol. Don’t pay attention to doomsayers.

Devotion: Actively stay informed. Eat up the bad news and suffer despair, depression, cynicism. Cope by finding some basis for hope – something that just might stop some of the madness. Devote time, energy and commitment to it. Something worth fighting for is the noble way to remain sane in a crazy world.....LINK

Ethanol comes with environmental impact, despite its green image

Portland - The ethanol refineries sprouting across the Corn Belt are typically touted as desperately needed economic engines for rural towns, a boon for American farmers and a way to ease the heavy dependence on foreign oil.

When James Clear hears the word ethanol, he instead thinks about the tons of pollutants that will come from the 50-acre industrial complex being built on the edge of this eastern Indiana town.

"It would just kill me looking out on our playground there and picturing our kids breathing that air," said Clear, a chiropractor who sold the house on family land after learning a South Dakota company planned to build an ethanol plant a half-mile away.

Ethanol has long been touted as a cleaner-burning alternative to gasoline and it carries the image of an environmentally friendly fuel since it's derived from plants and plant waste. Experts say replacing gas with ethanol blends will reduce greenhouse gases and help the fight against global warming.

But the more than 200 U.S. refineries in operation or under construction - mostly in a swath from Nebraska and Kansas east into Ohio - also emit thousands of tons of pollutants a year, including nitrogen oxide, a key element of smog.....LINK

The Great Oil Robbery

In case you’re wondering why crude oil prices are down from last year, hanging around at about $60 a barrel, while gasoline prices have soared past $3.10/gallon nationwide, just check out the latest profit reports from the oil companies. They are at record levels.

The answer for this seeming contradiction is simple: Americans are being robbed blind by the oil industry.

Sure, the oil companies, and their PR and lobbying agency, the American Petroleum Institute, will give you all kinds of reasons for higher gasoline prices at a time of falling crude prices: problems at two refineries in Texas and Oklahoma, rising demand or whatever. But the real answer is that there is simply no competitive market in this industry.

As Tim Hamilton, a researcher and petroleum industry consultant with the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, observes, the oil companies all store their crude oil and refined gasoline in the same tanks, and all know exactly how much inventory each other company has, so they don’t have to meet and collude on pricing in order to reap the huge rewards of deliberate supply constraints.

Says Hamilton, “Years ago, you had companies that would try to guess when the other companies were going to have supply shortfalls of gasoline in the summer. They’d ramp up their own gasoline refining and then supply the market at a lower price and eat their competitors’ lunches, the same way General Motors would do if Ford had a problem on its assembly line. But today, no oil company would do that. They all benefit by keeping the supplies tight.”.....LINK

Brilliant Photos Show the Waste of Consumer Culture

by max blunt
2.5 million plastic bottles,
the number used in the US every hour.
3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day.
Check out the article and the photos
LINK

The Democratic Party is a Capitalist Party

by max blunt
The Democratic Party is a capitalist party; it represents corporate and financial interests.

It cannot and will not remedy any of the deepest distress of the population. Preserving and extending the position of American capitalism on a world scale is its chief and overriding concern as well.

While it postures, with the help of the New York Times, as an opponent of Bush and Cheney, and of course there are sharp tactical differences, it won’t break from this orbit.

The present situation is untenable. The population voted to end the war, and it gets more war. Not only that, the social gap is accelerating, and the Democrats have not even proposed the most timid means of closing it.

Healthcare, education, housing—these are increasingly disastrous for people. Personal bankruptcies, foreclosures, food banks strained to the limit, divorces, domestic violence—all signs of personal and social distress.

People watch and read in dismay. The Tillman case, the family of a national war hero accuses the government of a criminal conspiracy. The wounded at Walter Reed are treated poorly.

The US, the home of the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address, is now identified with torture and secret prisons and military psychopaths.....LINK

EU/US Merger: New Global Order By Stealth

Few notice huge shift towards globalization as frothing masses distracted by climate change debate

By Steve Watson

05/06/07 "Infowars" -- - In a sweeping move that has garnered surprisingly little attention this week the United States and the European Union have signed up to a new transatlantic economic partnership that will see regulatory standards "harmonized" and will lay the basis for a merging of the US and EU into one single market, a huge step on the path to a new globalized world order.

The BBC reported from the Summit in Washington on Monday:

"economic council" to push ahead with regulatory convergence in nearly 40 areas, including intellectual property, financial services, business takeovers and the motor industry.

Skipping over what the fall out from a single Western market will be, the BBC simply announced "The aim is to increase trade and lower costs." before moving swiftly on to analyse what this means in terms of global warming.

While the masses are being whipped up into a never ending frenzy over climate change at every given opportunity, hardcore political actions that will affect the lives of everyone on the planet in the here and now are being skated over with little or no attention being paid to them.

The proponents and architects of a one world order have worked long and hard behind the scenes for a long time pushing a gradual erosion of national sovereignty via a harmonization of all areas of life, economic, social, cultural and environmental.

Such harmonization and elimination of diversity is the only way to maximize the profit of the few at the expense of the many, while maintaining tight controls over society as a whole in order for a long continuation of that status quo......LINK

Battle of Baghdad, April 2003: The Awful Truth

by max blunt
The U.S. military used neutron weapons in the Battle of Baghdad, says a former commander of Iraq’s Republican Guard. And at least one retired U.S. Army officer is backing up his charge.

In an April 9 interview reported by Al Jazeera, Saifeddin Fulayh Hassan Taha al-Rawi says that, “U.S. forces used neutron and phosphorus bombs during their assault on Baghdad airport before the April 9, 2003, capture of the Iraqi capital.”

The bombs incinerated about 2,000 elite Republican Guard troops but left the buildings and infrastructure at the airport intact, he added.

The neutron bomb is designed to produce a minimal blast while releasing a massive wave of neutron and gamma radiation, which can penetrate armor or several feet of earth.

This radiation is extremely destructive to living tissue. The bomb has been in the U.S. arsenal for decades but has never been used in combat before.

While no major U.S. media have reported on the neutron bomb charge, David Hambling, author of “Weapons Grade: How Modern Warfare Gave Birth to Our High-Tech World,” says there’s something to it.

Hambling notes that the U.S. has already admitted to the use of phosphorus weapons in the Iraq invasion......LINK

I Have a Dream! A Socialist Revolution in America

by max blunt
Socialism is possible in the United States. It is possible for the working class and the oppressed to remove the capitalists from power and construct a society of true justice and peace, a society that works in the interest of the vast majority.

The capitalists, the owners of wealth, industry and the banks, make up a tiny minority of the world’s population. We greatly outnumber them. We are the vast majority, and revolution is in our interests.

What we need is socialism, a system based on workers’ control of society, of workers’ ownership of the economy. It is a system based on collective and rational planning for people’s needs. It is a system based on equality for all.

What worker, especially the tens of millions of low-waged workers like janitors, dishwashers and hospital attendants, would not want to have the right to a job, a real living wage, food, proper clothing, health care, housing, education and much more?

What worker would not want to collectively own the products of her or his labor if given the chance?

If workers had an opportunity to seize power in a moment of isolation, crisis and weakness for the big capitalists, and they felt confident in their success, a huge number of workers would fight to end their oppression.

A socialist society would give us the tools to successfully wage a war on racism, sexism and homophobia.

It would give us more power to fight disease, save the environment, and save lives during natural disasters. We would get rid of the police and the prisons and so much more.....LINK

Vote Democrat! Get a Kettle, Not a Pot

by max blunt
I’m hearing it from almost every liberal and/or Democrat I talk to: “let go” and “move on.”

The first thing I need to “let go” of is the demand for the investigation, impeachment and removal of war criminals George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for fraudulent pre-Iraq war intelligence, illegal wiretapping, torture and extraordinary rendition among other high state crimes.

The second thing I need to move past is the demand for the de-funding of the criminal U.S. war on Iraq and for the rapid removal of U.S. troops, weapons and bases from that illegally and unjustly occupied nation.

“Get real,” the argument runs. “Pour your political energy into something that can actually win and make a difference – electing Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or John Edwards and giving them more Democrats to work with in Congress.”

Left-wing calls for Bush’s removal and the end of the illegal occupation, I am told, are dysfunctional and dangerous. The Democrats don’t have the votes in Congress to win on either demand and so will end up looking silly and weak by pursuing impeachment or de-funding.

“Look,” Democrats tell me, “we’ve got Bush where we want him. People hate his war and his presidency. The evil Republicans are drowning in Iraq. Let’s not blow it....LINK

Christian Fundamentalist Hucksters Run God Inc.

by max blunt As Bush implodes from scandal, a German friend asked why poor and middle class Americans voted for him and other Republicans.

Two words help explain this discordant phenomenon: Falwell and Robertson.

These two religious swindlers would give him a clue about how the super rich work and the soldiers of God steer the USA -- and maybe the world -- toward destruction. (I almost said Hell.)

In 1967, Reverend Jerry Falwell began his "Christian" reproductive apparatus by founding the Lynchburg Christian Academy.

His "academically excellent" and "Christ-centered" K-12 school teaches Christian -- Falwellian -- lessons.

In 1971, Falwell founded Liberty University, an institution of "higher learning" that has 22,000 students from 50 states and 80 nations.

Falwell's minions condition children from age 3 on. His "Christian" faculty indoctrinates the innocents through their doctorates. They have all committed themselves to Jesus Christ -- as Falwell sees and hears Him.

Falwell also publishes the monthly National Liberty Journal, with a circulation of 200,000 and Confidential, a weekly e-mail missile that reaches half a million zealous Christians.

In June 1979, Falwell launched the Moral Majority, an extremist lobbying movement...LINK

Sacrificing Our Children to the 'Corn God'

Ethanol May Not Be the Miracle It's Made Out to Be

By JOHN STOSSEL and ANDREW G. SULLIVAN

May 2, 2007 —

Gas prices are skyrocketing as the high-demand summer season rolls in, and Bloomberg News predicts that some pumps may soon hit four dollars per gallon.

Along with high gas prices come the calls for Americans to diversify our energy sources and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. But be skeptical of politicians who tout ethanol as the clean-burning solution to our energy crisis.

Are gas prices hitting a "record high"? Don't believe what you hear from the media about that. Reporters often forget to adjust for inflation. Gas prices were higher in the 1920s and the 1980s.

The Miracle Solution?

The idea that ethanol is the answer is a myth. Ethanol is one thing that both Republican and Democratic candidates agree on this campaign season. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani voice their support for the corn-based fuel, and Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former Sen. John Edwards want the government to subsidize ethanol production. According to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, "The economics of ethanol make more and more sense."

Ethanol "makes sense" to these politicians because, they say, it's a clean and renewable energy source that will slow global warming, protect the environment and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Plus, it just sounds good: Ethanol's made from corn, and we grow corn, so it just seems natural.

But if ethanol made so much sense, we wouldn't have to subsidize it or mandate its consumption. Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute said, "If you can make a profit in this economy by putting something on the market, the government doesn't need to put a gun to your head."

But ethanol producers do need the help of government subsidies if anyone is going to buy their product, because without subsidies it would cost much more than gasoline. And critics point out that the idea that ethanol is good for America in terms of energy prices, foreign policy or the environment is a myth.

The Ethanol Process

As Jerry Taylor reminded us in his interview on "20/20," when ethanol is produced "it takes a lot of fossil fuels to make the fertilizer, to run the tractor, to build the silo, to get that corn to a processing plant, to run the processing plant." Then there's the energy it takes to move the ethanol around. Because ethanol degrades, it's not possible to transport it in pipelines like we do oil, so using ethanol means putting many more polluting trucks on the road to deliver it.

Because of that, a number of recent studies show that it takes just about as much energy to produce ethanol as you get when you burn ethanol. "Its net energy balance is zero, more or less," said Taylor.

On top of this, emissions from ethanol-fueled cars are no cleaner for the environment. According to atmospheric scientist Mark Z. Jacobson of Stanford University, a switch to ethanol won't do anything to address climate change and ethanol fumes may actually be worse for public health than the fumes from gas-powered vehicles.

Emissions from ethanol-fueled cars contain more of the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, Jacobson said, and the vehicles will also boost atmospheric levels of ozone, a major component of smog, which will weaken people's immune systems and cause lung damage.

Also, the increase of corn production to make the ethanol will lead to the use of more fertilizer and more pesticides, and that will create more greenhouse gases.

Why Do Politicians Like Ethanol?

So if ethanol isn't any cheaper or better for the environment, why is it so popular among politicians?

"It's no mystery that people who want to be president support the corn ethanol program," said Taylor. "The first caucus is in the state of Iowa, and if you're not willing to sacrifice children to the corn God you will not get out of the Iowa primary with more than 1 percent of the vote."

Presidential candidates know that if they want to do well with Midwest voters, they need to buddy up with corn producers. By pushing to subsidize ethanol, candidates are able to keep voters happy in critical Midwestern election states, and seem like friends of the environment. It also lets them convince voters that we're moving toward the hallowed state of "energy independence."

When I interviewed Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, he griped that "we have allowed our dependency on imported petroleum to grow and grow and grow -- that's not healthy for our country."

I asked Bayh, "But isn't the ethanol program robbing Peter to pay Paul -- with all of us being the Peters and the corn producers being the Pauls?"

"You're currently being robbed to pay sheiks in the Middle East," said Bayh. "Doesn't it make more sense to have Middle Western farms producing America's fuel?"

How Much Relief Does Ethanol Offer?

But ethanol won't cure our dependence on foreign oil. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says even turning all of America's corn into ethanol would only meet 12 percent of our gasoline demand.

And the idea that Middle Eastern countries could just withhold petroleum from us and "hold us hostage" is "nonsense," said Taylor. "Heck, they're held hostage to us -- 80 to 90 percent of their federal revenues come from oil sales [so] they have to sell oil, [because] they have no other business to be engaged in!"

He's right. Even if OPEC refuses to sell petroleum to us, all of the world's oil ends up in the same bathtub -- our enemies will sell to SOMEONE who will sell to someone who will sell to us.

When a fuel source is expensive and bad for the environment and won't help our foreign policy, then there's no reason to force taxpayers to foot the bill for producing it.

"This is a naked transfer program designed to take money from people who buy corn and to give it to people who grow corn and people who make ethanol for a living. That's all it is," said Taylor.

Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures

The Wicked Civilisation

by Iftekhar Sayeed
The demonization of the Soviet Union came to an abrupt stop with the disappearance of ‎the alleged demon. New allegations were immediately raised against the Muslim world, ‎large parts of which had been partners of the west against the former Mephistopheles. ‎Only the Muslim world posed any threat to the west - especially to America - and that, ‎too, for good reasons, as the West knew well. ‎

The Israel-Palestinian conflict had been there for decades, and now that the common ‎enemy had departed, it was time for Muslims to settle old scores. So, it was not surprising ‎that the London-based Economist newspaper devoted an entire survey to "Islam and the ‎West" in August, 1994. "One of the commonest prophecies of the mid-1990s," opined the ‎newspaper, "is that the Muslim world is heading for a fight with other parts of the world." ‎No points for guessing which other parts they might be.
Why did the Economist think that Islam might go to war with the West? Not because of ‎Israel, or the Gulf War, or the treatment meted out to the Algerian Islamists who won ‎elections there - no, not by a long shot; but because Muslims "feel ashamed of the past ‎few centuries" when they were humiliated by the West. That is to say, Muslims have an ‎irrational chip on their shoulder, not any valid grounds for complaint. After all, India and ‎China had also been humiliated, but they weren't griping against western civilization (of ‎course, this line of reasoning undermines the Economist's thesis, but never mind)....LINK 1 of 5 pages

Teenage Sex Activity: Abstinence Makes You Deaf, Dumb & Blind

by max blunt
A comprehensive new study from a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University has come to a decisive conclusion regarding sex education in America.

Their astonishing research shows that the Bush Regime's abstinence-only sex education programs are not only utterly useless and a complete waste of taxpayer money, but they actually invite all manner of disease and destruction and savage karmic pain upon those who attempt to adhere to them.

It's true. Such programs have long been touted by sexually denuded Republicans and nervous Christian righters and applauded by the Taliban and fundamentalists and Ann Coulter as some sort of psychosexual panacea.

Some sort of dour, clinical, sex-is-bad-for-you hammerblow to the sensual human soul all meant to act as some sort of humiliating deterrent to our fleshy, dangerous, sex-obsessed culture.

These programs lead directly to severe anxiety, hair loss, acne, whininess, temporary blindness, adult bed-wetting, screaming, lousy taste in shoes, death, pararectal abscesses and even, in rare and bizarre cases, an overwhelming urge to date Jenna Bush....LINK

A world turned upside down

The former chairman of the fund for Iraq's reconstruction no longer believes the country can be saved

By Michael Bell

06/05/07 "Globe & Mail" -- - Last month, my term as chairman of the donor committee for the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq (IRFFI) expired, and I left the job despondent. I have no real expectation that Iraq can be reconstituted as a viable entity, whatever is done. Many of my colleagues, Iraqi and international, have privately shared that view for some time. We knew we were working in a glass bubble, isolating ourselves from the carnage on the ground. That sense of hopelessness weighs increasingly heavy.

The latest meeting of the donor committee, last month in Istanbul, was typically frustrating. The Iraqi delegation was preoccupied with process, wanting greater political control over the multilateral reconstruction facility. (They already have decisive influence.) Symbolism seemed more important than substance and the issue dominated our deliberations. Much effort over the previous months, aimed at reaching agreement on substantive reconstruction priorities such as strengthening Iraq's capacity to manage its challenges effectively, came up against the insuperable barriers of special interests and bureaucratic infighting....LINK

"The Hippies" Reloaded

by max blunt
Go ahead, name your movement. Name something good and positive and pro-environment and eco-friendly that’s happening right now in the newly “greening” America.

Don’t say more guns in Texas or fewer reproductive choices for women or endless vile unwinnable BushCo wars in the Middle East lasting until roughly 2075.

That would defeat the whole point of this perky little column and destroy its naive tone of happy rose-colored sardonic optimism. OK?

I’m talking about, say, energy-efficient light bulbs. I’m looking at organic foods going mainstream. I mean chemical-free cleaning products widely available at Target.

I’m talking saving the whales and protecting the dolphins and I mean yoga studios flourishing in every small town, giant boxes of organic cereal at Costco and non-phthalates dildos at Good Vibes and the Toyota Prius becoming the nation’s oddest status symbol. You know, good things.

Look around: we have entire industries devoted to recycled paper, a new generation of cheap solar-power technology and an Oscar for “An Inconvenient Truth”.

Even the soulless corporate monsters over at famously heartless joints like Wal-Mart are now claiming that they really, really care about saving the environment because, well, “it’s the right thing to do.”

That really means it’s purely economic and all about their bottom line because if they don’t start caring they’ll soon be totally screwed on manufacturing and shipping costs at/from all their brutal Chinese sweatshops). ... LINK