CREDIBILITY

Driving a gas hog Suv one block for a glorious photo-op in front of a local filling station a handfull of opportunistic senators rushing all of a sudden to appear 'out front' on the issue of high gasoline prices inspired such a lack of confidence in our current leaders and the comatose media that played along with the senatorial charade as to be downright revolting-- These are the hacks who will solve our problems?-- Please make your tax deductible checks payable to Re-elect Senator... she has addressed your concern or he was there when you needed him--Just to remind everyone the Democrats voted FOR the war in Iraq and their leaders continue to mimic the stay the course rhetoric espoused so confidently by the current administration-- merely two small reasons for the upward price spike in our continuing permanent energy crisis--As one astute pundit noted, since world war II every significant oil price spike has been followed by recession mostly of the deep variety--Don't worry says the hillarious senator we'll give you a Marshall Plan just make your check payable to....

Speaking of the punditocracy-- They seem to have finally noticed the oil/energy crisis-- They have always enjoyed a good Marshall Plan-- In the self gratitude of our hubris they chime forever it seems 'you know we saved Europe and Japan after the war'-- Really, you mean after we destroyed their second rate obsolete industry down to the nub of rubble we replaced it with state of the art factory technology and then protected their off shore oil supplies for over half a century with the blood and sweat of American boys all the while our industrial base deteriorates into physical collapse and the moral ennui of our workforce--It is true that now Europe and Japan (along with China)repay our largesse by financing the insidiously stupid debacle in Iraq as well as our magnanimously self indulgent debt-- Once more we remind ourselves that at the end of WWII we still had a small ocean of oil under Oklahoma and Texas most of which has now gone up in smoke-- When the Euro-Japan debt to us is finally repaid what will we have in return to show for it ?-- More debt?-- Less oil?-- New factories?-- More bodybags?-- New checkbooks printed in China?-- Just make them payable to the committee to re-elect.....

TRIAL BALLOONS

Mark Twain once remarked that one should 'when in doubt tell the truth, there's a lot less to remember.' The situation on the ground in Iraq is not getting easier or better--Total victory is a 'long war' away and it appears that many senior officer's stationed there are very unhappy if not actually angry--The retired generals have stepped into the breach in a very unprecedented manner and signal a certain schism in the war and the way it's operation is being handled at the white house-- The public anxiety not only about the Iraq fiasco and the most recent sabre rattlings toward Iran but also the convergence of record oil prices with the decline in both home sales and housing prices casts a darkening cloud of fear on the political scene--The oil situation seems more than likely now to be a permanent blight on the future--Worry even among the jaded spectators of political posturing is never far from the surface when conversation turns to the Iranian dilemma--Bush appears especially desperate for a jump in the polls flailing away with the latest nuclear balloon but almost everything he attempts fails to gain traction-- Israel is said to have declared that no military action is being planned but other reports say the israeli pressure for American action is being ratcheted up--Is Bush susceptible to another messianic war fantasy to save israeli allies and rescue the republican party incumbents in serious danger of losing almost by default their majority in congress to a opposition party offering no real opposition and no real alternative agenda especially in the middle east?-- Or have the retired generals punctured the Iran War balloon?-- Is the Iraq war's Total Victory balloon too deflated to even register puncture or will a giant hissing sound spell its demise?-- Field Marshall Rumsfeld fends off his attackers for now but how many rear guard actions can he fight at the same time?--How much time is spent defending the past and re-inventing the reasons for the Iraq folly in the first place?-- Credibility?

DANGEROUS SABRES

Reckless to say the least--Are both the Iranian leader and President Bush simply posturing to shore-up sagging poll numbers?-- Mr. Bush seemed intent on ratcheting down the nuclear rhetoric after Hersh's weekend dispatch sent waves of fear and loathing thru the body politik dismissing such as wild speculation--Who cares whether the price of oil spikes roofward?-- American drivers as the wild speculations continue won't balk at $3/gallon--The consumer sector will just haul out the plastic and keep the economy sputtering along--Does 16 tons of patriotic duty now include burying the american family deeper in debt?--If certain investors are long oil the sabre rattling gambit may indeed be a boon-- But in a most unprecedented display of frustration a long grey line of ex-generals has targeted Don Rumsfeld's incompetent conduct of both the strategic planning of the Iraq war and the operational implementation of the war itself demanding Rumsfeld resign or be fired--Not a demand Bush jr. is very capable of acquiesing to (or a demand he can arrogantly afford to take lightly) considering it is his very war to which the generals are leveling such very serious criticism--A crisis of leadership or the lack thereof is gaining momentum--Bush clearly appears bereft of understanding the actual facts on the ground--While he claims to have a strategery for victory and keeps claiming it time and time again mostly in front of military audiences his inability to explain this concept in even the most simplistic terms to the American people whom he is asking a great deal of patience from is dramatically eroding his political position--Mr. Cheney may soon emerge from his mahogany spiderhole after sunning himself on his refrigerator lightbulb or the flicker of Foxnews to deflect this criticism and wave an israeli sword toward Iran which will bring us to the next round of debate--And another ante-up in oil prices--

PRICE OF OIL

The price of oil rose sharply again today--The ugly failure in Iraq found space on the back burners as nuclear sabre rattling, wild speculations and probable contingengy plans for attacking Iran all vied for front page coverage--An unfounded rumor concerning a possible assassination attempt on the Saudi Arabian oil minister would probably be enough to tally an all time record price for a barrel of oil but no one long oil has broached it yet--The president continues to play the diplomacy card but has somehow managed to have a debate on whether or not to attack Iran assume a prominent position in the daily politik--That's one way of moving the classified leak issue inside the fold--" Something is happening here and what it is ain't exactly clear"--It all depends on the meaning of the word 'leak'--If as the president says he can de-classify information for public consumption why not release it through Scott McClellan especially if it supposed to be for the general public consumption--Why 'leak' it to a single reporter or possibly two?--Is Bob Woodward still a reporter or a writer or is he a sneaky political operator for hire?-- Painting Fitzgerald as a veritable 'junkyard dog' seems rather strident and prejudicial to the jurors of public opinion (and done so early in the proceedings) unless of course there is something to hide. What did Woodward know and when did he know it and how do we know?--

TO THE DEADLY LECTURN

Up steps John F. Kerry to once again, so it seems, remind us why he failed to unseat the current president. The man who served in the prestigious august exclusive body called The United States Senate for several terms and finished last in attendance fashioning not a single major legislative coup and who voted for the Iraq war and who later claimed he was just duped by the Bush pre-war intelligence (now that's an achievement) and who..... well you get the drift--Is he as out of touch with reality as the georgedickdonaldcondi quartet?--Pardon me, but who do you think you are spouting off an ultimatum here and a deadline there and arrogantly demanding immediate implementation of a calcified electoral campaign position?--Yo, John F., wake up--Sunni Nation refused to kowtow to columns of tanks belonging to the most advanced military killing machine in the history of the world and now (if your position here is correct) they are supposed to drop their literal fight for survival and join a broad based inclusive government that still refuses them meaningful admission and all of this based on a sudden epihany derived from hearing your ultimatum?-- Earth to John F., is your deadline relevant at all to Shia Nation?--Time is on their side (as well as the Kurds) not ours--Like Kissinger who had to bomb Hanoi back to the bargaining table to accept our concession so we could quit Vietnam and finally go home you fail dismally to recognize that we are NOT calling the shots here--Now to the capstone of your strategy-- Offering a United Nations occupation? Remember, John F., baby blue helmets are not any more cool than U.S camou-colored helmets to the vast majority of every disparate tribe and sect in so-called Iraq--Occupation is occupation to an insurgency-The United Nations were the first target of the last throes of Rumsfeld's dead-enders--They were blown right out of the theatre right off the bat--How many children perished during the sanctions regime implemented by theUnited Nations ?--While it may be in the process of becoming plural very shortly the insurgency certainly remembers-- Sorry, John F. , get a clue--