KISSINGER: SALT PEANUTS

Bob Woodward has stirred up D.C. again-- Administration flacks hacks and heavies have phalanxed forward with an onslaught of what else....Denial!!....to combat Woodward's portrait of a White House in disarray infightingly disunited and desperate to conceal from the American people the incendiarily negative news(from a Pentagon Report) insurging into the carefully manicured official version of events from the troubling debacle in Iraq-- Woodward avers that Rumsfeld and Cheney have been repeatedly briefed by any number of advisors and intelligence officials refusing to pull any punches concerning the dangerously high caliber severity of the current situation on the ground in Iraq and the 2007 high probability of that situation worsening-- There is no light at the end of the tunnel so faced with an acute pressure of potential losses in the upcoming midterm elections an imperiled leadership has questionably sought the advice of one Henry Kissinger-- Did Kissinger offer his own services or has the administration dead ended itself on the idea front and succumbed to a temptation hallucinating'victory' through some kind of heavily accented intercession by the overrated Doctor and his ghost of Vietnam?-- Woodward's exposition of a White House in constant denial stonewalling criticism no matter how constructive at every turn shows a dysfunctional leadership cocooned in self-deception-- Our ship of state is gullivered to the ground in Iraq and our ability to deal realistically with the situation is practically defunct--

It also illustrates the inability of Kissinger and many others to come to grips with and accept closure on the defeat North Vietnam inflicted on the U.S.-- The tired toilworn excuses multiply and the list of the blameworthy increasingly fans outward in every direction save the mirror the maudlin doctor K. refuses to acknowledge-- Victory denied/lost or The One that Got Away has kept the Nobel Prize festooned Doctor on a thirty year jag of haunting torment-- For all the prewar denial that Iraq would or could be like another Vietnam it is surprising that so many in the Foreign Policy Establishment sought solution to the insurgent uprising in Iraq (after months of stonewall denial that an insurgency even existed) by implementing a rather dusty but similar variation of tactics and strategy that imperiled engulfed and then finally expelled our presence from Vietnam--The Iraqi-ization of Iraq ring any bells??--

That Kissinger is subconsciously at best attempting to redeem his legacy of acute historical failure by counseling Bush to fight Iraq through the ghosts of Vietnam is an egregious prescription for impending doom politically and militarily-- When no possible insurgency even faintly radar-ed the imaginations of the illustrious neocon Architects(liberators yet awaiting welcome) the genius of Rumsy and Wolfy failed to weigh the potential benefits of a 'hearts and minds' strategy should necessity predicate its application-- Though some thoroughly competent commandeers and boots-on-the-ground officers, combatantly visionary if you will, immediately perceived the rising insurgency and their potential efficacy and that if the denial of their existence continued to flourish in the minds of the Cabal embedded in D.C. the potential for seriously negative repercussions would expand and escalate into dimensions we would not be capable, under the current manpower restraints, of mitigating-- These officers knew our only chance for victory required a massive amount of help from Iraqi people and any tctics which might alienate large sectors of the Iraqi public would be counterproductive in the extreme--Their intel met with berated dismissal, caustic ignorance and a potentially fatal lack of respect--

The administration basking in the delerious hubris of mission accomplished erred in not trusting their officers intel calling for 'hearts and minds' or assymetrical tactics until the insurgency's spawn infected the entire country and denial became in military parlance politically non-operational--Magnitudiously too late in the day for effective action to be implemented by our undermanned underequipped forces over such wide swaths of territory now openly controlled by various tribal and sectarian factions and their militias, the timidly slow reaction of the Deciders in D.C. wasted globs of vitally precious time chasing these unredeemed Vietnam tactics up and down the corridors of petulant hierarchical infighting and bureacratic blindness engendered from the careering paradigms of the mahogany foxholed-- The Fog of War clarified means considerably different things to those embunkered at the White House the State Dept. and DoD and those caught in the friendly crossfire that ceased Pat Tillman's soldiery on the desert canyon/ridgetop night in Afghanistan--

When the Vietnamese general admitted to initially feeling the effects of the Phoenix Program of targeted assassination Special Force tacticians loathe to admit that more might be counterproductive expanded the program alienating more and more potential allies amongst the hearts and minds we were attempting to win-- Whether out of fear terror hatred respect or ideological kinship the general population aided and abetted the North Vietnamese Army and The Vietcong to such a degree their intel capability allowed our enemy majority control of the time and terrain upon which they chose to engage in battle-- Control we failed to acknowledge in the upper heights of Command in D.C. but control we also failed to wrest from them on the jungle floor and which they never relinquished-- Bitter facts for the families of The Fifty Five Thousand and all those touched by the insane fire of Vietnam--

We can blame each other back and forth up and down in and out over and under every which way imaginable ad infinitum from the generals blaming the politicians blaming the hippies blaming the soldiers blaming the lifers blaming the draftees blaming the generals blaming the liberals blaming the conservatives blaming the protesters blaming the silent majority blaming the college professors blaming the intelligence blaming the chickenhawks blaming the president blaming the congress blaming the religous blaming the apathetic blaming the pows blaming the 4-f's blaming the c.o.'s blaming the ROTC blaming the draft dodgers in canada blaming the blamemakers-- My apology to those not mentioned, omission does not absolve your inclusion into this roiling choir--

The point being the Vietnam debacle belonged then and now still to all of us--Many people who actually perpetrated our collective failure in Vietnam never accepted responsibility and were never held accountable for their part in this national nightmare-- Finger pointing backbiting backstabbing excuse making etc. has festered for thirty years behind the curtains of our ship of state-- Denial wrought by this cowardly refusal to face up to our bitter feast of political and moral consequences insures that when we do the affair will be poisonous if not outrightly fatal and from this perspective seems to lead directly to this ignominious effort to pull victory in Vietnam from the jaws of imminent defeat in Iraq--

Kissinger for his part has blamed on too many occasions the American people for their 'loss of will' oblivious to the exhaustion a people might accrue to itself after having listened to the perpetual bold faced lies ('Peace is at hand.-- Light at the end of the tunnel-- The war will be over in 6 weeks--) emanating from self serving players on the political stage of yore now merging with those fashioned around our current imbroglio (We will impose our will on Iraq-- We can pay for the war with Iraqi oil profits-- When the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down-- ad nauseum) -- The noble sacrifice the political elite extols was on the ground in Vietnam by those noble grunts monikered 'getting wasted'-- Mr. Kisinger, the American people have a right and a duty whether from exhaustion or anger or sorrow or enlightenment to oppose the continued sacrifice of their sons and daughters by politicians fighting battles of which the potential political/economic benefits that supposedly adhere to such warfare have long since ceased such possibility-- The also have the right and duty to call you on the carpet for crimes you may a committed in the prosecution of such warfare and the 'waste' of their noble sacrifice-- Wake up!!!!!!

On the day after journeyman Buster Douglas unceremoniously and shockingly knocked out one of the most fearsome intimidating men in heavyweight boxing history, Mike Tyson shorn of his gold jewelry and expensive suits and sycophantic entourage trudged alone up the lonely city street to meet with the media salivating in vulturelike wait for the deranged ex-champ to explode into self-destructive immolation-- No excuses and no one else blamed and for at least this moment in his life his manhood singularly redeemed, facing rough music like a man 'What can I say?. I got my butt kicked!!'-- On this day no whining--

Denial of our defeat only perpetuates it-- Lost time is not found again--Take Henry Kissinger's prescriptions with a grain of salt-- Rough music is coming our way-- Bring us men man enough to face it--

STATE DENIAL

Cost of the war has risen to nearly $2 billion per week in Iraq, so continuing to 'stay the course' will mean at least $104 billion per year most probably not including the finance costs-- Walmart has to turn over one hugely heavy load of Chinese schlock to maintain Beijing capability of lending us back our own money so we can maintain an illusionist denial of what underlies our truly anxious condition ....bankruptcy-- Failure as in grandiose disaster now appears ordained in Iraq but the Republican repo-men scurrying in desperation to hold their majority in congress defy the mountingly negative facts tarnishing the fatal glow of Mission Accomplished-- The demi-crats cannot muster a convincing critique and are even less inspiring with their unuttered alternative-- Bush borrows a page from the Clinton playbook dining between enemies Karzai of Afghanistan and Mussharraf of Pakistan portraying himself now as the paternal peacemaker and the press showcased it-- Pakistani leader Musharraf has essentially been militarily compelled to throw in the towel against the Taliban/Al Quaeda insurgency sanctuaried in the wildly tribal lands of the Waziristan province bordering Afghanistan while the mayor of Kabul Karzai demands more troops and military action in the region to stanch the debilitated security of his own installed government in the face of growing ominous instability-- In the middle of this photo op luncheon word comes Thailand has fallen to a military coup-- The world order is in a state of dissolution--

Misconstruing the National Intel assessment to portray himself and his neocon foreign policy in the ME as a success while riven Iraq continues barrelling down a boulevard rife with uncivil and sectarian butchery, Bush and his Def-Sec Rumsfeld strive to contain the malignant fact that American soldiers sustain more than 800 insurgent attacks per week-- No matter what anyone claims this is not progress-- The Intel claims the Iraq war/occupation increases Jihadism worldwide faster than we can possibly defeat/diminish it even as we require our undermanned underarmored underequipped and now underbudgeted troops to stretch themselves above and beyond the normal expectant call of duty-- Bush struts afresh from co-opting his dog and pony Repo-men rebellion into supplying him with seven years of backdated retro-active exoneration/immunity from possible prosecution of war crimes by simply redefining his actions already taken as legal-- The Pesident of the United States arguing for torture-- groveling for his right to order torture via some stylized semantic pretense -- Torture or its sanitized blur 'alternative interrogation technique' has certainly contributed greatly to the expansion of the insurgency (Believing otherwise is denial of common sense) and diminished greatly whatever confidence ordinary citizens of Iraq once displayed for America-- In fact to do so, to even demand from his repo-cronies backdated war crime immunity is tantamount to private acknowledgement of 'victory' lost or at minimum remissibly unattainable-- His public charade of progress argues victory will be difficult but attainably nearer if we just stay the course eventually meets with facts on the ground -- Why would a leader exposed to the apparition of potential war criminality seek specious cover retroactively from a maleable congress if he truly believes there is victory and success impending the shortening horizon??-- The victorious leader rarely if ever gets tried for war crimes-- Of course should he fall quite short of victory the adventure dissolves into everyman for himself and God against all-- British ally and accomplice Jack Straw reads the situation in Iraq in a word.......... "Dire!!"--

Bob Woodward crafty D.C. insider and opportunist in his new book reveals the advisory role the infamous Doktor K. Henry Peace-with(out true)-Honor Kissinger has played for Bush and Rumsy as the occupation continued to sour supposedly telling them to never even entertain bringing home any troops-- Is he seeking to redeem the victory Vietnam denied him??-- Did he buck Bush up with references to his Churchillian alter-ego?-- When it began and how large a role Kissinger (the man who claims he successfully bombed North Vietnam back to the bargaining table allowing the U.S. to surrender and go home) has played is difficult to know without reading the book which apparently won't be released until next week but speculation may argue that rumors of Cheney's lost clout may incline toward coincidence-- Woodward's tidbit is sure to spawn conjecture that Bush has been exhibiting publicly some of the testy retorts usually ascribed to Richard Nixon during his final days minus of course Nixon's uncontestable brilliance in political and foreign affairs-- That the administration sought advice though from a man who spent most of his later life penning glorious tomes on diplomatic posturing that sought self-rectification for his culpable role in the national nightmare of our failure in Vietnam shows the desperate degree to which Bush, the man who campaigned he would restore integrity to a White House soiled by rock-star Bill Clinton, will go to deflect or postpone the moment of difficult truth he must like all of us someday face... in this bizarre fantasy realm farther and farther removed from the heady and surreal days of his falsely promoted 'Mission Accomplished' rooster strut down the hollywood-media-enhanced politically-commandeered aircraft carrier in the twilight's last gleaming hour-- It was a disingenuous construct then and remains so today-- No magic will intercede to save the disconsolate expiration of his unaccomplished hegemony in Iraq-- Having once entertained such a wild chance success is no longer an option and hasn't been for a lot longer than the real dead-enders will concede-- A veritable litany for lack of a better term of tangential American foreign policy failures litter the world following in the wake of Iraq's dismemberment producing more and more contagion our overstretched capability finds insufficient strength/intellect to stanch-- Those brave enough to unflinchingly face this veritable ignominy are shuffled aside or silenced-- The yes men rise and intone 'There is still time' over and over and for a time he will grasp at their straw...half-fully or half-emptily irrelevant he drinks from the leaking glass-- Fired-up briefly he will embarassingly accuse his meek and mealy opposition of treason and cowardice-- In his fever of defeat he will be told 'Denial is not a river in Egypt it is the river of blood staying the course through Iraq' but he will not hear-- Deaf to the future to himself and his army he has become a danger-- No wonder the light of our beacon and its place in the world has so diminished itself under this fracturing regime-- From their ashes our phoenix must rise-- Such work..... immense!!!!!!

BIG FIX

Gasoline prices at the pump falling like dominoes point to the coming midterm elections or so nearly half the country believes-- End of the driving season???-- Not so sure the demand has backed off as fast or as much as prices have fallen %wise-- Tourists are now home but they are still driving their kids to and from school daily--Vacation gas money not being burned on holidays lounging on the beach, in the casino/theme parks or on the mountain forest trail is being burned back home on the everyevery day commute-- The war in Iraq still burns 400,000 barrels of oil per day-- Neocon saber rattling against Iran has moderated the fear factor inciting frenzy among the speculative-mad oil traders for the time being of course-- Money is not getting more expensive to borrow as Fed Chief Bernanke the ardent inflation hawk backed off raising interest rates again in the face of acknowleged (most recently by vaunted inflation fighter Paul Volker) inflation threats hiding in the reams of data economists wade through on daily bases-- Obviously it would be unwise for the new-man-on-the-job Fed chairman to deliver an economic recession to the incumbent administration attempting to save or re-elect its congressional majority less than a full blooded cynic would surmise but time will tell if the right thing instead of the most expedient has been done after all Bush does hold a chit not a chad (neither hanging) for the knock of opportunity he festooned on Mr. Bernanke--

Meanwhile hemorrhagic housing numbers continue to doomsay deadening fear and loathing as well as denial and defeat and dislocation and skyward jumps in health insurance premiums risen 7.7% twice the official rate of inflation a killing blow to many an American dream and any number highly touted as showing consumer confidence on the upswing becomes immediately suspect-- More and more ARM's near their reset due dates with many of those burdened unaware how much their monthly payments will rise-- More and more see a darkness at the edge of town.....some at the edge of the yard......some knock knock knocking at their door--

Last week 75% of the American people were reported everywhere to have agreed that the present US Congress should NOT be re-elected-- Gerrymandering districts into boundaries extremely favorable to re-election for nearly all incumbents regardless of party affiliation will more than likely assure that 75% of the American people will feel some negative emotion when the tally reveals not much has really changed-- Obviously only a nut would call this a conspiracy afterall most conspiracies require silent complicity so if one is not mistaken this corruption takes place in the open and it is accomplished with arrogant impunity-- The system is obviously rigged to support the bought incumbent status quo-- Hold this truth to be self-evident--

NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

All out damage control invigorates the political war room of the Republicans' re-election effort as the little 'd' demi-crats seize a report from the National Intelligence Estimate basically claiming Islamic terrorism has actually expanded not diminished as a result of the Bush/Neocon incursion into Iraq-- Since the demies did not aggressively challenge either the initiation nor the continuation of the Iraq war--staying the course as it were-- it does seem oddly moronic to hear them railing at their witless Republican counterparts for the failure this miscalculated bipartisan misadventure in Iraq has engendered in terms of enhanced national security-- Rep. Emanuel of Illinois once one of the master media dissemblers in the Clintonista administration says its time our country went in a different direction which not disputing the obvious is politically strategically and tactically on the money however Emanuel master of addressing problems as if that suffices to a solution offers no such different direction-- Leadership, Mr. Emanuel, points to that direction-- Leadership says to America we can't stay here, our position here is untenable so we must to go there and we will take you there-- No such vision emanates from the demies-- Most exhibited a dearth of good reasons to oppose the Iraq Occupation at the onset and have spent for the most part the entire war finessing their political stances with an eye toward the perks of political survival (fund-raising) and not toward the action of true leadership-- For just one of many detrimental outcomes to this go-along-to-get-along behavior, this failure to lead has helped stress the American Army to the brink of physical, moral and soon to be financial exhaustion in Iraq-- Retired military officers continue to sharply critique the conduct of the war and demand Rumsfeld's replacement while the demi-crats couldn't even organisize an in-house anti-Rumsfeld resolution earlier this month and were for all intents and purposes totally AWOL during last week's Geneva Convention Rebellion that became a media win-win for the Repo-men-- What an opportunity for the demies to differentiate themselves on an important moral issue the repercussions of which might effect every future American soldier and indirectly their immediate families and the demies didn't even send a pitcher out to the mound-- The complete absence from the political scene last week conveyed to the public that the Repo-congress and the President didn't require any help since none was offered on the part of the demies-- Absent and ineffectual is no way to score electoral points-- The National Intelligence Estimate depicts worldwide Islamic terrorism on the rise inflamed as a direct result of the Iraq occupation--An assessment that for certain will be denied by the Bushcons as the demies cringe once more from the cut and runner slur-- They are not softies on terror they will whine without much fight-- Meanwhile the stupid word from D.C.'s hallowed hollow statesmen mantras on--'Stay the course' coming from those in power while those on the comfortable outside retort 'It's their fault'-- National Intelligence...... no wonder the last word in the title is Estimate--

JOB QUALITY

The recent Philly Fed Index's traumatic eighteen point drop into the negativity-sphere has frightened many economists pummeling plenty from the professionally optimistic cadres into carefully parsed wait-and-see parlance but it seems clear they were caught by genuine stunning surprise-- Over the last five years the bloodied State of Ohio has seen 200,000 quality manufacturing jobs vaporized-- That's forty-thousand per year on average-- The State of Michigan watched as 30,000 jobs dissolved last year a fact made only more painful by recent announcements by what's left of corporate leadership behind America's Big Three in the automotive industry that layoffs, buyouts and plant shutdowns would escalate--Ford alone offered 75,000 union workers a buyout plan while at least initially promising 10,000 unprotected white collar workers from the managerial sector simple layoffs though further reports indicated that a buyout plan was being discussed/devised for those sadly affected--Union workers with high seniority will not hit the ground with as much financial discomfort and insecurity as the younger workers who for the near future and most probably quite farther out will have to compete for less quality jobs requiring lesser skills with fewer and fewer benefits-- This scenario is not particularly rosy and in fact will usher in a large wave of stark anxiety adding to the exploding gloom surrounding the mega-downturn in the Housing/ Finance/Construction sectors and the extant fear of collapse-- Why would anyone run out and buy an SUV currently??-- Why did they choose not to build a better mousetrap??-- The Japanese did and now the way is paved for Toyota to win our market??-- Too much time on golf links and not enough time on the assembly floor??-- Why weren't the Auto executives up to speed on the oil/gasoline crises enveloping the entire global economy??-- Currently it ain't but the most precious commodity/resource on the planet-- Writers like Klare, Deffeyes, Roberts, Goodstein, Simmons and Kunstler have been warning the public for years in books, on television and weblogs and any number of forums the Big Three Ceo's obviously tuned out-- Clearly the leaderless political parties were too busy driving their SUV's to fundraising galas and politically correct photo-ops to pay any critical attention to the anemia beginning to affect the lifeblood of the world economic system-- The dumbing down of culture, the downsizing of quality job skills/opportunity and the scaling back and outsourcing of our children's future has occurred deliberately below the radar of our elected officials-- The Political Elite is immune to accountability-- As long as their fundraising abilities remain stellar the media will more than happily collaborate with their re-election campaigns-- The continuing misguided mis-designed mis-reported mal-executed Bush/Neocon nightmare in Iraq drives the Government further into monstrous mega-debt degrading our economic(as well as political) options with complete and arrogant denial of how severe the disastrous effects of this mad folly will fiscally impact both our near term and long range prospects-- We reap what they sow-- Vote the Bastards out!!!!!!!--

IMAGINE: OCTOBER; THE BANNER

Imagine--The World Series bunting-- October chill-- The Star Spangled Banner more often rousingly mangled than sang but nonetheless cheered--The hot-dogs and beer, the player introductions and the nervous anticipation before the opening pitch of Our Great National Pastime except one team refuses to come out of the dugout-- Refuses to deliver the line-up cards to the umpires-- Refuses to step into the square white batter's box-- Refuses to take the field believing it can win without sending a pitcher to the mound-- It allows the opposition to pitch to itself-- No need for an offense the opposition is so error prone they can't possibly be re-elected--The little 'd's of the democratic party appeared this week to abandon the playing field altogether-- Obviously this week wasn't a good time to make a vigorous stand supporting anti-torture in the Geneva Convention when the little 'm' maverick Senator(r) McCain reminded everyone again of his former POW status and how much he supports the troops by raising a pincipled ruckus against Mr Bush's attempt to legislate a back door retroactive exoneration of potential war-crime violations of the Geneva Conventions he (Bush)himself may have already committed by redefining and backdating the language existent in those articles-- Before capitulating to the big R Republicans in a big dog and pony charade three rebel Senators big R and former Sec State Colin Powell commandeered the entire political playing field while the little demmies sat in the dugout abdicatingly drunk on their strategic poll-laden hubris witlessly admiring the field forward trojan-horse touching all the bases-- Who needs the gutless wonders of this weak anti-party when, as the entire blathersphere tuned into the charade, the Prez shoots down his own party's phony rebellion allowing the dust-up to quickly settle before each Senator along with Bush then congratulate each other in the rosy glow victory-- No wonder Bush's poll numbers took a jump-- The cowards sit listless in the dugout while the real losers are future American soldiers being held as POW's but then again why should the little d's care after all those in the military volunteered for it-- Soccer, anyone!!!!!

INGRESS: AUTUMN

Spinach fields to a $325million tune falling under the blade of the sacrificial plow mostly in California as the deadly e-coli panic reaps heavy music-- Fear eats the soul in the bubble world of Housing as minus signs begin to gnaw at the patience of asking prices, new home starts continue the big stumble downward and foreclosures mete out mega-pain with a skyward leap--Amaranth once a $9billion hedge fund loses nearly five billion of that in less than a week producing worries of massive unravelling in the high stakes world of hedging-- The commodity bubbles(?) of gold and oil tumble lower searching for floor supports-- Ford shutters more plants and offers 75,000 buyouts to union men while 10,000 white collars get notices their pink slips will arrive at the quarter's end-- Daimler/Chrysler's once hyped rebound is throwing in the towel as shutdowns and layoffs begin to invade their American operations-- General Motors offers talk about big-three dissolution followed by mega-merger but initial responses appear half-hearted, confusive and indecisive-- The Big Three Ceo's so far have failed to win an audience with the President who must be too busy scripting his attendance at the UN to specifically avoid a chance encounter with the dreaded Iranian Ahmadinejad as well as his daily duty fending off Islamofascist dead-enders in his war gone awry in what used to be called Iraq all the while failing to take notice The Backbone of American Industry is Falling Down-- The Philly Fed on Thursday reported a sharp drop in its index into negative terrority indicating a hard landing in the manufacturing sector(Surprisingly economist types appeared surprised by the gravity of the decline slapping them in the face--duh? The entire automotive sector in a freefall meltdown because no one but the idiocy of the rich has the declasse wherewithal to buy gas guzzling dinosaurs anymore and if no one buys cars no one builds them and if no one buys new houses no one builds them either and the economy tools downward--nothing too surprising in this) and an economic slowdown way more severe than previously understood which incited a sharp drop in the dollar and an immediate stock sell-off-- The Pope sets off a political firestorm insulting Islam and when his recantation fails to mollify Muslim sensitivity the Vatican is forced to eat his words in an embarassing display of humbling ineptitude-- Hugo Chavez in an address at the UN invites the toothless body to relocate to Venezuela and smelling sulphur in the air crosses himself citing Bush as the Devil-- Israel delays its troop pullout from Lebanon while continuing to fashion its version of a Warsaw Ghetto for the suffering Palestinians(Elie Wiesel, have you forgotten?)--The new moon on Friday brings a solar eclipse but we are yet only at mid-week!!

THE VATICAN'S DIVISIONS

Wow!!!-- Just what the Middle East needs more fuel for the sectarian fire and here comes Pope Benedict with a five-gallon can full of petrol and an ill-timed remark on the inhuman evil contribution of Islam's Prophet Muhammed to the world-- Benefit of the doubt demands the Pope be not considered unreasonably stupid, thus, the comments must then be judged as deliberately not unwittingly inflammatory-- Parsing his careful but less than forthright less than complete apology failed to assuage radical reaction in the Middle East-- Motive?-- Timing?--Let's hope the Vatican was not long in oil stocks/commodities and attempting to recoup recent setbacks from downward shifting world oil prices-- Perhaps it reveals Benedict's interest in the upcoming mid-term elections in the U.S.-- So far the Pope's comments can be tied to several arson attacks against Christian churchs in the Palestine Territories, a murdered nun in Somalia and a couple of popes burned in effigy in Pakistan Kashmir and Basra Iraq-- Not bad for incendiary starters but the Pope attempting to douse the pyrotechnicality of his provocative remarks now claims his address to be 'an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect'-- Where this papal bolt out of the Uranian blue leads from here may be guesswork but certainly interesting to follow while continuing events in the ME appear intent on inflicting some surprise of their own beyond just the usual daily mayhem-- Be vigilant--

NO GOOD OPTIONS

Foreign Policy experts scurrying to podiums/blogs everywhere warn there are no good options left in Iraq except obviously the one most often employed in the face of harsh and unsettling truths-- That one being denial most often followed by a smear against the unbiased one's biased foes-- Cut and Runners versus the Stay and Payers in shouting matches all too often ruthlessly obscene and boringly replete with pitiful accusatory venom both elements cowed in anonymity-- Logically though if all the good options are gone there should still be some bad and some terrible options hanging around more than likely wearing warning signs of a sufficiently dangerous perhaps destructive nature-- Does that mean its better to have some choice of negative options or be compelled to choose from no options at all??-- Policy wonkers don't really have to answer or even entertain that question since they have already opted for Denial-- Unfortunately such an enticing option often leads to a correlative sub-category called paralysis (usually of the will) to which stressed-out destinies of mere mortals and their dreams of empire first yield in an almost flimsily narcotic pretense allured with the false hope some miraculous intercession will save the day-- There follows blind dissolute relief-- The negative options all the while vie among each other to fulfill History/Fate's predicate that penetrates oblivion's standstill with a quite disabusing shock and awesome segue into sheer panic-- Sooner or maybe even less than soon Mr. Bush having failed his Captain Ahab's task to 'Fish or cut bait' will watch the ship of state flounder--

BROOKS: BUSH'S MEANS END

Even if tactical decisions should not be made by the White House, shouldn't President Bush have at least a modicum of working knowledge about the tactics being employed to effect his Grand Strategery--the what, the why, the whether or not even if the tactics are chosen by General Casey-- As the negative facts of insurgent mayhem and butchery on the ground in Iraq (as well as Afghanistan) have continued to multiply upward, a corresponding uptick in certitude rises in Bush's own self-estimation-- David Brooks quotes Bush as saying 'I've never been more convinced (italics mine) that the decisions I made are the right decisions'-- So, as more gruesome evidence of a situation careering into blatant chaos increases daily, Bush to a parallel degree elevates his own self-congratulatory certitude into denial of these facts--The worse it gets the more desperately he clings to the purity of his neocon pipedream--To which Brooks adds admiringly 'The most inner-directed man on the globe' extolling for the moment Mr. Bush's apparent lack of ego--Obviously Mr. Brook's globe does not encompass the entire planet but he gamely offers to buff the de-lustered brass of his leader's neocon ineptitude failing to note his own implication that Bush is clearly out of touch with reality--

Brooks writes that when Bush 'is strategizing goals he is assertiveness on stilts'-- Obviously Mr. Brooks must feel the President is head and shoulders above him when it comes to the visionary aspects of leadership but the analogy of stilted assertiveness appears.......... well, .....stilted-- Brooks champions the gloriously inviolate visionary realm to which Bush has ascended (and where he obviously prefers to reside) but alas we are reminded about the undignified difficulty the neocons have reaped in attempting to reach such a vision seriously deficient in means not to mention seriously deficient in intelligence about who the 'enemy' might actually be-- On second thought let's mention it, should not epic vision have sought to know the difference between the Sunni and the Shia as well as the Kurdish entities early in the planning stage rather than a few days prior to D-day??-- Now the grandiosity of the goal is tarnished and rendered almost assuredly lost but facts are little 'stupid things' as Ronald Reagan once claimed and they should not be allowed to intrude upon the strategery's eminent shine--

Fifty years from now in Mr. Bush's astutely far-sighted view when terror has or has not been defeated and radical Islamists will or will not be in control of middle eastern oil fields the world will thank him and his 'Churchillian' neocon allies who have shared the vision(sounds new-age californian not texan)-- Brooks lambasts the administration for alloting Bush insufficient means of attaining the goal which Bush now states firmly unmasked as control of oil-- Radical Islamists already control some ME oil beyond Iraq and Iran-- Iranian Shiites as well as Hezbolla have missiles capable of hitting Saudi Arabian oil fields and refineries-- Damaged oil field infrastructure for the unitiated is extremely expensive to replace and/or repair and the multi-year wait for the economic payoff makes those capable of financing such operations extremely reticent to commit funds in the face of some potentiality blithely bandied about as generational instability-- Wake up!!!!!--Oh well one neocon denial down an exasperatingly umpteen to go--

Dear Mr. Brooks, if this is truly a generational war and Civilization is truly at stake, why isn't all of our Civilization involved??-- The great bulk of the Neocon Cabal, the architecture of this War of Civilization, never risked service in the military (and insisted upon making political hay by denouncing and smearing some of their opponents who did ) and neither have most of their elitist offspring-- Must only the poor sons and daughters of the red white brown and black America be tasked to answer the patriotic call of your think-tank war--I mean if Civilization is truly at stake??-- Is it truly volunteer service if the Def-Sec Rumsfeld resorts to contractual extra-fine print to commandeer Iraq War Veterans into perennially conscripted service to meet troop requirements??-- Why aren't Neocon youth massively volunteering to fill the shortfall in manpower if Civilization is truly at stake??-- Perhaps high technology (the shock that never awed--) was supposed to make up the defficiency of elitist and upper class boots-on-the-ground support??-- If Civilization is truly at stake doesn't the American middle class deserve a greater role than the Commander in Chief's visionary exhortation to get out there and travel...and go shopping????-- If Civilization is truly at stake and control of the oil supplies is truly endangered shouldn't the profligate oil usage by the SUVed middle and upper-class be condemned and rations mandated downward???-- Up that proverbial creek without proper means of propulsion signals that staying the course perpetually will certainly accomplish the 'Or worse' fear for Civilization with which you end your column, Mr. Brooks and those clearly responsible should be held accountable--

BEFORE THE STORM

Despite OPEC's unappreciative response to the downward trend of recent oil prices, the decline may reflect commodity traders' hopes that the new 'discovery' off Mexico will solve our supply problems or it may reflect that in combination with the ratcheting down of tension in The Middle East as the cease fire temporarily holds and Israel shows some slightly uncertain willingness to speak with some Palestininian representatives if not the kidnapped Hamas leadership it intended to release from its custody midweek but was forced to renege on as the army filed an appeal-- Plans for attacking Iraq must have also receded to the back burner-- Cheney with Russert seemed less than gung ho for such attacks in the near future at least but craven electoral motives might apply here also-- Perhaps, true production worries aside(they have not gone away), the fear bubble motivating so many oil traders could no longer sustain the upward spike but my guess is big oil insiders have gotten wind that no military attack of Iran is in the short term pipeline unless they see profit from some put options but speculation can run any which way and back very quickly these days-- Now certain fantasists are prognosticating oil cascading to $15/barrel-- Thursday natural gas prices floored at two year lows-- Gasoline prices dropped to the $2.85/gal range and no commuters complain--Time will tell if the oil spike-up was just another bubble supported by rumors-of-war sky-is-falling hyperbole and the Peak Oil phenomenon just propaganda re-honed from the Millenium computer bug hysteria as some of the optimists claim-- With multiple bubbles from commodities to housing lining up in front of the nail gun, if I had a ranch I wouldn't ante-up--

After a brief time-out for the media to wallow in the depression of self-pity and the over-done maudlin 9-11 5-year anniversary memorials the midterm elections resume focusing everyone's(in D.C.) attention toward political survival and away from national and world problems-- The administration exhorts its political troops to portray the demmies as less than patriotic terrorism-symps wimps and general losers but the bluster-deficient demmies answer the charges with pointed reminders of a failed campaign in Iraq--a campaign most of the little d.'s voted to support-- Moderate republican Chaffee wins his primary somewhat at least one would assume to the chagrin of the White House possibly impelling a future uptick in more strident countercharges-- The Iraq War is the primary issue from Field Commander Rove's political point of view ordering his boss to stay on message but it is obvious no other issue seems to interest or resonate for them-- The demmies flail with lackluster sound and semi-fury about the failures of the opposition offering no competing national agenda essentially seeking to win by default-- There is no platform to fix the blooming pension crises, the illegal immigration crisis, the punctured housing bubble, the imminent collapse of the automotive industry, the interminable oil supply problems, the elephantine health care issue, the open and pervasive fraud practiced nationally and abroad in many sectors of our finance, the even more gargantuan debt/deficit economic superstorm forming in the gulf of globalist delusion-- More, ... the ongoing contagion of mayhem and the utter inefficacy of force as a solution in Iraq and the so-called absence of any optimum alternatives or options as failure demands of head-in-the-sand politicians some kind of tactical/political end-game beyond the current 'stay the course' charade--

The American way of life by necessity will have to change (dramatically if the Peak Oilers are even partially correct) and these imperative changes will be very difficult if not made even more so because the cowardly congress refuses to step up-- Mega-perks in exchange for bureaucratic shuffling and siphoning unaffordable pork for the home district obscures the larger picture-- Most of the incumbents appear unaware of how soon and severe these problems might shortly materialize-- The extravagant nature of re-election demands ever larger blocks of time be committed not to leadership issues but to fundraising while the complicit media (the beneficiary of campaign contributions that pay for all that noxious non-cheap electoral advertising) devotes ever more of its time/space away from the serious issues facing America supplanting the serious element with gobs of blather surrounding the horse racing aspects of most elections in which more and more Americans refuse to participate -- Gallingly newspaper editors have the temerity to ask in idiocy "What Happened to Newspapers??'-- 'Are Newspapers Dead??'-- 'Can the Newspaper Be Saved??'-- Headlines to which print copy itself supply no positive answers-- Sooner or later the piper submits his billing and those disabused feign shock--

DESPERADO LEADERS

Our post summer lull a day before the lunar eclipse is imbued with a strange calm before the next storm gathers-- After unceremoniously shutting down the office in charge of pursuing Osama Bin Laden many months ago and treating his threat capability minimally in off the cuff remarks Mr. Bush delivers a pre-election speech frantic with fear and trembling and the sudden resurrection of Osam Bin from the forgotten lower echelons of bit-player status not worthy of a world wide manhunt anymore to a genuine Hitler/Lenin morph capable of extinguishing freedom everywhere with a single bound-- Is this why Bush failed to 'take out' O. Bin at Tora Bora when we had him nearly surrounded in the open and desperately fleeing but couldn't seem to find 200 US Army Rangers to close the trap door on the border( Jawbreaker by Gary Berntsen)-- So Karl the genie Rove would have a quintessential Booger Man to uncloset at election time in order to thrash the weak kneed Harry Reids of the demmie world--

______Anyone penning dissent against the current corrupt political echelon should also be considered as fodder for similar potential morphing in later life and should be on the watchlist as hideous threats to freedom of all things-- Imagine the convoluted logic that might deem one a terrorist for such an anti-deluvian no less anti-American demand even the President should answer for actions ultimately destructive to the country-- Bush's tone resonates with anger at having to relinquish the comfortable fictions that obscured in the administration's mind the failed venture in Iraq-- Pentagon officials openly contradict the neocon disavowal of civil sectarian war frustrating the Bush view that success is right around the corner if we just 'stay the course'-- Those tangentially neocon by outlook if not position as exemplified by the who's who symposium Are We Losing In Iraq?? in the current issue of The National Review are facing up to the rough music of our failure in Iraq and are saying so publicly diminishing support levels even further for a White House now circling its SUV's-- Attempts to stanch the bleeding by refashioning history are met with bewilderment-- Thus the magnitude of the terror threat is re-doubly magnified again in Bush's mind as he attempts to appeal to a body politic in majority opposition to the war but shying away from political contentiousness surrounding the upcoming midterm elections and like the troops in Iraq too exhausted and too frightened to even begin to contemplate the real meaning of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld(The True Dead-Enders) doctrine of incoherent war eternally everywhere-- The less it seems the Bush message resonates (and how can it?) the more strident the tone of his speech becomes and the more shrill his desperation to convince the unconvincable in the electorate-- At moments he seems both genuinely pathetic( almost comical like Baghdad Bob championing victory that never materialized) and at other moments angered and dangerous in his quest for fellow believers among fading political support-- Since the 'little d' democrats wilting in the crossfire fail dismally to offer a believable future of light and liberty with even a modicum of courageous visionary force devoid of even less conviction, chances are extremely low voter turnout will leave the sodden political playing field more or less in a similarly weak and vacuous status quo condition-- They couldn't even organize a no confidence vote on Def-Sec Rumsfeld this week-- Waters of history circling the drain---

______In the Middle East further galling to Bush were reports of tens of thousands of Iraqi Shias cheering the now most popular leader in the entire region mea culpas and all fictional and non Hezbolla's own Nasralla followed in the number two poll position by the Iranian Ahmadinejad who with Bush and the Rumsfeld Army gullivered to the ground in Iraq continues to freely play The President like a political banjo-- Both share a propensity for fanatical rants but one calculates how his outrageousness periodically leads to his coffers being freshly filled by oil revenue and the other laments his increasingly weakened position world wide and while forgetting his aim redoubles his efforts with more stridently angry and distorted verbiage-- Categorically refusing to consider any other options but military force even in the face of its inefficacy in Iraq and most recently Lebanon(granted many if not all are by now considerably less than optimum--return to a fresh slate is impermissable at this stage of the game) Mr Bush offers an uncanny leap of logic-- That retreat in Iraq would empower Osam Bin further and would be the cause of the American economy's collapse-- Nevermind as we currently 'stay the course' that the economy as it is, is stated nearly in freefall due not to O. Bin but to radically profligate and corrupt overspending on an under-planned, under-armored, and under-manned war rife with corrupt contracts to political crony/donors failing miserably to reconstruct the unshocked and unawed Iraq and the fiscally stupid tax cuts for the mega rich crippling the government's ability to fend off generationally impoverishing debtloads our grandchildren will be hard pressed when billed to alleviate--

________ The world is telling the American people who from oblivion of IDOL worship refuse to pay any attention that Bush and Neocon hegemony will not prevail-- Handwriting is on world wide walls-- Ahmadinejad has the conventional wherewithal to disrupt the globalist economy in a devastating manner if attacked-- Bush's politically hardline ineptitude yields decidedly negative results-- Polls show popular support for America in the moderate Arab world at 5%-- 5%!!!!!-- Aren't these people part of the world market we someday hoped would purchase our products???-- The Neocon agenda has derailled Bush, The US State Dept. and the US Dept. of Defense and worn out our welcome nearly everywhere in the world-- Even Israeli angst editorially yammers almost daily 'out with the neocons'-- Chinks in the armor Bush's denial can no longer mask point out the mounting pressure of these abject setbacks and one must ponder their increase to a point Bush in an extreme fit of petulance and against most military advice might unilaterally order the US Air Force to bomb Iran not with geo-political consequences in mind but out of angry suicidal spite-- The difficulty of writing the last sentence should not be unseriously minimized as it certainly isn't veined by the almost silly red/blue histrionics of current electoral partisanship but dirty jobs require someone to bring such a potential eventuality to the table -- Think about it!!!!!!--

_______Summer of the wars is gone-- The kids go back to school-- Football season defines the approach of Autumn-- World tension grows ever more taut even in the calm--

HARD FROST

Negative numbers continue to roil the once confident middle-class waters in the harrowing Housing sector-- The now inevitable hard landing of the punctured bubble in the real (How real is/was it??--) estate industry is yielding depression among some, despair among others and from a fairly high number of current (but for how long could be problematical) homeowners outright denial-- The inventory of unsold houses continues to pile upward as potential sellers hold out hope for the mirage of higher prices which are failing unblinkingly to materialize-- Fear is that those compelled to relocate for the prerequisites of employment will dump their houses just to get rid of them creating an atmosphere conducive to panic-- Someone named Big Joe will ask aloud why he should work thirty years to pay off a mortgage worth way more than what the house will be fetch futurewise and no one will have a plausible answer-- That's when Big Joe's common sense begins to widely resonate and the great Running of the Bears will wildly stampede suburban Pamploma everywhere-- Banks that financed the suburban encirclement of most every state's Mayberry RFD's supplanting zillions of acres of prime agricultural land with an asphalt concrete blitzkrieg of housing and commercial strip developments are skittish to say the least-- How many non-performing loans will they find tolerable??--Professional optimists are working overtime to create any semblance of positive spin but too many other convergent and negative factors limit the options-- We are supposed to be distracted and excited and intoxicated by the ascension of a female show biz personality to a position anchoring a news/infotainment extravaganza-- Wages/income are failing to keep pace with the rising cost of Children, Health, Food, Education, Electricity, Gasoline, Deisel, Heating Oil, Natural Gas and let's not forget the big one the rising cost of Borrowed Money or a new one the cost of Foreclosure nor to refrain from mentioning the hidden higher process costs endemic to using credentialed agents of the Law to access the mandated among those legal processes-- Refinancing the house at rates 2% higher will not put extra money in the pocketbooks of little and middle america-- Working class commuters last winter had to choose hard between heating the house and going to work--Only so many more restaurant meals may be entertained before the middle class credit lines go poof and they begin to face similar dilemmas this winter-- A winter by the way the Farmer's Almanac predicts will be more than just a wee bit colder than milder ones of recent vintage-- My neighbor a commercial banker opted to mimic Mr. Bush's retort to Mr. Putin's comment at the G8 Summit recently that Russia would be ill served by a democracy akin to the one now in Iraq, --'Just Wait!!!' the banker said adding 'Worse is on the way'-- Nascar Nation and the American Dream will Not be camping happy--

LABOR ON ITS DAY

Labor Day weekend approaches and most labor issues of the day languish on the back burner--Immigration reform festers while congressional cowards whisk it into the closet as too-incendiary an issue before the fall elections and certainly not important enough to violate the royal privilege of an August recess-- Intel palns to layoff 10 to twenty thousand workers and hardly an eyebrow is raised-- Overall job layoffs rose 76% in August-- Just one more important headline in deadly competition with sensational show biz-- The Israeli war with Lebanon took surprising precedence away from coverage of the Iraq war in the American media-- Deaths of Israeli soldiers wrought frontpage coverage while inside and beneath the fold one could find lower case reference to another American soldier riding that little black train into the dust of death permeating Iraq followed a day later by one or two more followed a day later by two or three more staying the phony course into the illusive neverend-- Field Marshall Herr Rumsfeld strides to the armored podium and acidly labels his war critics Islamofascistic Nazi symps-- What comic book from what decade of what century is he lecturing us about now??-- The Vice President blames Ned Lamont's refreshing primary victory over the nationally statured but mealy and obsequious Joe Lieberman for making Al Quaeda stronger and then scurries back toward the mahogany resplendent bunker-- Meanwhile having to endure a return visit to Katrina's crime-scene to memorialize governmental failure and wallow in the pervasive angst and self-pity of its aftermath Bush opts for more vacation time but who can critique that-- after all he's had a pretty rough year so far and beyond that knowing there awaiting his return to D.C. are calls for him to discipline client state Israel for its use of cluster bombs to wide-spread seed southern Lebanon (over 350 bombing sites) with scattered explosive bomblets mostly after the cease-fire was known by most all to be a fait accompli-- Minor tempest in a teapot as Israeli PM the desperate Ehud Olmert prepares for Big War in Iran and Syria--As for the current administration's number four titan among the deluded dead-enders Condi Rice seems to have been sidelined by poor performance art of the Israeli-Lebanon war-- Two years four months remaining and then like spoiled rich kids everywhere the haughty Bush administration can dump their hideous mess into the laptop agendas and miscued clueless Harvard/Yale paradigms of the next incoming crew--

_______ Labor big and Small organized and Dis-organized definitely has its work cut out for itself-- Lack of a will-to-fight has led the lower case 'd' democrats in their flaccid decade long pathetic response to republican scorched-earth anti-union anti-labor tactics-- How many picket-lines has senators Clinton, Schumer, Biden, Kerry, Edwards, Lieberman, Obama, or Bayh joined??-- How many have called for NAFTA's repeal??-- Since many companies employee medical benefits are now going the way of dinosaurs how many dem.'s are calling for a national health program??-- How many unions have been denied the right to strike by legislation or judicial fiat??-- How many unions opted to de-certify their charters being hoowinked by the oxymoron that the Market had suddenly morphed into God and all their needs would be met by angelic robber-barons, their little elitist mba's and those envious democratic wannabes??-- Outsourcing and down-sizing having begun under the table during the Clinton/Rodham co-presidency (perhaps as well under Bush I but that's expected of the royal family) achieved maximum effect and success under the Bush/Cheney tandem but the little d.'s emit less than a whimper-- Living wage jobs are becoming an endangered species and the collapse of the housing industry coupled with decreased home-based oil production is threatening to undermine the entire economy-- Housing Contractors have been opting for illegal immigrant help in many parts of the country and blue collar Americans are none too happy about it nor should they be-- Neither are American Farmers who cannot seem to find enough low wage pickers in those 11 million illegals-- The price of petrol tightens the noose around the shrinking middle class as many in the working class slide into abject poverty-- Where are the democrats and their once stalwart courage?????-- The Party built by labor has abandoned its roots and lost its moral fiber-- The corruption tainted do-nothing Republicans emit panic and fear of losing power and are ripe as never before in recent times for defeat come mid-term elections this fall and the little d.'s have gone AWOL-- Rank and file blue collar men and women have to watch their agenda take a back seat to gay marriage and abortion issues while democrats sound full retreat on the illegal immigration battles that are not going away anytime soon-- Lack of true leadership ignores this incendiary issue at its own peril--The inability of the little d.'s to respect the moral and faith based positions of both American-born Black and Hispanic minority groups as well as the inability to distinguish the multiple cultural distinctions between the two are costing them voting strength in higher numbers than they are willing to admit-- Conspicuous in their spineless silent support of Israel bombing hundreds of Lebanese children to death in their recent war little d.'s had the temerity to raise the issue(not an unlaudable position but given the state of affairs as they now exist one not worthy of the pole position) of gray wolves being killed from the sky by Alaskan hunters-- They mustn't upset The Lobby-- What a sense of priorities!!!!-- What a platform!!!!!---- What a stand!!!!--

_______ So what awaits Labor on its day??-- Cheap hot dogs served by those glad-handed smarmy pols too timid to challenge the opposition much less their own party leaders but still brave enough to seek re-election at traditional Labor Day picnics held round the country-- It certainly appears to this observer that in such tawdry collapse of nerve the demmies don't have the stomach or the heart to lead much less the focus of enough determined vision to redeem the American Dream-- Re-election even to minority status still offers the comfort of many benefits and perks unavailable to those on the verge of foreclosure and/or layoff or those working two and three jobs-- For all the hoopla surrounding the hot-button punditry and media coverage of the Lamont vs. Lieberman primary battle in Connecticut doesn't the superlow turnout (1/6th of registered dem.'s does not equal a mandate= Lamont then settles for little more than 1/12th as the winner while Loserman tallies almost 1/14 as the whiny loser) -- doesn't this offer harbinger of the true disgust Americans have for the current political order and its hyped and phony process??-- The coming vacuous electoral charade masks defeatism and depression oozing from the body politic-- Not oblivious to the angst and apprehension permeating Labor on its deserved day to it I raise a glass in small gesture to stiffen their courage our future will soon require--