NEOCON HILLARITY

Hillary has finally made it!!!-- Badmouthing the cautious but sensible position of Obama that the US should be engaged with its enemies as somehow 'naive and irresponsible', has brought the pandering facho Queen of AIPAC into the hallowed realm of the Neocon version of Valhalla--Brooks, Krauthammer, Kristol, along with many more to come, have all jumped on Hillary's bandwagon offering sycophantic syrupy accolades to the seasoned and oh so shrewd perpetual politician--

That Obama's stance was so eminently sensible that even degenerate Neocons, suffering mightily from the heavy and intense glare echoing their defeat in Iraq, can recognize the stupidity inherent in Hillary's negative retort as an electoral liability even the 'pygmy' candidates (to borrow Newt's phrase) of the severely damaged repo-party may, perchance, have success against in next years' campaign combat-- It is not as if they have never before attempted to gallop toward ruin inside mega-deception only to find such success way beyond their stated intentions--

Didn't Hillary's own naivete as well as her own irresponsibility aid and abet the Neocon misadventure in Iraq by actually voting for it quite to the contrary of her persistent denial of any complicity-- The suddenly world-wise pose of Mrs. Clinton is disingenuous, to say the least, and exposes her disconnect from both the responsibility she isn't man enough to accept and the reality she consistently attempts to evade-- She is certainly not alone in this on either side of the aisle, for sure, and perhaps that is why such not so deft accusations of her opponent meets with such resplendent Neocon praise-- Hillary and the Neocons...... fellow travelers!!!--

Basking in their wildly appreciative glow, Hillary will probably and privately take their complimentary praise as an ego endorsement or perhaps one more chink in the armor of 'the biggest glass ceiling of them all' without realizing the Neocons are just doing what they have done so well all along as their pet project for a New American Century disintegrates before their very eyes and that is, erecting facile constructs that resemble missions accomplished but in truth are grasping at the proverbial straw-- Think about it, if the Neocon punditry, damning with excessive praise, actually believes Hillary is somehow and so suddenly the real deal, how could she be??--

BLOOD IN THE WATER

Please forgive me for not shedding any tears for the bloated banker boys who missed their tee times at the summer links this week-- Unable to sell-off a stockpile of loans has many of these GQ types stuck at the office sifting worthless paper while the rumor mill challenges their sanity-- The LBO craze has suddenly and precipitously cratered and with it goes doomed banker fees while the year end bonus balloon gyrates wildly out of the stratus-sphere until the hissing air abates and its wilting dance touches down at ground zero-- Fear is the only darkness, Grasshopper!!!--

And on Wall Street, off over 700 points from last weeks' record high, there is plenty of Darkness to go around-- Financial Alchemy run amok and now, in the aftermath, for all, a volatile feast of consequence amidst developing doom-- The mergers and acquisitions as well as the ease of leveraged buyouts and the stock buyback boom that has provided the drive behind Wall Streets record breaking rally can no longer find the finance to support these mega-deals-- Panic and fear in abundance not to mention a little savage anger from those whose home-ownership bubble had its pipe-dream pulled out from under it-- Foreclosure does strange things to certain people-- Word on The Street is guillotines are being sharpened--

Many of the hundreds of thousands of people who sought the easy money of financial careers and the wonderful futures offered by the Service economy, now sound rather shocked and disconsolate with the Housing markets nationwide collapsing into ever deeper troughs-- New Home sales dropped nearly 7% in June to a five month low triply worse than those ubiquitous experts had predicted-- Expect the major lay-offs in the financial services sector to wonder where all the jobs have gone-- While sub-prime credit prey were gulled by Greenspan's ARM army before being stabbed in the back by predictable rises in mortgage rates, all the jobs which may have facilitated on-time mortgage payments were being exported to cheap labor venues beyond the American Dream-- If the Dollar is/was the glue holding our disparate America together, prepare for separation and its attendant trouble-- The power centers are weak, indulgent, complacent, and, yes, quite dumb-- Chaos is now emergent!!!--

THE SMELL OF VICTORY

There was demi-captain Harry Reid sifting the sundered earth between his shriveled fingers, eyeing the backdrop of the deadly lectern for potential enemy movement while schooling a young demi-corporal about the arts of battle in the toil-worn aftermath of the Senatorial Slumber Party-- "I love the smell of pillow feathers in the morning, he groans, it smells like........" Well, you get the picture-- Is this the less artful demi-version of 'Mission Accomplished'??--The pathetic moribund political echelon in DC licks its newest wounds impatient for the same August recess it so sanctimoniously cudgels the Iraqi Parliament for indulging in at such a grave and perilous moment-- What it can't or simply refuses to see is its own indentured share attendant that grave peril-- This is not......... the smell of Victory--

America continues its deranged credit-card spending-spree stealing its children's future and suffering an abject loss of integrity without any responsible acknowledgement that its huge debt may have draconian ramifications in the immediate future-- That Bush who also plans to dump his Iraq mess on some oblivious successor is somehow an anomalous leader of his generation is really a disingenuous analysis-- What the Bush-haters cannot or simply refuse to see is that Bush like Clinton exemplifies the self indulgent indebted boomer crew to the maximum-- That whiskey and video games may be his addictions when white wine or marijuana or sex impale the more liberal boomers argues not against the underlying more-for-me drive fundamental to the generation that shows no actionable remorse for spoiling the legacy left by the preceding generation or for dumping their Karmic bill on the next-- The rest of the world is clearly beginning to doubt the once good faith ability of the US to repay its gargantuan appetite for foreign loans--If 'deficits don't matter' why are reserve banks and governments worldwide sweeping swiftly-depreciating dollars out their worried doors-- Borrowing over $1 trillion annually just to keep its consumptive hometown Hollywood fantasy operative as well the $12 billion per month sinkhole called Operation Provide Targets in Iraq to keep it from imploding into horrible defeat, The US Government cannot display any sound or principled plan, rough-draft or otherwise, to requite its world benefactors-- No wonder the world is worried about the deadbeat finances of the last remaining Superpower-- It is not a mirror into which the deceitful in DC wish to be seen peering-- This is not sign of ascension and, likewise, surely not the smell of Victory--

Currently there are enough stockpiles replete with enough trans-fat to fend off suggestions to all the hot-air ducts spewing empty odorless dioxide across the blathersphere that it is nobler in the mind not to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune but to actually oppose that sea of troubles rising gloomily in river city and put something meaningful on the line-- If our nation were a balloon all the hot air risings from the blogosphere would not fill its sails--Houston, we do not have liftoff!!!-- Philadelphia, we have a city, the birthplace of the US Constitution and home to a treasury of early American history, that has become haven to a murder zone-- The worst problem is in the nations big cities but medium size cities also show up-ticks in their murder rates In San Diego, murders were up 33 percent; in Houston, 12.9 percent, and in New York 10.6 percent. In Philadelphia, murders were up 7.7 percent last year. Sadr city on a multiple scale is coming to an oil-diminished megalopolis near you-- The memorial Wall in North Philly honors or, should it be, laments the 406 people murdered in 2006 85% of whom were Black-- This year one murder a day occupies the demoralized Police who apologetically admit loss of control-- The nightmare streets belong to the armed and those not 'tooled up' simply cannot risk the outside world-- Little of this competes with the Iraq debacle, American Idol or the Obillary circus for space on the Nightly News-- This is not a more secure nation, nor a sign of ascension, nor, least of all, the smell of Victory--

ALL NIGHTERS

A thousand more new wildfires roared to life since Monday as dry lightning strikes found fertile tinder across the sun-scorched dry-bone American West prompting besieged firefighting crews to seek reinforcements from international sources-- 68 large blazes charring the grasslands, the sage, and the timber as well as homesites across 12 western states--300 fire-threatened homeowners under-statedly would more than likely no longer moniker themselves kin to their home division's appellation in and about Happy Camp in the Klamath National Forest-- California's Peachtree Canyon denizens augur dread under an evacuation order as the Zaca fire with advancing potential of several miles per hour sights in on their endangered dreams with forecasts for continued high temperature and more winds--

The 6.8 earthquake that rocked Japan earlier this week inflicted considerably more serious damage to a nuclear power plant than the now profusely apologetic industry and government officials first reported resulting not only in a sizable up-tick in the anxiety quotient of ordinary Japanese citizens, understandably concerned for their immediate physical health and safety, but also added to the disquiet concerning the long term repercussions surrounding the less than energy-rich Japanese apprehension over future resource availability in an increasingly oil and gas hungry region of the world--

Havoc ran roughshod on Lexington Avenue at 41st street near Grand Central Station in midtown Manhattan yesterday as an 83-year-old underground 24 inch diameter steam pipe exploded, geysering huge steam clouds, roiling, rumbling brown water 120 feet high into the busy city air-- Panic led evacuees from the Chrysler building to charge down 43 flights of stairs wildly presaging death-- Pedestrians some covered in ash, mud and street soot, some pelted by pebbles and dislodged concrete and some anxiously crying at the perceived terrorist attack sprinted for cover-- Memories of 9/11 vividly enveloped the scene as 200 firefighters and dozens of siren blaring fire-engines and ambulances converged on the area cratered with a 20 foot mud hole-- Rumors of building collapse, asbestos contaminated smoke, hurricanes, and bombs permeated the rush hour--

Wall Street may have avoided the panic in Mid-town but many there are expressing frayed nerves about the visible exposure of banks and lenders caught in the downward squeeze of the sub-prime market-- Fed Chairman Bernanke recently removed his pollyannish dome from a theoretically academic realm long enough to forewarn all those interested that the sub-prime crisis could lead to staggering losses somewhere in the 'contained' vicinity of $100 billion-- Bernanke also lowered the Fed growth forecast as well as testifying before Congress that the mortgage meltdown could spread to the healthy loan sector and could get worse before better-- Welcome to reality, Ben, where were you last month???-- Brent crude has danced around the $78/barrel level for the best part of July and Ben boy now surmises overextended consumers/debtors may be peering down the proverbial barrel of a cocked shooting iron-- Not to worry, Ben, consumers have employed your easy credit for quite some time now and for many of them a necessary purchase ingredient may have been, Ben, ....a semi-automatic weapon of choice-- Believe it, Ben, they are already locked and loaded and the object of their aim is what should keep you awake nights--

Foreclosures already at record highs continue to spike pummeling homeowners currently besieged by spiraling gasoline prices and an added upsurge in food costs--Bear Stearn's two troubled hedge funds found little salvation from their recent bail-outs, one now being touted as completely valueless and the second nearly moribund-- Scattered across the country lesser-named funds are closing their doors with destabilizing frequency-- Everyday there is a new headline featuring another state or another megalopolitan region suffering a major drop in home sales and/or home prices, this morning California weighed in/down with sales hitting a 12 year low while Las Vegas home sales fell 42%-- Meanwhile those who did manage to sell their house found the sinking value of the crumbling dollar cookie almost a hidden tax, if you will, eroding the purchasing stature of their profit-- A glass of Coke costs the lowly American tourista about four Euros on the continent-- Imagine, (and please don't ask 'why?', it's simply a mundane way of spelling out the immediacy of the oblivion our currency faces) paying 35 bucks for an egg MacMuffin breakfast and another seven-fifty for a coffee-- Our money,......... sucks!!!!

A few days ago 80 people in the city of Kirkuk were killed and several hundred more were wounded-- Scores of cars destroyed, buildings and apartments damaged beyond repair-- Suicide bombers assaulted the Red Mosque complex in the capital of Pakistan and tallied 37 dead including police and citizen bystanders while northwest and southern Pakistan played host to the metastisizing violence region-wide-- In Iraq the government sits in paralytic stupor and void of any urgency before their August recess while al-Sadr, the savvy hoodlum from the slums of Sadr city, strengthens his political prowess and wins the very hearts and minds the anti-insurgency tactics of General Petraeus were intended to secure-- Sadr's crew dispenses protection, social services and money to the ragged poor, and used the downtime produced by Bush's Surge into his poor Shiite-homeboy turf to extend the reach of their armed militias to areas the under-manned Surge couldn't possibly cover tactically-- Sadr repeatedly creates fresh tactical elements and simple strategic maneuvers that consistently confound the political leaders of both Iraq and the US-- The General Petraeus meanwhile is purported to be searching for yet another tide-turning tactic to replace the dismally stalemated Surge, while the White House spends its precious energy concocting faux rationales to defend defenseless tactics no longer capable of producing results large-scale enough to produce optimum leverage against the insurgency-- Whatever new strategy Petraeus advances demands an authentic criteria which, of course, either the on-time insurgents or both Cheney and Bush, weeks and miles behind current events, have the wherewithal to overrule--

Yes, the same Surge the President positively declared had 'surprised' the insurgents even after advertising the ballyhooed strategery for six months in every major media outlet in the world including Al Jazeera-- Now 16 agencies comprising the National Intelligence Estimate, which even esteemed presidential contenders find insufficient time to read, agree that Al-Qaeda as an organization is now stronger, broader and better organized than ever while the isolated president thinks he has these same Qaedas on the run-- Defense department deadwood prognosticate their increasing fear that spectacular attacks mirroring the '68 Tet Offensive in Vietnam are in the offing even imminent while seven Sunni insurgent organizations and their leaders begin formation of a public political alliance anticipating potential negotiations as the daunting scent of withdrawal permeates the frustrated killing grounds-- Sparking my curiosity and raising a question concerning coincidental intent, headlines acknowledged the US recently called for more face-to-face talks with Iran--

Be that as it may, this somewhat cursory perusal of a few pertinent news postings concerning prominent ongoing world events was dealt a savage blow, one the winds of rumor barreled up the boulevard bringing word the demies had left their feeble shame on the dugout bench and were actually going to step up to the plate-- That's right!!!-- The same demi-Party that couldn't possibly lose to Joe Lieberman and did, was now lugging the heavy lumber to the batter's box-- Repo-men weakened by high profile defections were said to be quaking in their guccis-- No sniveling little leveraged buyouts here-- No, this would be hammer-and-tong, hand-to-hand, face-to-face, knock-down, drag-out, fight-to-the-finish, last-man-left-standing but when former-boxer and demi-captain Harry Reid unveiled his strategic schema, it smelled a lot more like salad than demi-Surge--

Not even jack-rabbits and dead bucaroos in the parched deserts of Nevada could cotton something this lame-- Alcohol ravaged Joe McCarthy deserved less shame than this silly sham-- Al-maliki could never have proposed something this profoundly insipid-- Jerry Bremer?,.... maybe-- Winning elections may be heady and grand but failing to deliver the goods, especially when failing to ascertain the true nature of the goods in the first place means your credibility is in hock to trouble-- Shuffling back to the inane popularity of their office with an air of resignation, the demies, uncertain and chagrined are simply void of new workable ideas-- Even if more repo-men favored defection from further Bush idiocy, the demies offer nothing to which good-faith renegades might ally themselves-- This is not leadership-- The country is going nowhere--

A (bleeping!!) all-nighter????-- Un-(bleeping)-believable!!........ And then it flops............. 'Big Time'--

Powered by ScribeFire.

HARPIES

Mr. Bush desperately pleads a threadbare case for his Surge supported all around by Neocon sycophants extolling the moderate success achieved in Anbar Province temporarily utilizing Sunni Tribal groups tenuously allied to US troops in an effort to combat Al Qaeda in Iraq-- Still a lethally earnest number, attacks have dropped by nearly 50% to around 26/day in the largely homogeneous Sunni region but Neocon dream-tank pundits and poseurs around the blather-sphere extrapolate much too simplistically from this unique alliance a template of tide-turning success which will rescue the inefficacy of the under-manned Surge countrywide and lead to the wild possibility of miraculous Victory--

To issue such craven nostrums in vain attempt to secure phantom success only prolongs the agony of all those touched by the mad fire of this fiasco-- The positive side-effect to this inchoate spin is to ultimately dodge historical judgement and condemnation for their haughty role in the slaying and criminal dismemberment of Iraq and to do so for as long as possible-- Never mind that such fictive constructs shield only the frightened purveyor and his vanity from the commonly obvious-- It is quite understandable, to say the least, as who amongst the status-competitive elites actually craves going down in history as an irredeemable loser or a pre-meditative war criminal-- The most amiable tactic, and quite often the most futile, to usually surface from the commingling of such fear and perverse pride is the proverbial grasping for nearest available straw-- Desperate in the extreme and void of any honor the incapacity of facing up to and accepting the responsibility for the insensate damage and hellacious suffering they have inflicted upon thousands of innocent people escapes these innocuous ideologues and drives the most bogus of their alternatives..... Salvaging faux reputations-- Hail, Mary, full of grace.......--

In this time of patently visible political debility, Mr. Bush finds himself in the unfortunate and certainly unenviable position of now having to find fortitude enough to fend off the incredibly deranged overtures coming from the bloated and frustrated Vice President, Mr. Cheney, .............. to bomb Iran!!!!-- The urge to change the subject from the ongoing disintegration in Iraq to another venue offering last chance victory options for a moribund political echelon would be sorely tempting especially with the fanatical and omnipresent chortling of apple-polishing AIPAC toadies like Mr. Kristol, Mr. Krauthammer, the Kagan clan and, of course, the mealy mongering Mr. Lieberman all of whose delusional epistles, uttered wildly into the militant mix of despair like Hitchcock-ian mad harpies, only wind up grating hysterically on the exposed nerve of nearly everyone in the extant world--

Bombing Iran may appear like salvation to those whose political tenure, the ineffable lineage of sequentially incompetent failure, offers no legislative ransom but only sullen deadlock-- Bleakly it seeps away with clock-like inevitability while the parade of desertion from its officers offers absolutely no positive prospects for posterity in the tortuous time remaining-- Warned that an aerial attack on Iran may easily backfire on and, worst case scenario, destroy Western Civilization's economy and influence globally but, hey, one sardonic benefit to such a perilous side-effect would be to shut the traps of those idiot shrews mentioned above-- Does Mr. Bush bear backbone enough to buck Mr. Cheney??-- It doesn't appear to be the case attendant the Libby commutation-- Time will tell--

The multiplication of murder and the massive explosions in the northern city of Kirkuk yesterday offers stark antidote to the vague canards of success offered by the White House in recent days-- While 80% of remaining Iraqis lack access to sanitation facilities, insurgents there possess the ability to strike any and everywhere inside the disintegrating country and in the not too distant future insurgents in Pakistan may possess such redundant capability themselves-- The Turks not just idly rattling sabers are gathering good numbers of troops on the northern border-world of Iraq with, perhaps, an eye toward the oil fields, but in terms of real politik, The Turks really cannot afford homage to the Rosy Scenario whore being pimped by Neocon dream-tanks devoid of logistical reality and praying for time-- American aims, most acutely those critical to the survival of Iraq, continue to go unrealized and the Turks, who are not afraid to actually ascertain and act on such intel, exercise their courage in preparation--

Positing fairy tale as fact prevents alternative policy plans from being postulated and possibly implemented but beyond the dubious pretense of smiley-face optimism comes the Grim Reaper and his roster of freshly dead spent to sustain such fictional folly-- The specter of Tet raises a reminder to stew minds besieged by the rumors of catastrophe and the demoralization attendant DC's spin crews-- Reports now circulating suggest General Petraeus is seeking an immediate alternative policy direction away from the failed tactical strategy of Bush's Surge-- Wasting precious time until September is not a viable option on the killing grounds of Iraq-- The pro-Surge pundit-ocracy is apparently busy defending a position no longer applicable asking for time no longer available-- A step and a half behind events, reactive before pro-active, coming in on a wing and a prayer-- Hard landing awaits--

Alluding constantly to future chaos, rampant bloodletting and mindless vengeance that would attend withdrawal of American Troops allows the unconcerned to ignore the degree to which this insidious mayhem and collapse already exists as a direct result of the initial Occupation and an ongoing response to the vagaries of its unplanned operations-- That both the White House and the Congress either cannot perceive this or simply opt to ignore it through rhetorical charades and the omnipresent art of plausible deniability is testimony to the bankrupt venality and self-serving vacuity of posturing US leadership and it bodes ominously for the stability of our imminent future--

Powered by ScribeFire.

IRRELEVANCE

Remember Don Rumsfeld beaming cocksure and invincible from his deadly lectern like a schoolboy at the head of his class oblivious to the real game awaiting him at recess on the hard asphalt play-gound where the talk as always had to be walked-- Rumpot, if you remember, had just finished telling all of Europe that they were old and irrelevant because they were so reluctant to join the Neocon juggernaut in the quick and obviously inevitable Middle Eastern ascension of The Project For A New American Century-- With ultimate Victory already ordained, European timidity (ultimately good sense) would certainly not be apportioned any share in the victors' spoils-- Seems like a long time ago, but where is Rummy these days??-- And who, steeped in oceans of unnecessary bloodshed and shunted to a stool on the back porch of history, wears the laurel of irrelevance today?--

Those credentialed enough to apply are too numerous to name but Mr. Bush certainly begs for ample consideration-- Acknowledging in a White House Report this moment is crucial, The President this morning also reiterated,"I believe (my italics) we can succeed" even as the official account predicted another increase to violent insurgent attacks and the resultant up-tick of sustained American casualties in the coming months-- Gone is the confident certitude of "We will prevail" that in the past so often punctuated his speeches to the American people-- From 'we' to 'I' and from 'will' to 'believe', we are now down to the bedrock of trembling faith and from the collective to the singular, it is the faith of an isolated individual spurning the life preserver hard-fact is offering--

On de-Ba'athification Reform, to cite one benchmark from the negative majority of 18 imperatives operating in theatre, the report euphemistically pronounces 'a lack of satisfactory progress'-- (Above all else, never call a spade a failure) This really is a bastard form of re-Ba'athification intended to give the former torturers and bureaucratic hacks of Saddam's malignant party apparatus enough political clout in the Iraqi parliament to induce it (also with promises of oil profit-sharing) to refrain from further violence against the occupation-- Concocted in some air-conditioned Neo-con dream-tank this proposal probably wore an ideal glow for those corpulently cushioned in their over-stuffed easy chairs mint- juleps ever at the ready, but for the Shiites now esconsced in authority, empty as it may be, in the Iraqi government the bald-faced fact is the Sunnis are The Enemy, have been and will continue to be and are not, cannot and must not ever be trusted-- This is real war--

Since the US, in all those years of supporting Saddam, never gave a real rat's eyelash about how poorly his henchmen roughed-up and ill-treated the Shia majority and how deep the residual debt of blood-payback runs in the Shia psyche, the current Administration is incapable of understanding the intensely bitter situation it intends to arbiter--The US position here is quite irrelevant from the militia/insurgent point of view and no matter how often the State Department still denounces the apt description of the ongoing fight between these two sectarian opponents as a civil war, no alternative semantic option will alter the continuing carnage-- Or get the Bushies off the chopping block----

Not every civil war unfolds within the tactical and/or philosophical parameters of the Blue versus the Gray-- Ours wasn't the only Civil War in the history books or the only manner a civil war is allowed to play itself out-- But to cite a positive benchmark from the report, praise went to the efficacy of the government's agile condemnation of major attacks referring to one in Samarra last month-- A verbal laceration.... a quick reaction..... clearly a bureaucratic hook from which to hang an irrelevant hope..... Quality tactics from a 21st Century Government.... maybe a new subscription to the Weekly Standard or an invitation to a bow from the besottedly blind AEI both of whom while away their own irrelevance by contriving to find self-exoneration for their own complicity in this worsening debacle--

By extrapolating from the moderate success (attacks down nearly 50% to a still rather high 26 per day) in largely Sunni Anbar Province, The Neocons posit a potential countrywide grassroots movement of dis-illusioned insurgents almost ready to join the coalition and drive the Qaedas from Iraq because a few tribal sheiks aided America against local Al Qaeda bad-boys holed up in Anbar-- With this miraculous surge-induced event almost tactile but still really visible only to true Neocon believers, Victory's bliss yet waits just round the corner-- Republican traitors in the Senate are the only ones now capable of gumming up the works-- Victory an inch away in the dream when it does give way to hard fact on the ground will still provide The Cabal their complicity-denying slogan-- Defeat snatched from the jaws of Victory---Stabbed in The Back!!


Mr. Bush casts a pathetic lonesome figure as Republicans begin to desert the sinking ship-- The Demies locked in the blatant irrelevance of ineffectual performance wait like coddled visionless buzzards to feast none too soon on the collapsing administration carcass, always striving for maximum election year advantage and media exposure uber alles-- That Mr. Bush had to wait for the 4th of July celebration to commute Scooter Libby's jail sentence, slipping it in under the radar via a press release in the wee hours of the hard-news cycle, marks how far the Decider in Chief has fallen and how much oomph there is left in the administration tank-- Sadly this is not now and never has been a strong leader at the helm of an ascendant nation but now a burnt out filling station attendant coming home from work with one too many under his belt...... running on empty--

Powered by ScribeFire.

EXTREMIS

If The Surge was designed to provide increased security to the citizens of Iraq in hopes of winning their hearts and minds, political leaders of both sectarian stripes responsible for the lion's share of hideous mayhem, the Shiite and the Sunni, voted against the efficacy of that Surge by telling everyday Iraqi citizens to arm themselves because none of the competing military organizations in the killing zones are capable of defending or protecting the citizen non-combatants and the onus for their defense is now on them--

The level of explosive savagery over the weekend dwarfed the smiley face news American strategists had been hoping to spin in the administration's upcoming progress report mandated for July 15-- Various reports detail the effects Senior Republican Senators, defecting from Bush's tired old stay-the-course saw are having on the beleaguered White House crew--An atmosphere of panic appears to be setting-in around the oval office-- Spokesman Snow is frantically opting for complete categorical denial as his spin maneuver when asked about sharply ongoing debates concerning revised strategery and tactical alternatives to the continuing disintegration of the Iraqi state and the ever increasing proliferation of car bomb attacks-- Political operative Rove in a petulant huff refused to offer any apology for the war gone wrong-- No, he did not say he was 'out of the loop'--

When the Iraqis do take over security operations they will do so with an army and a police force rife with insurgent infiltrators-- Small militias have been absorbed into Iraqi forces and are never punished for their considerable atrocities-- American troops are in a severely thankless position/task of having to train groups of temporarily neutral insurgents who will never be loyal to America-- Sectarian violence and anti-occupation operations pandemic in Baghdad and central Iraq are missing from the British situation in Basra where after a dose of surge from the Royal British Imperial grunts the situation resumed itself featuring 'systematic misuse of official institutions, political assassination, tribal vendettas, neighborhood vigilantism,' all mixed together with mafioso criminals posing as arbiters of political action-- Should Baghdad's irate sectarian tempers ever becalm or dissipate would Basra's chaotic troubles be reproduced there in the extreme-- Non sectarians are not immune from exacting vows of vengeance amidst an everyday reality the paralytic White House refuses to perceive--

This is not wonderful-- General Petraeus is now talking decade length commitments to deal with the insurgency alone-- Those now serving are in danger of becoming indentured slave-warriors with death as the escape hatch-- How many more troops will the ten year tactic require and from where will they magically appear??-- How much of their grand-children's money and future will be drained away in this process-- Once the insurgency has been defeated out there somewhere beyond the tenth year will the Iraqis who are still standing and breathing even remember anything about governmental institutions and the necessary logistics to effect and engineer a functioning 21st Century nation??-- Redoubling efforts after having forgotten the aim is the uniform of the fanatic and Mr. Bush still revels in the calling--

Iraq is in disorder at its most radical zenith and ordinary moderate Iraqis must now prepare to use murder as a routine means of self-defense-- Every life is now improvidently endangered and they have all been warned-- This is not a situation where Rosy Scenario much less Victory is just around the corner, where two more weeks or months of surge can elicit anything proximate to civilization from a barbarian mad mega-slaughter-- Every milestone gained by Mr Bush's strategery has gained positive hype from most mainstream cheerleading media countrywide only to meet explosive disavowal from an insurgent resistance replete with many disparate guerrilla capabilities-- Expect more aggressive detonations should Bush and Petraeus portray progress from the cordite-scented facts on the ground come September--



Let's be adamantly clear and direct here-- Failure to stop extremism is extreme failure-- And failure to face up to failure has the potential to destroy our country-- Demand the Honor and the Courage missing in extremis from our leaders-- Only by facing our fall head-on can we then rise from its ashes--

Powered by ScribeFire.

SPIRAL DOWN

Asked how he found a dollar the other day, a friend of mine replied, 'With a magnifying glass.'-- No wonder, as the dollar gets even smaller with each new passing day-- Today a new record low was reached against the Euro as the world continues to run away from the greenback-- The continuing up-tempo collapse of the Housing Sector bubble with its attendant waves of delinquent mortgage payments, increasing rates of foreclosure and devastating declines in property value wreak havoc in stock, bond, currency and commodity market psyches around the globe-- Refinancing a home that is now worth less on the market than the current owner paid for it is becoming next to impossible-- Downward goes the spiral--

Administration officials go about mouthing insincere damage-control platitudes about containment as hedge funds wilt wither and disappear on momentary notice and even the ebullient confidence once shown in the private equity takeover racket now offers a hint of wobble to its strut-- Previously greased by cheap and plentifully easy credit, the whole financial globalist economy is now endangered-- The decimated industrial manufacturing backbone of the nation flounders onward broken long ago by union busting ideologues armed with MBA's, caches of myopic mega-greed, quivers full of engineered slogans designed to expiate guilt engendered by the nasty rip-off of decent people by economic Darwinians-- Remember 'Win-Win' situations or the ubiquitous 'Rising tides lift all boats'--

No mention whatsoever of 'ebbing tides' and their deleterious effects-- The Chinese oracle, I Ching, avers that all gathering is followed by dispersal-- Unexplained in the aphorism is the power of the force or the time-frame which expedites the scattering dissolution but keeping with the Nature-as-metaphor theme which imbues most of the tract, some kind of allegorical wind might be involved-- A wind inducing fire-storm or drought, perhaps, which pays no heed to the totemic symbolism of such 21st Century dinosaurs occupying anchor desks at financial 24-hour news channels nor the charades of retro-fantasy embodied by the recent rock-concert-as-planetary-salvation indulgence either-- The wind may quickly ignite fast traveling conflagration or slowly inevitably shrivel the delusion of easy abundance to dust-- Water mixed by and with the driving force of wind bears a destructive potential of high order magnitude as the memory of Katrina, especially for those afflicted directly, can attest-- The question of bangs or whimpers is somewhat irrelevant and matters less and less as credit continues to become too expensive and everywhere the waters of facile economic power dry up--

With so many homes being lost to foreclosure, job lay-offs, etc., and so many standing for sale in deteriorating markets countrywide(prognostications indicate current inventory will idle for 9 months even as prices are repeatedly lowered), coupled with the rising gasoline/oil prices and the consequentially devastating rise in commute costs, education costs, food costs, and health costs, one would rather safely assume a commensurate rise in the number of boats 'for sale' especially those purchased by recently laid-off officers in the Financial sectors of the paradigmatic Service Economy-- Old Clinton, El Nafta, once arrogantly crowed that under his administration the business cyle had been mastered and we had all entered a new business paradigm which had eliminated the possibility of recession forever-- So much for the best laid plans of mice and men, not to mention, of course, the propensity for sitting presidents to endear us all with their delirium-- 'Bring it on.....!!!!'--


Will ebbing tides sink all boats?-- How about all SUV's??-- Not to worry, system apology-niks will be there to offer another sweet sounding illogical cliche to foster false confidence easing the depression that attends consumer joe's experience when he realizes his pocket was picked by the good hands people of Wall Street-- The 29% usury charge for the privilege of indenturing his daughter with their gold/platinum credit cards has driven his American dream to its knees, to the street, and to the soup-line-- Let's all hail the efficacy of the outsourcing of American jobs ably facilitated by Clinton and his toadie Al Gore, the planetary guru now bringing rock-n-roll to a field of dreams near you--

"Mission Accomplished!!!"--

Powered by ScribeFire.

ABSENT QUORUM & THE OIL LAW

Widely reported last week as another positive breakthrough in the ongoing Iraq debacle, the contested oil bill finally traversed its way from the al-Malicki cabinet to the Iraqi Parliament where the optimistic momentum, created by the less than ubiquitous true-believers still aboard the Neocon Iraq Express, immediately mired itself to the same reality-based morass that envelopes the entire country-- Lacking a complete quorum the Parliament cannot convene and therefore cannot even begin the debate-- This breakdown is not the result of blind chance or haphazard insignificance--

Mainstream media have never challenged the equitable tenets of this hastily and poorly conceived conundrum-- If equal distribution of less than moderate oil profits to the three disparate groups, the Sunni, the Shia and the Kurds, could accomplish its oft stated and supposedly only intention of enriching the Sunni group enough to encourage it to cease the sectarian mayhem and actually participate in the Iraqi Government as a full fledged partner to a common peaceable future, then the oil bill might already be a fait accompli--

But, as the bill has been written, nearly the entire oil industry of Iraq must be controlled and directed by US Oil companies to whom must go the lion's share of oil contracts and resultant profits-- Why are the Sunnis, the prime intended beneficiary of this wildly disproportionate bill, the most reluctant to even begin debate on it??-- Why are the Kurds so seemingly complacent for so long concerning the current state of affairs now grumbling their considerable discontent with a proposal promising less oil than they already claim for themselves in their own previously announced and then world-ignored independent Kurdistan??-- Even al-Sadr has given thumbs down to the oil draft--

Obviously something is amiss over the disparate expectations these groups once had and were once led to believe were etched in the stone of America's word and the extant proposals now being mandated by the same Coalition Authority that once patently denied oil was a raison detre for our occupation of Iraq in the first place-- All of which is congealing into serious resistance from the point of view of all involved participants--The Shites, the impoverished majority Shia, were oppressed by Sunnis empowered under Saddam and understandably, in terms of real politik, do not favor enforced enrichment of the Sunnis-- The Sunnis can't trust US proposals having experienced the duplicitous alliance of the US during the early years of Saddam's US-aided rule-- One example, the Sunnis have not forgotten US Ambassador April Glaspie's green light('The US takes no position on inter-Arab border disputes'--rough quote) Saddam then took to imply permission to invade Kuwait-- The Kurds remember Bush's Father endeavored them to overthrow Saddam, after the first Gulf War, promising overwhelming military support should they need it-- Well, need it they did and thousands of Kurd families lost love ones to Saddams' slaughter of the failed coup attempt while the elder Bush basking in the faux glow of short-lived victory lifted not a finger-- There are strong precedents for this glaring mistrust--Americans may have forgotten but the Kurds haven't and won't anytime soon-- Their 'Kurdistan', they believe, has tacit approval from an America that still owes them blood debt upon which America, the Kurds now fear, intends to renege-- There are consequences for not living up to your word--

Trouble belies the placid calm of Northern Iraq now as Turkey injected a couple of troop forays across the Iraq border ostensibly chasing Kurdish PKK rebels seeking sanctuary-- Turkey denied the incursions ever happened and the media chose to bury story but couldn't prevent Oil prices from catapulting into the $73/bl range-- Add to this jumbo-cluster of aggravation and false promises Australian Defense chief Brendon Nelson who publicly admitted 'resource security' otherwise known as oil supplies are defining component of Australian troop deployment in Iraq and was quickly downplayed by his Aussie boss PM John Howard-- Cat's, too late, out of the proverbial bag-- Ooooops!!!


The snarled oil bill reflects the internecine political complexities of everyday life and death in the Iraq killing zones as well as the particular life-pace of the people involved-- The US, without ever knowing much about the cultural habits and preferences of the Iraqi people except that, of course, narcissistic canard they absolutely craved liberation from such inherent restrictions-- Now the US wants its cake immediately and the tantrums, our self-serving politicians mouth-off in abject contagion across the full political spectrum, echo their sullen refusal to accept any responsibility for the rigors of both guerrilla stalemate and potential anarchic collapse alternatively struggling in the power vacuum region-wide--

Over 450 Baghdad corpses were found in various states of blindfolded bondage and lethal torture in June considerably outstripping pre-Surge number levels of last January-- One puzzling factoid to which the Media is so persistently reluctant to give much air is this: The Greed Zone receives incoming mortar fire every night and is now incapable of removing its own garbage from the zone-- Is this a self-induced siege or what??-- The bureaucratic denial of this lack of control cannot be maintained for a South Korean eternity of say 30 more years-- Each fictitious milepost of ever more complex success is almost immediately shot down by simple insurgent operations on ground they control only when they want to--

The Surge is having difficulty because it cannot win the people it once might have-- The US no longer has the wherewithal, even if debate-ably it ever did, to provide the necessary security to insure stability-- Too much precious time was lost flaccidly debating for over a year the existence of an extant insurgency that then and now never skips a beat-- Recouping trust lost by heavy-handed tactics designed by blind administrators far too distant from the the boots on the ground battlefield and hard facts they attend-- Lost time is not found again even by well intentioned and supremely intelligent generals and, less so even by electioneering politicians (Speaker Pelosi--'We(demies) have many arrows in our quiver and we are sharpening them') playing only for time and praying the voters don't hold them accountable for the entire mess--

Something must be rotten in the state of DC-- So, too, The Greed Zone-- Take a whiff!!!--

Powered by ScribeFire.

STRANGE BREWS

A dangerous trend is brewing-- Beer prices are rising and not just locally-- Reports claim worldwide up-ticks-- Barley, beer's main ingredient, is now being planted in less acreage as farmers chase the increased profits from rising corn prices due to increased demand for corn from the ethanol/alternative energy equation-- As corn becomes more expensive cattle feeders search for other grains to fatten their bovine profits and, as demand for barley as cattle feed spikes upward, supply coming from fewer barley fields drives up prices further-- Couple that with the rising cost of transporting product, both barley and finished beer, due to ever rising oil prices, and the rising costs of aluminum, paper, labor, freight maintenance and many other commodities, and it becomes quite easy to ascertain that inflated beer prices won't come down any time soon nor will this inflation be factored into the CPIl-- All so dweeb economists at the DC level can maintain the fiction(as well as their mahogany foxhole) that inflation exists as a potential threat somewhere out beyond the edge of town and not as the snake slithering to the bottom of devoured wallets and maxed-out credit cards--

So, it comes as no surprise that US workers have had their confidence more than fractionally pummeled -- Job security is a major worry for more than many workers-- For the first time in nearly a year more workers are financially pessimistic than optimistic-- Factory orders fell in May as did pending home sales while gasoline prices continue to savage the individual budget-- Foreclosures at all time record highs and the slick predatory frauds attendant to such emergent angst continue to stalk the troubled sub-prime milieu--A nearly 9 month inventory of unsold homes nationwide indicates a market whose accelerator is stuck on idle at best-- Late payments for home equity, autos, boats, and home improvement loans show a sharp first quarter rise reflecting a stinging financial distress that is clobbering consumers-- Beer consumption, however, may not dramatically decline during this July 4 holiday period but psychologically the rise in beer prices represents one more penetrating chink in the armor of the working class-- Coming soon to the middle class, on an auction block near you--

Projected GM and Ford sales for June in both retail and fleet sectors came in south of the break even line(down 13% @ GM, 9% @ Ford), while leading Japanese auto companies will show up-shooting sales and continuing increase in market shares--Not good news for sure nor much surprising either-- The once proud backbone of American Manufacturing is in such serious trouble (raped by its own financiers) even master spinners find great difficulty putting any positive sheen to the ongoing downfall in Detroit-- Losing ground while running in place is not an optimum strategy but fewer options appear available from the bankrupt leadership across America's boardrooms-- Portfolios everywhere share a case of the nerves--

Insolvent leadership from the Federal level offers its own paralysis as collateral--Both action and money promised has neither arrived nor aided as promised ongoing struggles to rebuild New Orleans and other environs demolished by Katrina-- Let us not even mention the twin holes not filled in New York's wounded skyline in the nearly six year interim while erstwhile presidential campaigners evoke the towering absence as some perverted justification for the bona fides of their vision-limited candidacies-- Homage, let us all pay, to the Spin Machine


The life styles of America may be fancied by Vice-Presidents as non-negotiable, but while all the derelict non-negotiations are taking place, facts on the ground suggest those lifestyles are taking multiple hits from seriously damaging fire incoming from too many fronts at the same wrong time-- The canard of immigration reform blew up in the face of both the anemic demies and the running-scared repo-men-- The President merely added another impressive notch to a coup stick made mega-supple by a litany of repetitious failure-- American is being driven to its knees financially, stalemated militarily, out-maneuvered on diplomatic fronts, out manufactured worldwide, intoxicatingly stupified by entertainment fantasy, shipwrecked on a reef of dissolved civility and familial disorder, all the while oblivious to the coming credit crunch (only '$3bil of the $20bil junk bonds for offer last week actually sold') and the severe consequences demanded by the heretofore invisible creditors holding the mega-debt our collective soul--

Powered by ScribeFire.