July 2007
Monthly Archive
July 26, 2007
Posted by MoS under
Harper
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The online version of Adbusters has stripped Stephen Harper of what it calls his “green veneer”:
After failing to get any support for his ironically-titled Clean Air Act, Harper’s government announced a new climate change policy last April called “Turning the Corner” that was supposed to strike a balance between environmental and industry concerns. But the new strategy was a gift to corporations and gave them so many loopholes and exemptions from target caps that it will actually lead to a rise in greenhouse gas emissions.
Through “intensity-based targets,” corporations can increase their pollution as they increase their production. It will also give new companies three years to start meeting targets – widely seen as a free pass for the oil and gas companies operating in Alberta’s toxic tar sands, which are desperately trying to ramp up production to meet the United States’ insatiable need for oil. Under the new plan, companies can also meet 70 percent of their targets simply by paying into a fund, and those that don’t meet their targets can just buy their way out with carbon credits.
Harper’s attempt to portray himself as environmentally conscious is all the more insulting considering his track record. Since he was elected in 2006, Harper has cut 20 different federal programs meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, made secret deals with George Bush and American oil executives to bolster production of the Albertan tar sands (which already consume 600 million cubic feet of natural gas a day), and introduced the incredulous Clean Air Act, which doesn’t set hard caps on emissions until 2050.
Like many aspects of his appearance, Harper is trying to mask his persona as a right-wing radical and re-brand himself as a middle-of-the-road moderate in order to appeal to Canadian voters. While he has managed to calm some people’s fears by diluting his stance on the Iraq War and gay marriage, Harper’s environmental transformation is a façade. But Canada and the rest of the world have little time left to play with his disguises. With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warning that billions of people around the world are going to face food and water shortages caused by flooding within 13 years, Harper’s “greening” is nothing more than a whitewash.
July 26, 2007
Ouch! That’s gotta hurt. Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama has fired a broadside at Hillary Clinton:
“I’m not afraid of losing the PR war to dictators…I’m not going to hide behind a bunch of rhetoric. I don’t want a continuation with Bush-Cheney. I don’t want Bush-Cheney light. I want a fundamental change.”
Obama was referring to Hillary Clinton’s statement that, like Bush/Cheney, she too would not talk to leaders from countries like Iran unless they first met certain conditions.
July 26, 2007
A lot of money is due to change hands this weekend in Dubai. It’s the annual, International Defence Exhibition or IDEX, and it’s just the place to stock up on goodies for your particular insurgency of choice.
Everything can be had from sniper rifles to state-of-the-art surveillance gear to the latest attack jets and there’ll be plenty of buyers for just about all of it.
Saudi Arabia and Jordan are widely believed to be arming Iraq’s Sunni insurgency this way and, while America is fond of complaining of Iranian ordinance finding its way into Shia hands, when was the last time you heard Bush/Cheney denounce their Saudi buddies for helping their Iraqis kill Americans?
IDEX – bringing together all the mayhem and suffering fit to buy and all of the oil money keen to buy it.
July 26, 2007
The United States is the ultimate consumer society. Consumer spending has driven that country’s economy as it has no other and the fuel for it has been easy money, that is to say very low interest rates. As described in the Washington Post, the peril of an economy built on prolonged, low interest is what happens when that inevitably ends.
Easy credit has been the economy’s lifeblood in recent years. It gave people who previously couldn’t afford homes a crack at the American dream. It fueled multibillion-dollar takeovers of some of corporate America’s biggest names. It buoyed the stock market and propped up the prices of many other assets.
But now, the investors who a few months ago were willing to lend money to Wall Street at low interest rates, on loose terms, are balking as they worry about having to pay the price for lax lending standards.
The trouble started in one of the shakiest sectors of finance, home mortgages for people with bad credit, but it is spreading. As easy credit dries up, some huge corporate deals are being delayed and could unravel.
The question now is how far will the pain spread, and how many people will get hurt as it does.
“When people get scared, they tighten up all over,” said A. Gary Shilling, president of the investment firm that bears his name. He said he expects housing prices to fall significantly further. “This kills consumer spending,” he said of the credit crunch. “We think we’ll be in a recession as a result by the end of the year. And that will spread globally because U.S. consumers still are the buyers of first and last resort for the excess goods and services produced around the world.”
At the moment opinion is sharply divided on how the US will ride out the storm. Some are hopeful it will turn out to be a passing squall that leads to sunny skies again this fall. Others believe a recession looms.
July 26, 2007
“I’m a big believer in polluter pays.
There will be an investigation into how this happened
… and how we can stop this from happening in the future.”
Write that down somewhere you’ll be able to find it because I think we’ll need it before long.
The policy comes directly from the rabid mouth of Canada’s EnvroMin John Baird. Bairdo (as in “Baird” + “Weirdo”) was responding to the ruptured oil pipeline in Burnaby, B.C. earlier this week that resulted in the escape of thousands of litres of crude oil.
I, too, agree with the “polluter pays” principle. It’s fair and it’s just and, when done right, it can be really effective.
In Canada there hasn’t been enough of this sort of thing. Take, for example, Big Oil. They’ve been running an enormous tab for a long time and maybe the moment has finally arrived for them to be presented with their bill.
Just a few days ago Big Oil was talking about the great benefits to be had from carbon capture and sequestration, something they followed with the suggestion that our government fund the programme. Hey Baird, why don’t you take your “polluter pays” principle on the road. First stop – the Tar Sands.
July 26, 2007
I’m reluctant to let this out but – oh well, the climate of our planet is changing and, in terms of our relativey frail life forms, the changes are powerful.
If it isn’t the heat that gets you, it may be the rain. Just about every place on the planet is getting hotter. In colder areas that can be a mixed blessing. In normally hot regions, it’s an outright curse.
Even once-mild Europe isn’t spared. Heat waves have claimed thousands of lives in places like Paris and, further south, the Meditteranean shores are becoming seasonally unbearable. The eastern Med, in particular, is scorched and parched.
The same goes for the southeastern and southwestern regions of the US where what’s expected to be a long-term drought has set in. The populations that have migrated to Florida, Arizona, New Mexico and the like are now having second thoughts – and not because they want to.
The rainfall these places need hasn’t disappeared, it’s merely moved on and concentrated in places as diverse as China, Texas and Britain. The populations of those areas aren’t short of rain, they’re floating in it. The curious thing is that all that rain often means no drinking water. Go figure. (if you don’t understand, it’s because floodwaters inundate municipal water and sewer systems, leaving drinking water contaminated and unfit).
Those who prefer it cold are going to be drawn closer to earth’s poles. Some who need it cold – polar bears and the Inuit, for example, are going to have to find ways to adapt. The Inuit have been advised to get rid of their snowmobiles and go back to dog teams because dogs can recognize thin ice and, if your sled does go in, can sometimes pull you right back out. Now there’s a comforting thought.
The Good Old Days are now the Gone Old Days. That’s more than a bitter lament. It means that, in addition to rallying to the fight against global warming, we need to direct resources and efforts to finding the very best ways and means of adapting to what’s already arrived and what will be coming in the near future.
In Canada we need to grasp how blessed we are compared to most of the planet, including our immediate neighbour. We need to appreciate these natural advantages and decide what we need to do to preserve, even defend them. Let’s not delude ourselves: this is going to take time, effort, resources and an awful lot of goodwill and co-operation if we’re to do this right. We can’t obsess about getting back the Good Old Days. They are now, by any measure, the Gone Old Days.
July 26, 2007
Russia, India and China. Their rapid economic growth is expected to drive the world economy to a 5.2% growth this year, despite a lagging United States.
China’s economy is expected to grow slightly faster than 11% while the US will be closer to 2%, provided it can contain the damage from its bursting housing bubble. Germany and Japan come in at 2.6% growth, slightly less than Britain.
The forecasts, produced by the International Monetary Fund, come with an inflation warning. The IMF says sustained, strong growth will be reflected in rising costs of energy, commodities and labour.
The IMF forecasts point to a major shifting in global economic power from West to East. It now appears to have reached a point where even a US recession will be a mainly local problem instead of a global catastrophe.
July 26, 2007
If you were in a war and you knew that, with a very small force you could tie down the lion’s share of your enemy’s force in one area, where would you deploy your main force? Well you would probably take the opportunity to use your greatest force where it could exploit your enemy’s vulnerability. For al Qaeda today, that vulnerability is in south Asia – Pakistan and Afghanistan in particular.
For every soldier George Bush has tied down in Afghanistan he has three in Iraq, supposedly battling al-Qaeda. Three to one, that must say something.Unfotunately what it says is not encouraging.
When Bush talks of al-Qaeda it is inevitably to tie the terrorist group to his misadventure in Iraq. Drawing down US troops in Iraq would hand a victory to al-Qaeda, he claims, knowing that, with the help of his mouthpieces – the Ann Coulter/Fox News/Rush Limbaugh types – he can still persuade his base that he knows what he’s doing.
Now George Bush is either lying or he’s incredibly stupid – stupid the point of gross incompetence. Even as he was uttering this nonsense, his top anti-terrorism experts were appearing before Congress, in the process exposing Bush’s self-serving, soldier-killing, homeland endangering deceit. From the Boston Globe:
In rare testimony before two House committees, Edward Gistaro, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats, said that Al Qaeda terrorists operating in South Asia are better equipped to attack the United States than the network’s followers in Iraq are.
Asked which arm of Al Qaeda concerned him the most, Gistaro told a joint session of the House armed services and intelligence panels that it was South Asia.
“The primary concern is in Al Qaeda in South Asia organizing its own plots against the United States,” he said. Al Qaeda planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks from its bases in Afghanistan.
“We see increased efforts on the part of Al Qaeda to try and find, train, and deploy people who could get into this country,” he testified.
Meanwhile, a top US general in Afghanistan told Pentagon reporters in a video teleconference that the number of Al Qaeda foot soldiers traveling to South Asia has increased up to 60 percent over the past year.
“It’s increased probably 50 to 60 percent over what it was last year . . . and they come from multiple areas in the Middle East,” said Army Major General David Rodriguez, commander of the 82d Airborne Division.
Iraq is bleeding America’s military and sapping popular support in the US. Iraq is preventing the United States from turning to face its enemy.
Ever since Bush/Cheney invaded Afghanistan they have been playing directly into the hands of al-Qaeda. When they had nearly choked the very life out of this once ragtag criminal gang, they released their grip and let it recover. Then they invaded Iraq out of sheer whim, handing bin Laden a huge victory and permitting al-Qaeda to grow in numbers and expand in range from Europe to East Africa to West Asia. Unbelievable. Now that the size and capability of al-Qaeda has grown markedly, Bush refuses to meet its thrust. Unbelievable.
I’m beginning to wonder whether Bush’s top officials even tell him the truth any longer or, through the filter of Dick Cheney’s organization, tell their president only what he wants to hear or what Cheney wants him to hear?
Bush is now deep in his bunker where he can no longer see the light of day. He reminds me of another delusional leader on the losing end of an invasion of whim who ordered non-existant divisions to hold off a resurgent enemy.
July 25, 2007
It’s almost as agonizing to watch as the same debate going on at home. The Netherlands is now in the process of deciding what to do with their forces in Afghanistan when their mandate lapses next August.
The Dutch have contributed 1,000 soldiers plus helicopters and jet fighters. Holland initially went into the ISAF effort for two years with the expectation that other NATO members would take over when that commitment ended.
Now, like Canada, the Dutch have noticed there are no other NATO states lining up to take over.
The Dutch commitment was two years and out. Canada, after a farcical “debate”, decided two years and then we’ll see. That was back when Stephen Harper was obsessed with his manhood.
What the Dutch and we need to understand is that THIS IS AMERICA’S WAR. It’s not a war for the survival of our very civilization. It was a war initiated by the United States in response to a criminal act that hit the skids when the United States decided they’d rather play with their tanks in another country, Iraq.
If NATO can’t come up with other nations to shoulder their share of this mission, then it is the United States that should take over. It’s Washington that has chosen to tie down 180,000 soldiers in Iraq, not NATO. It was Washington that convinced us to step in and mind the store while they stepped out to have a smoke in Iraq. It was Washington that was supposed to have the Iraq business wrapped up four years ago. It is Washington, not Brussels, that has created this godawful mess. Let’s put the responsibility back where it truly belongs.
From the start of this NATO “mission” I was troubled that our alliance might easily be transformed into America’s Foreign Legion. We’re at that decision point right now. The alliance itself can’t survive that. Let’s focus on preserving the NATO alliance even if it means saying “No” to Washington.
July 25, 2007
The New York Times today laments that George w. Bush has no exit strategy for his failed war in Iraq.
What is President Bush’s plan for a timely and responsible exit? That is the essential precondition for salvaging broader American interests in the Middle East and for waging a more effective fight against Al Qaeda in its base areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And it is exactly the question that Mr. Bush, his top generals and his diplomats so stubbornly and damagingly refuse to answer.
The plan [to keep American troops fighting until at least 2009] ignores the fact that the volunteer Army cannot sustain a prolonged escalation without grievous losses in quality, readiness and morale. Even more unrealistically, the plan assumes that with two more years of an American blank check, Iraqi politicians will somehow decide to take responsibility for their political future — something they’ve refused to do for the last four years.
The sad reality is that it takes real courage to lose a war, to admit failure, to muster up the resolve to accept the best of a host of bad options to relieve the suffering of one’s nation. Bush knows that no good choices remain, there never really have been any, so he’ll shelter in his cowardice and take no choice. This is America’s “War President”.
Bush is a coward and it is his cowardice that is driving his grandiose “war on terror.” Like all cowards, he’ll freely lie and deny and make no end of empty promises and grand assurances. The worst part has to be that, when you watch him blather on, you can see that he knows the truth but can’t and won’t bring himself to speak truth.
George Bush has abandoned his post, deserted the field. He’s the Frat Boy again but, then again, he never was more than that. He’s now America’s “Deserter in Chief.” It’s time for Congress to show the courage their president cannot. End the war and impeach the bastard.
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