Is Bush behind Chinese oil deal and Russian isolation?

Russia is facing increasing isolation!! What the hell do they care?

Yesterday, we heard that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of orchestrating the conflict in Georgia to benefit one of its presidential election candidates.

“In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Matthew Chance in the Black Sea city of Sochi on Thursday, Putin said the U.S. had encouraged Georgia to attack the autonomous region of South Ossetia. Putin said his defense officials had told him it was done to benefit a presidential candidate — Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are competing to succeed George W. Bush — although he presented no evidence to back it up.” Putin accuses US of of orchestrating Georgia war.

It drives me shit house crazy that I agree with the “enemy”-

“As U.S. and Russian envoys exchanged sharp words on Thursday over Iraq and Kosovo at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Georgia, at which Russia found little support for its actions in the Caucasus.” US and Russia trade barbs over Iraq and Kosovo

What a surprise that Russia was lobbying Asian Nations for support against the US and just at the right time to make China stay on our side Iraq and China signed a $3 billion deal this week to develop a large Iraqi oil field:

“…the first major commercial oil contract here with a foreign company since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. The 20-year agreement calls for the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. to begin producing 25,000 barrels of oil a day and gradually increase the output to 125,000 a day, said Asim Jihad, a spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry.” Iraq and China sign $3 Billion oil contract

Knowing this should this surprise you?

“The United States said Thursday it is considering scrapping its civil nuclear agreement with Russia but there was no announcement at this time. The U.S. move came after Russia’s recognition of the independence of Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The United States has said the Russian recognition was “unacceptable.” US considers scrapping nuclear agreement with Russia

What the hell does all that tell you? I am happy to say that yes, China’s alliance may be bought but, I now believe they will ally with us, as I keep asserting, and go against Russia in this just developing Forever war to shape the world’s future. I reiterate- With Both sides so firmly entrenched in redrawing the map in Europe thanks to Bush imposing his will for oil- This is just another small piece in the Forever War Bush has guaranteed for our future. You see what he has done in the middle east for oil causing division and Russia and the US both arming them to the teeth to fight this Bush created future mess and it is coming to a head rapidly and at the perfect time for Bush to take total control of our facade of Democracy to prosecute the lie we are living!

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Here’s the Joke

The title of this post is stolen from Beth’s Own Blog. Her blog is a magazine of information, pertinent articles and entertainment. She frequently leaves a joke or funny story on her pages. This one came to me in an e-mail from a great friend of mine, Larry N. Yes, one of the “Larrys” in my list of service buddies. So, without further adieu, Here’s the Joke:

President George W. Bush was scheduled to visit the Episcopal Church outside
Washington as part of his campaign to restore his pathetic poll standings.

His image handler made a visit to the Bishop and said, ‘We’ve been getting a
lot of bad publicity because of the president’s position on stem cell
research, the Iraq war, hurricane Katrina, and the Veterans Administration.
We’ll make a $100,000 contribution to your church if during your sermon you
will say that the President is a saint.’

The Bishop thought it over for a few moments and finally said, ‘The Church
is desperate for funding - I’ll do it.’

Bush showed up for the sermon, and the Bishop began: ‘I’d like to speak to
you all this morning about our President who is a liar, a cheat, and a
low-intelligence numb -nuts who can’t put a compound sentence together.

He bugged out of combat service during the Vietnam War and went AWOL to
avoid a drug test, then had all reports on the sordid event destroyed.

He is the spawn of a Nazi loving great grandfather who smuggled
anti-Americans into this country on his shipping line.

He took the tragedy of September 11 and used it to frighten and manipulate
the American people.

He lied about weapons of mass destruction and invaded Iraq for oil and
money, causing the deaths of tens of thousands and making the United States
the most hated country on earth. It is a three-trillion dollar folly.

He appointed fund-raiser cronies to positions of power and influence,
leading to widespread death and destruction due to government paralysis
after Hurricane Katrina.

He awarded no-bid cost-plus contracts and tax cuts to his rich friends so
that we now have more poverty in this country and a greater gap between rich
and poor than we’ve had since the Depression.

He has headed the most corrupt, bribe-inducing political party since Teapot
Dome.

The national surplus has turned into a staggering national debt of 7.6
trillion Dollars.

Oil rose from $18 to over a hundred per barrel, leading to transportation
costs which the people of America cannot afford, with low minimum wages,
part time jobs, no health insurance, and outsourcing.

Vital research into global warming and stem cells is stifled because he’s
afraid to lose votes from religious kooks.

He is the worst example of a true Christian I’ve ever known, but compared to
Dick Cheney… George W. Bush is a saint.”

Hope you enjoyed the joke. Sad to say, the factual reports about the record of this president is no joke. Go to the polls with fervor and vote others like him out of office. We have nothing to lose in electing someone that will change the way things have been going, especially if the war in Iraq is a priority.

I am currently working as a volunteer for the Veterans For Peace National Convention right here in my backyard. The turnout is great. The lineup of speakers is fantastic. I had the pleasure to meet a member of The American Patriot Instituteas well, none other than Kitchen Window Woman and her husband. I am looking forward to speaking with her more. A full report will be forthcoming with the mandatory pictures of our smiling mugs.

Enjoy the day. Practice peace. Take care and be well.

Peace to All

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Katrina Three Years On & Bushliburton Serves Up More Double Talk

During a flight on board Air Force One on August 20th, Paul Conway, chief of staff to Homeland Security’s Gulf Coast Coordinator was briefing reporters prior to a speaking appearance of George W. Bush, the putative failed leader of Katrina disaster recovery efforts, in which Bush would discuss hurricane recovery efforts. Not surprisingly, even three years on from the time when Katrina hit, administration officials are still incapable of getting their arms around the challenges facing residents of the gulf coast, as noted in this transcript from the briefing aboard Air Force One:

Reporter: What year do you think that the reconstruction is basically going to be finished?

Conway: Well, the target date for the reconstruction is 2011.

Reporter: For everything? I’m talking the Gulf Coast.

Conway: Well, actually, let me — I’m talking about levees, so let me be perfectly clear. The levee protection system for Greater New Orleans, that target date is 2011. If you’re asking overall –

Reporter: I’m asking overall.

Conway: Ma’am, to be quite honest with you, it’s hard for me to estimate that as a federal official, because so much of this depends on how local government and state government and the feds work.

Reporter: So what percentage of the Gulf Coast has been rebuilt in the past three years?

Conway: Well, you would literally have to look at sectors, okay. For example, on education, if you look in the city of New Orleans, education is going along quite well.

Reporter: Do you have overall numbers for the whole Gulf Coast?

Conway: Well, you would have to look at it by sector, ma’am. If you’re talking schools, libraries, that type of thing?

Reporter: What about housing?

Conway: Housing? I can go ahead and start in on that. On the housing issue, everybody knows that there were several different delays on the Road Home program in the state of Louisiana. Now, you have — $7 billion has been transferred in the hands of homeowners; 115,000 — $7 billion — 115,000 homeowners now have received the benefits of the Road Home program. In addition to that, the state is using $1.4 billion in CDBG funds for rental houses.

Reporter: Right, but people don’t understand all this stuff. They want to know what percentage of what was taken away by Katrina has actually been rebuilt in the past three years?

Conway: I would say there are significant portions, but literally, literally, it’s not honest to say — you know, pull out a figure out of the sky and say, X amount is done. You literally have to look by sector.

Reporter: We’re talking about a sector. Let’s talk about housing.

Conway: Okay, in the housing area, you have just about 85% of the pre-Katrina population estimate coming back into the city. And in terms of the actual housing itself, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done still, remaining.

Reporter: There’s no way to quantify it?

Conway: It’s difficult to quantify. You have to go neighborhood by neighborhood and take a look at it, okay.

So it seems there has been big talk, and talk of large sums of government funds being disbursed, but Bushliburton officials really cannot quantify how much real help has reached all of the people displaced by Katrina. What this writer would like to see quantified is two numbers: how many total people were displaced due to Katrina, and how much housing has actually been rebuilt in hurricane effected neighborhoods in the past three years in response?

Are government and business interests trying to “wipe out poverty” in the New Orleans area by simply not allowing the poor and disenfranchised to put a roof over their heads, hoping they will just go away, or for those who had been displaced out of state just not come back? Local activists seem to think so, and have been jailed by their actions as reported at AlterNet.org.

Meanwhile, as we reported at about this time last year in the BFD Blog!, those who were not necessarily displaced, and who live at decidedly higher up on the totem pole, have been able to further enrich their lifestyles with the help of government funds intended for disaster relief:

The Lower Ninth Ward, et al Stand Neglected, While Disaster Relief Funds Subsidize Luxury Condos For Alabama Football Fans

As reported by Jay Reeves of the AP and published by the Huffington Post today, real estate “investors”, we prefer to refer to these people as “grave robbers”, are taking advantage of the federal Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005, commonly referred to as “GO Zone”, the intent of which, was to simulate rebuilding in the hurricane impacted communities in the Gulf states. The act provides economic incentives to investors:

The GO Zone contains a variety of tax breaks designed to stimulate construction in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. It offers tax-free bonds to developers to finance big commercial projects like shopping centers or hotels. It also allows real estate investors who buy condos or other properties in the GO Zone to take accelerated depreciation on their purchases when they file their taxes…

“It is a joke,” said Tuscaloosa developer Stan Pate, who has nevertheless used GO Zone tax breaks on projects that include a new hotel and a restaurant. “It was supposed to be about getting people … to put housing in New Orleans, Louisiana, or Biloxi, Mississippi. It was not about condos in Tuscaloosa.”

Dave Toombs, a real estate investor from Irvine, Calif., with no connection to Alabama, bought two new, upscale townhouses at The Traditions, just minutes from campus, as investment properties. He said he hopes to use GO Zone tax benefits when he files his taxes.

“If we qualify for the GO Zone it will be icing on the cake,” said Toombs, who is consulting with an accountant because the rules are complicated. “It’s another plus check to put in the column.”

An investor could write off more than $155,000 of the cost of a $300,000 condo in the first year and use the savings to lower his taxes on other rental income, according to Kelly Hayes, a tax attorney who advises investors in Southfield, Mich. Without the GO Zone tax break, the depreciation benefit from a single year on such a property would typically be just $10,909.

(The tax break is not available to people who buy a home for their own use.)

So if we understand all of this correctly, if we were a resident of California and were to invest in real estate in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, which is roughly 225 miles inland from the Gulf Coast, the federal government (i.e. the U.S. taxpayers) will subsidize our investment, and if we are leveraged properly, it might result in our not having any federal income tax liability. We would also get a luxury condo out of it that we could use for ourselves, rent out, or sell at a later profit.

But if we were a resident of New Orleans, we would still be standing out in front of our former residence, waiting for some relief, any relief, from our government:

George W. Bush, speaking from the White House Rose Garden, August 31, 2005:

Our third priority is executing a comprehensive recovery effort. We’re focusing on restoring power and lines of communication that have been knocked out during the storm. We’ll be repairing major roads and bridges and other essential means of transportation as quickly as possible…

We’re also developing a comprehensive plan to immediately help displaced citizens. This will include housing and education and health care and other essential needs. I’ve directed the folks in my Cabinet to work with local folks, local officials, to develop a comprehensive strategy to rebuild the communities affected. And there’s going to be a lot of rebuilding done. I can’t tell you how devastating the sights were…

The folks on the Gulf Coast are going to need the help of this country for a long time. This is going to be a difficult road. The challenges that we face on the ground are unprecedented. But there’s no doubt in my mind we’re going to succeed. Right now the days seem awfully dark for those affected — I understand that. But I’m confident that, with time, you can get your life back in order, new communities will flourish, the great city of New Orleans will be back on its feet, and America will be a stronger place for it.

The country stands with you. We’ll do all in our power to help you.

How much longer will your constituents in the Gulf states who have lost their homes and still have not received any relief have to wait Mr. President?

Updated August 30, 2007:

For more about the Katrina aftermath, check out Katrina Rembered and we came, we saw, we cried, we left.

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Bushliburton, Masters of Compartmentalization

Photo: Todd Heisler/The Rocky Mountain News

The image was originally published in illustration of Jim Sheeler’s 2006 Pulitzer Prize winning feature writing about the impact of Iraq war casualties to families, in the Rocky Mountain News. It was republished today by the New York Times to illustrate a review by Janet Maslin of Sheeler’s book, “Final Salute - A Story of Unfinished Lives”.

In the book review, Maslin describes the circumstances of the moment captured in the photograph:

Among the eloquent Rocky Mountain News photographs included here is a shocking image — by Todd Heisler, now of The New York Times — of commercial airline passengers looking out plane windows at Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Nevada, trying to see what is happening beneath them. Down there, in the cargo hold, a Marine honor guard is preparing to deliver the flag-draped coffin of Second Lt. James J. Cathey to its final resting place.

This image is truly indicative of how George W. Bush and his enablers would have the American public view the reality of the war in Iraq, as an event compartmentalized, below our consciousness, leaving us in the dark about the harsh realities, or at best, wondering what is going on. The aim of Bushliburton is to keep us all fat, happy and dumb, ever consuming their distortions and outright lies, ever consuming more mindless drivel via the media, ever consuming more hard goods to bolster the industrial economy and burning ever more of the finite amount of oil remaining on this planet, while transferring wealth from the many to the few, while transferring wealth and power away from our people and making future generations beholden to those who represent markedly less free and democratic society.

Read more

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