The Fulcrum
Friday, June 11, 2004
Hi Ho, Hi Ho
It's off to Canada we go...
We're off to The Great White North for the weekend, eh. I'll be away from any real computer access - my wife's parents do have a computer, way up there in Moose Jaw; but it's very old, very slow and only has dial-up access through a couple of beer cans on a string. So no blogging until Sunday evening at the earliest, hosers.
Anyway, I have a great weekend, eh. If you stop by, leave a comment so the old blog doesn't get lonely - oh, and have a beer, eh!
We're off to The Great White North for the weekend, eh. I'll be away from any real computer access - my wife's parents do have a computer, way up there in Moose Jaw; but it's very old, very slow and only has dial-up access through a couple of beer cans on a string. So no blogging until Sunday evening at the earliest, hosers.
Anyway, I have a great weekend, eh. If you stop by, leave a comment so the old blog doesn't get lonely - oh, and have a beer, eh!
More Trouble for Cheney?
The lead in this story from the NYT:
The Securities and Exchange Commission is formally investigating allegations that a Halliburton Co. subsidiary was involved in paying $180 million in bribes to get a natural gas project contract in Nigeria. Vice President Dick Cheney was head of the oil services conglomerate at the time.Looks like BushCo's own Tricky Dick might be a little busy, what with investigations inside and outside of his government job...
Wall Street Journal Splitting Hairs
While the main sections of the Wall Street Journal continue to set the standard for reporting on many issues, the Editorial and Opinion pages continue to sink further into desperation in defense of BushCo. Consider this morning's unsigned editorial (subscription) about the recent leaking of administration memoranda on torture.
Consider, too the legalistic head-fake Ashcroft pulled when directly questioned about whether anyone in the administration authorized the use of torture, or interrogation methods that could be construed as torture: "This Administration rejects torture."
It makes me want to scream: "Just answer the goddamn question!"
Further hair splitting:
They could start by noting that no one has come up with a single instance of torture by American soldiers or with any policy directive advocating its use. The Abu Ghraib abuses were disgusting and are being duly punished, but the court martial charges do not include any incidents of torture.Sometimes court cases go to trial where someone clearly murdered another person, but the prosecution doesn't think they can convict or they want to use the threat of a capital crime to get the accused to turn state's witness. That doesn't mean a murder hasn't occurred. So it is possible, in this case, that prosecutors are using these first trials to shake loose someone really responsible for what went on. The request by the major general (two stars) currently running the investigation that he be replace by someone with enough rank to question people much higher in the chain of command certainly hints at such a potential.
Consider, too the legalistic head-fake Ashcroft pulled when directly questioned about whether anyone in the administration authorized the use of torture, or interrogation methods that could be construed as torture: "This Administration rejects torture."
It makes me want to scream: "Just answer the goddamn question!"
Further hair splitting:
The latest hubbub concerns a December 2002 list of interrogation techniques approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and similar to those used at Abu Ghraib. They include forcing prisoners to stand for a maximum of four hours, the use of hoods, and quizzing them in 20-hour stretches. These "stress positions," as they're called, aren't torture either.And finally, a little moral equivalism from our Rethug friends? Hard to believe, I know, but:
The subject of Wednesday's Senate hearing was the "torture" memos produced by the Justice Department early in 2002 and used as the basis for a Defense Department report a year later. The government hasn't released these private communications, but they have been leaking out in dribs and drabs in a kind of Beltway political torture.The WSJ claims that these memos weren't policy, but were explorations of the legal landscape to be trod by the president. BULLSHIT. Lawyers do not spend their high-priced hours writing these things for no reason. Somebody in the administration wanted to know what they could get away with. They asked. The lawyers wrote the memos.
The Next World War?
I've been thinking about oil lately.
The price per barrel is approaching record highs when adjusted for inflation, but it's not the price that has me thinking. Most OPEC countries, save Saudi Arabia, are pumping near their capacity and it takes several years to build additional capacity and all the infrastructure that supports that capacity. Large oil companies - most infamously Shell - have "re-structured" their reserves or outright reduced the amount of oil they claim in known reserves. South East and Pacific-Rim nations, most especially China, have economies and populations that are expanding at unsustainable rates. And with growing economies and growing populations come rising demand for energy. The primary oil supplying region of the world is in perpetual turmoil.
So what happens when demand, whether temporary or permanently, outstrips supply? Of course prices go up. Way up. And demand will temporarily ease. But growing third-world populations will not stand by while their standards of living stagnate and that of the first-world continues to absorb resources at prodigious rates. The Chinese will not be denied their cars and their motorcylces and their washers and dryers and their internet connected refrigerators. Nor will the Indians, Pakistanis or Indonesians.
At what point will some leader emerge in what country and claim the need for - not leibensraum - but oil? And what will they do?
The price per barrel is approaching record highs when adjusted for inflation, but it's not the price that has me thinking. Most OPEC countries, save Saudi Arabia, are pumping near their capacity and it takes several years to build additional capacity and all the infrastructure that supports that capacity. Large oil companies - most infamously Shell - have "re-structured" their reserves or outright reduced the amount of oil they claim in known reserves. South East and Pacific-Rim nations, most especially China, have economies and populations that are expanding at unsustainable rates. And with growing economies and growing populations come rising demand for energy. The primary oil supplying region of the world is in perpetual turmoil.
So what happens when demand, whether temporary or permanently, outstrips supply? Of course prices go up. Way up. And demand will temporarily ease. But growing third-world populations will not stand by while their standards of living stagnate and that of the first-world continues to absorb resources at prodigious rates. The Chinese will not be denied their cars and their motorcylces and their washers and dryers and their internet connected refrigerators. Nor will the Indians, Pakistanis or Indonesians.
At what point will some leader emerge in what country and claim the need for - not leibensraum - but oil? And what will they do?
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Farewell, Hesiod
Counterspin Central is no more.
Hesiod is one of the reasons I started blogging. And now he's gone. Go say farewell before his blog goes down.
Hesiod is one of the reasons I started blogging. And now he's gone. Go say farewell before his blog goes down.
If Only...
If you haven't seen the Quicktime movie "Bush for Peace," you really should. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder who let go of the puppet's strings...
" A Little Torture..."
It is commonly said that we are a nation of laws, not men. And we are. But beyond the laws, we are also a nation of men and women with a common ethic. Some things are not American. Torture, for damned sure, is one of them.Richard Cohen, in an opinion piece in today's Washington Post. He is dead on. Go read the rest.
Stealth Outsourcing
Hemmed in by labor contracts with United Auto Workers and perhaps sensing the public's distaste for outsourcing and the attendant bad publicity, the Big Three Automakers have hit upon a new strategy. Force their suppliers to outsource. The automakers bring prices they can get in China to their suppliers and use those as the benchmark. They threaten their domestic suppliers with going directly to the Chinese if they can't meet the price. Of course the differences are so great that the only way the suppliers can meet the price and keep the business is to move their own manufacturing to China or buy subcomponents there. From this morning's WSJ (subscription):
The results of the pressures on the parts and accessories supply industry is devastating. Think about the following numbers, then think about other industries doing similar things. Then think about the people behind those numbers. The next statistic could be you.
Both GM and Ford acknowledge that Chinese auto-parts suppliers now serve as global "benchmark" prices for quality and price on certain components, such as electric-wire cables, radios, speakers, small motors, and even brakes, suspensions and aluminum wheels. The prices reflect China's average wage costs of 90 cents an hour, compared with $22.50 in the U.S., according to Roland Berger Strategy Consultants of Munich, Germany.You read that correctly; 90 cents and hour. You can be sure that wage does not include any kind of retirement plan or health plan. Rest assured, too that no pesky environmental laws restrain the pollution of the communities where these parts are made and no OSHA rules get in the way of keeping Chinese workers in high-pressure, long-hour, dangerous working conditions.
"It's Economics 101, Adam Smith," Ford President Nick Scheele says in an interview. "It's the law of comparative advantage." He says the benchmark component prices Ford is asking suppliers to match these days represent "optimal" prices, and can come from anywhere in the world, including China.
The results of the pressures on the parts and accessories supply industry is devastating. Think about the following numbers, then think about other industries doing similar things. Then think about the people behind those numbers. The next statistic could be you.
According to a recent study of parts suppliers by Roland Berger, 133,000 jobs, or 16% of the labor pool, in the American parts industry have disappeared over the past four years as parts suppliers cut costs by improving productivity or shifting jobs to lower-cost countries such as China and Mexico. By 2010, the same study predicts a further 127,000 jobs, or 18% of the 707,000 remaining, will disappear or move overseas, says Andreas Mai, the author of the Roland Berger study.
Call on the Hot Line, Mr. President
Barbara Brugger, from comments at Respectful of Otters, said she wished she knew a T-shirt artist to make up a shirt with one of those "While you were out" memoes. I'd tell you what she wanted to say on that T-shirt, but instead, I whipped up the graphic she wanted. And I couldn't agree more.
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Thank You!
Sometime this morning, The Fulcrum Site Meter officially went over the 10,000 visitor mark since mid-November of last year. Thank you to each and every person who has come by and especially to those of you who have left comments. I've used your comments to improve my writing and the blog itself. Each of your blogs, each of your comments has also taught me a lot about keeping such a site and about writing. I hope that I've managed to live up to the wonderful examples that so many of you have set.
Thank you, all. I look forward to reaching the 20K benchmark!
Thank you, all. I look forward to reaching the 20K benchmark!
Extraconstitutional Excrement
What could possibly excuse the moral bankruptcy of this administration?
They started a war on false pretenses - all the pretenses they spun out were false. They alienated our country from our traditional allies. They failed to provide enough men or protective materiel to prosecute the war and its followup. They failed to sufficiently plan for the nation building that must follow a war. They failed to maintain a command climate that would discourage acts that violate several conventions on the treatment of prisoners.
What could be worse?
How about having White House lawyers draw up memoranda claiming that the President of the United States is not bound by the laws and treaties that apply to everyone else in the country. No such privilege can exist in a true democratic nation of laws. Bush feels he is above the law - in fact he had his lackeys draw up documents to claim exactly that.
What's next? Perhaps the "October Surprise" that so many on the left expect this year will be a coronation.
They started a war on false pretenses - all the pretenses they spun out were false. They alienated our country from our traditional allies. They failed to provide enough men or protective materiel to prosecute the war and its followup. They failed to sufficiently plan for the nation building that must follow a war. They failed to maintain a command climate that would discourage acts that violate several conventions on the treatment of prisoners.
What could be worse?
How about having White House lawyers draw up memoranda claiming that the President of the United States is not bound by the laws and treaties that apply to everyone else in the country. No such privilege can exist in a true democratic nation of laws. Bush feels he is above the law - in fact he had his lackeys draw up documents to claim exactly that.
What's next? Perhaps the "October Surprise" that so many on the left expect this year will be a coronation.
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Bush; Setting Aside Laws and Torture
In yesterday's Wall Street Journal (via Josh Marshall) we learn that White House counsel advised that prisoners and detainees in the Middle East could be treated more harshly than would be allowed under the Geneva Conventions and the Conventions Against Torture.
In an interesting juxtaposition, an article in today's Wall Street Journal (subscription) notes that military lawyers were, and remain, uncomfortable with the liberties being taken with international and US law by the Bush administration.
Having been in the military, I can tell you that it pains me to say this, but in this instance, the military lawyers, the folks from the JAG Corps, are the ones upholding the honor and the best interests of the military. We were let down by the commanders and the soldiers - by everyone in the chain-of-command - who let the abuse and torture of prisoners happen. Cooler heads did not prevail.
I hope that they kept all of their briefing notes. They may be needed at the Hague.
To protect subordinates should they be charged with torture, the memo advised that Mr. Bush issue a "presidential directive or other writing" that could serve as evidence, since authority to set aside the laws is "inherent in the president."Besides the outrageous - and completely false - claim of extraconstitutional powers in this statement, it is disgusting to see the de-facto acceptance of torture in our actions in Afghanistan, Iraq and GITMO. And yet, we can see from the little evidence that we have seen that, indeed, this statement was not only accepted at face value by the administration, but its propagation down the chain-of-command was "successful."
In an interesting juxtaposition, an article in today's Wall Street Journal (subscription) notes that military lawyers were, and remain, uncomfortable with the liberties being taken with international and US law by the Bush administration.
Some top military lawyers in the Pentagon are questioning the propriety of interrogation techniques currently being employed to question al Qaeda captives at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, senior defense officials said.The highlighted sentence provides a peek into this world of chickenhawks versus the military. The military lawyers know that it is vital to the interests of the soldiers that the US been seen as holding the high moral ground in how we treat our prisoners and detainees. The civilian lawyers under the thrall of neo-con Pentagon advisors and their leash holders, are more interested in results - any results - regardless of the efficacy, the legality or the morality of their methods.
[snip]
Military lawyers, many of whom worked closely in drafting the interrogation rules, have conveyed their concerns to Bush administration officials in the Pentagon, the defense officials said. Their objections to many of the tactics approved for use at Guantanamo illustrate a rift between senior military lawyers and Bush administration lawyers inside the Pentagon about which extreme interrogation measures are legal.
Having been in the military, I can tell you that it pains me to say this, but in this instance, the military lawyers, the folks from the JAG Corps, are the ones upholding the honor and the best interests of the military. We were let down by the commanders and the soldiers - by everyone in the chain-of-command - who let the abuse and torture of prisoners happen. Cooler heads did not prevail.
I hope that they kept all of their briefing notes. They may be needed at the Hague.
Monday, June 07, 2004
The Other Quagmire?
Did you know that the US now has 20,000 troops in Afghanistan? Did you know that's the most troops we've ever had there?
I didn't either.
Read the rest of my thoughts on this in my post "The Other Quagmire?" at The Liberal Coalition.
I didn't either.
Read the rest of my thoughts on this in my post "The Other Quagmire?" at The Liberal Coalition.
Begin the Beatification
It's actually been underway for years now. The renaming of National Airport. The attempt to get a street in every town renamed. Redesigning a coin with his likeness. But now that Ronald Reagan is dead, the movement among the right-wingers to make him some sort of national saint will pick up speed and momentum.
Get ready: over the next week it's going to be All Ronnie, All the Time.
To hear them speak about Reagan, in hushed tones more suitable to a church than to politics, is to see visions of his face peering down from murals and up from coins in a sort of reverse Soviet cult-of-personality. To the wingers he is "The Gipper," or "Dutch" or "The Great Communicator."
What you won't hear pass their lips are phrases like "October Surprise" or "Iran-Contra" or "ballooning deficits." And if you look at the old photographs of Number 40 in office, you'll see a eerily familiar and infamous cast of characters... faces that haven't changed in the intervening years as though they've made some sort of Dorian Grey deal with the devil.
Some great things happened while Reagan was in office, as did some very bad things. There is more evidence that he was directly responsible for the latter than for the former.
Get ready: over the next week it's going to be All Ronnie, All the Time.
To hear them speak about Reagan, in hushed tones more suitable to a church than to politics, is to see visions of his face peering down from murals and up from coins in a sort of reverse Soviet cult-of-personality. To the wingers he is "The Gipper," or "Dutch" or "The Great Communicator."
What you won't hear pass their lips are phrases like "October Surprise" or "Iran-Contra" or "ballooning deficits." And if you look at the old photographs of Number 40 in office, you'll see a eerily familiar and infamous cast of characters... faces that haven't changed in the intervening years as though they've made some sort of Dorian Grey deal with the devil.
Some great things happened while Reagan was in office, as did some very bad things. There is more evidence that he was directly responsible for the latter than for the former.
Sunday, June 06, 2004
Thank You
