 I'm too discouraged by the US Senate decision to authorize drilling in the ANWR to talk about it. The NRDC says there's still hope and advises what to do about it. Here's the rest of the week's important political news:
Bush Now Produces His Own Ready-to-Broadcast Propaganda -- just in case Faux News and the other media outlets don't get his spin quite
right. Now your station doesn't need any reporters or any news budget
whatever. Just roll the prepackaged government productions. And if
you're smart, you can even get kickbacks from the government for doing
so -- it's all the rage these days.
Bush the Small Animal Torturer
-- an interesting editorial by David Podvin suggests the real George
Bush has a life-long record of cruel and psychopathic behaviour. A
little over the top, though there is evidence that torture of small
animals as a child is a hallmark of future criminal and psychopathic
behaviour, and there's also a long history of psychopaths striving for
and achieving leadership positions.
Salon Weighs In on the End of Oil
-- Robert Bryce provides a balanced accounting of what oil reserves
actually are. Most compelling: Increasing evidence that OPEC, whose
share of global remaining reserves will soar past 50% in the next few
years, is pushing its production capacity to the limit, and, as
Algeria's energy minister, Chakib Khelil, said, "OPEC does not have the
production capacity to increase its quotas." Historically, these kind
of supply/demand tipping points precede huge price shifts. The US
Energy Board has raised its annual estimate of average wellhead prices
for 2005 oil from $29 (last year's estimate) to $50. Like all
commodities these days, expect prices to yo-yo, but inflation, here we
come.
Wolfy's Plan to Topple OPEC
-- In related oil news, Greg Palast reports for the BBC and Harper's
that new reports obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show
Wolfowitz, Chalabi, Bush & Co planned long before 9/11 to topple
Saddam, seize Iraqi oil and sell it off to private oil interests. The
more pragmatic corporate oil oligopoly balked at the last part of the
neocon plan, saying that destabilizing OPEC was in no one's best
interests, and preferring instead a state-owned oil company that the US
would effectively control. On the losing end, Wolfy has now been
banished to the World Bank, a place better suited to his megalomaniac
tendencies.
US Predicts Likely Terrorist Attack Areas
-- Another document that Bush was trying to keep under wraps, but was
inadvertently posted on the Hawaii State Government site, lists urban
nuclear devices, biotoxins in office complexes and bombs in sports
arenas as the greatest threats, and says there are too may possible
targets in each category to list. Blowing up chemical plants,
bioattacks in airports, and infecting food animals with diseases or
poisons are next on the list, which also includes three natural
disasters (earthquakes, influenza epidemics and hurricanes), but has
taken plane hijackings off the list because they're presumably no
longer possible thanks to those brave and brilliant Homeland Security
guys. Planning calls for about 1500 different, coordinated actions in
the case of any of these incidents, regardless of where in the US they
occurred. Bin Laden must be rolling on the ground laughing. Hey, does
duct tape work when it gets wet?
Former Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Writes to Condi
-- A savage op-ed by Lloyd Axworthy (whose campaign I worked on many
centuries ago) explains to Condi Rice why Canada chose not to sign on
to the US Missile Defence system. You tell 'em Lloyd.
Help a Fellow Blogger
-- Blogger Darren Barefoot is fasting for 30 hours as part of a
WorldVision project to raise money to defeat world hunger. I've pledged
some money to help, and would encourage you to do so as well.
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