|
The
Voice of the White House
Washington
,
D.C.
,
April
28, 2008
:
“Following my comments on bill collectors, there was considerable
response, as I understand it, and I am therefore setting down more
comments on the subject that might be of interest to readers.
You
have a mortgage, a telephone, a car, credit cards, a doctor or
medical establishment, an internet server, an insurance policy, a
boat, an aircraft, and you travel on American commercial airlines,
rent cars, check in at vacation hotels, fly for business, use an ATM
machine for cash withdrawals, and perhaps one or all of your
children are in school or perhaps have been chucked out of school
for violation of various State, Federal or school laws or rules of
conduct.
You
might have relatives in a nursing home, send money by
Western
Union
or use Google or check out books from the local library.
What do all these things have in common? Why every scrap of
information from any of the above is all on record in a huge data
bank located outside of
Bethesda
,
Maryland
.
Who
has access to this credit bank?
The
Department of Defense, the Justice Department and their FBI, the NSA,
the IRS, and the DHS on the Federal side and every credit
company, insurance agency and bill collecting agency on the civil
side.
Approved
entities pay their entry fees and they can learn anything about
anyone as long as it is in the huge files of the data bank.
And
I mean all of it; the entire enchilada.
Does
this surprise anyone? It shouldn’t.
The
idea is that all of the federal regulatory agencies contribute to
this bank and all the credit bureaus and official city and state
agencies also pour tons of material into it, with the understanding
that they can get anything on anyone at anytime.
It
is possible to avoid all of this domestic spying a la the German
Gestapo but most of the avoidance techniques are relatively unknown
to the unsuspecting and innocent American population.
Informing
them of their possibilities might be an interesting project for
someone. The concept of leading a free, surveillance-free existence
far from the drooling governmental snoops, perverts and
knuckle-draggers is a heady one to contemplate.”
The
Oil Crisis
Gas
hits $3.60 a gallon, crude nears $120 on supply outages
April 28, 2008
by
John Wilen
Associated
Press
NEW YORK
- Gas prices hit $3.60 a
gallon and oil futures rose to their own new record near $120 a
barrel on Monday as labor actions overseas threatened crude
supplies. Oil prices later retreated to alternate between gains and
losses as the dollar stabilized against foreign currencies.
At
the pump, the national average price Americans pay to gas up rose
0.4 cent overnight to a record $3.603 a gallon, according to a
survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.
While
prices are 66 cents higher than a year ago, their rate of increase
has slowed some since last week, when prices jumped more than 2
cents a day several times.
That
could suggest that a price peak is near, analysts said.
"I've
got to think we're close to the end on increases," said Michael
Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research Inc. in
Cambridge
,
Mass.
However,
Lynch thinks prices could rise another 10 cents to 15 cents before
they reach that peak and begin falling.
Gas
prices are rising in part because refiners are making the seasonal
switch-over from making winter-grade gasoline to the more expensive,
but less polluting, fuel they must sell during the summer. Supplies
tend to fall while refiners are doing this as they try to sell off
all of their winter gasoline.
But
short supplies of a key ingredient used in the manufacture of summer
grade gas have contributed to the increases, as has an intentional
slowing of gasoline production by many refiners due to low profit
margins on the fuel. Refiners have to buy the crude they turn into
gasoline and other fuels, and crude prices have risen much faster
over the past year than gas prices.
Light,
sweet crude for June delivery rose to a record $119.93 a barrel in
electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange overnight,
then retreated to trade up 59 cents at $119.11 a barrel. Oil prices
alternated between positive and negative territory, buffeted by the
dollar, which was mixed against foreign currencies, and concerns
about supplies.
When
the dollar holds its ground, commodities such as oil become less
effective hedges against inflation. Many analysts believe oil's
meteoric rise from around $65 a barrel a year ago is due in large
part to a protracted decline in the value of the greenback.
Energy
investors will be closely watching the Federal Reserve's decision
Wednesday on interest rates; lower rates tend to weaken the dollar.
If, as expected, the Fed lowers a key interest rate by another
quarter percentage point and signals that it will temporarily hold
off on any future rate cuts, the dollar could strengthen, and oil
might fall.
"A
quarter point cut could suggest ... we're getting to a point where
the dollar might bottom out," Lynch said.
An
unexpectedly large cut, or a suggestion that rates might be cut
further, however, could fuel oil to new heights.
Meanwhile,
Monday, labor actions that cut crude supplies from the
North Sea
and
Nigeria
supported prices. BP
PLC on Sunday shut down the Forties Pipeline System that
carries more than 700,000 barrels of oil a day to the
U.K.
because of a 48-hour
walkout by employees at a refinery in central
Scotland
.
"With
the refinery being shut down, it will affect supplies from the
North Sea
, and that has a potentially
significant impact," said David Moore, a commodity strategist
with the Commonwealth Bank of
Australia
in
Sydney
. "That comes at the
same time that there's production disruptions from
Nigeria
, so the combined effect of
those is the immediate factor that's put pressure on oil
prices."
In
Nigeria
, workers at an ExxonMobil
Corp. joint venture cut production by an unspecified amount to
demand more pay. Militant attacks on oil infrastructure have also
cut production of
Nigeria
's light, sweet crude, which
is easily refined. After years of attacks,
Nigeria
's output is dropping and
the country can produce only about 75 percent of its official
capacity of 2.5 million barrels per day.
In
other Nymex trading Monday, May gasoline futures fell 1.01 cent to
$3.0436 a gallon, while May heating oil futures rose 0.66 cent to
$3.3094 a gallon. May natural gas futures rose 20.5 cents to $11.168
per 1,000 cubic feet.
In
London
, Brent crude futures rose
63 cents to $116.97 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
---
Associated
Press writers George Jahn in
Vienna
, Gillian Wong in
Singapore
and Jamey Keaten in
Paris
contributed to this report.
ODAC
- The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre
(info@odac-info.org)
http://odac-info.org/newsletter/2008/04/25
Welcome to the
ODAC Newsletter, a weekly roundup from the Oil Depletion Analysis
Centre, the
UK
registered charity dedicated to raising awareness of peak oil.
The ghost of Corporal
Jones stalked the land this week, as
Britain
braced for the two-day strike at Grangemouth refinery in
Scotland
. ‘Don’t panic! Don’t panic!’ went the cry from everybody
from Business Secretary John Hutton to the AA, as petrol stations
started to run dry north of the border - evoking memories of the
fuel protests that brought the country to a standstill back in 2000.
But there is plenty
to worry about. Although the strike is only set for Sunday and
Monday, management had already ordered a shutdown on safety grounds,
and this has forced the closure of the Forties Pipeline System which
lands 700,000 barrels per day. This in turn could halt production at
up to 70
North Sea
platforms, affecting not just oil but also gas. Meanwhile it could
take up to a month to return the refinery to full capacity. This
week’s commentary from John Hall Associates
explains the background.
It was just one more
bull factor that pushed the oil price to yet another record high of
$119.90 this week. Others included more attacks in the
Niger
delt], soaring demand in the
Middle East
, and perhaps even the growing backlash against biofuels.
But the big news of
the week is the announcement that
Saudi Arabia
has shelved plans to expand production capacity
beyond 12.5 mb/d by 2009. Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi justified
the decision on the basis that there would not be the demand
(arguable), and King Abdullah has recently declared that his country
should save some oil for future generations (entirely sensible), but
even the moderately skeptical will take this as further evidence
that Saudi Arabia is struggling. The announcement has all the more
impact coming just one week after the news that
Russia
has peaked – according
to one Lukoil executive – and that advisors to the Nigerian
government believe that country’s output will fall by a third by
2015 . No wonder that both the IEA
and OPEC said the
price is heading higher!
White
House: No short-term fix to high fuel prices
April 28, 2008
by Tabassum Zakaria
Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
White House said on Monday there was no short-term fix to
record-high gasoline prices and the United States should try to
increase domestic production and seek alternative fuel sources.
"We are very aware of
the high price of gasoline and the impact it is having on people
across the country and on businesses in particular," White
House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
"So to that end, we
have to continue to try to increase domestic production and
exploration here in environmentally friendly ways," she said.
"Increasing supply in
the face of very high demand, I should say high and growing demand,
and demand that's growing around the world, is one thing that we
need to look at," she said.
"But the other thing
is increasing efficiencies. And I think that the trucking industry
and the airline industry feel these impacts quite acutely,"
Perino said.
Truckers will drive their
big rigs through downtown
Washington
on Monday and hold a rally in front of the Capitol to protest high
diesel fuel prices, which average a record $4.24 a gallon, according
to the AAA travel group.
It costs about $1,200 at
the pump to fill up a tractor trailer. Rising fuel costs could
increase the cost of goods transported by trucks, including food,
retail and manufactured goods.
Perino said it will take
time to develop technologies that will allow for vehicles to travel
farther on a gallon of gasoline.
"It's going to take a
while to get those technologies changing, but we're trying to move
farther and faster, especially in regards to SUVs, light trucks and
passenger cars in the meantime," she said.
The administration last
week announced higher vehicle fuel efficiency requirements for
U.S.
cars and trucks.
Perino said that the
national average retail price for gasoline which hit above $3.60 a
gallon was "entirely too high, but I think it would be
disingenuous and unfortunate for American consumers for them to be
led to believe that there is a short-term fix. There is not going to
be one."
(Editing by Matthew Lewis)
The Real Matrix
The
Pentagon Invades Your Life
by
Nick Turse
Rick
is a midlevel manager in a financial services company in
New York City
. Each day he
commutes from
Weehawken
,
New Jersey
, a suburb
only a stone's throw from the Big Apple, where he lives with his
wife, Donna, and his teenage son, Steven. A late baby boomer, Rick
just missed the
Vietnam
era's
antiwar protests, but he's been against the war in
Iraq
from the
beginning. He thinks the Pentagon is out of control and considers
the military-industrial complex a danger to the country. If you
asked him, it's a subject on which he would rate himself as
knowledgeable. He puts effort into educating himself on such
matters. He reads liberal websites, subscribes to progressive-minded
magazines, and is a devotee of The
Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
In
fact, he has no idea just how deep the Pentagon rabbit hole goes or
how far down it his family already is.
Rick
believes that, despite its long reach, the military-industrial
complex is a discrete entity far removed from his everyday life.
Now, if this were 1961, when outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower
warned the country about the "unwarranted influence" of
the "military-industrial complex" and the "large arms
industry" already firmly entrenched in the
United States
, Rick might
be right. After all, he doesn't work for one of the Pentagon's
corporate partners, like arms maker Lockheed
Martin. He isn't in the Army Reserve. He's never attended
a performance of the Marine Corps band (not to mention the Army's,
Navy's, or Air Force's music groups). But today's geared-up,
high-tech Complex is nothing like the olive-drab outfit of
Eisenhower's day: It reaches deeper into American lives and the
American psyche than Eisenhower could ever have imagined. The truth
is that, at every turn, in countless, not-so-visible ways Rick's
life is wrapped up with the military.
So
wake up with Rick and sample a single spring morning as the alarm on
his Sony (Department of Defense contractor) clock interrupts his
final dream of the night. Donna is already up and dressed in fitness
apparel by Danskin (a Pentagon supplier that received more than
$780,000 in DoD dollars in 2004 and another $456,000 in 2005) and
Hanes Her Way (made by defense contractor and cake seller Sara Lee
Corporation, which took in more than $68 million from the DoD in
2006). Committed to a healthy lifestyle, she's wearing sneakers from
(DoD contractor) New Balance and briskly jogging on a treadmill made
by (DoD contractor) True Fitness Technology.
Rick
drags himself to the bathroom (fixtures by Pentagon contractor
Kohler, purchased at defense contractor Home Depot). There, he
squeezes the Charmin, brushes with Crest toothpaste, washes his face
with Noxzema; then, hopping into the shower, he lathers up with Zest
and chooses Donna's Herbal Essences over Head & Shoulders --
"What the hell," he mutters, "I deserve an organic
experience." (The manufacturer of each of these products,
Procter & Gamble, is among the top 100 defense contractors and
raked in a cool $362,461,808 from the Pentagon in 2006.)
In
go his (DoD supplier) Bausch and Lomb contact lenses and down goes a
Zantac (from DoD contractor GlaxoSmithKline) for his ulcer. Heading
back to the bedroom, he finds Donna finished with her workout and
making the bed -- with the TV news on -- and lends her a hand.
(Their headboard was purchased from Thomasville Furniture, the
mattress from Sears, the pillows were made by Harris Pillow Supply,
all Pentagon contractors.) They exchange grim glances as, on their
Samsung set (another DoD contractor) the Today Show
chronicles the latest in chaos in
Iraq
. "Thank
god we never supported this war," Rick says, thinking of the
antiwar rally
Donna and he attended even before the invasion was launched. NBC,
which produces the Today Show, is owned by General Electric,
the 14th-largest defense contractor in the
United States
, to the tune
of $2.3 billion from the DoD in 2006, and has worked on such weapons
systems as the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and F/A-18 Hornet
multimission fighter/attack aircraft, both in use in
Iraq
.
A
Who's Who of Your Life
Of
course, the Pentagon has long poured
U.S.
tax dollars
into private coffers to arm and outfit the military and enable it to
function. At the time of Eisenhower's farewell address, New York
Times reporter Jack Raymond noted that the Pentagon was spending
"$23,000,000,000 a year for services and procurement of guns,
missiles, airplanes, electronic devices, vehicles, tanks,
ammunition, clothing and other military goods." Today, that
would equal around $200 billion. In 2007, the Department of
Defense's stated budget was $439 billion. Counting the costs of its
wars in
Iraq
and
Afghanistan
, the number
jumps to over $600 billion. Factoring in all the many related
activities carried out by other agencies, actual
U.S.
national
security spending is nearly $1 trillion per year.
Back
in Eisenhower's day, arms dealers and mega-corporations, such as
Lockheed and General Motors, held sway over the corporate side of
the military-industrial complex. Companies like these still play an
extremely powerful role today, but they are dwarfed by the sheer
number of contractors that stretch from coast to coast and across
the globe. Looking at the situation in 1970, almost 10 years after
Eisenhower's farewell speech, Sidney Lens, a journalist and expert
on
U.S.
militarism,
noted that there were 22,000 prime contractors doing business with
the U.S. Department of Defense. Today, the number of prime
contractors tops 47,000 with subcontractors reaching well over the
100,000 mark, making for one massive conglomerate touching nearly
every sector of society, from top computer manufacturer Dell (the
50th-largest DoD contractor in 2006) to oil giant ExxonMobil (the
30th) to package-shipping titan FedEx (the 26th).
In
fact, the Pentagon payroll is a veritable who's who of the top
companies in the world: IBM; Time-Warner; Ford and General Motors;
Microsoft; NBC and its parent company, General Electric; Hilton and
Marriott; Columbia TriStar Films and its parent company, Sony;
Pfizer; Sara Lee; Procter & Gamble; M&M Mars and Hershey;
Nestlé; ESPN and its parent company, Walt Disney; Bank of America;
and Johnson & Johnson among many other big-name firms. But the
difference between now and then isn't only in scale. As this list
suggests, Pentagon spending is reaching into previously neglected
areas of American life: entertainment, popular consumer brands,
sports. This penetration translates into a remarkable variety of
forms of interaction with the public.
Rick
and Donna's home is full of the fruits of this incursion. As they
putter around in their kitchen, getting ready for the day ahead,
they move from the wall cabinets (purchased at DoD contractor Lowe's
Home Center) to the refrigerator (from defense contractor Maytag),
choosing their breakfast from a cavalcade of products made by
Pentagon contractors. These companies that, quite literally, feed
the Pentagon's war machine, are the same firms that fill the shelves
of
America
's kitchens.
Today,
just about every supermarket staple -- from Ballpark Franks (Sara
Lee) and Eggo waffles (Kelloggs) to Jell-O (Kraft) and Coffee Mate
(Nestle) -- has ties to the Pentagon. The same holds for many
household appliances. In Rick and Donna's dining room, a small
Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner buzzes around the floor. Rick thought
it would be cute to have the little mechanical device trolling
around the house making their hectic lives just a tad easier. Little
did he know that Roomba's manufacturer, iRobot, takes in U.S. tax
dollars ($51 million of them from the DoD in 2006, more than a
quarter of the company's revenue) and turns them into PackBots,
tactical robots used by U.S. troops occupying Iraq and Afghanistan,
and Warrior X700s -- 250-pound semiautonomous robots armed with
heavy weapons such as machine guns, that may be deployed in Iraq
this year.
In
addition to selling millions of Roombas to civilian consumers, the
company uses government tax dollars to make money on the civilian
side of its business. According to the company's December 2006
annual report (which listed as its "Research Support
Agencies" the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency [DARPA],
the U.S. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, the U.S. Army
Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command, and the U.S. Army Armament
Research, Development and Engineering Center), government funding
"allows iRobot to accelerate the development of multiple
technologies." Yet iRobot retains "ownership of patents
and know-how and [is] generally free to develop other commercial
products, including consumer and industrial products, utilizing the
technologies developed during these projects." It's a very
sweet deal. And iRobot is hardly alone.
Entering
the Digital World with Guns Blazing
Sitting
on the dining room table is Rick's HP (Hewlett-Packard) notebook
computer. HP is another company that has grown its civilian know-how
with generous military contracts, like the multiyear,
multimillion-dollar deal it signed in 2005 with DARPA to
"develop technologies to improve the performance of
mission-critical computer networks used during combat and other
vital operations." A spokesman for the company noted, "Our
work for DARPA is aimed at significantly improving the performance
of the Internet.... If we can successfully create new approaches to
the way Internet traffic is detected and routed, we may start seeing
the Internet used as the de facto communications and information
network in areas where it previously would've been thought too
risky." Success would certainly translate into more lucrative
civilian work, as well.
Meanwhile,
Rick and Donna's son, Steven, is still upstairs, having a hard time
tearing himself away from his computer game. His room is a veritable
showcase of the new entertainment/sports/high tech/pop culture
dimension of the twenty-first-century Complex: there are NASCAR
posters (in 2005, more than $38 million in taxpayer money was spent
on U.S. armed forces' racecars); National Football League (NFL)
jerseys and baseball caps (the NFL has partnered with the Pentagon
to create military profiles aired during TV broadcasts of regular
and postseason games, while individual NFL teams have hosted
"military appreciation" events); X-Men comic books
(the Pentagon teamed up with Marvel Comics to produce
limited-edition, "military-exclusive" comic books, with
pro-Pentagon themes, that are now sought after by civilian
collectors); and a wastebasket filled with empty Mountain Dew
bottles (the Air Force was one of the sponsors of the Dew Action
Sports Tour, a traveling show featuring skateboarding, BMX, and
freestyle motocross contests).
During
Ike's time, when civilian firms like Ford and AT&T were the big
military suppliers, the payroll showed an utter lack of cool
companies. Now, the Pentagon is reaching into virgin territory in
new ways with new partners. Today, hip firms like Apple, Google, and
Starbucks are also on DoD contractors' lists. And while Ike's
complex was typified by brass bands and patriotic parades, today's
variant is a flashy digitized world of video games, extreme sports,
and everything cool that appeals to potential young recruits.
Steven
finally shuts down Tropico: Paradise Island -- a
nation-building simulation video game where the player, as "El
Presidente," attempts to lure tourists to his/her
fun-in-the-sun resort. Neither father nor son is remotely aware that
the software maker, Breakaway Games, does taxpayer-funded work for
such military clients as DARPA, the Joint Forces Command, the Office
of the Secretary of Defense, and the United States Air Force -- as
well as having developed 24 Blue, a simulator used to improve
aircraft carrier-based operations. They are blissfully unaware of
even the existence of Breakaway's Pentagon-funded video game that
could conceivably lead to more effective bombing of targets abroad.
Steven
grabs his iPod MP3 player (from DoD contractor Apple Computer) and
heads downstairs to leave with his father. On his way to the door,
Rick goes to his bookshelf and scans a selection of progressive
texts whose publishers just happen to be DoD contractors, including
a reissue of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (Houghton
Mifflin), Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America by
Lou Dubose and Molly Ivins (Random House), and Jon Stewart's America
(The Book) (Warner Books), before choosing the Hugo
Chavez-approved Hegemony or Survival by Noam Chomsky (ahem, Metropolitan
Books from Macmillan publishers). As the last one out,
Donna sets the ADT alarm system. (ADT took in more than $16 million
from the Pentagon in 2006, while its parent company, Tyco
International, cleaned up to the tune of over $187 million.)
The
Pentagon on Wheels
Rick
and Steven hop into the Saturn parked in the driveway. Rick is proud
of his car choice -- after all, Saturn has such a people-friendly
(even anti–Detroit establishment) vibe. Admittedly, he is aware
that General Motors owns not only the Saturn but the Hummer brand --
the civilian version of the
U.S.
military's
Humvee -- but he believes that, in this world, you can't be
squeaky-clean perfect. But Hummer isn't the half of it.
How
could Rick have known that, in 1999, GM formally entered the Army's
COMBATT (COMmercially BAsed Tactical Truck) vehicle development
program? Or that GM actually had its own military division, General
Motors Defense, when his Saturn was made? Nor could Rick have known
that GM Defense formed a joint venture with defense giant General
Dynamics to create the GM-GDLS Defense Group (which was awarded in
excess of $1.5 billion in DoD contract dollars in 2005). Or that GM
took in $87 million from the Pentagon in 2006. Or that, in 2007, GM
entered into a 50-year lease agreement to build a $100 million test
track on the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Grounds. Or that the maker of
his Saturn's tires, Goodyear, was
America
's
69th-largest defense contractor in 2004, with DoD contracts worth
nearly $357 million.
Rick
might be an aging baby boomer, but he still tries to look cool (to
Steven's embarrassment). As he pulls the Saturn out of the driveway,
he dons a pair of Oakley sunglasses. Oakley
supplies goggles and boots to
U.S.
troops. And
while the military purchased goggles from firms such as the American
Optical Company during the 1940s, it's unlikely that anyone ever
called that company's designs "badass," as Powder,
a skiing magazine that runs Army recruitment ads on its website,
called one of Oakley's products.
Driving
along, Rick glances over at his son. "Are those the Wolverine
boots we just got you?"
"Yeah,
Dad," answers Steven, looking down at his now-ratty footwear.
Rick's
already thinking about the next pair he'll need to buy his son, not
about the five-year, multimillion-dollar contract the company signed
in 2003 to supply the Army with an upgraded infantry combat boot, or
the other deals, worth tens of millions of dollars, that Wolverine
signed with the Pentagon in 2004, 2006, and 2007.
As
they drive to his school, Steven perks up. "That's it,
Dad!" he says, pointing at a Ford Escape that just pulled into
the high school parking lot. "Whaddaya say, Dad? Next year,
when I get my license?"
Rick
remembers hearing on the radio that Ford makes an Escape
hybrid-electric vehicle. "You know what, son? I think maybe we
just might look into it." He experiences a little burst of
satisfaction. Not only can he feel like a good dad, but as a bonus
he can even help the environment. (Ford Motor Company and its
subsidiaries have, of course, garnered rafts of defense contracts
and aided the Army and Navy in various projects.)
Overjoyed,
Steven shoots his father a big smile as he opens the car door,
"Alright! Well, I'll see you tonight, Dad."
"Do
you have your cell phone?" Rick asks. Steven whips a Motorola
from his pocket. (Motorola made almost $308 million from the
Department of Defense in 2004, while the phone's service provider,
Verizon, took home more than $128 million in DoD contracts, and $50
million more from the Department of Homeland Security, in 2006.)
The
Real Matrix
With
Steven at school, Rick heads for work. He gives the local Exxon
station (ExxonMobil took in more than $1.17 billion in DoD dollars
in 2006) a pass and instead pulls into Shell, which likes to portray
itself as a kinder, greener oil giant. As he signs the receipt of
his Bank of America credit card (a firm which issues special credit
cards to Pentagon employees to streamline the process of buying
supplies for the DoD), Rick has no way of knowing that Shell's
parent company, N.V. Koninklijke Nederlansche, was the 31st-largest
defense contractor in 2006, reaping more than $1.15 billion dollars
in DoD contracts.
Entering
the Holland Tunnel on his way to
Manhattan
, Rick
realizes that, with Steven driving next year, he can start taking
mass transit to work. The PATH train into the city -- recently
restored under the watchful eye of Bechtel,
the 15th-largest defense contractor of 2004 and the recipient of
more than $1.7 billion in DoD contracts that year -- will, he
believes, lessen his "footprint" on the planet.
Keep
in mind, Rick is now only a couple of hours into his long day. In
fact, no part of the hours to come will be lacking in products
produced by Pentagon contractors -- from the framed photographs of
Donna and Steven on his desk (taken by an Olympus camera and printed
on Kodak paper) to the beer he drinks with lunch (Budweiser) to most
of the products around his office, including: 3M Post-It notes,
Microsoft Windows software, Lexmark printers, Canon photocopiers,
AT&T telephones, Maxwell House Coffee, Kidde fire extinguishers,
Xerox fax machines, IBM servers, paper from International Paper,
Duracell batteries, an LG Electronics refrigerator, and paper towels
by Marcal Paper Mills.
Rick
is, of course, a fiction, but the rest of us aren't -- and neither
is the existence of the real Matrix.
In
the 1999 sci-fi movie
classic of the same name, the Matrix is an artificial reality
(resembling the Western world at the dawn of the twenty-first
century) created by sentient machines. Humans, who are grown as
energy sources and wired in to the Matrix using cybernetic implants,
are kept in a coma-like state -- ignorant of the very existence of
the artificial reality that they "live" in. In explaining
the situation to Neo, the movie's protagonist, Morpheus, a leader of
a group of unplugged free humans who wage a guerrilla struggle
against the machines, reveals:
"The
Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very
room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn
on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go
to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been
pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth."
At
one point in his farewell speech, Eisenhower presaged this point,
suggesting, "The total influence -- economic, political, even
spiritual -- [of the conjunction of the military establishment and
the large arms industry] is felt in every city, every State house,
every office of the Federal government." But only Hollywood
has yet managed to capture the essence of today's omnipresent,
all-encompassing, cleverly hidden system of systems that invades all
our lives; this new
military-industrial-technological-entertainment-academic-scientific-
media-intelligence-homeland security-surveillance-national
security-corporate complex that has truly taken hold of America.
Nick
Turse is the associate editor of Tomdispatch.com. He has written for
the
Los
Angeles
Times,
Adbusters, the Nation, and regularly for Tomdispatch. His first
book, The
Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives, has
just been published in Metropolitan Books' American Empire Project
series. His website is NickTurse.com.
SECRECY
NEWS
from
the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume
2008, Issue No. 41
April 28,
2008
RESOURCES
ON THE ISRAELI STRIKE IN
SYRIA
The
September 6,
2007
Israeli
strike against a suspected Syrian nuclear facility remains a puzzle
despite the confident assertion by
U.S.
intelligence
officials last week that the target was a Syrian reactor constructed
for the production of plutonium with the assistance of
North Korea
.
An
extensive, frequently updated collection of open source materials on
the subject -- including foreign and domestic news reports,
satellite imagery and analysis -- has been compiled by Allen Thomson
in "A Sourcebook on the Israeli Strike in
Syria
,
6 September
2007
"
(currently 812 pages in a 15 MB PDF file):
http://www.fas.org/man/eprint/syria.pdf
An
updated bibliography of Syrian nuclear science research, from
reactor safety to laser isotope separation, was prepared by
researcher Mark Gorwitz. See "Syrian Nuclear Science
Bibliography: Open Literature Citations," April 2008:
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/syria/biblio.pdf
A
list of all cooperative agreements between the International Atomic
Energy Agency and the Atomic Energy Commission of Syria, also
compiled by Mr. Gorwitz, is here:
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/syria/iaea-syria.pdf
The
web site of the Atomic Energy Commission of Syria is here:
http://www.aec.org.sy/index_e.php
A
NEW AMBASSADOR FROM
BAHRAIN
The
next ambassador from
Bahrain
to the
United States
will be a
Jewish woman named Huda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo, according to a report in
GulfNews.com last week.
"Huda
is
Bahrain
's nominee
for the post and this is of course very good news for
Bahrain
's
deep-rooted values of tolerance and openness," said Faisal
Fouladh of the Shura Council, the upper house of
Bahrain
's
legislature. The Shura Council currently includes 11 women,
including one Christian.
See
"
Bahrain
set to name
Jewish woman envoy" by Habib Toumi, GulfNews, April 25:
http://archive.gulfnews.com/news/gulf/bahrain/10208344.html
Alone
among Muslim countries,
Bahrain
and
Bosnia
have Jewish
diplomats in senior positions, said Stephen S. Schwartz of the
Center for Islamic Pluralism (www.islamicpluralism.org).
HEARING
ON SECRET LAW
The
Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing April 30 on the
subject of "secret law."
"It's
been nearly forty years since Professor Kenneth Davis stated in his
seminal treatise on administrative law that 'Secret law is an
abomination'," according to a Committee announcement.
"The
upcoming hearing will examine the extent to which this abomination
is gradually becoming a common state of affairs, and its effect on
our democracy."
The
hearing will be chaired by Sen. Russ Feingold. I will be testifying,
along with J. William Leonard, the former director of the
Information Security Oversight Office, and a diverse group of
others. See "Secret
Law and the Threat to Democratic and Accountable Government":
http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=3305
PRESIDENTIAL
CLAIMS OF EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE, AND MORE FROM CRS
Noteworthy
new reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not
been made readily available to the public include the following.
"
Africa
Command:
U.S.
Strategic
Interests and the Role of the U.S. Military in
Africa
,"
updated
March 10,
2008
:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL34003.pdf
"High
Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and High Power Microwave (HPM)
Devices: Threat Assessments," updated
March 26,
2008
:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32544.pdf
"Second
FY2008 Supplemental Appropriations for Military Operations,
International Affairs, and Other Purposes,"
April 15,
2008
:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL34451.pdf
"
Iraq
: Regional
Perspectives and U.S. Policy," updated
April 4, 2008
:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33793.pdf
"Operation
Iraqi Freedom: Strategies, Approaches, Results, and Issues for
Congress,"
March 28,
2008
:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL34387.pdf
"Major
U.S. Arms Sales and Grants to
Pakistan
Since
2001" (fact sheet), updated
April 23,
2008
:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/pakarms.pdf
"Pakistan-U.S.
Relations," updated
March 27,
2008
:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33498.pdf
"Presidential
Claims of Executive Privilege: History, Law, Practice and Recent
Developments," updated
April 16,
2008
:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/RL30319.pdf
The Alzheimer’s
Poster Boy
John McCain’s ‘Serious’ Foreign
Policy
April 27, 2008
by
Glenn Greenwald
Salon
John
McCain was on a conference call with right-wing bloggers yesterday
and boasted:
I
think that people should understand that I will be Hamas’s
worst nightmare.
What
possible reason would a U.S. President have for turning himself and
our country into a “nightmare”
for Hamas, let alone its “worst
nightmare”?
Hamas is a single-issue Palestinian group, focused exclusively on
its “territorial
dispute”
with
Israel
(and, in light of its
victory in the U.S.-demanded election, is also now preoccupied with
governing the Palestinian Authority). Is there anyone who thinks
that Hamas has tried to, will try to, or ever could attack the
U.S.
? Hamas is an enemy of
Israel
, not the
U.S.
Is that a distinction we
even recognize any more?
What
exactly is the point of feeding
Israel billions of dollars every year in military aid if
we’re
going to deem every one of its fights to be our fight, and every one
of its enemies to be our Enemy? Is that actually what Americans want
to do: insinuate ourselves even more into other endless, intractable
religious and ethnic conflicts in the
Middle East
?
More
disturbingly still, this chest-beating threat from McCain is merely
the latest in a long line of adolescent, mindlessly belligerent war
cries emanating from the Serious foreign policy candidate. In a GOP
debate in May of last year, he bellowed that he would “follow
[Osama bin Laden] to the gates of hell”
only thereafter, according to
ABC News, to then “crack[]
a smile which gave the impression to some viewers that perhaps he
viewed his own answer as being over the top.”
But he’s
since repeated
that demonic formulation on
numerous occasions, followed by the same creepy,
self-satisfied smirk:
And
here
was McCain’s sober, Serious prescription in 2006 for ending
sectarian warfare in
Iraq
:
One
of the things I would do if I were President would be to sit the
Shiites and the Sunnis down and say, “Stop
the bullshit.”
Add
to that his merry
singing of the joys of dropping bombs on the Iranian people,
and it’s
clear that McCain’s
foreign policy approach seems even more childishly bellicose than
the current occupant of the Oval Office. There’s
a reason that Bill Kristol and Joe Lieberman are such ardent
supporters.
Is
there anyone outside of Lieberman and John Bolton who thinks that
what we need are more cartoon-like imperial threats to the world
about how we’re
going to pummel and smash everyone if they don’t
step into line? Is that mentality going to reduce complex religious
and geostrategic threats or severely worsen them? McCain’s
foreign policy approach actually seems to be a less restrained and
less complex rendition of Bush’s
“Bring-em-on”
swagger that has really worked miracles in
Iraq
. Whatever
adjectives might describe McCain’s
barren, cliched tough guy decrees, Serious —
or “moderate”
—
isn’t
it.
UPDATE:
Also, it would be great to know what McCain plans to do, exactly, to
turn himself into Hamas’
“worst
nightmare.”
Will he invade
Gaza
? Bomb
targets in the not-yet-settled-by-Israel-parts of the
West Bank
? Have the
CIA engage in covert “regime
change”
efforts to remove Hamas, the democratically elected government, and
replace it with rulers whom McCain likes better? Will we be an even
more active participant in the endless Israeli-Palestinian dispute?
What are McCain’s
plans specifically for unleashing new “nightmares”
on Hamas?
Glenn
Greenwald was previously a constitutional law and civil rights
litigator in
New York
. He is
the author of the New York Times Bestselling book “How
Would a Patriot Act?,”
a critique of the Bush administration’s
use of executive power, released in May 2006. His second book, “A
Tragic Legacy“,
examines the Bush legacy.
©
Salon.com
10 things you should
know about John McCain (but probably don't)
MoveOn
http://pol.moveon.org/mccain10/
1.
John
McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has
"evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights
laws.1
2.
According
to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on
Iraq
,
Russia
and
China
. Conservative
columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like
Gandhi."2
3.
His
reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted
against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President
Bush for vetoing that ban.3
4.
McCain
opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support
Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."4
5.
The
Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in
Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care
bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.5
6.
He's
one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The
Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes!
Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people
facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their
vacations.6
7.
Many
of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be
commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought
of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's
erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries
me."7
8.
McCain
talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign
manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government
watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising
money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential
candidates.8
9.
McCain
has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent
years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod
Parsley, believes
America
's founding
mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false
religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing
preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's
punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the
Antichrist" and a "false cult."9
10. |