James-Speaks

NOT VERY SMART

Smart Power sounds like an Obama administration version of Compassionate Conservatism. Unless real things happen, it's just a slogan.

Here are some smart things Obama could do to enable Smart Power.

(1) Find a way to prevent Israel from ever using phosphorous in weapons. They use phosphorous bombs to terrorize, burn, and maim Palestinian women and children.

(2) Find a way to prevent Israel from ever using cluster bombs again. They use cluster bombs to maim and kill Lebanese children.

(3) Find a way to hold Israel financially responsible for the costs of their rampages in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. If Israel destroys it, then Israel should pay for it.

(4) Find a way to make Israel acknowledge that Jews are neither superior nor inferior to Arabs, but actually the same.

These would be smart moves except for one thing. If Obama tried them Israel would use its power to ruin his presidency and right now we Americans need Obama but we do not need Israel. The smartest thing, then, would be for Obama to find a way to neutralize Israel's influence.

The Big Three
07-Dec-2008

The issue is whether to bail out the big three (GM, Ford, Chrysler) or to punish them for being bad and making big SUV's Americans love to drive.

How about a third alternative? Why don't we use this opportunity to fund a re-tooling of our transportation industry which is adaptable to the needs of fossil fuel shortages and nuclear plant derived electricity?

Obama Speaks
07-Dec-2008

For President-Elect Barack Obama, fixing the economy is only one "Job One" among several Job Ones bequeathed to him by Bush's ineptitude.

Other Job Ones include repairing America's damaged reputation, restoring the rule of law, locating and neutralizing criminals before they terrorize via pathogens or radioactive materials. All of these require money, and thanks to Bush and his so-called 50-billion dollar war, we're out of money, credit, and our economy is in no position to create wealth.

So there, we're broke and the first thing Obama needs to do is to put us on the path towards fiscal health. This is the one thing he can do before the "Elect" drops from his name and he assumes actual control of our defense apparatus.

I hate to say it, though, but there is something he has missed and it is a crisis that is building. The effects won't be realized for a decade or two, but the opportunity to act will not last. Soil quality in the absence of nitrogen fertilizer will become the issue of the teens.

Obama hasn't addressed it yet, but I have hope that his plans for a revitalized infrastructure, transportation and education systems will extend the window of opportunity before we face food shortages.

For insight into the ways fuel prices and credit problems create food shortages, check this out.

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(Comment regarding Informed Comment today.)

Fascinating. Now that a competent person holds the highest office in the land (I am saying that Obama's status as President-Elect surpasses W's lameness), it is safe to step back from crisis mode and investigate the little things that cause history. Discussing the hydrology of the Levant is one such thing and the implications for our times are so profound that it takes a Shinseski kind of a guy to have the apparent temerity to raise them.

Climate change will affect soil moisture, which affects food crop production, which affects whether average people have enough food to eat, which affects whether civilizations rise, maintain, or fall. Global warming affects sea level which affects the extent of arable land. More than the economy is at stake; the fabric of civilization is being stretched.

Leadership is required.

K3WL SITE

Pop Quiz

"Question 1: In what way is the Israeli compaign in South Lebanon different from Slobodon Milosevic's campaign in Bosnia?"

The Israeli genocide has the approval, not too strong a word, of decision makers in the Bush White House.

"Question 2: Since Bush and Rice derailed any move toward a ceasefire of the sort that the entire rest of the world demanded, aren't they directly implicated in this bloodshed?"

Yes, they are directly implicated in this bloodshed. It can even be argued that since Israeli generals had present Powerpoint presentations on the fantastical successes over a year ago, and that Israel needs its daily infusion of US cash to survive, then Bush and Rice hold a greater responsibility than as merely supporter or facilitators, that they are instigators.

Some questions of my own:

Q3: What was in that Powerpoint presentation?

Speculative Answer 3: Some judgments have to be made regarding Bush's abilities. It is likely that he would know a disastrous Lebanon destroying arial bombardment would seriously hurt his war in Iraq. It should be assumed he did not sign off on this flying clusterfuck.

Rather, I would bet the farm that the Israel geniuses explained in patient detail to Pres. Boy Wonder how a quick defeat of the feckless Hizbullah would so thoroughly dishearten the evil Sunni and Shia guerrillas in Iraq that Bush would be able to claim victory there, again, in time for the '06 elections.

Which raises another question.

Q4: Did the Israelis have a clue?

SA4: Well, didn't they? This is the same Hizbollah that drove them out of Lebanon six years ago. Did they really think that Hizbollah had given up all their arms? I think not. And since I do not believe this war started with a Hizbollah mission across the Israeli border, the only logical conclusion is that this whole incident cum war crime occurs now only because Israel wants it to occur now.

Q5: What?

SA5: Israel has long made it their practice to dishonor the borders of other nations. They do so diplomatically, gaining New Zealand passports for future false flag operations, or not, and they do so militarily. Just ask any US employee of Aramco how often the IAF does touch-and-go's on Saudi soil.

Hizbollah, on the other hand, has always made it their practice to deliver reciprocal animosity. Israel shells their villages. Hizbollah launches a few towards "The Light Unto Nations." Always measured responses. Rarely provocational.

MSNBC originally reported that IDF soldiers had been killed inside Lebanon. The IDF tank was destroyed inside Lebanon. Israel started this war just as Israel always used provocation to start the Palestinian conflicts.

Its their way, the way of the coward, to always blame the other side. Hitler did it. Israel does it.

Q6: What? What?

SA6: Israel started this war. Israel may also have harbored dark hopes they could subdue Hizbollah, even minimally, and claim to Pres. Boy Wonder they had helped, but one must consider the other side, that Israel expects there to be side benefits to a short term quagmire.

Q7: Side benefits?

SA7: Yes. One would be exactly what we are seeing now. An excuse to ruin the Lebanese economy. Israel understands that its future enemy is not the Arabs, but Peak Oil. Israel needs to be the most powerful economy in the region. It is thoroughly evil, and not unlike their activities in Gaza, for Israel to plan to destroy the economy of Lebanon because that is their goal.

Q8: But doesn 't this hurt Bush?

SA8: Yes. This does hurt Bush. The neocons have used Bush and now they intend to throw him away. How do you throw away an American President? You do so by luring him into a web, such as War Crimes, from which he cannot escape.

The phony defections of certain neo-conservatives from the Republican party are consistent with this planning. Since they never were conservatives to begin with, merely Israeli operatives who used the label "liberal" so long as it was useful, it is no wonder they need to find ways to leave the Repuiblicans behind and find a new label to use. Ergo: implicate Bush in Israeli war crimes. Ergo: eventually try to blame the whole thing on Republicans as they, the Israeli fifth column, seeks new political ground in America.

Q9: What next?

SA9: Expect Israel to try to destroy as much of the Lebanese society as they can. It is their hope that Hizbollah will be so busy rebuilding that the Lebanese economy cannot challenge Israel's for a decade.

Expect Israel to fail. Sunnis in oil rich kingdoms may take umbrage and decide to use their oil to punish Israel, or us.

You Don't Need A Climatologist To Know .....

Islands in Arabia over at Informed Comment led me to ponder...

"In the Levant, endless empires have come and gone. Living here naturally turns one’s mind to the long view. In July of 2006, the American University of Beirut may seem vulnerable and Israel invincible, which is more likely to exist in 500 years? Perhaps now is a time to think about these most basic issues.

What kind of island is likely to persist: one with open gates, or one with high walls? One that is a meeting place of cultures, or one that strives for cultural purity?" - www.juancole.com

Which came out on top, Apple or Microsoft? The US or the USSR?

Why do we allow a racist ideology (Likud) to determine our future?

I see a fundamental problem with Israel. Fundamental here means basic, of composing a foundation, forming a principle which determnes all future decisions.

The fundamental problem with Israel is its delenda est goyim approach to all conflict. Never does Israel consider it has wronged the other party.

We see this attitude frequently in individuals. They go by the label personality disorder. The fault is always external, never internal.

Consequently, Israel never learns from its mistakes. Past errors (the atrocities in Lebanon, the atrocities in Jenin, the atrocities in Fallujah!) never render the insight necessary to allow smarter future behavior.

We see this flaw in individuals. They go by the name of sociopath.

What happens to such individuals? Sometimes they succeed. George Walker Bush is President of the United States, but only because of his supporters. I think Poppy helped.

What about others? Often, they succeed as well, but only until circumstances catch up with them. Ken Lay, ultimately a loser. Now a dead loser.

Israel is like Bush. Israel's "Poppy" is the United States of America.

The United States of America under Bush is like Ken Lay in that time before Enron imploded.

Enron is a good analogy; after some greed-based, poor decision making, while better options were still available, Enron entered a period where only bad options were available. Only bad options, which had led either to catastrophes in the short-term, or slightly less bad options, which led to catastrophes in the slight less short-term, were available.

After a period of bad, Douglas-Feith like, decision making, a bad future was guaranteed.

The US is now like Enron in the Middle East. Strangely, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz and, what the heck, Jonah Goldberg have a lot to do with that, but unlike Enron CEO/CFO,COO types, they do not have exposure to the consequences. Damn!

The US is now like Enron in the Middle East. The US Armed Forces are like all those Enron shareholders who were told to hold their stock. The US citizenry is like California, which suffered power outages so bad they elected a theatrical image to be governor.

There are no longer any good choices to be made in the Middle East. And yet, we send Conduhleezza Rice to negotiate with Klaus von Olmert. Why? What does she expect to gain from this trip except entries into her timesheet? A bit of authentic Jordan River Holy Water?

We have no good options in the MidEast. Any decision made now will have an unacceptable outcome. This is because we employed unacceptable, racist-based principles at the outset to please our Likud/Israeli masters. It is also because certain Arab and non-Arab Muslims have already accepted the downside of their circumstances and have been engaged in reality based planning for quite some time now. It is because these reality based Arab and non-Arab Muslims have outplayed us on our own chess board.

Perhaps we could use our vast and powerful entertainment industry, television, film and news, to introduce to the American people the idea that all people are created equal before the creator (John Shelby Spong definition at use here), and we intend to return to our founding principles and drag Israel, whatever is left after the post-Likudnik Exodus, kicking and screaming, scratching, biting, crying, moaning, sobbing and gnashing of teething, accusing of anti-semitisming etc. etc. barf barf woof woof, with us, back to the League of Humanity.

My apologies for that (Bob) Dylanesque excess just now. Time to mow the lawn.

About that wall:
Israel's Apartheid wall exists for no purpose other than to steal land from the indengenous Arabs who live there. The idea behind the wall is to blame the Arabs for being Arabs. Israel can either continue to deny reality and to quietly murder Arabs, or Israel can admit its failures and return the land. Either course of action has bad consequences.

Bitch Slap

"The Israeli war with Hizbullah is going badly for the Israelis. Some generals think the problem is too few troops. But the Israeli cabinet rejected that way of thinking, Thursday, sticking to its current mixture of air power and light infantry." - www.juancole.com

They should pay attention to Mr. Alan "Israeli lives are more important than Lebanese lives" Dershowitz. He has explained why the war is going badly. In case anyone missed the point, I'll summarize.

Deshowitz has stated (correctly, trumpets please) that Israeli lives are more important to Israelis than Lebanese lives are to Israelis. His mistake was in thinking that anyone but Israelis cared.

Apparently, Hizbollah soldiers, for that is what they are, also think that Israeli lives are more important to Israelis than Lebanese lives are to Isrealis, and they have committed their manpower to making Israelis soldiers suffer casualties as quickly as possible.

If news reports can be believed, the kill ratio is heavily in favor of the Israelis, but as Hizbollah understands, the casualty acceptance ratio is heavily in favor of Hizbollah.

It might appear that Hizbollah as no regard for their own lives. I hope that something else is going on, that Hizbollah understands the sacrifice of its own troops leads to a faster resolution in their own favor, leading to overall fewer casualties on both sides.

So, in effect, although Israel has the greater fear for loss of its troops, Hizbollah is actually doing what needs to be done to preserve Israeli lives. Irony is a lovely thing.

All this leads to something I would like to call the Dershowitz Doctrine. It goes like this.

We Americans loved Israel and we want to see Israel protected from its enemies.

From time to time, Israel becomes Israel's worst enemy. This occurs when they start to believe too much of their own 'light unto nations' garbage.

An aside: For all his barbarism, I never came to despise Ariel Sharon because I believe he did only what was necessary to gain certain advantages for his people. I believe he did not hate Arabs, only intended to beat them. I do not believe the same can be said for Olmert or Netanyahu. I believe they hate Arabs as 'lesser humans.'

Back to the 'Dershowitz Doctrine.'

When Israel becomes its own worst enemy, it is our duty as Israel and Israeli loving Americans to administer some tough love to the 'light unto nations.' This cannot be done by witholding funds or arnaments. It cannot be done by pulling Bolton out of the UN and replacing him with Cindy Sheehan. It cannot be done by sending Condi Rice to bitch slap Olmert because, apparently, he likes it. No, no, no, it cannot be done in any fashion where the 'light unto nations' sheds its inspiring luminescence.

Nay, verily, it can be done only by utilitzing the 'Dershowitz Principle' where each lost Israeli yields life yields enormous consequences.

My humble suggestion, and I offer this with the highest sincerity, is that we find a way to smuggle certain weapons into the hands of those who might use them to Israel's advantage. I'm talking Hizbollah.

My hope is that certain administration officials, such as Vice President Richard Cheney, will see the logic in this. Sometimes you just have to shoot your best friend in the face.

See, if we let Hizbollah have a precision guided weapon or two, and they use it to take out a tank or even a fighter jet, just one or two at a time, then the Israelis will quickly declare victory and leave Lebanon.

Perhaps they can be persuaded to attack Bolivia or Paraguay. (Or was it Uruguay. I forget. Ask Douglas Feith, it was his idea.)

By letting Hizbollah do our dirty work for us, it's probably wise to contract this out to Blackwater, they have so much discipline, we maintain plausible deniability.

Not that Bush needs anymore plausiblity, deniabilitismishly speaking. When he says, "I did not know that," we believe him. We really, really believe him. I digress.

The Dershowitz Doctrine, arming Hizbollah one effective weapon at a time, but only to keep Israel centered, also has tremendous cost/benefit aspects.

Does one seriously accurate, laser guided missle cost more than rebuilding Haifa, or even rebuilding 5% of Lebanon (which is all we would do)?

Nay, verily, it does not.

Sometimes you just have to bitch slap your best friend, and it is long past time to do that to^H^H for Israel.