What Happens Now, After A Near Perfect Storm During Bush
Not sure, but there are many items in my hope chest. Today I pick the one I put squarely in number one position, knowing that events that can occur while I write this, can rearrange priorities immediately. Remember when American deaths in Iraq and fear of terrorist attacks on the homeland, were at the top of public concerns fairly recently?
Stabilize housing prices. Although lower prices truly do favor new buyers, not so if they continue lower. Prices are crucial because they are a persistent cause of loss of confidence almost everywhere, along with continued and resultant unmeasurable risk in all credit markets, so housing prices must be at the top of any economic list.
It seems pretty clear now to most of us, that we have come through a decade of out of control financial engineering by clever and motivated business men and women of all ethnicities, in the US and around the globe, by Democrats and Republicans alike if the truth were known, while regulators, lawmakers and almost every level of government, Democrats and Republicans alike if the truth were known (didn’t I just say that?) were asleep at the switch, or unable to to convince the establishment of the risks very clearly articulated by some, while these clear forecasts of financial disaster were met with denial by too many Democrats and Republicans. This theme is beginning to sound familiar to me, how about you?
Contributing to the now obvious impotence of those we entrusted to do the right thing, is an obviously antiquated regulatory system which encouraged and allowed “regulatory arbitrage” in the pursuit of unsustainable profits and growth in housing stock and prices, general asset price increases and nominal debt and other trading markets in general.
Regardless of anything I or anyone else says about the current financial catastrophe, an Obama administration must tackle that issue quickly and importantly in a way that really stabilizes home prices, preventing continued growth in foreclosures and importantly do it in a way that sunsets the governments conflicted position inherent in any sovereign government owning and managing too much capital which belongs in private hands including publicly traded stocks as well as privately held companies.
The world will unfortunately, sooner or later, begin to see and experience the negative side of sovereign ownership or heavy handed control of operating businesses such as banks, oil companies or car companies and other industries like mining and manufacturing. So all the while avoiding my predictions of such problems, the Obama Administration et al must stabilize housing prices before our economy can begin to think in terms of new growth. And growth, a sometimes demeaned result and pursuit of capitalism, is important in a world with population growth and increasing expectations and desires of the growing ranks of worlds poor and as well as the growing middle and upper classes in economic terms. The American Dream, by the way, is wrapped around economic growth.
Income disparity in the US may already be eclipsed in many parts of the world while many current governments, as owners of vast amounts of capital stock, will make “corporate” decisions their population will sooner or later not approve of. Too much control, like any power, corrupts the holder of that power and lack of separation of business, government and for that matter, religion, will be the combustion of future tragedies.
So much of that power is in the hands of many who see the US as an entity to emulate in growth and to overtake, economically or militarily, when possible. That seems to be the way of the world, long before the US came on the scene and such ways would exist in the absense of the US, and many of us believe those undesireable ways would exist to an even greater degree in the absense of a strong America.
President Elect Obama: may the necessary wisdom be with you and those you appoint and delegate important decisions to. Start with housing prices, but do it quickly because there are aggressive issues not waiting patiently in the wings.
Highest Heaps of Blame belong to………..
These two paragraphs from today’s Sigma Research, Inc, Shirmeyer Rate Market Report are worth reading.
HypChanneling Returns - 2008 Impreachment of President Bush
HypChanneling returns, this time in beta tripartite diploSpeak, a new UN standard for international crimes, styled as a retro platonic menage a trois.
Our featured High Crimes and Misdemeanor Trio consists of The W (George Bush) as The Accused who is grilled with consistent truthfulness by The JE (John Edwards) who was congressionally appointed to keep him in the game, as The Chief Prosecutor. This trial was presided over by The CH, The Chief Hypocrite, as The Decider. The CH is also the assembler of this first and only report to the public.
You will not read about this Impreachment anywhere else, because of the special circumstances under which it was conducted. Yes, you read that correctly.
It has already begun, been completed and is over and is not even a footnote in history. You nor the MSM or for that matter any of the MLM (Minor League Media ie bloggers) knew or still knows anything about this unusual event, details of which will be unclassified and released after 50 years or after the death of all involved or via leaking by the New York Times, whichever comes first.
History does have a way of repeating at least portions of itself, however there always seems to be a new twist in each incarnation. The 2008 Impreachment was enabled in a secret, unpublished classified compromise amendment, signed by Bush with a disappearing ink pen, which amendment was attached to one of the many bills passed by the Democrat majorities.
These several bills, essentially legitimized all of President Bush’s alleged illegal actions. Despite that, many of the secret signatories still contribute impotent diatribes on the subject of various impeachable acts to the media to “energize” their progressive base. Regardless, Bush and the Democrats toasted in secret underground signing ceremonies, which we got an exclusive grainy photo of.
Too bad we didn’t get a photo with audio, especially at the point where Bush fist tapped Nancy Pelosi, saying, “You go, Girl!” and she responded “Free our President”, insisting on a high five.
The historic compromises included, from Bush, that he would agree to plead nolo contendere, although he did not remember who nolo was and bristled a little at the uppity spanish used.
Compromises from the Democrats included pretending in public that he was never tried or convicted or disclosing any of the terms of his sentence which included permanent immunity from any future crimes, real or imagined, although they reserved the right to complain bitterly and forever about his crimes.
To ensure that they could never say Bush was Impeached, when they wrote the bill they called it Impreachment. Bush thought that had an evangelical flavor and was grateful. They also were grateful figuring that their unlimited assertions of high crimes and misdemeanors permanently into the future would ensure funding advantages over the Republicans for years and periodically re-energizng the base when needed.
The Impreachment proceedings, including the direct exchanges between the Chief Prosecutor and The Accused reportedly were not all retained in media form, except for the copy we obtained. One of the conditions we agreed to reluctantly was never to release enough of it to convince anyone of it’s validity and never to correct the New York Times even when they misreport.
For this report we have decided to release this noteworthy transcribed snippet, we have dubbed “The Outright Lie”.
The CH: Gentlemen, start your engines, you know the rules.
The JE: Thank you Chief. As one Chief to another, I trust that you will not take offense at how I conducted myself during our last interview, I must admit that I was in a deliberative process of learning that my internal adviser had partially turned my good judgment over to the hubris of my circumstances all of which has made me a better man, husband, father and candidate, don’t you think?
The CH: Please continue with the important proceedings at hand.
The JE: Agreed. My thoughts exactly, glad we see things the same way.
Now, Mr President….ahh, Mr President…..after exhaustive reviews of all the films (including direct one on one meetings with one web based filmmaker) and political books chronicling your multiple and outrageous abuses of the public trust, embarrassing your family and your party and your countrymen in full view of our allies and enemies around the globe, as you shredded the US Constitution over and over again, breaking US and international law unilaterally, I saw two Americas.
The W: Like north and south?
The JE: Easy now, Mr President. No. First I saw the average man, struggling to keep his family fed and clothed and in good health without access to health insurance, struggling for a better tomorrow like my dad did in the mills. And then I see your kind, with narcissistic privilege, access, money, unaccountability, taking advantage of others because you can, assuming you are invincible and willing to look the camera in the eye and say I did not do it and I do not know what you are talking about as I’ve responded consistently.
The W: For some reason, that does sound kinda familiar.
The JE: Stop interrupting! Mr President, how could you invade Iraq knowing it was all based on a lie?
The W: All I really know, is what Cheney, Big Al, Hillary, Colin and the Clinton CIA guy told me, that y’al
saw what they all told me about and you voted for me to do it, didn’t you?
The JE: But, Mr Presidnet you knew more than me, in fact you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, a high crime and misdemeanor, that there was no WMD in Iraq! You lied to the American people, to me, to your wife and kids and to the world just so you could get something that hurt us all! You said the reason we had to go into Iraq was to find and destroy the WMD there.
The W: I’ll tell you something I have never told anyone before about this WMD thing in Iraq. Come closer.
The JE: Quiet confession is good for the soul, Mr President, and I pray redemption continues to be the American way.
The CH: Speak up, I need to hear this.
The W: I confess I was upset when Michael Moore said I was not as smart as a Democrat. He said a Democrat would have been smart enough to plant WMD in Iraq after we invaded and could not find any like we thought. I never thought about that…hurt my feelings. That’s my confession, and damn if you’re not right, I feel better now.
The CH: Case dismissed.
Path to Harmony Not Flawless Despite Incredible Efforts
What was probably and hopefully a random act of violence by a troubled individual, put a damper overnight around the world but especially in the US and China for the victims and their families. Doubtless the family and friends of the attacker are aghast with regret for his actions.
This reminds me that mankind continues to have limits short of perfection, by any name, for reasons that will probably remain a mystery to me, but there is no mystery or question that conflict is part of our flawed character. The best efforts of an unopposed, authoritarian government in China which gave up communism for capitalism in order to try to improve the lives of their billion plus population, was unable to prevent this individual assault nor prevent the world from knowing about it now that they have begun their withdrawal from feudalism.
The Chinese government is not shackled by the kind of over ballyhooed “constitutional rights guaranteed” in our history by our constitution, in the words of hypocritical or at least misleading if not dissembling players on the public and private stage in the US. Don’t accuse me of anything, pay attention. I am proud of the US for it’s short role, in years, in human endeavors, all the while recognizing it’s many many imperfections and failures to live up to it’s ideals expressed in the constitution and in our rhetoric so much of the time. Proud, not prideful.
I am also proud, or better, thankful for recent Chinese governments for their conversion to capitalism and their best efforts to date, and understand that every Chinese citizen has every right to be proud of their country despite all that can rightly and severely criticized now and for much of their long 5,000 year history. All governments are made up of human beings inflicted with our varied human nature.
The US has been an active world wide player, for good and evil, mostly for good, at least from our perspective, for most of our short history. Various Chinese governments have spent most of their time horsing around the many smaller, feudal “countries” inside of their diverse territory, making most of their enemies inside of their own changing borders, while the US has many enemies outside of it’s borders. And given the human condition at the heart of this article, like the US, China will also become worthy of envy and the target of hatred, accumulating plenty of unavoidable enemies, not necessarily earned.
Let’s all hope that China succeeds in developing a society that always chooses to compete internationally in the Olympics and on the battlefields of capitalism. A version of democracy which we would favor in the US may or may not emerge in China or elsewhere soon, including in those energy enabled countries, those sitting on and exploiting gas and oil resources for export, so let’s hope capitalism becomes a permanent olympic sport everywhere.
It may be the only common interest that maintains any control on any form of hate driven terrorism that has become a popular export in some parts 
of the world and which seems now to have a permanent spot on the world stage.
Fire the Bums, Jail them if Possible, but no Torture
As I try to organize my thoughts on who might be the subject of this missive, I am debating whether to call this Part 1 for unfortunately obvious reasons. I make up titles and then try to create appropriate text.
Is the CIA and the Bush Administration appropriate for this title? Yes, if Ron Suskind is accurate in his new book The Way of the World, which accuses the
White House of ordering the CIA to forge a letter to tie together Saddam Hussein and the attacks of September 11th, 2001. Fire them, impeach them, jail them, do anything possible to them short of torture…..Enough on that for now, this writer hopes for more information to come to light quickly to snuff these charges out or confirm them, in which case it will be brought front and center to not only US but to world politics.
Could I be talking about Freddie Mac CEO Richard F. Syron who ignored clear and accurate warnings in 2004 that Freddie Mac was buying loans that would not only harm Freddie Mac, but would also “harm the country”?
Yes and decision makers and risk managers at Fannie Mae, most Wall Street firms, most large Banks, rating agencies like Moody’s and Standard and Poor, and insurers like MBIA and AMBAC and especially Alan Greenspan of the Federal Reserve, someone I have historically admired. I must also mention that some, not all, individual loan salesmen, most often grouped into the mortgage broker category, who indeed were guilty of too many individual cases of inappropriate lending that harmed individuals. What must be understood is that mortgage brokers are actually the smallest part of this homeland security risk but get the most negative press.
They are an easier target for the MSM which likes to film individual victims of predatory and inappropriate lending but do not seem to understand or be able to explain the complexities of our important housing finance system requiring the services and judgment and capital of the firms I named above. In partial defense of the MSM, most of us know what a mortgage broker does but have no clue what part of the complex delivery system those other firms play.
So my point is, there are real culprits who have harmed national security because they are higher up in the chain of shame and whose combined actions effectively conspired to truly harm the economic security of the United States. Economic security is a necessary precursor to military and energy security.
This calamity began when our internationally admired housing industry lost it’s previous boring, sometimes overly cautious rules based rationality and resorted to an uncontrolled more computer and finance driven growth strategy that had it’s origins with Countrywide Mortgage in the early 1990s. By then the US started to leave behind its history of narrow market interest ranges and had endured about a dozen years of interest rate roller coasters rides with short term rates as high as 21% and mortgage rates as high as 18% and everywhere in between. During these boom and bust mortgage refinancing cycles in the industry, computers and clever finance strategies were created while legitimate housing demand fueled home price increases in many parts of the country.
During the late 1990s and into 2002 or so interest rates had been low for so long, and most homeowners had refinanced their mortgage, some many times, and rates remained historically low, and the industry was once again massively overstaffed. That is when the “advances,” begun in the last decade, kicked in to keep this beast fed, by in essence creating buyers/borrowers out of those who would have been better off remaining renters, and by allowing owners to buy and finance a bigger house than they could afford, and encouraging owners to take cash out of their artificially increased equity, due directly to the overbuying caused directly by the fog a mirror loan underwriting Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and most Wall Street firms and most large Banks facilitated and others facilitated. That game is more than over.
This today from the e-Daily Shirmeyer Rate Market Report, an interest rate strategy service for mortgage originators:
“The pendulum has swung 180 degrees on risk in the past year. For five years the greed of investors and Wall Street took risk and flushed it down the drain, and totally ruined the mortgage business. Now, in the massive reaction the pendulum has moved way too far to the right (pun intended), and investors and the agencies are trying to remove all risk with fee charges and credit scoring that is too tight. I still have a difficult time with what The Street foisted on the public and investors—but investors deserved what they got being too greedy and buying sub primes, Alt A’s, 80/20’s, etc, without having much of a clue as to what they were getting. Rating agencies also had no clue. Under it all there was the universal assumption that home values would continue to increase 15% to 20% a year ad infinitum. How dumb is that?”
Normal to depressed to glimpsing euphoria, and back, skipping normal
I must not have dreamed during a recent night of sleep because nothing was on my mind when I woke up.
Later, while sitting in a waiting room, I saw a title on an old Time magazine, “The Clean Energy Myth.” That jump started the blues.
Later, I head “Master Trader Sell High, Buy Low” Nancy Pelosi, repeatedly, on various 24/7 hypotainment channels, as if protesting in the 60s, chanting “FREE OUR OIL”.
After all, she says, drilling is a HOAX. Perhaps it’s just a case of mass hysteria that we think it goes on all of the time around the world.
Full fledged depression set in and I went to another Dr Office to pickup a stronger prescription and to take a look at the magazines there.
Here I digress: The obvious benefit of stealing magazines from waiting rooms is the cost savings.
Less obvious benefits are that this old “news” can be evaluated in light of subsequent new “news” or reformed “news” or more recently fictionalized “news”. After the passage of “time”, when we enter the historical phase of the “news”, which is supposedly the unemotional consideration of the surviving story (aka history), by non partisans, usually with a PhD for street cred.
Here I return: The glimpse of euphoria came when I read much of this Forbes article about a scientific breakthrough that may be a crucial part of a future solution to secure, local, clean energy, replicating photosynthesis. In my own way, I said a little prayer. For the future.
Then I remembered that no matter what we want or pray for, oil and coal are our only real bridge to the unknown future. The blues returned.
At some point, I remembered something a good friend told me a few years ago: “We should save some of this oil for our kids’ kids because we are going to run out of it.” Full fledged depression was again looming.
So I picked up the phone to see if my doctor had any new magazines in yet, while my mind relentlessly force rotated two thoughts in my head:
“Free Our Oil” and
my own dread that we may never run out of oil.
POSTSCRIPT: I throw the prescriptions away and keep the magazines. My insurance pays for the doctor. Cheap hypotainment if I walk to the Dr. BTW, if you have not read this Onion article about Al Gore, you will be glad once that is rectified.
“Not Till We Have Too”: MLM writes the “undernews” for the MSM
The Huffington Post writes about why the MSM is not reporting the Edwards “story.”
Simple, THEY DON’T HAVE TOO YET.
Because, you, the blogging community, are playing the part of the Minor League Media (MLM), aka the reporters of the ‘undernews,” will flesh out these stories, so to speak. You will do much of the dirty work cleaning up the dirty National Inquirer, and “find all the links that you are better at” paraphrasing Jonathan Alter, aka MSM man, pre renaissance.
Great article at the Huffington Post right HERE.
Two things seem obvious. One, there are certainly hypocrites at work here, even though I do not know who he, she, it or they may be, and two, an overpaid consultant could not have come close to creating the MSM Motto of “Not Till We Have Too.”.
According to Sarah Lai Stirland, blogging on wired.com the great Wiki is struggling with the issue too.
IReporters on CNN Pan and Praise “Black in America”
Veronica Delacruz reported on CNN that comments from blacks included that they are tired of the whole race focus and do not think the much promoted CNN feature “Black in America” portrayed the average black man.
Who invited those racially insensitives to the CNN pity party?
Some of course praised it and demanded someone do something about it.
“Black in America” adds some more well known examples of a poorly performing group in America but mostly it adds fuel to the fire as does the aging and irrelevant Jesse Jackson in the style of “steal my soul away,” the victim and related anachronistic approaches to improving lives by placing blame on the victimizer. You.
That is unlike “MLK: Words That Changed A Nation“, also by CNN’s Soledad. Inspiring, with useful information, many of us, regardless of race, probably still do not know.
Houston, we do have a problem but it cuts most importantly not along the lines of race but of poverty and under achievement, which visits all races to varying degrees and each with it’s different histories. Kind of like people as individuals, we all have, to a person, a unique history along with our commonalities.
Society will always lean heavier on some individuals, races, nations, neighborhoods, clubs, religions etc and
so on. Get over it. MoveOn. Get a life, do all that you can do, become all that you can become. Persevere.
My white ancestors were discriminated against and taken advantage of by other whites, rich and poor, by blacks and probably more. Some of them overcame and prospered and some did not do as well. As Frankie sang, “That’s Life”.
I feel bad for anyone, regardless of the reason, for any distress. Humans have feelings for other humans and even Bill Clinton could mostly only feel your pain (don’t go there) but was not really able to help except for when the economy was strong.
No law could have been written that would have protected my ancestors or most down and outs today, against the sometimes dark heart of mankind, which shows up all too often….not entirely in our power, other than what we as individuals do.
We can add to the problem by harming others or not taking care of ourselves, or looking to others to make everything OK, or we can do something that at least has a chance for a more positive outcome, focus on our own self reliance while being good citizens.
Things I Don’t Know _ Edition No: 1,021,948
For those of you who have not read the previous 1,021,947 editions, you may just have to wait for my Book of Specific Ignorance.
While looking at photographs taken this month in Glacier Bay, Alaska, I was told that at one time maybe only a couple of hundred years ago, this bay did not exist, that what is now water was solid glaciers.
That stimulated me to do some exhausting research on The Google and I found this link after maybe 15 seconds.
I must have studied it for about a minute or two and think I learned that when John Muir visited in the 1870s the glacier that bears his name was about 200 feet high and was calving even then. It is now tiny.
Naturally it is hard to not think of today’s “settled science” on greenhouse gases. Kind of like the Iraq war is “settled”.
I love nature and while hiking in national forests, stay on hiking trails most of the time except to, you know, and I try to pickup more trash than I bring in but I do drive a gasoline fueled car and heat my home with ground based energy because it is the most convenient and cheapest I know about. This may sound like a lot of you out there in the hypocrisphere but I am pretty sure most of you want the earth to remain friendly to our way of life, as I do.
Why then do I not know whether mankind is causing global warming or what we are going to do to move away from otherwise polluting and politically charged energy sources?
Oil companies want to drill oil because that is their business, so they promote oil. And we all use their product in many ways, even though we do have alternatives, although not necessarily convenient or cheap ones.
Similarly, solar companies promote solar energy, wind companies promote wind energy, bio fuels companies, well you get the point. I say let them at it. If one or more of them produces inconvenient and uncompetitive products let them eat cake, if they can still afford it. And if they make a profit, more power to them.
What pun?
So why is it that, while I really do not know much about greenhouse gases, I am by the day growing more anxious about the various unsavory consequences of our energy situation now and in the future.
Why is it that the climate change movement seems more like a political movement and an economic opportunity for those who scare and offer help? I am studying how to live off the grid because I want off. Beside being afraid, I feel guilty and I don’t like that. Do you like it when you are criticized by those who pollute more than you do?
And the green movement seems like a new style and design environment, much of which I think is cool. I buy green, love those new bamboo shirts, they hardly wrinkle.
While I still do not know the answer, actually having trouble remembering the question, I do know that partisan politics and greedy capitalism come in a lot of guises. Thank goodness for ubiquitous greedy capitalism. With the right amount of regulation, it is the best reflection of nature that man can create. Or woman.
The New Jerker Magazine Fanning Flames of Ignorance and Bigotry
The Satire below Is a Disservice to the Public:
The Obama and McCain campaigns each immediately expressed disdain for the satirical cover showing Obama in traditional Muslim attire and his wife Michelle wearing rifle, doing a fist tap, which I have grown partial to as a non traditional handshake I can actually remember how to do.
All in an oval office setting with a portrait of Osama Bin Laden on the wall and a US flag burning in the fireplace.
Just because one can make up this satire does not make it right. Yes, I meant to say right. Even if the Onion printed this, it would be appropriate for thinking people to wonder how it serves any public purpose. Appropriateness should still matter. The extreme rights of no one should completely crowd out community standards.
How much more arrogant, elitist and money mongering can any one magazine become? Can they not care about the unintended consequences of this presumably protected action?
I would cancel my subscription if I had one. Maybe we should all call up and order a subscription and then cancel it during the consideration period. It would be well earned if instead of padding their pockets due to increased circulation and driving more traffic to their web if this more than tasteless action backfired and they lost readership.
Just because they are clever and know that they are intending to make an outrageous swipe at those who believe or spread false rumors about the Obamas, does not make this acceptable. Not everyone who will see this on the magazine stands in every Barnes and Noble and other magazine racks will know all that the editors of this New Jerker edition knows or think they know. Not everyone reads everything there is to read about politics, let along understands the off the wall selfish motivations of The New Jerker in this case.
How can Obama or any of us expect his words of individual responsibility to gain a foothold if the likes of these jerks, and Jesse Jackson, can whimsically dilute the message and still benefit from the publicity, bad or good. It is a loss to society when bad publicity is profitable to individuals or companies. It is not profitable to the public,
Did I mention I think they are jerks?
What is it that every President has done per CNN Report?
Let me guess, flop flop? Yes, but that’s not all.
According to the American Academy of Ambassadors says we are the only country in the world that sends out political appointments who are “unqualified” and which sends out a message of arrogance and “disrespect” to the host country.
Clintonite Leon Panetta, says such appointments are a political reality, a reward in exchange for campaign support and while reforms are necessary it is not going to go away.
A Bush State Department spokesman says it is probably a good idea to have a blend or something like that…my recorder stopped working.
A blend of what?
Of incompetence and competence, by design?
Ah, yes, like a blend of wine with some expensive grapes, some cheap grapes and there you have it, a fine foreign policy vintage in it’s own time
But is it possible the Academy has an agenda too?Call these Boston area Media Outlets about James Fagan, Ethicist
These Media Outlets have received nicely framed HAA Nomination Certificates for James Fagan who practices his sensitive trade craft on the floor of the Massachusetts legislature.
Does he have a conflict of interest?
Is this how you want your political representative to represent you?
Did you know many legislators are free of most legal risk for what they say on legislative floors which may be broadcast around the world?
If you said on the street corner some of the things they say, you could lose a defamation suit after spending a lot of money in futile defense and even if you win, you will be the poorer for it.
Call these media outlets and ask them which lucky desk is displaying the handsome HAA Certificate for James Fagan. ASK THEM TO SEND A PICTURE OF THEIR FRAMED ONE ON A DESK.
| Media Outlet | Editor | Phone | Fax | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beacon Hill Times | Jacqueline Freeman | editor@beaconhilltimes.com | 617.523.9490 | 617.523.8668 | 25 Myrtle Street Boston MA 02114 |
| Boston Magazine | James Burnett | events@bostonmagazine.com | 617.262.9700 | 617.267.1774 | 300 Massachusetts Ave. Boston MA 02115 |
| Boston Business Journal | George Donnelly | gdonnelly@bizjournals.com | 617.330.1000 | 617.330.1015 | 160 Federal Street 12th Floor Boston MA 02110-1700 |
| Boston Globe | Martin Baron | localnews@globe.com | 617.929.2000 | 617.929.2098 | PO Box 55819 Boston MA 02205-5819 |
| Boston Herald | Kevin Convey | citydesk@bostonherald.com | 617.426.3000 | 617.619.6450 | One Herald Square Boston MA 02118 |
| Boston University Daily Free Press (university) | letters@dailyfreepress.com | 617.232.6841 | 617.232.0592 | 842 Commonwealth Ave. Boston MA 02215 |
|
| Dorchester Reporter | Bill Forry | news@dotnews.com | 617.436.1222 | 617.825.5516 | 150 Mt. Vernon St. Ste. 120 Dorchester MA 02125 |
| El Mundo Boston | Editor@ElMundoBoston.com | 617.522.5060 | 617.524.5886 | 408 South Huntington Ave Boston MA 02130 |
|
| WBZ AM 1030 (CBS) | Peter Casey | wbzradionews@wbz1030.com | 617.787.7000 | 617.787.5969 | 1170 Soldiers Field Road Boston MA 02134 |
| WBZ TV 4 (CBS) | Angie Kucharski | newstips@cbs4boston.com | 617.787.7000 | 617.254.6383 | 1170 Soldiers Field Rd. Boston MA 02134 |
| WCVB TV 5 (ABC) | Coleen Marren | wcvbnews@thebostonchannel.com | 781.449.0400 | 781.433.4510 | 5 TV Place Needham MA 02492 |
| WFXT TV 25 (FOX) | Lisa Hall | desk@fox25.com | 781.467.2525 | 781.467.7213 | 25 Fox Drive Dedham MA 02027 |
| WHDH TV 7 (NBC) | newstips@whdh.com | 617.725.0710 | 617.723.6117 | 7 Bulfinch Place Boston MA 02114 |
Did Bush Makes Mistakes?
Let me count the ways.
A primer.
Subject to modification.
Version 1.0
All inclusive.
What else is there?
- Incuriously invading Iraq.
- Having a now obviously inadequate plan to create stability in Iraq
- Failing to get lucky in Iraq.
- Not succeeding within months in Iraq.
- Saying now obviously incorrect things about Iraq.
- Trying mostly to convince the UN of the existence of WMD in Iraq.
- Failure to focus on and make the complete case to US Citizens on all of the reasons for the war besides Saddams desire to reconstitute WMD in Iraq.
- Failure to also clearly expose and discuss the potential downsides and worst case scenarios in Iraq.
- Failing in the worldwide PR war and in Iraq.
- Oh, yeah, ticking off Scott McClellan. Now, who will he reminisce with down in Crawford?
EXXON Valdez, Greatest Oil Spill in History
Yes, this may indeed deserve the very highest quality Houdini Hypocrisy label. How else can Number 35 wiggle into the Top 20 list?
Perhaps a textbook example of superb partisan and hypocritically hyped Misinformation Campaigns waged at the expense of all Americans, most who unfortunately do not understand the assault being waged on them
And maybe perpetuated by disproportionately large users of oil.
Would it surprise you, assuming you have not already turned away in Partisan Purity, that according to ITOPF, it was number 35 in size, dwarfed by the larger 34 by a factor of maybe a hundred. Check my math.
Be sure to check out Table 3, and ask how can this be? Notice this table lists the first 20 oil spills then jumps to number 35. A nod to political correctness and a testament to the lucrative partisan misinformation campaigns of those professional misinformers who get paid to inform us.Table 3: Major Oil Spills Since 1967 (Non Military Accidents Only). For more oil spills click here.
| Position | Shipname | Year | Location | Spill Size (tonnes) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Atlantic Empress | 1979 | Off Tobago, West Indies | 287,000 |
| 2 | ABT Summer | 1991 | 700 nautical miles off Angola | 260,000 |
| 3 | Castillo de Bellver | 1983 | Off Saldanha Bay, South Africa | 252,000 |
| 4 | Amoco Cadiz | 1978 | Off Brittany, France | 223,000 |
| 5 | Haven | 1991 | Genoa, Italy | 144,000 |
| 6 | Odyssey | 1988 | 700 nautical miles off Nova Scotia, Canada | 132,000 |
| 7 | Torrey Canyon | 1967 | Scilly Isles, UK | 119,000 |
| 8 | Sea Star | 1972 | Gulf of Oman | 115,000 |
| 9 | Irenes Serenade | 1980 | Navarino Bay, Greece | 100,000 |
| 10 | Urquiola | 1976 | La Coruna, Spain | 100,000 |
| 11 | Hawaiian Patriot | 1977 | 300 nautical miles off Honolulu | 95,000 |
| 12 | Independenta | 1979 | Bosphorus, Turkey | 95,000 |
| 13 | Jakob Maersk | 1975 | Oporto, Portugal | 88,000 |
| 14 | Braer | 1993 | Shetland Islands, UK | 85,000 |
| 15 | Khark 5 | 1989 | 120 nautical miles off Atlantic coast of Morocco | 80,000 |
| 16 | Aegean Sea | 1992 | La Coruna, Spain | 74,000 |
| 17 | Sea Empress | 1996 | Milford Haven, UK | 72,000 |
| 18 | Katina P | 1992 | Off Maputo, Mozambique | 72,000 |
| 19 | Nova | 1985 | Off Kharg Island, Gulf of Iran | 70,000 |
| 20 | Prestige | 2002 | Off Galicia, Spain | 63,000 |
| 35 | Exxon Valdez | 1989 | Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA | 37,000 |
Energy Hypocrisy of NIMBY
NIMBY means never having oil spilled on your shores, rather having it spill on the shores of other countries.
John McCain had previously lined up with the Not In My Back Yard energy users so common in these United States. What a hypocrite. Pure and unmitigated. And selfish.
As oil ladened tankers travel thousands and thousands of miles on oceans, near remote islands and wildlife as well as population centers that have no say in the matter of their being exposed to Valdez type spills when all goes wrong, as it does and as it will.
Recently, as The Republican Presumptive, in light of $4 plus gasoline which is transferring massive amounts of wealth from users to producers, enriching oil producing sovereign countries who own and control most of that oil, John McCain did what?
He Changed His Mind - Hypocrite. After taking one position, he now has a different position on offshore drilling and is reportedly considering changing his stance on ANWAR. Is there only hypocrisy in change or can there be virtue in change? $4 and rising is different than $2 and below according to my checkbook.
When will we recognize, to a person in this country, that we are long overdue for a dose of self responsibility in several areas including this one. Even if it means we expose our previous hypocrisy as we transition to less selfish actions. Even if it means further showcasing hypocrisy inherent in changing ones mind. Even if it means waking up or learning new information or accepting old information. This is not new stuff. But a new view is overdue.
Hypocrisy is not always such a bad thing and McCain’s most recent demonstration of hypocrisy is may be virtuous and if not, it is in our and the worlds best interest. Yes, folks, we must also improve other known sources of energy so that our price sensitive consumers and businesses will transition to them.
We all want bargains and oil remains a bargain. Believe it. I wish we would run out of it tomorrow, but unfortuantely we won’t and many foreign countries enjoy low extraction costs and could lower the price of oil if necessary. Bit player Exxon cannot, but OPEC et al, can. Did you notice that China is moving prices in the direction of market prices? They recognize the need to reduce their subsidies while the naive in the US clamor for subsidy.
Every one who uses oil & gas based energy and WHO HAS A CHOICE (and you probably do) to do something different and myopically focuses on complaining about US based oil companies which are collectively minority players, all the while giving sovereign monopolists a complete pass, are unmitigated partisan politicos playing catch 22 with immunity out in the open. Let’s call out everyone on this destructive behavior. Ride a bike, put on a sweater, Jimmy Carter did and it worked, right?
Using oil is destructive to the environment you might say. So stop using it. And support the New Manhattan Project even though Max Shultz of The Manhattan Institute wrongly asserts it is a waste of time.
BUT, in the meantime, DO NOT continue to commit SOAP, our current Suicidal Oil Avoidance Policy, brought to you by rich people. Confront this national security issue on all fronts.
And guess what, even after you do, and no matter what you do, oil yet to be discovered will still get used. Whether we use it or not.
We have no control over that and continuing to arrogate as if we did, is ignorance approaching stupidity. Actually, it is more like stupidity arrived.
I pray for more hypocrisy and soon.
Playing Popular Seasonal Pastime, Obama Flip Flops on Finance
According to AP, “Though it opens him to charges of hypocrisy,” the Obama campaign is going for the big bucks and has joined those he claims have “become masters at gaming this broken system.”
Because he can, and only because he can, Obama is dropping out of the public finance system he believes in so strongly. McCain will remain in and limit his campaign expenditures whereas Obama can spend all he can raise, which has been proven to exceed that of any prior candidate for president, in any party.
But “they understand that issues of campaign finance do not rank high in most voters’ minds.”
So, it’s all good then. Accurate charges of hypocrisy will not get any traction, and traction is what counts, not promises. Read more about the turnaround in the Hartford Courant.
Senator Kent Conrad and His History of Hypocrisy
The only Senator to hold two Senate seats at the same time, has avoided serious scrutiny of his hypocritical actions because he is popular. I personally have always liked him and his no nonsense charts. But I never saw several hypocrisies on his charts.
So how did Conrad make this unique and devious silent history? After being elected to the Senate in