TIM RUSSERT: CORPORATE WAR WHORE

The Corporate Media War Whores on MSNBC have all been sucking each others dicks now for three solid days over their fallen comrade. What does the rest of the world think?


From No Quarter

Tim Russert is not responsible for the decision to invade Iraq–that rests on the shoulders of George Bush. But Russert was a ringmaster in the media circus that helped build public support for the invasion. The so-called “tough” questioning of Cheney might have meant something if Tim, as news director, could have put people on the air and given them comparable time to challenge the Administration’s policy. But he did not. He was playing the role of Jay Leno without the jokes–hosting a talk show–but declining to hold folks accountable for flat out lies. Russert had a bully pulpit but declined to use it. Russert was not the only one. But he was positioned uniquely to help shape public perceptions and his influence in Washington was such that he could have made a difference.. But he did not. He played it safe and he catered to the powerful.

From Angry Arab

Tim Russert. I met him when I was a graduate student and was doing free-lance work for NBC-News in Lebanon. He was the rising star in the network then. I did not know him at all but he represents something not necessarily good or impressive about U.S. media. He was talented and was a good interrogator and was very well-prepared: but these are basic qualities that all journalists should possess; and journalists in Europe, for example, possess those qualities. But he also represented this tendency that you have be chummy with politicians, and that it is all a big joke--the political differences and the disagreements. Russert has a horrible record on the Bush administration: he was least critical and least skeptical. How can you take his coverage seriously, when he would interview the president one day, and then take his son to take his picture in the Oval Office the next day? He really did that: or when he marvels about how "a kid from Buffalo" is sitting in the Oval Office. What is the big deal, I don't get it. He represents that annoying tendency in the U.S. to indulge in self-praise and self-congratulations. He is one of those who have to say "only in America" several times a day. He also represented patriotic journalism --according to which you should not question an administration in a time of war. He also has this nostalgic view of parents and grandparents: the glorification of the past, with little regard for the plight of women, minorities, homosexuals in this past. The "greatest generation" that Brokaw wrote so much about was a generation that practiced segregation, that confined women to their homes, that watched lynching of blacks, that blatantly beat homosexuals, that spoke about "the others" only in vulgar and pejorative terms. Yesterday, Chris Mathews outed him on MSNBC: he said that Russert was a supporter of the American invasion of Iraq. No kidding.

From the Huffington Post

...However one feels about Sean Hannity, he is at least sincere. Russert, however, has no real beliefs. He sucks up to conservatives today simply to build his career, income, and power.

Russert began public life as a Democrat, and was for many years a card-carrying member of the so-called liberal media elite. After taking over Meet the Press, however, his ratings depended on repeat performances by government officials, whom he dares not seriously challenge for fear they will refuse to reappear on his show. Those who challenge their power, on the other hand, are expendable. By beating up on them, Russert can pretend to be "tough", giving him a pass to fawn at the feet of a Condelezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld or Richard Cheney. Such behavior, of course, is also the safest course to take with his employers.

Russert's treatment of candidates like Howard Dean contrasts dramatically with the obsequious treatment given those in power. A Cheney or Rumsfeld may be shown a film clip of one of their many lies, and asked to explain. They are then given as much time as they want to expand, amplify and embellish their lies, without interruption, whereupon Russert goes on to another topic. A Dean, however, is pummelled mercilessly....

HOW DID OBAMA DEFEAT THE CLINTON MACHINE?

Found at one of the incomparable Al Giordiano's blogs, The Field

UPDATE: This Al Giordiano blog entry was censored. Al has moved The Field blog to this location. The original link has been replaced by a look alike but thoroughly bogus site called The Back Forty.

While it’s certain that Internet and technology in general have provided the networking and communications tools that made such massive “self-organization” so rapid the difference between the Obama campaign and all others before it comes down, for me, to a more human factor: that the candidate has studied, practiced and believes in community organizing.

Many commenters here have asked me to elaborate more on this suggestion. But how does one boil down a life’s study and praxis into a blog entry?









As an exercise in removing the curtain that blocks a fuller view, let’s pull on one early thread: Community organizer Saul Alinsky’s 1971 list of 13 Rules for Radicals




1 ) Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

2 ) Never go outside the experience of your people. It may result in confusion, fear and retreat.

3 ) Wherever possible go outside the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear and retreat.

4 ) Make the enemy live up to his/her own book of rules.

5 ) Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.

6 ) A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.

7 ) A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.

8 ) Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.

9 ) The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.

10 ) The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.

11 ) If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside.

12 ) The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.

13 ) Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it.

Now, kind Field Hands, as an exercise in developing the narrative, pick one, just one, of those 13 “rules” published 37 years ago, and use the comments section to explain how that “rule” applied, or did not apply, to the 2008 campaign so far.

WHY DID THE USA ATTACK IRAQ

Iraq SOFA deal allows future wars

US troops in Iraq

The proposed Iraq-US security treaty includes classified articles that would give US the right to attack other nations from Iraqi soil.

As reported by Press TV correspondent from Baghdad, the controversial classified articles in question include the following measures:

1. US forces would be free to attack via Iraqi airspace, land or waterways any country which threatens global and regional peace and security, menaces Iraqi government and constitution, or instigates terrorist and paramilitary groups.

2. US forces would have the right to set up additional military bases and stations inside Iraq that will support the Iraqi army. The number of the bases would depend on several factors, including the security conditions the US government deems desirable, negotiations with the US Embassy in Baghdad and the US command as well as discussions with the Iraqi Defense Ministry and relevant authorities.

3. The Iraqi government and its judiciary would not have the right to prosecute American forces or individuals. The immunity measure would extend to the US military, security, non-military and logistics firms affiliated with the US Army.

4. The Iraqi government would not have the right to independently determine whether US forces inside Iraq are qualified, nor would it have the right to limit or determine the size of American military bases and their routes.

5. US security forces would have the right to build security centers, particularly their own special prisons, to maintain security.

6. US forces would have the right to use their privilege to arrest those who threaten peace and security without a warrant from the Iraqi government or its institutions.

7. The US government must be informed of and negotiated with on Iraq's regional and international relations as well as signing of agreements so as to safeguard the country's security and constitution.

8· US forces will control Iraq's defense, interior and intelligence ministries for 10 years to carry out efforts toward training and enabling their staff, a measure which would mean even the weapons used by Iraqi forces and their types must be employed with the consent of US forces.

9. The agreement to be signed would be a pact rather than a treaty.

10· US forces would remain in Iraq for an unspecified and presumably lengthy period depending on conditions in the country. Future reviews on the matter would depend on the US and Iraqi governments. Any review would only be made under certain preconditions, including that Iraq's security and military organizations improve their performance; the country's security situation improves; national reconciliation takes place; neighboring countries are warned; the Iraqi government regains complete control throughout the country; and put an end to the presence of paramilitary forces inside Iraq.

According to Press TV's Baghdad correspondent, the 14-member American delegation now in Iraq to negotiate the deal were asked to revise several articles of the status of forces agreement (SOFA) in order to secure the approval of the Iraqi government.

The decision came only after public protests against the security treaty and opposition from various Iraqi political and religious leaders.

THAT WHOSE NAME SHALL NOT BE SPOKEN

"Ish Elokim" -- a "man of God"

Christian Zionists are hardly fond of the Jewish people. In fact, their entire project is shaped by very anti-Semitic beliefs, perceiving Jews as lesser beings whose "redemption" and "conversion" are prerequisites for the Second Coming of Christ. Despite these beliefs being well known, Israel found in Hagee an irreplaceable friend and ally. The self- proclaimed Jewish state seems willing to work with even anti-Semites to achieve its political goals.

Northern Rockies

Wyoming, the leading oil producing state in the Northern Rocky Mountains.


1-Williston Basin
2-Powder River Basin
3-Denver Basin
4-Salina Basin
5-Forest City Basin
6-Kennedy Basin
7-Big Horn Basin
8-Wind River Basin
9-Laramide Basin
10-Washakie-Red Desert B.
11-Green River Basin

Appalachian Basin’s Marcellus – the new target

a technical paper from Penn State and SUNY-Fredonia, estimating original gas in place at 168-516 Tcf and recoverable reserves of as much as 50 Tcf, got picked up by USA Today.

Several of the major independents, including Range Resources (RRC) and Chesapeake Energy (CHK), have large acreage positions and drilling programs. Among the smaller independents, the most relatively outsized acreage positions include those of Atlas Energy Resources (ATN), Cabot Oil & Gas (COG), Linn Energy (LINE), Exco Resources (XCO), and Rex Energy (REXX). Essentially all the participants are reporting good-to-excellent results from increasingly aggressive capex programs, including horizontal drilling.

RRC has 650,000 net acres in the play out of 1.1M acres in the Marcellus trend and estimates its net unrisked reserve potential at 10-15 Tcf.

The Williston Basin

The Williston Basin is a sedimentary basin centred near Williston, North Dakota, which underlies some 250,000 km2 in North Dakota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Montana and South Dakota

Important reserves of petroleum have been developed in the Williston Basin; many of the producing oil pools are located in southeastern Saskatchewan. Lignite coal in the near-surface Tertiary rocks is mined in Saskatchewan and North Dakota; deeply buried potash beds may be exploited in the future.

THE CENTRE CANNOT HOLD

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080311/101113008.html

I ran across this unusual article a couple of days ago.

It comes from RIA Novosti news services. The RIA Novosti is a very slick, well financed Russian news agency that disseminates the "party line".

These are some of the facts which precede this story.

1. US troops in Afghanistan are at the end of a very long supply line. The US uses the shortest highway, generally referred to as the Indus Highway, which runs 777 miles from the coastal town of Karachi to Peshawar, near the Kyber Pass. It runs at least half it's distance through the heart of "the pakistani-taliban" country in the Northwest Territories and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. 70% of US/NATO supplies come in by truck including the fuel needed to run the NATO troops - 500,000 gallons per day - up this highway. This supply line is under increasing attack

2. Pakistan becomes more unstable by the day. The US has begun cross border attacks into Pakistan against "the pakistani-taliban" strongholds in the Tribal Areas. These attacks are widely condemned by the Pakistan military. As a result, the "pakistani-taliban" has launched a war against the Pakistan military and Pakistan in general. How long before this supply gets shut down?

3. The US has been looking for an alternative northern supply line since at least last December, with no success.

4. At one time, the US had a large base in southern Uzbekistan but lost it because it complained about a notorious government massacre in Andijon, UZ in 2005.

5. The Germans have the use of a base in Termez, Uz. In the last few days, Uzbekistan had agreed to allow limited numbers of U.S. staff to use the facility at Termez as long as they fly on German planes. After 3 or 4 months of effort this is all we have and it is far from a supply line.

When I first saw the article, I tried to confirm it with Reuters or APF, but finding no other articles in the western press, I dismissed it.

Later, I found reference to it on a Serbian website Pthat is uncontrollably angry over Kosovo. They were gloating over NATO's Afghanistan predicament.

That website referenced this guy, who writes for a Canadian Military Magazine.
,
http://www.espritdecorps.ca/Ontarget%20080312.htm

Am I correct with these conclusions?

1. First, the US news black out gets deeper and deeper and and more glaringly obvious.

2. The NATO situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating and some factions are looking for Russia to bail them out.

3. It is Russia who ultimately determines who uses the Central Asian airspace and the price they are demanding is a NATO-CSTO treaty.

4. This comes just before the big NATO conference where the US is pushing hard for NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia with Russia pushing back extremely hard against such a proposition.

LINKS

The creation and deployment of coups of any kind requires agents on the ground. The main handler of these coups on the "street side" has been the Albert Einstein Institution, which was formed in 1983 as an offshoot of Harvard University under the impetus of Dr. Gene Sharp, and which specializes in "non violence as a form of warfare."

Helvey "was an officer of the Defence Intelligence Agency of the Pentagon, who had served in Vietnam and, subsequently, as the US Defence Attaché in Yangon, Myanmar (1983 to 85), during which he clandestinely organized the Myanmarese students to work behind Aung San Suu Kyi and in collaboration with Bo Mya's Karen insurgent group....He also trained in Hong Kong the student leaders from Beijing in mass demonstration techniques which they were to subsequently use in the Tiananmen Square incident of June, 1989" and "is now believed to be acting as an adviser to the Falun Gong, the religious sect of China,

President Fernando Marcos of the Philippines in 1986,

Solidarity

(Polish: Solidarność (help·info); full name: Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity" — Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy "Solidarność") is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980 at the then Lenin Shipyards, and originally led by Lech Wałęsa.

The Roundtable Talks between the weakened government and Solidarity-led opposition led to semi-free elections in 1989. By the end of August a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed and in December Wałęsa was elected President of Poland.

the Tiananmen Square destabilization in 1989

The Revolutions of 1989, sometimes called the Autumn of Nations

The "Velvet Revolution"

The "Velvet Revolution" (Czech: sametová revoluce, Slovak: nežná revolúcia) (November 16 – December 29, 1989) refers to a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist government there;[1] it is seen as one of the most important of the Revolutions of 1989.

By November 20 the number of peaceful protesters assembled in Prague had swelled from 200,000 the previous day to an estimated half-million. A two-hour general strike, involving all citizens of Czechoslovakia, was held on November 27.

Alexander Dubček was elected speaker of the federal parliament on December 28 and Václav Havel the President of Czechoslovakia on December 29, 1989.



Introduction: Nonviolence versus a Dictatorship

Robert Helvey's Expert Political Defiance

December 1985: The Independent Peace Movements in Eastern Europe. By

March 1985: You Can't Always Get What You Want. By Metta Spencer

Burma's Nonviolent Struggle

http://metta-spencer.blogspot.com/

Buddhist Peacemakers

A
Selected Bibliography

The aim of this website is to promote understanding of and research on civil resistance -

RED SQUARE FIREWALL

SOURCE

Kremlin strategists

• Gleb Pavlovsky,

• Sergei Markov and

• Vyacheslav Nikonov

all gave speeches to the Nashi camp at Lake Seliger outside Moscow (as did, notably, leading Kremlin-backed presidential contenders Sergei Ivanov and Dmitriy Medvedev). Two years ago, following the uprising in Ukraine, Pavlovsky and co. were charged with making sure the orange tide never reached Red Square. One of the first things they did was establish Nashi - the name means "Ours" - to counter the pro-Western youth groups like

• Ukraine's Pora that formed the backbone of the revolutions that hit

• Serbia in 2000,

• Georgia in 2003 and

• Ukraine a year later.

The BBC crackdown is linked because Pavlovsky, Markov and Nikonov understand that anti-government media - namely

• B-92 radio in Serbia, the

• Rustavi-2 television station in Georgia and

• Ukraine's Fifth Channel -

were perhaps even more important than the youth groups in bringing Serbs, Georgians and Ukrainians into the streets.

While I'm quite cynical about the kind of "reporting" Fifth Channel did during the Orange Revolution - it wasn't so much as covering political events as inciting them -

W. Shedd said...

There is no doubt that NGO's funded by Western governments have fueled political dissent, this has been documented endlessly. We wouldn't accept such actions within our own country; in fact, our laws specifically prohibit foreign governments from taking such actions, via NGOs or lobbyists. So, we, the US and Western nations, took advantage of the former openness of Russian and CIS laws and regulations. Russia has had to change laws in the face of this and attempted to control dialogue and news and insert young people on the street.

In a sense, these are war-time measures for Russia. The West has been assaulting Russia for years now, in a soft campaign, attempting to dismantle the country in order to profit and disarm that nation further. Neo-con's click their heels in glee at the prospect of Russia being divided into a dozen smaller, less powerful nations.

SOURCE

Nashi (the word means "Ours") are the creation of

• Vladislav Surkov, Putin's deputy chief of staff and

• powerful Kremlin spin doctor Gleb Pavlovsky.

Charged in the wake of Ukraine's Orange Revolution with making sure revolutionary tents were never pitched on Red Square, the two decided to implement strict new restrictions on Western NGOs (read Surkov's paranoid secret speech on NGOs and conspiracies against Russia here). Then they created Nashi, a group they hoped would serve as a counterweight to rabble-rousing pro-Western groups like

• "grape revolution" in Molvova

• Saffron Revolution in Myanmar

• KelKel is a youth movement in Kyrgyzstan

• Mjaft in Albania

• Zubr in Belarus, or "Jeans Revolution" revolution

• Sksela in Armenia

• Optor in Serbia (Resistance)
  

• Kmara in Georgia, (Enough!)
  

• Pora in Ukraine and now (It is Time)
  

• Oborona in Russia.

Today the group claims to have tens of thousands of members.

Anatomy of a Revolution

SOME STRATEGIC ADVICE FOR GENE SHARP AND HIS "MENSHEVIKS", STEPHEN ZUNES AND ARTHUR D EDELSTEIN

FIRST OF ALL:

Boris Berezovsky wants his money back

NOW, FOR THE ADVICE:

Ultimately, the revolutions we remember are the ones that earn labels, the ones that come to symbolize great changes of epoch, like the ‘springtime of nations’ in 1848 or the Iranian ‘Islamic revolution’ in 1979.

that Ukrainian voters would initially have forgiven a lot economically, if the first two Orange governments had done more to cleanse the system of such fraud, fakery, and corruption. Instead, they put economics before politics,

Fake parties were much less successful the second time around. Ukrainian voters have wised up to ‘big board parties’, whose million-dollar budgets made minimal impacts.

Future historians will continue to write of the ‘Orange Revolution’, if 2004 acquires adjectives beyond mere color, i.e., if the changes in Ukraine come to be seen as a turning point in the region, after which politics moved away from the ‘technology’ of trickery and actually began to improve people’s lives.

So far, negative lessons and the spread of counter-technology have been more apparent.

new counter-revolutionary ‘technologies’. The authorities prevented any meaningful parallel count or exit poll that might have served to set off an ‘electoral revolution’.

They also made it difficult for the opposition to replicate the tactics of ‘strategic non-violence’ advocated by the likes of Gene Sharp, by maintaining a united front and cutting off communication with potential hinterlands of civic support.

Political Technologist like Gleb Pavlovsky and Vladislav Surkov will apply FDTD in reverse. Anyone can do what Helvey does. After all, there is no principle involved and really no brains. All it takes is the backing of a government and an unlimited budget.

Russia will create Nashi.

China will criminalize the Gulan Fong

Belarus will have voters who witnessed how the standards of living of their Russian neighbors declined when Boris Yeltsin "liberalized" the country. They will not believe in the western illusion and they will want to avoid this painful experience in their country.

In other words, nonviolence as a strategic or pragmatic decision, without principles or moral commitment, designed to sell a country out to the "Neo-liberal Economic system of the West"
for rape, pillage and plunder will only work so many times and it appears that your time is up.

ARTICLE

GENE SHARP, MASTER OF NONVIOLENT WARFARE
Adam Larson

• It’s worthy of note both the admission that these ideas represented a weapons system, and that as with other weapons systems, it is initially morally couched as purely defensive in nature.

• – he sought not so much to stop wars as to achieve their goals by other means.

• The book was called Gandhi Wields the Weapon of Moral Power, yet Sharp rejected the spiritual core of that moral power. In a 2005 interview he explained his research into Gandhi’s struggle was based “not [on] pacifism, not on any mahatma nonsense, but on pragmatic nonviolent struggle.” [7]

• in 1993 he released an early version of his most widely-read book, From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation (abbreviated FDTD). The book was first published not in English, but in the four major Burmese dialects

• The book was also put to use in existing US-sponsored tactical training of Burmese opposition forces, a case we’ll look at below.

• the book served widely as a handbook for all the peoples of Eastern Europe, Central or East Asia and Latin America emerging from Communist oppression or hoping to emerge from any other oppression that was disfavored in Washington.

• Whatever his original intentions in this endeavor, Sharp wound up designing a template for what journalist Jonathan Mowat would later come to call “the postmodern coup d'etat,” one that sneaks in under cover of a people’s movement. [10]

• a disintegrating Yugoslavia which had just whethered two separate NATO bombing campaigns and tightening UN sanctions. Since Sharp's notions were finally used there to finish what the bombs had begun, the "post-military" descriptor takes on a less phiolosophical, more tactical quality. It's not about warfare in a weaponless world, it's about the warfare the commences post-militarily - when the actual bombing is done.

• The president of the Albert Einstein Institution as of 2006 is retired US Army Colonel Robert Helvey, a longtime proponent of Sharp’s theories. More than anyone else it has been Helvey who has weaponized his mentor’s ideas of nonviolent conflict and put it to use in the field.

GENE SHARP, ALBERT EINSTEIN INSTITUTE AND THE WEAPONIZING OF NONVIOLENCE

SourceWatch

The Albert Einstein Institution (AEI) has played the key role in recent years in training and deploying youth movements to help prepare the conditions for coups through fostering the impression that the targeted regimes are deeply unpopular, and through destabilizing those regimes through their demonstrations and the like. The group, which is funded by the Soros foundations and the US government, is led by former DIA officer Col. Robert Helvey, and Harvard University's Dr. Gene Sharp.[Mowat, [2]]

Swarming Adolescents

The creation and deployment of coups of any kind requires agents on the ground. The main handler of these coups on the "street side" has been the Albert Einstein Institution, which was formed in 1983 as an offshot of Harvard University under the impetus of Dr. Gene Sharp, and which specializes in "nonviolence as a form of warfare." Dr. Sharp had been the executive secretary of A.J. Muste, the famous U.S. Trotskyite labor organizer and peacenik. The group is funded by Soros and the NED. Albert Einstein's president is Col. Robert Helvey, a former US Army officer with 30 years of experience in Southeast Asia. He has served as the case officer for youth groups active in the Balkans and Eastern Europe since at least 1999.

. . . He also trained in Hong Kong the student leaders from Beijing in mass demonstration techniques which they were to subsequently use in the Tiananmen Square incident of June 1989" and "is now believed to be acting as an adviser to the Falun Gong, the religious sect of China, in similar civil disobedience techniques." Col. Helvey nominally retired from the army in 1991, but had been working with Albert Einstein and Soros long before then.[3]

Col. Helvey and his colleagues have created a series of youth movements including Otpor! in Serbia, Kmara! in Georgia, Pora! in Ukraine, and the like, which are already virally replicating other sects throughout the former Soviet Union, achieving in civilian form what had not been possible militarily in the 1980s. The groups are also spreading to Africa and South America.[ibid.]

The Palestinian Nonviolent Movement
...Another speaker reported that for most Palestinians, nonviolence is a strategic or pragmatic decision (as advocated by Gene Sharp of the Albert Einstein Institute), not a principled or moral commitment (as with Gandhi or MLK Jr.).

WAR ON HUGO CHAVEZ
"Sharp has spoken to Alonso but declined to comment about the Guarimba, saying he doesn't know its architect or the plan well enough. He says the Albert Einstein Institution, a small Boston-based think tank that he runs, doesn't offer advice to budding revolutionaries. "We don't tell people what they do," he says. "If they find our work relevant, well, here it is."

OTHER ARTICLES

Soft and Undercover Coups d’État

The dictator slayer

East Boston's Gene Sharp is soft-spoken, but he makes bad guys from Caracas to Beijing cringe

By ADAM REILLY

Engineering Democracy
The new Gladio in action?
Ukrainian postmodern coup completes testing of new template
By Jonathan Mowat

GENE SHARP, MASTER OF NONVIOLENT WARFARE

SOME NOTES ON TIMING AND CONSENT
ROOFIES FOR REVOLUTION?
Adam Larson

AUTHORITARIAN CAPITALISM

The liberal democratic camp defeated its authoritarian, Fascist and Communist rivals alike in all of the three major great-power struggles of the 20th century - the two world wars and the Cold War.

The Soviet Union failed because its economic systems limited it. But the nondemocratic capitalist great powers, Germany and Japan, were defeated in war fundamentally because they were medium-sized countries with limited resource bases.

the power of the United States consistently surpassed that of the next two strongest states combined throughout the 20th century, and this decisively tilted the global balance of power in favor of whichever side Washington was on.

By shifting from Communist command economy to capitalism, China and Russia have switched to a far more efficient brand of authoritarianism.

holding considerably more power than any of the democracies' past rivals ever did by virtue of being both large and capitalist.

PetroVietnam

Annually oil and gas production of Petrovietnam rapidly increased and reached 16.8 millions tons and 1.6 billions cubic meters respectively. Total petroleum production is over 98 millions tones of oil and 5.6 billions cubic meters of gas.

Despite the 1998 - early 1999 economic crisis and incredible fall in price of oil, mergers of petroleum giant and "wait and see" attitude by the others, petroleum exploration and production in Vietnam kept on advancing and resulted in new gas discoveries on the Khanh My structure in block 46, Ac Qui & Ca Voi structures in block 52/97 of Malay - Tho Chu Basin, and Su Tu Den structure in the Cuu Long Basin.

THE SILOVIKI/CHEKIST ARE HERE TO STAY

There are three factions;

THE LIBERALS

led by Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref and Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin. More interventionist than Western liberalism. Generally comprised of economists and former businesspeople. The weakest of the three

THE TECHNOCRATS

Led by First Deputy Prime Minister and Gazprom Chairan Dmitry Medvedev and Gazprom president, Aleksei Miller. Derives it's power from it's control of Gazprom.


THE SILOVIKI (force structure)

a reference to the armed services, law enforcement bodies, and intelligence agencies that wield the coercive power of the state.

Core members.

Igor Sechin, deputy head of the presidential administration, Vikro Ivanov, an adviser to the president, and Nikolai Patrushev, director of the the FSB. Current and former intelligence officers from St. Petersburg.

Sergei Bogdanchikov, president of state owned oil giant Rosneft has never served in the force structure

United by outlook and interests than by background. Share similar political views, pursue a common policy agenda, and seek joint control over economic assets.

It is a hierarchy of a series of concentric circles.

Secondary members

include Bogdanchikov and Vikro Cherdesov, Putin's drug czar.

Tertiary level

Many reached positions after the Yukos affair. Justice Minister, Vladimir Ustinov, was prosecutor general who pursued Khodorkovsky's case, and was once associated with the Yelsin-era "family."

----------------

Spoils available: oil and gas revenues, substantial bribes, control over major enterprises and political power.

A long standing feud between Patrushev and Cherkesov spilled onto the front pages of the Russian press in late 2004.

They control more than 10 agencies

Force structure - law enforcement, intelligence services, and the armed forces.

Energy Agency, Customs Services, Federal Property Fund, Financial Monitoring Service. Significant regulatory power in key industries.

Control of Rosneft - Bogdanchikov is president, Sechin is chairman, huge source of income

Top positions in two military-industrial giants - Rosoboronexport and Almaz-Antie.

Aeroflot

Russian Railroads

Banking; Vneshekonombank, Mezhprombank, and Rossiya Bank.

State owned company managing the country's ports.

Gazprom - four VP's tied to Ivanov, Sechin and Patrushev

In Gref's agency, The Agency for State Reserves

In Kudrin's Ministry, Service for Financial Monitoring.

YUKOS production subsidiary Yuganskneftegaz went on the auction block. Rosneft, via a front company, bought it for 9.3 billion. The source, Vneshekonombank. Yuri Zaostrovtsev, a siloviki heavyweight is first deputy chair of the bank's board.

They are tied together by:

Consolidation of political and economic power within a highly centralized state

Buttressed by large, well-financed security and defense structures.

The official of these agencies deserve special status in the government and economy as they carry out the work of state building project.

Law and order and stability are much higher priorities than democratic process or an active civil society.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, close to the core group but remains independent in his thinking. Promoted to deputy prie minister which made him a target.

CORE BELIEFS

Statism is an economic policy program.

A strong state should play a decisive role in the country's economic life.

Strategic sectors should not be in private hands,

Domestic producers should be protected from the forces of globalization.

The oligarchs should be eliminated as a class.

-----------------------------

They are economic nationalists

The country's natural resources belong to the Russian people and that, in the people's name, the state should eventually control every aspect of their exploitation.

In the meantime, they favor limiting foreign investment in the natural resources sectors and the imposition of steep royalties.

--------------------------------

Promote the restoration of Russia's greatness on the international stage.

The USA and NATO represent an external threat, actively undermine Russia's sovereignty and ultimately would like to force the collapse of the Russian state.

Russia should regain the respect of the Soviet Union by maintaining a strong army and state of the art military capabilities.

Former soviet states should be reintegrated with Russia to the greatest extent possible.

---------------------------------

Endorse the nationalistic, xenophobic, an sometimes anti-semitic views of the most conservative elements within the Russian Orthodox Church.

Actively promotes the role of the church in public life

Would like to impose stringent restriction on immigration.

Aleksei Mordashev of Severstal and Vladimir Bogdanov of Surgutneftegaz as "good" oligarchs - "they're Russians." "All Jews are traitors, oriented toward the West. That's how it's always been".

--------------------

Intent on controlling major economic resources. To use economic power to further their policy goals and to safeguard their continued dominance of Russian political life.

To control as much of Russia's energy revenue as possible,

Rosneft and other siloviki controlled companies will expand by strategic acquisition of smaller oil and gas firms.

A preference for a single state controlled energy giant, incorporating all of Russia's major oil, gas and electricity companies into one holding.

Control Russia's military-industrial complex, and they will continue to promote increased arms sales aggressively.

In the presidency, they will promote someone who will protect their interests and extend their influence.

Durable alliance with China causes siloviki anxiety, but are considered palatable partner in the short term.

Strengthening the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Promote ties with Iran.

Within the former Soviet space, the seek to strengthen economic and political integration, especially vis a vis Ukraine and Georgia.

----------------------

US involvement in Russian politics will backfire

Attacks on Putin and his policies strengthen the siloviki, confirms their world view.

NEOLIBERLISM IN RUSSIA

In Russia, the catastrophe of shock therapy was unleashed on 2nd January 1992. The shock came in two ways – first, the price explosion (food suddenly cost four times what it used to), and second, the massive public expenditure cut-backs. Inflation did drop – from almost 250% in January 1992 to approximately 30% in December 1992. Progress indeed. By 1995, it was estimated that 80% of Russians had suffered a serious decline in their income. Income from work for families had dropped from being about half of all income at the start of the 1990s to just 39% in 2000. From a mortality rate of 11 per thousand in 1990, the death rate soared to 15 per thousand in 2000, peaking in 1994 at almost 16 per thousand. In fact, in this “unprecedented peace time mortality”, we find an alarming underlying truth about Russian society. Between 1990 and 1999, there were 3,353,000 excess deaths in the whole Russian territory. Male life expectancy fell from 63.5 years in 1991 to 57.6 years in 1994. Female life expectancy fell from 74.3 years in 1991 to 71.2 years in 1994.

THE OIL DRUM: A PRIMER ON CASPIAN OIL

A primer on Caspian Oil

BEYOND KOSOVO

"Independence in the Brave New World Order: NATO's Kosovo Colony", Diana Johnstone

ISRAEL AND KOSOVO

By way of Angry Arab

"By identifying Israel with the supposed underdog, ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, Haaretz implicitly recognizes that there are indeed some striking similarities though not ones it would acknowledge. Kosovo, like Israel, was illegally severed by force of arms from another country against the wishes of the majority population of the whole territory. Both entities came into being and can only survive with the sponsorship and support of the Great Powers of the day who sustain them in violation of international law because it suits their imperial interests.


Furthermore, both entities are animated by a virulent ethno-nationalism that is fundamentally incompatible with the values of freedom, tolerance and democracy that they claim to have come into being to uphold. In this sense, Kosovo is the latest in a collection of Western-backed pseudo-states that also includes the Kurdish entity in northern Iraq."

NAFTA BITES CLINTON IN THE ASS

http://ruralvotes.com/thefield/?p=749

I don't think a more clear, short, and concise explanation of what has happened as a result of NAFTA in terms of it's effect on places like Ohio, Mexico, and finally on the Clinton campaign can be found than in this article.

After fourteen long, miserable years chickens come home to roost and Clinton has to pay the piper. They say that US public opinion is incredibly dumb until it loses its job and then it gets incredibly smart.

G#ddamn, I love this. I don't know if the universe is dealing out justice or irony, but it's quite tasty.

I think I am beginning to see the corporate media lose control of the narrative and Americans starting to write their own. Isn't that really where Saul Alinsky starts? Write your own narrative?

The conundrum: Is Obama a Saul Alinsky operation or a George Soros operation? We don't know and he wont tell.

IRAN FIGHTS THE VELVET REVOLUTION USING A PSA

John McCain makes the cut because he is on the board of the International Republican Institute (IRI) branch of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Soros is there because of his Open Society Institute (OSI) and Gene Sharp is there because of his Albert Einstein Institute and association with Robert Helvey. Serbia's Otpor , Georgia's Kmara, Ukraine's Pora, Kyrgyzstan's KelKel and Belarus' Zubr were directly trained by the Albert Einstein Institute.I am surprised that the left out Peter Ackerman and Freedom House with Frank Gaffney and James Woolsey.


This PSA was ran on Khozestan TV. I think that is instructive. The Neocon battle cry for years has been "real men go to Khozestan". Khozestan is the province next to Basra and it is where all the oil is. It analogous to Kosovo. Where Kosovo is a security enclave, Khozestan is an energy enclave. You dont have to defeat all of Iran to get the oil, you just have to carve out Khozestan, much like BP did with Kuwait.


So Iran's "problem" in Khozestan is very significant these days.

I think the "Velvet Revolution" has run it's course. These are engineered revolutions of which the world is very aware . In fact some of the "revolutions" are beginning to unravel. Boris Berezovsky recently demanded his money back from the OSI. The internet is full of research on the matter. Eva Golinger is the latest to publish, but there are many, many others.

Russia uses Nashi, Myanmar uses brute force against "The Saffron Revolution", Venezuela uses "leaked CIA memos", Laos throws out NGO's, and now we have PSA's from Iran.

Vietnam is the latest government to start inoculating itself against the velvet revolution.

Actually, I think Obama's campaign looks alot like a velvet revolution - lots of politically naive young people swarming, lots of symbology, etc. Now that's something that Noah Pollack at Commentary could use.

BTW, MEMRI's translations are always suspect, they have an ulterior motive, although in this case it's probably right. You always have to get an independent translator to check anything MEMRI has put up.

PART ONE

PART TWO

CUBA'S ETHANOL

It wouldn't happen overnight, and it would take a huge investment in the country's rickety sugar industry, but Cuba has the potential to produce 3.2 billion gallons of ethanol annually, according to an analysis (.pdf) by Juan Tomas Sanchez of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy. Another Cuba expert, Jorge Hernandez Fonseca, puts the figure (.pdf) closer to 2 billion gallons but even that figure would place Cuba third -- behind Brazil and the United States -- in worldwide production.

Cuba doesn't have much need for ethanol, Sanchez writes, and could export as much as 3 billion gallons a year -- worth about $7 billion at today's prices. Don't look for any of that ethanol to flow in America though. The State Department says it won't lift the trade embargo on Cuba any time soon.

THE NAME FOR OUR PROFITS IS DEMOCRACY

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."- Lincoln, Nov 21, 1864





"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes." - Smedley Butler, "War Is a Racket" (1935)





This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. Dwight Eisenhower, Jan 17, 1961






"The high office of the President has been used to foment a plot to destroy the American people's freedom, and before I leave office, I must inform the citizens of this plight." JFK, Nov 12, 1963






“The name for our profits is democracy” – Phil Ochs, Cops of the World

WATER TORTURE PHILLIPINES

A picture of a “water detail,” reportedly taken in May, 1901, in Sual, the Philippines. “It is a terrible torture,” one soldier wrote.


Many Americans were puzzled by the news, in 1902, that United States soldiers were torturing Filipinos with water. The United States, throughout its emergence as a world power, had spoken the language of liberation, rescue, and freedom. This was the language that, when coupled with expanding military and commercial ambitions, had helped launch two very different wars. The first had been in 1898, against Spain, whose remaining empire was crumbling in the face of popular revolts in two of its colonies, Cuba and the Philippines. The brief campaign was pitched to the American public in terms of freedom and national honor (the U.S.S. Maine had blown up mysteriously in Havana Harbor), rather than of sugar and naval bases, and resulted in a formally independent Cuba.

MID CENTURY WATER BOARDING

Soldiers in Vietnam use the waterboarding technique on an uncooperative enemy suspect near Da Nang in 1968 to try to obtain information from him.

CUBA IN TRANSITION

**5 Billion barrels of oil, 10 trillion c.f. of gas. Drilling by China, Canada, India, Brasil**


When Castro withdrew from the daily running of the country two years ago, he spread his duties among six close advisors. The first among equals was his brother Raul, but along with him six more figures were appointed to key positions in Cuban politics. Thus he hoped to prevent a political struggle from breaking out.

"THE OLD GUARD"

Raul Castro (Centrist)
Ricardo Alarcon (71)(Centrist), National Assembly President



Raul Castro - remains a committed communist and a fidelista, but has been always far more pragmatic and administratively competent than his older brother.

Raul Castro will remain the head of state, but it is not know whom he will pick for his cabinet and which of his brother's favorites he will hold off at a distance. The goal is to not to block the way for younger people, but to provide experience and ideas. Castro wanted to prepare his compatriots psychologically for his departure, so that it would not come as a shock. He hoped to prevent a political struggle from breaking

Economic reforms managed by the Cuban Armed Forces headed by Raul Castro as the best hope for the near future

The Cuban Armed Forces were the first to introduce capitalist business practices into Cuba and now control technology and computing firms, beach resort hotels, car rental firms, an airline, a fleet of buses and a large retail chain.

The Cuban sugar industry is run by a general, as is the ports administration and the lucrative cigar industry.

(?) Minister of Information Ramiro Valdes, who many believe is in a power sharing arrangement with Raul.

(?) Culture Minister Abel Prieto (Centrist).

They support martket mechanisms to improve the state-run economy and are behind modest reforms


"THE CHINESE"

Carlos Lage (Reformer) (57), Vice President


The technocrats. Old veterans who have a reputation as liberals. They are considered supporters of economic reform on the Chinese model. Carlos Laje, deputy chairman of the State Council and third-ranking figure in the Cuban state after the Castro brothers, is considered the leader of the Chinese. His main base of influence is that he is responsible for the country's electrical power and is a link between Cuban authorities and Cuba's main sponsor, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The big winner in the shuffle appears to Lage: credited with implementing limited reforms that rescued Cuba's faltering economy in the 1990s. And last month, Lage - who holds the key position of secretary of the executive committee of the Council of Ministers, a top policymaking body - led a high-level delegation to Venezuela to sign a series of economic accords that farther cemented ties between the two leftist nations.

Lage is credited with engineering and implementing the limited reforms that restarted Cuba's economy after the Soviet collapse. The programs included legalizing the dollar, creating small private enterprises and agricultural cooperatives, and increasing foreign investment and tourism. Although Fidel Castro reversed many of the reforms in 2003, Lage is viewed favorably among foreign businessmen in Cuba as a pragmatist open to economic change.

the economic reins are specifically handed over to a “commission” made up of

• Carlos Lage (Reformer), a vice-president and member of the Communist Party’s Political Bureau,

• Francisco Soberon (Reformer), who heads the Central Bank, and

• Felipe Perez (Fidel protege, hardliner), the Minister for Foreign Affairs, also known to Cubans as “Fax” because he always repeats everything Castro says or does.

Responsibility for the “energy revolution” – the most pressing of hundreds of infrastructure issues in Cuba at the moment – is handed over to Lage

They are more willing to tolerate dissidents and a loyal opposition. Recognize the efficacy of a market system and embrace a mixed economy.


"THE TROPICAL TALIBAN"

Felipe Perez Roque (42), Foreign Minister, Castro's former head of staff.


A group of young Cuban communists that Castro has promoted in the last ten years. Initially developed in response to the Elian Gonzales controversy. They were all active in the Communist Youth Union until recently and are considered more radical than their elders. This has earned them the nickname of the “tropical Taliban.” The charismatic leader of the Taliban is Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. It is thought that Castro was grooming him as his successor, but did not transfer power to him because of his youth. He is clearly the one whom Castro was talking about when he said that a good replacement for him who be a young person who has accomplished several international missions. They would join the ranks of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Chavez in their anti-American rhetoric. Raul Castro does not have particularly good personal relations with Perez Roque.

• Otto Rivero, vice president of the Council of Ministers for the Battle of Ideas,

• Hassan Perez, vice president of the Union of Communists,

• Miriam Yanet Martin, president of the Jose Marti pioneers youth group

The so-called "fourth-generation" revolutionaries were promoted to key positions by Fidel Castro but may not fit into Raul Castro's priorities, suggesting less focus on ideology and international affairs and more on governing efficiently.


"They have lost the kind of power that Fidel gave them to go everywhere giving orders and saying what should be done," said a Havana-based diplomat who asked not to be identified.


"The ministries have returned to their logical role. Raul wants an effective organization," the diplomat said.

Source



"THE DOCTORS"



Jose Ramon Machado Ventura (78) (Hardliner)
Jose Ramon Balaguer (75)

They are the “doctors,” headed by the former and current ministers of health, Jose Ramon Machado Ventura and Jose Ramon Balaguer. In the last two years, they were the closest to Castro, as he lied in the hospital. Also, the development of medicine has always been an important national project in Cuba, and it has become almost comparable to national security since Castro's hospitalization. The doctors are attempting to play the role of mediators.


Health, which is a huge export earner for the regime (doctors for sale in exchange for cheap oil from Venezuela) is given to Jose Balaguer, the minister of public health. And so on.


Miami Deck of Cards

The post-Fidel moment

NIHILISM

One can be a nihilist in how one sees the ontological reality of the world: there is no meaning to be found, there is "nothing" out there. Only systems to be created by dishonest philosophers.

And one can be a nihilist in how one reacts to that ontological reality: by being paralyzed by the "abyss" of meaninglessness, or of lapsing into pessimism a la Schopenhauer.

Nietzsche is a nihilist in the first sense, but not in the second. There is no meaning to be found, but this is not his last word. There is meaning to be created, "life" to be affirmed. This is why both posters above can be right: Nietzsche is a nihilist, and he rails against nihilism.

CAMP BONDSTEEL KOSOVO

Balkans Crisis supports US Corporate Interests

WILL NOT RETURN TO LEAD

Cuban leader Fidel Castro poses in this file photo taken by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during their meeting in Havana January 15, 2008. Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on February 19, 2008 that he will not return to lead the country, retiring as head of state 49 years after he seized power in an armed revolution. REUTERS/Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva/CubaVision TV/Handout (CUBA). EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS.

Slideshow

Vice President Carlos Lage (57) or National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon (71) who are both capable and running the country as much as Raul. All three are reformers potentially in the direction of Gorbachev or Deng but Washington is locked down by Miami. Fidel has not left a power vacuum. The immediate post-Fidel moment has very nearly come and gone. Other options are available. Cuba is in the midst of an oil boom with US companies cut out of the deal. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the North Cuba Basin has potential reserves of between 4.6 and 9.3 billion barrels of crude. There is no “democratic” revolution in the works. The Cuban people are not interested in the Washington Consensus “all for us, nothing for you” model, but then, who is anymore? Now that Putin has been screwed on Kosovo, who knows of the possibilities.

KOSOVO DECLARES THEIR INDEPENDANCE

SOURCE
SOURCE

OBAMA THE ISRAEL HATER

The Podhoretz’s over at Commentary are the primary source of the Obama trash

http://tinyurl.com/3ars3k

You can scroll back for Noah Pollak entries and see that he has been at it for awhile

Of course, NRO cant be left out

http://tinyurl.com/2sn5q7

In the fall look for Ari Fleischer’s Freedom Watch with unlimited funding from Sheldon Adelson.

Since you can read about the process in an US paper you can go here to the great newspaper, Haaretz of Israel, to get up to speed on the routine

IN SEARCH OF A NARRATIVE

But when the sermonising or preachiness upholds an agenda that we are not allowed to name (like, say, heteronormativity or male supremacy or capitalism or neodarwinism) it passes for “objective” just because our literary feelers aren’t calibrated to scan the bar code on the agenda; we come up against a Laingian void — the Unmarked Category — be it neoliberalism or masculinism or US exceptionalism or whatever, and have to resort to unfamiliar “left-specific” jargon, clumsy locutions, and “argh can’t quite put my finger on it” unease to identify it.

Knowledge

remember what Einstein said “the only thing interfering with my learning is my education” or


Socrates “all I know is that I know nothing.”

END OF HUMAN HISTORY

The problem with the concept of a “deep state” is that it’s the nature of EVERY state.

You can’t have a criminal state if you don’t have a state in the first place.

You can’t have “corporations’ running the state if 1) you realize that corporations are creations of the state, and 2) you don’t have a state to create them.

But it’s irrelevant to point this out because the state is an ingrained concept in human culture at this point - like the notion of religion - and it will never be excised - except by the appropriate technology.

Fortunately, we Transhumans will have that technology in another few decades.

And then both the state and religion will be destroyed, and human nature will be transcended, and human history brought to a deserved end.

In the meantime, as the villain in the movie “Gorky Park” said, “You see, corruption is part of us. All of us. The very heart of us…”

The Transhumans Are Coming!

WORLD TRADE CENTERS

If the laws of physics were in place on 9/11, the towers were demolished with incendiaries (thermate has been proven to be used by Prof. Steven Jones). A total collapse AT FREE FALL SPEED is a physical impossibility without the structure being progressively demolished ahead of the collapse front. FACT. FACT. Even if the towers DID begin to collapse from impact and fire (they didn’t), then the top of the building COULD NOT HAVE FALLEN THROUGH THE STRONGEST STRUCTURE (the rest of the building) EVER BUILT AT FREE FALL SPEED!

tell us how 3 steel concrete bldgs just disappeared in a flash with only supposedly 2 planes envolved.
I SAID SUPPOSEDLY! And while your at it–explain to us how a aluminum plane can smash into such a strong built bldg and the plane’snose cone come out the other end ? Smart folks know that the video of the plane was also a scam-came out–24 hrs after the hit.

If one jet plane could bring a tall steel framed highrise so perfectly straight down like its claimed happened that day, how come demolition experts don’t use the comparatively cheap method of igniting multi-gallons of jetfuel(karosene) instead of the millions spent on intricately rigged controlled demolition which it obviously was.

10,000 YEARS