Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: The New Liberal Menace in America.

Forget the neoconservatives. As the Democrats retake Washington and progressives think they can pull the U.S. back from the brink, Stephen Marshall’s up close and personal investigation finds that the biggest threat to Western democracy is the U.S. liberal elite.

For the new capitalist revolution, there is New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman...there is probably no other liberal who fits the description of a wolf in sheep's clothing than America's preeminent globalization advocate.

Friedman was one of the first A-list liberals to peddle the idea that Iraqis would treat American soldiers as liberators.

• Friedman declared, "This is the most radical-liberal revolutionary war the U.S. has ever launched -- a war of choice to install some democracy in the heart of the Arab-Muslim world."

• "U.S. power is not being used in Iraq for oil, or imperialism, or to shore up a corrupt status quo, as it was in Vietnam and elsewhere in the Arab world during the cold war," wrote Friedman in his column.

• Prowar liberals like Friedman, architects of the new millennial liberal project, cannot afford to second-guess the motives driving America's War on Terror. From the outset, Friedman believed implicitly that Bush's Iraq War plan was a high-stakes gamble based on ideological motives,

• Who bets the house on an abstraction? No one. So we're to believe that Bush and Cheney went for broke to bring democracy to Iraq? That's insanity. This is an administration so mired in cronyism and conflicts of interest that to believe they would take such a huge bet on a political ideal is delusional. And yet that is exactly what the pro-war liberals have done. The question is: why?

STATUS OF IRAQUI OIL EXPLAINED BY ANTONIA JUHASZ

• But the device ultimately chosen to win this war for oil is only slightly more subtle: a law, to be passed by the Iraqis themselves, which would turn Iraq's oil over to foreign oil companies.

• The U.S. State Department Iraq Study Group began laying the foundations for the new law prior to the invasion of Iraq

• The Bush administration has spent four years trying to force successive Iraqi governments to pass the law, referred to as either the "hydrocarbons" or "oil" law.

• The law would change Iraq's oil system from a nationalized model -- all but closed to U.S. oil companies -- to a privatized model open to foreign corporate control.

• At least two-thirds of Iraq's oil would be open to foreign oil companies under terms that they usually only dream about, including 30-year-long contracts.

• In January, ....announcing the "surge" of 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq.

• The president explained that the surge would be successful ... because ... of specific "benchmarks." .... including to "enact [a] hydrocarbons law to promote investment, national unity, and reconciliation."

• ...the law's capacity to bring "national unity and reconciliation" by establishing a mechanism to evenly distribute Iraq's oil revenues among Iraqis on a per capita basis.

• the American press ... refers to the oil law as a revenue sharing measure -- ignoring completely the fact that Iraqis would only be able to share the revenues left over after the foreign oil companies received their very sizeable cut.

• In February, the oil law passed...Iraq's cabinet... (who sent) it to the parliament. However, resistance in the parliament was too great, and the law was not introduced.

• Congress passed and the president signed the Iraq Supplemental War Spending Bill (PDF) to fund the Iraq war through the end of September.

• In the Supplemental, Congress deliberately adopted the president's benchmarks, specifically and continually referencing his January 10, 2007, speech.

• Instead, Congress referenced the president's benchmarks but described only the revenue-sharing component.

• The Supplemental finds ... that 'America will change our approach to help the Iraqi government as it works to meet these benchmarks.'"

• including: (iii) Enacting and implementing legislation to ensure the equitable distribution of hydrocarbon resources of the people of Iraq without regard to the sect...

• Congress stipulated that if the benchmarks were not met by September, it would cut off funds being made available to Iraq

• Congress required the Bush administration to report back on the status of the benchmarks by July 15. Thus, a flurry of effort erupted between the Bush administration and the Al-Maliki government in recent weeks to try to finally pass the law.

• Four days later, on July 7, Usama al-Nujeyfi, a member of Iraq's parliamentary energy committee, quit in protest over the oil law, saying that it would cede too much control to global companies and "ruin the country's future."

• His response has been typical ... the parliament has not yet taken the measure up for consideration.

• At the same time ... negotiations were also moving forward on the federal revenue law (referred by the Bush administration as the "revenue management law")... A limited agreement was reached on the revenue law, but it has yet to approved by the Iraqi cabinet.

• ...the future of the "framework hydrocarbon law" (the oil law) is very unclear. As U.S. pressure intensifies to pass the law before September 2007, the deadline established by the Supplemental, Iraqi resistance grows.

• On June 19, five Nobel Peace Prize recipients released a statement publicly denouncing not only the Iraq oil law, but also the pressure being applied by the U.S. Congress and the Bush adminstration on the Iraqi government to pass it.

• declares that "the U.S. government should leave the matter of how Iraq will address the future of its oil system to the Iraqi people to be dealt with at a time when they are free from occupation and more able to engage in truly democratic decision making. It is immoral and illegal to use war and invasion as mechanisms for robbing a people of their vital natural resources."

• The debate in the U.S. Congress has finally shifted from "whether" to "how" to end the U.S. invasion of Iraq. ... We must be ... demand not only that the occupation end, but ... that the requirement that Iraqis change their oil system is taken off of the table.

THE OIL WAR

• The fate of and fight for control over Iraq's oil is the same for the country itself. At issue is to what extent the federal government, as stewards of Iraq as a whole, will decide oil policy.

• "It has to be a package of laws in which all the Iraqis can agree, which is why it is a benchmark of national reconciliation," a State Department official told UPI in May,

• ...adding that's why revenue sharing is the main emphasis of the U.S. government. Revenue sharing would be decided in a revenue sharing law, not the oil law

• The oil law already faced opposition from Iraq oil experts -- including two of the law's three original authors -- as well as the powerful oil unions.

• "The last four years have witnessed repeated attempts at dismantling the basis for any well planned resources management for the whole nation, only to replace it with market oriented destabilization and fragmentation policies that are at variance and in competition with each other and the national interest," said Tariq Shafiq

• "It's really important to challenge the notion that the law is going to unite 'warring factions,'" said Ewa Jasiewicz of the London-based campaigner Platform.

• Parliament was supposed to take up the oil law Wednesday but boycotts and chronic absenteeism scrapped that.

• The Sadr Movement and the Iraqi Accord Front now say they may end the boycott specifically to challenge the law. The former held mass rallies over the weekend in opposition to Maliki. IAF says it will call for a vote of no confidence in him.

• The Association of Muslim Scholars issued an edict against any Parliamentarian approving the law

• Last week the Iraq Freedom Congress -- whose motto is "Working for a Democratic, Secular and Progressive Alternative to both the U.S. Occupation and Political Islam in Iraq" -- teamed up with the new Anti Oil Law Frontier to rally masses against the law.

Mexico: A Nation-State Dissolves as the Cantarell field collapses

Posted by jeffvail on July 12, 2007 - 10:00am on The Oil Drum

• Mexico’s Oil Production is Collapsing

• Mexico’s National and State Boundaries are Separating

• The State of Mexico is Failing to Provide for its Nation

• Mexico’s Monopoly on Violence is Collapsing

• Can Mexico Protect Its Oil Infrastructure?

• Collapse is a Positive Feedback Loop

• Is Mexico a unique case or a bellwether?

MULTIMEDIA-GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED TO HELP ACHIEVE HISTORIC LATINO TURNOUT IN 2008

The Univision network has launched a multi-media campaign names "Ya Es Hora" (Now is the Time) on its air to encourage Hispanic immigrants to become citizens and register to vote in the presidential election next year. According to the federal immigration data of the 8 Million legal residents eligible to become citizens the majority are from Latin American countries.

The campaign consists of public service announcements detailing the process, costs and where to go to get help with the application. They also provide pop quizzes with questions from the citizenship exam. Being dubbed as a community service campaign, once has to ask what is the real motivation behind the campaign?

Although we can't deny that Univision does good for the Hispanic community in America, one has to wonder if there isn't some other motivation for them. Like attracting more attention to the Hispanic vote and therefore increase the ad spent by political candidates on all Spanish networks. Remember TV ad spending usually increases during election years, and I am sure we will probably report next year how ad spending is up in the 4th quarter of 2008 versus 2007.

Mountain View Community College
4849 W. Illinois Ave
Dallas, Texas 75211

Historiography

* Plutarch--Great Men and their Character. His thesis is that the very character of men changes history. His study of Mark Antony suggests that his love for Cleopatra blinded him to his duties in Rome and was destroyed by Augustus; who, it turned out, was not a lightweight.


* Historical Forces. This is the assertion that certain ideas, movements, etc., become irresistible forces that will have their way. An example is Christianity being such a force that would eventually not only survive persecution, but emerge victorious over the Roman Empire. Another is the dominance of Science in the West over Theology and Philosophy as the authority for determining Truth.


* Toynbee--Challenge and response. Toynbee's theory is that all civilizations are faced with a crisis which is either one of ideas, or one of technology. How they respond determines whether they will survive. An example is the Fall of Rome. Many blame Christianity for sapping the Pagan strength of Rome and causing her downfall. Toynbee points out that the Byzantine Empire (the Eastern Roman Empire) used Christianity to revitalize and reform the Roman Empire for another thousand years.


* Hegel--Dialectic. Hegel's Theory of History says that for every old idea, there is a new one which conflicts with it. Out of the struggle a new idea is created (Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis). He felt that this was how God led us to perfection and revealed new truth. History is just the product of conflict


* Darwin. Not a historian, but he took Hegel's idea and applied them to science. His biological application led to the Origin of Species. Herbert Spencer and others then used his biological ideas to support their ideas that a struggle among races of people and differing nations led to the strongest and most able nations ruling the world. Victory in combat meant the superiority of a nation or people.


* Marx--Material Dialectic. Marx used Hegel's ideas and applied them to classes of people throughout history. Any ruling class controlled the "means of production" which gave them wealth and power to rule. Whenever a new method of production occurred, there was conflict between the older ruling class and a newer class using the newer and superior means of production. An example is how the Businessman and his money destroyed the power of the old Aristocracy based on land and hereditary ownership


* Turner--Geography and the Frontier. Turner's thesis said that geography determines the character of a people and, depending on the situation, gave them certain advantages and disadvantages. An example is that the English and Japanese, being Island Nations, would naturally have an advantage at sea combat. And, in an age of sea-trade they would, tend to be powerful. His thesis explicitly stated how the Frontier shaped the American mind to be open to new things and to strive for what was new. In our modern technological age, Americans are very open to new technologies.


* Radicals--History is the story of who won. This thesis says that history is little more than mythmaking. "History is the history of winners." Those who win, write the history books. Those who have lost are excluded or demonized. History is determined by who has the political power to write the books. But, for some, reading a restaurant menu is as important as reading "history."


* Boorstin--The unexpected. Daniel J. Boorstin's books suggest a thesis that ideas and practices simply come together in various places and time and can hardly be predicted. What has mattered, is that the great Creators and Discoverers have been open to the challenge and took previously unrelated ideas and put them together in a way that was entirely new. They thus change the world. An example is how an anonymous optician in Belgium created the first telescope to be used in combat. It found its way to Italy where Galileo began to look at stars with it. His findings undermined the Ptolemaic system. However, the Church used his information to create the modern Gregorian Calendar we use today. But sixteen years later in the firestorm of the Reformation, Galileo was ordered to remain silent. Boorstin is hostile to the Hegelian-Marxist-Darwinian school as it can only tell what the future is like based on the past. The Hegelians could never have predicted the impact of the telescope. Boorstin makes considerable money showing that no one can predict; you can only remain open to change. Change cannot be managed.

MARICON, SI!!

The New Mexico governor used the term as part of a joke instigated by talk show host Don Imus during a March 29, 2006, segment of his “Imus in the Morning” syndicated radio program, simulcast on MSNBC. “Bernard on the staff here has been claiming you’re not really Hispanic so-- that you're just claiming that for some sort of advantage or something,” Imus said to Richardson, tongue clearly in cheek. “You can just answer this yes or no and this will answer that question. Would you agree that Bernard is a maricón?”
Without missing a beat, Richardson replied in Spanish, “Yo creo que Bernardo, sí — es un maricón si él piensa que yo no soy hispano. [General laughter] Was that good enough or what? [General laughter]”
“That’s good enough for me,” Imus replied.

WAS IT EJERCITO POPULAR REVOLUCIONARIO (EPR) OR PAN

The left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party issued a statement Wednesday casting doubt on the EPR's involvement. The party said it "wasn't ruling out" the government's own involvement, either to generate support for allowing private investment in Pemex, to use as an excuse to crack down on leftist groups or "to distract people from the grave problems that afflict the country."

THE PEOPLE'S REVOLUTIONARY ARMY

The People's Revolutionary Army shuts down 800 business' and the gas supply to Guadalajara, Aguascalientes, Querétaro, León y Celaya.

They state that:

We have initiated a national campaign of harassment to the economic interests of the oligarchy and of this antipopular government (Felipe Calderon and PAN), declaring their military objective all the interests of the oligarchy that violently impose the illegitimate government of Calderón


Alrededor de la una de la mañana del martes ocurrió la explosión en el gasoducto de Coroneo, Querétaro,

Partido Democrático Popular Revolucionario-Ejército Popular Revolucionario

Por todos los agravios cometidos en estos años contra el pueblo, ante la brutal violencia intitucionalizada, ante la criminalización del descontento social, por la detención-desaparición de los luchadores sociales informamos a nuestro pueblo y a sus organizaciones que:

1. Hemos iniciado una campaña nacional de hostigamiento a los intereses económicos de la oligarquía y de este gobierno antipopular, declarando objetivo militar todos los intereses de la oligarquía que impuso violentamente al gobierno ilegítimo de Calderón.

2. Las explosiones en los ductos de PEMEX en Celaya, Salamanca, Valle de Santiago Guanajuato y la válvula de seccionamiento Coroneo fueron acciones quirúrgicas de hostigamiento, llevadas a cabo por unidades de nuestro ejército, apoyadas por milicias populares, bajo la conducción del Comité Estatal de Guanajuato.

3. Las acciones de hostigamiento no pararán hasta que sean presentados con vida nuestros compañeros Edmundo Reyes Amaya y Raymundo Rivera Bravo o Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez, así como todos los desaparecidos denunciados en Oaxaca, del Estado de México y Guerrero.
Ante la imposición de un gobierno ilegítimo y la violencia de éste, convocamos a todo nuestro pueblo y a sus organizaciones legales, clandestinas y revolucionarias a sumarse a esta campaña impulsando desde cada trinchera de lucha las acciones de hostigamiento a su alcance para exigir todos juntos la presentación de todos los detenidos-desaparecidos y la libertad de todos los presos políticos y de conciencia del país. ¡A no permitir ninguna agresión más contra el pueblo!, ¡Ni un detenido-desaparecido más!, ¡Alto a la guerra sucia!

Para todos nuestros militantes, combatientes, colaboradores y simpatizantes la orden es ¡A continuar con la campaña nacional de hostigamiento en los tiempos y forma definidos!

¡EXIGIMOS LA PRESENTACION INMEDIATA DE NUESTROS COMPAÑEROS DETENIDOS-DESAPARECIDOS DESDE EL 25 DE MAYO EN EL ESTADO DE OAXACA!
¡EXIGIMOS LA PRESENTACION DE TODOS LOS DETENIDOS-DESAPARECIDOS DEL PAIS!
¡LIBERTAD A TODOS LOS PRESOS POLITICOS Y DE CONCIENCIA DEL PAIS!
¡POR NUESTROS CAMARADAS PROLETARIOS!
¡RESUELTOS A VENCER!
¡POR LA REVOLUCION SOCIALISTA!
¡VENCER O MORIR!
¡CON LA GUERRA POPULAR!
¡EL EPR TRIUNFARA!

"DOG AND PONY SHOW OF PURPLE FINGER DEMOCRACY

...NBC News, the corporate media propaganda outlet owned and operated by General Electric, makers of cruise missiles, Stealth bombers, B-52 bombers, AWACS, and the NAVSTAR spy satellite system, the sort of stuff used up in record numbers inside Iraq and Afghanistan, thus ensuring mega-profits for the merchants of death and destruction.

After Bush Senior attacked Iraq in 1991, methodically destroying the country’s power, communications, water, sewage treatment and health facilities, more than a decade of sanctions were imposed to make sure these critical services were not rebuilt and restored, thus resulting in the premeditated murder of around a million Iraqis, half of them helpless children.

DARFUR? --- CHEVRON PIPELINE FROM CHAD -- CHINESE PIPELINE FROM DARFUR SUDAN

SELECT YOUR MARKET

Los Angeles

* #1 Hispanic Market
* 7,811,100 Hispanic Population
* $105 Billion Hispanic Buying Power
* Hispanics Make Up 44.5% of Total Los Angeles

New York City

* #2 Hispanic Market
* 4,316,400 Hispanic Population
* $59.2 Billion Hispanic Buying Power
* Hispanics Make Up 20.5% of Total New York City\

Miami

* #3 Hispanic Market
* 1,838,000 Hispanic Population
* $32.9 Billion Hispanic Buying Power
* Hispanics Make Up 43.9% of Total Miami
Population

Houston

* # 4 Hispanic Market
* 1,822,600 Hispanic Population
* $25.1 Billion Hispanic Buying Power
* Hispanics Make Up 33.4% of Total Houston

Chicago

* # 5 Hispanic Market
* 1,836,800 Hispanic Population
* $24.2 Billion Hispanic Buying Power
* Hispanics Make Up 19.0% of Total Chicago

San Francisco

* #6 Hispanic Market
* 1,509,700 Hispanic Population
* $20.9 Billion Hispanic Buying Power
* Hispanics Make Up 21.3% of Total San Francisco

Dallas

* #7 Hispanic Market
* 1,491,800 Hispanic Population
* $20.8 Billion Hispanic Buying Power
* Hispanics Make Up 23.5% of Total Dallas

San Antonio

* #8 Hispanic Market
* 1,293,700 Hispanic Population
* $17.9 Billion Hispanic Buying Power
* Hispanics Make Up 60.3% of Total San Antonio

Phoenix

* #9 Hispanic Market
* 1,208,000 Hispanic Population
* $16.7 Billion Hispanic Buying Power
* Hispanics Make Up 27.2% of Total Phoenix

San Diego

* # 10 Hispanic Market
* 927,600 Hispanic Population
* $12.6 Billion Hispanic Buying Power
* Hispanics Make Up 31.2% of Total San Diego

McAllen

* # 12 Hispanic Market
* 1,142,000 Hispanic Population
* $11 Billion Hispanic Buying Power
* Hispanics Make Up 94.8% of Total McAllen

Fresno

* # 13 Hispanic Market
* 893,000 Hispanic Population
* $11 Billion Hispanic Buying Power
* Hispanics Make Up 50.7% of Total Fresno

El Paso

* # 15 Hispanic Market
* 782,500 Hispanic Population
* $10.3 Billion Hispanic Buying Power
* Hispanics Make Up 87.7% of Total El Paso

Albuquerque

* #16 Hispanic Market
* 740,700 Hispanic Population
* $9.8 Billion Hispanic Buying Power
* Hispanics Make Up 41.6% of Total Albuquerque

Las Vegas

* # 20 Hispanic Market
* 438,800 Hispanic Population
* $6.1 Billion Hispanic Buying Power
* Hispanics Make Up 26% of Total Las Vegas

UN AÑO DESPUES

Más de 100 mil personas acudieron al llamado de Andrés Manuel López Obrador para marchar por Paseo de la Reforma, avenida Juárez y congregarse en el Zócalo capitalino para recordar ''el fraude electoral'' del 2 de julio del año pasado. En su discurso, el llamado ''presidente legítimo'' dijo que ''es imprescindible cambiar la política económica. Se persiste en mantener el atraso del país y el empobrecimiento del pueblo al aplicar impuestos a los trabajadores y a la clase media, a la que se trata con saña desagradecida'' FOTO Carlos Ramos Mamahua

LATIN AMERICA NEWS REVIEW

From No Quarter

Let's bust up that smirky, head-nodding, hee-hawing, clopitty-clop "ain't this just grand"...

“¡Despiértese, despiértese con Piolín por la mañana!”

Born in Ocotlán, a small rancho in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, Eddie Sotelo...

Eddie "Piolín" Sotelo is a Mexican-American radio personality, born in Ocotlán, Jalisco in 1972. His show, "Piolín por la Mañana," runs weekday mornings on KSCA in Southern California. His nickname means "Tweety Bird" in Spanish, a nickname he acquired as a child.

...but Eddie had no money, so he would climb onto the roof and watch from above. It was from there that he first watched Mário Almada films. Almada is the Mexican version of the action hero; never without his rifle, he’s Eastwood and Bronson wrapped into one. In these films, characters would talk about the U.S. Eddie got curious and started to investigate. One day, he asked his father if he could go work in the U.S. In 1986, while Mexico was hosting soccer’s World Cup, Eddie arranged for a coyote to cross him over from Tijuana.

Meanwhile, his crew of seven producers and sketch players — hailing from places as varied as Mexico, El Salvador and Peru...

Peruvian-born Luis Garibay sets up gunshot sound effects like a court stenographer: Cock, Cock, BOOM! This is especially effective on the Piolínbomba, where listeners call in and tell their jokes.

Chela Prieto, a single mother of two; Don Poncho del Codo Agarrado, an old retired politician who firmly believes men are superior to women; Casimiro Buena Vista Mira Lejos, the town drunk; El Talpujas; Chipilín; Culantro; and 14-year-old Telorino. The show comprises chistes (jokes), bromas (pranks) and crank calls that are at times sexual in content but generally in good taste and good fun.


Like his idol, Mexican comedian Luis De Alba, Piolín strives to entertain the masses. But lowbrow humor is only half the story. Community involvement is what sets locutores like Piolín apart from their English-language counterparts. They help their listeners with immigration issues, financial crises, illness and legal troubles.

An Arbitron study showed that at 18.4 percent of the market share, Mexican Regional, which is Piolín’s station’s format, is by far the favorite Spanish-language format among Hispanic listeners, particularly in the morning. What is Mexican Regional? Norteños like Lalo Mora’s “Aguanta Corazón” (Mora recently came on Piolín’s show and downed a bottle of Salvadoran liquor), Banda el Recordo de Don Cruz Lizarraga’s “El Sinaloense,” and Corrido classics like Antonio Aguilar’s “Lamberto Quintero.”

Perhaps he was taking a jab at Piolin’s main rival, Renán Almendárez Coello, known as “El Cucuy” (“The Boogey Man”). El Cucuy has held the top spot in Spanish-language radio for as long as anyone can remember. With his Tropa Loca (“Crazy Crew”), El Cucuy is considered the Howard Stern of Spanish-language radio

El Cucuy says his comedy is based on picardía, a popular form of Latin humor based on wordplay and double-entendres. As a general rule, no cuss words are allowed on morning radio, especially since a lot of children listen to the shows, but that doesn’t mean Spanish slang words like baboso or güey (both meaning “idiot”) aren’t used.

Piolín is also less crude and overtly sexual than Cucuy, relying more on a typically Mexican form of double entendre known as albur. ("I don't think you need to say bad words to make people laugh," Piolín says.) Some of the humor is so colloquial it may sound foreign, even to other Spanish speakers.

Wikipedia entry for albur

HUNGOVER AT G8

HEILIGENDAMM, Germany - Stricken with a stomach ailment that confined him to his hotel room,President Bush still met Friday with France's new president and prepared for talks in Poland on a new missile defense system.

Commentary from No Quarter