Jun. 3rd, 2014

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Greg Palast "Armed Madhouse"(Penguin)



Here is another compendium of political and corporate con men who would sell your future and your children's future to the highest bidder (or give it away to their political friends).

Everyone thinks that George Bush had a secret plan to seize Iraq's oil. Actually, there were 2 secret plans. The neo-con/Pentagon plan involved privatizing, or selling off, Iraq's vast oil reserves to foreign companies. When all those oil wells start pumping, ignoring their OPEC quota (insurgency? what insurgency?), the world market would be flooded with oil, causing the price to plummet. OPEC would be forced out of business, and, coincidentally, Saudi Arabia, the real target, would be forced to its financial knees. A problem with this is the assumption that the oil fields would remain undamaged in an American invasion. Also, it would be silly to think that Saudi Arabia would sit back and let this happen. Whenever other OPEC countries have ignored their quota, the Saudis have opened their oil spigots, flooding the market and causing the price to drop, forcing the offending country into bankruptcy. Also, the major oil companies made it very clear that privatizing Iraqi oil would not be acceptable. But they had no problem with the privatizing of the rest of Iraq, including the sale of banks and water companies, big tax cuts for wealthy Iraqis, a complete elimination of tariffs and new copyright laws protecting American companies.

The State Department/Council on Foreign Relations plan involved keeping the Iraqi government as is, especially the state oil monopoly. It also envisioned the removal of Saddam Hussein as taking no more than THREE DAYS. Hussein would be overthrown, some Iraqi general dismissed by Hussein in the 1980s (it didn't matter who) would come in by parachute, he would be given the keys to Iraq's political and security apparatus, and snap elections would be held in 90 days to legitimize everything. Simple, no? Once the Pentagon got wind of it, the three-day part didn't last very long.

Saddam Hussein's "crime," the reason he was removed from power, had nothing to do with being a tyrant, or WMD, or gassing the Kurds of Halabja. When it came to oil production, one week he would suddenly decide to support the Palestinian cause, and not pump any oil at all. The next week, he would forget about the Palestinians, and pump right up to the Oil for Food limit. Singlehandedly turning the world oil market into a yo-yo upset Big Oil and the Council on Foreign Relations, among others. It's all about control of the oil market, and Hussein was not cooperating.

This book is about much more than just Iraq. Palast goes into great detail about how the 2000 and 2004 elections were stolen by the Republicans. Any number of methods have come to life, from using supposed lists of felons, to sending not enough machines to black districts, to machines in those same districts that miscount or don't count votes at a much greater rate than in white districts, to uncounted paper ballots in the tens of thousands. In Native American districts in the Southwest, if one accepts the "official" results, many Native Americans would drive miles and miles to the polling place, and specifically NOT vote for President. What are Democrats doing about this, if only to be sure that it never happens again? Little or nothing. This book also covers subjects like globalization, New Orleans, No Child Left Behind and Enron.

By themselves, any of the chapters in this book are worth the price of the book. Put them together, and this book easily reaches the level of Wow. It's an extraordinary piece of journalism, and is extremely highly recommended.
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So, after watching Only Connect and Kick Ass 2 last night, i sorted out a track to play as my morning song for today. Well, actually, it was a number of songs i thought might be appropriate. Then it hit me - wham! - a classic jazz tune from the lady that sang the blues - Billie Holiday and Good Morning Heartache.



Enjoy, love Jazzy D.

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Walked into Sittingbourne again. I had a meet up this morning at the Ofrice. I had some expenses paid and thus having a liquid lunch in Wetherspoons. It is another craft ale from the States called Publican and comes from San Diego California. At 5.5 % ABV it is a quality pint.
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Well, after the second day of the course, and that the afternoon was warm and sunny, i decided to have a quick pint down at the Paper Mill micro-pub. It is a great homely little pub. I think i needed that pint today, a fine Goachers Silver Ray ale (4.2 % ABV).

Whilst in Sittingbourne today,picked up a Frank Sinatra double CD ("A Fine Romance, The Love Songs Of Frank") for 25 pence from the Demelza charity shop.

I have been watching the third season on DVD of Grey's Anatomy, which i thought i would not like at all at first, but it has turned out to be a most wonderful and entertaining series. This   box set was from one of my mystery shop visits, and at the time i did not realize that it was a Region 1 set (USA) rather than the normal Region 2 we have here in Europe. Plays on the laptop fine though.

Sometimes my laptop is causing problems in that it can be terribly slow and frustrating. This was the case earlier this evening when i needed to get onto the internet. My tablet seems to be faster then this ageing laptop.

Looks like my Who fan fic idea has stumbled along the way, and may have to take a back seat for the next few weeks, but i have not abandoned it. It will appear but not as soon as i hoped for.

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