July 6, 2008 archive

A Tribute To War

From one of my favorite radio artists, Joe Frank:

Here’s To War (5MB MP3 File)

[WARNING: Dark satire — not for the seriously-depressed or humor-impaired.]

If you like this piece, I encourage you to check out Joe’s website for more of his radio shows:

JoeFrank.com

Hokay Hey

Café Discovery: On the Thickness of Skin

_ # ^ &  _ # ^ &  _ # ^ &  _

The Storyteller took a deep breath and cast back for another memory, another story to tell.  The Listener was patient, but did require the occasional feeding.  The Storyteller chuckled at the observation.  The Engineer glanced backward and nodded.  And the Train switched to another happentrack.  

The Storyteller began to sing.  The Listener leaned forward.  The passenger turned over, but otherwise remained sleeping.



One day Sun found a new canyon.

It hid for miles and ran far away,

then it went under a mountain.  Now Sun

goes over but knows it is there.  And that

is why sun shines–it is always looking.

Be like the sun.

–William Stafford

Δ  Δ  Δ  Δ  Δ Δ

Pine was at it again, hectoring all of creation.  Canyon rolled its eyes as Sun passed overhead.  Canyon preferred peace.

“Changing Us”

Counseling and medication weren’t enough to help Laef Fox recover from his grim war experience in Iraq, and drugs and alcohol didn’t work either, so he tried making a movie instead.

There’s a new Documentary out, that was shown in a premeir private showing on July 4th in Denver.

IF NOT A THEN B ELSE IF my grandmother had wheels, she’d be a wagon.

This is an essay grounded in simple reality, and intended for the perusal of those who are mentally and emotionally equipped to deal in such terms.

As to those who are not, it is my hope that you will herein acquire such tools.

But I’m not holding my breath.

The schoolin’ begins on the jump.

IF NOT A THEN B ELSE IF my grandmother had wheels, she’d be a wagon.

This is an essay grounded in simple reality, and intended for the perusal of those who are mentally and emotionally equipped to deal in such terms.

As to those who are not, it is my hope that you will herein acquire such tools.

But I’m not holding my breath.

The schoolin’ begins on the jump.

May you live in interesting times

This old Chinese proverb is said to be a curse. I suppose  that may be true, but we only live in the times in which we live. History will have to be the judge long after we’re gone about whether or not that was a curse.

According to Wikipedia, Robert F. Kennedy was one of the first from the United States to use this proverb at his Day of Affirmation Address to students at the University of Capetown in June 1966. The main message of this speech can perhaps be found in these words of his:

So the road toward equality of freedom is not easy, and great cost and danger march alongside us. We are committed to peaceful and nonviolent change, and that is important for all to understand–though all change is unsettling. Still, even in the turbulence of protest and struggle is greater hope for the future, as (wo)men learn to claim and achieve for themselves the rights formerly petitioned from others.

He then goes on to list four dangers that will be faced in this struggle.

Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective

Blind Faith



Had to Cry Today

Eric Clapton, Stevie Winwood, Ginger Baker, et al (Ric Grech)

Docudharma Times Sunday July 6



Failure Comes To Japan

On A 747 No Less




Sunday’s Headlines:

Obama chides media on his Iraq remarks

China’s new freedom fighters

UN to urge revamp of Afghan aid  

Shell ready to quit Zimbabwe as Mugabe cronies hoard fuel

Sadat family angered by Iranian film’s ‘traitor’ portrayal  

Iraqis lead final purge of Al-Qaeda

Hamas, long the peace spoiler, finds it hard to halt attacks

Hitler swiftly loses his head in the dictator’s latest downfall

Silvio Berlusconi is a nusiance caller

Reporters covering Mexico drug wars risk their lives

Prospects dim for G-8 climate change deal

Bush arrives in Japan for summit; no concessions expected from U.S.

MSNBC News Services

TOYAKO, Japan – Prospects that the G8 would reach a meaningful agreement to fight global warming at their annual summit dimmed on Sunday as leaders began arriving in northern Japan with a raft of global problems on their minds.

Climate change is high on the agenda of the summit of rich nations that begins Monday at a luxury hotel in Toyako, Hokkaido, and of a Major Economies Meeting on Wednesday that brings the G8 together with eight other countries, including China, India and Brazil.

‘To Be Busy Helps Them Forget’

Burma’s Storm Survivors Cobble Together a Meager Future

Washington Post Foreign Service

Sunday, July 6, 2008; Page A01


BOGALAY, Burma — Two months after a cyclone savaged the fertile Irrawaddy Delta, in Burma’s southwest, the bones of drowning victims still clutter the muddy banks of waterways.

One bamboo stick at a time, survivors in hundreds of flattened villages are struggling to rebuild their lives. For shelter, they squeeze several families into a single tent. For drinking water, they collect monsoon rains that trickle off tarpaulin roof coverings into buckets or salvaged ceramic vases. For food, they cook communal meals with rice, beans and oil from handouts. Sometimes it is spoiled.

USA

Employers Fight Tough Measures on Immigration



By JULIA PRESTON

Published: July 6, 2008


Under pressure from the toughest crackdown on illegal immigration in two decades, employers across the country are fighting back in state legislatures, the federal courts and city halls.

Business groups have resisted measures that would revoke the licenses of employers of illegal immigrants. They are proposing alternatives that would revise federal rules for verifying the identity documents of new hires and would expand programs to bring legal immigrant laborers.

Though the pushback is coming from both Democrats and Republicans, in many places it is reopening the rift over immigration that troubled the Republican Party last year.

G8 Leaders Face A Series of Crises

Let’s pretend for a moment that you are a country.  Well, the seminal head of a country, so to speak.  

As the mouthpiece and the conveyor of all information that the people of YOUR country would like YOU to communicate to the rest of the world, your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to make sure you truly speak for your fellow countrymen and countrywomen with one voice that soars the virtues of YOUR country and it’s ideals and passions!

OK, Hold that thought.  

G8 Crisis

From BBC News:

Rising food and oil costs, an uncertain global economy, climate change and Zimbabwe’s political crisis face the G8 leaders who are gathering in Japan.

The summit is being held at a secluded resort on the northern island of Hokkaido guarded by some 20,000 police.

Protesters have been gathering ahead of the three-day forum starting on Monday.

A US official said the gathering was likely to “strongly condemn” Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe over a disputed presidential election run-off vote.

The Group of Eight (G8) consists of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

The Iranian People Lose Again

This morning, July 5, 2008, the CASMII website posted this extraordinary essay by Michel Chossudovsky/Global Research:

Iran: War or Privatization: All Out War or “Economic Conquest”?

Another way of saying it:  Is Iran’s chance for democratic self-government gone the way of the overthrow of Mossadeqh, absent only a Roosevelt tossing money at thugs?

In broad strokes, Chossudovsky opens the multiple Russian dolls:  at first blush, it appears that Tehran’s agreement to sell off state owned assets to foreign investors might be the ruling regime’s bid to stave off an American-Israeli war and maintain power by placating the US-Israel-WTO-IMF cabal. Although Tehran does insist on Iranian ownership of at least 65% of any privitazed assets sold to foreign entities, shares are still at rock-bottom prices, a bell that cannot but cause voracious dogs like Carlyle Group to salivate to the point of drowning in their own drool.

But Chossudovsky keeps pulling wooden dolls out of the box:  H Con Res 362 signals that

Washington has no interest in the imposition of a privatization program on Iran, as an “alternative” to an all out war. In fact quite the opposite. There are indications that the Bush adminstration’s main objective is to stall the privatization program.

Rather than being applauded by Washington as a move in the right direction, Tehran’s privatization program coincides with the launching (May 2008) of a far-reaching resolution in the US Congress (H.CON. RES 362), calling for the imposition of Worldwide financial sanctions directed against Iran:

~~~~

Little bit of background: My interest in Iran took a turn toward alarm after I heard Patrick Clawson deliver a speech to an audience organized by the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh.  The flier advertising the speech shocked me:  a flame-colored mushroom cloud on a black field, with the block letters: Nuclear Iran: A Threat to Humanity jabbing off the page to spear readers.

Clawson’s talk was the kick-off event of UJF’s Iran Task Force, whose goal was to “inform Pittsburghers” of the threat Iran posed to the world; to support legislation working its way through the Pennsylvania State legislature that would permit divestment of Teachers’ and State Employees’ pension funds from corporations doing business with Iran; and to advocate for further divestment from Iran.

Although UJF’s Iran Task Force billed itself as an “interfaith alliance,” a list obtained from the Task Force’s administrator included these groups:

~American Israel Public Affairs Committee

~Anti-Defamation League

~Bnai Zion, Pittsburgh Region

~Community & Public Affairs Council of the United Jewish Federation

~Friends of Israel

~Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association

~Hadassah, Greater Pittsburgh Chapter

~Holocaust Center of the United Jewish Federation

~Pittsburgh Persian Gulf Initiative

~Pittsburgh Chapter American Jewish Committee

~Scholars for Peace in the Middle East*

~Zionist Organization of America, Pittsburgh District

To be fair, Clawson was introduced by an African American Christian pastor whose contact information was only a PO Box.

Otherwise, the definition of “interfaith” as applied to the list of sponsors of the Iran Task Force has a meaning I am not acquainted with.

The goal of UJF’s Iran Task Force is to encourage

Terror-Free investment options, offered by Wall Street’s best firms, {that} exclude foreign companies conducting business with Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria while ensuring high-yield returns.

Plagued by insufficient internal investment and technology, these rogue regimes rely on foreign companies to prop-up their struggling economies, thus allowing these governments to maintain business as usual – ignoring the welfare of their people and sponsoring global terrorism.  Investing Terror-Free allows all of us to say “not with my money.”

Inspired by similar campaigns that shut down South African apartheid…

The Pittsburgh Persian Gulf Initiative, invites exploration.  PPGI (which has since changed its name) is a brand new alliance established by persons affiliated with Greycourt & Co. Inc. whose mission is

Greycourt advises clients who range in size from approximately $25 million in investable assets to a number of Forbes 400 families.

 Hey, everybody’s gotta make a living.

Sidebar: * letter from Scholars for Peace: Jews created democracy or something; NO: quote Jefferson.

Gregory Friedman, chief investment officer for Greycourt, included this slide in a 2007 Powerpoint presentation for Greycourt:

Broader Opportunity Set…

Global Rank  Company Name  Country  Capitalization %

3 China Mobile Ltd.       HONG KONG         0.82%

5 Gazprom OAO             RUSSIA            0.79%

8 BP PLC                  UNITED KINGDOM    0.52%

10 Petroleo Brasileiro S/A BRAZIL            0.49%

11 Electricite de France   FRANCE            0.49%

12 Toyota Motor Corp.      JAPAN0            0.49%

13 Vodafone Group PLC      UNITED KINGDOM    0.48%

14 HSBC Holdings PLC       UNITED KINGDOM    0.47%

16 China Construction Bank Corp.CHINA        0.46%

18 Total S.A.              FRANCE            0.46%

Total Non-US Based in Top 20 Non-US          5.48%

Total US-based in Top 20 United States       6.30%

Here is a list of firms UJF Pittsburgh advises the Pennsylvania State Teachers’ Pension fund and the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Pension fund to divest:

Gazprom

Petrobras

Total SA

Royal Dutch Shell *

China in general,

The key obstacle to stronger international pressure against Tehran has been China, Iran’s largest trading partner. After the Iranian government refused to comply with two U.N. Security Council resolutions dealing with its nuclear program, Beijing balked at a U.S. proposal for a resolution that would have sanctioned the Revolutionary Guard, U.S. officials said.

and these Chinese corporations in particular:

China National Petroleum Corp.

China National Offshore Oil Corp.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.

* Royal Dutch Shell: According to research completed by Trita Parsi

On slide #19, Friedman advises:

Inefficiently traded markets offer ample opportunity for skillful managers to generate excess returns.

Watch out for potentially adverse legal systems, capital controls and insider control.

George Soros comment, __________

A new venture, PPGI kicked off its establishment by sponsoring a talk in Pittsburgh by author Azar Nafisi, whose controversial book, “Reading Lolita in Tehran,” was underwritten by the

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back to Michel Chossodosky’s nested Russian dolls:

The largest foreign investors in Iran are China and Russia.

While US companies are notoriously absent from the list of foreign direct investors, Germany, Italy and Japan have significant investment interests in oil and gas, the petrochemical industry, power generation and construction as well as in banking. Together with China and Russia, they are the main beneficiaries of the privatization program.

One of the main objectives of the proposed economic sanctions under H. RES CON 362 is to prevent foreign companies (including those from the European Union and Japan) , from acquiring a greater stake in the Iranian economy under Tehran’s divestment program.

Other countries with major foreign investment interests in Iran include France, India, Norway, South Korea, Sweden and Switzerland. Sweden’s Svedala Industri has major interests in Iran’s copper mines.

UJF’s divestment program includes thes Japanese, French, Indian, Norwegian, South Korean, Swedish, and Swiss firms:

INPEX: The Japanese market accounts for 22 percent of Iran’s oil exports which account for 85 percent of Japan’s total oil imports. The Tokyo-based INPEX, which is part-owned by the Japanese government, has billions of dollars invested in many Iranian oil projects including the Soroosh, Nowrooz and Azadegan oil fields.

Alcatel SA: French telecommunications giant Alcatel, has signed numerous multimillion dollar contracts deals with Iran as well as Sudan over the past five years. Alcatel supplies Iran with most of its telecommunications facilities, high-speed Internet service and communication devices and infrastructure for offshore oil and gas platforms.

ONGC: India’s Oil and Natural gas Company (ONGC) signed a $40 billion deal with Iran in 2005 to import millions of tons of liquid gas. ONGC is involved in many lucrative exploration projects in Iran and is on the verge of signing a deal in the South Pars oilfields valued at over $100 million.

Norsk Hydro: Norsk Hydro is Norway’s second largest energy company and is partially owned by the Norwegian government. Norsk Hydro has massive investments in Iranian oil projects including a $107 million contract signed with Iran last year.

Hyundai: South Korea’s Hyundai supports Iran by supplying it with energy-related construction and development help, manufacturing components and ship maintenance. Among its other mega-deals with Iran, Hyundai recently signed a $1 billion contract along with Daewoo to build oil tankers for the regime.

and

LG Engineering and Construction Co.: In 2002, South Korea’s LG Engineering and Construction Co. signed a $1.6 billion deal for a gas processing plant project in the South Pars gas fields. The company has a 45.3 stake in the deal that allows it to claim $700 million of the total project cost.

1.Neville Chamberlain: who will take the role of Chamberlain? see Legacy of Ashes

2. Clawson: Iran has no friends. PHOTO OF FLAGS. the problem, Iran has many friends, but most of them are not the US and Israel.  Iran is the beautiful, wealthy, eligible young person in town whose father guards her virtue with a shotgun and who remembers a slight and doesn’t invite those who have insulted him to the party.  And carrot cake is not on the menu.

3. Greycourt is a Carlyle Group wannabe. How does Carlyle operate?  see video: government information at the highest level, including making things happen in the absence of naturally occuring phenomenon — see Victorian Holocausts.

Is this moral?  in the world of Bob Kagan, yes. the curious morality of James Glassman.

America does not share that value system.

Casting the future of Docudharma remains …

… impossible. Whether this is dangling copper fingers in the stream … or just random reframing to nudge our thinking into possibilities that are regular habits of thought obscure … well, its not that crucial a question to me.

First line: divided line

Second line: moving solid line

Third line: divided line

Fourth line: divided line

Fifth line: solid line

Sixth line: moving divided line

Ah, I love symmetry, and this is doubly symmetric … it is both symmetric around the middle, and consists of two identical symmetric trigrams.




29. Abyss

Getting accustomed to the abyss.

Have confidence and hold on to your heart.

For progress, taking action has value.

A situation that is unfamiliar and dangerous, that one needs to get into and get accustomed to. Have confidence, and keep in touch with your feelings. Feeling fear is natural in this situation. Taking action is needed in order to have progress.

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