Welcome to the fourth in the Dog’s ongoing letter writing campaign diaries. This has two purposes. First off it is designed to, on weekly basis send the President, the Attorney General, the Justices of the Supreme Court, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid a letter every week discussing one aspect of why we must investigate, indict, and prosecute those that ordered torture and those that carried it out. The other purpose is to provide those that would like to join the Dog in this effort a letter that they can cut and paste or a topic to use as the jumping off point for their own letter.
This week we will make the point that if the United States does not fulfill our obligations, some other country will.
The CS Monitor reports China questions US’s financial dominance ahead of the G-20 summit. “Beijing is aiming for GDP growth of 8 percent this year. The World Bank estimates China’s economy will grow by about 6.5 percent… In fact, Chinese leaders have been voicing more concern recently over the US economy than about their own.”
China has the bulk of its $2 trillion worth of foreign reserves in U.S. dollars. “Beijing is frightened that the fast pace at which the US Federal Reserve is printing dollars could lead to inflation, a fall in the dollar’s value, and big losses for China.” Americans with savings should be concerned about this too.
China’s “Central Bank’s deputy governor, Hu Xiaolian, pointedly suggested last Monday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should henceforth monitor the US economy as closely as it has traditionally overseen struggling Third World countries.”
As a standard bearer for developing countries, China will use this week’s G-20 summit to demand that they should have a louder voice in the IMF, Ms. Hu said. She even took a swipe at the tradition by which the World Bank is headed by an American and the IMF by a European.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reports China and Argentina sign a 70 billion Yuan currency swap. “The move will help ensure the stability of the regional currency system and contain financial risks amid the global financial crisis… China arranged a 100 billion yuan swap with Indonesia on March 23, a 20 billion yuan swap with Belarus on March 11, an 80 billion yuan swap with Malaysia last month, a 200 billion yuan swap with Hong Kong in January and a 180 billion yuan swap with South Korea in December.”
Huang Zhilong, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, said the swap set a good example for other Latin American countries to follow.
“Since Argentina has done this, why can’t other countries like Brazil and Venezuela?” said Huang, who studies Latin American finances. “It’s a big deal that will increase China’s financial presence in Latin America.”
The U.S. dollar’s days of dominance are counting down.
As the economic crisis deepens, it has become clear that AIG’s problems extend across most of its business lines, including its massive life insurance and retirement services operations, which reported a staggering $18-billion quarterly loss this month.
The company’s situation is emblematic of problems across the life insurance industry, which is suffering deep losses on investments that underlie policies for millions of American families.
Four at Four continues with civil war brewing in Iraq and Obama on Afghanistan.
Neo-Con Ideologues Launch New Foreign Policy Group
By Daniel Luban and Jim Lobe
IPS Inter Press Service, 2009
WASHINGTON, Mar 25 (IPS) – A newly-formed and still obscure neo-conservative foreign policy organisation is giving some observers flashbacks to the 1990s, when its predecessor staked out the aggressively unilateralist foreign policy that came to fruition under the George W. Bush administration.
The blandly-named Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) – the brainchild of Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, neo-conservative foreign policy guru Robert Kagan, and former Bush administration official Dan Senor – has thus far kept a low profile; its only activity to this point has been to sponsor a conference pushing for a U.S. “surge” in Afghanistan.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama unveiled a new war strategy for Afghanistan on Friday with a key goal — to crush al Qaeda militants there and in Pakistan who he said were plotting new attacks on the United States.
“The situation is increasingly perilous,” Obama said in a somber speech in which he sought to explain to Americans why he was boosting U.S. involvement in the seven-year-old war and expanding its focus to include Pakistan.
The new strategy comes with violence in Afghanistan at its highest level since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001 for sheltering al Qaeda leaders behind the September 11 attacks on the United States. The militia has escalated its attacks, often operating from safe havens in border regions of Pakistan.
“The world cannot afford the price that will come due if Afghanistan slides back into chaos or al Qaeda operates unchecked,” Obama said, stressing that stabilizing Afghanistan required an international effort, not just an American one.
Neo-Con Ideologues Launch New Foreign Policy Group
By Daniel Luban and Jim Lobe
IPS Inter Press Service, 2009
WASHINGTON, Mar 25 (IPS) – A newly-formed and still obscure neo-conservative foreign policy organisation is giving some observers flashbacks to the 1990s, when its predecessor staked out the aggressively unilateralist foreign policy that came to fruition under the George W. Bush administration.
The blandly-named Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) – the brainchild of Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, neo-conservative foreign policy guru Robert Kagan, and former Bush administration official Dan Senor – has thus far kept a low profile; its only activity to this point has been to sponsor a conference pushing for a U.S. “surge” in Afghanistan.
Barack Obama is not the MIC, is not the Financial Sector Robber Barons, is not the Justice Department, is not the Congress…..Barack Obama is NOT The Ruling Class. Barack Obama is not The Machine.
And it is The Machine that is our ‘enemy.’
It is The Ruling Class that runs the Machine, not Barack Obama. The Machine existed long before Barack Obama. And unless WE (not just Barack Obama) defeat The Machine it will be here long after.
Barack Obama cannot defeat The Machine on his own, he needs allies. He is not going to find those allies in The Ruling Class. So who does that leave???
If WE want an ally in a powerful position on OUR Fight Against The Machine, how does transferring our outrage at The Ruling Class on to Barack Obama advance our goals?
That is falling into a trap, a wedge trap, a divide and conquer trap, a smoke and mirrors for the Ruling Class to hide behind trap.
It may be satisfying to have a single person as the enemy, it may be mentally convenient to focus our ire at a single personified target.
I am not going to talk about what Obama has or has not done right or wrong. That is not the issue. The issue is Humans vs. The Machine. People like you and me vs. The Ruling Class.
It is a Class War. A war between 7 billion humans who want to live in peace and a small coterie of the Power Elite who are only interested in power and profit……to the extent that they will allow the planet to become uninhabitable through Climate Crisis and kill billions of us to pursue their self-interest.
If you blame THAT on fucking Barack Obama, if YOU fall for that trap……they win. If you make it about US vs. Barack Obama……they win.
It is up to US, it is up to YOU to fight The Machine. How does making someone who AT LEAST makes noises about being on our side help that at all, in any sense, in any way? We can try to make him an ally, or we can make him THE enemy. Thus ignoring the real enemy and allowing them to continue their destruction.
Barack Obama is NOT going to defeat The Machine by himself. It is up to US to do that.
Use your power and energy to fight the REAL enemy, The Machine.
I’m not an economist, nor do I play one on the blogs. All of this talk about Wall Street and our financial institutions is something that, up until a few months ago, I was blissfully ignorant about.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been reading like mad to try and understand, not only what’s happening, but what the potential solutions would be. I probably have enough information about Obama’s plan to be dangerous (I call it Obama’s plan because the fact of the matter is that its his administration. I have no illusions that he is supporting Geithner under duress or that someone is twisting his arm to do so). The so called PPIP has been dissected pretty thoroughly both by those who support it and those who don’t.
Where I am lacking in information is about the alternatives. As I see it, there’s no really painless or “right” way out of this mess. So the fact of the matter is that it is entirely possible that Obama’s plan is the best of the possibilities. And if that case is to be disputed, then I need to learn more about the options. As Saul Alinsky said in his “Rules for Radicals”:
The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.
Never let the enemy score points because you’re caught without a solution to the problem.
Leila Fadel: Leaders of Awakening Councils are arrested, tortured and killed by Iraq government
Leila Fadel, Baghdad Bureau Chief of McClatchy Newspapers speaks to Paul Jay about the recent escalation in violence in Iraq’s capital. She says the former fighters termed the “Sons of Iraq” who have turned on Al Qaeda and joined the U.S. are now being persecuted by the Iraq government. She says the Maliki government is afraid of the power they’ve accumulated in the neighborhoods they were put to protect by the U.S. and many are now in exile or in hiding.
Political Economist F. William Engdahl is author of the book “A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order.” Mr. Engdhahl has written on issues of energy, politics and economics for more than 30 years, beginning with the first oil shock in the early 1970s. Mr. Engdahl contributes regularly to a number of publications including Asia Times Online, Asia, Inc, Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Foresight magazine; Freitag and ZeitFragen newspapers in Germany and Switzerland respectively.
On Sunday Engdahl spoke with Real News CEO Paul Jay about Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s so-called “Private Public Partnership” plan to rescue the financial institutions in the United States, explains what Geithner is not telling you, says the plan does nothing to address the concentration of financial power in the United States that is based in the five major financial institutions that compose what we refer to collectively as “Wall Street”, and describes the Geithner/Obama plan as a “band aid for a bad hemorrhage”, a hemorrage that will exponentially increase over the next two or three years and mushroom into something much worse than the 1930’s depression.
Apparently contracts and sacrifice from the people receiving taxpayer money are only off limits when it applies to Wall Street.
I have no clue if Wagoner was good or bad or should have or haven’t stayed. What I am totally pissed at is the double standard. I won’t detail it, we’ve all been living and paying for this administration’s double standards. When it comes to Wall Street or bringing justice to war criminals and profiteers, they would rather “look forward”. When it comes to bailing out Americans, whether it is their jobs or their homes, it is time to right the wrongs and make sacrifices for America.
Obama Pushes General Motors and Chrysler to Slim Down, Make More Concessions
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 30, 2009; Page A01
The Obama administration has forced the longtime head of General Motors to resign and said yesterday that it would withhold additional federal aid to the auto industry unless the ailing companies undertake changes they so far have been unwilling or unable to make.
The administration effectively rejected as untenable the business plans that GM and Chrysler had submitted to restructure their companies, saying that neither had fulfilled the terms of the federal loans the companies received in December.
The president is expected to announce today that both companies may still win additional federal aid but under stricter terms.
Gunmen storm Pakistan police academy
• At least 10 police officers killed at Lahore training centre
• Gunmen hold hundreds of officers and cadets hostage
?Saeed Shah in Islamabad and James Sturcke
guardian.co.uk, Monday 30 March 2009 08.49 BST
At least 10 police officers were killed when gunmen stormed a police training facility in Lahore this morning, the second major terrorist attack in the Pakistani city within a month.
Hundreds of police officers and cadets were being held hostage by at least 10 attackers, according to reports, as exchanges of gunfire took place with troops and police surrounding the Manawan police centre.
The interior ministry chief, Rehman Malik, said 52 officers were wounded in the attack but gave no word on the number killed, while Geo News television channel said the toll was 20.
Armoured personnel carriers were manoeuvring into place around the site, in an apparent attempt to seal the exits. Army marksmen took up position on surrounding rooftops and surveillance helicopters hovered above the complex.
USA
AIG crisis could be the tip of an insurance iceberg
The company’s situation reflects problems throughout the life insurance industry as investments suffer. Further strain could bring about a second financial crisis.
By Ralph Vartabedian and Tom Hamburger
March 30, 2009
Reporting from Washington and Los Angeles — When insurance giant American International Group Inc. imploded last fall, the firm’s problems were quickly blamed not on its core insurance business but on an obscure operation that traded exotic mortgage securities.
But as the economic crisis deepens, it has become clear that AIG’s problems extend across most of its business lines, including its massive life insurance and retirement services operations, which reported a staggering $18-billion quarterly loss this month.
The company’s situation is emblematic of problems across the life insurance industry, which is suffering deep losses on investments that underlie policies for millions of American families.
So far, some of the biggest companies have suffered sharp drops in their stock prices, and many of them are asking for federal assistance.
Industry conditions last year were the worst in memory and are expected to grow deeper this year amid credit rating downgrades, declining revenue and investment losses, according to credit rating firm A.M. Best Co.
The White House says neither GM nor Chrysler submitted acceptable plans to receive more bailout money, setting the stage for a crisis in Detroit and putting in motion what could be the final two months of two American auto giants. President Barack Obama and his top advisers have determined that neither company is viable and that taxpayers will not spend untold billions more to keep the pair of automakers open forever.
But American taxpayers are supposed to keep spending untold billions more to keep those predator banks on Wall Street open forever, aren’t they, Barack. GM and Chrysler aren’t viable according to you and your fiend Tim at the Treasury Department, but those big banks that imploded and turned America’s financial system into a black hole of toxic debt are still viable. Yup. They’re as viable as it gets, they’re so viable they only need a trillion dollars every few months so they don’t China Syndrome themselves right through the planet, blast the Great Wall of China into rubble on the other side, and soar off into space to boldly go where no Masters of the Universe have ever gone before.
Let’s summarize what’s been happening, shall we? The big banks tell Barack to jump and he asks them how high. They tell Barack to fetch a stick and he fetches a stick. They tell Barack to hand them another trillion dollars and lay back down by his dish like a good dog, and he hands them another trillion dollars and lays back down by his dish like a good dog.
The CS Monitor reports 
PNAC attempts to resurrect themselves?