Archives: 2007 August

There must be something about those lobster dinners that President Bush is serving to world leaders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled all the way to the United States and the Bush family’s Summer “cottage” to enjoy a lobster dinner with Bush. Soon thereafter Putin announced that Russia was resuming long range bomber patrols to protect itself against a more dangerous world. Nice job over dinner, Mr Bush.

Now the new French President, Nicholas Sarkozy, president of France, came back from his vacation in New Hampshire, and his visit with George W. Bush, and made an absolutely stunning announcement. When it comes to Iran the world faces only two choices, he said, both of them involving bombs. Either Iran gives up its plans to build a nuclear bomb, or Iran itself gets bombed.

There must be something about those lobsters that seems to make visitors aggressive. Or is just spending a day or two with George W. enough to make world leaders want to put the bombers in the air?

Paul Craig Roberts, former undersecretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, has this to say about the build up to war with Iran.

“The Bush regime says it is going to designate part of Iran’s military – the Revolutionary Guards – a terrorist organization, whose bases and facilities Bush intends to bomb along with Iran’s nuclear energy sites. Three U.S. aircraft carrier strike forces are deployed off Iran. B-2 Stealth bombers are being fitted to carry 30,000 pound ‘bunker-buster’ bombs to use against hardened sites. Politicized U.S. generals assert that Iran is providing arms and aid to the Iraqi resistance to the U.S. occupation. The media are feeding the U.S. population the same propaganda about nonexistent Iranian weapons of mass destruction that they fed us about nonexistent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. A former CIA Middle East field officer, Robert Baer, has written in Time magazine that the Bush regime has decided to attack the Revolutionary Guards within the next six months. Remember the ‘cakewalk war’? Well, this time the neocons think that an attack on the Revolutionary Guards will free Iran from Islamic influence and cause Iranians to back the U.S. against their own government.

“Lies, unprovoked aggression, and delusional expectations – the same ingredients that produced the Iraq catastrophe – all over again. The entire Bush regime and both political parties are complicit, along with the media and U.S. allies.”

The following video from The International Herald Tribune has a clip on the Sarkozy comments. Sorry, I don’t have coverage of the lobster dinner conversation between thee aggressive world “leaders” Bush and Sarkozy.

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The Internet has been on fire with still unconfirmed rumors of the death of Fidel Castro. I posted an article on August 18th with the title Fidel Castro Dead at 81 and have been amazed at the surge in traffic that posting produced.

No doubt that Fidel Castro is hated with a passion by members of the Miami Cuban American community. Castro is still high on the US government hate list as well. We will never forgive him for taking out Batista and for kicking our ass at the Bay of Pigs.

The Miami police have been on alert for some time as they brace for a round of wild celebrations whenever Castro’s death is confirmed, whether it is tonight or one or two years from now.

When I was a sophomore in college I had a roommate, a very nice quite guy, who was from Cuba. Under Batista’s rule his family had been one of the privileged rich Cuban families with extensive business interests. When Castro sized power his family lost everything. From being a rich kid he was almost overnight reduced to struggling to find funds to pay his college tuition and expenses.

The rich Cubans as well as the US were stunned that Castro was able to overpower the US supported Batista. Batista was as corrupt as they come but US business could do business with him.

The US has never forgiven Castro for taking down our Cuban puppet. When it suits our interests a dictator seems to be perfectly OK.

Whenever Castro does die he proved beyond any doubt that he is a tough survivor. He has outlasted the administrations of ten US Presidents. He gained from the Bay of Pigs fiasco (from the US point of view, it was a great victory for Castro) a pledge by the US to the Russians that the US would never invade Cuba.

We have lived up to that pledge but supposedly have been involved in several covert assassination attempts which obviously failed.

As I have said. No matter what your views are on Castro and how you might celebrate his death you have to admit that he is one tough hombre.

Under Castro, Cuba has developed an excellent health care system. Their infant mortality rate is lower (better) than the US rate. Cuba doctors are highly trained and in demand by countries in Latin America.

Under Castro, Cuba has developed a highly successful athletic  program. For example, Cuban boxers and baseball teams do well in world class competition. The economy has had a tough time of it, partially due to a long lasting embargo by the US.  

Castro leaves behind a very strange legacy. Under Castro, Cubans have had to toe the line. His line. If you said anything against his government bad things could, and probably would, happen to you and to family.

Ron Paul is beginning to gain some traction in his bid for the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination. He is also beginning to raise more money and with no debts incurred actually has more cash to spend than the early front runner John McCain.

Ron Paul is a US House of Representatives Congressman representing the 14th District of Texas. More importantly he is the ONLY Presidential candidate and the ONLY congressmen whose policies are consistent and that make any sense.

Ron Paul feels that the size and spending of the US government is out of control. He feels that trying to be the policemen of the world is reckless, dangerous, and is going to bankrupt the United States. He cites the deployment of US troops in Europe more than 60 years after the end of WW Two. He also notes the deployment of troops in Korea more than 50 years after the armistice was signed.

Dr Paul, who was an US Air Force flight surgeon in the 1960’s, wants to restore liberties to the American people that the present and recent past generations of American Presidents, aided by a corrupt congress, have stripped away. He also wants to abolish the IRS and the oppressive and abusive income tax for individuals.

In addition, Paul thinks that the Federal Reserve bank should be abolished. The Fed thinks that it knows how best to manage your money even while all the time it insures that the value of your financial assets are constantly losing value due to planned inflation.  As the present sub prime mortgage disaster perfectly illustrates the Fed is as much as a cause of financial difficulties in the economy as the cure.   

Ron Paul’s opponents try to portray Dr Paul as a crackpot who has crazy ideas. Yet Ron Paul is the ONLY Republican candidate who opposed the Iraq war from the get go. He is the only Presidential candidate, Republican or Democrat, who has the guts to say that the United States has overreached in it’s desire to dominate the world and that it is time for us to take care of our own business at home.

Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate whose policies make real sense. Just listen to the rascal candidates of both parties. Money, power, and pride seem to be their interests, not in realistically addressing the considerable challenges faced by the United States.

Even Barack Obama, who says he opposed the Iraq war, but now says since we already have troops in the region should we receive “actionable intelligence” we have the right to and should attack insurgents within Pakistan, even without the consent of the Pakistani government.

In the international community that is still considered an act of war.  What if Venezuela thought it had actionable intelligence indicating that the US was planning to assassinate its President Hugo Chavez and launched a preemptive strike against US bases in Florida?