Dam Beavers

With all the talk about the 'envrionment', we sometmes forget about 'ecology'.

Beavers could play an important role in saving dwindling frog populations, according to new research by a PhD student at the University of Alberta.



And it is interesting that Canada's national emblem, the original source of Canada's and indeed Edmonton and Albertas,economy; the fur trade, today is a 'pest'.






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RAW RIP

Got this email from the folks over at the Grey Lodge.

Robert Anton Wilson Defies Medical Experts and leaves his body @4:50 AM on binary date 01/11.
All Hail Eris!

On behalf of his children and those who cared for him, deepest love and gratitude for the tremendous support and lovingness bestowed upon us.

(that's it from Bob's bedside at his fnord by the sea)

RAW Memorial February 07
date to be announced

Bob will be missed. But we have his irrerevent humour, his anarchism and his magick in his books, videos, tapes, etc. fnord

He did not suffer thanks to folks coming to his aid in the fall when he was going to be tossed out of his home and had wrung up huge medical expenses.

You can leave disincarnated comments to Bob on his blog.

Kallisti! Bob You Were The Pope, Now We Have To Elect A New One.

No We Don't We Are All Popes! Hail Eris !

"Term of all that liveth, whose name is Death and inscrutable, be thou favorable unto us in thine hour. And unto him, from whose mortal eyes the veil of physical life hath fallen, grant that there may be the accomplishment of his True Will. Should he will absorption in the Infinite, or to be united with his chosen and preferred, or to be in contemplation, or to be at peace, or to achieve the labour and heroism of incarnation on this planet or another or in any star, or aught else, unto him may there be granted the accomplishment of his true will." Gnostic Catholic Mass

KBOO Interview with author, Robert Anton Wilson.

Don't Let Them Immanentize the Eschaton!

Robert Anton Wilson, writing in "Cosmic Trigger II", also wondered about reality and, as a teenager, discovered the book Science and Sanity: "(Alfred) Korzybski had the answer to at least one question that had perplexed me for years - namely, `What is reality?.' According to Korzybski, the only correct way to answer the question begins with recognizing that reality is - a word." ("The Problem of Reality," page 167, Cosmic Trigger II by R. A.Wilson, 1991 New Falcon Publications)

The word "reality" is not real - it is merely a word that stands for what we sense as real and because the idea of real is different for everyone, one person's definition of reality differs greatly from another's. A person who sees themself as a hippy may include ideas or practices in their reality that a neuro-scientist may openly scoff at and define as "pseudo-science." Or, quoting again from Cosmic Trigger II, "... it does not appear accurate to say the world of our perceptions - the sensory-sensual world - `is real.' More accurately, we should say that we find it convenient to label that world as `real' most of the time, and that sometimes we have to revise the label and replace it with `optical illusion' or `hallucination.'" ("The Problem of Reality," page 168, Cosmic Trigger II by R. A.Wilson, 1991 New Falcon Publications)

Ironically today is Albert Hoffmans 101 birthday, thanks to better living through chemistry. And without Hoffman's child LSD we would not have had Leary and Wilson. Bob would get a kick out of that. "Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd. "

And just to show Bob will be with us still watch for this;

The Number 23 (opening 2/23 - get it?)

Second in the series of films bearing numerical names (is that a misnomer?), along with the more succinctly titled 300. This one strikes a chord of weirdness that will only be fully appreciated by those who've read the bizarre and obsessive Illuminatus! books of sage/mystic/mountebank Robert Anton Wilson. It'll be interesting to see whether this steals away the crown for most obscure, cultish mainstream film production of the current century, or if The Mothman Prophecies retains it. With Jim Carrey (as opposed to Richard Gere) in the starring role, I'm betting folks forget all about the critter from West Virginia with blazing red eyes and bat-like wings.

As the news of Bob's passing into the Duat spreads watch this space for more memorials because it has still to be reported in the news.

Bob on the web

See:

Help RAW

RIP

Crowley

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Anne McLellan Life After Politics

Out of government and not being a member of the ruling party now governing does not prevent Liberal honcho Anne McLellan from being offered perks and courted even by her political opponents.

Anne McLellan BA, LLB, LLM

Ms. McLellan, 56, serves as Counsel for Bennett Jones LLP. In addition, she is on the Board of Directors for Nexen, Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation, Community Outreach Committee for the Lois Hole Hospital for Women and is Chair of the Friends of the Legal Resource Centre. She joined Agrium’s Board in 2006.

She is still in the news as CTV News analyst Anne McLellan

She now sits on the Nexen board, the first woman appointed to the oil patch as a director. With much gushing from Oilweek Magazine. Whooo Wee, got us a woman in the old boys network.

And she sits on the Board of agribusiness giant; Agrium Inc.

Originally Agrium was Cominco Fertilizers, and then changed its name. It too relies upon the petrochemical industry to supply it with feed stock.

And she is being courted by the Alberta provincial Tories, since they lack any women in leadership.

Even the government news releases have an air of optimism about them.

One, which announced a government-sponsored conference to get more women involved in municipal politics, opens with this candid comment: "Although women make up half of Alberta's population, when it comes to municipal government only 23 per cent of elected positions are held by women."

It is a refreshingly blunt assessment of the problem, unusual for a government news release. Not only that, the Alberta-sponsored conference has as its keynote speaker a federal Liberal: former-deputy prime minister Anne McLellan, who chaired the Liberal Task Force on Women and Gender Balance in Politics.

And this should come as no surprise as she is a member of the same law firm as Peter Lougheed, a firm with long time Tory connections; Bennett Jones.

We are the only Canadian law firm ever mentioned in Petroleum Economist magazine's top-ten list of law firms with the best knowledge of international energy law;

See

Anne McLellan

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GrainVi$ion

Just googling around and I found this little item about the Wheat Board from the folks that want to kill it. It was addressed to Ralph Goodale and is from 2005. Clearly what the Liberals would not grant them Chuck Strahl has. And if you notice from the signatories, they are all Joe and Jane prairie family farmer. Not.

They really should have called their lobby GrainVi$ion. And why would these folks like to dismantle the Wheat Board well...Wheat Board Kicks 1.6 Billion Into Economy Annually And wouldnt that money be better in these guys pockets. They think so.

GrainVision

The CWB has recognized that changes are coming and has begun an internal restructuring
review. GrainVision maintains that it is essential that everyone with a stake in the industry
participate in restructuring decisions in the industry. A fundamental in-depth review of the grain marketing system in Western Canada needs to occur and cannot only include, or be led by, the CWB. We cannot support closed-door, internal, and unilateral CWB reforms that do not considerthe needs and views of the entire industry.

Substantial deregulation is necessary to ensure the industry’s long-term prosperity and sustainability.

The federal government must play a key role in guiding and implementing the
transition to a more commercial and flexible system that fits within the trading environment of the future.

This is particularly relevant in light of the government’s Smart Regulation initiative
that recognizes that we cannot continue to do things as they have always been done.
GrainVision signatories (attached) urge your Government to immediately initiate broad based, transparent, comprehensive, and inclusive consultations on the transition to a marketing system that:

a) Can adapt to a new trading environment;
b) Encourages the development of value added processing, niche marketing, and
closed loop identity preservation systems; and
c) Fosters innovation, investment, and development.

This is an urgent matter, as adjustments must begin without delay. GrainVision representatives
would like to meet with you within the next two months to discuss these important issues.
We will be contacting you shortly to arrange meetings.

Signatories
Agricore United
Alberta Barley Commission
Alberta Chambers of Commerce
Alberta Grain Commission
Alberta Rye and Triticale Association
Canadian Chamber of Commerce
Canadian Federation of Independent Business
Cargill Canada Inc.
Grain Growers of Canada
Graminae of Canada
Hayhoe Mills
Husbands Foods
Inland Terminals Association of Canada
James Richardson International Ltd.
John DePape Ltd.
Linnet - The Land Systems Company
North East Terminal Ltd.
Pike Management Group
Pioneer Hi-Bred Limited
Prairie Pasta Producers
Rahr Malting Canada Ltd.
Saskatchewan Canola Growers Association
Western Barley Growers Association
Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association
Western Pasta Growers
Weyburn Inland Terminal Ltd.
Winnipeg Commodity Exchange Inc.

See:

Wheat Board

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Downside of the Boom

Various folks continue to raise the red herring that raising minimum wages will hurt low paid workers. Somehow they will be worse off with higher wages, go figure, because small businesses will lay off workers supposedly ( despite studies showing that there is not a reduction in jobs after a minimum wage increase) or business won't higher students/unskilled workers, because they can't afford them. Sheesh, gimme a break.

Beating my head against a wall #1

There are times when I feel that I am beating my head against a brick wall. In Canadian Business (October 10, 1997) there is a column on school drop outs. I have always supported the concept of the minimum wage, so the argument that links minimum wage to school drop outs is not new to me. When I suggested to a die-hard Thatcher supporter in Britain that a minimum wage might be a good idea, I was told quite emphatically (with expletives thrown in) that I really didn't know what I was talking about. A recent study conducted by the University of Alberta examined minimum wage and drop out rates and found that money spent directly on education with the intention of reducing drop out rates is wasted. You see, the higher the minimum wage the more chance of students dropping out of school to get a job to earn money. It is an interesting argument.

These smart fellows seem to have missed the point that business can absorb the costs of rising wages, it's part of the costs of doing business, and is a cost that they write off as pre-tax operating costs. Which is why workers are variable capital. In other words it reduces their tax rates, workers wages and benefits are already a tax write off.

Which is why the Democrats in the U.S. congress did not get sucked in by the Republicans call for a tax break for small business and finally passed the U.S. minimum wage increase.

Which got the thumbs up from Lou Dobbs!
DOBBS: The Democrats -- the House today passed the minimum wage. Hallelujah!

Of course the Senate Democats having less of a majority may still give business an unneeded break.

Lets look at booming Alberta, where the base rate for workers is now between $8-$12 an hour. Business cannot find folks to work for less than $8 an hour at the low end despite the fact that the minimum wage is $7. In fact the average wage in unskilled work such as working at a 7/11 or at a local non union food wholesaler is $9.50 an hour and companies are offering a bonus of $700 if you stay with them for 1000 hours.

Still in Alberta even at these rates the cost of living needs means the minmum wage should be $10 an hour. The cost of living is a basket of goods, rent, food, utility, school, healthcare premiums, working people have to pay. That is the basis for calling for a $10 an hour minimum wage, not that it is a 'nice round number' like some smart folks assert.

Public Interest Alberta has released a report today that shows even in booming Alberta workers making $12 an hour are having a hard time making ends meet. And while as usual the call is to increase the minimum wage to PIA's credit they call for a Living Wage, as I have done here ad nauseum.

What boom?

Alberta social agencies and unions are calling on political leaders to "take off their rose-coloured glasses" and help families that are missing out on the boom.

They say it's a disgrace that 25% of Albertans are making less than $12 an hour and nearly 70,000 families are living below the poverty line in such a resource-rich province.

"There's a whole population of Albertans for whom the boom is little more than a faint echo," Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan said yesterday. "We think it's long past time our leaders acknowledge the fact that not everyone is sharing in the Alberta Advantage."

He called Alberta's $7 minimum wage "perverse."

Liberal employment critic Bruce Miller said it's hypocritical that MLAs' salaries are indexed to inflation but not the minimum wage or funding for disabled Albertans or others on social assistance. "I think it's deplorable," he said.

NDP critic David Eggen said the minimum wage should be immediately hiked to $10 per hour

A study commissioned by the advocacy organization, Public Interest Alberta, says single minimum-wage earners are taking home less than half the income they need to cover living costs.

But Employment Ministry spokesman Lorelei Fiset-Cassidy said the province is not considering hiking or indexing the province's minimum wage.

She said 97% of Albertans already earn more than minimum wage and Alberta just surpassed Ontario as having the highest average wage at $21 per hour.

But Judy Cook, 50, who makes less than $12 an hour after 14 years at a department store, told the Sun it's a struggle to get by on her income.

"I'm living worse now than I ever did," said Cook, who is renting a one-room basement suite in a friend's house. "I go nowhere and do nothing because I can't afford it. I have friends and family that help me out, but it's very tough."

Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Public Interest Alberta executive director, called on the government to adopt policies that ensure that contracts are only awarded to companies that pay "living wages."

The report, written by the Edmonton Social Planning Council, also calls for the minimum wage and funding for social assistance programs to be indexed.

The report demonstrates that Alberta’s minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation (now $7.00 compared to a high in 1976 of $9.50 / hour in 2005 constant dollars) and cannot be considered a living wage. It also provides the latest statistics showing that close to 25% of all employed Albertans earned less than $12/ hour in 2005. While not everyone earning less than $12/ hour lives in poverty, one in five Alberta families with children under 18 (68,700 families) earn less than Statistics Canada’s low-income cut off (LICO) before income supports.

It is interesting to note that where you have higher unionization rates you have less folks working for the minimum wage. That is because unionization leads the general market to increase its wages and benefits for all workers for two reasons; to keep unions out and to keep competitve with unionized businesses. Alberta and America share something in commong, low rates of unionization, which is why the minimum wage is low.

DAVID SHIPLER: You know, Jeff Rosensweig, at Emory University, did a little calculation that showed that, for the minimum wage in 2009 to have the same purchasing power as the minimum wage did in 1978, it would have to be $9.25 an hour, not $7.25.

One problem is the decline of union membership. It's lower now than it's been since the Depression. About 12.5 percent of American workers are in unions. And in the private sector, it's only 7.8 percent, which means we almost don't have labor unions in the United States, which means that the playing field is tilted.

You know, if you have a free market, in a really free market, the buyer and the seller both have to be on a level playing field. The seller of labor now is, at the low income levels, is not on a level playing field. They can't collectively bargain.

Now, there's a bill before Congress that's been there for a while, supported by a few Republicans in the Northeast, that would facilitate union organizing in the workplace. It wouldn't cost the federal government a dime to pass this. And it would probably help a great deal and a great many people, actually.

Gee that would be great for America, and it would be great if we had progressive labour laws in Alberta, like automatic union recognition, automatic first contracts and No Scab legislation.

See:

Wages

Minimum Wage

Social Wage

Jason Cherniak

Unions


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Dion, Layton, No Harper

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion will be in Edmonton today.

NDP Leader Jack Layton will be in Edmonton next Friday

And still no sign of PM Stephen Harper.

The guy takes Redmonton and Alberta for granted.

Which is a mistake, and that might be a good thing.



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Ho Hum

Well I watched the much hyped new CBC 'comedy' Little Mosque on the Prairie, a pale imitation of CTV's very successful Corner Gas.

Little Mosque has been getting buzz for weeks, with everyone from the BBC to CNN running items on the comedy, the creation of Muslim filmmaker Zarqa Nawaz.The CBC, struggling terribly in the ratings, had a lot invested in the show and promoted it with uncharacteristic cash and vigour, including an event at downtown Toronto's Dundas Square last week that featured free chicken shawarma and a band of friendly camels.

Amatuer, banal, boring, snorefest, are terms that come to mind. That and it seriously needed a laugh track so we can follow the jokes. There were jokes?

And lots of references to Toronto proving it was produced in the very town that loves to hate itself, folks out west could care less about Toronto. Filmed in the backlot of a Toronto studio, which should be no surprize since the only thing CBC does out West is a Newsworld Broadcast from Calgary.

Will this show survive? Perhaps, since it will appeal to its Toronto audience. The rest of us are of course insensitive hicks as the show painfully tried to parody.

I don't see this playing on the screens at my favorite Spice Palace all you can eat buffet in Millwoods. Yep no Muslims out west. Except that the first Mosque in Canada was not in Toronto, or Montreal but in Edmonton.

And by the by last time I checked shawarma is a Lebanese dish. And last time I checked the Lebanese community in Canada has as many Druze and Christians as it does Muslims.

Now what they should have served if they were really on the prairies is Shai Butter Chicken.

See

TV

CBC


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Criminal Capitalism Redux

I guess they couldn't wait to get their bonuses. They thought it was just business as usual.

A total of six employees of the Siemens telecommunications unit Com have been arrested in connection with diverting the money to foreign bank accounts believed set up in order to pay bribes.

A former Siemens board member and three other employees were taken into custody last week, and two more suspects were detained on Wednesday, according to prosecutors in Munich.

The detentions followed a November 15 raid by 270 police and tax officials on the company's headquarters and other offices and private homes as part of an international investigation into bribery by company employees.

Altogether a total of 12 people are suspected of embezzling funds. A key focus of the investigation centres on contracts surrounding the security system for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, according to German media reports.

On Thursday, prosecutors announced they had charged a former DaimlerChrysler executive with embezzling 40 million euros between 2000 and 2005.

The man, who is in pre-trial detention, is alleged to have set up three dummy companies and submitted false invoices which were approved by the accounts department where he worked. Some 20 million euros was recovered when the fraud was exposed last year.

DaimlerChrysler earlier this year suspended several senior managers in its bus-making division and dismissed high-ranking employees over irregularities in its distribution network.

Criminal Capitalism remains the story of the year.

And like the recent CEO's pay scandals in the United States, or the back dating of stock options, captialism is a criminal activity until its made public.

Until then it is simply business as usual. No one though goes to jail, unlike the poor worker who is caught shoplifting or say engaging in robbery to keep body and soul together.

Nope White Collar crime ain't really a crime, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

Once exposed then and only then does the captialist concede that maybe, just maybe they have done something wrong. But even then that isn't always the case. Take Steve Jobs and Apple for example.

An investigation into stock option irregularities by Apple has cleared its current executive team of any misconduct, although CEO Steve Jobs was found to be aware or recommended favorable grant dates, the company said in its regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Based on the findings of the independent investigation, Apple will take an additional non-cash charge of $84 million, after tax. This charge includes $4 million, $7 million and 10 million in fiscal years 2006, 2005 and 2004 respectively.

While Jobs was aware of the grants, the probe concluded that he did not financially benefit from any of the grants. The special committee set up to investigate the irregularities raised concerns regarding the actions of two former officers in connection with the accounting, recording and reporting of stock option grants.

While the probe did not name the officers, Fred Anderson, former chief financial officer resigned from the board in October as the company announced the internal investigation’s end. He said then he believed it was in Apple’s best interest for him to resign. Nancy Heinen, former senior vice president and general counsel left the company, quietly and without comment, in May. At the time, a company spokesman confirmed she had left, but couldn’t say why.

In Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs is admired for many things: His storybook resuscitation of Apple Computer Inc., his billion-dollar-plus fortune, his rock star status as the driving force behind iconic products such as the iPod. Near the top of the list is Jobs's famed ability to spin what admiring techies refer to as a "reality distortion field" to win consumers over to the Apple view of the world.

But will it work with government regulators? As Jobs prepares to wow the masses once again with his keynote at the annual Macworld trade show on Jan. 9, skepticism abounds among options experts, as well as techies, that the Apple chief executive is totally in the clear over his role in resetting start dates for company stock options. A report issued on Dec. 29 by a two-member special committee, composed of no less than former Vice-President Al Gore and tough-minded finance veteran Jerome B. York, "found no misconduct" by Jobs or other managers. Yet it acknowledged that he knew about some of the 6,428 option grants handed out between late 1996 and early 2003--roughly 15% of the total in that time--that were improperly dated to give employees an artificially low price. On some occasions, Jobs even recommended the dates.

See

CEO

Stock Options

Corporate Crime

White Collar Crime

Criminal Capitalism

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Lily Munster RIP

Death of A Scream Queen.

The Goth Queen of the Sixties Yvonne De Carlo. Back when Goth was fun, a parody of early horror films.

Yvonne De Carlo in full makeup as Lily Munster in 1966's "Munster Go Home."

De Carlo chats with James Stewart, who was working nearby, in 1948.

Yvonne De Carlo, the beautiful star who played Moses' wife in "The Ten Commandments" but achieved her greatest popularity on TV's "The Munsters," has died. She was 84.

De Carlo, whose shapely figure helped launch her career in B-movie desert adventures and Westerns, rose to more important roles in the 1950s. Later, she had a key role in a landmark Broadway musical, Stephen Sondheim's "Follies."

But for TV viewers, she will always be known as Lily Munster in the 1964-1966 slapstick horror-movie spoof "The Munsters." The series (the name allegedly derived from "fun-monsters") offered a gallery of Universal Pictures grotesques, including Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, in a cobwebbed gothic setting.

Yvonne De Carlo, the beautiful star who played Moses' wife in "The Ten Commandments" but achieved her greatest popularity on TV's "The Munsters," has died. She was 84.

De Carlo was born Peggy Yvonne Middleton in Vancouver, British Columbia, on September 1, 1922 (some sources say 1924). Abandoned by her father, she was raised by her mother in poor circumstances. The girl took dancing lessons and dropped out of high school to work in night clubs and local theaters. She continued dancing in clubs when she and her mother moved to Los Angeles.

Paramount Pictures signed her to a contract in 1942, and she adopted her middle name and her mother's middle name. Dropped by Paramount after 20 minor roles, she landed at Universal, which cast her as the B-picture version of the studio's sultry star Maria Montez.

Lily Munster was modeled on the earlier Scream Queen; Vampira.

Maila Nurmi (born Maila Syrjäniemi, December 21, 1921 in Petsamo, Finland — now Pechenga, Russia) created the well-remembered 1950s character of Vampira. Her portrayal of this character as a television horror host and in films was influential over decades that
followed.

Apparently, there remains some rare footage of the Vampira show in the KABC archives, as it remains extremely difficult to view her in the media that made her so popular. A Finnish documentary about Maila was shot in 1995, entitled Death, Sex and Taxes. In 1998, she returned to movies for I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, from an old Ed Wood script and starring Billy Zane. She can still be seen on the star conventions circuit.

Of course Elvira is also modeled on the Vampira character for her camp take off for another LA TV station

SEE:

Grandpa Munster RIP

RIP


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Vietnamization of Iraq

Tonight the President of the United States declared his dream of Empire defeated.

Bush Says He Takes Responsibility for Mistakes in Iraq

He has declared, that like the Viet Nam war, he will rely upon the Iraqization of the war, and rotate in more troops.

Bush Stresses Iraqi Role, More Troops in New War Plan

Many are not new troops but extensions of existing troops in the field and rotation of troops only recently removed from Iraq. There are no more troops to be had.

So the U.S. will rely upon its puppet government in Iraq to provide for some front line troops to be backed up by the U.S. just as it had in Viet Nam. All the talk over the last month has been about how this 'surge' will be led by the Iraqi's. And the result will be the same as the fall of Saigon.

By the end of 2007 the Americans will be rushing out of the Green Zone in Baghdad as they did in Viet-Nam.

The greatest irony is that Gerald Ford who passed away earlier this month was
the President when Saigon fell.

No wonder he thought Bush's war ill advised, he remembered too well the Viet Nam debacle when his Secretary of Defense was Donald Rumsfeld.

We have gone from Mission Accomplished, to a plan for Victory to a plan for success to a 'surge' plan. This was the wrong war at the wrong time for the wrong reasons. And now the chickens come home to roost.


'Surge' Debate a Classic Test of Power of the Purse

It was 32 years ago this winter when a heavily Democratic Congress, elected in the Watergate year of 1974, ended a decade of acquiescence and said no to the Vietnam War.

By then, the bulk of U.S. forces had been withdrawn and the war was almost entirely in the hands of the Vietnamese.

But there were still many diplomats and other Americans in the city that was still known as Saigon as well as elsewhere in the country that was still known as South Vietnam. And there were still tens of thousands of Vietnamese who had risked their standing and their well-being to serve alongside the Americans.

Beyond all these lives, the fate of that country still bore enormous implications for the prestige of the United States. The human investment that had been made there in the 1960s and 1970s, along with the inestimable consequences back in the U.S., would make Vietnam the most compelling issue of the era for tens of millions of Americans — if not for the nation as a whole.

At no time in the three decades of ensuing history has an American president been in quite so similar a predicament. But that has changed in the past year. President Bush began 2006 with a plausible case to make about the emergent, plucky democracy in Iraq. Millions had defied violence to vote and a government was taking shape. But with the bombing of the Al Askari mosque in Samarra in February, the insurgency in Iraq took a more viciously sectarian turn. For the remainder ofn 2006, the situation "on the ground" continued to deteriorate, with sharp growth in the rate of casualties among U.S. troops and Iraqis alike.

A U.S. military Apache attack helicopter flies over Baghdad. Smoke rises over central Baghdad as U.S. and Iraqi troops battle insurgents.

Claiming the Prize: Bush Surge Aimed at Securing Iraqi Oil
The American "surge" will be blended into the new draconian effort announced over the weekend by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki: an all-out war by the government's Shiite militia-riddled "security forces" on Sunni enclaves in Baghdad, as the Washington Post reports. American troops will "support" the "pacification effort" with what Maliki says calls "house-to-house" sweeps of Sunni areas. There is of course another phrase for this kind of operation: "ethnic cleansing."

So Bush will surge with Maliki and his ethnic cleansing for now. If the effort flames out in a disastrous crash that makes the situation worse – as it almost certainly will – Bush will simply back another horse. What he seeks in Iraq is not freedom or democracy but "stability" – a government of any shape or form that will deliver the goods. As the Independent wryly noted in its Sunday story, Dick Cheney himself revealed the true goal of the war back in 1999, in a speech he gave when he was still CEO of Halliburton. "Where is the oil going to come from" to slake the world's ever-growing thirst, asked Cheney, then answered his own question. "The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies."

See:

Iraq


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