carapace – Not your father's america

Minimum Wage Hike

The federal minimum wage will increase 70 cents per hour Thursday to $6.55 per hour.

HOLLY SKLAR, hsklar@aol.com, http://www.letjusticeroll.org

Co-author of the report “A Just Minimum Wage: Good For Workers, Business and Our Future” and the book “Raise The Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All of Us,” Sklar said today: “The July 24 minimum wage raise is so little, so late that workers will still make less than they did in 1997 — the start of the longest period in history without a raise — and way less than 1968, adjusting for the increased cost of living. The new $6.55 minimum wage is lower than 1997’s minimum wage of $6.88 in 2008 dollars, and way lower than the $9.86 value of the minimum wage of 1968. That translates into $20,509 a year at the 1968 rate, compared with just $13,624 at $6.55 an hour. The minimum wage does not provide a minimally adequate living standard — and it still won’t when the last scheduled raise to $7.25 takes place next July. Workers are constantly choosing what to go without — ‘heat or eat,’ childcare or healthcare — while the richest 1 percent of Americans has increased their share of the nation’s income to a higher level than any year since  1928, the eve of the Great Depression. Minimum wage workers don’t put raises into predatory lending Ponzi schemes, commodity speculation or offshore tax havens. They recycle their needed raises back into local businesses and the economy through increased spending. Paying workers enough to live on should not be optional.”

                          ==========

How much more can consumers be squeezed by stagnant income, skyrocketing household costs, and falling home prices?

Testimony of Jared Bernstein, Senior Economist, Economic Policy Institute Joint Economic Committee  of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives,

July 23, 2008.

http://tinyurl.com/63972f   (www.epi.org)

                          ==========

THE U.S. ECONOMY IS SOCIALISM FOR THE RICH

By Michael Leon Guerrero, Movement Vision Lab

Free market capitalism in the United States is by no means “free.” It’s time we recognize this and move past the destructive neoliberal agenda.

http://www.alternet.org/stories/92426/

                          ==========

Federal Reserve Beige Book July 2008 Federal Reserve Beige Book July 2008

[Summary with links to District reports]: “Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts suggest that the pace of economic activity slowed somewhat since the last report. Five eastern Districts noted a weakening or softening in their overall economies, while Chicago characterized its economy as sluggish and Kansas City noted a moderation in growth. St. Louis said activity was stable and San Francisco reported little or no growth. Cleveland and Minneapolis reported slight increases in economic activity, while Dallas described growth as steady and moderate.”
Full Report – July 23, 2008 Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions by Federal Reserve District”

http://tinyurl.com/64nthr   (www.federalreserve.gov)

                          ==========

Senate Republicans preventing crackdown on oil speculators

23 Jul 2008

A partisan squabble GOP efforts in the Senate Wednesday threatened to sink a bill meant to crack down on oil speculators. On Wednesday, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), one of the main sponsors of the bill, pleaded for Republicans to help “wring excessive speculation” from the oil markets, which he says is responsible for 71 percent of the price of a barrel of oil this year. Some analysts say speculation has added between $40 to $60 dollars to a barrel of oil.

At:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/23/congress.oil/

From: CLG News

                          ==========

Farm Foundation Report: What’s Driving Food Prices? What’s Driving Food Prices?, July 2008:

“Understanding the complex and multiple factors influencing food prices today is important as future policy options are debated, according to a new study released today by Farm Foundation…Written by Purdue University economists Wallace Tyner, Christopher Hurt and Philip Abbott, the study identifies three broad sets of forces driving food price increases: global changes in production and consumption of key commodities, the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, and growth in the production of biofuels.”

http://tinyurl.com/5cuhph    (www.farmfoundation.org)

                          ==========

Dobson may back McCain because “he seems to understand the Muslim threat”

Revealing his “moral dilemma” about the 2008 presidential campaign, Focus on the Family’s James Dobson said that while “neither of the candidates is consistent with my views,” Sen. John McCain “comes closer to what I believe” than Sen. Barack Obama, adding that McCain “seems to understand the Muslim threat.”

Read More

http://mediamatters.org/items/200807230009?lid=466714&rid=11474908

                          ==========

New Video Update from Congressman Ron Paul – Housing Bill

Congressman Ron Paul discusses the Housing Bill in this new video.

To watch, visit the congressional webpage and click on the top video on the right.

http://www.house.gov/paul/index.shtml

Also, don’t forget to read this week’s column “Faith-Based Currency” at the same link if you missed it.  Some of you may have had trouble with the link sent Monday, so I apologize for that.

Rachel Mills
Communications Director
Congressman Ron Paul

                          ==========

And now for the important news ….

By Argus Hamilton

Senator Larry Craig gave a Senate speech Tuesday that raised eyebrows. He said the U.S. shouldn’t let other countries jerk us around by the gas nozzle. If he had said that with his foot he would have been thrown in jail for violating his probation.

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com

                          ==========

three thousand words

RJ Matson: NO TIMETABLE

http://www.rjmatson.com/images/cartoons/RC1286.jpg

John Branch: wind power

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/BrancJ/2008/BrancJ20080724_low.jpg

Glenn Foden: surfing the sargasso

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/FodenG/2008/FodenG20080723_low.jpg

July 2008 Southwest Climate Outlook

The July Southwest Climate Outlook is online. This month’s outlook provides recent drought conditions and the latest seasonal forecasts. The feature article is entitled “Understanding the southwestern monsoon.”  This month’s cover photo was provided by Zack Guido. You can both view the latest Southwest Climate Outlook in html format or view the printer-friendly PDF file at:

http://www.climas.arizona.edu/forecasts/swoutlook.html

Highlights from the July 2008 Outlook

Drought – Above-average monsoon rainfall in the last month has substantially reduced drought severity in southern and southeastern Arizona and New Mexico.

Temperature – Temperatures across western and central Arizona have been 2–6 degrees F above average, while temperatures around central and southeastern New Mexico have been 0–2 degrees F cooler than average.

Precipitation – In the past 30 days, most of southern New Mexico and southern Arizona have received 200–800 percent of average precipitation.

Monsoon – Intense monsoon storms have generated above-average precipitation for nearly all of Arizona and New Mexico.

ENSO – Sea-surface temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean are near-average. ENSO-neutral conditions have returned.

Climate Forecasts – The long-lead forecast made by the Climate Prediction Center for April through June matched well with the observations of below-average precipitation and slightly warmer-than-average temperatures in the Southwest.

The Bottom Line – Thanks to a wet, early monsoon season, predicted by forecasters, Arizona could escape the summer relatively unscarred by fire. Although the monsoon rains have been welcome by fire managers, who are now diverting most Arizona fire-fighting resources to other parts of the country, severe weather from intense storms will continue to create hazards such as flash floods, high winds, and dust storms.

Kristen E. Nelson
Associate EditorInstitute for the Study of Planet Earth715 N. Park Ave., 2nd FloorTucson, AZ 85721(520) 622-9001

                          ==========

The lowdown on offshore oil reserves

David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 22, 2008

(07-21) 21:03 PDT — U.S. offshore oil fields could hold enough crude to supply all of the country’s needs for more than 11 years.

Or they might not. No one knows for certain because, with new offshore oil drilling banned on the East and West coasts, no one has gone looking for oil there in years.

Now congressional Republicans are pushing hard to make offshore drilling a key issue in the presidential campaign, hoping to channel the anger Americans feel over historically high oil and gasoline prices. More oil, they argue, will bring lower prices.

The federal government estimates the nation’s outer continental shelf might hold 85.9 billion barrels of crude, including 10.13 billion barrels off California. For comparison, the United States consumes about 7.56 billion barrels of oil per year. The nation’s sea floor also could hold 419.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, equal to U.S. consumption for 14 1/2 years. But the federal estimates are just that – estimates.

“You don’t really know what’s there until you go out and drill a well,” said Ken Medlock, an energy research fellow at Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. “And even then, you’re not 100 percent sure of what you’re going to get.”

In addition, offshore oil exploration is slow and costly.

If the federal government opened California’s coast to drilling tomorrow, the first exploratory wells probably wouldn’t be drilled for at least six years, Medlock said. Bringing newly discovered oil fields into full production would take longer.

Complete article at:

http://tinyurl.com/5ju8yb  (www.sfgate.com)

E-mail David R. Baker at dbaker@sfchronicle.com

                          ==========

Western Oil Shale Potential:

800 Billion Barrels of Recoverable Oil News release: “The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management today published proposed regulations to establish a commercial oil shale program that could result in the addition of up to 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from lands in the western United States. In keeping with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, the BLM is proposing regulations that would provide the critical “rules of the road” on which private investors will rely in determining whether to make future financial commitments to prospective oil shale projects.”

http://federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2008-16275_PI.pdf

                          ==========

Speculating all the way to financial Armageddon

Peter Switzer
July 23, 2008

A MATE rang me wanting to dump his industry super fund’s growth option and go to the conservative cash alternative. He said he wanted to sleep at night and that the markets worried him.

I asked him what his fund had returned for the financial year that had made him so negative?

He replied minus 1 per cent. I don’t get it. The market lost 17 per cent for the financial year, this was not a bad result and for five years the fund had delivered double-digit returns.

I know super fund members get fed drivel from some of my silly media mates desperate for a story but all super members need to know that interest rates from banks — the safe way — will leave you in the poor house in the long term.

If you’re a nimble investor, who gambles on timing the market, you would have sold your shares, used the capital loss for your tax return and hoped that your fixed deposits mature before the market rebounds.

Of course, that’s a near-impossible play to get right. So when does the market rebound? I must confess it seems longer away today than two months ago. There are four big drags but I reckon one is critical to a market turnaround.

The four horses that have created Apocalypse Dow have been the credit crunch’s hit to financial systems, a probable US and now possible global recession, inflation, and the oil price.

While the threats to the financial system and the uncertainty it has created for banks worldwide has affected ability to raise funds and the price of such funds, it is the supply and price of oil that has the power to have the biggest impact on any rebound.

This was another thing I didn’t get until my recent overseas trip made me think and read more laterally. Time on your hands and a Greek island’s sun can have that effect.

No matter how hard I scratched my head I couldn’t work out how oil went to $US147 a barrel.

You see, China is growing around the same 10 per cent rates as the past few years when oil hovered around $US70-80 a barrel but now the US and Britain are skating close to recession. Euroland is not faring much better and Japan has hopped back into its growth basket case.

The obvious answer is damn speculators, who are creating a bubble, causing worldwide inflation, forcing up interest rates in places like Australia and sowing the seeds for a recession or a serious slowdown. And of course they are hurting share prices.

Ed Wallace writing in Business Week explains how oil prices can rise while the economies that use the stuff are producing and demanding less, while consumption is not falling.
 

“In 2000 approximately $9 billion was invested in oil futures, while today that number has gone up to $250 billion,” he writes. “Now, if any publicly traded company had an additional $US241 billion put into its stock in the same period, its stock would rise out of sight too, even if the company was not worth anywhere near that amount of market capitalisation.”

…

Complete article at:

http://tinyurl.com/5vw62u  (www.theaustralian.news.com.au)

Peter Switzer is founder of Switzer Financial Services  www.switzer.com.au

                          ==========

CFTC.gov Press Releases Update

5520-08, Interagency Task Force on Commodity Markets Releases Interim Report on Crude Oil

http://tinyurl.com/5e6bbr  (www.cftc.gov)

                          ==========

Booming oil means record 2Q sales for Halliburton –Revenue rose to record $4.48 billion

22 Jul 2008

Halliburton’s second-quarter profit fell about 67 percent from a year ago, when it recorded a nearly $1 billion gain from its split with former subsidiary KBR, but the oilfield services provider posted record revenue and said prospects look good for the remainder of 2008. Revenue rose to a record $4.48 billion from $3.73 billion a year ago, beating Wall Street’s $4.25 billion average estimate.

At:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080722/earns_halliburton.html

From: CLG News

                          ==========

AMERICA’S MIDDLE CLASS CAN’T TAKE MUCH MORE PUNISHMENT

By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com

Whether we like it or not, America is in the midst of revolutionary economic changes that are crushing the middle class.

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/92431/

                          ==========

Limbaugh on Obama: “[H]e loathes America. He blames America. America’s responsible for all that’s wrong in the world” 

On the July 21 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh claimed that Sen. Barack Obama “is not a great thinker” but rather a “believer” and asserted that Obama has been “indoctrinated at his schools” to believe “that the United States is at root responsible for the way we are treated and seen by those who hate us.” Limbaugh added: “It’s a form of self-loathing, ladies and gentlemen — not of himself, of course, ’cause he’s the messiah — but in the aggregate self-loathing of nation, the kind of self-loathing of America that the left here and in Europe embraces. And that’s why they love Obama — because he loathes America. He blames America. America’s responsible for all that’s wrong in the world.”

Read More

http://mediamatters.org/items/200807220007?lid=464433&rid=11429856

                          ==========

And now for the important news …. 

By Argus Hamilton

The Dayton Air Show in Ohio was interrupted Sunday when a diverted Northwest Airlines jet was forced to make an emergency landing on the audience-lined runway. The plane made an uneventful landing. The audience demanded their money back.

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com

                          ==========

Three thousand words

Tom Tomorrow: McCain Mania

http://politicalirony.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/story-3-600×549.jpg

Matt Davies: carbon footprint

http://davies.lohudblogs.com/files/2008/07/0720davies.jpg

Tom Toles: Sound Familiar?

http://img.slate.com/media/16/080722_ed.gif

Would Off-Shore Oil Drilling Save You Money?

By Annie Bell Muzaurieta
7.22.2008

As Senator John McCain urges for more oil drilling, some in Washington still oppose lifting the ban that’s been in place for 27 years (interesting, a Washington Post article points out, since McCain was opposed to the practice himself, most notably in his 2000 presidential campaign, until he reversed his position last month).

People all over the country stand on different sides of the argument.

But just how much oil exists offshore, anyway?

An article in the San Francisco Chronicle suggests that U.S. offshore oil fields could hold enough crude to supply all of the country’s needs for more than 11 years.

Or they might not. No one knows, of course, because no one has looked for new oil sources off the east and west coasts of the country for years.

The article says the federal government estimates that the nation’s outer continental shelf might hold 85.9 billion barrels of crude, including 10.13 billion barrels off California. For perspective, the United States consumes about 7.56 billion barrels of oil per year.

Ken Medlock, an energy research fellow at Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy is quoted: “You don’t really know what’s there until you go out and drill a well. And even then, you’re not 100 percent sure of what you’re going to get.”

The process is so slow that any new oil wouldn’t be available to consumers until midway through the next decade, suggesting that offshore drilling is not going to make a difference at the pump.

The U.S. Department of Energy, estimated last year that opening the coasts to offshore drilling would have no significant impact on oil prices before 2030.

http://tinyurl.com/6bwvn3  (www.thedailygreen.com/)

                          ==========

EIA, the Nation’s clearinghouse for energy statistics – Today’s Gasoline Prices

RETAIL GASOLINE: (Self Service Prices per Gallon, Including Taxes)

This report contains price estimates for gasoline sold in ozone non-attainment areas which require the sale of reformulated gasoline (RFG) as designated by the Environmental Protection Agency, and Conventional areas which includes both attainment areas and carbon monoxide non-attainment areas.

Mogas web site url

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/fwd/wrgp.html

                          ==========

JOHN MCCAIN’S DISASTER ECONOMICS

By Frank Rich, The New York Times

If voters got a fair presentation of John McCain’s economic plan, the idea of him winning the White House would cause mass panic.

http://www.alternet.org/election08/92282/

                          ==========

On Meet the Press, Brokaw attributed proposal for gas-tax holiday to Clinton, but not McCain

On Meet the Press, Tom Brokaw asked Al Gore if, on the subject of renewable energy, “Hillary Clinton reset this debate when she said there should be a summer holiday on the federal gas tax.” But Brokaw did not mention that Sen. John McCain also proposed a gas-tax holiday or that one of his top advisers still touts the plan as “the best stimulus package we can have right now.”

Read More

http://mediamatters.org/items/200807210005?lid=462333&rid=11384802

                          ==========

Death of Free Internet is Imminent- Canada Will Be Test Case

By Kevin Parkinson
20 Jul 2008

In the upcoming weeks watch for a report in Time Magazine that will attempt to smooth over the rough edges of a diabolical plot by Bell Canada and Telus, to begin charging per site fees on most Internet sites. The plan is to convert the Internet into a cable-like system, where customers sign up for specific web sites, and then pay to visit sites beyond a cutoff point. From my browsing (on the currently free Internet) I have discovered that the ‘demise’ of the free Internet is slated for 2010 in Canada, and two years later around the world.

At:

http://tinyurl.com/5gnk46  (realitycheck.typepad.com)

From: CLG News

                          ==========

National security observers explain FISA ins and outs 

By Shane Harris, National Journal

The amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that President Bush signed on July 10 may be the most significant rewrite of the government’s spying powers in a generation. But you might not know that from reading the legislation. It is a dense, often opaque, and patchworked set of new authorities that has puzzled even the few people who can actually call themselves FISA experts.

In many ways, the “new” FISA legalizes what the Bush administration was doing outside the purview of the “old” FISA for years after 9/11 — collecting and monitoring, without court orders, communications coming into and going out of the United States. But in important respects the revised legislation also places a check on the government’s powers to gather intelligence. The law is by no means clear on every point, and to say that it represents a political compromise masks the deep divisions between its critics and supporters. Everyone agrees on only a couple of points: This law is a dramatic change, and the next president will have to wrestle with it again. The legislation expires in four years.

In an attempt to cut through the confusion, National Journal consulted experts in national security law who have been closely tracking FISA’s evolution. We do not dissect every component of the legislation or air all of the passionate arguments for and against it. Rather, we hope to explain the basics of what the law allows; what it doesn’t; and how it affects Americans’ everyday communications, their civil liberties, and their security. Following are some of the most frequently asked questions about the new FISA, and a first crack at the answers.

Full story:

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=40517&dcn=e_gvet

                          ==========

Florida Legislature Commission on Capital Cases

Daily and Annual Costs of Housing Florida Death Row Inmates

http://www.floridacapitalcases.state.fl.us/Publications/Costs%20Analysis%20FINAL%2006.11.08.pdf

Currently, death row inmates are housed in one of the four following institutions: Union Correctional Institute, Florida State Prison, Lake Correctional Institute, and Lowell Annex. Based on Fiscal Year 2004-05 costs, Florida State Prison maintains highest reported daily operation costs ($72.89 per day) of the four Florida institutions currently housing death row inmates, but only houses 15.1% of this population. Union Correctional Institute houses the majority of Florida death row inmates (84.1%) and operates at a lower cost of $68 per day. Lake Correctional Institute houses two death row inmates while Lowell Annex houses Florida’s only female death row inmate. Both of these institutions report lower operations costs than Union and Florida State Prison. Florida spends over $9.6 million per year housing its capital defendants as they undergo the appeals process. Services provided to the average death row inmate costs $68.64 daily and $25,070.76 annually

                          ==========

Congressman Ron Paul’s Texas Straight Talk

Faith-Based Currency

“The Latin term “fiat” roughly translates to “there shall be”.  When we refer to fiat money, we are referring to money that exists because the government declares it into existence.  It is not based on production or earnings, and not backed by any commodity.  It is solely based on trusting the government.  Fiat money is exchanged in the economy as long as there is faith in the government that issues it.”

Click here to read the full article:

www.house.gov/paul

                          ==========

Borowitz Report – Historic Visit Shocker

McCain Makes Historic First Visit to Internet

Will Spend Five Days at Key Sites

In a daring bid to wrench attention from his Democratic rival in the 2008 presidential race, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) today embarked on an historic first-ever visit to the Internet.

Given that the Arizona Republican had never logged onto the Internet before, advisors acknowledged that his first visit to the World Wide Web was fraught with risk.

But with his Democratic rival Barack Obama making headlines with his tour of the Middle East and Europe, the McCain campaign felt that they needed to “come up with something equally bold for John to do,” according to one advisor.

McCain aides said that the senator’s journey to the Internet will span five days and will take him to such far-flung sites as Amazon.com, eBay and Facebook.

With a press retinue watching, Sen. McCain logged onto the Internet at 9:00 AM Sunday, paying his first-ever visit ever to Mapquest.com.

“I can’t get this [expletive] thing to work,” Sen. McCain said as he struggled with his computer’s mouse, causing his wife Cindy to prompt him to add that he was “just kidding.”

Having pronounced his visit to Mapquest a success, Sen. McCain continued his tour by visiting Weather.com and Yahoo! Answers, where he inquired as to the difference between Sunnis and Shiites.

Sen. McCain said that he had embarked on his visit to the Internet to allay any fears that he is too out-of-touch to be president, adding that he plans to take additional steps to demonstrate that he is comfortable with today’s technology: “In the days and weeks ahead, you will be seeing me rock out with my new Walkman.”

Andy with Jeffrey Toobin and Joy Behar – October 22
Andy hosts “Countdown to the Election, with special guests Joy Behar (The View) and Jeffrey Toobin (CNN, bestselling author of “The Nine”) at the 92nd Street Y in NYC on October 22 at 8 PM. For tickets go to www.92y.org .

http://www.borowitzreport.com/

                          ==========

three thousand words

Chan Lowe: time horizon … time table …

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/LoweC/2008/LoweC20080722_low.jpg

Ted Rall: mccain / torture

http://img.slate.com/media/52/080721_ed.gif

Zippy the Pinhead: gross encounter

http://pst.rbma.com/content/Zippy_the_Pinhead?date=20080719&size=hires

Bank Recycling of Petro Dollars to Emerging Market Economies During the Current Oil Price Boom

International Monetary Fund Working Paper No. 08/180, by Johannes Wiegand:

“High oil prices have once again led to large external surpluses of oil exporting countries, similar to the 1970s and 1980s. This paper analyzes the extent to which (i) oil exporters use bank deposits to invest these surpluses, and (ii) banks are lending on these funds to emerging market economies. Bank recycling of petro dollars to emerging market economies is found to be almost as important as in the 1970s and 1980s, even though during the current boom, petro dollar bank flows tend to originate in countries like Russia, Libya, or Nigeria rather than in the Middle East. As one consequence, a fall in oil prices could yet again disrupt financing flows to emerging economies. Especially at risk could be countries that rely heavily on bank loans to finance external deficits, many of them in Emerging Europe.”

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2008/wp08180.pdf

                          ==========

Russia’s energy drive leaves US reeling

by M K Bhadrakumar
 

Global Research, July 18, 2008
Asian Times

Last week, the gloves finally came off the Dmitry Medvedev presidency in Russia. It had to happen sooner or later, but few would have expected this soon. It was crystal clear US President George W Bush administered a diplomatic snub to Medvedev on the sidelines of the Group of Eight (G-8) summit meeting at Hokkaido, Japan.

Bush characterized him patronizingly as a “sharp guy” soon after they met in Hokkaido on July 9, but that was after making sure Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice proceeded to Prague and signed a deal just the previous day to install a US radar system as part of its missile defense system in Central Europe.

If Medvedev’s core mission in Hokkaido was to underscore Russia’s growing role in the world arena as a power with which the West has to contend, Bush acted as if he couldn’t care. The US was also plainly dismissive of Medvedev’s proposal at the G-8 for a pan-European security system that would include Russia. Medvedev expressed his “dismay” on hearing about the Prague deal. As if to rub in the snub, Rice proceeded from Prague to Bulgaria, where the US has for the first time established a military base, and then on to Georgia to discuss its plans of joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

While in Tbilisi, she called for international mediation to stop violence spilling over in Georgia’s beakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abhkazia, which have been sources of rising tensions, with Georgia accusing Russia of trying to annex the regions. To carry matters further, the US began a joint military exercise with Georgia codenamed Immediate Response 2008, near Tbilisi, which will continue through the month of July.

The exercise, financed by the Pentagon and planned by the US Armed Forces Eastern Command, is intended as a warning to Russia that Georgia is America’s project and Washington wouldn’t hesitate to do some heavy lifting to safeguard the “Rose Revolution”.

On the face of it, such hubris is illogical and unnecessary since the West should have every reason not to embarrass Medvedev. The West has been propagating in recent months that the youthful Russian president is a potential independent decision-maker in the Kremlin with whom it could do business – unlike his predecessor, Vladimir Putin.

Reflecting US thinking, Carnegie Moscow Center scholar Dmitri Trenin wrote recently that the West noted “Medvedev’s quick-wittedness, his calm style of conducting talks, and his clear desire to show that he is the one who is the real master of Russian diplomacy … There are much greater grounds for expecting that Dmitry Medvedev … will slowly but steadily concentrate powers in his own hands.”

Clearly, what has been going on for the past few months on the East-West stage is one of those pantomimes that the West and Russia are equally adept at playing. But the US seems to have concluded that all the Western flattery about him hasn’t really gone to Medvedev’s head and he has merely been demonstrating his own skill in dramatics. Actually, nothing much has changed in Russia. The polls show Putin, now premier, is still seen by Russians as their “supreme leader”, with a popularity rating coasting above 70% – with Medvedev stuck at 47% – and the truth might be somewhere near what a Moscow commentator recently sized up, namely, that Medvedev is a co-pilot in the cockpit in which Putin remains the captain.

Besides, Medvedev would know that even if he wished to be the European modernizer and G-8 club member that the West wanted him to be, he would find himself hopelessly at odds with his country. According to a poll last week by a Russian television network, the symbol of renewal of present-day Russia turns out to be none other than Josef Stalin. By a substantial margin, Stalin left behind two colorful Vladimirs – the singer Vladimir Vysotsky and the revolutionary Vladimir Lenin – and a host of other perennial Russian heroes like Ivan the Terrible and Alexander Pushkin.

Indeed, when Medvedev signed last Saturday a new foreign policy strategy for Russia, it came to light that for the first time the prime minister has been put in the driving seat to implement foreign policy measures – hitherto a presidential prerogative – which also shows that the Kremlin will pursue the line set by Putin in his eight-year presidency. The vague and somewhat incomprehensible expectations that there might be of some kind of “liberalization” in Medvedev’s foreign policy have proved to be unfounded.

But Moscow hasn’t taken lightly the US snub. In an address to Russian envoys in Moscow on Tuesday, Medvedev unambiguously stated his intention to continue Putin’s foreign policy course, criticizing the US moves on missile defense deployment, the West’s failure to ratify the revised Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, Kosovo’s independence, etc. He said, “We strongly affirm that the deployment of elements of the global missile defense in Eastern Europe only exacerbates the situation … we will be forced to respond to it in kind …

“This is linked to Russian-American agreements on strategic stability. Obviously, this common heritage will not be able to survive if one party is permitted to selectively destroy individual elements of this strategic regime. We cannot agree to that.”

According to the noted German expert on Russia, Alexander Rahr, last week’s Russian veto on the United Nations Security Council draft resolution on Zimbabwe was also a response to the US move on missile defense. “China’s opposition is easy to understand as it has many economic interests in Zimbabwe. Russia has none. Russia’s veto is a response to the missile shield, to Abkhazia and to many other things … Russia is trying to show that America cannot decide everything,” Rahr said.

The Russian veto generated a new American theme song that Medvedev isn’t calling the shots in the Kremlin and might have got slapped down on Zimbabwe. But Moscow brushed aside the suggestion. The Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling the draft resolution on Zimbabwe “a dangerous precedent … illegitimate and dangerous, leading towards unbalancing the whole UN system”. The statement rebuked Washington and London, saying, “Russia took into account the fact that the situation in Zimbabwe does not pose a threat to regional, let alone international peace and security and does not warrant adoption of sanctions against that country.”

Again, on Monday, Moscow announced that for the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian warships were resuming patrol of the Arctic waters. In effect, Medvedev signaled he was maintaining the course of expanded military patrols begun by Putin. Why such a sudden quickening of the tempo in US-Russian relations? The answer might be found on an entirely different plane – energy security.

What emerges is that if anything, Medvedev is pursuing Russia’s energy diplomacy more robustly than Putin. Soon after taking over in the Kremlin in May, Medvedev ordered the expeditious completion of the first stage of the Eastern Siberia Pacific Oil Pipeline (ESPO) by end-2009. The ESPO has a vital role in Moscow’s efforts to balance its oil export strategy between Europe and Asia-Pacific. Moscow hopes to target Asia-Pacific as the export destination for one-third of its oil exports by 2020, as compared to 3% currently.

In early July, Medvedev undertook a diplomatic tour of the Caspian region, covering Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. In Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, he made a stunning offer that Russia was prepared to buy Azerbaijan’s entire gas output at market prices. In Ashgabat, he shored up Turkmenistan’s commitment to the modernization of the Central Asia-Center Pipeline and the construction of a new littoral Caspian pipeline.

…

Complete article at:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9614

Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey.

                          ==========

Iraq Oil Report – ‘Refinery back up in Iraq’s Anbar province, yet oil is “finished”‘

“Iraq has many underexplored and underexploited fields, but who can tell what’s going to be happening with Iraq?” said Paul Sullivan, economics professor at the National Defence University in Washington, DC.

The remark was made in a recent discussion on energy, security and development at the Centre for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan.

Sullivan, who [...]

You may view the latest post at

http://tinyurl.com/6xpcwv    (www.iraqoilreport.com)

                          ==========

NAOMI KLEIN TEARS INTO BUSH’S OFFSHORE DRILLING PLAN ON FOX

By Naomi Klein

The author of “Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” takes on Bush on Fox Business News.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/92025/

                          ==========

Why Should We Fear Plunges in Stock Prices, and Why Can’t Reporters Ask?

USA Today reports on the SEC’s success in slowing short-trading and reversing price declines in several financial stocks. What the article never explains is why the government has an interest in preventing sharp price declines in the affected stocks.

Has the SEC assessed the balance sheets and growth prospects for the affected companies and determined that they are under-valued? If so, will it share this analysis? If not, then why is the SEC intervening to prevent the market from determining the price of the stock of these companies?

Why do we have any more reason to be concerned about a stock’s price being driven down by irrational pessimism than being driven up by irrational exuberance? Wasn’t it a problem when a junk company like Priceline.com carried a market valuation of more than $150 billion? Why didn’t the SEC intervene then?

Most of all, why aren’t any reporters asking these questions?

–Dean Baker

From: The Beat the Press Weekly Roundup

http://prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press

                          ==========

Working paper: A Replication Study of Alan Blinder’s “How Many U.S. Jobs Might Be Offshorable?”

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5975.html

Download the PDF.

http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-104.pdf

The movement of business activity from developed economies to developing economies—commonly called offshoring—has become the focus of heated debates. Behind these debates lies a pivotal question of scale: How much business activity and how many jobs are at stake? In 2007, Princeton economist Alan Blinder released an innovative working paper in which he personally reviewed more than 800 occupations in the United States, assessed the “offshorability” of each, and used the evaluations to estimate the total number of U.S. jobs that might be offshorable. Here, HBS research associate Troy Smith and Professor Jan W. Rivkin describe an online exercise that allowed 152 teams of HBS MBA students, collectively, to recreate Blinder’s study and to develop insights about the future of offshoring.

                          ==========

Navy’s fighter jet shortage may be worse than expected

By Megan Scully , CongressDaily

The Navy has uncovered problems with plans to extend the life of its F/A-18 Hornets that could exacerbate efforts to mitigate a shortage of strike fighter aircraft that is expected to vex the service until 2025. Preliminary results from a continuing Navy review have found that keeping the A- through D-model Hornets flying longer will “require additional inspections, modifications and a longer time out of service,” a Navy spokesman said Thursday. To minimize the size of the shortfall, the Navy has hoped to eke 10,000 flight hours out of each of its Hornets instead of the 8,000 hours under an earlier plan.

Senior Navy officials have said the strike fighter shortfall will peak in 2017 at 69 aircraft and continue, in smaller numbers, until the service completes procurement of Lockheed Martin’s F-35C Joint Strike Fighters in 2025. But those figures were based on getting 10,000 flight hours out of the Hornets and also keeping the JSF program on schedule. “Our estimate of the strike fighter gap assumed we could proceed with the SLEP [service-life extension program on the Hornets] as planned,” the spokesman said. “The scope and extent of the effect on the shortfall will take approximately four to six months to determine.”

The Navy originally planned to fly the Hornets, which are produced by Boeing Co., for just 6,000 flight hours, before extending that to 8,000 hours in 2006. But the early results from the review also found “hot spots” in the current fleet that could force the Navy to conduct inspections and further modify the aircraft to keep them flying for just 8,000 hours. “Additional study is required to determine whether or not these fatigue hot spots are unique or systemic,” the spokesman said. The Navy has 636 Hornets, half of which have flown more than 6,000 hours.

Full story:

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=40507&dcn=e_gvet

                          ==========

SCARY POLITICS IN ALABAMA: HOW THE GOP FRAMED GOV. DON SIEGELMAN

By Larisa Alexandrovna, Ig Publishing

Once a popular governor of Alabama, Siegelman was framed in a crooked trial and sent to prison by the corrupt Bush administration.

http://www.alternet.org/democracy/92158/

                          ==========

And now for the important news …. 

By Argus Hamilton

Barack Obama was ripped by conservatives Friday for proposing huge spending on federal programs to stimulate the economy. His economic philosophy is self-evident. His father was from Kenya and his mother was a Kansan, and that makes him a Keynesian.

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com

                          ==========

three thousand words

Mike Luckovich: those who talk to their enemies are appeasers!!!

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/LuckoM/2008/LuckoM20080718A_low.jpg

Cartoon du Jour – By Khalil: america’s worst nightmare has come to pass

http://www.bendib.com/newones/2008/july/small/7-14-GGas-Prices.jpg

Tom the Dancing Bug(Ruben Bolling): the great photoshop war of 2008

http://picayune.uclick.com/comics/td/2008/td080719.gif

Taxpayers for Common Sense: Bailout Bingo

BAILOUT BINGO
Volume XIII No. 29 – July 18, 2008

As the economy continues to sour and the housing market sputters, lawmakers stand ready to unleash their response: a financial bailout. After losing more than 50% of their stock value in a week, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the latest suitors and Congress has promised to get this package done in time for August. But considering this deal could put taxpayers on the hook for tens of billions of dollars in losses, if not more, it is critical to attach some strong strings to this hastily arranged bailout.

Fannie and Freddie are exotic creatures. They are “sponsored” by the federal government. They are not federal agencies and are technically not backed by the full faith and credit of Uncle Sam. But everybody knew they had gotten so big the feds couldn’t allow them to fail. Between the pair they hold more than $5 trillion worth of the estimated $12 trillion of U.S. mortgage debt, and more than 90% of the loans less than $417,000.

Fannie and Freddie buy mortgages and then either hold them or package them as mortgage-backed securities and sell them to investors. The idea behind these companies was that by purchasing mortgages from lenders and re-packaging them, more money would be back in the lending market to make more loans.

So it is not surprising when you hear about mortgage failures and Americans suffering foreclosure that a lot of those loans are on the books of these behemoths. But considering their size, it is pretty clear that allowing an entity this large to fail would deal an enormous blow to our economy. Earlier this year, the Federal Reserve stepped in to help avoid a failure of Bear Stearns, an investment bank. That $30 billion loan to J.P. Morgan to complete the deal is small potatoes by comparison.

Years of lackadaisical oversight and lack of regulatory control got us in the mess we are in. And by all accounts we have to do something. The plan floated by Treasury Secretary Paulson would allow Fannie and Freddie to borrow an unspecified (a.k.a. unlimited) amount from the Treasury, up from the $2.25 billion limit each has today. In addition, the federal government would be able to buy the companies’ stock.

For years Fannie and Freddie have been furiously fighting closer scrutiny by the federal government and efforts to shrink their role. Company stalwarts quickly labeled opponents as anti-homeowner or elitist. To protect their turf, the companies have doled out more than $170 million in campaign cash over the last decade. But it is hard to have one hand out while the other tries to stiff-arm the Federal Reserve from reviewing their books.

Let’s be clear. No matter what anyone says, this is not about helping homeowners or preventing foreclosures. Nobody’s existing mortgage is going to be affected by this. This is about bailing out two companies that have gotten too big for their fiscal britches. And this is going to help their shareholders and makes a mockery of the fig leaf that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are independent companies not backed by the federal government. At the end of the day, this may be the tough medicine the taxpayer has to take to help the economy, but we have to get something in return.

No matter what happens – even if a bailout is avoided –- strong strings must be attached. Fannie and Freddie are going to have to shrink and they are going to have to be overseen by the Federal Reserve. In writing the bailout package, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee said that he was “determined to do this early but more determined to go it right.” We sure hope so.

Going on at Taxpayer.net This Week

Cost of Senate Labor-HHS Earmarks Increase by 37%

Los Alamos’ Insecurity Complex

TCS, Allies and Taxpayers Find 76 Lawmakers Publish Earmark Requests

Marines Advertising on Hummers

End of a Nuclear Era

Schoolyard Antics Derail House Spending Bills

Check out TCS’s Database of 2008 Congressional Earmarks

TCS in the News

TCS was cited in dozens of stories this past week Check them all out in the Headlines About TCS section of our redesigned website.

Notable Quote

“It’s not a question of whether or not its good for the taxpayers. I don’t think any of this is good for the taxpayers. It’s a question of mitigation. It’s a question of what is the best case scenario considering where we are.”

– Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), on the proposed bailout for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

weekly wastebasket at www.taxpayer.net

                          ==========

The Financial Tsunami: The Next Big Wave is Breaking Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and US Mortgage Debt

By F. William Engdahl
Global Research, July 15, 2008

The announcement by US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson together with Federal Reserve chief Bernanke, that the US Government will bailout the two largest guarantors of housing mortgage debt—the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—far from calming financial markets, has confirmed what we have said repeatedly in this space: The Financial Tsunami which began in August 2007 in the relatively small “sub-prime” high risk US mortgage securitization market, far from being over, is only gathering momentum. As with the Tsunami which devastated Asia in wave after terrifying wave in December 2004, the financial Tsunami we are witnessing is a low-amplitude, long-wave phenomenon of trillions of dollars of financial securities being unwound, defaulted on, dumped on the market. But the scale of the latest wave to hit, the collapse of confidence in the two Government-Sponsored Entities, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, is a harbinger of worse to come in what will be the most devastating financial and economic catastrophe in United States history. The impact will be felt globally.

The Royal Bank of Scotland, one of the largest financial institutions in the EU has warned its clients “A very nasty period is soon to be upon us—be prepared.” They expect the S&P-500 index of US stocks, one of the broadest stock indices in Wall Street used by hedge funds, banks, pension funds could lose almost 23% by September as in their term, “all the chickens come home to roost” from the excesses of the US-led securitization revolution that took hold after the dot.com bubble burst and Greenspan lowered US interest rates to levels not sustained since the 1930’s Great Depression.

This all will be seen in history as the disastrous Alan Greenspan “Revolution in Finance,”—the experiment in Asset Backed Securitization, a mad attempt to bundle risk in loans, “securitize” them in new bonds, insure them via specialized insurers called “monoline” insurers (they only insured financial risks in bonds), rate them thereby via Moody’s and S&P as AAA, highest grade. All that was done so that pension funds and banks around the world would assume they were high quality debt paying even higher interest than safe US Government bonds. Fed in Panic Mode

While he is getting praise in the financial media for his “innovative” and quick reactions to the un-raveling crisis, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke in reality is in a panic mode with little short of hyperinflationary tools at hand to deal with the crisis. Yet, his room to act is increasingly bound by the soaring asset price inflation in food and oil which is pushing consumer price inflation to new highs even by the doctored “core inflation” model of the Fed.

If Bernanke continues to act to provide unlimited liquidity to prevent a banking system collapse, he risks destroying the US corporate and Treasury bond market and with it the dollar. If Bernanke acts to save the heart of the US capital market—its bond market—by raising interest rates, its only anti-inflation weapon, it will only trigger the next even more devastating round in Tsunami shock waves.The real significance of the Fannie Mae bailout

The US government passed the law creating Fannie Mae in 1938 during the Great Depression as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. It was intended to be a private entity but “government sponsored” that would enable Americans to finance buying of homes, as part of an economic recovery attempt. Freddie Mac was formed by Congress in 1970, to help revive the home loan market. Congress started the companies to promote home buying and their charters give the Treasury the authority to extend a $2.25 billion credit line.

The problems in the privately-owned Government “Sponsored” Entities or GSEs as they are technically known, is that Congress tried to fudge on whether they were subject to US Government guarantee in event of a financial crisis as the present. Before now, it always appeared a manageable problem.

No more.

…

Complete article at:

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9588

                          ==========

WSJ: Retiree Benefits Take Another Hit

http://online. wsj.com/article/ SB12161723791235 6653.html

General Motors Corp.’s move to eliminate retiree health benefits for salaried workers is a sobering signal to the rest of the U.S. work force: Even those who are in or near retirement shouldn’t count on keeping the company coverage they have built up.

Since the early 1990s, employers eager to get out from under the increasing burden of covering their retirees’ health care have been whittling away at those benefits. At some companies, new or younger
workers have been excluded from retiree health benefits. Older workers and existing retirees often got to keep the benefits, but had to pay a larger share of the overall costs.

But GM’s announcement Tuesday that it would cease medical coverage for its salaried retirees age 65 and above signals that a new era of ever-shrinking benefits has arrived. Beginning in January, even former employees who are already in retirement will lose their benefits, which most of the company’s retirees use to supplement gaps in their traditional Medicare coverage. The auto maker will boost monthly pension payouts to help offset the cuts. The company’s unionized workers aren’t affected by the cut to retiree health benefits.

GM’s move to cut retiree health benefits has implications for workers in other industries:

• As of now, all nonunion workers — even those who’ve earned full retiree benefits — should understand that those benefits can be eliminated, either before or during their retirement.

• Workers planning to retire early might consider working at least part-time to keep active employee health coverage until they’re eligible for Medicare at age 65.

REPEAT: “…all nonunion workers — even those who’ve earned full retiree benefits — should understand that those benefits can be eliminated, either before or during their retirement.”

                          ==========

CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update

Friday, July 18, 2008

You are subscribed to Commitments of Traders Reports for CFTC.gov.

The current reports for the week of July 18, 2008 are now available.

http://tinyurl.com/3ymzao   (www.cftc.gov)

See previous weeks in Historical Commitments of Traders Reports.

http://tinyurl.com/6obons    (www.cftc.gov)

                          ==========

WHY WE WON’T SEE RELIEF FROM THE OIL SHOCK ANY TIME SOON

By Dilip Hiro, Tomdispatch.com

The current oil shock, the fourth in the past 30-plus years, and the deadliest so far, shows every sign of continuing for a long, long stretch.

http://www.alternet.org/stories/91772/

                          ==========

Is there an oil shortage? 

By Ismael Hossein-zadeh
Online Journal Contributing Writer 

The popular perception of the recently skyrocketing oil price is that there is an oil shortage in global energy markets. The perceived shortage is generally blamed on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting countries (OPEC) for “insufficient” production, or on countries like China and India for their increased demand for energy, or on both.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3487.shtml

                          ==========

Hannity falsely suggested no oil in areas already available to oil companies for drilling

Sean Hannity falsely suggested that federal areas legally available for leasing by oil companies contain no oil. In fact, federal agencies have estimated that more oil exists on the tens of millions of acres of federal areas currently legally available for drilling than there is in the areas currently off limits to drilling.

Read More

http://mediamatters.org/items/200807180012?lid=458218&rid=11297339

                          ==========

Iraq Oil Report – ‘Iraqi oil contracts hold key to peace?’

Dr. Mahmoud Othman, a lawmaker with the Kurdistan block in the federal Parliament in Baghdad, has denied statements attributed to him by the press saying that the Kurdistan Regional Government’s oil contracts are illegal, the KRG said in a press statement.

Dr. Othman has requested the Kurdistan Regional Government issue a statement on
his behalf [...]

You may view the latest post at

http://tinyurl.com/64cjva   (www.iraqoilreport.com)

Iraq Oil Report has posted a new item, ‘Iraq limits no-bid oil contracts to one year’

The Iraqi government is planning to limit no-bid contracts being negotiated with several major oil companies to one year to avoid overlap with longer-term deals expected to be signed next June, the Associated Press reported.

The no-bid contracts have sparked controversy because several major Western firms have been involved in the discussions. There are concerns that [...]

You may view the latest post at

http://tinyurl.com/5vv95y  (www.iraqoilreport.com)

                          ==========

Mexican Cartels and the Fallout From Phoenix

July 2, 2008
By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart

Late on the night of June 22, a residence in Phoenix was approached by a heavily armed tactical team preparing to serve a warrant. The members of the team were wearing the typical gear for members of their profession: black boots, black BDU pants, Kevlar helmets and Phoenix Police Department (PPD) raid shirts pulled over their body armor. The team members carried AR-15 rifles equipped with Aimpoint sights to help them during the low-light operation and, like most cops on a tactical team, in addition to their long guns, the members of this team carried secondary weapons — pistols strapped to their thighs.

But the raid took a strange turn when one element of the team began directing suppressive fire on the residence windows while the second element entered — a tactic not normally employed by the PPD. This breach of departmental protocol did not stem from a mistake on the part of the team’s commander. It occurred because the eight men on the assault team were not from the PPD at all. These men were not cops serving a legal search or arrest warrant signed by a judge; they were cartel hit men serving a death warrant signed by a Mexican drug lord.

The tactical team struck hard and fast. They quickly killed a man in the house and then fled the scene in two vehicles, a red Chevy Tahoe and a gray Honda sedan. Their aggressive tactics did have consequences, however. The fury the attackers unleashed on the home — firing over 100 rounds during the operation — drew the attention of a nearby Special Assignments Unit (SAU) team, the PPD’s real tactical team, which responded to the scene with other officers. An SAU officer noticed the Tahoe fleeing the scene and followed it until it entered an alley. Sensing a potential ambush, the SAU officer chose to establish a perimeter and wait for reinforcements rather than charge down the alley after the suspects. This was fortunate, because after three of the suspects from the Tahoe were arrested, they confessed that they had indeed planned to ambush the police officers chasing them.

The assailants who fled in the Honda have not yet been found, but police did recover the vehicle in a church parking lot. They reportedly found four sets of body armor in the vehicle and also recovered an assault rifle abandoned in a field adjacent to the church.

This Phoenix home invasion and murder is a vivid reminder of the threat to U.S. law enforcement officers that stems from the cartel wars in Mexico.

Violence Crosses the Border

The fact that the Mexican men involved in the Phoenix case were heavily armed and dressed as police comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed security events in Mexico. Teams of cartel enforcers frequently impersonate police or military personnel, often wearing matching tactical gear and carrying standardized weapons. In fact, it is rare to see a shootout or cartel-related arms seizure in Mexico where tactical gear and clothing bearing police or military insignia is not found.

One reason for the prevalent use of this type of equipment is that many cartel enforcers come from military or police backgrounds. By training and habit, they prefer to operate as a team composed of members equipped with standardized gear so that items such as ammunition and magazines can be interchanged during a firefight. This also gives a team member the ability to pick up the familiar weapon of a fallen comrade and immediately bring it into action. This is of course the same reason military units and police forces use standardized equipment in most places.

Police clothing, such as hats, patches and raid jackets, is surprisingly easy to come by. Authentic articles can be stolen or purchased through uniform vendors or cop shops. Knockoff uniform items can easily be manufactured in silk screen or embroidery shops by duplicating authentic designs. Even badges are easy to obtain if one knows where to look.

While it now appears that the three men arrested in Phoenix were not former or active members of the Mexican military or police, it is not surprising that they employed military- and police-style tactics. Enforcers of various cartel groups such as Los Zetas, La Gente Nueva or the Kaibiles who have received advanced tactical training often pass on that training to younger enforcers (many of whom are former street thugs) at makeshift training camps located on ranches in northern Mexico. There are also reports of Israeli mercenaries visiting these camps to provide tactical training. In this way, the cartel enforcers are transforming ordinary street thugs into highly-trained cartel tactical teams.

Though cartel enforcers have almost always had ready access to guns, including military weapons such as assault rifles and grenade launchers, groups such as Los Zetas, the Kaibiles and their young disciples bring an added level of threat to the equation. They are highly trained men with soldiers’ mindsets who operate as a unit capable of using their weapons with deadly effectiveness. Assault rifles in the hands of untrained thugs are dangerous, but when those same weapons are placed in the hands of men who can shoot accurately and operate tactically as a fire team, they can be overwhelmingly powerful — not only when used against enemies and other intended targets, but also when used against law enforcement officers who attempt to interfere with the team’s operations.

Targets

Although the victim in the Phoenix killing, Andrew Williams, was reportedly a Jamaican drug dealer who crossed a Mexican cartel, there are many other targets in the United States that the cartels would like to eliminate. These targets include Mexican cartel members who have fled to the United States due to several different factors. The first factor is the violent cartel war that has raged in Mexico for the past few years over control of important smuggling routes and strategic locations along those routes. The second factor is the Calderon administration’s crackdown, first on the Gulf cartel and now on the Sinaloa cartel. Pressure from rival cartels and the government has forced many cartel leaders into hiding, and some of them have left Mexico for Central America or the United States.

Traditionally, when violence has spiked in Mexico, cartel figures have used U.S. cities such as Laredo, El Paso and San Diego as rest and recreation spots, reasoning that the general umbrella of safety provided by U.S. law enforcement to those residing in the United States would protect them from assassination by their enemies. As bolder Mexican cartel hit men have begun to carry out assassinations on the U.S. side of the border in places such as Laredo, Rio Bravo, and even Dallas, the cartel figures have begun to seek sanctuary deeper in the United States, thereby bringing the threat with them.

While many cartel leaders are wanted in the United States, many have family members not being sought by U.S. law enforcement. (Many of them even have relatives who are U.S. citizens.) Some family members have also settled comfortably inside the United States, using the country as a haven from violence in Mexico. These families might become targets, however, as the cartels look for creative ways to hurt their rivals.

Other cartel targets in the United States include Drug Enforcement Administration and other law enforcement officers responsible for operations against the cartels, and informants who have cooperated with U.S. or Mexican authorities and been relocated stateside for safety. There are also many police officers who have quit their jobs in Mexico and fled to the United States to escape threats from the cartels, as well as Mexican businessmen who are targeted by cartels and have moved to the United States for safety.

To date, the cartels for the most part have refrained from targeting innocent civilians. In the type of environment they operate under inside Mexico, cartels cannot afford to have the local population, a group they use as camouflage, turn against them. It is not uncommon for cartel leaders to undertake public relations events (they have even held carnivals for children) in order to build goodwill with the general population. As seen with al Qaeda in Iraq, losing the support of the local population is deadly for a militant group attempting to hide within that population.

Cartels have also attempted to minimize civilian casualties in their operations inside the United States, though for a different operational consideration. The cartels believe that if a U.S. drug dealer or a member of a rival Mexican cartel is killed in a place like Dallas or Phoenix, nobody really cares. Many people see such a killing as a public service, and there will not be much public outcry about it, nor much real effort on the part of law enforcement agencies to identify and catch the killers. The death of a civilian, on the other hand, brings far more public condemnation and law enforcement attention.

However, the aggressiveness of cartel enforcers and their brutal lack of regard for human life means that while they do not intentionally target civilians, they are bound to create collateral casualties along the way. This is especially true as they continue to conduct operations like the Phoenix killing, where they fired over 100 rounds of 5.56 mm ball ammunition at a home in a residential neighborhood.

Tactical Implications

Judging from the operations of the cartel enforcers in Mexico, they have absolutely no hesitation about firing at police officers who interfere with their operations or who dare to chase them. Indeed, the Phoenix case nearly ended in an ambush of the police. It must be noted, however, that this ambush was not really intentional, but rather the natural reaction of these Mexican cartel enforcers to police pursuit. They were accustomed to shooting at police and military south of the border and have very little regard for them. In many instances, this aggression convinces the poorly armed and trained police to leave the cartel gunmen alone.

The problem such teams pose for the average U.S. cop on patrol is that the average cop is neither trained nor armed to confront a heavily armed fire team. In fact, a PPD source advised Stratfor that, had the SAU officer not been the first to arrive on the scene, it could have been a disaster for the department. This is not a criticism of the Phoenix cops. The vast majority of police officers and federal agents in the United States simply are not prepared or equipped to deal with a highly trained fire team using insurgent tactics. That is a task suited more for the U.S. military forces currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These cartel gunmen also have the advantage of being camouflaged as cops. This might not only cause considerable confusion during a firefight (who do backup officers shoot at if both parties in the fight are dressed like cops?) but also means that responding officers might hesitate to fire on the criminals dressed as cops. Such hesitation could provide the criminals with an important tactical advantage — an advantage that could prove fatal for the officers.

Mexican cartel enforcers have also demonstrated a history of using sophisticated scanners to listen to police radio traffic, and in some cases they have even employed police radios to confuse and misdirect the police responding to an armed confrontation with cartel enforcers.

We anticipate that as the Mexican cartels begin to go after more targets inside the United States, the spread of cartel violence and these dangerous tactics beyond the border region will catch some law enforcement officers by surprise. A patrol officer conducting a traffic stop on a group of cartel members who are preparing to conduct an assassination in, say, Los Angeles, Chicago or northern Virginia could quickly find himself heavily outgunned and under fire. With that said, cops in the United States are far more capable than their Mexican counterparts of dealing with this threat.

In addition to being far better trained, U.S. law enforcement officers also have access to far better command, control and communication networks than their Mexican counterparts. Like we saw in the Phoenix example, this communication network provides cops with the ability to quickly summon reinforcements, air support and tactical teams to deal with heavily armed criminals — but this communication system only helps if it can be used. That means cops need to recognize the danger before they are attacked and prevented from calling for help. As with many other threats, the key to protecting oneself against this threat is situational awareness, and cops far from the border need to become aware of this trend.

This report may be forwarded or republished on your website with attribution to

www.stratfor.com

                          ==========

John Williams (Shadow Government Statistics): Annual 9.2% PPI still understated

“On a monthly basis, seasonally-adjusted June intermediate goods rose by 2.1% (2.9% May), crude goods gained 3.7% (6.7% May). Year-to-year inflation, remained hairy, but still shy of a real world that has seen a doubling in oil prices year-to-year, with June intermediate goods up by 14.5% (12.6% May) and with crude goods up by 45.5% (41.5% May).

Crude energy materials rose by a modest 72.1%.”

Source: John Williams, Shadow Government Statistics, July 16, 2008.

From: http://tinyurl.com/5zsaky   (www.investmentpostcards.com)

                          ==========

And now for the important news …. 

By Argus Hamilton

Alex Rodriguez and Madonna Night was held on Thursday at a Grand Prairie minor league game in Texas. Couples who denied any romantic link between them got in for a buck. When Dick Cheney showed up with Big Oil they were laughed out of the ballpark.
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com

                          ==========

three thousand words

Tom Toles: the bush multi-year plan on global warming

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/uc/20080715/ltt080715.gif

Matt Davies: Stay The Course

http://davies.lohudblogs.com/files/2008/07/0718davies.jpg

David Horsey: it’s a wonderful life, 2008 edition

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20080720/cartoon20080720.gif

#7 of 10 Reasons You Should Never Have a Religion

May 27th, 2008
by Steve Pavlina

While consciously pursuing your spiritual development is commendable, joining an established religion such as Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism is one of the worst ways to go about it. In this article I’ll share 10 reasons why you must eventually abandon the baggage of organized religion if you wish to pursue conscious living in earnest.

Since Christianity is currently the world’s most popular religion, I’ll slant this article towards Christianity’s ubiquitous failings. However, you’ll find that most of these points apply equally well to other major religions (yes, even Buddhism).

7. Idiocy or hypocrisy – pick one.

When you subscribe to an established religion, you have only two options. You can become an idiot, or you can become a hypocrite. If you’ve already chosen the former, I’ll explain why, and I’ll use small words so that you’re sure to understand.

First, there’s the idiocy route. You can willingly swallow all of the contrived, man-made drivel that’s fed to you. Accept that the earth is only 10,000 years old. Believe stories about dead bodies coming back to life. Learn about various deities and such. Put your trust in someone who thinks they know what they’re talking about. Eat your dogma. Good boy!

Congratulations! You’re a moron believer. You’ll be saved, enlightened, and greeted with tremendous fanfare when you die… unless of course all the stuff you were taught turns out not to be true. Nah… if the guy in the robe says it’s true, it must be true. Ya gotta have faith, right?

Next, we have the hypocrisy option. In this case your neocortex is strong enough to identify various bits of utter nonsense in the religious teachings that others are trying to ram down your throat. You have a working B.S. detector, but it’s slightly damaged. You’re smart enough to realize that earth is probably a lot older than 10,000 years and that pre-marital (or non-marital) sex is a lot of fun, but some B.S. still gets through. You don’t swallow all the bull, but you still identify yourself as a follower of a particular religion, most likely because you were raised in it and never actually chose it to begin with.

To you it’s just a casual pursuit. You’re certainly not a die-hard fundamentalist, but you figure that if you drink the wine and chew the wafer now and then, it’s good enough to get you a free ride into a half-decent afterlife. You belong to the pro-God club. Surely there’s safety in numbers. Two people people can’t be wrong… although 4-1/2 billion supposedly can.

In this case you become an apologist for your own religion. You don’t want to be identified with the extreme fanatics, nor do you want to be associated with the non-believers. You figure you can straddle both sides. On earth you’ll basically live as a non-practitioner (or a very sloppy and inconsistent practitioner), but when you eventually die, you’ve still got the membership card to show God.

Do you realize how deluded you are?

Perhaps if you have to throw out so much of the nonsense to make your chosen belief system palatable, you shouldn’t be drinking the Kool Aid in the first place. Free yourself from the mental baggage, stop looking to others for permission to live, and start thinking on your own. If your God exists, he’s smart enough to see through your fake ID.

From time to time, some of my readers take a stab at converting me to their religion. Most of them come across as total loons, but I can at least respect their consistency. I’ve no idea why they bother to read my site (which is about raising, not lowering, consciousness). Perhaps some of them are getting ready to convert from fundamentalism to common sense.

You’d think I’d be quite a prize for any serious religion. With 2.4 million monthly readers, that’s a lot of people I could potentially enslave convert, not to mention how much I could fill the Church coffers by soliciting indulgences donations on their behalf. Henceforth I expect a much better conversion effort. If you won’t do it for the money, then do it for the souls. You can’t let so many of us go to hell without trying in earnest to save us, can you? 

Just keep those conversion emails below 10,000 words if possible, with no more than 9,000 of them quoted from your favorite great book.

…

Complete article at:

http://tinyurl.com/3t6qcc    (www.stevepavlina.com/blog)

                          ==========

Birth-control denial the height of arrogance

July 14, 2008

By DAN K. THOMASSON
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

A rape victim walks into a pharmacy with a prescription for a morning-after pill that will terminate a possible pregnancy and is told politely it will not be filled, and that she must go elsewhere, no matter how inconvenient. That is, if the pharmacist has the decency even to return the prescription.

The message is clear: Tough luck. If a child has been conceived in the violation of her body, it is the victim’s sacred duty to have the baby.

Another woman, whose body will not support a pregnancy, submits a prescription for simple birth control pills and is also rejected. Or a young man and woman in the throes of hormonal conflict seek a package of condoms but can’t purchase one, and then end up victims of normal, post-pubescent passion.

Are those and other examples exaggerations? Hardly. They are manifestations of a real effort by a growing movement of political- and religious-based groups to withhold access to birth control and anti-abortion measures through pharmaceutical denial.

So when is a pharmacy not a pharmacy? Better yet, when can a licensed pharmacist not fill a legitimate prescription because of political or religious reasons? Should a state licensing authority permit the dispensing of male-enhancement drugs but not those that permit a female to guard her own health? Doesn’t a licensed pharmacist have an implied contractual obligation to honor all verifiable prescriptions from practicing physicians?

…

Complete article at:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/370733_thomasson15.html

Dan K. Thomasson, former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service, at thomassondan@aol.com

                          ==========

WHITE HOUSE TRIES TO DEFINE CONTRACEPTION AS ABORTION

By Cristina Page, RH Reality Check

The Department of Health and Human Services is dismissing medical experts and instead using a definition of pregnancy based on polling data.

http://www.alternet.org/stories/91654/

Action Alert: Tell Sec. Leavitt the “conscience clause” is unconscionable 

July 17, 2008

We have just received news that new regulations proposed by the Bush Administration’s Health and Human Services Secretary would allow a heathcare worker’s religious beliefs to trump a woman’s ability to access contraceptives.

If these regulations go into law, medical professionals who are already allowed to “conscientiously object” to performing abortions may also be allowed to “conscientiously object” to providing women access to contraceptives, including emergency contraceptives.

No medical professional should be allowed to offer inadequate care or to withhold vital information from a patient because their personal religious beliefs forbid the use of birth control.

We must stop these provisions from being enacted and to do that we need YOU to speak out.

If these regulations are adopted, a health care center employee opposed to the provision of birth control who was hired to schedule patient appointments could refuse to schedule patients seeking those services.

Tell Secretary Leavitt that his proposed regulations expanding the “conscience clause” to include contraceptives is unconscionable.

Best wishes,
Lori Lipman Brown, Director
Secular Coalition for America

Secular Coalition for America    http://www.secular.org/

Don’t Let Ideology Dictate Health Care! 

Your immediate action is needed to stop the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from implementing an ideologically motivated regulation that would undermine women’s access to health care by allowing federally funded health service personnel to refuse to provide services based on their personal religious beliefs. 

The impact of this proposed regulation would be doubly harmful.  Not only would it redefine “abortion procedure” to include normal forms of contraception, it would allow health care providers to withhold information and care options from their patients simply because these options conflict with the providers’ religious beliefs.  Religious doctrine is given priority over patients’ needs.

Not only does this regulation represent bad science, it’s a clear violation of the separation of church and state.

Pick up your telephone now – call Secretary Michael Leavitt of the Department of Health and Human Services at 202-690-7000 and Christina Pearson, HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at 202-690-7850, and urge them to stop this proposed rule.

The regulation would require anyone who receives funding under federal health programs to certify in writing that they will NOT refuse to hire any medical personnel who object to providing services related to abortion or contraception.

Medical personnel who refuse services are usually motivated by religious beliefs, so allowing their personal objections to interfere with the delivery of reproductive services represents a violation of the separation of church and state as well as of common sense about abortion and contraception.

The proposed regulation means that hospitals, doctors, nurses, and pharmacists could refuse to provide reproductive services and still receive federal funds.  State and local governments could not deny grants of federal funds to hospitals and other institutions that object to abortion for religious or ideological reasons.

The regulation includes a definition of abortion so broad that it includes much that is normally regarded as contraception.  Abortion is defined as: “any of the various procedures that results in the termination of life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.” This is a transparent attempt to redefine emergency contraception as abortion.

In addition, the regulation is so sweeping that it would allow an employee whose job is to clean surgical equipment to refuse to do so because of personal belief.  A health center staff person who objected to contraception could refuse to schedule appointments for women (and men) seeking help.  This would cause chaos in the delivery of reproductive services, because those in most need—17 million women who rely on publicly supported health care—could not be sure of receiving information or medical aid.

Please telephone Secretary Michael Leavitt of HHS at 202-690-7000 and Christina Pearson, HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at 202-690-7850, and tell them that the proposed regulation must not be enacted. 

Ask them to schedule a period of public comment on the proposed rule.  You can refer to the rule as the extension of the Church Amendments, the Public Health Service Act Paragraph 245, and the Weldon Amendments, which purport to protect personal conscience.

Stop this regulation.

It is an attack on responsible public health, science, and separation of church and state.

Bookmark the Office of Public Policy Blog

www.cfidc.wordpress.com for the up-to-date news.

Center for Inquiry Office of Public Policy

                          ==========

CHRISTIAN LUNATICS ISSUE DEATH THREATS OVER A CRACKER

By PZ Myers, Pharyngula

Unlike those nutty Muslims who  are always taking offense over cartoons, these people have serious grievances.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/91269/

                          ==========

CATHOLIC LEAGUE PRESIDENT BELIEVES ATHEISTS SHOULD HAVE NO RIGHTS

By Amanda Marcotte, Pandagon

Of course religious freedom is an absolute, as long as your religious beliefs accord with his own.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/rights/91421/

                          ==========

Americans United, ACLU Ask Court To End Public Funding Of Discriminatory Kentucky Baptist Homes For Children 

July 17, 2008

Appeal Of Lawsuit Asserts That Publicly Funded Baptist Facility Proselytizes Children In Its Care

Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union today urged a federal appeals court to deny tax funding to a Baptist childcare agency that proselytizes youngsters in its care and fires gay employees.

The lawsuit, Pedreira v. Kentucky Baptist Homes For Children, Inc., asserts that Kentucky Baptist Homes has no right to accept public funding while imposing religious dogma on the children in its programs, and that the Homes’ religion-based anti-gay employment policy violates civil rights laws.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a group of Kentucky taxpayers, including Alicia Pedreira, an employee at the Louisville home who worked with troubled young people. Despite her excellent performance reviews, Pedreira was terminated in 1998 after officials at the facility learned she is a lesbian.

A federal district court dismissed the case earlier this year, ruling that the plaintiffs do not have legal standing to bring it. Americans United and the ACLU have asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the case and strike down public funding for Kentucky Baptist Homes.

“Kentucky Baptist Homes is on a mission to evangelize on the taxpayer’s dime,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “The Constitution simply does not allow this. Faith-based charities that want to indoctrinate youths should not get public funds.”

Added Americans United Senior Litigation Counsel Alex J. Luchenitser, “The trial judge was way off base in dismissing this case on legal technicalities. If this wrong-headed ruling is allowed to stand, it will eviscerate the rights of taxpayers to challenge public funding of religion.”

Ken Choe, a senior staff lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project, said, “This case illustrates the all-too-real dangers of the government funding religious organizations without adequate safeguards. The Constitution’s promise of religious freedom guarantees that the government won’t preference one form of religion over another. Yet that’s exactly what happened to Alicia Pedreira, who was fired because she didn’t conform to the religious beliefs of her government-funded employer.”

Said Alicia Pedreira, “I put my heart and soul into helping the children who were under the care of Baptist Homes and was making a difference in their lives. It was unfair to be fired for being a lesbian. It’s not right that an organization that is funded by state and federal dollars to do work for the state can get away with this.”

In the appellate brief filed with the 6th Circuit today, Americans United and the ACLU note numerous examples of the religious nature of the childcare agency. Its president has touted the Homes’ success in converting children, and the agency calls itself “Christ centered.”

The document also cites a report by the Children’s Review Program, a private contractor hired by Kentucky officials to monitor programs for children. The report noted numerous instances where young people complained about being forced to attend Baptist services or said they were not permitted to attend services of other faiths.

Asserts the brief, “Baptist Homes uses its public funding to indoctrinate youths who are wards of the state in its religious views, coerce them to take part in religious activity, and convert them to its version of Christianity, and does so in part by requiring its employees to reflect its religious beliefs in their behavior.”

Joining Luchenitser and Choe in drafting the brief were Americans United Legal Director Ayesha N. Khan; Washington, D.C., attorney Murray Garnick; attorneys David Bergman, Joshua Wilson, Elizabeth Leise, Alicia Truman, Lea Johnston and Alessandro Maggi of the international law firm Arnold & Porter LLP; and ACLU attorneys James Esseks, David Friedman and Daniel Mach.

Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State   www.au.org

                          ==========

Davenport Diocese releases priest names

Chicago Tribune – United States

AP CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport has released the names of 24 of its priests who can be “credibly accused” of sexual abuse. …

http://tinyurl.com/5ql68g  (www.chicagotribune.com)

                          ==========

A Christian View of Armed Warfare 

by William E. Paul

The following excerpts are from the newly reprinted 116-page book, A Christian View of Armed Warfare, by William E. Paul. The first selection is chapter 3, “A Christian and Evildoers,” from part I, “New Testament Teaching on Christians Participating in War.” The second selection is chapter 8, “But Killing in War Is Done As an Agent of the Government and Not As a Personal Act,” from part II, “Common Objections to Christians Not Participating in War.” The book is available from Vance Publications.

A Christian and Evildoers

One of the most frequent arguments used in an attempt to justify a Christian waging war is that “Evildoers must be stopped in their aggressive efforts to overrun the world.” Nearly every generation has had its Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm, Lenin, Hitler, Mussolini or Stalin. Certainly the atrocities perpetrated upon mankind by dictators who have aspired to world rule are to be deplored. Evil-doing of all kinds must be hated by Bible-believing Christians who desire to have the mind of Christ. It is said of Jesus, “Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity” (Hebrews 1:9).

But in the process of hating evil Christians are not permitted to despise the evildoer also. This attitude is supremely exemplified in the act of God commending His “own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). While man was busily engaged in the pursuit of evil, God was pursuing a course designed to effect man’s eternal good. God loves sinners “even when we were dead through our trespasses” (Ephesians 2:4–5) and yet God says of evil, “all these are the things I hate” (Zechariah 8:17). Although God hates all evil, He loves the evildoer and has done only good to him, “for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil” (Luke 6:35).

The New Testament explicitly commands a Christian to “see that none render unto any one evil for evil; but always follow after that which is good, one toward another, and toward all” (I Thessalonians 5:15). This forbids a child of God from committing an evil act even against the person who has mistreated him. This principle has been stated in the well-known proverb “two wrongs never make a right.”

When the apostate Jews of Jesus’ day attempted to justify returning evil for evil by misapplying the Mosaic civil code requiring “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” Jesus plainly told them, “resist not him that is evil” (Matthew 5:38–39).

War demands retaliation against evildoers. It calls for both offensive attack and defensive counterattack against an enemy bent on destruction. War requires putting a stop to his evildoing. The prime means employed in war to accomplish this is for individuals to kill individuals. And this very action is forbidden to a Christian who is commanded by his Lord – not to return evil to the one inflicting evil upon him.

Here again we are confronted with the objection that only “personal” evildoers are meant by these passages of Scripture. It is contended that the evil we might encounter in our personal contacts with our fellowman is to be tolerated but that the evil activities of an enemy nation during wartime may be responded to, in kind, by the Christian as an agent of the government. But can this allowance be upheld by the Scriptures?

In I Thessalonians 5:15 we are told to follow after that which is good toward “all.” Romans 12:17–18 requires that we render to “no man” evil for evil, but rather to take thought for honorable things in the sight of “all men,” and to be at peace with “all men.” Now, unless these statements are somewhere in the New Testament qualified or restricted, then they must stand as clear-cut prohibitions preventing a Christian from rendering malicious evil to any and all men. This rule would apply to members of the community in which we live as well as members of an opposing army. Destructive violence and terror tactics are wrong whether they are carried on in a neighborhood scuffle or an international armed struggle. If not, why not?

Other passages which emphasize that Christians are not to engage in mutual hostility, such as war, are: Romans 12:21; I Peter 3:9; I Corinthians 4:12. While it may be freely admitted that in the open conflict of wartime it would be difficult (if not practically impossible) to engage in returning good for evil, that does not, therefore, permit rendering evil for evil.

Then there are those who still insist that evildoers must be dealt with as a matter of Justice. But in war there is no justice. Indeed, the very nature of warfare precludes justice. Law, as ordained by Scripture, allows for a nation to govern its citizens, and even to punish the offenders among its citizens (Romans 13:1–7). But this, or any other passage of Scripture, gives no authority to one nation to judge another and then to administer “justice” by indiscriminately slaughtering its inhabitants.

War does not operate on the basis of justice. The evildoers, the true criminals responsible for desecrating mankind, are seldom, if ever, punished. Since the Bible indicates that evil men will wax worse and worse (II Timothy 3:13) we can expect the art of wanton human destruction to become more and more “refined.”

War is gross injustice, waged on a worldwide scale, and Christians being just men (Hebrews 12:23) can have no part in it, regardless of how evil it may become.

In the end, however, evildoers will be punished. The Word of God settles the matter by stating that vengeance belongs to God. He will repay all injustices. Christians are warned to “Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath of God” Romans 12:19. And this is as it should be, for who else, besides Almighty God, could be impartially just and unerringly right?

Christians are strictly forbidden to “get back at” evildoers, even if they incite worldwide hostility in the form of war. God will punish the warmonger in His own time and way. This responsibility lies outside the realm of man. The Christian must respect God’s authority in this matter and thereby have no part in war.

But Killing in War Is Done As an Agent of the Government and Not As a Personal Act

…

Complete article at:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig9/paul-w1.html

William E. Paul , a World War II veteran, is a retired minister and Bible college teacher who lives in Colorado.

                          ==========

three thousand words

ReverendFun.com: HEY I KNOW WHERE I RECOGNIZE YOU FROM …
YOU’RE ONE OF MY WIVES, AREN’T YOU?

http://www.reverendfun.com/2008/07/20080718_pda.gif

NICK KIM: first contact

http://www.humaniststudies.org/~funnies/nearing%20zero/nz20080716.jpg

JEFF SWENSON: ow! girls hit hard

http://humaniststudies.org/~funnies/freethunk/sf20080716.jpg�