Thoughts as I Watched the Revolution in Egypt…(Update 1X)

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

UPDATE  4/27/11

Well, Egypt  isn’t turning out so great…It’s all so predictable, isn’t it?  Any whiff of hope anywhere gets squelched real fast. 
And we’re now involved with Libya.  Meanwhile, the powers in Syria seem to be emulating the Libyan approach to dealing with protesters.

It’s like watching one disheartening train wreck after another.

Some personal train wrecks have taken me away from this blog…but, a rest still is in order.  It takes a lot of energy to fight the world these days!

One real positive is that our photovoltaic solar system is now up and running and yes, the meter is running backwards!  Have lots of pics and details which I hope to post one of these days!

*****

Nothing profound here to say, only an urge to write about my feelings as I’ve been sitting glued to Al Jazeera for days on end.

Today, I was clapping and cheering for the people of Egypt. A rush of feelings and memories flashed by.  I remembered 2000 as our elections were completely corrupted. (Some satisfaction as George W.  Bush is unable to go to Switzerland…war criminal that he is!)  I was thinking of the lies that led to the Iraq War and thought about the report I heard this morning on NPR about how there are fears that something may coalesce as the heat arrives and the electricity remains on only 2 hours a day. Protests percolating already around Iraq, and I say, go for it!

I’m finding myself coming back over and over again to about how the U.S. is perhaps going to get its ass kicked and deservedly so. They utter hypocrisy of the “democracy talk” as we sit here supporting repressive regimes all over the world.  We are a fraud when it comes to democracy.

My mind dwells on the right wing religious freaks and the Republican Party that has become their home who continue to attempt to screw women out of their rights and their independence as human beings, who basically are out to screw anything that helps people. And I’m supposed to worry about the Muslim Brotherhood while I live in a country that has it’s own brand of the Taliban roaming the halls of Congress??

I think of John Lennon. A site has “Revolution” up but I’m thinking of “Power to the People.” Is that the right title? I don’t know, but I can hear John singing it. Who really killed John Lennon? I’ve seen enough and read enough to figure it wasn’t just another “lone gunman.”

I’m sitting here, having celebrated my 60th birthday a few days ago….reflecting on the marches for women’s rights, the power of the movement, and how every time a fucking Republican comes along…with fake Democrats who assist…how every time we go BACKWARDS! And how backwards we have gone!  I think about the type of  “leadership” we have in this country…there are no real thinkers leading these days.  Between the servants of the bankers,  the increasingly shrill Republicans and passive Democrats…Jeebus, am I supposed to look at the Palins, Gingriches, Romneys and that Jeb Bush lurking in the corner and feel optimistic??  When I see how skillfully a Chris Christie can take a state like New Jersey and divide people into camps and blame all ills on teachers  and the people who do the day to day work to keep the place running?….disgusting!  Lying thuggery personified…and just the tip of the iceberg, I’m afraid. And Obama pontificating on democracy after Mubarak’s demise…what a load of crap.

I think about how we were supposed to get some “community radio” but all I hear is right wing shit talk radio all over the dial. People getting very little true news follow these propagandists for the right as they go about their highly-paid work to divide and conquer and sow the seed of intolerance and hate.

Yeah, I’m watching Egypt and cheering them on….but knowing full well that the arm of the IMF will probably soon reach in and grab them by the throat. Hell, we fund it and guess what? The IMF is talking about the dollar no longer being the reserve currency for the world. I’m just surprise all this is happening so quickly…Between the IMF and the Fed, Americans do not know how the world is getting screwed and how it’s going to come back to bite them.

Fat and unaware Americans will soon wake up to find that they are being ground down to a pulp.  Your dollars will be worthless soon.

We wrote a lot in the past about the impending disaster that was going to befall lthis nation.  There are many wonderful sites out there trying to wake people up. I read them every day…and spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to save my own financial neck.

Start stocking up on food, go to ChrisMartenson.com to start to try to prepare yourself (in right sidebar links).

And to the Egyptian people…stay strong, stay proud. I’m rooting for you…you’re starting fresh while the U.S. is rotting from the inside.  Note to the women there…get loud and don’t let them steamroller you…

Iraqi Oil Contract Bidding: BBC vs. NPR Reporting

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

Here’s a little nugget for you regarding the bidding on Iraqi oil fields…the ones that the U.S. was supposed to clean up on after the “liberation” of Iraq.

It’s also a tale of the miserable news reporting we have here, including the “superior” NPR Radio.

I woke up and listened to the BBC World Service yesterday as usual and heard a brief report about bidding for Iraqi oil contracts.  The report included the facts that bidders weren’t exactly running to invest in Iraq.

From the BBC:

Oil companies reject Iraq’s terms

Only one of the bidders for the eight contracts to run oil and gas fields in Iraq has accepted oil ministry terms.

Six oil fields and two gas fields were available in a televised auction that was the first big oil tender in Iraq since the invasion of 2003.

BP and China’s CNPC agreed to run the 17 billion barrel Rumaila field after Exxon Mobil turned it down.

Iraq has asked the rest of the companies to consider resubmitting bids for the other seven contracts.

The oil ministry is offering 20-year service contracts.

Other fields have failed to find buyers, either because there were no bidders or because terms were declined.

Thirty-two oil companies had been approved as potential bidders.

MORE

The terms, of course, are detailed in the story, but suffice to say that the amount of payment is one of the key issues.  Another twist is that these are not “production-sharing” deals, but “service contracts” being offered because the Iraqi parliament hasn’t passed an oil bill yet and this sort of contract makes it easier to start the process at this point.  Under service contracts, a fixed fee will be paid for oil produced instead of having a proportion of the oil awarded to a company under a production-sharing contract.

So, things aren’t proceeding that quickly on the oil production front.

However, I caught a report on NPR which didn’t provide that information. Instead, the report simply mentioned that Iraqi oil bidding had started.

If you look at the story on the NPR site, you’ll see a fuller report, with the emphasis on being a lot more “touchy-feely.”

Foreign Companies Bid On Iraqi Oil Licenses

Morning Edition, June 30, 2009 · Foreign companies could soon be pumping Iraqi oil for the first time in nearly 40 years.

On Tuesday, the government of Iraq opened bids from oil companies interested in helping the country realize its oil production potential.

The oil companies are so eager for a crack at Iraq’s vast oil wealth that they are willing to overlook some big negatives: It’s a country still at war. There’s a lot of political opposition to foreign oil companies. There’s no guarantee the contracts awarded at this auction will even be honored. And yet, more than 30 companies submitted bids.

Big Oil has not had an opportunity like this for decades.

A bit later in the story, we do get some reality:

When Saddam Hussein kicked the foreign oil companies out of Iraq in 1972, many Iraqis supported the move, and there is still strong opposition to any sharing of the country’s oil wealth with foreign companies. The withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraqi cities and towns this week has only reinforced Iraqi nationalism. In the coming weeks or months, Iraqi parliamentarians may even move to overturn oil contracts awarded through Tuesday’s auction.

But there’s hope:

The opening round produced only one deal. The Iraqi offers generally fell short of the oil company bids, and additional bargaining seemed likely.

Such deals won’t necessarily be highly profitable for the oil companies. In the next phase of the competition, however, the Iraqi government is expected to open fields that have not yet been explored or developed. The companies that win the right to search for oil might then be able to take a share of what they find. It’s that competition — not this one — that would mean big money for the companies.

“This is just everybody kind of wanting to get their foot in the door for the bigger prizes that will be here in a year or two,” says Stratfor’s Zeihan. No one wants to be left out.

“What makes Iraq special,” says Diwan, “is [that] there is room for all the big oil companies at the same time, and for all them to have sizable projects. Everybody will get something fairly large.”

All this may be very true, but if you only caught the brief headline story that I heard on the radio later in the day, you wouldn’t have a clue about the first day of bidding.

The question is, of course, why a news brief on the BBC can include fact that there was a difficult first day of bidding, while the NPR brief omits this information.

That’s a silly question, of course, because we all know that Americans are not allowed to get news, just spin and and obsfucation.

Obama Humor: Get Used to It! The Jerk Makes a “Careless and Offhanded” Joke About Nancy Reagan

~~By InsightAnaltytical-GRL

Well, NPR has an interview up with a professor from George Mason University who says Obama is patterning his transition after Ronald Reagan.

Obama Looks To Reagan For Transition Model

Listen Now [4 min 58 sec]

All Things Considered, November 7, 2008 · President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team is expected to take tips from Ronald Reagan’s carefully orchestrated transition. James P. Pfiffner, professor of public policy at George Mason University and author of The Strategic Presidency: Hitting The Ground Running, says that Obama, like Reagan, seems to have started planning early.

For a guy who is channeling Reagan, then where did the crass reference to Nancy Reagan in Friday’s press conference come from?

Now, I wasn’t a fan of Nancy Reagan, but she wasn’t much in my consciousness, either. I remember all the negative talk about her designer clothes…remember, this was the era when “Dynasty” and “Falcon Crest”  (the latter featuring Reagan’s ex-wife Jane Wyman) were big hits (“Dynasty” started airing in January 1981, “Falcon Crest” in December of that year), and J.R. Ewing ruled the airwaves on “Dallas.”  Glitz and fancy clothes and the mores of the rich…yes, it was the Reagan-era.

After Reagan was shot in March 1981, Nancy apparently consulted an astrologer.  She needed comfort and that’s one of the places she turned to, I guess.  As someone who was studying astrology (and was later published in some astrology magazines), I wasn’t affronted by the news when it came out, later in Reagan’s presidency–I was fascinated by it. Here we were in the era of the ascent of the Religious Right and Nancy Reagan was consulting an astrologer. As a contradiction, it was sort of cool.

Nancy Reagan didn’t attend the Republican Convention, but she endorsed John McCain, and also was “impressed” with Obama, according to her son Ron Reagan. She fell and broke her pelvis in October, but made it home.

But, although her last name is “REAGAN ” and she apparently spoke kindly about Obama, she’s not the correct kind of “REAGAN.” She’s a WOMAN-McCAIN sort of Reagan, not the real deal.  Oops.

So, Obama has been admiring Reagan at least in public since the early days of the primary season, lauding him profusely in that Reno-Gazette Journal (Nevada) interview…but at his VERY FIRST PRESS CONFERENCE as President-elect, he went out of his way to diss Nancy Reagan…

He was making a comment about how he had spoken to “every living President” (?!) and dragged her into the  moment as he apparently recovered, according to one of our readers who saw it live, mocking Mrs. Reagan for holding “seances” to cover his butt. As far as I (and the AP) recall, she didn’t hold seances, she just went to an astrologer.

Of course, this personal sniping directed at the 87-year-old former First Lady was explained away as being an attempt at humor and Obama issued an apology.

Obama apologizes to Nancy Reagan for seance remark

By KEVIN FREKING Associated Press Writer

Nov 7th, 2008 | WASHINGTON — President-elect Obama called Nancy Reagan on Friday to apologize for joking that she held seances in the White House.

At a news conference in Chicago, Obama said he had spoken with all the living presidents as he prepares to take office in January. Then he smiled and said, “I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about doing any seances.”

The 87-year-old former first lady had consulted with astrologers during her husband’s presidency. But she did not hold conversations with the dead.

Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said the president-elect later called Mrs. Reagan “to apologize for the careless and offhanded remark.” She said Obama “expressed his admiration and affection for Mrs. Reagan that so many Americans share, and they had a warm conversation.” (MORE)

Which only proves again that Obama is a humorless, self-involved, arrogant creepy JERK who has to hit on elderly women in an attempt to crack a joke.  My advice? Work on your mother issues. And get an earpiece so that EVERY word you utter off-script, (when not looking at the teleprompter like you leaned on today)…EVERY word you utter is piped directly to your brain. (And I don’t recall even George Bush using a teleprompter for a presser…at least not THIS early.) Oh, and use that earpiece if you ever talk to Putin…

And as an aside, I heard Morton Kondracke et al on FOX discussing the fact that Obama wants a “mixed breed dog” instead of a reportedly non-allergenic breed like a poodle. At least one of his daughters has asthma, from what I recall, and a poodle would fill the bill. But no, he wants a mixed breed (is that supposed to symbolize something about himself?) instead of a dog that won’t make his kid(s) sick!

Does this guy have ANY empathy at all, for old or young women???  Kids? Or anybody else, for that matter?

Early in George Bush’s first term, I said to my mother that “this guy isn’t going to wear well.”  Well, I’m making the same prediction for this arrogant fake who is about to become President.

More advice…keep it up!  The more hostility, ungraciousness, and nastiness you display, the sooner we’ll see you implode. (I hope.)

And for any dog who winds up in the Obama household…give your master a bite for me…