American Theocracy?

I read an interesting piece comparing the political aspirations of the religious right in this country to the regime in place in Iran. Since it was written by a onetime, inner circle religious wing-nut, Frank Schaeffer, this is not just speculation. He knows what the intentions are because he was involved when plans were laid out and goals identified. Just click to read his piece, and be very thankful that we do not have to go through what the Iranian people are experiencing to be free from such authoritarian governance.

Sam Imam?

For anyone feeling overwhelmed by the tension in Iran, a light hearted summary a la Dr. Seuss can be enjoyed here.

What Does Ahmadinejad Stand For?

I was really hoping that the Iranians would vote Ahmadinejad out of office as a signal that they wanted Iran to move forward in a reality-based way. Now it appears that even though he was voted out, he is unwilling to let Iran move in a different direction.

This is terribly important as Ahmadinejad is even more extreme in his beliefs than most Westerners seem to want to understand. To get an idea of just how extreme he is, one need only consider his role during the Iran-Iraq war. Ahmadinejad was a trainer and organizer of the basij, the children martyrs that would roll on the ground, detonating the mines so that soldiers and expensive equipment would be spared. (Handicapped children were often preferred for this duty, because that way families could keep their able-bodied children.)

In pondering the behavior of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I cannot help but think of the 500,000 plastic keys that Iran imported from Taiwan during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88. At the time, an Iranian law laid down that children as young as 12 could be used to clear mine fields, even against the objections of their parents. Before every mission, a small plastic key would be hung around each of the children’s necks. It was supposed to open for them the gates to paradise....

....Today, however, Ahmadinejad appears in public in his Basiji uniform. During the war, he served as one of the Basiji instructors who turned children into martyrs. The generation that fought in the Iran-Iraq War has come to power along with Ahmadinejad. He owed his election in Summer 2005 to the contemporary Basiji movement. In Fall, he announced a “Basiji Week.”

Ahmadinejad subscribes to the extreme fundamentalist view that this life is of no value, and that suicidal, homicidal acts in the name of Islam are the highest form of virtue. His anti-Israel and the West rhetoric needs to be taken at face value. His regime would be likely to use nuclear weapons against Israel and the West, should they be able to build them.

Some would rationally argue that that would make no sense as it would kill even more Palestinians than Jews, but that consideration is meaningless to anyone of Ahmadinejad's mindset. Any Muslims killed during an assault on Israel would be guaranteed martyr status, so really, he would be doing them a favor. Any Iranian citizens killed by the inevitable retaliation would likewise join that enviable designation, so Ahmadinejad would be doing them a huge favor too.

Sadly, the restraint imposed by MAD just does not apply when delusionally apocalyptic tyrants are at the helm. Let's hope that Iranians are able to dislodge this evil megalomaniac once and for all.

A funny thing happened on the way to the gas pump

Oil is not priced like most sane goods. The price is not a buyer, say, me, will pay today to a seller with a gallon of crude. Rather, the price is an average of the futures contracts for some percentage of the world's supply. Got that? The price is what people think it will cost off into the future, not what someone will pay right now. (I'm having trouble finding links, but this is the way it works, baybee--I used to work for an energy company and wrote rather bewilderingly complex spreadsheets to determine this stuff--I'm looking, google, don't let me down......) Ahh, here's something. Notice, the futures contract price is the same as the spot price (actual cost) for "light sweet crude) in OK.

Because the price (and this is the actual price) we all hear quoted on the radio is unrelated to the price some average jo would pay, Oil is destined to bubble.

Plus, Oil does not require inventory. If no demand, the producers just don't pump it out of the ground. So, there's no pile-up of inventory when the price outpaces the demand.

If oil was considerably overpriced, and if the price was not set by the consumer, then you would expect that at some point, buyers couldn't find sellers.

Here's one, Iran.

Here's an entire blog that discusses these ideas rather exhaustively. As a disclaimer, the geologists I worked with seemed to think that oil had peaked around 1998 (unlike the website I linked to here) however, the current drastic run up in price is a bubble. It will go down prior to its slow, steady rise back up.

Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran.

CBS news reports that Israel is prodding US to bomb Iran quickly, in case someone sane is elected over here.

Bush, having laid the groundwork, may get to bomb Iran!

From the Asia times, we find that the Bush administration may have set a timetable to bomb Iran in August of this year. This is troubling for many reasons, the main being that it is totally and completely and utterly crazy, with a side of more crazy. The Bush administration has been unable to prove that Iran is delivering weapons to Iraq; while decrying Iranian's building of nuclear power plants, it has helped the Saudis get the same exact technology.

This is even more troubling, as Asmiral William Fallon, the former Commander-in-Chief of Centcom (US Military Central Command over the Middle East) resigned in March, to be replaced by David Petraus. Fallon was widely seen as flat-out refusing to attack Iran under his leadership. Now he's gone, and Petraeus seems to have an itchy trigger finger.

And now, none other than Bushes old press secretary, Scott McClellan, has written a tell-all book documenting how "the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated 'political propaganda campaign' led by President Bush and aimed at 'manipulating sources of public opinion and 'downplaying the major reason for going to war.'"

"The Iraq [Iran] war was not necessary," he concludes.
"Waging an unnecessary war is a grave mistake."


h/t george, daily kos

US Foreign Policy at its finest

So, the Bush administration has decided to actively help Saudi Arabia get nuclear power. You may recall Saudi Arabia as the country that gave us 15 of the 19 9-11 attackers, plus Osama Bin Laden himself.

At the exact same time, the Bush administration seems to be doing its best to gin up an excuse to invade Iran over the same issue -- nuclear power -- in spite of, ah, no proof at all that Iran is a danger.

A plan to show some alleged Iranian-supplied explosives to journalists last week in Karbala and then destroy them was canceled after the United States realized none of them was from Iran.