Some Pre-Fed political ramblings to get your minds off the markets!

Mercenaries, er, excuse me, “private contractors,” kill a bunch of innocent Iraqis and are granted immunity from prosecution. Sounds to me like business as usual in the Empire.

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner “won office” in Argentina to become their first female elected Chief of State, despite some allegations of fraud. Just wait ’til they get their Diebold touchscreen voting machines in the Southern Hemisphere! They ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.

I agree with her that accepting IMF funds and conditions would be a raw deal for any emerging nation. However, do I think Argentina’s current economic policies are all wet. Note to self, don’t consider Argentina for an expat destination until after their economy collapses.

Why am I so down on the IMF, anyways?

Is the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan worse than that of the Soviets as far as Afghans are concerned? I dunno, but when we can wipe out 10 members of 4 generations from one family with a single airstrike, I think there’s a high probability that the survivors and witnesses might just become U.S.-hating “terrorists.” Or do you think that little Mujib will grow up to “hate us for our freedoms?”

Who does Hamid Karzai think he is, anyway? The man’s a puppet in power because the U.S. says he can be in power, so take our bombing runs in stride and STFU!

Is the Turkish military action in Kurdish Iraq another form of “blowback”? Apparently some of the arms used by PKK fighters to “defend” Kurdish Iraq from Turkey were intended to go to Pejak, a Kurdish group in Iran. It seems the Kurdish desire for an independent state not only crosses modern political boundaries, but encourages Kurds to play the U.S. for a fool. Won’t be the first time some piss-ant non-state political group in a foreign country used and abused the U.S. tendency to play “god” in other countries.

Pop quiz, hotshot: how did all those borders get drawn, when, and by whom?

Pop quiz, part two: did a certain general be-tray-us by not making certain those weapons got into the intended hands?

Anyone else here old enough to remember Iran-Contra? Or the U.S. arming of Afghan rebels to attack the Soviets?

On the evening of August 29, 2007, six armed nuclear cruise missiles were mistakenly flown from Minot AFB in ND to Barksdale AFB in LA. Hmm, this movie sounds familiar, somehow. And isn’t the B-52, a plane older than most if not all of the people who have trained all of its current pilots, capable of dropping those things on Iran in a single non-stop, round-trip flight?

Now, seriously, there are only two logical choices, given the incontrovertible facts that six nuclear warheads flew from point A to point B, and that the official investigation labels it a “mistake.” Either it actually was a mistake, which means that our “government” and military are so f*cking incompetent that at any time, a few of our own nukes could go missing for several hours and wind up parked where we don’t want them; or that there was some sort of intentional transfer going on so that a planned, secretive mission could take place with those nukes, and now it’s being covered up. Pick your poison, it’s gotta be one or the other, and neither is exactly confidence-inspiring or copasetic with the crapola I learned in high school civics classes about “government.”

If the U.S. could sentence a Japanese soldier to 15 years of hard labor in 1947 for waterboarding a U.S. civilian, then WTF is the U.S. doing now by endorsing waterboarding as legal? Will it only be illegal if done by Asian members of the CIA or FBI? Will it only be illegal if done to U.S. citizens? Or does it have something to do with the winners of wars writing the rules?

Ever wonder why so many Hollywood celebrities live in the U.K.? It’s the non-dom loophole, and it may not be around too much longer. Hmm, I wonder if that will have any impact on the London financial scene … whoops! No market talk in this post!

“I don’t want these Ron Paul’s people, but I need shots of audience, people eating and crap like that,” from the Mackinac Republican Conference on Sept 22, 2007, the Faux News crew carefully plans their camera angles.

Benito Giuliani is still working for that security consulting firm he promised to leave, despite the fact that it creates a legal quagmire in terms of potential FEC violations. Par for the course, IMO, and I bet that in 10-15 years, or, if he actually wins election, in 60-70 years, anyone alive and paying attention will find out about any criminal activities. Until then, it’s all just supposition and an apparent possible conflict of interest. Right? Right! Nothing nefarious going on there!

Ever wonder why it’s a good idea to get your news from dozens of different sources? Well, this Newsvine article proclaims “Candidates Widely Split on Iran,” but it only mentions seven candidates, and several of them, the most militant, get mentioned more than once. I guess if I want to see what Ron Paul thinks about Iran, I have to get it straight from the horse’s mouth.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly oppose any move to initiate further sanctions on Iran. Sanctions are acts of war, and expanding sanctions on Iran serves no purpose other than preparing the American people for an eventual attack on Iran. This is the same pattern we saw in the run up to the war on Iraq: Congress passes legislation calling for regime change, sanctions are imposed, and eventually we are told that only an attack will solve the problem. We should expect the same tragic result if we continue down this path. I urge my colleagues to reconsider.

I oppose economic sanctions for two very simple reasons. First, they don’t work as effective foreign policy. Time after time, from Cuba to China to Iraq, we have failed to unseat despotic leaders or change their policies by refusing to trade with the people of those nations. If anything, the anti-American sentiment aroused by sanctions often strengthens the popularity of such leaders, who use America as a convenient scapegoat to divert attention from their own tyranny. History clearly shows that free and open trade does far more to liberalize oppressive governments than trade wars. Economic freedom and political freedom are inextricably linked–when people get a taste of goods and information from abroad, they are less likely to tolerate a closed society at home. So sanctions mostly harm innocent citizens and do nothing to displace the governments we claim as enemies.

Second, sanctions simply hurt American industries, particularly agriculture. Every market we close to our nation’s farmers is a market exploited by foreign farmers. China, Russia, the Middle East, North Korea, and Cuba all represent huge markets for our farm products, yet many in Congress favor current or proposed trade restrictions that prevent our farmers from selling to the billions of people in these areas.

We must keep in mind that Iran has still not been found in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Furthermore, much of the information regarding Iran’s nuclear program is coming to us via thoroughly discredited sources like the MeK, a fanatical cult that is on our State Department’s terror list. Additionally, the same discredited neo-conservatives who pushed us into the Iraq war are making similarly exaggerated claims against Iran. How often do these “experts” have to be proven wrong before we start to question their credibility?

It is said that we non-interventionists are somehow “isolationists” because we don’t want to interfere in the affairs of foreign nations. But the real isolationists are those who demand that we isolate certain peoples overseas because we disagree with the policies of their leaders. The best way to avoid war, to promote American values, and to spread real freedom and liberty is to engage in trade and contacts with the rest of the world as broadly as possible.

I urge my colleagues to reconsider this counterproductive and dangerous move toward further sanctions on Iran.

Now, back to the markets!