Dept. of Deja Vu: The Cold War Begins

Harry Truman, experiencing a precipitous decline in public approval, was confronted by the spectre of an expanding Soviet Union in 1947. Greece was on the verge of falling to communist insurgents, and the British had announced they could no longer afford to prop up the existing friendly government. Truman and his Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, summoned Republican Senator Arthur Vandenberg, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations to the White House to tell him that Congress would have to pay for a covert war against communist aggression in Europe. Truman made an address to a joint session of Congress in which he announced his policy of supporting free peoples against "armed minorities or outside pressures", a phrase clearly meant for Generalissimo Joseph Stalin. The Truman Doctrine was born and the Cold War began in earnest. Millions flowed to Greece along with military hardware and spies.

Arthur Vandenberg's nephew, Air Force General Hoyt Vandenberg, in charge of a nascent CIA, told a handful of Congress members in secret that the nation faced foreign threats as never before. "The oceans have shrunk, until today both Europe and Asia border the Untied States almost as do Canada and Mexico," he said[1]. The Charlatan, a former Air Force officer, repeated this phrase after the attack on September 11, 2001. And so the Second Cold War began in earnest. Millions flowed to obscure foreign nations along with military hardware and spies.
[1] Legacy of Ashes, Tim Weiner, 2007

Fraud Rocks Europe's Exchanges

Wall Street no doubt felt the reverberations from the massive unwinding of future positions taken by a runaway trader at France's second largest bank, Societe Generale. The bank lost 4.9 billion euros secretly closing out 40-50 billion in future contracts traded by Jerome Kerviel. The FTSE fell 5.5%, CAC fell 6.8%, and DAX dropped 7.2% on Monday. European Union regulators are investigating the aftermath of the dumping that may have been exacerbated by short sellers with inside information. Kerviel allegedly circumvented bank controls including stealing associates' passwords, creating fake accounts, and hacking computer programs. The fraud is the biggest in history, and there is speculation that the Federal Reserve was forced into increasing the size of its interest rate cut because of the panic created in European bourses. The Fed admitted it knew of the problem in Paris before cutting the discount rate. The French central bank, Banc de France was apparently complicit in the effort to close out the fraudulent positions. Nevertheless, French President Sarkozy was not told about the fraud for three days. Now that is bad for business.
Update: Jerome Kerviel was taken into custody for questioning Saturday night in Paris. The thirty something trader was not a star but a quiet loner who had intimate knowledge of the trading computer system at Societe Generale. The CEO said the trades were straightforward positions linked to rising markets but were hidden in extremely sophisticated and varied ways. The trades were in the money in December, but when world markets started to drop, the margin calls probably became unsustainable

Ron Paul Speaks the Truth

I couldn't watch much of it because it was mostly a rehashed argument over whether to make rich Americans even more wealthy but making their tax cuts permanent. But the Republican debate did have Ron Paul on stage, and he made some cogent remarks about the latest collapse of the almighty Dow Jones rating--America's official scorecard. He rightly pointed out that the economy is taking a swan dive because of the enormous burden placed upon it by fighting two wars simultaneously. While the military outlays in Afghanistan could be justified--our intervention was in self defense, and we are part of a real international effort there--its easy see just how self immolating our reckless spending in the Iraq quagmire is. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released a report saying that the federal deficit will reach $250 billion due to $30 billion in additional outlays for the wars. This out of control spending in the name of "security" causes additional billions in interest expense, increases inflation, destabilizes an already weak dollar, and puts us at a trade disadvantage, not to mention the mercy of our biggest creditors, China and Saudi Arabia. If you only listen to Republicans because you are a white male living in South Carolina for example, may I suggest you listen to Ron Paul? He is still related to reality.

'Toontime: Billary for President

[credit: Robert Ariail, The State, Columbia, SC]

Le Shorter: A Database of Lies

The Center for Public Integrity has compiled an exhaustive database of the hundreds of lies and misrepresentations made by officials of the domestic Regime during the selling of the Iraq War. The Center concludes that on 532 separate occasions the Regime made unequivocal claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, links to Al Qaeda or both as part of an orchestrated public relations campaign to lead America to war on false pretenses.

Israel Factor III

AIPAC claims not to be involved in political spending, but no fewer that 51 pro-Israel PACs are operated by AIPAC officials or people who hold seats on AIPAC's two policy boards. The FEC has ruled that there is insufficient evidence that AIPAC controls the network of pro-Israel political action committees. Nevertheless, the widespread belief on Capitol Hill that AIPAC controls significant amounts of political funding remains. Pro Israel groups contributed $57 million to candidates and parties while Arab-American and Muslim PACs contributed slightly less than $800,000 between 1990 and 2004.

Pro-Israel groups helped Joe Lieberman defeat insurgent candidate Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary of 2006. Lieberman, who alienated many non-Jewish Democratic voters in Connecticut for his lock step support of Israel and the Iraq War, received a total of more than $145,000 from two-dozen different pro-Israel groups. None of these groups helped Lamont. Senator Hillary Clinton supported Palestinian statehood in 1998 and publicly embraced the wife of PLO leader, Yasser Arafat. She received strong criticism from the Israel lobby for her actions. Since launching her own political career, she has become a strong supporter of Israel including supporting the brutal and highly destructive second war against Lebanon in which civilian infrastructure was deliberately targeted. Pro-Israel PACs contributed more than $30,000 to her senatorial reelection campaign of 2006. As a New York senator running for the Democratic Presidential nomination, most pundits believe she will receive the bulk of the Jewish community's substantial campaign donations.

What happened to Senator Charles Percy (R-IL) when he refused to sign an AIPAC sponsored petition to President Ford protesting a reevaluation of US policy towards Israel has not been forgotten in poltical circles. Percy was generally supportive of Israel, but an out of state supporter of AIPAC spent $1.1 million on anti-Percy adversting in Illinois. His opponents in both primary and general elections of 1984 received substantial contributions from pro-Israel PACs. Percy narrowly lost reelection. The bottom line according to the authors of The Israel Lobby is that AIPAC has an unchallenged hold on Congress, and crossing the organization is to risk your political career. Former long time Senator Ernest Hollings (D-SC) said upon leaving office, "You can't have an Israeli policy other than what AIPAC gives you around here."

Another Sacrifice on the Altar of Oil

The Regime recently decided to auction oil leases in the Chukchi Sea which is prime polar bear habitat in the United States. It has yet to issue a decision on whether to protect the polar bear which is suffering from impacts of climate change. The decision has been delayed despite considerable scientific evidence that the bear's habitat is shrinking and bear populations declining rapidly. Last week the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it would miss the statutory deadline for making a final decision on the threatened status of the Arctic's apex predator. An announced thirty day delay would allow Lease Sale 193 to go forward on February 6th before the Endangered Species Act decision is made. Habitat that could be designated critical for the bear and the thirty million acres up for sale of drilling rights overlap. Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming called the Regime's ploy "regulatory insanity". In his letter to Interior Secretary Dick Kempthorne Rep. Markey asked that the lease sale be delayed until a final decision on the bear's status is made. He has introduced legislation in the House to delay the sale. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) has also written asking that the polar bear's legal status be determined first. [photo credit National Geographic Society]