|
|
|
Albion Monitor |
Issue 170 |
JUNE 2008
|
|
|
| 
|
|
|
|
|
At the hastily convened global oil summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on June 28, top officials of producing and consuming nations from around the world attempted to find a combination of solutions that would somehow extricate us from the current crisis over sky-high energy prices. These proposals ranged from increased output by major producers like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to restrictions on the activities of international oil speculators.
But all were based on the premise that the crisis can be resolved through the right mix of actions, thus restoring an environment of cheap and abundant oil -- a premise that is fundamentally flawed. More and more, the evidence suggests that this is not just a temporary crisis. It is the beginning of the end of the Petroleum Age
|
|
|
|
"Bees are as important to our crops as the water and sunshine. No bees, no crops"
Israelis vague on what appeared to be a rehearsal for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities
But classic situation for full-blown stagflation
Opposition presidential candidate seeks refuge in Dutch embassy
While Qatari citizens enjoy an unprecedented economic boom, millions of Egyptians are unable to buy bread
Both Maliki and Bush want agreement before next president inaugurated
 | |
Akemi Hamai and Amy Haruyama are married by Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums as their daughters, Maya Haruyama and Anna Hamai, join in the ceremony (PHOTO: Michael Macor)
|
Christian conservatives nationwide gearing up for showdown in November referendum
Bush the only leader willing to throw more cash at what many see as a money sink
White House says pledge means nothing because "permanent" refers more to a state of mind
Can't take away basic legal right by declaring someone an "enemy combatant"
Pakistan says airstrikes "unprovoked and cowardly" and threatens cooperation with U.S.
Officials boast of progress to media, but UN reps privately say aid operations failing
Only junta is allowed to provide aid, even as it proves unable to do so
"League of Democracies" to bypass UN and face off against "autocratic states"
Insisted that the White House had to make "a policy decision about how far the administration would go -- what would happen after the Iranians would go after our folks"
|
|
|
|
The very morning after the last primaries, in which he finally received a sufficient number of pledged delegates to secure the Democratic presidential nomination and no longer needed to win over voters from the progressive base of his own party, Obama -- in a Clinton-style effort at triangulation -- gave a major policy speech before the national convention of the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). As an African-American whose father came from a Muslim family, he is under even more pressure than most candidates to avoid being labeled as "anti-Israel."
But his June 3 speech in Washington in many ways constituted a slap in the face of his grass roots peace and human rights supporters. Obama largely embraced a right-wing perspective which appeared to place all the blame for the ongoing violence and the impasse in the peace process on the Palestinians under occupation rather than the Israelis who are still occupying and colonizing the parts of their country seized by the Israeli army more than 40 years ago. Most disturbing was Obama's apparent support for Israel's illegal annexation of greater East Jerusalem, the Palestinian-populated sector of the city and surrounding villages that Israel seized along with the rest of the West Bank in June 1967.
This speech would have been the perfect time for Obama, while upholding his commitment to Israel's right to exist in peace and security, to challenge AIPAC's militarism and national chauvinism more directly. Unfortunately, while showing some independence of thought on Iran, he apparently felt the Palestinians were not as important.
Taking a pro-Israel but anti-occupation position would have demonstrated that Obama was not just another pandering politician and that he recognized that a country's legitimate security needs were not enhanced by invasion, occupation, colonization and repression
|
|
|
 | |
Almost two decades of conservation efforts, researchers are now confronting a series of puzzling challenges that suggest global warming as a principal factor in declining sea turtle populations (ART: GMIX Designs)
|
Sea turtles that can live for a century just disappearing
GOP memo surfaces of plan to delay bill, then blame Democrats for high energy costs
Lied that al-Qaeda and Saddam "posed a single, indistinguishable threat"
"The entire Darfur region is a crime scene"
Aid org allowed in country says worst still far from over
If U.S. warships and foreign forces came to the aid of cyclone survivors in the Irrawaddy Delta, the generals fear repeat of 1988 revolt
Tells AIPAC he plans to continue Bush policies
Tried to take decision authority away from national security adviser, State Dept. and give it to his ally, Gen. Petraeus
Fears that U.S. military command means shift towards securing oil reserves
|
|
|
|
|
|
THE WAR IN IRAQ
No formal research into reports of many births with major congenital malformations
Detention rates for children had risen drastically in 2007 to an average of 100 new cases a month
Kidnapped, disappeared, among those presumed dead but uncounted
|
|
|
POLITICS AS USUAL
McCain has often helped contributors navigate the corridors of Congress to help hammer down a good real estate deal
Key to winning conservatives is promise to continue their quest to control the U.S. judicial system
Court the Latino vote, stoke middle and working class workers' disdain for liberal solutions to problems
Wildly cheered for making reservation appearance, but votes go to Obama
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 | | © 2005 Patrick Chappatte
|
|
|
|
|
Wacky excuse that ban would block U.S. military ships from peacekeeping ops
"Having garrisoned the globe, the Complex is returning home in new and unnerving ways"
In the face of a wave of homeowner calamity, where was Congress? Counting its financial blessings
Non-binding guidelines include being more responsive to homeowners, rewriting mortgages
Unfazed by remarks about Hitler being sent by God
Expected to compete with China for influence with "socialism oriented" nations
Many activists regarded it as "neo-liberal juggernaut being pushed down their throats"
Mexico poll: Most believe drug gangs in control of country
Concessions seen as victory for Hamas
Was nearly executed in 1999
Only Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf ranked lower
"They have no public support whatsoever"
Also likely to kill any hope of Palestine or Syria peace talks this year
"The fact that Israel has created the cooking gas and fuel shortage is actually helping Hamas maintain support"
There goes main hope to leave White House with a positive legacy
|
|
|
|
|
-->
Columnists
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| | © 2008 Wolverton -- All Rights Reserved |
|
Oh, no, they told us, Iraq isn't a war about oil. That's cynical and simplistic, they said. It's about terror and al Qaeda and toppling a dictator and spreading democracy and protecting ourselves from weapons of mass destruction. But one by one, these concocted rationales went up in smoke, fire, and ashes. And now the bottom line turns out to be... the bottom line. It is about oil.
After a long exile, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP are back in Iraq. And on the wings of no-bid contracts -- that's right, sweetheart deals like those given Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater. The kind of deals you get only if you have friends in high places. And these war profiteers have friends in very high places
|
|
|
|
|
|
Albion Monitor
(http://www.albionmonitor.com)
Issue 170
Editor: Jeff Elliott (editor@monitor.net)
The Albion Monitor is currently published as an ongoing newspaper by
Wayward Press Inc, POB 1733, Sebastopol, CA 95473 Subscriptions $9.95/yr
|
