‹ US State Dept: Shi’ite-Led Govt Larger Threat than al-Qaeda •
After Al Gore won the Peace Prize I mentioned that he did next to nothing to dismantle or even criticize military intervention during his terms as a senator and Vice President.
Yet, despite his fawning over a government controlled “green” world, neither he nor the rest of the political class have done anything to stymie the worlds largest oil consumer: the Department of Defense.
And unsurprisingly, despite substantially higher oil prices, “the needs” of the military will go undeterred for the foreseeable future.
While doubtful, perhaps the constant sight and smell of petroleum has played a roll in the brain trauma of these 20,000 unreported casualties.
Via LRC. See also:
How about banning tanks, jet fighters and submarines?
The Most Non-prolific Advocate of Peace
Why does it come as a surprise?
The ruling classes are hell bent on subjugating humanity and STEALING resources, plain and simple.
Military-Industrial complex is one of the tools they utilize towards accomplishing and and achieving their agenda.
Color coded “revolutions” are the other, they much less expensive when work.
I read a while back, thought it was surely a mistake … that the Irak operation had the U.S. expending 3 million gallons a day. Maybe it should have been liters? or months? I couldn’t imagine how this would conceivably be so.
But then, I remembered the Bush Penchant for excess …
Novista remember that all those aircondtioners and other electrical uses are powered by lots of internal combustion engined generators as the US military blew up the domestic power supplies. Then the gas guzzling tanks planes and ships et al in the theatre.
Al Gore is an ignorant ass parading around on the latest scheme to put us all in virtual chains. The man is a nauseating joke and a liar.
As to the military, once again government is baring all to see: do as we say, not as we do. From this perspective, what else is new?
I don’t know if you knew this about Al Gore, but it should be noted what a hipocrite he is. His home in Tennessee is a 30,000 sq. ft. house with acerage and he heats his home with Natural Gas and Electricity. I don’t know what he drives, but I would bet that it isn’t a Prius.
It’s a shame that the United States has not signed on to the Kyoto Protocols, we should take the lead in the world on this issue. For one thing, getting off of foreign oil would protect the environment, which is in grave danger, and for another we could stop buying oil from the Islamic Fascists in the Middle East. We would help to stop global warming and perhaps we would finally tell the truth and stop calling Saudi Arabia our “friends.” If they are our friends, who needs enemies?
Also, don’t forget, China is a huge contributor to global warming and they are not doing much to help. As I understand it, Kyoto does not even apply to them since they are considered a “developing nation.”
Tim R. should use his considerable influence within the “patriotic” community to set in motion some events that would send a truly unmistakable message to those who crawl into bed with “Islamic Fascists.” He should demand that treason charges be brought against any U.S. oil executive whose company buys Islamic Fascist oil. Since Tim thinks that Islamic Fascist oil is such a huge problem, he should quit kvetching and start acting decisively against those who do more than the rest of us put together to keep Islamic Fascists in power.
Fred Singer makes mincemeat of the Kyoto Accord’s alleged benefits, and just what would we use instead of imported oil? Maybe ethanol, despite being a barely break-even boondoggle (even the latest Mother Earth News derides it!). Or windpower, good while the wind blows. Why, the local newspaper yesterday covered a Minnesota family that spent $15,000 on a wind turbine that saves them about $40 a month. Payback time: about 30 years assuming zero upkeep costs, but alas, it’s already broken down with bearing problems.
Or solar power, except, as Singer points out, the thousands of California acres devoted to solar panels and wind turbines combined about equal the output of a mid-sized, 20-acre power plant.
You know, before Bush started his illegal, immoral, unconstitutional, and optional war with Iraq, oil was about $35/bbl. Since demand hasn’t tripled since then we know that much of the increase is because of his war there and the subsequent instability, production decreases, etc.
Once again, Tim R. continues to slip references to “Islamic Fascists” (a term as oxymoronic as it is emotionally explosive) into a conversation in which they have no place. I find it odd that this “conservative” isn’t partaking of the anti-Gore festivities, a fact which, I suppose, illustrates that the difference between “liberals” and “conservatives” in America is more rhetorical than actual.
As for Al Gore, he is, for want of a better description, a fat bastard. From his Noble “Peace” Prize (oddly fitting given the kind of people it’s been awarded to in the past) to his meretricious environmentalist rhetoric, he’s always been an agent of the establishment. Unsurprisingly, he is lauded by various Hollywood liberal types as some kind of iconoclast. Bah.
This fact about gas guzzlers, thanks to this emphasis by Tim Swanson, should be constantly reiterated. Our modern military is the biggest cause of harm to this earth’s plants and animals, of course, including humans.
But….. the lackey of the elite class… the well-rewarded spewer of propaganda that supports the status quo the elites are willing to kill millions of commoners to preserve…. the idiotic boil-on-my-butt drug-addled Rush Limbaugh proclaims that everybody believing in anything that doesn’t support the elite class is a LIBERAL!!!!! Eeeeeeeek.
Or, an environmental whacko or whatever term Limbaughs fat-laden brain creates in an attempt to brainwash the masses of easily-swayed commoners.
Thank you Obbop. We are of like mind and sometimes it seems that nobody will say anything. If it wasn’t for people like you and websites like Antiwar.com, I would be too depressed to think. Yesterday I was thinking that the US is now like Allende’s Chile. How is it really different?
How is it “really” different? Allende was pushing for socialism and nationalized the copper industry. His Socialist Party activists were taking direct action in support of peasant takeovers of unused portions of landed estates. The U.S. financed press called Allende and anti-Christ and called openly for his overthrow, but, except for occasional stoppages of paper to El Mercurio (after the anti-Christ headline, for one), the Allende administration generally let the press alone.
In our country the Bush regime doesn’t need to censor or suppress the press because it willingly cooperates — often openly so as when the publishers of the NY Times and Newsday (among others) defend their practice of cooperating with the CIA, hiring its agents as “reporters,” etc. The Bush regime is not nationalizing any industry, but is privatizing many public functions, including (unbelievably) warmaking. It has the support of major religious factions and no one is calling Bush the anti-Christ.
How many more examples of “real” differences do you need? I could come up with more, but I don’t feel I need to belabor the obvious any longer.
Peace.
I find the general conflation of efforts to stem anthropogenic global warming and Al Gore/”liberals” to be very annoying. I love antiwar.com but Gord Prather and Dave Henderson often take opportunities to make digs at environmentalists (which, although a diverse constituency, are generally antiwar). This is not the venue where this occurs most frequently by any means, but it is still disappointing to me. Bjorn Lomborg’s list of environmental problems in the world, and rankings in terms of cost/benefit ratio (Henderson was involved in this list), did not highlight war. I wish I heard the “conservatives” complaining about that. Instead it seemed they stopped thinking critically when they saw that AGW was placed low on the list, in accordance with their prejudices.
On the topic of the war machine’s use of petrol/gasoline, when talking about tanks we should use gallons per mile, not mpg! Here’s some info on an M1 Abrams from http://www.globalsecurity.org -
# A tank will need approximately 300 gallons every eight hours; this will vary depending on mission, terrain, and weather. A single tank takes 10 minutes to refuel. Refueling and rearming of a tank platoon–four tanks–is approximately 30 minutes under ideal conditions. 0.6 miles per gallon.
# 60 gallons per hour when traveling cross-country
# 30+ gallons per hour while operating at a tactical ideal
# 10 gallons basic idle
# A mine plow will increase the fuel consummation rate of a tank by 25 percent
And apparently just starting the turbine on a tanks uses a heck of a lot too.
All those non-nuclear Navy ships burn fuel at a rate of Gallons per Mile…
Our destroyer, at high speeds, burned JP-5 at a rate of around 60 gallon per mile, if memory is correct.
A Web search would likely find actual fuel milage rates.
Aircraft use a LOT of fuel.
It is expensive to keep a military and we, the people, pay for it.
We also pay in blood.
The elites of every country tend to do well unless they are deposed or lose a war with another group of elites but even then the losing elite(s) will often continue living an opulent life style.
Hey!!!! The elite class of every country/religion/cult/any type of social organization lives well and works less by skimming from the labors of the common classes.
That is what Marx and Engels tried to tell us!!!!
Those two should have stopped there rather than trying to concoct a cure for those burdensome elites.
Maybe elite classes are inevitable.
It’s just a shame they are so ready to brainwash up to murdering masses of common folks to maintain the status quo that is so beneficial to the elites.
I admit that some groups of elites are kinder than others.
Sure can’t compare American elites with the acts of Idi Amin, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, etc. etc. etc.
But, the USA’s elite class HAS murdered common Americans to maintain the status quo. Just look in the history books. Even women and children have died at the hands of jack-booted thugs, representatives of the elite class, to ensure that wealth and power remained in the hands of the elites.
Please, my fellow citizens. All I wish is that you attempt to cast off the years of indoctrination, the brainwashing all of us undergo to convince us that the way things are is correct, proper… as it should be.
From schooling to the mass media to general culture…we are constantly bombarded that the present status quo is the only RIGHT way to handle things.
Educate yourselves!!! Don’t let the self-centered greedy elite class do your thinking for you.
Don’t let the Rush Limbaugh’s of the world implant their propaganda. Those folks are merely shills for the elite class!!!
I remain convinced that the greatest threat to our freedoms is our own elite class; more of a threat than all foreign terrorists combined.
Read some of the Founder’s writings. Little things about what a people should do if a government no longer represents them and that government refuses to step down…. well…. actually, the ELITE-CLASS running that government refuses to follow the demands of the masses….
The ruling elite regime will pass laws to protect the status quo and use their enforcement arms to enforce the law.
Here is what the American elites did out of fear of you and me.
Though I do not specifically agree with murder…. the Founders DID mention the possible need for bloodshed… but, that WAS a less “politically correct” era… wouldn’t you say so?
Anyway, here is proof that our elite class fears us. I ignore the murder part. Maybe the elites should have stopped there.
BUT, our elite class fears us so much read what else they added to the law designed to make us mere sheep. Obeyers of our elite class.
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The elite’s government FEARS you!!!!!!
Their fear is manifested in the laws they pass. Here is a law banning what MANY of the Founders wrote is a RIGHT of citizens when a government no longer represents them:
Section 2385. Advocating overthrow of Government
Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or
teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of
overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States or the government of any State, Territory, District or Possession
thereof, or the government of any political subdivision therein, by force or violence, or by the assassination of any officer of any such government; or
Whoever, with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of any such government, prints, publishes, edits, issues, circulates, sells, distributes, or publicly displays any written or printed matter advocating, advising, or teaching the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force or violence, or attempts to do so; or
Whoever organizes or helps or attempts to organize any society,
group, or assembly of persons who teach, advocate, or encourage the overthrow or destruction of any such government by force or
violence; or becomes or is a member of, or affiliates with, any
such society, group, or assembly of persons, knowing the purposes thereof -
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than
twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.
If two or more persons conspire to commit any offense named in
this section, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.
As used in this section, the terms ”organizes” and
”organize”, with respect to any society, group, or assembly of persons, include the recruiting of new members, the forming of new units, and the regrouping or expansion of existing clubs, classes,and other units of such society, group, or assembly of persons.
________________________________________________________
The federal government is allowing MILLIONS of illegals to invade our country who are causing immense economic harm to America’s working poor. Corporate America is becoming increasingly more powerful and influential. Yet, according to the government of for and by the elites YOU, a citizen, have to accept whatever the government does with NO recourse other than voting…… and there is sufficient proof that shows to me voting is worthless since the entrenched power structure ensures that the emplaced elite class can not be removed.
Several Founders specifically wrote of the people’s right to abolish a government when it no longer represents them.
We are forced to live under an elite’s TYRANNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!