They got me again

I was watching the nightly news tonight. I don't know why I really bother. Even if they report on a story that I've been following, they either cut it short or don't give you the full or other side of the story. They briefly reported that the Iraqi government had signed an oil agreement and that was about it. What they didn't say was anything of the other W's of journalism like when where who and why. But more inportantly what the agreement means. In short what the agreement means is that foreign countries will get upwards of three quarters of the oil revenues. If that is not the rape of a country I don't know what is. Should you be interested in reading the actual agreement I have posted it Here
My thanks toRaed for his translation from the original arabic. He seems to find some good inside info on iraq having lived there until the last year or so.
But getting back to network news, I feel like Charlie Brown always going to see if they'll give the full story only to have the football pulled away again.

The Slide

I don't claim to be any expert on macroeconomics, but when someone who is starts giving hints of a recession I take notice. Ole Al who had been pretty conservative in his estimates and actions when he was head of the Fed gives some Clues as to the upcoming economy. If he's correct on this perdiction and I really hope he's not, there's going to be some pretty ugly times ahead. I really don't want to go through what I did in the early 80's.

Update 2/27/07
Looks like China sneezed and the U.S economy is catching a Cold. Don't panic yet though the greedy could be back in the market later in the week to reap big profits.
Update 2
After looking at the Chinese markets at about 10:30pm pst be prepared for another down day. And you might want to shift your money to safer ground for a while. That's what I did a few months ago.

Interesting Artist

Here's a guy I stumbled across last night while doing my usual nightly research. A lot of good folksy music with a message. I'm pretty sure if you live in New York City, you've heard this guy play. Subway Serenade

And here's another interesting blog from New Orleans nothing like being beaten when your down, thank you right wing. While your there check out the vidblog of his daughter on the bottom right side of the page. There is one strong girl.

Say Hi to

Just thought I'd return the favor. Here's a blog that's only been up for a few weeks but it's one that I must check every day now with some great posts. Say hi to: Pygalgia
How do you pronounce that anyway?

Bush Cheney blasts Iraqi gay minister over canibal pedephile bomb deaths leaves 200 dead in carnage.

Now that I have your attention. I was just surfing the various news sites the other day and it dawned on me that certain words just jump out at you. I know that the various search engines use a formula for gathering the days' events to automatically post articles on a news sites front page. I also know that news writers use the first twenty five or so words to try and be caught by the hungry web search spiders. To find any positive news you have to dig deep into a web site or be searching for your favorite hobby. Or you could go through some of the millions of blogs out there. Now I'm starting to wonder what the overall effect of seeing negative news over and over and over again will be. This maybe the reason antidepressants seem to be the in thing. In the fifties it was Ellaville (sp). In the sixties and seventies it was Vallium. Now it's Zanax? I don't really know I'm not up on that. It also makes me wonder what the long term effect will be from taking these drugs. I realize that in reality only a very small portion of the population really needs to be on these medications and they are a necessary aid to people with servere mental problems. It makes me wonder what new methods will be developed in the future like implants or mood altering energy rays. (No I don't own a tin foil hat)
After seeing all of the death and destruction over the last five years I've come to the conclusion that it's time to change our focus. Iraq can be rebuilt, but, like the occupants of a house that are trashing it, not until the fighting stops. And yes they are perfectly able of doing the job themselves. We need to start focusing on the problems here at home before going out to help the rest of the world. Our infrustructure is slowly falling apart. Our educational, health care, retirement, power grids, military, treasury, emergency management etc have been gutted. It is time to develop a plan to change all this. I'll throw out some ideas here as they come to me in later posts. Thanks for listening to my random thoughts.

The resolution

It appears that the white house is digging in it's heals over the Iraq issue.
Hard Heads
Time for another history lesson boys and girls. Who has been in charge of Iraq for the last oh thirty or forty years? That's right the Sunnis. So who has no experience in running the government? The Shias. What happened in Lebanon when the U.S. had bases there? Almost the same thing as Iraq only a little less violence by comparison. Oh, and after a bit of research we find a very similar situation as in Lebanon in that there are different factions fighting and not just one side against the other. Is this to simplistic for you because it will get more complicated in the near future. There is one thing that all of the groups seem agree on and that is that the U.S. are occupiers and they want us out.
The original resolution was based on an assumption that Iraq had WMDs and was assisting Al Qada. Two things that were known to be incorrect. Would that not make the original resolution invalid?
Haven't checked the recent polls but over 70% of the U.S. is against the Iraq war. Why then are Republicans in the Senate and House for this war? The people of the U.S. put them in the offices they hold and there is an election coming up next year. Don't they get it or are they going to ride off the cliff with Bush and Cheney?

Rant

Hypocrit
Cheney has a lot of nerve lambasting China for testing a missle for their defense system. Lets look at the facts. Who is the only country in the world ever to use nuclear weapons? Who is the only country to establish a preemtive offensive defense? Who is the administration that is about to reverse an action that took place over forty years ago by putting missles in Europe?
Who is the country abusing human rights and civil liberties even though they swore an oath to a constitution that prevents this? The arrogance with which this administration operates amazes me. To assume that a country that's developing as fast as China would not be establishing systems for it's own defense is absurd.
Arrogant
Cheney criticizes Pelosi for not realizing the consequenses of her actions. He should stop to consider the consequenses of his actions when he outed a CIA agent. We'll see how that one plays out after the Libby trial. And now we have THE BIG PLAN for Iraq. I won't go into it here so go over to Blah3 and check out the insanity.