Diplomacy

Al-Sistani, Top Shi'ite Cleric, Shuns Bush Totally

Elaine Meinel Supkis

Bush sent a personal letter to Sistani, ordering him to force the Shi'ite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari should step down or else. Sistani, to show his anger and distain for Bush's meddling, refused to look at the letter. This is similar to the Chinese last week, refusing to take calls from Aso, the new Japanese foreign minister.

Associated Press:

letter from President Bush to Iraq's supreme Shiite spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was hand-delivered earlier this week but sits unread and untranslated in the top religious figure's office, a key al-Sistani aide told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The aide, who has never allowed use of his name in news reports, citing al-Sistani's refusal to make any public statements himself _ said the ayatollah had laid the letter aside and did not ask for a translation because of increasing "unhappiness" over what senior Shiite leaders see as American meddling in Iraqi attempts to form their first, permanent post-invasion government.

The aide said the person who delivered the Bush letter _ he would not identify the messenger by name or nationality _ said it carried Bush's thanks to al-Sistani for calling for calm among his followers in preventing the outbreak of civil war after a Shiite shrine was bombed late last month.

The calm before the storm. Unfortunately for Bush, Sistani can remember what happened this last week, namely, the attack on the Shi'ite building where a bunch of his followers were machinegunned down in the midst of their holy books and artwork. This ticked off the entire Shi'a community and Bush evidently doesn't refer to it, choosing to pretend it had nothing to do with us and doesn't matter.

This is why we are spiralling down into hell in Iraq. We can't understand what is going on nor admit our own role in all of it and our dictator thinks the whole world is like the cowed Congress he pushes around so easily thanks to media owners assissting him in suppressing any challenges to the New World/Flat Earth Order.

But the magic of intimidation and suppression that works so smoothly at home fails when applied to people who don't like us and don't want us meddling in their affairs. We can run all the propaganda on earth and they brush it aside with the wave of a hand.

It falls on deaf ears. And no wonder. It isn't for their own good, anyway! We touted the idea that a bare majority, less than 1% greater than half, rules ruthlessly and totally! This is how we run America. This is why our country is filled with increasingly angry and frustrated voters who openly demand Bush and Cheney be removed prematurely from office.

So Bush turns and orders the Iraqis to do what he won't do here: share even a tiny shred of power!

Well, arrest Bush! Withdraw from Iraq! Let freedom ring.

Culture of Life News Main Page

South Korea Joins China In Attacking Revisionist Japanese Text Books

Elaine Meinel Supkis

After causing huge riots in China and lots of ill will in both Koreas, Japan shrugged off a revisionist history text last year. Now they are extending it to all their history books. Both China and now, South Korea are very angry about this and protesting. Meanwhile, the USA, still thinking we won WWII, try to negotiate a troop rearrangement with Japan only this collapses into a mess, too.

Washington Post:

The South Korean government on Thursday sharply denounced Japan for "whitewashing, distorting and glorifying" its militarist past after Japanese officials ordered a series of controversial new changes to high school textbooks.

The unusually harsh protest centered on the disclosure this week that Japan's Education Ministry requested new revisions to 55 textbooks in an effort to avoid student "misunderstandings." The revised books clearly label disputed territories-- including a small island chain under South Korean control but claimed by Japan -- as Japanese territory. Also, references to the 1937 Nanjing Massacre were changed to indicate the number of people killed by the Japanese may have been less than the 300,000 victims claimed by China.

Ever since Bush and Condi gave the right wing Japanese the green light to do as they please because we need endless Japanese IOUs to run our own country, they have exploited this to the hilt. When the governing party leaders worshipped war criminals at their official war shrine, the Asian victims of the Japanese attempt at enslaving them rose up in fury. The USA?

We snoozed. We clearly indicated to the Japanese that we don't care about symbols and we think it is OK for them to celebrate the guys we killed. After all, we LOST WWII.

Japan, the world's second largest economy which has a giant trade deficit with America and which is driving our last major industries into the ground, still wants us to foot the bill for our troops over there.

The Army Times:

By Hans Greimel
Associated Press
TOKYO — The United States and Japan failed to reach agreement Friday on controversial U.S. troop realignment plans that have gotten bogged down over the cost of moving the forces and opposition from local communities in Japan.

With both sides racing to nail down final details by the end of the month, negotiators from both countries plan to meet again next week in Washington, U.S. Embassy spokesman Michael Boyle said.

“There is still work to be done,” Boyle said after the two-day talks ended. “I think they are getting close on many of the issues.”

But Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said “quite a difference” remains between the two sides, according to Kyodo News agency, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe urged negotiators to “work hard to reach a decision by the end of March.”

To be frank, the Japanese don't want to pay for these changes. They figure, they got us over an imperial barrel and they can make us pay for it via more IOUs. Why do we have any troops there in the first place? China?

Well, the fact that our troops are there and the Japanese are punching everyone in the eyes in Asia means they are using us as their shield so they don't have to cooperate with anyone----including us! This arrogant attitude is already stirring up great anger in Asia that is being redirected towards us. The Chinese, for example, would have been very happy to form alliances with us but that is fading very fast as we openly publish Pentagon papers deliniating China as our major enemy, we conduct war games with Japan next to Chinese and Korean shores, when the Japanese bonzai their war criminals, we let them.

Letting other nations run our foreign policy is a very bad idea. The game is to use as few troops as humanly possible while manipulating or making diplomatic and trade deals so one gets some gain and increases the security of one's home state, in our case, it is called the "USA" and seems many working in our government have forgotten this which is why, when Bush said the IRAQIS get to decide when we withdraw our troops, I waited in vain for the chorus of rage and jeers greeting such a traitorous notion from our supposed leader.

So it is here! We gain nothing by being Japan's cat's paw. Instead of triangulating all the powers in Asia and having them all come to us for legitimacy and concerted actions, we are passive and at the same time, aggressive. We take sides based on what Japan desires, not what is good for us, in this case. This is causing the potential for war as Japan aggressively demands sovereignty without negotiation which reminds me of Israel which is doing exactl the same thing.

Reuters:

By Paul Eckert
WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - The United States ordered its diplomats and contractors on Wednesday to cut off contacts with Palestinian ministries after a Hamas-led government was sworn in, the State Department said.
At the same time, U.S. President George W. Bush expressed support for the Palestinian people but repeated his position no U.S. funds should go to the Hamas leadership they elected.
"I think that aid should go to suffering Palestinians, but nor should it go to a government, however, which has expressed its desire to destroy its neighbor," Bush said during a question-and-answer session after he delivered a speech on Iraq.

The Jewish lobby and Israel are demanding the USA take only one side here yet again. In this case, we not only have a trade deficit with Israel, we bankroll their government, to boot. Not satisfied with that, they got our government to do this bizarre action so they can unilaterally seize much of the West Bank illegally.

As the UN censors Iran, Israel gets away with murder yet again. Because we can't triangulate with various parties, not only is there no peace there, there is no hope of peace and our suppression and oppression of the Palestinian native population is making us very unpopular in much of the world and it all serves absolutely no good purpose for the USA, indeed, it has increased our domestic dangers and this is only going to get worse and worse.

Using the miltitary to prop up our lopsided diplomatic initiatives means bankruptcy as this is the most destructive and dangerous way to resolve difficulties. Instead of balancing our needs, our future plans and our collective desire for stability, this method does the opposite. Every day, many people plot and plan for our downfall. Billions of people will cheer our destruction. This is plain pure stupidity, creating this sort of hostility and is doubly so when doing it to help foreign powers who don't care if we all die or go into poverty forever.

Culture of Life News Main Page

China Courts Saudi Arabia

Elaine Meinel Supkis

As America flounders in a sea of blood, trying to make deals with some Middle Eastern Muslim countries while killing other Muslims, China shows how pure merchantile business can reap great rewards without killing anyone. Countries can do business without shooting people, you know. And we are not winning the industrial wars which, in the end, are much more important than the bombing wars.

Xinhua Net:

The Chinese government attaches great importance to the development of relations with Saudi Arabia and is ready to make joint efforts with Saudi Arabia to further strengthen exchanges at all levels and promote political mutual trust, said Li.

He said China will continue to develop economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, expand cultural exchanges and consolidate friendship between the two peoples, in a bid to raise bilateral relationship to a higher level.

Bandar said Saudi Arabia regards China as a good friend and good partner and is willing to work with China to continuously enhance the friendly cooperation in various fields.

Bandar arrived here on Tuesday for a visit to China at the invitation of Li.

Notice that the Chinese don't have to station troops all over kingdom come to achieve trade agreements and diplomatic alliances. The biggest mistake a country can make is to try to run everything using military bases and tremendous violence. This never works in the long run, even just a series of local disorders can quickly drain the treasury. Back 1700s when France and England were contesting each other on the Continent, they decided to extend the fighting to their colonies in the New World. A series of fights won England control of French Canada and which is, to this very day, still resented by the French speaking population. France retaliated by funding the American Revolution. Both England and France nearly went bankrupt thanks to this extended American adventure. So both got involved in a very massive war when Napoleon took over France and fought England, yet again! Whew!

Why did England become the world power?

The Industrial Revolution which really took off after the loss of the North American Anglo colonies.

We are in the middle of a new facet of this revolution. England has declined very steeply from the heights it owned when it was the industrial giant of the planet. Germany and then the USA took that crown and in the case of the USA, we won the British world empire sweepstakes when Germany and England exhausted each other, trying to rule the world via military might.

We thought we would be clever and do it via trade but thanks to the Soviet Union assisting the Chinese revolution, we went into full military mode and instead of developing a strong free trade nexus, we decided to be a violent military empire like so many before us. And like all of them, we are now going bankrupt.

Will the Chinese fall into this trap? Never in their history have they tried world conquest. They were conquered by the Mongols who drove them into world conquest but that lasted only a short while and the Chinese then happily settled down to being a self contained empire with definite borders and a contempt for lesser people.

Xinhua Net:

Visiting U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez said here Wednesday that the United States draws "significant benefits" from its commerce with China.

Addressing a full house of business people, officials and reporters at China World Hotel, Gutierrez said that U.S. consumers gain "additional choices" and many American companies are operating profitably in China.

Citing the latest survey on business climate conducted by AmCham (American Chamber of Commerce), Gutierrez said that two thirds of the responding companies have expanded the range of products and services they offer in China.

"America also benefited from trade with China," he said, "U.S. exports to China grew by 20 percent last year, which built on 22 percent growth from the year before."

Indeed. Our rulers are happy with a mass of illegal immigration that is uncontrollable and thus keeps the middle and lower working classes unable to negotiate for a bigger slice of the corporate pie. They also want this "trade" with other nations that have equally helpless workers. This way, there is no inflation except for oil which is why China is courting all those oil countries and being very sweet about it all, too.

Instead of defending our borders from being flooded by cheaply produced goods, the ruling class is encouraging the flow. I warned fellow Americans in the past, if we let this happen, we have a brief historic time period of cheap goods and good pay and then down the drain it all goes and we end up in a long, gruelling depression with cheap goods and no money to purchase much of it.

Of course, due to energy costs, we have inflation which is why Bernanke is raising interest rates. And we need the Chinese to buy our debts which is why we are raising interest rates and we need to raise ever more funds to pay for this flood of stuff pouring into America which is why we are raising interest rates. Get it?

The fact that many American companies are making profits in China is particularily funny. This is good for them but bad for us! Why should we be happy that people using our country as a base of operations are bribing Congress and messing up with elections via a flood of money from them which goes towards cutting their taxes, make money by shipping our jobs to China? See? They benefit and they insure they can continue to do this using America as their tool, while sticking it to the American worker! They can buy and sell in China and we get to stand here and watch 150 years of industrialization vaporize. China is happy and so are they!

Well, this isn't good for us so it isn't good for us. Every time these businessmen downsize here, the problems here grow, not shrink. Instead of America becoming stronger, we become weaker. Imagine if we shipped out our entire industrial base to Germany and Japan in the thirties? Huh? Um, we are doing exactly that now, isn't that one of history's ironies!

But worse, we are doing it with nations that can contest us successfully and the Bush administration thinks this is good for America because a bunch of traitors are making a buck destroying the American dream.

Culture of Life News Main Page

Rice Tells Afghanistan To "Find Own Way" While She Barks Orders

Elaine Meinel Supkis

Freaking out over radical right wing Christians at home screaming about religious persecution in Afghanistan, Condi orders the Afghan government to obey us and free the man they plan to execute and at the same time they are to be their own bosses.

Chronicle.com:

Afghanistan's prosecution of a man who converted from Islam to Christianity shows how a fledgling democracy struggles to recognize individual rights, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.

Afghanistan is "going through one of the most difficult debates that any society goes through, and that is the proper role of religion in the politics of the state," she said.

Tell it to Bush. Condi's boss has let the religious camel into the government tent here in America. His followers scream for tearing down the wall seperating church and state. Bush does all kinds of sneaky moves to placate these American Christian Taliban here at home and then we get the idiotic spectacle of Condi ordering the Afghan puppet to be his own man, to choose his own way but only so long as it pleases the American right wing Christians.

"We, as Americans, know that in democracy, as it evolves, there are difficult issues about state and church, or in this case, state and mosque. But there are difficult issues about the rights of the individual," Rice told CNN's "Late Edition."

Condi and the neo cons have been eating away at nearly all of our civil rights. The right wing religious bigots of several varieties, Catholic, Jewish and Protestant, have been busy destroying the barriers put up by our ancestors to keep religious affairs out of the government. Israel has many laws giving Jewish religionists primacy over all others. They discriminate very heavily based on one's religious affiliation. Inside and outside of the government, a Jewish person has many more privilages and political powers over all other residents. A new Jewish immigrant has many more rights compared to a Muslim who has lived there for generations.

So when Muslims learn they can't imitate this system, it pisses them off, of course. Who are we to lecture? The albatross of the Israeli religious dicatorship hangs around our collective necks and we are not only not willing to force them to install a proper, fair Constitution, neither do we demand they have our Bill of Rights, either! So why are we screaming at Iraq or Afghanistan to imitate us when our own allies and countries we bankroll heavily, refuse?

This double/triple standard is at the root of our complete failure to bring "democracy" to the Middle East.

Rice was asked if Christian missionaries from the United States should be encouraged to go to Afghanistan. "I think that Afghans are pleased to get the help that they can get," she told NBC's "Meet the Press."

In other words, she is inviting religious invaders to come in and challenge Islam. In other news stories, the Afghani immans all said they will fight the crusaders to the death if they interfer with the way they run their country's religious courts. And they have a long and bloody record of fighting invaders. We are barely holding onto Afghanistan at this point, the death toll is rising daily and the Taliban are now openly operating in the heart of that land. Now they will go into villages and say, "I told you so!" and will have an easier time convincing people that they should drive out the American and European aliens.

Worse, Israel is demanding the USA tell the Palestinians they must accept the unilaterally imposed borders the Jews have chosen for themselves. In the enclosed lands being walled off by religious fanatics who want tremendous benefits for themselves while forcing their neighbors out or stripping them of basic human rights, is to be enforced by the USA. This further theft and humilation of the people who have lived in Palestine for generations won't go unnoticed in the Muslim world. Right now, it is increasingly agitated with religious wars sparked by American hegemony.

Today in Iraq, Sadr is now openly at war with the USA. The attacks are growing much wilder and more violent. Condi is talking about drawing down troops there even as we abandon many areas, retreating increasingly, our very strongholds under sustained attack, Saddam's kangaroo court trial in tatters, how bad will all this get?

Plenty bad.

Culture of Life News Main Page

McCain And Feingold Tell Iraqis They Must Have UNITY Unlike Americans

Elaine Meinel Supkis

McCain, who enables and supports the GOP's long and vicious campaign to steal elections and divide Americans who are now very divided, wants Iraqis to bury the hatchet and work together for NATIONAL UNITY! I could die laughing if I weren't so pissed off already.

Associated Press:

As a gunbattle raged south of Baghdad, Sens. John McCain and Russell Feingold told Iraqi leaders Saturday that American patience was growing thin and they needed to urgently overcome their stalemate and form a national unity government.

It was the second high-level U.S. delegation in less than a week delivering the same stark message to Iraqi politicians as the Bush administration steps up pressure to overcome the political impasse that threatens to scuttle hopes to start an American troop pullout this summer.

"We need very badly to form this unity government as soon as possible," McCain, R-Ariz., said at a news conference after meetings with President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. "We all know the polls show declining support among the American people."

G---damn. I am also losing my patience with the GOP and how they have utterly and viciously divided America! Half of America not only wants to impeach Bush for his illegal invasion of Iraq and other multiple law breakings, we want to go after the entire GOP for despoiling America, running us into ruinous debts, refusal to pay taxes, a host of things. Not the least, inept diplomacy that has made us the clowns in the world's diplomatic circles.

Why in hell do we have any right to tell the Iraqis to get together? Huh? This is the country that has top newspapers hiring 24 year old snide right wingers so they can call us names and hosts Anne Coulter who openly calls for the mass murder of liberals? Huh? Since when have these divisive people been censored? And Congress! Again and again, the GOP pulls all sorts of unparliamentary tricks or even simply destroy our precious Constitution just to stick it to us liberals. They smear us and sneer at us and they lock us out of the public debate by encouraging the news media to harrass and attack all of us and not let us speak back!

If there were no internet, all our voices would have been silenced. America constantly has to deal with violent, vicious right wingers threatening lawyers, doctors and judges! They harrass women's clinics and they assassinate our leaders and they make sure we all live in fear. If a singer suggests that Bush is a diplomatic disaster, they get hounded off the air, concerts cancelled, lives threatened while Bush and the GOP laugh and joke about it.

Hahahaha....NOT. I am very angry that McCain, who ate a happy birthday cake with our dictator, Bush, while thousands were dying in New Orleans, this clown was at a golf course, making happy talk and plotting to kill Social Security while I was worried to death about dying children in the Super Dome.

McCain's cowardly children aren't fighting in Iraq. And why should the Iraqis unite, anyway? We can't! Not at all. When the left gave Bush carte blanche (stupidly!) after he allowed the 9/11 attackers to succeed, Bush turned around and poked us in the eye again and again.

And then there was the anthrax attacker who only went after people Bush wanted to scare or kill.

Gads.

Iraq is burning down worse and worse by the hour. Far from improving, it is totally on fire now and we just threw some gasoline on Iran next door which means Iraq will really burn. We can keep our military in Iraq until we go bankrupt or they all die or go stark raving mad or all the above which is what I am betting on which is why McCain and Bush and everyone who voted for this cynical war, knowing very well, there were no WMD in Iraq, they all, every blasted one of them, be sent to jail so we can finally have NATIONAL UNITY.

Then we deal with the "free trade" freaks.

Culture of Life News Main Page

Senators Visiting China Threatening And Begging At The Same Time

Elaine Meinel Supkis

I read the official Chinese press at Xinhua Net. It is instructive to see the Chinese point of view vs the official American point of view as is elucidated in the two top papers that cover foreign affairs, the Washington Post and the New York Times. I will examine these three papers in tandem and explain things, hopefully in an enlightened way.

First, Xinhua Net> Nada. There isn't anything. Previous days had small articles about the mega visit of the three Senators. The paper helpfully pointed out that only lower level officials allowed the Senators to visit them and they held a low level feast for them, standard-issue. These lower level officials petted the Senators, of course. Why upset them? They didn't know they were being snubbed!

The Senators came with demands and threats. The Chinese take all threats seriously so they handled the Senators gingerly but didn't endorse anything and didn't sign anything. I have noted over and over, the sole reason Chinese diplomats and politicians travel is to sign or create agreements. Unlike America, they really do believe in doing "business." The same days these careless Senators who don't understand diplomacy were tromping around China, bellowing, Putin was there, he got the full red carpet treatment and out of this fete, many contracts were signed and more were proposed. This is the classic way of doing business! Have we forgotten this?

The Senatorial visit barely broke the news in China and here in America, Putin's visit didn't even rate a low level, back page story! This leaves me open mouthed. It is like I exist in an alternate universe here. Virtually no American bloggers wrote about Putin's historic and very important visit! Why is this?

Well, we live in a propaganda black hole over here. We have a world-girdling empire that is collapsing rapidly and we can't understand why. A clue: no empire can last long if it is willfully ignorant of what is going on outside.

Here is the loopy New York Times article:

Global Times, a tabloid newspaper in China's capital, usually offers its readers a rich diet of nationalist propaganda on subjects like Japanese war crimes and American hegemony.

Elizabeth Dalziel/Associated Press

So it is telling that it devoted its front page on Tuesday to respectful, even admiring, coverage of the China visit of two United States senators, Charles E. Schumer of New York and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who have attacked Beijing for "illegal currency manipulation," "mercantilism" and "failure to play by the rules."

The senators, the paper said, "have sent a positive signal by coming to China to see for themselves."

First, I will note that the threadbare NYT has to use an Associated Press story here. The shrinkage of number of reporters working for the major papers is an ongoing disaster. 90% of the Ameircan stories I link to here are either AP or Reuters simply because there is little else on the American side. This is why most of my international links come from the BBC which is a left over of the dead British Empire.

The poor reporter here thinks this very low level paper in China is courting our Senators. Sorry to pop that bubble, but they are chiding the Senators for not understanding real-politiks. The Chinese government didn't bother lecturing these Senators themselves so they sent a flunky to do it, this alone is an example of how little they regard our politicians.

"It is not like earlier times when members of Congress relied on hearsay or their own imagination when they criticized China," the article said.

With a banquet in the Great Hall of the People, a roster of top-level meetings and fawning attention in the state-run press, China wants to win over Mr. Schumer and Mr. Graham.

The roster of "top level meetings" wasn't top level, you know. Putin got the top drawer stuff this week. The reporter never mentions this.

China is defending itself against the onslaught, but gingerly. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, meeting a group of foreign business leaders this week, urged them to convey the message that "it is unfair for the U.S. to scapegoat China for its own structural problems," according to people who attended the meeting.

Wen Jiabao is correct. The problems plaguing America are self-made. We created our own destructive matrix! Worse, we demanded the world assist us in this which they have and now our nation is dying because of this! Who controls our currency?

The answer is obvious: we do! We run the printing presses, we are the ones throwing out money to the world and now we complain about the trillions that float about, sinking our economic ship? Huh? When something is flooding, one builds dams and pumps out whatever is flooding in. This works with money, too. We are flooding the world with dollars in an attempt to fix trade problems caused by "free trade". Schumer doesn't have to go to China to talk about tariffs and barriers, he should be talking HERE! We can erect them! We must erect them! This is sheer insanity.

The senators declined to say if they had heard anything during their trip to change their minds about the bill. But Mr. Graham said he was "very impressed" with a presentation by a senior economic planner on Wednesday. Mr. Schumer said he had picked up signals "that they are taking the currency where it needs to go, though I'm not sure if they will get there fast enough."

Hahahaha. Does anyone think "the top economic planner" in China told Schumer the real plans? Are we nuts or what? Why do Americans believe the Chinese are telling us their plans? Do we tell them our plans?

Of course not! We lie to them and they lie to us! This is how the real world works! Part of the propaganda scheme fed to all Americans is the stupid idea that we are a "young country" only a few hundred years old, and because of our juvenile, infantile development, we are allowed to act like wailing babies in public. This is the excuse we pull from our hats every time we screw up even simple diplomatic actions. Gooo gooo, baby want a bottle?

Left, right or center, people echo this stupid, destructive idea, mindlessly. This is why the Chinese can laugh up their sleeves at us. I don't blame them! The Chinese know they have a hammer lock on our economic system because we want to have our cake and eat it too. We need to keep inflation at bay so we can give ourselves more loans even though this is killing us, our debt load is mushrooming. We are addicted to cheap loans! The only way we can do this is to export our inflation to China who then squeezes it out by using cheap labor and then re-exporting it back as finished goods. All we have to do to shut this down is to raise interest rates!

Which we have been doing....even slower than the yuan rising! Now, Bernanke has stopped this process for political reasons, the stock market shot up and the red ink has now gushed full volume as Congress raises the debt ceiling by another near trillion! This is ridiculous.

Here is the Washington Post story of the same visit:

By Peter S. Goodman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 23, 2006; Page D01

BEIJING, March 22 -- Three United States senators came to one of China's most prestigious universities on Wednesday, ostensibly to talk about trade. What they delivered was an expansive, almost evangelical campaign for American values -- one that received pushback from their audience of students and faculty.

The senators talked about an unfair advantage they say Chinese exporters enjoy over American firms because of the low-value currency. They implored China to adopt the norms of global trade. In strikingly moral tones, they pledged Washington's resolve to pressure China to liberalize not only its currency regime but also its political culture, using trade as a wedge for broader reform.

First, I am happy to see the WP sent their own reporter. This is much better than the NYT. I hope they don't fire them but they are, laying off more reporters while hiring more right wing flacks to editorialize at us.

The Chinese sent our Three Amigos (characters in a Disney WWII propaganda cartoon) to a top university where they were torn to shreds by the students. Far from being greeted as liberators, they were correctly seen as liars and prefabricators who are unable to control their own country but who lust to destablize China for our own benefit, sort of like Iraq.

The "moral tones" used by the three Senators reveals our hubris. They think they are on the high ground! Like a former aristocrat turned beggar, they lecture others as they shake their begging bowls. How dare they talk about political reforms when the whole world is revolted by the sight of American politicians sinking in a morass of corruption and powerlessness. The entire planet has figured out, our political system is not a democracy at all, we have the world's crummiest voting system and our arcane political set up is destroying the country because it causes only two parties to exist and both are interchangibly corrupt at this point.

The entire world knows that Congress is for sale and the Chinese view these Senators as being on a mission, asking for more bribes. They want to be petted and fed! Like big pandas in the zoo.

Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) told the Tsinghua University audience that his model of leadership is "a man by the name of Jesus." He later quoted Martin Luther King Jr. as he urged China to do "the right thing" on trade policy.

Jesus was against interest rates and he hated businessmen and he was pretty much an early communist. I bet the Chinese students were quite puzzled by all this. Martin Luther King died while trying to organize blacks into a union in anti-union South. Coburn is 100% anti-union. Gack.

What is "the right thing" in trade, anyway? From the Chinese perspective, it means writing contracts and making deals that benefit THEM! Duh! Our challenge is to write contracts and make deals that benefit US. Of course, there is no "us"! There are many people, all of whom are traitors, who want to sell America out, they will happily sign away our future, our government, everything, to the highest bidder no matter how bad it is for America's "us."

To stop this, we have to fix ourselves. If there is no reward for betraying America's collective interests, it won't happen. Asking people to voluntarily not sell out America is a fool's errand. This is why one has laws, rules, a "national interest" and BARRIERS!

Right now, Congress is debating how to control our borders. The number one job of a country's government is to secure the borders. Duh again. We can't. We won't. Trade is out of control, immigration is out of control, our government is out of our control, we can't really vote for anything anymore!

We should stop yapping at the Chinese about their political and economic system concentrate on fixing our own, right?

Culture of Life News Main Page

Hu And Wen Roll Out Red Carpet For Putin

Elaine Meinel Supkis

Hu and Wen rolled out the Chinese red carpet for fellow Red, Putin. They finalized and cemented a very powerful alliance, one that destroys American hemagony. It was extremely important for us to court Russia and this failed due entirely to Bush's personal diplomacy which stinks just like all his activities. Pee U.

Xinhua Net:

China's top legislator Wu Bangguo made a three-point proposal to boost parliamentary exchanges between China and Russia on Wednesday.

Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), made the proposal in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Wu suggested China's NPC and Russia's Federal Assembly enhance exchanges and cooperation in legislature.

He said the two parliaments should share their legislative experiences in safeguarding the smooth development of macro-economy, economic and national security as well as the construction of special economic zones.

Time to play the International! They are moving at light speed here! I never expected this! I knew the energy and trade deals would be signed, both parties signalled this for days and days. But this was unexpected. And very important.

Note that Putin isn't turning to our dying democracy for a model. He as well as Hu and Wen can see what happens when traitors and con artists run an empire: bankruptcy. America isn't bankrupt yet only because our creditors haven't pulled our files out and dumped them in the trash and any American who thinks this won't happen should consult with my Golden Goose who is in rather a few of my cartoons here.

Geese raised on farms live to be killed.

Same goes for turkeys and our ruler is a prime turkey. He suffers from Mad Emperor's Disease and walks in circles. He personally insulted Putin repeatedly and anyone looking at the photos of Bush and Putin together one can see, every time Bush turns his back to drunkenly mug the cameras, Putin's face takes on a very vinegarish look if not looking absolute daggers. When Bush blabbed that he nick names everyone insultingly and had a very insulting knick name for Putin, I whistled with amazement.

I grew up loving the story of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter.

They also took with them an offering of three fat mice as a present for Old Brown, and put them down upon his door-step.

Then Twinkleberry and the other little squirrels each made a low bow, and said politely--

"Old Mr. Brown, will you favour us with permission to gather nuts upon your island?"But Nutkin was excessively impertinent in his manners. He bobbed up and down like a little red cherry, singing -

"Riddle me, riddle me, rot-tot-tote!
A little wee man in a red, red coat!
A staff in his hand, and a stone in his throat;
If you'll tell me this riddle, I'll give you a groat."

Now this riddle is as old as the hills; Mr. Brown paid no attention whatever to Nutkin.

He shut his eyes obstinately and went to sleep.

Eventually, Putin/Mr. Brown, gets pissed off and bites off Bush's/Squirrel Nutkin's tail.

The Chinese rolled out the red carpet, literally. They feted and fested Putin. They know he loves Karate and Kung Fu so they took him to the Shaolin Temple and put on a big show for him. This works, you know.

Our method of offering no political plusses, no treaties, no nothing, only insults and demands, has turned Russia into our dire enemy again. Isn't this a great thing. Russia is reviving its missile and military programs and the money for this comes from high oil prices thanks to the American invasions in the Middle East and hurricanes, and of course, money from the Chinese who have a trillion American dollars to scatter around the planet.

Note how they shuttled the American fake Senators around. Viewing them, correctly, as helpless, silly, useless cyphers, the Chinese basically treated them like the beggars and braggarts they are. The Chinese know that Walmart will discipline these whores and whatever they cough up will be buried by Bush who needs to keep the Chinese giving us money since we just voted for a trillion more debts and the spending rages onwards.

The Goose grows fat. The flying Dragon and the crouching Bear weigh it daily.

Culture of Life News Main Page

Bush Willing To Wage Nuclear War For Israel

Elaine Meinel Supkis

In an onimous turn of events, Bush openly announces we will go into WWIII if Israel wants to start a war with Iran. This is pure madness and a definite break with the past. In previous wars, we didn't openly side with Israel, we only protected them from censure in the UN.

Agence France Presse:

US President George W. Bush said he hoped to resolve the nuclear dispute with Iran with diplomacy, but warned Tehran he would "use military might" if necessary to defend Israel.

"The threat from Iran is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally Israel. That's a threat, a serious threat. It's a threat to world peace," the US president said after a speech defending the war in Iraq.

"I made it clear, and I'll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally Israel," said Bush, who was apparently referring to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call for the destruction of Israel.

This is an open declaration of war in the classic sense. This is how WWI got launched. A small nation hooks up to big empires and then tries hard as hell to provoke an incident. Once a huge empire states bluntly that they will back a war effort this always ends up with the smaller nation starting a war now that they hold an ace in the hand!

This is why sensible empires avoid making this sort of commitment.

Never before has the USA allowed this to happen, not over Cuba, not even over England when Hitler frontally attacked England, bombing them from the air during WWII! The line Bush has drawn in the sand is one Israel can't resist. They are desperately trying to build the logic that the USA and they need to unilaterally attack Iran to make Israel safe. This will start WWIII.

Even if it doesn't lead to instant retaliation on the part of the growing anti-Anglo/American/Israeli empire, it will set into motion long range events that will end with a nuclear blow out and the annihilation of much of our cities. This is, of course, dangerous and unacceptable. Wars are easy to start and very hard to finish.

In 1967, Israel wanted the USA to support its war. At one point Israeli airplanes attacked an American ship that was observing the fighting and sank it, killing some Americans. The Liberty Ship scandal is on going. To this day, both our military and diplomatic forces have covered up this obvious crime and no one in Israel has been brought to account and it is never in the news for obvious reasons and very few people are aware that there are even pictures clearly showing this was a deliberate attack by the Israelis who could see the American flag quite clearly.

An "ally" that spies on us, lies to us and is sucking up the vast majority of our foreign aid aside from the cesspool in Iraq that seriously sucks up money, is not to be trusted. Handing them the keys to the Pentagon, openly telling the world that we will back this untrustworthy and very dangerous "ally" to get to decide whether or not we go to war is insane!

Alas, our Congress is supine in this matter, being owned by AIPAC, the Jewish/American lobby. This lobby is so strong, they got Congress to rubberstamp the appointment of a Jewish citizen as head of Homeland Security and you can bet, if they want America attacked yet again to egg us into WWIII, we will be attacked. Like 9/11, our entire military and political forces will "stand down" until the attack has killed sufficient numbers of Americans to enrage us to mindlessly jump into a major war that will attack only Israeli chosen targets.

The proof is what happened after 9/11. By 2:30 EDST that very same day, Rumsfeld was planning to attack Iraq. The sideshow in Afghanistan was of little interest to all the parties running our military and we stopped operations there after a feeble push to pretend to get bin Laden. Now, the country is spiralling out of control yet again and every month, Americans and European troops die there and there is this curious (NOT) inability to concentrate on the mess and do something over here in America.

One would imagine it would be a most pressing issue! But it isn't, not even slightly. Israel is very concerned with Iraq as are the oil barons and the Saudis and UAE royals. They are getting extremely rich off of the high world oil prices as well as our military actions pours money into their laps so they want this to increase as well as ancient hatred of Shi'a (Shiite).

The reason "diplomatic" language exists is because blunt talk equals wars. This is why one does it as seldom as possible. Egging on wars with war talk means wars happen. Note that China, very angry with Taiwan, is very carefully gaging their words. Unlike earlier governments that were inept at this, the new crew running things is very suave and they choose their words with intense care.

Alas, we aren't. Americans should be outraged that an ally that we don't control has seized control of our government and are shoving us into wars we don't need. We don't need to be hostile to Iran, there has never been any reason for this. When the students stormed our embassy, it was because we were threatening them by harboring the deposed Shah who we put on the throne there in an earlier coup. The students found proof that our embassy was really a nest of spies working to overthrow their government which, by the way, is an illegal use of an embassy, you know. Does anyone in America know this?

The Israeli embassy in DC is the headquarters of a similar effort. They go so far as to coordinate activities to interfer with domestic elections, directing money to candidates who are beholden to them alone, throwing out of office anyone who defies their agenda, bribing politicians and officials and of course, openly stealing state secrets as well as selling the same to our rivals.

This is all illegal and note that when Franklin, their latest black bag agent, was caught, there was no outcry to stop this activity. Instead, all the top politicians trooped off to AIPAC headquarters to reaffirm the sale of America's foreign policy as well as domestic policy to a small country that is trying to start wars all the time.

The disgusting display we put on, sending our top officials across the planet to order our remaining allies and our rivals to not help Hamas or else is proof we lost control of our government. There was zero reason to do this. We unneccessarily agravated allies, the allies that did obey our barked commands can't hold onto their own populations much longer since more and more people are turning against Israel by the day, all over Europe, people are getting fed up with that country, here in America, more and more are noticing we don't control our government anymore. On the far right, it is reemerging from previous anti-semetic fascist pools but on the left, the anger over the rank abuse of the Palestinian people is growing, albeit slowly, thanks to the internet breaking the neck-lock on the news that American media previously enjoyed.

Just like we lost the war in Iraq, note today, the successful attack on the jail! I predicted that Saddam will be freed and I stand by this even more at this point! The fighting there is now full scale. The ability of our country to hang on in Iraq is approaching zero. Bush is pretending all is well, like Hitler in his bunker, refusing to understand he lost the war when he lost Stalingrad, so it is with the USA. Russia and China know that we lost in Iraq and they know we lost the diplomatic battle over Iran. Even as we pretend we have a united diplomatic front, it is actually very shattered. Behind the scenes, Europe is frantically trying to readjust to the New Russia who has grown very powerful thanks to the Hubbert Oil Peak, they are sitting pretty. The USA has no oil to spare for Europe, they gave us oil when our oil rigs were wrecked last fall!

The Russians and Chinese don't want to see nuclear proliferation. They are both very angry that India and Pakistan have nukes. These two unstable countries are on their very borders so they have a vested interest in not letting them have nukes. But Russia and China are in no mood to play along with America, either. This latest diplomatic row at the UN is their opportunity to show the world an united front without much cost. This also is a very strong signal to the Middle East that the players there in this game of Risk can again begin to triangulate. No more unilateral power coming from the USA.

Historically speaking, the Pax Americus is now ending. We can end it quietly and go home and reorganize our country to operate on a saner basis or we can go down in flames like so many empires before us.

Culture of Life News Main Page

Russia And China Kill USA Attempt To Use UN To Attack Iran

Elaine Meinel Supkis

I accurately predicted what China and Russia would do at the UN concerning Iran getting nuclear technology. The New World Order is most interesting since it now is absolutely clear that the Russian/Chinese Axis is extremely powerful. Neither nation is in hock to their potential rivals. Unlike America!

Reuters:

Russia, backed by China, blocked agreement on Monday on a U.N. Security Council statement aimed at quashing Iran's nuclear ambitions despite a ministerial meeting on Tehran's atomic programs, diplomats said.

Senior foreign affairs officials from Germany and the five veto-holding Security Council members -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- met for more than four hours to exchange information on how to handle Iran.

Hahaha. Here is an even earlier cartoon on the same topic:

Our little war with Iran is dead in the water. If Bush and America dreams of still attacking this will start WWIII. No ifs ands or buts. This reckless disregard of geopolitical reality is going to be utterly deadly. I know someone in the State Department reads my blog, I have proof (they chatted with me). Well, send this blog to the White House. Or that fool, Condi, who pretends to be a Russian expert.

Gads. Tovariichi! Nyet problemi!

Culture of Life News Main Page

USA Isn't Containing China, Only Annoying China

Elaine Meinel Supkis

Rice is running around Asia again. With the usual effects. Condi huddles with Aso of Japan and with Australia to figure out how to poke China in the eye with a stick. Meanwhile, Sadr pokes USA in the eye and Hadley warns Iran to not support Shi'ite independence in Iraq. Continuing diplomatic disasters.

Xinhua Net:

Visiting U.S. Secretary of States Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that her country had no policy of containment against China and was striving to engineer a greater role for China in the international community.

This is a lie. China knows this. Condi knows this. Anyone reading any news about Asia can figure out who is lying here. Condi thinks she can bat her eyes and stop glaring balefully and this will fool the Chinese.

Alas, she has no poker face. Compared to Albright who has a total mask of a face, hiding herself carefully. Bush has no poker face, either. He is laughably easy to read. Since many people are "face reading illiterates" he could get away with openly lying, thanks to the press, for years. Now that people are aware of his many tics and tacks, they can see when he is lying.

Rice also said the United States had "excellent" relations with Beijing and had tried to engineer China's integration into regional and global institutions.

However, Rice restated that the United States had concerns about China's human rights, religious freedom and military build-up.

Rice is scheduled to hold the inaugural ministerial security dialogue Saturday with Downer and her Japanese counterpart Taro Aso, which is expected to focus on the rise of China.

This is from the official Chinese news service. They understand that Condi's "security" meeting with the Japanese is all about the next poke in the eye. They know Japan wants to poke and poke and they understand the American need to provoke the Chinese into doing something stupid so they are waiting, coiled but ready.

The Daily Times:

China’s parliament on Friday approved a 14.7 percent increase in its annual military budget to US$35 billion (29 billion). The Beijing government said the money would go toward salaries, new equipment, training and higher fuel costs.

China has announced double-digit spending increases for its 2.5 million-member military nearly every year since the early 1990s.

“That’s a lot,” Rice said Thursday. “China should undertake to be transparent about what that means.” A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, Qin Gang, reacted by saying the country had been “totally transparent,” publishing papers on its defense strategy and speaking openly about its military spending.

The neo cons have no sense of embarrassment. They can scream about other countries spending more on their military while blandly going home and demanding our country spend another trillion we don't have, making our military, the biggest on earth, even bigger. Then we go back to other parts of the distant planet and scream about everyone "interfering" with other countries. Talk about super annoying.

Associated Press:

President Bush's top foreign policy adviser (Hadley) said Friday that Iran's new willingness to talk about Iraq with the United States is probably a ploy designed to "divert pressure and divert attention" from international concern that Tehran wants a nuclear bomb.

This is from Depleted Uranium USA. This is from the country with the most nukes and pukes in the world if not the universe. We were supposed to be negotiating with Iran over what to do with collapsing Iraq. Well, the neo cons don't want this to work so along comes Hadley, popping Iran in the eye. They do this all the time, they let the world know they are doing something useful, then the neo cons pop into the news and blab the most curious and unprofessional things, often attacking parties in the middle of negotiations.

None of these negotiations are going to be allowed to bear fruit because the neo cons are working on brewing WWIII and want America to hear "9/11! Squawk!" Over and over again. It isn't working. Half of the country wants Bush censored and 43% want him impeached and I would guess around 30% want him sent to the Hague to live in Milosevich's jail cell which is now vacant.

"What is interesting is that the Iranians would choose now, at this moment, in such a very public way, to embrace this idea and try to expand it to a negotiation about a broader set of issues," Hadley said.

Well, the Iranians want to talk to us about Iraq because they live right next door and things going on there have a direct impact on them. Duh. But I doubt the crew destroying our international standing will let simple facts stop them from wrecking this chance.

Right now, Sadr is happy. Adnkronos International:

A Kurdish source in Baghdad has told a Kurdish national daily that the Mahdi Army, the militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, " has set up a shadow government in Sadr City in the centre of Baghdad". The source told the Aso daily: "this group was tasked with carrying out the affairs of the city in the place of the Iraqi government and institutions." The source explained that the Mahdi Army, accused of kidnappings and sectarian killings, has transformed the rundown Sadr city into an independent district with its security forces and its own courts which do not only judge local residents but also Shiites from other areas of the capital.

I warned them. No one listens to me.

Today, someone shot a rocket at the American facilities in the middle of Bagdad. We are bombing and straffing civilians outside Samarra. We are desperate now to set up a new Saddam and Sadr would be happy to be this only he won't work for us, he is in contact with...the Iranians. This is why we are alternately screaming and begging the Iranians to do things for us so we can attack them, this is way too insane and will end badly!

Insulting Russia repeatedly is also bearing fruit. Associated Press:

Russia's U.N. ambassador on Friday rejected proposals for the U.N. Security Council to demand a quick progress report on Iran's suspect nuclear program, saying — only half in jest — that fast action could lead to the bombing of Iran by June.

Andrey Denisov spoke just before a Security Council meeting where diplomats considered a revised list of British, French and American proposals for a statement on Iran. The latest drafts retain many elements that Russia and China have opposed.

I knew days ago that Russia and China would reject this clap trap. And so they did.

If I knew this, Condi and Bolton knew this. Their refusal to negotiate but instead, pop a dead issue forwards, was designed to give the USA "casus bellus." This is illegal, of course. There is no reason for us to attack Iran, none at all. If Iran attacks an ally of ours, then we might have some dim excuse but this isn't happening.

The recent declaration that we can attack anyone we want if we THINK they MIGHT surpass us militarily is a magic wand that will cause WWIII. Since we are declaring we can act unilaterally at possible potential rivals, this means anyone can play the same game and should strike first since the USA is menacing many countries.

This is why "first strike" is dangerous! We aren't the only ones with nukes!

Culture of Life News Main Page