Big Brass Blog

The Gospel of Impending Doom

Dark Wraith — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:57:09 -0400

The YouTube video below is a capture of the CNNMoney interview of February 28, 2008, with economist John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics, a site that keeps track of key economic data, including figures no longer published by the federal government, as well as data for which government calculation methods have been altered over the years, often with the effect of casting economic conditions in a better light than would have been the case under previous methods. Among the crucial numbers Williams reports is the year-over-year growth rate of the broadest measure of money, M3, a key economic indicator on which the Federal Reserve stopped publishing information in early 2006 under various pretenses, none of which can be characterized as anything other than disingenuous and self-serving. In my two-part series, "The Federal Reserve under Fire," I set forth the importance of the growth rate of the money supply and, in particular, the growth rate of the broadest aggregate, M3, which is critical to an understanding of the direction of the economy insofar as inflation is concerned. Previously, in my series "The Economics of Wreckage," particularly in Part Two and in Part Three, I laid out the neo-Keynesian theory and policy of aggregate demand management and how it had gone awry on several occasions prior to the current era, illustrating why the policies that have been pursued by the Bush Administration and its rubber-stamp Federal Reserve, first under the addled Alan Greenspan and then under the obsequious Ben Bernanke, are predictably and inexorably leading the nation to the brink of hyperinflation coupled with deep recession.

The above-mentioned articles at The Dark Wraith Forums incorporate by reference links to a number of other published articles I have written over the past nearly three-and-a-half years forewarning of the coming economic catastrophe. In my January 2005 article, "Prologue to the Book of Consequences," I wrote the following:

The calculus of where the economy is headed is quite simple. Mainstream news media outlets bend over backward to avoid appearing biased, so they avoid describing the future consequences of current political actions, even though the consequences are governed by rock-solid principles of economics and finance that are not open to disagreement among the learnéd. Unfortunately, the neo-conservatives have made a craft of disputing the indisputable, giving observers an impression of debate where none exists.

At that time, I still had hope that the Federal Reserve, which had begun to clamp down on the growth rate of the money supply, would stick to its guns, even though that course would have thrown the economy into a recession. Financial markets were sending the classic signals that this is, indeed, what was coming, as I pointed out in several articles, including "Toward Full Yield Curve Inversion," which I wrote and published in March of 2006.

By that time, however, the reckless mendacity of this Administration was returning to fashion at the Fed: as it turned out, the Fed had rather swiftly and quietly untethered the broad monetary aggregates M2 and M3, once again causing them to grow out of control, leaving only M1—the kind of money ordinary people use—under an approximately zero growth rate regimen. The broader aggregates M2 and M3, feeding as they do the financial sectors and the wealthy, are now growing at rates that have absolutely no justification whatsoever other than to forestall economic catastrophe until the Bush Administration leaves office.

The growth rates of M2 and M3 are breath-taking. As mentioned above, the Fed no longer publishes M3. Including as it does M2, which in turn includes M1 (which, until recently, was not growing), this broadest measure of the money circulating in the economy is now in the growth rate range of 20 percent.

Two years ago, the yield curve inverted, which has historically signaled a good possibility of economic downturn that might become a recession. Shortly after full inversion, and notably in what was the Spring of a mid-term election year, the Fed panicked, backing down from tight monetary policy and thereby leaving only the people who use cash and checking account types of money to labor under a money supply being held at zero growth. As it turned out, the Fed was commencing the second phase of what would be a nearly unprecedented expansionary monetary policy that continues to this very day. Under this regime, not only is the Federal Reserve increasing the money supply at a rate in excess of the real growth rate of the economy, but the Fed is accelerating this growth rate! Although the chart below has been published here on several recent, prior occasions, it is worth publishing again, and it should be noted that John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics showed an almost identical chart in the video offered above.

The Federal Reserve is pouring hundreds of billions of excess dollars into the economy to hold off an economic crash. The longer it does this, the worse the resulting inflation will be; more importantly, however, the longer it pursues this radically irresponsible policy, the worse the recession will be when a new Federal Reserve Board must crush the money supply long enough to drain out the staggering greenback overhang. Interest rates, which will already be rising because of inflation expectations embedded in them, will skyrocket because interest rates are the price of money, and when the supply of anything contracts, its price goes up. Business investment, already laboring under tight credit conditions, will grind to a standstill, as will consumer spending on anything other than basics, which will absorb a greater and greater share of income in the spiral of accelerating inflation caused by the almost incomprehensible oversupply of money progressively eroding the purchasing power of each dollar circulating in the economy.

On the international front, as the dollar continues its inexorable plunge into Second World currency weakness, U.S. exports to other countries will rise as our goods become cheaper overseas, and foreign imports to the United States will become more expensive. That has two sour notes. First, as imports become more expensive on American shelves, the domestic substitutes right beside them on the shelves will rise in price by the so-called "substitution effect," fed as it will be by the excess money that will fuel the demand-pull inflation at the retail level. Second, as Americans buy fewer imports, foreign reserves of dollars, which are the means by which our government, our businesses, and our households have been able to borrow so much money for the past several decades, will begin to dry up; and with the U.S. government spending in stupendous excess of the tax revenues it draws, the U.S. Treasury in the years ahead will suck up what little there will be of foreign capital available for lending, leaving both households and private businesses with virtual bread crumbs of lendable funds, especially once the Fed begins the long, gruesome process of letting the economy slowly absorb in real output gains what will ultimately be the trillions of dollars in excess liquidity poured in by the Bush Administration's Federal Reserve.

All of the righteous, legitimate, and perhaps even understated condemnation of the Bush Administration and its Federal Reserve aside for a while, the pertinent questions on most people's minds revolve around what is to come; and by no means are the answers pleasant. Even under the most responsible, intelligent, and take-charge President—of which none appear to be on hand for the up-coming election—the economy and its constituents will suffer, and the suffering will be severe.

No, the United States economy is not in a "recession," yet, despite the premature squealing of quite a few people. Although some parts of the country might already be experiencing negative economic growth, according to the latest figures released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the Commerce Department, the overall economy actually grew in the first quarter of 2008, albeit at an anemic rate of just 0.6 percent, matching the growth rate for the final quarter of 2007; and, although the Commerce Department is notorious for revising such GDP growth rate numbers several times, the signs simply are not there of a widespread recession underway for the U.S. as a whole. Americans have not seen a severe recession in more than a generation. The last bad one was started because Paul Volker, President Jimmy Carter's appointee to head the Federal Reserve; Volker's Fed aggressively clamped down on the money supply to drain out the excess money that had been building at a greater or lesser pace for more than a decade. Volker did not let go until not only the inflation had abated, but so too had the far more important expectation of future inflation. Recessions since then have been relatively short and mild by comparison, and the "recession" that heralded the beginning of the current Administration was not a recession by the technical measure of two consecutive quarters of negative real GDP growth, but it was certainly more than enough of a pretext for George W. Bush and his Republican allies in Congress to get their way with drastic tax cuts to "stimulate" the economy, a siren call the GOP has used in the past, most notably at the outset of the Reagan years and, before that, near the end of the Eisenhower Administration. Unlike Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, who led their party's parade to the trough of wildly generous tax cuts for the rich, Eisenhower resisted the tax cut bleatings of his fellow Republicans and, in so doing, was able to deliver several years of balanced federal budgets, unlike either Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush. Of course, in all fairness at least to the current President of the United States, few are the those even among the professional apologists for Mr. Bush who would accuse him of being the latter-day incarnation of President Eisenhower in fiscally responsible leadership, much less in statesmanship and general intelligence.

As a touchstone for reference, the table below presents the record of recessions in the United States from the third decade of the 20th Century to the present.

U.S. Recessions 1920 to Present
Peak before Recession	Trough of Recession	Duration of Recession (months from peak to trough)	Decrease in Real GDP (percent from peak to trough)	Duration of Following Expansion (months from trough to peak)
January 1920	July 1921	18	8.7	22
May 1923	July 1924	14	4.1	27
October 1926	November 1927	13	2.0	21
August 1929	March 1933	43	32.6	50
May 1937	June 1938	13	18.2	80
February 1945	October 1945	8	11.0	37
November 1948	October 1949	11	1.5	45
July 1953	May 1954	10	3.2	39
August 1957	April 1958	8	3.3	24
April 1960	February 1961	10	1.2	106
December 1969	November 1970	11	1.0	36
November 1973	March 1975	16	4.9	58
January 1980	July 1980	6	2.5	12
July 1981	November 1982	16	3.0	92
July 1990	March 1991	8	1.4	120
March 2001	November 2001	8	0.0	76*
*As of end of First Quarter 2008

With that data providing helpful historical guidance, and with some well-established macroeconomic principles being applied, what follows is a summary, if highly preliminary, assessment of what interested readers should expect of the economy in the coming months and years.

First, the economy will not go into recession for a while. The current scenario appears too much like the U.S. economy in 1979, except that the incumbent Federal Reserve is far more out of control than the pre-Volker Fed was. We will experience what in Carter's time was called "stagflation": paltry real growth of GDP coupled with accelerating inflation. Eventually, as that inflation becomes more and more embedded in interest rates, the Fed's efforts to hold interest rates down by pouring money at greater and greater rates into the economy will begin to fail, and the economy will teeter closer and closer to the brink of negative real growth in GDP.

As far as inflation is concerned, a quick, dirty way to generate a forecast is to take the year-over-year growth rate of the money supply and subtract from it the real growth rate of GDP: that's the "overhang" of dollars the economy's real (that is, production-based) spending growth cannot use, so that overhang must, sooner or later, become inflation. If the broadest money aggregate, M3, is growing at close to 20 percent, and the real GDP is growing at around half-a-percent, that means inflation will eventually hit 19.5 percent or so on an annualized basis. As a nice, round number, call it a forecast of 20 percent inflation. As mind-numbing as that number is, the worse part is that, the longer the Federal Reserve under the new President fails to crush the money supply, the closer expected inflation will get to that 20 percent figure, which means interest rates will climb to the point where economic activity in the United States will grind to a virtual halt; but that's not the worst part.

The expected inflation premium does not affect only interest rates; it becomes embedded in the forward expectations of compensation for all factors of production, perhaps most notable among them being labor, which has been on its back for years in terms of its ability to successfully project bargaining power into management-labor wage negotiations. That will change: under mounting pressure from rank-and-file workers who will begin to experience real deprivations as their nominal purchasing power withers in the accelerating inflation, people will forcefully demand far greater performance from their unions and, in the absence of union representation, from the employers themselves. Long dormant (in some cases, even intergenerational) frustrations with the inability to get ahead economically will translate, at best, into far more active, vociferous workers and, at worst, widespread agitation and activities that will bring down what has become a swift, efficient, often merciless fist of retributive law enforcement surveillance, actions, and violence, which will be wholly and prejudicially supported by courts packed by the Bush Administration with extemist conservative and Right-wing judges.

The next President, regardless of which nominee it is, will be faced with the choice of either forestalling the application of draconian remedies for the hyperinflation or forcing the Fed to quickly and resolutely clamp down on the money supply, this latter choice sending the economy into a hard recession near the depth and length of the Great Depression. Either way the new President decides to play it, by 2010 or 2011, unprecedented, severe, unavoidable demands on the federal budget will emerge, and they will get worse with each successive budget cycle. At the same time, the utter debilitation of the U.S. armed forces will have become apparent not merely to the U.S. brass, but to the heads of state of adventurous countries in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a nascent South American alliance, the European Union, and loner countries like Japan, all of whom will shed at least some pretense of disinterest in taking command of land, the seas, the sky, and space in the growing chasm between continued American military posturing and viable, multi-theater engagement capability.

And if all of that is not enough, the growing independence of the world economy and its sovereign participants from the U.S. dollar will mean that U.S. goods and services, although cheap and well received in other countries, will become not just more expensive here at home, but also subject to much more price volatility as the greenback no longer serves as the anchor in international contracts for everything from foodstuffs to hydrocarbon products.

Other catastrophes will attend and succeed those listed above, but that's a good start, although, as cautioned earlier, this is just a preliminary and quite summary impression of what is to come. Indeed, it could get much worse.

One way or the other, despite the greatest efforts of the stupefyingly irresponsible Bush Administration and its swirling cacophony of apologists in the Right-wing think tanks, the mainstream media, academia, the courts, the religious community, and the general population, reality will soon arrive on the unstoppable freight train of dire consequences to which each of the aforementioned groups will no doubt find its own means by which to dismiss personal responsibility for national calamity. That, no doubt, was why the gallows were so popular in a by-gone era: a good noose not only kills the mendacious, it shuts them up, too.

The Dark Wraith will offer further economic forecasts as events merit.

economy · macroeconomics · recession · inflation · Bush · Fed

As Much as I Would Like to Avoid This

blackdog — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:40:52 -0400

I can't help myself. This is illustrative about the message our idiot-in-chief conveys whenever it is on patrol, wreaking mayhem and catastrophe around the world.

Makes me proud to be an American, how about you?

How Much Lower Can We Go?

Debra — Sun, 11 May 2008 14:19:52 -0400

Are there any depths to which this current administration will not sink? I know it seems like a stupid question considering everything they've screwed up over the last seven years, but even this one boggles what little mind I have left. It seems that those who have served faithfully in this misbegotten war, are not eligible for the tax stimulus checks that the country really can't afford. Yes, I know people have conveniently ignored the fact that quite a few military families are forced to used food stamps to survive, but how anyone in their right mind would think that the troops don't deserve the maximum amount of the stimulus package totally baffles me.

Every morning I'm greeted with some stupid ass story about how the troops are being supported. But not by the government that sends them into harm's way time after time without adequate armor, decent food or water, poor housing when they get back and an atrocious medical system that punishes them for being injured on the field of battle. If they were in the Reserves or the National Guard, even though it's against the law, their jobs aren't waiting for them when they get back and due to the high rate of PTSD that everyone except the government recognizes, our military veterans can't find decent employment while they wait for the next time they are called up. Even if it's three years after their last tour.

What kind of country are we that we can obsess about flag pins and not worry about those who have been injured or killed supposedly defending this nation from terrorists from without while the terrorists from within destroy everything this country used to stand for?

Our troops passed fucked up without collecting $300 and the rest of us are on our way to cultural armageddon. The rich continue to get richer, the poor continue to get poorer and our troops continued to get screwed.

Debsweb

Support_the_Troops

Happy Mother's Day

Debra — Sun, 11 May 2008 04:30:07 -0400

Debsweb

Mom, Apple Pie and GOP SOBs

Foiled Goil — Sat, 10 May 2008 23:03:00 -0400

Republicans Vote Against Moms; No Word Yet on Puppies, Kittens

Dana Milbank:

It was already shaping up to be a difficult year for congressional Republicans. Now, on the cusp of Mother's Day, comes this: A majority of the House GOP has voted against motherhood.

On Wednesday afternoon, the House had just voted, 412 to 0, to pass H. Res. 1113, "Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day," when Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), rose in protest.

"Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote," he announced.

Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), who has two young daughters, moved to table Tiahrt's request, setting up a revote. This time, 178 Republicans cast their votes against mothers.

It has long been the custom to compare a popular piece of legislation to motherhood and apple pie. Evidently, that is no longer the standard. Worse, Republicans are now confronted with a John Kerry-esque predicament: They actually voted for motherhood before they voted against it.

Republicans, unhappy with the Democratic majority, have been using such procedural tactics as this all week to bring the House to a standstill, but the assault on mothers may have gone too far. House Minority Leader John Boehner, asked yesterday to explain why he and 177 of his colleagues switched their votes, answered: "Oh, we just wanted to make sure that everyone was on record in support of Mother's Day."

By voting against it?

* * * * *

"The majority has taken, once again, their go-it-alone policy," Boehner lamented yesterday. "It's time for Democrats and Republicans to work together."

To induce this working together, Boehner decided to stop the House from working at all.

GOP · Obstructionists · Mothers

Kaboom!

Debra — Sat, 10 May 2008 13:27:46 -0400

It's the fifteenth annual KFOG Kaboom in San Francisco. This year's line up includes Matt Nathanson, Collective Soul and Los Lobos. It's all wrapped up at the end with the most spectacular fireworks display on the west coast.

Last year we felt like we were freezing to death, the temperature on the bay had dropped into the thirties, so this year we're bringing a sleeping bag in addition to the coats, blankets and sweats. Meanwhile, for those of you who can't get to SF today (the fun starts at four), here's a little SF feeling for you.

It never ceases to amaze me how the lyrics from the 60s are still topical today. I really do hope that it is a warm San Franciscan night.

Debsweb

Best Laugh Today

Foiled Goil — Fri, 9 May 2008 20:27:30 -0400

Breaking news....there's a big-ass hole in Texas. What will the Department of Republican Nomenclature do with this new challenge?

Big-ass Hole in Texas

Kennebec Blue:

Breaking news! There's a big-ass hole in Texas, and even the experts don't know how far it will go, or how much damage it will cause. Thus far its appetite for destruction seems to know no bounds. One theory is that it got its start from oil drilling. The Department of Republican Nomenclature hasn't settled on a name for the Big-ass Hole in Texas yet, but is expected to go with something like the Normal Terrain Initiative, Perfectly Safe Backyards for America, or simply the Democrats' Fault.

To the tune of "Yellow Rose of Texas":

There�s a Big-ass Hole in Texas, that�s wide and fairly deep,
No other state will claim it, we say it�s theirs to keep,
It got its start from drilling, destruction knows no bounds,
Republicans have seen it, and named it "Level Grounds."

Go ahead, I bet you can write the next verse without half trying.

Texas · Sink · Hole

dat ol delusional theology...

astraea — Fri, 9 May 2008 19:03:49 -0400

I've been tracking it for a good while. May I share this from my archive.

from dec 20 2000

Message #704 of 30961 group/Negative-Capability
deb wrote:
Re: [Negative-Capability] Fw: [AnInformedPublic] Cheney shatters
Clinton push for peace in Israel
Nietzsche and Goethe also very big influences on Carl Jung, even Oscar
Wilde. Wagner is the only one I can think of who was rabidly and
consciously involved in myth making in the same destructive vein as Hitler.
But then, eugenics was just part of the late 19th early 20th C. The
planning for 'The Shape of Things to Come' was something Wells learned to
regret, something GBShaw is now pulled over the coals for. But it was just

part of the thinking, a natural part of early Socialist problem solving --
trying to plan, an attempt at making the world better. Oh yes:
full of good intentions! That it turned into the final solution was all
shadow projection, positivism, possession and obsession. The Dark isn't
dangerous, but our attitude toward it can be. Same goes for the Light.
Ultima Thule and the grail myth were turned into something diabolical when
they were married to complexes. But these things are not diabolical in
themselves.

It's exactly what Jung addresses in The Spirit Mercurius.

One of the first groups Hitler came for (and I had a lovely old Swiss man
write me about this): The Freemasons. Why? Because Masonry (MPB was an
honorary Mason and there are those whackos now who now claim SHE fed the
Nazis...) was the 'study of the science of symbols.' Freemasonry understood
ritual and metaphor as keys to the inner self through the EXPERIENCE of the
Divine as the ineffable numen. Scripture was understood in the Deistic
sense of a mortal heart speaking as the divine moves it.* Yes, pure Jung. I
can't think of anyone more pointedly Masonic than Jung -- who's grandfather
was the Swiss Grandmaster (George Washington was the first GM in the US).

So... it wasn't these writers who were dangerous, but they way they were fed
into an already sick, archetype possessed group of people who supposed their
intuition was, like everything about themselves, the infallible work of the
only true deity.

Lord knows, we have that here, now. Even Newt is undstanding they've
created a Frankenstein in the radical Christian Right. I'm praying, as they
are, that the moderates in their party can get hold of this mad and slippery
thing they've fed. A mass mind with all the potential destructiveness of
the Nazis.

Atlantic Monthly has a big story this month (that I can't get to scan!) on
the Goddess and the Scholars: Debunking the Goddess myth. You fools, you
crazy cultists! That's one of their Al Gore straw men: WE NewAgers
'worship' mother earth and want 'one world'. Well -- jeez. What is, is!
It's the worship thing they're stuck on. Symbols speak to us. As symbols.

The toad preacher John Egee(?) on the Christian Network gave an especially
rabid speech last night, saying we can choose God's law (their patriarchal
spin if the Bible ala Handmaid's Tale) or 'the law of the jungle.' They are
ready to go onto the Next Level of Christianity. He told some whoppers
about the meaning of 'The International Year of the Child"... "...allows
children to sue their parents, encourages them to buy condom... they don't
know the last three presidents when the graduate, but they've got a diploma
and a condom!" On and on... But what got me was the look in the eyes of
the people listening. It wasn't Christian love. It was hate.

----- Original Message -----
From: mike
Subject: Re: [Negative-Capability] Fw: [AnInformedPublic] Cheney shatters
Clinton push for peace in Israel

mary wrote:
| > Goethe and Nietsczhe (can't spell) were part of its happening if I'm not
| > mistaken? Hitler was more than a man with big hypnotic eyes and an
| > irritating voice, he was a man in a time and a place who was close to
the
| > collective unconscious and used it -- I bet he thought that was love --
| > including its mythology and sacred texts. Goethe and Nietschze were
among
| > the sacred texts. Also: Struwwelpeter.
| *Unfortunately all too true.
|
| m
|
|
| "....several things dovetailed in my mind, & at once it struck me, what
| quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in Literature &
| which Shakespeare possessed so enormously -- I mean Negative Capability,
| that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries,
| doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason -- " ~John
Keats

*which applies to all, yes?
In the floods of life, in the storm of work,
In Ebb and flow,
In warp and weft,
Cradle and grave,
An eternal sea,
A changing patchwork,
A glowing life,
At the whirring loom of Time I weave
The living clothes of the Deity.
~Goethe, the Earth Spirit to Faust

SYMBOLS, beloved.

That which is creative, creates itself. ~John Keats

Message #672 of 30961
the original article:

deb wrote:

As expected.

Let's see... it's all falling into place. Bush will make a fine antichrist,
war in the middle east, the restoration of the Temple of Solomon... then the
Righteous get to watch all of us burn from their heavenly vaunt. Should
make them all very happy.

That ain't my God, folks. And it ain't the mask 'he' wants to wear.
Yahweh's very tired of the whole drama. I wonder how far they can project
this shadow, though?

What are we to do alice, mary, carroll, mike, anand, phoebe -- all my
friends who see beyond what I can see as Hanging Man? I think I'm here to
usher paradox in and out, to remain a zwitterion. How do I keep faith?
Because I do somehow. We have to. I'll hang... the tree will blossom on
its own. I'll smell their scent. But maybe watered with tears of -- love?

| http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=003864436460684&rtmo=qxqJudp9&atmo=rr
| rrrrrq&pg=/et/00/12/18/wmid18.html
|
| 18 December 2000
|
| Cheney shatters Clinton push for peace in Israel
| By Patrick Bishop in Jerusalem
|
| AN attempt to salvage a Middle East peace deal in the dying days of
| the Clinton presidency appeared seriously undermined last night as
| the incoming administration said recent American diplomacy had
| hindered a settlement.
|
| Israeli and Palestinian delegations are expected to go to Washington
| this week to try to find common ground that could pave the way for a
| peace summit. Both sides are due to hold separate talks with American
| officials in the first serious attempt to resume negotations, which
| have been in abeyance since the Palestinian uprising erupted in the
| West Bank and Gaza Strip at the end of September.
|
| The already slim chances of success were reduced further yesterday
| when Vice-President-elect Dick Cheney voiced the incoming
| administration's "concerns that the way the Clinton administration
| operated in the [last] year or so in the Middle East has made it more
| difficult to reach a settlement".
|
| He singled out the decision to put the future of Jerusalem, one of
| the most intractable of the many issues under negotiation, at the
| centre of the failed summit at Camp David last July. He made it clear
| that the Bush presidency had its own ideas about how to "regenerate"
| the peace process, which he said had now broken down.
|
| On the face of it, the parties have an interest in reaching
| agreements before President Clinton steps down on January 20. Ehud
| Barak was eager to strike a deal that would allow him to show
| substantial progress in building peace with the Palestinians in
| advance of an election for prime minister in early February which on
| current form he is expected to lose.
|
| Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, had the choice of doing
| business with Mr Barak or waiting until after the poll, which in the
| absence of a peace breakthrough seems certain to result in a
| hardliner at the Israeli helm. Yesterday he said he was willing to
| meet Mr Barak to talk peace.
|
| Mr Clinton was anxious to see some results from a process which had
| absorbed much of his energy since he decided to try to forge a solid
| Middle East settlement as his lasting presidential legacy. That hope
| would now seem to be unrealistic following Mr Cheney's intervention.
|
| Despite the peace rumblings blood continued to flow yesterday with
| Israeli soldiers shooting dead Iyad Daoud, 27, and Ahmed Al-Kassas,
| 38, in the Gaza Strip near the border with Egypt. Palestinians said
| they had been going to the rescue of another man who had been shot
| and wounded. The army said they had returned fire after coming under
| attack.
|
| A leader of Mr Arafat's Fatah group was killed in a mysterious
| explosion at the Kalandiya refugee camp near Jerusalem. Fatah
| officials said Sami Mala'b eh, 28, was the latest victim of an
| Israeli assassination campaign against activists. The army had no
| official comment about the incident.

McCain courted Hagee for endorsement...

astraea — Fri, 9 May 2008 18:57:18 -0400

Aha. This is what was lost in the static from Charlie Rose's interview with Bill Moyers last night. It begins at 42:26 on the video as they're speaking about Republicans and the endorsement of religious leaders. Moyers mentions the free ride the press gave McCain on Hagee and his delusional theology and goes on to tell us Hagee didn't go to McCain, McCain went to Hagee for endorsement. Now that puts things in a whole new focus, a place McCain can't wriggle away from.

So Google "McCain courted Hagee."
Read. For instance --

McCain Courted extremist Hagee for at least a year

Frederick Clarkson highlights the fact that Senator John McCain courted the endorsement of anti-catholic and anti-semitic preacher John Hagee for at least a year. John Hagee is also what I call an eschatophile: he's obsessed with eschatology, frequently holding forth about the "End Times" according to interpretations that no doubt 50 years from now (probably just 10 or 20 years from now) are going to appear ridiculous.

February 29, 2008 in Politics | Permalink

Thinking, a Dangerous Thing for Me

blackdog — Fri, 9 May 2008 18:00:52 -0400

This is awfully personal for me and I have little recourse to talk with anyone about it, the Woof looks kindly at me but offers nothing beyond that, so in many ways, being a reclusive bastard I have no other audience. I have attempted to be slow and stand-offish about a recent issue and have done a fairly good job in that direction, but I find that my heart can barely stand it. Like the dim one that I am I fall into temptation, time and again. Maybe this will explain some. From my recently re-divorced X.

As I said before, you do hold a special spot in my heart and always will. That was so long ago, but I do remember how wonderful our love was. All fresh and new. But now I am old and tired. Thanks so much for being so honest with me, I hated to ask you about it but I just had to (if I still drank, yes, I do). Please don't ever think that you bother me, you bring a smile to me more than you think, and right now I need those smiles. I'm having alot of trouble dealing with this divorce. Funny I never thought that John and I would part, he just got the middle age crazies and had to go. Oh well, I'll figure out how to make this work.
Anyway Thanks again for Roy (Orbison) and it really makes me sad to think that I make you cry. If you want I'll stop contacting you. I don't want to make you unhappy so just say the word, it won't hurt my feelings, I'll understand.
Kathie

On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 9:06 PM, blackdog wrote:

Damn, I have to do this again, the first time for some reason or other it didn't work. (In answer to her question about beer).
Yes I do, not in the same way, some measure of peace has found me and I don't rail at the world anymore all the time, the world has seemed to have beaten me to a point where I just shutup. I have my Woof to take care of and that is about all I need.

I should note my posts over at the 3Bs if you would know something about me these days, I haven't changed that much but one thing is clear to me is that I never quit loving you over all these years. There, I said it. Although I would never want to get involved again and have any potential to ruin your life another time, we did enough harm to each other already.

You deserve something better. I'll never hold you again and call you rabbit, but to my death I will remember the time we played in the snow at Scott, where I tripped you by the silo and we fell together in the snow kissing.

Sorry for being such a sentimental bastard, but there you have it. This represents better than any other bs how I feel, and most important, you take care.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPK_5yJZScQ

This may be the last post I make for a while. Got to get some healing.

I know that I am full of crap, but this is pretty funny. All the dogs in the neighborhood are sounding off for some reason or other, so sleep isn't an option just now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cSDAqyuu48&feature=related

Monsters, under your bed no less.

One more and then I really go to bed.

This one is pretty good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdj8CQEvUqg&NR=1

i more and it's pretty good too.

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7pPqEumf3_4/default.jpg

Just had a long conversation with my older brother, it was pretty good, As I've said before he is me x 10. Wish I could post it here but he won't allow it, not at all. First time I've spoken with him in more than a while. He's pretty intelligent, makes me look like a blackdog.