Bush & Pyongyang & denuclearising North Korea in limbo

Well, when you thought, Herr Bush had come to his senses on negotiating with Pyongyang, he reversed oars, leaving his promises in midair. He's learnt absolutely nothing in his 8 years in office. North Korea's style of negotiating is simple. You give x, we give y. Herr Bush's is you do what we say, and that's that. So, now Pyongyang has suspended closing down Yangbang because Herr Bush feels that it has fessed up enough to warrant removal from the list of terrorist nations and from the draconian measures of Trading with the enemy Act. 18Brumaire strongly suggests reading Mike Chinoy's excellent book on Herr Bush's long years of dealing with North Korea--'Meltdown'. In brief, it is an how to book on picking up a boulder and dropping it on your big toe. Ultimately, the US is going to have to return to a Clintonesque approach in dealing with North Korea. Thus, Chinoy's conclusion is quite to the point: Herr Bush has wasted 8 years in his approach to Pyongyang, and what's more, his ideological blind spot has elevated Kim Jong il's land to the ranks of a nuclear power. So much for being too clever by half. The dogs of war on the question of North Korea are straining at the leash; the standoff between Washington and Pyongyang now gives them hope to push for regime change, confrontation, and a further waste of time. It thereby allows Pyongyang to accelerate its missile technology which will cause its neighbours to not sleep well at night. There is popping of corks in right wing Republican circles these days, but we haven't seen the end of this sour diplomatic soap drama, and in 120 days, the world will see the backside of Herr Bush and his band of 40 thieves.

Can John McCain pull it off?

Short of Herr Bush creating another way, McCain cannot win the Oval Office. His minions will try as they might. They cannot play the race card but sotto voce it won't be far from our hearing; they are falling back on the canard that Obama is a celebrity as if McCain wasn't or isn't as he talks endlessly of his long stay at the Hanoi Hilton!, or that Obama is still wet behind the ears for assuming the role of America's commander & chief. That's a laugh. Neither is the dithering McCain for that matter. When Lincoln was running, the same petard was hoisted, that he wasn't ready, and he after all made the Republican party a major American party during the Civil War!
The Republican big wigs may not be impressed with Obama, but the American electorate is and enough to make him the US' 44 president. And that's what counts.

Russia has a point

Herr Bush's broken record of a plaint against Russia's repulsing Georgia's thrust in South Ossetia and Abkazia has been challenged by Moscow. Russia has a point in saying this endless, hoary refrain has more to do with putting McCain in the White House than in calming ambitions and cooling Georgia's aspiration in the southern Caucuses. Of course, western high dudgeon won't abate. The West can do little but shout and scream and stamp feet, for short of declenching a world war, it can do little but blow smoke up their collective arses. Moscow is in the catbird seat, point, score, match!

Lehman Bros travails go from bad to worse

Lehman Bros. are laying off 1200 more employees. 2008 is a bad year for this investment banking house saddled with subprime mortgage debt. Four times in recent memory has it had to send out pink slips. Lehman are looking to sell off core, money making assets, to buoy up a red bottom line. And although Brumaire18 thought the bank would fail by 1q09, it looks as though with a plummeting stock price and serious financial troubles, it might come sooner. The saviour will be a foreign bank more likely. No US bank like JPMorgan Chase who picked up Bear Stearns for a song, can do the trick, and that trick had the full backing of rate or taxpayers money. After Lehman, there's Merrill Lynch, another weak link in America's debt ridden financial system. Now it turns out after hiding it well, JPMorgan Chase are up to the proverbial nose in subprime mortgage debt.
The whole system is infected by the virus of greed that the banks pursued to make a fast Yankee dollar, which they did, and now they're paying for their sins. And unfortunately owing to friends, mainly Herr Bush's minions, in high places, everyone else is not only in the US but globally, too.

Will McCain pick Lieberman as his running mate?

Chances are good for that choice. Lieberman is a trench fighter and what's more plays black pool. He's Israel's man, and he will use every trick in the book to rally the small, but influential Jewish vote by tarring Barak Obama as a closet Muslim, not strong on support for Israel, so on and on. He will play the race card. It won't work. His tactics will raise questions of Jewish loyalty to the US, and stir latent anti Semitism. He will do more than good and he's an awful choice by a man who is even disliked by his own Republicans.

Russia's loss of its cordon sanitaire

Hardly any pundit has pointed out the obvious. Herr Bush's forward military and political policy in the former people's democracies in central and eastern Europe and wanderlust in Georgia, has made Moscow very nervous. Herr Bush's aim was to deny Russia the cordon sanitaire it won with Germany's unconditional surrender in 1945 in the heart of central and eastern Europe. Herr Bush brushed off the old arguments that Churchill, then Atlee, and Truman and Eisenhower used to fuel the Cold War. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the new unfettered east nations did not pose a threat to Moscow nor did Moscow look on them as a threat, and this obtains even for Georgia. However under the tin sheriff and big talk bad action Herr Bush, Moscow had everything to fear from an agressive US forward policy which will plant sophisticated missiles on its borders. Little wonder, it responded within a blink of the eye in crushing Saakashivili's war in South Ossetia and Abkazia. It will neuter Georgia's territorial designs, and also put Herr Bush & co. on notice, Russia won't stand being threatened even existentially. Nonetheless the summer solider heroes are mounting hot air campaigns. Let's not be fooled by the rhetoric and blinding sand of confusion. Herr Bush & co are girding loins from a battle lost even before it started!

The hot air continues about Russia's recognition of Abkazia and South Ossetia

The hot sand blows from Whitehall. David Millibrand who covets prime minister Gordon Brown's position, is quite exercised over Moscow's decision to recognise Abkazia and South Ossetia. A lot of good that will do him in Russia. He's playing to the folks at home, showing how he's a big, strong boy with heavy balls between his legs. Moscow cares not a whit. It won't back down on its realpolitik, and why should it? It surely knows that it's witnessing a passing gale storm which will quiet down. It's cash rich and has all the tea in China in oil & gas which Europe depends on. Herr Bush may bluster and fume and stamp his foot like Rumpelstilskin and get it stuck in his failed foreign ventures, but he won't get anywhere unless adventuresome soul he, starts another war!
Moscow did make a slight 'bevue'--it had counted on its allies in the Shanghai Co operation Organisation to back it up. How could it since it embaced the Leninist principle of self determination which is an anathema [sic] to China faced as it is with Taiwan and Tibet and the Turkmen in Xinjiang. And of the other Central Asian stans, don't like it either since they, too, harbour with its port breakaway ethnic groups. Nonetheless on the whole, Russia has re asserted its historic rights in the southern Caucuses, and there it will remain.

How stupid can Herr Bush be in dealing with North Korea?

The answer is written as plain as the nose on your face. Herr Bush has learnt absolutely nothing in negotiating with Pyongyang. Now since he's using a stick to hit Kim Jong il over the head for not living up to agreements, thereby reneging on Herr Bush's word to drop North Korea from the terrorist nation list and waiving restrictions on trading with the enemy act, Pyongyang has stopped disabiling its nuclear facilities at Yongbang. Surprise, surprise, surprise! Herr Bush may feel that he can put the hard squeeze on North Korea to yield something that he could never get with reciprocity; Herr Bush may feel that since his buddy in South Korea the dense president Lee Myung bak is in his corner and paying Kim Jong il with contempt and suspending aid, he can sally forth with tried and failed moves against Pyongyang. He cannot. And if any reader wants to read about this sorry tragic tack of Herr Bush, do go read Mike Chinoy's very well documented and fascinating read 'Meltdown'. Herr Bush should read it; it would tell him a thing or two of how to approach North Korea. Well, it's an offer, Herr Bush will and does refuse, and the proof is in the pudding of his failure to help denuclearise the divided Korean peninsula. Like the Bourbons of yore, Herr Bush has learnt nothing and forgot everything. And although we're not back to square one we very well might be as North Korea begins ramping up its nuclear site. So much for Herr Bush's cleverness by half!

Malaysia's ruling UNMO seized by scandal

UNMO is rocked by scandal, by corruption, and by allegations of a murder engineered by the deputy prime minister Najib Razak, of a Mongolian model. To circumvent investigation and the rule of law, Razak's gang has resorted to a sleight of hand. Drag the man and the alleged murder Abdul Razak Bagini into a mosque, make them swear on the Korean that they are innocent, and poof like a magician's wand, the charge of murder disappears. Well, that won't do, old darlings at all, at all. The ploy sounds pathetical which it is. It is also a way of sneaking Shaar'ia law into the civil realm, and to undermine the pillars of Malaysia. Murder demands justice and that is the last thing the murky back waters of the deputy prime minister and UNMO truly want. Let them remember the wheels of justice grind slow, but grind fine, and the day of reckoning for the two Razaks approaches.

Anwar Ibrahim's spectacular re entry in to Malaysian politics

Anwar's party the Keadilan [People's Justice] party is claiming a landslide victory for its candidate Anwar Ibrahim in yesterday's bi election in the Permatang Pauh constituancy of Pengag, a state in last March's election broke the chokehold of the 50 year rule of the UNMO & its allies there. Some may scoff, saying he was a shoo in replacing his wife who stepped down in his favour. Maybe. It's highly significant that against high winds and tides of UNMO's opposition Anwar has made his grand entry in Malaysia's political realm after prison and undue and unjust punishment for opposing former prime minister Mahatir Mohammed & his gang of 40 thieves. It is not an exaggeration to say that Anwar's election is a earthquake to UNMO's rule for Anwar hopes to by vote withdraw the parliament's confidence in prime minister Abdullah Badawi's government. He may very like do just that. Malaysia is on the cusp of great political change.

Medvedev's tac Abkazia & South Ossetia for Bush's tic Kosvo

Herr Bush's met his match in Russia's parliament. It recognised the existence as separate entities Abkazia and South Ossetia. When the BBC quizzed a Russian spokesman on this bold move, he simply replied that Herr Bush & his NATO allies recognised the existence of an independent Kosvo which Moscow does not, and in fact, says that is part of Serbia. Georgia's Mikheil Saakashavili who created this nice little mess in the Caucuses, and much encouraged by the cheering leaders of Herr Bush's camp followers, has vowed to retake this two non Georgian provinces back. [With what army pray tell?] Herr Bush & his camp followers especially the so called Soviet expert & now US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice think nothing of changing boundaries in this part of the world where ethnic minorities have lived cheek to jowl for centuries on mixed real estate, and who will fight till defeat to hold on to the least are of land as their own. Geography and history are completely ignored for the smash ém in the fact forward policy, and which has now brought yet another defeat to Herr Bush in his adventures abroad. It speaks ill of Madame Rice's grasp of history and she supposedly knew her Russian and Soviet history, so on and so forth. Thus Moscow has payed back Washington with its own coin, and there's preciouss little that Herr Bush can do about it save sputtter and drool and choke with indignation.

Leaving Iraq in 2011, an aspirational goal

Give us a break, won't you, Herr Bush. The light is at the end of the tunnel in Iraq. A renascent nationalism has forced not only your hand picked stooge al Maliki to ask you to leave and turn out the light, but so has your failure Herr Bush in beginning a war that was wrong in the first place but also a war that showed to the world your incompetence and gross stupidity and blundering. Now even the man you can stomach who is running for your seat in the Oval Office is forced to float a trial balloon of re introducing national service or a draft which should fire up the people you sought to cower into silence as you plucked patriotic strings of there. So Nixon had his Vietnamisation, you've an aspirational goal to withdraw US troops by 2011. You're a dead duck in the water, Herr Bush, but along the way you're pulling down your own country. You were a summer soldier during the war in Vietnam...you're nothing now but a tin horn sheriff with as it is said in Spanish huevos secos.

Herr Bush is itching for a fight with Russia

Herr Bush is peppering his windbag speeches with warnings to Russia. He talks big but as we all know anything he touches turns to dust. Look at Iraq! at Afghanistan! at Pakistan! at Spain! and of course, he's not been able to come to an agreement with North Korea. Herr Bush is the Typhoid Mary of today's US. He pollutes, infects. Russia has called his bluff. It is breaking off contact with Europe's NATO members, and believe us when we say that if things continue to go from bad to worse with Herr Bush, Europe is going to spend a cold winter, dependent as it is on Russia's gas and oil. As for Herr Bush, among other things his country will rue the day over, is beginning a new Cold War. This time the Iron Curtin has fallen as a result of Herr Bush's stupidity. His forward policy in the Caucusus by feeding the sugar plum visions of Mikheil Saakashavili, is dangerous, and a not so subtle challenge to Russia. Gorbachev even told him so! But Herr Bush has a mind of granite, so nothing enters it. Russia is playing with a strong hand, Herr Bush is not. Russia is as powerfully armed as the US. It can act faster than Herr Bush's slow brain so it has the edge. It would be an insult to Richard Wagner, but let us say this, Herr Bush is playing with fire that could set ablaze his Valhalla.

The ballooning America debt, the flatering American wars

America can no longer live beyond its means. A very commonplace observation for the one eyed man who is king in a land of Herr Bush's blind. The numbers are there as the financial and mortgage sectors fail, and unemployment rises, and the US rate or taxpayer is gauged in a slimming pay packet so that the big guys, the rich, the coupon clippers, & their thieving coterie live high on the hog. The bill is past due, and if McCain is elected president, the US will have more of the same and a hyped up warfare, corporate state in the mould of Mussolini's Italy; if the US gets Obama, well, there may be some meliorated but nothing which will attack the evils plaguing a dying US way of life unless he gets serious and deals with problems as though we are in a depression which is what the US is experiencing at present. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are turning away from the elusive victory of an diddling Herr Bush. In the end, Washington and its venal pols will break their teeth on reality and of course only the people not the fat cats will suffer.

Downfall of America's financial houses

News out of Wall Street is not good at all. As 18Brumaire thought, Lehman Brothers is on the same slippery slope that led to Bear Stearns downfall. More, it looks as though Merrill Lynch may not be far behind.

The New York Times two front page articles on Georgia; two different sets of info

The 18 August 2008 New York Times has two articles on the crisis in the republic of Georgia. One by a trioka made up of Cooper, Chivers, & Levy; the other by an old friend of our Michael R. Gordon. If you read Cooper et al. 'How a squabble became a showdown', the reader would know that weeks before Saakashivili's troops went in to South Ossetia with guns blazing, Herr Bush had furnished not only military advisers and materiel, which are not necessarily a causus belli in themselves, but had helped put on Georgian soil Stinger missiles pointed northward, and capable of hitting targets in Russia. Additionally, Mr. Putin in his last days of his presidency had bluntly told Herr Bush that extending NATO membership to Georgia is a redline which Moscow would tolerate. Herr Bush ignored Putin's warning [which makes us recall the insouciance Herr Bush & co paid light attention to warnings of a terrorist plot on US soil before 11 September 2001, if anyone hasn't forgot. Herr Bush doesn't seem receptive to in your face alerts!]. And if anything, stinger missiles set Russia's teeth on edge, and Tiblisi foolhardy incursion into South Ossetia brought about a burning defeat for Saakashivili no matter how you look at it, and death and destruction not to speak of hardships and shame to Georgia and its people. Reading the infamous Michael R. Gordon, known for his cheer leading the US into war in Iraq and acting as a conduit for Cheney & crew and the intelligence community and the defence department, the eye will find that Russia to the belligerent party, installing after the rollback of Georgia's troops, SS-21 short range missiles in South Ossetia. A warning to Tiblisi to act within reason and remain in its own backyard. Gordon's cold warrior adrenalin is flowing again, and the old anti Soviet reflexes have not aged for him. A cool eye will see Gordon's interpretation for what it is, a call for Georgia to perserve against Moscow, which will bring further suffering to Tibilsi but not to comfortable Gordon who leads a rich, cushy life working for the New York Times and wittingly for the darker side of Herr Bush's fantasies.

US Tweedle dee & Tweedle dum in Georgia

Herr Bush's administration is guided by hawks and born again moderates. On one side the vice president Dick Cheney & gang of thugs and on the other a more hard nosed but realistic Condoleeza Rice. We can see the tug of war between the two in today's Georgia. President Saakashivile took the bold and some would say provocative and dangerous step of sending troops into the breakaway province of South Ossetia. His move brought him defeat and Russian troops not only on his doorstep but into the heart of Georgia itself. It is an open secret that Herr Bush has encouraged Saakashivili to taunt the Russian bear by sending in US military advisers and material, and sending up a red flag by expressing a desire for membership in NATO. Although there has been a running dog and cat fight between Moscow and Tiblisi for years, a status quo obtained nonetheless. Saakashivili upset the applecart with the results we know today. Condi Rice sternly warned Medvedev and Putin that Washington will not standby as she sees a replay of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. She's using the wrong example. It's more a replay of Hungary in 1956. Then president Eisenhower & his cold warriors hurrahed and egged on the 'freedom fighters' as they were called, but he did sat on the sidelines and let the Russian troops crush the uprising. Now, Herr Bush is doing the same or almost. No US troops will intervene; sanctions against Russia will be applied for sure; Gates, the US war secretary announced, no troops will be sent to Georgia, only humanitarian and military aid. And as a result we see another wall of Washington's forward policy collapse. Russian has reasserted its historical rights in the Caucasus and by the stupidity of Saakashivili and his American manipulators a la neocons. Georgia is paying a huge price for its 'war'. Saakashivili says Sarkozy's agreement with Moscow to end hostilities and with Russian troops from Georgia is his Munich. A false analogy and once again shows the naivete and wet behind the ears bluster of his. Now, Rice to snatch a modicum of 'victory' from this bad Russian drubbing is flying to Tiblisi to read Saakashivili the riot act; to twist his arm sharply; and to have him sign the Sarkozy agreement thereby ending the war. Has he learnt his lesson? That depends on how you read this sorry story.

Montana's Bob Kelleher roars

The mess Herr Bush is leaving behind him as his blighted sun sets, has Montana's conservative, Republican nominee for the US Senate, roaring strong about changing the US system of government to a British model with a prime minister, tighter party discipline, shorter elections, and less dependence on big money. In fact, he's in favour of nationalising US oil giants! Now, ain't that a kick in the head? Mr. Kelleher would withdraw troops from Iraq, stop the hemorraghing of public monies to float bloated private contractors, and wisely use the billions, nay trillions spent on a dumb war in Iraq, to improve Americans' health, standard of living, among other benefits. Let's face it, even conservative can have good, sensible ideas! Two cheers for Kelleher!

The reborn US$

No thanks to anal hair stylist supremo & US secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson, nor to Ben Bernanke at the Fed nor his predecessor toilet bowl cleaner Alan Greenspan, that the US$ is gaining in strength, and consequently, forcing down the exaggerated price of a barrel of oil and gold and copper and other commodities. The general world economic malaise has weakened the yen and the euro, and so the US$ is the market for the big money to bet on, with a growing strength which may right many an economic wrong? As Herr Bush sets sail to the sunset, he has left a horrible mess. He if anyone has helped break the back of globalisation!

The fall of the house of UBS

UBS the Swiss investment house is crumbling. It is losing its very rich clients who once benefited by the bank's scheme to cheat the US treasury. More than that, it is heavy into subprime mortgages and has agreed to buy back auction certificates to the tune of double digit millions which it misrepresented to its buyers when UBS was hawking them on the market. Its senior management is in disgrace, and should they put a foot on US soil, they will be arrested. UBS won't go belly up, but it will throw out of work thousands, downsize, restructure, and suffer for a time a servere loss of prestige.

Israel fears Pinocchio & Harry Potter in Arabic

How timorous is Israel before the printed word in Arabic. Does it shudder and have cold sweats? The Zionist state, a paragon of military machismo, trembles like a maiden going to her marriage bed that it's banned Pinocchio and the ever popular Harry Potter in Arabic in Israel and occupied Palestine. Why? Suddenly an old law on the books is dusted off. The books are printed in Lebanon an enemy state according this hoary piece of law that the British occupier of Palestine enacted. Really. Try as it might, 18Brumaire is convinced that already right under the Israeli censor's nose Samisdat copies of these works are always passing from hand to hand. What is Israel afriad of? Of itself!

JPMorgan takes a subprime hit

Well, well, well...JPMorgan has awoken to a subprime headache. US1,3 billion dollar headache in fact. Small potatoes, some say. Just wait, 18Brumaire replies. This is just the tip of the iceberg. All JPMorgan's subprime chickens have come home to roost. Wait for the collapse of the looney tune alt-A mortgage in California that JPMorgan is trying to sweep under the carpet. Rumour has it, Jaime Dimon's outfit is in the subprime market debt to us$300bn. Now, that ain't hay!

Mikhiel Saakashvili eats dirt

Badly advised and encouraged by Herr Bush, the president of Georgia made a military grab for the renegade province of South Ossetia. He didn't count on Russia swift action and a war on his own ground. Well, US advisors and military equipment and hopes of extending NATO membership into the Caucasus have rung the knell of Mr. Saakashivli's hopes and dreams and his own political career. Washington won't commit troops to back up its words, so in the end, Mr. Saakashivili will break his teeth on reality. His people are the losers. Washington will offer him a comfortable exile.

US refuses delisting North Korea

Once again Herr Bush has gone back on his promise to delist Pyongyang from list of terrorist nations. Like the Bourbons, Herr Bush knows nothing and has learnt nothing from his battle of wits with North Korea. Herr Bush nourish a delusion that Kim Jong il will have to bend to his will, like it or not. If Herr Bush had a tenth of a mind, he would know that Pyongyang moves on the principle of simultanety. Washington and Pyongyang advance together step by step. Herr Bush has reversed this policy which worked well when Clinton was in the Oval Office, and as such, made North Korea the 8 member of the world's nuclear club. Herr Bush has 6 months left in office so he doesn't give a rat's arse as to how things turn out. It is but another instance of his taking bluster for meaningful action. His 'good deeds' are the stuff that grease the wheels of the cart on the road to hell. In the end, Herr Bush will fall on the sword of his own small mind and another will have to pick up the pieces and come to the obvious conclusion that delisting North Korea is worth the price of regional stability, resolving the nuclear issues, and ending the long Korea war.

A brass band welcome for Andrew Cuomo

18Brumaire admire the attorney general of New York State. He's got the big greedy investment banks on the run, those old meanies who sliced and diced mortgage securities and made high profits before the Ponzi scheme melted down in August 2007. He took say UBS, Citibank, and Merrill Lynch to court threatening them with the full source of the law. They caved in, with the results that all three banks not only will pay fines but buy back in the billions auctions bills, thereby bringing relief to unsuspecting customers. New York State can expect bigger and better things from the young Mr. Cuomo.

Death in Beijing

Events are overshadowing the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing. A 'crazed' Chinese man plunged a fatal knife into an American tourist and wounded his female companion, and then to tart it all off, threw himself to his death from a Beijing tower. Viewers world over oohed and aahed at the mise en scene that Zhang Yimou orchestrated for the big display of fireworks and Chinese history. Yes, China has arrived in the same proud, over the top way, Herr Hitler had staged the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Somethings never change, only the costumes.

Oil & the us$ & the happy stock markets

18Brumaire are not the only ones to beat pots and pans when it comes to stating the obvious connexion between the price of a barrel of crude oil and the strength of the American dollar. Yesterday the New York Stock Exchange had a fit of hysteria as the market climbed over 300 points. Why? The strengthening of the Yankee dollar and the fall in the price of oil to us$116. Where has anal hair sylist supremo & US secretary of the Treasury been all the while as he let the dollar sink in a time when the US economy not to mention the global economy is out of whack? Recession is forcing his hand, and not only that, it has thrown a large spanner in the march of globalisation which is now breaking its teeth on newer realities and the pitfalls of exuberant free trade.

The emptiness of the New York Times

The grey old lady of US journalism the fame ily owned 'New York Times' is raising its daily price to us$ 1,50. It ain't worth it. The daily edition is anorexically thin...and the news is stale or fluff on topics foreign or domestic. Advertising revenue is down, and so is readership, and little wonder, the NYT has grown long in the tooth. Occasionally, a good piece catches the eye, and the news which makes Herr Bush furious is buried inside or not at all. The financial pages are vanilla and chocolate pudding. The arts pages are dull. The Sunday edition now selling at the price of us$4,00 in New York, is vacuous and can be read in 10 minutes on a good day. The book review section is ho hum, and the Sunday magazine is boring to a high degree. La famille Salzburger has lost its compass, and is in lockstep with other newspapers of note in the US, be it the Murdoch Wall Street Journal, the Zell Chicago Tribune, or the Los Angeles Times, and subject to the whimsy of bean counters who are twists when it comes to journalism and what makes news. So the NYT will decline since it has lost the confidence of the reading public...or those who can read still.

Herr Bush's speech on China

Every then and now, Herr Bush surprises us. His speech in Thailand taking Beijing to task for not respecting human rights makes one sit up. It is a far cry from his standard, awful, dreadful stump speech that he made in Seoul waving an arthritic finger at North Korea, which when the dust settles is more more bluster than bite. Herr Bush's China speech is more subtle, more attune to Asian sensibilities about face, yet it says what it has to say with a firmness that startles. [Bush's speech writers hit pay dirt here!] Although China occupies Herr Bush's thoughts, his thrust is wider and aimed at the countries in southeast and east Asia. Herr Bush speaks of universal values and with one fell swoop, he lops off the roots of Asian exceptionalism which Singapore's minister mentor and grand pooh bah Lee Kwang Yew has been peddling like snake oil for years now. Herr Bush has put the matter squarely before the peoples of Asia, and speaks the words other have only voiced at their own peril. Herr Bush has put the capitals of southeast and east Asia on notice, and despite efforts of say Beijing to jam internet access or clamp down on the media, his words are like the old German song from the 30 years war: 'die Gedanken sind frei'...thoughts are free, no hunter can shot them, no prison walls can hold them. And so, surprise, although he didn't boycott the Summer Olympic games in Beijing, he rang a knell on authoritarian governments from Djakarta to Beijing, Yangoon to Pyongyang.

Herr Bush thumbs his nose at Gitmo jury

Herr Bush acts like the spoilt rich kid that he is. At long last, he got a guilty verdict out of a military tribunal with questionable legal authority. Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's driver, got 5 years and 5 months for aiding and abetting terrorism. The chair of the tribunal pointed an accusing finger at Hamden for not walking away from bin Laden, as if Hamden had a choice. Well the first American sponsored war tribunal gave birth to a mouse of a judgment for something which isn't recognised as a 'true' crime. Anyhow, the mild sentence which means that Hamden who has already been held behind bars for 5 years, will walk away a free man in 5 months. This however doesn't sit well with Herr Bush & co. They don't care what the military tribunal says, Herr Bush will keep him until the end of time as a unlawful combatant. The real criminal turns out to be Herr Bush for obstruction of justice and thumbing his nose at the law and making a mockery of Madame Justice.

A coup in Mauretania

Maurice Janowitz who wrote the classic on the military in Africa almost a half century ago would smile at the army's coup in Mauretania. The civil president dismissed his top generals. The generals demurred and then threw the president out of office.

Herr Bush in Asia

Herr Bush is making his final farewell to Asia. It is quickly apparent that he won't accomplish much. The much awaited breakthrough with North Korea will wait for another day, and for the new president to sort out. In the meanwhile, cheerful Herr Bush whipped up the stale butter of axis of evil as it pertains to Pyongyang. A show of pique and of poor diplomacy. He hugged his Seoul mate president Lee Myung bak who is engaged in trench warfare with North Korea, and daily faces his own citizens protests about his decision to allow the re entry of US beef into Korea, which has thrown off his programme to privatise everything he can in South Korea. He is in a way at home a victim of his stupidity. Herr Bush will sing the praises of free trade in southeast Asia in a world climate which is putting globalisation on the defensive. He chastised the Myunmar military junta but made sure his pal Chevron who exploring for oil and gas in the country formerly known as Burma would escape millions of dollars in fines for dealing with a vile regime. So much for Herr Bush's concern for human rights in that country! And then he will go to Beijing for the Summer Olympics and pay his respects to the great Chinese people. Translation: he's kow towing to Washingotn's big debt holder who says Herr Bush jump, and by golly, Herr Bush jumps. Which doesn't say much for this popinjay who talks to God and has the world on a string!

Toilet bowl cleaner Alan Greenspan's psycho babble on the US economic ills

Toilet bowl cleaner & former US Fed chief Alan Greenspan thinks it makes for bad economics to 'call to contain competitive markets'. Well he shouldn't know since the subprime meltdown and lax regulation of the markets and current economic woes can be laid at his doorstep. Here's the kernel of wisdom of this radical free marketeer: "market capitalism is being pilloried but the cause of our despair is humanity's propensity to sway from fear to euphoria and back". Now aint that a kick in the head? Tell that to the foreclosed home owner or a pensioner on a limited income and hard working people who are finding it hard to make ends meet. This man belongs in gaol for his economic bumbling or in a padded cell for his looney tunes wisdom.

Those hungry ghosts are at it again

China has had another earthquake in the same area of the one that killed thousands, including many children, and left thousands more homeless a few months ago. Now in the 7 lunar months, when hungry ghosts roam among the living, it is experiencing another quake. Not only that its Turkmen minority is hitting back at its repressive policies and parents of the children who perished during the first earthquake won't be silenced. More trouble ahead at the very moment China is trying to smile and make nice during the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Nice try Charlie!

Summer Olympics in Beijing and the Hungry Ghost month

The Hungry Ghost month has begun. Over in Beijing, an avalanche of weddings are taking place on 8 August because of the auspicious date 08/08/08. Chinese place great store in the numeral 8. Traditionalist may and do say that nobody in his right mind gets married in this month. Yet Chinese are willing to buck superstitions and older verities. Mao's campaign against religion seems to have had its desired effect. Today's modern, young Chinese don't buy into this hungry ghosts stuff. Nonetheless, given the spate of natural and man made disasters and the growing political unrest, peaceful and not so peaceful, across all of China, many might think that Beijing has grown too big for its britches, and is tempting fate. Already today after the beginning of the Hungary Ghost month, the East Turkmen Liberation Front has carried out a successful attack against border police in Kashgar. And for the Olympics, Beijing has become an armed camp. And then there's the repression against Tibetans and the spoilation of Tibet by the Han. And so it goes. The sponsoring of the Olympic games during the Hungry Ghost month is not bringing Beijing much luck!

Tub boat admiral McCain on race and education

Tub boat admiral McCain is toot tooting his tub boat in his bathtub. He has enhanced his rival for the US presidency Barak Obama's image more than he can imagine. Now, he says, Obama is playing the race card; it's the pot calling the kettle black [pun intended!]. McCain and his handlers have put race on the front burner from the start, fearing rightly running on the abominable record Herr Bush is leaving, he will lose the race to the Oval office. And now before the Urban League, he's accusing Obama of not only being an elitist but out of step with blacks because Obama's two daughters are going to private school. Translation, blacks have no reason to go to elite private schools to which McCain has sent his own white children, because blacks belong in failing public schools. Now who's being elitist and racist? McCain is a man of privilege, and he threw away his first wife, to bed and wed a rich lady who owns an Anheuser Busch bottling franchise which ImBev is going to pay big bucks for when they buy that company. The supine press fails to mention how nasty McCain's campaign is from the word go; he's a darling of the press. Why? That's the question. And let's face it the ruling classes simply don't want a black as president; as valets and waiters at the White House or the halls of Congress, yes, but a black man with a fine education, ideas, and a vision which is broader and more inclusive that US Corp which rules the country and buys feckless members of the government, never! Well wake up and smell the wind of change McCain & co. They've, and that's why they slinging mud early and running scared like a pack of rabbits before the hounds of change.

New York Governor David Patterson says it all at the National Press Club in Washington

New York state governor David Patterson put it tersely speaking to the Washington Press Club. The US is in a depression! And ain't that the truth! Let see what Herr Bush's flunkeys will say to disprove that! Not much, since they're incapable of anything but bilking the country for the very rich and powerful.

Caught like a married woman in bed with another man, Pakistan cries foul!

Pakistan is fuming. It is denying an open secret that its state within a state, its spook agency, the infamous InterServices Intelligence [ISI] has been caught like a married woman in bed with another man. It is raging fast and furious at the stories in the online version of the 'New York Times' about the ISI's connexion with and influence over the Taliban and al Qaeda fighting in Afghanistan but enjoying the comfort and sanctuary in Pakistan's northern, lawless frontier provinces of Waziristan. As 18Brumaire remarked, ISI has been mixing into the internal affairs of Afghanistan for a long time; it is in Islamabad's interest to maintain a predominant grip on Afghanistan which it considers its fief and vassal. ISI is a rogue organisation; the central government has really no control over it, and dumb Washington shares information with it which elements within ISI share with the Taliban and al Qaeda. Herr Bush & co have turned a blind eye on such hanky panky, but now it cannot. And so it is demanding explanations and actions to rein in the ISI. How can Islamabad do that? What makes the problem even more serious is that Pakistan with ISI's help is heating up war along the Jammu Kashmir border, encouraging rogue Islamic militants in India to take the low road of bombings to destablise India's state and central governments; Pakistan cannot never forget its humiliation 3 times at the hands of India. And so, it has open 3 fronts against India and the US which is now willing to share nuclear technology [peaceful technology, that is, wink, wink, wink] with New Delhi. So here we go again, mamma mia!...urban warfare in India, war on the Kashmir Jammu line, and attacks at the India embassy in Kabul. So let's face it: Pakistan ain't the virgin it says it is, and the ISI is not as pure as freshly falling snow. The two got the tail pinned on the donkey of guilt, and boy does that smart!