The Binary Executive

Excerpt: "For Love of Politics: Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years"

What would a Hillary Clinton Presidency look like? And, given that Bill would be back in the White House and in a very important sense, back in the game, what role would he take and how might it affect the role of Hillary's Vice President? Hill and Bill are political sidekicks, united by mutual admiration and ambition. They are each other's chief political guru. I really don't imagine Bill sitting back and keeping his mouth shut on policy issues. Hillary will consult him, and in a sense they will be co-presidents. This will be a first in our nation's history. So much for Bush's Unitary Executive. If Hillary wins the White House you can call it the Binary Executive.

Life Without Oil - A Bleak Picture

James Howard Kunstler: Remarks to the Commonwealth Club of California (transcript) | Global Public Media

Those who have not read James Howard Kunstler's book The Long Emergency or similar works may not be privy to the real sense of alarm around oil depletion and its implications for every facet of our lives. Americans, he contends, are "sleepwalking into an era of unprecedented hardship and disorder."

The coming age of energy scarcity will change everything about how we live in this country. It will ignite more desperate contests between nations for the remaining oil and natural gas around the world. It will alter the fundamental terms of industrial economies. It will ramify and amplify many of the problems presented by climate change. It will require us to behave differently. But we are not paying attention.

Read this text of a recent address by Kunstler to the Commonwealth Club of California, then start thinking about how you will adapt your life when the energy crunch hits.

The Worst Case Keeps Getting Worse

Antarctic Melting May be Speeding Up - CommonDreams.org - Breaking news and views from the progressive community.


The worst case scenario for global climate change keeps getting worse. As I write, the entire continent of Antarctica is changing. The Larson B ice shelf has already broken off and dropped into the sea. Scientists are now saying sea level rise may be meters higher than previously thought, which is going to cause major problems for millions of people around the world.

About 100 million people around the world live within a meter of the present-day sea level, CSIRO Marine Research senior principal research scientist Steve Rintoul said. “Those 100 million people will need to go somewhere,” he said.

Worse, every meter of sea level rise causes an inland recession of around 100 meters (300 feet) and more erosion occurs with every storm.

“You can’t just say we’ll just put sea walls,” Hunter said.

He Who Doth Protest Too Much

US Developing Contingency Plan to Bomb Iran: Report

US officials maintain they are not planning to attack Iran.

The plans, however, just keep coming.

Seymour Hersh reports in the New Yorker:

According to current and former American intelligence and military officials, secret operations in Lebanon have been accompanied by clandestine operations targeting Iran. American military and special-operations teams have escalated their activities in Iran to gather intelligence and, according to a Pentagon consultant on terrorism and the former senior intelligence official, have also crossed the border in pursuit of Iranian operatives from Iraq.

So, when they say they are not planning to attack Iran, we need to call their bluff.

Won't Be Fooled Again

Lebanon Will Be First Victim of Iran Crisis

Apparently a quagmire in one country isn't enough to stop Bush/Cheney/Rice et al. from SERIOUSLY considering an attack on another.

"Seriously considering" is probably a charitable assessment.

Iran, I fear, is next. All reasonable voices can and will be ignored.

The new carrier strike groups are in position in the Persian Gulf. More troops are headed to the region. The rhetoric is heating up. Deadlines are being set. Ultimatums will soon follow. Perhaps some motions at the UN....then.....airstrikes, perhaps.....But there will be no debate. Bush has already shown the world how much he cares about such trifles as "authorization" or "support" to say nothing of that rag we call the Constitution. You can forget about International Law. Forget about truth, justice, sanity.

Let's be blunt:

THESE PEOPLE - BUSH, RICE, CHENEY- ARE CHAMPING AT THE BIT.

WE MUST DO EVERYTHING WE CAN TO STOP THIS INSANITY.

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES. CALL EACH OTHER. PLAN ACTIONS.

WE CAN STOP THIS. WE MUST NOT WAIT UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE.


PS - I never capitalize my posts

Whatever thou shalt Bind on Earth....

All talk but little action by Congress on the war / Motion may set the stage for real constraints

If George W. Bush gave a hoot about what other people think the troops would have come home a long time ago. There may not have been an Iraq war at all.

So what if Congress disapproves of the President's "surge," he's going to do it anyway. The only significant power they have right now is power of the purse. Cut the damn money, people. I didn't vote so ya'll can debate non-binding resolutions. You can stop this war.

By the way, there's another one in store for Iran, so get moving!

Italy indicts CIA agents in cleric's kidnapping - Los Angeles Times

Italy indicts CIA agents in cleric's kidnapping - Los Angeles Times

If the US Government thinks it can scoop foreign nationals off the streets of their own countries with impunity, these indictments might just put a damper on US vigilantism. Or, perhaps more realistically, the US government will continue to do whatever it wants, wherever it wants, despite what anyone anywhere says or does about it.