Friday, May 04, 2007

Quickies

Iranians say that the U.S. occupation is fanning the flames of the sectarian violence. Not original, of course, but you'll not hear Bush admit the same. Meanwhile Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, and Robert Byrd call for a bill to revoke the authorization for the war. Dennis Kucinich snickers and says "Welcome aboard, finally."

The U.S. Army believes the media is a threat, now. Early on in the occupancy, the military was happily "embedding" the media within it's ranks. Now, it's afraid - again. This is very Vietnam flashback stuff.

Perhaps the military is right. A senior commentator from Ha'aretz says that the U.S. must get out of Iraq and that the only way to make it palatable is to work with Syria and Iran.

The U.S. suggests a Palestinian - Israeli cease fire (disingenuously promoted as a "peace plan"). Israel says no way to the time lines. Hardly surprising. Cynical of me, but what better way to support Olmert than to show him resisting pressure from the U.S. for a cease fire?

A fantastic 25 page long PDF (you've been warned) on the limits and feasibility of economic globalization. Snippet from the intro:
We want economic integration to help boost living standards. We want democratic
politics so that public policy decisions are made by those that are directly affected by them (or their representatives). And we want self-determination, which comes with the nation-state. This paper argues that we cannot have all three things simultaneously. The political trilemma of the global economy is that the nation-state system, democratic politics, and full economic integration are mutually incompatible. We can have at most two out of the three. It follows that the direction in which we seem to be headed—global markets without global governance—is unsustainable.
Speaking of globalization, Microsoft is once again in talks about buying Yahoo.

The International Energy Agency is warning of a shortage of natural gas over the next decade.

LA's cops got brutal with protesters and reporters at the May Day march for immigration reform.

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