The Haze Filter

The Rapture Index: Lindsey Graham (R-SC): Google Ads ::

This is interesting. I ran across a link to the rapture index which is this numerical probability of all of us either being yanked up to heaven, including all of those who have been planted in the ground for eons, or being relegated to hell (something evangelicals prescribe as something other than life on Earth or life in heaven). I have known about the rapture index, currently pegged at 160, which is relatively high so hold onto your ankles, but there is a sidebar with Google ads and prominently on top is a link to Lindsey Graham's website so I'm wondering why this ad for his website is listed so prominently. It's not his U.S. Senate web site. Am I seeing a stealth candidate for 2008? I am a native South Carolinian and most of my family still lives there. I was just there last week, but I never got to ask my relatives how they feel about Graham. I tend to see him as McCain lite and I have never quite figured out just where Graham stands on many issues. I have long seen him as one of those hypocritical flip-floppers!

There is also the issue of his military service and whether that closet door will ever be opened. Snarky? Yes, but relevant!

[update] I went back to the Graham web site and saw that he is up for re-election in 2008 so I guess this is another early start. I sure hope that he has some viable opposition!

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The Iraq Invasion Has, Indeed, Always Been About The Oil ::

Common Dreams has an interesting article up by Richard Behan titled "George Bush's Land Mine".

The Iraq Accountability Act passed by the House and the companion bill passed in the Senate contain deadlines for withdrawing our troops from Iraq, in open defiance of the President’s repeated objections.

He threatens a veto, but he might well be bluffing. Buried deep in the legislation and intentionally obscured is a near-guarantee of success for the Bush Administration’s true objective of the war-capturing Iraq’s oil-and George Bush will not casually forego that.

This bizarre circumstance is the end-game of the brilliant, ever-deceitful maneuvering by the Bush Administration in conducting the entire scenario of the “global war on terror.”...

Planning for the two wars was underway almost immediately upon the Bush Administration taking office–at least six months before September 11, 2001. The wars had nothing to do with terrorism. Terrorism was initially rejected by the new Administration as unworthy of national concern and public policy, but 9/11 gave them a conveniently timed and spectacular alibi to undertake the wars. Quickly inventing a catchy “global war on terror” theme, the Administration disguised the true nature of the wars very cleverly, and with enduring success.

The “global war on terror” is bogus. The prime terrorist in Afghanistan and the architect of 9/11, Osama bin Laden, was never apprehended, and the President’s subsequent indifference is a matter of record. And Iraq harbored no terrorists at all. But both countries were invaded, both countries suffer military occupation today, both are dotted with permanent U.S. military bases protecting the hydrocarbon assets, and both have been provided with puppet governments.

he investment vehicle would be the “production sharing agreement,” a long-term contract-up to 40 years-that grants to the company a share of the oil produced; in exchange, the company underwrites the development costs and oilfield infrastructure. Such “investment” is touted by the Bush Administration and its puppets in Iraq as necessary to the country’s recovery, and a huge benefit, accordingly. But it is not unusual for these contracts to grant the companies more than half the profits for the first 15-30 years, and to deny the host country any revenue at all until the investment costs have been recovered...

The Iraqi oil industry does very much need a great deal of investment capital, to repair, replace, and upgrade its infrastructure. But it does not need Exxon/Mobil or any other foreign company to provide it. At a reduced level, Iraq is still producing oil and hence revenue, and no country in the world, perhaps, has better collateral against which to float bond issues for public investment. Privatization of any sort and in any degree is utterly unnecessary in Iraq today...

No one can say at the moment how much the hydrocarbon law will cost the Iraqi people, but it will be in the hundreds of billions. The circumstances of its passage are mired in the country’s chaos, and its final details are not yet settled. If and when it passes, however, Iraq will orchestrate the foreign capture of its own oil. The ingenious, brilliant seizure of Iraqi oil will be assured.

It will be interesting to see if Bush will follow through on his threat to veto the supplemental spending bill. My guess will be that he will rant and rave a bit for good measure, not to mention good obedient press, and he will sign the bill knowing that his ultimate design on Iraq's oil has been accomplished.

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The Saturday Cartoons ::

I missed them last week since I was on the road, but here is a taste of todays courtesy of Bob Geiger:

Feet to the fire, people: feet to the fire!

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Sack Sessions ::

Oh, what a delicious thought, and we have a new web site in Alabama dedicated to doing just that! If everything goes according to plan I will become a contributor to the site, but, if you live in Alabama and thirst for a political change, then you need to help also. Unseating Sessions will be a huge challenge and the best hope right now seems to be Ron Sparks, currently Alabama's Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries.

Let's show the country that Alabama has progressive citizens and let's do whatever it takes to unseat Sessions. My fervent wish is for a viable opponent for him in the 2008 election cycle, but we need many people to become a part of this movement. It will mean giving time, effort, and money, but we can do it!

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Bush Seems To Have Lost The Saudis ::

From Juan Cole this morning:

King Abdullah followed up on these harsh criticisms of the US by cancelling his planned appearance at a White House dinner in April. The Saudi royal family is fit to be tied that Bush gave Iraq away to fundamentalist Shiite parties that have close ties to Iran.

Although the Saudi statement is remarkable for its brutal frankness and coldness toward the United States, its real significance is its slam of the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Abdullah has not only said that the US presence is an illegal occupation, he has said that the al-Maliki government is nothing more than Shiite sectarian hegemony. The Saudis are known for their behind the scenes diplomacy and their public discretion. King Abdullah is hopping mad, to talk this way. It augurs ill for US-Saudi relations. Abdullah is also angry that Bush is letting the Palestine issue fester and that he pushed for open Palestinian elections but then cut off the Hamas government once it was elected. Abdullah thinks Bush is pursuing irrational policies, the effect of which is to destabilize the Middle East. He is so angry that he sounds a bit like Iraqi Sunni fundamentalist leader Harith al-Dhari, who is connected in some shadowy way with the Sunni guerrillas fighting the US.

I have gotten in the routine of reading Prof. Cole's thoughts each morning. I had heard yesterday that the April visit of the Saudis had been cancelled and wondered then just what was going on. I guess this answers that question!

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Incompetent U.S. Attorneys? ::

I have been watching this Bush administration debacle with much glee and wondering why, if incompetence were truly the reason these attorneys were fired, does Alice Martin still have a job?

Just asking.

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Never Again Will I Set Foot In A Circuit City Store ::

Not that it will mean much to them in anything more than a symbolic gesture on my part, but the news that they are cutting 3,500 higher paid employees in order to replace them with lower paid workers has to be one of the more crass announcements I have seen in a long, long time!

Circuit City, the nation's No. 2 consumer electronics retailer behind Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE:BBY) , the store workers being laid off were earning 'well above the market-based salary range for their role.' They will be replaced with employees who will be paid at the current market range, the company said in a news release.

'We are taking a number of aggressive actions to improve our cost and expense structure, which will better position us for improved and sustainable returns in today's marketplace,' Philip J. Schoonover, Circuit City's chief executive, said in a statement.

This will create one hell of an incentive for the employees who remain with Circuit City knowing that when they reach some level of pay they will be deemed disposable. I wonder if Circuit City has considered that cutting costs by firing higher paid employees will certainly lose them customers when the customers are served by entry level employees with little product knowledge.

American businesses continue their own dumbing-down trend with no regard for customer service or knowledge. I have worked in sales in the past and I was pretty good at it since I had some good mentors in my younger years. I cannot remember the last time I was served by a good salesman who knew how to close a sale and, in fact, I doubt if many store managers can appreciate a good closer and, by that, I mean a salesman who knows how and when to ask for the sale. It's really not hard: you just have to learn to recognize that gleam in the customer's eye when he, or she, wants to buy but just needs that final push.

I see the same thing wherever I go these days. Wal-Mart has placed a cap on what a person can earn in any position after some certain period of time. This creates absolutely no incentive for entry level employees to move up since there are so few positions available. Take a Wal-Mart super center with 1 store manager, 2 co-managers and I imagine 6 to 8 assistant managers. These are the salaried employees in a store which nominally employs around 500 people. Each department has an hourly-paid manager with a pay differential of, if it went up, around 50 cents/hour. Raises are given once/year at a review on the employees hire date and the absolute most that will be given with an exemplary review is, as I recall, 55 cents/hour. That doesn't do much to keep up with inflation, does it?

I worked at the local Wal-Mart part time for 5 years so I have some experience. I enjoyed all of the people I worked with and the extra money was nice, but this was definitely not a fast-track career path to wealth and fame. In fact, Wal-Mart is one strange company and I am continually amazed that they make money. I have long felt that their rosy economic reports are the results of cooked books, but only time will tell on that.

In the meantime I will not set foot in a Circuit City ever again. I buy a few things from Comp USA, but there is a small independent computer store near me, Gigaparts, which I have bought from for years and they have never disappointed me with either their products or their service.

Enough for this rant. Everyone please have a great and stress free evening.

Can Ron Sparks defeat Jeff Sessions? ::

I think he can if we can show enough Alabama citizens how he is more progressive for the everyday concerns of Alabamians. For me this is a beginning for my support for Ron Sparks to run against Jeff Sessions and I want to emphasize that this is nothing more than a beginning with high hopes!

There will come a time when money will become extremely important and we must dig deep in order to unseat Jeff Sessions and then move on to the seat held by Richard Shelby later.

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Unseating Jeff Sessions ::

I've long hoped for a credible opponent to this embarrassment of a senator and we may have someone in the wings-Ron Sparks, Alabama's Commissioner of Agriculture and Industry. Here are some tidbits from The Swing State Project:

Sparks is generally regarded as one of the Alabama Democratic Party's strongest stump speakers. Sparks is an authentic son of Alabama, and you can see it in his upbringing: he didn't just come from a family of mill workers, he was one himself, working alongside his grandmother in the local sock mills while in high school. During a stump speech, he easily weaves in themes of progressive populism that strike the right chords with Alabama's grassroots, reminding them why their daddies and granddaddies were Democrats--and why, even though the state hasn't voted for a Democratic Presidential nominee since 1976, Democrats have a three-point edge in partisan identification according to the latest Gallup polling...

[snip]

Another possibility would be to keep his powder dry on the national scene next year and run for Richard Shelby's Senate seat in the event of a retirement in 2010, but he could face stiff opposition from Artur Davis in the primary and possibly Gov. Bob Riley in the general. Insiders have been persuading Sparks that a run in 2008 would be a good move, and I'm inclined to agree. For one thing, even if Sparks loses, a valiant effort would raise his profile and could earn him the right to a clear path to the Democratic nomination should Shelby retire in 2010.

I will certainly be keeping my eye on this in the near future and will offer whatever support I can to whoever decides to run against Sessions!

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Some Dementia, A Stroke, And A Road Trip ::

I just got back from South Carolina a short time ago. My mother, who just earlier this month turned 88, had a stroke a couple of weeks ago so we needed to make the long trip to assess the situation. The situation is not good-not good at all. My mother has had some memory problems for quite some time and has been living in an assisted care facility for the past few months. The stroke, as strokes go in someone of that age, seems to have been relatively mild. There is some impairment of physical functions of the left side of the body, but the problem we have right now is getting her to co-operate with the physical and speech therapists. She has been in a rehabilitation hospital since last Tuesday, but she does not seem to understand that she has to work with the therapists in order to get to a point where she can return to the assisted care facility which has little capability to deal with extraordinary needs.

I live a 7 hour drive away so I can exert little influence so I'm afraid that it's left to my brother and his wife to try to handle this situation. Luckily W., my sister-in-law, works relatively close to the rehab hospital so she is able to get to the rehab hospital to help get my mother to therapy.

So far as the dementia is concerned my mother recognizes everyone, but she is extremely confused about everyday events and seems to be fixated on thoughts and events which have no basis in fact. I can't begin to describe how frustrating this is to me, and I'm sure that anyone who has dealt with Alzheimers or any form of dementia can relate to this frustration!

I'll have more to add to this thread in the coming days and weeks, but the frustration level is just overwhelming right now. Time for a good nights sleep!

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