Speaker Hastert

Federal officials say the Congressional bribery investigation now includes Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, based on information from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

Congressman Jefferson

“I have been racking my brain all day and calling people, wanting to know what could be the other side of the story for a congressman having $90,000 of cash in his freezer. And the collective wisdom of my friends have not been able to come up with anything. But if he can come up with a reason for this, I’m waiting here, man. I want to hear it, because I can’t think of it.”

– Democratic strategist James Carville

To say they all do, that both parties are culpable, misses the point. This isn’t about political parties. It’s a class thing. An elite monied class is entrenched in D.C. They make sure the money goes to them. When they leave office they get cushy positions with lobbyists, think tanks or big corporations. Despite the sometimes quite real differences between the two parties, they are united in protecting their class and interests against those of the rest of us.

However, sometimes they get so bloated and corrupt that they can’t hide it anymore. That’s what’s happening now.

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Climate scientists identified a likely new victim of global warming on Wednesday: the vast looping system of air currents that fuels Pacific trade winds and climate from South America to Indonesia.

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Al Gore’s new movie on global warming is welcome, even if he does have a long and tired history of coming on strong on issues like this then backing off when things get contentious. Dubya of course feigns distain at the whole topic. He’s like the Flat Earth Society, his mind is made up, don’t confuse him with the facts.

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On May 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin ignited a firestorm that is bound to sweep across the global economy. In his State of the Nation speech to parliament,, he announced that Russia was planning to make the ruble “internationally convertible” so that it could be used in oil and natural gas transactions. Presently, oil is denominated exclusively in dollars and sold through the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMX) or the London Petroleum Exchange (LPE) both owned by American investors. If Russia proceeds with its plan, the ruble will go nose to nose with the dollar on the open market sending several billions of surplus greenbacks back to the United States. This could potentially send the American economy into freefall; triggering a deep recession and an extended period of hyper-inflation.

Iran is planning the same type of thing, to sell oil denominated in euros. If oil stops being traded in the dollar, then the dollar itself will become much weaker.

America’s economic supremacy depends entirely on its ability to compel nations to make their energy acquisitions in greenbacks. If the flaccid dollar is not linked to the world’s most vital resource, then banks will dump it overnight.

This of course has not been reported anywhere in mainstream US media. Is the scenario plausible? Yes, denominating oil sales in euros or rubles would most certainly be bad news for the dollar.

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Hastert tells President Bush FBI raid was unconstitutional

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) told President Bush yesterday that he is concerned the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) raid on Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) congressional office over the weekend was a direct violation of the Constitution.

Lordy, when even the loony Right thinks Dubya is getting crazed…well, there’s been a sea change hasn’t there?. The wind is now blowing strongly against the neocons. However, I’m sure the Democrats will do their best to blow this opportunity with their usual craven behavior and lack of conviction.

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Six weeks after Craig Murray started his job as British ambassador to Uzbekistan in 2002, a packet of photos landed on his desk. Inside were pictures a mother had taken of her son’s mutilated corpse. The young man, a political prisoner accused of having ties to radical Islam, had been tortured, beaten and immersed in boiling water.

“And,” Murray recently told an audience at the University of Chicago, “when that guy was boiled to death, you paid to heat the water.” He was referring to the $500 million in U.S. aid given to the Uzbeks in 2002.

Q. “Murder in Samarkand” refers to an actual event, right?

A. Yes. I was having a talk over dinner with this professor and dissident in Samarkand one night, and while we were having dinner, his grandson was abducted off the street, tortured and, at about 4 o’clock in the morning, dumped on the doorstep. I was subsequently told by the Russian ambassador that it had been done by the Uzbek authorities as a message for me to stop meeting with dissidents.

Q. Do you think transporting suspects to countries where other nationals can interrogate them using torture is still going on?

A. I have no reason at all to think the policy has changed. But [the CIA is] being much more careful about touching down in Europe with prisoners onboard, because of all the fuss in Europe and the investigations going on.

His book is available on Amazon.co.uk but not yet on Amazon.com.

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