Remind me, who won the Cold War?

"The New American Century" that according to the neocons was supposed to follow the dissolution of the Soviet Union, leaving us in a unipolar world with the U.S. as the solitary "super power" seems to have ended prematurely - about 90 years early. I have to wonder what Ronald Reagan would think.

Somehow, I don't think he would be very happy with George Bush.

After the former Soviet state of Georgia, a strong American ally, made the mistake of poking the Russian bear, Russia has responded with asymmetrical violence. This flexing of the Russian muscle reflects both the growing totalitarian state of Russia and their exploding economic/military wealth, largely due to the increasing value of their plentiful petroleum resources in a world that constantly craves that drug.

What can the U.S. do to stop Russia from overrunning Georgia and preventing her from re-absorbing the sovereign democratic state of Georgia?

Nothing. Nothing at all.

Thanks to George Bush.

The Bush administration's illegal aggression against the sovereign state of Iraq has set a new, negligible, international standard for invasion and occupation.

The United States has absolutely no moral platform for condemning Russia's invasion or thousands of deaths of innocent Georgian civilians.

And, most pathetically, we do not have the military strength to offer any resistance to to the Russian aggression.

Why? Because we have spent all of our military strength fighting a phony "war on terror".

It seems very clear that Russia will do whatever it wants, and the United States will be powerless, either militarily or politically, to even stand up a token resistance. Thanks to the neocons - *** Cheney and their stooge George Bush.

Oh, and by the way, China will overtake the U.S. next year as the largest manufacturer of goods.

Pathetic.

Ol’ billionaire Phil Gramm, the economic brain behind John McCain’s presidential bid, thinks that the economy is just damn fine, and if you are feeling pinched then it’s all in your damn head.

You know, if you gasp when the pump clicks off to see that it has cost you 50, 60 or 70 dollars to fill up your tank, or that a loaf of bread that was $1.50 last winter is now $3.50, then you are a whiner.

Apparently, if you made enough damn money, you would just take these things in stride and quit your damn whining, according to Phil. I mean what is your damn problem?

Gramm, who has extensive ties to Enron, served as a lobbyist for the international banking and subprime mortgage giant UBS until April. Gramm played a key role in the subprime meltdown during his time in the Senate.

Apparently, what you are experiencing is a “mental recession”, which is something like depression, but not anywhere near as severe.

From the Baltimore Chronicle, referring to Gram’s complicity in Enron’s rape of the state of California by manipulating electricity prices in 2001. “Clearing the way for that California price gouging, Gramm, as a powerful Texas senator in 2000, slipped an Enron-backed provision into the Commodities Futures Modernization Act that exempted from regulation energy trading on electronic platforms.

Then, over the next year, Enron – with Gramm’s wife Wendy serving on its board of directors – worked to create false electricity shortages in California, bilking consumers out of an estimated $40 billion.”

This is the legislation that has allowed energy companies to invest in “futures” in their own stock prices – essentially betting that they will raise their prices. Heads they win, tails you lose.

McCain, who has famously said that he doesn't know much about economics, will be relying on Gramm and the same folks who got us into the current state of affairs.

Lord help us.

Sorry to whine.

It’s the Fourth of July! Hooray! We’ve won the War on Iraq! Big Oil is moving in to pump more oil our way. Mission Accomplished! Light up those fireworks!

So maybe things are not going so well in Afghanistan, with violence up, the Taliban running the country outside of Kabul, and even the neocons afraid of accidentally toppling Musharraf by venturing into Pakistan to get Bin Laden.

Get ready for this Summer’s blockbuster! The War on Iran is showing trailers on TV screens nationwide. You’ve seen it! Now buy it!

(Why wouldn’t we attack Iran? What, do we have to wait for the Israelis to do it?)

OK, this time it's REALLY not about oil (they don't have any.) This is about… saving you from nuclear attack!

They hate us because we’re free!

Oh hell, believe whatever you want, but we ARE going to fight. In fact, it's already happening.

All of you big-time supporters of the War on Iraq, please prepare your eligible sons and daughters to attempt what a million Iraqis and Saddam’s WMDs couldn’t do.

And this is going to hurt a bit, but in the spirit of making the world safe for democracy, get ready for a little bit more expensive gasoline.

But do NOT worry about increases in your taxes! We’ll pay for this war the same way we’re paying for the other ones. Saudi Arabia has agreed to loan us the cash at a very reasonable rate.

Providing you vote Republican.

With a fire sale frenzy, the Big Oil Boys are falling all over themselves to mop up what’s left of your cash and secure their place in your wallet and your national parks before the Bush/Cheney store closes down.

John McCain is trying his best to assure them that the U.S. government will stay open for business if they help him make the down payment on the White House.

Bush and Cheney, BOBs themselves, have of course given their Oily Buddies everything they possibly could; even letting them write our guaranteed oil dependency into our national energy policy.

Not satisfied that the laws written to allow Enron to speculate that Enron would raise energy prices, which has led to the current situation where oil companies can bid up prices for their own products on the commodities market in a never-ending cycle of increasing profits, the Oil Boys now want to grab every square inch of drillable land in both the U.S. and colonial Iraq, while they can still write their own deals.

Ironically, their overall strategy to break the will of the American people is to screw the hell out of them at the neighborhood gas pump. Eye-popping, budget-busting gas prices are supposed to convince you and me that whatever the Oil Boys want, the Oil Boys should get, everything else be damned.

That war in Iraq that was never about oil? Well, it is now Bunky. Even if the Iraqis can’t agree on how to split up their share, the Big Oil Boys have already colluded to decide who gets to “assist” the Iraqis in which oil fields. As long as it’s even, boys.

And who’s right there next to Bush shilling for Big Oil? Why it’s that environmental maverick, John McCain!

With his flip on offshore drilling and his “gas tax holiday” proposal, McCain is letting the Boys know that he will be happy to continue business as usual if he’s running the store.

"Boys. Just imagine what a war in Iran would do for your bottom line..." 

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell (and McClellan) Lied Us into Attacking Iraq
Former Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan, a life-long Bush sycophant, confesses in his new book that he helped hustle us into an unnecessary invasion of Iraq. (Thanks for finding your backbone now that it doesn’t matter, Scott. Fortunately for you, it’s never too late to be called a traitor.)

Expensive Gasoline Discourages Unnecessary Driving
Compared with March a year ago, Americans drove an estimated 4.3 percent less – that's 11 billion fewer miles. The Federal Highway Administration called it "the sharpest yearly drop for any month… since 1942".  (Raise the gas tax now - based on vehicle weight or volume purchased.)

Global Warming is Not a Figment of Al Gore’s Imagination
Under a court order and four years late, the White House produced its report of specific threats to the United States from man-made global warming, including increased heat deaths and deaths from climate-worsened smog, worsening water shortages for agriculture and urban users, more death and damage from wildfires, hurricanes and other natural disasters caused by extreme weather. "Many of the expected health effects are likely to fall disproportionately on the poor, the elderly, the disabled and the uninsured." (Good news for Bush. Hell will be cooler than Texas.)

McCain = Bush
According to a Congressional Quarterly analysis of Senate votes on issues President Bush expressed “an explicit, stated opinion,” Sen. John McCain voted with President Bush 100 percent of the time in 2008 and 95 percent of the time in 2007. (Maverick my ass.)