Beyond the EU

An article on CSM details the EU's struggle to pass a new constitution, and the possibility of France and Germany peeling off to form their own union. It's a very interesting idea, and I think more than a small possibility. I would look for increasingly close ties between France and Germany in any case.

Going for the Gold

Henry's not the only one worrying about the state of the dollar. Even Clinton labor secretary Bob Reich is concerned about the possibility of a run on the dollar. I still suspect that the Euro may not be the best place to hide from dollar instability. If the dollar collapses, the Euro may well come with it..

Pretty Much Fucked

The Onion has once again come through as the most canny and accurate news outlet with their recent report on the state of America's poor. On the bright side there are some new employment opportunities for immigrants.

AP: Iraq to Stop Counting Civilian Dead

Yahoo News has this story.

Supreme Court Upholds Campaign Finance Law

The 298-page opinion is available here, if anyone is interested (the first 19 pages provide a summary).

Collateral Damage

Geez, we're getting good at this. But then we're learning from the best.

No Contracts For You!

The Pentagon announces that businesses in countries that didn't support the war will be shut out of contracts in Iraq. I love the quote from Paul Wolfowitz in the article: "Limiting competition for prime contracts will encourage the expansion of international co-operation in Iraq." Um, yeah, Paul, that's exactly what it will do. I'm sure the EU and NATO will be real excited to sign on with you now...

Snus to the Rescue

BBC has a story about health researchers and anti-tobacco activists lobbying the EU to lift their ban on snus. There's a step in the right direction.

Declining Global Influence

CSM has a story about how shrewd foreign policy moves by China and policy mistakes on our part have allowed China to become the dominant political force in the Far East.

GOP House Members Proposal to Replace FDR with Reagan on the dime

The AP issued this report on December 5 (as found in the San Francisco Gate). According to this story from the UPI (covered by the Washington Times on December 2), 80 Republican House members co-sponsored the bill. The text of the Ronald Reagan Dime Act (H.R. 3633) may be found here. Nancy Reagan is reportedly against the bill, according to this AP story (from San Francisco Gate). Rep. Souder (R, Ind.)--the chief sponsor of the legislation--has stated in this press release on his homepage that he maintains his support for the bill despite the former first lady's comments. According to this article on today's Chicago Tribune webpage, Rep. Souder is open to compromise, suggesting that they could put Reagan on one side and FDR on the other, or they could alternate the image each year.

Some excerpts from the bill:
President Ronald Wilson Reagan, through his efforts as the 40th President of the United States, created policies that renewed economic growth, strengthened the resolve of the free world together to oppose totalitarianism, and restored pride in the United States.

President Reagan, through his simple republican dignity and sense of personal responsibility to the United States of America, brought pride and honor to the Office of the President.

(Thanks to Joe Conason's Journal on Salon.com for raising this issue.)

A Banking Intro

Henry has been delving deeply into the world of global banking systems. He has many interesting theories on the subject, which I'm sure he'll enlighten us with once he's through with finals. He has concerns regarding fiat currencies, particularly with the overextension of the US's fiat currency, and seems to be mostly in agreement with the "Austrian school" of economics as established by Ludwig Von Mises. He assures me that although mises.org has been hijacked by intellectually inbred libertarian lunatics, there is much merit in Mises's economic theory. So in order to better equip myself for these discussions I've dug through the Asia Times archive to find a large, multi-part banking system primer written by Henry C K Liu (if he ever wrote any sections beyond 4c, I haven't been able to find them). If anyone else wants to get a head start on this topic, there ya go...

The Long, Slow Slide

News from Iraq gets uglier and uglier. I think we are at the brink of a point of no return, after which point it will be impossible to repair our relationship with the Iraqi people and we will be powerless to help their new government succeed. We'll be left with no option but to pack up and go home and hope for the best. Or we may have already stepped off that precipice and started the long slide down, it's hard to say... And if we have gone over the edge, if past history is a guide, it may take us years to realize it..

CSM has a great roundup of coverage on the newly infamous battle at Samarra. To cover some highlights:

A supposed US officer who fought in the battle wrote to an ex-military blogger:
"During the ambushes the tanks, brads and armored HUMVEES hosed down houses, buildings, and cars while using reflexive fire against the attackers. One of the precepts of "Iron Hammer" is to use an Iron Fist when dealing with the insurgents. As the division spokesman is telling the press, we are responding with overwhelming firepower and are taking the fight to the enemy. The response to these well coordinated ambushes was as a one would expect. The convoy continued to move, shooting at ANY target that appeared to be a threat. RPG fire from a house, the tank destroys the house with main gun fire and hoses the area down with 7.62 and 50cal MG fire. Rifle fire from an alley, the brads fire up the alley and fire up the surrounding buildings with 7.62mm and 25mm HE rounds. This was actually a rolling firefight through the entire town."

With typical understatement, the BBC wrote:
"The Americans were using enormously powerful weapons, including 50 mm cannons mounted on Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and 120 mm tank rounds from the Abrams. Used in a densely populated urban area, built with flimsy mud-bricks, it is almost inconceivable that people well out of sight of the gunners were not also injured in the battle. "

The US military take:
"We have been very aggressive in our convoy operations to ensure the maximum force protection is with each convoy, but it does send a clear message that if you attempt to attack one of our convoys, we're going to use our firepower to stop that attack."

Response of a Samarran emergency room worker:
"All the people in town today are asking for revenge. They want to kill the Americans like they killed our civilians. Give me a gun, and I will also fight."

Conclusion of our anonymous US combatant:
"Since we did not stick around to find out, I am very concerned in the coming days we will find we killed many civilians as well as Iraqi irregular fighters. I would feel great if all the people we killed were all enemy guerrillas, but I can't say that. We are probably turning many Iraqi against us and I am afraid instead of climbing out of the hole, we are digging ourselves in deeper."

< nelson > Ha Ha! < /nelson >

For an amusing diversion, go to google and run a search on "miserable failure".... :)

Ask the White House a science question

Dr. John H. Marburger, President Bush's Science Advisor, will be answering questions on the White House's webpage today at 3:30pm ET. You can submit a question here.

Cyber-Security

The Washington Post has this article on the failure of the Bush administration to fund its own National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace , which the administration released over a year ago. I have not yet had an opportunity to read the document (indeed, the article was the first time I had heard about it) but I expect it will be an interesting read.

Worms For You

BBC has a curious science article suggesting we may all be better off with a few hookworms in our guts. These guys leave no stone unturned..

The Anti-Rove

Christopher Lydon, a Harvard Law fellow, has a great interview with Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi on mp3. It's a very fun listen. I think this guy has what it takes to go toe-to-toe with Karl Rove. The secret? His habit of "dipping Skoal snuff and drinking Diet Pepsi non-stop". As I've said before, I'm voting for this guy and the campaign he's put together as much as I am for Dean. If you do nothing else intellectual-like for the next month, listen to this interview. We ought to send him a Boys' Weekend invite, he would fit right in.

Experiment In Community Building

Also covered on CSM today a story about an experiment on how to rebuild decaying communities. There are some very simple ideas here that appear to effectively promote active civic participation. I think sometimes the answers can be simpler than we imagine. A little leadership to open the lines of communication can go a long ways.

An End to Progressive Taxes

CSM is running an insightful story on how Bush's tax cuts are moving US policy towards a flat tax. I knew that the cuts were top-heavy, but I hadn't realized how far they went. If the Democratic candidates can't figure out how to make this play with the electorate they deserve what comes to them. They normally get scrared off by accusations of "class warfare". At some point they have to realize that, yes, it is class warfare, and they, along with 90% of the US population, are getting their asses kicked.

At Least We Impress Ourselves

I love the headline on this one. I guess Europe is not as familiar with the Bush Legislative Strategy, as highlighted by Dave, of taking a useless symbolic action then launching an expensive media blitz to promote it. They'll get used to it.