Month: October 2005

I started this as a comment to the Open Thread, but it got too long. The subject is also worthy of a discussion.  The entry could have been more comprehensive, but was prepared during lunch-break – please chime in.

From NYT:

POLITICIANS and scientists may debate why the earth is warming, but the fact remains: the Arctic ice cap, estimates say, has shrunk by nearly half in the last 50 years.
(snip)
For starters, conflicting territorial claims among the countries that border the Arctic Ocean will rapidly acquire a new urgency. A quarter of the world’s oil and natural gas resources lie in the Arctic, but until recently polar ice rendered many of these deposits inaccessible.
(snip)
Yet perhaps the most significant consequence of the melt is the rising potential for Arctic navigation. The polar thaw may lead to what would be the most transformational maritime project since the Panama Canal: an Arctic Bridge.
(snip)
Because the Arctic lacks a comprehensive legal framework akin to the 1961 Antarctic Treaty, which ended territorial claims and established Antarctica as a demilitarized region of international scientific cooperation, the United States should play a leading diplomatic role in adjudicating the growing international contest over the Arctic. It should also negotiate an Arctic security arrangement with Canada. (my emphasis)

The improved accessability to the resources of the Arctic will inevitably lead to increased tensions in the absence of an Arctic Treaty similar to the one for the Antarctic (it’s already started in a small way).  Russia, Canada and the US have strategic interests in the region.  Smaller nations like Iceland, Denmark and Norway have also traditionally been very active in the area – both in terms of geographical exploration and extraction of resources.  Other nations will be attracted, e.g. to the rich fishing resources.

In view of the above, the need for an “Arctic Treaty” is becoming urgent.  Googling the term did provide some results, but suggest that there is no current progress.  This link (the top result) points to a working draft from 1991.

The WWF is calling for a treaty:

“We need a new Arctic treaty to regulate access to the Arctic,” said Samantha Smith, head of the WWF global conservation group’s Arctic Programme. The chill Alaskan environment has yet to recover from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.

Another resource page on the issue is here (page is from 2000).

What can be done to limit further military expansion and non-sustainable exploitation of the Arctic region?  Very little appears to be happening in international fora.
 

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by Patrick Lang

In listening to the “Beltway/K St.” crowd discuss the ever widening Abuse of Power scandal surrounding the Bush Administration I am struck by the profound immorality of many of the statements being made by people who have served for decades at the right hand of presidents and members of Congress.

Col. Patrick W. Lang (Ret.), a highly decorated retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces, served as “Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism” for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was later the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. Col. Lang was the first Professor of the Arabic Language at the United States Military Academy at West Point. For his service in the DIA, he was awarded the “Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive.” He is a frequent commentator on television and radio, including PBS’s Newshour, and most recently on MSNBC’s Hardball and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” His CV and blog are linked below the fold.

“That’s just how the Game is Played,” or “Let’s not Criminalize Politics” would be samples of the kind of rhetoric floating around these days in the world of the “talking heads.” What is meant by that?

The idea implicit in statements of this kind by people like David Gergen and Pat Buchanan is that there is nothing wrong with using the power of the executive branch of government to manipulate the press to destroy the reputations and livelihoods of political opponents. The belief seems to be that pressurizing or seducing media executives to accept false and misleading statements about critics of the policies of the government of the day is just a form of “contact sport” and that, in fact, all is truly fair in love, war, and now politics. It seems that the “wise men” also believe that it is just part of the game to “recruit” reporters for the national print media and then use them as instruments of propaganda to deceive the public and contribute to the destruction of the “loyal opposition.”

If it is true that the politics of personal destruction are so widely accepted by the political establishment … Cont. below:

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The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.  – Thomas Jefferson

The will of the people is not being heard. The job of a Congressman is to give voice the will of his constituents. In our great country, we entrust our elected officials with responsibilities. A Congressman is elected by the people. A look at the major pieces of legislation passed recently shows who Congress actually represents. Many people are complaining about rising health care costs, rising energy prices, a faltering education system. Do we get health care reform, an energy bill that addresses the problem or a commitment to the education of our children? No. We get international trade agreements that benefit big business, a bankruptcy bill that further burdens consumers and tax cuts for the extremely wealthy.
    The price of health care is expected to rise by about $597 per person next year. Experts estimate the price of energy to continue to rise. Personal savings is at an all time low. The budget is out of control. And what legislation is the number one priority of the Republican controlled Congress? Elimination of the estate tax. As of 2005, the estate tax affects estates valued at 1.5 million dollars and over.
    The great thing about our government is ultimately, the power is in the hands of the people. The power is not in the hands of a few people who serve as mouthpieces for corporate America, but in the hands of the many. The everyday American is a tax paying, law abiding, and hard working citizen. It is time for all of us to band together, and demand our government quit playing politics with our future. We must remove officials who are unwilling to stand up for the common man, and replace them with ones who will. We have seen five years of a Republican controlled White House and a Republican controlled Congress. Have the will of the people been heard? There is an alternative. There is a future.

Brian Amoah
Friends of David Gill

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See Keith Olbermann jump for joy! Crooks & Liars has the actual video of Keith emoting after reporting that [B]Ill O’Reilly may call it quits!

Tonight, KeithO is on the CIA Leak case and how Pres. Bush “made his displeasure known” to Karl Rove two years ago. “He made his life miserable about this,” says Keith in his daily newsletter, citing the NY Daily News story that has everybody buzzing, including FireDogLake‘s Jane Hamsher, via Salon‘s Daou Report.

… OPEN THREAD! (We — the royal we — forgot about Scottie’s Open Thread today. Sorry, Scottie. But even C-SPAN preempted you for a House vote.)

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When President Bush nominated Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, he said that he knew her heart. That recommendation is her only real qualification: She has no judicial experience, no academic experience in constitutional law, and no meaningful writings not covered by attorney/client privilege.

“Heart” might strike you as a strange qualification. No one, after all, chooses a brain surgeon, an airline pilot, or a clean-up hitter solely on the basis of “heart”. Why a Supreme Court justice? Who would think that training and experience are not necessary?

There’s an answer to this question, but the professional pundits don’t seem to know it: In the worldview of fundamentalist religion, texts interpret themselves. Expertise just gets in the way.

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