Numbers II

Cost of illegal war in Iraq – 300,000,000,000 and growing.

Ok, so we are spending 300 billion dollars “spreading democracy” in Iraq, but we are being told that illegal immigrants are the cause of economic woes in this country? Really?

Let’s think about that for a second. Illegal immigrants build our houses and businesses, clean our homes and businesses, harvest our food, cook our food, mow our lawns, and do countless other jobs every day. Now, you may be thinking “They took my job!” but they didn’t. You took your own job when you decided to go with that cheap landscaper who trims your hedges every week. Or when you bought that “custom” cookie-cutter house from that national homebuilder.

You see, you want everything cheap. And that means cheap labor. Its no different then when you shop at Walmart and then complain about outsourcing. You can’t have it both ways.

Those illegal immigrants are working their asses off making money for Americans. After all, its American business owners who are employing them. And its American consumers who are employing them by demanding cheap products and services.

But back to the costs of all this. Remember that 300 billion dollars we are spending in Iraq? That’s tax money that should be going to our schools, social services and law enforcement. That’s money being taken out of your pocket, your community and put into the pockets of the rich. The same rich who’s corporations employ that cheap labor you said took your job. The same corporations who then do not pay taxes because of the loopholes they lobbied your elected officials to create.

Now, please explain to me how a whole 4 percent of our population is driving the country into red ink? The 4 percent who work for the least amount of the pie. The 4 percent who are just trying to survive. The 4 percent who have no voice.

But that’s just it. They have no voice. So instead of focusing on the real culprits, the Republicans would have you believe its those damn illegal immigrants who are wrecking this country. Because its easier to blame then to admit guilt, accept responsibility and actually fix anything.

The illegal immigrants are not the problem. Corporate greed is. Corrupt goverment is. We all are. After all, its we the American people who quit demanding accountability from our elected officials. We let the corporations take control of our government. We went out and bought the cheaper goods. We hired the cheaper labor.

But no, it must be those damn illegal immigrants, because we, the children of immigrants, can do no wrong.

Numbers

The Republicans are all up in arms about the “invasion” occuring in this country right now. Why? Because its election season of course. So what is the big deal?

First off, the number of illegal immigrants in this country seems to depend on who is talking about them. On average, the number ranges from 8 to 12 million. Ok, let’s go with those two.

Right now the US Census Bureau Clock says 299,542,627 people live in the US. So if we take the high number, 12 million, illegal immigrants account for 4 percent of the total population. Wow, some invasion.

And we are supposed to believe that these folks account for all the woes of this country. This 4 percent is supposedly killing our economy, ravaging our cities with crime, and theatening to overwhelm our social services, schools and hospitals.

This is what is called a Red Herring-something intended to divert attention from the real problem or matter at hand. Instead of talking about how much the illegal war in Iraq is costing us, instead of focusing on the rampant corruption of our government and corporations, the attention is diverted to the 4 percent of the population without a voice.

The Republicans don’t want anyone to notice how they are privatizing our schools, the IRS, and anything else they can suck the tax coffers dry with. They don’t want the American people to notice that Iraq is in the middle of a Civil War, or that Osama Bin Laden is still out there, or that they use terror alerts for political cover in the media. No, focus on those “aliens” swarming into the country, ready to take your job.

The Republicans have tied the war on terror in with immigration. And the war on drugs. God only knows what they will come up with next.

What a load of crap. The Republicans are playing politics. President Bush has become the sacrificial lamb. Since he is no longer up for re-election, he has “come out” in favor of amnesty to give those Republicans running for office a way to distance themselves from the White House and rally the base at the same time. The war is a lost cause issue and terrorism is so 2004, so why not shift the story to something new to scare people into submission with.

Beware the illegal alien! And don’t mind the corporations stealing you blind. After all, capitalism is as American as apple pie!

Numbers III

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HI23Ag02.html

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HI23Ag01.html

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav092106.shtml

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=72835

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP129606

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MIL20060921&articleId=3297

http://www.iags.org/china.htm

Iraq:

Oil – proved reserves: 112.5 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas – proved reserves: 3.115 trillion cu m (2005)

Iran:

Oil – proved reserves: 133.3 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas – proved reserves: 26.62 trillion cu m (2005)

Afghanistan:

Natural gas – proved reserves: 9.96 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Saudi Arabia:

Oil – proved reserves: 262.7 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas – proved reserves: 6.544 trillion cu m (2005)

Kuwait:

Oil – proved reserves: 96.5 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas – proved reserves: 1.572 trillion cu m (2005)

Qatar:

Oil – proved reserves: 16 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas – proved reserves: 25.77 trillion cu m (2005)

United Arab Emirates:

Oil – proved reserves: 97.8 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas – proved reserves: 6.006 trillion cu m (2005)

Turkmenistan:

Oil – proved reserves: 273 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas – proved reserves: 2.01 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

Uzbekistan:

Oil – proved reserves: 600 million bbl (1 January 2005)

Natural gas – proved reserves: 1.875 trillion cu m (1 January 2005)

Canada:

Oil – proved reserves: 178.9 billion bbl note: includes oil sands (2004 est.)

Natural gas – proved reserves: 1.673 trillion cu m (2004)

Venezuela:

Oil – proved reserves: 75.59 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas – proved reserves: 4.191 trillion cu m (2005)

Brazil:

Oil – proved reserves: 15.12 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas – proved reserves: 240 billion cu m (2005)

United States:

Oil – proved reserves: 22.45 billion bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas – proved reserves: 5.353 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

Mexico:

Oil – proved reserves: 33.31 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas – proved reserves: 424.3 billion cu m (2005)

Greatest Oil Reserves by Country, 2006
Rank Country Proved reserves
(billion barrels)
1. Saudi Arabia 264.3
2. Canada 178.8
3. Iran 132.5
4. Iraq 115.0
5. Kuwait 101.5
6. United Arab Emirates 97.8
7. Venezuela 79.7
8. Russia 60.0
9. Libya 39.1
10. Nigeria 35.9
11. United States 21.4
12. China 18.3
13. Qatar 15.2
14. Mexico 12.9
15. Algeria 11.4
16. Brazil 11.2
17. Kazakhstan 9.0
18. Norway 7.7
19. Azerbaijan 7.0
20. India 5.8

Greatest Natural Gas Reserves by Country, 2006
Rank Country Proved reserves
(trillion cu ft)
1. Russia 1,680
2. Iran 971
3. Qatar 911
4. Saudi Arabia 241
5. United Arab Emirates 214
6. United States 193
7. Nigeria 185
8. Algeria 161
9. Venezuela 151
10. Iraq 112
11. Indonesia 98
12. Norway 84
13. Malaysia 75
14. Turkmenistan 71
15. Uzbekistan 66
16. Kazakhstan 65
17. Netherlands 62
18. Egypt 59
19. Canada 57
20. Kuwait 56

Top 20 countries 5,510
Rest of world 602
World total 6,112

History And A Sharpie

In case you missed this story today:

America is re-classifying information about its nuclear arsenal, much of it decades old, that has been in the public domain for several years.

Researchers at the National Security Archive, an independent library that belongs to The George Washington University, found that officials from the Pentagon and US Department of Energy have been trawling through reports that have been released to the public and deleting numbers of missiles, despite some of the statistics being decades old.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The reclassification of the nuclear records forms part of a wider process that began in 1998 with the passing of the “Kyl-Lott Amendment”, a piece of legislation designed to curtail an executive order signed by President Bill Clinton that ordered all US government agencies to release all information 25 years or older.

Since 1998, and increasingly under the Bush Administration, thousands of pages of historical records have been removed from public access, with particular attention to nuclear information and embarrassing incidents, according to historians and advocates for government transparency.

A separate report published by the National Security Archive in March, for instance, found that a faulty CIA intelligence estimate published 12 days before the Chinese army entered North Korea in 1950 was re-designated as secret in 2001, despite being written about by historians for years.

And why is our government working so hard to erase history? Why else?

Bryan Wilkes, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, part of the Energy Department, told The Washington Post that the Pentagon was behind the deleting of the missile numbers.

“There’s no question that current classified nuclear weapons data was out there that we had to take back,” he said.

“And in today’s environment, where there is a great deal of concern about rogue nations or terrorist groups getting access to nuclear weapons, this makes a lot of sense.”

So, they are concerned that terrorists will use decades old information on our cold war nuclear arsenal to do what exactly? I guess the government will have to start burning all those books that have been published with this “dangerous” information in them too. And that of course means they will have to find all these books, whether they be in the library, a bookstore, your house. Because that old military history book you are thinking of selling at your garage sale this weekend could end up in the hands of terrorists that will use it to find out how many missiles the US admitted to having in 1965 and then go out and, um, well you know, terrorize or something.

Reality Check

Doesn’t anyone in our government realize that it’s situations like what is going on in Lebanon right now that create terrorists? There were none in Iraq until we went there over a lie and without an “after the bombs drop” plan. Israel is following the same course of action. They are destroying everything in Lebanon, making it more ripe for the very extremists they claim to be trying to defeat. And you would have to be a fool if you think Israel has any plan, or chance in hell, of rebuilding Lebanon. Just like the US in Iraq.

Support for Hezbollah is growing because of Israel’s over the top aggression. And when the bombing stops, if it ever does, Lebanon will be just like Afghanistan after the Soviet Union left. Desperate and angry people will fill the void of leadership and extremists will rule the day.

I find it ironic that Bush claims to support the spread of democracy in the Middle East while one of it’s “allies” destroys any chance of a successful one in Lebanon. It reminds me all too much of how Bush basically destroyed any chance of democracy in Iran by declaring it evil.

America only seems interested in democracies that it puts in place; one’s that are run by puppets friendly to western business interests no doubt. You only have to read the history of Central and South America since WWII to understand how America spreads democracy.

So again I ask, where the fuck are the Democrats in all this? Why isn’t the Democratic leadership standing in front of the White House screaming against this madness? Civil disobedience, protest, anything is better then the quiet, and not so quiet, support the Democrats seem to be giving to yet another failure in the Middle East by America and it’s allies.