As in the Japanese game of Go, all efforts in the Middle East by both Israel and America are to 'surround' and thus control someone else's territory.  The goal behind seizing territory varies -- lebensraum for Jewish families, or sovereignty over sweet crude still in the ground. No matter the goal. Capture the turf and you get whatever is of value there. You win by putting region after region under your control.

Seize control of the State, and then tell that State to control its populace.

In real world terms you establish hegemony. You establish puppet states, protectorates, trade partners, client countries who will not wander from your wish list on pain of punishment.

In the year 2050, after petroleum became too rare and valuable to be legally burned anywhere on Earth, China, the American Union, the European Union, India and Russia looked back with satisfaction at how well they had handled the great Drawdown of Middle Eastern petro products.

Avoiding world war through a series of permitted localized wars, the ownership of the petroleum was always kept away from the Middle Eastern masses, and placed in the control of appointed local oligarchs instead.

The strategy was to view the nations of the Middle East as a collection of leaky buckets. The oil would inevitably flow, out of one bucket or another everyone knew, and so it was of no concern if this bucket or that one needed to be broken or kicked over now and again to keep the handle in approved hands. It would fill up again, and the oil would get to all the proper places in time. It was a matter of maintaining reliable local management.

The Military Commissions Act passed through our American Congress this week, like bacon through a goose.  There are numerous lessons to draw from the way Congress lubricated this excrement out the poop chute, but dwelling on them distracts from the core lesson.

Which is that our Congress actually did it. That this bi-cameral legislative body did indeed pass the Torture R Us Bill, and within a comfortable margin.  They brought down the US Constitution with one shot.

Gentle Reader, if there is a singularity at the core of this great American experiment, and at the core of all Western jurisprudence, if there is a soul at the heart of all Western civilization since the Dark Ages, it is the concept of habeas corpus -- that no human being can be deprived of their liberty without soon facing their accusers, soon seeing the evidence against them, and soon standing trial before a jury of their peers.  That is our true Rock of Ages, and our Congress just threw it out.

from the diaries. - Jerome

This is the war that never ends
Yes it goes on and on, my friend
Some people started fighting it a long time ago
And now they keep on fighting it because it's all they know

This is a war to Whack-A-Mole
To shove some shit back in its hole
This is a war to cancel the American Dream
A war that will continue 'til we cancel this regime

This is the war that never ends
Yes it goes on and on, my friend
Some people started fighting it a long time ago
And now they keep on fighting it because it's all they know

October 1st marks the 60th anniversary of the closing gavel of the Nuremberg Trials -- the true Trial of the Century just passed.  For four years, the top 24 Nazi leaders, instigators and perpetrators had to sit through seeing their crimes fully explored and revealed.  After the final gavel fell, most of these Nazis went to the hangman or to prison.

Most importantly, the Nuremberg Principles established that for all nations, whether they became signatories to the Principles or no, there is no excusing these crimes by any individual of any nation by means of claims that they were 'just following orders,' or by virtue of being a government official or head of state, or by claims of not knowing that it was a war crime, or of not being capable of stopping such crimes. No such excuses are allowed under international law.

The world's economy rests on the solid foundation of the dollar, which rests on the solid foundation of the oil trade. America doses and overdoses on the ocean of petrodollars that flow through our economy, and America's military defends that river of petrodollars and the consequent foreign investments in our T-bills it brings.

That's the Dollar System. That's the way the world works.  It's an American monopoly, and it belongs entirely to the wealthiest five percent of Americans.  The Dollar System is what lets our elites run up an insane $8.3 trillion national debt, and keep right on printing green paper money as if it were real.  It's taken for real, all over the world, day after day, so what's the difference?  A worldwide infrastructure of globalized capital and corporations and livelihoods and nations and civilization rests on the Dollar System. Lo, it is sacred above all else.

Nothing -- repeat -- nothing will be permitted to threaten, block, or break this monopoly, this Dollar System. That is absolutely negatory, good buddy.  No elections, no ethics, no humanity, no rules, no laws, no international treaties, no civil unrest, no melting ice caps, no protesters, no drowning polar bears, no guerillas, no army, and no nation will be permitted to stand against it -- absolutely nothing is off the table, including nookyuler war, says Mistah Bush.

The internets are full of words and warnings about Professor James Lovelock's latest book ("The Revenge of Gaia: Earth's Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity.") and his views, and his C.V., and his credibility. Most of these essays and comments explore how to dismiss, disprove or ignore him. Or, how to whistle into the abyss he has revealed.  Or, how to survive what he describes is coming, if it comes. When it comes.

Well, he is talking plainly about hell AND high water, and right soon, he is. He is talking about only two hundred million humans surviving this century we've already begun, and only by migrating to a newly temperate North Pole to grow food as we can manage.  He's talking about seriously scary stuff.

The editorial and blog reactions to his tome are uniformly hasty brews of false bravado and fear. To paraphrase Woody Allen somewhat, 'I don't fear the end of my species -- I just don't want to he there when it happens.'

When we marched against the Iraq war back in Ought Two and Three, that did about as much good as going to the movies.  When we voted in 2000, and 2002, and 2004, that also did about as much good as going to the movies.

Because the fix is in, including fixing the mainstream media to not report on the voting machines' obtuse relationship to reality and to election polling. When every voting discrepancy, everywhere in the nation, goes to the GOP's advantage -- that's not a story??

"At Fux News, Ignorance Is Job One."

Whatever the outcome at the hustings this November, it won't be an accurate count of the voters' stated wishes. A voter's choice isn't sacred, it is a thing that is no longer actually desired or required; in fact, it is getting to be a damned nuisance.

The strategic situation in the Middle East is eerily similar to the events that led Europe into war in 1914, a war that killed the youth of an entire generation. The War to End All Wars could much better be described as The War That Had To Be.

Wars are economic collisions first and foremost, all gussied up in nationalism afterwards. How did LLoyd George put it --- "Every belligerent in 1914 took up arms, either to repel a direct invasion of its territory, or to fulfill a precise obligation which could not be abandoned without shattering consequences to national prestige, morale, and interests"

We are slipping into war in the Middle East on an obscene carpet of blood and oil. No one "can afford" to step back from the edge. Here it comes.  If you have not yet read Terence Ward's sobering presentation last week to the 5th Annual gathering of the Association for Study of Peak Oil, you will find the full text below the fold --

Logically, all Israel can gain by making southern Lebanon a free fire zone is to reduce Hezbollah's fighting infrastructure in that region for a while. Which cannot buy but a bit of time before it all has to be done over again. Like clover, Hezbollah grows faster and taller after you cut it back.

No, there's much more at play here; these are early moves in the Great Game. This splendid little war is stagecraft to make it clearly necessary for America to attack Iran. That's the goal, about three moves ahead. Israel is just sacrificing a few pawns right now to clear the way forward.

Here's the gambit . . .

An elegant epigram of Serendib says that 'two elephants cannot be tied to one post.'

The glimmer in this gem is as obvious -- and subtle -- as he who hears it.

Lifelong sarong and sari wearers among you, who have actually seen two elephants tied to one post know damn well that they will soon wander off with that post. It's only a matter of time before they happen to pull together or happen to pull opposite -- the post survives neither event.

DailyKos and Markos and them rowdy Kossacks are all about Democratic Party activism. Real projects, real politicians, real campaigns, real elections -- and oh yes, the unbridled flow of intellectual and emotional and spiritual underpinnings that ignite and drive all those real doings.

Of course, "real lefties" see the entire Democratic Party as simply one half of the single party state that America is. Both political parties are owned by, and serve, the same economic masters.

Even if the Democrats win every office they desire during this political season, the victory will represent nothing more than the handing of the ball to the other team for their fair turn at it.

So you pull into your neighborhood gas station one morning to fill `er up.  Pop the gas cap.  Swipe your card.  Stick the nozzle - hey, it doesn't fit!  What the ?!?  "We're sorry," says a disembodied voice over the speaker, "Your vehicle's gas tank isn't compatible with our Exxon Gasoline Service.  Also, you don't seem to be a member of the Exxon Gasoline Portal.  Would you like to order our Exxon Gas Cap today for only $39.95, and get your first month's membership free?"

"Hey, I just want some gas," you say.  "Gas is gas.  Your nozzle's all big and square.  It won't fit my car here."

"We hear you, and we can meet your needs," says the voice.  "You can purchase an Exxon Gas Cap and get your trial membership at 50% off this week.  The Exxon Gas Cap accepts gas only from the Exxon Nozzle.  New members receive a free Exxon Gas Can, a quart of Exxon Oil, and an Exxon Coffee Mug.  Shall I use the credit card you've already swiped to sign you up this morning?"

"Oh, that's all right," you say, pulling a tire iron from the trunk. "I have a better idea."

The Republican plan for America, all along, was Banana Republic.

A nation of poorly educated renters and workers, ruled by their betters -- the wealthy five percent who own everything worthwhile, control all the capital, rule over the government, dictate laws in their own favor, stack the courts with their own judges, and send out the police and army to enforce those laws.

The Republican plan for America is the Five Percent Solution -- move all money and power into higher, tighter, whiter, righter hands.

There are only two ways to deliver a 700 ton bomb unto your enemy's locale.

One is by freight forwarding -- trains or trucks haul thousands of crates of high explosives to the target.  Cranes and forklifts stack them up until one million, four hundred thousand pounds are in place, and then you set it all off at once . . .

Or, you substitute all that tonnage with a small nuclear device . . .

 The American government's gulag by Guantanamo Bay isn't about terror, or a war upon it, or about enemy combatants or security.  It's a symptom, not a cause. It's a pimple on a pirate's ass.

The grand goal of Guantamo is to rid us of the rule of law. How the orange jumpsuits get handled is irrelevant; how the public gets handled is irrelevant.  It's the principle that's vital.  It's the black flag that matters.

Guantanamo is about dismantling the rule of law, internationally and domestically. As it accomplishes that, it fully serves its purpose.

Among the hundreds of nameless and faceless Muslim captives at our Guantanamo penal colony, a bit over 250 are on a hunger strike, determined to starve to death rather than accept their situation.

Thirty men have been on hunger strike five months now, since August.  Our ultimate response has been to hold them down once a day, forcing feeding tubes down their noses into their stomachs, and pumping nutrient fluids into them.

This will not keep them alive; it only prolongs the inevitable. They're dying, and will pass away in the days just ahead.  Dozens more are determined to follow them out of Gitmo.

Ten at once.  Ten marines meet their Maker in a flash of furious fire and fallen friends.  Human meat on the street, shattered and smoking and seeping.  Eleven more left lying about, leaking life's blood, hovering between heartbeats, waiting to be saved or to slip away.  The whole world watching, seeing that this is where we are, and this is where we are going.

Tomorrow is today.

Where is safe in such a struggle?  Point to the province that's been pacified -- there isn't one.  In a war with no fronts and no flanks there is only the ground you stand on at any given moment, and even that ground is compromised, under constant threat.  The foxholes are confused; there is no perimeter.  The turf you turn away from belongs to the enemy the second you show your back, because the enemy is every man, woman and child who lived here before you entered, and who lives here after you exit.

If you let them live.  If they let you live.

(Disassociated Press) Breaking News 7:40 PM EST  Two tom turkeys pardoned earlier today by President Bush, and given a police escort to Reagan International airport for a first-class flight to Disneyland, were unexpectedly placed on a CIA "extraordinary rendition" flight to Jordan instead.

While the White House had no official comment, one very senior administration official admitted,from the side of his mouth, on super-secret deep background, that the birds have already undergone several hours of intense interrogation while in-flight, exploring unpatriotic remarks they allegedly made about all the chickenhawks present at today's Rose Garden ceremony.

(continued)

The Cowboy From Crawford isn't looking too tall in the saddle lately.  He's lost his white hat; his horse is lame; he's as bugeyed twitchy as a rattlesnake in a coffee can.  Never too quick on the draw, he still manages to shoot his own foot as often as anything he aims for.  Yet he's determined to ride that horse right into the ground.

The only thing you can credit him with is stubborn.  Crazy stubborn.  Here's a feller who can't tell which end of a bag of bobcats he's gotten a hold of, but he won't let go.  You can't expect this to end well; you do have to stop and admire pure stupid when you see it.

There he goes, in the center of the crowd, with the whole world watching him wrestle with his big bag of trouble, kickin' over coffee cans and foamin' at the mouth about 'stay the course!' an' 'finish the job!'

Either this is one dumb bronco buster, or he's plumb loco.