Sunday, February 19, 2006

Sunday morning, comin' down

How high's the water mamma?

Perhaps you saw the news that Greenland's glaciers are melting twice as fast as previously thought. If all the ice there were to melt and run into the sea, the Earth's oceans would rise 21 feet. The elevation of our nation's capital stands at 25 feet.

If your first reaction is like mine, "Shit!" relax. Antarctica's ice is also melting faster and faster and that will inevitably contribute to the rising waters. Alarming as the meltdown is, I don't know it will be fast enough to save the Earth from the destructive forces now being unleashed in Washington.


Sinking feelings.

Our Secretary of State, Chevron Oil Tanker Rice, assured us this past week conditions in war-torn Iraq are improving. This was in response to a few senators expressing their frustration at the billions of dollars given the administration to repair Iraqi infrastructure which continues to deteriorate in the post-Saddam era.

A couple of examples cited by ABC World News:

Hours per day of Sadam electricity in Baghdad: 16
Hours per day of Bush electricity: 4

The total Iraqi demand for electricity stands at 7,000 megawatts.

Total Saddam electricity generated = 4,500 megawatts.
Total Bush electricity generated = 3,995 megawatts.

Well, in the masculine dominated world of testosterone and its resultant machismo, if there's any correlation between sexual prowess and dominance, it's obvious from these stats that in Iraq, Bush isn't the man his predecessor, Saddam, was.

However, in fairness to Bush, it should be noted Saddam gave of his electricity freely, it was "a virtual state gift" as ABC noted. Bush, however, charges for his. This makes meeting increased demand with Bush's diminished ability to supply it even more difficult because Iraqis still operate under the old paradigm of free electricy with little incentive to conserve.

And our shaky voiced Chevron Oil Tanker assured senators, what the above statistics don't reflect is the fact Bush has actually increased power generating capacity. This seems to contradict ABC's figures showing an actual decline. But giving her the benefit of the doubt, The Oil Tanker said:

"I think this may be an issue of whether we are talking about delivery or capacity."

As with electricity, the same holds true for water and sewage. Bush has increased clean water capacity for several million Iraqis Oil Tanker said, he just can't deliver it to 'em. This confirmed reports Iraqis must rely on a lack of adequate sewage disposal and unsafe drinking water, as she drenched her parched throat with a bottle of Yuzu Perrier.

Here I'm thinking maybe if we put the Iraqi situation in proper context, we'd better understand. If we were to look at Bush domestic policies, it's easy to draw comparisons to the plight of Iraqis. If we just apply the discussion of Iraq's energy, safe water, and sewage to Bush America's wealth, growth and prosperity, we can use The Oil Tanker's words here as well:

"I think this may be an issue of whether we are talking about delivery or capacity." See, Tanker Rice could just as well be talking about the economic health of Bush's America. There's no question, under Bush, the wealth of the nation has increased, i.e., it's capacity is greater for a few, he just can't deliver it to the many. If anything, under Bush, while there's more of it, there's less to go around, just like Iraq. Makes sense to me!

Is it just me....

....or is anyone else bothered by The Chevron Oil Tanker's shaky voice when, in testimony before senators, she serves up stats that seem to contradict ABC's? That when calling for democracy in Iran by requesting congress give her the money to achieve it (ignore Iranians had an election just last summer, ok?) or, upset with the democratically elected Hamas, she suggests foreign governments cut Hamas aid, that her voice is quivery?

I know I'm being petty. I shouldn't pick on how the Tanker's apparent discomfort manifests itself as a nervousness tic when speaking publicly. But I can't help seeing it as inner self- awareness of her apparent hypocrisy. Of her outright lying.

It's just how I interpret Rice's demeanor from my extensive background in pyschology, which came in a junior college "Psych 1A" class many years ago. But I can't help daydreaming of The Chevron Oil Tanker being hooked up to a lie detector as she speaks before Americans, the congress or world leaders. I wonder if its jumping needle would generate more electricity than the lie detector uses?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you today! No, it's not just you. I first noticed Condi's quavery voice acting up when Benvenista asked if she knew the name of that PDB. Uhmmmm, I THINK it was called ... something like ... blah, blah, determined to attack, oh I how should I put this delicately, INSIDE, blush, knitted eyebrows. All in that earnest little concerned breathy bouncy jello style (see you know women are much harder on other women). And yes, I think the quavers have gotten much worse as she tries harder & harder to obfuscate hideous facts in her presentations. But don't worry. Whatever vestige of conscience she may still possess will soon be buried under the Greenland-size mountain of chickenhawk shit being rained on us all. And I guess by then, she'll be 2008 frontrunner. Deliver us from their capacity for evil. D.K.

Dada said...

Hi D.K.! It's good to be back after taking the weekend off. Thank you for bringing up that PDB from those 8/01 vacation days on the ranch a month or so before 9/11. God, wasn't that testimony revealing? Pretty obvious ol' Oil Tanker had rehearsed many of her answers and, in the case of the title of that DPB, MEMORIZED her answer!

(That only served to seal her guilt in my mind.)

I've been spending time in front of the TV this weekend. Something I never do much of. But Link-TV is fund raising and running some excellent programs. Gore on global warming, Noam Chomsky, etc.

Of course, that only serves to get me more riled up. While I feel very badly for GM and Ford workers, I don't give a tinker's damn if those once gleaming examples of American industry go belly up. I'm so angry, I feel like going out and buying that hybrid just to spit in their face. Freakin' dynosaurs!

How much longer can they continue with next quarter's earnings in their sights before total collapse rises up and slaps 'em in their faces?

Sorry....I think I may have just flown off on a tangent here, huh?

BTW, I think you owe the jar a quarter. (grin)

Anonymous said...

And I thought I was the one going off on a tangent. It's your blog, you go where you want. Hybrids? Damn right. If Ford & GM can't mfr them, condemn them to the La Brea Tar Pits with the other extinctadores. So now they're saying their retired emp'ees promised health benefits will make them uncompetitive? Boo, hoo. Make better cars & people will pay the extra couple hundred bucks each.

I've been missing news all weekend due to out of town guests. Yes, conservatives, but not oppressively so. Kinda fun to see how much shit they will swallow & proclaim it tastes like chicken! So I missed Link TV etc. That's OK, next week will bring new outrages, right?

Ahh, after the guests finally departed, we put on Bob Dylan for some sage advice: "Now the Rainman gave me two cures, then he said jump right in. The one was Texas medicine & the other railroad gin ... and me I sit so patiently waiting to find how fast you have to pay to get out of going through these things twice ... Whoa, Mama, can this really be the end?" etc.

And so, I'm kinda thinking the "foul jar" doesn't apply to me cuz I can't work up the guilt for the gelt anymore. D.K.

Dada said...

Oh nice, D.K. I like the injection of a little music here. And Dylan of all things. (You weren't a flower child back in those scary Sixties, were you? -grin-)

Seriously, nice lyrics. Who can forget the three big "B"s of that decade? Bob Dylan, Bobby Darin and Dada's favorite, Bobby Goldsboro. (Okay, so it's still early in the day and the news hasn't gotten to me , i.e., I haven't lost my humor yet.)

Seriously, speaking of humor (??), it sounds like you had a fun weekend. I wonder what your guests say after they depart?

Oh, and speaking of GM and Ford, of music with great lyrics...remember Randy Newman's "Political Science"? You know, "Boom goes London, boom Paree!" That one?

Well, I was thinking of that melody with lyrics that go something like:
"*Boom* goes GM!
*Boom* goes Ford!
No one cares
They all drive Accords"

Anonymous said...

Flower Child ... no, I was far too cynical even then (and at such a tender age, too). But I still think I really need to know about life I learned from Bob Dylan's songs. Listen to The Chimes of Freedom sometime. D.K.

Dada said...

God....Dylan....such an enigma to me. Sometimes I think he pure genius. But that's not my preferred interpretation.

No, I find my alternative Dylan conclusion far more amusing. That ol' Bob's tapping into de Chardin's noosphere, Jung's collective unconscious, or Sheldrake's morphogenetic field or whatever some have speculated may be out there.

Dylan may be proof of the existence of a greater something 'out there' we're all a part of but can't access. Dylan just stumbled across the key to that place and spends most of his time there, returning on occasion with gifts for us all ala Santa Claus.

Anonymous said...

Well, first I see what I meant to type was "ALL I really need to know about life ...", but my mind races ahead of the keyboard & I leave out words. Second know that I always attempt to defend Bob Dylan against any real or perceived attack. My loyalty even includes his flat voice, his strange kabuki stage make-up phase, and his current bad case of wrinkles. Behold a real die-hard fan!

Now, you've brought up some things that I haven't thought about in a looong time. I had pegged the noosphere as a kind of racial memory. In looking it up (see you inspire research), I grasp de Chardin's idea that all the minds on earth are evolving toward greater unity which will ultimately culminate in the Omega Point. Well, these times are so politicized that all I can think of is how I don't want minds like Bush, Cheney etc merging into my mind EVER. In fact, the very thought is enough to make me run screaming from the room. Just trying to fathom their evil depths by the their visible deeds could make one lose their finger-nail grip on reality.

But finally, I totally agree that Dylan may have stumbled across some sort of key. That he himself seems incapable of describing what even motivates him to write is a clue. Also that he has never & says he will never interpret any of his work except to make fun of those who assign too much significance to it. And that he started saying those things before he was even 20-yrs old!

All I know is MY world would be a much poorer place without his work. D.K.