Cheney heading to Mideast on peace mission.
Sending Dick Cheney on a peace mission is like sending Jeffrey Dahmer to promote the virtues of vegetarianism and neighborliness, or maybe like sending Dr. Edward Teller to argue for nuclear disarmament.
Cheney is the administration official most closely linked to agitating for the Iraq War, for diverting resources away from the Afghanistan War, for the descent of both wars into clusterfuckdom, for egging Israel to attack Hezbollah in 2006 and now, for tirelessly promoting a war against Iran. It is hard to think of a single person in the Bush Administration, other than George Bush himself, who is less suited to the job of promoting the cause of peace than our Vice President for Torture and War Crimes.
Sending Cheney, our National Warmonger, on a "peace mission" is a clear signal that the Bush Administration is interested in anything but peace.
Q Toon: That I Canst Thee Tell
48 minutes ago
2 comments:
“Cheney is the administration official most closely linked to […} tirelessly promoting a war against Iran.”
In all these battles, the sheeple are always forgetting the Freegold concept as an alternative to the dollar regime.
You are apparently ignorant of the fact that Iran is issuing invoices in dollars for its oil and agreeing with clients that the l/cs [letters of credit] and other means of payment will have a non-dollar basis. (1)
Just like CNN hasn’t heard of the Bahrain Gulf Arab policymakers and Chambers of Commerce
March 23-24 Conference on inflation
where the Gulf currencies will be unpegged from the US dollar. (2) (3)
Fortunately, the repercussions of the Spitzer-case will make it sure that financial Armageddon is now even more certain than before. (4)
The bank problems in the US of A will now certainly never be solved.
OPEC must thus call extraordinary meeting now! (5)
Now for March 25.
And on March 25, OPEC must decide to price oil in another currency than the dollar.
Ivo Cerckel
ivocerckel AT siquijor DOT ws
NOTES
(1)
Iranian official reports record oil revenues
By Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran
Financial Times, February 28 2008 16:15 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/88af02e2-e579-11dc-9334-0 000779fd2ac.html
SNIP
Mr Ghanimifard told the FT a quarter of export transactions had been conducted in the Japanese yen and the rest in euros during the past three months, while dollar transactions had been “almost totally deleted”.
“We issue invoices in dollars and agree with clients that the l/cs [letters of credit] and other means of payment will have a non-dollar basis,” he said.
Ali Shams-Ardakani, head of the energy committee of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, said the move away from the dollar was “absolutely right” and was economically justifiable on the grounds that it helped prevent losses due to the fall in the value of the US currency. “It should have happened much earlier,” he said.
Mr Ghanimifard did not deny some problems with letters of credit but declined to say which banks were refusing to issue them, or whether they included Chinese banks which, along with UAE banks, have provided the greatest assistance to Iran in getting around sanctions.
“Iran uses many other normal means”, he said, adding that this did not include front companies as guarantors instead of banks, but instruments like promissory notes, drafts, bank credits, electronic and telegraphic transfers.
(2)
SPECIAL REPORT:
Dollar's Continued Drop Could Mean Future Gusher For Oil
March 11, 2008: 12:39 AM EST
SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200803110039DOWJONESDJONLINE000016_FORTUNE5.htm
SNIP
ABANDONING THE DOLLAR?
The sliding dollar has also renewed talks that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may consider abandoning the dollar and price oil in other currencies, such as the euro. Such an event, while unlikely anytime soon, would further weigh on the dollar.
The United Arab Emirates' central bank has set up a committee to study a possible depegging of the dirham from the greenback, according to a report by Zawya Dow Jones on Monday. This committee will help coordinate any delinking of the dirham and is expected to report its finding at the end of the year, the report said. Any move toward delinking might pressure other countries in the Middle East to follow suit.
OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri, an official from Libya, last month said, "Maybe we can price the oil in the euro. It can be done, but it will take time," according to the London-based Middle East Economic Digest.
Such a dramatic change, however, is very unlikely at least in the short term, analysts said.
"The talk is triggered by some of the more anti-U.S. countries in OPEC," said Win Thin, a currency analyst at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. "The linchpin is Saudi Arabia. If they are still on board, it's hard to see any kind of big shift in policies."
Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer and exporter, has been resisting the idea of abandoning the dollar.
But the dollar's slide dollar has increasingly raised inflation concerns in countries whose currencies are pegged to the dollar. As the Fed has repeatedly slashed interest rates, those countries were forced to follow suit even when their own economic conditions call for a tight monetary policy. Some Persian Gulf countries have seen record high inflation recently.
Former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan said last month that inflation in some Gulf countries would fall "significantly" if the oil producers drop their dollar pegs, according to media reports.
However, at a recent meeting, the Gulf Cooperation Council, consisting of United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Oman, rejected the notion of decoupling their currencies from the dollar.
(3)
Gulf chambers plan conference on inflation By Agencies on Sunday, March 9 , 2008
http://www.business24-7.ae/cs/article_show_mainh1_story.aspx?HeadlineID=3538
SNIPS
Gulf Arab policymakers and chambers of commerce officials will meet in Bahrain on March 23-24 to discuss how to tackle inflation at near-record peaks, including hearing International Monetary Fund recommendations.
+
The conference, entitled "The phenomenon of price rises in Gulf states: causes and future directions", will include speakers from the IMF and European Union, according to the conference agenda, which did not name the officials.
+
Dollar pegs in all Gulf Arab oil producers but Kuwait restrict their ability to fight inflation by forcing them to shadow US monetary policy when the Federal Reserve is cutting rates to ward off recession.
+
Gulf Arab inflation rates would fall "significantly" were the oil producers to sever their links to the dollar and allow their currencies to float freely, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said during a regional visit last month.
(4)
Lex; Spitzer repercussions
Financial Times, March 11 2008 09:46
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1/a78a214e-ef4a-11dc-8a17-0000779fd2ac.html
SNIP
America’s financiers should think twice about
indulging in too much Schadenfreude. Since trading in
his attorney general’s badge for the governor’s chair,
Mr Spitzer had been trying to bolster rather than beat
down the industry. He and Eric Dinallo, his insurance
commissioner, have been working hard to save the
monoline insurers, and they were also attempting to
streamline financial services regulation. Now that Mr
Spitzer’s reputation as a reformer is tarnished and
his tenure as governor in doubt, such efforts are more
likely to come to naught. Those concerned about New
York’s competitiveness may end up regretting his fall
from grace.
(5)
OPEC must call extraordinary meeting now!
http://bphouse.com/blaze/honest_money/2008/03/08/opec-must-call-extraordinary-meeting-now/
What the hell does that have to do with Cheney's "peace mission" to the Middle East?
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