The U.S. vs Iran; Some More Dots to be Connected

Large U.S. naval, air and marine forces are on their way to beef-up the Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf and Middle East. They include 2 nuclear aircraft carriers with assault troops on board.

A majority of the "beltway bozos" are betting against Bush risking a major new war in the short time remaining to him as the president and Dick Cheney as the co-president, especially in light of the upcoming November election.

But a strong minority believe that Bush will pull the trigger and order American armed forces to go forward.

According to DEBKAfile, a respected Israeli internet news site, a U.S. military source has advised them to keep a close eye on America's military movements in the region for clues, because a concentration this heavy must have a definate purpose.

The words of President Eisenhower, reported in the New York Times on April 17, 1953 are truer today than they were more than half a century ago:

A life of perpetual fear and tension; a burden of arms draining the wealth and the labor of all peoples; a wasting of strength that defies the American system or any other system to achieve the true abundance and happiness for the people of this earth.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.

This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity, hanging from a cross of iron.

Go ahead and connect the dots ... 'sure ain't a pretty picture!

Planet Earth to: Clinton, Obama and McCain

It's time that the three presidential hopefuls stopped shoveling-out the back of their manure trucks.

Enough already with the tripe, fluff, platitudes, accusations and mud that the 3 amigos have been slinging.

Enough already with the dreams, the experience, the phone calls at 3 in the morning .... blah, blah, blah, blah!

America is in very deep trouble and she needs a PRESIDENT WITH STONES who will tell American's just how deep the pile is that they are currently standing in and how America will get out of it.

I haven't heard any one of the presidential candidates offer specific solutions to;

• putting the brakes on the price of oil which is skyrocketing to levels that will inflate everything out of sight.
• putting a stop to price fixing amongst the big oil companies.
• increasing refinery capacity to reduce prices at the pumps.
• food prices which continue to skyrocket thus putting a huge damper on family spending. Between 2006 - 2007, food prices have soared 40%. That's just plain criminal.
• the bio-fuel scam.
• speaking about scams, when is a future President going to shut down that privately owned corporation known as the Fed - see my series on the Fed.
• this year's accelerating inflation rate.
• medical insurance and health care costs which are heading for the stratosphere.
• no new home equity lines of credit being offered.
• existing lines of credit being shut down.
• 2.5 trillion in losses to U.S. home values so far.
• the destruction of the U.S. dollar around the globe.
• the trillions in losses which are about to hit the U.S. economy from the imminent collapse of prime mortgage-backed bonds and derivitives.
• to prevent taxpayers from being taken to the cleaners by having to pay for the bailouts of investment banks, failed financial institutions and the bankruptcy of government mortgage-insuring, deposit-insuring and pension-insuring agencies.
• to prevent hyperinflation.
• to prevent the national debt from doubling and tripling over the next decade.
• to stop the off-shoring of American jobs
• to call out Bush and Cheney on their plan to start yet another war this time in Iran. Heaven help us all. After 5 years, billions of dollars and over 4,000 lives, the United States of America can't even control the city of Baghdad ... one single solitary city... never mind the country of Iraq. How incompetent is that?

This list could be much longer but the hour is late and I'm becoming more agitated and cantankerous. Let me just end this blog by saying that when it comes to any one of the 3 presidential hopefuls intelligently addressing any one of these few issues and presenting a viable solution, the silence has been quite deafening!

America you deserve better than Obama, Clinton or McCain.

The Cantankerous Conservative pays his Canadian Taxes!

April 17, 2008

Dear Revenuers at Revenue Canada,

Enclosed and/or attached, you will find my 2007 tax return showing that I owe $3,407.00 in taxes.

Please note the attached article from the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper; dated 12 November, wherin you will see the Canadian Department of National Defense is paying $171.50 per hammer and Fisheries and Oceans Canada has paid $600.00 per toilet seat for its icebreakers.

As payment, I am enclosing eighty (80) toilet seats valued at $2,400 and 35 hammers valued @ $1,029, which I secured at Canadian Tire (because I couldn't find the Government's supplier), bringing my total remittance to $3,429.00

Please apply the overpayment of $22.00 to the "Stephan Dion Election Fund," as noted on my return.

You can do this inexpensively by sending Mr. Dion one (1) Phillips Head screw (see aforementioned article from The Globe and Mail detailing how the Department of Public Works pays $22.00 each for 1.5" Phillips Head Screw. One Phillips screw is enclosed for your convenience.

I would consider it a personal favour if you could inform Prime Minister Stephen Harper that I have now opened "Robert Otto's House of Hardware and Toilet Seats" and am looking forward to chatting with his common-sense-impaired purchasing officers as I believe that I can supply the government with $750.00 toilet seats, $225.00 hammers and $35.00 Phillips Head Screws.

It has been a pleasure to pay my tax bill this year, knowing that my hard earned tax dollars are being spent so wisely, and I look forward with great anticipation, to paying you even more taxes next year.

Sincerely,
Robert James Otto

PS: Don't forget to tell Stephen about "the crapper collars."

Clinton, Obama and the Flying Pigs.

Both Clinton and Obama talk a lot about the lobbyists and special interests in Washington. Well just how powerful are these "babblers of balderdash?" Here are some interesting facts from the Center for Responsive Politics which tracks lobbyist spending on their OpenSecrets.org website.

• Lobbyists spent a record $2.79 billion in 2007.
• Every day that Congress was in session they spent $17 million to lobby lawmakers.
• Health interests spent more on federal lobbying than any other economic sector - $444.7 million.
• Finance, insurance and real estate was second, spending about $418.7 million.
• Combined, pharmaceuticals and health products shelled out $227 million for lobbying services, or an average of $1.4 million dollars for each and every day of the 164 days that the 110th Congress met in 2007.
• The drug industry has spent $1.3 billion on federal lobbying over the last 10 years, more than any other industry.
• The computer/internet industry spent $110.6 million.
• Hospitals and nursing homes at least $90.5 million.
• In 1998 Total Lobbying Spending was $1.44 Billion.
• In 2007 it was $2.79 billion

So when Clinton and Obama look into the television cameras with a "steely eyed" determination and promise to "reign-in" all those nasty and horrible special interests in Washington ... I say of course you will ....WHEN PIGS FLY!

Does Obama Walk His Talk?

Barack Obama has lambasted lobbyists and moneyed interests in his speeches.

Meanwhile behind his rhetoric, Obama stands out as being the most active of the Democratic presidential hopefuls, with a dozen tariff suspension bills to his name benefiting various corporations.

Hillary Clinton has co-sponsored 19 bills that were introduced by Senator Charles Schumer, D. N.Y.

Only former 2008 presidential hopeful, GOP longshot candidate Sen. Sam Braunback, Kan; had introduced more tariff suspension bills than Obama. Senator Sam had 30 of them.

It's sad how CHANGE can be nothing more than more of the same-old same-old!

Cha Ching in Congress!

• According to FedSpending.org 151 current members of Congress invested between $78.7 million and $195.5 million in companies that received defense contracts of at least $5million in 2006.
• The defense contractors received more than $275.6 billion in government contracts. That works out to $755 million dollars per day.
• The return for Congressional investors yielded them between $15.8 million and $62 million in income from 2004 through 2006 through dividends, capital gains, royalties and interest.
• Members of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees had between $32million and $44 million invested in companies with DOD contracts.
• The average share price of these corporations today is nearly twice what it was in 2004.

John McCain suggests that the Iraqi war could last another 10 years. Oh my ... belly-up to the trough boys!

Gen. Rick Hillier described the Taliban as Detestable Murderers and Scumbags!

General Rick Hillier, the outspoken chief of Canada"s defence staff, will step down in July.

Here's what I like and respect about General Hillier:

• He was an exceptional "soldier's soldier" and a military leader who put the welfare of his troops above all.
• He was recognized as one of the most charismatic and visible Canadian military leaders.
• He rarely pulled punches in his support of the military.
• General Rick Hillier refused to be muzzled by his political masters in Ottawa.
• He built a reinvigorated military after years of neglect by Ottawa.

General Rick Hillier was loved by his troops because he had the guts to always stand-up for them!!

• He told it like it was, describing the period of budget cuts to the military that began in 1994 as the decade of darkness.!

He told it like it is describing the Taliban as detestable murderers and scumbags.

General Hillier, I thank-you very much for your exceptional service to Canada, and may God Bless you sir!!!

Is Washington's Iranian Trigger Finger Getting Itchy Again?

Is the U.S. ramping-up to hit Iran? Follow the timeline and come to your own conclusion!

February '08

• The U.S. started purchasing oil for its Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The reserve of crude oil which is stored in underground salt domes stood at 96.2% capacity. But the government is topping it right up.
• Imad Mughniyah, a leader of Hezbollah, was assassinated by a car bomb in Syria.

March '08

• Washington dispatched the USS Cole to Lebanese coastal waters. Shortly after that, it was replaced with two escorts from the Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG). They are still there.
• The Israeli's announced that they would be carrying out a military exercise in April ... Code Name - Turning Point 2.
• After the announcement the Syrian's deployed 3 divisions (two armored, one mechanized) to the Lebanese-Syrian border in the Bakaa Valley, the western part of which is Hezbollah's stronghold.
• Dick Cheney visits Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey, all whose co-operation the U.S. will need if they were to attack Iran.
• German news service DPA is reporting, that according to reliable sources, after Dick Cheney's visit to Oman the Saudi Shira Council is preparing "national plans to deal with any sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards that may affect the kingdom."
• Jerusalem was notified at the last minute by the White House that they were to prepare themselves for lengthy and exhaustive discussions on Iran with Cheney and his aides.
• Israel's defense cabinet was convened to decide which of Israel's military plans of action were to be presented to Cheney.
• Admiral William Fallon who was quoted as saying that "there will be no attack on Iran on my watch" resigned (was removed) as U.S. Chief of Central Command
• U.S. nuclear submarines along with another aircraft carrier attack group have been dispatched to the Persian Gulf.
• The U.S. is deploying anti-missle defenses to protect U.S. bases and Saudi oil fields.
• According to Novosti, the Russian News & Information Agency, Russian Colonel General Leonid Tivashov said "the latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran." "The Pentagon is planning to deliver a massive air strike on Iran's military infrastructure in the near future."
• General David Patraeus declares that Iran is responsible for a major attack on Baghdad's Green Zone and the main driver of violence in Iraq.
• U.S Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) set in motion a process that could make any bank or financial institution in the world that does business with Iran subject to complete exclusion from the U.S. financial system.

April '08

• Israel commences Turning Point 2 which is the largest exercise in Israeli history and includes the calling-up of reserves. The official explanation is that the exercise is designed to test civil defenses and the ability of the national command to continue functioning in the event of an attack with "unconventional weapons."
• Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak canceled a scheduled visit to Germany at the last minute.
• Damascus has deployed the 10th Armed Corps. at the Massaneh crossing of Mount Herman. Syrian troops are now strung along a continuous crescent shaped line from the central Lebanese mountains up to southeastern Lebanon.
• The Lebanese government has started to evacuate some civilians from the south.
• Hezbollah has apparently gone on alert and mobilized its forces and is buying-up weapons and rockets.
• The U.S. Navy claims that it turned away Iranian speed boats in the Persian Gulf. Iran denies reports of the confrontation.
• General Patraeus tells Congress that Iran is the cause of the Iraqi insurgency. Blames Iran for the outbreak of fighting in Basra and Baghdad and charges that they were providing funds, training, arms, ammunition to so-called "special groups."

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, sounds like a duck ... chances are it's a duck.

If it looks like war, feels like war, sounds like war ......... chances are .................................

Here's the Garden Path that the Financial Psycopaths on Wall Street have been Leading you Down!

Banks and mortgage brokers have been "sucking" people into ARM's (Adjustable Rate Mortgages)

Unaffordable rate resets on ARM's and declining home values lead to mortgage defaults.

Which lead to the erosion of collatoral values on mortgage-backed derivatives.

Which lead to asset devaluations.

Which lead to bank insolvencies.

Which lead to the tightening of credit and increased interest rates to remove and compensate for increased risk.

Which leads to a decrease in home demand because of fewer qualified buyers and higher loan costs.

Which leads to current homeowners who are now unable to trade-up.

Which leads to declines in new homebuilding.

Which leads to job loss in the building trades and businesses which supply homebuilders.

Which reduces wages.

Which reduces consumer demand.

Which fuels a recession.

Which causes the Fed to now lower interest rates.

Which causes the Fed to expand the money supply and credit availability to avoid a recession.

Which causes inflation as money supply expands.

Which causes an erosion of wages and buying power.

Which causes a further reduction in consumer demand and spending.

Which causes a further reduction of qualified home buyers.

Which causes a further reduction in the demand for housing.

Which causes a further erosion of real estate values.

Which causes a deeper recession.

Which causes the Fed to further expand the money supply.

Which causes the interest rate to be lowered even more.

Which causes even greater inflation.

Which causes the Fed to now raise interest rates to stop the economy from totally imploding.

Which causes the cost of business to drastically increase.

Which causes corporate profits to be drastically reduced.

Which causes the cost of home ownership to drastically increase.

Which causes further reductions of real estate values.

Which causes increased loan defaults.

Which causes the recession to deepen.

Which causes the stock markets to crash and burn.

In my opinion, the War on Financial Terror should be fought right now against the psycopaths on Wall Street, the dishonest brokers, bankers, credit rating agencies, the political eunuchs in Washington and against the SCAM known as the Federal Reserve.

For it has been through the nefarious actions of these people, that the U.S. and large parts of the world, will be propelled into the greatest economic depression that the world has ever seen.

The Cantankerous Conservative Poll Results

This month we ran two polls; one for my American readers, the other for my Canadian readers. Here are the reults:

The first poll asked ... "Which of the front-running Presidential candidates do you believe has the skills necessary to "turn-around" the American economy? This is how you voted:

Clinton 3.7%
McCain 25.9%
Obama 29.6%
None of the Above 40.8%

The second question asked; "If you are a Canadian, which one of the Presidential candidates do you believe would be most beneficial to Canada from an economic perspective? This is how Canadians voted:

Clinton 13.3%
McCain 40.0%
Obama 6.7%
None of the Above 40.0%