Lost another loan to GM!

2005-03-19 14:40:12 ET I've learned today that GM owns DiTech.

Hmm

2005-03-17 15:02:53 ET http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/4354269.stm Secret US plans for Iraq's oil By Greg Palast Reporting for Newsnight The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks, sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed. Two years ago today - when President George Bush announced US, British and Allied forces would begin to bomb Baghdad - protesters claimed the US had a secret plan for Iraq's oil once Saddam had been conquered. In fact there were two conflicting plans, setting off a hidden policy war between neo-conservatives at the Pentagon, on one side, versus a combination of "Big Oil" executives and US State Department "pragmatists". "Big Oil" appears to have won. The latest plan, obtained by Newsnight from the US State Department was, we learned, drafted with the help of American oil industry consultants. Insiders told Newsnight that planning began "within weeks" of Bush's first taking office in 2001, long before the September 11th attack on the US. We saw an increase in the bombing of oil facilities and pipelines [in Iraq] built on the premise that privatisation is coming Mr Falah Aljibury An Iraqi-born oil industry consultant, Falah Aljibury, says he took part in the secret meetings in California, Washington and the Middle East. He described a State Department plan for a forced coup d'etat. Mr Aljibury himself told Newsnight that he interviewed potential successors to Saddam Hussein on behalf of the Bush administration. Secret sell-off plan The industry-favoured plan was pushed aside by a secret plan, drafted just before the invasion in 2003, which called for the sell-off of all of Iraq's oil fields. The new plan was crafted by neo-conservatives intent on using Iraq's oil to destroy the Opec cartel through massive increases in production above Opec quotas. The sell-off was given the green light in a secret meeting in London headed by Ahmed Chalabi shortly after the US entered Baghdad, according to Robert Ebel. Mr Ebel, a former Energy and CIA oil analyst, now a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told Newsnight he flew to the London meeting at the request of the State Department. Mr Aljibury, once Ronald Reagan's "back-channel" to Saddam, claims that plans to sell off Iraq's oil, pushed by the US-installed Governing Council in 2003, helped instigate the insurgency and attacks on US and British occupying forces. "Insurgents used this, saying, 'Look, you're losing your country, you're losing your resources to a bunch of wealthy billionaires who want to take you over and make your life miserable,'" said Mr Aljibury from his home near San Francisco. "We saw an increase in the bombing of oil facilities, pipelines, built on the premise that privatisation is coming." Privatisation blocked by industry Philip Carroll, the former CEO of Shell Oil USA who took control of Iraq's oil production for the US Government a month after the invasion, stalled the sell-off scheme. Mr Carroll told us he made it clear to Paul Bremer, the US occupation chief who arrived in Iraq in May 2003, that: "There was to be no privatisation of Iraqi oil resources or facilities while I was involved." Ariel Cohen, of the neo-conservative Heritage Foundation, told Newsnight that an opportunity had been missed to privatise Iraq's oil fields. He advocated the plan as a means to help the US defeat Opec, and said America should have gone ahead with what he called a "no-brainer" decision. Mr Carroll hit back, telling Newsnight, "I would agree with that statement. To privatize would be a no-brainer. It would only be thought about by someone with no brain." New plans, obtained from the State Department by Newsnight and Harper's Magazine under the US Freedom of Information Act, called for creation of a state-owned oil company favoured by the US oil industry. It was completed in January 2004 under the guidance of Amy Jaffe of the James Baker Institute in Texas. Formerly US Secretary of State, Baker is now an attorney representing Exxon-Mobil and the Saudi Arabian government. View segments of Iraq oil plans at www.GregPalast.com Questioned by Newsnight, Ms Jaffe said the oil industry prefers state control of Iraq's oil over a sell-off because it fears a repeat of Russia's energy privatisation. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, US oil companies were barred from bidding for the reserves. Ms Jaffe says US oil companies are not warm to any plan that would undermine Opec and the current high oil price: "I'm not sure that if I'm the chair of an American company, and you put me on a lie detector test, I would say high oil prices are bad for me or my company." The former Shell oil boss agrees. In Houston, he told Newsnight: "Many neo conservatives are people who have certain ideological beliefs about markets, about democracy, about this, that and the other. International oil companies, without exception, are very pragmatic commercial organizations. They don't have a theology." A State Department spokesman told Newsnight they intended "to provide all possibilities to the Oil Ministry of Iraq and advocate none". Greg Palast's film - the result of a joint investigation by Newsnight and Harper's Magazine - will be broadcast on Thursday, 17 March, 2005. Newsnight is broadcast every weekday at 10.30pm on BBC Two in the UK.

Query: Does Work = More Personal Entries?

2005-03-08 16:25:59 ET I've been working for what... three weeks now? I still haven't cashed in my paycheck and I've been living off Teddy money for the past month or so. For those who don't know, Teddy is my Guyanese friend who runs a site that sells business and dress suits and hats for women. Anyway I'm saving up all my cash for... I'm not quite sure what for yet. But I am saving it up. May be for a rifle/shotgun license? I'll have to talk with the local police department about fees and applying. In other news, after work I had decided to drop by one of the many Duane Reade pharmacies situated around my work area. Apparently this one had a DVD rack and that DVD rack contained a DVD copy of... RED DAWN. Oh yes... once I've finished creaming my pants I've bought it for the low price of ten doubloons. I think it's the perfect movie for my Soviet family. If I ever get a car I'd go for a Scion xB. We have one at work as the official company "van". It's inexpensive, gets good mileage, and looks like an ugly box on wheels. Ugly box = More room. That's if I'll get a car and that's a pretty big if considering the cost of insurance and all that. Still I'm quite sure I can afford it. 3 comments

Oh man

2005-02-20 19:04:50 ET I hope this is fake: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050221/ap_on_re_us/obit_thompson Author Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself 20 minutes ago ASPEN, Colo. - Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," fatally shot himself Sunday night at his home, his son said. He was 67. "Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family," Juan Thompson said in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News. Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis, a personal friend of Thompson, confirmed the death to the News. Sheriff's officials did not return calls to The Associated Press late Sunday. Juan Thompson found his father's body. Thompson's wife, Anita, was not home at the time. Besides the 1972 drug-hazed classic about Thompson's time in Las Vegas, he is credited with pioneering New Journalism — or "gonzo journalism" — in which the writer made himself an essential component of the story. An acute observer of the decadence and depravity in American life, Thompson wrote such books as "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail" in 1973 and the collections "Generation of Swine" and "Songs of the Doomed." His first ever novel, "The Rum Diary," written in 1959, was first published in 1998. Other books include "Hell's Angels" and "The Proud Highway." His most recent effort was "Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and The Downward Spiral of Dumbness."

Call For Good Time

2005-02-20 08:58:02 ET Thanks to Leoz for this link: http://www.illmob.org/tmobile/ The numbers still work. 7 comments

Update.

2005-02-15 14:56:21 ET So I've got a job. This means I shall have the moneys. This also means that I get up at 0550. Oh well. As for the Sten, I was right. It was the trigger all along. I've got a replacement one by mail the other day (along with all the replacemnt pins) and now the trigger assembly works great. I think I'll spend my first paycheck (whenever I'll get it) on either tools or gold. 6 comments

I got bored.

2005-02-09 00:32:16 ET Well I've finally gotten around to ordering a new trigger. I've bought replacement pins too just in case I lose any. I didn't opt for the springs since the place I'm buying from was sold out. In the meantime, in a fit of boredom, I've decided to disassemble the trigger assembly. Once I did that I figured I'd try to bend the top nub (the one that wasn't cut off completely but was instead attached by a millimeter of steel) back to its proper shape. I did that and reassembled the trigger assembly. Yup, that's what was causing the problem alright. Now the sear stays put in the tripping lever notch even when I press the selector button. It should be perfect with a new trigger. I'm hoping it gets here soon. 1 comment

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