‘It’s both fascinating and
dismaying watching the manufactured `crisis’ over Iran reach new intensity each
week. 

Iran poses no real military
threat to anyone, but listening to the Bush Administration or the US media one
would think that that Tehran was about to unleash a nuclear holocaust on the
world. 

What we are seeing is a rerun of
the administration’s massive propaganda offensive that led to the invasion of
Iraq. There is also no doubt that the Bush Administration has been planning a
major air war against Iran. 

 
Richard Clarke flags
consequences of bombing Iran 

Reporter: Maxine McKew 

MAXINE McKEW: ‘While the UN
Security Council tries to grapple with Iran's open defiance of nuclear
regulators …..’ 

‘Thirteen years ago the federal government of the United
States ended its altercation with a group of peaceful religious separatists – a
conflict the government had initiated – by driving a tank through the Branch
Davidians’ home and church, pumping the interior with poisonous gas, and
keeping the fire engines at a distance while the building and the people inside
burned. 

For many Americans, Waco
represented the nightmare their government had become. In those days, it was
the right that spoke out against unchecked government power, erosions of the
Bill of Rights, and the imperial executive. Such criticism was tempered in its
radicalism over the next decade, for a variety of reasons.

 
‘"I listen to all voices, but mine is the final
decision," he said. "And Don Rumsfeld is doing a fine job. He's not
only transforming the military, he's fighting a war on terror. He's helping us
fight a war on terror. I have strong confidence in Don Rumsfeld. 

"I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I
know the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And
what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."’ 

thanks
for the “flim-flam” maxine …… 

Oil Price Increase
Prompts Inflation Fears - 7:30 Report

Oil prices driven up by supply
issues, demand issues, speculation, the Iran crisis, global warming, 4 wheel
drive purchases, inclement weather, the untimely death of Kerry Packer, the UN
oil-for-food scandal, Brokeback Mountain, junior’s “war on terra”, Easter &
of course, my old Aunt Mary’s oil heater.

The Center for American
Progress reports …..  

‘In the first three months of
2006, the Bush administration has failed to achieve substantial progress on the
security and reconstruction of Iraq, even though there have been some
achievements in forming a democratic government. Thousands of U.S. soldiers and
diplomats continue to serve their country bravely but they remain tied to the
stay-the-course policies of President Bush and his top policy and political
leadership. Judging the administration’s Iraq policy as a whole, the Center for
American Progress gives the Bush administration a “D” for its performance in
the first quarter of 2006. 

‘Tony Blair will return from his Easter
break this week to face a police investigation into the most damaging political
scandal of his premiership.  

Senior government figures are expected to be
interviewed by police officers this week over the "cash for honours"
crisis and insiders said last night the Prime Minister was being briefed by
lawyers who believe he may have to make a statement in the ongoing
investigation.  

‘The fortress-like compound
rising beside the Tigris River here will be the largest of its kind in the
world, the size of Vatican City, with the population of a small town, its own
defense force, self-contained power & water, & a precarious perch at
the heart of Iraq’s
turbulent future. 

‘On a warm September day in 1920,
a few months after the arrest of his comrades Sacco and Vanzetti, a vengeful
Italian anarchist named Mario Buda parked his horse-drawn wagon near the corner
of Wall and Broad Streets, directly across from J. P. Morgan Company. He
nonchalantly climbed down and disappeared, unnoticed, into the lunchtime crowd. 

A few blocks away, a startled
postal worker found strange leaflets warning: "Free the Political
Prisoners or it will be Sure Death for All of You!" They were signed:
"American Anarchist Fighters." 

a buzzflash editorial …..

What we have going on amidst the
generals, present and former, is a mutiny. It's not an armed one, not yet.

When most Americans think of a
mutiny, they think of armed crew members seizing the captain and taking over
command of a ship, as in the famed "Mutiny on the Bounty."

But, what we are seeing in the United States is a public rebuke of the
commander-in-chief, his vice president and his secretary of defense, Donald
Rumsfeld, without an active military revolt as of yet - although that can't be
ruled out. 

‘As stockholders filed into the room in April 2005, news
hadn't been good for Coke, which has steadily lost market share to rivals.
Investors were eager for reassurance from CEO Neville Isdell, a patrician
Irishman who had recently assumed the top job. Few in the room, however, were
prepared for what happened next. As Isdell stood at the podium, two long lines
formed at the microphones. When he opened the floor, the first to speak was Ray
Rogers, a veteran union organizer and head of the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke.
"I want to know what [Coke is] going to do to regain the trust and
credibility in order to stop the growing movement worldwide...banning Coke
products," boomed the 62-year-old. 

‘My most reliable sources for articles are government
officials who do or say things that, inadvertently, reveal the vicious nature
of political systems. It is not so much that these people are too stupid to
realize the implications of their words or deeds but, rather, that they are so
convinced of the propriety of what they are doing that they see no problem in
openly expressing themselves. 

Thanks to Wendy
McElroy we now have access to the State of Virginia’s directive, to state
employees, on how to identify and deal with threats of “terrorism.” The
governor signed off on this document, declaring the state’s purpose of
“safeguarding the people of Virginia.” A close reading, however, discloses a
different purpose, namely, to protect the state from “the people of
Virginia.” 

‘Average Americans are struggling to keep up with persistently high gas
prices, now
approaching US$3 a gallon.  

Testifying before Congress last November, Exxon CEO Lee Raymond blamed the
problem on “global supply and demand” and assured the public that: "we're all in this
together".  

‘The definition of "failed states" is hardly
scientific. But they share some primary characteristics. 

They are unable or unwilling to
protect their citizens from violence and perhaps even destruction. They regard
themselves as beyond the reach of domestic or international law, hence free to
carry out aggression and violence. And if they have democratic forms, they
suffer from a serious "democratic deficit" that deprives their formal
democratic institutions of real substance.