Friday 26th of April 2024

bushit sacrifice .....

‘Iraq has the third largest oil reserves in the world but yesterday drivers were forming mile-long queues outside petrol stations, knowing that they would spend the night in their cars before they could fill up.

Only six weeks ago, Baghdad's streets were jammed with traffic. Now they are nearly empty because pumps have all but run dry.

The official explanation is attacks on infrastructure. A pipeline from the northern oilfields around Kirkuk was targeted last month while the Beiji power station, one of the country's largest, was partially closed after workers fled following death threats.

But drivers quequing outside the Muthana petrol station in central Baghdad suggested that the real reason was crooked officials in the oil ministry. They accused officials of selling fuel to criminal gangs who sell it abroad at a huge profit. 

The shortage could have more far-reaching consequences than creating misery for Baghdad's car owners. It is the latest sign that the economy may be on the brink of collapse. Inflation is running at 50 per cent, corruption is rife and, most importantly, the end of next month will bring to a close the American-funded reconstruction programme, even though electricity in Baghdad remains on for one hour in three at best.’

All-Night Queues As Baghdad Runs Out Of Petrol

Same here, in Orstraliar

From the Telegraph, UK

Inflation is 10pc for middle class

By Robert Watts
(Filed: 20/08/2006)

The [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/08/20/ninflat20.xml|"real" rate of inflation] hitting middle-class households is as high as 10 per cent - more than four times the Government's official rate, it is claimed.
Economists are warning that the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the benchmark measure of inflation, is "meaningless" to millions of consumers, who have been victims of staggering rises in the cost of energy, council tax and school fees over the past 12 months.

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Gus: Johnnee would have us to believe that the High Cost of housing in his Orstraliar is either due to the rarity of bananas or that the states have taxes... But it certainly is "not" (wink-wink) due to his economic fiddles that have pushed the cost of education (his university fees now as expensive as a house when they used to be free), health (he gutted medicare in favour of private insurance that does not cover the "gap"), housing boom (his encouragement to buy, buy buy pushing the price triple beyond a normal wallet), transport (his direct fault through wagging little wars to support his mate little Bushie) and of course not to mention his bananas... If interests rates are the measure of a hot booming economy, gees, Keating was doing three times better than Johnnee is... and things were more free then!... Including freedom... And Keating was dealing with a lot more thieves in the business world... since the banks were dishing out Swiss money as if it was lolly water... He put the lid on it, in his own flamboyant style but he did it, and by the end of Labor, Opportunist Johnnee reaped the benefits... But now the interest rates are Higher your Honour than when Keating departed...
And if the interest rates are at 6 per cent, the true "inflation" — not that lead balloon calculated by the Reserve Bank — is 10 per cent...

more bushit democracy .....

‘Democracy has long been derided by some of its most loyal adherents. Churchill said that: "Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others," while Woody Allen said something to the effect that "I believe in completely open and honest Democracy... but I also think the American system can work."

Bush's Midas touch has turned Democracy into a sort of fundamentalism - a stand-in for whatever is in the Bush administration's best interest.’

Bush Thinking Of 'Replacing' Iraqi Government