Chuck Schumer- Give Mukasey a Chance!

A sad look back at the Mukasey hearings. This is followed by an excellent analysis of the torture issue with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and Naomi Klein.

Naomi Klein- The Shock Doctrine

I have written about this before, but thought that this recent interview was worth a look.

Matinee- No Logo Brands- Globalization

Excellent film that takes a good look at globalization and corporate branding. Hosted by Naomi Klein. Subtitulo en Español.

Shock Doctrine- US in Iraq for Years?

I read with interest bit no surprise yesterday that Bush and Iraqi PM al-Maliki had signed a long term 'agreement' committing American forces in Iraq for years. The stated purpose was to protect the government in Baghdad from internal coup plots and foreign enemies. The corrupt Iraqi government, no matter how unpopular, will be protected by its puppet masters in Washington for years to come.

Iraq's government, seeking protection against foreign threats and internal coups, will offer the U.S. a long-term troop presence in Iraq in return for U.S. security guarantees as part of a strategic partnership, two Iraqi officials said Monday.

The proposal, described to The Associated Press by two senior Iraqi officials familiar with the issue, is one of the first indications that the United States and Iraq are beginning to explore what their relationship might look like once the U.S. significantly draws down its troop presence.

In Washington, President Bush's adviser on the Iraqi war, Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, confirmed the proposal, calling it "a set of principles from which to begin formal negotiations."

What really caught my attention in the whole story was this little detail:

U.S. troops and other foreign forces operate in Iraq under a U.N. Security Council mandate, which has been renewed annually since 2003. Iraqi officials have said they want that next renewal — which must be approved by the U.N. Security Council by the end of this year — to be the last.

The two senior Iraqi officials said Iraqi authorities had discussed the broad outlines of the proposal with U.S. military and diplomatic representatives. The Americans appeared generally favorable subject to negotiations on the details, which include preferential treatment for American investments, according to the Iraqi officials involved in the discussions.

That is the real story here. We are going to prop up a puppet government in Iraq, commit our armed forces for years and continue to pay taxpayer subsidized private armies all to make Iraq safe for U.S. companies in Iraq. Was this the intention all along? Grab a foothold in the Middle East to project U.S. power through the region and have access to the many resources that are there?

As a side, I am reminded once again of Naomi Klein, author of Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Take a look at this video and how it relates to what we see today.

The Shock Doctrine- Naomi Klein

The latest offering from Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, promises to be a good read. From Publishers Weekly:

The neo-liberal economic policies—privatization, free trade, slashed social spending—that the Chicago School and the economist Milton Friedman have foisted on the world are catastrophic in two senses, argues this vigorous polemic. Because their results are disastrous—depressions, mass poverty, private corporations looting public wealth, by the author's accounting—their means must be cataclysmic, dependent on political upheavals and natural disasters as coercive pretexts for free-market reforms the public would normally reject. Journalist Klein (No Logo) chronicles decades of such disasters, including the Chicago School makeovers launched by South American coups; the corrupt sale of Russia's state economy to oligarchs following the collapse of the Soviet Union; the privatization of New Orleans's public schools after Katrina; and the seizure of wrecked fishing villages by resort developers after the Asian tsunami. Klein's economic and political analyses are not always meticulous. Likening free-market shock therapies to electroshock torture, she conflates every misdeed of right-wing dictatorships with their economic programs and paints a too simplistic picture of the Iraq conflict as a struggle over American-imposed neo-liberalism. Still, much of her critique hits home, as she demonstrates how free-market ideologues welcome, and provoke, the collapse of other people's economies. The result is a powerful populist indictment of economic orthodoxy.

I plan to start on this book next week. As I am very interested in any book relating to neo-liberalism and the effects that it has on the global economy, it should be quite interesting.

Check out this small trailer on Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism