I was thinking about the problem Republicans have with the economic effect of cutting capital gains taxes (wait, it gets more exciting soon). The basic effect is an oversupply of venture capital, which leads to a bubble -- the stock market bubble in the 20s, the tech bubble in the 90s, and the housing bubble in this decade. The bubble eventually bursts, and unless the rest of fiscal and monetary policy is sound, the economy is in trouble.

The key, it seemed to me, was to get rid of the oversupply of goods produced by putting all that venture capital to work. (Keep waiting; I'm getting close.) And what more obvious way to rid ourselves of excess goods than by war? War, after all, creates a constant demand for goods, which can be used to balance the excess supply, thus preventing the bubble that eventually bursts.

Then the light bulb went on (here it is) -- I wasn't the first to think of this. This theory was expressed fifty years ago in Orwell's classic book, 1984. I actually haven't read the book in at least 25 years, but the "writings of Emmanuel Goldstein" made such an impression 'way back when that they have stuck with me all those years.

The most ignored story off the day, ignored even on Daily Kos as the Edwards "scandal" hits, is the new war between Russia and Georgia. I don't know how much I can inform people about this, but it is the latest war in the trans-Caucus flashpoint that perhaps you remember includes Chechnya.

Today, Russian tanks invaded Georgia territory to support a break away Republican called South Ossetia. Georgia considered this an act of war and there is currently fierce fighting between Russian and Georgian forces within South Ossetia.

AfterDowningStreet.org has an amazing historical overview on why tomorrow there will be massive demonstrations and labor union strikes all across the country : 122 years of the 8 hour week and end of child labor, 5 years of "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq, 3 years since the discovery of the Downing Street Minutes, 2 years since the nation-wide immigration rallies of 2006, almost 2 years ago when Nanci Pelosi and Democrats in Congress and the Senate took the impeachment of George Bush for misleading the country to war, "off the table". Yet in one of the most mindboggling examples of the Bush Administration's information war against Americans, May 1st has been declared Loyalty Day.

And here's the thing : You and I know that when it comes down to it, the war against immigrants is a war against labor which is part of a larger attack from the only people who benefit from the other kind of corporate-led violence like the occupation of Iraq.

As my friend Roberto Lovato said earlier, paraphrasing ActUP, "Silence = Death". If you are like me, you hate marches but you go to them because you know that as a symbol of solidarity in dissent you need to go.

So dust off your walking shoes and get your arse to the streets and square tomorrow at 2 or 3pm.

Friday, March 14, 7 pm

Jerry Stiller & Ann Meara, Laura Flanders, Bill Fletcher, Carolyn Eisenberg, Jonathan Tasini, Diane Shamis, Frances Anderson, Vin Gopal, Ina Howard-Parker, Jeff Cohen, Barry Keating, Bob Fertik, Dana Balicki, Judith LeBlanc and Norman Solomon

Invite you to a special Benefit Screening of the acclaimed documentary: "War Made Easy"

A benefit for Progressive Democrats of America and their 2008 election-year organizing efforts

Post-show reception with Laura Flanders, Norman Solomon, and Introducing PDA-endorsed candidate in the 13th Congressional District Steve Harrison

Date: Friday, March 14, 2008 at 7:00pm
Location: The Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13th Street, New York, NY 10011

Post Show Reception: The Kaplan Room in the GLBT Center 208 W. 13th Street
Tickets: $100.

Purchase tickets on line at www.pdamerica.org
For more information email: frances@pdamerica.org

About the film: "WAR MADE EASY: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning us to Death"

Here are more of Elizabeth Upton's student submissions to 10Questions.com. They are in the CUNY Language Immersion Program at LaGuardia Community College.

The previous videos are here.

Maria has a simple question about Iraq:

Magdalena is worried about the internet :

Elizabeth wants to know about how they will handle violence in schools:

House Democrats announced plans to vote on a new State-Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) bill Thursday, October 25, 2007. SCHIP light is designed to pry a few GOP votes from President Bush – eliminates “illegal” immigrant children from coverage (they’ve never been covered by Federal funds, but some state programs cover “illegal” children), reduces the maximum family income (from 80,000 to 60,000) and transitions adults now covered under SCHIP to other programs in one year (as compared to two in the vetoed version). The New York Times report is here and the Washington Post’s here

Update: The House passed its new version of S-CHIP last night The vote was 265 to 142. The AP (via Newsday) explains "The 265 votes cast for the measure came up seven shy of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. In addition, 14 Republicans who voted to sustain Bush's original veto were absent." Will seven of those 14 who dodged the vote abandon their sinking, stinking leader, or go down with the ship? The NY Times has a good graphic of the roll call here NY's "Randy" Kuhl and Tom Reynolds voted with Bush as did three New Jersey Republicans: Rodney Frelinghusen, Scott Garrett and Jim Saxton.

President Bush’s White House threatens further vetoes because it wants to spend less on insuring children and more on the war.

President Bush waited until he had vetoed a relatively inexpensive children’s health insurance bill before asking for tens of billions of dollars more for his misadventure in Iraq. The cynicism of that maneuver is only slightly less shameful than the president’s distorted priorities. Despite a pretense of fiscal prudence, Mr. Bush keeps throwing money at his war, regardless of the cost in blood, treasure or children’s health care.

If the New York Times get the connection between S-CHIP and the war, so should the rest of us. March Saturday against the Iraq war. For a good, quick, easy to read analysis of Mr. Bush's pro-war spending priorities (which could exceed $2.4 trillion )by the Economic Policy Institute click here . Would a powerful pro-march, anti-war Video by Robert Greenwald make it easier for you to march? Click here

“First of all, stop the bleeding.”
--perhaps the most often repeated line in Khassan Baiev’s memoirs, Grief of my Heart

Grief of my Heart is the memoir of Khassan Baiev, a Chechen surgeon who was a witness to both Russo-Chechen wars since the fall of the Soviet Union. Baiev stayed in Chechnya through most of these two wars treating the wounded on all sides: wounded Chechen civilians, wounded Russian civilians who lived in Chechnya, wounded Chechen fighters, wounded Russian soldiers. He helped Chechens escape the Russians and Russians escape the Chechens. And through it all he helped keep his family alive and together.

May 1st, 2003, Bush announced "Mission Accomplished"

And we are STILL bogged down in the Iraq quagmire four years later, with more than 3300 American soldiers dead, still no clear purpose, no exit strategy, no nothing. We are bogged down, with a new McCain/Bush/Lieberman escalation putting more time, money and troops into the war based on lies in Iraq while Osama bin Laden is free as a bird, and al-Qaeda, the people who actually attacked us, stronger than ever.

Yeah...Mission Accomplished declared May 1st, 2003...here is what Michael Moore had to say about it:

Mission accomplished. And yet, the money and the blood keep flowing. The following is released in honor of the 4th Anniversary of "Mission Accomplished" by Americans United for Change:

Rudy Giuliani has just shown that he is as much a lying fearmonger as Karl Rove or any other Bush administration toady. From Politico:

Rudy Giuliani said if a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001.

But if a Republican is elected, he said, especially if it is him, terrorist attacks can be anticipated and stopped.

“If any Republican is elected president —- and I think obviously I would be the best at this —- we will remain on offense and will anticipate what [the terrorists] will do and try to stop them before they do it,” Giuliani said.

Ummmm...let's review some history, Rudy. Ronald Reagan and the elected Bush both SUPPORTED the Muslim fanatics that evolved into al-Qaeda. Bill Clinton is the one who first recognized them as a threat and tried to get them. The attack he ordered after the bombing of the USS Coles hit the location where bin Laden had JUST LEFT. The Clinton administration PREVENTED the millenium attacks. Clinton was so focused on getting al-Qaeda that the Republicans called him "obsessed" with al-Qaeda and he TOLD Bush that al-Qaeda would be the number one focus of Bush's administration.

I swear. John McCain once seemed reasonable to me. But he has become the worst, most glibly foolish war monger in the running, it seems. From MoveOn.org (the group that has recently teamed up with VoteVets.org to give our veterans more of a voice):

At a campaign stop on Wednesday, Sen. John McCain was asked what to do about Iran. His response? He sang "bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" to the tune of the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann."

Seriously.

He says it was a joke, but the bottom line is that it is reckless saber-rattling against Iran at a time when tensions are high. Will you help us counter his message on TV?

McCain is laughing at the idea of unilaterally attacking Iran.

McCain is, in effect, laughing at this:

and this: (from the New England Journal of Medicine via The Memory Hole)

Because THAT is what his Iraq Escalation/Iran attack would produce more of. Dead and wounded American soldiers. And for what? NEITHER Iraq under Hussein nor Iraq have had any dealings with al-Qaeda. Why aren't we fighting al-Qaeda. While McCain wants to expand the Iraq quagmire into Iran, al-Qaeda is also expanding, entering Iraq thanks to us, expanding in Somalia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Algeria, Morocco...and extremists are taking power in Bahrain. And McCain wants to make it all worse.