Ahlschwede Blog

Our future in Iraq

The success of the recent troop surge in reducing Iraqi civilian casualties at the cost of increased US casualties has muddied that waters about our future in Iraq. It's no longer clear that the best result for the citizens of Iraq will be produced by the immediate removal of our soldiers from the country.

Gerard Powers recently gave a speech that where he gives concerns like these a voice.  Take a listen.

OPEC Has Reached Output Limit

Somehow this news got buried on Saturday or I just haven't been paying attention, but an Algerian Minister announced that OPEC has reached production capacity. This is bad news; if you've been falling asleep too easily at night, go Google for peak oil.It's baffling to me that we still give tax incentives for buying SUVs.

Buffet Warns of Sharecropper's Society

I'm sure Buffet's recent remarks are going to make a splash tody. One thing he omits that I would point out is that not only are we funneling money to foreign interests via our national debt, but we are incurring debt to return taxes to the richest Americans. Rich Americans who will then invest their money in foreign businesses instead of America. Why? Because capital always follows the greatest return and we're not it because our high debt is bleeding value from our currency, it's what I call Trickle Out Economics.

Bush Economic Policy Coming Home to Roost?

In the past I've been pretty harsh on President Bush's monetary policy, and today there's more bad news on that front. As reported on Marketplace this morning, short term inflation is outpacing  interest rates,  which looks like it will lead to an inverted yield curve for debt instruments. (An economic phenominon which usually precedes a recession.) So, I hope you've all enjoyed the "economic boom" of the last few years - it looks like it's about to end.

I'm sure someone else can do research to lead us to the ultimate cause of this event, but I have my own theory. (A theory for which I have no immediate data, perfect for the Internet. :) ) I think that President Bush's policy is working, and is increasing the cost of foreign goods. The problem is that we can't just snap back into manufacturing things in the US. Whole industries have been offshored, so when the cost of those goods increase we don't switch to domestic suppliers, we just pay more - which leads to inflation. This has created a record $617.7 billion trade defecit. Now trade defecits aren't always bad, but they are when you're also discouraging foreign investment, as we are by deflating the value of the dollar.

Again, these are the negative effects of President Bush's consistent economic policy - I'm still curious what the heck he thinks the upside is for the American people.

Dollar Continues Its Devaluation

I hate to be someone who says "I told you so", but see, this, the continued devaluation of the dollar, is exactly what I was warning about here. If Bush doesn't get the economic house in order, I'm afraid we're headed for economic downturn. It's exactly this type of economic dynamic that negates the tax cuts (trickle-down economics become trickle-out economics as capital seeks the highest return), and bleeds our country of working capital.

Who knows, maybe Bush will reverse economic course - maybe he plans to replace all the lost foreign capital with funds from the privatization of Social Security, mandating that those funds can only be invested in American markets or some ofther such scheme. I'm anxious to see how he plans to fix the economic mess he's created. Just pray he isn't planning on devaluing our way out of debt.

Oh heck

Well, as I'm sure you're all aware John Kerry has called George Bush to concede the election. Although I don't like the results, I'm glad the election didn't turn into a protracted legal battle. At least Kerry won 2:1 on Slashdot. :)

Bush Supporters Not Paying Attention?

Yahoo! News is carrying a baffling new study that shows that 3 out of 4 Bush supporters are not just confused about the facts in Iraq, but also don't understand the President's positions (that is they believe his positions to be different than what he has openly stated). If this study is correct, I would interpret it as showing that long ago most of Bush's supporters made an emotional decision to re-elect George W Bush, and are filtering out facts about the World and statements by the President himself that don't fit that conclusion. To be honest, I'd be a bit more comfortable if it was found that this study was flawed, but it's fascinating if it's true.

Republican Vote Fraud Deepens

New news on the apparent attempt to pervert the democratic system by destroying voter registrations that I mentioned the other day.

More employees have come forward to verify the acusations.
The group was active in more states than Oregon and Nevada, they targeted a number of swing states.
This is the same Republican group that was trying to get Nader on the ballot.
The Republican National Committee has paid the group more than $600,000.
More informaion here.

Integrity, Integrity, Integrity

After last night's debate I think I'm more relaxed than I've been in a long time. How Kerry would stand up to G.W.'s famous charisma has been my longest running concern in this election (Early on after the Democratic primary in Iowa I worried to friends that Kerry was "too lame to be President"), but last night's debate proved my fears unfounded. Kerry came across as serious on the issues as he's always been, but last night he was more sincere and more human than I've ever seen him. William Saletan provides my favorite look at the debate over on Slate, Grand Slam: Kerry crushes Bush in the third debate.

Republican National Committee Defrauds Voters

In the entire history of the American Republic, this is probably one of the most potentially disastrous crimes I've ever heard of. Apparently the Republican National Committee funded a private company, Voters Outreach of America aka America Votes, that went out and took voter registrations at a number of public places, including malls, grocery stores, and in front of government buildings. Then, in violation of the law, they destroyed registration forms filled out by Democrats and only filed the forms filled out by Republicans. They are known to have operated in Nevada and Oregon.

Update: This organization used the name America Votes to create confusion that it was the real America Votes, which is backed by Democrats. [source: Mail Tribune