Debating Neocon (Stan Goff)

[aneerkoinos]

http://www.counterpunch.org/goff11102004.html

EXCELLENT reading, any quote won't do it justice. Enjoy!

[mhr]

1. Too Bad Most Of Us Don't Have Soap Boxes For Dueling

Regardless, if these neocons get beaten up too many times they will simply retreat behind state sponsored media where all attacks will be blocked.

[aneerkoinos]

2. Did you read it? n/t

[mhr]

3. Yes - From The First Paragraph To The Last Line

Does not change the fact that most of us have no outlets for this type of public expression.

Without such outlets our impact is quite limited.

[aneerkoinos]

4. What is your conclusion, then?

Whine about your impotence and support the next pro-war, pro-corporate Dem campaign doomed to loose?

Think about something new, something liberating to do, to make impact?

[mhr]

6. Look, I've Tried Organizing Democrats On Several Occasions

It has always been a waste of time. Why, because the democrats treat politics as an episodic event. Whereas, the republicans learned long ago that politics is 24/7.

I have lots of ideas to make a difference. They all require more commitment in time or money or both than local work-a-day democrats are prepared to give.

That is just the way it is. That is why I made the comments I did. If you have no megaphone for stimulating dormant brain cells in the body politic, your efforts are nothing more than pissing in the wind.

[aneerkoinos]

8. Making megaphone

Perhaps making it about Democrats is the wrong route; it is, if you agree with Goff's analysis. It does not need to be about party politics at all, just telling it like it is. Peak Oil and Washingtons (Scorpion's) response to failing petrodollar empire.

There are activists and NGO's everywhere, working 24/7, but perhaps not so many in the Democratic Party. Making up a citizen funded TV channel for podium is one idea, or pirate radio or something. Perhaps that is not where your talent lies.

Letter writing is even simpler and cheaper. Deaniacs used that succesfully to sell Dean, sending letters to ordinary people telling the truth about America's oil addiction and war would not be a bad idea. Something everybody can start by themselves without needing to bother work-a-day democrats. Who knows, when somebody starts, it might snowball.

Share your ideas.

[mhr]

9. Tried To Organize Committees Of Correspondence On Steroids

No one in the Dallas, TX area was remotely interested.

I like the citizens channel Idea and have the skills to organize and run it. However, raising the capital required to actually do it is quite another thing.

After all my organizing efforts, I have come to the conclusion that most democrats are barely getting by and have so little left over that raising money is a non-starter.

This is why the Democratic party relied on a free and fair press for so many years. Since the press is now ultra-conservative, that stabilizing influence is no longer there.

I saw an article 6 months ago about some ex silicon valley CEO types that had a proposal to do the citizens channel idea. Apparently, even with all their pull, nothing came of it.

So much of this is "been there done that."

[aneerkoinos]

10. Citizen's channel

obviously needs good minds working together. All I can do is throw ideas and share what little information I have.

The fund that was created to fund Narconews seems to have potential, if not directly as model. Al Giordano to me seems like a player you should mail to for advice if you are serious about the idea (he's got a school for journalism with a big talent pool and zillions of connections). For money (but not control in any way), Hollywood is loaded with it, I thing Michael Moore, to start with, owe's something to the community. ;)

For one thing, I think the ABB campaign (and attitude) drained all the energy, now that the energy sink is mostly done with, progressives and other activists might be once again ready to do some real work for their communities. Remember, there's life outside Democratic party if and when working in that context gets too frustrating.

[JennC]

5. Excellent article. Cut the BS quite cleanly.

[peacetalksforall]

7. Highly recommend it. Read two or more times because it is not

the usual rhetoric. Very educational.

[al bupp]

11. The Moral of the Story:

Do not accept the premises upon which the neo-cons want to debate. Perhaps it's one reason Kerry did not do better.

[JennC]

12. kick

[al bupp]

13. A Key Excerpt Here

This really is a brilliant piece. I wish everyone here at DU would take the time to read it. The following constitutes what I think is a key point. The emphasis is mine.

Global capitalism runs on fossil energy, but the United States does not have to take oil from anyone. Every oil producing nation, including Iraq, has been perfectly willing to sell oil to the United States. It is cheaper to buy oil that it is to steal it with military action. The issue of oil is an issue not of production but of increasing demand between competitors in a period when we have nearly reached the peak of production output.

Global demand now is at 79.5 million barrels of oil a day. The International Energy Agency and the Department of Energy predict global demand of 115 mbd by 2020, but that is based on demand rising at 1-1.25% per year. In fact, demand is rising at twice that rate. Yet industry experts who are not spinning figures to reassure stockholders tell us that with massive improvements in infrastructure and perfect political stability, the highest output achievable is around 85 mbd. This year, China passed Japan as the world's second largest importer of crude oil.

So the question of oil is not a question of taking it. It's the question of the mathematics of it when global capitalist competition continues to trend toward 100 mbd by the end of the decade, when there's not adequate flow pressure to meet that demand. Someone gets cut. And someone decides who gets cut. Establishing permanent military bases in the very region where over half the remaining easily accessible reserves exist goes a long way toward putting the power that controls those bases in the driver's seat. As a friend of mine once said, "Oil is not a normal commodity. No other commodity has five US Navy battle groups patrolling the sea lanes to secure it."