Today's Congress Party victory on the No-Confidence motion in New Dehli got scant coverage in U.S. media, reported more in the business press for its likely trade benefits to the American nuclear industry than for its profound social implications and probable beneficial impact with respect to Global Warming. The Indian decision to greatly expand its use of Carbon-free sources to meet its rapidly growing energy demand is the single greatest victory to date on Climate Change.

Running neck and neck for that title, however, is the epiphany of veteran oilman T. Boone Pickens, now an evangelist for a greatly expanded U.S. Wind Power sector, who recently dug into his very deep pockets to risk $4 Billion of his own cash on the world's largest wind energy project. His plan to convert 20% of American electric generating capacity to Renewable Energy represents greater progress on Climate Change and Energy Independence than all of the policies of the last eight administrations - of both parties - put together.

These are cause for Hope... (more...)

In an astounding realization of Sir Francis Galton’s (cousin of Charles Darwin and himself a noted African explorer) idea to "tame" Africa:

"My proposal is to make the encouragement of Chinese settlements of Africa a part of our national policy, in the belief that the Chinese immigrants would not only maintain their position, but that they would multiply and their descendants supplant the inferior Negro race."

"I should expect that the African seaboard, now sparsely occupied by lazy, palavering savages, might in a few years be tenanted by industrious, order-loving Chinese, living either as a semidetached dependency of China, or else in perfect freedom under their own law."

China is advancing a systematic and sweeping colonization and exploitation of the continent of Africa, while arming and instigating tribal warfare among Africans in the process.

The G8 used to be criticized as an evil capitalist group of powerful countries that determines world politics and economics without legitimacy like the UN. There has not been much of such criticism at this year's summit in Japan.

Golly that 8-8-08 date is creeping up quick. And I just realized, I think I might just forgo the whole thing. Or had you forgotten about China?

The world's most populous country?
The world's largest polluter? (Dubya got his facts wrong again; fuzzy math)
Ring a bell yet?

The marketing buzz detailed in today's NY Times shows that the world yearns for Chinese cash.

For most international brands here, China is the growth market for the next 10 years...Olympic-related advertising in China could reach $4 billion to $6 billion this year

Why we should re-evaluate embracing China after the jump.

I was hoping that someone here who knows something about politics in Africa could confirm, deny, or otherwise comment on this story from The Mail. There has been some discussion of it on digg, but I'd like to hear from someone who knows more about the situation.

The article claims that "750,000 Chinese have settled in Africa over the past decade" in a concerted effort to strip the continent of all natural wealth, to gain near-exclusive access to its markets, and to use it as overflow space to accomodate Chinese people and pollution.

Al Gore's latest plea for energy whatever it is was laden with some blatant misrepresentations. He said something like this, the USA borrows money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf which we then burn and by burning we will cover the continents with ocean in ten years from the effects of the CO2 melting the polar ice caps if we don't all build a wind mill in our back yard. Actually my problem is with the first part.

We do not borrow money from China to buy Persian Gulf oil. China invests it's trade surplus created, excess dollars in our Government debt. And because of the Petro Dollar, China needs US Dollars to participate in oil global oil markets. The Petro dollar just didn't sort of evolve on it's own from some sort of need for convenience. No, the petro dollar was fought for by Henry Kissinger during the Nixon administration which was coincidentally the same time Nixon was opening relations with China. All while China was helping North Viet Nam defeat us in the Viet Nam War. Small world, no?

Does Obama have the guts to lead a change in our global military strategy? Are Iraq and Afghanistan merely giant pimples on a much greater obscenity that seems too big to focus on?

Per Al-Jazeera, as part of new defense strategy, the United States is currently spending billions of dollars to turn Guam into the new Okinawa.Two thirds of the estimated cost of $15 billion will be to relocate 8,000 soldiers from Okinawa. But it's the hardware that has the locals worried.

US building up Guam base

On the apron, old but still operational B-52 bombers... were standing by....The US outpost will see a whole array of the latest military hardware including nuclear-powered Trident submarines which can fire Tomahawk cruise missiles and unmanned Global Hawk spy aircraft.....By next year, the base will receive the latest state-of-the-art F-22 fighter jets, reflecting Guam’s strategic defence position in a volatile part of the world.

You may have seen today's NYT article titled "Gore Wants U.S. to Abandon Fossil Fuels by 2018."  Obama has already hailed Gore's speech, which was delivered at a D.C. energy conference; no doubt the cable news shows are already asqueak with the outraged cries of Lilliputians and the dismissive laughter of pundits who make Homer Simpson look like a geophysicist. That's why I don't watch cable news.

Gore's prescription is typically powerful and bears his characteristic mix of gravity and optimism.  But what really struck me was a quote in which Gore pithily connects our ecological, economic and security problems in one tidy formula.  See below the fold.

Thomas Friedman's column today, "So Popular and So Spineless", bashes Europe and other parts of the world for no longer liking the United States so much thanks to the tender Presidential mercies of George W. Bush.  That is not the part I agree with: I think that after bigfooting in the Middle East, claiming the right to torture, blocking treaties on land mines and global warming, and cheerfully signing off from G-8 as "the biggest polluter in the world," we're not exactly in a position right now to demand that the rest of the world like us.  If Obama wins, we can start to move in that direction; if not, probably not.

The part I do agree with is that the world won't like a world where China and Russia are the ascendant powers.  Friedman provides the example of the Security Council resolution in Zimbabwe.  And, about that, he's right.

Bill Graves’ article "State university leaders get raises" in the 7/12/08 Oregonian reports that the Board of Higher Education approved salary increases of 4% to 6.5% for six of the Oregon University System presidents (OIT’s president was not listed). The combined salaries of these six presidents will be $1,788,120. And all get additional forms of other compensation. This, along with what we pay for the Superintendent of Public Instruction, is what we pay for our public educational leadership in Oregon.

I haven't seen this mentioned on DKos except the Diary "Obama Boy's."   Please go to their website and watch the program or read the transcript from yesterday.  Democracy Now is an excellent program and I suggest people here watch it daily.  

The program starts off with a conversation about this whole hooplah of Drilling, Drilling, Drilling.  I have to ask myself WHY NOW?  Bush has had 7 1/2 years to do this WHY NOW?
Its a Hoax, just as many have said Global Warming is a Hoax.  These oil companies already have land leased to Drill, 68 million acres if I am not mistaken, but they haven't used it.  

Bush is trying to back the Democrats, into a corner to open up more land, he wants to open up more land for the oil companies to drill before he leaves office.  This shouldn't happen and he is blaming the Democrats for this.  Don't let them be backed into a corner.  Drilling is not going to solve any problams with Gas Prices period.  They need to quit playing with the market.  

This wont be long..

I am taking a break in writing and posting the new issue of Project Awakening to bring you my thoughts on the news that the Chinese Government may have been supplying arms and equipment to the Sudanese Government that is being used in the genocide in the Darfur region. Be warned, the language will get pretty salty at times, as you've no doubt deduced from the title of this diary. This has been cross-posted from my Myspace page, where a somewhat cleaner version can be found -- impressionable young children are more likely to visit Myspace than Dailykos. I present this version here because this is a somewhat emotional subject, and I am feeling very emotional right now.

Past issues of Project Awakening, for those who are interested, can be found here and here.

This wont be long..

Reuel Marc Gerecht asks in the instant’s Campaign Standard

Are we safer now than we were before 9/11? Safer than before we invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein? Barack Obama insists we are not. Seeing Iraq as the crucible of our growing weakness, the Democratic nominee for president asserts that "we have now spent over $600 billion, thousands of lives lost, and we have not been made more safe .??.??. [and] al Qaeda's leadership is stronger than ever."

This pernicious nonsense deserves a thorough fisking, and I'm just the guy to do it.  More below the fold.... drumroll please

The Chinese Government announced today that it has killed five Uighurs suspected of being terrorists, confirming that it had arrested at least 100 since the start of the year.  Their crime, most likely, was a combination of being Muslim and unhappy with Chinese authoritarian rule.  The crackdown comes as we stand less than a month from the start of the Olympics.  

The games will go on.

Other religious dissidents are also suffering, with claims of 8,000 arrested Falun Gong practitioners since December 2007.

And certainly the games will go on.

The PRC has also begun clearing ethnic Tibetans out of Beijing.

Overseas Tibetan advocacy groups said residents of Beijing were targets simply because of their ethnicity. "There's an unprecedented security sweep at the moment in Beijing due to the Olympics," said Kate Saunders, of the International Campaign for Tibet. "It seems as though almost every Tibetan in Beijing is potentially under suspicion."

But let the games go on.

Robert Scheer, author of The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America, was recently seen at Huffington Post, SFGate, SFChronicle, Digg, and other sites arguing that "Taiwan had Declared Peace on China". Scheer's misunderstanding of the situation is profound and his portrayal is factually inept. What it really shows is how progressives continue to fail Taiwan and its democracy by viewing the island through Cold War lenses.  

The Communist Chinese government's preparations for the Beijing Olympics are insanely surreal, like something out of a Science Fiction novel,  except it is SO bizarre, nobody could make it up!  If you want the perfect example of how not just Americans, but the World is still in denial", look no further than Beijing, China.

While the Chinese try to make their Air 'temporarily' breathable for their foreign guests and that rare Species, the Olympic Athlete,  a very timely MOVIE is showing in Theatres, here in America: "WALL-E", about  a Cartoon Robot wandering through a desolate future Earth, a Planet abandoned by Humans, where nothing will grow, a Toxic Wasteland.

The "PIXAR" movie is intentionally trying to convey a warning message, while the Beijing Olympics organizers & the various government "leaders" of countries attending this Televised spectacle, are desperately trying to "hide" the true reality of what life is like for the people of Beijing.