4 links

1. Oily dollars: I know, I know - I brag too much - but I HAVE been saying the real war in the Middle East is between China and the U.S. over oil (so i want some credit for predicting WW3!!! Darnit!!) ....We seized Iraq so China couldn't...Sounds wicked simple minded. But check out where China is making deals for oil - with our dear friends in Iran, Venezuela, and Sudan (you think that genocide was just people being ghastly to other people? Look closer. It's about oil) - and read this in the Telegraph about the demise of the dollar:

this sounds like a dangerous prediction of a future economic war between the US and China over Middle East oil-yet again turning the region's conflicts into a battle for great power supremacy. China uses more oil incrementally than the US because its growth is less energy efficient. The transitional currency...read the rest

Most major wars have pretty simple causes: Give me more stuff. OR Give me your stuff.

2. So sick of hearing "Obama is a Marxist/Socialist/Commie" clap trap I feel the need to link to a real commie/socialist/Marxist site to point out that, in fact, they exist, and a man who hires Larry Summers, and bails out huge banks with our money in his first few months in office is NOT a socialist. Read a review of the new Micheal Moore film by a real Marxist here. The odd thing about real Communists is just how out of touch they are with real workers....It's weird. They have this "fantasy football" stance toward working people. They're 'into them', excitable about them, and always game planning for them - but, in reality, have no connection to them at all.

3. CNN marks the "end of the Honeymoon" for Obama...according to them the SNL skit last weekend did the trick. CNN in general is a little overly concerned with that skit...why?...They know it was harshly effective. Only in the "I touch myself when I see Obama" world of CNN does that SNL skit signal trouble for POTUS. The SNL skit confirms trouble. At the latest - the end of the "honeymoon" was that idiotic beer summit.

4. Okay- I admit it - the number of large earthquakes in the South Pacific is freaking me out. From the NYT:

SERIES OF QUAKES, ALARMING
Mike Sandiford, at the School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, said the series of large quakes in the region was unusual and that aftershocks could be expected for a few weeks. "We only get about a dozen earthquakes of that magnitude or larger around the globe in a year, so it is very unusual," Sandiford told Australian media.



Bonus link: