Arkansas Blog

Just think how much money he can make when his wife is President.

So typical, Billy caught with his hand in the wrong cookie jar. Can you say Marc Rich?

I'm getting old and I don't even like to drive over the bridge to Van Buren, so I can't understand why Bill Clinton wants to travel to the farthest reaches of the world, but good for AIDS sufferers that he does. Of course most of this story is over my head...admit it, it's over your head too. I've said a million times that ain't no one in politics above the level of Mayor that's clean as a whistle. But the same thing can be said about most people in big business too. In fact the only people who are Boy Scouts are Boy Scouts.

What I learned after plodding thru this story is that it's good to hang out with an ex-President. It will help your business deals with others and it will probably get you laid. And isn't that really why most of us get up every morning?

This story should lay to rest the idea that Hillary and Bill act as one unit. Notice while Bill was buddying up to the Russians, Hillary was shaking her head no. This story shows that Hillary on one hand isn't washing Bill on the other, so if this was supposed to be an anti-Clinton article, it has the opposite effect on me.

Best I can tell we all should cheer every time someone puts money in the Clinton Foundation. The Clinton Foundation is one of the few good things associated with the United States in the Bush era of misery. Maybe because of Bill's efforts 1049 less people will show up to kill us in the future when the Bush chickens of hatred come home to roost. Helping poor sick people with AIDS is always a good idea and I personally don't care if Clinton winked and got this guy his uranium contract since it put millions into the Clinton Foundation to do good things for the world. This is the opposite of the St. Rudy and Asa and Oxycontin thing. I don't seem to find that The Clinton Foundation has caused 500 deaths in the US.

I'm little. All this jet flying border crossing big business stuff scares me and my first inclination is to think bad stuff. But it's the way the world has worked for a couple of centuries, at least. I read about this kind of stuff years ago while reading Armand Hammer's autobiography. I sorta think if Ken Starr and 70 million of our tax dollars couldn't turn up big dirt on the Clintons, there must not be any big dirt. But by all means, keep trying and while your at it, shine a little light on Mark Pryor and see if you can find his bag money.

During his presidency, Bill Clinton presided over the most devastating regime of economic sanctions in history that the UN estimated took the lives of as many as a million Iraqis, the vast majority of them children. In May of 1996, 60 Minutes aired an interview with Madeline Albright, who at the time was Clinton's UN Ambassador. Correspondent Leslie Stahl said to Albright, "We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And-and you know, is the price worth it?"

Madeline Albright replied "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price-we think the price is worth it"

Sorry DBI, This story is about far more than fancy Bill-dancing for good foundation dollars.. It's about fascism, rouge anti democratic governments, loose uranium, and a retired president ignoring a rare US stand against such a government (now much like our own). to name a few small problems.

If the foundation is supposed to be so honorable and good, then why must there be so much secrecy and hidden money? How much uranium spreading must we accept in order to fight HIV? Sounds a bit self defeating to me unless you are a profiteer.

Once again.. this story reveals a small part of a much larger picture of why we are a" Lost Nation", imo. Bushco has taken what Clinton's little story reveals to a much worse extreme to be sure.

Look at the map link at my name. Kazakhstan, its neighbors, and the Caspian Sea :

major deposits of petroleum, natural gas, coal, iron ore, manganese, chrome ore, nickel, cobalt, copper, molybdenum, lead, zinc, bauxite, gold, uranium

reserves are largely strategic reasons American Forces are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan today.. The reserves there are thought to be much more valuable than the lower Persian Gulf States.. and many many plans for pipelines to the gulf are drawn up and awaiting safe construction passage through Afghanistan, Pakistan, ideally in Cheney and Clinton's buddies minds Iran and Iraq too, etc.. to open seas for shipping.

All of this ties in with unfettered accountability of our own selves - the big lie, our war machine used for the least noble of reasons..and a failed energy policy for oil and natural gas which will certainly achieve death by global warming if the wars don't spread and kill us quicker.

Hillary may or may not agree with Bill's actions.. but the consequences are dire and she cannot speak honestly and openly about these issues due to her overall complicity and due to the moneyed interests who support her and Bill and the "Foundation".. the excuses are pure BS. This is exactly why I say there is no difference between what we will get from repeating our errors of electing DLC folks as surely as electing another Bush type ie McCain or Romney.. we will get largely the same results.. It's why our government now conducts torture without a care.. It's why Bush can stand up and openly support Musharrif overthrowing the largest Democracy in that part of the world.. Because we are no longer a Democracy ourselves and we are falling without a fight much less acknowledgment of what we are really doing.

John Dean on KO last night said something close to... in his darkest moments Nixon would have never considered torture. Now we all pretty much talk about it casually and without question. (see todays Glenn Greenwald @ Salon if at all possible)

The most important thing America could do is make sure (buy) Kazakhstan keeps that uranium in the ground.. and ask they try to honor Democracy better than we ourselves are doing today.

wtf? rogue nation? Kazakhistan is an ally. If I'm not mistaken, they have a small contingency of troops helping out in Iraq (if they're still there) and Afghanistan. Hell, their President was here just over a year ago to meet with Bush. They're far from perfect, they have a long ways to go before they are successful in establishing a true democracy, but can anyone name a former Soviet Republic that isn't struggling with that? Officially, they're a constitutional republic, with a President, a Prime Minister, 3 deputy prime ministers, a cabinet of advisors, and a bicameral parliament. That's very similar to most western democratic governments. Of course, that's very similar to Pakistan and Egypt, too, so don't think I'm defending them. Just strange how a country that we consider an ally is suddenly a "rogue government." Don't take my word for it. Bush's own words at the blue name.

Oops. Blue name?

Rogue may not have been the best word to describe their situation considering one has to achieve the opposite of rogue in order to fall back that far.. but listening to anything Bush says and taking it seriously is hardly the path to factual analysis.

I do think those Americans who have advocated supporting voting rights of the Kazakhistan people.. and supported various former Soviet blocks keeping their nuclear materials in check, preferably in the ground.. are the best way to go.. Evidently Clinton agrees with Bushco..and sees it all as a radioactive get it while you can financial opportunity. Bill is far from the only one, but this way of conducting business has dire consequences for us all.

I wish people would just calm down. I am sure that Bill and Hillary want to put this kind of thing behind them and continue with Hillary's historic run for the Presidency. After all that is where the real money is.