2005.3.27=7[#86]:4703.2.18[#47/60]: Hakka Sch. to El Cerritos, Leo painted! 1)China oil <> US(-India) hegemony. 2)US war morality.

Sunlight then gradually evening cloud then rain: up 6:10, later viewed complete "Winter Sonata" rebroadcasting, half an hour nap on sofa, then to school where almost all talked about how to get to El Cerrito address. Mrs. Jeng Jen-dung sat in front, I back examined through Bk of Am's preliminary documents while Mei drove around in Fremont(!) to get gas then straight to the destination, 11:55-2:00 excellent various sushis, kamaboko, miso, cake also, ladies talked about marrying into harsh treatment, never to Korean men. Mei had to go first (originally intended to go straight to house to watch paining etc.), so after back for my hat from outside door, to school's car, sunday 3 papers, to house where Mei had cleared soil I piled up against fence and filled somewhat front ditch, and digged out some grass, Leo locked doors painted inside, took a look inside, then home English paper then emails/small nap, reached Sino-American oil situation here now 5:33pm. Finished emails 7:02pm, tv-5's sunday "60 Minutes" just started. Left for o.h. 7:30 in rain, Ju/Hiro came receiving fax, NHK "Yoshitsune", bed 11:55. 1) China Oil <> USA Hegemony: Strategies: (1) China's Oil Strategy: "China: From one threat to another", David Morris, March 27, 2005 {Last update: March 26, 2005 at 9:17 PM); Star Tribune (The McClatchy Company's "largest newspaper ... in Minneapolis-St. Paul, which it acquired in 1998" http://www.mcclatchy.com/about/). : http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/5311910.html "" In 2004, China's oil consumption rose by 40 percent, to 6.5 million barrels a day. U.S. domestic demand is 20 million barrels a day. U.S. demand is rising by about 500,000 barrels per day per year. China's is increasing by about 1.5 million barrels per day per year. World oil production is straining to satisfy growing world consumption and the futures price of crude is more than $50 a barrel. Both the United States and China are increasingly dependent on imported oil. Both are aggressively pursuing strategies to maintain their access to oil. To me it looks like China's strategy is more farsighted and coherent. We've spent $300 billion to invade Iraq, have tried to overthrow the Chavez government in Venezuela and now threaten Iran. China has quietly entered into long-term contracts with many of these countries. It has invested about $15 billion in foreign oil fields and expects to invest 10 times more over the next decade. China has begun to negotiate directly with our largest long time oil suppliers to lock up future supplies. Canada is currently our largest supplier. Virtually all Canadian oil pipelines go south to satisfy the energy needs of a thirsty U.S. Midwest. That will soon change. Chinese and Canadian companies are negotiating to build a pipeline from northern Alberta west to British Columbia. Murray Smith, Alberta's former energy minister candidly observed, "The China outlet would change our dynamic." In December, China signed a deal with Venezuela and neighboring Colombia to construct a pipeline linking Venezuelan oil fields to ports along Colombia's Pacific coast. This will allow China to bypass the U.S.-dominated Panama Canal. Venezuela is our fourth-biggest supplier of oil. Congress has asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the potential impact the Chinese pact might have on our oil imports. China is protecting its energy interests with a string of military bases and diplomatic ties from the Middle East to southern China. Recently, it signed a 25-year oil and gas deal with Iran. Currently, about 80 percent of China's oil imports pass through the Straits of Malacca. China views that Southeast Asia sea corridor as under U.S. Navy control. It is investigating the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Kra in southern Thailand that would allow it to bypass the straits. "" (2) US Hegemony Strategy: 1. "Cheney's Oil Change at the World Bank", by Jim Vallette [[ Jim Vallette is research director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network at the Institute for Policy Studies and a Foreign Policy In Focus analyst. He is the co-author of numerous studies about international finance and U.S. oil interests, including the December 2004 report, A Wrong Turn from Rio: The World Bank's Road to Climate Catastrophe and the 2000 examination, Halliburton's Destructive Engagement: How Dick Cheney and USA-Engage Subvert Democracy at Home and Abroad. ]], 3/24/2005: ""Global hegemony requires control over the three pillars of power: military, political, and economic .."": http://www.iviews.com/Articles/articles.asp?ref=FF0503-2651 "" He wasn't in the room when President George W. Bush announced it on Wednesday, but somewhere, Vice President Dick Cheney must have been smiling--well, smirking--when the commander-in-chief's voice coupled the improbable name Paul Wolfowitz with the title "President of the World Bank." Cheney and Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz have long worked hand-in-glove on a global quest for U.S. domination over world affairs. This latest action is as bold as the invasion of Iraq two years ago. Dick Cheney, a long-time beneficiary of World Bank largess, has moved to take ownership of the world's development coffers through his man, Wolfowitz. For his part, Wolfowitz will have a chance to extend his Iraq reconstruction theories to the global level. These concepts mostly involve U.S. control over energy resources. While the Bank, over which the U.S. holds de facto veto power, has done a lot for the nation's oil interests over the years, his nomination is a clear signal that the administration craves more. "Wolfowitz's words and deeds are antithetical to World Bank pretenses of multilateralism and development," said long-time World Bank critic John Cavanagh, director of the Institute for Policy Studies. "Between this and John Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the UN, it's March Madness on Pennsylvania Avenue." Like others in the Bush administration, Wolfowitz is consistent. In and out of office, he has articulated a clear vision of U.S. being the world's only superpower, fueled by free-flowing Persian Gulf oil. "" 2. USA Economy: "Washington's Fiscal Meltdown", New York Times Editorial, March 20, 2005: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/20/opinion/20sun1.html?ei=5070&en=dea1db27904b4958&ex=1111986000&pagewanted=print&position= "" efore leaving town for a two-week spring break, Congress indulged in its own form of March Madness. The Republican majority in the House and the Senate passed budget blueprints for 2006 that slash domestic spending by upwards of $150 billion over the next five years. Yet they still managed to increase the projected deficit by more than $125 billion over the same period (and by more than $1 trillion through 2015). How is it possible to produce that much red ink while slashing spending? Easy. Just cut revenue by giving huge tax cuts to - surprise, surprise - high earners and wealthy investors. The lawmakers will not make any final decisions until they cobble their separate proposals into one official budget later in the year, but the early signs are all bad - pointing to the least sensible tax cuts for the least needy recipients with no thought to the exploding deficit. "" "" When you step back and look at it, the collective tax-cutting psyche of Mr. Bush and his partisans appears to border dangerously on the grandiose. How else to explain their relentless profligacy in the face of the unprecedented Bush-era swing from budget surplus to deficit, the unmistakable long-term trend of a rich-get-richer, poor-get-poorer income distribution, the ballooning costs of war, the weaker dollar, rising oil prices and record deficits in trade and investment - which now require the United States to borrow $2.1 billion a day from abroad? It's time for the people, the ultimate referees in a democracy, to call a timeout. "" 3. USA-India: "US unveils plans to make India major world power", (AFP) 26 March 2005, Khaleej Times Online: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2005/March/subcontinent_March797.xml§ion=subcontinent "" WASHINGTON - The United States unveiled plans on Friday to help India become a ajor world power in the 21st century?even as it announced moves to beef up the military of New Delhi nuclear rival, Pakistan. Under the plans, Washington offered to step up a strategic dialogue with India to boost missile defence and other security initiatives as well as high-tech cooperation and expanded economic and energy cooperation. "" "" Beyond possible sale of fighter planes, the US is ready to discuss the more fundamental issue of defence transformation with India, including transformative systems in areas such as command and control, early warning and missile defence, the official said. ome of these items may not be as glamorous as combat aircraft, but I think for those of you who follow defence issues youl appreciate the significance,?he said. The energy dialogue is to include civil, nuclear and nuclear safety issues as well as the issue of space launch vehicles and satellites while the existing economic dialogue would be revitalized with discussion of energy, trade, commerce, environment and finance. US energy, treasury and transport ministers are to visit India this year. "" 2) US War Morality: "Time may not prove Bush right", Ron Clasky, Hollywood; South Florida Sun-Sentinel; March 19, 2005: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-brmail877mar19,0,6705791,print.story "" Centuries full of the inhuman, unjust, immoral plague of wars have not kept us secure. So can wars be our only solution? The Dalai Lama recently declared war is obsolete. "I think the concept of war is out of date," he said. "Even your enemy is worthy of respect. Despite disagreements, you live together on the planet." Will history prove Bush was right? I think history will verify the Dalai Lama was right. ""