Gulf Countries to launch new currency: threat to dollar

Gulf petro-powers to launch currency in latest threat to dollar hegemony

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Published: 7:12PM GMT 15 Dec 2009

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The Arab states of the Gulf region have agreed to launch a single currency modelled on the euro, hoping to blaze a trail towards a pan-Arab monetary union swelling to the ancient borders of the Ummayad Caliphate.

“The Gulf monetary union pact has come into effect,” said Kuwait’s finance minister, Mustafa al-Shamali, speaking at a Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) summit in Kuwait.

The move will give the hyper-rich club of oil exporters a petro-currency of their own, greatly increasing their influence in the global exchange and capital markets and potentially displacing the US dollar as the pricing currency for oil contracts. Between them they amount to regional superpower with a GDP of $1.2 trillion (£739bn), some 40pc of the world’s proven oil reserves, and financial clout equal to that of China.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/6819136/Gulf-petro-powers-to-launch-currency-in-latest-threat-to-dollar-hegemony.html

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http://www.smh.com.au/world/gulf-states-to-launch-their-own-petrodollar-the-gulfo-20091217-l02g.html

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Obama: ‘No Afghanistan drawdown’

And to be fair his exact wording is “precipitous drawdown”.

Precipitous. Nice adjective. Meaning ‘Steep drop-off over an adge, or perpendicular 90 degree drop.’ Like falling off a cliff. So his choice of words impresses that leaving Afghanistan all at once would be like ‘falling off a cliff‘.

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Obama will not rush Afghan troop drawdown

By Ross Colvin Ross Colvin – Thu Dec 10, 6:53 pm ET

OSLO (Reuters) – There will be no “precipitous drawdown” of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and U.S. troops could still be in the country for years to come, President Barack Obama said on Thursday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091210/ts_nm/us_obama_afghanistan

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The antonym of precipitous would be GRADUAL. So a ‘gradual’ drawdown can take – in Obama’s own words- ‘years’. Taking a quick look back at recent history, this echos the infamous words of Senator John McCain concerning our occupation in the Middle East: ‘We [could be there] for 100 years’.

As stated in my previous blog entry, Obama is taking a surprisingly similar stance as his predecessor on the timeline for Iraq and Afghanistan.

I can think of another word for this:

STALLING.

Obama V. Ideal Obama – by Tom Tomorrow

I respect Tom Tomorrow’s insightful views as a political cartoonist. And he is just damn funny!

His take on President Obama and ‘Ideal’ Obama is spot-on.

See? See how this joke works? Here we have TWO Obama’s – the one we WANT and hope for, and the one we actually HAVE.  And Americans have chosen to mentally cling to the Idea of Obama, but refuse the Reality of Obama…  Haaa! Good stuff. There’s more….

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Still waiting on that Change….

-Jay

Oxymoron of the Year! Or, at least in my lifetime.

Obama defends US wars as he accepts peace prize

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer Ben Feller, Associated Press Writer

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OSLO – President Barack Obama entered the pantheon of Nobel Peace Prize winners Thursday with humble words, acknowledging his own few accomplishments while delivering a robust defense of war and promising to use the prestigious award to “reach for the world that ought to be.”

Ay yi yi! is this what we have come to, folks!? Giving out PEACE PRIZES to people who are currently declaring war? Hmmmmm…

Just nine days after ordering 30,000 more U.S. troops into battle in Afghanistan, Obama delivered a Nobel acceptance speech that he saw as a treatise on war’s use and prevention…

In them, Obama refused to renounce war for his nation or under his leadership, saying defiantly that “I face the world as it is” and that he is obliged to protect and defend the United States.

“Let us reach for the world that ought to be,” Obama said. “We can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace.”

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I once read a book called ‘1984′ that talks about doublethink – simultaneously holding and exercising opposing thoughts and accepting the reality of that fallacy.

WAR= PEACE,  SLAVERY= FREEDOM,  IGNORANCE = STRENGTH

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“No matter how justified, war promises human tragedy,” [Obama] said.

at last! a promise he can definitely keep! 🙂

I am not a critic of War itself.  I’m all about a good fight. But i am a serious critic of failed policies and continuing failed policies.

Pres Obama speaks of history -well let’s look at this summarized history of the current Afghan occupation…

In 2001, pResident Bush fumbled his way into this invasion under the pretense of hunting down Osama bin laden and ‘smoking out’ terrorists from their caves. it was a gung-ho cowboy approached that his administration has since admitted they didn’t consider all the angles.

Now here we are nearly a decade later, and so far Obama is doing absolutely NOTHING different from the previous guy! Just an eloquent promise of ‘change‘….some sort of change that will come about by doing the EXACT SAME THING that got us where we are int he first place?

No sir, Mr Nobel Peace Prize, Sir. That is NOT change….

That, my friends, is the definition of INSANITY. 😐

-Jay