Unbridled freedom, liberty and the difference

Notes 82

Reminiscent of Westmoreland body counts in Viet Nam--only just the opposite. Saw the movie War, Inc last night with John Cusack, Dan Akroyd and Ben Kingsley. A funny send up of what America, Inc has become and the absurdity of surgical strikes. Imagine our guys standing by and doing the body count after a cruise missile dismembers whoever is in the way.

NATO airstrike accidentally kills 2 civilians

By Solomon Moore, Associated Press –
KABUL, Afghanistan – A NATO helicopter gunship inadvertently killed two civilians while attacking suspected insurgents in the eastern province of Khost, NATO announced Thursday.
The attack targeted a Haqqani network leader in Tere Zayi district on Wednesday, according to NATO.
"At the time of the strike, two civilians were walking near the moving targeted vehicle," NATO said. "They were previously unseen by coalition forces prior to the initiation of the airstrike. Unfortunately both were killed as an unintended result of the strike."

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This is disgusting. The Israelis have been occupying and beating and starving and treating Palestinians and the longstanding promises of an “international” community going back to the U.N. Partition Plan of 194 like dirt. And the U.S. has been the chief enabler with its roadmaps and Camp David meeting. Just like U.S. support for Mubarak and all the other corrupt dictators of the Middle East.

Gaza militants fire rockets deep into Israel

By Aron Heller, Associated Press – 27 mins ago
JERUSALEM – Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a new wave of rockets that landed deep inside Israel Thursday, defying Israeli retaliatory attacks and threats.
As the violence threatened to escalate the day after a deadly Jerusalem bombing, Israel got a boost from the visiting U.S. defense chief, who said no country could tolerate the "repugnant" attacks on its soil.
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Can you believe it. Government stands against illegal evidence gathered by wire tap and U.S. government harasses it? If only our own legal system would stand up to lawbreaking of the big boys like it does to little guys on crack cocaine. We’re represented by a bunch of strong arm thugs--and not just in Afghanistan.

Jamaica PM says US officials harassed his gov't

By David Mcfadden, Associated Press – Thu Mar 24, 7:04 pm ET
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding said Thursday that U.S. Embassy officials displayed a "belligerent attitude" toward his government after Washington sought the extradition of a reputed crime boss with ties to his political party.
Golding said the U.S. Embassy's charge d'affaires pressured his justice minister to quickly hand over alleged drug kingpin Christoper "Dudus" Coke during at least two phone calls within days of his government receiving the August 2009 extradition request.
"I interpret that kind of behavior as harassment," Golding testified to a fact-finding commission examining his government's handling of the extradition request for Coke.
The prime minister resisted the U.S. extradition request for nine months, arguing Coke's indictment on gun and drug trafficking charges relied on illegal wiretap evidence. The stance strained relations with Washington, which questioned Jamaica's reliability as an ally in the fight against drug trafficking.

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There is a sickness abroad and it is destroying the social contract that binds us together as a people proud to declare their Christianity on our coinage and in our public buildings but lacking in the conviction to make the Beatitudes real.

Buried Provision in House GOP Bill Would Cut Off Food Stamps to Entire Families if One Member Strikes
Zaid Jilani, ThinkProgress: "All around the country, right-wing legislators are asking middle class Americans to pay for budget deficits caused mainly by a recession caused by Wall Street; they are attacking workers' collective bargaining rights, which has provoked a huge Main Street Movement to fight back. Now, a group of House Republicans is launching a new stealth attack against union workers. GOP Reps. Jim Jordan (OH), Tim Scott (SC), Scott Garrett (NJ), Dan Burton (IN), and Louie Gohmert (TX) have introduced H.R. 1135, which states that it is designed to 'provide information on total spending on means-tested welfare programs, to provide additional work requirements, and to provide an overall spending limit on means-tested welfare programs.'"

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The battle for absolute, unlimited freedom never goes away

Isaiah J. Poole | From Memphis to Madison: The April 4 Stand for Economic Justice
Isaiah J. Poole, Campaign For America's Future: "On April 4, we will be called on not to merely remember that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on that day in 1968, but to recall what he was about to do on the day he was shot - and why the mission he was on that day very much matters to the struggle of working people (and those who want to become working people) today. King was in Memphis to support sanitation workers who were caught in a struggle with the city's mayor that was very similar to the battle that public employees in Wisconsin were fighting with Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans in the state legislature."

Paying victims of Fed security, Gov cleaning up Alabama's history for run at Presidency, home,a bad investment, Japan/ Afghanistan costs in perspective

Notes 81

Yea

Under suspicion: Millions paid to former suspects

By The Associated Press The Associated Press – Mon Mar 21
In recent years the federal government or its contractors have paid millions of dollars to settle lawsuits filed by people who say they were unfairly detained or harassed because of terrorism fears. The payments include:
• $2 million in 2006 to Portland, Ore., lawyer Brandon Mayfield, who was jailed after FBI agents mistakenly linked him to a fingerprint found after the 2004 Madrid train bombings.
• $2.5 million in attorney fees and damages, ordered by a judge who found that the U.S. government failed to get court warrants before wiretapping the calls of an Oregon charity accused of supporting terrorists.
• $1.8 million in 2006 and 2009 to seven men detained for months in New York and New Jersey shortly after Sept. 11. Other plaintiffs in the case are still pursuing it in court, and their lawyers say it could eventually involve about 1,200 former detainees.
• $250,000 in 2009 to Abdallah Higazy, jailed for 34 days after an aviation radio was found in the safe of a hotel room he was occupying near the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. The radio had been left in the room by a previous guest, a pilot.
• $240,000 paid to Raed Jarrar by the Transportation Security Administration and JetBlue Airways after the TSA forced him to cover a shirt with Arabic script before boarding a flight.
• $225,000 paid by the San Francisco Police Department and a TSA contractor to Rahinah Ibrahim, who was detained at the San Francisco International Airport and lost her U.S. visa after her name appeared on a no-fly list. The Department of Homeland Security is still fighting her lawsuit.

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Sometimes the wheels of justice grind very slowly

Ala. leaders apologize for handling of 1944 rape

By Bob Johnson, Associated Press – Mon Mar 21, 5:08 pm ET
ABBEVILLE, Ala. – Nearly 70 years after Recy Taylor was raped by a gang of white men, leaders of the rural southeast Alabama community where it happened apologized Monday, acknowledging that her attackers escaped prosecution because of racism and an investigation bungled by police.
"It is apparent that the system failed you in 1944," Henry County probate judge and commission chairwoman JoAnn Smith told several of Taylor's relatives at a news conference at the county courthouse.
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What I’ve been saying and how I’ve been living for 20 years. Not something you’ll hear from Suzy Ormand.

Why I Am Never Going to Own a Home Again
Posted Mar 21, 2011 10:24am EDT by James Altucher in Newsmakers, Housing

Editor's Note: The following blog post was written by James Altucher, managing director of Formula Capital, and originally published on his website: The Altucher Confidential.

There are many reasons to not buy a home: [By the way, I also put this in the category of Advice I want to tell my daughters, including my other article: 10 reasons not to send your kids to college.]
Financial:
A) Cash Gone. You have to write a big fat check for a downpayment. “But its an investment,” you might say to me. Historically this isn’t true. Housing returned 0.4% per year from from 1890 to 2004. And that’s just housing prices. It forgets all the other stuff I’m going to mention below. Suffice to say, when you write that check, you’re never going to see that money again. Because even when you sell the house later you’re just going to take that money and put it into another downpayment. So if you buy a $400,000 home, just say goodbye to $100,000 that you worked hard for. You can put a little sign on the front lawn: “$100,000 R.I.P.”
B) Closing costs. I forget what they were the last two times I bought a house. But it was about another 2-3% out the window. Lawyers, title insurance, moving costs, antidepressant medicine. It adds up. 2-3%.
C) Maintenance. No matter what, you’re going to fix things. Lots of things. In the lifespan of your house, everything is going to break. Thrice. Get down on your hands and knees and fix it! And then open up your checkbook again. Spend some more money. I rent. My dishwasher doesn’t work. I call the landlord and he fixes it. Or I buy a new one and deduct it from my rent. And some guy from Sears comes and installs it. I do nothing. The Sears repairman and my landlord work for me.
D) Taxes. There’s this myth that you can deduct mortgage payment interest from your taxes. Whatever. That’s a microscopic dot on your tax returns. Whats worse is the taxes you pay. So your kids can get a great education. Whatever.
E) You’re trapped. Lets spell out very clearly why the myth of homeownership became religion in the United States. Its because corporations didn’t want their employees to have many job choices. So they encouraged them to own homes. So they can’t move away and get new jobs. Job salaries is a function of supply and demand. If you can’t move, then your supply of jobs is low. You can’t argue the reverse, since new adults are always competing with you.
F) Ugly. Saying “my house is an investment” forgets the fact that a house has all the qualities of the ugliest type of investment:
Illiquidity. You can’t cash out whenever you want.
High leverage. You have to borrow a lot of money in most cases.
No diversification. For most people, a house is by far the largest part of their portfolio and greatly exceeds the 10% of net worth that any other investment should be.
For more on Altucher's personal reasons not to own a home, go here.

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At least somebody can imagine ending the Afghan War.

Report: Time is now for talks to end Afghan war

By Deb Riechmann, Associated Press – \
KABUL, Afghanistan – The war in Afghanistan has reached a stalemate and the best time to jump-start a political settlement with the Taliban is now, according to a report released Wednesday by a U.S. think tank.
The report, issued by the New Century Foundation, said the U.S. and Afghanistan's neighbors, especially Pakistan, must play key roles in any negotiations. Demands that the Taliban sever ties with al-Qaida or that foreign troops exit the nation, for example, should be considered goals, not preconditions of talks, the 126-page report said. The group also proposed that a neutral party, perhaps the United Nations, be named to facilitate the process.

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Putting costs in perspective. Estimate of Japanese economic loss is now 235 billion or 4% of GDP and we are startled by amount. But U.S has been spending more than a trillion for years on military and its wars, and people are ho hum. We want to cut domestic programs like education and healthcare, not military costs.
No telling the cost to civilian production now shifted abroad to make room for major American industry--manufacture of armaments

Disaster could cost Japan $235 billion: W. Bank
by Martin Abbugao Martin Abbugao – Mon Mar 21, 6:51 am ET
SINGAPORE (AFP) – Japan's massive earthquake and tsunami could cost its economy up to $235 billion, or 4.0 percent of output, and reconstruction could take five years, the World Bank warned Monday.
"If history is any guide, real GDP growth will be negatively affected through mid-2011," the Bank said in its latest East Asia and Pacific Economic Update report.
But growth should pick up in subsequent quarters "as reconstruction efforts, which could last five years, accelerate", it added.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Armageddon, upheaveal, revolution, rebellion and disaster--fascinating times

Notes 80

Letting go of the old order
Japan tragedy seared into the world's imagination

TOKYO – There are events in history that sear themselves into the world's collective imagination, and enter the realm where myth meets heartbreaking reality.
Japan's tragedy is one of those events. Already, it seems reasonable to surmise it could prove one of the most significant calamities of our time — one that shapes policies, economies, even philosophies for decades to come in an increasingly interconnected world.
There is the sheer, surreal force of the images emerging from afflicted zones: cars perched on rooftops, ships sitting in rice paddies, helicopters in a David-and-Goliath battle against radiation-spewing nuclear reactors.
And the way it haunts us with some of our most basic fears: Death by water. Or rubble. Or nuclear fallout.
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Fallout fro Wiki Leaks continues, even if more muted by U.S. intimidation. The truth behind the scenes, it seems, is too unbearable to be born by the innocent public

US ambassador to Mexico quits amid WikiLeaks furor…
By Alexandra Olson, Associated Press – Sun Mar 20
MEXICO CITY – The U.S. ambassador to Mexico resigned Saturday amid furor over a leaked diplomatic cable in which he complained about inefficiency and infighting among Mexican security forces in the campaign against drug cartels.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in Paris to meet with U.S. allies on Libya, said Carlos Pascual's decision to step down was "based upon his personal desire to ensure the strong relationship between our two countries and to avert issues" raised by President Felipe Calderon.

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I wonder why the suffering of Libyan resistance fighters is worse than the millions oppressed in Gaza.. I wonder where Obama has been when their lives were being destroyed. It’s about oil, stupid, the European supply and the war lead by Europeans.

Gadhafi vows 'long war' after US, allies strike

By Hadeel Al-shalchi And Ryan Lucas, Associated Press –
TRIPOLI, Libya –
State television said Gadhafi's supporters were converging on airports as human shields.
"We promise you a long war," he said. Gadhafi vowed a "long war" against the international military force that struck at his forces with airstrikes and dozens of cruise missiles that shook the Libyan capital early Sunday with the sound of explosions and anti-aircraft fire. In the capital of the rebel-held east, the Libyan leader's guns appeared to go silent.
"This is not an outcome the U.S. or any of our partners sought," Obama said from Brazil, where he is starting a five-day visit to Latin America. "We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy."

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When the people who manufacture the war material and give themselves and their children to the armies, when they resist, we will finally have peace

Protesters outside White House urge Obama to help Libya

February 19, 2011|By Mary Grace Lucas, CNN
"We have people that are risking their lives, who are finding ways to send their messages, their videos, their recaps, their recounts of what's been going on," Sahad said. "They're asking us, 'Where is the media? Where is the rest of the world? We don't have cameramen down here. We don't have Anderson Cooper down here. We don't have people on the ground level to give us support and to show the rest of the world what we've been going though.'"
"What's going on the ground in Libya reminds me of what happened 15 years ago," El Shafei said. "They're saying (Gadhafi) shut the emergency rooms and he shut communication, and some district in Libya, the electricity, the water lines, and people are dying."

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Maybe the world is rebelling en masse against the status quo and the Tea Party was the tip of the spear in the U.S. that will liberate a liberal resurgence in a way Obama only promised to do.

Tanks deploy in Sanaa as top army general defects

By Ahmed Al-haj, Associated Press –
SANAA, Yemen – Three army commanders, including a top general, defected Monday to the opposition calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down as army tanks and armored vehicles deployed in the streets of the Yemeni capital.
The most senior of the three officers is Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a longtime confidante of Saleh and commander of the army's powerful 1st Armored Division. Units of the division deployed Monday in a major square in Sanaa where protesters have been camping out to call for Saleh to step down.
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Or maybe is upheval will carry us backward as the Tea Party is trying to do--witness the assault on union gains for workers--instead of forward

Cruise missile blasts Gadhafi's compound near tent
By Hadeel Al-shalchi And Ryan Lucas, Associated Press –
TRIPOLI, Libya – A cruise missile blasted Moammar Gadhafi's residential compound in an attack that carried as much symbolism as military effect, and fighter jets destroyed a line of tanks moving on the rebel capital. The U.S. said the international assault would hit any government forces attacking the opposition.
"I feel like in two days max we will destroy Gadhafi," said Ezzeldin Helwani, 35, a rebel standing next to the smoldering wreckage of an armored personnel carrier, the air thick with smoke and the pungent smell of burning rubber. In a grisly sort of battle trophy, celebrating fighters hung a severed goat's head with a cigarette in its mouth from the turret of one of the gutted tanks.
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In a growing number of communities, the evidence of hopelessness grows deeper

AP Enterprise: Indian youth suicide crisis baffles

By Matt Volz, Associated Press – Sun Mar 20
POPLAR, Mont. – Chelle Rose Follette fashioned a noose with her pajamas, tying one end to a closet rod and the other around her neck. When her mother entered the bedroom to put away laundry, she found the 13-year-old hanging.
Ida Follette screamed for her husband, Darrell.
He lifted his child's body, rushed her to the bed and tried to bring her back.
"She was so light, she was so light. And I put her down. I said, 'No, Chelle!'"
But the time had passed for CPR, he said, his voice fading with still raw grief. His wife sat next to him on the couch, sobbing at the retelling.
Here on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, a spasm of youth suicides had caused alarm and confusion even before Chelle's death.The Follettes had talked with her about other local children who had killed themselves. She had assured her parents that they need not worry about her.

Making Big Tobacco invisible and the materializin other lies of language

Notes 79

When will the U.S. strangle the manufacture of cigarettes, stop subsidizing growers, and get serious about eliminating the deadly impact of smoking?

UK Tobacco Display Ban, Plain Packaging Requirement Move Forward
March 16th, 2011

The British government said earlier this week that it plans to ban the display of tobacco products and may even introduce a plain packaging requirement, a concerted effort to curb smoking, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Coinciding with the publication of the plan, the government also launched a formal consultation on ways to reduce the effect of tobacco packaging, including introducing plain packaging
The British American Tobacco (BAT) , producer of Dunhill cigarettes blasted the government’s announcement, saying that it will have economic consequences for small retailers.
“We are disappointed the government didn’t properly consider the views of the tens of thousands of smaller retailers nationwide who are worried about costly shop refits, losing trade to big supermarkets and the black market, especially against a backdrop of tough economic times,” a BAT spokesperson said.
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Stupidity can be infectious OR what did the boss say he’d like to read

Paul Krugman | All Aboard the Collectivist Train
Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "Columnist George Will wrote a piece recently for Newsweek on President Barack Obama's high-speed rail initiative that was truly bizarre. 'So why is America's 'win the future' administration so fixated on railroads, a technology that was the future two centuries ago? Because progressivism's aim is the modification of (other people's) behavior,' Mr. Will wrote. 'Forever seeking Archimedean levers for prying the world in directions they prefer, progressives say they embrace high-speed rail for many reasons - to improve the climate, increase competitiveness, enhance national security, reduce congestion, and rationalize land use ... the real reason for progressives' passion for trains is their goal of diminishing Americans' individualism in order to make them more amenable to collectivism.' It is astonishing to see Mr. Will - who is not a stupid man - embracing the sinister progressives-hate-your-freedom line with regard to train travel."

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Tempest in a teapot? Lotsa money to be made selling nuclear tea kettles while risking the end of tea

Can US Nuclear Plants Handle a Major Natural Disaster?
John Sullivan, ProPublica: "As engineers in Japan struggle to bring quake-damaged reactors under control, attention is turning to U.S. nuclear plants and their ability to withstand natural disasters. Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who has spent years pushing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission toward stricter enforcement of its safety rules, has called for a reassessment. Several U.S. reactors lie on or near fault lines, and Markey wants to beef up standards for new and existing plants."

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If the public can’t be screwed one way, corporations will find another, more devious way.

The Toll Road to Serfdom
Tuesday 15 March 2011
by: Ellen Dannin | American Constitution Society | Op-Ed

If you want to experience a real disconnect, find out how highway privation actually works and then read the glowing raves by infrastructure privatization boosters.
They claim that privatization transfers risk to the private contractor, while providing high quality infrastructure that a cash-strapped public cannot otherwise afford. They say that the public will have easy drives with new roads and new lanes, all assisted by the installation of the latest tolling and messaging technology.
Today's deals include terms intended to make the toll road drivers' only alternative. Commonly found "noncompete" terms forbid building or improving "competing" road or mass transit systems. They may also require what is called "traffic calming" but which means by narrowing lanes or making other changes to make alternative routes unpleasant or less useful. Other contract terms require that the government "partner" compensate private contractors for "adverse actions," such as promoting car pooling to lower air pollution and urban congestion that could affect revenues. For the next 40 years, the HOT lanes contract with Transurban of Australia and Fluor Corporation of Texas requires Virginia to reimburse the private companies whenever Capital Beltway carpools exceed 24 percent of the traffic on the carpool lanes - or until the builders make $100 million in profits.
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The Japanese don’t believe their government. The intelligence community does not believe Petraeus. Nobody to believe anymore.

Washington Smackdown: Petraeus vs. "Substantial Drawdown"
Robert Naiman, Truthout: "Gen. David Petraeus spoke yesterday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, and is speaking today before the House Armed Services Committee, selling Congress a 'progress' story about the war in Afghanistan that isn't believed by US intelligence analysts. Whether members of Congress choose to believe Petraeus' reassurances over the assessments of the US intelligence community ('who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?') could prove decisive in determining whether the July drawdown of US forces from Afghanistan that President Obama has promised will be 'token,' as the Pentagon
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Now U.S has gained control of U.N. metrics. No place to turn for facts

UN Reported Only a Fraction of Civilian Deaths From US Raids
Gareth Porter and Shah Noori, Inter Press Service: "The number of civilians killed in U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) raids last year was probably several times higher than the figure of 80 people cited in the U.N. report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan published last week, an IPS investigation has revealed. The report also failed to apply the same humanitarian law standard for defining a civilian to its reporting on SOF raids that it applied to its accounting for Taliban assassinations."
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“Surgical” can have deadly different meanings depending which end of the knife you are on.

Taking the War Out of Air War: What US Air Power Actually Does
Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch: "Over the years, Afghan civilian casualties from the air have waxed and waned, depending on how much air power American commanders were willing to call in, but they have never ceased. As history tells us, air power and civilian deaths are inextricably bound together. They can't be separated, no matter how much anyone talks about 'surgical' strikes and precision bombing. It's simply the barbaric essence, the very nature of this kind of war, to kill noncombatants."
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So much for surgical. It assumes you can identify the arget AND hit it on the button

Pakistan army chief condemns US drone attack


By Sebastian Abbot, Associated Press –
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's army chief strongly condemned a U.S. drone attack that killed more than three dozen people Thursday, saying the missiles struck a peaceful meeting of tribal elders near the Afghan border.

American manipulation of world events for better or ill

Notes 78

The risks of nuclear power in Japan and at Yucca Mountain. There’s no failsafe system.
Japan faces serious radiation leak from quake

By Press Jay Alabaster And Todd Pitman, Associated Press –
TAGAJO, Japan – Radiation spewed Tuesday from a crippled nuclear power plant in tsunami-ravaged northeastern Japan in a dramatic escalation of the 4-day-old catastrophe that prompted the government to tell people within 19 miles (30 kilometers) to stay indoors to avoid exposure.
In a nationally televised statement, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation has spread from the three reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in one of the hardest-hit provinces in Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami.
"The level seems very high, and there is still a very high risk of more radiation coming out," Kan said.
He warned there are dangers of more leaks and told people living within 19 miles (30 kilometers) of the Dai-ichi complex to stay indoors to avoid potential health risks from the radiation.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said a fourth reactor at the complex was on fire and more radiation had been released.
"Now we are talking about levels that can damage human health. These are readings taken near the area where we believe the releases are happening. Far away, the levels should be lower," Edano said.
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The difference state and local politics made in the recovery effort in Louisiana

U.S. shows growing alarm over Japan nuclear crisis
By Jeff Mason And Tom Doggett – Thu Mar 17,
WASHINGTON (Reuters) –The U.S. military has ordered its forces to stay 50 miles away from the plant, the Pentagon said. There are at least 55,000 members of the U.S. forces in Japan and offshore assisting the relief operation.
"All of us are heartbroken by the images of what's happening in Japan and we're reminded of how American leadership is critical to our closest allies," Obama said in Washington.
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For good or ill, the U.S. government interferes in covert and overt ways to influence elections in the Americas and around the world—often not in favor of democracy
Why U,S Government has reason to be worried about nuclear news from Tokyo
Bungling, cover-ups define Japanese nuclear power

By Yuri Kageyama, Ap Business Writer –
TOKYO – Behind Japan's escalating nuclear crisis sits a scandal-ridden energy industry in a comfy relationship with government regulators often willing to overlook safety lapses.
Leaks of radioactive steam and workers contaminated with radiation are just part of the disturbing catalog of accidents that have occurred over the years and been belatedly reported to the public, if at all.
The legacy of scandals and cover-ups over Japan's half-century reliance on nuclear power has strained its credibility with the public. That mistrust has been renewed this past week with the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant. No evidence has emerged of officials hiding information in this catastrophe. But the vagueness and scarcity of details offered by the government and Tepco — and news that seems to grow worse each day — are fueling public anger and frustration.
"We don't know what is true. That makes us worried," said Taku Harada, chief executive of the Tokyo-based Internet startup Orinoco. Harada said his many American friends are being urged to leave the capital while the Japanese government says the area is safe, probably to avoid triggering panic.
"Everything is a secret," said Kei Sugaoka, a former nuclear power plant engineer in Japan who now lives in California. "There's not enough transparency in the industry."
In 1989 Sugaoka received an order that horrified him: edit out footage showing cracks in plant steam pipes in video being submitted to regulators. Sugaoka alerted his superiors in the Tokyo Electric Power Co., but nothing happened — for years. He decided to go public in 2000. Three Tepco executives lost their jobs.
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The reality is “whistleblowers” are not loved by the power establishment regardless of who is in power or what the laws are. They are detested as disloyal and they are punished. The Public Good be damned.
Top lawmaker protests 'whistle-blower' demotion

By Press Ted Bridis, Associated Press –
WASHINGTON – The Homeland Security Department demoted a senior career employee who confidentially complained to the inspector general that political appointees were improperly interfering with requests for federal records by journalists and watchdog groups.
The new Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee investigating those practices told the Obama administration that the decision "appeared to be an act of retaliation" and warned, "Obstructing a congressional investigation is a crime." The department responded that it had done nothing wrong.
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Forget the Somali pirates who only hold hostages for money.The truth is there is a conflict between the U.S. and its allies and those who would oppose its world view. The U.S. is the largest exporter and profiteer of military weaponry in the world—to places like Baharain and Saudi, Arabia and Guatemala and Honduras and places in between. And they get help in crippling their competitors from places like Israel.

Arms from Iran: A Rash of Intercepted Shipments

By Karl Vick / Jerusalem – Thu Mar 17
The fall of Hosni Mubarak not only left Iran with one less enemy, it also loosened Egypt's control of the Sinai Peninsula - the preferred route for smuggling arms into the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian enclave is ruled by Hamas, the militant Islamist group that Iran funds and arms. Iran is evidently eager to exploit opportunities in the Sinai.
On Tuesday, Israeli commandos boarded the container ship Victoria in the Mediterranean. Opening containers listed on the manifest as holding lentils and cotton, the Israelis found 2,400 mortars, 67,000 Kalashnikov rounds, and a half dozen C-704 land-to-sea missiles and radar systems to guide them. There were instruction books in Farsi, the language of Iran. The vessel had previously stopped in Syria, Iran's major ally in the region, and was on its way to the Egyptian port of Alexandria.
"The assumption is that Iran is always trying to smuggle more weapons,'' says Miri Eisin, a retired Israeli colonel with a background in intelligence. "They don't have any incentive not to smuggle weapons."
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South Africa says can't hold Aristide hostage

By Michelle Faul, Associated Press –
JOHANNESBURG – South Africa said Thursday it cannot hold former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide hostage if he wants to return home, and actor Danny Glover jetted into the country to escort him back after seven years in exile.
"What I should stress is that we are not sending former President Aristide to Haiti. He was given the passport by the government of Haiti and we can't hold him hostage if he wants to go," Chabane was quoted as telling a news conference.
Glover, the chair of TransAfrica social justice forum, asked why former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier could return to Haiti unhindered and not the twice democratically elected Aristide.
"People of good conscience cannot be idle while a former dictator is able to return unhindered while a democratic leader who peacefully handed over power to another elected president is restricted from returning to his country by external forces," Glover wrote on the TransAfrica Forum website.

Working the system

Notes 77

In an industry where 20% of the employees were on the temporary injury list last season and the employer makes a fortune on the last men standing, what is to be expected?

Players chip in to save coach’s life after Clippers decline medical coverage
By Kelly Dwyer

Seven years ago, former Los Angeles Clippers head coach Kim Hughes was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Howard Beck brought this column to Trey Kerby's attention, and he brought it to our attention. And now we're passing the feel-good savings on to you, in the form of an anecdote that reveals that NBA players Corey Maggette(notes), Marko Jaric(notes), Chris Kaman(notes) and Elton Brand(notes) all chipped in to pay for expensive life-saving surgery for Hughes, after the Clippers organization (read: Donald Sterling, noted worst person in the world) declined to cover the costs.
Declined to cover the cost of a surgery that would save their employee's life. While playing rent-free in an often sold-out arena in America's second-biggest television market. Unyieldingly evil.
Gary Woelfel has the original story:
"Those guys saved my life," Hughes said. "They paid the whole medical bill. It was like $70,000 or more. It wasn't cheap.
Hughes said he will be forever grateful to Brand, Jaric, Kaman and Maggette. In fact, Hughes said every time he runs into any of them, he thanks them from the bottom of his heart..
"Kim thanks me every time he sees me; he does that every single time," Maggette said smiling. "I've said to him, 'Kim, come on. You don't have to do that. You're good.'
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It’s the declining tax rate, stupid.

Chart shows low tax burden for rich
By Zachary Roth – Wed Mar 16
We hear a lot these days about how government spending has led to a deficit that could pose a major long-term threat if it goes unaddressed. It's true that government has of late grown under both Democratic and Republican presidents.manageable. Via Felix Salmon, a fascinating (and strangely beautiful!) chart, compiled by Stephen Von Worley at the DataPointed blog, drives home that point, and a few others. If the bottom of the chart showed more red and less blue, our deficit problem would be a lot more manageable..
In a nutshell, the chart shows that until around 1940, tax burdens were low for everyone, in historical terms. Then they rose sharply for everyone until about 1970. At that point, the rich and poor began to diverge. Those making around $10,000 to around $50,000 per year enjoyed a comparatively low-tax period in the 70s, but by the early 80s they were taxed slightly higher than the historical average. In the 2000s, their tax rate came back down a bit. By contrast, those making more than roughly $200,000 a year saw a sharp decrease in their tax burden starting in the 80s. That trend has continued to this day.
It's clear, then, that across the board, today's tax rates are low by historical standards--and for the rich they're very low.
The chart also has implications for another topic we've written about here before--wealth and income inequality. As you can see, no one's taxes today are particularly high by historical standards, but those making $1 million or more per year--that is, roughly the top 1 percent--enjoy the lowest burden, relative to past rates.
At a time when a horde of stats indicates that the gap between rich and poor has widened into chasm--and when Congress and the White House are set to argue again later this year about whether to permanently extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich--it's well worth keeping this bigger picture in mind.
[Editor’s Note: Unable to duplicate chart]
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50 years past due

Tampa port seeks car ferry service to Cuba
By Robert Green – \
TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) – The Port of Tampa hopes to start passenger and car ferry service between Tampa and Cuba under President Barack Obama's relaxed travel restrictions, a port spokesman said on Wednesday.
"There has been interest by some companies in starting the service," said spokesman Andy Forbes.
He said one of those companies was United Caribbean Lines of Orlando, which has applied to the United States to operate ferry service between Cuba and Tampa, Miami and Fort Lauderdale in Florida.
"We're waiting for approval and could start as early as this fall," United Caribbean Chief Executive Bruce Nierenberg said in a telephone interview.
The Cuban government would also have to agree to the deal.

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We could use high speed trains and cars using photo voltaic cells--or we could risk nucleae disaster. The smart money is on nuclear disaster. That’s where the profit is.
Eugene Robinson | Nuclear Power, on the Brink
Eugene Robinson: "Nuclear power was beginning to look like a panacea - a way to lessen our dependence on oil, make our energy supply more self-sufficient and significantly mitigate global warming, all at the same time. Now it looks more like a bargain with the devil.... The cascading sequence of system failures, partial meltdowns and hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was touched off by a once-in-a-lifetime event: the most powerful earthquake in Japan's recorded history, which triggered a tsunami of unimaginable destructive force. It is also true that the Fukushima reactors are of an older design, and that it is possible to engineer nuclear plants that would never suffer similar breakdowns. But it is also true that there is no such thing as a fail-safe system. Stuff happens."

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GE’s technology not state of the art--but least expensive and coming to the U.S.


Will General Electric Get Whacked for the Catastrophic Failure of Its Nuke Plants in Fukushima?
Dave Lindorff, This Can't Be Happening: "GE, the company that boasts that it 'brings good things to life,' was the designer of the nuclear plants that are blowing up like hot popcorn kernels at the Fukushima Dai-ichi generating plant north of Tokyo that was hit by the double-whammy of an 9.1 earthquake and a huge tsunami."

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The U.S, through the State Department and the Pentagon has been training security forces around the world, including in Central and South America to protect corrupt governments that are our allies.

How the Tiny Kingdom of Bahrain Strong-Armed the President of the United States
Tuesday 15 March 2011
by: Nick Turse | TomDispatch | Report
The men walking down the street looked ordinary enough. Ordinary, at least, for these days of tumult and protest in the Middle East. They wore sneakers and jeans and long-sleeved T-shirts. Some waved the national flag. Many held their hands up high. Some flashed peace signs. A number were chanting, “Peaceful, peaceful.”
Up ahead, video footage shows, armored personnel carriers sat in the street waiting. In a deadly raid the previous day, security forces had cleared pro-democracy protesters from the Pearl Roundabout in Bahrain’s capital, Manama. This evening, the men were headed back to make their voices heard.
The unmistakable crack-crack-crack of gunfire then erupted, and most of the men scattered. Most, but not all. Video footage shows three who never made it off the blacktop. One in an aqua shirt and dark track pants was unmistakably shot in the head. In the time it takes for the camera to pan from his body to the armored vehicles and back, he’s visibly lost a large amount of blood.
Human Rights Watch would later report that Redha Bu Hameed died of a gunshot wound to the head.
The bullet that took Bu Hameed’s life may have been paid for by U.S. taxpayers and given to the Bahrain Defense Force by the U.S. military.

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Seems everything is for sale in Pakistan. Makes you wonder what the cost of a nuke is.

'Blood money' frees CIA contractor in Pakistan

Adam Goldman And Anne Gearan, Associated Press – 51 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Pakistan abruptly freed the CIA contractor who shot and killed two men in a gunfight in Lahore after a deal was sealed Wednesday to pay $2.34 million in "blood money" to the men's families. The agreement, nearly seven weeks after the shootings, ended a tense showdown with a vital U.S. ally that had threatened to disrupt the war on terrorism.

tragedy trumps absurdity for the moment

Notes 76
Looking for hope in sea of government propaganda, while the public happily drinks its ration of koolaid
John Pilger | How the So-Called Guardians of Free Speech Are Silencing the Messenger
John Pilger, Truthout: "As the United States and Britain look for an excuse to invade another oil-rich Arab country, the hypocrisy is familiar. Colonel Gaddafi is 'delusional' and 'blood-drenched' while the authors of an invasion that killed a million Iraqis, who have kidnapped and tortured in our name, are entirely sane, never blood-drenched and once again the arbiters of 'stability.' But something has changed. Reality is no longer what the powerful say it is. Of all the spectacular revolts across the world, the most exciting is the insurrection of knowledge sparked by WikiLeaks."
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The ultimate victims of U.S. policy of sanctions against offending countries
Humanitarian Pays With Life for Feeding the Children of Iraq
Katherine Hughes, Truthout: "February 26, 2011, marks the eighth anniversary of the imprisonment of Dr. Rafil Dhafir. Dhafir continues to pay the price for feeding the children of Iraq during the US- and UK-sponsored UN sanctions against that country. According to the United Nations' own statistics, every month throughout the 1990's, 6,000 children under the age of five in Iraq were dying from lack of food and access to simple medicines. Three senior UN officials resigned because of what they considered a 'genocidal' policy of sanctions against Iraq. Dhafir's charity, Help the Needy (HTN), openly sent food and medicines to starving civilians in Iraq during the brutal embargo. Seven government agencies investigated Dhafir and HTN for many years. They intercepted his mail, email, faxes and telephone calls; bugged his office and hotel rooms; went through his trash; and conducted physical surveillance. They were unable to find any evidence of links to terrorism, and no charges of terrorism were ever brought against Dhafir."
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A catastrophe for the Japanese and a hard way to find out how FEMA performed during Katrina\
Explosion at Japan nuke plant, disaster toll rises
By Associated Press Eric Talmadge And Yuri Kageyama, Associated Press –
IWAKI, Japan – An explosion at a nuclear power station Saturday destroyed a building housing the reactor amid fears that it was close to a disastrous meltdown after being hit by a powerful earthquake and tsunami.
Footage on Japanese TV showed that the walls of the reactor's building had crumbled, leaving only a skeletal metal frame standing. Puffs of smoke were spewing out of the plant in Fukushima, 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Iwaki.
"We are now trying to analyze what is behind the explosion," said government spokesman Yukio Edano, stressing that people should quickly evacuate a six-mile (10-kilometer) radius. "We ask everyone to take action to secure safety."
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What can be said
Japan Nuclear Crisis Spreads to Third Plant
Hiroko Tabuchi and Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times News Service: "Japanese officials struggled on Sunday to contain a widening nuclear crisis in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake and tsunami, saying they presumed that partial meltdowns had occurred at two crippled reactors and that they were facing serious cooling problems at three more. The emergency appeared to be the worst involving a nuclear plant since the Chernobyl disaster 25 years ago. The developments at two separate nuclear plants prompted the evacuation of more than 200,000 people. Japanese officials said they had also ordered up the largest mobilization of their Self-Defense Forces since World War II to assist in the relief effort."
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Screw the public. Drill, Baby drill. The rewards of oil production now trump the education of the kids, not just defense and diplomatic policy.

Pennsylvania's Corbett Expands Conservative War on the Middle Class
Linn Washington Jr., This Can't Be Happening: "Swinging a sledge hammer, Pennsylvania's first-term Republican Governor Tom Corbett smashed into educational spending and state worker jobs during his first-ever budget address, following in the footsteps of his conservative cost-cutting confederates across the nation. While Corbett proposes slashing over a billion dollars in funds for pre-K through college, he spares the Keystone State's burgeoning billion-dollar Marcellus Shale natural gas industry from his call for 'shared sacrifice' to close a $4-billion gap in the state's budget."
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Cost is not the issue for the military industrial complex when it comes to manufacturing a failed plane.
One Creature That Deserves Extinction: The V-22 Osprey
John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus: "Some animals should be endangered. Consider the V-22 Osprey. The tilt-rotor aircraft, which takes off like a helicopter but flies like a plane, costs more than a $100 million apiece, killed 30 personnel in crashes during its development stage, and survived four attempts by none other than Dick Cheney to deep-six the program. Although it is no longer as crash-prone as it once was, the Osprey's performance in Iraq was still sub-par and it remains a woefully expensive creature. Although canceling the program would save the U.S. government $10-12 billion over the next decade, the Osprey somehow avoided the budget axe in the latest round of cuts on Capitol Hill.
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May they all learn the lesson of the Midas Touch. Nobody deserves to earn 9 billion dollars from some muscle bound cretans hammering each other into unconsciousness except in a society that has gone insane.
Lockout, decertification leave NFL in limbo
NFL labor talks break off, leading to lockout, decertification -- and limbo for 2011 season

Howard Fendrich, AP Pro Football Writer, On Saturday March 12, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) -- All along, the NFL said it was certain the players' union would decertify and head to court.
All along, the union insisted the league's owners were planning to lock out the players.
And that's exactly what happened.
Unable to decide how to divvy up $9 billion a year, NFL owners and players put the country's most popular sport in limbo by breaking off labor negotiations hours before their contract expired. At midnight, as Friday became Saturday, the owners locked out the players -- creating the NFL's first work stoppage since 1987 and putting the 2011 season in jeopardy.

Atilla and his huns are coming. They've taken PFC Manning

Notes 75

It is a wisdom that has been overlooked because unneeded. But now it is solidarity for survival or the huns will take over and bag the capital

Thursday 10 March 2011
William Rivers Pitt | Then They Came for the Trade Unionists
William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "On this day, it behooves us to remember the words of Martin Niemoller. 'First they came for the communists,' he wrote, 'and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.' I am a trade unionist, and yesterday in Wisconsin, they came for me."

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The key to understanding why our regime change wars take so long

Anti-Taliban leader warns Pakistan government

By Chris Brummitt, Associated Press – Thu Mar 10
ISLAMABAD – The leader of a powerful anti-Taliban militia on Thursday threatened to stop cooperating with authorities after a deadly suicide bombing on his men — a warning that highlights the risks Pakistan is taking by using private armies with questionable loyalties in its struggle against the insurgents.
Dilawar Khan and other militia leaders close to Peshawar have long demanded more money and weapons from authorities in northwest Pakistan, accusing the government of encouraging them to rise up against the Taliban but not giving them the support needed to do so.
But authorities, worried about giving them too much power, have been careful not to give them too much.

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But I guess “just” wars are not violent

Pope's new book: Violence never in God's name
By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press – Thu Mar 10
VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI rejects the idea of Jesus as a political revolutionary and insists that violent revolution must never be carried out in God's name in a new book being released Thursday amid great fanfare at the start of Lent.
"Jesus of Nazareth - Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection."
In the book, Benedict exonerates the Jews as a people for Christ's death. He also insists that Jesus never advocated violent revolution, as some liberation theologians have suggested, saying violence was not His way no matter how valid the motivation.
"Violence does not build up the kingdom of God, the kingdom of humanity. On the contrary, it is a favorite instrument of the Antichrist, however idealistic its religious motivation may be," Benedict wrote. "It serves, not humanity, but inhumanity."

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U.S gets away with renditioning. Why not Israel?
UN accuses Israel of kidnapping Palestinian
By Maria Danilova, Associated Press
KIEV, Ukraine – The Palestinian engineer vanished from a Ukrainian train in the middle of the night.
Now, the United Nations refugee agency confirms his wife's fears that he is being held in prison by the Israeli secret service, most likely after being kidnapped nearly three weeks ago.
Maksim Butkevych, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ukraine, said Abu Sisi has been in custody in Israel since shortly after his disappearance. The U.N. agency believes he was abducted and illegally transported by Israeli security forces, perhaps with the aid of Ukrainian counterparts.
"We don't know details of his trip from Ukraine to Israel — let's put it this way," said Butkevych. "But unfortunately, what happened looks like a violent abduction and not a legal extradition or any other legal action on the part of authorities."

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Can it be? Chris Christie, the straight shooting governor of New Jersey lying? I’m shocked

Thu Mar 10, 1:29 pm ET
Chris Christie’s tough talk not accurate, newspaper finds
By Rachel Rose Hartman – Thu Mar 10,
New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie is known for his tough-talking, tell-it-like-it-is persona. But the New York Times suggests maybe you shouldn't believe everything you hear from this conservative star.
Richard Perez-Pena reports that Christie has made several large, inaccurate claims to bolster his arguments, including: most government workers pay nothing for health insurance; school employee concessions in New Jersey would have prevented school program cuts; and that Christie balanced the budget without raising taxes.

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Bust unions--The majority has finally made their purpose clear

Robert Reich | Governor Walker's Coup D'Etat
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog: "Governor Scott Walker and his Wisconsin senate Republicans have laid bare the motives for their coup d'etat. By severing the financial part of the bill (which couldn't be passed without absent Democrats) from the part eliminating the collective bargaining rights of public employees (which could be), and then doing the latter, Wisconsin Republicans have made it crystal clear that their goal has had nothing whatever to do with the state budget. It's been to bust the unions."

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When waterboarding can be justified as perfectly legal and proper by the Justice Department and the Vice President and the President, who should be surprised that the detainment of PFC Manning is not also claimed to be within the rule books of the military?

The New York Times, yesterday:
A lawyer for Pfc. Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst accused of leaking secret government files to WikiLeaks, has complained that his client was stripped and left naked in his cell for seven hours on Wednesday. . . . The soldier's clothing was returned to him Thursday morning, after he was required to stand naked outside his cell during an inspection. . . . First Lt. Brian Villiard, a Marine spokesman, said a brig duty supervisor had ordered Private Manning's clothing taken from him.
New York Times, June 8, 2004:
In the weeks since photographs of naked detainees set off the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib, military officials have portrayed the sexual humiliation captured in the images as the isolated acts of a rogue night shift. But forced nudity of prisoners was pervasive in the military intelligence unit of Abu Ghraib, so much so that soldiers later said they had not seen "the whole nudity thing," as one captain called it, as abusive or out of the ordinary

Why I'm proud to be an American

Notes 74

This should be reason for free marketers to be ashamed

World's Billionaires 2011
by Luisa Kroll and Kerry A. Dolan
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
BRIC countries surge; Carlos Slim widens lead atop list.
This 25th year of tracking global wealth was one to remember. The 2011 Billionaires List breaks two records: total number of listees (1,210) and combined wealth ($4.5 trillion). This horde surpasses the gross domestic product of Germany, one of only six nations to have fewer billionaires this year. BRICs led the way: Brazil, Russia, India and China produced 108 of the 214 new names. These four nations are home to one in four members, up from one in 10 five years ago. Before this year only the U.S. had ever produced more than 100 billionaires. China now has 115 and Russia 101.

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Learning how a dictatorship exercises power.

Wis. GOP bypasses Dems, cuts collective bargaining
By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press Scott Bauer, Associated Press – 5 mins ago
MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Senate voted Wednesday night to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers, approving an explosive proposal that had rocked the state and unions nationwide after Republicans discovered a way to bypass the chamber's missing Democrats.
"In 30 minutes, 18 state Senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten," said Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller. "Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people."
Miller said in an interview with The Associated Press there is nothing Democrats can do now to stop the bill: "It's a done deal."
"The gig is now up," Barca said. "The fraud on the people of Wisconsin is now clear."


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Does anybody besides the media really care about Charlie?

William Rivers Pitt | Sorry, Charlie
William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "The 'mainstream' news media is so mouth-frothingly desperate to gin up a distraction - any distraction - to avoid reporting real news that the entire industry has latched on to the downward spiral of a half-assed actor like it is the end of the world. Charlie Sheen is gutting his life for all to see, the ultimate bread and circus, and the 'news' is all too happy to follow the plunging arc of his career for the same reason they show car chases and house fires. Meanwhile, Governor Walker of Wisconsin is preparing to fire state workers out of spite, because he has thus far been thwarted in his attempt to gut collective bargaining rights in his state."

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Two years after the BIG banks were given free access to the treasury and they promised to assist homeowners, Geithner’s Treasury is finally getting around to helping the people. If he’d started with lending homeowners’ the money, the banks still would have gotten theirs and millions of people would not be out of their homes. That’s the difference between top down and bottom up.

GOP challenges proposed gov't deal on foreclosures

By Alan Fram, Associated Press – Wed Mar 9, 6:59 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Federal regulators and attorneys general of the 50 states offered the terms to the large banks last week, following extended talks over revelations that the lenders had cut corners and used flawed documents to foreclose on many home borrowers.
Leading House Republicans challenged the deal Wednesday.
The lawmakers wrote Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that the proposal raised "significant concerns about its effect on the financial system, as well as concerns that the administration and state agencies are attempting to legislate through litigation."
They posed more than dozen questions to Geithner about the proposal, including what the legal justification is for the federal and state governments to try imposing such sweeping changes.

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More deceit from those attacking the people’s hard-earned benefits. Since President Johnson consolidated government budgets, Social Security payments have been floating government excesses, not adding to government deficits.

A fresh focus on Social Security in budget debate
By Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press – Wed Mar 9
WASHINGTON – In the midst of the budget crisis, an old debate has broken out with new force: Should Social Security be seen as part of the deficit that Washington needs to rein in?
The White House is balking at calls to tackle Social Security's financial problems now, before baby boomers swamp the system. But the massive retirement program, like the rest of the government, is running a deficit and has become part of the argument on Capitol Hill.

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The problem these days is the schizophrenia of public figures. What they say is totally inconsistent with what they believe

Jim Hightower | The Corporate/GOP Attack on America's Middle Class
Jim Hightower, Truthout: "The most revealing comments by politicians are rarely revealed. This is because they're made in unrecorded conversations, when politicos let their guard down. However, in a recent sting, blogger Ian Murphy recorded a revealing phone call he made to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Murphy pretended to be David Koch, the far-right-wing billionaire who pumped more than a million dollars into Walker's election last year. The governor is very busy, but he spent 20 minutes regaling the fake David Koch with details of his effort to kill the collective bargaining rights of state workers."

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If you missed Senator McCarthy, you’re going to get a second chance. This is where everybody with an axe to grind and anxious for their 15 minutes of fame is taking us back to.

'Islamic radicalization' hearing stirs hornets' nest
Inquiry by congressional committee looks like inquisition to many Muslims

By Kari Huus Reporter
msnbc.com msnbc.com updated 3/9/2011
The goal of the hearings, the first of which is being held Thursday, is "to establish and show the American people that there is a real threat of al-Qaida recruiting and of homegrown terrorists being self-radicalized within the Muslim community," according to Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the new chairman of the Homeland Security Committee.
He also charges that Muslim Americans are not doing enough to discourage extremists in their midst.
Opponents say King is stoking anti-Islam hysteria at a time when the Muslim American community is already besieged by attacks on mosques, hate crimes and overzealous surveillance by law enforcement.
Many have compared these proceedings to the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, which fed on fears of Communist subversion.
New York Rep. Peter King says his past support for the Irish Republican Army (IRA)--long listed as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department--doesn't pose a double-standard for the hearings he will gavel to order in the House tomorrow on the threat of Islamic radicalism.

Budget fixes, not for publication on NPR, Coaching fixes, Afghanitan and Israeli fixes

Notes 73

Wall Streeter tells us how to fix U.S. budget problems. Cut entitlements. The problem started with Reagan cutting taxes.

"No Way Out" of Debt Trap, Gross Says: U.S. Living Standards Doomed to Fall
Posted Mar 08, 2011 09:00am EST by Stacy Curtin

Debt, debt and more mounting debt is plaguing countries around the globe.
In this U.S., states across the country face a collective $125 billion shortfall for fiscal 2012, while Congress is facing a budget gap nearly 10 times that size.
PIMCO founder Bill Gross -- one of the world's largest mutual funds managers, who focuses mostly on bonds -- has previously said that if the United States were a corporation, no one in their right mind would lend us money. For the last decade, we’ve been “relying on the kindness of strangers” to help cover our debts, he tells Aaron Task in the accompanying clip.
By “strangers” he is referring to our foreign counterparts, like China for example. Basically, for years Americans have spent their hard-earned dollars on less-expensive Chinese made goods. With great gratitude, China turned around and used all those dollars to buy up U.S. Treasuries and other dollar-denominated assets.
But now after years of reckless spending, America’s debt level is nearing a breaking point and can no longer rely on foreign capital as a last resort.
The budget crisis situation unfolding - at the state and federal government level - does not bode well for working men and women in this country. There are really only two choices, says Gross. And, neither favors your pocketbook:
Option #1 – Keep spending and do nothing
Option #2 – Balance our budgets by cutting entitlements

WHAT ABOUT RAISING TAXES
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The things you can day off mic that you can’t say on

NPR ‘appalled’ by former exec’s comments
By Michael Calderone
Former NPR executive Ron Schiller slams Republicans and the tea party movement and suggests that NPR would be better off without any federal funding in a hidden-camera video released Tuesday by conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe.
In the video, Schiller said that the current Republican Party has been "hijacked" by a group that's "not just Islamophobic, but really xenophobic" and suggests the tea party movement is comprised of some "seriously racist, racist people."
"We are appalled by the comments made by Ron Schiller in the video, which are contrary to what NPR stands for," said NPR spokeswoman Dana Davis Rehm in a statement. "Mr. Schiller announced last week that he is leaving NPR for another job."

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Ethical values and value of football not an issue or even a question of embarrassment at major institutions of higher learning

Ohio State suspends Tressel two games
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)
Ohio State suspended football coach Jim Tressel for two games and fined him $250,000 on Tuesday for violating NCAA rules by failing to notify the school about information he received involving two players and questionable activities involving the sale of memorabilia.
Tressel also will receive a public reprimand and must make a public apology. The NCAA is investigating and could reject the self-imposed penalties and impose additional sanctions.
''Wherever we end up, Jim Tressel is our football coach,'' Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said. ''He is our coach, and we trust him implicitly.''
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The truth is we are like every other would be conqueror of Afghanistan. And the sooner we cut our losses and come home, the better for everybody. But pride goeth before the fall as President Johnson learned.

AP Interview: Petraeus says tough summer ahead
AP –
KABUL, Afghanistan – The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan says fighting this summer may be worse than last year but some reduction in American forces is still possible in July.
Gen. David Petraeus tells The Associated Press that he plans to present President Barack Obama with varying levels of troop reductions that accommodate the president's July target for beginning troop withdrawals. He says the extra forces poured in by Obama have secured "modest momentum" in Afghanistan but continues to describe those gains as fragile.

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Israel finally shows its cards

Israeli PM: Military must remain in West Bank
By Daniel Estrin, Associated Press –
SARTABA, West Bank – Israel's prime minister declared Tuesday that his country must retain a strategic section of the West Bank under any future peace deal — a position unlikely to win Palestinians over to his reported plan to offer them a temporary state.
In a rare visit to the occupied territory, Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that Israel's security depends on maintaining a military presence in the Jordan Valley — a strip of West Bank land along the border with Jordan. Without troops there, Israel fears militants could smuggle weapons into the West Bank.
"The Jordan Valley is Israel's line of defense," Netanyahu said. "There is no alternative. It will remain that way in any future situation and any future deal. The military must remain here along the Jordan border."

What insanity looks like

Notes 72

Misplaced anger. A house divided cannot stand. In establishing the value of their work, an individual worker doesn’t stand a chance against the employer who holds all the cards. People see what happens to them without union solidarity but they get jealous instead of organized, Go figure.

Anger brews over government workers' benefits
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press – 1 hr 47 mins ago
When Erin McFarlane looks at public workers, she sees lucrative pension benefits she doesn't ever expect to get. And it makes her mad.
"I don't think that a federal employee or government employee is worth any more than anybody else who does their job and does it well," said the Slinger, Wis., woman. She's been working a couple of bartending jobs since January, when she was laid off from her job at a Harley Davidson plant after almost a decade.

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If there were fewer rich and powerful shouting we are broke and more Michael Moores shouting we are not, maybe we could right this ship by implementing tax policies that would take us back to when there was a vibrant middle class at the tiller.

"America Is NOT Broke"
Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com: "America is not broke. Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich."

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Obama collapses again

New Guantanamo trials could include 9/11 suspects
By Lolita C. Baldor And Erica Werner, Associated Press – 53 mins ago
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's decision to resume military trials for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will open the door for the prosecution there of several suspected 9/11 conspirators, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Obama's order, which reverses his move two years ago to halt new trials, has reignited arguments over the legality of the military commissions, despite ongoing U.S. efforts to reform the hotly debated system.

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Is it possible that the lessons taken away from our great institutions of learning--Libya’s Seif graduated from Harvard--that enable dictators to thrive are the same lessons that make the thieves of Wall Street successful in a different venue? Some kinda higher learning.

The Daily Beast
Can Buy Me Love

NEW YORK
Libya’s urbane, white-haired Foreign Minister, Musa Kusa, affects none of the silly props and pretenses—the tents and turbans and meandering rants—that have become Gaddafi’s trademarks. He got his master’s degree at Michigan State University in the 1970s, and both his children, born in the United States, are American citizens. “He ought to understand our ways,” says an American intelligence officer who dealt with him in the 1990s. And he does. It’s Kusa’s grasp of Western ways that has made him so effective in his primary role as Gaddafi’s enabler, aiding and abetting the Libyan leader’s pathological behavior. Kusa concocts excuses, fends off consequences, comes up with compromises, and thus far has managed to keep his kinsman in power no matter what crimes the Libyan leader has committed against his own people or against the world. But what’s really disturbing is the roster of world leaders he helped to enlist as his fellow enablers: men like Tony Blair, Nicolas Sarkozy, Silvio Berlusconi, Gordon Brown, and even George W. Bush.

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Somethin fishy here. I thought our military experts decided a war could not be won with air power.

Britain and France drafting no-fly resolution

By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press –
UNITED NATIONS – Britain and France are drafting a U.N. resolution that would establish a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent Moammar Gadhafi's air force from bombing civilians and rebels fighting to oust him from power.
A British diplomat at the U.N. stressed Monday that the resolution is being prepared as a contingency in case it is needed, but no decision has been made to introduce it at the U.N. Security Council.
Pressure for the no-fly zone appears to be intensifying after Gadhafi's regime unleashed its air power on the poorly equipped and poorly organized rebel force trying to oust their ruler of 41 years.
The heavy use of air power on Sunday — and again on Monday — signaled the regime's concern that it needed to check the advance of the rebel force toward the city of Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown and stronghold which lies on the main road to the capital, Tripoli.

Maybe the Bible got it right. We're just evil

Notes 70

If there were fewer rich and powerful shouting we are broke and more Michael Moores shouting we are not, maybe we could right this ship by implementing tax policies that would take us back to when there was a vibrant middle class at the tiller.

Michael Moore: "America Is NOT Broke"
Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com: "America is not broke. Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich."

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The French justice system works, why doesn’t ours

Former French President Chirac to stand trial…
By Jamey Keaten, Associated Press – Sun Mar 6
PARIS – After years of claiming presidential immunity to avoid legal proceedings, Jacques Chirac is finally facing a court.
The former president, a bugaboo for George W. Bush during his rush to war in Iraq, on Monday becomes France's first former head of state to go on trial since its Nazi-era leader was exiled
That is, if the whole case isn't derailed by a last-minute protest by another defendant.
If the trial goes ahead as planned, Chirac, 78, faces a month in court on charges that he masterminded a scheme to have Paris City Hall pay for work that benefited his political party when he was mayor — before he became president in 1995.

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Spoken like a true believer

Ensign: 'I couldn't put my family through this'

Carrie Dann writes
John Ensign said during a press conference announcing his retirement from the Senate
"There are consequences to sin and when you’re in a leadership role, those consequences can affect a lot of other people,"
Ensign, whose fast-rising political career was derailed after he admitted to an affair with a campaign aide whose husband served as his deputy chief of staff, said that a pending Senate ethics investigation into his conduct had “zero effect” on the decision not to run for a third term.

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During a debate on government getting in the way, New York Times columnist David Brookes said the Democratic Party was controlled by workers--actually he said unions.
Since most people are workers, that would be wonderful if it were true.

Wis. gov. rebuffs Democrats' request for meeting
Scott Bauer, Associated Press – MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin Democrats who fled the state nearly three weeks ago asked Monday for a meeting with Gov. Scott Walker to talk about changes to his plan to eliminate most public workers' union rights, a request the governor dismissed as "ridiculous."
Walker said he and his administration have been in communication with at least a couple of the AWOL Senate Democrats about a deal that could bring them back, but the lawmaker who asked for the meeting, Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller, "is firmly standing in the way."
That accusation led to a flurry of angry responses from Democrats who said Walker was misrepresenting the talks. The sometimes-angry exchange suggested that any resolution to the stalemate was farther away than ever.
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It’s a sad state of affairs when somebody whose main qualification for being considered presidential material is the ability to be a carney barker in charge of a sideshow.

Tea Party 2012: Will Michele Bachmann steal Sarah Palin’s thunder?
…
National Journal – Mon Mar 7,
By Lindsey Boerma

It's looking increasingly likely that Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., will dive into the 2012 presidential waters.
Among the evidence was a packed schedule for this past weekend, including two stump-like stops in Florida on Friday and a Sunday appearance on NBC's Meet the Press.
Most notable was Bachmann's involvement in the conservative Club for Growth's annual winter meeting on Friday, where her name shared a guest list with those of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and former Govs. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts—all rumored White House contenders.

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The problem with Free Enterprise is it is not very good at policing itself .but, what the hell, let’s cut the budgets on all the oversight and law enforcement anyway . If we think we can’ trust government, we definitely can’t tust corporations.
21 airlines fined for fixing passenger, cargo fees
By Alicia A. Caldwell, Associated Press – Sat Mar 5
WASHINGTON – When the airline industry took a nose dive a decade ago, executives at global carriers scrambled to find a quick fix to avoid financial ruin.
What they came up with, according to federal prosecutors, was a massive price-fixing scheme among airlines that artificially inflated passenger and cargo fuel surcharges between 2000 and 2006 to make up for lost profits.
The airlines' crimes cost U.S. consumers and businesses — mostly international passengers and cargo shippers — hundreds of millions of dollars, prosecutors say.

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There needs to be another way

Obama: Military action against Libya possible

Afghanistan support, Huckabee gaffe, Gorbachev peer award, Israeli arrogance

Notes 69

Buy the poppy crop and burn it, bring the troops home, eliminate the dope problem domestically, close the for-pay prison system which is a classic free market incentive for the justice system to fill them up.

Ex-Pentagon adviser says US should cut Afghan aid
By Bradley Klapper, Associated Press –
WASHINGTON – By pumping more than $100 million into a hydropower plant, the United States sought to improve the lives of Afghans and win the hearts and minds of tribesmen and farmers who might otherwise turn to the Taliban insurgency. Instead, a prominent outside Pentagon adviser argues, the bungled boondoggle ended up funding the insurgents while doing little to help the United States end the war and bring troops home
He argues that grand gestures such as the dam have flopped, largely because development spending does little to increase popular support during an insurgency. Half the electricity from the project in the volatile Helmand province goes to Taliban territory, enabling America's enemies to issue power bills and grow the poppies that finance their insurgency, he says.
It is written by a well-regarded counterinsurgency theorist who asserts that money and good will — the currency of counterinsurgency — can turn out to be counterproductive. In some ways, it surprisingly echoes Afghan President Hamid Karzai's sentiment that the volume of U.S. contract cash and development money fuels corruption and delivers as much harm as good when directed to a place where wealth is so scarce without it.

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Huckabee’s gaffe a reflection of America’s flawed view of how the world works and what we need to do to change it. Exactly at the heart of the attack on unions, health care, education, the social safety net. One false assumption can lead you over a cliff.

FACT CHECK: Huckabee claims Obama grew up in Kenya
By Philip Elliott, Associated Press – Tue Mar 1
WASHINGTON – Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee suggested in a radio interview that President Barack Obama's childhood in Kenya shaped his worldview — even though Obama did not visit Kenya until he was in his 20s.
The potential Republican presidential candidate told New York radio station WOR on Monday that Obama's youth led him to resent the West, which he said explains why, in Huckabee's view, Obama's foreign policy differs so greatly from that of his predecessors/
“If you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather . he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.”

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When history is out from the umbrella of the Reagan mystique, Gorbachev will be the real hero in ending the folly of the Cold War started by the white paper written by the man called X in the Truman State Department in 1946.

Gorbachev, at 80, gets Russia's highest honor
By Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press – 51 mins ago
MOSCOW – Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded Russia's highest medal on his 80th birthday Wednesday, a belated tribute from the homeland where many blame him for the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Gorbachev during a meeting that he would be awarded the Order of St. Andrew for his service as the last Soviet leader. Medvedev said leading the Soviet Union during a "very complex, dramatic period" was a tough job.
"It can be assessed differently, but it was a heavy load," Medvedev said, adding that he will invite Gorbachev to the Kremlin to give him the award

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Workers will rue the day they have to fight for their rights on their own rather than as a collective group and the people in power, whether government or corporation, will rule again. That will take us back alright, to the day before the middle class raised all boats.
Think “Divide and destroy.”

AFL-CIO President: Wisconsin 'The Fight of Our Lives'

NEW YORK – If Gov. Walker defeats the public union, AFL-CIO president Richard L. Trumka predicts disastrous results for American workers. Trumka talks to Eve Conant about the price of union-busting.
Richard L. Trumka has seen his share of strikes and protests, but now as president of the AFL-CIO, his fight for Wisconsin has the scent of a final battle, a last stand for America’s organized labor movement.
for labor leaders like Trumka, those rights could spell disaster, both for workers and for the politicians trying to defend public workers. “This is about all Americans having the basic right to use the strength of their numbers to pursue the American dream. This is a crystallizing political moment—we’re already seen from Wisconsin polling that voters think Walker has gone too far,” Trumka tells The Daily Beast.
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Like dancing on the grave of a dead man. Israel will soon be learning moderation is prudent.

Housing for Jews approved in east Jerusalem
By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Amy Teibel, Associated Press – Wed Mar 2, 5:54 am ET
JERUSALEM – Jerusalem officials approved new housing for Jews in the heart of an Arab neighborhood, officials said Wednesday, infuriating Palestinians who see the growing Jewish presence in the city's war-won eastern sector as undermining their aspirations to statehood.
The approval further complicates efforts to restart deadlocked negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

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Reminiscent of Israel, the governors want all the chips, States’ Rights AND Federal money to support them.

GOP governors and Obama at impasse over Medicaid
By Ricardo Alonso-zaldivar, Associated Press –
WASHINGTON – Strained state budgets and a new crew of Republican governors have combined to reopen the debate over Medicaid, the health care program for the poorest and sickest Americans.
GOP governors want control of the purse strings and leeway to rewrite coverage and payment rules. So far President Barack Obama has turned them down.

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No honor among thieves

Rajat Gupta and Goldman's Insider Trading Bombshell
Allan Dodds Frank Allan Dodds Frank – Wed Mar 2
NEW YORK – Rajat Gupta was trusted by some of the world’s top companies. But the SEC says he shared insider secrets so a hedge fund could make millions improperly in the market. Allan Dodds Frank reports.
The reputation of McKinsey, the world’s most important consulting firm, is built on the perception that its high-priced consultants are the brightest and most trustworthy group available anywhere. Now Rajat Gupta, who served as McKinsey’s global managing director for nearly a decade, is enmeshed in Wall Street’s biggest insider trading scandal ever.
The ultimate kings of capitalism—Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and the boards of directors of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble—are the latest alleged victims of a vast insider-trading ring that penetrated Wall Street during the last decade.

CIA, dogsleds, Republican revolution, tobacco, Libya, another military boondoggle

Notes 66

Just like the Blackwater assassinations in Baghdad, government contractors killing at will and we protect then from the reaches of local law. And we think the locals will love us?
James Jones would love us tp death.

Arrested US official is actually CIA contractor
By Associated Press Adam Goldman And Kimberly Dozier, Associated Press – Tue Feb 22
WASHINGTON – An American jailed in Pakistan for the fatal shooting of two armed men was secretly working for the CIA and scouting a neighborhood when he was arrested, a disclosure likely to further frustrate U.S. government efforts to free the man and one that's expected to strain relations between two countries partnered in a fragile alliance in the war on terror.
The revelation that Davis was an employee of the CIA comes amid a tumultuous dispute over whether he is immune from criminal prosecution under international rules enacted to protect diplomats overseas. New protests in Pakistan erupted after The Guardian newspaper in London decided to publish details about Davis' relationship with the CIA.


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When are we going to stop eating meat from domestic animals raised in feed lots or eggs from chickens primed to produce 24/7 or…?

Activists target dog sled rides after dog deaths

By Sue Manning, Associated Press – Tue Feb 8
LOS ANGELES – The slaughter of 100 sled dogs in Canada has re-energized efforts by some animal activists to ban or boycott dog sled rides, a popular activity among tourists in many winter vacation spots, from New England to Minnesota to Alaska.
"I don't think society is willing to accept that animals, particularly dogs, should be killed just because they are surplus or don't suit the purpose they were born for," said Debra Probert, executive director of the Vancouver Humane Society, which has called for a provincial ban on tour businesses.

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Instead of worrying about dogs, let’s worry about Republican programs bent on disposing of excess people who have become surplus to wealth producing products from corporations.

Census estimates show 1 in 4 US counties are dying

By Associated Press Hope Yen And John Raby– Tue Feb 22,
WELCH, W.Va. – Nestled within America's once-thriving coal country, 87-year-old Ed Shepard laments a prosperous era gone by, when shoppers lined the streets and government lent a helping hand. Now, here as in one-fourth of all U.S. counties, West Virginia's graying residents are slowly dying off.
Hit by an aging population and a poor economy, a near-record number of U.S. counties are experiencing more deaths than births in their communities, a phenomenon demographers call "natural decrease."

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One way of eliminating the tobacco industry. We should be thinking of others and not subsidizing the tobacco growers. And after that ban smokestack pollution--equallydeadly

Honduras seeks to stop smoking — even at home
By Freddy Cuevas, Associated Press – Tue Feb 22
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Lighting up a cigarette at home could bring a visit from Honduran police if a family member or even a visitor complains about secondhand smoke.
A new law that took effect Monday banning smoking in most public and private spaces doesn't actually outlaw cigarettes inside homes, but it does have a provision allowing people to file complaints about secondhand smoke in homes.

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Saif Gadhafi says Libya, Syria, Iran won’t go down because they won’t tolerate a democratic revolution. Their armies WILL shoot their own people to protect the ruler.
What some people will pay to be free. It’s not about money.

Witnesses report bodies in the streets in Libya
By Maggie Michael, Associated Press –
CAIRO – The bodies of protesters shot to death by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi were left on the streets of a restive district in the Libyan capital Tuesday, an opposition activist and a resident said, while the longtime leader defiantly went on state TV to show he was still in charge.
The eruption of turmoil in the capital after a week of protests and bloody clashes in Libya's eastern cities has sharply escalated the challenge to Gadhafi. His security forces have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, which toppled leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.
The head of the U.N. agency, Navi Pillay, called for an investigation, saying widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population "may amount to crimes against humanity."

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Israel gets onto U.S. military/industrial gravy train, Just wheat we need is another boondoggle like the empty silos in the Dakotas against an attack that never came. Reminds me of the over-the-shoulder salt joke. Salt thrown over the shoulder on a car ride across the Mojave keeps the elephants away.

Israel, US successfully test Arrow missile
By Press Matti Friedman, Associated Press – 1 hr 43 mins ago
JERUSALEM – Israel and the U.S. carried out a successful test of the Arrow anti-missile system off the coast of California, Israel's Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
Israel's Defense Ministry said the Arrow detected, intercepted and destroyed a target missile launched from an offshore platform inside a U.S. Navy firing range in a test carried out late Monday.

The end of empires and the continuing political struggle over the soul of the nation

Notes 65

Finally somebody with a platform to announce the truth

Op-Ed Columnist, NEW YORK TIMES
Empire at the End of Decadence
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: February 18, 2011
It’s time for us to stop lying to ourselves about this country.

Charles M. Blow
Go to Columnist Page »
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America is great in many ways, but on a whole host of measures — some of which are shown in the accompanying chart — we have become the laggards of the industrialized world. Not only are we not No. 1 — “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” — we are among the worst of the worst.
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What’s hard to figure is why one small segment of the population has to bite the bullet so everybody else can get their serices for nothing and live well. It’s union busting. Walker got the concessions and now wants his poud of flesh.

Wis. gov. says he won't accept union compromise
By Scott Bauer, Associated Press – MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker again rejected a proposed compromise Monday to end a political stalemate over collective bargaining rights that led to 14 Senate Democrats skipping town and motivated tens of thousands of people to march on the Capitol in protest for more than a week.
Walker said Monday afternoon he wasn't interested in compromises that have been floated by public employee unions and even a Republican state senator. He spoke inside his heavily guarded conference room in the Capitol as thousands of people screamed and stomped outside his office to "Recall Walker!"

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Wisconsin corporations are getting a 67 million dollar tax break while working people are being asked to give back some of their wages and benefits. Ya gotta love it

Corporations to Government: Give Us More, Tax Us Less
Richard D. Wolff, The Guardian: "Nothing better shows corporate control over the government than Washington's basic response to the current economic crisis. First we had 'the rescue' and then 'the recovery.' Trillions in public money flowed to the biggest US banks, insurance companies, etc. That "bailed" them out (suggestion of criminality?) while we waited for benefits to 'trickle down' to the rest of us. As usual, the 'trickle down' part has not happened. Large corporations and their investors kept the government's money for themselves; their profits and stock market 'recovered' nicely. We get unemployment, home-foreclosures, job benefit cuts and growing job insecurity. As the crisis hits states and cities, politicians avoid raising corporate taxes in favor of cutting government services and jobs."
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One of the liabilities of the wealth generated by smoke and mirrors and corruption and the profits from war has been the rise of a middle class that got fat and satisfied. Now they are blaming all their problems on the unions with the assist of demagogues exploiting their new pain. When will they ever learn?

The Betrayal of Public Workers
Robert Pollin and Jeffrey Thompson, The Nation: "The Great Recession and its aftermath are entering a new phase in the United States, which could bring even more severe assaults on the living standards and basic rights of ordinary people than we have experienced thus far. This is because a wide swath of the country's policy- and opinion-making elite have singled out public sector workers - including schoolteachers, healthcare workers, police officers and firefighters - as well as their unions and even their pensions as deadweight burdens sapping the economy's vitality."

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The Egyptians get it. Maybe it’s time we do.

Leader Of Egyptian Unions To Wisconsin Protesters: "We Stand With You As You Stood With Us"
Zaid Jilani, ThinkProgress: "One of the most underreported stories about the pro-democracy movement in Egypt was the role of labor unions in the demonstrations, many of which were protesting against neoliberal right-wing economic policies just as much as they were protesting against the Mubarak dictatorship. During the uprising in that country, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka praised the role of organized labor, saying, 'The people's movement for democracy in Egypt and the role unions are playing for freedom and worker rights inspires us and will not be forgotten.'"

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Remarkable, we complain sbout China blocking access to internet and we block access to al Jazeera TV. Go figure. Are we schizophrenic or what?

Absence of Al Jazeera English in US Is Troubling
Ronnie Lovler, The San Francisco Chronicle: "The uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and now Iran should prompt a call for change here in the United States - against the absurd blackout of Al Jazeera television. You can watch Al Jazeera on TV almost anywhere in the world - except in the United States. How is this possible in our nation where freedom of the press is a basic constitutional tenet? Just what do cable and satellite carriers fear?"

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Now the innocent gunner was a C.I.A agent. We’ve been violating international law by attacking inside Pakistan. That was grounds almost for impeachment for Nixon when he turned the dogs loose in Cambodia. And now Pakistan is supposed to worry about the sanctity of Embassy privileges. Get real.

US: Pakistan must free detained CIA worker
By Matthew Lee, Associated Press –
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration insisted Monday that an American working for the CIA who has been detained in Pakistan for killing two Pakistanis has diplomatic immunity and must be freed.
In a hastily arranged conference call with reporters shortly after details of Raymond Davis' employment were reported, senior State Department officials repeated the administration's stance that he is an accredited member of the technical and administrative staff of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.