Euro’s Crisis Has American Fingerprints

Posted on May 11, 2010 By William Pfaff

"...Europe now has Sarkozy and the French government, which put this deal together while the Germans gnashed their teeth. He insisted that a self-governing currency was as dangerous as a market left totally free to regulate itself, expected to do so in the interests of all because it infallibly pursued the interest of each—otherwise known as the Reagan-Greenspan-Ayn Rand-School-of-Chicago fantasy. Now the world has Dominique Strauss-Kahn running the IMF, Jean-Claude Trichet running the European Central Bank, and Sarkozy performing a miracle in Brussels...."

* MAY 12, 2010, 10:35 A.M. ET
3rd UPDATE: Greek Unions Call New Strike Amid Economic Woe

"...On Wednesday, Greece was due to receive its first EUR5.5 billion disbursement from that loan package, and the government has formally requested another EUR14.5 billion to help meet debt and cash needs this month..."

Got that? Not a bailout, but a loan package. Wait and see what happens to the Greek people while the Chicago Boys banksters profit from the misery in Greece.

got nothing today

Go visit Bildungblog, I usually laugh there. This made me laugh.

Cancer, Chemicals, and Corporations

Published on Friday, May 7, 2010 by Empty Wheel
by Marcy Wheeler

I knew a bit about this 10 years ago when curiosity got the best of me and I looked at cancer clusters and industries in those areas.

Fracking: As Safe as Coca-Cola!
— By Kate Sheppard
| Tue Apr. 13, 2010 11:10 AM PDT

Oh yeah, Happy Mother's Day.

Mothers: ending war is the source of Mother’s Day. War is illegal. Mothers: demand justice, peace
May 7, 11:38 AMLA County Nonpartisan Examiner
Carl Herman

Cinco de Mayo

Updated May 06, 2010
California Students Sent Home for Wearing U.S. Flags on Cinco de Mayo
By Joshua Rhett Miller
- FOXNews.com

"Administrators at a California high school sent five students home on Wednesday after they refused to remove their American flag T-shirts and bandannas -- garments the school officials deemed "incendiary" on Cinco de Mayo...

...Volokh said the students and their parents likely have a winning case on their hands if they decide to take the matter to court..."


Students Kicked Off Campus for Wearing American Flag Tees
By George Kiriyama
NBCBayArea.com
updated 14 minutes ago

"...But to many Mexican-American students at Live Oak, this was a big deal. They say they were offended by the five boys and others for wearing American colors on a Mexican holiday.

"I think they should apologize cause it is a Mexican Heritage Day," Annicia Nunez, a Live Oak High student, said. "We don't deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn't do that on Fourth of July."

Observances
(In) Mexico
Cinco de Mayo is a regional holiday limited primarily to the state of Puebla. There is some limited recognition of the holiday in other parts of the country.[17] For the most part, the celebrations combine food, music, and dancing.

(In) United States
Cinco de Mayo performers at the White House

In the United States Cinco de Mayo has taken on a significance beyond that in Mexico.


Hispanic students leave school, march to show support for Mexico
More than 200 Hispanic teens skipped school Thursday and marched through Morgan Hill yelling "We want respect!" and "Si se puedes!" At least six Morgan Hill police cars and several sheriff's vehicles caravanned alongside the line of teens wearing red, white and green and carrying Mexican flags.

The crowd - mostly high school students - left school Thursday morning after the story of four students who were sent home because they wore American flag T-shirts went viral on TV and online...

..."They yelled 'dumb white bitch!' at me," Jennifer said. "Police were everywhere, so I asked them if they were going to do anything, 'that's why we're here' they said."

Jennifer said one teenager threw a rock at her husband's car while he was driving through downtown. She said he filed a police report immediately after...


Yup, to me Cinco de Mayo is an excuse for idiots to drink beer and dumb kids to skip school to proclaim their allegiance to a country that doesn't even celebrate the fucking holiday.

Cagle gives me another belly laugh

Yes,funny cartoon, but a true tragedy, and an avoidable one:


Feds let BP avoid filing blowout plan for Gulf rig
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and RICHARD T. PIENCIAK Associated Press Writers

Sex, Lies and Oil Spills
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
President, Waterkeeper Alliance; Professor, Pace University
Posted: May 5, 2010 10:19 AM

What caught my eye this morning

Uprising In Greece As Rage Against “Austerity” Flames, Fin Reform Compromises

Unharnessed anger: Incumbents win in NC, OH, IN
By LIZ SIDOTI and DEANNA MARTIN (AP) – 1 day ago
"...Turnout was exceptionally light in North Carolina and Ohio, a possible indication that voters' anger over economic woes, high unemployment and Congress wasn't influencing elections."

By Brad Friedman on 5/4/2010 10:19PM
Butler County, OH, Election Website Servers 'Under Attack' on Primary Night, Says Elections Director
ALSO: 89 of Cuyahoga County, OH's ES&S precinct-based op-scan systems failed in pre-election testing...

Slick Operator: The BP I've Known Too Well
Wednesday 05 May 2010
by: Greg Palast, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis

"I've seen this movie before. In 1989, I was a fraud investigator hired to dig into the cause of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Despite Exxon's name on that boat, I found the party most to blame for the destruction was ... British Petroleum (BP)...

"...What's so insane, when I look over that sickening slick moving toward the Delta, is that containing spilled oil is really quite simple and easy. And from my investigation, BP has figured out a very low-cost way to prepare for this task: BP lies. BP prevaricates, BP fabricates and BP obfuscates..."

Scuse the cynicism

Nigeria's president Yar'Adua dead

Wonder who the CIA will pop into his place?

We need the .oil

I saw this coming

* EUROPE NEWS
* MAY 5, 2010

Greeks Protest New Austerity Measures
Civil Servants Walk Out as Unions Gird for General Strike; Germany's Schäuble Warns That Strife Could Derail Bailout

If you didn't, you haven't read Naomi Klein's the Shock Doctrine.

Fucking fucks.

What I suspected

* Posted on Saturday, May 1, 2010
. Recession, enforcement driving illegal immigrants to leave U.S

"...Roughly 300,000 fewer immigrants came to the country each year between 2005 and 2008, an almost 40 percent drop annually, according to the center...."

"...In 2005, 4.5 percent of undocumented men were unemployed, compared with almost 6 percent of U.S. born workers, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated. That trend has reversed, with 6.5 percent of undocumented workers unemployed in 2008, compared with 5.6 percent of U.S. born workers, a situation that's undoubtedly worsened with the downturn. More than half the undocumented work force worked in service or construction, two sectors hit hard by the recession..."

The whole article is well worth reading.

AZ SB 1070

S.B. 1070

Read it. Tell me what it is you find offensive from the text of the law.

Arizona's immigration law called necessary
Sylvia Allen
Friday, April 30, 2010
"...Rancher Rob Krentz was shot to death on his ranch over a month ago and the shooter fled into Mexico. His family suspects a drug smuggler is responsible..."

More Americans favor Ariz. law
By ANDY BARR | 4/29/10 3:59 PM EDT
Politico

Why Law Enforcement Officials Should Hate Arizona's Racist New Law
Arizona's draconian anti-immigration law will create a chilling effect in the very communities police officers rely on to fight crime.

"...Weinblatt agrees that "politicians are tapping into a vein of public sentiment, particularly in the Southwest."..."

Tucson cop first to sue to block AZ immigration law
By Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Thursday, April 29, 2010 9:24 am

Making it illegal to be illegal
Published: Friday, April 30, 2010 1:16 AM MDT

"Arizona is in the national – and international – spotlight after the passage of the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, more commonly known as Arizona SB1070.

The law, oversimplified as an “anti-illegal immigration” measure, has generated heated debate, raised concerns about its implementation and enforcement and landed the state on the “hit list” of critics who advocate boycotting Arizona, its businesses and its people as a form of protest against the law’s passage.

Wow. All because Arizona made it a state crime for anyone to be in the state illegally. All because Arizona made it a state crime, and not just a federal crime that it already is."

Thank God for chick flicks

I loved PS I Love You.

The US military macheen

3 US Military Generals, Admirals: "Climate Change is Threatening America's Security"
by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York on 04.29.10

Military: Global Warming may Cause War
Associated Press | April 17, 2007

The Pentagon Is America's Biggest Polluter
The U.S. has a grossly corrupted health protection system.
May 12, 2008 |

The U.S. Military's War on the Earth
The Department of Defense can already level the globe with bombs -- now it's also the world's largest polluter.
March 13, 2003

God, it must suck syphlitic dick to be a Pentagon spinmeister.

I don't want to know

Our society is killing our children, opening a Pandora’s box for its future
Written by Danny Weil Education Apr 27, 2010

"...We are literally driving our children in this country insane with commercialization, rampant individuality, loss of public space, popular culture, corporate media, poor diets, homelessness and pharmaceutical drugs. Looking into the face and minds of many of our children in this country should mirror back at us the monstrous policies we operate under and what it has done to us, as adults. It should show us with clarity the sickness that pervades the society and the institutional madness of the gravediggers we call ‘leaders’..."


It's not just our children. I had a short conversation with a total stranger today and we both ended up agreeing that in order to function sometimes the thought for the day is "I don't want to know."

Yeah.

In order to not walk around with balled up fists and a sneer on my face I have to ignore the shenanigans of the Lloyd Blankfein s in the world, and some days it's just too painful to remember how frightened my daughter was to go to school after some of the school shootings made national news.

Gritty movie

Sin nombre (2009)

Here is a little bit more about the movie, and the making of it.

Ignore the title of the article, MS-13 isn't just a Mexican gang, it was started in LA by Salvadoran immigrants fleeing the civil war there, something the US should have stayed away from, but didn't. . They are all over the Americas now and probably coming to a country near you.

Anyway, the article says the director liked the gang members that he ended up working with but I hope I never have to deal with any of those guys. Just the sight of the ones with the tattooed faces is repulsive to me, not that some of the most dangerous criminals don't even have tattoos, but I almost turned the movie off in the first ten minutes. I'm not fond of tattoos. I'm glad I stuck it out because it's not a bad movie.

Gordon points us to Palast to explain the AZ immigration law kerfluffle

Gordon

Greg Palast

I knew somebody would get to the bottom of this crap. It's not about being an illegal alien, it's about proof of citizenship (not a easy as you'd think if you're really poor, but definitely legal) and voting for Democrats.

Yes, sometimes I do still think

Suzan's post yesterday made me wonder what has been happening over at The Oil Drum . And what Matthew Simmons has been up to recently.

Are policymakers, economists and peak oilists starting to speak the same language?
April 21, 2010 2:00pm
by Kate Mackenzie

Dinner and a movie

After 2 weeks worth of being sick I finally left the house and bought food.

For myself.

That I didn't have to cook.

I didn't think the old man would try the goat curry, chicken tikka masala and mango milkshake anyway. The only thing I wouldn't get again is the goat curry, especially after looking online and finding a few links to "goat curry" that take me to a mutton curry recipe. I probably wouldn't know goat meat from mutton in a curry anyway, it's too spicy. I don't like this particular recipe, or the bones, or what looks like three bay leaves in one serving of it. Besides, she just smiled when I asked where you get goat meat around here.

Come to think of it, there is NO meat raised commercially in San Diego, not even eggs or chickens or a dairy anymore, everything is trucked in frozen, or refrigerated. The water is so expensive, not too many crops are grown here either. Betcha locavores are far and few between here.

Why We Won’t Leave Afghanistan or Iraq

Tom Engelhardt

Right. That article not depressing enough? Here's another.

US threatens to nuke Iran; blame victim’s “intentions;” beware false flag attack to pull trigger
April 15, 8:59 AMLA County Nonpartisan Examiner Carl Herman

Need more? Bosnia is a mess again.

* Posted on Friday, April 23, 2010
As U.S. shrugs, Bosnia lurches toward disaster again


Yeesh. I think I'll go back to watching my silly TV crime dramas. The bad guys eventually get caught and stopped on TV, and Netflix doesn't bother me with a million advertisements.

Arizona immigration law

Arizona governor signs immigration bill, reopening national debate
By Anne E. Kornblut and Spencer S. Hsu
Saturday, April 24, 2010; A01
...Joining Obama at the Rose Garden event was Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who vetoed similar bills repeatedly during two terms as Arizona's Democratic governor. She said she did so because "they would have diverted critical law enforcement resources from the most serious threats to public safety."

Arizona's immigration law may spur a showdown
Gov. Jan Brewer signs a bill that opponents say encourages racial profiling. President Obama calls the measure 'misguided.' A federal review is underway.
April 23, 2010|By Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times

Some truckers plan boycott over Arizona immigration law
* Posted on Friday, April 23, 2010


* April 23, 2010, 6:34 PM ET
Law Profs On Arizona Immigration Bill: It’s Unconstitutional
WSJ Blogs
(Law Blog WSJ on the cases, trends and personalities of interest to the business community.)


I don't live or work in Arizona so I've got nothing to say. I'm starting to wonder if I'm in the minority in thinking that Arizona should sort out it's own border mess.

Happy 40th Earth Day?

Update 12:22 PM 4/24/2010
Missed this yesterday:
Published on Friday, April 23, 2010 by The Nation
A New Climate Movement in Bolivia
by Naomi Klein Cochabamba, Bolivia
"...explained US climate negotiator Jonathan Pershing. (Anyone wondering why activists from the global South reject the idea of "climate aid" and are instead demanding repayment of "climate debts" has their answer here.) Pershing's message was chilling: if you are poor, you don't have the right to prioritize your own survival..."

April 22, 2010 7:00 AM
Earth Day Poll: Many Think Environment Will Get Worse
Posted by Brian Montopoli

Has Earth Day Become Corporate Greenwash Day?
Rebecca Tarbotton
Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network
Posted: April 22, 2010 01:22 PM


A Brief History of Greenwash
by Joshua Karliner, CorpWatch
March 22nd, 2001


Honoring Gaylord Nelson
By Elizabeth DiNovella, April 23, 2010.

...Condoms for Climate Change?...

Greenwald last week on Democracy Now on Supreme Court nominations

April 13, 2010

Glenn Greenwald on Why Elena Kagan Would Shift the Supreme Court to the Right and the Death of Dawn Johnsen’s OLC Nomination

Kagan-johnsen

On Capitol Hill, speculation is growing over who President Obama will nominate to replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Speculation has centered on three top contenders: Solicitor General Elena Kagan, US Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland and US Appeals Court Judge Diane Wood. But the White House says about ten candidates remain under serious consideration. Salon.com blogger Glenn Greenwald joins us to talk about some of the contenders, in particular Elena Kagan.



And completely unrelated, but worth reading...no, nevermind, you will be so bored you might not be able to plod to the part worth reading:


"...The argument that some people in the poorer half of the country are not contributing to fund the government is, therefore, simply incoherent once it is broken down and analyzed in depth. The government makes it possible for a modern economy to function. Some of our citizens work, yet end up paying no net taxes (at least as we currently label them). However, their work contributes to the profits and incomes of those higher up the ladder. These citizens might not write the checks, but they surely contribute as much as – if not more than – the rich, who are supposedly over-burdened by government.

In the end, what truly matters is the ability to pay. If it really turned out that we could fund the government by not collecting taxes from some large fraction of the people with modest incomes, then we should do so. Those who supposedly "pay for" the government would still be doing very well."

Yeah, we already know that, but the wealthy class who has never had to work don't have a fucking clue.

Better late than never, I suppose

The Audit — April 22, 2010 02:07 PM
Reuters’s Beefed-Up Enterprise Reporting Is Paying Off
By Ryan Chittum

Hopefully they won't be weighing in on this:

April 22, 2010 11:38 AM
Sue Lowden Stands by Chicken Health Care Barter Plan
Posted by Brian Montopoli


This is where I have been going for health care news:
PR Watch.org

Attorney For Birther Army Doc Hints At Using Discovery To Further Birther Cause

Justin Elliott | April 20, 2010, 10:56AM (TPM)

"Appearing on the G. Gordon Liddy radio show today, the attorney for Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, the Birther Army doctor who is said to be facing a court martial for refusing orders, suggested that if his client is court-martialled, he will use discovery to try to further the Birther crusade.

One week ago, the military announced that Lakin is under investigation after he refused to report for a second tour in Afghanistan. Lakin believes that President Obama may not be a natural-born citizen, and therefore that military orders are invalid..."


(mouth hanging open in stunned silence)

Some days I just want to weep

for my country.

Oklahoma City marks 15 years since bombing
By TIM TALLEY (AP) – 44 minutes ago

The Oklahoma City Bombing Anniversary and Home-Grown Terrorism
Jim Wallis
Posted: April 19, 2010 11:53 AM

Could Tea Party Rhetoric Lead to Another Oklahoma City?
April 19, 2010 3:01 PM

Noam Chomsky Has ‘Never Seen Anything Like This’
Posted on Apr 19, 2010
By Chris Hedges

FDIC Closes Six Banks: 48 Shut Down In 2010
TIM PARADIS and MARCY GORDON | 04/16/10 10:10 PM | AP

Investment Banking

Krugman: Looters in Loafers

April 19, 2010, 5:30 am

Last October, I saw a cartoon by Mike Peters in which a teacher asks a student to create a sentence that uses the verb “sacks,” as in looting and pillaging. The student replies, “Goldman Sachs.”

Sure enough, last week the Securities and Exchange Commission accused the Gucci-loafer guys at Goldman Sachs of engaging in what amounts to white-collar looting, The New York Time’s Paul Krugman writes in his most recent op-ed.

I’m using the term looting in the sense defined by the economists George Akerlof and Paul Romer in a 1993 paper titled “Looting: The Economic Underworld of Bankruptcy for Profit,” Mr. Krugman writes. That paper, written in the aftermath of the savings-and-loan crisis of the Reagan years, argued that many of the losses in that crisis were the result of deliberate fraud.

Was the same true of the current financial crisis?

Most discussion of the role of fraud in the crisis has focused on two forms of deception: predatory lending and misrepresentation of risks. Clearly, some borrowers were lured into taking out complex, expensive loans they didn’t understand — a process facilitated by Bush-era federal regulators, who failed to curb abusive lending and prevented states from taking action on their own.
Go to Article from The New York Times »

Swift justice

DA says deal with Gardner 'best possible outcome'

By Matthew T. Hall, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Steve Schmidt, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Friday, April 16, 2010 at 5:21 p.m.

SAN DIEGO — District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, joined by the parents of Amber Dubois and Chelsea King, said seeking the death penalty for John Albert Gardner III would have forced the families to relive the murders “over and over again.”


And there she is right out in front looking so humanitarian, our very own Bah-ston transplant Bonnie. Bonnie Dumanis is a show boater, if there is national publicity to be twisted to make her look good, she's on it.

..Dubois vanished in February 2009...

...Chelsea King's body was discovered March 2 (2010) in a shallow lakeside grave after a massive search. Prosecutors said Gardner was linked to the crime by DNA found on her clothing...

...The bones of Dubois were discovered March 6 (2010) in a rugged, in a rugged, remote area north of San Diego, a day after Gardner led authorities there. She vanished with a $200 check to purchase a lamb she was going to raise for Future Farmers of America. The check was never cashed....

...In a surprising turn, Gardner admitted Friday to kidnapping, raping and stabbing Dubois. He also admitted dragging King to a remote area where he raped, strangled and buried her....

Gardner offered to plead guilty to both murders if prosecutors agreed to not seek the death penalty.

Icelandic volcano ash clouds Europe

Whoa.

BFD

Government charges Goldman Sachs with FRAUD!!!!

Derisive snort.

Big fucking deal. This morning I opened some ridiculous legalese bullshit notice and all I got out of it was that some big corporation was having to pay court fees and lawyer fees of almost 3 million and the plaintiff would get 20 grand. Our legal system is seriously retarded. Goldman Sachs will get away with ruining millions of people's lives because important people schmooze it up on the fucking golf course and the taxpayers end up paying for it all.

Drugged warriors and drug wars

Drugged Warriors: Sharp Rise in U.S. Military Psychiatric Drug Use and Suicide
Soldiers deployed in combat zones are taking quantities of psychiatric drugs -- and military suicides are on the rise.

I have questions after reading the 2nd article. Like why no mention of how many fucking deployments does it take to end up on something to make the head shut up? Or, whether they are using meth to get over the stupids. Whether this meth is in Iraq? I hate meth.

The True Inside Story of the Catastrophic Mexican Drug Wars
Why Ciudad Juárez has a murder rate nearly four times higher than Baghdad's.
April 8, 2010 |


"...Americans spent $62.9 billion on drugs in 2000. More than half ($36.1 billion), was spent on cocaine -- of which an estimated 90 percent transits through Mexico..."

And we wonder why China and India are educating their own people and eating our lunch in the technical arenas?



I haven't been to TJ in almost 10 years. I'm still watching the eBBC - Mexico's Drug War 2010 embed, but I have doubts that even the BBC will go into Juarez.

Update 12:27 PM 4/14/2010 Hmmm, she does go to Juarez.

10:33 AM 4/20/2010
Mock, Paper, Scissors offers up the perfect and hilarious update:

"A new poll is out saying that most Americans are against legalizing pot, only 33 percent favor legalization while 55 percent oppose it.

Given that in the Great Recession, pot sales is one of the few growth industries, I think we know why, hmmmmmmmm."

Your Tax Dollars at War: More Than 53% of Your Tax Payment Goes to the Military

Published on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
by Dave Lindorff

Frontline "Heat"

Frontline: Heat (click on link to watch online)
2008
NR 120 minutes

"Frontline" producer Martin Smith investigates the environmental impact of big business. For years, corporations fought against compliance. That all changed when investors, advocacy groups and governments pressured companies into responsibility. But going green isn't necessarily the norm in developing countries, as Smith reveals in his journey around the world to learn how businesses everywhere are dealing with the issue.

Cast: Martin Smith

Genres: Documentary, Science and Nature Documentaries, Political Documentaries, PBS Documentaries, TV Documentaries, PBS

This movie is: Dark

Yup. It's dark. Most people won't want to watch it. I'm not most people. I'd rather have the bad news than walk around with my head up my ass.