Category Archives: U.S.

International, U.S.

U.K. & U.S. to announce new joint National Security policy, the Beast evolves

“The co-operation that I see every day in intelligence matters is without parallel in the world.  So is our nuclear co-operation. Our armed forces are working together with intimate closeness”-William Hague, British Foreign Secretary

According to British media, President Obama will make a joint announcement, with Prime Minister David Cameron, concerning a new U.S./U.K. national security policy.

The new “National Security Strategy Board” will meet several times per year, to discuss issues such as terrorism, and the so called Arab Spring revolution.

More details will be given on the May 24 announcement.

International, U.S.

Irish bank bombed as English Queen leaves, Obama greeted by protesters as he arrives

May 22, the day after the Queen of England left Ireland, a Northern Ireland bank was hit by a small bomb.  Three masked men burst into the bank, warning customers they had one hour to leave before the bomb went off. Police say people could have been killed if they were still in the bank when the bomb exploded.

May 23, President Barack Obama arrived in Ireland, where he was greeted by at least one hundred protesters.

“Barack Obama came to power promising change, but in reality he has continued the policies of the Bush era.”-John Molynuex, protester

He is scheduled to visit United Kingdom next, where he will have dinner with the Queen of England (a sure sign that the U.S. is under control of the British Empire).  Thousands of protesters plan to demonstrate outside Buckingham palace while he dines with the Queen.

 

 

 

U.S.

Obama lies about freedom of speech, bans two newspapers from White House

“We support a set of universal rights. Those rights include free speech…”-President Barak Obama, May 19 Middle East speech

Obama talks about freedom of speech, while at the same time bans reporters from being present at White House press briefings.

Reporters from the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Boston Herald, are the latest to be banned from the White House.

White House spokesman Matt Lehrich, admits the move regarding the Boston Herald, was a purely personal decision.  Basically Obama didn’t like the editorial decisions of the paper: “I tend to consider the degree to which papers have demonstrated to covering the White House regularly and fairly in determining local pool reporters. My point about the op-ed was not that you ran it but that it was the full front page, which excluded any coverage of the visit of a sitting U.S. President to Boston. I think that raises a fair question about whether the paper is unbiased in its coverage of the President’s visits.”

In other words, Obama was mad that the Boston Herald didn’t make his visit to Boston a front page story!

Regarding the San Francisco Chronicle, reporters were banned after the SFC posted video of a protest in which Obama was heckled (bad a poorly sung song) for failing to come through on many promises, and on the treatment of Army Private Bradley Manning.

The amazing thing, if you watch the video, is that It doesn’t really make Obama look bad.  He wasn’t trying to avoid their questions, or sending his goons to squash the protesters.  So why did he ban the SFC reporter who posted the video?  The official White House response was that the SFC is part of the “print pool”, meaning newspaper reporters should not be making and posting videos!

Wake up people of the United States, Obama is a hypocrite, just like most presidents before him.

International, U.S.

Korea investigates U.S. Army base for Agent Orange dumping

Korean media reporting the three U.S. Army veterans have testified that they were ordered to dump 250 55-gallon barrels of Agent Orange on a U.S. base in South Korea.

“They just told us it was going to be used for disposal.”-Steve House, veteran

South Korea’s environment ministry will take soil samples at Camp Carroll in Chilgok County, North Gyeongsang.  The local government wants the United States to pay: “If the news report is true, the U.S. military must take responsibility, pay compensation and conduct regular Korea-U.S. joint inspections.”

International, U.S.

Japanese to pay for part of BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil disaster

While British Petroleum fights to pin blame on others for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, they somehow have convinced one of its Japanese business partners to pay for part of it.

MOEX, a unit of Japanese trading firm Mitsui and Company, will pay just over $1 billion to cover damages and clean up.  MOEX is a 10% shareholder of BP.

British Petroleum is struggling to come up with an estimated $40 billion to pay for damages and clean up.

International, Opinion, U.S.

Obama to write off $1 billion in Egyptian debt, what about us little people here at home?

President Barak Obama wants to write off $1 billion in debts that Egypt owes the U.S.  Then he wants to give Egypt another $1 billion in credit!

Here’s two reasons taxpayers of the United States should be pissed off:  According to the U.S. Department of State: “U.S. military aid to Egypt totals over $1.3 billion annually.” And: “…the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has provided over $28 billion in economic and development assistance to Egypt since 1975.”

In other words Egypt is getting a deal that no creditor will give the average U.S. citizen!  Forgive our debts AND give us money?  Obama is playing with our tax money!  Why can’t he use our tax money to give us a break?

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Flooding along Mississippi adds to Global Food Crisis, and threatens U.S. economy

Voice of America reporting that farms along the Mississippi flood zones are destroyed.  Some farmers were able to harvest some of their crops before the flooding.

Many farmers did not have crops to harvest, but were about to plant, and now that’s not going to happen: “…this is unprecedented because of the amount of water that is backed up and out over areas that normally do not flood.”–Randy Ouzts, Horizon Ag

One of the biggest U.S. exports are crops.  The harvest is shipped to New Orleans, on barges that sail the Mississippi river.  Ouzts says getting the harvested crops out could be a problem: “The issue we are having at the moment is wheat delivery, and also fertilizer and fuel deliveries, and the problem is loading.  The facilities were not built to accommodate this much water.”

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Boeing & Airbus claim victory in WTO case

Depending on which media source you read, Boeing won its World Trade Organization case against Airbus.  Depending on which media source you read, Airbus won its World Trade Organization case against Boeing.  Yes, that’s the idea.

Both Airbus and Boeing are declaring victories in their WTO case against each other.

U.S. officials say the ruling helps Boeing: “This definitive victory will benefit American workers who have had to compete with a heavily subsidized Airbus.”-Tim Reif, general counsel for the U.S. Trade Representative

Airbus officials say the WTO ruling upheld European loan subsidies: “…government loans are a legal instrument and that none of the government loans made to Airbus over the past 40 years were prohibited…”

Boeing reps said this is a “definitive victory” for the United States, but Airbus said “This is a big win for Europe.”

Who’s right?  The WTO looked at the allegations line by line, and voted line by line, basically splitting the difference.  So both sides think they won, when in reality they broke even.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Big U.S. health insurance company hit by striking nurses

At least 1,000 health care workers picketed a hospital belonging to one of the biggest insurance companies in the U.S.; Kaiser Permanente’s flagship hospital in Los Angeles, California.

The workers say Kaiser has been cutting back on staffing, forcing those still working to handle longer hours.  The insurance company is also cutting back on services.  Striking workers say the company is lying about lack of funding.

During the first quarter of 2011 Kaiser Permanente reported a profit of $920 million.  For all of 2010 they made a profit of $2 billion.  Yet the company came out and told employees there will be more rounds of cut backs.