Category Archives: U.S.

International, U.S.

Iraqi officials say again, U.S. get out

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, said the United State needs to get its troops out of Iraq by the agreed date of December 2011.

Zebari denied that the Iraqi government was working with the U.S. to keep troops past the 2011 deadline.  Recently Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maiki said that the only way U.S. troops could stay is if the U.S. and Iraq agreed to a new withdrawal date.

Also recently, Russian and Iraqi officials announce deals that include military equipment.  Iraq might be trading one military super power for another, getting a better deal from the Russians.

Opinion, U.S.

Facebook wants exemption from U.S. election laws

Facebook officials are asking the Federal Election Commission to exempt them from U.S. election law.  The law Facebook doesn’t like; disclosing who paid for political advertising on their website.

Facebook’s arguments are really weak.  In a written explanation, Facebook says by disclosing who paid for the ad, it would make the ad bigger, and they don’t want bigger ads.  Also, Facebook tried to compare their political ads to things like bumper stickers and t-shirts.

How much bigger would the ad be, when it includes the name of who paid for it?  Also, comparing bumper stickers and t-shirts to paid political ads is comparing apples to oranges.  One is given away, or even sold, to supporters, the other is a paid advertisement.

What is the real reason Facebook doesn’t want to disclose who pays for political ads on their website?

International, Opinion, U.S.

China & U.S. sign something saying they’ll get along

The agreement has a lot of strong sounding words and phrases, like “comprehensive” and “concrete plans”.

Here’s what the Obama administration said;  China and the U.S. need “a cooperative partnership that is comprehensive in scope, cooperative in nature, and yields positive achievements that benefit our people.”

Basically China, and the U.S., spent a lot of taxpayer money to sit around and tell each other their woes, and why don’t we just get a long.  Then they signed a long winded agreement that basically says ‘we promise’.

What has been going on is being called “cooperation talks”.  Basically the U.S. is  in big debt, China holds most of that debt, China wants a piece of the U.S. action, the U.S. doesn’t want them to have any, but the U.S. owes China trillions so they try to make happy happy joy joy talk so we don’t go to war, or, so that China doesn’t dump all their trillions of U.S. bonds all at once.

Fukushima, U.S.

U.S. nuclear plant under NRC scrutiny

The Brown’s Ferry nuke plant in Alabama, is under investigation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  Investigators say a cooling system failure is of “high safety significance”.

Last October the plant had a cooling valve problem, in reactor 1, that cause it to shut down.  Operators say the valve is fixed.  But there are concerns especially since the Brown’s Ferry plant is similar to the GE designed Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan.

Also, Brown’s Ferry Reactor 1 had been shut down for 22 years before being put back into operation in 2007.

 

 

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Florida cutting unemployment benefits, to benefit corporations. Idaho’s high unemployment rate holds steady

Starting in 2012, Florida will cut back the maximum number of weeks that unemployed people can collect benefits.

This is not to save the state money, but the corporations.  Like Idaho, companies in Florida are the ones who pay into the unemployment system.  Florida lawmakers said by reducing the number of weeks a person can collect benefits, it will reduce the cost to the companies paying into the unemployment plan.

In Idaho, companies actually get a refund at the end of the year, if they don’t have over a specific number of unemployment claims filed against them.  The idea is to encourage companies not to let workers go, but it hasn’t helped reduce Idaho’s high unemployment, which is holding steady at 9.7%.

International, U.S.

S & P’s reacts to Greece needing mo money, get ready for the stock markets to react

Standard & Poor’s cut Greece’s credit rating, downward 2 points, after Greek officials announced they needed more bailout money.

The S & P’s rating now puts Greece below investment grade.  S & P’s also says that Greece will need a waiver on repaying most of its current loans (that means they don’t think Greece can pay).

 

International, U.S.

Argentina says slave trade being run by U.S.

Argentina is demanding help from the United Nations, in helping to fight slave trades, run mainly by organizations from the United States.

Argentina claims that U.S. organized crime is using Argentina as a recruiting grounds, and transit point, for human trafficking.  Poor people are promised well paying jobs in the U.S., but end up working for little pay, if any, and long hours.

The workers, men, women and children, not only work in industries like textiles, but, according to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics 80% end up as sex workers in the United States.

Other countries that are destination points for human trafficking are Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Israel, Japan and Thailand.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Iran joins China in blaming U.S. Federal Reserve quantitative easing policy for bad economy

Iran is joining China in blaming the U.S. bank, Federal Reserve, for destroying the world economy.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, says the “paper money” policy of the Federal Reserve is playing a part in the increase of poverty around the world, by forcing most international trades to use U.S. dollars.  He says the Federal Reserve injected into the world economies $32 trillion in “worthless” paper money.

President Ahmadinejad believes the Federal Reserve policy is part of a plan that forces poorer countries to pay the debts of the West.

International, Opinion, U.S.

Imperialist Barack Obama to build permanent U.S. base in Poland, Russia getting pissed

Polish media reporting that President Obama will be announcing a deal made with the Polish government that will allow a permanent U.S. base on Poland’s territory.

The new U.S. air base, at Lask air field, would replace the Aviano air base in Italy.  The USAF has F-16s based on Aviano, and they might be transferred to Poland in 2013.

Russian officials say they will counter the U.S. move to Poland.

If you were Russia, and your rival makes several deals with eastern European countries for “missile shields”, and, now they’re going to move an air base from Italy to Poland, wouldn’t you think your rival is positioning itself to attack you?

International, Opinion, U.S.

Defense Department home video of Osama bin Laden is pathetic

The home video released by the U.S. Department of Defense is pathetic.  The decrepit man in the video, supposedly Osama bin Laden, was so much a threat to the world that we had to expend such great effort to kill him?

What I see in the video, is a really old man who spends his days watching videos of himself (if it is Osama bin Laden).  Again, pathetic!   Yeah right this guy was directing all kinds of evil against the world!  The guy probably had alzheimers and had to watch videos of himself to remember who he was!  What a threat; send in the SEALS, no wonder there wasn’t any resistance to the assault.

Why not simply arrest the old codger and bring him back to New York City?

Has anyone seen if the video ever shows the old guy’s face?  I find it suspicious that what the U.S. media shows is from behind.

Come on President Obama, the Bush Jr administration was better at BS than you!  I’m putting on hip waders, it just gets deeper and deeper!