Category Archives: U.S.

Business/Economics, International, Opinion, U.S.

Will Obama attack Ecuador? He kicked out their ambassador, oil is involved

Thanks to a WikiLeaks release, tensions between the United States and Ecuador are heating up.

The WikiLeaks document showed that the U.S. ambassador to Ecuador, Heather M. Hodges, made some not so nice comments about their President. Apparently President Rafael Correa gave her a chance to retract, or explain, her statements, and she allegedly refused. She was then declared persona non grata (unwelcome) in Ecuador, but not officially kicked out.

Now the United States has actually kicked out the ambassador from Ecuador. The U.S. State Department says it’s in retaliation for Ecuador ordering Hodges out of the country, which President Correa disputes. Correa says they simply said she was no longer welcome, but they were not “kicking her out”.

This continues a long list of problems between Ecuador and the U.S. In the past few years the United States was pushing Ecuador to allow U.S. military bases to be set up on their soil. The official reason was to fight drugs in Columbia, but many people believe it was to encircle Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. President Correa responded, in 2009, by saying that the only way the U.S. could build bases in Ecuador, was if Ecuador was allowed to build bases in the United States.

Now we have the WikiLeaks/ambassador fiasco. What’s next, oil? Maybe!

Ecuador has oil! They have been fighting international legal battles to prevent oil companies from coming in and drilling. That’s right, they do NOT want anymore oil pumped out of their ground. Ecuador does have active oil fields, but they don’t want anymore. The oil corporations, backed by governments (Chevron/United States), are saying to bad so sad, you just a piddly country, what you gonna do about it?

So far Ecuador has been petitioning United Nations members, but not getting much support.  There’s estimated to be hundreds of millions of barrels of oil still to be drilled and pumped out in Ecuador.  And with the price of oil making it more tempting, could President Obama (or any other future U.S. president) be planning some kinda humanitarian military intervention in Ecuador?

 

International, U.S.

Another broken Obama Promise, Gates says we will stay in Iraq

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Iraq today. He gave a speech to U.S. troops, but it wasn’t about leaving Iraq, it was about staying.

U.S. forces are scheduled to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, under a 2008 deal negotiated by George Bush Jr.

But Gates told troops that the Iraqi government now wants the U.S. to stay longer, and Gates said: “We’re open to that.”

About 10,000 Iraqis protested Gate’s visit, demanding that U.S. “get out”.

 

International, U.S.

Iraq attacks Pro-U.S. Iranian base

Iraq invaded the base of the Pro-United States People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran. The base is located inside Iraq, and has been there for 25 years (even during Saddam Hussein’s time, more proof how much the U.S. was involved with Saddam).

The U.S. has been supporting, covertly, the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran for decades, in their attacks against the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Even though the U.S. supports the Iranian rebels, the U.S. also lists them as terrorists.

Iraqi forces claim they attacked the Iranian rebels because they rioted, and started throwing rocks at them. There’s no explanation of why they rioted.

The Iranian rebels say the Iraqi government was acting on the behalf of the Iranian government.

Iraqi forces say they killed at least 25 Iranian rebels, and wounded 320.

International, U.S.

NATO says No Military Solution to Libya, avoids questions about arming Rebels in violation of UN Resolution

In an interview on al Jazeera NATO secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said the solution to the civil war in Libya will come only through political discussions.

For some reason al Jazeera (who supports the UNSCR 1973) did not mention the statement in the text of their posting. You have to watch the video of the interview. It’s about 1:50 into the interview.

“I hope to see a political solution, sooner rather than later. Obviously there’s no military solution, solely.”-Anders Fogh Rasmussen

Al Jazeera then pointed out that despite the arms embargo, which is part of the UNSCR 1973, Libyan rebel leaders openly state they are getting weapons from the UN coalition (which includes NATO). Rasmussen was asked why, seemingly, NATO was not enforcing the UN arms embargo when it came to the rebels.

“We participate in the arms embargo, and to my knowledge there has been no bridge to the arms embargo.”-Rasmussen

Al Jazeera pressed the NATO leader about the arms embargo, while showing video of rebels receiving new weapons. They also pointed out that UN coalition member Qatar (which is Wahhabi Arab, same as al Qaeda), is openly providing weapons to the rebels. They tried to get a simple yes or no answer, this is what they got: “We participate in the enforcement of the arms embargo in strict conformity with the text of UNSCR 1973.”-Rasmussen

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Toyota says planned North American plant closures will last 5 days in April

“There are problems with parts supply. But each day, we are doing our utmost to improve the conditions so that we can deliver cars to many customers.”-Akio Toyoda, Toyota President

Toyota is having trouble getting around 150 components, but that’s down from 500 components after the March 11 quake.

Toyota said it will halt North American production starting on April 15.  It doesn’t look like production will be shut down for five days straight, instead it will be spread out, one day here, one day there.
Assembly line workers may report for training, use vacation days, or take unpaid time off.

Fukushima, Idaho, U.S.

Idaho RadNet 2 Days Behind, confusing info!

I’ve been checking the Idaho RadNet web site and have gotten frustrated because it’s become clear Idaho DEQ is not updating the site. I checked it today, 08 April 2011, @ 11:00AM Mountain Time, and the RadNet posting is still for 06 April 2011.

Recently the Associated Press reported how the RadNet monitors are not reliable.

On top of the Idaho RadNet web site not being updated, the text portion seems to be the same as it was last week, or, Idaho is still getting hit with iodine-131 and xenon-133.

The numbers that RadNet posts are in Beta counts per minute, which is how a Geiger counter reads. The problem, reveled by University of California Santa Cruz professor, Daniel Hirsch, is that there are no set universal standards regarding how much radiation exposure is “bad”.

One source says they consider 100 counts per minute as “bad”. Well, if you look at the Idaho RadNet web site, you’ll see counts as high as 300. However, if you try to use the RadNet web site explainer pages, to figure out if you’re safe or not, you only get more confused.

 

Fukushima, U.S.

Don’t trust EPA RadNet radiation monitoring, No set standard in Radiation Exposure Limits

“The monitoring system isn’t functioning fully.”-Daniel Hirsch, University of California Santa Cruz

Hirsch said that EPA is too slow in releasing data about the radiation from the nuclear accident in Japan.  Some RadNet monitoring systems have been offline for months.

The Associated Press, quoting the Environmental Protection Agency’s own website, said as many as 20 of the RadNet sites were down. Also, 38% were under “review”.  When a RadNet site is under review, it means that the officials are doubting the readings.

Daniel Hirsch pointed out that radiation exposure standards from one government agency to another are different, which adds to the problem of letting people know if they are at risk or not. It also explains why some “experts” disagree with other “experts” about the dangers from Japan. There is no set standard for radiation exposure!

This explains a lot of the confusion in Japan during the first two weeks of the nuclear disaster. I remember watching press conferences where it seemed  officials from one agency contradicted officials from another agency. You’d think when it comes to nuclear power there would be a set universal standard regarding radiation exposure!


Fukushima, U.S.

U.S. nuke plant not safe

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission studied the safety of nuclear plants in the United States. The Peach Bottom nuclear plant in Pennsylvania is not safe from a natural disaster.

The report says if a power loss occurs for a long time, fuel rods in the reactor could be damaged, releasing radioactive isotopes within two days.  It is the same General Electric design as Fukushima Daiichi.

Not surprisingly, Congress told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to double check their findings.

International, Opinion, U.S.

More proof that the Libyan Civil War is about Oil, not Freedom

Libyan rebels have been focusing all their attacks on cities tied to the oil industry. They have already made oil deals with several countries including Qatar, and, they have received their first payment for oil apparently from China.

Now the rebels are complaining that they are losing three oil fields they recently took control of.  Why so upset? They admit they want the oil money.

Just who attacked the rebel held oil fields is unknown. The Libyan government say the British bombed the rebels by mistake (plausible because NATO has done it, twice now). The rebels say some of the attacks where from artillery.

In any case the rebels are really upset about losing control of any oil production that they have captured.  Mmmm. I didn’t realize that oil was an integral part of freedom and Democracy?

International, U.S.

“low likelihood” Libyan Rebels can win, even with NATO support

The U.S. general in charge of the United States Africa Command, Gen Carter Ham, says Libyan rebels probably will not win, even with NATO help.

General Ham also says we should not be arming the rebels until there is “a better understanding of exactly who the opposition force is”. There is evidence that some of the rebels are al Qaeda, the group we’re supposed to be at war with.