Tag Archives: u.s.

International, U.S.

World War 3: Iraqi Vice President tells U.S. to get the hell out, like they promised, if the U.S. wants more security they need to invest in the economy not war

September 21, Iraqi Vice President Khudair al-Khuzaie (apparently Iraq has three VPs) said U.S. forces need to withdraw from Iraq as scheduled by the end of 2011.

Khuzaie met with the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, James Jeffrey. Khuzaie said the United States needs to focus on “cooperation and partnership with Iraq in the fields of investments and reconstruction.”

U.S. military is supposed to withdraw completely from Iraq by the end of 2011, according to the Status of Forces Agreement signed late in 2008.

However, officials from the Obama administration are pressuring Iraqi politicians to let a small force of U.S. troops stay in Iraq beyond the deadline.

International, Opinion, U.S.

World War 3: NATO to stay in Libya

“So long as the Libyan people are being threatened, the NATO led mission to protect them will continue. And those still holding out must understand the old regime is over, and it is time to lay down your arms and join the new Libya.”-Barack Obama, President of the United States

September 21, U.S. led NATO agreed to extend their air campaign in Libya by another 90 days.  Here’s the hypocrisy in Obama’s statement: He says Libyan people are threatened, well “those still holding out” are on the defensive, it’s the U.S. backed rebels that are (and have been) on the offensive.  On top of that NATO has been bombing the shit out of anyone who doesn’t want to join the rebels!  It looks to me that it’s the U.S. backed rebels that’re doing the threatening!

So, warmonger Obama, is NATO gonna start bombing the rebels, in earnest (they’ve already ‘accidentally’ bombed the rebels a few times)?

 

Fukushima

Typhoon Roke comes ashore, heading for direct hit on damaged nuclear plant Fukushima Daiichi, 4 dead!

21 September 2011, Typhoon Roke is moving up the Pacific coastline of Japan, after coming ashore south of Tokyo at Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture.

Sustanted winds are 144 km (89.4 miles) per hour, with gusts up to 155 km (96 miles) per hour recorded at Hachioji City, near Tokyo.

During the past 24 hours, more than 400 millimeters (15.74 inches) of rain has fallen in Tokai region and Yamanashi Prefecture, and more than 200 mm (7.87 inches) of rain fell in northeastern Japan.

At least four people have died, three are missing.  More evacuation orders have been given to at least a half million more people.

The damaged nuclear plant, Fukushima Daiichi, has escaped typhoon damage from previous storms, but Roke looks like it will make a direct hit.

Roke is moving fast and should be approaching the northeastern Honshu prefecture of Fukushima. Already 200 mm of rain has fallen in Fukushima since September 20.  The nuclear plant is already flooding with rain water.

Work to stop the further spread of radiation, like the steel wall around the ocean intakes, and specially treated tarps over the exploded reactor buildings, has been halted.  Tokyo Electric says their workers have tied down everything they could think of that might get blown away.

TEPCo says reactor 1 and 2 have rain water pouring in from the roofs, and Reactor 6 basement is totally flooded.  TEPCo officials insist that none of the radioactive water will leak out.  Yeah right, how many times now have they made such promises?

 

 

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Heavy rain from Typhoons & Tropical Storms are flooding Fukushima Daiichi

Nine months later, and the radiation just keeps pouring from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.  Now its Mother Earth who’s to blame.

Tokyo Electric Power Company admitted that the heavy rains from typhoons and tropical storms are flooding reactor buildings, greatly increasing the chance of massive flooding of highly contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.

The nuclear plant is already flooding the ocean with radiation, but this would be on a massive scale.

Here’s why it’s so bad: TEPCo is already pumping 550 tons of water per day to cool three of its damaged reactors. About 80,000 tons of highly radioactive water has already accumulated in the buildings.  Now add the flooding from the storms. TEPCo says it has found 200 to 500 tons of rainwater entering every day into the basements of reactor buildings.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Class War: Wall Street protesters still at it, people from all over the U.S. are there, wearing a mask can get you arrested

“There’s a major divide between the rich and the poor in this country. One in 10 people are unemployed and my vote is nullified by corporate lobbyists.”-Alexander Holmes, from Oakland, California

People from main street U.S.A. are protesting on corporate America’s Wall Street. They started on September 17, and they’re still going!

New York Times reported at least six arrests by September 19.  Two men and a woman were arrested for wearing ski masks.  It is illegal in New York city for two or more people to wear masks in public, I wounder what’s gonna happen at Halloween?

Another man was arrested after he told police that he was having trouble walking.  Another woman was arrested after she wrote something on the sidewalk with chalk.

The New York Times confirmed that people are coming from all over the U.S. such as Massachusetts, Michigan, Virginia, New Jersey and Washington State.

Protesters say they’ve been inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings, and they hope to continue protesting just as long as their Arab peers have.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Class War, What Economic Recovery? Yet another former U.S. Treasury Secretary says no way, because Corporate America is causing the problem, yes it is a Class War

“Wall Street is energized about its profits, and it makes its profits by arbitraging labor. So if you lay off an American worker who makes $20.00 an hour, and you hire a Chinese or Indian worker who earns $1.00 and hour, you can put $19.00 an hour in your profit pocket!  And that is what has been going on for 15 years.” -Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of U.S. Treasury

Roberts says there is nothing that the President, or Congress can do to stop the fall of the United States, unless they can stop U.S. corporations from moving jobs overseas: “Interest rates are near zero. There are no home buyers because between 1/4th and 1/5th of the work force is unemployed!  And millions of Americans have been dispossessed of their homes…And the Middle Class jobs, millions of Middle Class jobs have been moved, by the corporations, abroad.”

Roberts says Corporate America is actually screwing over the U.S. government in the long run: “As the jobs move off, what moves with it is the tax base, the consumer income that formerly supported the American consumer demand, and the Gross Domestic Product of the economy.”

Roberts sees no hope for the U.S. main street economy as long as Wall Street gets its way: “So as long as Wall Street and the corporations profit by moving American jobs to countries where labor costs are substantially lower, there can be no recovery of the American economy!”

Paul Craig Roberts is the second former U.S. Treasury official to come out and make such statements.  Recently, former U.S. Treasury Secretary, Lawrence Summers, said the United States is “collapsing”.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

World War 3: French lawyers to charge Sarkozy with War Crimes, French technology helped Gaddafi to escape

Lawyers in France accuse President Nicolas Sarkozy, of committing crimes against humanity.  The attorneys say they witnessed it with their own eyes in Libya: “They are using missiles with depleted uranium, which cause cancer. In Tripoli I saw people crippled by NATO attacks, office workers who have nothing to do with the fighting. That is why we are suing President Sarkozy for crimes against humanity.”-Jacques Verges, attorney

The attorneys say the NATO air strikes were against civilians to begin with, there were no military targets, only “Books, videos, Spiderman toys, cultural books, nothing military.”

One French attorney said the bombing of Libyan civilians by NATO is a tactic in the strategy to overthrow Gaddafi: “After five months of daily NATO bombs and thousands of deaths, people will stop supporting the [Gaddafi] regime, because they just can’t take it anymore.”-Marcel Ceccaldi, attorney

By the way such a policy of attacking the civilian population to undermine their support for their government, was created by Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, during the War Between the States (U.S. Civil War 1861-1865).  It’s still official U.S. military policy, it’s justified by using the term “dual use” targets.

Another French lawyer is so convinced of a conspiracy against Gaddafi, by France, that he’s willing to defend Gaddafi in court, if he’s ever caught:“If they find him they’ll kill him. Like Bin Laden. Some states are now claiming the right to kill, against all international law.”-Roland Dumas, former French Foreign Minister

To further complicate matters, new captured documents reveal that Gaddafi was sold a French modified armored German Mercedes 4×4, that has the capability to act as a military command & control center, and avoid tracking by NATO: “It’s a huge embarrassment for the French government, as it emerges that President Sarkozy sold, in 2008, a 3.5 million pound (U.S. $5.5 million) car to Colonel Gaddafi which has allowed him to escape. It is a state of the art armored vehicle. It’s equipped with a commander system which allows Colonel Gaddafi to keep in touch with his forces. But it is also equipped with an anti-tracking system which makes it impossible for NATO surveillance to pick up any signals, and indeed to locate and target the car.”-Nabila Ramdani, journalist/political analyst

It’s also becoming clear that part of the French desire to get rid of Gaddafi is partly because he backed out of military deals with France, in favor of deals with Russia: President Sarkozy was hoping to sell Colonel Gaddafi fighter jets, Rafale jets at that time, but the deal fell through when Colonel Gaddafi was able to buy those jets from Russia instead.”-Nabila Ramdani

International Criminal Court:  EUROPEAN UNION NOW ADMITS TO HELPING THE UNITED STATES COMMIT WAR CRIMES

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Occupy America Corporate Rip Off: Gas prices in Idaho go up despite most of the U.S. seeing prices go down, blame decreased production

September 19, gas prices in Idaho are about 70 cents above the national average.  One local TV station tried to give the usual explanation by saying it’s a mix of regional demand and state taxes.  FAIL!

I just checked on demand, and according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, demand for gasoline across the country is still below last year’s numbers.  On August 26, 2011, the four week average demand for gasoline was at 9.169 million barrels per day.  Compare that to the four week average of a year ago at 9.261 million barrels.  So there is a slight decrease in demand.

Regarding fuel taxes; there has been no increase in Idaho fuel taxes since 1996!

What is happening is that production of fuels has been dropping.  In other words, production is falling faster than demand, and that has the same effect as demand going up; prices go up (when there is less of something, in relation to demand, it becomes more valuable).

According to U.S. Energy Information Administration, PADD 4 gasoline production is down from last year. PADD 4 includes Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming.  The four week average for “finished gas” production, for August 2011 was 0.273 million barrels per day.  Compared to last year’s production of 0.296.

In other words, fuel producers are deliberately keeping production just under ‘demand’ in order to keep prices high.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Major East Idaho Employer makes surprise layoff announcement

September 19, a change of contractors with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) resulted in a surprise announcement; 204 employees will be let go at the end of the month.

On September 30, the existing contract with AMWTP (Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project) ends.  A new contract with Idaho Treatment Group begins on October 1.  The new contractor says they can do the same job with 204 less employees.

The contract involves preparing transuranic nuclear weapons waste stored at the INL, for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico.

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

False christian Rick Perry a Poverty Miser?

“There are parts of Texas that are doing well. And there is a tremendous number of Texans, more than Perry has ever wanted to acknowledge, that are doing very, very poorly.”-Miguel Ferguson, University of Texas

Texas Governor Rick Perry likes to claim having created jobs for Texans, but he’s also to blame for increasing the poverty rate!

In the past two years Texas has created 40% of new U.S. jobs, but also has the fastest growing poverty rate in the whole country. That means most of those new jobs are not paying enough to cover the basic cost of living.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics about 550,000 workers last year were paid at, or even below, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour!

According to the U.S. Census Bureau the national average poverty rate is 15.1%, and as of 2010 the poverty rate in Texas is 18.4%.

The main reason for the poverty; Perry’s so called job creation isn’t happening fast enough: “The middle class are losing their jobs and are not able to replace them fast enough. That’s driving them straight into poverty.”-Bradley Manning, Texas Neighborhood Services

To make matters worse, Texas has one of the worst social service programs in the country: “We don’t have the support system in place to provide economic support or economic opportunity to help families lift themselves out of poverty.” said Frances Deviney, Center for Public Policy Priorities