Big Bro
Filed Under Cloud gazing, Media, Orwellian | Leave a Comment
According to a review of official documents, the FBI have compromised the civil liberties of American citizens far more frequently, and to a greater extent, than was previously assumed, and more-over, the actual number of violations that may have occurred from 2001 to 2008 could approach 40,000 possible violations of law, Executive Order, or other regulations governing intelligence investigations.
(Illustration found here).
A goodly portion of those violations came through the use of National Security Letters, a device way-expanded under the nefarious and nasty USA PATRIOT Act, in which intelligence services gather information from communications service providers like phone companies and ISPs, and, allow the FBI to secretly demand data about ordinary American citizens’ private communications and Internet activity without any meaningful oversight or prior judicial review. Recipients of NSLs are subject to a gag order that forbids them from ever revealing the letters’ existence to their coworkers, to their friends, or even to their family members, much less the public.
Let freedom ring — just not on your phone or Internet.
And parts of that nasty Patriot Act comes up for renewal at the end of next month, especially worth noting, two anti-freedom, big-bro-is-watching-you provisions — one authorizing “roving” wiretapping, and the other allowing the government to pull all sorts of records and electronic communications from U.S. citizens.
Despite bad-talking the act as a senator, President Obama has already signed one extension (last year) and according to reports, will quietly, easily sign another.
While a candidate in 2007, Obama spoke with a mighty-forked-tongue and the Patriot Act’s provisions should be repealed and “no more National Security Letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime” because “that is not who we are, and it is not what is necessary to defeat the terrorists.”
So much for transparency and truth-telling, huh?
And from the US federal government’s intense whining about the notorious international renegade Julian Assange and WikiLeaks came reports of a secret order ordering Twitter to produce all kinds of private shit on ALL those who even twitted about WikiLeaks. The order forbade Twitter to notify those affected, among them Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a member of Iceland’s parliament.
The only reason the order became public is because Twitter refused and the gag order was rescinded.
And in a double standard, the US just about banned the noteworthy news organization, Al Jazeera English, from operating in this country — only a handful of cable outlets allow the Qatar-based group to have a slot.
Al Jazeera has been spot-on during the unrest in Egypt, which might complicate US bullshit there.
Even as the new year continues, US peoples will be faced with more and more intrusions into what was once considered fairly sacred — privacy.
So when you are in a particular situation, look into the camera and smile.
Egypt’s Difficulty
Filed Under Economy, history, War & Politics | Leave a Comment
Egypt is a way-ancient land now exploding via extreme-modern media, but a good reason for all the unrest is as old as time — food.
And a near-twist-a-flex attitude in the US, where prices are fairly stable, mainly because American consumers aren’t really paying much for the actual agriculture product.
From a NPR report on rising world food prices, except as of yet, in the US:
The reason for the tame price environment in this country is that the cost of food itself is a relatively small part of what U.S. consumers pay at the cash register, according to Homi Kharas, senior fellow for the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.
He says that when a U.S. consumer buys a box of cereal or a cup of Starbucks coffee, she is mostly paying for the packaging, marketing and attractive store fixtures.
So the shopper is not greatly affected by the underlying commodity price the way poorer people are in other countries when they buy, say, a simple sack of rice.
“Take corn flakes,” Kharas says. “Very little of the price of the box reflects the corn inside.”
And to make it even more surreal, the rising crisis of securing food might just be another of them asshole financial concoction jobs bullshitted out of the nefarious minds on Wall Street.
(Illustration of ‘Nefertari‘ at top found here. And the above Cairo crowd scene found here).
From IPS News on Friday:
Billions of dollars are being made by investors in a speculative “food bubble” that’s created record food prices, starving millions and destabilising countries, experts now conclude.
Wall Street investment firms and banks, along with their kin in London and Europe, were responsible for the technology dot-com bubble, the stock market bubble, and the recent U.S. and UK housing bubbles. They extracted enormous profits and their bonuses before the inevitable collapse of each.
Now they’ve turned to basic commodities.
The result?
At a time when there has been no significant change in the global food supply or in food demand, the average cost of buying food shot up 32 percent from June to December 2010, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Nothing but price speculation can explain wheat prices jumping 70 percent from June to December last year when global wheat stocks were stable, experts say.
“There is no food shortage in the world. Food is simply priced out of the reach of the world’s poorest people,” said Robert Fox of Oxfam Canada in reference to the estimated one billion people who go hungry.
“Hunger is not a food production problem. It is an income problem,” Fox told IPS.
Hence, therefore is Egypt and getting hands on food — The UN World Food Programme (WFP): Egypt is a low-income, food-deficit country, with 19.6 percent of the population – almost 14.2 million people – living below the lower poverty line, on less than US$1/day.
And it’s everywhere — as Josette Sheeran, head of the WFP, told Bloomberg News: “We’re in an era where the world and nations ignore the food issue at their peril.”
Or face some bad shit like Egypt is now experiencing, where, according to CNN Sunday evening, the country is quickly running out of the food staples — bread, beans and rice — and people are unable to provide: “Everything is running out. I have three children, and I only have enough to feed them for maybe two more days. After that I do not know what we will do.” school administrator Gamalat Gadalla told CNN.
Sounds like we need a bowel of them corn flakes right about now.
Lonesome George
Filed Under Cloud gazing, history, War & Politics | Leave a Comment
In September 2000, a peek into the future.
During a Labor Day campaign stop in Illinois, George Jr., oblivious of a mic just inches from his mouth, blubbered an aside to The Dick, which eventually revealed a nasty, two-faced-lying politician.
Via salon.com:
“There’s Adam Clymer — major league asshole — from the New York Times,” Bush said.
“Yeah, big time,” returned Cheney.
Hence, no one should be taken aback from the horror the next near-decade would produce because these two arrogant incompetents ran the show.
In searching for answers why there ever was a George Jr. presidency, there’s no real conclusion, other than US and world history was apparently already en route to a mega-major disaster.
Maybe it was the odd, worse-than-realized 2000 election, in which The Junior became embroiled in the most screwed-up process since reportedly the more-than-usual corrupt one in 1876, where one vote made all the difference.
In 2000, though, none of the voters made any difference.
Despite Al Gore snagging the popular vote by a fairly decent margin — more than three times the amount between JFK and Dick Nixon in 1960 – the US Supreme Court without any thought of history or how voters voted, it was just too convoluted: Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances, for the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities.
(Illustration found here).
Now near-11 years later, George Jr. wants out of the limelight and wants to “regain anonymity” — but still a two-faced obvious liar (though in a shocking self-caricature sort of way) as he postured during a C-Span interview set to run on Sunday:
“[I]n spite of the fact that I’m now on TV, I don’t want to be on TV,” he said.
(See the video of that portion of the interview here).
He did, however, show that natural revenge/mean streak as he reasoned away why former Press Secretary Scott McClellan, a very-long time aide, wasn’t included in ‘Decision Points,’ George Jr.’s so-called memoir.
(Of course, McClellan did scribe a critical review of his years with Junior Boy, aptly titled, ‘What Happened.’
“He was not a part of a major decision. This is a book about decisions,” Bush told CSPAN. “This isn’t a book about, you know, personalities or gossip or settling scores.”
“I didn’t think he was relevant,” added Bush.
George Jr.’s still got it.
Af-Pak Woes-Begotten
Filed Under history, War & Politics | Leave a Comment
In the last couple of years, the US foreign take on the disaster in Afghanistan is to junk on another acronym, ‘Af-Pak,’ in an apparent effort to link Pakistan with the war being lost in the region.
And Af-Pak is more than a mouthful.
Despite dumping some $1.5 billion a year in aid to Pakistan, the peoples populating that country pretty much hate our guts, creating a wonderful recruiting tool for the Taliban or any other insurgent operation whose aim is to kick American ass.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari are two putrid peas in a pod — neither is worth a shit, both ineffective, corrupt and widely disliked.
(Illustration found here).
An independent media company and Web site based in Brooklyn, New York, Vice, and its broadband TV network, VBS.TV, made a recent fact-finding trip to Pakistan to check out how really bad it is, and came away with a view that it’s worse.
Via CNN:
In a recent trip to Pakistan to report on the recent spike in the region’s violence and bloodshed, I heard over and over the same sentiment from people on the ground; America’s war on terror is falling flat on its face.
…
Heroin is now actually cheaper than hashish in cities such as Lahore.
The Kalashnikov culture, the foundation of which was laid 30 years ago when the CIA financed the mujahedeen, is all-consuming.
According to the Pakistanis I spoke to, it’s all taken a devastating toll on the country and created the next generation of militants at the same time.
(In an interview with Rahimullah Yusufzai, one of Pakistan’s most respected journalists).
“People have suffered, and they are willing to take revenge,” he said. “All villages have been attacked, women and children have been killed. So the Taliban can very easily motivate these families to supply suicide bombers.”
Today’s anti-West tide in Pakistan boils down to reactivity, retaliation and revenge.
“In Pashtun society, taking revenge is very important,” Yusufzai said.
“You know, there is a saying in Pashto: ‘Even if you take revenge after 100 years, it’s not too late.’
And most of these I believe are retaliation attacks.
Suicide bombings and the use of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) are the two most effective means of weaponry that the militants can use in this part of the world.”
…
In Peshawar, I also tracked down Shabir Ahmed Khan, the provincial secretary of Jamaat-i-Islami, a multimillion-member Islamic movement widely considered in Pakistan to be al Qaeda friendly.
As soon as we sat down, I could tell he was pissed.
“The problems surrounding us here are not caused by Taliban or al Qaeda,” he said. “It’s the Western policies. If Westerners are going to kill and murder us, then we will have to fight back.”
He continued, uninterrupted: “There’s a saying: ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ America is playing the role of an enemy, and al Qaeda is the reaction to it. People need to realize this. No one has the right to dictate over a free country. They force their political and social policies on us, which they have no right to.”
Not very pretty, huh?
And yesterday (Thursday) another piece of shit to plug up the toilet.
According to the New York Times (h/t antiwar.com):
An American official shot and killed two men on a motorcycle who apparently threatened to rob him at gunpoint while he was driving his car in the city of Lahore on Thursday, according to senior police officials there.
The official, Raymond Davis, who was posted to the United States Consulate in Lahore, called the consulate for help during the episode, and a four-wheel-drive vehicle that tried to come to his rescue hit and killed a third man, said the senior superintendent of police, Faisal Rana.
Later, Lahore police officials filed murder charges against Mr. Davis on Thursday night in the deaths of the two men on the motorcycle.
The police indicated that they were no longer convinced that there had been an attempted robbery.
The deaths of three Pakistanis in a case involving an armed American official at midday in a busy metropolitan area could heighten anti-American sentiment, which already runs high in Pakistan. Many here distrust and disapprove of the United States’ support of the fight against Taliban militants in the country.
Even within the uppy-up financial gathering now ongoing in Davos, Switzerland, the Af-Pak bullshit hits the fan.
Pakistani politician Imran Khan said the war on terror took a wrong turn very shortly after Sept. 11, 2001.
Via Fox News:
“This war on terror is a disaster for the people of the U.S.
It’s a bigger disaster for the people of Pakistan.
It is causing more radicalization, more polarization in the society.
The war is perceived by the vast majority as a war against Islam and because it is perceived as a war against Islam there is no shortage of people willing to die for it.”
…
Imran Khan says mistakes in what was originally dubbed the “War on Terror” were made early on. Al Qaeda, he says, the perpetrators of 9/11, should have been isolated, and attacked as criminals, terrorists.
The Taliban, actually, were not the problem, according to Khan.
“The invasion of Afghanistan was all wrong because the Taliban were not terrorists. They were religious fundamentalists.
There is a big difference between militant extremists and religious fundamentalists. They were just fundamentalists reacting to the violence of the Afghan warlords.”
…
Khan says that the United States squandered goodwill in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
“You see, the whole Muslim world on 9/11 was willing to help the United States. Why not co-opt the Muslim world to go after these few criminals?”
…
Khan says watching events in Tunisia and Egypt, he warns that Pakistan is even more vulnerable.
“Things are much worse in Pakistan than in Tunisia. Every now and then you have riots in Pakistan — not at the same level, but you get the feeling that any time something could happen.”
The operative words there are ‘any time,’ which means yesterday.
Add all that crap compounded into this: The United States is at risk of wasting roughly $11.4 billion unless it comes up with a plan for constructing and maintaining nearly 900 Afghan National Security Forces facilities, according to a new report by a top federal watchdog.
When will reality take hold of Washington?
Pound for Dollar
Filed Under Economy, Finance, Scratching Sounds | Leave a Comment
The Brits feel the ugly pinch of wasted economics:
The UK economy shrank by a shock 0.5% in the last quarter of 2010 as Britain’s recovery from recession faltered.
…
Economists said the first estimate of GDP for the last quarter was much worse than expected, and meant that Britain could now suffer a double-dip recession.
With inflation hitting 3.7% last month, there are also growing fears the UK is heading for an unpleasant dose of “stagflation.”
…
The data sent the pound falling by nearly one and a half cents against the dollar to $1.575, and pushed the FTSE 100 index down by 36 points.
Across the pond, the US might be next.
(Illustration found here).
And further grope for money in the UK.
Via the Telegraph and Bank of England chief Mervyn King:
“In 2011, real wages are likely to be no higher than they were in 2005,” he said. “One has to go back to the 1920s to find a time when real wages fell over a period of six years.
“The squeeze on living standards is the inevitable price to pay for the financial crisis and subsequent rebalancing of the world and UK economies.”
Despite all the indications from numerous sources, the so-called global economy is going to shit in a wire basket.
Even at the elitist financial meeting now going on in Davos, Switzerland, the outlook for 2011 doesn’t look so hot, although most of the attendees try to paint a glossy picture on the world’s economy.
The big problem?
The gap between rich and poor: One theme appeared to resonate with executives and officials from the developed and the developing world alike: the potentially corrosive social effect of widening income inequality across and within many countries. Mr. Zhu called it “the most serious challenge for the whole world.”
Money in the same old greedy hands.
A good analysis from the astute financial site, The Automatic Earth:
The major UK banks, just like those in Lower Manhattan, only continue to exist today because trillions of dollars were transferred from Main Street to Wall Street.
That’s the whole story, even if it’s not distributed in print.
And now Mr. King claims he cannot “prevent the squeeze” for everyday people, while London traders go home with multi-million dollar bonuses.
The main take-away from that is not even that the “standard of living is plunging” at its fastest rate in almost a century, it’s that the standards of honesty and dignity, of how to build a society, are plunging. Corruption and fraud have free rein.
King’s right when it comes to the end result, though, of course: the British future comes dressed as misery.
Yes, your future looks bad, and Mervyn King is telling you it would have been worse if you hadn’t bailed out the bankers and made sure they got their X-mas bonuses.
Come to think of it all that way, how is it possible that Britain doesn’t yet look like Tunisia, Yemen or Egypt, why are there no people in the streets, no riots, no nothing of the kind?
It’s not as if the Brits have rosier futures ahead of them then the Egyptians. But then they likely missed that part.
All parties are still stuck squabbling over the right path to -resumed- growth.
But real economic growth will not return anytime soon, if ever, in the western world, no matter what numbers anyone comes up with.
The European markets are up again, one day after the plunge in UK GDP was announced and Mervyn King gave out his “this is a Depression era” warning.
It’s like reality doesn’t matter anymore.
As in a whole-lotta shit nowadays, reality bites only the hand of the poor.