Tuesday, November 16, 2010
November 16 2010 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: There's NOTHING Going On - Our Elected Representatives Tell Us The Nation Is In Crisis But
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now." November 16 2010 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: There's NOTHING Going On - Our Elected Representatives Tell Us The Nation Is In Crisis But It's All 'Shuck & Jive' When It Comes To DOING SOMETHING[Pop Out Player? Click Here] Prefer An MP3 Playlist? It's Here: [128kbps MP3 10:29 Minutes] Other Audio Formats Available [ Here ] Twitter This Commentary |
In The News:
Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files.
The situation in congress is the news ducks are getting instruction from the 'lame' ducks with 100 new legislators who need to be taken around and shown where the copy machine is. Meanwhile caucuses are in session with the ducks picking their new flock leaders... same as the old flock leaders.
The president is staying out of the way of the post election flaps. He's back from the G20 mini-conference and soon on his way to Lisbon Portugal for the NATO conference, which like the APEC/G20 conferences just attended is liable to be... contentious. Many NATO nations want OUT of their combat roles in Afghanistan. Don't expect any brilliant ideas on how to occupy Afghanistan coming out of this session.
In Afghanistan, the war is going badly, with major fighting in Kunar, Kandahar, and Helmand provinces, and infiltration along the Eastern border by al-Hakami tribal members and other people motivated by the invasion of their kin's land.
For elective credits.. Know your social, cultural, and political factions in Afghanistan... Below the synopsis.
One of the contentious issues at the NATO conference will be Hamid Karzai's, illegitimate-but-wanting-to-be-loved-by-his-masses president of Afghanistan call for an end to NATO night raids, and a lower profile on the streets of Kabul and other urban areas. General Petraeus is quite upset... More
The congressional ethics committee continues it's Red Herring investigation into Charles Rangel's so-called "Ethics Violations" without the delay requested by Rangel to seek a new lawyer. The investigation contains such blockbusters as his Non-Op'd car parked for an extended period in the congressional parking lot and OH MY, receiving, without declaring, rental income from his property in the Dominican Republic. Those are two of the HORRIBLE things he's accused of.
Notably, that reporting of foreign rental income is something corporations don't need to do, essentially bilking, under the color of 'law', US taxpayers for BILLIONS of dollars a year.
Update: "House ethics panel convicts Rep. Rangel on 11 of 13 counts", at The Hill.
[Yours truly (Razer Raygun) saw the corrupting of US tax laws personally years ago when the company he worked for, Seagate Technology, brought Thai workers to the states from their Thai subsidiary to Seagate facilities in Watsonville California. The Thais were housed in company owned housing. Seagate used these folks, allowed in the country as "Trainees" on visas, to work in a full machne shop production environment under a full work load, and the company carted them around (for a fee, including tours around the Monterey Bay and vicinity) on buses owned by a charter bus line invested in by a number of the company's directors.]
The Space Shuttle Discovery launch is still on hold after a fourth crack was discovered in the main fuel tank and there's a Hydrogen leak somewhere in the systems. More.
For Elective Credits.. Know your social, cultural, and political factions in Afghanistan.
Read this extensively researched three page article:
Afghanistan: Mapping the Insurgency
by Varun Vira
November 11, 2010
The armed conflict with Taliban insurgents and the Karzai government with its international backers for control of the Afghan state is a ‘hybrid[1] internationalized instrastate(sp) struggle’[2] playing out on various levels and with both sides receiving external support. It includes a social level with issues of ethnic and religious identity struggles as well as a search for various groups to reform their political and economic marginalization from predatory elites. The conflict is intensified on a global level by a global war on terrorism and by regional actors in a struggle for strategic influence. Regardless, it is critical to remember that these structural dynamics manifest themselves in a predominantly local context. A myriad of complex local interactions form in essence thousands of “micro-insurgencies” that coalesce to form the dyadic conflict.[3] This best explains the dynamic allegiances of Afghan groups shifting to and from those who best satisfy their communal, developmental, political and ideological needs.
The incidence of violent conflict has registered an alarming up-tick. As of mid September 2010, coalition KIA has exceeded 2009’s record high of 521, itself a 77% increase over 2008.[4] Civilian casualties registered a 31% increase as of mid-2010, although the Taliban accounted for the overwhelming majority as coalition forces tightened their rules of engagement.[5] Meanwhile various forms of structural violence persist with the HDI Index ranking Afghanistan 181st out of 182 countries, with abysmal rankings on virtually every metric of human wellbeing.[6]
The Taliban
Today at least 25,000 insurgents are suspected to be active in Afghanistan, up from a few thousand in 2003.[7] They directly control 4% of Afghanistan with influence and presence in another 30%, a figure rivaling the Karzai government.[8] Officially, they are engaged in a revolutionary struggle for control of the state guided by “the most conservative village Islam, with Deobandi doctrines, with a stress on the importance of rituals and modes of behavior.”[9] This religious emphasis has multiple benefits. It is a source of identity-formation for their cadres, a projected incompatibility between puritanical values and the supposed moral corruption of international and government forces as a means of conflict mobilization.[10] It has also contributed to a zero-sum thinking that sees little utility in compromise or negotiation while they retain the upper hand on the battlefield....
[In Full @ Foreign Policy Journal]
Audio hosting courtesy of: [www.archive.org]
Travus T. Hipp's Commentary Archive Is [ Here]
Search the archive by topic [Here]
Cabale News RSS Feed Via Internet Archive
Creative Commons Copyright
Cabale New Service, KPIG Radio, and KVMR radio.
Listen to KVMR
Recorded & transcribed by Razer Raygun @ Razed By Wolves
Postings Auntie Imperial, Razer Raygun, and Da' Buffalo Have Done Lately Are [Here]
The Consolidated Items Listing in RSS format [Here]
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 and The Berne Convention on Literary and Artistic Works, Article 10, the news clippings, audio, and images used in this posting are made available without profit for research and educational purposes.
Visitors To Cabale News & Razed By Wolves
Thanks For Stopping By
.
Monday, November 15, 2010
November 15 2010 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: I Support Their (Afghanistan's Citizens) Right To Shoot At Outsiders Carrying Guns
| "All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."November 15 2010 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: I Support Their Right To Shoot At Outsiders Carrying Guns - The Sooner We Get Our Ass Kicked The Sooner We'll Get OUT Of Afghanistan [Pop Out Player? Click Here] Prefer An MP3 Playlist? It's Here: [128kbps MP3 18:15 Minutes] Other Audio Formats Available [ Here ] |
In The News:
Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files.
In light of the commentary topic, we recommend starting here for current information on our empire-building effort in Afghanistan, and Auntie Imp has posted a piece on the Pilgrimage to Mecca, which happens this week, and WHY the Saudi authorities are so fearful of attacks on the event, required of all good Muslims, by al-Qaeda.
After the commentary, Alabama 3's "Vietnamistan", remixed by Skidmark Bob @ PoP dEFECT Radio
Now... the news:
It's gonna be a 'lip service' kind of week - The lame duck session of congress opens today and one of the issues to be discussed is Charles Rangel's foibles. Congressman Rangel is requesting a continuance of his congressional ethics trial until he procures a new lawyer. George W's tax cuts for the wealthy and whether they'll be extended, Unemployment Benefit extensions and perusing the new SALT treaty with Russia (The Pentagon's view, and that of R. James Woolsey, a long time Washington apparatchik) while the Democrats still hold power are also on the plate.
Good news from Burma/Myanmar... The Junta in charge since 1958 has released Aung San Suu Kyi. There are demonstrative shows of support in the street and she says she will continue to hound the entrenched military government of the country, which has the "Stench of American Hypocrisy" on it according to Paul Craig Roberts, and one of Aung's colleagues notes that the Junta is so entrenched they're not concerned with her threat to investigate the elections as she's promised because "... the generals felt secure because the elections were a foregone conclusion."
Meanwhile, Malaysian opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim declared the release of his friend Aung San Suu Kyi meaningless unless she's allowed to assume her role as the elected leader of Burma.
The French Prime Minister has been driven out of his position by popular mandate (but re-appointed by president Sarkozy who also moved his cabinet farther to the right) after cabinet re-shuffle in part caused by a worker/student revolt last month over government assured pensions. There are also worker revolt now or recently past in Greece, Ireland and Spain.
Randy 'Duke' Cunningham, a former congressman from San Diego currently doing time for taking bribes from defense contractors is filing an appeal saying that all those things the defense contractors gave him were "gifts".
...and just in case you think America is the only Western nation that allows criminals to occupy government offices, the Daily Mail, UK, notes: "France appoints its new Defence Secretary – a convicted criminal jailed for misusing public funds and banned from office for ten years" (more on that)
Audio hosting courtesy of: [www.archive.org]
Travus T. Hipp's Commentary Archive Is [ Here]
Search the archive by topic [Here]
Cabale News RSS Feed Via Internet Archive
Creative Commons Copyright
Cabale New Service, KPIG Radio, and KVMR radio.
Listen to KVMR
Recorded & transcribed by Razer Raygun @ Razed By Wolves
Postings Auntie Imperial, Razer Raygun, and Da' Buffalo Have Done Lately Are [Here]
The Consolidated Items Listing in RSS format [Here]
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 and The Berne Convention on Literary and Artistic Works, Article 10, the news clippings, audio, and images used in this posting are made available without profit for research and educational purposes.
Visitors To Cabale News & Razed By Wolves
Thanks For Stopping By
.
Friday, November 12, 2010
November 12 2010 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: George W. Bush's Memoirs - He Still Needs To Deal With 'The Turd In The Middle Of The Rug'
| "All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."November 12 2010 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: George W. Bush's Memoirs - He Still Needs To Deal With 'The Turd In The Middle Of The Rug' [Pop Out Player? Click Here] Prefer An MP3 Playlist? It's Here: [128kbps MP3 9:01 Minutes] Other Audio Formats Available [ Here ] |
In The News:
Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files.
A truncated synopsis this morning due to a date in Santa Cruz "Superior" Court lending moral support to a friend who is about to go on trial for, and slowly working towards a constitutional law ruling on, California Penal Code 647(e)... being 'un-lodged' within the state of California.
My comment at the above Indymedia link:
The wording in the law claims "Any Place". THAT IS what makes it unconstitutional. As it seems, under any reasonable interpretation, to criminalize being in or entering the state if there's no place for the person to (legally) sleep... a necessary (human function). The US Constitution generally forbids any impediment to interstate travel by US citizens. With money or without... with housing or not.
That's why they're UNITED states... not countries or 'Fiefdoms'.
Now... The News:
It's Offensive... We are now apparently executing(sic) a nationwide offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan and the fighting is intense in a number of provinces. There are Artillery barrages, helicopter gunship attacks and tanks on the move in Helmand. There is also heavy fighting in Kandahar, outside Kabul, and Kunar province. More.
Here's a piece of THAT action:
Afghanistan War: Bulldozing through KandaharIn case you happen to be wondering "What's so goddamn important about Kandahar Afghanistan?"... "Kandahar Airfield has become the busiest single runway airport in the world..." according to Colonel Gary Sheffer, acting commanding general of the U.S. Military’s Joint Sustainment Command in Afghanistan.
Using explosives and bulldozers, the US military has leveled hundreds of homes and trees.
Army engineers blow up a grape hut near a newly established U.S. base near Sia Choy, Kandahar
(Ben Gilbert/GlobalPost)
By Ben Gilbert - GlobalPost
November 10, 2010
The U.S. military has destroyed hundreds of Afghan civilian homes, farm houses, walls, trees and plowed through fields and buildings using explosives and bulldozers in war-torn Zhari district, a practice that has begun to anger Afghan villagers.
The much anticipated third phase of the Kandahar campaign, called Operation Dragon Strike, has U.S. troops from the 2nd brigade, 101st Airborne Division pushing into a dangerous swath of once-Taliban dominated territory from Highway 1 to the Arghandab River.
But it has come at much material cost to the Afghans, who complain that the troops are destroying their property, leaving some homeless and blocking their irrigation canals —potentially derailing the all-important counterinsurgency strategy that aims to win the hearts and minds of regular Afghans... [Ben Gilbert reporting for the GlobalPost]
But trucks are the main mode of transport. They pick up supplies from the port in Karachi, Pakistan, where U.S. supplies are shipped from either Kuwait or the United States.So... It IS all about empire building... complete with the "busiest single runway airport in the world"... Roads and infrastructure the Afghanis, for the most part do not want, because THEY KNOW it's the road to cultural assimilation/destruction and the end of their traditional nomadic lives, if not for that pesky old "Christian Crusader" issue that rears it's ancient and bloody head in the century of RPGs, AK47s, and IEDs.
Lt. Col. Ralph Burks, the distribution integration branch chief for the Sustainment Command, said between 6,000 to 8,000 Afghan and Pakistani trucks move 80 percent of the U.S. military’s supplies around Afghanistan each day.
“That many trucks moving back home would be impressive,” he said. “Out here, it’s amazing.”
The amount of supplies moving around the country is equally amazing and the costs staggering.
The Sustainment Command has supplied 47 million meals to U.S. troops in Afghanistan over the last six months at a cost of $900 million. During the same period, the Command processed 15 million pounds of ammunition, 21 million pounds of mail and distributed 237 million gallons of fuel. At the same time, the Sustainment Command’s troops also procured and delivered over 2 million gallons of bottled water. Capt. Jason Mann said they buy water from 10 plants located around the region.
“We’ve got some that comes from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, two located in-country in Kabul, and various plants in the [United Arab Emirates] that we source from,” he said. [In full @ The Global Post]
For more on the US and NATO's attempt at empire-building Afghanistan, click here.
President Obama is in Japan for a contentious APEC/G20 conference after a failed (FAIL! FAIL! FAIL!) attempt at a trade deal with South Korea to remove Korean import tariffs and taxes on U.S. cars and beef.
After eight months the lack of a legitimate government in Iraq may be over. the Shiites backing current illegitimate president al-Maliki have cut a deal with the rest of the parliament by giving the presidency to a Kurd... Note that the Sunnis, who attempted a walkout, get shafted again.
Lisa Murkowski's run against Joe Miller for an Alaskan Senate seat is still up in the air. There are 90,000 write-in votes which may give the race to Murkowski, and Miller is claiming fraud. How many of those 90,000 voters do you suppose actually spend ANY TIME in Alaska? How many do you suppose are Petroleum Engineers (like Sarah Palin's husband) who spend most of their lives in Houston?
Speaking of Sarah Palin... There IS a "Palin" in OTHER Alaska news: Despite low scores from the judges, the
The Fight Before Christmas... On his way out of office, Governor Schwarzenegger of California is calling a special session on December 6, the day after the newly elected legislators are sworn in, to hash out California's deficit budget.
In OTHER News:
'Cat Food Commission' Releases 'Shock Doctrine' for America - Draft Version
"OK, here’s the draft document for the cat food commission co-chair’s mark. In addition, there’s a page with specific “illustrative cuts”, $100 billion in domestic spending and $100 billion in military spending. Between the two, you can get a sense of what Bowles and Simpson have planned." [More @ CommonDreams]
Congressional Right-Wing Extremists 'Connie Mack' & Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Set to Take Control of House Foreign Affairs Committee and Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere
'In the early years of the past decade, two hard-line Cold Warriors, closely associated with radical Cuban exile groups in Florida, occupied strategic positions in the U.S. foreign policy machine. Otto Reich, former head of covert propaganda operations in Central America, and Roger Noriega, co-author of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, took turns running the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and held other influential administration posts..." Now Cuban-American representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is expected to replace Howard Berman as chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Congressman Cornelius McGillicuddy IV AKA "Connie Mack", is slated to take the reins of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee, Western Hemisphere...' [More @ CommonDreams]Roger Noriega wrote recently on Hugo Chavez as a "Cocaine Capo" when Colombia decided to turn a Venezuelan drug kingpin over to his home country instead of the US. (Scroll to "In OTHER News:)
This is the 'safety' Riverbend, college age girl-blogger of Baghdad fled to in 2007 and has not been heard from since...
October 22 2007SYRIA: Iraqi Kids Struggle on Dangerous Edges - IPS
Bloggers Without Borders...
Syria is a beautiful country- at least I think it is. I say “I think” because while I perceive it to be beautiful, I sometimes wonder if I mistake safety, security and normalcy for ‘beauty’... [Her last post is here]
"Since the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Syria has registered 260,000 Iraqis - with this year's total just over 150,000. In reality, an estimated 1.5 million Iraqis have lived in Syria over the past seven years, the largest community outside Iraq... [In Full @ Inter Press Service]
Audio hosting courtesy of: [www.archive.org]
Travus T. Hipp's Commentary Archive Is [ Here]
Search the archive by topic [Here]
Cabale News RSS Feed Via Internet Archive
Creative Commons Copyright
Cabale New Service, KPIG Radio, and KVMR radio.
Listen to KVMR
Recorded & transcribed by Razer Raygun @ Razed By Wolves
Postings Auntie Imperial, Razer Raygun, and Da' Buffalo Have Done Lately Are [Here]
The Consolidated Items Listing in RSS format [Here]
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 and The Berne Convention on Literary and Artistic Works, Article 10, the news clippings, audio, and images used in this posting are made available without profit for research and educational purposes.
Visitors To Cabale News & Razed By Wolves
Thanks For Stopping By
.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
November 10 2010 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: I Am A Veteran And I'm Taking Tomorrow... 'Veterans Day'... Off... Here's Why
| "All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."November 10 2010 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: I Am A Veteran And I'm Taking Tomorrow... 'Veterans Day'... Off... Here's Why [Pop Out Player? Click Here] Prefer An MP3 Playlist? It's Here: [128kbps MP3 9:56 Minutes] Other Audio Formats Available [ Here ] |
In The News:
Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files.
Due To Delays The News Synopsis Will Be Truncated this Morning... Listen in for more.
First... In Light Of The Commentary Topic...
I was going to run this at the beginning of December, and may well do that still:
December 16 2010...
Mark it on your calendar as the day US Veterans are going to MOVE on the White House.
There are children being orphaned, maimed or killed every day, in our name, with our tax dollars; there are soldiers and civilians dying or being maimed for life in order to generate profits for the most odious imperialistic corporate war machine ever, again in our name. How long are we going to let this go on? Until it is too late, until this destructive machine destroys all of us and the planet to boot?Here are some similar thoughts put to music... while waiting.
Wikileaks has revealed the documented horror of U.S. war-making, beyond what any of us imagined. It's time veterans and others express our resistance directly and powerfully by putting ourselves on the line, once again--honestly, courageously and without one drop of apology for doing so. It is not we who are the murderers, torturers or pillagers of the earth.
Profit and power-hungry warmongers are destroying everything we hold dear and sacred.
In the early thirties, WW1 vets descended on Washington, D.C, (Historic Footage @ Youtube, 2:39 minutes) to demand their promised bonuses, it being the depths of the Depression. General Douglas MacArthur and his sidekick Dwight Eisenhower disregarded President Herbert Hoover's order and burned their encampment down and drove the vets out of town at bayonet point.
We are today's bonus marchers, and we've come to claim our bonus--PEACE. [In Full]
[Pop Out Player]
Now... The News:
President Obama has left Indonesia after having his visit cut short by volcanic activity and is now in Seoul Korea for the G20 conference. It's topic "international banking controls". Good luck with that!
Still no word on yesterday's 'mystery missile launch' off the coast of Los Angeles.
The Justice Department WILL NOT charge anyone over the CIA's torture tape destruction.
There goes 55,000 NON-military-industrial complex jobs - The Transportation Secretary has canceled a $6.2 billion dollar New York-New Jersey tunnel.
A Mexican Child Prostitution ring bust has netted 885 perps, and 69 girls were rescued.
In Other News...
War without end... So what's new? The US may break it's promise to leave Iraq and the Obama administration is also believed to be moving the 'withdrawal' (quotes intentional) timeline for our dirty war (No quotes intentional) in Afghanistan to 2014.
The Obama administration has decided to walk away from what it once touted as key deadlines in the Afghanistan war in an effort to de-emphasize the president's pledge that he would begin withdrawing U.S. forces in July 2011, administration and military officials said Tuesday.Razer Quips:
[More @ The Seattle Times]
Could it be considered reasonable to believe the US economy would collapse without the Defense Sector? After all, that was most likely the LARGEST part of Obama's recent trade deal with India, touting thousands of jobs for... wait for it... Boeing, a U.S. dual-use (snicker...) military/civilian aerospace company, with hooks into America's treasury based on the continuance of the aforementioned wars.,
Get Up! Stand UP! Friends of Bradley Manning are 'under the gun'.
A number of people who are attempting to assist Bradley Manning in his legal defense are being spooked, illegally searched and stalked by agents of the US government.
Bradley Manning is the American Patriot (Capital 'P') who stands accused of, and is currently incarcerated for, releasing the Wikileaks helicopter gunsight video showing the assassination of an indigenous Iraqi MSM reporter/photographer and other innocent bystanders. One of the aircrew is heard lying to his controller about the presence of an RPG, when it's OBVIOUS from the video that the person, at best, was holding a piece of lumber, if not just a walking stick or broomhandle, and the helicopter's gunner seems quite eager to open fire pressuring his controller for a clearance to engage.
Is this an incident of "Hunting Afghani Civilians", Iraq edition?
Of COURSE it is...
Afterwards, they strafed a civilian vehicle carrying the wounded, and children.
One of the aircrew was heard commenting about the good samaritans who attempted to assist the wounded and were also murdered for their effort (along with one of the children I believe): "They shouldn't have brought their kids to a battle", when it is quite obvious to even the casual observer, there WAS NO 'battle'... Just a gun-happy, military-style murder by US military personnel.
The wrong guy's been arrested.
The aircrew should be brought up on court martial charges for simply LYING to their controller. Yet the Pentagon is refusing to investigate.
The Video (NOT for the squeamish)
For more on the harassment of the people attempting to help this true American Patriot (capital 'P') see
Glenn Greenwald's article in Salon
Next up... A British Petroleum Gulf oil spill update:
The Christian Science Monitor leads with "What's known now about cause and effects"
BUT ONE THING IS KNOWN BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT:"Amid hearings on the cause of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, government scientists, academics, and those most affected by the Gulf oil spill are at odds over the extent of its effects."By Mark Guarino, Staff writer / November 9, 2010New Orleans - The well responsible for the Gulf oil spill was permanently sealed on Sept. 19. Since then, little else regarding an event many consider the worst environmental disaster in American history has been so categorical.
The presidential commission investigating the accident is searching for what caused the explosion, but is not yet assessing blame. Government scientists are offering relatively positive observations about state of the Gulf, which are being vociferously questioned by some independent scientists and fishermen. The government also differs with oil industry economists on how much the now-ended moratorium on deep-water drilling hurt the Gulf economy.
The effects of the spill are so complex that they may not be fully known for years. But they are emerging.
What is known about the cause?
Investigators know that a huge bubble of flammable methane gas escaped the well and ignited after shooting up the drill pipe, past several seals that were meant to suppress it. How and why the gas escaped is one focus of the presidential commission looking into the accident and its implications for offshore drilling.
The commission's final report is due Jan. 12. A second report, by the US Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, will be available March 27.
So far, the three companies involved – Transocean (owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig), BP (holder of the lease for the well), and Halliburton (a contractor) – are engaged in a mutual blame game.
A BP report published in September suggests... [In Full @ Christian Science Monitor]
"Company errors, complacency preceded oil spill: panel"
Razer Adds: "This is what happens when the 'foxes guard the hen house'".Complacency at BP, as well as at Transocean Ltd and Halliburton, led to serious missteps prior to the rig explosion that unleashed millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over the summer, said Commission co-chair Bill Reilly, in comments more critical than Monday's Commission statements that rig workers did not place cost cutting over safety.
"BP, Halliburton and Transocean are major respected companies operating throughout the Gulf and the evidence is they are in need of top-to-bottom reform," Reilly, a former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said at the start of the second session of commission's two-day meeting on the root causes of the spill this week.
Both Reilly and his commission co-chair Bob Graham sought to clarify comments made Monday by the commission's chief counsel that workers for the companies did not cut corners on safety to save money. [In Full @ Reuters]
Now... Think about all those sick, and soon-to-be-sick Gulf Coastal residents who have no health insurance, or, as the Republicans now threaten, will soon have none, and behold a HUGE SOCIAL DISASTER looming.
Also think financial reform, and the Obama administration's allowance for the self-same people who 'broke the bank and mortgage industry' to 'fix' it, and one can see the same nightmare for the US economy unless there is SOME ACCOUNTABILITY for the Plutocrats allowed to operate in America, and on the planet.
Audio hosting courtesy of: [www.archive.org]
Travus T. Hipp's Commentary Archive Is [ Here]
Search the archive by topic [Here]
Cabale News RSS Feed Via Internet Archive
Creative Commons Copyright
Cabale New Service, KPIG Radio, and KVMR radio.
Listen to KVMR
Recorded & transcribed by Razer Raygun @ Razed By Wolves
Postings Auntie Imperial, Razer Raygun, and Da' Buffalo Have Done Lately Are [Here]
The Consolidated Items Listing in RSS format [Here]
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 and The Berne Convention on Literary and Artistic Works, Article 10, the news clippings, audio, and images used in this posting are made available without profit for research and educational purposes.
Visitors To Cabale News & Razed By Wolves
Thanks For Stopping By
.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
November 09 2010 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Future Social Scientists Will Judge Us By These - Cable-TV Presents 'Morality Stories'
| "All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."November 09 2010 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Future Social Scientists Will Judge Us By These - Cable-TV Presents 'The Morality Stories Of Our Times' [Pop Out Player? Click Here] Prefer An MP3 Playlist? It's Here: [128kbps MP3 8:45 Minutes] Other Audio Formats Available [ Here ] |
In The News:
Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files.
[In relation to the commentary see: "Getting Out of a Felony Because Your Employer Won’t Employ Felons" By Teddy Partridge @ Firedoglake]
"This could ruin a man's taste for sunrises" ~~'Pirate' Prentice, in Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow on seeing a premature V-2 'brenschluss' over the North Sea - SOMEONE launched a missile off the coast of Los Angeles yesterday during the evening's 'drive-time' but no one knows who, or admits to, launching it. (see below for an addendum)
Razer Notes:
I've seen one of these from Santa Cruz California a number of year ago. The Pynchon quote above readily came to mind.
It turned out to be a launch from Vandenberg AFB towards Kwajalein
The one thing that impressed me above all else was the STAGE SEPARATION, and the concurrent supersonic dash for the horizon. Even though this military-visual intrusion was, like yesterday's, a sunset launch, that's about the time 'Pirate' Prentice' early-morning musing had meaning to me personally, and I thought... Is it time to "Duck and Cover"? "(Selected for the 2004 National Film Registry of "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" motion pictures.)"
Odd that staging is not evident here (the missile I saw was gone in a wink of an eye after the stage separation 'flash', and only gave me a brief glimpse, 2 to 5 seconds of the contrail, unlike this video from an airborne platform).
Maybe some homemade single stage thing tossed together by a disgruntled but enthusiastic EX-JPL/NASA worker... Estes rocket on steroids (kidding really! This thing only makes 150ft. altitude... some make 600.) or somesuch.
The Pentagon IS 'investigating', but so far... My guess (especially the quip about the EX-Aerospace worker... Imagine a 'Flash' rocket 'working group'... but Razer SURELY runs astray of the 'reality principle' at this point... or perhaps not?) is as good as anyone else's.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it...
Canada is pulling all 3,000 or so combat troops out of Afghanistan in 2011. They will leave 900+ social engineering specialists behind.
The flap over Keith Olbermann's campaign contributions may be over as he returns to MSNBC tonight.
Leave your Khat at home - You may no longer carry printer toner cartridges or printer material over 16oz onto US airliners, or ANYTHING from Somalia or Yemen without inspection.
Dateline Moldova - Moldova which has been independent since the breakup of the USSR, is going to have it's citizens vote in the upcoming elections on whether to join Romania, their historic homeland connection, or stay independent with closer ties to Russia.
Tell that to all the people in prison for supplying it Jackass... Yesterday Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California said "Nobody cares if you smoke a joint!"
In OTHER News:
Speaking of drugs, but ones that monetarily benefit the CIA's friends....
THERE SEEMS TO BE a thaw in Venezuela-Colombia relations that the CIA's drug-running friends WILL NOT like.
In August this year, Walid Makled GarcÃa was arrested in Colombia. GarcÃa, a Venezuelan who was named a “significant foreign narcotics traffickers” last year by President Obama, is going to be extradited from Colombia to Venezuela.
Tough luck for the American Enterprise Institute (One of the NeoCon think tanks that got us involved in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars), which thought he was going to be more safely (for the CIA's friends) extradited to the US to tell tall stories about how Hugo Chavez IS The "Cocaine Capo" to be used in the U.S. propaganda war against Venezuela.
(Caveat to the "Cocaine Capo" link above: The article was written by Vision Americas LLC propagandist Roger F. Noriega who WAS ambassador under George W. Bush to the Organization of American States from 2001 to 2003 and assistant secretary of State from 2003 to 2005.)
From the Latin American New Round-Up @ CEPR
Accused drug kingpin will go to Venezuela: Chavez
November 8, 2010
Reuters
HAVANA - Colombia will extradite a businessman accused of being a major drug kingpin back to his native Venezuela to face justice, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday on Cuban television.
Chavez said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos promised in a recent meeting that Walid Makled, known as "The Turk," would go to Venezuela, not the United States, where he is also wanted.
Chavez fears that the United States, with whom he has frosty political relations, would use Makled to try to discredit him.
Makled was captured in August in Colombia in a joint operation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and the head of Colombian police said at the time he would be extradited to the United States.
He is accused of shipping tons of cocaine each month to the United States and Europe, in an alliance with Colombian leftist rebels.
Chavez said Santos told him in a meeting on Tuesday in Venezuela that "he was going to fulfill that commitment to send this bandit to Venezuelan justice and I'm sure he will fulfill it."
"I expect that soon we will have this bandit in front of Venezuelan courts," said Chavez, who was in Havana to sign cooperation agreements with Cuba, a close ally of socialist Venezuela.
After their meeting, Santos and Chavez said they agreed to improve relations between their neighboring countries. They had clashed last year over a Colombian plan to allow U.S. troops more access to its bases.
They did not disclose any accords on Makled, who has said in a television interview that he poured $2 million into a 2007 Chavez political campaign and in return got a concession at Venezuela's Puerto Cabello, his alleged shipping point for drugs.
Chavez said the United States would get Makled to "vomit" accusations against him and use them to justify putting Venezuela on Washington's list of countries that support drug trafficking.
"I am sure that the Colombian government is not going to take part in that game," he said.
[Source, Reuters, Ca]
Audio hosting courtesy of: [www.archive.org]
Travus T. Hipp's Commentary Archive Is [ Here]
Search the archive by topic [Here]
Cabale News RSS Feed Via Internet Archive
Creative Commons Copyright
Cabale New Service, KPIG Radio, and KVMR radio.
Listen to KVMR
Recorded & transcribed by Razer Raygun @ Razed By Wolves
Postings Auntie Imperial, Razer Raygun, and Da' Buffalo Have Done Lately Are [Here]
The Consolidated Items Listing in RSS format [Here]
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 and The Berne Convention on Literary and Artistic Works, Article 10, the news clippings, audio, and images used in this posting are made available without profit for research and educational purposes.
Visitors To Cabale News & Razed By Wolves
Thanks For Stopping By
.
Monday, November 8, 2010
November 08 2010 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: The Republicans Take Aim At ObamaCare - It's A Bad Bill But It' Better Than No Bill At All
| "All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."November 08 2010 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: The Republicans Take Aim At ObamaCare - It's A Bad Bill... But It' Better Than No Health Bill At All [Pop Out Player? Click Here] Prefer An MP3 Playlist? It's Here: [128kbps MP3 11:45 Minutes] Other Audio Formats Available [ Here ] |
In The News:
Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files.
(In light of the commentary topic, see: "Obama Again Admits His Health Care Law Is Republican, Not Progressive" By Jon Walker @ Firedoglake)
President Obama spoke to the Indian Parliament today and also signed an "economic and technological exchange contract" which will add to and/or save 55,000 jobs on Boeing's payroll. His next stop is Indonesia, where security will be harder because there is a active volcano which could ground Air Force One at any time, and because Indonesia which is officially a Islamic country, protests are expected at any time as well.
Regarding those "economic and technological exchanges" which mostly seem to be DEFENSE related (See: "Obama backs permanent seat for India on Security Council" and "Unleashing US-India Defense Trade"), with little to offer the average American in the way of work, here's a list and write up on 19 iconic products that America doesn't make anymore (Warning: autoplay advertising video/audio)
Today it was reported that Obama 'defended' Pakistan, a long-time adversary of India to the Indian government. Juan Cole, Persian Gulf Scholar at the University of Michigan asks: "What does Pakistan think of Obama’s India Trip?"
Pakistanis are from all accounts rather miffed that President Barack Obama did not stop in Islamabad as part of his Asian tour. The officer corps is the angriest, but it is viewed widely as a put-down.
From a Pakistani point of view, the US and Pakistan have been allies since the 1950s. They stood shoulder to shoulder in the 1980s to fight the Soviet Union’s brutal occupation of Afghanistan. After the September 11 attacks, Pakistan abandoned the Taliban and so made it easier for them to be overthrown, even though they had been to some degree a project of the Inter-Services Intelligence. In recent years, the Pakistani army has waged hard-fought campaigns in Bajaur, Swat, and South Waziristan against Taliban elements, losing hundreds of troops’ lives in the process.
So, Pakistanis ask, why is Washington slighting us after we’ve hung together? [In Full]
Haiti is flooding now due to overflowing rivers and an ecologically de-nuded environment, spreading Cholera to other areas outside Port-au-Prince. Do you suppose the USS Iwo Jima, which is already on station (DoD source) is there to assist... or to prevent people from fleeing towards the US on whatever floats at their earliest opportunity?
The following is footage from approximately 6 months ago of a Haitian refugee camp having it's tents torn to shreds by a storm, and it's happening again, but THIS TIME, Cholera is epidemic as well.
In case you might be wondering where all that international aid money went...
Gleaned from a Cabale News Service report in January this year:
Haiti Gets a Penny of Each U.S. Aid DollarYou have to ask yourself, how much of that penny trickles down from the Preval 'government' to the Haitian people?
(and the US military receives $0.33c)
By The Associated Press
January 27, 2010 -- AP-- Only 1 cent of each dollar the U.S. is spending on earthquake relief in Haiti is going in the form of cash to the Haitian government, according to an Associated Press review of relief efforts. [In Full]
Dilapidating infrastructure is already endangering us due to our next 'clean' source of electricity - Two nuclear power plants on the East Coast are offline this morning. Indian Point in New York due to blown out transformers, and a Vermont plant leaking radioactive water.
Anwar al-Awlaki has now called for the killing of Americans anywhere anytime in response to a Yemeni Death Warrant issued due to US pressure for his killing or capture, despite the fact that he has never been accused or indicted for a single crime in the US.
The Republican grand plan to set the economy on the right track has been revealed... They intend to repeal the ObamaCare federal medical insurance package, and if they can't do that... They'll attack US agencies handling the funds.
Speaking of numbers and the obvious inability of Republicans to understand them, the Nutcase Republican Right spread the rumor that Obama's visit to India is costing US taxpayers $200 million a day, to which New York magazine ran the headline "Republican Anger Over Cost of Obama’s Trip to India Will Not Be Stopped by Facts."
In OTHER News:
The US is accused of spying on civilians in Denmark and Norway: "... between 15 and 20 people have been hired by the US Embassy in Oslo since 2000 to monitor local residents.", but no one seems to knows why.
Sweden says the US has carried out secret surveillance there as well:
"...the activities "seem to be similar" to those unveiled in Norway earlier this week, which included photographing and gathering information about individuals for surveillance and security purposes." [In Full]
ALMOST getting away with murder... The judge ruling in the trial of a BART Police officer charged with the shooting death of un-armed civilian Oscar Grant threw out the gun conviction on Friday, saying it was not supported by evidence, and gave former BART officer Johannes Mehserle a two year sentence for the involuntary manslaughter conviction, the shortest term possible
More on "Just-Us" in America...
It helps if you're wealthy, or closely affiliated with those who are:
"This is a nice trick, see if it works for you next time you find yourself facing felony charges:A financial manager for wealthy clients will not face charges for a hit-and-run because it could jeopardise his job, it has been revealed.Neat trick, what?
Martin Joel Erzinger, 52, was set to face felony charges for running over a doctor who he hit from behind in his 2010 Mercedes Benz, and then speeding off. But now he will simply face two misdemeanour traffic charges from the July 3 incident in Eagle, Colorado.
Because his employment might be in jeopardy since he would need to disclose his felony convictions to clients and his employer (thus endangering his ability to earn a living, and pay restitution) Erzinger’s charges have been reduced to misdemeanor.
Justice, in this case, includes the capability to pay restitution, says District Attorney Mark Hurlbert..." [More @ Firedoglake]
And Finally, picked up EX Post Facto, From The EXiled:
How Meg Whitman Failed Her Way to the Top at eBay, Collecting Billions While Nearly Destroying the Company
"...what few people outside of the investment community know is what a disaster Meg Whitman’s business career really was.
In fact, Meg Whitman’s record in the corporate world reads like a laundry list of failure: it’s a resume marked by fraud, gross incompetence, wasteful spend...ing and gross disregard for anyone’s interests but her own.
In her obsessive drive to become a billionaire, Whitman left a legacy of bitterness among untold numbers of jilted employees, shareholders and eBay clients, while enriching herself and a handful of fellow executives and investment bankers."
[More @ The EXiled... Mankind's only alternative]
Audio hosting courtesy of: [www.archive.org]
Travus T. Hipp's Commentary Archive Is [ Here]
Search the archive by topic [Here]
Cabale News RSS Feed Via Internet Archive
Creative Commons Copyright
Cabale New Service, KPIG Radio, and KVMR radio.
Listen to KVMR
Recorded & transcribed by Razer Raygun @ Razed By Wolves
Postings Auntie Imperial, Razer Raygun, and Da' Buffalo Have Done Lately Are [Here]
The Consolidated Items Listing in RSS format [Here]
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 and The Berne Convention on Literary and Artistic Works, Article 10, the news clippings, audio, and images used in this posting are made available without profit for research and educational purposes.
Visitors To Cabale News & Razed By Wolves
Thanks For Stopping By
.
Friday, November 5, 2010
November 05 2010 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Circadian Vs The Industrial - Certain Industrial Manifestations Remain Past Their Time
| "All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."November 05 2010 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Circadian Rhythms Vs The Industrial Age - Certain Industrial Manifestations Remain Past Their Time Of Practical Use [Pop Out Player? Click Here] Prefer An MP3 Playlist? It's Here: [128kbps MP3 12:29 Minutes] Other Audio Formats Available [ Here ] |
In The News:
Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files.
The launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery for it's 39th and perhaps last mission has been delayed again by a Hydrogen leak. They'll try again in a couple of days.
There has been a new blast in the eight days of volcanic eruptions from Indonesia's Mount Merapi. So far it's only a smoke plume, hot ashes, and gas, but that could change at any time and at least 100 are known dead so far. When Krakatoa, also an Indonesian Volcano, erupted in 1883 it caused a short-period of Ice Age.
The Taliban are apparently attempting to disrupt and/or sway the Afghanistan peace talks with death threats. Meanwhile, a Sufi leader who had been cooperating with the West has been wounded in an assassination attempt.
Also, "Louis Berger Group Inc., a New Jersey-based engineering consulting firm, was charged today with fraud in relation to reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq."
McClatchy notices the company's prosecution was 'deferred' and it "agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars":
One of the government's highest profile American contractors in Afghanistan has agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars to settle allegations that it overbilled the U.S. government.BusinessWeek claims “They manipulated the formula for allocating indirect costs of their work on the invoices they submitted for the reconstruction projects in Afghanistan and Iraq,”
In return, the Justice Department will end its investigation into allegations that Louis Berger was intentionally overcharging American taxpayers, individuals close to the investigation told McClatchy Newspapers on Thursday. The settlement, which could be as high as $65 million, would include civil and criminal penalties...
In Full @ KansasCity.com
But McClatchy goes further, claiming "In some instances the company is accused of shifting overhead costs from private clients to federal and state contracts, where they were less likely to be noticed."
That's fraud...
But U.S. Funded Reconstruction in Afghanistan is a MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR industry and this sort of grifting is just what the empire expects. After all, the people who assign and oversee these contracts and the people who execute(sic) them are almost always industry insiders no matter which side of the contract they're signing, and those sides swap quite often.
Here's an example of America's attempt to not only 'nation-build' a country, Afghanistan, but strategically create a "New Regional Order" in the process:
A key construction project in the volatile south-eastern border region is the Washington-funded K-G Road - a $US100 million ($A114 million), 100-kilometre blacktop through wild Taliban country between Khost, on the Pakistan border, and the hub city of Gardez, south of Kabul.It's not the FIRST time the US has engaged in socio-cultural engineering in Afghanistan... We tried (and failed) in the 1950s. See: “Little America” in Afghanistan: Is the US Repeating a Failed 1950’s Experiment in Social Engineering? at Firedoglake for this little known piece of history about the American Empire.
The road is part of a grand design to break five strategic centres from economic and social dependency on neighbouring Pakistan. By linking them together and to the national ring-road, they might be hooked back into Kabul's orbit.
Overseeing the K-G Road is US engineer Steve Yahn, a 53-year-old Massachusetts father who has been building roads in Afghanistan since 2002 so that he can afford to send his children to college.
He is acutely aware of the challenge ahead... MUCH More @ theage.com.au
The Republicans are carving up the "staffing turkey" in the House... Meanwhile, President Obama leaves for Asia and India with a delegation of U.S. business people. Unlike America, in India, if you acquire a license to sell something, you have to manufacture it there. President Obama will also visit Indonesia and China on this trip. More at Foreign Policy Magazine
Haiti is beginning to feel the front edge of Hurricane Tomas which is threatening the Caribbean from Eastern Cuba to the Bahamas. The 1.3 MILLION people living in the earthquake refugee tent cities on low ground have been ordered to move... to Where?
Here's an available option gleaned from yesterday's synopsis:
(It's also notable there's enough vacant housing in the United States to house EVERY homeless person in the country for this winter. But when it comes to supplying some basic human necessities, the United States of America fails as dramatically as 'the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere')
Haiti... Remember Haiti? Earthquake earlier this year. Countless millions of dollars given to middleman NGOs (The American Red Cross said they were sweeping what they didn't 'need' into their general fund) for relief, and the world was said to have 'sprung into action'. Hurricane Tomas approaches... and despite that international 'effort', the displaced are experiencing an outbreak of Cholera for the first time in half a century, and they are STILL unsheltered, and endangered:
Haiti's Tent Cities to Bear the Worst of Hurricane TomasThat tragedy of a large unsheltered Haitian populations could EASILY exacerbate an epidemiological nightmare already in progress, and growing. Again, despite the 'efforts' of the UN, and countless 'relief' agencies and NGOs.
Wednesday 03 November 2010
by: Stephen Kurczy
The Christian Science Monitor - Report
As tropical storm Tomas speeds toward Haiti, threatening to turn into a hurricane before it passes just west of the island Friday morning, some 1.3 million people are virtually trapped in Port-au-Prince’s flimsy tent cities.
In the countryside, hundreds of thousands more Haitians still live in tents following the 7.0 earthquake the leveled the capital and surrounding areas in January.
Authorities have advised anyone living in makeshift camps to seek refuge in sturdier buildings, but many say they don't have that option.
“The majority of people have nowhere to go,” says Stefan Reynier, the head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in Léogâne, 18 miles west of the capital. “Those people will not be protected.”
This is despite the fact that more than 100,000 homes in Port-au-Prince sit vacant and in need of only minimal repairs since an earthquake rocked the country in January, according to aid organizations in the country. Each home could be repaired with only days worth of work and several thousand dollars in supplies, they say...
In Full @ Christian Science Monitor via TruthOut
"The total number of (Haitian Cholera) cases now stands at 6,742":
Haiti cholera deaths rise sharply
03 November 10 2010
The number of people known to have died from a cholera epidemic in Haiti has increased markedly. Health officials say 105 more people have died since Saturday, bringing the total to 442.They said there had been a 40% jump in the number of new cases.
On Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control found that all the Haitian patients had the same strain of cholera, one that is most commonly found in South Asia. The UN is investigating allegations that excrement from Nepalese peacekeepers caused the epidemic. But Health Minister Dr Alex Larsen said it was unlikely the outbreak's origin would ever be known.
Haiti had not seen a cholera outbreak for about half a century," In Full @ BBC
In OTHER News...
This is winning the "War On Terror"? As the al Qaeda movement (IT IS NOT AN "ORGANIZATION") grows larger due to the West's actions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Central Asia, and the Horn of Africa, it gets easier to infiltrate. More at the Washington Post, who don't quite state it like that.
[After the commentary... Joe Jackson is feeling a little pressed for time. Courtesy of the respective artists.]
Audio hosting courtesy of: [www.archive.org]
Travus T. Hipp's Commentary Archive Is [ Here]
Search the archive by topic [Here]
Cabale News RSS Feed Via Internet Archive
Creative Commons Copyright
Cabale New Service, KPIG Radio, and KVMR radio.
Listen to KVMR
Recorded & transcribed by Razer @ Razed By Wolves
Postings Da' Buffalo, Razer Raygun, and Auntie Imperial Have Done Lately Are [Here]
The Consolidated Items Listing in RSS format [Here]
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 and The Berne Convention on Literary and Artistic Works, Article 10, the news clippings, audio, and images used in this posting are made available without profit for research and educational purposes.
Visitors To Cabale News & Razed By Wolves
Thanks For Stopping By
.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
