Remarksman

It was supposed to be a photo opportunity, a showcase of Air Force One alongside the sweep of New York City skyline.

But as the low-flying Boeing 747 speeded in the shadows of skyscrapers, trailed by two fighter jets, the sight instead awakened barely dormant fears of a terrorist attack, causing a momentary panic that sent workers pouring out of buildings on both sides of the Hudson River.

Your (Dept. of Defense) tax dollars at work — good thing those guys are such geniuses!

[…] earlier this year, House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey pushed hard for about $900 million in pandemic preparedness funding to be included in the economic stimulus legislation—but he “was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans.”

Nichols documents how Collins and other Republicans actually singled out the pandemic prevention funds as a prime example of profligate Democratic spending, and of unrelated projects being tacked on to the stimulus bill. They used it to score political points. Collins’s vote was, of course, absolutely key to passage of the stimulus legislation in the Senate. So the only funding of this kind that that made it into the final conference version was $50 million for improving information systems at the Department of Health and Human Services. All support for frontline emergency services in the event of a pandemic was eliminated.

Is Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork packer and hog producer, linked to the outbreak? Smithfield operates massive hog-raising operations Perote, Mexico, in the state of Vera Cruz, where the outbreak originated. The operations, grouped under a Smithfield subsidiary called Granjas Carroll, raise 950,000 hogs per year, according to the company Web site.

From what I can tell, the possible link to Smithfield has not been reported in the U.S. press. Searches of Google News and the websites of the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal all came up empty. The link is being made in the Mexican media, however. “Granjas Carroll, causa de epidemia en La Gloria,” declared a headline in the Vera Cruz-based paper La Marcha. No need to translate that, except to point out that La Gloria is the village where the outbreak seems to have started. Judging from the article, Mexican authorities treat hog CAFOs with just as much if not more indulgence than their peers north of the border, to the detriment of surrounding communities and the general public health.

An Air France flight from Paris to Mexico had to make an unscheduled stop in Martinique when US air traffic controllers notified the jet that it would not be receiving permission to fly over US airspace.

That’s right - the plane was not en route to the US, just passing over some of it, on its way to Mexico.

On board the plane was Colombian Journalist Hernando Calvo Ospina, who works for Le Monde Diplomatique.

What makes the whole incident even more interesting is that Air France had only sent its passenger manifest to the Mexicans, but now it is clear that Mexico shares this information with the United States.

Hernando Calvo Ospina has written articles about the United States involvement in Latin America, and is currently writing a book about he CIA. The exact reason for him being on the terrorist watch list is unknown, and we’ll probably never know what criteria are used for adding people to it. Air France is considering asking the United States for compensation. Good luck with that.

Spreading democracy around the world apparently does not include the right to free speech.

Via BoingBoing.

We are being robbed big-time, but you can’t say we haven’t been warned. Not after the release Tuesday of a scathing report by the Treasury Department’s special inspector general, who charged that the aptly named Troubled Asset Relief Fund bailout program is rife with mismanagement and potential for fraud. The IG’s office already has opened twenty criminal fraud investigations into the $700 billion program, which is now well on its way to a $3 trillion obligation, and the IG predicts many more are coming.

For all of its criticism of the original program, designed by the Bush administration, the report was equally severe in denouncing the Obama administration’s plan to partner with hedge funds and other private capital groups to buy up the “toxic” holdings of the banks. Charging that the plan carries “significant fraud risks,” the inspector general’s report pointed out that almost all of the risk in this new trillion-dollar plan is being borne by the taxpayers.

The other drama in play: “Hank the Hammer” Paulson, iconic Wall Street hero, a Trojan Horse placed inside Washington by Goldman Sachs as Treasury Secretary in control of America’s $15 trillion economy. Goldman, a modern dynasty with vast financial powers much like those once used by the de’ Medici, Rothschilds and Morgans to control nations.

It is almost funny how this article posits a conspiracy theory so vast and high-level that it almost seems unbelievable, until you see that it is well-researched with a fair amount of backing material.

GOP or Dems? Conservatives or liberals? It doesn’t matter. [We’re] all controlled by “The Conspiracy.” So why not surrender, let them have the power? The truth is, through their lobbyists and surrogates in Washington, they already rule America. Surrender is a mere formality.

The city of Wilson, NC was tired of high internet, cable, and telephone prices, so they decided to do something about it. They started their own, city-owned, ISP. Now Time Warner Cable and Embarq have teamed up to convince North Carolina’s legislature to propose bills outlawing community owned ISPs because the big guys cannot possibly compete.

More democracy for corporations, by corporations.

A brief overview of the history, state, and future of plastic.

Three minute video of Rep. John Boehner making a fool of himself. He doesn’t seem to understand what “the issue” with carbon emissions even is.

Seriously? This video proves that the Republicans have NO plan to solve global warming. This is the most pathetic backpedaling crap fest of an interview I have ever seen…

The 2009 Pulitzer prizes were announced on Monday, and the New York Times’ David Barstow won the investigative reporting prize for his story on former military officials who were organized by the Pentagon to cheerlead for Bush administration war policies as “analysts” on cable television. Most of the “analysts”—called “message force multipliers” by the Pentagon—had ties to major defense contractors and had significant financial interests in the continuation of Bush war policies. And as Barstow reported, those relationships were rarely disclosed by the cable news networks that had the former officials on as purportedly unbiased analysts. The “message force multipliers” named in Barstow’s article appeared or were quoted some 4,500 times on ABC, ABC News Now, CBS, CBS Radio Network, NBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, and NPR between January 1, 2002 and May 13, 2008, according to a report by Media Matters for America.

The response to Barstow’s story from the cable networks that hosted the officials from the military’s propoganda team was, and continues to be, “deafening silence.” Officials from the networks even refused to appear on PBS’ award-winning News Hour with Jim Lehrer to respond to Barstow’s charges. It should be interesting to see whether the media can keep up that silence now that Barstow’s reporting has been recognized with a Pulitzer.

NPR morning news mentioned another Pulitzer winner, but not Barstow.

Political Irony has noticed this as well: The Mainstream Media is Worthless

The New York Times takes a look at the Transition Town movement. Long, but interesting.

FYI, it pays to pay attention when using ATM’s.

[…]Sen. Chris Dodd’s fundraising report from the first quarter of 2009 […] finds that there are only five citizens from Connecticut who donated. Those five plucky Nutmeg Staters gave a total of $4,250.

[…]The citizens of CT clearly don’t want him around. So how did Dodd raise $1,048,674 in just three months?

[…]it mostly came from Big Finance. Here’s the breakdown. Executives and PACs representing banks, financial services companies, and real estate brokerages gave Dodd at least $299,000. (NB: That means the folks that Dodd, chairman of the Banking committee, is supposed to oversee gave 70 times more than the folks Dodd is supposed to represent.)

Senator Dodd, representing the banks, and “overseeing” the banks. Ain’t “democracy” grand?

At that site, people are asked to give a “Dollar a Day to Make Norm Go Away” — with the funding going to help progressive candidates defeat congressional Republicans in 2010.

The theory: If Republicans up for re-election in 2010 see the progressives who are out to defeat them get an infusion of donations each day that Coleman is obstinate, they and their funders will call Coleman and say, “Your time is up. Concede!”

So far, it’s working. In less than one weekend, Norm Coleman has raised over $20,000 to help progressive candidates — and that number grows by the hour.

It is ridiculous that Minnesota is still operating with only one Senator while Norm Coleman drags out his losing battle. I might sign up for a buck a day.

Let’s review your tax dollars at work: Godlman [sic] Sachs CEO Hank Paulson lobbied the SEC to allow the 5 largest iBanks to be exempt from net capital rules, and then leverage up 40 to 1. Which they did, especially with Mortgage-backed paper and derivatives. Then he becomes Treasury Secretary, and transfers from the taxpayers to these same iBanks — some directly, and some thru AIG — trillions of dollars.

Now, the taxpayer subsidized disaster creator is thin skinned about criticism.

Goldman Sachs is planning to sue the owner of goldmansachs666.com despite legal precedent indicating that there is no legal basis in the case. Of course, they’ll be able to use some of that bailout money to hire really expensive lawyers.

President Barack Obama absolved CIA officers from prosecution for harsh, painful interrogation of terror suspects Thursday, even as his administration released Bush-era memos graphically detailing - and authorizing - such grim tactics as slamming detainees against walls, waterboarding them and keeping them naked and cold for long periods.

AP article along with Obama’s statement when the memos were released. I’m all for “looking forward” but wrong things were done and somebody broke some laws. There is no justice without accountability.