Narcissistic views on News/Politics

UAW/Teamsters goes after Toyota over plant closing.

2010-02-08T23:52:00.003-05:00

The lying and hypocrisy of the UAW and Teamsters is typical. The plant is useless but typical of the unions, they want it kept open as some sort of expensive welfare factory covered by car buyers.

The UAW and the Teamsters union protested outside the Japanese Embassy in Washington today calling on Toyota to reverse decisions to close a California plant and hire nonunion carhaulers.

Roughly 100 supporters gathered as UAW Vice President Bob King and Teamsters President James Hoffa delivered a letter for Japan Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama calling for a meeting with Japanese officials and Toyota.

The Japanese automaker announced last year it was closing the plant in Fremont, Calif., after General Motors pulled out of the joint venture under its bankruptcy. The plant is the only Toyota plant organized by the UAW, and has about 4,700 workers.

"It's betrayal of these loyal workers in Fremont to close the plant and then announce plans to build a new plant in Mississippi," King said.

King and other union officials linked Toyota's recalls to the management decisions made to close down the California plant, saying both were examples of how Toyota had strayed from its principles.

Problem with this line is that its a lie. I wonder why they are not protesting GM, oh way, the UAW owns GM now so they fudge it.

Like a slow motion train wreck, the biggest economic shock to hit the Bay Area is approaching the point of impact as New United Motor Manufacturing prepares to shut down March 31, putting more than 4,700 United Auto Workers out of jobs and setting off a ripple effect of layoffs among supply firms.

Nummi started in 1984 as a joint venture of General Motors and Toyota. The Chronicle has covered this economic disaster since GM pulled out of the partnership last June as part of its bankruptcy, and Toyota decided in August to end production in the plant that had been its manufacturing beachhead in the United States.

A brief Chronicle story about a raucous union meeting on Sunday to deal with issues around the shutdown made reference to a video of a shouting and cursing match between union leaders and voices from the rank-and-file.

NSFW video

AP: Obama's health care summit: Just for show?

2010-02-08T23:32:00.003-05:00

Even the AP is not buying this farce as anything more than a PR stunt for Obama.

The way the health care summit was announced struck some Republicans as suspect. Democrats say the idea came from the White House, and was first broached last Thursday when Obama met Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Hoyer, to discuss the 2010 legislative agenda.

Republicans say they were notified by the White House on Sunday, a couple of hours before a CBS News interview in which Obama floated the proposal. Usually, White House schedulers call congressional leaders well in advance of major meetings.

Democrats say they want to resolve remaining differences between the House and Senate versions of their own legislation before the meeting. That may mean Obama wants to emphasize contrasts with Republicans, not probe for common ground.

Exactly, this is a trap set up by the Dems and Obama for the GOP. Obama thinks if he can put on a show on how "reasonable" he is about health reform, he can put the GOP on the defensive and win points. The fact nothing else has been told about how and what the meeting is going to be is telling.

Via Reuters:

The summit, which Obama wants televised, would give him another chance to sway public opinion on the unpopular legislation that is critical to the president's domestic agenda.

The meeting also would answer criticism he did not engage Republicans and instead negotiated backroom deals in an effort to get it passed.

"The president is trying to turn around the sour mood on this issue and mitigate the criticism that he's ramming this bill down people's throats," said Bob Blendon, a health policy and political analyst at Harvard University.

But congressional Republicans said they were wary of Obama's intentions and were in no mood to compromise on a bill that polls show is opposed by a majority of Americans.

"Republicans welcome honest discussion, but this event reeks of political gamesmanship," said Republican Representative Tom Price. "The only constructive discussions will start with a blank sheet of paper."

The White House said the summit was not intended as a vehicle to start the healthcare debate all over again.

"The president doesn't think we should start over," White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said.

So what is the damn point of this other than Obama wanting to put on a show because he doesn't believe the public is smart enough to figure out this is a sham.

Chrysler to build Fiat 500 in Mexico.

2010-02-08T23:11:00.001-05:00

See, bailing out the car companies is paying dividends just not in America.

Mexico could produce up to 130,000 Fiat 500s a year, seen as key to the recovery of Chrysler in the United States, with a $550 million investment, Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said on Monday.

A Chrysler plant outside Mexico City will begin assembling the 500 by December for sale in U.S. and Latin American showrooms, said Marchionne, the head of Fiat SpA (FIA.MI), who also heads Chrysler.

"The 500 is just one example of how Fiat's experience in the small to medium vehicles segments and its expertise in fuel saving technologies will play a key role in Chrysler's revival," Marchionne said in the city of Toluca, where the plant will be built.

The investment by Chrysler will be mostly financed through a loan from Mexican development banks, he later told reporters in Mexico City.

"I don't think we are going to shrink American's tastes by introducing the Fiat 500. We are only looking for a particular space in the market for this car to occupy," he said.

Marchionne did not give production details but said the 130,000 cars a year was an ideal target, with sales going to both the United States and Latin America.

Fiat was given control of Chrysler by the Obama administration last June as part of a restructuring of the U.S. automaker in a government bankruptcy.

Muslim wins handshake case in Sweden

2010-02-08T23:10:00.001-05:00

We have no established that religious convictions even those that go against common sense and the social order of a community is a-ok.

Sweden's unemployment agency has been found guilty of discrimination for expelling a Muslim man from a job training program because he refused to shake hands with a woman.

A Stockholm court Monday ordered the Public Employment Service to pay 50,000 kronor ($6,700) in damages to an immigrant from Bosnia who lost his jobless benefits when he was kicked out of the program.

Citing his faith, the man had refused to shake hands with a woman when he was interviewing for an internship. The agency said his behavior was part of the reason he didn't get the position, and decided to exclude him from the program.

The court ruled that the man was discriminated against because of his religion. It wasn't immediately clear whether the ruling would be appealed.

Female circumcision happening in Australia

2010-02-08T22:35:00.002-05:00

Via Tim Blair comes this lesson in multiculturalism Australian style.

Health authorities in Australia say they are concerned about the growing number of women who have undergone some form of genital mutilation.

Female circumcision is illegal in Australia, but experts say there is evidence that it is being practised here.

More and more migrant women are also seeking help after having the procedure in their home countries.

But that has not stopped it happening here, according to Dr Ted Weaver from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

"There is some evidence to suggest that it does happen in certain parts of Australia," he said.

"It's hard to gauge the actual numbers because it's prohibited by legislation and it's something that is performed in an underground way.

"But certainly there have been reports of children being taken to hospital after having the procedure done with complications from that procedure."

Some people just can't condemn this awful backward practice.

Ms Mohamud is optimistic the practice will end, but she fears migrant communities or individual women will be demonised.

"Some people when they hear they say, 'how can that happen?' It's when something is cultural and the people have been doing it for so long, it's not easy to either eliminate it or to say, 'you have got a bad culture'," she said.

"You have to work with them, listen to them. You have to know where they are coming from in order to help them."

Dr Ted Weaver agrees and he says ordering people against the practice would be inappropriate.

"If we try and dictate and pontificate about this and not provide culturally appropriate care, we'll further disenfranchise those women," he said.

"Any progress will be incremental. I don't think that it's something that will stop overnight.

This is the sort of liberal bullshit that keeps this practice going and the women trapped in this type of culture. You can voice disapproval which would be a signal to women and others that this sort of procedures is not tolerated in the West. It would be okay to come forward and get protection from the authorities. Instead we get the mealy mouth approach which does nothing.

In Secret, Nations Work Toward Crackdown on Piracy

2010-02-08T07:10:00.002-05:00

This has been going on for the last couple of years and the question remains why is America still part of these meetings that is being held in almost secret from its own citizens? It will concern us and the least you can do is make it an open process.

Behind a veil of secrecy, the United States, the European Union, Japan and other countries are forging ahead with plans to coordinate an international crackdown on illegally copied music, movies, designer bags and other goods that change hands in sidewalk souks and Internet bazaars.

Negotiators, under intense pressure from media companies, luxury brands and other corporate victims of piracy, are scrambling to complete a so-called Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement by the end of the year.

But the process is running into growing criticism from Internet campaigners, lawmakers and even some people involved in it.

After the most recent round of negotiations late last month in Guadalajara, Mexico, news of disagreements has been trickling out, despite an official vow of silence from the participants, which has itself become a main source of friction.

Greek unions vow fight against cutting Greece's debt.

2010-02-08T07:06:00.002-05:00

Even a socialist government realizes enough is enough but the unions being the blood sucking parasites they are the world over demands the gravy train keeps on moving.

Wednesday's planned 24-hour strike comes as Prime Minister George Papandreou puts the finishing touches to details of a deficit-reduction plan, endorsed by the European Commission last week to pull Greece's finances back from the brink.

His socialist government has promised to tighten one of Europe's leakiest tax systems and freeze public sector wages in a bid to slash Greece's deficit from 12.7 percent in 2009 to below the EU's 3 percent ceiling by 2012.

The emergency tax reform and wages bills are expected to be unveiled this week and become law by the end of the month, but details revealed have angered Greece's powerful unions.

"We are fighting so that the working people don't get to pay for the crisis," public sector union ADEDY said in a statement ahead of a news conference to outline their demands. "We demand a pay increase ... a fair tax system."

Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, who took part in an impromptu cabinet meeting on Monday, said the raft of wage cuts and revenue reforms would involve lowering the top tax rate, as the government seeks to shield the poorest Greeks.

Australia signs $60 Billion coal deal with China.

2010-02-07T22:31:00.001-05:00

The Enviro groups are really unhappy.

An Australian firm has signed a $60bn (AUS$69bn; £38bn) deal to supply coal to Chinese power stations.

Clive Palmer, chairman of the company, Resourcehouse, said it was Australia's "biggest ever export contract".

Under the deal, the firm will build a new mining complex to give China Power International Development (CPI) 30m tonnes of coal a year for 20 years.

The plan involves building a huge new mining complex in the Australian state of Queensland, and laying 500km (311 miles) of railway line to move the coal to the coast.

Resourcehouse's executive director, Phil McNamara, said the "once-in-a-century project" would include open-cast and underground mines, with construction likely to begin later this year.

The complex in the Galilee basin, to be called China First, is expected to start coal production in 2013 and will churn out some 40 million tonnes a year.

Queensland state premier Anna Bligh anticipates the project will create tens of thousands of jobs and produce multi-million dollar royalty payments for the state government.

NAACP sues to stop the closing of god awful schools.

2010-02-07T21:31:00.002-05:00

You wonder why I have nothing but visceral contempt for the NAACP these days. Its stupid shit like this siding with the teachers union.

The NAACP today will join a teacher's union lawsuit to block the city from closing 19 low-performing schools, claiming the action discriminates against minority and special-needs students, sources said.

"The dropout and incarceration rates are going to skyrocket," Leroy Gadsen, head of NAACP's Jamaica, Queens, chapter, said last night.

But City Hall was stunned that a civil-rights group was fighting to save the schools.

"I have no idea at all why they would want to keep open schools that are failing our kids," Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott said.

From WNYC.

Deputy Mayor for Education Dennis Walcott, who is black, said Monday that it is "mind boggling" that the NAACP is suing to keep 19 failing NYC schools open.

The Bloomberg administration recommended closing the schools because of what they call unacceptably low performance and graduation rates as low as 40%. That recommendation was approved at a vote last week.

And Walcott was defending the city against some very strong racially tinged rhetoric at a news conference to announce the lawsuit, filed Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court.

"As long as there is an NAACP there will be no segregation!" insisted Hazel Dukes, President of the NAACP NY chapter, implying that low performing students of color were being abandoned by the school system instead of given the resources they need to improve.

So whats the position on Obama's plan to close down the worst performing schools.

President Obama's Race To the Top program involves a mandate to close the lowest performing 5 percent of schools nationwide.

The NAACP also takes issue with that program.

"I disagree with the President on Race to the Top," said Dukes

So the NAACP is on record saying the lowest performing schools shouldn't be closed just keep throwing more money at it to make it work. That way hasn't done squat and its time for something new. The union is fine with the support because they are only interested in teachers getting a paycheck and not losing power with less members if they get fired.

All this talk about the schools needing more resources, I bet they have had resources thrown at them and despite all of it they are still failing. Cut them loose and start over.

Obama invities GOP leaders to his dog/pony health care show.

2010-02-07T21:24:00.003-05:00

It is still a waste of time since this move is designed to embarrass the GOP and Obama won't agree to anything that doesn't fit into his worldview. The only way bipartisan agreement works for him is if the GOP says yes to his demands.

In the first major step to revive his health care agenda after his party's loss of a filibuster-proof Senate majority, President Barack Obama on Sunday invited Republican and Democratic leaders to discuss possible compromises in a televised gathering later this month.

Obama's move came amid widespread complaints that efforts so far by him and his Democratic allies in Congress have been too partisan and secretive.

The Feb. 25 meeting's prospects for success are far from clear. GOP leaders demanded Sunday that Democrats start from scratch, and White House aides said Obama had no plans to do so.

"If we are to reach a bipartisan consensus, the White House can start by shelving the current health spending bill," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

A White House statement Sunday said Obama repeatedly has made it clear "that he's adamant about passing comprehensive reform similar to the bills passed by the House and the Senate."
"He hopes to have Republican support in doing so, but he is going to move forward on health reform," the statement said.

Told ya, its nothing more than a show by Obama who feels he can fool the public with this fake meeting of "bipartisianship." If the GOP and the public is against Obamacare in its current form but Obama insists that something will pass similar to it, why bother having this obvious display of fakery by the White House and the Dems.

Anti-Muslim plans on facebook results in five arrests.

2010-02-07T21:20:00.002-05:00

Arresting people for facebook posts unless its a direct threat seems to be an overreaction. I also doubt being this is the UK if it was reversed with postings by a Muslim group they would have done this much.

FIVE men have been arrested after a Facebook site was set up declaring “all Muslims should be thrown out of Wales”.

Around 150 people joined the group on the social networking site claiming they would march through the Rhondda Valleys to make their feelings known.

The proposed march has been described as “mindless bigotry” by racial equality groups.

But South Wales Police have now stepped in and arrested five men for religiously aggravated public order offences.

It is one of the first occasions people have been arrested over comments posted on Facebook.

The group has also been removed from the site.

U.S. torn over whether some Islamists offer insight or pose threat

2010-02-07T20:54:00.001-05:00

If you have to ask the question, something is very wrong.

After the worst military base massacre in U.S. history, officials acknowledged that they failed to "connect the dots" – the shooter had been corresponding with an imam tied to al-Qaeda and had condemned the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as a war against Islam.

But Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan wasn't the only one working on a Texas Army base the day of the shooting who had links to radical Islamists.

At Fort Bliss, an experienced military trainer was teaching soldiers about his Muslim faith. He, too, had denounced government counterterrorism efforts, and public records show he and some of his closest associates had ties to terrorism suspects.

But when The Dallas Morning News first inquired about the instructor, Louay Safi, military officials praised him. Only later did they say that Safi had been suspended from working on military bases pending a continuing criminal inquiry.

The Safi affair reveals the deep divisions within the U.S. government over how to combat terrorism and over what constitutes moderate Islam.

Safi was also named by government prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in one terrorism case in 2005. His last two employers were implicated in other government terrorism investigations while he worked for them. He was never charged, nor included among the targets of those investigations.

But Safi has called the widespread raids on Muslim organizations after 9/11 "a campaign against Islam" – a term that 9/11 Commission director Philip Zelikow says is part of "the jihadi narrative."

Yeah, that would be kinda of a code word there if you are not sure the person could pose a threat.

NBC Cafeteria fried chicken debacle.

2010-02-05T02:17:00.002-05:00

This is beyond stupid and once again just making black people look stupid and overly sensitive. I rather talk about the fact you can get that much food for $7.50. Mediaite as they are quick to do huffs and puffs about this serious racial incident.

So who at NBC thought it would be a good idea for the special today to be, among other things, fried chicken, “in honor of Black History Month”?

Because, spoiler alert – it wasn’t a good idea at all. And now NBCU employee Questlove is bringing it to the attention of his 1 million plus Twitter followers.

Questlove, the band leader and drummer for The Roots (the house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) tweeted this picture from the NBC Commissary at 30 Rock, with the comment: “Hmm HR?”

The black chef who came up with the menu is upset.

One person who doesn't understand how offense could be taken: Chef Leslie Calhoun. It was her decision to select the menu items and create the sign. TheGrio caught up with her minutes after the tweet fiasco erupted and she seemed genuinely upset by the whole thing. Calhoun is an African-American and employee of Flick, a catering service that runs the NBC commissary. She said that for the last eight years she's been seeking approval from Flick management for a special Black History Month menu, and had finally been told that every Thursday for the month of February, she could serve whatever she chose.

Geert Wilders kangaroo court case continues.

2010-02-05T02:10:00.000-05:00

If the court wanted to give off the impression they are going to railroad Wilders they are doing a fine job of it.

Wilders to get three witnesses
Today's papers report the latest twist in the trial of populist right-wing MP Geert Wilders on charges of insulting Muslims and incitement to religious hatred. The Freedom Party PVV leader wanted to call 18 witnesses to give evidence in his defence but, in a pre-trial session, the court has whittled the number down to just three.

The AD says the judge also ruled that their evidence will be heard by an examining magistrate in private and not in open court. The paper explains that the move is probably intended to stop Mr Wilders maximising publicity around the case.

He wanted to call witnesses to show that his negative comments, about for instance the Qur'an, were true. These included Mohammed Bouyeri, the militant Muslim who murdered Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh in 2004.

The judge however argued it was well known that some people use the Qur'an to justify violence and that evidence to prove the point was not needed. An angry Mr Wilders told journalists: "This court is obviously not interested in the truth". The trial proper, which will take around a week, will begin towards the end of this year.

The 800,000 job losses correction.

2010-02-05T02:09:00.001-05:00

How are you off by close to 800,000? That seems to be a blatant incompetence or deliberate manipulation of the numbers.

Job losses during the Great Recession have been huge and they're about to get bigger.

When the Labor Department releases the January unemployment report Friday, it will also update its estimate of jobs lost in the year that ended in March 2009. The number is expected to rise by roughly 800,000, raising the number of jobs shed during the recession to around 8 million.

The new data will help illustrate the scope of the jobs crisis. Analysts think the economy might generate 1 million to 2 million jobs this year. And they say it will take at least three to four years for the job market to return to anything like normal.

"It's going to take a long time to dig out of this hole," said Julia Coronado, senior U.S. economist at BNP Paribas.

Wall Street economists expect the January report will show a tiny increase of 5,000 jobs. That would be only the second monthly gain since the recession began. But it probably wouldn't be enough to hold down the unemployment rate, which is forecast to rise to 10.1 percent. That would match October's 26-year high. And it would be the fourth-straight month of double-digit joblessness.

Uh Oh... Fears Rise of Euro Government Default

2010-02-05T02:05:00.001-05:00

Hey look, out of control spending seems to have consequences even if you are selling an angle that it is a good thing for the economy.

Financial markets swooned Thursday amid rising fears of a government debt default in Europe, highlighting the seriousness of the challenges facing the euro currency as fiscally challenged countries like Greece, Portugal and Spain dig themselves out of debt.

After a brief respite early this week, the cost of insuring against default the debt of euro-zone members with large budget deficits jumped late Wednesday and rattled investors more broadly on Thursday.

While Greece and Portugal have felt investors' fire in recent days, now even larger economies like Spain are starting to come under pressure from worries about their weakened public finances.

The global economic downturn, and extensive government spending to fight it, have led to major fiscal problems in Europe, especially for less-dynamic economies like Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain. Such countries took advantage of their membership in the 16-nation euro bloc during the boom by borrowing at unusually low interest rates. But now, investors are worried about how they will reduce yawning budget deficits that exceed 12% of their economic output in the case of Greece and Ireland.

Apple kills off the $9.99 e-book price point.

2010-02-05T02:02:00.001-05:00

Amazon tried to fight the good fight though a DOJ investigation in seeing if the major book publishers and Apple aren't getting together on this would be nice.

Amazon's ebook pricing structure has crumbled. Hachette's the third major publisher to push for the agency model, following MacMillan and HarperCollins: They'll set the ebook prices (higher, natch) and the bookseller takes a cut. The $9.99 ebook? Poof.

It looks the pricing model reportedly first proposed by Apple to publishers—from $12.99 to $14.99 as a suggested price for harcover bestsellers, though the publisher will set whatever price they want—is the way things are indeed going to shape up, so Steve Jobs wasn't idly riffing when he said the price difference between Kindle and iBooks would go away. MacMillan CEO John Sargent has specifically mentioned those same pricepoints as their baseline, so you can expect every other publisher will hew to that.

Congress OKs $1.9 trillion boost in debt limit

2010-02-05T01:59:00.000-05:00

The spending continues as Rome burns.

The House on Thursday approved a record $1.9 trillion increase in the cap on how much the government can borrow.

The House also approved a measure that imposes tougher budget rules on lawmakers.

The votes, which broke down largely along party lines, come one week after the Senate approved both measures.

The legislation, which is expected to be signed by President Obama, will raise the debt ceiling to $14.294 trillion.

The debt limit hike is expected to cover the Treasury's borrowing needs past the November mid-term elections and into 2011. That means lawmakers up for re-election won't need to take another politically sensitive vote before the polls open.

Apple co-founder The Woz says his Prius has acceleration flaw.

2010-02-04T01:13:00.003-05:00

Toyota is now in a bigger hole than before because of their lackluster response to the pedal problem. Having Woz come out and complain about the Prius is going to make things worse on another front because he has the cache with that segment of the driving population to make them worried.

Count Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak among Toyota Motor Corp. car owners who say their vehicles accelerate unintentionally.

Wozniak’s 2010 Toyota Prius can unintentionally accelerate to as much as 97 miles (156 kilometers) per hour when he uses cruise control to increase his speed, he said in an interview yesterday. Toyota and the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration haven’t responded to his complaints in the past two months on what may be a software-related glitch, he said.

“It’s scary when it happens,” Wozniak, 59, said from San Jose, California. “I’ve had trouble getting both the government safety agency and getting Toyota to listen to me.”

People's Republic of Broward gets its courthouse, screw the voters.

2010-02-04T01:10:00.002-05:00

Just a tiny peek on how local politics are run down here in South Florida, Miami-Dade is even worse.

Despite the fact that voters had already rejected the idea, Broward County commissioners decided Tuesday to tax property owners – without their approval – to help replace the aging main courthouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

County commissioners voted 6-3 to spend $328 million to replace a an aging courthouse plagued by rats, mold and flooding. Supporters said it would only cost taxpayers about $8 a year, but dissenters argued it was simply wrong not to take the issue before voters.

The commission faced intense pressure from the legal community to move ahead immediately rather than risk a repeat of 2006 when voters rejected a tax increase to pay for construction. Judges and lawyers complained of dismal and dangerous conditions in a building used by thousands of people a day.

“This has been a long time coming,” Chief Judge Victor Tobin said after the vote. “The county took a bold step. I know these are difficult times, but this is important for this community.”

Mayor Ken Keechl joined commissioners Stacy Ritter, Ilene Lieberman, Kristin Jacobs, Al Jones and Diana Wasserman-Rubin in voting to use the commission’s own authority to levy taxes, while commissioners Lois Wexler, Suzanne Gunzburger and John Rodstrom favored holding a referendum.

That $328 million price tag will skyrocket, nothing is built down here on taxpayers money on time or on budget.

Chavez turns to Cubans for help with energy crisis

2010-02-04T01:02:00.001-05:00

Its like a blind man turning to another blind man to help cross a busy 6 lane highway. It won't end well.

President Hugo Chavez has turned to his friends in Cuba for help in tackling Venezuela's energy crisis, drawing criticism for seeking advice from the communist-led island that has struggled with its own electricity woes.

Chavez gave few details on Wednesday about what is expected of Cuba, but insisted that "it's valuable experience that's serving us well." He said that he spoke for hours Tuesday with Cuban Vice President Ramiro Valdes after his arrival in Venezuela to lead the consulting team.

The decision to seek help from Cuba bewildered Venezuelans coping with the nation's power shortage.

"It's laughable that he's looking for help from Cuba," said Aixa Lopez, director of the Committee for People Affected by Power Outages, which monitors the extent of current energy shortages and rationing in Venezuela.

Spy agencies can kill Americans involved in Terrorism.

2010-02-04T01:01:00.001-05:00

I would have hoped this rule would have been in place for a while now.

In unusually frank comments, the top U.S. intelligence official acknowledged on Wednesday that spy agencies can target for killing Americans who are involved in terrorism.

"We take direct action against terrorists, in the intelligence community," Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence, said.

"If ... we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that," he told the House (of Representatives) intelligence committee.

Blair did not mention where the permission came from.

The Washington Post reported last week that President Barack Obama approved a December 24 strike against a compound in Yemen where a U.S. citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, was believed to be meeting with regional al Qaeda leaders.

He was not the focus of the strike and was not killed, but is now on a list of targets, the newspaper said. The American advisers in Yemen do not participate in raids but help plan missions and provide weapons, the newspaper report said.

Government public Health programs now 50% of all health care.

2010-02-04T00:12:00.002-05:00

We are so screwed.

For the first time, government programs next year will account for more than half of all U.S. health-care spending, federal actuaries predict, as the weak economy sends more people into Medicaid and slows growth of private insurance.

Government health programs are a growing burden on the federal budget, which is running annual deficits of more than $1 trillion, and rising health costs continue to batter private industry.

By 2020, according to the new projections, about one in five dollars spent in the U.S. will go to health care, a proportion far beyond any other industrialized nation.

"It's going to be a desperate issue five to 10 years out," said Gail Wilensky, the former top Medicare official in the George H.W. Bush administration. She said the U.S. will have to decide soon between raising revenue to pay for Medicare or reducing benefits.

Rickshaw driver has to chain son to go to work.

2010-02-03T23:59:00.002-05:00

Honestly, this is the type of article that make me feel horrible for bitching about things in my life that in comparison is very unimportant.

At first sight it seems the ultimate in child cruelty - a two-year-old boy chained to a lamp post to stop him getting away.

Yet his parents say this is the only way they can guarantee not to lose him.

His father Chen Chuanliu works as an unlicensed rickshaw cyclist in Beijing, taking fares all over the city, while the boy's disabled mother collects rubbish at the roadside.

They say they secured their son, Lao Lu, with a padlock around his ankle because his four-year-old sister Ling was 'stolen' from them last month.
Child snatching is rife in China, where strict laws govern the size of families.

Concerned passers-by spotted the shackled toddler outside Huaguan Shopping Mall in Liangxiang.

They reported his father to the authorities, who yesterday ordered him to remove the chain although it was not clear what arrangements he would make in future.

There is no nursery place for Lao Lu because his 42-year-old father is a migrant worker from another province, Szechuan, and therefore does not qualify for state help. The family live in one room, 9ft by 8ft.

Chen said he could not afford to pay for childcare on his earnings of £4.50 a day and had refused offers of 'a lot of money' to give his son up for adoption.

'My wife cannot take care of him and I have to work to support my family. So I chain him to a pole when I have a fare.

'I don't even have a picture of my daughter to use for a missing-person poster. I cannot lose my son as well.'

Good news is someone stepped to give him a free nursery spot for a couple of years.

The migrant worker's son who was shackled by his father to a lamppost with a chain is looking forward to a free nursery place in a Fangshan district kindergarten.

The Global Times reported Wednesday that the two-year-old boy, nicknamed Jindan, was shackled to a lamppost in the street because his father, an illegal taxi driver, has no time to look after him while he is working.

Fortunately, after the report, a private kindergarten in Fangshan district called Aibei Kindergarten is willing to accept him and give him a free nursery place.

"The three years' nursery fees will be paid by me, which amounts to about 40,000 yuan ($5,873.72)," said the president of the kindergarten surnamed Pi.

"I just want to show him some compassion and never thought about so-called social responsibility," he said, "because nursery for migrant workers' children is a universal problem."

Europe Feels Snubbed as Obama Cancels Trip

2010-02-03T02:10:00.002-05:00

Grow up Europe. Are the leaders over there still at a stage that an EU meeting means less to them because the President is not coming over to "validate" it. But it ticks off Zapatero, so there is a silver lining.

President Obama’s decision to skip a United States-European Union summit meeting scheduled for Madrid in May has predictably upset European officials, who suggested Tuesday that the summit meeting itself would now be postponed, possibly to the autumn.

In addition to the palpable sense of insult among European officials, there is a growing concern that Europe is being taken for granted and losing importance in American eyes compared with the rise of a newly truculent China.

European Union officials found out about the decision through the news media late on Monday, senior European officials said Tuesday morning. The decision was first reported on the Web site of The Wall Street Journal.

The Spanish prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who is scheduled to arrive in Washington this week on a visit, was described as angry and embarrassed, and European officials said there was a set of high-level diplomatic exchanges overnight.

The White House explained the decision as a matter of scheduling, insisting that the May visit to Europe was never on the president’s agenda, so it could not be said to have been canceled.

European officials said that two senior American officials — the under secretary of state for political affairs, William J. Burns, and the assistant secretary of state for European affairs, Philip H. Gordon — had attended a preparatory meeting for the summit meeting two weeks ago in Madrid, and that there was no hint then that Mr. Obama would decide not to attend.