various stuff from my thawt and life in a news-bedevilled world, word play and semiotic experiments, with Christian intent but in hopefully creative tension with culture of North America, both USA and Canada, both hither in Toronto and yon worldwide ...
Update: Times of London UK, "China cracks down on mourners on Tiananmen massacre anniversary" (Jun4,China) 'Crackdown' here seems to mean 'detained' more than anything approaching clubbings or shootings. I've read no report of either.
Dan Martin reports for Agence France Presse, "China t+tens information controls for Tiananmen anniversary"
BEIJING (AFP) — China on Wednesday kept a tight lid on content related to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, blacking out foreign TV reports about the 20th anniversary of the incident and expanding curbs on websites.
News reports about the bloody June 3-4 crackdown that ended seven weeks of pro-democracy protests at the square were abruptly cut off with screens periodically going black on the BBC and CNN in China, as they have all week.
China's censors also appeared to be blocking sites such as Microsoft's new search engine Bing, social networking service Twitter, photo-hosting website Flickr and others.
The dates mentioned hark back 20 years to June 1989. "...most Chinese young people are completely unaware of this event."
Paula Wolfson reporting for Voice of America (VOA) today tells of his leisurely visit with an approving monarch who put an apparently gold chain around Obama's neck as part of the Order of Merit recognition bestowed on him by the Saudi King, Abdullah. Besides a series of intense discussions, the USA Prez is getting a breather for what may be the most important public-speaking event of his term so far. Tomorrow, he will be addressing the world, especially the Arab and Muslim world (the latter extending as far east as Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim population, while Egypt has the largest Arab population).
White House officials say they will talk about prospects to end decades of Arab-Israeli conflict. They will also discuss Iran's nuclear ambitions, as well as the impact rising oil prices are having on the world economy.
In Cairo, at the university, the USA Prez "will try to ease decades of tensions h+tened by decades of tensions between Muslims and the United States, tensions hy+tened by war in Iraq, and a lack of progress in the Middle East peace process.
"Netanyahu defies Obama call for settlement freeze," by Jeffrey Heller and Adam Entous, Reuters (Jun1,2k9).
The title and contents of the Heller/Entous late-breaking-news report needs to be parsed.
I broke apart (by the semiotic digital means of a clickable link to their Reuters article), the link-word itself appearing in blue, thereby making "Netanyahu defies Obama call for settlement freeze" separate sememically into two semantic distinct-units: "Netanyahu defies Obama" (blue, clickable) from "call for settlement freeze" (dull black usually) Netanyahu|Obama. Netanyahu (David) | Obama (Goliath). ISSUE: "natural growth" of the settlements, means slow and steady expansion.
But a trade-off has been proposed by a nameless third-party, whereby the Jewish settlements politically affiliated to Israel may grow, while the state of Israel opens its southern border-crossings to Gaza, to permit construction supplies to enter the Hamas enclave.
Trust and Power on the Shop Floor examines the shop floor processes of modern factories through two case studies. Maarten Verkerk draws on ethnography, organizational theory, and philosophy to offer an insightful analysis of how high-trust and high-power relations between management and labor are the keys to successful organizations. Verkerk ultimately offers a masterful study of the dynamics of the modern industrial organization. (Delft, the Netherlands: Euboron,2005; paperback) Amazon USA: $57 USA. -- text is largely from the Amazon sales pitch.
An important recent book articulates an uptodate horizon of normativity for Christian labor unions and movements, reaching from level of generality down to depth-levels of particularity -- such as, most importantly, the perennial industrial problem of tension and even class-warfare on the shop floor.
Dr Maarten Verkerk's Trust and Power on the Shop Floor: An Ethnographical, Ethical, and Philosophical Study on Responsible Behaviour in Industrial Organizations (Paperback) impresses me as unique (it's available from Amazon).
Dr. Verkerk is now Prof of Reformational Philosophy at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands. In one of his current activities, Dr Verkerk provides in English a brief personal autobio for an upcoming conferemce. Here's my expanded version of the resulting bio, the orignal published online as part of a digital-brochure for 2k9 summer's Christian Artists conference in the Netherlands (see Upcoming Events in the rW's frontpage sidebar). Held every four years, the conference is sponsored by a sectoral unit within the Christian labor union of the Netherlands CNV, the every-4-years conference is sponsored by CNV's affiliated Christian Artists trade-union (CNV-Kunstenbond). Verkerk's thumbnail bio:
After my chemistry study in Utrecht [presumably BS level], I worked for four years at the Technical University of Twente to write a thesis [PhD level]. After that I worked as a senior researcher at Philips National Laboratory in Eindhoven.
Then, for more than fifteen years, I performed a number of management functions in the industrial sector of Philips [publicly-traded private-sector megacorporation with an active multi-union system of representation of labor]. I worked in The Netherlands, Germany, and Taiwan. The size of the organisations varied from 30 to 850 employees.
A general characteristic of the technical sector is:
stress, focus at the primary process, continuous improvement, motivating and training of employees, complex interactions with marketing and development, and interaction with customers.
In 2003 - 2007 I worked in a psychiatric hospital. I started as a division manager; and after one-an-a-half years, I became the director. In this period I have reorganised the hospital, made it financially sound, implemented important innovations and led a merger with another hospital.
In April 2008 I became a member of the board of VitaValley, an innovation network in health care. Since August 2008 I have been and presently am the chairman of the board.
In September 2004 I was appointed as [a national-foundation's] "extraordinary professor" of reformational philosophy at the Technical University of Eindhoven. Amongst other subject-matters, I was teaching
philosophy of technology, ethics of technology, and ethics of management and organisation.
In July 2008 I was appointed [by the Special Chairs Project's trustees, of the Dutch Foundation for Reformational Philosophy" (about 600 members), appointed to be] an extraordinary professor of reformational philosophy at the University of Maastricht.
Professorships for special chairs at state universities. : Dutch universities can also appoint Extraordinary Professors on a part-time basis. This allows the University to bring in specialized expertise that otherwise would not be available. An extraordinary professor usually has his main employment somewhere else, often in industry or at a research institute or University elsewhere. Such a professor has all the privileges of a full professor (gewoon hoogleraar), may give lectures on special topics, or can supervise graduate students who may do their research at the place of his main employment. Due to this system, many university research groups will have several professors. There is however a clear distinction between bijzonder hoogleraar and buitengewoon hoogleraar. The bijzonder hoogleraar does not get paid by the university, but receives his salary from an external organization, such as a company, an organization or a fund [ -- like the 8 or so Special Chairs of Reformational Philosophy at state universities in the Netherlands, sponsored by the trustees for this purpose, of the Foundation for Reformational Philosophy]. The buitengewoon hoogleraar on the other hand is under a direct contract with the university. The same person may be both. Both types of extraordinary professor allow using the title prof., but contrary to full professors, they are not allowed to keep it after their contract ends.
Some Dutch universities have also instated Institute Professorships, which sometimes carry special rights, e.g. the absence of any obligation to teach undergraduate students.
Several topics of my management career are:
• the start-up of an actuator factory in Roermond. In a participative process a new organisation model was developed in which continous improvement, customer orientation and workers satisfaction were in the centre.
• the start-up of a new capacitor factory in Roermond. In the design a lot of attention has been given to the 3 P’s of corporate social responsibility: People, Planet and Profit. Total budget about 150 M Euro.
• the implementation of innovations in a psychiatric hospital (clinical path ways, community based psychiatry).
Over the years, I've taken on leadership responsibility in several different societal activities: (1.) in the local church (management, pastoral, liturgical), (2. in societal organisations (politics, workers unions), and (3.) in scientific functions (management, study, lectures, articles). At this moment I am the chairman of the board of the Prof. Lindeboom Institute, an institute for medical ethics.
On the second day of the congress August 3, 2k9, Dr Maarten Verkerk will workshop on "Why are those workers not employers. Why the trade-unions have to take care for the self-employed (including all the artists). The blessings of being selfemployed and the dangers. Measures to take. Timepressure of employers leading to unsafety and unhealthy and unsocial conditions. How is that in the cultural sector. Analyses and paths for directions. Testimonials."
While attack ads against him flood the airwaves, Liberal parliamentary leader, Dr Michael Ignatieff hurls abuse at Conservative govt for following Ig's & cohorts demand that the Tories spend more, stimulate the economy which is in the dullards, not really a recession. Also Ig demands that the govt estimate "how much more the deficit could grow in the coming months." But to determine how much anything could grow, is a fool's errand."
Harper said the Liberals have been demanding increased spending on Employment Insurance, but they aren't prepared to deal with the final budget costs. Still, Harper declined to give an exact figure for the deficit and said it "will depend, obviously, on the performance of the economy."
The Unholy Alliance -- Liberal Party, New Democrat Party, and the separatist Bloc Quebecois -- aside from breaking the principle that Federalist parties do not enter coalitions with Separatist parties, are asking the impossible because they have incoherent self-contradictory demands. This is not policy leadership.
Flaherty told CTV's Canada AM that this is a "difficult year" but said he had no qualms about assisting the unemployed and bailing out the struggling auto sector. "We're spending billions more because we have more unemployment and we're helping out the auto sector to save jobs," Flaherty said.
"Ignatieff is already the subject of several Tory attack ads, which focus on comments he made before entering politics, and the decades he spent outside of Canada. One ad features an old video interview in which Ignatieff refers to America as 'his country' [hence the accompanying pix]. In another Ignatieff is quoted as saying the 'the only thing he missed about Canada was Algonquin Park.' "
All credit to the credit-card holders' liberation from cruel oppression of usurious card companies, specialist companies devoted exclusively to their own h+end results required for profit monetization, misprioritization, and damn every other societal sphere of appropriate influence (any other "stakeholder"). They were proven to have planned the financial entrapment and ultimate ruin of holders addicted to debt by over-purchase.
would eliminate secret ballots for union elections. When she went before Congress for confirmation hearings, Obama’s choice to head the Department of Labor, California Congresswoman Hilda Solis, was grilled about her position on EFCA and other laws of interest to the labor movement.
But significant changes in White House policy can occur administratively as well as legislatively. Our cabinet-level departments, in particular, wield important administrative powers, and often what is done, or undone, by a new cabinet officer without the slightest legislative initiative is as significant as what gets debated and passed in Congress.
The new disclosure rules fall into that category. Since organized labor spent about $100 million of members’ dues helping to elect Obama and supporting Democrats in Congress, the AFL-CIO and other unions have provided Obama with a lengthy list of things they would like done for them in Washington. And high on that list is undoing some of the disclosure requirements put in place during the Bush years. Without any debate in Congress, an Obama Labor Department could rescind them. Or it could simply not enforce them. As any investigative reporter will tell you, businesses and nonprofit groups often fail to file their required documents without being held accountable.
How the Obama administration treats the disclosure requirements will say a lot about what kind of Labor Department it will run. The Bush administration liked to accuse the DOL of becoming the Department of Organized Labor during the Clinton years because of its pro-union rulings. Union groups, by contrast, accused the Bush DOL of acting like a tool of big business.
Left out of this debate were the interests of ordinary workers.
This piece in the r+twing USA websitesfeer WorldNetDaily: Prez Obama's appointment of Rep. Hilda L. Solis -- another Ayres-type case? Apparently she has close ties to US communist and socialist organizations. All of which opens before the investigator certain lines of questions to determine what this may mean for certain labor formations alrealdy existing the USA, such as the Christian Labor Association (see below).
There is no denying that the big beneficiaries of the government's involvement are the active workers who will get to keep their jobs and the retirees who will keep their pensions and health insurance. But any fair analysis would also show that the net present value of wage, benefit and job-security concessions agreed to by the United Auto Workers amounts to tens of billions of dollars.
It is also not the case that the workers' gains have come at the expense of bankers and bondholders who had the bad judgment, or the bad luck, to lend money to these companies.
It is the job of the bankruptcy court to ensure that these financial creditors receive at least as much from any restructuring plan as they would have from a long and messy liquidation -- and they will. But there is nothing in the bankruptcy law, or the common law, requiring a government volunteering to finance a bankruptcy restructuring to divide its largess evenly or fairly between bondholders and assembly-line workers. That is a political choice that properly rests with the government.
The CLA-USA does not spell out the idea of labour representation where no one in the workforce is forced to be a member of a union. All unions, with legality within and loyalty to the USA, may be represented proportional to the number of workers in a given workforce who vote with individual particularity by means of a secret ballot for that particular union (pluralist workforce democracy -- not monophilosophical, not monoworldview, not monoreligion nor monononreligion -- but may be founded on the basis of a religious creed, better perhaps it should be termed a religious workview expressed secularly in the workaday world by a founding community of religious particularists gathered explicitly to revitalize the witness of 1934 regarding the necessity of a christian labor movement in America. In Canada, a sister union bases itself simply on "the Gospel social principles," is a founding member of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and welcomes members of any religion and "none."
These thawts bespeak only to recognize a "sphere sovereignty of the workforce" as a single and particular societal-entity composed of an ethically-bonded workforce-membership to constitute a work-community, related to a particular management, and ultimately to owners of the firm or company, whether thru publically traded stocks perhaps offered on the stock market or privately-held ownership, even communally-owned work co-ops perhaps (but represented by plurality, not a single union unless the workforce is 100% unanimous for one union representation with a monopoly on the workview representation of workers).
Therefore, having an interest in the firm, good communications all around. The latter contributing to healthy labour relations between management and the workers of the workforce, again represented plurally and proportionately, constituting an honest work-community that doesn't stiffle differences of workview -- viewpoint tolerance sufficient to the purpose of the fullest representation possible. Harmonious work relations lead to stability, thus vice versa contributing to stability of the workforce, even the workers financially -- if (1.) the banks, (2.) the lurid luring-loaners to buy-now-pay-later people who cannot keep up mortgage payments (credit cards too, etc) and must eventually be foreclosed upon, as the loaners planned / foresaw at the outset; but (3.) there's a third prime evil force in labor relations > misstepping government. The nation has the r+t to open elections in labor unions, via secret ballots, by all the unions that the nation's government certifies, not a government that enables and otherwise supports the herding of workers into a single union per workforce and, sometimes, divided by trade / guild with a h+ level of presumably tradeskill-based exclusivity.
As soon as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certifies a given union (of which CLA is only one small national labour association among many bohemoth such-organizations, associations, unions thru-out the nation); each particular union gets the responsibility of representing its proportion of the secret-ballot vote.
Unionization is an ethical bond of members of the workforce, recognizing as a principium that to be a force they must associate together in the implied ethical bond of that particular relation, that particular societal-sphere > labour-relations, a sphere uniquely situated within society (the societal relative-totality) to require healthy interaction between management and each union selected in a secret free vote of the members of the entire workforce (other than management) and each particular union represented proportionally in the all-union, pan-union, or multi-union committee (it may be again a single union, if the workforce is unanimous in a secret ballot), for its overall relations on behalf of all workers in the workforce, collectively, communally within a single sphere, with that firm's management; negotiations would include contract negotiations for salaries and wages, general labour standards of compensation for the workers.
Those in the workforce who exercize their r+t to representation by a union of their choice (according to differing world-, life-, and work-views) -- freedom of association within the workforce, for life-is-religion motives perhaps --these have a logically-reciprocal r+t (juriscientially speaking) not to pay union dues, thereby not belonging to any union and eschewing a work-relations representation, both negatives that go along with letting the represented (proportionately) do all the organizing, communal thinking, a kind catechumentate for work within the work-community of this firm somehow in tandem with this management.
Instead, these self-chosen non-represented workers outside the union system almost entirely must nevertheless contribute the equivalent of basic union dues to a charity acceptable to both that self-chosen non-member individual worker and the all-union committee representing the various unions of the membership-affirming institution of the workforce of different workviews but comitted nonetheless to interactive dialogue and decision-making, with certain proportionality. The individual unions represented may further charge their own members more than the all-union committee's standard of dues (which covers otherwise-freeloaders who would on these corrective terms still pay out the same monetary value compared to the basic dues of the workers who belong to one union or another, represented proportionately on the all-union council in dialogue with each other and with the management of the firm. The unions may charge more than basic dues, but not less. In the end, every worker pays (or charitably contributes the equivalent of) basic dues.
For instance, an all-union committee (for a firm with a total workforce, aside from management, of 100 employees upon a secret ballot of individual members of the work-community, may have a 30% of employees vote for representation by the CLA, not by the UAW; but of course the UAW-supporting union's membership by secret ballot proves to be 70%. The two unions split the committee memberships: 7 UAW to 3 CLA. There are, in our story, 10 members total on the all-unions committee. Shop stewards are further selected by the remaining 90 shopfloor- or secretarial-workers -- again, 70% of whom in both previous categories vote UAW and 30% of whom parallely vote CLA. The CLA's 3 members on the all-union committee, liaise with the CLA's shop stewards and elected negotiating committee members at contract renewal time.
I leave these matters for now.
Obama said he would bring change. Let him do so in labor reform that gives workview meanings in a plurality for unions each distinctively to develop their own social principles should conscience dictate. In any case, the quest for a christian workview that enriches the inter-unions dialogue is a most important one, that must not shy away from the fundamental theory of represenation in a plurality of worldviews in the civic situation. The Christian Labor Association, having been founded in America in 1934 (if memory serves), has been able to stir itself some in recent years; but seemingly, growth has not accrued in the percentages for new members under contract or negotiating at present that were projected as national CLA goals a couple of years back. A sad of example of stagnation is the latest date for a digital issue of CLA's Christian Labor Herald, if I recall correctly, that last date was 2k7 aka 2007.
As this Memorial Day 2009 arrives, aside from the great ceremonies that have been dominating much of TV and myriads of events across the USA, David Guttenfelder's camera catches a moment of humour among the grim realities of war being waged this very day. HT: AP.
COLOMBO, (Reuters) - With a quarter-century civil war in the history books, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will now put to the test his theory of using a military victory over terrorism as the first step to tackling its root causes.
Flush with the success of victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a 25-year war once dubbed unwinnable, Rajapaksa offered compromise and reconciliation with the Tamil minority in a victory speech on Tuesday.
"At this victorious moment, it is necessary for us to state with great responsibility that we do not accept a military solution as the final solution," said the president, who is Sinhalese.
"It is necessary that we give these people the freedoms that are the right of people in all others parts of our country."
In a nation scarred and divided after one of the world's longest-running and bloody civil wars, with extremists on both sides often calling the shots, Rajapaksa, 63, now faces what may be Sri Lanka's greatest post-independence challenge.
Aussie press analyzes election results reported from India.
India's Congress party is putting together a government, after steering the ruling alliance to victory in the nation's staggered general election.
The main task is to decide which parties to approach, in order to secure a parliamentary majority, having just fallen short of the 272 seat majority required to rule alone. The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP [a Hindu nationalist party regarded as anti-Muslim and anti-Christian] managed a mere 159 seats. ... the election was a big surprise for everyone. We were expecting a tie between the Congress-led group and the BJP-led group, two weeks of horse trading. The Congress has now got a big majority with its group in its own right. It can pick and choose [which political parties among its campaign partners will become cabinet partners in the governing coalition]. It's going to be a far more stable coalition, because it will not be dependent so much on support from outside -- from the left groups, especially the Communist Party marxist.
Toronto streets today became an extension of the civil war in Sri Lanka, now apparently in its own death throes. According to reporters Mike Funston and Dale Anne Freed of Toronto Star,
Several thousand Tamil demonstrators occupied parts of downtown Toronto for several hours last night prior to a planned candlelit vigil outside the United States consulate on University Ave.
For a time, the demonstrators blocked part of the intersection of Yonge and Dundas Sts., refusing to move until they could be addressed by a federal Conservative MP.
"All we want is for Canadians to help us," said Gowrishangar Kamalanphan, 25, the apparent leader of the demonstration.
Shouting "Stop genocide!" and carrying a banner "Democratic Society! Stop Sri Lanka's State Terrorism on Tamils," the group wants Canada and other western nations to impose economic and political sanctions on Sri Lanka until the government and the Tamil Tiger rebel group agree on a ceasefire.
At the moment, the Federal Government of Canada, under the Conservative party and led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper is concentrated on the politics and economics of the Arctic, such that a terrorist organization in the steamy isle of the Lankans is only a nasty mirage on the horizon, despite Tiger command over thousands of Torontonians. Civil r+ts for Tamils is not the equivalent of Tiger terrorism.
UK"s Telegraph (unsigned) "Suffering in Sri Lanka: the defeat of the Tamil Tigers will bring a terrible episode in Sri Lanka to a close? (May14,2k9).
The long agony of civilians trapped inside the inferno of Sri Lanka's northern war zone may, at last, be easing. Some 2,000 are reported to have escaped this ruined enclave, ironically named a "no-fire zone", where a devastating bombardment has claimed hundreds of lives and struck the only working hospital in the last week alone.
If this terrible episode is drawing to a close, with the final defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels, that is wholeheartedly to be welcomed. The Tigers have cynically maximised human suffering by trapping innocent people inside the only territory still under their control.
Related Articles
* Sri Lanka accused of breaking artillery pledge
* Sri Lanka accused of 'war crime' over shelled hospital
* Tamil Tigers penned in 'five mile enclave'
* Sri Lanka civilians facing 'catastrophe'
in final battle with Tamil Tigers
* Tamil Tigers accuse Sri Lankan army of massacring civilians
Yet President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government [Sri Lanka] cannot escape its share of responsibility. ... Instead, Mr Rajapaksa has brazenly ignored outside concerns. There is a simple reason for his confidence: China has given Sri Lanka its full support. ...
China has taken a lead in foreign influence on the Government of the island; it is building a massive harbour for its oil sea-lane to Myanmar or more probably Thailand, where many ships will disgorge into refineries, while some raw oil will be trucked to the border with China for refining in the mother country.
Emma Harley writing in Telegraph UK, "Ang Suu Kyi's biggest fan gets her arrested" (May14,2k9)
So some idiot Yank has swum across the lake surrounding the home of Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratically elected leader of Burma, and given the junta that has usurped her office the ammunition it needs to renew her detention if it chooses.
The American was uninvited. No one asked him to splash his way over and then drip on her carpet until men with guns came to take the object of his political desire away - the lady herself apparently asked him to leave. Acquaintances of Vietnam veteran John Yettaw, who at 53 is described as "a psychology student", say he is "a nutty fellow". No kidding. Let's hope he's not also given to self-recrimination because he has done something terminally, criminally stupid.
It is tempting to see this manic foreign intervention as a metaphor for the ill-focused good intentions lavished on Mrs Suu Kyi by the West. But for the regime to jail her for the actions of this selfish lunatic would be akin to jailing someone for being stalked. Or deselecting an MP for receiving the inevitable letters written in green and purple ink with the extra important addendums written sideways in the margin (such letters are always written on lined paper for some reason). It would be like killing a goat for being too seductive after it had been buggered by a goatherd. To jail her for this would demonstrate, if further proof were needed, that the regime in Burma is unreceptive to any kind of logic as the rest of the world understands it. It makes you wonder why they need a pretext at all?
Read the irreplaceable Garma Chang on Buddhist Logic (in trans 1969? Pennsylvania State University Press).
This is a regime that murdered thousands of students in 1988 when Burma had its own Tiananmen Square moment, which is consistently described by those in a position to know as one of the worst five regimes in the world, and which is currently jailing its own citizens for periods of 34 years and more for doing what the government itself failed to do and helping each other after 140,000 people died as a result of Hurricane Nargis - then having the timerity to speak about it to each other.
Think of the lack of paths to uppper mobility in Burma today. The military is like an established Buddhist order, with lifetime formation once you join up and rise in rank a little or a lot over time as you prove your ability and loyalty. A general has first of all his ranks and then the Sanga of Buddhists priests to secure first of all. Democracy? Instability, they think.
The French oil company Total is in Burma, as is US-owned Chevron. So the sanctions are patchy, to say the least. Brad Adam, director of Human Rights Watch's Asia operation, says that the only pressure that would make any conceivable difference to the Burmese junta would come from India, Thailand and most of all China.
"China is holding out against action on the UN Security Council. If anyone wants to help counteract the damage that has been done to Aung San Suu Kyi's democracy movement, they could usefully write to the Chinese embassy and tell them how angry they feel that China could fail to speak out to Burma, disregarding this brave woman's actions. There is a feeling that Burma is getting very close to the end of what China is prepared to put up with on this issue."
So, the point seems to be that People's Republic of China may have grown weary of Burma's rightwing generals and Buddhist h+ priests, with China preparing to pull the plug on them. I doubt it.
the militants agreed to disarm if sharia courts were made the exclusive form of justice in Swat.
According to reporters Constable and Khan (May7,2k9), the militants are Taliban armed forces the forward units of whom are holded-up in several emerald mines. More, they "looted three banks and occupied police and civil administration buildings in Mingora. The military reported that an additional 50 militants had been killed in Bruner" [another NorthWest terrritory of Pakistan, an active operation of the Taliban but outside their main thrust in Swat; Bruner has numerous Sufi-mystics shrines that the oncoming Talibani will have to destroy as anti-Wahabbist in the extreme; Sufi Islam is not immune from the barbarian fanatics of the Taliban].
The United Nations humanitarian office in Islamabad said it has already registered more than 2,200 families in new camps, "many of them arriving with little more than the clothes they are wearing." In a statement, the office said it would also increase assistance to help about 6,000 additional families in existing camps for Afghan refugees.
This area of Pakistan, in two territories of the NorthWest, Swat and Buner, is the area at which the jihadist eruptions in several countries over the last some years are now again cresting into a frenzy of violent activity of the kind that constitutes a "civil war" where civility is being uprooted and refugeed . To establish a fair electoral system, and a shelf of ordinary r+ts, the parliamentary government must pursue the Taliban and ... and ... what?...destroy them?
Re-educate? What of the wives and children? And the worst of them ... re-develop Guantanomo to receive new "enemy combatants" ?
While the provinces of Swat and Buner are geopolitically strategic for the parliamentary govt, nearby in Islamabad, the Pakistan territories of Waziristan
R+t now (May12,2k9), UN Ambassador John Bolton (under Prez Bush II) is talking on TV (FoxNews, Greta's On the Record show) about the situation in Pakistan, adding his analysis that the Taliban / Al Quaeda axis in Afghanistan and now most especially in Pakistan, this axis now dominates in Pakistan's Intelligence Corps (which is a part of the Army and has a lot of clout among the non-Intel regulars, among whom conversions to Sunni Wahabbi Talibani Islam and its warriors is a small noticeable trend, apparently. Bolton painted a scenario where a whole section of the Army breaks off, not to disarm, but to f+t in alliance with Taliban / Al Quaeda against the Pakistan parliamentary government and its governing coalition of parties and its Prez Asif Ali Zardari. It's best hope for an eventual democratic peace.
By the way, Zardari ... "insisted that his country's nuclear arsenal is 'definitely safe,' despite growing concerns about recent gains by the Taliban along the country's border with Afghanistan, reports CNN (May6.2k9).
The Tribal Areas comprise seven Agencies, namely Khyber, Kurram, Bajaur, Mohmand, Orakzai, North and South areas of Waziristan and six FRs (Frontier Regions) namely FR Peshawar, FR Kohat, FR Tank, FR Banuu, FR Lakki and FR Dera Ismail Khan. The main towns include Miranshah, Razmak, Bajaur, Darra Bazzar, Ghalanai as Head Quareters of Mohmand Agency and Wana.
The 7 tribal areas lie in a north-to-south strip that is adjacent to the west side of the 6 frontier regions, which also lie in a north-to-south strip. The areas within each of those 2 regions are geographically arranged in a sequence from north to south.
The geographical arrangement of the 7 tribal areas in order from north to south is: Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, North Waziristan, South Waziristan. The geographical arrangement of the 6 frontier regions in order from north to south is: Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank, Dera Ismael Khan.
About 3.5 million people live in the 7 tribal areas and 6 frontier regions.
Agence France Presse (AFP) reports Peter MacKay, Defense Minister of the Canadian Government (May11,2k9) spoke officially on the status among Canada's international priorities of Afghanistan and Pakistan, both now immediately terrorist civil wars against the government.
Extremist attacks across nuclear-armed Pakistan in recent years have made it "the most dangerous country in the world," Canada's Defense Minister Peter MacKay said Monday. ...
Around 12,000 to 15,000 Pakistan security forces are battling Islamist fighters in three northwest districts in what Islamabad says is a fight to eliminate militants -- branded by Washington as the greatest terror threat to the West. ...
Extremist attacks have killed at least 1,800 people across Pakistan in less than two years and around Pakistani 2,000 soldiers have died in battles with Islamist militants since 2002.
I don't see the term used much, but I'd call what's going on in Pakistan r+t now, a Civil War, of Taliban terrorists against the Civil Government, its Prime Minister, its cabinet and social services--with a possible prize alluring the terrorists who may be seeking to gain control of the country's nuke warheads and missiles.
Meanwhile the temporarily re-noticed Civil War in Sri Lanka has especially a portion of the Tamil ethnic minority population undergoing severe displacement and deeper misery.
United Auto Workers retirees apparently will soon benefit from Fed protection of their "blue-collar aristocracy" pension-funds investments for future health care, under a will-of-the whisper preferential treatment UAW gets over less-spectacular more-marginalzed unions, including the Christian Labor Association of the USA.
Repeating myself momentarily, today's blog-entry continues the discussion I bagan yesterday, now under the title: Labour USA: UAW retirees: Soon to benefit from Fed protection of their "blue-collar aristocracy" pension-funds investments, preferential treatment of the UAW, closed-shop vs. freedom of association within the workforce by membership in a union alternative to the UAW, like CLA-USA, proportionate to those who freely vote for it as their representative on the shop floor and in the bargaining unit (with a minimum of at least one minority vote there), and whereas UAW pratices check-off of dues for causes not directly belonging to union membership (like political and leftwing causes), CLAC does not arbitrarily check-off dues or practice other skimming off the top for inappropriate forced contributions.
Prez Barack Obama keeps digging himself a deeper trench in regard to his failure, as a law-trained graduate of Harvard and law prof elsewhere, to bring forward strict pluralization of bargaining-unit workforces from larger company to large company--that indeed is the place to start if Obama wants to advance a less decrepit, and a less totalitarian theory of labour representation than the one he now is enacting thru promised / planned legislation (his erstwhile end run to head off secret-ballot voting of all workers in the present (no freedom of association) or the-here-proposed (freedom of association type of) bargaining unit, whose workers/members will then be able individually and in secret ballotting to select from alternative unions for their official representation; thereby they would be claiming the very right of association which the UAW denies). It's a pity that the UAW did not in itself lead the way toward such pluralized representation for Big-3 autoworkers.
The burning issue in industrial relations, autoworkers, and the monopoly position the UAW has fostered for itself, along with a check-off of dues of workers who do not want to contribute to the UAW's leftwingaling causes and/or do not want to be associated with such a union as UAW but want the autowork and the more-fully-negotiated pay made possible by pluralization of workers' representation. Now UAW wants to get rid of the secret ballot, instead it wants a far less trustworthy and certifiable card switch.
Having made that very serious and fundamental point of totalitarian monolithic lack of freedom of association in UAW and its pension-fund ownership, which could be reversed by instituting pluralization--via co-participation with other unions based on other principles, I now turn to inquire: if the UAW unjust system of representation still, via their pension-funds, qualifies them for 55% ownership of the UAW after Obama's restructuring of the corporation, coupled now with a boondoggle for the workers' pension-fund owners (which means the UAW's brass who run the pension fund), still doesn't this mean that Obama has uniquely preferred these or Chrysler's or GM's (not to mention Ford's) closed-shop UAW, while the latter's leadership is campaigning to do away with secret ballots.
The Christian Labor Association of the USA, functioning legally since 1934, should be put on the secret ballot and be permitted to elect a proportion of the shop stewards and union representatives to sit in all inner-planning committees of the combined unions of each company, and to designate at least one member of the overall-contract bargaining committee, a party to dialogue with both the majority union (UAW) and the company (either GM, Chrysler, and Ford). So should / would the CLAC-USA take its place where individual autoworkers choose to vote for this alternative Christian union, welcoming people of all faiths and no-faith to its ranks--based on the Christian social principles formative for CLAC's labor stance and policies (the latter constantly under internal reivew to match the stance).
The CLA works to promote harmony between Employer and Employee. This makes us a unique organization. The CLA is a labor union, certified by the National Labor Relations Board and similar state and local agencies. Our right to act as bargaining agents for employees is protected by law. The CLA is not affiliated with a large international union, but democratically governed by its membership. The CLA promotes harmony among all workers. Our method of operation allows for the crossing of trade lines, eliminating craft disputes. The CLA realizes that the livelihood of the employer and employee is derived from the same source.
CLAC-USA's small national board consists of three different ethnicities as indicated perhaps by surname (1 Hispanic-named, 2 English-named, and 2 Dutch-named).
Circumstances force President Obama to choose between bondholders and UAW retirees' health fund in the Chrysler automaker's current meltdown. The President's preferential option for elite proletarian health funds (the blue-collar aristocracy) over other claimants upon Chrysler, conditions our expectations regarding his moves on General Motors. Obama's siding with the UAW's preferential treatment in the Chrysler case, should he remain consistent in his treatment of one company and the other, bodes ill for the other, General Motors--which now may be closer to bankruptcy.
May 4 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. may be more likely to end up in bankruptcy based on the Obama administration’s willingness to place Chrysler LLC into court protection to safeguard union health-care benefits.
With GM and its biggest bondholders at odds over resolving $27 billion in unsecured claims by a June 1 deadline, the Chrysler model indicates that President Barack Obama may resort to bankruptcy to end any impasse over that debt, said Martin Fridson, chief executive officer of New York-based credit investment firm Fridson Investment Advisors.
Ford is doing fine. Why should Chrysler not go into bankruptcy; it, like GM, has played the fool and succumbed to many years of overcompensation of its unionized workers. The union has been irresponsible. The company did not resist certain of the union's exorbitant demands; the company also played the fool in other respects, including its anti-environmental car production generally. In the end, Chrysler came up short as a business. Let it die as businesses do, perhaps.
Chrysler filed for protection April 30 after the U.S. was unable to persuade secured lenders to swap $6.9 billion in claims for $2.25 billion in cash. A union retiree health-care trust was offered a 55 percent stake in Chrysler.
“This confirms the fear, which right along has been that the Obama administration is more sensitive or beholden to the unions than the bondholders,” Fridson said. “It makes it clear that GM bondholders aren’t likely to be able to work out anything outside of bankruptcy.”
I can't weep for the bondholders either, whether Chrysler or GM. Those bondholders also made grievously bad business decisions, holding bonds in companies they knew were in deep dodo for some time.
Should not the vaunted rules of the market, apply to all concerned?--GM, Chrysler, UAW, and bondholders. The moral itch in this situation is simply that the UAW itself nor its pension and health-care funds as such are not identical to the retirees who will, in some cases, most desperately need their expected insurances for old-age health needs.
In contrast, have the elites of the funds, the UAW, GM, Chrysler, and the bondholders got inadequate health insurance? Of course, they don't. Well, let them eat cake!
China View, an English-language digital publication of the official party-line lite, reports an equally official news agency, Xinhua (Ap26,2k9) news release regarding a top-level meeting of continental representatives in Nanjing together with a large set of visiting Taiwan island representatives, regarding investment in both directions, and trade.
·The cross-straits ties have ushered into a "new era of peaceful development," said mainland top negotiator.
·The two sides would also try to reach consensus on mainland investment in Taiwan.
·It would set a foundation for market entering threshold of the financial sector, said Taiwan top negotiator Chiang.
The War that never arrived, one m+t say of the shifts in attitudes and (lack of) contacts that characteried continental and Taiwan island, the one or two Chinas, now that Hong Kong, Macao, Tibet and Uigurland have all been absorbed. Only North Korea slipped thru the net that continental Communist-dominated China has set here there and all roundabout.
This book was published in English (2002) from the Dutch original of the author's esays over the years, edited and translated by H. Donald Morton and Harry Van Dyke. It's an outstanding work of reflection on Christian historical thinking, plus Smit's development of his own historical attitude.
Currently, Ads refWrite is exploring further both AdDesigner and Google Ads, as in the present instance, as well as in the off-beat introductory image of AFG in the background our title followed by thawt-teasing text to complete the over-sized super-width and fullpage height (as 8.5 X 11 inches) digital-magazine cover, so to say. The co-involved staff under the editorship of Owlb, suggested the gist of my design. So taking their advice, I did as I did.
So, egomaniacally, I put my own visage on the first "cover page" of refWrite in its 5th year, is it?, after five years of going without any cover page whatsoever. Altho I did call refWrite frontpage my flagship for my particular and, yes, idiosyncratic experiment toward a reformational journalism in the digital age of electronic communications, of telecommunications, of a reformational telcom, refTelcom with its own inner copyr+t.
Tom Krisher reports for Associated Press, "UAW [United Auto Workers labour union], Chrysler, and Fiat reach concession deal" (Ap26,2k9).
Chrysler has been living on $4 billion in U.S. government loans and is expected to get another $500 million. Without government help, it would have gone out of business around the first of the year.
After rejecting the original plan, the government had said the UAW and Canadian Auto Workers unions must make further concessions, including the UAW taking equity in the company for at least half of a $10.6 billion payment into a union-run trust that will take over retiree health care costs starting next year.
The CAW ratified a concessionary deal on Sunday which CAW President Ken Lewenza said makes labor costs competitive with non-unionized Toyota in Canada.
Working against a deadline that would fall-due on Wednesday, Ap29, nowhere in this rescue-programme and restructuring of the enterprise and workers' salaries (down!) is there any sl+test opening for a national reconsideration of the theory and presuppositions that dictate single-union bargaining units, instead of a multi-union representation according to the workforce's diverse and more principial choices.
Eduardo Galleano's Open Veins of Latin America (translated from the Spanish) is a historical interpretation of the presumed underdevelopment and oppression of Latin America by the gringos and gringas to the North, and those in the Latinos' very midst--particularly, in recent eras, the United States of America.
You know, those "blue-eyes," whom Prez Lula of Brazil likes to say, are a stampede of in-flying accountants, descending on his country's national financial policies to examine and poke holes (in Lula's accounting books, perhaps), mostly as enforcers for the International Monetary Fund (USA) and the World Bank (Europe).
What does the president to president gift-giving and gift-receiving between Hugo Chavez and Barack Obama mean?
One answer is the review of Galleano's book by Alvaro Vargas Llosa. Re-gift, Please! (Ap?2k6)
Africa National Congress, South Africa's only ruling party and government since the collapse of apartheid, has just won new elections (the 4th round since the change-over fron minority rule under the hegemonic white racist regime). But in the process the party split with the with the old ANC leadership under Thabo Mbeki (the AIDS denier) and came under the spell of a dubious character of great charisma, Jakob Zuma. The Zuma ANC won the elections by 12 million--despite a corrupton trial!
South Africans voted in general and provincial elections on April 22nd, the fourth chance they have all had to do so since the birth of democracy in 1994. After months of increasingly feverish punditry in the domestic media about the country’s political trajectory, the people finally got their chance to speak at the ballot box. So what did they say?
The first message was that the poll mattered to them. The total number of ballots cast had not been officially released at the time of writing, but the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) reckons 77% of 23 million registered voters voted on Wednesday. That’s 17.71 million people, 13.5% higher then the 15.34 million voters recorded in 2004.
The national population growth rate, ravaged as it is by deaths from HIV/Aids, is estimated at just 0.28% a year, so the increase cannot be explained by that alone. The reason for the high turnout was that people cared deeply about the outcome.
ANC supporters turned out in their masses to re-elect the party, with an estimated 12 million people voting for the party this time round, two million more then last time. One reason for this substantial growth is the ANC’s determination to trounce a new party contesting elections for the first time, the Congress of the People (Cope). Cope was formed last November by prominent members of an ANC faction that had supported former president Thabo Mbeki, but which was routed by a rival faction supporting Jacob Zuma at an ANC General Congress in Polokwane in December 2007. Mbeki lost the ANC’s presidency at Polokwane, and all his supporters were voted off the National Executive Committee (NEC). Although he was beaten in the presidential contest, Mbeki still took 40% of the vote. If all that support could be translated into electoral support for Cope, the ANC had a real crisis on its hands.
Read the whole article in openDemocracy by clicking this blog-entry's title; "South Africans have voted. What did they say? by GHregory Mthembu-Salter (Ap24,2k9).
Julia Kollewe, writing in the Guardian (Ap24,2k9) claims that "British economy shrinks at fastest rate for 30 years." This news must be troublesome for most Brits, terrifying to some.
On the ideology of Growth in economics, Reformational economist, Dr Bob Goudzwaard, has long ago called for a stable sustainable economy--no shrinkage, no growth. I'm wondering if he's modified that line in recent years, but unmodified that would imply no-growth in developing countries, which is not part of BG's programme. He's all for growth where millions are starving, and critiqued the "overdeveloped West." So, quite the opposite of supreme economic goal of growth,he has always called for Development in non-Western society. At present, however, he surely has considered the blazing-rate development of China and India, and surely has noted the blazing-rate of industrial pollution presently contaiminating with tremendous excess those hitherto "virgin" economies.
Presenting a "Web Exclusive" by Annie Lowrey, Foreign Policy chronicles a time-line that lists by consecutive date the events relating to military torture of captured terrorists-jihadists in the USA War against Terrorism. Click this blog entry's title to arrive at 3-page piece.
MarketWatch reports/comments from New York (Last update: 2:45 p.m. EDT April 23, 2009)
Bernanke and Paulson look foolish if Lewis is right Commentary: Bank of America CEO describes power in a panic
If Ken Lewis is telling the truth -- and he'd be foolish to lie to New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo -- then Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson were more than concerned about the financial crisis. They were panicking.
Why else would the two most important administration officials presiding over the financial crisis play hardball backroom politics with Lewis, the chief executive of Bank of America Corp, who had taken significant risk by acquiring Merrill Lynch & Co. last September?
Lewis testified that Paulson used threatening language to push through the deal, according to a letter released by Cuomo's office Thursday.
Torture? Mental torture of Lewis by Paulson, perhaps. Perhaps.
This is a useful comment-article that should by read by many interested in the recent financial misdeeds and ensuingly-increasing uncertainty as to financial stability of banks sui generis, Bank of America included.
On the eve of the controversial Durban II UN conference on racism, US President Barack Obama lashed out at the language of its draft declaration, saying it showed "antagonism toward Israel in ways that were often times completely hypocritical and counterproductive."
UN anti-racism conference set to begin amid much controversy
The weeklong meeting in Geneva is widely expected to repeat the inflammatory, anti-Israel rhetoric that marred the first UN racism conference in Durban, South Africa, in 2001.
Explaining the US decision to boycott "with regret," Obama said in Trinidad on Sunday: "Hopefully, some concrete steps come out of the conference that we can partner with other countries on how to actually reduce discrimination around the globe, but this wasn't an opportunity to do it."
This is the same strategy used by former Prez Bush, and outlined by Ivo Daalder and James Lindsay in their book, America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy (2003) in which the UN is not conceived as normative whatever it decides on whatever issue, but rather in which the US may partner with "alliances of the willing" on specific world-problems, in this case racism.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman echoed Obama's remarks, calling it "a hypocrisy summit."
Britain's govt is joining keynoter Ahmadi-Nejad (yes, Iranian hatemonger and nuclear adventurist) in attendance at the event--while Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Germany and others have announced they will not be in attendance. Pope Benedict, however, thinks the conference is "necessary."
Of course, the UN bureaucracy is wringing its hands about the US position, but the UN is itself responsible for sponsoring a gathering on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day that previously was remarkable for its indiscipline and anti-humanity at Durban I in South Africa (2001) and now again apparently at Durban II in Geneva. The meeting is largely an Arab-states hate-fiesta against Jews and Israel, strategically designed to round-up as much of Africa and Asia as it can for arch-manipulative purposes. Iran (with only a minority of Arabs) competes with the Arab-majority states generally to lead the anti-Israel, anti-Semitic cabal.
In a lie-entitled article, "Napolitano defends report on right-wing extremist groups" (Apr15,2k9, CNN Politics.com, hypotheticals are built up to an absurd conclusion. It looks like a fandango to boost FBI funding for an Obama witchhunt of the rightwing.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Department of Homeland Security will never monitor ideology or political beliefs, the head of the agency said Wednesday, responding to criticism of a recent report on right-wing extremist groups.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the U.S. will never monitor ideology or political beliefs.
It already does; and it's inevitable with a vengeance, if they target what rallies Iraq and Afghanistan combat vets may possibly attend.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the U.S. will never monitor ideology or political beliefs.
Propagandistic repetitiveness.
"Let me be very clear: We monitor the risks of violent extremism taking root here in the United States," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a written statement.
"Risks"? Note: not violent extremism, but theoretical risks she and her squads imagine but for which she has admittedly got no evidence. She means the FBI will concentrate on new targets, that don't presently exist to her or apparently anyone's knowledge, on the base of risk-management criteria that are of the broadest social kind regarding recent history. It's a theory about American combat soldiers, largely, but she tries to hide that ermbarassing truth in her next sentence.
"We don't have the luxury of focusing our efforts on one group; we must protect the country from terrorism whether foreign or homegrown and regardless of the ideology that motivates its violence."
"One group"? What group is that she cites but doesn't name? Why it's Islamacist terrorists, the jihadists, the pirates. But, of course, both her report and her defense of it does single out Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans. A few of whom may just possibly join groups she designates as "extremist"--not jihadists, not terrorists, just some group/s that are rightwing. This is a strategy to control thawt and political expression in America instead of getting rid of the terrorists already in existence in sleeper cells. Instead, Janet Napolitano resorts to the wildest hypotheticals to conjure up propaganda points.
The report, "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," said right-wing extremist groups may be using the recession and the election of the nation's first African-American president to recruit members.
"MAY BE"?--a guess, a hypothetical which when challenged becomes a theory but not a fact, a choice of words to cover her lack of evidence. A dishonest manoeuvre tricked up and trucked out just before the Tea Parties, where ... perhaps ... maybe some vets register their discontent regarding the dishonest unread tax laws that Congress passed and Obama signed.
The report, which was prepared in coordination with the FBI, was published last week. It was distributed to federal, state and local law enforcement officials. Mainstream media picked up the story after it was reported by conservative bloggers. ... »
Though the nine-page report said it had "no specific information that domestic right-wing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence," it said real-estate foreclosures, unemployment and tight credit could create a fertile recruiting environment for right-wing extremists and even result in confrontations between such groups and government authorities similar to those in the past."
The twitter-brained head of Insecurity is definitely implying armed confrontation. Even that however was not the case with McVeigh (in the prosecution of whom Napolitano was involved), not so much that, rather truer to armed confrontation between the FBI and the Branch Davidian sect's compound where a slawter was conducted by the FBI, "the 1993 siege on their property near Waco, Texas, by the ATF and the FBI, which resulted in the deaths of 82 of the followers of David Koresh" (Wikipedia.)
"Mainstream media tended to discount the critical views presented in early documentary films, because they were seen as coming from the political fringes of the right and left. This changed in 1997, when professional film makers Dan Gifford and Amy Sommer produced their Emmy Award winning documentary, Waco: The Rules of Engagement.[46] This film presents a history of the Branch Davidian movement and, most importantly, a critical examination of the conduct of law enforcement, both leading up to the raid and through the aftermath of the fire. The film features footage of the Congressional hearings on Waco, and juxtaposition of official government spokespeople with footage and evidence often directly contradicting the government spokespeople. The documentary also shows infra-red footage demonstrating that the FBI likely used incendiary devices to start the fire which consumed the building and that the FBI did indeed fire on, and kill, Branch Davidians attempting to flee the fire.
Waco: The Rules of Engagement was nominated for a 1997 Academy Award for best documentary and was followed by another film: Waco: A New Revelation." (Wikipedia.)
"The destruction of the Waco compound enraged McVeigh and convinced him that it was time to take action. The government's use of CS gas on women and children angered McVeigh; he had been exposed to the gas as part of his military training and thus was familiar with its effects. The disappearance of certain evidence, such as the bullet-ridden steel-reinforced front door to the complex, led him to suspect a cover-up. He believed that even if David Koresh had committed crimes, his followers did not deserve to be killed." (Wikipedia.)
(blockquote)The report compared the current climate with that of the 1990s, saying a recession, criticism over outsourcing of jobs and a perceived threat to U.S. power at that time fueled a resurgence of right-wing extremism.
However, it said, "Despite similarities to the climate of the 1990s, the threat posed by lone wolves and small terrorist cells is more pronounced than in past years."
It warned that the groups may use proposed restrictions on firearms and the debate on immigration as recruiting tools, and said the groups may try to reach out to veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today," the report said. It noted that Timothy McVeigh, the bomber of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, was a military veteran.
Radio talk show host Rush LimbaughI don't like him except for his recent support for the Humane Society, and his correctness as follows:
decried the report on Tuesday, saying, "There is not one instance they can cite as evidence where any of these right-wing groups have done anything," according to a transcript of his remarks on his Web site.
"You have a report from Janet Napolitano and Barack Obama, Department of Homeland Security portraying standard, ordinary, everyday conservatives as posing a bigger threat to this country than al Qaeda terrorists or genuine enemies of this country like Kim Jong Il," he said, referring to the leader of North Korea.
Michael Savage, another conservative commentator, also criticized the report.
"What does Big Sis say these right-wingers are concerned about?" he wrote on his Web site, referring to Napolitano.
"Illegal aliens, the increasing power of the federal government, gun grabs, abortion and the loss of U.S. national sovereignty. In other words, anyone who is worried about preserving our borders, language and culture is on Big Sis' watch list."
In her Wednesday statement, Napolitano said the agency is on "the lookout for criminal and terrorist activity but we do not -- nor will we ever -- monitor ideology or political beliefs."
She said she was briefed on the general topic, which "struck a nerve as someone personally involved in the Timothy McVeigh prosecution."
Napolitano said she intends to meet with American Legion National Commander David K. Rehbein, who sent her a letter Monday stating his concern about the report.
"Timothy McVeigh was only one of more than 42 million veterans who have worn this nation's uniform during wartime," he wrote. "To continue to use McVeigh as an example of the stereotypical 'disgruntled military veteran' is as unfair as using Osama bin Laden as the sole example of Islam."
He added, "I think it is important for all of us to remember that Americans are not the enemy. The terrorists are."
Napolitano said in her statement that she will tell Rehbein that the Department of Homeland Security honors veterans and employs thousands, including Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute.
So what? She can't discriminate in hiring because it's unlawful. Nor can she legally curtail the political expression of those employees who go to an Anti-Tax rally or want Obama's misguided tax laws repealed.The Obama administration in January issued a warning about left-wing extremists. Both reports were initiated during the administration of President George W. Bush.But how is "extremist" being defined? Why are there separate reports? Why is the timing so different, and why does the anti-vet press flood come out just before Tax Day and the Tea Parties? Why is Bush being referenced when all his other actions have been defamed and/or reversed. The FBI-like coverup by Nappy demonstrates that she is another Obama misguided appointment.
Dunstan Prial, writing in FOXBusiness, "What's in Store at Tax-Day Tea Parties" (Apr14,2k9). I've culled that interesting article as my first quote for your meditation in conjunction with another. The second is a report from Obama's Homeland Security that they've just begun their examination of the rightwing to determine who may be categorized as "extremist," presumably in order to protect Americans from a right-wing coup.
Here's the first:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
That’s the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and if you haven’t reviewed your copy of the document recently you’re probably not alone.
Tax Day Tea Party organizer Joan Stanley says no one in Washington, D.C., seems to have reviewed theirs recently either.
Stanley, 62, is an organizer of Bozeman, Mont.’s Tea Party, one of hundreds of such events scheduled to be held across the U.S. on Wednesday to protest government bailouts, budgets and deficits, in roughly that order.
“We’re coming together in unison to fight for what America has always stood for -- that’s freedom and liberty. We love our country and we want to take it back from the self-serving politicians who run Washington,” said Stanley.
Essentially a grassroots effort run by local organizers, the movement is tied together on the national level through a Web site, taxdayteaparty.com and by way of a handful of mostly conservative bloggers angry at the Obama Administration’s strategy of spending the country out of its current economic doldrums.
The first events were held nationwide on Feb. 27 and some 30,000 people participated in about 40 cities, according to the movement’s Web site. Wednesday was picked for the next round of protests because April 15 is ‘Tax Day,’ or the day tax returns are due.
The Tea Party Web site conveys the mood of its participants with quotes such as, “I do not believe that spending what we do not have will pull us out of a black hole economy,” and, “We citizens will be standing outside, protesting government overreach and proclaiming our rights.”
Please click on the blog-entrty title above and read the whole FxBiz article.
The second report bears the screen-name "national," date Apr14,2k9, entitled "Homeland Security Warns of the Rise in Right-Wing Extremism," on National Terror Alert.
An intelligence assessment released to law enforcement last week claims news of recession, the election of an African American president, rumors of new gun restrictions and the inability of veterans to reintegrate [-- factors which together] create fertile ground for radicalizing and recruiting right-wing extremists.
The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement agencies that recent news is helping “right-wing extremist groups” recruit new members and could lead to violence, and warns about the possible recruitment and radicalization of returning veterans.
So, the scenario comes to mind: undercover FBI agents as individual particpants-observers as well as in small groups with banners and slogans; they function at tomorrow's tea parties as agent provacateurs, trying to attract war veterans, trying to recruit them as counter espionage agents who will eventually be sent into the right-wing extremist groups--if, when, and as they arise.
Statement by Citizens to Protect Journalists,
defending journalists worldwide
Fiji should halt censorship and media expulsions
New York, April 13, 2009--Fiji's interim government must relax its reporting restrictions after the government declared a 30-day state of emergency on Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Three foreign reporters have since been ordered to be deported and one local journalist detained, according to international news reports, and newspapers and broadcasts have been censored. ... Continued on refWrite refBloggers Insert (Apr14,2k9).
Eric Martin and Lynn Thomasson in their Blomberg.com report, "US Stocks Gain, Capping Biggest Jump since 1933 as Banks Rise" (Apr10,2k9), documenting a steady 5-week rise. That's the plus side. But, in a short work week due to a holiday,
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added [only] 0.8 percent to 8,083.38 this week. U.S. exchanges are closed today for Good Friday.
At the same time, authorities continue to close down banks that have endangered the broad spectrum of their depositors and those who are paying regularly on their loans.
TEHRAN, April 6 -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's main opponent in the upcoming presidential election said Monday that he wanted to increase freedoms for Iranians, in part by curbing the so-called morality police who enforce strict interpretations of Islamic laws, such as those requiring women to cover their hair in public.
Former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, speaking at his first news conference since announcing his candidacy for president in the June election, attacked Ahmadinejad's government over its handling of the economy, the "extremism" of the president's rhetoric and the strictures that have been imposed on daily life and public discourse.
In the intraMuslim political dispute, there's no one contesting the regime's foreign policy and nuclear adventurism, policies which are "largely controlled by the country's unelected supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and a National Security Council that includes dozens of political leaders."
In Christian Science Monitor reporter Simon Montlake's article, "In Indonesia, secular parties confirm appeal" (Apr9,2k9) informs us that in early returns from the national election,
The three largest secular parties took more than half of the votes, according to projections based on poll sampling.
Meanwhile, the position of the often-rabid Islamist parties has slid. To make an international contrast, the ruling party in constitutionally-secular Turkey is an Islamic party that is neither fanatical nor rabid, and abides by the secular constitution. Perhaps that distinction -- Turkey's party is Islamic, Indonesia's have appeared to be Islamicist in the worst sense of the word-- is appropriate. Muslim-dominated Indonesia has not been the same as Muslim-dominated Turkey, but perhaps a new trend is emerging.
The Prosperous Justice Party, or PKS, the most conservative Islamist party in the race [in Indonesia], polled around 8 percent, similar to the last elections. Other Muslim parties vying for parliamentary seats saw their share of the national vote fall. A total of 38 parties contested the elections.
The country's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is running for a new term. In July, he will be ballotted against his rivals of the other leading secular parties.
I consider this development to be exceptionally good news.
In IrishTimes.com (Apr9,2k9), Daniel McLaughlin updates our post yesterday
MOLDOVAN AUTHORITIES cracked down on anti-government demonstrators yesterday, arresting some 200 people, threatening to use guns to quell unrest and accusing neighbouring Romania of orchestrating the protests.
Police retook control of parliament and the president’s office and arrested 193 people who had allegedly been involved in storming the buildings on Tuesday in protest at an election victory by the ruling Communist Party which they claimed was riddled with vote-rigging and fraud.
Communist president Vladimir Voronin accused his critics of staging a coup and said Romania was behind the unrest, prompting the expulsion of the Romanian ambassador to Moldova and the recall of Moldova’s envoy in Bucharest.
While Mr Voronin and his communist allies have sought to balance relations between Russia and the EU, and enjoy the support of many older Moldovans, the younger generation looks solely to the EU for its future and is deeply suspicious of the local communist elite and of Moscow.
How the younger generation registered its conflict with the Communist puppet regime (after all Moldova needs oil from Russia, but shares no border with it; Moldova shares borders with Romania, an EU and NATO member, and Ukraine--which was itself blackmailed by Russia over oil supply in the winter) has been attributed to Twitter, computers, and handhelds among the youth. Apparently they don't trust the official newspapers, radio and TV; whereas their "grandmothers" do. For one thing, the youth are concerned that Romania will have to close the border with Moldova, becoming an EU border; the door will be closed to European jobs for Moldovan youth. So, the Moldovan Communist govt is itself preparing to close the border with Romania.
Alex Rodriguez reports that "10,000 protesters break through police lines and ransack the [parliament] building, as well as the offices of President Vladimir Voronin. They claim recent elections were rigged" (Apr7,2k9, Los Angeles Times).
looking for an international agreement to pursue stimulus measures, convinced that the approach he's pursuing domestically is the way to end the global economic crisis. In the weeks leading up to the summit, his officials had already backed off their demand for a commitment to a specific figure; namely, the IMF recommendation of 2 per cent of GDP.
Still, arriving in London, U.S. President Obama was quite isolated. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was sympathetic, but the Governor of the Bank of England had already warned the Labour government that it was out of fiscal running room and that a visit from the IMF was just around the corner.
As the OECD reported this week, Canada does have fiscal room to pursue further stimulus measures. And, aside from his own objectives related to the regulation of financial institutions, Prime Minister Stephen Harper tried to help Mr. Obama. The reality, however, is that Canada has very limited clout at these meetings.
In the end, Mr. Obama had to give way - principally to French and German objections. Worse, from the American point of view, the stimulus that was agreed to at the meeting is particularly costly for U.S. taxpayers.
The writer Norman Specter, perhaps Canada's most prestigious journalist, in his blog (Apr2,2k9).
But Mr. Specter may not understand Obama's goals, his strategy, for the Summit and his following visits to Paris, Prague, and Turkey. He advocated that the European Union admit Turkey to membership.
Dick Morris has been reading the documents produced by the recently completed London G20 Summit. He pinpoints a monumental action laying out the jurdicial basis for a Global Economic Union. He writes ("The Declaration of Independence has been repealed," Apr6,2k9):
One need not follow Morris all the way in his line of thawt, but he focuses us on key systemic and structural change that we need to understand. This G20 action will be the cause of many debates of philosophy of law for many Constitution-oriented Americans.
Washington Post's excellent report, "Afghan Law on Women Brings Societal Conflict Onto World Stage," by Pamela Constable (Apr5,2k9):
the legal repression of Afghan Shiite women has created a global uproar, bringing condemnation from Western governments and U.N. officials, just as Washington and NATO are debating their military and economic commitment to Afghanistan and the faltering war against Islamist insurgents.
Critics charge that the new Shiite Personal Status Law, signed last week by President Hamid Karzai, would enshrine the rights of Shiite men to sexually enslave their wives and keep them imprisoned at home. Western leaders have compared the law to the Taliban era of 1996 to 2001, when Sunni extremists ruled Afghanistan and banned women from work and school.
In a stunning report on not-so-micro management of the auto industry by the full-programme Obama economic-recovery policy, Jeff Green and John Hughes (Apr5,2k9, Blomberg) outline how "the Obama administration has put such a high priority on the electrification of the vehicle that it would be a very difficult policy decision to drop the Volt [GM's projected electric car, due on the market Nov2k10].
April 3 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration, pressing for more fuel-efficient vehicles, won’t block General Motors Corp.’s Chevrolet Volt electric car even after the president’s task force called it too expensive, a person familiar with the matter said.
Questions about the plug-in Volt’s future arose after the administration ousted Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner on March 27 and criticized the car in a report that said government-supported GM’s recovery plan was insufficient.
“While the Chevy Volt holds promise, it will likely be too expensive to be commercially successful in the short-term,” according to the March 30 report by President Barack Obama’s auto task force.
The administration’s concerns about the Volt were offset by its belief that GM needs cleaner, fuel-efficient vehicles to succeed in the long term, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the task force’s deliberations are private. GM’s problems may mean the company won’t meet its timetables for producing and selling the Volt though, the person said.
The automaker said yesterday it still plans to deliver the vehicle to showrooms in November 2010, as planned.
For those interested in Christian social philosophy from the reformational standpoint, this particular issue of how green policy becomes more important to the making of cars, than the bad-business-as-usual of General Motors and United Auto Workers. These latter are a decade late in making the transition to electric battery driven vehicle engines. The govt has had the wisdom to displace the regime of whimpering drones at GM, and to guide the GM bureaucracy into making electrocars instead of simply catering to an ignorant public's current tastes. The issue may well reveal how focal the problem of "realizing the norm" and "simultaneity of norm-realization" have to become in the theorizing about societal spheres, and the general philosophical doctrine of societal-sphere sovereignty.
With the North Koreans apparently completing their attempted satellite-emplacement, only to be awarded a lacklustre failure, but still offering to the world a strange cocky visual contrast (TV) to the G20 other industrialized countries. The Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was in meeting to forfend a worsening of the world economic crisis; NATO's moves in conjunction with Obama's world anti-terrorist policy would just not be put totally into news-eclipse, as perhaps the NorKors had caculated, mistakenly.
Still, it remains to be seen how much re-inforcement a Denmark-led NATO can muster against those Afghanis and Pakistanis who led worldwide extremist Muslim-mass anti-Denmark demonstrations, a result of the Danish government's previous failure to protect Muslims from the Prophet-insulting cartoons two or so years ago, the Danes being led at the time by none other than former Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, now headed to NATO.
Our title-link to this blog-entry will take you to a fine article, "Denmark’s New Premier Faces Sliding Polls, Deepening Recession" by Christian Wienberg (Apr6,2k9; Bloomberg). The report covers the background of the elder Rasmussen, and an assessment of his successor's situation. The former Finance Minister has succeeded the new NATO official. From cabinet status to new Prime Minister, Lars Loekke Rasmussen, has problems enuff (besides carrying the same surname as his NATO-bound predessor).
BBCNews reports "North Korea 'has launched rocket' (Apr5,2k9):
North Korea says it is sending a satellite into orbit, but its neighbours suspect the launch is a cover for a long-range missile test.
Japan, South Korea and the US condemned the launch as a provocative act.
America would take "appropriate steps to let North Korea know that it cannot threaten the safety and security of other countries with impunity", a US state department spokesman said.
Japan says it is seeking an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
A more geospecific geopacific thawt is reported by Linda Sieg and Jack Kim in Reuters (Apr5,2k9).
The United States, South Korea and Japan say the launch is actually the test of a Taepodong-2 missile, which is designed to carry a warhead as far as Alaska.
I can't help thinking that NorKor's strategic planners chose the date on which they would today overpass Japan (without permission to do so,of course), chose the date to eclipse the news-worthiness of the society of industrial nations at the forefront of the world economy, meeting vaingloriously at the G2 Summit.
But the overpassing of the country of Japan, whether or not one NorKor intention may be true in regard to the G2 conference on the world economic crisis, certainly the fly-over "the air space" of Japan--dropping 1st-stage rocketry before arc-ing over Japan's territory, then overpassing the furious country below it; and then the NorKor Missile also dropped its used-up 2nd-stage rocketry, plop into the Pacific, somewhere in the vast oceanic space between North Korea and the United States of America and Her Majesty's Dominion of Canada.
Meanwhilew, the NorKor Missile (NKM) is reportedly speeding on its way, presumably carrying a satellite to set into some strategic space-place, an orbit for possible 24-hour transmission. But, with the world press agog, no new NorKor satellite has yet appeared in the Heavens in orbit around Earth and independent of the rocket which may yet accomplish its stated mission. The latter's remains perhaps to later splash down somewhere on Earth again.
I'm watching this ongoing news-story with considerable interest (agog?)
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The Tribal Areas comprise seven Agencies, namely Khyber, Kurram, Bajaur, Mohmand, Orakzai, North and South areas of Waziristan and six FRs (Frontier Regions) namely FR Peshawar, FR Kohat, FR Tank, FR Banuu, FR Lakki and FR Dera Ismail Khan. The main towns include Miranshah, Razmak, Bajaur, Darra Bazzar, Ghalanai as Head Quareters of Mohmand Agency and Wana.
Using AdDesign, I made my own adtext to fit into a moving digital graphic structure.
