Taliban Boasts About Its "NEW! IMPROVED!" Terrorism

In the past few days, the Taliban pulled off 3 suicide bomber attacks in Afghanistan. They dressed their death-loving kamikazes in Afghan army or police uniforms, and were able to bump off the police chief of Kandahar Province (again- this is like the 3rd time they've done that) 5 NATO soldiers, and snuck one of their killer robots inside the Defense Ministry in Kabul, where he shot 10, killing a couple, until the mad dog was gunned down before he could detonate his bomb vest.

Some creature named Zabiullah Mujaheed, a Taliban mouthpiece, gloated "This inflicts more casualties and does not cause any civilian casualties." A bit of a lie there; let's say fewer civilians. (Last year 75% of the civilian deaths in Afghanistan were done by the Taliban.)

See NY Times, April 19, 2011, p. A8: "Suicide Bomber Attacks Afghan Defense Ministry."

Why Israel Fears Overthrow of Arab Dictators

Two reasons: 1) Arab despots oppress the Palestinians same as the Jews do. Egypt has always been brutal towards them. The Jordanian “Kings” (beloved of the U.S. media) oppress their Palestinian majority. Egypt helps enforce the blockade of the Gaza Strip. Egypt and Jordan have all kinds of secret deals with the Israelis. Democracies would have a hard time selling such deals to their publics.

2) if Arab nations become democratic, then Israel CAN NO LONGER SAY IT’S THE ONLY MIDEAST DEMOCRACY!! This is a big excuse for U.S. support of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians and overall fanatical U.S. support for Israel and whatever it does.

Didn't Take Long For My Previous Post To Come True

In Michigan the GOP Fuhrer has already seized some towns and schoolboards and neutered the local elected officials in legal coups.

DemocracyNow says: "Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has been sued by two of the state’s pensions boards over a new law permitting state-appointed financial managers emergency powers to terminate employee contracts and suspend collective bargaining. Emergency managers in Michigan are currently running the cities of Pontiac, Ecorse and Benton Harbor, as well as a number of Detroit schools. The General Retirement System of the City of Detroit and the Police and Fire Retirement System filed a complaint against the law in a federal court in Detroit." [http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/20/headlines#7]
and:
"Residents of Benton Harbor, Michigan, voiced outrage Monday night after the city’s elected mayor and city commissioners were stripped of all power by an unelected emergency financial manager appointed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. Last week, the emergency manager issued an order saying the city commissioners have no power beyond calling meetings to order, approving minutes and adjourning meetings. City Commissioner Dennis Knowles compared Benton Harbor to a dictatorship. He said, "For the people we represent, they are truly being disenfranchised." Meanwhile, Rev. Jesse Jackson toured Michigan on Monday to help build a coalition against Gov. Snyder. Jackson said, “We don’t like one-man rule, except in Benton Harbor. We are setting up here what we are fighting there. Your vote for elected officials doesn’t count, and that is decimating democracy." [http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/19/headlines]

GOP Wisconsin Governor Prepares to Seize Dictatorial Powers

Governor Scott Walker, puppet of the billionaire Koch brothers, is preparing a so-called "Emergency Management Bill" that his Reichstag-style one-party drone legislature will pass.  The right-wing business magazine Forbes reports that Walker is going to grab the power to take over  local municipalities and appoint "emergency managers" who will then cancel union contracts, dismiss elected officials and school board members, and take control of entire cities and towns. Walker would also have unchecked authority to cancel government services, including safety net assistance. A right-wing Wisconsin law firm is drawing up the dictatorial law that would totally strip citizens of democratic rights to elect their own mayors and other local officials. The totalitarian GOP has already passed such a dictatorial law in Michigan.

This comes after the Wisconsin GOP blatantly stole a recall election aimed at one of their apparatchiks on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, thus protecting the illegal law the GOP just passed stripping public workers of the right to have unions represent them in collective bargaining. (See Forbes blog and Daily Kos articles at:

http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/04/13/something-smells-in-waukesha-county-wisconsin-and-its-not-the-cheese/    and

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/11/965994/-Waukesha-voting-irregularities-go-back-to-2004

Egypt- Still The Same As Always

The military dictatorship that ruled Egypt with ex-Air Force Chief Hosni Mubarak as its head (he traded his uniform for a business suit and a nice civilian-sounding title after his patron Anwar Sadat was assassinated and Mubarak stepped into Sadat's jackboots) is up to its same old vicious tricks. Namely killing protesters, beating and gassing them, "arresting" them and torturing them, etc. And they like to subject their women victims to "virginity tests"- a bunch of leering soldiers standing around ogling their vaginas while someone checks their hymens, apparently- and then smear them as "prostitutes." (What is it anyway with Muslims and hypersubjugation of women?)

Now an Egyptian military court has just sentenced a 25-year-old blogger and conscientious objector, Maikel Nabil, to three years in prison. His Crime? "Insulting" the military. The "insult" being pointing out their brutality and suppression of citizens. Oh, and also spreading "false [i.e. true]  information." Nabil is the founder of the "No to Compulsory Military Service Movement." But you can't say Egyptian military "justice" isn't speedy- they just arrested him March 28th!

A rebellion might overthrow an individual. It takes a revolution to overthrow a system.

U.S. Loses Afghanistan War

Oh, it's not official yet. But obviously that is what lies in the future.

Whenever U.S. forces move out of an area, the Taliban-types attack the local Afghan "Government" and "security forces," who take a licking.

The Wall Street Journal just reported that Al-Qaeda's already back- the U.S. bombed one of their training camps in Afghanistan back in September.

Unless the U.S. and its fellow travelers occupy the country for decades, there is no way to prevent the medieval Wahhabist and Salafist fundamentalists from taking over the country.

So every foreign soldier who dies, dies for a lost cause. Every soldier who is maimed for the rest of their life, lost their body parts for nothing.

Saleh Murduring People Daily In Yemen

The U.S.-backed tyrant of Yemen is killing and wounding people daily for daring to march in the streets calling for his ouster. This dictator "President" swings between phony promises to step down, and flat-out murder. His top general went over to the protesters' side a couple of weeks ago, promising to use his military units to protect the protesters. Where is that big talker? I don't see any protection.

And a non-U.S.-backed dictator, (non-U.S.-backed because he won't make nice with Israel), Assad of Syria, who inherited his daddy's dictatorship, is doing the same in Syria. He also likes to call himself a "President." Sounds so much more legitimate than "dictator."

Death to all tyrants.

Obama AWOL In Libya Fight

Obama has pulled out of the Libyan battle. As a result, there aren't any AC-130 gunships or A-10 Warthog tank killers in the battle. The Europeans have no aircraft comparable to these planes, which can provide close combat support and pick off targets in crowded urban areas.

Obama said Qaddafi "has to go." (Although he's stopped saying that.) You'd think a smart man like that would finally learn to watch what he says, since he's a punk. Also he just plain lies a lot, like Bill Clinton. Both are slippery con men.

Latest Backstabbing Betrayal By Shifty Sheldon Silver

NY State Assembly boss Sheldon Silver just traded the interests of his constituents, and indeed of everyone who lives in New York State (except the rich) to benefit his own pocket.

New York State is a horrible oligarchy, run for the benefit of the megarich who live in Manhattan and summer in the Hamptons. Their political frontmen do their bidding. On the state level, it is openly acknowledged even by the official establishment media that "three men in a room," the Governor, the Senate Majority Leader, and the Speaker of the State Assembly, hold all the legislative power. The rest of the "people's" "elected representatives" act like sheep who vote in lockstep to ratify whatever deals these three bosses cut.

The Assembly Speaker for many years is a lawyer by the name of Shelton Silver, who ostensibly represents the (mostly poor) inhabitants of the lower east side of Manhattan. He is a principal in the law firm of Weitz and Luxenberg. This firm specializes in personal injury torts and medical malpractice cases. It openly advertises for injured parties.

The usual practice in this area of law is for the law firm to take cases on a contingency fee basis- that is, they take a (hefty) percentage of any judgment won for their injured client. (Since the clients generally don't have tens of thousands of dollars, or even more, to pay attorneys to represent them in cases that typically drag on for years.) The fee is usually 30-40% of the ultimate settlement or verdict, assuming they win.

So naturally a cap on medical malpractice awards would be detrimental to the interests of such a law firm and its principals.

Shelton Silver made a big show recently of claiming to want an extension of the surcharge on taxpayers with an annual income of $200,000 and up. Then he proposed letting it expire except for incomes starting at $1,000,000. To put this in perspective:

For the period 2009 through 2011, the 6.85% state income tax rose to 7.85% for individuals making $200,000 to $500,000 and for married couples earning $300,000 to $500,000, and to 8.97% for households earning more than $500,000. In 2009, the Legislature also killed itemized deductions (except for charitable gifts) for taxpayers with adjusted gross income of more than $1 million. For 2010 and 2011, taxpayers pulling in over $10 million could deduct only 25% of their charitable donations rather than 50%.


Revenue from the measures has been growing: from $4 billion in 2009 to about $4.6 billion in 2010. They were projected to add $5 billion this year.

Silver also claimed to be making an extension of the expiring rent stabilization laws for New York City part of the budget deal. (NYC is a colony of Albany, for some reason. Mainly because local hacks like Silver keep selling city residents down the river.)

So what happened? Silver traded it all away for killing a proposed cap on medical malpractice court awards. In other words, he put his personal financial interests above the interests of the entire state.

Governor Andrew Cuomo, a clone of his father, is a Republican in Democratic guise. He balanced the budget by cutting taxes for the rich (called "no new taxes" or "no tax increase" in the twisted jargon of the corporate press) and slashing billions from the health and education budgets. (God knows what the sellout union bosses got in return.)

The media hailed it- except, notably, the NY Times. The tabloid rags of NYC, the NY Post and NY Daily News, owned, respectively, by reactionary plutocrats Rupert Murdoch (an Australian billionaire) and Mortimer Zuckerman (a Canadian billionaire) beat the drums to kill the surcharge, and hailed its victory- dedicated to brainwashing the working classes to support the class interests of the rich as usual. (It reminds one of Jay Gould's boast in the 19th century that he "can always hire half the working class to kill the other half.")

Silver's ass was well covered for him by the media- they deliberately didn't connect the dots between his "victory" on the medical malpractice cap and his personal interest. And what logical connection is there between that cap, and tax cuts for the rich, and landlords' freedom to gouge?

We've been here many times before with the venal lawyer and political boss Silver. He abolished a commuter tax on out of state people employed in New York City, as part of a scheme to win an additional assembly seat- which seat went to the GOP anyway! NYC still lives with the consequences of that lost income. (Just as it lives with the loss of billions of dollars thanks to Ed Koch killing a tiny stock transfer tax on stock trades. The definition of a reactionary- a warrior for rich people so they can get ever richer.)

In the U.S. today, 1% of the households get 25% of the income. The majority get poor, and the poor are under assault. Obama slashes home heating assistance for them, and the GOP fanatics insist it isn't enough. So the Democrats offer to "compromise," with more assaults on the poor, on already too weak environmental regulation, and so forth.

And of course the GOP agenda is to roll back the clock to 1920-or maybe 1890. On top of the assault on the final citadel of labor unions, the public workers' unions, whose very right to bargain with their government employers has been revoked by GOP fanatics in Wisconsin, Ohio, and elsewhere, now the GOP has unveiled a plan to kill Medicaid and Medicare. The poor will be forced to pay a large chunk of their medical bills, which they have no money to do, and Medicare will be turned into a voucher program under which the old and disabled will be given (not enough) money and told to buy themselves insurance from the insurance industry corporations that are a huge part of the problem with medical costs in the U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, another reactionary from Wisconsin, rolled out the scheme this week. (What is it about Wisconsin? From Joseph McCarthy on to Scott Walker and now this dog?)

Krazy Karzai Caused Koran Crisis

As previously noted, "pastor" Terry Jones (how generic is that name?) the leader of a tiny Christianoid cult of 20-30 cretins in Florida, staged a make-believe "trial" of the Koran on March 20. ("Trying" a book- how's that for a medieval totalitarian mentality?) He "sentenced" the book to death by burning. This bizarre publicity stunt was duly videoed and posted online.

But something went awry in his plan this time. Unlike last fall, when he garnered global media coverage for his threat to burn the book, which he aborted after pleas from top generals and officials that he'd be endangering U.S. troops, this time the media behaved responsibly for a change and ignored the insignificant "event."

Enter "President" Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.

Since the primitive population of Afghanistan had failed to notice Jones' stunt, Karzai proceeded on Thursday March 31 (eleven days later) to bring the "outrage" to their attention in a speech. The next day, the mullahs did their part and incited rabid mobs to murder 7 UN employees, whose crime is trying to help the backward fanatics who infest Afghanistan. Rioting by righteous mobs continued for several more days, producing more deaths.

A word on Karzai: here's a carpetbagger from the U.S., who with his family and cronies has stolen many millions, if not billions, of foreign aid intended to build infrastructure and provide basic services for the backward dirt farmers Karzai nominally rules. Karzai provides no services and no actual government to Afghanistan- just a pathetic burlesque. Was the purpose of his provocation to score points with the Taliban? (Surely he understands that as soon as the Taliban is back in power, his life isn't worth a plugged nickel, should he be so foolish as to fail to flee to the sack of loot he's stashed in Dubai.) Is he merely a cheap demagogue pandering to the prejudices of the most primitive elements of his populace? Who knows?

Once again his Western patrons gave him a pass. Afghanistan is shaping up as another "South" Vietnam.
The future here after the U.S. leaves is a return of the Taliban. Al-Qaeda is already back- it was just reported yesterday that in September the U.S. bombed an Al-Qaeda training camp set up inside Afghanistan near the Pakistan (natch) border. (Those duplicitous Paki bastards provide a haven for the Wahhabist cutthroats.)

GOP Brick Crashes Through Bishop's Glass House

A Catholic Church poohbah, Bishop John B. McCormack of Manchester, New Hampshire, just had a big fat brick smash through the moral glass house he inhabits. The brick was hurled by one D.J.Bettencourt, a Republican N.H. State Representative, who on his Facebook page called the good Bishop "a pedophile pimp."

You see, the Bishop opined that the vicious state budget cuts (being enacted nearly universally across the U.S., using the economic downturn as an excuse, even though the real reason is the trillions of dollars hoarded by the rich and their corporations) hurt the most vulnerable members of society. (Of course, reactionaries' attitude toward society is best exemplified by Margaret Thatcher, who between smashing unions opined that "there is no such thing as society" when rejecting the notion that the government should aid the poor, homeless, etc.)

Bettencourt, aggressively defending his neofascist party's assault on social spending, retorted "Would the bishop like to discuss his history of protecting the ‘vulnerable?'" “This man is a pedophile pimp who should have been led away from the State House in handcuffs with a raincoat over his head in disgrace. He has absolutely no moral credibility to lecture anyone.”  Bettencourt said he was referring to McCormack's service in Boston under Cardinal Bernard L. Law, in which capacity McCormack was assigned the delicate task of investigating- read, cover up- complaints that priests had sexually abused minors. (He was promoted to bishop of Manchester in 1998. Apparently he did a fine job perpetuating the Church's decades-long coverup of its institutionalized pedophilia for a few more years. Or is it centuries long? Probably.)

But all good (or bad) things must come to an end. Eventually the elephant stuffed under the rug got noticed- the media finally stopped aiding and abetting the coverup. So in 2002, the archdiocese of Boston cut a sweetheart deal with state prosecutors that killed a criminal investigation. The diocese admitted it had protected abusive priests and submitted itself to "audits." (Whatever that means. They look at your paperwork.)

I.E., they admitted to a criminal conspiracy and to aiding and abetting pedophilia- sexual assaults on children- for years. But hey, they're holy men! You gotta cut them some slack! (This attitude of mine is labeled "cynicism," a twisted inversion of reality. The cynics are the "authority" figures- the cynical bastards in power who manipulate people into obedience and submission and preach rules and morality they violate secretly themselves. And it's doubly cynical of them to stick the cynic label, which belongs on themselves, on people who see through their bullshit and call it out.)

Then, in what sounded like a veiled threat to sue Bettencourt, the Manchester diocese said Mr. Bettencourt’s comments were false and defamatory. But Bettencourt stuck to his guns, saying that the bishop had “brought shame and dishonor on my church here in New Hampshire.”

Which just goes to show how gutsy he is- aside from the fact that U.S. politicians are bred to kiss the rings of the bosses of organized religion- Bettencourt is a Roman Catholic! That means he risks being "excommunicated" and thus having his "immortal soul" burn for all eternity in "hell." Wow! Sounds scary!
(Plus, what is he gets sued??!!!)

But seriously, the Catholic Church only gets tough with pols who support women's right to control their own bodies and terminate pregnancies. That's all. Even murdering the archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, didn't cause the Vatican to break with the fascist death squad rulers of El Salvador. The Catholic Church is fundamentally reactionary- regardless of the occasional humanistic jabber you hear from them. The ones who really believe it and practice it are routinely murdered in Latin America (less frequently these days while L.A. is in one of its periods of civilian rule) and the Vatican looks the other way. (Unlike the holy stink they raised when a single priest was murdered by Polish secret policemen in the bad old Soviet days. Those secret policemen were actually tried and imprisoned by the Polish socialist government!)

UPDATE: April 8: Yesterday Bettencourt punked out and apologized to the Bishop after a private meeting with him. Maybe the Bishop threatened to have "God" send him to hell. Of course it's easier to attack powerless poor people than the powerful, eh Betty?

Islamofascists Murder Another 30 People

They're at it again- in Pakistan. Bombing a religious shrine they hate, murdering 30, wounding 100. The Pakistani military has reaped the whirlwind, creating and sponsoring these fanatical thugs. What a case of "blowback." The Paki military thought only India (and the West) would be the victims. Now that they've created a monster, their people are paying the price.

Too bad the Paki people are another gang of ingrates who feel their sovereignty is insulted when the U.S. does the job their own military won't do and kills the leaders of these terrorist gangs with drone strikes in the Paki badlands bordering Afghanistan.

Libyan Rebel Irresponsibility Ends In Tragedy

Yesterday, Saturday, April 3rd, the immature Libyan rebel habit of firing weaons into the air just to get a rush bit them on the ass. A fool fired a heavy machine gun into the air for no apparent reason, bringing down a NATO airstrike which about 13 of them and left behind some Libyan cripples. One rebel lost part of a leg. This rebel says he saw a shepherd with his arms blown off. Others had burns. (NY Times account 4/4.)

Now maybe they Libyans can train themselves by teaching each other this story as an object lesson in the stupidity of lack of fire discipline. But unfortunately I'm not holding my breath.

But they're a cut above Afghans. Their spokesman said it was the rebels' own fault, which of course it was. Afghans would have howled in fury at the West. Afghans always blame outsiders for their problems- the same outsiders trying to free them from medieval tyranny, and building them free canals, schools, clinics, water treatment plants...hopeless ingrates. And their "government," headed by Thief-In-Chief Hamid Karzai, just steals. This is all gonna end up like "South" Vietnam, a government that will collapse like a house of cards as soon as their foreign protectors leave and the Taliban blows on it.

But I digress...

Inept Libyan Rebels a Big Disappointment

All people in favor of human liberation have to be disappointed by the pathetic military qualities of the Libyan rebels. Unfortunately they have proven to be nothing more than a totally unorganized rabble with AK-47s and a few heavier weapons. Their idea of combat is to race forward, firing their weapons into the air (wasting ammo, which they are short of to begin with- they also like to fire off ammo into the sky whenever their spirits are high on whatever piece of good news they've heard that moment) and then run for their lives the second Qaddafi's forces start shelling them. Typical Arabs, they veer between two emotional states: preposterously hyperbolic bluster, bombast, and braggadocio, and bitterly whining and blaming their problems on the West, NATO, the UN, the "international community" for not rescuing them. They take big (how many times have they already said they were going to take Tripoli "in a few days"?) then blame outsiders for their failures. They think that if someone gave them more weapons, they could magically win battles. As if it takes no training to operate a tank, fire an artillery piece and actually hit a target, ditto a mortar, a rocket launcher, a machine gun, whatever. A telling vignette occurred in the first couple of weeks, when a deserting army officer tried to organize them by having them line up. (The very first basic baby-step of military training- learning to line up at attention and march.) Immediately a loud argument broke out because these fools just wanted to run off and fire their guns.

A month in to this spontaneous rebellion, no lessons have been learned, no organization has occurred, no command structure has been created. It's just bands of guns in cars and pickups racing hither and yon, running for their lives as soon as they meed resistance, yelling "run!" like the Knights in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It's a sad joke.

The so-called Committee or Council or whatever the hell name it has doesn't have any authority over anyone- it just tries to fool outsiders that it somehow constitutes a government and asks for weapons and aid. It's a grabbag of various Libyans, some of dubious background, including Qaddafi regime apparatchiks.

Here's a suggestion: let their fellow Arabs, the Egyptians, which could roll over Qaddafi in a week or less, help them out. The military junta in Egypt, left intact after the so-called "revolution" that only ousted Mubarak and his small clique, refuses to aid their Arab brothers. (Some Libyans are Berbers, just to be accurate.) Air power cannot win the war for the rebels, unless Qaddafi is specifically targeted. For some reason "the West" is gunshy about doing this. Guess they don't want to be seen killing a member of the Club of Rulers, even one who has been told to step down. The whining rebels blame their impotence on not enough air power, instead of their own incompetence. At least we hear less of the bullshit bluster about how Tripoli is going to fall tomorrow.

Shithead Pastor Causes 20 UN Deaths In Afghanistan

"Controversial" Florida pastor Terry Jones, a marginal fanatic and hustler who the media built up into an international figure instead of giving him little or no attention (as they routinely do to various progressives even when they hold rallies of thousands of people) went ahead and burned a Koran to satisfy his insatiable lust for free publicity and feelings of self-importance. This provoked primitive Afghans to attack a wholly innocent target of opportunity; a UN compound in Afghanistan, murdering 20 people there. [1] A typical redneck self-styled holy man, Jones is a classic American hustler and con artist of the Elmer Gantry type, indigenous to primitive U.S. redneck culture. Provoking ignorant, backward, brainwashed Afghans is akin to bearbaiting.

So the "Christian" Jones, through his deliberately provocative, gratuitous, publicity-seeking act, has the blood of 20 people on his hands. He was warned months ago that such violence in the Muslim world would be a predictable outcome of his hate-speech act.

Thanks, asshole.

Too bad he didn't do it in France or Germany, where they'd lock him up.

Oh, by the way, leftists get locked up ALL THE TIME in America for free speech "crimes." Like Martin Sostre, who spent decades in New York State prisons. Sostre's crime was selling Marxist books in his bookstore. An FBI agent told him to stop. Sostre, naive and defiant, told the agent he had a right to sell them. The secret policeman's ominous reply was "O.K., Marty, have it your way."


Next thing you know, Sostre was framed up on spurious heroin dealing charges. Detectives had a junkie give Sostre some money to hold for him- marked bills- then told the detectives he'd purchased a small bag of heroin from Sostre. Sostre was railroaded into a 41 year prison sentence for this.
 
He was later "pardoned" by Governor Hugh Carey, after international agitation by Amnesty International and others created unwanted exposure of U.S. repression. Sostre had endured constant anal cavity "searches" as a form of torture in the prisons of "liberal" New York State.  See:
http://buffalonian.com/history/articles/1951-now/1960santiwar/powellbuff1965sostre.html   also:
http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/2012/06/12/martin-sostre-revolutionary-legal-advocate-prisoner/ 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Sostre
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1972/mar/23/the-case-of-martin-sostre/


1] "UN staff killed inAfghan protest over Quran burning in US," NBCnews.com, April 1, 2011.

The Double Standard of Energy Politics

The reactionary corporate establishment of the U.S. has some standard propaganda lines about energy that they repeat year after year, ad nauseam.

One is that solar and other such green energy technologies are not viable because of insoluble technical obstacles that make them uneconomical.

But then, those technologies haven't had billions and billions of dollars in government subsidies showered on them since 1950 to promote them and pay for research.

And here's an ACTUAL insoluble technology problem- containing highly radioactive wastes for thousands of years so they can't leak into the environment.

It can't be done. And there is no way to speed up the decay process of radioactive isotopes. The glib answer to that objection?

"We'll figure something out."

Right-wing business rags like the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, and Forbes constantly run rants attacking the piddling government subsidies for green energy and saying those subsidies "prove" these technologies aren't viable, since they can't make it in "the market" on their own.

But they never call for an end to the billions of subsidies for nuclear. Or for oil, for that matter. Filthy rich oil corporations like ExxonMobil don't pay Federal taxes on their billions of profits- perfectly legally. Yet the corporate propagandists keep screeching that at 35%, the (strictly notional) U.S. corporate tax rate "is one of the highest in the world!!" But the actual rate for many big corporation is a big fat 0%. That's on their profits. And the New York Times just had a page one article on how GE pays nothing on their billions in profits. In fact, because of tax credits, the U.S. "owes" GE $3.2 billion, even though GE made $14.2 billion profit in 2010. This is because GE gets to write parts of U.S. tax law to benefit itself. And Obama is in bed with Jeffrey Immelt, boss of GE.  (But if you make, say, $200 a week gross working, after all the payroll tax deductions you're left with about $140.- better than a 25% gouge. And you're supposed to live on that.) [ See: "GE's Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether," New York Times, March 25, 2011.]

Then we have the Price-Anderson Act, originally passed in 1957 and still in effect, which caps the liability of the nuclear reactor owner/operators and those who build them at a small fraction of what the actual damage would be. Otherwise the utilities would never build nukes- the insurance would be prohibitively expensive.

Obama wants another $36 billion in loan subsidies for new nukes, on top of the billions he's already given them. At the same time, he's slashing aid for the poor, like home heating oil subsidies (let 'em freeze!). Oh, what a radical "socialist" he is. Amazing what dildoes American neofascists are. And how many millions of cretins there are who can believe such preposterous crap.

Obama pays Homage to GE boss Jeffrey Immelt: January 2011.

Obama appointed GE boss Immelt to some phony for-show panel grandiloquently titled the "President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness." On Immelt's perfect qualifications for this propaganda exercise, Obama opined, "He understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy.”

Meaning: he knows how to outsource American workers' jobs to China, Malaysia, and etc. And not pay taxes. Go U.S.A.!

Thus do our rulers try and dupe us into thinking that they're helping us while in fact making us poorer and enriching themselves. I guess it all depends on what you mean by "America."

U.S. Media Scrambles to Protect Nuclear Power Industry

Another decade, another nuclear disaster. In the 1970s it was Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. In the 1980s it was Chernobyl, which poisoned all of Europe. Now it's six 40-year-old nuclear reactors mismanaged by Tokyo Electric Company (Tepco), an outfit run by mendacious sacks of shit who have been lying for years about their reactors. For example, they recently lied about inspecting 33 key safety parts in the plant- they didn't inspect them. The Japanese nuclear regulators agreed to extend the licenses on these reactors just before the earthquake and tsunami wiped out ALL THREE of their power systems, causing melting of the fuel rods, exposure of spent fuel rods in pools on the roofs (great place for 'em!) of the reactors, and releases of radiation, which has already contaminated food, milk, and the nearby ocean.

The U.S. media has done it's standard song and dance of claiming that the extra radiation is "safe," or not an "immediate health risk." Note the lawyerly weasel word, "immediately." It means you aren't going to die in a week from acute radiation poisoning. Maybe you'll die in a decade or two from cancer, or your damaged genes will cause you to give birth to defective children, and/or pass on genetic damage to future generations.

Another lie they keep repeating is that Three Mile Island (TMI) was a "near meltdown." No, the fuel rods DID MELT. It was a "partial" meltdown, meaning the rods didn't completely melt into puddles of molten metal. The false claim- let's call it a lie, because the facts are readily available, so these "news" organizations surely must know- is that no radiation was released at TMI.

A third lie is that no adverse health effects results from TMI. In fact epidemiological studies have documented increased cancer rates downwind from the meltdown.

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency and various Western "nuclear experts" keep lying about the horrific consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. This is made easier for them since the IGNORE ALL THE PUBLISHED RUSSIAN RESEARCH. (They can do that apparently with clear consciences since they don't read Russian, and I guess are too cheap to spring for translators.) The nuclear establishment "experts" claim almost no cancers, and NO birth defects. The Russians say there are up to ONE MILLION cancer cases from Chernobyl, and there are photos of such defects as one-eyed children (a single eye in the center of the forehead) to put the lie to the "no birth defects" canard.

Two of the supposedly most reputable and "respectable" -if not downright august- newspapers have regurgitated these lies- the Wall Street Journal, voice of big capital, and The New York "Newspaper of Record" Times. These are papers aimed at elites here.

Today in fact the Times devoted several pages to minimizing the damage and deceiving about the health risks of the Japanese meltdowns. The media is pretending that Tepco is getting on top of the matter. That's false. Tepco has managed to string new power  lines to some of the reactors. One little hitch- the pumps that are needed to run to pump in cooling water to the reactor cores and spent fuel rod cooling pools WERE DAMAGED by the tsunami. So just as soon as they manage to haul new pumps in and install them in buildings filled with lethal levels of radiation, everything will be just swell.

The ideological fanatics at the WSJ barely waited a day after the disaster to run an editorial AND an op-ed pooh-poohing the situation, and opining that this shouldn't stop the building of LOTS MORE NUKES. In fact, they opined, it would be a shame if this derailed the new, modern nukes supposedly in the works. This was after two explosions had already occured- and a third explosion occurred later that same day. Real convincing, WSJ.

Don't know what it is about the ruling establishment that makes them so fanatically, incorrigibly pro-nuclear.It's an absolutely insane, dangerous technology, run by incompetent greedheads, with no margin for error. Their reassurances and "backups" always are proven to be Potemkin-village type shams. The "back up" generators at the Tepco complex were knocked out at the same time as the external power to run the pumps was lost, and the "fail safe third backup," batteries, only are good for eight hours, max. These irresponsible con men gamble with human lives on the environment we depend on for life. 

And of course, there's the insoluble problem of the wastes these plants generate, unstorable, and dangerous for thousands of years. They're still working on "solving" that little problem. The elephant in the room, it is virually always ignored in establishment media commentary on nuclear power.

U.S., other media give undue credence to Qaddifi regime's lies

Don't know why so much attention is paid to all the lies being spewed by Qaddafi and his minions. Why do they grant the man and his minions so much credence? All the nonsense about "ceasefires" and "civilian casualties," easily disproved as lies. The same media rarely prints facts from progressives. It's galling. n
Another thing: they keep referring to Qaddafi and his gang as "Libya." That's how Qaddafi has it, equating himself with the country. Or "the government." It's no government. In fact there's barely been a real state in Libya for decades. It's a cult of one man and his deranged followers and enforcers.

And if they're so afraid of being seen as "colonialists," why amplify Qaddafi's sham anti-colonialist rhetoric along these lines? (The egregious Russian boss Vladimir Putin echoed Qaddafi, calling the UN Security Council resolution authorizing military action  a "crusade," as in the Christian invasions of Muslim lands a thousand years ago. (Some people sure can hold a grudge a long time, huh?)

"The resolution is defective and flawed," Putin told workers at a Russian ballistic missile factory. "It allows everything. It resembles medieval calls for crusades." So why didn't Russia VETO it, Vlad? You could have.

Stalemate Shaping Up in Libya?

Too bad someone didn't start bombing Qaddafi's murderous minions a week to 10 days ago. Now it looks like a long stalemate is most likely in Libya. I keep reading ridiculous wishful thinking in the U.S. media that maybe Qaddafi will step down, maybe there will be a negotiated exit for him, maybe there will be a coup against him, maybe his inner circle will turn against him. All nonsense. This is like Hitler, writ small. He doesn't have a government, he has a cult of personality. And those still with him are committed. And all you have to do is listen to the man (and review his history) to see how ridiculous it is to think there's a snowball's chance in hell he'll throw in the towel. The man's a megalomaniac. Only force will remove him.

The Definition of a Tax "Hike" According to $ Propaganda Media

You might think the word "hike" means something rising. It can also mean something not going down, as in taxes on rich people. In fact, it can even mean a tax cut.

We have this from The New York Observer, an obnoxious, snarky, rag aimed at rich people who live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. A rich reactionary named Arthur C. Carter owned it for years until he got bored with it, so a punk rich kid named Jared C. Kushner had his real estate mogul daddy buy it for hinm. Jared put his name atop the masthead as "publisher." Always a reactionary rag obsessed with multimillion dollar real estate deals, it's even more flamingly right wing now. (And its obsession with rich real estate transactions in Manhattan is bizarre and parochial, and has the breathless adoring tone of celebrity "journalism.")

A rabid editorial in the March 21st issue fulminated about a proposed extension of an existing surcharge on incomes over $200,000 thusly: "A state surcharge on annual incomes of more than $200,000 is due to expire at the end of the year. Mr. Silver [Sheldon Silver, Speaker of the NY State Assembly] has proposed a one-year extension of the surcharge- a tax hike- although it would apply only to incomes of more than $1 million." In other words, a TAX CUT for people making between $200,000 and $1 million a year, and the same tax on people making OVER $1 MILLION PER YEAR. (What a ridiculous amount of money to make! But hey, how else can they afford to bid up apartments so they cost millions of dollars? And Hamptons mansions?)

The editorial throws around the usual foaming-at-the-mouth rhetoric about "wasteful" spending, and demands an end to "the millionaire's tax" and insists on "reform" instead. ("Reform" is code in this context for slashing social services spending.) Their man, nominal Democrat Andrea Cuomo, the reactionary Governor and son of former Governor Mario "Lock 'Em Up" Cuomo (whose sole accomplishment as Governor was a prison building spree- he had a terrible environmental record, a terrible poverty record, a terrible record on anything you might expect a "liberal" to have a good record on) is solidly in the corner of the rich, as the editorial approvingly notes.

Of course, this is a national phenomenon of the trillionaire oligarchy going mad with greed and wanting more more more. U.S. public corporations are currently hoarding almost two trillion dollars in cash. The Forbes richest 400 together control trillions in wealth. Yet these people insist they are overtaxed, and the U.S. and the 50 states just have no money and have to slash spending. (But not spending on the military, or secret police, or huge giveaways and subsidies for the rich and their businesses, like oil, nuclear, you name it.)

Their is massive transference of wealth in this country from the people who create it- workers- into the coffers of the superparasites.