Romney Unfurls
October 11th, 2011WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC: Here’s a video that all Romney supporters should see.
In fact, go ahead and send that to anyone you know who supports America’s wars. Do you know any young people who want to sign up to serve the American empire? Go ahead and CC them too.
While we’re at it…
Are there any Obama supporters left? Make sure that they know what they’re voting for. It’s right there in that video.
Via: AntiWar:
Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney made his first major foreign policy speech Friday at The Citadel, a military college in the important primary state of South Carolina. Full of pomp and belligerence, he called for a century of American dominance.
“This century must be an American century. In an American century, America has the strongest economy and the strongest military in the world,” Romney said. “God did not create this country to be a nation of followers. America is not destined to be one of several equally balanced global powers. America must lead the world, or someone else will.”
Romney condemned what he called an isolationist tendency from the tea party conservatives and other Republicans that dare dissent from the pro-war ideology of the party.
“This is America’s moment. We should embrace the challenge, not shrink from it, not crawl into an isolationist shell, not wave the white flag of surrender, nor give in to those who assert America’s moment has passed. That is utter nonsense,” he proclaimed.
Adobe Photoshop Upcoming Feature: Unblur
October 11th, 2011*Gasp*
German Push for Greek Default Risks EMU-Wide Snowball
October 11th, 2011Must read: Germany Must Hit the Eject Button.
Via: Telegraph:
Germany is pushing behind the scenes for a “hard” default in Greece with losses of up to 60pc for banks and pension funds, risking a chain-reaction across southern Europe unless credible defences are established first.
Millions Could Lose Unemployment Benefits in 2012
October 11th, 2011Via: CNN:
Millions of unemployed Americans are waiting for Congress to do something other than trade barbs over their job creation plans.
If lawmakers don’t act soon, the jobless see their unemployment checks start to disappear come January.
More than 6 million Americans are set to lose federal unemployment benefits in 2012, with 1.8 million running out in January alone, according to new figures from the National Employment Law Project.
CDC Executive Arrested for Child Molestation, Bestiality
October 11th, 2011[???]
Via: Atlanta Journal Constitution:
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official was arrested Sunday and charged with two counts of child molestation and bestiality for sexual acts involving a 6-year-old boy.
According to a DeKalb County criminal warrant obtained Sunday, Kimberly Quinlan Lindsey’s boyfriend, Thomas Westerman, was also arrested on two counts of child molestation. Westerman works for the CDC as a night watchman, his LinkedIn profile states. The pair, who live together in Decatur, surrendered to authorities Sunday afternoon, said DeKalb police spokeswoman Pamela Kunz.
Lindsey, 44, serves as the deputy director for the Laboratory Science Policy and Practice Program Office at the CDC, according to her biography on the agency’s website. The Emory University graduate, who’s been with the CDC since 1999, was formerly a senior health scientist responsible for overseeing a $1.5 billion fiscal allocation process for terrorism preparedness.
A medical professional alerted police about the child molestation allegation on Aug. 24, Kunz said. The warrant cites two incidents — the first in Jan. 2010 and the latest on Aug. 22.
“During the investigation evidence was recovered that led to the bestiality charge,” Kunz said.
Lindsey earned her Ph.D. in Immunology Molecular Pathogenesis from Emory in 1998 following nine years as a research scientist. She rose quickly through the ranks of the CDC, beginning as a senior scientist in the bioterrorism program before joining the HIV/AIDS prevention division in 2000. She has received 12 awards for outstanding performance on projects and programs, according to an academic bio.
Westerman, 42, started working for the CDC in January.
Japan: Plutonium Discovered 28 Miles from Damaged Fukushima Nuclear Plant
October 11th, 2011Via: Wall Street Journal:
Trace amounts of plutonium were found as far as 28 miles from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant, the first time that the dangerous element released from the accident was found outside of the immediate area of the plant.
The science ministry report issued Friday comes just as the government lifted one of its evacuation advisories, underscoring the difficulty of restoring normalcy and assuring the safety of residents around the crippled plant.
The government also reported a rare detection of strontium, another highly dangerous element, far from the crippled reactor, in one spot as far away as 50 miles. Most of the radioactive material discovered to date in the communities surrounding Fukushima Daiichi has been cesium or iodine.
The report said that the radiation from plutonium and strontium was “extremely low” compared to the high concentration of cesium, advising that the government maintain its focus on measuring and clearing the areas of cesium.
Toshiso Kosako, a Tokyo University expert on radiation said in an interview that the level of plutonium found was “miniscule and poses no health risk.”
Still, the latest discovery is a potentially disturbing turn, as it shows that people relatively far from the plant could be exposed to more dangerous elements than had been previously disclosed.
Children to be Banned from Blowing Up Balloons, Under EU Safety Rules
October 11th, 2011Better require them to wear those reflective-vests at all times as well. And helmets. And…
Via: Telegraph:
Children are to be banned from taking part in traditional Christmas games, from blowing up balloons to blowing on party whistles, because of new EU safety rules that have just entered into force.
Egypt: 25 Dead After Government Crushes Protesters with Armored Personnel Carriers
October 10th, 2011Via: Reuters:
Egyptian Christians mourned their dead and berated the army on Monday after at least 25 people were killed when troops crushed a protest about an attack on a church in the worst violence since the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
Armored personnel carriers sped into the crowd late on Sunday to break up the demonstrators near the state television building. Videos posted on the Internet showed mangled bodies. Activists said corpses had been crushed by the vehicles.
Tension between Muslims and minority Coptic Christians has simmered for years but has worsened since the anti-Mubarak revolt, which has allowed the emergence of Salafist and other strict Islamist groups that the former president had repressed.
Muslim and Christian activists said much of the anger from Sunday’s violence was focused on the army, which has also come under fire from across the political spectrum for failing to give a clear timetable for handing power to civilians.
“Why didn’t they do this with the Salafists or the Muslim Brotherhood when they organize protests? This is not my country any more,” said Alfred Younan, a Copt speaking near Cairo’s Coptic Christian hospital where many of the dead were taken.
The violence casts a shadow over Egypt’s first parliamentary poll since Mubarak fell. Voting starts on November 28.
Rabobank: Meat Supply’s ‘Precipitous’ Drop to Spur Prices to Records
October 10th, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
U.S. meat and poultry production may drop as much as 5 percent next year, sending beef and pork prices to a record amid climbing feed costs and shrinking herds, according to Rabobank International.
Producers are curbing output as tighter feed supplies boost costs, which will lead to a “precipitous fall” in available meat in 2012, David Nelson, a global strategist at Rabobank, said in a report. The drop is compounded by a drought that is forcing ranchers in the Southwest to cull herds and by surging demand for U.S. beef in developing countries, he said.
“There’s going to be less supply, so we’re going to have higher prices,” Nelson said in a telephone interview from Chicago yesterday. “It’s quite a shift.”
By late 2012, U.S. beef production may be running at rate of 7 percent below comparable levels this year, Nelson said. The spot-market price for fed steers sold to slaughterhouses may average a record $1.16 a pound in 2012, up from a projected $1.13 a pound this year, Nelson said in the report. Beef prices also will climb to an all-time high, he said.
U.S. per-capita consumption of beef will continue to drop, so the tightening supply of the meat may impact foreign buyers the most, Nelson said. The “relatively cheap dollar” is boosting demand for U.S. meat, Nelson said. The dollar is down 1.2 percent this year against a basket of six major currencies.
Related: Nestle Chief Warns of New Food Riots
Dozens of Fast and Furious Weapons Found in Mexico Cartel Enforcer’s Home
October 9th, 2011Via: Los Angeles Times:
High-powered assault weapons illegally purchased under the ATF’s Fast and Furious program in Phoenix ended up in a home belonging to the purported top Sinaloa cartel enforcer in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, whose organization was terrorizing that city with the worst violence in the Mexican drug wars.
In all, 100 assault weapons acquired under Fast and Furious were transported 350 miles from Phoenix to El Paso, making that West Texas city a central hub for gun traffickers. Forty of the weapons made it across the border and into the arsenal of Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo, a feared cartel leader in Ciudad Juarez, according to federal court records and trace documents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The smugglers’ tactics — quickly moving the weapons far from ATF agents in southern Arizona, where it had been assumed they would circulate — vividly demonstrate that what had been viewed as a local problem was much larger. Six other Fast and Furious guns destined for El Paso were recovered in Columbus, N.M.
“These Fast and Furious guns were going to Sinaloans, and they are killing everyone down there,” said one knowledgeable U.S. government source, who asked for anonymity because of the ongoing investigations. “But that’s only how many we know came through Texas. Hundreds more had to get through.”
Torres Marrufo, also known as “the Jaguar,” has been identified by U.S. authorities as the enforcer for Sinaloa cartel chieftain Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman. The Fast and Furious weapons were found at one of Torres Marrufo’s homes April 30 when Mexican police inspected the property. It was unoccupied but “showed signs of recent activity,” they said.
The basement had been converted into a gym with a wall covered with built-in mirrors. Behind the mirrors they found a hidden room with the Fast and Furious weapons and dozens more, including an antiaircraft machine gun, a sniper rifle and a grenade launcher.
