Paul Krugman
Andrew Weil
"...we’re probably around nine million jobs short of where we should be" - Paul Krugman
President Obama is in Mexico for a summit with Mexico's President and Canada's Prime Minister, dubbed the Three Amigos Summit, an annual meeting that was started four years ago to keep tabs on the concerns of the three neighbors. The Christian Science Monitor feels that the drug war will end up dominating the conversation: "Mexico's drug-related violence is expected to overshadow all other issues.
And while the language of "co-responsibility" has defined the US attitude toward Mexico's struggle against its drug cartels, the summit comes as increasing doubts loom over the strategy on both sides of the border. Some US members of congress are requesting that money from an aid package called the Merida Initiative be withheld over human rights abuse allegations against the Mexican military, which is leading the fight against organized crime.And while Mexican President Felipe Calderón is often exalted by US officials for his hard line against drug traffickers, he is beginning to face a backlash at home as record violence stains his military effort."
To celebrate the summit,some shadowy officials murdered a lawyer who defended many drug lords when they went to trial, from the NY Times: "Silvia Raquenel Villanueva, a tough-talking criminal defender whom the authorities accused of getting too close to the notorious figures she represented, was celebrated by Mexico’s underworld. She had at least six different songs written about her, with titles like “The Lady of Steel” and “The Bulletproof Lawyer.”
Knowing she was a marked woman, Ms. Villanueva, 55, a single mother, put bulletproof glass in her office and traveled with a bodyguard. She also sought divine intervention to stay alive, decorating her office with scores of crosses and keeping candles burning.
“I’m a lawyer for people who really need one,” she said in an interview last fall." I guess this is the kind of gift that just keeps on giving, enjoy Mr Presidents... Soon we will be sending military help or an amped up Border Patrol to kick some drug lord butt...
I have been saying that the Saudis need to step up and start countering the tenets of al-Qaeda, since it was influenced by extremists of Wahabism. It seems that they have been doing that since 2004. As reported in the Christian Science Monitor, they have come up with a kind of rehab program: "The program – a key part of Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism campaign – relies on preventive efforts to teach detained men that terrorism is un-Islamic...US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair described the program in glowing terms in a memo to the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this year, calling it "the most comprehensive of its kind [designed] to address the religious, psychological, and socio-economic issues that contribute to radicalization." The only drawback is that, according to a recent human rights report, it's illegal because the detainees are held without trial until they go through the rehab, and we are talking thousands of people, more than could be held in Guantanamo... Now, if only we could come up with a rehab for right wing extremists here, a 12 step political belief program coupled with obtaining a high school diploma...
Sarah Palin's most recent Facebook message, is one advocating more restraint in protesting Democratic townhall meetings: "There are many disturbing details in the current bill that Washington is trying to rush through Congress, but we must stick to a discussion of the issues and not get sidetracked by tactics that can be accused of leading to intimidation or harassment," Palin wrote. "Such tactics diminish our nation’s civil discourse which we need now more than ever because the fine print in this outrageous health care proposal must be understood clearly and not get lost in conscientious voters’ passion to want to make elected officials hear what we are saying. Let’s not give the proponents of nationalized health care any reason to criticize us." I don't think that the Freedomworks website will incorporate her words, but even Sarah knows that anger and violence tends to turn public opinion against you...
From Foreign Policy comes an article about our shrinking Navy's ships and global climate change: "Climate change and reduced sea ice cover may result in opening up the Arctic to vastly increased resource development and commercial traffic. These trends will inevitably spark international conflicts and create a need for more military forces to provide security and protect interests in the Arctic region. This is bad news for the U.S. Navy, already hard-pressed by shrinking fleets and rising challenges elsewhere...
The U.S. Navy is down to 285 deployable battle force ships from nearly 600 during the 1980s. Although the U.S. Navy is without question far more powerful than any other navy and will be for many years, it also has global responsibilities, requiring patrolling in many corners of the oceans. Reduced sea ice in the Arctic will add more corners to patrol.
Meanwhile, Navy shipbuilders remain incapable of building new surface warships on time and on budget." I can't come up with a better last line than that... In a little over 20 years, almost 300 ships went out of commission without being replaced. And we sent soldiers into war in Iraq without proper body armor. It looks like we should have been putting our dirty, sexy money into retooling the military hardware and infrastructure instead of personal hit-squads and intelligence schemes that never worked. Ah, well, hindsight...
And while the language of "co-responsibility" has defined the US attitude toward Mexico's struggle against its drug cartels, the summit comes as increasing doubts loom over the strategy on both sides of the border. Some US members of congress are requesting that money from an aid package called the Merida Initiative be withheld over human rights abuse allegations against the Mexican military, which is leading the fight against organized crime.And while Mexican President Felipe Calderón is often exalted by US officials for his hard line against drug traffickers, he is beginning to face a backlash at home as record violence stains his military effort."
To celebrate the summit,some shadowy officials murdered a lawyer who defended many drug lords when they went to trial, from the NY Times: "Silvia Raquenel Villanueva, a tough-talking criminal defender whom the authorities accused of getting too close to the notorious figures she represented, was celebrated by Mexico’s underworld. She had at least six different songs written about her, with titles like “The Lady of Steel” and “The Bulletproof Lawyer.”
Knowing she was a marked woman, Ms. Villanueva, 55, a single mother, put bulletproof glass in her office and traveled with a bodyguard. She also sought divine intervention to stay alive, decorating her office with scores of crosses and keeping candles burning.
“I’m a lawyer for people who really need one,” she said in an interview last fall." I guess this is the kind of gift that just keeps on giving, enjoy Mr Presidents... Soon we will be sending military help or an amped up Border Patrol to kick some drug lord butt...
I have been saying that the Saudis need to step up and start countering the tenets of al-Qaeda, since it was influenced by extremists of Wahabism. It seems that they have been doing that since 2004. As reported in the Christian Science Monitor, they have come up with a kind of rehab program: "The program – a key part of Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism campaign – relies on preventive efforts to teach detained men that terrorism is un-Islamic...US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair described the program in glowing terms in a memo to the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this year, calling it "the most comprehensive of its kind [designed] to address the religious, psychological, and socio-economic issues that contribute to radicalization." The only drawback is that, according to a recent human rights report, it's illegal because the detainees are held without trial until they go through the rehab, and we are talking thousands of people, more than could be held in Guantanamo... Now, if only we could come up with a rehab for right wing extremists here, a 12 step political belief program coupled with obtaining a high school diploma...
Sarah Palin's most recent Facebook message, is one advocating more restraint in protesting Democratic townhall meetings: "There are many disturbing details in the current bill that Washington is trying to rush through Congress, but we must stick to a discussion of the issues and not get sidetracked by tactics that can be accused of leading to intimidation or harassment," Palin wrote. "Such tactics diminish our nation’s civil discourse which we need now more than ever because the fine print in this outrageous health care proposal must be understood clearly and not get lost in conscientious voters’ passion to want to make elected officials hear what we are saying. Let’s not give the proponents of nationalized health care any reason to criticize us." I don't think that the Freedomworks website will incorporate her words, but even Sarah knows that anger and violence tends to turn public opinion against you...
From Foreign Policy comes an article about our shrinking Navy's ships and global climate change: "Climate change and reduced sea ice cover may result in opening up the Arctic to vastly increased resource development and commercial traffic. These trends will inevitably spark international conflicts and create a need for more military forces to provide security and protect interests in the Arctic region. This is bad news for the U.S. Navy, already hard-pressed by shrinking fleets and rising challenges elsewhere...
The U.S. Navy is down to 285 deployable battle force ships from nearly 600 during the 1980s. Although the U.S. Navy is without question far more powerful than any other navy and will be for many years, it also has global responsibilities, requiring patrolling in many corners of the oceans. Reduced sea ice in the Arctic will add more corners to patrol.
Meanwhile, Navy shipbuilders remain incapable of building new surface warships on time and on budget." I can't come up with a better last line than that... In a little over 20 years, almost 300 ships went out of commission without being replaced. And we sent soldiers into war in Iraq without proper body armor. It looks like we should have been putting our dirty, sexy money into retooling the military hardware and infrastructure instead of personal hit-squads and intelligence schemes that never worked. Ah, well, hindsight...
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