Four more years’ YWC cliché, E. coli”

Re-reporting, editing, comment by Carolyn Bennett

“Yes we can” brings you the same ole pandering, purposely clueless, precedent-keeping status quo
The citizens can judge if they will

Only a fool believes — or an astute person is unprincipled enough to peddle such nonsense — that regulation off shores jobs and destroys financial sectors, sustains polluted air and unclean water and tainted or otherwise unsafe food.

Public protections have been grossly inadequate in the past several years, Public Citizen’s Robert Weissman wrote in mid January. Under-regulation and corporate disregard of safety rules have resulted in multiple salmonella and E. coli outbreaks, a flood of lead-tainted toys, a massive and environmentally devastating oil spill, deadly mine disasters and the collapse of our economy — costing eight million U.S. jobs.

“We need to focus most urgently on fixing these problems and others,” Weissman says, not cutting back, conducting internal reviews, creating red tape, and further burdening agencies already overworked and under-resourced.

President Barack Obama’s January opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal “adopts business and right-wing think-tank talking points about the harms of regulation and urges ‘balance’ in achieving the right amount of regulation. This, Weissman says, “is the wrong way to think about regulation, and it is the wrong direction for the American people.

Markets cannot function without proper regulation. That means businesses cannot function without proper regulation.

We do not need a ‘balance’ between regulation and the free market. We need effective regulations that foster the right types of markets.”

The current U.S. president in a long line of presidents is deliberately, calculatedly, clueless, pandering to corporate while pushing broad sectors of the American people [the country, its union, its institutions] more deeply into danger, despair and disaffection.

In this year’s State of the Union address, amidst much pandering and the usual pathetic platitudes and clichés (not a syllable on employment/unemployment, poor/poverty, environmental health), the U.S. president self-identifies as the cunningly clueless figure most people by now know him to be. Like his presidential predecessors (now members of his cabinet and inner circle) who “felt your pain” and sold you out, subliminally telling you “you’re on your own,” the president said — as if you did not know — “The competition for jobs is real.” How astute is that? And —

“None of us can predict with certainty what the next big industry will be or where the new jobs will come from.” This is a leader without vision — a regressive in a requisite era of “progress.”

Is the choir this Sunday singing “four more years” of this “yes-we-can”?

Somehow, I doubt it.



Sources and notes
Public Citizen President Robert Weissman wrote on January 18, 2011, “Obama’s new approach to regulation is misguided” Instead of fewer, “we need stronger controls over big business, ” Statement of Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen, January 18, 2011,
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=3258

“Unprecedented bailouts, Outlandish bonuses, Token regulation, Too big to fail getting even bigger, The global economy sacrificed to feed a boundless greed,” these, according to Public Citizen, are the destroyers of quality — a quality of life the Same Ole Washington barons persist in imposing on people’s lives.

Public Citizen for nearly four decades has championed citizen interests before Congress, the executive branch agencies and the courts. The group has successfully challenged abusive practices of the pharmaceutical, nuclear and automobile industries; and has led the charge against undemocratic trade agreements that advance the interests of mega-corporations at the expense of citizens worldwide. Public Citizen is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with two offices in Washington, D.C., and Austin, Texas, https://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=2306

Remarks by the President in State of Union Address, the White House, Office of the Press Secretary, For Immediate Release January 25, 2011, United States Capitol, Washington, D.C., http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/01/25/remarks-president-state-union-address

Also: CounterSpin, January 28-February 3, 2011, “Laila El-Haddad on Palestine Papers [and] Robert Weissman on Obama and Big Business,” http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4241


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Rough waters where America lives, wars, occupies

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett
May 9, 2010
AFGHANISTAN
Sixty-six people have died and hundreds of houses and livestock destroyed by torrential rains and flash floods hitting northern and western Afghanistan. These casualties are added more than 200 lives lost earlier this year in heavy avalanches.

AF/PAK

May 9, 2010
PAKISTAN
Ten people (est.) have died in a “suspected U.S. drone attack” in northwest Pakistan. …“The U.S. stepped up drone attacks on suspected Pakistan Taliban sites after a Jordanian suicide bomber last December killed seven CIA employees at a U.S. base across the border in the eastern Afghan province of Khost.” When speaking publicly, Pakistani officials reject the CIA’s drone attacks maintaining that these attacks violate Pakistan’s sovereignty, fuel anti-U.S. feelings and complicate its efforts against Taliban fighters.

May 8, 2010
AFGHANISTAN
As the United States pours thousands more troops into Afghanistan leading into its surge in the southern province of Kandahar and Afghan president Hamid Karzai prepares his visit to the United States, the Taliban late last week announced its imminent cross-country launch of a new offensive, “‘operation Al Fatah (the Arabic word for victory).’” Since their administration was “overthrown” by a 2001 U.S.-led invasion, the Taliban has waged a nine-year war against the Afghan president’s “Western-backed government.”

GULF IN THE AMERICAS - oil

May 9, 2010
GULF OF MEXICO
Energy Company BP using a 100-ton steel-and-concrete box attempting to contain the oil spill from a broken well deep in the Gulf of Mexico has failed. “Ice-like crystals encrusted the walls of the box on Saturday forcing crews to repeal their attempts to stop the leak.”

Since the oilrig Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, blowing open the well and triggering a major environmental crisis and killing eleven workers, an estimated 800,000 liters (211, 338 gallons) of oil have been spewing into the Gulf daily. This disaster has been documented as the biggest oil spill in the United States since the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska.

Height of stupidity
People from around the world ─ including French, English, Spaniards, Brazilians, Australians, Canadians and U.S. Americans ─ are reported giving their hair, their pets’ fur, and their tights “to make booms and mats to mop up the oily mess spewing out of the sunken BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil platform which is lying on the seabed of the Gulf of Mexico.” There is of course a non-profit “charity” leading this public display of ridiculousness.

May 8, 2010
Dry JORDAN
A sewage treatment plant scheduled for completion in 2011 will use water previously flowing into the Jordan River and cause the river to dry up. In earlier times, 1.3 billion metric cubes (roughly 264 billion gallons) flowed annually through the Jordan River. Filled with edible fish, the Jordan was 25 meters (82 feet) wide and edged with willow trees and poplars.

Middle East WALLS

May 7, 2010
IRAQ
The Iraqi defense ministry plans to build a ‘security fence’ made of concrete, topped by security cameras and other monitoring devices around Baghdad to prevent anti-government fighters from entering the Iraqi capital. This wall said to be “necessitated by demographic rather than security concerns …would prevent Sunni Arabs from entering Baghdad. … Construction is expected to conclude in mid-2011. … American forces in 2008 built a massive concrete wall to seal off Sadr City, the largely Shia neighborhood in Baghdad dominated by Muqtada al-Sadr.”

May 9, 2010
PALESTINE: GAZA
An international aid convoy bound for the Gaza Strip is carrying tons of relief material. Six hundred activists are accompanying the convoy ‘Freedom Flotilla,’ the biggest internationally coordinated effort to challenge directly Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Israel reportedly has threatened to attack the convoy.

Casualty sites reporting
May 9, 2010 (accurate totals unknown, usual reporting not updated)

• Anti-war dot com casualties in Iraq starting March 19, 2003: Since January 20, 2009 inauguration: 169 dead; 31,790-100,000 wounded; 320,000 U.S. veterans with brain injuries; 18 suicides a day [May 8 update], http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
• Iraq Body Count: documented civilian deaths from violence 96,098 – 104,826, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,397 U.S, 4,715 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 1,061 U.S., 1,752 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif/

Sources
“Flash floods killed 66 I Afghanistan,” May 9, 2010, http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100508/twl-afghanistan-floods-575b600.html
“Deaths in Pakistan ‘missile attack,’” May 9, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/20105951012381927.html
“Taliban threatens Afghan offensive.” May 8, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/201058134216275432.html
“BP attempt to stem oil spill frails,” May 9, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/05/20105933123168789.html
“Hair, fur, nylons join fight to hold back U.S. oil spill,” May 10, 2010, http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100509/tts-us-blast-oil-energy-pollution-animal-972e412.html
“Jordan River ‘to run dry next year,’” May 9, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/05/20105510484475825.html
“Iraq mulls Baghdad ‘security fence,’” May 7, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/20105713839458573.html
“Israel threatens Gaza-bound aid convoy,” May 9, 20109, http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=125926§ionid=351020202

Mayday: human rights disasters ─ “not our problem”

Occupied, ignored though not without resistance
Compiled, edited with comment by Carolyn Bennett

The Electronic Intifada reports
April 29, 2010
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
Walled
ActiveStills photographer Anne Paq witnessed Volvo equipment being used to destroy a home in the nearby village of al-Khader. She had taken pictures two days before of Volvo and Caterpillar equipment working between the road and the fence of Har Gilo settlement, a few meters away from Palestinian houses in al-Walaja. There was an Israeli police car parked next to the works. When Paq asked what they were building, they refused to answer.

The Electronic Intifada first reported in 2008 the use of Volvo equipment in Israel’s violations of international law in the occupied West Bank. So far, the company has taken no action to investigate the use of its equipment in Israeli violations of Palestinian rights.

Volvo Group’s vice president of media relations and corporate news, Marten Wikforss, responded to The Electronic Intifada’s report, “‘We do not have any control over the use of our products, other than to affirm in our business activities a Code of Conduct that decries unethical behavior.’”

While the villagers of al-Walaja steadfastly continue to protest construction of the wall, the confiscation of their land and the destruction of their property, Israeli forces increase the oppression. Some houses have been rebuilt three or four times. Nidal Abu Zuluf, director of the Joint Advocacy Initiative of the East Jerusalem YMCA and YWCA, said, “‘Israel’s current repressive policies aim to prevent acts of popular resistance. They don’t want the media and internationals to be around.’

“Perhaps neither does Volvo, as its equipment continues to be photographed destroying Palestinian homes and violating Palestinian rights.”

April 29, 2010
Murder in occupied Territories
A 19-year-old Palestinian died from gunshots to the abdomen when Israeli soldiers opened fire “during a protest against a buffer zone being built between the eastern Gaza Strip and Israel.”

An Israeli army representative called the buffer area “a ‘war zone’ used by armed groups to carry out attacks against Israel.” Palestinians said their “peaceful protests” aim “to prevent the establishment of the zone which … is resulting in large areas of farmland being confiscated and farmers being prevented from reaching their fields.”

Since the 2008-2009 war on Gaza that left at least 1,400 Palestinians dead, “both Israel and Hamas have largely observed an unwritten truce, but in recent weeks fatal incidents in the area have increased, sparking some fears among observers that they may build up to a new cycle of violence.”

Al Jazeera reports
U.S.-Occupied Afghanistan – Kandahar
Killing
U.S. forces are massing on the outskirts of Kandahar. Top military officers are announcing that Afghan residents in the coming months can expect “an upsurge in violence.” The U.S. build-up around Kandahar is part U.S. President Barack Obama’s 30,000 increase in deployment in an invasion and occupation that is in its ninth year. By August an estimated 100,000 U.S. troops will have been deployed in Afghanistan, “more than three times” the number there when the Obama administration took office; however, since the middle of last year, thousands of additional U.S. troops had already entered rural districts of Kandahar. Nevertheless, several areas remain under Taliban control.

May 1, 2010
U.S. - Occupied PAKISTAN
Killing
An estimated two civilians died and ten suffered wounds when a suicide bomb exploded in a busy market in Pakistan’s Swat valley. In recent weeks, there has been a rise in killings of tribal elders, “raising fears that Taliban fighters are reasserting their control over the region less than a year after the army claimed victory in an offensive to push them out of the area.”

Agence France Presse/Yahoo Singapore reports
April 30-May 1, 2010
U.S.-threatened IRAN, UN autonomy
U.S. lawmakers on Friday denounced Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s plans to attend a UN nuclear conference in New York City. The U.S. secretary of state and 14 Republican members of the U.S. Senate are reported calling Ahmadinejad’s planned visit “preposterous” and that allowing the visit would “make a mockery of the effort to stop the spread of nuclear weapons to rogue states and terrorist groups.” These officials went on to state that there was “no compelling reason” for Iran’s president “to be allowed to enter the United States;” and that the government of the United States “has the legal authority to deny [Iran’s president’s] request and bar his entry.”

Earlier in April at an international nuclear disarmament conference hosted by Tehran, Ahmadinejad had lashed out at the current Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) structure, calling on “‘independent countries’ to review the NPT. He charged that “the presence of those possessing weapons, especially the U.S., prevents the drawing up of a fair treaty.’”

Responding Saturday to Washington’s alleged attempt to bar Iran’s president from attending the conference at New York, Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters, “The issuing of visas to the delegation and officials of any country coming to participate at the UN in the United States is obligatory on the part of American officials. The U.S. government has no right to use the issuance of visas as a tool against other countries. The U.S. government... should not take the UN and the UNSC [UN Security Council] hostage.”

U.S.-occupied HORN OF AFRICA
An estimated 25 people died today. Scores suffered injuries when a bomb exploded in the crowded Bakara market area, an Islamist stronghold, near a mosque in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. People had just finished midday prayers. This incident is reported to be “the deadliest blast in five months, the worst since a suicide bombing in a hotel in December killed 57 people among them government ministers.” These latest explosions, occurring in an Islamist stronghold, the reports said, “are unlikely to be the result of explosive devices planted by insurgents.”

May 1, 2010
U.S.-neglected Americas
Avoidable Gulf of Mexico/U.S. States’ emergency ─ disastrous as coalmining and landmines, nuclear power and levees ─ U.S. government officials saw coming, feigned shock at yet another manmade “natural” catastrophe.

An estimated 200,000 and more gallons of oil are spilling daily from the site of the sunken Deepwater Horizon oilrig.

Birds are coated in oil. Wildlife groups expect to receive rising numbers of fowl and animal casualties. Fears are rising that the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe will parallel the 1989 ecological disaster left by the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.

Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Louisiana officials lacking prior U.S. regulation and protections have declared states of emergency. Having failed to regulate industry and protect the welfare of people, land and waters, and the environment generally, U.S. officials now wring their hands, blame and lament British Petroleum’s “ability to deal with the leak and the environmental damage it will [surely] cause.”

British Petroleum’s officials say they do not know how the “accident” happened. This assertion is as believable as snake oil or a homeless man offering to sell the Golden Gate Bridge.

Casualty sites reporting
May 1, 2010 (accurate totals unknown, usual reporting not updated)

• Anti-war dot com casualties in Iraq starting March 19, 2003: Since January 20, 2009 inauguration: 166 dead; 31,790-100,000 wounded; 320,000 U.S. veterans with brain injuries; 18 suicides a day [April 28 update], http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
• Iraq Body Count: documented civilian deaths from violence 96,005 – 104,722, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,394 U.S, 4,712 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 1,053 U.S., 1,740 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif/

Sources
“Volvo equipment: Israel's weapons to destroy al-Walaja homes” (Adri Nieuwhof, The Electronic Intifada), April 29, 2010, http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11236.shtml
Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate based in Switzerland.
“Israeli troops kill Gaza protester,” April 29, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/2010428184658638631.html
“Kandahar violence ‘to get worse,’” May 1, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/2010511515216888.html
“Suicide blast rocks Palestine market,” May 1, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/20105112137357587.html
“Iran warns U.S. against taking UN ‘hostage,’” AFP/Yahoo Singapore,, May 1, 2010, http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100501/twl-un-nuclear-npt-us-diplomacy-iran-7e07afd.html
“25 killed in blasts in Mogadishu mosque: officials,” AFP/Yahoo Singapore May 1, 2010,
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100501/twl-somalia-unrest-shebab-4bdc673.html
“Pressure rises on BP over oil spill,” May 1, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/05/201051124754529712.html