Fatboy sez: What. Me Worry?
2011-05-27
Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan – Nine NATO service members were killed Thursday in Afghanistan, including seven U.S. troops among eight who died when a powerful bomb exploded in a field where they were patrolling on foot, officials said
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110526/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan
May 26, 2011
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has praised Iran's role in the reconstruction of his country, describing the Islamic Republic as the most trustworthy partner for Afghanistan.
http://www.aopnews.com/today.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110526/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan
May 26, 2011
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has praised Iran's role in the reconstruction of his country, describing the Islamic Republic as the most trustworthy partner for Afghanistan.
http://www.aopnews.com/today.html
For the Bottom 80% Living in Global "Democracies," Revolution is the Only Hope
Seated and non-violent protestors in Spain beaten. Coming soon to a democracy near you. Democracy is dead.
2011-05-25
ATF Sells Thousands of Assault Rifles to Mexican Drug Cartels
"Gun Runner and another operation called Fast and Furious were designed to dismantle the gun-smuggling routes that drug cartels use to ferry high-powered assault rifles from the U.S. into Mexico. By allowing people to illegally purchase large quantities of the weapons from gun dealers, officials hoped to trace the firearms to the drug cartel members and prosecute them. But ATF whistleblowers allege that officials lost track of the guns."
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/163095-grassley-vows-to-block-nominations-until-he-gets-answers-on-gun-program
Two gunned down in Acapulco.
Acapulco
One Beheaded in Acapulco.
Gruesome Photos
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/163095-grassley-vows-to-block-nominations-until-he-gets-answers-on-gun-program
Two gunned down in Acapulco.
Acapulco
One Beheaded in Acapulco.
Gruesome Photos
2011-05-22
Loyalists of Yemen's Saleh wield knives and Daggers to Block UAE Embassy as Hundred's of Thousands anti-Saleh Protesters Gather in Square Seeking Saleh's Ouster
Update:
Yemen's president has laid down new conditions for signing a power transition deal, thwarting Gulf efforts to bring an end to a months-old political crisis in the country.
A Gulf mediator left Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, on Sunday, having failed to secure Ali Abdullah Saleh's signature on the deal, according to a report on the AFP news agency
/
European, US and Arab ambassadors, who were pressing Saleh to sign the accord, were trapped for hours on Sunday in an embassy surrounded by armed pro-government supporters.
Eventually, Yemeni army helicopters ferried the diplomats out to the palace
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/201152216373928689.html
Prospects that Saleh would sign the pact as promised were thrown into doubt.
Wielding knives, daggers and swords, hundreds of Saleh loyalists blocked the entrances to the United Arab Emirates Embassy, where at least five ambassadors were gathered in expectation the embattled leader would arrive to sign the deal.
"Everybody is worried. We can't leave the embassy," said a Saudi diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
Pro-Saleh militiamen dressed in traditional Yemeni dress roamed the streets of the capital, especially outside embassies, and blocked the road to the presidential palace.
At one point, armed men attacked a convoy of the Gulf Cooperation Council's chief mediator, secretary-general Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani, to try to keep it from reaching the UAE Embassy, witnesses said. Pounding the car, they shouted against Gulf intervention in Yemeni affairs. The convoy of the Chinese ambassador also came under attack by armed men before a police detail was deployed to clear the way and disperse the crowd.
/
On Saturday, Saleh condemned the proposed deal as "a coup" and warned the U.S. and Europe that his departure would open the door for al-Qaida to seize control of the fragile nation on the edge of Arabia.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110522/D9NCIC2G0.html
"...open the door al-Qaida to seize control..." More fear mongering. Keep me in office or else...accept austerity packages or else...bail out the banks or else. Dictators and democracies are left only with fear as a governing tool as their credibility evaporates.
Yemen's president has laid down new conditions for signing a power transition deal, thwarting Gulf efforts to bring an end to a months-old political crisis in the country.
A Gulf mediator left Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, on Sunday, having failed to secure Ali Abdullah Saleh's signature on the deal, according to a report on the AFP news agency
/
European, US and Arab ambassadors, who were pressing Saleh to sign the accord, were trapped for hours on Sunday in an embassy surrounded by armed pro-government supporters.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/201152216373928689.html
Prospects that Saleh would sign the pact as promised were thrown into doubt.
Wielding knives, daggers and swords, hundreds of Saleh loyalists blocked the entrances to the United Arab Emirates Embassy, where at least five ambassadors were gathered in expectation the embattled leader would arrive to sign the deal.
"Everybody is worried. We can't leave the embassy," said a Saudi diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
Pro-Saleh militiamen dressed in traditional Yemeni dress roamed the streets of the capital, especially outside embassies, and blocked the road to the presidential palace.
|
/
On Saturday, Saleh condemned the proposed deal as "a coup" and warned the U.S. and Europe that his departure would open the door for al-Qaida to seize control of the fragile nation on the edge of Arabia.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110522/D9NCIC2G0.html
"...open the door al-Qaida to seize control..." More fear mongering. Keep me in office or else...accept austerity packages or else...bail out the banks or else. Dictators and democracies are left only with fear as a governing tool as their credibility evaporates.
After Adding Trillions of Debt to Create a 'Recovery' the US is Currently Creating the Same Amount of Jobs as were Created in the Depths of the Recession
First, the increase in job growth that occurred over the past two years results from a decline in the number of layoffs, not from increased hiring. In February 2009, a month during which the labor market lost more than 700,000 jobs, employers hired four million workers. In March 2011, employers hired four million workers. The number of hires is the same today as it was when we were shedding jobs at record rates.
/
The decline in layoffs is not unexpected and does not necessarily reflect labor-market health. Layoffs tend to occur early in a recession. When an economy has reached bottom and has already shed much of its labor, layoffs slow. But that doesn't mean that the labor force is recovering. We could have high unemployment and a stagnant labor force even when layoffs are low. Isn't the fact that hires exceed separations indicative of a healthy labor market? Unfortunately, no
/
Bear in mind that the U.S. labor force has more than 150 million workers or job seekers. In a typical year, about one-third or more of the work force turns over, leaving their old jobs to take new ones. When the labor market creates 200,000 jobs, it is because five million are hired and 4.8 million are separated, not because there were 200,000 hires and no job losses. When we're talking about numbers as large as five million, the net of 200,000 is small and may reflect minor, month-to-month variations in the number of hires or separations
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576317142210698436.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop#articleTabs%3Darticle
/
The decline in layoffs is not unexpected and does not necessarily reflect labor-market health. Layoffs tend to occur early in a recession. When an economy has reached bottom and has already shed much of its labor, layoffs slow. But that doesn't mean that the labor force is recovering. We could have high unemployment and a stagnant labor force even when layoffs are low. Isn't the fact that hires exceed separations indicative of a healthy labor market? Unfortunately, no
/
Bear in mind that the U.S. labor force has more than 150 million workers or job seekers. In a typical year, about one-third or more of the work force turns over, leaving their old jobs to take new ones. When the labor market creates 200,000 jobs, it is because five million are hired and 4.8 million are separated, not because there were 200,000 hires and no job losses. When we're talking about numbers as large as five million, the net of 200,000 is small and may reflect minor, month-to-month variations in the number of hires or separations
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576317142210698436.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop#articleTabs%3Darticle
There is No Leadership From the World's So-Called Democracies. The Banks Govern
At 43%, Spain's youth unemployment is the highest in the EU by far, and more than double the average. For those aged 16 to 19 the rate is 64% – an 11% increase on the previous year. One in five of those under the age of 30 are still looking for their first job, and almost half (46%) are on short-term contracts of less than 6 months.
Youth unemployment here is higher than in Tunisia and Egypt. It's so high that many young people have to look long and hard to see past it.
/
"To be honest I never tried to get a job here. There are jobs, but the quality is not very high. I have friends who have economics degrees who are working at a cash register. I definitely feel part of this lost generation."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/30/spain-unemployed-under-30-emigration
"Unless the government wants to run the risk of another episode of financial distress and the debt spreads sky rocketing again, it will have to implement another austerity package before the next elections," Fernando Fernandez, an analyst at Madrid's IE business school, said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/22/spain-election-idUSLDE74L02S20110522
"I would welcome it very much if our Greek friends found a privatization agency independent of the government and modeled after Germany's Treuhandanstalt," Juncker said, adding that such a body should be staffed by international experts.
"Henceforth, the European Union will escort Greece's privatization program as if we were conducting it ourselves," he said. Proceeds from the program should be considerably higher than the 50 billion euros Athens has proposed, he added.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/21/us-eurozone-greece-juncker-idUSTRE74K22Y20110521
Implement another austerity package with youth unemployment over 40% and over 60% in those aged 16 to 19? What will this accomplish other than paying the bankers or delaying an inevitability? What happens in Greece, Ireland and Portugal that have similar problems with unemployed youth yet embark on further austerity measures?
The EU wants to send,"International Experts," foreigners, into Greece to sell off and privatize the nations assets at the cost of the citizens and more notably the young people. Vultures yanking the internal organs from a dead or dying carcass that sits on the side of the road.
The uprisings in the Middle East were initially brought on by hunger and joblessness. How soon before Europe's periphery nations follow suit?
Like Osama, democracy is dead. It has been murdered by the leaders of the worlds democratic nations for the enrichment of their own wallets. The kicking-the-can-down-the-road in order to survive the next election cycle is short sighted ignorance on a massive and foolish scale. The financial crisis that gripped the world has not been settled, but delayed. The United States and the EU nations bailed out their banks, their campaign donors, with taxpayer dollars and euros and now the banks as vultures are eyeing the depleted and dying corpses of the citizens as they seek to extract every remaining drop of life and hope.
This will not end well. US hegemony is dead on the vine and a vacuum is filling the empty spaces left. Neo-nationalist movements are already gaining in popularity as they gain favor from the failed policies of the neoconservatises and the neoliberals. Upheavals and unrest on a scale not seen by this world in over fifty years will soon follow. Democracy is dead.
Youth unemployment here is higher than in Tunisia and Egypt. It's so high that many young people have to look long and hard to see past it.
/
"To be honest I never tried to get a job here. There are jobs, but the quality is not very high. I have friends who have economics degrees who are working at a cash register. I definitely feel part of this lost generation."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/30/spain-unemployed-under-30-emigration
"Unless the government wants to run the risk of another episode of financial distress and the debt spreads sky rocketing again, it will have to implement another austerity package before the next elections," Fernando Fernandez, an analyst at Madrid's IE business school, said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/22/spain-election-idUSLDE74L02S20110522
"I would welcome it very much if our Greek friends found a privatization agency independent of the government and modeled after Germany's Treuhandanstalt," Juncker said, adding that such a body should be staffed by international experts.
"Henceforth, the European Union will escort Greece's privatization program as if we were conducting it ourselves," he said. Proceeds from the program should be considerably higher than the 50 billion euros Athens has proposed, he added.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/21/us-eurozone-greece-juncker-idUSTRE74K22Y20110521
Implement another austerity package with youth unemployment over 40% and over 60% in those aged 16 to 19? What will this accomplish other than paying the bankers or delaying an inevitability? What happens in Greece, Ireland and Portugal that have similar problems with unemployed youth yet embark on further austerity measures?
The EU wants to send,"International Experts," foreigners, into Greece to sell off and privatize the nations assets at the cost of the citizens and more notably the young people. Vultures yanking the internal organs from a dead or dying carcass that sits on the side of the road.
The uprisings in the Middle East were initially brought on by hunger and joblessness. How soon before Europe's periphery nations follow suit?
Like Osama, democracy is dead. It has been murdered by the leaders of the worlds democratic nations for the enrichment of their own wallets. The kicking-the-can-down-the-road in order to survive the next election cycle is short sighted ignorance on a massive and foolish scale. The financial crisis that gripped the world has not been settled, but delayed. The United States and the EU nations bailed out their banks, their campaign donors, with taxpayer dollars and euros and now the banks as vultures are eyeing the depleted and dying corpses of the citizens as they seek to extract every remaining drop of life and hope.
This will not end well. US hegemony is dead on the vine and a vacuum is filling the empty spaces left. Neo-nationalist movements are already gaining in popularity as they gain favor from the failed policies of the neoconservatises and the neoliberals. Upheavals and unrest on a scale not seen by this world in over fifty years will soon follow. Democracy is dead.