Archives for May 2010

May 29, 2010 By Fausta

‘Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?’

Malia ought to take Obama to Jerry Springer over this tall tale:

“When I woke this morning and I’m shaving and Malia knocks on my bathroom door and she peeks in her head and she says, ‘Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?’ ”

Oh yeah. The question every child would ask in the bathroom.

Imagine if GWBush had come up a fib like that one, involving his own child.

Of course, David Broder says that this little anecdote adds a personal touch to the oil crisis:

What he says next is so simple and personal that its authenticity cannot be doubted

Yeah, right.

Play me the world’s smallest violin, David, and we’ll listen while we sit here relishing the personal authenticity.

Doug at Balloon Juice pokes fun at Broder:
You make a grown man cry

No, there is no way that a president could fabricate a story about something a family member told him. It simply is not possible. It can’t be done. When a president mention some silly thing his daughter supposedly said to him, we must take him at his word. It is that simple.

And all that mumbo jumbo about how many gallons of oil, and how the spill might be stopped, and what the damage to the environment might be, it’s all just academic mumbo jumbo. What matters is whether you cry about it and what cute things your children say to you about it.

I’m an Obot, so I’m glad that at least one Villager liked the story Obama told about his daughter. But all of this takes place in a fantasy world, one where Obama might be able to make it all right with his eleven-dimensional executive powers or by pounding his desk and saying “stop the damn oil spill”.

I just don’t see how we can have an effective political system when teardrops and children’s stories matter more than years of mismanagement at the Minerals Management Service.

Neither do I.

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May 29, 2010 By Fausta

Pirates of the lake

Goings-on at Falcon Lake, Texas:

Pirates Robbing Boats At Gunpoint On US-Mexico Border Lake

The waters of Falcon Lake normally beckon boaters with waterskiing and world-record bass fishing. But this holiday weekend, fishermen on the waters that straddle the U.S.-Mexico border are on the lookout for something more sinister: pirates.

Twice in recent weeks, fishermen have been robbed at gunpoint by marauders that the local sheriff says are “spillover” from fighting between rival Mexican drug gangs.
…
In the American waters, Cox said, “you’re safer, but you’re not safe.” Mexican commercial fishermen regularly cross to set their nets illegally, why wouldn’t gunmen do the same? he asked.

Why wouldn’t they indeed?

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May 29, 2010 By Fausta

Hillary: Let’s be more like Brazil!

Hillary Clinton approves of Brazil’s tax rates and wants your taxes to rise:
Clinton: Rich ‘Not Paying Their Fair Share’ in Taxes

The rich are not being taxed enough and the economy is suffering for it, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday.

The former first lady broached the subject during a national security discussion at the Brookings Institution. She lamented that the United States has lowered taxes on the wealthy and said nations around the world need to “increase their public revenue collections” to spur investment.

“The rich are not paying their fair share in any nation that is facing the kind of employment issues (the United States is), whether it’s individual, corporate, whatever the taxation forms are,” she said.

Clinton pointed to Brazil’s high taxation as an example that other countries should strive toward.

“Brazil has the highest tax-to-GDP rate in the Western Hemisphere and guess what — it’s growing like crazy. And the rich are getting richer, but they’re pulling people out of poverty,” she said.

Well, as far as that “growing like crazy” part, Hillary ought to read what The Economist is saying this week:

The problem is that while it may be growing at Chinese speeds, Brazil is not China. Because it still saves and invests too little, most economists think it is restricted to a speed limit of 5% at the most, if it is not to crash. The growth spurt is partly the result of the stimulus measures taken by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government when the world financial crisis briefly tipped the country into recession late in 2008. The trouble, say critics, is that much of the extra government spending is turning out to be permanent—and so the economy is starting to resemble a Toyota with the accelerator stuck to the floor.

And to make things worse, very little of that spending is on much-needed infrastructure. But I digress.

Hillary, who was talking about your taxes while in the middle of a national security discussion at the Brookings Institution, has no business as Secretary of State to be meddling in the subject, particularly, as Jammie reminds us,

It’s not enough we have to live with her disastrous foreign policy, but now the hapless Hillary Clinton has decided to take it upon herself to lecture the “rich” and tell them they’re not paying enough in taxes. This from a woman so greedy she wrote off her husband’s soiled underwear on her taxes and between her and Slick are worth over $100 million.

At times like this,I wonder if that rumor over the Brazil-Turkey-Iran deal is actually based in fact. The rumored strategy is stupid enough that it may be.

Look at the bright side, she’s not saying we should become China for a day.

At least not yet.

UPDATE,
Don’t miss Brazilian Neocon’s comment:

We down here in Brazil don’t even know how much we pay in taxes, there are DOZENS of taxes around, and all sort of cumulative taxes and taxes on taxes. Federal income tax is 27.5% in the higher bracket, state VAT (which applies cumulatively on each and every step of the production process) is anywhere between 8 and 17%, there are taxes on owning a car (2-3% of the sales value of the car, payed once a year), on owning property (0.3 to 1% of the value, every year), on providing a service (10-20% on the price of the service). Over 60% of the price of gas here goes to the government (federal and state) in taxes – we pay almost the double Americans pay for gas!

There are dozens of taxes no one but IRS employees and tax attorneys know about.

As was pointed out in the blogpost, we are growing now not because of our taxes, but DESPITE them. The recent growth spurt happened when the government temporarily cut taxes on new cars and home appliances as an answer to the global crisis. It also happened because our central bank keeps inflation and interest rates controlled through pragmatic measures, despite populist government pressure (our central bank is independent from the government)

Please, do not try and be more like Brazil!

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May 28, 2010 By Fausta

VIDEO And how did that San Francisco fundraiser go?

Zombie, reporting at Pajamas Media, says The Stench of Elitism Hung Heavy in the Air

Obama was whipsawed, pummelled from all sides simultaneously. Left-wingers, right-wingers, pacifists, libertarians, communists, conservatives, people angry about the BP oil spill, people angry that Obama’s healthcare reform bill didn’t go far enough, others angry that it went too far, extremists, moderates, and everyone in between on both sides of the aisle.

In short, it was the people who came out to express their displeasure with Obama and Boxer. Regular folks, San Francisco-style — which means plenty of leftist ideologues, but also now a substantial contingent of heretofore unseen conservatives who had for decades stayed mute until Obama’s agenda touched such a raw nerve that they could remain mute no more.

And now for the video,

Go to the post so you don’t miss the guy in the bear suit, too.

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May 28, 2010 By Fausta

Colombia’s Sunday election

José de Córdoba, reporting at the Wall Street Journal, points out,
In Vote, Colombia Ponders 2 Futures

The candidates in effect pose a referendum on whether Colombia is safe enough to become a kinder, gentler place where human rights and the law are given the same priority as security.

On the one side is Juan Manuel Santos, candidate of Mr. Uribe’s so-called Party of the U, who was Mr. Uribe’s tough defense minister. Mr. Santos, seen as a safe choice, is the grandnephew of a Colombian president and the cousin of Mr. Uribe’s vice president, and has headed the finance and commerce ministries. Until recently, his family owned El Tiempo, the country’s most powerful newspaper.

On the other side is Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus, a philosopher-turned-politician who served two terms as mayor of Bogotá and who sports a prophet-type beard. Many Colombians credit him with instilling a new sense of civility and taming crime in Bogotá when he first became mayor in 1995. But some wonder if the famously eccentric Mr. Mockus, who once showered with his wife on live TV to show residents how to save water, can handle the tough cast of characters that still lurk in the country’s jungles.

Two events this week crystallized voters’ challenge. Guerrillas ambushed a Colombian marine patrol, killing nine soldiers in the deadliest attack on the military so far this year. That could help Mr. Santos by underlining remaining security challenges.

Mr. Santos could also be harmed by scandals that have dogged Mr. Uribe, including renewed allegations the president knew that a brother was linked with a paramilitary death squad 16 years ago, a charge they deny.

Both candidates are pro-U.S. and market friendly, and pledge to continue to bear down on Latin America’s oldest and biggest insurgency, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. While weakened, the guerrillas still have about 8,000 fighters.

In addition to the FARC, human rights and the economy, the candidates will have to deal with Chávez:

Colombians wonder, for example, how Mr. Mockus would handle next-door Venezuela’s volatile President Hugo Chávez, an ally of the FARC guerrillas who has shut down the border between the two countries, costing Colombia thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in lost trade.

Just last evening Hugo was being his usual charming self, saying he’ll be the first one to call the newly-elected president (my translation: if you use this translation please link to this post and credit me):

“Let’s hope they elect a person one can talk to.”

“You can’t have a relationship with a government like the current one (Uribe’s), who lends itself to the empire’s (meaning the USA) game to assault a neighboring country.”

The election’s on Sunday. We’ll see how it all turns out.

The WSJ print edition front-page article’s title is “In Vote, Colombia Ponders Two Paths”.

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May 28, 2010 By Fausta

Jamaica and organized crime

As I posted yesterday, Jamaica’s in the middle of a drug war over drug lord Christopher “Dudus” Coke’s extradition.

The Washington Post reports on the country’s organized crime:

Coke, who allegedly assumed leadership of the “Shadow Posse” from his father, was accused in a U.S. indictment in August of heading an international trafficking ring that sells marijuana and crack cocaine in the New York area and elsewhere.

Coke, 41, is often described as a kind of godfather in Tivoli Gardens, a West Kingston slum, where he reportedly provides food and assistance to the poor. But some analysts say residents might follow him more out of fear than love.

John Rapley, president of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute, a think tank, said Coke’s case reflected how entwined Jamaica’s drug gangs have become with the nation’s political system. The alleged drug lord is believed to be close to members of the governing Labor Party, although not Prime Minister Bruce Golding himself, Rapley said.

Many Jamaicans believe that Coke “could bring down . . . members of the government and the opposition” if he pleads guilty and cooperates with U.S. justice officials, Rapley said. “So the stakes are very high for the politics of the country.”

The Financial Times has an editorial on the country’s ties to organized crime:
Tragedy in Tivoli (emphasis added):

The pitched battle between security forces and armed gangs in west Kingston, in which dozens have died, represents a damning indictment of the Jamaican government’s handling of the US request to extradite Christopher “Dudus” Coke for alleged drug crimes. The conflict lays bare the degree to which this community has become a law unto itself.

The credibility of Bruce Golding, prime minister, is in tatters. Diplomatic relations with the US have been severely strained by the months of delay in processing the extradition request. That foot-dragging also gave Mr Coke’s supporters ample time to organise themselves and to stockpile weapons.
…
The heart of the problem is an enduring failure of elected representatives to help the people who live in slums. The loyalty to Mr Coke and other “dons” in low-income communities such as Tivoli Gardens or Spanish Town stems from the gangs’ provision of welfare and security for those neglected by the political system. As other countries such as Mexico and Colombia have found, once drugs gangs usurp the state’s functions, reining them in is a dangerous and difficult task.

What is needed now is a definitive break by politicians of all parties from criminal gangs. The first step should be an unequivocal commitment to allow the security forces to deal with other gangs with the same determination they have shown in Tivoli Gardens.

The government must tackle the social breakdown that allows gang leaders to be seen as mentors. Despite Jamaica’s hard economic choices, this project cannot be ducked. Otherwise, success against any of the dons is no more than a personnel change at the top.

It may yet be that the pursuit of Mr Coke marks a turning point. But it will take strong leadership of a calibre not currently on display to achieve a breakthrough.

Meanwhile, Coke is still free.

(h.t Maggie)

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May 28, 2010 By Fausta

American Academy of Pediatrics finally does the right thing

As you may recall, the American Academy of Pediatrics had condoned female genital mutilation earlier this month. Now they (finally!) recognized their error:
Pediatricians now reject all female genital cutting

The American Academy of Pediatrics has rescinded a controversial policy statement raising the idea that doctors in some communities should be able to substitute demands for female genital cutting with a harmless clitoral “pricking” procedure.

“We retracted the policy because it is important that the world health community understands the AAP is totally opposed to all forms of female genital cutting, both here in the U.S. and anywhere else in the world,” said AAP President Judith S. Palfrey.

The contentious policy statement, issued in April, had condemned the practice of female genital cutting overall. But a small portion of statement suggesting the pricking procedure riled U.S. advocacy groups and survivors of female genital cutting.

And cultural relativism scored one, on those who can’t tell an earlobe from a private part:

In the April statement, the group raised the idea that some physicians should be able to prick or nick a girl’s clitoral skin in order to “satisfy cultural requirements.” The group likened the nick to an ear piercing.

By the way, there is a federal law already prohibiting FGM:

The AAP also clarified nicking a girl or woman’s genitals is forbidden under a 1996 federal law banning female genital mutilation.

Through the article you see that term, mutilation, changed to “cutting”, and “circumcision”, as if those euphemisms described the barbaric practice of mutilating a woman’s genitalia for the single purpose of preventing her sexual enjoyment for the rest of her life.

It boggles the mind that the AAP actually went along with FGM in the first place.

And I want to know, where are the liberal feminists? Where’s their outcry?

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May 27, 2010 By Fausta

Obama halts drilling at ALL deep-water Gulf rigs

Prepare for the cost of gas to go through the roof:
Obama halts drilling at all deep-water Gulf rigs

Some of the 33 rigs already drilling must stop. Others preparing to drill must cease preparations until further investigations are conducted.

The WSJ is liveblogging the press conference:

12:56: Obama announces the news: they are suspending the exploration of two regions off of Alaska, as well as off the Gulf Coast and Virginia, and suspend action on 33 wells currently being explored. Tough news for the U.S. oil industry.

This morning I was predicting that we’ll be heading to more inflation; this is even worse than I expected.

While Obama ends production of that oil, we’re going to be buying oil from producers from other countries who are drilling in the Gulf. Those rigs don’t stop simply because Obama wants them to.

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