Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee, a leading Democrat from the great State of Texas, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee:
Words fail.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Car Bomb In Juarez: No Worries, Our Southern Border Is Secure
News of a car bomb set off on a major thoroughfare in Juarez, courtesy of the BBC.
This was not a home-made 'drive the car through the barricade/pull the lanyard/blow yourself up' affair. It was triggered by a cell phone, indicating some, shall we say, sophistication in approach.
16 July 2010 Last updated at 16:28 ET
Investigators in Mexico say a deadly attack by suspected drug cartel members in the northern city of Ciudad Juarez was a car bomb set off by mobile phone.
It is believed to be the first attack of its kind since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006, promising to curb powerful drugs gangs.
Two police officers and two medics answering an emergency were killed.
Police said the attack was retaliation for the arrest of a leader of the La Linea drug gang, Jesus Acosta Guerrero. La Linea is part of the Juarez drug cartel.
"There were 10kg (22lb) of explosives, activated from a distance by a cellphone," Enrique Torres, a spokesman for the army in Ciudad Juarez, said. At least 16 other people were injured in Thursday's attack, police said.
Ciudad Juarez is just across the border from El Paso, Texas. It has long been the battleground for cartels fighting for control of lucrative drug smuggling routes into the US.
More than 7,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico so far this year. Almost 25,000 have died in the past three and a half years, according to figures released by the office of Attorney General Arturo Chavez on Friday.
El Diario de Chihuaha also covered the event, and in typical Mexican fashion, led the story by blaming the US for its lax laws on possession of C-4 explosive, never contemplating that the explosive could have arrived from any number of locations in the world. It is a long-established practice in the un-free Mexican press: If things go well, credit El Presidente; if things go badly, blame the Americans.
Then they got around to describing the bombing:
El auto explotó anoche sobre la avenida 16 de septiembre y Bolivia, en la zona centro, dejando un saldo de cuatro muertos y 11 heridos, así como el cierre de las calles aledañas al lugar del ataque.
El comandante expuso que de acuerdo con el peritaje, se encontraron residuos de 10 kilos de explosivo, al parecer del conocido como C4, así como restos de un aparato celular.
Indicó que aunque hasta este momento no se ha determinado exactamente cómo detonó el vehículo y si estaba armado como un coche-bomba, lo que si se puede determinar es que el artefacto se activó mediante una llamada a algún teléfono celular.
Indicó que el peritaje continúa a fin de determinar cómo fue que el vehículo se impactó contra el convoy de policías federales, si estaba estacionado o alguien lo iba conduciendo.
Confirmó que un agente de la Policía Federal y uno de la Municipal murieron, así como un médico y un rescatista de la Cruz Roja, en tanto que siete elementos federales, tres paramédicos de la Cruz Roja y un camarógrafo del canal 5, resultaron heridos.
Precisó que la Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) investiga el asunto, y son apoyados por efectivos de la Sedena y especialistas en explosivos.
Old South repeats his question: Does this have to occur on the streets of Dallas or Kansas City before the United States develops the will to address the problem?
This was not a home-made 'drive the car through the barricade/pull the lanyard/blow yourself up' affair. It was triggered by a cell phone, indicating some, shall we say, sophistication in approach.
16 July 2010 Last updated at 16:28 ET
Investigators in Mexico say a deadly attack by suspected drug cartel members in the northern city of Ciudad Juarez was a car bomb set off by mobile phone.
It is believed to be the first attack of its kind since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006, promising to curb powerful drugs gangs.
Two police officers and two medics answering an emergency were killed.
Police said the attack was retaliation for the arrest of a leader of the La Linea drug gang, Jesus Acosta Guerrero. La Linea is part of the Juarez drug cartel.
"There were 10kg (22lb) of explosives, activated from a distance by a cellphone," Enrique Torres, a spokesman for the army in Ciudad Juarez, said. At least 16 other people were injured in Thursday's attack, police said.
Ciudad Juarez is just across the border from El Paso, Texas. It has long been the battleground for cartels fighting for control of lucrative drug smuggling routes into the US.
More than 7,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico so far this year. Almost 25,000 have died in the past three and a half years, according to figures released by the office of Attorney General Arturo Chavez on Friday.
El Diario de Chihuaha also covered the event, and in typical Mexican fashion, led the story by blaming the US for its lax laws on possession of C-4 explosive, never contemplating that the explosive could have arrived from any number of locations in the world. It is a long-established practice in the un-free Mexican press: If things go well, credit El Presidente; if things go badly, blame the Americans.
Then they got around to describing the bombing:
El auto explotó anoche sobre la avenida 16 de septiembre y Bolivia, en la zona centro, dejando un saldo de cuatro muertos y 11 heridos, así como el cierre de las calles aledañas al lugar del ataque.
El comandante expuso que de acuerdo con el peritaje, se encontraron residuos de 10 kilos de explosivo, al parecer del conocido como C4, así como restos de un aparato celular.
Indicó que aunque hasta este momento no se ha determinado exactamente cómo detonó el vehículo y si estaba armado como un coche-bomba, lo que si se puede determinar es que el artefacto se activó mediante una llamada a algún teléfono celular.
Indicó que el peritaje continúa a fin de determinar cómo fue que el vehículo se impactó contra el convoy de policías federales, si estaba estacionado o alguien lo iba conduciendo.
Confirmó que un agente de la Policía Federal y uno de la Municipal murieron, así como un médico y un rescatista de la Cruz Roja, en tanto que siete elementos federales, tres paramédicos de la Cruz Roja y un camarógrafo del canal 5, resultaron heridos.
Precisó que la Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) investiga el asunto, y son apoyados por efectivos de la Sedena y especialistas en explosivos.
Old South repeats his question: Does this have to occur on the streets of Dallas or Kansas City before the United States develops the will to address the problem?
The Well Is Holding: Keep A Good Thought
The BBC reports that the cap installed by BP is performing up to expectations.
The story also contains a slide show with diagrams of how the solution is supposed to work.
Keep a good thought, and let's all hope this works.
Assuming it does, the really hard part now begins: Rebuilding an economy and way of life battered on one side by BP's colossal blunder this spring, and the Obama administration's Machiavellian attempts to exploit the misfortune that followed.
OS intends to keep paying attention, and hopes you do as well. Engineers can cap wells, build berms, come up with solutions to clean up oil, etc. A well-run compensation fund can go a long way toward setting people and businesses back up on their feet. State and local authorities, if allowed, can do much to set things right locally.
The real problem is a federal government in the hands of nihilists, who have worked actively to impede progress toward any solution.
It sounds harsh to say such things, but until consistent evidence exists that the executive branch has changed its ways, it is the the only explanation that accounts for their behavior.
Now, about that ban on exploration and drilling, that is currently bankrupting the families, parishes, and State of Louisiana....
The story also contains a slide show with diagrams of how the solution is supposed to work.
Keep a good thought, and let's all hope this works.
Assuming it does, the really hard part now begins: Rebuilding an economy and way of life battered on one side by BP's colossal blunder this spring, and the Obama administration's Machiavellian attempts to exploit the misfortune that followed.
OS intends to keep paying attention, and hopes you do as well. Engineers can cap wells, build berms, come up with solutions to clean up oil, etc. A well-run compensation fund can go a long way toward setting people and businesses back up on their feet. State and local authorities, if allowed, can do much to set things right locally.
The real problem is a federal government in the hands of nihilists, who have worked actively to impede progress toward any solution.
It sounds harsh to say such things, but until consistent evidence exists that the executive branch has changed its ways, it is the the only explanation that accounts for their behavior.
Now, about that ban on exploration and drilling, that is currently bankrupting the families, parishes, and State of Louisiana....
Green Shoots Award, Literally: Alexandra Reau, Michigan Teen Entreprenuer Farmer
And, for something inspiring for the weekend, this delicious item from the New York Times.
Lawn mowing and baby-sitting are standard summer jobs for the enterprising teenager. Alexandra Reau, who is 14, combines a little bit of each: last year, she asked her dad to dig up a half acre of their lawn in rural Petersburg, Mich., so she could farm. Now in its second season, her Garden to Go C.S.A. (community-supported agriculture) grows for 14 members, who pay $100 to $175 for two months of just-picked vegetables and herbs. While her peers are hanging out at Molly’s Mystic Freeze and working out the moves to that Miley Cyrus video, she’s flicking potato-beetle larvae off of leaves in her V-neck T-shirt and denim capris, a barrette keeping her hair out of her demurely made-up eyes. Who says the face of American farming is a 57-year-old man with a John Deere cap?
It's a great read, a truly inspiring story.
No stimulus money spent here.
No farm subsidies.
No gubbermint involvement, period. (At least not yet!)
No bankers.
Positive economic and cultural outcomes for all parties.
Damn! How'd that happen?
Three cheers, and a Green Shoots award for Miss Reau.
Lawn mowing and baby-sitting are standard summer jobs for the enterprising teenager. Alexandra Reau, who is 14, combines a little bit of each: last year, she asked her dad to dig up a half acre of their lawn in rural Petersburg, Mich., so she could farm. Now in its second season, her Garden to Go C.S.A. (community-supported agriculture) grows for 14 members, who pay $100 to $175 for two months of just-picked vegetables and herbs. While her peers are hanging out at Molly’s Mystic Freeze and working out the moves to that Miley Cyrus video, she’s flicking potato-beetle larvae off of leaves in her V-neck T-shirt and denim capris, a barrette keeping her hair out of her demurely made-up eyes. Who says the face of American farming is a 57-year-old man with a John Deere cap?
It's a great read, a truly inspiring story.
No stimulus money spent here.
No farm subsidies.
No gubbermint involvement, period. (At least not yet!)
No bankers.
Positive economic and cultural outcomes for all parties.
Damn! How'd that happen?
Three cheers, and a Green Shoots award for Miss Reau.
Tensions Build Between Colombia And Venzuela: Colombia Accuses Chavez Of Harboring FARC Norco-Terrorists
It's getting interestinger and interestinger down there.
The story is surfacing in a number of places, including the BBC.
This from the Kansas City Star:
Venezuela called its ambassador home from Bogota for consultations Friday to protest accusations by the outgoing Colombian government that rebel leaders are taking refuge inside its borders.
Colombian officials have long complained, mostly in private, that President Hugo Chavez has harbored leaders of its two main rebel groups.
But on Thursday, Colombia's Defense Ministry showed video, photographs and satellite images to Colombian journalists behind closed doors that it said proved the presence of rebel leaders in neighboring Venezuela.
Colombia's hard-line president, Alvaro Uribe, leaves office on Aug. 7. He's been widely credited for seriously weakening Colombia's leftist insurgencies, one of which killed his father in a botched 1983 kidnapping.
Because he has frequently feuded with Chavez, many Colombians believe the renewed accusations show Uribe's dissatisfaction with the olive branch that Colombia's president-elect, Juan Manuel Santos, has extended to Chavez.
Trade between Venezuela and Colombia has fallen 70 percent in the past year since Chavez froze relations over Colombia's signing of an agreement with the United States granting Washington expanded access to its military bases.
Waiting to see how the White House and Foggy Bottom will hang the Colombians out to dry for having the temerity to actually oppose their boy Chavez to his face.
Not if.
How.
The story is surfacing in a number of places, including the BBC.
This from the Kansas City Star:
Venezuela called its ambassador home from Bogota for consultations Friday to protest accusations by the outgoing Colombian government that rebel leaders are taking refuge inside its borders.
Colombian officials have long complained, mostly in private, that President Hugo Chavez has harbored leaders of its two main rebel groups.
But on Thursday, Colombia's Defense Ministry showed video, photographs and satellite images to Colombian journalists behind closed doors that it said proved the presence of rebel leaders in neighboring Venezuela.
Colombia's hard-line president, Alvaro Uribe, leaves office on Aug. 7. He's been widely credited for seriously weakening Colombia's leftist insurgencies, one of which killed his father in a botched 1983 kidnapping.
Because he has frequently feuded with Chavez, many Colombians believe the renewed accusations show Uribe's dissatisfaction with the olive branch that Colombia's president-elect, Juan Manuel Santos, has extended to Chavez.
Trade between Venezuela and Colombia has fallen 70 percent in the past year since Chavez froze relations over Colombia's signing of an agreement with the United States granting Washington expanded access to its military bases.
Waiting to see how the White House and Foggy Bottom will hang the Colombians out to dry for having the temerity to actually oppose their boy Chavez to his face.
Not if.
How.
Friday, July 16, 2010
A Good, If Modest Beginning: AIG Settles With Ohio Pension Funds
From today's New York Times:
American International Group, the troubled insurance giant, has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a long-running securities fraud lawsuit led by three Ohio public pension funds in one of the largest settlements of a class-action case ever in the United States.
Under terms announced Friday, A.I.G. would pay $175 million within 10 days of preliminary court approval of the settlement with a class of shareholders. The company may fund the remaining $550 million through one or more common stock offerings.
The litigation, which began in October 2004, involved allegations that A.I.G. engaged in accounting fraud, bid-rigging and stock price manipulation, said Attorney General Richard Cordray of Ohio, who represented the state’s funds.
The settlement resolves allegations of wide-ranging fraud from October 1999 to April 2005 and brings the expected recovery for A.I.G. shareholders to about $1 billion, Mr. Cordray said.
A.I.G. said it was “pleased to have resolved this matter.”
Well, yes. The settlement figure (which OS refers to as the 'GoAwayNumber'--you cough this up, and we'll get our clients to go away...) was still in the range of 'just the cost of doing business'. The fraud allegations date back to 1999!
1999! Can you say, 'Justice delayed? I knew you could!'
OS suspects that the only cash that will come the way of those pension funds will be from that initial $175 million payout, a great deal of which will go to attorney's fees. AIG will never get around to that stock offering, and the pension funds won't have the muscle, either financial or political, to enforce the remainder of the settlement. It's AIG, after all. They'll pay off the lawyers, and issue an IOU to the pension funds. The State of Ohio will end up having to make the funds whole, somehow.
If we had an honest Justice Department, the perp-walks and plea bargains would have occurred long ago, followed by the civil settlements. That used to be how these things worked. Crooks went to jail, companies paid settlements, and fired the execs who cost the stockholders their wealth. And then sued them.
If we had an honest Justice Department, that is.
They're too busy suing Arizona to give a thought about teacher pensions in Ohio.
American International Group, the troubled insurance giant, has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a long-running securities fraud lawsuit led by three Ohio public pension funds in one of the largest settlements of a class-action case ever in the United States.
Under terms announced Friday, A.I.G. would pay $175 million within 10 days of preliminary court approval of the settlement with a class of shareholders. The company may fund the remaining $550 million through one or more common stock offerings.
The litigation, which began in October 2004, involved allegations that A.I.G. engaged in accounting fraud, bid-rigging and stock price manipulation, said Attorney General Richard Cordray of Ohio, who represented the state’s funds.
The settlement resolves allegations of wide-ranging fraud from October 1999 to April 2005 and brings the expected recovery for A.I.G. shareholders to about $1 billion, Mr. Cordray said.
A.I.G. said it was “pleased to have resolved this matter.”
Well, yes. The settlement figure (which OS refers to as the 'GoAwayNumber'--you cough this up, and we'll get our clients to go away...) was still in the range of 'just the cost of doing business'. The fraud allegations date back to 1999!
1999! Can you say, 'Justice delayed? I knew you could!'
OS suspects that the only cash that will come the way of those pension funds will be from that initial $175 million payout, a great deal of which will go to attorney's fees. AIG will never get around to that stock offering, and the pension funds won't have the muscle, either financial or political, to enforce the remainder of the settlement. It's AIG, after all. They'll pay off the lawyers, and issue an IOU to the pension funds. The State of Ohio will end up having to make the funds whole, somehow.
If we had an honest Justice Department, the perp-walks and plea bargains would have occurred long ago, followed by the civil settlements. That used to be how these things worked. Crooks went to jail, companies paid settlements, and fired the execs who cost the stockholders their wealth. And then sued them.
If we had an honest Justice Department, that is.
They're too busy suing Arizona to give a thought about teacher pensions in Ohio.
BP And Lockerbie, Blair and Ghadaffi
This broadcast on BBC on July 14.
It deserves a close listen.
If this is true, a lot of people in high places have a lot of blood on their hands.
This is very, very bad stuff. One can only hope it is not true.
Condolences to the families of the murdered, as they have to be dragged through their grief once more.
This is very, very bad stuff.
It deserves a close listen.
If this is true, a lot of people in high places have a lot of blood on their hands.
This is very, very bad stuff. One can only hope it is not true.
Condolences to the families of the murdered, as they have to be dragged through their grief once more.
This is very, very bad stuff.
Once Again, Karl Denninger Is On The Mark: The Paltry Goldman-Sachs Settlement
The Angry Man of American Financial Blogdom hits the bullseye once again.
OldSouth heard the announcement of the GS settlement on the radio yesterday.
As Denninger points out, a $550 million dollar fine extracted from a firm with some $75 billion of market cap is simply a cost of doing business. No admission of guilt.
A promise that 'Honest, we'll never ever ever ever do it again--cross our little black banker hearts and hope to die!'.
These people nearly collapsed the world's economy; as in, the ability for normal people living their potty little Main Street/High Street lives to simply go about their business, do their jobs, raise the kids, and maybe have enough at the end to live with a bit of dignity, not forced to share their final years living under the same roof with their kids and grandchildren. That's just in North America and places like the UK. In other parts of the world it means: 'Is there enough food for the children today, and will I get a bit to eat myself?'
And, if you'll look at the announcement in the second link above, there was a sharp move upwards on the GS stock just before the announcement. As in, the settlement number was leaked to the trading desks somewhere, and they were off to the races. That's just run-of-the-mill insider trading, ya'll, nothing to see here.
Tell-ya'-whut-OldSouth's gonna do, in light of the settlement:
He's gonna get with Bubbah, the local independent insurance agent, and buy fire insurance on all the houses for about a mile around. Illegal-illschmegal! We're makin' us some money, honey!
Then, he's gonna sell shares in all those policies to a teachers pension fund in Arkansas--them folks is really stupid, they'll buy anything!
Then, he'll get with Bubbah's cousin Bubbah, fresh back from the pen, stock him up in gasoline and matches, burn down all them houses, and collect the insurance. Pay Bubbah and Bubbah a few grand in cash, send them on their way.
Then, he'll wire the proceeds to the Caymans (what-chew-mean-that-money-belongs-to-that-pension-fund? They'ze in Arkansas, chump! They deserve to lose their money!), turn Bubbah and Bubbah over to the pohleece, and buy himself a seat on the boards of some local charities and get himself elected to the deacon board of the local largest Baptist church he can find.
Now, if Bubbah and Bubbah gits their panties in a wad 'bout goin' to prison, they may tell their side of the story to the pohleece. Let 'em. OS's got lawyers, and heee'z already bought off the judge, and besides, the pohleece iz too stupid to decipher the books and follow the money, and the prosecutor wants to git hired on that law firm that represents OS, anyway. And, the guhvner got himself a piece of the action back there a bit, so there's always a pardon available, jest in case things get nasty. Besides, OS's got some entertaining footage of the guhvner and three or four of his interns--Bambi, Julie, Robert, and Phillip. Very entertaining, know-whud-I-mean?
But, just in case, somebody somewhere someday, decides to pursue him, OS's got him the Goldman-Sachs-Get-Out-Of-Jail-Almost-Free-Card: Get his lawyers to share that footage with the Guhvner, offer that job to the prosecutor, sue those hick teachers in Arkansas for having the temerity to complain, remind the judge where his loyalties lie, and negotiate a fine in the amount of, say .5% of the proceeds of the transaction described above.
Pay the fine, never admitting that anything was ever done wrong to anyone, and promise to never-ever-ever do it again, until the next time.
Fund an orphanage in the Caymans, courtesy of the large local Baptist church. Visit it often.
Make sure Bubbah and Bubbah gets sent up to Brushy Mountain Prison, where they held James Earl Ray all those years, and arrange for them to meet an untimely end.
Gots to clean up them details, you know.
OldSouth heard the announcement of the GS settlement on the radio yesterday.
As Denninger points out, a $550 million dollar fine extracted from a firm with some $75 billion of market cap is simply a cost of doing business. No admission of guilt.
A promise that 'Honest, we'll never ever ever ever do it again--cross our little black banker hearts and hope to die!'.
These people nearly collapsed the world's economy; as in, the ability for normal people living their potty little Main Street/High Street lives to simply go about their business, do their jobs, raise the kids, and maybe have enough at the end to live with a bit of dignity, not forced to share their final years living under the same roof with their kids and grandchildren. That's just in North America and places like the UK. In other parts of the world it means: 'Is there enough food for the children today, and will I get a bit to eat myself?'
And, if you'll look at the announcement in the second link above, there was a sharp move upwards on the GS stock just before the announcement. As in, the settlement number was leaked to the trading desks somewhere, and they were off to the races. That's just run-of-the-mill insider trading, ya'll, nothing to see here.
Tell-ya'-whut-OldSouth's gonna do, in light of the settlement:
He's gonna get with Bubbah, the local independent insurance agent, and buy fire insurance on all the houses for about a mile around. Illegal-illschmegal! We're makin' us some money, honey!
Then, he's gonna sell shares in all those policies to a teachers pension fund in Arkansas--them folks is really stupid, they'll buy anything!
Then, he'll get with Bubbah's cousin Bubbah, fresh back from the pen, stock him up in gasoline and matches, burn down all them houses, and collect the insurance. Pay Bubbah and Bubbah a few grand in cash, send them on their way.
Then, he'll wire the proceeds to the Caymans (what-chew-mean-that-money-belongs-to-that-pension-fund? They'ze in Arkansas, chump! They deserve to lose their money!), turn Bubbah and Bubbah over to the pohleece, and buy himself a seat on the boards of some local charities and get himself elected to the deacon board of the local largest Baptist church he can find.
Now, if Bubbah and Bubbah gits their panties in a wad 'bout goin' to prison, they may tell their side of the story to the pohleece. Let 'em. OS's got lawyers, and heee'z already bought off the judge, and besides, the pohleece iz too stupid to decipher the books and follow the money, and the prosecutor wants to git hired on that law firm that represents OS, anyway. And, the guhvner got himself a piece of the action back there a bit, so there's always a pardon available, jest in case things get nasty. Besides, OS's got some entertaining footage of the guhvner and three or four of his interns--Bambi, Julie, Robert, and Phillip. Very entertaining, know-whud-I-mean?
But, just in case, somebody somewhere someday, decides to pursue him, OS's got him the Goldman-Sachs-Get-Out-Of-Jail-Almost-Free-Card: Get his lawyers to share that footage with the Guhvner, offer that job to the prosecutor, sue those hick teachers in Arkansas for having the temerity to complain, remind the judge where his loyalties lie, and negotiate a fine in the amount of, say .5% of the proceeds of the transaction described above.
Pay the fine, never admitting that anything was ever done wrong to anyone, and promise to never-ever-ever do it again, until the next time.
Fund an orphanage in the Caymans, courtesy of the large local Baptist church. Visit it often.
Make sure Bubbah and Bubbah gets sent up to Brushy Mountain Prison, where they held James Earl Ray all those years, and arrange for them to meet an untimely end.
Gots to clean up them details, you know.
Live Feed From The BP Well: FYI
OS's computer just can't keep up with the multiple cameras BP has feeding into its site. Just found a live video feed link that appears to work well.
Hope this is informative for OS's readers.
Hope this is informative for OS's readers.
Watch live streaming video from wkrg_oil_spill at livestream.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)