Archive
McClatchy – Overrun by narcos, once-posh Acapulco is in agony
From McClatchy:
Overrun by narcos, once-posh Acapulco is in agony
Rival criminal gangs have hijacked this glitzy-but-faded Pacific resort, where the Hollywood Rat Pack once sipped martinis, Elvis filmed a musical comedy, Elizabeth Taylor wed (again) and starlets danced the night away.
The Year China Discovered America
or…
PBS – Blueprint America | The Big Fix
Blueprint America | The Big Fix
57 min – May 11, 2009
Will fixing our infrastructure save the economy? “Blueprint America” reports.
video.pbs.org – Related videos
Blueprint America harnesses the power of public broadcasting’s most prestigious programs, primetime documentaries, and the web to shine an
unyielding spotlight on one of the most critical issues facing our country: America’s decaying and neglected infrastructure.
Arianna Huffington: Third World America
Bobby and Rory Kennedy: Border Fence a Waste of Tax Dollars
Neo-Nazi Vigilantes Patrolling Border
Related…
The Border Fence – NOW on PBS
Mosaic News – 10/18/10: World News From The Middle East
Glenn Greenwald – How propaganda is disseminated: WikiLeaks Edition
From Salon:
How propaganda is disseminated: WikiLeaks Edition
AP/WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
This is how the U.S. government and American media jointly disseminate propaganda: in the immediate wake of some newsworthy War on Terror event, U.S. Government officials (usually anonymous) make wild and reckless — though unverifiable — claims. The U.S. media mindlessly trumpets them around the world without question or challenge. Those claims become consecrated as widely accepted fact. And then weeks, months or years later, those claims get quietly exposed as being utter falsehoods, by which point it does not matter, because the goal is already well-achieved: the falsehoods are ingrained as accepted truth.
Justin Elliott – Video: Joe Miller’s guards strong-arm the press
From The War Room:
Video: Joe Miller’s guards strong-arm the press
New video has emerged of the Sunday incident in which Alaska journalist Tony Hopfinger was detained by private security guards working for GOP Senate candidate and Tea Partier Joe Miller.
The video was taken by a reporter with the Anchorage Daily News. In it, Miller’s guards, who work for a company called Dropzone and seem to be doing their best Secret Service impression, try to make ADN reporter Richard Mauer leave as he interviews Hopfinger. The town hall event was open to the public and was held in a public school.
Says one of the guards, “If you don’t leave right now, I’m gonna put you in handcuffs too.”
Here’s the fairly dramatic video, via the Anchorage Daily News:
TPM – Joe Miller On Securing The Border: ‘If East Germany Could, We Could’ (VIDEO)
From TPM:
Joe Miller On Securing The Border: ‘If East Germany Could, We Could’ (VIDEO)
Alaska Republican Senate nominee Joe Miller was asked about illegal immigration at his town hall Sunday, and he said that the country’s first priority should be to secure the border. “If East Germany could, we could,” he said. Read More »
Other…
Glenn Beck Hawking Survivalist Disaster Kits
Eric Lach | October 19, 2010, 8:39AM
Glenn Beck closes out the “Restoring Honor” rally in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 2010
If you ever find yourself in a post-nuclear holocaust environment and come across people eating beef stroganoff, odds are they’ll be Glenn Beck fans.
The Raw Story – ‘Foreclosure mill’ gave employees jewelry, cars, houses to forge documents: testimony
From The Raw Story:
‘Foreclosure mill’ gave employees jewelry, cars, houses to forge documents: testimony
By Stephen C. Webster
Monday, October 18th, 2010 — 9:50 pmAccording to sworn statements released by the Florida Attorney General’s office, one of the state’s “foreclosure mills” bribed employees with jewelry, cars and houses to forge and alter documents required by courts conducting foreclosure proceedings.
Kelly Scott and Mary Cordova, two former employees of Florida attorney David J. Stern, were close to the process. Both described to investigators a secretive system designed to speed up foreclosures, and their testimonies seem to match up with claims made by Tammie Lou Kapusta, another former Stern employee.
Their statements were published online Monday afternoon.
Other…
Who’s who in the foreclosure scandal: A primer on the players
Kaiser Health News – Campaign Claims: Health Law Myths And Facts
From Kaiser Health News:
Campaign Claims: Health Law Myths And Facts
Kaiser Health News staff writer Julie Appleby and The Washington Post’s N.C. Aizenman report: “The debate that preceded passage of the health-care overhaul resumed as a heated issue in the midterm elections. Politicians and advocacy groups seeking repeal of the law are making dramatic claims about the its cost and effects. How valid are they? We evaluate some of the most common criticisms” (Kaiser Health News).
Nature News – Stone Age flour found across Europe
From Nature News:
Stone Age flour found across Europe
Starch residues on stone tools suggest early humans ate a balanced diet.
Firedoglake – Soros’ Foundation Links Army Field Manual’s Appendix M to US Torture in Afghanistan
From Firedoglake:
Soros’ Foundation Links Army Field Manual’s Appendix M to US Torture in Afghanistan
By: Jeff Kaye Tuesday October 19, 2010 6:07 am
photo: Leo Reynolds via Flickr
Last week, George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF) published an important policy brief, “Confinement Conditions at a U.S. Screening Facility on Bagram Air Base.” The report has been widely described in the press, as in this article by AFP:
The US military is mistreating detainees — and violating its own rules — at a secret prison in Afghanistan, a US think tank said Friday in a report.
The 16-page report by the Open Society Foundation said Afghans call the secret site “Tor Jail,” or “Black Jail,” and that consistent accounts from detainees refer to being kept without adequate shelter or food or other basic rights.
The independent investigation by OSF is consistent with news reports of torture and abuse at secret black sites run by JSOC in Afghanistan, including articles by the New York Times and Washington Post. Last May, BBC reported that they received confirmation on the existence of the black site from a Red Cross spokesman, while Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic described the JOSC black site as being “manned by intelligence operatives and interrogators who work for the DIA’s Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center (DCHC)… [performing] interrogations for a sub-unit of Task Force 714, an elite counter-terrorism brigade.” The spate of news articles led Physicians for Human Rights to opine last May whether it was “possible that officials were relying on Appendix M of the 2006 Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations (AFM),” noting that the “appendix authorizes the use of two of the tactics — sleep deprivation and isolation — allegedly being applied to detainees.”
Economist’s View – “That Sinking Feeling”
From Economist’s View:
The administration, through its actions, is now viewed more as an ally of big banks than as an ally of ordinary people. “Employment never seemed to be the top priority” is a good characterization of the problem:
Winter Patriot – Surprise! Canadian Forces Commander Was A Serial Killer
From Winter Patriot:
Surprise! Canadian Forces Commander Was A Serial Killer
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Kickingcrow's Weblog 