Politics and Legislation
The Goldwater Institute Suing Obama’s Agenda 21 Scheme: Blocking Water To Tombstone, Arizona USA!
April 29, 2012 by Volubrjotr
TOMBSTONE
Almost one year later, the legendary town of Tombstone, Arizona is no closer to beginning the repair of waterlines destroyed as a result of widespread forest fires and mudslides. Unearthing pipelines from as much as twelve feet of mud and boulders, and repairing aqueducts destroyed in the Monument Fire of 2011, ought to be daunting enough for a town of 1,500. But, throw in the bureaucratic nightmare of the US Forest Service and it becomes an all but impossible task.
As if to further prove Jeffrey Tucker’s argument that “the [modern] state works to reverse progress in every possible way,” the feds have declared that any work to repair the pipelines will have to be done using equipment straight out of the 19th Century. According to The Goldwater Institute, which has sued the US Forest Service on behalf of Tombstone, the city was told it would have to use “horses and hand tools to remove boulders the size of Volkswagens.”
The town currently relies on ground wells to survive, but there is an insufficient supply to protect the town in the event of more disasters. City manager George Barnes said their present situation “doesn’t allow for a building fire, a well-pump failure; it doesn’t allow for much of anything.”
U.S. seeks to modernize NATO, deepen partnerships
CHICAGO — The United States will push to modernize NATO, deepen alliance partnerships and hammer out details of the Afghanistan withdrawal at an upcoming summit, White House officials said Thursday.
“The alliance needs to be more deployable and more adaptable and we’re taking those lessons learned from Afghanistan and integrating them into our planning going forward,” said Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, the National Security Council’s director of European affairs.
NATO is pursuing a number of “smart defense” initiatives that will ensure that in an era of constrained military budgets, the transatlantic military alliance acts as a “force multiplier” that avoids “duplication or wasted expenditure,” she said.
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Economy
Romney Advises Broke, About-to-be-Unemployed College Students: “Just Borrow Money From Your Parents!”
…….Think I’m exaggerating? The Mittster’s latest Richie Rich moment from the campaign trail has him regaling an audience of economically anxious college students with some swell advice on how to succeed in business: just be like his “friend” sandwich shop entrepreneur Jimmy John, and get your parents to bankroll the costs of a start-up! Hey, that sounds easy — why didn’t I think of that?!
Here’s Mittens:
This kind of divisiveness, this attack of success, is very different than what we’ve seen in our country’s history. We’ve always encouraged young people: Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business……
Republicans Want to Axe Food Stamps to Preserve Exorbitant Military Budget
For the Republicans’ constant trumpeting of saving the economy in public, they have proven time and again that’s exactly the opposite of what they want to do. The latest: the GOP would like to save the disproportionate defense spending by… cutting food stamps. No, America, they do not care about your well being, or whether all of us can afford to eat. The Huffington Post:
In a memo sent to members Wednesday instructing them how to write their reconciliation bill, Republicans picked a number of targets, including extracting $80 billion from federal workers and $44 billion from health care. In all, it identifies $78 billion to cut in 2013, and details around $300 billion over 10 years.
Gulf Coast Waters Closed to Shrimping
The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources acted this week to close waters along the Gulf Coast to shrimping due to widespread reports from scientists and fishermen of deformed seafood and drastic fall-offs in populations two years after the BP oil spill. ['Official' reason is now reported to be smaller than average shrimp.]
All waters in the Mississippi Sound and Mobile Bay, and some areas of Bon Secour, Wolf Bay and Little Lagoon were closed to shrimpers. Reports of grossly deformed seafood all along the Gulf from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle have been logged with increasing urgency, but Alabama is the first state to actually close waters to the seafood industry.
The Bailout Of The US Postal Service Begins: Cost To Taxpayers – $110,000 Per Union Vote “Saved Or Gained”
Submitted by Tyler Durden
A week ago, when reading between the lines of what had heretofore been considered an inevitable USPS episode of austerity in which hundreds of thousands of labor union workers would lose their jobs but in the process would streamline a thoroughly outdated and inefficient US Postal Office bureaucracy, we asked if a US Postal Service bailout was imminent, focusing on the following: “Enter Ron Bloom, Lazard, and the very same crew that ended up getting a taxpayer funded bailout for GM. From the WSJ: “The Postal Service’s proposal to close thousands of post offices and cut back on the number of days that mail is delivered “won’t work” and would accelerate the agency’s decline, according to the six-page report by Ron Bloom, President Barack Obama’s former auto czar, and investment bank Lazard Ltd., LAZ who were hired by the union in October.” That’s right: after all the huffing and puffing about “sacrifice” and austerity, the labor union took one long look at the only option… and asked what other option is there.” The other option, it turns out courtesy of news from AP, is the first of many incremental bail outs of the US Postal Office, better known in pre-election circles as hundreds of thousands of unionized votes up for the taking, and which could be bought for the low low price of $11 billion in taxpayer money, or $110,000 per vote! And so the latest bailout of yet another terminally inefficient and outdated government entity begins.
The Senate offered a lifeline to the nearly bankrupt U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday, voting to give the struggling agency an $11 billion cash infusion while delaying controversial decisions on closing post offices and ending Saturday delivery.
By a 62-37 vote, senators approved a measure which had divided mostly along rural-urban lines. Over the past several weeks, the bill was modified more than a dozen times, adding new restrictions on closings and cuts to service that rural-state senators said would hurt their communities the most.
The issue now goes to the House, which has yet to consider a separate version of the bill.
“The Postal Service is an iconic American institution that still delivers 500 million pieces of mail a day and sustains 8 million jobs,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., a bill co-sponsor. “This legislation will change the USPS so it can stay alive throughout the 21st century.”
One would think that the USPS workers would be delighted as a result… One would be wrong. This is merely the beginning:
The mail agency, however, criticized the measure, saying it fell far short in stemming financial losses. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said if the bill became law, he would have to return to Congress in a few years to get emergency help.
“It is totally inappropriate in these economic times to keep unneeded facilities open. There is simply not enough mail in our system today,” the Postal Service’s board of governors said in a statement. “It is also inappropriate to delay the implementation of five-day delivery.”
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Wars and Rumors of War
Humanitarian Crisis Continues in Gaza
Published on Apr 28, 2012 by TheRealNews
Dr. Mads Gilbert: The siege of Gaza continues to make life unbearable
Bio
Dr. Mads Gilbert is a Norwegian Physician long known for his studies on children and infants in time of war. Dr. Gilbert co-founded NORWAC, a Norwegian-Palestinian humanitarian aid organization. He worked in an underground Palestinian refugee camp hospital in Beirut during the 1982 Israeli invasion and bombardment of Lebanon and again in Beirut during the Summer 2006 Israeli war against Lebanon. He was one of only a small handful of westerners in Gaza during the Israeli attack from Dec. 27th 2008 to January 18th, 2009. After the attack, he testified as an expert witnesses at subsequent Human Rights Committee Sessions held at the United Nations in Geneva.
Watch full multipart Humanitarian Crisis Continues in Gaza
Syria, Waco, Occupy, and Los Angeles
By Tony Cartalucci
BlacklistedNews.com
Image: While the UN demands that Syria not only allow admittedly armed terrorists to roam freely through its cities, but that they also capitulate to their demands, the West has driven peaceful “Occupy” protesters from the streets of their cities by force. One wonders what events would have followed if protesters being sprayed and beaten in the streets pulled out assault rifles and fired on police. Would Washington withdraw security forces and entertain their demands?
April 27, 2012 – While the West demands Syria pull its security forces from cities where roving bands of terrorists are on record committing widespread atrocities including the kidnapping, torture, and murder of civilians, as documented by the West’s own Human Rights Watch report, “Syria: Armed Opposition Groups Committing Abuses,” it has denied its own citizens the right to even peacefully assemble at “Occupy” protests to address their grievances back home. Syria’s government has been threatened continuously by the West to begin a process of political “transition,” or more accurately, to submit to Western-backed regime change, in the face of armed militants, while the West itself maintains a strict policy of non-negotiation with terrorist demands.
Image: Homs, Syria? No, this is Waco, Texas after a combination of military and federal security forces raided, burned down, and killed nearly every man, woman, and child in this sprawling complex located on private property. The US will kill its own citizens with weapons of war just for breaking their laws, mentioning nothing of what they would do should Americans take to the streets and carry out a campaign of terror while demanding the government step down.
As the West conjures up a myriad of excuses to sweep prolonged “Occupy” protests off the streets of their biggest cities, they insist that the Syrians not only tolerate an armed “occupation,” but capitulate immediately to their demands. But one must wonder just what any given Western nation would do if protesters demanded the nation’s leadership to stand down, and did so through armed violence.
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Articles of Interest
Metro faces Public Backlash Over Counter-Terror initiative
After Metro made a big deal about bringing TSA to area bus stops, dozens of angry citizens came to tell Metro …. Keep TSA Away!
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CBS – Milwaukee Red Cross Told To Prep For Chicago Evacuation During NATO Summit
Chicago Evacuation During NATO Summit
CHICAGO (CBS) – Is there a secret plan to evacuate some residents of Chicago in the event of major trouble during the NATO summit next month? CBS 2 has uncovered some evidence that there is. It comes from the Milwaukee area branch of the American Red Cross.
CBS 2 News has obtained a copy of a Red Cross e-mail sent to volunteers in the Milwaukee area.
It said the NATO summit “may create unrest or another national security incident. The American Red Cross in southeastern Wisconsin has been asked to place a number of shelters on standby in the event of evacuation of Chicago.”
According to a chapter spokesperson, the evacuation plan is not theirs alone.
“Our direction has come from the City of Chicago and the Secret Service,” she said.
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