Blogging from the Bog

Classified By: Ambassador James C. Kenny; Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).

¶1. (C) This is an action request. Please see para 10.

¶2. (C) Summary: Although supportive of continued U.S.
military transits at Shannon Airport, the Irish Government
has informally begun to place constraints on U.S. operations
at the facility, mainly in response to public sensitivities
over U.S. actions in the Middle East. Shannon remains a key
transit point for U.S. troops and materiel bound for theaters
in the global war on terror, while yielding diplomatic
benefits for the Irish Government and significant revenues
for the airport and regional economy. Segments of the Irish
public, however, see the airport as a symbol of Irish
complicity in perceived U.S. wrongdoing in the Gulf/Middle
East and in regard to extraordinary renditions, a view that
underpinned a recent jury decision to acquit the "Shannon
Five" protesters who damaged a U.S. naval aircraft. The
Irish Government has repeatedly defended U.S. interests in
the face of public criticism, but has recently introduced
more cumbersome notification requirements for
equipment-related transits in the wake of the Lebanon
conflict. These requirements, which entail a more expansive
interpretation of munitions of war, are designed to give the
Irish Government mor latitude to decide on allowable
transits, accoring to a senior Department of Foreign Affairs
oficial. We suspect that the Government aims with tese new
constraints to dampen public criticism ahead of the 2007
general elections, and we would apreciate Department
gudance on a USG response, including on any next steps
regarding the Shannon Five. End summary.

Full document here.

On Wednesday night the 21st of July David Mow went to his local ATM machine and withdrew eighty dollars. Early the following morning he sent a cheerful text to his fiance. No one has seen or heard from him since. David, his vehicle, and cellphone vanished.

Mr. Mow, 56, is a highly regarded building contractor in San Diego and beloved resident of the North Park area. Known as a "creature of habit" to those close to him, the circumstances surrounding his dissapearance are considered highly unusual. David may suffer from an undiagnosed illness that had caused him to lose consciousness some months earlier.

David’s friends, family, and fiance have mounted an ambitious effort this past week to locate him. The local authorities have been contacted, private investigators have been hired, and the area has been flooded with pictures, posters, and fliers. Someone, somewhere, has seen David since last Thursday, any information from the public would be gratefully appreciated by those looking for him. 

A site has been created on Facebook to disseminate information, the San Diego Chapter of the Coffee Party USA has sent out an announcement, and the good people at Project Jason have issued and alert.

Thousands of people go missing each year for a variety of reasons; but, David Mow’s case is a mystery to those who know him.

 David Mow and daughter Hannah

   The Congressional race in Arizona’s 8th District, against incumbent Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, is attracting some interesting candidates from the Republican side.  All three are low on campaign funds, have military backgrounds, and are regurgitating Right Wing RadioSpeak at their public gatherings.

   What sets Andy Goss apart from the rest is his online presence and the fact that he is raffling off a DPMS Panther AR-15 Rifle with 200 rounds of ammunition at $5 a ticket, or 5 tickets for $20 if you act fast and get to his site, the raffle ends on the first of March. To see what your fiver could get you, watch this video.

   Andy is quite the keyboard cowboy and writes long opinion pieces many places online, including TCUnation, and Regular Folks United.  It is on the latter site that you can read this, from a post entitled "Time to Hunt":  "There is no incentive for illegals not to breach our borders.  That needs to change and change now.  They present a clear and present danger to our nation.  Anyone who would tell you otherwise is not worth wasting oxygen on.  I favor on the spot field trials and executions of those drug runners we catch. I favor injecting them with the microscopic tracking devices we already have the technology for to track their movements once they try to re-enter our country illegally.  I favor charging the Mexican Government for everyone we catch that we feed and shelter.  Heck, I favor a MOAB on Mexico City.  Of course, my personal feelings and policy wishes will never come to fruition and if given the opportunity to run for office I could not realistically present a lot of my plans."  Good feckin’ thing Andy! 

   In case you are wondering what a MOAB is, it is a high explosive air blast bomb nicknamed the "Mother of all Bombs".  If Andy is paying any money for political expertise in this run for Congress then maybe he should ask for his money back!

   The tragedy in Texas today has set the internet ablaze.  A small plane was flown into an IRS building in Austin.  Hopefully all those inside will survive.  Joe Stack, the pilot, left a message on his website ebbededart.com (the site has been removed) but the manifesto is making it’s way around the net.  Some are calling him "insane", "crazy", or a "domestic terrorist" while others have started groups on Facebook that sympathize and even applaud his actions.  Such is the state of the American social and political divide.

   Any act of violence perpetrated by individuals, groups, or governments is reprehensible. 

   Those "in the know" have realised for a long time that acts of terrorism around the world are carried out by those who believe, or are led to believe, that they are marginalised, disenfrachised, or desperate.  After reading Stack’s manifesto it is apparent that he felt that way.  The news hacks debating his sanity are not even scratching the surface of the deeper issue.  As long as we in the West simply believe that suicide terrorists are all insane we will never win a war on terror.

   The seeds of terrorism are sown in the fields of desperation.

   Caged canaries were once brought deep into the coal mines to act as an early warning system for the workers.  If the bird fell off its perch and died the miners knew the air was becoming unfit to breathe.  Around the world men, women, and children are being subjected to this same fate.  Today, in our battle for survival, as in any other war, the decision makers are far removed from the danger.  Ira Rennert is one such decision maker. 

   If you’ve never heard of him you are not alone, he likes his privacy.  He hides behind dozens of corporations and lives on a 60 acre sanctuary in New York state next to the Atlantic Ocean. 

   Rennert is the man behind the curtain at Renco Group, a private holding company, that owns the Doe Run mining concern who were expelled from Peru recently for the ongoing environmental abuses attributed to them since 1997.  In an article published yesterday titled "US Firm kicked out of Peru mining group for pollution." and carried by Yahoo news, the author relates that the La Oroya mining operation is one of the top ten most polluted sites in the world.  What the article does not cover though is the suffering inflicted upon the townspeople of La Oroya 150 kilometers east of Lima.

   In order to correct that oversite I would kindly ask you to watch this video.

   Ira Rennert may be the worlds worst polluter.

   In July of 2009, one month before President Obama and his family visited the Grand Canyon, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced a two year moratorium on new mining ventures encompassing one million acres of public lands around the canyon.  The key word here is "new". 

  For over five decades reckless uranium mining has left a catostrophic impact on the environment and the people living in the southwest region.  Guided by the antiquated Mining Act of 1872, which states that for anyone with the right paperwork and a fee of $5 an acre, they can lease the mineral rights from the government and can control and extract precious metals for personal profit.  This law was instituted under President Ullysses S. Grant to encourage westward expansion and allow individual prospectors to stake claims on public lands to mine for gold and silver.

   Corporations have taken over from the grizzly faced gold panners of yesteryear and have wreaked havoc ever since, as evidenced by the movie "Poison Wind",  here’s the trailer.  Because of a decline in uranium prices many mines have been left dormant for years; but, the pollution from those activites and the residual radioactive waste left behind is still problematic.

   According to Cyndy Cole, reporting on January 13, 2010 for the Arizona Daily Sun, things are about to change.  She writes "It’s expected that six uranium mines could open on federal lands bordering the Grand Canyon, according to estimates by the Bureau of Land Management, and more than 7,500 claims have been filed in northern Arizona".  In the article Cyndy relates that Denison Mines resumed mining activites 10 miles from the Grand Canyon National Park in December 2009, six months after Obama’s family trip.  Denison Mines also has several uranium extracting sites on the Colorado Plateau near the source of the Colorado River which runs through the Grand Canyon and supplies fresh drinking water to over 25 million residents in the desert southwest.

   H.R. 644 was sponsored by Arizona Representative Raul Grijalva and would make Salazar’s temporary halt on mining permanent.  The bill is not expected to be acted upon until late in the year (after the elections) and will no doubt be met by opposition from Senate Majority leader Harry Reid because of his ties to the mining industry.

   In the new John Cameron blockbuster, the 3D fantasy "Avatar", a foreign corporation swoops down on an indigenous forest peoples to plunder their resources. Armed with mercenaries, a business plan, and an insatiable desire for shareholder profits, they will stop at nothing to feed their greed. The fantasy part of the story is it’s location.

   For thirty years Texaco, now owned by Chevron, profited from cheap oil extracted from the forests of the Amazon (known as the "lungs" of our planet) leaving behind an environmental disaster for the people of Equador. Following the logic expressed by Ann Coulter in her quote "God said so: Go forth, be fruitful, multiply, and rape the planet–it’s yours. That’s our job: drilling, mining, and stripping.", many corporations, including Hunt Oil in Peru, are doing just that.

   Since 2003 the Equadorians have been seeking justice for this crime against the earth in the courts of the United States and Equador. Isn’t there a moral obligation by these corporations to preserve the planet despite whatever legal liabilities are assessed? A movie of this struggle was recently released called "Crude" and the trailer is posted below as well as a video of the "60 Minutes" expose on the subject.

Link to the trailer here.

60 Minutes News show report here.

   On Sunday the Swedish Pirate Party boarded the EU super-ship the S.S. Brussels by winning a seat in Parliament with 7 percent of the popular vote.  According to founder Rick Falkvinge, the platform of: reform to copywrite law, reform of the patent system, and respect for online privacy has struck a chord with the file-share generation and those concerned with keeping internet communications secure.

   The Piratpartiet was begun as recently as January of 2006 by Falkvinge, et al, and has been warmly received, especially by new voters, becoming the third most popular political party in Sweden.  Several other chapters have sprung up in the last couple of years with less success; but, the win in Europe is sure to add wind to the sails of these brazen buccaneers of byte-booty. 

    You can read Rick’s blog here.

   Who wouldn’t want to throw a shoe at George Bush?  The President and Commander in Chief of the country that embodies capitalism and free enterprise shows his leadership abilities and understanding of the situation during this time of financial difficulty by saying, "I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system."  This is about the same as saying that, "We will be taking away your inalienable rights to protect our free society."  What a gobshite…

   These bailouts for badly run financial institutions, car manufacturers, and semi-state home mortgage bodies is the worst course of action to take and will only insure deeper economic miseries over a longer period of time.  The open market system should be allowed to operate and weed out the mismanaged and incompetant companies by take overs, distribution of assets, and bankruptcies just as any other industry.

   It may bring you a little holiday humour to have your very own chance to fling a shoe at George Dubya for whatever reasons that might occur to you so click on this link and have a go!  You’ll be glad you did!

 Throw a shoe at this fool!

   Having all the necessary ingredients at hand, in the proper quantities, and of high quality, is usually essential when making tasty dinners and desserts.  The same can be said for creating an atmosphere of optimism for recovery in an economy which is spiralling downward into lower and lower regions day after day without a bottom in sight.  Haphazardly throwing whatever is at hand into a pot just to fill it up is a chancey approach to making a stew and so it is with tossing billions in bail-out money at the financial institutions to "force" an economic recovery.

   We talked before on this blog, back in March, about the money machine in a five part series of how currency, wealth, and values have changed.  Not much has happened in the financial or political circles since then that has convinced me that the Irish government would be doing anything proactive or constructive to remedy our own situation.  The mismanagement of the public finances over the past 15 years has put us in an extremely bad position to weather out this economic perfect storm. 

   David "indigestion" McWilliams is grasping at optimistic straws in his article in the Sunday Business Post today; but, if it’s cheerleading you think you should be doing David, then go for it…just remember cheerleaders don’t win the games…it’s the players who have to make the points, and our side has forgotten who they are playing for.  A quote from the article reads, "House prices and accomodation costs in general will collapse, unemployment will force wage rates down, transport prices will get lower and, more to the point, Science Foundation Ireland will spend €7 billion on education and training in the years ahead."  The Science Foundation?  That’s a joke right?  And the funding for the "brutal infrastructure"? is to be paid for…by whom? the entrepreneurs we hope to "suck in" from all over Europe?

   The only ones that will be getting sucked-in is us the taxpayers, the home owners, the skilled work force and the students, apart from that I cannot see anyone contributing to the black hole the politicians have made of Irish fiscal policy.  Oh wait!  How many billions will be promised if we get it right next time on the Lisbon Treaty referendum? 

   You can read David’s blog here.