Blogging from the Bog

   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.

   Radovan Karadzic was arrested for war crimes by the Serbian security forces Monday after eluding his pursuers for over 10 years.  He is being incarcerated in Belgrade today to face the War Crimes Court on several charges including genocide.

   Karadzic, as leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the 1991-95 war, is to be prosecuted for a 1995 incident in which 8,000 men and boys were slaughtered in the town of Srebrenica.  More criminal charges are to be brought against him for extermination, persecution, and inhumane acts, among others.

   Stojan Zupljanin, head of the Bosnian police at the time, was arrested last month for similar crimes.  General Mladic, another indicted criminal, is still being sought by authorities.

   EU Observer coverage here.

 Radovan Karadzic

   During this time of high mortgage payments, dwindling property values, and rising heating and energy costs some people are beginning to think seriously about tailoring their housing needs.  Some downsizing alternatives have been with us for years, mobile homes, houseboats and caravans; but, these are neither stationary nor controversial.  There is another option being explored today that both delights some and infuriates others. 

   Jay Shafer is a former art teacher who has been invited to speaking engagements in the United States and Canada to promote his ideas on "tiny houses".  For ten years he has been residing comfortably in a succession of homes that were all less than 100 square feet in size.  This man is not "living large" though he is getting large receptions wherever he speaks to enthusiastic audiences who are concerned with the environment, reducing overhead expenses, and looking for something suitable to their changing needs.

   Not all is rosy however in this Lilliputian land of little houses.  Many local residents are outspoken and concerned that these miniatures, built in their neighbourhoods, will cause housing prices to drop even further. 

   *  Here is a YouTube link for a tour of his house.

   Sensitive top level negotiations, back-door channels, and clandestine meetings are all common phrases used in describing how governments and their representatives conduct themselves while pursuing the aims and ambitions concerned with the national interest.  It is not of course in the national interest for anyone who voted in these governments to have any knowledge of these secret arrangements, let alone question them.  By the time the deal is done, the spin prepared, and the project put into motion it is too late for the citizen to halt the momentum.

   The European Union’s Commission and its’ Parliament conduct themselves no differently; but, by exploring their actions we can uncover their aims.  What started out as a cultural and economic association of diverse countries with unique social histories may be heading down a dangerous path. 

   As a whole the European nations are net importers of, and heavily dependent upon, oil and natural gas from the Middle East and Russia.  In a bid to harness some of these reserves Nicolas Sarkozy, acting as temporary President of Europe, will host a summit on Sunday concerning the future of his pet project The Barcelona Process, also called the Mediterranean Union or simply Club Med.  The intention of this Union is to bring the Middle East and North Africa into the sphere of European influence.  This concept has been on the drawing board for years but Sarkozy hopes to champion this cause and has made it one of his priorities.

   The European Army has several thousand troops stationed in the former French protectorate of Chad, and are there under a UN mandate, to conduct peacekeeping operations for the protection of refugees.  Most of these refugees are from Sudan where they were under constant threat from their own government forces and Sudanese rebels who are funded by these same leaders.  In a proposal that can only be described as ludicrous, if not treasonous, Louis Michel, European Commissioner for Developement and Humanitarian Aid, has promised €400 million to the very government who created the refugee catastrophe in the first place.  Despite the fact that his counterpart in the Sudanese government, Ahman Harun, is a fugitive from justice and is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity this project is being pushed through.  Isn’t this counterproductive to the UN mission?

   Ambitious programs that would have been given a green light once the Lisbon Treaty was brought into force on its’ projected date of January 1, 2009 are not necessarily doomed just because the referendum was rejected by the Irish.  Plans for European Embassies to be managed by a new diplomatic corps, a new unaccountable Interior Ministry, and an elite military force headed up by France may still see the light of day.  Why all the duplicity, secrecy, and covert activity?

   The countries of the world, both great and small, are arming themselves with new alliances, agreements, and treaties in preparation for the Resource Race.  There is a concerted effort by these countries to align favourably with other nations for protection, prosperity, and provisions for the coming days.  If the European Union goes ahead with it’s military, expansionist, and protectionist policies this resource race will only escalate as the arms race did.  We need to find equitable solutions for the coming time when there will be less natural resources to go around before the nations get to a point of armed conflict.

 Louis Michel

   Former SAS officer, Eton school graduate, and heir to a brewing empire, Simon Mann was sentenced today to 34 years at the infamous Black Beach prison for his involvement in a conspiracy to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea.

   During the trial, which lasted just over two weeks, the defendant confessed to his part in the military operation in hopes of securing a reduced sentence.  Mann, who looked slight and frail, appeared in court wearing gray prison garments, his wrist chains and leg irons temporarily removed.  He apologized in open court to the President and government officials of Equatorial Guinea for his role in the attempted coup while implicating the governments of Spain and South Africa in the plot.

   Mann also accused Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and a Lebanese businessman of being the lead conspirators and "bosses" of the failed operation. 

   The Attorney General of Equatorial Guinea, Jose Oboso, announced that legal proceedings will be filed against Mark Thatcher tomorrow and that he will use all means necessary to bring Thatcher back to Equatorial Guinea for trial.

 Simon Mann