The bible-quoting, drug-running leader of Mexico’s notorious La Familia cartel, Nazario Moreno González, is believed to have been killed by federal troops in a two-day gunbattle in the beleaguered state of Michoacan. —JCL The Guardian: The bible-quoting leader of one of Mexico’s six major drug cartels is believed to have been killed in two days of skirmishes with federal forces in a state on the country’s Pacific coast. A tense calm hung over the western state of Michoacán today after fighting that began on Wednesday night and was initially concentrated in and around the city of Apatzingan, one of the core bastions of the La Familia cartel. “Different sources of information obtained during the operation coincide that Nazario Moreno González was killed yesterday,” a government spokesman Alejandro Poire said in a statement to the press. One of the cartel’s founders, Moreno González went by the nicknames El Chayo, The Doctor and the Craziest One, and was infamous for intermingling self-help maxims with quasi-religious justifications for killing rivals. Read more Related Entries November 26, 2010 Brazil’s Real War Against Drugs November 6, 2010 Bloody Battle in Mexican Border Town
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Former President Bill Clinton, the Democrat who brought you such miracles as welfare reform, NAFTA, and “don’t ask, don’t tell,”
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Climate talks in Mexico wrapped up with a bare-bones compromise. Much like every international climate negotiation, some see the pact as a big step forward, while activists claim the deal doesn’t go far enough. The agreement includes setting up a fund to help poorer countries meet goals. But it lacks any legally binding way to get countries to live up to promises to curb emissions. —JCL
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Iraq, or more poignantly Kurdistan, is back in the news after a prominent Iraqi Kurdish leader insisted on the Kurd’s right to self-determination, an issue that has roiled the region’s politics for the past … well, forever it seems. —JCL Al-Jazeera English: A prominent Iraqi Kurdish leader has called for the right to self-determination for his region, the AFP news agency says. Massoud Barzani’s remarks on Saturday came as Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister-designate, is attempting to form a cabinet, in which Barzani’s bloc is expected to obtain several ministerial posts. Speaking at a congress of his Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Barzani said “the issue of self-determination”, which he considered “a right”, would be presented to those attending the conference “to be studied and discussed”. Read more Related Entries November 26, 2010 Brazil’s Real War Against Drugs November 6, 2010 Bloody Battle in Mexican Border Town
Continue reading …Obama Sinking So Low, Daily Show Jokes His Approval Rating for Us is Down
December 11, 2010 No Comment
It shouldn't be surprising that as Barack Obama's approval ratings have dipped (Real Clear Politics average of 45.6 percent ), the liberals at The Daily Show would start turning on the public as ridiculous and fickle. On Thursday night's show, they turned the tables on the polls, and Wyatt Cenac talked about the other opinion measure that is sinking: “Obama’s approval ratings of us.” Stewart played along: “I was not aware actually that they measured that.” Cenac replied: “Oh, yeah. Let's look at the numbers. At present, Obama only approves of 26 percent of all Americans. That’s down from a high of 79 percent and that's across all demographics.” The skit continued: read more
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By Moshe Adler The only way to reduce the uncertainty in our economy right now is to increase taxes. During the Eisenhower years the top tax rate was 91 percent, and there is every reason to return to this rate now. Related Entries December 10, 2010 ‘Left, Right & Center’: Obama in the Middle December 10, 2010 Obama’s Base
Continue reading …Sen. Sherrod Brown writes an open letter to President Obama about the tax deal he worked out with the GOP: Dear Mr. President, With our economy struggling, our working families hurting, and our deficit crisis worsening every year, we need to take action to create jobs, bolster the middle class, and bring our budget into balance. But the agreement you’ve struck with Senate Republicans is a bad deal. It doubles down on a failed strategy of tax cuts for the super-wealthy that would explode our deficit without strengthening our economy. It’s too high a price to pay for the support of those who have continually refused to put the middle class first. Instead of giving in to obstruction, we should fight it. I am willing to stay in session as long as it takes to overcome a filibuster and extend both unemployment benefits for jobless Americans and tax cuts for the middle class. If our colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to spend their holidays refusing to help working families struggling to enjoy a Christmas of their own unless their wealthy friends get another bailout, let them. Mr. President, I know that you share my desire to pass good economic policies that help working families. But a deal that also includes bad policies that will worsen our deficit and fail to help our economy falls short. By standing our ground and standing strong for the middle class, we can do better. And I urge you to do just that. Sincerely, Sherrod Brown U.S. Senator, Ohio You can co-sign Sen. Brown’s letter here .
Continue reading …In these times, there is clearly no way to make light of our ongoing political miasma. We cannot shrug off the unnecessary suffering that grips so many of our fellow Americans, as we take baby steps towards improving an economy in need of a 400-meter dash. But in the tradition of others who have looked at the bleak social conditions that surround them and the corrupt institutions that seek not to improve things, I give you good satire. From Aristophanes to The Onion , it is this form of political dissent that can often engage people in the goings on of their troubled times. Bruce Kluger (full disclosure, a friend who I am helping promote this book) and David Slavin have released a new book, a 2010 version of Twas The Night Before Christmas , which clearly is capable of just that. It will make you laugh, so you don’t cry. Kluger, satirist extraordinaire of NPR & USA Today , along with the similarly accomplished Slavin, uses this laugh-out-loud tome to point us in the direction of only the latest person to suffer on the altar of “Greed Is Good.” Santa himself : Early this morning, Santa Claus, the jolly icon of the holidays and legendary symbol of Christmas for more than 970 years, was asked to step down from his position as chief manufacturer and distributor of holiday toys and merriment. The announcement was made by a spokesman for GigantiCorp, the private equity firm that acquired Santa’s Workshop earlier this year in a historic leveraged buyout. GigantiCorp went on to announce that Claus will be replaced by “a more cost-effective team of regional Santas” scattered around the globe. So apparently we should have broken up the banks and taxed gazillion-dollar bonuses. Who knew? In any case, this is a hilarious book and a great gift for the holidays for your progressive friends.
Continue reading …Even Minor Medical Expenses Cause Problems For Homeowners Who Want To Refinance
December 11, 2010 No CommentIt’s kind of crazy, isn’t it? The high-rollin’ cokeheads of Wall Street crash the economy and collect multi-million dollar bonuses, while you can’t get a second mortgage because you were a few bucks short on a co-pay . I guess it’s your own damned fault for not forking over the dough to Freecreditreport.com! Two erroneous $11 doctor bills stopped Jeanne White from refinancing her home. The 49-year-old resident of Colleyville, Texas, pays 7% on the mortgage for her three-bedroom house. In October, she says, she was shocked to learn that the two medical bills, which had been turned over to a collection agency, had caused her credit score to fall to 680 from 757—making refinancing far too expensive. “I was told I’d have to pay $14,000 in closing costs to get a 5.5% interest rate,” Ms. White says, substantially more than she would have paid with a higher credit score. When Ms. White, a retired sales manager, contacted the doctor’s office, she found out the bills had been issued in error. Ms. White’s case is hardly an isolated one. Otherwise well-qualified borrowers with good loan-to-value ratios and steady employment are increasingly finding it difficult to refinance because of medical billing mistakes marring their credit, say mortgage bankers and real-estate agents. Jeanne White of Colleyville, Texas, saw her refinancing costs skyrocket after her credit score was dinged by two disputed $11 doctor bills—and is now in limbo as interest rates rise. Rodney Anderson, executive director of Supreme Lending, a mortgage bank in Plano, Texas, calls medical debt the single biggest roadblock for would-be refinacers. “People have no idea that they still owe small amounts which later end up on their credit report,” he says.
Continue reading …Burning Styleite Question: ‘Why Isn’t Sarah Palin Selling More Clothes?’
December 11, 2010 No CommentJustin Fenner at Styleite needs to buy a clue or two about how women who like Sarah Palin think and act, and about Palin herself. In a post late Friday afternoon , he asked, “Why Isn’t Sarah Palin Selling More Clothes?” (bolds are mine): read more
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