Sometimes satire isn't funny because it's too close to the reality

 

Golden Trump statue turning heads at CPAC was made in … Mexico

Suddenly Sunday...

Finding cave paintings in Mexico

About the earthquake swarm near the Lassen Volcanic Center.... nothing to do with volcanoes.  (Rats.)

What the soldiers in the Vietnam War really thought.

Colony Collapse Disorder.

Marching against Monsanto.  Because of things like this.  And who actually owns organic products.

And because I haven't posted for a while... kittens and cats

US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, spyware, ransomware and trojans to attack pirates!

Unexpected Health Insurance Rate Shock-California Obamacare Insurance Exchange Announces Premium Rates

Mexico will be the new test site for high fructose corn syrup

Mr. Mills of Credit Suisse says that A.D.M., Tate & Lyle and Corn Products International all have had big sales increases of high-fructose corn syrup in Mexico, largely offsetting their United States declines.

In a reversal, manufacturers are replacing the sugar in Mexican soda and other beverages with the less-expensive high-fructose corn syrup. In Mexico this year, consumption of the sweetener is expected to be up by a whopping 50 percent, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

"Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever"

The words of the famous Alabama governor George Wallace. Kinda fits Arizona at the moment though...

The Onion has the best take: Arizona High Schools To Now Teach Spanish Entirely In English

More scary brown people, armed and dangerous!

OMG OMG!!1!

From an email making the rounds:

Subject: Invasion Character of Illegal Alien Flood Becomes Clearer

The real nature of the illegal immigrant flood across our southern border becomes clearer as armed insurgents take over Texas ranches. When is America going to wake up that this isn't an immigration issue. It is an invasion issue and we are at war with the insurgents. Take action and cast these rats back off the ship.

BREAKING: MULTIPLE RANCHES IN LAREDO, TX TAKEN OVER BY LOS ZETAS
Published 07/24/2010 - 2:30 p.m. CST
The bloodbath continues along our southern border and now word is coming in that Los Zetas, the highly trained killers formerly with the Gulf Cartel, have crossed into the United States and taken over at least two ranches in the Laredo, Texas area. I am receiving word that the owners of the ranches have evacuated without being harmed.
Founder of the San Diego Minutemen Jeff Schwilk tipped me off to this story and passes along the following information on the location. The ranches are said to be "near Mines Rd. and Minerales Annex Rd about 10 miles NW of I-35".

OMG .. a really really major international incident.... except .. oddly... it's being denied by everybody.

Right-wing blogs have been promoting a rumor that "highly trained killers" from a Mexican drug gang have "invade[d]" the United States, taking over two ranches near the Mexico-U.S. border in Laredo, Texas, but law enforcement agencies in the area have flatly denied the rumor.

The Laredo Morning Times reported that law enforcement officials had been "bombarded" with calls about the rumor but that "officials with the Laredo Police Department, Webb County Sheriff's Department and Border Patrol said they knew nothing about such an incident, while Erik Vasys, an FBI spokesman in San Antonio, said the agency does not comment on rumors."

Some conservative blogs have acknowledged that the story appears to be bogus, but others are standing by it.

Personally, I don't think invading Laredo Texas would be high on the list of things to do by the drug cartels, especially since the US military would be brought in very quickly. The drug cartels have enough Americans who want their products and will help them move it into the US. The ONLY reason the cartels are doing so well is that Americans are keeping them in business.

You want to put the Mexican drug cartels out of business?

Legalize drugs.

The next step is supposed to be a free-for-all killing spree, right?

Isn't that what all hate speech leads to in the end?

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – A U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot a 15-year-old Mexican boy after a group trying to illegally enter Texas threw rocks at officers near downtown El Paso, U.S. authorities said Tuesday.

The shooting, which happened Monday evening beneath a railroad bridge linking the two nations, drew sharp criticism from Mexico, where President Felipe Calderon said Tuesday that his goverment "will use all resources available to protect the rights of Mexican migrants."

The government "reiterates its rejection to the disproportionate use of force on the part on U.S. authorities on the border with Mexico," the president added in a statement.

It was the second death of a Mexican at the hands of Border Patrol officers in less than two weeks, and the case threatened to swell into a full-blown international incident when U.S. and Mexican officials traded suggestions of misconduct.

Blog sprinkles

• The Cave of Crystals: Naica Cave. Some of the largest natural crystals ever found, up to 10m long.


• Don't we find ourselves feeling the slightest bit sorry for Bill O'Reilly?

O’REILLY: So 48 years ago — 48 years ago in this country we could make fun of Arabs. … We could make fun of people in a general way, and certainly, Ahab was the Arab was a general parody. But now, we can’t. What has changed in America?

• Gosh darnit, why can't we make the two wars we started under Bush and Cheney into holy wars? They said we could!!1

• Dancing Dave proves how Obama will NEVER win over the bigots and other Republicans and it's time to cut the losses and do what he can with what he's got.

• Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors slaps some sense into us.

• The reason God made the Tree of Knowledge.

• Photoshopping disasters make you want to stop buying clothes.

Is this to keep them out or us in?

After a couple of false starts, Predator unmanned drone aircraft are scheduled to start roaming the Canadian border next week.

State and federal officials will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Grand Forks Air Force Base Monday, where the first Predator arrived in early December.

That ceremonial milestone had to be delayed twice because of a maintenance problem and turbulent weather.

The Predators, unarmed versions of the aircraft being used in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, have been patrolling the Mexican border since 2005. The Grand Forks base is the fourth of five outposts along the northern border where the aircraft will be based.

Why does this not comfort me?

Just where did that burger come from?

CHICAGO, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Mexico suspended purchases from 30 U.S. meat plants due to sanitary issues, which sent U.S. cattle and hog prices sharply lower on Friday and prompted speculation the ban was retaliation against a U.S. labeling law. Early on Friday, U.S. analysts said the bans were likely because of Mexico's opposition to a recently enacted meat labeling law. The law, commonly called Country-of-Origin Labeling or COOL, requires that meat packages in U.S. supermarkets carry labels stating the countries where the meat animals were raised. Mexico and the U.S. Agriculture Department both denied the retaliation charge.

[snip]

Mexico is a leading buyer of U.S. meat and said that purchases from the affected plants could resume as early as Monday. "If everything goes well, the plants could be re-listed next Monday," Mexico's agriculture ministry said on Friday. The ministry said the affected plants fell short on standards like packaging, labeling, and some transport conditions. USDA said it is working with Mexico and the meat companies to resolve the issues.

CANADA, MEXICO OPPOSED LAW

U.S. consumer and farm groups say the labeling rules will distinguish U.S.-grown food from imports on the grocery shelf and fulfill the shopper's right to know about products. Canadian and Mexican officials have opposed the law arguing that it will have U.S. meat plants and consumers discriminating against non-U.S. animals and meat. Both countries ship livestock into the United States. "It appears they (Mexican officials) are using this to send a signal to our government that they don't like COOL," Don Roose, analyst at U.S. Commodities, said earlier on Friday. Earlier this year, Mexico had warned many U.S. meat plants of alleged "point of entry violations" and Friday's suspensions may have been related to that, Jim Herlihy, spokesman for the U.S. Meat Export Federation, said early on Friday. Point of entry violations could be a number of things including incorrect paperwork or labeling issues, he said.

BANS MAY BE LIFTED SOON

Prior to Mexico saying shipments could resume on Monday, Roose had predicted the bans would be short, because Mexico needs the meat for its population. "You have to feed the masses," he said. News of the bans prompted selling in U.S. cattle and hog markets at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Friday, with cattle prices dropping 2 to 2.5 percent and hog prices dropping about 3 percent. "That is bad news," Jim Clarkson, Chicago-based analyst at A&A Trading said of Mexico's action. "They (Mexico) are fighting COOL." After Mexico denied it was retaliating for COOL, Clarkson still predicted the labeling law may have helped prompt the bans.

Is this to prepare us or scare us?

New York, NY (AHN) - The UN said Tuesday it will stage a mock nuclear accident Wedneday at Mexico's Laguna Verde nuclear power plant. The fake emergency is designed to test the responses of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the UN World Health Organization.

If you can't taser them, just run them over

A car collides into cyclists participating in a race in Mexico's northern border city of Matamoros, Sunday June 1, 2008. At least one person was killed and 14 injured when a driver slammed into a bicycle race. (AP Photo/Jose Fidelino Vera Hernandez)

(click photo for source)

Backdoor Blackwater

No wonder they gave up on the San Diego Potrero site:

Just two months after local opposition thwarted its effort to build a massive outdoor training facility near San Diego, the private military company Blackwater USA is being accused of secretly trying to build a new one just blocks from the US-Mexico border. Blackwater received approval for the 61,000 square-foot indoor facility in Otay Mesa, California, by filing for permits using the names of two subsidiaries.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re on the road in San Diego. The private security company Blackwater USA is being accused of trying to secretly build a military training facility in San Diego, right here, just blocks from the US-Mexican border. Blackwater received approval for the 61,000 square-foot indoor facility in Otay Mesa, California, by filing for permits using the names of two subsidiaries. It was only last week when San Diego officials learned Blackwater was behind the project.

The news comes just two months after local residents successfully blocked Blackwater from opening an 824-acre military complex known as Blackwater West in the rural hamlet of Potrero, California.

Opposition is now growing to Blackwater’s plans in Otay Mesa. Last week, Democratic Congressmember Bob Filner led a protest at the site of Blackwater’s future facility. Several local officials question how Blackwater’s presence will affect US-Mexican relations. The site is located just three blocks from the international border.

The interview by Amy Goodman with Raymond Lutz:

RAYMOND LUTZ: Well, I got the tip from an anonymous like yahoo.com email address person who said he was an ex-friend of a former Blackwater employee. He told me that this site was being put in and was ready to open. I drove down to check it out, and indeed I could see the ventilation equipment out the back of the building, which is apparently necessary for the indoor shooting range that they’re intending to put in. I went down to—and I checked all the news media at the time and everyone I could find. No one had heard anything about this.

They had secretly started this last September, about a month before our big rally out in Potrero. So the rally really had an effect. In other words, at that time, they were saying, “We’re throwing in the towel” on this other thing, but they weren’t letting the cat out of the bag, when in the process of filing these permits under the names Raven Development and Southwest Law Enforcement. And then, I understand that’s under a shell company out in Puerto Rico.

They went in calling this a vocational school. None of the permits, which I just saw last—yesterday at the Department of Planning of the City of San Diego, had any real notation on it about the fact that this is going to be—have an indoor shooting range and have firearms and so forth inside.

But after I received the tip, I went down, and sure enough, everything panned out that the guy was telling me. I talked to the news media, and they confirmed with Brian Bonfiglio, the VP of Blackwater, that they were trying to put that in.

Such a nice Christian company! Sneaky, feral, lying, shadowy, unaccountable...

So, are they planning to invade Mexico? Or just shoot families as they struggle across the border?

So... how much money did we lose on this great idea?

20 million? Or 860 million? (my bold)

TUCSON, Ariz. - A $20 million prototype of the government's highly touted "virtual fence" on the Arizona-Mexico border is being scrapped because the system is failing to adequately alert Border Patrol agents to illegal crossings, officials said.

The move comes just two months after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced his approval of the fence built by The Boeing Co. The fence consists of nine electronic surveillance towers along a 28-mile section of border southwest of Tucson.

Boeing is to replace the so-called Project 28 prototype with a series of towers equipped with communications systems, new cameras and new radar capability, officials said.

[snip]

Boeing was awarded an $860 million contract to provide the technology, physical fences and vehicle barriers.

"Boeing has delivered a system that the Border Patrol currently is operating 24 hours a day," Boeing spokeswoman Deborah Bosick said. She declined further comment.

Project 28 was not intended to be the final, state-of-the-art system for catching illegal immigrants, Giddens said. "I think some people understood that and some didn't. We didn't communicate that well."

We shouldn't have expected it to work?? WTF?

When will we just dig a ditch and put sharpened sticks in it? Outfit rabbits with lazers? Start laying land mines?

Good grief.

Update: Bryan of Why Now? says it better.

Blackwater in California

An overview:



And:



And how helpful they were after the San Diego fires:



Randi Rhodes tries to puzzle it out:



But just remember:

Blackwater and Mexico

Just think of Blackwater's heavy hand dealing with Mexico. Will they respect human rights, borders, and a nation's laws? Or would we see callous shootings of illegal immigrants, invasion into Mexico in pursuit of quarry, indifference to Mexican or U.S. laws, harrassment of U.S. citizens of Mexican descent? I mean, what could go wrong?

If and when private security contractor Blackwater USA and its heavily-armed operatives are forced to pull out of Iraq as the result of the September 16th rampage in downtown Baghdad when its employees massacred up to 28 Iraqis, Mexico could be a profitable option for the North Carolina-based company.

Actually, Blackwater is almost in Mexico already. For months, the North Carolina-based corporation has been pressuring local San Diego officials to grant it an operating license for an 824-acre training site to be known as Blackwater West in Potrero California 45 miles east of that bustling port city but only six miles from the Tecate Mexico border crossing. The site, some of which snakes through the Cleveland National Forest, is a favored transit route for undocumented Mexican workers heading north and has been recently scorched by out-of-control wildfires.

[snip]

Blackwater USA is attracted to the San Diego area because of the heavy concentration of military bases such as Camp Pendleton in the environs that could produce a windfall of security and training contracts from its pals in the Pentagon. Blackwater USA was founded by ex-Navy Seal Eric Prince who cultivates close ties with the military.

One of Blackwater's most rah-rah backers in the Potrero venture is local congressman Duncan Hunter, ranking republican on the House Armed Services Committee and a dark horse candidate for his party's presidential nomination. Hunter is considered one of the most virulent anti-Mexican immigration voices in congress and is a political architect of the separation wall that now lines California's border with Mexico.

The dispute over Blackwater's proposed Potrero training camp is not just a NIMBY-type confrontation. Siting the facility a stone's throw from the Mexican border internationalizes the proposition. By any stretch of the imagination, Mexican president Felipe Calderon ought to be nervous about the encampment of the world's largest private army on his conflictive northern border, particularly one that is not accountable to either the Geneva Convention or U.S. and Mexican military and civil law. Yet Calderon has not publically protested the proposal.

Mexico's Katrina moment

I hope they fare better than the people of NOLA did:

VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico (AP) -- Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans fled a flooded region of the Gulf coast Friday, jumping from rooftops into rescue helicopters, scrambling into boats or swimming out through murky brown water. President Felipe Calderon called the flooding in Tabasco state one of Mexico's worst recent natural disasters, and pledged to rebuild.

A week of heavy rains caused rivers to overflow, drowning at least 80 percent of the oil-rich state. Much of the state capital, Villahermosa, looked like New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, with water reaching to second-story rooftops and desperate people awaiting rescue.

At least one death was reported and nearly all services, including drinking water and public transportation, were shut down. The flood affected more than 900,000 people in the state of 2 million - their homes flooded, damaged or cut off by high water.

Update 11/3:

Villahermosa, Mexico (AHN) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Friday warned it would take time to rebuild what has been devastated by the non-stop flooding plaguing the country, including the oil industry, which was crippled by the catastrophe.

"The storms have forced the closure of three of Mexico's main oil ports, preventing almost all exports and halting a fifth of the country's oil production. It has a strong economic impact" Calderon said in an interview.

The storm did not spare the Bay of Campeche, Mexico's main oil producing region and home to more than 100 oil platforms.

Overall, the region normally exports about 1.7 million barrels of crude daily. Since, most of the production remains shut down, it would mean that Mexico's output would drop by 2.6 million barrels a day.

Vicente Fox didn't like him either

I think the sharks in the water smell blood and are beginning to circle:

Although, the Bush administration has often painted a rosy picture of the relations between the two leaders, Fox's new book is full of information that challenges that assertion. Although, Fox does admit to having forged a "kinship" with the U.S. leader, much of Fox's memoir reveals that the political relationship between the two leaders was not nearly as smooth as proclaimed.

Fox, who left office in December, questions Bush's reported love of horses and calls his one-time U.S. counterpart, a "windshield cowboy"-a cowboy who prefers to drive, saying, ''A horse lover can always tell when others don't share our passion."

In his book, Fox calls Bush "the cockiest guy I have ever et in my life," and blasts the president's stance on immigration, along with the GOP's platform on the issue in general. Fox also holds Bush and the White House responsible for the war in Iraq, blaming Bush's stubbornness for the international backlash the war has sparked. He also calls his former friend's Spanish "grade-school level" and admits his own surprise in the former Texas governor's rise to the top of the U.S. political scene.

"I can't honestly say that I had ever seen George W. Bush getting to the White House," Fox writes in his book.

We could have told you, Mr. Fox, that Georgie doesn't like horses, and why would you be surprised at his 'grade-school level' Spanish if he can't even conjugate properly in English?



Maybe this is why?:

Taking hints from the world news?

MEXICO CITY - Six explosions believed to be the result of sabotage ripped apart natural gas pipelines for Mexico’s state oil monopoly early Monday, the company said. There were no reported injuries.

Mexican state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, issued a statement saying it believed the explosions, which forced the evacuation of 12,000 people, were deliberate.

It said the six blasts at about 2 a.m. (3 a.m. ET) caused four fires. At least five pipelines were affected.

Why we need to pay attention to the SPP

Because it circumvents any input from affected citizens in any country. There is no oversight and it hands power straight to U.S. corporations.

Via Creekside, Zapagringo:

Summary: This bulletin is intended to be a first introduction to the topic of the SPPNA (hereinafter SPP), initials of a very undemocratic alliance between Canada, Mexico and the United States. On August 201, 2007, the presidents of Mexico and the US and the Canadian prime minister met in Montebello, Quebec, to discuss the SPP. Showing total indifference for democracy, the three governments are reaching crucially important decisions with no prior consultation or consent of civil society. The summit received almost no press coverage in the US, but got reasonably good exposure in Mexico and Canada. We present herein reasons why the citizens of all three countries need to follow SPP developments.

1. What does SPPNA mean?

The initials stand for the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, a fairly new regional integration initiative that dates formally from March 23, 2005 when the presidents of Mexico and the United States, and the Canadian prime minister met in Waco, Texas.

2. Is the SPP related to NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) that Presidents Carlos Salinas and Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney signed in 1993?

Yes, it is related and some analysts even call the SPP "NAFTA plus". But there are important differences.

One crucial difference is that the SPP is not an "agreement" as is NAFTA. If it were, it would be subject to scrutiny by the federal legislative branches in the three countries. But under the SPP, the chief executives are signing so-called regulations, hundreds of them, according to some reports. These are similar to presidential decrees and are therefore exempt from legislative review. Civil society has been given very little information.

3. Why is it important that I know something about the SPP?

Citizens of all three countries are concerned because our democratic rights and sovereignty as nations are being ceded to the US government and large corporations. At the behest, or insistence, of the Bush administration, the governing elites of the other two countries have worked rapidly to "securitize" the region which, at least in Mexico, has translated into increased militarization. The SPP is also part of the growing corporate takeover of activities and functions that used to lie in the public sector. Changes are being made in laws, norms, standards, regulations, practices, to facilitate international trade and so increase the profitability of certain corporations, but which in some cases weaken labor, consumer protection and environmental standards. Finding out about the SPP is a necessary first step in detaining its corrosive effects on democracy and national sovereignty.

Read the post for 20 Q+As. It is vital that we keep informed.

And then we get this:

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The former top lawyer from the federal agency responsible for trucking safety says the recent backlash against a pilot program that will allow trucks from Mexico to gain greater access to highways in the United States is unwarranted. On Thursday the Bush administration brought its case to a federal appeals court, arguing that to do otherwise could strain diplomatic relations between the two nations.

Attorney Brigham McCown is the former general counsel for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration who helped negotiate and design the new program while serving as a senior Bush Administration official at the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C.

The FMCSA program will allow approximately 100 registered truck carriers from Mexico to travel beyond the current restricted U.S. border zone. The Teamsters Union has asked a federal appeals court to keep the program from going forward.

"The last-minute attempts to block the program are just the desperate efforts of a few people who want to protect their own turf," McCown says. "We've been over this for two decades. What they fail to tell you is that trucks from Mexico that were grandfathered before a moratorium in the 1980s travel down our roads -- without incident -- every day, and have done so for years."

Government lawyers said that the trucks enrolled in the program meet U.S. regulations and that the program is a necessary part of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

[snip]

NAFTA stipulates all roadways in the U.S., Mexico and Canada to be opened to carriers from all the three countries. The disparity lies in the fact that Canadian trucking firms have full access to U.S. roads, while Mexican trucks can travel about 20 miles into the country and then only at certain border crossings, such as San Diego and El Paso.

We're invading Mexico?

With what army, Blackwater? Via GottaLaff at Cliff Schecter, McClatchy: (my bold)

For Washington, the stakes in Calderon’s anti-drug push go beyond law and order issues.

“If Calderon loses this battle,” says Noriega, “then there will be no wall high enough to keep out Mexicans who are displaced by violence and by the security threat that undermines Mexico’s growth.”

Bush and Calderon hinted at an aid package when they met in Merida, Mexico, on March 14. Bush praised Calderon for his tough stand against organized crime and drugs and recognized that as a consumer nation, “the United States has a responsibility in the fight against drugs.”

“Mexico’s obviously a sovereign nation,” Bush said, “and if (Calderon) so chooses, like he has, will lay out an agenda where the United States can be a constructive partner.”

People familiar with the talks say Mexico drew up a list that included equipment, training and technology, including Black Hawk helicopters, which are difficult to come by given the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but are considered the transport of choice for security forces.

The price tag on the more ambitious aspiration is $1.2 billion, but a more modest proposal has emerged in recent weeks in the area of $700 million, said one person familiar with the talks.

It is not clear how the administration will request the funds from Congress, since the foreign operations spending bill for the coming year already has been approved by the House.

[snip]

The aid package under consideration inevitably will spark comparisons to the similar program under way with Colombia since 2000. Under that program, the U.S. government has poured more than $5 billion to combat armed groups as well as to eradicate coca and heroin crops. Colombian authorities praise the program for helping reduce violence there, though the country continues to produce vast quantities of cocaine.

Mexican officials bristle at any comparisons with the Colombian operation, which they view as too ambitious and an infringement on Colombian sovereignty, given the heavy scrutiny by the U.S. Congress and direct involvement of U.S. personnel and equipment.

“Any type of a package called Plan Mexico,” said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, a Mexico specialist with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, “would be dead on arrival.”

The Mexico package more likely will be cast as an effort to improve Mexico’s judicial system and its security forces. “The U.S. can play a role in bolstering that reform process,” he said.