The Appointed Bureaucracy

Today I will be looking over a few of Obama’s appointees and their positions. This is a last minute look that was motivated by a caller on The Morning Majority. This fellow apparently had received a letter from the EPA to update things in a building that he owned for his construction business. The letter informed him that he had 30 days to complete the updates, which I think he said were about $5,000, or face fines of up to $32,000 per day. From my perspective, here is a small business, a contracting company run by two gents, and is facing quite a financial hit. I understand the safety issues and such; however, anyone who has completed any home remodeling or other similar task knows the morass of paper work and filing fees as well as the not-so-benevolent bureaucracy that must be dealt with.

Bottom Line Up Front

There are a large number of governmental agencies which are run by presidential appointees. These appointees must be approved of by congress. What happens when the Congress and the President are all on the same party line is that the vast bureaucratic ship of state turns towards a direction that looks a lot like a centralization of power and a primary dominion. These are things which the founders of America sought to avoid.

Background

Those particular offices which come to mind at this early hour are the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House Office of Faith Based Neighborhood Partnerships. An odd pair, I know, but it is early and I am only on my first pot of coffee and first something hour energy shot. I would include the FCC and the FTC, but those would make this a full book and I cannot devote that much time to writing in one day.

The directors or leading heads of these offices are presidential appointees and can wield, apparently, some broad powers.

The EPA was founded by Richard M. Nixon in 1970. This office is responsible for enforcing the nation’s environmental statutes. What has been done in that regard under this administration? The Gibson Guitar raid is the most recent and widely known action taken by the EPA, but there is more.

In Chino, CA the EPA is requiring that some 13 dairies prevent animal waste run-off. There is a fear that the cow manure and chemicals on the farms could wash into the rivers and streams in the winter rains. Concerns about cow crap in the water cloud California. Cow manure actually composts nicely into great fertile soil, but is a threat to the environment? I do not want to drink it, but it has been a LONG time since I have had to drink from a stream. Wait! What is going to happen when the EPA learns that fish poop in the water, too? How are they going to handle the herds of buffalo and wild horses that roam the plains and hills of the Midwest and daringly defecate without concern to the waterways?

Obama had to step in and pull back the current administrator of the EPA, Lisa Jackson. Just a few weeks ago, Jackson “tried” to implement standards that even Obama considered too stringent. Like that was the first time he saw the standards which Jackson was trying to implement! Come on, the Director of the EPA is virtually a Cabinet level position now. He sees Director Jackson quite regularly, I am sure. At any rate, Obama said that the standards were too strict and Jackson came back with lower standards, but which are still much stricter than those under which the US currently operates. These standards are strangling the US economy. Manufacturing plants are losing capital, getting fined, shutting down and laying off employees, while other businesses are moving operations overseas. These manufacturing plants are going to places with cheaper labor and looser environmental controls. Places like China. Earlier this year there were several press releases about thousands of children, not to mention the thousands and thousands of adults, who were diagnosed with lead poisoning in areas around battery plants in China. Some of those plants have been closed, but the environmental and human damage is done. These people are not going to be cured of a lifetime of lead exposure. If Director Jackson were to go to China and look at the environmental wrongs there she would either die of shock or, like the old cartoon characters, her eyes would jump out of her head with dollar signs for pupils.

So, the EPA standards are putting some businesses directly under, fining others out, and preventing many from starting. I suppose that those who had been or would have been working in those factories can now go to Washington and apply for positions with the EPA. They could jump squarely into someone’s …. Crap or go in and fiddle around with their wood. As a matter of fact, the new standards would require some 230,000 new employees in the EPA to track, investigate, and enforce those standards. Don’t ask or worry about how these jobs will be paid for, we can always tax the rich.

I see that EPA Director Jackson worked as the Environmental Protector of New Jersey. According to the NJ Star Ledger the State now has to come up with $8 billion dollars to fix the state’s sewer systems. Wow, she REALLY likes to get in peoples … business.

Since I, like the founders of America, like to thank God for my fortune of a great family and enough to pay the bills while putting a very little something aside I find the White House Office of Faith Based Neighborhood Partnerships an odd creation. Seriously, if there is such a call from some minor groups and loud mouths to remove the Ten Commandments from courthouses and to remove the name of God from our money and the Pledge of Allegiance, why no outcry over this office? What is this office supposed to do? According to the announcement from the White House, this organ (and I struggled to find a word to put here) is charged with thrusting the following upon us, the People

• The Office’s top priority will be making community groups an integral part of our economic recovery and poverty a burden fewer have to bear when recovery is complete.
• It will be one voice among several in the administration that will look at how we support women and children, address teenage pregnancy, and reduce the need for abortion.
• The Office will strive to support fathers who stand by their families, which involves working to get young men off the streets and into well-paying jobs, and encouraging responsible fatherhood.
• Finally, beyond American shores this Office will work with the National Security Council to foster interfaith dialogue with leaders and scholars around the world. 

The second point I cannot argue with, the man must be the father. Although, I can see how this concept will stick in the craw of gay groups, did he just lose the Pink Vote? Reaching out to foster dialogue … what a load of stuff the EPA wants to keep out of streams and rivers! Come on, that is what we have the State Department for! Let the existing agencies do their jobs! What are we paying diplomats for if not to reach out to scholars and leaders around the world?

The first two points above are what the Christian Church has done and is still doing today, in spite of multiple attempts to squash it and remove any vestiges of Christian religion from all books and institutions in America. Obama has created a religious affairs organ. There is a strange and odd collection of names attached to searches in the news and on the net for religious advisors to the Obama administration. Shaun Casey is one. Mr. Casey referred to Jesus as an illegal immigrant. Jim Wallis, anti-Gay, had an apparently short tenure on the Hill.

The one name which I found as a current and regularly appearing name in relation to both the White Hosue and religion is Dalia Mogahed. Both Obama and Hillary Clinton have a strongly positive opinion about her. This must be the case as muslim outreach has increased to a robust level, according to rollcall.com. Dalia Mogahed cannot be all that bad, can she? I mean, really, she believes in sharia law! Aside from the fact that sharia law requires infidels to die, pay jizya, and be slaves to pure muslims. That is, according to ibm Rashid.

Why wage war? The Muslim jurists agree that the purpose of fighting the People of the Book, excluding the (Qurayshite) People of the Book and the Christian Arabs, is one of two things: it is either for the conversion to Islam or the payment of the jizya. The payment of the jizya is because of the words of the Exalted, “Fight against such as those

who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah or the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah and His Messenger hath forbidden, and follow not the religion of truth, until they pay the tribute readily being brought low.

What is jizya? According to Islamic law, this is a tax imposed upon non-Arab people of the Book (non-Arab Christians) who are male, of puberty, and free. What might that look like? Well, I hardly think that, if the word jizya, were used that the US would not erupt in a firestorm of rebellion. But, if one does a search on “fined for bible study” one will find nearly 100 articles just for September 2011, posts, and blog entries about the family in Orange County California that was fined $300 for holding a Bible study as it violated zoning laws. One articles states that the weekly gatherings violated the area zoning laws. What about large family meals (like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Birthdays), graduation parties, and the like? Are those also going to be zoned and taxed out or is this an insidious way of instituting a jizya? I did not find anything under “fined for quran study”

Even though “separation of church and state” is not written in the Constitution, it is written that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;"

Well, I ramble, but, we see that there is a steady term for Dalia Mogahed, daughter of a Muslim Brotherhood member, working closely with Obama; however, the “Christian” choices of the administration have been found to be extremist, racist, and otherwise just loony. It sounds to me like someone is being restricted by the government!

http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_18982288

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/epa%E2%80%99s-tighter-ozone-standards-will-strangle-economic-recovery/123

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/ObamaAnnouncesWhiteHouseOfficeofFaith-basedandNeighborhoodPartnerships/

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/05/10/liberal-christians-attack-obama-spiritual-adviser-jim-wallis-over-gay-ad.html

Week In Review, September 23, 2011

Week In Review

Obama continues to quietly support states in the Middle East that have been no friend to the US. While avoiding ongoing slaughter in Syria he shows open disregard to disdain for Israel, the only true ally that the West has had along the Arab Street.

During the week Obama met with a very little announced (overlooked, underreported, ignored) counter terror task force. This Global Counterterrorism Task Force (GCTF) is to focus on critical civilian needs. It is to be sponsored by the US and run administratively by the US, at what cost I have no idea. I do know that it will operate along with the UN to further the UN’s global counter terror strategy. So far as I knew, one had to have a definition of terrorism and, to date, the UN does not have an agreed upon, set in stone, global definition for “terrorism”. I am so thrilled to see another avenue for more failed policies and way to waste US tax dollars. Seriously, we have all been witness to the unmitigated failure of the UNSC and its “strongest sanctions to date” against states like North Korea, Iran, and Syria.

Who is on this strategic-level platform for policy making? The 30 founding members, benefitting from an Obama Jobs Initiative,  of the GCTF are: Algeria, Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Egypt, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. I do not feel comfortable giving these other governments more say in how we conduct our nation’s terrorism defense/offense and policies. I am going to do a profile sheet for each of the members of this panel and publish it in the next few weeks. Another toothless organization with empty promises is going to waste more time, money, and lives to accomplish nothing. My suggestion is to stand strong and respond to a bloody nose with a bloody nose and breaking of the knee.

The USFWS, under the astute direction of Obama appointee Daniel M. Ashe,  has impeded job growth, slowed the economy, restricted freedoms, restricted access to American lands by American people, is being used as a proxy arm of the government to black mail and beat into submission organizations like Gibson that are not supporters of the regime, and is being used, in a manner of speaking, to promote American reliance on terrorist supporters for oil.  Those supporters I am alluding to area primarily OPEC socialistic states who have openly and through their policies towards the West shown disdain to all out hate of the United States.

The TSA reared its ugly head again … no, not Napolitano, just the organization, I had not seen any pictures of her show up this week. TSA screeners and agents reportedly arrested for charges to include lewdness with a child, statutory rape, continued theft of thousands of dollars from passengers, to the benignly intrusive inspection and scalp probing of a black woman’s afro. The score board looks something like; terrorists identified, none … enlarged prostates identified, 1.356. An this only at a cost of some $43 billion dollars this year.

Oil is down to about $85 per barrel, but we continue to pay out the nose for it at the pump and for heating our houses.  The supply is good, but the demand is apparently better. I am going to do my best to boycott oil and gas by running my Prius on Amzoil (American Synthetic Oil, great stuff!!) and deriving the bulk of my house heat from a wood burning stove and extra sweaters.

http://www.eyeontheun.org/facts.asp?1=1&p=61

http://m.state.gov/md173355.htm

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-22/middle-east-oil-falls-for-second-day-as-refining-profits-slump.html

 

Week In Review September 9, 2011

I have written quite a bit this week about Iran and its apparent intentions. Monday I had asked if Iran is planning on being the seat of the caliphate. The answer to that is yes, I believe that Iran is planning to be the seat of the caliphate. It may have been al Qaeda that wrote the 7 Phases, but it is Iran that is carrying them out. Those phases are outlined below.

The First Phase is "the awakening" -- this has already been carried out and was supposed to have lasted from 2000 to 2003, or more precisely from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington to the fall of Baghdad in 2003.In short, to provoke and promote war.
The Second Phase "Opening Eyes" is to make the western conspiracy aware of the "Islamic community." 
The Third Phase This is an "Arising and Standing Up" and should last from 2007 to 2010. "There will be a focus on Syria,"

The Fourth Phase Between 2010 and 2013, Hussein writes that al-Qaida will aim to bring about the collapse of the hated Arabic governments.

The Fifth Phase This will be the point at which an Islamic state, or caliphate, can be declared. The plan is that by this time, between 2013 and 2016, Western influence in the Islamic world will be so reduced and Israel weakened so much, that resistance will not be feared.

The Sixth Phase Hussein believes that from 2016 onwards there will a period of "total confrontation." As soon as the caliphate has been declared the "Islamic army" it will instigate the "fight between the believers and the non-believers" which has so often been predicted by Osama bin Laden.
The Seventh Phase This final stage is described as "definitive victory."

So far, Ahmedinijad is leading the way on this. Chaos is central to Ahmadinejad's religious beliefs and, by extension, his hopes for the future. He believes, as many zealous Shi'ites do, that the Twelfth Imam, or "Mahdi," a messianic figure from the ninth century, will soon reappear to signal the end of the modern world and the onset of Islamic justice over all the earth. Ahmadinejad believes that his presidency will herald the Mahdi.

It has come out that Iran was one of the first to purchase a missile launching system from Russia. This system, known as the Club K, can be hidden inside a cargo container and brought right into the target zone. Until it is activated the system is virtually undetectable. By the time that anyone knows the system is in place it will be far too late to do anything about the first few vollies of rockets launched. To make this even better, the Club K can deploy low level nuclear warheads.

With Syria being part of the aforementioned 7 Step Plan, I have looked more at the country than Obama and Clinton seem to. Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to U.S. President Barack Obama: Your words are worthless. How much more succinct can that be? The East sees giving in and changing the way it conducting itself as giving up all their rights.Al-Assad, al-Basher of Sudan, and Ahmedinijad believe that it is their right to kill whoever gets in their way. No amount of apologizing by Obama or tes sipped at a table with Clinton is going to change that. While the UN eventually was tasked to bring a change in Libya, it is not likely here. As a proxy to Iran, al-Assad has said "Not in their wildest dreams – not now and not under different circumstances." an, in fact, continues to slaughter the Sunni population of his own country.

This week we got to read an excellent piece on the nine fronts of war that Israel is facing.  The Arab Spring has turned to an arid and deadly Arab Summer. The spreading chaos and failing of governments across the region would fit into the plan of Ahmedinijad to herald in the mahdi. In order to accomplish this, there must be utter chaos, and chaos is spreading like roaches in a tenement building. Iranian proxies are now surrounding Israel and Saudi Arabia. And Iran is moving ahead with alacrity to attain full nuclear capability.

Part of the recommended, and underdone, initiatives is the Container Security Initiative.; an initiative that would make the use of the Club K far more difficult from inside contiguous waters near large ports. The raid in Pakistan by the SEALs brought back plans that Osama was still planning to attack ports or attack from them. From the information I have seen, this piece of our national armor is another languishing from the neglect of the Appeaser in Chief and his lackeys.

Meanwhile, the TSA continues to steal, rape, and plunder the people and nation it is supposed to be protecting. Even the new Behavioral Assessment plan has had one member caught and arrested for assisting a drug courier.

But not to worry! Seriously, Napolitano has just paid out some $12 million dollars under the Homeland Fiscal Grant Allocations decision. After reviewing them there is not one penny given to detect or to look at suspect shipping containers. She has paid $12 mil into "feel good" programs that, in the end, will amount to squat. The letter written by Dr. Jim Giermanski, Chairman Powers Global Holdings, Inc. makes that point abundantly clear.

(http://msmignoresit.blogspot.com/2011/07/assessment-of-todays-articles.html).

“But, surely, we can talk reason to them” I hear at the coffee shops. To which I reply, “You can’t talk reason to the insane and don’t call me Shirley.” Peaceful discourse, mutually supportive policies, economic growth, and the realization of certain inalienable rights to all peoples is one way of summarizing US goals and diplomatic efforts. Achieving these goals anywhere has proven difficult. Achieving these goals in the Middle East has proven impossible, at least for the past several decades. Dealing with Iran and Syria has been emblematic of this struggle faced by US policy makers.

We, as a nation, are facing several threats and problems. Many of which can be dealt with in the immediate and short term by opening up jobs in America. Those jobs that would help us most to increase manufacturing and decrease our reliance on the importation of OPEC petroleum (which is now run by a person identified by the US Treasury and the State Department as a criminal whose assets should be frozen, an apparent supporter of terror, and legally banned from doing business with US persons and corporations) are in the US petroleum market. By lifting Theban on US drilling, authorizing the Keystone XL Pipeline, and lowering taxes on businesses there would be an immediate jump in employment and national revenue due to nearly 2million people going to work. This would also serve our nation in the mid and long term as we would quickly get stronger and would be able to exploit the natural gas and oil reserves in a cleaner and safer manner than those in the Middle East. These reserves, mind you, are estimated to represent some 92% of the world’s resources by 2032.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and, please, call your elected officials and insist they support America.

Share this blog with all your friends, family, and opponents!

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2005/08/the_seven_phase.php#ixzz1XaDq7kim

http://msmignoresit.blogspot.com/2011/08/2011-dhs-fiscal-grant-allocations.html

http://msmignoresit.blogspot.com/2011/08/open-letter-to-secretary-napolitano.html

Thank Obama

BLUF

The Middle East has long been annoyed that the West exists. The status quo of “Buy our oil and we will be kind to your face” has changed. No longer does the East see the West in that light. They see the West as the next errant servant who needs to step into line behind the East. I say they always have, but until now, had not the gall or courage to say it. Why do they have the courage to say it now? Because they see Obama as powerless, impotent, and completely ineffective and, as our leader, this is also how they see America and all Americans. Make no mistake, the East and the West are diametrically opposed. We are each other's antithesis.

BACKGROUND

Michael Hudson, a writer for al-Jazeera had wrote and published his views of Obama saying that the administration continues to fail to bridge the gap between the United States and muslims.  We can all agree that Obama’s performance has been “lackluster” and that Washington is fatigued and weighed down with inertia. Hudson noted that after the uninspiring speech on the downgrading of America’s debt status that Obama went to Dover Air Force Base to pay respects to the 30 Special Ops troops killed. Hudson stated that “this single loss avenges the death of Osama.”

Getting out of the ME in general with dignity is going to be problematic. In their history and culture anything less than a full and total smack-down is not a victory. Unless one side is subjugated and enslaved to the other there is no win. What does the West stand to lose by back-stepping out now? The loss of time, money, face and painful humiliation is what the West faces. Oh yes, we are still paying them for oil. In their eyes, we are retreating before winning. This means, in a zero sum view, that they see it as a win over the West.

Iraq, Obama is unable to decide whether to leave or stay while, every day, Iran is increasing its reach into the country. This, in spite of the intention that the U.S. would remain the barrier against the spread of Tehran

Al Jezeera says “The public is fed up with these costly involvements in Afghanistan and Iraq - but isn't it lucky that Washington can easily afford them thanks to our robust economy?  “ Yes, we need to STOP sending them our aid money and our oil money and develop ourselves now.

Upheavals in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria pose more perplexing problems and Obama chooses to lead from behind.

The advice of AJ is to get behind the ME and support pressure on Israel in a land for peace deal. But, that is exactly what they want and where Obama is putting the United States, behind the states of the Middle East.

Meanwhile, AJ journalist and bureau chief in Afghanistan was apprehended by Israeli authorities for being a Palestinian terrorist. The journalist, Samer Allawi, apprehended by as he attempted to leave the West Bank recently.

Meantime, Republican Rep. Ron Paul, a presidential candidate who has appeared on Al-Jazeera and, what they term, other propaganda outlets (Western Media).

Veterans from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the First Gulf War, and now the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan all have vastly different backgrounds and experiences. They have some similarities in opinion, though. Stay out of the Middle East.

Some are saying the U.S. should become more isolationist, not completely, but more reserved in its outward dealings. Developing our own oil and gas resources would go a long way towards getting National Policy out of the Middle East. This would also stem the flow what is clearly the largest and fastest transfer of national wealth to other countries. This would also provide a huge boost to employment opportunities during the worst recession since the depression.

While veterans shake off their nightmares and move forward with their own lives, they undoubtedly look at the state of the Middle East and how Obama has gotten the country they love and served deeper into the sand, they fear for where things seem to be going.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201181681017137387.html

http://host.madison.com/article_ef00e9c8-c8f3-11e0-831b-001cc4c03286.html

Torture Camp In Zimbabwe

Witnesses told the BBC that it is Zimbabwe's police and military that run the torture camps.
Robert Mugabe, the country's president, has not responded to this report. Whie it is simgle source reporting, it falls within the realm of very likely as the regime is quite corrupt and violent.

8 August 2011 Last updated at 01:40 ET

Marange diamond field: Zimbabwe torture camp discovered

By Hilary Andersson BBC Panorama

A torture camp run by Zimbabwe's security forces is operating in the country's rich Marange diamond fields, BBC Panorama has found.

The programme heard from recent victims who told of severe beatings and sexual assault.

The claims come as the European Union pushes to let some banned diamonds from the country led by President Robert Mugabe back onto world markets.

The Zimbabwean government has not responded to the BBC's findings.

In an internal document seen by the BBC, the EU said it was confident that two mines in the area now meet international standards and it wants diamonds from those areas to be immediately approved for export, which would partially lift a trade ban dating back to 2009.

The ban was imposed by the Kimberley Process (KP), the international organisation that polices diamonds, following reports of large-scale killings and abuse by Zimbabwe's security forces in the Marange diamond fields.

'Forty whips'

The main torture camp uncovered by the programme is known locally as "Diamond Base". Witnesses said it is a remote collection of military tents, with an outdoor razor wire enclosure where the prisoners are kept.

It is near an area known as Zengeni in Marange, said to be one of the world's most significant diamond fields. The camp is about one mile from the main Mbada mine that the EU wants to approve exports from.

The company that runs the mine is headed by a personal friend of President Mugabe. A second camp is located in nearby Muchena

"It is the place of torture where sometimes miners are unable to walk on account of the beatings," a victim who was released from the main camp in February told the BBC.

All the released prisoners the BBC spoke to requested anonymity.

"They beat us 40 whips in the morning, 40 in the afternoon and 40 in the evening," said the man, who still could not use one of his arms after the beatings and could barely walk.

"They used logs to beat me here, under my feet, as I lay on the ground. They also used stones to beat my ankles."

“They would handcuff the prisoner, they would unleash the dogs so that he can bite”

End Quote Former paramilitary police on torture techniques used

He and other former captives said men are held in the camp for several days at a time, before new prisoners come in.

Women are released more quickly, often after being raped, witnesses said.

"Even if someone dies there, the soldiers do not disclose, because they do not want it known," an officer in Zimbabwe's military told the BBC, again on condition of anonymity.

Witnesses said the camps have been operating for at least three years.

In Marange, the police and military recruit civilians to illegally dig for diamonds for them. Those workers are taken to the camps for punishment if they demand too large a share of the profits.

Civilians caught mining for themselves are also punished in the camps.

Dog maulings

A former member of a paramilitary police unit who worked in the main camp in late 2008 told the BBC that at the time he tortured prisoners by mock-drowning them and whipping them on their genitals.

He also said that dogs were methodically ordered by a handler to maul prisoners.

"They would handcuff the prisoner, they would unleash the dogs so that he can bite," he said. "There was a lot of screaming".

He said one woman was bitten on the breast by the dogs whilst he was working in the camp.

"I do not think she survived," he said.

Another witness the BBC spoke to said he was locked up in Muchena camp in 2008 after police set dogs on him.

He was recaptured in November 2010.

"Nothing has changed between 2008 and 2010... a lot of people are still being beaten or bitten by dogs."
'Pandering'

Marange diamonds were banned in 2009 by the KP, the international initiative of the diamond industry, national governments and non-governmental organisations that attempts to keep conflict or so-called "blood" diamonds out of the lucrative market.

Representatives of the KP visited the area briefly in August 2010 and concluded that the situation in the diamond areas was still problematic but there had been significant progress.

The KP had previously requested that the Zimbabwean police secure the diamond area.

Witnesses told the BBC that it is Zimbabwe's police and military that run the torture camps.

Nick Westcott, spokesman for the Working Group on Monitoring of the KP, said of the BBC's discovery of the torture camps: "It is not something that has been notified to the Kimberley Process."

The EU's proposal to allow diamond sales from two key mines in Marange to resume is part of an attempt to broker a deal within the KP, which is in turmoil over the issue.

Find out more

Hilary Andersson presents Panorama: Mugabe's Blood Diamonds
BBC One, Monday, 8 August at 20:30 BST

In June, KP chairman Matieu Yamba formally announced that the export ban on the two key Marange mines was lifted with immediate effect. The EU, among others, did not accept his decision.

Now the EU's proposal, designed to break the deadlock, agrees with the partial lifting of the ban, but insists that international monitoring should continue throughout Marange.

Panorama asked the Foreign Office to comment on the EU's position.

In a statement, Henry Bellingham MP, Minister for Africa, said: "It is only from these locations that we support exports, subject to ongoing monitoring. From all other Marange mines, the UK and the EU continue to strongly oppose the resumption of exports until independent, international experts deem them to comply with the KP."

Critics have said it is a weak proposal.

Annie Dunneback of the advocacy group Global Witness said of the EU proposal: "It is the latest in a series of deals that have cast aside the principle of exports for progress and pandered to the demands of the Zimbabwean government."

Panorama: Mugabe's Blood Diamonds, BBC One, Monday, 8 August at 20:30 BST, then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14377215

From Tiananmen to Syria

Bashar al-Assad is now entering his fifth month of sending armed security apparatus into the streets of Syrian cities. The apparatus are reported to include snipers, armed police, army personnel, and tanks. It appears that more than 250 armored vehicles and tanks have been deployed to quell, quiet, stamp out the people who are simply asking to be treated as humans. Humans that, as we hold, have certain inalienable rights, and are demanding to be treated better than what they have been getting.

The oil capital of Syria, Deir al-Zor, was laid siege to by columns of tanks from four directions. In Prijedor, Bosnia when tanks surrounded the city this was called genocide. In 1989 in Tiananmen Square, when the Chinese army (tanks included) opened fire and killed up to 800. In these events even the United Nations body of impotence spoke out (nearly immediately) against atrocities that they termed genocidal. The Main Stream Media outlets in America covered the tanks rolling over students in Tiananmen Square.  What now?

The Arab League called for Kaddafi to step down. Then they called for UN sanctions. Then, they called for the UN and the US to do something. The UN insisted that military action, or something, be under taken. It all reminded me of that scene in Space Balls when Dark Helmet picked up the microphone to the intercom and desperately shrieked “Do something!”

Even though the Arab League, which in my opinion is one of the largest collections of villains outside of the UN, has not yet called for international intervention, they have discussed the situation. They seem to feel that al-Assad is a more important power broker than Kaddafi.  Syria has produced more oil than Libya. Al-Ass ad is seen as more of a power broker. This means that there are more oil revenues coming into the AL, OIC, and OPEC from Syria then Libya. The lives and well being of the people do not matter as much as the oil money. For now, the Injustice League will ask that America stay out of the issue. Didn’t Ahmedinijad warn the US to stay out of its affairs while machine gunning its own people in the streets two years ago? Yes, I thought so.

 It appears now that there are fears of a bloodbath. Tanks have been deployed, snipers are shooting people, and reports indicate that more than 2,000 people are dead. At what point does this outrageous reign of murder become a bloodbath?
At what point does it become clear that al-Assad defending himself and his actions as defending the people is insanity? When do our leaders to either crap or get off the pot? Rest easy, peace loving Americans! Our Fierceless Leader is, at this very moment, coming up with an unenforceable and forceless plan that will accomplish nothing while more people die.
You see, Obama is going to issue a Presidential Directive to establish an Atrocities Prevention Board that will be an early-warning system, of sorts, that will alert the world to coming genocides. What will this board have in its arsenal to prevent such atrocities? Other than denying leaders of countries already committing genocide against its their own citizens a Visa, we can only guess.

Bibliographed Articles for this writing

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8687347/Syria-unrest-Bashar-al-Assad-moves-to-crush-dissent-as-tanks-lay-waste-to-eastern-protest-city.html

http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/08-Aug-2011/50-dead-as-Assad-defends-crackdown

http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/editorial/ci_18637854

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/us/politics/04policy.html

Manufacturing In US Falls Again

Go back, if you will, and read the pieces posted here about the Keystone XL Pipeline. Now, wouldn’t that project, if given a go ahead, boost manufacturing for several parts of the project? I mentioned the approximated 138,000 jobs directly related to the construction of the XL Pipeline, but the number of other support jobs to run and maintain that system would certainly benefit the U.S. in so many ways.

Manufacturing growth hits lowest level in 2 years

WASHINGTON (AP) — Manufacturers had their weakest growth in two years in July, a sign that the economy could weaken this summer.

The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, said Monday that its index of manufacturing activity fell to 50.9 percent in July from 55.3 percent in June. The reading was the lowest since July 2009 — one month after the recession officially ended.

Any level above 50 indicates growth. The manufacturing sector has expanded for 23 straight months.

Still, new orders shrank for the first time since the recession ended. Companies slashed their inventories after building them up in June. Output, employment, and prices paid my manufacturers all grew more slowly in July.

The disappointing report on manufacturing is the first major reading on how the economy performed in July. It suggests the dismal economic growth in the first half of the year could extend into the July-September quarter.

"The ISM manufacturing report for July is a shocker and strongly suggests that the disappointing performance of the economy in the first half of the year was not just temporary," said Paul Dales, a senior U.S. economist for Capital Economics.

The news of weak factory growth in July also cooled what looked to be a strong day on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average had risen nearly 140 points in the first half-hour of trading, after President Barack Obama and lawmakers announced a deal to raise the nation's borrowing limit. But the Dow erased all of those gains after the manufacturing report was released, and then fell another 145 points. It later pared most of the day's losses to close 11 points down.

In a separate report, the Commerce Department said builders began work on more projects in June, pushing construction spending higher for a third straight month.

Construction spending rose 0.2 percent in June, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $772.3 billion, the government said. But even with the gains, spending remains slightly above an 11-year low hit in March and is just half of the $1.5 trillion pace considered healthy by most economists.

The economy expanded at a dismal 1.3 percent annual rate in the April-June period after an even worse 0.4 percent increase in the first three months of the year, the government said Friday.

The factory sector has expanded in every month but one since the recession ended in June 2009. The ISM's index topped 60 for four straight months at the start of the year.

But manufacturing has stumbled in recent months. A parts shortage stemming from Japan's March 11 earthquake disrupted automakers' supply chains, cutting into the output of new cars. And high gas prices left Americans with less money to spend on discretionary items, such as vacations, furniture and appliances.

The index fell in May to 53.5 from April's reading of 60.4. That was the sharpest one-month drop since 1984.

Employers have responded by pulling back on hiring. The economy added just 18,000 net jobs in June, the fewest in nine months, and the unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent. Hiring by manufacturers was nearly flat in the April-June period.

The government issues its July employment report on Friday.

Several regional manufacturing surveys for the month of July have been mixed. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank said its manufacturing index rose to 3.2, signaling that the sector is growing again in that region. It had contracted in June for the first time in nine months.

And a private survey in Chicago showed that manufacturing expanded in July, but at a slower pace than in June.

Meanwhile, a survey by the New York Federal Reserve Bank found regional manufacturing activity shrank in July.

Manufacturing represents only about 11 percent of U.S. economic activity and can contribute only so much to the broader economic recovery. For unemployment to fall significantly, consumer income and spending also must pick up.

The ISM, a trade group of purchasing executives based in Tempe, Ariz., compiles its manufacturing index by surveying about 300 purchasing executives across the country.