April 2008 archive

A story that has been bubbling up in Mexico finally has made its way back to the surface in the U.S. news. The New York Times reports State oil industry’s future sets off tussle in Mexico.

A bitter debate over what to do about Mexico’s ailing state oil monopoly has dominated national politics here in recent weeks, tapping strong emotions on both sides and resurrecting the political fortunes of the leftist leader who narrowly lost the 2006 presidential election.

The corporate framing is immediate in the opening graph of the story, but that’s not unsurprising from the NY Times. What is surprising is that normally stories from Mexico do not often make the news in the United States. This story is different, because: “At stake in the debate is not only the future of the Mexican economy but also the supply of oil to the United States.” Even news from Mexico is framed by the interests of the United States. As of 2007, Mexico still had an estimated 12.4 billion barrels of untapped oil reserves, or 10 percent of the world’s crude, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

Editor’s Note: The web site for Blue Indiana expired and cybersquatted with spam links. The link has been removed. TMC

OMG. Democratic candidate Barry Welsh, who has been endorsed by EENR has been punched in the face by a Republican official! I just heard about this via Blue Indiana:

A Republican voter registration deputy faces battery charges after he tackled a newspaper reporter and hit the Democratic 6th District congressional candidate after a contentious Delaware County Election Board meeting this afternoon.

The meeting had just ended when Will Statom, GOP registration deputy and secretary of the local Republican Party, attacked Star Press reporter Nick Werner while Werner was interviewing Ball State University student Johanna Perez about hundreds of last-minute voter registrations for Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign.

“He did not seem very happy that we were stating our opinions,” Perez said afterwards about Statom.

Werner said Statom seemed critical of his reporting, sarcastically saying to make sure he screwed up the story again.

Statom had just walked past Werner when Statom turned around and pushed Werner against the wall, grabbed him and they fell to the ground, according to witnesses.

Barry A. Welsh, Democratic 6th district congressional candidate, who attended the meeting, stepped in, and Statom turned around and hit Welsh in the eye.

“When Nick went to the floor, I tried to break it up,” Welsh said.

I told RiaD I would do how and why the government is raping senior citizens but this just came in and it is further confirmation of how elite parasitic asshole international bankers are going to “recoup” their “losses” from the “savings and loan” “scandal”.  I have also pondered other possible, and in light of the past seven years, plausible futures in the coming dystopia!

Oh, no, it’s a “controlled access” transportation corridor.  Well, The Berlin Wall could also have been called a “controlled access” transportation corridor.

What better day than “hump day” to talk menstruation? But since I didn’t give Rusty the requested 72 hours warning, I’ll start off with a little humor.

This is part of an episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond” that I thought was one of the funniest half hours of television I’ve ever seen. If memory serves me, Ray had audio-tapped Debra during a time he thought she was being particularly unreasonable due to PMS in order to convince her that she needed to take some pills to make his life a little easier. Not surprisingly, Debra was not pleased. Here’s what happened next:

1. The Los Angeles Times reports Violence in Iraq kills 2 U.S. soldiers and 11 Sadr city residents. “Today marked the fifth anniversary of the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime” and “the U.S. military announced the deaths of two soldiers, bringing to 4,028 the number of American troops killed in Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003”. “Today’s casualties included seven civilians killed when a mortar round or rocket hit a residential area, police said. In another part of Sadr City, projectiles hit a house and a tent erected for a funeral, killing four people. Police said it was unclear if the hits came from mortars or from U.S. helicopters, which have conducted airstrikes in the neighborhood.”

   Meanwhile, Congress isn’t going to do anything about Iraq. The LA Times reports that Democrats backing a troop pullout see the fall election as the only hope for changing U.S. policy in Iraq.

   “It is clear that we do not have the votes,” said Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who was among the first Senate Democrats to push for a binding troop withdrawal timeline. “The American people are going to speak in November.”

   Kerry and other Democrats have repeatedly failed over the last year to persuade more than a few Republicans, who can block legislation in the Senate with a filibuster, to break with President Bush and force him to bring troops home.

   Not every antiwar lawmaker has accepted the futility of insisting on a congressionally mandated withdrawal.

   “We should not be waiting around,” said Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.), one of the leading advocates of a pullout. “We must redeploy our troops to break the paralysis that now grips U.S. strategy in the region.”

   In the House, leaders of the influential Out of Iraq Caucus, who last year helped push congressional Democrats to back a timeline for withdrawing troops, are, like Feingold, also threatening to oppose any additional funding for the war.

   The House is scheduled to consider Bush’s next war funding request in May.

   My bold prediction: the Democrats in Congress will sell us out and give more borrowed money to Bush. They will justify it with the same lies.

2. The New York Times reports that Dundalk, Ireland is Reconsidering energy from the town up. Dundalk’s “goal is innovation on a local scale, developing clean energy sources and reducing energy demand in a 1.5-square-mile site called a Sustainable Energy Zone. The project is part of a European Union program to encourage pilot projects that can be scaled up to regional or national levels.”

   Some of the current projects are literally high profile. The first thing a visitor spots is a wind turbine 200 feet high that has dominated the campus of the Dundalk Institute of Technology since 2005… Self-powered streetlights being tested on the campus and in the industrial park also draw curious looks because their small wind turbines and solar panels make them appear as if they are ready for liftoff.

   But most of the work is less obvious or is in the planning stage. For example, a wood-fueled system with a gas boiler backup will deliver heat and hot water to many buildings in the zone through underground pipes…

   Energy conservation in the zone means improving the insulation for both new and existing homes. And Sustainable Energy Ireland says that by 2010, renewable energy will account for at least 20 percent of the heat in the zone and at least 20 percent of the electricity used by businesses.

   Another example of a distributed, localized energy generation at the point of use. The solution to our energy problems, I believe, will not be solved by massive, centralized systems.

According to the New York Times, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House will change its rules so as to block the requirement of a vote on the free trade agreement with Colombia.

Pelosi says the House will vote on the rules change policy Thursday, effectively putting off a vote on a free trade agreement that is a key priority of the Bush administration.

”The president took his action. I will take mine tomorrow,” Pelosi said.

NY Times

If she succeeds, the Colombian Unfair Trade Agreement is dead for now.

More, after the fold.  

Alos in Orange: