Dear Kitty. Some blog

US home foreclosures at record high as jobs crisis deepens: here.

Several hundred Detroit area residents attended a jobs fair Wednesday in nearby Livonia, Michigan, the latest of several similar events held in the area that have drawn unemployed residents seeking any kind of work: here.

Students at the University of California, Los Angeles and other California campuses protested massive fee hikes on Wedneday and Thursday. Police responded violently: here.

This video from Associated Press in the USA says about itself:

Judge: Katrina Flooding Due to Corps Negligence

A federal judge in New Orleans has ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers’ failure to properly maintain a navigation channel led to massive flooding from Katrina. (Nov. 19)

From KAUZ.com in the USA:

Army Corps Of Engineers Blamed For Hurricane Katrina

A federal judge has ruled the Army Corps of Engineers’ failure to properly maintain a navigation channel, led to massive flooding by Hurricane Katrina.

In a landmark decision, U.S. District Judge Standwood Duval Ruled in favor of residents, who claim the Army Corps’s oversight of the Mississippi River- Gulf Outlet, led to the flooding of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward and neighboring St. Bernard Parish.

Wednesday’s (November 18) ruling just says what New Orleans’ residents have been saying since the storm hit on August 29, 2005, [it]was a man made disaster caused by the Army Corps’ failure to maintain the levee system protecting the city.

See also here.

Well, the Army Corps of Engineers is of course a United States federal government institution. And as such, it can hardly be blamed as the sole culprit of the Katrina disaster.

The George W. Bush administration had been, and was still, cutting back on the Army Corps of Engineers’ anti flooding work, in order to throw tax money into the bottomless pits of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. It had sent local National Guard people, who otherwise might have helped the flood victims, to those wars. These Bush policies cost many lives.

This video is called Max Keiser takes offense to Goldman Sachs story (pt1 of 2).

Goldman Sachs’ CEO Lloyd Blankfein said Tuesday that his firm did things that were “clearly wrong” and “has reason to apologize for.” His mea culpa, in response to growing public anger over the government-subsidized firm’s soaring profits, was issued in advance of next month’s announcement of record bonuses for Goldman executives and traders: here.

At Goldman Sachs, tis the season of giving. Not only is the firm lavishing huge bonuses on its employees, but its executives are finding ways around the company’s ban on Christmas parties - by calling them “dinners”: here.

This vifdeo from the USA is called McDonalds Food - The Truth.

From DutchNews:

McDonalds ‘misled’ customers over meat

Wednesday 18 November 2009

Fast food chain McDonalds misled consumers when it claimed in an advert that the meat used in its hamburgers came from cows which had grazed in the fields, the Dutch advertising authority said in a statement.

‘The meat used in Big Macs comes from European cows which are not only kept indoors but can also graze happily outside,’ the tv advert said.

However, McDonalds has never made an agreement with its meat suppliers about the living conditions of the cows and so cannot make that guarantee, the commission said. The advert is therefore ‘misleading’.

McDonalds has 13 days to appeal against the judgment.

The case was brought by animal rights group Wakker Dier.

This video from CNN in the USA is called Rep. Wasserman Schultz on Situation Room about new breast cancer screening guidelines.

By Joanne Laurier in the USA:

US government mammogram recommendations

Denial of breast cancer screenings will have deadly consequences

18 November 2009

A US government panel’s recommendation that women under the age of 50 not undergo annual mammogram screenings has provoked outrage from oncologists and other health care professionals, as well as breast cancer patients and survivors.

Compelling evidence suggests that following the advice of the United States Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) will lead to thousands of new breast cancer deaths and a rise in the incidence of the disease. One in eight women in the US (13 percent) will be afflicted by the disease at some point in their lives. An estimated 182,000 American women were newly diagnosed in 2008 with breast cancer, and more than 40,000 women died from the illness.

After decades of promoting mammograms as the best tool for early detection of breast cancer, the USPSTF is recommending against yearly screenings for women between the ages of 40 and 49, claiming the risks outweigh the benefits.

The recommendations announced Monday have been denounced by a wide range of specialists in the field and people who deal on a daily basis with the devastation that breast cancer inflicts upon hundreds of thousands of women and their families every year. Both the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute condemned the change.

The American College of Radiology / American Roentgen Ray Society says:

USPSTF mammography recommendations will result in countless unnecessary breast cancer deaths each year

See also here.

Monday’s recommendation by a US government panel that women under the age of 50 not undergo annual mammogram screenings should serve as a warning on the future of health care in America: here.

This video is called The Corrupt Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Remember George W. Bush’s and his cronies’ propaganda about their wars? If we were to believe them: No, really, the Iraq war was not about oil; perish the thought … And the Afghan war did not have anything to do with pipelines … It was all about Saddam Hussein being behind 9/11 … err, sorry, after the war was already well underway, the United States Bush administration itself retracted their earlier propaganda on this. It was about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction … err, sorry, after the war was already well underway, the Bush administration itself retracted their earlier propaganda on this.

After the two official reasons for starting bloody war had proved to be spurious, the Bush propagandists came with a third pretext: they were so full of love for the poor Afghan and Iraqi people, especially for women and children, that they wanted to bring prosperity, democracy and good government to their countries, by bombing them, firing guns at them, and opening torture prisons in them.

The Bush regime also really loved the poor Somali people, especially women and children. They wanted to bring prosperity, democracy and good government to Somalia as well. They had the US Air Force bombing Somalia. Though they left most of the invasion, aimed at bringing prosperity, democracy and good government to Somalia, to their buddy Meles Zenawi, dictator of Ethiopia. Mr Zenawi being well known for being prosperous himself, though his subjects are starving, enjoying free speech himself though suppressing it among his subjects, seemed exactly the right guy for bringing Bush style democracy to the Horn of Africa.

In the propaganda of the Bush gang, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan would become shiny examples, models for the other countries of the Middle East and Africa.

Well, how are things eight year years later, now that Bush’s presidency is finished, but his wars are not?

Let’s look at Iraq. Where there had been a really bad dictator, Saddam Hussein, and US sponsored economic sanctions on top of that. Things then, just before Bush’s war started, were so bad that many people could not imagine them becoming even worse. Still, they did.

Now, there are definitely more jails in Iraq, and more torture.

Over a million more deaths.

More unemployment, less women’s rights, less gay rights, far less electricity and water, in Iraq. And far more refugees from Iraq, than in the darkest days of Saddam Hussein.

Iraq may hang 126 women by year’s end despite international appeals: here.

Let us look at corruption. What does Associated Press today have to say about Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, which, if we would believe the Bushists, will surely after those eight years be shiny beacons of prosperity, democracy and good government?

Associated Press says:

Afghanistan slips in corruption index despite aid

17 Nov 2009

BERLIN - Afghanistan has slipped three places to become the world’s second most-corrupt country despite billions in aid meant to bolster the government against a rising insurgency, according to an annual survey of perceived levels of corruption.

Only lawless Somalia, whose weak U.N.-backed government controls just a few blocks of the capital, was perceived as more corrupt than Afghanistan in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

Iraq saw some improvement, rising to 176 of 180 countries, up two places up from last year.

Some ‘improvement’ in Iraq … at least half of it caused by corruption in Afghanistan getting even worse.

In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai’s inability or unwillingness to tackle cronyism and bribery the past five years have resulted in an increase of support for the Taliban insurgents. That has prompted calls by the Obama administration for Karzai to tackle the practice or risk forfeiting U.S. aid.

Since 2001, the U.S. Congress has appropriated more than $39 billion in humanitarian and reconstruction assistance for Afghanistan, according to a report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. European nations send about 1 billion euros ($1.49 billion) a year, a total of 9 billion euros since 2002.

International donors are increasingly questioning how much of the billions of dollars in aid might have been misappropriated.

The report said examples of Afghan corruption ranged from the sale of government positions to daily bribes for basic services. …

In Iraq, corruption has become widespread since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003 with scarcity of serious government measures against corrupted officials.

That has undermined the largest nation-building efforts with siphoning billions of dollars away from the country’s struggling economy, increasing frustrations among Iraqis mainly over corruption, lingering violence and poor public services. …

The United States, which was in 19th place compared with 18th last year, remained stable despite Transparency’s concerns over a lack of government oversight of the financial sector.

The report also pointed out that the U.S. legislature is another reason for concern, as it is “perceived to be the institution most affected by corruption.”

There were some bright spots in the new report — Bangladesh, Belarus, Guatemala, Lithuania, Poland and Syria were among the countries that improved the most.

US-occupied Iraq, Afghanistan among world’s most corrupt countries: here.

Afghan minister accused of receiving huge bribe: here.

An Australian man who worked with a security contractor in Afghanistan pleaded guilty to a scheme to solicit kickbacks from a U.S. contract, Washington said: here.

The deaths of 12 civilians in a rocket attack aimed at military and local leaders on Monday underscored the inability of NATO to defeat the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan, local observers have said: here.

A 21-year-old single mother serving in the US Army will likely face charges for refusing deployment to Afghanistan when she could not find care for her infant son: here.

Afghanistan’s Colombia connection: here.

Saudi Arabia bombards Yemeni rebels in policing role for US imperialism: here.

This video is called Global food prices affecting families in the US - 3 Jun 08.

A yearly survey on hunger released Monday by the United States Department of Agriculture reported that a record 49.1 million Americans in 17 million households lacked dependable access to adequate food in 2008: here.

A report released Tuesday by Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), criticizes Bush administration bank regulators and officials for agreeing to pay in full the bad debts owed to major banks and investment houses by American International Group (AIG) as part of last year’s government bailout of the insurance giant: here.

Credit ratings agency Fitch warns that Britain could lose its prized AAA status as a sovereign borrower: here.

Zizek and the economic crisis: here.

The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation abandoned its hunger reduction targets in advance of the World Food Summit on Food Security that opened in Rome on November 16. Instead, it will now aim “to take action towards sustainably eradicating hunger at the earliest possible date”: here.

Watch Honduras: Where does Washington stand? in News  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

This video is called Honduras: Where does Washington stand?

From British daily The Morning Star:

Zelaya calls for Honduran election boycott

Monday 16 November 2009

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya as called on his country’s citizens not to participate in next week’s presidential election.

President Zelaya, who was deposed and exiled in a coup d’etat on June 28, also announced that he had written to US President Barack Obama calling on him not to recognise the results of the election, declaring that it had “no legitimacy if it is held under the gun.”

Speaking from the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa, where he has taken refuge after secretly entering the country, Mr Zelaya also rejected any further efforts to make a deal with coup leader Roberto Micheletti.

Insisting that he had no reason to negotiate over the matter, Mr Zelaya insisted that, “in my position as president elected by the Honduran people, I reaffirm my decision that, from this date forward, no matter what, I will not accept any agreement to return to the presidency.

“My term of office ends on January 27 2010,” he declared, adding that neither the Honduran Congress nor the country’s Supreme Court had the authority to depose the president.

An agreement brokered by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias last month had called for Mr Zelaya to be returned to office at the head of a “unity” government that would have included supporters of Mr Micheletti’s coup regime in the president’s cabinet.

However, Mr Micheletti broke the agreement by allowing Congress, which is dominated by coup supporters, to debate whether Mr Zelaya should return to the presidential palace, while naming all the members of the cabinet himself.

“I have given up talking to Micheletti and I am forced to accept that this dialogue is false, that Micheletti is a liar and the only thing that discussion with him has served is to strengthen the de facto regime,” Mr Zelaya said.

Alarmed by suggestions by US diplomats that Mr Obama was willing to recognise the results of the November 29 election even if it was held under the auspices of the coup regime, Mr Zelaya also demanded that the US “lead by example” and refuse to do so.

The continued repression of trade unionists by the regime set up in Honduras after a June 28 coup makes it impossible to hold free and fair elections, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a Nov. 13 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton: here.

On November 18, 1909 the US administration of William Howard Taft sends war ships to the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua as it prepares to depose the regime of President José Santos Zelaya: here.

From 16 Deaths Per Day in the USA:

Sixteen workers are killed a day in the United States because of reckless negligence on the part of their employers. Under existing laws, these employers get a slap on the wrist, or walk away scot-free. Meanwhile, workers who blow the whistle face threats and retaliation at the workplace.

You can sign a petition against this here.

The number of workplace accidents and illnesses in the US is vastly underreported, according to a survey by the Government Accountability Office: here.

This video from the USA is called Washington Blade’s 40th Anniversary Video.

From Pink News in Britain:

America’s biggest gay media company forced to close

By PinkNews.co.uk Staff Writer • November 16, 2009 - 17:15

Window Media LCC, the largest publisher of LGBT newspapers and websites in America, has closed down.

The company owns the Washington Blade, Southern Voice, Dallas Voice, David magazine and the South Florida Blade.

It is thought that a major shareholder had been forced into liquidation and faced federal receivership.

The Washington Blade recently celebrated its 40th anniversary, while Southern Voice was founded 21 years ago.

Southern Voice editor Laura Douglas-Brown arrived at her Atlanta office today to find the locks changed and a note on the door saying the parent company had ceased business.

Douglas-Brown told Creative Loafing: “It’s not just a loss for the employees, but the gay community as well.”

She added: “[This] didn’t happen because of a lack of need for our publications. It didn’t happen because of a lack of hard dedicated work by local staff. And that’s the shame of it. . .It’s a sad tale, how it all came crashing down.”

A 10-year-old Arkansas boy name Will Phillips has decided that he cannot in good conscience pledge allegiance to the flag as long as the country for which it stands refuses legal equality to its GLBT citizens: here.

Gay people in Nazi Germany: how hate triumphs: here.

A Philippines gay rights group is waging a legal battle to be allowed to run in next year’s polls: here.