When psycho-sociopaths run things . . .

“Is it my job to feed my neighbour’s child? I don’t think so.” UPDATED

That, from Harper Industry Minister and Harper MP for Port Moody, James Moore when questioned on the embarrassing levels of child poverty in British Columbia. 

The only words that don't fail me are, Fucking selfish ... greedy ... scumbag. Typical bloody-minded right-wing puke. Charles Dickens wrote books about people like James Moore.

UPDATE: Moore is now claiming he was taken out of context. Sara Norman, who was interviewing him at the time, has something different to say about Moore's rushing to his own defence. So ... you need to hear it for yourself. Off to The Gazeteer with you where you'll hear the whole context and understand that my description of Harper government minister, James Moore need not be altered. 

Moore would watch Canadian children starve in the street.

Food fascists . . .

THE CEO OF NESTLE is a nasty fascist. According to American Live Wire, "Nestlé CEO Says Water Is Food That Should Be Privatized – Not A Human Right". Check out the video. Myself, I will never buy anything from Nestlé or its subsidiaries.

ADDENDUM:

This just keeps getting better and better. Sum Of Us proclaims itself "Fighting for people over profits", and it has a very disturbing report, "Nestlé: Stop trying to patent the fennel flower." Apparently Fennel Flower, or Nigella Sativa is being claimed as a patentable "discovery". Grrrrrrrrr.

The power of oil . . .

IRANIAN OIL has all sorts of political complexities, a lot of which are not immediately apparent to those of us who rely on orthodox news sources and commentary. Indeed, as we see, the Iranian nuke project and the posturing over Hormuz is rather a side-show, a distraction for American conservatives to dick-thump over.

ALJAZEERA has a report by Pepe Escobar, who is the roving correspondent for Asia Times, titled "All aboard the New Silk Road(s)", where he believes that Iran, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the US are all scrambling to get the upper hand across Eurasia. Add Russia to the mix and we have a three-ring circus here, folks, as the Great Game continues.

In the complex chessboard where the New Great Game in Eurasia is being played, both Kings are easy to identify: Pipelineistan, and the possible, multiple intersections of a 21st century Silk Road.  

Few have noticed a crucial meeting that took place during the recent Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran, between senior Foreign Ministry diplomats from Afghanistan, India and Iran. Their ultimate goal; a new Southern Silk Road connecting Iran to Central and South Asia through roads, railways and last but not least, major ports.

The crucial Silk Road port in this case is Chabahar, in Sistan-Balochistan province in southeast Iran. Tehran has already invested $340 million to complete 70 per cent of the port construction - a decade-long project.

But with US and EU sanctions biting harder and harder, Tehran expects Delhi to come up with a closing $100 million. India has already invested $136 million to link Chabahar to Afghanistan's ring road system.

One does not have to be Alexander the Great to notice the fastest connection between Kabul and India would be through the fabled Khyber Pass. But that does not take into account the accumulated historical venom between Islamabad and Delhi - their constant promises to increase cross-border trade notwithstanding.

With Chabahar linking Iran directly to Afghanistan and India, in theory Pakistan is sidelined. But it's much more complicated than that.

• • •

Enter Pipelineistan - via the key Iran-Pakistan umbilical cord in the making: the 2,700 kilometre-long IP gas pipeline, from Iran's gigantic South Pars field through Balochistan and Sindh and into Punjab.

According to National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) managing director, Javad Oji, the stretch from Iranshahr in southeast Iran to Zahedan and the Pakistani border is 90 per cent ready. The 900 kilometre-long pipeline on the Iranian side should be active one year from now. It's up to Islamabad to finish its stretch.

Totally in character in terms of interminable Pipelineistan soap operas, IP used to be IPI (Iran-Pakistan-India) - but Delhi pulled out, forced by relentless pressure from the Bush and Obama administrations.

And it's here that the going gets really tough - because there's nothing Beijing would love more than turn the former IPI into IPC.

Now, add the confrontation between China and its neighbors bordering the South China Sea and further North over deep-sea oil deposits, and the future has all sorts of interesting possibilities.

Pepe has another article, in Tom's Dispatch, "Tomgram: Pepe Escobar, Pipelineistan Goes Af-Pak", which points out that

Iran's relations with both Russia and China are swell -- and will remain so no matter who is elected the new Iranian president next month. China desperately needs Iranian oil and gas, has already clinched a $100 billion gas "deal of the century" with the Iranians, and has loads of weapons and cheap consumer goods to sell. No less close to Iran, Russia wants to sell them even more weapons, as well as nuclear energy technology.

And then, moving ever eastward on the great Grid, there's Turkmenistan, lodged deep in Central Asia, which, unlike Iran, you may never have heard a thing about. Let's correct that now.

Gurbanguly Is the Man

Alas, the sun-king of Turkmenistan, the wily, wacky Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Nyazov, "the father of all Turkmen" (descendants of a formidable race of nomadic horseback warriors who used to attack Silk Road caravans) is now dead. But far from forgotten.

The Chinese were huge fans of the Turkmenbashi. And the joy was mutual. One key reason the Central Asians love to do business with China is that the Middle Kingdom, unlike both Russia and the United States, carries little modern imperial baggage. And of course, China will never carp about human rights or foment a color-coded revolution of any sort.

The Chinese are already moving to successfully lobby the new Turkmen president, the spectacularly named Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, to speed up the construction of the Mother of All Pipelines. This Turkmen-Kazakh-China Pipelineistan corridor from eastern Turkmenistan to China's Guangdong province will be the longest and most expensive pipeline in the world, 7,000 kilometers of steel pipe at a staggering cost of $26 billion.

So, the players are making plans, but the future will be different from our expectations, it always is. My guess, my stupid opinion is that technology will have some surprises, and that 30 years from now, petroleum oil will be a 3rd world fuel of decreasing importance.

H/T — Daniel

That Wall Street mentality . . .

Auschwitz survivor Leon Greenman displays his number tattoo.
(photo: Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

WHEN THE BOTTOM LINE IS EVERYTHING: IBM at Auschwitz, New Documents.

Among the newly-released documents and archival materials are secret 1941 correspondence setting up the Dutch subsidiary of IBM to work in tandem with the Nazis, company President Thomas Watson's personal approval for the 1939 release of special IBM alphabetizing machines to help organize the rape of Poland and the deportation of Polish Jews, as well as the IBM Concentration Camp Codes including IBM's code for death by Gas Chamber. Among the newly published photos of the punch cards is the one developed for the statistician who reported directly to Himmler and Eichmann.

Have a koch and a $mile ? ? ? ?

The right-wing-billionaire-zealot brother$ koch are about to fully engage their database war on the rest of the civilized world.

Feature article in today's GuardianUK reveals the details:

The secretive oil billionaires the Koch brothers are close to launching a nationwide database connecting millions of Americans who share their anti-government and libertarian views, a move that will further enhance the tycoons' political influence and that could prove significant in next year's presidential election.

_______________

The database will bring together information from a plethora of right-wing groups, tea party organisations and conservative-leaning thinktanks. Each one has valuable data on their membership – including personal email addresses and phone numbers, as well as more general information useful to political campaign strategists such as occupation, income bracket and so on.

_______________

At their most recent billionaires' gathering in Vail, Colorado in June, Charles Koch described next year's presidential contest as "the mother of all wars". A tape of his private speech obtained by Mother Jones said the fight for the White House would be a battle "for the life or death of this country".

Exhorting the 300 guests in attendance to open their sizeable wallets and donate to the Koch election coffers, he went on: "It isn't just your money we need. We need you bringing in new partners, new people. We can't do it alone. We have to multiply ourselves."

"We have to multiply ourselves."

Not unlike rats in a garbage dump . . . .


(Alison has more on how everything really does go better with koch here.) 

99% Action from Home . . . .

Something we all can do from home to annoy the 1%:



H/T BTO

Them what has . . .

THE CORPORATE MATRIX, as reported by BOINGBOING's Cory Doctorow, consolidates wealth and wealth control to a disturbing degree, in an article, "Densely-linked cluster of 147 companies control 40% of world's total wealth":

When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a "super-entity" of 147 even more tightly knit companies - all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity - that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. "In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network," says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group.

A CORE OF 1318 companies with interlocking ownerships. Each of the 1318 had ties to two or more other companies, and on average they were connected to 20. H/T — SCANNER.

Clean Catholic Cash . . . .

bennie and his Jerks are the gift that keeps on giving.

Check this out via The Guardian UK today:

Vatican bank chief investigated over money laundering claims

In unprecedented move, judge freezes €23m held in account at financial institution with close church links

* John Hooper in Rome* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 September 2010

The head of the Vatican bank has formally been placed under investigation in an inquiry into a suspected violation of Italy's money-laundering laws, judicial sources said today.

At the same time, a judge in Rome ordered a freeze on €23m (£19.5m) held in an account opened by the Vatican bank, the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), at another financial institution in the Italian capital. It was thought to be the first time such action had been authorised against the IOR in Italy.
_______________

The Vatican has a long history of withholding co-operation from Italian investigators seeking access to its bank's books. The IOR was involved in a major scandal in 1982 arising from the fraudulent bankruptcy of Banco Ambrosiano, then Italy's largest private bank.

Well.

Maybe now we have the definitive answer as to how bennie affords all those fabulous pumps he struts around in . . . .

Mega Larceny . . .

THE NYTIMES has an article by Robert Mazur, "Follow the Dirty Money", which describes how international money gets moved. Problem is, nobody's going to jail.

LAST month, a federal district judge approved a deal to allow Barclays, the British bank, to pay a $298 million fine for conducting transactions with Cuba, Iran, Libya, Myanmar and Sudan in violation of United States trade sanctions. Barclays was discovered to have systematically disguised the movement of hundreds of millions of dollars through wire transfers that were stripped of the critical information required by law that would have enabled the world to know that for more than 10 years the bank was moving huge sums of money for enemy governments. Yet all federal prosecutors wanted to settle the problem was a small piece of the action.

When Judge Emmet Sullivan of federal district court in Washington, who ultimately approved the deal with Barclays, asked the obvious question, “Why isn’t the government getting rough with these banks?” the remarkable response was that the government had investigated but couldn’t find anyone responsible.

• • •

Wachovia alone had moved more than $400 billion for account holders in Mexico, $14 billion of which was in bulk currency that had been driven in armored cars or flown to the United States. 

Dog Nutz . . .

ACCORDING TO MACLEAN'S, things are not well in the Timmy's empire. The article, "Tim Hortons’ extra-large trouble trouble" highlights how, in the chase for the maximum profit squeeze, quality is perceived to be in decline. It all started when the honchos decided to get rid of in-store baking, in favour of "par-baked" 'nuts delivered from a giant mega-factory. Now, the honchos have sold their interest in the mega-factory, and after 2016, where the product will come from, is anybody's guess. Were I a franchise holder, I would be nervous . . . and some of 'em are starting to freak — and lawyer-up. Another company ruined by greedy MBA system-weasels.

Tim’s regulars may have a hard time swallowing the news that their maple dip is no longer produced under the Maple Leaf. As national symbols go, a Hortons donut is second only to a Hortons coffee. But Timmy’s selling baked goods from a freezer? That’s standard operating procedure, and has been for quite some time.

Yes, it was certainly a scandal back in 2003, when Hortons co-founder Ron Joyce confirmed the truth: that the company he built (and had recently left) replaced its in-store deep fryers with frozen globs of dough trucked in from a factory. “This is not a philosophy that I would have embraced if I still owned the company,” he famously boasted. One Hortons spokeswoman, convinced that she could stop the unflattering headlines, famously told a reporter that “until I confirm or deny anything, it simply doesn’t exist.”

It did exist, of course. And the backlash was swift. (Joyce’s words were especially damaging. “I’ve tried them,” he said of the new donuts. “And they’re certainly not the same.”) In time, though, most people eventually forgot—or simply stopped caring—where their honey crullers came from. Truth be told, many customers still have no idea that the donuts on display have to be defrosted.

But that is about to change. In the coming weeks, Tim’s devoted disciples will receive a very fresh reminder about just how much their donuts have evolved. Hortons’ historic decision to go frozen is now at the heart of a proposed $1.95-billion class action lawsuit that has exposed a bitter—and very personal—battle inside the country’s favourite coffee shop. Scheduled for a hearing in November, the high-stakes case pits store owners against senior executives, store owners versus each other, and even relative against relative. And no matter how many spokespeople try to control the message, the spat is sure to have some patrons pining for the old days, when the smell of deep-fried Dutchies hung in the air at their local shop.

It just keeps on keepin' on . . .

THE PIRATE BAY proclaims itself to be "The world's most resilient BitTorrent site" — and that may well be true. You see, according to TorrentFreak, a BitTorrent news and commentary site, police all over Europe have been raiding addresses and seizing computers to stamp out this pestiferous org.

This morning news is coming in which indicates that very significant raids against illicit file-sharing are taking place in locations across Europe. Police in up to 14 European countries are said to be involved in an operation, said to be in the planning for two years, targeting the Warez Scene, the network of individuals and servers at the top of the so-called ‘Piracy Pyramid’.

Details are scarce at the moment, but it is believed that at the behest of Belgian authorities, raids have gone ahead in The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Germany, Great Britain, Czech Republic, Hungary and Sweden.

Not unusually, Sweden appears to have borne the brunt of the activity with a total of seven locations raided including Stockholm, Malmö, Umeå, Eskilstuna and Solna. Armed with IP addresses, this morning police officers turned up at the Solna premises of PRQ, the company that in part hosts WikiLeaks.There is no suggestion that the controversial whistle-blowing site is connected to the operation.

However, it appears that TPB is indeed resilient. Dropped in — it's alive! In a world of cable and satellite rip-offs, outrageous DVD and movie ticket prices, ya gotta love them distributed servers — BitTorrent rules!

Corporate greed . . .

THE NYTIMES has a sad article by Bob Herbert, "A Sin and a shame", about just how well US corporations are doing out of the recession, and about just how the employees are screwed:

The treatment of workers by American corporations has been worse — far more treacherous — than most of the population realizes. There was no need for so many men and women to be forced out of their jobs in the downturn known as the great recession.

Many of those workers were cashiered for no reason other than outright greed by corporate managers. And that cruel, irresponsible, shortsighted policy has resulted in widespread human suffering and is doing great harm to the economy.

The recession officially started in December 2007. From the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2009, real aggregate output in the U.S., as measured by the gross domestic product, fell by about 2.5 percent. But employers cut their payrolls by 6 percent.

In many cases, bosses told panicked workers who were still on the job that they had to take pay cuts or cuts in hours, or both. And raises were out of the question. The staggering job losses and stagnant wages are central reasons why any real recovery has been so difficult.

In short, the corporations are making out like bandits. Now they’re sitting on mountains of cash and they still are not interested in hiring to any significant degree, or strengthening workers’ paychecks.

Just pay it . . . .

The NEW YORK TIMES has a report by Steven Greenhouse, "Pressured, Nike to Help Workers in Honduras", about the successful efforts of US college students to force Nike to do the right thing. Moral suasion was ineffective, but when the students had their colleges buy their sweats elsewhere, the kind folks at Nike had a change of heart. I don't buy Nike.

Facing pressure from universities and student groups, the apparel maker Nike announced on Monday that it would pay $1.54 million to help 1,800 workers in Honduras who lost their jobs when two subcontractors closed their factories.

Nike agreed to the payment after several universities and a nationwide group, United Students Against Sweatshops, pressed it to pay some $2 million in severance that the two subcontractors had failed to pay.

The University of Wisconsin, Madison terminated its licensing agreement with Nike over the Honduran dispute, and Cornell warned that it would do the same unless Nike resolved the matter.

You can make a capitalist be morally responsible, it's just not easy.

The Geist in the machine . . .

MICHAEL GEIST HAS SOME DISTURBING NEWS: "PMO Issues The Order: Canadian DMCA Bill Within Six Weeks".

Months of public debate over the future of Canadian copyright law were quietly decided earlier this week, when sources say the Prime Minister's Office reached a verdict over the direction of the next copyright bill. The PMO was forced to make the call after Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore and Industry Minister Tony Clement were unable to reach consensus on the broad framework of a new bill. As I reported last week, Moore has argued for a virtual repeat of Bill C-61, with strong digital locks provisions similar to those found in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act and a rejection of a flexible fair dealing approach.

First, the bill represents a stunning reversal from the government's seeming shift away from C-61 and its commitment to a bill based on the national copyright consultation. Instead, the consultation appears to have been little more than theatre, with the PMO and Moore choosing to dismiss public opinion. Second, after adopting distinctly pro-consumer positions on other issues, Moore has abandoned that approach with support for what may become the most anti-consumer copyright bill in Canadian history. Third, the bill will immediately impact the Canadian position at the ACTA and CETA negotiations, where the bill's provisions on anti-circumvention and ISP liability will effectively become the Canadian delegation position.

For those wondering what can be done, my only answer is to speak out now. Write a paper letter to your Member of Parliament and send copies to the Prime Minister, Moore, Clement and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. No stamp is required - be sure to include your home address and send it to the House of Commons, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6. Once that is done, join the Facebook group and the Facebook page and be sure to ask others do the same. You may spoken out before, but your voice is needed yet again.

What a can of worms.

Sheesh

ERIC CLAPTON is now shilling for T-Mobile and Fender. Eric, don't you have enough money, already? If you can't get a decent sound out a plebeian Mexican-made Strat, the megabuck Clapton model isn't going to make you sound any better.

Hollow "Victory," Mr. President . . . .

Check out Matt Taibbi and Robert Kuttner on Bill Moyers Journal Friday night.

They explain the clusterf_ck in Washington for what it is: a sell-out to Corporate America. What a surprise, eh?

It's about 30 minutes, but well worth it. The dems and the "o-team" need to pay attention. S'pecially the comments regarding rahm.

I knew that guy was gonna be trouble, and guess what ? ? ? ?

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Believing in Change Yet ? ? ? ?

Matt Taibbi on business as usual in DC and on Wall Street:



Wall Street = 1, Main Street = 0 . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Nova Scotia Jurisprudence

ACCORDING TO THR, Esq., which proclaims itself to be a blog which focuses on how the entertainment and media industries are impacted and influenced by the law, in Nova Scotia, you can't play like Adam Sandler. 

Apparently, the Honourable Justice Arthur J. LeBlanc of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, ruled that the "Happy Gilmore shot" breaches a duty of care on the golf course. In case you missed it a HGS comes from the 1996 film "Happy Gilmore", where Adam Sandler showcases an unorthodox golf swing to win the Tour Championship and save his grandmother's home from IRS debt. 

In the case, the plaintiff sued after the defendant tried to impress his golfing buddies during a bachelor party outing that included beer, tequila, and marijuana. On the 16th hole, under the influence, Travis Hayter whipped out his "Happy Gilmore shot," which the court defined in 2008 as "running from five to ten feet behind the ball and hitting it on the run."

The ball leapt up and struck the plaintiff in the wrist, then in the chest, causing permanent damage to the radial nerve. The plaintiff no longer was able to return to his former work as a woodsman on account of the incident.

THR, Esq. has a veritable cornucopia of titillation for the curious:

• Chris Brown's former agents sue for $475K
• Judge: Dixie Chick didn't defame man by suggesting role in murders
• Hollywood Docket: Meet the Comcast/NBCU lawyers; AT&T backs off Verizon suit; Redbox adds claim
• $110 million lawsuit says 'Bruno' and Letterman defamed Palestinian leader
• Can a science-fiction movie infringe a tech patent?
• Veoh seeks $3 mil in attorneys fees from Universal Music
• Hollywood Docket: Sumner wins; Smashing Pumpkins settle; MMA promoter fights DMX
• Has Bravo already agreed to put White House crashers on 'Real Housewives'?
• Business manager vs. lawyer in Black Eyed Peas spat
• Bob Yari faces contempt hearing, fines in secret battle with UTA
• Hollywood Docket: Warhol child porn?; Hasselbeck book infringement?; NY Post discrimination?
• Tyler Perry accused of stealing gospel song for 'Madea'
• Hollywood Docket: J-Lo sex tape as evidence?; Roger Avary rats himself out; video game disability
• Winona Ryder called to testify as expert in 'alienation'
• Who will be the first to sue 'The Biggest Loser'?
• 50 Cent settles beef with Taco Bell
• Hollywood Docket: Hulu clamps down; Wesley Snipes appeals sentence; domain theft indictment
• 'Daily Show' comedy turns into Iran spy drama

A winning library

A hat-tip to Helmut; thank-you, sir.