November 2011
“Halloween is an all-American tradition. I believe it dates back to the time early settlers gave the Indians fun-size smallpox.”
—Colbert
October 2011
US to cut Unesco funding after Palestinians granted membership vote →
bbc.co.uk
“This vote will erase a tiny part of the injustice done to the Palestinian people,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki told the meeting of the UN educational, scientific and cultural organization in Paris, after the result was announced.
Widespread applause greeted the result of Monday’s vote in the chamber, where a two-thirds majority is enough to pass a decision.
[I]n an emotional session, China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa voted in favor of Palestinian membership, while the US, Canada and Germany voted against and the UK abstained. […]
A US law passed in the 1990s allows Washington to cut funding to any UN body that admits Palestine as a full member.
The US currently funds more than 20% of Unesco’s entire budget. The proposed budget to be agreed by the conference for 2012 and 2013 is $653m, up $10m on the previous two-year figure. […]
A vote is expected in November at the UN Security Council on granting full membership of the UN to the Palestinians. The US has threatened to use its veto.
No member has a right of veto in Unesco, where each representative has one vote irrespective of a country’s size or budget contribution.
“Kim Kardashian earned $17,900,000 from her wedding and divorced 72 days later (but gays ruin the sanctity of marriage).”
—Tyler Oakley
Listen
Lose Your Soul // Dead Man’s Bones
“The government’s patronage of [Bank of America] was never clearer than in recent weeks, when B of A quietly decided to move trillions of dollars (trillions, not billions) in risky Merrill Lynch derivatives contracts off Merrill’s books and onto the books of the parent/retail arm, Bank of America.
This decision was done at the behest of counterparties to those transactions, who wanted those contracts placed under the aegis of Bank of America, whose deposits are insured by the FDIC. The move was made, according to reports, so that Bank of America could avoid posting $3.3 billion in collateral to satisfy the company’s creditors. In other words, Bank of America just got You the Taxpayer to co-sign as much as $53 trillion worth of dicey derivative contracts.[…]
A series of lawmakers on the Hill, including most notably Sherrod Brown, Carl Levin, and Bernie Sanders, are trying to figure out if there’s any way to stop this transaction, but of course there is not. Upstate NY congressman Maurice Hinchey put it best. “What Bank of America is doing is perfectly legal – and that’s the problem,” he said.
This is exactly why the Glass-Steagall Act needs to be reinstated: without a separation of Investment Banks and Commercial Banks, what we end up getting is taxpayer-guaranteed gambling. Instead of encouraging prudence and savings by insuring deposits in commercial banks, the FDIC is now being turned into a vehicle for socializing speculative losses.
So our government is not only no longer encouraging fiscal conservatism, it is doing exactly the opposite, i.e. encouraging speculation and risk-taking. That this is happening in the fever of the OWS movement, and at a time when top politicians from Barack Obama on down are paying lip service to public complaints against Wall Street, should tell you everything you need to know about whether or not we can expect this government to voluntarily enact real changes, and stop making the taxpayer eat Wall Street’s pain.”
Related: Ten Reasons Not to Bank On (or With) Bank of America
U.S. Planning Troop Buildup in Gulf After Exit From Iraq →
nytimes.com
After unsuccessfully pressing both the Obama administration and the Iraqi government to permit as many as 20,000 American troops to remain in Iraq beyond 2011, the Pentagon is now drawing up an alternative.
In addition to negotiations over maintaining a ground combat presence in Kuwait, the United States is considering sending more naval warships through international waters in the region.
With an eye on the threat of a belligerent Iran, the administration is also seeking to expand military ties with the six nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. While the United States has close bilateral military relationships with each, the administration and the military are trying to foster a new “security architecture” for the Persian Gulf that would integrate air and naval patrols and missile defense.
