Amerika na ivici propasti?

[Суба]

Potpuno je nebitno kako se kad ko robom nazivao. Menjati Tvena je kao belilom prepravljati fotografije.

Baš to. To bi bilo kao kad bi mi Srbi, u svetlu Šeherezade i dobrih odnosa sa Turskom, nazvali dahije "policijskim režimom" a Seču knezova "politički motivisanim ubistvima."

Vikipedija kaže da je reka Niger dobila takvo ime najverovatnije zbog toga što se reč "niger" nalazi u nazivu "egerew nigerewen" koji su Tuarezi koristili za reku, a pošto "niger" znači "crno" na latinskom, došlo se do zgodnog imena za reku.

Vikipedija takođe kaže da reč "nigger" nije baš uvek bila korišćena za nipodaštavanje. Otprilike kao da kažeš za čoveka da je stoka, ali to nije nipodaštavanje ako je čovek za tebe zaista stoka, pa kad osloviš svog roba sa nigger ispada da si mu tepao "magare moje malo". Po meni tu imamo grešku u rasuđivanju, pa kad se pođe od pogrešne premise da čovek nije čovek nego stoka, vrlo lako može da se dođe do pogrešnog zaključka da reč nigger ne služi za nipodaštavanje.

Hm, zašto je onda guverner Lujzijane Erl Long koristio pojam "nigger" dok je zagovarao puna glasačka prava za crnce? Teško da ih je on smatrao stokom.

[Mark]

Kako izgleda slomljen covek:

Michael Richards ("Kramer") Apologizes

[Meho Krljic]

Nekako, kad se veliki deo standup rutine odnosi na politički nekorektan humor, valjda je logično i da se ovakvi incidenti događaju...

[Mark]

Nekako, kad se veliki deo standup rutine odnosi na politički nekorektan humor, valjda je logično i da se ovakvi incidenti događaju...

Naravno...

Doug Stanhope - Fuck the Jews

[lilit]

Da li je ovde već neko pojašnjavao kako USA planira da sudi Asanžu zbog izdaje? Ja sam zadivljena. 

[lilit]

kad se setim da sam iskreno verovala da će obama ukinuti patriot act u prvih 100 dana vladavine :
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/obama-seeks-longer-patriot-act-extension-republicans/

[дејан]

побогу лилит, па на основу чега!?

[lilit]

па јбг ваљда сам била млада и наивна. 

[scallop]

To je priča o dobrim namerama. Dok ti "asfaltiraju" put stižeš pravo u pakao.

[boki77]

Uf... Obama je bio takav projekat da sam spreman da ostavim tri tačke na koncu...

[Anomander Rejk]

Nastićima vraćena deca, posle višemesečne drame... Sve zbog snimka, fotografije u laptopu, deca su čak bila izmeštena u hraniteljsku porodicu. Sad su konačno ponovo sa roditeljima.

[Savajat Erp]

[Meho Krljic]

Baš su šašavi ti Amerikanci:

Ind. eatery pulls billboards with cult references

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – A northern Indiana restaurant that erected billboards referring to the 1978 Jonestown cult massacre in which more than 900 people died has removed the signs following complaints that the signs were offensive.

Jeff Leslie, vice president of sales and marketing at Hacienda, acknowledged that the billboards were a mistake. He said the South Bend-based company ordered the signs removed less than two weeks into Hacienda's new advertising campaign.

"Our role is not to be controversial or even edgy. We want to be noticed -- and there's a difference," Leslie told the South Bend Tribune. "We have a responsibility to (advertise) with care, and that's why we're pulling this ad. We made a mistake and don't want to have a negative image in the community."

The billboards included the statement, "We're like a cult with better Kool-Aid," over a glass containing a mixed drink, as well as the phrase "To die for!"

In November 1978, more than 900 members of Jim Jones' People's Temple drank cyanide-laced, grape-flavored punch in a mass murder and suicide in the group's compound in Guyana.

Patricia Barbera-Brown of South Bend, who lives a few blocks away from one of the billboards, said she was so shocked when she initially read the message that she drove around the block.

"I thought perhaps I had misread the sign," she recalls. "It brought back quite a few horrible images and memories, and the very notion that a local restaurant would trivialize such a worldwide tragedy to simply increase their sales of cocktails is outrageous to me, and it offended me to the core."

She sent an e-mail to Hacienda's executive telling them the billboards weren't "funny at all," calling them "extremely offensive and very irresponsible marketing."

Hacienda executives responded in writing, apologizing for offending her and informing her that the billboards would be taken down.

Like many restaurant companies, Leslie said Hacienda uses billboard advertising to connect with the community and resonate with customers. He said that company leaders look every year at their restaurants, the economy, their customers, and the competition to determine an idea or theme to use for advertising.

As they brainstormed about how people belong to clubs and teams, he said they discussed how an entity can develop a cult following of like-minded people.

"It went the wrong direction, hit a nerve, and we have come to realize we should not have done this billboard. We lose the core message," he said.

Katherine Sredl, assistant professor of marketing at the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, agreed that the company's message came across wrong.

"They want people to think there are more things to love there than the food, but it's not the right humor for its clientele," she said.

Evo i sličice, da bude jasno da nije u pitanju neka suptilna, nadž-nadž referenca:

[Meho Krljic]

Zavukla ga baba Amerikancima. Ili tako nešto:

Indigenous Ecuadoran woman humbles US oil giant

by Valeria Pacheco Valeria Pacheco – Wed Feb 23, 9:09 am ET
RUMIPAMBA, Ecuador (AFP) – She has no legal training, and doesn't speak the Spanish that dominates government in Quito but indigenous villager Maria Aguinda helped bring a landmark judgment against US oil giant Chevron for polluting the rain forest she calls home.

The diminutive grandmother whose modest home sits near marshes clogged for decades in sticky oil has been at the heart of the David-and-Goliath case, and spoke out after Chevron was slapped last week with a $9.5-billion fine, among the heaviest ever handed down for environmental damage.

"Before I die they have to pay me for the dead animals, and for what they did to the river, and the water and the earth," the 61-year-old Aguinda told AFP at her home in Rumipamba, a town in remote Orellana province where pollution caused by 30 years of oil drilling and petroleum accidents had become a sad fact of life.

Texaco operated in the area between 1964 and 1990, and was bought in 2001 by Chevron, which inherited Texaco's legal nightmare.

"The demand (for compensation) is going on track," said the ethnic Quechua woman, pointing to a nearby spot marked by spillage from an oil well run by Texaco in the 1970s.

"Mary Aguinda et al" are the opening words of the suit launched in 1993 on behalf of 30,000 residents of Orellana and Sucumbios provinces, in which they charge Texaco dumped billions of gallons of toxic crude during its operations, fouling rivers, lakes and soil and causing cancer deaths in indigenous communities.

Aguinda said she believes her husband and two of his 10 children died from effects of the pollution, which rights group Amazon Watch says has affected an area the size of the US state of Rhode Island.

Several of her family members "have skin problems, like fungus," Aguinda said as she lifted her granddaughter's foot off the dirt floor to show an outbreak on her leg.

Chevron blames state-run Petroecuador, with which Texaco formed a consortium from 1972 until the US firm departed in 1992, of not doing its part in the clean-up agreed with the state.

"When Texaco came we never thought they would leave behind such damage, never. Then it began to drill a well and set up burn pits," she said, helped in translation by her son William Grefa.

"It changed our life: hunting, fishing, and other food, it's all finished."

She skeptically eyes the ongoing cleanup of a marsh just meters from her house, where workers dressed in oil-stained yellow overalls dredge thick black ooze into suction pipes.

Aguinda said the spill is leftover from a Texaco storage pool which overflowed into the marshes during 1987-1990 operations of the Auca South 1 well about 200 meters (656 feet) from Rumipamba.

Texaco performed operational repairs in the area in the 1990s, and oil extraction continues in the region, according to Grefa.

Six months ago, a dozen workers from Petroecuador, which has managed the concession since 1990, began cleaning up the marshes, reviving bitter memories within the community of the slow-motion disaster.

The company "made arrangements, but they covered everything with sticks and earth and nothing more," said Grefa, a member of the Assembly of People Affected by Texaco, which represents the 30,000 indigenous people in the suit.

The operation has done little to improve conditions, Aguinda said.

"With the cleanup that Texaco left, the air is just unbearable. I can't live above the oil," groaned Aguinda, who grew visibly irritated talking about the disaster.

"If someone comes here from Texaco" he'll get "pepper in his eyes," she winced.

A strong petroleum smell permeates Rumipamba, home to nine families, some of whom complain of headaches. Several areas of Sucumbios are also contaminated, according to the plaintiffs, who argue that merely sinking a shovel into the ground yields a thick layer of crude.

Chevron, which has called the judgment "illegitimate and unenforceable," has asked a judge in Ecuador for clarification of the ruling as it seeks to appeal.

The court last week announced a penalty against Chevron of $8.6 billion with an additional 10 percent for environment management costs.

The plaintiffs, too, plan to appeal, saying the ruling fails to adequately compensate for certain damages and illness. They were seeking more than $27 billion in their suit.

Da čovek suzu iz oka otre...

[scallop]

Dok bude bibera biće i suza.

[Cornelius]

Jedan zanimljiv tekst:

Porter Stansberi, vlasnik firme Stansberry & Associates Investment Research, izneo je prilično sumorne prognoze kada je u pitanju ekonomska situacija u Sjedinjenim Državama. Ne samo da će Ameriku pogoditi još žešća kriza od one 2008, tvrdi on, već pominje i inflaciju nezapamćenih razmera. Dolar će, prema njegovim kalkulacijama, doživeti sunovrat kakav poslednjih decenija pamti jedino - jugoslovenski dinar...

http://www.balkanmagazin.net/kolumna/novosti_i_politika/amerika_propada_po_jugoslovenskom_modelu.xhtml

[Meho Krljic]

Američki bivši bolničar putem Interneta nagovarao ljude na samoubistvo. Uspešno.

Ex Nurse Talked Brit Into Suicide For Web Thrill

A former US nurse who used internet chat rooms to urge depressed people to kill themselves incited two suicides - including a British man. Skip related content


William Melchart-Dinkel surfed the internet posing as a depressed woman planning her own death and looking for others who might want to form a suicide pact.

He took part in online chats about suicide with up to 20 people and entered into fake suicide pacts with about 10, five of whom he believed killed themselves.

Among those he contacted was Mark Drybrough, 32, from Coventry, who hanged himself in 2005.

Nadia Kajouji, 18, of Ottawa, Canada, jumped into a river in 2008 wearing ice skates.

Her body was found more than a month after she was reported missing.

Ms Kajouji had told Melchert-Dinkel in an online chat of her plan to make her death appear like an accident.

The 48-year-old, who was charged in April with two counts of aiding suicide, had declined a jury trial and was found guilty by a judge in Faribault, Minnesota.

Lawyer Paul Beaumaster said Melchert-Dinkel told police he did it for the "thrill of the chase". After the verdict, Beaumaster said: "I think justice was served."

The judge said: "The defendant never tried to discourage either victim from committing death by suicide.

"Rather, the facts indicate repeated and relentless encouragement by defendant to complete the suicide."

A British woman who used a chatroom where people discussed suicidal thoughts warned Minnesota police in March 2008 that she suspected an online predator of encouraging suicides.

She later said she suspected Melchert-Dinkel.

A police investigation found emails from at least six others who had been advised by him on how to commit suicide by hanging, including tips on knot-tying.

Melchert-Dinkel asked one potential victim to use a webcam to record her hanging and told a man to practice beforehand to ensure a successful hanging.

His lawyers accepted his actions were "sick" and "abhorrent" but argued the victims were predisposed to committing suicide and their client didn't sway them by making statements online.

He faces up to 30 years in prison when sentenced on May 4.

Naravno sociopatija je postojala i pre Interneta, on joj je samo dao novi kanal za ispoljavanje...

[scallop]

Idiotluk je američko bogatstvo.

[SIMERIJANAC]

NJEMAČKI tjednik Der Spiegel objavio je šokantne fotografije američkih vojnika koji su pozirali s tijelima ubijenih civila u Afganistanu. Nakon što je Der Spiegel objavio fotografije, iz američke vojske izdana je isprika. Ipak NATO strahuje da bi reakcije iz Afganistana mogle biti nasilne.

Na fotografijama se nalazi američki vojnici koji su već osumnjičeni za nekoliko stravičnih ubojstava civila u Afganistanu i kojima bi uskoro trebalo početi suđenje. "Ove su fotografije čista suprotnost disciplini, profesionalizmu i poštovanju koji karakteriziraju našu vojsku tijekom deset godina operacija u Afganistanu", poručila je američka vojska u izjavi za javnost.





indeks.hr

[Meho Krljic]

Da, to sam juče čitao u Politici. Skaredno i skandalozno.

[Tex Murphy]

Ne vidim šta je toliko skandalozno. Pa pokrili su intimne dijelove tijela.

"Ove su fotografije identične disciplini, profesionalizmu i poštovanju koji karakteriziraju našu vojsku tijekom deset godina operacija u Afganistanu"

Potpisujem.

[Josephine]

Kako par fotki može da ubije veru u ljudskost.

[Meho Krljic]

Samo ako je uopšte imaš.

[Josephine]

Držim se, mada ne još dugo.

[Albedo 0]

Kao što znate, Bata je u filmu KRAJ RATA pribavio jednu takvu fotku i onda pobio sve koji su se slikali pored žrtve. Bata ima odgovor za sve.

[Meho Krljic]

Držim se, mada ne još dugo.

Pa, bilo bi strašno živeti u društvu u kome niko nema veru u ljudskost. Društvo samih nihilista bi bilo nepodnošljivo dosadno.

Kao što znate, Bata je u filmu KRAJ RATA pribavio jednu takvu fotku i onda pobio sve koji su se slikali pored žrtve. Bata ima odgovor za sve.

Eh... umetnost, eto, ume da zaleči i najstrašniju ranu koju život nanese. 

[scallop]

Jutros sam, uz kafu, čitao kolumnu Boba Herberta u NYT i navodim uvodne rečenice:

So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police officers, and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here at home.
Ima i zanimljiv citat Artura Milera, koji je, opet, parafrazirao nekog drugog: Essence of America was its promises.

Raduje me što tamo neko ipak misli, a neko te misli i objavljuje, ali tome neće pridati značaja niko od onih kojima se kolumna obraća.

Zapravo, politika SAD me sve više podseća na seriju SG Atlantis i kako Wraith "žanju" po svemiru. Da ne žanju crkli bi. Možda je to odgovor Bobu Herbertu.

[Meho Krljic]

Ehhh, Ameriko... Čovek više ni u kurvanje ne može da krene... odmah mu se sete da je pre više od dve decenije jednom malo popio pre nego što je seo za volan...

Obama friend arrested for soliciting prostitute

By JAYMES SONG, Associated Press Jaymes Song, Associated Press – 2 hrs 6 mins ago
HONOLULU – One of President Barack Obama's close friends has been arrested in Honolulu on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute.

Robert "Bobby" Titcomb was one of four men arrested in an undercover sting operation late Monday and later released on $500 bail, according to Honolulu police.

Titcomb, 49, attended Punahou School in Honolulu with Obama in the 1970s. The president graduated in 1979, a year before Titcomb. The two often play golf and basketball, go to the beach and dine together when the president returns home to Hawaii for vacation.

Obama's family has also attended barbeques at Titcomb's beachside home in Waialua, located on Oahu's North Shore about an hour outside of downtown Honolulu.

Titcomb and Obama last spent time together in Hawaii during Obama's most recent vacation over the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

The White House had no comment. Titcomb has not publicly responded to the charges, and he wasn't immediately available for comment.

Police said Titcomb was arrested at 9:40 p.m. Monday near downtown at the intersection of South and Pohukaina streets, which is next to the Circuit Court building and a large parking lot. He posted bail about two hours later.

Titcomb has worked as a commercial fisherman and an airline employee, according to the spring 2007 edition of the "Punahou Bulletin," the school's alumni magazine.

In 1987, he was arrested on drunken driving charges, which led to the 90-day suspension of his license and a $150 fine, according to state criminal records.

__

AP writers Jennifer Kelleher and Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report.

[scallop]

Eh, Meho, da smo nas dvojica neka muda i nas bi za njih hvatali.

[Meho Krljic]

Živa istina. Ovaj i nije neko mudo (profesionalni ribar???) ali, eto, išo u školu sa Obamom...

[scallop]

... a Obama mu dolazio na ćevape i pljeske.

[Tex Murphy]

Lik se preziva TITKOMB? Je li ovo neka šala?

[scallop]

I ja sam to primetio, ali me je sramota da pokazujem prstom.

[Tex Murphy]

Mene nije

[lilit]

Uobičajeno. 

[Meho Krljic]

Kad smo već kod ivice propasti:

White House says shutdown will delay pay to troops

By RICHARD LARDNER and JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Richard Lardner And Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press – Thu Apr 7, 12:33 am ET
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration warned Wednesday that a federal shutdown would undermine the economic recovery, delay pay to U.S. troops fighting in three wars, slow the processing of tax returns and limit small business loans and government-backed mortgages during peak home buying season.

The dire message, delivered two days before the federal government's spending authority expires, appeared aimed at jolting congressional Republicans into a budget compromise. Billions of dollars apart, congressional negotiators were working to strike a deal by Friday to avert a shutdown by setting spending limits through the end of September. The last such shutdown took place 15 years ago and lasted 21 days.

President Barack Obama telephoned House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday, and Boehner's office said the speaker told Obama he was hopeful a deal could be reached.

As the talks continued, the White House sought to put the prospect of a shutdown in terms people would care about, warning even that the beloved National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in the nation's capital would be wiped out. The Smithsonian Institution and national parks around the country would also be closed.

A shutdown would come at an especially busy time for the Smithsonian. The Cherry Blossom Festival, which concludes this weekend, draws many tourists to an area near the museums. The Smithsonian counts about 3 million visits each April and has already sold 23,000 IMAX movie and lunch combos to school groups for the month.

Under long-standing federal rules, agencies would not be affected that provide for U.S. national security, dispense most types of federal benefit payments, offer inpatient medical care or outpatient emergency care, ensure the safe use of food and drugs, manage air traffic, protect and monitor borders and coastlines, guard prisoners, conduct criminal investigations and law enforcement, oversee power distribution and oversee banks.

Mail deliveries would continue in the event of a shutdown. U.S. postal operations are not subsidized by tax dollars.

According to the shutdown scenario described by the administration, the government would have to significantly cut staffing across the executive branch, including workers at the White House and civilian employees at the Defense Department; close to 800,000 workers would be affected. Congress and the federal court system will also be subject to a shutdown.

At the Pentagon, defense officials were finalizing plans that would lay out how the department would deal with a shutdown. But they already have acknowledged that U.S. military troops — including those in war zones — would receive one week's pay instead of two in their next paycheck if the government were to close.

Military personnel at home and abroad would continue to earn pay, but they wouldn't get paychecks until there was a budget agreement and government operations resumed.

Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said that the Pentagon would be open on Monday and would be staffed. He said decisions on which Defense Department employees must report to work would depend on their jobs, rather than where they were based.

Key national security responsibilities, including operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya and earthquake assistance to Japan, would not be interrupted by a shutdown, the Pentagon said.

The CIA also would not close, though it would be drawing down some nonessential personnel to be in compliance with federal law, according to a senior intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

Officials familiar with the shutdown say essential counterterrorism functions in other parts of the intelligence community would continue, like monitoring of the terrorist watch lists and essential intelligence collection and analysis.

In the event of a shutdown, the Justice Department said it would be forced to stop or significantly curtail most civil litigation, community outreach to victims of crime and the processing of grants.

But other Justice Department functions would continue, including efforts to combat drug trafficking and gun violence. All 116 federal prisons would remain open and prison staff would continue to work. At the department's headquarters and in U.S. Attorneys offices, all criminal cases would continue without interruption.

At the Internal Revenue Service, the tax filing deadline remained April 18 — delayed three days because of a local holiday in Washington. Tax audits, however, would be suspended if there were a shutdown.

The IRS wouldn't process paper returns during a shutdown. Those expecting a refund should file their returns electronically and ask that the money be deposited directly into their bank accounts. Tax payments were welcome, though it was still unclear whether help lines for taxpayers would be staffed.

Social Security payments would continue to be delivered, and applications for benefits would continue to be processed, Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said.

Astrue said Social Security headquarters and regional offices would be closed. Some limited services would still be available at field offices, but the details were still being worked out, he said.

Medicare would still pay medical claims for its 48 million recipients, who are mainly seniors but also several million younger people who are permanently disabled or have kidney failure. Payments to doctors, hospitals and other service providers could be delayed, however, should a shutdown continue for several months.

At the National Institutes of Health, groundbreaking medical research would experience a disruption. Patients already being treated at the NIH's famed hospital in Bethesda, Md., would continue to get that care, but new patients could not be admitted. Likewise, no new studies of drugs or other treatments could begin.

The Federal Housing Administration, which guarantees about 30 percent of home mortgages, would stop guaranteeing loans. The issuance of government backed loans to small businesses would be suspended, according to the White House.

The Obama administration said the impact on the housing market would be more severe than in 1995, the last time there was a government shutdown. The Federal Housing Administration accounts for 30 percent of the mortgage market, nearly three times the amount 16 years ago.

The nation's 15,700 air traffic controllers would keep working, as would many of the Federal Aviation Administration's 6,100 technicians who install and maintain the equipment for the nation's air traffic control system.

FAA inspectors who oversee airlines' compliance with safety regulations probably would continue to be at work. But it was unclear Wednesday whether the safety inspectors assigned to aircraft manufacturers would be told to stay on the job. Support personnel at the agency would be told to stay home.

Almost all of the Federal Transit Administration would close and that means local transit agencies would have to wait longer to get federal aid. Most of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which issues auto recalls and makes grants to states for safety campaigns, would also close.

Operation of the International Space Station would be unaffected. NASA's Mission Control in Houston would continue to work around the clock to keep watch.

But it was unclear what impact there might be on preparations for the final two space shuttle missions, said NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs. Endeavour is due to lift off April 29, Atlantis on June 28.

Among other consequences cited by the administration:

_The Environmental Protection Agency would cease issuing permits and stop reviewing environmental impact statements, which would slow the approval of projects.

_Most government websites would not be updated, unless they were deemed essential.

_Federal courts would be unable to hear cases as clerks, stenographers, bailiffs, security guards and other employees would not be at work.

___

Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Anne Gearan, Joan Lowy, Lauran Neergaard, Stephen Ohlemacher, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Brett Zongker in Washington and Marcia Dunn in Cape Canaveral, Fla., contributed to this report.

[Meho Krljic]

Calif. mother of 3 recounts life as an 'outlaw'

By MIKE HOUSEHOLDER, Associated Press Mike Householder, Associated Press – Thu Apr 7, 7:54 am ET
DETROIT – Marie Walsh says she was in prison for a drug crime she didn't commit, facing regular taunts and threats from inmates and guards, when her grandfather came to visit her and told her she had to get out.

Her subsequent escape from a Michigan prison and the comfortable life she built afterward — raising three children with a husband who didn't know she was a fugitive until officers arrived at their upscale Southern California home three decades later — are recounted in her new book, "A Tale of Two Lives."

Walsh had served 14 months of a 10-year prison sentence for a heroin deal when she fled in 1976. Her new life on the West Coast was uprooted in April 2008, when federal marshals handcuffed her.

The book is "about my odyssey through the system from a teenager who got on the wrong path," Walsh told The Associated Press in a phone interview from her home in San Diego, where she lives with her husband of more than 20 years. "Escaped it for a while and built a life against the odds ... and was snatched away from it."

Walsh is talking about her past after spending 13 more months in prison. Her book recounts her time in prison and lying to the people she loved most.

Walsh was known as Susan LeFevre when she says her grandfather showed up at the Detroit House of Corrections and told her, "Susan, you need to get out of here."

She wrote that she thought: "What planet am I on? Had I really just heard my grandfather tell me to escape from prison?"

To break free, she scaled a 20-foot, barbed-wire fence at the prison known as DeHoCo. Once on the other side, she began running.

"If they shot at me, I wanted them to kill me. I was not going back," Walsh wrote.

Her grandfather was waiting for her in his Cutlass. With a search helicopter hovering nearby, they headed to his home in New Baltimore, Mich. Her mother gave her a few hundred dollars, she said her goodbyes to family members and caught a ride with friends to the West Coast.

"Somewhere between the cornfields of the Midwest and the western Rockies, Susan ceased to exist," she wrote.

Once in California, she used her middle name — Marie — and took the last name Day. She worked odd jobs, kept out of trouble and tried to stay under the radar.

"I was no longer a party girl struggling through college classes. I was a fugitive from the law. ... I had no illusions. I was an outlaw. Yet that jump over the prison fence was a leap toward new possibilities," she wrote.

She eventually met and married Alan Walsh, a financial executive with a trash company, and the couple had three children, now ages 18, 23 and 25. But she chose not to tell any of them about her past — even when her mother died.

In the book, Walsh describes going with her husband to her parents' home in Saginaw, Mich., to say their goodbyes just before her mother's 2004 death. She told her husband they wouldn't be going to the funeral.

Walsh recalled him asking her: "What kind of person doesn't go to her own mother's funeral?"

She wrote that she thought at the time: "The kind of person who has never told you the secret of her past."

She also recounts in the book how the past came crashing into the present. She wrote that a federal marshal called her, pretending to be a landscaper and telling her he'd accidentally cut a palm frond that fell onto one her plants. When she went outside, he pulled out a badge and asked if she was Susan LeFevre.

"I am Marie Walsh," Walsh told him, according to the book. Then he showed Walsh her mugshot from the 1970s.

Walsh called her husband and was escorted to a car where she was handcuffed.

Walsh said he wasn't completely shocked because she had told him she "had a dark past" that involved drugs. It was her three children, she said, who were most lost.

"They thought they knew the world and knew their lives, and then all of a sudden their lives kind of exploded," Walsh told the AP.

Walsh said she wrote her book in part to open readers' eyes to what she calls America's misguided war on drugs and the harsh treatment that she and her fellow inmates endured. An interview on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" was scheduled to air Thursday.

Once she's done promoting the book, Walsh said she hopes to slip back into her life as it was — minus the need to hide her past.

"For the most part, I am doing well in my transition to a normal life," she wrote. "My friends remark that I seem unchanged. ... Then when I least expect it, there are moments that I feel a deep sense of loss or sadness."

Ko zna šta kriju biografije domaćica iz našeg komšiluka...

[Meho Krljic]

Obalamina administracija se izvukla za dlaku:

'Historic' deal to avoid government shutdown

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent David Espo, Ap Special Correspondent – 9 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Perilously close to a government shutdown, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders reached a historic agreement late Friday night to cut about $38 billion in spending and avert the first federal closure in 15 years.

Obama hailed the deal as "the biggest annual spending cut in history." House Speaker John Boehner said that over the next decade it would cut government spending by $500 billion — and won an ovation from his rank and file, tea party adherents among them.

"This is historic, what we've done," agreed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the third man involved in negotiations that ratified a new era of divided government.

They announced the agreement less than an hour before government funding was due to run out, instantly turning hundreds of thousands of furlough notices for federal workers into historical relics.

The shutdown would have closed national parks, tax-season help lines and other popular services, though the military would have stayed on duty and other essential efforts such as air traffic control would have continued in effect.

On side issues — "riders," the negotiators called them — the Democrats and the White House rebuffed numerous Republican attempts to curtail the reach of the Environmental Protection Agency.

They also sidetracked their demand to deny federal funds to Planned Parenthood. Under the accord, the issue will come to a vote in the Senate under terms guaranteed to end in its defeat.

Anti-abortion lawmakers succeeded in winning a provision to ban the use of federal or local government funds to pay for abortions in the District of Columbia.

The long-term deal in hand, lawmakers raced to pass an interim measure to prevent a shutdown, however brief, and keep the federal machinery running for the next several days.The Senate acted within minutes, and even though it took the House longer. White House Budget Director Jacob Lew issued a directive saying that in view of the agreement, "agencies are instructed to continue their normal operations."

The deal came together after six grueling weeks and an outbreak of budget brinksmanship over the past few days as the two sides sought to squeeze every drop of advantage in private talks.

Despite the accomplishment, officials noted it marked only a first step. Republicans intend to pass a 2012 budget through the House next week that calls for sweeping changes in Medicare and Medicaid and would cut domestic programs deeply in an attempt to gain control over soaring deficits.

And the Treasury has told Congress it must vote to raise the debt limit by summer — a request that Republicans hope to use to force Obama to accept long-term deficit-reduction measures.

"We know the whole world is watching us today," Reid said earlier in a day that produced incendiary, campaign style rhetoric as well as intense negotiation.

Reid, Obama and Boehner all agreed a shutdown posed risks to an economy still recovering from the worst recession in decades.

But there were disagreements aplenty among the principal players in an early test of divided government — Obama in the White House, fellow Democrats in control in the Senate and a new, tea party-flavored Republican majority in the House.

"Republican leaders in the House have only a few hours left to look in the mirror, snap out of it and realize how positively shameful that would be," Reid said at one point, accusing Republicans of risking a shutdown to pursue a radical social agenda.

For much of the day, Reid and Boehner disagreed about what the disagreement was about.

Reid said there had been an agreement at a White House meeting Thursday night to cut spending by about $38 billion. He said Republicans also were demanding unspecified cuts in health services for lower income women that were unacceptable to Democrats.

"Republicans want to shut down our nation's government because they want to make it harder to get cancer screenings," he said. "They want to throw women under the bus."

Boehner said repeatedly that wasn't the case — it was spending cuts that divided two sides.

"Most of the policy issues have been dealt with, and the big fight is about spending," he said. "When will the White House and when will Senate Democrats get serious about cutting federal spending?"

By midday Friday, 12 hours before the funding would run out, most federal employees had been told whether they had been deemed essential or would be temporarily laid off in the event of a shutdown.

Obama canceled a Friday trip to Indianapolis — and a weekend family visit to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia — and kept in touch with both Boehner and Reid.

The standoff began several weeks ago, when the new Republican majority in the House passed legislation to cut $61 billion from federal spending and place numerous curbs on the government.

In the weeks since, the two sides have alternately negotiated and taken time out to pass interim measures.

Originally, Republicans wanted to ban federal funds for Planned Parenthood, a health care services provider that is also the nation's largest provider of abortions.

Federal funds may not be used to pay for abortions except in strictly regulated cases, but supporters of the ban said cutting off government funds for the organization — currently about $330 million a year — would make it harder for it to use its own money for the same purpose.

Democrats rejected the proposal in private talks. Officials in both parties said Republicans returned earlier in the week with a proposal to distribute federal funds for family planning and related health services to the states, rather than directly to Planned Parenthood and other organizations.

Democrats said they rejected that proposal, as well, and then refused to agree to allow a separate Senate vote on the issue as part of debate over any compromise bill.

Instead, they launched a sustained campaign at both ends of the Capitol to criticize Republicans.

"We'll not allow them to use women as pawns," said Sen. Patty Murray, a fourth-term lawmaker from Washington who doubles as head of the Democratic senatorial campaign committee.

For Congress and Obama there are even tougher struggles still ahead — over a Republican budget that would remake entire federal programs, and a vote to raise the nation's debt limit.

____

Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Andrew Taylor, Alan Fram, Julie Pace and Ben Feller contributed to this report.

[Lord Kufer]

Isto ka i ođe...

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/04/08/california.dodgers.security/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

[Lord Kufer]

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made an emotional plea Friday asking the two men suspected in the recent brutal beating of a visiting San Francisco Giants fan after a Dodgers game to "turn themselves in."

[Meho Krljic]

Богати плачу, али не плаћају

,,Џенерал електрик", највећа америчка корпорација, упркос профиту од 14,2 милијарде, држави неће дати ни долар пореза

Од нашег сталног дописника

Вашингтон – Енормни дефицит у каси америчке државе – око 1.600 милијарди долара у буџету за ову годину – постао је главна политичка тема, осветљавајући успут и неке парадоксе овдашњег фискалног система.

Једна од главних тачака спорења између Обамине Демократске партије и републиканске опозиције јесу порези, односно колико држави треба да се одужују они којима је систем омогућио да се обогате. Најбогатијих један одсто Американаца присваја, наиме, две трећине прихода од капиталне добити и дивиденди, главних извора њиховог богатства. То, међутим, није опорезовано као редован приход, већ по специјалној, повлашћеној стопи од само 15 одсто.

Последњих дана у фокусу је међутим један специјални случај који илуструје америчке реалности: ,,Џенерал електрик", највећа овдашња мултинационална корпорација (270.000 запослених широм света), која је у 2010. остварила глобални профит од 14,2 милијарде долара (од тога ,,код куће" 5,1 милијарду), на ово америчкој држави неће платити ни долара пореза!

Штавише, због губитака из ранијих година, од Службе унутрашњих прихода потражује повраћај од 3,2 милијарде.

Својеврсни скандал, лансиран најпре у ,,Њујорк тајмсу" (,,Вашингтон пост" је своју верзију овог случаја, на којој је радио ,,неколико месеци" објавио две недеље касније), тема је у свим медијима. Али упркос великом парадоксу, једна од главних чињеница јесте да ,,Џенерал електрик" није учинио ништа што је незаконито.

У питању је иначе корпорација која је значајан актер у историји америчког бизниса. Основао ју је још 1890. Томас Едисон, чувени изумитељ (и велики, научно инфериорнији, али пословно успешнији ривал Николе Тесле). Производи много тога, од сијалица, преко фрижидера, до авионских мотора и нуклеарних реактора. Пре овог пореског скандала, у вестима је била после земљотреса у Јапану и хаварије у тамошњој нуклеарној електрани Фукушима, чијих свих шест реактора носе ознаку ,,GE".

Није прекршен ниједан закон, али су искоришћене све законске кривине и рупе у пореским прописима. ,,Ми поштујемо закон, али у исто време имамо одговорност према својим акционарима да законски минимизирамо своје трошкове."

На том ,,законском минимизирању" ради пореско одељење ,,Џенерал електрика" са 975 људи, експерата за фискално законодавство, па се оно сматра и ,,најбољим пореским консултантом света". На челу му је Џон Самјуелс, бивши функционер Трежерија, америчког министарства финансија.

У овом случају није међутим само реч о поштовању закона – него и у њиховом формулисању у своју корист. У последњих 10 година ,,Џенерал електрик" је, према подацима овдашњег Центра за одговорну политику, потрошио више од 200 милиона долара за лобирање у Конгресу и његовим фискалним комитетима, да би испословао олакшице и прописе прилагодио себи.

Главни елеменат у пореској стратегији ове корпорације јесте регистрација многих делатности у ,,пореским рајевима" – не додуше острвима са егзотичним именима – већ у земљама са ниским корпоративним дажбинама, попут Ирске или Сингапура.

Ако се профит из тих земаља не враћа у САД, онда се и не опорезује. ,,Џенерал електрик" користи управо тај маневар, који није много ,,патриотски" – од 2002. корпорација је отпустила петину своје америчке радне снаге – али је профитабилан. Ово премештање пословања у ,,пореска склоништа" оправдава и неопходношћу да буде конкурентан са ,,Мицубишијем", ,,Сименсом" и ,,Филипсом" који су у истом бизнису на глобалном тржишту.

Сличну логику пословног интереса следе и други амерички мултинационалци, чији профити раст, упркос томе што америчкој економији у целини не иде баш најбоље. Да су интереси држава и корпорација различити, показује и чињеница да су до 2008, последње године за коју постоји детаљна статистика, ИБМ, ,,Катерпилар" и други у иностранству инвестирали 3.200 милијарди, док су њихови поменути инострани конкуренти у Америку унели 2.200.

Разлика је безмало сума америчког буџетског дефицита. Овај пример ће у сваком случају бити један од елемената предстојећих буџетских расправа у Вашингтону, при чему ће свакако бити контроверзна и чињеница да је Барак Обама за шефа свог Савета за запошљавање и конкурентност именовао баш Џефрија Имета, првог човека ,,Џенерал електрика" – и да после објаве своје кандидатуре за реизбор његови изасланици обилазе велике донаторе тражећи велике прилоге за његов изборни фонд.

,,И богати плачу", наслов је једне од некад популарних ТВ ,,сапуница". Стварност је нешто другачија: богати пре свега не плаћају, потврђујући старо правило да се богатство не ствара толико великим зарадама, колико малим трошковима.

Милан Мишић

објављено: 12.04.2011.

[scallop]

Капитал ће ускоро укинути политички систем. Шта ће им? Стално тражи неке паре, а не ради ништа.

[Meho Krljic]

Da mogu odavno bi ga ukinuli. Zapravo, u nekim državama u koje su autsorsovali rad, skoro i da jesu. Ima ona prilično dobro dokumentovana priča o Kokakoli u južnoj Americi...

[scallop]

И у Аустралији. Кока-Кола Кид.

[scallop]

Dok Amerika ne propadne, ima li koga da prokomentariše ovu mudrost:

Inflation endangers China's status as the low-cost workshop for the world and poses risks for companies and resource-rich countries that have been counting on it for growth.

[mac]

Što je ekonomija jača to ljudi imaju više para, koje više troše, a zbog toga rastu i cene, i imaš inflaciju. Rešenje su veći porezi, i trošenje budžetskih para na infrastrukturu. Drugi izvor inflacije je prosto štampanje novca. I tada ljudi tehnički imaju više para, samo što te pare manje vrede.

[pokojni Steva]

Ili Kini samo nije u interesu da i dalje bude Zapadna uzdanica.

[Lord Kufer]

resource-rich countries = Avganistan

[Lord Kufer]

Obala slonovače (slonovača nije vrsta rakije!)

[pokojni Steva]

Mda, ko što ni kokošinjevača nije vrsta rakije.