Live for this. That’s if the migrant worker is lucky.

Or the migrant worker might be unlucky and die here. 72 migrant workers died in this farm building.

In this story there are a number of examples that give credence to the idea that it is time to legalize recreational drugs. Mexican massacre investigator found dead

The body of an official investigating the massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants killed in a ranch in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas was found today dumped beside a nearby road alongside another unidentified victim, according to local media.

Earlier, two cars exploded outside the studios of the national TV network Televisa in the state capital, Ciudad Victoria. There were no casualties, but the blasts added to a growing sense of fear in the aftermath of the worst single act of violence in the country’s raging drug wars.

The massacre was discovered after an Ecuadorian migrant, who had been left for dead with a neck wound, escaped. Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla, 18, found his way to a navy road checkpoint.

He said the migrants had been kidnapped by armed men who identified themselves as belonging to the Zetas, one of the cartels fighting for supremacy in the state. He said the killing began after they refused offers to work for the cartel. Interviewed at their home in a remote Andean village by Ecuadorian TV, Lala’s family said he had left for the US two months ago after paying $15,000 (£9,000) to a people smuggler to organise the trip.

The massacre has focused attention on the vulnerability of US-bound economic migrants as they cross Mexico, a situation long denounced by activists, but largely ignored by the Mexican government until now. Since at least 2008 organised crime groups, particularly the Zetas, have preyed on migrants, primarily from Central America. Copycat groups might also be using the name of the infamously violent cartel to terrify their victims. A report published in 2009 by Mexico’s national commission of human rights estimated that more than 1,600 migrants were kidnapped every month.

Typically, the aim has been to force relatives in the US to pay a ransom. Activists have also documented many cases of complicity within the Mexican authorities.

The news of the dangers faced by migrant workers who are attempting to come to the U.S. to work is awful, and rarely shown in the U.S. We only hear about Juarez. Or hear about the illegal workers.
Kidnap, rape, murder: the dangers faced in Mexico by migrants to US

Poor from Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras enduring hazardous journeys, says Amnesty International

According to an Amnesty International report the biggest fear used to be violent robberies by young gangs; today it is abductions by organised criminals. Many claim to belong to the notorious Zetas drug trafficking organisation, although the report points out that the gangs could be appropriating the cartel’s bloody reputation for its fear value.Typically migrants are held in safe houses until relatives already in the US, or back home, raise ransoms for their freedom. Torture is common, and survivors have recounted seeing others murdered before their eyes when the cash has not arrived. “Migrants in Mexico are facing a major human rights crisis leaving them with virtually no access to justice, fearing reprisals and deportation if they complain of abuses,” said Rupert Knox, author of the report.

The Amnesty report draws on a National Human Rights Commission investigation that estimated about 10,000 migrants were kidnapped in Mexico over a six-month period last year. Even when these cases are reported to the authorities, a serious investigation is almost unheard of. Murders and disappearances of migrants are similarly forgotten.

“They came shooting their guns, got us off the train, beat us, forced us to lie on the floor and put their boots on people’s heads,” Guatemalan migrant Martha Chilel, 21, said in a phone interview from a shelter. “They took all our money, and they fondled the women. Then they told us to run.”

But the experience had not dented her determination to continue northwards with her husband. She said the couple had borrowed money to make the trip that they could only pay back if they got work in the US. “In theory the dangers should deter migrants but in practice they keep coming,” said Leticia Gutierrez, a nun who works with shelters across the country. “The poverty they are running from is so desperate they are willing to risk everything.”

The *desperately poor* who become migrant workers come from all over Latin and Central America to work on farms and in various industries in the U.S. We must also take a long and in depth look at the trade policies that have created the desperation. But that is another story.

There was one survivor, and he has been named and repatriated to Ecuador. There have been stories that there is another survivor from Honduras, and I read another that said there were three survivors, but that is something I read only once. Of course, I only read about the Honduran survivor about twice. Honduran officials are pissed that any information on a survivor has been released. So not only is there the problem of the massacre and the risk the investigators are taking, but there is tension between the various countries represented by the dead migrant workers.

Of all that I read, this one really pissed me off. U.S. Withholds Millions in Mexico Anti-Drug Aid

The United States will withhold about $26 million promised for Mexico’s drug war because of concerns that the country has not done enough to protect its people from police and military abuse.

Corruption may be the case, but the arrogance of the U.S. on this is making me sick. It is not Mexico’s job to fix ***the U.S. drug problem.*** U.S. = Capitalism Like it or not, the drug problem in the U.S. is what is driving this drug violence. It is the Money. It is the Control. It is Prohibition on Steroids x 10. It makes me sick. It is Death by Greed. Again.

Evil. It has quite a foothold in the U.S.A.

We did something different Saturday night, Bumz. We, and by we I mean all four of us, went out. We went to dinner and then to the Orange Count Great Park to see these guys, Scrap Arts Music. They were fantastic!

They’re a percussion group from Vancouver and they make all of their instruments from industrial scraps. Very high energy and all-around wonderful!

If they’re appearing anywhere near you, go see them! Just try to sit closer than the back row if you have an 8 and a 5 year old with you, or you might not get to see the whole show.

We owe the labor movement a great deal in this country, but this generation has been programmed to forget rather than to honor.  Between electoral politics and the hurricane, it was almost impossible to find any labor day related news in this morning’s news.  As it is, every major newspaper in America has a business section and not one has a labor section, even though there are far more laborers than workers.  To fill this gap, you may want to listen to Workers Independent News on occasion.

note: The majority of this post is recycled from last year.  If anything, the plight of the American worker is even worse.  If he/she can find work at all.

Sorry guys, it’s been a crazy weekend. By the time this pops I will be hard at work at brother’s house, after getting mom off on her trip back home and making the grocery run for the week. I’ll get the new pics out at some point, I got some good shots of the madkiddies with Major

Interestingly, although I’ve been following and blogging about Hamid Karzai’s corrupt ways and ties, for years now, little did I realize how fast it could possibly topple his government…

On Tuesday, the WaPoo reported about this sudden Bank seizure…

Afghan authorities take over biggest bank to avoid meltdown

…Afghanistan’s Central Bank has taken control of Kabul Bank, a politically potent financial institution partly owned by President Hamid Karzai’s brother, and ordered its chairman to hand over $160 million worth of luxury villas and other property purchased in Dubai for well-connected insiders, according to Afghan bankers and officials. The Central Bank’s intervention aims to shore up Afghanistan’s largest private bank, whose faltering finances threatened to wreak both economic and political havoc. Kabul Bank handles salary payments for Afghan soldiers, police and teachers, and has taken in more than $1 billion in deposits from ordinary Afghans. U.S. officials have long worried that trouble at Kabul Bank could trigger financial mayhem, a prospect that would leave Afghan security forces without pay, threaten unrest by angry – and often armed – depositors, and gravely undermine President Obama’s entire Afghan strategy

Which subsequently sparked a run on the Kabul Bank on Wednesday and Thursday…

Run on Afghan bank’s deposits reported

NBC News: Large investor confirms funds were used to buy Dubai villas

…About $155 million in deposits have been withdrawn from Afghanistan’s largest bank in just the last two days, spurring fresh concerns among U.S. and Afghan officials that a financial panic could spread through the country and derail the U.S. war effort, according to bank insiders and U.S. officials.

Mahmood Karzai, the brother of Afghanistan’s president and one of the principal shareholders in the troubled Kabul Bank, told NBC News in a telephone interview that panicky depositors withdrew $70 million from the bank on Thursday. This is on top of an estimated $85 million taken out on Wednesday, he said.

Which prompted Hamid Karzai to respond on Thursday…

Karzai: Afghan govt will back Kabul Bank

…Afghan President Hamid Karzai reassured nervous customers at the troubled Kabul Bank on Thursday, saying every penny of their deposits would be guaranteed by the government.

Larger than usual crowds gathered to withdraw funds from Afghanistan’s largest bank Wednesday and Thursday after two top executives resigned amid allegations of mismanagement and unorthodox real estate loans.

“The Kabul Bank is safe,” Karzai said in a news conference with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Afghan Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal echoed that message, saying that fears about the stability of Kabul Bank had not sparked a “crisis” at Kabul Bank.

Even Petraeus had to chime in…

Petraeus backs Karzai over corruption

…Speaking to the media at his base in Camp Eggers, near Kabul, Gen Petraeus acknowledged, however, that concerns over sleaze were hindering a counter-insurgency drive in Kandahar and that Nato’s showpiece push in Marjah district faced tough obstacles.

Gen Petraeus described Mr Karzai as “very forthright about corruption” and said the Afghan president’s chief concern was one the US shared: Taliban safe havens in Pakistan.

He was speaking on the day that Robert Gates, US defence secretary, arrived in Kabul for talks with Mr Karzai. The Afghan president had intervened to release Mohammad Zia Salehi, one of his national security advisers, who was arrested in July over claims that he accepted a car in return for favours.

Mr Karzai’s move was widely seen as weakening two US anti-corruption bodies involved in the arrest – the Major Crimes Task Force and the Sensitive Investigative Unit. The Afghan president subsequently ordered a review of their conduct.

Gen Petraeus said: “There clearly was some friction, if you will, over the arrest of the individual who was in the palace. I think frankly those issues, perceptions, have been resolved.”

The Guardian wasn’t so charitable as the rest of the Lame Stream Media was and named names…

Afghan officials resist clean-up of Kabul Bank as scandal engulfs elite

President Hamid Karzai’s brother calls for US to guarantee deposits amid fears collapse would threaten police and army salaries

…The central bank on Tuesday ordered that the chairman and chief executive of Kabul Bank, who are both large shareholders in the bank, should step down from their positions and a government official be appointed to manage the bank.

But western officials with intimate knowledge of the financial drama said the US treasury wanted to see much stronger action. That would include bringing the bank into line with international norms…

Such independence would risk bringing to light allegations that members of the country’s business and political elite have, for years, apparently got away with using deposits of thousands of ordinary Afghans to fund lavish lifestyles. The bank’s funds are said to have been used to invest in loss-making enterprises and, allegedly, the re-election campaign of President Karzai.

In the words of one foreign official, the US treasury is anxious to “rip the lid” off the cowboy capitalism that has been allowed to flourish at Kabul Bank. [...]

“But there are lots of assets off the books. The hunch is that shareholders would like to continue to use bank assets how they want, rather than bring it into line with international best practice.”

Naturally, the corrupt fired parties blamed everybody else…

Ex-executives say their dismissals triggered run on Kabul Bank

…The two ousted executives of Afghanistan’s largest bank have blamed a hasty management purge for a run on the embattled institution this week.

President Hamid Karzai ordered the dismissal of the managers at Kabul Bank this week after concerns about questionable loans that shareholders had approved for themselves, including some to fund the purchase of high-end real estate in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

Why not, though…? A mere week ago, Karzai was saying…

Kabul blames most corruption on Western allies

…Afghanistan said Monday blame for most of the corruption plaguing the impoverished country lies with its Western backers who dole out “illegitimate” contracts that have created an “economic mafia”.

Afghanistan, one of the most corrupt countries in the world, is under intense pressure from its foreign backers to end endemic graft.

Presidential spokesman Waheed Omer said Afghanistan’s foreign allies were responsible for the vast bulk of corruption in the country, which is mired in extreme poverty despite receiving tens of billions of dollars in Western aid over the past decade.

“Our international partners provided the ground for some people in Afghanistan to become unbelievably rich. Some people (have) become an economic mafia in Afghanistan,” he said.

Even Bloomberg reported it… Karzai Says Corrupt Firms Undermine Afghan War (Correct)

Sadly, there’s kernels of truth to Hamid’s charges…

Billion Dollar Audit Missed by Pentagon Watchdog
Military auditors failed to complete an audit of the business systems of an Ohio- based company – Mission Essential Personnel – even though it had billed for one billion dollars worth of work largely in Afghanistan over the last four years.

…In September 2007 the U.S. Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) awarded Mission Essential Personnel (MEP) a five-year-contract worth up to 414 million dollars to provide 1,691 translators in Afghanistan. MEP was a start-up company created by three men, including Chad Monnin, a U.S. Army Special Forces reservist who was injured in a parachute accident. Procurement rules give preference to companies owned by injured veterans, even if they have no prior experience.

When the Obama administration decided to expand the war in Afghanistan last year, MEP quickly hit the ceiling of what it could bill. On May 10, INSCOM gave MEP a 679 million dollar extension without bothering to put it up for competitive bid. MEP will also get a share of the Intelligence Support Services Omnibus III contract, a five-year contract, with a ceiling of 492 million dollars, announced on Aug. 10, 2010.

The only two other contractors that have held multi-billion dollar contracts to supply translators to soldiers and diplomats in the Global War on Terror – L- 3/Titan and Global Linguist Services – have both been investigated for alleged overcharging, suggesting that this type of work falls in the high risk category of government spending.

Yet the Defence Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) failed to conduct a full business systems audit for MEP.

The CS Monitor truly puts it all into its proper context…

Kabul Bank run may pose more immediate threat than Afghan Taliban

The Kabul Bank is a bedrock for a stable Afghan society. Its collapse could spell disaster for the country already battling a resurgent Afghan Taliban.

…The fallout from Kabul Bank’s problems could extend beyond the economy. The Post reported Thursday that “an unchecked run on Kabul Bank, which could spread alarm to other banks, would jeopardize not only depositors’ savings but President Obama’s Afghan strategy, which is built around efforts to rally the public against the Taliban.”

American officials, security analysts, and Afghan businessmen also see it as a security threat. The US hopes a growing Afghan economy will lift living standards, undercut support for the Taliban, and increase confidence in Mr. Karzai. And the Kabul bank particularly plays a central role: it houses $1.3 billion in deposits from ordinary citizens, and also handles payments for teachers, soldiers, and police – the bedrock of a stable Afghan society.

Once again, I ask ya; what are we fighting, and dying, for…?

*gah*

Apparently, New York State is the new Eastern Europe of 1943, with the American border patrol agents playing the role of Nazi soldiers demanding everyone’s papers on the train. Have you heard this story?

To see what immigration hard-liners really have in mind, ride the Lake Shore Limited between Chicago and New York or Boston. It is a daily Amtrak train that is regularly boarded and searched by the Border Patrol, even though it does not cross any international border.

That’s in yesterday’s NY Times, and refers back to this story earlier in the week, also in the Times.

The federal government is authorized to do just that at places where people enter and leave the country, and at a “reasonable distance” from the border. But as the patrol expands and tries to raise falling arrest numbers, critics say, the concept of the border is becoming more fluid, eroding Constitutional limits on search and seizure.

And unlike Arizona’s law, the change is happening without public debate. “It’s turned into a police state on the northern border,” said Cary M. Jensen, director of international services for the University of Rochester, whose foreign students, scholars and parents have been questioned and jailed, often because the patrol did not recognize their legal status. “It’s essentially become an internal document check.”

Why isn’t this on the front page of every newspaper and at the top of every news program. This is America! We shouldn’t have to prove our citizenship every time we come within 100 miles of any border. What’s next? Flags on our sleeves?  And where is the debate on this issue?

The republican candidate for senate from nevada seems to have other ideas.

Sharron Angle’s Plan For Education: Eliminate All Of It

Speaking at a forum for the right-wing Steamboat Institute last week, Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle effectively declared that public schools should cease to exist. Early in her speech, Angle reiterated her belief that America should abolish the federal Department of Education because education is “better taken care of at the state level.” Yet, in response to an audience member’s question, Angle also highlighted her work to de-fund Nevada’s public schools:

We had a two-thirds rule in our constitution, that the people passed not once, but twice, saying that it would take a two-thirds vote of both houses of the legislature to pass a tax increase.  We had 15 strong assemblymen . . . of which I was the whip.  And I began to do what you do as a whip, and that was to say to these guys, “guys, we need to hold strong against this tax increase.  We cannot stand a big tax increase like this. …”

….

In other words, Angle supports a two-step process to reform education in the United States:

• Phase One: Eliminate all federal funding of education.
• Phase Two: Eliminate all other funding of education.

via Think Progress

Oy! This woman could become senator. PLEASE vote for Harry Reid and support him in this election!

Today opens what back in “the good old days” marked the last full week of summer – the week before Labor Day. Used to be that school started up after Labor Day. Growing up in a small town outside of Boston, we always started back to school the Wednesday after Labor Day. It gave the families who spent their summers at the Cape or up in the Mountains of New Hampshire or on the coast of Maine time to get back and all ready for the school year. Often, signs of Fall were already in evidence – a slight chill would have entered the air, and the swamp maples might have started turning the tips of their leaves a little color, giving hints to the glory that was to come. I was always excited by the prospect of the new school year. I guess I was a geek that way. I loved getting the wardrobe ready, the anticipation of seeing all my friends, catching up, the start of the football season, new teachers, sometimes new schools.

Having spent the last 30 or so years in Texas, with only brief escapes elsewhere, I have not been able to experience that same thrill. But then I have spent that time as an adult, with much of it getting my own daughter and stepdaughter ready for their school starts. Here school starts in the middle to end of August – the hottest time of the year. Football takes on a much different meaning. In my youth it was just another sport on the calendar of the sports year. Here it is LIFE. Everything starts and ends with football. Back then we would wallow in the days called Indian Summer – Warm summer-like weather that surrounded an already coming Autumn. Here I watch the weather map diligently for that first cool front that breaks the back of the summer heat. We had that come through here last week. Our 100+ degree days are gone, for the most part. But our leaves often don’t turn color until almost Thanksgiving and drop just before Christmas. Often I feel cheated.  Autumn has always been my favorite season.  Here it barely arrives before the Holidays, with winter sometimes right at its heels.  January is the only guaranteed cold month, because February signals spring with its warmer temperatures. By Spring Break in March, another Oppressive Summer is already in the air sun and heat-wise.

The sad thing I have discovered is that with all the climate change that has occurred since I was a child, the autumnal/temperature calendar of this reverie has changed, too. Fall does not come when it used to. The change in seasons is different. I have been in Boston in recent Novembers to find that they still had not had killing frosts – something unheard of at that time 40 years ago.  I guess that is the point of this little post – that as my life has moved on and changed, so has the old climate cycle we used to be able to count on.  Change is not always good, but it is always there.

This weekend marks an anniversary, but not the one you’re thinking of. Twenty years ago on August 27 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughan was playing at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in Wisconsin. He’d just finished playing in an encore with Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray and his brother Jimmie Vaughan. After the encore he took off in a helicopter that crashed moments after takeoff.

He became an “overnight” success in 1983 with the release of “Texas Flood” even though he’d been playing in clubs and touring with different bands since he dropped out of high school in 1971. Once he hooked up with what would become Double Trouble (Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon and Doyle Bramhall) his career exploded. He played on David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”, but declined the offer to tour with Bowie to concentrate on his own studio work. His unique style evolved as a way to keep up with his older brother Jimmie, a noted blues player himself. You’ll notice Jimmie’s the one with the harder job in this song!

I’ll never forget the first time I saw him play live. It was amazing, mind-blowing, and off-the-charts cool. I saw him several more times in concert and each show was awesome. I remember the day he died, too. He’d had his share of trouble with drugs and alcohol, but he’d been clean and sober for a while and was playing better than ever. Isn’t that always the way it seems to go?

This is from “Family Style” which was released in 1990. I love the pictures of Jimmie and Stevie over the years. They certainly had a fashion sense

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.

Directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp
Marcel is voiced (untreated & unenhanced) by a genius named Jenny Slate
Written by Jenny Slate + Dean Fleischer-Camp
www.deanfleischercamp.com

I found the base for this recipe in one of those lame inserts that come in the weekend paper.  This insert is called American Profile.Com.  I had never seen or heard of it before. (Mainly because I don’t subscribe to the local Gnomeville paper, but I am picking it up from my parents’ daily while they are out of town.)  Anyhow, the name of the recipe is Corn and Tomato Salad with Lemon Dressing. It was yummy last night when I fixed it, but it is even better tonight, after having sat in the fridge for 24 hours. Today at 103 degrees is exactly the kind of day this recipe was made for. You can go to the website and get the original recipe.

The following is my adaptation:

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked fresh corn, scraped off the cob
• 1 medium cucumber, peeled, diced (about 2 cups)
• 2 medium tomatoes, cored and chopped(about 2 cups)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
• 1 cup fresh mozzarella pearls
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon honey or agave nectar or both
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Coarsely ground black pepper

Instructions

• Combine corn, cucumber, tomatoes, mozzarella and mint.
• Combine oil, lemon juice, honey, salt and pepper; whisk.
• Pour over salad and mix gently.
• Serve with arugula or lettuce.
• Serves 4 to 6.

Yes, I know. There are women telling other women what to do with their bodies, too. There is a special place for all of them – where the hinges on the gate are quite hot… too hot to touch even… one can’t get out without leaving a mark! And these are your neighbors and you can’t for help, and hot does not mean

So be careful what you wish for… you might just get it.

For information about The Pregnant man and poster ordering info see here.