http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/5-acts-terror-people-we-chose-protect-us?page=0%2C0

"5 Acts of Terror by the People We Choose to Protect Us" by Paul Buchheight

Terrorism and the ever pervasive consequences of Americans' widespread fear of it have undoubtedly affected all of our lives in one way or another.  Everybody experiences different aspects of this seemingly manufactured state of alert.  Youth K-12 may experience an increase in police officers and a decrease in guidance couselors available and present in school.  Others may have even experienced an unwarranted encounter with authorities in the guise of protection from what was called "terrorism". What this article is really getting at is the context in which the word "terrorist" is being applied to, which in this case is the federal corporation know as the United States Government.  It reads from instances such as condtradictory Bush Administration quotes of the "war on terror" from Bush, Cheney and Powell, to terror against opponents of unconstitutional terror such as Bradley Manning.  The real point Buchheight is trying to make -- or question he is trying to ask rather, is "If the US Government (or anyone other government for that matter) is committing terrorist acts in the guise of fighting terrorism, should we as Americans support it?".  This question, in its highly controversial nature is a great example of what George Orwell liked to call doublespeak.  Americans' support for the war on terror and the consequences of it, which seem to be more terrrorism, is at the heart of doublespeak or "when a person holds two mutually contradictory beliefs".  Terrorism cannot be stopped by more terrorism, simple.

So you captured a big league terrorist and are holding him prisoner at sea. now what?

so a couple of my fellow terroristos commented on the navy seal counter terrorist  attacks in Mogadishu Somalia this week, yes they are hot on the trail and capture of Nahzi. "On Saturday, U.S. Navy SEALs captured Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, better known by his nom de guerre, Abu Anas al-Libi, in a brazen raid on his home in Tripoli" after the swift capture libi was whsiked to navey vessel anchored off the shore. where he is currently being "lawfully detained under the law of war"
NOW WHAT?
the way libi is being treated under the law of war is that similar to "warsame" "seized in Somalia on April 19, 2011. He was then held and interrogated by a special American interrogation team comprised of representatives from the Department of Justice, the intelligence community, and the military aboard the USS Boxer for two months, before being read his Miranda rights and turned over to the FBI."
While detentions like that of Libi and Warsame are considered established  practice they raise controversial legal questions. For example the undisclosed termination of there detention of the ship violates Geneva  conventions  codes that "prisoners of war may only be detained on premises located on land." if the administration considered LIBI to be a prisoner of was then by article 22 of the Geneva convention Libi should not be detained on the ship for any extended period of time that could be labeled as internment.   John Bellinger, a lawyer and former State Department and National Security Council legal advisor, told foreign policy by email " "My guess is that the Obama Administration does not consider al-Libi to qualify as a POW because al-Qaida is not a party to the Geneva Conventions," which apply only to countries, not necessarily non-state actors. Wait hold up, just because al Qaeda is not recognized by the Geneva convention dose this mean that we should in turn hold there prisoners of war captive for undisclosed periods on essential ally military prison ships. i can recognize that Libi al Queda ties dont help his street cred with the administration, but dose that mean that we should just treat him like a caged political animal? come on foreign policy  come on administration.

 

Latina Hip Hop

While you're all tracking economic and wartime news, I'm diligently following the global hip hop beat.
Check out this story about La Mala, Mala Rodriguez.

From the associated article: "Latin America had been tuned into Chicano hip-hop artists like Cypress Hill and Kid Frost. "People were trying to emulate the flow of groups like Cypress Hill," says Data, "but a lot of those rappers in the U.S., they had only a very basic control of the Spanish language, because they didn't grow up speaking Spanish, or they didn't go to school in Spanish. They picked it up listening to their immigrant parents." So their rhymes were simple, short and slow-paced in the style of West Coast rap.

Everything changed once hip-hop got big in Spain. "After the explosion of hip-hop in Spain in the late '90s, there was a huge mutation in how people rapped in Latin America," says Data. All of a sudden, rappers in Spain were incorporating a lot more syllables into shorter verses. "When kids in Latin America heard that, they were like 'Whoa.' It was something no one had ever thought of before."

There are a bunch of links here, in case you want to know about others like Arianna Puello and Ana Tijoux.

Brazil - World Cup & Olympics

In the mid-1990s, Brazil's economy had been stabilized and economically, things were looking pretty good for Brazil. Not even the collapse of Lehman harmed Brazil's economy in 2008. Instead in 2010, Brazil grew by 7.5%. The thriving economic performance for Brazil is probably one of the main reasons this South American country was awarded the honor in hosting not only the World Cup in 2014, but the 2016 Summer Olympics as well.

As of 2012, things have not been looking great for Brazil and now it's questionable if this is the best country to be hosting the World Cup and Olympics, especially with the recent protests started back in June of this year. In June, Brazil had one of the biggest protests of the generation with the people complaining of high living costs, poor public services, and the greed and corruption of the politicians. Long story short, due to the Brazil's previous boom, they played themselves out from the inflation and opening up to trade, commodity price rises, and big increases in credit and consumption. (The Economist).

[Video Link]

Critics talk about how the Brazilian government focuses more on building prestige projects for the World Cup and Olympics, but don't focus on improving their economic and social problems, thus creating potential flashpoints. According to Clare Dixon, from the UK Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, "People in Brazil are absolutely delighted that they are hosting the World Cup in 2014, but what they are saying is -- if we can have world-standard football stadiums, why can't we have world-standard housing, world-standard healthcare, world-standard education?"

Forbes also mentions, The 124 richest people in Brazil hold assets that total $238.6 billion, or 12.3 percent of the country's gross domestic product. When Rousseff launched her poverty reduction program in 2011 some 16 million Brazilians were said to be living in extreme poverty, defined as having $30 and sometimes less a month to live on. (UPI (United Press International)).

There are hopes that the World Cup and Olympics would help boost Brazil's economy, but is it too late?



Link to The Economist article

Link to the UPI article

Dangers of the Shutdown and the Stocks.

Currently all we have is the hope that the shutdown will not run it's way into a 4th and 5th week. This shutdown has not only put many government workers at home, but it continually threatens the first days of the new quarter in the stock markets. There is a prayer that the economic unraveling will mimic the minimal effects of the last shutdowns in 1995-1996, but for many reasons we are pressed into believing otherwise. For starters, In 1995 gave a period of healing time as the shutdown didn't all happen in one sitting. This gave some time for the economic system to briefly bounce back. In our current condition we have no idea if we can be lucky enough to have the same. What has the potential to cause the most damage is the timing of this shutdown. It has happened on the first day of the quarter for the markets, which means that the shutdowns effects will be felt all the way to the end of the quarter.

As the shutdown drags on, it only gets worse. The greatest of the issues is that the fact our current economy is like a delicate flower. It was just beginning to bloom and on the first step to recovery, so the stress that this government standstill is forcing is extremely negative. Now what will occur is more hesitation in companies investing. It has just become a highly uncertain and ugly situation in the U.S. and none of us can clearly predict the future of what might happen. We can hope and record, it becomes the chore of terror. I just hope that the shutdown will end soon.

Source:
http://money.cnn.com/2013/09/23/news/economy/shutdown-economy/index.html

Blood Money

Wildlife conservationists are fed up by Wildlife Services (WS), which is a division of the United States Department of Agriculture.  WS is responsible for the "inhumane" trapping, poisoning, and killing of animals.  Initially WS was deemed necessary for protecting local live stocks and crops by killing the animals that proved to be a "threat." However, according to an article in the New York Times, "WS kills vastly more than nuisance animals some even protected by the Endangered Species Act..." So essentially what this means is that we are paying money to kill animals that we already spend so much time, energy, and money to protect.  Taxpayers pay $100 million a year to use poisons, traps, and guns for aerial shootings.  In the past six years, over 22 million animals have died, and almost half of those have been accidents!  Not only is this an incredibly dangerous, harmful, and unfair program, but it is something that taxpayers are paying big money for.  A point is brought up in the article that it is not justifiable to "clamor about cutting food stamps and defunding Obamacare, because they claim the cost is too great" when so much money is being wasted on something the we are actually wanting to protect. 
At this point, no real action has been taken to solving this problem, but wildlife conservationists want to take it to the courts and Congress to stop it.  Meanwhile, money is continued to be spent on slaughter.

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/15613712-wildlife-services-knudson-snares

It's all about the Benjamins!

"Yo Benjamin Franklin, homie! You lookin clean yo! Whadup wid it? New haircut yo? Awww c'mon I know you did something new! For being over 300 years old, you fresh as hell!"

The Hundie was scheduled for a facelift a few years ago but due to some issues with the new imbedded technology the release was delayed. But at last, just in time for the Government shutdown Mr. Franklin has decided to show off the new paint job.

The bills new blue and orange color scheme is obviously an endorsement of the Denver Broncos and the Detroit Tigers (My favorite NFL and MLB teams). Aside from the Feds natural bias towards my sports interests the bill now has a 3-D security ribbon, color shifting ink, and a new image of an inkwell on the front with the liberty bell on it. Also Mr. Franklins head wont be framed with an oval anymore. He's letting his hair fly in the static winds of our still water economy.

I was surprised to find out that the Hundred is the second most common bill in circulation. It is only second to the one dollar bill and beats out the twenty by 1.2 billion bills. Supposedly more than 75% of over 1 trillion in circulated currency is made up of hundred dollar bills. Ironically enough, most of that money is held outside the United States. The older Hundreds will remain in circulation, but you wont see any more of them coming out of the federal reserve.

Oh and by the way, an undisclosed amount of the new bills went missing in transit from Dallas to Philly. Ya, they were using a commercial airliner. Isn't that kind of asking for it? They are assumed stolen. The feds would not disclose the amount but said it was substantial. The FBI is following "all logical leads". How bout don't put your nations currency on a commercial flight? The government once again proving itself a paragon of stupidity (with the obvious exception being their subtle support of my favorite sports teams).

And will they take "In God We Trust" off the money already! I wouldn't trust him to watch my sandwich for three and a half minutes. Worship Satan, make bad decisions, learn from them and repeat. Also the link to the CNN article about the new bill is below. It's whatever.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/07/news/economy/new-hundred-dollar-bill/index.html

The Capturing of Nahzi

The same group of SEALs that raided Osama bin Laden in 2011 went back for another counter terrorism mission last weekend in Mogadishu, Somalia. They swam to the shores of a southern Somalian town in hopes of stopping an Al-Shabab terrorist group, with an alliance to the Al-Queda, that had been linked to the recent mall attack in Kenya. The raid failed as the SEAL's group leader aborted the mission after 20 minutes of unexpected firefight. Hours after the raid in Solmalia US forces focused their attention on another task, capturing Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, leader of the Al-Shabab and listed as a high priority on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list. This man has been said to have been involved with several terrorist attacks including a 1998 bombing of the Kenyan US embassy, which resulted in 220 casualties. The mission proved successful and Nahzi is now being detained outside of Libya. On Sunday Secretary of State John Kerry, pointed out that the US action against militants in Africa sends the oh so original message "[terrorists] can run but they can't hide." Good one John. It's been 20 years since the famous "Black Hawk Down" mission, and since then US military force in Africa has been limited since bringing said "stability" to the Horn of Africa, and these attacks prove that our mission to counter terrorism should not be taken lightly and we will do anything that needs to be done to keep this stability. Groups like the Al-Shabab and Al-Queda have had great success hiding out in Somalia and the last US attack took place in 2009 after killing a leader and plotter of the 1998 embassy attacks. It seems we are currently trying to collect as much information as possible on members of the terrorists groups and have, as of recently, been given more names to investigate, including a family member of the targeted leader from the 2009 Somalian raid.

SEALs Abort Mission to Capture Leader of Al-Shabab

I also wanted to post this interview with John Stewart and a young woman from Pakistan, who has recently been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, making her the youngest person at 16 years old to be nominated. Her story is unbelievable and for a 16 year old to courageously speak out against terrorists that are preventing her and many other women from continuing on with their education. [Alex edits: I embedded the video, for your viewing pleasure]