Dont forget to tune in (today, Saturday) Soon For @democracynow's 2-Hour weekend Special on #Egypt Uprising―11am-1pm EST. Pls RT [retweet] STREAM LIVE: http://ow.ly/3QSmn #jan25 And archived immediately free on the web at Democracy Now!
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
Day of Departure: Massive Demonstrations Across Egypt Aim to Oust Mubarak. Sharif Abdel Kouddous Reports Live from Cairo
[Millions] of Egyptian pro-democracy protesters have returned to Cairo’s Tahrir Square in defiance of violent attacks from supporters of President Hosni Mubarak in the last two days. The New York Times reports the Obama administration has opened talks with Egyptian officials on Mubarak’s immediate resignation. The proposal under discussion would see Vice President Omar Suleiman lead a transitional government before elections later this year; however, Suleiman remains deeply unpopular in Egypt. Pro-democracy organizers have labeled today the 'Day of Departure,' a final push for Mubarak’s immediate resignation. The demonstrations immediately swelled at the end of Friday prayers. We speak to Democracy Now! senior producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who reports live from Tahrir Square.
How the next farm bill could plant a new crop of farmers | Grist
abstract:
...The USDA does offer operating loans, but they're geared for growers looking for bigger loans. 'Because the Farm Service Agency requires the same amount of paperwork for a $100,000 loan and a $5,000 loan,' says Santos, 'they shy away from making a small loan -- unless it's a youth loan.' Additionally, the managerial requirements for USDA operating loans overlook the entrepreneurial young person. Current rules require that operating loan applicants have a four-year degree in an agricultural field, some combination of vocational training, and on-farm experience, or farm ownership or management experience for an entire production cycle.
Frustrated at the lack of credit opportunities for small and beginning farmers, Santos is now organizing the Tip of Texas Farmers Co-op. 'Tip-o-Tex' will offer access to a multi-farm CSA and small loans to its producers like Padilla. The initiative received initial funding through the Rio Grande Valley Empowerment Zone and will operate as a nonprofit organization and for-profit business. The co-op will operate as a typical for-profit business and the nonprofit side will offer producers loans, marketing, and start-up assistance.
Non-governmental organizations, like the one that Santos is forming, have been picking up the slack on existing federal credit programs for some time.
A USDA video tells the story of the Hungate boys of Idaho, ages 9, 11, and 12, who were given a $5,000 loan to buy four cows. Drake, the eldest Hungate, reports, "we got really good interest -- and we locked it in at 3.2 percent."
...The USDA does offer operating loans, but they're geared for growers looking for bigger loans. 'Because the Farm Service Agency requires the same amount of paperwork for a $100,000 loan and a $5,000 loan,' says Santos, 'they shy away from making a small loan -- unless it's a youth loan.' Additionally, the managerial requirements for USDA operating loans overlook the entrepreneurial young person. Current rules require that operating loan applicants have a four-year degree in an agricultural field, some combination of vocational training, and on-farm experience, or farm ownership or management experience for an entire production cycle.
Frustrated at the lack of credit opportunities for small and beginning farmers, Santos is now organizing the Tip of Texas Farmers Co-op. 'Tip-o-Tex' will offer access to a multi-farm CSA and small loans to its producers like Padilla. The initiative received initial funding through the Rio Grande Valley Empowerment Zone and will operate as a nonprofit organization and for-profit business. The co-op will operate as a typical for-profit business and the nonprofit side will offer producers loans, marketing, and start-up assistance.
Non-governmental organizations, like the one that Santos is forming, have been picking up the slack on existing federal credit programs for some time.
-----
A USDA video tells the story of the Hungate boys of Idaho, ages 9, 11, and 12, who were given a $5,000 loan to buy four cows. Drake, the eldest Hungate, reports, "we got really good interest -- and we locked it in at 3.2 percent."
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Sinaloa, La Familia, and other Mexican Drug Cartels - Politics - GOOD - StumbleUpon
Sinaloa, La Familia, and other Mexican Drug Cartels - Politics - GOOD - StumbleUpon: "The ongoing drug trade in Mexico has been one of the nation's chief concerns for some time now. But the level of gruesome violence has escalated to near catastrophic proportions since President Felipe Calderon took office in December, 2006, creating virtual ghost towns as people have sought refuge in safer states. This violence has primarily been perpetrated by seven drug cartels, all of which are vying for territory and power.
A collaboration between GOOD and Column Five Media.
Suspected Taliban commander dies at Guantanamo | McClatchy
A 48-year-old suspected Taliban base commander dropped dead of an apparent heart attack after exercising on an elliptical machine inside Guantánamo's most populous prison camp, the military said Thursday.
The dead man, Awal Gul, had been held at the prison camps in southeast Cuba since October 2002.
Gul was working out Tuesday night in a collective cellblock at the cement penitentiary-style building called Camp 6, said Navy Cmdr. Tamsen Reese, a prison camps spokeswoman.
"He went to go take a shower and apparently collapsed in the shower,'' Reese said. "Detainees on the cellblock then assisted him in getting to the guard station.''
From there he was taken to a prison camp clinic, then to the Navy base hospital, some miles away, but could not save him despite what the commander called "extensive life saving measures.''
Gul is the seventh war-on-terror detainee to die during the nine years the Pentagon has confined some 800 men and boys to the prisons at Guantánamo.
The detainee census was 173 on Thursday, including Gul.
Read more: Suspected Taliban commander dies at Guantanamo | McClatchy:
The dead man, Awal Gul, had been held at the prison camps in southeast Cuba since October 2002.
Gul was working out Tuesday night in a collective cellblock at the cement penitentiary-style building called Camp 6, said Navy Cmdr. Tamsen Reese, a prison camps spokeswoman.
"He went to go take a shower and apparently collapsed in the shower,'' Reese said. "Detainees on the cellblock then assisted him in getting to the guard station.''
From there he was taken to a prison camp clinic, then to the Navy base hospital, some miles away, but could not save him despite what the commander called "extensive life saving measures.''
Gul is the seventh war-on-terror detainee to die during the nine years the Pentagon has confined some 800 men and boys to the prisons at Guantánamo.
The detainee census was 173 on Thursday, including Gul.
Read more: Suspected Taliban commander dies at Guantanamo | McClatchy:
Dying for a Green Card
excerpt:
..a recently leaked State Department cable indicates that both sides understand the stakes. At a September 2009 meeting in Mexico City, that country's undersecretary for governance, Gerónimo Gutiérrez Fernández, warned a US delegation that Mexico was in danger of "losing" entire regions like Juárez to the cartels.
In 2009, more than 94,000 Mexicans came to Juárez to apply for permanent resident status. Many, like Monica's husband Alvaro, were undocumented and living gainfully in the United States. In past decades, applying would have been no big deal for such people. Thanks partly toMonica Bosquez and her husband AlvaroMonica Bosquez and her husband Alvaro a 1965 Great Society law that emphasized the need to keep families intact, applicants already living in the United States could petition for a change of status without having to leave.
But over the years, foes of illegal immigration have chipped away at the policies to the point where keeping families together is no longer a key consideration. Since 2001, undocumented foreigners living here for a year or more have been instructed to return to their native countries, where they must then wait a decade before becoming eligible to apply for a change in status. (Applicants may request a waiver of the 10-year waiting period, but may do so only after leaving the country.)
Immigrant visas were once processed at all nine US consulates in Mexico, but in 1988, the task was consolidated to two consulates, in Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana. In 1992, the Tijuana unit was closed. One State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told me that the consolidation was a purely administrative move, and applies to "all countries where we have more than one consulate, except where there are regional language differences."
On immigration-related websites like the Juarez, Mexico Discussion Forum and Immigrate2US, members often speculate as to why, of all of the cities in Mexico, they are forced to go to the Murder Capital. Some see it as a deliberate move to discourage people from applying. "This process is built to break one down," wrote a member of the Juárez forum. "And most importantly, to instill fear."
State Department spokeswoman Nicole Thompson dismisses this claim. "The decision was made years ago," she told me, "before the increased drug-related violence along the border area." But the decision still stands now that the city is a war zone. A different spokeswoman, for the Juárez consulate, insisted that the golden zone is "relatively safe." Besides, she explained, "Visa applicants are not the targets. The war is between the cartels and gangs."
When I run that notion by Martín Orquiz, a reporter for the Juárez newspaper El Diario, he replies that it's generally true, but that many of the victims have been bystanders. "They were killed," he said, "because they passed by where a shooting occurred." He confirms that the area around the consulate is "relatively safe."
To reach that safe zone, though, applicants must pass through sections of town that regularly see mass killings, through armed security checkpoints, and near the site of a car-bomb explosion that killed three people in July. "The quality of the neighborhood around the compound doesn't much change the whole business of getting into and out of the city," one visa applicant told me. "The scariest part of our trip was the ride from the airport to the consulate, then back again." Especially, he explained, when his bus was suddenly behind a military truck filled with armed soldiers wearing black balaclavas.
The consulate's website is vague on the safety issue. Under "Frequently Asked Questions," it asks: "Is it safe for my family and I to travel to Ciudad Juárez given the recent reports of violence?"
The answer: "All immigrant visa cases in Mexico are currently processed at the U.S. Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez. Therefore all applicants must present themselves at the Consulate at the time and date of their appointment if they wish to proceed with their cases. It is incumbent upon you to take the necessary precautions when traveling to your visa appointment."
Read the entire piece at Mother Jones
..a recently leaked State Department cable indicates that both sides understand the stakes. At a September 2009 meeting in Mexico City, that country's undersecretary for governance, Gerónimo Gutiérrez Fernández, warned a US delegation that Mexico was in danger of "losing" entire regions like Juárez to the cartels.
In 2009, more than 94,000 Mexicans came to Juárez to apply for permanent resident status. Many, like Monica's husband Alvaro, were undocumented and living gainfully in the United States. In past decades, applying would have been no big deal for such people. Thanks partly toMonica Bosquez and her husband AlvaroMonica Bosquez and her husband Alvaro a 1965 Great Society law that emphasized the need to keep families intact, applicants already living in the United States could petition for a change of status without having to leave.
But over the years, foes of illegal immigration have chipped away at the policies to the point where keeping families together is no longer a key consideration. Since 2001, undocumented foreigners living here for a year or more have been instructed to return to their native countries, where they must then wait a decade before becoming eligible to apply for a change in status. (Applicants may request a waiver of the 10-year waiting period, but may do so only after leaving the country.)
Immigrant visas were once processed at all nine US consulates in Mexico, but in 1988, the task was consolidated to two consulates, in Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana. In 1992, the Tijuana unit was closed. One State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told me that the consolidation was a purely administrative move, and applies to "all countries where we have more than one consulate, except where there are regional language differences."
On immigration-related websites like the Juarez, Mexico Discussion Forum and Immigrate2US, members often speculate as to why, of all of the cities in Mexico, they are forced to go to the Murder Capital. Some see it as a deliberate move to discourage people from applying. "This process is built to break one down," wrote a member of the Juárez forum. "And most importantly, to instill fear."
State Department spokeswoman Nicole Thompson dismisses this claim. "The decision was made years ago," she told me, "before the increased drug-related violence along the border area." But the decision still stands now that the city is a war zone. A different spokeswoman, for the Juárez consulate, insisted that the golden zone is "relatively safe." Besides, she explained, "Visa applicants are not the targets. The war is between the cartels and gangs."
When I run that notion by Martín Orquiz, a reporter for the Juárez newspaper El Diario, he replies that it's generally true, but that many of the victims have been bystanders. "They were killed," he said, "because they passed by where a shooting occurred." He confirms that the area around the consulate is "relatively safe."
To reach that safe zone, though, applicants must pass through sections of town that regularly see mass killings, through armed security checkpoints, and near the site of a car-bomb explosion that killed three people in July. "The quality of the neighborhood around the compound doesn't much change the whole business of getting into and out of the city," one visa applicant told me. "The scariest part of our trip was the ride from the airport to the consulate, then back again." Especially, he explained, when his bus was suddenly behind a military truck filled with armed soldiers wearing black balaclavas.
The consulate's website is vague on the safety issue. Under "Frequently Asked Questions," it asks: "Is it safe for my family and I to travel to Ciudad Juárez given the recent reports of violence?"
The answer: "All immigrant visa cases in Mexico are currently processed at the U.S. Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez. Therefore all applicants must present themselves at the Consulate at the time and date of their appointment if they wish to proceed with their cases. It is incumbent upon you to take the necessary precautions when traveling to your visa appointment."
Read the entire piece at Mother Jones
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Tony Blair ♥'s Hosni Mubarak; the Clintons do too!
Tony Blair: Mubarak is a ‘force for good
"And on that issue, I have to say, he's been immensely courageous and a force for good," he added.
abstract via the Washington Post and Glenn Greenwald:
Ms. Clinton was then asked whether there would be any connection between the report and a prospective invitation to President Hosni Mubarak to visit Washington. "It is not in any way connected," she replied, adding: "I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family. So I hope to see him often here in Egypt and in the United States." Ms. Clinton's words will be treasured by al-Qaeda recruiters and anti-American propagandists throughout the Middle East. She appears oblivious to how offensive such statements are to the millions of Egyptians who loathe Mr. Mubarak's oppressive government and blame the United States for propping it up.
...What I always find mystifying is who they think the target audience is. I understand if they expect a domestic audience to swoon for this sort of rhetoric, but do they actually expect that there is anyone in the Middle East, anywhere, who will take seriously the righteous objections of Hilary Clinton -- the American Secretary of State and close Mubarak family friend -- to the rise of an oppressive military dictatorship in the Middle East? Is anyone there really going to believe that it's that government's lack of respect for human rights -- rather than its refusal to serve American interests and heed its various dictates -- that is motivating the hostility and threats?
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