Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for May 2010

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How to make sure the poor will always be with us

Robert Samuelson, writing in the WaPo:

The existing poverty line could be improved by adding some income sources and subtracting some expenses (example: child care). Unfortunately, the administration’s proposal for a “supplemental poverty measure” in 2011 — to complement, not replace, the existing poverty line — goes beyond these changes. The new poverty number would compound public confusion. It also raises questions about whether the statistic is tailored to favor a political agenda.

The “supplemental measure” ties the poverty threshold to what the poorest third of Americans spend on food, housing, clothes and utilities. The actual threshold — not yet calculated — will almost certainly be higher than today’s poverty line. Moreover, the new definition has strange consequences. Suppose that all Americans doubled their incomes tomorrow, and suppose that their spending on food, clothing, housing and utilities also doubled. That would seem to signify less poverty — but not by the new poverty measure. It wouldn’t decline, because the poverty threshold would go up as spending went up. Many Americans would find this weird: People get richer but “poverty” stays stuck.
…
The new indicator is a “propaganda device” to promote income redistribution by showing that poverty is stubborn or increasing, says the Heritage Foundation’s Robert Rector. He has a point. The Census Bureau has estimated statistics similar to the administration’s proposal. In 2008, the traditional poverty rate was 13.2 percent; estimates of the new statistic range up to 17 percent. The new poverty statistic exceeds the old, and the gap grows larger over time.

Go read the rest.

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The three trends, and the Gaza flotilla VIDEO

As you can see from the headlines this morning, the “aid” flotilla heading to Gaza was intercepted by the IDF navy. The Israel Project reports that the flotilla

which was trying to reach Gaza was organized by IHH (Insani Yardim Vakfi – “humanitarian relief fund”), a Turkish aid foundation which has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and Free Gaza, which describes itself as a human rights group.

The IHH has known links to global jihadi networks, openly supports Iran-backed Hamas and maintains close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood movement, a global umbrella Islamic organization of which Hamas is a branch, as well as mujahideen groups in Afghanistan

Egypt also supports the flotilla, in spite of actually blockading Gaza with a border fence.

This is how things developed this morning,

Here’s video of the attack:


From the Israeli Foreign Office report,

he Israel Navy requested the ships to redirect toward Ashdod where they would be able to unload their aid material which would then be transferred over land after undergoing security inspections.
During the interception of the ships, the demonstrators onboard attacked the IDF naval personnel with live fire and light weaponry including knives and clubs. Additionally one of the weapons used was grabbed from an IDF soldier. The demonstrators had clearly prepared their weapons in advance for this specific purpose.
As a result of this life-threatening and violent activity, naval forces employed riot dispersal means, including live fire.
According to initial reports, these events resulted in over ten deaths among the demonstrators and numerous injured; in addition, more than four naval personnel were injured, some from gunfire and some from various other weapons. Two of the soldiers are moderately wounded and the remainder sustained light injuries. All of the injured, Israelis and foreigners are currently being evacuated by helicopter to hospitals in Israel.

The bigger issue, however, is America’s leadership crisis.

Richard Fernandez explains,

Relations between Washington and Israel were already at near historic lows. Now it looks like we ain’t seen nothing yet. But the immediate headlines should not obscure the 3 trends which are driving up tensions in the region and threaten to drive them up further. The first is Iran’s continuing search for a nuclear weapon, a development which Israel views as near existential threat. The second is the buildup of Hezbollah missiles which can reach all the major Israeli population from launching sites Lebanon.  And the third are the unintended consequences of President Obama’s diplomacy which has resulted in the singling out of Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal at the month long Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty conference in New York. Like a circular-running torpedo it managed to miss its every intended target — missing North Korea and Iran — while hitting Israel.
…
Together those three developments — the shadow of the Iranian nukes, the missiles of Hezbollah and the loss of American support — may have fostered a regional perception that Israel is vulnerable. Certainly the flotilla organizers could not have been insensible to the rising pressure on Israel and were determined to exploit it, nor was it lost on the IDF that if they showed weakness in the face of the flotilla there would be more to follow. In one sense the flotilla put to sea on the perceived political tides and were met by IDF elements sailing on the contrary currents. The result was a clash inconsequential in itself, but not in the sparks that it may generate.

Yet President Obama thinks that

Let’s face it: this has been the toughest year and a half since any year and a half since the 1930s.

Well, watching the news this morning, it would not be unrealistic to say that things are going to get a lot tougher.

UPDATE
Comparison: Liberal Reaction Vs. Conservative Reaction To The Israel/Flotilla Story

The Lid has a timeline.

———————————–

Please note there will be no podcast this morning.

Post re-edited to add omitted material

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Colombia’s election: Santos leads

Santos Leads Colombian Elections

Colombian former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos was ahead in the first round of presidential elections Sunday and emerged as a clear front-runner ahead of a runoff vote slated for June 20.

Mr. Santos secured 46.6% of the votes, while his closest rival, two-time Bogota mayor Antanas Mockus, won 21.6% of the votes after election authorities had counted 63% of votes cast.

Since Mr. Santos hasn’t reached the 50% threshold to win in the first round, both candidates are likely to face off in second round vote to be held in June 20.

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The First Memorial Day

The Washington Times has the story of
General Orders No. 11
We must cherish tenderly the memory of our heroic dead

Memorial Day has many roots. There are numerous competing claims for the first “Decoration Day,” as the holiday was known in the years after the Civil War. But the first large-scale observance took place on May 30, 1868, at the behest of Illinois congressman and former Union Maj. Gen. John A. Logan.

Gen. Logan – known affectionately as “Black Jack” – was a Mexican War veteran and a politician who commanded in the western theater and was famed for his role at the 1863 Battle of Vicksburg and other engagements. After the war, Logan was commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, a Union veterans organization. On May 5, 1868, he issued General Orders No. 11, establishing May 30 as a day of remembrance for fallen comrades

Go read General Orders No. 11 at their post.

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Memorial Day weekend…at Farrakhan’s? UPDATED

Doug Ross links to Skipping Arlington to spend Memorial Day with Farrakhan; Pamela broke the story:

Jackie Calmes, a New York Times reporter who covers the White House, was in Chicago covering the President’s visit there this weekend. On Saturday night, she was one of the reporters who was assigned to theWhite House pool of reporters covering the President on his evening out having dinner at what appears to be, according to the Chicago reporters on site, the home of  Louis Farrakhan. The official line is that it was the home of Marty Nesbitt (treasurer of OFA — Organizing for America), but the house is “is tax exempt for being a religious institution.” The press pool van was parked nearby. Here is what Jackie Calmes reported on behalf of the press pool:

Sent: Sat May 29 21:08:47 2010
Subject: Pool Report 5

At 7:20 local time the pool was holding at Woodlawn and 49th, next to a large sandstone mansion that the Chicago reporters say is the home of one Louis Farrakhan. Our Secret Service agent allowed us off the bus (Air!) and as a dozen of us congregated on the sidewalk, inevitably some shoes touched grass. Immediately a polite man in jeans and Tshirt emerged to ask us to stay off the grass. Though this grass was the curbside city property, we obliged.
Soon, however, he was pacing and talking on a cell phone. He went inside the mansion’s black wrought iron fence, crossed the well-landscaped yard, lifted a water bucket behind rose bushes and, voila!, a walkie-talkie. He was heard to refer to “the CIA” once he began speaking into it.

Soon he approached our agent, asking him to move the van and its occupants, though your pooler could not hear much else he said. But the agent said, “How is this a security breach?” And he asked if the house was a government property. The man said something else and at that point the agent stuck out his hand to shake hands and introduced himself as a Secret Service agent. He added, “Sir, I can assure you that we will do nothing to interfere with whatever is going on in there.”

The man is back to pacing and talking on his cell, walkie-talkie in hand.

A co-pooler searched the Internet for the address and found it listed on a Web site called NotForTourists and another called Taxexemptworld.com.
Indeed, another pooler found a county Web site that confirmed this property is tax exempt for being a religious institution.

Reinforcements arrived–three men in Tshirts reading “Wide or Die!” One surly man has been staring daggers at us. Asked if this is Minister Farrakhan’s house, he just stared at your pooler. Asked again, he said, “I don’t have no comment.”
You should have the WH statement on top kill’s failure. At nearly 8 pm local time we are still holding while POTUS and family remain at the Nesbitts.

Sent: Sat May 29 22:07:24 2010
Subject: Pool Report 5a

It’s 8:45 and nearly dark; your pool has retreated back inside the van. We’re outnumbered now by roughly a dozen Fruit of Islam agents for the Nation of Islam. As each casually dressed man arrives, he exchanges elaborate handshake/hug/double air-kisses with others. Two walked by your pooler chanting “Islam.”
Several have filmed and photographed your poolers, the van and its license plates with their cell phones.
One came and stood close to a couple poolers and OUR agent. He asked if he could help. No answer. He asked again. The man said no. The agent said, “Secret Service — Please move away from this group of people.”
He did.
Soon the agent asked us to go in the bus.
We did.
But several poolers, hearing the call of nature, are asking whether they might ask the Fruit about using their bathroom.
Still holding. No pun intended.

Michelle Obama’s Mirror’s Blog says, “He’s Just a Guy in the Neighborhood”,

Oh dear! It seems our friendly little neighborhood BBQ last night at, reportedly, the house of an “old friend”  was inadvertently held at a home owned by none-other than race baiter, Jew-hater Louis Farrakhan. And even though he’s just “a guy in the neighborhood,” the suddenly not-so-supportive press is probably going to try to make a big deal out of it anyway. At least we still have AP on our side. But it seems like almost everyone else is bailing on us: our “conservative” cheerleader, Peggy Noonan – even the Wapo!

Having fun yet?

UPDATE
Not at Farrakhan’s but across the street:
Farrakhan, press have minor ’stand-off’ in Obama’s neighborhood

For the past two years, when Obama has brought his family over to Nesbitt’s home, the press pool bus parks near Farrakhan’s house. This usually does not cause a problem, but Saturday night — as most of the city was indoors watching the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Philadelphia Flyers in the Stanley Cup finals — a bit of tension emerged on Woodlawn Avenue.

A pool report noted that as a dozen reporters and photographers following Obama stood on the sidewalk in front of Farrakhan’s home, someone’s foot touched the city-owned curbside grass.

Immediately, a polite man in jeans and T-Shirt emerged to ask the press to stay off the grass, the report stated. Soon he was pacing and talking on a cell phone. He went inside the mansion’s black wrought iron fence, crossed the well-landscaped yard, lifted a water bucket behind rose bushes and retrieved a walkie-talkie. He was heard to refer to “the CIA.”

[The Secret Service is a separate agency from the CIA]

Soon he approached the secret service agent minding the press and asked him to move the van and its occupants.

“How is this a security breach?” the agent asked. He asked if the house was government property. Neighbors all over Hyde Park and Kenwood have learned to deal with streets being blocked off and having to show ID to approach their own homes since Obama ascended to the presidency.

The man said something else and at that point the agent stuck out his hand to shake hands and introduced himself as a Secret Service agent. He added, “Sir, I can assure you that we will do nothing to interfere with whatever is going on in there.”

The man paced and talked on his cell phone, walkie-talkie in hand. Three more men in T-Shirts reading “Wide or Die!’’ joined the man from the Nation of Islam. A reporter asked one of the men if this was Farrakhan’s house. The man just stared back. Asked again, he said, “I don’t have no comment.”

Eventually a dozen “Fruit of Islam” agents arrived. As each casually dressed man arrived, he exchanged elaborate handshake/hug/double air-kisses with others. Two walked by a reporter, chanting “Islam.”

The men filmed and photographed the reporters, the van and its license plates with their cell phones.

One came and stood close to reporters and the secret service agent. The secret service agent asked if he could help. The man did not answer. The agent asked again. The man said, “No.” The agent said, “Secret Service — please move away from this group of people.”

The man did.

The agent asked the reporters to go back into the press bus, which they did.

Before they did, some asked the Nation of Islam crowd if they could use the rest room in Farrakahn’s home.

No offer was made.

Rev. Gary Hunter, a Baptist minister in Detroit who writes and blogs for the Detroit Times, told reporter Jackie Calmes of the New York Times that he called Farrakhan and his son and asked them to have the Fruit stand down: “I told him you were good people . . . He said he didn’t know you all were just waiting for the president.’’

And now, a different take from Moe.

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