(Cue Dramatic Music)

A government raid on one of the US largest meat processors, netting 300-odd arrests with warrants for 300 more,  has revealed indicators that people at the Supervisory level throughout the company not only knew they were using illegal labor, but had checks color coded to indicate which account to draw the money from.

The affidavit filed by a senior special agent of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement department lists dozens of pages of allegations against the company’s owners and supervisors. The document portrays them as exploiters of a vulnerable illegal immigrant work force, and it could be seen as setting the owners and supervisors up for possible indictment.

Allegations include that company owners and supervisors physically abused and exploited workers; knowingly hired workers without legal documentation; altered work records; paid some off the books; and paid them below minimum wage (starting workers at $5 an hour).

In addition, the affidavit alleges that company owners and supervisors fraudulently and forcibly sold them used cars and trucks, threatening that they would be fired if they didn’t buy the vehicles.

Exploitation is the name of the game. The advocates for illegal labor know it and live by the mantra that since it is better than what they would make at home, it is ok to do this sort of thing.  There is no shock here for me.

Russia has hedged its lead as the most prolific arms dealer in the world  (yes, even more than the US) with a recent agreement with Venezuela.

 Oil-rich Venezuela is a major purchaser of Russian weapons and hardware. In 2005-2006, Venezuela ordered weaponry from Russia worth $3.4 billion, including 24 Su-30MK2V Flanker fighters, Tor-M1 air defense missile systems, Mi-17B multi-role helicopters, Mi-35 Hind E attack helicopters and Mi-26 Halo heavy transport helicopters.

Russia has repeatedly stated that it will actively participate in the modernization of the Venezuelan armed forces until 2013.

Kommersant said negotiations were underway on the purchase of 10 Il-76 Candid military transport planes and two Il-78-MK aerial tankers for the Venezuelan Air Force. The contract will be worth a total of $600 million.

Deliveries will be completed next year. The aircraft will replace six outdated American Lockheed C-130H Hercules transport planes and two Boeing 707-320C aerial tankers.

Venezuela and Russia have also agreed on the purchase of four Kilo-class Project 636 diesel submarines. The terms of the deal, estimated at $1.2 billion, were negotiated late last year.

The Project 636 submarine is designed for anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface-ship warfare, and also for general reconnaissance and patrol missions. It is considered to be one of the quietest diesel submarines in the world.

The strategic problems having (very quiet) Venezuelan submarines patrolling the Atlantic and Caribbean oceans should not be overlooked. To me, this is akin to Russia placing strategic missiles on Cuba.

I always warn that when the US Senate votes unanimously on something outside of national security, Americans should beware.

Congress voted overwhelmingly to suspend putting 70,000 barrels/day (the US consumes about 21 Million/day) of oil into a strategic reserve facility. This reserve allows the US to operate for a short period of time should oil deliveries cease for some reason or demand increases exponentially for some reason.

The measure is likely to be one of the few Congress approves this year in response to public angst at the pump. Democrats and Republicans agreed on little else Tuesday to bring down prices.

Senators approved the measure by a veto-proof majority of 97 to 1. The two Democratic presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, returned to the Capitol from the campaign trail to vote for the measure. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive GOP nominee, supported the measure but was absent for the vote.

The House later followed suit, approving it 385 to 25.

Since everyone is campaigning, they want to be seen as people who make it better for the American people. This move is likely to impact fuel prices by about a nickel a gallon. However, the average fuel price is expected to rise more than that over the summer. So, the real impact to your pocket is going to be nil, zilch, nada. The government is going to tell you that you saved money that you will never see. We are talking about oil that represents less than 1% of consumption. This is the most expensive possible way to save Americans money because it actually does nothing of the kind.

Rather than do something significant - maybe actually act toward some smaller level of foreign oil dependency, these knuckleheads are going to risk our ability to use stored fuel if some disaster (earthquake, hurricane anyone?) impacts the flow of oil to the US.

Vote-mongering.

In a recent Threats Watch article entitled Saudi Arabia: No Small Challenge, No Great Ally, Steve Schippert makes a succinct and relevant case for the dichotomy the US faces in relations with the House of Saud. What he could have underscored a bit more is the reason for the dichotomy.

But that the Saudi legislature voted down legislation (77-33) calling for the same respect is a fair and clear barometer that the problem does not simply lie with a few dozen clerics. It’s systemic. If a respected religious authority calls for the execution of someone who simply suggests that people holding other faiths deserve respect, doesn’t that tell Saudis that the lives of Christians, Jews, Hindu and Buddhists are of lesser value?

Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak, a 75-year-old sheikh, issued the fatwa calling for the journalists’ death. In Saudi Arabia, he is a leading authority on Wahhabism, the country’s fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam.

“It’s disgraceful that articles containing this kind of apostasy should be published in some papers in Saudi Arabia,” he wrote last month. If the reporters do not repent, they “should be killed,” he wrote.

Barrak is not just some cranky old miscreant. He is a member of the Saudi legislature, appointed by the king. Barrak spent a long career in senior positions at a respected government-funded university.

Soon after, 20 other senior Saudi clerics stood up to enthusiastically endorse Barrak’s fatwa. Later, about 100 human-rights advocates from across the region condemned the edict, calling it intellectual terrorism. That had little visible impact in Riyadh.

There are a couple of aspects we should remind ourselves of in trying to understand our relationship with Saudi Arabia because the relationship is enigmatic at best.

The contemporary Al Saud royal family came to power because Muhammad ibn Saud was able to convince the British government of 1920’s-1930’s that he maintained control over the people of what is now the Saudi kingdom. His control was exerted by his Wahhabi fighters - who had pledge allegiance to the Al Saud dynasty in the mid 1700’s. Saudi Arabia is a nation founded on Wahhabism - where the Quran and the Sunna (the exact path and literal teachings of Mohammad) is everything.

This instance of working with the British government was not the first instance of Muslims relying on the infidel to help gain power and it certainly was not the last. It is occurring even today with the US realpolitik relationship with Al Saud.

The United States government has long been the only reason a Saud family member is still ruling Arabia. They depend on the very infidel they despise in order to remain in power.  There are some 30,000 members of the Saudi family - so to even say that “the family” is our ally would be a misrepresentation of the situation. One should look at the Al Saud family as a slice of bread. There is a crust and then the inner part of the bread.

The upper crust of the House of Saud is our “ally” - they ignore Wahabbist doctine to suit them, when it suits them - in order to stay in power. There should never be a statement, and Steve Schrippert did not make one, that gives one the belief that the bread of Saudi Arabia is an ally.  He characterizes the problem with Saudi Arabia as systemic and could not be more right about it.

The imperialist gene which drove ibn Saud to seek power from the British in the 1920’s has served the reign of Al Saud well through the decades. The royal family keeps its enemies very close because it benefits them to do so.

Dr. Sami Moubayed sheds some light on the catalyst for the recent violence in Beirut, which left 81 dead and a world wondering whether the civil war has re-erupted.

The crux of the issue is a power struggle between Hizb’allah and the Lebanese government. Hizb’allah thinks they have the right to a surveillance network at the Beirut airport and to operate like an army. The Lebanese government thinks Hizb’allah has overstepped the boundaries of a non-government organization - mostly because Iran pulls the strings on the Hizb’allah puppet.

The crises was sparked last week in Beirut when the government  of Prime Minister Fouad al-Siniora ordered the communication and surveillance network at Runway 17 of Beirut Airport be dismantled, claiming it was “illegal and unconstitutional”.

The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting on May 6 that lasted until 4 am, lobbied for by Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh. The network is one of the primary espionage tools used by Hezbollah in its war against Israel, keeping tabs on comings and goings at Beirut Airport.  Adding insult to injury, the Lebanese government dismissed Wafiq Shuqayr, the Shi’ite security commander of the airport, for planting the system in accordance with Hezbollah’s wishes, supposedly behind the back of Siniora.

Hezbollah cried foul, claiming the network had been in place for years, adding that dismantling it was a red line because otherwise Beirut Airport would be “transformed into a base for the the CIA, the FBI and Mossad, referring to American and Israeli intelligence.
Hezbollah secretary general Hasan Nasrallah spoke just hours after the crisis started, saying the communication system and Shuqyar were “red lines” that could not be crossed.

Hizb’allah sent a message to Prime Minister Fouad al-Siniora to back down. Siniora felt the Lebanese government should not back down to what is essentially Iran. We’ll have to see how this turns out, but let me leave you with some fuel for thought.

  Speaking at the southern village of Bint Jbeil in 2005, Nasrallah once said, “There is talk of disarming the resistance. Any thought of disarming the resistance is pure madness. We do not want to attack anyone. We have never done so. And we will never allow anyone to attack Lebanon. But if anyone, no matter who, even thinks about disarming the resistance, we will fight him like the martyr-seekers in Karbala.”

Resistance to what?

Barney Frank, House Financial Services Chairman, has recently shown his utter lack of concern for the American military person in Iraq. That is the only conclusion you could possibly come to with his announcement that he will defund the Iraq war under a Democratic president.

“I will move to cut funding immediately,” said Frank. “I have already done that. I voted against the war and voted to cut the funding. I would hope a Democratic president would put in place a plan that would begin a total withdrawal.”

Irrespective of the complete geopolitical disaster this would cause in the Middle East in general, and the chaos that would ensue in Iraq with Frank’s “immediate withdrawal”, the impact on the American military would be catastrophic. Any cuts in funding, prior to the intended consequence of forcing the generals to withdraw forces, would impact the ability of our military folks in Iraq to protect themselves as units become forced to do more with less. Money currently used to make life bearable - movies, phone calls, the occasional fast food  run, computer services, etc.  - those things would disappear first. The ability to spread goodwill in the neighborhoods through the use of toys, soccer balls, candy, books, shoes, and other community project items will remove the potential for our soldiers to be anything other than armed occupiers. Today, they can also help build community.

Barney Frank sits in Washington and looks down from Mt Olympus at Iraq and makes decisions without any thought to how those decisions impact anything except his sense of how things should be. This elitist moron needs to find something else to occupy his mind. I suggest he take up crochet and leave the serious business of war and peace to the professionals.

Let’s keep this list handy, shall we?

“If there’s one thing we know about science, it changes, it evolves, it’s counterintuitive, and we learn things we didn’t expect before.” From Roger Pielke Jr, science policy specialist from the University of Colorado.

This “small” sampling is in no particular order……….

5/1/08….Next decade may see no warming due to changes in ocean currents. link

4/30/08….Warming to level off through 2014 mostly due to ENSO then surge thereafter. link Note: this is the same story as the one on the bottom.

4/28/08….We could reach the global warming tipping point within 2-3 decades. link

11/15/07…..Climate change accelerating, scientists warn. link.

01/03/08…..2008 will be one of the top ten warmest globally since 1850. link.

12/07/07……Rising CO2 will lead to wetter storms in the northern hemisphere. link.

12/21/07….More than 400 scientists cast doubt that man-made global warming threatens the planet. link.

01/23/08….Warming oceans reducing the # of landfalling U.S. Hurricanes. link.

03/04/08……..Famous hurricane forecaster predicts global cooling in 10 years. link.

04/23/08…….Prepare for an ice age. link.

02/12/08……Sea level rise could be twice as high as current projections. link.

08/31/07…….Global warming will bring violent storms and tornadoes. link.

03/27/08…….Expect more warming of extreme temperatures. link.

07/25/07….Huge sea level rises are coming unless we act now! link.

10/3/07…..Earth will only heat up 8/10 of a degree over the next 100 years and the sun is the
major driver of this increase. link.

08/10/07…….Global warming will speed up after 2009. link.

04/30/08……..Global warming will stop until at least 2015. link.

04/29/08…….PDO flip could mean cooler times for the West Coast. link.

05/19/03….New model predicts greater 21st century warming. link.

10/01/03….Solar contribution to global warming predicted to decrease. link.

09/16/06…..Scientists predict solar downturn, global cooling. link.

03/20/03….. Sun’s Output Increasing in Possible Trend Fueling Global Warming. link.

11/06/97……Brightening sun is warming earth. link.

04/14/08….Warming will mean fewer, but more powerful tropical cyclones. link.

08/26/06….Russian scientist predicts global cooling in coming decades then a warmer interval. link.

04/29/07…..Humans are to blame for global warming. Easrth will warm 3.2 to 7.1 F by 2100 with sea level increase of 7 to 23 inches, according to IPCC. link.

05/11/07…..Eastern U.S. will face severe heat by 2080. link.

01/31/07….Sydney, Australia will see a 9 degree celsius increase in temp. by 2070. link.

08/13/07…..Expect CONTINUED warming over the next 10 years. (UK Met office). link.

04/27/08….Ten-year forecasts produced by the Met Office Hadley Centre CAPTURE this LEVELLING of global temperatures in the middle of this decade. From the article “Is global warming all over?” link.

This story could alternatively be title ” Al Gore’s Screeching Halt”, except there are so many people who have not bothered to update their knowledge of the increasingly clear indications that “Global Warming” is a non-issue.

A new study, published in the Geophysical Research letters by scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the Ohio State University shows that computer analyses of global climate have consistently overstated the warming in Antarctica, according to the ScienceDaily article.

The group found that observed Antarctica temperatures rose only by 0.4 F (0.2 C) over the past century, while the climate models simulated increases of 1.4 F (0.75 C). The computer models may have overestimated the amount of water vapor in the Antarctic atmosphere.

I wonder what other models are wrong? Oh - and don’t learn about how NASA cooked their climate numbers, again.

It is a Kaffiya-licious day for all you who “identify with the struggle” of the Shia Mujahaddin. Hizb’allah is now in control of Western Beirut! Having wrested control from the evil, elected, pro-western government they are determined to solidify a cornerstone of a new Persian/Ottoman Empire.

Hezbollah militias took control of western Beirut on Friday, dealing a major blow to the U.S.-backed government in the worst sectarian violence since the end of Lebanon’s civil war in 1990.

Walid Jumblatt, a Druze leader and part of the pro-government coalition, described it as a “coup.”

Two pro-government TV stations shut down. Nadim Mounla, the head of Future TV, said Hezbollah was sending a “clear message” that it would destroy the stations.

Later, an engineer from Future TV said that, according to witnesses, the station’s building in predominantly Muslim West Beirut had been set on fire.

I am certain there are celebrations happening in Syria, Iran, and US College campuses at this historic return to chaos and antisemitism in what was once a gem of a city.

The Kremlin has expelled two-military attaches from the United States Embassy in Moscow. Many in the media are wondering why in their reports of the event. The reason is simple - reciprocity.

The entire diplomatic world - and especially between countries with a sense of negativity toward one another - is based upon a simple concept of reciprocal treatment. If we search the diplomats at entry checkpoints, they do the same to ours. Last year, the US expelled two-Russian military attaches and the Russians are reciprocating.

Some will soon say the US attaches were “caught spying” and this led to their PNG status. Let me assure you there is not a military attache’ in any embassy in the world who is not engaged in some sort of espionage. That is what they are there for and everyone knows it. There is a wink-wink, nudge-nudge understanding that as long as the espionage is not so overt a common citizen would recognize it, it is usually not acted upon. So espionage will not be the true reason on either side of this issue. that takes us back to reciprocity.

Last Year, the US was trying to get President Putin’s attention and expelling diplomats is a serious enough event to do that that sends a message about some issue between the White House and the Kremlin. Only the highly placed State Department and Administration officials know what the true issue is., but this year, the Kremlin gave us the answer to whatever last year’s question was. The answer, by way of these expulsions, is “up yours”.