Sunday, November 27, 2011

Good Night Moon

The Moon for Nov 27, 2011

Northern Hemisphere

3.0 days since new moon
The waxing crescent, 3.2 day old moon, 11.2% lit:

An unexpected advocate of the irresponsible Wall Street.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu

...Tutu says (click title to entry - thank you) just as the world fought against apartheid. We need to unite and fight global warming. He says climate change will turn planet earth into a desert. A number of rich nations have refused to the adopt Kyoto Protocol an international agreement aimed at reducing some greenhouse gases. The United States is among the world's biggest polluters. Tutu said: “ For your own sake, you the rich people, we are inviting you to come on the side of right. we are inviting you to come and join us.”...

This is just more of the same indulgence of Wall Street rather than advancing the energy sector and the culture of humanity.  Earth has its limits.  It is unfortunate so many have already experienced them.

What is wrong with this picture?

Occupy London ( click title to entry - thank you) protestors look out from the roof of an unused building owned by UBS bank Photo: GETTY



...The building they have taken over at Crown Place belongs to, but is not occupied by, UBS and no business transactions take place there.
The activists plan to set up a "bank of ideas" there tomorrow and open the disused offices and meeting rooms to "those who have lost their nurseries, community centres and youth clubs due to savage Government spending cuts".
A programme of events has been drawn up, including talks from Palestinian activists and comedy by Josie Long, they said.

There are two separate worlds that are completely unrelated to each other facilitated by wrongful government that no longer serves the people, but, the interests of Wall Street.  Completely separate worlds.  Unrelated.  Where is the governance that serves the people?


UBS Investing $506 Million in Sura After ING Asset Purchase (click here)

November 24, 2011, 2:47 AM EST


By Blake Schmidt and Andrea Jaramillo
(Updates closing price in third paragraph.)
Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- UBS AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank, invested $506 million in Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana SA, helping the Medellin-based company raise funds to pay for its purchase of Latin American assets from ING Groep NV.
UBS bought 30 million shares for an average 32,500 pesos each, part of a sale of 120 million shares that raised 3.5 trillion pesos ($1.8 billion) in the biggest Colombian share offering in four years. The parent company of Colombia’s biggest lender said earlier this year it would raise as much as 3.9 trillion pesos in a share sale to help pay for the 2.7 billion euro ($3.6 billion) purchase of ING assets....

"The American School Board Journal," Volume 20-21, Page 140, "For the Perfect Regulation of Light."

It is a journal written and compiled by the National School Board Association.

This archive is from Google Books at the title above.  The space for the link was not sufficient.  It is a long link. 

I was scanning through it and realized there was a time in the USA when childern were actually important in a way that lead to learning.

The light in the classroom, the size of the desk and chair, the comfort of the teacher and supplies for her to adequately teach children.

Attention to detail is what that appears to be to me.

Editor: (click here) Your Nov. 15 headline article “Teachers paying for supplies” showed what great commitment our teachers have for our kids by spending money out of their own pockets to complete their classrooms. I have great admiration and respect for them and the parents, non profits, business partners and others that contribute unselfishly to our schools. What peaked my attention was the lack of support from the teachers’ unions at the classroom level....
I can't believe the financing of 'the classroom' has become this ludicrous.  It is now the responsiblity of the teacher to supply her students with paper and pencils.  A teacher has to supply their own art supplies.  That is amazing.

The American people have really cowarded to Wall Street in every way.  I suppose a School Board purchasing in bulk is more expensive than a teacher seeking supplies at a "Teacher Fair" where donated supplies are available. 

Parents have given control of the classroom to Wall Street.  Wow.  How did this happen?  How is it there is no attention to detail anymore?  How it is that each classroom is not equally supplied with everything a student needs?  Does a parent actually hope their child will get in the classroom of a teacher because the supplies are better in that room?

There needs to be a sincere rethink about the way education is happening in the USA.  I sincerely doubt the failure of school systems comes down to the teacher, so much as the lack of interest in consistent achievement and the details that turn a room into a classroom.
continued...

Two months of oppression and all the government has to say is RELOCATION? Joking. I've heard it all now.

Occupy protesters (click title to entry - thank you) in Los Angeles and Philadelphia faced eviction from their encampments Sunday as frustrated city officials complained that two months of squatting posed public-safety issues and interfered with city business....

Relocation is NOT allowed.  Sorry.  This is a protest and is not to be conveniently located so they aren't noticed.  If businesses in the area of the protests are upset about their presence and the impact on their businesses, then I suggest the business owners take the argument to the state and federal government. 

Relocation of protesters to other convenient areas of the city is not an acceptable response to the message of the #Occupy Movement.  Businesses effected by the protests need to contact their state and federal representatives to demand changes in the way citizens are addressed in their concerns regarding an entire generation of unemployed in the USA.

By Matt Sarnecki
Some businesses (click here) around the current Occupy SF location are none too happy about the Embarcadero encampment. Now, a proposed Occupy SF relocation could bring the protesters, tents and all, to the Mission District. Local business owners held mixed opinions about the move, and most were skeptical about the idea.

“I don’t like the idea,” said Sharon Drummond, owner of Hotel Mirabelle at Mission and 15th streets. “We have enough problems around here already.” Drummond added that she thinks the encampment is in too obscure a locale to make its point and would only serve to deter business in the community.

Representatives of Occupy SF are in talks with Mayor Ed Lee’s office about relocating the tent encampment from Justin Herman Plaza to a lot on the site of a former high school on Mission Street between 15th and 16th streets, the Chronicle reported Wednesday.

The proposed site takes up one-third of the block and is separated from the sidewalk by a chain link fence.  The area around the 16th Street BART also has a high concentration of Single Room Occupancy hotels and a high crime rate, according to police reports....

I suppose placing distraught citizens in a high crime district might even take care of the problem in ways government can't.  Why is government so willing to victimize the victims?

The number of demonstrators arrested continues to rise. This is ridiculous.

These protests are spread across the entire country and the answer to their message is arrest them?  Has government lost its purpose or what?  If government has become this closed to the needs and problems of a nation of people there is no sense to send by those elected that remain unresponsive. 

The movement has to find satisfaction somewhere.  These are all peaceful rallies of people seeking to be heard and have their circumstances addressed and dearly nothing happens except more victimization.  It has to come to an end and if changing those in government in elections is the venue open to all of us then priorities of the movement have to be made clear to the electorate and at the very least new representatives have to respond to citizens when their lives are in turmoil. 

This is ridiculous.  What doesn't government understand already?

AUGUSTA, Maine—Eight people were arrested (click title to entry - thank you) following an Occupy Maine demonstration Sunday that spilled from the sidewalk over a waist-high, wooden fence to the Maine governor's mansion grounds, state police said.
Spokesman Steve McCausland of the state Public Safety Department said protesters were charged with criminal trespass and criminal mischief. No names were immediately available and at least six people had made bail by Sunday evening, McCausland said.
The arrests came the same day protesters in the Occupy Augusta encampment in Capitol Park took down their tents and packed their camping gear after being told to get a permit or move their shelters.
McCausland said the eight were arrested after jumping the fence to the Blaine House lawn and some climbed a portico to the building and unfurled an Occupy banner. As many as 50 protesters, some holding signs and beating a drum, gathered near the Blaine House gates....

Austin needs to waive fees for the protests.



Charging people monies for executing their rights to free speech is oppression.  Has the governments of the USA become so tainted with demands for money from citizens they can't see the folly in the request of fees for a movement seeking to impact the understanding of their plight of joblessness?  How ludicrous can it get?

Citizens are actually expected to vote people into office that victimize their right to Free Speech?  Getting rid of elected officials that see the world through 'Wall Street' eyes should be the first priority of demonstrators that cannot be given the dignity of their message to be heard.

Rage and grief grips Pakistan over NATO attack




November 27, 2011

Afghan Officials: Pakistan Fired First in NATO Attack (click title to entry - thank you)

Afghan officials say NATO and Afghan forces patrolling near the Pakistan border came under fire before they called in the NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on Saturday.

Sunday's account by unnamed officials contradicts Islamabad's claims that the attack on two Pakistani army bases was unprovoked....


Are the tensions within Pakistan so terrible it considers deployed Afghan and NATO troops a profound theat to its sovereignty?  Why the over reaction?  I would expect the Pakistan military to welcome mutual interest in the border area. 

It is not enough to lay blame, it is about the orders the Pakistan troops were operating under.  They should not  be protecting the Taliban or any other extremist element that would see the death of NATO or Afghan troops. 

This is the problem with Pakistan.  There is no cooperation in mutual border security.  That theme is not a mistake.  The theme of Pakistan aggression is evident in Kashmir and its policies with India.  I would like to think the truth would resolve any tensions that exist, but, that is not the history of the country.  Pakistan has its interest spread throughout the region to include any an all power brokers, including China, it can find. 

Pakistan cannot continually blame other nations for its own problems.  The people of Pakistan need relief from their suffering as well.  Their best interests are not served with a government that keeps them under an oppressive goverance while it pursues global supremacy at any cost.  Pakistan is wayward.  It needs reform.

The Arab League needs to examine the criticism of the new governments.

Ali Tarhouni, (click title to entry - thank you) interim oil and finance minister in the National Transitional Council, who refused an offer to form part of the new transitional Cabinet of Libya, expressed disappointment and criticised the cabinet named by prime minister Abdurrahim el-Keeb, as an unrepresentative "elite" supported by outside powers

Tarhouni was on the forefront of the NTC during the eight-month long conflict before the new appointments. Now he is the first person from the NTC to openly question the new cabinet's legitimacy and in an apparent reference to Qatar, further suggested in a press conference late Thursday, that at least one of foreign powers is trying to meddle excessively in Libya's internal affairs..

He explained his refusal to join the Cabinet that was named last Tuesday, by saying he believed that those now in power are not representative. He accused them of being "supported from the outside by money, arms and PR."...

There is probably a far amount of brevity to Ali Tarhouni's claims.  An Oil Minister would know these things. 

We are witnessing a continued complaint by the people of Egypt.  They believe they were not oriented well to the elections, the candidates or the selection process for these candidates.  Confusion only adds to the chance this will never be settled and power to change their circumstances will remain outside their rhelm of control.  I am confident there is an answer. 

In a region of the world, where enormous numbers of people come for pilgramages there is always a way to organize them to carry out elections.  I have witnessed the vast numbers of Iraqis able to assemble in an understanding of common purpose by their Aytollah.  That form of education should be a solice to the people and a place where coming to terms with their responsibilities within their country to form a functioning and benevolent government without corruption is an everyday occurrence and not a traumatic upheaval to their daily lives.

There is a common thread binding them all together. And no it is not a Caliphate

Al Baghdadi Al Mahmoudi

Tunis: A Tunisian appeals court has upheld the extradition of Libya's prime minister during the last years of Muammar Gaddafi's regime, the final step in the appeals process.

The decision, late on Friday, in the Tunis court means Al Baghdadi Al Mahmoudi has run out of appeals and can now be sent back to Libya, pending the approval of Tunisia's government and president.

It was unclear whether Tunisia's incoming president, who is a former head of the country's best-known human rights group, would sign the order. Al Mahmoudi's lawyers have also appealed to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, asking them to grant him a status of political refuge....

There is common interest among the new governments.  The need for justice.  There is no rift between the differences of the ethnicities.  I find that extraordinary.

A real failure of these liberation movements would be if they separated themselves into nations that hate each other and would be willing to go to war over it.  That is not the reality and seems to be homogenous throughout the spectrum so far.

It is amazing to realize the Arab League is as significant as it is today.  It has been in existance for a long time.  Evidently, they took themselves very seriously when others thought they were insignificant.  The peace and cooperation spreading between the new governments is simply amazing. 

Without a UN resolution, the Libyan rebels find kinship with their Syrian counterparts.

Divided ... (click title to entry - thank you) a demonstration for Bashar al-Assad. Photo: AP

MISRATA, Libya: Syrian rebels have held secret talks with Libya's new authorities, aiming to secure weapons and money for their insurgency against Bashar al-Assad's regime, it has been revealed.

At the meeting, which was held in Istanbul and included Turkish officials, the Syrians requested assistance from the Libyan representatives and were offered arms and, potentially, volunteers.

''There is something being planned to send weapons and even Libyan fighters to Syria,'' a Libyan source said, on condition of anonymity. ''There is a military intervention on the way. Within a few weeks you will see.''...

It is getting interesting in the Middle East.  The Arab League finds the mantle of humanity an important one.  They are remarkably able to bring opinion to the actions of the people suffering for their right to a life different and better than they have now.  That is more than admirable.  The UN and the global community should endorse their direction.  The people of all these nations have and are paying dearly for their future and that of their children.  When has the world ever witnessed civil rights demands by the people of these nations?  It is remarkable.  Absolutely remarkable. 

No space for freedom in Syria.

By Hani Hazaimeh and AFP
CAIRO - Arab foreign ministers (click title to entry - thank you) and Turkey agreed to a list of sweeping sanctions Sunday designed to cripple the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad who has defied pressure to halt a bloody crackdown on protests, Agence France-Presse reported.

As another 23 civilians were reported dead in Syria, the 22-member Arab League announced an immediate ban on transactions with the Syrian government and central bank and a freeze on Syrian government assets in Arab countries. Further measures, including a ban on Syrian officials visiting any Arab country and the suspension of flights, are to be implemented at a date fixed at a meeting next week.

Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh explained at a press conference following a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo that a technical committee had been formed to look into the impact the sanctions may have on Syria’s neighbours in order to ensure that they do not cause harm to these countries’ economies....

Across the board, the Arab nations are struggling with leadership and their new founded governments.  Egypt is in disarray over its elections.  There are many, many parties in Egypt with no clear direction for the country. 

It is not accurate to believe there are extremists intended to take over each Arab nation and will turn their weapons on Israel or otherwise.  I sincerely do not believe that capacity exists.  There is too much uncertainty to believe there is any form of actual goals of war at the end of the victory through peaceful protests. 

...British Foreign Secretary William Hague’s (click here) warning to Syria’s disparate opposition groups to “put aside their differences” was the diplomatic equivalent of a clip around the ear to squabbling children. Hague’s meeting this week with opposition representatives may have, in the words of the government, “intensified the U.K.’s engagement with the opposition.” In reality, it has given London a rude awakening about the caliber of Assad’s opponents.

In contrast to its approach to opponents of Moammar Gadhafi’s regime in Libya, Hague insisted the U.K. would not recognize the Syrian opposition while it remains so fractured and poorly coordinated. When you consider that the Libyan opposition was no paragon of unity, you get a good idea of how highly the British government rates the Syrian opposition....

There needs to be a dispatch of some kind to Jordan as its border with Syria is becoming porous. 

Gunfire erupts on border with Syria’ (click here)

By Taylor Luck
AMMAN - Shots rang out at the Jordanian-Syrian border late Sunday as Syrian forces attempted to prevent civilians from entering the Kingdom, hours after an Arab League decision to impose sanctions on Damascus.

Syrian soldiers opened fire on a married couple and their young child as they attempted to enter the Kingdom late yesterday near the Jaber border crossing, some 90 kilometres north of the capital, according to Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications and Government Spokesperson Rakan Majali.

Initial reports from civilians living near the border region identified the gunfire as clashes between Syrian and Jordanian forces, a claim the spokesperson denied.

The Syrian family arrived in the Kingdom and received emergency medical attention, Majali indicated....

Perhaps the Russians need to ride with the USA to Mars. (click title for video - thank you)

This is a dune on Mars.  It shifts over time.  The dunes of Earth do as well.  The Sahara is an example.  The waves in the dune show a constant pattern of air movement.  The dynamic screams of atmosphere.

...If the new sky crane system does succeed in lowering Curiosity into Gale crater, the rover will begin its mission: to seek clues for habitability in the ancient, watery environments of Mars. Mike Malin, the planet's favourite camerama, or at least its most dedicated, will be watching it all unfold....
Odd looking rocket, but, better than the Shuttle.  It is similar to the Apollo program rockets.  Morally, there are always many questions surrounding all this.  But, one thing is sure, the rest of the world stood in silence the day Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon.  If there is to be a manned space program to Mars it needs to be an international effort and not just the USA.  These massive accomplishments do not belong to one peoples, they belong to all.  There is a question about the state of humanity to leave Earth.  It should be a dynamic all countries have an interest in for its success.  We do not discuss the morality of space travel nearly enough and we should.  Somehow this is all viewed as a dream come true, Buck Rogers and all that imagineering.  It is more than that.


It's Sunday Night

"Space" by Something Corporate (click title to entry - thank you)



Home, is this a quiet place where you should be alone?
Is this where the tortured and the troubled find their own?
I don't know, but I can tell this isn't you, your cover's blown
But oh no, don't you dare hang up this phone

Hey! Give me space so I can breathe
Give me space so I can sleep
Give me space so you can drown in this with me

In this place
The lonely escapade in outer space
There's no anecdote for irony, You say
that you have,
when you know,
That you don't,
and you say,
that you can,
When you know,
that you won't

Hey! Give me space so I can breathe
Give me space so I can sleep
Give me space so you can drown in this with me

Hey! Give me space but I can't breathe
Give me space but I can't sleep
Give me just one inch I swear that's all I need, oh

These battered walls and TV screens
Sometimes they make me want to scream

Ah!

Hey! Give me space so I can breathe
Give me space so I can sleep
Give me space so you can drown in this with me

Hey! Give me Space but I can't breathe
Give me space but I can't sleep
Give me just one inch I swear that's all I need