Hillary Chickenshit Clinton

Protesters Confront Soldiers After Military Coup in Honduras - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/world/americas/30honduras.html?ref=global-home

"In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the last senior
member of the administration to visit Honduras, just three weeks ago,
said that the United States was working toward “full restoration of
democratic order in Honduras.” She said that the situation in Honduras
“has evolved into a coup.” But when pressed by a reporter, she refused to say explicitly that the United States was demanding that Mr. Zelaya be returned to power"

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/chickenshit

On July 2007 Commondreams published this:

Hillary Clinton, Right-wing darling?
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/28/2829



Need I say more?. Empires can´t help being empires. They can´t change, it´s in their DNA. It doesn´t matter if the president is a Democrat or a Republican.

It´s like the fable of the scorpion and the frog. And now when Hillary has a chance to side with the people and side with democracy, she stops halfway across. Just because the deposed president wasn´t very warm towards the USA policies or POV.

FC
PS: The great blog BoRev.net has a pool of the "Most Retarded Justification for the Coup in Honduras". Some of the TRUE statements by local politicos as well as some in the US media are really hillarious, or tragic. And whom do we find there? My pet pevee Mary Anastasia O'Grady, the Queen of Freedom, the fighter against all evil populists and leftists in Latin America. Mary Anastasia O'Grady -referred to hereinafter as MAO -for fun's sake-, a former Merrill Lynch employee turned hatchet job hack at the Wall Street Journal.

Her statement? WSJ's MAO describes the military overthrow as all part of a country's democratic system of "checks and balances." PFFFT!!!!!!!!!

The BBC gives Monsanto a little helping hand?

Eco-farmer Jimmy in the streets of London

Most -if not all- of the BBC documentaries and investigative news reports I´ve seen are technically impressive. The guys do know their job, and they hire the best. From a content standpoint they are often progressive: from the war in Iraq, to the situation in Palestine, to Global Warming.

So I was a bit disappointed when I watched the Beeb´s program titled "Jimmy´s GM food fight" part of the otherwise great "BBC Horizon" series which I recommend wholeheartedly (For instance the one titled "The Ghost in your Genes" is great).

Jimmy gives the girls a taste of his sausage...
cooked with regular soybean oil and GM soybean oil

He mentions that one saves the environment, while
the other can give the world+dog enough to eat.
...It really goes downhill from there...

To put it in a few words, the program host starts with a supposed skeptical look at genetically modified crops, but soon (at around minute 12:00) the balance starts titlting towards the pro-GM side. I was actually dismayed when he started saying "we've been tinkering with plants for years" equalling genetic selection with genetic MODIFICATION. And more importantly, ignoring the chemicals that come with it, namely Monsanto´s RoundUp (Glyphosate and add-ons).

In short: overlooked was the chemical industry's big business with pesticides and herbicides. The dangers of Glyphosate are only recently being known. While Glyphosate itself might have low toxicity, the compound as delivered and sprayed over crops contains various toxic chemicals IN ADDITION TO glyphosate itself.

So "RoundUp" contains more than just glyphosate. Plus, "enhancers" are sold and mixed to RoundUp, to make it permeate the plant deeper, and be "more effective"..

A court down here in Argentina has recently banned crop dusters from spraying glyphosate near rural towns, where it affected the health of the local population.

http://bit.ly/glyphosateban-spanish

English version:

Court in Argentina bans crop dusters spraying Monsanto´s Glyphosate over soybean fields near urban areas. - AYN
http://bit.ly/glyphosatebaninargentina-english

More from the wikipedia:

--------
Scientific fraud

On two occasions the United States Environmental Protection Agency has caught scientists deliberately falsifying test results at research laboratories hired by Monsanto to study glyphosate
--
False advertising

In 1996 Monsanto was accused of false and misleading advertising of glyphosate products, prompting a law suit by the New York State attorney general.[13] Environmental and consumer rights campaigners brought a case in France in 2001 for presenting Roundup as biodegradable and claiming that it left the soil clean after use; glyphosate, Roundup's main ingredient, is classed by the European Union as "dangerous for the environment" and "toxic for aquatic organisms". In January 2007, Monsanto was convicted of false advertising
--------
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundup

So as you can see things aren´t as simple as "toying with plants"... and GM crops aren´t as harmless as depicted in this BBC programme, because they aren´t just modified seends, they come with the added chemicals sprayed on them.

Here, an Austrialian study which confirmed Glyphosate´s toxicity to frogs,
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/frog-overview.html

Fortunately, an eco-friendly farming UK blog has noticed this little bias in Jimmy´s programme, and is asking people to file a complaint with the BBC.

Let´s hope Europe does not repeat our mistake, and that we can eventually get rid of GMs too.

FC
PS: He came down here and the first part of the programme shows neat images of Argentina's vast GM soybean fields, even from the air.

Here is the News

"I love you, sincerely
Yours truly, yours truly...

I sent a message to another time
But as the days unwind, this I just cant believe
I sent a note across another plane
Maybe its all a game, but this I just cant conceive.

Can you hear me? "

FC

Is the supply-side school downplaying the news about Argentina's continued growth?

I recently read an article by David R Butcher titled "Where the Offshore Outsourcers Offshore Outsource" and available HERE.

I had high hopes due to the title, and instinctively tried to read it while scrolling down to find what references about offshoring operations in Argentina were included. I was very disappointed, the word "Argentina" is not even there, despite the increase of Offshoring (IT, software and services) in Argentina, which surely added its part to the sinking unemployment rates and economic recovery the last four years'.

One paragraph reads: "where do India’s outsourcers outsource? China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brazil, Romania and Morocco — you name it. ". Well, I guess "you name it" also ought to include Argentina. In fact, India's TATA Consulting Services (TCS) arrived five years ago. And success stories of firms offshoring and investing in Argentina in the last four to five years are easy to find if you look hard enough. But no, not a single reference.

But it's not this writer's fault. (if you're reading this, it isn't about you, read on, it's just that your story and the strange lack of mention of Argentina kickstarted my thought process).

Thinking aloud:

There seems to be a strange "vacuum of good news" about Argentina on the English language mainstream media (and my standard for doing this is simply typing word pairs like "inversion, argentina" (investment argentina-unquoted-) into Google News Argentina (news.google.com.ar) then repeat the search with the same terms, this time in English language and into the international "Google News" search engine (news.google.com).

My unscientific tests showed that roughly nine out of ten times, all positive economic news about Argentina appear ONLY in the local Spanish language news sites, but those news stories are usually -and suspiciously- RARELY echoed in English for the global audience, while short-lived political scandals involving Miami millionaires --once against Chavez but then flip-flopped and doing business with Venezuela's PDVSA (until a few weeks ago)-- caught trying to enter with a bag full of cash ($800,000) into Argentina are regurgitated ad-nauseum as some sort of "further proof of Argentina's corruption and hopelessness". Hrmm ... smearing PR campaigns to weaken the ruling center-left coalition and impose a more "pro-market", "pro-White House" candidate..... where have I heard of that?.

Just for the record: In the last four years, the country's economy grew like never before, plummeting unemployment, the number of unemployed people receiving government unemplyment subsidies fell 50%, and the country has been enjoying for the first time in several decades (it didn't happen since the 1920s!) year-after-year consecutive growth coupled with simultaneous fiscal surplus and a trade surpluses, all this due in part to a competitive exchange rate for Argentina's industrial and agricultural exports.

So is the majority mainstream trade press talking about the "Argentina Miracle". Well, no. Or at least not that I could see. Only BusinessWeek ventured to say so back in 2002, but it was a timid article and the recovery just started back then. When the press speaks about the region it often says "Good times in general for Latin America" and then proceed to name Brazil and Chile, poster boys for "good behaviour" because they never broke paths with the IMF. Coincidence? Don't think so!. (OK, I admit I might be wearing my tinfoil hat now).

Before you accuse me of irrational flag-waving, oldskool right-wing nationalism let me be 100% clear that it's not about this. I'm complaining from the economic policy angle. The failure of ANY major English language mainstream media reporting about the economic progress in the country, and the economic policy angle.

Perhaps the problem for the US and other western media is that portraying that Argentina is doing very well by NOT following the path preached by the right wing think tanks and the IMF would set a "bad example" for the rest of the countries still suffering the anvil's weight of the IMF and its laisez faire policies?.

Think about it... a government with a more progressive, demand side economics policy, that doesn't ask Milton Friedman for advice. A country who asks world famous IMF-critic and long time Washington Concensus skeptic Joseph Stiglitz for advice.

To top it all the results have been good, getting fiscal and commercial surpluses for the last 4 years -and more importantly, doing so for the first time in decades-. BUT, here's the surprise: reading the western English language media daily and seeing Argentina's good news virtually "blacklisted" (other than Reuters' quarter figures for the specialized economics media and speaking usually nothing about the human impact of this growth).

Why is this? I have a theory. I think it's because we pissed off a lot of Wall Street, AEI and right-wing economics technocrats followers of the supply side school, with our debt restructuring, -we paid the IMF and sent them packing-. Also, -now drifting into the political field- I suspect the lack of any good positive reporting is because we are doing good business with Venezuela and supporting projects like Stiglitz' praised REGIONAL INVESTMENT BANK.

That's my theory of why Argentina's good economic news and its social impact ended up blacklisted : due to political and ideological reasons, as it doesn't fit the wire editors' economic psyche.... in other words "nothing good should be said about it, because it didn't sign FTAA, bow to King George, or break relations with Venezuela's Chavez". Is that it?

Fifteen years ago when the country was going downhill and getting deeper and deeper into a cycle of debt yet Argentina was portrayed by the financial media as the poster boy of the IMF and magazines wasted pages and pages on the positive "reforms" that generated an influx of speculative capital (in other words, "mergers and acqusitions", that is capital changing hands, not very much NEW investment in production of real tangible goods and manufacturing) while the gates of cheap imports were opened and it de-industrialized the country sending unemployment through the roof... and culminating in the implosion of the economy when the facade fell....

Back to the news reporting angle: do you think I'm too far from the truth? Am I allucinating? Have you found English language news stories that talk about the revival of industry, the increase in manufacturing jobs,the increase of non-primary (industrial, manufacture, technology and services) exports in the last three years? Where? and when you find it, does it tie these events to the economic policy? or do they just mask it under the usual "it's a result of the increase of commodities prices?

If you find any story with that angle, PLEASE LET ME KNOW, because I've never seen all these elements together in a mainstream, English language story.

To end this long babbling, I have to wonder if perhaps all this is due to the fact that most americans DON'T KNOW DIDDLY SQUAT about Latin America as a recent Zogby Poll found?. Or is it because the American economists establishment has VERY LITTLE TOLERANCE towards dissent when it comes to the supply-side Dogma, as has been recently warned by the progressive U.S. economists?.

Just my $0.02 or $0.06 pesos. :-P

Thoughts, comments, expletives?

Food for thought:

U.S. Economists question dominance of Supply-Side Ideas
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/11/business/economics.php

"Americans know very little about Latin America"
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/345149/poll_americans_know_little_about_latin.html

Tinker Bell, Pinochet, and the Fairy Tale of the Chile Miracle
http://www.gregpalast.com/tinker-bell-pinochet-and-the-fairy-tale-miracle-of-chile-2/

Bank of the South: Toward Financial Autonomy - Worldpress.org
http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/2852.cfm

Chileans praise Argentina's economic wisdom wrt .IT policy
http://www.atinachile.cl/content/view/31289/Las_razones_que_explican_el_desembarco_de_Google_en_Argentina.html#first


There are the kind of stories NOT FOUND on mainstream US/western English language media*:

(*Spanish language stories, with titles translated by me):

AR: People receiving government unempolyment subsidies fell 50%
in the last 4 years
http://www.telam.com.ar/vernota.php?tipo=N&idPub=59388&id=143954&dis=1&sec=1

Spending by people with the lowest incomes grows in the farther/poorest BA city suburbs
LA NACION, Wed. 16/5/07
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/archivo/Nota.asp?nota_id=909024

quote/translation:
"The combination of union-management agreed salary increases for workers in the formal sector of the economy and the general drop in unemployment levels have begun to show results in the poorest areas of the greater Buenos Aires, which after the second semester of '2006 show consumer spending growth rates above the rest of the population"

Government launches tax reductions for tourism SMBs
http://news.google.com.ar/news/url?sa=t&ct=es_ar/1-0&fp=4626d4c2bd8b59cb&ei=9nMmRvicJZ_coQPyvbS9Cw&url=http%3A//www.adnmundo.com/contenidos/turismo/pymes_tu_180407.html&cid=1154259208

Air traffic between USA and Argentina grows
http://news.google.com.ar/news/url?sa=t&ct=es_ar/9-0&fp=4626d4c2bd8b59cb&ei=9nMmRvicJZ_coQPyvbS9Cw&url=http%3A//www.hostnews.com.ar/2007/sal/070085.htm&cid=1154211647

Google opens regional HQ in Buenos Aires, will hire up to 3,000
http://news.google.com.ar/news/url?sa=t&ct=es_ar/0-3&fp=4626fcdb3ae71ad4&ei=TnYmRtLHI5qKoQOg3ZW3Cw&url=http%3A//www.lagaceta.com.ar/vernota.asp%3Fid_seccion%3D8%26id_nota%3D202119&cid=1154204519

Argentina's Tourism sector now brings more dollars than grains and meat exports combined
http://www.diariohoy.net/notas/verNoticia.phtml/html/268469454/

17/4/07: Argentina's government launches fiscal incentives for the local software industry
http://news.google.com.ar/news/url?sa=t&ct=es_ar/0-0&fp=462657718885b933&ei=-3YmRq-1BoOSogP4z9GzCw&url=http%3A//www.infobaeprofesional.com/interior/index.php%3Fp%3Dnota%26idx%3D44640%26cookie&cid=1154211088

The latest boom: corporate software, made in Argentina
http://www.siliconnews.es/es/silicon/special-report/2007/04/04/boom-del-desarrollo-software

20/4/07 - Argentina's investment level the highest in the last 20 years
http://www.infobae.com/contenidos/310936-100896-0-El-nivel-inversi%C3%B3n-es-el-m%C3%A1s-alto-los-%C3%BAltimos-20-a%C3%B1os

Argentina widens trade surplus with the US
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2006/02/11/elmundo/i-03103.htm

Venezuela and Argentina duplicate its trade
http://www.adnmundo.com/contenidos/comercio/venezuela_argentina_ce_171106.html

"one of the most important aspects is the diversified nature of the current exports from Argentina to Venezuela. From (traditional products like) powder milk and meat to industrial goods like tractors, trucks, SUVs, pipes and valves for the oil industry, among others".

Consumer credit levels now above the historic highs before the crisis
http://www.infobaeprofesional.com/interior/index.php?p=nota&idx=44671&cookie

==========================================================

Two notable exceptions to the "information black cloud": BusinessWeek (US) and the IHT (FR)... two lone positive stories, but one is very dated by now, and the other too short (imho).

Argentina: doint it their own way - 2006
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/28/opinion/edweis.php

Argentina: reversal of fortune (BusinessWeek) - 2002
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_19/b3932098_mz058.htm

The following, while good and positive spinned, are not from what I'd call "mainstream media", actually one is a progressive magazine's blogger and the other a little Italian news portal:

Argentina Heads Region's "Human Development" Index
http://www.portalino.it/nuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=13215

Beat the Press: Argentina's strong growth among Most Important news of '06
http://www.prospect.org/deanbaker/2006/12/most_important_economic_news_s.html

Thoughts? comments? Expletives? ;)
FC

CNN follows my lead wrt under-water life (OK, I wish ;-)

Ocean living: From Hydropolis to Trilobis - Feb. 1, 2007
http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/19/magazines/business2/ocean_real_estate.biz2/?postversion=2007020210

"With land getting so crowded, the age-old fantasy of sea-based living is becoming reality.
Business 2.0 dives in."

Despite the hype, who said it first? me! ;)

As the underwater age approaches, a waterproof digicam is a must
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37325
Jan 31, 2007