(CNN) — The U.S. ambassador to Mexico has submitted his resignation, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Saturday.
The move by Ambassador Carlos Pascual comes amid tension between the United States and Mexico after a U.S. diplomatic cable released last fall by the WikiLeaks website quoted U.S. officials talking about “widespread corruption” in Mexican security agencies and “a dysfunctionally low level of collaboration.” The cable, dated January 29, 2010, also described the Mexican army as “slow” and “risk averse” and concluded that only 2% of people arrested in Ciudad Juarez — the most violent city in Mexico, wracked by drug-cartel-related killings — were charged with a crime.
Actually, I’m not sure what the problem here is; sounds all about right.
The next paragraph is deliciously ironic
In a recent interview with the Mexican newspaper El Universal, Calderon stopped short of saying he was offended by U.S. officials but he complained of what he implicitly interpreted as attempts by his neighbors to the north to meddle in Mexican domestic policy.
This from a man who has no compunction about meddling constantly in our domestic policy by sending millions of his unemployed citizens here, a man who screams to high heaven if we even think about doing something racist like secure our border.
RIO DE JANEIRO, March 20 (UPI) — U.S. President Obama used the occasion of the Persian New Year Sunday to say the future of Iran lies with its young people and he stands with them.
In a statement issued by the White House, Obama, who is in Brazil as part of his Latin America tour, said he wanted to use Nowruz, a holiday of hope and renewal,” to speak directly to the Iranian people.
I’m sure ALL those dead protestors (and those still scheduled to hang once the torturers get bored) are saying “Thanks LOADS for THAT, asshole!”
I want to smack every idiot that voted for this idiot IN. THE. CHOPS.
Remember when Bush was scathingly criticized for crony appointments which damaged the purity and efficacy of our government?
Remember when someone promised that as part of their “Taking Back America” they would ensure that
…in an Obama Administration, every official will have to rise to the standard of proven excellence in the agency’s mission. Barack Obama will issue an Executive Order requiring that political appointees possess relevant professional qualifications and experience related to the core mission of the agency for which they are nominated, and would restore integrity and competence to the executive branch.
Sounds great, right?
Via HotAir, we find out that the position of Deputy Director of the OMB. It’s a pretty important post
The OMB’s predominant mission is to assist the President in overseeing the preparation of the federal budget and to supervise its administration in Executive Branch agencies. In helping to formulate the President’s spending plans, the OMB evaluates the effectiveness of agency programs, policies, and procedures, assesses competing funding demands among agencies, and sets funding priorities. The OMB ensures that agency reports, rules, testimony, and proposed legislation are consistent with the President’s Budget and with Administration policies.
In addition, the OMB oversees and coordinates the Administration’s procurement, financial management, information, and regulatory policies. In each of these areas, the OMB’s role is to help improve administrative management, to develop better performance measures and coordinating mechanisms, and to reduce any unnecessary burdens on the public.
and obviously requires someone who has at the very least somewhat extensive accounting or business experience as well as managerial experience, right? So the person that President Obama has nominated to this important economic position is Heather Higginbottom. Here’s her CV
From 1999 to 2007, Higginbottom served as legislative director for Senator John Kerry. She also served as the Deputy National Policy Director for the Kerry-Edwards Presidential Campaign for the primary and general elections.
After the 2004 election, Higginbottom founded and served as Executive Director of the American Security Project, a national security think tank. She began her career as an advocate with the national non-profit organization Communities In Schools.
On November 24, 2008, it was announced that Higginbottom has been appointed the Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council in the administration of President Barack Obama.[1]
On January 7, 2011, President Obama nominated Higginbottom to the position of Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
She has degrees in Political Science, Public Policy and Philosophy.
Sen. Sessions is less than impressed with her during her hearing
That tape is a thing of beauty. A finer surgical evisceration you may never see. But the deeper, more troubling point is how could this person possibly be nominated for this position? And how could she possibly be this unprepared for her confirmation hearing?
She doesn’t have a simple grasp of the yearly deficit figures for Obama’s budget? Are you kidding me?
This is Obama’s idea of “proven excellence” to the agency’s mission.
This is the regard he holds for government, the American People and the seriousness with which he is addressing the fiscal problems we face.
Via Kae, I just can not imagine the horror of this.
Watch the first 30 seconds closely and keep the landmarks in mind…the height of the pink building in the foreground…the height of the gray building on the left…and the man on its roof
…stripped off his white desert robes to wave them frantically off the battlements of Tripoli when word came that bombs might soon be falling on HIS head, vice the rebels attempting to unseat his murderous regime.
“Fuck, fuck, FUCK!!! No more killing, no KKKILLLLING!!!
Cease Fire!! CEASE FFFFFIIIIRRRRRRREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!“
Well, close enough.
Libya Declares Immediate Halt to Military Action Against Anti-Government Forces
“Okay, see? I stopped. Tell them I stopped. I’M IN MY FUCKING UNDERWEARS AND I STOPPED!!!”
“We were expecting Islam to adapt to France, but it’s France adapting to Islam.”
At the end of this report, they note that Parisians themselves are FED UP and taking ACTION. In true French fashion ~
They’ve started staging pork and wine apéritifs, or cocktail parties in the street. Patriotic demonstrations meant to strike back against Islam.”
(See? Remember our VERY successful Danish Dinners? Well, HELLO! No book burning haterhaters and a helluva LOT more congenial!!!)
UPDATE: I began this post on the 9th of September last year and have just had it sitting. I guess I know now why I didn’t finish it then or discard it entirely ~ the ending was waiting to write itself. Muslims ARE still blocking streets, generally pissing off the locals and ruining Fridays in areas throughout the city, but they’ve come up with a novel solution to get themselves OFF those very same streets.
…the “Banlieuses Respect ” Collective asked authorities in charge of organization of the Church of France, to place at Muslims’ disposal “empty churches for Friday prayers”. Hassan M. Ben Barek, a spokesman for the Collective, said the measure would “prevent Muslims from having to pray on the streets” and being “politicians’ hostages”.
The poor fellow who wrote the second article I linked to writes pretty eloquently for European Muslims to relinquish their hold on their Arab sensibilities ~ he even tries to talk some plain common sense about the space problem: “…Even if it takes twice as much space, it is up to the Muslim community to solve the problem. The State or the Church has nothing to do with it. ”
But he should probably save the nib in his quill, eh?
Radiation detectors at Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago O’Hare airports were triggered when passengers from flights that started in Tokyo passed through customs, the New York Post reported.
Tests at Dallas-Fort Worth indicated low radiation levels in travelers’ luggage and in the aircraft’s cabin filtration system; no passengers were quarantined, the newspaper said.
These detectors in public places that have been set up since 2001 are extremely sensitive*, so this means…nothing. If the media had even a lick of sense they wouldn’t report this because it creates PANIC where none is justified.
*I know this for a fact because, as I’ve said before, a guy in my office was on the subway here in NYC on his way to work after having a stress test and the radiation detectors in the subway station detected the radioactive goop in his blood. They stopped the train and SWAT guys “talked” to him.
So, as is the case with so many “hazards” we are bombarded with these days the mere fact that they are able to detect it does not mean that the level is hazardous.
But that sort of thought doesn’t drive traffic to their sites.
NO LONGER must you only listen to inane chattering from tireless, unpaid, local PBS workers breaking into The NewsHour.
NO LONGER will you only be subjected to sweeping camera shots of desultory, coerced corporate “volunteers”, lethargically waiting by ever-so-quiet phones arrayed in a hopeful bank of anticipated future mad ringing, if only the carrot were large and sweet enough.
“Oh, say what?!?! “Feet of Flames” plus the signed sparkle Spanx Michael Flatley wore for a $67 pledge? GIMME THE GODDAMNED To the phone, Henry!!!”
There’s a NEW WAY OF DOIN’ THINGS FOR PLEDGE WEEK.
The president of PBS told Pensacola-area supporters that viewers need to let their elected officials know how much Public Broadcasting Service programs mean to them if affiliates are to receive public funding.
I’m not precisely sure where my beloved hometown falls on the PBS President’s Peasant Pledge Whore Tour [say that 3 times fast without a screw-up and, for $15, YOU get a “Yanni” CD AND a copy of “How to Beat Menopause and Syphilis at Their Own Game” with margin notes signed by the author!!], but it must be right near the inaugural phase of it, considering the timing. (For our local PBS station’s sake, I hope the pitch gets better and they can stand on their own.) While admittedly a tough audience here, being overwhelmingly conservative and a stalwart Republican bastion, it had to be sort of embarrassing for a Washington luminary of such national stature (well, everywhere else) to pull a whopping…”about 20 people” (about a dozen supporters and elected officials) for a life-or-death luncheon.
Wouldn’t you think?
Or maybe, just maybe, it was meant to be that way and peasants weren’t welcome in any event.
Those stretched out, sweaty sparkle Spanx are looking even less appealing. As if that were possible.
(Reuters) – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday that there was no alternative except for Congress to raise the debt ceiling so that the government can keep borrowing.
“Congress has to do it. There’s no alternative,” he said in response to questions at a House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee.
He repeated a warning that it would be have “catastrophic” consequences for the economy if the debt ceiling was not raised and the country defaulted on its debt obligations.
There is an alternative: quite spending so goddamned much money. There’s no need to raise the debt level if Congress and the White House would stop spending more than we have. Cut all programs across the board by 10% and start eliminating programs and departments and agencies.
We have now gotten to the point — as I noted yesterday — where if national defense, interstate highways, national parks, homeland security, and all other discretionary programs somehow became absolutely free, we’d still have a budget deficit. The White House Office of Management and Budget projects that in the current fiscal year (2011), mandatory spending alone will exceed all federal receipts. So even if we didn’t spend a single cent on discretionary programs, we still wouldn’t be able to balance our budget this year — let alone pay off any of the $14 trillion in debt that we have already accumulated.
‘They’ve lost control’: French claim Japan is hiding full scale of nuclear disaster as emergency teams desperately fire water cannon at reactors from long range
Japan’s stricken nuclear power plant was abandoned for hours today, as soaring radiation forced emergency workers to flee for their lives and authorities were reduced to spraying reactors with police water cannons.
All 50 emergency workers who had been fighting to keep overheating reactors cool were this morning pulled back 500 yards from the complex as radiation levels became too dangerous.
And in an extraordinary attack, the French government accused the Japanese of losing control of the situation and hiding the full scale of the disaster.
Read the whole report, as it has a lot of seemingly good information on the situation at the plant.
In the Japanese’s defense, things are so chaotic there given the degree of devastation in that entire area that they simply may not know exactly what is going on.
The Blue Angels came home from wintering in El Centro yesterday ~ low, slow and LOUD right over the house, and ROYALLY pissing the Princess off. Boo detests and despises F-18’s in the worst manner possible. So, while the Ozzie, BeauBeau and I were in the backyard at the first engine whine from 500 feet waving “Hallooo!!” like maniacs (well, I was), she was snarling, barking and charging the length of the yard as each successive jet in the landing pattern washed over our roof in a wave of teeth rattling, ear splitting blue and gold power.
She slept like a baby last night.
Right this second, the boys are running their first practice of the new year. Right outside my window.
Nanny State, People, Politics | Mr. Bingley | 
March 21, 2011 7:42 am | 
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