Daily Archives: May 1, 2012
New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism
The Obama campaign apparently didn’t look backwards into history when selecting its new campaign slogan, “Forward” — a word with a long and rich association with European Marxism.
Many Communist and radical publications and entities throughout the 19th and 20th centuries had the name “Forward!” or its foreign cognates. Wikipedia has an entire section called “Forward (generic name of socialist publications).”
“The name Forward carries a special meaning in socialist political terminology. It has been frequently used as a name for socialist, communist and other left-wing newspapers and publications,” the online encyclopedia explains.
The slogan “Forward!” reflected the conviction of European Marxists and radicals that their movements reflected the march of history, which would move forward past capitalism and into socialism and communism.
The Obama campaign released its new campaign slogan Monday in a 7-minute video. The title card has simply the word “Forward” with the “O” having the familiar Obama logo from 2008. It will be played at rallies this weekend that mark the Obama re-election campaign’s official beginning.
There have been at least two radical-left publications named “Vorwaerts” (the German word for “Forward”). One was the daily newspaper of the Social Democratic Party of Germany whose writers included Friedrich Engels and Leon Trotsky. It still publishes as the organ of Germany’s SDP, though that party has changed considerably since World War II. Another was the 1844 biweekly reader of the Communist League. Karl Marx, Engels and Mikhail Bakunin are among the names associated with that publication.
East Germany named its Army soccer club ASK Vorwaerts Berlin (later FC Vorwaerts Frankfort).
Vladimir Lenin founded the publication “Vpered” (the Russian word for “forward”) in 1905. Soviet propaganda film-maker Dziga Vertov made a documentary whose title is sometimes translated as “Forward, Soviet” (though also and more literally as “Stride, Soviet”).
Conservative critics of the Obama administration have noted numerous ties to radicalism and socialists throughout Mr. Obama’s history, from his first political campaign being launched from the living room of two former Weather Underground members, to appointing as green jobs czar Van Jones, a self-described communist.
Related articles
- New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism – Washington Times (thebusypost.wordpress.com)
- New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism (askmarion.wordpress.com)
- “New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism”… and Wisconsin. (althouse.blogspot.com)
- “Forward” : Obama’s New Marxist Campaign Slogan (theroycroftreport.com)
Special Report: Guns used in Mexico for lawyer’s murder traced to ATF operation
Firearms connected to Operation Fast and Furious were used in the 2010 slaying of the brother of the former Chihuahua state attorney general, according to a U.S. congressional report.
The report said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traced two of the weapons suspected in the murder of lawyer Mario González Rodríguez, but did not report this fact to the Mexican government until eight months after the tracing.
The joint congressional staff report “The Department of Justice’s Operation Fast and Furious: Fueling Cartel Violence” was prepared for U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., two lawmakers who are spearheading an ongoing investigation into the ATF’s controversial operation.
“On October 21, 2010, drug cartel members kidnapped Mario González Rodríguez from his office,” according to the 2011 congressional report. “At the time of the kidnapping, his sister Patricia González Rodríguez was the attorney general of the state of Chihuahua.”
Mexican officials said Patricia González Rodríguez was already on her way out because the new governor had been installed and a new state prosecutor was going to be appointed.
“A few days after the kidnapping,” the congressional report said, “a video surfaced on the Internet in which Mario González Rodríguez sat
handcuffed, surrounded by five heavily armed men wearing masks, dressed in camouflage and bullet-proof vest.”
“Apparently, under duress,” the report said, “(González Rodríguez) alleged that his sister had ordered killings at the behest of the Juárez cartel … the video quickly went viral.”
Chihuahua state Attorney General Patricia González Rodríguez denied the allegations of drug corruption and traveled to Mexico City to seek the federal government’s help in investigating her brother’s murder. She is no longer in Chihuahua, and reportedly left Mexico for safety reasons.
A video of Mario González Rodríguez’s “interrogation” by armed men was carried on YouTube. The body of the well-known Chihuahua City lawyer was found Nov. 5, 2010, in a shallow grave.
Then, Mexican federal authorities, following a shootout with drug cartel suspects, seized 16 weapons and arrested eight men in connection with Mario González Rodríguez’s murder.
Mexican officials submitted information about the weapons to the ATF’s e-trace system, and the ATF traced two AK-47s to Operation Fast and Furious.
The congressional report said that an ATF email indicated that ATF officials in Phoenix who knew the two assault rifles came from the controversial operation withheld the information from Mexican officials until June 2011.
In congressional testimony, Carlos Canino, the ATF’s acting U.S. attaché in Mexico, said he’s the one who finally notified Mexican federal Attorney General Marisela Morales about the weapons-tracing and their link to the death of Mario González Rodríguez.
The report said Morales was shocked and remarked, “Hijole!,” which the report said translates into “Oh, my.”
Canino feared an international incident might break out with Mexico if the information leaked out to the news media instead of being sent through government channels. He told U.S. lawmakers that he did not want to undermine the trust that U.S. law enforcement had developed with their Mexican counterparts in the war against the drug cartels.
Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., said Saturday in response to the U.S. congressional report’s findings that “the government of Mexico has not granted, nor will grant, under any circumstance, tacit or explicit authorization for the deliberate walking of arms into Mexico.
“As a matter of policy, we do not comment on ongoing investigations, and therefore will await the outcome of both the U.S. and Mexican investigations, and then react accordingly.”
Last week, the ATF released a report that said 68,000 weapons recovered in Mexico between 2007 and 2011 were traced back to U.S. sources. That report does not mention which of the weapons were part of the undercover Operation Fast and Furious.
Weapons traced back to the operation have been recovered in eight Mexican states and in Mexico City, and most of them were destined for the Sinaloa drug cartel led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, the congressional report said.
And, at least eight Fast and Furious-connected weapons were recovered at crime scenes in Juárez and four in Chihuahua City between 2010 and 2011.
The Sinaloa cartel has been waging a bloody battle against the Carrillo Fuentes organization that’s killed nearly 9,500 people in Juárez alone since 2008.
On Jan. 13, 2010, the El Paso Police Department seized 40 rifles on the East Side that the congressional report said were connected to Fast and Furious. Weapons connected to the operation also were recovered in Columbus, N.M.
The number of Fast and Furious weapons found at Mexican crime scenes could be higher because the information provided to congressional investigators remains incomplete, the report said.
Last November, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that it was among local law enforcement agencies asked to assist with Operation Fast and Furious.
El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles said then that his department helped a Drug Enforcement Administration regional task force with surveillance but that he was not told it was for Fast and Furious.
ATF officials launched Operation Fast and Furious in 2009 in Phoenix in an attempt to identify high-level arms traffickers who were supplying the Mexican drug cartels with weapons. The operation allowed weapons purchased in the United States to cross the border into Mexico.
ATF shut down the operation about a month after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was found murdered in the Arizona desert in December 2010. Two AK-47s, originally purchased as semiautomatics and connected to Fast and Furious, were found near Terry’s body.
The latest ATF report does not break down the 68,000 weapons traced to U.S. sources by states.
ATF spokesman Tom Crowley said the agency previously reported that most of the guns recovered in Mexico came from Texas, the border state that has the most gun stores.
Statistics in the recent ATF report mirror the trends in Mexico’s drug cartel violence.
For example, in 2008 Mexican officials submitted 31,111 serial numbers to the ATF for tracing, the same year that the Mexican cartels intensified their battles in Mexico.
The number of weapons submitted for e-trace was 17,352 in 2007; 21,555 in 2009; 8,338 in 2010; and 20,335 in 2011.
Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at dvaldez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6140.
Related articles
- There Are No Coincidences (gunnyg.wordpress.com)
- Obama Administration Let Grenades Walk In Fast And Furious, Documents Show (thedaleygator.wordpress.com)
GOP says Obama, Dems are undermining domestic energy production
The Obama administration is undermining domestic fossil-fuel production, say Republican Party officials.
They point to comments by EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz, who resigned Sunday as agency administrator for the south-central region, suggesting that the agency’s “general philosophy” is to “crucify” oil and gas companies as being symbolic of the administration’s attitude.
The Washington Free Beacon reported in a March 13, 2012 article that Obama Interior Department officials have intentionally “slow walked” drilling permits, reducing the number of annual permits by two-thirds from 157 before the 2010 drilling moratorium to 51 after. The GOP argues that small- to medium-sized businesses are the ones getting hurt, not “Big Oil” as Democrats like to argue.
As a result, half of all Gulf of Mexico businesses have laid-off workers and a further 39 percent have cut salaries and/or hours. A further 46 percent of affected businesses have moved their operations out of the gulf.
EPA regulations could result in a 11 percent drop in gas production and a 37 percent drop in domestic oil production.
The controversial practice of fracking, necessary to extract gas from a large portion of the nation’s gas wells, could be slashed by up to 52 percent, according to the American Petroleum Institute.
The same attitude carries over to coal, where the Washington Post reported that looming EPA regulations would end the construction of conventional coal-fired power plants nationwide. Thirteen percent of all coal-fired power plants are likely going to shut down because of EPA regulations.
This has hit too close to home for a traditional Democratic constituency – coal miners.
United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts went to the extent of comparing EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s actions against coal with the Navy SEALs’ takedown of Osama bin Laden.
By John Rossomando /// April 30, 2012
Related articles
- Obama officials rip into GOP gasoline bills (mb50.wordpress.com)
- EPA Official: EPAs “philosophy” is to “crucify” and “make examples” of US energy producers (mb50.wordpress.com)
- EPA Official on How To Deal With Non-Compliant Companies: ‘Hit Them as Hard as You Can’ & ‘Make Examples Out of Them’ (nicedeb.wordpress.com)
- EPA Official Quits Over Remark (myfoxchicago.com)
- EPA Is Sorry for the Analogy But Not the Context of Crucifying the Oil & Gas Industries (independentsentinel.com)
BP to Sell GoM Assets as it Focuses on Growth
BP wants to sell its interests in what it describes as “non-strategic assets” in the Gulf of Mexico as part of its plan to focus its businesses worldwide on major assets and future growth opportunities.
Announcing its results for the first quarter of 2012 in London on Tuesday, BP said that the assets it plans to sell include the Marlin, Horn Mountain, Holstein, Ram Powell and Diana Hoover fields.
Reflecting an increased focus on exploration, BP said it added significantly to its interests in promising South Atlantic equatorial margin plays during the quarter. The firm said it farmed in to four exploration concessions with Petrobras in Brazil, deepened its interests offshore Namibia and was awarded three new blocks offshore Uruguay. BP also gained access to the promising potentially liquids-rich Utica shale formations in Ohio, it added.
BP remains on track to start up six new major upstream projects in 2012, it said. These include Clochas-Mavacola in Angola and Galapagos in the Gulf of Mexico, both expected to start in the second quarter.
During the first quarter BP made an underlying replacement cost profit, adjusted for non-operating items and fair value accounting effects, of $4.8 billion. The figure (which is broadly comparable with net income under US accounting rules) was lower than the $5 billion earned by the firm in the previous quarter because of the adverse impact of a $541 million consolidation adjustment related to unrealized profits in inventory held within BP’s downstream business.
“We have made a good start against our strategic priorities for 2012. During the quarter we gained access to significant new deepwater and US shale exploration acreage, our ongoing divestment programme has reached $23 billion, and we have five deepwater rigs at work in the Gulf of Mexico. This operational progress will underpin the financial momentum we expect to come through as we move into 2013 and 2014,” said Group Chief Executive Bob Dudley.
During the quarter BP made payments of $1.5 billion into the $20 billion Trust that it set up in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. At the end of the quarter, BP had made total payments into the Trust of $16.6 billion and it expects its payments to end in Q4 2012.
At the end of Q1 2012, BP had paid a total of $8.3 billion in individual, business and government entity claims, advances and other payments. The firm also expects to pay a further $7.8 billion as settlement for private economic loss and medical claims stemming from the Deepwater Horizon accident and oil spill after it reached a definitive agreement with the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee on April 18.
Continents of the World
