America by the numbers

No. 1?

by Michael Ventura February 23, 2005

No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1. Well...this is the country you really live in:

* The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).
* The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
* Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).
* "The International Adult Literacy Survey...found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.78).
* Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!
* "The European Union leads the U.S. in...the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).
* "Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature" (The European Dream, p.70).
* Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science Foundation. The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).
* Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're not the place to be anymore.
* The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was]...37th." In the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.
* "The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a "developed" country? Anyway, that's the company we're keeping.
* Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American deaths a year. (That's six times the number of people killed on 9/11.) (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)
* "U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The European Dream, p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look "developed" to you? Yet it's the only "developed" country to score lower in childhood poverty.
* Twelve million American families--more than 10 percent of all U.S. households--"continue to struggle, and not always successfully, to feed themselves." Families that "had members who actually went hungry at some point last year" numbered 3.9 million (NYT, Nov. 22, 2004).
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* The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
* Women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
* The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder (CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).
* "Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead last in the growth rate of total compensation to its workforce in the 1980s.... In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1 percent" (The European Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any other industrialized country, and get less vacation time.
* "Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500 rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies" (The European Dream, p.66). "In a recent survey of the world's 50 best companies, conducted by Global Finance, all but one were European" (The European Dream, p.69).
* "Fourteen of the 20 largest commercial banks in the world today are European.... In the chemical industry, the European company BASF is the world's leader, and three of the top six players are European. In engineering and construction, three of the top five companies are European.... The two others are Japanese. Not a single American engineering and construction company is included among the world's top nine competitors. In food and consumer products, Nestlé and Unilever, two European giants, rank first and second, respectively, in the world. In the food and drugstore retail trade, two European companies...are first and second, and European companies make up five of the top ten. Only four U.S. companies are on the list" (The European Dream, p.68).
* The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade (CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).
* U.S. employers eliminated 1 million jobs in 2004 (The Week, Jan. 14, 2005).
* Three million six hundred thousand Americans ran out of unemployment insurance last year; 1.8 million--one in five--unemployed workers are jobless for more than six months (NYT, Jan. 9, 2005).
* Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40 percent of our government debt. (That's why we talk nice to them.) "By helping keep mortgage rates from rising, China has come to play an enormous and little-noticed role in sustaining the American housing boom" (NYT, Dec. 4, 2004). Read that twice. We owe our housing boom to China, because they want us to keep buying all that stuff they manufacture.
* Sometime in the next 10 years Brazil will probably pass the U.S. as the world's largest agricultural producer. Brazil is now the world's largest exporter of chickens, orange juice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco. Last year, Brazil passed the U.S. as the world's largest beef producer. (Hear that, you poor deluded cowboys?) As a result, while we bear record trade deficits, Brazil boasts a $30 billion trade surplus (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
* As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
* Bush: 62,027,582 votes. Kerry: 59,026,003 votes. Number of eligible voters who didn't show up: 79,279,000 (NYT, Dec. 26, 2004). That's more than a third. Way more. If more than a third of Iraqis don't show for their election, no country in the world will think that election legitimate.
* One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half of all U.S. children will live in a one-parent house (CNN, Dec. 10, 2004).
* "Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, videos, DVDs, music, and books combined" (The European Dream, p.28).
* "Nearly one out of four Americans [believe] that using violence to get what they want is acceptable" (The European Dream, p.32).
* Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified, according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).
* "Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the last year for which such data are available" (USA Today, Dec. 21, 2004).
* "The International Association of Chiefs of Police said that cuts by the [Bush] administration in federal aid to local police agencies have left the nation more vulnerable than ever" (USA Today, Nov. 17, 2004).

No. 1? In most important categories we're not even in the Top 10 anymore. Not even close.

The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion.



Reprinted from the Austin Chronicle.

http://www.citypages.com/databank/26/1264/article12985.asp

Neoconservatives push internment for American Muslims

Mr. Campos writes on Jan. 4, in the Rocky Mountain News, that Mr. Pipes implied in the Dec. 28 column that the wholesale relocation of American Muslims to internment camps might be a “good” idea.

Mr. Pipes also said he was encouraged by the results of a Cornell University survey that said nearly 44 percent of all respondents agree that at least one form of restriction should be placed on Muslim American civil liberties.

“The thing we must see through is that Mr. Pipes is raising the issue of internment camps as if they don’t already exist,” offered Imam Rashid. He said that a recent report indicated that New York State had turned over several locations thought to be internment camps to the Immigration Naturalization Services (INS). “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out who will fill these camps,” Imam Rashid suggested.

The Cornell survey summary said 37 percent of respondents believe a terrorist attack within the next 12 months is likely; 19 percent of the respondents who pay a high level of attention to television news “feel personally’’ in danger, as opposed to the nine percent who pay low level attention to television news. Nearly half (47 percent) of respondents believe that Islam is more likely to encourage violence compared to other religions. That percentage rises to 65 percent among highly religious respondents.

When Mr. Shanahan was asked why this particular topic was used, he said that it was a timely topic; and they wanted to see if the subject would generate a wide debate, which he said it had.

“The government has adopted Madison Avenue advertising techniques to influence public opinion,” argues Imam Rashid, noting that world-renowned lecturer and writer Noam Chomsky calls it the “science of the engineering of public consent.”

http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_1818.shtml

Keď hovorí Bush, je tu sloboda prejavu?

SME

Vyhostenie dvoch Čechov a zákaz vstupu na Slovensko na desať rokov za to, že počas prejavu amerického prezidenta Georgea Busha v Bratislave zapálili americkú papierovú vlajočku, české ministerstvo zahraničia rešpektuje.
Naše úrady ich čin označili za priestupok, v Česku by ich mohli za pálenie vlajky teoreticky stíhať za trestný čin výtržníctva. Petr Dimun z českého ministerstva spravodlivosti hovorí, že aj to je málo pravdepodobné. "Aj na základe skúseností spred roku 1989, keď padali veľmi prísne rozsudky za pálenie sovietskej vlajky a po revolúcii sa to rehabilitovalo," vraví Dimun.

Počas Bushovho prejavu na Hviezdoslavovom námestí, ktorý bol najmä o slobode, sa však udiali aj ďalšie veci hraničiace s porušovaním slobody prejavu. Mladému mužovi, ktorý jeden po druhom vyťahoval plagáty s kritickým textom, ich vzápätí bral po anglicky hovoriaci muž v obleku.
Na vstupenkách na zhromaždenie americká strana síce informovala návštevníkov, že nesmú mať plagáty, ale právnici upozorňujú, že tým bola zrejme porušená sloboda prejavu.
Ústavný právnik Radoslav Procházka pripomína, že slobodu prejavu u nás možno obmedziť iba v presne stanovených prípadoch a podľa jeho názoru ani s prihliadnutím na okolnosti Bushovho prejavu neboli na takéto obmedzenie splnené podmienky. Ministerstvo vnútra neodpovedalo na otázku, či išlo o porušenie práv občanov a akým bezpečnostným rizikom mohol byť papierový plagát. "S vašimi otázkami sa obráťte na veľvyslanectvo USA," odpovedalo.

Veľvyslanectvo USA nám odporučilo, aby sme položili otázky Bielemu domu, lebo ten celú návštevu organizoval.
Mladíka s kritickými plagátmi videl aj šéf brannobezpečnostného výboru Róbert Kaliňák zo Smeru. "Prejavoval sa tichým spôsobom a nebolo to nič urážlivé. Čo som videl, boli klasické posolstvá," povedal. To, že mu plagáty odoberali, vníma ako rozpor s obsahom Bushovho prejavu aj vzhľadom na to, že Bush spomínal ako príklad slobody sviečkovú demonštráciu v roku 1988, keď ľudia prejavovali svoj nesúhlas podobne.
Faktom je, že napriek zákazu o kúsok ďalej držala iná skupina ľudí veľký plagát. Ten bol voči Bushovi kladný a nikto im ho nezobral.

Šéf Úradu na ochranu ústavných činiteľov Ján Packa sa nechcel vyjadriť k tomu, kto vydal zákaz nosenia plagátov. On sám by videl bezpečnostné riziko iba v prípade, ak by išlo o transparenty na tyčiach, lebo tými by sa dalo ohroziť zdravie ľudí. "Pokiaľ je to nejaký plagát, bezpečnostné riziko to nie je," povedal.

Právnička združenia Občan a demokracia Zuzana Dlugošová si myslí, že samotné upozornenie, že ľudia nesmú mať plagáty, je neprimeraným "zásahom do slobody prejavu". Iný prípad by bol, keby boli na tyčiach, ale ak ide o obyčajné prejavenie názoru, je podľa nej "prirodzené, dokonca nevyhnutné v normálnej demokratickej spoločnosti, aby takéto prejavy mohli byť aj za prítomnosti prezidenta Busha".
Časť Bushových odporcov tvrdí, že práve zákaz plagátov odradil od účasti prípadných demonštrantov, lebo sa báli, že s plagátmi ich na zhromaždenie nevpustia.

http://www.sme.sk/clanok.asp?rub=print_sprav&cl=1950390

WTC1, WTC2 and WTC7 are the only steel-structure buildings ever to have collapsed (allegedly) as a result of fire. There are several cases of fires in other such buildings, none of which collapsed.

http://www.serendipity.li/wot/other_fires/other_fires.htm

Maximum pain is aim of new US weapon :

The US military is funding development of a weapon that delivers a bout of excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometres away. Intended for use against rioters, it is meant to leave victims unharmed. But pain researchers are furious that work aimed at controlling pain has been used to develop a weapon. And they fear that the technology will be used for torture.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7077

No Place to Hide: Living in the Surveillance State

http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/commentary.asp?record_id=325

This account says Thompson killed himself while sitting in a chair on his typewriter and yet the original account tells us that Thompson shot himself while talking to his wife on the phone in the kitchen. Why has the story changed andwhat is the significance of the word typed on the paper in light of the fact that Thompson said he would be 'suicided' before being able to release a major story on explosives bringing down the twin towers?

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2005/020305storychanges.htm

THEY WOULDN'T... WOULD THEY?

pearl harbour / northwoods / 911

http://www.newswithviews.com/Stuter/stuter61.htm

JAXXE: hmm : ( ja to videl titulek v dnesnich novinach a hned mi bylo z toho spatne. na takovyhle scifi bachorky se neda snad ani nic rict...

;))

Američané zachytili komunikaci teroristů

Usáma poslal Zarkávího zaútočit do USA

Autor: Reuters 01.03.2005 09:44

Dva nejhledanější světoví teroristé spřádají další vražedné plány. Šéf Al-Kajdy Usáma bin Ládin vyzval Abú Músu Zarkávího, aby zaútočil na půdě Spojených států. Uvedla to agentura Reuters s odvoláním na nejmenovaný zdroj z amerických bezpečnostních složek.


Zarkáví? Takový tichý muž, tvrdí jeho rodáci

"Mezi bin Ládinem a Zarkávím proběhla komunikace. Ládin vyzval Zarkávího, aby provedl útok na území USA," řekl zdroj pod podmínkou zachování anonymity.

Zdroj tvrdí, že se teroristé spojili poměrně nedávno. Podle něho ale nejsou k dispozici žádné konkrétní poznatky o aktuální hrozbě na americké půdě. Další informace už odmítl poskytnout s tím, že by mohl ohrozit protiteroristické úsilí.

Americké ministerstvo vnitřní bezpečnosti už varovalo úřady po celé zemi. Vláda má prý k dispozici blíže nespecifikované informace o plánech Al-Kajdy na útok v Americe. "Tyto informace opakují přání Al-Kajdy zaútočit v naší vlasti," řekl mluvčí ministerstva Brian Roehrkasse.

Informace podle něj stále analyzují zpravodajské služby. "Na jejich základě ale neplánujeme zvyšovat stupeň protiteroristické pohotovosti," ujistil Roehrkasse.

Jordánec Abú Músa Zarkáví je dnes nejhledanějším mužem v Iráku. Stojí za desítkami krvavých útoků. Podle Usámy bin Ládina je Zarkáví v Iráku jeho zástupcem.

Německý list Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung v této souvislosti cituje Daniela Banjamina, experta na terorismus z Washingtonu. "Zajímavé na tom je, že by byl Zarkáví něco takového provést, že by měl takový dosah. Ještě zajímavější je, že bin Ládin zřejmě věří, že by to Zarkáví dokázal," řekl Benjamin.

http://zpravy.idnes.cz/zahranicni.asp?r=zahranicni&c=A050301_094437_zahranicni_mad&t=A050301_094437_zahranicni_mad&r2=zahranicni

Hunter Thompson was working on WTC collapse story before mysterious sudden death



Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Toronto Globe and Mail February 26, 2005:

He'd been working on a story about the World Trade Center attacks and had stumbled across what he felt was hard evidence showing the towers had been brought down not by the airplanes that flew into them but by explosive charges set off in their foundations. ..

Hunter S. Thompson ... was indeed working on such a story.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050226/HUNTER26/TPFocus/


Now check out this February 25 Associated Press story about Thompson's death. Sounds a lot like a professional hit with a silencer: http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/02/25/thompsondeath.wife.ap/

"I was on the phone with him, he set the receiver down and he did it. I heard the clicking of the gun," Anita Thompson told the Aspen Daily News in Friday's editions.

She said her husband had asked her to come home from a health club so they could work on his weekly ESPN column...

Thompson said she heard a loud, muffled noise, but didn't know what had happened. "I was waiting for him to get back on the phone," she said.

(Her account to Rocky Mountain News reporter Jeff Kass is slightly different: "I did not hear any bang," she told Kass. She added that Thompson's son, who was in the house at the time, believed that a book had fallen when he heard the shot, according to Kass' report.)


Mack White sums up the questions well: http://mackwhite.com/

Thompson's family says he was not depressed, nor was he in enough to pain to kill himself. In fact, by all reports, he was quite happy. He was talking on the phone to his wife, getting ready to work on his column, when he decided it would be wise to kill himself, so that he could go out (we are told) while "still at the top of his form," even though this would mean not finishing his column or his expose on 9/11 (potentially the most important thing he would ever write) (?)

http://www.libertythink.com/2005/03/hunter-thompson-was-working-on-wtc.html

Huh, nejvaznejsim kandidatem na sefa Svetove banky je pry Paul Wolfovitz...

FESTER: dobre som sa pobavil, chlap to ma jasne premakane ... vidim ze tu svoju rit este mimo usa nedostal

"But we believe that our country is worth defending, and if anyone decides that killing us is an okay thing to do we will go after them with everything we've got"

Dobra zamienka ako vypadnut niekde von, zlyncovat pol krajiny a potom tam nasrat svoj biznis.

"Your rate of marriage is at an all-time low, and the number of abortions in Europe is at an all-time high. Indeed, your birth rates are so far below replacement levels that in 30 years or so there will be 70 million fewer Europeans alive than are alive today."

Do 30 rokov o 70milionov menej ? Hmmm zaujimave. Mozno ked sa rozsiri vtacia chripka H5N1 ktora ma zatial 75% uspesnost ze ten co ju ma neprezije. V tom pripade ale neobide ani bozske usa.

"And your armed forces are a joke. With the notable exception of Great Britain, you no longer have the military strength to defend yourselves. Alas, you no longer have the will to defend yourselves."

V tom pripade nechapem preco USA vzdy potrebuje pomoc na svoje barbarske tazenia po celom svete. Aha jasne chapem aby nevyzerali ako barbari co cistia to co im vyhovuje.

FESTER: mal by si tiez uz vypadnut z usa aspon na chvilu

Israeli air force training for long-range bombing missions

AFP | February 29 2005

The Israeli air force is training its crews for long-range bombing missions, the wing comannder of an F-16I fighter-bomber group said Monday.

"Israel and the air force have understood for a fairly long time now that the threats that surround us are constantly growing and that's why steps have been taken to extend our range of action," the officer, identified only as Wing Commander D., told Israel's privately run second television channel.

"That is to say that we are training for medium- and long-range missions."

The television highlighted that the commander was referring to possible future missions against suspected nuclear facilities in Iran by showing footage of the new atomic power station that Israel's archfoe is completing with Russian assistance in the Gulf port of Bushehr.

Israeli warplanes destroyed Iraq's French-built Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981.

http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050228204828.gag9uoou.html

"I mean, heck, why NOT bomb Iran now. We got all those dumb American bullet-stoppers in Iraq to keep Iran away from us!"

Obří kontrakt na Future Combat Systems

"Neznají hlad," říká v listu New York Times Gordon Johnson, šéf Spojených vojenských sil Pentagonu. "Neznají strach a nikdy nezapomenou rozkaz, který dostali. Nevadí jim, že kolega vedle nich byl právě zastřelen," pokračuje ve výčtu vlastností Johnson. "Jsou lepší bojovníci než lidé? Odpovídám ANO." Přicházejí vojáci nové generace. Americká armáda představila vysoce vyspělého robota, který nahradí bojující lidi. Pentagon předpokládá, že se roboti do deseti let stanou rozhodující silou v celé armádě. Dokážou nepřítele vystopovat i zabít. Roboti představují výsledek snahy americké armády se přetvořit v moderní jednotku pro boj v 21. století. Jejich nákup pro US Army bude stát 127 miliard dolarů a skrývá se pod projektem nazvaným Future Combat Systems. Koupě je vůbec největší zakázkou americké armády v historii. Za desítky miliard USD plánuje Pentagon přeměnit svoji útočnou sílu v plně automatizovanou armádu. Tato megatransakce donutí vládu zvýšit rozpočet ministerstva obrany až o 20%, což představuje více než 80 miliard dolarů. A to se do těchto počtů nezahrnují výdaje na válku. "Nebojte, tohle není Hollywood," prohlašuje Rodney A. Brooks, ředitel počítačové laboratoře a IA technologií M.I.T. a spoluzakladatel iRobot Corporation. Žádná vzpoura strojů nemůže nastat. Kde už jsme to slyšeli? Experti tvrdí, že roboti se bojujícímu člověku v mnohém přiblíží. "Budou myslet, vidět a reagovat jako lidé," uvádí se ve zprávě, kterou má NY Times k dispozici. V počátcích využívání robotů v boji budou stroje dálkově ovládány, ale časem by jejich autonomie měla růst. Míra jejich nezávislosti se prý projeví i ve tvarech, jež budou roboti disponovat. Pentagon snil o robotech tohoto typu po třicet let. Nyní ale nastává otázka jejich využití a další nejasnosti: rozpozná robot spolubojovníka od nepřítele? Dokonce i ti nejzavilejší obhájci automatů tvrdí, že válka bude vždy "lidskou záležitostí se smrtí a neštěstím". Robert Finkelstein, prezident společnosti Robotic Technology v Potomacu, tvrdí, že vývoj robotů do podoby, jakou si představuje Pentagon, potrvá ještě dalších třicet let. Do dubna prý Američané nasadí v Iráku prvního robota nového typu. Půjde o stroj řízený přes laptop, který je schopen vypálit až tisíc střel za minutu. Armáda se na roboty těší, již nyní využívá jejich předchůdce při odminovávání půdy v Iráku a prohledávání jeskyní v Afganistánu. Až nová řada strojů ale bude muset rozhodovat situace "na život a na smrt". "Právníci mi řekli, že v zákoně nejsou žádná omezení co se týká rozhodnutí život-smrt," uvedl Johnson. "Ale nepustíme roboty do akce, dokud si nebudeme jisti, že v tomto nechybují," dodal Johnson.
http://zpravy24.pantax.cz/2005/03/02.03.05.htm

Muslims can expect the police to target them, minister says

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1507174,00.html

FESTER: škoda že jste tu západní demokracii a civilizaci převzali i s nešvarama typu mučení, potlačování svobody projevu a podobně :(

rekl bych spis naivni amik... ale evropa jde do pici, v podstate do stejnej pici jako usa. podle me.

FRANCIMOR: ani bych nerek... celkem to vidim tak i ja...:)