Only An Idiot Would Praise Mexico For It's FAILED 'War On Drugs' - Enter Stephen Harper

"No matter how many die in Juarez, [Note: About 5,000 people have been slaughtered in Ciudad Juarez in 27 months. It is a destroyed city where 25 percent of the houses are abandoned and 40 percent of the businesses have closed.] no matter how low the pay in the American factories, the U.S. government insists the War on Drugs is being won and that NAFTA is a big success. [...]
More people die each day as the government of President Felipe Calderon uses the Mexican army and the federal police to try to get the illegal drug industry under control. Calderon was elected by a razor-thin margin and followed the custom of Mexican presidents by immediately making a show of force. But he badly underestimated the power of the drug industry.

The profits are estimated by many analysts to be between $30 billion and $50 billion a year, although it's notoriously difficult to track. But it is not a piddling sum in a country where oil is the official highest earner of foreign currency and supplies 40 percent of the federal budget. But the oil is running out. Calderon has publicly stated that the oil fields will be gone in 10 years or less."
CNN Editorial

"The struggle for public security is a battle that will take time, that will take money, and unfortunately, it will also require human lives, but it is a battle that must be undertaken … We, the people of Mexico, together, are going to win."

Mexico has seen an explosion of drug-related slayings in recent years stemming from Calderon's attempted crackdown on drug cartels, as well as rampant corruption within the country's police forces.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in turn, praised Calderon's "remarkable courage" in fighting drug cartels. The two leaders announced the signing of bilateral air service and youth mobility agreements, as well as additional funding from Canada to support Calderon's efforts to reform Mexico's justice system and combat the drug trade."
CBC.ca

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Why Is Harper Providing 'Corporate Welfare' To Oil and Gas Companies?

We used to call it 'corporate welfare'. Stephen Harper and his Conservatives call it a 'subsidy'. It seems to me that the bottom line for most Canadian oil and gas companies is healthy enough to do without tax dollars from 'Joe & Mary Average'.

Conservative political dishonesty shines through on this story. Harper refuses to comment on it ... and Finance Minister Flaherty has put duct tape across his lips when it comes to comment.

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government sidestepped questions Wednesday about whether it will cancel specific incentives and subsidies that favour oil and gas companies as part of a commitment on the agenda at next month's G-20 economic summit in Toronto.

Although a leaked internal memorandum from the Finance Department obtained by Canwest News Service has recommended a list of programs that the government should eliminate in order to show leadership and honour a G-20 commitment made last year, Harper dismissed criticism from Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and NDP Leader Jack Layton that he ignored the advice.

"Canada is a world leader in the elimination of these subsidies," Harper said in the House of Commons. "Compared to other countries, we have virtually none. I am not sure what specific subsidies the leader of the NDP is talking about."

The memorandum, prepared for Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and marked "secret," outlined two existing tax incentive measures for exploration and development (the Canadian exploration expense and the Canadian development expense), as well as a sanctioned tax shelter (flow-through shares), as possible candidates to be eliminated by the government in order to honour the commitment made at a G-20 summit last year."
-Calgary Herald

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Understanding 'Authoritarian' Conservatives

“Conservatives Without Conscience” by John W. Dean is a worthy read for all progressive thinkers. John W. Dean was White House legal counsel for President Richard Nixon for three years but become a key witness for the prosecution in the Watergate trials. He is a self admitted ‘conservative’.

However, he was NOT a Bush supporter, His book, published 4 years ago, provides urgent warnings concerning the political mind set and aggressive behavior of the Right-wing in North America.

His own words identify the basic premise of his book. Here is a sample:

“Conservatives without conscience do not have horns and tails; if they did they would be easier to identify. Many of them can be quite pleasant, but at heart they are tough, cold-blooded, ruthless authoritarians. They are limited in their ability to see the world from any point of view other than there own, and they are narrow in their outlook. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are prototypical conservative leaders without conscience.”
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“I have not written this book with the slightest expectation of ending the vile attacks of these authoritarian conservatives or of changing their Machiavellian attitudes. They cannot be stopped because their behaviour is simply a function of the way they are and how they think, their dispositions and the way they deal with the world. However, they can be understood, exposed, and watched, and there is a compelling reason to do so.”
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“Many conservatives, however, are simply entertained by reading conservative authors or hearing conservative talk show hosts rand about liberals. The exaggerated hostility also apparently satisfies a psychological need for antagonism toward the “out group,” reinforces the self-esteem of the conservative base and increases solidarity within the ranks.”
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“Not surprisingly, the very conservatives who love to hurl invective against the ranks of their enemies prove to have the thinnest of skins when the same is done to them. Many of the examples are familiar: Ann Coulter, who can trash perceived liberals on national television but has been known to walk offstage when booed, or to start crying when she thinks she is being treated unfairly.”

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“Right-wing authoritarians employ a number of psychological tricks and defences that enable them to act fairly beastly, all the while thinking they are ‘the good people’. To begin with they have relatively little self-understanding. For instance, they do not realize they are more prejudiced and hostile than most people. In fact, they do not realize any of the many undesirable things that research has discovered about them. Second, right-wing authoritarians have very compartmentalized minds, and they can just pull off a Scarlett O’Hara (“I’m not going to think about it!’) whenever they want.”
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“Probably about 20 to 25 percent of the adult American population is so right-wing authoritarian, so scared, so self-righteous, so ill-informed, and so dogmatic that nothing you can say or do will change their minds. They would march America into a dictatorship and probably feel that things had improved as a result. The problem is that these authoritarian followers are much more active than the rest of the country. They have the mentality of ‘old time religion’ on a crusade, and they generously give money, time and effort to the cause. They proselytize; they lick stamps; they put pressure on loved ones; and they revel in being loyal to a cohesive group of like thinkers. And they are so submissive to their leaders that they will believe and do virtually anything they are told. They are not going to let up and they are not going to go away”
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Conservatives Without Conscience is thought provoking. Dean uses his lengthy involvement with American Republicans and conservatives as the basis for his observations. Canadian small 'c' conservatives, as well, fit nicely into the authoritarian description that Dean provides.

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The Historical Of Mercedez Benz

History of Mercedes Benz, starting from a man named Emil Jellinek. He is an entrepreneur born in Leipzig (Germany) who later settled in Nice (France) and became a distributor of DMG products car.

DMG is an abbreviation of the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, the automotive company which was founded by Gottlieb Daimler.
At one point, Emil Jellinek Wilhelm Maybach begged, chief designer of Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG), in order to make the car fast, lightweight, and safe.
Emil Jellinek Wilhelm Maybach was the person who designed the first truck in the world, and directly produced in early 1896. As of October 1, 1896, a car of this design results in exports for the first time into this Maybach London.Nama later immortalized in the form of a sophisticated car Luxury Mercedes Benz saloon.

On April 2, 1900, exactly 26 days after the death of Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach to keep her promise, and began to make a car at the request of Emil Jellinek, when it could be said milestone "Mercedes Benz" dimulai.sejarah-car-mercy-retro-mercedesNama " Mercedes "was taken from the name of Emil Jellinek's daughter, who was then aged 10 years. Use of the name "Mercedes" by Emil Jellinek personafikasi affection than a parent to his daughter, also showed business instinct very high Emil Jellinek.

He values the importance of building a commercial image, by choosing a trademark name. "Mercedes" in Spanish or "Merci" in French which have a positive meaning of "gratitude", or in Latin which means "great gift".

historical-cars-retro-mercy-first 1886Mobil DMG with the name Mercedes was launched on December 22, 1900, and patented the name directly as a trademark in 1902

No half-hearted, Emil Jellinek ordered 36 units of 550 000 marks worth of gold (if compared with the current equal to 36 Mercedes Benz S 500, or more than 100 Mercedes Benz C 200 Kompressor).

Like this major corporations world-class, mergers like something that is difficult to develop the company circumvented.

And this is the form of mergers that seem to be preferred since the beginning of DMG than to forge strategic alliances with other automotive industries or acquisitions entered into

In 1926, Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie (founded by Karl Benz) mergers, and his name berunah become "Mercedes Benz". Karl Benz passenger car maker which is patented under the name "Benz Patent Motorwagen Omnibus." On March 18, 1895, this car regularly take passengers to the route Siegen - Deuz - Netphen as far as 15 kilometers.

Of the merger agreement stood Daimler Benz Aktiengesellschaft (Daimler-Benz AG). His first product was a six-cylinder diesel truck world's first so called Mercedes Benz L-5.

1998 Mercedes-Benz returned to the merger with Chrysler Corporation, the giant automotive industry in the United States berlambang five stars with angular frames. This merger formed a new company registered in Germany under the name of DaimlerChrysler, based in Stuttgart and Auburn Hills - Michigan (near Detroit, USA). Chrysler name also took the name of the inventor from the United States, the Walter P Chrysler.

In Asia, DaimlerChrysler merger with Mitsubishi Motors (Japan) and Hyundai Motor (South Korea). In Africa, DaimlerChrysler will concentrate from South Africa.

Until now, Mercedes Benz has been a century old. And is one of the five leading car manufacturer in the world.

World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945)-which did not result in devastating German automotive industry meredupnya berlambang three-pointed star.

Including the outbreak of the State into two, West Germany and East Germany, did not shake the automotive industry, based in Stuttgart (South Germany) is to exist.

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