Chavez has months to live.

10:13 11/12/2012

...Venezuelan doctor (click here) Jose Rafael Marquina, who is based in the United States and is known for his accurate prognoses on Chavez’s health, told RCN radio that Chavez has "between two and three months to live."

“The disease has entered an aggressive stage. He has metastases in the lumbar area, compressing nerves around the lumbar area of his backbone, which may lead to paralysis,” said Marquina, who claims to have access to firsthand sources and information about the president’s health....

By TAMARA PEARSON 
VENEZUELANALYSIS.COM
December 12th 2012

...However, all of the 23 PSUV candidates (click here) were chosen by President Hugo Chavez and the national PSUV executive. The PSUV is a national “machine”, as we are prone to call it here, and despite some regional differences, its state campaigning has been conducted according to national lines and a national strategy. So, although this article will focus on experiences in Merida state, the problems discussed of treating PSUV members like voters rather than activists, of isolating political parties and movements that are not aligned to the PSUV and so on, are problems that are across the board, and though more pertinent in this election campaign, can be said to be general problems in the PSUV....

China denounces any military use of North Korea's technology.

North Korea’s (click here) official news agency announced that the Unha-3 carrier rocket has delivered into orbit the second version of Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite on Wednesday.

I think China was as alarmed as any other country on the planet. Russia on the other hand is very subdued in their response.

4:17PM EST December 12. 2012 - BEIJING — North Korea's launch (click here for video) of a long-range rocket Wednesday in defiance of international warnings prompted denunciations from the U.S. and its allies as the regime of Kim Jong Un took a giant step forward in its quest to develop the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead.

The governments of the United States, South Korea and Japan quickly condemned the morning launch, and experts on the Korean Peninsula weighed in on the international repercussions of the successful launch following several failed attempts....

I sincerely believe everyone was taken by surprise. The question is what's next. Will North Korea be content with it's new status or are their ambitions beyond that? I have to wonder what prompted President Obama to focus on the Pacific in recent years. It is just in time. 

WEDNESDAY, DEC 12, 2012 11:40 AM EST

BY NATASHA LENNARD

...The U.S. condemned the “highly provocative act”;(click here) Japan called the launch “extremely regrettable”; South Korea said it was “a clear violation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions … and a threat to peace to the Korean Peninsula and around the world.” The U.N.’s Ban Ki Moon concurred. China, North Korea’s closest ally in the region, even offered a tepid criticism: “We hope relevant parties stay calm in order to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula,” said a spokesperson from the Chinese Foreign Ministry....

NORAD and USNORTHCOM Public Affairs
December 11, 2012

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. - North American (click here) Aerospace Defense Command officials acknowledged today that U.S. missile warning systems detected and tracked the launch of a North Korean missile at 7:49 p.m. EST. The missile was tracked on a southerly azimuth. Initial indications are that the first stage fell into the Yellow Sea. The second stage was assessed to fall into the Philippine Sea. Initial indications are that the missile deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit. At no time was the missile or the resultant debris a threat to North America.

But, It was suppose to work in our favor. All of it.

I would not underestimate the anger of Big Daddy Adelson. He invested heavily in Romney's win for the Executive Branch of the federal government. His primary motive is Israel. Absolutely.

But, making the stakes higher is what Adelson is all about.

He wants to exact revenge and rationalizes it by seeing America designed for his empire to carry out whatever his priorities are. He wants to play "Bain." He wants to destroy the unions. The unions are a safe harbor for the Middle Class and he wants them gone!

The bird is not a spy. It is an informant to a biologist studying the habitat.

If this is what politics looks like in Sudan, it is a little rough around the edges. I think the message is anti-Israeli. Why do these countries always have to play politics with antisemitism? Like feeding the masses and providing shelter and health care. Aren't there sincere and profound social issues they should be focused on rather than propagating war. The poor bird.

....The bird (click here) also wore an ankle label reading "Hebrew University Jerusalem," "Israel Nature Service" and the contact details of an Israeli avian ecologist.The ecologist, Ohad Hatzofe of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, has rejected the Sudanese government claims -- saying the vulture, which can fly up to 600 kilometers in a single day, was tagged with GPS equipment to study its migration pattern.

"The Sudanese accusations are untrue," Hatzofe told CNN. "The GPS gear on these vultures can only tell us where the birds are, nothing else."...

Syrian men try to boil water at a refugee camp near the Turkish border in Azaz.
Photo: Manu Brabo, Associated Press / SF

Rebuilding a country of citizens and not enemies. It sometimes takes a generation or two.

Animal activist Aldin Pasic carries off a stray dog in the Sarajevo suburb of Dobrnja, Bosnia. Sarajevo has become the only city in Bosnia where a law banning the killing of strays is respected thanks to a new city-funded dog shelter that performs sterilizations.
Photo: Amel Emric, Associated Press / SF

Neutering stray dogs is a small price to pay for the appreciation of life.

By Daria Sito-Sucic

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - A co-hosting (click here) of the European Youth Olympics by Bosnia's capital Sarajevo and a Serb-run former suburb should foster cooperation across former wartime front lines and help boost a struggling economy, municipal and sports officials said on Monday.

Sarajevo and East Sarajevo won a joint bid at the weekend to hold the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival (EYOWF) in 2017, boosting hopes of rehabilitating negative images of ethnic division lingering from Bosnia's 1992-95 war and reviving the spirit of the 1984 Winter Olympics hosted by Sarajevo.

The Sarajevo Olympics were held when Bosnia was still part of federal Yugoslavia, which broke up violently two decades ago. Most Olympic facilities on nearby mountains were destroyed during the war but many have been rebuilt in recent years....

"This one is for Daddy." Is the wife still alive?

Japan said the rocket passed over its territory, but it did not shoot it down

North Korea wants to attack the West. Japan is as much a part of the West than any country geographically there. Next stop Hawaii, but, Japan is nearly Hawaii.

By Anthony Sharwood
news.com.au
December 12, 2012
2:17PM

Speaking exclusively to news.com.au, (click here) University of Sydney lecturer Dr Leonid Petrov said North Korea had three main reasons for launching an intercontinental rocket.

"North Korea had promised to launch the rocket between the 10th and 22nd of December, and they have kept that promise," Dr Petrov said.

"These dates are important because it is one year since the death of Kim Jong-il.

"It was extremely important to them to launch this satellite and at this time. The new technology sends a strong signal to the domestic audience that North Korea is still a strong self-reliant economic power.

"The second message they are sending is to the world.

"They are saying that they have advanced rocket technology, and sooner and later will be able to deliver a nuclear payload. Until today they could not deliver it but they have now demonstrated they are one major step forward in the arms race."

The third reason North Korea launched the rocket today is strongly related to the other two.

"Basically, Korea has nothing to lose because of the UN sanctions against N Korea which have existed since 1950," Dr Petrov explains.

"All that matters to the [ruling] family is the survival of the regime. A change of regime could happen if there are perceived weaknesses."...

The next move for the Political Right Wing is to push companies in Michigan off unionization.

Any excuse is a good excuse. I am sure the Political Right Wing will see this as GM failing all over again when in actuality it is preserving American jobs. The unions are going to have to use media, suggestions radio and social media, to help the companies maintain their image and credibility. We know for a fact the GOP pundits stop at nothing. Obviously. But, they don't care if they force a false image and cause damage to USA companies to achieve a goal. They'll a company and cause damage out of pure will to win. Snyder never through past his own political ambitions. He did a reverse on his position with Right to Work because pundits are promising him some kind of payoff. Romney was just in Vegas with Money Bags Adelson. Adelson wants a bigger and better Bain. This all happened after that. They probably are looking at the big three and planning revenge.

It is time to save the unions in the USA, they are freedom and they are a healthy economy. We know that for a fact now.

GM-Opel plant in Germany to shut down (click here)

By Dietmar Henning 
12 December 2012

...“2016 ends the production of entire vehicles in Bochum”, Opel CEO Thomas Sedran told workers at the staff meeting on Monday. Following his less than one-minute statement Sedran hurriedly left the meeting room by a back entrance. Eyewitnesses report that an official of the factory union, the engineering and metal workers union IG Metall, sought to speak to Sedran before he left. The official was immediately pushed to the ground by security guards and assaulted....

This was all part of the bailout settlement. This plant was slated to be closed.

By Tim Higgins on December 11, 2012

December is turning out to be a good month to buy a pickup. (click here)

General Motors Co. (GM), straining with an oversupply of full- sized trucks, is offering a stepped-up package of incentives on Chevrolet Silverados and GMC Sierras. The incentives may have risen to as much as $5,000 per pickup in December from less than $4,000 last month on Silverados, according to researcher TrueCar.com’s estimates.

The incentive program represents a slippery slope for the world’s largest automaker. The company earlier vowed to hold the line on such promotions to protect profits through the end of the year, even as competitors flood showrooms with traditional year-end deals. Walking a line offering incentives that lure buyers without threatening profits or spooking investors is the difficult game that GM is now forced to play....

Buy American. I wish the truck manufacturers would concentrate on selling diesel trucks. They are more expensive to manufacture and their ticket price is higher, but, they are fuel conscience and better environmentally. Not only that but biodiesel is an option for diesel trucks without any modifications. If they become more popular their sticker price might come down.

They say depreciation (click here) begins the minute an owner drives a new car home. But if the car survives beyond a normal lifespan, it stops depreciating and begins acquiring value as a collectible. The process can consume a lot of time, as illustrated by this 1903 Ford Model A. New, its base price was $850. Last October, it sold at auction for $264,000, and to a noteworthy new owner: William Clay Ford, Jr., executive chairman of the board for Ford Motor Company and Henry’s great-grandson.

Mr. Ford is only the sixth owner of the Model A, which is believed to be one of the first three built, the third one sold, and the oldest surviving Ford production car. The original owner was Herbert L. McNary, who worked for a creamery in Britt, Iowa. He paid $850 for the car, which he and his family kept for over a half-century....

Target is 2014 for the unions, but, political shake ups will be pushed far before the next group of lawmakers in Michigan take their seats in 2012. The GOP picked the wrong year to attack the Middle Class. This should also reignite opposition in Wisconsin, too. The Snyder bill attacks private unions and not just public. No doubt Walker is eyeing the possibility in Wisconsin as well.

• By Chad Selweski/Digital First Media

• Posted: 12/12/12 12:01 am
  Updated: 12/12/12 03:26 am

• 
  

...Union leaders and members, (click here) many carrying anti-Snyder signs, vowed to continue the fight and seek revenge at the ballot box in 2014.

Terry O’Sullivan, general president of the Laborers International Union of North America, delivered a fiery, profanity-laced speech to a pro-union crowd that stretched from across Allegan Street to the front steps of the Capitol. O’Sullivan, referring to 2014, repeated the infamous remark by Teamsters President James Hoffa at the 2011 Labor Day parade in Detroit.

“We’re going to take them out,” O’Sullivan said, referring in particular to GOP lawmakers associated with the tea party. “If it’s a fight they want, it’s a war they’re going to get.”

War it is !