Required Viewing!

The Nuremberg trials and their drama are familiar enough to the world, but not the face and the work of the 27-year-old American Army lawyer and investigator Benjamin Ferencz, charged with the task of collecting evidence for the Nuremberg prosecutions. 

Benjamin B. Ferencz (left) with Gen Dwight Eisenhower
his hand is on the box (Germany, 1945).

The terrors of entering the just-liberated camps with their hellish scenes—the film provides striking footage, more extensive than the usual documentary clips, of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower doing just that, with Gen. Omar Bradley just behind him—caused him, he tells the filmmakers, to create a self-defense mechanism. The whole scene wasn't real, he told himself—it was "just a case," one of many to get through, in camp after camp. He would become chief prosecutor of a special German unit, the Einsatzgruppen, the mobile killing units operating on the Eastern front. He found the report of their daily accomplishments, which Germans meticulously recorded—a typical page of which is shown on screen, detailing how many Jewish children were killed, how many men and women had been murdered on a particular date. He counted. "When I got to over a million I stopped counting." (Wall Street Journal).


Elusive Justice: The Search for Nazi War Criminals

Tuesday, Nov. 15, 9-11 p.m. EST on PBS, whose dates and times vary; check local listings.

The Contenders

Fridays, 8-9:30 p.m. EST on C-Span

Visit Benjamin Ferencz (above) http://www.benferencz.org/

Mad Mullahs R Us!

"Their is extreme concern about a report that says in response to reports of a possible Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, Iran is threatening to mount an attack on Israel via the Syrian border. According to an Iranian news agency, 30,000 Syrian and Palestinian men have spent the past three months training to infiltrate Israel in order to carry out suicide missions." (AP)

All in favor of 30,000 martyrs? Just scratch your beard, bum or bollocks.

Can't they give the world a break and just all self combust?

(Photos: Copyright Control).

Italy's New Gov: Number 3890 And Counting!

Italy closer to new government after reforms vote - BusinessWeek: "After weeks of political deadlock in Rome and Athens, investors were this week fearing the worst -- a Greek-style crisis in Italy that would tear apart the 17-nation euro currency union and shake the global economy.

Tell em' to give us the Euros, then Fritz & Co can piss off.

The market's 10 second sentiment improved on Friday, with the benchmark 10-year borrowing rate down to 6.48 percent -- a sharp retreat from the dangerous levels above 7 percent hit earlier this week. Their quick buck barometer can be likened to the Oracle of old and is just about as believable.
Meanwhile, the Italians are not going to be deflected from la dolce vita by some WASP Governments residing in far off northerner European climes.

Hey!..Ya wanna polish ma chrome worka?

So Fritz and Co will just have to keep digging deep to maintain Lambretta and

cappuccino folks in their comfort zones.

(Photos: Copyright Control).

The Big Lie? More Like The Three Stooges!

 "Wall Street has its own version: Its Big Lie is that banks and investment houses are merely victims of the crash. You see, the entire boom and bust was caused by misguided government policies. It was not irresponsible lending or derivative or excess leverage or misguided compensation packages, but rather long-standing housing policies that were at fault."

Oh, yeah? More accurately I'd say this equation Washington Post:

Dogma Driven Tossers (Gov) + Greedy Fuckers (Bks) + (Stupid Bastards) (Bys)
 = (TFF-up)
or to put it in the vernacular: Total Financial Fuck-Up.

The culture for this culpable three-some was set firstly by the Government/FM&FM: The financial institutions just got on with their own version of lets-juggle-the-nitro and please lord that the musical-chair music don't stop while I'm holdin' the toxic treats. Finally; you got to have the mugs...the punters who earned $2's a week and wet their pants when given a $500,000 loan for their little house and a prairie.
When the Moon's in Aquarius and the Three Stooges are all in the candy shop together, what do you friggin' expect, Washington Post?

Moe Gov.  Larry Lender and Curly Confused aka The Buyer.

(Photos: Copyright Control).

Penn State...

'All that is necessary for evil to triumph 

is that good men do nothing'

- (Burke)

Obama Bottles It!

Keystone pipeline delay draws cheers, dismay - latimes.com: "President Obama's decision Thursday to put off the decision of whether to permit the controversial Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico drew cheers from his environmentalist supporters but heightened criticism from opponents eager for jobs and fuel for the ailing U.S. economy. The 1,700-mile pipeline would carry oil extracted from Canada's tar sands to the Gulf of Mexico, crossing plains states and the enormous Ogallala aquifer. It has been the target of increased protest and opposition from environmentalists who complain that the corrosive oil poses a spill threat."
Obama has "bottled it" as the Brits would say. Showing zero leadership and putting him the left side of the rag-tag army of Occupy, one has to wonder if he's getting a back-hander from the princes of price fixin' otherwise known as OPEC.

(Photo: LA Times)

We expect the usual troop of ban-it baboons to be marching, as they have their own anti-industrial-America agendas. Pre-Stone Age would be too advanced for the great unwashed. If it's not a pond of tadpoles that's in the way of America's needs, then it's the no tar sands twits and a non President.
I couldn't imagine Putin putting up with any of this, as mother Russia's needs come before Greens and geese.

Now...just who did you say was holding up the pipeline?

(Photo: Copyright Control).

Russian Failure? Hopefully Not...

BBC News - Mood grim over Mars probe fault: "Russian space scientists are growing increasingly gloomy about the prospects of saving the country's $170m (£107m) mission to a moon of Mars."

The payload for Phobos.

The Phobos-Grunt probe launched successfully on Wednesday but then failed to fire an engine to put it on the correct course to the Red Planet. A failure for Russia is also disquieting for anyone who is a supporter of space exploration. It's success is even more important now that NASA has much less dollars to spend...so let's hope that their scientists can somehow find an 11th hour solution.