The state is never wrong, but…

* Remember the Yearning for Zion Mormon sect that was raided in Texas a couple months ago? The 400 children that were seized by the state based on unfounded child abuse accusations have been returned to their parents because the Texas Supreme Court ruled that officials failed to prove they were facing any immediate danger. This is a classic case of persecution, in my opinion. 400 children were ripped from their families because Texas law enforcement made a judgement call without evidence to support their actions & now these kids surely have an understandable distrust of the outside world. Super job, Texas! If any abuse was occurring (which I'm pretty sure is the case), the abused aren't likely to seek help outside the Ranch in the future. All the gun-jumping Texas officials can say now is "My bad". Oops. What I can't understand is how the state is able to impose regulations on the parents since they haven't been convicted of any wrong doing, The parents are required to take parenting classes, aren't permitted to leave the state, the children must submit to medical evaluations, welfare workers are allowed to conduct unannounced visits, and any trip over 100 miles within the state must be OKed by state officials. How is that legal? Unless every family is the state of Texas is regulated by the same conditions, I can't possibly see how the court expects their ruling to stand up under close scrutiny.

*The Bolivian government has seized control of it's natural gas pipeline that was previously operated by Royal Dutch Shell & Ashmore Energy International in a move that will inevitably piss off our corporate controllers. No doubt Bush & Co, will decry the actions of Bolivia as being influenced by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, but Bolivian President Evo Morales made their reasons pretty clear when he said "They [the above mentioned companies] wanted to be bosses, and have us be the employees. We're a small country - sometimes they call us underdeveloped - but we have lots of dignity. Partners are welcome, but we will not accept bosses." Remember that when our government says that Bolivia is governed by extremists or that the motivations behind the seizure were somehow evil. According to Washington, "evil" is code for being against corporate domination.

* Another example of America's underhanded economic policy was called out by the World Trade Organization & will probably lead to trade sanctions on U.S. cotton. Our government has illegally paid U.S. growers subsidies that allow our exported cotton to be sold at prices that undercut the ability of other nations to sell their own cotton (even in their own countries). Brazil brought the charges before the WTO & is now looking at the possibility of collecting on $1 billion a year in sanctions on U.S. imports. That is a major economic bitch-slap, if I've ever seen one! Look for Bush's response which will probably diss the WTO as biased or evil (see definition above).