Posted: 19 Oct 2009 07:36 PM PDT (via BoingBoing)
(click for larger image). Sweet baby Jesus and biscuits, I can't hardly believe my eyes. Above, the truly awesome cover of a 1980 issue of Wild Mook, one of many fanzines produced in the early 1980s by the late Haruo Mizuno. "Mook" refers to a type of publication that's kind of halfway between a magazine and a book. Matt Alt (who I reached out to for comment in this BB post today) says
More on Matt's blog. Man, if anyone out there has a copy of Wild Mook, please scan it and share online. I want a hard copy so bad![Mizuno was] so obsessed with American cops that he actually managed to talk the NYPD and LAPD into letting him ride along with officers. This amazing book is but one of dozens he authored on the topic. None sum up the Japanese fascination with the American power aesthetic as much as this fetish-like pastiche of uniform, hamburgers, weapons, and mountains of french fries, though.
Such art direction, too! I mean, just look at the pile of fast food surrounding the cop (or model) on the cover, above. I count six Big Macs, a couple Filet-o-Fishes, 5 metric craploads of fries, and at least one jumbo gordito taco supremo with guacamole.
He is RESTING HIS BILLY CLUB ON THE FRIES. The billy club may actually be PROTECTING THE FRIES. And there's that steely gaze in his eyes... as if to say, "You touch my hamburger, punk, and it'll be your last."
Below, scanned covers from two other issues.
Top 10 Censored News Stories You Must Read
Source:
http://www.listzblog.com/top_ten_censored_world_news_stories_list.html
Have you ever read a news story on the internet and wondered why it wasn’t being broadcasted on any of the numerous news stations, magazines, newspapers, or journals in your area of the world. A story that has cultural and international impact, but instead Paris Hilton being released from prison is the lead story of the evening. It is no secret that local governments have control over what gets broadcasted on national television in all areas of the world. I have collected a list of 10 recent news stories that managed to get overlooked by the national media in many nations.
10. Ecuador Challenges Legitimacy of Foreign Debt
In November 2008, Ecuador became the first country ever to undertake an examination of the legitimacy and structure of its foreign debt. In the 1970s Ecuador became victim to unscrupulous international lending, which encouraged borrowing at low interest
rates. In over thirty years the country’s debt has grown from $1.174 billion in 1970, to over $14.250 billion in 2006, a twelve fold increase. This was due in large part to interest rates that rose at the discretion of US banks and Federal Reserve from 6% in 1979 to 21% in 1981. An independent debt audit commissioned by the government of Ecuador documented hundreds of allegations of irregularity, illegality, and illegitimacy in contracts of debt to predatory international lenders. The loans, according to the
report, violated Ecuador’s domestic laws, US Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, and general principles of international law.
It was revealed that Salomon Smith Barney, now part of Citigroup Inc., issued unauthorized restructuring of Ecuador’s debt in 2000 that lead to exorbitant interest rates, which, combined with extensive borrowing by former dictators, has damaged the country. Over the years, Equator has made debt payments that far exceed the principal it borrowed. Every dollar spent on international credit means less is available for fighting poverty. Under the World Bank system, which oversees investment treaties, there is no public accountability, no standard judicial ethics rules, and no appeals process for illegitimate international debt. Ecuador has asked for a review of international norms on the regulation of the foreign debt market. In June 2009, Ecuador announced that it
had reached an agreement with 91% of creditors to buy back its debt for 35 cents on the dollar. This is an interesting story that was not reported anywhere in the mainstream media.
9. Hurricane Katrina Aftermath
2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the area of New Orleans and the storm surge led to 53 levee breaches in the federally built levee system protecting metro New Orleans and the failure of the 40 Arpent Canal levee flooding 80% of the city. Chaos ensued in the city as the over 300,000 residents tried to evacuate. The disaster was one of the biggest news stories of the year, but few people learned about the true problems in the city of New Orleans on the day the levee’s broke. A race war was fought in the streets.
During the disaster the National Guard designated the Algiers Point ferry landing an official evacuation site, where flood victims were to be loaded onto buses headed for safety in Texas. Algiers Point is a predominantly white area of the city, while the rest of Algiers is predominantly black citizens. People were looting stores, stealing cars, and performing random assaults all over the area. They began to target individuals of the other race. Numerous white vigilante groups were formed and patrolled the streets of New Orleans. They are estimated to have killed a total of 11 African American victims. Local gangs were formed and they armed themselves for battle. White individuals were also murdered during the days following the flooding of New Orleans. The local police have never conducted investigations into these crimes.
8. The Death of Mike Connell
One of the most mysterious and under reported deaths in recent history is that of Mike Connell. Mike Connell was Karl Rove’s chief IT consultant who died in a private plane crash in 2008. At the time of his death Mike Connell was facing a subpoena in
connection with 2004 Presidential election fraud in Ohio. Connell was allegedly the central figure in a longstanding plot to electronically flip votes to Republicans in the 2004 U.S. election. In July 2008, Connell was named as a key witness in the case,
which was filed against Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth J. Blackwell on August 31, 2006. It charged Blackwell with racially discriminatory practices, including the selective purging of voters from the election rolls and the unequal allocation of voting
machines to various districts. Blackwell also faced charges of depriving the plaintiffs of their voting rights, including the right to have their votes successfully cast without intimidation, dilution, cancellation or reversal by voting machine or ballot tampering.
The ultimate accusation was that the Bush campaign electronically stole the Ohio 2004 election. Connell was an experienced pilot. His plane had been recently serviced. He had been in the nation’s capital on still-unknown business before his single engine plane
crashed December 22, 2008 on the way home, just three miles short of the runway in Akron, Ohio. The cause of the crash remains unknown. At the time of his death, the only mainstream news outlet in the U.S. to even mention Connell’s death and the controversies surrounding his involvement in electronic voting was a single CBS/AP story. The extreme vulnerability of electronic voting systems is a major issue in the U.S. The case against the state of Ohio fizzled after the death of Connell.
7. U.S. Companies Have Overseas Tax Havens
A 2008 study done by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that 83 of the top publicly held US companies have operations in tax havens like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and the Virgin Islands. This means that these companies put billions of dollars in overseas banking organizations in order to avoid U.S. tax. Fourteen of these companies, including AIG, Bank of America, and Citigroup, received money from the government bailout. According to the Department of Justice Swiss banking giant UBS has enabled wealthy Americans to use tax schemes, some of which are illegal, to cheat the IRS out of billions of dollars in recent years. Some of the most rich and powerful people in the world have connections and can build relationships with individuals who can help them avoid U.S. taxes. The major international locations for hiding funds include Austria, Luxembourg, the Channel Islands, Singapore, Hong Kong, Andorra, Monaco, and Gibraltar. In the Caribbean, the established havens are the Bahamas, Bermuda, and the Cayman Islands.
In December 2008, the bank holding company Goldman Sachs reported its first quarterly loss. On the heels of this announcement, Goldman Sachs issued a statement confirming that its tax rate was dropping from 34.1% to 1%. They cited “changes in geographic
earnings mix.” This means that the company moved almost all of its money shares out of the U.S. in order to gain a better tax rate in a different country. Goldman Sachs, which got $10 billion and debt guarantees from the US government in October 2008,
expects to pay only $14 million in taxes worldwide for 2008, compared with $6 billion in 2007. The problem is much larger than Goldman Sachs. It is being studied and resolved as thousands of US taxpayers with Swiss bank accounts face the prospect of
IRS examination of their bank documents. These individuals could face prosecution and/or civil litigation.
6. Oil and Gas Companies Move Into the Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest is the largest, species-rich, biodiverse rainforest on earth. Recently, vast areas of the Amazon Rainforest have been opened for oil and gas exploration, putting some of the planet’s most pristine forests at risk. Many areas could someday be filled with oilrigs and pipelines. Multi-international oil and gas companies use numerous zoned areas for exploration and development when searching for oil. These zones now cover the Amazon in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and western
Brazil.
The western Amazon is also home to many indigenous ethnic groups, including some of the world’s last uncontacted people living in voluntary isolation. The last true examples
of biological and cultural diversity could be disturbed by oil companies. Environmental scientists refer to these groups as the lungs of the planet. The real concern is when exploration is successful and a zone moves into the development phase, because that’s when the roads, drilling and pipelines come in. Oil and gas blocks now cover more than 700,000 square kilometers in the western Amazon. Growing global demand are stimulating unprecedented levels of new oil and gas exploration, even in the untamed Amazon Rainforest.
5. European Environmental and Consumer Safety Bill
The various forms of cancer in the world are easily the leading cause of death among humans. While the cause of cancer can often be directly linked with smoking, drugs, or bad health, what about those people that just get cancer? Is an unknown external factor causing this disease?
In recent years a European model has been proposed that insist on environmental and consumer safety in all produced sellable goods. It is a European-led revolution in chemical regulation that requires that thousands of chemicals finally be assessed for
their potentially toxic effects on human beings and put an end to the American industry’s ability to withhold critical data from the public. US deregulation of toxic substances, such as lead in lipsticks, mercury in electronics, and phthalates (endocrine
disruptors) in baby toys, may not only pose disastrous consequences to America’s health, but also to its economic and political status in the world. Europe has launched stringent new regulations that require companies seeking access to their lucrative
markets eliminate toxic substances and manufacture safer electronics, automobiles, toys and cosmetics.
Numerous dangerous chemicals have been identified via the European Union’s 2007 Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals law. Hundreds of companies located in the US produce or import hundreds of chemicals designated as
dangerous by the European Union. Large amounts of these chemicals are being produced in 37 U.S. states. According to the Environmental Protection Agency only 5% of all chemicals in the US have undergone even minimal testing for their toxicity or
environmental impact. It is a true worldwide problem that needs to be addressed and adapted to.
4. The Shearon Harris Nuclear Generating Station
The Shearon Harris Nuclear Generating Station is one of the largest nuclear power plant’s in the United States. It is located in New Hill, North Carolina about 20 miles
southwest of Raleigh. The plant contains the largest radioactive waste storage pools in the country. It is not just a nuclear-power-generating station, but also a repository for highly radioactive spent fuel rods from two other nuclear plants, thus creating some of
the most lethal patches of ground in the world. The spent fuel rods are transported by rail and stored in four densely packed pools filled with circulating cold water from
Harris Lake to keep the waste from heating. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has marked Shearon Harris as one of the most vulnerable terrorist targets in the nation.
However, a threat exists without a terrorist attack. Should the cooling system malfunction, the resulting fire would be virtually unquenchable and could trigger a nuclear meltdown, putting more than 200 million residents of this rapidly growing section of North Carolina in extreme peril. Labs have conducted studies that estimate that a pool fire could cause 140,000 cancers, contaminate thousands of square miles of land, and cause over $500 billion in off-site property damages.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has estimated that there is a 1:100 chance of pool fire happening under the best of scenarios. In 1999, the plant experienced four emergency shutdowns. A few months later, in April 2000, the plant’s safety monitoring system, designed to provide early warning of a serious emergency failed. In the spring of 2003 there were four emergency shutdowns of the plant, including three over a four-day period. One of the incidents occurred when the reactor core failed to cool
down during a refueling operation while the reactor dome was off of the plant, a potentially catastrophic series of circumstances. The plant has undergone some advances and has not had any reported problems for a while.
3. U.S. Schools Are Segregated
According to a new Civil Rights report published at the University of California, Los
Angeles, schools in the U.S. are more segregated today then in the 1950’s. 44% of all
children in the U.S. education program are non-white. Minority groups are rapidly
emerging as the majority in the public school systems. Latinos and blacks, the two
largest minority groups, attend schools more segregated today than during the civil
rights movement forty years ago, two of every five students attend intensely segregated
schools. The Civil Rights Study showed that the most severe segregation in public
schools is in the western states, including California, not in the south, as many people
believe. Most non-Caucasian schools are segregated by poverty as well as race. They
are highly unequal in terms of funding, qualified teachers, and curriculum.
The report indicates that schools with high levels of poverty have weaker staffs, fewer
high-achieving peers, health and nutrition problems, residential instability, single-parent
households, and a high exposure to crime and gangs. Low-income campuses are more
likely to be ignored by college and job market recruiters. This is leading to large
numbers of virtually unemployable young people of color. 85% of the nation’s teachers
are white. This spiraling trend is a direct threat to the economic and social future of the
general population. Of 8.3 million rural white students, 73% attend schools that are 80
to100 percent white. This trend needs to be reversed or the U.S. will just be diminishing
its common potential. A parent in the U.S. will tell you that the number one concern
after their child’s health is getting them into a good school. Families often relocate for
this single purpose.
2. U.S. Government Greatly Influenced by Finance Industry
Information has come to light that suggests that the Unites States Government is being heavily
influenced by a small sector of the finance industry. In 2008, at the height of the mortgage crisis
the U.S. Government created a bailout program titled the Troubled Assets Relief Program
(TARP). It allowed the United States Department of the Treasury to purchase or insure up to
$700 billion of "troubled" assets. The money was to be given to the struggling Wall Street and the
financial sector. It created much debate and criticism in congress and among the American
people. One might question why the U.S. government was being so generous to the financial
institutions. It could have something to do with the fact that lawmakers and high-ranking officials
of the U.S. Government receive millions of dollars in campaign contributions from these
investment-banking firms annually. Some of the top recipients of contributions from companies
receiving Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) money are the same members of congress
who chair committees charged with regulating the financial sector and overseeing the effectiveness
of this unprecedented government program. You could say that the finance industry got their
money’s worth by supporting members of Congress during their personal campaigns.
We have not even reached the truly shocking aspects of this story. In 2009, a new series of
government operations have been invented to inject money into the economy. You won’t hear
about these programs on your national news station. On a much larger scale then the TARP the
Federal Reserve has quietly been pumping not billions, but trillions of dollars into the hands of
private financial companies. The new activity by the Federal Reserve completely eclipses the
TARP program in terms of its influence on the economy. No one knows who’s getting that
money or exactly how much of it is disappearing. Many have the fear that this action is leading to
a gradual takeover of the government by a small class of connected insiders, who use money to
control elections, buy influence and systematically weaken financial regulations. The heads of the
U.S. Government have been busy passing bills and bailing out the financial sector, while receiving
fundraising from the same companies. Where do you think the money involved with the bailouts
is coming from? It is weakening our economy and raising your federal taxes. Since this story
was released these major financial institutions have scaled back their overall giving in the first
quarter of 2009.
1. Nuclear Waste is being Dumped in the Waters of Somalia
In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed. Foreign nations seized the opportunity
to begin looting the country’s food supply and using the country’s unguarded waters as
a dumping ground for nuclear and other toxic waste. Yes dumping nuclear waste
directly into the ocean. According to the High Seas Task Force (HSTF), there were over
800 IUU fishing vessels in Somali waters at one time in 2005, taking advantage of
Somalia’s inability to police and control its own waters and fishing grounds. Poaching
in these waters has become a serious problem. Unidentified vessels poach an estimated
$450 million in seafood from Somali waters annually. In so doing, they steal an
invaluable protein source from some of the world’s poorest people and ruin the
livelihoods of legitimate fishermen.
Allegations of the dumping of toxic waste in the waters had been rumored for years. It
was confirmed after the 2004 tsunami hit the coast of Somalia and washed up a plethora
of rusting containers of toxic waste. The barrels were smashed open by the force of the
tsunami. Many different kinds of waste were revealed. There was uranium radioactive
waste, lead, and heavy metals like cadmium and mercury, also industrial wastes, hospital
wastes, chemical wastes, you name it. Since the containers came ashore, hundreds of
residents have fallen ill, suffering from mouth and abdominal bleeding, skin infections
and other ailments. The practice helps fuel the eighteen-year-old civil war in Somalia,
as companies pay Somali government ministers and/or militia leaders to dump their
waste.
Unfortunately, the UN and the region’s maritime authorities are ignoring the violations.
One of the biggest mainstream media stories of the year in the U.S. was the kidnapping
of American captain Richard Phillips by the “Somali Pirates.” Nothing is mentioned of
the current poaching and nuclear waste problems in the waters. In fact the “Somali
Pirates” are known as the Volunteer Coast Guard of Somalia in that area of the world
and are attempting to protect their own waters. Over 70% of the Somali citizens support
their efforts, although kidnapping and murder are still international crimes that are and
should be punishable.
Check out Source:
http://www.listzblog.com/top_ten_censored_world_news_stories_list.html
