I almost missed Jim Hightower's checklist of big oil's most recent tax write-offs:

• BP can write off 70 percent of the rent it paid to TransOcean for the oil rig "rental." - $225,000 per day
• TransOcean moves its offices to Switzerland and avoids paying $1.8 billion in U.S. taxes.
• Exxon Mobil raked in $19 billion in profit, but thanks to available subsidies, it got a $156-million tax refund.

Benefits for the unemployed are subject to "debate" but corporate welfare gets the backing of the Congressional oil whore caucus until forever.

Forgive me for going Godwin-esque from the get-go, but in reading this article, I couldn't help but think of Europe in the 1920's, with the word "Muslim" replacing "Juden":

Switzerland approved Sunday a ban on new minarets from being built, with the referendum initiated by far-right politicians picking up strong support.

To the dismay of the Muslim minority here, some 57.5 percent of voters who cast ballots and 22 out of 26 cantons voted to ban the towers or turrets attached on mosques from where Muslims are called to prayer.

Far-right politicians across Europe celebrated the results, while the Swiss government sought to assure the Muslim minority that a ban on minarets was "not a rejection of the Muslim community, religion or culture."[..]

They said that the minarets -- of which Switzerland has just four -- were not architectural features with religious characteristics, but symbolised a "political-religious claim to power, which challenges fundamental rights."

Having won a double majority on turnout of 53 percent, the initiative will now be inscribed in the country's constitution.

"The Federal Council (government) respects this decision. Consequently the construction of new minarets in Switzerland is no longer permitted," said the government, which had firmly opposed the ban, in a statement.[..]

Switzerland has had an uneasy relationship with its Muslim population, which makes up some five percent of its population of 7.5 million people. Islam is the second largest religion here after Christianity.[..]

"The most painful for us is not the minaret ban, but the symbol sent by this vote. Muslims do not feel accepted as a religious community," said Farhad Afshar, who heads the Coordination of Islamic Organisations in Switzerland.

The Conference of Swiss Bishops also criticised the result, saying that it "heightens the problems of cohabitation between religions and cultures."

It's a little disconcerting to me that memories in Europe could be so short as to forget another generation--not that long ago--when this kind of of fear-based bigotry became institutionalized. And sadly, with the success of this Swiss ban, conservatives in the Netherlands are considering a similar ban.

David Neiwert has written about this institutionalized fear of the other, and if I may be so lazy as to co-opt his (and Orcinus blogging partner Sara Robinson's) breakdown of the construct to make some group the feared "Other". Read and see how familiar this sounds:

Continue reading »

It is curious that this AP article left out one giant aspect of the UBS scandal -- the role former GOP Senator Phil Gramm may have played in their illegal activity.

MIAMI – Swiss bank UBS AG "systematically and deliberately" violated U.S. law by dispatching private bankers to recruit wealthy Americans interested in evading taxes and must be forced to reveal the identities of 52,000 of those clients, the Justice Department said in a court filing Tuesday.

The filing, which comes amid several published reports that the case may be near settlement, urges U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold to hold UBS accountable for conducting years of illegal business on U.S. soil — business that earned the bank more than $100 million in fees but cost the U.S. hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes.

"It is time for UBS to face the consequences that it has brought upon itself," said Justice Department tax attorney Stuart Gibson in the 55-page filing. "The United States has proven its case for enforcement."

As Jon Perr wrote earlier this year, Gramm was instrumental in handcuffing the IRS while he was in the Senate, and may have paved the way for UBS to commit their crimes once he became their Vice Chairman in 2002.

Yahoo News: (h/t E)

Switzerland on Wednesday followed Italy and Germany in raising the threat of criminal prosecution of CIA operatives involved in anti-terrorism operations in Europe.

The Swiss Cabinet authorized the start of criminal proceedings against those responsible for the abduction in Italy of an Egyptian Muslim preacher allegedly taken on CIA flights through Swiss airspace.

Switzerland, which has cooperated closely in U.S. investigations and attempts to shut down terrorists' funding networks, has generally avoided open disputes with the U.S. government. But the wording of the seven-member Cabinet's statement was sharp.

"In the view of the Federal Council, the use of Swiss airspace for an abduction cannot be tolerated," the statement said. "There is evidence that basic norms of international law were violated."

It breaks my heart that they're talking about our country that way. In other news to be ashamed of, NPR discusses the inclusion of the US in UNICEF's list of Worst Countries for Kids. Truly, I think decades from now, historians are going to ask what was wrong with all of us for allowing this country to fall so spectacularly on a global level.

Name: Pamela Willeford : occupation: US Ambassadress to Switzerland last seen: Sat. 2/11/06, on a ranch in Texas, in the company of the V-POTUS...read on