Notes from the Surf

"Best Fake Punt Ever (Bills/Titans)"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7xksmk0ghc
If football doesn't work out for him, perhaps a future as a magician?

The brutal truth about America’s healthcare
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-brutal-truth-about-americarsquos-healthcare-1772580.html
Health spending as a share of GDP: US 16%, UK 8.4%. Spending per head: US $7,290, UK $2,992. Practising physicians (per 1,000 people): US 2.4, UK 2.5. Life expectancy: US 78, UK 80. Infant mortality (per 1,000 live births): US 6.7, UK 4.8.

GOP attacks are hurting conservatives in the UK
http://politicalirony.com/2009/08/17/gop-attacks-are-hurting-conservatives-in-the-uk/
"US Republican Party attacks on the British National Health Service as part of their campaign to discredit US health care reform are receiving wide coverage there and are causing a backlash. The NHS is so popular in the UK that virtually all politicians, including conservatives, support it, but British Conservative Party links to the US Republican party are causing it to lose popularity quickly."

Afghanistan: This is what democracy looks like?
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48142
a village elder in Herat province... said he had been threatened by a local commander with "very unpleasant consequences" if the residents of his village did not vote for Karzai

Honduras: "It all appeared staged"
http://www.revleft.com/vb/honduras-second-frontline-t115106/index.html
it took the firefighters more than one hour to get to the scene of the fires -- time to keep all the media cameras rolling... all night and all morning the only media story in the mainstream press was the "violence and terrorism" perpetrated by Zelaya's "handful of goons." There was nothing in the media... about the mass march of tens of thousands of people

Romania: Police without rent money threaten general strike
http://english.hotnews.ro/stiri-regional_europe-6041560-update-policemens-protest-finished-the-unions-threaten-with-general-strike.htm
"The policemen in Bucharest started protesting at 10 AM... policemen are also protesting in several other cities: Alba-Iulia (Central-West), Sibiu (Central), Deva (West), Targu-Mures (North), Brasov (Central), Craiova (South), Resita (West), Ramnicu-Valcea (South), Piatra Neamt (East) and Galati (East)."

Russia: 2000 car makers protest
http://www.mnweekly.ru/news/20090811/55384938.html
"union activists said the plant should come under workers' control... Analysts fear there may be social unrest in Tolyatti, a city of 700,000"

Ireland: Employees occupy superstore
http://www.swp.ie/index.php?page=316&dept=News
"The Thomas Cook occupation may just be the spark... Mitchelstown has a history of worker's taking control"

Argentina: FASINPAT now officially a free company
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2052/32/
Thousands of supporters from other workers' organizations, human rights groups and social movements, along with entire families and students, joined the workers... "here they are the workers of Zanon, workers without a boss." ...For many at the recuperated enterprises, the occupation of their workplace meant much more than safe-guarding their jobs, it also became part of a struggle for a world without exploitation.

Honduras: Coup regime fires local staff of hospital. Doctors / nurses ignore their orders.
http://www.medicc.org/ns/index.php?s=19&p=19
"The hospital and its community health outreach are supported by a number of U.S. and other international organizations, including the Sacramento, California Central Labor Council, Global Links, The Birthing Project, and MEDICC. Several US medical schools also have cooperative arrangements with the Garifuna hospital, including Johns Hopkins, Emory, Charles Drew and University of California (SF)."