Tuesday February 17th 2009 - links page

PJB: Metrics of National Decline  ---  http://buchanan.org/blog/2009/02/pjb-metrics-of-national-decline/
Must Read - A quote...."“Bush Boom Continues” trilled the headline over the Lawrence Kudlow column, as George W. Bush closed out his seventh year in office. -- “You can call it Goldilocks 2.0,” purred Kudlow. -- Yes, you could. But what a difference 12 months can make. -- Final returns are now in on the eight years of George Bush. Charles McMillion of MBG Information Services has crunched the numbers. And, pace Kudlow, the only relevant comparison is to Herbert Hoover."
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Nationalization by Autumn, Bank on It  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22022.htm
posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
Must Read - A quote...."February 17, 2009 "Reuters" -- Like it or not the United States will be forced to nationalize large swathes of its banking system by the time the leaves fall from the trees in Washington. - The tragedy is that we will have to wait that long and that the costs will mount. - The plan to rescue the banks, or, er, the people, as enunciated by Treasury Secretary Geithner, is no plan, only an apparent set of contradictory principles: an ideological one not to nationalize and a political one not to subsidize too obviously." -- Nationalization is the worst of all possible economic ideas save one....that of giving trillions of tax payer dollars to a bunch of rich, fat, squealing, pig eyed, little banksters who through their own unmitigated, unapologetic and unlimited greed caused all of these problems in the first place.  However it's too late and we've already done that.  It's really to bad that this nation has decided to massively embark on the worst of all possible economic ideas.  By the time it gets around to trying the second worst there won't be any "real" money left at all, either in the banks, or the US-NRE's treasury.  Just little worthless bits of green paper and tens of trillions worth of unredeemable IOUs. – mpg -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/17-4
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Government: A Successful Failure  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/anderson-r4.html
A quote...."The disposition of politicians is to react to perceived problems rather than to solve them. Our present economic plight is a case in point. A constant clamoring is heard daily from politicians, bureaucrats, and their business beneficiaries pleading for the government to do something, even anything, before economic conditions worsen. Without a clue as to what has caused today’s malaise, politicians move into panic mode and sign on to "solutions" which can lead only to greater economic hardships ahead."
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The People Be Damned - The President of Special Interests   ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22018.htm
 posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."February 17, 2009 "Information Clearinghouse" -- - The Bush/Obama bailout/stimulus plans are not going to work. Both are schemes hatched by a clique of financial insiders. The schemes will redistribute income and wealth from American taxpayers to the shyster banksters, who have destroyed American jobs, ruined the retirement plans of tens of millions of Americans, and worsened the situation of millions of people worldwide who naively trusted American financial institutions. The ongoing theft has simply been recast. Instead of using fraudulent financial instruments, the banksters are using government policy." -- also posted at OnlineJournal  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4377.shtml
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Trouble at Treasury - Geithner gets the keys to the henhouse  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."February 17, 2009 "Information Clearinghouse" --- The Obama Team has a big problem on their hands; Timothy Geithner. Geithner was picked as Treasury Secretary because he is a trusted ally of the big banks and has a good grasp of the intricacies of the financial system. The problem is that Geithner can't handle the public relations part of his job. His big debut in prime-time last Tuesday turned out to be a complete dud. He was thoroughly unconvincing and looked like a nervous teenager at a speech contest. He fizzled on stage for 25 minutes while the little red box in the corner of the TV screen--which shows the current Dow Jones Industrials--plummeted nearly 400 points. It was a total disaster and one that is sure to be repeated over and over as long as Geithner is at Treasury."
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Collapse of the US dollar: Global systemic crisis. The phase of global geopolitical dislocation --- http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12332
posted at GlobRsrch  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11918
Charts - A quote...."We had hoped that the decanting phase would give the world’s leaders the opportunity to draw the proper conclusions from the collapse of the global system prevailing since WWII. Alas, at this stage, it is no longer possible to be optimistic in this regard (1). In the United States, as in Europe, China and Japan, leaders persist in reacting as if the global system has only fallen victim to some temporary breakdown, merely requiring loads of fuel (liquidities) and other ingredients (rate drops, repurchase of toxic assets, bailouts of semi-bankrupt industries,…) to reboot it. In fact (and this is what LEAP/E2020 means ever since February 2006 using the expression « global systemic crisis”), the global system is simply out of order; a new one needs to be built instead of striving to save what can no longer be saved. "
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Lawrence Walsh and America's law-free zone  ---  http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/17/lawlessness/
Must Read - A quote..."David Rivkin and Lee Casey are right-wing lawyers and former Reagan DOJ officials who, over the last eight years, have been extremely prolific in jointly defending Bush/Cheney theories of executive power. Today, they have one of their standard Op-Eds, this time in The Washington Post, demanding that there be no investigations or prosecutions of Bush officials.  Most of the arguments they advance are the standard platitudes now composing Beltway conventional wisdom on this matter.  But there is one aspect of their advocacy that is somewhat remarkable and worth noting." -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/17-11
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“Prosecute Bush”? hahaha; “Change”? HAHAHAHAHA. Oh, Stop… stop. You’re Killing Me….
  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/02/17/prosecute-bush-hahaha-change-hahahahaha-oh-stop-stop-youre-killing-me/
A quote...."Roves New Sugar Daddy -- What makes you think, that the very same people who were working diligently to keep us from impeaching G.W.Bush would ever allow a serious prosecution of the man, simply because you ASK for it? Especially now that they are still in power and are handing out billions to pet projects and business supporters of theirs…in this economy? -- Obama, not Bush, now seeking delay of Rove deposition."
  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_not_Bush_now_seeking_delay_0217.html
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Only a Civic Jolt Can Save Us Now -- The One-Dimensional Congress  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/nader02172009.html
A quote...."By Ralph Nader -- Can Congress walk and chew gum at the same time?? -- This phrase used by President Lyndon Johnson for one of his political opponents comes to mind at a time early in the first 100 days of the Obama Administration when supposedly many long-overdue changes and rollbacks are possible. -- It is not just that Congress is completely absorbed with the tax-cut-stimulus package. It is stasis that seems to be enveloping, even within its numerous well-funded and staffed committees in the House and Senate, from even the signaling of serious movement toward rolling back Bush-pushed legislation and starting widely supported forays that take hope to change."
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FEIN: The more things change - link posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/17/the-more-things-change/
A quote...."President Barack Obama's campaign theme should have been, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."
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U.S. "War On Terror" Eroded Rights Worldwide: Experts  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22010.htm
posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."February 16, 2009 "Reuters" -- - Washington's "war on terror" after the September 11 attacks has eroded human rights worldwide, creating lingering cynicism that the United Nations must now combat, international law experts said on Monday."
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UN Report on Afghan Civilian Toll Contradicts NATO Claims - posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://news.antiwar.com/2009/02/17/un-report-on-afghan-civilian-toll-contradicts-nato-claims/
A quote...."Today, the United Nations released a report detailing the civilian death toll in Afghanistan in 2008. According to the report, 2,118 civilians were killed in 2008 - 828 by the American-led coalition forces. Most of those were, unsurprisingly, killed in the various air strikes and raids against Afghan villages."
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Civilians killed as Obama orders more troops to Afghanistan  ---  http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=36789
A quote...."Obama has ordered more troops to Afghanistan where US forces killed civilians including at least one child in an air strike."
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Wisconsin bids farewell to 32nd IBCT Guardsmen - link posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/02/ap_wisconsin_guardsmen_021709/
A quote...."MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin said goodbye Tuesday to hundreds of part-time soldiers bound for Iraq in the largest deployment of Wisconsin National Guard forces since World War II."
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American Caesar's Ghost - posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/orig/huber.php?articleid=14267
A quote...."We are witnessing what a military takeover of a superpower looks like in the new American century. David Petraeus became the most dangerous American general since Douglas MacArthur when George W. Bush announced that his "main man" would decide when, how, and if an Iraq troop drawdown would occur, giving Petraeus unilateral control of U.S. foreign policy."
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US occupation of Iraq: An ongoing criminal enterprise  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/pers-f18.shtml
A quote...."Recent media reports on the mounting evidence of wholesale corruption in US reconstruction efforts in Iraq are symptomatic of the criminal nature of Washington’s war and occupation from their inception nearly six years ago. These crimes are continuing under the Obama administration, with no end in sight."
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The Frontline State  ---  http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/articles/2009/02/15/khawaja_the-frontline-state.html
Photo Essay: Pakistan -- A quote...."The world order changed completely after 9/11. The leader of the free world trumpeted a whole new mantra that redefined global alliances and allegiances. Countries that expressed their desire to be ‘with’ the forces of ‘good’ were assigned new roles whereas countries that refused to align with the forces of ‘good’ were branded as axis of evil and declared as the ‘enemies of the free world’."
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Iran sets up command to guard nuclear sites  ---  http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=85706&sectionid=351020101
 -  link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."Iran is working to home in on its military anti-aircraft command, amid threats of an Israeli air strike on the country's nuclear sites."
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Iran pins hopes on Russia in its SCO bid - Mottaki  ---  http://en.rian.ru/world/20090216/120167261.html
 - link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."MOSCOW, February 16 (RIA Novosti) - Iran expects to receive the backing of Russia, which holds the presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, in its bid for full membership of the organization, Iran's foreign minister said on Monday."
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Iranian defence minister in Russia on missile quest Updated  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/190164
A quote...."MOSCOW, February 17 (RIA Novosti) - Iran's defense minister is likely to discuss the delivery of Russian S-300 air defense systems to the Islamic Republic during a meeting with his Russian counterpart on Tuesday, a business daily said."
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Kyrgyzstan moves to evict US troops  ---  http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=163038
 - link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."BISHKEK: Kyrgyzstan moved a step closer to evicting US troops on Monday after the government sent to parliament the final package of documents required to close down an air base used to support US forces in nearby Afghanistan."
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Kyrgyz party puts final nail in Manas coffin  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=85997&sectionid=351020606
Related Article - A quote...."The Kyrgyz ruling party has approved a government decision to close a key US airbase that serves as a vital supply route to Afghanistan." -- also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/190239
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Liquid gas provides alternative to pipeline  ---  http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/37476
A quote...."Russia is about to start exporting its gas to where pipelines cannot reach. The first liquefied natural gas plant has opened in the country's Far East."
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DHS Spies on Maryland Peace Activists: It's Worse Than We Thought
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/DHS-Spies-on-Maryland-Peac-by-Jesselyn-Radack-090217-235.html
Police State Alert - A quote...."Today's Washington Post has an article opaquely titled "Federal Agency Aided Md. Spying": http://www.washingtonpost.com/...  I wrote about this a month ago, http://www.dailykos.com/..., but it's worse than originally reported.  Initial reports were that Maryland police classified nonviolent activists as terrorists and entered their names into state and federal terrorist watch lists for opposing the death penalty and Iraq war.  But it's the other way around: DHS spied on peaceful protest groups and gave the information to state police.  Come with me below the fold to hear more about why this is even more troubling than we first thought."
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Sen. Diane Feinstein's Net Neutrality Killer  ---  http://dark-wraith.com/index.php?itemid=255
Must Read - Action Alert - (for the outrage) -- A quote...."UPDATE: 11:30 a.m. EST, 14 February 2009: The United States Senate has passed and sent to President Obama the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 reconciled with and approved yesterday by the U.S. House of Representatives. The final version of the bill does not appear to contain language previously inserted by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) for "Reasonable Network Management" (RNM). The details of how her attempt to end the existing rules and regulations guaranteeing "net neutrality" are still somewhat unclear, although the RNM provision was contained in an amendment by Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), which was withdrawn, apparently at his behest or with his consent. Given Sen. Feinstein's demonstrated willingness to use a critical piece of legislation having nothing to do with Internet management to advance her to desire to end net neutrality, the removal of her provision to that purpose from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will most certainly not be the final chapter in the battle to prevent further erosion of freedom of speech on and access to the Internet." -- For more on this issue see....Attempts to Control the Internet
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/attempttocontroltheinternet-weblist-mpg-053006.html
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Inside America's Germ Warfare City  ---  http://mwcnews.net/content/view/28624/26/
Special Note - A quote...."One legacy of the Bush-Cheney administration is the grandiose expansion of our germ warfare research program. This was declared to be necessary because of the September-October 2001 anthrax letters' attacks on Congress and the media---attacks the public is now being told came not from the Middle East but from within our own government's facilities. As a result, developmental work is going forward with deadly and loathsome pathogens capable of triggering plagues and epidemics."
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The Gaza Attack - 8 Articles - Tuesday - [ Day 53 ] ========== ========== ========== ===

Israel Braces for Wave of Lawsuits  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m51907&s1=h1
Special Note - Action Alert - Sue the bastards.  Everyone throughout the Middle East who supports legitimate, nationalistic, popular movements should track down all the jerk-ass terrorist organizations the US-NRE, Saudi Royals and the Israelis are currently giving money and arms too, make the information publicly available, and encourage everyone throughout the world to sue all the little sh-ts involved. – mpg -- A quote...."RAMALLAH, Feb 17, 2009 (IPS) - Israel is bracing for a wave of lawsuits accusing the Jewish state of substantial human rights violations during its 22-day military assault on Gaza which left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead and nearly 5,000 wounded, more than half of them civilian."
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Khalid Amayreh - The Mossad's Arab Writers  ---  http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/02/15/khalid-amayreh-the-mossads-arab-writers/
A quote...."These words were not written by Israeli propagandists or Zionist apologists seeking to justify the recent Israeli blitzkrieg in Gaza. They are actually the words of a Kuwaiti Arab columnist who has apparently sold his soul to the devil.  --  I say “sold his soul to the devil” because when a human being transforms himself into a willful liar in the service of evil, that person, knowingly or unknowingly, loses his morality and eventually loses his humanity as well." -- Yep, Mr. Reficul probably already has him on the payroll and no doubt he's signed the "contract". - mpg
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GERMANY-1933 vs ISRAEL- 2009  ---  http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/germany-1933-vs-israel-2009/
A quote...."February 18, 2009 at 6:23 am -- Editor’s note: The rise of the rightwing in Israel through the recent Knesset elections that was preceded by the bloody war on Gaza, that left more than 1,300 dead most of them are women and children, has aroused a lot of criticism among Palestinians. Khalid Amayreh opines about the rise of Lieberman. -- In the early 1930s, many in Germany saw the Nazis as the wave for the future. Thousands of new members joined the Nazi party, giving absolute allegiance to the Fuhrer, Adolph Hitler. In the spring of 1932, with six million unemployed, chaos in Berlin, starvation and ruin as well as the threat of Marxism, and a very uncertain future, the masses turned to Hitler by the millions." -- For more on this issue see....A Mortal Threat – Europe’s New Frankenstein Monster - 01-26-09 - mpg  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/amortalthreat-europesnewfrankenstein-mpg-reficultnias-012609
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What’s 25,000 flowers when 40 million rot and farmers continue to be shot at?  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m51905&s1=h1
The Israelis just can't let the farmers of Gaza make a decent, dignified, living from the honest tilling of their own soil....can they?  What a sick, twisted, diseased, degenerate, sadistic people the Jews of Israel have turned out to be. - mpg -- A quote..."Feb 17, 2009 -- I worked on farms in Israel for 15 years," Abu Alaa, the owner of the land said.  "We had a good relationship, and the Israeli farmers loved my bread, Palestinian bread, and our baclawa ("baklava") sweets. I had to stop working there when Israel closed our borders, stopped giving permits to Palestinians to work in Israel."
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To Gaza, With Love  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/17-10
Special Note - A quote...."Published on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 -- As a Jew, an American and a mother, I felt compelled to witness, firsthand, what my people and my taxdollars had done during this invasion. Visiting Gaza filled me with unbearable sadness. Unlike the primitive weapons of Hamas, the Israelis had so many sophisticated ways to murder, maim and destroy-unmanned drones, F-16s dropping "smart bombs" that miss, Apache helicopters launching missiles, tanks firing from the ground, ships shelling Gaza from the sea. So many horrific weapons stamped with Made in the USA. While Hamas' attacks on Israeli villages are deplorable, Israel's disproportionate response is unconscionable, with 1,330 Palestinians dead vs. 13 Israelis."
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“Salt of the earth” send aid convoy to Gaza while Brown sends the Royal Navy to help lawless Israel  ---  http://www.redress.cc/palestine/slittlewood20090218
A quote...."18 February 2009 -- Unable to attend the Viva Palestina convoy send-off in London, I watched video footage of the occasion with tears in my eyes. Here at last were people of courage and moral backbone – a dying breed in Britain, I had thought. How easily they put our leaders to shame. The political leadership in London still dances to Israel's tune in spite of that regime’s never-ending crimes. It is no use looking to them for honest action. A humanitarian response to Gaza has never crossed their mind. They are, after all, the friends of land thieves and racist aggressors."
also posted at WarInIraq   ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/190241
& PalestineChron  ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14844
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Aid for Palestine under attack - posted at OnlineJournal  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3171.shtml
  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4378.shtml
A quote...."Feb 18, 2009, 00:18 -- The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has had a mandate to assist Palestinian refugees in “Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territory” for the past six decades. For many refugees it literally represents a lifeline, providing food, shelter, health care and social services to the needy. It is also responsible for the education of some half-million children."
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“We Israelis control America”  ---  http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/02/18/a-8220-we-israelis-control-americaa-8221
A quote...."02/18/09 -- Paul J. Balles argues that decent Americans need to reconsider their willing support of Israeli pathological murderers currently in control of the US – people who openly describe Palestinian civilians as “human animals” that should be slaughtered."

See also the Gaza Invasion of 12/27/08 - database  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/thegazainvasion-mpg-weblist-122708  ---  under construction. - mpg
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End - The Gaza Attack - 8 Articles - Tuesday - [ Day 53 ] ========== ========== ========== ===

Top Banks That Received Aid Cut Lending
  ---  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/17/business/main4808281.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_4808281
Special Note -- Haaaaa, Ha, Ha, Ha, Hoooooo, Ho Ho Ho, (giggle, giggle......) I'm rolling on the floor here folks, my legs are kicking up in the air, I'm gasping for breath now --- Heeeee, Hee, Hee, Heeeee! -- Oh Man that was good!!! --- mpg -- A quote...."(AP) The 20 largest banks that received U.S. government rescue funds slightly reduced their lending to consumers and businesses in the last three months of 2008, the government said Tuesday."
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Conservative Group Sues for TARP Details  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/39926
We all know how good conservatives are at following the money, something the "liberals" should pay more attention too. - mpg -- A quote...."A conservative legal group is suing the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve to reveal exactly how the first $350 billion of the financial services bailout was spent." -- Speaking of which.....
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U.S. Accuses Texas Financial Firm of $8 Billion Fraud  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/business/18stanford.html?_r=2&hp
A quote...."HOUSTON — In Texas, Robert Allen Stanford was just another wealthy financier.-- But in the breezy money haven of Antigua, he was lord of an influential financial fief, decorated with a knighthood, courted by government officials and basking in the spotlight of sports and charity events on which he generously showered his fortune. -- On Tuesday, his reign was thrown into turmoil as a caravan of cars and trucks carrying federal authorities pulled up to the headquarters of his company, the Stanford Group, to shut down what the regulators described as a “massive ongoing fraud” stretching from the Caribbean to Texas, and around the world."
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Greenspan says recession will be 'longest and deepest' since '30s - Hint...it's what most people call a Depression.
  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Greenspan_says_recession_will_be_longest_0217.html
A quote...."The maestro was wrong. -- Eight months after he predicted the worst was over and the threat of recession receding, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said the current global recession will "surely be the longest and deepest" since the 1930s."
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GM Seeks $16.6 Billion More in U.S. Aid  ---  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123489494750801713.html
Some quotes....."GM Plans to Slash 47,000 Jobs; Chrysler Mentions Bankruptcy Option for First Time" -- "GM said it might need as much as $100 billion in financing from the government if it were to go through the traditional bankruptcy process." - bold by website editor
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NY manufacturing slump worsens in February  ---  http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKN1727083520090217
A quote...."NEW YORK (Reuters) - Factory activity in New York State fell to a record low in February with new orders and employment falling sharply as the U.S. recession deepened, according to a survey on Tuesday from the regional central bank." - bold by website editor
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Record slump in Japan: a sign of deepening global recession  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/japa-f18.shtml
A quote...."A dramatic slump in the Japanese economy in late 2008 is another ominous sign that the global economic crisis is continuing to snowball, with no end in sight. Economic data released on Monday revealed that the world’s second largest economy contracted at an annualised rate of 12.7 percent for the final quarter of 2008—the third straight quarterly fall and the steepest decline since 1974. Deutsche Bank in Tokyo bluntly predicted a “severe depression” in Japan, lasting at least until late 2010."
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Monday February 16th 2009 - links page

Do we still pretend that we abide by treaties?  ---  http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/16/treaties/
Must Read - This country, (more a sick twisted empire) hasn't abided by a single treaty, international commitment or even its OWN CONSTITUTION  for more then a decade. - mpg -- A quote...."On Friday in Salon, Joe Conason argued that there should be no criminal investigations of any kind for Bush officials "who authorized torture or other outrages in the 'war on terror'."  Instead, Conason suggests that there be a presidential commission created that is "purely investigative," and Obama should "promis[e] a complete pardon to anyone who testifies fully, honestly and publicly."  So, under this proposal, not only would we adopt an absolute bar against prosecuting war criminals and other Bush administration felons, we would go in the other direction and pardon them from any criminal liability of any kind. -- bold by website editor
also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/16-4
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An American Foreign Legion - Is the U.S. Military Now an Imperial Police Force?
  ---  http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175034/william_astore_whose_military_is_it_anyway_
Must Read - A quote...."A leaner, meaner, higher tech force -- that was what George W. Bush and his Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld promised to transform the American military into. Instead, they came close to turning it into a foreign legion. Foreign as in being constantly deployed overseas on imperial errands; foreign as in being ever more reliant on private military contractors; foreign as in being increasingly segregated from the elites that profit most from its actions, yet serve the least in its ranks." -- also posted at CommonDreams   ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/16
For more on this issue see....Join army, be a US citizen in 6 months
  ---  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/US/Join_army_be_a_US_citizen_in_6_months/articleshow/4131444.cms
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Finance Capitalism Hits a Wall - The Oligarchs’ Escape Plan – at the Treasury’s Expense
  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12328
Must Read - A quote...."The financial “wealth creation” game is over. Economies emerged from World War II relatively free of debt, but the 60-year global run-up has run its course. Finance capitalism is in a state of collapse, and marginal palliatives cannot revive it. The U.S. economy cannot “inflate its way out of debt,” because this would collapse the dollar and end its dreams of global empire by forcing foreign countries to go their own way. There is too little manufacturing to make the economy more “competitive,” given its high housing costs, transportation, debt and tax overhead. A quarter to a third of U.S. real estate has fallen into Negative Equity, so no banks will lend to them. The economy has hit a debt wall and is falling into Negative Equity, where it may remain for as far as the eye can see until there is a debt write-down." -- For more on this issue see....Effective Fed Funds Rate 03-24-07 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/fedfundschart-photopg-cached-032407
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Bad News From America’s Top Spy   ---  http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090216_bad_news_from_americas_top_spy/
Article   ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22009.htm  ---  also posted at ICH
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
Must Read - A quote...."We have a remarkable ability to create our own monsters. A few decades of meddling in the Middle East with our Israeli doppelgänger and we get Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaida, the Iraqi resistance movement and a resurgent Taliban. Now we trash the world economy and destroy the ecosystem and sit back to watch our handiwork. Hints of our brave new world seeped out Thursday when Washington’s new director of national intelligence, retired Adm. Dennis Blair, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee. He warned that the deepening economic crisis posed perhaps our gravest threat to stability and national security. It could trigger, he said, a return to the “violent extremism” of the 1920s and 1930s." -- For more on this sort of issue see....US Support of Terror  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussupportofterror-weblist-mpg-090306
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US soldiers investigated over 'fraud' bigger than Madoff
  ---  http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/us-soldiers-investigated-over-fraud-bigger-than-madoff-14189692.html
Article   ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22004.htm ---  also posted at ICH
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
Must Read - (for the outrage) -- A quote...."In what could turn out to be the greatest fraud in US history, American authorities have started to investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125bn (£88bn) in a US -directed effort to reconstruct Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein." - bold by website editor -- For more on this sort of issue see....War is a Racket  ---  http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
& The New York Times Article - Pentagon's Hidden Hand
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/nytarticlethehiddenhand-weblist-mpg-042008
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So What Are You Going to Do About It? - For all those who tilt at windmills, this article's for you. - mpg
  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/so-what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it/
Must Read - A quote...."“So, what do we do about it?” -- This question has been repeatedly asked of me as a direct result of any number of articles I have written or threads I have “hijacked” in the name of calling attention to this growing bi-partisan tide of imminent globalization, a.k.a. the Fascist State of World Government; the New World Order. -- What do we do about it, indeed."
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Renounce Extraordinary Rendition - posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/orig/giraldi.php?articleid=14258
A quote...."Rendition is an established legal procedure whereby a country returns an individual to his country of origin or where he has previously resided. It has been used in immigration cases, to remove felons who are not native born, and in the extradition process whereby a suspect is returned to face trial. But one of the more deplorable policies carried out by the United States government over the past decade has been a variant on that procedure, so-called "extraordinary rendition," which has been a regular function of the Central Intelligence Agency since the time of the Clinton administration."
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Newly declassified DOD documents says detainees were tortured -- Regarding additional homocides. - mpg
  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4372.shtml
A quote...."In a news release, the ACLU said it also obtained reports of five separate investigations into deaths that took place in Afghanistan and Iraq – as well as Abu Ghraib abuses, which, although previously reported, marks the first time the military investigations have been released in full. -- Those documents which span thousands of pages include...."
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A Torture Report Could Spell Big Trouble For Bush Lawyers   ---  http://www.newsweek.com/id/184801
Article   ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22006.htm  ---  also posted at ICH
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."An internal Justice Department report on the conduct of senior lawyers who approved waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics is causing anxiety among former Bush administration officials. H. Marshall Jarrett, chief of the department's ethics watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), confirmed last year he was investigating whether the legal advice in crucial interrogation memos "was consistent with the professional standards that apply to Department of Justice attorneys." -- Don't worry all you folks out there, as part of the deal for being selected, Obama is going to put a stop to all this nonsense of "justice". - mpg
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Eastern Europe is about to Blow  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22007.htm
 posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."February 17, 2009 "ICH" -- -Eastern Europe is about to blow. If it does, it could take much of the EU with it. It's an emergency situation but there are no easy solutions. The IMF doesn't have the resources for a bailout of this size and the recession is spreading faster than relief efforts can be organized. Finance ministers and central bankers are running in circles trying to put out one fire after another. Its only a matter of time before they are overtaken by events. If one country is allowed to default, the dominoes could begin to tumble through the whole region. This could trigger dramatic changes in the political landscape. The rise of fascism is no longer out of the question."
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Davos Debt & Denial - In an age of illusion, the guise of truth is often heresy   ---  http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/schoon/2009/0213.html
Article  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22000.htm also posted at ICH
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."The gathering of the world’s economic elites in Davos, Switzerland is a reflection of the reigning power dynamic of the modern world. Officially titled, the World Economic Forum, Davos is sponsored by the world’s most powerful and wealthy corporations and presents itself as a “not-for-profit” entity. -- However, if you believe the annual gathering in Davos is not-for-profit, you probably also believe that JFK died of natural causes while sightseeing in Dallas. Those who attend Davos—the Davo’tees of Mammon—are the winners in the game of capitalism, a game based on debt controlled by bankers through their issuance of credit."
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Jim Rogers: Abolish The IMF & World Bank  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/jim-rogers-abolish-the-imf-world-bank.html
A quote...."In an interview with Sir David Frost on Al Jazeera television, veteran investor Jim Rogers pinned the blame for the economic crisis squarely at the feet of the Federal Reserve, and said that the World Bank and the IMF should be abolished, not given more power, if a recovery is to be made." - Amen!!! - mpg
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Iran and the West: A History of Violence  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis137.html
A quote...."Iran is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its historic Islamic revolution after three decades of siege warfare by the western powers. To understand why relations between Tehran and the West are so bitter, we must understand their historical context."
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Danish Soldiers Negotiating With Afghan Taliban - Report
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20090216%5CACQDJON200902161006DOWJONESDJONLINE000242.htm&selected=9999
&selecteddisplaysymbol=9999&StoryTargetFrame=_top&mkt=WORLD&chk=unchecked&lang=&link=&headlinereturnpage=http://www.international.na
link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."COPENHAGEN (AFP)--Danish soldiers in Afghanistan have begun negotiating with the Taliban to try to break the deadlock there, a newspaper reported Monday, as a poll suggested most Danes considered the war unwinnable."
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Minister: Iran, Russia to boost military cooperation  ---  http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/6593446.html
link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said that Iran and Russia are to boost military cooperation, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Sunday."
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US proposal pops no eyes out in Russia  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=85750&sectionid=351020101
link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."Russia promises not to change its stance on Iran in spite of US efforts to reach a compromise with the Kremlin over its missile shield." -- That's because Russia sticks to ITS agreements. - mpg
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Destabilizing Pakistan, America Plays with Fire  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12325
A quote...."As the United States ramps-up regional military operations, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, dropped a bombshell when she revealed that CIA Predator drones are flown from an airbase in Pakistan, the Los Angeles Times reported." -- So Nancy "take impeachment off the table" Pelosi squeals and Pakistan makes a deal, see articles shown below....
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Pakistan Seethes After Killer Drone Disclosure - link posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/02/us-drones-unlea.html
Related Article - A quote...."U.S. drones unleashed another attack on Pakistani militants Saturday -- reportedly killing more than 30 people in the process. It's the fifth attack this year and the second since Barack Obama took office, less than a month ago. But what everyone in Pakistan wants to know is: Was the attack launched from inside Pakistan itself?"
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Pakistani Govt Makes Deal With Islamic Militants - posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://news.antiwar.com/2009/02/15/pakistan-militants-agree-to-swat-valley-truce/
Related Article - A quote...."As President Asif Ali Zardari warned CBS that the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were trying to take over Pakistan, his government was putting the finishing touches on a deal that may end the ongoing fight in the Swat Valley, and will also place the NWFP division of Malakand under Islamic law."
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Two US missile strikes in Pakistan in three days kill more than 60  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/paki-f17.shtml
Related Article - They're all militants according to the military!!  A line that will be trumpeted by every US-NRE newspaper in the country. "Look Ma, we're 'winning'". -- Until of course the videos, the pictures, the tales of woe start to percolate out of Pakistan's hinterland.  Of course by then we’ll have moved on to the next slaughter. - mpg -- A quote...."The United States on Monday carried out its second missile strike in three days inside Pakistan. More than 30 people were reported killed after four CIA Predator drone aircraft launched at least four Hellfire missiles at a purported Taliban training camp in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of Kurram."
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Hezbollah: “We have the right to obtain aerial defense systems”  ---  http://www.imemc.org/article/58908
Special Note -- Regarding this issue.  As soon as reliable, long range, man-portable, anti-aircraft and anti-armor missiles are deployed in the Middle East; the entire area will immediately become an occupation no-go zone.  That's a fact.  If the people of the Middle East ever get the power to defend themselves in a fair fight, with weapons that can knock something out which costs a thousand times more than the weapon used to knock that something out.....all the occupations in the Middle East will end abruptly.  The occupying powers know this, and they know these weapons can stop the "Great Game" in its tracks. – mpg
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Chavez wins Venezuela referendum  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/02/200921602959722265.html
link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."Venezuela's president has won a referendum to scrap term limits for elected officials, allowing him to seek re-election indefinitely."
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Chávez Decisively Wins Bid to End Term Limits  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/16/world/americas/16venez.html?_r=2&ref=world
Related Article -- A quote...."CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez handily won a referendum on Sunday that will end presidential term limits, allowing him to run for re-election indefinitely and injecting fresh vibrancy into his socialist-inspired revolution."
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Russia in talks to build gas pipelines in Bolivia  ---  http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=36705
A quote...."Russian state gas giant Gazprom is in talks to build a system of gas pipelines in Bolivia, President Dmitry Medvedev said Monday in the latest Kremlin push to boost its influence in South America."
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EU Foiled in Bid to Force France, Greece to Allow GM Crop  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/16-13  ---  Hip Hip Hooray!! - mpg
A quote...."BRUSSELS - The European Commission was foiled Monday in its bid to force France and Greece to allow genetically modified maize from US biotech giant Monsanto to be grown in their fields."
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[British] Spy chief: We risk a police state - link posted at CLG  ---  http://www.legitgov.org/#contribute
  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/4643415/Spy-chief-We-risk-a-police-state.html
A quote...."Dame Stella Rimington, the former head of MI5, has warned that the fear of terrorism is being exploited by the Government to erode civil liberties and risks creating a police state."
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Big Brother Digest - Steady Creep into an Orwellian Nightmare
  ---  http://www.sott.net/articles/show/176275-Big-Brother-Digest-Steady-Creep-into-an-Orwellian-Nightmare
A quote...."There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment . . . It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time." -- *George Orwell* from his novel 1984  ---  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
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Whitehall colluded in torture of British suspects, says agent - link posted at CLG  ---  http://www.legitgov.org/#contribute
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/whitehall-colluded-in-torture-of-british-suspects-says-agent-1623987.html
A quote...."British terrorist suspects who claim they were tortured in Pakistan were then interrogated by MI5 agents under rules drawn up in Whitehall, a court has been told."
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Bioweapon Researcher Dies Suspiciously  ---  http://www.roguegovernment.com/Bioweapon_Researcher_Dies_Suspiciously/14325/0/15/15/Y/M.html
A quote...."A US-based Iranian doctor working to discover an antitoxin therapy for biological weapons has purportedly died a "suspicious death." One of the leading bioweapon researchers and a regular keynote speaker at international conferences, Dr. Nasser Talebzadeh Ordoubadi died on Saturday in what his doctors described as a "suspicious death". Media reports have linked Dr. Talebzadeh Ordoubadi's mysterious death to his notable accomplishments in discovering an antitoxin treatment for bioweapons. The use of biological and chemical weapons -- which is considered illegal under The Hague convention on rules of warfare -- is feared by many experts more than the use of nuclear weapons."
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“Demolition Teams” on site at Ground Zero hours BEFORE WTC 7 Fell
  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/demolition-teams-on-site-at-ground-zero-hours-before-wtc-7-fell/
A quote...."While attempting to find out who the “special engineer” was that accurately predicted the collapse of Building 7 five hours before it fell, I ran across an article written by Brett Blanchard, Director of Field Operations for Protec Documentation Services. In that article, he lets it slip that “several” demolition teams were on site at Ground Zero before building 7 came down." -- For more on this issue see....9/11 - WTC7
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911-wtc7-weblist-mpg-082308
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Satelite Crash/Flight 3407 Ties to 9/11 & NWO; nwo, 9/11, cia, bin ladens - Discussion Forum
  ---  http://s1.zetaboards.com/LooseChangeForums/topic/1229318/1/
A quote...."A few weeks before 9/11, Alex Jones was warning that the globalists would stage a massive terror event bigger than WTC 1993, and use/blame their asset Osama bin Laden. He mentions how the bin Ladens are part of the US defense satelite networks(Iridium)"
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9/11 - From The History File...Iridium - databsae - technical specs

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The Gaza Attack - 11 Articles - Monday - [ Day 52 ] ========== ========== ========== ===

The Left And Support For - Anti-Imperialist Islamist Resistance  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/rosso110209.htm
 - Article   ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22001.htm  ---  also posted at ICH
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
Must Read - A quote...."11 February, 2009 -- The key question in this forum is how to support resistance against imperialism across the world. As an independent Belgian communist activist I would like to focus on the position of the European Left vis-à-vis this issue. -- The massive demonstrations in European capitals and major cities in support of the people of Gaza highlighted once again the core problem: the vast majority of the Left, including communists, agrees in supporting the people of Gaza against Israeli aggression, but refuses to support its political expressions such as Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon."
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A democratic state: In Palestine, and the U.S.A.  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4371.shtml
Must Read - A quote...."Feb 17, 2009, 00:19 -- Israel is armed with nuclear weapons and is founded on a cultural narrative of doom that sees all others as potential mass murderers of what is believed to be, in contradiction of science and logic, a Jewish race. Hopefully they can be disarmed by democratic power, but their continued denial of democracy unless it means perpetuation of their rule can only force more deadly measures. The Jewish colonial state that was once Palestine must eventually become a democratic state of all its people, so it may again be the place where Christians, Jews and Muslims live in peace, before a European master race ideology brutalized a nation. That ideology threatens to destroy much more in order to maintain a state and a system which will bring global disaster if we allow it to continue. But without democracy in the USA, chances of achieving it in Palestine may be impossible." -- For more on this issue see....A Mortal Threat – Europe’s New Frankenstein Monster - 01-26-09 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/amortalthreat-europesnewfrankenstein-mpg-reficultnias-012609
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Israel Is Committing A Holocaust In Gaza: Norman Finkelstein  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/gultasli160209.htm
A quote...."16 February, 2009 -- BRUSSELS -- According to Finkelstein, Israel, a state built on the ashes of the Holocaust, is now committing a holocaust against Palestinians in Gaza. In a telephone interview with Today's Zaman, Finkelstein said Israel was a "terrorist state" created by the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948. Praising Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish people for their courage in supporting Palestinians, Finkelstein referred to Israel as a "satanic" and "lunatic" state. Finkelstein's parents survived the Nazi camps in World War II and then immigrated to the U.S."
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Barghouti to Obama: 2 states now, or a long violent struggle over apartheid because ’we will be free’ -- http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article827
A quote...."16 February 2009 -- It is hard to imagine that after all the coverage of Gaza you could go into an event in New York and walk out stunned, but such was my experience hearing Mustafa Barghouti this afternoon at Columbia University. The Palestinian doctor and politician who lives in the West Bank got into Gaza for a week at the end of the onslaught— it took him two days to get there from Ramallah, through Jordan and Egypt, in what should have been a 1-1/2 hour hour trip—and entered with the belief that his nonstop watching of Al-Jazeera had prepared him for the destruction. It did not."
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Obama's Caterpillar Visit a Thumb in the Eye for Human Rights Activists  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m51860&s1=h1
A quote...."Feb 16, 2009 -- Over the objections of church groups, peace organizations and human rights activists, President Barack Obama decided to return to Illinois to visit the headquarters of the Caterpillar company, which for years has violated international law, U.S. law and its own code of conduct by selling its D9 and D10 bulldozers to Israel."
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British MP's in Gaza  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnqQ_28k-fo  ---  (YouTube - 2 min 42 sec - February 16, 2009)
Video - A quote...."February 16, 2009 -- A cross-party delegation comprising 6 British MPs and members of the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group were granted entry into Gaza by the Israeli military."
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War on Gaza - Timeline  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=79964&sectionid=3510304
Database - Timeline -- A quote...."Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:50:43 GMT  -- The following is a timeline of events leading to the ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip that began on December 27 with Israel's aerial bombardment of Hamas-linked compounds in the coastal sliver: "
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Gaza Crisis Appeal  ---  http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=2701  ---  (YouTube - 4 min 39 sec - February 11, 2009)
Must View Video - A quote...."Israel's War Against Palestinian Civilians"
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Gaza women struggle in aftermath of Israeli war  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m51861&s1=h1  ---  4 Feb 09 - (YouTube - 2 min 42 sec - February 14, 2009)
Video - A quote...."February 14, 2009 -- Following Israel's war on Gaza, many women are struggling to come to terms with the deaths of their husbands and children. -- Al Jazeera's Mike Kirsch hears their stories of survival, and reports on the challenges they face as they try to rebuild their lives."
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"The Lancet" reveals horrendous Israeli war crimes  ---  http://mwcnews.net/content/view/28566/42/
A quote...."Feb 15 2009 -- The horrendous mortality and morbidity statistics revealed by the paper "The Wounds of Gaza", just published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet  are truly shocking – 1,350 killed (60% children) and 5,450 severely wounded (40% children) in reprisals for zero (0) Israeli deaths from Gaza rockets in the preceding year. This demands International Criminal Court and intra-national prosecutions (e.g. in major Israeli military R & R destination countries Australia, the US, the UK and India) and Sanctions and Boycotts against Apartheid Israel by all decent Australians and indeed all decent people around the world."
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Some Jews Remember the Dead  ---  http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=2702  ---  (YouTube - 10 min 36 sec - February 10, 2009)
Video - A quote...."February 10, 2009 -- On the 40th day after the first child in Palestine was killed in Gaza during the most recent Israeli military offensive, this vigil remembers all the children who died in Gaza. Some members of the Jewish community also showed up and read a composite list of names of Israeli children who have been killed."

See also the Gaza Invasion of 12/27/08 - database - under construction. - mpg 
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/thegazainvasion-mpg-weblist-122708
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End - The Gaza Attack - 11 Articles - Monday - [ Day 52 ] ========== ========== ========== ===

Key Obama aide Larry Summers took ride from bailed-out Citigroup  ---  http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1151157
A quote...."Top White House economic adviser Larry Summers hooked a freebie flight on a posh Citigroup corporate jet mere months before he began weighing the bank’s fate with other policymakers trying to save the banking system." -- For more on this issue see....Having Fun With Your Tax Dollars
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/havingfunwithyourtaxdollars-weblist-mpg-reficultnias-110808.html
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A Doozy of a Depression  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/bonner/bonner360.html
A quote...."What the world waits to see is how long it takes these consequences to reveal themselves. No one doubts, broadly, what the consequences will be. Governments are doing their level best to create inflation. Sooner or later, they’ll get the hang of it. But when? How?  ---  That’s the thing…no one knows. The depression is taking the stuffing out of prices. Trillions in nominal purchasing power have disappeared. Workers have been laid off by the millions. There are too many Starbucks…too many malls…too many factories. All these things are dragging down prices…even while the feds inflate the money supply. Where will the turnaround come? When will prices stop going down and begin going up?  ---  No one knows…"
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Japan slump fastest in decades  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/business/2009/02/200921623641653880.html
link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
Depression Warning - A quote...."Japan's economy minister has said that the country is facing its worst crisis since World War II after data for the last quarter of 2008 showed the economy shrank by 3.3 per cent."
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Ireland ‘could default on debt’  ---  http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article5733723.ece
link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
Depression Warning - A quote...."FEARS are mounting that Ireland could default on its soaring national debt pile, amid continuing worries about its troubled banking sector."
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California to lay off 20,000 state workers  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=85891&sectionid=3510203
A quote...."California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says pink slips will be sent out to workers on Tuesday if lawmakers fail to reach a budget deal."
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California, Almost Broke, Nears Brink  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/us/17cali.html?_r=1&hp
A quote...."LOS ANGELES — The state of California — its deficits ballooning, its lawmakers intransigent and its governor apparently bereft of allies or influence — appears headed off the fiscal rails." -- Oh....they usually make some sort'a deal, after a couple of months that is. - mpg
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Kansas suspends income tax refunds, may miss payroll - link posted at CLG  ---  http://www.legitgov.org/#contribute
  ---  http://www.kansas.com/735/story/701750.html
A quote...."TOPEKA - Income tax refunds and state employee paychecks could be late after Republican leaders and the Democratic governor clashed Monday over how to solve a cash-flow problem."
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Sunday February 15th 2009 - links page

No posts. - mpg

Saturday February 14th 2009 - links page

Socialism Part Three: Warfare and Welfare  ---  http://www.nolanchart.com/article5993.html
Must Read - Some quotes...."As is the case with empires throughout history the Warfare arm of the United States government is pure and simple, a form of Socialism. Our government owns the munitions, buildings, production facilities, tanks, fighter planes, intelligence operations, technology, the vast resources used on a daily basis to sustain our military endeavors." -- "There has been little evidence of human civilization without the accompaniment of a war or defense machine. It seems only the strong survive. And ownership has been predominately socialized. For obvious reasons placing the safety of a society in the hands of a well armed private contracted army has usually proven to be detrimental. It is not long before that army no longer contracts with the State but becomes the State!"
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A Short History of US Government Handouts  ---  http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/02/14/a-short-history-of-us-government-handout
Related Article - A quote...."Global economies are withering while Washington conceives "Financial Recovery Plan(s) from Hell," according to economist Michael Hudson in his latest February 11 article. Bankers demand more trillions, "or (they'll) plunge the economy into financial crisis." What they want they'll get, and here's where things now stand."
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It Couldn't Happen Here -- Could It?  ---  http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/
Must Read - A quote...."PARIS--Most Americans don't care what happens in France. But the oldest country in "Old Europe" remains the Western world's intellectual capital and one of its primary originators of political trends. (Google "May+1968+Sorbonne.") -- The French are reacting to a situation almost identical to ours--economic collapse, government impotence, corporate corruption--by turning hard left. National strikes and massive demonstrations are occurring every few weeks. How far left? This far: the late president François Mitterand's Socialist Party, the rough equivalent of America's Greens, is considered too conservative to solve the economic crisis." -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/14-4
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Grassley Sounds Off on Obama's Man at the Pentagon  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/spinney02132009.html
A quote...."The attached speech regarding the wisdom of the nomination of Bill Lynn as Deputy Secretary of Defense was made yesterday on the Senate floor by one of my heros, Senator Chuck Grassley, a pig farmer from Iowa.  Grassley has dogged the Pentagon about its shoddy accounting practices since 1982, when he was freshman Republican senator. His acts of political courage put him repeatedly at odds with Ronald Reagan at the height of Reagan's popularity."
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Israel ready to launch offensive against Iran -- In the wake of Gaza, can the world afford to live with a nuclear Israel?
  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12307
A quote...."The truth is that, after witnessing Israeli war crimes in Lebanon and in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, the world cannot afford to live with nuclear Israel. As opposed to Iran, Israel has secretly developed hundreds of nuclear warheads and delivery weapons outside of any supervision by international community. Iran continues to run its nuclear program in cooperation with the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)." -- For more on this issue see....A Mortal Threat – Europe’s New Frankenstein Monster - 01-26-09 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/amortalthreat-europesnewfrankenstein-mpg-reficultnias-012609
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Livni's Punishment: Ms. Tantalus  ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14829
A quote...."Tantalus is punished by the Gods for reasons that are not entirely clear. He is hungry and thirsty, but the water in which he stands recedes when he bends down to drink from it and the fruit above his head continually evades his hand."
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Bombings Kill 12 in Iraq; Iran, Iraq aim at $5 bn. in Trade; Iran sees no Need for Negotiations with US on Iraq
  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2009/02/bombings-kill-12-in-iraq-iran-iraq-aim.html
A Juan Cole Round-Up -- A quote...."Mottaki said that there was no longer any reason for Iran and the US to hold bilateral talks on Iraq suecrity, given the stability and relative security in the Shiite South of Iraq where Iran has influence."
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Two officials sent to Moscow in bid to save Central Asian base - link posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60675
A quote...."The Obama administration sent two top officials to Moscow on Wednesday in an effort to retain access to a key military base in Central Asia, in what is the first major test of the administration’s relations with Russia, The Washington Times reported Thursday."
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Iran Builds Long-Range Anti-Aircraft System  ---  http://english.farsnews.net/newstext.php?nn=8711231428
A quote...."TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran has built a long-range anti-aircraft missile system capable of intercepting and destroying multiple targets simultaneously, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar announced on Wednesday."
also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/189908
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Turkmenistan to Supply 10b cu.m of Gas to Iran  ---  http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8711270788
A quote...."TEHRAN (FNA)- Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari announced here Saturday that some ten billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan's Yolton Gas field will be supplied to Iran based on an agreement signed by the two countries."
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Inquiry on Graft in Iraq Focuses on U.S. Officers  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/world/middleeast/15iraq.html?_r=1
A quote...."Federal authorities examining the early, chaotic days of the $125 billion American-led effort to rebuild Iraq have significantly broadened their inquiry to include senior American military officers who oversaw the program, according to interviews with senior government officials and court documents."
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Space Crash Called Catastrophic  ---  http://www.roguegovernment.com/Space_Crash_Called_Catastrophic/14269/0/9/9/Y/M.html
A quote...."The crash of two satellites has generated an estimated tens of thousands of pieces of space junk that could circle Earth and threaten other satellites for the next 10,000 years, space experts said Friday. "
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Statement of Lt. Col. Shelton F. Lankford, US Marine Corps (ret)  ---  http://patriotsquestion911.com/Statement%20Lankford.html
From the History File -- A quote...."February 20, 2007  -- This isn't about party, it isn't about Bush Bashing. It's about our country. The following is not a great analogy, but it will have to do."
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9/11 - From The History File...103 Suspected 9-11 Criminal Coconspirators  - database
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The Gaza Attack - 7 Articles - Saturday - [ Day 50 ] ========== ========== ========== ===

Proof Israel broke CeaseFire First that Started Gaza War  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgwkUfvfsFU  ---  (YouTube - 4 min 23 sec - Feb. 03, 2009)
Video - From the History File - February 03, 2009
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Destroying Gaza, Delaying Palestine  ---  http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet174.html
From the History File - A quote...."January 4, 2009 -- We watch in horror as Israel unleashes yet another war on the dispossessed and weak. Hundreds are killed (mostly police and civilians, not trained militants), thousands are injured, and a million and a half are terrorized, punished for defying the will of their besiegers and refusing to submit. Again the media colludes and sells a barbaric aggression on a basically defenseless and deprived population as a war between two sides, mystifying fundamental inequalities of power through words like “disproportionate response” and “ceasefire.” Again “shock and awe” is bandied about as military currency, as if it worked the first time round in Iraq, or the second in Lebanon 2006."
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Massacre Courageux des Enfants de Gaza Decembre 2008/Janvier 2009  ---  http://portail.islamboutique.fr/gaza2008/
Photo Gallary -- From the History File - Date Unknown --  Caution, they're extremely grim. - mpg
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The Second Nakba  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m51799&s1=h1
Special Note - A quote...."Feb 14, 2009 -- History repeats itself. With the key to her demolished home around her neck, the middle-aged Palestinian woman standing before me had escaped the first Nakba (meaning 'Day of Catastrophe' marking the exodus of Palestinians from their homes with the creation of the State of Israel) of 1948 only to live through the second Nakba; the Nakba of 2009, which was more destructive and deadly than the first."
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No Gaza deal until soldier's release, says Olmert  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/189911
A quote...."By: AP on: 14.02.2009 [20:10 ] -- Israel will not sign off on a Gaza ceasefire without the release of an Israel soldier held in the Hamas-controlled territory, the outgoing Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said today, squashing speculation that a deal might be imminent."
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Gaza-bound aid convoy leaving UK  ---  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7889948.stm
A quote...."Page last updated at 13:58 GMT, Saturday, 14 February 2009 -- A convoy of 110 vehicles is leaving London for Gaza to deliver £1m of humanitarian aid." -- also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/189884
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UK police seize Gaza aid vans  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/02/2009214214348261319.html
A quote...."Sunday, February 15, 2009 08:50 Mecca time, 05:50 GMT -- British police have seized three vans that were to form part of a 100 vehicle aid convoy headed for Gaza."

See also the Gaza Invasion of 12/27/08 - database - under construction. - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/thegazainvasion-mpg-weblist-122708
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End - The Gaza Attack - 7 Articles - Saturday - [ Day 50 ] ========== ========== ========== ===

The Oligarchy's Bailout Ball  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/021409a.html
A quote...."You know what they say -- half a million dollars just doesn't go as far as it used to."
also posted at ICH  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article21993.htm
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Looting Social Security  ---  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090302/greider?rel=hp_currently
A quote...."Governing elites in Washington and Wall Street have devised a fiendishly clever "grand bargain" they want President Obama to embrace in the name of "fiscal responsibility." The government, they argue, having spent billions on bailing out the banks, can recover its costs by looting the Social Security system." -- also posted at ICH   ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article21991.htm  ---  For more on this sort of issue see....Go Build Your Neo-Roman Empire - Just Leave Us Out Of It - 10-14-07 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/gobuildyournre-mpg-blog-101407
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Large U.S. banks on brink of insolvency, experts say  ---  http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/13/business/13insolvent.php
A quote...."Some of the large banks in the United States, according to economists and other finance experts, are like dead men walking."
also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3315-0-13-13--.html
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Bank Failures May Reach 1,000 on Bad Loans, RBC Says (Update2)
  ---  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=afK.wvOmLMpU&refer=home
A quote...."Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- As many as 1,000 U.S. banks may fail in the next three to five years, almost double the one-year tally at the height of the saving-and-loan collapse, as losses mount on commercial real-estate loans, RBC Capital Markets analysts said."
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European banks' toxic debts risk overwhelming EU governments
  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/4593539/European-banks-toxic-debts-risk-overwhelming-EU-governments.html
A quote...."The toxic debts of European banks risk overwhelming a number of EU governments and may pose a “systemic” danger to the broader EU banking system, according a confidential memo prepared by the European Commission."
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“Great Recession” seen lasting 3 years, experts say -- In the old days they called it a Depression - mpg
  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/great-recession-seen-lasting-3-years-experts-say.html
A quote...."The current recession will last at least three years and possibly longer absent a revival in credit markets, according to investors who specialize in distressed debt and bankruptcy. -- “This is going to be a three- to four-year disaster,” said Michael Psaros, managing partner at KPS Capital Partners, at a restructuring conference in New York. -- The United States is going through a “Great Recession,” which will provide investors in distressed assets with unprecedented opportunities, he said."
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Lloyds plan to pay £120 million in bonuses to staff threatens new 'fat cat' row
  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/4625231/Lloyds-plan-to-pay-120-million-in-bonuses-to-staff-threatens-new-fat-cat-row.html
A quote...."Lloyds banking group has drawn up plans to pay about £120 million in bonuses to staff even as it teeters on the brink of majority state ownership, The Sunday Telegraph has learned." - bold by website editor
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Ecuador defers (“illegitimate) bonds’ interest payments  ---  http://www4.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=16111&formato=HTML
A quote...."Ecuador won't pay bondholders 135 million US dollars in interest while it decides whether to default on a significant percentage of its foreign debt, deemed "illegitimate" by in audit, said on Saturday Finance minister Maria Elisa Viteri."

Friday February 13th 2009 - links page

To Alter or Abolish  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/bardallis/bardallis14.html
Must Read -  A quote...."Dear Federal Government,"

"Drop dead."

"Excuse us. Some may consider such bluntness to be indecorous, but why beat around the bush? In any case, we've been around this bush (Bush?) too many times to count already. It's time to let you know what we really think of you, what we say behind your back, what we whisper to each other when you leave the room."

"We hate you. We want you to drop dead. Or, anyway, to go away and never come back. You are not welcome anymore. We have tolerated you – and we emphasize "tolerated" – for a long time, long after whatever romance there may have been was gone. We can pretend no more. You are disgraceful, boorish, nauseating, corrupt, shameful, arrogant, dishonest, self-serving, parasitic, disgusting, hypocritical, and rotten to the core. You have not even one redeeming quality. There is nothing you offer that we want any longer. We're not even sure what it is we ever saw in you to begin with."
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Getting the Goat: A Bipartisan Proposal on Torture http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1701-getting-the-goat-a-bipartisan-proposal-on-torture.html
Special Note - A quote...."Jason Leopold has the low-down on some more smoking guns proving the highest level involvement in some of the basest tortures in the American gulag. In this case, we have more documentary evidence, gathered by the Pentagon's own investigators, linking former Pentagon honcho Donald Rumsfeld – the preppy pipsqueak who nosed his way through blood and filth for decades at the center of the American power structure – to the criminal abuse and murder of several prisoners by government goons who were following Rummy's "Special Interrogation Plan." As Leopold reports:"
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Rumsfeld Knew His Guys Were Torturing People to Death, Which Is a Serious Crime
  ---  http://www.alternet.org/workplace/126904/rumsfeld_knew_his_guys_were_torturing_people_to_death%2C_which_is_a_serious_crime/
A quote...."71% of Americans are in favor of an investigation into the possible misuse of the Department of Justice by the Bush administration according to a Gallup poll released yesterday. (Full Story) -- That's a pretty startling number, even for those of us who've been arguing for investigations for some time now. After all, Obama didn't get 71% of the vote, which means that a lot of folks who voted for McCain also want equal justice applied equally." -- Yeah, but numbers equally just as large wanted the US-NRE out of Iraq....and it's still there, and it's gonna stay there.... forever. - mpg
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On the Rocks  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn02132009.html
A quote...."I write these words at the end of a week in which: A new Democratic president, Barack Obama, via his Attorney General, has explicitly endorsed Bush's policy on renditions and Bush's refusal to recognize the jurisdiction of US courts in any legal proceedings in this regard; a week in which Obama’s solicitor general has explicitly endorsed  Bush’s policy on enemy combatants."
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Solicitor general nominee says 'enemy combatants' can be held without trial
  ---  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-solicitor-general11-2009feb11,0,7158432.story
Related Article - A quote...."Elena Kagan tells a senator she agrees with Attorney General Holder that the U.S. is at war and therefore may detain suspected terrorists indefinitely." -- also posted at AfterDowningStreet  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/39812
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Defence role in CIA's secret jails  ---  http://www.theage.com.au/world/defence-role-in-cias-secret-jails-20090213-875d.html
A quote...."THREE human rights groups have obtained documents that confirm US Department of Defence involvement in the CIA's "ghost" detention program, and the existence of secret prisons at Bagram air base in Afghanistan and in Iraq."
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Rendition Case Enters 'Bizarre' Realms of Secrecy  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/ips/fisher.php?articleid=14246
Our wonderful leadership’s childish and pathetic attempts at "plausible deniability".  Where did this nation’s sense of pride go?  "America's" moral outrage? This country's electorate should be ashamed of themselves for going into the polling booths and wasting their precious votes on these morons.- mpg -- A quote...."A prominent British-American lawyer who represents an Ethiopian-born Guantánamo detainee is charging that U.S. Defense Department officials are intentionally concealing evidence of his client's rendition and torture from President Barack Obama."
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Worst Than The Great Depression? ' Worst Economic Collapse Ever'  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article21983.htm
Video Interview - This one was a lot of fun - mpg -- A quote...."In 2009 were going to see the worst economic collapse ever, the Greatest Depression, says Gerald Celente, U.S. trend forecaster. He believes its going to be very violent in the U.S., including there being a tax revolt." 

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PJB - Obama and the Great Game  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=14242
Must Read Analysis - Bang on target -- Assuming Obama and the elites really want to settle things down in the Middle East and not stage another false flag event to gin up more wars so they can avoid the coming Depression. Something unlikely to occur given the consistent regularity of this nation's ten year cycle.  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/fedfundschart-photopg-cached-032407  ---  mpg -- A quote.... "Earlier, there was talk of 30,000, bringing the U.S. total to 63,000. Now, there are reports Obama may commit no more than the three brigades promised in 2008, and only one brigade now. - Clearly, the United States is checking its hole card. Can we draw to a winning hand? Or is this hand an inevitable loser – and we must cut our losses and cede the pot? No longer, anywhere, is there talk of "victory"." -- also posted at PJB
  ---  http://buchanan.org/blog/2009/02/pjb-obama-and-the-great-game/
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GRITtv Daily Newsmaker, February 09, 2009: Eugene Jarecki  - (GTV - YouTube 1 min 47 sec - Feb. 09, 2009)
  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1_gjo65PJw&eurl=http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/
Video - Grit TV with Laura Flanders on Military Keynesianism  ---  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Keynesianism  ---  and the military state. - mpg
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Afghan Govt Condemns Australian Raid That Killed Children  ---  http://news.antiwar.com/2009/02/13/afghan-govt-condemns-australian-raid-that-killed-children/
A quote...."Australian forces launched a pre-dawn raid on a village in Oruzgan Province, sparking a gunbattle that left five children dead and several others wounded. The Australian military defended the killings, saying they were “in accordance with the rules of engagement,” but declined to elaborate on how they were killed."
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Pakistan urges India to share full facts:  ---  http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=20308
Special Note - A quote...."ISLAMABAD: After exercising restraint for over two months, Pakistan on Friday rebuked India for hiding the facts of the Mumbai terror attacks under political compulsions and asked New Delhi to come up with “full facts”. -- ‘Enough is enough’ was Islamabad’s veiled message to New Delhi that has taken a tough line against Pakistan since the Nov 26 Mumbai mayhem, notwithstanding the PPP government’s repeated offers of all-out help in investigating the incident to bring its perpetrators to justice."
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US drone attacks originate in Pakistan  - Hah! So much for all that talk about shooting the drones down. - mpg
  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=85635&sectionid=351020401
A quote...."The US drone planes that launch missile strikes against militants are based in Pakistan, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee says."
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Pak bases not being used, says Mukhtar - Here's the official denial. - mpg
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C02%5C14%5Cstory_14-2-2009_pg1_2
Related Article - A quote...."LAHORE: Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar has denied that US drone attacks in the Tribal Areas are being carried out from Pakistani airbases. “We do have the facilities from where they can fly, but they are not being flown from Pakistani territory. They are being flown from Afghanistan,” he told a private TV channel. About comments by the US Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman, Mukhtar said, “I do not know on what she based all this.” daily times monitor"
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Radical cleric Sadr reaches out to Iraq PM  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090213/wl_mideast_afp/iraqpoliticssadr
A quote...."NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) – Iraq's radical anti-US Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday reached out to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, hinting his movement could return to the premier's Shiite alliance."
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Petrobras discovers evidence of oil off Iran's coast  ---  http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/14/content_10818175.htm
A quote...."RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's state-owned oil and gas company Petrobras has discovered evidence of hydrocarbons in ultra-deep water in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Iran, company officials said Friday."
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Russia to stick to its decision on bases in S.Ossetia, Abkhazia  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12221
A quote...."Russia's decision to create military bases in Abkhazia and South Ossetia will not be reviewed, [Period, full stop, end of story.] Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Sunday." -- Every once and awhile it really is refreshing to hear utterly blunt honesty. - mpg
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Beverly Eckert, Lost in a Plane Crash  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/beverly-eckert-lost-in-a-plane-crash/
In Memorial - A quote...."Beverly Eckert never gave up.  She and her fellow 9/11 widows and victim’s family members stuck to their guns and not only forced the Bush administration to do something they resisted for over 400 days, investigate the events of 9/11...."
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Homeland Security TV: Be Very Afraid  ---  http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/02/hbc-90004380
Police State Alert - A quote...."This is new to me: the Homeland Security Television Channel, “the world’s first online, on-demand television network dedicated to homeland security and global development.” The channel is also “dedicated to facilitating rapid awareness of new technologies and services, and assisting in the transfer of those technology solutions to the government and critical infrastructure marketplace.” -- If this idea sounds familiar to anyone, go rent a copy of "Fahrenheit 451"  ---  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451_%281966_film%29  ---  A quote....  ---  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451

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9/11 Questions: Who Provided Security?  ---  http://www.opednews.com/populum/link.php?id=82768
A quote...."A question that has seldom been asked and certainly not addressed by the Media is, "who was in charge of security at the World Trade Center?"  We decided to investigate and what we found is not surprising. " -- For more on this issue see....9/11 - WTC7
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911-wtc7-weblist-mpg-082308
& 9/11 - NORAD  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911norad-weblist-mpg-091308
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Orbital Collision: Please Pick Up the Nearest Black Courtesy Phone  ---  http://cryptogon.com/?p=6871
Quirky Connections - Some quotes...."In November 1998, Motorola activated the Iridium communications network, a constellation of low-earth orbit satellites that provides wireless telecom and data services to any location on the planet. The cost to build the system? About $5 billion. By August 1999, unable to sign up enough customers—because of extremely high handset costs and per minute usage fees—Iridium was facing bankruptcy."  ---  "How much did this group of private investors pay for the system that cost about $5 billion to build?  $25 million. That’s a discount of about 99.5% off the build cost."  ---  "But guess what happened next....The Department of Defense, through its Defense Information Systems Agency, last night awarded Iridium Satellite LLC of Arnold, Md., a $72 million contract for 24 months of satellite communications services."  ---  "In an odd twist, the new Iridium is 24% owned by an investment firm controlled by Prince Khalid bin Abdullah bin Abdulrahman of Saudi Arabia. The prince used to own a minority chunk of the old Iridium in partnership with the Saudi Binladen Group, the company run by Osama bin Laden’s family."

Well heck yeah!!  Now "our" government officials can coordinate all their activities with them "bad boy terrorists" even better using their very own, recently expanded, private satellite network. – mpg
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The Gaza Attack - 7 Articles - Friday - [ Day 49 ] ========== ========== ========== ===

The Siege of Gaza - Rev. Edwin Makue & Phyllis Bennis on GRITtv with Laura Flanders
  ---  http://palestinevideo.blogspot.com/2009/02/siege-of-gaza-rev-edwin-makue-phyllis.html
Video - From the History File - A quote...."This interview was broadcast Wednesday November 26, 2008 2:00 pm "Rev. Edwin Makue, General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches and Phyllis Bennis, Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies on the Israeli siege of Gaza.
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From Dresden to Gaza: Some people never change  ---  http://www.sott.net/articles/show/175983-From-Dresden-to-Gaza-Some-people-never-change
A quote...."Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:51 UTC -- It wouldn't be surprising if the pathocrats wanted Dresden destroyed for what it stood for, as a symbolic warning to the rest of humanity. And the psychopathic leaders of the time went over and beyond with brutality, ceasing only at humanity's opposition. That's how psychopaths gauge when enough is enough, since they don't posses the internal "stop-cruelty switch" themselves. Same story with the recent carnage in Gaza. Without humanity voicing its opposition (citizens rather than heads of states and governments), the Israeli government would have "cleared out" Gaza completely."
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The Israeli Smashing of Gaza and International Silence  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/13-7
A quote...."Published on Friday, February 13, 2009 -- I travelled to Gaza last week with Medea Benjamin and Tighe Berry of Codepink: Women for Peace. We were allowed by the Egyptian government to enter Gaza for only 48 hours. -- I knew that 1026 of the 1330 who were killed in the Israeli attacks on Gaza were civilians. Of the 1026 civilians, 282 were children, 111 women, 168 civilian policemen and 501 civilian men died in Israeli bombings. 274 have been classified as combatant deaths."
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International Criminal Court Faces Big Test With Israel  ---  http://www.progressive.org/mag/pal021209.html
A quote...."February 12, 2009 -- The International Criminal Court soon faces a big test—a test that could reveal whether it is truly an independent institution." -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/13-9
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Does Zionism legitimize every act of violence?  ---  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1063597.html
A quote...."Last update - 10:52 13/02/2009 -- The Israeli left died in 2000. Since then its corpse has been lying around unburied until finally its death certificate was issued, signed, sealed and delivered on Tuesday. The hangman of 2000 was also the gravedigger of 2009: Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The man who succeeded in spreading the lie about there being no partner has reaped the fruit of his deeds in this election. The funeral was held two days ago."
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Israeli air force, navy, shells Gaza  ---  http://www.imemc.org/article/58883
A quote...."Saturday February 14, 2009 09:35 -- The Israeli air force and the navy shelled late on Friday at night three areas in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Gaza city and Rafah causing several injuries and excessive property damage."
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Under a white flag, darkly  ---  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1063768.html
A quote...."Sat., February 14, 2009 Shvat 20, 5769 -- At 1 P.M. on Monday, January 5, 2009, near Rajib Mughrabi's garage on Saladin Street, in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, a man of about 60 was pushing an elderly woman in a wheelbarrow. A 15-year-old boy walked at their side, waving a white cloth. Behind them, some 80 people were walking northward, their hands in the air. The day before, during Israel Defense Forces advances under cover of heavy fire, Palestinian inhabitants began their great flight westward, inward, into the Strip's urban centers. If they thought they were in the soldiers' line of sight, they waved white flags and raised their hands aloft." -- also posted at Uruknet  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m51771&s1=h1

See also the Gaza Invasion of 12/27/08 - database  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/thegazainvasion-mpg-weblist-122708  ---  under construction. - mpg
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End - The Gaza Attack - 7 Articles - Friday - [ Day 49 ] ========== ========== ========== ===

Obama, like Bush, is throwing public money into a black hole  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12271
Must Read - A quote...."Let’s look coldly at the situation. The ratio of total debt to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is now higher than it was in 1933, when it reached the lofty and unsustainable level of 299.8 percent. It took nearly 20 years to bring down the debt/GDP ratio to below 140 in 1952. In the second quarter of 2008, all debt records were broken when the total debt ratio in the U.S. registered at 356.7 percent of GDP. If the same process of unwinding of excessive debt level plays itself out this time, this could translate into a debt deflation process lasting possibly until 2027!"
also posted at ICH  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article21974.htm
 & OnlineJournal  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4360.shtml
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Obama’s Opening Salvo  ---  http://www.europac.net/externalframeset.asp?from=home&id=15457
Must Read - A quote...."By Peter Schiff -- There is nearly universal agreement that the opening salvo of the Obama Administration’s campaign to restore health to the financial system, delivered this week by new Treasury Secretary Geithner, fell with a loud and ugly thud. The most common criticism is that the announcement was short on detail. What is abundantly clear, however, is that the new Administration intends to push spending back up to pre-crash levels and to fill the entire credit void that has disappeared into the black hole of the American financial system. Whether or not the prior levels of spending and lending were justified by market conditions then, or now, appears to be largely unexamined." - bold by website editor
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Geithner's Debut: "Not Ready for Prime Time"  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article21978.htm
A quote...."February 13, 2009 "Information Clearinghouse" -- Tuesday was Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's coming out party. He was supposed to outline Obama's Financial Stability Plan to the Senate Banking Committee. Wall Street was looking for clarity, but it didn't get it. Instead, they got 25 minutes of political posturing and blather. The markets went into freefall. By the end of the day, the Dow was down 382 points. It was a complete fiasco."
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Who is Pulling Geithner’s Strings?  ---  http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/8405
A quote...."Appearing behind a podium that proclaimed, “Financial Stability and Recovery,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday carefully read from a teleprompter and provided what his flack said was a “comprehensive” plan. It was not comprehensive in any way. It seemed so amateurish and shallow that the market dropped and commentators and senators were almost incredulous at the lack of detail. -- But what were they expecting? Geithner doesn’t know the details because he hasn’t been given them yet. Those who expected the details of the plan were operating under the false assumption that the Treasury Secretary―and by extension, the U.S. Government―is in practical control and charge of the U.S. economy."
also posted at ICH  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article21984.htm
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Obama’s voodoo economics - Deficit Nonchalance  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article21977.htm
A quote...."February 13, 2009 "Information Clearinghouse" -- -Who remembers economists’ hysteria over the “Reagan deficits”? Wall Street was in panic. Reagan’s fiscal irresponsibility was bringing the end of the world. The fiscal year 2009 federal budget deficit that Obama is inheriting, and adding to, will be ten times larger in absolute terms than Reagan’s biggest and a much larger share of GDP in percentage terms. Yet, economists are sending up no alarms. Paul Krugman, for example, couldn’t damn Reagan’s puny deficits enough. But today he thinks the deficit can’t be large enough! The central issue of the stimulus and bailout plans is how to finance the massive budget deficit. This issue remains unaddressed by economists and policy makers. As far as I can tell, the government, its advisers and cheerleaders think financing the deficit will be a cakewalk, like the Iraq War."
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Don't hope for discounts - If deflation sticks around, history is clear: It's bad news for all but a few
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/The-Spiral-Deflation-brings-bad/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7B4D772178-B28C-4542-84C7-22B07866BB78%7D&dist=SecMostRead
A quote...."SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Bargain shoppers, beware. The last time a major economy experienced repeat price cuts across a broad range of consumer goods, the stock market lost 80% of its value and unemployment hit its highest level since World War II."
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Eurozone economies slow sharply  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/02/200921314051206572.html
Financial Alert - A quote...."Economies in the Eurozone, the group of 16 countries that use the euro, shrank by 1.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2008. This is the region's third quarterly contraction in a row and represents the Eurozone's sharpest slump since the euro was created in 1999."
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Europe turns to protectionism as industry plummets  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/euro-f14.shtml
Depression Warning - A quote...."Statistics released Thursday by the European Union's Eurostat agency reveal that production plummeted across Europe at the end of 2008. The figures announced were far worse than analysts had anticipated. Industrial production declined across Europe by 2.6 percent in December compared to the previous month. On a year-to-year basis, European production has slumped 12 percent."
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Asia’s export economies in free fall  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/asia-f14.shtml
Depression Warning - A quote...."Staggering falls in exports across Asia have shocked economic analysts and ended all claims that the global slump may be nearing its bottom. The IMF's growth forecast for Asia this year is just 2.7 percent—less than a third of the 9 percent growth rate of 2007. The prediction is a full percentage point less than during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis."
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FDIC shutters four banks in one day
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/FDIC-shutters-four-banks-one/story.aspx?guid=%7BC37A3C34-58D1-4801-88CC-8622BDF57B6B%7D
A quote...."Oregon, Nebraska, Florida, Illinois bank failures bring year's total to 13"
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Which Stimulus Programs Have the Most Bang for the Buck? -- http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/02/which-stimulus-programs-have-most-bang.html
Chart - A quote...."An article by economist James K. Galbraith contains a chart - based on information from Moody's and congressional testimony - showing the most bang for the buck from government stimulus programs:"
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A trip down memory lane
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/How-current-PE-ratios-stand/story.aspx?guid=%7B13BD1A19-0A04-4FEE-97A6-0A1C410D6881%7D
Special Note - Market Tech Note - A quote...."Based on earnings on an "as-reported" over the trailing 12-months, the p/e ratio for the S&P 500 index stood at around 20 at the stock market's top in October 2007. -- At the beginning of 2008's fourth quarter, furthermore, the ratio stood at 25.4. -- Are you sitting down? -- The comparable p/e ratio as of Thursday night, based on data from Standard & Poor's, is 29.1."
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Anger grows in Britain as recession deepens  ---  http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/14/content_10817033.htm
A quote...."LONDON, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- As the recession bites harder in Britain, concerns are growing amongst the unemployed as to how they are going to pay their bills or find another job. There is rising anger directed towards the government and more recently top bankers. -- The public has complained that politicians' daily rhetoric is not solving Britain's economic problems. Many see government actions as only bailing out the banks and financial institutions rather than helping the ever increasing number of jobless and falling businesses." -- Hah!!  Get in line, or as you Brits are so wont to say....the queue. - mpg

Thursday February 12th 2009 - links page

Listen and listen well
O! One who could have been our brother
For we are one people, whether you like it or not
You are a Semite, A son of Israeel (Issac)
I am a Semite, A son of Ismaeel (Ishmael)
Our father, the father of both you and I
Is Ibrahim (Abraham)
Or are you one who will even deny his own father?

"We don't have to follow the individual trades to know whether the taxpayers are being ripped off. We just need to ask some more basic questions like "How much will this thing cost?" If the answer is anywhere much more than zero -- as Geithner suggested it will be -- and we still see that bank stocks carry significant value and bank executives continue to hold on to their high-paying jobs, then we will know that we have been had." -- *Dean Baker*, PhD economist

Wells Fargo has an impaired balance sheet. Marking mortgage assets ANYWHERE near what they are worth results in insolvency. -- *Reggie Middleton and Mish*

Wednesday February 11th 2009 - links page

Following the massive terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, the FBI dedicated 7,000 of its 11,000 Special Agents and thousands of FBI support personnel to the PENTTBOM investigation. "PENTTBOM" is short for Pentagon, Twin Towers Bombing.