MPG'S DAILY RAPSHEET AND BLOTTER  ON THE "GREAT GAME"  --  02-18-09  to 02-24-09 -- links page

@ www.reficultnias.org
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Editor's note : From now on each weekly blog page will have several items culled from the past called  "9/11 - From The History File" : It's for those who didn't know, and also for those who forgot....or are trying to forget.

Editor's note - War Update, War Alert, War Warning, Red War Warning and War Imminent - refer to articles regarding the upcoming war with Iran.  In the order they appear as shown above, they  represent less serious to more serious possible threats of war. - mpg

As of 08-08-08 a new category of war warning will be included, the above warnings will have the prefix (WWIII) added to them to indicate the possible outbreak of greater hostilities. - mpg
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Tuesday February 24th 2009 - links page

The Case That Wars Fuel U.S. Economic Booms  ---  http://www.alternet.org/audits/128720/the_case_that_wars_fuel_u.s._economic_booms/
Must Read - A quote...."In the great debate about the stimulus package -- which, underneath all the cant is really nothing more than a debate about how America's scarce wealth should be divided --  one of the right wing's favorite mantras was their claim that the New Deal did nothing to end the Depression. Instead, they argue, it was World War Two that ended the Depression." -- 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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Obama's War  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/24-6
Must Read - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Vietnam was, of course, a disaster. The proposals that constituted LBJ's Great Society agenda arguably amounted to the broadest social program put forward by any president since FDR's New Deal. And yet, by the end of his term, LBJ couldn't appear in many major American cities without fear of setting off massive protests. This was LBJ's fate because he inherited the war from JFK and embraced it. And given that JFK had also embarked upon escalating it when Dwight Eisenhower bequeathed it to him, this might well have been his fate as well, had he not been assassinated. -- This is still a pretty uncomfortable topic with a lot of Obama's supporters. They voted for Hope and all of this talk questioning his foreign policy is so negative. Certainly it's not their fault if they voted for decency at home and peace abroad and don't seem to be getting both, but it is their responsibility to recognize that fact. And unfortunately it may soon be the case that there are more Americans fighting Bush's wars than there were when Bush left the White House."
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Drum Machine: Spinning for War with Iran  http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1708-drum-machine-spinning-for-war-with-iran.html
Must Read - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."The drumbeat for an attack on Iran -- pounded by American and Israeli militarists, and their multitude of sycophants -- never ceases. At times it blends into the background noise of other events that surface to dominate the howling cacaphony of the corporate media bubble, but it never goes away. Very weighty factions in the American power structure, and their Israeli allies, are strongly committed to making such an attack happen, and they continue to press their agenda -- patiently, relentlessly -- no matter who is temporarily managing the empire."
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The State Department Ushers in Dennis Ross in the Dark of the Night
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-State-Department-Usher-by-Cheryl-Biren-Wrigh-090224-654.html
Must Read - War Warning - Related Article - A quote...."For months many concerns have been raised over the prospect of a Ross appointment as a special envoy to or an adviser on Iran. To assign an advisery role to the former diplomat who actively supports not only coercive actions against Iran, but the policy option of a preventive military attack seems counterintuitive to the need for trust in this highly sensitive relationship. --  Editor's note: this is the first "war warning" in a very long time.
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Why we went to war in Iraq remains a secret as Straw blocks the release of cabinet minutes  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52123&s1=h1
A quote...."The government took the unprecedented decision yesterday to block the release of cabinet minutes about the invasion of Iraq on the grounds that it would undermine democratic decision-making, the very argument used by freedom of information bodies which had ordered their disclosure." -- Sort'a exactly like when you level a country to "save it". - mpg
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The Muqtada factor re-emerges in Iraq  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KB25Ak02.html
A quote...."At one point, Maliki teamed up with both Kurdish parties, and the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. The aim was to keep a cabinet coalition floating, deprived of seculars, Sadrists, and Sunnis. -- Now that Hakim's team lost most of its provinces and the Kurds are divided like never before since 2003, Maliki is re-tapping his former friendship with Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The two sides, which emerged victorious in last month's elections, are currently negotiating a coalition, as announced by the Sadrist bloc in Baghdad at the weekend, which would give them both firm control over Basra, Baghdad, Maysan, al-Wasit and Dhi Qar."
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Museum reopening tells story of a hijacked country  ---  http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2009-02-24%5Ckurd.htm
A quote...."Even the reopening of the Iraq Museum was a shock that reminded many in Iraq of a country that has been hijacked. --  Thousands of works were on show but Iraqis were nowhere to be seen enjoying the occasion. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki might have reveled as well as the few dignitaries he had invited for the highly restricted opening festivities. --  But ordinary Iraqis, who own the museum and the country, were kept several kilometers away by armed guards. Even the skies were cordoned off by helicopter gunships." -- Something all US-NRE citizens will be able to look forward too very soon. - mpg
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Anti-NATO protest in Crimea  ---  http://www.kyivpost.com/nation/36072
A quote...."Participants in a protest held in front of the Crimean parliament have said that they are going to fight the policy "of involving Ukraine in NATO activities."
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‘Either you hold a referendum, or we’ll hold one for you’ – Georgian opposition
  ---  http://www.russiatoday.com/Politics/2009-02-24/_Either_you_hold_a_referendum__or_we_ll_hold_one_for_you____Georgian_opposition.html
A quote...."The Georgian opposition has presented President Saakashvili with an ultimatum: either he declares a referendum on a snap presidential election within ten days – or they will hold one themselves."
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Beijing's diplomatic blitz gathers pace  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KB25Ad02.html
A quote...."One is dazzled and probably puzzled by this intensive and extensive high-level Chinese diplomacy. What are the purposes of these visits? What messages does China want to convey to the international community? " -- Perhaps they're saying their currency is better than that "other one"? - mpg
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China breaks its silence on Afghanistan  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KB25Ad03.html
A quote...."In the violent, lethal environment in which he lived and survived to eventually lead Beijing's march towards socialism with Chinese characteristics, Deng Xiaoping had great reasons to be cautious. In regards to China's international approach, Deng had this to say: "Observe calmly; secure our position; cope with affairs calmly; hide our capacities and bide our time; be good at maintaining a low profile; and never claim leadership."
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French President Congratulates Chavez, Praises Venezuelan Democracy  ---  http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4245
A quote...."February 23, 2009 (venezuelanalysis.com)-- The president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, sent a letter to his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez last week, congratulating him on the victory of a constitutional referendum allowing him to run for re-election in 2012."
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U.S. Army To Buy $6 Million Of Riot Equipment  ---  http://infowars.net/articles/february2009/240209Riot.htm
Military State Update - A quote...."The U.S. Army is to invest $6 million in riot equipment, a fact that has furthered fears that troops will be used inside the U.S. in order to quell any civil unrest resulting from the ongoing economic crisis."
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The Gaza Attack - 9 Articles - Tuesday - [ Day 60 ] ========== ========== ========== ====

Focus on Gaza: A Crime of War? - 20 Feb 09  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKzIxXkFvVE  ---  (YouTube - 23 min 23 sec - Feb. 20, 2009)
Must View Video -- A quote...."Human rights investigators continue to look into allegations that Israeli soldiers may have committed crimes of war during their Gaza military campaign. -- As the first Focus on Gaza A Crime of War? looks at the story of an alleged war crime that occurred during the war in the small village of Khuzaa, half a kilometre from the Israeli border."
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Can Gaza Be Rebuilt Through Tunnels? -- The Blockade Continues—No Supplies, No Rebuilding  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/24
Special Note - A quote...."Tuesday, February 24, 2009 -- The Israelis who bombed Gaza will be the primary financial beneficiaries of the rebuilding of Gaza.  They bombed it and now will sell construction materials to rebuild what they have bombed, exactly like the United States has done in Iraq.  Egyptians too will benefit financially from the reconstruction-high priced small construction materials that will fit into the tunnels are no doubt have been transiting through the tunnels for the past 6 weeks.  Israeli women had created a website detailing who profits from occupation (http://www.whoprofits.org/) -- No doubt a second website is under construction that will track which Israeli, Egyptian and American companies will benefit from the bombing of Gaza." -- There they go, making money from all those dead children, no one ever said the Israelis weren't a smart people. - mpg
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Holland: Shoes thrown at IDF officer during speech  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/190814
A quote...."25.02.2009 [01:45 ] -- Pro-Palestinian demonstrators threw shoes at an Israeli reserves officer while giving a speech on the Israel Defense Forces' operation in the Gaza Strip in an Amsterdam hotel Sunday. -- "This was an actual physical assault – past the limits of good taste," the officer, Captain (Res.) Ron Edelheit told Ynet on Monday. - bold by website editor -- Well wadda'ya know, the Israelis even have a sense of humor too. - mpg
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Amnesty’s scandalous obliquity [*]  ---  http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/02/24/amnestya-8217-s-scandalous-obliquity
A quote...."02/24/09 -- To be sure, no one claims that Hamas is completely blameless. Targeting innocent civilians is unacceptable. However, equating the resistance of a long-persecuted people languishing under an evil military occupation, even if wrongs are done, with an immensely superior state terror unjustifiably perpetrated by an occupying power is morally unconscionable, to say the very least."
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EVIL are these means and avowed ends  ---  http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/02/25/evil-are-these-means-and-avowed-ends
A quote...."The world watches Israel as it enters another corrupt phase in a sixty-year era of corruption—means upon means. Thomas Paine said “A bad cause will ever be supported by bad means and bad men” (and women). In its fraudulent cause Israel has caused deaths and displacements of hundreds of thousands of people who never harmed or threatened Jews. -- In its 23-day reign of rabid violence (on top of continuous aggression and occupation) that left 1,330 people (among them 400 children) massacred and 5,450 wounded, Israel has left two thirds of Gaza’s 1.5 million people homeless".
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Hamas: Fatah Spied for Israel  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22083.htm
A quote...."February 24, 2009 ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Leading Hamas member Mahmoud Zahar said on Tuesday some Palestinian officials, backed by the United States, were obstructing the dialogue due to open between Palestinian groups in Cairo on Wednesday.
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Israeli military attacks school and a local TV station in Nablus and kidnapps two civilians  ---  http://www.imemc.org/article/58990
A quote...."Tuesday February 24, 2009 16:24 -- Two civilians were kidnapped from a local Television station and school, as the Israeli military invaded the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday."
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Erdogan urges Israel to recognize Hamas  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86637&sectionid=351020202
A quote...."Tue, 24 Feb 2009 13:38:27 GMT  -- The Turkish Prime Minister says if Israel is looking for a lasting peace in the Middle East it should recognize Palestine and Hamas."
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2 Palestinian women break glass ceiling by becoming judges  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86687&sectionid=351020202
A quote...."Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:32:34 GMT -- Two women have made history by smashing the last male-only bastions in the Palestinian territory to become its first female judges."

See also the Gaza Invasion of 12/27/08 - database   ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/thegazainvasion-mpg-weblist-122708  ---  under construction. - mpg

Editorial Note  -- This will be the last separate section devoted to the Israel's invasion of Gaza and its horrendous aftermath.  It ends on day sixty.  Articles will still be posted of course. – mpg

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End - The Gaza Attack - 9 Articles - Tuesday - [ Day 60 ] ========== ========== ========== ====

A Planet at the Brink - Will Economic Brushfires Prove Too Virulent to Contain?
  ---  http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175038/michael_klare_a_pandemic_of_economic_violence
Must Read - A quote...."The global economic meltdown has already caused bank failures, bankruptcies, plant closings, and foreclosures and will, in the coming year, leave many tens of millions unemployed across the planet. But another perilous consequence of the crash of 2008 has only recently made its appearance: increased civil unrest and ethnic strife. Someday, perhaps, war may follow."
also posted at ICH  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22091.htm
Oh, war will certainly follow....it's called the ten year economic/war cycle. - mpg
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How the US Economy Was Lost  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22087.htm
Must Read - A quote...."February 24, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- The American economy has gone away. It is not coming back until free trade myths are buried six feet under. -- America’s 20th century economic success was based on two things. Free trade was not one of them. America’s economic success was based on protectionism, which was ensured by the union victory in the Civil War, and on British indebtedness, which destroyed the British pound as world reserve currency."
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Schemes to rescue Wall Street gamblers are prolonging this recession  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4403.shtml
Must Read - A quote...."Using the “too big to fail” scare tactic, the U.S. government has kept a number of terminally ill Wall Street gamblers on an expensive life-support system that is estimated to cost taxpayers $8.5 trillion [1]. In light of the fact that (according to IRS Data Book) there were 138 million taxpayers in 2007, this figure represents a burden of $61,594.20 per taxpayer. Or, to put it differently, it represents a burden of $28,333.33 per man, woman and child for the entire U.S. population."
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Cramer: Nationalization Would Crush America  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3434-0-13-13--.html
Must View Video - A quote...."Cramer points out that if it isn't nationalization of certain big banks, then it's chaos for the financial systems and puts this into a historical perspective."
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Still waiting for Helicopter Ben  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/feb/24/useconomy-credit-crunch
Must Read - A quote...."The government's percentage ownership of a bank is a red herring. The key economic realities are: the government is already responsible for a large portion of bank liabilities, through insurance on deposits and new bank debt; the government is the only source of new capital for banks; and the government stress tests will determine whether banks are allowed to continue in operation and under what terms. The only purpose served by artificially minimising government "ownership" is to limit the potential upside available to taxpayers." - bold by website editor
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Hillary Clinton presses China to keep buying US debt  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/clin-f24.shtml
Hillary is wrong in so many ways with this concept that you lose count of them. - mpg -- A quote...."US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton concluded her weeklong Asian tour Sunday with an explicit appeal to the Beijing government to keep up its purchases of US treasury notes or risk the onset of an even deeper economic crisis engulfing China and the US itself."
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Did Vladimir Lenin Predict The Banking Disaster Of 2008?  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20946.htm
A quote...."Lenin enumerated the following five features characteristic of the epoch of imperialism: The epoch of imperialism opens when the expansion of colonialism has covered the globe and no new colonies can be acquired by the great powers except by taking them from each other, and the concentration of capital has grown to a point where finance capital becomes dominant over industrial capital. Lenin enumerated the following five features characteristic of the epoch of imperialism....." -- Well heck, Marx got there first.....

"[To the possessor of money capital] “the process of production appears merely as an unavoidable intermediate link, as a necessary evil for the sake of money-making. All nations with a capitalist mode of production are therefore seized periodically by a feverish attempt to make money without the intervention of the process of production.”—  *Karl Marx*, Capital, Volume II, “The Circuit of Money Capital”
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Signs of life   ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/evidence-mounts-recessions-worst-past/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7B71467556-3683-4018-906C-7FFC8A3F9E8C%7D&dist=TNMostRead  -- Only for the last two months. - mpg
A quote...."PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. (MarketWatch) -- Commentary: The economy's worst may be past --  Although you wouldn't know it from the behavior of the stock market, the economic outlook is turning just a bit less gloomy." -- Extreme caution should be exercised when viewing these stats, several of them have lead linings to them.  For example....

Consumer prices rose in January -- the first monthly gain in six months.
A lot of the increase was due to a steep rise in energy prices.

The Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators has risen for two months in a row.
Primarily because of an increase in the money supply.

Existing-home sales rose in Dec, and participants in our weekly survey think that another rise took place in Jan.
Much of it due to the sale of foreclosed homes.

Retail sales shot up by 1% in January -- the first monthly rise since June.
Most of the increase was caused by retailers slashing prices in an attempt to get rid of their holiday inventory.

Some securities on banks' books are starting to recover in value.
What "securities" would those be?  And just what is meant by "value"? How the heck could anyone calculate it? - mpg
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Home prices in record drop  ---  http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/24/real_estate/Case_Shiller_December/?postversion=2009022411
A quote...."The S&P Case-Shiller National Home Price Index reported that prices sank a record 18.2% during the last three months of 2008, compared with the same period in 2007."
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Consumer Confidence Tanks In February  ---  http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/24/consumer-home-prices-markets-economy_housing_12.html
A quote...."Consumer confidence and home prices continue their downward spiral. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index for February totaled 25.0, the lowest reading on record, and well below the 35.0 anticipated by Wall Street."
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Merril Lynch losses trigger executive bonuses investigation  ---  http://www4.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=16213&formato=HTML
A quote...."Merrill Lynch & Co lost 15.84 billion US dollars in the fourth quarter, a regulatory filing showed, more than 500 million higher than the loss previously estimated by Bank of America Corp. " -- A half a billion here, a half a billion there, what the heck, that ain't real money anymore.  What's the big fuss about? - mpg
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[British] savers withdraw record amount as interest rates fall
  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/savings/4801389/Savers-withdraw-record-amount-as-interest-rates-fall.html
A quote...."Savers withdrew a record £2.3 billion from their accounts last month as historically low interest rates forced millions of investors to look elsewhere for better returns on their money, official statistics showed."
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UK car production in January plummets 58.7% over a year ago  ---  http://www4.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=16214&formato=HTML
A quote...."United Kingdom car production for January fell 58.7% against the same month the previous year, latest figures show."
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Latvia's CDS spreads soar to record - Ratings agency warns of 'major crisis' brewing in Eastern Europe
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Latvias-credit-rating-cut-junk/story.aspx?guid=%7B95AAB1C5-43BE-4261-98A7-954EC9E1B641%7D
A quote...."NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Eastern Europe's financial woes once again took center stage Tuesday, as Latvia's credit default swap spreads reached their widest levels on record after Standard & Poor's Ratings Services cut that country's credit rating to "junk" status and warned it could also downgrade the ratings of neighboring Baltic states Lithuania and Estonia. "
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Monday February 23rd 2009 - links page
 
The American Tradesmen: Weary Cogs in the Engine of the American Empire  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/crovelli/crovelli24.html
Must Read - A quote...."It was extremely easy in previous years to forget that the empire required constant maintenance and massive amounts of fuel. Tradesmen, businessmen, and private employees of all other stripes in the United States were able to go about their daily business without bothering their busy little minds about the latest foreign and domestic schemes and boondoggles of the political classes in Washington and New York. "What goes on in the gilded halls of our government has nothing to do with my own life," many no doubt thought to themselves in the smug years of the past two decades. This sentiment led many to the false idea that every individual American was the sole master of his own destiny – that each man could "do anything" with his life if he simply worked hard enough, got a college degree, or started a small business. It also led to the equally false idea that government spending for war and welfare is irrelevant to the enterprising individual American, and that he need never worry that his life’s work could be wrecked in an instant by inflation by the Federal Reserve. "
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Fox News "war games" the coming civil war  ---  http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/22/militias/index.html
Must Read - A quote...."Bill Clinton's election in 1992 gave rise to the American "militia movement":  hordes of overwhelmingly white, middle-aged men from suburban and rural areas who convinced themselves they were defending the American way of life from the "liberals" and "leftists" running the country by dressing up in military costumes on weekends, wobbling around together with guns, and play-acting the role of patriot-warriors.  Those theater groups -- the cultural precursor to George Bush's prancing 2003 performance dressed in a fighter pilot outfit on Mission Accomplished Day -- spawned the decade of the so-called "Angry White Male," the movement behind the 1994 takeover of the U.S. Congress by Newt Gingrich and his band of federal-government-cursing, pseudo-revolutionary, play-acting tough guys. -- What was most remarkable about this allegedly "anti-government" movement was that -- with some isolated and principled exceptions -- it completely vanished upon the election of Republican George Bush, and it stayed invisible even as Bush presided over the most extreme and invasive expansion of federal government power in memory." -- also posted at CommonDreams
  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/22-5
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A Message to Israel: - Time to Stop Playing the Victim Role  ---  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-slater/a-message-to-israel-time_b_155978.html
Must Read - A quote...."I can understand that after centuries of persecution it's satisfying for a Jewish state to be the aggressor for a change, but there's a codicil that goes with that role. You don't get to act like a victim any more. "Poor little Israel" just sounds silly when you're the dominant power in the Middle East. When you've invaded several of your neighbors, bombed and defeated them in combat, occupied their land, and taken their homes away from them, it's time to stop acting oppressed. Yes, Arab states deny your right to exist, threaten to drive you into the sea, and all the rest of their futile, helpless rhetoric. The fact is, you have the upper hand and they don't. You have sophisticated arms and they don't. You have nuclear weapons and they don't. So stop pretending to be pathetic. It doesn't play well in Peoria." -- also posted at ICH  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22081.htm
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Propelling Prisoners' Heads into Concrete Walls  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22077.htm
A quote...."February 23, 2009 -- - Propelling prisoners' heads into concrete walls by means of towels wrapped around their necks, savage beatings with fists and rifles that left prisoners crippled, hanging prisoners by the arms with their arms strung up behind them, depriving prisoners of sleep for weeks on end, which has been thought the worst torture possible for 500 years, causing prisoners to freeze -- sometimes to death, and waterboarding are but a partial list of the torture methods ordered by America's highest officials. In the "Preliminary Memorandum of the Justice Robert H. Jackson Conference on Federal Prosecutions of War Criminals," law school Dean Lawrence Velvel, the founder of the Jackson Conference, details the full spectrum of tortures performed in wholesale combinations -- not one torture by itself -- on detainees around the world. His Preliminary Memorandum is a precursor to a formal legal complaint to be filed with the Justice Department this spring."
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Revealed: full horror of Gitmo inmate's beatings  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/22/binyam-mohamed-injuries
A quote...."Former British resident Binyam Mohamed arrives back in Britain tomorrow after his release from Guantanamo Bay. British and US lawyers claim that sustained beatings - which have only recently stopped - have left him with severe psychological and physical problems. Defence correspondent Mark Townsend reports." -- also posted at ICH  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22069.htm
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Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed returns to make torture claims
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/4788016/Guantanamo-detainee-Binyam-Mohamed-returns-to-make-torture-claims.html
Related Article - A quote...."The Guantanamo detainee, Binyam Mohamed has now been released amid claims he was tortured with the full knowledge of British intelligence."
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Updates: Child Sacrifice and Gitmo Torture, Progressive Style
  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1707-updates-child-sacrifice-and-gitmo-torture-progessive-style.html
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."We reported here last week
  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1704-operation-uptick-obama-launches-afghan-surge.html  ---  about another in the barrage of stories detailing civilian deaths at the hands of American-led forces in the "good war" in Afghanistan, now being escalated by Barack Obama. (And not only in Afghanistan; Obama is also rapidly expanding American attacks inside Pakistan to include forces there with little or no involvement with the war in Afghanistan -- along with the usual blood-fruit harvest of civilians, of course.)"
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Leading article: Obama, tell us the whole truth
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-obama-tell-us-the-whole-truth-1628829.html
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."‘Having considered the matter, the government adheres to its previously articulated position.” With these words, Acting Assistant Attorney General Michael Hertz ended a dream. The dream that Barack Obama’s presidency would inaugurate a transcendent world order on a new moral plane. -- Late on Friday Mr Hertz told the Washington district court that the Obama administration maintained President Bush’s view that prisoners held at Bagram air base in Afghanistan could not challenge their detention in US courts. For the cynics, this is “a previously articulated position you can believe in”." -- also posted at ICH  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22078.htm
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Surging towards a US-NATO Military Disaster: Obama's Escalating War in Central and South Asia
  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12412
Special Note - Obama™ Update - (By the numbers)  -- A quote...."On February 18, President Barack Obama ordered 17,000 additional U.S. troops deployed to Afghanistan. Obama's announcement will result in a major escalation of America's bloody occupation of that war-ravaged country. -- Currently, some 36,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, including some 6,000 sent in early January under orders by the outgoing Bush regime. In addition to U.S. forces, 32,000 troops from other NATO countries and a mix of "private military contractors" (armed mercenaries) occupy the Central Asian nation. -- When coupled with increasingly bellicose rhetoric from the Pentagon and military strikes inside Pakistan, the prospects for regional war--with incalculable risks for the people of Central- and South Asia--have put paid Obama's electoral hyperbole that his would be a "change" administration.
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Welcome To Obama’s War  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis138.html
Special Note - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."As Santayana observed, those who forget history are doomed to relive it. However overused used, his maxim is as true today as when he made it."
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Analysis: Closure of a Kyrgyz air base may hold risks, opportunities for Moscow - posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/02/23/analysis-kyrgyz-base-closure-risky-for-moscow/
A quote...."The move would not just kick the U.S. out of a military installation in a volatile area with major gas and oil fields. It also promises to help Russia gain a choke hold over a critical transit corridor for troops and materiel needed to support of the Obama administration's expanded war in Afghanistan. -- But by pushing the U.S. out, some experts say, Russia may be inviting trouble in a volatile region that could be ripped apart by surging poverty and rising Islamic militancy."
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Iraq's Maliki to make first Russia visit  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/190643
A quote...."Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is to make his first visit to Moscow for talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, a foreign ministry official said on Sunday."
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Pakistani Taliban announce indefinite ceasefire in Swat  ---  http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=37132
A quote...."Taliban announced an indefinite ceasefire in the Swat valley in the northwest of the country on Tuesday."
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IAEA douses furor over Iran report  ---   http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KB24Ak03.html
The US-NRE mass-infotainment-media got it wrong again. - mpg  -- A quote...."From the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and London's Mirror, the Guardian and the Financial Times, among other leading international newspapers, the reaction has been a steady stream of alarmist commentaries. Many reports regard this an Iranian "milestone" in reaching "nuclear break-out capability".
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Iran's nuke program not weapons-capable, UN official says: report
  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Iranian_nuke_program_not_weaponscapable_UN_0221.html
A quote...."The anonymous official said the Iranian enrichment program is "under surveillance at all times" and that there is no evidence Iran is building a secret facility to produce the enriched uranium required for nuclear bomb fuel."
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Cohen: What Iran's Jews say - link posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/22/opinion/edcohen.php?page=1
A quote...."ESFAHAN, Iran: At Palestine Square, opposite a mosque called Al-Aqsa, is a synagogue where Jews of this ancient city gather at dawn. Over the entrance is a banner saying: "Congratulations on the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution from the Jewish community of Esfahan."
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Israel orders Palestinian homes razed  ---  http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25092705-5005961,00.html
A quote...."ISRAEL has ordered hundreds of Palestinians to leave their homes in annexed east Jerusalem, warning their houses are illegal, officials and residents said today."
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Hollywood to make 30 anti-Iranian movies  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86597&sectionid=351020105
A quote...."Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Hassan Qashqavi, has said that Hollywood film makers have thirty anti-Iranian movies in the offing."
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Found in Translation  - FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds spills her secrets  ---  http://www.amconmag.com/article/2008/jan/28/00012/
 - PDF  ---  http://www.amconmag.com/pdfissue.html?Id=AmConservative-2008jan28&page=12
Special Note - A quote...."....Edmonds’s account is full of dates, places, and names. And if she is to be believed, a treasonous plot to embed moles in American military and nuclear installations and pass sensitive intelligence to Israeli, Pakistani, and Turkish sources was facilitated by figures in the upper echelons of the State and Defense Departments. Her charges could be easily confirmed or dismissed if classified government documents were made available to investigators. -- But Congress has refused to act, and the Justice Department has shrouded Edmonds’s case in the state-secrets privilege, a rarely used measure so sweeping that it precludes even a closed hearing attended only by officials with top-secret security clearances."
also posted at ICH  ---   http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22071.htm
For more on this issue see....US Support of Terror  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussupportofterror-weblist-mpg-090306
& US - Nukes for Everyone  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/nukesforeveryone-weblist-mpg-010608
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Shot Arms Dealer 'Knew Too Much'  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/40174
A quote...."The death of an American arms dealer in Iraq has led to one of the most intricate and far-reaching inquiries into corruption among US military officers in Iraq. Some suspect that he was killed because he was a whistleblower who knew too much."
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False Flag Alert - Police State Alert -- A quote....FBI Director Warns of Terror Attacks on U.S. Cities
 ---  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/23/AR2009022301850.html  ---  Federal officials worry about pockets of possible 'radicals' in Seattle, San Diego, Miami or New York. -- 23 Feb 2009 FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III today warned that extremists "with large agendas and little money can use rudimentary weapons" to sow terror, raising the specter that recent attacks in Mumbai that killed 170 people last year could embolden terrorists seeking to attack U.S. cities. At a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Mueller said that the bureau is expanding its focus beyond al-Qaeda [al-CIAduh] and into splinter groups, radicals who try to enter the country through the visa waiver program and "home-grown terrorists." [Translation: Obama is poised to implement a full-blown police state to suppress the inevitable -- and long overdue -- rebellion over the Bush Depression. --LRP] -- Paragraph quoted from CLG  ---  http://www.legitgov.org/
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Urban Warfare Drills Linked To Coming Economic Rage  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/urban-warfare-drills-linked-to-coming-economic-rage.html
Police State Alert -- A quote...."Urban warfare training drills are taking place across the country as top analysts as well as officials predict a potential “summer of rage” across Europe and America as civil unrest from the economic fallout builds"
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Obama’s DOJ quietly sought dismissal of missing White House emails lawsuit  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4397.shtml
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."One day after he was sworn in as president of the United States and in the same week signing executive orders ushering in a new era of government transparency, Barack Obama’s Justice Department quietly filed a motion in federal court to dismiss a long-running lawsuit that sought to force the Bush administration to recover as many as 15 million missing White House emails."
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Rove skips House testimony for third time -- And that good ol'boy Obama won't do a thing about it. - mpg
  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Rove_skips_House_testimony_third_time_0223.html
A quote...."Karl Rove did it again. Or rather, he didn't do it again. -- For the third time, the former Bush official – and newly crowned king of D.C. Twitterers – failed to appear before the House Judiciary Committee to testify about his alleged involvement in the firing of U.S. Attorneys and the alleged political prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman."
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Siegelman believes Rove will never testify truthfully  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Siegelman_Rove_will_never_testify_truthfully_0223.html
Related Article - A quote...."In an exclusive interview with Raw Story, Siegelman expresses his concerns about the negotiations taking place between former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Congress over Rove’s failure to appear before the US House Judiciary Committee and testify about Siegelman’s case. Rove has denied any involvement in Siegelman’s prosecution and has offered to testify to Congress about the matter but has failed to appear when subpoenaed."
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The Gaza Attack - 4 Articles - Monday - [ Day 59 ] ========== ========== ========== ====

Moroccan-Algerian border opens for UK Gaza aid convoy - 21 February 2009 - (YuTb - 2m 39s - Feb 21, 2009)
  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdkHrxgghf8
Video - Action Update - Feb 21, 2009 - PressTv Report
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Suspend military aid to Israel, Amnesty urges Obama after detailing US weapons used in Gaza - Ain't gonna happen
  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/23/military-aid-israel-amnesty
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Monday 23 February 2009  -- Detailed evidence has emerged of Israel's extensive use of US-made weaponry during its war in Gaza last month, including white phosphorus artillery shells, 500lb bombs and Hellfire missiles."
also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/23
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PFLP calls upon Amnesty International to end false equation of occupier and occupied  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52101&s1=h1
A quote...."Feb 23, 2009 -- The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine addressed the new report of Amnesty International on February 23, 2009, stating that human rights organizations must stop their equation of the victim with the executioner, and instead pressure the occupier to halt its attacks against our occupied Palestinian people.
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Palestinian legislator sentenced to 19 months imprisonment  ---  http://www.imemc.org/article/58983
A quote...."Tuesday February 24, 2009 04:39 -- In a press release, Hamas legislators in the occupied West Bank slammed the court’s decision and considered it another Israeli violation that targeted the elected Palestinian official, including legislators and mayors."

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 - 4 Articles - Monday - [ Day 59 ] ========== ========== ========== ====

10 Dirty Tricks Wall Street Con Artists Will Pull to Keep the Rip-offs Going
  ---  http://www.alternet.org/workplace/128241/10_dirty_tricks_wall_street_con_artists_will_pull_to_keep_the_rip-offs_going/
Must Read - A quote...."Look beyond the bad news. Remember, Washington's run by 40,000 lobbyists not 537 elected politicians. I'm betting lobbyists will use the following tactics to neutralize activists and limit reforms. That way, behind the scenes Wall Street keeps control with its business-as-usual tactics, schemes, scams, hustles and wheeling and dealing. Here are the 10 "dirty tricks" Wall Street lobbyists likely will use to help jump-start a new bull market:"
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LIBOR Increasing Again  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/02/libor-increasing-again.html
Financial Alert - A quote...."The much-ballyhooed reduction in LIBOR - the rate banks charge for loans to each other, and so an indication of liquidity - is slipping away."
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AIG Seeks More US Funds As Firm Faces Record Loss  ---  http://www.cnbc.com/id/29353282
Financial Alert - File this under "You've got to be kidding, not AGAIN"!! - mpg -- Some quotes...."American Insurance Group, the insurance giant that is 80-percent owned by the US government, is in discussions with the government to secure additional funds so it can keep operating after next Monday, when it will report the largest loss in U.S. corporate history, CNBC has learned. -- Sources close to the company [AIG  0.53    -0.01  (-1.85%)   ] said the loss will be near $60 billion due to writedowns on a variety of assets including commercial real estate." -- "All of this adds up to a huge headache for the Federal Reserve and Treasury, which have already provided over $150 billion of assistance to AIG."
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Citigroup's Parsons Spotted At White House
  ---  http://www.roguegovernment.com/Citigroup%27s_Parsons_Spotted_At_White_House/14456/0/8/8/Y/M.html
Financial Alert - A quote...."The incoming chairman of Citigroup, Richard Parsons, showed up at the White House Monday, fueling talk that the federal government might take a massive ownership stake in the troubled banking behemoth."
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Obama outlines policy of austerity at budget summit  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/osum-f24.shtml
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."In advance of his address to Congress on Tuesday and the release of his federal budget on Thursday, President Barack Obama on Monday hosted a White House Federal Budget Summit to launch a campaign for "fiscal responsibility."
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The Language of Looting  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson02232009.html
A quote...."Exactly what does “a free market” mean? Is it what the classical economists advocated – a market free from monopoly power, business fraud, political insider dealing and special privileges for vested interests – a market protected by the rise in public regulation from the Sherman Anti-Trust law of 1890 to the Glass-Steagall Act and other New Deal legislation? Or is it a market free for predators to exploit victims without public regulation or economic policemen – the kind of free-for-all market that the Federal Reserve and Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) have created over the past decade or so? It seems incredible that people should accept today’s neoliberal idea of “market freedom” in the sense of neutering government watchdogs, Alan Greenspan-style, letting Angelo Mozilo at Countrywide, Hank Greenberg at AIG, Bernie Madoff, Citibank, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers loot without hindrance or sanction, plunge the economy into crisis and then use Treasury bailout money to pay the highest salaries and bonuses in U.S. history."
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As New Scammers Emerge, Is It Jailout Time Yet?  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/23-8
A quote...."Judging by my in-box, there seem to be no shortage of organizations and individuals obsessed with an image: Dick Cheney and George Bush in prison, and Karl Rove in the next cell. Never mind that Congress doesn't have the guts or the President, or the gumption to go after those responsible for the gutting of the Constitution. Nevertheless, there are many campaigns and calls to hold the last administration accountable for its crimes. "
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'Nationalize' the Banks  ---  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123517380343437079.html  ---  From "Dr. Doom" himself. - mpg
Special Note - A quote...."Mr. Roubini tells me that bank nationalization "is something the partisans would have regarded as anathema a few weeks ago. But when I and others put it in the context of the Swedish approach [of the 1990s] -- i.e. you take banks over, you clean them up, and you sell them in rapid order to the private sector -- it's clear that it's temporary. No one's in favor of a permanent government takeover of the financial system."
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Analysts: New Era Of Chaos Has Taken Hold  ---  http://infowars.net/articles/february2009/230209Economists.htm
A quote...."A wave of economists, investors and other financial experts issued a series of dire warnings concerning the global financial crisis over the weekend, stating that a new era of chaos has taken hold all over the globe." -- They say it's always darkest before the dawn.....it also happens to be always darkest before the storm hits. - mpg
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Credit crunch may only have just begun, S&P warns
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Credit-crunch-may-only-have/story.aspx?guid=%7B4F0DA616-A789-49A7-9EFE-A65C5A0986F9%7D
A quote...."SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The credit crunch may only be in its early stages and a bigger contraction in lending in coming months could have "serious implications" for the U.S. economy, Standard & Poor's Rating Services said Friday."
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Financial Collapse: A Lesson from the '20s  ---  http://seekingalpha.com/article/121616-financial-collapse-a-lesson-from-the-20s?source=headline1
Book Review - A quote...."Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World is a book of biography, according to author Liaquat Ahamed, a former hedge fund manager, advisor, and a member of the board of trustees of the Brookings Institute. It is also a book of history, although the author would deny it since it supposedly doesn’t contain any theory. It is a book to read and contemplate, because it gives us a picture of, and insight into, what happened in another time of financial collapse and economic turmoil."
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Sunday February 22nd 2009 - links page

No posts. - mpg

Saturday February 21st 2009 - links page

From One Assault on the Constitution To Another  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts263.html
Must Read - Obama™ Update - A quote...."The US Constitution has few friends on the right or the left. -- During the first eight years of the 21st century, the Republicans mercilessly assaulted civil liberties. The brownshirt Bush regime ignored the protections provided by habeas corpus. They spied on American citizens without warrants. They violated the First Amendment. They elevated decisions of the president above US statutory law and international law. They claimed the power to withhold information from the people’s representatives in Congress, and they asserted, and behaved as if, they were unaccountable to the people, Congress, and the federal courts. The executive branch claimed the power to ignore congressional subpoenas. Republicans regarded Bush as a Stuart king unaccountable to law." -- "The Bush brownshirt regime revealed itself as lawless, the worst criminal organization in American history. -- Now we have the Democrats, and the assault on civil liberty continues. President Obama doesn’t want to hold Bush accountable for his crimes and violations of the Constitution, because Obama wants to retain the powers that Bush asserted. Even the practice of kidnapping people and transporting them to foreign countries to be tortured has been retained by President Obama."
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Barack Obama Administration [Attempts to] Continue US Military Global Dominance
  ---  http://www.projectcensored.org/articles/story/http-wwwprojectcensoredorg-articles-story-barack-obama-administration-c/
Must Read - Obama™ Update - A quote...."The Barack Obama administration is continuing the neo-conservative agenda of US military domination of the world— albeit with perhaps a kinder-gentler face.  While overt torture is now forbidden for the CIA and Pentagon, and symbolic gestures like the closing of the Guantanamo prison are in evidence, a unilateral military dominance policy, expanding military budget, and wars of occupation and aggression will likely continue unabated."
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An Impending Geopolitical Earthquake?  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12380
Special Note - A quote...."The financial and economic turmoil the world is currently experiencing will certainly have many serious consequences beyond those fields. Indeed, its geopolitical fallout could be far more serious than commonly acknowledged and it is an element that cannot be neglected by neither statesmen nor analysts."
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New world order shifting toward multipolar system - Not according to this article - mpg
  ---  http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/printArticle.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=274203&version=1&template_id=46&parent_id=26
Special Note - Related Article - A quote...."All of them have it wrong. US dominance is clearly on the wane, but a multipolar order implies that several emerging powers hold competing views about how the world should be run, and that they are prepared to act to advance their global agendas. That is not the case.  --  Instead, we are witnessing the birth of a non-polar order, in which America’s chief competitors remain too busy with problems at home and in their immediate neighbourhoods to shoulder the heaviest international burdens. None of the emerging powers has even begun to use its growing political and economic clout to advance truly global ambitions – or to take on responsibilities that Washington can no longer afford." -- also posted at BLN
  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3410-0-14-14--.html  ---  On the other hand, many other powers are taking steps to form their own orgainizations to help with their agendas. - See articles shown below. - mpg
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Russia's 'virtual cold war' in Central Asia  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/KB21Aa05.html
Special Note - Related Article - A quote...."Moscow is working hard to minimize Western influence in regions it perceives as its own backyard, re-asserting its security credentials in the South Caucasus and Central Asia while actively pursuing policies to thwart NATO objectives. At the same time, Russia is presenting itself as "user friendly" and willing to cooperate with the West." -- also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3407-0-3-3--.html
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Kyrgyzstan Expels US, Endangering Afghanistan Logistics for US Troops: Major Victory for Putin
  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2009/02/kyrgyzstan-expels-us-endangering.html
Special Note - Videos - Related Article - A quote...."In a major blow for the US and NATO military effort in Afghanistan, the parliament of Kyrgyzstan voted Thursday formally to end US use of Manas Air Force base to resupply troops in nearby Afghanistan. With the effective closure of the Khyber Pass route into Afghanistan from Pakistan, this step endangers the logistics supply line to the US and NATO troops. The move comes in part as a result of Russian aid to Kyrgyzstan. Russia and the Shanghai Cooperation Council have long been concerned about the expansion of US military and political influence into Central Asia."
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Iraqi Doctors in Hiding Treat as They Can  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12398
A quote...."BAGHDAD — Seventy percent of Iraq’s doctors are reported to have fled the war-torn country in the face of death threats and kidnappings. Those who remain live in fear, often in conditions close to house arrest." -- For more on this issue see....The Method - 05-07-07 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/themethod-blog-mpg-050707
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Petition to bring Tony Blair to trial for war crimes  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/190593
A quote...."We, the citizens of the United Kingdom and other countries listed, wish to uphold The United Nations Charter, The 1998 Rome Statute of The International Criminal Court, The Hague and Geneva Conventions and the Rule of International Law, especially in respect of:...."
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Iraqi cleric hopes elections will help push out US - posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/02/20/iraqi-cleric-hopes-elections-will-help-push-out-us-3/
Hah!  They can "hope" all they want, the US-NRE is NEVER leaving, the US-NRE has NEVER paid any attention to "elections" or "democratic movements" when they've been opposed to its own imperial ambitions and policies except to snuff them out with a great amount of spilled blood.  Something it does with enormous frequency. – mpg -- A quote...."A prominent anti-American Shiite cleric said Friday he hopes recent provincial elections will help unite Iraqis to push out the United States, as other religious leaders urged newly elected officials to put the needs of the country over their personal interests."
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Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, renamed, reopens  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLL596734
Under new management, but with that same old customer service we've all come to expect. - mpg -- A quote..."BAGHDAD, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Iraqi officials on Saturday formally reopened Abu Ghraib prison, which became synonymous with abuse under the U.S. occupation, and in addition to a fresh coat of paint, gave it a new name" -- To quote.....

Now the Iraqis are TRULY learning how to be "American" where image trumps substance every single time.-- Wasn't it William Shakespeare who penned "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet...." or would in this case stink to high heaven because it's a noxious, reeking, pesthole of degradation, torture and death. -- Or should we all just decide this is some more of that fine good 'ol fashioned "American" "freedom and democracy" in action. -- Or how about we all just call it Obama's new "Change™"  program for Iraq.  Take your pick folks, you decide. – *mpg* -- posted 01-24-09
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Obama backs Bush: No rights for Bagram prisoners
  ---  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5inrssFARYO4US7mMu27sqB9tc7WwD96FKURG0
Obama™ Update - A quote...."WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration, siding with the Bush White House, contended Friday that detainees in Afghanistan have no constitutional rights. -- In a two-sentence court filing, the Justice Department said it agreed that detainees at Bagram Airfield cannot use U.S. courts to challenge their detention. The filing shocked human rights attorneys."
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US admits Afghan civilian deaths - link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/02/200922115299177143.html
A quote...."An investigation into a missile strike carried out by US-led forces in Afghanistan earlier this week has found that 13 civilians were among 16 people killed, the US military has said. -- The military made the admission on Saturday, after originally saying that 15 opposition fighters had been killed in the strike in the Gozara district of Herat province." -- Only notable because the US-NRE military admitted it, unlike thousands of other cases which never see the light of day. - mpg
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Obama's War  ---  http://latuff2.deviantart.com/art/Obama-s-War-113614566
& Obama goes to war  ---  http://latuff2.deviantart.com/art/Obama-goes-to-war-113606326
& The Obama Surge in Afghanistan  ---  http://latuff2.deviantart.com/art/The-Obama-Surge-in-Afghanistan-113551906
Cartoons - By ~Latuff2 - Click on the cartoon to enlarge the image. - mpg
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Obama Escalates Drone Strikes Inside Pakistan - posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://news.antiwar.com/2009/02/20/obama-escalates-drone-strikes-inside-pakistan/
Obama™ Update - A quote...."President Barack Obama made clear his desire to launch attacks onto Pakistani soil early in the campaign, and in his first month since taking office it has become evident that is escalating the number and severity of the attacks using drone aircraft well beyond what the Bush Administration’s attacks in its final several months in office."
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Homeland Security Chief: We Were Wrong to Torture  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/02/homeland-security-chief-we-were-wrong.html
A quote...."The first head of the Department of Homeland Security - Tom Ridge - has agreed  ---  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7903516.stm  ---  with the recent report by the International Commission of Jurists which said that anti-terror measures worldwide had seriously undermined international human rights law."
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Iran Nuclear Program Hyped again - By the mass faux-infotainment media....all over again. - mpg
  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2009/02/iran-nuclear-program-hyped-again.html
A quote...."Iran cannot construct nuclear bombs with uranium enriched only to less than 4%. It needs to be enriched to something like 90% to make a bomb. Iran is not known even to have that capability, and no it cannot be done in 2 months (try a decade), assuming they were trying to do it, which our $40 bn. a year intelligence agencies say they are not. So all the silly articles on Friday about how iran now has enough enriched uranium to make a bomb are just illiterate. Moreover, the report in question actually says that Iran is slowing its enrichment activities."
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Russia shatters Iran SCO membership hopes  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86352&sectionid=351020101
A quote...."Russia has signaled that there is a slim chance for Iran's acceptance as a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)."
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Pakistan: Mumbai probe enters new step  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86396&sectionid=351020401
A quote...."Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Quershi says that Islamabad will proceed with its investigations into the Mumbai attacks. -- Qureshi said that Pakistan had given India a set of 30 questions along with its response to the Indian dossier on the Mumbai attacks, a Press TV correspondent reported Saturday."
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Expelled US diplomat CIA chief: Ecuador  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86399&sectionid=351020706
A quote...."Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa reveals that a US diplomat, who was expelled from the country earlier in the week, was a CIA station chief."
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NKorea could be ready to test fire missile in days
  ---  http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/content/news/2009-02-20/nkorea-could-be-ready-to-test-fire-missile-in-days-analysts/
A quote...."February 20, 2009 (AFP) - North Korea could be ready to test fire an intermediate range ballistic missile by the end of the month, respected defence analysis group Jane's said Friday."
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Obama Sides With Bush: Tries to Kill E-Mail Case  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/21-4
Obama™ Update - A quote...."WASHINGTON - The Obama administration, siding with former President George W. Bush, is trying to kill a lawsuit that seeks to recover what could be millions of missing White House e-mails."
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Defense Contractors Drop $340K On Parties For Gates  ---  http://washingtonindependent.com/29522/defense-contractors-drop-340k-on-parties-for-gates
A quote...."Among them were six companies that accounted for more than a quarter of the Pentagon’s procurement budget during the 2008 fiscal year. These groups, which spent $125,000 hosting events honoring Gates, received a total of more than $91 billion in defense contracts, according to the Federal Procurement Data System." -- For more on this see....Gates, Robert - File - http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/gates-robert-weblist-mpg-111006
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You and UBS: Bush IRS Inked Deal to Aid US Tax Evaders
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/You-and-UBS-Bush-IRS-Inke-by-Devilstower-vis-Da-090221-777.html
A quote...."Swiss bank accounts. Just the term brings with it a mysterious, dangerous air. A place for shadowy assassins to pick up their pay. International agents collecting on acts of extortion. Dusty hordes of Nazi treasure. --
However, Swiss giant UBS has admitted to something just as illegal, and a good deal more tawdry. They have been using their operations in the US to lure wealthy Americans into plopping their millions into UBS accounts, where they can evade taxes.
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We are all extremists now  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/16/extremism-arrests-police-liberty-central
 Article  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22063.htm
 also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."For most of the past century, Britain's secret state bugged, blacklisted and spied on leftists, trade unionists and peace campaigners, as well as Irish republicans and anyone else regarded as a "subversive" threat to the established order."
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Reporter Under Attack Alert: Diane Bukowski & Police Retaliation
  ---  http://www.atlargely.com/2009/02/reporter-under-attack-alert-diane-bukowski-police-retaliation.html
Police State Alert - A quote....""he case at bar raises important issues, including whether the First Amendment rights to freedom of the press are being abridged by a prosecution that is pursued for retaliatory or other improper purpose," the Michigan ACLU wrote in its brief in support of Bukowski's motion that the charges against her be dismissed. -- The charges against Bukowski are particularly troublesome, the group wrote, because of her "long, distinguished history of exposing government irregularities and corruption."
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Firestorm Brewing Between U.S. States and Federal Government
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/Firestorm-Brewing-Between-by-Lance-L-Landon-090217-130.html
A quote...."The Arizona State Legislature is currently formulating a bill that declares their state sovereignty. Their bill further asserts their state’s right during martial law to call back servicemen to protect Arizona state, "…if the President or any other federal entity attempts to institute martial law or its equivalent without an official declaration in one or more of the states without the consent of that state …”
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Report: Nearly 75% of ex-Bush officials looking for jobs are unemployed  http://rawstory.com/news/2008/For_exBush_officials_nearly_75_percent_0221.html
Karmic Justice Alert - A quote...."While the market for job-seekers in the United States might be sour, for most it isn't as impenetrable as it is for the nearly 3,000 former members of the Bush administration. - Between 70-75 percent who are looking for full-time work still haven't found new jobs, according to a Saturday report by the Wall St. Journal." - Well it's only been thirty days so far. Hopefully the situation will remain the same for these people for the next three years....at least for those who still haven't been sent to jail. - mpg
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The real Israel-Palestine story is in the West Bank  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/20/israelandthepalestinians-israeli-elections-2009
Article   --- http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22060.htm
also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."It is quite likely that you have not heard of the most important developments this week in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the West Bank, while it has been "occupation as normal", there have been some events that together should be overshadowing Gaza, Gilad Shalit and Avigdor Lieberman."
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Netanyahu: Train Wreck for Israel, Middle East; Looming Disaster for United States
  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2009/02/netanyahu-train-wreck-for-israel-middle.html
A quote...."Despite today's faintly ridiculous attempt in the NYT to depict Netanyahu as a born-again pragmantist,  in fact he rejects any withdrawal from the Palestinian West Bank by Israeli squatters, despite Israel's commitment to pull back in the Oslo accords. Since the West Bank looks like Swiss cheese with regard to administration and settlement patterns, there isn't a Palestinian state to be had there without an extensive Israeli pullback, and Netanyahu has never shown any interest in either pullback or Palestinian state." -- bold by website editor -- Instead of "All the News That's Fit to Print", the NYT should have as its motto, "Ten Million Dead & Ten Trillion Spent....for Israel" - (those are projected numbers) - mpg
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Right on Cue, Obama™ Follows Binyamin Netanyahu’s Lead on Iran
  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/right-on-que-obama%E2%84%A2-follows-binyamin-netanyahus-lead-on-iran/
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."So right on cue (taken straight from Israel’s war-mongering leadership), the Rahm Administration of Hate has ratcheted up the drum beating rhetoric towards Iran and just like with the Bush administration, they still have no facts to support their case.
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Online Censorship by Israel  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52027&s1=h1
A quote...."What do BLOGGER, YOUTUBE, FACEBOOK, and WIKIPEDIA have in common?  -- Following up on yesterdays post "Is Israel Controlling the Internet"   ---  http://irish4palestine.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/is-israel-controlling-the-internet/  ---  today we will learn about Israel’s Government and the IDF attempting to censor and control the internet, face book, you tube and many other social networks, blogs, message boards and news organisations. Today I will be discussing these groups who work online for Israel and the IDF (Israeli Army)." -- For more on this issue see....Judeo-Christian C/C & US - The Media  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/judeochristianconflictcontrolwithinus-weblist-mpg-010409#MEDIA
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Remove Our Grandmother's Name from the Wall at Yad Vashem  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/neumann02202009.html
Must Read - A quote...."Following the example of Jean-Moise Braitberg, we ask that our grandmother's name be removed from the wall at Yad Vashem.  Her name is Gertrud Neumann.   Your records state that she was born in Kattowitz on  June 6, 1875 and died in Theresienstadt." -- also posted at AmericanEveryman   ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/remove-our-grandmothers-name-from-the-wall-at-yad-vashem/
& CounterPunch  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/neumann02202009.html
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The Gaza Attack - 12 Articles - Saturday - [ Day 57 ] ========== ========== ========== ====

Avnery's 'Gamble Analysis'  ---  http://mwcnews.net/content/view/28730/26/
Analysis - A quote...."“IACTA ALEA EST” – the die is cast – said Julius Caesar and crossed the River Rubicon on his way to conquer Rome. That was the end of Roman democracy. -- We don’t have a Julius Caesar. But we do have an Avigdor Liberman. When he announced his support the other day for the setting up of a government headed by Binyamin Netanyahu, that was the crossing of his Rubicon."
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Emergence from the Ashes  ---  http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/articles/2009/02/20/khawaja_emergence-from-the-ashes.html
Photos - A quote...."I was waiting impatiently for them to come online. Menna and Maram are my friends from Gaza.  I don’t remember the exact day I met them but I remember that instance in Gazan calendar terms. It was the time when Egyptian border with Gaza was blown up by Palestinians and thousands of them crossed the border to buy the very essential items that keep life up and running. Then, I was surprised to see the breach and people crossing the border in droves. But it was not their fault. I tried to imagine the fact what would I had done if I were in their shoes? The answer was not that hard to conclude."
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IDF: War crime charges over Gaza offensive are 'legal terror'  ---  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1065338.html
Must Read - (for the WARNING) - Last update - 08:24 19/02/2009 -- Almost all Israelis should now be considered as people suffering from some form of acute psychosis or presently undergoing a long term psychotic episode; they appear to be lost in a deranged mental fantasy of lebensraum
  ---  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum  ---  (living space) along with Friedrich Nietzsche’s übermensch
  ---   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cbermensch  ---  (overmen or supermen) ideology, just as the Nazis were during the thirties and forties.  They have already publicly stated that ALL other peoples are üntermensch  ---  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untermensch  ---  (literally, under man, sub-man, or sub-human) to them.  They have now become an EXTREME and GROWING THREAT to the ENTIRE international community along with all the other peoples throughout the Middle East. - mpg -- 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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Israeli Military Shoot Gaza Farmer  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSECq3kxT4I  ---  (YouTube - 2 min 34 sec - February 20, 2009)
Must View Video - A quote...."Israeli Military Shoot Gaza Farmer - 18th February 2009 -- Israeli forces shot a twenty year-old Palestinian farmer as he worked his land in the village of Al-Faraheen, east of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. -- International Human Rights Activists were accompanying the group of farmers at the time as they worked approximately 500m from the Green Line."
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Gazans: IDF used us as 'human shields' during offensive - link posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1065594.html
A quote...."Last update - 21:33 20/02/2009 -- The soldiers took the elder Daher to the house of his neighbor to the east, Jaber Zeydan. The door had already been broken, and the neighbors were huddled in one room. The search here, as in the four other homes Daher was forced to enter that day, was conducted in the same way: He entered first, with the soldiers behind him. One soldier placed his rifle on Daher's right shoulder, and pressed down on his left shoulder. The members of the Zeydan family were taken into the adjacent house, owned by Tawfiq Katari. The hands of all the men, including boys of 14 and 16, were tied, some behind the back, some in front."
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Chomsky: Obama OKed Israel's Gaza war  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86336&sectionid=351020202
Article  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22066.htm
 also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."Sat, 21 Feb 2009 11:30:24 GMT  -- Renowned US intellectual Noam Chomsky says Barack Obama did not comment on Israel's war on Gaza, as it was part of the "premeditated" plan."
also posted at AmericanEveryman   ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/chomsky-obama-oked-israels-gaza-war/
Heck the Israelis even admitted it. - mpg -- For more on this issue see....Israel Pauses (Politely) for the Emperor's Coronation - 01-16-09 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/israelpausespolitelyfortheemperorscoronation-mpg-reficultnias-011609
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Arab States to Probe Gaza War Crimes Allegations  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/40085
A quote...."Sun, 2009-02-22 02:16. -- An Arab League official said Saturday that a league mission was heading to Gaza to investigate allegations that Israel committed war crimes during its recent offensive against Hamas."
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International tribunal: Israel guilty of genocide against Gaza children  ---  http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=37011
A quote...."Saturday, 21 February 2009 17:02 -- The International Tribunal of Conscience reported to the international community to the First ruling against Crimes against Genocide and on Palestinian Children in the Gaza Strip during Israeli massive offensive."
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Action Updates --------------------------------------------------------------

Global Boycott Movement Marks Its Successes  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/handmaker210209.htm
Action Update - A quote...."21 February, 2009 -- Responding to the many calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, solidarity movements around the world have marked many successes. It is important for human rights advocates to build on this momentum and seize the opportunity to do what is within their power to try and hold Israel accountable for its abuses of human rights and other international laws." - also posted at ElectronicIntifada   ---  http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10319.shtml  ---  For more on boycotting Israel and how to do it, see the upper-left-corner of the "Front Page" on this website. - mpg
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Israeli Apartheid Week poster at Carleton causes concern over rights
  ---  http://terroroncampus.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/israeli-apartheid-week-poster-at-carleton-causes-concern-over-rights/
Action Update - A quote...."February 18, 2009 -- The poster to the left is the one that has been causing all the controversy at Carleton University lately, with the administration reportedly having it removed from campus. Later today we’ll have a report from a student who scheduled a meeting with the Provost over the poster, so look here for the “official” story then. For now, here’s my two cents on this poster."
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Day 8 - At the Border...  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/190594
Action Update - A quote...."Saturday, 21st February 2009 -- The mile-long convoy of 100 plus vehicles and 315 drivers and peace activists today drive through the Moroccan/Algerian border in what is supposed to be a low key event, but the significance of that small journey can not be over estimated. -- Morocco and Algeria agreed to put aside their differences to open their land border for the first time in 15 years for the sake of Palestine."
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U.S. Trade Unionists Support South African and Australian Dockers’ Boycott of Israeli Cargo  ---  http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article829
Action Update - A quote...."We salute the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) in Durban, and Western Australian dock worker members of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), for refusing to handle Israeli cargo."

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 - 12 Articles - Saturday - [ Day 57 ] ========== ========== ========== ==

Rescuing Capitalism or Grand Theft & Military Dictatorship?
  ---  http://www.sott.net/articles/show/176841-Rescuing-Capitalism-or-Grand-Theft-Military-Dictatorship-
Must Read - A quote...."The G7 finance ministers met in Rome in an exercise in hot air generation, stating, as if we needed reminding, that the "downturn" will persist through 2009 and that the various "stimulus measures" won't have any noticeable effect for a while as they "build over time". The ministers did pledge to restore confidence to financial markets and growth to the world economy but didn't happen to mention how they plan to do it. Timothy Geithner demanded "exceptional measures" from his counterparts which we can only assume means "exceptionally large amounts of money" to prop up the international banking system so that it can continue to concentrate even greater wealth in even fewer hands."
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@#$%& You to Death: The Real Fun Begins  ---  http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2009/02/fucking-raping-you-to-death-real-fun.html
Must Read - A quote...."The Obama bank bailout is arranged much like an IMF loan to support the exchange rate of foreign currency, but with the Treasury supporting financial asset prices for U.S. banks and other financial institutions. Instead of banks and oligarchs abandoning the dollar, the aim is to enable them to dump their bad mortgages and CDOs and get domestic Treasury bonds."
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Economic Crisis; How the Current Financial Rescue Schemes are Following the Failed Model of the Hoover Administration
  ---  http://dprogram.net/2009/02/21/economic-crisis-how-the-current-financial-rescue-schemes-are-following-the-failed-model-of-the-hoover-administration/
Must Read - A quote...."Faced with the financial meltdown of the Great Depression, the Hoover administration created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation that poured taxpayers’ money into the coffers of the influential Wall Street banks in an effort to save them from bankruptcy. Like today’s Bush/Obama administrations, the Hoover administration used the “too-big-to-fail” scare tactic in order to justify the costly looting of the national treasury. All it did, however, was to simply postpone the day of reckoning: almost all of the banks failed after nearly three years of extremely costly bailouts schemes."
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Obama’s housing plan and the American ruling class  ---  http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/pers-f21.shtml
Obama™ Update - A quote...."US President Barack Obama's Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan (HASP), announced Wednesday, will do little to alleviate the enormous financial pressures on working class families caused by plummeting home prices."

It's real simple folks, let's say the average house price in this country was $500,000 and they're all going to decline to an average price of $200,000 leaving the banks short by $300,000.  Obama's going to give YOUR taxpayer dollars to the banks to make up the difference, than the banks evict you and take YOUR house in foreclosure or you work like a dog to maintain the mortgage till housing prices recover in about twenty years.  The banks owners are covered regarding their losses and they might even double their money if YOU cover the mortgage and THEY don't have to pay the government back -- Now, don't you feel REALLY stupid for voting for a man who's going to give all your hard earned tax payer dollars to the banks while many of you will be kicked out of your homes and living on the streets?? - mpg
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Try Predatory Lenders - It Fits Better
02-21-09
mpg

Predatory Legislators  ---  http://www.europac.net/externalframeset.asp?from=home&id=15506
A quote...."Peter Schiff -- Although both lenders and borrowers were acting in their own perceived self-interest, what can we say of our economic policymakers who are expected to protect the good of all? Their actions encouraged the whole sad circus. Were it not for the excessively low interest rates provided by the Fed, the lax lending standards and moral hazards supplied by Congress courtesy of Freddie, Fannie, and the FHA, and the many real estate subsidies built into the tax code, none of these predatory loans would have been possible."

Some of what Peter Schiff says is true, but he misses two major points here.

One) -- Is that it was the Lenders that controlled Congress, not the other way around.  It was the regulatory restraints established under the Roosevelt administration that the Lenders PAID congress to tear down.  It was the Lenders that PAID to have the Neocons selected and placed into office.  It was the Lenders that provided political and financial support for the Bush administration's "laissez-faire", "no regulation", "free market" approach (which turned out not to be so free after all).  And it was the Lenders and the Bush administration that encouraged Greenspan to pump-prime the economy for the "up" part of this nation's decadal economic-war cycle
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/fedfundschart-photopg-cached-032407  ---  so they could finance their attempts to seize control over the Middle East's oil supplies.

Two) -- Very importantly, and curiously something no-one appears to have mentioned so far is, just how - exactly - is anyone, who is financially conservative and practices a sound fiscal policy, supposed to compete in a market place against someone else who is backed by a policy of "unlimited credit".  It's all very well and good to tell an entrepreneur that he'll have to forgo the purchase of that piece of land, or those new machine tools, or that additional factory because the prices he would have to pay would be "unsustainable"  So what good is that to him?  Just how long is he supposed to wait?

Even worse, with all that easy money floating around, what if a corporate raider comes along, tells this entrepreneur that he's not efficient enough precisely because he didn't avail himself of all that "unlimited credit".  Something the corporate raider has no qualms about doing whatsoever and having taken advantage of all that “unlimited credit” the raider promptly buys up the company's stock in a hostile takeover, fires the entrepreneur from his own company along with all of his employees, breaks the company apart, and sells all of its assets making a tidy profit due to the high prices he received because.....you guessed it, all that "unlimited credit”.

Similarly situated is the prospective homeowner.  What - exactly - is he, or she, supposed to do?  Wait five years, or would it be ten, or how about twenty years, before they could buy their first home?  All because the current market price is, to quote, "unsustainable"? Or should someone who already owns a home wait and suffer before they refinance to make needed repairs, repairs they can't currently afford to make because they're being priced out of a market place being driven higher by, you guessed it, unlimited credit? Or do they take the financial gamble of their lives?  Again just how long are they supposed to wait while they watch other people obtain their dreams, their necessities, or more importantly increase their financial net worth, wealth and long term security with easy credit.

Sure, "in the long run" everyone knew those prices were unsustainable, but as one famous economist once stated -- "In the long run we'll all be dead."

So just how is any person, group, entity, or country supposed to "play" in this rigged economic game.  How are they supposed to compete against the "insiders" who after sixty years of tireless, unceasing, and unrelenting efforts, have managed to make the market less transparent, totally unregulated, with expanded “credit” available because they've developed new fangled financial instruments called SIMSs, CDSs, CDOs and many other types of derivatives to the tune of 1.3 to 1.5 Quadrillion dollars in notational value?
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/1.3quadrillionandcounting-blog-mpg-091808

Sure Mr. Schiff "guessed" right about the markets downturn this time.  But what about the next?  What if the "Lenders", instead of floating this current bubble with 1.3 Quadrillion in derivatives had managed to float it with 10.3 Quadrillion? 

Who knows what would have happened?  It may very well have lasted another ten years, perhaps all the way to the next decadal downturn in 2020.  But of course Mr. Schiff with his insight, along with his inside connections, would probably have been able to spot the trend and avoid doing anything rash to negatively affect his portfolio. That's very comforting for Mr. Schiff, but what about the rest of the "little people" out there?

"Free" markets are "free" because they have discernible, easily understood, transparent and enforceable rules where both the buyer and the seller can negotiate the price of a given transaction at a given time.  NONE of which has existed in this country for many years!  If the underlying means to effectuate transactions such as the currency, along with the entire market itself, is massively distorted by the creation of valueless artificial financial instruments...it is not "free" in any meaningful sense of the word.

It was the wealthy elites and the banksters, many of whom Mr. Schiff counts as his friends, or at least his colleagues, who caused all of this.  They were the ones who FORCED people to go into the market place and pay prices that were unsustainable -- or -- be locked out of the market for an indeterminate amount of time.  A time frame which could have been much lengthier than the one that actually occurred, a timeframe that many people had neither the ability, nor the resources to calculate, but which Mr. Schiff’s friends did. - mpg
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Volcker: Crisis May be Even Worse than Depression  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/volcker-crisis-may-be-even-worse-than-depression.html
A quote...."The global economy may be deteriorating even faster than it did during the Great Depression, Paul Volcker, a top adviser to President Barack Obama, said on Friday. - Volcker noted that industrial production around the world was declining even more rapidly than in the United States, which is itself under severe strain.-- “I don’t remember any time, maybe even in the Great Depression, when things went down quite so fast, quite so uniformly around the world,” Volcker told a luncheon of economists and investors at Columbia University."
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Soros Sees No Bottom For World Financial "Collapse"  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22062.htm
 posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."February 21, 2009 -- - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Renowned investor George Soros said on Friday the world financial system has effectively disintegrated, adding that there is yet no prospect of a near-term resolution to the crisis. -- Soros said the turbulence is actually more severe than during the Great Depression, comparing the current situation to the demise of the Soviet Union. -- He said the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September marked a turning point in the functioning of the market system. -- "We witnessed the collapse of the financial system," Soros said at a Columbia University dinner. "It was placed on life support, and it's still on life support. There's no sign that we are anywhere near a bottom."
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Oregon Regulators Shut Silver Falls Bank, 14th Seized in 2009  ---  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=atn.vbsIoB7Q&refer=us
link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Oregon regulators seized Silver Falls Bank, the 14th U.S. bank shuttered this year, as the worst financial crisis in a more than half a century further tightens access to credit and pushes foreclosures higher."
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Latvia’s government collapses  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/latvias-government-collapses.html
A quote...."Latvia’s center-right coalition government collapsed Friday, a victim of the country’s growing economic and political turmoil and the second European government, after Iceland, to disintegrate because of the international financial crisis. -- The government in Riga, faced with forecasts of a severe drop in the economy this year, was the first in Eastern Europe to succumb to turmoil caused by the crisis. Its collapse rounded out a week that saw worries about feeble investment, banks and output in Central and Eastern Europe coursing through international markets."
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Citibank has cut all lending in Denmark  ---  http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2009/02/citibank-has-cut-all-lending-in-denmark.html
A quote...."This comes from the Danish daily Berlingske Tidene. It suggests that Citibank is cutting back all international lending. Citigroup has sold its German operations to a French bank and I understand they are cutting credit lines in the UK as well. In seeing all these stories together, one gets a full view of the kind of cutbacks now ongoing at troubled banks like Citigroup."
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Friday February 20th 2009 - links page

No posts. - mpg

Thursday February 19th 2009  - links page

The Joan Walsh Syndrome -- Liberals jump on Obama's war wagon - posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=14278
Must Read - A quote...."Joan Walsh, the Salon.com political editor who appears often on MSNBC with Chris Matthews, is emblematic, for me, of a type I know all too well: the well-meaning Bay Area liberal. Her politics exemplify the psychology of our opinion elites who got behind Barack Obama in a big way. Exuding reasonableness from every pore, she radiates a kind of diffuse benevolence modified only by a slight wrinkling of the brow – a measure of her concern that someone, somewhere, is suffering from an overlooked injustice. As President Obama takes on the burden of office, and, in the process, sheds his campaign promises like yesterday's fashions, it's fascinating to observe the reaction of his most ardent supporters, of which it is fair to say Ms. Walsh is one."
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The Long Retreat - posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=14286
Must Read - A quote...."The situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating," said President Obama, as he announced deployment of 17,000 more U.S. troops. -- "I'm absolutely convinced that you cannot solve the problem of Afghanistan, the Taliban, the spread of extremism in that region, solely through military means." -- also posted at PJB  ---  http://buchanan.org/blog/
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The U.S. and Afghan Tragedy  ---  http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5878
Must Read - A quote...."The United States sent more than $8 billion to Pakistani military dictator Zia al-Huq, who dramatically increased the size of the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) to help support Afghan mujahedeen in their battle against the Soviets and their puppet government. Their goal, according to the late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was "to radicalize the influence of religious factions within Afghanistan." The ISI helped channel this American money, and billions more from oil-rich American allies, from the Gulf region to extremists within the Afghan resistance movement. ---  Extremist Education - The Reagan administration sensed the most hard-line elements of the resistance were less likely to reach negotiated settlements, but the goal was to cripple the Soviet Union, not free the Afghan people. Recognizing the historically strong role of Islam in Afghan society, they tried to exploit it to advance U.S. policy goals. Religious studies along militaristic lines were given more importance than conventional education in the school system for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. The number of religious schools (madrassas) educating Afghans rose from 2,500 in 1980 at the start of Afghan resistance to over 39,000. The United States encouraged the Saudis to recruit Wahhabist ideologues to come join the resistance and teach in refugee institutes."
also posted at CommonDreams   ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/19-0
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 expands prison in Afghanistan - Isn't Obama such a nice guy, he's building homes for the Afghans. - mpg
  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/02/200922041829271189.html
A quote...."The US military is about to complete a $60m expansion to its prison at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan, where it holds more than 600 so-called enemy combatants."
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Afghan boy among a dozen killed by US strike  ---  http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=167362&bolum=100
link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."US forces killed at least one child, video footage obtained by Reuters on Wednesday showed, in an air strike in western Afghanistan that police say killed 12 civilians and US forces said killed 16 militants. "
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Nato lukewarm on US troop call  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/02/2009219145057278830.html
posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."US appeals for greater assistance in the war in Afghanistan have failed to win much support from Nato allies."
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US Defence Secretary 'disappointed' over Nato response to troop call - link posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5767225.ece
A quote...."Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, pleaded with Nato allies today to send more civilian personnel to Afghanistan after expressing “disappointment” at their failure to meet his requests for troops."
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I shot blindfolded Iraqi prisoner at point-blank range, confesses U.S. soldier
  ---  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1150362/I-shot-blindfolded-Iraqi-prisoner-point-blank-range-confesses-U-S-soldier.html?ITO=1490
 - link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."A U.S. soldier confessed to military investigators that he shot a bound and blindfolded Iraqi prisoner point-blank in the back of the head, according to a video played at his murder trial today."
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IRAQ:  Still Homeless in Baghdad  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45812
A quote...."BAGHDAD, Feb 19 (IPS) - "We only want a normal life," says Um Qasim, sitting in a bombed out building in Baghdad. She and others around have been saying that for years. -- Um Qasim lives with 13 family members in a brick shanty on the edge of a former military intelligence building in the Mansoor district of Baghdad. -- Five of her children are girls. Homelessness is not easy for anyone, but it is particularly challenging for women and girls."
also posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=14280
& CounterCurrents   ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/jamail190209.htm
& TruthOut  ---  http://www.truthout.org/021909WA
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Journalist threw shoe at Bush for Iraqi pride  ---  http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=391682&type=World
 - link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
A quote...."AN Iraqi journalist who gained cult status for throwing his shoes at former United States President George W. Bush said at the start of his trial yesterday that he was driven by a desire to restore the pride of his devastated country."
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Iraqi shoe-thrower trial adjourned  ---  http://mwcnews.net/content/view/28667/0/
Related Article -- A quote...."Al-Zeidi was handcuffed and surrounded by a pack of security guards as he was brought to Iraq's Central Criminal Court in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. Family members waiting for him inside the courthouse ululated wildly as he was brought in and draped an Iraqi flag across his shoulders. The chief judge threatened to order everybody out of the room if they did not quieten. He later adjourned the trial until March 12."
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Iran develops spy drone capable of reaching Israel – official  ---  http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=10216
A quote...."Iranian scientists have developed an unmanned aerial vehicle capable (UAV) of reaching Israel, an Iranian news agency said on Wednesday, citing a senior military official." -- also posted at Novosti  ---  http://en.rian.ru/world/20090218/120204750.html
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Czech president compares EU to [the old] Soviet Union - link posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/02/19/czech-president-compares-eu-to-soviet-union-3/
A quote...."Czech president compares European Union to [the old] Soviet Union in scathing talk before EU parliament."
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60th NATO Anniversary Celebrations in Europe to Draw Massive Protests  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/39989
Action Alert -- A quote...."2009 is the 60th anniversary of NATO and the US-led alliance is planning big celebrations in Europe to promote their expanded global role as an extension of US foreign and military policy. In 1999, seeking to justify its existence after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, NATO acknowledged that it was seeking to orient itself according to a new fundamental strategic concept."
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Lebanese in Shock Over Arrest of an Accused Spy - [Cousin Of Alleged 9/11 Hijacker Exposed As Israeli Spy]
  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/world/middleeast/19lebanon.html?_r=3&hp
A quote...."MARAJ, Lebanon — For 25 years, Ali al-Jarrah managed to live on both sides of the bitterest divide running through this region. To friends and neighbors, he was an earnest supporter of the Palestinian cause, an affable, white-haired family man who worked as an administrator at a nearby school. -- To Israel, he appears to have been a valued spy, sending reports and taking clandestine photographs of Palestinian groups and Hezbollah since 1983." -- also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3387-0-20-20--.html
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Google Earth Shows U.S. Drones at Pakistani Base?  ---  http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/02/pak-press-shows.html
A quote...."Don't take a Senator's word for it. Old Google Earth satellite photos, dug up by the News of Pakistan, show U.S. drones, parked on a Pakistani runway, back in 2006. -- The paper ID's the robotic planes as massive Global Hawk drones -- unlikely, the shape's all wrong. More likely, the aircraft found at coordinates 27 degrees 51 minutes North, 65 degrees and 10 minutes East are Predator drones."
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Russia says U.S. may go beyond European missile plans  ---  http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090219/120227905.html
A quote...."MOSCOW, February 19 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow is not ruling out that Washington may go further than its missile defense plans for Central Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday." -- also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/190406
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Russia's 'virtual cold war' in Central Asia  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/KB21Aa05.html
Special Note - A quote...."The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit in Moscow on February 3, followed the next day by the meeting of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEc) was overshadowed by Kyrgyzstan's President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announcing the closure of the US Manas air base in Bishkek."
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Obama Administratrion and Wall Street Predators Target “Entitlement Reform”
  ---  http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1031&Itemid=1
Must Read - (check out the poster) -- A quote...."When the corporate media, Wall Street predators and their favorite politicians talk of "entitlement reform," they are not referring to their bonuses, or tax breaks, golden parachutes or consulting fees.  They mean to "reform" your Social Security, your Medicaid, your Medicare, all of which they view as "fiscally irresponsible."  When President Obama endorses a bipartisan summit on "fiscal responsibility" it's time to look out." -- For more on this sort of issue see video posted below....
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Give Us Back Our F****** Money  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22037.htm  ---  Contains some harsh langauge
 - posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
Video - A quote...."If you go to work everyday, 9-5 and then hand over about a quarter of your income to the government every month and you're not angry about the current banking F-up, then you’re either one of the financial or political elite that have been ripping off the world since time immemorial, or you’re a sniveling, subservient little slave and you deserve all the subjugation you get." -- You gotta see the very end. - mpg
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Ashcroft: Obama, Bush Detainee Policies Exactly The Same - Some more of Obama's "Change™" policy. - mpg
  ---  http://infowars.net/articles/february2009/180209Ashcroft.htm
A quote...."Former Attorney General John Ashcroft has said that the Obama administration's policies concerning the 'war on terror' represent a direct and unwavering continuation of the Bush administration's approach."
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We need the names of these "medical personnel"  ---  http://www.atlargely.com/2009/02/we-need-the-names-of-these-medical-personnel.html
A quote...."Neely describes the arrival of detainees in full sensory-deprivation garb, he details their sexual abuse by medical personnel, torture by other medical personnel, brutal beatings out of frustration, fear, and retribution, the first hunger strike and its causes, torturous shackling, positional torture....."  --  "Child detainees? Yes. But we knew this of course, even though our government has denied it for years. We knew, did we not? - Now for something far more sinister. The medical staff engaged in this, including doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, all violated their oath and should have their medical licenses revoked. I want names. Why? Well let me ask you. Do you want to take your child to a doctor who has spent the last several years engaged in the torture of other children?" -- We could call it "Obama's new "No Child Left Behind Program"....oh no that's not right, OK, we'll call it Obama's new "No Child's Behind Left...Alone" that is -- Ain't AmeriKa such a wonderful country, ain't it just great?  Welcome folks, to the New Roman Empire. Oh and by the way, to all you so-called "Christians" in this country....good job, nice going.- mpg
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Groups caution Obama not breaking from Bush secrecy  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE51I13T20090219?sp=true
Special Note - A quote...."NEW YORK (Reuters) - Civil liberties experts say ongoing cases related to torture and rendition are testing the Obama administration's assertion it will be more open and transparent than the Bush administration. -- Since taking office on January 20, President Barack Obama has extended Bush-era secrecy over documents authorizing waterboarding and other controversial interrogation techniques, and has resisted an appeal by a terrorism suspect seeking to challenge his arrest and detainment."
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Tell them: Senate Democratic Leadership  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/39992
Action Alert -- A quote...."Feel free to contact the leadership of the Democrats in the U.S. Senate and tell them to support and defend the Constitution. Cover the bases:

● The usurpation of war powers by the Executive branch and the abdication of war powers by the U.S. Congress
● The erosion of civil rights and Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms
● The rule of law and the accountability of government officials
● The misuse of the fictional corporate person to interfere with government for and by the People
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Here's Who Your District Attorney Is and How to Request Prosecution of Bush for Murder  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/39990
Action Alert -- A quote...."Click here.  ---  http://www.prosecutegeorgebush.com/the-da-list.php  ---  If you're truly dedicated, call every DA on the list. The first one of you who finds a prosecutor with nerve will have the honor of becoming a hero - if not a divinity - to billions of people."
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EU Denounces Members for Involvement in US Renditions  ---  http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=15784
A quote...."EU member states bear a share of moral responsibility for detentions in Guantanamo, the European Parliament has said. It accused 14 members of cooperating with the US in the kidnapping or transport of terror suspects."
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Is the U.S. Paying Off the Italian Government for Forging the Niger Documents?  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m51966&s1=h1
Special Note - A quote...."Evidence suggests a payoff to Italy for supplying the forged documents Bush famously used to justify launching the Iraq war. "
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The US Media & Democracy in Crisis  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/021909.html
A quote...."For those of us who have criticized the U.S. mainstream media for failing to resist right-wing pressure over the past three decades, there is a sad sense of vindication watching the downward spiral of so many once-venerable newspapers. But this trend carries with it a new threat to American democracy. -- The core problem is this: as flawed as the MSM has been – as complicit as the New York Times and the Washington Post were in many of George W. Bush’s war crimes, for instance – journalists for mainstream news outlets provide most of the factual information that the rest of us rely on." - also posted at OpEdNews  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-US-Media--Democracy-i-by-Robert-Parry-090219-34.html  ---  True, but there are lots of foreign newspapers and professional blog-sites, just a tiny miniscule sample of which are posted on this website's "Front Page".  On the other hand there is another reason the US-NRE's mass-faux-infotainment is in a "crisis", they lie all the time, constantly, without shame, about the most serious issues facing this nation.  See articles shown below. - mpg
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PART 2: Toothless--The Watchdog Press That Became the Government's Lapdog
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/PART-2-Tootless-The-Watc-by-Brasch-090219-992.html
PART 1:  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/Toothless-The-Watchdog-Pr-by-Brasch-090212-365.html
Special Note - A quote...."In May 2004, the New York Times, while claiming it was aggressive in pursuing stories about the Bush–Cheney Administration, slipped in an apology for acting more as the mouthpiece for politicians than as a watchdog for society. “Coverage was not as rigorous as it should have been,” the Times admitted. Part of the problem, the Times acknowledged, was that “Editors at several levels who should have been challenging reporters and pressing for more skepticism were perhaps too intent on rushing scoops into the paper.” The Times concluded it wished “we had been more aggressive.”  -- Just watch what happens when they launch the next false flag attack, or their planned war with Iran.  It will be the same damn thing all over again. - mpg
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Al-Qaida fantasist tells court: I'm a professional liar  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/09/uksecurity-july7
Special Note - Related Article - A quote...."A British man who fooled the media [not really, they ALL knew better- mpg] into believing he was an al-Qaida insider has admitted in court that he made up the claims. -- Hassan Butt received significant media attention for his claims to have helped send scores of Britons to terrorist training camps overseas and to have met Mohammad Sidique Khan, the ringleader of the 7 July 2005 attacks on London. -- Butt was the former spokesman for the extremist group al-Muhajiroun and was invited to meet a government minister to discuss ways to combat terrorism, as well as featuring heavily in BBC News, national newspaper and US television reports on al-Qaida." -- For more on the articles shown above see....Fake Intel / Propaganda
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/fakeintell-weblist-mpg-090206
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The Gaza Attack - 7 Articles - Thursday - [ Day 55 ] ========== ========== ========== ===

An Underdog’s Dilemma - posted at OnlineJournal  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3171.shtml
  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4390.shtml
Must Read - A quote...."Feb 20, 2009, 00:26 -- Almost a thousand Palestinian civilians were dead from Israel’s recent blitz on Gaza before Barack Obama interrupted his mantra, that there’s only one president at a time, to bemoan what he called a tragedy for both sides. Israel suffered civilian losses, too, after all. Three to be exact. And if Obama, the consummate underdog, didn’t seem especially moved by the latest suffering of the clear underdog in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he was merely following a hallowed tradition, started long ago. --- By a fellow Democrat."
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Reflections of War - 14 Feb 09 - Part 1  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UChWtlMGBJ0
-- Part 2  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oe9P7E6zqA
-- Part 3  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM6wm5K5WS0
-- Part 4  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA-TgBVbfsc
Must View Video -- (AJ YouTube - aprox 10 min each - February 14, 2009) -- A quote...."On December 27, 2008, Israel's already crippling siege on the neighbouring Gaza Strip escalated into a brutal war. Al Jazeera was the only global news network reporting from both inside Gaza and Israel for the entirity of the conflict. Throughout Ayman Mohyeldin and Sherine Tadros brought news of the human tragedy unfolding to living rooms throughout the English speaking world. They found themselves as vulnerable as the civilians of Gaza and now they give their full accounts of what it was really like to report that war."
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The Roots of Hatred in the Zionist Ideology  ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14851
Must Read  -- Some quotes...."In 1939 Europe turned a blind eye to the rise of Nazism. The British foreign minister Neville Chamberlain believed that a policy of appeasement would work with Hitler; it did not. Hitler attacked Poland, giving the world a costly lesson - a policy of appeasement does not work with fascism. The outcome is well known: Europe was ruined and around 50 million lost their lives." -- "The rise of fascism in the Zionist culture is, as I shall explain below, an aspect entrenched in Zionist culture from its earliest establishment; the recent Israeli election (in February 2009) has only made it more visible to public opinion. For years Zionists have used the phrase "Israel is the only democracy in the middle east" as an ideological weapon to demonize Arabs and to justify its crimes. Today, after the war on Gaza which showed the world the ugly face of Zionism, the rise of Israeli fascism is yet evidence that Zionism and racism, as the UN declared in 1975, are twins; the recent elections in Israel showed us that Zionism and fascism are synonyms. Yet I must note that there is a major difference between the Nazi and the Zionist fascist, this difference does not lie in the culture of hate, which is the basis of both, but rather in the fact that the Zionist fascist has nuclear capability, enough, according to military analysts, to destroy a  large percentage of the human population globally; this fact has, unsurprisingly, raised serious concerns both in the Middle East and around the world." -- For moe 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 WMD use in Gaza alarms NAM  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/190427
A quote...."Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:41:01 GMT  -- The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has condemned the use of "chemical weapons" by Israel in its recent operations against the Gaza Strip. -- The NAM condemnation came after Tel Aviv was charged with the use of the controversial white phosphorous — also known by the military as WP or Willie Pete — shells during its recent three-week-war on the Gaza Strip."
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Justifying Israeli War Crimes By Reem Salahi  ---  http://www.creative-i.info/?p=4798
A quote...."Having left Gaza now, I am trying to come to terms with what I saw, what I heard and honestly, what I don’t think I will ever understand – the justification.  While Israel’s recent offensive has been the most egregious of any historical attack upon the Palestinians in Gaza, it is just that, one of many.  Gaza has been under Israeli bombardment and sanctions for many years.  Prior to the Israeli pullout in 2005, Gaza was under the complete control and occupation of Israel.  Nearly 8000 Israeli settlers occupied 40% of Gaza while the 1.5 million Palestinians occupied the remaining 60%.  Settlements were located on the most fertile lands and along Gaza’s beautiful coastal regions and checkpoints prevented Palestinian mobility.  Despite being one-fifth the size of Rhode Island, 25 miles long by 4-7.5 miles wide, Gaza was divided into three sections and Palestinians had to pass through multiple checkpoints to get from one section to the next.  Often Israeli forces would close these checkpoints and not allow the Palestinians access to the other regions in Gaza as a form of collective punishment."
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Feared by Enemies, Denounced by Natural Allies : Hamas and the Tunnel Network that Feeds Gaza
  ---  http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/02/20/feared-by-enemies-denounced-by-natural-a
Special Note - A quote...."02/20/09 | 02:36:46 am -- It is a miracle that 1.4 million Gazans have survived Israel‘s secret weapon—starvation. Israel has been throttling the flow of food and goods into Gaza not just for months, but for years. Recent UN press releases state that since Israel’s “cease fire,” Israel allows only a fraction of needed food through the produce gate into Gaza. The Director of Operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), John Ging, said on Feb 5: “The Agency is responsible for feeding 900,000 refugees in Gaza, yet can only get food packets out at a daily rate of 30,000, giving an idea of just how long those at the end of the queue have to wait.”
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New York University (NYU) OCCUPIED in solidarity with Gaza  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/190416
Action Update - A quote...."19.02.2009 22:39 -- NYU in New York City has been occupied by students seeking to democratize their university/education and act in solidarity with the people in Gaza and with UK students and their occupations."

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 - Thursday - [ Day 55 ] ========== ========== ========== ===

Hints on The Future from Geithner's Confirmation Hearing  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/02/hints-on-future-from-geithners.html
Must Read - Quote "Jim Sinclair had an interesting post  http://jsmineset.com/index.php/2009/02/18/geithner-comments-on-the-errors-of-the-great-depression/  ---  yesterday on Geithner's confirmation hearing:"

"During testimony on his nomination, when Secretary of the Treasury Geithner was asked about errors made in the Great Depression, he replied:"

There were two:

1.)  Monetary stimulation ended too soon.
2.)  Heed was not taken of the dollar foreign exchange position.

"Think hard on the implications of both these points.  --- The dollar rose into the Great Depression, acting as a break on American exports as protectionism was rising everywhere. You can be sure the present dollar rally as a place of refuge has no meaningful future.  --- You can be sure that [the] estimate of $20 trillion in total monetary and fiscal stimulation is conservative."

"What's Sinclair saying?"
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Philly factories report worst decline in 18 years
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/philadelphia-area-factories-report-worst-decline/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7B30790FE6-7125-4A0A-B4BA-81B3E1CBCD73%7D
A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The business climate for factories in the Philadelphia region worsened at the fastest rate in more than 18 years in February, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported Thursday. -- The Philly Fed index plunged from a reading of negative 24.3 for January to negative 41.3 in February, marking the lowest since October 1990. The index has fallen for 14 months out of the past 15."
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Wholesale Inflation Surges -- [January producer prices rise 0.8 percent]  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3388-0-13-13--.html
Well you won't be able to call it stagflation, assuming inflation finally takes hold, not with all these bad numbers.  We'll just have to come up with a new term for it.  How about "Dee-pla-tion", for depression/inflation? - mpg -- A quote...."Inflation at the wholesale level surged unexpectedly in January, reflecting sharply higher prices for gasoline and other energy products."
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January leading indicators up; recession's intensity to ease - Not really, just read on. - mpg
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/january-leading-indicators-up-recessions/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7B7132E29F-A05D-4497-B1C3-571F1AF5443B%7D
Some quotes...."For the second consecutive month, the index of leading economic indicators rose, gaining 0.4% in January, following a downwardly revised 0.2% in December." -- " The recent gains are due, in part, to the Federal Reserve's huge injections of cash into the money supply. Despite the rise in January, widespread weakness remains as the troubled job and housing markets continue to take their toll.  Some of the index's estimates may be too optimistic, and could be downwardly revised, wrote Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist with High Frequency Economics, in a research note.  "In short, we see no real improvement here despite the rise in the headline," Shepherdson wrote." -- bold by website editor
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Fed report foresees US economic contraction  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86164&sectionid=3510203
A quote...."Fed officials on Wednesday lowered their forecast for economic growth in 2009 and expect to see a contraction of 0.5 percent to 1.3 percent." -- also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3386-0-13-13--.html
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Video: Chrysler workers oppose pay cuts, concession demands - (YouTube - 3 min 38 sec - February 18, 2009)
  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/video-chrysler-workers-oppose-pay-cuts-concession-demands/
Video - Speaking to the WSWS, Chrysler workers at the Dodge Truck complex in Warren, Michigan opposed concessions demanded by the Obama administration and Wall Street."
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Nearly five million on jobless benefits in US  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/econ-f20.shtml
A quote...."The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of US workers receiving unemployment benefits hit 4.99 million in the week ending February 7, the highest number in 27 years. First time claims for state unemployment benefits were a higher-than- expected 627,000 for the week ending February 14, as corporations continued to cut back on production and slash their staffs by thousands of workers."
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BofA and Citi shares fall on nationalization fear  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE51I4R720090219
A quote...."NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc (C.N) shares fell to almost 18-year lows on Thursday, with Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) stock also plunging, amid renewed fears that growing losses could lead to government control of troubled U.S. banks, wiping out shareholders."
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Autopsy for the Celtic Tiger -- How Ireland Went Bust  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/browne02192009.html
A quote...."The unemployment rolls in the Republic of Ireland are growing by more than 30,000 per month. It might not sound like a lot, but on a straight per-capita comparison, in a state of some four million people, that’s more than three times worse than what’s been afflicting the US. -- This little country is going to hell in a turbo-charged handbasket."
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Depositors turned away from Stanford banks  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090218/ap_on_bi_ge/cb_antigua_stanford_7
A quote...."ST. JOHN'S, Antigua – Panicky depositors were turned away from Stanford International Bank and some of its Latin American affiliates Wednesday, unable to withdraw their money after U.S. regulators accused Texas financier R. Allen Stanford of perpetrating an $8 billion fraud against his companies' investors."
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Wednesday February 18th 2009 - links page

Imagine  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22030.htm
Must Read - A quote...."February 18, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- I imagine being in a room of maimed, deformed and tortured Iraqis, Afghans and Palestinians, accompanied by widows and orphans mourning because their entire family has been exterminated. I imagine this roomful of walking dead sitting around while my friends and I discuss how “realistic” we in the U.S. must be with our electoral politics, how our expectations need to “practical,” how peace is just so damn “complicated.” -- I imagine these victims looking at us with blank, scarred faces as we congratulate ourselves for selecting a new President who talks about “our God-given right to lead,” about our duty to spread U.S.-style democracy throughout the globe, and how we are now just so “proud to be American.”
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It's time to rethink Zionism  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/16/israelandthepalestinians-israeli-elections-2009
Article   ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22033.htm
posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
Must Read - A quote...."The results of last week's parliamentary elections in Israel brought to the surface some of the most rotten fruits of a debate that has been going on throughout the state's existence: the idea that a mono-ethnic Jewish state is feasible, legitimate and desirable. In other words, it enhanced the predicament of the moral and practical consequences of the Zionist state ideology."
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Jailing Kids for Cash  ---  http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090217_kids_for_cash/
Must Read - (for the outrage) -- This is what some Libertarians who support "Capitalism" simply don't (or won't) understand, when you're willing to do anything "for the money", when money is what you worship,  when it is your God, when the bottom line is all you care about, when you create institutions such as Corporations, which exist without any moral restraint except for the one golden rule of profit, tragic events like this are not only logical and "moral" from the perspective of a "True Capitalist", but they are in actual fact....necessarily inevitable. - mpg -- As many as 5,000 children in Pennsylvania have been found guilty, and up to 2,000 of them jailed, by two corrupt judges who received kickbacks from the builders and owners of private prison facilities that benefited. The two judges pleaded guilty in a stunning case of greed and corruption that is still unfolding. Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan received $2.6 million in kickbacks while imprisoning children who often had no access to a lawyer. The case offers an extraordinary glimpse into the shameful private prison industry that is flourishing in the United States."
also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/18-10
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Operation Uptick: Obama Launches Afghan Surge
  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1704-operation-uptick-obama-launches-afghan-surge.html
Must Read -  - A quote...."And so it begins: the great Obama "surge" in Afghanistan. Before withdrawing a single soldier from Iraq, Barack Obama is throwing 17,500 more troops into the boiling Afghan cauldron. The deployment is the first installment of what Obama aides affirm could be a much larger escalation down the road: as soon as the vaunted "strategic review" of Afghan policy – led by hawks like Joe Biden, Richard Holbrook and General David "Pre-President" Petraeus – is completed." -- also posted at AfterDowningStreet  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/39958
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Afghans say 13 civilians killed in US-led strike  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090218/wl_sthasia_afp/afghanistanunrest
A quote...."HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) – Afghan authorities said Wednesday that at least 13 civilians, including women and children, were killed in a US-led air strike on militants, prompting the military to order an inquiry."
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'Sustained' Push Seen in Afghanistan - link posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/18/AR2009021803373_pf.html
A quote...."U.S. Commander Says Troop Level of 60,000 Is Needed for at Least Three to Four Years"
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Yes We Can!  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/pic.php?f=obama_afghanistan.gif
Cartoon - From the article shown below, for original link click here. --- http://latuff2.deviantart.com/art/Obama-s-surge-in-Afghanistan-113392450  ---   Click on image to enlarge.
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UN: 'Worst year' for Afghan deaths  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/02/20092172111443391.html
A quote...."Civilian casualties in Afghanistan's escalating conflict have increased by 39 per cent over the last year, hitting their worst-ever level, according to a United Nations report."
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Obamatoon of the Day....  ---  http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/obamatoon-of-the-day-2/
A quote...."Obama to send another 17000 US troops to Afghanistan : In response…….Ben & Jerry created “Yes Pecan!” ice cream flavor for Obama. -- They then asked for suggestion for a George W. flavor." -- Some examples shown below....

- Grape Depression
- Abu Grape
- Cluster Fudge
- Nut’n Accomplished
- Iraqi Road
- Chock ‘n Awe
- WireTapioca  ---  and many more....
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The Same Old Game  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m51941&s1=h1
A quote...."When US envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke met with Afghanistan’s 'democratically’ installed President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on February 14, he may have just learned of the historic significance of the following day. February 15 commemorates the end of the bloody Russian campaign against Afghanistan (August 1978-February 1989). -- But it is unlikely that Holbrooke will absorb the magnitude of that historic lesson. Both he and the new US President Barack Obama are convinced that the missing component for winning the war in Afghanistan is a greater commitment, as in doubling the troops, increasing military spending, and, by way of winning hearts and minds, investing more in developing the country."
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Kyrgyzstan MPs approve U.S. air base closure - More on KZ's boot to the US-NRE's imperial plans - mpg
  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE51I1BK20090219
A quote...."BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan's parliament voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to approve a government proposal to close a U.S. air base in the Central Asian nation which is a transit point for U.S.-led fighting in nearby Afghanistan." - bold by website editor
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Secrecy and denial as Pakistan lets CIA use airbase to strike ...
  ---  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5755490.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2
A quote...."The CIA declined to comment, as did the Pentagon. But one senior Western source familiar with US operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan told The Times that the CIA “runs Predator flights routinely” from Shamsi."
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Peak Oil: Facts At Your Fingertips  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/goodchild180209A.htm
A quote...."We should first keep in mind that everything in the modern world is dependent on oil. From oil and other hydrocarbons we get fuel, fertilizer, pesticides, lubricants, plastic, paint, synthetic fabrics, asphalt, pharmaceuticals, and many other things. On a more abstract level, we are dependent on oil and other hydrocarbons for manufacturing, for transportation, for agriculture, for mining, and for electricity. When oil goes, our entire industrial society will go with it. There will be no means of supporting the billions of people who now live on this planet. Above all, there will be insufficient food." -- For more on this issue see....Peak Oil -- Chart  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/peakoilchart-reficultnias-121008.html
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The conflict in the Congo is a resource war waged by U.S. and British allies - posted at OnlineJournal - http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3171.shtml
  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4383.shtml
A quote...."Since Rwanda and Uganda invaded the Congo in 1996, they have pursued a plan to appropriate the wealth of Eastern Congo either directly or through proxy forces. The December 2008 United Nations report is the latest in a series of U.N. reports dating from 2001 that clearly documents the systematic looting and appropriation of Congolese resources by Rwanda and Uganda, two of Washington and London’s staunchest allies in Africa."
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Why Imperialism Needs Proxies to Do Its Dirty Work in Africa
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/Why-Imperialism-Needs-Prox-by-Mark-P-Fancher-090218-691.html
A quote...."Despite resistance from virtually every nation in Africa, the U.S. continues to seek a home for its Africa Command, AFRICOM. The lure of African oil and other resources causes Washington to devise various schemes to dominate the continent - especially the recruitment of proxies to do the Americans' bidding. A central Washington political thrust in Africa revolves around the Darfur region of Sudan, where Colin Powell first charged that genocide was occurring. What the U.S. really wants is regime change in Sudan, and control of its oil resources. "AFRICOM is made to order - provided it can overcome the near unanimous opposition that it faces from Africans the world over." -- For more on this issue see....Africa - the Next Target - 02-28-08 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/africathenexttarget-blog-mpg-022808
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Majority of Ukrainians believe Yushchenko should resign, according to poll  ---  http://www.kyivpost.com/nation/35649
A quote...."A majority of Ukrainians believe that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko should resign, according to the public opinion poll held by Kyiv International Sociology Institute."
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Kazakhstan to equip 10 battalions with S-300 air defense systems  ---  http://en.rian.ru/world/20090219/120215804.html
A quote...."ASTANA, February 19 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan plans to equip 10 battalions with S-300 air defense missile systems bought from Russia, with deliveries to begin in 2009, a senior military official said on Thursday."
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LNG puts Sakhalin on map  ---  http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20090219/120216520.html
A quote...."MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti economic commentator Oleg Mityayev) - Russia's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant was opened on February 18 in a ceremony on Sakhalin attended by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso."
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Ecuador expels second US diplomat  ---  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7898432.stm
A quote...."Ecuador has expelled a second American diplomat in just over a week, accusing both officials of interfering in its internal affairs."
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Blueprint for EU army to be agreed  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/4689736/Blueprint-for-EU-army-to-be-agreed.html
A quote...."The plan, which has influential support in Germany and France, proposes to set up a "Synchronised Armed Forces Europe", or Safe, as a first step towards a true European military force." -- also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3378-0-14-14--.html
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9/11 ‘Truth Force’ - posted at OnlineJournal  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3171.shtml
  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4386.shtml
Must Read - A quote...."The strongest element in the campaign for 9/11 truth is the very fact that we have truth on our side (and however “9/11 truth” became the consensus slogan of the movement, it was brilliant marketing). Seven years of independent research and investigation by thousands of concerned patriots, expert and amateur alike, have turned up enough evidence to make the official story of what happened on September 11, 2001, look highly implausible -- and prosecutable." -- For more on this issue see....
9/11 - NORAD  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911norad-weblist-mpg-091308
& 9/11 - WTC7  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911-wtc7-weblist-mpg-082308
& 9/11 - Commission   ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911commission-weblist-mpg-091306
& 9/11 - Punish or Reward  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911punishorreward-weblist-mpg-021409
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Siegelman: Rove Trying to Cut Deal, Call Conyers  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/39959
Action Alert - A quote...."Governor Don Siegelman has learned that Karl Rove is in some sort of negotiation for immunity or exec priv before he testifies on Feb. 23. He is asking for people to flood Judiciary Chairman John Conyers with calls to make sure he "stays strong," no deal, no immunity. Here is the text of my email from Gov. Siegelman."
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The Gaza Attack - 9 Articles - Wednesday - [ Day 54 ] ========== ========== ========== ===

Video series: Gaza - The Hidden Truth - YouTube - 4 to 5 min each - January 24, 2009)
  ---  http://www.sott.net/articles/show/176424-Video-series-Gaza-The-Hidden-Truth
Videos - A quote...."A series of three video montages from news and interview clips, laying bare the truth of the recent slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and the hateful ideology that lies behind it."
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Dropping DIMES on Gaza - Death's Laboratory  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/hallinan02182009.html
Must Read - A quote...."February 18, 2009 -- If, by some miracle, victims do survive, they are almost to certain develop rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a particularly deadly cancer that deeply embeds itself into tissue and is almost impossible to treat. A 2005 U.S. Department of health study found that tungsten stimulated RMS cancers even in very low doses. Out of 92 rats tested, 92 developed the cancer."
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Gaza, Palestine: Israeli troops shoot Palestinian farmer  ---  http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=15775
A quote...."18-02-2009 -- 11am 18th February 2009, Al Faraheen, Gaza Strip: Israeli forces have shot a twenty year-old Palestinian farmer as he worked his land in the village of Al-Faraheen, east of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip."
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Report: “Amy kidnapped 7600 children since 2000, 246 remain behind bars”  ---  http://www.imemc.org/article/58929
A quote...."Palestinian Researcher, specialized in detainees’ affairs, Awni Farawna, stated that the Israeli army kidnapped 7600 Palestinian children, males and females, since the year 2000; 246 children are still behind bars. -- At least 200 of the kidnapped children were detained under administrative detention, without charges or trial. Some of the children were as young as 12 years old."
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Gazan coast becoming a ‘no-go’ zone  ---  http://palsolidarity.org/2009/02/5495
A quote...."On Saturday 14th February, 23 year-old Rafiq abu Reala was shot by Israeli naval forces whilst fishing in Gazan territorial waters, approximately two nautical miles out from the port of Gaza city. He was in a simple fishing vessel, not much larger than a rowing boat, with a small outboard engine, known locally as a ‘hassaka’. Rafiq, his brother Rajab and another friend were following the course of a shoal of fish. A group of five more hassakas were out at the time, about a kilometre to the west of Rafiq’s boat, further out to sea. An Israeli naval gunboat approached the area and began shooting at the other hassakas, which quickly changed course and headed east, back towards shore."
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Israeli tanks enter Gaza City  ---  http://atheonews.blogspot.com/2009/02/israeli-tanks-enter-gaza-city.html
A quote...."Thu, 19 Feb 2009 -- Israeli tanks backed by helicopters have crossed the border with the Gaza Strip, triggering clashes in Gaza City. Witnesses told AFP that the military forces entered Gaza City early Thursday with Palestinian fighters exchanging fire with them. The military forces however left the strip after the fighters fired antitank rockets at them. No casualties have been reported in the attack. There was no comment by the Israeli military on the incident."
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Erdogan: Olmert remarks not trustable  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86101&sectionid=351020202
A quote...."Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:27:38 GMT  -- Turkish Prime Minister says Israeli Premier's recent remarks about the Gaza war are inconsistent and create distrust among leaders."
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Did Egypt sabotage deal over Gaza, Shalit?  ---  http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10317.shtml
A quote...."18 February 2009 -- One of the major achievements of the Israeli revisionist historians has been to break down Israeli myths surrounding the establishment of the State of Israel. A key myth has been the claim that Israel is surrounded by hostile Arab regimes. While this claim has been debunked, even mocked, by many Arabs who accuse their regimes of not only collaboration with Israel but also complicity in the continuing suppression of Palestinian resistance movements, that collaboration has now been documented and exposed with the unearthing of official records." 
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European Parliament urges increased humanitarian aid to Gaza  ---  http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/19/content_10845045.htm
A quote...."  2009-02-19 06:39:44  -- BRUSSELS, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The European Parliament (EP) on Wednesday adopted a resolution, calling for increased humanitarian aid to and for an end to the blockade of the Gaza Strip, the immediate and sustainable reopening of the crossing points between Israel and the Gaza Strip."

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 - 9 Articles - Wednesday - [ Day 54 ] ========== ========== ========== ===

A New Fat Cat-Government Conspiracy to Loot Social Security
  ---  http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-fat-cat-government-conspiracy-to.html
Must Read -- A quote...."Under the cover of 'Economic Crisis', the Axis of Wall Street, K-street, and the GOP schemes to loot the Social Security Trust fund. This axis of evil wants to use the Social Security trust fund to 'bailout' the crooked banks who created the financial crisis to begin with. When times were good under Clinton, we were told that Social Security had to be scrapped. The trust fund was running out of money, we were told. Now, when times are bad, they are telling us that Social Security needs to be scrapped because it is a success. -- The 'trust fund' that we had been told was going broke is coveted because it was NOT going broke. It is now seen as a means by which greedy, incompetent and failing banks can be bailed out! Would the greedy bastards go after a bankrupt program? I don't think so! To the greedy, incompetent bankers who have already squirreled away billions of bailout bucks offshore, I say: you give me the money you secretly transferred out of the country and let me do something constructive with it!
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Strange Math - posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908
  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22027.htm
Special Note - A quote...."As I grew older and became more involved in business and the financial markets, I quickly learned that the same number could mean just about anything depending on the mental agility of your accountant.  For a perfect example, take a good look at Enron or the Madoff affair. Today the numbers manipulation game has gone to such extreme lengths, that the entire financial system is in danger of collapse. Governmental band-aids have been applied, but it’s the equivalent of trying to cure a cancerous brain tumor with an aspirin."
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Marc Faber:"One Day the Price of Gold Will Be Higher than the Dow Jones."  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/
Market Tech Note - A quote...."The biggest gold bugs have said for years that the price of gold usually mirrors the Dow Jones stock market index, and that it will eventually end up there again. For example, Peter Cooper recently wrote...."
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Still searching for the bottom
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Wall-Street-likely-fail-retest/story.aspx?guid=%7BFB91F881-DFC8-4137-AA09-97376AC65312%7D
Market Tech Note - A quote...."I wanted to know what light the sentiment data might shed on this question. Will the stock market successfully pass its retest of the Nov. 20 lows? Or will it fail, in which case new bear-market lows are ahead? -- To gain insight, I analyzed how sentiment behaved in the past whenever the market successfully retested a bear-market low. Unfortunately, I found a marked difference between sentiment on those occasions and the mood that prevails today."

Editor's Caution:  Regarding the two articles shown above. The flat line of Wednesday’s stock market action is indicative of possible intervention by certain interested parties.  Be aware that they, and the Banks and institutions they control, have the potential to exercise massive leverage due to their on-going participation in the derivatives market, which by some estimates now measures 1.3 to 1.5 Quadrillion dollars in notational value. – mpg
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Moody's Plays Games To Avoid Stripping the U.S., UK, Ireland and Spain of Their AAA Ratings
  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/02/moodys-plays-games-so-it-wont-have-to.html
Must be more of that "transparency" they've been talking about for the last couple of years.  Let's see....how did this whole economic mess start in the first place?  Oh that's right; one of the main contributing factors was all of those so-called "impartial" credit agencies giving triple A ratings to junk financial instruments.  Guess this must be more of that "Obama-change" again. - mpg -- A quote...."Instead of downgrading the sovereign credit ratings of the U.S. and the UK, Moody's is instead playing games."
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Germany drafts bank takeover law  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/02/200921817362186380.html
Some quotes...."Germany has approved a draft law allowing the forced nationalisations of banks, saying it would use its new powers to take control of giant propery lender Hypo Real Estate." -- "Hypo has so far received $128bn in guarantees from the state and fellow banks over the past year, but remains in dire financial straits. Berlin has said the bank, which was hit hard by its exposure to the collapsing mortgage market in the United States a year ago and has spiralled downwards since, cannot be allowed to fail because of its key role in German bond markets. - bold by website editor
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The Looming Collapse of European Banking  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north689.html
Special Note - Financial Warning - A quote...."The banking system of Europe is at the edge of the abyss. A brief story by The Telegraph revealed this last week. The original was almost immediately deleted. A new version was substituted."

You can see the original headline on Google:
European banks may need £16.3 trillion bail-out, EC document warns ...

"There are dozens of these links. I read the story last week. I saved the link. But, lo and behold, when I clicked my saved link on Monday morning, the story did not mention a specific figure."

One has to feel sorry for the European people, but only a little bit.  After all, they foolishly let their elites knowingly buy enormous sums of the US-NRE's toxic debts to support its ongoing non-stop efforts to control the Middle East’s natural resources.  And they are also STILL, after all this time, after all the blatant lies that were told, willing to sacrifice the lives of their sons and daughters to prop up this moribund attempt at empire. - mpg

For more on the issues covered in the two articles shown above see....Debt Doesn't Matter When the Rubes Pay - 02-29-08 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/debtdoesntmatter-blog-mpg-022908
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Next Wave of Banking Crisis to come from Eastern Europe By F. William Engdahl  ---  http://www.creative-i.info/?p=4768
Special Note - Financial Warning - Europe also loaned out a lot of money to help NATO and the EU march eastward, all with the constant encouragement and support of the US-NRE elites. They really shouldn't listen to the US-NRE’s elites but the EU's elites are just about as stupid, craven and corrupt as many of the US-NRE's Neo-Roman Citizens. It's going to cost them..... a lot.– mpg -- A quote...."European banks face an entirely new wave of losses in coming months not yet calculated in any government bank rescue aid to date. Unlike the losses of US banks which derive initially from their exposures to low-quality sub-prime real estate and other securitized lending, the problems of western European banks, most especially in Austria, Sweden and perhaps Switzerland arise from the massive volumes of loans they made during the 2002-2007 period of extreme low international interest rates to clients in eastern European countries."
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U.S. housing starts drop to lowest ever  ---  http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/18/business/19econ.php
A quote...."The Commerce Department reported on Wednesday that privately owned housing starts in January fell 16.8 percent from December, to an annual rate of 466,000. That was the slowest pace since at least 1959." - bold by website editor
also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3382-0-13-13--.html
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Tech Layoffs Surge to 300,000  ---  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/17/AR2009021700921.html
A quote...."Layoffs in the tech sector are accelerating. It took exactly three weeks for tech layoffs to surge to 300,000, according to our Layoff Tracker. Since late January, when the tracker hit 200,000 layoffs, another 100,000 job eliminations have been announced or completed. In contrast, it took five weeks for layoffs in the tech industry to hit the 200,000 mark, and four months for layoffs to hit 100,000 last December."
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"Worst Is Yet to Come:" Americans' Standard of Living Permanently Changed - i.e. massive deflation
  ---  http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/176478/%22Worst-Is-Yet-to-Come%22-Americans%27-Standard-of-Living-Permanently-Changed?tickers
A quote...."There's no question the American consumer is hurting in the face of a burst housing bubble, financial market meltdown and rising unemployment. -- But "the worst is yet to come....  -- also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3370-0-13-13--.html

    * An $8 trillion negative wealth effect from declining home values.
    * A $10 trillion negative wealth effect from weakened capital markets.
    * A $14 trillion consumer debt load amid "exploding unemployment", leading to "exploding bankruptcies."
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US automakers outline massive attack on jobs, wages  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/auto-f19.shtml
A quote...."General Motors and Chrysler LLC submitted plans to the US Treasury Department Tuesday outlining their strategy to return to profitability through an unprecedented assault on the jobs, wages and working conditions of autoworkers."
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Brazil may drop dollar for transactions  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86077&sectionid=351020706
The longer the world's countries remain linked to the dollar, the greater the pain that will be inflicted on their once vibrant economies.  It's their choice and they're rapidly running out of time. - mpg -- A quote...."Brazil is keen to see transactions between South American states take place using national currencies, without recourse to the US dollar."
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Many seek their money as Stanford fallout spreads  http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE51H5IO20090219?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
A quote...."ST. JOHN'S/CARACAS (Reuters) - People scrambled on Wednesday to get back their money from firms linked to Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, as fallout from U.S. fraud charges against him spread from the United States and the Caribbean to Latin America and Europe."
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