MPG'S
DAILY RAPSHEET AND BLOTTER ON THE "GREAT GAME" --
02-25-09 to 03-03-09 -- 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 March 3rd 2009 - links
page
Choosing
Atrocity: Israel, America and the Strangling of Gaza
---
http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1713-choosing-atrocity-israel-america-and-the-strangling-of-gaza.html
Must Read - A
quote...."At most one sees a few comforting headlines or crawl-lines
about "pledges of aid" from the world community for poor Gaza, which
seems to have suffered some sort of unavoidable natural disaster, like
a flood or earthquake. Forgotten is the fact that Gaza was ravaged in a
relentless, murderous military assault that deliberately targeted
heavily populated areas and numbered hundreds of children among its
many innocent victims. Forgotten is that the attack. fueled with
American money and American weapons, was a clear act of "collective
punishment," one of the most heinous of the war crimes perpetrated by
the Nazis against Jews and non-Jews alike. Indeed, the Israeli
government was quite candid that the attack was designed as a
collective punishment; they were admirably honest about adopting this
policy of the Nazis as their own."
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Cairo
Donor Conference Nets $5 bn for Gaza Reconstruction; Israelis Block
Gaza Reconstruction
---
http://www.juancole.com/2009/03/cairo-donor-conference-net-5-bn-for.html
Related Article -- A quote...."Shorter AFP: Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton will try to tell Binyamin Netanyahu, the far rightwing
prospective prime minister of Israel, that he should allow the
rebuilding of Gaza and start up a peace process that leads to a
Palestinian State. Netanyahu ask her to let him bomb Iran and go on
colonizing the West Bank and making sure there is a never a Palestinian
state. -- Netanyahu probably won't get his way on Iran, but he likely
will keep the Palestinians stateless, i.e., in subhuman conditions."
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Militants'
sudden unity threatens Obama's Afghanistan strategy ---
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/63127.html
A quote...."PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A new alliance of Pakistani extremist
groups — united after rival warlords vowed to renew the fight against
international troops — threatens to escalate the insurgency in
neighboring Afghanistan just as thousands more U.S. soldiers are to be
deployed to the region."
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Russian
President Won't "Haggle" Over US Missile Defense Plans
--- http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4068869,00.html
A quote...."Russian President Medvedev has said he's willing to discuss
the proposed US missile shield with Washington. But he added that any
deal linking those talks with negotiations regarding Iran would not be
productive."
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U.S.-SYRIA:
Washington Ends Its Diplomatic Embargo ---
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45966
A quote...."WASHINGTON, Mar 3 (IPS) - Ending a four-year diplomatic
embargo on Damascus, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama
Tuesday confirmed that it is sending two high-level officials to Syria
this week for "preliminary conversations", presumably on improving
relations."
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Sakhalin
II signs LNG supply deal with Osaka Gas ---
http://en.rian.ru/business/20090304/120411460.html
A quote...."YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, March 4 (RIA Novosti) - Sakhalin Energy,
the operator of a vast oil and gas project off Russia's Pacific Coast,
said on Wednesday a sale and purchase agreement had been signed for LNG
supply to the Japanese company Osaka Gas."
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Kazakhstan,
Russia sign contract on S-300 air defense systems ---
http://en.rian.ru/world/20090304/120410095.html
A quote...."ASTANA, March 4 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan has signed a
contract with Russia on the purchase of S-300 air defense missile
systems, the Kazakh defense minister said on Wednesday."
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Israel
lobbies for war on Iran ---
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86784§ionid=351020104
A quote...."Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says he advocates a war
on Iran, following the country's successful test-runs at the Bushehr
power plant.
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US
marks 4 more years of lapdog policies ---
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=87468§ionid=3510203
A quote...."The US pledges 'unshakeable' commitment to Israel,
suggesting a Palestinian state to be viable only without its democratic
government."
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The
Red and White Bird in Gaza ---
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/articles/2009/03/01/svensson_the-red-and-white-bird-in-gaza.html
Must Read - A
quote...."The
young girl from Gaza tells me how she yearns for the red and white
bird. It used to come every morning to the little veranda where her
mother served a breakfast of bread, tea, water and fruit when the
weather was good. Each morning her father left to look for work in Gaza
City, and sometimes he was successful. Most of the time he came home
late at night. She used to throw out a few seeds or breadcrumbs to the
red and white bird. It came every morning at the same time, as if it
had its own clock. They used to have breakfast together."
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The [Israeli]
military kidnaps 16 Palestinians during invasions targeting cities in
the West Bank on Tuesday ---
http://www.imemc.org/article/59094
A quote...."At least 16 Palestinian civilians were reported to be
kidnapped by the Israeli military during pre dawn and morning invasion
targeting several communities all over the West Bank on Tuesday."
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"The
Ultimate Aim is the Transfer of Arab-Israelis" - Ethnic Cleansing and
Israel ---
http://www.counterpunch.org/hallinan03032009.html
A quote...."One of the more disturbing developments in the Middle East
is a growing consensus among Israelis that it would acceptable to
expel—in the words of advocates “transfer”—its Arab citizens to either
a yet as unformed Palestinian state or the neighboring countries of
Jordan and Egypt."
also posted at ICH
--- http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22149.htm
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Israel's crimes
in Gaza --- http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52339&s1=h1
A quote...."Having returned from Gaza, 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 decades."
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Gaza….
Operation ‘Winter Storm’, Part 2 ---
http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/gaza-operation-winter-storm-part-2/
Photo Gallery - A
quote...."Where are the international human rights organization to see
the suffering of Palestinian citizens in Gaza?"
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The
newly released secret laws of the Bush administration
--- http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/03/yoo/
Must Read - A
quote...."One of the central facts that we, collectively, have not yet
come to terms with is how extremist and radical were the people running
the country for the last eight years. That condition, by itself,
made it virtually inevitable that the resulting damage would be severe
and fundamental, even irreversible in some sense. It's just not
possible to have a rotting, bloated, deeply corrupt and completely
insular political ruling class -- operating behind impenetrable walls
of secrecy -- and avoid the devastation that is now becoming so
manifest. It's just a matter of basic cause and effect." - also posted at CommonDreams
--- http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/03-14
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Law
Professor: "We May Not Have Realized It At The Time, But In The Period
From Late 2001-January 19, 2009, This Country Was A Dictatorship."
---
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/law-professor-we-may-not-have-realized.html
Related Article - A quote...."Scott Horton - a professor at Columbia
Law School and writer for Harper's - says of the Bush administration
memos authorizing torture, spying, indefinite detention without charge,
the use of the military within the U.S. and the suspension of free
speech and press rights...."
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Terror
Memos Reveal Total Destruction Of U.S. Constitutional Freedoms
--- http://infowars.net/articles/march2009/030309memos.htm
Related Article - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."By releasing internal
Justice Department memos showing how the Bush fronted Neocons
systematically destroyed civil liberties in America after 9/11, the
Obama administration has sought to distance itself from such practices.
However, closer inspection of the actions of the new regime, reveal no
deviation from such policies in the war on terror."
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Feds
probably won't charge anyone for destroying CIA tapes
---
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Feds_unlikely_to_prosecute_anyone_for_0303.html
A quote...."Interrogators, incinerators likely to escape charges --
Even though he has yet to complete his investigation, a federal
prosecutor has already signaled that he is unlikely to indict any CIA
employees for incinerating 92 secret interrogation tapes that
purportedly show suspects being waterboarded." -- Of Course!! We don't want to go
poking around wi'dat dare 9-ol'11 thing now do we? After all, if
you go around digging up the past, all you'll get is dirty. -
mpg -- For more on this issue see....The
Convenient Silence of Guantanamo Bay - 05-31-08 - mpg
---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/theconvenientsilenceofgitmo-blog-mpg-053108
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Isikoff:
Discrepancies in CIA tapes story ---
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Isikoff_Discrepancies_in_CIA_tapes_story_0303.html
Related Article - A quote...."Following Monday's revelation that the
Central Intelligence Agency destroyed 92 tapes of suspects, some
allegedly undergoing harsh interrogations, the ACLU was quick to
pounce, calling on a judge to issue a "prompt finding of contempt"
against the CIA for disobeying an order to preserve evidence."
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The
Proceeds of Crime - [in the US-NRE Prison System] ---
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/03-0
A quote...."The US and British governments have created a private
prison industry which preys on human lives. -- It's a staggering case;
more staggering still that it has scarcely been mentioned on this side
of the ocean. Last week two judges in Pennsylvania were convicted of
jailing some 2,000 children in exchange for bribes from private prison
companies."
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Systemic
Failure: Capitalism
“Lays An Egg” By Stephen Lendman ---
http://www.creative-i.info/?p=5055
Must Read - A
quote...."After
the 1929 October 24, 28 and 29 market crash, the weekly entertainment
industry magazine Variety (on October 30) published its most famous
ever headline: “Wall Street Lays an Egg.” In October 2008, history
repeated, and since the October 2007 peak, equity prices plunged over
50% after the Dow and S & P (in February) posted their second worst
ever monthly percentage declines - topped only in 1933 during the
depths of the Great Depression. So far, the current market drop
matches its 1929 - 1932 pace, and like then, shows no signs of abating."
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When Greed
Comes Home to Roost - The Lazy Man's Guide to the Economic Crisis
--- http://www.counterpunch.org/sanborn03032009.html
Must Read - A
quote...."Back in 1913, the Federal Reserve Act was enacted. Woodrow
Wilson, one of the culprits behind the Act, later said apologetically,
"I am a most unhappy man; unwittingly I have ruined my country." -- Why
did he say that? Because, with the implementation of the Federal
Reserve Act, no longer was the government able to issue its own money
as the Constitution directs. The privately held Federal Reserve became
the issuer of currency, and charged interest to the United States
government for doing so – which only benefited the bankers, not the
people. Read: huge national debt." -- The
bigger the better, or so the Banksters always say. - mpg
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They Done Us
Wrong: Spending Our Way Into Greater Depression ---
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff277.html
Must Read - A
quote...."Congress and the President could not construct better
measures, proposed and enacted, to deepen this depression if they
tried. Congressional Democrats intend to ensconce Democrats as the
majority party for the next 25 years or so. Their chosen method is
wasteful pork sold as rational investment. But by gilding the nests of
their chosen constituencies and supporters with huge taxpayer-funded
giveaways, they will deepen and lengthen the depression."
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Third
Leg Falling In Crash Of 2009 / Derivatives
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Third-Leg-Falling-In-Crash-by-Allen-L-Roland-090303-422.html
Must Read - A
quote...."The third and most devastating leg of the great American
meltdown of 2009 is the derivatives leg which reveals trillions of
dollars of unsecured debt and credit default swaps which cannot be
covered and has ushered in the PANIC phase of our economic
collapse...." -- For more on this
issue see....Enforcing
the Rules -- Too Little, Too Late - 02-27-09 - mpg
---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/enforcingtherulestoolittletoolate-mpg-reficultnias-022709
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Hidden
Pension Fiasco May Foment Another $1 Trillion Bailout --
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=alwTE0Z5.1EA&refer=home
A quote...."March 3 (Bloomberg) -- The Chicago Transit Authority
retirement plan had a $1.5 billion hole in its stash of assets in 2007.
At the height of a four-year bull market, it didn’t have enough cash on
hand to pay its retirees through 2013, meaning it was underfunded to
the tune of 62 percent."
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Pressure
to reveal major AIG counterparties grows
---
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/pressure-grows-reveal-aigs-major/story.aspx?
---
guid=%7B677481AF-8AC4-4FFD-AE8C-3D8EE2F09C75%7D&dist=SecMKTW
Aw c'mon folks, we all know at
least one of the major counter parties....Paulson's Goldman Sachs. - mpg
-- For more on this issue
see....AIG,
Goldman Sachs, Paulson And Buffet ---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/rapsheetarch/mpgrap-092408-093008#AIG
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Bernanke
Refuses To Name Banks That Borrow From Fed
---
http://www.roguegovernment.com/Bernanke_Refuses_To_Name_Banks_That_Borrow_From_Fed/14584/0/8/8/Y/M.html
A quote...."A U.S. senator berated Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke on Tuesday for refusing to name banks that borrow from the
central bank and introduced legislation that would require public
disclosure."
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U.S.
Economy: Manufacturing Still Slumped in February (Update1)
---
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=aD9eSQwiZ0Xs&refer=home
A quote...."March 2 (Bloomberg) -- The
recession in U.S. manufacturing persisted for a 13th month in February as
sales dropped worldwide and factories cut jobs at the fastest pace on
record." - bold by website editor
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Ford,
GM sales halved amid auto industry meltdown
---
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Ford-GM-sales-halved-amid/story.aspx?guid=%7BBF73AE3D-036B-4F97-8A64-D8D0C821DEC7%7D
A quote...."GM sales analyst Mike DiGiovanni said it was the worst February in 42 years of
recordkeeping. Most on Wall Street had called for sales rate in
the low 9 million vicinity, down from 9.6 million last month, which
marked a 26-year low." - bold by website editor
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U.S.
January pending home sales drop 7.7 percent
---
http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN2548076020090303?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews&rpc=35
A quote...."WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pending
sales of existing U.S. homes fell sharply in January, with the
index dropping to a record low,
according to a report on Tuesday that showed the deteriorating economy
was keeping buyers on the sidelines." - bold by webiste editor
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Construction
spending decline accelerates ---
http://www.reedconstructiondata.com/news/2009/03/construction-spending-decline-accelerates1/
A quote...."Construction spending declined
3.3% in January from a December
total that was revised down
by 3.2%. Spending dropped 8.9% since October and is projected to
decline 6-7% more by the end of the year. Commercial buildings have
replaced housing as the weakest sector although the pace of decline has
recently picked up in the residential market. Heavy construction
remains the most resistant to the recession. But its first significant
month-to month decline (6%) occurred in January." - bold/underline by
website editor
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Capitulation
watch -- Commentary: It's unlikely that Monday marked the end of the
bear market
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Contrarian-analysis-new-market-low/story.aspx?guid=%7B03F9C9F3-A23A-4270-A462-C406AF15CF53%7D
Market Tech Note - A quote...."
You'd think that the ensuing fear and
panic would be more than enough to bring about the capitulation that
contrarians have been waiting for before forecasting that the bear
market was at or near its end. -- But you'd be wrong."
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China
built enormous stake in US equities just before crash
---
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/4927567/China-built-enormous-stake-in-US-equities-just-before-crash.html
Hah, Haaaaaaa Haaaaaaa!! It NEVER fails,
it's one of the best
indicators around, if you see Asian or Eurpean governments investing in
US-NRE "anything", in any massive way, bail the hell out. - mpg
--
The Chinese government more than tripled its investments in the US
stock market to $99.5bn (£70 bn) just months before the financial
crisis, it has emerged." -- For more
on this issue see.....The
Green Light - 01-16-08 - mpg
---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/thegreenlight-blog-mpg-011608
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See also....
Americans
Sold Out to Foreign Firms at Record Rate ---
http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=5166
A quote...."Foreign investors exploited the declining U.S. dollar
during the past three months to snap up American companies, taking the
biggest share of U.S. deals in at least a decade. - Buyers from Dubai
to the Netherlands accounted for 46 percent of the $230.5 billion of
U.S. mergers and acquisitions announced in the fourth quarter, the
largest portion since 1998 when Bloomberg started compiling the data."
One of the more reliable
indicators of a stock market top is when Wall
Streeters sucker foreigners into a buying frenzy. Foreigners are
just plain stupid, they think because the dollar has reached new lows
they're able to get some good deals, when all they would have had to do
is just wait another six months (or possibly a year and a half) to
get a much better bunch of deals. -- These are the same idiots
who bought all those toxic CDO's and CMO's
from Wall Street, they're really not very bright. – mpg - posted 01-04-08
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Ukraine
risks unrest as ills worsen ---
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/67fba682-075a-11de-9294-000077b07658.html
- Alt
--- http://money.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=759389
Financial Alert - A
quote...."The growing discontent among bank clients is matched by other
signs of public anger at the impact of the global crisis – and at the
seeming inability of the country’s divided leaders to respond
effectively."
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Monday March 2nd 2009 - links page
The
Imperial Unconscious ---
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175040/the_dictionary_of_american_empire_speak
Must Read - Some
quotes....""U.S. goals in Afghanistan must be 'modest, realistic,' and
'above all, there must be an Afghan face on this war,' Gates
said." --- "And yet, make no mistake, this is Empire-speak,
American-style. It's the language -- behind which lies a deeper
structure of argument and thought -- that is essential to Washington's
vision of itself as a planet-straddling goliath. Think of that "Afghan
face"/mask, in fact, as part of the flotsam and jetsam that regularly
bubbles up from the American imperial unconscious. -- Of course, words
create realities even though such language, in all its strangeness,
essentially passes unnoticed here. Largely uncommented upon, it helps
normalize American practices in the world, comfortably shielding us
from certain global realities; but it also has the potential to blind
us to those realities, which, in perilous times, can be dangerous
indeed. So let's consider just a few entries in what might be thought
of as The Dictionary of American Empire-Speak." -- also posted at CommonDreams
--- http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/02-1
& LewRockwell
--- http://www.lewrockwell.com/engelhardt/engelhardt375.html
& AsiaTimes
--- http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_page.html
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========== ====
It’s
Obama’s War Now - [All of Them, the
New Ones, and Even
The Old Ones]
---
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090302_its_obamas_war_now/
Must Read -- Obama™
Update -- A quote...."Barack Obama has shown that he is as capable of
doublespeak as any other politician when he announced an end to the war
in Iraq. Combat troops are to be pulled out of Iraq by August 2010, he
said, but some 50,000 occupation troops will remain behind. Someone
should let the Iraqis know the distinction. I doubt any soldier or
Marine in Iraq will notice much difference in 19 months. Many combat
units will simply be relabeled as noncombat units. And what about our
small army of well-paid contractors and mercenaries? Will Dyncorp,
Bechtel, Blackwater (which recently changed its name to Xe), all of
whom have made fortunes off the war, pack up and go home? What about
the three large super-bases, dozens of smaller military outposts and
our imperial city, the Green Zone? Will American corporations give up
their lucrative control of Iraqi oil?" -- also posted at CommonDreams
--- http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/02
& PulseMedia
--- http://pulsemedia.org/2009/03/02/obamaswar/
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
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America's
Fiscal Collapse ---
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12517
Must Read -- Obama™
Update -- A quote...."This is a "War Budget". The austerity measures
hit all major federal spending programs with the exception of: 1.
Defence and the Middle East War: 2. the Wall Street bank bailout,
3. Interest payments on a staggering public debt. -- The budget diverts
tax revenues into financing the war. It legitimizes the
fraudulent transfers of tax dollars to the financial elites under the
"bank bailouts". -- The pattern of deficit spending is not
expansionary. We are not dealing with a Keynesian style deficit, which
stimulates investment and consumer demand, leading to an expansion of
production and employment." -- also
posted at ICH
--- http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22142.htm
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Sermon
From The Corporate Church ---
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22132.htm
Must Read - A
quote...."March 03, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- -Hurricane
winds pound at the gates of Fortress America and our leaders send out
the order for more straw and sand to pound into the widening cracks.
The harder the winds of change blow the more apparent it becomes that
our “leaders” cannot lead, when they themselves await orders from
above. As our house of cards flies apart at the seams, the master
planners send their minions scrambling to salvage their disintegrating
investments, worrying only about their “property,” caring less about
the human life that is huddled in fear within." -- also posted at OnlineJournal
--- http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4428.shtml
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Preaching
To The Choir? ---
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22134.htm
Must Read - A
quote...."March 03, 2009I "Information Clearing House" -- There are so
many of my fellow countrymen that wish Barack Obama were really the
answer to this nations errant wandering. So far, since World War II, we
have seen this nation violate just about every humanitarian principle
ever developed by a modern civilization. We have overthrown governments
for monetary gain, for the industrialists and the agricultural elite,
for resources and markets, defying international law, and succeeding.
We have become not a representative republic; the form of government
proposed in The Constitution by our forefathers, instead we seem to
have opted for a military oligarchy."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Connecting
the Dots: The War on People, Obama's No-Change and the Hardening of
Right-Wing Israel
---
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/177727-Connecting-the-Dots-The-War-on-People-Obama-s-No-Change-and-the-Hardening-of-Right-Wing-Israel
Must Read - Obama™ Update
-- A quote...."In the context of the global economic crisis, we are
witnessing an important shift in the rhetoric of the media and the
elite. Their warnings of riots and social upheaval seem to be implying
that harder measures of control will be required; this way, the 'War on
Terror' has served its purpose as a template for a 'War on People'. --
Contrary to the expectations of its population, the new government of
the United States is not moving away from the path set by the Bush
administration; the changes so far have only been a matter of
appearance."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Ruminations
on President Obama's Tenure Thus Far and "Acceptable Punditry"
---
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Ruminations-on-President-O-by-Cynthia-McKinney-090302-354.html
Special Note - Obama™
Update -- A quote...."by Cynthia McKinney -- I have played
around with this idea for hours now, on whether or not to write this
piece. But the events of the last few hours, I believe, mandate
that I raise my voice once again. -- I have read and re-read President
Obama's Joint Congressional Address. All of the "acceptable
punditry" have spoken and given the President glowing reviews.
And so, to them and the population that still believes in them, "All is
right with the world." But for the rest of us, who refuse to
swallow the pill that puts us into the Matrix, a good dose of reality
is strongly called for."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Is
Obama embracing the lawless, omnipotent executive? ---
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=84197
Must Read - Obama™ Update
-- A quote...."As I detailed over the weekend, the Obama administration
-- in the case brought by two American lawyers and their charity-client
claiming that their conversations were illegally intercepted by the
Bush administration -- has announced that it intends to try to appeal,
yet again, in order to prevent the court from hearing the
lawsuit. On Friday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected
Obama's request to stay the District Judge's Order, which had held that
it will review a classified document that the plaintiffs claim proves
they were subjected to the illegal eavesdropping (thus conferring
standing on the plaintiffs to challenge the legality of Bush's NSA
program), and also ordered the Obama administration to provide security
clearances to the plaintiffs' lawyers so that they could review the
document as well. The Obama DOJ immediately announced they intend
to try to appeal again -- the third time, since Obama's Inauguration,
that the Obama DOJ will try to argue before a court that the case
should not heard at all."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
[To
All You Obamatrolls] -- You Don’t Have a Clue What You Really Voted
For, Do You?
---
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/you-dont-have-a-clue-what-you-really-voted-for-do-you/
Obama™ Update -- Related Article - A quote...."Obama DOJ is adapting
Bush’s “above the law” unitary
executive theory in the San Francisco wiretapping case."
"…. the Obama DOJ is now refusing
to comply with the Judge’s order, actually arguing to the court that
only the President can decide whether classified information can be
used in a court proceeding…" -- *Glenn
Greenwald*
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Mission
Accomplished Indefinitely ---
http://www.atlargely.com/2009/03/mission-accomplished-indefinitely.html
Must Read - Obama™ Update
-- A quote...."It looks like the fat lady will become a Victoria’s
Secret model before she sings the finale of our woebegone war in Iraq.
On Friday Feb. 27, at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, young Mr. Obama
announced that, “by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will
end.” We can speculate till the troops come home why Obama chose to
make this announcement on a Marine Corps base as opposed to, say, on an
aircraft carrier, but it’s a dead cert that the mission will be no more
accomplished by August 2010 than it was in May 2003."
also posted at AntiWar
--- http://www.antiwar.com/orig/huber.php?articleid=14339
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Campaign
to close down School of The Americas -- (RNN-YouTube - aprox 11 min
- Feb. 26, 2009)
---
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=3340
& Part
2 ---
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=3354
Must View Videos - A
quote...."Pablo Ruiz: US tax dollars are used to train Latin American
soldiers how to oppress their own people"
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
The
American Media Misdiagnosis ---
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/030209.html
A quote...."It’s widely agreed that there are a number of factors
dragging down American newspapers, including the economic recession and
the impact of the Internet, but a reason rarely mentioned is that the
national news media failed in its most important job – to serve as a
watchdog for the people."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Former
Accused Iraqi Agent Reveals Facts about 9/11 Warning
---
http://www.apj.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2248&Itemid=2
Special Note – Yeah, that’s right. To all you folks
still in denial out there, the former government of the United States
of America, (now known as the US-NRE), planned and facilitated the
attacks
on 9/11. If those of you still in denial do not grow up,
acknowledge that fact, demand an effective investigation, and insist
that those found responsible be punished for their crimes, we will not
be able to move forward as a
nation. More importantly you will only encourage those who made
hundreds of billions of dollars from the tragic event of 9/11 to do it
all over again. – mpg -- A quote...."The feds dropped all
charges against Susan
Lindauer, and now she's talking freely. Michael Collins's
interview with Lindauer covers the warnings provided to the Bush-Cheney
administration prior to 9/11. It presents entirely new
information from an angel that will add substantially to knowledge that
terrible attack."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
CIA
destroyed 92 interrogation tapes ---
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20090302161526313
A quote...." WASHINGTON -- New documents show the CIA destroyed nearly
100 tapes of terror interrogations, far more than has previously been
acknowledged. -- The revelation Monday comes as a criminal prosecutor
is wrapping up his investigation in the matter. -- The acknowledgment
of dozens of destroyed tapes came in a letter filed by government
lawyers in New York, where the American Civil Liberties Union has filed
a lawsuit seeking more details of terror interrogation programs. --
"The CIA can now identify the number of videotapes that were
destroyed," said the letter by Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin. "Ninety
two videotapes were destroyed." -- ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said the
CIA should be held in contempt of court for holding back the
information for so long." -- For
more on this sort of issue
see....The
Convenient Silence of Guantanamo Bay - 05-31-08 - mpg
---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/theconvenientsilenceofgitmo-blog-mpg-053108
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Bush Lawyers Approved Constitution-Free Domestic
Military Ops, Docs Show ---
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/03/bush-lawyers-ap.html
--- By Ryan Singel
02 Mar 2009 The Justice Department secretly authorized President [sic]
George Bush to use the military inside the United States to snoop on,
raid and even kill citizens in order to fight terrorism without regard
to the Fourth or Fifth Amendment, according to a Oct 23, 2001 memo
released by the Obama Administration Monday. "We do not think a
military commander carrying out a raid on a terrorist cell would be
required to demonstrate probable cause or to obtain a warrant,"
the
Office of Legal Counsel memo - PDF ---
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/documents/memomilitaryforcecombatus10232001.pdf
--- said. "We
think
that the better view is that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to
domestic military operations designed to deter and prevent future
terrorist attacks." Department of Justice special counsel Robert
Delahunty and John Yoo, a deputy assistant attorney general best known
for penning a memo authorizing government agents to torture suspected
terrorists, wrote the memo after the administration asked whether
it could use the military inside the United States. -- Paragraph quoted from CLG ---
http://www.legitgov.org/
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
OLC
Authorized Pentagon to Ignore Bill of Rights On U.S. Soil
---
http://washingtonindependent.com/32133/olc-authorized-pentagon-to-ignore-bill-of-rights-on-us-soil
Related Article -- A quote...."In an October 2001 memo released today,
then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel
John Yoo advised the Pentagon’s top lawyer that the president may not
only deploy the military within the United States, but it may ignore
the Bill of Rights in the process of doing so. Yoo and special counsel
Robert Delahunty wrote to Defense Department general counsel William
Haynes that the president has “ample constitutional and statutory
authority to deploy the military against international or foreign
terrorists operating within the United States,” and that the use of
military force “need not follow the exact procedures that govern law
enforcement operations.”
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Bush
Administration Memos Claimed Vast War Powers (Update1)
---
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=am1AtnZiVTTY
Related Article -- A quote...."March 2 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush
administration claimed unfettered presidential powers in the war on
terrorism, including sending suspects to other countries where they
might be tortured and using the military within U.S. borders, newly
released papers show. "
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Study:
7.3 million in U.S. prison system in '07 ---
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/02/record.prison.population/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Special Note - A
quote...." (CNN) -- A record number of Americans served time in
corrections systems across the country in 2007, according to a report
released Monday by the Pew Center on the States. -- The U.S.
correctional population -- those in jail, prison, on probation or on
parole -- totaled 7.3 million, or 1
in every 31 adults." - bold by website editor. -- That's WAY more per capita than any other
country in the world. - mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
We put
in many other proteins into that vaccine; we are
using it like a carrier.' Experts insert H5N1 virus into smallpox vaccine to
fight bird flu
---
http://www.reuters.com/article/africaCrisis/idUSHKG196430
--- Vaccine uses a Vietnam strain of the H5N1 virus
01 Mar 2009 Scientists in Hong Kong and the United States have
developed an experimental H5N1 bird flu vaccine for people by
piggybacking it on the well-tested and highly successful
smallpox vaccine. Initial tests on mice showed the vaccine to be highly
effective, they told a news conference in Hong Kong on Sunday. While
H5N1
rarely infects people, experts fear it could mutate into a form that
people could easily pass to one another, sparking a pandemic that could
kill tens of millions and topple the global
economy. ['Topple the global economy.' Uh, that horse has
fled the barn. The global economy has been toppled. Past tense,
by Bush. The US military/corpora-terrorists are *desperate* to get the
bird flu pandemic party started so that they can invoke
martial law
---
http://www.legitgov.org/DoD_to_augment_civilian_law.html
--- and complete ---
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5822265.ece
--- the New World Order. Paranoia? Why then
did the US and UK dig up corpses of 1918 flu victims
---
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/3446389.stm ---
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/3446389.stm
--- and spend
millions manipulating the virus ---
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3719990.stm --- to
(allegedly) stop a
pandemic that they themselves are creating?
--- http://www.news.wisc.edu/releases/10241.html ---
See Flu 'Oddities'.
--- http://www.legitgov.org/flu_oddities.html ---
Lori Price] -- Paragraph quoted from at CLG ---
http://www.legitgov.org/
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Related Article -- Resistance to flu drug widespread in U.S.: study
--- 02 Mar 2009 Virtually all cases of the most common
strain of flu
circulating in the United States now resist the main drug used to treat
it, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on
Monday. CDC researchers said 98 percent of all flu samples from the
H1N1 strain were resistant to Roche AG's Tamiflu. Four patients
infected with the resistant strain have died, including two children.
[See: Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu
--- 25
Oct 2009 The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people
around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors
in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights
to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug
in the world.]
Paragraph quoted from CLG ---
http://www.legitgov.org/
==========
========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
50
Afghan Parliamentarians Oppose Obama's Troop Surge; US Slams Karzai
over Snap Election Plan
---
http://www.juancole.com/2009/03/50-afghan-parliamentarians-oppose.html
A Juan Cole Round-Up -- A quote...."Anand Gopal reports for CSM that
many Afghans, especially in the Pushtun south, oppose President Obama's
plan to send more US troops to Afghanistan."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Pakistani
Military Torpedoes Pro-U.S. Govt.’s Case On Mumbai
---
http://www.daily.pk/politics/politicalnews/9553-pakistani-military-torpedoes-pro-us-govts-case-on-mumbai.html
A quote...."Two public officials – the Navy chief and a deputy attorney
general – together have destroyed Rehman Malik’s case of ‘admission of
guilt’ in Mumbai attacks. The government has fired the deputy
attorney general for taking a stand, but no one in the Pakistani media
noticed since it is busy in the latest Pakistani political circus. But
it is this story that could unravel this staunchly pro-U.S. setup. -
Two developments in Pakistan have thwarted the deliberate effort of
Pakistan’s pro-U.S. government to take the Mumbai investigations on a
path that leads to placing the blame on the Pakistani military and
intelligence."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Iran: And
the Beat Goes On -- The beating of war drums, that is
--- http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=14334
Special Note - War Alert
- A quote...."In a last-ditch, all-out effort to pave the way for war
with Iran, Israel's lobby in the U.S. has inaugurated a new front
group: United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI). What, "another" neocon front
group – why is this important? With Richard Holbrooke, Obama's most
prominent foreign policy adviser – and a likely Secretary of State or
National Security Adviser in the Obama administration – joining neocon
nutcase James R. Woolsey in the top leadership of this new group, the
signal is clear: UANI represents a bipartisan call for war."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Russia
invites Iran to sell oil at Petersburg commodity exchange
--- http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090302/120378470.html
A quote...."TEHRAN, March 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has invited Iran to
sell crude oil on the St. Petersburg Commodity Exchange, the Russian
energy minister said on Monday."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Tehran
shrugs off US bid to woo Russia ---
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86448§ionid=351020104
A quote...."Tehran says US efforts to strike a deal with the Kremlin
over a controversial missile shield in Europe 'is no cause for
concern'. -- Iran's Defense Minister, Mohammad Najjar, said Sunday the
country is not worried by Washington's attempts to use its missile
plans as a means to buy Moscow's support for tougher sanctions against
the Islamic Republic."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Reports:
Obama offers end of US missile shield for Kremlin's help on Iran -
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Russian_paper_Obama_offers_end_of_0302.html
Related Article - The whole thing
was just a move to blackmail the Russians, Iran was never a "threat" to
Europe, and Obama is just an ass-kissing shill for AIPAC. The
entire scam is completely disgusting. This website editor really
doesn’t understand why tens of trillions of US dollars were wasted,
along with the creation of an economic catastrophe, the deaths of over
four thousand Americans, the injury of over seventy thousand more, and
millions of Muslims made homeless, tortured and murdered, all so some
stupid, greedy, Jews in Israel could steal a little more land from the
Palestinians. Disproportionate isn't quite descriptive enough anymore,
we as a country are going to have to start using words like treason
very
soon. – mpg -- A quote...."Citing an unnamed White House
official, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported Monday that President
Obama has offered to scrap plans for a US missile shield in Europe if
the Russian leadership will help restrain Iran's alleged nuclear
ambitions."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Asean
leaders call for EU-style union ---
http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3498-0-9-9--.html
A quote...."The Asian Development Bank (ADB)backed Asean calls for
cooperation on Sunday, saying that working to together “is crucial” to
tackling the global financial crisis. Speaking at the 4th
Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) at the Asean
Summit in Cha-am, Thailand, ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said Asean
countries should bring down trade barriers along with other
Asean-wide initiatives as part of the strategy to battle the crisis,
according to a statement Sunday. “Regional cooperation becomes even
more important as we seek to pursue joint approaches and pool our
resources to cope with difficulties that we all face,” he said."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Ukraine
Teeters as Citizens Blame Banks and Government ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/world/europe/02ukraine.html?_r=2&ref=world
A quote...."KIEV, Ukraine — Steel and chemical factories, once the
muscle of Ukraine’s economy, are dismissing thousands of workers.
Cities have had days without heat or water because they cannot pay
their bills, and Kiev’s subway service is being threatened. Lines are
sprouting at banks, the currency is wilting and even a government
default seems possible."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
No
Hope for Peace: Israel’s Settlement Escalation Will Kill Any Peace Plan
---
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/no-hope-for-peace-israels-settlement-escalation-will-kill-any-peace-plan/
A quote...."A report by the Israeli left-wing NGO Peace Now released
Monday says that the government is planning to build more than 73,300
new housing units in the West Bank."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Expelling
Jerusalem's Palestinians, One House at a Time ---
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14883
A quote...."There are some people whose faces betray the difficulties
they have encountered throughout their lives. Salah Shweiki is one of
them. Sitting under the large tent set up in Silwan's Bustan Quarter,
seeking warmth from the wood burning in an old wheelbarrow, Shweiki
emanates the aura of an elderly sage. In his 56 years of life, he has
seen a lot, maybe too much, but today, he is focused, his face
determined and his will iron solid."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Hamas legislator:
“Gaza conference held without the victims” ---
http://www.imemc.org/article/59082
A quote...."Hamas political leader, member of the Palestinian
Legislative Council, Salah Bardaweel, stated Monday that the Gaza
conference held at the Egyptian resort of Sharm Al Sheikh was carried
out without inviting the victims of the Israeli assaults and siege on
Gaza, the Hamas affiliated Palestine-info news website reported. --
Bardaweel added that the Israeli occupation does not recognize a
two-state solution, and does not recognize the Palestinian rights while
the world is demanding Hamas to recognize “the enemy”."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Gaza Aid Convoy
Arrives in Tripoli, Convoy Swells to 300 Aid Trucks Heading to Gaza
--- http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/191271
A quote...."At 11:30 Sunday morning Tripoli time, the first vehicles of
the British
Gaza convoy began to arrive at the spot in the downtown of Tripoli
where a huge celebration was waiting for them.
-- Hundreds of Libyans waved at every vehicle and saluted the people
who drove all long from Britain with only one objective on their minds,
that is to deliver moral and material support to the Gaza’s heroes who
stood up to Israel’s 22-day long aggression and crime against humanity."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
UN chief says
Gaza border closure 'intolerable' ---
http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/191241
A quote...."SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, March 2, 2009 (AFP) - UN chief Ban
Ki -moon said on Monday that Israel's blockade of Gaza is "intolerable"
and that border crossings into must be reopened to allow aid into the
war-battered enclave. -- "The situation at the border crossings is
intolerable. Aid workers do not have access. Essential commodities
cannot get in," Ban told international donors gathered in Egypt to
pledge aid to rebuild Gaza after Israel's three-week war on the
territory."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Iran
asks Interpol to arrest Israeli war criminals ---
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=87207§ionid=351020101
A quote...."Interpol begins studying Iran's request for the arrest of
15 senior Israeli officials over war crimes committed during the Gaza
offensive." - also posted at BLN
--- http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3489-0-11-11--.html
--- Perhaps a bounty should be
offered? - mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Palestine
Between a Brick and a Hard Place --
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_a-Su2SAnGYU/SazUHj_vm9I/AAAAAAAAJLQ/TEP1ruhu4os/s1600-h/walls.jpg
Cartoon
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Letter
to the Neighborhood I am handing out this letter to all of my
neighbors. You are welcome to pass it onto yours.
---
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/letter-to-neighborhood.html
Special Note - Database -
A quote...."Well, everyone knows that the economy is lousy right now.
But (you may want to pour yourself a cup of coffee - or a drink -
before you finish this letter) what you may or may not know is that we
are already in a depression, according to...."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Obama
Must Fire Geithner and Summers ---
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/obama-must-fire-geithner-and-summers.html
A quote...."I've previously pointed out that the head of Obama's
council of economic advisors - Larry Summers - is the worst possible
guy for the job. Two new articles show why Tim Geithner is the treasury
secretary from hell....."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Feds
give AIG $30 billion more ---
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-aig3-2009mar03,0,3667545.story
$180
Billion for AIG so far, and a $1,300
to $1,500 Trillion derivatives market, most of which is
underwater. It's just a drop in the bucket folks. - mpg --
A quote...."Reporting from Washington — Federal officials tossed
American International Group another financial lifeline today,
providing up to $30 billion more to help the staggered insurance giant
deal with a record $61.7 billion loss in the final three months of last
year." -- For more on this issue
see....AIG,
Goldman Sachs, Paulson And Buffet ---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/rapsheetarch/mpgrap-092408-093008#AIG
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Buffett
says U.S. Treasury bubble one for the ages ---
http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKTRE51R1Q720090228
A quote...."NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire
Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) (BRKb.N) sits on $25.54 billion (17.8 billion
pounds) of cash, said worried investors are making a costly mistake by
buying up U.S. Treasuries that yield almost nothing."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Moody’s:
U.S. Credit Card Debt Indicators Continue to Weaken
---
http://seekingalpha.com/article/123625-moodys-u-s-credit-card-debt-indicators-continue-to-weaken
A quote...."Credit card charge-offs reached a record-high 7.74%,
according to Moody’s. -- Despite the level being essentially flat
compared to a month ago, an increasing number of borrowers are falling
behind on their credit card payments indicating that charge-off rates
will almost certainly increase in the coming months."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Pension
bombs going off ---
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?articleId=31402
A quote...."Exploding pension fund shortfalls are blowing
billion-dollar holes in the balance sheets of some of the Chicago
area's biggest companies, forcing them to make huge contributions to
retirement plans at a time when cash flow and credit are already under
stress."
also posted at BLN
--- http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3491-0-13-13--.html
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
[New
York] Apartment Buyers Abandoning 6-Figure Deposits ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/realestate/01walk.html?_r=3
A quote...."THE real estate market in Manhattan has become so unnerving
to buyers that some are forfeiting six-figure deposits rather than
close on deals they have made." -- also
posted at BLN
--- http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3488-0-13-13--.html
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Gartner
forecasts worst PC market in eight years
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Gartner-forecasts-worst-PC-market/story.aspx?guid=%7B58D3CA34-8790-4792-A8C9-5611CD9A36B4%7D
A quote...."SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The outlook for the
personal-computer market is expected to get so weak this year that
technology research firm Gartner Inc. on Monday said PC shipments are
likely to post their worst decline since 2001."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
The Man
Who Knew ---
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/40368
Video - 60 Minutes interview with Harry Markopolos
regarding the Bernie Madoff scandal. - mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
EU
Rejects Multi-Billion Dollar Rescue Plan For Eastern Europe
--- http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-03-01-voa20.cfm
Financial Warning - A
quote...."European Union leaders have ruled out a multi-billion dollar
rescue plan for Eastern Europe in the face of the global economic
crisis, despite warnings from Hungary that the rejection could lead to
an economic "iron curtain" across the continent. The announcement
followed an emergency EU summit on Sunday at which officials debated
ways to tackle Europe's biggest financial crisis in generations." -- Welcome to Capitalism....Comrades. - mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Canada
falls hard into deep, widespread recession in final quarter of 2008
---
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iZUbrCgKYUhRudlNxB8obnEHyt9w
A quote...."OTTAWA — Canada slumped into a deep recession in the final
months of last year as the economic retreat expanded across most
sectors and across the country. The economy contracted by 3.4 per cent
in the fourth quarter on an annualized basis, the biggest drop since
the recession of 1991, according to Statistics Canada."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
[British]
Factory downturn 'accelerating' ---
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7917626.stm
A quote...."Manufacturers in the UK cut jobs and output at a record
pace in February, according to the latest Purchasing Managers' Index
(PMI)."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Sunday March 1st 2009 - links page
Obama
please note: Those who fail to 'master the past' are guity, too
--- http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090301rp.html
Obama™
Update -- A quote...."In "Guilt About the Past," [SkBks, --
http://www.seekbooks.com.au/book/Guilt-About-the-Past/isbn/9780702237140.htm
--- Abbys, ---
http://www.abbeys.com.au/items.asp?id=199349 --- BkOffrs, ---
http://www.bookoffers.com.au/guilt-about-the-past-bernhard-schlink/
--- BkTopia ---
http://www.booktopia.com.au/guilt-about-the-past/prod9780702237140.html
--- ] based on guest
lectures that
Bernhard Schlink gave at Oxford University last year, the University of
Berlin law professor describes the "long shadow" cast by the
perpetrators of war crimes on their descendants. -- "The act of not
renouncing, not judging and not repudiating carries its own guilt with
it," he states in the book published in January by University of
Queensland Press." -- also posted at
CommonDreams
--- http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/01-3
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Why
a war crimes fact-finding commission could uniquely enable prosecutions
--
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/25/prosecutions/index1.html
A quote...."Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, on the Senate floor, today: -- “To
Fix Damage Left by Bush, We Must Learn the Truth” -- Mr. WHITEHOUSE.
Mr. President, during my brief tenure so far in the Senate, the
Judiciary Committee has confronted many difficult issues - battles over
judicial nominations, complex legislative matters, the historic
investigation into misdeeds of the Bush Administration's Department of
Justice."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Sen.
Whitehouse Prepares the Nation for Torture Horrors ---
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/2/27/17407/9646/766/700982
Related Article - A quote...."IF the full story of the Bush Torture
Network is ever told out loud, on televison, it will shock the
nation...and perhaps even the jaded and inattentive conscience of a
nation that has been buried under eight years of horror upon Bush
horror. None worse than what was done to our fellow human beings, in
our names."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
U.N.
Official Faults Evidence and Foreign States Linked to Guantánamo
Interrogations
---
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/world/28nations.html?_r=2&ref=europe
A quote...."PARIS — A United Nations human rights official,
investigating practices at Guantánamo Bay, has concluded that
evidence obtained from the interrogations there is tainted and that
foreign law enforcement and intelligence officials who took part in
those interrogations violated their legal obligation to reject the use
of torture and arbitrary detention." - also posted at CommonDreams
--- http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/28-3 --- For more on this issue
see....The
Convenient Silence of Guantanamo Bay - 05-31-08 - mpg
---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/theconvenientsilenceofgitmo-blog-mpg-053108
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Saturday February 28th 2009 -
links page
Obama's
efforts to block a judicial ruling on Bush's illegal eavesdropping
---
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/28/al_haramain/index.html
Must Read - Obama™
Update -- A quote...."The Obama DOJ's embrace of Bush's state secrets
privilege in the Jeppesen (torture/rendition) case generated
substantial outrage, and rightly so. But it's now safe to say
that far worse is the Obama DOJ's conduct in the Al-Haramain case --
the only remaining case against the Government with any real chance of
resulting in a judicial ruling on the legality of Bush's NSA
warrantless eavesdropping program. Here's the first paragraph
from the Wired report on Friday's appellate ruling, which refused the
Obama DOJ's request to block a federal court from considering key
evidence when deciding whether Bush broke the law in how he spied on
Americans:"
also posted at CommonDreams
--- http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/28-4
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Obama embraces Bush’s
“war on terror” policy without naming it so ---
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52239&s1=h1
Must Read - Obama™
Update -- A quote...."Asked in a CNN interview why he hasn't used the
oft-repeated "war on terror" phrase coined by the Bush administration,
Obama said he believes the U.S. can win over moderate Muslims if he
chooses his words carefully. "Words
matter in this situation because one of the ways we're going to win
this struggle is through the battle of hearts and minds," Obama
said." -- bold by website editor
Well....this website editor
isn't quite so sure about that. A normal decent, sane, rational,
truthful, fact-based, reality-based, person would probably think that
funneling tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars to
almost every single radical Jihaddist, Wahhabist, Salfist group
throughout the Middle East ---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussupportofterror-weblist-mpg-090306
--- under
United States auspices for the last thirty years, with the cheerful support of the Saudi
Royals, till quite recently (a few years ago) Pakistan's ISI and even a
helping hand from the Israelis, in a never ending quest to disrupt
moderate,
nationalist, movements throughout that region, not to mention the
mistreatment, imprisonment, torture, and continuous bombing of millions
of Muslims,
might just have more of an effect on the formation and motivation of
radical Islamist groups then Obama's recent attempts at "Orwell Speak"
-- But what the heck, you go gal, or guy, 'scuse me....whatever you
are. You just keep shuffling and jiving right along wi'all ol'your
happy, hope-headed, changey, joy-joy-feel-good, baby babble. Some
of your more drugged-out, glazed eyed, Obamatrolls might even
still believe you. – mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
==========
========== ====
Obama
budget projects record deficits and borrowing ---
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12491
Must Read - Obama™
Update -- A quote...."Under the budget outline issued by the Obama
administration Thursday, the US government will run a $1.75 trillion
deficit during the current fiscal year, which ends September 30, nearly
four times the largest previous federal deficit. This gargantuan sum
includes the $700 billion allocated for the Wall Street bailout, more
than half of it already spent, as well as part of the $787 billion in
spending authorized by the economic stimulus bill passed by Congress
and signed into law by Obama last week"
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Iran's
supreme leader warns against "long-term" U.S. stay in Iraq
---
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/01/content_10918778.htm
A quote...."TEHRAN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah
AliKhamenei warned Saturday that the United States was planning a
"long-term stay" in Iraq, Iran's Press TV reported. -- "The occupiers
are preparing the ground for a long-term stay in Iraq. This is a
serious matter which Iraqi authorities should not neglect," Khamenei
said in a meeting with visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani." - also posted at WarInIraq -
http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/191121 --- One hopes the US-NRE's "intent to stay"
didn't come as a surprise to Khamenei. - mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
The Future of
the IAEA ---
http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=14325
Must Read - A
quote...."Not everyone present at an open meeting of the UN Security
Council this week was happy to hear our new UN Ambassador, Susan Rice,
say that the Change-You-Can-Believe-In administration "will seek an end
to Iran's ambition to acquire an illicit nuclear capacity." -- End
Iran's "ambition"? -- To acquire an "illicit" capacity? --
Understandably upset, Iranian ambassador, Mohammad Khazaee, promptly
got off a letter to the Council president, which said, in part,
that...." -- also posted at WarInIraq
--- http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/191162
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Iran
set to build more nuclear plants ---
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=87124§ionid=351020104
A quote...."Iran's authorities are determined to launch more nuclear
power plants across the country, a prominent Iranian parliamentarian
has stated."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Russian
Navy Back in Syria ---
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12489
A quote...."Russian warships have returned to the naval base in the
Syrian port of Tartus, used by the Soviet Union since the late sixties,
after more than a decade of absence. -- In August 2008, Syrian
president Bashar Assad, during his visit to Russia, pointed out that
his country is open for talks with Russia about reactivating the use of
the naval base in Tartus."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Russia
blames OSCE for not preventing Georgia war ---
http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/02/27/russia-blames-osce-for-not-preventing-georgia-war/
A quote...."UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia's U.N. ambassador accused
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Friday
of not doing enough to prevent last year's war in Georgia which
resulted in a full-scale Russian invasion."
also posted at WarInIraq
--- http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/191146 --- For more on this issue see....American
Selective Attention Deficit Disorder (ASADD) - 08-16-08 - mpg
---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/americanselectiveattention-blog-mpg-081608
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Japanese
politician: Too many U.S. troops in Japan ---
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61036
A quote...."The rising star of Japanese politics, the opposition
Democratic Party of Japan leader Ichiro Ozawa, says he sees no need for
most of the U.S. troops in the country. -- Ozawa, talking with
reporters last week, said Japan could get along with just the U.S. 7th
Fleet. The rest of the 47,000 U.S. military personnel could go home, he
said, according to Japanese press accounts." -- The Japanese are just being silly, they
could make a lot of money by letting the US-NRE stay, but with balloon
payments and progressively higher rental rates....hey as far as the
US-NRE government was concerned, that was an OK plan for the small
homeowner. - mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
==========
========== ====
Lenders
say 25 billion euro package to aid Eastern Europe
---
http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKTRE51Q1R220090227?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
A quote...."WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - The heads of three global
development banks said on Friday they would seek solutions to an
economic crisis in eastern and central Europe as they launched a joint
programme to lend up to 24.5 billion euros (22 billion pounds) in the
region." -- This won't stop
the Great Depression, but it does have a better chance to alleviate
some
of the downturn's more deleterious effects on Eastern Europe for a
short period of time, anybody want to know
why? Because they're NOT USING
DOLLARS!! Any country using dollars, or taking out loans
in dollars, or heaven forbid, borrowing from the IMF or World Bank in
(gasp!) dollars doesn't have a prayer. This is not to say that
the dollar is going to collapse (it might of course with seventy
trillion and growing in unfunded obligations), it is to say anyone
borrowing in dollars is going to hear a giant sucking sound as the life
blood of your nation is drained away in a vain effort to pump up the
New Roman Empire's dying economy. – mpg
========== ==========
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====
UN
attacks Britain over torture claims ---
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/01/united-nations-britain-torture-mi5
A quote...."Britain may have broken international law on torture,
ministers have been warned by the United Nations. Professor Manfred
Nowak, the UN's special rapporteur on torture, has alerted ministers to
a range of concerns, including claims that MI5 officers were complicit
in the maltreatment of suspects."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
French
Professor Sacked Over 9/11 Conspiracy Theory ---
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12488
A quote...."An academic in France has been sacked by the Ministry of
Defence after questioning the official version of events surrounding
the 9/11 attacks. He now reportedly plans to sue the government. --
Aymeric Chauprade lost his job allegedly over the introduction to his
latest book about political crises around the world, and more
specifically, that the 9/11 attacks in New York City and Washington
D.C. were an orchestrated "American-Israeli conspiracy". The Defence
Minister had strong objections to the material, so Aymeric had to go."
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
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Sustaining
Global Solidarity after Gaza ---
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14873
A quote...."The Israeli bombing and invasion of Gaza, which has now
claimed more than 1,400 lives, generated serious popular backlash the
world over. The overwhelmingly weak official positions and statements,
especially in the Arab world, stood in stark contrast to the outpouring
of rage that was witnessed in the streets of capitals, cities and towns
across the globe. This recent wave of protests has a particular
quality, however, that differentiates it from past mobilizations: The
initial flare up of energy is being channeled into effective grassroots
political action, primarily in the form of an ongoing campaign of
boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS)." -- For more on this issue see the
upper-left-corner of the "Front Page" of this website. - mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Day 14:
Overwhelming welcome in Libya (Updated) ---
http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/191119
A quote...."The convoy set off mid morning today towards the Libyan
border. They were escorted by the police who have been dictating the
pace which is slowing them down. They stopped in Medanine for Juma,
Friday prayers. The whole population of the border town of Ben-Guerdane
came out to welcome and cheer the drivers and passengers as soon as
they entered city."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Israel's
death squads: A soldiers story ---
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israels-death-squads-a-soldiers-story-1634774.html
A quote...."The Israeli military's policy of targeted killings has been
described from the inside for the first time. In an interview with The
Independent on Sunday, and in his testimony to an ex-soldiers'
organisation, Breaking the Silence, a former member of an assassination
squad has told of his role in a botched ambush that killed two
Palestinian bystanders, as well as the two militants targeted." -- also posted at Uruknet
--- http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52243&s1=h1
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
US policy and the
Palestinian cause ---
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52237&s1=h1
A quote...."So far, Obama's Israel-Palestine policy appears
indistinguishable from that of previous US administrations -- A
forecast of US policy towards the Palestinian cause in the Obama era
requires not only an examination of the new administration's actions
and positions so far but also a historical contextualisation in which
regard specific consideration must be given to a certain prudence long-
lacking in US policy on this issue and to the objective circumstances
militating towards change."
========== ========== ==========
========== ========== ========== ========== ====
Harry
Shutt, “Redistribution
and Stability: Beyond the Keynesian/Neo-liberal Impasse”
--- http://www.creative-i.info/?p=5005
Must Read - - A
quote...."As the financial crisis that erupted in 2007 unfolds in an
economic cataclysm which, it is now clear, is unprecedented in the
history of capitalism, world leaders without exception reveal
themselves as politically and ideologically bankrupt in their efforts
to bring it under control. This is most obviously demonstrated by
their insistence on the need for individuals and enterprises to boost
their levels of consumption and fixed investment — with the aid of new
loans from the financial sector — even though it is obvious that the
immediate cause of the crisis has been the creation of excessive credit
leading people (and businesses) to spend well beyond their means. -- For more on this issue see....Enforcing
the Rules -- Too Little, Too Late - 02-27-09 - mpg
---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/enforcingtherulestoolittletoolate-mpg-reficultnias-022709
--- see also video below.
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Taking
on the banking cabal
---
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=3353&updaterx=2009-03-01+03%3A23%3A33
Special Note - Real News Video
- A quote...."Speaking about President Obama's stimulus package and
newly announced budget, William Engdahl says the fundamental causes of
the economic crisis were missed. Until [President] Obama reinstates
Glass-Steigel restraints on banking which were repealed by the Clinton
administration in 1999 and begins to re-regulate the financial system,
there will not be a flow of healthy credit into the healthy economy."
========== ==========
========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Even
Triple A Rated Mezzanine CDOs Have Only a 5% Recovery Rate
---
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2970532c-0421-11de-845b-000077b07658.html
Financial Alert - A
quote...."The real shocker, though, is what has happened after those
defaults. JPMorgan estimates that $102bn of CDOs has already been
liquidated. The average recovery rate for super-senior tranches of debt
– or the stuff that was supposed to be so ultra safe that it always
carried a triple A tag – has been 32 per cent for the high grade CDOs. With mezzanine CDO’s, though,
recovery rates on those AAA assets have been a mere 5 per cent.
-- I dare say this might be an extreme case. The subprime loans
extended in 2006 and 2007 have suffered particularly high default rates
and the CDOs that have already been liquidated are presumably the very
worst of the pack. -- Even so, I would hazard a guess that this
is easily the worst outcome for any assets that have ever carried a
“triple A” stamp. No wonder so many investors are now so utterly
cynical about anything that bankers or rating agencies might say these
days." -- bold by website editor
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Propping
Up a House of Cards ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/business/28nocera.html
A quote...."Next week, perhaps as early as Monday, the American
International Group is going to report the largest quarterly loss in
history. Rumors suggest it will be around $60 billion, which will
affirm, yet again, A.I.G.’s sorry status as the most crippled of all
the nation’s wounded financial institutions. The recent quarterly
losses suffered by Merrill Lynch and Citigroup — “only” $15.4 billion
and $8.3 billion, respectively — pale by comparison."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
We
Are Less Prepared for a Depression Than We Were in 1929 --
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/02/we-are-less-prepared-for-depression.html
A quote....".....not only may this crisis be more severe than the Great
Depression, but Americans are less prepared for it, because they've
squirreled away less savings. - Indeed, a new report shows that most
baby boomers have accumulated little to no wealth."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
GM
future in doubt after $31bn loss - posted at BuzzFlash ---
http://www.buzzflash.com/
---
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7348edd8-0403-11de-845b-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
A quote...."General Motors underlined its dire financial condition on
Thursday as it reported an unexpectedly heavy cash drain in the final
three months of 2008 and warned that Deloitte, its auditor, might cast
doubt on its standing as a going concern."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Is
the California True Unemployment Rate at 18.47 Percent? The 10.1%
Headline Number.... - posted at BuzzFlash ---
http://www.buzzflash.com/
---
http://www.mybudget360.com/finances-of-california-employment-situation-unemployment-industries/
A quote...."California is a microcosm of the entire United
States. The most populace state with a GDP of $1.8 trillion, much
of what happens in California does spread throughout the country.
California’s employment situation is deteriorating at a breathtaking
speed. The latest employment numbers were released after the bell
closed on Friday, which now seems to be a common trend when news is
less than comforting for the soul."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Financiers Used
"Hotline" to SEC Examiners ---
http://www.truthout.org/022409J
A quote...."Washington, DC - In a hearing which exposed failures by the
government's financial police, Congressman Stephen Lynch
(D-Massachusetts) highlighted the existence of a "hotline," which he
said could be used by Wall Street firms to call off government
inspectors. The existence of a "hotline" has been confirmed by the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), though its purpose has been
disputed."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
On
The Collapse Of Capitalism ---
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22120.htm
Video - A quote...."By
Ron Paul -- Nations will be redefined in this period"
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Chavez
orders rice plants takeover ---
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/02/2009228222922727421.html
Chavez is being stupid again;
well REGULATED free markets (i.e. no monopolies, no special favors or
laws, no government support etc.) always do best at allocating consumer
resources. Price controls always break down eventually because
they begin to stifle or mis-allocate production. Obviously if
there's a national emergency (i.e. a
real one, like a nationwide flood, earthquake, hurricane, crop
disease, etc.) temporary controls may become necessary. – mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Friday February 27th 2009 - links
page
Since
When Do You Pay a Courtesy Call to a War Criminal?
---
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/since-when-do-you-pay-a-courtesy-call-to-a-war-criminal/
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Before announcing to the “free” world that
he was going to take 19 months (don’t forget we are already a month
into the Obama regime) instead of 16 to remove “combat” troops from
Iraq (leaving 50,000 or so to battle “the terrorists” a.k.a. Iraqis
that don’t want to serve Imperial America/Kellogg, Brown & Root)
Obama™ had to run the story-line past his daddy first, so he called
“Chimpy” Bush from camp Lejeune just before the speech to get his
approval. -- I guess he wanted to work out the exact pronunciation of
the word “terrrists“
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Obama
announces plan to continue US military occupation of Iraq
--- http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/iraq-f28.shtml
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."President Obama formally announced his
administration's plans for the continued US military occupation of Iraq
on Friday, in remarks delivered at the Camp Lejeune marine base in
North Carolina. Far from bringing the war to an end, the plans will
maintain present troop levels for one year and ensure a substantial
military presence for at least three years, through the end of 2011."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
The Fox
Guarding the Chicken Coop -- Dennis Ross and Iran ---
http://www.counterpunch.org/sasan02272009.html
War Update - A
quote...."In October 2008 I presented a paper, entitled “What the
Future has in Store for Iran,” at a conference on Middle East Studies.
The paper, which was subsequently posted at Payvand.com , examined what
the US policy toward Iran might look like if either Barack Obama or
John McCain came to office. The conclusion of my essay, stated in its
last two lines, was: “In the case of McCain, the war [waged against
Iran] might come sooner than later. In Obama’s case, one might see a
period of ‘tough’ or ‘aggressive diplomacy’ before hostilities begin.”
also posted at ICH
--- http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22111.htm
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Iraqi
President Meets With Iranian Officials in Tehran ---
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/40305
A quote...."Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is visiting Tehran, Friday
to meet with top Iranian leaders. -- President Talabani was greeted at
the airport in Tehran by top Iranian officials, as he arrived in the
early morning Friday for his second visit to the Iranian capital in
just over two years. Mr. Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)
party has traditionally been close to Iran."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
From
Bush to Obama - Seven Years of Wartime Propaganda ---
http://www.counterpunch.org/dimaggio02272009.html
A quote...."Despite the critical evidence above, conservative and
mainstream liberal pundits and politicians continue to maintain that
the 2007 troop surge changed everything in Iraq for the better, and
that the media needs to simply get on board with the positive changes
by taking on a more cheerful approach. We should strongly
question these claims on the following empirical grounds:"
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Why
the Dark Secrets of the First Gulf War Are Still Haunting Us
---
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/128916/why_the_dark_secrets_of_the_first_gulf_war_are_still_haunting_us/?page=entire
Special Note - A
quote...."Glaspie was not the only official to deliver this
laissez-faire message. The next day, at a Washington press conference,
State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutweiler was asked by a
journalist if the U.S. had sent any diplomatic protest to Iraq for
putting 30,000 troops on the border with Kuwait. "I'm entirely unaware
of any such protest," Tutweiler replied. -- Five days later, on July
31, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs John Kelly
testified to Congress that the "United States has no commitment to
defend Kuwait, and the U.S. has no intention of defending Kuwait if it
is attacked by Iraq." -- Two days later, when Saddam entered Kuwait, he
had no reason to believe that the U.S. would come to Kuwait's defense
with a half-million troops. Or that when he tried to negotiate a
retreat though Arab leaders, the U.S. would refuse to talk. In 1990 as
in 2002, a Bush president had his mind set on war."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Amos
Gilad: Israel's Military Mephistopheles ---
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14868
A quote...."It is not entirely surprising that Amos Gilad, an Israeli
general who once sued his own government for “irreversible mental
damage” caused by his role in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, has
publicly courted controversy again. -- On Monday, Ehud Olmert,
Israel’s outgoing prime minister, suspended Gilad as his envoy to
Egypt, responsible for negotiating a ceasefire with Hamas, after Gilad
called the prime minister’s truce conditions “insane”."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Attack
on Jayyous 27/2/09 ---
http://palestinevideo.blogspot.com/2009/02/attack-on-jayyous-27-2-09.html
Video - A
quote...."Curfew was imposed on the village following of the Friday
demonstration against the Apartheid Wall -- "Residents were assaulted,
money was stolen, computers confiscated, over 60 young men arrested and
the village placed under curfew. The Israeli soldiers came into my home
and threw the contents of cupboards and closets on to the floor,"
Shamasni [a village resident] told IPS"
--- http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45896
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
How
Mom sent a guy to Gitmo - File this under "unbelievable". - mpg
---
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-brooks26-2009feb26,0,8196.column?track=rss
Special Note -- It Could Happen To YOU! - mpg -- A
quote...."She thought her article was satire, but U.S. officials didn't
get the joke. -- Or at least that's what certain unidentified U.S.
interrogators seem to suspect. It all stems from a satirical article
called "How to Build Your Own Home H-Bomb" that my mother, Barbara
Ehrenreich, wrote with two coauthors 30 years ago. The article,
published in Seven Days magazine, was chock-full of helpful tips for
would-be nuclear bomb makers. For instance, it advised those struggling
to enrich uranium to make "a simple home centrifuge. Fill a
standard-size bucket one-quarter full of liquid uranium hexafluoride.
Attach a six-foot rope to the bucket handle. Now swing the [bucket]
around your head as fast as possible. Keep this up for about 45
minutes." -- For more on this issue
see....The
Convenient Silence of Guantanamo Bay - 05-31-08 - mpg
---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/theconvenientsilenceofgitmo-blog-mpg-053108
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Trade
deal signed at Asean summit ---
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/02/200922842036827268.html
De-couple, de-couple,
de-couple, should be the mantra of every nation that doesn't want to be
sucked into the US-NRE's vortex of deflation/hyper-inflation. In
other words, the dollar is going to become increasingly unstable and
unusable as a world reserve currency if the US-NRE continues in its
vain, futile, efforts to prop up its Empire. - mpg -- A
quote...."Australia and New Zealand have signed a free trade agreement
with Southeast Asian nations. The deal, signed at the annual summit of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in the Thai beach
resort of Hua Hin on Friday, is one of Asia's largest trade
arrangements. It covers trade in goods, investment and services,
financial services, telecommunications, electronic commerce and
intellectual property."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Dear Mr.
President, With All Due Respect .... ---
http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/191057
A quote...."Dear Mr. President, I read your New Era $3.6 Trillion
Budget Proposal. I also listened to your speech Tuesday night. You made
a great campaign speech. However, the campaign is over. You won. And
the reason you won is you offered hope as well as a promise of change."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Enforcing the
Rules -- Too
Little, Too Late
02-27-09
mpg
Bill
Moyers Interviews Robert Johnson ---
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02272009/watch.html
Video - A quote...."Bill
Moyers talks with economist Robert Johnson, who decodes this week's
news on the bank bailout, with a hard look at the international
ramifications of the plan and a discussion of why nationalization has
become a flash point."
-- || Transcript
|| ---
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02272009/transcript2.html
-- || Podcast
Mp3 || ---
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/rss/media/BMJ-1246.mp3
Economist
James Galbraith: Stimulus not enough
---
http://www.marketwatch.com/video/asset/economist-james-galbraith-stimulus-not/DCB30D67-2B59-4407-AF36-85ED148ABD56
Video - MarketWatch - A
quote...."Economist James Galbraith, who's scheduled to testify in
Washington Thursday, talks to MarketWatch's Ruth Mantell about the
future of the U.S. banking system and what the Federal Reserve can, and
can't, do help shore up the economy."
Obama’s
open-ended bailout of the banks ---
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12490
Obama™ Update -- Must Read
- A quote...."It is increasingly clear that the policy of the Obama
administration is to pump as much taxpayer money as possible into the
banks to avert a new wave of failures, in the hope that the economy
will somehow begin to recover in 2010. Then Wall Street will be free to
resume the speculative practices that enriched the financial
aristocracy while precipitating the greatest global economic crisis
since the 1930s."
Editor's
Note: This is the key folks. There
has been NO ATTEMPT by the
Obama administration to re-impose the equivalent of the The
Glass-Steagall Act ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass-Steagall_Act --- and revoke the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. --
To
quote....
"The repeal [of Glass-Steagall]
enabled commercial lenders such as
Citigroup, which was in 1999 then the largest U.S. bank by assets, to
underwrite and trade instruments such as mortgage-backed securities and
collateralized debt obligations and establish so-called structured
investment vehicles, or SIVs, that bought those securities. [14] It is
therefore seen by some that the repeal of this act contributed to the
Global financial crisis of 2008–2009[15]. However, such SIVs existed
before the repeal of Glass-Steagall[16] -- The year before the repeal,
sub-prime loans were just 5% of all mortgage lending. By the time the
credit crisis peaked in 2008, they were approaching 30%." -- *Wikipedia*
There has been no effort
on their part to reign in or regulate "structured
finance" or the "derivatives market",
---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/1.3quadrillionandcounting-blog-mpg-091808
--- or punish the executives
involved for causing this fiasco, or forcing
the
banks made insolvent by all this activity to re-organize (as in any
normal bankruptcy proceeding) or "mark to market" (if possible) all the
synthetic investment vehicles on their books or even find out if these
financial instruments represent any real assets or actual value. More
importantly they have not banned the marketing of un-ratable or
incorrectly rated (much of which was done deliberately) "securiterized"
debt, specifically mortgage debt.
Even if they correct everything else
but leave just this one avenue of unrestrained and unrestricted
monetary expansion available to the banks nothing else they do will
prevent the current financial problems from getting worse, or prevent
the same problems from reoccurring in the future. It will just be
a
license for the banks, brokerage firms and hedge funds engaged in these
sorts of practices to print money and create uncollateralized debt at
will....basically a license to steal.
What they have done so far is to
simply create a bunch of band-aid solutions in the vain hope that this
current crisis will blow over and the wealthiest among us, the owners
and controllers of the financial industry, the ones who caused all of
these problems in the first place, can regain their footing by using
the prodigious amounts of taxpayer dollars provided to them (by a
candidate whose campaign they generously financed) so they can promptly
proceed to go back to doing business as usual.
The Obama administration is wasting
precious tax-payer dollars by trying to placate and please these mavens
of mendacity while also trying to bail-out what can only be described
as an overbearing, parasitic, and non-productive sector of this
nation’s economy. More importantly the Obama administration is
wasting
something much more valuable than dollars by rewarding these purveyors
of shady financial instruments for the disservice they've done to their
community….they're wasting precious time, of which they have very
little left.
The
deepest concern is the fact that ongoing economic statistics for the US
economy appear to be modeling almost exactly those that preceded the
Great Depression, the trajectory of all the economic indicators seems
to suggest we'll have a three to six month pause (at best)
in any extremely severe or extraordinary amounts of economic
deterioration, followed by a catastrophic final plunge lasting one to
two more years.
Everyone should also understand that
this is not just a credit crisis,
or a liquidity crisis, or even a debt/insolvency crisis (which is
what’s
causing the bulk of the economic problems), it's also the standard
contraction of the
US-NRE’s
ten year business/war
---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/fedfundschart-photopg-cached-032407
---
– currency
expansion/contraction cycle,
---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/sometentativelaws-blog-mpg-072008
--- which is taking place
around the world due the predominant use of the
US-NRE’s currency as a world reserve currency and is therefore
affecting all the producers of manufactured goods worldwide, just as
any normal drop in demand caused by the end of the US-NRE’s ten year
economic cycle would effect manufacturers in this country (hardly a
factor anymore).
And of course the fact that all four
economic crisis’s are happening simultaneously means there will be
highly negative, self-reinforcing, synergistic, deflationary forces
that will most likely overwhelm ANY
and ALL government attempts to
counteract this current downward spiral of economic contraction.
Also
bare in mind the US-NRE is
currently expending huge sums on various unnecessary military
operations and self-inflicted Imperial "adventures" worldwide, is
spending more
on
its vast, bloated, military establishment per year than the rest of the
entire
world combined, is
deeply in debt along with its entire population, a population which has
increased their debt load per capita,
inflation adjusted,
every ten year cycle for the past sixty years, is a population that has
reduced its savings rate recently to the point where it became
negative, is a nation that has a substantially diminished
manufacturing base and finally, is a nation now undergoing a large
unavoidable demographic shift as tens of millions of baby-boomers
retire from the workforce.
NONE of these additional
burdens
existed during the Great Depression.
This does not bode well for the next two years, or for that matter the
next two decades in offering any support for a positive outlook
regarding the future of this nation’s economy. - mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ========== ====
Who
Is the Real Dr. Doom . . . And What Is He Forecasting?
---
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/02/who-is-real-dr-doom-and-what-is-he.html
Special Note - A
quote...."Big media loves to label whoever they think is most
pessimistic about the economy "Dr. Doom". Over the last couple of
years, Nouriel Rouini, Marc Faber and Peter Schiff have all been
labeled "Dr. Doom". But who is the real Dr. Doom? Well, the title goes
to whoever is most negative in their long-term outlook for the economy."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Economy
shrinks at fastest pace in 26 years ---
http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3475-0-13-13--.html
A quote...."WASHINGTON (AP) -- The economy contracted at a staggering
6.2 percent pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in a
quarter-century, as consumers and businesses ratcheted back spending,
plunging the country deeper into recession."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Moody's
predicts default rate will exceed peaks hit in Great Depression
---
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/4840805/Moodys-predicts-default-rate-will-exceed-peaks-hit-in-Great-Depression.html
A quote...."A bigger proportion of non-investment grade companies will
go bust in the US and overseas in the coming years than during the
Great Depression, according to Moody's, one of the world's foremost
experts on credit."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Govt:
'Mass Layoffs' Soared In January ---
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/25/govt-mass-layoffs-soared-_n_169898.html
A quote...."WASHINGTON — Employers took a large ax to their
payrolls in January, the government said Wednesday, and the cuts are
likely to get worse over the next few months. -- The Labor Department
reported that mass layoffs, or job cuts of 50 or more by a single
employer, increased to 2,227 in January, up almost 50 percent from the
same month last year. More than 235,000 workers were fired in last
month's cuts."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Golden
State unemployment tops 10% ---
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=87043§ionid=3510203
A quote...."The unemployment rate in the US state of California has
climbed to over 10 percent -- its highest level in a quarter of a
century."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Obama
Puts the Economic Cart Before the Horse ---
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig9/schiff5.html
A quote...."by Peter
Schiff --
In his first televised speech before Congress, President Obama asserted
that prosperity will return once the government restores the flow of
credit in the economy. It may come as a surprise to him, but an economy
cannot run on consumer loans. Furthermore, credit stopped flowing in
the U.S. for a very good reason: there was no more savings left to
loan. Government efforts to simply make credit available, without
rebuilding productive capacity or increasing savings, are doomed to
destroy what’s left of our economy."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
The
FED’s Unsound Theories ---
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff276.html
A quote...."There are many slips betwixt cup and lip, and thus this
introduction before getting to the FED’s unsound theories. -- Neither
the federal government nor its Constitution have a moral or rightful
foundation over any person residing in America who does not consent to
them, for civil and political rights include the right of association.
If men and women cannot associate with those whom they will in
governing themselves, then they have no liberty. They are governed by
others against their will. They are slaves."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
UPDATE
1-Top NY legal officer demands bonus list from BofA CEO --
http://www.reuters.com/article/americasRegulatoryNews/idUSN2648512320090227
A quote...."NEW YORK, Feb 26 (Reuters) - New York's top legal officer
on Thursday demanded Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) Chief Executive
Kenneth Lewis provide names of Merrill Lynch executives who received
2008 bonuses, and how much they got, before the bank's takeover of the
firm in January."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Thursday February 26th 2009 -
links page
The
Silence of the Liberals - As Obama launches "war on terrorism" II
--- http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=14319
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."I see that the Pentagon has reversed its
old policy of refusing to allow photographs of those flag-draped
coffins as our dead soldiers return from the battlefield. One wonders,
however, how much interest there will be in taking and publishing such
photos now that President Barack Obama is in office. One also wonders
how long it will take the media to acknowledge the new quagmire we're
sinking into if and when the numbers of casualties start increasing –
as they are sure to do. -- After all, Obama's war is going to be taking
place on a much larger, more difficult canvas than that of his
predecessor's, which was confined in large part to Iraq."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
The Tomorrow
Speech --- http://mwcnews.net/content/view/28852/26/
Obama™ LITE Update --
A quote...."Obama used the forum to echo Fed Chair Ben Bernanke’s
assertion that we could easily emerge from our financial crisis in two
years if we just get this banking mess under control. Oh, is that all?
You might as well say: “we can marry the princess and live happily ever
after, as long as we kill that pesky pack of three headed dragons
smoking on the drawbridge.. And all we got in our pockets is a couple
of expired credit cards, a bent rubber paper clip, 43¢ in change
and some green lint.” Then again, who knows? Maybe we elected ourselves
President MacGyver."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Scott
Horton Interviews Glenn Greenwald ---
http://antiwar.com/radio/2009/02/24/glenn-greenwald-17/
Obama™ Update -- Audio Interview
- Special Note
- A quote...."Glenn Greenwald, renowned Salon.com blogger, discusses
the Obama administration’s impact on civil liberties, the failure of
Obama’s government to reverse a single Bush-era legal position, how the
Bagram prison in Afghanistan is replacing Guantanamo as the new
extralegal detention facility, the spectacular claim that a global war
on terror makes the whole world a battlefield and all its inhabitants
potential enemy combatants, the history of the state secrets privilege
from its original limited exemptions to the current claims of total
immunity and why non-prosecuting truth and reconciliation committees
should be reserved for third-world countries." -- MP3 (45:28)"
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Obama
administration defends telecom immunity in new brief
---
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_DOJ_backs_up_Bush_wiretapping_0226.html
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."The Obama Justice Department continues to
stand behind a Bush era law meant to prevent lawsuits against
telecommunications companies accused of illegally sharing private
customer information with intelligence agencies."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
PJB:
Return of the War Party ---
http://buchanan.org/blog/2009/02/pjb-return-of-the-war-party/
Obama™ Update -- War Update -- A quote...."Real men
go to Tehran!” brayed the neoconservatives, after the success of their
propaganda campaign to have America march on Baghdad and into an
unnecessary war that has forfeited all the fruits of our Cold War
victory. -- Now they are back, in pursuit of what has always been their
great goal: an American war on Iran. It would be a mistake to believe
they and their collaborators cannot succeed a second time. Consider:"
-- also posted at AntirWar
--- http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=14323
& ICH
--- http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22113.htm
& LewRockwell
--- http://www.lewrockwell.com/buchanan/buchanan104.html
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Obama
to Leave 50,000 Troops in Iraq Indefinitely ---
http://news.antiwar.com/2009/02/26/obama-to-leave-50000-troops-in-iraq-indefinitely/
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."As we reported yesterday, President
Obama’s Iraq “withdrawal” plan will leave up to 50,000 troops in a
warzone engaging in combat missions. Today the president detailed the
plans for members of Congress, and said the remnant forces, which would
remain for an indefinite period of time, will be in Iraq to “advise
Iraqi troops and protect US interests.” -- In other words the bases and the oil.
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Obama
has 'Plan B' on Iraq withdrawal -- Hah, hah, haaaaa! Like if the Iraqis
try to get the US-NRE to leave?
---
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86925§ionid=3510203
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."President Barack Obama has told Congress
he may extend the US forces' presence in Iraq if the security situation
worsens, says a lawmaker." - also
posted at WarInIraq
--- - He that giveth
(19 months) will
soon taketh away (FOREVER!) - mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Obama's
intelligence pick linked to Saudi Arabia ---
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/27/obamas-intelligence-pick-linked-to-saudi-arabia/
Obama™ Update -- A
quote...."The Obama administration on Thursday named as chairman of the
National Intelligence Council a veteran former diplomat who heads a
think tank that has received major financing from Saudi Arabia." -- For more on this issue see....Judeo-Christian
C/C & US - The Unholy Trinity
---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/judeochristianconflictcontrolwithinus-weblist-mpg-010409#AXISOFEVIL
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Obama
budget plan forecasts soaring deficits ---
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE51O6JA20090226?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."An eye-popping $1.75 trillion deficit for
the 2009 fiscal year underlined the heavy blow the deep recession has
dealt to the country's finances as Obama unveiled his first budget.
That is the highest ever in dollar terms, and amounts to a 12.3 percent
share of the economy -- the largest since 1945." -- Oh please! It's highly doubtful they
took into full account the huge drop in Federal tax revenues
they’ll be getting (try none), not to mention the much higher payouts
for
unemployment compensation, for the soon to be bankrupt States,
the trillions more they'll have to spend for the Wall Street Banksters
and of course we mustn’t forget all the wars the US-NRE will be
ramping-up soon. It'll be A
LOT MORE than a measly, tiny, little, $1.75 Trillion. - mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Obama
Seeks $205 Billion for Wars ---
http://news.antiwar.com/2009/02/26/obama-seeks-205-billion-for-wars/
--- To
start with. - mpg
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."That is of course on top of the pentagon's
already bloated budget. - mpg -- A quote...."In his first budget
proposal, President Barack Obama has requested over $205 billion in war
funding through the end of fiscal 2010. The funding would be in addition to the
$533.7 billion he is asking for the Pentagon’s regular budget next year."
-- bold by website editor
==========
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====
9/11 - From The History
File...Solari
| The Missing Money - database
---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussupportofterror-weblist-mpg-090306
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Is
A Major War A Possibility In 2009? The Historical Antecedents
---
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12471
posted at GlobRsrch
---
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11918
Must Read - A
quote...."Some of you have evoked the possibility of a world conflict
in the course of 2009.. I shan’t say that this prediction is
far-fetched; or remote. Doubtless, many of you do not mean a regional
conflict as in Ossetia and Gaza . Nor do I exclude the possibility of
the US / Israel on Iran . In the making of war, madness can never be
excluded. Let us keep in mind that the US caste oligarchy (USCO) and
its trillion dollar militarist appendage is at war on several front in
areas engulfing tens of thousands of kilometers: It is pursuing a war
in Gaza via its surrogate; it is pursuing a war in Iraq; and of course
it is escalating its military drive in Afghanistan; it has extended its
killing fields to Pakistan. Recall that Pakistan has a frontier of
2,500 kms with Afghanistan ."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
John
Bolton at CPAC: The Benefits of Nuking Chicago - link posted at CLG ---
http://www.legitgov.org/#contribute
---
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/02/john-bolton-cpac-benefits-nuking-chicago
Related Article -- A quote...."Former UN Ambassador John Bolton
believes the security of the United States is at dire risk under the
Obama administration. And before a gathering of conservatives in
Washington on Thursday morning, he suggested, as something of a
joke, that President Barack Obama might learn a needed lesson if
Chicago were destroyed by a nuclear bomb."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
The
geopolitical Great Game: Turkey and Russia moving closer - posted at OnlineJournal
--- http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3171.shtml
---
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4419.shtml
A quote...."Despite the problems of the ruble and the weak oil price in
recent months for the Russian economy, the Russian government is
pursuing a very active foreign policy strategy. Its elements focus on
countering the continuing NATO encirclement policy of Washington, with
often clever diplomatic initiatives on its Eurasian periphery."-- Also posted at ICH
--- http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22119.htm
& GlobResrch
---
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12466
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Eurasia
Geopolitics: Iran Making Inroads On Caspian Gas - posted at GlobRsrch
---
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11918
---
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12468
Special Note -- This will get the ObamaWarCons all kinds
of excited. - mpg -- A quote...."For years, several western
countries have been fruitlessly trying to secure Caspian natural gas.
And now it appears that the Iranians have the inside track in both
Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Afghanistan;
US in Jalrez Valley -- A Juan Cole Round-Up ---
http://www.juancole.com/2009/02/5-troops-killed-in-afghanistan-us-in.html
A quote...."200 US troops and 200 Afghan troops (along with their
French trainers) pushed into the Jalrez Valley south of the
capital of Kabul on Wednesday, seeking Taliban strongholds. They don't
appear actually to have found anything, and only succeeded in annoying
the local population. Locals did say that their view of the US would
improve if Washington spent money on civilian development such as
roads."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Taliban
call for peace with Afghans - Not
if good'ol Bombs Away O-bomb-a has anything to say about it. - mpg
---
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=1331330
A quote...."KABUL -- The Taliban are willing to work with all Afghan
groups to achieve peace, but the problems of Afghanistan can only be
solved if foreign troops withdraw from the country, a senior insurgent
leader said." -- also posted at
Uruknet
--- http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52182&s1=h1
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Panetta:
Drone Attacks in Pakistan Will Continue ---
http://news.antiwar.com/2009/02/26/panetta-drone-attacks-in-pakistan-will-continue/
Related Article - A quote...."The new Director of the CIA Leon Panetta
declared yesterday that the controversial drone attacks against sites
in Pakistan would continue, in spite of the growing criticism. Panetta
declared that the attacks, which began under the Bush Administration,
“have been successful.”
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
IAEA
finds no weapons-grade enriched uranium in Iran ---
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/21/content_10860981.htm
A quote...."VIENNA, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- The International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) said its inspectors have not found that Iran is
attempting to process low-enriched uranium into weapons-grade uranium,
the Austrian Press Agency (APA) reported on Friday. The report
quoted an anonymous IAEA expert as saying, "so far, Iran has carried
out good cooperation with us in relevant verifications."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Iran
slams U.S. statement on its nuclear program, terrorism
---
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/27/content_10906770.htm
A quote...."UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Iran Thursday lashed
out at the U.S. statement on its nuclear program and alleged engagement
in terrorism, calling such allegations "baseless and absurd." -- In a
letter circulated to the UN Security Council president, the Iranian
permanent representative to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaee, said,
"It is unfortunate that the Security Council yet again heard some
baseless allegations against the Islamic Republic of Iran by the
representative of the United States in today's meting of the council on
Iraq."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
RIGHTS:
Britain Admits Complicity in U.S. Rendition ---
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45901
A quote...."NEW YORK, Feb 26 (IPS) - In a stunning reversal, Britain’s
government admitted Wednesday that it participated in the
‘extraordinary rendition’ to Afghanistan of two terror suspects
captured in Iraq."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Colombia
rocked by wiretapping revelations - link posted at CLG ---
http://www.legitgov.org/#contribute
---
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/colo-f27.shtml
A quote...."The Colombian government of President Alvaro Uribe has been
rocked by a political scandal involving the wholesale wiretapping of
opposition politicians, top judges and journalists by a secret service
agency under Uribe's direct command."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Venezuela and
Bolivia to Collaborate on Natural Gas Plant ---
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4250
A quote...."Mérida, February 26th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) --
Venezuela will assist Bolivia in the construction of a liquid gas
separation plant in the Chaco Forest region of Bolivia’s southeastern
Tarija province, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced Tuesday."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Bolivia
to start receiving Russian-made helicopters in April
--- http://en.rian.ru/world/20090227/120331969.html
A quote...."MOSCOW, February 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is to deliver
two helicopters to Bolivia at the beginning of April, Bolivia's
anti-drug tsar has said, with reports suggesting that they will be used
in the fight against the illicit drug business."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
The
Battle of terms behind the conflict ---
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article839
Must Read - A
quote...."Many times, when people are discussing the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they use terms such as ‘holocaust’,
‘genocide’, ‘apartheid’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’. Although these are
descriptive in some ways of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they are
‘used’ terms—they are connected to a different situation in a separate
time and historical context in most people’s minds—and their recycling
ends up creating confusion and controversy more than anything else."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Empire
- Israel and the US - 25 Feb 09 - (2 Parts) ---
http://palestinevideo.blogspot.com/2009/02/empire-israel-and-us-25-feb-09-2-parts.html
Must View Videos - A
quote...."In this episode of Empire, Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's
senior political analyst, and his guests zero in on the special
relationship between the US and Israel. They explore who benefits from
the special relationship and whether the status quo will prevail." -- For more on the "Humpty Dumpty" of
Palestine and how it just "happened" to "fall off the wall and break
into
two parts" see....US
Sponsored Civil Wars - Palestine
---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussponsoredcivilwars-weblist-mpg-101107#PALESTINE
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Are
Palestinians Allowed to Resist? (Part I) ---
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14869
Special Note - A
quote...."The issue of Palestinian resistance, in terms of its
permissibility and types, is a highly inflammatory question for most
Western observers. Mainstream media discourse frequently boils down to
criticisms and condemnations of its “violence” or alternatively,
asserts its impotence in the face of Israeli military might and Western
opposition. It might therefore be helpful to place it in historical and
current context and to comparatively evaluate it against that other
famous struggle for independence, Indian national liberation. India’s
struggle, given the prominent role of Gandhi’s satyagraha’s role, is
usually synonymous in Western discourse with non-violent resistance."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Israel seizes
land in plan to encircle West Bank town with fence ---
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52188&s1=h1
A quote...."Bethlehem – Ma’an – The Israeli military has issued an
order to confiscate farmland in order to build a 295-meter barbed-wire
fence separating the West Bank town of Beit Ummar from an adjacent
highway."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
PCHR Weekly Report:
Palestinian child killed; 19 people injured by Israeli forces
--- http://www.imemc.org/article/59034
A quote...."According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights,
during the week of 19 - 26 Feb. 2009, a Palestinian child died of
wounds sustained during the recent Israeli invasion of Gaza. In
addition, Israeli troops injured 19 Palestinians, 17 of whom were
unarmed civilians, of whom eight were children, in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
UK
sued over arms sales to Israel ---
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=86862§ionid=351020601
A quote...."The UK government is being sued over its policy of selling
arms to Israel, which human rights activists say violates international
law."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Red Cross: Gaza
Blockade Must Be Lifted For Reconstruction ---
http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/190974
A quote...."GENEVA (AFP)--The International Committee of the Red Cross
said Thursday that it was "urgent" to lift the blockade of the Gaza
Strip as a first political measure to resolve the crisis there."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Palestinians
agree to form unity government ---
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=30659
A quote...."Fatah, Hamas to work together on issues of security,
national reconciliation, elections, reform."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Erdogan
says solution ostracizing Hamas not to be realistic ---
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=37302
A quote...."Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday
that a solution to conflict between Israel and Palestine should not
ostracize Hamas."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Israel approved
thousands of settler homes in the occupied West Bank
--- http://www.imemc.org/article/59033
A quote...."Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported on Friday morning
that the so-called Civil Administration office had approved plans to
construct thousands of homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West
Bank. The plans have not been officially approved by Israel, but are in
the process."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Homeland
Offense ---
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/feb/09/00022/
- PDF
---
http://www.amconmag.com/pdfissue.html?Id=AmConservative-2009feb09&page=22
Special Note - A
quote...."Americans have become so inured to the sight of federal
troops fighting fires, rescuing flood victims from rooftops, and
engaging in drug interdiction on the border that few eyebrows were
raised when news broke that 20,000 active-duty infantry would soon be
deployed on American soil for so-called homeland defense. -- But
critics say this development—announced by U.S. Northern Command
(NORTHCOM) in October—is unprecedented and further evidence of a
military mission-creep into domestic affairs, particularly in areas for
which the National Guard and Reserves are already suited."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Our
Enemy, the President ---
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/feb/23/00010/
- PDF
---
http://www.amconmag.com/pdfissue.html?Id=AmConservative-2009feb23&page=10
Special Note - A
quote...."After eight years of George W. Bush, conservatives find
themselves back at the beginning—that is, back at the beginning of the
modern American Right, circa 1933. Once more the country is in a deep
financial crisis (we don’t call them “depressions” anymore) for which
Republicans have taken the blame. And again a pragmatic Democratic
president, backed by majorities in both chambers of Congress, promises
to spend us back to prosperity. After conceding the president virtually
his every whim during the Bush years—with the occasional Harriet
Miers-sized exception—conservatives have begun to rediscover the
virtues of checks upon executive power."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
CNBC
Anchors Mortified That Ron Paul Was Allowed Air Time
--- http://infowars.net/articles/february2009/260209CNBC.htm
A quote...."CNBC anchors were left dumbfounded and acted overtly
cantankerous yesterday after Congressman Ron Paul's opening statement
at the House Financial Services Committee was broadcast live to an
audience of millions." -- here's the
video
---
http://www.roguegovernment.com/Video%3A_Ron_Paul%27s_Opening_Statement_On_CNBC_-_2_25_09/14511/0/8/8/Y/M.html
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Senate
bars FCC from revisiting Fairness Doctrine - Thank God for the Internet!!! - mpg
---
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iZo8HqKUQ5LkGkTf0CiQtS7WQlQQD96JF8V00
DemoRepubs, RepubDemos, all for one
and one
for all. - mpg -- A quote...."WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has
barred federal regulators from reviving a policy, abandoned two decades
ago, that required balanced coverage of issues on public airwaves."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Rahm
Emanuel Doesn’t Pay Taxes, So Why Should You?
---
http://www.prisonplanet.com/rahm-emanuel-doesn%E2%80%99t-pay-taxes-so-why-should-you.html
A quote...."Of course, if you don’t pay taxes to the government,
chances are you will be arrested and thrown in the clinker. Not so in
the case of Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s Chief of Staff."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Prosecutor
claims Iran/Contra whistleblower is a “danger” to society
--- http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3469-0-23-23--.html
A quote...."....Narco News originally published that story (U.S.
government finally exacts revenge on Iran/Contra whistleblower Cele
Castillo). The article raises serious questions about whether
Castillo’s prosecution was politically motivated. -- Castillo was
convicted late last year on federal charges of dealing firearms without
a license in a case marked by numerous irregularities and peculiar
coincidences that raise the specter of a frame-up."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
The
war on Wall Street terror - posted
at OnlineJournal
--- http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3171.shtml
---
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4421.shtml
Must Read - A
quote...."It’s funny that during the run-up to the first War on
Terror, Wall Street had such an active hand in exploiting the tragedy
of 9/11. Thousands upon thousands of puts short-sold United and
American Airlines stocks and WTC-based Morgan Stanley stock plunged;
similarly calls (bets to rise) on defense and related stocks sent them
soaring on that awful day, the War on Terror’s inciting incident. --
Today, we can count on Wall Street again to supply us with what Warren
Buffett calls Weapons of Mass Financial Destruction to strike terror
not just in the hearts of investors, but workers, businessmen, retired
people, the unemployed, the middle-and-working classes and the poor,
leaving our financial system like another Ground Zero, with masses of
open-mouthed crowds and teary-eyed families hovering about it, losing
resources and jobs that took a lifetime to grow."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
The
Employee Free Choice Act - The Enemies of Unions and the Lies They Tell
--- http://www.counterpunch.org/turl02262009.html
A quote...."Within days of receiving $25 billion in federal bailout
money--paid for with your tax dollars--Bank of America hosted a
conference call of corporate executives and conservatives to strategize
about how to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). - Corporations
have declared war on EFCA because of both its specific provisions and
the symbolic role it could play in revitalizing the labor movement."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Casino
Capitalism.- How Credit Unions Survived the Crash ---
http://www.counterpunch.org/nader02232009.html
Known as the "good guys", no
doubt the government is figuring out ways to tax them to pay for the
mess the "bad guys" caused. - mpg -- A quote...."While the
reckless giant banks are shattering like an over-heated glacier day by
day, the nation?s credit unions are a relative island of calm largely
apart from the vortex of casino capitalism. -- Eighty five million
Americans belong to credit unions which are not-for-profit cooperatives
owned by their members who are depositors and borrowers. Your
neighborhood or workplace credit union did not invest in these
notorious speculative derivatives nor did they offer people teaser
rates? to sign on for a home mortgage they could not afford." -- also posted at ICH
--- http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22105.htm
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
The
"Great Financial Crisis": A whole new kind of struggle is emerging
- posted at GlobRsrch
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11918
---
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12476
Interview - Mike Whitney
interviews John Bellamy Foster -- A quote...."MW: The financial crisis
is quickly turning into a political crisis. Already governments in
Iceland and Latvia have collapsed and the global slump is just
beginning to accelerate. Riots and street violence have broken out in
Greece, Latvia and Lithuania and worker-led protests have become
commonplace throughout the EU. As unemployment skyrockets and economic
activity stalls, countries are likely to experience greater social
instability. How does one take deep-seated discontent and rage and
shape it into a political movement for structural change?" -- also posted at OnlineJournal
--- http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4420.shtml
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
New
home sales plunge 10.2% to record low -- Supply of unsold homes rises
to record-high 13.3 months
---
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/new-home-sales-plunge-102/story.aspx?guid=%7BDA6F5AE3-8430-444E-B56E-B577A1C2AF1B%7D
Special Note - A
quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Despite
a record drop in prices,
sales of new homes fell 10.2% in January to a record-low seasonally
adjusted annual rate of 309,000, the Commerce Department estimated
Thursday. -- Sales were down 48.2%
compared with a year earlier, the government
reported, an indication that the
downturn in the housing market was
still accelerating as the recession headed into its second year.
-- bold by website editor
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Jobless
claims spike to 26-year high ---
http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/26/news/economy/jobless_claims/
Special Note - A
quote...."Number of Americans applying for first-time unemployment
benefits rises to 667,000. Continuing claims top 5 million for the
first time." - bold by website editor
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Fannie
Mae loses $25.2 billion in one quarter, asks for bailout
---
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Fannie_Mae_loses_25.2_billion_in_0226.html
Special Note - WASHINGTON
(AFP) – Troubled US mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae said Thursday it
lost almost 60 billion dollars last year and asked the Treasury
Department for a further 15.2 billion dollars in aid.
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
U.S.
May Break Up AIG To Keep It Afloat ---
http://www.roguegovernment.com/U.S._May_Break_Up_AIG_To_Keep_It_Afloat/14505/0/8/8/Y/M.html
A quote...."American International Group and U.S. authorities are in
advanced discussions over a radical restructuring that would split the
insurer into at least three government-controlled divisions in an
attempt to keep it afloat, the Financial Times reported on its website,
citing people close to the situation."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Mervyn
King: 'Impossible to say' how much capital needed to shore up banking
system - link posted at CLG ---
http://www.legitgov.org/#contribute
---
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/4838106/Mervyn-King-
---
Impossible-to-say-how-much-capital-needed-to-shore-up-banking-system.html
A quote...."Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, has said
it is "impossible to say" how much capital will be required to shore up
the British banking system. -- Mr King said it would take "many months"
[try many years] to
establish the scale of toxic assets held by banks, and the scale of
problems would change depending on the international economic outlook."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Ukraine
Ratings Cut to CCC+ by S&P on IMF Loan Risk (Update4)
---
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=atSWse0UZBSE&refer=home
A quote...."Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Ukraine’s credit rating was cut two
levels by Standard & Poor’s to the lowest in Europe, a day after
Latvia was downgraded to junk, as eastern Europe’s most debt- laden
economies lurch closer to default."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Hungary
on edge of bankruptcy ---
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/hungary/4808111/Hungary-on-edge-of-bankruptcy.html
A quote...."Hungary is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy with its
citizens struggling to pay off mortages and personal loans taken out in
foreign currency during one of the post-Communist era's most exhuberant
booms."
also posted at RougeGov
---
http://www.roguegovernment.com/Hungary_On_Edge_Of_Bankruptcy/14508/0/8/8/Y/M.html
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Japan's
industrial output tumbles 10% in Jan. - Household spending declines
sharply stirring worry on domestic front
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Japans-industrial-output-tumbles-10/story.aspx?guid=%7B0588CDA7-6056-455C-96F3-2FFDB63DB468%7D
A quote...."HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Japan's industrial output
contracted by a record 10% and consumer spending fell in the first
month of the year, data released Friday showed, adding to the growing
perception that the No. 2 global economy this year will undergo the
worst recession in more than half a century."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Wednesday February 25th 2009 -
links page
The Oscar for
Denial, And the winner is – The American People ---
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/24-2
Must Read - A
quote...."Now the United States faces a new moral crisis, the
subversion of our own legal and moral values by high officials of our
own government. We are, in this moment. as awash in complicity
and willful denial as the principled middle-class denizens of the Third
Reich. We are the Good Germans of the new millennium in Bush
America because we knew about the illegal kidnappings and tortures, the
self-serving legalisms that subverted the Geneva accords and papered
over Constitutional lapses, the lies that led us into conquest and
occupation. Starting well before the invasion of Iraq - which
millions around the globe protested in unprecedented numbers before it
occurred - we knew the "weapons of mass destruction" and Saddam's
connections to al-Qaeda were bullshit excuses. But many millions
of us tried to pretend that we really weren't sure."
also posted at ICH
--- http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22095.htm
Obama™ Updates ==========
========== ========== ==========
========== ======== ==
Orwell
in Babylon: Obama's War-Continuing "Withdrawal" Plan
---
http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1709-orwell-in-babylon-obamas-war-continuing-qwithdrawalq-plan.html
Must Read - Obama™ Update
-- A quote...."Word has now come from on high – that is, from "senior
administration officials" using "respectable newspapers" as wholly
uncritical conduits for government spin – that President Obama has
reached a grand compromise with his generals (or rather, the generals
and Pentagon poobahs he has inherited -- and eagerly retained -- from
George W. Bush) on a plan to withdraw some American troops from the
country that the United States destroyed in an unprovoked war of
aggression. Obama had wanted a 16-month timetable for the partial
withdrawal; his potential campaign rival in 2012, General David
Petraeus, wanted 23 months; so, with Solomonic wisdom, they have now
split the difference, and will withdraw a portion of the American
troops in 19 months instead." -- also
posted at CounterPunch
--- http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd02252009.html
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
A
Simple Question About Presidents And Their Actions ---
http://winterpatriot.blogspot.com/2009/02/simple-question-about-presidents-and.html
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Over the past year or so, as the race for
the presidency not-so-gradually became even more obviously farcical
than I ever thought it could get, I often found myself overwhelmed by
the split capacity of the "progressive-Democratic" writers I had been
reading."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
What
About Bagram? ---
http://www.antiwar.com/ips/fisher.php?articleid=14311
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."While human rights and legal advocacy
groups applauded President Barack Obama's decision to close the
military prison at Guantánamo Bay within a year, many
immediately raised another thorny question: "What about Bagram?"
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Obama
to Seek $75.5 Billion More for Wars in 2009 (Update2)
---
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aN3Z5Oo3eStg&refer=worldwide
Obama™ Update -- This appears to be
a typo, it looks like he needs $205 billion more for the wars. - mpg --
A quote...."Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack
Obama will seek $75.5 billion more [it'll
be trillions later on.] for combat operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan through the end of this fiscal year, according to three
people familiar with the request.
posted
at WarInIraq
--- http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/190884
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Indict
Bush and Impeach Obama, Liberal Leaders Betray Antiwar Cause To Serve
Dems and Obama -- Again
---
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/indict-bush-and-impeach-obama/
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."In the Wall Street Journal of January 24,
the loathsome
McCarthyite neocon David Horowitz gazed approvingly on the inauguration
of Barack Obama. To Horowitz it meant the removal of an obstacle to
war. Thus he wrote:
"Consider: When President Obama
commits this nation to war against the Islamic terrorists, as he
already has in Afghanistan, he will take millions of previously
alienated and disaffected Americans with him, and they will support our
troops in a way that most of his party has refused to support them
until now. When another liberal, Bill Clinton went to war from the air,
there was no anti-war movement in the streets or in his party’s ranks
to oppose him. That is an encouraging fact for us. ." -
also posted at AmericanEveryman
---
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/indict-bush-and-impeach-obama/
---
For more on this sort of
issue see....Judeo-Christian
C/C & US ---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/judeochristianconflictcontrolwithinus-weblist-mpg-010409
Exclusive:
Lawyer says Guantanamo abuse worse since Obama ---
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE51O3TB20090225
A quote...."LONDON (Reuters) - Abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay has
worsened sharply since President Barack Obama took office as prison
guards "get their kicks in" before the camp is closed, according to a
lawyer who represents detainees. -- Abuses began to pick up in December
after Obama was elected, human rights lawyer Ahmed Ghappour told
Reuters. He cited beatings, the dislocation of limbs, spraying of
pepper spray into closed cells, applying pepper spray to toilet paper
and over-forcefeeding detainees who are on hunger strike."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
A
Modest Proposal - An Iraqi Vote on Troop Withdrawal
---
http://www.opednews.com/articles/A-Modest-Proposal--Let-th-by-Michael-Collins-090225-991.html
A quote...."Why not give democracy a chance? The Iraqis have a
right to a direct vote on the options for U.S. troop withdrawal.
The ballot would be simple. Should U.S. troops leave
Iraq? Yes No If you answered Yes, how
soon should they leave?" -- MY GAWD!!!! Letting the "towel
heads" decide if they want the ongoing occupation to continue - or
not! Letting the "little people" of Iraq decide if the New Roman
Empire should leave! Allowing them the actual opportunity of
casting a free and fair VOTE on the
issue....it would be....it's unheard of....how could any decent
white man think ..... actual "freedom and democracy" for the riff-raff
of the Middle East?!?!? It's pure insanity, the author of this
proposal must be nuts. The Empire didn't spend trillions of
dollars to seize its oil and then simply walk away because the people
who are living on top of it decided to vote the Empire out. No
way, no how....not ever. – mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Syria
says Iraqi refugees turn into ‘unbearable’ economic burden
---
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2009-02-25%5Ckurd.htm
A quote...."Syria says the presence
of more than a million Iraqi refugees is stretching its strapped
economic resources to the limit and has asked other Arab countries for
help. It has asked a forthcoming Arab foreign ministers conference
scheduled for March to place Iraqi refugees’ issue on their agenda,
saying it can no longer bear paying for their stay on its
territory. Syria has been spending up to $2 billion a year on
Iraqi refugees and that its efforts to persuade donor countries and
international aid organizations for help have almost gone unheeded." -
bold by website editor
For those drooling morons in
the US-NRE who've been constantly castigating Syria and who’ve
supported the war of aggression (a war crime by the way) against Iraq,
here's a little heads up for you, not that you care of course.
The oh so “generous”, oh so “noble” US-NRE has taken in just a few tens
of thousands of Iraqi refugees since the war started while Syria has
taken in over a million and a half, and for those of you who can't
count (which is most of you) that's been almost six years. Think
of it this way, (we’ll try to keep it simple for all you Neocon
supporting, Depends wearing, morally challenged, constitution ignoring,
cretins out there) Syria's population is about 20 million, the Iraq
refugees number over 1.5 million, that's the equivalent of the US-NRE
taking in over twenty two million refugees!! Oh YEAH! This is a
real
generous Empire --- with its bombs that is. – mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Pakistani
Taliban unite against U.S. ---
http://onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?id=141408
A quote...."PESHAWAR: Three major Pakistani Taliban commanders have
joined forces, a development that poses a significant threat to
Pakistan’s stability and could hamper U.S. efforts to flush out al
Qaeda from a safe haven in the country’s lawless borderlands, the
Washington Times reported in its Tuesday edition."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
"For This I
Blame America" Afghanistan: Chaos Central ---
http://www.counterpunch.org/sands02252009.html
Must Read - A
quote...."Back then, this beautiful city was the ideal place for a bit
of post-conflict profiteering. Hastily-created NGOs continued to flood
in, eager for a slice of the action. So did journalists determined to
write about democracy, the suave English-speaking president and the
local golf course. It was the calm before the storm. Victory had been
declared and, while Afghans were starting to feel the weight of its
baggage, the rest of the world was still having fun at their expense.
-- But the decadence and ignorance were never going to be allowed to
last for long, and the Taliban knew their time was coming again. The
warning signs were around for anyone who cared to look."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
War
of the spies as Israel and Hezbollah prepare for confrontation
---
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5786611.ece
A quote...."Hezbollah's highly effective counter-intelligence unit is
responsible for most discoveries of Mossad cells in Lebanon. Last
November Beirut newspapers reported the arrest of a Lebanese man who
had been spying for Israel since the early 1980s. -- The covert war
works both ways, with Hezbollah building up a network of espionage
cells in Israel and even recruiting Israeli soldiers."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
CIA’s secrete
Operations worldwide and drug money ---
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52154&s1=h1
A quote...."In Afghanistan US/NATO put blame on Taliban for the poppy
cultivation in Afghanistan for financing their resistance to allied
forces. Ironically, it was only in Taliban era when the world had seen
a sharp decline in opium crop in Afghanistan. Taliban banned opium
cultivation nationwide. A more important question is how and when this
business of drug production and trafficking started in region? CIA has
been using drug money since long to generate money to support its
operations all over the world. It did not start in Afghanistan it was
brought here after experimenting somewhere else."
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WRAPUP
1-Iran denies nuclear slowdown, sets big expansion
---
http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/02/25/wrapup-1-iran-denies-nuclear-slowdown-sets-big-expansion/
A quote...."Iran says 6,000 centrifuges operating, 50,000 in five years
* Iran denies nuclear slowdown indicated by IAEA report * Bushehr power
plant said closer to launch after first tests"
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Russia
sees no concern over nuclear [powered] Iran ---
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=86762§ionid=351020104
A quote...."Cooperation between Iran and Russia is based on
international norms and conventions and it should be said that nothing
is being done outside the non-proliferation framework," explained the
Russian nuclear official in response to a question by Press TV's
correspondent Gisoo Misha Ahmadi."
Yemen
plans to buy more MiG-29 fighters from Russia ---
http://en.rian.ru/world/20090226/120314551.html
A quote...."MOSCOW, February 26 (RIA Novosti) - The president of Yemen
said his country plans to buy a number of MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters and
other military equipment from Russia, a newspaper reported on Thursday."
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Gazprom
may cut gas to Ukraine [again] over non-payments [again] - newspaper
--- http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090226/120310978.html
A quote...."MOSCOW, February 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russian energy giant
Gazprom could cut gas deliveries to Ukraine from March 8 if Naftogaz
does not pay for supplies received in February, Russian business daily
Kommersant reported on Thursday."
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KBR
Q4 Profit Climbs As Revenues Surge 42% ---
http://www.rttnews.com/ArticleView.aspx?Id=865142
To all the men and women in the
US-NRE armed forces -- thank you!! Keep up the good work, no
matter how many of you die or are maimed for life, the shareholders at
KBR will ALWAYS appreciate what you've done to make them
wealthier. Not that they'll give you any money of course,
after all, they're not communists, in fact they’ll probably get the
Repubs to vote against any increases in your wages, pensions or your VA
benefits as they've done so often in the past because the less for you,
the more for KBR's contracts....but they do appreciate your sacrifice
for the company's bottom line. – mpg
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What
Happened to the American Media? ---
http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-happened-to-american-media.html
A quote...."What happened to the American Media? After Nixon's demise,
the right wing of the Republican party decided that they could no
longer afford to allow the free dissemination of information to the US
public. The simple solution? Have their friends buy up the major
networks, newspaper chains and magazines, so they could be controlled
from the top on the corporate level. The Left's Media Miscalculation
was to stand by and watch them do it." -- For more on this issue see....Fake
Intel / Propaganda ---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/fakeintell-weblist-mpg-090206
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Anthrax
investigation still yielding findings ---
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090225/full/news.2009.120.html
Must Read - (For the absolute hilarity of it all)
-- A quote...."The deadly bacterial spores mailed to victims in the US
anthrax attacks, scientists say, share a chemical 'fingerprint' that is not found in bacteria from
the flask linked to Bruce Ivins, the biodefence researcher implicated
in the crime." - bold by website editor - Whoops, the one and only piece of "real"
evidence linking Ivans to the Anthrax attacks goes down the tubes (pun
intended), guess the FBI will have to go find someone else to frame. –
For more on this issue see....9/11
the Sequel - Return of the Jihadi™ -- 08-23-08 - mpg.
---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/911thesequel-returnofthejahadi-mpg-blog-082308
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Sandia
National Laboratories Test Exonerates Ivins ---
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/02/sandia-national-laboratories-test.html
Related Article - A quote...."While government apologists are still
trying to pretend there is a case that Bruce Ivins was the anthrax
killer, tests by Sandia National Laboratories have exonerated him."
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Israeli
Sabotage of U.S.-Iranian Detente ---
http://mwcnews.net/content/view/28822/26/
A quote...."Since Israel’s recent election, people have begun to
realize that the ruling Israeli elite from its major parties is trying
to constrain Obama from fundamentally altering U.S.-Iran relations.
Having concluded that it cannot immediately provoke a U.S.-Iran war for
its own benefit, Israel is instead, according to this interpretation,
resigned to seeing some U.S.-Iranian discussions and now hopes only to
minimize the meaning and duration of those talks. This is a polite
circumlocution for sabotaging the talks and damaging U.S. national
security."
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Arab
Parties Face Most Hostile Knesset in History ---
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14866
A quote...."When Israel's 18th parliament opened today, there was only
one Arab woman among its intake of legislators. -- Haneen Zoubi
has made history: although she is not the first Arab woman to enter the
Israeli parliament, the Knesset, she is the first to be elected for an
Arab party."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
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Israel
PM suspends Hamas ceasefire negotiator ---
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/23/israel-suspends-ceasefire-negotiator
Some quotes...."Ehud Olmert files complaint against Amos Gilad after
[the Israeli] civil servant's frank criticism of government approach"
-- "The move comes after Gilad was quoted in an Israeli newspaper last
week making unusually frank criticisms of the Israeli government's
attitude to negotiating with Egypt and its apparent delays on agreeing
a prisoner release that would see Hamas hand over the captured soldier,
Gilad Shalit, who is believed to be still alive somewhere in Gaza."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
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Israeli forces
open fire on Palestinian farmers and internationals in Khoza’a
--- http://palsolidarity.org/2009/02/5673
A quote...."9am, 24th February 2009, Khoza’a, Khan Younis , Gaza
Strip:Palestinian farmers, accompanied by international Human Rights
Workers (HRWs), were fired upon by Israeli forces in the village of
Khoza’a, near Khan Younis, this morning. The farmers and HRWs were
attempting to work on land around 300m from the ‘Green Line’."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
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Convoy of
Lifeline of Hope arrives in Tunisia en route to Gaza
--- http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/190886
A quote...."TUNIS, Feb 25 (KUNA) — The aid convoy of Lifeline of Hope,
a British humanitarian relief agency, arrived in northwest Tunisia on
Wednesday en route to Gaza Strip. -- The convoy, led by George
Galloway, member of the UK House of Commons, set off from Britain
towards Gaza Strip. -- Made up of 100 trucks, the convoy is carrying
some 285 sympathizers with Gazans and food, medical and household
supplies to the victims of the 22-day Israeli offensive (December 27,
2008 to January 18, 2009)."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
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Robert
Fisk on Gaza and the media ---
http://rabble.ca/news/robert-fisk-gaza-and-media
A quote...."Reporting independently from the front lines of war is an
increasingly rare engagement for journalists working for major
international media outlets. From Iraq to Afghanistan, reporters are
increasingly embedded with Western military forces, operating without
independence."
also posted at ICH
--- http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22094.htm
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
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How Bank
Bonuses Let Us All Down ---
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/25-10
Special Note - (for how the "system" really works)
-- A quote...."Take two bankers. The first is conservative. He
produces one annual dollar of sound returns, with no risk of blow-up.
The second looks no less conservative, but makes $2 by making
complicated transactions that make a steady income, but are bound to
blow up on occasion, losing everything made and more. So while the
first banker might end up out of business, under competitive strains,
the second is going to do a lot better for himself. Why? Because
banking is not about true risks but perceived volatility of returns:
you earn a stream of steady bonuses for seven or eight years, then when
the losses take place, you are not asked to disburse anything. You
might even start again, after blaming a "systemic crisis" or a "black
swan" for your losses. As you do not disgorge previous compensation,
the incentive is to engage in trades that explode rarely, after a
period of steady gains."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
It's
Time to Break up the Big Banks ---
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22093.htm
A quote...."February 25, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- Timothy
Geithner is putting the finishing touches on a plan that will dump $1
trillion of toxic assets onto the US taxpayer. The plan, which goes by
the opaque moniker the "Public-Private Investment Fund" (PPIF), is
designed to provide lavish incentives to hedge funds and private equity
firms to purchase bad assets from failing banks. It is a sweetheart
deal that provides government financing and guarantees for illiquid
mortgage-backed junk for which there is currently no active market."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Ron
Paul Grills Bernanke: “You Can’t Reinflate The Bubble”
---
http://www.prisonplanet.com/ron-paul-grills-bernanke-you-cant-reinflate-the-bubble.html
A quote...."Congressman Ron Paul again took the opportunity to lecture
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke on sound money principles at this
morning’s House Financial Services Committee hearing, warning that the
financial crisis cannot be solved by merely creating credit out of thin
air."
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US
and German Credit Default Swap Risks Skyrocket
---
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/4800828/German-CDS-debt-spreads-hit-record-as-economy-crumbles.html
Financial Alert -- A quote...."The cost of bankruptcy protection on
German debt has reached an all-time high on spill-over from the
financial crisis in Eastern Europe and mounting concerns about the
stability of Germany's banking system."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
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Existing
U.S. home sales, prices drop in January
---
http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN2548076020090225?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews
A quote...."WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of previously owned U.S. homes
plunged in January, reversing the previous month's surprise jump, and
prices spiraled down to a six-year low as the deep recession and rising
joblessness took its toll." -- Editor's Note -- Several articles have
noted that the housing inventory has declined slightly, that's true,
but almost 50
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Existing-home
sales drop 5.3% to 12-year low - Prices down 14.8% in past year as
foreclosures flood the market
---
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/sales-existing-homes-fall-53/story.aspx?guid=%7B241ABBED-660D-40F4-AE86-4B2215E24923%7D
Some quotes...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Sales of pre-owned homes
dropped 5.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.49 million in
January, the lowest sales pace in 12
years, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday."
-- "One positive note in the
report: The inventory of unsold homes declined for the sixth
consecutive month in January to the lowest level in about two years.
Fewer homes on the market could reduce the downward pressure on
prices." -- BUT! -- "About 45% of sales in January involved
so-called distressed sales of homes in foreclosure or short
sales by homeowners who sell for less than what they owe their lenders,
Yun said." - bold by website editor
Editor's Note
-- And that's why the housing
inventory may
be dropping a bit, because both homeowners (however few of them there
are
left) and probably many of the banks, are holding off placing houses on
the
market, especially this market, for several very good reasons. --
They won't be sold, they'll depress prices even further, and if sold
many will be
sold at a loss, especially those homes owned by the Banks that are
currently in foreclosure. In fact, for these very reasons it's
quite
possible that a substantial amount of housing stock which would
normally have been put up for sale has been held back from the
market. This does
not bode well in the near term, or even the medium term (one to two
years) for the US housing market. – mpg
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========== ====
Boomers:
30% underwater ---
http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/25/real_estate/boomer_wealth_evaporating/index.htm?postversion=2009022514
Special Note -- A
quote...."NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- What a turnaround for the American
Dream! -- According to a report released Wednesday, the real estate
market bust and stock market declines have carved a huge chunk out of
the assets of baby boomers, the largest age cohort in U.S. history. --
So much home equity has been lost that should boomers need to sell
their homes, 30% of those aged 45 to 54 would owe money at closing...."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
UK
recession: why your nest egg won't save you ---
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/4800143/UK-recession-why-your-nest-egg-wont-save-you.html
Special Note - (for all you "savers" out there) --
A quote...."I've saved prudently all my life, and never claimed
anything from the state. Now the income from my savings has been wiped
out, but because I'm retired no one cares about people like me. It's a
case of Do Not Resuscitate, because we're elderly." -- Yep, there is no lower form of life in a
war cycle
based, fiat currency based, economy....than that of a "hard working
saver". - mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
RBS
reports record corporate loss ---
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7911722.stm
A quote...."Royal Bank of Scotland
(RBS) has announced the largest annual loss in UK corporate history.
-- RBS, which had to be bailed out by the government last year, said
that its 2008 loss totalled £24.1bn ($34.2bn)." - bold by
website editor
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ==========
========== ====
Economic
slump deepens in Japan as exports collapse ---
http://wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/asia-f26.shtml
A quote...."The collapse of Japanese exports last month underscores how
rapidly economic recession is turning into a full-blown depression—and
not just in Japan."
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========== ====