MPG'S DAILY RAPSHEET AND BLOTTER  ON THE "GREAT GAME"  --  03-11-09  to 03-17-09 -- 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 17th 2009 - links page

St. Patrick's Day and the Lost Lessons of Empire  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22237.htm
posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908.html
A quote...."March 17, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- - Another Saint Patrick's Day is here, with its tacky kegs of green beer, leprechauns, lucky charms, fake plastic hats and all imaginable variety of gaudy faux-Irish...um..."charm." But it needn't be so. The holiday offers up an incredible opportunity to expose children (and adults, of course) to the history of struggle of a courageous people--England's first and last colony--and, by extension, to shed light on the legacy of colonization and imperialism and the universal nature of popular resistance."
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Rotted From the Head: High Crimes and Continuity in the American Imperium
  ---  http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1720-rotted-from-the-head-high-crimes-and-continuity-in-the-american-imperium.html
A quote...."The recent emergence of the 2007 report by the Red Cross confirming, in copious detail, the widespread, systematic use of criminal torture by the Bush Administration is a welcome development. Although its facts will doubtless be drowned, or at least waterboarded, by the usual diversions -- faux shock in the Beltway over Wall Street fat cats paying themselves big bonuses with the free money that Washington knowingly gave them, for example -- it is still good to see the long-known record of this belching of filth by the nation's leaders dragged out into the light momentarily again. Every small nugget of truth that makes it through the heavy mesh of obfuscation that surrounds the workings of the Empire is to be lauded, hoarded and added to the fragments we have shored against our ruins. Every piece that gets out remains out, somewhere, for someone to find again and make use of. That's the hope anyway, and I think it is a substantive one."
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The U.S. is Leaving Iraq but Where Are We Leaving Iraqi Women?  ---  http://www.mediaforum.org/RecentDisplay.cfm?ID=2853
A quote...." By the fall, ordinary aspects of Fatin's life had become punishable by death. The "misery gangs," as Fatin calls them, were routinely killing women for wearing pants, appearing in public without a headscarf, or shaking hands and socializing with men. -- As the occupying power, the U.S. was legally obligated to stop these attacks. But the Pentagon, preoccupied with battling the Iraqi insurgency, simply ignored the militias' reign of terror. -- In fact, some of the most treacherous armed groups belonged to the very political parties that the US had brought to power. By 2005, the Pentagon was giving weapons, money and military training to these Shiite militias, in the hope that they would help combat the Sunni-led insurgency."
also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/17-3  ---  & WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/192431
For more on this sort of issue see....The Method - 05-07-07 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/themethod-blog-mpg-050707
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Obama™ Updates

U.S. To Sign UN Gay Rights Declaration  ---  http://www.roguegovernment.com/U.S._To_Sign_UN_Gay_Rights_Declaration/14805/0/2/2/Y/M.html
Special Note - Obama™ Update -- The US-NRE won't abide by the Geneva Conventions, Magna Carta, US Constitution, Posse Comitatus Act, and the rules as set forth in the Nuremberg Tribunals. It won't join the ICC, it tore up the ABM treaty, wouldn't even attend the UN conference on racism (with a "black" president no less) still allows rendition, torture, -- http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ustorture&sexualperversion-weblist-mpg-031309  ---  illegal surveillance of it's own citizens, illegal wars, illegal occupations, murder and mayhem,  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/usmurder&mayhem-weblist-mpg-031309  ---  stood idly by while Gaza was needlessly slaughtered,  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/thegazainvasion-mpg-weblist-122708  ---   un-constitutional presidential signing statements, unlawful imprisonment, violates Habeas Corpus and basically refuses to take a single step as outlined in the Thirty Five Acts to Restore Americans' Rights - 11-10-06 - mpg   ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/seventeenacts-blog-mpg-111006  ---  to undo any of the harm that's been done so far to what once used to be called the United States of America....but it will sign the "gay" rights declaration. Guess the wealthy elites do have to set their priorities in order. -- Welcome folks, to the New Roman Empire. - mpg - For more on this issue see.... Mommy Pelosi and Daddy Bush Obama - 11-18-06 - mpg - http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/mommypelosianddaddybush-blog-mpg-111806
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America Is Really Angry - Obama Aides Still Fretting About Elite Opinion
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/America-Is-Really-Angry--by-David-Sirota-090317-886.html
Obama™ Update -- A quote..."The crack reporting team at the New York Times gives us a huge scoop [1]: Newsflash - America is really really angry at a government that keeps giving away taxpayer cash to banks while telling us we need to solve a deficit problem by potentially slashing Social Security. What a shocking scoop...only, ya know, a few months late (but hey, better late than never). -- What I find newsy about this story is the subtext highlighted in this excerpt:" -- "The Obama administration is increasingly concerned about a populist backlash against banks and Wall Street, worried that anger at financial institutions could also end up being directed at Congress and the White House and could complicate President Obama's agenda... "
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Obama Received a $101,332 Bonus from AIG
  ---  http://www.examiner.com/x-268-Right-Side-Politics-Examiner%7Ey2009m3d17-Obama-Received-a-101332-Bonus-from-AIG
Obama™ Update -- A quote..."Senator Barack Obama received a $101,332 bonus from American International Group in the form of political contributions according to Opensecrets.org. The two biggest Congressional recipients of bonuses from the A.I.G. are - Senators Chris Dodd and Senator Barack Obama."
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US [Obama] considers expanding covert operation area in Pakistan: Report  ---  http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=38474
Obama™ Update -- A quote..."Obama admin is considering expanding the covert US operations in Pakistan far beyond the tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan, report said."
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Obama Follows Bush on Detainees  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/ips/fisher.php?articleid=14417
Obama™ Update -- A quote..."Human rights activists and constitutional law experts were virtually unanimous in their condemnation of the positions taken on prisoner detention and treatment in federal court last week by President Barack Obama's Department of Justice, which one group described as "a case of old wine in new bottles."
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Obama Faces Flak From Antiwar Movement Over Iraq Withdrawal Timing
  ---  http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/obama/2009/03/17/obama-faces-flak-from-antiwar-movement-over-iraq-withdrawal-timing.html
Obama™ Update -- A quote..."Add another problem to President Obama's growing list of concerns. Members of the antiwar movement, which was instrumental in helping him win the Democratic presidential nomination last year, are expressing increasing concern about the pace of his plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. -- Obama promised during the campaign to remove combat troops within 16 months of taking office. That has now slipped to 19 months, and Obama, on the advice of the military, says he will maintain a residual American force there as long as is necessary after that. All U.S. troops are to be out of Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011, a deadline set by Iraq and the United States under an agreement made during George W. Bush's administration."
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Obama Undercuts Whistle-Blowers, Senator Says  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/us/politics/17signing.html
Obama™ Update -- A quote..."WASHINGTON — A leading Republican senator maintains that President Obama is violating a campaign promise with his claim that he can bypass whistle-blower protections for executive branch officials who give certain information to Congress."
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President Obama, Why Did You Pay Blackwater $70 Million in February?
  ---  http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/132171/president_obama%2C_why_did_you_pay_blackwater_%2470_million_in_february/
Obama™ Update -- A quote..."Obama may keep the company on the government payroll months after its Iraq contract expires. Not bad for a firm supposedly going down in flames."
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Appeals Court Refuses To Revisit Decision Ordering Defense Department To Release Prisoner Abuse Photos  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/40807
Obama™ Update -- A quote..."NEW YORK – A federal court rejected a Bush administration request to reconsider a decision that ordered the Department of Defense to release photographs depicting the abuse of detainees by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected the government's request to have the full appeals court rehear a decision from last September ordering the release of the photos as part of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking information on the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody overseas. -- The Obama administration, which has not taken a position on the litigation, has 90 days to appeal to the Supreme Court if it chooses to challenge the September order."
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Obama, growing on me like a colony of E. coli (satire?)  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/Obama-growing-on-me-like-by-Tim-Cerantola-090315-404.html
Obama™ Update -- Some quotes..."Two months in and the best thing I can say about Barack Obama is that he’s not George Bush. Granted, he may be better than that banal skin sack Bush, but if the outcome is the same, does it really matter? -- Is a knife in your back better than one through your heart? -- What ever happened to change?" -- "That’s right kids; Obama seems content to continue with George W. Bush’s economic program of ‘no greedy wall street bastard left behind.’ " - bold by website editor
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Torture Team  ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14918
Book Review -- "Torture Team – Deception, Cruelty and the Compromise of Law" Philippe Sands. Allen Lane, Penguin. New York. 2008.
[GuardBkShp,  ---  http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9781846140082
Penguin,  ---  http://www.penguin.ca/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781846140082,00.html
Readings,  ---  http://www.readings.com.au/product/9781846140082/torture-team-deception-cruelty-and-the-compromise-of-law
Abbeys]  ---   http://www.abbeys.com.au/items.asp?id=127163
A quote...."Only a few pieces of paper can change the course of history. On Tuesday, 2 December 2002 Donald Rumsfield signed on that did." From such a singular beginning Philippe Sands writes the history of U.S. attempts to abrogate international laws and conventions on the use of torture and the inhumane treatment of prisoners of war. This is the memo Rumsfield approved with the sarcastic comment about standing: “However, I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours?” Perhaps Rumsfield should have been subjected to the other seventeen “techniques” that accompanied the memo to see if his limits for them were any better."
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Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation
  ---  http://www.sott.net/articles/show/179241-Over-One-Million-Iraqi-Deaths-Caused-by-US-Occupation
A quote...."Over one million Iraqis have met violent deaths as a result of the 2003 invasion, according to a study conducted by the prestigious British polling group, Opinion Research Business (ORB). These numbers suggest that the invasion and occupation of Iraq rivals the mass killings of the last century - the human toll exceeds the 800,000 to 900,000 believed killed in the Rwandan genocide in 1994, and is approaching the number (1.7 million) who died in Cambodia's infamous "Killing Fields" during the Khmer Rouge era of the 1970s." -- For more on this issue see....Fake Intel / Propaganda - Iraq Deaths
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/fakeintell-weblist-mpg-090206#IRAQDEATHS
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Washington Post Shows Its Hand  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/orig/giraldi.php?articleid=14411
A quote...."The Washington Post is apparently losing lots of money and may close in the foreseeable future, barring a deus ex machina intervention by some foreign billionaire such as saved the New York Times. While the decline of newspapers worldwide is regrettable, the Post's troubles are really good news, and bankruptcy would be a richly deserved fate for a rag that has been an enabler of every neocon fantasy for the past 20 years. Imagine no longer having to enjoy Charles Krauthammer, Fred Kagan, John Bolton, Bill Kristol, and Robert Kaplan with your morning coffee."
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Why Pakistan cares about Chaudhry  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/03/2009316513081197.html
A quote...."Iftikhar Chaudhry became a supreme court judge in 2000 and was appointed as the youngest ever chief justice in June 2005. -- He was sacked from the position by Pervez Musharraf, who led Pakistan from 1999 to 2008, and the campaign for his reinstatement, which has seen multiple street protests, became a popular cause in Pakistan."
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POLITICS:  Five Days That Changed Pakistan  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46119
A quote...."KARACHI, Mar 16 (IPS) - A late night meeting between Pakistan’s army chief, President and Prime Minister led to the dramatic announcement in the wee hours of Monday morning that Iftikhar Mohammed Choudhry would be restored as Chief Justice."
also posted at CounterCurrents  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/sarwar170309.htm
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The Afghanistan seldom seen  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KC19Df01.html
Contains Video - Special Note -- A quote...."Beyond Taliban attacks and the opium trade, there is another side to Afghanistan that is rarely reported. From the Uzbek border in the north to the deep south, there's a hidden world of stunning contrasts; of beauty and poverty, of young women getting educations and musicians playing what couldn't be heard under the Taliban. These are forgotten areas, untouched by the billions of reconstruction dollars that have poured into the nation."
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Iraqi forces surround PMOI in Diyala  ---  http://www.metimes.com/Security/2009/03/16/iraqi_forces_surround_pmoi_in_diyala/4342/
A quote...."CAMP ASHRAF, Iraq, March 16 (UPI) -- Iranian dissidents residing at the Camp Ashraf enclave in Iraq's Diyala province said national forces have them surrounded following efforts to close the camp. Camp Ashraf is home to the People's Mujahedin of Iran, which opposes the clerical regime in Iran. It has an acrimonious relationship with some lawmakers in Baghdad due in part to its ties to the former regime of Saddam Hussein."
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The Americans need to apologize  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KC19Ak02.html
Interview -- Omid Memarian interviews Dr Kazem Jalali, Iranian member of parliament -- A quote...."BERKELEY, California - Dr Kazem Jalali, an influential conservative member of Iran's parliament, the Majlis, and rapporteur of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, sees possibilities for a thaw with Washington, but believes that many Arab states in the Gulf "see their interests in keeping the current state of continual conflict among the West, the US and the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
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Brazil urges US not to interfere in Lat America  ---  http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=88895&sectionid=351020706
A quote...."Brazil has called on the US to open a new chapter in its relations with Latin American countries by not interfering in their affairs."
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Argentina Nationalizes U.S.-Owned Defense Plant  ---  http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=329781&CategoryId=14093
link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908.html
A quote...."BUENOS AIRES – Argentina will re-nationalize a military-aircraft factory that was acquired by U.S. defense titan Lockheed Martin in the 1990s, President Cristina Fernandez said on Tuesday."
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El Salvador election: Former guerilla party FMLN wins presidency
  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/elsalvador/5000831/
El-Salvador-election-Former-guerilla-party-FMLN-wins-presidency.html
A quote...."A moderate former journalist has brought his left-wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) party of former guerillas to power for the first time since the end of El Salvador's brutal civil war.  -- This is the happiest night of my life, and I want it to be the night of El Salvador's greatest hope," said Mauricio Funes, 49, after his party took more than 51 per cent of the vote, ending nearly two decades of conservative rule in El Salvador."
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L American countries congratulate Funes for winning El Salvador's presidential election  ---  http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/17/content_11025079.htm
A quote...."MEXICO CITY, March 16 (Xinhua) -- Some Latin American countries on Monday congratulated Mauricio Funes for winning the presidential elections in El Salvador. -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that the victory of Funes, candidate from the left-wing Farabundo Marti Front for the National Liberation (FMLN), represented a moment of change in the Latin American region."
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Nations Line up to Slam Big Powers' UN Veto Rights  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/03/17-9
link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908.html
A quote...."UNITED NATIONS - African and other developing nations joined several European powers at the United Nations to denounce the veto rights of the five official nuclear powers on the U.N. Security Council, diplomats said. -- The chorus of criticism began on Monday and continued on Tuesday at a closed-door session of the General Assembly on reforming and expanding the most powerful U.N. body."
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ECONOMY-CHINA:  Chance to Reform IMF in EU-US Split?  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46171
A quote...."BEIJING, Mar 18 (IPS) - Differences between the United States and Europe over how to restore global economic growth have given rise to speculations here on whether a failure to agree on a grand strategy at the upcoming G20 summit might create room for China to assert its national agenda."
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Russia announces rearmament plan  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/03/2009317115925752180.html
A quote...."Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, has ordered a large-scale rearmament of the country's military forces in response to Nato plans for expansion into former Soviet states."
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Dismantling the Killer Elite  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/grigg/grigg-w86.html
A quote...."A more pointed version of the same sentiment, delivered without a particle of comic irony, was expressed by both Tom "Turk" Cowan (Robert DeNiro) and his long-time partner David "Rooster" Fisk (Al Pacino) in Righteous Kill, a formulaic cop thriller released last year. -- "You don't become a cop because you want to `Serve and protect'; you do it because you want respect," explains Cowan. "Most people respect the badge. Everybody respects the gun." -- Fisk, who by all appearances plays Damon to Cowan's Pythias, is even more direct: "The badge is nice, as long as it comes with a gun."
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Diebold Admits ALL Versions of Their Software Delete Ballots Without Notice  ---  http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6995  ---  Ha, Ha, Haaa, it's just too funny.
Special Note - A quote...."Even the audit log system on current versions of Premier Election Solutions' (formerly Diebold's) electronic voting and tabulating systems --- used in some 34 states across the nation --- fail to record the wholesale deletion of ballots. Even when ballots are deleted on the same day as an election. That's the shocking admission heard today from Justin Bales, Premier's Western Region manager, at a State of California public hearing on the possible decertification of Diebold/Premier's tabulator system, GEMS v. 1.18.19." -- True democracy,  you can vote for whomever you want, whether it's counted or not is a completely different story. - mpg
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Israel to Worsen Prisoner Conditions to ‘Pressure Hamas’  ---  http://news.antiwar.com/2009/03/17/israel-to-worsen-prisoner-conditions-to-pressure-hamas/
A quote...."The primary change is likely to be a ban on all visitors to imprisoned Hamas members. Other changes may follow too, but the ability to significantly worsen the already harsh conditions faced by most of the nation’s detainees may be seriously hampered by considerations of international law. -- Moreover, the tactic appears to have an inherent flaw: worsening the conditions of detainees after the government has already made it clear it has no intention of releasing many of them is just perplexing: even if Hamas is appalled by the treatment of their members they have no route to rectify the situation for those they’d consider the most important." -- also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/192475
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Israel to Gaza: A ghetto you will remain  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=88960&sectionid=351020202
A quote...."Israel vows to continue its imposition of collective punishment on the 1.5 million residents of Gaza until its captive soldier is released." -- also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/192487
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MIDEAST:  Gazans Struggle for Clean Drinking Water  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46135
A quote...."RAMALLAH, Mar 17 (IPS) - As environmental experts, NGOs and government officials gather in Istanbul this week to attend the Fifth World Water Forum, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has drawn attention to the critical water situation in Gaza."
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How many nakbas?  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52725&s1=h1
A quote...."I don’t know if it is possible to keep track of the thousands of nakbas experienced by palestinians. if I were creating a blog today I think I would call it nakba watch. I would keep track of all the murders, massacres, land theft, and political prisoners. here are some of the most recent nakbas palestinians are experiencing this week alone:"
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Rachel's E-mails  ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14919
A quote...."March 16, 2009 marked the sixth anniversary of the killing of the American peace activist Rachel Corrie. She was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer in Rafah on March 16, 2003, a few days before the United States attacked Iraq. The twenty-three-year-old student from Olympia, Washington went to Gaza with the International Solidarity Movement. She was crushed to death by a US Caterpillar bulldozer that was run by the Israeli military. She had been trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home near the border with Egypt when she was killed. Eyewitnesses say she was wearing a fluorescent orange vest and in full view of the bulldozer’s driver." -- also posted at Uruknet  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52721&s1=h1
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Israel Guilty of War Crimes; Palestinians are Winning the Legitimacy War:  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52715&s1=h1
Interview -- An Interview with UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk -- A quote...."Professor Richard Falk is the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. He is world-renowned as an authority on international law and has authored and co-authored 20 books. Recently, Professor Falk has focused much of his attention on the Israeli massacres in Gaza, alleging that Israel's actions are constitutive of both violations of the laws of war and indicative of crimes against humanity. This is the transcript of a phone interview with him from his home in Santa Barbara, California."
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Documentary films about Palestine and her people  ---  http://www.creative-i.info/?p=5336
A quote...."The narrative of displacement and experiences in exile of the modern Palestinians remains relatively unfamiliar to most Westerners and especially to the majority of Americans. By contrast, Israel’s narrative of rebuilding a homeland for the Jews has been deeply imbedded in the Western psyche and continues to dominate the political discourse regarding the Palestinian / Israeli conflict. The documentary films we create at SittingCrow Productions explore the personal narratives and artistic expressions of Palestinians."
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Israel: A monument to Anti-Semitism  ---  http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/03/18/israel-a-monument-to-anti-semitism
A quote...."The Palestinian refugees will find their place in the diaspora. Those who can resist will live thanks to natural selection. The others will simply crumble. Some of them will persist, but the majority will be a human heap, the scum of the earth, and will sink into the lowest levels of the Arab world," -- *Near East Department of the Israeli government*, 1948.
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PALESTINIANS: WHO ARE THEY? ~~ WHERE ARE THEY?? -- http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/palestinians-who-are-they-where-are-they/
MAP - A quote...."Click on image to see who they are, where they came from, and where they are today…"
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Another victim of Israel by ~Latuff2  ---  http://latuff2.deviantart.com/art/Another-victim-of-Israel-116227972
Cartoon - Click on the image to enlarge. - mpg
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The Tesco 2: stop the killing, stop the crime, Free Free Palestine!  ---  http://www.creative-i.info/?p=5330
Police State Alert - (Police thugs acting on behalf of the state of israel....in Britain) -- A quote...."So what was all that about? It took us some time to realise that the police, in several vans and cars, were from Bridgend, not Swansea. Apparently there was a minor incursion at the Bridgend Sainsburys, during which a couple of boxes of Israeli peppers were sprayed with red paint and a ‘Boycott Israel’ slogan spray-stencilled on the floor. The police, or whoever set them up, took the word ‘Israel’ as racist, and it was assumed that the Bridgend and Swansea actions were co-ordinated, or conspired, by some sort of organisation or command. -- I’m angry, as is my wife, at the racist slurs, because about ten policemen and women spent a couple of hours going through every nook and cranny of our house, and because I was arrested and whisked away to a police cell in Bridgend - as was a woman who was with me leafletting outside the Swansea Sainsburys last Saturday."
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Boycott Israel Action  ---  http://palsolidarity.org/2009/03/5458
Video -- (In French, but it's self-explanatory.  Viva la France!! - mpg) -- A quote...."Palestine solidarity activists go boycott shopping in France and hold a teach-in on Israeli-made products." -- For more on how to Boycott Israel see the upper-left-corner of the "Front Page" on this website. - mpg
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Who's Calling the Shots Now: The Death of American Empire
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/Who-s-Calling-the-Shots-No-by-Dave-Lindorff-090317-788.html
Special Note - A quote...." It may not be obvious today, and certainly it’s not how the corporate media reported it, but future historians are likely to look back at March 13, 2009 as the day that American imperialism began it’s inexorable decline. That’s the day that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced that his country was “worried” about its holdings of over $1 trillion in US treasury securities, and warned that he wanted the US to assure China that it would maintain its good credit and “honor its promises” and “maintain the safety of China’s assets.” -- There is no way that the US can accommodate Premier Wen and still finance and operate a global military system with over 1000 overseas bases, massive aircraft carrier battle groups, and with hundreds of thousands of men and women armed to the teeth with the latest high-tech military hardware, not to mention fight endless wars on the far side of the globe."
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Wall Street’s and the City’s Attempt to Destabilize the EU Banking System and the Euro  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12774
A quote...."According to LEAP/E2020, there are only two options left for the G20 leaders who gather next April 2nd in London: either they rebuild a new international monetary system, creating the conditions for a new global system that involves all the main global players, and reducing the crisis to a maximum of 3 to 5 years; or they strive to prolong the current system, thrusting the world into a decade long tragic crisis starting at the end of 2009."
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Leading Analysts Slam Fed's Posture Towards Credit Default Swaps  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/leading-analysts-slam-feds-posture.html
A quote...."Four leading analysts - a former long-time Fed veteran, an economics professor and former high-level S&L regulator, former managing director at Soros Funds Management and chief economist of the Senate Banking Committee, and a professor of political science  - are slamming the Fed's treatment of credit default swaps in general, and AIG's CDS obligations in particular:"
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Will the Stewart/Cramer Battle Be the Death of CNBC?  ---  http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/885
A quote...."Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart has struck again, this time perhaps landing a mortal blow on the ratings-troubled
  ---  http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2009/03/13/the-stewart-dip-ratings-down-for-cnbc-cramer  ---  NBC financial cable network, CNBC.  ---  http://www.cnbc.com/  ---   The Daily Show host has carried on a war against CNBC for the past two weeks. The war began with a devastating and hilarious March 4 segment  ---  http://www.hulu.com/watch/60862/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-wed-mar-4-2009  ---   compiling some terrible prognostications by CNBC talking heads over the past two years."
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John Perry Online: The U.S. of A.I.G. - (YouTube - 3 min 8 sec - March 17, 2009)
  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/03/17/john-perry-online-the-us-of-aig/
Video - A quote...."Isn't it interesting that when we're talking about the people at AIG getting bonuses none of them deserve, we're a nation of laws and contracts that we must honor. But when we're talking about a president and vice president who have publicly admitted to violating the laws they were sworn to uphold, as Bush and Cheney have both done with illegal spying and torture, we're a nation that needs to "look forward instead of back." Anybody who can't see what's really happening in this country is not looking."
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Business collapse can end union contracts, but not AIG bonus contracts  ---  http://minnesotaindependent.com/29178/aig-bonuses-contract-unions
A quote...."Contracts guaranteeing bonuses to executives at collapsing businesses — like American International Group (AIG) — are held inviolable, while labor union contracts regularly get voided or reneged-on when corporations declare (or even threaten) bankruptcy. Labor experts say it’s the law of the land."
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New York Times columnist who demanded concessions from auto workers, “makes case” for AIG bonuses
  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/sork-m18.shtml
A quote...."New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin "made the case" Tuesday for paying American International Group (AIG) executives some $165 million in bonuses. In the face of a public outrage that he acknowledges, Sorkin suggests: "Maybe we have to swallow hard and pay up, partly for our own good."
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The Real Scandal of AIG  ---  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-real-scandal-of-aig_b_175105.html
A quote...."The real scandal of AIG isn't just that American taxpayers have so far committed $170 billion to the giant insurer because it is thought to be too big to fail -- the most money ever funneled to a single company by a government since the dawn of capitalism -- nor even that AIG's notoriously failing executives, at the very unit responsible for the catastrophic credit-default swaps at the very center of the debacle -- are planning to give themselves $100 million in bonuses. It's that even at this late date, even in a new administration dedicated to doing it all differently, Americans still have so little say over what is happening with our money." - Amen! - mpg - bold by website editor
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Cuomo: 73 AIG Executives Got $1 Million Bonuses or More  ---  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/17/AR2009031702046.html
A quote...."NEW YORK, March 17 -- Seventy-three employees of troubled American International Group received more than $1 million in bonuses under contracts that guaranteed them 100 percent of their 2007 pay in 2008 regardless of performance, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said."
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US to "Wind Down AIG in an Orderly Way and Protect the American Taxpayer" ... Why Didn't That Happen From the Start?
  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/us-to-wind-down-aig-in-orderly-way-and.html
Special Note - Looks like AIG is gone, along with $180 BILLION dollars worth of tax-payer bail-out. - mpg -- A quote...."Geithner just told Congress he would:  ---   "Work with" AIG chief executive Edward Liddy "on measures to wind down AIG in an orderly way and protect the American taxpayer."  ---  That's great, but why didn't that happen from the start?"
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Citi, Morgan Stanley look to sidestep bonus caps: report  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE52G0X420090317
A quote...."(Reuters) - Anticipating restrictions on bonuses, officials at Citigroup Inc and Morgan Stanley are exploring ways to sidestep tough new federal caps on compensation, the Wall Street Journal said."
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Global trade collapsing - Commentary: U.S. exports falling at 49% pace as customers fade away
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Global-trade-collapsing-forcing-everyone/story.aspx?guid=%7B5E877CF4-8D66-46A2-A144-3EE1FF6F6C37%7D
link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908.html
A quote....A quote...."Over the past five months since the credit crunch intensified, real exports have plunged at a 49% annual rate, while real imports have fallen at a 30% pace."
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US industrial production falls sharply as economic crisis deepens  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/econ-m18.shtml
Chart - A quote...."Industrial production in the US fell by 1.4 percent in February, marking the fourth consecutive month that the figure has fallen. Output has contracted in ten out of the last twelve months, according to figures released Monday by the Federal Reserve."
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Dollar Crisis in the making Part 3 -- China inoculates itself against dollar collapse  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/KC18Cb01.html
This article concludes a three-part report.
 ---  PART 1: Before the stampede  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/KC14Dj04.html
 ---  PART 2: The not-so-safe haven  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/KC17Cb02.html
A quote...."There is mounting evidence that China's central bank is undertaking the process of divesting itself of longer-dated US Treasuries in favor of shorter-dated ones."
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"There Was a Stampede by Foreign Investors to Exit Their U.S. Dollar Investments”
  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/there-was-stampede-by-foreign-investors.html
A quote...."An article in Bloomberg includes the following quote:  --  “There was a stampede by foreign investors to exit their U.S. dollar investments,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. “Everyone wants to bring their money home. It’s not about return on capital. It’s whether you can get your capital back.”
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Turkey to use lira in trade with Iran  ---  http://en.timeturk.com/turkey-to-use-lira-in-trade-with-iran--16981-haberi.html
A quote...."Tuzmen said Turkey has completed the necessary structural work to begin trade with Iran and Russia in its local currency, Press TV correspondent in Ankara Mehdi Gholizadeh reported. -- He stressed that the plan will considerably increase Ankara's trade with Tehran and Moscow and that it will solve the problems caused by trade in foreign currencies."
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US wholesale inflation brakes to near-zero  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_wholesale_inflation_brakes_to_ne_03172009.html
Special Note - US wholesale inflation slowed sharply in February, grinding to a near halt in part because of falling food prices as the weak economy sank deeper into recession, government data showed Tuesday. - The Labor Department said its producer price index (PPI) rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent in February, a brusque slowdown from a 0.8 percent increase in January that had snapped a five-month streak of falling prices. - Most analysts had expected a much stronger 0.4 percent PPI rise in February."
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Completed Foreclosures Hit New High in February  ---  http://www.thetruthaboutmortgage.com/completed-foreclosures-hit-new-high-in-February/
link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908.html
A quote...."Moratoria what?  Completed foreclosures reached their highest point since the crisis got underway, rising 67 percent from January’s muted total. In February, 121,756 homes were repossessed by banks and lenders, up from 72,694 in January and topping the previous high of 104,243 last September, according to Foreclosures.com. Of course, many will argue that most of these foreclosures were initiated a long time ago, before lenders’ moratoria were in place, but the numbers paint a more troubling picture. Even pre-foreclosure filings hit a new high, rising to 207,703 in February, up 24 percent from 166,860 in January and nine percent from 190,467 in December, the previous high."
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10,500 Scottish firms to go bust by end of 2010 - link posted at BuzzFlash  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/
  ---  http://www.scotsman.com/latestnews/10500-Scottish-firms-to-go.5073831.jp
A quote...."MORE than 10,000 Scottish businesses could fail in the next two years, according to the latest grim forecast on the prospects of companies surviving the recession."
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Monday March 16th 2009 - links page

Cheney's Mission Accomplished  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2009/03/cheneys-mission-accomplished.html
Must Read - A quote...." Dick Cheney: "I guess my general sense of where we are with respect to Iraq and at the end of now, what, nearly six years, is that we've accomplished nearly everything we set out to do...." -- What has Dick Cheney really accomplished in Iraq? -- # An estimated 4 million Iraqis, out of 27 million, have been displaced from their homes, that is, made homeless. Some 2.7 million are internally displaced inside Iraq. A couple hundred thousand are cooling their heels in Jordan. And perhaps a million are quickly running out of money and often living in squalid conditions in Syria. Cheney's war has left about 15% of Iraqis homeless inside the country or abroad. That would be like 45 million American thrown out of their homes."
also posted at ICH  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22232.htm
& CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/17-2
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Plan to Split Taliban Lures Obama Deeper Into War  ---  http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46122
Special Note - War Update - Obama™ Update -- A quote..."WASHINGTON - Advanced reports on the Barack Obama administration's strategy to "peel off" a majority of insurgent commanders from the "hard core" of Taliban suggest that it will be presented as a political route to victory in Afghanistan that would not require U.S. and NATO troops to win militarily. -- But experts warn that the strategy is unlikely to work. And by appearing to provide a political route to victory, the strategy is luring the administration into a renewed commitment to war in Afghanistan and diverting it away from a deal with the Taliban leadership aimed at keeping al Qaeda from having a presence there." - bold/underline by website editor -- In other words Obama STILL supports the The True Axis of Evil - 10-10-08 - mpg,  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/thetrueaxisofevil-mpg-blog-101008 ---  the PNAC protocols and of course al Qaeda.  -- For more on this issue see....US Support of Terror  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussupportofterror-weblist-mpg-090306
also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/03/16-8
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Obama’s Approval Rating Slips With Economy in Polls (Update1) -- http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aVvzMquSF8OY&refer=home
Obama™ Update -- A quote..."A March 12-15 survey conducted for CNN by Opinion Research Corp. found Obama’s approval rating dropped 3 points from late last month and 12 points from early February. A Pew Research Center poll taken March 9-12 found that Obama’s approval rating slipped to 59 percent from 64 percent last month."
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Majority [Britains] 'want Iraq war inquiry'  ---  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7945346.stm
A quote...."The survey, conducted by ComRes for the BBC, found 72% of those questioned believe there should be an official inquiry into the UK's role in the invasion of Iraq in 2003." -- also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/192372
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Pakistan takes a right turn  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KC17Df01.html
A quote...."Gilani also promised that the government would revisit this month's Supreme Court decision that barred former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz from holding elected office. He also said that all demonstrators arrested in recent days - including Nawaz Sharif - would be released. -- It appears that Gilani had little choice. Local administrations and police had completely defied the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) government and allowed thousands of marchers to proceed to Islamabad. Significantly, the United States had looked towards the army to intervene, but it was in no position to do so, raising a serious question mark over the US's ability to influence decisions in Pakistan, its chief ally in the regional war theater." -- bold by website editor --  Must have been an attempt to foist more of that US-NRE "freedom and democracy" on the Pakistani people. - mpg
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Another attack on NATO logistic terminal  ---  http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C03%5C17%5Cstory_17-3-2009_pg1_10
Special Note - A quote...."PESHAWAR: At least 16 trucks and 14 trolleys carrying supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan were torched on Monday in [a] second such attack on a goods terminal in two days. -- Police said around 60 Taliban broke into Al-Faisal Terminal on Peshawar’s Ring Road in Pishtakhara area at around 2am, doused the vehicles parked in the compound with petrol and set them on fire. -- There were no casualties, police official Ihsanullah said. -- Three cranes and two Humvees were also destroyed." - bold by website editor -- also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/192371
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AFGHANISTAN: Angry mob surrounds official building in Logar  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52694&s1=h1
A quote...."PUL-E-ALAM: Angry with reported innocent killing of five persons of a family by the US forces in a raid in central Logar province last night, protestors besieged the building of Charkh district headquarters on Saturday. --
More than three hundreds protesting people, chanting anti-American slogans, called for an immediate trial of the killers. -- Last night, the US-led coalition troops raided a house of one Abdul Rashind in Naw Shar village, killing him and his four sons, officials and residents said Saturday."
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Lebanon opens first ever embassy in Syria  ---  http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C03%5C17%5Cstory_17-3-2009_pg4_7
A quote...."DAMASCUS: Lebanon on Monday opened its first-ever embassy in Syria in another sign of improving ties between the long-feuding neighbours." -- also psoted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/192373
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Juan Cole's "Engaging the Muslim World" A Call for Common Sense   ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs03162009.html
Book Review -- Engaging the Muslim World @ .....
[B&N,  ---  http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?r=1&ISBN=9780230607545&ourl=Engaging-the-Muslim-World%2FJuan-Cole
ByCm,  ---  http://www.buy.com/prod/engaging-the-muslim-world/q/loc/106/207379369.html
TwrBks,  ---  http://www.tower.com/engaging-muslim-world-juan-cole-hardcover/wapi/111924494
Amzn,  ---  http://www.amazon.com/Engaging-Muslim-World-Juan-Cole/dp/0230607543
Macmln]  ---  http://us.macmillan.com/engagingthemuslimworld
 -- A quote...."When it comes to Washington's dealings with the so-called Muslim world, common sense rarely enters the equation.  Instead, fear, anger, and  myth dominate the thinking behind those dealings.  All too often, in instances where Washington might otherwise attempt to negotiate a resolution in its favor if the people it was dealing with weren't Muslim it seems that negotiations are not even considered. "
Other info at....TaylerMarsh,  ---  http://www.taylormarsh.com/2009/03/12/engaging-the-muslim-world/
& JuanCole  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2009/03/juans-new-book-is-out.html
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El Salvador ex-rebels win power through ballot box  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN1649478720090316
A quote...."SAN SALVADOR, March 16 (Reuters) - El Salvador's former Marxist guerrillas, who fought one of the bitterest conflicts of the Cold War, finally won power through the ballot box after a tight election victory over their right-wing civil war foes."
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China’s Shot Across the Bow  ---  http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2009-03-16.asp
A quote...."The U.S. government is sending heavily armed destroyers to the South China Sea after a standoff between five Chinese boats and a U.S. spy ship operating in the area. Before the destroyers have even arrived, however, the Chinese communist government has sent a shot across their bow, in the form of a not-so-subtle reminder that China is now one of the U.S. government’s principal creditors."
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US Missile Shield in Europe Would Cost Billions, Probably Wouldn’t Work
  ---  http://news.antiwar.com/2009/03/16/us-missile-shield-in-europe-would-cost-billions-probably-wouldnt-work/
A quote...."Despite the growing harm being done to US-Russian relations by the proposed US missile defense system in Poland, Obama Administration officials maintain that it is vital to defend against the Iranian “threat.” -- also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/192376
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Zionism is the problem  ---  http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ehrenreich15-2009mar15,0,6684861.story
Must Read - A quote...."For the last several decades, though, it has been all but impossible to cry out against the Israeli state without being smeared as an anti-Semite, or worse. To question not just Israel's actions, but the Zionist tenets on which the state is founded, has for too long been regarded an almost unspeakable blasphemy. -- Yet it is no longer possible to believe with an honest conscience that the deplorable conditions in which Palestinians live and die in Gaza and the West Bank come as the result of specific policies, leaders or parties on either side of the impasse. The problem is fundamental: Founding a modern state on a single ethnic or religious identity in a territory that is ethnically and religiously diverse leads inexorably either to politics of exclusion (think of the 139-square-mile prison camp that Gaza has become) or to wholesale ethnic cleansing. Put simply, the problem is Zionism." - bold/underline by website editor -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/16-2
& ICH  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22235.htm
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Palestinian Child Prisoners  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52697&s1=h1
A quote...."According to the latest figures compiled by DCI-Palestine from sources including the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), the number of Palestinian children detained in Israeli prisons and detention centres inside Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory rose sharply in February. -- At the end of February, there were 423 Palestinian children in the custody of the Israeli authorities - including seven girls and six children held without charge or trial in administrative detention. -- This figure represents a 37.8% increase over the corresponding period in 2008."
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Justice for Rachel, justice for the Palestinians  ---  http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10399.shtml
A quote...."We thank all who continue to remember Rachel and who, on this sixth anniversary of her stand in Gaza, renew their own commitments to human rights, justice and peace in the Middle East. The tributes and actions in her memory are a source of inspiration to us and to others. -- Friday, 13 March, we learned of the tragic injury to American activist Tristan Anderson. Tristan was shot in the head with a tear gas canister in Nilin village in the West Bank when Israeli forces attacked a demonstration opposing the construction of the annexation wall through the village's land."
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GRITtv Interview: Tony Benn  ---  http://blip.tv/file/1885851
Video
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Palestinians to hold elections this year, Hamas expected to win  ---  http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=18421
A quote...."Hamas and their rivals in Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction agreed on Sunday that general elections for both Gaza and the so-called "West Bank" will be held prior to January 2010."
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A Heretic Is Punished in Washington  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis141.html
Must Read - A quote...."A former ambassador to Saudi Arabia and respected Mideast and China expert, Freeman had the audacity to previously say, "left to its own devices, the Israeli establishment will make decisions that harm Israelis, threaten all associated with them, and enrage those who are not." -- Freeman has criticized Israel’s actions on other occasions. He committed the ultimate heresy of warning that close US collaboration with Israel’s right-wing parties was jeopardizing American interests and security, and generating anti-American terrorism."
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The Freeman Affair The Rape of Washington  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery03162009.html
A quote...."THE FULL meaning of this episode should not escape anyone. -- It was the first test of strength of the lobby in the new Obama era. And in this test, the lobby came out with flying (blue-and-white) colors. The administration was publicly humiliated. -- The White House did not even try to hide its abject surrender. It declared that the appointment had not been cleared with the President, that Obama had no hand in it and did not even know about it. Meaning: of course he would have objected to the appointment of any official who was not fully acceptable to the lobby. The portrayal of the power of the lobby by Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, has been fully vindicated."
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The False Idol of Unfettered Capitalism  ---  http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090316_the_false_idol_of_unfettered_capitalism/
Must Read - A quote...."Turn away from the moral life and you end in disaster. You sink into a morass of self-absorption and greed. You breed a society that celebrates fraud, theft and violence, you turn neighbor against neighbor, you confuse presentation and image with your soul. Moral rules are as imperative to sustaining a community as law. And all cultures have sought to remind us of these basic moral restraints, ones that invariably tell us that successful communities do permit its members to exploit each other but ensure that they sacrifice for the common good. The economic and social collapse we face was presaged by a moral collapse. And our response must include a renewed reverence for moral and social imperatives that acknowledge the sanctity of the common good." -- Too late. - mpg -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/16
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Kucinich requests investigation into 'executive assassination ring'  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12762
A quote...."After comments made by a New Yorker journalist about Vice President Dick Cheney's alleged involvement in a "executive assassination ring" abroad, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) called Monday for a formal congressional probe."
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Who Did Cheney Have Murdered?  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/Who-Did-Cheney-Have-Murder-by-Robert-Arend-090315-473.html
Special Note - A quote...."There is a kind of hush, that started with a muted gasp, that came from whispers of  Cheney assassination squads, murmured by Seymour Hersh during topic "America's Constitutional Crisis" at the University of Minnesota on March 10, 2009."
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Claims of British collusion in torture spread to Egypt  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/16/azhar-khan-torture-egypt
A quote...."Allegations of British collusion in torture have widened to Egypt, where a young British man says he suffered appalling mistreatment during a week of illegal detention while being interrogated on the basis of information that he says can only have come from the UK."
also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/192381
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Who are 'the worst of the worst'?  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/mar/12/guantanamo-bay-human-rights
A quote...."This is not the first instance of a former prisoner "returning to the battlefield", of course, but an honest debate about the significance of these recidivist prisoners has been scuppered by sensationalism in the media, by a refusal on the part of the Pentagon to back up its regular claims about the numbers of prisoners who have "returned to the fight" and, perhaps most importantly, by the refusal of any of the parties concerned to examine the situation at Guantánamo, and to ask why the Pentagon seems to have such difficulties ascertaining who it has been holding in the prison." - bold by website editor
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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Group Smeared As Terror Cell By Feds Runs Soup Kitchens  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/group-smeared-as-terror-cell-by-feds-runs-soup-kitchens.html
Police State Alert - A quote...."A member of the Missouri Militia has contacted us to express his outrage over the incident. -- Missouri Militia member expresses outrage that organization which helps police find missing children, sponsors soup kitchens and blood donation campaigns is linked with OKC bombing, domestic terrorism."
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New Bill Will Extend Sunset Clauses Of The Patriot Act
  ---  http://www.roguegovernment.com/New_Bill_Will_Extend_Sunset_Clauses_Of_The_Patriot_Act/14788/0/13/13/Y/M.html
Police State Alert - A quote...."The criminal terrorists in the federal government are seeking now to extend sunset clauses  found in the USA Patriot Act and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Act of 2004. This will effectively extend certain provisions of this bill that were set to expire from 2009 to 2019. Both the USA Patriot Act and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Act of 2004 were widely panned upon their passage for undermining civil liberties and unnecessarily expanding government power."
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9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey: It Might Take "A Permanent 9/11 Commission" to End the Remaining Mysteries of September 11
  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/911-commissioner-bob-kerrey-it-might.html
A quote...."Some of us have been writing for years (see this and this) that the 9/11 Commission Report was unreliable because most of the information was based on the statements of tortured detainees. As I wrote in March 2007:"
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Lingering mystery: Congressman calls for probe into 2001 anthrax attacks  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Inquiry_sought_in_anthrax_letter_attacks_0316.html
A quote...."More than seven years after the first bio-terror attack on the United States, Congress is considering creating a commission to probe the government's response to the anthrax-laced letters that killed five people."
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The sanctity of AIG's contracts  ---  http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/16/aig/index.html
Article   ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22226.htm
also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908.html
Must Read - (For the scathing logic of Greenwald's argument) -- A quote...."Apparently, the supreme sanctity of employment contracts applies only to some types of employees but not others. Either way, the Obama administration’s claim that nothing could be done about the AIG bonuses because AIG has solid, sacred contractual commitments to pay them is, for so many reasons, absurd on its face."
also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/16-6
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AIG Bonuses Total $450 Million and $105 Billion of Their TARP Bailouts Went to Off-Shore Banks
  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/aig-bonuses-total-450-million-and-half-of-their-tarp-bailouts-went-to-off-shore-banks/
Related Article - A quote...."The Obama administration tried to paint a rosey picture of the economic forecast this weekend, partly because the story of the AIG bonuses had come out. What was originally reported was that $170 million in bonuses had been paid to their CEOs and executives so that these “talented” business leaders wouldn’t take their collective “skills” else-where. But as it turns out, that was only half the story. -- The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that nearly a half a billion dollars was paid out this weekend in bonus money at AIG!"
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Before the Fall, AIG Payouts Went to Washington  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/40777
Related Article - A quote...."As long as everyone's talking today about AIG's payouts to its executives and foreign banks, let's remember the payouts AIG has made over the years to politicians. In the last 20 years American International Group (AIG) has contributed more than $9 million to federal candidates and parties through PAC and individual contributions. That's enough to rank AIG on OpenSecrets.org's Heavy Hitters list, which profiles the top 100 contributors of all time."
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Citigroup CEO awarded $10.8 million  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE52F3MP20090316
Related Article - Well, they ain't stopping, despite all that supposed 'outrage' by Obama they're just gonna keep right on doing it to all you folks out there.  - mpg -- A quote...."NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc awarded Chief Executive Vikram Pandit $10.82 million of compensation in 2008, a year when the government propped up the bank with $45 billion of capital." -- For more on this issue see....Having Fun With Your Tax Dollars
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/havingfunwithyourtaxdollars-weblist-mpg-reficultnias-110808.html
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Jon Stewart's Epiphany - Has a Comedian Just Saved America?  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/martens03162009.html
A quote...."Wall Street is supposed to have an early warning system that if something is amiss it will self correct in time to avoid a collapse of the system.  That early warning system is known as price action.  In other words, the trading price of Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and AIG should have begun a downward trajectory years ago as these firms loaded up on leveraged junk.  There is only one possible scenario, in my opinion, to explain why this did not happen: trading in the market was rigged.  Thanks to Jim Cramer, the public now knows how easy it is to get stock prices to move up or down.   (As one more example, see “Wall Street Powerhouses Invested Alongside Madoff.”)  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/martens01152009.html
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Monetary and Fiscal Failure, Fraud, and Fear of What's Next
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/Monetary-and-Fiscal-Failur-by-Stephen-Lendman-090316-187.html
Must Read - A quote...."Even the powerful are worried with the IMF on February 7 saying advanced economies are in "depression (and) the worst cannot be ruled out." Forecasting a 2010 recovery is "very uncertain" at this time as further financial turmoil may disrupt it regardless of policies adopted, and trouble is outpacing resources to alleviate it."
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The TALF  - Bernanke's Witness Protection Program  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22224.htm
posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908.html
Must Read - A quote...."March 16, 2009 "Information Clearing House" --   Fed chief Ben Bernanke's new funding facility is a real doozy. In fact, if the Term Asset-Backed Loan Facility or TALF, which is set to launch on Thursday, doesn't convince the American people that it's time to take a wrecking ball to the Central Bank and start over, than nothing will. Bernanke and his co-conspirator at Treasury, Timothy Geithner, are planning to revive the shadow banking system by dumping $2 trillion into the same over-leveraged, derivatives-based garbage that blew up the financial system in the first place. All the blabbering about a "good bank-bad bank" remedy appears to have been a diversion. This is how Bloomberg sums it up:"
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The Financial Sector: "A House Burning Down" - Ben Bernanke’s False Analogy
  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=HUD20090316&articleId=12735
Article  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22229.htm
also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908.html
A quote...."What’s false about this analogy? For starters, banking houses are not in the same neighborhood where most people live. They’re the castle on the hill, lording it over the town below. They can burn down and leave the hilltop revert "back to nature" rather than having the whole down gaze up at a temple of money that keeps them in debt. - More to the point is the false analogy with U.S. policy. In effect, the Treasury and Fed are not "putting out a fire." They’re taking over houses that have not burned down, throwing out their homeowners and occupants, and turning the property over to the culprits who "burned down their own house." The government is not playing the role of fireman. "Putting out the fire" would be writing off the debts of the economy – the debts that are "burning it down."
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How The World Pimps America  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22223.htm
posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908.html
Video - A quote...."The US Treasury will borrow no less than one trillion dollars from the developing world in 2009. It will need even more in 2010. Pepe Escobar argues the US is indeed in a privileged position: not only it unleashes a global financial crisis, it then sucks up money from all over the world, based on the fact that the US in fact remains the "manager" of choice of global capitalism. As if this was not hardship enough for the developing world, it now also has to cope with the resurgence of the discredited World Bank and IMF. A certain Tim Geithner has been through this before - during the Asian financial crisis in 1997/1998 - and then he got it all wrong." -- For more on Geithner see....Obama's economic saviour savaged as Keating lets rip
  ---  http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/obamas-economic-saviour-savaged-as-keating-lets-rip-20090306-8rk7.html
 - Alt  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22217.htm - posted 03-15-09
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Credit Default Swap Expert: Lehman Default Caused Much Higher Losses than Previously Admitted
  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/credit-default-swap-expert-lehman.html
In other words our "authorities" lied again. - mpg -- A quote...."Commonly-accepted wisdom is that the losses from credit default swaps against Lehman were really not that bad. The pundits say that the losses were grossly exaggerated, and that the low loss figures show that the CDS market still works, and does not pose that great a danger."
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WRAPUP 1-U.S. credit card defaults rise to 20 year-high  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN1639142420090316?sp=true
A quote...."NEW YORK, March 16 (Reuters) - U.S. credit card defaults rose in February to their highest level in at least 20 years, with losses particularly severe at American Express Co (AXP.N) and Citigroup (C.N) amid a deepening recession "
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WRAPUP 3-U.S. output plummets, manufacturing at record low  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN1651011520090316
A quote...." Analysts said the data dashed hopes that the economic recession, which started in December 2007, is close to finding a bottom. That optimism had been fanned by a report last week showing a modest decline in February retail sales. -- "Hopes that the U.S. recession is close to ending are not supported by these nasty figures," said Roger Kubarych, an economist at Unicredit Markets & Investment Banking in New York. "Several more months of declining industrial production are highly probable."
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New York Manufacturing Index [Empire State Index] Slumped to Record Low (Update1)
  ---  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=aKBohF.ps9_o&refer=home
A quote...."March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Manufacturing in New York contracted in March at the fastest pace on record as orders, sales and inventories plunged."
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US capital flows negative in January  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090316/pl_afp/useconomyfinancebonds
Special Note - Editor's Note: It's just a one month turn around, but it could spell big trouble if it continues. - mpg -- A quote...."WASHINGTON (AFP) – Foreign investors sold a net 43 billion dollars in long-term US securities in January as the flow of capital turned negative, US Treasury data showed Monday. -- The decline in foreign holdings was the steepest since August 2007."
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Britain showing signs of heading towards 1930s-style depression, says [the Bank of England]
  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/recession/4996994/Britain-showing-signs-of-heading-towards-1930s-style-depression-says-Bank.html
A quote...."The country is displaying early symptoms of being trapped in a so-called “debt deflation trap” where families find themselves pushed further and further into the red every month, according to a Bank report published today. -- The stark warning will cause serious concerns, since it was this combination of falling prices and soaring debt burdens that plagued the US in the 1930s."
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Sunday March 15th 2009  - links page

Obama's economic saviour savaged as Keating lets rip
  ---  http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/obamas-economic-saviour-savaged-as-keating-lets-rip-20090306-8rk7.html
Article  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22217.htm
also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908.html
A quote...."When Barack Obama announced his champion to rescue the world from economic ruin, it was the first time most Americans had ever heard the name Tim Geithner. -- The initial impression was good. The stockmarket surged and the pundits swooned. "Exactly a decade ago, he was Uncle Sam's golden-boy emissary sent into the stormy centre of what was then the world's worst financial crisis [the Asian crisis]," reported The New York Post."
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The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/15
Article  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22211.htm
 also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908.html
A quote...."In early 1919, Germany put in place a new government to begin rebuilding the country after its crushing defeat in World War I. But the right-wing forces that had led the country into the War and lost the War conspired even before it was over to destroy the new government, the "Weimar Republic." They succeeded."
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Dollar Crisis in the Making - Before the stampede  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/KC14Dj04.html
Article  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22219.htm
also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908.html
A quote...."Increasingly ominous clouds are gathering in what could soon be the perfect storm against the United States dollar and against the present dollar-centric global financial order. -- This is not shaping up to be a storm that anyone is trying to initiate, not even those who are actively driving for a new global financial order that is no longer centered on the dollar. Instead, it will result from a correlation of forces arising out of the deepening global financial and economic crises, coupled with recurring and conspicuous miscalculation on the part of some of the world's political, financial and economic leaders."

Regarding the economic articles posted above see also the video shown below
From the history file....Arron Russo's "Freedom to Fascism"   ---  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173
-- (Google Video - 1hr:51min:16sec  - May 5, 2007)
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Continuity and Change -- Forget the latter, and get used to the former  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=14405
Obama™ Update -- A quote..."As a reward for killing 1,400 Palestinians in the Gaza blitzkrieg, ignoring U.S. demands to stop the building of "settlements" on the West Bank, and vigorous efforts to breach our security and steal highly classified information via its Washington fifth column, Tel Aviv has been reassured by President Barack Obama that $30 billion in aid will not be cut. World financial crisis? Impending US bankruptcy? Obama's newfound sense of fiscal responsibility? Put it out of your mind. All it takes is one phone call from Chuck Schumer, a tête-à-tête with Nancy Pelosi, and an editorial or two in the Washington Post, and – poof! – "change" turns into continuity. Obama will keep Bush's promise, and you can take that to the bank."
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US troops to remain active in Iraq after pullback  ---  http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/03/15/us-troops-to-remain-active-in-iraq-after-pullback/
Obama™ Update -- A quote..."US military: Combat operations won't stop after June pullback to bases outside Iraqi cities." -- But....Obama promised "change", didn't he?  At one point during his numerous speeches on the issue he said something about there being no "combat forces" in Iraq after the "pull back"?  Of course he did, and any Obamatroll who believed him was a deluded fool. - mpg
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WPost Is a Neocon Propaganda Sheet  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/031509.html
posted at ConsortiumNews  ---  https://secure.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/consortiumnews/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=2043
A quote...."For Americans who hear the name Washington Post and still think of “All the President’s Men” – brave journalists and editors facing down a corrupt President – today’s version of the newspaper would be a sad disappointment, a betrayal of a noble past."
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The Miracle of America(from Oct. 2007)  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/the-miracle-of-america/
A quote...."By every right this President and his corrupt administration should have been impeached and then incarcerated years ago. But what do you expect from a group of people that we have, by concession, allowed to steal the White House, not once… but twice? -- In Chile in 1973, when Nixon and the Chicago Boys wanted to implement the Friedman Doctrine of savage capitalism as a test case, their candidate also lost the free election to Salvador Allende and therefore they had too resort to a military coup to install the Augusto Pinochet led junta."
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Is the Israeli Lobby Running Scared? - Or Killing a Chicken to Scare the Monkeys
  ---  http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175046/robert_dreyfuss_the_freeman_affair
Article  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22228.htm
 also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908.html
A quote...."Is the Israel lobby in Washington an all-powerful force? Or is it, perhaps, running scared? - Judging by the outcome of the Charles W. ("Chas") Freeman affair this week, it might seem as if the Israeli lobby is fearsome indeed. Seen more broadly, however, the controversy over Freeman could be the Israel lobby's Waterloo." -- also posted at ADS  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/40750
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A warning of creeping totalitarianism in U.S  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/40749
Book Review - A quote...."This is no political screed. It is a brilliant, nuanced, and detailed dissection of the abject failings of the American political system by one of the nation's preeminent political theorists. It is a work that will rank as one of the most important pieces of political philosophy of the new century. By the time Wolin, who taught political philosophy at Berkeley and Princeton, is finished, it is clear that unless Barack Obama radically restructures corporate and military industrial power, our democracy is doomed." -- "Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism" -- [GoglSrch]
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Cheney: Obama responsible for next 9/11  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=88745&sectionid=3510203
False Flag Alert - A quote...."US President Barack Obama's decisions against Bush's "war on terror" policies would cause another 9/11, says former vice president Dick Cheney."
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Militants torch NATO supplies in Pakistan; 20 trucks reduced to ashes  ---  http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/16114
link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/ichsfundingpage-cached-reficultnias-111908.html
Exclusive Images -- A quote...."Peshawar, 16 March, (Asiantribune.com): Militants attacked a NATO supply terminal and set fire to about 20 trucks carrying supplies to Western forces in Afghanistan on Sunday. - Militants attacked the supply depot situated at Ring Road in the jurisdiction of Yakatoot Police Station, Peshawar-- capital of North West Frontier Province. - In a pre-dawn attack the militants used rockets, petrol bombs and also resorted to firing before setting the trucks ablaze."
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French Kissing NATO’s Global Mission Creep  ---  http://www.creative-i.info/?p=5290
A quote...."NATO, the main overseas arm of the U.S. military-industrial complex, just keeps expanding. Its original raison d’être, the supposedly menacing Soviet bloc, has been dead for twenty years.  But like the military-industrial complex itself, NATO is kept alive and growing by entrenched economic interests, institutional inertia and an official mindset resembling paranoia, with think tanks looking around desperately for “threats”." -- Not the obvious ones caused by the US-NRE that is. - mpg
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Chief Justice Reinstated in Pakistan; Protest Rally in Capital Cancelled; Crisis subsiding
  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2009/03/chief-justice-reinstated-in-pakistan.html
A Juan Cole Round-Up - Pakistan -- A quote...."The immediate crisis in Pakistan was averted Monday morning when Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced that he was going to reinstate Iftikhar Chaudhry as chief justice of the supreme court. Chaudhry had been dismissed by dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf in 2007 in a particularly lawless way."
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Top officials urge dialogue with Hamas  ---  http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/03/14/top_officials_urge_dialogue_with_hamas/
A quote...."WASHINGTON - Nine former senior US officials and one current adviser are urging the Obama administration to talk with leaders of Hamas to determine whether the militant group can be persuaded to disarm and join a peaceful Palestinian government, a major departure from current US policy." -- Well, that's nine more US-NRE officials the Jewish Mafia (a.k.a. AIPAC) will have to go after.  To bad they're already retired.  Maybe AIPAC can smear their reputations or those of their relatives? - mpg
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Israel to raze 1,700 Palestinian homes  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=88734&sectionid=351020202
A quote...."The Palestinian Islamic Movement says Israel plans to evacuate and demolish at least 1,700 Arab-owned homes in East Jerusalem (al-Quds)." -- also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/192286
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US Eyewitness in Gaza: 'As a world, we utterly failed the Palestinians of Gaza. We stood and watched them die and justified our own inaction'
  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52671&s1=h1
A quote...."It took me a month to write this email. In that month, I've been through a whirlwind of emotions, trying to find away to process the things that I saw. I still haven't figured it out."
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Gaza: World's leading investigators call for war crimes inquiry - open letter  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52672&s1=h1
A quote...."Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson and Justice Richard Goldstone among signatories "shocked to core" by recent events. -- A 16-strong group of the world's most experienced investigators and judges have today (16 March) called for a full international investigation into alleged abuses of international law during the recent Gaza conflict." -- For more on this issue see....Gaza Invasion of 12/27/08
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/thegazainvasion-mpg-weblist-122708
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Left-winger wins El Salvador poll - i.e. "left" of Attila the Hun, Adolf Hitler and Genghis Khan...combined.
  ---  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7944899.stm
Oh No!!! Another country the US-NRE will have to bomb back to the stone age and then invade, the list keeps getting longer and longer, what's a poor (and getting poorer all the time) New Roman Empire supposed to do? -- Go invade Iran of course!   Capital idea! -- mpg -- A quote...."Leftist Mauricio Funes of El Salvador's former Marxist rebel FMLN party has won the country's presidential election. - He defeated his conservative rival, Rodrigo Avila of the Arena party - who has admitted defeat."
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Mullen sketches out 'US strike' on Iran  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=88715&sectionid=351020104
A quote...."The top US military commander describes how Washington would engage Iran militarily amid simmering talks of war on the country."
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Bolivia passes land from rich to poor  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSTRE52D26E20090314
A quote...."LA PAZ (Reuters) - Emboldened by a new leftist constitution, Bolivia President Evo Morales on Saturday handed over ownership of farmland seized by the state from wealthy estate holders to poor indigenous people."
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Kremlin shoots down general's musings  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/192291
A quote...."MOSCOW | A Russian air force chief said Saturday that Moscow could base some strategic bombers in Cuba or on an island offered by Venezuela, the Interfax news agency reported, but a Kremlin official quickly said the military had been speaking only hypothetically."
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Great Power divisions persist following G20 summit  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/g20s-m16.shtml
A quote...."A summit of G20 finance ministers and central bankers failed to reach any concrete agreement for measures to deal with the growing international finance crisis."
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A few who got it right -- Commentary: What do those who called the downturn think?
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/What-do-those-called-downturn/story.aspx?
guid=%7B7DEE6F9B-344D-498A-9B6F-D36D56F8B577%7D&dist=SecMostRead
Merket Tech Note -- A quote...."ORLANDO, Fla. (MarketWatch) -- The financial markets are littered with the broken reputations of so-called "experts" who failed to anticipate the global financial crisis, or the recession and bear market that have followed."
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Give Bernanke Credit – For Chutzpah  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/higgs/higgs110.html
A quote...."In my mind’s eye, I envision a street fair – one of those happy community gatherings at which sellers of handcrafted ceramics, funky clothing, herbal remedies, fresh vegetables, and edible delicacies congregate to display their wares for the strolling customers, who chat amiably with the stall-keepers and with one another. Suddenly, amid horrified shrieks and the roar of a giant engine, a truck plows through this placid setting, scattering twisted debris and broken bodies in its wake. Finally, after wreaking a hundred-yard swath of death and devastation, the truck stops, and the driver, Ben Bernanke, climbs down from the cab. -- “People, people,” he exhorts them in a calm, world-weary voice, “do not panic. I am here to assess the damage and make recommendations for reforms that will prevent a recurrence of this unfortunate and wholly unforeseen act of God.” Whereupon he proceeds to lay out his assessment and recommendations, always speaking in the same quiet, unemotional voice. The stunned and wounded survivors gaze at him in astonishment. “He’s a madman,” one cries out."
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The Fed Has Failed By Its Own Terms  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/fed-has-failed-by-its-own-terms.html
A quote...."On the one hand, many people defer to the Fed as the experts on the arcane processes of the economy. -- On the other hand, quite a few people accuse the Federal Reserve of being a private cabal owned by the banks, with the sole purpose of making the elite richer. -- But let's sidestep these black-or-white approaches and instead focus on how well the Fed has done according to its own terms."
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Moody's: Anyone Who Believed Us Is an Idiot  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/moodys-anyone-who-believed-our-credit.html
A quote...."Moody's - one of the big 3 credit rating agencies with an official government endorsement - helped cause the financial crisis by keeping the ratings of failing companies artificially high. -- Moody's shareholders are now suing in federal court, saying that Moody's misrepresented the fact that its ratings are impartial. Once it became clear that Moody's was gaming its ratings, its share price plunged - 75% since February 2007."
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Volcker and the Mother of All Finanical Crises  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/volcker-and-the-mother-of-all-finanical-crises.html
A quote...."It was a moment of brazen honesty. On February 20, the don of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board and former chair of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker, told a conference at Columbia University’s Center for Capitalism and Society that, in essence, we’re screwed. Volcker said the crash of 2008 might be “the mother of all financial crises… I don’t remember any time, maybe even the Great Depression, when things went down quite so fast, quite so uniformly around the world.”
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Britons suffer 17% plunge in wealth  ---  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5908388.ece
A quote...."THE wealth of households in Britain fell by 17% last year, the biggest drop for at least 40 years, as house prices slumped and the stock market plunged."
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£40,000 each: The personal cost of the downturn [in Britian]
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/16340000-each-the-personal-cost-of-the-downturn-1645727.html
Related Article - A quote...."The worst economic slowdown in three-quarters of a century has wiped £40,000 from the wealth of every adult in the United Kingdom, a national total of almost £2 trillion; that is £2,000bn, or £2,000,000,000,000."
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Saturday March 14th 2009 - links page

It's All Good: Media Reports for Duty as Militarists Plan More Wars
  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1719-its-all-good-media-reports-for-duty-as-militarists-plan-more-wars.html
 Must Read - A quote...."Surely there is no one who still needs to be apprised of the fact that the New York Times is one of the chief organs of the American Empire, operating in a semi-official fashion to disseminate the intentions and wishes of our rulers. The fact that the paper also publishes some excellent reporting -- and can even, on occasion, assume an adversarial stance against one faction of the elite or another -- in no way undermines its essential function in the imperial power structure. After all, Pravda and Izvestia did the same under the Soviets.  --  [Of course, the dead hand of state censorship was heavier under the Soviets than in our ultra-modern, low-carb authoritarian system. We prefer witless diversion over outright repression, tasers over bullets, and the eager self-censorship of cozy, coddled media dullards over direct intervention by government functionaries -- although, to be sure, if repression, bullets and direct intervention (along with KGB-style torture, rendition, detention without trial, etc.) are deemed necessary, our elites are more than willing to oblige.]" -- Folks, the article about AIG (see below) was funny, this one isn't. - mpg
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AIG pays $450 million in bonuses after bailout  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/2008/AIG_pays_millions_in_bonuses_after_0315.html
(updated from $165 million)  ---  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/14/aig-paying-out-tens-of-mi_n_174997.html
after being (updated from $100 million)  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/business/15AIG.html?_r=1
Must Read - (For the absolute hilarity of it all) -- Hahhhhh, Hahhhhhh, Hahhhhhh, Ho, ho, ho, heeeeeeeee....(snicker, snicker). You're killing me here folks, I'm rolling on the ground with both arms and legs in the air, heeeeeee, hee, hee.....I’m gasping for breath here folks....oh man this is just beee-you-tea-full...oh this feels good. – mpg -- A quote...."Ailing insurance giant AIG is planning to give out $450 million in bonuses this week to executives who led the firm to a $99.3 billion dollar loss in 2008. -- Although AIG has agreed to cut back on multi-million-dollar bonuses for its highest ranking officers, the firm's lower-ranked employees are still set for a massive pay day. The bonuses are for staff at AIG's London subsidiary, AIG Financial Products, which helped trigger the collapse, the Wall Street Journal reports. -- The payments have dismayed the US government, which has already given the American International Group $170 billion in federal bailout money and now holds an 80% ownership stake in the company." -- Welcome folks....to the "Capitalist System", where every day it's heads they win and tails you lose.  Like a slot machine that NEVER pays off for the "little guy".  Now you know what it feels like to be one of those "little brown people" starving in some third world country after the Maximum Leader receives buco bribes from the banksters backed by the likes of the IMF or World Bank to sign his nation up for loans carrying interest rates that would make a loan shark blush.  -  mpg -- posted 03-14-09-- For more on this issue see....Having Fun With Your Tax Dollars
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I called it a corporate coup, they call it looting... either way, we got robbed...
  ---  http://www.atlargely.com/2009/03/i-called-it-a-corporate-coup-they-call-it-looting-either-way-we-got-robbed.html
Related Article - A quote...."Now, let me explain the Wall Street scam, subsequent crisis, and bailout in a very brief, but effective way for you: -- A thief breaks into your house, steals everything, and leaves you nearly broke. Law enforcement responds by visiting with the thief and the resellers of the thief's stolen goods in a very friendly setting, perhaps lunch at the Four Seasons. Law enforcement then takes the information to government officials who respond by writing the thief and the resellers a check from what is left of your checking account. They decide this too over lunch, perhaps also at the Four Seasons and on your dime."
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Obama at the Business Roundtable  ---  http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/pers-m14.shtml
Obama™ Update -- A quote..."On Thursday, President Barack Obama spoke before the Business Roundtable, an organization of leading corporate CEOs. Obama used the opportunity to deliver a paean to American capitalism. -- The speech, delivered in the midst of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, had an air of provocation against the American people about it. Not a few of the CEOs assembled at the conference have overseen the ruination of their own corporations. Collectively, they bear responsibility for the economic collapse and the impoverishment of millions of Americans and hundreds of millions the world over."
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The Company We Keep…  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/03/14/the-company-we-keep/
A quote...."If you think that being concerned about the unwarranted influence the international banker-class has on our government, on our country, and on our lives is nothing more than the conspiracy theory flavor of the month, you are forgetting part of our history. Well, you are not forgetting it… you were never told it...."
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Obama's Poll Numbers Dropping  ---  http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1563748/obamas_poll_numbers_dropping.html
Special Note - Obama™ Update -- A quote..."Overall, Rasmussen Reports shows a 56%-43% approval, with a third strongly disapproving of the president's performance. This is a substantial degree of polarization so early in the administration. Mr. Obama has lost virtually all of his Republican support [who cares] and a good part of his  Independent support, [Oh, Oh!] and the trend is decidedly negative. -- Well that's what happens when people finally discover you're a (redacted)-kissing lackey of AIPAC, The Banksters AND The Military Industrial Complex. - mpg
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Gates Carries Over Iraq-WMD Lie  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/031409a.html
posted at ConsortiumNews  ---  https://secure.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/consortiumnews/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=2043
A quote...."Editor’s Note: Officials from the Bush administration continue to excuse their 2003 invasion of Iraq by citing mistaken intelligence on WMD, despite evidence that they had long wanted to oust Saddam Hussein and simply settled on WMD as the most marketable argument. -- In this guest essay, former CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman observes that Bush’s last Defense Secretary Robert Gates now has carried that false WMD rationale into the Obama administration because President Obama chose to keep Gates*  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/gates-robert-weblist-mpg-111006  ---  on:" - *link added
For more on this issue see....Fake Intel / Propaganda  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/fakeintell-weblist-mpg-090206
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How the U.S. went from 'World's Number One Exporter of Terrorism' to Bankrupt
  ---  http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-us-went-from-worlds-number-one.html
Special Note - A quote...."The US is the world's number one exporter of world terrorism and, at the same time, sustains, by far, the world's largest NEGATIVE current account balance of $ -568,800,000,000. [See: CIA: The World Factbook] In every area but 'terrorism', the US trails the world. It has not helped America's case that monies 'earned' exporting death and destruction have not helped the US current account balance which remains negative. It is, however, clear that the US makes its living, 'killing'. Fat lotta good that has done the people of the US."
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A message to citizens of the US, heed the warning from Australia and the UK: Do not under any circumstances give up your guns
  ---  http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/2231
A quote...."In the United States, the right to keep and bear arms is often presented in the context of military service and the broader right of self defense. Whether this right pertains to individuals acting independently or individuals acting collectively was once a matter of debate, and the basis for any right at all hotly contested. However, on June 26, 2008, the Supreme Court of the United States held that Americans have an individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense in the case  District of Columbia v. Heller.”
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Web founder warns against internet snooping  ---  http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/content/news/2009-03-13/web-founder-warns-against-internet-snooping/
A quote...."March 13, 2009 (Reuters) - Surfers on the Internet are at increasing risk from governments and corporations tracking the sites they visit to build up a picture of their activities, the founder of the World Wide Web said on Friday."
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CIA involvement with religious groups not a new charge  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4474.shtml
A quote...."(WMR)  ---  http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/  ---  Accusations that the CIA is involved with various religious movements, including the Nurcilar movement of Pennsylvania-based Turkish moderate Islamist leader Fethullah Gulen and the Unification Church of one-time Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) operative Reverend Sun Myung Moon, follow a long history of suspicions that the U.S. intelligence agency is deeply involved with some religious movements. The CIA has also been accused of using foreign missionaries as espionage agents."
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US-led troops kill father, four sons in Afghanistan  ---  http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=38244
A quote...."An Afghan police chief said US-led forces on Saturday killed a father and his four adult sons in a raid on their home."
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Mr. Iran envisions 'major' war in coming months  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=88605&sectionid=351020104
War Update - A quote...."Amid lingering talks of war on Iran, Israel's prime minister-designate raises the alarm about a major military conflict in the coming months."
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Talha Mujaddidi: Dispatch from Pakistan, March 14, 2009  ---  http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_29872.shtml
A quote...."The political deadlock in Pakistan is still going on at the moment. Government is arresting political workers, but no major opposition leaders have been arrested. After an intense round of discussions between various players, namely Prime Minister Gillani, President Zardari, Army Chief Kayani, U.S ambassador to Pakistan Ann Patterson, Richard Holbrooke, and Hillary Clinton, calling in from U.S, the government has announced a plan to diffuse the tensions. This came after some pressure from the Army Chief and Gillani on Zardari. But there are many loopholes in this latest offer from Zardari’s camp office. "
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Pakistan clamps down on protests amid fresh fears of a military coup
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/pakistan-clamps-down-on-protests-amid-fresh-fears-of-a-military-coup-1645368.html
A quote...."Pakistan's army was put on stand-by yesterday to deal with growing demonstrations against the government, which are due to reach a climax in the capital, Islamabad, tomorrow. Divisions within President Asif Ali Zardari's administration were underlined by the abrupt resignation of a senior minister."
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Pakistan opposition leader detained  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/03/200931533355386255.html
A quote...."Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistani opposition leader, has been placed under house arrest, a move that is likely to heighten political turmoil in the country."
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US Urges Freedom to Protest; Zardari Rejects Reconciliation Plan, Bans Geo; Sherry Rehman Resigns
  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2009/03/us-urges-freedom-to-protest-zardari.html
A Juan Cole Round-Up of Pakistan -- A quote...."The Pakistani government arrested another 200 protesters on Friday, mostly in Punjab province. The Long March demonstrators, in the meantime, reached the outskirts of Lahore."
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Nasrallah: “Hezbollah does not have any branch in Gaza”  ---  http://www.imemc.org/article/59335
A quote...."Secretary-general of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah party, stated Friday that his party does not have any branch or formation in the Palestinian territories, especially in the Gaza Strip.  In a televised speech marking the birth of the Muslim prophet Mohammad, Nasrallah said that his party supports the Palestinian resistance but only as “a brother supports his brother”.  He also said that his party does not intervene in the internal Palestinian affairs, as it does not accept any interference it its internal affairs, and added that the Palestinians know what is best for them and act accordingly. Referring to the internal Palestinian talks in Cairo, Nasrallah urged the Palestinian leaders to act in order to end their internal conflicts and divisions, and to achieve national unity."
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IDF to draft civilians to maintain bulldozers in battle  --  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070057.html -- Coming to the US-NRE very soon. - mpg
A quote...."The Israel Defense Forces is planning to draft civilian bulldozer-maintenance personnel for reserve duty, marking the first time the army will be conscripting the staff of a private firm in wartime." - bold by website editor."
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The End of Israel’s Impunity?  ---  http://pulsemedia.org/2009/03/15/the-end-of-israel%E2%80%99s-impunity/
A quote...."The assault on Gaza marks the end of an era for Israel. For the second time in two years its colonial ambition has floundered in the face of determined resistance. It may persist for some time; but the trajectory is clear – it is losing both legitimacy and power. Support for it is dwindling in Washington; its friends are alarmed. Citizens are acting where governments have failed; the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions is snowballing. Apologists are finding it more difficult to justify its persistent criminality. Rifts have emerged in the transatlantic alliance over its recent actions; EU leaders have broken with Israel and the US, questioning the wisdom of continuing to isolate Hamas. Even the pliant Tony Blair will no longer toe the line."
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Everyone agrees: War [Slaughter] in Gaza was a failure  ---  http://pulsemedia.org/2009/03/14/everyone-agrees-war-in-gaza-was-a-failure/
Editor's Note: When you possess the fourth largest army in the world supplied and funded by an Imperial power
  ---  http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/03/13/30-billion-for-israels-military/  ---   that spends more money on it's defensive armaments than the entire planet combined and you launch a surprise blitzkrieg against an essentially unarmed, un-supported, civilian population, penned up in what amounts to a large Ghetto, that's not a "War", it is in fact a slaughter-fest. It's also a vivd example of just how cowardly craven the Jews of Israel really are.  They had to go ape "big brother's" actions in Iraq against a people who didn't even have the means of defending themselves. - mpg -- A quote...."Gideon Levy examines the Israeli media in the wake of the Gaza massacre and warns us to “get ready for the next treat. They’ve already begun to clamor for a new war in Gaza or Lebanon, whichever comes first.“
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George Galloway given Palestinian citizenship  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=192127
A quote...."Ismail Haniyeh appeared in public for the first time since the Gaza war UK member of parliament George Galloway has received a Palestinian passport from a Hamas leader in Gaza. The passport was given in “deep appreciation” for his support for the Palestinians and their cause."
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Destabilizing Mexico  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12707
A quote...."KNX News radio station a subsidiary of Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) reported this week that most of the guns that land in the hands of the drug cartel allegedly came from the black market in the United States . Ironically, most of the drugs that enter the United States from Mexico , have been funneled to the Mexican drug lords through rendition flights from Columbia (cocaine) and Afghanistan (opium) to Mexico , then, rerouted to the US through the Mexican drug lords. Per example, On September 24, 2007, a Florida based Gulfstream II jet aircraft, number N987SA, crashed in the Yucatan . As it turns out, not only was the plane used on at least three CIA rendition flights from Europe and the United States to the Guantánamo torture chamber, but it was loaded with tons of cocaine when it went down."
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Report: Cuba, Venezuela could host Russian bombers  ---  http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/03/14/report-cuba-venezuela-could-host-russian-bombers-2/
A quote...."A Russian Air Force chief said Saturday that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has offered an island as a temporary base for strategic Russian bombers, the Interfax news agency reported."
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Down But Not Out: Latin American Right and Its Chávez Fear-Mongering  ---  http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4294
A quote...."In light of the Salvadoran right’s fear-mongering campaign in advance of the Central American nation’s Sunday presidential election, which has sought to portray leftist candidate Mauricio Funes of the Farabundo Martí Liberation Front (FMLN) as a kind of dangerous foreign agent of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, perhaps it’s instructive to consider the political history of the past four years."
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Venezuelan Farmer Rights Organizations Unite to Oppose Assassinations by Landed Elite  ---  http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4293
A quote...."Mérida, March 13th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) -- Several Venezuelan small farmer rights organizations united forces this week to prevent further assassinations of rural community organizers. The groups also marched to demand that the national government end impunity for those responsible for these crimes, and to support the government’s land reform and food security measures."
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Blue Horseshoe Loves Anacot Steel  ---  http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2009/03/blue-horseshoe-loves-anacot-steel.html
A quote...."Wake up, will ya pal? If you're not inside, you're outside, OK? And I'm not talking a $400,000 a year working Wall Street stiff flying first class and being comfortable, I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars buddy. A player, or nothing." -- *Gordon Gekko*

"In the movie that would serve as a blueprint for the future lives of young turks shat out of the womb of 1980s Reagan eat the poor capitalism a young broker named Bud Fox (played by Charlie Sheen) engages in a bit of trickery to manipulate stock prices by invoking the magic words “Blue Horeshoe loves Anacot Steel” over the phone to players and media hacks. The movie was Oliver Stone’s Wall Street and the young Fox was in the process of selling his soul to the canny devil in suspenders who would become an iconic cultural figure. The seducer was big time corporate raider Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) whose amorality and worldview rooted in the dogma that “greed is good” would serve as the role model for the very large scale looters, charlatans, thugs, hedge fund hyenas and money grubbing sociopaths who are responsible for the global financial collapse."
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Said without Joy: We Told You So  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/13-10
A quote...."Is it fair to complain about the actions of the financial deregulators?  --  Could anyone reasonably have foreseen the consequences of a decades-long regulatory holiday for the financial sector?  --  In a word, yes."
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China Finally Diversifying Out of the Dollar?  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/china-finally-diversifying-out-of-the-dollar.html
A quote...."Everyone knows that China has $2 trillion in foreign reserves. Two-thirds of those reserves are said to be denominated in dollars. -- But - after years of speculation - there are increasing signs that China is diversifying out of the dollar. -- For example, the head of China’s energy bureau said in comments published on Monday “China should use part of its nearly $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves to buy more gold, oil, uranium and other strategic commodities”. -- Yes, true, IF Bernanke and the Banksters are able to print enough, borrow enough, steal enough and/or start some wars (a.k.a. the Ten Year Cycle)  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/fedfundschart-photopg-cached-032407  ---  to get themselves out of what appears to be an oncoming Great Depression, commodity prices will scream upward and the dollar and US-NRE bonds will tank....that's a big IF! - mpg
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[British] Bailout money is flowing abroad  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bailout-money-is-flowing-abroad-1644887.html
A quote...."Much of the new money the Bank of England has "printed" to stimulate the UK economy is ending up abroad where it will be of no benefit to UK households and businesses, according to an analysis of the Bank's "quantitative easing" programme."
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Friday March 13th 2009 - links page

Seven Years in Iraq - The War is Not Over  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/ross03122009.html
Must Read - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."The day we human shields rolled into Baghdad in February 2003, 12,000,000 protestors were pounding the pavement all over the world in a global tidal wave of protest aimed at stopping the criminal U.S. invasion of Iraq before it began and for once I entertained a sliver of hope that we would be heard.  Fat chance.  Bush dismissed the rest of the planet as a "focus group" and proceeded to eviscerate the cradle of civilization." -- also posted at AmericanEveryman  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/the-war-is-not-over/
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Alex Jones - The Obama Deception - (Full Length - Google Video - 1hr 51min 21sec  - Mar 12, 2009)
  ---  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7886780711843120756&hl=en
Must View Video - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."The Obama Deception is a hard-hitting film that completely destroys the myth that Barack Obama is working for the best interests of the American people. The Obama phenomenon is a hoax carefully crafted by the captains of the New World Order. He is being pushed as savior in an attempt to con the American people into accepting global slavery. We have reached a critical juncture in the New World Order's plans. and only by exposing the con can we help to save freedom in America. The Obama Deception is not about Left or Right: it's about a One World Government. The international banks plan to loot the people of the United States and turn them into slaves on a Global Plantation." -- Other than Alex Jones stance against "Global Warming" (the science for which seems to be well proven) it's pretty good. - mpg
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SPP: Updating the Militarization and Annexation of North America  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12696
A quote...."The title refers to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), also known as the North American Union - formerly launched at a March 23, 2005 Waco, Texas meeting attended by George Bush, Mexico's President Vincente Fox, and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. It's for a tri-national agreement, below the radar, for greater economic, political, and security integration with secret business and government working groups devising binding policies with no public knowledge or legislative debate."
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We don’t torture’ ... right now  ---  http://www.nyunews.com/opinion/columnists/we_don_t_torture_..._right_now-1.1601665
Must Read - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."It was creepy listening to President Barack Obama speak to Congress recently. He said, “The United States of America does not torture.” This was followed by Congress jumping to its feet in another round of idiotic applause. But before we all get swept away in jubilation, let’s remember a couple of things. - The U.S. government most certainly has engaged in torture and depravity. We’ve seen the pictures: naked men getting punched; men handcuffed against their cells with women’s underwear pulled over their head; prisoners forced to feign masturbation; people getting attacked by dogs." -- And much, much worse....think snuff movies. - mpg -- For more on this issue see....US - Torture & Sex Perv.
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ustorture&sexualperversion-weblist-mpg-031309
& US - Murder & Mayhem  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/usmurder&mayhem-weblist-mpg-031309
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Obama Justice Dept. defends Rumsfeld in torture case  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_Justice_Dep._defends_Rumsfeld_in_0313.html
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Exclusive: Attorney had hoped Obama admin would take 'stronger moral stance' on torture In a brief filed Thursday evening, Obama Justice Department lawyers extended many of the same arguments made by Bush attorneys -- that top government officials have qualified immunity from prosecution and that Guantanamo detainees do not have constitutional rights to due process." -- also posted at AmericanEveryman
  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/obama-justice-dept-defends-rumsfeld-in-torture-case/
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Obama™ Update -- "Obama drops the verbiage, keeps the prisoners! U.S. Keeps Broad Right to Detain, Retires 'Enemy Combatant'
  ---  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/13/AR2009031302371.html  ---  14 Mar 2009 The Obama administration yesterday jettisoned the Bush-era term "enemy combatant" but maintained a broad right to detain those who [allegedly] provide "substantial" assistance to al-Qaeda and its associates around the globe. The disclosure came in a court filing by the Justice Department in response to orders by federal judges, who sought clarity on the government's legal justification for holding about 241 prisoners at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."
Paragraph quoted from CLG  ---  http://www.legitgov.org/
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Obama™ Update -- "'The president has the authority to detain persons.'   ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/us/politics/14gitmo.html  ---  U.S. Won't Label Terror Suspects as 'Combatants'14 Mar 2009 The Obama administration said Friday that it would abandon the Bush regime’s term "enemy combatant" as it argues in court for the continued detention of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba... But in a much anticipated court filing, the Justice Department argued that the president has the authority to detain terrorism suspects there without criminal charges, much as the Bush administration had asserted. It provided a broad definition of those who can be held, which was not significantly different from the one used by the Bush administration. The filing signaled that, as long as Guantánamo remains open, the new administration will aggressively defend its ability to hold some prisoners there."
Paragraph quoted from CLG  ---  http://www.legitgov.org/
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Former White House Counsel Dean: If Hersh Allegations True, Cheney Guilty of War Crimes, Murder
  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/former-white-house-counsel-dean-if.html
Videos - A quote...."Dick Cheney is almost certainly guilty of war crimes for his role in setting up and promoting the policy of torture. Even Colin Powell's former chief of staff thinks so. -- In addition, former White House counsel John Dean says that - if Hersh's allegations that Cheney ordered executive assassinations are true - Cheney is guilty of war crimes and murder:"
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170 Organizations Request Special Prosecutor for Bush-Cheney  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/40689
Must Read - Action Alert - A quote...."Organizations and individuals are signing on, and 170 organizations have already taken the lead. - Next week United for Peace and Justice will ask its 1,400 member groups to consider signing on. - Most of the 170 national and local groups signed onto this movement before the release of seven Justice Department memos from 2001-2002 in which top officials claimed the right to disregard the Fourth Amendment, Habeas Corpus, and Posse Comitatus:"
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War Crimes & American Rejectionism - posted at ConsortiumNews  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/031209.html
  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/031309a.html
A quote...."On June 13, 1899, one of the largest battles of the Philippine-American war took place on the southern outskirts of Manila.  After several hours of fierce fighting at the Zapote River Bridge, 5,000 poorly armed Philippine soldiers were outgunned and routed by 3,000 Americans.   Including guerrilla conflict and the Moro Rebellion this war dragged on for 14 years.  By 1913, between 4,000 and 5,000 American soldiers had died in the conflict. Estimates of Philippine military deaths run from 12,000 to 20,000.  There were massive civilian deaths from starvation and disease due to scorched-earth campaigns and forced relocation. Estimates of civilian deaths in the Philippine-American war range from 200,000 to 1,400,000." -- Yeah, but the US-NRE "won" just like in Iraq....so who cares how many  of "them there" little peons had to die? - mpg
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Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed insists British to blame for 'torture'
  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4983737/Guantanamo-detainee-Binyam-Mohamed-insists-British-to-blame-for-torture.html
A quote...."Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed has claimed British involvement was crucial in him facing extraordinary rendition and alleged torture."
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US must stop giving orders: Gorbachev  ---  http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C03%5C14%5Cstory_14-3-2009_pg4_7
A quote...."LONDON: Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called on the United States to work closer with the rest of the world to solve global problems Wednesday, saying Washington must “stop giving orders”. -- While on a visit to the offices of the Evening Standard newspaper, recently taken over by Russian owners, Gorbachev said the American military had to act within a “new order”. “One day it will have to stop giving orders and stop trying to tell the whole world how it should act,” Gorbachev said, while touring the offices along with the Standard’s new owner, former KGB spy Alexander Lebedev." -- Heck, Gorby would be the one to know.  After all, if the former Soviet Union could do it, so can the US-NRE....if it wanted to that is....which it doesn't. - mpg -- also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/192116
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What future for Iraq? 18-20 March 2009  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12536
Event Alert - A quote...."Over 100,000 US troops still occupy Iraq though the people — in Iraq and across the world — want them out. In Iraq, untold destruction is mirrored in five million Iraqis made refugees and over one million killed since 2003. While the new US administration has committed to end the war, it is for all who can act to ensure that it ends. Peace in Iraq depends on a sovereign Iraq, and that starts when the occupation ends."
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ExxonMobil making a play for Iraq oil deal  ---  http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2009/me_oil0215_03_13.asp
A quote...."ABU DHABI — A U.S. energy major with large holdings in Qatar is crafting a strategy to enter the oil sector in Iraq. -- ExxonMobil intends to play a major role in energy exploration and production in Iraq in 2010. Executives said ExxonMobil has been competing to win contracts to develop leading oil fields for Baghdad." -- And if the Iraqis have ANY self-respect they'll tell Exxon-Mobil to go....sit on an oil well, till it blows. - mpg
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Shoe-thrower a hero among Iraqi women  ---  http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/6310679.html
A quote...."BAGHDAD — What does it take for an Iraqi woman to fall in love with a man? -- In parks and dress shops, in university halls and on picnics, Iraqi women are still smitten — three months and one new American president later — by the shoe thrower, Muntader al-Zaidi."
also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/192121
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CIA report: Israel will fall in 20 years  ---  http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=88491&sectionid=351020202
A quote...."A study conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has cast doubt over Israel's survival beyond the next 20 years. -- The CIA report predicts "an inexorable movement away from a two-state to a one-state solution, as the most viable model based on democratic principles of full equality that sheds the looming specter of colonial Apartheid while allowing for the return of the 1947/1948 and 1967 refugees. The latter being the precondition for sustainable peace in the region." - also posted at ICH   ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22208.htm  ---  Which is why the Israelis are getting set for an extermination campaign against the Palestinians.  The Israelis have learned NOTHING from what happened to their own ancestors....nothing!  For more on this issue see...A Mortal Threat – Europe’s New Frankenstein Monster - 01-26-09 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/amortalthreat-europesnewfrankenstein-mpg-reficultnias-012609
& Gaza Invasion of 12/27/08  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/thegazainvasion-mpg-weblist-122708
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British MPs Demand British Government to Take Actual Steps to Lift Israeli Siege on Gaza  ---  http://www.sana.sy/eng/22/2009/03/13/216971.htm
A quote...."Damascus, SANA _ British MPs and representatives of political, social, partisan organizations and Islamic and Christian institutions, labor and student unions called on the British government to take actual steps to lift the unjust Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip."
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An Interview with Haider Eid - Massacre in Slow Motion  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/ruder03132009.html
A quote...."More than a month after Israel's assault on Gaza ended, life for Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinians continues to be a daily struggle. Israel maintains a suffocating siege that blocks the flow of basic staples, plunging the vast majority of residents into abject poverty. -- But a ray of hope has emerged in the form of a growing international struggle--from Canada and the U.S., to Europe and South Africa--to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law and Palestinian human rights."
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In Memory of Rachel Corrie  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/13-5
A quote...."I was not present in Rafah that terrible day, 16 March 2003, but I have frequently replayed in my mind the events leading up to the moment when a bulldozer rolled over Rachel Corrie.  I think to myself:  What compelled this young woman, neither Jewish nor Palestinian, to travel 10,000 miles from home, throw in her lot with a family not her own, a people not her own, and ultimately meet a death that came suddenly, swiftly, in an instant of shocked comprehension."
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American citizen critically injured after being shot in the head by Israeli forces in Ni’lin  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52619&s1=h1
Video - A quote...."13th Friday 2009, Ni’lin Village: An American citizen has been critically injured in the village of Ni’lin after Israeli forces shot him in the head with a tear-gas canister. -- Tristan Anderson from California USA, 37 years old, has been taken to Israeli hospital Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv. Anderson is unconscious and has been bleeding heavily from the nose and mouth. He sustained a large hole in his forehead where he was struck by the canister. He is currently being operated on." -- also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/192120  ---  (text only)
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Europe in speedy talking with Hamas  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52622&s1=h1
Quick Obama, better stop kissing Israeli you-know-what and catch that high speed Euro train before it leaves nowheresville and arrives at negotiation station, or you and the Israelis will be left standing all alone together out in the boonies looking like a bunch of war mongering hick idiots. - mpg -- A quote.... "LONDON: Two high-profile European parliamentary delegations were set to bound for Syria to meet with Hamas's political leadership there as part of a European moves aims at ending isolating the Movement."
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Major highways to Islamabad blocked  ---  http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/news/international/major-highways-to-islamabad-blocked.aspx
A quote...."March 13: Continuing their tough stance against activists and lawyers, Pakistani authorities on Friday blocked all major highways leading to the capital to prevent a protest march demanding reinstatement of sacked judges from reaching here. The police and Paramilitary forces on Friday blocked another group of activists marching from Balochistan’s capital Quetta to Sukkur in Sindh and arrested the Supreme Court Bar Association president Ali Ahmed Kurd along with some others."
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Geo News broadcasts halted in cities around Pakistan
  ---  http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/Dawn%20Content%20Library/dawn/news/pakistan/geo-news-broadcasts-halted-in-cities-around-pakistan--il
A quote...."KARACHI: Private TV channel Geo News has been prevented from airing its broadcasts in various cities around the country, according to reports. Geo News claims that independent cable operators have been threatened and told to end broadcasts as the long march gains steam and a much touted meeting amongst top PPP leadership winds up at the Presidency."
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Iranian president declares his country a space and nuclear power  ---  http://en.rian.ru/world/20090313/120554424.html
A quote..."TEHRAN, March 13 (RIA Novosti) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that pressure from Western powers trying to keep Iran in economic isolation have in fact spurred the country to become a space and nuclear power."
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Obama Administration Affirms U.S. Neutrality in Salvadoran Election  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/40699
Hah! So they say.  It would be a first of course - mpg -- A quote...."Thank you, President Obama. At long last - better late than never - a high-level official of the Obama Administration has clearly affirmed U.S. neutrality ahead of Sunday's Presidential election in El Salvador."   
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Catholic church paid 436 mln dlrs for abuse cases  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Catholic_church_paid_436_mln_dlrs_f_03132009.html
A quote...."The US Roman Catholic church has paid out 436 million dollars in 2008 for sex abuse cases involving clergy members, according to an official report aimed at healing deep wounds of the scandal that blew up in 2002" -- "The sums paid out in settlement had fallen 29 percent compared with the record 526 million dollars paid in 2007, the report showed." -- Wow! Guess they're making real progress then, hey? This is utterly UNACCEPTABLE, this website editor isn't Catholic, so those who are can take this advice for whatever it's worth to them, but it does appear that it's high time the Catholic Church allow their priests, and in fact better yet, insists that their priests, establish families and practice what they preach and ask those priests of any other persuasion - or predilection - to kindly leave.  Just a suggestion. – mpg
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Diaper Dave’s Dust-Up  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/akers/akers105.html
A quote...."A passenger recently arrived at his gate twenty minutes before his flight on United Airlines was due to depart. He found the door to the ramp already closed. So he did what many of us long to, what customers who aren’t aviation’s prisoners would do with impunity, and what formerly free Americans could once have done without fear of "detainment" or brouhaha: he tried to make his flight by opening the door. -- The usual hysteria ensued. But rather than sympathizing with its victim, we can laugh ourselves sick because the guy snared this time is Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)."
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New Army Weapon Aims to Fry Gadgets, People  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/akers/akers105.html
A quote...."Electronics-frying "e-bombs" have been discussed for decades — but rarely, if ever, deployed. Knocking out computers and communications gear with electromagnetic radiation is nice, but commanders prefer the proven method: blowing stuff up."
also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3614-0-22-22--.html
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Previewing the Superpower Summit  ---  http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/511/index.html
Must View Video - A quote...."David Brancaccio interviews Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard economics professor and former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, about how high we should raise our hopes and what's at stake for America and the world." -- 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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João Pedro Stedile, “The Crisis Will Be Profound and Prolonged. . .”  ---  http://www.creative-i.info/?p=5261
Must Read - A quote...."Many analyses of the crisis have been published in academia and the media. There are all sorts of positions and ideological currents. But they all converge on this diagnosis: it is a profound crisis, worse than the crisis of 1929. It will affect the entire world economy, which has been increasingly internationalized and controlled by fewer than 500 companies. It will be worse, because it combines an economic crisis, a financial crisis (of the credibility of currencies), an environmental crisis, an ideological crisis due to the failure of neoliberalism, and a political crisis due to the lack of alternatives on the part of the dominant class at the center of capitalism or the governments of the periphery. In the history of crises of capitalism, the dominant classes, owners of capital, and their governments have adopted the same prescription to exit them."
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The Crisis and the Consolidation of Class Power - Is This Really the End of Neoliberalism?  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/harvey03132009.html
Must Read - A quote...."What happened in the US was that 8 men gave us a 3 page document which pointed a gun at everybody and said ‘give us $700 billion or else’. This to me was like a financial coup, against the government and the population of the US. Which means you’re not going to come out of this crisis with a crisis of the capitalist class; you’re going to come out of this with a far greater consolidation of the capitalist class than there has been in the past. We’re going to end up with four or five major banking institutions in the United States and nothing else. Many on Wall Street are thriving right now. Lazard’s, because it specialises in mergers and acquisitions, is making megabucks. Some people are going to be burned, but overall it’s a massive consolidation of financial power. "
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Media and GOP Team Up to Con the Public  ---  http://candidblogger.blogspot.com/2009/03/media-and-gop-team-up-to-con-public.html
Chart - A quote...."This is ridiculous. The media has been obsessing about President Obama's plan to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans—from 35% to 39.6%—even suggesting that makes him a SOCIALIST.--
But do you know what tax rate the wealthiest Americans paid on the top portion of their earnings at the end of Ronald Reagan's first term? 50%. -- Under Richard Nixon? 70%. Under Dwight Eisenhower? 91%! -- Shocking, right?"
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Gary Franchi Exposes The Federal Reserve On PBS
  ---  http://www.roguegovernment.com/Gary_Franchi_Exposes_The_Federal_Reserve_On_PBS/14754/0/8/8/Y/M.html
Video - Hard to believe, but there was one PBS station that actually aired Arron Russo's "Freedom to Fascism"
  ---  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173  ---  (Google Video - 1:51:16  - May 5, 2007) -- it appears to be the only TV station in the entire country to have put this particular show on the air. - mpg -- A quote...."On March 5th 2009 the local PBS station, KBDI, in Denver Colorado broadcast the groundbreaking expose, America: Freedom To Fascism to raise funds for the station. They invited Gary Franchi to come and talk about the points of the film during breaks. -- To support KBDI please consider making a pledge so they can continue broadcasting the message to truth to the American people."
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Credit Card Cancer  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/schiff/schiff7.html
A quote...."This week, with his pronouncement that “credit is the lifeblood of a healthy economy,” President Obama reiterated what has been one of his most common themes in diagnosing our economic problem. The president has relied on this bedrock belief to propose policies that place the restoration of credit as the highest priority. However, despite his seemingly earnest intentions, the president and his economic advisors have misdiagnosed the ailment. Savings, not credit, is the lifeblood of a healthy economy. When not used properly credit can be like a cancer that sickens an otherwise healthy economy."
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China's investment safe in US?  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=88541&sectionid=351020404
A quote...."Following China's concerns about the 'safety' of its funds in the US, Obama's aides scramble to assure that US bonds are safe for investment." -- Well sure the bonds are safe, it's whether the gazillions of dollars the Obama administration is going to print to pay them back are safe....or not, as the case may be. - mpg
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U.S. Jan. trade gap narrows to 6-year low
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/us-trade-gap-narrows-6-year/story.aspx?guid=%7B6140AACD-8FD5-42BF-AB9B-F9FCF62D13ED%7D
A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. trade deficit narrowed by 9.7% to $36.0 billion in January on an across-the-board decline in global trade flows, the Commerce Department estimated Friday. -- The drop was helped by a continued decline in oil prices and a sharp drop in exports. -- "The big story here is not the decline in the deficit but the continuing collapse in trade volumes," wrote Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist for IHS Global Insight. -- Economists have been stunned by the swift deterioration in global trade. Consumers and businesses around the world are pulling back as the credit crunch sinks its teeth into the economy."
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Thursday March 12th 2009 - links page

The mission of the Beltway journalist  ---  http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/11/marcus/index.html
Must Read - A quote...."Imagine if you walked into a random class in a journalism school and asked one of the students why they enrolled in journalism school, and they replied this way:"  ---  "I want to become a journalist so that I can help the Government conceal its secrets.  Especially when high political officials break the law, I think it's really important that nobody find out about it.  In particular, I think it's crucial that victims of government torture and illegal spying be prevented from uncovering what was done and imposing accountability on our Government leaders.  And the most important thing is that when government leaders break the law, they not be investigated." -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/12-12
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Who is America to judge?  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/mar/11/state-department-human-rights
Must Read - A quote...."After Abu Ghraib, Gitmo and extraordinary renditions, other countries now challenge America's standing on human rights" -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/12-1
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Americans are Mentally Goosestepping to Another War
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/Americans-are-Mentally-Goo-by-Grant-Lawrence-090311-644.html
Must Read - As an American, I witnessed the ignorance and the cold blooded lack of caring among most of my countryman. This is a trauma that I share today with many Americans that had raised objections to the mental goosestepping and the blind patriotism that would eventually bring about so much suffering and destruction. -- I remember watching films of Adolf Hitler when I was young and seeing the German army goosestepping and the overjoyed Germans worshiping their Fuhrer. I remember thinking "how could people be like that stupid?" -- I now have that answer. I have witnessed America's own psychotic war fever."
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The Fourth Estate - R.I.P.?  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Fourth-Estate--R-I-P-by-James-Raider-090311-411.html
A quote...."For generations we have accepted the "press," as a vital element of democracy. It has been known as The Fourth Estate because it came to represent a counterbalance to the executive, legislature and judiciary. This fourth leg providing balance in our society was given birth through a network of independent single page papers distributed by hand that evolved over two centuries to include radio and television. Its current manifestation, however, no longer plays the role of independent pillar supporting the social triumph that is democracy. "
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Memo that told Blair aides Saddam Hussein posed no imminent threat
  ---  http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23661598-details/article.do?ito=newsnow&
A quote...."The row over claims that the Government "spun" its way into war with Iraq is likely to be reignited after the release of the document by the Cabinet Office. -- The memo, released after a long-running Freedom of Information battle, shows Mr Blair's officials knew seven years ago that the threat from Saddam was not immediate. -- Despite the warning, the Government's dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction included a claim that Baghdad was ready to launch an attack within "45 minutes". -- also posted at ICH  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22198.htm
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Eyes wide shut: A look at British news censorship  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4476.shtml
A quote...."I hope the late Stanley Kubrick won’t mind my borrowing the title of his film, which was shot in London and the Home Counties. I don’t think he would if he knew that February 12, 2009, marked “the enforcement date for section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act 2008.” As reported in the UK’s Guardian, from that date on “a photojournalist who documents political dissent on the streets -- and sometimes the fields -- of Britain,” would be subject to prosecution under that act."
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Why the Pentagon Can't Put America Back to Work  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/12-11
A quote...."At the end of February, another huge "stimulus" package was announced but generated almost no comment, controversy, or argument. The defense industry received its own special stimulus package -- news of the dollars available for the Pentagon budget in 2010; and at nearly $700 billion (when all the bits and pieces are added in), it's almost as big as the Obama economic package and sure to be a lot less effective."
also posted at TruthOut   ---  http://www.truthout.org/031209S
& AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=14395
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Charles Freeman's Victory  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=14394
A quote...."Forced to withdraw, he took the Israel lobby down with him -- The nixing of Charles "Chas" Freeman from a post as head of the National Intelligence Council is not, as is commonly averred, a victory for the Israel lobby. It is, instead, a Pyrrhic victory – that is, a victory so costly that it really amounts to a defeat for them. Sure, they managed to keep out a trenchant critic of their Israel-centric and grossly distorted view of a proper American foreign policy, and, yes, they managed to smear him and put others on notice that someone with his views is radioactive, as far as a high-level job in the foreign policy establishment is concerned. And yet – and yet …. They – the Lobby – have now been forced out in the open."
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Freeman Calls Out Israel Lobby; WaPo Editorial Board Bursts a Blood Vessel
  ---  http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/131295/freeman_calls_out_israel_lobby%3B_wapo_editorial_board_bursts_a_blood_vessel/
A quote...."So, Chas Freeman states the obvious: the ‘Israel lobby’ torpedoed his nomination because he didn’t embrace the ubiquitous pro-Israel bias required of those operating in U.S. foreign policy circles. -- I’m sure anonymous fount of conventional wisdom who sat down to pen today’s Washington Post editorial responding to the charge intended to dispel the notion that the discourse around the Israel-Palestine conflict is as narrowly limited as Freeman claims. Unfortunately for him or her -- and the rest of us -- the product that emerged was such a McCarthyite screed, so far over the top, that it can ultimately only serve as fodder for the exact kind of ‘Jews control the debate’ conspiracism it seeks to condemn. Let’s tune into this bit of apoplexy in progress ..."
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The Israel Lobby - Out of the Closet - But still controlling our lives. - mpg
  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/the-israel-lobby-out-of-the-closet/
A quote...."The reality of Washington is that our political landscape finds it difficult to assimilate any criticism of any segment of the Israeli leadership,” said Robert W. Jordan - New York Times

“The Zionist Organization of America sent out an “action alert” urging members to ask Congress for an investigation of Mr. Freeman’s “past and current activities on behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” - New York Times

“Representative Steve Israel, a New York Democrat, also called Mr. Emanuel about the pick...” - New York Times
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Obama Extends Iran Sanctions - Still following the PNAC/AIPAC protocols and schedules. - mpg
  ---  http://news.antiwar.com/2009/03/12/obama-extends-iran-sanctions/
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."President Barack Obama followed in the footsteps of his predecessors today, renewing the annual sanctions that ban US companies from trading or investing in Iran. Obama cited the “continuing and unusual and extraordinary threat” posed by the Iranian government, which he declared “contrary to the interests of the United States in the region.”
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Netanyahu aide says Obama agrees on Iran, at least -- http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/03/12/netanyahu-aide-says-obama-agrees-on-iran-at-least/ -- Ditto. - mpg
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."NEW YORK (Reuters) - Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama may differ on some issues, but they agree that stopping Iran getting a nuclear bomb is a top priority, a senior adviser to Israel's prime minister-designate said on Thursday."  --  Yep, gotta stop Iran getting that oh so endlessly cited  (without any proof) "bomb" JUST LIKE THEY DID WITH IRAQ. - mpg
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Obama Justice Department Urges Dismissal of Another Torture Case  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/40672
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."In another move that suggests the Obama Department of Justice is not making many big policy breaks with its predecessor when it comes to the legal rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees, the department filed a brief renewing the government’s motion to dismiss the case of Rasul v. Rumsfeld."
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Obama Deception -- Director Alex Jones Reaches Out to Obama Supporters
  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNnhL78ASWM&eurl=http://infowars.net/
Must View Video Trailer - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."The Obama Deception is not about Left or Right politics, but about taking a stand against the offshore bankers who have seized control of the country from the shadows. The film aims to expose that Barack Obama is a puppet-- a mere front man-- for the globalists' agenda who will help to loot the Treasury, bankrupt the U.S.A. and seize assets from the American people, all while pretending to represent the people of the nation. -- Those who supported Obama's election need to wake up right now to the fact that the Obama Administration has been a bait-and-switch. Obama will lie to the people, even as he continues and expands the foreign wars, pushes through banker-bailouts, continues torture & renditions, advances the North American Union agenda and much more."
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Iraq jails 'Bush shoe-thrower'  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/03/200931292357426936.html
A quote...."An Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at George Bush, then US president, has been given a three-year jail sentence after pleading not guilty to assaulting a foreign head of state."
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Taliban set to burn the Reichstag?  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KC13Df01.html
A quote...."For those wondering where United States Vice President Joe Biden bides his - vast - spare time, he has just spent quite an eventful Tuesday both at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU) headquarters in Brussels."
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Hundreds Arrested in Punjab; Suspension of Civil Liberties; Some set Out on Long March on Capital
  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2009/03/hundreds-arrested-in-punjab-suspension.html
A Juan Cole Round-Up of Pakistan - A quote...."Well, I already used "crisis deepens in Pakistan," so what should I say about the news that the Pakistan People's Party government has had  hundreds of attorneys and Muslim League (N) party activists arrested , invoking Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code throughout Punjab Province and in its capital, Lahore. This provision, which dates to British colonial methods of controlling the population, allows the government to forbid "all kinds of gatherings of five or more persons, processions, rallies and demonstrations at public places, distribution of hand bills and pamphlets, wall chalking, use of loud speakers and display of arms and ammunition . . ."
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Presidency within reach of El Salvador's ex-rebels  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090312/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_salvador_elections
A quote...."SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – A former television journalist who has compared himself to President Barack Obama has given El Salvador's former guerrillas their best chance to win the presidency since a bloody civil war ended in 1992."
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UPDATE 4-China may spend more to get growth, worries over US  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed1/idUSPEK14898720090313
A quote...."BEIJING, March 13 (Reuters) - Premier Wen Jiabao held out the prospect of extra stimulus spending if needed to hit China's 8 percent growth goal this year and called on Washington to ease worries Beijing has about the safety of its vast U.S. assets." -- " China is the biggest holder of U.S. government debt and has invested an estimated 70 percent of its $2 trillion stockpile of foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, in dollar assets. "We have lent a massive amount of capital to the United States, and of course we are concerned about the security of our assets. To speak truthfully, I do indeed have some worries." -- As well he should. - mpg
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Russia, Iran and Washington Battle Over S-300s  ---  http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=10334
A quote...."Will Russia supply Iran with the advanced S-300 surface-to-air missile system? That is the most important – and persistent – question regarding Russia's ongoing arms sales to Iran. The repeated rumors and confusion regarding a possible sale indicate that Russian policymakers are divided over the issue. It also illustrates the degree of mistrust between the Russian and Iranian national security communities over the subject of bilateral arms transfers in general, and disagreement over the extent to which Moscow should support Iranian defense aspirations over American and Israeli objections in particular."
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Calls for investigation into Gaza attacks - Israel’s war crimes  ---  http://mondediplo.com/2009/03/03warcrimes
Special Note - A quote...."For the first time since the establishment of Israel in 1948 the government is facing serious allegations of war crimes from respected public figures throughout the world. Even the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, normally so cautious about offending sovereign states – especially those aligned with its most influential member, the United States – has joined the call for an investigation and potential accountability. To grasp the significance of these developments it is necessary to explain what made the 22 days of attacks in Gaza stand shockingly apart from the many prior recourses to force by Israel to uphold its security and strategic interests." -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/12-10
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Five Gaza Cartoons  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/fivegazacartoons-various-dp-cached-031209
Cartoons - From various cartoonists. - mpg
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Gaza: Lest We Forget  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22200.htm
A quote...."March 12, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- -Something happened in Gaza that shook the very core of my foundation & being; something that has fundamentally altered my perception of mankind in the 21st century; if this is what the “progress” & “evolution” of the human species have yielded so far; then I don’t even want to imagine what our fated future is holding in store for us. It gives me shudders to think that I am living in a day & age where rationalizing the bombing of unaided infants & children audaciously live on T.V. is just as effortless as opening a soda can, all you have to do is throw in broad & ambiguous justifications... -the most common one of course being “Fighting Terrorism”- & you’re automatically immune against the slightest form of protest, condemnation or even friendly critique."
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Gaza in ruins, say members of returning women’s delegation  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/192016
A quote...."Whatever I can tell you, I cannot convey what it’s like. There is a sense of great destruction. There is the smell of death and gunpowder. The Israelis destroyed a great number of buildings and streets and trees. Many areas have been razed by Israeli bulldozers, but still there is a sense of challenge to overcome this as well," said Kefaya member and activist Nada Kassass who joined the American Code Pink delegation in Egypt."
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PCHR: Confirmed figures reveal the true extent of the destruction inflicted upon the Gaza Strip  ---  http://www.creative-i.info/?p=5238
A quote...."Over the course of the 22 day Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, a total of 1,434 Palestinians were killed. Of these, 235 were combatants. The vast majority of the dead, however, were civilians and non-combatants: protected persons according to the principles of IHL. PCHR investigations confirm that, in total, 960 civilians lost their lives, including 288 children and 121 women. 239 police officers were also killed; the majority (235) in air strikes carried out on the first day of the attacks. The Ministry of Health have also confirmed that a total of 5,303 Palestinians were injured in the assault, including 1,606 children and 828 women."
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Israeli vessels open fire at Palestinian fishermen N. and central Gaza
  ---  http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1982353&Language=en
A quote....."GAZA, March 12 (KUNA) -- Israeli vessels opened fire at scores of Palestinian fishing boats at the coasts of north and central Gaza. - Palestinian security sources said the Israeli vessels attacked the fishing boats at the coast of Al-Soudaniya area north of Gaza and the coast of Al-Nuseirat refugee camp, Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza. The attack damaged a number of fishing boats, in which the fishermen had flee for land to avoid gunfire." -- also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/192018
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Gaza fishing industry reeling -- http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52593&s1=h1 -- Gee, getting your boats shot at all day long would tend to have that effect.
A quote...."GAZA CITY, 12 March 2009 (IRIN) - A combination of damage to fishing resources caused by the Israeli offensive, and a restriction on the zone in which Gazans are allowed to fish is reducing catches and adversely affecting people’s diets in Gaza, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)."
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Israel Bans Gaza Toilet Papers, Soap  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52588&s1=h1
Guess they just have to keep them there "dirty vermin"....well....dirty.  This website editor hates to stoop to vulgarity, but most Israelis appear to be a bunch of thoroughly screwed-up people.  Petty, nasty, spiteful, vicious, vindictive and cruel. - mpg -- A quote...."OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — European and American officials are protesting its blocking of humanitarian aid, including harmless goods such as cheeses, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap and toilet papers, from the sealed off Gaza Strip."
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Israel's Settlement Expansion Cancer  ---  http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/israels-settlement-expansion-cancer/
A quote...."RAMALLAH — Israel plans to build more Jewish colonies on land earmarked for a future Palestinian state, in what is described as the most intensive expansion of settlements since 1967, would effectively spell the end of the two-state solution."
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Haircut Time For Bondholders  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22202.htm
Must Read - Chart - A quote...."March 12, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- When George Soros recently said that the financial system had "effectively disintegrated", it caused quite a flap. But Soros was not exaggerating. The financial system has disintegrated. What we are experiencing now is just the fallout from that event. This is easier to understand by using an analogy. Imagine watching the demolition of a hundred-story skyscraper. After the explosives detonate and the building implodes, the chunks of debris and the shattered glass begin to fall to the ground below. That's where we are right now. The financial super-structure has already been blown to bits, but a thick shower of fragments keeps raining down on earth. Rising unemployment, falling consumer confidence, severe contraction of the economy, growing pessimism; these are all the knock-on effects of a full-blown system collapse."
 also posted at OnlineJournal  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4475.shtml
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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Reforming the Global Financial System - Flushing the Parasites  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22199.htm
Must Read - A quote...."When Benjamin Franklin was called before the British Parliament in 1757 and asked to account for the prosperity in the American colonies. He replied, "That is simple. In the colonies we issue our own money. It is called Colonial Scrip. We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay to no one." It was the struggle for financial sovereignty that precipitated the American Revolution when the (Rothschild) Bank of England forced the colonists to give up their own currency. -- That war never ended."
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John Stewart once again takes the MSM to the woodshed...Cramer is done! -Trailer for the upcoming bout
  ---  http://www.atlargely.com/2009/03/john-stewart-once-again-takes-the-msm-to-the-woodshed-cramer-is-done.html
And here's the bout -- Vid One  ---  http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=221516&title=jim-cramer-interview-outtake
-- Vid Two  ---  http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=221517&title=jim-cramer-interview-outtake
-- Vid Three  ---  http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=221518&title=jim-cramer-interview-outtake
Must View Videos -A quote...."Jim Cramer may as well crawl under a rock, he is done. As soon as the video is up, I will post it.Here is the video. Now pay close attention to the Apple discussion that Cramer has. If he is not in jail by the end of next week, I will be surprised."
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U.S. Markets Wrap: Stocks Surge Most Since November, Oil Jumps
  ---  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a0dFOEYbxiHw&refer=home
Editor's special note:  Check out the highlighted sections and think about it. -- A quote...."March 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks posted the biggest three-day gain since November as General Electric Co. said losing the top credit rating at Standard & Poor’s won’t hurt business and Bank of America Corp. said it’s profitable. Oil jumped 11 percent, and Treasury 30-year bonds rallied. (this is a contradiction) -- GE added 13 percent after losing the AAA ranking that it held since 1956, while Bank of America Corp. surged 19 percent. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. rose 3.1 percent after the government said retail sales beat estimates, indicating the biggest part of the economy is stabilizing."

Retail sales did beat estimates,
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/us-retail-sales-better-forecast/story.aspx?guid=%7B665F31F2-28F7-4474-B966-AF110190F124%7D  ---   down 0.1% instead of the expected 0.4%.  If calculated ex-autos while including higher gasoline prices sales came out to 0.7% instead of the predicted 0.2%.  They would have been 0.5% if both gas and autos were excluded and on that note it should be said that oil jumped almost another five dollars today.  You see, it appears the higher gasoline prices go, the "better off" the economy is supposed to be.  However just ask yourselves how much better off you will be?

On top of all this "good news" GM said they wouldn't need $2B from the government this March
  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090312/ap_on_bi_ge/gm_bailout  ---  and Citi piped up and said they wouldn't need any more capital injections.  --- http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE52B7SD20090312?sp=true  ---   All of this happening while there was talk of de-listing both GM and Citi from the DOW.

My goodness what a remarkably happy set of coincidences, or as this website editor is so fond of saying....how "fortuitous". - mpg
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A swallow before summer  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/KC13Dj09.html
Special Note - Related Article - A quote...."On the surface at least, there are some promising points. Based on current income, and an upward trending yield curve (which will allow banks to borrow at nearly no cost from the Fed and lend to borrowers at a good profit) the banks should generate strong cash flow. But that is hardly the full story. -- Write-downs in the value of toxic assets already held on banks' balance sheets will continue to explode like ticking time-bombs. These debts may be too large to be overcome by a positive cash flow fueled by cheap access to short-term funding. If banks were simultaneously forced to write down assets, they could be rendered insolvent from a capital balance sheet point of view. This is the underlying problem that America and the much of the world face with their banks: banks can be trading with positive cash flow but from a technically insolvent capital position - which is illegal." -- Everyone should just keep thinking 1.3 to 1.5 Quadrillion in derivatives, much, if not most of them currently under-water. - mpg
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Madoff is the tip of a much bigger pyramid scheme  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/dan-roberts-on-business-blog/2009/mar/12/madoff-pyramid-global
A quote...."In the annals of white collar crime, few villains have gone as quietly or as quickly as Bernard Madoff. The speed of his conviction tells us much about the audacity of the crime. - Usually these trials take months and the investigations even longer. It took five years to convict Enron's Ken Lay, for example, but he died by the time it came to sentencing. Sir Allen Stanford (so far only accused of similar crimes) looks to be digging in for a long fight and has refused to testify."
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Now-needy FDIC collected little in premiums
  ---  http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/03/11/now_needy_fdic_collected_little_in_premiums/?page=full
A quote...."WASHINGTON - The federal agency that insures bank deposits, which is asking for emergency powers to borrow up to $500 billion to take over failed banks, is facing a potential major shortfall in part because it collected no insurance premiums from most banks from 1996 to 2006."
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Household net worth plunges 18% in 2008
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/household-net-worth-plunges-18/story.aspx?guid=%7B8BBD33C0-EB35-47BB-9CE1-D7AC35EE2734%7D
A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Hit by a double whammy of declining home prices and a falling stock market, U.S. households saw their net worth fall by $11.2 trillion, or 18%, to $51.5 trillion at the end of 2008, wiping out four years of gains, the Federal Reserve reported Thursday." -- Only four years of gains wiped out so far, that's not much considering the mountains of debts that need to be unwound. - mpg
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Foreclosure Filings in U.S. Jumped 30% in February (Update3)  ---  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a.r81zAhO1so&refer=us
A quote...."March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Foreclosure filings in the U.S. climbed 30 percent in February from a year earlier as the worsening economy thwarted efforts by the government and lenders to prevent homeowners from losing property, RealtyTrac Inc. said."
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U.S. advertising seen plunging 13% in 2009
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/US-advertising-revenue-plunge-13/story.aspx?guid=%7BCF03CAD8-FD63-4B67-8159-C3D85A5FE2C2%7D
A quote...."CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Advertising revenue in the United States will drop 13% this year, but improve to a decline of just 1.5% in 2010, according to a new report from Barclays Capital."
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[British] House prices 'could fall by further 55 per cent
  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/houseprices/4974499/House-prices-could-fall-by-further-55-per-cent.html
A quote...."House prices may fall by a further 55 percent and there is a "very real probability" that Britain will be bankrupted, a leading investment bank has warned in a private note to clients." -- also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3599-0-13-13--.html
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Mexican drug lord among Forbes wealthiest list  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=88438&sectionid=3510212
Some quotes...."Forbes magazine lists Joaquin Guzman, a Mexican drug lord, as one of the world's richest men, having made a billion dollars from drug trafficking."-- "Mexican President, Felipe Calderon, whose two-year war on drug traffickers has ignited a wave of violence, protested the appearance of Guzman in Forbes magazine, calling it a 'justification of crime'." -- And here this website editor thought it was called "Capitalism"....or are the two really all that different? - mpg
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Wednesday March 11th 2009 - links page

Timidity Derails Obama Intel Choice  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/031109a.html
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."On Tuesday morning, Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, employed the indicative mood in describing the high value that Chas Freeman, his appointee to head the National Intelligence Council (NIC), will bring to the job — “his long experience and inventive mind,” for example. Share this article -- By five o’clock that afternoon, Freeman announced that he had asked that his selection “not proceed.”
also posted at Antiwar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/mcgovern/?articleid=14389
& CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/11-13
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The Tactics Of the Israel Lobby  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22192.htm
Related Article - A quote...."By Charles Freeman -- March 11, 2009 "WSJ" -- -To all who supported me or gave me words of encouragement during the controversy of the past two weeks, you have my gratitude and respect. -- You will by now have seen the statement by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair reporting that I have withdrawn my previous acceptance of his invitation to chair the National Intelligence Council. -- I have concluded that the barrage of libelous distortions of my record would not cease upon my entry into office. The effort to smear me and to destroy my credibility would instead continue. I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function effectively while its chair was under constant attack by unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country."
also posted at AmericanEveryman  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/the-tactics-of-the-israel-lobby/
& PalestineChron  ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14907
& FP  ---  http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/03/10/freeman_speaks_out_on_his_exit
& Uruknet  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52567&s1=h1
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Israel Lobby Defeats Freeman Appointment  ---  http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/416170/israel_lobby_defeats_freeman_appointment?rel=hpbox
A quote...."The withdrawal of Chas Freeman as chairman of the National Intelligence Council, following two weeks of vituperative attacks on him by the amen chorus of the U.S. Zionist lobby is a black mark on the Obama administration. -- As I wrote two weeks ago, when the campaign against Freeman began, if Barack Obama can't stand up to the likes of Marty Peretz, Jonathan Chait, Steve Rosen, and other snarky critics, and if the White House can't defend a critical intelligence pick when that person is savaged by Republican sharks smelling blood in the water, then how can we expect Obama to stand up to Bibi Netanyahu and his even more radical ally, Avigdor Lieberman, when they confront Obama over Middle East policy? -- It's sad, and worrying." -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/11-12
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Did Schumer and Emanuel Sink Freeman?  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2009/03/did-schumer-and-emanuel-sink-freeman.html
Special Note - Related Article - A quote...."My interpretation of Chas Freeman's withdrawal from appointment as the chairman of the National Intelligence Council is that it was provoked primarily by Chuck Schumer and Rahm Emanuel. Schumer's call to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel  was probably the decisive event, though we don't know what Emanuel's reaction was...."
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The agenda of Chuck Schumer  ---  http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/11/schumer/index.html
Special Note - A quote...."It's worthwhile to review the actions of Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer with regard to some controversial appointments of the last few years, as it really reflects where the "center" is in Washington's political culture:"
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Freeman: US run by Israeli Lobby  ---  http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=88235&sectionid=3510203
Related Article - A quote...."The chairman-designate of the US National Intelligence Council declines to take the post citing the Israeli grip on Washington as a reason."

For more on the six articles shown above see....Judeo-Christian C/C & US
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/judeochristianconflictcontrolwithinus-weblist-mpg-010409
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"America's Fiscal Collapse - Obama's Budget Will Impoverish America"  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12674
Must Listen Audio Interview - Obama™ Update -- A quote...." "America's Fiscal Collapse - Obama's Budget Will Impoverish America" with economist and author, Michel Chossudovsky. -- The administration's 2010 budget will entail the most drastic curtailment in public spending in American history, leading to social havoc and the potential impoverishment of millions of people. Defense spending and bank bailouts will consume all government revenue resulting in fiscal collapse that will lead to the privatization of the state."
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Ron Paul: Obama Foreign Policy Identical To Bush  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/ron-paul-obama-foreign-policy-identical-to-bush.html
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Congressman Ron Paul has slammed Barack Obama’s foreign policy, saying it is identical to that of his predecessor George W. Bush, proving once again that both parties follow the same agenda on major issues."
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Imagine  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22184.htm
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."By Ron Paul -- March 10, 2009  -- Imagine for a moment that somewhere in the middle of Texas there was a large foreign military base, say Chinese or Russian. Imagine that thousands of armed foreign troops were constantly patrolling American streets in military vehicles. Imagine they were here under the auspices of “keeping us safe” or “promoting democracy” or “protecting their strategic interests.”
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Empire of Bases  ---  http://thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/hugh-gusterson/empire-of-bases
A quote...."Before reading this article, try to answer this question: How many military bases does the United States have in other countries: a) 100; b) 300; c) 700; or d) 1,000. -- According to the Pentagon's own list PDF, the answer is around 865, but if you include the new bases in Iraq and Afghanistan it is over a thousand. These thousand bases constitute 95 percent of all the military bases any country in the world maintains on any other country's territory. In other words, the United States is to military bases as Heinz is to ketchup."
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U.S. official: Obama won't cut military aid to Israel  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m52561&s1=h1
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."U.S. President Barack Obama will not cut the billions of dollars in military aid promised to Israel, a senior U.S. administration official said Wednesday. - The $30 billion in aid promised to Israel over the next decade will not be harmed by the world financial crisis, the official told Israel Radio. He spoke on condition of anonymity."
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Why Is the Obama Administration Defending John Yoo?  ---  http://washingtonindependent.com/33130/why-is-the-obama-administration-defending-john-yoo
Obama™ Update -- A quote...."The question has come up a lot lately, particularly since oral arguments last week in Jose Padilla’s lawsuit against John Yoo made clear that the federal judge was taking the case very seriously. After all, it was a bit odd to see Barack Obama’s Justice Department defending Yoo — who Padilla’s lawyers claim is responsible for their client being tortured in U.S. custody — and urging the court to dismiss the case."
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‘Left’ Obamites Prefer Kool-Aid to Struggle
  ---  http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/%E2%80%98left%E2%80%99-obamites-prefer-kool-aid-struggle
Special Note - Obama™ Update -- A quote...."Lots of folks on the left, it is now apparent, no longer seek anything more than to bask in the sunshine of Barack Obama’s smile. No matter how much national treasure their champion transfers to the bankster class, and despite his exceeding George W. Bush in military spending, so-called progressives for Obama continue to celebrate their imagined emergence as players in the national political saga. Having in practice foresworn resistance to Power, they relish in bashing the non-Obamite Left." -- also posted at Creative-i  ---  http://www.creative-i.info/?p=5203
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UK to begin [Iraq] troop withdrawal in April
  ---  http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=
  ---  Gulf%2C+Middle+East+%26+Africa&month=March2009&file=World_News200903116445.xml
A quote...."BAGHDAD: Britain will begin withdrawing its remaining 4,000 combat troops from Iraq at the end of March, six years after helping to topple Saddam Hussein as Washington’s main ally in the US-led invasion." - bold by website editor
also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/191907
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Why are we in Afghanistan? Pt.3  ---  http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=3394
 - Pt.2 --  http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=3390 - (Note: Pt.2 is down for the moment)
 - Pt.1 --  http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=3382
Videos - A quote...."This is the second segment of a multi-part series on the Afghan war. Sunil Ram, Tariq Amin-Khan and Paul Jay discuss the premises and impact of the US and NATO war in Afghanistan. Other segments will follow throughout the week."
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Gunmen kill Afghan journalist once detained by US  ---  http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/03/11/gunmen-kill-afghan-journalist-once-detained-by-us/
A quote...."Gunmen in southern Afghanistan killed an Afghan journalist once held by the U.S. military in Afghanistan as an enemy combatant, officials said Wednesday. Separately, the Supreme Court upheld a 20-year prison sentence for a journalism student accused of blasphemy."
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More tribes sign peace deal with Pakistan: official  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090311/wl_afp/pakistanafghanistanunrest
A quote...."KHAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Three more tribes in a lawless region close to the Afghan border on Wednesday signed a peace deal with Pakistani authorities, pledging to lay down arms and disband militant groups, officials said."
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Pakistan arrests ahead of protest  ---  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7936580.stm
A quote...."Police in Pakistan have arrested dozens of lawyers and opposition activists ahead of an anti-government protest march due to begin on Thursday."
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Ahmadinejad really is the man in charge  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KC11Ak02.html
A quote...."Despite a widespread perception, it is not Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pulling the strings in Tehran. That honor lies with President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, as he has shown in power struggles with the ayatollah."
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Ukraine turns SBU (their CIA) into a comedy...  ---  http://www.atlargely.com/2009/03/ukraine-turns-sbu-their-cia-into-a-comedy.html
A quote...."KIEV, Ukraine -- One would assume it would raise the odd eyebrow if Barack Obama were to name Rupert Murdoch deputy head of the CIA. Yet In Ukraine, President Viktor Yushchenko has apparently had no such qualms. -- Six weeks ago, the Ukrainian president appointed Valery Khoroshkovsky, a billionaire media magnate, as deputy director of Ukraine's spy agency, the SBU. -- Khoroshkovsky has been useful to the president and his allies. His television station Inter has pulverized Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister who has long coveted Yushchenko's job. -- But he proved even more useful last week, when masked SBU agents toting machine guns stormed the Kiev offices of Naftogaz, the state gas company. -- The raid, which has further battered Ukraine's already tarnished image, was political payback."
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Brown rejects judge-led inquiry into UK spies - Can everyone spell C O V E R - U P. - mpg
  ---  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jFL180sgT0Tc4CKGXoo6U3U59w_gD96RS8C00
A quote...."LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday declined a request by opposition parties to authorize a judge-led inquiry into the conduct of U.K. intelligence agencies in supporting the U.S. government's pursuit of terror suspects since 2001."
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Italy's high court sinks CIA rendition case  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090312/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_cia_kidnapping
A quote...."ROME – Italy's highest court sided with the government Wednesday and threw out key evidence in an alleged CIA kidnapping of an Eygptian terrorism suspect in Italy, dealing a blow to the trial of 26 Americans charged in the case. The Constitutional Court ruled that prosecutors impermissibly used classified information to build the case that led to indictments in the 2003 abduction. Though the judges did not formally throw out the indictments, lawyers said the ruling would at least set the case back." - bold by website editor -- It ain't over yet! - mpg -- For more on this issue see....Fun & Torture - It's a Pleasure.  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/funandtorture-blog-mpg-020307.html
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Rosa Brooks: Bush era lies will linger a long time  ---  http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/442331
Special Note -- A quote...."I know: All this is old hat. With so many leaks over the years, who doesn't know by now that the Bush administration sought virtually unlimited executive power to monitor, detain and use force against individuals anywhere around the globe in the name of the "war on terror"? -- But even today, it's still shocking to see it laid out in black and white. -- In a way, what's most shocking is just how outrageously bad the office's legal arguments were. The 2001-2002 memos mischaracterize previous Supreme Court decisions, ignore crucial legal precedents and contain gaping holes in logic. To accept the theories the Office of Legal Counsel came up with, you need to assume that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had it all wrong when they rebelled against Britain's King George III in 1776. You need to believe, more or less, that the 225 years of American jurisprudence between 1776 and 2001 amounted to one giant mistake." -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/11-7
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What’s law got to do with it?  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4470.shtml
A quote...."The track record of the Bush administration in violating the most basic human rights of not only American citizens but citizens around the world is well established, tracked, recorded and tens of books have been written documenting all these crimes and violations. So, the true worth of the American system of justice shall be examined in the years to come, as we find out whether or not any cases are brought against the key people in leadership positions in the Bush administration, as well as their enablers in the lower ranks, for their willful criminal actions."
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"Bush 'executive assassination ring' reported directly to Cheney office: Seymour Hersh
  ---  http://www.minnpost.com/ericblackblog/2009/03/11/7310/investigative_reporter_seymour_hersh_describes_executive_assassination_ring  ---  11 Mar 2009 At a "Great Conversations" event at the University of Minnesota last night, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh talked about new alleged instances of domestic spying by the CIA, and about an ongoing covert military operation that he called an "executive assassination ring." Moderator U of M Political Scientist Larry Jacobs asked Hersh if presidents [get] drawn into improper covert actions that exceed their constitutional powers. Hersh replied, "Yuh. After 9/11... the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it... the Joint Special Operations Command   ---  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Special_Operations_Command  ---  JSOC it’s called. It is a special wing   ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/world/asia/10terror.html  ---  of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. They did not report to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or to Mr. [Robert] Gates,*  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/gates-robert-weblist-mpg-111006  ---  the secretary of defense. They reported directly to him. ... Congress has no oversight of it. It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on... Under President [sic] Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in the name of all of us. It's complicated because the guys doing it are not murderers, and yet they are committing what we would normally call murder."  --  Paragraph quoted from CLG   ---  http://www.legitgov.org/  ---  *link added - mpg
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Obama™ Update - "Terrorist watch list hits 1 million   ---  http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-03-10-watchlist_N.htm
11 Mar 2009 The government's terrorist watch list has hit 1 million entries, up 32% since 2007. Federal data show the rise comes despite the removal of 33,000 entries last year by the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center. The remaining million entries represent about 400,000 individuals, according to the center. "It's always going to be a work in progress,"says Timothy Edgar, a civil liberties officer at the intelligence director's office. [Yes, and apparently under Obama, it's *progressing* nicely. --LRP] --  Paragraph quoted from CLG  ---  http://www.legitgov.org/
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Ludicrous Terrorist Watch List Now Contains Over 1 Million Names  ---  http://infowars.net/articles/march2009/110309Terror.htm
Obama™ Update - Related Article -- A quote...."Reports have confirmed that the watch list contains the names of thousands of innocent Americans, including children, lawyers and even a retired Air National Guard brigadier, now a commercial pilot for a major airline. - We have previously highlighted the fact that a miniscule amount, less than 0.01% of Homeland Security cases are terrorism related. - Other government watch lists, such as the so called "No Fly List" and the CAPPS II system, used by airlines and derived from the master terror list, have also come under heavy criticism for subverting the First and Fourth Amendments."
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The Groundwork Has Already Been Laid for Martial Law  ---  http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/commentary.asp?record_id=581
A quote...."During his two terms in office, George W. Bush stepped outside the boundaries of the Constitution and assembled an amazing toolbox of powers that greatly increased the authority of the Executive branch and the reach of the federal government. -- Bush expanded presidential power to, among other things, allow government agents to secretly open the private mail of American citizens; authorize government agents to secretly, and illegally, listen in on the phone calls of American citizens and read our e-mails; assume control of the federal government following a "catastrophic event"; and declare martial law."
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Army troops patrol American streets  ---  http://dprogram.net/2009/03/11/photo-army-troops-patrol-american-streets/
Photo - A quote...."U.S. Army soldiers from Fort Rucker police the streets of Samson, Alabama (in violation of posse comitatus) after the March 10 shootings."
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You Don't Know Dick  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/you-dont-know-dick.html
Special Note - (A handy reference guide to good'ol Dick's prodigious amounts of criminal mis-deeds.) -- A quote...."In February 2006, I chronicled some of then vice president Cheney's little-known shenanigans."
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Germs, Viruses, and Secrets  ---  http://dprogram.net/2009/03/11/germs-viruses-and-secrets/
A quote...."U.S. military anthrax was used in the most significant bio-terrorist attack in America. Congress admits there is no accountability for Pentagon’s headling of bio-weapons. -- In an awkward and disturbing irony, the most significant bioterrorism incident in the U.S. to date — i.e., the 2001 anthrax attacks — apparently originated in a U.S. military laboratory that was engaged in biological defense research. Yet the pursuit of such research, and perhaps the associated threat, has continued to expand."
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Driving through Tenaha, Texas, doesn't pay for some  ---  http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-texas-profiling11-2009mar11%2C0%2C2572041.story
A quote...."Reporting from Tenaha, Texas -- You can drive into this dusty fleck of a town near the Texas-Louisiana state line if you're African American, but you might not be able to drive out of it -- at least not with your car, your cash, your jewelry or other valuables. -- That's because the police here allegedly have found a way to strip motorists, many of them black, of their property without ever charging them with a crime. Instead they offer out-of-towners a grim choice: Sign over your belongings to the town, or face felony charges of money laundering or other serious crimes. -- More than 140 people reluctantly accepted that deal from June 2006 to June 2008, according to court records." -- also posted at CandidBlogger
  ---  http://candidblogger.blogspot.com/2009/03/blacks-pulled-over-and-robbed-by-texas.html
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Counting votes in secret - PHOTO - 'Let there be consequences'
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/Counting-votes-in-secret--by-Bev-Harris-090311-62.html
A quote...."PHOTO: Pima County Polling Place, Moments after polls close on Mar. 10, 2009 -- I'm posting this important photo, and this important article, from Jim March -- a member of our board of directors. -- Bev Harris."
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Thank You, George  ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14906
A quote...."The Viva Palestina convoy's arrival in Gaza has worked wonders. It will be seen as a landmark achievement in the struggle for liberty. -- Thank you, George, for making us British feel clean again. -- Thank you, George, for giving us back a measure of self-respect. -- For too many years our Israel-adoring politicians and government ministers have shamed us with their failure to stand up straight for justice in the Holy Land. Even those who claim to speak with God have endorsed Israeli oppression and supported the Zionists’ lust for land and racial supremacy."
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‘Color Purple’ author tours Gaza  ---  http://pulsemedia.org/2009/03/12/color-purple-author-tours-gaza/
A quote...."US writer Alice Walker, centre, talks with Palestinian women during a visit in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, Sunday, March 8, 2009. Pulitzer-prize winning author Alice Walker, who wrote "The Color Purple," is traveling to Gaza along with other female activists to highlight the devastation of the Israeli offensive on Gaza's residents."
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Israeli court orders Palestinian to demolish his own home or face penalty  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/191963
A quote...."OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--The Israeli district court in occupied Jerusalem has ruled that Adel Tamimi, a Jerusalemite, should knock down his own home in the Old City of Jerusalem. -- The court said that if Tamimi did not tear his own home down he would have to pay for the expenses of its demolition in addition to serving six months in jail."
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Israeli forces arrest 27 youths in Beit Ommar  ---  http://palsolidarity.org/2009/03/5300
A quote...."27 residents of Beit Ommar village in the Hebron District of the southern West Bank, have been arrested by Israeli forces while the village remains under curfew with a large-scale military operation taking place."
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Riham Barghouti (Adalah) On Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions - Westside Green Party Forum
  ---  http://palestinevideo.blogspot.com/2009/03/riham-barghouti-adalah-on-boycott.html
Videos - (Note: part1 appears to be down for the moment) A quote...."NEW YORK -- March 7, 2009. (Part 1) Riham Barghouti, an organizer with Adalah NY, talks about organizing 'BDS' in an effort to bring about an end to Israeli style Apartheid. She compares South African Apartheid with Israeli foreign and domestic policies and discusses how the BDS campaign is progressing. -- Barghouti was speaking at a Green Party Forum On Gaza held at Judson Memorial Church in the Village." -- For more on how to boycott Israel, see the upper-left-corner on the "Front Page" of this blogsite. - mpg
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Hamas says should have right to pick next PM  ---  http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=38086
Heck they won the election in 2006  ---  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_legislative_election,_2006  ---   ....oh that's right, the Palestinians are only allowed to participate in that new fangled "freedom and democracy" system the US-NRE is always ranting and raving about.  You know, the system where your country gets bombed to smithereens and if you don't vote the way you should....you get bombed to smithereens all over again. - mpg -- A quote...."Hamas said on Wednesday it would demand the right to choose the next Palestinian prime minister and a majority of cabinet seats in any unity government with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction."
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Nadia Hasan - The expulsion of the expelled and photo essay
  ---  http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/03/10/nadia-hasan-the-expulsion-of-the-expelled-and-photo-essay/
A quote...."Women and children, old and young, all crowded on the other side of the fence, and separated from the special guests by a barrier of soldiers, shouting slogans against the president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and inviting him to come and witness with his own eyes what his people is passing through, the same people that he repeatedly mentioned in his speeches, but according to many Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, he has completely forgotten."
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Israeli FM: “Israel launching multi-million dollar campaign to improve its image”  ---  http://www.imemc.org/article/59289
No matter what the Israelis think, money can't buy you the RIGHT to commit murder and mayhem.  - mpg -- A quote...."Israeli Ynet News reported Wednesday that the Israeli Forging Minister, Tzipi Lvni, stated that Israel is investing a multi-million dollar campaign in order to improve its image among the world after its latest war on Gaza." -- For more on the Media and Israel see....Judeo-Christian C/C & US - The Media
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/judeochristianconflictcontrolwithinus-weblist-mpg-010409#MEDIA
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Elias Akleh - Arming Terrorist Israel  ---  http://www.creative-i.info/?p=5218
A quote...."Since their occupation of Palestine in 1948 to establish illegal Israel in the heart of the Arab World until the present, Zionist Israelis had initiated seven wars against their Arab neighbors. Six of those were waged after 1967 to maintain their occupation of the rest of Palestine, Lebanese Sheb’a Farms, and Syrian Golan Heights; formally recognized by the international community as an occupation."
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U.S. Banks Overrun by Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/bonner/bonner369.html
Special Note - This one was a lot of fun! - mpg -- A quote...." Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels. The world is full of them. -- Our theme today comes from a movie, in which Michael Caine teaches Steve Martin how to be a gigolo. The idea is to identify rich, vulnerable women…seduce them…and then take their money." -- Here's a good quote...."AIG, for example, has been described as “where taxpayers’ money goes to die.” But it doesn’t die in AIG – it goes to pay off debts to the biggest boys left in the room – Merrill and Goldman Sachs." -- And another...."The credit crunch was misinterpreted by the authorities. They thought it was a liquidity problem. So, they put out trillions of dollars to “solve” the problem. -- The problem was caused by too much spending…and they still think that if we spend a few trillions more…the problem will disappear. Of course, it won’t happen, because the real problem is debt. And there are only three ways to solve that problem: You can default. You can inflate. Or, you can work your way out (maybe). The feds favor inflation. But $50 trillion has disappeared from the world’s asset markets. So far, the feds haven’t been able to keep up. -- Give them time."
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Warren Buffett wrong again  ---  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-francis/warren-buffett-wrong-agai_b_173528.html
Special Note - A quote...."Five years from now," he characteristically stated in the interview, "I can guarantee you that the machine will be running fine. We do have the greatest economic machine that man has ever created."  ---   That's debatable.  ---  American-style free enterprise turned out to be a joke  I believe in free enterprise, but the U.S. version in the past decade or so consisted of the rich getting richer while the currency was debased so that everyone and everything, including governments, could live beyond their means on plastic. Buffett and his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. were also casualties of this irrational tax-cut, credit bubble exuberance."
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Where Did the Money Go?  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/cummings/cummings60.html
A quote...."While Bear Stearns was collapsing, Goldman Sachs boasted that it had insulated itself by buying insurance against the mortgage-backed derivatives. As it turns out, it was, in fact, rescued by the Fed when it bailed out AIG. In 2007, Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs’ CEO, received $70 million in compensation, including bonuses, $27 million in cash. A Democrat, he contributed $7,000 to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. At the time the New York Fed came to AIG's assistance, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner was its head. Blankfein is still drawing down millions in compensation. The rationale for his compensation is the alleged profitability of Goldman Sachs, which raked in over $9 billion in 2006. It should also be noted that the bailout stopped Goldman stock from plummeting, thereby protecting not only Blankfein’s fortune, but that of Hank Paulson, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs, who was Secretary of the Treasury under George W. Bush. This is perhaps the greatest financial scandal in American history but most Americans are totally ignorant of it."
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US bank regulator retires amid fraud scandal  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/doch-m12.shtml
A quote...."Dochow was removed from his post as West regional director of the Office of Thrift Supervision last December after an investigation by the Treasury Department's Inspector General's Office found that in May of 2008 he had allowed IndyMac Bank of Pasadena, California to falsify its financial filings with the government in order to conceal the bank's perilous capital position. Two months later IndyMac, which specialized in high-risk, high interest home loans, collapsed after a run on the bank by depositors and was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, at an estimated cost of $9 billion to US taxpayers."
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Budget deficit widens as receipts fall to 14-year low - Individual tax payments plunge to lowest level since 1985
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/budget-deficit-widens-receipts-fall/story.aspx?guid=%7B252ACD90-577B-443D-8A16-DD97657938B2%7D
A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The U.S. federal government budget widened to $192.8 billion in February as tax receipts plunged to the lowest level in 14 years, the Treasury Department reported Wednesday." -- For more on this issue see article shown below....
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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 - posted 02-26-09
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Freddie Mac seeks $30.8B in US aid after 4Q loss  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090311/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_freddie_mac
A quote...."WASHINGTON – Freddie Mac, facing mounting damage from the U.S. housing crisis, said Wednesday it will ask the government for nearly $31 billion in additional aid after posting a gargantuan loss of more than $50 billion last year."
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Unemployment in 7 States May Have Exceeded 20% in February - http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/unemployment-in-7-states-may-have.html
A quote...."As I have previously pointed out, unemployment may actually be higher than during the same phase of the Great Depression. Specifically, as of 1930 - the year after the 1929 crash - the unemployment rate was 8.7 percent. -- As of December 2008, U-6 unemployment was 13.5 percent. (U-6 is actually more accurate, because it includes those who would like full-time work, but can only find part-time work, or have given up looking for work altogether)."
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Join the saved minority  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/KC11Dj01.html
Financial Update - A quote...."I thought that my eyes were playing tricks on me, but it looked like the earnings of the S&P Industrials Index went down last week, plummeting to US$65.86 from $85.90 the week before, all of which probably explains why the Wall Street Journal reports that railroads "have seen shipping volumes drop by double-digit percentages in recent months", and that "the nation's five largest railroads have put more than 30% of their boxcars - 206,000 in all - into storage." Yikes! A third less volume!"
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The Net Interest Margin Mystery  ---  http://blog.atimes.net/?p=711
Financial Update - Chart - A quote...."Banks’ net interest margin rises during recessions because 1) the central bank reduces their cost of funds and 2) spreads widen. That is what happened during the past two recessions, but not during the present one. NIM at US banks with assets in excess of $15 billion has fallen to the lowest level on record, as shown in this graph from the St. Louis Fed:"
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They don't ring a bell  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?column=Mark+Hulbert
Market Tech Note - A quote...." One of the biggest defects of rally earlier this week, ironically, was the sheer eagerness with which many declared that it meant that happy days are now here again. Historically, bear market bottoms have rarely been recognized as such in real time. -- This, after all, is the source of the old Wall Street saying that they don't ring a bell announcing the bottom of a bear market. -- On the contrary, past bottoms were more often than not distinguished by investor disgust, exhaustion and apathy. Having been burned for so long by the bear markets that preceded those bottoms, investors resolved never, ever, to trust the market again."
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Top 10 headlines that could signal a market bottom
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/analysts-devise-list-10-signals/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7B80474254-89F7-4859-80CC-9A9D807C28C8%7D&dist=morenews
Market Tech Note - (And a little satire) -- A quote...."NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- With few technical or fundamental road signs left, two equity strategists have devised a top 10 list for investors searching for signs of a bottom -- not to be confused with a bear-market rally."
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GM & Citi Face Dow Delisting  ---  http://www.roguegovernment.com/GM_%26_Citi_Face_Dow_Delisting/14698/0/8/8/Y/M.html
Financial Alert - This could trigger forced sales of the stocks by index, pension and mutual funds required to invest in DOW or "blue chip" only stocks, which is why the de-listing may not really happen for awhile....even if it should. - mpg -- A quote...."If the US government assumes greater control over US bank Citigroup or automaker General Motors, that might "trigger" their removal from the Dow index, the Dow Jones Indexes said yesterday."
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Japan's economy shrinks an annualized 12.1% in Q4
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Japans-economy-shrinks-annualized-121/story.aspx?guid=%7B73D0A982-52DC-4331-9AE4-E374B332B898%7D
A quote...."TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- The Japanese economy saw a 12.1% annual rate of contraction in the fourth quarter on a steep decline in exports and a fall in private investment, revised data showed Thursday."
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