MPG'S DAILY RAPSHEET AND BLOTTER  ON THE "GREAT GAME"  --  05-27-09  to 06-02-09 -- 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 June 2nd 2009 - links page

Obama's Great Illusion  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22753.htm
Special Note - A quote...."June 02, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- I wonder how many of you have woken up to the fact that America's latest leader is really a political Houdini ... an illusionist on a presidential scale. - Infront of our very eyes he has morphed from a gentle intellectual, and strong defender of human rights into a war-mongering bully who sponsors targetted assassinations and orders pre-emptive strikes with casual ease."
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Two years before the 9/11 attacks on America, George W. Bush told a Houston journalist if elected president, “I’m going to invade Iraq.”
  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13829
Special Note - A quote...."Bush made the comments about starting an aggressive war to veteran Houston Chronicle reporter Mickey Herskowitz, then working with Bush on his book “A Charge To Keep,” later brought out by publisher William Morrow."
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How Important is Cheney's Admission that There was NEVER Any Evidence Linking Iraq and 9/11?
  ---  http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/06/cheney-admits-that-there-was-never-any.html
Special Note - A quote...."How important is Cheney's admission? -- Well, 5 hours after the 9/11 attacks, Donald Rumsfeld said "my interest is to hit Saddam". -- He also said "Go massive . . . Sweep it all up. Things related and not." -- And at 2:40 p.m. on September 11th, in a memorandum of discussions between top administration officials, several lines below the statement "judge whether good enough [to] hit S.H. [that is, Saddam Hussein] at same time", is the statement "Hard to get a good case." In other words, top officials knew that there wasn't a good case that Hussein was behind 9/11, but they wanted to use the 9/11 attacks as an excuse to justify war with Iraq anyway." - also posted at & Uruknet  ---  http://www.uruknet.com/?p=m54801&hd=&size=1&l=e
& OpEdNews   ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/How-Important-is-Cheney-s-by-George-Washington-090602-979.html
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Cheney admits there was never any evidence tying Iraq, 9/11  ---  http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/06/02/cheney-no-evidence-iraq/
Related Article - A quote...."Oops. -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney wants a do-over. After being party to an administration that repeatedly sought to tie the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks with Saddam Hussein, he’s ready to let that assertion go. -- In an interview with Fox News’ Greta van Susteren Monday, Cheney said there was no evidence tying Iraq and 9/11 — and that there never was." -- For more on this sort of "Oops, I'm bad" issue see....Republican Tourettes Syndrome  (RTS) 08-26-06 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/rts-blog-mpg-08262006
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This Modern World  ---  http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2009/06/02/tomo/
Cartoon - A quote...."Look what happens when Dick Cheney makes a startling admission!"
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Waterboarding Tip Of The Iceberg / Re-Open 9/11 Investigation
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/Waterboarding-Tip-Of-The-I-by-Allen-L-Roland-090602-96.html
Special Note - (More torture-9/11 cover-up) -- A quote...."Dick Cheney was complicit, or at the very least, took advantage of the 9/11 attacks and used it as an excuse to implement his grand neocon agenda ~ using these attacks as a justification for shredding the constitution, violating the Geneva Convention, blatantly violating human rights and covering his 9/11 involvement tracks by forcing confessions for the 9/11 commission through illegal torture of detainees.   ---  Remember, as Stephen C. Webster ( Prison Planet ) reported on May 14, 2009 ~  " More than one-quarter of all footnotes in the 9/11 Report refer to CIA interrogations of al Qaeda operatives were subjected to the now-controversial interrogation techniques,” writes former NBC producer Robert Windrem in The Daily Beast.  ---  http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-05-13/cheneys-role-deepens/full/  ---  “In fact, information derived from the interrogations was central to the 9/11 Report’s most critical chapters, those on the planning and execution of the attacks," reported NBC.
  ---  http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/30/624314.aspx  ---  The analysis also shows ~ and agency and commission staffers concur ~ there was a separate, second round of interrogations in early 2004, done specifically to answer new questions from the Commission... “9/11 Commission staffers say they ‘guessed’ but did not know for certain that harsh techniques had been used, and they were concerned that the techniques had affected the operatives’ credibility." -- For more on this issue see....9/11 - Iraq - Torture Fables
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911&iraqtotturefables-weblist-mpg-052909
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The Intel-Journo Alliance  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/060209.html
A quote...." The well-educated neocons – many of whom embraced the elitist political philosophy of Leo Strauss – knew that if they could manipulate those two crucial sources of information – the CIA and the press – they could control the Washington debate and set the policy parameters for the United States. -- The neocons even had a phrase for this process of controlling what the American people got to hear, see and believe. It was called “perception management.” -- So, threats to the American people were wildly exaggerated; dissent from the Left was deemed almost treasonous; trillions of U.S. tax dollars were diverted to military budgets; aggressive war became an easy option for American political leaders. -- While great for the neocons and their military-industrial friends, the costs were enormous for the United States and people around the world." -- For more on this issue see....US Fake Intel / Propaganda - Leo Strauss - Updated
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/fakeintell-weblist-mpg-090206#LEOSTRAUSS
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Former CIA station chief challenges claims that torture thwarted terror attacks  ---  http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/06/02/cia-chief-questions-claims/
A quote...."Milton Bearden, a former Central Intelligence Agency Pakistan station chief who served at the agency for three decades, says claims that the Bush administration’s so-called enhanced interrogation techniques saved American lives are likely false."
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U.S. Marines find Iraq tactics don't work in Afghanistan  ---  http://www.thestate.com/166/story/811092.html
Special Note - A quote...."At times, Afghanistan can feel deceptively like Iraq, they say. During a patrol that found the Marines surrounded by poppy fields, they spotted two men on a motorcycle trailing them. It was the only other vehicle on an otherwise unused paved road. -- "You see that. They're watching us," Gilreath radioed to his fellow Marines. -- In Iraq, such trailing often meant an attack was imminent. But not here. Marines said it could be months before the Taliban turns that information into an attack. -- "The lack of attacks has me asking: Are we doing something right or wrong?" asked company commander Capt. Sven Gosnell, 36, of Torrance, Calif., an Iraqi veteran. -- When the Taliban does take on the Marines, it's a different kind of fight, Marines said. For one, the Taliban'll wait until they're ready, not just when an opportunity appears. They'll clear the area of women and children, not use them as shields. And when the attack comes, it's often a full-scale attack, with flanks, trenches and a plan, said one Marine captain and Iraq veteran who asked not to be identified because he wasn't sure he was allowed to discuss tactics."
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Taliban kill 4 truckers, set fire on 10 trucks in S Afghanistan  ---  http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/29/content_11454702.htm
A quote...."KABUL, May 29 (Xinhua)-- Taliban insurgents fighting Afghan and the U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, attacked a supplying convoy in the southern Zabul province, killing four drivers and set on fire 10 trucks, provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Sarjang said Friday."
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Nato terminal attacked in Balochistan, 2 killed
  ---  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Pakistan/Nato-terminal-attacked-in-Balochistan-2-killed/articleshow/4610524.cms
A quote...."ISLAMABAD: Two people were killed and three others injured on Tuesday when dozens of militants attacked a terminal in Pakistan’s Balochistan province used by convoys ferrying supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan."
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Russian advice: More troops won't help in Afghanistan  ---  http://www.thestate.com/166/story/811099.html
A quote...." MOSCOW — The old diplomat sighed as he recalled his years in Afghanistan, and then leaned forward and said in a booming voice that no escalation of troops would bring lasting peace. -- As the Soviet ambassador to Afghanistan from 1979 to 1986, Fikryat Tabeyev saw the numbers rise to more than 100,000 troops without any possibility of victory against a growing insurgency."
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What’s Wrong With Our Foreign Policy and What the Libertarian Party Can Do About It -- http://lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski230.html
Must Read - A quote...."I was asked to talk today about the problems of our foreign policy – a question so wide-ranging it would be impossible to address in a 20 minute speech – and yet it is a fascinating question. Like the search for a grand unified theory, it is also an irresistible challenge. -- In thinking about our foreign policy – or any foreign policy – a libertarian would ask about force, and about freedom. A libertarian would also wisely observe, as Frederic Bastiat did in the 1800s that when goods cease to cross borders, armies will. A libertarian would consider how foreign policy would exist – if at all – without the state."
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Robert Fisk: Most Arabs know this speech will make little difference
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-most-arabs-know-this-speech-will-make-little-difference-1694532.html
A quote...."More and more, it looks like the same old melody that Bush's lads used to sing. We're not against the Muslim world. In fact, we are positively for it. We want you to have democracy, up to a point. We love Arab "moderates" and we want to reach out to you and be your friends. Sorry about Iraq. And sorry – again, up to a point – about Afghanistan and we do hope that you understand why we've got to have a little "surge" in Helmand among all those Muslim villages with their paper-thin walls. And yes, we've made mistakes." -- also posted at ICH   ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22755.htm
& CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/02-4
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Pakistani court releases top Mumbai suspect  ---  http://atheonews.blogspot.com/2009/06/pakistani-court-releases-top-mumbai.html
A quote...."Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:49:05 GMT -- A Pakistani court has ordered the release of militants' chief allegedly linked to last year's deadly attacks on the Indian port city of Mumbai. -- A panel of three judges from the high court in the eastern city of Lahore on Tuesday ruled that there was no reason to hold Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, Jamaat-ud-Dawa founder, under house arrest. -- Sources said the court released Saeed after insufficient evidence to link him to last November deadly Mumbai raids."
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Russia FM: We'll demand Iran nuclear program stays civilian  ---  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1089819.html
A quote...."Russia will demand that Iran commit to utilizing its nuclear program for civilian purposes only, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his visiting Israeli counterpart, Avigdor Lieberman, in Moscow on Tuesday. -- "We have confirmed the need to assure the international community of the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program," Lavrov said, according to the RIA Novosti news agency."
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35 Israeli spies identified in Lebanon  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=96707&sectionid=351020203
A quote...."Beirut has charged three more people with spying for Tel Aviv amid a crackdown on Israeli espionage networks in Lebanon. - Saeb Mohammad Aoun and Mohammed Hassan Abdallah were charged on Monday with passing sensitive information to Israel while Ali Hassan al-Ghossein, a third man, was charged with collaborating with Israel and entering the country."
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Yemeni Prisoner Muhammad Salih Dies At Guantánamo
  ---  http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/06/02/yemeni-prisoner-muhammad-salih-dies-at-guantanamo/
A quote...."It has just been reported that Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih (also known as Mohammed al-Hanashi), a Yemeni prisoner at Guantánamo, has died, apparently by committing suicide. -- The news comes just three days after the second anniversary of another death at Guantánamo — that of Abdul Rahman al-Amri, a Saudi prisoner who died on May 30, 2007 — and just eight days before the third anniversary of the deaths of three other prisoners — Ali al-Salami, Mani al-Utaybi and Yasser al-Zahrani — who died on June 10, 2006, and it must surely hasten calls for the urgent repatriation of other prisoners before there are any more deaths at the prison."
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U.S. judge orders disclosure of evidence against detainees  ---  http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/06/01/us-detainee-documents.html
A quote...."A federal judge ordered the United States on Monday to publicly reveal unclassified versions of its allegations and evidence justifying the continued imprisonment of more than 100 detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay."
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Chavez accuses CIA of backing plot to kill him -- Which one, there's so many? - mpg
  ---  http://www.roguegovernment.com/Chavez_accuses_CIA_of_backing_plot_to_kill_him/15856/0/18/18/Y/M.html
A quote..."President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday alleged that U.S. intelligence agencies were behind a purported assassination plot that prevented him from visiting El Salvador. -- Chavez had planned to attend the inauguration of leftist President Mauricio Funes in the Central American nation on Monday, but canceled his trip due to the alleged plot."
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Saakashvili has put all his eggs into the wrong basket
  ---  http://www.russiatoday.com/Politics/2009-06-02/Saakashvili_has_put_all_his_eggs_into_the_wrong_basket.html
A quote...."The worst expectations have come true: the process of Georgia’s de-sovereignization continues to accelerate and appears irreversible. - The government’s unreasonable and clumsy policy has got the country down to the level of a third-rate state which other countries disrespect."
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MSM: North Korea ‘preparing to test most advanced missile’  ---  http://dprogram.net/2009/06/02/msm-north-korea-preparing-to-test-most-advanced-missile/
A quote...."(Guardian) – Media reports say weapon capable of striking west coast of US has been moved to launch site -- North Korea is poised to test launch its most advanced missile, reports said today, a week after it defied the international community and conducted its second nuclear weapons test in three years."
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Garry Trudeau 'Maligns Judaism' Says ADL  ---  http://kennysideshow.blogspot.com/2009/06/garry-trudeau-maligns-judaism-says-adl.html
Cartoon - A quote...."New York, NY, June 1, 2009 ... The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today released the text of a letter to cartoonist Garry Trudeau concerning his Doonesbury strip of May 31, 2009:" -- For more about this sort of issue see....Judeo-Christian C/C & US
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/judeochristianconflictcontrolwithinus-weblist-mpg-010409
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The Rape of Gaza  ---  http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/440067/the_rape_of_gaza
A quote...."How would you feel if you found out that an American school, paid for with your tax dollars, was bombed and completely destroyed by a US ally? This happened in Gaza just a few months ago, during Israel's now-infamous Operation Cast Lead. -- I've been touring Gaza for the past three days as part of a Code Pink delegation, and the concrete rubble and twisted rebar of the American International School in Gaza is just one of the many horrifying images we've seen on this trip. The school, which taught American progressive values to Palestinian kids in grades K-12, was bombed by US-supplied Israeli F-16s in early January." -- also posted at ICH   ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22756.htm
& CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/02-3
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South Africans Investigation Accuses Israel of Apartheid  ---  http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article967
A quote...."The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC) released a study on Monday indicating that Israel is practicing both colonialism and apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories."
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Pushing for "normalization" of Israeli apartheid  ---  http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10570.shtml
A quote...."Arab states have historically lacked a consistent commitment to the Palestinians. Deeply divided, the Palestinian cause had often been used to distract discontent from problems at home and to advance the populist agendas of Arab dictators. Even prior to the creation of Israel, King Abdullah I of Jordan had expressed his commitment to an exclusive Jewish state in Palestine. He didn't sign a peace deal with Israel earlier on for fear of isolation. That taboo was broken in 1979 by Egypt -- the most populous Arab country -- gradually redefining the limits of what the autocratic Arab regimes could get away without risking their seats of power in face of popular discontent. -- Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the most influential of these countries, are now leading the anti-Iran campaign. Iran's threat to their regional dominance coupled with a dose of anti-Shiite hostility, has led them to take Israel as a convenient ally. Israel on the other hand is anxious to quash Iran, an opponent to its regional supremacy."
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Former Pink Floyd Member Appalled by Israel’s Apartheid Wall
  ---  http://pulsemedia.org/2009/06/03/former-pink-floyd-member-appalled-by-israels-apartheid-wall/
A quote...."Several news sources have reported on an Associated Press interview with former Pink Floyd member and co-founder Roger Waters, who expressed sincere revulsion after being exposed to Israel’s Apartheid Wall while visiting the West Bank refugee camp of Aida, in Bethlehem yesterday. "
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Viva Palestinia - A Lifeline From The United States To Gaza  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22751.htm
A quote...."June 02, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- -Fresh from the success of the Viva Palestina: Lifeline from Britain to Gaza aid convoy - which took over 100 vehicles to Gaza from the UK, Minister of Parliament, George Galloway has linked up on his US tour with the Vietnam veteran and peace campaigner, Ron Kovic, to launch a similar, but even larger venture from the States." -- also posted at AtheoNews
  ---  http://atheonews.blogspot.com/2009/06/lifeline-from-united-states-to-gaza.html
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“We’ll press Israel to accept Arab peace initiative” – Lebanese PM
  ---  http://www.russiatoday.com/Politics/2009-06-02/_We_ll_press_Israel_to_accept_Arab_peace_initiative____Lebanese_PM.html
A quote...."Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who is now fighting for a parliamentary seat in the city of Sidon, says, if elected, he intends to press for withdrawal of Israel from Lebanese and Palestinian territories."
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In Crisis, Banks Dig In for Fight Against Rules  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/business/01lobby.html
Special Note - A quote...."As the financial crisis entered one of its darkest phases in October, a handful of the nation’s largest banks began holding daily telephone sessions. Murmurs were already emanating from Washington about the need for a wide-ranging regulatory overhaul, and Wall Street executives girded for a fight.  --  Atop the agenda during their calls: how to counter an expected attempt to rein in credit-default swaps and other derivatives — the sophisticated and profitable financial instruments that were intended to limit risk but instead had helped take the economy to the brink of disaster.  --  The nine biggest participants in the derivatives market — including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Bank of America — created a lobbying organization, the CDS Dealers Consortium, on Nov. 13, a month after five of its members accepted federal bailout money."
also posted at BLN   ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-4367-0-24-24--.html
For more on this issue see.... Enforcing the Rules -- Too Little, Too Late - 02-27-09 - mpg
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Leading Democrats: Congress, Senate Owned And Run By Bankers - They also own their little lackey Obama.
 ---  http://infowars.net/articles/june2009/020609Bankers.htm
Related Article - A quote...."The Democratic Chairman of the Agriculture Committee yesterday announced to the press that “The banks run the place,” in reference to the US Congress. He is the second notable elected official to speak out in recent weeks over the gross and institutionally corrupt conflict of interest on Capitol Hill. -- “I will tell you what the problem is," Collin Peterson told the New York Times, "they give three times more money than the next biggest group. It’s huge the amount of money they put into politics.”
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Goldman Sachs names ex-SEC chief Levitt as advisor - (a.k.a. "The Revolving Door") - mpg
  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSTRE5514PM20090602
A quote...."NEW YORK (Reuters) - Clinton-era Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt has signed on as an advisor to Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), the Wall Street firm announced on Tuesday."
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Obama offers nothing to states, cities devastated by GM plant closures   ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/gmpc-j03.shtml
A quote...."Plant closings resulting from Monday’s forced bankruptcy of General Motors will cause spiraling unemployment and deep cuts in social services in many cities and states across the country. The Obama administration, whose Auto Task Force dictated the terms of the bankruptcy, has offered no serious aid to the affected workers and their communities." -- Next time folks, don't vote for a DemoRepub,  your lives would be so much better if you just follow that one simple principal. - mpg
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The Big [Bond] Collapse Could Be Very Near  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13826
A quote...."The Federal Reserve appears to be increasingly nervous about the long term bond market. This is serious. How panicked are they? After leaking a story on Friday, they are back at it on Sunday. -- The Federal Reserve leaked to CNBC's Steve Liesman on Friday that they weren't targeting long rates. Why such a leak? Probably because the Fed did not want to appear impotent in controlling the long rate. So they put out the word through Liesman that they weren't targetting the long rate. Can you imagine what would happen to the markets if it sensed long rates were beyond the control of the Fed?"
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Gerald Celente on Fox News: The Greatest Depression (05/31/09) - Alt  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzQabWBVTg0&feature=player_embedded
  ---  http://www.infiniteunknown.net/2009/06/02/gerald-celente-on-fox-news-the-greatest-depression-053109/
Video - (YouTube - 5 min 31 sec - May 31, 2009)
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Chart of the Day - S&P 500 P/E Ratio  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/chartofthedays&p500peratio-investorsdotcom-cached-060209
Must View Chart - Interesting chart. It's seems to reflect the growing "Virtual Economy™" - mpg
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California will run out of cash in 14 days  ---  http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2009/06/01/daily23.html
A quote...."The state wallet is empty. The bank closed. Credit has dried up, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told lawmakers in a special Tuesday morning address at the Capitol. -- “California’s day of reckoning is here,” he said. With no action, the state will run out of cash in 14 days. Three months after the state budget was approved, California faces a $24 billion deficit." -- also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-4391-0-13-13--.html
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Pending home sales rise 6.7 percent in April  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090602/ap_on_bi_ge/us_economy
Chart - Good news, though not that impressive (see chart), AND... the jump was caused by a lot of distressed sales (45%), a one time $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers and most worrisome of all, low interest rates which have just started to sky rocket. – mpg -- A quote...."WASHINGTON – The number of U.S. homebuyers who agreed to buy a previously occupied home took the largest monthly jump in nearly eight years in April, but there are still plenty of danger signs for the U.S. housing market. -- Home sales appear likely to head upward this summer, potentially to levels not seen since the stock market collapsed last autumn, but prices are expected to keep falling well into next year. Layoffs, which are causing foreclosures to soar, coupled with rising mortgage rates could dampen any real estate recovery."
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TV Causes Learning Lag in Infants  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090601/sc_livescience/tvcauseslearninglagininfants/print
It also makes full grown adults INTO infants.  Turn off your TV's folks, you'll fell so much better if you do. - mpg -- A quote...."Even infants zone out in front of the television, and it turns out this translates into less time interacting with parents and possible lags in language development, a new study finds. -- "We've known that television exposure during infancy is associated with language delays and attentional problems, but so far it has remained unclear why," said lead researcher Dimitri Christakis, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children's Research Institute and professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. "
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Monday June 1st 2009 - links page

Again, May God Forgive Us  ---  http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/search/label/Warfare%20state%3B%20torture%3B%20imperialism
Must Read - Some quotes...."Conservatives and others who revere the founders of our late Republic might recall that the men who won our independence and wrote the Constitution opposed a standing army, not only because it could be employed as an instrument of domestic tyranny, but also because it would offer irresistible opportunities for foreign adventurism. In this, as in so much else, the Founders' wisdom has withstood the passage of time." -- ".... Taguba said "protectors of our foreign policy," not "defenders of our independence" or "guardians of our liberties." The foreign policy referred to entails open-ended entanglements in the affairs of nearly every nation on earth, as well as plundering huge sums from taxpayers to sustain a grotesquely huge military establishment and bribe political elites abroad. That foreign policy cultivates misery and harvests war and terrorism. Why in God's Name would any decent human being defend that foreign policy in the abstract, much less spill blood to implement it?  Although I wish harm or death on no human being, it seems to me a good idea to adjust the current set of incentives in such a way that at least some American military personnel, as they deal with another gust of blowback, will have an overdue confrontation with their conscience and decide unilaterally to end their service of the world's largest criminal enterprise, the government of the United State (spelling intentional)." -- also posted at ICH
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War Is Sin  ---  http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090601_war_is_sin/
Must Read - A quote...."The crisis faced by combat veterans returning from war is not simply a profound struggle with trauma and alienation. It is often, for those who can slice through the suffering to self-awareness, an existential crisis. War exposes the lies we tell ourselves about ourselves. It rips open the hypocrisy of our religions and secular institutions. Those who return from war have learned something which is often incomprehensible to those who have stayed home. We are not a virtuous nation. God and fate have not blessed us above others. Victory is not assured. War is neither glorious nor noble. And we carry within us the capacity for evil we ascribe to those we fight." -- also posted at ICH   ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22749.htm
& AftrDwngSt   ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/43158
& CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/01-0
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Obama's support for the new Graham-Lieberman secrecy law  ---  http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/06/01/photos/index.html
Must Read - A quote...."It was one thing when President Obama reversed himself last month by announcing that he would appeal the Second Circuit's ruling that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) compelled disclosure of various photographs of detainee abuse sought by the ACLU.  Agree or disagree with Obama's decision, at least the basic legal framework of transparency was being respected, since Obama's actions amounted to nothing more than a request that the Supreme Court review whether the mandates of FOIA actually required disclosure in this case.  But now -- obviously anticipating that the Government is likely to lose in court again (.pdf) -- Obama wants Congress to change FOIA by retroactively narrowing its disclosure requirements, prevent a legal ruling by the courts, and vest himself with brand new secrecy powers under the law which, just as a factual matter, not even George Bush sought for himself."
also posted at AmericanEveryman   ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/obamas-support-for-the-new-graham-lieberman-secrecy-law/
& CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/01-9
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Death of the Republic, Part CLXVIII  ---  http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1774-death-of-the-republic-part-clxviii.html
Must Read - Floyd's take on the article shown above - mpg -- Some Quotes...."[The bill] literally has no purpose other than to allow the government to suppress any "photograph taken between September 11, 2001 and January 22, 2009 relating to the treatment of individuals engaged, captured, or detained after September 11, 2001, by the Armed Forces of the United States in operations outside of the United States."  -- "What kind of country passes such a law? Why, a cheap, corrupt, third-rate junta state, which has elevated war and militarism into its supreme value, its "ultimate concern," its divinity -- that's what kind of country. What other kind of country did you think was skulking there between Mexico and Canada these days? -- But the perniciousness of the act doesn't lie merely in its immediate goal -- suppressing war crimes evidence to protect the Terror War machinery that Obama has inherited and is expanding." -- "Adopting the principle of potential "endangerment" as a justification for government repression is not just an open door to tyranny -- it kicks the door down and brings the rest of the front wall crashing with it. But of course, that edifice crumbled a long time ago. The only thing remotely surprising about this latest Banana Republic Act is that is so blatant in its gutless abandonment of even the slightest pretense that the United States is anything other than a militarist empire."

For more on the two articles shown above see....9/11 - Iraq - Torture Fables
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911&iraqtotturefables-weblist-mpg-052909
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Obama Breaking Vows on Secrecy  ---  http://original.antiwar.com/fisher/2009/06/01/obama-breaking-vows-on-secrecy/
A quote...."Despite President Barack Obama’s formation of a new task force to review government secrecy, and an ongoing investigation into use of the so-called state-secrets doctrine, lawyers for the new administration refused last week to disclose information on the government’s use of warrantless wiretaps and backed legislation to block the release of photos of prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan."
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Judge: Gitmo legal documents must be public  ---  http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/06/01/judge-gitmo-legal-documents-must-be-public/
A quote...."A federal judge ordered the United States on Monday to publicly reveal unclassified versions of its allegations and evidence justifying the continued imprisonment of more than 100 detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay."
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Afghanistan demands return of Guantanamo boy  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090601/wl_sthasia_afp/afghanistanunrestrightsguantanamo
A quote...."KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan has demanded that the United States return a young Afghan detained throughout his teenage years in Guantanamo Bay, where lawyers said Monday he was tortured at the controversial prison."
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America's Political/Media Kabuki  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/053109.html
A quote...."Kabuki is defined as a highly stylized form of classical Japanese dance-drama in which actors often wear elaborate makeup and engage in precisely dictated movements, a useful metaphor for the current American political process which can’t seem to break out of old patterns even as the nation hurtles from crisis to crisis."
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Whence the Terror Hysteria? - Follow the Money  ---  http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2009/06/01/whence-the-terror-hysteria/
A quote...."One of the unique pleasures of living near our nation’s capital is to sit down with the first morning cup of coffee, open the Washington Post, and flip through the full-page ads placed by defense contractors. The ads almost always feature dedicated young soldiers, fierce bald eagles, and American flags. They extol our heroic warriors and note how they, the contractors, are on the front line defending freedom and the American way. They do not mention that the ads are paid for by the taxpayers, courtesy of the huge profits generated by unneeded defense spending. Their CEOs and shareholders must smile when they see the ads. The rest of us shouldn’t."
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The War Party Returns  ---  http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2009/05/31/the-war-party-returns/
Special Note - War Prestitute Alert -- A quote...." Whatever happened to the neocons,  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/orig/lind1.html  ---  those creatures of legend  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vWZTTrceV8  ---  whose  ---  http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2004/01/lie-factory ---  fulminations   ---  http://www.newsweek.com/id/47377  ---  led to the worst strategic disaster  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10488.htm  ---  in American history? Oh, don’t worry, they’re still around and up to no good – out of power, but not out of mischief-making schemes to drag us into yet another war, this time on a scale much bigger than their previous "accomplishment."  ---  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123241360913796235.html  ---  The Weekly Standard,  ---  http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/03/kristol_all_hail_obama.asp  ---  Rupert Murdoch’s gift  ---  http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Weekly_Standard  ---  to the War Party, is no longer delivered in multiple copies   ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/11/arts/white-house-listens-when-weekly-speaks.html?pagewanted=2  ---  to the White House, but that doesn’t mean editor Bill Kristol  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j080601.html  ---  is totally bereft of influence in Washington. Kristol & Co., having disbanded  ---  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century  ---  their Project for a New American Century [.pdf]  ---  http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf  ---  which played a key role  ---  http://empireburlesquenow.blogspot.com/2005/03/dark-passage-pnacs-blueprint-for.html  ---   in dragging us into Iraq – have come up with a new vehicle, the Foreign Policy Initiative,  ---  http://www.foreignpolicyi.org/about.html  ---  which recently co-sponsored a conference with the head of  ---  http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/03/the_foreign_policy_initiative_1.asp  ---  the Center for a New American Security  ---  http://www.cnas.org/people/leadership  ---  (the Obamaites’ favorite foreign policy think-tank) and the Center for American Progress,  --  http://tinyurl.com/nvcgp9  ---   the Soros-funded  ---  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aF7fB1PF0NPg&refer=home  ---  headquarters for progressives such as Matt Yglesias.  ---  http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/03/the_world_desperately_needs_more_bill_kristol.php  ---  The subject was the "Af-Pak" front, and the attendees, whatever their other political differences, were in agreement that our new president is on the right track as he escalates this latest surge in the "war on terror." --  also posted at AmericanEveryman    ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/the-war-party-returns/
For more on this issue see....9/11 - Planning Guidance  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911-planningguidance-weblist-mpg-040409
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Shortcut on the Roadmap to War  ---  http://www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/?p=255
Special Note - Geopolitical Analysis - War Prestitute Alert -- A quote...."Last Friday, The New Republic’s website published a remarkable but thus far little-noticed article by Michael Makovsky and Ed Morse. Makovsky is an alumnus of Doug Feith’s Office of Special Plans and younger brother of former Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) director David Makovsky, while Morse is a former energy analyst for the now-defunct Lehman Brothers. More to the point, both were key players behind last year’s ultra-hawkish Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) report on Iran’s nuclear program, which Makovsky wrote with Michael Rubin and which was characterized here as a “roadmap to war”. Perhaps even more disconcerting than the report’s actual recommendations was the fact that one of the task force members was Dennis Ross, who is now the State Department’s special envoy in charge of Iran. The fact that Ross signed off on the report, which seemed to take for granted the necessity of military action against Iran, was yet another indication that he was a poor choice to facilitate the Obama administration’s diplomatic outreach to Tehran."
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Pro-Russian Party Wins South Ossetia’s First Election  ---  http://news.antiwar.com/2009/06/01/pro-russian-party-wins-south-ossetias-first-election/
A quote...."Declaring its independence last year in the wake of the brief war between Georgia and Russia, the separatist enclave of South Ossetia has held its first elections, and the Unity Party led by President Eduard Kokoity carried by far the largest margin at 46.3%. Their allies in the People’s Party came in second (22.5%), while the Communist Party was close behind at third (22.3%)."
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El Salvador's 1st leftist president takes power  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090601/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_salvador_president
A quote...."SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – A journalist from a party of former Marxist guerrillas became El Salvador's first leftist president Monday, immediately restoring ties with Cuba while promising to remain friendly with the United States."
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A Salvadoran resurrection  ---  http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/06/01/a_salvadoran_resurrection/
Related Article - A quote...."AT THE Plaza Libertad today, inauguration day of President Mauricio Funes, I will be thinking back to Feb. 28, 1977, when security forces opened fire there on hundreds of unarmed civilians protesting a fraudulent presidential election. Less than a week earlier, Oscar Romero, then considered a priest of the privileged, had been installed as the archbishop of El Salvador."
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COLOMBIA:  Moving Towards a Paramilitary State?  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47037
A quote...."BOGOTA, May 29 (IPS) - Visibly indignant, former Colombian president César Gaviria (1990-1994) denounced this week what he called an "appalling" article in a draft political reform law currently under debate in Congress."
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Lebanese army colonel arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel  ---  http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=102362
A quote...."BEIRUT: A Lebanese army colonel has been detained on suspicion of spying for Israel, security sources said on Tuesday. The sources said the colonel was arrested last week and was being questioned about links to Israeli spy agencies. Lebanon's MTV television identified the colonel as Mansour Diab from Akkar." -- also posted at Haaretz  ---  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1089536.html
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Halutz confirms Nasrallah assassination plot  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=96743&sectionid=351020203
A quote...."An Israeli general has verified that Israel failed in its attempt to assassinate Hezbollah's secretary general during its second war on Lebanon."
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Nasrallah's Turn  ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=15157
Special Note - A quote...."Over the last decade and a half, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Lebanon's militant Shiite movement Hezbollah, has steadily moved front and center in the often vitriolic (and regularly under-informed) Western debate over the threat that 'radical Islam' is said to pose to the world at large. -- Now, as Nasrallah appears ready to lead what could be a new majority in the Lebanese Parliament, the steady stream of accusations and threats have, somewhat predictably, turned into a deluge – with Arab states, Arab media and prosecutorial offices far and wide at the forefront of efforts to paint him as public enemy Number One."
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Navy Vet Honored, Foiled Israeli Attack  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/060109a.html
A quote...."What’s the difference between murder and massacre? -- The answer is Terry Halbardier, whose bravery and ingenuity as a 23-year-old Navy seaman spelled the difference between the murder of 34 of the USS Liberty crew and the intended massacre of all 294. -- The date was June 8, 1967; and for the families of the 34 murdered and for the Liberty’s survivors and their families, it is a “date which will live in infamy” — like the date of an earlier surprise attack on the U.S. Navy."
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UN War Investigators Arrive in Gaza
  ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/news.php?id=4148e001a00ea4f090a3ed963a2e5535&mode=details#4148e001a00ea4f090a3ed963a2e5535
A quote...."A United Nations team has arrived in the Gaza Strip to investigate possible war crimes and other violations of international law during Israel's assault on the territory earlier this year. -- The 15-member team, headed by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge, entered the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing on Monday. -- The team entered from Egypt after being denied visas to cross from Israel, despite multiple requests by the UN."
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UN: Israeli buffer zone eats up 30 percent of Gaza's arable land  ---  http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0601/p06s04-wome.html
A quote...."Gaza City, Gaza - Israel's warning came from the sky, as it often does in the Gaza Strip. But this time warplanes dropped neither bombs nor missiles on the impoverished Palestinian territory, but thousands of tiny leaflets warning Gaza's residents to keep away from the 30-mile-long border they share with Israel. -- Stay at least 300 meters (1,000 feet) from the border, the May 25 pamphlets advised Palestinians, or risk being shot by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). -- Once a plush scene of rolling olive, citrus, and pomegranate groves, much of the border region is now just a barren landscape, marked only by the presence of IDF tanks, military watchtowers, and the occasional pop of gunfire."
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Rise in bond yields poses major test for Fed  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rise-in-bond-yields-a-test-for-fed?pagenumber=1
Financial Warning - A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Like students all around the country at this time of the year, the Federal Reserve has been presented with a major test when it will have to show some of what it has learned and is thinking about this year. -- The Fed's test comes in the form of rising long-term bond yields. Yields on 10-year notes, a benchmark for a broad range of consumer and business loans, rose to the highest in six months last week, far above levels seen a couple of months ago, levels that many had hoped would help stimulate the economy. -- Simply put, many economists fear the higher interest rates will choke off growth."
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Rising US bond yields may spark Credit Crisis II  ---  http://www.infiniteunknown.net/2009/06/01/rising-us-bond-yields-may-spark-credit-crisis-ii/
Financial Warning - A quote...."NEW YORK (Reuters) - The global financial crisis may morph into a second, equally virulent phase where borrowing costs rise again, hobbling an embryonic economic recovery, debilitating cash-strapped banks, and punishing investors all over again."

Regarding the two articles shown above -- There are NO FREE LUNCHES. - After seeing what happened to GM bond holders, and watching the manic Fed pump like crazy, no one, particularly the Chinese, wants to be caught at the long end of the US bond market while the US greenback heads south in a hurry, possibly over a cliff. – mpg
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Grand Theft Auto: How Stevie the Rat bankrupted GM  ---  http://www.gregpalast.com/grand-theft-auto-how-stevie-the-rat-bankrupted-gm/
Special Note - A quote...."Screw the autoworkers. -- They may be crying about General Motors' bankruptcy today.  But dumping 40,000 of the last 60,000 union jobs into a mass grave won't spoil Jamie Dimon's day. -- Dimon is the CEO of JP Morgan Chase bank.  While GM workers are losing their retirement health benefits, their jobs, their life savings; while shareholders are getting zilch and many creditors getting hosed, a few privileged GM lenders – led by  Morgan and Citibank – expect to get back 100% of their loans to GM, a stunning $6  billion." also posted at Uruknet - http://www.uruknet.com/?p=m54772&hd=&size=1&l=e
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Personal Income Up, Spending Down
  ---  http://www.briefing.com/GeneralContent/Investor/Active/ArticlePopup/ArticlePopup.aspx?ArticleId=NS20090601085806HeadlineHits
A quote...."The headlines for the Personal Income and Spending report for April were better than expected, with income up 0.5% (consensus -0.2%) and spending down 0.1% (consensus -0.2%). -- Disposable personal income rose 1.1% thanks to a boost from the provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that reduced personal current taxes and increased government social benefit payments." - bold by website editor
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ISM Manufacturing [Still] Shows Contraction in May - although this is the fifth consectutive increase . - mpg
  ---  http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/06/ism-manufacturing-shows-contraction-in.html
A quote...."Manufacturing contracted in May as the PMI registered 42.8 percent, which is 2.7 percentage points higher than the 40.1 percent reported in April. This is the 16th consecutive month of contraction in the manufacturing sector. A reading above 50 percent indicates that the manufacturing economy is generally expanding; below 50 percent indicates that it is generally contracting."
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U.S. construction spending unexpectedly up in April - This is actually good news....for a change. - mpg
  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN0145628220090601
A quote...."WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. construction spending unexpectedly posted its biggest increase in eight months in April, advancing for a second straight month as the private sector put money into both residential and nonresidential projects, according to a government report on Monday."
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Saturday May 30th 2009  - links page

The 'No Problem' Mindset: Guaranteed Destruction  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north718.html
Must Read - A quote...."In short, count the costs. This is what people have refused to do. They have counted the cost of doing something radical. It's high. They have counted the immediate cost of doing nothing new. It seems low. They prefer doing nothing.  --  But what about the long term? What about:

    1. Retirement (no Social Security or Medicare)
    2. The Federal Deficit ($1.8 trillion this year)
    3. Federal Reserve's monetary base (doubled)
    4. Falling house prices
    5. Rising unemployment
    6. The war in Afghanistan (forever, until our defeat)

"No problem!"  --  How do you reason with these people? Answer: you don't, if you value your time and your privacy. If you turn out to be wrong, you will be ridiculed or at least treated as a child. If you are correct, you will be hated. You will also be hit up for money. If you are a Christian, you will be told you are heartless. You will become a line of credit for those whose mantra was "No problem!"
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9/11 families angered by US support for Saudis  ---  http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/05/30/911-families-angered-by-us-support-for-saudis/
Obama™ -- A quote...."Relatives of Sept. 11 victims say they're angry that the Justice Department is supporting the Saudi royal family's bid to be removed from a 9/11 lawsuit. -- The families of some victims have accused the royal family of financially backing terrorist groups that carried out the 2001 attacks." -- For more on this issue see....9/11 - Lawsuits  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911-lawsuits-weblist-mpg-053009
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US failing to investigate war crimes: UN investigator  ---  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10575264&ref=rss
Obama™ -- A  quote...."GENEVA - An independent UN human rights investigator has said that the United States is failing to properly investigate alleged war crimes committed by its soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. -- Although some cases are investigated and lead to prosecutions, others aren't or result in lenient sentences, said Philip Alston, the UN Human Rights Council's special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings."
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U.N. calls U.S. human rights record "deplorable"  ---  http://www.salon.com/news/primary_sources/2009/05/29/un_report/
Obama™ -- A  quote...."May 29, 2009 | The United Nations has released a new report on accountability for human rights abuses by the United States, focusing mostly on transgressions during the Bush administration's so-called war on terror. In a word, accountability in the U.S. has been "deplorable."
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Obama administration refuses to release secret documents  ---  http://obamboozled.blogspot.com/2009/05/obama-administration-refuses-to-release.html
Obama™ -- A quote...."The Obama administration insists it has no obligation to provide access to a top secret document in a wiretapping case, setting up a showdown next week with the judge who ordered it released. -- Justice Department lawyers, in a response Friday with the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, also argued that Judge Vaughn Walker had no cause to penalize the government over its refusal to turn over the document."
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Cybersecurity: Obama’s Promise to Trash the Constitution - More lies from Obama. - mpg
  ---  http://www.infowars.com/cybersecurity-obamas-promise-to-trash-the-constitution/
Obama™ -- A quote...."A quote...."During a speech today on “cybersecurity,” Obama told a whopper. He said the government’s effort to protect us from cyber bad guys “will not include monitoring private sector networks or Internet traffic. We will preserve and protect the personal privacy and civil liberties that we cherish as Americans.” -- Is it possible Obama has never heard of Mark Klein, the retired AT&T communications technician who said years ago that the company shunted all Internet traffic — including traffic from peering links connecting to other Internet backbone providers — to semantic traffic analyzers, installed in a secret room inside the AT&T central office on Folsom Street in San Francisco? There are similar rooms in Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego, all sucking up internet data." - also posted at OHBummer   ---  http://obamboozled.blogspot.com/2009/05/cybersecurity-obamas-promise-to-trash.html  For more on this issue see....US-Attempts to Control the InterNet   ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/attempttocontroltheinternet-weblist-mpg-053006
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Levin to Cheney: You’ve Got Nothing  ---  http://patrickhenrypress.info/?p=672229
Must View Video - A quote...."Carl Levin better watch out for Liz "BabyDick" Cheney and her cries of "libel!" Because he just called her Daddy a liar, using words like "false statements" and "colossal misrepresentation." -- Now, Levin is actually the second person who has seen those documents who says they don't say what PapaDick says they do. A couple of weeks ago, Russ Feingold accused PapaDick of lying using somewhat more gentle language."
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Author Posts $1 Million Dollar Bounty for Prosecution of War Criminals
  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/05/31/author-posts-1-million-dollar-bounty-for-prosecution-of-war-criminals/
A quote...."The author of a new book, Why Do You Kill?,  ---  https://www.amazon.com/dp/1934708143?tag=firedoglake-20&camp=0&creative=0&
linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1934708143&adid=0VZ11D86SYF39F22K07D&  ---  that details the experiences of the members of the Iraqi resistance fighters has apparently announced on FireDogLake a 1 Million Dollar bounty for anyone who can bring Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Blair before a judge for criminal prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity. -- Think that might shake out a few whistle-blowers?"

For more regarding the two articles shown above see....9/11 - Iraq - Torture Fables
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911&iraqtotturefables-weblist-mpg-052909
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Analysis of the Israeli Maneuvers May 31 - June 4  ---  http://palestinevideo.blogspot.com/2009/05/analysis-of-israeli-maneuvers-may-31.html
Must View Press TV Video - War Alert - Analysis - A quote...."Israeli Maneuvers: May 29, 2009 Middle East Today analysis of Israel's largest maneuvers since 1961 which will be held between May 31 and June 4 With guests Alestair Crooke - Director Conflict Forum and Riad Khawaji - Co-Director INEGMA Institute." -- The announcer does a little gratuitous "rubbing it in" which was sort of refreshing.  The annalysts on the show basically concluded that Israel's manuvers are being staged for three reasons - to threaten Lebanon's voters ahead of their upcoming elections - to prepare for a pending attack against Iran (hence the "war alert") or (the most dangerous of all and if true it should be considered a "war warning") perhaps an attempt to gain an overall geo-political shift or advantage through some sort of surprise military action. – mpg
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Tensions high ahead of Israeli drill  ---  http://www.upi.com/Emerging_Threats/2009/05/27/Tensions-high-ahead-of-Israeli-drill/UPI-19311243445339/
War Alert - A quote...."BEIRUT, Lebanon, May 27 (UPI) -- Israeli military officials claim Hezbollah is better armed than it was in 2006 as Lebanese forces go on high alert ahead of Israeli border exercises. - Gabi Ashkenazi, the chief Israeli military officer, told the Knesset on Tuesday that Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon were better equipped now than when they took on the Israeli military in 2006, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports. - "Today (Hezbollah) has more rockets and long-range ammunition than it did before the Second Lebanon War," he said."
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Lebanese army on "alert" ahead of Israeli military exercises
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1480368.php/Lebanese_army_on_%26quotalert%26quot_ahead_of_Israeli_military_exercises_
War Alert - A quote...."Beirut - Lebanese army sources said on Saturday that the country's military had been placed 'on full alert,' ahead of large- scale Israeli army maneuvers expected to begin on Sunday."
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In Pakistan, an exodus that is beyond biblical  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/in-pakistan-an-exodus-that-is-beyond-biblical-1693513.html
A quote...."The language was already biblical; now the scale of what is happening matches it. The exodus of people forced from their homes in Pakistan's Swat Valley and elsewhere in the country's north-west may be as high as 2.4 million, aid officials say. Around the world, only a handful of war-spoiled countries – Sudan, Iraq, Colombia – have larger numbers of internal refugees. The speed of the displacement at its height – up to 85,000 people a day – was matched only during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. This is now one of the biggest sudden refugee crises the world has ever seen."
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Pakistan: Number of displaced persons exceeds 3 million  ---  http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=16258
Related Article - A quote...."PESHAWAR, (Dawn): The number of internally displaced persons (IDP) has crossed the three million mark, according to the NWFP government."-- For more on the two articles shown above see....It Will Happen Every Single Time
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/rapsheetarch/mpgrap-122407-010108#EVERY_TIME
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At least 35 Russian citizens detained in Egypt  ---  http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2009-05-30/At_least_35_Russian_citizens_detained_in_Egypt.html
What the heck is this all about?  Something's up, but what? - mpg -- A quote...."At least eight Russians are reported to have been released in Egypt after being arrested several days ago. More than 20 more are still being held in Cairo. The Russian Consulate says Moscow wants more explanations. Five out eight detained students from Kazakhstan have also been released, the country’s Foreign Ministry reported on Saturday evening." -- also posted at OHBummer
   ---  http://obamboozled.blogspot.com/2009/05/cairo-rounds-up-russians-ahead-of-obama.html
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The Return of the [Iraqi] Resistance  ---  http://www.truthout.org/053109Z
A quote...."At least 20 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq in May, the most since last September, along with more than 50 wounded. Iraqi casualties are, as usual - and in both categories - at least ten times that number. -- Attacks against US forces are once again on the rise in places like Baghdad and Fallujah, where the Iraqi resistance was fiercest before so many of them joined the Sahwa (Sons of Iraq, also referred to as Awakening Councils), and began taking payments from the US military in exchange for halting attacks against the occupiers and agreeing to join the fight against al-Qaeda in Iraq."
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Iran hangs 3 over mosque bombing  ---  http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/05/30/iran-hangs-3-over-mosque-bombing/
A quote...."Three people convicted of involvement in a mosque bombing in southeastern Iran that killed 25 were hanged Saturday, Iran's official news agency reported. -- The three men supplied explosives to the perpetrators who carried out the Thursday bombing in Zahedan, 1,000 miles southeast of the capital Tehran, said a statement issued by the judiciary."
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Iran defuses bomb on Tehran-bound plane  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=96546&sectionid=351020101
Over at the Pentagon and CIA they're saying...."God Dang it, those incompetent Jundullah separatists can't do anything right"! - mpg -- A quote...."Iranian security officials successfully manage to defuse a bomb on a Tehran-bound passenger airliner, averting what could have been a major airborne catastrophe. -- Within minutes from take-off, flight security officials aboard a late Saturday Kish Air flight en route to Tehran from the southern city of Ahwaz, discovered that a handmade bomb had been planted in the plane's toilet, Fars news agency reported on Sunday."
also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/198412
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Jundullah faces US terrorist title  ---  http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C05%5C31%5Cstory_31-5-2009_pg7_5
On the other hand....  But still, it's just a bunch of pansies over at the State Department (The State Dept. still exists??) - mpg - A quote...."LAHORE: The United States State Department is considering placing Jundullah on its terrorism list to send a conciliatory signal to Iran. -- Jundullah has killed scores of Iranian soldiers and border guards since 2003. Most recently it has claimed responsibility for the Thursday suicide bombing in an Iranian mosque that killed 25 and wounded 125. Some US officials argue that the administration should swiftly place a terrorist label on Jundullah as a sign of Washington’s good faith.Others, however, see the move as a premature giveaway." - bold by website editor -- For more on this issue see....US Support of Terror - Jundullah - Updated
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussupportofterror-weblist-mpg-090306#JUNDULLAH
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Iran Secretly Helped U.S. Bomb Taliban Units, Find Al Qaeda  ---  http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/spytalk/2009/05/iran-secretly-helped-us-bomb-t.html
That's because they were idiots and didn't read the PNAC /  ---  http://www.oldamericancentury.org/pnac.htm  ---  AIPAC   ---  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clean_Break  ---   Plans   ---  http://neoconzionistthreat.blogspot.com/2008/02/clean-break.html  ---  and the US-NRE's intent   ---  to "reshape"   ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/newmemap-peters-nwa-cached-092507  ---   the entire Middle East - (YuTbVid).  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXS3vW47mOE  ---   mpg -- A quote...."Iran supplied U.S. diplomats with the location of Taliban military units in Afghanistan after the initial bombing campaign in the fall of 2001 failed to rout them, according to former officials in the George W. Bush administration." -- also posted at ICH  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22739.htm
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Lawsuit alleges U.S. mining company paid Colombian paramilitary group to execute union leaders - link at BuzzFlash  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/
  ---  http://www.examiner.com/x-2071-DC-Special-Interests-Examiner%7Ey2009m5d29-Lawsuit-alleges-US-mining-company-paid-
Colombian-paramilitary-group-to-execute-union-leaders?cid=examiner-email
A quote...."A federal lawsuit alleges the Drummond Company paid millions of dollars to a Colombian paramilitary terrorist group that while acting as paid "security" was responsible for the deaths of 67 people in a plot to disrupt union activities at the company's South American coal mining and railway operations. --  The civil lawsuit accuses Drummond of paying the right-wing United Self Defense Forces of Colombia to protect their business interests in the Cesar and Magdalena provinces of Colombia, and to terrorize and murder innocent residents in the region who they perceived as sympathetic to leftist guerilla groups and supportive of local union organizations. The suit describes in detail a meeting between Drummond and AUC representatives during which the company allegedly ordered the execution of two union leaders." -- Exactly what the US-NRE did to most of Central America, and dreams every single day of doing to Venezuela - mpg
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New Military Base in Colombia Would Spread Pentagon Reach Throughout Latin America - link at BuzzFlash  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/
  ---  http://americas.irc-online.org/am/6148?utm_source=streamsend&utm_medium=email&utm_content=4330541&utm_campaign=New%20Military%
20Base%20in%20Colombia%20Would%20Spread%20Pentagon%20Reach%20Throughout%20Latin%20America
Related Article - Oh look, another New Roman Empire expansion project.  Now the US-NRE's corporate elites will be able to use this nation’s BWC’s (Biological Weapons Components) to gun down Latin American peasants directly instead of relying on third parties such as the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia, which is what got the Drummond Company into so much trouble.  The DOD will just say they're "terrorists" as they do everywhere else. Your taxpayer dollars at work folks, enjoy the show. - mpg -- A quote...."The Pentagon budget submitted to Congress on May 7 includes $46 million for development of a new U.S. military base in Palanquero, Colombia. -- The official justification states that the Defense Department seeks "an array of access arrangements for contingency operations, logistics, and training in Central/South America." -- The military facility in Colombia will give the United States military increased capacity for intervention throughout most of Latin America. The plan is being advanced amid tense relations between Washington and Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, and despite both a long history and recent revelations about the Colombian military's atrocious human rights record." - bold by website editor - Stating a country has an "atrocious human rights record" is like giving it the NRE's "good house destroying seal of approval" for Empire lackey wannabees, it only encourages the DoD to do "business" with that particular country all the more. - mpg
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Moscow Opposes N. Korea Sanctions  ---  http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/1010/42/377527.htm
A quote...."Russia will not object to a new UN Security Council resolution amid escalating tensions over North Korea's nuclear test but continues to oppose sanctions, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday. -- Russia does not want to see North Korea isolated, and Moscow believes that the only way to resolve the standoff is through the now-suspended six-nation negotiations, Andrei Nesterenko said."
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N Korea prepares site for launch of ballistic missile
  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/5409068/N-Korea-prepares-site-for-launch-of-ballistic-missile.html
A quote...."US officials said that satellite images had detected activity at a site in North Korea that suggested the rogue state could be preparing to launch a long-range ballistic missile."
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Scott Horton Interviews Larisa Alexandrovna - also in Mp3  ---  http://dissentradio.com/radio/09_05_28_alexandrovna.mp3
  ---  http://antiwar.com/radio/2009/05/29/larisa-alexandrovna-4/
Audio Interview - A quote...."Larisa Alexandrovna, managing investigative news editor for Rawstory.com, discusses the possible treason in Valerie Plame’s outing, the subsequent loss of CIA covert contacts with the A.Q. Kahn network (that may have supplied al-Qaeda with weapons), evidence of the U.S. scheming to start a war with Iran as early as December 2001 and what living in a police state really looks like." -- For more on this issue see....US - Nukes for Everyone
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/nukesforeveryone-weblist-mpg-010608
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Bush, Clinton Joke, Defend Each Other In Canada
  ---  http://www.roguegovernment.com/Bush%2C_Clinton_Joke%2C_Defend_Each_Other_In_Canada/15797/0/18/18/Y/M.html
No kidding!!  You see folks, this is what happens when you vote for a DemoRepub, and it will happen every single time.  Next time you go into the polls please choose someone else, If not for your conscience or for that of your own future welfare....at least do it for the sake of your children. - mpg -- A quote...."Former U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton traded jokes about life after the Oval Office and took turns defending each other as they shared a stage in Toronto on Friday to discuss global affairs."
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Exploitation of Gaza Part 1  ---  http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=3248
Special Note - A quote...."Would anyone ever imagine that the people of Gaza and Palestine own vast reserves of oil and gas in their own territorial waters? Is it possible that Israel wanted this conflict in order to get its hands on those reserves? Well the answer to both these questions is simply yes.At the turn of the century British Gas discovered a significant gas field in the Gaza Marine Area with great potential to find much more. Unfortunately there were a few obstacles that would deprive Gaza of tapping into its own wealth."
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Israel Threatens to Outlaw Palestinian Memory  ---  http://original.antiwar.com/kessel-klohendler/2009/05/29/israel-threatens/
Special Note - A quote...."JERUSALEM - Israel is set to approve a radical new bill that threatens to legalize discrimination against its sizable Arab minority for the first time. -- The bill, approved this week by the ministerial committee for legislation, would make it illegal to relate to the creation of the state of Israel on May 15, 1948, as a day of mourning, thereby banning Arab Israeli citizens from marking what Palestinians call the Nakba – their "Great Catastrophe."
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Germany joins calls for Israel to end settlement construction  ---  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1088993.html
It's about time for Germany to do something a little more than to meekly "call" or even "demand" that Isreal end settlement construction. - mpg -- A quote...."German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has demanded that Israel put an end to all settlement building in the Palestinian territories, in a newspaper interview published Saturday. -- It is "not acceptable" to found new settlements or expand existing ones in East Jerusalem or the West Bank, Steinmeier said in a joint interview with the German Press Agency dpa and German daily Sueddeutsche."
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Hamas says Fatah arrests 22 of its activists  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090530/wl_nm/us_palestinians_hamas_fatah
A quote...."RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Hamas Islamists said on Saturday Fatah forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrested 22 of their activists in the West Bank."
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FDIC Banking Report: 305 Troubled Institutions up from 90 in 2008. $13.5 trillion Assets held with 2.1 Million Employees at 8,200 Institutions.
  ---  http://www.mybudget360.com/fdic-banking-report-305-troubled-institutions-up-from-90
-in-2008-135-trillion-assets-held-with-21-million-employees-at-8200-institutions/
-- link @ BuzzFlash   ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/  ---  Financial Update - Charts -- A quote...."The FDIC is facing the highest amount of bank failures since the early 1990s. To calm Americans the government in 2008 upped the amount secured at FDIC institutions from $100,000 to $250,000 for each customer account. Yet losses have been so deep that in the fourth quarter of 2008 the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) quickly lost a large portion of its balance. The FDIC unfortunately did not adequately prepare for such a deep credit crisis:"
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U.S. mortgage rate rise threatens housing recovery  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSTRE54S60J20090529
Special Note - Financial Alert - NEW YORK (Reuters) - A dizzying rise in U.S. mortgage rates this week has left homeowners worried about the government's ability to revive the housing market as a means to economic recovery. -- Higher mortgage rates could hinder a nascent rebound in housing this year, where cheaper loans and lower prices have enticed buyers to cut into the inventories of unsold homes."
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Is Larry Summers Taking Kickbacks From the Banks He’s Bailing Out?
  ---  http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090530_is_larry_summers_taking_kickbacks_from_the_banks_hes_bailing_out/
Special Note - (It's outrageous, but not surprising. - mpg) -- A quote...."Last month, a little-known company where Summers served on the board of directors received a $42 million investment from a group of investors, including three banks that Summers, Obama’s effective “economy czar,” has been doling out billions in bailout money to: Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. The banks invested into the small startup company Revolution Money, right at the time when Summers was administering the “stress test” to these same banks. -- A month after they invested in Summers’ former company, all three banks came out of the stress test much better than anyone expected—thanks to the fact that the banks themselves were allowed to help decide how bad their problems were. (Citigroup “negotiated” down its financial hole from $35 billion to $5.5 billion.)" -- also posted at AmericanEveryman
  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/05/31/is-larry-summers-taking-kickbacks-from-the-banks-he%E2%80%99s-bailing-out/
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Did Bernanke and Paulson Commit Bank Fraud? -- Does a Cheetah have spots? - mpg
  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13786
Related Article - A quote...."New revelations from the New York State Attorney General’s office have all but proven that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson committed bank fraud crimes in the case of the Merrill Lynch/Bank of America merger that took place last year. New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo revealed that Paulson and Bernanke illegally suppressed adverse financial data on the merger and threatened to replace the Bank of America CEO and board of directors if the company backed out of the Merrill Lynch merger. “Secretary Paulson has informed us that he made the threat at the request of Chairman Bernanke,” Cuomo wrote in an April 23 letter to Congress."
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Government Taps Bailout Contractors With Conflicts of Interest
  ---  http://washingtonindependent.com/44659/fed-taps-bailout-contractors-with-conflicts-of-interests
Related Article - A quote...."As the Wall Street bailout nears its first anniversary, the controversy over giving public money to private banks has become public knowledge. But an equally risky aspect of the financial rescue has flown largely under the radar: the government’s reliance on private contractors – many with potentially significant conflicts of interest – to help revive the stalled economy."
also posted at GlobRsrch   ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13784  ---  We are all frigging doomed. - mpg
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Friday May 29th 2009 - links page

Convergence and Continuity: The American-Backed Terror Campaign in Iran
  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1772-convergence-and-continuity-the-american-backed-terror-campaign-in-iran.html
Must Read - A quote...."On Thursday, a suicide bomber walked into a mosque, detonated his explosives and killed and wounded almost 140 people. In the wreckage and confusion afterward, a final death count has not yet been established, but the latest available information puts it at 23. -- It is unlikely that you heard about this terrorist attack -- because it took place in Iran. For years, Iran has endured a series of terrorist actions -- suicide bombings, kidnappings, beheadings, open assaults by fanatical gunmen, sabotage, and "targeted assassinations" of government officials, scientists and others. Multitudes have been slaughtered in these operations, whose ferocity and frequency are surpassed only by the atrocities that have been unleashed in the four countries that have been on the forefront of America's Terror War: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia. One shudders to think what Washington's response would be to such a sustained campaign on American soil." -- For more on this issue see....US Support of Terror - MEK-PKK-Others
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussupportofterror-weblist-mpg-090306#MEK-PKK-OTHERS
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"'Without a doubt, it was a scheme to drive a wedge between the Shia population and the Sunni minority in Iran.' Iran mosque blast bears 'US, Israel thumbprints'   ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=96389&sectionid=351020101  ---  29 May 2009 A senior Iranian official says Israel and the US have had a hand in the mosque bombing that shook the southeastern city of Zahedan to its core. "The bomb tragedy that occurred yesterday in the city of Zahedan is awash with Israeli and US fingerprints," said Tehran's Interim Friday Prayers Leader, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami. "Without a doubt, it was a scheme to drive a wedge between the Shia population and the Sunni minority in Iran," he added. Ayatollah Khatami said that the perpetrators of the bomb attack have been identified and will be brought to justice." -- Paragraph quoted from CLG  ---  http://www.legitgov.org/
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Iran official blames U.S. in deadly mosque bombing  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE54R5O320090529
A quote...."TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian official accused the United States on Friday of involvement in a mosque bombing that killed more than 20 people in volatile southeastern Iran, two weeks before a presidential election. -- Washington denied the allegation." -- Gee, what a surprise. - mpg
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Justice Dept. Backs Saudi Royal Family on 9/11 Lawsuit  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/us/politics/30families.html?_r=1&hpw
And the cover-up continues, now under new Obama™ management. - mpg -- A quote...."WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is supporting efforts by the Saudi royal family to defeat a long-running lawsuit seeking to hold it liable for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks." - bold by website editor -- For more on this issue see....US Support of Terror  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussupportofterror-weblist-mpg-090306
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9/11 - From The History File...9/11 Plus Three - The Trail Grows Cold While the War Heats Up
  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0916-07.htm
Follow the Saudi Money
  ---  http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/42999452.html
SPECIAL REPORT: SUING THE SAUDIS--Pinning the Blame for 9/11
  ---  http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/19425069.html
Alt  ---  http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20080603184209469
Saudi envoy in UK linked to 9/11
  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/mar/02/september11.politics
Cozen O’Connor 9/11 Lawsuit Against Saudis
  ---  http://oldatlanticlighthouse.wordpress.com/category/911-lawsuit/
9/11 chair, despite alleged Saudi ties, is remarkably clean
  ---  http://www.rawstory.com/exclusives/moon/thomas_kean_record.htm
U.S. District Court Rules Saudi Charity to Remain in 9-11 Terrorist Lawsuit
  ---  http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-22-2005/0004113679&EDATE
9-11 Lawsuits: Saudis, Airlines, Bush Face Litigation
  ---  http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/082702_lawsuits.html
911 LAWSUIT News: - article list
  ---  http://www.havenworks.com/911/lawsuit/
Context of 'August 15, 2002: 9/11 Victims’ File Lawsuit - timeline
  ---  http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a081502saudisuit
Cantor-Fitzgerald, Port Authority sue Saudis
  ---  http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/sep2004/911-s16.shtml
9/11 Aftermath Lawsuit or Victims' Compensation Fund  ...PDF
  ---  http://post9-11.crinfo.org/documents/mini-grants/post9-11/WrittenEfforts/Suing_Terrorists.pdf
$116 trillion lawsuit filed by 9/11 families
  ---  http://archives.cnn.com/2002/LAW/08/15/attacks.suit/

For more on this issue see....9/11 - Lawsuits -- NEW!
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911-lawsuits-weblist-mpg-053009
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US Army chief sees Iraq, Afghanistan occupations continuing for a decade  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/iraq-m29.shtml
A quote...."The chief of staff of the US Army, Gen. George Casey, said this week that the American military is preparing to continue its interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan for at least another decade. -- In an invitation-only interview Tuesday with selected reporters and think tank representatives, Casey said that the protracted US occupation of the two countries was necessary in order to meet a “sustained US commitment to fighting extremism and terrorism in the Middle East,” the Associated Press reported." -- All the while the US-NRE supplies billions of dollars to these groups every year.  Or to quote....

Just think about it this way folks, for every dollar the US-NRE / Military Industrial Complex gives to support terrorist groups throughout the Middle East, it generates for itself about two hundred dollars in funding for the "war on terror".  That's a pretty good rate of return, and a very well designed, highly profitable business model. - mpg - posted 03-03-09
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The Main Result of the "War on Terror" - The Destabilization of Pakistan  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp05292009.html
Special Note - A quote...."So far the principle result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan following the events of 9-11 has been the destabilization of Pakistan. That breakdown is peaking with the events in what AP calls the “Swat town” of Mingora---actually a city of 375,000 from which all but 20,000 have fled as government forces moved in, strafing it with gunships. We’re talking urban guerrilla warfare, house-to-house fighting, not on the Afghan border but 50 miles away in the Swat Valley. We’re talking about Pakistani troops fighting to reclaim the nearby Malam Jabba ski resort from the Tehreek-e-Taliban, who since last year have been using it as a training center and logistics base. We’re talking about two million people fleeing the fighting in the valley and 160,000 in government refugee camps." - also posted at ICH   ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22735.htm  ---  For more on this issue see....It Will Happen Every Single Time  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/rapsheetarch/mpgrap-122407-010108#EVERY_TIME
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Super-secret organization remains elusive as ever  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4746.shtml
A quote...."(WMR)  ---  http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/  ---  A super-secret entity, known as ISTO, or International Strategic and Tactical Organization, which this editor previously reported was involved in coups and assassinations primarily in Africa, including the April 6, 1994, double assassinations of the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, remains as secretive and elusive as ever. However, WMR has been informed by a well-placed source that ISTO has been active as late as 2006."
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Cheney's Tattered Torture Threads  ---  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-liz-thomson/cheneys-tattered-torture_b_209146.html
A quote...."Some people accept the premise that even if the Iraq war was misguided and mismanaged, the Bush regime was basically motivated to protect Americans. They say the events of 911 were so traumatic, and the terrorists were so crazy, that this justified what was done in our defense. The argument is the same for torture, and any other extreme policy of that era - it was all done to fight those "extremists" who were out to get us. So we shouldn't be too hard on them.  ---  Really?  ---  Because now we hear from administration insider Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff for then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, that Vice President Cheney pushed for using torture tactics in 2002, not necessarily to protect Americans from some kind of ticking time bomb attack, but in order to obtain information from an Iraqi prisoner that would link Saddam Hussein's Iraq to Al Qaeda -- information that would facilitate the selling of the pre-emptive war." -- For more on this issue see....9/11 - Iraq - Torture Fables   ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911&iraqtotturefables-weblist-mpg-052909  ---  NEW!
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Tales From the Dark Side - Torture and the American Conscience  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts05282009.html
A quote...."Torture is a violation of US and international law. Yet, president George W. Bush and vice president Dick Cheney, on the basis of legally incompetent memos prepared by Justice Department officials, gave the OK to interrogators to violate US and international law. -- The new Obama administration shows no inclination to uphold the rule of law by prosecuting those who abused their offices and broke the law." - bold by website editor -- also posted at OnlineJournal  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4745.shtml
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Do Americans Have a Moral Conscience?   ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22730.htm  ---  Apperently not -- see article shown below....mpg
A quote...."May 28, 2009 "Information Clearing House" --- Torture is a violation of US and international law. Yet, president George W. Bush and vice president Dick Cheney, on the basis of legally incompetent memos prepared by Justice Department officials, gave the OK to interrogators to violate US and international law. - The new Obama administration shows no inclination to uphold the rule of law by prosecuting those who abused their offices and broke the law."
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Justice Dept. asks judges to block abuse photos   -- We'll just call this one "Obama's out of sight, out of mind policy".
  ---  http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/05/28/justice-dept-asks-judges-to-block-abuse-photos/
Related Article - A quote...."The Obama administration asked a federal court Thursday to cancel its decision ordering the release of disturbing images of detainee abuse."
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"General Accuses White House of War Crimes   ---  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/06/18/BL2008061801546.html  ---  18 Jun 2008 The two-star general who led an Army investigation into the horrific detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib has accused the Bush administration of war crimes and is calling for accountability. In his 2004 report on Abu Ghraib, then-Major General Anthony Taguba concluded that "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees." He called the abuse "systemic and illegal." Now, in a preface to a Physicians for Human Rights report based on medical examinations of former detainees, Taguba adds an epilogue to his own investigation.... "After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account." -- Paragraph quoted from CLG  ---  http://www.legitgov.org/
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Busted, Pentagon: Why The Photos Probably Do Show Detainees Sodomized and Raped
  ---  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/busted-pentagon-why-the-p_b_209046.html
A quote...."As I wrote last year in my piece on sex crime against detainees, 'Sex Crimes in the White House," highly perverse, systematic sexual torture and sexual humiliation was, original documents reveal, directed from the top; Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice were present in meetings where sexual humiliation was discussed as policy; the Defense Authorization Act of 2007 was written specifically to allow certain kinds of sexual abuse, such as forced nakedness, which is completely illegal and understood by domestic and international law to be a form of sexual assault; Rumsfeld is in print and on the record consulting with subordinates about the policy and practice of sexual humiliation, in a collection of documents obtained by the ACLU by a Freedom of Information Act filing, compiled in Jameel Jaffer's important book, The Torture Administration."  ---  Hey folks, just keep thinking of Jeff Gannon's eight hundred visits to the White House (if you don't know who he is you can look him up), or Karl Rove's (a.k.a. the "Turd Blossom's") endless search for "yellow cake", or Rumsfeld's live, high speed video link, where he got to "direct" all the "action" at Gitmo.  Think of all the people in San Francisco who want to see the "photos".....and enjoy them.  Think of Ann Coulter's remark where she stated "I think torture is good and Christian-ney" and how many so-called "Christians" in a recent poll stated they approved of torture.  Many Amerikans (a.k.a. Neo-Romans) should face the fact that they are simply monsters and admit they just love to get their freak on with this stuff.  They should just tell the truth to the whole world, that they really want to have a New Roman Empire -- in all it’s aspects. – mpg -- For more on this issue see....US - Torture & Sex Perv.
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ustorture&sexualperversion-weblist-mpg-031309
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New White House Lies on Torture Debunked   ---  Oh look....Obama LIED! - mpg
  ---  http://obamboozled.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-white-house-lies-on-torture.html
A quote...."A new report appears to directly contradict denials by the White House and the Pentagon that abuse photographs the Obama administration has withheld are worse than previously known. -- In a posting Friday, an American reporter says he’s confirmed allegations printed in British newspapers that unreleased photographs of US servicemembers abusing prisoners...." -- also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/198326
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Bill Moyers -- Torturing Democracy  ---  http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05292009/profile.html
Must View Video - A quote...."PLEASE NOTE: Due to rights restrictions we will not be able to stream Torturing Democracy online. Click here for the WEBSITE   ---  http://www.torturingdemocracy.org/  ---  The documentary Torturing Democracy tells the story of how the United States government circumvented tradition and law to adopt torture as official policy. The film, produced by award-winning filmmaker Sherry Jones, draws on interviews, archival footage, and recently declassified documents to piece together the development and dissemination of torture tactics from Bagram in Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib -- and the document trail leads right to the top of the chain of command." -- ||  Transcript  ||
  ---  http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05292009/transcript1.html
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Who will Stand Up To America [The New Roman Empire] and Israel? - Certainly NOT AIPAC's lackey Obama
  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22726.htm
Must Read - A quote...."We are witnessing the Washington gangsters construct yet another threat like Slobodan Milosevic, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, John Walker Lindh, Hamdi, Padilla, Sami Al-Arian, Hamas, Mahkmoud Ahmadinejad, and the hapless detainees demonized by the US Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld as “the 700 most dangerous terrorists on the face of the earth,” who were tortured for six years at Gitmo only to be quietly released. Just another mistake, sorry. -- The military/security complex that rules America, together with the Israel Lobby and the financial banksters, needs a long list of dangerous enemies to keep the taxpayers’ money flowing into its coffers. -- The Homeland Security lobby is dependent on endless threats to convince Americans that they must forego civil liberty in order to be safe and secure. -- The real question is who is going to stand up to the American and Israeli governments?"
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U.S. man who gave secrets to Israel spared prison  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE54S65H20090529
A quote...."NEW YORK (Reuters) - An 85-year-old former civilian employee of the U.S. Army was fined but avoided prison time on Friday after earlier pleading guilty to giving classified documents to Israel in the 1980s in a case the sentencing judge said was "shrouded in mystery." -- For more on this issue see....Judeo-Christian C/C & US  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/judeochristianconflictcontrolwithinus-weblist-mpg-010409
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After Iraq, it's not just North Korea that wants a bomb  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/27/north-korea-nuclear-weapons-us
Quote of the Day...."The lesson could not be clearer. Of Bush's "axis" states, Iraq, which had no weapons of mass destruction, was invaded and occupied; North Korea, which already had some nuclear capacity, was left untouched and is most unlikely to be attacked in future; while Iran, which has yet to develop a nuclear capability, is still threatened with aggression by both the US and Israel."
also posted at ICH   ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22734.htm  ---  For more on this issue see....The True Axis of Evil - 10-10-08 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/thetrueaxisofevil-mpg-blog-101008
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Spies, Lies, and Mr. Lebanon's Demise  ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=15146
Must Read - Geo-Political Alert - A quote...."There are agents, like Mahmoud Rafea, who confessed to have delivered bags with explosives. Other collaborators have confessed to have carried out field reconnaissance missions. Others have facilitated the entrance and exit of Israelis after accomplishing their missions. This is what is meant by executive agents. The door must be opened wide ... this Israeli path should be scrutinized so as to reach a place where we would find information about many crimes, particularly 2005 onwards." – Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, commenting on the recent spate of Israeli spy arrests during a rally marking the ninth anniversary of the removal of Israeli troops from Lebanon, 22 May 2009." - also posted at CounterPunch
  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/amiri05292009.html  ---  The Israelis got their little collective butts caught in a ringer this time. - mpg
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Maliki Gives up on Saudis  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2009/05/us-soldier-killed-near-mosul-maliki.html
A Juan Cole Round-Up -- A quote...."Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq says that he is tired of reaching out to the Saudi government and receiving no positive response. Al-Maliki's Da'wa Party launched protests in Europe and Iraq against Wahhabism (the Saudi state religion) in 2006, and the Saudis blame al-Maliki." -- "In other news, a spokesman for the Sadr Movement said Friday -- http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gyEDJh2jz2X-0cesB76vl6eIJL6Q  ---  that Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr, their leader, wanted homosexuality as a practice eradicated, but forbade the vigilante killing of gays. He condemned religious militias that harass gays."
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GADHAFI: The Pakistan quagmire  ---  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/29/the-pakistan-quagmire/
A quote...."The West, particularly America, and Israel never wished for Pakistan to possess a nuclear bomb. But on May 28, 1998, they woke up to the fact that Pakistan had become a nuclear state and blamed their intelligence services for failure to anticipate the nuclear tests. Countless books, articles and speeches called Pakistan's nuclear bomb the "Islamic bomb," as loaded a term as any, as many considered it a doomsday weapon directed against their interests. -- Every effort was made to dissuade Pakistan from owning the bomb. American Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger frankly told then Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, "If you make the bomb, we'll make an example out of you." -- also posted at ICH   ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22732.htm
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Pipelineistan goes Iran-Pak  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KE29Df02.html
Must Read - Geo-Political Alert - A quote...."A deal was finally signed this week in Tehran by which Iran will sell gas from its South Pars mega-fields to Pakistan by way of the 2,100-kilometer, US$7.5 billion Iran-Pakistan pipeline. For the moment, Iran, Pakistan, China and Russia win. Washington and NATO lose, not to mention Afghanistan. But will Balochistan province also win? If not, all hell will break loose, creating an even greater, regional, ball of fire."
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Iraq-Saudi relations hit new low  ---  http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=32357
A quote...."BAGHDAD - Saudi-Iraqi relations are at a low ebb and Baghdad has no intention of making goodwill gestures because Riyadh sees them as a sign of weakness, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Thursday."
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Pakistani militant groups uniting  ---  http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C05%5C29%5Cstory_29-5-2009_pg1_9
A quote...."WASHINGTON: The Lahore bombing is the latest sign, according to ABC News, that diverse militant groups from across the country are uniting. The Taliban and Punjabi militant groups “are working hand in glove,” says Malik Iqbal, the former Lahore city police chief. “Ultimately we’re going to reach a tipping point where the Taliban will have opened so many fronts in Punjab that it will be almost impossible for the army to deploy against so many fronts which are so distant from each other geographically,” says Ahmed Rashid."
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Residents seethe as Pakistan army destroys homes  ---  http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/05/28/residents-seethe-as-pakistan-army-destroys-homes-2/
A quote...."Bombed out mosques, homes show Pakistan challenge to win hearts in Taliban war." -- Use US-NRE methods and all you'll get is US-NRE results, total, abysmal, failure. - mpg
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Protesters Rally at [Georgia] Municipality  ---  http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=21007
A quote...."Protesters at first gathered at the Sports Palace by noon and then marched in a drizzle towards the municipality headquarters. Nino Burjanadze, leader of Democratic Movement-United Georgia; Davit Gamkrelidze, leader of New Rights Party and Davit Usupashvili, co-leader of Republican Party – both from Alliance for Georgia; Zviad Dzidziguri, leader of Conservative Party; Salome Zourabichvili, leader of Georgia’s Way; Eka Beselia of Movement for United Georgia were among the opposition leaders present at the rally."
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Saakashvili’s mental condition “severe” – Georgian opposition
  ---  http://www.russiatoday.com/Politics/2009-05-28/Saakashvili_s_mental_condition__severe____Georgian_opposition.html
A quote...."While the desperate Georgian opposition was cordoning off the center of the capital Tbilisi in protest, President Mikhail Saakashvili was unofficially attending the Champions League final in Rome. -- The leader of the Georgian opposition Eka Beselia insists that Saakashvili’s trip once again demonstrated the president’s irresponsibility and inadequacy."
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Central Asian nations prepare for “big war”  ---  http://www.russiatoday.com/Politics/2009-05-29/Central_Asian_nations_prepare_for__big_war_.html
Special Note - A quote...."Russia and its allies in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) are to merge their joint troops in Central Asia into one huge military force capable of waging a large-scale war."
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Prices rising, goods disappearing in Venezuela's troubled economy  ---  http://www.thestate.com/world/story/804308.html
A quote...."CARACAS, Venezuela -- Prices for home appliances have skyrocketed, pharmacies are reporting shortages of drugs, and General Motors is planning to stop car production here next month, as measures by the Venezuelan government to conserve dollars ripple through the weakening economy. -- "Today, there's no milk, no rice, no beans, no chicken, no meat, no butter and no cooking oil," Francisco Quintero said as he shopped at a government store that sells subsidized staples for the poor." -- Hopefully Chavez has learned a lesson from this self-created disaster.  Except for allocation of capital, which requires very special rules and procedures, open, well regulated, transparent free markets where buyers can exchange goods and services with other buyers using a stable medium of exchange is a much better system at allocating consumer goods than dictat by government bureaucracy.  Nationalizing the oil industry, grid systems (roads, dams, power, communications, canals, and water systems) is just fine.  Single payer risk systems (health insurance, pensions) all well and good.  Even land redistribution, which usually decreases production in the short run, is a good way to unlock production in the long run if the re-distribution is later left to market forces.  Anything else and you are seriously asking for a lot of trouble. – mpg
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Writer forcibly removed from near Air Force One  ---  http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25554993-5012748,00.html
A quote...."A WRITER for a small newspaper attempted to hand US President Barack Obama a letter, but was forcibly removed from a press area near Air Force One today, shortly before Mr Obama arrived at Los Angeles airport. -- In bizarre scenes, airport security officers carried the woman away by the feet and arms. She was later allowed to leave without charge."
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Richard Gage, AE911Truth.org, on KMPH Fox 26 in Fresno, CA  ---  http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20090528220337409
Alt - (YuTb - 7min 30sec - 05/28/09)  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO2yT0uBQbM&feature=player_embedded
Must View Video - A quote...."This is without a doubt one of the most receptive, reasonable pieces of news coverage ever to be aired in the US. Bravo to KMPH Fox 26 for this fair and balanced reporting! A short print article, "Controversial Group Re–Examines 9/11 In Clovis" reporting on Gage's presentation in Clovis was also published by KMPH" -- From Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth --- Check out more info at: http://www.ae911truth.org/
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NYC CAN 9/11 Family Members Speak Out  ---  http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20090528113103188
- click here for video  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzC3QI8JenU&fmt=18  ---  (YuTb - 50 sec - 05/27/09)
Video - A quote...."This moving 50-second piece released by NYC Coalition for Accountability Now features 9/11 Family Members Jean Canavan, Bob McIlvaine and Manny Badillo asking the unanswered questions and calling upon all New Yorkers to "Vote For Answers." The coalition has gathered nearly 45,000 signatures, and needs your help to get to the 70,000-signature goal. Please take a moment to go to NYC Coalition for Accountability Now and give what you can to help make this a reality. Only by getting it on the ballot can New Yorkers "
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U.S. Broadcast Premier of '9/11 Press for Truth' on PBS in Colorado  ---  http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20090528210958971
Video - Program Note - A quote...."DENVER -- (May 26, 2009) -- 9/11 Press for Truth, an independent documentary that claims a 9/11 cover-up, has been shown in theatres and broadcast overseas, but it hasn't been aired on a U.S. broadcast station. -- That will change next week when KBDI-Channel 12 premiers the controversial documentary Wednesday, June 3 at 7 p.m." -- Click here for Press For Truth's website   ---  http://www.911pressfortruth.com/
See Trailer  ---  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8666444901186351024  ---  (Glgl - 2m13s - 07/30/06)
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Note: literature is illegal in Palestine - Must be more 'ol dat US-NRE "free-dumb & dumb-mock-cra-cy" - mpg
  ---  http://www.uruknet.com/?p=m54671&hd=&size=1&l=e
Must View - Photos & Videos -- A quote...."I went to the last night of the Palestine Festival of Literature expecting that it would be shut down yet again. A friend of mine in the old city had bumped into one of the actors in al Hakawati (the Palestinian national theatre) and she told him that they were already planning to move it somewhere else. But when i went there to meet him everything was getting set up so it seemed that this was just a rumor. I arrived an hour early because my friends are in a book discussion group every thursday night so I went to join them as I sometimes do. but five minutes after they got started israeli terrorist soldiers invaded al hakawati. They came in and posted a court order in Hebrew and Arabic on the door and asked everyone to leave the theatre. My friends decided they would carry on their book discussion group in the courtyard so they sat down outside on theatre grounds. then they were told they also were not allowed to be there..."
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MK Zahalka: "New law, Racist and constitutes a thought crime"  ---  http://www.uruknet.com/?p=m54669&hd=&size=1&l=e
A quote...."As the Israeli Knesset was debating the new law, which punishes any citizen who does not recognize Israel as a Jewish Democratic State, Arab member of Knesset Jamal Zahalka, described the law as racist and a thought crime. -- Zahalka said that any person who demands democracy and equality would be punished and imprisoned, and that this means dozens of Jewish and Arabs university lecturers, intellectuals and politicians who propose a bi-national state or a state for all of its citizens would be punished and imprisoned."
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West Bank rights violations on the rise  ---  http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10564.shtml
A quote...."RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - "I heard voices, I turned around to look, and saw a group of Israeli settlers assaulting my brother Hammad," says Abdallah Wahadin, 82, a Palestinian farmer from Beit Ummar near the southern West Bank city of Hebron."
also posted at AtheoNews  ---  http://atheonews.blogspot.com/2009/05/israeli-assaults-murder-of-children-on.html
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Amnesty: Israel repeatedly breached rules of war in Gaza  ---  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1088912.html
A quote...."Amnesty International has accused Israel of repeatedly violating the rules of armed conflict during its recent offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. -- "Israeli forces repeatedly breached the laws of war, including by carrying out direct attacks on civilians and civilian buildings and attacks targeting Palestinian militants that caused a disproportionate toll among civilians," the human rights watchdog said in its annual report."
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Despite No Links to Violence, Founders of Muslim Charity Sentenced to Lengthy Terms for Donations to Needy:
  ---  http://palestinevideo.blogspot.com/2009/05/despite-no-links-to-violence-founders.html
A quote...."Five founders of the Holy Land Foundation, once the nation’s largest Muslim charity, have received prison terms of up to sixty-five years on charges of supporting the Palestinian group Hamas. The five were never accused of supporting violence and were convicted for funding charities that aided needy Palestinians. The government’s case relied on Israeli intelligence as well as disputed documents and electronic surveillance gathered by the FBI over a span of fifteen years. We speak to Noor Elashi, daughter of Ghassan Elashi, the chair of the Holy Land Foundation who was sentenced to sixty-five years; and Nancy Hollander, a defense attorney who represented former Holy Land CEO Shukri Abu Baker." -- For more on this issue see article shown below....

Founders of US Muslim charity jailed for 65 years for funding Hamas
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5396739/Founders-of-US-Muslim-charity-jailed-for-65-years-for-funding-Hamas.html
Some quotes...."Shukri Abu Baker, 50, and Ghassan Elashi, 55, were among the five members of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development sentenced to prison on Wednesday. - The men and Holy Land were convicted in November on 108 charges, following a mistrial in 2007 in which the government failed to convince jurors that the charity sent more than $12 million (£7.5 million) to Hamas." -- "The Holy Land leaders were convicted on charges ranging from supporting a terrorist organisation to money laundering and tax fraud. The group was not accused of violence, but of bankrolling schools and social welfare programmes the government says are controlled by Hamas. Holy Land itself was convicted of 32 counts." - bold/underline by website editor - posted 05-27-09 - For more on this issue see....Judeo-Christian C/C & US
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/judeochristianconflictcontrolwithinus-weblist-mpg-010409
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Humanitarian Crisis Deepens in West Bank  ---  http://original.antiwar.com/frykberg/2009/05/28/humanitarian-crisis-deepens-in-west-bank/
Related Article - A quote...."RAMALLAH - "I heard voices, I turned around to look, and saw a group of Israeli settlers assaulting my brother Hammad," says Abdallah Wahadin, 82, a Palestinian farmer from Beit Ummar near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. -- "Three of them surrounded me, while a fourth threw a rock at the back of my head. Lots of blood ran down onto my clothes. Other settlers then joined them," Wahadin told the Israeli rights group B’Tselem."
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Fatah at fault  ---  http://www.uruknet.com/?p=m54705&hd=&size=1&l=e
A quote...."National dialogue remains stalled as accusations rise within Fatah itself against the Ramallah leadership, writes Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank "
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Manipulation: How Markets Really Work  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/43057
Special Note - A quote...."Wall Street's mantra is that markets move randomly and reflect the collective wisdom of investors. The truth is quite opposite. The government's visible hand and insiders control markets and manipulate them up or down for profit - all of them, including stocks, bonds, commodities and currencies. -- It's financial fraud or what former high-level Wall Street insider and former Assistant HUD Secretary Catherine Austin Fitts calls "pump and dump," defined as "artificially inflating the price of a stock or other security through promotion, in order to sell at the inflated price," then profit more on the downside by short-selling. "This practice is illegal under securities law, yet it is particularly common," and in today's volatile markets likely ongoing daily. -- Why? Because the profits are enormous, in good and bad times, and when carried to extremes like now, Fitts calls it "pump(ing) and dump(ing) of the entire American economy," duping the public, fleecing trillions from them, and it's more than just "a process designed to wipe out the middle class. This is genocide (by other means) - a much more subtle and lethal version than ever before perpetrated by the scoundrels of our history texts."
also posted at GlobRsrch   ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13773
& BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-4347-0-13-13--.html
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Markets set to plunge again, says Jim Rogers  ---  http://www.bi-me.com/main.php?id=37049&t=1&c=33&cg=4&mset=
War Alert - (Only inasmuch as this will be a sign of further deflation, IF it occurs. - mpg) -- A quote...."INTERNATIONAL. Investment gurus Jim Rogers and Marc Faber agree on one thing. They see a major correction looming in equity markets with a currency effect for the US, since the current rally has been mostly based on printed money, a kind of 'reverse Robin Hood policy' of governments, to steal from the peasants to give to the rich." -- For why this is a "war alert"? See....Standard Disclaimer and the Ten Year Cycle --- http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/disclaimer-blog-mpg-070207.html
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The Final Conquest - Corporate Frankensteins  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/nader05282009.html
(2008 Presidential candidate) -- A quote...."By RALPH NADER -- Once upon a time early in the 19th century, corporations came into existence by state legislatures approving charters, which were granted for a limited period of time and for limited purposes.  These corporations – producing textiles and other products in New England – raised capital in part because their investors had limited liability.  That meant they could not lose any more than their investment if things went wrong. - Since corporations were artificial legal entities and not human, these lawmakers feared that without some strong leashes, they could be creating Frankensteins. - Over the following two hundred years, these ever larger corporations and their attorneys have been driving relentlessly, dynamically to erect systems of privileges and immunities that give the corporations themselves limited liability. 
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Leap in U.S. debt hits taxpayers with 12% more red ink - Empires & Banksters can get REALLY expensive. - mpg
  ---  http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-05-28-debt_N.htm
Special Note - A quote...."Taxpayers are on the hook for an extra $55,000 a household to cover rising federal commitments made just in the past year for retirement benefits, the national debt and other government promises, a USA TODAY analysis shows. -- The 12% rise in red ink in 2008 stems from an explosion of federal borrowing during the recession, plus an aging population driving up the costs of Medicare and Social Security. -- That's the biggest leap in the long-term burden on taxpayers since a Medicare prescription drug benefit was added in 2003. -- The latest increase raises federal obligations to a record $546,668 per household in 2008, according to the USA TODAY analysis. That's quadruple what the average U.S. household owes for all mortgages, car loans, credit cards and other debt combined." -- also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-4350-0-13-13--.html
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GM creditors get ready to shift into reverse - Commentary: Instead of assets, it's creditors who are getting liquidated
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bondholder-wipeout-at-gm
A quote...."Instead of forcing the issue, GM's bonds will be worth almost zero under the plan. Their debt is being converted into a 10% equity stake in the new company, that would grow into more should GM revive to a $70 billion company. - But that's more wishful thinking than reality. GM never achieved that kind of market capitalization even in its heyday. And GM is not liquidating. The government, the unions and the economy dictate that we need to bet on the company, even if that bet is a long shot. " - bold by website editor
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Q1 GDP revision -- [Down -5.7%]  ---  http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/05/q1-gdp-revision/
A quote...."Q1 GDP was revised to a decline of 5.7%, an improvement from the initial reading of -6.1% but a touch weaker than the forecast of -5.5%. A downward revision to personal consumption to 1.5% from 2% was offset by a slightly less than expected drop in gross private investment, exports and a less of a drag from inventories. The government spending drop was also revised slightly higher. Real final sales, which takes out the influence of inventories, was left unchanged at -3.4%. With the economy 2/3 done with Q2 and the market looking towards an expected improvement in 2nd half GDP, this revision should be looked at as old news."
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U.S. Chicago PMI unexpectedly weaker in May  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-chicago-pmi-unexpectedly-weaker-in-may
A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Business activity in the Chicago region contracted at a faster pace in May, surprising analysts who had expected improvement. The Chicago purchasing managers index fell to 34.9 in May from 40.1 in April, according to a survey of corporate purchasing managers released Friday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected the index to rise to 42.0, building on gains in April. Readings below 50 indicate overall business contraction. The Chicago PMI is considered a leading indicator to the national Institute for Supply Management manufacturers' survey to be released on Monday. The ISM index improved in April to 40.1. This was taken by many as a sign that the meltdown in manufacturing was ending."
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Ireland set to go bust, claims economic historian
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ireland-set-to-go-bust-claims-economic-historian-1692673.html
A quote...."A dire warning that the Republic is a prime candidate to go bust has come from one of the world's leading economic historians. "The idea that countries don't go bust is a joke," said Niall Ferguson, Harvard professor and author of The Ascent of Money. "The debt trap may be about to spring" he said, "for countries that have created large stimulus packages in order to stimulate their economies." His chosen prime candidate to go bust is "Ireland, followed by Italy and Belgium, and UK is not too far behind"."
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Thursday May 28th 2009 - links page

The Deeper Origins of the Economic Crisis  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13761
Must Read - A quote...."....the typical explanation of the economic crisis goes as follows: depression-era financial regulations were tossed aside, and banks were allowed to merge into new institutions that then invented ways to transform debts into assets, which were gambled away on the stock exchange to the tunes of trillions of dollars. -- All of which is true. -- What’s missing, however, is why. Why did successive governments allow the regulations to be destroyed? And more importantly, why did the entire political establishment agree that these regulations needed to go? -- One important statistic can help provide some insight: Whereas manufacturing was twice as large as the financial sector of the U.S. GDP in 1970, these numbers have since been reversed — the financial sector is now 21 percent of U.S. GDP, while manufacturing is just 12 percent, and shrinking. -- Why did the financial sector grow as manufacturing sank? And how are the two related?"
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Big Banks Have ALREADY Killed Reforms  ---  http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/05/big-banks-have-already-killed-reform-of.html
Must Read - A quote...."Many mainstream pundits are claiming that a wave of regulation and reform of the banks and the financial industry is on its way. On the other hand, some alternative news writers are saying that real reform may never really happen (see this, for example). Indeed, Obama has appointed to most of the key economic posts the people most responsible for deregulation in the first place. In fact, in at least one area - one of the most important causes of the financial crisis - reform has already been defeated." -- also posted at GlobRsrch  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13746

For more on this issue see quote shown below.....

"[To the possessor of money capital] “the process of production appears merely as an unavoidable intermediate link, as a necessary evil for the sake of money-making. All nations with a capitalist mode of production are therefore seized periodically by a feverish attempt to make money without the intervention of the process of production.”—  *Karl Marx*, Capital, Volume II, “The Circuit of Money Capital”

See also....The Virtual Economy - 05-01-09 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/thevirtualeconomy-mpg-reficultnias-050109
See also....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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Still more yellow weeds than green shoots as the global economy has not bottomed out yet
  ---  http://www.rgemonitor.com/roubini-monitor/256890/still_more_yellow_weeds_than_green_shoots_as_the_global_economy_has_not_bottomed_out_yet
Special Note - A Dr. Doom Analysis - A quote...."By Nouriel Roubini  | May 27, 2009 -- SEOUL, May 27 - Economist Nouriel Roubini on Wednesday said the end of the global recession is likely to occur at the end of the year rather than the middle, and that U.S. growth will remain below potential afterwards. - "We are not yet at the bottom of the U.S. and the global recession," said Roubini. "The contraction is still occurring and the recession is going to be over more toward the end of the year rather than in the middle of the year." - "There is still too much optimism that a recovery is just around the corner," said Roubini, a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business and chairman of RGE Monitor, an independent economic research firm."
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U.S. Economy: Durable-Goods Orders Near 13-Year Low (Update1)
  ---  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=aKRXOclhmq1c&refer=home
A quote...." May 28 (Bloomberg) -- Durable-goods orders hovered near a 13-year low and the number of Americans collecting unemployment insurance reached a 17th straight record, offering no sign of an imminent rebound from the worst U.S. recession in half a century. -- Orders rose 1.9 percent in April [which was good, but....] after a 2.1 percent drop in March that was more than twice as large as previously estimated, the Commerce Department said in Washington." - bold by website editor
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1 in 8 U.S. Homeowners late Paying or in Foreclosure  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-4338-0-13-13--.html
A quote...."NEW YORK - One of eight U.S. households with a mortgage ended the first quarter late on loan payments or in the foreclosure process in a crisis that will persist for at least another year until unemployment peaks, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Thursday. - U.S. unemployment in April reached its highest rate in more than a quarter century and is still rising, helping propel mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures to record highs."  - bold by website editor
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New Home Sales Flat in April  ---  http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/05/new-home-sales-flat-in-april.html
Charts - A quote...."The Census Bureau reports New Home Sales in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 352 thousand. This is essentially the same as the revised rate of 351 thousand in March."
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U.S. jobless claims fell 13,000 last week  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Economy/idUSTRE54R30T20090528
A quote...."WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits dropped by 13,000 last week, the Labor Department reported on Thursday, but so-called continued claims hit a new record as the recession took a further toll on job prospects."
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Wednesday May 27th 2009 - links page

Deep Recession, Huge Scandal  ---  http://lewrockwell.com/north/north717.html
Must Read - A quote...."I went to the Sunday Times site on Sunday. Here was the lead headline:

At least half of the House of Commons' 646 MPs will be swept away at the general election, as voters take revenge on the political classes for the expenses scandal.

That caught my attention!

The departure of 325 members of parliament as a result of forced resignations, retirement and defeat at the polls would represent the biggest clear-out of parliament since 1945.

This was big. Huge. Gigantic. The story has escalated for two weeks. But why? I think it's the economy. It's getting worse, despite assurances by politicians around the world that the recovery is near, the bottom is near, and the public should not panic.
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Against the Tortured Logic of Obama's Placebo Presidency: A Call for the Audacity of Hopelessness
  ---  http://www.uruknet.com/?p=m54607&hd=&size=1&l=e
Must Read - A quote...."From time to time, events unfold that are so large in scope, so all-encompassing in their implications that one's initial response is muted by an inability to categorize it all within the realm of experience. Previous reference points prove of little service. One's image of oneself and one's place in the world is under siege, perhaps even in danger of being torn away. One stares into the abyss, until the abyss removes its dark shades and makes direct eye contact. The mind buzzes; one's thoughts scuttle in circles like stunned insects.  ---  On a collective basis, we as a nation are living through such a time. At present, we are witnessing the descending spiral of Icarusian Capitalism; our sacred delusion of the perpetual ascendancy of a god-like market place lies broken in the dust. Malls and Mcmansions stand abandoned, desolate as the edifices of forgotten gods, as the come-ons of the salesmen of deregulated capitalism are churned to spittle amid a cacophony of collapsing market platitudes.  ---  And not an uptick in public optimism, nor a surge of euphoria on Wall Street, nor the "invisible hand of the marketplace" sprinkling pixie dust will bring back the Olympian days of 2005, when the wise men of Washington and Wall Street knew the force of gravity was just a myth believed in by those embittered prophets of doom whose only joy in life is fantasizing the fall of their wealthy betters."
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Active and retired top military brass met to discuss what really happened on 9/11  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4741.shtml
Special Note - A quote...."(WMR)  ---  http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/  ---  WMR has learned from a well-informed source that in the months after the 9/11 attacks, a group of retired and active duty military officers, with ranks as high as general, met in an informal and hush-hush working group to discuss what actually occurred on September 11, 2001. -- WMR has been told that those who met did not believe, in whole or in part, the official line that 19 Arabs nationals armed with box cutters hijacked four U.S. passenger planes and flew three of them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. -- The officers included veterans of Marine Corps Special Operations."
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Nuremberg set a valid precedent for trials of war-crime suspects in Iraq's destruction  ---  http://search.japantimes.co.jp/rss/eo20090526cc.html
A quote...."NEW YORK — The Nuremberg Principles, a set of guidelines established after World War II to try Nazi Party members, were developed to determine what constitutes a war crime. The principles can also be applied today when considering the conditions that led to the Iraq war and, in the process, to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, many of them children, and to the devastation of a country's infrastructure."
also posted at ICH  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22719.htm
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U.S.:  "There's No Way I'm Going to Deploy to Afghanistan"  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46978
A quote...."If Agosto continues to refuse orders, he almost assuredly will face court martial, and likely jail time. -- When IPS asked Agosto if he is willing to take whatever consequences the Army is prepared to mete out, he replied, "Yes. I’m fully prepared for this. I have concluded that the wars [in Iraq and Afghanistan] are not going to be ended by politicians or people at the top. They are not responsive to the people, they are responsive to corporate America." -- Agosto added, "The only way to make them responsive to the needs of the people is if soldiers won’t fight their wars, and if soldiers won’t fight their wars, the wars won’t happen. I hope I’m setting an example for other soldiers."
also posted at AmericanEveryman  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/u-s-theres-no-way-im-going-to-deploy-to-afghanistan/
& CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/05/26-8
& WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/198040
& GlobRsrch  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13745
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"Iraq redux? Obama seeks funds for Pakistan super-embassy   ---  http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/68952.html  ---  27 May 2009 The U.S. is embarking on a $1 billion crash program to expand its diplomatic presence in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, another sign that the Obama administration is making a costly, long-term commitment to war-torn South Asia, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The White House has asked Congress for -- and seems likely to receive -- $736 million to build a new U.S. embassy in Islamabad, along with permanent housing for U.S. government civilians and new office space in the Pakistani capital. The scale of the projects rivals the giant U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which was completed last year after construction delays at a cost of $740 million." -- Paragraph quoted from CLG   ---  http://www.legitgov.org/  ---  And  the MIOC's and AIPAC's endless quest for PNAC's New Roman Empire continues unabated while the Amerikan taxpayer blissfully foots the bill. - mpg
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Once Considered Unthinkable, U.S. Sales Tax Gets Fresh Look
  ---  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/26/AR2009052602909_pf.html
Attention Peons!!!  Your New Roman Emperor needs to increase your taxes to pay for his endless wars and Empire.  Please, do not make whining noises and pretend that this comes as any sort of surprise.  After all -- you voted for it, and you voted for him. – mpg -- A quote...."With budget deficits soaring [For the Empire] and President Obama pushing a trillion-dollar-plus expansion of health coverage, [For the pharmaceutical and insurance industries]  ---  http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05222009/watch2.html  ---  some Washington policymakers are taking a fresh look at a money-making idea long considered politically taboo: [Because it's one of the most regressive forms of taxation possible] a national sales tax."
also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-4330-0-13-13--.html
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"Occupations you can believe in: US Army prepared to stay in Iraq for a decade
  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/5391252/US-Army-prepared-to-stay-in-Iraq-for-a-decade.html  ---  27 May 2009 The Pentagon is prepared to remain in Iraq for as long as a decade despite an agreement between Washington and Baghdad that would bring all American troops home by 2012, according to the US army chief of staff. Gen George Casey said the world remained "dangerous and unpredictable", and the Pentagon must plan for extended US combat and stability operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan that could deploy 50,000 US military personnel for a decade." -- Paragraph quoted from CLG  ---  http://www.legitgov.org/  ---  Agreement??  You mean like the constitution of the United States?  The Geneva Conventions against Torture?  The Bill of Rights? The ABM Treaty? The NPT Treaty? The US-NRE's promise to Russia not to extend NATO?  HAH!!  Anybody who signs a treaty or makes an agreement with the Bozos running this criminal outfit deserves exactly what they get. – mpg
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Iraqi intelligence sues Guardian  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/26/iraq-intelligence-sue-guardian-report
A quote...."Iraq's national intelligence service has launched a court action to sue the Guardian, claiming to have been defamed by a story that characterised the regime of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki as increasingly autocratic." -- Thereby proving the Guardian's point quite nicely. - mpg
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CARIBBEAN:  China Consolidates Influence as U.S. Frets  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46996
A quote...."GEORGETOWN, Guyana, May 27 (IPS) - Since the year began, China has given the clearest signals yet that Latin America and the Caribbean will be its new commercial and strategic focus, as it doles out billions in soft loans and grant aid, and ties up sweet trade agreements with countries ranging Brazil to finance-starved Cuba." -- OH MY GAWD!!!  Those fiendish, twisted, diabolically clever Chinese have gone and done it again!!!  They're actually trading (Gee whiz, who gave them the right to do that?) and selling (Gasp! Gurgle! Thud!) products to Latin America!  Who knew they could be so utterly evil?  It's totally incomprehensible as to why anybody in Latin America would want to have peaceful trade relationships with China, rather than the US-NRE's fabulous death squads "freedom fighters" sadistic School of the Americas torturers, military coups, assassinations, invasions, government overthrows, death camps, mass graves and peasant massacres (including the occasional nuns and priests).  Really folks, honestly ask yourself would you rather have your government be overthrown and watch your entire family be put slowly to death by the wonderful US-NRE and its minions, or would you prefer to buy a TV from those evil, diabolical, Chinese? It's your choice....you decide. - mpg -- For more on this issue see....Strangers In the Night - 10-04-06 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/strangersinthenight-essay-mpg-100406
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In the Guardian: The global reach of Britain’s torture policy  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/43021
A quote...."For the Guardian’s Comment is free, “Outsourcing torture to foreign climes”
  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/may/27/jamil-rahman-torture  ---  is an article I wrote following up on Ian Cobain’s article in today’s Guardian  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/26/mi5-jamil-rahman-torture-bangladesh  ---  exposing the story of Jamil Rahman, a British citizen, raised in south Wales, whose claims of abuse in Bangladeshi custody while British intelligence officers stepped out of the room provide what appears to be the clearest example to date of close cooperation on the ground (rather than from a safe distance) between the UK intelligence services and proxy abusers or torturers."
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"MI5 faces fresh torture allegations  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/may/26/mi5-new-torture-allegations  ---  The claims bring to three the number of countries in which British intelligence agents have been accused of colluding in the torture of UK nationals. 26 May 2009 The home secretary Jacqui Smith faces legal action over allegations that MI5 agents colluded in the torture of a British former civil servant by Bangladeshi intelligence officers. Lawyers for the British man, Jamil Rahman, are to file a damages claim alleging that Smith was complicit in assault, unlawful arrest, false imprisonment and breaches of human rights legislation over his alleged ill-treatment while detained in Bangladesh."
Paragraph quoted from CLG  ---  http://www.legitgov.org/
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CIA Briefers Regularly Mislead Hill Intelligence Panels, Ex-Spy Charges  ---  http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/spytalk/2009/05/cia-briefers-regularly-mislead.html
A quote...."A former deep-cover CIA operative says the spy agency’s congressional briefers routinely shade the truth or hide facts altogether from congressional overseers. -- “They mumble, they dissemble, and there’s a lot of ‘on the one hand . . .’” said the retired official, who spent 25 years as a CIA operations officer but now writes blistering, unauthorized critiques of the spy agency using the pen name “Ishmael Jones.” -- Jones denounced claims by Speaker Nancy Pelosi that the CIA kept her in the dark about water-boarding terrorist suspects, saying the California Democrat “has been using the interrogation issue as a political tool for years.” -- But he said the spy agency’s congressional briefers are also experts at camouflaging classified programs."
also posted at Cryptogon  ---  http://cryptogon.com/?p=8790
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Holder DROPS charges against GOP election-rigger  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/43016
This nation (and that's using the term quite loosely at this point) enforces no accountability for prior actions taken by anyone in its government or its elites.  If you're poor (guilty or not) you go to jail, if you're rich (guilty or not) nothing happens to you.  Of course that's been the same old story for five thousand years of human history. But the NeoLib-DemoRepub elites aren't even hiding their contempt for the rule of law anymore or showing the slightest bit of restraint....and neither are most of the "Amerikan" people.  Trust this website editor regarding this issue -- "It's not a good sign of things to come". – mpg -- A quote...."James Tobin ran the phone-jamming scheme in NH in 2002--the election that John Sununu thereby "won." That also was the year that Saxby Chambliss "won" in Georgia, Wayne Allard "won" in Colorado, and Norm Coleman "won" in Minnesota (Paul Wellstone having perished in a small plane crash just days before Election Day). That also was the year, moreover, when Don Siegelman, who'd just won re-election as Alabama's governor, was stealthily un-re-elected in the wee hours on Election Night. -- So it was a very good election for the GOP, which, through such victories, snatched back the Senate from the Democrats, who briefly ruled it after Sen. James Jeffords had switched parties in the spring. -- A real Attorney General would look into all of that, and start by mounting a real probe of that phone-jamming operation in New Hampshire (which Jack Abramoff had paid for with two checks from his client, the Choctaw Indians)."
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FBI Infiltrates Iowa City Protest Group  ---  http://www.progressive.org/mc052609.html
A quote...."He was very well dressed. He claimed he’d been in the military. But he said when he was ordered to go to Iraq, he refused and was granted conscientious objector status. - That’s how activists in Iowa City are now recalling a person they believe was working undercover for the FBI. - He went by the name of “Jason,” and later changed his name to “Val,” they say." -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/27-10
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US media ignores threat to democratic rights  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/pers-m27.shtml
A quote...."The US media’s reaction to last week’s extraordinary back-to-back speeches by President Barack Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney has been one of political complacency and deliberate cover-up in the face of a profound threat to basic democratic rights exposed in the two men’s remarks."
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Founders of US Muslim charity jailed for 65 years for funding Hamas
  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5396739/Founders-of-US-Muslim-charity-jailed-for-65-years-for-funding-Hamas.html
Some quotes...."Shukri Abu Baker, 50, and Ghassan Elashi, 55, were among the five members of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development sentenced to prison on Wednesday. - The men and Holy Land were convicted in November on 108 charges, following a mistrial in 2007 in which the government failed to convince jurors that the charity sent more than $12 million (£7.5 million) to Hamas." -- "The Holy Land leaders were convicted on charges ranging from supporting a terrorist organisation to money laundering and tax fraud. The group was not accused of violence, but of bankrolling schools and social welfare programmes the government says are controlled by Hamas. Holy Land itself was convicted of 32 counts." - bold/underline by website editor -- For more on this issue see....Judeo-Christian C/C & US  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/judeochristianconflictcontrolwithinus-weblist-mpg-010409
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Israeli law makers move to outlaw free speech  ---  http://www.muzzlewatch.com/2009/05/27/israeli-law-makers-move-to-outlaw-free-speech/
A quote...."This just in. Its, unfortunately, of a piece with other similar efforts to censor speech in Israel (which we will be reporting on soon). Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies – Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, gave preliminary approval to a bill that would mandate a year jail term for anyone who speaks against Israel’s status as a Jewish state on Wednesday morning."
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Israel threatening Iran with 'nukes'  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=96209&sectionid=351020101
A quote...."As Israel remains adamant on blemishing the prospects of Iran-US dialogue and coaxing the White House into a war, Israel's military Chief of Staff says the regime is ready to use all options against Iran." -- For more on this issue see....A Mortal Threat – Europe’s New Frankenstein Monster - 01-26-09 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/amortalthreat-europesnewfrankenstein-mpg-reficultnias-012609
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[British] Database blacklist saw thousands denied jobs
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/database-blacklist-saw-thousands-denied-jobs-1691544.html
A quote...."Thousands of workers in the construction industry were denied employment because of a secret "blacklist", a court heard today. -- Ian Kerr built up a database of 3,213 people which included highly sensitive and personal information as well as trade union links and employment history, Cheshire magistrates were told. -- He then offered the information to construction firms to vet potential employees. -- Kerr's organisation, the Consulting Association, in Droitwich, West Midlands, was raided by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) last March and he was charged with a breach of the Data Protection Act." -- Tsk, tsk, tsk....the guys possibly going to jail for simply attempting to do to thousands, what "our" governments are doing to millions. - mpg
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Billionaire: Elite Want Two-Thirds Of The “Dumb People” Wiped Off The Planet
  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/billionaire-elite-want-two-thirds-of-the-dumb-people-wiped-off-the-planet.html
Yes, but the "dumb people" obviously agree with the plan, if they didn't, how could one explain their consistent and constant votes for lackeys of the elites like the DemoRepubs?  So maybe the elites are actually right, they're just trying to "help" the poor little "dumb people" and do them a “favor” by wiping them off the planet?  Just like this nation did to many in Iraq and all them other little countries. -- A quote...."Billionaire entrepreneur Kevin Trudeau, who has been constantly harassed and sued by the FTC for promoting alternative health treatments, told The Alex Jones Show yesterday that elitists and Bilderberg members who he had personally conversed with spoke of their desire to see “two thirds of the dumb people” wiped off the planet.
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Spurred by Iran, Arab World Witnesses Nuclear Renaissance  ---  http://www.uruknet.com/?p=m54613&hd=&size=1&l=e
A quote...."The most volatile region in the world is going nuclear. -- As North Korea restarts its main nuclear plant and Iran continues to flex its nuclear muscles, a less publicized nuclear renaissance is underway in the Middle East. -- In the Arab world, at least thirteen nations, both oil-rich and oil-thirsty, are collaborating with world powers to build nuclear energy programs with unprecedented determination. -- As energy and water needs grow, they are confronting the inevitable depletion of oil and natural gas and the nuclear option has trumped renewables (both in terms of feasibilty and economics) as a means to generate electricity while guaranteeing long-term security."
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Georgian Opposition Takes Railroad Station  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/world/europe/27georgia.html?_r=1&ref=world
A quote...."TBILISI, Georgia — The opposition to President Mikheil Saakashvili, which has been holding protests for more than six weeks demanding his resignation, took control of the city’s main railroad station on Tuesday night and prevented trains from running."
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Idea of Israel boycott finds favor in UK  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=96133&sectionid=351020601
Boycott Action Alert -- A quote...."An effort by Palestinian academics to gain support for a boycott against Israel is showing some signs of success in the United Kingdom. - Palestinian academics have called for a “boycott, disinvestments and sanctions” (BDS) campaign against Israeli academic institutions for their cooperation with “security-military establishment” operated by Tel Aviv." - also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/198075  ---  For more on how to boycott Israel see the sites listed in the upper-left-corner of  the "Front Page"  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/  ---   on Reficultnias. - mpg
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Baraka: We refuse wiping out RoR in return for establishing state
  ---  http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7m%2fJu0ip%2bSgglls67fE
cHIlF7wYLkrlmopwmR07uRDtbgIHbjdyx9Dr7zuafpMyfmJX1oDy3sj6IXzvdvC4uANs6va1E6GBL3DsI6KJTHJNk%3d
A quote...."DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Ali Baraka, the deputy representative of Hamas in Syria, has said that his Movement categorically refuses the cancellation of the Palestinian refugees' right of return (RoR) as a price for establishing a Palestinian state. - Baraka told PIC on Wednesday that RoR was more important than the establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip."
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Finnish-Israeli arms trade flouts EU regulations  ---  http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10557.shtml
A quote...."Contrary to the heavily-hyped image according to which the policy output of Finland is even-handed and neutral in the Israel/Palestine conflict, Finland is actually a major arms trading partner with Israel. Recent reports by the Committee of 100 in Finland, Amnesty International, as well as an article in Finland's biggest newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, all revealed Finland's deeply troubling attitude towards the actions of the State of Israel."
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Israelis get four-fifths of scarce West Bank water, says World Bank  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/27/israel-palestinian-water-dispute
A quote...."A deepening drought in the Middle East is aggravating a dispute over water resources after the World Bank found that Israel is taking four times as much water as the Palestinians from a vital shared aquifer." -- also posted at DProgram
  ---  http://dprogram.net/2009/05/27/israelis-get-four-fifths-of-scarce-west-bank-water-says-world-bank/
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China Is Now in Firm Control of U.S. Debt Markets  ---  http://seekingalpha.com/article/139505-china-is-now-in-firm-control-of-u-s-debt-markets
Must Read - Financial Warning - A quote...."It is hilarious listening to the propagandists try to “spin” the events in bond and currency markets to make it sound like the U.S. government is still operating from a position of strength. - While there are many Western, corporate-media outlets spouting such drivel, I'll use the Financial Times as my example.“China stuck in dollar trap”, crows FT on May 24th. Then, later “...[Beijing] has little choice but to keep pouring the bulk of its growing reserves into the U.S. Treasury”. - What somehow escaped this “analysis” by FT is that China won't touch any U.S. dollar asset except Treasury bonds. The monthly flows of capital into (or out of) the U.S., which is known as the Treasury Department's “TIC” report, tell a clear story. - So far, in the three months of data which have been reported for this year (Jan., Feb., March), the net result was an outflow of capital from the U.S. totaling $211.4 billion. - Does this number suggest China is “trapped” into buying U.S. debt?"
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Is This an Age of Financial Reform or Plunder without End?  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13764
A quote...."New York, New York: It is almost axiomatic to argue that renewal comes out of chaos. And reform and change are born in crisis. -- The financial meltdown of 1907 led to the formation of the Federal Reserve Bank. The Crash of ’29 ushered in the New Deal, the FDIC, the SEC, and The Glass Steagall Act etc. Even the disaster at Enron permitted new statutes requiring more transparency like Sarbanes Oxley. And now this greatest of great recessions is leading to a new wave of financial regulation. The public is already said to believe recovery is just around the next corner."
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If You Believe Banks Are Recovering …  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13763
A quote...."Barack Obama and his henchmen in Treasury and the Fed have chosen to play for time, pretend the banking system is solvent, and hope that the average American doesn't care. As long as the ATM still spits out $20 bills, everything is OK. The International Monetary Fund has estimated total credit write-downs of $4.1 trillion, with $2.7 trillion in U.S. institutions. McKinsey has concluded that there are still $2 trillion of toxic assets sitting on the books of U.S. banks. Economist Nouriel Roubini, who has been correct from the beginning, estimates total losses on loans made by U.S. financial firms and the fall in the market value of the assets they are holding will reach $3.6 trillion ($1.6 trillion for loans and $2 trillion for securities). The U.S. banks and broker dealers are exposed to half of this figure, or $1.8 trillion; the rest is borne by other financial institutions in the U.S. and abroad. With $2 trillion of write-offs to go, how could Treasury Secretary Geithner make the following statement to a Congressional panel late last month, "Currently, the vast majority of banks have more capital than they need to be considered well capitalized by their regulators."? Is he lying or shading the truth? Does it matter?"
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Trade Protectionism and Worldwide Economic Contraction  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13760
A quote...."Regarding trade, the Obama administration seems to have adopted the “good cop, bad cop” routine, extolling the virtues of free trade in presidential speeches while letting Congress pass protectionist measures in series. The fear here is a repetition of the 1930s when American politicians rushed to pass the infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff act of 1930 that triggered an international trade war and which accelerated the worldwide economic downturn. World trade plummeted into a spiral downward and domestic production for exports contracted everywhere. Normal trade links were disrupted and intricate inter-country production arrangements were dismantled. -- Indeed, in a misguided attempt to fight the economic downturn, governments all over the world rushed to adopt self-destructive “beggar-thy-neighbor” policies, in a futile attempt to devalue each other's currencies and to reduce their imports in retaliation, forgetting that one country's imports are the other country's exports. The consequence was that from 1929 to 1933, the value of world trade contracted by two-thirds, going from $5.3 billion to $1.8 billion." -- Yes but everyone knows how the US-NRE’s elites play the "Great Game" and because they know, they're setting up trading blocks and trading regimes with each other which have been designed to specifically exclude the US-NRE.  And why shouldn’t they?  After all, it was the US-NRE’s elites that ripped-off many of the world’s countries for trillions of dollars with the vast Ponzi schemes they created to fund their various Imperial adventures worldwide.  Why should the rest of the world’s countries continue to bare the burden of these murderous schemes of aggression and pillage? - mpg
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IRS tax revenue falls along with taxpayers' income  ---  http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2009-05-26-irs-tax-revenue-down_N.htm
A quote...."Federal tax revenue plunged $138 billion, or 34%, in April vs. a year ago — the biggest April drop since 1981, a study released Tuesday by the American Institute for Economic Research says. -- When the economy slumps, so does tax revenue, and this recession has been no different, says Kerry Lynch, senior fellow at the AIER and author of the study. "It illustrates how severe the recession has been." -- For example, 6 million people lost jobs in the 12 months ended in April — and that means far fewer dollars from income taxes. Income tax revenue dropped 44% from a year ago. -- "These are staggering numbers," Lynch says. -- Big revenue losses mean that the U.S. budget deficit may be larger than predicted this year and in future years." -- Uhhhhh.....YEAH!!! - mpg
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Home sales rise 2.9%, boosted by bottom fishing - Prices drop 15.4% while inventories continue to climb
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-sales-rise-29-boosted-by-foreclosures-200952710000
A quote...."Sales of existing homes have been roughly unchanged for six months. -- Sales are rising in areas with the greatest price declines, the same cities that were at the center of the earlier housing bubble, the National Association of Realtors said. -- Most of the sales are taking place in the low-end of the market, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the NAR. -- By contrast, sales of homes priced above $750,000 have collapsed, with an inventory currently on the market equal to 40 months of sales. The real estate group urged more help from the government to prop up the high end by lowering interest rates on jumbo loans. They also urged the Federal Reserve to buy securities backed by jumbo loans." - bold/underline by website editor
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Mortgage applications fell 14.2% last week: MBA  ---  - But the week before they had a very large jump - mpg
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mortgage-applications-fell-142-last-week-mba
A quote...."CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Mortgage applications filed last week fell a seasonally-adjusted 14.2% last week, compared with the week before, as rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages ticked up, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly survey, released on Wednesday."
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GM bankruptcy 'inevitable'  ---  http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/05/2009527163853947169.html
A quote...."General Motors, the US car manufacturer, is facing bankruptcy after creditors rejected a proposal to swap $27bn in debt for 10 per cent of the company's stock. -- The struggling firm has until June 1 to complete a government-ordered restructuring that includes debt reduction, labour cost cuts and plant closures. -- The Obama administration has said it would only provide more funds if 90 per cent of the bondholders, as well as unionised workers, agreed to concessions that substantially reduced GM's costs. -- General Motors said on Wednesday that "substantially less" than the 90 per cent threshold had been reached and that none of the exchange offers would be accepted."
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Britain: Job losses escalate across all sectors  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/jobs-m27.shtml
A quote...."Job losses in Britain continue to mount, with more large companies announcing this month that thousands of jobs are to go. -- On May 12, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced official unemployment in the UK had increased by 244,000 for the last quarter and had reached 2.2 million. The quarterly increase in the jobless rate was the biggest since 1981. The total number of jobless is now at the highest rate since 1996, the year before the Labour government came to power."
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Wednesday May 27th 2009 - links page

Nuremberg set a valid precedent for trials of war-crime suspects in Iraq's destruction  ---  http://search.japantimes.co.jp/rss/eo20090526cc.html
A quote...."NEW YORK — The Nuremberg Principles, a set of guidelines established after World War II to try Nazi Party members, were developed to determine what constitutes a war crime. The principles can also be applied today when considering the conditions that led to the Iraq war and, in the process, to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, many of them children, and to the devastation of a country's infrastructure."
also posted at ICH  ---  http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22719.htm
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U.S.:  "There's No Way I'm Going to Deploy to Afghanistan"  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46978
A quote...."If Agosto continues to refuse orders, he almost assuredly will face court martial, and likely jail time. -- When IPS asked Agosto if he is willing to take whatever consequences the Army is prepared to mete out, he replied, "Yes. I’m fully prepared for this. I have concluded that the wars [in Iraq and Afghanistan] are not going to be ended by politicians or people at the top. They are not responsive to the people, they are responsive to corporate America." -- Agosto added, "The only way to make them responsive to the needs of the people is if soldiers won’t fight their wars, and if soldiers won’t fight their wars, the wars won’t happen. I hope I’m setting an example for other soldiers."
also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/05/26-8
& WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/198040
& GlobRsrch  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13745
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Holder DROPS charges against GOP election-rigger  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/43016
This nation (and that's using the term quite loosely) has no accountability for prior actions by anyone.  If you're poor (guilty or not) you go to jail, if you're rich (guilty or not) nothing happens to you.  Of course that's been the same old story for five thousand years of human history. But the NeoLib-DemoRepub elites aren't even hiding their contempt for the rule of law anymore or showing the slightest bit of restraint....and neither are most of the "Amerikan" people.  Trust this website editor regarding this issue -- "This is not a good sign of things to come". – mpg -- A quote...."James Tobin ran the phone-jamming scheme in NH in 2002--the election that John Sununu thereby "won." That also was the year that Saxby Chambliss "won" in Georgia, Wayne Allard "won" in Colorado, and Norm Coleman "won" in Minnesota (Paul Wellstone having perished in a small plane crash just days before Election Day). That also was the year, moreover, when Don Siegelman, who'd just won re-election as Alabama's governor, was stealthily un-re-elected in the wee hours on Election Night. -- So it was a very good election for the GOP, which, through such victories, snatched back the Senate from the Democrats, who briefly ruled it after Sen. James Jeffords had switched parties in the spring. -- A real Attorney General would look into all of that, and start by mounting a real probe of that phone-jamming operation in New Hampshire (which Jack Abramoff had paid for with two checks from his client, the Choctaw Indians)."
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IRS tax revenue falls along with taxpayers' income  ---  http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2009-05-26-irs-tax-revenue-down_N.htm
A quote...."Federal tax revenue plunged $138 billion, or 34%, in April vs. a year ago — the biggest April drop since 1981, a study released Tuesday by the American Institute for Economic Research says. -- When the economy slumps, so does tax revenue, and this recession has been no different, says Kerry Lynch, senior fellow at the AIER and author of the study. "It illustrates how severe the recession has been." -- For example, 6 million people lost jobs in the 12 months ended in April — and that means far fewer dollars from income taxes. Income tax revenue dropped 44% from a year ago. -- "These are staggering numbers," Lynch says. -- Big revenue losses mean that the U.S. budget deficit may be larger than predicted this year and in future years." -- Uhhhhh.....YEAH!!! - mpg
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Home sales rise 2.9%, boosted by bottom fishing - Prices drop 15.4% while inventories continue to climb
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-sales-rise-29-boosted-by-foreclosures-200952710000
A quote...."Sales of existing homes have been roughly unchanged for six months. -- Sales are rising in areas with the greatest price declines, the same cities that were at the center of the earlier housing bubble, the National Association of Realtors said. -- Most of the sales are taking place in the low-end of the market, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the NAR. -- By contrast, sales of homes priced above $750,000 have collapsed, with an inventory currently on the market equal to 40 months of sales. The real estate group urged more help from the government to prop up the high end by lowering interest rates on jumbo loans. They also urged the Federal Reserve to buy securities backed by jumbo loans." - bold/underline by website editor
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Mortgage applications fell 14.2% last week: MBA - But the week before they had a very large jump - mpg
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mortgage-applications-fell-142-last-week-mba
A quote...."CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Mortgage applications filed last week fell a seasonally-adjusted 14.2% last week, compared with the week before, as rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages ticked up, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly survey, released on Wednesday."
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Britain: Job losses escalate across all sectors  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/jobs-m27.shtml
A quote...."Job losses in Britain continue to mount, with more large companies announcing this month that thousands of jobs are to go. -- On May 12, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced official unemployment in the UK had increased by 244,000 for the last quarter and had reached 2.2 million. The quarterly increase in the jobless rate was the biggest since 1981. The total number of jobless is now at the highest rate since 1996, the year before the Labour government came to power."
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