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L'Autre Monde 25 novembre 2010: L’étau de la tyrannie se ressert, TSA, économie et actualité
Pour écouter, ou pour télécharger, simplement cliquer sur le lien ici:
L'Autre Monde 25 novembre 2010
90 min / Radio de l'UQAM, CHOQ FM
 | Diffusion en direct : Jeudi à 11:00h
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Au programme cette semaine, 25 novembre 2010:
Soyez de la partie les jeudis dès 11h sur les ondes de CHOQ FM, la radio officielle de l'UQÀM, l'alternative à Montréal et dans le monde!
***Hyperliens vers les sources des informations discutées sur l'émission d'aujourd'hui:
TSA:
Bienvenue dans les aéroports américains: agression ou dose de radiation?
TSA workers face verbal abuse from travelers
“Our concern is that the public not confuse the people implementing the policies with the people who developed the policies,” said Sharon Pinnock, the union's director of membership and organization."
Webmaster's Commentary:
You know, they already tried that "We are only following orders" excuse once before.
They hanged the Nazis anyway.
DHS Head Chertoff Got 350 Million Dollar Contract Advising Govt X-Ray Scanners Would Solve Problems
American Airlines besieged with complaints
With the recent uproar of the new TSA enhanced screening and full body scanners it wasn’t any surprise when a senior ranking American Airlines insider confided that their customer service complaint line has been besieged with TSA complaints.
Iris Scan & Fingerprints Substituted For TSA Screening
An opt-in program that charges airline passengers to bypass airport security lines is being resuscitated more than two years after its abrupt shutdown. The CLEAR program re-launched in Orlando last week, and is preparing to start up in Denver.
After submitting fingerprints and iris scans, members are issued a CLEARcard with these biometric data. Kiosks at participating airports then allow them to confirm their identity and “speed through security.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wonder if this is the TRUE reason for the TSA outrages we are suffering? Are they trying to condition us to accept this desired outcome as a welcome relief to porno groping and scanning?
Ron Paul Bill to end the TSA abuses!
Disobedience Is The True Foundation Of Liberty
My Favorite Intrusive Body Scanner Cartoons compiled by Dayrl Cagle
Économie:
Ireland Goes Bust, Irish Bank Run
There was a bank run in Ireland on Wednesday. LCH Clearnet, a London based clearinghouse, surprised the markets by announcing it would increase margin requirements on Irish debt by 15 percent. That's all it took to send investors fleeing for the exits.
So, the Irish government could have let the bankers and bondholders suffer the losses, but decided to bail them out and pass the debts along to the taxpayers instead. Sound familiar? Only, in this case, the obligations exceed the country's ability to pay. Austerity measures alone will not fix the problem. Eventually, the debt will have to be restructured and the losses written down. Here's another clip from Kelly's article:
"As a taxpayer, what does a bailout bill of €70 billion mean? It means that every cent of income tax that you pay for the next two to three years will go to repay Anglo’s (bank) losses, every cent for the following two years will go on AIB, and every cent for the next year and a half on the others. In other words, the Irish State is insolvent: its liabilities far exceed any realistic means of repaying them....
YES, THE FAMOUS ROTHSCHILD BANKING GROUP
CHECK OUT THE OTHER NAMES ON THE LIST
U.S. taxpayers finance approximately 20% of the IMF's budget.
Guess what, Ireland. Brian Lenihan and Brian Cowen just sold you down the IMF river. Why? To bail out bank bondholders and giant European banks. Of course! That's what governments are for these days, apparently. And they'll tell you that the bailout policy is all for you own good. And for little old ladies and pensioners and orphans. Just don't tell that to the cancer patients.
Yep, another nation made IMF debt slaves on behalf of the international banking cartels. And Goldman Sachs and Rothschild & Compagnie are on the list.
Check it out below -- Guido Fawkes' blog has acquired the list of Anglo-Irish Bank's bondholders.
##
Anglo-Irish Bank did not represent a systemic risk to the Irish economy, it wasn’t a high street bank like AIB or the Bank of Ireland. If it had been allowed to go the way of Lehmans the only losers would have been shareholders and bondholders. The Irish state stepped in and nationalised a bank that was basically run by crooks lending to property speculators.
- The Irish people are taking losses that should rightly have been shouldered by bondholders.
Every child in Ireland is being bequeathed a huge debt at birth to protect the interests of foreign, mainly German, bondholders – why? Guido was once a bond trader, it was always understood that sometimes the bond issuer defaults.
- That is the risk investors take.
So why is Dublin’s political establishment so keen to protect foreign investors at the expense of future generations? Guido has obtained the list of foreign Anglo-Irish bondholders as at the close of business tonight. These are the people whom Dublin’s politicians really seem to care about:
---
Great analysis of the list from the Golem XIV...
Irish bailout a gamble, Eurozone days numbered
and International Monetary Fund. It's the second emergency rescue package organized by the Eurozone, after similar measures were taken for Greece. RT talks to Sam Bowman, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute in London.
BREAKING VIDEO - IMF Protests Break Out In Ireland
ADDITIONAL VIDEOS AT THE SOURCE LINK.
IMF: It's A Beginning Of Global Governance
IMF wants Federal Europe - more power to the centre to defend against crisis
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/81479...
A federal Europe, with more sovereign power ceded to the centre, is the best defence against any future crisis, the head of the International Monetary Fund has declared.
Warning that "the sovereign crisis is not over", Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF managing director and a likely French presidential candidate, called on the European Union to move responsibility for fiscal discipline and structural reform to a central body that is free from the influences of member states.
Critical Thinking Alert:
Didn't Globalisation cause these problems, and isn't the solution to move back to de centralised poliicies??
28% Plunge In Our Standard Of Living
What is the most immediate danger for 300 million Americans from the limitless bailout of the most politically powerful special interest group in America, the bankers of Wall Street? Author and financial expert Daniel R. Amerman, CFA, illustrates the very real danger of a 12% to 28% plunge in the standard of living for the average family, and shows how it could occur in a matter of weeks or months.
Three more banks fail, year total now at 149
Inside the Gang Bankster, Government Complicit, Fraudclosure Factory
Huge cracks are finally appearing in the Wall Street mortgage mega fraud. Here's a fresh deposition video of a single loan processor who fraudulently signed 5,000+ loan documents PER DAY.
Yes, you read that right: FIVE THOUSAND.
Multiply him by a few hundred (or thousand) and you'll have some sense of how deep the hole Wall Street cut into the legitimate economy with its massive, multi-year, top down directed mortgage securities fraud.
Today, most American students don't even understand what a central bank is, much less that the battle over central banks is one of the most important themes in U.S. history. The truth is that our nation was birthed in the midst of a conflict over taxation and the control of our money. Central banking has played a key role in nearly all of the wars that America has fought. Presidents that resisted the central bankers were shot, while others shamefully caved in to their demands. Our current central bank is called the Federal Reserve and it is about as "federal" as Federal Express is. The truth is that it is a privately-owned financial institution that is designed to ensnare the U.S. government in an endlessly expanding spiral of debt from which there is no escape.
A NEW DOLLAR : an insider from the fed banks meeting
Ellen Brown: QE2: It's the Federal Debt, Stupid!
Unlike QE1, QE2 is not about saving the banks. It's about saving the country from Greek-like austerity measures necessitated by a burgeoning federal debt [and its associated interest].
...QE2 is not a "helicopter drop" of money on the banks or on Main Street; it is the Fed funding the government virtually interest free, allowing the government to do what it needs to do without driving up the interest bill on the federal debt. The Fed failed to revive the economy with QE1, but it may yet redeem itself with QE2. QE2 could set a bold precedent prompting other countries to break the chains of debt peonage and fund their governments with their own national credit.
In FY 2010, 46% ($414B) of our federal personal income taxes ($899B) went to pay the interest on the federal debt. If folks are concerned about taxes, they should be as, or more, concerned about UNNECESSARY interest paid to private banksters. In other words, we should have a PUBLIC central bank that creates money interest-free, which is effectively what the Fed is reluctantly doing with QE2.
The Fed’s ‘War on Wealth’ and the Risk of Default
Charles Ortel, managing director of Newport Value Partners, tells Accuracy in Media in an exclusive interview that the Federal Reserve plan to buy $600 billion of U.S. Government securities “borders on the criminal” because the impact will be the devaluation of the dollar by 20 percent and the destruction of $10 trillion of household net worth.
“Any potential benefit to GDP and incomes [from the Fed’s action] pales in comparison to the wealth loss (in real terms) and to the damage done to foreign investor confidence,” Ortel says.
Webmaster's Commentary:
The Fed just declared war on America, and in this war there is little difference between red ink and blood.
3808 Veto Override Fails! Bill to Retroactively Immunize Mortgage Fraud Defeated
HR 3808 Veto Upheld
HR 3808 went down.
Most Democrats voted to uphold Obama’s veto. Nearly all Republicans voted to override Obama’s veto.
Webmaster's Commentary:
May have been as much Democratic revenge on the bankers who "let them down" last election as preserving Obama's imperial presidency.
HOUSING CHART: New Home Sales Meets The MOTHER Of All Recessions
It's one thing to understand that the housing bubble is over and times are tough. It's something else entirely to see it in BRIGHT LIVING COLOR on a chart.
Sort of leaves me speechless...
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?
One glance at this beauty shows that consumers have barely begun the process of deleveraging. It's going to be several more years before household balance sheets are repaired and ready to assume more debt.
Hello, Tokyo.
Video: Jimmy Rogers on Bernanke, Greenspan and the coming fall of the Federal Reserve
* "The Fed should be abolished. In my view their day is done."
Runs 2 Minutes.
Banks spying on your bills, rent payments, paychecks: report
The age of the plain old credit score is gone, says a report at the Wall Street Journal, and it's been replaced by ever more intrusive efforts by banks and credit agencies to gauge exactly what you're worth, and what you can pay.
Webmaster's Commentary:
As we reach the age of the "cashless society", every financial institution on the planet may well know everything about about your financial picture, even without your permission.
U.S. Banks Failing At Fastest Pace In 2 Decades
Regulators shut down four more banks Friday, bringing the 2010 total to 143, topping the 140 shuttered last year and the most in a year since the savings-and-loan crisis two decades ago.
Webmaster's Commentary:
One cannot possibly look at numbers like these, and utter the phrase "economic recovery" with a straight face.
The Legalized Crime of Banking and a Constitutional Remedy (1958), by Silas Walter Adams
http://www.resist.com/Adams.-.The.Legalized.Crime.of.Banking.and.a.Constitutional.Remedy.1958.pdf
The Legalized Crime Of Banking is a simple story of The Federal Reserve System, dealing principally with the unconstitutional creation of money and the control of credit by private corporations. The author suggests a concrete, simple solution, which Congress could employ, which would make the transition from private banking to the Treasury without injuring anyone enjoying a constitutional right, or without upsetting our normal course of trade, industry, and agriculture.
Number of the Week: $10.2 Trillion in Global Borrowing
$10.2 trillion: The amount of money advanced-nation governments will need to borrow in 2011
As the debts of advanced countries rise to levels not seen since the aftermath of World War II, it’s hard to know how much is too much. But it’s easy to see that the risk of serious financial trouble is growing.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Because the people of the world have realized that government is borrowing new money to pay the interest on the old money and sticking the people with the ruinous interest payments for generations to come, and most people have decided this is nonsense. We did not give consent to live shackled to endless debt by bankers. The government borrowed without our permission and they can pay it back without our help.
CHART: The REAL Unemployment Rate Is 23%
Updated CHART from John William's Shadow Government Statistics.
http://dailybail.com/home/chart-shock-the-real-unemployment-rate-is-22...
Scratch the old headline - it's now 23% unemployment with the November update.
Secret Walmart Survey Shows Inflation Already Here
Beyond the money
There might not have been a second round of quantitative easing, if Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke shopped at Walmart.
A new pricing survey of products sold at the world’s largest retailer [WMT 54.13 -0.21 (-0.39%) ] showed a 0.6 percent price increase in just the last two months, according to MKM Partners. At that rate, prices would be close to four percent higher a year from now, double the Fed’s mandate.
This is a hell of a story. Legal documents included.
This sort of abuse is far more serious than robo signing. This practice has all the appearances of MULTIPLE COVERUPS. The steps undertaken here look to be a deliberate, concerted effort for the bank to get its way, THE LAW BE DAMNED.
"If such problems were to arise on a large scale, the housing market could experience even greater disruptions than have already occurred, resulting in significant harm to major financial institutions," the report states."
Webmaster's Commentary:
Read this one carefully, folks. This is the start of a propaganda campaign (already reported to be the tone of NPR's news broadcasts) to sell you the idea that the banks need to be let off the hook for the mortgage backed security fraud, or else the damage will only be worse. In other words, yeah, we caught the bankers screwing us all in the ass, but we better not try to punish them for it, or there will be worse problems. Of course, there will be, for the bankers. But like that executive for J. P. Morgan who walked away clean from a hit and run, bankers believe they should be above the laws, and in true fascist style that the losses from their crimes ought to be paid for by the general public without complaint.
Do any of you agree with the above?
"Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out." -- Andrew Jackson
A debt collector in Erie, Pennsylvania, is accused of running a fake courtroom, complete with fake court documents and people dressed up like judges, to intimidate consumers into paying debts, according to the Erie Times-News.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Home owners have been tricked into turning over assets believing they are in a real court room.
Debt Collection Company Was Using Fake Sheriffs, Judges and Courtroom To Scare Debtors
Now remember, citizens, it's the people who neglected to yank out their gold fillings to pay their credit card bills after they lost their jobs who are the real bad guys here. A debt is a debt, after all, and an honorable person would go without food or shelter to pay the crooks who are collecting the money!
U.S. housing starts fall 11.7% in October
Construction of new U.S. homes sank 11.7% to an annualized rate of 519,000 in October, the lowest level in 18 months.
Banks seize 288K homes in Q3, but challenges await
Lenders seized more U.S. homes this summer than in any three-month stretch since the housing market began to bust in 2006. But many of the foreclosures may be challenged in court later because of allegations that banks evicted people without reading the documents.
A total of 288,345 properties were lost to foreclosure in the July-September quarter, according to data released Thursday by RealtyTrac Inc., a foreclosure listing service. That's up from nearly 270,000 in the second quarter, the previous high point in the firm's records dating back to 2005.
Banks have seized more than 816,000 homes (1 in 139 homes) through the first nine months of the year and had been on pace to seize 1.2 million by the end of 2010.
---Past Wisdom Required---
“Where law ends, tyranny begins.” – William Pitt the Elder (1708-1778)
“Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for the law.” – Justice Louis D. Brandeis
“Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it.” – Thomas Cooper (1759-1851)
“The Strength of a nation is derived from the integrity of its homes.” – Confucius (551-479 B.C.)
Heh, Look – It’s Lootie The Bankster!
If a deficiency action is available against the mortgagor or any other person, CitiMortgage may proceed for the deficiency. CitiMortgage may retain 25% of the net proceeds received from a mortgagor pursuant to a deficiency action as compensation for proceeding with the deficiency action.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Short version: the bank makes a 25% bonus if they foreclose! The financial incentive is to take away people's homes and bury the over-sold mortgages in the wreckage.
N.J. Town Outlaws Sleeping In Public
Getting some shuteye in one New Jersey town could land you in hot water, depending on where you lay your head, 1010 WINS’ Steve Sandberg reports.
In Roselle Park, it is against the law and you could be fined or arrested for sleeping in public.
Webmaster's Commentary:
The criminalization of homelessness continues apace in this country.
And the utterly braindead concept of fining the homeless for sleeping in public: where are they supposed to get the money to pay the fine if they are jobless and homeless?!?!?
A lot of thought must have gone into the creation of this legislation!
"We Can Either Have a Rational Resolution to the Foreclosure Crisis or We Can Preserve the Capital Structure of the Banks. We Can't Do Both"
STIGLITZ: We Have To Throw Bankers In Jail Or The Economy Won't Recover
As economists such as William Black and James Galbraith have repeatedly said, we cannot solve the economic crisis unless we throw the criminals who committed fraud in jail.
Matt Taibbi: Courts Helping Banks Screw Over Homeowners
This is the dirty secret of the rocket docket: The whole system is set up to enable lenders to commit fraud over and over again, until they figure out a way to reduce the stink enough so some judge like Soud can sign off on the scam. "If the court finds for the defendant, the plaintiffs just refile," says Parker, the local attorney. "The only way for the caseload to get reduced is to give it to the plaintiff. The entire process is designed with that result in mind."
CNBC - Get Ready for the Great MERS Whitewash Bill
Now it appears that Congress may attempt to prevent any MERS meltdown from occurring. MERS is owned by all the biggest banks, and they certainly do not want it to be sunk by huge fines. Investors in mortgage-backed securities also do not want to see the value of their bonds sink because of doubts about the ownership of the underlying mortgages.
So it looks like the stage may be set for Congress to pass a bill that would limit MERS exposure on the recording fee issue and perhaps retroactively legitimate mortgage transfers conducted through MERS private database.
Webmaster's Commentary:
The Congress is about to legalize land-snatching!
Bill in the Works To Make All Fraud of Banks Retrospectively Legal?
It appears that the Obama administration is ready to pardon all the securitization deviants by signing this bill into law. This information is corroborated by several people who are in sensitive positions — persons who would be the first to know such proposals.
Unconfirmed but from a reliable source KARL DENNINGER.
CHART SHOCK: The REAL Unemployment Rate Is 22%
Details from John Williams Shadow Government Stats.
Details from John William's Shadow Stats.
The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers.
The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.
147 pension plans have failed this year!
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. also said it paid $5.6 billion in benefits to participants in company pension plans that failed in fiscal 2010, ended Sept. 30. It noted that 147 pension plans failed, up from 144 a year earlier.
Middle classes hit again with tax raid on pensions
Middle-class professionals and savers are facing a tax raid on their pensions under measures to be unveiled by the Coalition.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Do you get it yet? The government sold its soul to the bankers and the looting of your lives for the benefit of the bankers will go on until YOU make it stop!
KABOOM: Illinois $10 Billion Pension Spiking Timebomb
EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about corrupt pension spiking to boost retirement pay.
The details are pretty disgusting so be prepared.
http://dailybail.com/home/illinois-10-billion-pension-spiking-timebomb...
Includes 2-minute video from Bloomberg.
Household income falling faster than any year since the war
The average household income fell faster during the recession than at any time since the aftermath of the Second World War, official figures revealed yesterday.
Webmaster's Commentary:
"Yee-HAAAA; we DID IT!" -- Bank of Pigland
(Ahem)
Back in ancient Rome there was this guy, Marcus Licineus Crassus. He was the Howard Hughes of his day. He grew rich by inventing the fire department. He had trained slaves with special wagons filled with firefighting equipment located throughout Rome. When a fire broke out, which was often, Crassus and the wagons would race to the scene whereupon Crassus would offer to buy the property on the spot for a fraction of its value.If the owner sold, the fire was put out. If the owner refused to sell, Crassus would allow the property to burn to the ground. By means of this simple method, Crassus soon became the largest landowner in Rome and the richest man in the then-known world. Crassus' greed was legendary and he entered politics, becoming a financial backer of Julius Caesar against Cicero. Following his exploitation of the Spartacus revolt, Crassus became Praetor and then First Consul of Rome, ending the Republic and setting the stage for the reign of the emperors. Among his other ostentatious shows of wealth, Crassus is credited with the trick of putting bits of gold leaf into his wine, a harmless bit of egotism which inspired the present day Goldschläger. When finally brought down by his enemies, Crassus' reputation for greed sealed his fate, and the Parthians poured molten gold into his mouth as punishment for his greed
Gary Shilling Sees `Significant' Stock Selloff Within 12 Months
Gary Shilling, who predicted the U.S. housing collapse, says the stock market is overvalued and foresees a “significant” selloff within a year as the Federal Reserve fails to stimulate economic growth.
Webmaster's Commentary:
With all due respect to Schilling, but he is mistaken. The sell-off already occurred with small investors already departing the markets. The market remains high and will be kept high because the banks and investment houses have been buying up stocks under the guise of "plunge protection" and now have significant portions of their balance sheets hostage to the already over-valued stock prices. In the event of a downturn, Goldman Sachs, BofA, even the Fed itself would be instantly insolvent to a degree that even Ben Bernanke's printing presses could not overcome. Bernanke himself stated in a recent op-ed piece that the goal of QE2 is to keep the stock market up, to protect the capital structure of the Wall Street banks and investment houses. All other considerations are secondary.
Two Georgia banks closed to push total to 146
Regulators closed three banks in the United States on Friday, bringing the number of closures this year to 146.
Webmaster's Commentary:
You cannot look at numbers like this and say the words "economic recovery" with a straight face.
If you think residential real estate is having problems, you should shift your gaze to the mammoth issues confronting commercial real estate. Little is mentioned about commercial real estate (CRE) in the mainstream media yet this is a $3 trillion market (or twice the annual GDP of Texas). Much of the problems in CRE are profound and pose systemic risks to the banking sector. While the current attention is on fraudulent paperwork on residential housing, the biggest and most hushed bailout of commercial real estate is occurring. The Fed directly buying up questionable mortgages from banks is an indirect form of bailing out CRE. Yet in some instances, the Fed has gone ahead and directly taken on the role as owner for places such as a mall in Oklahoma. While U.S. residential property prices have fallen approximately 30 percent CRE has fallen by 42 percent.
I’m glad we’re helping out those poor Hilton Hotels. I’m sure the 43 million Americans in poverty are glad that their bailout funds are being used to support the neediest in our country. No wonder why this bailout is happening behind the scenes. The public would be up in revolution if they only knew what the Fed has actually bailed out with their tax dollars. Some will say that none of this matters since we will earn our money back at some point in the distant future. But since the Federal Reserve was put into business in 1913 purchasing power has eroded with inflation:
“Can you spot where the Fed was created?”
Either way, this entire real estate crisis is far from over and banks know it. Their data tells you everything you need to know and their raiding of the American people is simply incredible.
VIDEO - Ron Paul With Dylan Ratigan - The Fed Works In Collusion With Goldman Sachs (MUST SEE TV)
Video - Ron Paul Makes The Goldman Sachs Federal Reserve Connection & Repeats His Call For An AUDIT OF THE FED!
Truly OUTSTANDING CLIP. Watch at least the first 2 Minutes. This one starts out HOT!
U.S. Troops To Deal With Rioting Americans
Globalists Collapsing Society To Bring In Martial Law
U.S. troops now being trained to boss communities and run local governments are being readied to oversee a post-collapse America in which riots and civil unrest similar to that now exploding in Europe over austerity measures and pension cuts ravage the United States and are met with the iron fist of a militarized police state.
Americans Buying Guns In Preparation For Civil Unrest
Americans are acquiring guns, silver and food stamps at record levels in reaction to the crumbling economy, trends indicative of a fearful public who are struggling financially and preparing for potential mass civil unrest in the aftermath of a total economic collapse.
AWESOME - Watch A Protester Flip Out On JP Morgan Exec During Senate Banking Hearings Yesterday
Video: This protester does not like foreclosure liars...
Absolutely brilliant. These are by far my favorite type of clips - Random, live, televised episodes of public-humiliation for the criminal bankster elite.
The anger is definitely growing. The good guys are fighting back.
Runs 1 very righteous minute...
Banksterism in One Lesson
Report Suggests Alcohol Consumption On the Rise as Depression Deepens
According to the September 2010 Monthly Wholesale Trade: Sales and Inventories [PDF] report released by the U.S. Census Bureau, alcohol consumption may be on the rise.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Alcoholism was rampant in the USSR just prior to the collapse.
CNBC VIDEO - Sir Evelyn de Rothschild with Maria Bartiromo
Our earlier story on the IMF bailout for billionaire bondholders uncovered that the Rothschild Group is one of the Anglo-Irish bank creditors getting paid 100 cents on the dollar by U.S. taxpayers (thru the IMF) for their failed investments.
Actualité:
Survey: 1 in 5 U.S. Adults Face Mental Illness
The government says 1 in 5 American adults suffered from mental illness during the past year. Most didn't receive treatment.
Webmaster's Commentary:
What concerns me is how rationally justified anger at a Federal government has now been classified as a disease.
As reported on 15 November, 2010 at:
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/people-who-resist-authority-stand-privacy-cou
"People Who Resist Authority, Stand Up for Privacy, Could Be Classified As Mentally Ill"
"According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which is published by the American Psychiatric Association, nonconformity and freethinking is a mental illness labeled "oppositional defiant disorder" trouble de défiance oppositionnelle or ODD. If psychiatrists follow the Fourth Edition of DSM diagnosis guidelines, people who stand up for privacy and freedom might be labeled as mentally ill.
U.S.G.W.O. reports that it has confirmed "basically that anyone who disobeys authority or even questions authority is now considered mentally ill and can be thrown in a prison-like mental institution under tax payers dollars." I haven't read the entire book, but U.S.G.W.O. states that according to the psychiatric manual the following people would be diagnosed as having ODD:
* Freethinkers
* Constitutionalists
* Oath Keepers
* Nonconformists
* Peaceful Activists
* Peaceful Resistors
* Those who partake in Civil Disobedience
* Those that question Authority
* Highly creative artists"
YIKES: I'M 8 OUT OF 9 ON THIS LIST!! :-)
If this doesn't put a chill down the back of your spines, I don't know what will!
By One Vote, US Court OKs Torture and “Extraordinary Rendition”
http://uruknet.com/?p=m69803&hd=&size=1&l=e
Sometimes a story is so troubling that it takes some time to digest, and the ruling delivered last Wednesday by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (PDF), in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of five men subjected to "extraordinary rendition" and torture, is one such story.
Webmaster's Commentary:
So, it's official: torture and extraordinary rendition have now been enshrined as thoroughly legitimate in the eyes of American jurisprudence.
‘Damn right’ I personally ordered waterboarding: Bush
President George W. Bush admits for the first time in his new memoir that he personally approved the use of waterboarding, a technique in which an interrogator simulates drowning on a suspect. The method, which most describe as torture, has since been banned by the Justice Department.
In his book, "Decision Points," Bush asserts that he was asked by the Central Intelligence Agency whether he would support the agency's waterboarding of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged 9/11 mastermind.
"Damn right," Bush says that he said.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Why is this man not standing before the International Court at the Hague, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity?!?
Due to the utterly filthy depth of complicity, between the White House, Congress, the Pentagon, and State Department, and the Court System, coupled with an American people too cowed to think straight, everyone complicit in this process was so thoroughly tainted to the point that they did not want to criticize what were essentially immoral, and more importantly, illegal acts under American law.
So what did the White House do? Courtesy of their attorneys, who behaved as though they had doctorates in Orwellian doublespeak, tortured language, so that prisoners of war were now "enemy combatants", and torture became "enhanced interrogation"
We have known, from the times of the Catholic Inquisition, that torture does not bring the truth; it only gets the tortured individual to say whatever his torturer wants them to say to get the torture to stop.
Waterboarding is torture, Downing Street confirms
No 10 dismisses George Bush's claim in his memoirs that interrogation technique is legal and helped foil attacks on Heathrow and Canary Wharf
ANDY WORTHINGTON: Introducing the Definitive List of the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo
The articles to follow, covering the rest of the prisoners still held, deal with those seized in particular locations: two cover prisoners seized in Afghanistan; two more tell the stories of prisoners seized crossing from Afghanistan to Pakistan in December 2001; two deal with prisoners seized in Pakistan; and the final article covers the “high-value detainees” transferred to Guantánamo from secret CIA prisons in September 2006, and other prisoners, seized in a variety of countries, who were subjected to “extraordinary rendition” and imprisonment in secret CIA prisons.
America’s Devolution Into Dictatorship
The US Justice (sic) Department even told US Federal District Court Judge John Bates that the US judiciary, formerly a co-equal branch of government, has absolutely no legal authority whatsoever to stick its nose into President “Change” Obama’s decision to assassinate Americans. The unaccountability of the president’s decision to murder people is, the US Justice (sic) Department declared, one of “the very core powers of the president as commander in chief.”
If the Obama Regime wins this case, the US will have become a dictatorship
Webmaster's Commentary:
If extrajudicial assassinations become institutionalized into US law as the outcome of this case, the rights of Americans recognized by the Constitution and Bill of Rights for generations will be gone from this country forever.
Obama to give George Bush, Sr. the presidential Medal of Freedom
Former President George H.W. Bush is among 15 people selected to be awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom, the White House announced Wednesday night.
The Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor, is awarded for "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."
Webmaster's Commentary:
"...meritorious contribution?!?"
Forgive me, folks:I am about to hurl.
UN worries its troops caused cholera in Haiti
This week, after anti-U.N. riots and inquiries from health experts, the top U.N. representative in Haiti said he is taking the allegations very seriously.
"It is very important to know if it came from (the Nepalese base) or not, and someday I hope we will find out," U.N. envoy Edmond Mulet told The Associated Press.
The answer would have implications for U.N. peacekeeping missions around the world, he said.
The latest Nepalese deployment came in October, after a summer of cholera outbreaks in Nepal. The changeover at the base, which guards the area south of the central plateau town of Mirebalais, was done in three shifts on Oct. 9, 12 and 16.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Forgive me, but if the UN is importing "peacekeepers" from an area where there has been a cholera outbreak to a country whose citizens have no immunity to cholera, why would it not be protocol that these soldiers be checked for the disease before being transported to their next tour of duty?!?
This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever: the Haitian people were sitting ducks for this horrendous outbreak.
Bill Clinton: Haiti’s Neo-Colonial Overlord
After the devastating January 2010 earthquake in Port au Prince, Clinton became co-chair of Interim Haiti Recovery Commission. He is now the country’s neo-colonial overlord. He has betrayed all his humanitarian promises and failed to collect even a fraction of the promised $10 billion for reconstruction. And his reconstruction plan is the same free market plan he has been touting since 2004. He is putting Haiti up for sale to multinational capital.
The last thing Haiti needs is more "help" from Bill Clinton and the U.S. Instead, the U.S. and other imperial powers including the U.N. should get out of Haiti and pay reparations so that Haitians can rebuild their country in their own interests.
S. Korea Could Seek Deployment of US Tactical Nuclear Weapons
South Korea's defense minister says his country may consider having U.S. tactical nuclear weapons deployed on its soil for the first time in 19 years.
Defense Minister Kim Tae-young raised the possibility Monday during talks with a parliamentary committee about North Korea's latest nuclear escalation. He said the issue could be raised when a joint U.S.-South Korean military committee meets next month to discuss North Korea's nuclear programs.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Such a move would only escalate tensions between North and South Korea even further.
Tensions Mount in Korea as Both Sides Prepare for Possible War, Japan Calls For Attack
Tensions are mounting after a North Korean artillery attack left at least 14 South Koreans injured and 2 dead. The South was apparently conducting a routine drill near the near the area that was attacked.
Talk of nuclear redeployment and swift retaliation has lead some to believe that war is imminent. On Monday, before the artillery attack, South Korea officials denied that they were considering redeploying U.S. tactical nuclear weapon in respond to the Norths nuclear aggression.
Debkafile is now reporting that Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called Obama and demanded that the United States, Japan, and South Korea attack North Korea!
North Korea's Latest Attack on South Korea -- Conflicts of Convenience
President Barrack Obama's opulent tour of Asia this month included talks with South Korea over free-trade agreements.
Those talks ultimately failed, Thursday, November 11, 2010, sending the bewildered president back home reinforcing to the world the weak hand America is now playing. This failed free-trade agreement between the US and South Korea is a continuation of President Bush's failed efforts during the latter part of his administration to push through the deal.
Koreas trade artillery, jets scramble
"A North Korean artillery unit staged an illegal firing provocation at 2.34pm local time (1634 AEDT) and South Korean troops fired back immediately in self-defence," a ministry spokesman told AFP.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Or someone pretending to be a North Korean artillery unit. Seriously, knowing how eager (indeed desperate) Obama is for another war to use as a distraction, why would North Korea do something that stupid over a relatively unimportant island? We are clearly not getting the whole story.
South Korea Fired the First Shot
While North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is a madman, and while North Korea was the first to kill anyone in today's skirmish, it was actually the South Koreans who fired first.
As AP notes:
The skirmish began when Pyongyang [i.e. North Korea] warned the South to halt military drills in the area, according to South Korean officials. When Seoul [i.e. South Korea] refused and began firing artillery into disputed waters, albeit away from the North Korean shore, the North retaliated by bombarding the small island of Yeonpyeong, which houses South Korean military installations....
And see this.
In addition, the two South Koreans killed were marines, not civilians, stationed in a military town.
Obviously, firing artillery into the water and actually killing people are very different, and I am in no way defending North Korea or its crazy leader. I am simply trying to point out that the headlines can't be taken in a vacuum.
S.Korea says it test-fired in area before N.Korea firing
SEOUL Nov 23 (Reuters) - South Korea said it was conducting regular military drills off the west coast before North Korea started firing dozens of shells, but that its firing exercises did not aim to the North.
"We were conducting usual military drills and our test shots were aimed toward the west, not the north," a South Korean military official said.
North Korea said on Tuesday that Seoul had initiated firing of shells, prompting it to take an instant military action. [ID:nTOE6AM05B]
(Reporting by Ju-min Park, writing by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Yoo Choonsik)
Korean skirmish started as a South Korean military drill
The skirmish began when Pyongyang warned the South to halt military drills in the area, according to South Korean officials. When Seoul refused and began firing artillery into disputed waters, albeit away from the North Korean shore, the North retaliated by bombarding the small island of Yeonpyeong, which houses South Korean military installations and a small civilian population.
Webmaster's Commentary:
70,000 SOUTH Korean troops plus some U.S. "advisers" were taking part in an Invade NORTH Korea drill at the time.
Die for a Tie: How the Korean War Began
On June 25, 1950, the north and the south each claimed the other side had invaded. The first reports from U.S. military intelligence were that the south had invaded the north.
Webmaster's Commentary:
What if both sides were tricked into a war?
FAKE TERROR - THE ROAD TO WAR AND DICTATORSHIP
On August 5, 1964, newspapers across America reported "renewed attacks" against American destroyers operating in Vietnamese waters, specifically the Gulf of Tonkin. The official story was that North Vietnamese torpedo boats launched an "unprovoked attack" on the USS Maddox while it was on "routine patrol".
Webmaster's Commentary:
Is history repeating itself in Korea? The North Koreans know how desperate Obama is for another war. Why would they stage such an obvious provocation over a relatively unimportant island? If North Korea really intended an attack they could have just as easily shelled Seoul to the east! But attacking an island opens up another possibility of a submarine mounting a WW2 vintage deck gun firing those shells onto the island. Fool me once...
NORTH KOREA'S NUKES: HOW WE GOT HERE
Well done George, you and your neocon buddies "war on terror" is certainly paying dividends!
S. Korea may strike N. Korea's missile base: President Lee
President Lee Myung-bak ordered his military Tuesday to strike North Korea's missile base around its coastline artillery positions if it shows signs of additional provocation, his spokeswoman said.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Let us hope that, IF North Korea is actually responsible for this provocation, that cooler heads on both sides of the DMZ (and in DC and Beijing) will prevail.
What North Korea has wanted for decades is rather simple: respect, the ability to trade, and a peace treaty to replace the cease-fire which technically ended the war back in the 50s.
The US should be working in tandem with China to see that this happens, and assist in bringing North Korea into the 21st century. We have robust trade relations with Viet Nam at this point, for heaven's sake!
U.S. military heading for Korea after exchange of fire
INCHEON, South Korea (Reuters) - A U.S. aircraft carrier group set off for Korean waters on Wednesday, a day after North Korea rained artillery shells on a South Korean island, in a move likely to enrage Pyongyang and unsettle its ally, China.
South Korea said the bodies of two civilians were found on
the island after Tuesday's attack, which is likely to stir up
more resentment in the country against its prickly neighbor.
The nuclear-powered USS George Washington, which carries 75 warplanes and has a crew of over 6,000, left a naval base south of Tokyo and would join exercises with South Korea from Sunday to the following Wednesday, U.S. officials in Seoul said.
"This exercise is defensive in nature," U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement. "While planned well before yesterday's unprovoked artillery attack, it demonstrates the strength of the ROK (South Korea)-U.S. alliance and our commitment to regional stability through deterrence."
OUTRAGE - Bush Tells Argentinian President Kirchner "War Is The Engine of the Economy" (VIDEO)
VIDEO - Stone is interviewing former President of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner. He relates a personal conversation with GW from Monterrey, Mexico in January of 2004.
Anyone needing any more proof regarding the ingrained power of the military-industrial complex is advised to contact the Bushes in Crawford, Texas.
NATO aims to end combat mission in Afghanistan by 2015
Reuters - LISBON (Reuters) - NATO agreed on Saturday to hand control of security in Afghanistan to Afghan forces by the end of 2014 and said the NATO-led force could halt combat operations by the same date if security conditions were good enough.
Encircling Russia, Targeting China, NATO'S True Role in US Grand Strategy
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21999
In its “global web of specialized institutions”, which of course includes NATO, the United States exercises power through “continuous bargaining, dialogue, diffusion, and quest for formal consensus, even though that power originates ultimately from a single source, namely, Washington, D.C.”
The description perfectly fits the Lisbon “Strategic Concept” conference. Last week, NATO’s Danish secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, announced that “we are pretty close to a consensus”. And this consensus, according to the New York Times, “will probably follow President Barack Obama’s own formulation: to work toward a non-nuclear world while maintaining a nuclear deterrent”.
Afghanistan:
Petraeus Orders 700+ Airstrikes on Afghanistan In September
Nothing will make people love you more than blowing them and their children to pieces!
Bombs Away: More Than 1,000 Airstrikes Ordered by Petraeus in October
November 10, 2010 "Wired" - - The U.S. and its allies have unleashed a massive air campaign in Afghanistan, launching missiles and bombs from the sky at a rate rarely seen since the war’s earliest days. In October alone, NATO planes fired their weapons on 1,000 separate missions, U.S. Air Force statistics provided to Danger Room show. Since Gen. David Petraeus took command of the war effort in late June, coalition aircraft have flown 2,600 attack sorties. That’s 50% more than they did during the same period in 2009. Not surprisingly, civilian casualties are on the rise, as well.
Press TV - NATO - 2014 withdraw of Afghan forces - Russia co-operating with NATO which is historic
1. Nato discusses Afghan
2. Russia co-operating with NATO - which is historic
3. Ecomomics - divergant approaches of Europe/US to the budget
4. Occupying forces to withdraw from Afghan by 2014 (rebadged as "training").
U.S. deploying heavily armored battle tanks for first time in Afghan war
The U.S. military is sending a contingent of heavily armored battle tanks to Afghanistan for the first time in the nine-year war, defense officials said, a shift that signals a further escalation in the aggressive tactics that have been employed by American forces this fall to attack the Taliban.
"We've taken the gloves off, and it has had huge impact," one of the senior officials said.
Webmaster's Commentary:
One has to wonder when the phrase "body count" is going to again creep into the corporate "newspeak" accounts of what is going on in Afghanistan.
And how in heaven's name can Petraeus begin to make the case the case to NATO that "...the military's strategy is working..." nine years on in this quagmire?!?
Are the US and NATO hellbent on destroying the entire country in order to "save" it?!? Apparently so: In the US/NATO strategy, "liberation" of Afghanistan appears to mean death to as many Afghans as possible.
Pentagon blows up thousands of homes in Afghanistan Repeating the horrors of the Vietnam War
Borrowing a page from its infamous "pacification" effort in South Vietnam, where peasant villages were napalmed and burned to the ground to "save them from the communists," the Obama-ordered surge in Afghanistan has been secretly blowing up thousands of homes and leveling portions of the Afghan countryside.
As tens of thousands of U.S. troops have surged into southern Afghanistan, villagers have fled. Then the Petraeus-led occupation forces have determined which homes will be destroyed.
US to spend $413 billion more on Afghan war
US soldier in Afghanistan walks past Afghan child. A decision by US President Barack Obama to extend the presence of American troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014 is likely to increase the remaining cost of the unpopular war to USD 413 billion.
On Saturday, NATO Secretary General said the US-led military alliance will remain in Afghanistan for as long as it takes to finish off its enemies there.
The newly defined deadline comes with a heavy price tag at a time when the US and many of its allies are facing increasing deficit cuts at home.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Terrific: while homeless Veterans sleep in our streets, our infrastructure is crumbling, and ever more Americans are jobless, this is the wisest use of taxpayer dollars the Federal government can come up with?!?!?
The only people "winning" in Afghanistan are the drug lords, and the defense contractors!!
Think tank: 92% of Afghans never heard of 9/11
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/think-tank-afghans-dont-know-911/
Fewer than one in 10 Afghans are aware of the 9/11 attacks and their precipitation of the war in Afghanistan, says a study from an international think tank.
A report (PDF) from the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) shows that 92 percent of those surveyed had never heard of the coordinated multiple attacks on US soil on September 11, 2001. It also shows that four in 10 Afghans believe the US is on their soil in order to "destroy Islam or occupy Afghanistan."
To be sure, the survey can't claim to be definitive: It only canvassed men, and relied primarily on respondents from Helmand and Kandahar, the two most war-torn provinces in the country. But the results nonetheless show that Western forces fighting insurgents in Afghanistan have largely failed to connect with the local population.
“150,000 troops eliminate mere 0.2 per cent of drug production in Afghanistan”
Afghans are practically left to deal with drug problem on their own, says Russia’s drug control chief, Viktor Ivanov.
Webmaster's Commentary:
It is interesting to note that under the rule of the Taliban, opium poppy production was pretty much eradicated.
One has to understand that there was no coincidence between the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and the soaring opium production which happened afterward.
The only people "winning" in Afghanistan are the drug lords, and the defense contractors providing mercenaries, materials, and logistics, and that's a pretty damned depressing, but honest assessment, almost one decade in.
140,000 U.S. soldiers diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries after Iraq, Afghan tours
Some 140,000 U.S. soldiers dispatched to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI) between 2001 and October last year, according to a U.S. Department of Defense study.
The total makes up about 7 percent of all U.S. servicemen and women dispatched to the two countries.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Are those the ones that come back and get recruited by the police department? Or do they run for Congress?
17 NATO Troops Killed in Afghanistan in Last 3 Days
Source: AP News
Three NATO troops were killed Friday in Afghanistan in a surge of attacks that raised the death toll to 17 over the past three days for international troops in the country.
Six Foreign Troops Killed in Afghanistan Attacks
Six foreign troops were killed in 3 separate attacks in Afghanistan on Wednesday......
Red Cross: Civilian Toll Soars in Southern Afghanistan
A new report by the International Committee of the Red Cross warned today that civilian casualties are soaring in Southern Afghanistan, and that those directly wounded are a comparatively minor part of the problem.
The statement also warned that the escalation of fighting and deteriorating security across the nation is making it more and more difficult to maintain presences in Afghanistan. Death tolls in the war have been at record levels this year, in the wake of the December escalation of the NATO occupation.
The Red Cross report comes at a particularly inopportune time for NATO, as they issued their own report today claiming that the civilian death toll in the war was in “sharp decline.”
Webmaster's Commentary:
Right now, I would be rather inclined to believe the Red Cross report, rather than that of NATO.
Petraeus Ushers in Dramatic Increase in Afghan Air Strikes
Petraeus had been a major proponent of air strikes in Iraq despite the danger to the civilian population, and given that his entire strategy seems to be to shoehorn Iraq into Afghanistan wherever possible (and in many cases where it isn’t possible) it is perhaps unsurprising to see the increase in attacks, and the growing number of resultant civilian casualties in Petraeus’ Afghanistan.
Webmaster's Commentary:
One has to wonder when the phrase "body count" will re-emerge on corporate news coverage of this war, as it did during the Vietnam War.
U.S. bars Palestinian statehood moves in U.N. agencies
Away from the headlines, Palestinians have been trying to advance their statehood agenda in small but symbolic ways in United Nations agencies that fall off the radar for most people.
But even on the outer reaches of the sprawling U.N. system, their efforts are seen to have been blocked by a United States seemingly resolved not to display any tilt toward Palestinians as it tries to broker peace talks with Israel.
Webmaster's Commentary:
The US is completely disingenuous in its stance toward the potential establishment of a Palestinian state.
So what we are about to see happen here is a brisk Israeli annexation of the West Bank and Jerusalem, coupled with forcible expulsions of Palestinians who have lived in their ancestral homes for generations; it's just a question of when.
Cloudy G20: Smog of US-China currency war blurs perspective
Notice what the video is portraying visually:
1. Russia and the UK see eye to eye
2. Russia and China say the US needs to gain approval before the FED printing runs.
3. Germany called the US "helpless".
Watch the global chessmatch... the pieces are moving... watch those alliances.
Russia/China are together
Russia is lining up with Europe.
This makes Russia the central axis between China and Europe and she's playing the game to perfection.
Chinese Missiles Could Close U.S. Bases in Attack, Report Says
The Chinese military’s non-nuclear missiles have “the capability to attack” and close down five of six major U.S. Air Force bases in South Korea and Japan, an unpublished government report says.
China’s improved inventory of short- and medium-range missiles provides a “dramatic increase” in its ability to “inhibit” U.S. military operations in the western Pacific, according to excerpts from the draft of the 2010 annual report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission scheduled for release on Nov. 17.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed how, all of a sudden, China has seemed to become the US's "enemy #1" after the US didn't get what they wanted from China at the G20 regarding a possible revaluing of its currency?
Just checking.
Pentagon Readies New Ship-Killers for Pacific Showdown
Pentagon planners were wary of China’s double-digit military-budget growth rates even before the global economic crisis put the squeeze on America’s own defense investment. Now the Chinese army’s growth continues while America’s flat-lines. That’s got the U.S. military, especially the Navy, scrambling for new ideas.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Anyone who believes, for one second, that defense spending is going to get cut in the next round of Congressional appropriations, is dreaming.
U.S. pledges to send super carrier to Yellow Sea for joint drills: Pentagon
The United States has reiterated its pledge to send a super carrier to the Yellow Sea for joint naval drills with South Korea without specifying the timing, despite China's objections.
"The only thing I'd answer is those are international waters and they aren't owned by China," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a media roundtable in Melbourn, Australia, Monday, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon, Tuesday. "They aren't owned by Korea. They're international waters in which we have and many other countries have sailed forever. My expectation is we'll continue to do that."
Webmaster's Commentary:
If this happens, this action is bound to exacerbate the situation with China, rather than resolve it.
In a much-anticipated report, the US-China Economic and Security Review commission has accused Beijing of deceptive economic practises, effectively reigniting the two countries' spat over currency and trade issues.
Presenting its findings to the US Congress, the congressional advisory panel has recommended the Obama administration to take tougher actions against what it calls China's policy of keeping its currency undervalued.
On Wednesday, the commission said that China is creating global imbalances and using "market access-limiting practises" that fall outside its World Trade Organisation commitments.
Webmaster's Commentary:
This a petulant President's revenge for not getting what he wanted out of the G20 conference.
China is not to blame for the US's financial woes: our current domestic, foreign, and banking policies have brought us to the place we are now.
China has an enviable surplus: the US government may well collapse, choking under the weight its own deficit.
Jobs have been allowed by this government to be offshored, creating a huge unemployment problem in this country.
Those people who, legitimately, qualified for a mortgage when they got it, but are now without work, cannot keep up the payments, so houses are foreclosed on, and these people are now both jobless and homeless.
You have a situation where he banks have deliberately oversold those mortgages to the point where no one really knows exactly who holds the title.
Obama has continued an endless cycle of costly wars, with the situations in Afghanistan and Iraq going horrendously badly; yet, we are also at war in Pakistan, and soon, Yemen.
The only people actually "winning" in these situations are the defense contractors, who provide mercenaries, supplies and logistics, and the drug lords.
Did the Chinese government do anything to cause any of the above to happen?!? Not at all.
The US government is desperately attempting to deflect blame from the fact that it is US governmental policies which have wreaked havoc on the lives of the American people, not the Chinese government.
China Telecom rejects US hijack claims
A leading Chinese telecommunication company has rejected the US claims implicating the firm for some temporary redirecting of sensitive Internet traffic on US websites.
China Telecom, one of the country's major telecommunications operators, rejected US claims that its servers "hijacked" highly sensitive Internet traffic for 18 minutes on April 8 on American government and military websites, AFP reported on Thursday.
Webmaster's Commentary:
More gratuitous China-bashing and rather lame since there is no reason for such sensitive US traffic to even leave the US networks let alone route through Chinese servers. Since the "great revolt" that transformed the ARPAnet into the Internet, the military has set up a parallel network of their own, which for obvious reasons is not connected to the global internet. So this story was a non-starter, to begin with
China Daily: China, Russia quit dollar
http://blacklistednews.com/China-Daily%3A-China%2C-Russia-quit-dollar-...
St. Petersburg, Russia - China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.
Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.
"About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies," Putin said at a joint news conference with Wen in St. Petersburg.
India to deploy 36,000 extra troops on Chinese border
The formation of the two new divisions means that India's deployments in the eastern sector of its border with China now matches the five army divisions that existed in 1986-87, when the two countries nearly went to war.
Gen Singh was not available for comment but one of his staff officers, on condition of anonymity, told the BBC that the army chief had "pushed very hard to fast-track the raising of the two divisions".
He said that they should be "fully operational" by March 2011.
He said their formation was India's response to the "huge Chinese build-up" in Tibet over the last three to four years. But he did not wish to elaborate.
Webmaster's Commentary:
This entire area has become a tinderbox of tensions, just waiting for some misunderstanding to ignite it.
N.Korea 'giving nuclear material to Iran, Syria'
North Korea is supplying banned nuclear and ballistic equipment to Iran, Syria and Myanmar using "surreptitious" means to avoid international sanctions, according to a UN report released Friday.
International Atomic Energy Agency director Yukiya Amano said this week that the stand-off with North Korea was now "very bad".
China has been the North's main ally on the international stage and it had blocked the report since it was prepared in May, diplomats said.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Although the culprit in this report is North Korea, it is an indirect bash at China, conveniently published right after the G-20, during which China and the rest of the world told the US what to do with its "quantitative easing" policy.
And a logical question comes to mind: how did China block the release of this report, if it in fact had been finished in May?!?
Pakistan:
2 US drone strikes kill 14 militants in Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A pair of American drone strikes killed 14 suspected militants in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, local intelligence officials said, in the latest attacks against al-Qaida and Taliban militants seeking sanctuary in the region.
Pakistan says US seeking to expand drone strikes
A senior Pakistani intelligence official said Saturday the U.S. is seeking to expand the areas where American missiles can target Taliban and al-Qaida operatives but that Pakistan has refused the request because of domestic opposition to the strikes.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Pakistani leadership had better get used to the concept that once they allowed US to target alleged militants with these drone strikes, they gave up all pretense of being a sovereign nation.
The US is, most likely, going to ignore what the Pakistani government wants in this case, and will simply escalate the drone attacks in the border areas with or without the government's approval.
Zardari says he has proof of US terror against Paksitan
The News International, Pakistan‘s largest English-language newspaper, published a report on October 13 based on excerpts from American journalist Bob Woodward’s recently released volume “Obama’s Wars” which stated that during a trilateral summit between the presidents of the U.S., Afghanistan and Pakistan on May 6 of 2009 Pakistani head of state Asif Ali Zardari accused Washington of being behind Taliban attacks inside his country with the intent to use them so “the US could invade and seize its nuclear weapons.”
Webmaster's Commentary:
This appears to have been the game plan all along.
But one has to wonder why Zardari is making this claim so late in the process, and expressing outrage now.
The civilian and military leadership, who have been well-bribed to look the other way while US drones kill their citizens will enjoy a very comfortable life in exile, when this whole episode is over, courtesy of the American taxpayers.
US understates civilian casualties in Pakistan, makes no amends
Currently, the clashes between the Pakistani military forces and the militant groups are continuing at a concerning level in four provinces in the country’s northwestern region, while the US continues to bomb two more provinces in the area with its drones. In addition to civilian deaths and according to the latest available data of the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), an estimated 2 million people have been displaced in the country because of the violence.
Webmaster's Commentary:
The "war against terror" in Pakistan has morphed into a war by the US against the Pakistani people, and the Pakistani civilian and military leaders have been well compensated to turn a collective blind eye to the carnage.
What the US wants is control of Pakistan's nuclear weapons, coupled with a "regime change" in the government to make the next Prime Minister completely compliant with the US's demands.
The US military doesn't care how many innocent civilians they slaughter on the way to achieving the outcomes outlined above.
Pakistani Victims of U.S. Drone Strikes Speak Out
Gul Nawaz, from North Waziristan, was watering his fields when he heard the explosions of drone missiles: "I rushed to my house when I heard the blast. When I arrived I saw my house and my brother's house completely destroyed and all at home were dead!" Eleven members of Gul Nawaz's family were killed, including his wife,two sons and two daughters as well as his elder brother, his wife, and his four children.
US Military Officials Eye More Attacks Into Pakistan
According to recent reports US military officials, facing growing administration pressure to show something that seems like progress in the endless Afghan War, is looking to press Pakistan for more attacks inthe tribal area, and some are even advocating crossing the border with US forces and expanding the war formally into Pakistan
Webmaster's Commentary:
A war actually against Pakistan has been where US governmental policy has been going all along.
Obama ramping up CIA infiltration of Pakistan: report
AFP
The United States is trying to expand a secret CIA operation designed to eliminate radical Islamic militants’ havens located in Pakistan near the Afghan border, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Russia Declines NATO Call for Afghan Supply Route
Though the Pakistan border has reopened to NATO traffic, the need to rely on Pakistan for some 80% of the Afghan War’s supplies has been problematic, to say the least, and the alliance has been looking elsewhere for routes to the landlocked country.
But they won’t find one in Russia, which today announced that it had formally denied NATO permission to transport military supplies through its country.
Bhutto assassination linked to US-run Pakistani terrorist group
Based on intelligence sources, WMR previously reported a link between the Dick Cheney-Pentagon Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) assassination team and the the assassination in December 2007 of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. WMR has now obtained from knowledgeable Pakistani sources the logistical network behind the killing of Bhutto.
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