Émission de radio L'Autre Monde

Émission de radio L'Autre Monde

mercredi 10 décembre 2008

Coup d'état royal au Parlement, Desmarais élu au Québec et actualité mondiale

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Émission de L'Autre Monde du 11 décembre 2008: Coup d'état royal au Parlement, Desmarais élu au Québec et actualité mondiale


Pour écouter, simplement cliquer sur le lien ici:

L'Autre Monde 11 décembre 2008
60 min / Radio de l'UQAM, CHOQ FM


Pour télécharger, faite un clique droit puis “enregistrer la cible sous…


Cette semaine sur L'Autre Monde:

- Nous faisons le tour de la situation au Moyen-Orient, dont au Pakistan, l'Afghanistan et l'Irak.


- Nous parlons du résultats des élections au Québec; de l'économie, des changements climatiques, des États-Unis, de l'Europe et de l'Amérique du sud. Bref, après avoir écouté cette émission, vous aurez fait le tour du monde en actualité!


Soyez au rendez-vous le jeudi à 11h sur les ondes de CHOQ FM!


Diffusion en direct : Jeudi à 11:00h
Animation : François Marginean
Archives d'émission



***Hyperliens vers les sources des informations discutées sur l'émission d'aujourd'hui:

Conférence sur la crise financière

Dans le cadre de ses soirées conscientisantes « Des Mots pour des Maux »,

la TROVEP Montérégie présente:

LES ENJEUX DE LA CRISE FINANCIÈRE

La Grande Dépression du XXIème siècle

conférence publique avec Michel Chossudovsky

Vous êtes inquiet de la situation économique et les impacts dans les mois à venir?

Venez vous informer et réfléchir sur les solutions de rechanges!

Nous aborderons :

Les causes et les conséquences de l’effondrement des marchés

La banqueroute de l’économie réelle

Les impacts sur l’emploi et le niveau de vie des gens

La décomposition des finances publiques

Les impacts sur les services de santé et d’éducation

L’enrichissement d’une minorité sociale

La mondialisation de la pauvreté

Michel Chossudovsky est professeur d’économie politique à l’université d’Ottawa,

directeur du Centre de recherche sur la mondialisation et auteur

de nombreux ouvrages dont « Mondialisation de la pauvreté et nouvel ordre mondial ».

Quand : Le 12 janvier 2009 de 17h00 à 20h00

Où : au 7500 Chemin Chambly à Saint-Hubert

Salle Lionel Bergeron

(Édifice du Syndicat de l’enseignement de Champlain sortie 115 de l’autoroute 30)

Vous devez vous inscrire (nombre places limitées) avant le 18 décembre

Un léger buffet sera servi dès 16h45

Seulement la conférence : Gratuit Conférence et buffet : 10$/personne

BIENVENUE À TOUTES ET TOUS!

pour informations : 450-443-9330

jtrovepm@synd-champlain.qc.ca


WALL STREET-FONDS VAUTOURS & SERVICES SECRETS

BLACKSTONE-KKR-CARLYLE-TPG-BAIN-CERBERUS-FORTRESS-CLARIUM-ACCEL

QWEST-GLOBAL CROSSING-NORTEL-ENRON-QINETIC-FACEBOOK-INTRINSIQ-IN-Q-TEL

LEVEZ LES VISIÈRES OPAQUES DES CHEVALIERS BLANCS DE WALL STREET, LES TRÈS DISCRETS CHEVAUX DE TROIE DES SERVICES SECRETS; LES CAVALIERS DE L’APOCAPITALISME QUI PILLENT NOTRE BIEN PUBLIC À NOTRE INSU!

ASSISTEZ À LA 64ÈME CONFÉRENCE DE BENOIT PERRON, ANIMATEUR DES ÉMISSIONS ZONE DE RÉSISTANCE, CISM 89,3-FM ET L’ÉCONOXYDABLE, CIBL 101,5-FM

DATE : MERCREDI 17 DÉCEMBRE 2008

HEURE : 19.00

ADMISSION GÉNÉRALE : 10$

ENDROIT : PAVILLON SHERBROOKE-UQAM-200 RUE SHERBROOKE OUEST (ANGLE JEANNE-MANCE)

MÉTRO PLACE-DES-ARTS

LOCAL : SH-2560

INFO : (514)392-0095 OU PERRONB@SYMPATICO.CA


Section cas judiciaire bidon:


RALLYE: MASCARADE PUBLIQUE, PROCÈS SECRET!

Action en solidarité avec Adil Charkaoui et contre les procès secrets et le profilage

Mercredi 10 décembre 2008, à MIDI
À l'extérieur de la Cour fédérale, 30 rue McGill (métro
Square-Victoria), Montréal

Dans le cadre de la journée pancanadienne d'actions contre les certificats de sécurité

Une manifestation théâtrale et animée le 10 décembre, Journée internationale des droits humains, pour dénoncer l'usage des procès secrets dans le cas d'Adil Charkaoui et des autres détenus des certificats de sécurité. La manifestation se déroulera devant la Cour fédérale. Des rassemblements contre les certificats de sécurité vont aussi avoir lieu à Ottawa et Toronto le même jour.

*Voir aussi, appel à la solidarité en Cour : www.adilinfo.org/fr/node/497


*Plus d'information : www.adilinfo.org


Upside Down Christmas Trees... The Hottest New Thing In Holiday Decorating!


Tortured Patsies “Confess” To 9/11

The new set of “confessions” will hold about as much credibility of those of purported “9/11 mastermind” Khalid Sheik Mohammed when he first spilled the beans in March 2007, After only five years of torture, KSM confessed to nearly everything under the sun, only stopping short at accepting responsibility for killing Kennedy, creating AIDS and being the real Santa Claus.

Indeed, KSM was so keen on never seeing a cattle prod again that he even confessed to being responsible for attacking banks that were founded after his arrest, seemingly invoking the power of long range telekinesis to commit his dastardly deeds.

KSM mentioned the “Plaza Bank” by name despite the fact that it only came into existence in 2006, three years after his arrest. Either KSM has the power to influence objects with his mind or we were lied to, but the media and the government would never do that, would they?

Webmaster's Commentary:

It's only a matter of voltage!


Alleged 9/11 mastermind to plead guilty in trial

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (AFP) - Alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and co-defendants said Monday they will plead guilty to terror charges that could bring the death penalty, as relatives of those killed in the attacks looked on.

"I don't appreciate between the judge and my attorney and (US President George W.) Bush and the CIA who tortured me," he said, adding that he also did not trust Henley.

Sheikh Mohammed, captured in Pakistan in 2003 and handed over to US agents who held him in secret prisons for over three years before sending him to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, is known to have been subjected to harsh treatment by the CIA, including "waterboarding," or simulated drowning, leading to controversy about the admissibility of his reported confession.


FLASHBACK: CIA holds young sons of captured al-Qa'eda chief (PDF)

Webmaster's Commentary:

In case you wondered how they got Khalid Sheik Mohammed to confess to 9-11, it's because the CIA's torturers have got his KIDS!


Ex-ISI Chief Gul Exposes 9/11 Inside Job

Former Pakistani ISI chief Hamid Gul appeared on the Alex Jones Show yesterday and shared his contention that the 9/11 attack was an inside job, laying out details that were censored during a CNN interview on the same subject last weekend.

Gul served as the director general of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence during 1987-89 and worked with the CIA in the covert war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, helping to train the U.S.-backed mujahideen.


General Hamid Gul(former ISI Chief): 911 & Mumbai Both Inside Jobs






Musicians don't want tunes used for torture

The tactic has been common in the U.S. war on terror, with forces systematically using loud music on hundreds of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, then the U.S. military commander in Iraq, authorized it on Sept. 14, 2003, "to create fear, disorient ... and prolong capture shock."

Now the detainees aren't the only ones complaining. Musicians are banding together to demand the U.S. military stop using their songs as weapons.

Webmaster's Commentary:

It is a bit of an insult, if you think about it!


Some 100 countries ban cluster bombs as signing begins in Oslo

Webmaster's Commentary:

US refuses to sign.


US stands by refusal to sign cluster bomb ban

The United States said Tuesday it will refrain this week from signing a treaty in Norway to ban cluster bombs, because the document is too broad and endangers US soldiers.

"Although we share the humanitarian concerns of states signing the CCM, we will not be joining them," the State Department said in a statement when asked for its views on the Oslo gathering

Webmaster's Commentary:

"We'll just keep blowing up and maiming children (who think the cluster bombs are toys) and non-combatants until we can come up with another nifty device which does the job in a far more deadly way!" - official White Horse Souse.


November in the record books

SUMMER has come to Perth in the nicest possible way - a mild 25 degrees well below the 40-plus temperatures that mugged locals last year.

A prediction of average summer heat was more welcome news for West Australians, who have experienced what the Bureau of Meteorology said was one of the coldest, wettest Novembers on record.

The below-average temperatures saw the city post its first November without a 30-degree day since 1964.

"Since 1897, only five Novembers had previously had no days of 30 degrees or above,'' Mr Relf said.


2008 will be coolest year of the decade


Theory Says Climate Change Depends On Solar Wind/Cosmic Rays

Predicting climate change is tough, but now there's an excuse for not knowing how wet the winter might be: Climate on Earth could be shaped by forces coming from beyond the planet.

A new theory links climate change to cosmic rays, high-energy particles from space that wash over the planet. If the idea can be proved, it might imply that much of Earth's rising temperature could be caused by extraterrestrial factors, some physicists say.


VIDEO:

Henrik Svensmark on Global Warming (part 1)


Henrik Svensmark on Global Warming (part 2)


Over 650 Scientists Challenge Global Warming "Consensus"

In comparison, twelve times fewer - just 52 scientists - participated in the much touted IPCC Summary for Policymakers meeting in April 2007. Climate scientists allied with the IPCC were recently caught citing fake data to make the case that global warming is accelerating.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Folks, the global warming cult's agenda is simple; to justify talking more money from you and exercising more arbitrary control over your lives.

The scam is simple; take something that happens naturally (climate change) and spin it into a crisis, then convince the suckers (you) that they are somehow to blame for it all in order to get them to pay for the "damage" they cause. Never mind that solar fluctuations are the dominant factor in terrestrial temperatures and that water and methane (not blamable on you) are far worse greenhouse gases, simply fund the science that supports the agenda and ONLY the science that supports the agenda, and if need be fudge the numbers by sticking your measuring instruments in unusually warm places (like right next to a trash incinerator).


Melting ice may slow global warming

Professor Rob Raiswell, a geologist at the University of Leeds, says that as the sheets break off the ice covering the continent, floating icebergs are produced that gouge minerals from the bedrock as they make their way to the sea. Raiswell believes that the accumulated frozen mud could breathe life into the icy waters around Antarctica, triggering a large, natural removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Translation: The global COOLING is making monkeys out of the cultists and now the scramble is on to find some way to save face.


EPA Proposes Tax on Farting Cows

"This is one of the most ridiculous things the federal government has tried to do," said Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, an outspoken opponent of the proposal

It would require farms or ranches with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Look for higher dairy prices when this one goes through.

And as a side note, just what does the EPA plan to do with the money? They going to start making large corks or something? Or is this just another example of taking something that occurs naturally, turning it into a "crisis" and charging people a tax to "solve" it?

People emit methane too! Is the government planning to tax out asses?


Obama vows to end global warming 'denial' after Gore talks

President-elect Barack Obama said Tuesday his administration would brook no further delay in tackling climate change after discussing global warming with former vice president Al Gore.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Gore must have offered Obama a piece of the action.


EU carbon trading system brings windfalls for some, with little benefit to climate

The European Union started with the most high-minded of ecological goals: to create a market that would encourage companies to reduce greenhouse gases by making them pay for each ton emitted into the atmosphere.

Four years later, the carbon trading system has created a multibillion-euro windfall for some of the continent's biggest polluters, with little or no noticeable benefit to the environment so far.

Webmaster's Commentary:

It's all snake oil, folks! Al Gore and his cronies have taken something that happens naturally, turned it into a crisis, and forced you to pay for it!


Rare 50 year Arctic Blast Sets Sights On Southern California.

Resort level snow will be likely next week, and in pretty hefty amounts if things stay on track. OWSweather.com Meteorologist Kevin Martin predicts a 50 year event. While Martin is usually conservative on these events, the pattern highly favors it. "We are in a pre-1950 type pattern, "said Martin. "We know we are due for a winter storm sometime this year. The type we may be dealing with will be ranked up there with the known years before 1950, which set record low daytime temperatures into the forecast region. With this, may come low elevation snow."

Webmaster's Commentary:

As a side note, there are reports that snow is falling in Austin, Texas.


Rich countries launch great land grab to safeguard food supply

Rich governments and corporations are triggering alarm for the poor as they buy up the rights to millions of hectares of agricultural land in developing countries in an effort to secure their own long-term food supplies.

The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Jacques Diouf, has warned that the controversial rise in land deals could create a form of "neo-colonialism", with poor states producing food for the rich at the expense of their own hungry people.

Julian Borger, diplomatic editor

The Guardian, Saturday November 22 2008


Police open fire as soldiers turn on Mugabe

POLICE shot at rioting soldiers in Harare on Monday as unpaid troops sided with the country's impoverished people for the first time in protest against Zimbabwe's collapsing economy.

Tensions erupted when about 50 soldiers were denied money from banks after queueing all day.

The soldiers, who were wearing camouflage dress, staged an impromptu protest. They were joined by hundreds of civilians at the corner of Robert Mugabe and Fourth streets, in the heart of the capital. When armed riot police arrived to break up the demonstration, the soldiers from Cranborne Barracks fought back.


Thai government falls after court bans premier

Thailand's prime minister resigned on Tuesday after weeks of protests closed the capital's airports, stranding 300,000 travelers. Protesters promised to lift their siege, and international flights were expected to resume Friday.

The resignation of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat came after the nation's Constitutional Court dissolved Thailand's top three ruling parties for electoral fraud and banned him from politics for five years.

Webmaster's Commentary:

The Thai have balls Americans only dream of!


ICELANDERS STORM THE CENTRAL BANK!


52 whales die in mass stranding in Australia: report

Fifty-two pilot whales have died after a mass stranding on Tasmania's northwest coast, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported Saturday.

Webmaster's Commentary:

The US Navy just started using their high-power low frequency sonar systems again, after the ban was lifted. The Navy promised to be careful about whales, but ...


What are the Greek riots really about?

We've been told that the ongoing riots in Greece were prosecuted by anarchists as a reaction to the Greek police's shooting of a 15 year old boy on Saturday.

But is this really what lies behind such an outpouring of civil unrest? Is the official reason for the rioting just a cover to paper over some real problems facing the Greek government? Take a look at the common thread in all of these reports:

Associated Press: Burning barricades stretched across streets in the capital Athens. And as night fell, gangs again torched stores and smashed bank branches in the city center, and clashes broke out in the streets near Parliament.... Violence often breaks out between riot police and anarchists during demonstrations in Greece. Anarchist groups are also blamed for late-night firebombings of targets such as banks and diplomatic vehicles.

Xinhua: Fires were burnt in the center of Athens and hundreds of people were wandering through the streets, some attacking banks, businesses and vehicles.

Reuters: Protesters angry at the boy's shooting late on Saturday clashed with police and rampaged through Athens, destroying banks, shops and torching cars. There was no official estimate of the damage, expected to come to millions of euros.

Torching banks? Clashes near Parliament? Attacking diplomatic vehicles? Yesterday, I heard that ten banks had been attacked, and it seems strange that all of this is happening solely over last Saturday's shooting. Indeed, it is a perfect pretext for the Greek authorities and the media - not to mention their counterparts over here - who fear that their cosy relationship with the international clique of banking criminals may result in them hanging from shiny lamp-posts from Washington to Dublin to Sydney.


Massive riots cripple Greece's main cities

Greece's interior minister says the massive protest riots in cities across the country are "unacceptable" but insists that police are doing all they can to protect people's lives and property.

Thousands of youths are rampaging through Athens, the northern city of Thessaloniki and several other cities in the third day of riots Monday after police shot and killed a teenager on Saturday.


Greek popular revolt about to topple govt


In pictures: Greek riots

BBC PHOTO ESSAY | Dec 8, 2008

Groups of youths have been throwing petrol bombs and stones at riot police, who have responded by firing tear gas. Scores of arrests have been made.

Rioters have been attacking symbols of wealth and prestige, smashing windows and torching hundreds of buildings and cars.


Clashes, looting rock Greek cities for 4th night

Masked youths and looters marauded through Greek cities for a fourth night Tuesday, in an explosion of rage triggered by the police shooting of a teenager that has unleashed the most violent riots in a quarter century.

The nightly scenes of burning street barricades, looted stores and overturned cars have threatened to topple the country's increasingly unpopular conservative government, which faces mounting calls for Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis to resign.



Canada:


La CSST, acheteur no1 de soins privés au Québec

http://www.ledevoir.com/2008/11/12/215606.html

Jacinthe Tremblay
Édition
du mercredi 12 novembre 2008

Mots clés : soins privés, CSST, santé, Québec (province)

Près de 1,5 milliard a été versé au privé en cinq ans

De 2003 à 2007, la Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST) a versé près de 1,5 milliard de dollars à des professionnels de la santé oeuvrant en pratique privée au Québec. Et les factures payées au privé par la CSST ont augmenté sans interruption durant cette période, selon des données compilées par Le Devoir.

En 2003, la CSST a versé des honoraires de 255,1 millions de dollars à des professionnels de la santé oeuvrant en secteur privé, ses plus importants clients étant des médecins spécialistes et des physiothérapeutes. Les années suivantes, elle a payé des factures au privé pour des montants sans cesse croissants qui sont passés de 277, 4 millions en 2004 à 345,6 millions en 2007. Total: près de 1,5 milliard en cinq ans.


Crisis as Canada's PM shuts down Parliament


Canada loses most jobs in a month since 1982

Canada lost almost 71,000 jobs last month - the worst single-month drop in a quarter of a century - in a clear indication the U.S. recession is beginning to wreak havoc on manufacturers and workers in Central Canada.


Employers cut 533K jobs in Nov., most in 34 years

Webmaster's Commentary:

And November is when unemployment normally declines because of Holiday season hires.


Financial intelligence uncovers foreign espionage in Canada

An unnamed foreign government has been orchestrating espionage activities in Canada over the past year, according to a report tabled in Parliament Thursday.

Webmaster's Commentary:

If it were any nation other than Israel, it would have been named.


Toronto Bans Bottled Water Sales, but Junk Sodas Remain Legal

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, they say. And to prove it, the city of Toronto has decided to outlaw the sale of bottled water in all municipal buildings, including local arenas.

But rather than being an example of smart, progressive action to protect the environment, this decision is actually just a timely example of the tyranny of good intentions. Here’s why:

For starters, the decision was made by city leaders who say their TAP WATER is what people should be drinking, not bottled water. Oh really? Did these people bother to educate themselves about chlorine or fluoride chemicals? Without question, the tap water in Toronto has far greater toxicity than bottled water, even considering the Bisphenol-A effect.

But that’s a debatable issue. Here’s something that’s not debatable: While banning bottled water, the city of Toronto did NOT ban diet soda and soft drink beverages.

Huh? So now selling water is illegal, but selling carbonated SUGAR water is perfectly legal?

Webmaster's Commentary:

Not to mention all the drugs that keep showing up in city water supplies!



Économie:


From The “Panic” Of 2008 To The “Collapse” Of 2009

The country’s top trends forecaster, who accurately predicted the “panic” of 2008 nearly a year before it unfolded, is now ominously suggesting that next year will come to be known as “the collapse of 2009?.


Dire forecast for the global economy and world trade

The projections are among the most dire in a litany of recent gloomy prognostications for the world economy, and officials at the World Bank warned that if they proved accurate, the downturn could throw many developing countries into crisis and keep tens of millions of people in poverty.


food stamp users hit record 31.6 million or 1 in 10 Americans


Emergency Storage Food Among Products in Highest Demand

At the end of 2008, there are three consumer marketplaces that are experiencing record sales volumes—firearms, precious metals, and emergency storage food. Crisis preparedness is increasingly the theme for those seeking a refuge for their money and comfort from their concerns.

Minneapolis (Vocus/PRWEB ) December 6, 2008 – Gun dealers all over the United States are having a hard time keeping any inventory on hand for anxious customers. Reports are that guns and ammunition are selling at levels up to 50% higher than previous records.

The demand for gold has similarly erupted—Q3 of 2008 showed global sales 45% higher than the quarter before, which itself set the previous high-water mark.

Webmaster's Commentary:

People who used to talk about preparedness used to get laughed out of the room; these days, they're taken much more seriously, and for good reason.


Shipping continues it's downward plunge

"Capesize Vessels" weigh from 175,000 tons to 400,000 tons and count as some of the largest craft in the World. They typically carry raw materials such as Iron ore, Steel, Coal and other raw commodities. Where you used to pay up to $230,000 per day to rent one, now you can have one for a measly $2800 per day. Lloyds even reported yesterday that one Capesize vessel was going for $1000 per day.


US clothing slump hits shipments

The slump in US clothing sales since the summer has led to a precipitous drop in the number of overseas factories shipping to the US, import documents show.
Panjiva, a firm that analyses information drawn from shipping manifests filed with US Customs, said the number of global suppliers actively serving the US market fell from 22,099 in July to just 6,262 in October, a decline of more than 70 per cent.

Webmaster's Commentary:

70%! Ouch!


Worsening Spending Slump Paces ‘Scary’ U.S. Recession

The biggest slump in U.S. consumer spending since 1942 will extend the recession and push the jobless rate to the highest level in a quarter century, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Dow 4,000. Food shortages. A bubble in Treasury notes. Fortune spoke to eight of the market's sharpest thinkers and what they had to say about the future is frightening.

Webmaster's Commentary:

The government could fix the economy overnight by slashing taxes by 50%. But the one thing that would work is the one thing they will not do.


GM asks FAA to block public from viewing movements of corporate jet

General Motors, under fire for flying its chief executive to Washington for hearings on an auto bailout on its corporate jet, has asked the FAA to block the public from being able to track its plane.

“We availed ourselves of the option as others do to have the aircraft removed,” a GM spokesman told Bloomberg News.


Ad losses send industry into a tailspin

Across the United States, more than 30 daily newspapers are for sale, and buyers are scarce.

From Los Angeles to New York, leading newspapers have slashed newsrooms with buyout offers, and when those failed to reach budget-cutting goals, with layoffs.

The newspaper industry has been caught in a tailspin for three years, a trend variously blamed on plummeting ad revenues, declining readership, growing competition from the Internet and a deepening national recession.

Through 2005, print-advertising revenues grew nationwide, according to Newspaper Association of America data. But the industry took a $5 billion loss in advertising dollars during the next two years, and this year could be much worse.

In the third quarter of 2008, print-advertising revenues were down 28 percent from the third quarter of 2005. Most of that loss came in the classifieds.

The losses have not been spread evenly across the newspaper industry. Many small-city newspapers remain relatively unscathed while larger newspapers watch ad revenues and readership dwindle.

In newsroom staffs at major metropolitan dailies, "we've seen roughly 15 percent shrinkage in the last two years," said Bernard Lunzer, president of The Newspaper Guild.

Paper Cuts, a website that tracks newspaper buyouts and layoffs, estimates that at least 14,447 jobs have been lost this year.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"Helping the government lie the nation into a war of conquest" should be on that list!


Tribune Co. Going Bankrupt

Tribune Co. may be filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy next week, as advertising revenues tumbled.The company has $1.5 billion due in interest payments on debt due over the next 8 months and won’t have the cash to make good. Tribune has hired Lazard to prepare the bankruptcy filings.

The print news industry has been in steady decline for several years thanks to the 1-2 punch given by Craigslist.org, which killed their classified ad revenue, and the contraction of the economy that weighed heavy on ad revenues.

Are we witnessing the end of an era? One can hope.


Cost Of Bailout Hits $8.5 Trillion

The total cost of funds committed to the bailout in its various guises has now hit $8.5 trillion dollars, up from $7.7 trillion in just two days after the federal government committed an additional $800 billion to two new loan programs on Tuesday.

The total amount of funds now committed equals a figure that represents 60 per cent of the U.S. gross domestic product.


Fed unveils $800 billion plan to em... ah... whatever.

"Fed unveils $800 billion plan to bolster lending, housing"
This headline adorns the front pages of newspapers this evening. Is it just me or is the Fed getting these plans from cereal boxes at the White House breakfast ? Two or three pieces of cardboard and plastic for Henry and team to assemble in to something before another gruelling day of getting rid of all the money before the other guy takes office in January.


Mind Boggling - The True Cost of The Bailout

We’ve now exceeded the total cost for World War 2, The New Deal, Korean War, Iraq Invasion, Vietnam, The Louisiana Purchase, The Marshall Plan, S&L Bailout, Landing on the moon & NASA. COMBINED! In inflation adjusted numbers!


Big Bailouts, Bigger Bucks

The bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:

• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)


Bailout - Treasury Secretary Paulson Threatened Reps with Martial Law

Now, Senator Inhofe, speaking on KFAQ radio station in Tulsa, has confirmed who it was that issued this threat. The interview host Pat Campbell asked Infhofe, "Somebody in D.C. was feeding you guys quite a story prior to the bailout, a story that if we didn't do this we were going to see something on the scale of the depression, there were people talking about martial law being instituted, civil unrest. Who was feeding you guys this stuff?"


Paulson Was Behind Bailout Martial Law Threat

Senator James Inhofe has revealed that Henry Paulson was behind the threats of martial law and a new great depression prior to the passage of the bailout bill, having made such warnings during a conference call on September 19th, around two weeks before the legislation was eventually approved by both the Senate and Congress.

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=e4qG2G6UkU






Financial Disaster Will Lead to Civil Disorder in 2009 or 2010, Says Secret Citibank Memo

He goes on to explain that the massive money creation efforts by the Federal Reserve and other central banks will end with one of two things: A resurgence of inflation, or a fall into “depression, civil disorder and possibly wars

Webmaster's Commentary:

It is like I said on yesterday's show (and will repeat today), the US Government cannot fix the economy.

"The Last Official Act Of any Government Is To Loot The Nation."

We are THERE, people!


The Fed boosted emergency loans to banks and firms

The Federal Reserve boosted its lending to commercial banks and investment firms over the past week, indicating that a severe credit crisis was still squeezing the financial system.

Webmaster's Commentary:

One more time (and take notes because there will be a quiz next period), we do NOT have a credit crisis. We have a repayment crisis, and the reason we have a repayment crisis is that the US Government gave huge tax breaks to corporations to make it easier for them to send high-paying American jobs to foreign countries.

It does not matter how much credit is created; few will borrow if they don't think they can make the payments, the major exception being the government itself.


Russian analyst: U.S. will collapse with secession, civil war in 2009


Government bailout hits $8.5 trillion

Economic rescue

Key dates in the federal government's campaign to alleviate the economic crisis.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Adjusted for inflation, the entire cost of the Apollo Moon program today would cost $267 billion. And out of that investment came not just a flag on the Moon, but new technologies from circuit miniaturization to materials to aeronautics to pharmaceuticals, launching a thousand new industries and thousands of new products that made America the envy of the manufacturing world.

And now the US Government wants to spend thirty times that amount of money, not to advance our technology but to preserve the already-failed status quo.

Does that sound like wise leadership to you?


U.S. Pledges Top $7.7 Trillion to Ease Frozen Credit

The U.S. government is prepared to provide more than $7.76 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers after guaranteeing $306 billion of Citigroup Inc. debt yesterday.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Umm, did anyone think to ASK the American taxpayers their permission befopre sticking us with roughly $100,000 per household of new debt (plus accruing interest)?

I mean this is just plain silly. The US Government is taking $7.7 trillion (some put the number higher, at $8.3 trillion) away from us and handing it to the banks, so that they can loan it back to us at interest.

Let me repeat that one more time.

The US Government is taking $7.7 trillion (some put the number higher, at $8.3 trillion) away from us and handing it to the banks, so that they can loan it back to us at interest.

Just @#$%ing boggles the mind, doesn't it?


Citigroup gets a monetary lifeline from feds

The bailouts keep coming, and they seem to be getting worse for taxpayers.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Who do NOT get a lifeline, it should be added.


Citibank Scam: Why is the U.S. Bailing Out an United Arab Emirates Owned Bank?

The nation's biggest banking firm counts as one of its top stakeholders Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

As of last year, the prince owned more than $3 billion in Citigroup shares through his company, Kingdom Holding Company. In January, he was one of eight investors to buy a total of $12.5 billion in Citigroup securities.


Citigroup - Fresh From Being Bailed Out of Derivatives Black Hole - Now Selling Yet Another Type of Derivative

Citigroup has received $45 billion in direct bailout money, plus a guarantee of $306 billion. Citigroup was brought to its knees by - among other things - credit default swaps bet against it, and huge derivatives holdings.

Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan also each got $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money. The bailout money helped save them from the black hole of derivatives debt.

So what are these grateful companies doing now? Are they confessing about the error of their ways, and warning others to stay away from derivatives?

Uh, no.


Colossal Financial Collapse: The Truth behind the Citigroup Bank “Nationalization”

On Friday November 21, the world came within a hair’s breadth of the most colossal financial collapse in history according to bankers on the inside of events with whom we have contact. The trigger was the bank which only two years ago was America’s largest, Citigroup. The size of the US Government de facto nationalization of the $2 trillion banking institution is an indication of shocks yet to come in other major US and perhaps European banks thought to be ‘too big to fail.’


OECD warns of worst recession since early 1980s

The financial crisis will likely push the world's developed countries into their worst recession since the early 1980s, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Tuesday.


CitiGroup's destructive potential still poses a systemic threat.

Yesterday's handing over of yet more taxpayer money to CitiGroup has temporarily avoided a truly systemic breakdown of the world banking system but, as always, the real problems have not been addressed and the inevitable collapse has just been delayed.


Global demand for oil to plummet

Global oil demand will collapse next year and commodities will not return to the highs they reached this summer in the foreseeable future, two authoritative reports said on Tuesday as they forecast a long and painful worldwide recession.

The stark conclusions came as the World Bank’s chief economist predicted that the world faced “the worst recession since the Great Depression”.

The US energy department said global oil demand will fall this year and next, marking the first two consecutive years’ decline in 30 years.


Illinois' Blagojevich Arrested for Trying to Sell Obama's U.S. Senate Seat

Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested with his chief of staff on charges they tried to sell U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat, according to Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.


Yesterday Gov. Rod Blagojevich Attacked Bank of America, Today the Bush DOJ Makes Him Disappear

I do not care what the Illinois Governor did or how much sun shine's out of Fitz's ass. Someone in the the DOJ and someone even higher up in the Bush administration gave the prosecutor the green light to arrest Gov. Rod Blagojevich today because yesterday the Democratic governor dared to fuck with one of the high holies of the Republican business community, a company that had recently been anointed with $25 billion blessed tax payers' dollars--- Bank of America .

And no one in the United States messes with Big Business and lives to tell about it.


Ill. Governor suspends all state business with Bank of America

In a stinging note of support for the laid off workers that have taken up residency in Chicago's Republic Windows & Doors factory, the Governor of Illinois has suspended business with Bank of America until it reissues credit to the shuttered company.

Webmaster's Commentary:

And just 24 hours later he gets arrested for corruption charges!


FLASHBACK: Eliot's Mess

‘Steering,’ sub-prime loans with usurious kickers, fake inducements to over-borrow, called ‘fraudulent conveyance’ or ‘predatory lending’ under US law, were almost completely forbidden in the olden days (Clinton Administration and earlier) by federal regulators and state laws as nothing more than fancy loan-sharking.

But when the Bush regime took over, Countrywide and its banking brethren were told to party hearty – it was OK now to steer’m, fake’m, charge’m and take’m.

Webmaster's Commentary:

And then Spitzer got nailed for the Emperor's Club VIP.

This is starting to look like the same thing just happened to the governor of Illinois. In both cases Bank of America was involved.


Axelrod Denies Barack Obama Met With Rod Blagojevich

I was mistaken when I told an interviewer last month that the President-elect has spoken directly to Governor Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy. They did not then or at any time discuss the subject.

Webmaster's Commentary:

There had been a story about such a meeting at http://www.connecttristates.com/news/story.aspx?id=219212, but amazingly, it has gone missing now!

Fortunately, it is cached HERE!

The guy isn't even in the White House yet and already we have lies and cover-ups.

Change my astrolabe!



Santé:


Report: Toxins Found In One-Third Of Toys Tested

One in three toys tested by a Michigan nonprofit group contained medium or high levels of toxic chemicals, according to a report released Wednesday. And U.S.-made children's toys didn't necessarily contain fewer toxins than their imported counterparts

Webmaster's Commentary:

How comforting, knowing how well American kids not are protected from this kind of exposure!


FDA sets safe level for melamine in infant formula

Federal regulators set a safety threshold Friday for the industrial chemical melamine that is greater than the amount of contamination found so far in U.S.-made infant formula.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Only one week after finding that US Infant Formula contained Melamine, the FDA has set a "safety threshold" for Melamine that lucky for our baby formula companies is higher than the amounts being added to baby formula. Prasie the FDA; no product recalls will be necessary.

Now then, aside from the fact that one week is way too short to conduct a study, especially for the government, how does anyone KNOW what a safe level of exposure is, since the effects are CUMULATIVE OVER TIME, and can vary widely depending on the body chemistry of the infant's excretory system?

Only one month ago, the FDA said it could not identify ANY safe level of exposure for infants!


90 Percent of U.S. Infant Formula May Be Contaminated with Melamine; FDA Abruptly Declares Chemical Safe for Babies

Up to 90 percent of the infant formula sold in the United States may be contaminated with trace amounts of melamine, the toxic chemical linked to kidney damage, according to recent tests. The FDA's test results, which the agency hid from the public and only released after the Associated Press filed a Freedom of Information Act request, showed that Nestle, Mead Johnson and Enfamil infant formula products were all contaminated with melamine.


Pfizer Implicated in Human Drug Experimentation on Critically Ill Children in Nigeria

Did Pfizer recruit critical ill Nigerian children for illegal drug experiments? That’s what the Nigerian government is charging in an $8.5 billion lawsuit against the drug maker. To avoid a court battle, Pfizer is offering to pay off the Nigerian government with $150 million in drug money, hoping it will drop the case and end what could potentially be a public relations nightmare for the drug maker.

Webmaster's Commentary:

If you've never seen the film "The Constant Gardner", adapted from the book of the same name, it lays bare the kinds of practices drug companies use to test their new drugs, and the lengths to which they will go to keep info on problems and/or catastrophic failures from ever reaching the public.

If these charges against Pfizer are true, I hope the Nigerian government gets its day in court, and that the proceedings are open for the world to see.


Intervention call as cholera spreads

WESTERN calls for radical intervention in Zimbabwe rose dramatically over the weekend as the United Nations warned that the number of cholera cases in the region could reach 60,000 and the death toll rise to 3000.

Webmaster's Commentary:

OK, the West is calling for "...radical intervention".

Uh, just which countries' armies are going to be dispatched by their governments to provide that "intervention"?

Any takers?

Thought not.



Europe:


Big brother police to get power to stop you in the street to demand ID... refuse and you'll face jail

State officials are to be given powers previously reserved for times of war to demand a person's proof of identity at any time.

Anybody who refuses the Big Brother demand could face arrest and a possible prison sentence.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Your papers please, comrade!


Social services ’set up CCTV camera in couple’s bedroom’

Angleterre:

Council staff are said to have spied on the young parents at night as part of a plan to see if they were fit
to look after their baby, who was sleeping in another room.

The mother and father were forced to cite the Human Rights Act, which protects the right to a private life, before the social services team backed down and agreed to switch off the surveillance camera while they were in bed together.


Berlusconi plans to use G8 presidency to 'regulate the internet'

Italian president and media baron Silvio Berlusconi said today that he would use his country's imminent presidency of the G8 group to push for an international agreement to "regulate the internet".

Speaking to Italian postal workers, Reuters reports Berlusconi said: "The G8 has as its task the regulation of financial markets... I think the next G8 can bring to the table a proposal for a regulation of the internet."


German False Flag in Kosovo

Reuters has the story on what is apparently the latest false flag operation:

Germany declined to comment on on Saturday on reports that three Germans arrested on suspicion of throwing explosives at an EU office in Kosovo were intelligence officers.

The explosive charge was thrown on Nov. 14 at the International Civilian Office (ICO), the office of EU Special Representative Pieter Feith, who oversees Kosovo's governance, but caused only minor damage. The men were detained on Thursday.


German Intelligence Agents Caught Staging False Flag Terror

German intelligence agents have been caught staging a false flag terror attack against an EU building in Kosovo, apparently in an attempt to create a pretext for EU police to be deployed in Kosovo after government leaders rejected the UN-mandated proposal.

...

Webmaster's Commentary:

See The Lavon Affair

See Fake Al Qaeda

See The Attack on the USS Liberty



Amérique du Sud:


Russia president, warships to Venezuela to counter US

Warships, nuclear power, arms sales and perhaps cooperation on oil prices -- Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev is in Venezuela this week with an alarming sounding list to wave under Washington's nose.


DEA complicit in drug trade, says Morales

Bolivian leader Evo Morales on Thursday accused the US government of encouraging drug-trafficking as he explained his decision to banish the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Morales, a staunch opponent of the Washington government, said the staff from the US agency had three months to prepare to leave the country, because "the DEA did not respect the police, or even the (Bolivian) armed forces."

"The worst thing is, it did not fight drug trafficking; It encouraged it," the Bolivian leader said, adding that he had "quite a bit of evidence" backing up his charges.

Webmaster's Commentary:

See Activities at Mena.


Slaying of Mexican journalist muzzles whole society

Increasingly, such murders are also an ordinary part of life for Mexico's reporters. The country is now one of the world's most dangerous for journalists.

Rodriguez was the fifth Mexican journalist slain this year alone, according to the Commitee to Protect Journalists.



États-Unis:


America The Illiterate

There are over 42 million American adults, 20 percent of whom hold high school diplomas, who cannot read, as well as the 50 million who read at a fourth- or fifth-grade level. Nearly a third of the nation's population is illiterate or barely literate. And their numbers are growing by an estimated 2 million a year. But even those who are supposedly literate retreat in huge numbers into this image-based existence. A third of high school graduates, along with 42 percent of college graduates, never read a book after they finish school.


America’s forgotten freedoms

A survey by the First Amendment Center in the US has reached the shocking conclusion that most American citizens don’t know the five basic freedoms enshrined in the constitution.

The study found that no more than 3% of Americans remember “petition” among the First Amendment’s five basic freedoms.

However, freedom of speech was remembered by the majority of respondents - 56%.

The others freedoms enshrined in the constitution appeared to have made little impression: freedom of religion was named by 15%; the same percentage remembered press freedom as a constitutional right while just 14% knew they had a right to assembly.

The number of respondents who remembered freedom of speech was the lowest in the history of the survey, conducted each year for the past eleven years.

What makes this year’s results more shocking is that 4 out of 10 people questioned could not name any freedom at all.


US officials flunk test of history, economics, civics

US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.

Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

"It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI's civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned," said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI.

Webmaster's Commentary:

The world is laughing at us!

You can take the test yourself HERE
Average score for this quiz during November: 77.7%
I got 31 out of 33 correctly — 93.94 % :P


Pentagon to Detail Troops to Bolster Domestic Security

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.


Military Examines Role In Domestic Defense

Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday ordered his top department leaders to conduct a broad review to determine whether the military, National Guard and Reserve can adequately deal with domestic disasters and whether they have the training and equipment to defend the homeland.

"Make no mistake, his decisions are aimed at landmark changes, changes that are essential if the Guard and Reserves are to remain fully capable of meeting current and future threats," said Punaro.

Webmaster's Commentary:

One has to wonder: defend the "homeland" from whom, and what future "threats" are these folks envisioning?

Please remember: as reported in the Army Times,
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/

a deployment of the 1st Brigade Combat Team here in the US, which started 1 October of this year, has been under the control of Northcom. I quote from the article:

".....They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control .....

What is Gates anticipating in this country that such a deployment is necessary?


FBI was told to blame Anthrax scare on Al Qaeda by White House officials

In the immediate aftermath of the 2001 anthrax attacks, White House officials repeatedly pressed FBI Director Robert Mueller to prove it was a second-wave assault by Al Qaeda, but investigators ruled that out, the Daily News has learned.

Webmaster's Commentary:

The FBI knows of a man who was caught entering the lab where the Anthrax used in the letters was kept, after he had been fired for a racially motivated attack on a co-worker.


NC undercover officers use Taser on pallbearer

Five sheriff's deputies will be disciplined after they used a Taser while serving an arrest warrant on a man at his father's funeral, a North Carolina sheriff said Wednesday.


It's beginning to look a lot like Clinton, everywhere you go?


Judicial Watch Announces Hillary Clinton Constitutionally Ineligible to Serve as Secretary of State

According to the Ineligibility Clause of the United States Constitution, no member of Congress can be appointed to an office that has benefited from a salary increase during the time that Senator or Representative served in Congress. A January 2008 Executive Order signed by President Bush during Hillary Clinton's current Senate term increased the salary for Secretary of State, thereby rendering Senator Clinton ineligible for the position.


Senate vote will give Clinton legal remedy

US Senate prepares legal remedy to clear Hillary Clinton's nomination

"Washington, Dec.4 : The US Senate is reported to have come up with a legal remedy that will allow it to circumvent the Constitution and clear the nomination of Senator Hillary Clinton as the country's next Secretary of State.

According to Politico, the Democrats are readying legislation that could be acted on as soon as next week to pave the way for Clinton's confirmation in Barack Obama's Cabinet."


The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same

Now this same intelligentsia is beginning to howl over Obama’s transition team and early choices to run his Administration. Having defeated Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Primaries, he now is busily installing Bill Clinton’s old guard. Thirty one out of forty seven people that he has named so far for transition or appointments have ties to the Clinton Administration, according to Politico. One Clintonite is quoted in the Washington Post as saying – “This isn’t lightly flavored with Clintons. This is all Clintons, all the time.”


"Obama is merely a fop for the global elite"

“Developed and benefited from the unsustainable patterns of production and consumption which have produced our present dilemma. It is clear that current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class—involving high meat intake, consumption of large amounts of frozen and convenience foods, use of fossil fuels, appliances, home and work-place air-conditioning, and suburban housing—are not sustainable. A shift is necessary toward lifestyles less geared to environmentally damaging consumption patterns.”

Webmaster's Commentary:

Note that Strong and Soros are insisting that it is the Middle Class that must be forced to lower their lifestyles. No mention is made of the ultra rich having to go without.

This "new order" has nothing to do with the environment at all. Strong and Soros know that throughout history, all opposition to oligarchy arises from the middle class, so like the former Soviet Union, Strong's and Soros' new socialist order designs the middle class out out of the system from the very start.


New AG Appointee Advocated To Stifle Speech On Web

As tragic as Columbine was, Holder’s reaction to stifle free speech on the internet is nonetheless disturbing. Combine his zeal for what he may consider “reasonable regulations” along with his advocacy for a federal hate crime law(H/T to National Review), and internet users may find themselves in a world of legal woe after the Obama administration takes over in January.


Obama spells end of blank cheques for Israel

Israel can no longer expect "blank cheques" from Washington once president-elect Barack Obama's administration takes over in January, a former US ambassador to the Jewish state said on Sunday.

"The era of the blank cheque is over," said Martin Indyk, director of the Centre for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute who is considered close to incoming secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Webmaster's Commentary:

We shall see.


MEMO FOR BARACK OBAMA FROM URI AVNERY

The following humble suggestions are based on my 70 years of experience as an underground fighter, special forces soldier in the 1948 war, editor-in-chief of a newsmagazine, member of the Knesset and founding member of a peace movement:


Human medical experimentation in the United States: The shocking true history of modern medicine and psychiatry (1833-1965)



Irak:


Obliterating Iraq

Pakistan Daily published a list of Iraqi academics assassinated in Iraq during the US-led occupation.

This is a particularly meaningful aspect of the Iraq genocide, the extermination of its intellectual classes. It wasn't enough to invade and occupy what was once the most advanced country in the Middle East and destroy its economy. Iraq had to be obliterated, its history re-written and its future denied.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Pol Pot did the same thing in Cambodia and was justly considered a criminal for it.


US contractors lose immunity in Iraq security deal

"In the future, contractors and grantees can expect to be fully subject to Iraqi criminal and civil laws and to the procedures of the Iraqi judicial system," the official said, adding that contractors faced similar situations in all other areas of the world, including in Afghanistan.


KBR Sued for Giving Soldiers Ice with 'Traces of Body Fluids and Putrefied Remains'

The scandals for KBR just keep coming. The former Halliburton subsidiary responsible for the sexual assault of Jamie Leigh Jones and the accidental electrocution of a U.S. soldier is now subject of a class-action lawsuit for exposing employees to "unsafe water, food, and hazardous fumes" at the largest U.S. installation in Iraq.


Iraq Parliament approves landmark US military pact

After 11 months of hard-nosed negotiations with Washington and a flurry of 11th hour horse-trading leading up to the vote, the pact was approved by 144 members of the 198 who attended the session of the 275-member assembly.

Webmaster's Commentary:

77 members of the Iraqi Parliament didn't show up to vote: you have to wonder why.

You also have to wonder what Al Sadr's next move will be here, as he as he was on record as being adamantly opposed to this legislation.


AMSI: The Resistance will continue till the exit of the occupiers

Webmaster's Commentary:

Our kids were supposed to come home end of next month when the UN mandate expired. And, there is no reason for them not to since there never were any weapons of mass destruction and Saddam is now dead anyway.

So, the arm twisting done by the United States to "convince" the Iraqi government to sign the security agreement has one immediate and inevitable consequence. Those groups within Iraq who were waiting patiently for the Americans to leave now know patience will not restore their country to them. They now have no reason to either cooperate with the puppet Iraqi government or to rely on diplomacy. Hence, expect more of our kids to start coming home in body bags.

And as each one rolls off that airplane in the dead of night, ask yourself just what it is they died for.


AMSI: Iraqi Parliament sold Iraq and Iraqis to the occupier

General Headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) strongly denounced the footprints in the Parliament of Representatives in Iraq who have signed the Convention on Iraq to comply with the U.S. occupation administration and vote to assure the Iraqi people that the Iraqi Parliament had sold Iraq and its people to the occupier


Thousands of Iraqis protest U.S. security pact

A suicide bomber killed 12 people in an Iraqi mosque on Friday while thousands of followers of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr demonstrated in Baghdad after parliament passed a pact allowing U.S. troops to remain through 2011.

Some 9,000 people protested in Baghdad's Shi'ite slum of Sadr City after Friday prayers, burning a U.S. flag and holding banners reading "No, no to the agreement." About 2,500 people held a similar rally in the southern city of Basra.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Notice how studiously US corporate media is ignoring the hell out of this, but we're getting "all Mumbai... all the time."

If Al-Sadr gives the order, we've got more civil war in our hands in Iraq.



Afghanistan:


German general breaks silence on Afghanistan

Breaking with a military tradition of keeping silent about policy, a top German general has branded his country's efforts in Afghanistan a failure, singling out its poor record in training the Afghan police and allocating development aid.


Afghanistan drug production up 150% since 2001

Webmaster's Commentary:

"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!" -- Official White Horse Souse


Afghanistan demands 'timeline' for end of military intervention

President Hamid Karzai demanded on Tuesday at a meeting with a UN Security Council team that the international community set a "timeline" for ending military intervention in Afghanistan, his office said.

Karzai told a delegation from the Council that his country needed to know how long the US-led "war on terror" was going to be fought in Afghanistan or it would be forced to seek a political solution to a Taliban-led insurgency.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Karzai is many things, but he is not an idiot. He fully understands that ultimately, the only solution here will have to be a political reconciliation with the Taliban.

And that collective, repetitive "thud" you keep hearing is the sound of heads in the state department and at the pentagon, banging against walls, coupled with the screams of "No, dammit, NO!!!!"


Pentagon plans troop surge in Afghanistan

The Pentagon has begun a massive building operation to construct new barracks and facilities in Afghanistan for 20,000 extra US troops that will pour into the country early next year.

There are 8,100 British troops in Afghanistan, mostly deployed in the southern Helmand province, where the Taleban insurgency has been the most fierce and effective.

It is to house the 20,000 extra troops, who will be joining the 32,000 American forces already there. General Tucker refused to say where the new facility will be.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Memo to the Obama Transition Team and Future Cabinet: these numbers don't add up at all.

By the US military's own protocol, we need about 500,000 soldiers to hold Afghanistan. Add the numbers represented here, and what do we have?

When the surge reaches its full troop strength what we'll have here (counting the British forces) will be - give or take - about 58,000 soldiers.

This is just a little over 10% of the troop strength necessary to get the job done.

So, what do we do? Continue the aerial bombings, declare victory, and go home?

Viet Nam should have taught the American military that you cannot win what is essentially a ground war from the air. Not having learned that lesson is a sad commentary on the mindset at both the Pentagon, and the white house.

At the end of the day, the resolution of the instability in Afghanistan can only be accomplished by dialogue, and by the Afghanis being able to elect a government that isn't so crooked that government officials have to screw their socks on in the morning.


Taliban chief says US troop building will mean more dead, wounded Americans

The Taliban's fugitive leader said the planned increase in U.S. troops in Afghanistan will give his fighters incentive to kill and maim more Americans than ever.

Mullah Omar, who is believed to be sheltered by fiercely conservative tribesman on the Afghan-Pakistan border, said battles would "flare up" everywhere.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Even with the impending "surge" of US troops, we won't have any where near enough boots on the ground to securely occupy Afghanistan, by the US military's own protocol.

The "surge" is only window-dressing until the adults in the room in Washington hopefully figure out an exit strategy which doesn't look quite like the abject defeat it will very most probably be.

Why are many of the Afghanis furious with us? Well, let's see:

1. We invaded their country, and have killed hundreds of people's wives, children, brothers, and sisters.

2. We installed a puppet government, headed by Hamid Karzai (formerly a UNOCAL consultant), which is so collectively corrupt that people believe these government officials have to screw their socks on in the morning.

3. And if that were not enough, as reported in September of this year,

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10278
"A poor harvest, the harshest winter in memory and widespread drought could mean a severe winter food shortage for millions of Afghans, aid officials say."

'The grim forecasts generally cover small farmers in central and northern Afghanistan, affecting 9 million people, more than a quarter of the population, The New York Times reported Friday."

Trust me; the Afghanis do not hate us "because we are free"; they hate us because of what has been done to them in the name of oil and pipelines.


Press, "Psy Ops" to merge at NATO Afghan HQ

Press and "Psy Ops" to merge at NATO Afghan HQ: sources

By Jon Hemming Jon Hemming

KABUL (Reuters) – The U.S. general commanding NATO forces in Afghanistan has ordered a merger of the office that releases news with "Psy Ops," which deals with propaganda, a move that goes against the alliance's policy, three officials said.

The move has worried Washington's European NATO allies -- Germany has already threatened to pull out of media operations in Afghanistan -- and the officials said it could undermine the credibility of information released to the public.



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