Saturday September 22nd 2007

Department of Veterans Affairs Reports 73 Thousand U.S. Gulf War Deaths
Must Read - Some quotes...."More Gulf War Veterans have died than Vietnam Veterans:
 The Department of Veterans Affairs, May 2007, Gulf War Veterans Information System reports the following:

Total U.S. Military Gulf War Deaths: 73,846
– Deaths amongst Deployed: 17,847
– Deaths amongst Non-Deployed: 55,999

"How come the government numbers of 3,777 as of 9/7/7 are so low?  The answer is simple, the government does not want the 73,000 dead to be compared to the 55,000 U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam Iraq = Vietnam.  What the government is doing is only counting the soldiers that die in action before they can get them into a helicopter or ambulance.  Any soldier who is shot but they get into a helicopter before he dies is not counted."

See also....

America's Use Of Radiological Weapons Calls For An International Tribunal
Must Read - A quote...."In 1991, the US military introduced a new weapon that the people of the world­­­with hindsight­­­will probably come to view as symbolic of America's failed leadership after the Cold War. The introduced weapon was a new kind of munition: shells and bullets made from depleted uranium (DU). It turned out to be extremely effective in the first Gulf War against the forces of Saddam Hussein. Unfortunately, the DU weapons also proved nearly as dangerous to our own troops and to Iraqi civilians." -  posted 08-20-07

Great technical explanation of exactly how DU munitions work, and their insidious and long lasting dangers. – mpg   See also articles shown below.

Study suggests cancer risk from depleted uranium
Depleted Uranium Dust - Public Health Disaster For The People Of Iraq and Afghanistan
WHO ‘suppressed’ scientific study into depleted uranium cancer fears in Iraq
There Are No Words ... Depleted Uranium Radiation in Iraq Equals 250,000 Nagasaki Bombs
Depleted Uranium Metal of Dishonor
Weapon of Mass Deception - What the Pentagon doesn’t want us to know about depleted uranium.
Update on Depleted Uranium and Gulf War Syndrome
Depleted Uranium: All the questions about DU and Gulf War syndrome are not yet answered
Iraqis blame U.S. depleted uranium for surge in cancer
Explaining How Depleted Uranium Is Killing Civilians, Soldiers, Land Nano-particles pinpointed

May 2007  - GWVIS Report - [PDF - 27 pages]
A quote...."The Gulf War Veterans Information System (GWVIS) provides the best available current data identifying the 6.5 million Gulf War service member population. The GWVIS reports monitor, in part, the service members’ use of Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare and disability benefits.GWVIS reports are distributed each quarter during the following months: March, June, September, and December."

Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses - Sept 2004 - [PDF - 152 pages]
A quote....More than thirteen years after the end of Operation Desert Storm, a substantial proportion of veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf War continue to experience chronic and often debilitating conditions characterized by persistent headaches, cognitive problems, somatic pain, fatigue, gastrointestinal difficulties, respiratory conditions, and skin abnormalities."  - italics by website author
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Iran oil bourse 'won't undermine US instruments'
Must Read - A quote...."Plans for a commodity exchange for oil trading in Iran won't undermine the dollar’s supremacy in the oil markets, its architect says..."

Great article, and it's really, really, nice of Mr. Cook to reassure the currency speculators, bond buyers and banks by pointing out how his, teeny, tiny, eensy, weensy,  itty , bitty, little oil exchange couldn't possibly hurt that huge, gigantic, stupendous dollar and bond market of "the great and all powerful" United States.

One little thing however....all great storms announce themselves with the slightest of breezes.  And all totalitarian regimes have understood since time immemorial that the number one rule of oppression is NO dissent can ever be tolerated, lest others get the same idea.

In other words examples have to be made of....countries like Iraq for instance...or Iran? - mpg
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Adrian Hamilton: The eerie familiarity of these preparations for war
Must Read - War Warning - A quote...."Have we learnt nothing from the shameful and shameless run-up to the invasion of Iraq? Then, Mohammed ElBaradei, the Nobel prize-winning Egyptian head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, quietly but firmly said that as far as he and his UN agency were concerned, there was no evidence that Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons or the materials to make them.  -  His conclusion was simply swept aside as the US and the British tore into the UN inspector, Hans Blix, determined to show that their worst warnings about Saddam were based on fact. ElBaradei and Blix proved right in their denial. Jack Straw and the hapless (in this case) Colin Powell were wrong."

Iraqi police claim US forces killed family of seven (2nd Lead)
A quote...." Baghdad - The Voices of Iraq news agency reported that US forces in Iraq killed Saturday a family of seven, who were suspected of being connected to an armed militia.  -  The agency quoted an official source from Babel police department as saying the incident occurred in Alexandria north of Babel, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad. The US forces are said to have shot the Iraqi family.  -  'The US forces then blew up the house,' the unnamed source claimed."

CAUTION : This is an initial report, it has to be verified by other sources. - mpg
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Iranian leader tells off CBS reporter: 'You don't represent 300 million people'
A quote...."Asked if he intends to press his request to visit the World Trade Center site, Ahmadinejad tells 60 Minutes Scott Pelley, "Well, it was included in my program. If we have the time and the conditions are conducive, I will try to do that."

NATO retreats from establishment of rapid-reaction force
A quote...."BERLIN: NATO is backing away from establishing a combat force that would be capable of moving rapidly into conflict areas because it lacks the money, the troops and the equipment, officials said Thursday. - NATO's decision to rethink the Response Force is a blow for the 26-member alliance, which was seeking a way to alter a cumbersome and reactive organization of the Cold War era to field flexible units capable of being deployed within days to carry out a range of operations, including counter-terrorism."

Possibly after seeing what the Bush thugs have done with the use of military power over the last seven years, European members of NATO, rightly and correctly, decided to rethink the whole issue.

A "Rapid Reaction" force would have been like leaving a loaded gun laying around for the next gang banging idiot and his MIOC friends to use so they could go knock over a liquor store and get themselves some booty and bling....killing a whole bunch of innocent people in the process. – mpg
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The Great Pretenders
09-22-07
mpg

Ignorance of Iraqi death toll no longer an option
A quote...."Not wanting to think about civilian deaths in Iraq has become almost universal. The average American believed approximately 9,900 Iraqis had died as a result of the war according to a February 2007 AP poll. Unfortunately, recent evidence suggests that things in Iraq may be one-hundred times worse than Americans realize."

We should all stop pretending.  Most of the Neo-Romans who live in this country know; even when they take the polls and say they don't know....they know.  They really, truly, do.

When you level whole cities from the air and use 500lb and 2000lb bombs in crowded urban areas to "get" an insurgent or two....you know what you're doing  When you use cluster munitions, or white phosphorous, napalm (MK77) bombs or fuel-air explosives....you know what you're doing.  When your national guard is running out of equipment, your congress keeps increasing your military budget, your country is spending more on that budget than the ENTIRE WORLD COMBINED and most of this hardware is being used up at a ferocious rate in one tiny, little, impoverished, country....you know what you're doing.

When you're using up so many bullets that some of your police departments are running out of ammo....you know what you're doing.  When you've been doing this for over four years in a country of just twenty seven million people...YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING.

So could we all just stop pretending now?  Please?  This whole pretense, this childish and cowardly act from the many Neo-Romans who took this poll and who keep exclaiming "I don't/didn't know", is unsustainable, unbelievable and pathetically ridiculous.

So could you guys just stop....please?  Could you finally stand up for what you've supported and stop living in denial?

It’s really embarrassing to everyone else who lives in this country when you just keep on pretending. – mpg

Friday September 21st 2007

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps
Must Read - From the history file - A quote...."From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all"

COLUMN-The $3,850 per second war and its victims:Bernd Debusmann
A quote...."By Bernd Debusmann WASHINGTON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Assuming you read at average speed, by the time you get to the bottom of this column, the war in Iraq will have cost the United States another $760,000. More than $4 million of U.S. taxpayers' money ebbed away in the 18 minutes it took George W. Bush to explain to his country and the world last week why the war he ordered would last well beyond his presidency."

Being Blackwater means never having to say you’re sorry…Condi will do that for you…

Calamity Condi does it again....there is no crime to despicable for this woman to apologize for, there is no barbarous act to vicious for her to defend, least we forget this "woman" - (the descriptive may not be accurate but it's the best this author could do) - causally dragged her feet to give Israel "more time" to continue their massive bombardment of Lebanon's civilian population during their most recent invasion of that poor country.

It was this childless, emotionless, automaton of the MIOC elites, this insufferable gadfly of doom and death who also described Israel’s carnage in Lebanon as the "birth pangs" of a "new" Middle East.

Why is it that a woman who never had a child is describing "birth pangs" or why are a group of chicken-hawk frat boys who NEVER saw a day of combat in their lives extolling the glories of war, sacrifice and a mission (not) accomplished, still being taken seriously by almost thirty percent of this country?  - mpg
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Nato snubs bid to curb Afghan opium
A quote...."The Nato military force in Afghanistan has said that it will not take part in the eradication of opium poppy fields. - Afghanistan produces about 93 per cent of the world's opium, the raw ingredient for heroin."
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Kissinger Admits Iran Attack Is About Oil
A quote...."In a new op-ed, Bilderberg luminary Henry Kissinger admits that U.S. hostility against Iran is not about the threat of nuclear proliferation, but as part of a larger agenda to seize Iranian oil supplies. But the true meaning behind this is lost on Neo-Cons, who are still deluded into thinking that Americans benefit from the imperial looting of natural resources in the middle east."

Iran to Display 3rd Generation of Home-Made Fighter Jet
TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran announced that it would soon test fly the third generation of its domestically-built fighter jet 'Saeqeh' (Thunderbolt). - Speaking to reporters on Thursday, executor of Saeqeh manufacturing project said that the first generation of the fighter has been built by the air force while the second generation is a joint product of the defense ministry and air force."

Amazing isn't it?  "Rag heads” building third generation fighter jets, holding elections, maintaining a "national state", diversifying away from the US dollar and actually refusing to do business with some of America's glorious elites.   What a revolting and disgusting bunch of people.  Don't they get it, they're not ALLOWED to maintain a functioning government, hold elections or defend themselves without our guidance...how DARE they.  It's OUTRAGEOUS!  They HAVE TO BE put in their place

Here's a suggestion, lets go tell a whole bunch of lies about them just like we did with Iraq and than go destroy their country....just like we did with Iraq.

That'll teach them. – mpg
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Iran and Israel face off over nuclear weapons
A quote...."Iran called for UN inspectors to be dispatched to verify whether Israel has nuclear weapons, in a heated showdown with the Jewish state at a meeting of the UN atomic agency Friday. - The face-off between the two nations came as Arab states condemned Israel for hiding an atomic arsenal, at a general conference of the 144-nation International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna."

Iran says MKO terrorist group instigated Karbala massacre
A quote...."TEHRAN, Sept. 12 (Mehr News Agency) - About three months before the Shaban 14 (August 28) massacre in Karbala, closed-circuit cameras captured a 23-year-old woman and 13-year-old youth who were gathering information about the various entrances to the Imam Hussein shrine."

Russia bolsters ties with Iran
A quote...."Relations between Russia and the United States will be put to the severe test in the coming weeks as there are growing signs that the US has decided, or has almost decided, to launch a military strike against Iran."
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Dems Eating Their Own to Defend AIPAC
A quote...."Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) made a very big mistake, at least as far as the Democratic leadership in the House is concerned. He told the truth about AIPAC's unhealthy influence on American politics:"

Corroborating Orwell & a van full of explosives at the G.W. Bridge
A quote...."Some editors find that two mainstream sources (CBS News and Jerusalem Post) are not enough documentation of the George Washington Bridge truck bomb incident. So, here's more.] - A wonderful corroboration comes from the Deputy Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal, Barney Calame, writing for the American Society of Newspaper Editors:"

September Eleventh; Should the truth be revealed or concealed? - (Google - 1 hr 17 min 8 sec - Sep 20, 2006)
Video - A quote...."David Ray Griffin, 9/11 Lecture, Copenhagen September 41. 2006 David Ray Griffin, 9/11 foredrag, København 14. September 2006  ...http://www.1192001.dk/  The Black Diamond, Denmark Den Sorte Diamant, Danmark world trade centre nine eleven konspirationsteorier konspiration 911truth WTC 2001 conspiracy osama bin laden

For more videos regarding 9/11 see....9/11 & It's Fallout - Videos
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Mystery Speculator Bets on Disaster
A quote...."A huge downside purchase of “put” options by an unknown investor or conglomerate in Europe has both investors and NWO watchers abuzz worldwide. Someone has placed a $4.5 billion bet that within 30 days the European stock market will take at least a 33% nosedive. Such an event would be tantamount to the market crash of 1929."

More on the infamous billion dollar bet.  For additional info see....Puts and Nukes
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Enemy, what enemy? War on terror, what war?
A quote...."You must be kidding me or I may have simply fallen this morning and hit my head hard enough to see visions of the unbelievable. The terrorism money laundering capital of the world is going to own a huge chunk of Nasdaq:

"In a complex set of transactions, Dubai is moving to acquire 19.9 percent of the Nasdaq in New York, placing the Arab government in an ownership position of the key U.S. stock exchange and raising concerns in Congress. As a result of the transaction, Dubai also will acquire 28 percent of the London Stock Exchange, one of the oldest and largest in the world."

See also....Cheney Fleeing To Dubai
See also....What's Good for Halliburton (and Cheney) is Good for...Dubai
See also....Halliburton Company - Source Watch

And....Carlyle sells stake to Abu Dhabi
A quote...."Carlyle agreed on Thursday to sell a 7.5 per cent stake in itself to an arm of Abu Dhabi’s government – the latest US private equity group to bring in a sovereign wealth fund as a big investor."

See also articles shown below....
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9/11 - From The History File... Meet The Carlyle Group

Was George Bush Sr.'s Carlyle Group Involved In 9/11?
(YouTube - 4 min 44 sec - Added:  July 20, 2007)

The Iron Triangle - The Carlyle Group Exposed ( Parts 1 - 5)
(YouTube - avg. 8 min to 10 min - Added:  April 14, 2007)
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

When War is Swell - Bush's Crusades and the Carlyle Group
Bush-Bin Laden connections
Profile: Carlyle Group - Cooperative Research
David Rubenstein and Carlyle Group - Bush Meets with bin Laden's Brother...
Bush Family, Dubai Ports World & Carlyle More incest than a village in Appalachia
The Bush Family, 9/11 and Dictatorship
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Recession? How About Collapse of The Capitalist Model of Society As We Know It?
A quote...."Except for a select group of corrupt politicians, powerful businessmen, media barons and pundits of the law, the rest of the world was fooled into the Iraq war. Granted not everybody believed its declared motives and a few tried to stop it, but in the end we are all paying the price, notwithstanding the Iraqi people. Donald Rumsfeld said at the beginning of the war, "I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today will last five days, five weeks or five months, but it won't last any longer than that." We are now in the fifth year of what I dare term Œgenocide¹."

Rather: Government Influencing Newsrooms
A quote...."09/21/07 - -- NEW YORK (AP) — Dan Rather said Thursday that the undue influence of the government and large corporations over newsrooms spurred his decision to file a $70 million lawsuit against CBS and its former parent company. - "Somebody, sometime has got to take a stand and say democracy cannot survive, much less thrive with the level of big corporate and big government interference and intimidation in news," he said on CNN's "Larry King Live."

Net neutrality: The ultimate argument
A quote...."This image may be not be real -- now." - posted at CannonFire

Case Dismissed?
A quote...."Sept. 20, 2007 - The nation’s biggest telecommunications companies, working closely with the White House, have mounted a secretive lobbying campaign to get Congress to quickly approve a measure wiping out all private lawsuits against them for assisting the U.S. intelligence community’s warrantless surveillance programs."

US Senate censure of MoveOn.org: An attack on free speech in the service of militarism
A quote...."The US Senate’s 75-to-25 vote in favor of a resolution condemning the liberal antiwar group MoveOn.org for publishing a newspaper ad questioning the credibility of Iraq war commander Gen. David Petraeus represents a chilling attack on freedom of speech and a further undermining of the bedrock constitutional principle that subordinates the military to democratic civilian control."

Bush calls for expansion of “Protect America” spy bill
A quote...."President Bush appeared Wednesday at the National Security Agency’s (NSA) headquarters to call on Congress to make permanent and expand provisions of the “Protect America Act of 2007.” The bill—passed with bipartisan support in August just prior to the Congressional recess—grants vast powers to the government to carry out spying against the population of the US and the world."
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Bernanke Has Snookered Us All
Must Read - A quote...." Ben the Beard has put the shuck on all of us: hard-money fanatics, Wall Street analysts, and full-time FED-watchers. He has done it in plain site. He and his accomplices have left a trail of digits, but nobody has followed the trail. Until now. And even I may have wandered off the trail."

While reading this article the name of one particular company which became infamous for their "unusual" financial and bookkeeping practices kept coming to mind....Enron. - mpg

And a counter argument....Bernanke and the panic button
Must Read - A quote...."The Federal Reserve met earlier this week and announced it was lowering the fed funds rate, the overnight rate banks borrow from each other, by one half a percentage point, more than the markets were anticipating."
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'Mandela's Dead,'' Said Mister Bush
A quote....""Where's Mandela," Mister Bush asked nobody in particular. He paused briefly and then answered himself with, "Mandela's dead." On the one hand that would be news to Nelson Mandela, who might now be pacing the floor in his home trying to figure out when he died and why nobody bothered to tell him. On the other hand, someone should have informed Mister Bush that the topic was Iraq ... not South Africa."

Thursday September 20th 2007

Hessians Redux: Blackwater, U.S. and England
Must Read - A quote...." 09/20/07 "ICH" --- - It's strange that most of our American brethren have forgotten the Hessians, the mercenaries the British hired to fight against us in the Revolutionary War. You may recall that George Washington and his small band of patriots, men who were fighting for their country, crossed the Delaware River during the icy winter season in small boats and caught the Hessians unaware in Trenton and defeated them and broke the spirit of the British regulars who had depended on the famed Hessian mercenaries to finish off General Washington and his troops."

Blackwater: Shadow Army - (You Tube - 4 min 25 sec - Added:  March 14, 2007) posted at ADE Blog
Must View - A quote...." The Nation's Jeremy Scahill describes the rise of Blackwater USA, the world's most powerful mercenary army."

Privatizing Murder
A quote...."WASHINGTON—There is no set piece more emblematic of the tragic farce that is the American involvement in Iraq than the grotesque episode of Blackwater USA and the killing of civilians in Baghdad—at least nine and as many as 28—on Sunday."

George W. Bush's Thug Nation
A quote...."It’s said that over time Presidents – especially two-termers – imbue the nation with their personalities and priorities, for good or ill. If that’s true, it could help explain the small-minded mean-spiritedness that seems to be pervading the behavior of the United States these days, both at home and abroad. - On a global level, the world reads about trigger-happy Blackwater “security contractors” mowing down civilians in Baghdad, the U.S. military killing unarmed people under loose “rules of engagement” in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and the CIA “rendering” suspected Islamists to secret prisons or to third-country dungeons where torture is practiced."

What if our mercenaries turn on us?
A quote...."The word contractor helps launder the fear and threat out of a more accurate term: "paramilitary force." We're not supposed to have such forces in the United States, but we now do. And if we have them, we have a potential threat to democracy. On U.S. soil, Blackwater so far has shown few signs of being an out-and-out rogue retainer army, though they looked the part in New Orleans. But were this country to become even a little less stable, outfits like Blackwater might see a heyday. If the United States falls into a period of instability caused by another catastrophic terrorist attack, an economic meltdown that triggers social unrest, or a series of environmental disasters, such paramilitary forces, protected and assisted by fellow ideologues in the police and military, could ruthlessly abolish what is left of our eroding democracy. War, with the huge profits it hands to corporations, and to right-wing interests such as the Christian Right, could become a permanent condition. And the thugs with automatic weapons, black uniforms and wraparound sunglasses who appeared on the streets in New Orleans could appear on our streets."

Oil and Betrayal in Iraq
A quote...."Alan Greenspan should know. It was oil all along. The former head of the Federal Reserve writes in his memoir, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.” Greenspan even advised Bush that “taking Saddam Hussein out was essential” to protect oil supplies."

First Cholera Case Confirmed in Baghdad
A quote...."    Baghdad - The World Health Organization on Thursday confirmed the first cholera case in Baghdad, raising fears the disease is spreading. - A 25-year-old woman from western Baghdad was found to have cholera after she turned up at the hospital with a severe case of diarrhea, said Dr. Naeema al-Gasseer, the WHO's representative in Iraq."

For more on this see....The Method - 05-07-07 - mpg
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Nukes Intended for Mideast? - posted at AFP
A quote...."Larry Johnson, former director of operations with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, recently spoke with American Free Press concerning the suspicious transport of six nuclear weapons from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to the B-52 base in Barksdale, La. Here is how The Military Times described the incident:"

Regarding this article see....Puts and Nukes
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Islamic nations secure IAEA vote against Israel
A quote...."VIENNA (Reuters) - Islamic nations, targeting Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal, pushed through a U.N. atomic watchdog resolution on Thursday urging all Middle East nations to renounce atomic weapons."

Iranian leader to address top New York university
A quote...."Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to address one of New York's top universities during a visit to the city for the United Nations General Assembly next week, the university said. - Ahmadinejad, who is due to arrive in New York early next week, would take part in the debate at Columbia on Monday, university president Lee Bollinger said, justifying the decision to invite the president."

Turkish investors wrap up businesses in Kurdish north
A quote...."Many Turkish investors are leaving northern Iraq in droves amid fears of a massive Turkish military operation into the Kurdish region to dislodge Turkish Kurdish rebels there.  -  Turkish businessmen flocked to northern Iraq where Iraqi Kurds have set up a semi-independent enclave which is relatively quiet and peaceful in comparison to the rest of the country.  - And to lure foreign investors, the Kurdish administration has passed legislation that makes it easy and profitable to do business in the region."
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>>> Sarkozy and his Meds. <<<

France’s uncharacteristic kowtowing to U.S.
A quote...."It began when Sarkozy traveled to the U.S. to spend his vacation at the U.S. president’s family compound to emphasize the strength of Paris-Washington ties. - After the French president’s cordial meeting with the Bush family, the first visit to post-occupation Baghdad by a French foreign minister occurred. - Ironically, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who was the cofounder of the international humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), initially opposed the Iraq war. - However, in a complete turnaround, Kouchner traveled to Baghdad to show France’s approve of the U.S. policy in Iraq, which seems to indicate that Paris may be destined to pass London in the race to be the main U.S. lapdog."  -  bold/italics by website author

You see!  Bush IS sharing his meds. with Sarkozy and Co. See article shown below. - mpg

Sarko's Nuke Offer Bombs with Berlin
A quote...."Ever since Nicolas Sarkozy became French president, he has been bewildering the German government with one controversial idea after another. The latest shocker? The new man in Paris has offered German Chancellor Angela Merkel French nuclear weapons."

It's obvious that whatever drugs the MIOC Necons are giving to Bush they're also giving to Sarkozy....there's simply no other explanation for Sarkozy's behavior.

It's sort'a fun to see the French promising war against Iran for simply attempting to enrich uranium while their president is offering to give nukes away to Germany as if they were candy. - mpg  -  posted 09-18-07
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Senate Republicans block Iraq bill [to give U.S. troops in Iraq more home leave]
A quote...."WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Republicans blocked a plan on Wednesday to give U.S. troops in Iraq more home leave, defeating a proposal widely seen as the Democrats' best near-term chance to change President George W. Bush's Iraq strategy."

For more on this see....Predictable Outcomes - 02-04-07 - mpg
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U.S. military cemetery running out of space
A quote...."OVERLAND PARK, Kansas (Reuters) - A Kansas military cemetery has run out of space after the burial of another casualty of the Iraq war, officials said on Thursday. - "We are full," said Alison Kohler, spokeswoman for the Fort Riley U.S. Army post, home of the 1st Infantry Division."

MoveOn And the Kabuki Congress
Must Read - A quote...."The US Senate voted 72 to 25 to condemn the Move-On ad which called General Petraeus "General Betray Us". It's hard to know where to start with this, because it's an episode that says so much about the US and the US Congress, so I'm just going to work through it point by point.  -  Form Over Substance: US elite discourse has become that of courtiers. What matters is not what you say, but how you say it. The fact of the matter is that Petraeus's testimony to Congress was based on statistics that are, effectively, lies. Lying to Congress is a crime. It is also a betrayal of Petraeus's duty as a general in the United States military. By lying to Congress Petraeus effectively betrayed the US."

The media and John Kerry's disgusting display
A quote...."Imagine you attend a town hall talk by a US senator. A question and answer session follows. You line up behind the other questioners. Before your turn comes, the session is suddenly declared over and the microphone is turned off. - That is what happened to University of Florida journalism student Andrew Meyer, 21, Monday -- Constitution Day, yet -- when he sought to put his questions to guest speaker Senator John Kerry. - Meyer verbally protested, which anyone would do. Kerry had the microphone turned back on. Meyer, holding up a copy of Greg Palast's book, Armed Madhouse, recommended the book to Kerry. Kerry said he had read it. Then when Meyer asked Kerry why he had not contested the stolen 2004 election, his microphone was turned off again to shouts of only one question per person. That was Meyer's first question. Meyer shouted back that Kerry had had two hours, so he surely was entitled to two minutes. Kerry agreed to answer his questions. With the microphone still turned off, Meyer asked Kerry why he had not sought George W. Bush's impeachment. That's when the campus police stormed him."

A Nation on the Edge of the Final Descent (I): Glimpses of the Horrors to Come
A quote...."Because my title refers to "the final descent" of the United States, I must begin by emphasizing an issue I have discussed in many essays. The destruction of the basic political structure of this country has been a continuing project for well over a century. That destruction has been the purpose of both the Republican and Democratic parties, and it reveals itself in two major ways: through a foreign policy of aggressive, non-defensive interventionism overseas, and by means of an increasingly powerful and intrusive government domestically."

Citizens push New 9-11 Probe in NYC
A quote...."The Harvard-educated civil rights litigator who’s seeking a major change in NewYork City government to investigate 9-11 is using a new approach to get enough signatures for a ballot initiative that would enable voters to decide whether to create a citywide attorney general."

9/11, Six Years On and Only Burning Questions with No Answers
A quote...."Questioning the official narrative of international terrorism, or of events like 9/11 or 7/7, is widely perceived as evidence of an irrational, paranoid, delusional mindset, that automatically necessitates some totally bizarre "truth" purporting to explain "what really happened."

Regarding the article shown above and its comments, see....US Support of Terror
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9/11 - From The History File...The Missing 28 Pages
Senate Amendment to Declassify the "28 Pages" of the 9/11 Report
WHY THE 28-PAGE GAP?
UQ Wire: 911 Commission Secret Mission To Pakistan
Official Cover-Up
9/11 Truth Has Already Won the Debate
America Two Years after 9/11: 25 Things We Now Know
Open and Shut - Four years later, we still have ten big questions
CIA Blocks Investigations Into Al-Qaeda's "Operational Headquarters" In U.S.
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Thousands march in echo of 60s civil rights protests
A quote...."CHANTING demonstrators filled the streets of a small Louisiana town yesterday in support of six black teenagers initially charged with attempted murder over the beating of a white classmate."

The Era of Global Financial Instability
Must Read - A quote...."09/20/07 "ICH" -- -- Wall Street loves cheap money. That’s why traders were celebrating on Tuesday when Fed chief Ben Bernanke announced that he’d drop interest rates from 5.25% to 4.75%. The stock market immediately zoomed upward adding 336 points before the bell rang. The next day the giddiness continued. By mid-morning the Dow was up another 110 points and headed for the stratosphere.  Everyone on Wall Street loves Bernanke. He brings them candy and sweets and lets the American worker pay the bill."

The Naked Fist of Empire
A quote...."09/20/07 "ICH" -- -- That ancient grudge of Imperial power is finally beginning to play its hold cards: The coming week will not be pretty. Now we know where Cheney’s secret and secure locations really are, and where they have been for far too long. He is supposed to be a Vice-President of this country – isn’t he!"

Regarding this article see....Puts and Nukes
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As the Empire Slips
A quote...."Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's memoir has put him in the news these last few days. He has upset Republicans with his comments on various presidents, with George W. Bush getting the brickbats and Clinton the praise, and by saying that Bush's invasion of Iraq was about oil, not weapons of mass destruction."

Dan Rather sues CBS for making him a “scapegoat” to appease Republican right
A quote...."Former CBS news anchor Dan Rather has launched a $70 million lawsuit against the television network and its executives charging that he was made the “scapegoat” for a September 2004 news segment on how George W. Bush managed to get into the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, thereby escaping any threat of being drafted."

Dan Rather's reporting on Osama's "whereabouts" probably didn't help either, see articles shown below....
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9/11 - From The History File...Bush Administration knew the Whereabouts of Osama
Where was bin Laden on 9/11? Bush Admin knew the Whereabouts of Osama
UQ Wire: 9/11 Commission - Lying under Oath
Bin Laden Whereabouts Before 9/11
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Peru : Meteorite, Or A Crashed US Spy Satellite?
A quote...."The aftermath of the meteorite strike in Peru just keeps getting weirder. - Reports from Peru now claim that more than 600 people have fallen ill after coming into contact with the "glowing rock" or having inhaled 'toxic gases' after visiting the massive 30 metre wide crater."

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Wednesday September 19th 2007

Machine Tools: Another Terror War Triumph for the Texas Twerp
Must Read  - A quote...."The Senate has failed to move forward on a bill to restore the ancient right of habeas corpus to captives of the Bush Regime's Terror War, many of whom have proved to be innocent people -- sometimes kidnapped, sometimes sold into captivity by bounty hunters -- caged without legal protection, often for years on end. With a few momentarily honorable exceptions, the Republicans voted in near lock-step to support George W. Bush's perversion of the Magna Carta and the U.S. Constitution. The Democrats, who soft-pedaled the legislation, making no rousing public campaign about the measure before the vote (indeed, scarcely mentioning it at all), once again saw their impotent majority go do"

Are Democrats planning still worse FISA capitulations?
Must Read - A quote...."The FISA capitulation, though, was probably even worse. It occurred when they supposedly control the Congress. They enlarged the President's powers under the very law that he has been violating for years. They gave the Bush White House what it demanded even though the White House continues to provide them with no meaningful information about what was done during all those years when they eavesdropped on Americans in secret. And Democrats passed the law in a frenzy, under the crassest and most transparent exploitation of the Terrorist Threat ("a Terrorist attack is about to happen in DC and the blood will be on your hands unless you pass the bill we dictate").."

A Shocking Moment for Society: Tasering at University of Florida
A quote...."Today’s news shows a recognizable shock moment in the annals of a closing society. A very ordinary-looking American student — Andrew Meyer, 21, at the University of Florida - was tasered by police when he asked a question of Senator John Kerry about the impeachment of President George Bush. His arms were pinned and as he tried to keep speaking he was shocked — in spite of begging not to be hurt. A stunning piece of footage but unfortunately, historically, a very familiar and even tactical moment."

Shock Therapy On Wall Street: What’s Next?
A quote...."It was another week in which the debt crisis rolled over financial institutions worldwide and people’s lives like an out of control freight train. On Tuesday, the US stock market received a gift from the Federal Reserve Bank in the form a half percent interest rate, twice the amount most analysts expected."

A Model for Congress
A quote...."The Afghan parliament – incompetent as it may be – has taken a stand that the people associated with an executive presidency are accountable for their decisions and actions. That parliament believes that the elected executive must always put the country’s interest first and foremost. When the executive fails to put the country first, the Afghan parliament acts swiftly and boldly.  -  How long will we have to wait before our Congress does the same? - italics by website author.

Untill people stop voting for the DemoRepubs or the RepubDemos. - mpg
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Blackwater can be tried in Iraqi court: judge
A quote...."BAGHDAD (AFP) — US security firm Blackwater could be tried in an Iraqi court over a shootout in a Baghdad neighbourhood which killed eight people, a top judge told AFP on Tuesday."

Neocons and Israelis Condemn Iran for Vowing Self Defense
A quote...."Iran draws up plans to bomb Israel…. The deputy commander of Iran’s air force said Wednesday that plans have been drawn up to bomb Israel if the Jewish state attacks Iran, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency…. The announcement came amid rising tensions in the region, with the United States calling for a new round of U.N. sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program and Israeli planes having recently overflown, and perhaps even attacked, Iranian ally Syria.”

When is everybody going to get it?  They're "towel heads" after all, they're not ALLOWED to have nation states, civil societies, functioning governments and the ability to defend themselves....it's just simply not done. - mpg
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Beirut Blast Kills Anti-Syrian Politician
A quote...."(CBS/AP) A powerful bomb killed a pro-government, anti-Syrian Parliament member and six others Wednesday in a Christian suburb east of the Lebanese capital, security officials said. "

It could be Syria.....the timing of course would be quite remarkable however coming on the eve of possible attacks by Israel and the US against both Syria and Iran, not to mention the continuous build up of rhetoric during the last two months regarding the pending attacks against these two countries. - mpg

Saudis quietly go about 'business' in Iraq
& A real success story in the US's Iraq: Iran
If the Saudis and Iranians aren't real careful, they could wind up being "played" against each other by foreign powers...one particular foreign power comes to mind the most.

Divide and conquer is a policy almost as old as time itself. - mpg
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U.S. Military Conducts Religious Re-education of Iraqi Detainees, Including Children
A quote...."The U.S. military has introduced "religious enlightenment" and other education programs for Iraqi detainees, some of whom are as young as 11, Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, the commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, said yesterday. The religious courses are led by Muslim clerics who "teach out of a moderate doctrine." Stone said his staff conducts polygraph tests for detainees who promise to change after undergoing the religious training program."

It keeps getting worse and worse and worse. - mpg
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History of 9/11 remains incomplete
A quote...."While I was driving to school on Sept. 11, I saw some people holding signs on the corner of Bay and Tittabawassee. I figured they were war protestors, which I've seen on that corner before. It wasn't until closer inspection - one guy ran up to my car and started waving a sign - that I realized that these people were 9/11 conspiracy theorists. Their signs encouraged people to look up "Building 7" on Google and visit the Web site infowars.com. Another sign read "9/11 was an inside job."

For a few of the videos regarding this subject see....9/11 & It's Fallout - Videos
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Bio-Mishaps Hit 2 More University Labs in Texas
A quote...."Workers at a biodefense laboratory at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston were exposed to anthrax, in aerosol form, in April. That same month, workers sent to fix malfunctioning air filters at the University of Texas at San Antonio entered a lab containing tularemia bacteria without wearing gloves or respiratory protection, according to the Sunshine Project, a watchdog group on biological-weapons research."

US rate cuts: Like a blow to the head
A quote..."Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the Bank of China, must sympathize with the plight of poor Raoul, the waiter whose good service is rewarded with a brick to the back of his head."

Greenspan: No Free Market in US?
Yes he really did say it.  It's all pretty funny if you think about it, in just three days he has contradicted every single myth ever told by our illustrious elites regarding how the US economy actually functions. – mpg

Contradictions mount in US and world economy in wake of Fed rate cut
Must Read - A quote...."Robert Shiller, a liberal Yale economist who correctly predicted the collapse of the dot.com bubble, told the panel that “the collapse of home prices might turn out to be the most severe since the Great Depression.” The housing slump would have a major impact on consumer spending, and posed a “significant risk” of recession over the next year, he said. “Low income people will be especially hard hit,” Shiller warned, because they hold a disproportionate number of the subprime mortgages which are now being liquidated.  -  Rising home prices have been the major factor in the steady rise of consumer spending over the past seven years, despite stagnant or declining real incomes. Homeowners extracted an average of nearly $1 trillion a year in additional spending money from 2001 through 2005, through a combination of home sales, home equity lines of credit and mortgage refinancing. One quarter of this vast sum went directly into consumer spending."  - bold/italics by website author.

Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright
Must Read - Some quotes...."Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East." - "The Fed's dramatic half point cut to 4.75pc yesterday has already caused a plunge in the world dollar index to a fifteen year low, touching with weakest level ever against the mighty euro at just under $1.40. - There is now a growing danger that global investors will start to shun the US bond markets. The latest US government data on foreign holdings released this week show a collapse in purchases of US bonds from $97bn to just $19bn in July, with outright net sales of US Treasuries." - bold/italics by website author

Congress Asked to Lift Debt Ceiling
A quote...."WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told Congress on Wednesday that the federal government will hit the current debt ceiling on Oct. 1. - He urged quick action to increase the limit, saying it was essential to protect the "full faith and credit" of the country, especially at a time of financial market turmoil." - bold/italics by website author.

What is it with Bushist Neocons and the English language?  Do they just out and out hate it? They spend more money than God, have the printing presses running night and day, have created more debt in a shorter period of time that has ever been seen in this country's history, and now that they've again run up against this nation's pitiful fig leaf of fiscal responsibility (for the fifth time!) known as the "debt ceiling" they're going to raise it and proclaim their action "essential to protect the full faith and credit of the country."

What is WRONG with these people!?! - mpg
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Tuesday September 18th 2007

US bans overland travel by diplomats in Iraq after security incident
WASHINGTON: The United States suspended on Tuesday all land travel by U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials throughout Iraq, except in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. The suspension follows a weekend incident, in which several Iraqi civilians were killed, that involved private security guards protecting a diplomatic convoy.

Blackwater completes the trifecta - a navy now in the offing…
A quote...." Even though they’re being expelled from Iraq, Blackwater, the North Carolina based private dominionist military force security company, is adding a navy to its already burgeoning army and its nascent air force. An invitation only open-house for friends of Erik Prince’s private military will be held September 19 and 20 in Norfolk, VA, where the ship is on display."

Who needs the US military anymore?  Maybe that's exactly the point. - mpg
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Shiite cleric al-Sadr calls on Iraqi gov't to abolish contracts of foreign security companies
A quote...."BAGHDAD (AP) - The Iraqi government said Tuesday it would review the status of private security companies as anger over the alleged involvement of Blackwater USA in a fatal shooting of civilians threatened to spread to other firms providing protection for dignitaries and Westerners on Iraq's chaotic streets."

George W. Bush's 'Mysterious Voyage' - posted at Watching America
A quote...."To 'prove' to Americans that security has been 'considerably' restored to Iraq and that his new strategy is working according to plan, he chose to go there … incognito, amidst a complete media blackout, on a moonless night, and taking care to land as far as possible from Baghdad."

George Bush, the selected and anointed master of disaster by our illustrious elites, a person who destroys everything he touches, the human contagion, the catastrophe which looks like a man, has always been a complete coward throughout his entire life and that's something he never had the will, nor the desire, to change. - mpg
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Democrats pack in their antiwar charade
Some quotes...."Little more than 10 months after winning the leadership of both houses of the US Congress thanks to a swelling tide of opposition to the war in Iraq, the Democratic Party has largely abandoned even the pretense of a struggle to bring the war to an end."  -  "....the Democratic leadership has signaled its intention to put off any consideration or debate on the administration’s request for another round of war funding, believed to amount to an additional $200 billion. The White House is expected to submit the request for the money this week, demanding that it be passed by October 1, the start of the new federal budget year." - bold/italics by website author.

Fear Factor – A Woodshop Productions documentary
A quote...."September 18, 2007 – This short documentary produced by Woodshop Productions and narrated by Bryan Sacks discusses the research of Muckraker Report contributing writer, Maher Osseiran regarding the videotape of Osama bin Laden that was released by the federal government on December 13, 2001.  The documentary also addresses the effort of the Muckraker Report, through the use of Freedom of Information Act requests, to obtain any documentation from the government that demonstrates the chain of custody of the video from the time it was obtained, through the authenticity process (if any), until such time that it was released to the media.

Drift into war with Iran out of control, says UN
War Warning - A quote...."The UN's chief nuclear weapons inspector yesterday warned against the use of force against Iran, in what UN officials said was an attempt to halt an "out of control" drift to war. - His outspoken remarks, which drew a parallel between Iran and Iraq, appeared to take aim at the US and Britain. They followed comments on Sunday night by the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, who said: “We have to prepare for the worst,” adding “the worst is war”."

Russia concerned by media reports of Iran military action - Lavrov
War Warning - A quote...."MOSCOW, September 18 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is concerned by media reports that military action against Iran could take place soon, the acting Russian foreign minister said Tuesday."

Russia, Italy warn against US attack on Iran
A quote...."Russian and Italian officials have warned against any US military intervention in Iran over the country's nuclear standoff. - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov warned of the catastrophic consequences of any US attack on Iran."

Austria condemns France's 'martial rhetoric' on Iran - posted at BuzzFlash
A quote...." VIENNA (Thomson Financial) - Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik on Monday condemned comments by her French counterpart Bernard Kouchner that the world should prepare for war over the Iranian nuclear crisis. - 'My colleague Kouchner is the only one who can tell you what he meant. (But) I can't comprehend why he is resorting to such martial rhetoric at this time,' Plassnik said on the sidelines of a meeting of the UN's nuclear agency here."

Iran cuts foreign dollar assets to 30 percent
A quote...."TEHRAN: Iran has massively cut down its dependence on the dollar in the face of US pressure over its nuclear programme and now 70 percent of its foreign assets are saved in other currencies or in gold, an official said on Monday."

Pretty soon allot of other countries are going to be envious of Iran's diversification away from the dollar and the incredibly shrinking US economy.  It appears the Bush administration did the Iranians (another) favor by trying to economically isolate them....they've been doing allot of that lately.

They’ve improved Iran's geopolitical position throughout the Middle East by their constant invasions, driven up oil prices to new highs, helped kill hundreds of thousands of Sunnis throughout Iraq, and caused untold grief and destruction across the Middle East which has resulted in hatred for the US by hundreds of millions of outraged Muslims....

Stuff like that.- mpg
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>>> Puts and Nukes <<<

Editor's Special Note : While cogitating upon two articles recently posted to Reficultnias, this editor came to the disturbing conclusion that there might be some possible relationship or connection between them....it's just a thought.

[Article #1] - Market Crash Forecast Suggests New 9/11
Red War Warning - A quote...."A mystery trader risks losing around $1 billion dollars after placing 245,000 put options on the Dow Jones Eurostoxx 50 index, leading many analysts to speculate that a stock market crash preceded by a new 9/11 style catastrophe could take place within the next month."

Editor's note : Trust no information out there, especially "tips" about the market.  This/these investor(s) could be trying to manipulate the market (after all a billion dollars is just chump change now days) or they could be the ones being manipulated.  Nevertheless this item has to be classified as a Red War Warning“ mpg - posted 08-27-07

See....Standard Disclaimer
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[Article #2] - Was a Covert Attempt to Bomb Iran with Nuclear Weapons foiled by a Military Leak?
Possible Related Article - Update - 09/13/07 "The Canadian" --- - Critically exploring whether or not there was a covert attempt to instigate a catastrophic nuclear war against Iran is illuminated through an introduction using the recent B-52 Incident. On August 30, a B-52 bomber armed with five nuclear-tipped Advanced Cruise missiles travelled from Minot Air Force base, North Dakota, to Barksdale Air Force base, Louisiana, in the United States. Each missile had an adjustable yield between five and 150 kilotons of TNT which is at the lower end of the destructive capacities of U.S. nuclear weapons. For example, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a yield of 13 kilotons, while the Bravo Hydrogen bomb test of 1954 had a yield of 15,000 kilotons. The B-52 story was first covered in the Army Times on 5 September after the nuclear armed aircraft was discovered by Airmen.  LINK - See also a previous article by the same author, posted 09-11-07

Is it possible somebody's little plan of mayhem came to naught?  One particular individual comes to mind when plots like these are contemplated.  Only time will tell what might really have taken place. – mpg
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What happens to private contractors who kill Iraqis? Maybe nothing
A quote...."An incident this past weekend in which employees of Blackwater USA, a private security firm that has become controversial for its extensive role in the war in Iraq, allegedly opened fire on and killed several Iraqis seems to be the last straw for Iraqi tolerance of the company. Iraqi government officials have promised action, including but not limited to the suspension or outright revocation of the company's license to operate in Iraq."

Sarko's Nuke Offer Bombs with Berlin
A quote...."Ever since Nicolas Sarkozy became French president, he has been bewildering the German government with one controversial idea after another. The latest shocker? The new man in Paris has offered German Chancellor Angela Merkel French nuclear weapons."

It's obvious that whatever drugs the MIOC Necons are giving to Bush they're also giving to Sarkozy....there's simply no other explanation for Sarkozy's behavior.

It's sort'a fun to see the French promising war against Iran for simply attempting to enrich uranium while their president is offering to give nukes away to Germany as if they were candy. - mpg
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US agrees further British withdrawal from Iraq
A quote...."Britain is poised to announce significant cuts in the number of troops in southern Iraq following an upbeat assessment by US and British military officials in London yesterday."

EU, stronger ties with Uruguay and Mercosur
A quote...."President Barroso met president of Uruguay Dr. Tabaré Vázquez in the Berlaymont on 18 September. The Uruguayan president's trip to Brussels and his visit to the Portuguese presidency in Lisbon and Spain demonstrate the country's desire to strengthen ties with Europe."

Latin America Indians conference in Bariloche
A quote...."Representatives from indigenous communities from across Latin America will join international experts in Bariloche, in a bid to articulate their concerns over threats to their ancestral lands."

Prepare for prolonged turmoil, says US Treasury Secretary
A quote...."Investors should brace themselves for a prolonged period of market turmoil, Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, said yesterday as he held emergency meetings with the Chancellor and the French Finance Minister."

US home foreclosures soar 36 percent in August: survey
A quote...."NEW YORK (AFP) — Home foreclosures in the United States surged 36 percent in August from the prior month and more than doubled from a year ago, a leading foreclosure data firm said Tuesday."

Food prices rising all over the world
A quote...."CORN began getting more expensive in the United States earlier in the year due to demand in the making of ethanol. That sent prices rising for corn products, corn syrup and other corn-dependent products, including milk and meat.  -  Poultry feed is about two-thirds corn and as a result, the cost of producing poultry — both meat and eggs — has risen about 15 per cent in the US due to corn prices."

Failed Lender Makes Grab for Employee Funds
A quote...."Bankrupt American Home Mortgage is attempting to seize as much as $27 million that former employees set aside from paychecks for retirement, according to an attorney representing them."

Fired engineer calls 787's plastic fuselage unsafe
A quote...."A former senior aerospace engineer at Boeing's Phantom Works research unit, fired last year under disputed circumstances, is going public with concerns that the new 787 Dreamliner is unsafe."

Mystery illness strikes after meteorite hits Peruvian village
A quote...."LIMA (AFP) - Villagers in southern Peru were struck by a mysterious illness after a meteorite made a fiery crash to Earth in their area, regional authorities said Monday."


Monday September 17th 2007

Bipartisan consensus pushes for Iran attack
Must Read - A quote...."The 2008 US presidential dance has already been decided: the winner will be a corrupt elite warmonger who will intensify and expand Bush-Cheney’s criminal “war on terrorism” into Iran and beyond, and with the full support of an acquiescent US populace. The latest rhetoric from Bush, and the candidates, spells this out in black and white.

None Dare Call It Genocide
Must Read - A quote...."How comfy we are all in the United States, as we engage in living-room debates about the US occupation of Iraq, whether "we" are bringing them freedom and whether their freedom is really worth the sacrifice of so many of our men and women. We talk about whether war aims have really been achieved, how to exit gracefully, or whether we need a hyper-surge to finish this whole business once and for all."

Greenspan Misses Cheney’s Memo: Spills the Beans on Oil
Must Read - A quote...."For those still wondering why President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney sent our young men and women into Iraq, the secret is now “largely” out. - No, not from the lips of former secretary of state Colin Powell. It appears we shall have to wait until the disgraced general/diplomat draws nearer to meeting his maker before he gets concerned over anything more than the “blot” that Iraq has put on his reputation. - Rather, the uncommon candor comes from a highly respected Republican doyen, economist Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006, whom the president has praised for his “wise policies and prudent judgment.” Sadly for Bush and Cheney, Greenspan decided to put prudence aside in his new book, The Age of Turbulence, and answer the most neuralgic issue of our times-why the United States invaded Iraq."

A Constitution to "Chain the Dogs of War"
Must Read - A quote...."Two-hundred and twenty years ago this week, the patriots who had stuck through the long process of drafting a Constitution for the new United States finally approved the document. The primary purpose of their creation was, in the language of their time, to "chain the dogs of war."

In 1969 We Already Knew What 2007 Would Look Like
A quote...."By 1969 in the Haight in San Francisco when people referred to themselves as freaks rather than hippies a rumor started that the government was building concentration camps in the south of Texas and Arizona to throw us freaks into. The idea seemed credible — the police had started to come down pretty hard on a lot of us particularly the Panthers over in Oakland. People said things like, "this place is going to blow," or "the shit is comin' down man."  The Haight was getting violent — already a lot of former "peace" people had guns. My husband and I found a mean semi-automatic in an old piano. A nasty gun that when fired had a kickback like it would jump right out of your hands."
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A Deafening Silence On Report Of One Million Iraqis Killed
A quote...."When those responsible for the American war in Iraq face a public reckoning for their colossal crimes, the weekend of September 15-16, 2007 will be an important piece of evidence against them. On Friday, September 14 there were brief press reports of a scientific survey by the British polling organization ORB, which resulted in an estimate of 1.2 million violent deaths in Iraq since the US invasion.  -  This staggering figure demonstrates two political facts: 1) the American war in Iraq has produced a humanitarian catastrophe of historic proportions, with a death total already higher than that in Rwanda in 1994; 2) those arguing against a US withdrawal on the grounds that this would lead to civil war, even genocide, are deliberately concealing the fact that such a bloodbath is already taking place, with the US military in control."

It Is The Death Of History
A quote...."2,000-year-old Sumerian cities torn apart and plundered by robbers. The very walls of the mighty Ur of the Chaldees cracking under the strain of massive troop movements, the privatisation of looting as landlords buy up the remaining sites of ancient Mesopotamia to strip them of their artefacts and wealth. The near total destruction of Iraq's historic past – the very cradle of human civilisation – has emerged as one of the most shameful symbols of our disastrous occupation."

For more on the two articles shown above see....The Method - 05-07-07 - mpg
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Iraq Expels American Security Firm
A quote...."BAGHDAD (AP) - The Iraqi government Monday ordered Blackwater USA, the security firm that protects U.S. diplomats, to stop work and leave the country after the fatal shooting of eight Iraqi civilians following a car bomb attack against a State Department convoy."

Chiquita fined 25 million dollars for payment to paramilitaries
A quote...."A US federal court Monday ordered the Chiquita banana company to pay 25 million dollars in fines for paying millions of dollars in protection money to Colombian paramilitary groups between 1997 and 2004."

IAEA chief warns against striking Iran
A quote....""I would not talk about any use of force," said Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in an indirect response to French warnings that the world had to be prepared for the possibility of war in the event that Iran obtains atomic weapons. - Saying only the U.N. Security Council could authorize the use of force, ElBaradei urged the world to remember Iraq before considering any similar action against Iran. - "There are rules on how to use force, and I would hope that everybody would have gotten the lesson after the Iraq situation, where 700,000 innocent civilians have lost their lives on the suspicion that a country has nuclear weapons," he told reporters."

Venezuela to Carry Out "Natural Gas Revolution"
A quote...."Mérida, September 17, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com)— Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced plans for a "Natural Gas Revolution" as part of a strategy for national development yesterday during his Sunday TV and radio program Aló Presidente. The plan consists of ten different major industrial projects across the nation that seek to move the country over to a natural gas energy system and promote the industrialization of the nation's abundant natural resources."

Venezuelan Opposition Leader’s Security Chief Linked to Political Assassination
A quote...."Caracas, September 17, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com)— The security of chief of the opposition governor of Venezuela’s Zulia State, Manuel Rosales, was arrested and charged on Friday with crimes relating to the murder on August 8 this year of Claudio Enrique Macías Briceño, an officer of the Military Intelligence Direction (DIM). The case has sparked renewed calls for a national intervention into the notoriously corrupt Regional Police Force of Zulia (PR), reputed to have links with Colombian paramilitaries that operate in the region."

Hamas predicts failure of Bush-sponsored peace talks
A quote...."CAIRO, September 17 (RIA Novosti) - Islamist movement Hamas said the U.S.-proposed Middle East peace conference would inevitably fail unless national unity was restored in the Palestinian territories."

Failing banks, toxic bonds and mortgage laundering
Must Read - A quote...."  09/17/07 "ICH" -- -- “The entire global financial structure is becoming uncontrollable in crucial ways that its nominal leaders never expected, and instability is its hallmark. The scope and operation of international financial markets, their “architecture”, as establishment experts describe it, has evolved haphazardly and its regulation is inefficient — indeed, almost nonexistent. Banks do not understand the chain of exposure and who owns what: senior financial regulators and bankers now admit this.” Gabriel Kolko “An Economy of Buccaneers and Fantacists”

See also....A rate cut with a shoeshine and a smile
See also....Either way, it could be an unkind cut
See also....Greenspan alert on US house prices
See also....Greenspan Says Euro Could Replace U.S. Dollar as Reserve Currency of Choice
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Oil hits record near $81
A quote...."NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil soared to a record near $81 a barrel on Monday on worries that global energy supplies could shrink to critical levels this winter heating season due to strong demand growth."

New York Times to end paid Internet service
A quote...."TimesSelect will shut down on Wednesday, two years after the Times launched it, which charges subscribers $7.95 a month or $49.95 a year to read articles by columnists such as Maureen Dowd and Thomas Friedman. - The trademark orange "T's" marking premium articles will begin disappearing Tuesday night, said the Web site's Vice President and General Manager Vivian Schiller."

Conservatism Turned Upside Down
Book Review - A quote...."It is a cliché of publishing to observe, when a book appears before the public years after it was first written, that it is more relevant now than ever. But it is difficult to think of how else  The Betrayal of the American Right can be described. Murray N. Rothbard chronicles the emergence of an American right wing that gave lip service to free-market principles and "limited government," but whose first priority, for which it was willing to sacrifice anything else, was military interventionism around the world. That sounds familiar, to be sure, but as Rothbard shows, it is neither recent nor anomalous. It goes back to the very beginnings of the organized conservative movement in the 1950s.

Britain: Foot and mouth disease strikes again
A quote...."The two confirmed cases came just days after restrictions had been lifted following two previous outbreaks of FMD and the British government had declared an all-clear. Previous cases of the disease, at the beginning of August, had occurred within a few miles of the government laboratories at the Institute of Animal Health (IAH), Pirbright in Surrey.

Sunday September 16th 2007

The Banality of Evil Revisited
Must Read - A quote...."Hannah Arndt was exactly right in 1963 when she had an epiphany while writing about Adolph Eichmann, realizing in a profound moment of clarity that the great evils in the world are not the work of a few sociopaths, but are committed by ordinary people who accept what they are told by their government and then precede to normalize whatever actions they might take. Sadly, under the right circumstances, we are easily persuaded to do the bidding of the state when it comes to killing."

Pro-Democracy Killing in Iraq
Must Read - A quote...."Thus, Huckabee is wrong to suggest that the justification for invading Iraq is irrelevant. Given that the United States had no right, legal or moral, for invading and occupying Iraq, it has no right to remain there to fix anything it has broken. The United States is in no different position, legally and morally speaking, than the burglar who has broken the items in the hardware store. After all, let’s not forget that in the Iraq War, the United States is the aggressor and occupying power."

Iraq and the stink from Britain’s Parliament
A quote...." 09/16/07 "Redress Information" -- - This is the country of the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the country that invented Parliamentary democracy. These have failed us. With the Iraq war we abandoned our heritage and unmistakably entered profound political corruption. Our Parliamentary democracy exists for the good of our country. Our British culture also attaches to it the notion of acting for the good of others. Let us not become bogged down in lawyers’ quibbles that anything is legal if there is no law against it. When the bodies pile up there must be an accounting."

Economic Crisis: The U.S. Political Leadership Has Failed
Must Read - A quote...."As the 2007 economic collapse picks up speed, it’s time to take a hard look at the performance of the U.S. national political leadership in meeting some of their most fundamental responsibilities. It’s time to face the fact of serious failure over the last quarter century."

Fears grow for British economy as panic over Northern Rock spreads
Related Article - A quote...."Experts warn that a decade-long borrowing binge has left Britain dangerously exposed to the fallout from the global liquidity crisis." - "US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson flies in to London tomorrow to discuss the worsening global credit crisis with Chancellor Alistair Darling, as fears intensify that the lending squeeze could be the last straw for Britain's buy-now-pay-later economy."

Dollar's retreat raises fear of collapse
War Warning - Related Article - A quote...."FRANKFURT: Finance ministers and central bankers have long fretted that at some point, the rest of the world would lose its willingness to finance the United States' proclivity to consume far more than it produces - and that a potentially disastrous free-fall in the dollar's value would result."

Wheat Rises to Record $9 a Bushel on Global Crop Concerns
Related Article - A quote...."Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Wheat prices rose to a record, passing $9 a bushel in Asian trading, on concerns that declining global output will further shrink inventories at a 26-year low."

It’s Not About Oil, Stupid, but Flattening Arab and Muslim Countries
A quote...."Now that he is retired, elderly, and has nothing to lose, former fed banking cartel don Alan Greenspan “has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil,” the Times Online reports. “In his long-awaited memoir,” Greenspan writes (or his ghost writer writes) that he is “saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.”

Prepare for war with Iran, says French minister
War Warning - A quote...."The world should "prepare for war" with Iran, the French foreign minister has said, significantly escalating tensions over the country's nuclear programme.  -  Bernard Kouchner said that while "we must negotiate right to the end" with Iran, if Teheran possessed an atomic weapon it would represent "a real danger for the whole world".- The world should "prepare for the worst... which is war", he said."

France's Sarkozy obviously made a deal with Bush's MIOC Neocons and Sarkozy thinks he and his Neo(French)cons are going to get a piece of Iraq's oil.  And this editor thought the French people were smart, and principled, for not joining with the US's elites in their illegal invasion of Iraq.

Then they went ahead and voted for Sarkozy who sold those principals away for a promised percentage of the oil contracts.

The really funny thing is Sarkozy actually thinks Bush is --  a) able to deliver the goods and b) that he has any intention of taking one penny from his MIOC master's coffers to do so.

Not only is Sarkozy and those who voted for him a bunch of cheap whores, they're really stupid ones too. - mpg
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Was Israeli raid a dry run for attack on Iran?
War Warning - A quote...."Mystery surrounds last week's air foray into Syrian territory. The Observer's Foreign Affairs Editor attempts to unravel the truth behind Operation Orchard and allegations of nuclear subterfuge"

Just remember as you read in this article about "officials" making "statements" regarding Syrian "WMD's" what happened with regards to Iraq's WMD's.  One day of course, as occasionally happens with compulsive liars, their statements might actually prove to be true.  Purely by accident of course and no one will be more surprised than they.

This is probably not that day. - mpg
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Poll: More Americans Support Iraq Occupation and Mass Murder
A quote...."A recent Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll “suggests” Bush “may have a little more maneuvering room at a critical point in debates over war costs and troop levels.” Not much, mind you, but enough for the War Street Journal to brag about."

Fox Gets Denver. Will Dems Bail?
A quote...."It's the proverbial boxed-into-a-corner situation. Fox News Channel, the cable network boycotted by Democrats running for president, has been handed the duty of televising the Democratic National Convention in Denver next summer. How could the cable station—which scrubbed its Democratic debates because candidates worried about bias and refused to participate—get the job of providing the pool cameras in the convention hall? The networks decide. So far—surprise—none of the candidates have balked."

The DemoRepub-MIOC-elites....all for one and one for all.  When will the people in this country ever learn? - mpg
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Berlin: 10 000 protest against the german troops in Afghanistan
Multiple Video Links - A quote...."In Berlin thousands took to the streets to protest against the ongoing war in Afghanistan. They want the german army to leave Afghanistan."

Germans Call For Troops Out Of Afghanistan
A quote...."According to recent surveys, between 62% and 64% of Germans oppose any further German military involvement in Afghanistan."

Iraqi police say security contractors open fire in western Baghdad, killing at least 9
A quote...."BAGHDAD: Security contractors opened fire in western Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least nine civilians and wounding 18, Iraqi police said. The U.S. Embassy said contractors working for the State Department were involved in an incident but provided no further details."

Is War Necessary for Economic Growth? Military Procurement and Technology Development.
Book Review - A quote...."I would like to think that the publisher's marketing department, not the author, bears responsibility for the book's foolish title. If we know anything at all about economic growth, we know that peace is among its essential conditions. No nation can expect to improve its economic well-being in the midst of a maelstrom of death and destruction. In fact, what Ruttan examines is not war at all, but government subsidies to and direct engagement in technological development and government purchases of technically-advanced goods and services. That these subsidies, engagements, and purchases occur under the rubric of "war" or "defense" is almost incidental. The military aspect matters only in the political sense that historically the U.S. government has marshaled the greatest amounts of resources for research and development in connection with military endeavors."

Yes it's true that in the long run no "Nation" can profit solely from the creation of death and destruction, obviously it helps if you can occupy a country to seize it's valuable resources as the US is trying to do with Iraq, however the elites always profit from war until that rare moment when the sheep rebel and overthrow them.

That's what police states, propaganda and enabling decrees are for....to keep the sheep in line. - mpg
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Fire in Paraguay is well beyond human control
A quote...."Wind-blown fires scorching the parched Paraguayan countryside have scarred almost 3 million acres of forest, brush, pasture and farmland, officials said Friday, forcing the evacuation of 15,000 people and threatening nature reserves."

CIS - building a common future
Interview - A quote...."(German Gref, Acting Minister of Economic Development and Trade, exclusively for RIA Novosti)

Saturday September 15th 2007

US Iran report branded dishonest
A quote...."The UN nuclear watchdog has protested to the US government over a report on Iran's nuclear programme, calling it "erroneous" and "misleading". - In a leaked letter, the IAEA said a congressional report contained serious distortions of the agency's own findings on Iran's nuclear activity. - The IAEA also took "strong exception" to claims made over the removal of a senior safeguards inspector."

Cholera infects 16,000 people in northern Iraq: WHO
A quote...." GENEVA (AFP)” The cholera outbreak in northern Iraq has infected some 16,000 people since late August, of whom at least 10 have died, the World Health Organisation said on Friday. - Since August 23, at least 6,000 people have been reported with diarrhoeal diseases in Sulaymaniyah province, almost 7,000 in Kirkuk province and at least 3,000 in Erbil province, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told journalists."

Let this be an object lesson to all the peoples throughout the world....this is what happens to you and your societies if you do business with the US's elites.  This is what will always happen to you and your societies, sooner or later, one way or the other, every single time guaranteed if you have commerce with them. War, pestilence, death, destruction and the eventual annihilation of all you have ever valued, cherished or believed in.

They did it to the Native Americans and they will do it to you....that's a promise.

Best you just do business amongst yourselves for now, or at least until the current elites are removed from power.

That of course could take a very, very, long time.“ - mpg
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The New Phrase Of the Iraq War: Bush's 'Return On Success'
A quote...."Whether the American public will buy into the concept of the "return on success" in Iraq remains to be seen. But the president might have added to the CEO-speak of the country's corporate retreats and Monday team-building sessions. - Yesterday morning, business author Joe Calloway, who consults on competitive positioning and branding for corporate clients, simply gushed over the phrase. The cleverness, he says, is that it implies there's already been a point of success to work from that will continue to grow. It's an idea perfect for the president of a company trying to spur his employees to work with a fervor completely absent in "Office Space," and Calloway says he wouldn't be surprised if CEOs and executives adopt "return on success" like they took to "let's roll." "The thing about corporate executives," adds Calloway, "is they're always looking for a new way, a more powerful way to express an old idea. " - bold/italics by website author

Over a million dead and over four million refugees....just part of the profit/loss ratio.  Their loss, the US elite's profit, makes you want to puke don't it? - mpg
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U.S. may end up with even more troops in Iraq
A quote...."WASHINGTON” Even with cutbacks promised by President Bush, the United States may wind up with thousands more troops in Iraq next summer than before the buildup of forces he ordered in January."

160 arrested as thousands march against Iraq war in Washington
A quote...."WASHINGTON (AP) -- Several thousand protesters marched Saturday from the White House to the Capitol to demand an end to the Iraq war, and at least 160 people were arrested when they jumped a barricade at the foot of the Capitol steps."

RIGHTS:  Native Peoples Score Historic Political Victory
A quote...."UNITED NATIONS, Sep 13 (IPS) - After 22 years of long and cumbersome negotiations, leaders of the world's 370 million indigenous people have won a powerful symbolic victory in their fight for recognition of the right to self-determination and control over their land and resources."

For more on this see....White Man's Burden
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9-11, Six Years Later
A quote...."On Sept. 7, National Public Radio reported that Muslims in the Middle East were beginning to believe that the 9-11 attacks on the WTC and Pentagon were false flag operations committed by some part of the U.S. and-or Israeli government."

Sadr group withdraws support to Iraq government
A quote...."The movement of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday withdrew its support for the embattled Iraqi government, delivering a fresh blow to the political process of the country. - The group declared it has withdrawn from the main Shiite bloc that leads the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. - "There has been no positive response from the Shiite alliance following which the political committee in the Sadr movement is announcing its withdrawal from the Shiite bloc," Liwa Sumaysim, head of the political committee of the Sadr group, said at a press conference in the holy city of Najaf."
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Greenspan Book Criticizes Bush And Republicans
Some quotes...."In a withering critique of his fellow Republicans, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says in his memoir that the party to which he has belonged all his life deserved to lose power last year for forsaking its small-government principles."

"Many economists say the Fed, by cutting short-term interest rates to 1% in mid-2003 and keeping them there for a year, helped foster a housing bubble that is now bursting. In his book, which was largely written before much of the recent turmoil in credit markets, Mr. Greenspan defends the policy. "We wanted to shut down the possibility of corrosive deflation," he writes. "We were willing to chance that by cutting rates we might foster a bubble, an inflationary boom of some sort, which we would subsequently have to address....It was a decision done right."

[Regarding this quote see....The Scourge of the Wealthy - Deflation / The Balm of the Wealthy - War 09-30-06 - mpg & Effective Fed Funds Rate 03-24-07 - mpg]

"He devotes chapters to each of the major economic challenges facing the U.S. and the world....", "...Rising income inequality could undo "the cultural ties that bind our society" and even lead to "large-scale violence." [he said]

Alan Greenspan claims Iraq war was really for oil
A quote...."AMERICA's elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.

"I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil," he says."

Regarding the two articles shown above

Uhhh....this editor is at a loss for words.  It can't be THAT Greenspan....can it?  they must be talking about someone else.  It has to be a typo.  Surely they meant to say Greenstein or Gerstein or somebody other than ALAN Greenspan, surely someone has made a mistake? 

Is the earth still in it's orbit?- mpg
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Japan launch brings manned moon mission step closer
A quote...."Japan today took a step closer towards its aim of sending men to the moon when it successfully launched the biggest lunar mission since the US Apollo flights 40 years ago."

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091507-092207 - links page

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