No More! How long before we act? -- Article posted at ICH
Must Read - A quote...."   When are we going to rise up and defend what is ours?  --  We have done the work. We have born the weight of the effort it has taken to earn all that has been accomplished in the communities that make up this nation. We have stood in lines for handouts, we have carried the loads, lifted the boxes, built the cars, fed the hungry, raised the roofs, dug the ditches, cared for the sick, policed our streets, and educated our children – and we have done so in spite of their attempts to control us by taking away the funds, taking away the resources, taxing our efforts and limiting the freedom to be human beings that care by creating laws and regulations that do nothing except bind us and box us into a corner so they can pretend we don’t exist in an effort to feel a little less afraid.

Liquidating the Empire -- Article posted at ICH
Must Read - A quote...."14/10/08 "Information Clearinghouse" --- “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers.” - So Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon advised Herbert Hoover in the Great Crash of ‘29. - Hoover did. And the nation liquidated him — and the Republicans. - In the Crash of 2008, 40 percent of stock value has vanished, almost $9 trillion. Some $5 trillion in real estate value has disappeared. A recession looms with sweeping layoffs, unemployment compensation surging, and social welfare benefits soaring. - America’s first trillion-dollar deficit is at hand."

A Tectonic Shift in Hegemony at the G7
A quote...."The Oct G7 meeting was a real kick in the teeth for the currently prevailing American System of Finance, ( i.e Federal Reserve, IMF and World Bank)  and the machinations of it’s aspirations in form of best laid scheme.  It marked a tectonic shift in terms of macroeconomics and hegemony in the financial channel of  Globalisation. European Union to America: ‘We don’t want your solution, we don’t want your money’."

Bush Doctrine Becomes DoD [Isn't that supposed to be spelled DeaD?] Dogma
A quote...."The Pentagon’s new National Defense Strategy statement says nothing directly about American national defense. It is a strategy for intervening in other countries, and preventing others from blocking or resisting American interventions." -- a.k.a. "Kill we must." - mpg

Beware of Big Ideas
A quote...."But if Americans need to dump the bankrupted Big Ideas and face reality, the rest of world shouldn't embrace the false new Big Ideas. American interests and values will not remain predominant forever. But neither are there any indications that there is any other global power, whether it's China or the European Union, that is ready to serve as new hegemon and replace democracy and capitalism with new models for managing power and creating wealth. --
At best, these other powers as well as other states are embracing their own variants of democracy and capitalism based on their unique national conditions, while demanding more influence in the international system." -- The best of all possible worlds....a multi-polar one. - mpg

New president won't tame executive power
Special Note - A quote...."After seven years of an administration that has recognized few, if any, limits on executive power, it's only natural that many people look to the Obama-Biden ticket to put the presidency back in its proper constitutional place. -- But there are good reasons to doubt that an Obama administration would meaningfully de-imperialize the presidency."

Glenn Beck Highlights Threat Of Martial Law Following Economic Crisis
Special Note - Contains Video -- A quote...."Like him or loathe him, last night CNN's Glenn Beck became the only mainstream media source thus far to address on national TV the reality of the situation Americans are facing with the manufactured financial implosion - the direct threat of domestic martial law and a global financial dictatorship." -- Also posted at BLN

Obama floats economic plan: tax breaks and austerity
A quote...."Economists universally acknowledge that the latest proposal to inject $250 billion directly into the banks, coming on the heels of the Federal Reserve’s pumping of hundreds of billions of dollars more in liquidity into the financial sector, will at best prevent the seizing up of credit markets. It will not prevent the continuing downward spiral of the so-called real economy, resulting in millions of job losses and a sharp decline in the living standards of the great majority of the population. -- Under these conditions, the proposals put forward by Obama are striking above all in their timidity and inadequacy in the face of the worst economic crisis confronting American and world capitalism since the Great Depression of the 1930s."

Nobel Prize to Arch-Critic Krugman Is Blow to Bush (Update1) - He who receives the Nobel prize laughs last. - mpg
A quote...."Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush, whose approval ratings are at historic lows as the U.S. veers toward a recession or worse, got yet another thumb in the eye when one of his most vociferous critics was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics."

How Chrysler Killed My Uncle - It was one of "dem dare ax-soo-dents" - mpg
A quote...."On September 22, 2007, the Chrysler Corporation murdered my uncle, Jon Kelley Wright. - After working over 22 years at the die casting plant in Kokomo, Ind., he was crushed to death by the machine he operated, in a gruesome but utterly preventable workspace disaster."
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Lacking an Accord On Troops, U.S. and Iraq Seek a Plan B
A quote...."Negotiators have been stuck for months on the question of legal jurisdiction over U.S. troops and immunity for possible crimes. But even if the sides reach a deal in the next few days or weeks, it is not clear that a formal status-of-forces agreement could be approved by the end of the year. Maliki has pledged to submit an accord to Iraq's divided parliament before he signs it -- a promise he reaffirmed last week during a visit to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric. Sistani has said he will not endorse any document without the support of Iraq's population and political factions." -- Disgusting isn't it? Sistani wants SOFA to conform with Iraqi law, his nation's constitution and be voted on through the political process, who the heck do these Iraqis think they are telling the N.R.E. what it can, or can't do, in Iraq? It's like they actually believe its their country or something.  - mpg  -- For more on this issue see....Strangers In the Night - 10-04-06 - mpg

Iraqi VP: U.S., Iraq won't reach accord on troops this year
A quote...."BAGHDAD — Time's running out for reaching a security agreement with the U.S., and an accord is unlikely before the end of this year, Iraq's Sunni Muslim vice president said Monday."

AMSI issues fatwa prohibiting long-term pact
A quote...."BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS – Sunni organization) on Monday issued a fatwa prohibiting signing the long-term Iraqi-U.S. security agreement, accusing governmental officials and lawmakers who would approve it of betrayal, according to a release issued by the association.

Iraqis are being attacked and killed for returning to their homes
A quote...."BAGHDAD — Haj Ali's family had been home for less than a month when a makeshift bomb blew off part of his garage. The message was clear: Go back to wherever you came from."

Iran: US Forces must Leave Middle East before any Talks
A quote...."TEHRAN (FNA)- A top adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran would hold talks with the United States only if its forces leave the Middle East and Washington ends its support for Israel."

Iran Focuses on Pipeline Plans
A quote...."TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran is to scrap a number of liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in order to expand its capacity to export gas by pipeline."

UN: Nearly 190,000 flee Pakistan battles
A quote...."Nearly 190,000 people are reported to have fled fighting between Pakistani troops and militants near the border with Afghanistan, the United Nations said Tuesday as fresh clashes in the area killed 17 militants."

Israel's democratic facade erodes
A quote...."Recent riots in the Israeli town of Acre have attracted unwanted attention towards its Arab residents, Palestinian citizens of Israel who make a third of the city's population. The disturbances began after Jewish extremists attacked a Palestinian man for driving during the religious holiday of Yom Kippur, when traffic in Israel largely comes to a halt. This was followed by an outbreak of violence during which Jewish mobs attacked the Palestinian neighborhood in Acre's old city, throwing stones and torching homes."

What America Can Learn from a Rightwing Israeli Olmert's Depths of Reality
A quote...."In a September 30 article in the Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronot, Israel’s incumbent Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a former member of the right-wing Likud party, said that Israel must withdraw “from almost all of the territories, if not from all the territories. We shall keep in our hands a percentage of these territories, but we shall be compelled to give the Palestinians a similar percentage, because without that there will be no peace.”

Politkovskaya murder hearings start
A quote...."Pre-trial hearings into the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya are due to begin at a Moscow military court. Four men are facing trial for their involvement in the killing. Three of them are charged with murder while the fourth is accused of assisting them."

Gas projects in Russia unaffected by financial crisis
A quote...."MOSCOW, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - The tough economic situation in Russia and the world will not affect Russian natural gas projects, such as the Nord Stream and South Stream pipelines, the president of the Russian Gas Union said on Monday."

CIS defense ministers to meet in St. Petersburg
A quote...."ST. PETERSBURG, October 15 (RIA Novosti) - The Council of CIS defense ministers will hold its 55th meeting in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, a spokesman for the alliance's executive committee said."

Russia says Geneva talks pointless without S.Ossetia, Abkhazia
A quote...."MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti) - Talks on the Georgia conflict in Geneva this week will produce no meaningful results if officials from breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia do not participate, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday."

US losing ground in Eastern Europe - (YouTube - 4 min 34 sec - October 14, 2008)
Video - A quote...."Russia flexed its military might over the weekend, testing a Topol intercontinental ballistic missile. The tests come amid increasingly strained ties between Washington and Moscow, following US ally Georgia’s military offensive in South Ossettia in August. Author and Political Economist William Engdahl says " Russia's response to Georgia's military offensive has sent shockwaves throughout the region."

Greece to buy new Russian infantry fighting vehicles
A quote...."MOSCOW. (Nikita Petrov for RIA Novosti) - On October 11, Defendory 2008, the world's longest-running tri-service defense exhibition involving about 500 companies from 40 countries, ended in Athens."
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NSA Tapped 9/11 Hijackers' Phone Calls for 2 Years - Inside the U.S.
Special Note - A quote...."I've previously pointed out that the U.S. government heard the 9/11 plans from the hijackers' own mouth. Most of what I wrote about involved the NSA and other intelligence services tapping top Al Qaeda operatives' phone calls outside the U.S. However, it turns out that the NSA was also tapping the hijackers' phone calls inside the U.S. Specifically, hijackers Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi lived in San Diego, California, for 2 years before 9/11. Numerous phone calls between al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi in San Diego and a high-level Al Qaeda operations base in Yemen were made in those 2 years." - bold/underline by website editor

Israel Companies Handle Sensitive U.S. Spying Data
Special Note -- A quote...."You might take comfort in the assumption that - if the U.S. government is spying on Americans - at least patriotic Americans are handling our sensitive information. -- However, at least two foreign companies play key roles in processing the information. -- Specifically, an Israeli company called Narus processes all of the information tapped by AT &T (AT & T taps, and gives to the NSA, copies of all phone calls it processes), and an Israeli company called Verint processes information tapped by Verizon (Verizon also taps, and gives to the NSA, all of its calls)." -- For more on this issue see also....Israeli Spying - VIDEOS

“The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America”-- Article posted at ICH
A quote...."14/10/08 ---  The Bush administration’s wiretapping program has come under new scrutiny this week. Two influential congressional committees have opened probes into allegations US intelligence spied on the phone calls of American military personnel, journalists and aid workers in Iraq. We speak to James Bamford about the NSA’s spying on Americans, the agency’s failings pre-9/11 and the ties between NSA and the nation’s telecommunications companies." -- Article from Democracy Now!

AT&T Promises Not To Spy on You... Sort of
A quote...."You would think that AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner execs had turned a page and formed a new front in defense of your online rights. -- Late last month, they lined up before the Senate to mouth principles that would, in their words, ensure that Internet "consumers have ultimate control over the use of their personal information and guards against privacy abuses." -- Also posted at CommonDreams

McCain Transition Chief Aided Saddam In Lobbying Effort
A quote...."The two lobbyists who Timmons worked closely with over a five year period on the lobbying campaign later either pleaded guilty to or were convicted of federal criminal charges that they had acted as unregistered agents of Saddam Hussein's government. -- During the same period beginning in 1992, Timmons worked closely with the two lobbyists, Samir Vincent and Tongsun Park, on a previously unreported prospective deal with the Iraqis in which they hoped to be awarded a contract to purchase and resell Iraqi oil. Timmons, Vincent, and Park stood to share at least $45 million if the business deal went through."

1 in 100 U.S. Adults Behind Bars, New Study Says
Special Note - A quote...."For the first time in the nation’s history, more than one in 100 American adults is behind bars, according to a new report."

Officer admits deleting part of record of events before tube shooting
A quote...."A police officer yesterday admitted he had altered a key document about the events leading up to the shooting dead of Jean Charles de Menezes. -- An official investigation was announced into the admission by the officer, known only as Owen, who was the deputy surveillance coordinator on the day De Menezes was killed after being mistaken by police for a suicide bomber. - bold by website editor

Exclusive: Storm over [Britian's] Big Brother database
A quote...."Early plans to create a giant "Big Brother" database holding information about every phone call, email and internet visit made in the UK were last night condemned by the Government's own terrorism watchdog."
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China's CIC May Have $5.4 Billion Frozen in Money-Market Fund  - When will they ever learn? - mpg
A quote...."Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- China Investment Corp., the sovereign wealth fund that bought stakes in Morgan Stanley and Blackstone Group LP before their stocks plunged, may have as much as $5.4 billion frozen in a U.S. money-market account."  --  For more on this issue see....Rockefeller Center Deux and the article shown below.

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Keynesianism's Last Stand
Must Read - A quote...."

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Does the bailout pass the smell test? -- Article posted at ICH
A quote...."14/10/08 "Information Clearinghouse" - -- The explanation that has been given for the financial crisis does not match up with the solution that has been devised. Moreover, the windows into the crisis offered by the authorities are opaque rather than transparent. -- The only clarity we have is that the crisis is resulting in financial concentration and that the bailout constitutes a massive raid by financial crooks on both taxpayers and central bank reserves in the US and Europe." -- Also posted at CounterPunch

Requiem for the Bailout Storyline
A quote...."It's mid-October, and the Wall Street bailout that was supposed to save the economy from collapse is a flop. -- Only two weeks ago, the media hype behind the $700 billion bailout was so intense that it sometimes verged on hysteria. More recent events should not be allowed to obscure the reality that the news media played a pivotal role in stampeding the country into a bailout that was unwise and unjust."

US government expands bank bailout on Wall Street’s terms
A quote...."The Bush administration on Tuesday announced new measures, including a direct injection of $250 billion in taxpayer money, to prop up the major US banks. The government also said it would guarantee all debt issued by the banks and provide unlimited backing for the non-interest-bearing bank deposits of businesses."
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China Is No Friend of the United States
Thank God, we can see how the US (N.R.E.) treats its "friends", how the US trys to "help" other countries.  God forbid China should consider us their "friends" and try to "help" us the same way....we wouldn't survive. - mpg -- A quote...."China has no business saving the United States, they said, and we should instead invest our money in the economy of our own country. Judging from the decision of the plenary session “to support agriculture,” the Shanghai group lost in the debate. -- Hence, a round of resignations in the Chinese government is likely to happen in the nearest future. Commentaries by Chinese officials support this conclusion. “National economy is capable of maintaining stable development,” but only under the condition that domestic demand will grow, the representative of China’s Central Bank declared on Monday. Therefore, the government’s main objective now is to reduce the percentage of exports in the country’s GDP, because one of the most important importers of Chinese exports is the United States of America, whose financial system is crashing. So what will happen now? Will China pull out its trillions and will the U.S. dollar collapse? Not so fast."

Gold Rebounds on U.S. Fed Decision to Flood System With Dollars
A quote...." Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Gold climbed for the first time in three days as the U.S. decision to flood the financial system with unlimited dollars fueled concern inflation may rise, boosting the precious metal's appeal as an alternative asset. -- The Federal Reserve yesterday led an unprecedented push by central banks to inject the financial system with as many dollars as banks want, backing up government efforts to revive confidence and helping to reduce money-market rates. World stocks rallied after about $28 trillion in value was erased from the world's stock markets this year. Commodities gained." - bold/underline by website editor -- This website editor had no idea it was that much, and this could be the result of just the first down leg in a bear market. - mpg

FY '08 budget deficit swells to record $455 billion
A quote...."WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. budget deficit hit a record $455 billion in fiscal 2008 as a slowing economy sapped revenues while spending on wars, bank failures and unemployment-related benefits soared, the Treasury Department said on Tuesday."

The stock market’s false rallies—what history tells us
A quote...."....if we consider the largest rallies in stock market history, Monday’s meteoric rise in share values might just as rightly be taken as a warning. -- Data published in Monday’s Wall Street Journal shows that among the 10 biggest days in Wall Street history, eight took place within the first four years of the Great Depression. Another occurred on Oct. 21, 1987, shortly after the largest single-day decline in the history of the stock market, the 22 percent fall that took place on Oct. 19, 1987, so-called “Black Monday.”

[British] Inflation soars to 5.2%
A quote...."Inflation unexpectedly soared to 5.2% last month, the highest in 16 years, after power companies hiked gas and electricity bills." -- It's a lot more than that, both Britian and the US (N.R.E.) governments are lying about the true rate of inflation. - mpg

Bleak Numbers Stoke Fears of Recession in Europe
A quote...."With the financial sector’s problems weighing directly on the broader economy, many economists say Europe is already in recession and will be lucky to get out of it by summer." -- Of 2012. - mpg

German Economy on 'Brink of Recession'
A quote...."Leading economics institutes believe the global financial crisis is going to hit the German economy next year. They are downgrading forecasts for 2009 growth from 1.8 percent to a meager 0.2 percent. If the situation deteriorates, they warn, a recession is likely."

Iceland shares plunge 76% as trading resumes
A quote...."Shares on the Reykjavik stock exchange plunged by 76 per cent when trading resumed after three days of closure as Iceland’s economy continued to teeter on the brink of collapse. -- Shares later recovered to leave the OMX Iceland 15 index down 47 per cent in morning trade."


The savagery of a surge that failed
Must Read - A quote...."KABUL - A bit past midnight on a balmy night in late August, Hedayatullah awoke to a deafening blast. He stumbled out of bed and heard angry voices drawing closer. Suddenly, his bedroom doors banged open and dozens of silhouetted figures burst in, some shouting in a strange language."

Marx, Globalization, and the Death of Neo-Liberalism
Special Note - A quote...."The western banking crisis is an historic event on two counts. First it demonstrates that Karl Marx is again relevant and that his analysis of capitalist society is not quite ready for the dustbin of history. Second, state intervention to save the banks and the free market from itself undermine whatever remaining legitimacy there is in the intellectual foundations of neo-liberalism, setting the stage for a new vision of the world in ways that have not been seen since the 1930s. -- Nearly a generation ago after the collapse of Soviet Marxism writers such as Francis Fukuyma proclaimed in The End of History that western capitalism had won. More specifically, writers such as him and later Thomas Friedman in The World is Flat heralded that free markets had emerged as the winner in the Cold War and that the future was one of less government intervention in the economy in an increasingly globalized capitalist economy."  --  Remember when reading Marx however the famous old Russian proverb....."Everything Marx told us about communism was false. But it turns out that everything he told us about capitalism was true." - mpg  -- For more on this entire issue see....Effective Fed Funds Rate 03-24-07 - mpg

Wall Street’s Hostile Takeover of Main Street
Special Note - A quote...."After two votes in Congress, and a week of disinformation, scare tactics, and threats, the glitterati of Wall Street have finally realized their ambition: They have managed a coup that enables them to occupy the halls of power, overseeing and manipulating the very financial markets that either make them or break them. Consider them “made” and the rest of us broke." -- Check out one of the first comments posted about the article....

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US standing in Caspian drips away
A quote...."Writing in The Washington Post on Wednesday, former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz rebuked the Bush administration for its "drift towards confrontation with Russia" and pointed out that "isolating Russia is not a sustainable long-range policy". They said much of Europe is "uneasy". Their target was Rice, a self-styled "Sovietologist", and her inexcusably vitriolic attack on the Kremlin in a speech at the Marshall Fund of Germany in Washington on September 18."

War-weary Saddam victims miss his iron rule
One should be very careful what one wishes for, the US (N.R.E.) would be quite happy to make Nuri al-Maliki into another Saddam, as long as he gave them Iraq's oil. - mpg -- A quote...."DUJAIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein was hanged for killing 148 Shi'ite men and boys in Dujail in 1982. But today, some people in this town on the Tigris say they miss life under the Iraqi dictator because they felt more secure."

Afghan talks widen US-UK rift
A quote...."WASHINGTON - The beginning of political talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, revealed by press accounts this week, is likely to deepen the rift that has just erupted in public between the United States and Britain over the US commitment to an escalation of the war in Afghanistan. -- According to a French diplomatic cable leaked to a French magazine last week, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government is looking for an exit strategy from Afghanistan rather than an endless war, and it sees a US escalation of the war as an alternative to a political settlement rather than as supporting such an outcome. "

Ishkharlo – Riots in Acre - posted at The Palestine Chronicle
A quote...."I just finished reading the news about riots and clashes between Arabs and Jews in Acre in Haaretz, the one Israeli paper that still attempts a modicum of balance in reporting on Arab/Palestinian issues. I have resisted cancelling my subscription as a reaction to the paper’s recent dropping of Amira Hass and demoting of Gideon Levy, the two main reasons for my subscription to start with. It is difficult in Israel to get a balanced picture of this inter-racial and interfaith blow-up, symbolic as it is of the entire Israeli-Palestinian and even of the whole Middle East strife"

ISM Gaza: Israeli navy again open fire on Gazan fishermen and internationals - [again]
A quote...."This Sunday the 12th October 2008, the Israeli navy continued its violent harassment of Palestinian fishermen. A fleet of seven fishing boats from the port in Gaza City initially spotted two Israeli gunboats operating in Palestinian territorial waters at 08:45. The gunboats began circling some of the fishing boats at the rear of the fleet, and demanding that they turn around and head back towards Gaza City. Some minutes later one of these gunboats opened fire with a deck mounted machine gun – none of the fishing boats were however hit."

Pakistan parliament to summon 'General' [Pervez Musharraf]
A quote...."The ruling PPP says Pakistani lawmakers may summon ex-Gen. Pervez Musharraf for pursuing the US-led war on terror in the country."

Iran thwarts Jundullah terror plot
A quote...."Iran has dismantled an offshoot of the Jundullah terrorist group, which planned to carry out covert operations in the Islamic Republic." -- For more on this issue see.... US Support of Terror - MEK-PKK-Others

Ukraine's President dissolves court for ‘wrong’ ruling - What the Smirking Chimp only dreams he could do. - mpg
A quote...."Ukraine's President Yushchenko has dissolved a local administrative court in Kiev on Monday. Earlier this week, the court ruled against Yushchenko's decree to hold early parliamentary elections."

Jean Charles De Menezes surveillance officer changed evidence
A quote...."An investigation has begun after an officer admitted changing evidence during the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes. -- The Special Branch officer, named as Owen, said he deleted a line from computer notes which quoted Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick. -- The Independent Police Complaints Commission said it would investigate."
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America’s Political Cannibalism - Posted at ICH
A quote...."It is no longer our economy but our democracy that is in peril. It was the economic meltdown of Yugoslavia that gave us Slobodan Milosevic. It was the collapse of the Weimar Republic that vomited up Adolf Hitler. And it was the breakdown in czarist Russia that opened the door for Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Financial collapses lead to political extremism. The rage bubbling up from our impoverished and disenfranchised working class, glimpsed at John McCain rallies, presages a looming and dangerous right-wing backlash." -- Article from TruthDig - Also posted at  CommonDreams

New Book: The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush
A quote...."Feral House offers this important and urgent publication of Dennis Kucinich’s Articles of Impeachment this election season in two formats: an offset-printed paperback book available for the cost of $12 and a free downloadable PDF available below."  

Judge: GOP's voter purge a 'violation of federal law'
A quote...."The American Civil Liberties Union is trumpeting a judge's decision in Michigan which brings to a halt the practice of eliminating voters from rolls if their mailing address is found to be invalid. -- Recently, the GOP chairman in Macomb County, Michigan, detailed a plan to use a list of foreclosed homes to challenge voters. His pronouncement drew an immediate backlash, with predictions that the plan would "backfire." -- It has.

Did NSA Lie, Cover-Up? Senators Open Second Probe
A quote...."The Democratic chairman and the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee have opened a second Congressional investigation into the ABC News report that US intelligence personnel eavesdropped, recorded and stored the private, personal phone calls of American journalists, aid workers and soldiers serving in Iraq."

Inside Operation Highlander: the NSA's Wiretapping of Americans Abroad
Related Article - A quote...."A top secret NSA wiretapping facility in Georgia accused of spying on Americans illegally was hastily staffed with inexperienced reservists in the months following September 11, where they worked under conflicting orders and with little supervision, according to three former workers at the spy complex."

Report: Right-Wing Pundits Use Mainstream Media to Smear American Muslims
A quote...."Report profiles 12 top Islamophobes in U.S. media, examines the rise of 'smearcasting' phenomenon - how Islamophobes use the mainstream media to spread fear, bigotry and misinformation."
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Not Enough Money in the World: The Real Monster in the Meltdown Closet
Must Read - A quote...."The myth has quickly taken hold that the global financial crash was caused by bad mortgages. This has allowed rightwing hatemongers to blame the meltdown on the "liberal" programs that encouraged home ownership among a small percentage of lower-income people (a poisonous canard that parts of the mainstream media have actually done a fairly good job of knocking down), while "progressives" of various stripes have denounced banks and other financial institutions for pushing over-easy credit on people who couldn't really afford it."

Europe Puts Online $2.3 Trillion For Banks
A quote...."European governments overcame their differences to put $2.3 trillion on the line Monday in guarantees and other emergency measures to save the banking system in their most unified response yet to the global financial crisis. -- The pledges by six countries that use the euro and Britain helped soothe stock markets, along with a promise by top central banks to provide unlimited short term dollar credits. -- The amount — pledged by Germany, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Austria — dwarfs the $700 billion rescue package put together by U.S. President Bush's administration, although not all the European money will necessarily be spent." -- bold/underline by website editor

Europe's death by guarantee
Related Article - A quote...."Through the latest financial crisis, I warned readers that the costs of banking bailouts in Europe would far outstrip those of the United States. Following from my "quick and dirty" summary at the bottom of last week's article (see  Dismal math, Asia Times Online, October 4, 2008), this article expands on the subject at some length."

Rudd moves to shore up $700b in banks - Link posted at ICH
A quote...."DECLARING the global financial crisis had entered a new and dangerous phase, Kevin Rudd said his Government would guarantee the estimated $700 billion that Australians have deposited in banks, credit unions and building societies." -- bold by website editor

Bullion Shortage and Spot Prices Tell Two Different Gold Stories
A quote...."Having blogged earlier on a physical silver shortage and the drying up of gold bullion purchases, recent events in the precious metals markets justify an update that again arrives at the conclusion that last Friday’s silver and gold price plunge on COMEX has pretty little to do with the actual physical investment demand for gold and silver."

The Economy: Good News and Bad News
Special Note - A quote...."The stock market has reacted favorably to the European and American emergency economic plans launched over the weekend, with its biggest 1-day rise ever. -- But as everyone knows, the stock market doesn't give the real picture . . . it only provides a superficial snapshot of investor mood (and - perhaps - a shove from the PPT)." -- This website editor whole heartedly concurs with the article shown above. - mpg

World May Be Lucky to Get Worst Recession Since 1983 (Update3)
A quote...." Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The world may be heading for its worst recession in a quarter of a century -- if it's lucky. -- A steep slump looks likely as the credit squeeze crunches economies from the U.S. to Singapore and panic engulfs global financial markets."

Wall Street soars 11 percent on bank rescue and Morgan deal
Special Note - A quote...."NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street roared back from its worst week ever with one of its best single days ever on Monday, as governments pledged to pour cash into struggling banks to restore confidence in a rocky global financial system. -- Bargain-hunting investors scoured the wreckage from eight days of losses that had whacked more than 20 percent off the value of the benchmark S&P 500. Health care, utility and energy stocks rose the most in what was the first day of gains this month for the Dow and S&P 500. -- Morgan Stanley drove the rally in financial shares, soaring 87 percent, after Mitsubishi UFJ Financial -- Group completed its $9 billion investment in the U.S. bank as U.S. government support helped nail down a critical deal many investors had feared could fall apart." - bold by website editor -- Well the Japanese went ahead and did the deal....nothing could better confirm the fact that things will not be going very well in about three months. - mpg -- For more on this issue see....Rockefeller Center Deux & What Ben Bernanke Said - 03-18-08 - mpg

Morgan Agrees to Revise Terms of Mitsubishi Deal
Related Article -- A quote...."The announcement came after federal officials assured Mitsubishi UFJ late Sunday that its planned investment would be protected, according to people involved in the talks. -- The Treasury’s assurances amount to another extraordinary move by the government and could serve as a model for future deals. The tense, weekend talks were so critical to the financial markets that they drew in both the Treasury and the Japanese government. -- Mitsubishi and the Japanese government pressed the Treasury Department to guarantee that if the United States were to inject money into Morgan Stanley at a later time — a step the Treasury has ruled out for now — the move would not wipe out Mitsubishi’s investment."  - bold/underline by website editor -- Still, Mitsubishi paid $25.25 per share for a stock that even after Monday's phenomenal rise of 74% is still only $16.93 per share at the close of the market. - mpg

Congress Should Bail Out of the Bailout -- Rescue for the Few, Debt Slavery for the Many - posted at ICH
A quote...."We are now entering the financial End Time. -- Bailout "Plan A" (buy the junk mortgages) has failed, "Plan B" (buy ersatz stocks in the banks to recapitalize them without wiping out current mismanagers) is fizzling, and the debts still can't be paid. --  That is the reality Wall Street avoids confronting. -- "First they ignore you, then they denounce you, and then they say that they knew what you were saying all the time," said Gandhi. -- The same might be said of today's overhang of debts in excess." -- Article from CounterPunch - Also posted at GlobRsrch

Why the Bailout Scam Is More Likely to Fail than to Succeed - Posted at ICH
A quote...."13/10/08 "Information Clearinghouse" ---- - Leaving the issue of fraud aside, the bail out scam is also doomed to fail because it avoids diagnosis and dodges the heart of the problem: the inability of more than five million homeowners to pay their fraudulently ballooned mortgage obligations. -- Instead of trying to salvage the threatened real assets or homes and save their owners from becoming homeless, the bailout scheme is trying to salvage the phony or fictitious assets of the Wall Street gambler and reward their sins by sending taxpayers’ good money after gamblers bad money. It focuses on the wrong end of the problem."

US surrenders power to appoint World Bank president
A quote...."The US is to lose its power to appoint the president of the World Bank after the UK's development secretary, Douglas Alexander, brokered a deal to throw open the post to candidates from any country." -- Also posted at CommonDreams

Icelandic Shoppers Splurge as Currency Woes Reduce Food Imports
A quote...."Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- After a four-year spending spree, Icelanders are flooding the supermarkets one last time, stocking up on food as the collapse of the banking system threatens to cut the island off from imports."


The Trojan Horses Of Our Demise: Reconnecting To The Moral Sense
Must Read - A quote...."Arrogance. Married to arrogance, ignorance can kill. After World War II, we out-produced the world. American “know-how” we said. We forgot we had conquered a continent, committed our own holocaust/genocide, robbed the natives and generations of Blacks. The Brits collapsed in the Middle East and the French pulled out of Indochina and we said, We are “can-do” people; we’ll do it! Nixon went off the gold standard and abrogated the Bretton Woods agreements that had knitted the economic fabric of the post-war world. God’s chosen people, we destroyed Vietnam to save it. Calvin’s God had made us wealthy and Wilson had bequeathed his mission to make the world safe for democracy. We slaughtered a coupla million “gooks,” fertilized the “killing fields” of Kampuchea. We crushed rebellions in Central America and Chile. We killed a million in Iraq and stomped on Palestine. And when the blowback came and the twin towers crumbled like Samson’s pillars, the boy-emperor stood on the rubble and said we would make them pay. And the men who had lost friends and brothers chanted like a deranged Greek chorus: “USA! USA! USA!” "

The God That Failed: The 30-Year Lie of the Market Cult
Must Read - A quote...."Perhaps the most striking fact revealed by the global financial crash -- or rather, by the reaction to it -- is the staggering, astonishing, gargantuan amount of money that the governments of the world have at their command. -- In just a matter of days, we have seen literally trillions of dollars offered to the financial services sector by national treasuries and central banks across the globe. Britain alone has put $1 trillion at the disposal of the bankers, traders, lenders and speculators; and this has been surpassed by the total package of public money that Washington is shoveling into the financial furnaces of Wall Street and the banks. These radical efforts are being replicated on a slightly smaller scale in France, Germany, Italy, Russia and many other countries. -- The effectiveness of this unprecedented transfer of wealth from ordinary citizens to the top tiers of the business world remains to be seen. It will certainly insulate the very rich from the consequences of their own greed and folly and fraud; but it is not at all clear how much these measures will shield the vast majority of people from the catastrophe that has been visited upon them by the elite. -- But putting aside for a moment the actual intent, details and results of the global bailout offers, it is their very extent that shocks, and shows -- in a stark, harsh, all-revealing light -- the brutal disdain with which the national governments of the world's "leading democracies" have treated their own citizens for decades."

Goldman Sachs socialism - (RNN /YouTube - 3 min 52 sec - October 13, 2008)
Must View Video - Financial Warning - A quote...."Pepe Escobar: World markets - and top economists - dismiss the Wall Street bailout."

The Crushing Potential of Financial Derivatives
Must Read - Financial Alert -- A quote...."George Soros, one of the world's foremost investor-speculators, has said many times that he stays away from financial derivatives because “no one understands them”. In the world of finance, derivatives might be comparable to the theoretical study of linear particle acceleration in nuclear physics. Such theories appear to be “understood” mainly based on current assumptions accepted in academic circles, often with little provable working knowledge of how such currently-held theories might ultimately manifest themselves over the long run in the real world. The problem with assumptions is that they generally change…often sooner than we think." -- Also posted at BLN

Europe Tries to Shield Itself From America's Toxic Contagion
Financial Warning - A quote...."Bush begged the G-7 to help fix America's economic meltdown. Like a drowning man trying to hang onto the back of a good swimmer, or like a criminal trying to bring in others to his defense, he pleadingly said "We're all in this together." -- But nothing concrete came out of the G-7 meeting, as the European countries weren't willing to slit their own throats to help the U.S. Instead, right after the G-7 broke up, the European countries met in Paris and agreed to concrete proposals to protect Europe from the economic crisis." - bold/underline by website editor
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The Next Derivatives Bloodbath: Insurance and Auto Makers
Red Financial Warning  -- A quote...."This essay is about future derivatives problems. But before we look to the future, let's recap what happened yesterday, to gain some perspective. -- Post-Game Analysis on Lehman -- As the Washington Post writes today about yesterday's auction of some $400 billion dollars in credit default swaps for Lehman:


And the Sunday Times writes today:

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Blowback from Afghanistan
Must Read - A quote...."In the U.S. "debates," it was the bleakest moment for me so far when Barack Obama said he lamented the war in Iraq because it "weakened our capacity to project power around the world." Not because it was wrong to invade and occupy a distant country, or even because it was a failed war. But because it hampered U.S. ability to invade and occupy other places. In this, he agrees with John McCain, who says the United States has a "sacred duty to suffer hardship and risk danger to protect the values of our civilization and impart them to humanity" by military might. It is a core component of U.S. political culture. You don't get to run for president without it." -- Posted at CommonDreams -- bold by website editor -- For more on this issue see....You Have a Choice Democracy or Empire - 07-24-08 - mpg

Pentagon Wants $450 Billion Increase Over Next Five Years
Inconceivable isn't it?  It will never end if people keep voting for DemoRepubs, it's just that simple. - mpg -- A quote.... "11/10/08 "CQ" Pentagon officials have prepared a new estimate for defense spending that is $450 billion more over the next five years than previously announced figures."

This Just In: Greed Is Not Good
A quote...."Last time the global economy imploded this bad, it got one helluva lot worse before it got better.  The only thing that could ever have made the 1930s look good was the 1940s.  There's no reason to necessarily believe that that part can't happen again as well.  If we're stupid enough to repeat the mistakes of the Gilded Age, surely belligerent, nationalist, chauvinist Americans (and Chinese, and Frenchmen, and Russians) are also stupid enough to launch another world war or two in order to chase down scarce resources like oil or gold.  Or food.  Or water.  -- Leaving aside for the moment any threats of world war, the only good news I see in our current economic crisis s that at least we're eighty years down the road from when Franklin Roosevelt broke the psychological barrier previously preventing brainwashed Americans from owning a government that actually helped them, as opposed to allowing themselves to be owned by a government of oligarchs who were helping themselves."

The End? -- Unlikely (see The True Axis of Evil - 10-10-08 - mpg), but it might be the begining of the end. - mpg
A quote...."The current crisis does not mean, in and of itself, the end of the long agony of the capitalist regime, which we have been under for decades. Yet the indefinite delay of its collapse seems impossible."

John McCain: I Am an Arab and a Decent Man
A quote....


Gates Says Talks with Taliban "Conceivable" - Let's Get Started
Let's!! -- However aren't "dem dare Taliban a bunch'ol terr-roe-rists and like we gots to keeeell all'dem dare terr-roe-rists"?  Obviously they aren't, in fact they represent a large segment of the Pushton population who live on both sides of the Pakistani and Afghanistan border....but the Shrub and his minions called them that, after their deal broke down on just how much the Taliban were going to charge  for those pipes the Shrub and his boys wanted to build through Afghanistan. - mpg A quote...."Defense Secretary Gates said Thursday that the U.S. could "ultimately" contemplate the idea of negotiating with the Taliban to secure a political settlement in Afghanistan, if the Afghan government were to pursue such talks, the "Financial Times" - click here - Gates said a political settlement with the Taliban was "conceivable."

U.S. Drops North Korea From Terrorism List
Some people might wonder if "loyal" Shrub supporters are a bit confused by now, the true horror of it all is they're not, the Shrub could go on national TV and in front of everyone, drink a case of beer, snort an once of cocaine and then tell his supporters to kill their own children because they're aliens from outer space....and many of them would do so because they "wuvs & be-weeves dare prez-zoe-dent".  This editor kids you not, that's how sick some people in this country really are. For more on this issue see....Mrs. Middle America - Conv. Num Two - mailing #11 - 04-12-05 -- A quote...."The Bush administration removed North Korea from its terrorism blacklist yesterday, a move that was aimed at salvaging a sputtering nuclear disarmament deal but that sparked internal controversy, infuriated Japan and drew some Republican opposition."

Robert Fisk's World: 'Collateral damage' or targeted killing, the effect is much the same
A quote...."All kinds of horrors flop on to my Beirut doormat. There's The Independent's mobile phone bill, a slew of blood-soaked local Lebanese newspapers – "Saleh Aridi's blood consolidates [Druze] reconciliation", was among the goriest of the past few days – and then there are files from the dark memory lane through which all Middle East history has to pass." -- Also posted at CommonDreams

They shot our son but they can't kill his spirit
A quote...."Tom Hurndall, 21, was a young, compassionate man when he went to Gaza in 2003. Months later, while he was rescuing Palestinian children from gunfire, he was shot by an Israeli army sniper. On the eve of a Channel 4 film, his parents tell of their anger, loss, intense grief and political awakening as they sought to bring his killer to justice."

One day in Gaza
A quote...."No one can deny that a real disaster is taking place here," he says, offering a series of grim statistics to support that assertion: 30 per cent of the population suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, 80 per cent surviving on less than $2 per day, 40 per cent unemployment. The average wage earner here supports eight people, but earns five times less than he did before the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000. Under the present Israeli blockade, only a trickle of basic commodities are permitted into the territory. With the supply of raw materials cut off, and access to outside markets denied, industry and agriculture have collapsed."

US Targets Peacemakers While Pakistan Battles American-Taliban
A quote...."Is it really necessary that we let Bush and Cheney destroy another innocent country before they pretend to leave the stage after Nov. 4? Does this Nation, which fancies itself as a great defender of freedom and democracy, intend to allow them do to our ally Pakistan what they have done to Iraq and Afghanistan? If we do not feel extreme shame for what is being done in our names there then perhaps it is true that we are something less than human, merely thinking cattle."

Time to go home, Nouri al-Maliki tells Britain
A quote...."British combat forces are no longer needed to maintain security in southern Iraq and should leave the country, Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, has told The Times."

Iraqi government fuels 'war for oil' theories by putting reserves up for biggest ever sale
Congratulations to all those Neocon PNAC'ing  supporters, especially "Big Oil" -- Over one million Iraqis killed, five million displaced and the country's infrastructure totally destroyed, along with this nation's economy and of course that little staged event called 9/11 -- but you guys got your oil....for now. - mpg -- A quote...."The biggest ever sale of oil assets will take place today, when the Iraqi government puts 40bn barrels of recoverable reserves up for offer in London. -- BP, Shell and ExxonMobil are all expected to attend a meeting at the Park Lane Hotel in Mayfair with the Iraqi oil minister, Hussein al-Shahristani. -- Access is being given to eight fields, representing about 40% of the Middle Eastern nation's reserves, at a time when the country remains under occupation by US and British forces."

Kurdish militias behind the massacres of the Christians in Mosul
A quote...."Few minutes ago, Aljazeera quoted a statement by the so called “Al-Qaeda” denies any involvement in the bloody campaign against the Christians in Mosul saying: Al-Qaeda has evidence that the Kurdish militia’s involvement in displacing and killing campaign of the Christians in order to control certain parts of the province. You can see Iraqi newspaper Azzaman’s confirmation in its headline today “Militias gunmen of powerful government parties roam the streets of Mosul chanting threat slogans“.

Preparing to fail
A quote...."Ahead of talks in Cairo aimed at national reconciliation, Palestinian factions are doing everything possible to weather the worst, writes Saleh Al-Naami."

Ahmadinejad warns of US plundering
A quote...."11 Oct 2008 Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned that Washington's financial meltdown may pave the way for a new era of loot and plunder. Ahmadinejad says the national resources of world countries should not serve as Washington's economic savior. "Washington has long sought to extricate itself from its predicaments by stripping countries of their national resources," he said on Saturday. [Well said!]" -- Paragraph quoted from CLG

Iran to Open 2 Health Clinics in Bolivia
A quote...."TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran's top diplomat in Bolivia said his country will open two low-cost public health clinics in South America's poorest nation."

Lords set to inflict crushing defeat on 42-day detention -- A small, but important victory for civil rights. - mpg
A quote...."The Government is heading for a resounding defeat in the House of Lords today over moves to allow terror suspects to be detained without charge for up to 42 days. -- Peers of all parties, judges who sit on the non-aligned crossbenches and several bishops are lining up to vote against the controversial extension from 28 days."

Russia to spend almost $7bn on domestic stocks
A quote...."National development bank Vnesheconombank will start placing funds in domestic shares next week, Putin told reporters ahead of the first meeting of a government commission on foreign investment, held at his residence outside Moscow."  --  They should simply buy the shares in the best companies, with good balance sheets, in growing markets (not resource markets unless it's distribution), and good earnings that have been depressed below their book value.  Than stick those stocks into their national pension fund.  Normally governments investing in anything can be a bad idea, but the RTS has been depressed below 60%, possibly because of speculative plays by foreign shorts. If the Russian government sticks to value investing, picks very carefully and isn't monumentally stupid or corrupt (same thing) they can not only force the speculative shorts out (within reason, this move should only be to acquire stocks at devalued prices while pricing in for the possibility of a severe world wide recession and not to impose a short squeeze), they'll have some good stocks for their pension fund. - mpg

Russian spacecraft takes American tourist into orbit
Contains Video - A quote...."The Russian Soyuz spacecraft has successfully reached orbit following its launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The crew, comprised of a Russian cosmonaut, a U.S. astronaut and the world's sixth space tourist, are expected to reach the International Space Station on Tuesday."

Russia's Medvedev observes test launch of Topol ICBM
A quote...."PLESETSK (Arkhangelsk Region, northern Russia), October 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev observed on Sunday the test launch of a Topol intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia."

RIGHTS-US:  Muslim Charity to Get Its Day in Court
A quote...."NEW YORK, Oct 11 (IPS) - In what appears to be another stunning legal rebuke to President George W. Bush's policies in the "global war on terrorism", a federal judge has blocked the government from blacklisting a Muslim-oriented charity to give the group a chance to defend itself after its assets were frozen almost three years ago."
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Guantanamo prosecutor who quit had 'grave misgivings' about fairness
A quote...."Convinced that key evidence was being withheld from the defense, Lt. Col. Darrel J. Vandeveld went from being a 'true believer to someone who felt truly deceived' by the tribunals." -- bold by website editor.  Prosecutions for all those who have participated in the crimes at Gitmo should be initiated immediately.  After they're over everyone who was subjected to abuses at Gitmo should sue their torturers in civil court to recover damages, if they can't in the US then they should do so overseas, after that's over those jerks over there at Gitmo should be turned over for trial to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). -- Also posted at CommonDreams - mpg -- For more on this issue see....The Convenient Silence of Guantanamo Bay - 05-31-08 - mpg

Public at Last: Guantanamo SERE Standard Operating Procedures
Related Article -- A quote...."One of the most important documents of the U.S. torture program has just become publicly available for the first time. This is the JTF GTMO “SERE” Interrogation Standard Operating Procedure, now posted on the website of the new documentary, Torturing Democracy. This document clearly specifies that the abusive interrogation techniques to be used at Guantamo [JTF GTMO] are based upon the military’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape [SERE] program. The document is notable for its documentation of the extent to which abuse was bureaucratically standardized for routine use."

Closing Guantanámo: How to Do It (and How Not to Do It)" by Joanne Mariner
Must View Videos - (This page auto-cycles the videos...nifty!) Related Article -- A quote...."Joanne Mariner is the Terrorism and Counterterrorism Program Director at Human Rights Watch. She has worked on a wide variety of issues for the organization, documenting war crimes in Colombia, Kosovo and Darfur, political violence in Haiti, and the interface between terrorism and the laws of war, among others. She has also conducted advocacy before U.N. bodies, briefed members of Congress and staff on human rights issues, and appeared on national media such as C-SPAN, ABC News, and NPR. A graduate of Yale Law School, Mariner served as a law clerk to Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit before joining Human Rights Watch in 1994."

The Rule of Law in Guantánamo
Related Article -- A quote...."A federal judge in Washington has struck an important blow for the rule of law by ordering that 17 detainees be freed from Guantánamo Bay. But the Bush administration is fighting the ruling to avoid having the case become an open window into the outlaw world of President Bush’s detention camps."
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The End of the Rule of Law in America
A quote...."US troops are back home in America to wage war upon the people of the US. New laws make public dissent of any kind --however peaceful --an act of 'terrorism'. Congress was threatened with martial law, literally blackmailed, into passing the infamous and ineffective bailout! The threat of martial law, therefore, is not only in the official record, it is made clear with the arrival of US troops withdrawn from Iraq to patrol US streets, control crowds, deal with 'civil unrest'. Bluntly --they are here to wage war on you unless you happen to be among the one percent who owns more than 90 percent of the nation's total wealth." -- It's not quite that bad, the exact quote this editor found is "the top one percent of households own more than the lowest 91% (the wealth of 1.1 million households is greater than the wealth of 99 million households.) The top one percent own 33% of all wealth, and the top ten percent own 70%." -- See article and also....wsj article - analysis - charts - charts - mpg

US military echelon coup d'etat = The 9-11 attack ruse
Special Note -- The author makes a very important point - mpg -- A quote...."It makes me want to pull my hair out when I hear the lame 9-11 'enabling excuse' of, -- "Where are the insiders to step forward and corroborate this? There must have been hundreds of them." -- This argument about "hundreds of insiders" is wrong on so many levels it's difficult to pick out where to begin. Being a veteran myself, I could tell you there are so many echelons of responsibility and missions that it is NOT depending on everyone in the "Chain Of Command" to know the "Whole Battle Plan" of the military operation. As a matter of fact, in is imperative they don't know! Every Battle plan is compartmentalized, as a matter of necessity, in the case of the enemy compromising a segment of the battle plan, you minimalize the impact to the whole of the operation, if it is compromised. All operators are given is the "Need To Know" information pertaining to your compartmented responsibility and nothing more."

BBC-TV: "Set up to steal it again." Is 2008 already fixed?
Contains Video - A quote...."On Friday at 6pm  and 10pm Eastern Time, BBC America will bust open the story of the systematic attack on US voters that could easily cost Barack Obama the White House. (Watch the promo below)"

GOP Attacks on American Voters Turn Desperate, Ugly and Dangerous
A quote...."The usual drumbeat claiming massive voter fraud has become ceaseless at Fox "News" and other right wing media mouthpieces. -- As expected, the assault centers in Ohio, which once again could decide the presidency, but has manifested throughout the nation:...."

The Long-Running Mexican Meltdown - The Sky is Falling on Mexico, Too
A highly instructive history lesson on how the "big boys play the Game". - mpg -- A quote...."Fury at the billionaire bail-out of the criminal class that has driven Wall Street into a disaster of 9/11 dimensions festers down at the bottom of the economic food chain on Main Street USA. It is a familiar syndrome south of the border. Bailing out the super rich on the backs of the rest of us has had Mexicans seething since the great FOBAPROA scam of the mid-1990s." -- Also posted at ICH

The Capitalist Shakedown By William Bowles
A quote...."I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started this essay on the Capitalist Shakedown that’s going on around us, totally disconnected from us even, due to some pretty nifty media work and, I might add, thirty years of revanchism on the part of our political masters to disconnect us all from the political process. -- But millions of us are affected by this crisis but without any kind of input into how it should be solved, and most especially from our trade unions, what’s left of them anyway, who have failed to voice any kind of alternative to this insanity. We have no voice with which to speak, so we are once more being dragged into a crisis not of our making. But a crisis that is endemic to the system and one the rest of us will pay for, unless that is, we take steps to halt it."

As crisis spreads, Europe points finger at America
A quote...."In the financial district of London, the pubs of Dublin, and on the campuses of Holland, people are citing reckless lending in the US mortgage market, unbridled American consumption, and a lack of government oversight for the financial meltdown that has engulfed Europe. Many dismiss the US bailout as an unwise and hypocritical move that rewards the greedy bankers who caused the crisis and breaches the ideals of the country that pioneered market-driven capitalism. -- "It seems to me that the US government supports the people that least deserve it," said Sanne Castro, 28, a student at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. "But it does prove that even the most hard-core free-market capitalists would rather turn in their fundamental beliefs than their money." - bold/underline by website editor -- Number one law: "Follow the @#$%^& Money!!" - mpg

Credit Default Swaps, the Collapse of AIG and Addressing the Crisis of Confidence
Wall Street Bailout Won't Do Much to Help Ailing Economy
Bailout managers may be buying own securities - From their own firms, it's all so funny. - mpg
Economic Honor Roll - contains videos
Subprime Scapegoats
Maybe Now People Will Take Their Votes More Seriously
Washington’s “shock” over AIG’s post-bailout junket
A Fake Banking History of the United States
Wall Street demands free hand with funding from US Treasury
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£37bn bail-out for three banks
Breaking -- A quote...."Monday, 13 October 2008 -- A dramatic rescue of British banking was under way today after the Government unveiled a £37 billion bail-out for three of Britain's biggest banks."

A $516 trillion derivatives 'time-bomb'
Financial Alert - A quote...."The market is worth more than $516 trillion, [one article puts it at $1.2 Quadillion, probably $1.3 by now] (£303 trillion), roughly 10 times the value of the entire world's output: it's been called the "ticking time-bomb". -- It's a market in which the lead protagonists – typically aggressive, highly educated, and now wealthy young men – have flourished in the derivatives boom. But it's a market that is set to come to a crashing halt – the Great Unwind has begun."

IMF in global 'meltdown' warning
A quote...."Page last updated at 03:22 GMT, Sunday, 12 October 2008 04:22 UK -- The world financial system is teetering on the "brink of systemic meltdown", the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned in Washington." -- Also posted at BLN

Escalating financial crisis gripping states
A quote...."A week after President Bush signed a $700 billion bailout plan for Wall Street, the financial crisis has deepened in many state capitals with tight credit markets and new, pessimistic budget figures that pose the biggest threat to states’ fiscal health in 25 years."

Two More Banks Closed by Regulators
A quote...."WASHINGTON (Oct. 10) - Regulators on Friday shut down two small banks, Main Street Bank in Michigan and Meridian Bank in Illinois. - They brought to 15 the number of federally insured banks that have failed this year."

European Leaders Agree to Inject Cash Into Banks
A quote...."PARIS — European financial and political leaders agreed late Sunday to a plan that would inject billions of euros into their banks in a bid to restore confidence to the teetering financial system."

Gold: The T-Bone Steak Indicator
A quote...."With gold, one has to think about confiscation. There are storage costs, and it pays no interest. One pays a small spread in buying and selling it. One has to think about its price being fixed by fiat, which is a form of confiscation. Its great virtue is that it maintains the purchasing power of one’s wealth, as long as it is not confiscated. Buying gold anonymously would be ideal so as to avoid seizure. -- With many other real assets, there are higher transactions costs. With diamonds, one buys at retail and sells at wholesale. The spread is large. One has to pay taxes on land. Paper assets such as stocks and bonds have low transactions costs and pay a return. Storage costs are very low. These are distinct advantages."