MPG'S DAILY RAPSHEET AND BLOTTER  ON THE "GREAT GAME"  --  11-12-08  to  11-18-08  links page

@ www.reficultnias.org
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Editor's note : From now on each weekly blog page will have several items culled from the past called  "9/11 - From The History File" : It's for those who didn't know, and also for those who forgot....or are trying to forget.

Editor's note - War Update, War Alert, War Warning, Red War Warning and War Imminent - refer to articles regarding the upcoming war with Iran.  In the order they appear as shown above, they  represent less serious to more serious possible threats of war. - mpg

As of 08-08-08 a new category of war warning will be included, the above warnings will have the prefix (WWIII) added to them to indicate the possible outbreak of greater hostilities. - mpg
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Tuesday November 18th 2008 - links page

Technical Economic Indicators Worsening Again  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/11/technical-economic-indicators-worsening.html
Financial Alert -- A quote....
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Hedge Funds Got Shellacked Again in October  ---  http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/11/hedge-funds-got-shellacked-again-in.html
A quote...."September was a world-class bad month in Hedgistan, and it looks as if October has been no kinder. With continued losses at many funds and investors increasingly leery of risk, the thinning of this herd will continue."
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US October producer prices fall by record 2.8 pct  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN1752043320081118
Some quotes...."WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - U.S. producer prices declined by a record 2.8 percent in October after energy prices slumped, government data on Tuesday showed, but a key measure of core inflation at the farm and factory gate rose by more than forecast." -- "Core producer prices excluding food and energy costs rose by 0.4 percent in October, versus expectations for a 0.1 percent increase, and were up 4.4 percent over the last 12 months, the steepest increase since 1989." -- bold/underline by website editor

Unsold Goods Piling Up at Long Beach  ---  http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/11/unsold-goods-piling-up-at-long-beach.html
A quote...."It's always a bit dangerous to generalize from one data point, even if if it is a big data point, like Long Beach, one of America's most active commercial ports. Nevertheless, the New York Times uses it to present a vivid image of the economic, and in particular, trade slowdown."
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Oil price decline shrinks U.S. trade deficit  ---  http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/14/business/14econ.php
A quote...."A pair of U.S. government reports released Thursday showed continuing signs of weakness in the economy. -- A decline in crude oil prices helped to narrow the United States trade deficit in September, but both imports and exports fell sharply." -- bold by website editor
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Government Can't Handle Global Run On Gold Coins  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2313-0-13-13--.html
A quote...."Even as the price of the precious metal itself comes under pressure along with commodities like oil and copper, people around the world are demanding so many of the valuable coins that government mints are having difficulty filling orders." -- Editor's Note:  Deflation is not good for gold....currency devaluation is. It's your guess, and it's your money. - mpg
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Banker Manipulation Of Gold And Silver Prices Further Exposed  ---  http://infowars.net/articles/november2008/181108gold.htm
A quote...."Commodities experts are in agreement that the price of gold and silver is being manipulated by bankers and government officials in order to halt a mass abandonment of paper currencies and the debt based economy."
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Home builders distraught over economic crisis
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/home-builders-mood-shows-more/story.aspx?guid=%7B799BEFE8-54F4-47DA-BE23-E5F9FC01FA3E%7D
A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. home builders have never been as anguished about their industry as they were in early November, with their monthly market index gauge plunging five points to a record low 9, the National Association of Home Builders reported Tuesday."
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Monday November 17th 2008

Ex-CIA Officials Tied to Rendition Program and Faulty Iraq Intel Tapped to Head Obama’s Intelligence Transition Team
  ---  http://i2.democracynow.org/2008/11/17/obama_taps_ex_cia_officials_tied
Special Note - A quote...."John Brennan and Jami Miscik, both former intelligence officials under George Tenet, are leading Barack Obama’s review of intelligence agencies and helping make recommendations to the new administration. Brennan has supported warrantless wiretapping and extraordinary rendition, and Miscik was involved with the politicized intelligence alleging weapons of mass destruction in the lead-up to the war on Iraq. We speak with former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman and Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights. [includes rush transcript]"
||  Real Video Stream  ||  ---  http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/nov/video/dnB20081117a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=42:09
||  Real Audio Stream  ||  ---  http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/nov/audio/dn20081117.ra&proto=rtsp&start=42:09
||  MP3 Download  ||  ---  http://media.libsyn.com/media/democracynow/dn2008-1117-1.mp3
||  More…  ||  ---  http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/17/stream
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Kissinger backs [Calamity] Clinton for top US cabinet job  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2295-0-15-15--.html
It's like being endorsed by Joseph Mengele, or Attila the Hun or Genghis Khan....Hillary must be so proud right now. - mpg -- Henry Kissinger, the former senior US [NRE] statesman, [mass-murderer] yesterday gave his firm backing to Hillary Clinton as the next US Secretary of State in the forthcoming DemocratsRepub administration."
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Hillary Clinton to accept Obama's offer of secretary of state job  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/17/hillary-clinton-secretary-of-state
Special Note - Ugh!  Retch!  "Calamity Condi" gets to pass the torch she's used to incinerate so many innocents into "Calamity Clinton's" hands so the NRE's traditions of sparing absolutely no one may continue unabated. - mpg -- A quote...."Hillary Clinton plans to accept the job of secretary of state offered by Barack Obama..."
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2 DemocratsRepubs  to Submit Compromise on Lieberman  ---  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/17/AR2008111703217.html
Special Note - A quote...."Connecticut Senator would be sanctioned for backing GOP ticket but could keep key committee post"  -- "Senators and aides said yesterday that Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.) and Ken Salazar (Colo.) will present a plan at a caucus meeting that would strip Lieberman of a low-profile subcommittee chairmanship, possibly one on global warming." -- OH MY GAWD!!  What a terrible thing to do to the poor guy, stripping him of his chairmanship on global warming....how cruel can they possibly be.  Lieberman should just retire now, it's all over for him, after all, if things keep going on the way they are....the Demos might even begin to use HARSH language against him. It simply doesn’t even bare thinking about. - mpg
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DemocratsRepubs Cover Up Bush Era War Crimes  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/11/democrats-cover-up-bush-era-war-crimes.html
Special Note - A quote...."The Associated Press writes:

"Two Obama advisers said there's little—if any—chance that the incoming president's Justice Department will go after anyone involved in authorizing or carrying out interrogations that provoked worldwide outrage."

And when Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy was asked if Bush officials could face war crimes, he responded: 

"In the United States, no. These things are not going to happen."

also posted at GlobRsrch   ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11016
& WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/181426
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Vigilante Man: Crime Without End, Amen  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1646-vigilante-man-crime-without-end-amen.html
Special Note - A quote...."The Iraq War? Illegal. Who says so? The former top law lord of America's main ally in the invasion and occupation. What does it mean?  It means that the whole mass-murdering operation was, has been, and remains a damnable crime against humanity by any and all legal standards, even those of the invading countries themselves.  (To say nothing of the moral abomination involved). -- And from this, what follows? Nothing. No prosecutions. No justice for the victims, no punishment for the murder bosses -- some of whom are already slithering across the bloodsoaked corridors of the imperial courts to join the circles of power again. The rest are leisurely packing their bags for a cozy, coddled, easy retirement -- while their corporate cronies continue to feast on the blood money of the soon-to-be-augmented war machine. -- But who cares about all that! Wonder what kind of puppy the Obamas are gonna get? Wonder what they're gonna name it? And do ya think Obama really will get the NCAA to bring in a football playoff? Glorioski, ain't it a grand time to be alive?" -- For more on this issue see....They Won - 07-20-08 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/thewon-blog-mpg-072008
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Top judge: US and UK acted as 'vigilantes' in Iraq invasion  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/18/iraq-us-foreign-policy
A quote...."
"For the effect of acting unilaterally was to undermine the foundation on which the post-1945 consensus had been constructed: the prohibition of force (save in self-defence, or perhaps, to avert an impending humanitarian catastrophe) unless formally authorised by the nations of the world empowered to make collective decisions in the security council ..."  --  "The moment a state treated the rules of international law as binding on others but not on itself, the compact on which the law rested was broken, Bingham argued. Quoting a comment made by a leading academic lawyer, he added: "It is, as has been said, 'the difference between the role of world policeman and world vigilante'." -- *Lord Thomas Bingham* -- Lord Bingham became Master of the Rolls in 1992, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales in 1996 and finally Senior Law Lord 2000 - 2008 -- For more on this issue see....Chopping Down the Forest - One Law at a Time - 08-13-08 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/choppingdowntheforest-blog-mpg-081308
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A Pact With The [Nameless One] - posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21249.htm
A quote...."WASHINGTON - The big bang is not that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's majority Shi'ite/Kurdish 37-member cabinet in Baghdad has approved the draft of a security pact with the George W Bush (and Barack Obama) administrations allowing the US military to stay in Iraq for three more years; it's that the 30-strong Sadrist bloc will move heaven and Earth - including massive nationwide protests - to bloc the pact in the Iraqi National Assembly." -- also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/181386
& AsiaTimes  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JK18Ak01.html
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Still Aspirational? US Doesn’t See 2011 Pact “Deadline” as Firm - posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://news.antiwar.com/2008/11/17/still-aspirational-us-doesnt-see-2011-pact-deadline-as-firm/
Special Note -- A quote...."As the Iraqi parliament debates the final draft of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States one of the key revisions which has quelled some (though not all) discontent with the deal was to remove a clause which explicitly left open the possibility of keeping US forces in the nation beyond 2011. The SOFA just covers the rules of US troops operating in Iraq from 2009-2011, and even without the clause nothing would prevent a future deal keeping the troops there past the scope of the SOFA, but somehow removing the clause made the date seem more firm."  --  "At least that’s the Iraqi perspective. White House press secretary Dana Perino is still describing the so-called firm timeline as “aspirational dates,” while Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen said a 2011 US pullout would be “conditions-based,” while conceding that “conditions could change in that period of time.

"Sounds like the American Indians all over again.  No deal, no agreement, no contract, no promise signed by anyone in this current government is worth the paper it's written on.  If you do any sort of deal with the members of this administration you're simply asking for trouble." -- posted 12-29-06 -- *mpg*

"To repeat oneself ad nauseam....no statement, no agreement, no promise, no guarantee, no assurance, no word, no contract ever signed by, or stated by, that thing in the White House has ever proved true or binding upon "it". -- "It" is incapable of knowing right from wrong, "it"  is akin to a machine and simply performs "it's" functions according to the scripts "it's" been given. "It" is simply a container of evil and cannot be considered to have any human attributes at all, "it" has no free will nor has "it" ever demonstrated a desire to have such freedom.   The only certainty regarding "it's" behavior is that "it" will continue to serve "it's" master with a limitless capacity for mendacity." -- posted 02-03-07 -- *mpg*
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Dozen Juveniles at Guantanamo Bay  ---  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hlmzPFxcK48Thfd02KEIrLEcwUUA
Full quote...."The number of juveniles held at Guantanamo Bay was revised upwards by US military officials. Twelve juvenile detainees have been held at the US camp on Cuba, up from eight reported in May to a United Nations committee on child rights, the Pentagon said. Pentagon spokesman Jeffrey Gordon, a Navy commander, said many of the juveniles did not know their own birth date and the US did not intentionally misrepresent the number of detainees under the age of 18. He said the UN has been informed of the correction. Rights groups said it was important for the US military knows the real age of those it detains because juveniles are entitled to special protection under international laws."
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'Corporate Prisons': the GOP's Formula for More Crime, Declining Education, and Slave Labor
  ---  http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2008/11/corporate-prisons-gops-formula-for-more.html
Special Note - A quote...."...by year's end 1999, there were 706,600 Texans in prison, jail, parole or probation on any given day. In a state with 14 million adults, this meant that 5% of adult Texans, or 1 out of every 20, are under some form of criminal justice supervision. The scale of what is happening in Texas is so huge, it is difficult to contrast the size of its criminal justice systems to the other states' systems it dwarfs:"
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Iraqi and American Critics of Security Pact Speak Up  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/world/middleeast/18iraq.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
A quote...."BAGHDAD — Iraqi and American critics of a security agreement governing American troops in Iraq voiced their objections on Monday, a day after the Iraqi cabinet approved the pact and sent it to Parliament for ratification. -- In Iraq, opposition has created an unlikely association between the followers of the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, who rejected the agreement out of hand, and some Sunni politicians, including ones who support the deal but are trying to wrest concessions from the Iraqi government."
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Operation Enduring Disaster - Breaking with Afghan Policy  ---  http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175003/tariq_ali_flight_path_to_disaster_in_afghanistan
A quote...."Washington's hawks will argue that, while bad, the military situation is, in fact, still salvageable. This may be technically accurate, but it would require the carpet-bombing of southern Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan, the destruction of scores of villages and small towns, the killing of untold numbers of Pashtuns and the dispatch to the region of at least 200,000 more troops with all their attendant equipment, air, and logistical support. The political consequences of such a course are so dire that even Dick Cheney, the closest thing to Dr. Strangelove that Washington has yet produced, has been uncharacteristically cautious when it comes to suggesting a military solution to the conflict." -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/17
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The Real Goal of Israel's Blockade - posted at CounterPunch  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/
  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/cook11172008.html
A quote...."The latest tightening of Israel's chokehold on Gaza – ending all supplies into the Strip for more than a week – has produced immediate and shocking consequences for Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants. -- The refusal to allow in fuel has forced the shutting down of Gaza's only power station, creating a blackout that pushed Palestinians bearing candles on to the streets in protest last week. A water and sanitation crisis are expected to follow."
 Also posted at AntiWar   ---  http://www.antiwar.com/orig/cook.php?articleid=13780
&
CounterCurrents  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/cook171108.htm
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Olmert orders plans drawn up for massive offensive against Gaza - link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=97756
A quote...."OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Interim Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert accused Hamas on Sunday of "shattering" the Gaza truce after two rockets hit Israel, which the Jewish state followed with an air strike that killed four Palestinian resistance fighters. However, Olmert, who made the comments at a weekly Israeli Cabinet meeting, did not mention the initial Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip on November 5 that killed seven Hamas members."
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Official: Israel prevents 15 medicine-laden trucks into Gaza - link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/17/content_10368375.htm
A quote...."GAZA, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Israel on Sunday prevented 15 trucks loaded with different kinds of medicines from passing through one of Gaza Strip crossings, a Palestinian health ministry official said."
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IAEA chief confirms traces of uranium found at Syria site - link posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038177.html
Yeah, it's called Aerosolized US-NRE Depleted Uranium. Most of the Gulf is now covered with it. The stupid idiots should just check the prevailing wind patterns!- mpg -- A quote...."International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammed ElBaradei confirmed for the first time on Monday that samples taken from a Syrian site bombed by Israel last year, suspected to have been a nuclear facility, contained traces of uranium."
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U.S. Loses Ruling on Hatfill - link posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/17/AR2008111701871_pf.html
A quote...."A federal judge ordered the Justice Department yesterday to release documents that explain why investigators suspected Steven J. Hatfill in the 2001 anthrax mailings. Hatfill has since been exonerated. -- U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered the Justice Department to make public affidavits and related records used to persuade judges to allow federal agents to search Hatfill's property. He also ruled that the government must disclose similar records involving Hatfill's girlfriend."
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AP Decries Army Photoshopping - link posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://www.cjr.org/the_kicker/ap_weighs_in_on_army_photoshop.php
Special Note -- A quote...."Late Friday night, the Associated Press published an article discussing the digitally altered photos of Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody that had been issued to the media by the Defense Department. The article announced that the AP will no longer use Defense-issued photographs.....

"AP said that adjusting photos and other imagery, even for aesthetic reasons, damages the credibility of the information distributed by the military to news organizations and the public." -- For more on this issue see....Fake Intel / Propaganda
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/fakeintell-weblist-mpg-090206
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Georgia's rearguard action in face of Amnesty report
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/georgias-rearguard-action-in-face-of-amnesty-report-1023110.html
A quote...."Fresh witness accounts have undermined Georgia's portrayal of its onslaught on the breakaway territory of South Ossetia as a purely defensive operation, and prompted authorities to launch a fightback to counter allegations that it is rewriting the history of its six-day war with Russia."
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Estonian Spy Scandal Shakes NATO and EU  ---  http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,590891,00.html
A quote...."For years an Estonian government official has apparently been collecting the most intimate secrets of NATO and the EU -- and passing them on to the Russians. The case is a disaster for Brussels."
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Merchant of Death - Thai prison interview  ---  http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/33416
Interview - Contains Videos -- A quote...."

"Johan Peleman, a UN investigator, never met me and is unable to separate reality from fiction. My case in the book “Merchant of Death” seems to be based on a Hollywood movie, rather than documents and facts,” -- *Viktor Bout* -- The move he's talking about is "Lord of War", see below....

This case is interesting because Viktor Bout   ---  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Bout  ---  (a character who was modeled after him was played by Nicholas Cage in the movie Lord of War)  ---  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_War  ---  has done business with just about everyone, much of it with "agencies" in the US (NRE) and also supposedly with the Taliban and al-Qaeda (al-CIA-da).  Nobody wants him talking, if he’s not released somehow he may just suffer a “tragic accident”. - mpg -- For more on this issue see....US Support of Terror
   ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussupportofterror-weblist-mpg-090306  ---  posted 11-05-08
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Pak accuses US of pushing it closer to bankruptcy - He who sups with the [Nameless One].....
  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2297-0-13-13--.html
A quote....Pakistan has accused the United States of pushing it closer to bankruptcy by witholding up to 1 billion dollar in aid in military contributions despite the country's efforts to fight terrorism."
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The G-20 Washout - posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21252.htm
Must Read - A quote...."November 17, 2008 "Information Clearinghouse" -- As expected, the G-20 Economic Summit in Washington turned out to be a total bust. None of the problems which have pushed the global economy to the brink of disaster were resolved and none of the main players who gamed the system with their toxic securities were held accountable. Instead, the visiting dignitaries gorged themselves on stuffed quail and roast rack of lamb before settling on a toothless "Statement on Financial Markets" which accomplished absolutely nothing. The one noteworthy clause in the entire document is a two paragraph indictment of the United States as the perpetrator of the financial crisis. At least they got that right."
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MERCOSUR to Discuss Financial Crisis Mitigation
  ---  http://www.plenglish.com/Article.asp?ID=%7BBA97C50C-AC8E-4848-81DA-0A3A570F1803%7D&language=EN
De-Couple, it should be the mantra of every supra-national economic organization out there!! De-Couple immediately from the sucking, black, voracious, maelstrom of darkness and corruption that has become the US-NRE's crime-syndicate excuse for an economy. - mpg -- A quote...."Montevideo, Nov 16 (Prensa Latina) The Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) will hold a Meeting of Reflection on the global financial and economic crisis here on Monday, according to sources from MERCOSUR Permanent Committee." -- also posted at BLN
  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2298-0-13-13--.html
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America Taking the 2 Steps Which Lead to Bankruptcy  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/11/america-taking-2-steps-which-lead-to.html
A quote...."Companies [& countries] go bankrupt when they:

    (1) Borrow more than they should; and
    (2) Have to pay their creditors more and more interest to loan them money.

Website Editor's Note: - a.k.a. "California Bankruptcy"  [def. -- a formally stable economic condition wherein an entity has assumed enormous amounts (called “living beyond one’s means”) of debt (i.e. principal) way beyond it’s ability to ever pay (usually the entity never had any such intention in the first place) but has now reached an unstable economic condition (commonly called “a crisis”) wherein the entity can't even pay the interest it owes.] - mpg
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Financial Crisis Tab Already In The Trillions  ---  http://www.cnbc.com/id/27719011
A quote...."Given the speed at which the federal government is throwing money at the financial crisis, the average taxpayer, never mind member of Congress, might not be faulted for losing track. -- CNBC, however, has been paying very close attention and keeping a running tally of actual spending as well as the commitments involved. -- Try $4.28 trillion dollars. That's $4,284,500,000,000 and more than what was spent on WW II, if adjusted for inflation, based on our computations from a variety of estimates and sources*."
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Freddie Mac May Need $50 Billion From Feds Next Year
  ---  http://www.usnews.com/blogs/the-home-front/2008/11/17/freddie-mac-may-need-50-billion-from-feds-next-year.html?s_cid=et-1117
A quote...."Government-controlled mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac hit up Hank Paulson for $14 billion last week after posting a huge quarterly loss. In a research report issued Monday, FBR Capital Markets analyst Paul Miller says that Treasury can expect additional requests next year:"
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The no-think nation - The Crisis Has Hardly Begun  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-no-think-nation--The-by-Paul-Craig-Roberts-081117-725.html
A quote...."What we are talking about here is a minimum budget deficit of $2 trillion.  The US has never had to finance a deficit of this magnitude.  Where is the money coming from? -- The US Treasury doesn't have any money, and neither do Americans, who have lost up to half of their savings and retirement funds and are up to their eyeballs in mortgage and consumer debt.  And unemployment is rising. -- There are only two sources of financing: foreign creditors and the printing press."
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Inhofe: “No Way Of Knowing” Where Bailout Money Has Gone -- http://www.prisonplanet.com/inhofe-no-way-of-knowing-where-bailout-money-has-gone.html
A quote...."Senator Jim Inhofe has slammed the continued secrecy behind where the bailout money has gone, saying that Hank Paulson could have given it to his friends and that the “blank check” must be cancelled now."
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Don't expect another Fed reduction
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Dont-expect-another-Fed-reduction/story.aspx?guid=%7B115E7EF9-9414-43F9-885D-8F69D81CCD7B%7D
Special Note - Financial Alert - A quote...."PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. (MarketWatch) -- The actual rate at which overnight funds are changing hands these days is only 1/4%, far below the Federal Reserve's intended rate of 1%." -- The Fed's almost going negative! - mpg
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Australia: Retirement savings decimated as stock market plummets  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2008/nov2008/supe-n18.shtml
A quote...."Hundreds of thousands of Australian retirees are beginning to feel the impact of the privatisation, over the past two decades, of their superannuation and life savings. According to a leading financial data supplier, a staggering $1 billion per day was wiped off the value of Australian superannuation assets during October’s stock market plunge and November is shaping up to be even worse." -- For more on this issue see....White Man's Burden - 12-20-06 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/whitemansburden-blog-mpg-122006.html
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High dynamic range (HDR) photography  ---  http://www.magazine13.com/arts/high-dynamic-range-hdr-photography.html
For those interested in photography. - mpg
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Sunday November 16th 2008 - links page

Predictable Disaster of George W. Bush  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/111608.html
Must Read - A quote...." So, with a smirk on his face, President Bush explained the predicament that the United States and the world face after eight years of his incompetence and mismanagement – teetering on the edge of a catastrophe “greater than the Great Depression.” -- Yet what is remarkable about American news coverage of this extraordinary moment – and Bush’s strangely light-hearted comment at the end of the Nov. 15 global economic summit – is how little blame is being laid specifically at Bush’s door."
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Bush Revisionism: “Good Guy, Bad People”  ---  http://www.changeany1thing.com/political/bush-revisionism-good-guy-bad-people/
A quote...."In case you hadn’t noticed, the transmutation from Cowboy Bush into “Kindler Gentler” Bush is underway.  CNNPolitics.com has an interview with a contrite and - believe it or not - likable president where he admits regrets over “saying some things I shouldn’t have said:”
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Veterans Occupy National Archives  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/37704
A quote...."UPDATE 4 p.m. Saturday: Activists plan to remain through Monday morning at least, if not longer. They lost the really big "Arrest Bush and Cheney" banner to wind but have a smaller version and still have the "We Will Not Be Silent" Banner. The Archives security chief, Mr. Adams, spoke with Elliott Adams of Veterans for Peace and offered to not press charges if they left and threatened to have arrest warrants issued for them all in 2 or 3 weeks if they did not get down immediately. They chose to stay, and Elaine Brower of Military Families Speak Out got on the PA system to announce their intention to make sure that Bush and Cheney are arrested for murder. She told her son's story and began reading the names of the dead...."

Ain't going to happen of course, the only "change" that's going to happen under our new Emperor regarding all the demonstrations against the war, all the talk of righteous retribution and all the planned investigations, is that they'll all just be allowed to slowly whither away.  Judging from the many articles seen on the mass-infotainment-media and sites like OpEdNews and BuzzFlash the most important thing now is "Gay Marriage".

That 's right folks, millions dead, tens of thousands tortured, three thousand Americans murdered, the constitution eviscerated, the on-going wars to continue, and an economic catastrophe that will make many of you homeless, take away your medical coverage, take away your dignity and the ability to support your families.....but the most important thing to the New Roman Empire and many of its Roman citizens is the rights of our elite's lackeys and some of the elites themselves to cavort in the Roman way and have it be sanctioned by the state and blessed by the people of this nation under holy matrimony.

Guess we as nation have to have our priorities in order.


For more on this issue see....Mommy Pelosi and Daddy Bush - 11-18-06   ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/mommypelosianddaddybush-blog-mpg-111806.html  --- 
 - mpg -- Now of course it's mommy Pelosi and daddy Obama.
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GOP to Detroit: Drop Dead  ---  http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/nov2008/bw20081113_047971.htm
A quote...."Powerful Senate Republicans oppose a government bailout for automakers even if it means bankruptcy for General Motors" -- It's simple they're not part of the Military Industrial Oil Complex - (MIOC) supported by the Repub faction, nor are they part of the Banking and Brokerage Sector, supported by the Demo faction. -- It's money that talks in the NRE's politics and the car companies don't have any, end of story. - mpg
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Saturday November 15th 2008 - links page

New package, old contents - posted at OnlineJournal  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3171.shtml
  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4007.shtml
Must Read - A quote...."The conflict between Joe Six-Pack and Two-Buck Chuck was resolved after the longest, most expensive presidential campaign in history. Consumers of budget beer and cheap wine were set against one another by the owners of both the brewery and the winery. Imaginary divisions have once again been used to keep manual and mental workers from noticing that they are employed by the same people."
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'Yes We Can' - Obama...'No We Can't' - Celente  ---  http://www.rense.com/general84/nowe.htm
A quote...."RHINEBECK, NY, 14 November 2008 - Barack Obama was elected President on a slogan "Yes We Can," and a promise of sweeping "change." But the slogan is an empty one and the promise has already been broken, asserts Gerald Celente, Trends Research Institute Director.  --   Obama's win was an unquestionable victory for racial justice; it proved the color barrier could be breached. However, under the new administration the promised "change" will be minimal. And, as usual, the citizenry will play no role in shaping government policy."
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US Imperialism: a picture is worth a thousand words by ~ LeonKuhn  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=10791
Great poster - mpg -- A quote...."Bush/Obama....'nuf said."
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Obama speaks on Iran by ~Latuff2  ---  http://latuff2.deviantart.com/art/Obama-speaks-on-Iran-102966745
World has now a new emperor by ~Latuff2  ---  http://latuff2.deviantart.com/art/World-has-now-a-new-emperor-102865001
More cartoons. - mpg
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More Center-Right Signals from Obama Camp  ---  http://dark-wraith.com/index.php?itemid=229
A quote..."In the latest display of an emergent center-right government coming at the nation, President-elect Barack Obama is seriously considering naming his campaign adviser Greg Craig as White House chief counsel. That name might not ring a bell, but Craig, in his previous capacity as an adviser to the Obama campaign, earlier this year did a song-and-dance routine about how the Illinois Senator had supported the revision in 2007 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act because it would otherwise "expire."
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Officials: Obama Offered Clinton Secretary Of State  ---  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/14/clinton-met-with-obama-ab_n_143810.html
So instead of "Calamity Condi" we're now going to be treated to four years of "Calamity Clinton"?  It's like some sort of really, really, bad dream. - mpg -- A quote...."President-elect Barack Obama offered Sen. Hillary Clinton the position of Secretary of State during their meeting Thursday in Chicago, according to two senior Democratic officials. She requested time to consider the offer, the officials said." -- Any of you Oblivious-Obamomites disappointed yet?  If not, you can now truly diagnose yourselves as Advanced Audio-Visual Disassociative Disorder sufferers (AAViDD believer type-1)
  --- http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/aviddbelievertype1andtype2syndrome-mpg-reficultnias-110408  ---  mpg
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George W Bush could pardon spies involved in torture - Let the pardoning games begin. - mpg
  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/3464442/George-W-Bush-could-pardon-spies-involved-in-torture.html
A quote...."George W Bush is considering issuing pardons for US spies embroiled in allegations of torture just before he leaves the White House" -- For more on this issue see....Fun & Torture - It's a Pleasure.  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/funandtorture-blog-mpg-020307.html
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Whistleblower asked to reveal illegal FBI acts  ---  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/13/whistleblower-asked-to-reveal-illegal-fbi-acts/
A quote...."The FBI has engaged in unlawful acts while carrying out a Bush administration intelligence-gathering program that allows surveillance of U.S. citizens without warrants, says an a well-known FBI whistleblower who has been asked to air his allegations to the Justice Department. -- The accusations by Supervisory Special Agent Bassem Youssef, who oversees the FBI's role in the National Security Agency's (NSA) warrantless surveillance program, are the first to emerge publicly about the bureau's role in the program."
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Huh....  ---  http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/002696.html
A quote...."Perhaps you remember the quote from 1984   ---  http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/35513.html  ---  at the end of Fahrenheit 911:

It's not a matter of whether the war is not real or if it is. Victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be continuous...The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects. And its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia but to keep the very structure of society intact.

This is, of course, how countries often function; for instance, the United States and Soviet Union during the Cold War. But I used to believe this resulted from instinctual decisions—as opposed to conscious ones—by leaders. -- I'm coming to believe I was wrong about this."
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Shiite Bloc Fails to Go to Meeting on Iraq-U.S. Pact  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m48800&s1=h1
A quote...."BAGHDAD — Iraq’s political leaders held a high-level meeting on Saturday to gauge support for a security agreement that will determine the future role and presence of American forces in Iraq before crucial votes in the cabinet and Parliament."
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Iraqis Believe Americans Bombing Them to Promote SOFA  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m48799&s1=h1
Special Note - A quote...."This week I was at the scene of a bombing, reporting a news story
about three explosions in Adhamiya. They were horrible explosions, all at the same time in a very crowded Shia neighborhood. I remember the smell of the blood, the flies all around and the injured people, the broken glass and the destruction."
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Al-Sadr, Sistani rip pact with U.S.  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/181164
A quote...."Shi'ite leader Muqtada al-Sadr renewed threats to unleash his militia fighters to attack U.S. forces unless they leave Iraq immediately, and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani vowed to intervene if he concludes the proposed agreement governing the presence of U.S. forces infringes on national sovereignty."
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Lahoud: Priority is to defend Lebanon, not disarm Hizbullah  ---  http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=97727
A quote...."BEIRUT: A successful national defense strategy is not about disarming Hizbullah, but about protecting Lebanon, Minister of State Nassib Lahoud said Friday at a conference on the future of Lebanon's national defense strategy. "We do not want Lebanon to be a battlefield for Israel or a comfort gift for a loser in the region," he said. "
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Sabra, Shatila and Collective Amnesia  ---  http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2008/11/15/title-8
A quote...."In 1982, Folman was a 19-year-old IDF infantry soldier. Twenty four years later, in 2006, Folman is surprised to find out that he does not remember a thing from that war or the massacres in Sabra and Shatila. The film is a journey into Folman’s lost past. -- The documentary is set as a chain of animated interviews and conversations between Folman and his military associates, psychologists and Ron Ben Yishai, the legendary Israeli TV reporter who was among the first to report on the Sabra and Shatila Massacres. The setting aims at building a coherent personal past narrative out of the broken memories of others." -- Also posted at DissidentVoice  ---  http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/11/sabra-shatila-and-collective-amnesia/
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Hammas vs Fatah ~ Latuff2  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/hammasvsfattah-latuff2-cached-111408
Cartoon. - mpg -- For more on this issue see....US Sponsored Civil Wars - Palestine
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussponsoredcivilwars-weblist-mpg-101107#PALESTINE
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No missiles in Europe until OSCE summit, urge EU, Russia  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/181187
A quote...."Nice, France - Russia and the United States should both refrain from siting any new weapons systems in Europe before a major summit of European and North American powers in June or July 2009, the French and Russian presidents said on Friday."
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POLITICS:  U.S. Task Force Found Few Iranian Arms in Iraq  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44720
Special Note - Some quotes...."WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (IPS) - Last April, top George W. Bush administration officials, desperate to exploit any possible crack in the close relationship between the Nouri al-Maliki government and Iran, launched a new round of charges that Iran had stepped up covert arms assistance to Shi'a militias." -- "But a U.S. military task force had been passing on data to the Multi-National Force Iraq (MNFI) command that told a very different story. The data collected by the task force in the previous six weeks showed that relatively few of the weapons found in Shi'a militia caches were manufactured in Iran."
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Iran switches reserves to gold - report  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/181189
A quote...."Reuters, Saturday November 15 2008 TEHRAN, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Iran has converted financial reserves into gold to avoid future problems, an adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in comments published on Saturday, after the price of oil fell more than 60 percent from a peak in July."
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Iran Wants Another Cut in OPEC Output  ---  http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8708251511
A quote...."TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran wants OPEC to decide to cut oil output by a further 1 to 1.5 million barrels per day at its scheduled meeting in Cairo on November 29, the Islamic Republic's OPEC governor said on Saturday."
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Iran Emerging as Top Tourist Destination in Germany  ---  http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8708251502
A quote...."Travel agencies, tour operators, and travel wholesalers are booking Iran for droves of tourists in Germany.
"There has been an enormous increase in the number of German tourists traveling to Iran in 2008," the Managing Director of Dr. Tigges/Gebeco travel agency, Ury Steinway has told the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper."
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India Celebrates Landing On The Moon  ---  http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=12805
A quote...."NEW DELHI – India rejoiced Saturday at joining an elite club by planting its flag on the moon as the country's space agency released the first pictures of the cratered surface taken by its maiden lunar mission."
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G-20 Wants Quick Action on Credit Default Swaps, But Bush Talks Them Into Toothless Regulation
  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/11/g-20-wants-quick-action-on-credit.html
Why oh why did they listen to that monkey! - mpg -- A quote..."Credit default swaps were one of the core agenda items at the G-20 meeting this weekend. Specifically, CDS are the focus of one of the four "Immediate Actions by March 31, 2009" to which the G-20 agreed:...."
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My "Outrage List" Keeps Getting Longer And Longer  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/larson151108.htm
A quote...."I don't know about you. But I started keeping a mental "Outrage List" a while back. The idea: Chronicle all the ridiculous statistics, all the lies, all the questionable practices, and all the dubious "rescue packages" Wall Street and Washington keep shoveling onto the public's lap." - Well buddy, this might make you feel better, see below. - mpg
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S-ck. On. This. - Schadenfreude has never been so, so sweet:   ---  http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/002698.html
Must Read - (for the Schadenfreudeness of it all) -- A quote...."It would be easy to dismiss today’s rant (however spot-on it might be) by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman as yet another ideological tirade against the U.S. automobile industry. But based on the bad news coming out of shopping-mall owner General Growth Properties [GGP], it is no wonder Friedman is feeling crankier than usual. That’s because the author’s wife, Ann (née Bucksbaum), is an heir to the General Growth fortune. In the past year, the couple—who live in an 11,400-square-foot mansion in Bethesda, Maryland—have watched helplessly as General Growth stock has fallen 99 percent, from a high of $51 to a recent 35 cents a share. The assorted Bucksbaum family trusts, once worth a combined $3.6 billion, are now worth less than $25 million." -- Ouch!! Now that's gotta hurt. - mpg
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How to Ground The Street  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/howtogroundthestreet-spitzer-wapo-cached-111608
A quote...."President-elect Barack Obama will soon face the extraordinary task of saving capitalism from its own excesses, much as Franklin D. Roosevelt had to do 76 years ago. Up until this point in the crisis, policymakers have appropriately applied the rules of triage -- Band-Aids and tourniquets, then radical surgery -- to keep the global financial system alive. Capital infusions, bailouts, mega-mergers, government guarantees of unimaginable proportions -- all have been sought and supported by officials and corporate chief executives who had until now opposed any government participation in the marketplace. But put aside for the moment the ideological cartwheel we have seen and look at the big picture: The rules of modern capitalism have been re-written before our eyes."
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The GOP: Architects of Another 'Great Depression'  ---  http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2008/11/gop-architects-of-another-great.html
Special Note -- A quote...."The GOP has dominated American economic policy since 1980 and with the exception of a brief period in Clinton's second term, the rich have gotten exceedingly richer and the poor, much, much poorer."
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Uhhh, Not Contractually  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2008/11/15/uhhh-not-contractually/
Contains Videos- A quote...."And none of the committed ($350,000,000,000) was for the purchase of mortgage related assets or conditioned on the recipients of the TARP funds undertaking any mortgage related modifications, is that correct?” --  *Dennis Kucinich*

“uhhh, not contractually.” -- *Kashkari*

"Do you want to know what a truly progressive politician looks and sounds like? Not just someone spouting platitudes and mindless rhetoric to get your vote?...."
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Friday November 14th 2008 - links page

Hobbes Is Dead (or at least on life support) . . . and I Feel Fine  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/14-1
Must Read - A quote...."In his foundational tome Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes famously asserted that the natural disposition of humankind was aggression, brutality, and a "war of all against all."  He argued that the creation of a modern State was necessary in order to bind us under a social contract, to impose by coercion the rule of law, and in essence to protect us from ourselves.  Hobbes was primarily motivated by fear in his moral and political philosophizing: fear of the other, fear of nature, fear of death, fear of losing his property and privilege, even fear of his creator. -- While the modern nation-state employs many methods to maintain the patterns of social control that Hobbes envisioned - including the hardware of weaponry, imprisonment, and surveillance - it is at root the ideological software of Leviathan that is the glue holding the system together.  Unsurprisingly, modern-day Hobbesians seek to create and accentuate fear among the masses as a means of preserving their positions of power.  The outgoing Bush Administration in particular built its entire platform on this, tapping into the well of 9-11 over and over again as a justification for everything from preemptive war to offshore drilling to high-tech voyeurism."
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Obama's Intelligence Agenda - More of the Same from the "Change Administration"  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10948
A quote...."While expectations may be high [by people who actually have the ability to read] that the incoming Obama administration will [never] reverse many of the worst features of the Bush regime--from warrantless wiretapping, illegal detention, torture, "targeted assassinations" and preemptive war--now that the cheering has stopped, [for those who never bothered to read anything except what they got from mass-infotainment-media or (shudder) the "news" from the boob-tube, they can all] expect more of the same.  -- According to The Wall Street Journal, "President-elect Barack Obama is unlikely to radically overhaul controversial Bush administration intelligence policies, advisers say, an approach that is almost certain to create [less] tension within the Demo[Repub]cratic Party." -- Com'on, who's kidding who....they're not called the DemoRepubs for nothing, they're just like two peas in a pod. - mpg
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Afghanistan abyss awaits Obama  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JK15Df02.html
A quote...."The struggle for influencing Barack Obama's foreign policy agenda has begun in right earnest. The maneuvering by influential establishment figures - including Congressional voices, Obama advisors and even military officials - who are projecting incumbent Robert Gates as secretary of defense in the incoming administration highlights the pressures working on the president-elect. -- The focus is on the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as in promoting the basic George W Bush policies promoted since the 1990s by nationalist and neo-conservative Republicans. These are policies animated by long-term ambitions for US economic and military hegemony. -- A Gates appointment will signal that Obama may turn his back on his campaign pledge to withdraw US troops from Iraq in 16 months. Gates, of course, disfavors any set timeline or timetable for a withdrawal plan." -- How about the term NEVER?? - mpg
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Barack Obama; Friend to Israel  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/barack-obama-friend-to-israel/#more-2428
Contains Video - A quote...."The phrase ‘friend to Israel” is code. It means that the person being talked about will continue the unconditional support of Israel’s illegal activities in the region of occupying Palestinian land and subjugating millions of Palestinians in Gaza to the terrible conditions of the largest open air prison in history. Look at how Clinton pauses after she makes the claim that Obama will be a “friend to Israel”. Watch the reaction in the Zionist crowd at the AIPAC summit. She knows what she is saying… and so do they."
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Barack Obama is warned to beware of a ‘huge threat’ from al-Qaeda  ---  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5158569.ece
False Flag Warning - Gulf of Tonkin Redux Warning - War Warning - A quote...."Security officials fear a ‘spectacular’ during the transition period -- Barack Obama is being given ominous advice from leaders on both sides of the Atlantic to brace himself for an early assault from terrorists. -- General Michael Hayden, director of the CIA, this week acknowledged that there were dangers during a presidential transition when new officials were coming in and getting accustomed to the challenges. But he added that no “real or artificial spike” in intercepted transmissions from terror suspects had been detected." -- Website Editor's Note: this is the second "war warning" caused by the continuous issuance of all these false-flag heads-up to this nation's illustrious financial elites. -- For more on this issue see....US-NRE 2009 Inauguration FFW & GTRW
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/usnre2009inaugurationffw&gtrw-weblist-mpg-111408
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FBI informant testifies suspect refused to plan attack - How dare he, it's totally outrageous! He must be punished!
  ---  http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/fbi_informant_testifies_suspec.html
A quote...."The FBI informant who infiltrated a band of alleged South Jersey terrorists complained in September 2006 that one suspect "was gonna have a problem with me" because he kept refusing to plan, train or arrange meetings to discuss an attack." -- What's wrong with the FBI! They're totally falling down on the job!! Hold a gun to the guys head, threaten his family, bankrupt his business, blackmail him, plant evidence on him and lie about it in court.  Heck, you'd think they'd know better on how to frame someone by now (after all they've had so much practice).  They sure knew how to "back off" the bin-Ladens and Saudis prior to 9/11 and fly 180 members of the bin-Laden and Saudi Royal families out of the country days after 9/11.  If the FBI can do that, they can do anything. -- For more on this sort of issue see....9/11 the Sequel - Return of the Jihadi™ - 08-23-08 - mpg.
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/911thesequel-returnofthejahadi-mpg-blog-082308
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New Blackwater Iraq Scandal: Guns, Silencers and Dog Food  ---  http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=6254508
Gee, let's just try some word associations people, how about this...death squads....silencers....death squads....silencers -- did we come up with any connections or conclusions? - mpg -- A quote...."A federal grand jury in North Carolina is investigating allegations the controversial private security firm Blackwater illegally shipped assault weapons and silencers to Iraq, hidden in large sacks of dog food, ABCNews.com has learned. -- Under State Department rules, Blackwater is prohibited from using certain assault weapons and silencers in Iraq because they are considered "offensive" weapons inappropriate for Blackwater's role as a private security firm protecting US diplomatic missions." -- For more on this issue see....US Support of Terror - Money and Guns for Everyone  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussupportofterror-weblist-mpg-090306#GUNS4EVERYONE
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Police provocateur infiltrates political and protest groups in Australia  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2008/nov2008/poli-n15.shtml
To be honest, this is really becoming annoying.  The police are supposed to protect and serve the public, not facilitate false flag ops., start riots, frame people for things they didn't do, set-up patsies (it's a more subtle operation than quickly framing someone) or spy on peace groups, librarians, Quakers, civil libertarians, their own neighbors etc. etc. etc.  Every piece of crap officer who does this sort of stuff should be permanently removed from performing any type of law enforcement duties, stripped of his pension and put in jail. Examples should be made of these jerks. - mpg -- A quote...."In a series of articles published last month, Melbourne's Age newspaper revealed that a covert police agent recently infiltrated several left-wing political and activist groups, including Socialist Alternative, Stop the War Coalition, Unity for Peace, and Animal Liberation Victoria. Beginning in 2006, the agent provocateur was involved in anti-Iraq war demonstrations—including last year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) protests in Sydney—animal liberation actions, and participated in planning meetings for a protest to be held against a weapons fair in South Australia."
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Exposed: Federal Air Marshals Too Busy Smuggling Coke and Molesting Kids to Protect You
  ---  http://www.alternet.org/story/107021/exposed%3A_federal_air_marshals_too_busy_smuggling_coke_and_molesting_kids_to_protect_you/
Thank God!  Being an American "protected" by someone in Homeland "Security" would be like being an Iraqi "helped" by someone in the US-NRE armed forces....no thank you very much! - mpg -- A quote...."Since 9/11, air marshals have logged an impressive number of hours committing felony-level crimes."
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Siegelman: New Revelations "More Frightening Than Anything That Came Before."
  ---  http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/11/siegelman_new_revelations_are.php
A quote...."Former Alabama governor Don Siegelman says that new revelations about his prosecution amount to "outrageous criminal conduct in the US Attorney's office and the Department of Justice," and are "more frightening than anything that has come before." And he believes that his case is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of politicized prosecutions by DOJ."
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Media giant tries to muzzle parody
  ---  http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2799&updaterx=2008-11-15+02%3A57%3A52
Video - Because the infotainment complex knows that if people begin to realize just how laughably inaccurate and propagandistic their coverage is...no one would want to purchase their stuff. - mpg -- A quote...."In early November, Canadian media giant Canwest Mediaworks dropped its lawsuit against Mordecai Briemberg, a lawsuit which alleged that he infringed on Canwest's trademark rights. The case pertained to the creation of a parody of one of Canwest's many papers, the Vancouver Sun. The parody satirized what its creators see as Canwest's biased coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict;"
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New Report: Fake TV News Widespread and Undisclosed  ---  http://www.prwatch.org/fakenews/release
A quote...."Investigation catches 77 local TV stations presenting corporate PR as real news, Groups file complaint urging FCC to take action against deceptive broadcasters"
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Key Shi’ite Clerics Resist Security Pact Draft - posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://news.antiwar.com/2008/11/14/key-shiite-clerics-resist-security-pact-draft/
A quote...."While Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s support for the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States is likely to secure support from key Shi’ite political leaders for the latest draft, they face continued dissent from key Shi’ite religious leaders, who for the second week in a row used Friday’s sermons to attack the draft, set to be voted upon by the cabinet sometime this weekend."
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Chronic malnutrition in Gaza blamed on Israel - link posted at AntiWar  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/chronic-malnutrition-in-gaza-blamed-on-israel-1019521.html
A quote...."Donald Macintyre reveals the contents of an explosive report by the Red Cross on a humanitarian tragedy -- The Israeli blockade of Gaza has led to a steady rise in chronic malnutrition among the 1.5 million people living in the strip, according to a leaked report from the Red Cross." -- Just think of the Warsaw Ghetto, and keep thinking of it while you read this article. - mpg
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Israel Re-brands Oppression   ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14376
Here's an old slogan they could reuse... "Arbeit macht frei"  ---  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbeit_macht_frei
or, in english, "work shall set you free". - mpg
A quote...."There has been an ad on television recently, one featuring a young couple walking or drifting into a place of enchantment, a warm and colourful fantasy world, a kind of biblical Disneyland. Every step of their brief journey is met by people smiling warmly, moving slowly, even bowing, greeting them at each turn with Shalom!"
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Video: Aftershock IOF soldiers reveal how to brutally repress Palestinian civilians  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m48774&s1=h1
Video - A quote...."Whilst I was there, I lost all my faith in the Israeli army. They put it right in your face: 'Go be the oppressors for your people. Force yourselves upon them’. They told us…’take these bats wrapped up in plastic and…calm things down’…We had skulls on our helmets, dude. We walked around with machetes, all kinds of crazy stuff. Sheriff badges. We’d improvise some very unique solutions"
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Anti-Bases Coalition Pushes U.S. Military Base out of Ecuador
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/Anti-Bases-Coalition-Pushe-by-By-Helga-Serrano-081114-721.html
A quote...."The following is Helga Serrano's report about the case of Ecuador presented at the Second Encounter for the Demilitarization of the Americas on Oct. 4, 2008 in La Esperanza, Honduras. It is of interest because it describes the grassroots organizational process that led to President Rafael Correa's decision to announce that the U.S. military must leave the base at Manta as of 2009. The president's decision was important, but it was the constant pressure from grassroots networks that led to this triumph for all who seek a demilitarized continent, with peace and full respect for sovereignty."
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Sarkozy: US missile shield won't help security  ---  http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=453813
A quote...."French President Nicolas Sarkozy undercut the American rationale for a U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe on Friday by saying that the system would do nothing to improve European security."
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Russian leader Medvedev heading to Cuba, Venezuela  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2270-0-23-23--.html
A quote...."MOSCOW - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev plans to travel this month to Cuba and Venezuela, which have increasing military and trade ties with Moscow. The U.S. has objected to Russia's greater links with the two countries that have antagonistic relations with Washington. Medvedev will visit Cuba on Nov. 27, the Kremlin press service said. He will also visit Brazil during the trip."
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EU-Russia tensions ease?  ---  http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/33288
A quote...."The conflict in South Ossetia may have driven a wedge between Russia and the EU, but now the two sides are talking to each other again. At the Russia-EU summit in Nice, Dmitry Medvedev, the French President and the EU Commission President agreed to meet again next year to hammer out a pan-European plan on security."
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Russia and EU attempt to outflank US on G20 global finance revolution  ---  http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article5156673.ece
Special Note - A quote...."Russia and the EU agreed today to pile pressure on President Bush to accept far-reaching changes to the global financial system at the G-20 summit in Washington. - Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian President, said that Russia's ideas were almost identical to those put forward by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, on behalf of the EU."
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Georgia’s Saakashvili nervously giggles to Putin’s intention to hang him by the balls
  ---  http://english.pravda.ru/world/ussr/14-11-2008/106700-saakashvili_putin_balls-0
Some quotes...."Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili was aware of Vladimir Putin’s intention “to hang him by the balls” during the armed conflict in the Caucasus in August. Saakashvili, who arrived in Paris Thursday for a meeting with his French counterpart, confirmed that he knew about the notorious conversation, which supposedly took place between Nicolas Sarkozy and Vladimir Putin. -- When journalists of a French radio station read out Putin’s threat to Saakashvili, the Georgian president responded with a nervous giggle. “I knew about this scene, but not all the details. It’s funny, all the same,” The Times quoted the Georgian leader as saying."

"I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls,” Putin said. “Hang him?” Sarkozy asked. “Why not?” Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.” -- Mr Sarkozy tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like Bush?” Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah, you have scored a point there.” -- also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2269-0-15-15--.html
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The Election is Over; Time to Move On to the Recriminations -- Let the Trials Begin!  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/valentine11142008.html
Must Read - A quote...."Amid the euphoria and angst of the Obama apotheosis, the unreality of a mismanaged, two trillion dollar, taxpayer funded bailout of freewheeling capitalists, and the wars of limbo in Iraq and Afghanistan, one little thing is being overlooked."

"George W Bush."

"The Decider. The psychopath responsible for this appalling mess we're in. The architect of America's ignoble descent into moral darkness. The washed up and universally despised pseudo-despot who reveled in torture, kidnapping and assassination. The War-Monger."*
also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21225.htm

"Bombs Away O-bomb-a" won't let it happen of course, but this website editor for one is sending this off to Santa Claus as the one, true, and only mega-wish list.  Please let Karma kick that smirking, leering, little monkey's ass from here to Kingdom come...please!!! - mpg

* Just a note...a quick Gitmo style trial for everyone.
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In Final Days, Bush Pushes for Iraq's Oil  ---  http://www.truthout.org/111108A
A quote...."As the Bush administration rumbles to an end, it is pushing with increasing urgency for a commitment to a long-term US presence in Iraq. Though the military aspect of this "commitment" has garnered substantial publicity, the administration is equally invested in the economic aspect: securing US control over Iraqi oil before Bush leaves office, according to experts in the field."
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The Siegelman nail in the Bush administration coffin...  ---  http://www.atlargely.com/2008/11/the-siegelman-n.html
A quote...."Next month in Atlanta, a federal court will hear the high-profile appeal of former Alabama governor Don E. Siegelman, whose conviction on corruption charges in 2006 became one of the most publicly debated cases to emerge from eight years of controversy at the Bush Justice Department. Now new documents highlight alleged misconduct by the Bush-appointed U.S. attorney and other prosecutors in the case, including what appears to be extensive and unusual contact between the prosecution and the jury. " -- Bush will pardon himself (and all his other lackeys), Obama will say "Let's be nice.", "Let's not be divisive.", "It's all behind us now.", "Time to move forward.", "Change, change, change." and than it'll all be over....for Obama's career and his short stint in the Oval office that is. - mpg
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G-20 summit: More like London 1933 than Bretton Woods 1944  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2008/nov2008/bret-n15.shtml
A quote...."The G-20 summit being held in Washington today takes place amid the worst economic and financial breakdown since the Great Depression of the 1930s. But notwithstanding the rhetoric about the need for a new Bretton Woods Agreement and calls for the remaking of the international financial system, the summit will provide no solutions to the rapidly deepening crisis. On the contrary, in the absence of any coherent program, it may well see the divisions among the major capitalist powers widen." -- THAT'S RIGHT!  As in De-Couple immediately from the US-NRE, or everyone else at that meeting who isn't a grinning, smirking, war-criminal, along with their societies, is going to go down with the US-NRE Titanic.- mpg
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In Praise of a Rocky Transition  ---  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081201/klein
A quote...."The more details emerge, the clearer it becomes that Washington's handling of the Wall Street bailout is not merely incompetent. It is borderline criminal. -- In a moment of high panic in late September, the US Treasury unilaterally pushed through a radical change in how bank mergers are taxed--a change long sought by the industry. Despite the fact that this move will deprive the government of as much as $140 billion in tax revenue, lawmakers found out only after the fact. According to the Washington Post, more than a dozen tax attorneys agree that "Treasury had no authority to issue the [tax change] notice." -- Of equally dubious legality are the equity deals Treasury has negotiated with many of the country's banks. According to Congressman Barney Frank, one of the architects of the legislation that enables the deals, "Any use of these funds for any purpose other than lending--for bonuses, for severance pay, for dividends, for acquisitions of other institutions, etc.--is a violation of the act." Yet this is exactly how the funds are being used
also posted at CommonDreams   ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/14
& ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21226.htm
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Paulson Bailout Bill: There is a War on the Middle Class and This Bill is Treason
  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/paulson-bailout-bill-there-is-a-war-on-the-middle-class-and-this-bill-is-treason/
Contains Videos - Special Note - Some quotes...."On Thursday, stocks flew off the shelves because President Bush stepped up to the microphone and pleaded with the American people that, if nothing else, we had to salvage “THE SYSTEM“. His message over and over again was that the system could not be allowed to fail. Why? Because this system funnels wealth out of the hands of the citizen and into the hands of wealthy corporations and international banking families. And if Bush has proven anything to us at this point, it is that he only cares about those top 5%ers and everyone else can just f-ck off." -- "The glaring problem here is all of this money is being put in the hands of people who spend every last moment of their miserable lives trying to figure out how to screw someone else over and take what they have. That is what Paulson did for a living before his current post and that is what Kashkari did."
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The TARP Is Dead, Long Live the TARP  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/higgs/higgs95.html
A quote...."Think back. Think far, far back into the past. Think all the way back to the last week of September 2008. Historians tell us that at that time many Americans took leave of their senses. Despite all the evidence of their own eyes, ears, and noses, they became persuaded that the world as they had always known it stood on the verge of utter destruction. Hysterical "journalists" and "experts" on radio and television told them so. What else could they do? Because life without a flush 401(k) lay beyond their wildest imagination, they concluded that "something must be done."
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Lust for Leverage - The term is idolatry, worshiping money as your God. -- It's a sin by the way. - mpg
  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/14-11
A quote...."As America continues to struggle with the single most dangerous economic crisis to occur since the invention of television, television news operations have been unforgivably lame and late in telling in a cogent and compelling way, the story of how and why this has happened to us. Lots of stories about how afraid and worried people are, but not much about the how and why. Perhaps this is because the underlying subject is economics, and it's hard to make "the dismal science" seem sexy, or even violent enough for TV. I understand that part. Even my wife, who is very smart, loving and nurturing, gets a look on her face that usually only dentists see when I try to explain the newest things I have learned about Credit Derivatives to her." -- For more on this issue see....1.3 Quadrillion and Counting - 09-18-08 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/1.3quadrillionandcounting-blog-mpg-091808
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CDO-Related Credit Default Swap Crisis on the Horizon?  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/11/new-wave-of-credit-default-swap.html
A quote...."According to the Financial Times:  ---  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ffda8156-b1c1-11dd-b97a-0000779fd18c.html  ---  "[There is a] New wave of CDOs at risk of default . --     Synthetic CDOs, the risky and complex debt products that are based on pools of corporate credit derivatives, are under increasing pressure after suffering a wave of default-related losses on top of general credit market deterioration.''
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Kashkari Says Treasury Approving 20 Bank Stakes Today (Update3)
  ---  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a4xz.cedvwjU&refer=home
A quote...."Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Treasury is about to approve capital injections into 20 more banks, said Neel Kashkari, the department's assistant secretary in charge of a $700 billion bank-rescue plan. 
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Freddie Mac seeks $13.8bn lifeline
  ---  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0d5576c0-b28e-11dd-bbc9-0000779fd18c,dwp_uuid=e8477cc4-c820-11db-b0dc-000b5df10621.html?nclick_check=1
A quote...."Freddie Mac, the mortgage financier that was nationalised two months ago, has asked the US government for a $13.8bn lifeline after suffering a record $25.3bn quarterly loss on large credit-related writedowns. -- Freddie’s decision to tap the $200bn facility pledged by the Treasury when it seized the company and its peer, Fannie Mae, will add to the government’s bill for rescuing the battered financial sector."
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Retail sales plunge record 2.8% in October - Decline exaggerated by falling gas prices, collapse of auto sales
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/retail-sales-plunge-record-28/story.aspx?guid=%7B4E4A5159-C382-4115-A4EC-C2BE9BF45658%7D
A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Falling for a fourth straight month, U.S. retail sales plunged a record 2.8% in October as sales of autos and gasoline plummeted, the Commerce Department estimated Friday." - bold by website editor -- It's not as bad as it looks because some of the fall in retail sales was due to falling gasoline prices, on the other hand retail sales figures for the prior months didn't fall as much because of rising gasoline prices....something the news media doesn't appear to have mentioned very often.- mpg
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Major U.S. Cities Seek Emergency Funding from U.S. Government  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2266-0-13-13--.html
A quote...."PHILADELPHIA - Three major American cities buffeted by the global financial crisis are requesting at least $50 billion in federal funds to help pay for infrastructure improvements, pensions and short-term borrowing."
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British banks battered in wake of Paulson's U-turn on US bail-out  ---  http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/business/British-banks-battered-in-wake.4694079.jp
A quote...."Shares in RBS last night closed down 6 per cent, or 3.4p, at 52.6p. Barclays lost 6.2 per cent, or 10.5p, to 157.7p and HSBC dipped 0.6 per cent, or 4.5p, to 695.5p. -- They are the three British banks with the biggest exposure to the US and had been expected to be major beneficiaries of the US Treasury bail-out. - bold by website editor -- Hah, these suckers (partners in crime) did "business" with the US-NRE's financial elites, they deserve exactly what they're gonna get....nada, zilch, squat, and zipo. - mpg
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Europe Economy Falls Into First Recession in 15 Years (Update2) - http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aycN4Fh5lv6Y&refer=home
A quote...."Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Europe's economy fell into its first recession in 15 years in the third quarter, paving the way for deeper cuts to interest rates and taxes amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression."
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Austrian Government Study Confirms Genetically Modified (GM) Crops Threaten Human Fertility and Health Safety
  ---  http://www.responsibletechnology.org/GMFree/MediaCenter/ReleaseAustrianGovernmentStudy/index.cfm
You are what you eat. - mpg -- A quote..."(Los Angeles, CA.) - A long-term feeding study commissioned by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, managed by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health, Family and Youth, and carried out by Veterinary University Vienna, confirms genetically modified (GM) corn seriously affects reproductive health in mice. Non-GMO advocates, who have warned about this infertility link along with other health risks, now seek an immediate ban of all GM foods and GM crops to protect the health of humankind and the fertility of women around the world."
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Thursday November 13th 2008  -links page

Obama and the Crisis of Expectation  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10924
Must Read - A quote...."With Obama elected President but not yet inaugurated, the question on everyone’s mind is, “what’s going to happen next?” Millions of people around the world are hoping that a Obama presidency will radically change the course of US politics, and with it, world politics. This is especially true for the huge numbers of mostly young volunteers working for Obama’s campaign, most of whom had never been involved in politics before." -- Also posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21216.htm
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The Democrats of 2002 and 2007 haven't gone anywhere  ---  http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/11/12/lieberman/index.html
A quote...."Though it hasn't happened yet, it is appearing increasingly likely that Senate Democrats -- led by Barack Obama (who seems to be playing a much more active role in all of this than his spokesperson yesterday suggested) -- are going to choose Joe Lieberman to serve as their Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in the next Congress.  If that happens, there will be one important silver lining:  it will remind many people, who have understandably forgotten due to the euphoria last week, exactly what most Beltway Democrats are, what their priorities and beliefs are, and to whose opinions and concerns they do and do not pay attention." -- also posted at CommonDreams -- http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/13
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Et tu Obama: Who will your Appointees Serve—Israel or America?  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21215.htm
A quote...."November 13, 2008 "Information Clearinghouse" -- -Despite such warnings from our founding fathers against the corruptive influence of a minority “faction/special interest group”, our government has nevertheless surrendered, pandered, implemented, paid and died for the vital interests of a small foreign nation, Israel.   America has in effect “outsourced” its foreign policy and national interests to this foreign nation to the detriment of its own interests---political, economic, military, credibility, moral leadership, and friendly alliances around the world."
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WMR: Obama Aware of Emanuel-Mossad Links  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=10734
Special Note - A quote...."The Oct 10, 2008 Wayne Madsen Report  ---  http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/  ---  states that President-Elect Obama has been informed of Rahm Emanuel's FBI Counter-Intelligence profile, any links to Mossad and his links to Israeli attempts to sabotage two Clinton Administration initiatives dealing with 1) Morocco and the Western Sahara independence front POLISARIO and 2) attempts to ease tensions between the White House and both the PLO and Iraq while in the White House."
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Restoring the Constitution  ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14383
A quote...."Nearly two years ago Senator Obama, contrary to what he knows and believes, vigorously came out against the House commencing impeachment proceedings. It would be too divisive, he said. As one of one hundred Senators who might have had to try the President and Vice President in the Senate were the House to impeach. He should have kept impartial and remained silent on the subject."
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Vladimir Putin 'wanted to hang Georgian President Saakashvili by the balls'  ---  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5147422.ece
Special Note - A quote...."With Russian tanks only 30 miles from Tbilisi on August 12, Mr Sarkozy told Mr Putin that the world would not accept the overthrow of Georgia’s Government. According to Mr Levitte, the Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. “I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls,” Mr Putin declared.  --  Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. “Hang him?” — he asked. “Why not?” Mr Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.”  --  Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?” Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah — you have scored a point there.”
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Ukraine ‘censored’ arms sales documentary  ---  http://www.russiatoday.com/features/news/33200
A quote...."A Russian film-maker claims the Ukrainian authorities prevented him from screening a documentary revealing the extent of Ukraine's arms sales to Georgia. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko has already admitted her country’s behaviour during the war in South Ossetia was suspicious."
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Mary Dejevsky: Why did the West ignore the truth about the war in Georgia?
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mary-dejevsky/mary-dejevsky-why-did-the-west-ignore-the-truth-about-the-war-in-georgia-1012234.html
A quote...."Thank goodness, they might be thinking at the US State Department and the British Foreign Office, for the financial crisis. Were it not for the ever-blacker news about the Western world's economy, another scandal would be vying for the headlines – and one where the blame would be easier to apportion. It concerns our two countries' relations with Russia and the truth about this summer's Georgia-Russia war."
For more on this issue see.... American Selective Attention Deficit Disorder (ASADD) - 08-16-08 - mpg  ---
http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/americanselectiveattention-blog-mpg-081608
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Belarus To Seeks To Deploy Russian Missiles  ---  http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=12788
A quote...."MINSK, Belarus -- President Alexander Lukashenko is in talks with Moscow about placing in Belarus advanced Iskander missiles that could hit targets deep inside Europe. -- President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, left, who met Oct. 26 near Moscow with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, says that Belarus would like to deploy missiles even if it doesn't reach an agreement with Moscow."
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Medvedev: No missile deployment if Obama drops anti-missile shield
  ---  http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1442741.php/Medvedev_No_missile_deployment_if_Obama_drops_anti-missile_shield_
A quote...." Paris - Russia will not deploy missiles in its European enclave of Kaliningrad if US president-elect Barack Obama cancels the planned American anti-missile defence system, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview published Thursday in the French daily Le Figaro. -- 'We are prepared to drop our decision to deploy missiles at Kaliningrad if the new American administration decides to abandon its anti-missile system,' Medvedev said."
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Italy criticises US over E.Europe missiles plan  ---  http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/33232
A quote...."Senior Italian politicians have called on Russia and the U.S. to end a row over planned missile deployments. Italy's Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, has appealed to Washington to shelve proposals for an anti-missile system in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, PM Silvio Berlusconi has likened the proposed missile shield to the recognition of Kosovo: an act of "provocation against Russia."
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Russia Expands Its Military Presence In Central Asia  ---  http://www.payvand.com/news/08/nov/1122.html
A quote...."The secretary-general of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Nikolai Bordyuzha, recently announced the planned formation of an international force in Central Asia that "should be prepared to repel any threat." -- On November 9, after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev submitted an agreement on the expected 5,000-strong force to the State Duma for approval, Bordyuzha said that the force is to be formed immediately upon the agreement's ratification by all participating states." -- also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2263-0-3-3--.html
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Putin says Russia may scrap Nord Stream pipeline  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/180974
A quote...."MOSCOW, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Russia may scrap its Baltic Sea gas pipeline project, Nord Stream, and build gas liquefaction plants instead if Europe keeps delaying the pipeline, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. -- "Europe must decide whether it needs this pipeline or not," Putin told Finland's Prime Minister, Matti Vanhanen, at a meeting in Moscow."
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Blackwater likely to be fined millions in Iraq weapons case  ---  http://www.mcclatchydc.com/100/story/55790.html
A quote...."WASHINGTON — The State Department is preparing to slap a multi-million dollar fine on private military contractor Blackwater USA for shipping hundreds of automatic weapons to Iraq without the necessary permits. Some of the weapons are believed to have ended up on the country's black market, department officials told McClatchy, but no criminal charges have been filed in the case." -- For more on this issue see....US Support of Terror - Guns for Everyone  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussupportofterror-weblist-mpg-090306#GUNS4EVERYONE
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US abandoning key feature of its strategy on Iraq  ---  http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C11%5C13%5Cstory_13-11-2008_pg4_8
A quote...."THE US military in Iraq is abandoning – deliberately and with little public notice – a centerpiece of the widely acclaimed strategy it adopted nearly two years ago to turn the tide against the insurgency. It is moving American troops farther from the people they are trying to protect." -- also posted at WarInIraq  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/180951
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Schoolgirls sprayed with acid in Afghanistan  ---  http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/13/2418157.htm
A quote...."Attackers have sprayed acid in the faces of up to 15 schoolgirls in Afghanistan. The teenagers were walking to their all-girls high school in the southern city of Kandahar when they were attacked by two men on a motorbike. The men used a toy gun to spray acid in the girls' faces. Some of the victims were wearing Islamic burqas, which gave them some protection, but several received serious acid burns. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. Local officials believe it may be an attempt to stop local girls from attending school. NATO-led forces in Afghanistan have condemned the act as cowardly." -- Just how brave do you have to be....to throw acid on some girls while they're going to school.  Probably these guys were furiously jealous because they can't even read or write. Just a bunch of ignorant, thuggish, stupid, psychotic, moronic, insurgent wannabes that wouldn't know which end of a gun to hold and were such a bunch of dumb-asses they were told to get lost when they tried to join up...so they go attack some girls, from behind, and than they run away. - mpg
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Europe should speak to Hamas now  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m48754&s1=h1
A quote...."There is no doubt that Hamas, the main Palestinian Islamic movement, is becoming more rational, more pragmatic and more moderate, at least in comparison to its formative years. This is why it is imperative that member-States of the European Union (EU) either collectively or individually should initiate a meaningful dialogue with Hamas as soon as possible. Needless to say, such a dialogue would be expedient to all parties involved as well as to the cause of peace and stability in the Middle East."
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Switzerland says Israel breaking international law  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081113/ap_on_re_eu/eu_switzerland_israel
A quote...."GENEVA – Switzerland accused Israel on Thursday of wantonly destroying Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem and near Ramallah in violation of the Geneva Conventions' rules on military occupation. -- The Swiss Foreign Ministry demanded that Israel immediately halt the demolitions, which Israel has said are aimed at removing illegally constructed shacks."
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Israel Tightens the Chokehold on Village Entrepreneurs The Withering Palestinian Economy  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/cook11132008.html
A quote...."The sun is sinking fast behind the trees of an olive grove on the outskirts of the West Bank village of Nilin. After a day of confrontations between the Israeli army and the Palestinian villagers over Israel’s building of its separation wall on Nilin’s land, the soldiers appear finally to have gone."
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The Making of an Insurgent  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21211.htm
A quote...."November 13, 2008 "Information Clearinghouse" -- We all complain about politics, but have you ever wondered what makes a person pick up a gun and start violently resisting the government? -- Some of the factors that make fertile ground are already well-known: an elite intent on keeping and expanding its privileges, a State that refuses to incorporate or entertain alternative ideas, an economy where downward mobility has become the new rule. But those factors have existed in many countries without sparking violent resistance. Why, I wondered, did people in one country organize and fight, while others suffered on in silence?"
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EGYPT:  Ruling Party Delivers More Disappointment  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44691
A quote...."CAIRO, Nov 13 (IPS) - The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) of President Hosni Mubarak promised a "new style of thinking" at its fifth annual party congress last week, but critics in the opposition say they saw little of it."
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World will struggle to meet oil demand: leaked report - Alt  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/worldwillstruggletomeetoildemand-ft-111208
  ---  http://www.sustainlane.com/reviews/world-will-struggle-to-meet-oil-demand-leaked-report/1HBJTKAPNP2C9O3JSHN3PMY928PY
Special Note - A quote...."Output from the world’s oilfields is declining faster than previously thought, the first authoritative public study of the biggest fields shows. Without extra investment to raise production, the natural annual rate of output decline is 9.1 per cent, the International Energy Agency says in its annual report, the World Energy Outlook, a draft of which has been obtained by the Financial Times." -- For more on this issue see....Oil Producing Countries Past Peak - Chart  ---  http://www.chycho.com/images/peak_oil_done.jpg
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Salameh issues call for Arab monetary union  ---  http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=97677
Special Note - Could have done it thirty years ago, they could have established their own Arab, or better yet, Middle Eastern EU with its own currency, but no.  Instead they had to let the Saudi Royals team up with Israel and the NRE, let them recycle all those petro-dollars while supporting every stupid jerk-ass whacked-out psychotic religious CIA/Mossad/ISI nut-job out there. What a waste of time and lives. - mpg -- A quote...."BEIRUT: Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh on Thursday recommended a single currency for the Arab countries and further expansion of the banks in the region to counter the negative effects of the global credit crunch. "Our banks will face challenges in the future in view of the financial crisis around the world. Among these challenges are quality competition that should induce us to expand the Arab banking sector and create a single currency so that the growth and commercial trade in the region will not be pegged to other currencies," Salameh told participants in a conference called Investments for Stability."
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Former DC appeals court judge suggests Bush detention policies amount to war crimes.  ---  http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/13/bush-war-crimes/
A quote...."According to a new Human Rights Center/Center for Constitutional Rights report, former prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay and released without charge went home with “psychological and emotional problems” and found themselves “stigmatized and shunned” and viewed either as terrorists or U.S. spies. In a forward to the report, former DC appeals court judge Patricia Wald compared the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody to the treatment Bosnian Muslims received at the hands of their Serbian captors:"
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Senate Dems To White House: Preserve Records (Especially You, Cheney)
  ---  http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/11/senate_dems_to_white_house_pre.php
A quote...."Democrats from the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees last week sent a letter to the White House demanding that it preserve all records produced by the Bush administration. The letter expressed particular concern that the office of Vice President Cheney would not comply with the law." -- And Cheney's just going to ignore them, as he has these last eight years. - mpg
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What Is NorthCom Up To?  ---  http://www.progressive.org/mag/wx111208.html
False Flag Update - Police State Alert -- A quote...."This week and into next, NorthCom and NORAD are conducting a joint exercise called “Vigilant Shield ’09.” The focus will be on “homeland defense and civil support,” a NorthCom press release states."
also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/13-0
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Recruiters Losing The Battle At Home  ---  http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2008/11/11/recruiters-losing-the-battle-at-home/
A quote...."First, President Bush says he wants to increase the Army and Marines by 92,000. John McCain promised 100,000. Then Barack Obama gets on board with his proposal to add 65,000 soldiers to the Army, and 27,000 Marines. “Bolstering these forces is about more than meeting quotas. We must recruit the very best and invest in their capacity to succeed,” he said in his 2007 Foreign Affairs treatise."
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Border 'Scarecrows' Lampoon Immigration Hardliners  ---  http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/border-scarecro.html
First the spoof of the New York Times, now this, people are getting pretty creative out there. Good stinging satire....it's the only way to go. - mpg -- A quote..."Anonymous activists in Tucson, Arizona have been placing life-sized cutouts of Maricopa County’s notorious immigration hardliners on the streets of this close-to-the-border town. Here's one of these scarecrow scenes, featuring America’s self-described “toughest sheriff” Joe Arpaio. "Tucson police say they are investigating" the guerrilla art protest, according to AZfamily.com."
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Australian Web Filter To Block 10K Web Sites  ---  http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=12778
A quote...."AUSTRALIA'S mandatory net filter is being primed to block 10,000 websites as part of a blacklist of unspecified "unwanted content". -- Some 1300 websites have already been identified by the Australian Communications and Media Authority."
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The Worst Is Not Behind Us - From one of the guys who predicted it all, Nouriel Roubini. - mpg ---  http://www.truthout.org/111308U
Must Read - Financial Warning - A quote...."It is useful, at this juncture, to stand back and survey the economic landscape-both as it is now, and as it has been in recent months. So here is a summary of many of the points that I have made for the last few months on the outlook for the US and global economy, as well as for financial markets:"
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A Credit Crisis or a Collapsing Ponzi Scheme? - The Two Trillion Dollar Black Hole  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/martens11132008.html
Special Note - A quote...."Purge your mind for a moment about everything you've heard and read in the last decade about investing on Wall Street and think about the following business model:...." -- also posted at ICH   ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21210.htm
& BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2260-0-13-13--.html
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Canadian financial crisis is just as severe as that of the United States: Canadian and US Bank Bailouts are Equivalent --- http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/1889
A quote...." Let’s do some simple mathematics  to put things into perspective. -- The United States has a population of 303,824,640 and the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, commonly referred to as the $700 billion bailout of the US financial system, means that approximately $2,304 per capita will be donated to banking institutions, or should I say, be given to private banks so that they can maintain their stranglehold on citizens of the United States."
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With Its Failed Policies, Government Triggers "A Return of Systematic Risk to Credit Markets
  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/11/with-its-failed-policies-government.html
A quote...."It is not really a return of systematic risk. Rather - by refusing to take the bull by the horns to reign in credit derivatives and other toxic instruments - the government has ensured that the systematic risk was never solved. Instead of letting insolvent financial institutions which made wildly stupid and greedy bets fail - which is the necessary medicine - the Fed is propping up corrupt losers and encouraging them to be more corrupt and make worse investments in the future. Instead of letting the deleveraging fires burn out on their own with the minimum amount of damage possible, the government is trying to reverse the process, which will just fan the flames and make it more dangerous."
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October budget deficit hits record of $237.2B - And this is just the start of the red ink....just you wait and see. mpg
  ---  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/11/13/national/w110455S16.DTL
Special Note - A quote...."The federal government began the new budget year with a record deficit of $237.2 billion, reflecting the billions of dollars the government has started to pay out to rescue the financial system. -- The Treasury Department said Thursday that the deficit for the first month in the new budget year was the highest monthly imbalance on record. It was far bigger than analysts expected, over four times larger than the October 2007 deficit of $56.8 billion, and more than half the total for all of last year."
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Sarkozy Pushes for Abandonment of Dollar as World Reserve Currency
  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/11/sarkozy-pushes-for-abandonment-of.html
A quote...."French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday ahead of the G20 meeting of world leaders:

"I am leaving tomorrow for Washington to explain that the dollar cannot claim to be the only currency in the world..., that what was true in 1945 can no longer be true today". -- *Nicolas Sarkozy*, President of France
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Who Got Bailout Money So Far?  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21219.htm
A quote...."November 13, 2008  ---  The Treasury Department's $700 billion bailout plan, also known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), is one of the main U.S. tools to address the financial crisis."
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85,000 homes lost in October  ---  http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/13/real_estate/foreclosures_october/?postversion=2008111306
A quote...."As government and industry scramble to reverse the tide of foreclosures, filings jumped 25% in October." -- bold by website editor
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U.S. Jobless Claims Reach Seven-Year High of 516,000 (Update1) http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aYZezaUiLEr4&refer=home
A quote...."Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- First-time claims for U.S. unemployment insurance rose last week to the highest level since September 2001, when the economy was last in a recession, as weakening demand led companies to fire more workers."
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Insurers pull Cover form GM and Ford Suppliers  ---  http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/11/14/18228/insurers-pull-cover-from-gm-and-ford-suppliers/
Special Note - Full quote...."Troubled US carmakers GM and Ford have been given a potentially devastating vote of no confidence by three big European credit insurers, which have removed cover from their suppliers. The withdrawal of credit insurance – which covered suppliers against the risk of the automakers failing – has previously hastened the demise of a string of European companies. Euler Hermes, Atradius or Coface, which control more than 80% of the world’s credit insurance market, are refusing to write policies for suppliers trading with GM or Ford on credit. GM and Ford are two of the biggest groups ever to be blacklisted. The cut-off of cover will primarily affect the companies’ large operations in Europe, where the insurers do the bulk of their business. US suppliers largely operate without insurance. The move leaves three possible scenarios: GM and Ford can start paying upfront for goods; they can hope their suppliers will trade uninsured; or they could be unable to buy the parts they need for car production."
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Pound sinks to record low against the euro  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/pound-sinks-to-record-low-against-the-euro-1017940.html
A quote...."The reasons for sterling's weakness are not difficult to see. To some extent, it is simply an adjustment to the way the pound has been overvalued for years: its fair value is about $1.50, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. -- What's more, the UK is evidently headed for recession and the Bank of England is predicted to cut interest rates to historically low levels, maybe even below 1 per cent over the course of next year – the lowest level since the Bank was granted its charter in 1694." -- bold by website editor - Wow! Now that's making history. - mpg
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Wednesday November 12th 2008 - links page

Don't Let Barack Obama Break Your Heart  ---  http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175001/no_breathing_space_in_washington
Must Read - A quote...."On the day that Americans turned out in near record numbers to vote, a record was set halfway around the world. In Afghanistan, a U.S. Air Force strike wiped out about 40 people in a wedding party. This represented at least the sixth wedding party eradicated by American air power in Afghanistan and Iraq since December 2001. -- American planes have, in fact, taken out two brides in the last seven months. And don't try to bury your dead or mark their deaths ceremonially either, because funerals have been hit as well. Mind you, those planes, which have conducted 31% more air strikes in Afghanistan in support of U.S. troops this year, and the missile-armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) now making almost daily strikes across the border in Pakistan, remain part of George W. Bush's Air Force, but only until January 21, 2009. Then, they -- and all the brides and grooms of Afghanistan and in the Pakistani borderlands who care to have something more than the smallest of private weddings -- officially become the property of President Barack Obama." -- bold by website editor -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/12
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Obama’s Civil Defense Program Resembles Domestic Draft  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/obamas-civil-defense-program-resembles-domestic-draft.html
A quote...."A newly rediscovered 2006 audio clip has shed more light on Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama’s plan for compulsory community service and a “national civilian security force”. In an interview with Ben Smith of the New York Daily News, Emanuel outlined the agenda for military-style training, essentially a domestic draft, aimed at preparing Americans for a chemical or biological [false flag] terrorist.attack." -- bold by website editor. - So this is the guy that's going to be Obama's chief of staff, heh?  It's like some bad movie version of Freddy Krueger meets Predator, screaming, brainless, soon-to-be-dead-teenagers finally escape from the haunted house where they'd been trapped for eight, terrible, long, brutal, awful years and run off into the jungle....where the Predator awaits them.  It's all just so dumb...soon to become extreamly messy and gory with lots of additional screaming. - mpg
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Obama’s Grande Armada  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4001.shtml
A quote...."Obama the Fraud named former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (also known as Bloody Madeleine) as his emissary at the international economic summit in Washington. -- In 1996 Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: “We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?” - US Ambassador at the United Nations (soon to become Secretary of State) Madeleine Albright:I think this is a very hard choice, but the price -- we think the price is worth it.” CBS - “60 Minutes,” May 12, 1996" -- bold by website editor
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The Iraq Math War  ---  http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2008/11/witness-after-math.html
Special Note - Related Article -- A quote...."In early 1999, Les Roberts traveled to Bukavu, a city of more than 200,000 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (drc). The country's brutal civil war was in full swing, and a nearby region, Katana, had been largely cut off from the outside world for nearly a year. Roberts, a former Centers for Disease Control (cdc) epidemiologist who'd taken over as director of health policy for the International Rescue Committee, wanted to see how the locals were faring." -- For more on this issue see....Fake Intel / Propaganda - Iraq's Deaths
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/fakeintell-weblist-mpg-090206#IRAQDEATHS
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More than sixty groups call for revocation of presidential secrecy directive  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/2008/More_than_sixty_groups_call_for_1112.html
A quote...."More than 60 organizations called on President-elect Barack Obama Wednesday to revoke President George W. Bush's executive order on presidential secrecy and lift the veil in numerous areas of governmental furtiveness."
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Pranksters distribute fake New York Times declaring 'Iraq war over'  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/11/12-8
Must View - Special Note - Contains VideoThis is wonderful!!  mpg -- A quote...."The US defence department yesterday declared the end of the Iraq war and the immediate withdrawal of all troops, prompting an admission from Condoleezza Rice that the Bush administration knew all along that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, according to the New York Times."
Here's the video   ---  http://vimeo.com/2215007
Here's the website   ---  http://www.nytimes-se.com/
Here's the full PDF version  ---  http://www.nytimes-se.com/nytse/wp-content/uploads/NYTimes-SE_spreads.pdf
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Iraqi Soldier Reportedly Kills 2 G.I.’s  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/world/middleeast/13iraq.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
A quote...."An Iraqi Army officer and two soldiers who witnessed the attack provided a detailed account on the condition of anonymity, for fear of retribution from their commanders. -- They said an American military patrol stopped on Wednesday afternoon to inspect a post staffed by Iraqi soldiers in the predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhood of Zanjili, a notoriously violent part of Mosul. -- A heated argument ensued between one of the American soldiers and an Iraqi soldier identified as Barzan Mohammed Abdullah, prompting the American to curse at the Iraqi, spit in his face and slap him, the Iraqis said. The Iraqi soldier then opened fire on the Americans, they said, and other American soldiers responded with a barrage of gunfire at the Iraqi."
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Turkish President expresses concern over Iraq’s future  ---  http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2008-11-12%5Ckurd.htm
A quote...."The Turkish President is deeply concerned about the unity and stability of Iraq,” Bazzaz told reporters following the meeting. -  On the thorny issue of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, Bazzaz said: “Iraq is a miniature of the Middle East and Kirkuk in turn is a miniature of Iraq. Therefore, the city should not be a reason for problems whose consequences and outcomes are not known.” -  Kurds are working hard to annex the city to their semi-independent enclave in northern Iraq but are facing strong resistance from other ethnic minorities in the city such as Arabs and Turkmen."
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Olmert confess to prejudice against Arabs  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=75227&sectionid=351020202
A quote...."Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has admitted that there had been longtime discrimination against Arabs in occupied Palestine." -- No, no, no....they got the wrong guy - wrong name, wrong picture.  This can't have been Ehud "the only good one is a dead one" Olmert, no way, no how. - mpg
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Livni distances herself from Olmert comments on '67 borders  ---  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1036355.html
A quote...."Kadima Chairwoman and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni distanced herself Tuesday from outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's recent assertion that Israel needs to return to its pre-1967 borders." -- Look, look....they did it again, they keep using Ehud Olmert's name for sombody else. - mpg
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Israeli police evict Palestinian couple from home of 52 years - Another victory for Livni. - mpg  ---  http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=450034
A quote...."Israeli police have evicted a disabled Palestinian man and his wife from the home where they had lived for 52 years, in a Palestinian district of east Jerusalem which is now surrounded by hardline Jewish settlers. The eviction came after years of litigation which culminated in an Israeli supreme court ruling in July ordering them out of the house."
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Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts unravelling
  ---  http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/content/situation_reports/2008-11-08/israeli-palestinian-peace-efforts-unravelling/
She's only got a couple of months left yet good'ol "Calamity Condi" is still doing her level best to get more innocent Palestinians killed.  The woman sure seems to love her work, it must really give her that "special” thrill when she sees the results of what she's done. - mpg -- A quote...."U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a visit to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank, providing support to the latter in his ongoing confrontation with rival Hamas, while alsoWest Bank violence acknowledging the end of the Bush administration’s peace initiative.  Responsibility for the proposed peace deal will now rest with the Obama administration, prepared to take office in January during the very climax of Palestine’s looming constitutional crises.  Meanwhile, Israel and Palestinian militias in Gaza, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have exchanged fire across the Israel-Gaza border, breaking the five-month old ceasefire." -- For more on this issue see....US Sponsored Civil Wars - Palestine
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/ussponsoredcivilwars-weblist-mpg-101107#PALESTINE
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Robert Fisk: Double agents, car bombs and antics worthy of James Bond
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-double-agents-car-bombs-and-antics-worthy-of-james-bond-1015858.html
A quote...."When it comes to spy stories, Ian Fleming couldn't match Lebanon – and Sister Syria – for the kind of head-spinning espionage and murder mystery now engulfing the Levant. The contents page must include the murder of a prominent pro-Iranian kidnapper and guerrilla leader in Damascus, Israeli Mossad spies, bomb explosions in both Lebanon and Syria, claims that the pro-American son of an assassinated ex-prime minister in Beirut funds an Islamist killer group – not to mention an intriguing connection to the Lebanese hijacker of United Flight 93 on 11 September 2001. If the tale is even half-true – and I've had a visitation from a Syrian suggesting his countrymen believe quite a lot of it – there has to be a bid for the film rights." -- For more on this issue see....Al Qaeda - Always There for the US Elites 03-09-08 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/alqaedaalwaysthere4theuselites-blog-mpg-030908
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Compromise still possible on missile defence – Medvedev  ---  http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/33204
A quote...."President Medvedev has suggested there is still time for Moscow and Washington to reach a compromise over US plans to put anti-missile bases in Eastern Europe. Speaking to France’s Le Figaro newspaper, the Russian leader said he hoped the incoming Obama administration would take a more practical view on the issue."
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Crew member caused tragedy on Russian nuclear sub - investigators  ---  http://en.rian.ru/russia/20081113/118280454.html
A quote...."MOSCOW, November 13 (RIA Novosti) - A crew member activated without permission a fire safety system on board the Russian nuclear submarine Nerpa, causing the deaths of 20 people, investigators said on Thursday. "
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Japanese general hoisted by own canards  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/JK13Dh01.html
A quote...."The winner of an essay contest on Japanese history won the grand prize (and US$30,000) with a paper that, among other things, denied Japan's aggression against other Asian countries before and during World War II. Trouble is, the winning author was Japan's top air force commander. The general has been sacked, but Japan is wondering how many military minds think alike." -- It's sort'a funny if you think about it. - mpg
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GOP History: 100 Years of Crooks, Liars and Failures  ---  http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2008/11/gop-history-100-years-of-crooks-liars.html
A quote...."In a bit over 100 yeas, the GOP loosed upon an unsuspecting nation the likes of Calvin Coolige, Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bush Sr., and Bush Jr. Coolidge said little and did less. Harding died in the middle of a scandal --the Tea Pot Dome Scandal."
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Bush, Out of Office, Could Oppose Inquiries  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/washington/13inquire.html
A quote...."13 Nov 2008 When a Congressional committee subpoenaed Harry S. Truman in 1953, nearly a year after he left office, he made a startling claim: Even though he was no longer president, the Constitution still empowered him to block subpoenas... As Congressional Democrats prepare to move forward with investigations of the Bush regime, they wonder whether that claim may be invoked again. Topics of open investigations include the harsh interrogation torture of detainees, the prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, secret legal memorandums from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and the role of the former White House aides Karl Rove and Harriet E. Miers in the firing of federal prosecutors. [etc.]" -- Paragraph quoted from CLG  ---  http://www.legitgov.org/
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A Little Homework  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2008/11/12/a-little-homework/
A quote...."This is a theoretical det cord layout for the 66th Floor of the WTC North Tower. I am looking to understand if the towers were indeed demoed, then how would they have destroyed the concrete floor structures so completely. If you wish to read more about Det. cord and how it is used in the demolition process, go here to start with."
For more on this issue see....
9/11 - WTC7  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911-wtc7-weblist-mpg-082308
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Newspapers seek gov't documents in anthrax inquiry  ---  http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=451443
A quote...."Two newspapers asked a federal judge Wednesday to make public several documents relating to a former Army scientist who was named as a person of interest in the 2001 anthrax attacks and later exonerated."
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Army Corps of Engineers Scientist Initially Puzzled By Pentagon 9/11 Plane "Black Box" Discovery  ---  http://www.911blogger.com/node/18500
A quote...."During a recent "Discovery Channel" 9/11 anniversary broadcast, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers scientist expresses puzzlement regarding circumstances of the discovery of the flight data recorder "black box" allegedly belonging to American Airlines flight 77 at the Pentagon." -- For more on this issue see....9/11 - NORAD  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911norad-weblist-mpg-091308
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Eight RNC protesters accused of 'furthering terrorism' thanks to statute  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=75325
Here's a test for Obama after his inauguration -- and here's another thirty five tests
---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/seventeenacts-blog-mpg-111006  ---  when he finally chooses to uphold his sworn oath of office by protecting and defending the constitution of the United States of America instead of trying to prop up the New Roman Empire. - mpg -- A quote...."Eryn Trimmer sits in a Loring Park coffee shop and peers out the window to the street below. Dressed in a casual charcoal-colored sweater, with wispy blond hair, the gangly 23-year-old handyman resembles your typical coffeehouse regular. You'd hardly suspect he's an accused terrorist."
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Obama Won't Stop the Collapse of the American Empire  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/11/obama-wont-stop-collapse-of-american.html
Special Note - A quote...."Political insider and veteran reporter Kevin Phillips has documented that every major empire over the past several hundred years has undergone a predictable cycle of collapse, usually within 10 to 20 years of its peak power.  --  The indications are always the same:

- The financialization of the economy, moving from manufacturing to speculation;
- Very high levels of debt;
- Extreme economic inequality;
- And costly military overreaching.
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Washington's $5 Trillion Tab  ---  http://www.forbes.com/home/2008/11/12/paulson-bernanke-fed-biz-wall-cx_lm_1112bailout.html
Special Note - A quote...."Fighting the financial crisis has put the U.S. on the hook for some $5 trillion a report says. So far. -- For all the fury over Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700 billion emergency economic relief fund, it seems downright puny when compared to the running total of the government's response to the credit crisis."
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America's Economic Crisis Is Beyond The Reach of Traditional Solutions
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/America-s-Economic-Crisis-by-Paul-Craig-Roberts-081112-201.html
A quote...."I have no opposition to infrastructure projects, but who will finance the baseline trillion dollar US budget deficit plus the additional red ink spending on infrastructure? Not Americans.  The US savings rate is zero or negative.  Home mortgage foreclosures are in the millions.  Officially, US unemployment is 10 million, but if measured by pre-Clinton era standards unemployment is much higher.  Statistician John Williams, who measures the unemployment rate by the pre-Clinton standards concludes that the rate of US unemployment is about 15 percent.  President Clinton “reformed” the unemployment statistics by ceasing to count discouraged workers as unemployed."
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Who will finance America's deficit?  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JK13Dj01.html
Must Read - Financial Warning - Charts -- The United States government needs to borrow US$1 trillion a year, before a new stimulus package, or handouts for the auto industry, or healthcare reform, or a dozen other spending programs promised by the incoming administration of president-elect Barack Obama. Where will the Treasury find the money? - A bizarre jump in the US Treasury's real cost of borrowing points to severe market disruption if the Treasury deficit continues to rise. It appears that the Treasury market is also a victim of global de-leveraging. The new administration has far less budgetary flexibility that it seems to think." -- For more on this issue see below....
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A Parable and Its Opposite:
The Little Red Hen   ---  http://everything2.com/e2node/The%2520Little%2520Red%2520Hen  ---  versus - The Little Roman Empire

One day the Little Roman Empire found itself with huge amounts of debt.
 "Look look!" he clucked. "Who will help me pay this debt?"

"Not I", quacked the EU,  ---  http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union  ---  and he waddled away.
"Not I", oinked the PRC,  ---  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_of_China  ---  and he trotted away.
"Not I, meowed the GCC,  ---  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Cooperation_Council  ---  and he padded away.

"Then I will pay it myself," said the Little Roman Empire. And being unable to do so...
  he slowly starved to death. - mpg
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Merrill CEO says economic environment recalls 1929  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8013303
A quote...."NEW YORK, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch & Co Chief Executive John Thain said the global economy is in a deep slowdown and will not recover quickly, and the environment recalls 1929, the advent of the Great Depression."
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Global Economic Tremors  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10911
A quote...."At risk is the "legitimacy of the open market economy itself." It's wobbly and on life support because of what Roubini spotted early on. All having occurred or now happening. His 12-stage "systemic financial meltdown" scenario:"

(1) the worst ever US housing recession with prices falling up to 30% from their peak and matching their Great Depression decline; most recently Roubini thinks a 40% drop is likely with a market bottom still way off;

(2) the subprime disaster causing hundreds of billions in losses and throwing millions of homeowners into foreclosure;

(3) a sharp increase in other defaults - credit cards, auto and student loans, and other borrowing; add bank losses to the mix (including from their securitized assets), and we've got a severe credit crunch;

(4) monoline losses will mount more severely than expected and other writedowns will follow;....."
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Home values drop for 7th straight quarter
  ---  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081112/us_nm/us_usa_economy_housing;_ylt=Ao4xwuCEkW2ylg2MXvHSfXCs0NUE
A quote...."NEW YORK (Reuters) – Home values in the United States posted their seventh consecutive quarterly decline, with nearly one-third of Americans who sold in the past year losing money, real estate website Zillow.com said on Wednesday. Home values fell 9.7 percent year-over-year in the third quarter to a Zillow Home Value Index of $202,966, according to the third quarter Zillow Real Estate Market Reports, which encompass 163 metropolitan areas. Home values have dropped [only] a total 12.8 percent since the market peaked in 2006." -- That's the national average, however to get back to the historical mean the market has got to drop another 10% to 15% (as projected by many housing market experts). -- BUT!  -- The historical mean is called a mean because.... historically, i.e. over time.... the mean price, i.e. the price at any moment that half the houses are above and half below, has risen at an average rate.  This market is still above that average rate, but as it descends it isn't going to suddenly stop and rest at that average mean rate, it's going to shoot below, perhaps by a lot.  To put it bluntly, considering present economic circumstances, this market has one to two more years and a lot more price declines to go - mpg
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Grim Outlook: Moody's Sees Defaults Soaring  ---  http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/12587980/?f=rsspage
Financial Alert - A quote...."Moody's Investors Service warned that the speculative-grade corporate default rate will rise sharply through 2009 as the U.S. recession becomes deep and protracted. -- As a result, the default rate in this cycle will likely match or exceed the peak levels reached in the previous two U.S. recessions of 1990-91 and 2000-01."
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Bank of England: We'll slash interest rates to ZERO to rescue the economy
  ---  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1085038/Bank-England-Well-slash-rates-ZERO-rescue-economy.html
A quote...."Interest rates could be slashed to zero for the first time as the Bank of England battles the deepening recession. -- Governor Mervyn King said he is ready to reduce rates to ‘whatever level is necessary’ to counter the economic storm." - bold by website editor -- Does that mean Governor Mervyn King is going to go negative?  Pay people to borrow the Bank's money? It may eventually come to that. - mpg
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[It's Official] Germany in recession GDP contracts 0.5% in third quarter
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Germany-tumbles-recession-third-quarter/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7B795E0395-790F-4BCB-B908-5E41364BE6A5%7D
A quote...."LONDON (MarketWatch) -- German gross domestic product contracted in the third quarter, pushing Europe's largest economy into recession for the first time since 2003."
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Stocks Plunge Third Straight Session  ---  http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=12767
Financial Alert - A quote...."NEW YORK (AP) - A disheartened Wall Street fell for the third straight session Wednesday as investors absorbed another series of dismal corporate reports and news that the government won't buy banks' soured mortgage assets after all." -- Editors Market Tech Note: -- The Dow, NASDAQ and the S&P 500 have all touched down almost exactly were they were several weeks ago, making the second bottom of a possible "W" formation.  If it breaks through here and hits what might well be a substantial number of sell stops below this support level, you could see a significant plunge that ends with a substantial loss (less likely), possibly followed by a corresponding rise as the specialists move in to buy stocks on the cheap (more likely) -- on the other hand you could see a significant bounce from the get-go forming a full "W" formation. (unknown) Your "guess" is as good as this website editor's, very probably it’s a lot better.  In either case the economy is headed for a severe, long term, recession (at best). - mpg
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Getting it right and still losing
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/some-advisers-lose-big-despite/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7BD1D98B9B-F8A6-4174-9563-38B2439A6090%7D&dist=morenews
Must Read - A cautionary tale of woe for all those who try to predict the market. - mpg -- A quote...." Just ask Harry Schultz. Or Howard Ruff. Or Jim Dines.  --  All three advisers, each of whom has been editing an investment newsletter at least since the 1970s, have built their investment careers by questioning conventional wisdom's trust in the soundness of the financial system. Not surprisingly, all three have been vociferous champions of gold and other precious metals.  --  You'd think that they would have cleaned up over the last year, since the disintegration of the financial system in recent months is almost exactly what they have been warning us about for decades.  --  But you'd be wrong."
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U.S. billionaire club goes bust - This website editor weeps for them, a tragedy for billionaires everywhere. - mpg
  ---  http://en.rian.ru/world/20081113/118281896.html
A quote...."NEW YORK, November 13 (RIA Novosti) - A U.S. gated resort community for billionaires has filed for bankruptcy, the Forbes magazine has said. -- Yellowstone Club, located in Montana's Gallatin Mountains, is one of the world's most exclusive clubs. It counts Microsoft's Bill Gates among its members and offers prime ski-slopes and golf courses. -- "Even a company with billionaire clients can't stay financed in these lean times," Forbes commented."
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