Israel handed new option in attacking Iran
A prominent US think tank has advised Israel to use ballistic missiles against Iran's nuclear sites after deciding on a pre-emptive strike.
Democrats Finally Waking Up to the Ongoing Looting of the Economy
Just as a certain percentage of republicans refused to admit that rotten things were happening under the Bush administration, many democrats have fought to defend the Obama administration against charges of mishandling the response to the economic crisis.
Of Patriots and Assassins
By Patrick J. Buchanan
During Nixon’s historic trip to China in 1972, his interpreter and I, free for a few hours, conscripted a driver to take us on a tour of Beijing. Somewhere in my files are photos from that day we toured the grim city of Chairman Mao in the time of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
The interpreter: Charles Freeman the same Charles Freeman Adm. Dennis Blair chose to chair the National Intelligence Council that prepares National Intelligence Estimates on critical national security issues such as Iran’s nuclear program.
Obama Received a $101,332 Bonus from AIG
Senator Barack Obama received a $101,332 bonus from American International Group in the form of political contributions according to Opensecrets.org. The two biggest Congressional recipients of bonuses from the A.I.G. are - Senators Chris Dodd and Senator Barack Obama.
Washington Post Shows Its Hand
By Philip Giraldi
"The Washington Post is apparently losing lots of money and may close in the foreseeable future, barring a deus ex machina intervention by some foreign billionaire such as saved the New York Times. While the decline of newspapers worldwide is regrettable, the Post's troubles are really good news, and bankruptcy would be a richly deserved fate for a rag that has been an enabler of every neocon fantasy for the past 20 years. Imagine no longer having to enjoy Charles Krauthammer, Fred Kagan, John Bolton, Bill Kristol, and Robert Kaplan with your morning coffee.
CNBC guest calls for World Bank and Currency
Pushing the agenda for a World Bank and World Currency, favoured CNBC guest Stephen Gallo gives talking points that support the idea of a Global World Central Bank. This would be a huge win for the elite and pushing forward for a World Currency and a one World Government.
The Real AIG Scandal
Everybody is rushing to condemn AIG's bonuses, but this simple scandal is obscuring the real disgrace at the insurance giant: Why are AIG's counterparties getting paid back in full, to the tune of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars?
We may as well ban Wikipedia
A draconian beefing-up of copyright law is a colossal cultural mistake, and ignores all the lessons of the internet's success
The Fed Did Indeed Cause the Housing Bubble
By Catherine Austin Fitts
My company served as lead financial advisor to the Federal Housing Administration between 1994 and 1997. I watched both the Administration and the Federal Reserve aggressively implement the policies that engineered the housing bubble
73 AIG employees got at least $1 million, Cuomo says
Failed insurance giant American International Group Inc. paid "retention" bonuses of more than $1 million to 73 employees, including 11 who no longer work at the company, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday as political and public anger over the bonuses mounted.
Amid AIG Furor, Dodd Tries to Undo Bonus Protections He Put In
Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group bonus recipients so the government could recoup some or all of the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit. Within hours, the idea spread to both houses of Congress, with lawmakers proposing an AIG bonus tax.
Obama Opens Secret Laboratories to Germany
The Americans have always kept their research into anti-terrorism technologies top secret -- until now. A new treaty between Germany and the US will give German scientists access to highly restricted laboratories.
Leading World Judges Seek Independent Probe Into Gaza War
Prominent international judges and investigators have called on the United Nations to launch an immediate and independent probe into allegations of war crimes committed in the latest Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, saying that "finding the truth about the Gaza war" should bring justice for the civilian victims.
Up go the barricades as universities voice anger at Sarkozy
Strikes and protests by lecturers and students which have disrupted French universities for six weeks are threatening to turn violent and merge with broader anger against President Nicolas Sarkozy's reforms and the economic crisis.
That might sound bizarre until you notice the continuity of policy on crucial issues such as the economy and immigration. Remarkably, under Obama, much of the conventional wisdom of the Bush years continues to reign unquestioned.
ODDER THAN OZ
By Hugh Downs
What do you suppose Alan Greenspan, Judy Garland, and the American Civil war have in common? Give up? They are all connected to turn-of-the-century U.S. monetary policy, of course!
Scientists aim to replicate the sun
Scientists in California say they're trying to replicate the power of the sun by firing laser beams at a tiny pellet of hydrogen.
Banned hyperlinks could cost you $11,000 a day
The Australian communications regulator says it will fine people who hyperlink to sites on its blacklist, which has been further expanded to include several pages on the anonymous whistleblower site Wikilea
Inside the small brick building across from the courthouse, inmates had the run of the place, having sex with their jailer girlfriends, bringing in recliners, taking drugs and chatting on cell phones supplied by friends or guards, according to authorities. They also disabled some of the surveillance cameras and made weapons out of nails.
Israel's national security aide barred from U.S.
Uzi Arad, who is expected to serve as national security adviser in the next Israeli government, has been barred from entering the United States for nearly two years on the grounds that he is an intelligence risk.
Treasurys Are 'Disaster Waiting to Happen': Dr. Doom
The Federal Reserve has no option but to start buying Treasurys as the government's needs for financing are huge, but the government bond market is a disaster in the making, Marc Faber, editor and publisher of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, told CNBC.
Bernanke May Need to Ramp Up Fed’s Asset Purchases
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Federal Reserve policy makers may have to ramp up their purchases of mortgage securities and other assets after the economy and job market deteriorated further since they last met.
Fox’s Fox & Friends: Lawmaker wants drug testing for unemployed workers
A Florida lawmaker has introduced a bill that would require workers applying for unemployment benefits be randomly tested for using drugs. Florida State Senator Mike Bennett told Foxs Steve Doocy that Florida is running out of unemployment money and wants to make sure that only those that are able to work get unemployment payments. it was nothing against the people who were using the drugs, Bennett said.
Number of Young Girls on Diabetes Drugs Skyrockets 147 Percent
The number of girls between the ages of 5 and 19 taking prescription drugs for diabetes increased 147 percent between 2002 and 2005, according to a study conducted by researchers from Saint Louis University School of Medicine, the Kansas Health Institute, and the private company Express Scripts, and published in the journal Pediatrics.
IDF chief: Strike on Iran a concrete option
IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, who is on an official visit to the United States, told his American colleagues Monday that the Iranian threat could still be handled via sanctions, but stressed that an Israeli military strike was a "serious" option.
72 percent of Britons want Iraq war inquiry
The vast majority of Britons want an inquiry into the 2003 invasion of Iraq and most are also unconvinced by the government’s arguments for the conflict in Afghanistan, according to a survey on Monday.
US kicks Iran war prep into high gear
Just days after the top US commander sketched out plans to strike Iran, the US military claims Tehran sent a drone into Iraq in February.
Has a Comedian Just Saved America?
By Pam Martens
As testimony to how Orwellian life has become under the outrages of Wall Street hubris, last week saw a comedian, who poses as an anchor on a fake news show, grab the reins of the Wall Street investigation from the actual investigators in Congress
Obama Touts $3.6 Trillion Budget
President Obama today offered a strong pitch and preemptive defense of his budget proposal, calling it an "economic blueprint for our future, a foundation on which to build a recovery that lasts."
Bailouts Are Taxation Without Representation
What are the bailouts other than taxation without representation? Taxpayer money (directly or through inflation) will be used to pay off government debts incurred to bailout AIG, Citigroup, Bank of America, and everyone else.
Ex-1970s radical set to be freed from prison
Sara Jane Olson, a 1970s radical who assumed a new identity as a Minnesota housewife and spent a quarter century as a fugitive, is to be released from prison Tuesday this time correctly.
Justice Thomas: Americans don't sacrifice as much
Americans today are self-indulgent and don't make the sacrifices that their parents and grandparents did, and the nation's leaders don't ask people to act for the higher good, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said Monday at a Virginia college in a rare public speech.
German Chancellor Merkel Calls for Raids on Homes & Offices
German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded even tougher gun control measures relating to storage of firearms and ammunition in Germany. With an audacity that defies belief the former East German communist also called for unannounced raids on homes and offices of registered firearm owners.
AIG May Have to Reveal More Bonus Data, Faces Cuomo Subpoena
American International Group Inc., the U.S. insurer that’s been bailed out four times by taxpayers, may have to reveal more details of $165 million of bonus payouts after criticism by President Barack Obama and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
Obama to Test Fundraising Skills Amid ‘Donor Fatigue,’ Crisis
President Barack Obama will headline the first fundraiser of his presidency this month, appealing to donors large and small even as the economy struggles through the worst recession in generations.
Reinstatement of Pakistan’s Chief Justice Ends a Crisis
A relieved US has credited Pakistani leaders for defusing the growing crisis over reinstatement of the former chief justice, downplaying its own role in the compromise and denying any arm-twisting over aid
Madagascar soldiers seize palace
Soldiers have seized one of the palaces of embattled Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana in the centre of the capital Antananarivo.
Explosions and gunfire erupted as tanks smashed the palace gates. The central bank was also reportedly taken.
Tenth Amendment Movement: Taking On the Feds
We Americans are expected to play by the rules to obey traffic regulations, pay taxes, observe zoning ordinances in short, to abide by the law. If we don’t, we may find ourselves fined or even jailed. Our federal government is also expected to abide by rules in its case, the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution specifies which powers the federal government may exercise, and forbids any others. The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution is explicit: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
The American Legion Strongly Opposed to President's Plan to Charge Wounded Heroes for Treatment
The leader of the nation's largest veterans organization says he is "deeply disappointed and concerned" after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries. The Obama administration recently revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in such cases.
Remember Rachel Corrie: Statement from the family of Rachel Corrie
We thank all who continue to remember Rachel and those who, on this sixth anniversary of her stand in Gaza, renew their own commitments to human rights, justice and peace in the Middle East. The tributes and actions in her memory are a source of inspiration to us and to others.
Kucinich Requests Investigation into “Executive Assassination Ring”
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) Friday sent a letter to Chairman Edolphus Towns of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requesting an immediate investigation into allegations made by the investigative reporter Seymour Hersh that the White House operated an ‘executive assassination ring’ that circumvented Congressional oversight.
The next Web of open, linked data
20 years ago, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. For his next project, he's building a web for open, linked data that could do for numbers what the Web did for words, pictures, video: unlock our data and reframe the way we use it together.
Earmarks Don't Add Up
By Ron Paul
Earmarks seem to be the hot topic this week, and as a fiscal conservative I am dismayed so many people deliberately distort the earmarking process and grandstand to make political points. It is an easy thing to do with earmarks. It takes a little more time and patience to grasp the reality of what earmarks really are.
Obama wants to cut carbon dioxide emissions 80 percent by 2050. He’s got his work cut out for him. Not only are hundreds of credible climate scientists now publicly debunking former Vice-President Al Gore’s claims of apocalyptic environmental disaster, a new Gallup poll reveals that 41 percent of Americans believe such alarms are exaggerated
House conservatives seek Patriot Act extension
More than a dozen of the GOP’s most conservative members on Thursday introduced a bill to reauthorize controversial Patriot Act provisions set to expire later this year.
Mortgage Fraud Rises Even as Loans Decline
Mortgage fraud rose last year even though fewer loans were issued nationwide, and Maryland ranked among the top five states with the most serious problems, according to an industry study released today.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer to go Web only
Seattle will be a one-newspaper town after Tuesday, when the 146-year-old Seattle Post-Intelligencer prints its last edition.
Researchers find ways to sniff keystrokes from thin air
That PC keyboard you're using may be giving away your passwords. Researchers say they've discovered new ways to read what you're typing by aiming special wireless or laser equipment at the keyboard or by simply plugging into a nearby electrical socket.
U.S. output plummets, manufacturing at record low
U.S. industrial output fell to its lowest level in almost seven years in February and manufacturing in New York state slumped further this month, according to data released on Monday that pointed to a deteriorating economy.
Free Our Food
Now more than ever are we seeing that growing our own food not only has environmental but self-empowering implications. When we take back our food we take back our lives.
450 MILLION in AIG Bonuses to be paid, not the reported 150 million
While the MSM is reporting that AIG bonuses are "only" in the 150 million dollar range , Amy Goodman of Democracy Now brings us the real number, 450 MILLION and the mealy-mouthed apology issued for this travesty by Oboma insider Larry Summers.
AIG's Not Very Transparent List of Counterparties
It's good that AIG has released a list of its counterparties. But if it really believes in "the importance of upholding a high degree of transparency with respect to the use of public funds", this is a very odd way of releasing the information.
Bernard Madoff's winning clients try to block victims
nvestors are stashing profits that they made from Bernard Madoff’s $65 billion (£47 billion) Ponzi scheme as the trustee of the phoney funds gears up to claw back cash to compensate hard-up victims.
Obama urges all legal means to stop AIG bonuses
President Barack Obama told Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to take all legal measures to block hefty bonuses awarded to employees of AIG, the insurance company that received up to $180 billion in bailout money, a White House adviser said on Monday. The incompetent politicians should not have given AIG bailout money in the first place!
AIG Bonuses Add to Potential for Public Revolt against Wall Street, Federal Reserve
When AIG took more than $170 billion in bailout money from the Federal Reserve, it insisted it was so poor that only emergency funding of public money could save it. That was before AIG revealed it was "contractually obliged" to pay $165 million in bonuses to its executives. Which executives, exactly? The ones who lost all the money in the first place!
AIG Says $105 Billion Flowed to Banks, U.S. States
American International Group Inc., under pressure to reveal how it spent taxpayer funds since the September bailout, said $105 billion flowed to U.S. states and banks led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Societe Generale SA and Deutsche Bank AG.
Banks that bought credit-default swaps or traded securities with AIG got $22.4 billion in collateral, $27.1 billion in payments from a U.S. entity to retire the derivatives, and $43.7 billion tied to the securities-lending program, AIG said yesterday in a statement. States, including California and Virginia, got $12.1 billion tied to guaranteed investment contracts.
Human Rights Groups Ask: Is this the Change We Can Believe In?
Human rights activists and Constitutional law experts were virtually unanimous in their condemnation of the positions taken on prisoner detention and treatment in Federal Court last week by President Barack Obama's Department of Justice, which one group described as "a case of old wine in new bottles."
While the DOJ announced it would no longer use the term "enemy combatants" - one of the Bush Administration's signature phrases - and distanced itself from Bush-era claims of unlimited Presidential power, government lawyers urged the court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by four former Guantanamo detainees because "aliens held at Guantanamo do not have due process rights."
Think recession's bad? Try a cataclysm!
There is a growing list of educated people predicting the trillions of dollars spent by governments around the world to stimulate a moribund economy will not work.
Dollars from dirt: Economy spurs home garden boom
With the recession in full swing, many Americans are returning to their roots literally cultivating vegetables in their backyards to squeeze every penny out of their food budget.
Cheney: Obama responsible for next 9/11
US President Barack Obama's decisions against Bush's "war on terror" policies would cause another 9/11, says former vice president Dick Cheney.
Thousands gather for 'Tea Party'
Dawna Frost had a simple message for anyone who glanced her way: “I live off what I make. Government needs to live on what they already take.”
The Mason resident was one of thousands who showed up Sunday at Fountain Square for the Cincinnati Tea Party, a grass-roots effort designed to show disapproval for “wasteful government spending.”
When Is It Going To Be Enough, America?
By Lorie Kramer
When is it going to be enough? Haven't you been disrespected, marginalized, misdirected, demeaned, disregarded, ignored, insulted, bullshitted, deliberately misinformed, uninformed, manipulated, controlled, cheated, lied to, poisoned, killed…and generally just plane old screwed for long enough? I'm really starting to wonder about you. Why isn't all that enough for you America? Yoo Hoo! Are you in there?
Unarmed Student Shot For Smoking Marijuana (With Video)
A Grand Valley State University student shot by an Ottawa County deputy told his parents he lifted his right arm to cover his eyes from a bright flashlight when the shot was fired.
Sick 'downer' cows permanently banned from food supply
The government on Saturday permanently banned the slaughter of cows too sick or weak to stand on their own, seeking to further minimize the chance that mad cow disease could enter the food supply.
Fed-up Americans mobilize: More than 150 tea parties
A revolution is brewing as American patriots and advocates of the free-market system unite in protest against out-of-control government spending – with a wildfire movement of more than 150 nationwide tea parties.
Credit Card Cancer
By Peter Schiff
This week, with his pronouncement that “credit is the lifeblood of a healthy economy,” President Obama reiterated what has been one of his most common themes in diagnosing our economic problem. The president has relied on this bedrock belief to propose policies that place the restoration of credit as the highest priority. However, despite his seemingly earnest intentions, the president and his economic advisors have misdiagnosed the ailment. Savings, not credit, is the lifeblood of a healthy economy. When not used properly credit can be like a cancer that sickens an otherwise healthy economy.
United States Economic Collapse Facing Its Weimar Moment
By Robert Freeman
The U.S. faces a similar "Weimar Moment." The devastating collapse of the economy after eight years of Republican rule has left the leadership, policies, and ideology of the right utterly discredited. But, as was the case with Germany in 1919, Republicans do not intend to allow the new government to succeed. They will do everything they can to undermine it. If they are successful, the U.S. may yet go the way of Weimar Germany.
Another twist for the unemployed: Debit card fees
If you're out of work like Steve Lippe, who was laid off from his job as a salesman in January, you know you already have problems. But looking at the fine print that came with his new unemployment debit card, he became livid.
Beijing raises stakes with tit-for-tat deployment in South China Sea
Beijing has increased tension in a disputed part of the South China Sea by sending a patrol ship to protect fishing boats after the United States deployed a destroyer in the area. The American move was in response to alleged Chinese harassment of one of its surveillance vessels.
Al-CIA-da: Bin Laden audio calls Arab leaders traitors
Al Jazeera was the recipient of another audio tape from Al Qaeda in which Osama bin Laden shows great disappointment with some of the Arab leaders of the Middle East.
Flashback - Swiss scientists 95% sure that Bin Laden recording was fake
Scientists in Switzerland say they are almost certain that a recent audio tape attributed to Osama bin Laden is a fake.
The tape, delivered to the Arab satellite television channel al-Jazeera earlier this month, appeared to provide the first concrete evidence that Bin Laden is still alive because it mentioned recent attacks on western targets.
Chief Justice Roberts accepts Obama 'eligibility' petition
According to Orly Taitz, the attorney who confronted Chief Justice John Roberts at a lecture at the University of Idaho, the judge promised before the gathered crowd that he would, indeed, read and review the briefs and petition.
Mullen sketches out 'US strike' on Iran
The top US military commander describes how Washington would engage Iran militarily amid simmering talks of war on the country.
OPEC bows to weak economy, Obama effect
OPEC's decision on Sunday to resist new supply cuts laid the ground not just for cheaper oil to help heal the economy, but for warmer relations with the world's biggest energy consumer.
U.S. military outreach to Mexico likely to upset . . . Mexicans
As the Pentagon eyes a bigger role in Mexico's drug war, the military's efforts to open the door to a new relationship with its southern neighbor risks alienating the Mexican military, which has long had a strained relationship with its counterpart, experts said.
Claims of British collusion in torture spread to Egypt
Allegations of British collusion in torture have widened to Egypt, where a young British man says he suffered appalling mistreatment during a week of illegal detention while being interrogated on the basis of information that he says can only have come from the UK.
Militants torch NATO trucks in Pakistan
Taliban militants in north-western Pakistan have torched eight trucks carrying supplies for NATO forces in neighbouring Afghanistan in a pre-dawn attack, police said.
'Anticipated' civil unrest may force June elections in Ireland
The country is facing the prospect of a general election on June 5 in the wake of three months of political turmoil and possible civil unrest following the emergency budget, according to former Fianna Fail strategist Noel Whelan.
Red Cross report describes "torture" at CIA jails
The International Committee of the Red Cross concludes in a secret report that the Bush administration's treatment of al-Qaeda captives in CIA prisons "constituted torture," The Washington Post reported on Monday, citing newly published excerpts from the 2007 document.
Greek Group That Targeted Citigroup Warns of Plan for Revolt
Greece’s Revolutionary Struggle, the group that said it targeted two branches of Citigroup Inc. in Athens, warned it will use the global financial crisis to spur a revolt that will end capitalism.
Entrapment becoming standard procedure for police
What do we want in Canada - police or secret police? It’s through the expansion of techniques such as this that the ranks of the STASI swell until they devour a culture.
Pakistan's Sharif leads massive anti-government rally
Pakistan's top opposition leader Nawaz Sharif Sunday, in apparent defiance of his alleged house arrest, broke through multiple cordons, and was leading a massive anti-government rally that is heading towards capital Islamabad.
No one learned a lesson from the Bank of Crooks and Criminals
It may well be that when all the evidence has been heard and judges have pronounced their verdict that Bernard Madoff does get the gold medal for having masterminded the biggest "ponzi" scheme in history thus far with a take of $50 billion US.
But that prize, if awarded, should not detract from the flair, elan and bravado that surrounded the exploits of Pakistan's legendary Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) or Bank of Crooks and Criminals International as it was known, in the 1980s. Order your emergency storable food supply today at eFoodsDirect.com!
