States consider selling off roads, parks
Minnesota is deep in the hole financially, but the state still owns a premier golf resort, a sprawling amateur sports complex, a big airport, a major zoo and land holdings the size of the Central American country of Belize.
Valuables like these are in for a closer look as 44 states cope with deficits.
Like families pawning the silver to get through a tight spot, states such as Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts and Illinois are thinking of selling or leasing toll roads, parks, lotteries and other assets to raise desperately needed cash.
Suffering Ohio begs for federal lifeline
As the economy sputters and tax revenue plummets, governors and mayors across the United States are lining up to ask President-elect Barack Obama and the new Congress for hundreds of billions of dollars to plug holes in their budgets, arguing that services will suffer and joblessness will rise if Washington does not come to the rescue.
We're saving $1Billion a day on gas
Americans are paying $1 billion less per day for gasoline now compared with mid-July, when the national average price was more than $4 per gallon, an energy analyst says.
Economy 'on knife-edge' as Japan faces deflation fear
Japan’s economy the second-largest in the world and a barometer of global consumer demand was described yesterday as being “on a knife-edge” amid fears that it might plum- met into deflation within months.
Stalin's new status in Russia
The former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin may have killed millions of his own people but this weekend he could be chosen by Russians as their greatest-ever countryman.
Higher Wages or Bubblenomics: What's it gonna be?
By Mike Whitney
A strong economy must be built on a solid foundation of steadily rising wages. If wages don't keep pace with production, the only way the economy can grow is through the expansion of debt, which leads to disaster.
Scores killed in Israeli assault on Gaza
Israeli warplanes and helicopters pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least 208 people in one of the bloodiest days for the Palestinians in 60 years of conflict with the Jewish state.
Internet sites could be given 'cinema-style age ratings', Culture Secretary says
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Andy Burnham says he believes that new standards of decency need to be applied to the web. He is planning to negotiate with Barack Obama’s incoming American administration to draw up new international rules for English language websites.
En Route to Military Rule
By William Norman Grigg
Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a time, give way to its dictates.
Obama and the Graveyard of Empires
By Gary Leupp
Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen is reportedly recommending to President-Elect Obama that the U.S. increase by 30,000 its current force of 32,000 in Afghanistan. That, as Robert Dreyfuss points out in a recent column, is about 20,000 more troops than Obama was proposing while on the campaign trail.
Legitimacy Dwindles
What seems to spook people now is the possibility that everybody in charge of everything is a fraud or a crook. Legitimacy has left the system.
Ponzi Nation
America has become more a debt 'junkie' - - than ever before
with total debt of $53 Trillion - - and the highest debt ratio in history.
That's $175,154 per man, woman and child - - or $700,616 per family of 4,
$33,781 more debt per family than last year.
New York's Soda Tax Scam
New York Governor David Paterson has proposed to levy an 18 percent tax on non-diet soft drinks under the guise of combating obesity. Government doesn’t get much more cynical than this.
Too many questions still unanswered: Benazir’s assassination
As millions of PPP supporters across the country mark the first death anniversary of their leader Benazir Bhutto on Saturday, mystery still surrounds the manner in which she was killed, the motive for the assassination and the identity of the mastermind of the attack that rocked the country.
Israel kills 225 in air strikes on Gaza Strip
Israel hammered Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least 225 people in retaliation for rocket fire, in one of the bloodiest days of the decades-long Middle East conflict.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said ‘Operation Cast Lead,’ which has also left some 700 wounded, will continue ‘as long as necessary.’
International Witnesses speak out from Gaza
Human Rights Defenders from Lebanon, the UK, Poland, Canada, Spain, Italy and Australia are present in Gaza and are witnessing and documenting the current Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Poll: 75% glad Bush is done
A new national poll suggests that three out of four Americans feel President Bush's departure from office is coming not a moment too soon.
40 Techniques of the Illuminati
By Gianni DeVincent Hayes, Ph.D
Americans are possessed with ennui and malaise, and worst of all, fears. Perhaps these conditions explain the rash of suicides, the campus murders, the weariness, the failure to act on others’ behalf, the inertia and apathy, and the near lack of humanism.
Australia: Growing opposition to Labor’s Internet censorship
More than 2,000 opponents of the federal Labor government's plans to censor the Internet rallied in cities across Australia on December 13 the second national protest in the past two months.
Tennessee Ash Flood Larger Than Initial Estimate
A coal ash spill in eastern Tennessee that experts were already calling the largest environmental disaster of its kind in the United States is more than three times as large as initially estimated, according to an updated survey by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
A Computer Inside A Molecule
Over the last 60 years, ever-smaller generations of transistors have driven exponential growth in computing power. Could molecules, each turned into miniscule computer components, trigger even greater growth in computing over the next 60?
Barack Obama: The Naked Emperor
By David Icke
I am writing this in the last days of 2008 as I watch with dismay as vast numbers of people across the world, including many who should know better, have been duped by the mind-game called Operation Obama. Even people with some understanding of the conspiracy have said things like: 'Well, at least he's not Bush' and 'Well, at least it's great to see such a new spirit of hope'. No, he's not Bush - he's potentially far more dangerous; and what is the use of a spirit of 'hope' if it's based on a lie? In fact, what use is 'hope' at all?
MADOFF TRAIL LEADS TO WASHINGTON
Let me run that by you again. Mr. Markopolos, a private citizen, uses his personal time and energy over a seven year period to document a fraud occurring under the nose of the SEC that could impact the international reputation of the United States along with the financial well being of pensioners, university endowments, foundations and private investors. After losing track of the case for five years, the SEC finally gets around to investigating using taxpayers’ monies. They come up with nothing despite being given a perfect path to follow to the fraud. And their final suggestion for dealing with the investigation is to destroy the files! With regulators like these, who needs Ponzi artists? "
The Federal Reserve Abolition Act
By Stephen Lendman
On June 15, 2007, Ron Paul introduced HR 2755: Federal Reserve Abolition Act. There were no co-sponsors, no further action was taken, and the legislation was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services and effectively pigeonholed and ignored.
Police use excessive force, ER docs say
In a survey of a random sample of U.S. emergency physicians, virtually all said they believed that law enforcement officers use excessive force to arrest and detain suspects.
Pakistan cancels troops' leave over India tension
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met military chiefs on Friday and Pakistan canceled army leave and moved some troops from its western border despite both sides playing down the threat of war over the Mumbai attacks.
Will the U.S. Break Up?
The larger and more complex a system, the more likely it is to break down. Something like a simple pendulum with few moving parts could last many years. But very large, complicated things like the Large Hadron Collider break down much more quickly.
GM Advances as Fed Approval of GMAC Bank Bid Boosts Loan Access
General Motors Corp., poised to get at least $9.4 billion in U.S. aid, gained as much as 15 percent in New York trading after the Federal Reserve approved lender GMAC LLC’s bid to become a bank holding company.
Little Blue Pills Among the Ways CIA Wins Friends in Afghanistan
The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.
Amateurs Give Genetic Engineering A Try
The Apple computer was invented in a garage. Same with the Google search engine. Now, tinkerers are working at home with the basic building blocks of life itself.
Mixed reviews for Ahmadinejad Xmas speech
President Ahmadinejad delivered an exclusive Christmas day address on British Television in a counterpoint to the traditional broadcast by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
In his channel 4 speech, President Ahmadinejad congratulated Christians on the birth anniversary of Jesus Christ, urging his followers to pay heed to the message of love, justice and unity that Jesus represented.
Japan Factory Output Has Biggest Fall on Record
Japan's contracting economy got a slew of bad news Friday when government figures showed that industrial production plunged by its biggest margin on record in November, the jobless rate jumped and household spending fell.
Peres hopes Obama doesn't talk to Iran right away
US president-elect Barack Obama should put aside plans to hold high-level talks with Iran until the Islamic republic's elections, Israeli President Shimon Peres said in remarks published Friday.
Holiday Sales in U.S. Fell as Much as 4%, SpendingPulse Says
U.S. retail sales fell as much as 4 percent this holiday season as consumers limited purchases to necessities and cut back on clothing, electronics and jewelry, according to SpendingPulse.
Homeland Security forecasts 5-year threat picture
The terrorism threat to the United States over the next five years will be driven by instability in the Middle East and Africa, persistent challenges to border security and increasing Internet savvy, says a new intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated P
Riots push Greece to the edge
Pulsating punk rock was stoking up the black-clad army of students outside the University of Athens, as, yet again, they prepared to march on parliament.
Bilderberg Group in conspiracy to start war against Iran as planned since 1999, fears Ahmadineyad
The Islamic Republic in Iran is facing "a sinister international conspiracy" designed to "replace religious rule with secularism." The plot was allegedly hatched by a "secret society of Freemasons" known as the Bilderberg Group whose members include many of the Western world's richest and most powerful businessmen and politicians.
US police could get 'pain beam' weapons
The research arm of the US Department of Justice is working on two portable non-lethal weapons that inflict pain from a distance using beams of laser light or microwaves, with the intention of putting them into the hands of police to subdue suspects.
Revenge of Snowzilla
Several weeks ago, city code enforcers acting when this year's giant snowman was half-complete declared Snowzilla a nuisance and a safety hazard.
Princeton Physicist Calls Global Warming Science "Mistaken
Noted energy expert and Princeton physicist Dr. Will Happer has sharply criticized global warming alarmism. Happer, author of over 200 scientific papers and a past director of energy research at the Department of Energy, called fears over global warming "mistaken".
Bush revokes pardon issued a day earlier
President George W. Bush took the very rare step Wednesday of revoking a pardon he had granted only a day before, after learning in news reports of political contributions to Republicans by the man's father and other information.
Ahmadinejad: Jesus would stand with oppressed
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's upcoming Christmas message will say Jesus would be a defender of the oppressed if he were alive today.
Lou Dobbs reporting on how Globalist/Bilderberg/CFR puppet Obama is appointing the same people from the Bush administration that were behind the original secretive and treasonous SPP agreement/North American Union and the NAFTA superhighway (that supposedly "didn't exist".)
Japan Should Scrap U.S. Debt; Dollar May Plummet, Mikuni Says
Japan should write-off its holdings of Treasuries because the U.S. government will struggle to finance increasing debt levels needed to dig the economy out of recession, said Akio Mikuni, president of credit ratings agency Mikuni & Co.
US ARMY READY IF THE DOWNTURN GETS OUT OF HAND
The US Army War College is on the case - ready to handle "unforeseen economic collapse" and the "rapid dissolution of public order in all or significant parts of the US."
U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Rise to 26-Year High
The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week rose to a 26-year high, indicating employers are stepping up job cuts as the recession deepens.
The legislation has been a priority of business groups, which contend that some companies will have to freeze pension plans, lay off workers or even go bankrupt without the relief.
Russia to raise nuclear missile output fourfold
Russia has thrown down a new gauntlet to Barack Obama with an announcement that it will sharply increase production of strategic nuclear missiles.
