Post by sometimeman on Sept 23, 2008 19:39:49 GMT -4
OR GET SICK AND THROW UP
Pray like you have never prayed before. Pray like Daniel and his companions did as they were being taken away, captive, prisoners of war conquered by a heathen king, Nebuchadnezzar.
Hang your harp on the willow and weep
FROM THE WHAT REALLY HAPPENED WEB SITE.
whatreallyhappened.com/
Sep 23 12:47
Bailout on Trial: What Does Taxpayer Get Other than a $700B Bill?
Tags:
* ECONOMY
Paulson and Bernanke, specifically, made the case for the $700 billion bailout plan for banks, with the Fed chairman warning in prepared testimony of "very serious consequences" if the plan isn't approved.
Webmaster's Commentary:
"Give us the money or we'll crash the economy!"
»
* 1 comment
Sep 23 12:46
From King David Hotel in Palestine to Marriott Hotel in Pakistan
Tags:
* PAKISTAN
Pakistan is being punished for refusing to allow U.S. military boots on Pakistani soil, for the bombings in India, for the July 7 attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, and for the failures of the American military in Afghanistan. The attack is a clear message to the Pakistani ruling elite: We will bring the war to your home.
»
* 3 comments
Sep 23 12:41
Bush to keep secret 'grim' war report quiet until after election
Tags:
* AFGHANISTAN
A secret US intelligence report which says the political and military situation in Afghanistan is "grim" will be withheld from the public until after the election, a new report says.
Intelligence officials are finishing up the National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan, according to ABC's Brian Ross, "but there are 'no plans to declassify' any of it before the election," an official said.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Translation: things are apparently going so colossally badly in Afghanistan that the Administration is terrified of releasing this before the election.
This is all the more reason that We the People should have "the right to know what's going on before we cast our votes in November.
It is with our money and our troops with which this occupation has, for the most part, been conducted.
We deserve to know just what our tax dollars have actually done for us in this 7-year occupation.
Sep 23 12:02
Ten Things You Should Know About Bush's Trillion Dollar Fleecing Plan
Tags:
* ECONOMY
Already deep in deficit, the administration wants to borrow $700 billion dollars -- in addition to the $900 billion already spent this year to prop up troubled lending institutions and deal with the fall-out from the housing crisis -- and entrust it to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, fresh from a long run on Wall Street himself. He'd then buy up worthless paper from struggling banks.
Webmaster's Commentary:
The $2,000 dollar figure per taxpayer for this bailout is extremely low.
Make that somewhere between $5,000 to $7,000 (or possibly more) per taxpayer and that is probably a little closer to the mark of what We the People will have to fork over to clean up the messes that We the People have not created.
»
* 1 comment
*
Sep 23 11:37
Paulson's former firm to be among largest beneficiaries of bailout: bank
Tags:
* COVER-UP/DECEPTIONS
Webmaster's Commentary:
Imagine my (absolute and complete) absence of shock!
Sep 23 11:34
Brazilian President Makes Fun of Wall Street's Super Brains
By: poorrichard
Tags:
* POLITICS/ELECTIONS/CORRUPTION
The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Thursday, September 18, that he has watched with "sadness" the collapse of Wall Street firms that made economic policy recommendations in emerging markets "as if they were the super intelligent and we were the poor souls."
"Important banks, very important banks, that spent their lives giving advice about Brazil and what we should or shouldn't do are now broke," news agency EFE quoted Lula da Silva as saying in a speech in southern Brazil.
Sep 23 11:22
Paulson Debt Plan May Benefit Mostly Goldman, Morgan (Update2)
By: poorrichard
Tags:
* ECONOMY
Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley may be among the biggest beneficiaries of the $700 billion U.S. plan to buy assets from financial companies while many banks see limited aid, according to Bank of America Corp.
»
*
Sep 23 11:07
AIG and its prolific use of “offshore” scams
By: Not Sure
Tags:
* CURRENT EVENTS
Featuring the brilliant investigative journalist Lucy Komisar, this program highlights the use of “Offshore” entities to evade taxes, maximize corporate profits and finance a variety of criminal enterprises. Much of the first side of the program consists of analysis and discussion of insurance giant AIG and its prolific use of “offshore” scams. In addition to presenting AIG’s pioneering development of “captive” reinsurance companies to launder profits and evade taxes, the program highlights AIG’s use of Coral Reinsurance for a variety of illegal gambits.
»
* 3 comments
*
Sep 23 10:33
Israeli Human Rights Abuses
Tags:
* ISRAEL
* PALESTINE
There has been 60 years of massive, ongoing, coldly calculated human
rights abuses against the Palestinian people. That's the legacy of
the State of Israel.
Optional Banner:
Featured Video
Sep 23 10:18
Pelosi, Kerry and more than 50 other members of Congress Have Direct Financial Stake in the Bailout.
By: Not Sure
Tags:
* CURRENT EVENTS
Pelosi, in her most recent financial disclosure form, reported that her husband owned between $250,000 and $500,000 of stock in AIG, which ceded majority control to the U.S. government this week in exchange for $85 billion of loans.
Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, disclosed that his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, had more than $2 million of AIG stock at the end of 2007...
Altogether, 56 senators and representatives had stakes in AIG, Lehman, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns Cos. or IndyMac Bancorp Inc. -- some of the biggest casualties of the market bloodbath.
»
* 1 comment
Sep 23 09:56
White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto Admits They have Been Planning Bailout for Months!
By: Not Sure
Tags:
* CURRENT EVENTS
Fratto insisted that the plan was not slapped together and had been drawn up as a contingency over previous months and weeks by administration officials.
Sep 23 09:44
Bush lashes Syria, Iran as terrorism sponsors
Tags:
* CURRENT EVENTS
US President George W. Bush accused Syria and Iran Tuesday of sponsoring terrorism and said that such violence "has no place in the modern world" in his farewell speech to the UN General Assembly.
Webmaster's Commentary:
It is glaringly apparent that neither Bush, nor his handlers, appreciate the irony of that statement about violence has "....no place in the modern world".
And yet, here the US finds itself "...in the modern world", bombing the heck out Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, and who knows what country next in the future??
Sep 23 09:20
The Treasury Morphs Into A Hedgefund
Tags:
* ECONOMY
With a capital of $700 billion and the authority to buy and sell any highly leveraged financial instruments, the Treasury will become one gigantic hedge fund that can and may well act to move multi-trillions.
If such an entity makes one wrong move, it can bankrupt its owners within a few hours.
»
* 3 comments
Sep 23 09:17
Right Now: Veterans Climb Government Building, Call for Arrest of Bush and Cheney
By: lvillas
Tags:
* IMPEACHMENT
Right now, five military veterans -- from Veterans for Peace -- are occupying a 35-foot high ledge at the National Archive Building and have raised a 22x8-foot banner reading, "DEFEND OUR CONSTITUTION. ARREST BUSH AND CHENEY: WAR CRIMINALS!" The veterans currently risking arrest have declared their intention to stay on the ledge, fasting for 24 hours "in remembrance of those who have perished and those still suffering from the crimes of the Bush administration," according to a written statement.
»
* 2 comments
Sep 23 09:13
Ahmadinejad: Wars behind US meltdown
Tags:
* CURRENT EVENTS
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the US military intervention abroad is partly to blame for the economic turmoil on Wall Street.
Webmaster's Commentary:
You've got to give Ahmadinejad credit; whatever one thinks of this man, on this issue, he is absolutely correct.
»
* 3 comments
Sep 23 09:08
Paulson Plan May Push National Debt to Post-World War II Levels
Tags:
* ECONOMY
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s $700 billion proposal to stabilize the banking system may push the national debt to the highest level since 1954, threatening an erosion of foreign appetite for U.S. bonds.
The plan, which asks Congress for funds to buy devalued securities from financial institutions, would drive the debt above 70 percent of gross domestic product and the annual budget gap to an all-time high, possibly exceeding $1 trillion next year, economists estimated.
Sep 23 08:55
Who Is Behind the Bombing in Islamabad?
Tags:
* CURRENT EVENTS
If one wants to make sense of the big bombing that hit the Marriott hotel in Islamabad yesterday, one has to look at the bigger strategic picture.
If you believe the usually 'western' media, the U.S. is still an ally of Pakistan and India is still a neutral country. In reality the U.S. and India are allied in a war against Pakistan and China.
»
*
Sep 23 08:51
No, You're Not Crazy
Tags:
* CURRENT EVENTS
You're not crazy, that is, if you've begun to have waking nightmares about what might be coming as the economy worsens and signs of "normalcy" (of what?) begin to vanish from our lives. Many more people without jobs and homeless, tent cities springing up here and there, perhaps regular power outages and growing shortages of goods that had once been plentiful...the list goes on and on.
And what, you might wonder, is our beneficent, all-caring government doing to prepare for this multitude of possibilities? After all, some of those poor, jobless, homeless, starving people might get unruly.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Please remember; under current laws, if there is a huge "economic disaster" (perhaps the ultimate consequences of the one we are facing right now), and/or rioting, Bush can use that as a justification for invoking martial law.
»
* 1 comment
*
Sep 23 08:37
$13 Billion in Iraq Aid Wasted Or Stolen, Ex-Investigator Says
Tags:
* IRAQ
A former Iraqi official estimated yesterday that more than $13 billion meant for reconstruction projects in Iraq was wasted or stolen through elaborate fraud schemes.
Webmaster's Commentary:
What could you have done with the portion of that 13 billion dollars you paid in taxes?
»
* 2 comments
Sep 23 08:29
Ashes of Empire
Tags:
* AFGHANISTAN
If it is being argued that an enhanced U.S. presence in Afghanistan will suddenly turn things around and make the world a better and safer place, it is the right of the American public, which is sending its sons and daughters into the meat grinder, to demand an explanation of why that is so. I do not believe that such a case has been or can be made. It is time to consider leaving Afghanistan.
Sep 23 08:24
Pakistan blames US raids for hotel bombing
Tags:
* PAKISTAN
The Pakistani President, Asif Ali Zardari, will plead with President George Bush today to change a policy which is being blamed for one of his country's worst terrorist atrocities.
"We hope the US will change policy because this is what is needed," said Pakistan's ambassador to the UK, Wajid Shamsul Hassan, after 53 people were killed and more than 250 injured in the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Notice how obliquely the blame was laid for this bombing.
Zardari, and the Pakistani intelligence agencies are no fools; they know precisely what happened. But that's not something that can be said in public, particularly when you are looking for millions more in support from the US.
Unfortunately, Zardari will not get what he wants from Bush regarding stopping these raids. And if Bush doesn't get what he wants from Zardari in terms of permission for US and NATO ground forces to pound the Pakistani border areas with impunity, look for even more drone strikes, potentially followed by a coup lead by a much more "US-pliant" member of the Pakistani military.
»
*
Sep 23 08:16
LAF officer plays down massing of 10,000 Syrian troops on border
Tags:
* LEBANON
Thousands of Syrian troops have amassed along the Lebanese border in what Damascus says is an effort to combat smuggling, Lebanese military sources said on Monday, stoking speculation and concern in Lebanon. A source in the Lebanese Army confirmed that Syrian forces had deployed in the northern region of Abbudiya, but he told The Daily Star, "There is no need to worry."
Webmaster's Commentary:
"SMUGGLING"?!?!?!?!?
Excuse me, but.....10,000 troops massed on the Lebanese border to combat......smuggling?
What were these people allegedly smuggling?
Gold?!?
Silver?!?
Platinum??
Plutonium?!?
Sorry, but this explanation just doesn't pass the "smell test".
Sep 23 08:15
Iranian president blames US for market collapse
Tags:
* ECONOMY
* IRAN
Iran's president blamed U.S. military interventions around the world in part for the collapse of global financial markets and said the campaign against his country's nuclear program was solely due to the Bush administration "and a couple of their European friends."
Sep 23 08:14
Alitalia hangs out 'for sale' sign
Tags:
* ECONOMY
The bankrupt airline published a notice in four newspapers on Tuesday soliciting offers to buy any or all of the company's assets.
»
* 2 comments
Sep 23 08:13
The shadow banking system is unravelling
Tags:
* ECONOMY
Last week saw the demise of the shadow banking system that has been created over the past 20 years. Because of a greater regulation of banks, most financial intermediation in the past two decades has grown within this shadow system whose members are broker-dealers, hedge funds, private equity groups, structured investment vehicles and conduits, money market funds and non-bank mortgage lenders.
»
*
Sep 23 08:13
Clients move assets worth $6b from Citi, UBS to Deutsche
Tags:
* ECONOMY
The crisis of confidence triggered by the subprime mortgage meltdown has adversely hit Citi and UBS' wealth management businesses across the Asia-Pacific region, resulting in a movement of client assets of $6 billion to rival Deutsche Bank.
Sep 23 08:11
Dodd: 'No second act' to fixing financial mess
Tags:
* ECONOMY
The Bush administration urgently pressed Congress in public and private Tuesday to move quickly on a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry as Democratic and Republican lawmakers vented their anger over a crisis that pushed the nation's economy to the brink.
Webmaster's Commentary:
The last official act of any government is to loot the nation.
Sep 23 08:09
Millions spend half of income on housing
Tags:
* ECONOMY
Ray lost his engineering job last November, and has been working as high school tutor, scratching out about $1,000 a month — if he's lucky. He struggled to make his $1,400 monthly mortgage payment and $330 monthly homeowners' association fee until May, when he stopped paying.
Webmaster's Commentary:
I'll bet Ray's engineering job is now located in Rangoon, aided by a generous tax break from the US Government.
Sep 23 08:08
Auto-Finance Firms Seek a Hand
Tags:
* ECONOMY
Industry Presses to Be Included in Bailout Plan
Webmaster's Commentary:
The stampede begins.
Sep 23 08:07
Experts See a Need for Punitive Action in Bailout
Tags:
* ECONOMY
Webmaster's Commentary:
"Let's fund some patsy and beat the crap out of him as an example to everyone to never let yourself be a patsy ever again!" -- Official White Horse Souse
Sep 23 08:07
No, You're Not Crazy
By: poorrichard
Tags:
* DICTATORSHIP
But if and when the order comes to fire on American citizens, what happens then? I don't think we want to find out. Many of these individuals are overly familiar with killing innocent people -- as indeed, our criminal war in Iraq is nothing but an operation dedicated to killing innocent people in ungraspably huge numbers -- so a new kind of target probably won't deter them for long, if at all.
»
* 2 comments
Sep 23 08:05
US dollar set to be major casualty of Hank Paulson's bailout
Tags:
* ECONOMY
The US taxpayer bail-out of America’s banking sector is an event whose significance will reverberate for many years. What it means for free markets, for the way Western economies are run, for the prosperity of the world economy, must remain to be seen.
But as investors scrambled to make sense of last week’s events, already one conclusion was all but irrefutable – the US dollar will have to take another major fall.
Sep 23 08:01
Will The Keating Five Scandal Come Back To Haunt McCain?
Tags:
* COVER-UP/DECEPTIONS
Last night on MSNBC's Countdown With Keith Olbermann, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter wondered how John McCain is "getting a free ride" in this economic crisis after having been at the center of Keating Five, the last big banking scandal. He also notes that instead of coming out of that mess in favor of more regulation, McCain "did nothing to try to prevent another Savings and Loan crisis. He was missing in action." Watch:
Webmaster's Commentary:
Let us hope people remember precisely what McCain's role was in this scandal, which, as is being proposed now, left American taxpayers responsible for financial messes they had no part in creating.
Sep 23 08:01
Hu hopes US steps bear results soon
Tags:
* ECONOMY
China hopes the steps the US is taking to stabilize its financial market will bear results soon, President Hu Jintao told his US counterpart George W. Bush over the phone Monday.
Webmaster's Commentary:
"We have all this plastic Christmas crap starting to pile up, and it's not something we are likely to use!"
Sep 23 08:00
Yushchenko Calls for Gazprom Deal to Secure Gas Flows
Tags:
* CURRENT EVENTS
* RUSSIA
Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko urged the country's government to sign a contract for natural-gas shipments from Russia's OAO Gazprom for domestic use in 2009, a move that would ensure stability of flows to Europe.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Once Europe is dependent on Russia for natural gas, forget about kicking off a new cold war.
Sep 23 07:59
Putin Gives Up on Bush, Complicating Iran, North Korea Efforts
Tags:
* RUSSIA
Russia is intent on mending ties with the U.S. once President George W. Bush leaves the office on Jan. 20, prompting unprecedented interest in this year's presidential campaign, its UN ambassador said in an interview.
Pray like you have never prayed before. Pray like Daniel and his companions did as they were being taken away, captive, prisoners of war conquered by a heathen king, Nebuchadnezzar.
Hang your harp on the willow and weep
FROM THE WHAT REALLY HAPPENED WEB SITE.
whatreallyhappened.com/
Sep 23 12:47
Bailout on Trial: What Does Taxpayer Get Other than a $700B Bill?
Tags:
* ECONOMY
Paulson and Bernanke, specifically, made the case for the $700 billion bailout plan for banks, with the Fed chairman warning in prepared testimony of "very serious consequences" if the plan isn't approved.
Webmaster's Commentary:
"Give us the money or we'll crash the economy!"
»
* 1 comment
Sep 23 12:46
From King David Hotel in Palestine to Marriott Hotel in Pakistan
Tags:
* PAKISTAN
Pakistan is being punished for refusing to allow U.S. military boots on Pakistani soil, for the bombings in India, for the July 7 attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, and for the failures of the American military in Afghanistan. The attack is a clear message to the Pakistani ruling elite: We will bring the war to your home.
»
* 3 comments
Sep 23 12:41
Bush to keep secret 'grim' war report quiet until after election
Tags:
* AFGHANISTAN
A secret US intelligence report which says the political and military situation in Afghanistan is "grim" will be withheld from the public until after the election, a new report says.
Intelligence officials are finishing up the National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan, according to ABC's Brian Ross, "but there are 'no plans to declassify' any of it before the election," an official said.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Translation: things are apparently going so colossally badly in Afghanistan that the Administration is terrified of releasing this before the election.
This is all the more reason that We the People should have "the right to know what's going on before we cast our votes in November.
It is with our money and our troops with which this occupation has, for the most part, been conducted.
We deserve to know just what our tax dollars have actually done for us in this 7-year occupation.
Sep 23 12:02
Ten Things You Should Know About Bush's Trillion Dollar Fleecing Plan
Tags:
* ECONOMY
Already deep in deficit, the administration wants to borrow $700 billion dollars -- in addition to the $900 billion already spent this year to prop up troubled lending institutions and deal with the fall-out from the housing crisis -- and entrust it to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, fresh from a long run on Wall Street himself. He'd then buy up worthless paper from struggling banks.
Webmaster's Commentary:
The $2,000 dollar figure per taxpayer for this bailout is extremely low.
Make that somewhere between $5,000 to $7,000 (or possibly more) per taxpayer and that is probably a little closer to the mark of what We the People will have to fork over to clean up the messes that We the People have not created.
»
* 1 comment
*
Sep 23 11:37
Paulson's former firm to be among largest beneficiaries of bailout: bank
Tags:
* COVER-UP/DECEPTIONS
Webmaster's Commentary:
Imagine my (absolute and complete) absence of shock!
Sep 23 11:34
Brazilian President Makes Fun of Wall Street's Super Brains
By: poorrichard
Tags:
* POLITICS/ELECTIONS/CORRUPTION
The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Thursday, September 18, that he has watched with "sadness" the collapse of Wall Street firms that made economic policy recommendations in emerging markets "as if they were the super intelligent and we were the poor souls."
"Important banks, very important banks, that spent their lives giving advice about Brazil and what we should or shouldn't do are now broke," news agency EFE quoted Lula da Silva as saying in a speech in southern Brazil.
Sep 23 11:22
Paulson Debt Plan May Benefit Mostly Goldman, Morgan (Update2)
By: poorrichard
Tags:
* ECONOMY
Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley may be among the biggest beneficiaries of the $700 billion U.S. plan to buy assets from financial companies while many banks see limited aid, according to Bank of America Corp.
»
*
Sep 23 11:07
AIG and its prolific use of “offshore” scams
By: Not Sure
Tags:
* CURRENT EVENTS
Featuring the brilliant investigative journalist Lucy Komisar, this program highlights the use of “Offshore” entities to evade taxes, maximize corporate profits and finance a variety of criminal enterprises. Much of the first side of the program consists of analysis and discussion of insurance giant AIG and its prolific use of “offshore” scams. In addition to presenting AIG’s pioneering development of “captive” reinsurance companies to launder profits and evade taxes, the program highlights AIG’s use of Coral Reinsurance for a variety of illegal gambits.
»
* 3 comments
*
Sep 23 10:33
Israeli Human Rights Abuses
Tags:
* ISRAEL
* PALESTINE
There has been 60 years of massive, ongoing, coldly calculated human
rights abuses against the Palestinian people. That's the legacy of
the State of Israel.
Optional Banner:
Featured Video
Sep 23 10:18
Pelosi, Kerry and more than 50 other members of Congress Have Direct Financial Stake in the Bailout.
By: Not Sure
Tags:
* CURRENT EVENTS
Pelosi, in her most recent financial disclosure form, reported that her husband owned between $250,000 and $500,000 of stock in AIG, which ceded majority control to the U.S. government this week in exchange for $85 billion of loans.
Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, disclosed that his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, had more than $2 million of AIG stock at the end of 2007...
Altogether, 56 senators and representatives had stakes in AIG, Lehman, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns Cos. or IndyMac Bancorp Inc. -- some of the biggest casualties of the market bloodbath.
»
* 1 comment
Sep 23 09:56
White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto Admits They have Been Planning Bailout for Months!
By: Not Sure
Tags:
* CURRENT EVENTS
Fratto insisted that the plan was not slapped together and had been drawn up as a contingency over previous months and weeks by administration officials.
Sep 23 09:44
Bush lashes Syria, Iran as terrorism sponsors
Tags:
* CURRENT EVENTS
US President George W. Bush accused Syria and Iran Tuesday of sponsoring terrorism and said that such violence "has no place in the modern world" in his farewell speech to the UN General Assembly.
Webmaster's Commentary:
It is glaringly apparent that neither Bush, nor his handlers, appreciate the irony of that statement about violence has "....no place in the modern world".
And yet, here the US finds itself "...in the modern world", bombing the heck out Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, and who knows what country next in the future??
Sep 23 09:20
The Treasury Morphs Into A Hedgefund
Tags:
* ECONOMY
With a capital of $700 billion and the authority to buy and sell any highly leveraged financial instruments, the Treasury will become one gigantic hedge fund that can and may well act to move multi-trillions.
If such an entity makes one wrong move, it can bankrupt its owners within a few hours.
»
* 3 comments
Sep 23 09:17
Right Now: Veterans Climb Government Building, Call for Arrest of Bush and Cheney
By: lvillas
Tags:
* IMPEACHMENT
Right now, five military veterans -- from Veterans for Peace -- are occupying a 35-foot high ledge at the National Archive Building and have raised a 22x8-foot banner reading, "DEFEND OUR CONSTITUTION. ARREST BUSH AND CHENEY: WAR CRIMINALS!" The veterans currently risking arrest have declared their intention to stay on the ledge, fasting for 24 hours "in remembrance of those who have perished and those still suffering from the crimes of the Bush administration," according to a written statement.
»
* 2 comments
Sep 23 09:13
Ahmadinejad: Wars behind US meltdown
Tags:
* CURRENT EVENTS
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the US military intervention abroad is partly to blame for the economic turmoil on Wall Street.
Webmaster's Commentary:
You've got to give Ahmadinejad credit; whatever one thinks of this man, on this issue, he is absolutely correct.
»
* 3 comments
Sep 23 09:08
Paulson Plan May Push National Debt to Post-World War II Levels
Tags:
* ECONOMY
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s $700 billion proposal to stabilize the banking system may push the national debt to the highest level since 1954, threatening an erosion of foreign appetite for U.S. bonds.
The plan, which asks Congress for funds to buy devalued securities from financial institutions, would drive the debt above 70 percent of gross domestic product and the annual budget gap to an all-time high, possibly exceeding $1 trillion next year, economists estimated.
Sep 23 08:55
Who Is Behind the Bombing in Islamabad?
Tags:
* CURRENT EVENTS
If one wants to make sense of the big bombing that hit the Marriott hotel in Islamabad yesterday, one has to look at the bigger strategic picture.
If you believe the usually 'western' media, the U.S. is still an ally of Pakistan and India is still a neutral country. In reality the U.S. and India are allied in a war against Pakistan and China.
»
*
Sep 23 08:51
No, You're Not Crazy
Tags:
* CURRENT EVENTS
You're not crazy, that is, if you've begun to have waking nightmares about what might be coming as the economy worsens and signs of "normalcy" (of what?) begin to vanish from our lives. Many more people without jobs and homeless, tent cities springing up here and there, perhaps regular power outages and growing shortages of goods that had once been plentiful...the list goes on and on.
And what, you might wonder, is our beneficent, all-caring government doing to prepare for this multitude of possibilities? After all, some of those poor, jobless, homeless, starving people might get unruly.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Please remember; under current laws, if there is a huge "economic disaster" (perhaps the ultimate consequences of the one we are facing right now), and/or rioting, Bush can use that as a justification for invoking martial law.
»
* 1 comment
*
Sep 23 08:37
$13 Billion in Iraq Aid Wasted Or Stolen, Ex-Investigator Says
Tags:
* IRAQ
A former Iraqi official estimated yesterday that more than $13 billion meant for reconstruction projects in Iraq was wasted or stolen through elaborate fraud schemes.
Webmaster's Commentary:
What could you have done with the portion of that 13 billion dollars you paid in taxes?
»
* 2 comments
Sep 23 08:29
Ashes of Empire
Tags:
* AFGHANISTAN
If it is being argued that an enhanced U.S. presence in Afghanistan will suddenly turn things around and make the world a better and safer place, it is the right of the American public, which is sending its sons and daughters into the meat grinder, to demand an explanation of why that is so. I do not believe that such a case has been or can be made. It is time to consider leaving Afghanistan.
Sep 23 08:24
Pakistan blames US raids for hotel bombing
Tags:
* PAKISTAN
The Pakistani President, Asif Ali Zardari, will plead with President George Bush today to change a policy which is being blamed for one of his country's worst terrorist atrocities.
"We hope the US will change policy because this is what is needed," said Pakistan's ambassador to the UK, Wajid Shamsul Hassan, after 53 people were killed and more than 250 injured in the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Notice how obliquely the blame was laid for this bombing.
Zardari, and the Pakistani intelligence agencies are no fools; they know precisely what happened. But that's not something that can be said in public, particularly when you are looking for millions more in support from the US.
Unfortunately, Zardari will not get what he wants from Bush regarding stopping these raids. And if Bush doesn't get what he wants from Zardari in terms of permission for US and NATO ground forces to pound the Pakistani border areas with impunity, look for even more drone strikes, potentially followed by a coup lead by a much more "US-pliant" member of the Pakistani military.
»
*
Sep 23 08:16
LAF officer plays down massing of 10,000 Syrian troops on border
Tags:
* LEBANON
Thousands of Syrian troops have amassed along the Lebanese border in what Damascus says is an effort to combat smuggling, Lebanese military sources said on Monday, stoking speculation and concern in Lebanon. A source in the Lebanese Army confirmed that Syrian forces had deployed in the northern region of Abbudiya, but he told The Daily Star, "There is no need to worry."
Webmaster's Commentary:
"SMUGGLING"?!?!?!?!?
Excuse me, but.....10,000 troops massed on the Lebanese border to combat......smuggling?
What were these people allegedly smuggling?
Gold?!?
Silver?!?
Platinum??
Plutonium?!?
Sorry, but this explanation just doesn't pass the "smell test".
Sep 23 08:15
Iranian president blames US for market collapse
Tags:
* ECONOMY
* IRAN
Iran's president blamed U.S. military interventions around the world in part for the collapse of global financial markets and said the campaign against his country's nuclear program was solely due to the Bush administration "and a couple of their European friends."
Sep 23 08:14
Alitalia hangs out 'for sale' sign
Tags:
* ECONOMY
The bankrupt airline published a notice in four newspapers on Tuesday soliciting offers to buy any or all of the company's assets.
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* 2 comments
Sep 23 08:13
The shadow banking system is unravelling
Tags:
* ECONOMY
Last week saw the demise of the shadow banking system that has been created over the past 20 years. Because of a greater regulation of banks, most financial intermediation in the past two decades has grown within this shadow system whose members are broker-dealers, hedge funds, private equity groups, structured investment vehicles and conduits, money market funds and non-bank mortgage lenders.
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Sep 23 08:13
Clients move assets worth $6b from Citi, UBS to Deutsche
Tags:
* ECONOMY
The crisis of confidence triggered by the subprime mortgage meltdown has adversely hit Citi and UBS' wealth management businesses across the Asia-Pacific region, resulting in a movement of client assets of $6 billion to rival Deutsche Bank.
Sep 23 08:11
Dodd: 'No second act' to fixing financial mess
Tags:
* ECONOMY
The Bush administration urgently pressed Congress in public and private Tuesday to move quickly on a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry as Democratic and Republican lawmakers vented their anger over a crisis that pushed the nation's economy to the brink.
Webmaster's Commentary:
The last official act of any government is to loot the nation.
Sep 23 08:09
Millions spend half of income on housing
Tags:
* ECONOMY
Ray lost his engineering job last November, and has been working as high school tutor, scratching out about $1,000 a month — if he's lucky. He struggled to make his $1,400 monthly mortgage payment and $330 monthly homeowners' association fee until May, when he stopped paying.
Webmaster's Commentary:
I'll bet Ray's engineering job is now located in Rangoon, aided by a generous tax break from the US Government.
Sep 23 08:08
Auto-Finance Firms Seek a Hand
Tags:
* ECONOMY
Industry Presses to Be Included in Bailout Plan
Webmaster's Commentary:
The stampede begins.
Sep 23 08:07
Experts See a Need for Punitive Action in Bailout
Tags:
* ECONOMY
Webmaster's Commentary:
"Let's fund some patsy and beat the crap out of him as an example to everyone to never let yourself be a patsy ever again!" -- Official White Horse Souse
Sep 23 08:07
No, You're Not Crazy
By: poorrichard
Tags:
* DICTATORSHIP
But if and when the order comes to fire on American citizens, what happens then? I don't think we want to find out. Many of these individuals are overly familiar with killing innocent people -- as indeed, our criminal war in Iraq is nothing but an operation dedicated to killing innocent people in ungraspably huge numbers -- so a new kind of target probably won't deter them for long, if at all.
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* 2 comments
Sep 23 08:05
US dollar set to be major casualty of Hank Paulson's bailout
Tags:
* ECONOMY
The US taxpayer bail-out of America’s banking sector is an event whose significance will reverberate for many years. What it means for free markets, for the way Western economies are run, for the prosperity of the world economy, must remain to be seen.
But as investors scrambled to make sense of last week’s events, already one conclusion was all but irrefutable – the US dollar will have to take another major fall.
Sep 23 08:01
Will The Keating Five Scandal Come Back To Haunt McCain?
Tags:
* COVER-UP/DECEPTIONS
Last night on MSNBC's Countdown With Keith Olbermann, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter wondered how John McCain is "getting a free ride" in this economic crisis after having been at the center of Keating Five, the last big banking scandal. He also notes that instead of coming out of that mess in favor of more regulation, McCain "did nothing to try to prevent another Savings and Loan crisis. He was missing in action." Watch:
Webmaster's Commentary:
Let us hope people remember precisely what McCain's role was in this scandal, which, as is being proposed now, left American taxpayers responsible for financial messes they had no part in creating.
Sep 23 08:01
Hu hopes US steps bear results soon
Tags:
* ECONOMY
China hopes the steps the US is taking to stabilize its financial market will bear results soon, President Hu Jintao told his US counterpart George W. Bush over the phone Monday.
Webmaster's Commentary:
"We have all this plastic Christmas crap starting to pile up, and it's not something we are likely to use!"
Sep 23 08:00
Yushchenko Calls for Gazprom Deal to Secure Gas Flows
Tags:
* CURRENT EVENTS
* RUSSIA
Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko urged the country's government to sign a contract for natural-gas shipments from Russia's OAO Gazprom for domestic use in 2009, a move that would ensure stability of flows to Europe.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Once Europe is dependent on Russia for natural gas, forget about kicking off a new cold war.
Sep 23 07:59
Putin Gives Up on Bush, Complicating Iran, North Korea Efforts
Tags:
* RUSSIA
Russia is intent on mending ties with the U.S. once President George W. Bush leaves the office on Jan. 20, prompting unprecedented interest in this year's presidential campaign, its UN ambassador said in an interview.