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Author Topic: Even Worse News from the Empire
Frustrated Mess
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posted 29 August 2007 06:58 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
The era of "agrofuels" has arrived, and the scale of the changes it is already forcing on farming and markets around the world is immense. In Nebraska alone, an extra million acres of maize have been planted this year, and the state boasts it will produce 1bn gallons of ethanol. Across the US, 20% of the whole maize crop went to ethanol last year. How much is that? Just 2% of US automobile use

...


The scale of the
change is boggling. The Indian government says it wants to plant 35m acres (140,000 sq km) of biofuel crops, Brazil as much as 300m acres (1.2m sq km). Southern Africa is being touted as the future Middle East of biofuels, with as much as 1bn acres (4m sq km) of land ready to be converted to crops such as Jatropha curcas (physic nut), a tough shrub that can be grown on poor land. Indonesia has said it intends to overtake Malaysia and increase its palm oil production from 16m acres (64,000 sq km) now to 65m acres (260,000 sq km) in 2025.

While this may be marginally better for carbon emissions and energy security, it is proving horrendous for food prices and anyone who stands in the way of a rampant new industry. A year or two ago, almost all the land where maize is now being grown to make ethanol in the US was being farmed for human or animal food. And because America exports most of the world's maize, its price has doubled in 10 months, and wheat has risen about 50%.

Starving people to feed cars or why humanity is so badly fucked.



From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 30 August 2007 03:22 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
The day I saw myself in the hateful eyes of a young Iraqi boy who stared at me was the day I realized I could no longer justify my role in the occupation.

My story by Spc. Eleonai "Eli" Israel


From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 01 September 2007 01:41 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Among the initiatives, Bush said the Federal Housing Administration, a government agency that provides mortgage insurance to borrowers through lenders in the private sector, would launch a program called FHA Secure. The program would let homeowners who have good credit histories, but can't afford their mortgage payments to refinance into mortgages insured by the FHA.

Are the same people advising Bush on Iraq also advising on the economy? Does Bush really not know that the subprime market is for people who don't have good credit history?

quote:
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said it was not the responsibility of the reserve to protect lenders and investors from the consequences of their decisions.

So those billions poured into the stock market and the rate cut were meant to punish lenders and investors? Gee, if he gets really, really mad maybe he'll whack them with gazillions and free credit.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Catchall
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posted 01 September 2007 05:09 PM      Profile for Catchall        Edit/Delete Post
I surely support the development of alternatives to fossel fuels for humankind's transportation needs. But there's just something so creepy and somehow almost anti human to be growing food in a world where so many are hungry and then using the food for something other than feeding the hungry. Petrolium never fed anyone. Corn, on the other hand, has uses other than powering engines. Personlly I like mine on the cob slathered in butter.

[ 01 September 2007: Message edited by: Catchall ]


From: Nova Scotia | Registered: Aug 2007  |  IP: Logged
North Shore
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posted 01 September 2007 05:49 PM      Profile for North Shore     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Petrolium never fed anyone

I read somewhere that the 'miracle of modern agriculture is turning oil into food.'


From: Victoriahhhh | Registered: Jan 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 01 September 2007 06:44 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I heard it was turning water into wine ...
From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Doug
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posted 03 September 2007 01:09 PM      Profile for Doug   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
The New Money Pit

I like this article because it makes clear the larger impact the subprime mortgage crisis is going to have on the US economy as a whole.


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Fidel
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posted 03 September 2007 01:23 PM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Originally posted by Doug:
The New Money Pit

"678 Solitude Point Avenue" ... That's a terrible irony. Capitalism has a tendency toward cannibalizing itself.


From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 03 September 2007 01:33 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Again children. Five children killed in Gaza in eight days. The public indifference to their killing - the last three, for example, were accorded only a short item on the margins of page 11 in Yedioth Ahronoth, a sickening matter in itself - cannot blur the fact that the IDF is waging a war against children

Gideon Levy

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 03 September 2007 01:37 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Compulsory military service for men and women yields a continuous supply of young troops. They have unrestricted entry into the West Bank and destroy property - a soldier told us his job is to "bulldoze Arab homes in Nablus" - as well as threaten, arrest, injure or kill Palestinians with impunity. A nurse explained that when his 8-year-old sister displayed a Palestinian flag in resistance to an Israeli incursion, the soldiers locked him up for three days of beatings merely because he was her oldest brother. Parents recounted their recurrent fear and anxiety about the safety of their children.



The sorrows of the occupation

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 03 September 2007 01:39 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
The child was denied admission to a Talmlud Torah school in Beit Shemesh because of what its principal called a “stain” in his genealogy.

ynet

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posted 03 September 2007 01:41 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Ameriquest Mortgage Co., once the nation's largest subprime lender, will close with barely a whimper, after the other assets of its parent company were sold Friday to Citigroup Inc.

Ameriquest, which saw its fortunes soar during the housing boom by lending to people with less than stellar credit, is the latest victim of a mortgage crisis that has left bankrupt companies and cash-strapped borrowers in its wake.



Nothing I'm sure ...

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 03 September 2007 01:45 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
We are at an end of an era, living through the worst financial panic in many decades. Now begins global financial instability. It is impossible to speculate how long today's turmoil will last-but there now exists an uncertainty and lack of confidence that has been unparalleled since the 1930s-and this ignorance and fear is itself a crucial factor. The moment of reckoning for bankers and bosses has arrived. What is very clear is that losses are massive and the entire developed world is now experiencing the worst economic crisis since 1945, one in which troubles in one nation compound those in others.

THAT'S ALARMIST! Isn't it?

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 03 September 2007 01:50 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class.

Al Capone

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 03 September 2007 01:53 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Kanjorski said it was the second time he was called to the White House for a briefing. He had opposed giving the President the powers to go to war, and said that he hadn't changed his mind after a first meeting. Until he saw the pictures, Kanjorski said, "I hadn't thought that Iraq was a threat." That second meeting changed everything. After he left that meeting, said Kanjorski, he was willing to give the President the authorization he wanted since the drones "represented an imminent danger."

Kanjorski said he went to see Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a retired Marine colonel. Murtha, said Kanjorski, "turned white" when told about the drones; Murtha, a former intelligence officer, believed that such information was classified.

Several years later, Kanjorski said he learned that the pictures were "a god-damned lie,"



More lies from the lying liars

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 03 September 2007 03:28 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
"God says that those who walk in the path of righteousness will be victorious. What reason can you have for believing God will not keep this promise."
I have nothing. Anyone else?

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 04 September 2007 06:35 AM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
“The PLA has demonstrated the ability to conduct attacks that disable our system...and the ability in a conflict situation to re-enter and disrupt on a very large scale,” said a former official, who said the PLA had penetrated the networks of US defence companies and think-tanks.

Hackers from numerous locations in China spent several months probing the Pentagon system before overcoming its defences, according to people familiar with the matter.



Oops!

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 05 September 2007 05:19 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
"All criminals who survived the Fallujah crisis after committing genocide and other war crimes were granted higher ranks," Major Amir Jassim from the ministry of defence told IPS. "I and many of my colleagues were not rewarded because we disobeyed orders to set fire to people's houses (in Fallujah) after others looted them."

Jassim said the looting and burning of homes in Fallujah during the November siege was ordered from the ministries of interior and defence.

"Now they want to do the same things they did in Fallujah in all Sunni areas so that they ignite a civil war in Iraq," said Jassim, referring to the Shia-dominated ministries. "A civil war is the only guarantee for them to stay in power, looting such incredible amounts of money."


Latin American methods find a new home


From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 05 September 2007 05:20 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
The surge of additional U.S. troops in Iraq has failed to curtail violence against Iraqi civilians, an independent government agency reported Tuesday.

Citing data from the Pentagon and other U.S. agencies, the Government Accountability Office found that daily attacks against civilians in Iraq have remained "about the same" since February, when the United States began sending nearly 30,000 additional troops to improve security in Iraq.

The GAO also found that the number of Iraqis fleeing violence in their neighborhoods is increasing, with as many as 100,000 Iraqis a month leaving their homes in search of safety.



Well, it is a surge, isn't it?

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 05 September 2007 05:23 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
"It is unthinkable to continue to furnish Gaza with electricity, water, and fuel while Israeli citizens are live targets of these rockets," Ramon, a close ally of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, told the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily.

"We have to draw a line for the Palestinians. We have to make it be known that for any rocket fire, we will cut for two or three hours the supplies of water, electricity, and fuel to the Gaza Strip," he said.



Not everything is unthinkable

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 05 September 2007 05:24 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Cutting off the supply of basic necessities such as water and electricity -- which Gazans cannot obtain from elsewhere because of the blockades imposed by Israel -- would constitute collective punishment of Gaza's population in violation international humanitarian law, which prohibits all forms of collective punishment.

As the occupying power, Israel is ultimately responsible for ensuring the welfare of the 1.5 million Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip. Israeli officials' contention that Israel is no longer bound the laws of occupation since it redeployed its forces to the perimeter of the Gaza Strip Israel is a fallacy.



Amnesty speaks up

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 05 September 2007 05:26 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
There is a new look to the entrance of the Palestinian refugee camp Baddawi in northern Lebanon. Hanging above the armed man who guards the entrance are posters of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the slain spiritual leader of Hamas, and other fighters from the Palestinian guerrilla group. Nearby, a huge Hamas banner covers the side of a house, and down the road Hamas flags flutter in the wind.

Just months ago, such banners and posters would have been torn down by supporters of the rival Fatah party. But many residents here say that they have grown disillusioned with Fatah (known in Lebanon as Fatah Abu Ammar) after its defeat in Gaza in June and its handling of the crisis at the nearby refugee camp Nahr al-Bared.



Hmmmm.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
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posted 05 September 2007 05:28 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Twelve Russian strategic bombers are taking part in military exercises above the Arctic involving the launching of tactical cruise missiles.

That is our Arctic, right? Or is it the Danes? The Americans? Not the Russians? At least we can all agree it doesn't belong to the Inuit.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 05 September 2007 05:30 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
The number of Americans signing contracts to buy previously owned homes fell in July by the most since records began in 2001, extending a U.S. housing slump that is weighing on credit markets and the economy.

Market fundamentals, everyone ...

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 05 September 2007 05:31 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
car bomb killed at least 13 people Wednesday in a Shiite part of Baghdad, and the U.S. command announced the deaths of eight more American soldiers — some victims of a weapon the American command believes comes from Iran.

That sounds bad but remember all is good in Anbar.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 05 September 2007 05:34 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
I've traveled to Olancho, a lawless logging region known as the Texas of Honduras, because Tamayo has an international reputation for standing up to the logging interests, legal and illegal, that have been chainsawing their way through mountains rich in pine and tropical hardwoods. He and a growing number of Catholic clergy throughout Latin America have come to see protection of the land and water as God's work, their duty to the region's 500 million Catholics.

Although few North Americans seem to have noticed it yet, in the past few years a "liberation ecology" movement, with the church at its spiritual heart, has been taking shape from Chile to Mexico. Will the Vatican, I wonder, encourage or stifle it? Latin American Catholics have, after all, taken on what they saw as forces of injustice before. The liberation theology movement that began to gain strength in the 1970s sided with the poor during a time when military regimes, supported by the region's oligarchs, ruthlessly suppressed social reform--killing more than 200,000 people in Guatemala alone, most of them indigenous.



Catholic eco-warriors?

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 05 September 2007 05:36 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
The number of American children and adolescents treated for bipolar disorder increased 40-fold from 1994 to 2003, researchers report today in the most comprehensive study of the controversial diagnosis ...

The spread of the diagnosis is a boon to drug makers, some psychiatrists point out, because treatments typically include medications that can be three to five times more expensive than those for other disorders like depression or anxiety ...

“From a developmental point of view,” Dr. March said, “we simply don’t know how accurately we can diagnose bipolar disorder or whether those diagnosed at age 5 or 6 or 7 will grow up to be adults with the illness. The label may or may not reflect reality.”


Uh, huh


From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
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posted 05 September 2007 05:38 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
"Carole" (not her real name) was brutally raped in Fairbanks, Alaska, in July 2006. She reported the crime right away, telling the police she had been raped by a non-Native man. The city police officers took her description of the perpetrator and said they would go look for him. Carole waited for them to return. When they didn't, she went to the emergency room to seek treatment. She had bruises all over her body, and she was so traumatized that she was speaking very quickly, a support worker reported. The medical staff assumed she was drunk.

"[They] treated her like a drunk Native woman first and a rape victim second," the support worker said. The hospital workers gave her some painkillers and money to go to a non-Native shelter. But the shelter turned her away because they too assumed she was drunk.



Sigh

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
N.Beltov
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posted 07 September 2007 12:31 AM      Profile for N.Beltov   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
NGOs and Imperialism:

quote:
Engler: A major principle of Canadian foreign aid, for example, has been that where the USA wields the big stick, Canada carries a police baton and offers a carrot. The major recipient of Canadian aid in 1999/2000 was the former Yugoslavia; Iraq and Afghanistan were top two recipients in 2003/2004; today Afghanistan and Haiti are Nos. 1 and 2. The intervention-equals-aid principle also exists for other western countries. ....

In Canada and many other countries, most people, including all of those who are on the left, oppose private health clinics, seeing them as a threat to our universal, government-run systems of medical care. People everywhere see public schools as an important part of democracy. Citizens in all First World countries demand social services provided by their governments.

Yet the “development” model favored in the Third World for the past two decades involves destroying government services and handing them over to NGOs that willingly participate in this undermining of democracy.


What we see is the sponsorship of privatization by the governments of the imperialist countries, like our own, undermining governments of developing countries and their ability to deliver important public services, with parallel systems of service delivery that erode the legitimacy of public institutions, etc..

But hey. That's imperialism for ya. Evil at home and abroad.

[ 07 September 2007: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]


From: Vancouver Island | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged
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posted 10 September 2007 03:57 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
"Banks are hoarding cash," said David Brickman, the head of European credit strategy at Lehman Brothers. "We think the reason for that is the commercial paper markets. There was $100bn of commercial paper issued by European institutions that was scheduled to roll over in August, much of which struggled to do so.

"Those markets are just not functioning normally, so some debt has already come on to bank balance sheets and more will have to follow. We estimate that between September 11 and 19 $139bn [£68.5bn] of European commercial paper [will come] up for renewal, including monthly and quarterly maturities. That's why banks are hoarding cash."



Ten day countdown

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 10 September 2007 04:12 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Polar bears – the very symbol of the Arctic's looming environmental disaster – are crashing towards extinction

One less bear, one more mining opportunity

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 10 September 2007 04:14 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Mexican gas and oil pipelines were attacked in six places before dawn Monday, causing explosions, fires and gas leaks that forced the evacuation of thousands of people.

Mexico is inside Fotress America, right? Fuck yeah!

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 10 September 2007 04:15 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
In Los Gatos, Calif., controversy has raged this summer over the city planning commission’s approval of a proposed hillside home that will occupy a whopping 3,600 square feet – and that's just the basement. Atop that walkout basement will be 5,500 more square feet worth of house.

The prospective owner says he’ll build to "green" standards, but at the Aug. 8 meeting where the permit was approved, the city's lone dissenting planning commissioner stated the obvious when he told the owner, "You have a 9,000-square-foot house with a three-car garage and a pool. I don't see that as green."

The just-popped housing bubble has left behind a couple of million families in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure. It has also spawned a new generation of big, deluxe, under-occupied houses bulked up on low-interest steroids.



My Hummer will be green too. A nice shade of olive, I think ...

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 11 September 2007 06:59 AM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
The case began after an FBI informant befriended Hayat and began secretly tape-recording their conversations. During those talks, most of which were in Hayat's home, Hayat discussed jihad, praised al-Qaida and expressed support for religious governments in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In the US Muslims get 24 years for livingroom chatter with FBI informants.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 11 September 2007 07:05 AM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Jeff Rubin, chief economist of CIBC World Markets in Toronto, said Opec countries and other oil producers like Russia and Mexico were "cannibalising" their own production. According to the International Energy Agency, the rich countries' energy watchdog, Opec accounted for 22 per cent of the roughly 8m barrels a day increase in world oil demand between 2000 and 2006.

Imagine the nerve! Using their own oil. Don't they know their place?

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 11 September 2007 12:01 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Crude oil rose to a record close of $78.23 a barrel in New York on speculation that OPEC's agreement to increase production by 500,000 barrels a day will be insufficient to meet strengthening demand.

Saudi Arabia, the largest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, led the group to adopt the increase today. The target will be 27.2 million barrels a day beginning Nov. 1, Kuwait's Oil Minister Mohammed Abdullah al- Aleem said in an interview.



Price of Texas tea up

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 11 September 2007 12:12 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Consumers are carrying a record $907 billion in credit card debt, and that looks likely to jump now that the housing slump has blunted another popular financing tool -- home equity loans.

Americans cashed out hundreds of billions of dollars in home equity as credit came cheap in a five-year housing boom that ended about 18 months ago.

Now, with the subprime mortgage mess triggering tighter financing terms and home prices falling in some regions, the home-as-ATM trend is slowing, threatening to curb the consumer spending that drives two-thirds of the U.S. economy.



When going gets tough, the tough get plastic

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posted 11 September 2007 12:27 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
He relates, "In 1983, the Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS] was faced with an awkward dilemma. If it continued to include the cost of housing in the Consumer Price Index, the CPI would reflect an inflation rate of 15%, thereby making the country's economy look like a banana republic. Worse, since investors and bond traders have historically demanded a 2% real return after inflation, that would mean that bond and money market yields could climb as high as 17%."

Yikes! What to do, what to do, what to do whattodowhattodo? "The BLS's solution was as simple as it was shocking: exclude the cost of housing as a component in the CPI, and substitute a so-called 'Owner Equivalent Rent' component based on what a homeowner might 'rent' his house for." Hahaha! The government resorts to lying! "Wow! Why didn't we think of this before?" they are heard to ask among themselves.

Fortunately for the government, it worked. "The result of this statistical sleight of hand was immediate and gratifying," Mr Hardaway writes, "for the reported inflation index quickly dropped to 2%", down from the real, and horrifying, 15% which was due "in part" to the drop in rents caused by speculators wanting to "offset their holding costs by renting out their homes while their prices skyrocketed, thereby flooding the market with rentals that pushed down the cost of renting a house or apartment." Hahaha!

You can almost hear the contempt in his voice when he says, "While the BLS was correct in assuming that this statistical ruse would fool the average citizen into believing that inflation was only 2% (and therefore be willing to accept a meager 4% return on his bank savings), what is remarkable is that the ruse also fooled the bond traders, and apparently continues to do so, leading analyst Peter Schiff to describe these supposed savvy bond traders as the 'hormonal teenagers of the capital markets'."



Maybe stuffing money into a mattress is the smartest thing to do.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 11 September 2007 12:33 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Recent developments in the gas-field projects of Myanmar have highlighted the intense resource diplomacy in the region. The military government of Myanmar recently denied the Gas Authority of India Ltd's (GAIL's) status of "preferential buyer" on the A1 and A3 blocks of its offshore natural-gas fields in favor of selling the gas to PetroChina.

Knights and pawns

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Doug
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posted 11 September 2007 05:14 PM      Profile for Doug   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Not really in the bad news category here, but just interesting:

quote:
Univision captured the #1 network ranking among all Adults 18-34, not just Hispanics, and outdelivered ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and CW for the entire first week of Nielsen's single national panel (NPM).

In the first entire week (8/27/07-9/2/07) since all networks were reported from one single ratings sample, Univision ranked as the #1 network with an +11% advantage over its nearest competitor, FOX, and beating ABC by +43%, CBS by +42%, NBC by +57%, and fully +125% ahead of CW for all Adults 18-34, not just Hispanics. Univision was also the #1 ranked network all night every night Monday through Friday last week among the same coveted young adult demographic....Univision Communications Inc. is the premier Spanish-language media company in the United States.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070906/20070906005934.html


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posted 11 September 2007 05:49 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Consider this: US GDP is 70% consumer spending. That means that wages have to increase beyond the rate of inflation OR THE ECONOMY CAN’T GROW. It’s just that simple. So how is it that 50% of the American people still believe Bush’s supply side baloney that cutting taxes for the uber-rich strengthens the economy? How does that increase wages or build a healthy middle class. If we want a strong economy wages have to keep pace with productivity so that workers can buy the goods they produce.

Greenspan knows that. So does Bush. But they chose to hide it behind an “easy credit” smokescreen so they could weaken the dollar, off-shore thousands of industries, out-source 3 million manufacturing jobs, fund an illegal war, and maintain the lethal flow of the $800 billion current account deficit into American equities and Treasuries. In truth, there hasn’t been any growth in the economy since Bush took office in 2000. What we’ve seen is an ever-expanding bubble of personal and corporate debt amplified by a “structured finance” system that magically transforms liabilities (subprime loans) into securities and increases their value through leveraging.

That’s it. No growth---just a galaxy of debt-instruments with odd-sounding names (CDOs, MBSs, CDSs, etc) stacked precariously on top of each other. That’s what we call "wealth" in America.

It’s all smoke and mirrors. The financial system has decoupled from the productive elements of the economy and is now beginning to show disturbing signs of instability. That’s why the big blow-off in the bond market. The halcyon days of supplying our armies, funding our markets and building our subprime “ownership society” empire on the backs of foreign creditors is over. The stock market is headed for the landfill and housing is leading the way. Economic fundamentals can only be ignored for so long.



Alarmist bullshit.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 11 September 2007 05:50 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Marsha Slotten's bad news came in April by e-mail, from a tipster warning that the company holding her retirement nest egg had collapsed.

After racing in a panic to the office of Southwest Exchange Inc. outside Las Vegas, she found a locked door and a sign saying the staff was ``in training.'' It never reopened.

``I was devastated,'' said Slotten, 58, who said she was forced to cancel early retirement after the disappearance of $2.74 million she made selling a strip mall. ``I thought I knew what I was doing, but now my nest egg, my retirement plan, is gone.''



Or maybe not ...

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 11 September 2007 05:51 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
The dollar fell to a fresh 15-year low against a basket of currencies on Tuesday as the greenback continued to suffer from the prospect of a cut in US interest rates.

Expectations that the Federal Reserve would move to lower interest rates at its meeting on September 18 have increased since last week’s US employment report, which showed the recent turmoil in the credit markets had spilled over into the wider economy.



Cheap shopping in Buffalo!

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 11 September 2007 05:55 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Russia has tested a thermobaric bomb that is the most powerful in the world, a top military official said Tuesday.

Known as a vacuum bomb, it uses a fuel-air explosive and can create overpressures equal to an atomic bomb, said Alexander Rukshin, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

"It is environmentally friendly, compared to a nuclear bomb."



How nice! A green bomb. Between compact flourescents at Wal-Mart and Russian green death from the sky, why ... I can see the light at the end of the collapsing tunnel.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 11 September 2007 05:57 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Former MK says IAF's infiltration of Syrian airspace was meant to take out anti-aircraft missile facilities, ground targets. 'This was a full blown aerial operation and we are treading on dangerous ground,' he says

Lunatics running the asylum

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 13 September 2007 04:54 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Crude oil closed above $80 a barrel for the first time today, breaking a longstanding psychological barrier just days after oil producers tried to bring prices down by promising to increase output.

I'm a vampire, babe. Sucking blood from the earth.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
West Coast Greeny
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posted 13 September 2007 07:34 PM      Profile for West Coast Greeny     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
"It is environmentally friendly, compared to a nuclear bomb."

*thud*


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Fidel
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posted 13 September 2007 07:56 PM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I'm worried about nuclear empowered nutbars committing mass murder in my lifetime. The age of nuclear, chemical and ballistics threats are still with us. But they say there's a new arms race, and it's very high tech in purpose. They've talked about Moore's Law doubling computing power every 18 months. They'll be creating transistors the size of molecules, electrons and perhaps use quantum computing for something really terrible, or good. Moore's Law is almost a certainty from here on through the next 30 years. In 30 years, the next generation could possibly see artificial intelligence and machines that can think a million times faster than the latest computers on our desks now. And we know military spending drives high tech around the world. Robots in the military, so to speak ?. Hunter Killers as per the Terminator movies ?. Will they decide our fate in a microsecond ?. Will we come close to going out forever ?.
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posted 17 September 2007 05:20 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
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To experience an attorney general of the US fiercely attacking the US Constitution, rending its every provision, is the most frightening experience of my lifetime. That the head of the legal branch of the executive, sworn to uphold the Constitution, would turn against it in order to enhance unaccountable executive power is a clear impeachable offense. If anyone anywhere in the world deserved criticism, Gonzales did. But when Chemerinsky upbraided the despicable Gonzales, conservatives rushed to Gonzales’ defense, not to the defense of the American Constitution.

Conservatism ain't what it used to be

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 17 September 2007 05:38 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
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THE future for troubled bank Northern Rock was looking increasingly desperate last night after it emerged that customers had withdrawn more than £2 billion in savings since Friday.

A run on a bank? Oh, that's nothing. The market fundamentals are sound.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 17 September 2007 05:40 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
To understand how the housing bust may ripple through the broader American economy, look beyond the countless for-sale signs that dot this middle-class city. Instead, stop by Boater's Landing, where salespeople sit idle, hoping someone will once again want to buy a boat.

Or visit the women answering phones at the local United Way, which is dealing with a flood of aid requests from the unemployed, whose numbers have nearly doubled in a year. Or talk to the Shevlins, a real-estate agent and a carpenter, whose combined incomes dropped from $350,000 to less than $60,000 in two years.



What's the big deal? It is what the market wants. I

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 17 September 2007 05:45 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
E*Trade Financial Corp., this year's worst performer in the Amex Securities Broker-Dealer Index, cut its 2007 profit forecast by at least 25 percent because of bad home loans and said it will quit the wholesale mortgage business.

Oh, well now ... e*trade ... You see, now that really burns me up. Now its going too far.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 18 September 2007 03:57 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
A statement by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner about the possible use of force against Iran has raised concern in Russia and China. During a meeting Tuesday with his Russian counterpart in Moscow, Kouchner clarified his controversial remark. VOA correspondent Peter Fedynsky reports from the Russian capital.



Non! Non! Non! I did not say "war"!. I said something else that sounded just like "war".

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 18 September 2007 03:59 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Shanghai and neighbouring regions yesterday evacuated 200,000 people ahead of the landfall of "super typhoon" Wipha, which was forecast to lash the city this morning with the most powerful winds and rains seen in a decade.

Women's world cup matches were rescheduled, schools closed and more than a million text message warnings sent out along China's southeastern coastline as the typhoon moved closer to the country's manufacturing and commercial heartland yesterday.

Since it was upgraded on Monday from a tropical storm, Wipha has gathered force. With gusts now estimated at 198kmph, it has been classified by the Chinese meteorological agency as a "super typhoon".



Hold tight.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 18 September 2007 04:00 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Your scenic drive up through the Interior looks sharply different these days. As more of our lush green forests take on a dull, reddish hue, we learn the Mountain Pine Beetle isn't done, and the infestation is moving south fast.

Unlike a Pine Beetle infestation, combating climate change will hurt the economy.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 18 September 2007 04:01 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Whooping and hollering traders and soaring stock prices on Tuesday offered little evidence of the nagging concerns that the Federal Reserve's aggressive 50 basis point rate cut amounted to an admission that problems in the US financial system ran deeper than the Fed's governors first thought.

More Wall St. crack!

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 18 September 2007 04:02 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Canadians continue to pull their money out of mutual funds this month, but it won't be anywhere near net redemptions of $1.5-billion for August, an analyst predicts.

The industry will suffer about $250-million in net outflows in September, and money market funds will still be in the red, suggested Peter Loach, a vice-president and managing director of fund research at BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. "Because there is still a level of uncertainty in the credit markets, [fund sales] are not going to snap straight back into a positive number," Mr. Loach said.

The Investment Funds Institute of Canada yesterday reported that the industry in August suffered its first negative sales month since October, 2004. Net redemptions in money market funds came in high at $916-million - although that was lower than IFIC's earlier estimate of about $1.4-billion.



You know the mantra by now: market fundamentals ...

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 18 September 2007 04:05 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Some of the most intelligent and developed animals, such as dolphins and primates, face extinction in the next few years or decades if current trends do not change. This emerges from the latest report on threatened species published on the eve of the Rosh Hashanah holiday by IUCN, the World Conservation Union. The report, known as the Red List of Threatened Species, which refers to the types of flora and fauna that are at various degrees of risk of extinction, states that in the past year an additional 200 species were added to the list.

To this day, some 785 species have already become extinct while another 65 species can be found only in zoological gardens or in cultivation, but no longer in nature. For the first time, coral reefs are included on this year's red list.



We're number 1!

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 19 September 2007 06:00 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Mr Paulson acknowledged that bad lending practices were to blame for the present financial crisis, which has been triggered by the high number of American homeowners falling into arrears on their mortgages.

However, he added that “the whole world, including the US, has benefited from . . . credit availability”.



Yeah! Pushers made money credit crack addicts got high. But what happens after you get stoned?

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 19 September 2007 06:01 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Home foreclosures in the United States surged 36 percent in August from the prior month and more than doubled from a year ago, a leading foreclosure data firm said Tuesday.

RealtyTrac said foreclosure filings -- including default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions -- jumped to 243,947 in August, compared with 179,599 in July and 113,300 in August 2006.



You come down.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 19 September 2007 06:02 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Interest rate cuts by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will spur inflation, cause the U.S. dollar to collapse and push the world's largest economy into recession, investors Jim Rogers and Marc Faber said.

``Every time the Fed turns around to save its friends on Wall Street, it makes the situation worse,'' Rogers said in an interview from Shanghai.



They're sick without their fix, man!

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 19 September 2007 06:03 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said it is possible that the euro could replace the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency of choice.

Dat make Caesar sad.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 19 September 2007 06:04 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post

Free speech in America.


From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 19 September 2007 06:06 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told Congress on Wednesday the government will hit the current debt ceiling on Oct. 1. He sought quick action to increase the limit, saying it was essential to protect the "full faith and credit" of the country, especially at a time of financial market turmoil.


The limit is $8.965 trillion. Unless Congress votes to raise it, the country would be unable to borrow more money to keep the government operating and to pay debt obligations coming due.



Hello, Visa? Yeah, listen ... can you raise my credit a few thou? I'm good for it.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 19 September 2007 06:07 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Bankrupt American Home Mortgage is attempting to seize as much as $27 million that former employees set aside from paychecks for retirement, according to an attorney representing them.
Capitalists resort to a tried and true method of wealth creation -- stealing.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 19 September 2007 06:09 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Construction of new homes fell in August to the slowest pace in 12 years as troubles in the housing industry continued to intensify.

No more sprawl? But there are still forests and wetlands to be bulldozed.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 19 September 2007 06:10 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
It would be the biggest run on gold since the attempted French invasion of Britain of 1797 that sent prices through the roof.

The precious metal, long a safe haven for investors, yesterday was predicted by a leading analyst to quadruple within three years as buyers seek shelter from prolonged turmoil in mainstream financial markets.

According to Christopher Wood, chief strategist at the broker CLSA, market ructions and a collapse of the dollar could send gold prices to more than $3,400 an ounce within the next three years. Gold futures last night hit a 28-year high at $733 an ounce, but are more than $100 short of the record. Mr Wood said that the sub-prime conflagration would be the catalyst for a wider breakdown in markets.



I foresee a return to grave robbing.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 19 September 2007 06:12 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Mervyn King will be forced to mount a public defence of his reputation as Bank of England governor after being driven into a striking policy U-turn on Wednesday in a bid to ease pressure on the UK banking system ...

The move by the Bank, which had stood out among global central banks for taking a “tough love” line, came less than a week after Mr King warned that such actions could sow “the seeds of a future financial crisis”



But, but, but, that was before panic set in.

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posted 19 September 2007 06:14 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
According to the most recent foreclosure numbers released by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the U.S. is embroiled in the worst foreclosure crisis in recorded history. More than 14 percent of subprime borrowers are defaulting, and prime borrowers are beginning to follow suit.
Alarmism. Everyone know the MBA is a leftist organization with ties to Havana.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 19 September 2007 06:16 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
There is this joke circulating in financial circles that the once “almighty US dollar,” is fast turning into the “new American peso.” Since 2001 the dollar has lost more than half its value against the euro. It now costs nearly $1.40 to buy one euro. And it isn’t just the euro that seems to be growing stronger against the US dollar. It has declined against many other major world currencies, and even including minor ones like our peso, reflecting the dollar’s loss of purchasing power.

Is it just me or are people finding some sort of perverted pleasure in watching America's slow motion crash and burn?

[ 19 September 2007: Message edited by: Frustrated Mess ]


From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 19 September 2007 06:20 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
We have to deal with the fundamental reality that Americans are addicted to debt. Debt today in the United States is at an all-time high in each of the three primary sectors: public, corporate and consumer debt. The national debt last week topped $9 trillion, up from approximately $5 trillion when George Bush took office.

To put this in perspective, the government of Bush & Co. has borrowed almost as much as the governments of all the other presidents of the United States combined. Consumer credit is now at scary levels almost: $2.5 trillion, and analysts are beginning to speculate that credit card debt could be the next bubble to burst. Corporate debt has reached astronomical levels through highly leveraged private equity deals, and no one knows just how how much froth is still in the system.



So, let me get this straight. Conservatives are good money managers? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
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posted 19 September 2007 06:26 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
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For most of the 21st century I have been pointing out that offshoring is not trade, free or otherwise. It is labor arbitrage. By replacing US labor with foreign labor in the production of goods and services for US markets, US firms are destroying the ladders of upward mobility in the US. So far economists have preferred their delusions to the facts.

...

The US is on a path to economic Armageddon. Shorn of industry, dependent on offshored manufactured goods and services, and deprived of the dollar as reserve currency, the US will become a third world country. Gomery notes that it would be very difficult—perhaps impossible—for the US to re-acquire the manufacturing capability that it gave away to other countries.

It is a mystery how a people, whose economic policy is turning them into a third world country with its university graduates working as waitresses, bartenders, and driving cabs, can regard themselves as a hegemonic power even as they build up war debts that are further undermining their ability to pay their import bills.



Boom! Boom! Out go the lights.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
mary123
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posted 19 September 2007 08:03 PM      Profile for mary123     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Canada needs to seriously make a hard left turn politically in this country.

The right wing conservatives will only take us down the George Bush path: and that is going down crashing and burning (in Iraq and economically.)

Conservatives are not good money managers, they just pretend to be.


From: ~~Canada - still God's greatest creation on the face of the earth~~ | Registered: Jun 2004  |  IP: Logged
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posted 21 September 2007 03:08 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
"We want the IAEA to have access to Israeli nuclear facilities and report to the international community at large."

There is no chance of such an IAEA move without an Israeli invitation, inconceivable under current political circumstances.

Arab nations say a chronic imbalance of power in the Middle East caused by Israeli breeds instability and spurs others to seek mass-destruction weaponry.

At the annual 149-nation IAEA gathering yesterday, Arab and other Islamic nations pushed through a milder resolution targeting Israel by calling on all Middle East nations to apply IAEA safeguards and renounce nuclear weapons.

The non-binding vote, which upset the IAEA's traditional consensus culture, was 53-2 with 47 abstentions by Western and developing states.



The racist double-standard of the West exposed, again ...

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posted 21 September 2007 03:14 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
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Britain has amassed a stockpile of more than 100 metric tons of plutonium -- enough for 17,000 bombs of the size that flattened Japan's Nagasaki in 1945, a report from the country's top science institution said on Friday.

Does that not violate Britain's obligation under the NPT? I suppose we can count in Security Council sanctions.

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posted 21 September 2007 03:21 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
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Those living comfortable middle class lives in the western world, who console themselves that mining or uranium shares will solve global poverty or warming problems, are worthy of drugs for delusions. The reality is that the poor suffer for the imperial intentions of the rich. How easily we are manipulated. Many years ago I suggested to labour activists frustrated by inaction that they monitor the airborne asbestos levels outside the schools attended by the children of the rich and influential. It worked. But how to bring the outcome of all this uranium profligacy to the rich? The best idea will be awarded a Geiger counter, and a trip to a distant Pacific island.

Uranium sources are finite. Some experts argue that they may last at present rates of consumption for another 30 years. Asia is approaching nuclear power stations like a bowl of noodles, to be slurped and gulped down. To have a nuke is like having ones own national airline: a symbol of modernity and muscle flexing nationalism. If the rate doubles it will be exhausted all the sooner. A competent and safe nuclear plants costs the earth and takes about 9-15 years to build. If the global use continues to expand then many power plants will be completed after the supply has been exhausted. That is the high quality uranium. Studies done indicate that low grade ore can be processed but the amount of energy it takes to extract the power exceeds the energy output. The logic of that might still by pass the most ardent nukeaholic.



Peak uranium?

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posted 21 September 2007 03:27 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
The Persian Gulf states, flush with cash from burgeoning oil revenues, are buying overseas assets at a record rate and countering the paucity of acquisitions hampered by the summer's surge in corporate borrowing costs.

Abu Dhabi agreed yesterday to pay $1.35 billion for 7.5 percent of Carlyle Group, the world's second-biggest private equity firm. Dubai and Qatar took competing stakes in Nasdaq Stock Market Inc., London Stock Exchange Group Plc and Nordic bourse OMX AB. Qatar also won approval to examine the financial records of J Sainsbury Plc, the second-largest U.K. supermarket chain.

All told, the deals are worth $25 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The pace of international investments by Gulf states, which earn $1.2 billion a day from oil exports, is quickening as they seek to diversify beyond energy. The nations have already spent a record $68 billion on overseas acquisitions this year, the Bloomberg data show.



Sounds like the colonies might be buying the master's home while he is obsessed with putting the colonies in their place.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
N.Beltov
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 4140

posted 24 September 2007 11:05 AM      Profile for N.Beltov   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Bricmont has one strategic suggestion for the left that I think should be taken very seriously . Given the failure of existing human rights organizations to take issues of war and economic bullying seriously, he calls for the formation of an 'imperialism watch' that would focus on all the different expressions of US/Western imperialism. Such an organization could denounce not only military invasions, but also intervention in elections, the production of new military bases, high handed economic behavior, etc. Not unlike current human rights campaigns, it might help to produce campaigns around several of these issues at once, although, unlike the human rights groups, there would of course be no hint that intervention by the West might be a relevant last resort. I can see several advantages such an organization would have over the current expressions of the peace movement. It would not hinge its existence on stopping or ending one particular war. It would not invest messianic hopes either in those who are militarily opposing the US, or in those who are electorally opposing the current regime within the US. To the extent that such an imperialism watch was successful, another world might truly be possible.

from Left Eye On Books... a review of Jean Bricmont's Humanitarian Imperialism. So there are those that call for an organization to do what Babbler Frustrated Mess has been doing individually ...

Humanitarian Imperialism - A Review by Steven Sherman

[ 24 September 2007: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]


From: Vancouver Island | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 26 September 2007 03:25 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
Thanks, man!
From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 26 September 2007 03:27 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
US lawmakers voted Wednesday to split Iraq into a loose federation of sectarian-based regions and urged President George W Bush to press Iraqi leaders to agree.

More than 20 Republicans joined Democrats to pass the non-binding measure in the Senate, 75-23, showing frustration in both parties about Bush's war policy and lagging national reconciliation in Iraq.

Supporters of Iraqi partition believe it would let Shia, Sunni and Kurdish factions settle their differences and make it easier for US troops eventually to return home.



Hey, it worked in Northern Ireland. Thank the British for perfecting the racist division strategy.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 26 September 2007 03:30 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
“We have to get rid of Saddam. There are two weeks left. In two weeks we will be ready militarily. We will be in Baghdad at the end of March,” Bush said in the transcript which was translated into Spanish by the newspaper.

Victory would come “without destruction”, he added.

The meeting between Aznar and Bush came just days after a massive protest in Madrid by more than a million people against the invasion which Aznar’s conservative government backed.

Aznar tells Bush in the transcript that he needed Washington’s help to get Spanish public opinion behind the invasion. He adds that he is worried by Bush’s optimism.

“I am optimistic because I believe I am right. I am at peace with myself,” Bush responded.



A million Iraqis dead and Bush was, and I'm sure is, at peace with himself. Isn't that nice.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 26 September 2007 04:25 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
A U.S. soldier pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of killing Iraqis and then trying to cover it up by planting weapons on their bodies.

Spc. Jorge G. Sandoval, of Laredo, Texas, has been charged with premeditated murder, wrongfully placing weapons with the remains of the Iraqis and obstructing justice. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

Military prosecutors said the deaths occurred separately between April and June near Iskandariyah, a mostly Sunni Arab city 30 miles south of Baghdad.



Born in the USA

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 26 September 2007 04:26 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
The World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI), a grouping of NGOs, intellectuals and writers opposed to the war in Iraq, on Friday accused the United States of causing more deaths in Iraq than ousted president Saddam Hussein.

"With two wars and 13 years of criminal sanctions, the United States have been responsible for more deaths in Iraq than Saddam Hussein," Larry Everest, a journalist, told hundreds of anti-war activists gathered in Istanbul.



USA!USA!

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 26 September 2007 04:44 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
The Iraqi government will impose travel restrictions in the country if more cases of cholera are confirmed after a warning by the World Health Organization (WHO) that the disease was spreading in Iraq.

"If we verify more cases of cholera in different areas of Iraq, we will impose travel restrictions to prevent a more serious outbreak. We have already been restricting the movement of food between provinces," said Lt-Col Seif Abdel-Karim, a senior official in the Ministry of Interior.

"Lorries are being checked as they travel from northern governorates to central and southern provinces and we have banned the movement of food over the next few days," he said.



Iraqi equivalent of small pox blankets.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 26 September 2007 04:47 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Israel is looking to a U.S.-India nuclear deal to expand its own ties to suppliers, quietly lobbying for an exemption to non-proliferation rules so it can legally import atomic material, according to documents made available Tuesday to The Associated Press.

The move is sure to raise concerns among Arab nations already considering their neighbor the region's atomic arms threat. Israel has never publicly acknowledged having nuclear weapons but is generally considered to possess them.



What no security council sanctions?

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 26 September 2007 04:53 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Ottawa's abrupt decision to cancel a preliminary inquiry into Canada's most spectacular post-9/11 terror allegations and instead move directly to trial raises new and troubling questions.

Everything about the case of the so-called Toronto 18 is shrouded in mystery. Evidence raised in court, either at bail hearings or the preliminary hearing, is covered by a publication ban. But this hasn't prevented the public from knowing allegations against 14 adults and four juveniles that are so bizarre as to be almost unbelievable.



Finally some terrorists in Canada.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 26 September 2007 04:55 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Contrary to assurances from Prime Minister Harper, an SPP regulatory agreement signed at Montebello sets Canada on course toward a single North American regime for regulating industrial chemicals that will almost certainly weaken the existing Canadian regulatory system and erode policy autonomy, says a study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

The study, by CCPA Executive Director Bruce Campbell, reveals that a sub-agreement on chemicals regulation was signed at Montebello, but it was not publicized and it was not posted on the Canadian government web site

The sub-agreement commits the three NAFTA countries to harmonizing chemicals regulation in testing, research, information gathering, assessment, and risk management, as much as possible, by 2012. It also commits the three governments to work toward a single North American voice in international standard-setting bodies, which, given existing power realities, means an American voice.



Chemical goodness! What chemicals?

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 26 September 2007 04:59 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
To replace the toxic, ozone-depleting pesticide methyl bromide -- a favorite of stubborn U.S. berry growers -- the U.S. EPA is reportedly set to soon approve an alternative that doesn't deplete ozone but is "one of the more toxic chemicals used in manufacturing" according to opponents, including six Nobel Prize-winning chemists. Even though the replacement pesticide, methyl iodide, is injected into soils and not applied directly to crops, health advocates, including 54 scientists and physicians who wrote a letter to EPA head Stephen Johnson about their concerns, worry about "pregnant women and the unborn fetus, children, the elderly, farmworkers, and other people living near application sites" who could be at risk from exposure to the pesticide. California, which is doing its own review of the chemical, classifies it as a carcinogen. "It's extremely toxic," said Glenn Brank of California's Department of Pesticide Regulation. "We are concerned about whether or not this can be used safely." Studies have shown that chronic exposure to methyl iodide can harm the central nervous system, lungs, skin, and kidneys. But just think of the berries!

Oh. Those chemicals.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 27 September 2007 04:45 AM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
The initial reaction by the Iraqi government after the Nusur Square incident was to revoke Blackwater's license, expel the company from Iraq, and have the contractors involved in the shootings brought to justice in Iraq. However, it seems that none of this may occur.

Even as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki described the incident as a "crime" and many Iraqi lawmakers called for Blackwater to suspend all activities, the company continued to operate after a brief hiatus. While officials at the US Embassy in Baghdad indicated that Blackwater was carrying out only vital missions, this underscores the frustration expressed by many Iraqis that they do not have control over what goes on in their own country.

Moreover, according to Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) Order No 17, private contractors "shall be immune from the Iraqi legal process", in essence meaning there is no chance of the contractors allegedly involved in the Nusur incident being prosecuted under Iraqi law. Iraqi officials have indicated that the recent shootings may prompt them to revoke CPA Order 17 and create new guidelines for dealing with foreign contractors.



Iraq is a sovereign nation ... because the occupiers say so.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 27 September 2007 07:34 AM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Chinese officials and experts have admitted the Three Gorges Dam project has caused an array of ecological ills, including more frequent landslides and pollution, and if preventive measures are not taken, there could be an environmental "catastrophe."

Damn!

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 09 October 2007 11:33 AM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
The World Bank encouraged foreign companies to destructively log the world's second largest forest, endangering the lives of thousands of Congolese Pygmies, according to a report on an internal investigation by senior bank staff and outside experts. The report by the independent inspection panel, seen by the Guardian, also accuses the bank of misleading Congo's government about the value of its forests and of breaking its own rules.

Congo's rainforests are the second largest in the world after the Amazon, locking nearly 8% of the planet's carbon and having some of its richest biodiversity. Nearly 40 million people depend on the forests for medicines, shelter, timber and food.



Yes, yes, yes, but don't the Pygmies know the World Bank only wants to make them richer by driving them off their land and into the arms of roving death squads or onto the edges of slums. They just don't know what's good for them.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 09 October 2007 11:37 AM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Residents of Iraq's southern city of Basra have begun strolling riverfront streets again after four years of fear, their city much quieter since British troops withdrew from the grand Saddam Hussein-era Basra Palace.

Political assassinations and sectarian violence continue, some city officials say, but on a much smaller scale than at any time since British troops moved into the city after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.



You see! The violence was being caused by foreigners.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 09 October 2007 11:39 AM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
In its fight against drugs, in its fight against juvenile crime, in its approach to border security, the Conservative government has resolutely adopted the American approach of repression and ever-longer prison sentences. In the United States, this policy has not changed the crime rate and has had the effect of growing the prison population at a vertiginous rate. The United States is the country with the highest rate of incarceration among all industrialized countries. And, of course, the majority of that population is constituted of minority citizens and poor people who can't pay for competent lawyers. That's the road down which the Conservative minority government wants to take Canada. And meanwhile, in Ottawa, the opposition is desperately looking for a gimmick so that elections can be avoided and Stephen Harper allowed to pursue his Americanization of Canada.

Will someone write a eulogy for democracy?

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 09 October 2007 11:42 AM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, located on the Mall in Washington, D.C., is a monument to historical amnesia. The blond limestone building, surrounded by indigenous crops of corn, tobacco and squash, invites visitors on a guilt-free, theme park tour of Native American history, where acknowledgment of the American genocide is in extremely bad taste.

The beauty of the architecture and landscaping conceals the hollowness of the enterprise. The first two floors of the four-story building are turned over to gift shops and the cafeteria. The museum provides no information on the forced death marches, authorized by Congress, such as the Trail of Tears, the repeated treaty violations by the United States, reservations, infamous massacres such as Wounded Knee, or leaders such as Tatanka Iyotanka (Sitting Bull), Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekht (Chief Joseph), Tashunka Witko (Crazy Horse), or Goyathlay (Geronimo).



Holocaust denial is perfectly acceptable depending on the holocaust being denied.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 10 October 2007 06:15 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
SIRNAK, Turkey (AP) -- Turkish warplanes bombed positions of suspected Kurdish rebels Wednesday, and the prime minister said preparations for parliamentary approval of a military mission against separatist fighters in Iraq were under way.

A cross-border operation could hurt Turkey's relationship with the United States, which opposes Turkish intervention in northern Iraq, a region that has escaped the violence afflicting much of the rest of the country.

U.S. officials are already preoccupied with efforts to stabilize areas of Iraq outside the predominantly Kurdish northern region.

Turkey and the United States are NATO allies, but ties have also been tense over a U.S. congressional bill that would label the mass killings of Armenians by Turks around the time of World War I as genocide. President Bush strongly urged Congress to reject the bill, saying it would do "great harm" to U.S.-Turkish relations.

Turkish troops blocked rebel escape routes into Iraq while F-16 and F-14 warplanes and Cobra helicopters dropped bombs on possible hideouts, Dogan news agency reported. The military had dispatched tanks to the region to support the operation against the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in response to more than a week of deadly attacks in southeastern Turkey.



Lookit, you have carried out a brutal campaign against our Kurdish (heh!heh!) allies for decades, you've previously carried out a genocide you remain in denial about, and now a wider war is threatened because those same Kurds just happen to be our allies (heh!heh!) in the phony war against Iran. But c,mon! We're friends!

[ 10 October 2007: Message edited by: Frustrated Mess ]


From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 10 October 2007 06:19 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
House Democrats pushed their government eavesdropping bill through two committees Wednesday with only minor changes, setting the stage for a confrontation with the Bush administration.

President Bush said that he will not sign the bill if it does not give retroactive immunity to U.S. telecommunications companies that helped conduct electronic surveillance without court orders.



Retroactive immunity. Isn't that nice. Say goodnight rights.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 10 October 2007 06:22 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
One of the first victims of the Bush administration’s 2002 torture policy was Abu Zubaydah, whom they called “chief of operations” for al Qaeda and bin Laden’s “number three man.” He was repeatedly tortured at the secret CIA “black sites.” They water boarded him, withheld his medication, threatened him with impending death, and bombarded him with continuous deafening noise and harsh lights.

But Zubaydah wasn’t a top al Qaeda leader. Dan Coleman, one of the FBI's leading experts on al Qaeda, said of Zubaydah, "He knew very little about real operations, or strategy … He was expendable, you know, the greeter . . . Joe Louis in the lobby of Caeser's Palace, shaking hands." Moreover, Zubaydah was schizophrenic; according to Coleman, “This guy is insane, certifiable split personality.” Coleman's views were echoed at the top levels of the CIA and were communicated to Bush and Cheney. But Bush scolded CIA director George Tenet, saying, "I said [Zubaydah] was important. You're not going to let me lose face on this, are you?" Zubaydah's minor role in al Qaeda and his apparent insanity were kept secret.

In response to the torture, Zubaydah told his interrogators about myriad terrorist targets al Qaeda had in its sights: the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statute of Liberty, shopping malls, banks, supermarkets, water systems, nuclear plants, and apartment buildings. Al Qaeda was close to building a crude nuclear bomb, Zubaydah reported. None of this was corroborated but the Bush gang reacted to each report zealously.

Moreover, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, considered the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, was tortured so severely – including by water boarding – that the information he provided is virtually worthless. A potentially rich source of intelligence was lost as a result of the torture.



This government does not torture people

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 10 October 2007 06:26 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Eastern Jerusalem today is a polyglot of Jews and Arabs that defies simplistic solutions. The days are short before the battle for control of Jerusalem will be decided. Efforts to establish Jewish strategic assets remain the best hope of ensuring that "a united Jerusalem" will mean more than just a slogan.

Look, buddy, don't worry about it ...

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 10 October 2007 06:27 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
... the fix is already in.
quote:
Israel has ordered the confiscation of Arab land outside east Jerusalem, officials said on Tuesday, reviving fears that the occupied West Bank could be split in two and challenging peace overtures.

The appropriation orders come with Israelis and Palestinians preparing for a major US-sponsored international peace summit widely expected in Maryland next month, and were immediately criticised by Arab authorities.

Hassan Abed Rabbo at the Palestinian local government ministry said the late September order covers 110 hectares (272 acres) in four Palestinian villages between east Jerusalem and the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim.

The land could create a bloc of settlements incorporating Maale Adumim and nearby Mishor Adumim and Kedar, he said, and "prevent Palestinian territorial continuity" between the West Bank and Jordan Valley.



From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 11 October 2007 04:22 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
As our world heats up, as pollution increases, as population grows and as our globe's resources of fresh water are tapped, we are faced with an environmental and humanitarian problem of mammoth proportions.

Demand for water is doubling every 20 years, outpacing population growth twice as fast. Currently 1.3 billion people don't have access to clean water and 2.5 billion lack proper sewage and sanitation. In less than 20 years, it is estimated that demand for fresh water will exceed the world's supply by over 50 percent.

The biggest drain on our water sources is agriculture, which accounts for 70 percent of the water used worldwide -- much of which is subsidized in the industrial world, providing little incentive for agribusiness to use conservation measures or less water-intensive crops.

This number is also likely to increase as we struggle to feed a growing world. Population is expected to rise from 6 billion to 8 billion by 2050.



Water, water ... anywhere?

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 11 October 2007 04:23 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Nigeria is fighting an unusual outbreak of polio caused by mutating polio vaccine, world health authorities say, but the only remedy is to keep vaccinating children there.

Officials of the World Health Organization fear that news of the outbreak will be a new setback for eradication efforts in northern Nigeria, where vaccinations were halted in 2003 for nearly a year because of rumors that the vaccine sterilized Muslim girls or contained the AIDS virus. During that lull, polio spread to many new countries, although most have snuffed out the small outbreaks that resulted.



The cure is the disease

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 11 October 2007 04:27 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Six main Iraqi insurgent groups announced the formation of a "political council" aimed at "liberating" Iraq from U.S. occupation in a video aired Thursday on the Arab TV station Al-Jazeera.

Finally that Iraqi unity Biush was demanding.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 11 October 2007 04:28 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
The U.S. tortures prisoners in violation of international law, former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday, adding that President Bush makes up his own definition of torture.

"Our country, for the first time in my lifetime, has abandoned the basic principle of human rights," Mr. Carter said on CNN. "We've said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo, and we've said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a crime."



And still no outrage in the land of the free.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 11 October 2007 04:31 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
That was the specialty of their (rather ungrateful) Arab guests, who fled across the border into the tribal areas of Pakistan almost six years ago. The current fighting in the south, the Pashtun heartland, which is causing a steady dribble of American, British and Canadian casualties, will continue until the Western countries pull out.

(Most other Nato members sent their troops to various parts of northern Afghanistan, where non-Pashtun warlords rule non-Pashtun populations and nobody dares attack the foreigners.) Then, after the foreigners are gone, the Afghans will make the traditional inter-ethnic deals and something like peace will return.



I don't think he is supporting our troops. If he was a patriot he would get a magnetic car ribbon and demand more Candians return home dead.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 11 October 2007 04:32 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
Foreclosure filings across the U.S. nearly doubled last month compared with September 2006, as financially strapped homeowners already behind on mortgage payments defaulted on their loans or came closer to losing their homes to foreclosure, a real estate information company said Thursday.

A total of 223,538 foreclosure filings were reported in September, up from 112,210 in the same month a year ago, according to Irvine-based RealtyTrac Inc.



It has been a while since I last reminded you the market fundamentals remain good.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 11 October 2007 04:33 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
After every financial crisis over the past 10 years, the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates and pumped money into the economy. Each rescue solved the problem - and created a new one.

The next bomb from this chain reaction of bailouts and blowups will be credit-card debt. Hardly anybody is talking about it yet, but banks and consumers are laying the ground for a wave of credit-card defaults, bankruptcies and asset write-offs for 2009 or so.



Free money! Just charge it.

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312

posted 11 October 2007 04:35 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
quote:
The automated teller for home loans is empty and Americans are relying increasingly on credit cards to pay their living costs, indicating tough hurdles ahead for U.S. consumer spending and markets.

Federal Reserve data released on Friday showed U.S. consumer borrowing rising by $12.18 billion in August, more than 20 percent more than economists had forecast.

Most striking was an 8.1 percent increase in borrowing on revolving credit lines, mostly credit cards, to a record $909 billion.



Jumping Jehosephatz!!!

From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
M.Gregus
babble intern
Babbler # 13402

posted 11 October 2007 07:25 PM      Profile for M.Gregus     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post
I have to close this for length but feel free to continue with even worse still news from the empire in a new thread.
From: capital region | Registered: Oct 2006  |  IP: Logged

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