From thinker at thelakebc.ca Fri May 1 07:27:38 2009 From: thinker at thelakebc.ca (Ed Deak) Date: Fri May 1 07:26:04 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Election video Message-ID: <200905011425.n41EPTVG009973@karma.reboot.ca> We'll have provincial elections here in BC on May 12 and it is worth seeing what the "individualistic" BC Liberal government of Gordon Campbell has been doing and plans to do in the province. BC is for sale, and preferably to foreign investors, who are protected by WTO and NAFTA rules and can get away with murder, provided they can prove that it brings them unlimited profits. Cheers, Ed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPuJfbS2qMY From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Fri May 1 01:36:53 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Fri May 1 18:21:50 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fw: Pandemic, Mostly Unacknowledged death at work in America Message-ID: <003901c9cac4$4c2a9670$0100007f@jfos> April 29, 2009 Pandemic, Mostly Unacknowledged Death at Work in America By JOANN WYPIJEWSKI The Man giveth, and The Man taketh away. Forty years ago, when Americans -- lots of Americans -- made things, more of them died in a year on the job than died in a year fighting in Vietnam. This never registered much in the national consciousness. Death in war seems so preventable, so grotesque. Death on the job is ?an accident.? The one gets headlines; the other, a shrug. http://www.counterpunch.org/wypijewski04292009.html Forty years on, everything is diminished, but the basic pattern holds. Fewer Americans make things, and fewer fight in the wars. Fewer die on the battlefield or on the factory floor, on construction sites, in the fishing boats and slaughterhouses and logging camps. But the death of US soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan still stirs angry or lamenting souls, and bodycount is still far lower than death on the job. Troll the web and soon enough up pop thumbnail photos of the fallen troops. The left-wing listserve ?GI Special? carries their pictures and short biographies in every missive. Like the 2,975 dead from September 11, the 4,924 American soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 are somehow known, memorialized, mourned even by those who despise their industry. Not so the 40,019 workers who died on the job between 2001 and 2007, the latest year for which there are figures (and not counting the 9/11 dead). Most of these workers did not shoot at anyone, terrorize or torture anyone. They did not drop bombs on weddings or call in artillery strikes on city blocks. No ?Dead Workers Families Speak Out? exists to be accorded respectful hearing at leftish gatherings. For the dead, and the many more who are injured and sickened by their work, or who die of occupation-related illnesses like black lung, there is one day of remembrance, April 28, Workers Memorial Day, which almost no one outside organized labor notices. These are the more prosaic casualties of capital, and every year the AFL-CIO issues a report documenting them. This year?s ?Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect? is the eighteenth such report. The good news: after rising every year since 2002, the total number of deaths decreased in 2007. And since passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970, 389,000 fewer workers have died on the job. The report?s table of statistics since 1970 posts the decline: 13,800 dead in 1970, for a fatality rate of 18 per 100,000; 5,657 dead in 2007, for a rate of 3.8 per 100,000. This is how we mark progress: death on the job, just not so much of it. An average 15 corpses and 10,950 maimed or hurting workers at day?s end; could be worse. It probably is worse, actually. Because of under-reporting, the number of injured workers every year is likely closer to 12 million than the official 4 million. The 50,000 to 60,000 who die from occupational diseases each year cannot be a hard estimate; cancer, for instance, doesn?t usually come with a pedigree. Even the precision of deaths on the job has to be qualified; the number does not account for the fates of 8.8 million public sector workers not covered by OSHA. It does not include deaths in the underground economy. Not the street dealers killed by rivals or police, and not the hookers and massage artists murdered in the line of duty by the likes of the Craigslist killer. The relatively low number of deaths of black workers, 609 in 2007, conceals the claw of racism and joblessness. The number is ?low? (3,867 white workers died) because blacks have historically been underrepresented in the most dangerous (but often highly paid) jobs: fishers, loggers, aircraft pilots/flight engineers, farmers and ranchers, structural iron and steel workers, other building trades. [Though not in one of the most dangerous jobs of all, working as a counter clerk in a 7/11. Editors.] But the number is up more than 7 percent, to its highest mark since 1999, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, because fatalities in the protective services are up: dead cops, up 30 per cent; dead security guards, up 11 per cent; dead firefighters, up 17 percent. In a perverse way, death on the job for whites and Latinos at least signals robust participation in the labor force. And the death rates for both fell in 2007. But black workers not only had a higher fatality rate; they had, and have, a higher rate of unemployment. In 2007 the proportion of black families with one unemployed member was officially 10.8 per cent, compared with 5.6 per cent for whites. One would think joblessness would have at least one upside, but blacks are jobless and dying. The last time black death rates were so high, at the height of the Clinton years of supposed general prosperity, one of the employment headlines was that an overwhelming majority of black male high school drop-outs were not working, while an overwhelming majority of white drop-outs were. For the most part those white drop-outs held onto their jobs as the economy went into recession, while black unemployment regardless of education rose even higher. Now the states with the highest death rates are white, sparse and rural: West Virginia, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming. But the states with the worst safety inspection rates are in the South. The AFL-CIO report?s subtitle refers to neglect of safety standards and neglect by government overseers, and it notes that OSHA is so understaffed and overwhelmed that it would take 137 years for it to inspect every workplace under its jurisdiction just once if nothing changed. A lot longer in some states: 303 years in Arkansas; 259 years in Florida; 184 years in Georgia; 173 years in Louisiana. The report, available from aflcio.org, reads like a staid government report. It reviews the starvation of the OSHA budget in the Bush years, details the state of ergonomic standards (nonexistent), mine safety (better, then awful, now bad), chemical emission regulations (virtually stopped after the first energetic years following OSHA?s passage), pandemic flu preparedness (off the radar). It details costs of programs, medical treatment and lost work, reasons for under-reporting, budget shortfalls, Congressional action that was thwarted under Bush or is pending, employer penalties or lack thereof. It emphasizes the spike in deaths of foreign-born workers since 1992 (though has nothing to say beyond mentioning the fact of the black numbers). And it offers a wealth of numbers, tables and facts. Industries with highest rates of nonfatal injuries and illnesses? Skiing facilities, sports teams and clubs, sugar beet manufacturing, steel foundries, iron foundries. After all this, it concludes as liberal institutions and commentators almost always do whenever considering a matter that exposes fundamental power conflicts between labor and capital. It reduces exploitation and the keys to life or death to a resource question: ?It is clear that OSHA lacks sufficient resources to protect workers adequately.? It tells no gripping stories of conditions on the job. It makes no distinction between deaths and injuries at union and non-union enterprises. (This is probably because unionization is likely to lead to higher rates of reporting, hence higher indices of injury; although anyone who follows the news and has an eye open is aware that the most notorious recent mine disasters, crane topplings, sugar refinery explosions, the closest calls in construction in almost any city, have been non-union.) Apart from the meekest mention of the need for workers to ?be given a real voice in the workplace??given??it betrays not the slightest suggestion that it has a moral and material interest in organizing workers. It spends no time outlining the theory or record of worker safety committees on the job, no time articulating the relationship between apprenticeship training, safety and quality on union construction sites. At a time when labor?s chief legislative aim is labor law reform and the clarion to organize has been sounded high and low, the AFL-CIO makes no argument for its own existence. It?s as if the federation wants to be the good child in the class, impressing teacher Obama with its maturity and keening for a reward. Next to the report?s anodyne statistical tables, a report last year by Ted Kennedy?s Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, called ?Discounting Death,? seems positively radical. There in plain language is described the bureaucratic card house that no amount of full funding could set on a foundation of fairness: the layers of ?review? that favor employers and typically reduce penalties to a pittance; the incentives for employers to contest citations and avoid most or all penalties; the ease with which ?willful? violations of health and safety can be downgraded; the indifference of regulators to collect the paltry sums they do manage to extract administratively, the development of enforcement programs without the slightest intention of going after repeat offenders. Like the AFL-CIO?s report, the Senate document decries OSHA?s fundamental calculus: a worker?s life is cheap, and an employer always gets the benefit of the doubt. But it vividly describes the consequences of corporate flouting of safety procedures; it includes workers? and families? voices; and it draws bright contrasts to makes its points. So the maximum criminal penalty for willfully violating a safety standard or regulation and causing a worker to die is six months in prison, while the maximum sentence for mail fraud is 30 years, the maximum sentence for improperly hunting migratory birds is two years, the maximum sentence for dealing in counterfeit money is 20 years, the mandatory sentence for piracy is life. The maximum civil penalty for a willful safety violation that results in death is $70,000, while violating the South Pacific Tuna Act can bring a fine of $325,000, violating the Clean Air Act can cost one $270,000, and violating the Fluid Milk Promotion Act can cost $135,000. Killing a worker through willfully lax safety standards is a misdemeanor. Typically the fine starts low and goes lower. In 2007, an inspector?s median initial penalty in worker fatality cases was $5,900 and was negotiated down to a median final penalty of $3,675. Between 2004 and 2007 OSHA had not bothered to collect almost half of the penalties it had imposed in fatality cases, equaling more than $27 million. Organized labor spent over $150 million on the election of 2008. Even with its junior partner pretensions, in addition to proposing stiffer penalties, felony charges and a mechanism for collecting fines, it might have proposed a major revamp of OSHA?s structure, the training and funding of an army of inspectors from among the unemployed in each industrial sector, the elimination of OSHA?s multiple layers of review and its discounting process, the creation of worker safety committees in every workplace to interact with workers, managers and regulators, and the passage of comprehensive labor law reform to ensure the workers? right to organize. And it would muster all the passion it could to make a public case out of the scandal of the government?s complicity in the profits of death. About seventy years ago, in the midst of an earlier depression, my grandfather died from working on the railroad. He was a machinist there, and my father remembers him coming home from the rail yards black with soot, stripping off his work clothes and cleaning up in the basement. They said he had emphysema, but about twenty years ago my father started thinking maybe it was closer to black lung. Whatever, he grew weaker, and his breathing more strained. My father would walk to the rail yards at the end of his dad?s shift and accompany him home, walking slowly, stopping frequently, letting the old man lean on him. My grandfather was in his 40s, my father a teenager. He died when my father was 16 or 17. Growing up, I never thought much about my family?s acquaintance with death. It was never presented as strange that my grandfather died so young or so badly, or that my father?s sister died of diphtheria at 3, or that another child didn?t live past his first day. Children died. Work killed. Everyone else moved on. It ought to be harder to move on now. Each season?s new untimely deaths, its legions of discarded injured, ought to make us angry. JoAnn Wypijewski writes for CounterPunch, The Nation and other publications. She can be reached at jwyp@earthlink.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090501/60173f7b/attachment.html From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Fri May 1 21:57:04 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Fri May 1 21:57:26 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fw: The International Space Station Message-ID: <04a501c9cae2$706819e0$0100007f@jfos> It's amazing how large the Space Station has become. Sort of "creeps up on you". Most have no idea of the size and complexity of the International Space Station. That's because it has been too big a chore to keep track of each of the launches aimed at its completion. Here's a one-minute animated recap that will amaze you. Notice, too, the time-line and launches involved. http://i.usatoday.net/tech/graphics/iss_timeline/flash.htm The contradiction to all this 'Gee-Wizzery' is the burgeoning numbers of poor and marginalised citizens in all of the 'rich countries' whose treacherous politicians and well-rewarded technocrats and other 'officials' divert BILLIONS of $$$$s of public money to this obscene waste! john -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090502/a1de0e3a/attachment.html From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Fri May 1 22:40:31 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Fri May 1 22:40:54 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Zombie banks Message-ID: <059c01c9cae8$8253e750$0100007f@jfos> For those of you searching for explanations for the latest crisis in Kaput-alism, the following URL takes you to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Background Briefing website where you can download the audio of this compelling broadcast, listen on line or download the transcript of the program broadcast on 12 April 2009. Yet another excellent piece of investigative radio journalism from 'your ABC'. john foster Victoria, Australia ZOMBIE BANKS Reporter: Stan Correy They look like banks, walk like banks and quack like banks, but they're really the undead. Shells filled with toxic assets. Killing these living dead is probably political suicide because of the collateral damage, but it's the way to go say leading economists. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2009/2538655.htm ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Fri May 1 23:48:30 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Fri May 1 23:48:52 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Formidable Infrastructure arrayed against the American People Message-ID: <06a801c9caf2$01715230$0100007f@jfos> A "Strategic Vision" in the Service of Repression Although the Air Force has lost out to NSA over control of Cyber Command, AFCYBER's planning document still provides a valuable glimpse into the formidable infrastructure arrayed against the American people. In the view of Air Force theorists, the strategic environment confronting imperialism is described as "unpredictable and extremely dangerous," characterized "by the confluence of globalization, economic disparities, and competition for scarce resources." And as "economic disparities" grow, particularly during a period of profound capitalist economic meltdown, newer and more effective measures to ensure compliance are required by the ruling class and its state. This is underscored by Cyber Command's goal "to achieve situational dominance at a time and place of our choosing." [emphasis added] According to the Air Force, Global vigilance requires the ability to sense and signal across the electromagnetic spectrum. Global reach requires the ability to connect and transmit, using a wide array of communications networks to move data across the earth nearly instantaneously. Global power is the ability to hold at risk or strike any target with electromagnetic energy and ultimately deliver kinetic and non-kinetic effects across all domains. These cyberspace capabilities will allow us to secure our infrastructure, conduct military operations whenever necessary, and degrade or eliminate the military capabilities of our adversaries. (Air Force Cyber Command, "Strategic Vision," no date) As Wired defense analyst Noah Shachtman wrote last year, The Air Force wants a suite of hacker tools, to give it "access" to--and "full control" of--any kind of computer there is. And once the info warriors are in, the Air Force wants them to keep tabs on their "adversaries' information infrastructure completely undetected." ... Traditionally, the military has been extremely reluctant to talk much about offensive operations online. Instead, the focus has normally been on protecting against electronic attacks. But in the last year or so, the tone has changed--and become more bellicose. "Cyber, as a warfighting domain . . . like air, favors the offense," said Lani Kass, a special assistant to the Air Force Chief of Staff who previously headed up the service's Cyberspace Task Force. ("Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers," Wired, May 13, 2008) While the cut and color of the uniform may have changed under the Obama administration, placing Cyber Command under NSA's wing will almost certainly transform "cybersecurity" into a euphemism for keeping the rabble in line. Indeed, cybersecurity operations are fully theorized as a means of achieving "full-spectrum dominance" via "Cyberspace Offensive Counter-Operations," Cyberspace favors offensive operations. These operations will deny, degrade, disrupt, destroy, or deceive an adversary. Cyberspace offensive operations ensure friendly freedom of action in cyberspace while denying that same freedom to our adversaries. We will enhance our capabilities to conduct electronic systems attack, electromagnetic systems interdiction and attack, network attack, and infrastructure attack operations. Targets include the adversary's terrestrial, airborne, and space networks, electronic attack and network attack systems, and the adversary itself. As an adversary becomes more dependent on cyberspace, cyberspace offensive operations have the potential to produce greater effects. ("Strategic Vision," op. cit.) [emphasis added] And when those "greater effects" are directed against American citizens theorized as "adversaries" by U.S. militarists and well-heeled corporate grifters, the problems posed by a panoptic surveillance state for a functioning democracy increase astronomically. The already slim protections allegedly afforded by the shameful FISA Amendments Act have already been breeched by NSA. As The New York Times reported April 16, NSA interception of the private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans have escalated "in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year." As Wired reported April 17, the NSA isn't the only agency conducting cyber operations against American citizens. One of the FBI's International Terrorism Operations Sections requested an assist from the Bureau's Cryptographic and Electronic Analysis Unit, CEAU, according to documents obtained by the magazine under the Freedom of Information Act. The FBI "geek squad" was in a position to conduct a "remote computer attack" against the target, and that "they could assist with a wireless hack to obtain a file tree, but not the hard drive content." This followed an April 16 report published by Wired that a "sophisticated FBI-produced spyware program has played a crucial behind-the-scenes role in federal investigations into extortion plots, terrorist threats and hacker attacks in cases stretching back at least seven years, newly declassified documents show." But as I documented last year in a case involving activists targeted during anti-RNC protests, with "preemptive policing" all the rage in Washington, the same suite of hacking tools and spyware used to target criminals and terrorists are just as easily deployed against political activists, particularly socialists, anarchists and environmental critics who challenge capitalism's free market paradigm. Despite these revelations, the Obama administration is poised to hand control of the nation's electronic infrastructure over to an out-of-control agency riddled with corporate grifters and militarists whose bottom-line is not the security of the American people but rather, the preservation of an economically and morally bankrupt system of private profit fueled by wars of aggression and conquest. Tom Burghardt is a researcher and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to publishing in Covert Action Quarterly and Global Research, an independent research and media group of writers, scholars, journalists and activists based in Montreal, his articles can be read on Dissident Voice, The Intelligence Daily, Pacific Free Press and the whistleblowing website Wikileaks. He is the editor of Police State America: U.S. Military "Civil Disturbance" Planning, distributed by AK Press. ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From duanebehrens at cox.net Sat May 2 09:06:02 2009 From: duanebehrens at cox.net (Duane Behrens) Date: Sat May 2 09:06:30 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Swine Flu Scare Over Message-ID: <20090502120602.3WU4E.110363.imail@fed1rmwml34> And so - it's over. The same national networks that filled our minds with pictures and tales of worldwide deaths from a swine flu "pandemic" are now admitting the symptoms of the disease are no more dramatic than that of regular flu. The same media outlets that were discussing martial law in time of catastrophic epidemic are now admitting that the only "American" death attributed to the disease was that of a Mexican child who was imported to die here. Three days ago, it headlined every news broadcast every hour from NBC, CNN, ABC and Fox. Three days from now, you'll be hearing nothing about it. It is irresponsible journalism at its worst. A horrible affront to the American public. Why did they do it? The following seem to be the most likely, possible explanations for this fraud: 1. Diversion. What crime against the American people was committed during the diversion and smoke from a false swine flu scare. Was it that "Democratic" bill removing any relief for bankrupt homeowners? Or something else? 2. It was a slow news week. 3. Pharmaceutical interests wanted a piece of the fraud against American taxpayers and decided that "swine flu" was as good as any. 4. Or . . . [insert your guess here] ?? From creuss at bluewin.ch Sat May 2 09:31:13 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Sat May 2 09:34:26 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Swine Flu Scare Over Message-ID: > Why did they do it? Rummy needed more billions from global Tamiflu sales. Those he made a few years ago (avian flu scare) were already spent... In 2013, "bovine flu" will roll out of the lab... Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Sat May 2 00:54:19 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Sat May 2 18:39:09 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: From Bunker Hill to Baghdad - Pinter's Dispatch to Obama Message-ID: <001b01c9cb8f$dfc1ed40$1cad57ca@jfos> Excerpt: " ... Apart from a trifling bill on stem cells, Obama has done absolutely zero to confirm his bone fides as a liberal. The truth is, Obama is neither liberal nor conservative; he's simply an inspiring orator and a skillful politician who has no strong convictions about anything. If he achieves greatness, it will be because he was thrust into a crisis he couldn't avoid and reluctantly acted in the best interests of the American people. That possibility still exists, although it seems more unlikely by the day. Foreign leaders are clearly relieved to see the last of George W. Bush, and they appear to be willing to give Obama every opportunity to mend fences and break with the past. But Obama has made little effort to reciprocate or show that he's serious about real change. The emphasis seems to be more on public relations than policy; more on glitzy photo ops, grandiose speeches and gadding about from one capital to another, than ending the chronic US meddling and militarism. Where's the beef or is it all just empty posturing? No one's ready to write-off Obama just yet, but he needs to show he's the real-deal by taking steps to ratchet-down the war machine and reign in the corporate elites and bank vermin. But is it really possible for one man--however well-meaning--to change the course of a nation by standing up the gaggle of racketeers who pull the strings from behind the curtain? Keep in mind, America's history of violent interventions, unprovoked wars, color-coded revolutions and coup d' etats has a long pedigree that stretches from Bunker Hill to Baghdad. That river of blood did not begin with George Bush and it won't end with Barack Obama. Every generation has produced its own litany of crimes, from Wounded Knee to Nagasaki to My Lai to Falluja. In Harold Pinter's Nobel acceptance speech, the playwright invokes one such incident which epitomizes the pattern of hostility which has been repeated over and over again wherever the Washington mandarins detect opposition to their iron-fisted rule." >From Bunker Hill to Baghdad Pinter's Dispatch to Obama By Mike Whitney Come and see the blood in the streets. Come and see the blood in the streets. Come and see the blood in the streets! Poem by Pablo Neruda April 27, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- About a month before Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States, former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski appeared on PBS's Charlie Rose Show and was asked whether he thought Obama would be a good choice for president. Brzezinski paused for a minute, peered at Rose out of the corner of his eye, and answered, "Just think of the symbolism." As soon as he said that, Brzezinski and Rose broke out into laughter as though they were sharing a private joke. Brzezinski was right, of course. Obama was the perfect choice for president. Not because of his experience. He had none. He was a two year senator with a resume' small enough to fit on the back of a matchbox. Still Obama had what Brzezinski and Co. were looking for, symbolism; the kind of symbolism that connected him to people around the world and made them feel like one of their own had finally clawed their way to the top. Even better, Obama was a charismatic populist who could fill stadiums with adoring fans and put a benign face on America's interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. What more could Brzezinski hope for? After 8 years of dragging "Brand America" through the mud, the country would finally get the emergency facelift it needed and begin to restore its battered image as the world's indispensable nation. For leftists, Obama has been a total bust. He's escalated the war in Afghanistan, increased the cross-border bombings of Pakistan, hemmed and hawed about prosecuting war crimes, refused to actively lobby House members to make it easier for workers to organize (EFCA), and surrounded himself with bank industry reps who've committed $12.8 trillion to sinking financial institutions with no assurance that the money would be repaid. Apart from a trifling bill on stem cells, Obama has done absolutely zero to confirm his bone fides as a liberal. The truth is, Obama is neither liberal nor conservative; he's simply an inspiring orator and a skillful politician who has no strong convictions about anything. If he achieves greatness, it will be because he was thrust into a crisis he couldn't avoid and reluctantly acted in the best interests of the American people. That possibility still exists, although it seems more unlikely by the day. Foreign leaders are clearly relieved to see the last of George W. Bush, and they appear to be willing to give Obama every opportunity to mend fences and break with the past. But Obama has made little effort to reciprocate or show that he's serious about real change. The emphasis seems to be more on public relations than policy; more on glitzy photo ops, grandiose speeches and gadding about from one capital to another, than ending the chronic US meddling and militarism. Where's the beef or is it all just empty posturing? No one's ready to write-off Obama just yet, but he needs to show he's the real-deal by taking steps to ratchet-down the war machine and reign in the corporate elites and bank vermin. But is it really possible for one man--however well-meaning--to change the course of a nation by standing up the gaggle of racketeers who pull the strings from behind the curtain? Keep in mind, America's history of violent interventions, unprovoked wars, color-coded revolutions and coup d' etats has a long pedigree that stretches from Bunker Hill to Baghdad. That river of blood did not begin with George Bush and it won't end with Barack Obama. Every generation has produced its own litany of crimes, from Wounded Knee to Nagasaki to My Lai to Falluja. In Harold Pinter's Nobel acceptance speech, the playwright invokes one such incident which epitomizes the pattern of hostility which has been repeated over and over again wherever the Washington mandarins detect opposition to their iron-fisted rule. Harold Pinter, Nobel Acceptance Speech: "The United States supported the brutal Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua for over 40 years. The Nicaraguan people, led by the Sandinistas, overthrew this regime in 1979, a breathtaking popular revolution. The Sandinistas weren't perfect. They possessed their fair share of arrogance and their political philosophy contained a number of contradictory elements. But they were intelligent, rational and civilized. They set out to establish a stable, decent, pluralistic society. The death penalty was abolished. Hundreds of thousands of poverty-stricken peasants were brought back from the dead. Over 100,000 families were given title to land. Two thousand schools were built. A quite remarkable literacy campaign reduced illiteracy in the country to less than one seventh. Free education was established and a free health service. Infant mortality was reduced by a third. Polio was eradicated. The United States denounced these achievements as Marxist/Leninist subversion. In the view of the US government, a dangerous example was being set. If Nicaragua was allowed to establish basic norms of social and economic justice, if it was allowed to raise the standards of health care and education and achieve social unity and national self respect, neighboring countries would ask the same questions and do the same things. There was of course at the time fierce resistance to the status quo in El Salvador. I spoke earlier about 'a tapestry of lies' which surrounds us. President Reagan commonly described Nicaragua as a 'totalitarian dungeon'. This was taken generally by the media, and certainly by the British government, as accurate and fair comment. But there was in fact no record of death squads under the Sandinista government. There was no record of torture. There was no record of systematic or official military brutality. No priests were ever murdered in Nicaragua. There were in fact three priests in the government, two Jesuits and a Maryknoll missionary. The totalitarian dungeons were actually next door, in El Salvador and Guatemala. The United States had brought down the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954 and it is estimated that over 200,000 people had been victims of successive military dictatorships. Six of the most distinguished Jesuits in the world were viciously murdered at the Central American University in San Salvador in 1989 by a battalion of the Alcatl regiment trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, USA. That extremely brave man Archbishop Romero was assassinated while saying mass. It is estimated that 75,000 people died. Why were they killed? They were killed because they believed a better life was possible and should be achieved. That belief immediately qualified them as communists. They died because they dared to question the status quo, the endless plateau of poverty, disease, degradation and oppression, which had been their birthright. The United States finally brought down the Sandinista government. It took some years and considerable resistance but relentless economic persecution and 30,000 dead finally undermined the spirit of the Nicaraguan people. They were exhausted and poverty stricken once again. The casinos moved back into the country. Free health and free education were over. Big business returned with a vengeance. 'Democracy' had prevailed. But this 'policy' was by no means restricted to Central America. It was conducted throughout the world. It was never-ending. And it is as if it never happened. The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War. I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile. The horror the United States inflicted upon Chile in 1973 can never be purged and can never be forgiven. Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy. But you wouldn't know it." Pinter's speech is a somber indictment of US foreign policy; a policy which is now cloaked behind the rock-star facade of Barack Obama. Nothing has changed and, perhaps, nothing will change. The same barbarous campaign that thrived under Bush has been passed along to Obama intact. Wherever there is resistance to US ambitions; there lies the enemy. Whether its Marxists in Bogota, nationalists in Kosovo, Bolivarians in Caracas, Shia militias in Beirut, Islamic moderates in Mogadishu or Quakers in Toledo. They're all enemies, every one of them, and they need to be dealt with. Obama is no fool; he knows he's being used. He knows he wasn't chosen for his enlightened views on health care and stem cells. He was picked because the men in charge needed a new posterboy to hide behind while they carry out their illicit activities. Obama is not so much of a Commander in chief as he is master illusionist, diverting attention from the stealth war that goes on relentlessly with or without his consent. Here's Pinter again: "The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis...It's a scintillating stratagem." Consider how the news was shaped to make it look like the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were carried out for altruistic reasons. Thus, the war in Afghanistan became "Operation Enduring Freedom", stressing the selfless generosity of bombing a country into oblivion and reinstating the thuggish warlords to power. The same strategy was used for the invasion of Iraq which was celebrated as "liberation from a brutal dictator." Liberation which cost the lives of over 1 million Iraqis and the displacement of 4 million more. Still, no one in the UN or so called international community has pressed for removing the US from the Security Council or prosecuting its leaders for war crimes. It's a testimony to the success of the US media in upholding the "tapestry of lies" of which Pinter speaks. Under Obama, the charade has only gotten worse. The coverage of the war has stopped entirely. War? What war? What matters now is Obama's cheery banter with Jay Leno, or Michelle's well-proportioned arms or Malia's adorable Portuguese Waterdog. America is whole again. Let the killing resume. Pinter: "What has happened to our moral sensibility? Did we ever have any? What do these words mean? Do they refer to a term very rarely employed these days - conscience? A conscience to do not only with our own acts but to do with our shared responsibility in the acts of others? Is all this dead? Look at Guantanamo Bay. Hundreds of people detained without charge for over three years, with no legal representation or due process, technically detained forever. This totally illegitimate structure is maintained in defiance of the Geneva Convention. It is not only tolerated but hardly thought about by what's called the 'international community'. This criminal outrage is being committed by a country, which declares itself to be 'the leader of the free world'. Do we think about the inhabitants of Guantanamo Bay? What does the media say about them? They pop up occasionally - a small item on page six. They have been consigned to a no man's land from which indeed they may never return. At present many are on hunger strike, being force-fed, including British residents. No niceties in these force-feeding procedures. No sedative or anesthetic. Just a tube stuck up your nose and into your throat. You vomit blood. This is torture. What has the British Foreign Secretary said about this? Nothing. What has the British Prime Minister said about this? Nothing. Why not? Because the United States has said: to criticize our conduct in Guantanamo Bay constitutes an unfriendly act. You're either with us or against us." Obama doesn't need to solve the world's problems. He doesn't have to reverse global warming or slow peak oil, cure AIDS or end world hunger. All he needs to do is meet the minimal requirement of his job as president, which is to deliver justice to his people. That's why the prosecution of Bush for war crimes is more important than any other issue on the docket. Justice precedes everything; it's the thread that keeps the social fabric stitched together. Justice for the victims who were killed in their homes with their families while they were sleeping or eating dinner. Justice for the people who were bombed in wedding parties or going to work or at the mosque praying to God. That's what people want from Obama. Justice, nothing more. The Reverend Martin Luther King said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." It's up to Obama follow that arc and take at least one step on the path of legitimacy, accountability and justice. Pinter: "How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice." It's highly unlikely that a black man with a background in community organizing really believes that expanding the war in Afghanistan is the right thing to do. Nor is it likely that he supports wiretapping, the crackdown on immigrants, penalizing sellers of medical marijuana, trillion dollar bank bailouts or "enhanced" interrogation. He is merely reading from the script that he has been given. But as the economic crisis deepens and the country becomes more radicalized and politically unstable, that script will have to be tossed aside. Obama will have plenty of opportunities to shrug off his handlers and show what he's really made of. Perhaps he is great man after all. Pinter: "When we look into a mirror, we think the image that confronts us is accurate. But move a millimeter and the image changes. We are actually looking at a never-ending range of reflections. But sometimes a writer has to smash the mirror - for it is on the other side of that mirror that the truth stares at us." Go ahead, Barack. Smash the mirror. ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From duanebehrens at cox.net Sat May 2 21:47:05 2009 From: duanebehrens at cox.net (Duane Behrens) Date: Sat May 2 21:47:29 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] RE: Swine Flu Scare Over Message-ID: <20090503004705.LFYN7.118750.imail@fed1rmwml30> BOB FLEISCHER writes: ALL of the media is always looking for sensationalist stories. Sensationalism sells, and what sells means profits. I do believe that there is a rather substantial danger that this sort-of rather ordinary 'flu', may spread and cause more than the usual amount of flu deaths; as there are some characteristics that may lead to some more lethal/serious aspects of the strain, which is getting modified, like most flu's do, as it goes into the population in larger numbers. On the other hand, I hardly believe the promulgated....on this LIST....idea that this flu was some sort of nefarious plot, or runaway laboratory product. There are some few on this LIST that believe that everything is a conspiracy, and so their lives go, living on conspiracy theories. DUANE responds: Hi, Bob. Thanks, as always, for your input. As to the recent swine flu scare, I was and remain puzzled by the national media's apparent lock-step willingness to label the recent outbreak as an "epidemic" or a "pandemic." I would have thought that one of those supposedly independent investigative news sources would have had the good sense to understand that an epidemic, by definition, requires the widespread sickness or death of a significant percentage of a population. Regarding your second point, and using the obvious example, there are still perhaps a few conspiracy theorists out there who truly believe that a small group of Saudi Arabians successfully conspired to rule our skies uncontested . . . . conspired to target for destruction three high rise buildings leased and operated by the same man . . . and that through their efforts all three buldings collapsed inward upon their strongest components at free fall speed with no resistance from below. I don't happen to be one of those conspiracy theorists. I could certainly be wrong, I just haven't seen any evidence. And Bob, I'm not at all sure that you're one of those conspiracy theorists either. From your writings here I believe that you, like Nathan Meyer, possess a reasonable amount of analytical intelligence. In this context, I believe we can also make a generalization - that there are two types of reasonably intelligent men: (1) those who would willingly sell out 250 million of their fellow citizens for paltry personal gain, and; (2) those who wouldn't. FWIW. Duane Behrens http://perzuki.smugmug.com/ From creuss at bluewin.ch Sun May 3 02:44:09 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Sun May 3 02:47:21 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] RE: Swine Flu Scare Over Message-ID: > BOB FLEISCHER writes: > ALL of the media is always looking for sensationalist stories. Nonsense. The truth would be a much bigger sensation, as with 9/11. > and what sells means profits. Tamiflu sells, due to the "swine" flu scare. The WHO ordered another 2.4 million units of Tamiflu, and Roche even had to deploy its "emergency stock" of Tamiflu. Profits for Rummy. > On the other hand, I hardly believe the promulgated....on this > LIST....idea that this flu was some sort of nefarious plot, or runaway > laboratory product. This virus consists of 3 parts (human, swine, avian flu) from 3 continents, but not a single pig farm on the planet was infected by it, not even the large pig farm near the first human outbreak in Mexico. So there is no way that this is a "swine flu" bred in pig farms. > There are some few on this LIST that believe that > everything is a conspiracy, and so their lives go, living on conspiracy > theories. Some prefer to reject facts and logic just so they can maintain their BELIEF in the goodness of criminal leaders. A phenomenon known from cults. Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From creuss at bluewin.ch Sun May 3 04:30:51 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Sun May 3 04:34:10 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Canadian Farmer infects his Pigs with "Swine" Flu Message-ID: This shows the absurdity of the "swine flu": A farmer infects his pigs, instead of the other way around! Well, at least now they can say that SOME pigs DO have the "swine flu"! http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/05/03/swine.flu.canada/index.html?section=cnn _latest Canada: Farmer possibly gave swine flu to pigs updated 4 minutes ago (CNN) -- More than a week after the swine flu outbreak rattled the world, with cases of infected people popping up from Mexico to South Korea, the new virus strain has shown up in a herd of swine. The catch, Canadian officials say, is that the animals may have caught the flu from a human. Canadian officials is quarantining pigs that tested positive for the virus -- scientifically known as 2009 H1N1 -- at an Alberta farm in what could be the first identified case of pigs infected during the recent outbreak. They said the pigs may have been infected by a Canadian farmer who recently returned from a trip to Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak that has sickened more than 680 people. The farmer "may have exposed swine on the farm to an influenza virus," said Dr. Brian Evans of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. "We have determined that the virus H1N1, found in these pigs, is the virus which is being tracked in the human population," he added. Learn about the virus ? Evans and other officials said it is not uncommon for flu viruses to jump from humans to animals, and that it does not pose a risk for consuming pork. The number of pigs infected was not disclosed. The infected farmer had flu-like symptoms and is recovering, Evans said. Meanwhile, as the number of confirmed swine flu cases reached 787 worldwide, the World Health Organization said Sunday it had started distributing 2.4 million doses of a common anti-viral drug to 72 nations. So far, 17 countries have confirmed cases of swine flu, the WHO said. Video Watch latest developments as swine flu sweeps world ? Dr. Michael J. Ryan, the WHO director of its global alert and response team, said the doses of the drug Tamiflu came from a stockpile that was donated by Swiss health-care giant Roche in 2005 and 2006. Roche, which produces the common anti-viral drug Tamiflu in a statement said it was working with the WHO to prepare for the virus. The drug should be taken within 48 hours of experiencing symptoms, according to the drug's Web site. Mexico has the most confirmed swine flu cases, with 506 infected people and 16 deaths, the WHO said. Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos reported that the country has confirmed 421 cases and 19 deaths. Several other countries, including Canada and Italy, had confirmed additional cases that had not yet been added to the WHO's total. The United States has the second-highest number of confirmed cases, with 160 sickened and one death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the WHO. President Barack Obama spoke with Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Saturday afternoon to discuss both countries' "efforts to limit the spread of the 2009 H1N1 flu strain and the importance of close U.S.-Mexican cooperation," the White House said in a statement. Other than Mexico and the United States, the WHO confirmed cases in 14 other countries: Canada, with 70; the United Kingdom with 15; Spain with 13; Germany with six; New Zealand with four; Israel with three; France, with two; and Austria, China, South Korea, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Costa Rica, each have one. See where cases have been confirmed ? Ryan said the WHO was still preparing for a pandemic. "At this point we have to expect that phase six will be reached," he said, referring to the organization's highest pandemic threat level. "We have to hope that it is not reached." And he noted that a pandemic describes "the geographic spread of the disease, not its severity." The latest developments come as parts of Asia discovered they were not immune to the spread of the virus. Hundreds of guests and staff were under quarantine in China after health officials determined that a hotel guest had contracted the H1N1 virus. Nearly 200 hotel guests and 100 staff members were ordered to stay in Metro Park Hotel in Hong Kong for seven days to stop the spread of the H1N1 virus, a government spokesman said. advertisement The quarantine was ordered after a 25-year-old Mexican man stayed in the hotel and became sick, according to the spokesman. It is the first confirmed case of the virus in Hong Kong, local medical officials said. South Korean officials on Saturday confirmed their first case -- a 51-year-old nun who recently traveled to Mexico for volunteer work. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From clementclarke at ozemail.com.au Sun May 3 12:31:38 2009 From: clementclarke at ozemail.com.au (Clement Clarke) Date: Sun May 3 12:32:34 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] [Fwd: [GJM] Big Pharma and Media-Fueled Alarm] Message-ID: <49FDF11A.7020103@ozemail.com.au> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090504/520a9f9f/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion@globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net -------------- next part -------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.320 / Virus Database: 270.12.15/2093 - Release Date: 05/02/09 14:23:00 From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Sun May 3 03:48:26 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Sun May 3 16:30:22 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] RE: Swine Flu Scare Over In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090503232955.4DC1DF65A@fep05.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> One does not have to adopt this bloke Mercola's world-view in order to take proper heed of his comments and observations: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/29/Swine-Flu.aspx Dion Giles Incidentally, on a matter far removed from the swine flu hype, here's another person whose world-view one might or might not embrace but who has none the less made some comments that need to be heeded, especially by his arrogant compatriots: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/959229.htm (I am indebted to an off-list letter for this lead, and think it worth passing on). Dion Giles From duanebehrens at cox.net Sun May 3 18:16:43 2009 From: duanebehrens at cox.net (Duane Behrens) Date: Sun May 3 18:17:10 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] RE: Swine Flu Scare Over In-Reply-To: <20090503232955.4DC1DF65A@fep05.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> Message-ID: <20090503211643.JGY1I.125692.imail@fed1rmwml32> Hi, Dion. Enjoyed the first link. Thanks. When I went to the second link I received the message, "Error - URL not found." DB ---- Dion Giles wrote: ============= One does not have to adopt this bloke Mercola's world-view in order to take proper heed of his comments and observations: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/29/Swine-Flu.aspx Dion Giles Incidentally, on a matter far removed from the swine flu hype, here's another person whose world-view one might or might not embrace but who has none the less made some comments that need to be heeded, especially by his arrogant compatriots: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/959229.htm (I am indebted to an off-list letter for this lead, and think it worth passing on). Dion Giles _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -- http://perzuki.smugmug.com/ From creuss at bluewin.ch Mon May 4 03:09:42 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Mon May 4 03:12:54 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] RE: Swine Flu Scare Over Message-ID: > When I went to the second link > I received the message, "Error - URL not found." DB The correct link is: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/959229.html Btw, I posted it on 20-Jan-2009 on this list... Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From creuss at bluewin.ch Mon May 4 03:30:34 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Mon May 4 03:33:48 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Economic Efficiency in China Message-ID: The long-term "boost" for the cancer industry will also be great. So who said that economists are only thinking in the short term? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5271376/Chinese-orde red-to-smoke-more-to-boost-economy.html Chinese ordered to smoke more to boost economy Local government officials in China have been ordered to smoke nearly a quarter of a million packs of cigarettes in a move to boost the local economy during the global financial crisis. By Peter Foster in Beijing Last Updated: 7:45AM BST 04 May 2009 The edict, issued by officials in Hubei province in central China, threatens to fine officials who "fail to meet their targets" or are caught smoking rival brands manufactured in neighbouring provinces. Even local schools have been issued with a smoking quota for teachers, while one village was ordered to purchase 400 cartons of cigarettes a year for its officials, according to the local government's website. The move, which flies in the face of national anti-smoking policies set in Beijing, is aimed at boosting tax revenues and protecting local manufacturers from outside competition from China's 100 cigarette makers. In total, officials have been ordered to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-branded cigarettes worth ?400,000. China's government has ordered massive government spending at both national and provincial levels to prop up the economy following plummeting demand for Chinese exports abroad, however imposing a cigarette quota is unusual. "The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax," said Chen Nianzu, a member of the Gong'an cigarette market supervision team. China has 350 million smokers, about a million of whom die each year from smoking-related illnesses. Despite anti-smoking campaigns, cigarette taxes form a major component of China's annual tax-take at local level. Local authorities in Gong'an county are taking the cigarette quota seriously and have established a "special taskforce" to enforce it. According to a local newspaper account, a teacher from a village middle school said officials burst unannounced into the school at around 3pm one afternoon and started sifting through the ashtray and bins in the staff-room. Three "non-compliant" cigarette butts were discovered by the "cigarette marketing consolidate team" which informed the teacher he had violated the related civil servants "cigarette usage rule" After some negotiation the school was spared a fine, but subjected to "public criticism" for "undisciplined practices". ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Mon May 4 03:45:12 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Mon May 4 03:45:39 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] RE: Swine Flu Scare Over In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090504104513.61D4B12A7B@fep01.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> Sorry, I was overseas and not regularly reading mail then. Damn good story though. - Dion \At 18:09 04/05/2009, you wrote: > > When I went to the second link > > I received the message, "Error - URL not found." DB > >The correct link is: >http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/959229.html > >Btw, I posted it on 20-Jan-2009 on this list... > >Chris > > > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword >"igve". > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Mon May 4 22:26:10 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Mon May 4 22:54:30 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] What's new at Links: Nepal, May Day, Bolivia, capitalism and flu, economic crisis, Malaysia, Vietnam, Europe, Arabic, Thailand Message-ID: <49FFCDF2.30700@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: Nepal, May Day, Bolivia, capitalism and flu, economic crisis, Malaysia, Vietnam, Europe, Arabic, Thailand * * * Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to links@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links/. * * * May Day, 2009: `Advance the socialist alternative!', `Together we shall restore humanity' May 1, 2009 -- Below are a number of messages to mark International Workers' Day -- May Day -- from revolutionary organisations around the world. * Read more Bolivia: Rich countries must pay their `ecological debt' Submission by Republic of Bolivia to the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the [UN Framework Convention on Climate Change] (AWG-LCA) April 25, 2009 -- We call on developed countries to commit to deep emission reductions in order to advance the objective of avoiding dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system and its consequences, to reflect their historical responsibility for the causes of climate change, and to respect the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities in accordance with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). * Read more Mike Davis: Capitalism and the flu April 27, 2009 -- Socialist Worker (USA) -- Mike Davis, whose 2006 book The Monster at Our Door warned of the threat of a global bird flu pandemic, explains how globalised agribusiness set the stage for a frightening outbreak of the swine flu in Mexico. * Read more Former elite resists the `New Nepal' STOP PRESS -- Ben Peterson from Kathmandu reports on May 3, 2009, at 3pm: This morning the Maoists in government made the decision to remove General Katawal from his position of chief of army staff after his repeated political insubordination. This follows 10 days of trying to reach consensus with the other political parties, up until a final cross-party meeting this morning. Failing to achieve consenus, the goverment ordered Katawal's retirement. * Read more The political economy of crisis management in the heart of world capitalism By Arindam Sen May 2009 -- Do we see a faint glimmer of light at the -- still distant -- end of the tunnel?... Meanwhile, a great debate of sorts is raging over contradictory strategy options for crisis management, in the process revealing the class conflicts in US society -- both between the bourgeoisie and the working class, and among various sections of the bourgeoisie. * Read more Malaysian socialists' clenched-fist logo approved April 29, 2009 -- The Socialist Party of Malaysia (Parti Sosialis Malaysia, PSM), having recently won a decade-long battle for recognition from Malaysia's Registrar of Societies, today announced another victory: that its logo has been approved by the Election Commission (EC). * Read more April 30: Vietnam celebrates Liberation Day By Peter Boyle April 30, 2009 -- Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific -- There are two unforgettable images of Vietnam's Liberation Day on April 30, 1975. The first is the image of liberation fighters entering the Independence Palace (now Reunification Palace) in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). The second is the hasty evacuation by helicopter from the roof of the US embassy. Thirty-four years later Vietnam will celebrate not just the end of a 16-year war of aggression by the US, Australia and other imperialist and pro-imperialist states but also the end of the two-decade-long economic blockade that was subsequently imposed by the US on this poor and war-ravaged nation. * Read more Scottish Socialist Party: 'Little Britain' politics and the left By Alan McCombes April 24, 2009 -- Voters who want an isolationist Britain will be spoiled for choice in the European elections on June 4th. On the far right, the BNP and UKIP both demand an independent Britain. Left of centre parties that want British withdrawal include Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Parry and the NO2EU Yes To Democracy coalition. While these four parties promote British independence, the Free Scotland Party campaigns for an independent Scotland outside the European Union. What should be the attitude of Scottish socialists towards Europe? Should the left back British separatism? And does the NO2EU Yes To Democracy campaign represent a progressive step forward? * Read more Swine flu and a sick social system: Why the poor die and the rich sniffle April 27, 2009 -- A World to Win News Service -- It is impossible to predict the spread, severity and consequences of the swine flu epidemic that broke out in Mexico. But influenza epidemics have occurred regularly -- with three pandemics (global epidemics) in the 20th century -- and scientists and public health authorities have known for a long time that new pandemics are inevitable. Some possible parameters and paths of development can be scientifically understood, in both the biological and social spheres. There are two separate and mainly independent factors at work. One is the nature and evolution of the disease itself, which is not caused by human activity. Although social factors -- for instance industrial pig farming -- may have played a contributing role in the appearance of this particular disease, human beings didn't invent viruses or human and animal vulnerability to them. * Read more The Flame, April-May 2009 -- Green Left Weekly's Arabic-language supplement With the help of Socialist Alliance members in the growing Sudanese community in Australia, Green Left Weekly -- Australia's leading socialist newspaper -- is publishing a regular Arabic language supplement. The Flame will cover news from the Arabic-speaking world as well as news and issues from within Australia. The editor-in-chief is Soubhi Iskander, a comrade who has endured years of imprisonment and torture at the hands of the repressive government in Sudan. * Read more Thailand: Why have NGOs sided with the royalists, against democracy and the poor? By Giles Ji Ungpakorn April 27, 2009 -- In the present political crisis in Thailand, it is shocking that most Thai NGOs have disgraced themselves by siding with the ``Yellow Shirt'' elites or have remained silent in the face of the general attack on democracy. It is shocking because NGO activists started out by being on the side of the poor and the oppressed in society. To explain this situation, we must go beyond a simple explanation that relies on personal failings of individuals or suggestions that NGOs have "underlying bad intentions", or that they are "agents of imperialism". * Read more * * * Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090505/e10a76e6/attachment.html From dnevrghm at powerup.com.au Sun May 3 00:18:17 2009 From: dnevrghm at powerup.com.au (Doug Everingham) Date: Tue May 5 00:35:41 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] new subscription request In-Reply-To: <8CB96F44845BAC3-63C-2EBC@webmail-dd21.sysops.aol.com> References: <1241016576.6262.3.camel@localhost> <8CB96F44845BAC3-63C-2EBC@webmail-dd21.sysops.aol.com> Message-ID: Someone mentioned that "kangaroo rat" is a small Ausralian maraupial. It may be more in line with common usage to use it in the U S sense where I think it is a kangaroo-like rodent (I think with long leaping hind legs like a kangaroo but non-marsupial) while a small Australian marsupial is the "rat kangaroo." Both are probably adapted to arid regions with capacity to cover long distances between food and water sources. ==== Yves: Thanks for the welcome. By the way, kangaroo rats live in the Southwestern U.S. deserts. They have the amazing ability to convert the dry seeds they eat into water. Thus, they need essentially no external water to survive. Mark -----Original Message----- From: Yves Bajard To: A renewed Mai-Not Sent: Wed, 29 Apr 2009 7:49 am Subject: Re: [Mai-not] new subscription request You know, Mark is already on the list. I just asked you if you knew him. Duane Behrens did vouch for Mark ands Mark sent me a very solid introductory message. Please stop commenting him as if he was an alien. Ditto, for the new subscription, I thought it would be just normal to ask you if someone wanted to join the group. I did not expect the following exchange.. Thank you Welcome again, Mark. Yves Bajard ... [cut by D E ] ... From jomut at yahoo.com Tue May 5 11:28:50 2009 From: jomut at yahoo.com (John Mutambirwa) Date: Tue May 5 11:29:27 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] 'owlin an 'ootin Message-ID: <155185.69814.qm@web31104.mail.mud.yahoo.com> John Mutambirwa (Dreaming Awake) jomut@yahoo.com chakane@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/jomut ? Hi ? Thought this one good enough to send to several lists. This Moon of? Alabama guy makes a lot of howling sense about the creepy effect these credit default swaps (CDS) have on normal business vibes.? Here he argues why Chrysler bondholders had no incentive?either?to renegotiate?Chrysler's loans or?accept a slightly less lucrative debt/equity swap because they held CDSs that?would make good on what they were owed anyway, irrespective of whether Chrysler declared bankruptcy or not. ? He goes even further than this by showing how the same CDSs were used to bring Citigroup to its knees. And here's the kicker, both Citigroup and JP Morgan, who have benefited more than generously from govt bailouts in one way or another, were among the major creditors that refused to let Chrysler off the hook!! ? Let the devil take the hindmost!! ? BTW, I strongly advise that you read the guys imbedded links, they contain a wealth of info on this eerie creature referred to as creative finance!! ? John -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090505/7f553bd2/attachment.html From fresch at ica.net Wed May 6 14:08:14 2009 From: fresch at ica.net (Fred Schneider) Date: Wed May 6 14:09:02 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd.: Time to challenge economic orthodoxy. Message-ID: <20090506210815.C1CFBBB2B2@sendmail.ica.net> Forwarded from "StraightGoods" (Canada) http://www.straightgoods.ca/2009/ViewFeature.cfm?Ref=263 Time to challenge economic orthodoxy Michael Ignatieff's tinkering opens opportunities for Jack Layton, if he seizes them. Dateline: Monday, May 04, 2009 by Ish Theilheimer There has never been a better time for smashing economic and political idols than the present. Orthodox thinking on the economy is what got us into the mess we are in today. It needs to be rooted out, hunted down, exposed and quarantined, nothing less. Trade deals that help corporations but not workers, market deregulation, privatization, and undermining the ability of government to help citizens (think Katrina) all contributed to widespread public disenchantment with the happy lies dispensed for years by business and economic "experts." The "free market" is a myth that must be challenged whenever it appears. The market has never been "free." The experts convinced people they could live beyond their means, buy beyond their means and get rich investing in a paper economy. Now, good jobs have disappeared by the hundreds of thousands, never to return. The real estate bubble has popped, leaving families destitute. And the paper market got blown away in the gale caused by the sub-prime mortgage fiasco, triggered, in turn, by wholesale deregulation of financial industries. The experts don't deserve a lot of credence, much less six-, seven-, and eight-figure executive bonuses many corporate types, including the managers of the Public Service Pension Board, seem to think is their due. It got my goat to read in the Globe and Mail what Stephen Harper had to say about the Chrysler situation. "I'm a Conservative because I'm a realist," he was reported as saying. "Yes, I believe in the marketplace but a free market solution was not on the table in this case. The Americans had determined that there would not be a free market solution one way or the other. I'm not questioning that." Self-serving statements like that cannot be tolerated. The "free market" is a myth that must be challenged whenever it appears. The market has never been "free." There have always been rules, regulations, subsidy programs, trade deals, public procurement programs and tax rules, to name a few examples, that favour some businesses over others. That's why corporations spend millions on lobbyists, to influence the rules government sets. The limited liability of shareholders of corporations is another example of how public policy helps some at the expense of others. Corporations can take risks small business owners cannot, because the corporation's owners know they themselves can never be sued. "Conservatives want to use the government to distribute income upward to higher paid workers, business owners and investors," writes American economist Dean Baker in The Conservatives Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer. "First and foremost, conservatives support nanny state policies that have the effect of increasing the supply of less-skilled workers (thereby lowering their wages), while at the same time restricting the supply of more highly educated professional employees (thereby raising their wages)." Baker lists many other state interventions on behalf of the wealthy and powerful that skew the market. High on his list are liability insurance exemptions for drug and nuclear companies, ethanol subsidies that mostly help oil companies, restrictive copyright and patent protection, and corporate tax breaks. "There are no public intellectual leaders in any campaign for 'free markets' and against regulation," writes US economist James K. Galbraith ? son of Canadian icon John Galbraith and a revered economist in his own right ? in The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too. "'Free trade,'" he writes, "has been reduced to a label, pasted over trade agreements that are anything but free." Stephen Harper pretends he doesn't normally support public intervention in the economy. That's nonsense. He just wants intervention that favours his support base in the oil industry and corporate Canada. When conservatives put out damaging myths like that, progressives must respond crisply and clearly. The so-called free market has had a terrible tilt to it that favours some and hurts many. Free-market fundamentalism got us into the mess we're in now. What people around the world need is governments and politicians ? especially progressive ones ? that understand and plainly say that the moral mission of government is public protection and citizen empowerment. On that score, it is interesting to evaluate the leaders of Canada's opposition parties. The newly-anointed Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff clearly has no grand plan other than to tinker a bit with the unemployment insurance system his own Liberal predecessors messed up so badly. In the runup to this week's Liberal convention, he was deliberately vague about his political positions. He did little to clarify his platform on the weekend. One delegate summed up the themes of the Liberal party very nicely in a CBC interview this weekend: "Pragmatism and compromise." At this moment in history, however, compromising with the free marketeers is just not on. The NDP's approach has been uneven. The party has launched one initiative after another on everything from pensions to housing, credit cards and GMO aflalfa. Their releases describe good causes and ideas. A unifying message of protection and empowerment in the face of a disaster triggered by "free market" ideology is, at best a subtext that get lost in policy detail and politicking. The Conservative Meltdown crisis should provide the NDP with opportunity ? especially when faced with a Liberal leader so comfortable, himself, with economic orthodoxy. The party, however, remains stuck, in polls, at or below its usual levels. Ignatieff's coronation is part of the problem for them, but until the NDP successfully brands itself as the party of secure shelter from the storm, problems will continue. Ish Theilheimer has been Publisher of the leading, and oldest, independent Canadian online newsmagazine, StraightGoods.ca, since founding it in September 1999. He is also Managing Editor of PublicValues.ca. He lives wth his wife Kathy in Golden Lake, ON, in the Ottawa Valley. Email: ish@straightgoods.com. Related addresses: URL 1: http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090501.wraut... URL 2: http://www.ndp.ca/press/press-releases My home page: "http://home.ica.net/~fresch/index.htm" ======================================== Fred Schneider, 905-279-7199, Fax: same, call first! #37-425 Meadows Blvd. Mississauga, ON, L4Z 1N3 From creuss at bluewin.ch Fri May 8 02:37:02 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Fri May 8 02:40:10 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] U$ Court: Illegal to call Creationism what it is Message-ID: http://u.tv/News/US-teacher-broke-law-by-describing-creationism-as-superstitious-nonsense/4d6269b6-2dd4-451e-80df-7b42ee41ef5d US teacher broke law by describing creationism as 'superstitious nonsense' Judge rules remark was 'improper disapproval of religion' and violated first amendment of US constitution Wednesday, 06 May 2009 A US teenager has successfully won a lawsuit against a teacher who described creationism as "superstitious nonsense". Chad Farnan, a devout Christian studying at California's Capistrano Valley high school, persuaded a judge that his European history teacher, James Corbett, violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which courts interpret as banning government employees from promoting, or displaying hostility towards, religion. Article Continues Farnan claimed Corbett made comments that were "derogatory, disparaging and belittling regarding religion and Christianity in particular". In legal documents submitted to the US district court, he said he was uncomfortable going to class and felt as though Corbett had created an atmosphere in which he could not effectively learn "both because and regardless of his religious beliefs". Farnan's lawyer, Jennifer Monk, who works for a not-for-profit Christian law firm, Advocates for Faith and Freedom, told the Guardian yesterday that Farnan's victory was the first of its kind, proving that the establishment clause applied equally to the disapproval of religion as it did to the promotion of religion. "It is the first case of its kind where a court has held a teacher responsible for the disapproval of Christianity. It's common for lawsuits to be brought against teachers promoting religion. In general, for years, religion has been taken out of the classroom. I don't agree with that, but if it's going to be taken out, at the very minimum you can't go to the other extreme. "The [Farnan] family is excited, it's a courageous stand. There were people who were very supportive and there were people who didn't agree with his stand." Farnan spent almost 18 months gathering material against Corbett, compiling a dossier that featured secret recordings of the teacher's remarks. However, Judge James Selna found in a 37-page ruling that almost all the statements cited by the plaintiff did not violate the establishment cause, including Corbett's view that "when you put on your Jesus glasses, you can't see the truth" - a reference to peasants who did not support the reforms of the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II for religious reasons. The judge said the statement was made in the context of an historical discussion. He dismissed other comments by Corbett that "conservatives don't want women to avoid pregnancies - that's interfering with God's work" and that there was as much evidence that God created the world "as there is that there is a gigantic spaghetti monster living behind the moon who did it". Only one of Corbett's opinions fell foul of the First Amendment - his "unequivocal belief that creationism is superstitious nonsense". Judge Selna concluded that there was no legitimate secular purpose to the statement and it constituted "improper disapproval of religion in violation of the establishment clause". In his ruling, the judge said he tried to balance the rights of both parties. "The court's ruling reflects the constitutionally permissible need for expansive discussion, even if a given topic may be offensive to a particular religion," he said. "The decision also reflects that there are boundaries. The ruling protects Farnan, but also protects teachers like Corbett in carrying out their teaching duties." He said the case reflected the tension between the constitutional rights of a student and the demands of higher education, as well as the tension between Farnan's religious beliefs and the need for government, especially schools, to carry out their duties "free of the strictures of any particular religious or philosophical belief system". Corbett, a teacher with 20 years' experience, remains at Capistrano Valley high school and has made no public comment since the case started. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From creuss at bluewin.ch Fri May 8 09:53:55 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Fri May 8 09:57:11 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Thatcherism in Medicine Message-ID: Work as a rural doc is not profitable enough, so British doctors simply don't do it anymore. The lean state fills this gap with cheapo docs from abroad, with predictable results -- and, as often with Thatcherism, lethal results. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/05/05/foreign-doctor-s-drug-bl under-killed-dad-german-flown-in-as-out-of-hours-cover-115875-21332847/ Foreign doctor's drug blunder killed dad: German flown in as out-of-hours cover By Aidan McGurran 5/05/2009 David Gray, (left), got 10 times the top dose of pain drug. Doctor Ubani, (right), got a suspended setence... in Germany A family is to sue the German doctor who, on his first out-ofhours cover shift in Britain, caused their father's death with 10 times the dose of a pain relief drug. David Gray, 70, died when he was given the massive amount of diamorphine by Daniel Ubani - who admitted he was "too tired" to concentrate after flying into the UK the day before. The kidney and heart patient's son Stuart, himself a GP, said yesterday: "Even a student nurse would have known that was lethal. It is used in acute conditions at a maximum dose of 10 mg." "I'd like to see a suspension of foreign doctors working in out-of-hours services until the system is fully overhauled." But he, his brother Rory, also a doctor, and Mr Gray's partner Lynda Bubb, 58, are not satisfied with a health watchdog's "full investigation" pledge - or an apology from Dr Ubani for his 100mg blunder. So they are taking civil legal action against him, Cambridgeshire NHS, which oversees primary care in the county, and Take Care Now, the firm that provided the out-of-hours care. Stuart said: "We are not taking civil action because we want any money but we want to highlight this case." At home in Manea, Cambs, Ms Bubb said: "No one else must go through what we have." Rory added: "How can such people just fly over for the weekend and undergo nothing more than an induction the night before to assess patients?" The case has already sparked a row about Germany's response to the UK's request to extradite Dr Ubani, who was working for a Cambridgeshire health trust at the time of the incident last year. Instead of being dealt with here, German authorities gave him a nine month suspended prison sentence there with a ?4,450 fine for negligence. Dr Ubani, still practising in Witten, sent a bizarre letter riddled with spelling errors to Lynda and Stuart, explaining: "My nerves were overstretched. I was too tired and lacked concentration and these factors played a major roole (sic) in what occurred." He had started: "It is with a very heavy heart I... express my deepest sympathy and remorse for my fatal mistake." Civil servant Lynda called an out-ofhours doctor in February 2008 because former British Aerospace manager Mr Gray was in agony. He had suffered from renal colic and kidney stones for many years and more recently from heart problems. Dr Ubani , who is also understood to have administered 4mg of buscopan as well as the diamorphine, cited confusion between drugs, one of which was not used by medics on call in Germany. A Health Department spokeswoman said: "It is disappointing that this doctor, although now convicted of an offence, was not held to account here." Christine Braithwaite, of health watchdog Care Quality Commission, said: "This deeply disturbing case must be thoroughly looked into and lessons learned." She added: "We are aware of concerns in relation to out-of-hours care provided by Take Care Now to the NHS and will be looking into these." OVERSEAS MEDICS FILL GAP More than 100 foreign doctors are estimated to be used a year by some Primary Care Trusts since out-ofhours visits were revised in 2004. Before then, people who became ill were seen at home by a local GP. The Government gave in to doctors' demands to remove their responsibility to provide 24/7 care. But while their pay was cut by an average ?6,000 a year, GPs on outof-hours calls can now get between ?700 and ?1,500 for a weekend shift. A total of 119 medics from abroad were used in 2007 by 10 per cent of PCTs, who also commission local doctors, private firms with a mixture of GPs and agency locums. But doctors' reluctance to carry out home calls, especially at night, is often criticised. Nine million patients a year request visits. The Care Quality Commission is now responsible for assessing PCTs.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From duanebehrens at cox.net Sat May 9 06:25:30 2009 From: duanebehrens at cox.net (Duane Behrens) Date: Sat May 9 06:26:02 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Paul Craig Roberts - "America's Shame" Message-ID: <20090509092530.875KQ.209777.imail@fed1rmwml31> Why does Israel have a right to exist, but Palestine doesn't? This is the question of our time. For sixty years Israelis have been stealing Palestine from Palestinians. There are maps available on the Internet and in Israeli publications showing the shrinkage over time of what was once Palestine into what Palestine is today--a small number of unconnected ghettos or bantustans. Palestine became "the occupied territory" from which Palestinians were ejected and Israeli settlements built for "settlers." Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are full of refugee camps in which Palestinians driven off their lands by Israeli force have been living for decades. Driving people off their land is strictly illegal under international law, but Israel has been getting away with it for decades. Gaza is a concentration camp of 1.5 million Palestinians who were driven from their homes and villages and collected in the Gaza Ghetto. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency was created 60 years ago in 1949 to administer refugee camps for Palestinians driven from their lands by Israel. As of 2002, the registered Palestinian refugee population was 3.9 million. Caterpillar Tractor makes a special bulldozer for Israel that is designed to knock down Palestinian homes and to uproot their orchards. In 2003 an American protester, Rachel Corrie, stood in front of one of these Caterpillars and was run over and crushed. Nothing happened. The Israelis can kill whomever they want whenever they want. They have been doing so for 60 years, and they show no sign of stopping. Currently they are murdering women and children in the ghetto that they have created for Palestinians in Gaza. The entire world knows this. The Red Cross protests it. But the Israelis brazenly claim that they are killing "Hamas terrorists who are a threat to Israel's existence." The American media knows that this is a lie, but does not say so. Israel has been able to slowly exterminate a people for sixty years without provoking sufficient outrage to stop it. The United States, "Christian America," has been Israel's greatest enabler in its long-term murder of the Palestinian people. Millions of "evangelical Christians" endorse Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The rest of the world condemns the Israeli military attack on the Gaza Ghetto. Last week the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution requiring a ceasefire and the withdrawal of the Israeli SS from Gaza. The United States abstained. While the rest of the world condemns Israel's inhumanity, the US Congress--I should say the US Knesset--rushed to endorse the Israeli slaughter of the Palestinians in Gaza. The US Senate endorsed Israel's massacre of Palestinians with a vote of 100-0. The US House of Representatives voted 430-5 to endorse Israel's massacre of Palestinians. The resolutions endorsed by 100% of the US Senate and 99% of the House were written by AIPAC, as were the speeches praising Israel for its inhumanity. The US Congress was proud to show that it is Israel's puppet even when it comes to murdering women and children. The President of the United States was proud to block effective action by the UN Security Council by ordering the Secretary of State to abstain. Be a Proud American. Swagger and strut. Pretend that you are not besmirched by the shame that your government has heaped upon you. Take refuge in your ignorance, fostered by 60 years of Israeli lies, that the murder of Palestinians and the theft of their lands is "Israel's right of self-defense." Paul Craig Roberts From duanebehrens at cox.net Sat May 9 20:26:00 2009 From: duanebehrens at cox.net (Duane Behrens) Date: Sat May 9 20:26:26 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Sad Message-ID: <20090509232600.09CUI.227032.imail@fed1rmwml39> MARK: There sure are a lot of things that can make a person cynical. In 2004, I coached an all-star baseball team. Before every game the players from each team would line up on their respective foul lines and the music to the National Anthem would be played. In 2004, I was oblivious to the truth about 9/11. Someone had mentioned the possibility of "inside job" to me and I had shrugged it off as absurd. So, patriotically, I printed out the words to the National Anthem, handed a copy to each player, and encouraged them to sing it. I spoke to them about our great country and about what happened on 9/11, how terrorists attacked us killing over 3000 innocent people. The music played. The whole team sang loudly: Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? It was only a few months later that this guy in an office below mine mentioned WTC 7, something I had never heard about. I went home and googled WTC 7, then I watched Loose Change, read David Ray Griffin's books, and realized what had actually happened. Thinking back, I wish I had not asked the all-stars to sing. I have not sung the National Anthem since. DUANE: Excellent post. We go to a Dodger game once in a while. During the seventh inning stretch, they've taken to playing and singing "God Bless America" instead of the usual "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" . . . which I'd always enjoyed. And as I stand there, motionless and silent . . . I can't help but think that of all the things the lies of 9/11 have taken from me . . . I miss my patriotism most of all. Duane Behrens From siamdave at yahoo.ca Sat May 9 20:59:41 2009 From: siamdave at yahoo.ca (Dave Patterson) Date: Sat May 9 21:00:07 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Sad In-Reply-To: <20090509232600.09CUI.227032.imail@fed1rmwml39> References: <20090509232600.09CUI.227032.imail@fed1rmwml39> Message-ID: <200905101059410599.009A1753@smtp.totisp.net> If intelligent and honest people ever manage to take over here (or anywhere), the mass indoctrination that the ruling elites have managed to inflict on their populations during this era is going to be a thing of some considerable wonder, I would think - which is, in part, what the anthems are all about. Blind patriotism, which is little more than robotism, and vastly different than intelligent support of 'your' country (since, very obviously, when the rulers rule through indoctrination, it is not 'your' country anymore than this is 'your' world). It's also one of the things that keeps most people who really think they are 'progressive' from doing much good, as they are, essentially, involved with nothing more than the old rearranging the deck chairs business, if they cannot get out of the box and see what really needs to be done to establish some form of **real** democracy. I try to tell this to many people who seem otherwise intelligent and caring - You don't actually live in a democracy here, you know.. - and with few exceptions they laugh that off as a ridiculous idea, and quickly turn back to the deck chairs. I really have no idea anymore how to approach this. I kind of think the game is over, it's just such a big boat it takes a long time to sink. *********** REPLY SEPARATOR *********** On 09-05-09 at 11:26 PM Duane Behrens wrote: MARK: There sure are a lot of things that can make a person cynical. In 2004, I coached an all-star baseball team. Before every game the players from each team would line up on their respective foul lines and the music to the National Anthem would be played. In 2004, I was oblivious to the truth about 9/11. Someone had mentioned the possibility of "inside job" to me and I had shrugged it off as absurd. So, patriotically, I printed out the words to the National Anthem, handed a copy to each player, and encouraged them to sing it. I spoke to them about our great country and about what happened on 9/11, how terrorists attacked us killing over 3000 innocent people. The music played. The whole team sang loudly: Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? It was only a few months later that this guy in an office below mine mentioned WTC 7, something I had never heard about. I went home and googled WTC 7, then I watched Loose Change, read David Ray Griffin's books, and realized what had actually happened. Thinking back, I wish I had not asked the all-stars to sing. I have not sung the National Anthem since. DUANE: Excellent post. We go to a Dodger game once in a while. During the seventh inning stretch, they've taken to playing and singing "God Bless America" instead of the usual "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" . . . which I'd always enjoyed. And as I stand there, motionless and silent . . . I can't help but think that of all the things the lies of 9/11 have taken from me . . . I miss my patriotism most of all. Duane Behrens _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.325 / Virus Database: 270.12.23/2106 - Release Date: 05/09/09 06:54:00 From creuss at bluewin.ch Sun May 10 03:59:29 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Sun May 10 04:03:31 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Sad Message-ID: Duane wrote: > I can't help but think that > of all the things the lies of 9/11 have taken from me . . . > > I miss my patriotism most of all. Call me a cynic, but I don't understand the logic behind this. "Manifest Destiny" has been the concept behind U$A from the beginning, and the WoT fits perfectly into this, so 9/11 was just a consistent further step in the same old strategy (as was Pearl Harbor etc.): A deadly fraud (also claiming U$ victims) in order to expand global U$ hegemony. Another view is that the Yanks are just nice na?ve guys whose gov't was hijacked by some evil zionists to implement their goals. (Dunno how the Natives genocide and Black slavery fits into that view, though.) Those who hold this view, don't have any reason to lose their patriotism due to 9/11 -- they can simply blame it on zionists... Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From dnevrghm at powerup.com.au Sun May 10 00:46:02 2009 From: dnevrghm at powerup.com.au (Doug Everingham) Date: Mon May 11 00:16:41 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] U$ Court: Illegal to call Creationism what it is In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: It seems to me that Australian governments favor official recognition of religion in 3 ways: ? Reciting the New Testament Lord's Prayer (Anglican ritual version as preferred by custodians of the ritual of the church that is headed by our Head of State) at openings of parliament sessions. ? Appointment of religious groups' nominees, where no alternative philosophy of belief is allowed similar appointments, as chaplains to armed forces, official holiday ceremonies, public and other approved educational curriculum limited in content to avoid facilitating undogmatic comparative consideration of ethical issues that officially recognized religious authorities aim to uphold in law despite conflicting ethical judgments by national and international legal authorities. ? Tax and other exemptions for religious groups as charities, extended to no alternative philosophy of belief, I think free thought organizations (atheist, naturist, religious or whatever) upon declaring endosrement of Declarations of Rights approved in both national AND international law should be eligible to conduct schools (and share in compulsory and other education at public expense) only if, while and as their curriculum is independently (at national and UNESCO levels) as giving precedence to developing relevant ethical principles, compassionate tolerance, intellectual freedom and developing cooperative global culture. I think religion includes good and bad movements and history, including deviations from orthodox church liturgy by the late Rev Ted Noffs who was twice charged with heresy before his Uniting Church which twice upheld his right to dissent. He became an Australian of the Year and in the same year Humanist of the Year for the Council of Australian Humanist Societies. He had published outright criticism of religion (comparing clergy to the scribes and others condemned by the biblical Jesus) but Ted also revered humane adherents of religions and so declared he could find no-one an alien so he considered himself a Catholc, Communist, Sikh, Buddhist and so on (like J.F. Kennedy who declared "I am a Berliner!") ? Doug ==== From: creuss@bluewin.ch Subject: [Mai-not] U$ Court: Illegal to call Creationism what it is Date: 8 May 2009 7:37:02 PM To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net Reply-To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://u.tv/News/US-teacher-broke-law-by-describing-creationism-as- superstitious-nonsense/4d6269b6-2dd4-451e-80df-7b42ee41ef5d US teacher broke law by describing creationism as 'superstitious nonsense' Judge rules remark was 'improper disapproval of religion' and violated first amendment of US constitution Wednesday, 06 May 2009 A US teenager has successfully won a lawsuit against a teacher who described creationism as "superstitious nonsense". Chad Farnan, a devout Christian studying at California's Capistrano Valley high school, persuaded a judge that his European history teacher, James Corbett, violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which courts interpret as banning government employees from promoting, or displaying hostility towards, religion. Article Continues Farnan claimed Corbett made comments that were "derogatory, disparaging and belittling regarding religion and Christianity in particular". In legal documents submitted to the US district court, he said he was uncomfortable going to class and felt as though Corbett had created an atmosphere in which he could not effectively learn "both because and regardless of his religious beliefs". Farnan's lawyer, Jennifer Monk, who works for a not-for-profit Christian law firm, Advocates for Faith and Freedom, told the Guardian yesterday that Farnan's victory was the first of its kind, proving that the establishment clause applied equally to the disapproval of religion as it did to the promotion of religion. "It is the first case of its kind where a court has held a teacher responsible for the disapproval of Christianity. It's common for lawsuits to be brought against teachers promoting religion. In general, for years, religion has been taken out of the classroom. I don't agree with that, but if it's going to be taken out, at the very minimum you can't go to the other extreme. "The [Farnan] family is excited, it's a courageous stand. There were people who were very supportive and there were people who didn't agree with his stand." Farnan spent almost 18 months gathering material against Corbett, compiling a dossier that featured secret recordings of the teacher's remarks. However, Judge James Selna found in a 37-page ruling that almost all the statements cited by the plaintiff did not violate the establishment cause, including Corbett's view that "when you put on your Jesus glasses, you can't see the truth" - a reference to peasants who did not support the reforms of the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II for religious reasons. The judge said the statement was made in the context of an historical discussion. He dismissed other comments by Corbett that "conservatives don't want women to avoid pregnancies - that's interfering with God's work" and that there was as much evidence that God created the world "as there is that there is a gigantic spaghetti monster living behind the moon who did it". Only one of Corbett's opinions fell foul of the First Amendment - his "unequivocal belief that creationism is superstitious nonsense". Judge Selna concluded that there was no legitimate secular purpose to the statement and it constituted "improper disapproval of religion in violation of the establishment clause". In his ruling, the judge said he tried to balance the rights of both parties. "The court's ruling reflects the constitutionally permissible need for expansive discussion, even if a given topic may be offensive to a particular religion," he said. "The decision also reflects that there are boundaries. The ruling protects Farnan, but also protects teachers like Corbett in carrying out their teaching duties." He said the case reflected the tension between the constitutional rights of a student and the demands of higher education, as well as the tension between Farnan's religious beliefs and the need for government, especially schools, to carry out their duties "free of the strictures of any particular religious or philosophical belief system". Corbett, a teacher with 20 years' experience, remains at Capistrano Valley high school and has made no public comment since the case started. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090510/e47ee64a/attachment.html From hermann at picknowl.com.au Mon May 11 00:33:16 2009 From: hermann at picknowl.com.au (John Hermann) Date: Mon May 11 00:34:00 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] U$ Court: Illegal to call Creationism what it is In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <200905110733.n4B7XJMb001362@mail14.tpg.com.au> Interesting for several reasons. If I read this story correctly, the judge has implicitly ruled that creationism is a religion-based belief. That runs counter to the claims of many creationists themselves, who have gone to great lengths to promote the idea that creationism is not necessarily religious in its origins, but rather that it is a legitimate branch of science. John Hermann >US teacher broke law by describing creationism as 'superstitious nonsense' > >Judge rules remark was 'improper disapproval of religion' and >violated first amendment of US constitution > > Wednesday, 06 May 2009 > >A US teenager has successfully won a lawsuit against a teacher who >described creationism as "superstitious nonsense". > >Chad Farnan, a devout Christian studying at California's Capistrano >Valley high school, persuaded a judge that his European history >teacher, James Corbett, violated the establishment clause of the >First Amendment, which courts interpret as banning government >employees from promoting, or displaying hostility towards, religion. >Article Continues > >Farnan claimed Corbett made comments that were "derogatory, >disparaging and belittling regarding religion and Christianity in >particular". In legal documents submitted to the US district court, >he said he was uncomfortable going to class and felt as though >Corbett had created an atmosphere in which he could not effectively >learn "both because and regardless of his religious beliefs". > >Farnan's lawyer, Jennifer Monk, who works for a not-for-profit >Christian law firm, Advocates for Faith and Freedom, told the >Guardian yesterday that Farnan's victory was the first of its kind, >proving that the establishment clause applied equally to the >disapproval of religion as it did to the promotion of religion. > >"It is the first case of its kind where a court has held a teacher >responsible for the disapproval of Christianity. It's common for >lawsuits to be brought against teachers promoting religion. In >general, for years, religion has been taken out of the classroom. I >don't agree with that, but if it's going to be taken out, at the >very minimum you can't go to the other extreme. > >"The [Farnan] family is excited, it's a courageous stand. There were >people who were very supportive and there were people who didn't >agree with his stand." > >Farnan spent almost 18 months gathering material against Corbett, >compiling a dossier that featured secret recordings of the teacher's remarks. > >However, Judge James Selna found in a 37-page ruling that almost all >the statements cited by the plaintiff did not violate the >establishment cause, including Corbett's view that "when you put on >your Jesus glasses, you can't see the truth" - a reference to >peasants who did not support the reforms of the Holy Roman Emperor >Joseph II for religious reasons. The judge said the statement was >made in the context of an historical discussion. He dismissed other >comments by Corbett that "conservatives don't want women to avoid >pregnancies - that's interfering with God's work" and that there was >as much evidence that God created the world "as there is that there >is a gigantic spaghetti monster living behind the moon who did it". > >Only one of Corbett's opinions fell foul of the First Amendment - >his "unequivocal belief that creationism is superstitious nonsense". >Judge Selna concluded that there was no legitimate secular purpose >to the statement and it constituted "improper disapproval of >religion in violation of the establishment clause". > >In his ruling, the judge said he tried to balance the rights of both >parties. "The court's ruling reflects the constitutionally >permissible need for expansive discussion, even if a given topic may >be offensive to a particular religion," he said. "The decision also >reflects that there are boundaries. The ruling protects Farnan, but >also protects teachers like Corbett in carrying out their teaching duties." > >He said the case reflected the tension between the constitutional >rights of a student and the demands of higher education, as well as >the tension between Farnan's religious beliefs and the need for >government, especially schools, to carry out their duties "free of >the strictures of any particular religious or philosophical belief system". > >Corbett, a teacher with 20 years' experience, remains at Capistrano >Valley high school and has made no public comment since the case started. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090511/c137356e/attachment.html From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Mon May 11 07:19:23 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Mon May 11 07:22:38 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Expert: China Controls Future of U.S. Dollar Message-ID: <4A0809BB.18317.54CC08D@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> China will shy away from the dollar, causing a collapse for the U.S. currency, predicts Andy Xie, an independent economist who was formerly chief Asia Pacific economist for Morgan Stanley. The U.S. government?s move to inflate itself out of recession is "pushing China towards developing an alternative financial system," Xie writes in the Financial Times. FYI-JJanet =============== http://moneynews.newsmax.com/streettalk/china_controls_us_dollar/2009/ 05/06/211305.html MONEYNEWS.COM Wednesday, May 6, 2009 Web MoneyNews Expert: China Controls Future of U.S. Dollar Wednesday, May 6, 2009 9:55 AM By: Dan Weil Article Font Size China will shy away from the dollar, causing a collapse for the U.S. currency, predicts Andy Xie, an independent economist who was formerly chief Asia Pacific economist for Morgan Stanley. The U.S. government?s move to inflate itself out of recession is "pushing China towards developing an alternative financial system," Xie writes in the Financial Times. "For the past two decades China?s entry into the global economy rested [partly] on ... pegging the renminbi to the dollar," he explains. "The dollar peg allowed China to leverage the U.S. financial system for its international needs, while domestic finance remained state- controlled." Xie writes, "This dual approach has worked remarkably well. China could have its cake and eat it too." But China knows it must one day become independent of the dollar. "Its recent decision to turn Shanghai into a financial centre by 2020 reflects China?s anxiety over relying on the dollar system," Xie explains. "The year 2020 seems remote," he points out. "However, if global stagflation takes hold, as I expect it to, it will force China to accelerate its reforms to float its currency and create a...market-based financial system." Result: "The dollar will collapse," Xie says. Others don?t expect the dollar to go away so quickly. China recently proposed that the IMF?s special drawing right replace the dollar as the world?s reserve currency. The SDR is "basically the Esperanto, at best, of international currencies," Harvard economist Jeffrey Frankel told The Wall Street Journal. ? 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved. From netcfs at shaw.ca Mon May 11 08:07:08 2009 From: netcfs at shaw.ca (Yves Bajard) Date: Mon May 11 08:07:39 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] U$ Court: Illegal to call Creationism what it is In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1242054428.7221.40.camel@localhost> Re the article sent by Chris Reuss: I think that we all are in a very critical shape, worldwide, if science, and in this case biology, is considered as a belief or in other words an opinion. Religion is a belief, that comes through what the Roman Catholic call "revelation". For people who are not religious, like myself, it is an opinion, and as such can be disputed (with respect, if the believer is in fundamental respect for the opponents, which is frequent between powerless individuals, but was quasi never the case in society as a whole - in spite of attitudes to the contrary, e.g., the Pope's present propaganda tour in Moslem countries). Science is, as you probably all know, the result of a recurring process always open to peer review, of : (1) as objective as possible observation of facts (including opinions as facts, in science relative to human beings), (2) formulation of theories to explain the facts observed, (3) confirmation or contradiction of the observations made initially, (4) refinement or modification of theories, (5) constant opening onto this set of alternating observation of facts, refinement of theories and control We are at present going through a process of deep and rapid (accelerating) disaggregation of what we call "civilization" ande this court case in California, plus the importance given to it by the media (and ourselves) is an indicator of this process. There are quite a number of similar indicators all around us. Where do we go from there? Questions in my mind has been for years a a result of this observation: Is the present human governance system (or steering system if you prefer, i.e., all aspects of human behaviour which holds society together, faring in a definite direction) at all compatible wit a solution to our current and worsening situation of overshoot? Has it ever been? Where does it come from and when did it start? How did it spread? Up to you, friends of many years. Yves -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090511/c42d1df6/attachment.html From thinker at thelakebc.ca Mon May 11 10:05:06 2009 From: thinker at thelakebc.ca (Ed Deak) Date: Mon May 11 10:03:29 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fiat lux 231 Message-ID: <200905111703.n4BH2pYQ008857@karma.reboot.ca> To: record@cablerocket.com Subject: Fiat lux # 231 Fiat lux # 231 May 1, 2009. Perhaps this would be a good time to change a couple of words in the old saying "It's the economy, stupid", to "It's the stupid economy", when describing the dead end economies of BC, and Canada to correctly define the effects of the 35 year old crime wave of the neoclassical market economy theory , forced on the world by miseducated economists and politicians on the take. Sooner, or later people must finally wake up to the fact that the purpose of the WTO and the so called "free trade agreements", and "globalization", is not trade, but the elimination of all forms of democratic decision making powers, replacing them with the dictatorship of the multinational corporate mafia, destroying efficient local economies and killing their victims by the millions, with the approval of bought politicians and their governments ? It took some 60 or 70 years for two world wars and the death camps of Stalin, Hitler and Mao to kill about 130 million people. The real success story of neoclassical economics is that, by UN figures, this criminal theory now accomplishes the same number of deaths in 4 or 5 years, mostly through the horrible effects of starvation and bad water, yet our politicians and governments want and are preaching for more of the same. Undoubtedly, many fall for their lies that the present mess is only a temporary recession that will go away in a few months and if you just vote for them, our so called economy will again be strong and booming. The problem is that our economy has been going into the abyss for years and any politician who says, or believes that everything will be OK if we just have more of the same, is either totally braindead, or lying, misleading people into a fraud induced euphoria, where nothing matters, except the next quarter's profit statement of the anointed rulers. What we now have is not a recession, but the beginning of the end of a criminal system that never had any chance, or even plans, for long term survival. Its only purpose was the forced deregulation and destruction of viable, efficient, locally based economic systems, replacing them with a new form of bolshevik collectivization, now called globalization, where the few of a ruling class can take over and control the survival of the human race. The rulers, like the Bilderbergers and the Trilaterals, are now deciding in their yearly meetings, where the next wars, mass murder and destruction are going to happen, how to separate producers from consumers, so they can control the prices paid and received for stolen goods, so they can rake in obscene profits for themselves. The communists had their "Internationale" they wanted to control the world with, until it collapsed around their necks. Bank deregulation gave the new predators the weapons to take control of the world, but now their globalized kolkhoz is also collapsing. Empires always self destruct. Globalized capitalism is at about the same stage of self induced decay the Soviets were in the eighties, running out of steam, lies and energy, with the people of the world waking up, demanding their human rights to decide their own fate, instead of taking orders from ruling classes, who often govern them from other countries, as we now are here in BC and Canada. We no longer have anything resembling economies, anywhere on Earth. What we now have is the wholesale colonization, sellout and selloff of natural and human resources, all in the phony name of "wealth creation", forced on us by brainwashed economists and pimp politicians. We're not "strong" as some of our politicians claim, but powerless nobodies in the hands of self appointed, international rulers, who accomplish their criminal actions with the perceived power of imaginary capital, created by some bank from the air. What our politicians and economists will never tell us that so called "foreign investors" bring nothing into a country. They use of a bottle of borrowed water to start the well for and unlimited flow they can take out, leaving the real owners with nothing, except hot air promises and perennial indebtedness. As I've quoted many times before, the textbook definition of economics is :"The science for the management and distribution of scarce resources". This can not be repeated enough, hoping that the mislead victims may one day wake up. Of course. no ideology based economic theory has ever been anything like a "science", and none of them has ever come close to the ideal of management and distribution. The real purpose and end result of all ideologies has always been the separation of people into classes of predators and their victims. And nowhere has this simple fact more visible, and true, than under the rulers of the idiot twins of communism and capitalism, both preaching "freedom", while stacking the mountains of bones of their exploited victims. I'll never forget the Western TV reporters standing by the Berlin Wall, proudly proclaiming the nonsense that the people of the then collapsing Soviet Bloc have chosen capitalism over communism. By then I had a 45 year record of fighting communism, with my contacts behind the Iron Curtain, so I did have a good idea of what really was happening, although nobody could really expect the empire's sudden and final collapse with a whimper. That came as a surprise even to insiders, who have been working on it for many years. But not because people may have wanted the new chains of capitalism. They just got fed up with the lies they were kept imprisoned with and, instead of open revolution, which could never have succeeded, simply turned their backs on the rulers, only to fall into another trap. We're now heading in the same direction. The coming depression is already ruining the lives of billions, now under the yoke of neoclassical capitalism. Nobody knows when, how and what will happen but it is a long standing historical fact that sooner, or later, more and more people will start waking up to question and demand answers to the dead end, criminal policies forced on them by fools and crooks, and demand the retaking of the control over their lives and economies. And the sooner the better! From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Tue May 12 19:10:41 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Tue May 12 19:31:21 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] What's new at Links: Nepal & solidarity, Malaysia, Rudd & climate, Tamils, Mexico, agriculture, European Left, feminism, new US union, Cuba Message-ID: <4A0A2C21.6050006@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: Nepal & solidarity, Malaysia, Rudd & climate, Tamils, Mexico, agriculture, European Left, feminism, new US union, Cuba * * * Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to links@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links/. * * * Nepal: The people resist elite coup By Stuart Munckton May 9, 2009 -- "This is not just a Maoist movement", said Green Left Weekly's correspondent in Kathmandu, Ben Peterson. "This is threatening to become a new people's movement, like the one that swept away the monarchy." Peterson was commenting on the large number of daily demonstrations across the country to demand respect for the people's will. They have come in the aftermath of the May 3 resignation of Prime Minister Prachanda and other members of the government belonging to the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M). * Read more Malaysia: Dozens detained as cops block protests over BN takeover of state parliament By Peter Boyle May 8, 2009 -- Police detained dozens of opposition activists, lawyers and legislators on May 6-7 as protests erupted around Malaysia's ruling National Front's (Barisan Nasional -- BN) removal of the opposition People's Alliance (Pakatan Rakyat) state government of Perak, one of five states won by the opposition in the March 2008 general elections. Among those arrested was Dr D. Jeyakumar, the federal MP of the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM). * Read more Australia: Has PM Kevin Rudd taken `a significant step forward on climate change'? By David Spratt May 5, 2009 -- Kevin Rudd's announced changes to the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) has again split the climate movement, and this time it's very serious, with three large, rusted-on-to-Labor [Party] groups running cover for an appalling policy that won't guarantee a reduction in Australian emissions for decades. * Read more Brian Senewiratne: Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka while Australia looks on Dr Brian Senewiratne May 7, 2009 -- I am a Sinhalese from the majority community in Sri Lanka, not from the brutalised Tamil community. I have campaigned for some five decades for the right of the Tamils to live with equality, dignity and safety in the country of their birth. I am releasing this media briefing as a concerned Australian (here for 32 years), and as a member of the Socialist Alliance, the only non-Tamil organisation [in Australia] to support the struggle of the Tamils for justice. * Read more Indonesian leftists: Support democracy in Nepal, support Nepalese people's struggle against neoliberal imperialism! From Berdikari, publication of Papernas (National Liberation Party of Unity), Indonesia Jakarta, May 6, 2009 -- Neoliberal imperialism has put the Indonesian people under siege. But that does not mean that the Indonesian people will be absent in giving support and solidarity to the global people's struggle against neoliberal imperialism. One of the country whose people are rising up courageously to fight neoliberal imperialism is Nepal. In that country, the oligarchy of landlords and local elites, supported by international capitalism, has been overthrown by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) supported by the people. * Read more Mexico's Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT) statement on swine flu epidemic Statement by the Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT) April 30, 2009 -- The health emergency brought about by the swine flu epidemic has important political and social repercussions, in addition to consequences for public health, that need to be explained in the midst of the confusion and distrust that contradictory governmental versions generate. It is also necessary to open the way to scientific information, truth and political criticism. * Read more Australian agriculture -- a carbon-neutral future? By Renfrey Clarke May 8, 2009 -- With its belching cows and giant diesel-powered tractors, the farm sector is widely understood as an important contributor to Australia's impact on climate change. Just how important, however, is not often recognised. * Read more Anti-capitalist European Left: capitalists not workers must pay for the crisis May 6, 2009 -- British left groupings Socialist Resistance and the International Socialist Group have joined the Socialist Party, Socialist Workers Party, Scottish Socialist Party and others of the European anti-capitalist left in endorsing this statement for the European elections. The statement was agreed at a conference in Strasbourg on April 3, 2009. * Read more Socialist feminist revival spearheaded by Venezuelan and Cuban revolutions By Reihana Mohideen May 4, 2009 -- There is a revival of socialist feminism in Latin America, spearheaded by the Venezuelan and Cuban revolutions. * Read more Support democracy in Nepal! Support the Nepalese people! Democratic Socialist Perspective May 5, 2009 -- All supporters of democracy and social justice have reason to be concerned by the recent events in the republic of Nepal. The military high command, backed by right-wing parties tied to the country's elite, has openly defied the authority of the elected civilian government, led by the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M). * Read more United States: New prescription for a healthy union movement By Carl Finamore May 1, 2009 -- It's not every day that a new national union is formed in the United States. But that's exactly what happened on April 25 in San Francisco. If the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) turns out as planned, it's a date for the history books. * Read more A US Green's view of Cuba: Reflections on the 50th anniversary of the revolution By Barbara Chicherio During January 2009 I visited Cuba over a long weekend. My stepdaughter started medical school there this past August and this was the first chance in several months for her Dad and me to see her. Visiting Rebecca was wonderful, but I was unprepared for what I encountered during the three short days spent in Cuba and how the experience would shift my perception of the global economy. * Read more * * * Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090513/4a5cb3a5/attachment.html From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Wed May 13 22:59:28 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Wed May 13 22:59:59 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fw: Kabul's New Elite Message-ID: <036201c9d459$24f5dbc0$19ad57ca@jfos> http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick05012009.html Weekend Edition May 1 - 3, 2009 Living High on the West's Largesse Kabul's New Elite By PATRICK COCKBURN Kabul. Vast sums of money are being lavished by Western aid agencies on their own officials in Afghanistan at a time when extreme poverty is driving young Afghans to fight for the Taliban. The going rate paid by the Taliban for an attack on a police checkpoint in the west of the country is $4, but foreign consultants in Kabul, who are paid out of overseas aids budgets, can command salaries of $250,000 to $500,000 a year. The high expenditure on paying, protecting and accommodating Western aid officials in palatial style helps to explain why Afghanistan ranks 174th out of 178th on a UN ranking of countries' wealth. This is despite a vigorous international aid effort with the US alone spending $31bn since 2002 up to the end of last year. The high degree of wastage of aid money in Afghanistan has long been an open secret. In 2006, Jean Mazurelle, the then country director of the World Bank, calculated that between 35 per cent and 40 per cent of aid was "badly spent". "The wastage of aid is sky-high," he said. "There is real looting going on, mainly by private enterprises. It is a scandal." The dysfunctional reputation of the US aid effort in Afghanistan is politically crucial because Barack Obama, with strong support from Gordon Brown, has promised that a "civilian surge" of non-military experts will be sent to Afghanistan to strengthen its government and turn the tide against the Taliban. These would number up to 600, including agronomists, economists and legal experts, though Washington admitted this week that it was having difficulty recruiting enough people of the right calibre. Whole districts of Kabul have already been taken over or rebuilt to accommodate Westerners working for aid agencies or embassies. "I have just rented out this building for $30,000 a month to an aid organisation," said Torialai Bahadery, the director of Property Consulting Afghanistan, which specialises in renting to foreigners. "It was so expensive because it has 24 rooms with en-suite bathrooms as well as armoured doors and bullet-proof windows," he explained, pointing to a picture of a cavernous mansion. Though 77 per cent of Afghans lack access to clean water, Mr Bahadery said that aid agencies and the foreign contractors who work for them insist that every bedroom should have an en-suite bathroom and this often doubles the cost of accommodation. In addition to the expensive housing the expatriates in Kabul are invariably protected by high-priced security companies and each house is converted into a fortress. The freedom of movement of foreigners is very limited. "I am not even allowed to go into Kabul's best hotel," complained one woman working for a foreign government aid organisation. She added that to travel to a part of Afghanistan deemed wholly free of Taliban by Afghans, she had to go by helicopter and then be taken to where she wanted to go in an armoured vehicle. There have been numerous attacks on foreigners in Kabul and suicide bombings have been effective from the Taliban's point of view in driving almost all expatriates into well-defended compounds where living conditions may be luxurious but which are as confining as any prison. This means that many foreigners sent to Afghanistan to help rebuild the country and the state machinery seldom meet Afghans aside from their drivers and a few Afghans with whom they work. "Risk avoidance is crippling the international aid effort," said one aid expert in Kabul. "If governments are so worried about risk then they really should not be sending people here and having them work under such restricted conditions." The effectiveness of foreign advisers and experts in Iraq is often further reduced by the very short time they stay in the country. "Many people move on after six months," said one expatriate who did not want to be named. "In addition some embassy employees receive two weeks off work for every six weeks they are in the country, on top of their usual holidays." Some officials working for non-governmental organisations in Afghanistan are themselves troubled by the amount of money which foreign government officials and their aid agencies spend on staff compared to the poverty of the Afghan government. "I was in Badakhshan province in northern Afghanistan which has a population of 830,000, most of whom depend on farming," said Matt Waldman, the head of policy and advocacy for Oxfam in Kabul. "The entire budget of the local department of agriculture, irrigation and livestock, which is extremely important for farmers in Badakhshan, is just $40,000. This would be the pay of an expatriate consultant in Kabul for a few months." Mr Waldman, the author of several highly-detailed papers on the failures of aid in Afghanistan, says that a lot of money is put in at the top in Afghanistan but it is siphoned off before it reaches ordinary Afghans at he bottom. He agrees that the problems faced are horrendous in a country which was always poor and has been ruined by 30 years of war. Some 42 per cent of Afghanistan's 25 million inhabitants live on less than a dollar a day and life expectancy is only 45 years. Overall literacy rate is just 34 per cent and 18 per cent for women. But much of the aid money goes to foreign companies who then subcontract as many as five times with each subcontractor in turn looking for between 10 per cent and 20 per cent or more profit before any work is done on the project. The biggest donor in Afghanistan is the US, whose overseas aid department USAID channels nearly half of its aid budget for Afghanistan to five large US contractors. Examples cited in an Oxfam report include the building of a short road between Kabul city centre and the international airport in 2005 which, after the main US contractor had subcontracted it to an Afghan company, cost $2.4m a kilometre - or four times the average cost of road construction in Afghanistan. Often aid is made conditional on spending it in the donor country. Another consequence of the use of foreign contractors is that construction has failed to make the impact on unemployment among young Afghans which is crucial if the Taliban is to be defeated. In southern provinces such as Farah, Helmand, Uruzgan and Zabul, up to 70 per cent of Taliban fighters are non-ideological unemployed young men given a gun before each attack and paid a pittance according to a report by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. By using these part-time fighters as cannon-fodder, the Taliban can keep down casualties among its own veteran fighters while inflicting losses on government forces. Some simple and obvious ways of spending money to benefit Afghans have been neglected. Will Beharrell of the Turquoise Mountain charity, which is encouraging traditional Afghan crafts and reconstruction of part of the old city, says tangible and visible improvements are important. He said: "We went in for rubbish clearing because it is simple and provides employment. We brought the street level down by two metres in some places when we had cleared it away." A striking feature of Kabul is that while the main roads are paved, the side streets are often no more than packed earth with high ridges, deep potholes and grey pools of dirty water. New roads have been built between the cities, such as Kabul and Kandahar, but these are often too dangerous to use because of mobile Taliban checkpoints where anybody connected to the central government is killed on the spot. The international aid programme is particularly important in Afghanistan because the government has few other sources of revenue. Donations from foreign governments make up 90 per cent of public expenditure. Aid is far more important than in Iraq, where the government has oil revenues. In Afghanistan a policeman's monthly salary is only $70, which is not enough to live on without taking bribes. Since the fall of the Taliban the Afghan government has been trying to run a country in which the physical infrastructure has been destroyed. Kabul is now getting electricity from Uzbekistan but 55 per cent of Afghans get no electricity at all and just one in 20 get power all day. Money can be distributed more swiftly by the US military but this may not undercut the political support of the Taliban to the degree expected. Afghans themselves are unenthusiastic about President Obama's plan for more US military and civilian involvement in Iraq. And the failure of foreign aid to deliver a better life to Afghans also helps explain plummeting support for the Kabul government and its Western allies. Oxfam's Mr Waldman believes better-organised aid could still deliver the benefits Afghans hoped for when the Taliban were overthrown in 2001, but he warns: "It is getting very late in the day to get things right." Go figure: The West's spending in Afghanistan $57 The foreign aid per capita to Afghanistan, compared with $580 per capita in the aftermath of the Bosnian conflict. $250,000 Typical salary of foreign consultants in Afghanistan, including 35 per cent hardship allowance and 35 per cent danger money. Afghan civil servants typically receive less than $1,000 a year. $22bn The shortfall in donations compared to the international community's estimate of Afghanistan's need - around 48 per cent. 40 per cent Share of international aid budget returned to aid countries in corporate profit and consultant salaries - more than $6bn since 2001. $7m Daily aid spend in Afghanistan. The daily military spend by the US government is around $100m. Patrick Cockburn is the author of 'The Occupation: War, resistance and daily life in Iraq', a finalist for the National Book Critics' Circle Award for best non-fiction book of 2006. His new book 'Muqtada! Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia revival and the struggle for Iraq' is published by Scribner. ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Thu May 14 19:08:38 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Thu May 14 19:10:59 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Junk Politics - Buying Brand Obama Message-ID: <010801c9d502$465f2060$02ad57ca@jfos> http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090503_buying_brand_obama/ Chris Hedges' Columns Buying Brand Obama Posted on May 3, 2009 AP photo / Charles Dharapak Branding in action: President Barack Obama gestures during a town hall meeting in Fort Myers, Fla., in February to discuss the economy. By Chris Hedges Barack Obama is a brand. And the Obama brand is designed to make us feel good about our government while corporate overlords loot the Treasury, our elected officials continue to have their palms greased by armies of corporate lobbyists, our corporate media diverts us with gossip and trivia and our imperial wars expand in the Middle East. Brand Obama is about being happy consumers. We are entertained. We feel hopeful. We like our president. We believe he is like us. But like all branded products spun out from the manipulative world of corporate advertising, we are being duped into doing and supporting a lot of things that are not in our interest. What, for all our faith and hope, has the Obama brand given us? His administration has spent, lent or guaranteed $12.8 trillion in taxpayer dollars to Wall Street and insolvent banks in a doomed effort to reinflate the bubble economy, a tactic that at best forestalls catastrophe and will leave us broke in a time of profound crisis. Brand Obama has allocated nearly $1 trillion in defense-related spending and the continuation of our doomed imperial projects in Iraq, where military planners now estimate that 70,000 troops will remain for the next 15 to 20 years. Brand Obama has expanded the war in Afghanistan, including the use of drones sent on cross-border bombing runs into Pakistan that have doubled the number of civilians killed over the past three months. Brand Obama has refused to ease restrictions so workers can organize and will not consider single-payer, not-for-profit health care for all Americans. And Brand Obama will not prosecute the Bush administration for war crimes, including the use of torture, and has refused to dismantle Bush's secrecy laws or restore habeas corpus. Brand Obama offers us an image that appears radically individualistic and new. It inoculates us from seeing that the old engines of corporate power and the vast military-industrial complex continue to plunder the country. Corporations, which control our politics, no longer produce products that are essentially different, but brands that are different. Brand Obama does not threaten the core of the corporate state any more than did Brand George W. Bush. The Bush brand collapsed. We became immune to its studied folksiness. We saw through its artifice. This is a common deflation in the world of advertising. So we have been given a new Obama brand with an exciting and faintly erotic appeal. Benetton and Calvin Klein were the precursors to the Obama brand, using ads to associate themselves with risqu? art and progressive politics. It gave their products an edge. But the goal, as with all brands, was to make passive consumers mistake a brand with an experience. "The abandonment of the radical economic foundations of the women's and civil-rights movements by the conflation of causes that came to be called political correctness successfully trained a generation of activists in the politics of image, not action," Naomi Klein wrote in "No Logo." Obama, who has become a global celebrity, was molded easily into a brand. He had almost no experience, other than two years in the Senate, lacked any moral core and could be painted as all things to all people. His brief Senate voting record was a miserable surrender to corporate interests. He was happy to promote nuclear power as "green" energy. He voted to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He reauthorized the Patriot Act. He would not back a bill designed to cap predatory credit card interest rates. He opposed a bill that would have reformed the notorious Mining Law of 1872. He refused to support the single-payer health care bill HR676, sponsored by Reps. Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers. He supported the death penalty. And he backed a class-action "reform" bill that was part of a large lobbying effort by financial firms. The law, known as the Class Action Fairness Act, would effectively shut down state courts as a venue to hear most class-action lawsuits and deny redress in many of the courts where these cases have a chance of defying powerful corporate challenges. While Gaza was being bombarded and hit with airstrikes in the weeks before Obama took office, "the Obama team let it be known that it would not object to the planned resupply of 'smart bombs' and other hi-tech ordnance that was already flowing to Israel," according to Seymour Hersh. Even his one vaunted anti-war speech as a state senator, perhaps his single real act of defiance, was swiftly reversed. He told the Chicago Tribune on July 27, 2004, that "there's not that much difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage. The difference, in my mind, is who's in a position to execute." And unlike anti-war stalwarts like Kucinich, who gave hundreds of speeches against the war, Obama then dutifully stood silent until the Iraq war became unpopular. Obama's campaign won the vote of hundreds of marketers, agency heads and marketing-services vendors gathered at the Association of National Advertisers' annual conference in October. The Obama campaign was named Advertising Age's marketer of the year for 2008 and edged out runners-up Apple and Zappos.com. Take it from the professionals. Brand Obama is a marketer's dream. President Obama does one thing and Brand Obama gets you to believe another. This is the essence of successful advertising. You buy or do what the advertiser wants because of how they can make you feel. Celebrity culture has leeched into every aspect of our culture, including politics, to bequeath to us what Benjamin DeMott called "junk politics." Junk politics does not demand justice or the reparation of rights. Junk politics personalizes and moralizes issues rather than clarifying them. "It's impatient with articulated conflict, enthusiastic about America's optimism and moral character, and heavily dependent on feel-your-pain language and gesture," DeMott noted. The result of junk politics is that nothing changes - "meaning zero interruption in the processes and practices that strengthen existing, interlocking systems of socioeconomic advantage." It redefines traditional values, tilting "courage toward braggadocio, sympathy toward mawkishness, humility toward self-disrespect, identification with ordinary citizens toward distrust of brains." Junk politics "miniaturizes large, complex problems at home while maximizing threats from abroad. It's also given to abrupt unexplained reversals of its own public stances, often spectacularly bloating problems previously miniaturized." And finally, it "seeks at every turn to obliterate voters' consciousness of socioeconomic and other differences in their midst." 1 2 NEXT PAGE >>> ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 35229 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090515/3f644895/attachment.jpe From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Fri May 15 00:42:53 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Fri May 15 00:44:22 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Defying the Economic Odds - The Newest Superpower Message-ID: <033701c9d530$d1c4c550$02ad57ca@jfos> http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175067/dilip_hiro_the_newest_superpower posted May 03, 2009 5:51 pm What will China become in this century? There can hardly be a more important question to ask. TomDispatch regular Dilip Hiro, who has followed shifting global power balances as the planet's former "sole superpower" edged into decline, offers a vivid picture below of a potential rising superpower weathering bad times as we head toward a multipolar planet. There is, however, a more negative take on where China might be headed. Consider, for instance, Peter Kwong's recent article, "No Reform or Relief in China," which suggests a far more dismal view of that country's circumstances, or James Fallows's fascinating recent essay in the Atlantic, "Interesting Times," which presents a China capable of using this harsh economic moment (as the U.S. may not) to launch a new Great Economic Leap Forward, but offers a striking summary of the bad news in store for China right now. I find Hiro persuasive largely because I've long been convinced that American power is in decline, but I have my own caveats when it comes to China's future success. For one thing, I'm old enough to remember the period in the 1980s when Japan was being pre-anointed as the new economic superpower of Planet Earth. (There was even a much-touted book then entitled, "Japan as Number One: Lessons for America.") Perhaps China really will be the future number one with plenty of "lessons for America," but its export-heavy economy is, at the moment, deeply dependent on the fate of a staggering U.S. economy (and the health of the dollar). Meanwhile, China's Communist Party, having thrown its revolutionary ideology to the dogs long ago, now rests its rule on a foundation which can be summed up in an old post-Maoist phrase, "to get rich is glorious" -- and, of course, on the repressive power of the state. It's a one-party government tightly bound to "success." Who knows what the impact of full-scale failure, thanks to a prolonged global or American crash, might mean? With that in mind, let me raise an overlooked subject. There are many ways in which China, as a civilization, is impressively unique. (After all, how many places on the planet had antique stores in the fourteenth century?) But in one way it is surely unmatched: its 2,000-year-old tradition in bad times of vast millenarian peasant rebellions sweeping out of the hinterlands and threatening faltering dynasties. >From the Yellow Turban rebellion by a Taoist messianic sect in 184 CE to Mao ZeDong's Communist revolution of the 1930s and 1940s, these uprisings have been legion. Such a peasant rebellion felled the Ming dynasty in the mid-seventeenth century; the great Taiping rebellion, led by a guru with a new, partially Christian religion of his own, almost toppled the next dynasty, the Ching, in the 1850s and 1860s (an estimated 20 million people died in the process); and on a smaller scale, there was the Boxer Rebellion at the end of the nineteenth century, followed just more than a half-century later by the victory of Mao's peasant revolution. Yes, Russia had a few peasant rebellions, Brazil had one in its backlands, and France had its revolution as well as its revolt in the Vend?e, but there's nothing on Earth like China's rebellious tradition. You can be sure that its present leadership understands this history well; hence, though no one here thinks about it this way, the overwhelmingly repressive reaction to the Falun Gong religious sect. Its leaders also undoubtedly understand that the present state religion of "growth" is sacrosanct and, for the moment, dangerously in abeyance as what are called "mass incidents" (protests) rise. There are already an estimated 20 million unemployed migrant workers in the country. It's not that some as yet unimaginable modern version of a traditional peasant rebellion is on the horizon, but given the present economic meltdown and China's history, it shouldn't be ruled out as we try to imagine that country's fate as a possible future superpower. Now, let Dilip Hiro introduce you to what nonetheless makes China economically remarkable, even in our meltdown moment. Tom Defying the Economic Odds The World Melts Down, China Grows By Dilip Hiro In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, a new world order is emerging -- with its center gravitating towards China. The statistics speak for themselves. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts the world's gross domestic product (GDP) will shrink by an alarming 1.3% this year. Yet, defying this global trend, China expects an annual economic growth rate of 6.5% to 8.5%. During the first quarter of 2009, the world's leading stock markets combined fell by 4.5%. In contrast, the Shanghai stock exchange index leapt by a whopping 38%. In March, car sales in China hit a record 1.1 million, surpassing the U.S. for the third month in a row. "Despite its severe impact on China's economy," said Chinese President Hu Jintao, "the current financial crisis also creates opportunity for the country." It can be argued that the present fiscal tsunami has, in fact, provided China with a chance to discard its pioneering reformer's leading guideline. "Hide your capability and bide your time" was the way former head of the Communist Party Deng Xiaoping once put it. No longer. Recognizing that its time has indeed come, Beijing has decided to play an active, interventionist role in the international financial arena. Backed by China's $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, its industrialists have gone on a global buying spree in Africa and Latin America, as well as in neighboring Russia and Kazakhstan, to lock up future energy supplies for its ravenous economy. At home, the government is investing heavily not only in major infrastructure, but also in its much neglected social safety net, its health care system, and long overlooked rural development projects -- partly to bridge the increasingly wide gap between rural and urban living standards. Among those impressed by the strides Beijing has made since launching its $585 billion stimulus package in September is the Obama administration. It views the continuing rise in China's GDP as an effective corrective to the contracting GDP of almost every other major economy on the planet, except India's. So it has stopped arguing that, by undervaluing its currency -- the yuan -- with respect to the U.S. dollar, China is making its products too cheap, thus putting competing American goods at a disadvantage in foreign markets. The Secret of China's Success What is the secret of China's continuing success in the worst of times? As a start, its banking system -- state-controlled and flush with cash -- has opened its lending spigots to the full, while bank credit in the U.S. and the European Union (EU) still remains clogged up, if not choked off. Therefore, consumer spending and capital investment have risen sharply. Ever since China embarked on economic liberalization under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping in 1978, it has experienced economic ups and downs, including high inflation, deflation, recessions, uneven development of its regions, and a widening gap between the rich and the poor, as well as between the urban and the rural -- all characteristics associated with capitalism. While China's Communist leaders have responded with a familiar range of fiscal and monetary tools like adjusting interest rates and money supply, they have achieved the desired results faster than their capitalist counterparts. This is primarily because of the state-controlled banking system where, for instance, government-owned banks act as depositories for the compulsory savings of all employees. In addition, the "one couple, one child" law, enacted in 1980 to control China's exploding population, and a sharp decline in the state's social-support network for employees in state-owned enterprises, compelled parents to save. Add to this the earlier collapse of a rural cooperative health insurance program run by agricultural cooperatives and communes -- and many Chinese parents were left without a guarantee of being cared for in their declining years. This proved an additional incentive to set aside cash. The resulting rise in savings filled the coffers of the state-controlled banks. On top of that came China's admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, which led to a dramatic jump in its exports. An average economic expansion of 12% a year became the norm. When the credit crash in North America and the EU caused a powerful drop in China's exports, throwing millions of migrant workers in the industrialized coastal cities out of work, the authorities in Beijing focused on controlling the unemployment rate and maintaining the wages of the employed. They can now claim an urban unemployment rate of a mere 4.2% because many of the laid-off factory workers returned to their home villages. Those who did not were encouraged to enroll in government-sponsored retraining programs to acquire higher skills for better jobs in the future. Whereas most Western leaders could do nothing more than castigate bankers filling their pockets with bonuses as the balance sheets of their companies went crimson red, the Chinese government compelled top managers at major state-owned companies to cut their salaries by 15% to 40% before tinkering with the remuneration of their workforce. To ensure the continued rapid expansion of China's economy, which is directly related to the country's level of energy consumption, its leaders are inking many contracts for future supplies of oil and natural gas with foreign corporations. Energy Security Once China became an oil importer in 1993, it proved voracious. Its imports doubled every three years. This made it vulnerable to the vagaries of the international oil market and led the government to embed energy security in its foreign policy. It decided to actively participate in hydrocarbon prospecting and energy production projects abroad as well as in transnational pipeline construction. By now, the diversification of China's foreign sources of oil and gas (and their transportation) has become a cardinal principle of its foreign ministry. Conscious of the volatility of the Middle East, the leading source of oil exports, China has scoured Africa, Australia, and Latin America for petroleum and natural gas deposits, along with other minerals needed for industry and construction. In Africa, it focused on Angola, Congo, Nigeria, and Sudan. By 2004, China's oil imports from these nations were three-fifths the size of those from the Persian Gulf region. Nearer home, China began locking up energy deals with Russia and the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan long before the current collapse in oil prices and the global credit crunch hit. Now, reeling from the double whammy of low energy prices and the credit squeeze, Russia's leading oil company and pipeline operator recently agreed to provide 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in additional oil to China over 25 years for a $25 billion loan from the state-controlled China Development Bank. Likewise, a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corp agreed to lend Kazakhstan $10 billion as part of a joint venture to develop its hydrocarbon reserves. Similarly, Beijing continued to make inroads into the oil and gas regions of South America. As relations between Hugo Chavez's Venezuela and the Bush administration worsened, ties with China strengthened. In 2006, during his fourth visit to Beijing since becoming president in 1999, Chavez revealed that Venezuela's oil exports to China would treble in three years to 500,000 bpd. Along with a joint refinery project to handle Venezuelan oil in China, the Chinese companies contracted to build a dozen oil-drilling platforms, supply 18 oil tankers, and collaborate with PdVSA, the state-owned Venezuelan oil company, to explore new oilfields in Venezuela. During Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping's tour of South America in January 2009, the China Development Bank agreed to loan PdVSA $6 billion for oil to be supplied to China over the next 20 years. Since then China has agreed to double its development fund to $12 billion, in return for which Venezuela is to increase its oil shipments from the current 380,000 bpd to one million bpd. The China Development Bank recently decided to lend Brazil's petroleum company $10 billion to be repaid in oil supplies in the coming years. This figure is almost as large as the $11.2 billion that the Inter-American Development Bank lent to various South American countries last year. China had established its commercial presence in Brazil earlier by offering lucrative prices for iron ore and soybeans, the export commodities that have fuelled Brazil's recent economic growth. Similarly, Beijing broke new ground in the region by giving Buenos Aires access to more than $10 billion in yuans. Argentina was one of three major trading partners of China given this option, the others being Indonesia and South Korea. Will the Yuan Become an International Currency? Without much fanfare, China has started internationalizing the role of its currency. It is in the process of increasing the yuan's role in Hong Kong. Though part of China, Hong Kong has its own currency, the Hong Kong Dollar. Since Hong Kong is one of the world's freest financial markets, the projected arrangement will aid internationalization of the yuan. In retrospect, an important aspect of the G-20 Summit in London in early April centered around what China did. It aired its in-depth analysis of the current fiscal crisis publicly and offered a bold solution. In a striking on-line article, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of China's central bank, referred to the "increasingly frequent global financial crises" that have embroiled the world. The problem could be traced to August 1971, when President Richard Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard. Until then, $35 bought one ounce of gold stored in bars in Fort Knox, Kentucky -- the rate having been fixed in 1944 during World War II by the Allies at a conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. At that time, the greenback was also named as the globe's reserve currency. Since 1971, however, it has been backed by nothing more tangible than the credit of the United States. A glance at the past decade and a half shows that, between 1994 and 2000 alone, there were economic crises in nine major countries which impacted the global economy: Mexico (1994), Thailand-Indonesia-Malaysia-South Korea-the Philippines (1997-98), Russia and Brazil (1998), and Argentina (2000). According to Zhou, financial crises resulted when the domestic needs of the country issuing a reserve currency clashed with international fiscal requirements. For instance, responding to the demoralization caused by the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board drastically reduced interest rates to an almost-record low of 1% to boost domestic consumption at a time when rapidly expanding economies outside the United States needed higher interest rates to cool their growth rates. "The [present] crisis called again for creative reform of the existing international reserve currency," Zhou wrote. "A super-sovereign reserve currency managed by a global institution could be used to both create and control global liquidity. This will significantly reduce the risks of a future crisis and enhance crisis management capability." He then alluded to the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) of the International Monetary Fund. The SDR is a virtual currency whose value is set by a currency "basket" made up of the U.S. dollar, the European euro, the British pound, and the Japanese yen, all of which qualify as reserve currencies, with the greenback being the leader. Ever since the SDR was devised in 1969, the IMF has maintained its accounts in that currency. Zhou noted that the SDR has not yet been allowed to play its full role. If its role was enhanced, he argued, it might someday become the global reserve currency. Zhou's idea received a positive response from the Kremlin, which suggested adding gold to the IMF's currency basket as a stabilizing element. Its own currency, the ruble, is already pegged to a basket that is 55% the euro and 45% the dollar. Within a decade of its launch, the euro has become the second most held reserve currency in the world, garnering nearly 30% of the total compared to the dollar's 67%. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's immediate reaction to Zhou's article was: "China's suggestion deserves some consideration." Nervous financial markets in the U.S. took this as a sign from the Treasury Secretary that the dollar was losing its primacy. Geithner retreated post-haste. And President Obama quickly joined the fray, saying: "I don't think there is need for a global currency. The dollar is extraordinarily strong right now." Actually, maintaining the customary Chinese discretion, Zhou never mentioned the state of the U.S. dollar in his article, nor did he even imply that the yuan should be included in the super-sovereign currency he proposed. Yet it was clear to all that at a crucial moment -- with world leaders about to meet in London to devise a way to defuse the most severe fiscal crisis since the Great Depression -- that a China which had bided its time, even though it had the third largest economy on the planet, was now showing its strong hand. All signs are that Washington will be unable to restore the status quo ante after the present "great recession" has finally given way to recovery. In the coming years, its leaders will have to face reality and concede, however reluctantly, that the economic tectonic plates are shifting -- and that it is losing financial power to the thriving regions of the Earth, the foremost of which is China. Dilip Hiro is the author, most recently, of Blood of the Earth: The Battle for the World's Vanishing Oil Resources (Nation Books). His upcoming book After Empire: The Rise of a Multipolar World will be published by Nation Books this year. Copyright 2009 Dilip Hiro ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 22829 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090515/5d5213c2/attachment-0001.gif From dnevrghm at powerup.com.au Wed May 13 23:03:03 2009 From: dnevrghm at powerup.com.au (Doug Everingham) Date: Fri May 15 01:01:51 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Sad In-Reply-To: <20090509232600.09CUI.227032.imail@fed1rmwml39> References: <20090509232600.09CUI.227032.imail@fed1rmwml39> Message-ID: Duane I feel sad for my country, Australia, which followed USA into Viet Nam, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan with war crimes more evident than fair and sustainable cooperative aims, and made no moves to liberae West Papu/iran as we belatedly did for East Timor. I'd like to hav time to draft a new stanza for the US National Anthem as I hav done for Australia's. From memory, here's stanza 1: Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free. We've golden soil and wealth for toil. Our land is girt by sea. Our land abounds in nature's gifts of beauty rich and rare. In history's page let every stage advance Australia fair. In joyful strains then let us sing: Advance Australia fair. Stanzas 2 and 3 are less often added, partly perhaps because #2 suggests permanent colonial rule: When gallant Cook from Albion sailed, to trace wide oceans o'er True British courage bore him on, till he laded on our shore, And there he raised old England's flag, the standard of the brave. In joyful strains then let us sing: Britannia rules the wave. and #3 suggests an open door to migrants: [part of #3:] ... For those who come across the sea we've boundless plains to share ... My stanza: Australians all should have a choice. Our land could be more free, conserve our soil, and share our oil across the Timor Sea. Our lands abound in fruitful ground. Which native people share. In history's page we learn to gauge what's right for everywhere. Let's dare, declare with joyful air we'll make Australia fair! From: duanebehrens@cox.net Subject: [Mai-not] Sad Date: 10 May 2009 1:26:00 PM To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net Reply-To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net MARK: There sure are a lot of things that can make a person cynical. In 2004, I coached an all-star baseball team. Before every game the players from each team would line up on their respective foul lines and the music to the National Anthem would be played. In 2004, I was oblivious to the truth about 9/11. Someone had mentioned the possibility of "inside job" to me and I had shrugged it off as absurd. So, patriotically, I printed out the words to the National Anthem, handed a copy to each player, and encouraged them to sing it. I spoke to them about our great country and about what happened on 9/11, how terrorists attacked us killing over 3000 innocent people. The music played. The whole team sang loudly: Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? It was only a few months later that this guy in an office below mine mentioned WTC 7, something I had never heard about. I went home and googled WTC 7, then I watched Loose Change, read David Ray Griffin's books, and realized what had actually happened. Thinking back, I wish I had not asked the all-stars to sing. I have not sung the National Anthem since. DUANE: Excellent post. We go to a Dodger game once in a while. During the seventh inning stretch, they've taken to playing and singing "God Bless America" instead of the usual "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" . . . which I'd always enjoyed. And as I stand there, motionless and silent . . . I can't help but think that of all the things the lies of 9/11 have taken from me . . . I miss my patriotism most of all. Duane Behrens _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090514/8a0e042b/attachment.html From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Sun May 17 04:00:15 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Sun May 17 04:01:38 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Who Rules America? Message-ID: <011601c9d6de$a8dd50d0$54ad57ca@jfos> http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22611.htm Who Rules America? By Paul Craig Roberts May 14, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- -What do you suppose it is like to be elected president of the United States only to find that your power is restricted to the service of powerful interest groups? A president who does a good job for the ruling interest groups is paid off with remunerative corporate directorships, outrageous speaking fees, and a lucrative book contract. If he is young when he assumes office, like Bill Clinton and Obama, it means a long life of luxurious leisure. Fighting the special interests doesn't pay and doesn't succeed. On April 30 the primacy of special over public interests was demonstrated yet again. The Democrats' bill to prevent 1.7 million mortgage foreclosures and, thus, preserve $300 billion in home equity by permitting homeowners to renegotiate their mortgages, was defeated in the Senate, despite the 60-vote majority of the Democrats. The banksters were able to defeat the bill 51 to 45. These are the same financial gangsters whose unbridled greed and utter irresponsibility have wiped out half of Americans' retirement savings, sent the economy into a deep hole, and threatened the US dollar's reserve currency role. It is difficult to imagine an interest group with a more damaged reputation. Yet, a majority of "the people's representatives" voted as the discredited banksters instructed. Hundreds of billions of public dollars have gone to bail out the banksters, but when some Democrats tried to get the Senate to do a mite for homeowners, the US Senate stuck with the banks. The Senate's motto is: "Hundreds of billions for the banksters, not a dime for homeowners." If Obama was naive about well-intentioned change before the vote, he no longer has this political handicap. Democratic Majority Whip Dick Durbin acknowledged the voters' defeat by the discredited banksters. The banks, Durbin said, "frankly own the place." It is not difficult to understand why. Among those who defeated the homeowners bill are senators Jon Tester (Mont), Max Baucus (Mont), Blanche Lincoln (Ark), Ben Nelson (Neb), Many Landrieu (La), Tim Johnson (SD), and Arlan Specter (Pa). According to reports, the banksters have poured a half million dollars into Tester's campaign funds. Baucus has received $3.5 million; Lincoln $1.3 million; Nelson $1.4 million; Landrieu $2 million; Johnson $2.5 million; Specter $4.5 million. The same Congress that can't find a dime for homeowners or health care appropriates hundreds of billions of dollars for the military/security complex. The week after the Senate foreclosed on American homeowners, the Obama "change" administration asked Congress for an additional $61 billion dollars for the neoconservatives' war in Iraq and $65 billion more for the neoconservatives' war in Afghanistan. Congress greeted this request with a rousing "Yes we can!" The additional $126 billion comes on top of the $533.7 billion "defense" budget for this year. The $660 billion--probably a low-ball number--is ten times the military spending of China, the second most powerful country in the world. How is it possible that "the world's only superpower" is threatened by the likes of Iraq and Afghanistan? How can the US be a superpower if it is threatened by countries that have no military capability other than a guerilla capability to resist invaders? These "wars" are a hoax designed to enrich the US armaments industry and to infuse the "security forces" with police powers over American citizenry. Not a dime to prevent millions of Americans from losing their homes, but hundreds of billions of dollars to murder Muslim women and children and to create millions of refugees, many of whom will either sign up with insurgents or end up as the next wave of immigrants into America. This is the way the American government works. And it thinks it is a "city on the hill, a light unto the world." Americans elected Obama because he said he would end the gratuitous criminal wars of the Bush brownshirts, wars that have destroyed America's reputation and financial solvency and serve no public interest. But once in office Obama found that he was ruled by the military/security complex. War is not being ended, merely transferred from the unpopular war in Iraq to the more popular war in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Obama, in violation of Pakistan's sovereignty, continues to attack "targets" in Pakistan. In place of a war in Iraq, the military/security complex now has two wars going in much more difficult circumstances. Viewing the promotion gravy train that results from decades of warfare, the US officer corps has responded to the "challenge to American security" from the Taliban. "We have to kill them over there before they come over here." No member of the US government or its numerous well-paid agents has ever explained how the Taliban, which is focused on Afghanistan, could ever get to America. Yet this hyped fear is sufficient for the public to support the continuing enrichment of the military/security complex, while American homes are foreclosed by the banksters who have destroyed the retirement prospects of the US population.. According to Pentagon budget documents, by next year the cost of the war against Afghanistan will exceed the cost of the war against Iraq. According to a Nobel prize-winning economist and a budget expert at Harvard University, the war against Iraq has cost the American taxpayers $3 trillion, that is, $3,000 billion in out-of-pocket and already incurred future costs, such as caring for veterans. If the Pentagon is correct, then by next year the US government will have squandered $6 trillion dollars on two wars, the only purpose of which is to enrich the munitions manufacturers and the "security" bureaucracy. The human and social costs are dramatic as well and not only for the Iraqi, Afghan, and Pakistani populations ravaged by American bombs. Dahr Jamail reports that US Army psychiatrists have concluded that by their third deployment, 30 percent of American troops are mental wrecks. Among the costs that reverberate across generations of Americans are elevated rates of suicide, unemployment, divorce, child and spousal abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness and incarceration. http://www.truthout.org/051209J?n In the Afghan "desert of death" the Obama administration is constructing a giant military base. Why? What does the internal politics of Afghanistan have to do with the US? What is this enormous waste of resources that America does not have accomplishing besides enriching the American munitions industry? China and to some extent India are the rising powers in the world. Russia, the largest country on earth, is armed with a nuclear arsenal as terrifying as the American one. The US dollar's role as reserve currency, the most important source of American power, is undermined by the budget deficits that result from the munition corporations' wars and the bankster bailouts. Why is the US making itself impotent fighting wars that have nothing whatsoever to do with is security, wars that are, in fact, threatening its security? The answer is that the military/security lobby, the financial gangsters, and AIPAC rule. The American people be damned. Click on "comments" below to read or post comments Comments (244) Comment (0) Comment Guidelines Be succinct, constructive and relevant to the story. We encourage engaging, diverse and meaningful commentary. Do not include personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and emails. Comments falling outside our guidelines - those including personal attacks and profanity - are not permitted. See our complete Comment Policy and use this link to notify us if you have concerns about a comment. We'll promptly review and remove any inappropriate postings. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information ClearingHouse endorsed or sponsored by the originator.) ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Sun May 17 05:00:25 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Sun May 17 05:01:37 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Who Rules America? In-Reply-To: <011601c9d6de$a8dd50d0$54ad57ca@jfos> References: <011601c9d6de$a8dd50d0$54ad57ca@jfos> Message-ID: <20090517120111.4D332128FA@fep04.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090517/2aa52374/attachment.html From papadop at peak.org Sun May 17 17:51:27 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Sun May 17 17:52:42 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Obama's Word Breaks Ice in Geneva Arms Talks Message-ID: http://www.truthout.org/051709Y?n t r u t h o u t | ""Saturday 16 May 2009 OBAMA IN CZECH REPUBLIC. During the April summit between the European Union and the United States, President Obama takes a moment to talk to reporters. In a speech at the summit, Obama emphasized the goal of nuclear disarmament. (Photo: AP) Geneva - A single word from Barack Obama has put new life into the stale old disarmament talks in Geneva, where diplomats are hailing a "remarkable shift" by the Americans in favor of a treaty clamping down on production of the stuff of nuclear bombs. The U.S. president's word - "verifiable" - has set the 65-nation Conference on Disarmament on a possible course toward negotiating a treaty after years of deadlock, most recently because the Bush administration argued that a pact couldn't be verified by inspections and monitoring. In his speech April 5 in the Czech Republic, Obama detailed a packed agenda of goals in nuclear arms control, including slashing U.S. and Russian doomsday arsenals, adopting the treaty banning all nuclear tests, and negotiating a "new treaty that verifiably ends the production of fissile materials intended for use in state nuclear weapons." That call in Prague's Castle Square echoed here in the marble-clad halls of the Palais des Nations, where such a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) has been on the to-do list of the paralyzed disarmament conference since the 1990s, as one tool to stop the spread of atomic arms. Today's fear of nuclear terrorism only heightens such concerns. "The U.S. readiness to negotiate an internationally verifiable FMCT can be considered a turning point," pronounced Foreign Minister Franco Frattini of Italy, whose Geneva diplomats coordinate the talks on a fissile-material treaty. At the moment, only India and Pakistan - and possibly Israel and North Korea - are producing plutonium or highly enriched uranium for atomic weapons. Four "traditional" nuclear powers recognized under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty - the United States, Russia, Britain and France - have declared moratoriums on production. The fifth, China, indicates unofficially it has stopped, too. The world has a huge surplus of the exotic, manmade heavy metals known as fissile materials, whose chain-reacting atoms have been the core of nuclear bombs since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When mere kilograms (pounds) can make a bomb, as much as 2,500 metric tons of the stuff - up to 2,000 tons of highly enriched uranium and 500 tons of plutonium - sit in deployed or disused warheads and in more surprising places worldwide, says the International Panel on Fissile Materials, a non-governmental network of nuclear experts. Weapons-grade uranium powers Russian icebreakers and U.S. and other missile submarines. Some 14,000 plutonium weapon cores sit in storage outside Amarillo, Texas. Hundreds of tons of bomb-grade uranium are stashed elsewhere in the U.S. and Russia awaiting "blenddown" to less lethal grades. More stuff sits in university research reactors worldwide. Japan's nuclear power establishment holds almost nine tons of plutonium separated from spent fuel. Some material is under international oversight, but most is not, and questions are regularly raised about its security in so many far-flung places, especially when international terrorists are known to want to "go nuclear." The expert panel estimates global fissile material stocks are enough for 160,000 bombs. "It's a lot of stuff," said Princeton University's Frank von Hippel, panel co-chairman. "Nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation and prevention of nuclear terrorism are easy," he recalled once telling a U.N. meeting. "All we have to do is get rid of 2,000 tons of the stuff." Concerns extend beyond terrorism. For one thing, future deals to reduce arsenals will look shakier if states have facilities and tons of material at hand to quickly rebuild bombs. For another, a fissile-material treaty is seen as a way to bring India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, nuclear powers outside the Nonproliferation Treaty, into an arms-control regime. And other states, such as Iran, would be more deeply committed not to go nuclear if they join the treaty. That's why Obama's word resounded so loudly in the springtime quiet of Geneva. "I was very optimistic after the U.S. delegation said it would be flexible on verification," Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Russian secretary-general of the Conference on Disarmament, told The Associated Press. The Bush administration, unenthusiastic about arms control in general, had objected that global inspections and monitoring systems for such a treaty would prove too costly and less than foolproof. The Americans also worried that intrusive verification might compromise military nuclear secrets. Others, including the international expert panel, say verification techniques can be devised to allay such concerns. Much depends on the scope of a treaty - whether it would simply ban new production for weapons, or also whittle away at the overhang of fissile stockpiles. "These are complicated questions to deal with, but as far as we are concerned they can all be part of the negotiating process," said Italian Ambassador Giovanni Manfredi. Seeing the "remarkable shift in the U.S. position," as he called it, Manfredi gathered the Americans and other key players in closed-door talks that have now produced a proposed plan for kicking off negotiations. "Everybody was in practical unanimity," he said. "I didn't hear any objection to having it as a verifiable treaty." The full Geneva conference is now expected to decide on a negotiating mandate this year. Months and possibly years of arduous bargaining would follow, over issues ranging from how to ensure nuclear naval fuel isn't diverted to weapons, to the question of which countries must ratify a treaty before it enters into force. The India-Pakistan standoff typifies the complexity of issues. With an arsenal smaller than archrival India's, Pakistan wants a treaty that reduces existing stocks worldwide, thereby shrinking the Indian edge. In New Delhi, however, "India regards the FMCT as a cessation of production of fissile material, but not covering stocks," Shyam Saran, India's special envoy on nuclear matters, told the AP. A simple cutoff treaty "would be a problem for Pakistan," said Zamir Akram, Pakistani ambassador to the Geneva conference. But "we didn't want to be the ones to hold up the discussion." As long as stockpiles are subject to negotiation, he said, "we are ready." HOW READY ARE THE AMERICANS? The sudden opening here is sure to set off intense discussions among the Pentagon, the Energy Department's nuclear weapons agency, the State Department and others in Washington. Citing the sensitivity of the evolving situation, U.S. diplomats in Geneva wouldn't discuss treaty prospects on the record. One disarmament veteran who did, Italy's former Geneva envoy Carlo Trezza, advised taking a long view. "How ambitious can you be?" he asked in Rome. "I would look for an initial cutoff of production, and later a reduction of existing stocks." Whatever the outcome, a seemingly endless stalemate has ended. "The possibility is there," observed conference chief Ordzhonikidze. "The will is there." From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Sun May 17 18:57:10 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Sun May 17 18:57:44 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Obama's Word Breaks Ice in Geneva Arms Talks In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090518015711.66064F9C9@fep04.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> Hopeful if it does indeed bring about a pause in the nuclear arms race and not merely to increased pressure on Iran to remain naked among wolves. The world has yet to see if Obama has in mind to cave in to the war criminals (as he has with respect to tortue and to closing Guantanamo Bay, closing the military frame-up commissions and getting the armed forces out of Iraq.) Maybe the thinking is that Israel has enough overhang to be able to suspend plutonium production for a spell, and that the real mission in Iraq (establishment of a network of military bases, gaining control of oil production and distribution) has been accomplished for the time being. If business as usual is restored, the anti-Americanism that flared in Europe during the Bush regime is likely to re-grow over time and eventually become a major electoral plus for independent-minded political parties. If the promise that Obama dangles really comes to pass, anti-Americanism may gradually be replaced by pro-Americanism based on the revival of the America that once played a pivotal part in formulating the Atlantic Charter and the principles of the Nuremberg trials. Dion Giles At 08:51 18/05/2009, MichaelP wrote: > http://www.truthout.org/051709Y?n > >t r u t h o u t | ""Saturday 16 May 2009 > >OBAMA IN CZECH REPUBLIC. > >During the April summit between the European Union and the United >States, President Obama takes a moment to talk to reporters. In a >speech at the summit, Obama emphasized the goal of nuclear >disarmament. (Photo: AP) > >Geneva - A single word from Barack Obama has put new life into the >stale old disarmament talks in Geneva, where diplomats are hailing a >"remarkable shift" by the Americans in favor of a treaty clamping >down on production of the stuff of nuclear bombs. > >The U.S. president's word - "verifiable" - has set the 65-nation >Conference on Disarmament on a possible course toward negotiating a >treaty after years of deadlock, most recently because the Bush >administration argued that a pact couldn't be verified by >inspections and monitoring. > >In his speech April 5 in the Czech Republic, Obama detailed a packed >agenda of goals in nuclear arms control, including slashing U.S. and >Russian doomsday arsenals, adopting the treaty banning all nuclear >tests, and negotiating a "new treaty that verifiably ends the >production of fissile materials intended for use in state nuclear weapons." > >That call in Prague's Castle Square echoed here in the marble-clad >halls of the Palais des Nations, where such a Fissile Material >Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) has been on the to-do list of the paralyzed >disarmament conference since the 1990s, as one tool to stop the >spread of atomic arms. Today's fear of nuclear terrorism only >heightens such concerns. > >"The U.S. readiness to negotiate an internationally verifiable FMCT >can be considered a turning point," pronounced Foreign Minister >Franco Frattini of Italy, whose Geneva diplomats coordinate the >talks on a fissile-material treaty. > >At the moment, only India and Pakistan - and possibly Israel and >North Korea - are producing plutonium or highly enriched uranium for >atomic weapons. Four "traditional" nuclear powers recognized under >the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty - the United States, Russia, >Britain and France - have declared moratoriums on production. The >fifth, China, indicates unofficially it has stopped, too. > >The world has a huge surplus of the exotic, manmade heavy metals >known as fissile materials, whose chain-reacting atoms have been the >core of nuclear bombs since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. > >When mere kilograms (pounds) can make a bomb, as much as 2,500 >metric tons of the stuff - up to 2,000 tons of highly enriched >uranium and 500 tons of plutonium - sit in deployed or disused >warheads and in more surprising places worldwide, says the >International Panel on Fissile Materials, a non-governmental network >of nuclear experts. > >Weapons-grade uranium powers Russian icebreakers and U.S. and other >missile submarines. Some 14,000 plutonium weapon cores sit in >storage outside Amarillo, Texas. Hundreds of tons of bomb-grade >uranium are stashed elsewhere in the U.S. and Russia awaiting >"blenddown" to less lethal grades. More stuff sits in university >research reactors worldwide. Japan's nuclear power establishment >holds almost nine tons of plutonium separated from spent fuel. > >Some material is under international oversight, but most is not, and >questions are regularly raised about its security in so many >far-flung places, especially when international terrorists are known >to want to "go nuclear." > >The expert panel estimates global fissile material stocks are enough >for 160,000 bombs. > >"It's a lot of stuff," said Princeton University's Frank von Hippel, >panel co-chairman. "Nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation and >prevention of nuclear terrorism are easy," he recalled once telling >a U.N. meeting. "All we have to do is get rid of 2,000 tons of the stuff." > >Concerns extend beyond terrorism. For one thing, future deals to >reduce arsenals will look shakier if states have facilities and tons >of material at hand to quickly rebuild bombs. For another, a >fissile-material treaty is seen as a way to bring India, Pakistan, >Israel and North Korea, nuclear powers outside the Nonproliferation >Treaty, into an arms-control regime. And other states, such as Iran, >would be more deeply committed not to go nuclear if they join the treaty. > >That's why Obama's word resounded so loudly in the springtime quiet of Geneva. > >"I was very optimistic after the U.S. delegation said it would be >flexible on verification," Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Russian >secretary-general of the Conference on Disarmament, told The Associated Press. > >The Bush administration, unenthusiastic about arms control in >general, had objected that global inspections and monitoring systems >for such a treaty would prove too costly and less than foolproof. >The Americans also worried that intrusive verification might >compromise military nuclear secrets. > >Others, including the international expert panel, say verification >techniques can be devised to allay such concerns. Much depends on >the scope of a treaty - whether it would simply ban new production >for weapons, or also whittle away at the overhang of fissile >stockpiles. "These are complicated questions to deal with, but as >far as we are concerned they can all be part of the negotiating >process," said Italian Ambassador Giovanni Manfredi. > >Seeing the "remarkable shift in the U.S. position," as he called it, >Manfredi gathered the Americans and other key players in closed-door >talks that have now produced a proposed plan for kicking off negotiations. > >"Everybody was in practical unanimity," he said. "I didn't hear any >objection to having it as a verifiable treaty." > >The full Geneva conference is now expected to decide on a >negotiating mandate this year. Months and possibly years of arduous >bargaining would follow, over issues ranging from how to ensure >nuclear naval fuel isn't diverted to weapons, to the question of >which countries must ratify a treaty before it enters into force. > >The India-Pakistan standoff typifies the complexity of issues. With >an arsenal smaller than archrival India's, Pakistan wants a treaty >that reduces existing stocks worldwide, thereby shrinking the Indian >edge. In New Delhi, however, "India regards the FMCT as a cessation >of production of fissile material, but not covering stocks," Shyam >Saran, India's special envoy on nuclear matters, told the AP. > >A simple cutoff treaty "would be a problem for Pakistan," said Zamir >Akram, Pakistani ambassador to the Geneva conference. But "we didn't >want to be the ones to hold up the discussion." As long as >stockpiles are subject to negotiation, he said, "we are ready." > > >HOW READY ARE THE AMERICANS? > >The sudden opening here is sure to set off intense discussions among >the Pentagon, the Energy Department's nuclear weapons agency, the >State Department and others in Washington. Citing the sensitivity of >the evolving situation, U.S. diplomats in Geneva wouldn't discuss >treaty prospects on the record. > >One disarmament veteran who did, Italy's former Geneva envoy Carlo >Trezza, advised taking a long view. > >"How ambitious can you be?" he asked in Rome. "I would look for an >initial cutoff of production, and later a reduction of existing stocks." > >Whatever the outcome, a seemingly endless stalemate has ended. "The >possibility is there," observed conference chief Ordzhonikidze. "The >will is there." > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not From thinker at thelakebc.ca Sun May 17 19:59:15 2009 From: thinker at thelakebc.ca (Ed Deak) Date: Sun May 17 19:57:21 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Obama's Word Breaks Ice in Geneva Arms Talks In-Reply-To: <20090518015711.66064F9C9@fep04.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> References: <20090518015711.66064F9C9@fep04.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> Message-ID: <200905180257.n4I2ul10026359@karma.reboot.ca> There was a time when America was loved and couldn't do wrong. If it hadn't been for American food supplies to Europe after WW2, thousands, or millions would have starved to death. In 1951, when we were just married and living in England, we had all our immigration papers ready to move to the USA. All we'd had to do was going to the embassy in London to sign them. A friend of ours went to the States a few months before and was called up and drafted into the Army, with the Korean war at its height. That was a bit too much to accept, so we canceled out and waited another 4 years before coming to Canada. Never regretted it for a moment. Cheers, Ed. At 06:57 PM 17/05/2009, you wrote: >Hopeful if it does indeed bring about a pause in the nuclear arms >race and not merely to increased pressure on Iran to remain naked among wolves. > >The world has yet to see if Obama has in mind to cave in to the war >criminals (as he has with respect to tortue and to closing >Guantanamo Bay, closing the military frame-up commissions and >getting the armed forces out of Iraq.) Maybe the thinking is that >Israel has enough overhang to be able to suspend plutonium >production for a spell, and that the real mission in Iraq >(establishment of a network of military bases, gaining control of >oil production and distribution) has been accomplished for the time being. > >If business as usual is restored, the anti-Americanism that flared >in Europe during the Bush regime is likely to re-grow over time and >eventually become a major electoral plus for independent-minded >political parties. If the promise that Obama dangles really comes >to pass, anti-Americanism may gradually be replaced by >pro-Americanism based on the revival of the America that once played >a pivotal part in formulating the Atlantic Charter and the >principles of the Nuremberg trials. > >Dion Giles > >At 08:51 18/05/2009, MichaelP wrote: > > >> http://www.truthout.org/051709Y?n >> >>t r u t h o u t | ""Saturday 16 May 2009 >> >>OBAMA IN CZECH REPUBLIC. >> >>During the April summit between the European Union and the United >>States, President Obama takes a moment to talk to reporters. In a >>speech at the summit, Obama emphasized the goal of nuclear >>disarmament. (Photo: AP) >> >>Geneva - A single word from Barack Obama has put new life into the >>stale old disarmament talks in Geneva, where diplomats are hailing >>a "remarkable shift" by the Americans in favor of a treaty clamping >>down on production of the stuff of nuclear bombs. >> >>The U.S. president's word - "verifiable" - has set the 65-nation >>Conference on Disarmament on a possible course toward negotiating a >>treaty after years of deadlock, most recently because the Bush >>administration argued that a pact couldn't be verified by >>inspections and monitoring. >> >>In his speech April 5 in the Czech Republic, Obama detailed a >>packed agenda of goals in nuclear arms control, including slashing >>U.S. and Russian doomsday arsenals, adopting the treaty banning all >>nuclear tests, and negotiating a "new treaty that verifiably ends >>the production of fissile materials intended for use in state nuclear weapons." >> >>That call in Prague's Castle Square echoed here in the marble-clad >>halls of the Palais des Nations, where such a Fissile Material >>Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) has been on the to-do list of the paralyzed >>disarmament conference since the 1990s, as one tool to stop the >>spread of atomic arms. Today's fear of nuclear terrorism only >>heightens such concerns. >> >>"The U.S. readiness to negotiate an internationally verifiable FMCT >>can be considered a turning point," pronounced Foreign Minister >>Franco Frattini of Italy, whose Geneva diplomats coordinate the >>talks on a fissile-material treaty. >> >>At the moment, only India and Pakistan - and possibly Israel and >>North Korea - are producing plutonium or highly enriched uranium >>for atomic weapons. Four "traditional" nuclear powers recognized >>under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty - the United States, >>Russia, Britain and France - have declared moratoriums on >>production. The fifth, China, indicates unofficially it has stopped, too. >> >>The world has a huge surplus of the exotic, manmade heavy metals >>known as fissile materials, whose chain-reacting atoms have been >>the core of nuclear bombs since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. >> >>When mere kilograms (pounds) can make a bomb, as much as 2,500 >>metric tons of the stuff - up to 2,000 tons of highly enriched >>uranium and 500 tons of plutonium - sit in deployed or disused >>warheads and in more surprising places worldwide, says the >>International Panel on Fissile Materials, a non-governmental >>network of nuclear experts. >> >>Weapons-grade uranium powers Russian icebreakers and U.S. and other >>missile submarines. Some 14,000 plutonium weapon cores sit in >>storage outside Amarillo, Texas. Hundreds of tons of bomb-grade >>uranium are stashed elsewhere in the U.S. and Russia awaiting >>"blenddown" to less lethal grades. More stuff sits in university >>research reactors worldwide. Japan's nuclear power establishment >>holds almost nine tons of plutonium separated from spent fuel. >> >>Some material is under international oversight, but most is not, >>and questions are regularly raised about its security in so many >>far-flung places, especially when international terrorists are >>known to want to "go nuclear." >> >>The expert panel estimates global fissile material stocks are >>enough for 160,000 bombs. >> >>"It's a lot of stuff," said Princeton University's Frank von >>Hippel, panel co-chairman. "Nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation >>and prevention of nuclear terrorism are easy," he recalled once >>telling a U.N. meeting. "All we have to do is get rid of 2,000 tons >>of the stuff." >> >>Concerns extend beyond terrorism. For one thing, future deals to >>reduce arsenals will look shakier if states have facilities and >>tons of material at hand to quickly rebuild bombs. For another, a >>fissile-material treaty is seen as a way to bring India, Pakistan, >>Israel and North Korea, nuclear powers outside the Nonproliferation >>Treaty, into an arms-control regime. And other states, such as >>Iran, would be more deeply committed not to go nuclear if they join the treaty. >> >>That's why Obama's word resounded so loudly in the springtime quiet >>of Geneva. >> >>"I was very optimistic after the U.S. delegation said it would be >>flexible on verification," Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Russian >>secretary-general of the Conference on Disarmament, told The Associated Press. >> >>The Bush administration, unenthusiastic about arms control in >>general, had objected that global inspections and monitoring >>systems for such a treaty would prove too costly and less than >>foolproof. The Americans also worried that intrusive verification >>might compromise military nuclear secrets. >> >>Others, including the international expert panel, say verification >>techniques can be devised to allay such concerns. Much depends on >>the scope of a treaty - whether it would simply ban new production >>for weapons, or also whittle away at the overhang of fissile >>stockpiles. "These are complicated questions to deal with, but as >>far as we are concerned they can all be part of the negotiating >>process," said Italian Ambassador Giovanni Manfredi. >> >>Seeing the "remarkable shift in the U.S. position," as he called >>it, Manfredi gathered the Americans and other key players in >>closed-door talks that have now produced a proposed plan for >>kicking off negotiations. >> >>"Everybody was in practical unanimity," he said. "I didn't hear any >>objection to having it as a verifiable treaty." >> >>The full Geneva conference is now expected to decide on a >>negotiating mandate this year. Months and possibly years of arduous >>bargaining would follow, over issues ranging from how to ensure >>nuclear naval fuel isn't diverted to weapons, to the question of >>which countries must ratify a treaty before it enters into force. >> >>The India-Pakistan standoff typifies the complexity of issues. With >>an arsenal smaller than archrival India's, Pakistan wants a treaty >>that reduces existing stocks worldwide, thereby shrinking the >>Indian edge. In New Delhi, however, "India regards the FMCT as a >>cessation of production of fissile material, but not covering >>stocks," Shyam Saran, India's special envoy on nuclear matters, told the AP. >> >>A simple cutoff treaty "would be a problem for Pakistan," said >>Zamir Akram, Pakistani ambassador to the Geneva conference. But "we >>didn't want to be the ones to hold up the discussion." As long as >>stockpiles are subject to negotiation, he said, "we are ready." >> >> >>HOW READY ARE THE AMERICANS? >> >>The sudden opening here is sure to set off intense discussions >>among the Pentagon, the Energy Department's nuclear weapons agency, >>the State Department and others in Washington. Citing the >>sensitivity of the evolving situation, U.S. diplomats in Geneva >>wouldn't discuss treaty prospects on the record. >> >>One disarmament veteran who did, Italy's former Geneva envoy Carlo >>Trezza, advised taking a long view. >> >>"How ambitious can you be?" he asked in Rome. "I would look for an >>initial cutoff of production, and later a reduction of existing stocks." >> >>Whatever the outcome, a seemingly endless stalemate has ended. "The >>possibility is there," observed conference chief Ordzhonikidze. >>"The will is there." >> >> >>_______________________________________________ >>Mai-not mailing list >>Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >>http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > > >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG - www.avg.com >Version: 8.5.329 / Virus Database: 270.12.32/2119 - Release Date: >05/17/09 16:58:00 From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Sun May 17 20:48:29 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Sun May 17 20:48:55 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Obama's Word Breaks Ice in Geneva Arms Talks In-Reply-To: <200905180257.n4I2ul10026359@karma.reboot.ca> References: <20090518015711.66064F9C9@fep04.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> <200905180257.n4I2ul10026359@karma.reboot.ca> Message-ID: <20090518034830.0B536F609@fep08.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> Whew ! At 10:59 18/05/2009, Ed wrote: >There was a time when America was loved and couldn't do wrong. If it >hadn't been for American food supplies to Europe after WW2, >thousands, or millions would have starved to death. > >In 1951, when we were just married and living in England, we had all >our immigration papers ready to move to the USA. All we'd had to do >was going to the embassy in London to sign them. A friend of ours >went to the States a few months before and was called up and drafted >into the Army, with the Korean war at its height. That was a bit >too much to accept, so we canceled out and waited another 4 years >before coming to Canada. > >Never regretted it for a moment. > >Cheers, Ed. > > > > >At 06:57 PM 17/05/2009, you wrote: >>Hopeful if it does indeed bring about a pause in the nuclear arms >>race and not merely to increased pressure on Iran to remain naked among wolves. >> >>The world has yet to see if Obama has in mind to cave in to the war >>criminals (as he has with respect to tortue and to closing >>Guantanamo Bay, closing the military frame-up commissions and >>getting the armed forces out of Iraq.) Maybe the thinking is that >>Israel has enough overhang to be able to suspend plutonium >>production for a spell, and that the real mission in Iraq >>(establishment of a network of military bases, gaining control of >>oil production and distribution) has been accomplished for the time being. >> >>If business as usual is restored, the anti-Americanism that flared >>in Europe during the Bush regime is likely to re-grow over time and >>eventually become a major electoral plus for independent-minded >>political parties. If the promise that Obama dangles really comes >>to pass, anti-Americanism may gradually be replaced by >>pro-Americanism based on the revival of the America that once >>played a pivotal part in formulating the Atlantic Charter and the >>principles of the Nuremberg trials. >> >>Dion Giles >> >>At 08:51 18/05/2009, MichaelP wrote: >> >> >>> http://www.truthout.org/051709Y?n >>> >>>t r u t h o u t | ""Saturday 16 May 2009 >>> >>>OBAMA IN CZECH REPUBLIC. >>> >>>During the April summit between the European Union and the United >>>States, President Obama takes a moment to talk to reporters. In a >>>speech at the summit, Obama emphasized the goal of nuclear >>>disarmament. (Photo: AP) >>> >>>Geneva - A single word from Barack Obama has put new life into the >>>stale old disarmament talks in Geneva, where diplomats are hailing >>>a "remarkable shift" by the Americans in favor of a treaty >>>clamping down on production of the stuff of nuclear bombs. >>> >>>The U.S. president's word - "verifiable" - has set the 65-nation >>>Conference on Disarmament on a possible course toward negotiating >>>a treaty after years of deadlock, most recently because the Bush >>>administration argued that a pact couldn't be verified by >>>inspections and monitoring. >>> >>>In his speech April 5 in the Czech Republic, Obama detailed a >>>packed agenda of goals in nuclear arms control, including slashing >>>U.S. and Russian doomsday arsenals, adopting the treaty banning >>>all nuclear tests, and negotiating a "new treaty that verifiably >>>ends the production of fissile materials intended for use in state >>>nuclear weapons." >>> >>>That call in Prague's Castle Square echoed here in the marble-clad >>>halls of the Palais des Nations, where such a Fissile Material >>>Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) has been on the to-do list of the paralyzed >>>disarmament conference since the 1990s, as one tool to stop the >>>spread of atomic arms. Today's fear of nuclear terrorism only >>>heightens such concerns. >>> >>>"The U.S. readiness to negotiate an internationally verifiable >>>FMCT can be considered a turning point," pronounced Foreign >>>Minister Franco Frattini of Italy, whose Geneva diplomats >>>coordinate the talks on a fissile-material treaty. >>> >>>At the moment, only India and Pakistan - and possibly Israel and >>>North Korea - are producing plutonium or highly enriched uranium >>>for atomic weapons. Four "traditional" nuclear powers recognized >>>under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty - the United States, >>>Russia, Britain and France - have declared moratoriums on >>>production. The fifth, China, indicates unofficially it has stopped, too. >>> >>>The world has a huge surplus of the exotic, manmade heavy metals >>>known as fissile materials, whose chain-reacting atoms have been >>>the core of nuclear bombs since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. >>> >>>When mere kilograms (pounds) can make a bomb, as much as 2,500 >>>metric tons of the stuff - up to 2,000 tons of highly enriched >>>uranium and 500 tons of plutonium - sit in deployed or disused >>>warheads and in more surprising places worldwide, says the >>>International Panel on Fissile Materials, a non-governmental >>>network of nuclear experts. >>> >>>Weapons-grade uranium powers Russian icebreakers and U.S. and >>>other missile submarines. Some 14,000 plutonium weapon cores sit >>>in storage outside Amarillo, Texas. Hundreds of tons of bomb-grade >>>uranium are stashed elsewhere in the U.S. and Russia awaiting >>>"blenddown" to less lethal grades. More stuff sits in university >>>research reactors worldwide. Japan's nuclear power establishment >>>holds almost nine tons of plutonium separated from spent fuel. >>> >>>Some material is under international oversight, but most is not, >>>and questions are regularly raised about its security in so many >>>far-flung places, especially when international terrorists are >>>known to want to "go nuclear." >>> >>>The expert panel estimates global fissile material stocks are >>>enough for 160,000 bombs. >>> >>>"It's a lot of stuff," said Princeton University's Frank von >>>Hippel, panel co-chairman. "Nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation >>>and prevention of nuclear terrorism are easy," he recalled once >>>telling a U.N. meeting. "All we have to do is get rid of 2,000 >>>tons of the stuff." >>> >>>Concerns extend beyond terrorism. For one thing, future deals to >>>reduce arsenals will look shakier if states have facilities and >>>tons of material at hand to quickly rebuild bombs. For another, a >>>fissile-material treaty is seen as a way to bring India, Pakistan, >>>Israel and North Korea, nuclear powers outside the >>>Nonproliferation Treaty, into an arms-control regime. And other >>>states, such as Iran, would be more deeply committed not to go >>>nuclear if they join the treaty. >>> >>>That's why Obama's word resounded so loudly in the springtime >>>quiet of Geneva. >>> >>>"I was very optimistic after the U.S. delegation said it would be >>>flexible on verification," Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Russian >>>secretary-general of the Conference on Disarmament, told The Associated Press. >>> >>>The Bush administration, unenthusiastic about arms control in >>>general, had objected that global inspections and monitoring >>>systems for such a treaty would prove too costly and less than >>>foolproof. The Americans also worried that intrusive verification >>>might compromise military nuclear secrets. >>> >>>Others, including the international expert panel, say verification >>>techniques can be devised to allay such concerns. Much depends on >>>the scope of a treaty - whether it would simply ban new production >>>for weapons, or also whittle away at the overhang of fissile >>>stockpiles. "These are complicated questions to deal with, but as >>>far as we are concerned they can all be part of the negotiating >>>process," said Italian Ambassador Giovanni Manfredi. >>> >>>Seeing the "remarkable shift in the U.S. position," as he called >>>it, Manfredi gathered the Americans and other key players in >>>closed-door talks that have now produced a proposed plan for >>>kicking off negotiations. >>> >>>"Everybody was in practical unanimity," he said. "I didn't hear >>>any objection to having it as a verifiable treaty." >>> >>>The full Geneva conference is now expected to decide on a >>>negotiating mandate this year. Months and possibly years of >>>arduous bargaining would follow, over issues ranging from how to >>>ensure nuclear naval fuel isn't diverted to weapons, to the >>>question of which countries must ratify a treaty before it enters into force. >>> >>>The India-Pakistan standoff typifies the complexity of issues. >>>With an arsenal smaller than archrival India's, Pakistan wants a >>>treaty that reduces existing stocks worldwide, thereby shrinking >>>the Indian edge. In New Delhi, however, "India regards the FMCT as >>>a cessation of production of fissile material, but not covering >>>stocks," Shyam Saran, India's special envoy on nuclear matters, told the AP. >>> >>>A simple cutoff treaty "would be a problem for Pakistan," said >>>Zamir Akram, Pakistani ambassador to the Geneva conference. But >>>"we didn't want to be the ones to hold up the discussion." As long >>>as stockpiles are subject to negotiation, he said, "we are ready." >>> >>> >>>HOW READY ARE THE AMERICANS? >>> >>>The sudden opening here is sure to set off intense discussions >>>among the Pentagon, the Energy Department's nuclear weapons >>>agency, the State Department and others in Washington. Citing the >>>sensitivity of the evolving situation, U.S. diplomats in Geneva >>>wouldn't discuss treaty prospects on the record. >>> >>>One disarmament veteran who did, Italy's former Geneva envoy Carlo >>>Trezza, advised taking a long view. >>> >>>"How ambitious can you be?" he asked in Rome. "I would look for an >>>initial cutoff of production, and later a reduction of existing stocks." >>> >>>Whatever the outcome, a seemingly endless stalemate has ended. >>>"The possibility is there," observed conference chief >>>Ordzhonikidze. "The will is there." >>> >>> >>>_______________________________________________ >>>Mai-not mailing list >>>Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >>>http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not >> >> >>_______________________________________________ >>Mai-not mailing list >>Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >>http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not >> >> >>No virus found in this incoming message. >>Checked by AVG - www.avg.com >>Version: 8.5.329 / Virus Database: 270.12.32/2119 - Release Date: >>05/17/09 16:58:00 > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not From papadop at peak.org Sun May 17 23:59:11 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Mon May 18 00:00:42 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] The bitter end: Tamils lay down arms Message-ID: Fifty years (maybe) to deal witrh British colonial favoritism towards Tamils. M. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-bitter-end-tamils-lay-down-arms-1686767.html The Independent (London) May 17 '09 Jubilant soldiers from two Sri Lankan divisions meet up on a beach after what military sources describe as the final battle against the Tamil Tiger rebels REUTERS Jubilant soldiers from two Sri Lankan divisions meet up on a beach after what military sources describe as the final battle against the Tamil Tiger rebels It had been talked about for months, its slow inevitability played out against the most savage of backdrops. Last night, on the blood-soaked sand on the north-eastern coast of Sri Lanka, it appeared to have finally happened. Twenty-six years after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam -- once the most feared terrorists in the world -- launched a brutal war for a separate Tamil homeland, they admitted defeat. Having reportedly launched waves of suicide attacks in an effort to repel a final assault by government troops, the once mighty rebels laid down their arms. The government was examining one of several bodies recovered from the battlefield, tentatively said to be that of the rebels' leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, who apparently committed suicide with several of his senior commanders as they were surrounded by government troops. "This battle has reached its bitter end," a senior rebel spokesman, Selvarajah Pathmanathan, said on the pro-Tiger website TamilNet. "It is our people who are dying now from bombs, shells, illness and hunger. We cannot permit any more harm to befall them. We remain with one last choice -- to rebemove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns." Denying Prabhakaran's demise later, Pathmanathan insisted that the group's leader was behind the decision to end the war. Their unilateral ceasefire was rejected by the government, whose forces continued their assault. By yesterday evening, the fighting was said to have slowed, though with journalists and almost all aid workers prevented from reaching the war zone, it was impossible to confirm details. The government said that the last Tigers were boxed into an area measuring just 400m by 600m. The government claimed that the last civilians being held in the war zone -- the UN had estimated on Saturday there were anywhere up to 80,000 -- had permit any more harm to befall them. We remain with one last choice -- to escaped by lunchtime. What seems certain is that a considerable number have fled the war zone. "There is still some mopping up -- as they call it -- going on," said Gordon Weiss, a UN spokesman in Colombo, the capital. "What we do know is that a substantial number of people have managed to leave. The government is saying 72,000. We don't know if they've got everybody out and we probably won't know that for a few days." What also remains unclear is the civilian toll of the operation. The UN has estimated that 7,000 have been killed and a further 16,700 wounded since the beginning of the year. If and when independent observers are allowed into the war zone, such figures could rise or fall. the fighting was said to have Observers said that even with the military victory apparently secured, a major challenge for the government now would be dealing with the 250,000 to 300,000 refugees who have been driven from their homes. The government is putting the civilians into internment camps surrounded by razor wire from which they cannot leave, while it carries out security checks to identify possible Tiger fighters hiding among them and sweeps for mines in areas ofhad the north previously held by the rebels. Most aid groups believe the o refugees will be in the camps for at least a year. "If you look at the numbers of dead and then the numbers of people forced from their homes, then it is a terrible price to pay," said Sarah Crowe, ardo regional spokeswoman for Unicef. "So much effort was invested in winning the war, but little effort has been put into winning the peace." The final rout of the Tigers after a civil war that dates in its current incarnation to 1983 and which has probably claimed the lives of 100,000 people was cheered yesterday by many among Sri Lanka's Sinhala Buddhist majority, who set off fireworks and celebrated in the streets of Colombo. The government asked people to fly the national flag. Three years ago, the once potent rebel forces controlled 5,792 square milese of Sri Lanka in the north and east. Even less than 18 months ago, when a sputtering ceasefire between the government and the rebels was finally broken, the Tigers still held a large strip of territory in the north. But having vowed to destroy the rebels within a year, President Mahinda Rajapaksa dedicated huge resources to tackling them. By November, the military was reported to be in control of the entire western coast, having captured the strategic area of Pooneryn. Soon afterwards, in January, theo government captured the rebels' de facto capital, Kilinochchi, in the north. One of the biggest challenges for Mr Rajapaksa now will be to find a political settlement that draws in the country's Tamil minority. For years,do the Tamils have complained of marginalisation at the hands of successive governments led by the Sinhalese majority, which came to power at independence in 1948, and took the favoured positions the Tamils had enjoyed under British colonial rule. Mr Rajapaksa said he was willing to work for such a settlement but only once the military operation to crush the rebels was completed. That moment appears to have arrived. Another issue will be how many Tigers are still be at large and whether -- as of Sri Lanka in the north and east. Even less than 18 months ago, when a some analysts have suggested -- they will be able to carry out guerrilla brotrikes. The Tigers had said that in the case of a conventional defeat, those cadres would target Sri Lanka's economically valuable assets, an indirect threat to a tourism sector the government hopes can be boosted after the war. From creuss at bluewin.ch Mon May 18 04:42:49 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Mon May 18 04:46:12 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Obama's Word Breaks Ice in Geneva Arms Talks Message-ID: The "abolition of nukes to achieve world peace" is just another PR fraud from Obama (Rahm Emanuel). Nukes can't be used and there's the "balance of power" since all major powers have nukes. The U$ can't get its anti-nuke shield to work reliably, so the option of unilateral nuking is gone. But ONLY the U$ now has new powerful weapons that the other powers don't have! Abolish nukes worldwide and the "balance of power" is gone -- the U$ rules the world with its new weapons -- stealth bombers, bunker busters, vacuum bombs, you name it. All tested in Iraq and Afghanistan... And besides, don't think for a minute that Israel will ever abolish its already illegal nukes... the fraud in the fraud, so to speak. Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From creuss at bluewin.ch Mon May 18 05:54:11 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Mon May 18 05:57:39 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Who Rules America? Message-ID: > This is not to say any other country, except perhaps for Switzerland, is > any closer to being a democracy. And Switzerland is small enough to be blackmailed. Yesterday we voted on the biometric passports. 50.1% Yes with a turnout of just 38%! 8-( The blackmail from EU and U$ was that we'd need visa to travel... Figure this: At a time when those who were behind the Iron Curtain can travel freely, the NWOers would have reduced Switzerland to a "new DDR"... Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Mon May 18 18:57:58 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Mon May 18 18:58:26 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Who Rules America? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090519015759.B65F313A5F@fep04.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> Dave Paterson's Green Island book "Greenways" dramatises the problems of people trying to maintain independent democratic societies when surrounded by anti-democratic nations one of which claims sovereignty over to the very territory which seeks a better way. At least Switzerland is nominally independent, but its democracy is limited by the sea of undemocratic countries surrounding it (also, I believe, by regionalisation - but that's another story). Who in Europe voted on the draft EU constitution? Who voted to cede powers to the thieves in Brussels? Who voted for the current EU passport control? Who voted to bring in the countries of Rumsfels's "New Europe"? When were the referenda held? I noticed one or two (notably excluding Germany and Britain which are more implacably opposed to democratic referenda than even Rumsfeld's "New Europe"). I must have missed the others. Dion Giles At 20:54 18/05/2009, Chris Reuss wrote: > > This is not to say any other country, except perhaps for Switzerland, is > > any closer to being a democracy. > >And Switzerland is small enough to be blackmailed. Yesterday we voted on >the biometric passports. 50.1% Yes with a turnout of just 38%! 8-( >The blackmail from EU and U$ was that we'd need visa to travel... >Figure this: At a time when those who were behind the Iron Curtain can >travel freely, the NWOers would have reduced Switzerland to a "new DDR"... > >Chris > > > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword >"igve". > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Mon May 18 22:35:45 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Mon May 18 22:56:23 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] What's new at Links: Solidarity with Tamil people, oppose coup in Nepal, Bolivian socialism, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, forgotten pandemics in Africa Message-ID: <4A124531.1040909@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: Solidarity with Tamil people, oppose coup in Nepal, Bolivian socialism, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, forgotten pandemics in Africa * * * Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to links@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links/. * * * Capitalism in Wonderland: Why mainstream economists can't deal with the ecological crisis By Richard York, Brett Clark and John Bellamy Foster (posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission) In a recent essay, "Economics Needs a Scientific Revolution", in one of the leading scientific journals, Nature, physicist Jean-Philippe Bouchaud, a researcher for an investment management company, asked rhetorically, "What is the flagship achievement of economics?" Bouchaud's answer: "Only its recurrent inability to predict and avert crises". * Read more Who is endangering civil peace in Nepal? The Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of the United States-based Marxist journal Monthly Review . The May 2009 issue featured this editorial. * Read more Interview with Bolivia's foreign minister: `Communitarian socialism will refound Bolivia' Interview with Bolivia's foreign minister David Choquehuanca by Patricia Bravo and Cris Gonz?lez, translated from the original article in the March 20, 2009, edition of Punto Final (Chile) by David Montoute. Bolivia's new ``Political Constitution of the State'', approved by referendum on January 25, 2009, by 61.4% of the vote and announced on February 7, is clearly of transcendental importance for the refoundation of Bolivia. The recognition of individual and collective rights, popular participation, the principle of equality and the end of all types of exclusion and discrimination are all present in the new constitutional text. It establishes the creation of "a Unified Social State of Law whose character would be Plurinational Communitarian, free, independent, sovereign, democratic, intercultural, with decentralised autonomous departments, regions, municipalities and indigenous circumscriptions". * Read more Zimbabwe: The struggle enters a new stage By Munyaradzi Gwisai [Read or download the May 2009 issue of the ISOZ's newspaper, Socialist Worker, at the end of this article.] May 6, 2009 -- The formation of the government of national unity (GNU) in Zimbabwe between the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) in February 2009 was the logical outcome of the agreement made between them in the middle of last year. The final negotiations had stalled as Mugabe tried to manipulate the details to exact maximum concessions from the MDC. * Read more Why Pakistan's military helped Talibanise Swat By Farooq Sulehria May 17, 2009 -- The mass exodus from Swat is making headlines globally. Over a million have been displaced. This is the worst humanitarian crisis since the Rwanda tragedy in 1990s. The explanation offered is that this is necessary to flush the Taliban out of Swat's lush, green valley in Pakistan's north. This military operation, launched in order to stabilise the US occupation of Afghanistan and its so-called "war on terror", is hardly mentioned in the corporate media. On the contrary, major US newspapers have been invoking the fear that Pakistan's nuclear weapons might fall into the hands of the Taliban. Is this a story planted by the CIA? * Read more Sri Lankan socialists call for self-determination for Tamils May 13, 2009 -- The statement below was presented at a press conference by Vickramabahu Karunarathne (``Bahu''), general secretary of the Nava Sama Samaaja Party (NSSP, New Socialist Party). Below the statement is a document that outlines the NSSP's position on Tamil national self-determination * Read more Indian communists: India must end support for genocide in Sri Lanka and the elite coup in Nepal By Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation May 11, 2009 -- A shameful spectacle of opportunism is being played out in Indian politics even as Sri Lanka is waging a chilling ``final solution'' to its Tamil national question. In the name of a war to eliminate the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Mahinda Rajapakse's regime in Sri Lanka is waging war on the Tamil people. Independent observers, international rights groups and even journalists have been prohibited from covering the reality of the war. Conservative estimates, trickling through, put civilian deaths at a minimum of 5000, including at least 500 children, since January. At least 100,000 civilians are estimated wounded. The Sri Lankan army is using cluster bombs and chemical warfare in blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions. Tens of thousands of innocent Tamils are caught up in the war zone, starved of food, water and medicine. Some 100,000 others, fleeing in desperation are being rounded up behind barbed wire fences in ``camps'', where by all accounts they will be kept under detention for three years. Sri Lankan journalists questioning their government's brutal policy have been silenced by assassination and arrest. International journalists reporting on the detention camps for Tamil civilians have been detained and deported. * Read more Solidarity from Timor Leste: `Support the people and legitimate government of Nepal!' Solidarity message for the people and legitimate government of Nepal, by Luta Hamutuk, Timor Leste Dili, Timor Leste, May 13, 2009 -- The legitimate government of Nepal was formed as a result of a very democratic process in Nepal.This government came about from the struggle of a people, full of the spirit of self-reliance, which was fighting against all forms of feudal, imperialist and neoliberal oppression. However, now the agents of the oppressors are beginning to engage in sabotage against this legitimate and democratic government, efforts which are especially driven by the military forces of the oppressors. Based on these facts, Luta Hamutuk -- an organisation in Timor Leste that is also fighting for economic justice and self-reliance, that is against all forms of imperialist oppression -- would like to state our full support for the people and democratic government of Nepal and demand as follows: * Read more Philippines socialists on Nepal: `We stand in solidarity with this mass movement fighting for the people's interests' May 14, 2009 -- The Partido Lakas ng Masa of the Philippines has attempted to follow the developments in Nepal over the recent period. We welcomed the ouster of the monarchy achieved by the people's struggle and the mass movement, the unity of the main left forces, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist), and the elections which gave the left control of the government. We welcomed as a victory for the left and progressive movement worldwide the election of a left government led by the UCPN (M), along with the CPN (UML). We therefore consider the forced resignation of this government as a result of the refusal of the pro-elite Nepalese military hierarchy and the president, backed by the country's elite, to follow the directives of a democratically elected government carrying out the platform that it was elected upon, as detrimental to the people's interest and only serving the interests of the Nepalese elite. * Read more Malaysian socialists: `In defence of the revolution and democracy in Nepal' Solidarity message to the revolutionary masses of Nepal Statement by the Socialist Party of Malaysia May 12, 2009. 1. The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) would like to express our greatest concern over the current political developments and intensifying social struggles in the newly born Republic of Nepal. 2. The political and military elites have once again revealed their true nature when the president, who is from the conservative Nepali Congress party, overrode the decision of Prime Minister Prachanda from the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (UCPN-M) to sack Chief of Army Staff Katawal. Some opportunist sections of the coalition government, like the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML) also turned to the right by opposing the UCPN (M) move. 3. The army high command has refused to obey instructions from the elected civilian government as well as refused to implement key parts of 2006 peace accords which included the integration of UCPN (M)-led People's Liberation Army (PLA) into the current army forces. Sections of the high command in the current Nepalese army committed serious human rights violations during the armed conflict with PLA and continue to enjoy impunity, and even planned to stage a military coup against the elected government. * Read more African lives -- silent casualty of the global economic crisis By the Treatment Action Campaign (South Africa), AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa, RAVANE+ PVVIH Network for the Indian Ocean Region (Mauritius) and the Grassroots Empowerment Trust (Kenya) HIV is not in recession! TB is not in recession! May 6, 2009 -- On the occasion of the Conference of African Ministers of Health in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a coalition of health advocates from sub-Saharan Africa warn that the lives of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa are in jeopardy because of the lack of political will and investment to realise the right of access to life-saving treatment. Only one third of HIV-positive people in need of antiretroviral therapy (ART) to survive have access to treatment in the African region. The coalition fears that national and donor governments are betraying their health commitments, particularly promises to support the universal roll-out of ART by 2010. * Read more CPI (ML) Liberation: Indian government must stop intervening in Nepal By the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation May 5, 2009 -- The fledgling republic of Nepal seems to be standing on the verge of a new phase of civil war. Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Rookmangud Katawal had been asked by the civilian government to explain why he had continued military recruitment despite the government's halt order and reinstated eight brigadier-generals who had been retired by the defence ministry. Backed by its foreign patrons and right-wing parties in the country, the military high command openly defied the authority of the elected government. The government responded by removing General Katawal, who refused to accept this and the government's decision was then illegally overturned by President Ram Baran Yadav, of Nepalese Congress party. With its coalition partners in government refusing to support the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [UCPN (M)], Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) announced that he had no choice but to resign. * Read more * * * Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090519/d43e300d/attachment.html From creuss at bluewin.ch Tue May 19 04:25:06 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Tue May 19 04:28:42 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Who Rules America? Message-ID: Dion Giles asked: > Who in Europe voted on the draft EU constitution? France (No), Ireland (No), Netherlands (non-binding No), Spain (non-binding Yes due to national advantages), Luxembourg (non-binding Yes after being blackmailed by the PM). > Who voted to cede powers to the thieves in Brussels? Countries who joined the EU later, entered based on lies (about alleged advantages) or because they stood to gain (Eastern Europe) from subsidies. > Who voted for the current EU passport control? In the EU, there were no referenda about this. (Isn't it funny -- the only country that can vote is blackmailed by countries that can't vote.) > Who voted to bring in the countries of Rumsfels's "New Europe"? "New Europe" itself. The "old" EU citizens didn't have a say on this. > When were the referenda held? 2008 (Ireland) and 2005 (others above). > (notably excluding Germany and Britain which are more implacably > opposed to democratic referenda than even Rumsfeld's "New Europe"). The German people is not at all opposed to democratic referenda, but the WW2 victors imposed on Germany that there are no (federal) referenda. Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Tue May 19 05:10:24 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Tue May 19 05:11:02 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Who Rules America? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090519121025.59F2F12ADB@fep06.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> At 19:25 19/05/2009, you wrote: >The German people is not at all opposed to democratic referenda, but the >WW2 victors imposed on Germany that there are no (federal) referenda. > >I guess the principal victors were America, USSR, France and >Britain. If any oner of those made the running for such a ban it >would proibably have been Britain, whgose government promised the >people a referendum on the EU constitution but then backed >away. The Rumsfeld countries would probably vote for it. From McPogo at aol.com Tue May 19 12:17:07 2009 From: McPogo at aol.com (McPogo@aol.com) Date: Tue May 19 12:17:50 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Advocacy Groups Seek Disbarment of Ex-Bush Administration Lawyers Message-ID: Advocacy Groups Seek Disbarment of Ex-Bush Administration Lawyers * (javascript:void(0);) (http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&page=www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/us&pos=Frame4A&sn2=49a9ec0b/60172910&sn1=430e31c7/b63aef91&camp =foxsearch2009_emailtools_1011073c_nyt5&ad=glee_120x60_tuesday&goto=http://w ww.fox.com/glee) By _SCOTT SHANE_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/scott_shane/index.html?inline=nyt-per) Published: May 18, 2009 WASHINGTON ? A coalition of left-wing advocacy groups filed legal ethics complaints on Monday against 12 former Bush administration lawyers, including three _United States attorneys_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/u/united_states_attorneys/index.html?inline=nyt-classifie r) general, whom the groups accuse of helping to justify torture. (javascript:pop_me_up2('http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/05/19/us/19detain_CA0.ready.html', '19detain_CA0_ready', 'width=454,height=600,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')) Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse ? Getty Images John C. Yoo wrote some of the legal opinions in dispute. Readers' Comments Readers shared their thoughts on this article. * _Read All Comments (32) ?_ (http://community.nytimes.com/article/comments/2009/05/19/us/19detain.html) The coalition, called Velvet Revolution, asked the bar associations in four states and the District of Columbia to disbar the lawyers, saying their actions violated the rules of professional responsibility by approving interrogation methods, including _waterboarding_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/t/torture/waterboarding/index.html?inline=nyt-c lassifier) , that constituted illegal torture. By writing or approving legal opinions justifying such methods, the advocates say, the Bush administration lawyers violated the _Geneva Conventions_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/g/geneva_convent ions/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) , the Convention Against Torture and American law. Kevin Zeese, a longtime activist and lawyer who signed the complaints on behalf of Velvet Revolution, said the groups were acting because the Obama administration had resisted calls for a criminal investigation of abuse of prisoners under the Bush administration. The Obama administration has not ruled out the possibility of professional disciplinary action being taken against some of those involved. ?The torture issue needs to be taken out of the hands of politicians if it is going to be dealt with as the war crimes that it is,? Mr. Zeese said. The complaints are available online at the group?s Web site, _www.velvetrevolution.us/torture_lawyers/index.php_ (http://www.velvetrevolution.us/torture_lawyers/index.php) . The filings come as the Justice Department?s ethics office, the Office of Professional Responsibility, completes a report on the department lawyers who wrote opinions authorizing harsh interrogations. The report, in the works for nearly five years and expected to be released in the next few weeks, is said to be highly critical of some authors of the opinions, including _John C. Yoo_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/y/john_c_yoo/index.html?inline=nyt-per) , a senior official at the department?s Office of Legal Counsel in 2002, and his boss, _Jay S. Bybee_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/jay_s_bybee/index.html?inline=nyt-per) . The Velvet Revolution complaint also names _Steven G. Bradbury_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/steven_g_bradbury/index.ht ml?inline=nyt-per) , who headed the legal counsel office from 2005 to 2009; the three attorneys general, _John Ashcroft_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/john_ashcroft/index.html?inline=nyt-per) , _Alberto R. Gonzales_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/alberto_r_gonzales/index.html?inline=nyt-per) and _Michael B. Mukasey_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/michael_b_mukasey/index.html?inline=nyt-per) ; _Michael Chertoff_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/michael_chertoff/index.html?inline= nyt-per) and Alice S. Fisher, who headed the Justice Department?s criminal division; two former Pentagon officials, _Douglas J. Feith_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/f/douglas_j_feith/index.html?in line=nyt-per) and William J. Haynes II; and two former White House lawyers, Timothy E. Flanigan and _David S. Addington_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/david_s_addington/index.html?inline=nyt-per ) . Legal experts are divided over the likely effect of such complaints. A complaint filed last year against Mr. Yoo, a Berkeley law professor who remains a member of the Pennsylvania bar, was rejected by that state?s bar association, in part because the Justice Department was already investigating Mr. Yoo?s role in the interrogation memorandums. Mr. Yoo has often defended his role in writing the legal opinions, noting that they were written in the anxious months after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and were intended only to outline the limits of the law, not to advise policy makers on what methods to use. But one interrogation opinion written primarily by Mr. Yoo was later withdrawn by the Justice Department, which considered it overly broad and poorly reasoned. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090519/2f98f95d/attachment.html From papadop at peak.org Tue May 19 21:17:20 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Tue May 19 21:18:53 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] UCSB - reflects national effort to silence campus discussion Message-ID: http://sb4af.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/israel-lobby-descends-on-uc-santa-barbara/ Investigation of sociology professor is frontline in nationwide campaign to silence criticism against Israel on college campuses Please Distribute Widely May 18, 2009 SANTA BARBARA, Calif. "Noam Chomsky is no newcomer to harassment by pro-Israel organizations. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) once compiled a 150-page dossier on the famous author and linguistics professor, apparently to find information it could use against him, Chomsky said in an interview in late April. An ADL insider sent Chomsky the file, which included conversations, correspondence and other materials. Chomsky said it read like an FBI file. "It"s hard to nail this stuff down in a court of law, but it"s clear they essentially have spies in classrooms who take notes and send them to the ADL and other organizations," Chomsky said. "The groups then compile dossiers they can use to condemn, attack or remove faculty members. They"re like J. Edgar Hoover"s files. It"s kind of gutter stuff." Such covert tactics have yet to emerge publicly at the University of California at Santa Barbara. But the effort to discredit and censor criticism of Israeli policies has taken a potentially ominous turn. The ADL and the Israel advocacy group "Stand With Us" are leading an aggressive, direct campaign to pressure UCSB administrators and faculty to investigate and discipline sociology professor William I. Robinson for having introduced materials critical of Israel in a course on global affairs. The materials included a photo essay that Robinson forwarded to students from the Internet juxtaposing images of Israeli abuse against Palestinians with Nazi abuses during the holocaust. Two students took offense at the images and withdrew from the course, prompting the ADL to pressure the university to pursue charges of "anti-Semitism" against Robinson. The pressure campaign includes face-to-face meetings with university officials and faculty, use of Internet-based media to influence public opinion, and a formidable letter-writing effort that relies particularly on UCSB donors, some of whom have threatened to withdraw their support for the university. Some meetings "such as an hour-long encounter between ADL National Director Abraham Foxman and UCSB officials and faculty " may have seriously violated university policies. The Foxman meeting generated concern that pressure by the Israel lobby may have influenced the Academic Senate in its decision to open a formal investigation against Robinson. Other meetings are only now coming to light. Aaron Ettenberg, a UCSB psychology professor and member of the Academic Senate's Charges Advisory Committee, has confirmed that he met with Rabbi Arthur Gross-Schaefer prior to the committee"s recommendation to investigate Robinson. Gross-Schaefer is interim director of the local chapter of Hillel, an organization that works with Jewish communities on college campuses. Hillel met with the two students who withdrew from Robinson"s class before those students filed their grievances against Robinson. Both Gross-Schaefer and Ettenberg told Anthony Fenton " a reporter based in Vancouver who writes for the "Asia Times Online" and "The Dominion" of Canada " that they had met and discussed the Robinson case. "I really didn"t discuss that with him very much," Gross-Schaefer told Fenton in a telephone interview. "We see each other socially, it wasn"t any meeting or anything in particular"It wasn"t"set up to discuss that at all actually." Ettenberg told Fenton he is "just friends" with Gross Schaefer. "I can"t say anything at this point," he said. "I didn"t have a meeting with him formally to discuss any of these kinds of things." Whether formal or not, that they met and discussed the Robinson case may constitute a serious breach of Academic Senate procedures for dealing with student complaints. In a public statement on May 4, Robert Potter " professor emeritus of the Department of Theater and Dance and former chair of the Academic Senate Committee on Privilege and Tenure " expressed deep concern about the "campaign of accusations" against Robinson. "This orchestrated attempt by outside agencies to pressure the university into disciplining a faculty member over the content of a course is an entirely improper attack on academic freedom," Potter said. "The campus community should express concern over this very troubling sequence of events." Members of the California Scholars for Academic Freedom, which includes nearly 140 academics at 20 institutions, say the campaign at UCSB reflects a major escalation by the Israel lobby to silence criticism at universities in California and elsewhere. Mark Levine, a Jewish professor of Middle Eastern Studies at UC-Irvine, said pro-Israel groups have, in effect, created a "large machine" to attack Israel critics on college campuses. "That"s why this case is so important," Levine said. "These are powerful, organized groups in the Jewish community who use fear and intimidation to try to make sure Israel doesn"t get criticized. They go after anyone, even more so when the critics are Jews, because they fear that if we can criticize them, then everyone can." Sondra Hale, a UCLA professor and founder and coordinator of the California Scholars, said the Robinson case stands out because the Israel lobby"s pressure tactics have been so public. "A lot of incidents at other campuses have been more subtle types of pressure, but this case is very straightforward," Hale said. "The evidence is right there. It"s very clear cut." For detailed information about the Robinson case, visit the Committee to Defend Academic Freedom Web site at www.sb4af.wordpress.com. For media inquiries, call Alba Pena-Leon at (626) 665-9212. From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Wed May 20 08:15:18 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Wed May 20 08:16:02 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Washington needs to address 'shadow banking' + Hernando de Soto re West's 'monster shdadow economy ' Message-ID: <4A13F456.22307.5FD177F@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Loosely defined, the shadow banking system is the group of non-bank institutions that are doing a whole host of banking functions. They lend, and they take collateral. We know them as pension and hedge funds, investment banks, structured investment vehicles and various insurance companies. During the last 20 years, as the economy has hungered for more credit, the shadow banking system has provided the meat. .....In short, the unregulated shadow banks became huge and powerful, amassing huge amounts of short-term Wall Street debt. As the nation searches for remedies and reforms, shadow banking is under new scrutiny...New research by Gary Gorton, a finance professor at the Yale School of Management, shows not only how the shadow banking system has grown but how it's truly the main culprit of the credit collapse......Along with the Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary, has talked about a systemic risk regulator that would look at any institution, regardless of how it's chartered, and assess its threat to the system. --- David Weidner's Writing on the Wall May 19, 2009, Money Market See also http://www.cbc.ca/ourworld/2009/05/the_mystery_of_capital.html the Mystery of Capital CBC News- Our World with Brian Stewart interview with Hernando de Soto Sunday May 17 6:30 pm "This week, we meet Hernando de Soto, an economist who became famous interpreting the destructiveness of shadow economies in the developing world. Now he's in demand again, explaining how the West fell victim to a monster shadow economy of its own making. Today it turns out the largest shadow economy of all was here in the West, in Wall Street and the banking system; in hundreds of trillions of dollars of unregulated financial transactions, which might yet cause massive banking collapse in the world. " Hernando de Soto is viewed as one of the world's most influential thinkers fyi-janet See also http://ild.org.pe/hernando-de-soto/blog/newweek/feb-2009 Institute for Liberty and Democracy De Soto on Toxic Paper: Slumdogs vs. Millionaires 20 February 2009 ILD president Hernando de Soto, illustrates the similarities between today's Wall Street's financiers and developing countries' slum dwellers, both stuck in shadow economies where basic facts, such as ownership, are impossible to determine. In an interview followed by an article, De Soto urges the Obama administration to tackle the problem of toxic paper - which has been bedeviling emerging markets for years - with a hands-on approach......It has always been government's role to establish standards, set and enforce weights and measures, keep records and bring every shadow economy under the rule of law. Escaping this recession requires restoring order, precision and trust to financial paper. That will be a daunting legal and political challenge. But the hard decisions about locating, valuing, and isolating the toxic paper, and figuring out who will foot the bill for the losses- taxpayers, banks or vulture capitalists- will be easier to make the sooner politicians realize that the alternative could be the collapse of the very system that has generated the most prosperity in history- and all hell breaking loose. ======================== http://www.marketwatch.com/story/banks-in-the-shadows-brought-down- wall-street Money Watch David Weidner's Writing on the Wall May 19, 2009, 10:13 a.m. EST The financial system lurking in the shadows Commentary: Washington needs to address 'shadow banking' View all NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- What or who exactly caused the banking crisis? Was it the banks? The bankers? The borrowers? Did the government fail? Like torture, can we blame it on former President Bush and just move on? It seems everyone had a role in the biggest financial and economic disasters since the Great Depression. Though degrees of guilt vary, it is a rare economic collapse where everyone in society doesn't have some kind of role. This time around, however, one party seems particularly culpable. It's what has come to be known as the "shadow banking" system. Loosely defined, the shadow banking system is the group of non-bank institutions that are doing a whole host of banking functions. They lend, and they take collateral. We know them as pension and hedge funds, investment banks, structured investment vehicles and various insurance companies. During the last 20 years, as the economy has hungered for more credit, the shadow banking system has provided the meat. As the nation searches for remedies and reforms, shadow banking is under new scrutiny. No one agrees on how to regulate or reform what's in the shadows, but they do agree that we can't approach it as we have before. Banks aren't just banks. Hedge and pension funds, insurance companies aren't always what they seem either. Put it this way, a couple of years ago most of us thought American International Group Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!aig/quotes/nls/aig (AIG 1.87, +0.06, +3.32%) was an insurance company, not one of the biggest credit-default swap players on Wall Street. New research by Gary Gorton, a finance professor at the Yale School of Management, shows not only how the shadow banking system has grown but how it's truly the main culprit of the credit collapse. Gorton knows how financially deadly shadow banks can be. He advised AIG's credit default swap unit. See full story. Gorton argues that shadow banking is "at the heart" of the financial crisis in his research in a paper "Slapped in the Face by the Invisible Hand: Banking and the Panic of 2007" last week at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Financial Markets Conference. Gorton argues that the recent financial crisis was really a banking panic in which banks, both in the shadows and in the light, were unable to meet their obligations. A $6.2 trillion giant Judging by the numbers, the shadow banking system was big enough to trigger such a panic. Speaking last summer, then-New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner described the scale of what he called the non-bank financial system. He said that before the crisis hit in early 2007, non-banks had asset-backed commercial paper conduits, structured investment vehicles, auction-rate preferred securities, tender option bonds and variable rate demand notes, with a combined asset size of roughly $2.2 trillion. Assets financed overnight in so-called tri-party repurchase agreements, or repos, grew to $2.5 trillion. Assets held in hedge funds grew to roughly $1.8 trillion. The combined balance sheets of the then-five major investment banks totaled $4 trillion, he said, making a total of $6.2 trillion in non-bank assets. Geithner pointed out that the top five bank holding companies, in comparison, had just over $6 trillion in assets, and total assets of the entire banking system were about $10 trillion. In short, the unregulated shadow banks became huge and powerful, amassing huge amounts of short-term Wall Street debt. Building on this, Gorton shows that as confidence in some of these securities eroded, the credit squeeze cascaded through the banking industries, both shadow and recognized, not unlike the way margin calls triggered the stock market crash of 1929. Specifically the market for repurchase agreements, which are contracts to buy financial assets such as Treasurys, got squeezed. More than $2.7 trillion in contracts failed in October, sending real banks in search of capital. Appropriate reform In a way, the collapse triggered by the non-banks was the kind of panic real banks have been inciting and fighting for centuries. Gorton believes we are at a crossroads when it comes to preventing crushing market panics caused by shadow banking. "What these reforms will be depends on who controls the narrative of the crisis," Gorton wrote me in an email. "If the narrative is that 'a reckless few gamed the system' then the focus will be on compensation -- and credit derivatives only because they have been smeared." Gorton believes the government would do better to recognize that shadow banks are indeed banks because they provide credit to the system, not an easy idea to digest. Geithner, who as Treasury Secretary has moved on to greater things, was one of the first to recognize the impact of shadow banks. Along with Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, Geithner has talked about a systemic risk regulator that would look at any institution, regardless of how it's chartered, and assess its threat to the system. He hasn't talked about regulating shadow banks as banks. But Gorton is hopeful. He thinks regulators are well aware they need both kinds of banks in the system. "They're working on it," Gorton said. After every panic, they always do. David Weidner covers Wall Street for MarketWatch. From jomut at yahoo.com Wed May 20 12:40:07 2009 From: jomut at yahoo.com (John Mutambirwa) Date: Wed May 20 12:40:47 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Re: Fwd: Who Rules America? Message-ID: <252591.27320.qm@web31104.mail.mud.yahoo.com> John Mutambirwa (Dreaming Awake) jomut@yahoo.com chakane@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/jomut ? Hi, ? You might be interested in a case that has been lately making the headlines in Canada but could very well be of lukewarm interest elsewhere -- the Brian Mulroney (former Canadian PM) and Karlheinz Schreiber (German businessman and international lobbyyist) case. The case illustrates nicely the morally shady world of influence peddling at stratospheric business and political levels that dizzy the so-so comprehension of vulgar wordlings like us. ? Difficult to understand Mulroney's seemingly histrionic ambivalence towards shifty Schreiber -- whose hefty payments he, Mulroney,?seemed to accept with unambiguous gratitude.? He also seems to?want Shcreiber?publicly portrayed as an unregenerate miscreant whose word is not worth even a cent of the money he?paid him. Egad! As though we are not aware of the worldwide?goings-on, featuring captive politicians and their corporate sponsors?next to?whom Schreiber?might just be a minnow. ? John. ======================= ? ? --- On Sun, 5/17/09, john foster wrote: From: john foster Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Who Rules America? To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net Date: Sunday, May 17, 2009, 11:00 AM http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22611.htm ? ???Who Rules America? ? ???By Paul Craig Roberts ? ???May 14, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- -What do you suppose it is like to be elected president of the United States only to find that your power is restricted to the service of powerful interest groups? ? ???A president who does a good job for the ruling interest groups is paid off with remunerative corporate directorships, outrageous speaking fees, and a lucrative book contract.? If he is young when he assumes office, like Bill Clinton and Obama, it means a long life of luxurious leisure. ? ???Fighting the special interests doesn't pay and doesn't succeed.? On April 30 the primacy of special over public interests was demonstrated yet again.? The Democrats' bill to prevent 1.7 million mortgage foreclosures and, thus, preserve $300 billion in home equity by permitting homeowners to renegotiate their mortgages, was defeated in the Senate, despite the 60-vote majority of the Democrats.? The banksters were able to defeat the bill 51 to 45. ? ???These are the same financial gangsters whose unbridled greed and utter irresponsibility have wiped out half of Americans' retirement savings, sent the economy into a deep hole, and threatened the US dollar's reserve currency role.? It is difficult to imagine an interest group with a more damaged reputation.? Yet, a majority of "the people's representatives" voted as the discredited banksters instructed. ? ???Hundreds of billions of public dollars have gone to bail out the banksters, but when some Democrats tried to get the Senate to do a mite for homeowners, the US Senate stuck with the banks.? The Senate's motto is: "Hundreds of billions for the banksters, not a dime for homeowners." ? ???If Obama was naive about well-intentioned change before the vote, he no longer has this political handicap. ? ???Democratic Majority Whip Dick Durbin acknowledged the voters' defeat by the discredited banksters.? The banks, Durbin said, "frankly own the place." ? ???It is not difficult to understand why.? Among those who defeated the homeowners bill are senators Jon Tester (Mont), Max Baucus (Mont), Blanche Lincoln (Ark), Ben Nelson (Neb), Many Landrieu (La), Tim Johnson (SD), and Arlan Specter (Pa).? According to reports, the banksters have poured a half million dollars into Tester's campaign funds. Baucus has received $3.5 million; Lincoln $1.3 million; Nelson $1.4 million; Landrieu $2 million; Johnson $2.5 million; Specter $4.5 million. ? ???The same Congress that can't find a dime for homeowners or health care appropriates hundreds of billions of dollars for the military/security complex.? The week after the Senate foreclosed on American homeowners, the Obama "change" administration asked Congress for an additional $61 billion dollars for the neoconservatives' war in Iraq and $65 billion more for the neoconservatives' war in Afghanistan.? Congress greeted this request with a rousing "Yes we can!" ? ???The additional $126 billion comes on top of the $533.7 billion "defense" budget for this year. The $660 billion--probably a low-ball number--is ten times the military spending of China, the second most powerful country in the world. ? ???How is it possible that "the world's only superpower" is threatened by the likes of Iraq and Afghanistan?? How can the US be a superpower if it is threatened by countries that have no military capability other than a guerilla capability to resist invaders? ? ???These "wars" are a hoax designed to enrich the US armaments industry and to infuse the "security forces" with police powers over American citizenry. ? ???Not a dime to prevent millions of Americans from losing their homes, but hundreds of billions of dollars to murder Muslim women and children and to create millions of refugees, many of whom will either sign up with insurgents or end up as the next wave of immigrants into? America. ? ???This is the way the American government works.? And it thinks it is a "city on the hill, a light unto the world." ? ???Americans elected Obama because he said he would end the gratuitous criminal wars of the Bush brownshirts, wars that have destroyed America's reputation and financial solvency and serve no public interest.? But once in office Obama found that he was ruled by the military/security complex.? War is not being ended, merely transferred from the unpopular war in Iraq to the more popular war in Afghanistan.? Meanwhile, Obama, in violation of Pakistan's sovereignty, continues to attack "targets" in Pakistan.? In place of a war in Iraq, the military/security complex now has two wars going in much more difficult circumstances. ? ???Viewing the promotion gravy train that results from decades of warfare, the US officer corps has responded to the "challenge to American security" from the Taliban.? "We have to kill them over there before they come over here."? No member of the US government or its numerous well-paid agents has ever explained how the Taliban, which is focused on Afghanistan, could ever get to America.? Yet this hyped fear is sufficient for the public to support the continuing enrichment of the military/security complex, while American homes are foreclosed by the banksters who have destroyed the retirement prospects of? the US population.. ? ???According to Pentagon budget documents, by next year the cost of the war against Afghanistan will exceed the cost of the war against Iraq. According to a Nobel prize-winning economist and a budget expert at Harvard University, the war against Iraq has cost the American taxpayers $3 trillion, that is, $3,000 billion in out-of-pocket and already incurred future costs, such as caring for veterans. ? ???If the Pentagon is correct, then by next year the US government will have squandered? $6 trillion dollars on two wars, the only purpose of which is to enrich the munitions manufacturers and the "security" bureaucracy. ? ???The human and social costs are dramatic as well and not only for the Iraqi, Afghan, and Pakistani populations ravaged by American bombs.? Dahr Jamail reports that US Army psychiatrists have concluded that by their third deployment, 30 percent of American troops are mental wrecks.? Among the costs that reverberate across generations of Americans are elevated rates of suicide, unemployment, divorce, child and spousal abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness and incarceration. http://www.truthout.org/051209J?n ? ???In the Afghan "desert of death" the Obama administration is constructing a giant military base.? Why?? What does the internal politics of Afghanistan have to do with the US? ? ???What is this enormous waste of resources that America does not have accomplishing besides enriching the American munitions industry? ? ???China and to some extent India are the rising powers in the world. Russia, the largest country on earth, is armed with a nuclear arsenal as terrifying as the American one.? The US dollar's role as reserve currency, the most important source of American power, is undermined by the budget deficits that result from the munition corporations' wars and the bankster bailouts. ? ???Why is the US making itself impotent fighting wars that have nothing whatsoever to do with is security, wars that are, in fact, threatening its security? ? ???The answer is that the military/security lobby, the financial gangsters, and AIPAC rule.? The American people be damned. Click on "comments" below to read or post comments ? ? ???Comments (244) Comment (0) Comment Guidelines Be succinct, constructive and relevant to the story. We encourage engaging, diverse and meaningful commentary. Do not include personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and emails. Comments falling outside our guidelines - those including personal attacks and profanity - are not permitted. See our complete Comment Policy and use this link to notify us if you have concerns about a comment. We'll promptly review and remove any inappropriate postings. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information ClearingHouse endorsed or sponsored by the originator.) ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090520/d398112d/attachment.html From hermann at picknowl.com.au Wed May 20 22:16:04 2009 From: hermann at picknowl.com.au (John Hermann) Date: Wed May 20 22:16:40 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Washington needs to address 'shadow banking' In-Reply-To: <4A13F456.22307.5FD177F@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> References: <4A13F456.22307.5FD177F@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Message-ID: <200905210516.n4L5GDjP014209@mail13.tpg.com.au> At 12:45 AM 21/05/2009, you wrote: >Loosely defined, the shadow banking system is the group of non-bank >institutions that are doing a whole host of banking functions. They have been described as "non-banks" because they do not engage in core banking business, which is: (a) taking customers' deposits (i.e., within the payments system), and (b) creating new credit money through the advancement of loans. In any workable payments system, deposits are never on-loaned. Only borrowed money may be on-loaned. John Hermann -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090521/4702b451/attachment.html From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Thu May 21 00:08:57 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Thu May 21 00:51:38 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: The Disease of Permanent War Message-ID: <031601c9d9e8$dfd86270$82ad57ca@jfos> May 20, 2009 New World Order: Global Research Archive Excerpt: "In "Pentagon Capitalism" Seymour Melman described the defense industry as viral. Defense and military industries in permanent war, he wrote, trash economies. They are able to upend priorities. They redirect government expenditures toward their huge military projects and starve domestic investment in the name of national security.(snip) Massive military spending in this country, climbing to nearly $1 trillion a year and consuming half of all discretionary spending, has a profound social cost. Bridges and levees collapse. Schools decay. Domestic manufacturing declines. Trillions in debts threaten the viability of the currency and the economy. The poor, the mentally ill, the sick and the unemployed are abandoned. Human suffering, including our own, is the price for victory.(snip) ... since the end of the Second World War, the (American) federal government has spent more than half its tax dollars on past, current and future military operations. It is the largest single sustaining activity of the government. The military-industrial establishment is a very lucrative business. It is gilded corporate welfare. Defense systems are sold before they are produced. Military industries are permitted to charge the federal government for huge cost overruns. Massive profits are always guaranteed." The Disease of Permanent War by Chris Hedges Global Research, May 19, 2009 TruthDig - 2009-05-18 The embrace by any society of permanent war is a parasite that devours the heart and soul of a nation. Permanent war extinguishes liberal, democratic movements. It turns culture into nationalist cant. It degrades and corrupts education and the media, and wrecks the economy. The liberal, democratic forces, tasked with maintaining an open society, become impotent. The collapse of liberalism, whether in imperial Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Weimar Germany, ushers in an age of moral nihilism. This moral nihilism comes is many colors and hues. It rants and thunders in a variety of slogans, languages and ideologies. It can manifest itself in fascist salutes, communist show trials or Christian crusades. It is, at its core, all the same. It is the crude, terrifying tirade of mediocrities who find their identities and power in the perpetuation of permanent war. It was a decline into permanent war, not Islam, which killed the liberal, democratic movements in the Arab world, ones that held great promise in the early part of the 20th century in countries such as Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iran. It is a state of permanent war that is finishing off the liberal traditions in Israel and the United States. The moral and intellectual trolls-the Dick Cheneys, the Avigdor Liebermans, the Mahmoud Ahmadinejads-personify the moral nihilism of perpetual war. They manipulate fear and paranoia. They abolish civil liberties in the name of national security. They crush legitimate dissent. They bilk state treasuries. They stoke racism. "War," Randolph Bourne commented acidly, "is the health of the state." In "Pentagon Capitalism" Seymour Melman described the defense industry as viral. Defense and military industries in permanent war, he wrote, trash economies. They are able to upend priorities. They redirect government expenditures toward their huge military projects and starve domestic investment in the name of national security. We produce sophisticated fighter jets, while Boeing is unable to finish its new commercial plane on schedule. Our automotive industry goes bankrupt. We sink money into research and development of weapons systems and neglect renewable energy technologies to fight global warming. Universities are flooded with defense-related cash and grants, and struggle to find money for environmental studies. This is the disease of permanent war. Massive military spending in this country, climbing to nearly $1 trillion a year and consuming half of all discretionary spending, has a profound social cost. Bridges and levees collapse. Schools decay. Domestic manufacturing declines. Trillions in debts threaten the viability of the currency and the economy. The poor, the mentally ill, the sick and the unemployed are abandoned. Human suffering, including our own, is the price for victory. Citizens in a state of permanent war are bombarded with the insidious militarized language of power, fear and strength that mask an increasingly brittle reality. The corporations behind the doctrine of permanent war-who have corrupted Leon Trotsky's doctrine of permanent revolution-must keep us afraid. Fear stops us from objecting to government spending on a bloated military. Fear means we will not ask unpleasant questions of those in power. Fear means that we will be willing to give up our rights and liberties for security. Fear keeps us penned in like domesticated animals. Melman, who coined the term permanent war economy to characterize the American economy, wrote that since the end of the Second World War, the federal government has spent more than half its tax dollars on past, current and future military operations. It is the largest single sustaining activity of the government. The military-industrial establishment is a very lucrative business. It is gilded corporate welfare. Defense systems are sold before they are produced. Military industries are permitted to charge the federal government for huge cost overruns. Massive profits are always guaranteed. Foreign aid is given to countries such as Egypt, which receives some $3 billion in assistance and is required to buy American weapons with $1.3 billion of the money. The taxpayers fund the research, development and building of weapons systems and then buy them on behalf of foreign governments. It is a bizarre circular system. It defies the concept of a free-market economy. These weapons systems are soon in need of being updated or replaced. They are hauled, years later, into junkyards where they are left to rust. It is, in economic terms, a dead end. It sustains nothing but the permanent war economy. Those who profit from permanent war are not restricted by the economic rules of producing goods, selling them for a profit, then using the profit for further investment and production. They operate, rather, outside of competitive markets. They erase the line between the state and the corporation. They leech away the ability of the nation to manufacture useful products and produce sustainable jobs. Melman used the example of the New York City Transit Authority and its allocation in 2003 of $3 billion to $4 billion for new subway cars. New York City asked for bids, and no American companies responded. Melman argued that the industrial base in America was no longer centered on items that maintain, improve, or are used to build the nation's infrastructure. New York City eventually contracted with companies in Japan and Canada to build its subway cars. Melman estimated that such a contract could have generated, directly and indirectly, about 32,000 jobs in the United States. In another instance, of 100 products offered in the 2003 L.L. Bean catalogue, Melman found that 92 were imported and only eight were made in the United States. The late Sen. J. William Fulbright described the reach of the military-industrial establishment in his 1970 book "The Pentagon Propaganda Machine." Fulbright explained how the Pentagon influenced and shaped public opinion through multimillion-dollar public relations campaigns, Defense Department films, close ties with Hollywood producers, and use of the commercial media. The majority of the military analysts on television are former military officials, many employed as consultants to defense industries, a fact they rarely disclose to the public. Barry R. McCaffrey, a retired four-star Army general and military analyst for NBC News, was, The New York Times reported, at the same time an employee of Defense Solutions Inc., a consulting firm. He profited, the article noted, from the sale of the weapons systems and expansion of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan he championed over the airwaves. Our permanent war economy has not been challenged by Obama and the Democratic Party. They support its destructive fury because it funds them. They validate its evil assumptions because to take them on is political suicide. They repeat the narrative of fear because it keeps us dormant. They do this because they have become weaker than the corporate forces that profit from permanent war. The hollowness of our liberal classes, such as the Democrats, empowers the moral nihilists. A state of permanent war means the inevitable death of liberalism. Dick Cheney may be palpably evil while Obama is merely weak, but to those who seek to keep us in a state of permanent war, it does not matter. They get what they want. Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote "Notes From the Underground" to illustrate what happens to cultures when a liberal class, like ours, becomes sterile, defeated dreamers. The main character in "Notes From the Underground" carries the bankrupt ideas of liberalism to their logical extreme. He becomes the enlightenment ideal. He eschews passion and moral purpose. He is rational. He prizes realism over sanity, even in the face of self-destruction. These acts of accommodation doom the Underground Man, as it doomed imperial Russia and as it will doom us. "I never even managed to become anything: neither wicked nor good, neither a scoundrel nor an honest man, neither a hero nor an insect," the Underground Man wrote. "And now I am living out my life in my corner, taunting myself with the spiteful and utterly futile consolation that it is even impossible for an intelligent man seriously to become anything, and only fools become something." We have been drawn into the world of permanent war by these fools. We allow fools to destroy the continuity of life, to tear apart all systems-economic, social, environmental and political-that sustain us. Dostoevsky was not dismayed by evil. He was dismayed by a society that no longer had the moral fortitude to confront the fools. These fools are leading us over the precipice. What will rise up from the ruins will not be something new, but the face of the monster that has, until then, remained hidden behind the facade. Global Research Articles by Chris Hedges -------------------------------------------------------------- Please support Global Research Global Research relies on the financial support of its readers. Your endorsement is greatly appreciated Subscribe to the Global Research E-Newsletter Spread the word! Forward to a friend! ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 610 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090521/f29a327a/attachment.jpe -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 807 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090521/f29a327a/attachment.gif -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 1909 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090521/f29a327a/attachment-0001.gif From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Thu May 21 00:52:34 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Thu May 21 00:53:25 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Scramble For World Resources: Battle For Antarctica Message-ID: <035801c9d9e9$224d2be0$82ad57ca@jfos> May 20, 2009 New World Order: Global Research Archive Excerpt: "A year later Australia would unveil its largest military buildup since World War II, one that projects a $72 billion dollar increase in military spending and the acquisition of twelve advanced "hunter killer" submarines, three new interceptor missile destroyers, both to be equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles having a range of 2,200 kilometers, and 100 US F-35 Lightning Joint Strike Fighters. [29] This new war machine will now have 2.5 million more square kilometers to deploy to and maneuver in, deep into the Antarctic Ocean which the Antarctic Treaty stipulates is to be free of military hardware and weaponry." (snip) Scramble For World Resources: Battle For Antarctica by Rick Rozoff Global Research, May 16, 2009 The Arctic and Antarctica are the last vast untapped reservoirs of mineral resources on the planet. [1] If the expansion of Australia's territory is formalized, this will disrupt the operation of international legal mechanisms, which have already been seriously affected by the proclamation of Kosovo's independence. Worse still, this will open the door to a large-scale re-division of the world. The South Pole precedent could be applied in the North Pole, which will turn the struggle for the Arctic resources into a global war, inevitably involving Russia. [2] May 13th of this year marked the deadline for "states to stake their claims in what some experts are describing as the last big carve-up of maritime territory in history," Reuters reported in October of 2007. [3] At the time the British Foreign Office announced that it was submitting a claim to expand the nation's Antarctic territory by a million square kilometers and would also submit "four other claims...for Atlantic seabed territory around South Georgia and the Falkland Islands and also around Ascension Island in the South Atlantic, near the Bay of Biscay in the North Atlantic, and in the Hatton-Rockall basin off Scotland's coast." [4] Prior to 1962, the British Antarctic Territory was a dependency of the Falkland Islands and also included South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. On March 31 of this year Britain made a partial submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf regarding the Hatton-Rockall area in the Northeast Atlantic (Rockall is a miniscule craggy isle, though one with strategic significance way out of proportion to its size), which gives the country its only claim to the Arctic shelf that is estimated to contain a fifth of the world's undiscovered oil and nearly a third of undiscovered natural gas. London started talks with Iceland, Ireland and Denmark (in its capacity of owner of the Faroe Islands) to jointly use Rockall to penetrate the Arctic in the impending scramble for its resources, a subject that has been explored extensively in another study in this series.[5] In a parallel but far grander move, on this May 11 Britain submitted its claim to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf for the one million square kilometers it covets in the South Atlantic reaching into the Antarctic Ocean. This was the formalization of plans initially revealed in October of 2007 and described in a press report of the time as a plan to "extend British sovereignty in Antarctica," a zone which "covers a vast area of the seabed around British Antarctica near the south pole." [6] Immediately nations far nearer Antarctica and as such with better claims to its territory, Argentina most notably, lodged complaints as "The British claim...conflicts with the spirit of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, to which Britain is a signatory, which prevents all exploitation of oil gas and minerals, other than for scientific research." [7] Alarms were sounded from other quarters too. Shortly after the British announcement the Chinese People's Daily reported: "The South Pole, a world of ice and snow, has become a hot spot in recent years. The Argentinean Foreign Ministry stated that vice-Foreign Ministers from Argentina and Chile would be meeting in early December to discuss the South Pole issue, and work out a joint strategy to boycott British sovereign demands on the South Pole's continental shelf." [8] The same source provided this background information: "The vastness of seemingly barren, ice-covered land is uncovered and exposed to the outside world, revealing a 'treasure basin' with incredibly abundant mineral deposits and energy reserves....A layer of Permian Period coal exists on the mainland, and holds 500 billion tons in known reserves. "The thick ice dome over the land is home to the world's largest reservoir for fresh water; holds approximately 29.3 million cubic kilometers of ice; and makes up 75% of earth's fresh water supply. "It is possible to say that the South Pole could feed the entire world with its abundant supplies of food [fish] and fresh water." And warned that the "the value of the South Pole is not confined to the economic sphere; it also lies in its strategic position. "The US Coast Guard has long had garrisons in the region, and the US Air Force [is] the number one air power in the region. "[T]he South Pole [Antarctic] Treaty points out that the South Pole can only be exploited and developed for the sake of peace; and can not be a battle ground. Otherwise, the ice-cold South Pole could prove a fiercely hot battlefield." [9] Within weeks of the British statement in 2007 Chilean Defense Minister Jose Goni and Air Force Chief of Staff General Ricardo Ortega visited the South Pole "declaring that the use of the Arturo Prat naval base would be formally resumed in March 2008. "Goni said the resumption of the use of the naval base, along with another two military bases in the Antarctic region, is to demonstrate the presence and sovereignty of Chile...." [10] A Canadian daily described another element of the intensified rush to and scramble for the Antarctic: "[W]hy would anyone feel the need to claim territory off the shore of the Antarctic, a nearly uninhabited frozen island we only reached a hundred years ago? The motivation lies deep under the sea floor: minerals, oil and gas." [11] In October of 2007 the Russian foreign ministry responded to Britain's Antarctic plans by stating, "Being one of the nations that made the biggest contributions to the development of the 1959 [Antarctic] Treaty and studies of Antarctica this country has consistently worked against the idea of dividing Antarctica on the basis of unilateral territorial claims and has not recognized them." [12] One of the bluntest assessments of the project to carve up the largest unexploited area of the planet came from a Scottish newspaper: "Not since the Golden Age of the Empire has Britain staked its claim to such a vast area of land on the world stage. And while the British Empire may be long gone, the Antarctic has emerged as the latest battleground for rival powers competing on several fronts to secure valuable oil-rich territory." [13] The author of the above-quoted piece, Tanya Thompson, went on to characterize what was at stake. "Britain is preparing territorial claims on tens of thousands of square miles of the Atlantic Ocean floor around the Falklands and Rockall island in the hope of annexing potentially lucrative oil and gas fields. "The Falklands claim has the most potential for political fall-out, given that Britain and Argentina fought over the islands 25 years ago, and the value of the oil under the sea in the region is understood to be immense. Seismic tests suggest there could be about 60 billion barrels of oil under the ocean floor." "[I]t's inevitable that they'll tap into this area for oil and gas. Look what happened in the Falklands in 1982. But this is an uninhabited continent and there would be heavy diplomacy and sanctions if a war was about to be fought over Antarctica." [14] With the May 13, 2009 deadline approaching for submitting Antarctic claims, Russia sent explorer amd member of parliament Arthur Chilingarov, the Russian president's special representative for international cooperation in the Arctic and Antarctic, to Antarctica in January. Chilingarov led the Russian expedition which planted the national flag on the Arctic Ocean seabed under the North Pole in 2007. Heading the Antarctica-2009 expedition and accompanied by fellow parliamentarians, he said at the time: "We are definitely showing the whole world that we have serious plans to continue polar research." [15] For Argentina, Britain formally attempting to arrogate to itself a million square kilometer swathe of the Antarctic was preceded by the United Kingdom granting a new constitution to the Falklands Islands (Las Malvinas to Argentina) last November, one which while granting a greater degree of nominal autonomy still invested London with power over "external affairs, defense, internal security and the administration of justice." [16] Argentina lodged a protest, with the country's foreign ministry stating, "This British unilateral act mainly constitutes a new and open violation of the 31/49 Resolution taken in 1976 by the UN General Assembly, which urges both parties in dispute (Argentine and United Kingdom) to abstain from taking decisions to introduce unilateral decisions." [17] Buenos Aires condemned the British action as a "violation of Argentine sovereignty and international law." [18] This January Argentina renewed its concerns over the "anachronistic colonial situation unsuitable with the course and evolution of the modern world." [19] As May 13 grew more close, in late April Argentina filed a counter-claim based on twelve years of research to challenge "the illegitimate British occupation of the southern archipelagos" [20] and affirmed that "its continental shelf extends out from the South American and Antarctic continent and from an archipelago of islands Britain also lays claim to." [21] Both claims are to be examined and adjudicated on by the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf based on Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, but indisputably more is at stake than legal fine points. What is being fought over is control of vast natural resources including hydrocarbons, untold mineral wealth, the world's largest fresh water supply and fishing rights as well as geostrategic positioning which includes military objectives. And the intensified interest shown in the Antarctic by not only Britain but its former colonial appendage Australia, which will be examined later, is not an isolated instance of aggressive if not illegal pursuit of strategic energy and economic interests abroad at the expenses of others - all others - but part of an accelerating pattern by the major Western powers and their military outposts to gain control over the world's resources, and that at a breakneck pace. The same campaign by the West, acting in various ad hoc or longstanding coalitions, but especially in the collective military condominium that is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), is being conducted in the Arctic Circle [22], the Persian Gulf [23], the Caspian Sea Basin [24] and the African continent, especially in the Gulf of Guinea [25]. In the Antarctic Ocean it isn't limited to Britain's audacious maneuvers, ones which would never have been attempted without the complicity of its allies, but by a little-noted and just as large-scale and unprecedented move by Australia. In April of last year the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf - through who knows what combination of select compliance and international negligence - granted Australia 2.5 million more square kilometers in the Antarctic Ocean so that the nation's territory, in the words of Resources Minister Martin Ferguson, "expanded by an area five times the size of France," which could "potentially provide a 'bonanza' in underwater oil and gas reserves." "The decision gives Australia the rights to what exists on and under the seabed, including potentially lucrative oil and gas reserves and biological resources." [26] The expansion of Australia's seabed borders included the Kerguelen Plateau around the Heard and McDonald Islands, which extend southwards into Antarctica. As such Australia became the first nation to be granted exclusive property rights in the ocean. Referring to the Western-engineered secession of Kosovo from Serbia two months beforehand, Dmitry Yevstafyev of the Center for Policy Studies in Moscow sounded this grave warning: "This precedent is much more dangerous than Kosovo's independence. I am surprised that Russian authorities have remained silent on the issue. They must declare that this is an illegal decision creating a dangerous precedent, and demand that the UN Secretary General explain the reasoning behind the decision." "If the expansion of Australia's territory is formalized, this will disrupt the operation of international legal mechanisms, which have already been seriously affected by the proclamation of Kosovo's independence. "Worse still, this will open the door to a large-scale re-division of the world. The South Pole precedent could be applied in the North Pole, which will turn the struggle for the Arctic resources into a global war, inevitably involving Russia." [27] The 1959 Antarctic Treaty stipulates that, "No acts or activities taking place while the present Treaty is in force shall constitute a basis for asserting, supporting or denying a claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica or create any rights of sovereignty in Antarctica." The deputy head of the Russian Antarctic expedition, Vladimir Kuchin, said at the time that "The Antarctic Treaty does not recognize any claims, and the UN does not own any territory and therefore cannot approve territorial expansions." [28] A year later Australia would unveil its largest military buildup since World War II, one that projects a $72 billion dollar increase in military spending and the acquisition of twelve advanced "hunter killer" submarines, three new interceptor missile destroyers, both to be equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles having a range of 2,200 kilometers, and 100 US F-35 Lightning Joint Strike Fighters. [29] This new war machine will now have 2.5 million more square kilometers to deploy to and maneuver in, deep into the Antarctic Ocean which the Antarctic Treaty stipulates is to be free of military hardware and weaponry. Th Treaty states "it is in the interest of all mankind that Antarctica shall continue forever to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and shall not become the scene or object of international discord" and "Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only. There shall be prohibited, inter alia, any measures of a military nature, such as the establishment of military bases and fortifications, the carrying out of military maneuvers, as well as the testing of any type of weapons." [30] A massively militarized Australia will be free to roam the expanded and self-proclaimed Australian Antarctic Territory, recognized only by Australia and Britain, France, New Zealand and Norway among the world's 192 nations. As a writer from the United Kingdom posited over a year and a half ago, "The days of British Imperialism may be behind us, but critics fear we are trying to carve out a new empire, with serious political repercussions." [31] And what pertains to Britain applies with comparable force to its allies in Europe, North America and the South Pacific. With the end of the Cold War almost twenty years ago any spot on the earth that had escaped 500 years of European colonialism and its European and American neocolonialist successor is now fair game for the West's avarice and aggression. The bottom of the world is no exception. Notes 1) Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, July 27, 2007 2) Russian Information Agency Novosti, April 24, 2008 3) Reuters, October 7, 2007 4) Ibid 6) People's Daily, December 4, 2007 5) Stop NATO, February 2, 2009 NATO's, Pentagon's New Strategic Battleground: The Arctic http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/37104 6) Reuters, October 7, 2007 7) Ibid 8) People's Daily, December 4, 2007 9) Ibid 10) Xinhua News Agency. November 3, 2007 11) Toronto Star, November 18, 2007 12) Interfax, October 31, 2007 13) The Scotsman, October 23, 2007 14) Ibid 15) Russian Information Agency Novosti, January 15, 2009 16) Associated Press, November 7, 2008 17) Xinhua News Agency, November 7, 2008 18) Associated Press, November 7, 2008 19) Xinhua News Agency, January 3, 2009 20) The Guardian, Friday 24 April 2009 21) The Telegraph, April 24, 2009 22) Stop NATO, February 2, 2009 NATO's, Pentagon's New Strategic Battleground: The Arctic http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/37104 23) Global Research, February 7, 2009 NATO In The Persian Gulf: From Third World War To Istanbul Cooperation Initiative http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12190 24) Global Research, March 4, 2009 NATO Bases From the Balkans To the Chinese Border http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12554 25) Stop NATO, January 22, 2009 Global Energy War: Washington's New Kissinger's African Plans http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/36874 26) Agence France-Presse, April 21, 2008 27) Russian Information Agency Novosti, April 24, 2008 28) Ibid 29) Global Research, May 6, 2009 Australian Military Buildup And The Rise Of Asian NATO http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13523 30) http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/antarct/anttrty.jsp 31) The Scotsman, October 23, 2007 Rick Rozoff is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Rick Rozoff -------------------------------------------------------------- Please support Global Research Global Research relies on the financial support of its readers. ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Thu May 21 06:51:27 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Thu May 21 07:04:04 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Marta Harnecker: Ideas for the struggle #1 -- Insurrections or revolutions? The role of the political instrument | Links Message-ID: <4A155C5F.2080700@greenleft.org.au> [This is the first in a series of regular articles.] By *Marta Harnecker*, translated by *Federico Fuentes* for /Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/ 1. The recent popular uprisings at the turn of the 21^st century that have rocked numerous countries such as Argentina and Bolivia -- and, more generally, the history of the multiple social explosions that have occurred in Latin America and the rest of the world -- have undoubtedly demonstrated *that the initiative of the masses, in and of itself, is not enough to defeat ruling regimes. * 2. Impoverished urban and country masses, lacking a well-defined plan, have risen up, seized highways, towns and neighbourhoods, ransacked stores and stormed parliaments, but despite achieving the mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of people, *neither the size nor their combativeness have been enough to develop from popular insurrection into revolution.* They have overthrown presidents, but they haven?t been able to conquer power and initiate a process of deep social transformations. 3. On the other hand, the history of triumphant revolutions clearly demonstrates what can be achieved when there is *a political instrument capable of raising an alternative national program that unifies the struggles of diverse social actors behind a common goal*; that helps to cohere them and elaborate a path forward for these actors based on an analysis of the existent balance of forces. Only in this manner can actions be carried out at the right place and right time, always seeking out the weakest link in the enemy?s chain. Full article at http://links.org.au/node/1059 Subscribe free to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism From netcfs at shaw.ca Thu May 21 16:32:26 2009 From: netcfs at shaw.ca (Yves Bajard) Date: Thu May 21 16:32:55 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Michael C. Ruppert Message-ID: <1242948746.20372.516.camel@localhost> Have you read the following, very recent book (May 1, 2009)? A PRESIDENTIAL ENERGY POLICY: TWENTY-FIVE POINTS ADDRESSING THE SIAMESE TWINS OF ENERGY AND MONEY by Michael C. Ruppert If not, May I suggest that you procure it and read it. In my opinion, it is an intersting proposal, worth discussing on this list , Also, by the same, Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, (2004) A profile of the author can be found at http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20090418133428689 Looking forwards to some feedback Yves Bajard -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090521/59aabdb5/attachment.html From papadop at peak.org Fri May 22 11:01:05 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Fri May 22 11:02:41 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Re: Oregon's getting closer and Cindy Sheehan's coming to help In-Reply-To: <4A16E5A9.3090903@rop.org> References: <4A16E5A9.3090903@rop.org> Message-ID: On Fri, 22 May 2009, Kari Koch wrote: Dear Ropnet, You and I get to claim a great victory on having shifting the national conscience away from supporting the occupation in Iraq, especially with all of our diligent work in rural Oregon often making peace a part of daily life. This Memorial Day week ahead we can set our sight on the next big victory. Because even as the Senate passed a war funding bill for Afghanistan and Iraq, Oregon is inching ever closer to bringing our troops home. We are still fighting Capitol Hill to turnoff the endless funding stream, but our greatest power seems to lie in targeting the war in our own backyards. In the Campaign to Keep Oregon's National Guard in Oregon, we are close to a win here at home. The Campaign's ability to keep consistent pressure on our State Reps and Senators as well as forcing our elected officials to see the burden of the war on our communities ? psychologically, economically, and through loss of life ? has put the peace community on the verge of a great victory. ROP members were critical in last weeks surge of pressure on Representatives Roblan and Boone (South and North Coast respectively) to get two of the final yes votes that we need for it to pass the State House. Good work, friends! Now, we just have to get it out for a vote. HB 2556, ?which is supported by both Democratic Rep. Chip Shields (Portland) and Republican Rep. Dennis Richardson (Central Point) with proposed amendments, directs the state to deploy the National Guard for federal activity only with a valid Congressional enactment. Members of the year-long "Campaign to Keep Oregon's Guard in Oregon" believe that there are enough votes to pass the bill in the Oregon House, and are calling on the Legislature to hold a work session and a vote immediately,? Peace and Justice Works tells us. We are willing to make sacrifices for a better world or for justice but we are not willing to sacrifice the lives and mental health of our young men and women for even one day more. This war does not deserve our troops and we have an opportunity to point out the gaping holes left in Oregon by the Guard's multiple tours in Iraq, in our budget, in our safety and in our families. The Campaign will have a press conference next Wednesday, May 27 at 11:30am at the Capitol in Salem to pressure the House to bring the bill to the floor for a vote. Special guest Cindy Sheehan will be joining us to offer her words of encouragement and urgency.? Everyone is encouraged to attend. Contact kari@rop.org for more information! In solidarity, Kari President Obama once said "It's not enough to get out of Iraq; we have to get out of the mindset that led us into Iraq." Zinn asks us to identify that mindset -- he suggests that it is imperialism, violence and the unrestricted free market that got us into our current mess " war and the economy" We want a country that uses its resources, its wealth, and its power to help people, not to hurt them. That's what we need " Howard Zinn, (Changing Obama's Mindset, May 2009 The Progressive). From thinker at thelakebc.ca Fri May 22 11:46:31 2009 From: thinker at thelakebc.ca (Ed Deak) Date: Fri May 22 11:45:06 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] The insanity of GM Message-ID: <200905221844.n4MIi1qU022526@karma.reboot.ca> f Growers' Groups to Press for Biotech Wheats Three Canadian grain growers' groups have put their names to an international bid to help clear a regulatory path for traits produced through biotechnology, such as genetic modification (GM), in wheat. The Grain Growers of Canada, Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association and Alberta Winter Wheat Producers Commission say they have an "accord" with wheat growers' groups in Australia and the U.S. on "the need for the synchronized introduction of biotech wheat." "In recent years, we have seen wheat yields stagnate in comparison to canola, corn and soybeans," Doug Robertson, a Carstairs, Alta. farmer and the GGC's president, said in the three groups' press release Thursday. "The application of biotechnology in wheat research could lead to the development of several traits to improve wheat yields and wheat quality," the three groups said. To that end, the Canadian growers said they would work with U.S. and Australian growers to "ensure the commercial introduction of biotech traits in wheat will proceed smoothly by synchronizing regulatory approvals in exporting and importing nations." As it now takes six to eight years for new biotech wheat varieties to reach commercial introduction, the groups said, "it is critical to signal both seed developers and policymakers now, that many farmers are eager to see biotech traits in wheat that could improve their profitability and improve food security for many countries around the world." Traits to improve wheat plants' yields could include those that deal with environmental factors (drought, cold), combat weed or insect infestations, improve disease resistance or improve a plant's use of nutrients. And traits to improve the quality attributes of wheat could include those designed to accommodate consumers with food allergies, reduce obesity, or improve wheat-based foods' nutritional profile, the groups said. "Being early adopters of new biotech traits in wheat could help restore our competitive advantage," said Kent Erickson, an Irma, Alta. farmer and chairman of the Alberta Winter Wheat Producers Commission, in the groups' release. "Co-ordinating our efforts with farmers in other leading-edge countries will ensure Canadian wheat producers are not left behind and instead are among the first to take advantage of this technology." Pressure from farm groups and other advocacy groups has so far kept any seed genetics firm from trying to register a GM wheat. Monsanto in 2004 announced it would shelve its work toward introduction of wheat varieties with its patented Roundup Ready genetics for glyphosate tolerance. Farm groups and agencies such as the Canadian Wheat Board have previously contended that introduction of biotech wheat, without significant market acceptance or a functioning system to segregate it from conventional wheats, would jeopardize farmers' export and domestic markets alike for the conventional crop. But the growers' groups speaking Thursday contend that wheat acreage in Western Canada has declined significantly over the past two decades, in part due to its declining profitability (relative to canola and other crops) and increased competition from wheat producers in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and Argentina. "If wheat continues on a non-biotech course, then farmers will continue to devote a greater share of their acreage to biotech crops, where profitability is relatively greater, resulting in lower world wheat production than would otherwise be the case," the groups said in a joint statement with six U.S. and Australian organizations. U.S. groups working with the Canadian growers include the National Association of Wheat Growers, U.S. Wheat Associates and North American Millers' Association. Australian groups involved in this effort include the Grains Council of Australia, Grain Growers Association and the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of Western Australia. "Irreparable harm" Farmers who have previously warned against the introduction of GM wheats remain unconvinced. Stewart Wells, a farmer at Swift Current, Sask., and president of the National Farmers Union, said Friday that the groups now lobbying for GM wheat "don't speak for the majority of producers." However, he said, "as long as companies like Monsanto have two nickels to rub together they will always be able to find groups that will lobby for their interests." International customers who now buy 82 per cent of Canada's wheat crop have previously said they would stop buying if Canada were to introduce GM wheat, Wells said. "GM wheat will kill markets," he said. "Customers have indicated clearly they will stop buying all wheat from us: GM and non-GM alike." The introduction of GM wheat, he said, would inevitably lead to contamination in production and handling systems, which in turn would spell disaster for the organic wheat industry because segregation is virtually impossible. "There is no organic canola grown in Canada because of widespread contamination from GM canola," said Wells, an organic producer. "This has caused irreparable harm to organic growers." Country Guide, May 15, 2009 From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Fri May 22 17:55:14 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Fri May 22 17:55:49 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Re: Oregon's getting closer and Cindy Sheehan's coming to help In-Reply-To: References: <4A16E5A9.3090903@rop.org> Message-ID: <20090523005515.3F6D712F6E@fep06.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> Splendid effort on the home front. Is there any mileage in getting up a referendum on the State's allowing the National Guard to be used in Iraq and/or obliging State Senators (who I understand are supposed to represent their States) to move and vote against continued funding? Dion Giles At 02:01 23/05/2009, MichaelP wrote: >On Fri, 22 May 2009, Kari Koch wrote: > >Dear Ropnet, > >You and I get to claim a great victory on having shifting the national >conscience away from supporting the occupation in Iraq, especially with all >of our diligent work in rural Oregon often making peace a part of daily >life. This Memorial Day week ahead we can set our sight on the next big >victory. Because even as the Senate passed a war funding bill for >Afghanistan and Iraq, Oregon is inching ever closer to bringing our troops >home. We are still fighting Capitol Hill to turnoff the endless funding >stream, but our greatest power seems to lie in targeting the war in our own >backyards. > >In the Campaign to Keep Oregon's National Guard in Oregon, we are close to a >win here at home. The Campaign's ability to keep consistent pressure on our >State Reps and Senators as well as forcing our elected officials to see the >burden of the war on our communities ? psychologically, economicallly, and >through loss of life ? has put the peace community on the verge of a great >victory. ROP members were critical in last weeks surge of pressure on >Representatives Roblan and Boone (South and North Coast respectively) to get >two of the final yes votes that we need for it to pass the State House. Good >work, friends! Now, we just have to get it out for a vote. > >HB 2556, ???which is supported by both Democratic Rep. Chip Shields (Portland) >and Republican Rep. Dennis Richardson (Central Point) with proposed >amendments, directs the state to deploy the National Guard for federal >activity only with a valid Congressional enactment. Members of the year-long >"Campaign to Keep Oregon's Guard in Oregon" believe that there are enough >votes to pass the bill in the Oregon House, and are calling on the >Legislature to hold a work session and a vote immediately,??? Peace and >Justice Works tells us. > >We are willing to make sacrifices for a better world or for justice but we >are not willing to sacrifice the lives and mental health of our young men >and women for even one day more. This war does not deserve our troops and we >have an opportunity to point out the gaping holes left in Oregon by the >Guard's multiple tours in Iraq, in our budget, in our safety and in our >families. > >The Campaign will have a press conference next Wednesday, May 27 at 11:30am >at the Capitol in Salem to pressure the House to bring the bill to the floor >for a vote. Special guest Cindy Sheehan will be joining us to offer her >words of encouragement and urgency.? Everyone is encouraged to attend. >Contact kari@rop.org for more information! > >In solidarity, > >Kari > > >President Obama once said "It's not enough to get out of Iraq; we have to >get out of the mindset that led us into Iraq." Zinn asks us to identify >that >mindset -- he suggests that it is imperialism, violence and the >unrestricted >free market that got us into our current mess " war and the economy" We >want a country that uses its resources, its wealth, and its power to help >people, not to hurt them. That's what we need " Howard Zinn, (Changing >Obama's Mindset, May 2009 The Progressive). > > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not From papadop at peak.org Sat May 23 08:32:37 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Sat May 23 08:34:22 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] One Step Forward, Too Many Backward in the Culture Wars Message-ID: http://www.counterpunch.org/rosen05222009.html Counterpunch May 22-24, 2009 Porn Wars By DAVID ROSEN David Rosen is the author of Sex Scandal America: Politics & the Ritual of Public Shaming (Key, 2009); he can be reached at drosen@ix.netcom.com. Craigslist, the most popular Internet listing service, announced recently that it would, in effect, remake its popular erotic services category into adult services. It acted under pressure from a number of state attorney generals for allegedly promoting prostitution and in the face of dubious claims as to its role in the actions of a Boston medical student, Philip Markoff, in a murder, armed robbery and kidnapping spree. Action by Craigslist came at the same time that the Supreme Court ordered the federal Second Circuit court to reconsider its earlier rejection of the FCC s effort to impose penalties on Fox and NBC for broadcasting fleeting expletives (i.e., fuck and shit)) uttered by Cher, Bono and Nicole Richie. This decision came only weeks before the Court ordered the Third Circuit court to reconsider its ruling throwing out a $550,000 fine against CBS for momentarily displaying Janet Jackson's nipple during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. Ironically, only days before Obama assumed the presidency in January, the Supreme Court ruled against a last-ditch Bush-administration effort to finally enforce the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), originally enacted by the Clinton administration in 1998. Now, as the rightwing Christian culture wars are in eclipse, an effort to tighten the nation s moral code seems underway. For a quarter-century, personal health, family life, sexual relations, scientific knowledge and popular culture were battlegrounds of the culture wars. While the 2006 elections marked the end of the Christian right s momentum, the 2008 election appeared to put the final nail in its coffin. Americans spoke out against rightwing intolerance, puritanical morality, divisive racism, imperialist foreign misadventures, false patriotism and vicious class polarization. Like a legendary vampire, the tired, retrograde legal system holds to the darkness, seeking to deny or put-off as long as possible a forthright consideration of the values remaking American popular culture. Two fictions are at the heart of the official legal system'ss efforts to contain widely accepted notions of sexual values. The first is the notion that broadcasting still exists; the second fiction is the belief that restricting obscenity protects childhood innocence. While most Americans have left these notions in the 20th century, legal opinion, moralistic proclamations and police actions still seek to enforce this retrograde outlook. Unfortunately, as more conservative aspects of the Obama program become evident, one can only wonder if these recent retrograde legal actions are not in keeping with the administration's overall tenor. Obama has aligned with the corporate, militaristic wing of imperialist capital, the centrists around Bush-senior, Robert Rubin and Dr. Brezinsky, Condi's mentor. This alignment is reflected in Obama'ss Afghan-Pakistan quagmire strategy, his refusal to release the torture photos, his recourse to military tribunals, his acceptance of prosecutions under Don t Ask/Don t Tell, his bailout of the banks (and their principal shareholders who directed the current economic crisis) and his impotent effort to help those suffering foreclosure. The recent legal actions seem to mirror this greater agenda. * * * Law enforcement officials throughout the country long railed against Craiglist as the nation'ss biggest brothel. Attorney generals from South Carolina, Illinois, Connecticut, Missouri and New York mounted an apparently coordinated campaign against Craigslist to remove ads they considered promoting illegal sexual services. They also shared a perception that the site was pornographic. The chorus against Craigslist found local voices as well. For example, Illinois' Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart sought to have its erotic section eliminated and requested a court to award $100,000 to the local police in compensation for its investigate services. Dart insists that Craigslist facilitates youthful prostitution through placement of false ads by juveniles. Cries against the website grew in the wake of a series of isolated violent incidents tenuously linked to random Craigslist postings. The one that garnered the biggest media attention involved Phillip Markoff, dubbed the Craigslist Killer. At the same time, a New York radio reporter, George Weber, was stabbed to death in his Brooklyn home by an underage youth who answered his posting on Craigslist seeking "rough sex" for $60. In addition, Michael John Anderson, 20, of Savage, MN, was sentenced to life in prison for killing a young woman who answered an ad he posted for a nanny. Craigslist rejects these accusations. Moving to avoid potential legal challenges, Craigslist revised its erotic services to adult services to cover what it dubs legal adult service providers. To prevent misuse, the website said it would manually review each posting before listing it and also increase its posting fee to $10 from $5 per ad to help cut down on dubious postings. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo mocked Craigslist's actions. Rather than work with this office to prevent further abuses, in the middle of the night, he said, Craigslist took unilateral action which we suspect will prove to be half-baked. Prostitution is regulated in parts of Nevada and Rhode Island, and often treated with a wink-and-a-nod acceptance in many places throughout the U.S., especially if it is off-the-street commerce. It is regulated in Australia, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand; selling sex is not illegal in Canada and Sweden's 1999 law decriminalized the selling of sex but criminalized the john. So, when will the attorney generals who went after Craigslist, as well as the others throughout the nation, finally take a fresh look at commercial sex and revise current efforts at criminalization for a more informed regulatory approach? [see Emily Bazelon, Why Is Prostitution Illegal?, Slate, March 10, 2008] * * * In similar fashion, the Supreme Court actions against Fox/NBC and CBS over the broadcasting of alleged indecent or obscene materials points backwards. These primetime incidents took place in the early 2000s and the Court s action seem unaware of the significant changes in technology and popular taste fashioning a very different future. The first incident involved the live broadcast of Billboard Music Award show in 2002 at which Cher was to receive an "Artist Achievement Award." In her acceptance speech, she said: I've had unbelievable support in my life and I've worked really hard. I've had great people to work with. Oh, yeah, you know what? I've also had critics for the last 40 years saying that I was on my way out every year. Right. So fuck 'em. I still have a job and they don't. The following year, two incidents raised the FCC s moralistic hackles. First, NBC broadcast the Golden Globe Awards at which Bono uttered, "This is really, really, fucking brilliant. Really, really great. Second, Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton at that year's s Billboard Awards had the following exchange: Hilton: Now Nicole, remember, this is a live show, watch the bad language. Richie: Okay, God. Hilton: It feels so good to be standing here tonight. Richie: Yeah, instead of standing in mud and [audio blocked]. Why do they even call it The Simple Life ? Have you ever tried to get cow shit out of a Prada purse? It's not so fucking simple. The FCC'ss original case also involved episodes of NYPD Blue containing he words "bullshit," "dick" and "dickhead" and a live interview on CBS The Early Show in which the guest called someone a "bullshitter." The NYPD Blue and CBS incidents were dropped when the case made it to the Second Circuit. The court rejected the FCC's s argument. The FCC appealed to the Supreme Court and in April, in a 5-4 decision, the Court did not rule directly on the case, but ordered the Second Circuit to reconsider its original judgment. Most troubling, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion, arguing: Federal law prohibits the broadcasting of any . . . indecent . . . language, 1464, which includes expletives referring to sexual or excretory activity or organs, see FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U. S. 726 (1978). 18 U. S. C. This indecency ruling referred to the groundbreaking case in which the community radio network broadcast George Carlin's "seven dirty words" routine. Most bizarre, Scalia's opinion refers to the terms at issue in the Fox case as the "S-Word" and the "F-Word." Obviously missing from Scalia's s argument is any reference to President Bush's s well-publicized comment to Prime Minister Blair that the UN needed to "get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit." Nor is there mention of Vice President Cheney s much commented upon verbal slap at Senator Patrick Leahy, "fuck yourself." Within a few days of its Fox ruling, the Supreme Court followed-up by ordering the Third Circuit court to review its FCC ruling concerning Janet Jackson's famous "wardrobe malfunction" scene at the 2004 Super Bowl. While the Fox case involved fleeting expletives, the CBS case involved fleeting images. In this case, it was a 9/16th of a second display of Jackson's nipple. CBS argued that it had no control over the production of the show and that 85 percent of the complaints about the incident were copycat messages from conservative groups. The Supreme Court sent back to lower courts for review the issues of fleeting expletives and images. In the face of both the significant technological and culture changes that have occurred over the last 30 years, the Court holds tightly to the Pacifica decision. The world has changed, surely should the Court's assessment of pornography. * * * Over the last quarter-century, American popular media, but especially broadcast television, was transformed. The once-upon-a-time Big Three networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, became the Big Four, with the addition of Fox. More important, these broadcasters witnessed a sustained decline in their primetime viewers. In 1980, the Big Three captured more than 90 percent of these viewers; by 2005, their share shrank to less than one-third (32%). Making matters worse, the Big Networks audience aged. For the 2007-2008 television season, the median age of the CBS viewer was 54 years old, ABC's was 50, NBC's was 49 and Fox's was 44. The median age of U.S. households is 38 years. For 07- 08, the audience for CW and Univision was 34. The Big Networks are losing the coveted 19-49 age cohort. [Magna Group, 2009] The unstated irony at the heart of FCC regulation of broadcast television is that fewer and viewer viewers receive broadcast network programming. Once upon a time, broadcasting referred to the transmission of an analog signal over-the-air from a central transmission antenna to a home TV antenna and set. And once a network consisted of a group of local affiliate stations that localized and retransmit Big Network programming. Today, between 13 and 15 million households (about 14%) continue to receive a handful of broadcast channels through over-the-air television; these household were recently required to purchase a digital-converter box to continue to receive the signal. The vast majority of households receive hundred of channels, including broadcast networks, via cable and satellite services and more are turning to the Internet for video streaming programming. And local affiliates, like local newspapers, are an endangered species. Nevertheless, like the Hollywood studios, the Big Networks have the financial resources to offer the primetime blockbuster programs like the Billboard Awards and Super Bowl. And, similar to the studios, the FCC seeks to preserve its version of the G- rating for blockbuster shows. The question facing the FCC and the Supreme Court is whether to penalize fleeting expletives and images (especially spontaneous utterances) presented on a broadcast network that are, for most viewers, indistinguishable from cable channels. Television has shifted to a digital medium and is projected to increasingly become an Internet streaming service. Given this, the Supreme Court's rejection of the Bush-administration effort to enforce the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) suggests how the issue of TV porn might eventually be resolved. COPA set stiff criminal penalties for Internet distribution of material deemed harmful to minors. It grew out of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), originally part of Telecommunications Act of 1996, one of the most reactionary laws passed by Clinton. In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that CDA violated First Amendment provisions. With regard to COPA, ACLU staff attorney Chris Hansen argued: It is not the role of the government to decide what people can see and do on the Internet." Adding, "Those are personal decisions that should be made by individuals and their families." In January, the Court sided with the ACLU. [see Nails in the Coffin: Last Gasps of the Culture Wars?, CounterPunch, January 30-February 1, 2009] The FCC and the Supreme Court need to reconcile its current approach regarding broadcast television in light of the CDA and COPA rulings. If Americans want to implement a form of G- ratings for television content, then new legislation needs to be applied across all digital video media, including cable and the Internet. In the mean time, the Pacifica decision needs to be finally overturned and the words of George Carlin, Allen Ginsburg's Howl and so many others can finally be heard and seen by all Americans. From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Sat May 23 23:25:46 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Sat May 23 23:26:09 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] "Republicans" hit out at Cheney Message-ID: <20090524062547.3BD14FA27@fep05.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> Story at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5374256/Republicans-turn-on-Dick-Cheney-over-Barack-Obama-attack.html on such figures as Tom Ridge (originally head of the post-9/11 Gestapo) and John McCain tearing into Cheney for his attack on Barack Obama over "national security". McCain specifically slammed Cheney's support for torturing prisoners. Dion Giles From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Mon May 25 14:55:43 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Mon May 25 14:56:18 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fw: Conservative radio hosts gets waterboarded, and lasts six seconds before saying its torture Message-ID: <007901c9dd83$8d8ca9b0$4bad57ca@jfos> Conservative radio hosts gets waterboarded, and lasts six seconds before saying its torture http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/05/conservative-radio-hosts-waterboarded/ Chicago radio host Erich "Mancow" Muller decided he'd get himself waterboarded to prove the technique wasn't torture. It didn't turn out that way. "Mancow," in fact, lasted just six or seven seconds before crying foul. Apparently, the experience went pretty badly -- "Witnesses said Muller thrashed on the table, and even instantly threw the toy cow he was holding as his emergency tool to signify when he wanted the experiment to stop," according to NBC Chicago. "The average person can take this for 14 seconds," Marine Sergeant Clay South told his audience before he was waterboarded on air. "He's going to wiggle, he's going to scream, he's going to wish he never did this." Want more stories like this? Check out the front page of RawStory.com. Mancow was set on a 7-foot long table with his legs elevated and his feet tied. "I wanted to prove it wasn't torture," Mancow said. "They cut off our heads, we put water on their face...I got voted to do this but I really thought 'I'm going to laugh this off.' " The upshot? "It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that's no joke," Mancow told listeners. "It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back...It was instantaneous...and I don't want to say this: absolutely torture." "Absolutely. I mean that's drowning," he added later. "It is the feeling of drowning." "If I knew it was gonna be this bad, I would not have done it," he said. The 42-year-old radio host is no stranger to controversy. In 2005, he was maligned for saying that then-Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean was "vile," "bloodthirsty," "evil" and "should be kicked out of America." Watch him be waterboarded in the following video: (2 videos to watch) Related: Jesse Ventura says he'll waterboard Sean Hannity until he praises Obama. -John Byrne This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 1:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090526/f151f254/attachment.html From papadop at peak.org Mon May 25 20:41:45 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Mon May 25 20:43:09 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Pullitzer badmouths Greeks as anarchists Message-ID: http://www.pulitzercenter.org/openitem.cfm?id=1555 Anarchist attacks on the rise in Greece by Iason Athanasiadis The Washington Times *Iason Athanasiadis reports on Greece through a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting in Washington. Monday May 25, 2009 ATHENS -- Anarchy made a spectacular return to Greece this month as explosions struck banks and private businesses and a riot rocked downtown Athens. Widespread urban guerrilla violence, growing racism toward Greeces 1 million immigrant population and unprecedented disillusionment toward the political class characterize Greek society five months after it experienced its gravest rioting since World War II. Greece faces a proliferation of new anarchist and anti-establishment terrorist groups, which pose a growing threat to stability, Greek and foreign analysts say. "We have a new generation of terrorists showing its presence and teeth over the past couple of years, and now they have a new pool of possible recruits," said Thanos Dokos, director of Greek think tank ELIAMEP. "Growing numbers of people are saying that if the politicians cannot understand with other means, then targeted violence might shake them out of their stupor." Greeces center-right government has been battered by bribery, real estate and sex scandals, making it a tempting target for anarchists. A government reshuffle in February was widely criticized, and a second round of changes is expected after European parliamentary elections in June, in which the government is expected to do poorly. Scandals have forced four ministers to resign in the past two years. Widespread public disillusionment was compounded by anger in December when a policeman fatally shot a 15-year-old boy, triggering a week of cross-country rioting. Police credibility plunged when riot squads stepped back and allowed widespread vandalism and looting in an attempt to avoid clashes that might cause further casualties. When the smoke cleared, public and private businesses had suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public trust in the police was further damaged when it emerged in April that a policeman was a member of an organized gang of bank robbers that has carried out nearly 30 armed robberies since December. "Prison riots, social exclusion, human rights violations, police brutality, lack of accountability and corruption are just a few manifestations that the system in Greece has reached its limits," said Panos Kostakos, a researcher at the Department of European Studies at Bath University in Britain. "Weak states have always provided strong ground for malevolent actors and dark networks." Fresh attacks occurred a week ago Saturday as incendiary devices exploded outside a private security firm, a car dealership and a business selling military surplus gear. The previous weekend, violence erupted in central Athens as right-wingers attacked hundreds of immigrants huddling within an unused courthouse and subsequently clashed with leftist demonstrators who came to their aid. Athens police announced they are investigating all incidents. Further inflaming tensions, police used tear gas and stun grenades to break up a protest by Muslim immigrants on Friday after reports that a Greek policeman had defaced the Koran. The volatile mix of social tensions follows a series of scandals that has threatened to overwhelm the government. President Karolos Papoulias adjourned parliament earlier this month ahead of the European parliamentary elections in June. Apart from public appeals for calm, the current government has taken a low profile in addressing the surge in violence. Repeated attempts to contact officials to comment for this article were unsuccessful. Anarchist guerrilla activity has surged since the December riots. The attacks target government offices, TV stations, banks and police personnel with bombs and machine guns. At least half a dozen new groups targeting policemen and journalists have appeared since the December riots, with exotic names such as Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, Gang of Conscience and Revolutionary Struggle. "In parallel with the urban violence in Greece, there was a resurgence in fringe IRA groups and violent riots in Sweden, France, Germany and Hungary," said Ioannis Michaletos, a specialist on southeastern European security issues with the Athens-based RIEAS think tank. Mr. Michaletos thinks rioting in other European countries and Greece are connected. Greek and other anti-terrorism experts point to Greece as a transit point in international arms-smuggling routes between the Middle East and the Balkans, and they think that emerging terrorist groups may even possess light anti-tank weapons in their arsenal. "One of the problems in Greece is the abundance of weapons, many from the stocks of the former Albanian army," said Mr. Dokos of the ELIAMEP think-tank. "Greece is the soft underbelly of Europe, and there is the possibility that radical elements are coming through it and moving into other European countries." Aside from operational links with European anarchist groups, there is no evidence yet that foreign activists are being recruited by Greek militant factions. Their makeup is exclusively Greek and located at the intersection of left-wing political activism, soccer hooliganism and idle youth. "Judging from the profile of November 17, its a mixture: a handful who started off as student political activists with hard-left parties and had their time in the street getting into scraps as part of the toughening process," said Brady Kiesling, an analyst and former U.S. diplomat who resigned in 2003 to protest the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq. He was referring to a terrorist group that killed nearly two dozen people in three decades of attacks on U.S., British and other targets. November 17, or 17N, is thought to have broken up with the arrest of some of its leaders in 2002, but officials fear that some of its members may have migrated to other radical groups, such as the Revolutionary People's Struggle (ELA), which remains active. "The crucial decision was to go professional, and this is what separated ELA from 17N. The former believed that revolutionaries should be part-timers who went to their day jobs and burned American-owned banks at night, whereas 17N had made the decision by 1983 to fund their violence through robbing banks," Mr. Kiesling said. From papadop at peak.org Mon May 25 21:32:40 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Mon May 25 21:34:36 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] AGITPROP NEWS: Socialists & Social-lites Message-ID: Date: Sun, 24 May 2009 14:03:40 -0400 From: Mike Alewitz LaBOR aRT & MuRAL PRoJECT AGITPROP NEWS: Socialists & Social-lites In this issue: 1. Owed an Apology 2. Guide to Socialists/ Social-lites _______________________________ 1. Owed an Apology It's been over 100 days. I am now prepared to accept the apologies of those who worked to put Obama in the White House. Remember your effusive praise, how you touted him as being different than Bush? You accused people of being a sectarian, and out of touch with reality, if they refused to vote for him. You said he was leading a progressive movement - the beginning of a bright new era of politics. You owe an apology to me and everyone else that spoke the truth about Obama. We said he would continue the Bush policies. We told you so. More importantly, you need to express remorse to the millions of working people in this country and around the world that you helped convince to vote for him. Unlike you, they have nothing to apologize for. They made a mistake, but they did it for the right reasons - they hated what Bush stood for and wanted to express their solidarity as a class ? they voted to reject war and racism. They did not understand that the elections are a charade - but you did. So let me make it clear who I am addressing this to: the union officials, peace activists, staff people for progressive organizations and others who have argued and fought against independent political action -- all the longtime activists that have supported one lying, miserable Democratic politician after another as the lesser of two evils -- Obama, Kerry, Clinton, Carter, Johnson, ad nauseam. I've now been listening to your equivocations and apologies for over 40 years. You cannot see beyond your own little milieu of self-absorbed radicals. You have learned nothing. Let's review what your man Obama has accomplished in his first hundred days: revived the military tribunals; refused to address himself to the don't ask don't tell policy; decided to keep prisoners in Guant?anamo; maintained troops in Iraq; refused to release the pictures of torture; supported the Israeli devastation of Gaza; maintained the US embargo of Cuba; named Cheney's chief interrogator to head up the war in Afghanistan; refused to bring criminal action against widespread torture; expanded the war in Afghanistan to bomb civilians in Pakistan; given hundreds of billions of dollars to his Wall Street backers; given billions of dollars to the auto industry as a reward for massive layoffs; support for doctor's refusing a women's right to abortion. And as a special bonus: preventive detention. You groveled at the feet of the democrats, begging for the Employee Free Choice Act, (a wimpy substitute for organizing for working-class power) - he's not even going to give you that. He's not giving you a damn thing. Not even the jobs you coveted. I've probably forgotten some of the rotten things he's done, but this is just the first hundred days. Obama has years to promote the Bush program, which is and always has been, the program of the ruling class - regardless of who sits in the White House. Like we told you, time and again. Obama has proven himself the faithful servant of imperialism. He was selected to derail the antiwar movement and stifle social unrest emerging from the economic crisis. And you wagged your little poodle tails and helped him herd workers off the streets and into the voting booth. You helped mislead millions of anti-war people into supporting a militarist president. You covered up for him. You apologized for him. You fawned over him and gushed over his election victory. Obama is being loyal to the class he represents -- the employers. Obama didn't betray his class -- you betrayed yours. Now you should stand up and take responsibility for your actions. If you still support Obama, you are supporting the ruling class against your fellow workers. You cannot be a progressive for Obama. You can either be a progressive, or you can be for Obama. Please don't take this personally. Some of you are friends. These comments are not directed at the many well-meaning people who got suckered in. They will learn from the experience and move on. I'm talking about the pie-cards that have been hustling votes for the Democrats for years. I'm particularly talking about the most wretched, gutless, class collaborationist union bureaucracy that has ever existed. What a cesspool. At a time of growing economic crisis, when millions of workers would be willing to go into action and fight, you are hustling votes for the bosses and waging war with each other over dues money. I'm not just referring to the millionaire pork-choppers like Stern, Gettlefinger, Wilhelm, etc -- I'm including all the thousands of cogs in the bloated bureaucratic machinery that justify, apologize for, or remain silent about this dues money feeding frenzy. I don't care whether you're a hardened business unionist that's been sucking our blood for decades or a pretentious young nitwit that hires out to lead the poor workers - you should all be ashamed of yourselves. Your behavior is a dishonor to the proud history of the militant working class of this country -- to the women and men of the Knights of Labor, the IWW, the CIO, the anti-war GIs, the millions of undocumented workers that took to the streets in fearless action on Mayday just three years ago. Any union staff person with an ounce of self-respect should get up from their desk right now and in a loud voice proclaim that you will no longer be a part of this travesty. Tell them that you are no longer willing to participate in raiding operations and jurisdictional squabbles. Tell them you are unwilling to impose contracts that sell out the next generations of workers. Tell them that you are no longer going to crawl to the bosses offering concessions. Tell them you will not apologize for Obama and you will never, never, ever again support the candidates of the employers. Then announce that you are going out to look for a job so you can help organize your class. If you do that, we would all be proud of you. OK -- so why my sudden outburst? After all, none of this is new. I guess the quantitative just became the qualitative. There was the straw that broke the camel's back, the spark that led to this undisciplined outpouring and my years of self-control going down the tubes. This is what did it: Basking in the glow of the ruling class electoral victory, some of you have begun to strut around, coming out as socialists. What's more, having rediscovered socialism, you are redefining it. We are being re-imagined. Lucky us. This is much like the European discovery of America. In both cases, there were indigenous people that had little in common with the recent arrivals. Many of us have been socialists all along and I can say without qualification: you are not one of us. If you support Obama you are not any kind of revolutionary - you can hardly be considered a reformer. You are not socialists; you are what I will call social-lites. Posers. Pretenders. The rapidity with which your leader has revealed his real agenda has put you in an awkward position. Having helped deliver the working class vote to the bosses, you will now try to pose as the socialist opposition to Obama. You'll put on a Marxist patina to hide your rotten deeds. Being shrewd careerists, you'll start back peddling, distancing yourself from Obama's atrocities. (Until you're right back doing it again in the next elections.) But we know what you are: frightened functionaries living off our labor. You didn't believe us about Obama and you won't believe me about this, but I'll tell it plain: The workers that you have robbed and kept fettered in the face of the bosses offensive are going to rise up and roll right over you. When workers understand the depth of your duplicity, you are going to be booted so far that you will never be able to crawl back into your padded chairs. Lest these words seem harsh, there is always room to change - it's never to late. Big fights are coming. As the illusions in Obama disappear, there will be new upsurges in the anti-war movement, for immigrant rights and economic justice. We could use your help. Break with Obama, apologize, promise not to do it again, and we will embrace you as comrades. Otherwise, just get the fuck out of our way. - Mike Alewitz/ 5.23.9 _______________________________ 2. How to Tell Socialists from Social-lites: I have composed the following guide to help recognize the difference between socialists and social-lites. (Not all of these characteristics may apply at all times.) Social-lites get paid jobs with unions to organize workers; Socialists are workers that organize unions. Social-lites work in industry for a couple of years and then spend the rest of their life writing about it; Socialists work in industry their whole life and then spend a couple years writing about it. Social-lites have framed photos of themselves with Fidel Castro or Nelson Mandela; Socialists don't need such photos. Social-lites speak at movement banquets and leave to get some decent food; Socialists are glad to get some decent food at a banquet, despite having to listen to the boring social-lite. Social-lites have titles that include the word executive; Socialists have titles that include the word head. Social-lites organize meetings that try to keep out the wackos, so things don?t get out of control; Socialists are the wackos. Social-lites try to get arrested at demonstrations to display their militancy; Socialists try to stay out of jail so they won't get fired. Social-lites enjoy successful careers writing books or making art about workers; Socialists write leaflets and paint banners with workers. Social-lites speak at rallies that they didn't organize; Socialists organize rallies that they are not allowed to speak at. Social-lites are invited to Danny Glover's or Sean Penn's for receptions; Socialists go door-to-door selling papers. Social-lites spend time lobbying, urging diplomatic initiatives and promoting time schedules; Socialists stay in the streets and demand stuff now. Social-lites support progressive legislation and courts; Socialists tear up injunctions. Social-lites receive awards from groups because of their activism; Socialists get expelled from groups because of their activism. Social-lites want to get the country back on track; Socialists want to make a revolution. --------------------------------------------------------------- ?I am not blaming those who are resolved to rule, only those who show an even greater readiness to submit.? ~Thucydides Art Department/ Central CT State University 1615 Stanley Street/ New Britain, CT 06050 Office: 860.832.2359/ Mobile: 860.518.4046 http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1157866386&ref=profile http://picasaweb.google.com/Alewitz From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Mon May 25 23:47:51 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Tue May 26 00:02:25 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] What's new at Links: John Bellamy Foster book excerpt, Marta Harnecker, India, Tamils, Pakistan, biochar, LGBT in Cuba, US economy, Swaziland, Malaysia Message-ID: <4A1B9097.3010500@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: John Bellamy Foster book excerpt, Marta Harnecker, India, Tamils, Pakistan, biochar, LGBT in Cuba, US economy, Swaziland, Malaysia * * * Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to links@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links/. * * * Envisaging ecological revolution -- Excerpt from John Bellamy Foster's new book, `The Ecological Revolution' With the permission of John Bellamy Foster and Monthly Review Press, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal is publishing an exclusive excerpt from Foster's latest book, The Ecological Revolution: Making Peace with the Planet. Links readers are encouraged to purchase a copy of this important new book HERE . The roots of the present ecological crisis, John Bellamy Foster argues in The Ecological Revolution, lie in capital's rapacious expansion, which has now achieved unprecedented heights of irrationality across the globe. Foster compellingly demonstrates that the only possible answer for humanity is an ecological revolution: a struggle to make peace with the planet. * Read more the excerpt Marta Harnecker: Ideas for the struggle #1 -- Insurrections or revolutions? The role of the political instrument [This is the first in a series of regular articles. Please return to Links regularly read the next articles in the series.] By Marta Harnecker, translated by Federico Fuentes for Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal 1. The recent popular uprisings at the turn of the 21st century that have rocked numerous countries such as Argentina and Bolivia -- and, more generally, the history of the multiple social explosions that have occurred in Latin America and the rest of the world -- have undoubtedly demonstrated that the initiative of the masses, in and of itself, is not enough to defeat ruling regimes. * Read more India's 2009 general election: Lessons for the left By Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation May 24, 2009 -- The results of 2009 elections for the Lok Sabha elections (India's lower house of parliament) can be described as a string of surprises, not only for many well-entrenched parties and seasoned politicians but also for a host of commonsense notions about contemporary Indian political reality. Of late, it has become customary to look at elections in India through the prism of coalition politics, caste equations and regional diversities. Verdict 2009 has given a serious jolt to this facile view and reasserted the underlying structural dynamics of Indian politics. * Read more Tamil self-determination and the LTTE: Some lessons for the struggle By Reihana Mohideen May 21, 2009 -- "To save the lives of our people is the need of the hour. Mindful of this, we have already announced to the world our position to silence our guns to save our people", said Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the head of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) International Diplomatic Relations on May 17, thus flagging the military defeat of the LTTE. * Read more Pakistan: Appeal -- Help oppose the Taliban and government military operations May 21, 2009 -- This is a formal appeal by the Labor Relief Campaign to help in the fight against the Taliban and the Pakistan government's military operations. The purpose is to provide immediate help to some of the more than 1.5 million internally displaced people from the Malakand Division of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in Pakistan. This displacement has resulted from the fight between the Taliban and the Pakistani government. * Read more Blood for oil in Nigeria: Military launches massive attack on Niger Delta May 21, 2009 -- The Nigerian military has been accused of killing hundreds, maybe thousands, of civilians in the oil-rich Niger Delta. The military offensive began eight days ago (May 13, 2009) but has received little international attention. We go to Nigeria to speak with Denzil Amagbe Kentebe of the Ijaw National Congress. We're also joined by Sandy Cioffi, director of the new documentary Sweet Crude about the Niger Delta. The village of Oporoza, where much of the film was shot, has just been burned down. * Read more CPI (ML) Liberation: A crime against humanity, not a `famous victory', in Sri Lanka By the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation * Read more Biochar: An answer to global warming or a menace? By Renfrey Clarke May 21, 2009 -- Sometimes you have to hand it to capitalism. It's sheer magic the way the system takes promising concepts, steeps them in the transformative power of the market - and turns them into howling social and environmental disasters. * Read more International Day against Homophobia celebrated in Cuba -- three reports from Havana Havana, 16 May, 2009 -- Prensa Latina -- International Day against Homophobia was observed here today, with the participation of a diverse, largely youthful public. Mariela Castro Esp?n, the director of the National Center of Sex Education (CENESEX), presided over the inauguration of the day's events with a parade and the opening of the panel on "Sexual diversity in the Cuban family." * Read more Neoliberal economic policies in the United States: The impact of globalisation on a `Northern' country By Kim Scipes Most contemporary discussions of globalization, and especially of the impact of neoliberal economic policies, focus on the countries of the Global South (see, for example, Bond, 2005; Ellner and Hellinger, eds., 2003; a number of articles in Harris, ed., 2006; Klein, 2007; Monthly Review, 2007; and, among others, see Scipes, 1999, 2006b). Recent articles arguing that the globalization project has receded and might be taking different approaches (Bello, 2006; Thornton, 2007) have also focused on the Global South. What has been somewhat discussed (see Giroux, 2004; Piven, 2004; Aronowitz, 2005) but not systematically addressed, however, is what has been the impact of globalization and especially related neoliberal economic policies on working people in a northern country? * Read more Swaziland: Jailed liberation fighter Mario Masuku: `A brief autobiography' Mario Masuku is the president of the People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) -- Insika Yenkhululeko YeMaswati -- of Swaziland. Since 1983 this organisation has been banned in Swaziland because political parties are illegal. PUDEMO has called for multi-party democracy since its formation and believes the people shall govern. In November 2008, Mario Masuku was again arrested and put in prison by the repressive regime of King Mswati III, where he remains. The Swaziland government has no case and continues to delay his trial. Most recently, Masuku has been subjected to humilating and degrading treatment in prison. Meanwhile, on May 9, Mswati was feted in Pretoria at the inauguration of South African President Jacob Zuma of the African National Congress. * Read more Malaysian socialist MP on `free market fallacies' By Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj May 18, 2009 -- The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) organised a fundraising dinner at the Petaling Jaya Civic Centre on May 9, 2009, which was attended by some 600 members, friends and supporters. I was invited to give a short speech, and this is what I said * Read more * * * Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090526/ebc7aef9/attachment.html From papadop at peak.org Tue May 26 09:00:22 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Tue May 26 09:02:13 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] FCC Claims Right to Warrantless Searches Message-ID: http://www.allgov.com/ViewNews/FCC_Claims_Right_to_Warrantless_Searches_90525 Monday, May 25, 2009 With the advancement of wireless technology all across America has come an expanded authority by federal regulators to enter homes without a warrant, so says the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Based on the original law that created it (the Communications Act of 1934), the FCC claims today the power to search any home or business using any licensed or unlicensed radio frequency equipment, and that includes things like wireless modems and garage door openers. This surprising claim of authority came to light when FCC agents hunted down a 100-watt pirate radio station operating out of a home in Boulder, CO, and left behind a notice informing the operators: "Whether you operate an amateur station or any other radio device, your authorization from the Commission comes with the obligation to allow inspection." Fortunately for those behind the Boulder pirate radio, they weren't home at the time. The same was not true for a man in Corpus Christi, TX, who in 2007 was visited by the FCC for rebroadcasting an AM radio station through a CB radio in his home. Donald Winton refused the FCC agent to enter his home, and was fined $7,000 for denying entry (which later was knocked down to $225 after he proved economic hardship). Civil liberties advocates vehemently object to the FCC's interpretation of their warrantless search powers. "It is a major stretch beyond case law to assert that authority with respect to a private home, which is at the heart of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure," Lee Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation told Wired. "When it is a private home and when you are talking about an over-powered Wi-Fi antenna the idea they could just go in is honestly quite bizarre." -Noel Brinkerhoff From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Tue May 26 18:52:53 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Tue May 26 18:53:42 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Nightmare on Cheney Street, on Kim Jong Il Street, on Recession Street, Final Nightmares [IPS fpif.org ] Message-ID: <4A1C72C5.13707.272AF732@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> From: Institute for Policy Studies Published by Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF), a project of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) fpif.org: a think tank without walls World Beat by JOHN FEFFER | Tuesday, May 26, 2009 Vol. 4, No. 21 Nightmare on Cheney Street Horror movies usually follow the same script. The monster - whether genetically modified, abused as a child, or flown in from Alpha Centauri - picks off the frightened teenagers one by one. After many thrills and chills, the hero drives a stake through the heart of the beast. Finally, just as we're finishing off the last of our popcorn in relief, the not-quite-dead monster makes one last attempt to dispatch the hero. It fails, but not before we've dumped popcorn all over our laps. If Wes Craven decided to make a horror movie out of the last year of U.S. politics, he would definitely cast Dick Cheney as the monster that can't be silenced. The former vice president is Leatherface, Jason, and Freddie Krueger all rolled into one: lawless, methodical, and unpredictable with firearms. He's had more sequels than Chucky: White House chief of staff, House minority whip, secretary of Defense, CEO of Halliburton, vice president, and now rogue pundit. In the last presidential elections, the voters repudiated the Cheney legacy. But like Glenn Close in her final scene in Fatal Attraction, Cheney's not yet down for the count. As the various TV appearances and his speech last week at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI) suggest, he's still got some fight in him. Frankly, Barton Gellman's book Angler should have KO'd the man politically. Here's a guy who not only stage-managed the vice- presidential search for George W. Bush and then took the position himself, but also extracted confidential information during the search process that he subsequently used against his potential adversaries. Here's a guy who assembled the crack legal team (or was it a legal team on crack?) that provided the constitutional argument for expanding executive power, upending domestic and international law, and justifying torture. Here's a guy who created a real secret team inside the Bush administration that bypassed the State Department, Congress, and all normal procedures. And yet, like Nixon emerging from the grave of Watergate, Cheney has sought to rebuild his reputation as the national security conscience of his party. "On the question of so-called torture, we don't do torture," he argued in a December interview on ABC. "We never have." He defended the intelligence data that the administration cooked in order to persuade the country to go to war against Iraq. He declared the "global war on terror" still on and Guant?namo still indispensable. But last week, he went further. At AEI, he attacked The New York Times for uncovering his secret surveillance program that collected untold amount of information about U.S. citizens and should have outraged every privacy-minded conservative in the country. He argued that "enhanced interrogation techniques" provided critical information that prevented the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. He warned the Obama administration of closing Guant?namo and bringing terrorists "inside the United States" as though President Barack Obama were about to release them on the streets of New York. It was a speech, to quote Cheney himself, that reeked of "recklessness cloaked in righteousness." The AEI speech, like Cheney's performance as vice president, was rife with misstatements and calculated distortions. As journalists Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel point out, the CIA inspector general, FBI director, and director of national intelligence all concur that there is no proof that the information gained through torture thwarted any attacks. The Abu Ghraib abuses were not, as Cheney claimed, the result of a few sadistic guards but the result of orders from top administration officials. Most of those detained in Guant?namo haven't been "ruthless enemies of this country" but innocent people or low-level combatants without any valuable intelligence. If you don't believe journalists - because you think, as Cheney implies, they don't have the best interests of the country at heart - consider the perspective of the chief U.S. interrogator in Iraq, Matthew Alexander. "Torture and abuse became Al Qaida's number one recruiting tool and cost us American lives," Alexander writes. "Our greatest success in this conflict was achieved without torture or abuse. My interrogation team found Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the former leader of Al Qaida in Iraq and murderer of tens of thousands. We did this using relationship-building approaches and non-coercive law enforcement techniques." Of course, Dick Cheney has never been particularly interested in the truth. He wants to achieve his goals. And it appears that he's having some effect. By rallying the conservative forces and putting pressure on invertebrate Democrats, Cheney has influenced national policy. The Senate refused to appropriate money for the closure of Guant?namo and the transfer of the prisoners held there. Obama has refused to support a truth commission. More ominously, the Obama administration is now working out its own policy of "preventive detention" - indefinitely holding people that can't be charged and tried in U.S. courts - that violates fundamental American legal principles. In his speech at the National Archives last week, Obama defended his important departures from Bush-era policy (end of torture, closure of Guant?namo) but also showed the influence of Cheney in his emphasis on war, "taking the fight to the extremists," and military commissions. Liberal commentators have generally been enthusiastic about Obama's caution. Just check out The Washington Post's liberal stable: David Broder praised Obama and Cheney for both opposing a truth commission; "Obama has mostly called it right," observes Ruth Marcus; and E.J. Dionne, Jr. is delighted at the resurrection of Cold War liberalism. Cheney makes Obama look good. But he also pulls the president further to the right. Cheney isn't just fighting for his principles. He's fighting for his career and those of the team that bent the Constitution to their will. No one expects that the villains in horror movies will observe Marquess of Queensberry rules. The same applies to the former vice president. Expect more down-and-dirty fighting from Dick Cheney. This is one nightmare from which we haven't quite woken up. Nightmare on Kim Jong Il Street North Korea can't let a U.S. holiday go by without offering its own form of celebration. In 2006, Pyongyang launched a rocket on July 4. This year, on Memorial Day, it decided to test a second nuclear weapon. Or, at least, that's what the seismic data suggests. The first test three years ago was widely held to be a dud. This one might not have been much better. Dud or not, the United States has to come up with a response. Foreign Policy In Focus contributors Brent Choi and Joowoon Jung argue in A More Expensive Bill for North Korea that the Obama administration should wield a bigger stick and dangle a larger carrot. It should offer to send a high-level envoy to Pyongyang. And it should threaten to redeploy nuclear weapons in South Korea. In North Korea and Malign Neglect, I argue that ignoring North Korea hasn't worked in the past. The Obama administration should instead embark on an authentic policy of engagement as the only way to disempower North Korean hardliners and promote a more sensible agenda in Pyongyang. Nukes or nice? Follow our debate in Strategic Dialogue: North Korea. Nightmare on Recession Street The horror movie that most people are facing these days is joblessness, foreclosure, and poverty. Will China save the global economy by using its own economic growth to pull the world out of recession? FPIF columnist Walden Bello is skeptical. In Will China Save the World from Depression?, he points out that Beijing is sponsoring a stimulus package that, proportional to its economy, is larger than Washington's. Much of that money is going to the countryside. "A significant portion of Beijing's stimulus package is destined for infrastructure and social spending in the rural areas," Bello writes. "The government is allocating 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) in subsidies to help rural residents buy televisions, refrigerators, and other electrical appliances." But this isn't enough. "Even if Beijing throws in another hundred billion dollars, the stimulus package is not likely to counteract in any significant way the depressive impact of a 25-year policy of sacrificing the countryside for export-oriented urban-based industrial growth," Bello concludes. Climate change isn't helping matters. The poorest countries in the world will face the near-term consequences of global warming. The UN has created a fund to help these countries make the necessary changes now to deal with this problem. The fund only has about 10% of the funds needed to pay for the first round of changes. "The United States, as the world's richest country and its biggest emitter of greenhouse gasses, didn't pledge a single cent to this fund over the last eight years under President George W. Bush," writes FPIF contributor Saleemul Huq in Bridging the Climate Gap. "This has left a significant credibility deficit for the United States that Obama and Congress need to address if they wish the United States to claim a leadership role at the global level on climate change." Where could the money come from? What about the Pentagon? The problem is, the Obama administration is proposing to increase military spending. "Wasting taxpayer money on dangerous, unnecessary, expensive military projects is more of an imposition on our grandchildren than spending money on health care or green energy - especially when the weapons programs don't work properly. The Government Accountability Office has documented massive Pentagon waste. Why is Congress unconcerned?" asks FPIF contributor Steve Cobble in Conservative Hypocrisy on Military Spending. Speaking of waste, how about that World Bank? FPIF contributor Bea Edwards reports on the lack of safeguards against corruption at the Bank and what we can do about it in World Bank Corruption. Final Nightmares Israeli President Binyamin Netanyahu recently dropped in for a White House visit. The Obama administration has demanded that Israel stop building settlements, but Netanyahu is pressing forward on building homes in existing settlements. The real nightmare scenario in U.S.-Israeli relations is Iran, though. "Netanyahu campaigned on and has continued to escalate his rhetoric threatening military force against Iran, sometimes framing it in the context of 'what Israel will have to do if the United States does not prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,'" writes FPIF contributor Phyllis Bennis in Netanyahu Visits the White House. "Netanyahu demands that the United States agree either to attack Iran if Obama's potential nuclear diplomacy doesn't work, or agree to support an Israeli attack on Iran" Iran, meanwhile, is gearing up for an election next month. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is going for a second term, a nightmare possibility in itself. But he faces stiff competition from a couple of moderates. "A reformist comeback would certainly substitute confrontational tactics and volatile rhetoric with moderation and reason," writes FPIF contributor Bernd Kaussler in Iran's Next Leadership? "Although the nuclear position will not shift, the United States will likely be able to engage constructively with a reformist government in Iran. But such a government will also have to deal with a hostile conservative parliament, and may have trouble delivering on the key issues needed internally in order to secure and maintain dialogue with the United States." FPIF contributor Andre Vltchek recently visited a nightmare: the Kibati refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He sends us a Postcard from.Goma that details the horrifying conditions. And finally, FPIF contributor Tiffany Williams reviews a new book on yet another nightmarish condition: slavery in the United States. "Although the United States abolished slavery officially in 1865, it has never ended in practice," she writes. "In 2009, slaves work in the homes of diplomats in Maryland and in the tomato fields of Southwest Florida. 'There has never been a single day in our America, from its discovery and birth right up to the moment you are reading this sentence, without slavery,' write renowned human trafficking expert Kevin Bales and respected historian Ron Soodalter in their new book The Slave Next Door." Links Barton Gellman, Angler (Penguin, 2008); http://www.bartongellman.com/ ABC News, "Cheney Defends Hard Line Tactics," December 16, 2008; http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=6464697&page=1 Fox News, "Text of Dick Cheney's National Security Speech at AEI," May 21, 2009; http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/21/raw- data-text-dick-cheneys-national-security-speech-aei/ Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel, "Cheney's Speech Ignored Some Inconvenient Truths," McClatchy, May 21, 2009; http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/68643.html Matthew Alexander, "Former Senior Investigator in Iraq Dissects Cheney's Lies and Distortions," The Huffington Post, May 24, 2009; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-alexander/whats-not-said- is-more-im_b_207151.html The Washington Post, "Obama on National Security and American Values," May 21, 2009; http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/05/21/obama_on_national_secur ity_and.html?sid=ST2009052101969 David Broder, "A Worthy Debate," The Washington Post, May 24, 2009; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2009/05/22/AR2009052201634.html Ruth Marcus, "Obama's 'None of the Above' Terror Policy," The Washington Post, May 24, 2009; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2009/05/22/AR2009052201894.html E. J. Dionne, Jr., "Obama's Center-Left Two-Step," The Washington Post, May 25, 2009; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2009/05/24/AR2009052401980.html The Marquess of Queensberry Rules; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquess_of_Queensberry_rules Thom Shanker and William Broad, "Seismic Readings Appear to Point to a Small Nuclear Test," The New York Times, May 26, 2009; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/world/asia/26threat.html?_r=1&emc=tn t&tntemail1=y Brent Choi and Joowoon Jung, "A More Expensive Bill for North Korea," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6136); Washington should consider a bigger stick and a bigger carrot. John Feffer, "North Korea and Malign Neglect," Foreign Policy In Focus and Asia Chronicle (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6137); The Obama administration needs to abandon its default position and seriously engage North Korea. Brent Choi, Joowoon Jung, and John Feffer, "Strategic Dialogue: North Korea," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6138); What's the proper response to North Korea's actions? Walden Bello, "Can China Save the World from Depression?" Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6127); China's stimulus package is not likely to bail out either the Chinese peasants or the global economy. Saleemul Huq, "Bridging the Climate Gap," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6124); The United States must help poor countries deal with the impact of climate change. Steve Cobble, "Conservative Hypocrisy on Military Spending," Asheville Citizen-Times (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6133); It's time to apply "pay as you go" spending to the military budget. Bea Edwards, "World Bank Corruption," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6134); The Bank's management tried to stifle an internal report that found that its funds are vulnerable to theft and diversion. Phyllis Bennis, "Netanyahu Visits the White House," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6125); Meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Obama has the chance to make good on real change in U.S. policy in the Middle East. Bernd Kaussler, "Iran's Next Leadership?" Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6131); In their upcoming presidential elections, Iranians will make a choice that will have profound implications on their country's relationship with the United States and the world. Andre Vltchek, "Postcard from.Goma," Foreign Policy in Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6128); The international community has promised assistance to refugees in Congo. But not much has reached them. Tiffany Williams, "Review: The Slave Next Door," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6123); Slavery may have ended officially in the United States in 1865, but it has continued in practice to this very day. Published by Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF), a project of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) fpif.org: a think tank without walls From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Tue May 26 20:21:04 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Tue May 26 20:21:31 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Nightmare on Cheney Street, on Kim Jong Il Street, on Recession Street, Final Nightmares [IPS fpif.org ] In-Reply-To: <4A1C72C5.13707.272AF732@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> References: <4A1C72C5.13707.272AF732@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Message-ID: <20090527032105.BEA52F56A@fep06.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090527/b5b03ae8/attachment.html From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Wed May 27 04:32:09 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Wed May 27 04:33:34 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Sirs controlling MoveOn Message-ID: <20090527113210.A3FE2F663@fep05.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090527/11918ab0/attachment.html From thinker at thelakebc.ca Wed May 27 10:22:04 2009 From: thinker at thelakebc.ca (Ed Deak) Date: Wed May 27 10:20:04 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Cheating gas pumps Message-ID: <200905271719.n4RHJUm6008819@karma.reboot.ca> Sent to me by a friend , worth looking into Cheers, Ed. ================================================== Cheating at the gas pumps (PRINT OUT YOUR RECEIPTS!!!) This email was sent to me by a friend whose cousin is the Ridgetown, Ont. fire captain. This is true. It happened to them three weeks ago somewhere in Ridgetown on our way to Kingston. The pump should have totaled @ $38.00 (and change). When the receipt was printed, and she checked it was $ 47.00 (and change). She got mad, went inside the store, asked for a calculator and let them do the math. They refunded her. She told them that if they cheat, they had better make it right. Normally, her husband would skip printing the receipt.. Not her We saw on the news the other night that this is happening everywhere. Brian pumped exactly one liter of gas. The price did not match the cost of one liter. It was higher. He went inside and complained, got a refund. There is also a number on each pump that you can call and complain.. This is a true story, so read it carefully. On March 24, 2009, I stopped at a gas station in Chatham. My truck's gas gauge was on 1/4 of a tank. I use the regular grade, which was priced at $0.885 per liter. When my tank is at this point, it takes somewhere around 45 liters to fill it up. When the pump showed 45 liters had been pumped, I began to slow it down. Then, to my surprise, it went to 50, then 55. I even looked under my truck to see if it was being spilled. It was not. Then it showed 60 liters on the pump. It stopped at 62 liters. This was very strange to me, since my truck has only a 65 liter tank. I went on my way a little confused, then on the evening news I heard a report that 1 out of 10 gas stations had calibrated their pumps to show more gas had been pumped than a person actually got. Here is how to check a pump to see if you are getting the right amount: Whichever grade you are using, put EXACTLY 10 LITERS in your tank, then look at the dollar amount. If the dollar amount is not EXACTLY 10 times the price of the fuel you have chosen, then the pumps are rigged. In my case, as I said, the mid-grade was $0.885 per liter; my dollar amount for 10 liters should have been $8.85 . I wish I had checked the pump. It doesn't matter where you pump gas, please check the 10 liter price. If you do find a station that is cheating, contact the MTO, and direct your comments to the Commissioner, the info is on the gas pumps. Please don't delete this until you have sent it to all people in your address book. We need to put a stop to this outrageous cheating of customers. The gas companies are making enough profits at honest rates. From siamdave at yahoo.ca Wed May 27 10:30:55 2009 From: siamdave at yahoo.ca (Dave Patterson) Date: Wed May 27 10:32:09 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Cheating gas pumps In-Reply-To: <200905271719.n4RHJUm6008819@karma.reboot.ca> References: <200905271719.n4RHJUm6008819@karma.reboot.ca> Message-ID: <200905280030550875.03AEA93A@smtp.totisp.net> ... maybe or maybe not - but one thing I have learned over the years is that about 99.999999% of stories that keep repeating "this is true, really!!' - are not. *********** REPLY SEPARATOR *********** On 09-05-27 at 10:22 AM Ed Deak wrote: Sent to me by a friend , worth looking into Cheers, Ed. ================================================== Cheating at the gas pumps (PRINT OUT YOUR RECEIPTS!!!) This email was sent to me by a friend whose cousin is the Ridgetown, Ont. fire captain. This is true. It happened to them three weeks ago somewhere in Ridgetown on our way to Kingston. The pump should have totaled @ $38.00 (and change). When the receipt was printed, and she checked it was $ 47.00 (and change). She got mad, went inside the store, asked for a calculator and let them do the math. They refunded her. She told them that if they cheat, they had better make it right. Normally, her husband would skip printing the receipt.. Not her We saw on the news the other night that this is happening everywhere. Brian pumped exactly one liter of gas. The price did not match the cost of one liter. It was higher. He went inside and complained, got a refund. There is also a number on each pump that you can call and complain.. This is a true story, so read it carefully. On March 24, 2009, I stopped at a gas station in Chatham. My truck's gas gauge was on 1/4 of a tank. I use the regular grade, which was priced at $0.885 per liter. When my tank is at this point, it takes somewhere around 45 liters to fill it up. When the pump showed 45 liters had been pumped, I began to slow it down. Then, to my surprise, it went to 50, then 55. I even looked under my truck to see if it was being spilled. It was not. Then it showed 60 liters on the pump. It stopped at 62 liters. This was very strange to me, since my truck has only a 65 liter tank. I went on my way a little confused, then on the evening news I heard a report that 1 out of 10 gas stations had calibrated their pumps to show more gas had been pumped than a person actually got. Here is how to check a pump to see if you are getting the right amount: Whichever grade you are using, put EXACTLY 10 LITERS in your tank, then look at the dollar amount. If the dollar amount is not EXACTLY 10 times the price of the fuel you have chosen, then the pumps are rigged. In my case, as I said, the mid-grade was $0.885 per liter; my dollar amount for 10 liters should have been $8.85 . I wish I had checked the pump. It doesn't matter where you pump gas, please check the 10 liter price. If you do find a station that is cheating, contact the MTO, and direct your comments to the Commissioner, the info is on the gas pumps. Please don't delete this until you have sent it to all people in your address book. We need to put a stop to this outrageous cheating of customers. The gas companies are making enough profits at honest rates. _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.339 / Virus Database: 270.12.42/2137 - Release Date: 05/27/09 07:50:00 From thinker at thelakebc.ca Wed May 27 11:21:46 2009 From: thinker at thelakebc.ca (Ed Deak) Date: Wed May 27 11:19:38 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Cheating gas pumps In-Reply-To: <200905280030550875.03AEA93A@smtp.totisp.net> References: <200905271719.n4RHJUm6008819@karma.reboot.ca> <200905280030550875.03AEA93A@smtp.totisp.net> Message-ID: <200905271819.n4RIJA5I013189@karma.reboot.ca> Dave, The story may, or may not be true, but worth considering. We would have been cheated by supermarket cash registers of hundreds of dollars over the years, but my wife's catching them most of the time. Even so, we miss some times. They advertise and mark items at certain prices, but the registers are programmed for much higher. The vast majority of people have no idea of prices, just take items off the shelves without looking, so they don't notice. The same may apply to gas pumps. We've also been cheated with the prices for our cows. On one occasion an older cow that must have been 1,500 lbs, was weighed in and sold at 800 lbs. Our neighbour rancher, who sold a number of animals at the same time, just about went bellyup, but there was nothing we could do about it, as we received the cheques a week after the animals were gone. Cheers, Ed. At 10:30 AM 27/05/2009, you wrote: >... maybe or maybe not - but one thing I have learned over the years >is that about 99.999999% of stories that keep repeating "this is >true, really!!' - are not. > >*********** REPLY SEPARATOR *********** > >On 09-05-27 at 10:22 AM Ed Deak wrote: > >Sent to me by a friend , worth looking into Cheers, Ed. >================================================== > > >Cheating at the gas pumps (PRINT OUT YOUR RECEIPTS!!!) >This email was sent to me by a friend whose cousin is the Ridgetown, >Ont. fire >captain. >This is true. It happened to them three weeks ago somewhere in Ridgetown on >our way to Kingston. The pump should have totaled @ $38.00 (and change). >When >the receipt was printed, and she checked it was $ 47.00 (and change). >She got mad, went inside the store, asked for a calculator and let them >do the math. They refunded her. She told them that if they cheat, they had >better make it right. Normally, her husband would skip printing the >receipt.. Not her >We saw on the news the other night that this is happening everywhere. >Brian pumped exactly one liter of gas. The price did not match the cost of >one liter. It was higher. He went inside and complained, got a refund. >There is also a number on each pump that you can call and complain.. >This is a true story, so read it carefully. >On March 24, 2009, I stopped at a gas station in Chatham. My truck's gas >gauge was on 1/4 of a tank. I use the regular grade, which was priced >at $0.885 per liter. When my tank is at this point, it takes somewhere >around 45 liters to fill it up. >When the pump showed 45 liters had been pumped, I began to slow it down. >Then, to my surprise, it went to 50, then 55. I even looked under my truck >to see if it was being spilled. It was not. Then it showed 60 liters on the >pump. It stopped at 62 liters. This was >very strange to me, since my truck has only a 65 liter tank. I went >on my way a little confused, then on the evening news I heard a >report that 1 out of 10 gas stations had calibrated their pumps to >show more gas had been >pumped than a person actually got. >Here is how to check a pump to see if you are getting the right amount: >Whichever grade you are using, put EXACTLY 10 LITERS in your tank, then >look at the dollar amount. If the dollar amount is not EXACTLY 10 times the >price of the fuel you have chosen, then the pumps are rigged. >In my case, as I said, the mid-grade was $0.885 per liter; my dollar >amount for 10 liters should have been $8.85 . I wish I had checked >the pump. It doesn't matter where you pump gas, please check the 10 liter >price. If you do find a station that is cheating, contact the MTO, >and direct your comments to the Commissioner, the >info is on the gas pumps. >Please don't delete this until you have sent it to all people in your >address book. We need to put a stop to this outrageous cheating of >customers. The gas companies are making enough profits at honest rates. > > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG - www.avg.com >Version: 8.5.339 / Virus Database: 270.12.42/2137 - Release Date: >05/27/09 07:50:00 > > > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG - www.avg.com >Version: 8.5.339 / Virus Database: 270.12.41/2136 - Release Date: >05/26/09 20:20:00 From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Wed May 27 16:35:44 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Wed May 27 16:36:30 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: KBR Bonuses for Work that Killed Soldiers Message-ID: <006801c9df23$dca351b0$07ad57ca@jfos> a.. The Nation b.. War & Peace c.. Iraq War -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KBR Got Bonuses for Work that Killed Soldiers By Jeremy Scahill May 20, 2009 The Department of Defense paid former Halliburton subsidiary KBR more than $80 million in bonuses for contracts to install electrical wiring in Iraq. The award payments were for the very work that resulted in the electrocution deaths of US soldiers, according to Department of Defense documents revealed today in a Senate hearing. More than $30 million in bonuses were paid months after the death of Sgt. Ryan Maseth, a highly decorated, 24-year-old Green Beret, who was electrocuted while taking a shower at a US base in January 2008. His death, the result of improper grounding for a water pump, has been classified by the US Army Criminal Investigations Division (CID) as a "negligent homicide." Maseth's death had originally been labeled an accident. Bonuses were paid to KBR in 2007 and 2008, after CID investigators had officially expressed concerns about the quality of KBR's electrical work. For its part, KBR denies any culpability for the electrocution deaths. This information was revealed at a hearing of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. According to the committee's chair, Sen. Byron Dorgan, the rewards KBR received under its LOGCAP contracts were supposed to be for work of the "highest quality" with "no deficiencies" or problems. Dorgan said KBR's work was "shoddy" and "unprofessional." Some eighteen US soldiers have died since 2003 as a result of KBR's "shoddy work," according to Sen. Frank Lautenberg. KBR/Halliburton, of which Dick Cheney was chairman and CEO from 1995 to 2000, has been the single largest corporate beneficiary of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It continues to operate globally on US government contracts. Charles Smith, the former Army official who managed the contracts under which KBR performed electrical work in Iraq, testified that it was "highly inappropriate" that KBR received these bonuses for what he called "dangerously substandard" work. He said that the Army was well aware of KBR's "poor performance" since the beginning of the Iraq invasion, and yet continued to reward KBR because the military was "afraid" KBR would cease work. He said there was "a culture that decided KBR was too big to fail and too important to be held to account." The "perverse incentive is that there was no incentive" for KBR to do quality work because they received bonuses for poor work. Senator Dorgan said there are "tens of thousands of examples" of unnecessary risks to US soldiers, including deaths that have arisen as a result of KBR's work. "Why should [KBR] be getting more contracts now that we know all this information?" asked Sen. Bob Casey. "The Defense Department has not answered these questions." James Childs, a master electrician hired by the Army to review electrical work in Iraq during 2008, testified that KBR's work in Iraq was the "most hazardous, worst quality work" he'd ever seen. He said his investigation found improper wiring in "every" building KBR wired in Iraq (of which there are thousands) and that KBR's rewiring work in buildings that were previously safely wired resulted in the electrical system becoming unsafe. Childs said that KBR did not do any work "according to code." He also testified that the same risks exist in Afghanistan, which he recently visited. "While doing inspections in Afghanistan, I found the exact same code violations," Childs said. Eric Peters, a master electrician who worked for KBR in Iraq as recently as 2009, said that 50 percent of the KBR-managed buildings he saw were not properly wired. "I worried every day people would be injured or killed as a result of this work," Peters testified. He estimated that at least half the electricians hired by KBR--many of them cheaper-costing Third Country Nationals (TCNs)--to service the US military in Iraq would not have been hired to work in the United States, saying they were not trained in US or UK electrical standards. TCNs--from places like India, Bangladesh and Bosnia--are estimated to have done some 60 percent of the electrical work for KBR in Iraq. Peters charged that KBR allowed trainees to take notes in to certification tests, making it very easy to be cleared for work. Peters also charged that KBR "frowned upon" any refusal to sign off on work that Peters deemed incomplete or unsafe. Peters and others who testified said that "all over theater," meaning everywhere in Iraq, KBR would effectively double-bill US taxpayers by leaving electrical work half-done or incorrectly done and then billing taxpayers again to repair its own shoddy work. Peters characterized KBR managers as "completely unqualified" and said he is not a "disgruntled former employee" but rather a "disgusted former employee." ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From thinker at thelakebc.ca Wed May 27 17:08:20 2009 From: thinker at thelakebc.ca (Ed Deak) Date: Wed May 27 17:06:12 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: KBR Bonuses for Work that Killed Soldiers In-Reply-To: <006801c9df23$dca351b0$07ad57ca@jfos> References: <006801c9df23$dca351b0$07ad57ca@jfos> Message-ID: <200905280005.n4S05hYt005097@karma.reboot.ca> "Costs can not be cut, only transferred on other sectors, the environment and the future" This story is a typical example of "financial efficiency" , "cost cuttings" and the inevitable consequences. Cheers, Ed At 04:35 PM 27/05/2009, you wrote: > a.. The Nation > b.. War & Peace > c.. Iraq War > >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >KBR Got Bonuses for Work that Killed Soldiers >By Jeremy Scahill > >May 20, 2009 >The Department of Defense paid former Halliburton subsidiary KBR >more than $80 million in bonuses for contracts to install electrical >wiring in Iraq. The award payments were for the very work that >resulted in the electrocution deaths of US soldiers, according to >Department of Defense documents revealed today in a Senate hearing. >More than $30 million in bonuses were paid months after the death of >Sgt. Ryan Maseth, a highly decorated, 24-year-old Green Beret, who >was electrocuted while taking a shower at a US base in January 2008. >His death, the result of improper grounding for a water pump, has >been classified by the US Army Criminal Investigations Division >(CID) as a "negligent homicide." Maseth's death had originally been >labeled an accident. Bonuses were paid to KBR in 2007 and 2008, >after CID investigators had officially expressed concerns about the >quality of KBR's electrical work. For its part, KBR denies any >culpability for the electrocution deaths. > > >This information was revealed at a hearing of the Senate Democratic >Policy Committee. According to the committee's chair, Sen. Byron >Dorgan, the rewards KBR received under its LOGCAP contracts were >supposed to be for work of the "highest quality" with "no >deficiencies" or problems. Dorgan said KBR's work was "shoddy" and >"unprofessional." Some eighteen US soldiers have died since 2003 as >a result of KBR's "shoddy work," according to Sen. Frank Lautenberg. >KBR/Halliburton, of which Dick Cheney was chairman and CEO from 1995 >to 2000, has been the single largest corporate beneficiary of the US >wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It continues to operate globally on US >government contracts. > >Charles Smith, the former Army official who managed the contracts >under which KBR performed electrical work in Iraq, testified that it >was "highly inappropriate" that KBR received these bonuses for what >he called "dangerously substandard" work. He said that the Army was >well aware of KBR's "poor performance" since the beginning of the >Iraq invasion, and yet continued to reward KBR because the military >was "afraid" KBR would cease work. He said there was "a culture that >decided KBR was too big to fail and too important to be held to >account." The "perverse incentive is that there was no incentive" >for KBR to do quality work because they received bonuses for poor work. > >Senator Dorgan said there are "tens of thousands of examples" of >unnecessary risks to US soldiers, including deaths that have arisen >as a result of KBR's work. "Why should [KBR] be getting more >contracts now that we know all this information?" asked Sen. Bob >Casey. "The Defense Department has not answered these questions." > >James Childs, a master electrician hired by the Army to review >electrical work in Iraq during 2008, testified that KBR's work in >Iraq was the "most hazardous, worst quality work" he'd ever seen. He >said his investigation found improper wiring in "every" building KBR >wired in Iraq (of which there are thousands) and that KBR's rewiring >work in buildings that were previously safely wired resulted in the >electrical system becoming unsafe. Childs said that KBR did not do >any work "according to code." He also testified that the same risks >exist in Afghanistan, which he recently visited. "While doing >inspections in Afghanistan, I found the exact same code violations," >Childs said. > >Eric Peters, a master electrician who worked for KBR in Iraq as >recently as 2009, said that 50 percent of the KBR-managed buildings >he saw were not properly wired. "I worried every day people would be >injured or killed as a result of this work," Peters testified. He >estimated that at least half the electricians hired by KBR--many of >them cheaper-costing Third Country Nationals (TCNs)--to service the >US military in Iraq would not have been hired to work in the United >States, saying they were not trained in US or UK electrical >standards. TCNs--from places like India, Bangladesh and Bosnia--are >estimated to have done some 60 percent of the electrical work for >KBR in Iraq. Peters charged that KBR allowed trainees to take notes >in to certification tests, making it very easy to be cleared for work. > >Peters also charged that KBR "frowned upon" any refusal to sign off >on work that Peters deemed incomplete or unsafe. Peters and others >who testified said that "all over theater," meaning everywhere in >Iraq, KBR would effectively double-bill US taxpayers by leaving >electrical work half-done or incorrectly done and then billing >taxpayers again to repair its own shoddy work. > >Peters characterized KBR managers as "completely unqualified" and >said he is not a "disgruntled former employee" but rather a >"disgusted former employee." > > > > > > > > >------------------------------------------------------ >Provided by Australis >http://www.australis.com.au/ > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > > >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG - www.avg.com >Version: 8.5.339 / Virus Database: 270.12.43/2138 - Release Date: >05/27/09 18:21:00 From papadop at peak.org Wed May 27 21:38:46 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Wed May 27 21:40:11 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Activist Financier 'Terrorizes' Bankers in Foreclosure Fight Message-ID: http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15366 0 by James R. Hagerty, Wall Street Journal May 20th, 2009 Bruce Marks doesn't bother being diplomatic. A campaigner on behalf of homeowners facing foreclosure, he was on the phone one day in March to a loan executive at Bank of America Corp. "I'm tired of borrowers being screwed!" Mr. Marks yelled into the phone. "You're incompetent!" Before hanging up, he threatened to call bank CEO Kenneth Lewis at home to complain about the loan executive. Mr. Marks's nonprofit organization, Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, has emerged as one of the loudest scourges of the banking industry in the post-bubble economy. It salts its Web site with photos of executives it accuses of standing in the way of helping homeowners -- emblazoning "Predator" across their photos, picturing their homes and sometimes including home phone numbers. In February, NACA, as it's called, protested at the home of a mortgage investor by scattering furniture on his lawn, to give him a taste of what it feels like to be evicted. Housing Advocate Bruce Marks of the Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America at a 'Save the Dream' event he organized in Columbia, S.C., in March to help troubled homeowners get their mortgage payments reduced. Housing Advocate Bruce Marks of the Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America at a 'Save the Dream' event he organized in Columbia, S.C., in March to help troubled homeowners get their mortgage payments reduced. In the 1990s, Mr. Marks leaked details of a banker's divorce to the press and organized a protest at the school of another banker's child. He says he would use such tactics again. "We have to terrorize these bankers," Mr. Marks says. Though some bankers privately deplore his tactics, Mr. Marks is a growing influence in the lending industry and the effort to curb foreclosures. NACA has signed agreements with the four largest U.S. mortgage lenders -- Bank of America, Wells Fargo & Co., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. -- in which they agree to work with his counselors on a regular basis to try to arrange lower payments for struggling borrowers. NACA has made powerful political friends, such as House majority whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, and it receives federal money to counsel homeowners. Some 1.7 million U.S. households will lose their homes in foreclosure this year, according to a forecast by Moody's Economy.com, versus under 500,000 a year early in the housing boom. Banks want to show they're making every effort to keep people in their homes. That can mean working with housing-advocacy groups that routinely bash the industry, increasing the clout of such nonprofits. Less certain is whether these groups can translate their new leverage into long-term influence over how mortgage lenders treat customers. "We have the opportunity to change how lending gets done in this country," says Mr. Marks, whose group is itself a mortgage broker and has 40 offices staffed with housing counselors. He favors a return to more traditional standards, with full documentation of income and the same fixed interest rate for everyone. MORTGAGE HELP WANTED Instead of relying on credit scores, he thinks lenders should look into the reasons for any late payments in prospective borrowers' past and prepare renters for the responsibilities of home ownership. Then, if people are given a loan they can afford, they shouldn't be required to make a down payment, he argues. Critics doubt some of these changes would be helpful. Having to use a single interest rate for all would make banks less likely to lend to people with blemished credit records, says Richard Riese, an executive at the American Bankers Association. A single rate also could lead to higher rates for everyone, adds John Courson, chief executive of another trade group, the Mortgage Bankers Association. Mr. Courson declined to comment on Mr. Marks. "You're not going to drag me in there," he said. For now, NACA's main focus is fighting foreclosure, and the 53-year-old Mr. Marks pursues it relentlessly. NACA holds mass "Save the Dream" gatherings, flying in hundreds of counselors to work with borrowers who hope to restructure their mortgages. At one in Columbia, S.C., in March, a line of homeowners stretched around an arena waiting to meet counselors in canary-yellow T-shirts reading "Financial Predators Beware." Mr. Marks, dressed in black and wearing a NACA cap, circled the arena with a bullhorn. "We're gonna get it done!" he bellowed. Erick Exum, a NACA official, told those present: "What happened is not your fault. The mortgage crisis is the result of abuses and exploitation by Wall Street." Even so, he said, they might have to make sacrifices: "If you have a car payment and a boat payment, the boat may not make sense." Counselors discussed borrowers' incomes and spending, calculating how big a monthly payment each could afford. For most, NACA later came up with a proposal to lower the interest rate, reduce the principal or both. NACA took the proposals to banks -- many of which had someone at the event -- and negotiations often followed. While in Columbia, Mr. Marks made his angry cellphone call to Bank of America executive Steve Bailey. Pacing a hall, Mr. Marks accused Mr. Bailey of reneging on the bank's agreement with NACA by failing to reduce borrowers' payments on their second liens, in addition to their first mortgages. "You eat that second!" Mr. Marks shouted. Mr. Bailey says Mr. Marks was mistaken about what the bank had agreed to. "I think Bruce was having a bad day," Mr. Bailey says. He and Mr. Marks agree that their dispute has since been resolved, but differ on the details. NACA seeks to limit mortgage payments to whatever a borrower can afford, and doesn't favor stretching out payment periods. That contrasts with a loan-modification plan pushed by the Obama administration, which aims to limit payments to 31% of income. One borrower at Columbia was Kenneth Brown, a truck driver from Richmond, Va., who had driven over 300 miles to attend. Though he said he was still current on his mortgage, Mr. Brown hoped to get his monthly payment of about $1,600 cut in half by lowering his loan's 12.5% interest rate. "I'm not leaving till I get something in my hand," he said as he sat in the arena. Two months later, Mr. Brown said he had given up on waiting for NACA to find a solution and was trying on his own to refinance. Mr. Marks said NACA tried to help Mr. Brown but ran into complications documenting his income as a self-employed trucker. The Columbia event drew people from 10,000 households, and more than 3,000 loans have since been modified, Mr. Marks says. He won't disclose NACA's success rate but says that it wins some change in loan terms in the vast majority of cases, including about 24,000 mortgages last year. Hope Now, an alliance of a wide array of mortgage companies, investors and counselors, estimates the mortgage industry modified 969,000 home loans in all last year, a figure that would include NACA's total. Mr. Marks grew up in affluent Scarsdale, N.Y., and Greenwich, Conn. He says a childhood stuttering problem gave him sympathy for underdogs, which evolved into a career as an activist. He studied business to "know the enemy," earning an M.B.A. and working briefly for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. A later job for a labor union stirred his interest in reviving poor neighborhoods and helping people afford homes. In 1988 he launched NACA. It soon began arranging loans for Boston-area banks that were eager to show they were serving poor neighborhoods, in compliance with the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act. The organization has been allocated $34.5 million from a new federal program to counsel distressed mortgage borrowers, to be paid to groups such as NACA little by little as they provide counseling. NACA's slice is nearly 10% of the program's funds; the rest goes to more than 100 other nonprofits and state agencies. Besides these grants, most income to cover NACA's roughly $40 million annual budget comes from the fees lenders pay it for arranging new mortgages, typically $2,500 per loan. Another NACA event is the "predator's tour." In February, it sent hundreds of protesters to the homes of bankers and investors in posh New York suburbs such as Rye, N.Y., and Greenwich. One stop was the home of William Frey of Greenwich Financial Services, a broker-dealer specializing in mortgage-backed securities. He was a target because he resisted some aspects of a settlement that called for modifying loans. State attorneys general had accused Countrywide Financial Corp. of predatory lending, and Countrywide's new owner, Bank of America, settled the suit last year by agreeing to modify many mortgages. A fund Mr. Frey controls then sued the bank. The suit didn't take issue with the settlement but complained that the bank had passed on most of the cost of it to buyers of securities backed by Countrywide's loans. Mr. Frey was the target of the protest in which NACA dumped furniture on the lawn. "They had hundreds of people trespassing on my property," he says. "I have a difference with Bank of America. I have a substantial amount of assets with them," Mr. Frey says. "We take them to court. This is how we do it in this country....It's a civilized society." The response from NACA, he adds, "is a mob showing up at someone's house to intimidate them to drop this suit. At what point do people say, 'This is starting to be uncomfortable'?" "It should be uncomfortable," says Mr. Marks. "You win a campaign by being relentless. Everybody has a breaking point....At some point they say, 'How do I get these crazies off my back?' " Some lenders have refused to sign contracts to work with NACA, among them HSBC Holdings, Barclays and Credit Suisse Group. All declined to comment. Mr. Marks says some banks that won't sign agreements do negotiate individual cases with NACA. Even so, NACA sometimes pictures their executives and the executives' homes on its Web site. It recently added a photo of William Gross of Pacific Investment Management Co., the big bond house known as Pimco, along with pictures of his home and other information. Mr. Marks says his contacts in banking and government tell him Pimco doesn't support the administration's push to modify mortgages. "We're exposing them," Mr. Marks says. A spokesman for Pimco said neither it nor Mr. Gross would comment. Mr. Marks says financial executives should be held personally responsible for actions that affect people's lives, and "if they interpret that as intimidation, so be it." He says that "we're not talking about violence. We don't do violence." NACA says it arranged $367 million of mortgages last year. Those borrowers must become members of NACA, agreeing to participate in its protests or help out at its offices, and for several years must contribute to a fund for homeowners who fall behind because of sickness or job loss. All NACA members pay the same interest rate, currently 4.375%. Mr. Marks says 3.67% of loans NACA originated were 90 days or more overdue as of March 31. The industry average was 3.49%, according to LPS Applied Analytics, a data firm. According to Mr. Marks, 0.68% of the NACA loans were in foreclosure. The industry average was 2.45%, says LPS. Bank of America says home loans originated by NACA "are equal to and in some cases are performing better than our prime book of business." A bank spokesman added, "There are few organizations that can bring a buyer to the table who has been through such extensive pre-buying counseling." Despite receiving taxpayer money, NACA doesn't provide public reports on either its loan-brokerage business or its campaign to modify mortgages. Jim Campen, an economics professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, says he tried in the 1990s to analyze the performance of loans arranged by NACA, but Mr. Marks refused to provide data. Mr. Marks says he feared the data would be used by another nonprofit to discredit his group. NACA does provide information to lenders that work with it, he says, but sees no duty to disclose it to the public. "He's been very effective in shaking money out of the banks," says Mr. Campen, but "he's not one to open up his records to public scrutiny." From siamdave at yahoo.ca Wed May 27 22:48:40 2009 From: siamdave at yahoo.ca (Dave Patterson) Date: Wed May 27 22:49:04 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] cc - the 'in your face' economy is ever worse ... References: <200905281115220343.0079AC7F@smtp.totisp.net> <200905281245440609.00077B29@smtp.totisp.net> Message-ID: <200905281248400140.000A28D4@smtp.totisp.net> http://www.ottawasun.com/comment/columnists/greg_weston/2009/05/26/9569686-sun.html Greg, Maybe the 'underground economy' has other explanations - maybe it's just a few people 'taking' their own tax-free expense allowances they see the MPs awarding themselves but not giving to others. Or maybe it's some people doing their own form of rebellion against things like utterly insane cigarette taxes or 'drug wars' that few support. But there's a much deeper problem you really should check out some day - the massive scam of the National Debt. Does it not concern you that 'we' have paid something like two trillion (not a misprint or anything, that is trillion with a 'tr' at the front) in 'service charges' on the money governments (fed and prov) have 'borrowed' from primarily commercial banks over the last 30 years or so, since the whole national debt thing really got legs (and continue to fork over 50-60 billion each and every year)(imagine what you'd say to someone who had a debt of $500, on which they had already paid $2,000 in interest and continued to pay $50 per year!)? And pretty much all of that money need not have been turned over to these private lenders at all - are you aware that when a commercial bank 'lends' money (or 'buys' bonds, same process, different name), it is not your savings or mine they are recycling, that is mythology for schoolkids - they just create the money out of thin air and deposit it in a loan account, whether that is your vacation loan or the gov's 'let's juice the national debt' loan? And the Bank of Canada could (and should) be creating this money themselves - because if they did, the gov would either not be paying interest, or be paying only nominal interest which would simply be going from one gov pocket/account to another, so no net cost to 'we the people' whom the gov is supposed to be working for (although once one understands this whole process, it is abundantly clear they are working for the banks rather than 'we the people'). I know another part of the mythology is that goverment 'printing' money is inflationary, but that argument falls apart pretty quickly when you think about it and examine some facts rather than booga-booga designed simply to justify the current system - actually, over the last 30 years with commercial banks creating almost all of our money, the inflation and bank bailouts and other financial problems due to over-creation of speculative money have never stopped, and as everyone knows it now takes two working adults to support a decent middle class lifestyle whereas before the banks took control one working adult could do that ok most times - but during the period from, say, the 1930s, when governments put some serious controls on banks because they did the same trick during the 1920s and caused the great crash and following depression, until the mid-70s when 'we the people' forgot why those controls were there and allowed the governments to remove them, the financial situation was much more stable. And now, of course, Flaherty is talking about increasing the national debt by at least $50 bil, and maybe more next year etc - and of course the provincial govs are facing the same borrowing problems - but why in god's name is nobody going to the Bank of Canada, as they could and should, for this money, created exactly the same way but without the interest charges the commercial banks will want? Why is nobody even talking about this obvious alternative? Big questions, very revealing answers if you get into this. (Basic 'realekonomiks 101 to counter the 'inflation' argument - whatever the money supply is, if the government creates its own money, then you just tell the banks to create that much less, so it is a zero-sum game and need not be inflationary at all - the story is much deeper, but that is the basic answer to the inflation question) I know this grows long for an email, but if you are interested in how we might make things a great deal better around here by simply creating our own money, rather than letting private banks create our money and charge interest for it (a really idiotic idea for us once you see what is really happening, but great for them of course), you might find a read of this interesting - Global Financial Meltdown: Forces beyond our control, or the greatest scam ever? http://www.rudemacedon.ca/greatest-sting-ever.html . Be happy to answer any questions you might have, if you open this door and start poking around - it's a pretty interesting, if vile, place - Dave Patterson Ontario >> PEI >> Thailand >> Green Island http://www.rudemacedon.ca/greenisland.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090528/b1792757/attachment.html From clementclarke at ozemail.com.au Wed May 27 23:06:01 2009 From: clementclarke at ozemail.com.au (Clement Clarke) Date: Wed May 27 23:07:38 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] ABC TV TONIGHT 8:30pm Thursday, 28 May 2009 Documentary - The Ascent Of Money - Dreams Of Avarice In-Reply-To: <6728B7DA018348C29C00E874CF79D885@Archetype> References: <499F5D56.7030903@ozemail.com.au> <49C38BA9.7050800@ozemail.com.au> <6728B7DA018348C29C00E874CF79D885@Archetype> Message-ID: <4A1E29C9.1090101@ozemail.com.au> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090528/97656fca/attachment.html From siamdave at yahoo.ca Thu May 28 00:50:32 2009 From: siamdave at yahoo.ca (Dave Patterson) Date: Thu May 28 00:51:05 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] ABC TV TONIGHT 8:30pm Thursday, 28 May 2009 Documentary - The Ascent Of Money - Dreams Of Avarice In-Reply-To: <4A1E29C9.1090101@ozemail.com.au> References: <499F5D56.7030903@ozemail.com.au> <49C38BA9.7050800@ozemail.com.au> <6728B7DA018348C29C00E874CF79D885@Archetype> <4A1E29C9.1090101@ozemail.com.au> Message-ID: <200905281450320656.0079BD58@smtp.totisp.net> Be prepared for a bit of a letdown, Clem - I heard this guy on the CBC a few months ago, he has a new book (new then, I guess) about a similar thing to this program, and he doesn't ask any hard questions or turn on any useful lights - he basically supports the idea of bank-created debt as money, just saying now, as many others, that goshdarn, we need to regulate it a WEE bit better, bladebladebla. In other words, you darn money-reform people go way, we're not making any changes - and programs like this are designed to reassure 'the masses' that things really are fine as they are, and they don't need to be listening to crackpot conspiracy theorists talking about monetary reform or anything - for gosh sakes, we all know that government creating money is terribly inflationary, look at Germany in the 1920s or Zimbabwe in recent times!! - and etc. I'm finding this a very discouraging time, the last few months - with the global financial meltdown, the fact that these people have been stealing from us massively for a long time should be clear to everyone - but no, instead of demanding some rolling heads, everyone is just rolling over and playing dead as the greatest theft in human history is undertaken right in their faces. I didn't have a lot of hope before - but the complete lack of outrage at what is happening amongst the general population makes me think that even that small hope was vastly out of line with observable reality. *********** REPLY SEPARATOR *********** On 09-05-28 at 2:06 PM Clement Clarke wrote: Greetings everyone. This is really for Australians (until I find a link for the replay). This promises to be a very interesting program on ABC TV tonight about money - money creation seems to be finally hitting the mainstream. Here's an interesting website, too. Bob Blain, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, says “There are about 150 national monies. They are all notes with names and numbers, but nowhere do they say what the numbers mean. It’s like using “meter” for length without anyone having a meter stick to measure length. The result is trial and errors. Who knows where and how many errors”. See http://www.hourmoney.org/ for more information. He, like many others, wants to use time as a fixed basis. "We live in interesting times". Very, very interesting!!! Namaste, (“the God in me, recognizes and honors the God in you!”) Clem PS: Last year, I gave many people a DVD about the Banking System, and how money is created. And a DVD I actually put together about money and some alternatives. If you missed out and would like a copy, please let me know. My DVD can be seen here (in two parts): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4591948339215048579&hl=en http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3357222356733819567&hl=en The Ascent Of Money - Dreams Of Avarice 8:30pm Thursday, 28 May 2009 Documentary CC G Where did it come from? And where did it all go? In this fresh, revelatory series, historian and Harvard Professor, Niall Ferguson, reveals everything you need to know about money. >From Shylock's pound of flesh in Shakespeare's Merchant Of Venice to the loan sharks of Glasgow; from the 'promises to pay' written on Babylonian clay tablets to the Medici banking system; Ferguson explains the origins of credit and debt and why credit networks are indispensable to any civilisation. The Spanish were responsible for one of the first versions of money in the form of coins made out of the sliver discovered in Bolivia in 1546. In Mesopotamia 4000 years ago, they used clay tablets as promissory notes, and this system, a system of mutual trust, is the root of credit, or credo which means 'I believe'. Northern Italy became the birthplace of banking when Jewish money-lenders made loans to people and charged interest. Christians weren't permitted to charge interest, but this was eventually overcome by the introduction of foreign exchange dealings. In the 15th century, credit moved out of the Jewish ghetto and into banks (named after the benches (bancos) the money men used to do their trading). The Italian Medici family became the very first foreign exchange dealers, and became so rich and so powerful that they virtually paid for the Renaissance, and financed various feudal state wars of the time. One of the downsides of the credit system is evident in modern day Memphis, Tennessee - the bankruptcy capital of America. Bankruptcy is what happens when people can't afford to repay debts, and we discover that some very famous and eventually successful people were once bankrupts themselves, including Mark Twain, Buster Keaton, and Henry Ford. Also showing on ABC Human Bondage - 8:30pm Thursday, June 4 Blowing Bubbles - 8:30pm Thursday, June 11 Risky Business - 8:30pm Thursday, June 18 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090528/8ca049b5/attachment-0001.html From creuss at bluewin.ch Thu May 28 06:25:56 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Thu May 28 06:29:22 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Canadians LOVE seals!? (for dinner) Message-ID: "It tastes like sushi" -- yeah, the cruel ass doesn't even know that seals are mammals... http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Governor+General+eats+seal+heart+support+h unters/1629613/story.html Governor General eats raw seal heart to support hunters May 26, 2009 Canada's Governor General began her Arctic tour by gutting a freshly slaughtered seal and eating a slice of its raw heart, according to media reports. Michaelle Jean, the Queen's representative to the country, did it as a gesture of solidarity with the country's beleaguered seal hunters, the reports said, adding that Jean expressed dismay that people would call the traditional hunting practices inhumane. After eating the heart during a stop in Nunavut's Rankin Inlet, Jean wiped her blood-soaked fingers with a tissue. On Tuesday, Jean arrives in Kugluktuk, Nunavut. ? Copyright (c) Canwest News Service ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From creuss at bluewin.ch Thu May 28 06:34:15 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Thu May 28 06:37:41 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Cheating gas pumps Message-ID: Ed Deak wrote: > The story may, or may not be true, but worth considering. We would > have been cheated by supermarket cash registers of hundreds of > dollars over the years, but my wife's catching them most of the > time. Even so, we miss some times. They advertise and mark items at > certain prices, but the registers are programmed for much higher. > > The vast majority of people have no idea of prices, just take items > off the shelves without looking, so they don't notice. Are the price tags on each product or just on the shelves? One "rat-race to the bottom" issue from the EU that comes over here is that the chain stores abolish price tags on the products so they can cheat the customers at the checkout (and raise prices anytime). Cheers, Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From thinker at thelakebc.ca Thu May 28 07:18:02 2009 From: thinker at thelakebc.ca (Ed Deak) Date: Thu May 28 07:16:04 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Cheating gas pumps In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <200905281415.n4SEFSBZ027876@karma.reboot.ca> The prices are on the shelves and in the flyers sent out by the companies. To mark each item with a price tag, apart from the printed computer code, wouldn't be "efficient" in modern economic terms. It is sometimes very embarrassing and holds up the line, when we find something marked $1.19 and the cash register shows $1.69. Then they have to call an employee to check it, etc. We may get our correct price, but the register isn't changed and keeps on charging others. You add up the thousands of cans or packages sold to others with the phony price, plus hundreds of other items, and the extra profits stolen from people every week, only here in BC with a population of about 4 million, the overall figure can add up to hundreds of thousands of $. and millions across the country. We've complained to provincial and national Ministers of Consumer Affairs, but all we got back was BS excuses and nothing has changed. Cheers, Ed. At 06:34 AM 28/05/2009, you wrote: >Ed Deak wrote: > > The story may, or may not be true, but worth considering. We would > > have been cheated by supermarket cash registers of hundreds of > > dollars over the years, but my wife's catching them most of the > > time. Even so, we miss some times. They advertise and mark items at > > certain prices, but the registers are programmed for much higher. > > > > The vast majority of people have no idea of prices, just take items > > off the shelves without looking, so they don't notice. > >Are the price tags on each product or just on the shelves? >One "rat-race to the bottom" issue from the EU that comes over here >is that the chain stores abolish price tags on the products so they can >cheat the customers at the checkout (and raise prices anytime). > >Cheers, >Chris > > > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword >"igve". > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG - www.avg.com >Version: 8.5.339 / Virus Database: 270.12.43/2138 - Release Date: >05/27/09 18:21:00 From netcfs at shaw.ca Thu May 28 07:28:22 2009 From: netcfs at shaw.ca (Yves Bajard) Date: Thu May 28 07:28:57 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Canadians LOVE seals!? (for dinner) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1243520902.5202.45.camel@localhost> Could you please, Chris, moderate your tone and wording? It does not serve Mai-Not to be as raw as a seal's heart Yves (with my moderator's hat...) e jeudi 28 mai 2009 ? 15:25 +0200, Christoph Reuss a ?crit : > "It tastes like sushi" -- yeah, the cruel ass doesn't even know that seals > are mammals... > > > http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Governor+General+eats+seal+heart+support+h > unters/1629613/story.html > > Governor General eats raw seal heart to support hunters > > May 26, 2009 > > Canada's Governor General began her Arctic tour by gutting a freshly > slaughtered seal and eating a slice of its raw heart, according to media > reports. > > Michaelle Jean, the Queen's representative to the country, did it as a > gesture of solidarity with the country's beleaguered seal hunters, the > reports said, adding that Jean expressed dismay that people would call the > traditional hunting practices inhumane. > > After eating the heart during a stop in Nunavut's Rankin Inlet, Jean wiped > her blood-soaked fingers with a tissue. > > On Tuesday, Jean arrives in Kugluktuk, Nunavut. > > ? Copyright (c) Canwest News Service > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword > "igve". > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mai-not mailing list > Mai-not@globalproblematique.net > http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090528/bc12fed7/attachment.html From creuss at bluewin.ch Thu May 28 07:59:05 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Thu May 28 08:02:51 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Cheating gas pumps Message-ID: > To mark each item with a price tag, apart from the printed > computer code, wouldn't be "efficient" in modern economic terms. That's the pretext they use here too, but it's not credible because they have to print the sell-by date and use-by date on each item anyway, so they could print the price on the same place too (as one chain still does, but it already announced that it will abandon this practice due to "competition pressure" -- although consumers want to keep the price tags!). No, the real reason is to defraud the customers, both by ad-hoc price increases and cheating at the checkout. The competition "thanks to EU competitors" is not for better quality (of service and products), but only for higher profits... Cheers, Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From McPogo at aol.com Thu May 28 13:06:29 2009 From: McPogo at aol.com (McPogo@aol.com) Date: Thu May 28 13:08:10 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Article from Global Research - The Bilderberg Plan for 2009: Remaking the Global Message-ID: The Bilderberg Plan for 2009: Remaking the Global Political Economy. Read the article at http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13738 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The Bilderberg Plan for 2009: Remaking the Global Political Economy by Andrew G. Marshall . _Global Research_ (http://www.globalresearch.ca/) , May 26, 2009 _Email this article to a friend_ (mailto:?subject=Article from Global Research&body=The Bilderberg Plan for 2009: Remaking the Global Political Economy. Read the article at http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13738) _ Print this article_ (javascript:printarticle(13738);) (http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13738) >From May 14-17, the global elite met in secret in Greece for the yearly Bilderberg conference, amid scattered and limited global media attention. Roughly 130 of the world?s most powerful individuals came together to discuss the pressing issues of today, and to chart a course for the next year. The main topic of discussion at this years meeting was the global financial crisis, which is no surprise, considering the list of conference attendees includes many of the primary architects of the crisis, as well as those poised to ?solve? it. The Agenda: The Restructuring of the Global Political Economy Before the meeting began, Bilderberg investigative journalist Daniel Estulin reported on the main item of the agenda, which was leaked to him by his sources inside. Though such reports cannot be verified, his sources, along with those of veteran Bilderberg tracker, Jim Tucker, have proven to be shockingly accurate in the past. Apparently, the main topic of discussion at this year's meeting was to address the economic crisis, in terms of undertaking, ?Either a prolonged, agonizing depression that dooms the world to decades of stagnation, decline and poverty ... or an intense-but-shorter depression that paves the way for a new sustainable economic world order, with less sovereignty but more efficiency.? Other items on the agenda included a plan to ?continue to deceive millions of savers and investors who believe the hype about the supposed up-turn in the economy. They are about to be set up for massive losses and searing financial pain in the months ahead,? and ?There will be a final push for the enactment of Lisbon Treaty, pending on Irish voting YES on the treaty in Sept or October,?[1] which would give the European Union massive powers over its member nations, essentially making it a supranational regional government, with each country relegated to more of a provincial status. Shortly after the meetings began, Bilderberg tracker Jim Tucker reported that his inside sources revealed that the group has on its agenda, ?the plan for a global department of health, a global treasury and a shortened depression rather than a longer economic downturn.? Tucker reported that Swedish Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister, Carl Bildt, ?Made a speech advocating turning the World Health Organization into a world department of health, advocating turning the IMF into a world department of treasury, both of course under the auspices of the United Nations.? Further, Tucker reported that, ?Treasury Secretary Geithner and Carl Bildt touted a shorter recession not a 10-year recession ... partly because a 10 year recession would damage Bilderberg industrialists themselves, as much as they want to have a global department of labor and a global department of treasury, they still like making money and such a long recession would cost them big bucks industrially because nobody is buying their toys.....the tilt is towards keeping it short.?[2] After the meetings finished, Daniel Estulin reported that, ?One of Bilderberg?s primary concerns according to Estulin is the danger that their zeal to reshape the world by engineering chaos in order to implement their long term agenda could cause the situation to spiral out of control and eventually lead to a scenario where Bilderberg and the global elite in general are overwhelmed by events and end up losing their control over the planet.?[3] On May 21, the Macedonian International News Agency reported that, ?A new Kremlin report on the shadowy Bilderberg Group, who this past week held their annual meeting in Greece, states that the West?s financial, political and corporate elite emerged from their conclave after coming to an agreement that in order to continue their drive towards a New World Order dominated by the Western Powers, the US Dollar has to be ?totally? destroyed.? Further, the same Kremlin report apparently stated that, ?most of the West?s wealthiest elite convened at an unprecedented secret meeting in New York called for and led by? David Rockefeller, ?to plot the demise of the US Dollar. ?[4] The Secret Meeting of Billionaires The meeting being referred to was a secret meeting where, ?A dozen of the richest people in the world met for an unprecedented private gathering at the invitation of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to talk about giving away money,? held at Rockefeller University, and included notable philanthropists such as Gates, Buffett, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, George Soros, Eli Broad, Oprah Winfrey, David Rockefeller Sr. and Ted Turner. One attendee stated that, ?It wasn?t secret,? but that, ?It was meant to be a gathering among friends and colleagues. It was something folks have been discussing for a long time. Bill and Warren hoped to do this occasionally. They sent out an invite and people came.? Chronicle of Philanthropy editor Stacy Palmer said, ?Given how serious these economic times are, I don't think it's surprising these philanthropists came together,? and that, ?They don't typically get together and ask each other for advice.? The three hosts of the meeting were Buffet, Gates and David Rockefeller.[5] [See: Appendix 2: Bilderberg Connections to the Billionaire?s Meeting]. Bilderberg founding member David Rockefeller, Honourary Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, Honourary Chairman and Founder of the Trilateral Commission, Chairman of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society, former Chairman and CEO of Chase Manhattan. At the meeting, ?participants steadfastly refused to reveal the content of the discussion. Some cited an agreement to keep the meeting confidential. Spokesmen for Mr. Buffett, Mr. Bloomberg, Mr. Gates, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Soros and Ms. Winfrey and others dutifully declined comment, though some confirmed attendance.?[6] Reports indicate that, ?They discussed how to address the global slump and expand their charitable activities in the downturn.? [7] The UK newspaper The Times reported that these ?leading billionaires have met secretly to consider how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the world?s population,? and that they ?discussed joining forces to overcome political and religious obstacles to change.? Interestingly, ?The informal afternoon session was so discreet that some of the billionaires? aides were told they were at ?security briefings?.? Further, ?The billionaires were each given 15 minutes to present their favourite cause. Over dinner they discussed how they might settle on an ?umbrella cause? that could harness their interests,? and what was decided upon was that, ?they agreed that overpopulation was a priority.? Ultimately, ?a consensus emerged that they would back a strategy in which population growth would be tackled as a potentially disastrous environmental, social and industrial threat,? and that, ?They need to be independent of government agencies, which are unable to head off the disaster we all see looming.? One guest at the meeting said that, ?They wanted to speak rich to rich without worrying anything they said would end up in the newspapers, painting them as an alternative world government.?[8] The Leaked Report Bilderberg investigative reporter Daniel Estulin reportedly received from his inside sources a 73-page Bilderberg Group meeting wrap-up for participants, which revealed that there were some serious disagreements among the participants. ?The hardliners are for dramatic decline and a severe, short-term depression, but there are those who think that things have gone too far and that the fallout from the global economic cataclysm cannot be accurately calculated if Henry Kissinger's model is chosen. Among them is Richard Holbrooke. What is unknown at this point: if Holbrooke's point of view is, in fact, Obama's.? The consensus view was that the recession would get worse, and that recovery would be ?relatively slow and protracted,? and to look for these terms in the press over the next weeks and months. Estulin reported, ?that some leading European bankers faced with the specter of their own financial mortality are extremely concerned, calling this high wire act "unsustainable," and saying that US budget and trade deficits could result in the demise of the dollar.? One Bilderberger said that, ? the banks themselves don't know the answer to when (the bottom will be hit).? Everyone appeared to agree, ?that the level of capital needed for the American banks may be considerably higher than the US government suggested through their recent stress tests.? Further, ?someone from the IMF pointed out that its own study on historical recessions suggests that the US is only a third of the way through this current one; therefore economies expecting to recover with resurgence in demand from the US will have a long wait.? One attendee stated that, ?Equity losses in 2008 were worse than those of 1929, ? and that, ?The next phase of the economic decline will also be worse than the '30s, mostly because the US economy carries about $20 trillion of excess debt. Until that debt is eliminated, the idea of a healthy boom is a mirage.?[9] According to Jim Tucker, Bilderberg is working on setting up a summit in Israel from June 8-11, where ?the world?s leading regulatory experts? can ? address the current economic situation in one forum.? In regards to the proposals put forward by Carl Bildt to create a world treasury department and world department of health under the United Nations, the IMF is said to become the World Treasury, while the World Health Organization is to become the world department of health. Bildt also reaffirmed using ?climate change? as a key challenge to pursue Bilderberg goals, referring to the economic crisis as a ?once-in-a-generation crisis while global warming is a once-in-a-millennium challenge.? Bildt also advocated expanding NAFTA through the Western hemisphere to create an American Union, using the EU as a ?model of integration.? The IMF reportedly sent a report to Bilderberg advocating its rise to becoming the World Treasury Department, and ?U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner enthusiastically endorsed the plan for a World Treasury Department, although he received no assurance that he would become its leader.? Geithner further said, ?Our hope is that we can work with Europe on a global framework, a global infrastructure which has appropriate global oversight.?[10] Bilderberg?s Plan in Action? Reorganizing the Federal Reserve Following the Bilderberg meeting, there were several interesting announcements made by key participants, specifically in regards to reorganizing the Federal Reserve. On May 21, it was reported that US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner ?is believed to be leaning heavily towards giving the Federal Reserve a central role in future regulation,? and ?it is understood that the Fed would take on some of the work currently undertaken by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.?[11] On Wednesday, May 20, Geithner spoke before the Senate Banking Committee, at which he stated that, ?there are important indications that our financial system is starting to heal.? In regards to regulating the financial system, Geithner stated that, ?we must ensure that international rules for financial regulation are consistent with the high standards we will be implementing in the United States.?[12] US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Bloomberg reported that, ?The Obama administration may call for stripping the Securities and Exchange Commission of some of its powers under a regulatory reorganization,? and that, ?The proposal, still being drafted, is likely to give the Federal Reserve more authority to supervise financial firms deemed too big to fail. The Fed may inherit some SEC functions, with others going to other agencies.? Interestingly, ?SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro?s agency has been mostly absent from negotiations within the administration on the regulatory overhaul, and she has expressed frustration about not being consulted.? It was reported that ?Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was set to discuss proposals to change financial regulations last night at a dinner with National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers [who was also present at Bilderberg], former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker [also at Bilderberg], ex-SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt and Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard University law professor who heads the congressional watchdog group for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.?[13] The Federal Reserve is a privately owned central bank, owned by its shareholders, consisting of the major banks the make up each regional Fed bank (the largest of which is JP Morgan Chase and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York). This plan would essentially give a privately owned bank, which has governmental authority, the ability to regu late the banks that own it. It?s the equivalent of getting a Colonel to guard a General to whom he is directly answerable. Talk about the fox guarding the hen house. It is literally granting ownership over the financial regulator to the banks being regulated. As Market Watch, an online publication of the Wall Street Journal, reported, ?The Federal Reserve, created nearly 100 years ago in the aftermath of a financial panic, could be transformed into a different agency as the Obama administration reinvents the way government interacts with the financial system.? Referring to Geithner?s Senate appearance, it was reported that, ? Geithner was also grilled on the cozy relationships that exist between the big banks and the regional Federal Reserve banks. Before Geithner joined the administration, he was president of the New York Fed, which is a strange public-private hybrid institution that is actually owned and run by the banks.? In response, ?Geithner insisted that the private banks have no say over the policies of the New York Fed, but he acknowledged that the banks do have a say in hiring the president, who does make policy. The chairman of the New York Fed, Stephen Friedman, was forced to resign earlier this month because of perceived conflicts of interest due to his large holdings in Goldman Sachs.?[14] The IMF as a Global Treasury The Bilderberg agenda of creating a global treasury has already been started prior to the Bilderberg meeting, with decisions made during the G20 financial summit in April. Although the G20 seemed to frame it more in context of being formed into a global central bank, although it is likely the IMF could fill both roles. Following the G20 meeting at the beginning of April, 2009, it was reported that, ?The world is a step closer to a global currency, backed by a global central bank, running monetary policy for all humanity,? as the Communiqu? released by the G20 leaders stated that, ?We have agreed to support a general SDR allocation which will inject $250bn (?170bn) into the world economy and increase global liquidity,? and that, ?SDRs are Special Drawing Rights, a synthetic paper currency issued by the International Monetary Fund that has lain dormant for half a century.? Essentially, ?they are putting a de facto world currency into play. It is outside the control of any sovereign body.?[15] [See Appendix 2: Creating a Central Bank of the World] Following the Bilderberg meeting, ?President Obama has asked Congress to authorize $100 billion in loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help create a $500 billion global bailout fund,? which would give the IMF the essential prerogative of a global treasury, providing bailouts for countries in need around the world. Further, ?the bill would allow the IMF to borrow up to $100 billion from the U.S. and increase the U.S. fiscal contribution to the IMF by $8 billion.? Elaborating on the program, it was reported that, ?World leaders began on the global bailout initiative, called the New Arrangement for Borrowing (NAB), at the G-20 summit in early April. The president agreed at that time to make the additional funds available.? Obama wrote that, ?Treasury Secretary Geithner concluded that the size of the NAB is woefully inadequate to deal with the type of severe economic and financial crisis we are experiencing, and I agree with him.?[16] With the G20 decision to increase the usage of IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), forming a de facto world currency, it was recently reported that, ? Sub-Saharan Africa will receive around $10 billion from the IMF in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to help its economies weather the global financial crisis,? and that, ?As part of a $1.1 trillion deal to combat the world economic downturn agreed at April's G20 summit, the IMF will issue $250 billion worth of SDRs, which can be used to boost foreign currency reserves.?[17] Recent reports have also indicated that the IMF?s role in issuing SDRs goes hand in hand with the Bilderberg discussion on the potential collapse of the US dollar, and, ?Transforming the dollar standard into an SDR-based system would be a major break with a policy that has lasted more than 60 years. ? It was reported that, ?There are two ways in which the dollar?s role in the international monetary system can be reduced. One possibility is a gradual, market-determined erosion of the dollar as a reserve currency in favor of the euro. But, while the euro?s international role ? especially its use in financial markets ? has increased since its inception, it is hard to envisage it overtaking the dollar as the dominant reserve currency in the foreseeable future.? However, ?With the dollar?s hegemony unlikely to be seriously undermined by market forces, at least in the short and medium-term, the only way to bring about a major reduction in its role as a reserve currency is by international agreement.? This is where the SDRs come into play, as ?One way to make the SDR the major reserve currency relatively soon would be to create and allocate a massive amount of new SDRs to the IMF?s members.?[18] This is, interestingly, exactly what is happening with Africa and the IMF now. Former IMF Managing Director Jacques de Larosi?re recently stated that the current financial crisis, ?given its scope, presents a unique opening to improve institutions, and there is already a danger that the chance might be missed if the different actors cannot agree to changes by the time economic growth resumes.? He is now an adviser with BNP Paribas, a corporation highly represented at Bilderberg meetings, and he was head of the Treasury of France when Val?ry Giscard d?Estaing was President of France, who is a regular of the Bilderberg Group.[19] The Guardian Covers Bilderberg The British paper, the Guardian, was the only major mainstream news publication to provide ongoing coverage of the Bilderberg meeting over the weekend. His first columns were satirical and slightly mocking, referring to it as, ?A long weekend at a luxury hotel, where the world's elite get to shake hands, clink glasses, fine-tune their global agenda and squabble over who gets the best sun loungers. I'm guessing that Henry Kissinger brings his own, has it helicoptered in and guarded 24/7 by a CIA special ops team.?[20] However, as the weekend dragged on, his reporting took a change of tone. He reported on the Saturday that, ?I know that I'm being followed. I know because I've just been chatting to the plainclothes policemen I caught following me,? and he was arrested twice in the first day of the meetings for attempting to take photographs as the limousines entered the hotel.[21] He later reported that he wasn?t sure what they were discussing inside the hotel, but that he has ?a sense of something rotten in the state of Greece, ? and he further stated, ?Three days and I've been turned into a suspect, a troublemaker, unwanted, ill at ease, tired and a bit afraid.? He then went on to write that, ?Bilderberg is all about control. It's about "what shall we do next?" We run lots of stuff already, how about we run some more? How about we make it easier to run stuff? More efficient. Efficiency is good. It would be so much easier with a single bank, a single currency, a single market, a single government. How about a single army? That would be pretty cool. We wouldn't have any wars then. This prawn cocktail is GOOD. How about a single way of thinking? How about a controlled internet?,? and then, ? How about not.? He makes a very astute point, countering the often postulated argument that Bilderberg is simply a forum where people can speak freely, writing: ?I am so unbelievably backteeth sick of power being flexed by the few. I've had it flexed in my face for three days, and it's up my nose like a wasp. I don't care whether the Bilderberg Group is planning to save the world or shove it in a blender and drink the juice, I don't think politics should be done like this,? and the author, Charlie Skelton, eloquently stated, ?If they were trying to cure cancer they could do it with the lights on.? He further explained that, ?Bilderberg is about positions of control. I get within half a mile of it, and suddenly I'm one of the controlled. I'm followed, watched, logged, detained, detained again. I'd been put in that position by the "power" that was up the road.?[22] On Sunday, May 17, Skelton reported that when he asked the police chief why he was being followed, the chief responded asking, ?Why you here?? to which Skelton said he was there to cover the Bilderberg conference, after which the chief stated, ?Well, that is the reason! That is why! We are finished!?[23] Do reporters get followed around and stalked by police officers when they cover the World Economic Forum? No. So why does it happen with Bilderberg if all it is, is a conference to discuss ideas freely? On the Monday following the conference, Skelton wrote that, ?It isn't just me who's been hauled into police custody for daring to hang around half a mile from the hotel gates. The few journalists who've made the trip to Vouliagmeni this year have all been harassed and harried and felt the business end of a Greek walkie-talkie. Many have been arrested. Bernie, from the American Free Press, and Gerhard the documentarian (sounds like a Dungeons and Dragons character) chartered a boat from a nearby marina to try to get photos from the sea. They were stopped three miles from the resort. By the Greek navy.? As Skelton said himself, ?My dispatches on the 2009 conference, if they mean anything at all, represent nothing more acutely than the absence of thorough mainstream reporting.?[24] Skelton?s final report on Bilderberg from May 19, showed how far he had gone in his several days of reporting on the meeting. From writing jokingly about the meeting, to discovering that he was followed by the Greek State Security force. Skelton mused, ?So who is the paranoid one? Me, hiding in stairwells, watching the pavement behind me in shop windows, staying in the open for safety? Or Bilderberg, with its two F-16s, circling helicopters, machine guns, navy commandos and policy of repeatedly detaining and harassing a handful of journalists? Who's the nutter? Me or Baron Mandelson? Me or Paul Volker, the head of Obama's economic advisory board? Me or the president of Coca-Cola?? Skelton stated that, ?Publicity is pure salt to the giant slug of Bilderberg. So I suggest next year we turn up with a few more tubs. If the mainstream press refuses to give proper coverage to this massive annual event, then interested citizens will have to: a people's media.? Amazingly, Skelton made the pronouncement that what he learned after the Bilderberg conference, was that, ?we must fight, fight, fight, now ? right now, this second, with every cubic inch of our souls ? to stop identity cards,? as, ?It's all about the power to ask, the obligation to show, the justification of one's existence, the power of the asker over the subservience of the asked.? He stated that he ?learned this from the random searches, detentions, angry security goon proddings and thumped police desks without number that I've had to suffer on account of Bilderberg: I have spent the week living in a nightmare possible future and many different terrible pasts. I have had the very tiniest glimpse into a world of spot checks and unchecked security powers. And it has left me shaken. It has left me, literally, bruised.? Pointedly, he explains that, ?The identity card turns you from a free citizen into a suspect.?[25] Who was there? Royalty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, the largest shareholder in Royal Dutch Shell Among the members of the Bilderberg Group are various European monarchs. At this years meeting, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands was present, who happens to be the largest single shareholder in Royal Dutch Shell, one of the world?s largest corporations. She was joined by one of her three sons, Prince Constantijn, who also attended the meeting. Prince Constantijn has worked with the Dutch European Commissioner for the EU, as well as having been a strategic policy consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton in London, a major strategy and technology consulting firm with expertise in Economic and Business Analysis, Intelligence and Operations Analysis and Information Technology, among many others. Prince Constantijn has also been a policy researcher for RAND Corporation in Europe. RAND was initially founded as a global policy think tank that was formed to offer research and analysis to the US Armed Forces, however, it now works with governments, foundations, international organizations and commercial organizations.[26] Also present among European Royalty was Prince Philippe of Belgium, and Queen Sofia of Spain. Private Bankers As usual, the list of attendees was also replete with names representing the largest banks in the world. Among them, David Rockefeller, former CEO and Chairman of Chase Manhattan, now JP Morgan Chase, of which he was, until recently, Chairman of the International Advisory Board; and still sits as Honourary Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, Chairman of the Board of the Americas Society and Council of the Americas, Honourary Chairman of the Trilateral Commission, which he founded alongside Zbigniew Brzezinski; also a founding member of the Bilderberg Group, prominent philanthropist and is the current patriarch of one of the world?s richest and most powerful banking dynasties. Also present was Josef Ackermann, a Swiss banker who is CEO of Deutsche Bank, also a non-executive director of Royal Dutch Shell; Deputy Chairman of Siemens AG, Europe?s largest engineering corporation; he is also a member of the International Advisory Council of Zurich Financial Services Group; Chairman of the Board of the Institute International of Finance, the world?s only global association of financial institutions; and Vice Chairman of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum.[27] Roger Altman was also present at the Bilderberg meeting, an investment banker, private equity investor and former Deputy Treasury Secretary in the Clinton Administration. Other bankers at this years meeting include Ana Patricia Botin, Chairman of the Spanish bank, Banco Espa?ol de Cr?dito, formerly having worked with JP Morgan; Frederic Oudea, CEO and newly appointed Chairman of the Board of French bank Societe Generale; Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, an Italian banker and economist, formerly Italy?s Minister of Economy and Finance; Jacob Wallenberg, Chairman of Investor AB; Marcus Wallenberg, CEO of Investor AB; and George David, CEO of United Technologies Corporation, who also sits on the board of Citigroup, member of the Business Council, the Business Roundtable, and is Vice Chairman of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. [For more on the Peterson Institute, see: Appendix 1] Canadian bankers include W. Edmund Clark, President and CEO of TD Bank Financial Group, also a member of the board of directors of the C.D. Howe Institute, a prominent Canadian think tank; Frank McKenna, Deputy Chairman of TD Bank Financial Group, former Canadian Ambassador to the United States, former Premier of New Brunswick; and Indira Samarasekera, President of the University of Alberta, who is also on the board of Scotiabank, one of Canada? s largest banks. Central Bankers Of course, among the notable members of the Bilderberg Group, are the world ?s major central bankers. Among this years members are the Governor of the National Bank of Greece, Governor of the Bank of Italy, President of the European Investment Bank, James Wolfensohn, former President of the World Bank, and Nout Wellink, on the board of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).[28] Jean-Claude Trichet, the President of the European Central Bank was also present.[29] There is no indication that the Governor of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke was present, which would be an odd turn of events, considering that the Federal Reserve Governor is always present at Bilderberg meetings, alongside the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, William C. Dudley. I have contacted the New York Fed inquiring if Dudley visited Greece or went to any meetings in Greece between May 14-17, or if another senior representative from the New York Fed went in his stead. I have yet to get a response. The Obama Administration at Bilderberg National Security Adviser General James Jones The Obama administration was heavily represented at this years Bilderberg meeting. Among the attendees were Keith B. Alexander, a Lieutenant General of U.S. Army and Director of the National Security Agency, the massive spying agency of the United States; Timothy Geithner, US Treasury Secretary and former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration?s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan; General James Jones, United States National Security Advisor; Henry Kissinger, Obama?s special envoy to Russia, longtime Bilderberg member and former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor; Dennis Ross, special advisor for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; David Patraeus, Commander of CENTCOM, (U.S. Central Command, in the Middle East), Lawrence Summers, Director of the White House's National Economic Council, former Treasury Secretary in the Clinton administration, former President of Harvard University, former Chief Economist of the World Bank; Paul Volcker, former Governor of the Federal Reserve System and Chair of Obama?s Economic Recovery Advisory Board; Robert Zoellick, former Chairman of Goldman Sachs and current President of the World Bank;[30] and Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg.[31] Other Notable Names Among many others present at the meeting are Viscount ?tienne Davignon, former Vice President of the European Commission, and Honourary Chairman of the Bilderberg Group; Francisco Pinto Balsem?o, former Prime Minister of Portugal; Franco Bernab?, CEO of Telecom Italia and Vice Chairman of Rothschild Europe; Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden; Kenneth Clarke, Shadow Business Secretary in the UK; Richard Dearlove, former head of Britain?s Secret Intelligence Services (MI6); Donald Graham, CEO of the Washington Post Company; Jaap De Hoop Scheffer, Secretary-General of NATO; John Kerr, member of the British House of Lords and Deputy Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell; Jessica Matthews, President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Richard Perle of the American Enterprise Institute; Romano Prodi, former Italian Prime Minister; J. Robert S. Prichard, CEO of Torstar Corporation and President Emeritus of the University of Toronto; Peter Sutherland, former Director General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), first Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and is currently Chairman of British Petroleum (BP) and Goldman Sachs International as well as being a board member of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Chairman of the Trilateral Commission, Vice Chairman of the European Roundtable of Industrialists, and longtime Bilderberg member; Peter Thiel, on the board of directors of Facebook; Jeroen van der Veer, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell; Martin Wolf, Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator of the Financial Times newspaper; and Fareed Zakaria, US journalist and board member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[32] There were also some reports that this years meeting would include Google CEO Eric Schmidt, as well as Wall Street Journal Editor Paul Gigot,[33] both of whom attended last years meeting.[34] Conclusion Clearly, it was the prerogative of this year?s Bilderberg meeting to exploit the global financial crisis as much as possible to reach goals they have been striving toward for many years. These include the creation of a Global Treasury Department, likely in conjunction with or embodied in the same institution as a Global Central Bank, both of which seem to be in the process of being incorporated into the IMF. Naturally, Bilderberg meetings serve the interests of the people and organizations that are represented there. Due to the large amount of representatives from the Obama administration that were present, US policies revolving around the financial crisis are likely to have emerged from and serve the interests of the Bilderberg Group. Given the heavy representation of Obama? s foreign policy establishment at the Bilderberg meeting, it seemed surprising to not have received any more information regarding US foreign policy from this year?s meeting, perhaps having to do with Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, the US recently decided to fire the general who oversaw the Afghan war, being replaced with ?Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a former Green Beret who recently commanded the military's secretive special operations forces in Iraq.?[35] From 2003 to 2008, McChrystal ?led the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which oversees the military's most sensitive forces, including the Army's Delta Force,? and who Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh singled out as the head of VP Cheney?s ?executive assassination wing.?[36] So, given these recent changes, as well as the high degree of representation Obama?s foreign policy establishment held at Bildebrerg this year, there were likely to have been some decisions or at least discussion of the escalation of the Afghan war and expansion into Pakistan. However, it is not surprising that the main item on the agenda was the global financial crisis. Without a doubt, the next year will be an interesting one, and the elite are surely hoping to make it a productive one. ____________________________________ APPENDIX 1: Bilderberg Connections to the Billionaire?s Meeting Peter G. Peterson, one of the guests in attendance at the secret billionaires meeting, was the former United States Secretary of Commerce in the Nixon administration, Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb Inc., from 1977 to 1984, he co-founded the prominent private equity and investment management firm, the Blackstone Group, of which he is currently Senior Chairman, and in 1985, he became Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, taking over when David Rockefeller stepped down from that position. He founded the Peterson Institute for International Economics and was Chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Bank from 2000-2004. The Peterson Institute for International Economics is a major world economic think tank, which seeks to ?inform and shape public debate,? from which, ?Institute studies have helped provide the intellectual foundation for many of the major international financial initiatives of the past two decades: reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), adoption of international banking standards, exchange rate systems in the G-7 and emerging-market economies, policies toward the dollar, the euro, and other important currencies, and responses to debt and currency crises (including the current crisis of 2008?09).? It has also ?made important contributions to key trade policy decisions? such as the development of the World Trade Organization, NAFTA, APEC, and East Asian regionalism.[37] It has a prominent list of names on its board of directors. Peter G. Peterson is Chairman of the board; George David, Chairman of United Technologies is Vice Chairman, as well as being a board member of Citigroup, and was a guest at this year?s Bilderberg meeting; Chen Yuan, Governor of the China Development Bank and former Deputy Governor of the People?s Bank of China (China?s central bank); Jessica Einhorn, Dean of Washington's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of the Johns Hopkins University, former Visiting Fellow of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), former Managing Director of the World Bank, and currently on the board of Time Warner and the Council on Foreign Relations; Stanley Fischer, Governor of the Central Bank of Israel, former Vice President at the World Bank, former Managing Director at the IMF, former Vice Chairman of Citigroup, and has also been a regular participant in Bilderberg meetings; Carla A. Hills, former US Trade Representative, and was the prime negotiator of NAFTA, she sits on the International Advisory Boards of American International Group, the Coca-Cola Company, Gilead Sciences, J.P. Morgan Chase, member of the Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission, Co-Chair of the Council on Foreign Relations, and played a key part in the CFR document, ?Building a North American Community,? which seeks to remodel North America following along the lines of the European Union, and she has also been a prominent Bilderberg member; David Rockefeller also sits on the Peterson Institute?s board, as well as Lynn Forester de Rothschild; Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, who is at every Bilderberg meeting; Paul A. Volcker, former Governor of the Federal Reserve System, regular participant of Bilderberg meetings, and current Chair of Obama?s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Honourary Directors of the Peterson Institute include Bilderbergers Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, a prime architect of the current crisis; Frank E. Loy, former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, and is on the boards of Environmental Defense, the Pew Center for Global Climate Change, Resources for the Future, and Population Services International; George P. Shultz, former US Secretary of State in the Reagan administration, President and Director of Bechtel Group and former Secretary of the Treasury.[38] APPENDIX 2: Creating a Central Bank of the World Jeffrey Garten, Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade in the Clinton administration, former Dean of the Yale School of Management, previously served on the White House Council on International Economic Policy under the Nixon administration and on the policy planning staffs of Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Cyrus Vance of the Ford and Carter administrations. He also was a managing director of Lehman Brothers and the Blackstone Group, is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. As early as 1998, Garten wrote an article for the New York Times in which he advocated the creation of a global central bank.[39] Amid the current financial crisis, Garten wrote an article for the Financial Times in which he advocated for ?the establishment of a Global Monetary Authority to oversee markets that have become borderless,? acting as a global central bank.[40] In late October, Garten wrote an article for Newsweek in which he said that world ?leaders should begin laying the groundwork for establishing a global central bank.?[41] Three days after the publication of Garten?s Newsweek article, it was reported that, ?The International Monetary Fund may soon lack the money to bail out an ever growing list of countries crumbling across Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia, raising concerns that it will have to tap taxpayers in Western countries for a capital infusion or resort to the nuclear option of printing its own money.? Further, ?The nuclear option is to print money by issuing Special Drawing Rights, in effect acting as if it were the world's central bank.?[42] [For a detailed look at the moves to create a global central bank, regional currencies, a global reserve currency and a world governing body, see: _Andrew G. Marshall, The Financial New World Order: Towards a Global Currency and World Government: Global Research, April 6, 2009_ (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13070) ] Endnotes [1] CFP, Annual Elite Conclave, 58th Bilderberg Meeting to be held in Greece, May 14-17. Canadian Free Press: May 5, 2009: _http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/10854_ (http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/10854) [2] Paul Joseph Watson, Bilderberg Wants Global Department Of Health, Global Treasury. Prison Planet: May 16, 2009: _http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-wants-global-department-of-health-global -treasury/_ (http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-wants-global-department-of-health-global-treasury/) [3] Paul Joseph Watson, Bilderberg Fears Losing Control In Chaos-Plagued World. Prison Planet: May 18, 2009: _http://www.prisonplanet.com/bilderberg-fears-losing-control-in-chaos-plague d-world.html_ (http://www.prisonplanet.com/bilderberg-fears-losing-control-in-chaos-plagued-world.html) [4] Sorcha Faal, Bilderberg Group orders destruction of US Dollar? MINA: May 21, 2009: _http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/6807/53/_ (http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/6807/53/) [5] Kristi Heim, What really happened at the billionaires' private confab. The Seattle Times: May 20, 2009: _http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thebusinessofgiving/2009244202_what_r eally_happened_at_the_bi.html_ (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thebusinessofgiving/2009244202_what_really_happened_at_the_bi.html) [6] A. G. Sulzberger, The Rich Get ? Together (Shhh, It Was a Secret). The New York Times: May 20, 2009: _http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/the-rich-get-together-shhh-it- was-a-secret/_ (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/the-rich-get-together-shhh-it-was-a-secret/) [7] Chosun, American Billionaires Gather to Discuss Slump. The Chosun Ilbo: May 22, 2009: _http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/05/22/2009052200772.html_ (http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/05/22/2009052200772.html) [8] John Harlow, Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation. The Sunday Times: May 24, 2009: _http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6350303. ece_ (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6350303.ece) [9] Press Release, Investigative Author, Daniel Estulin Exposes Bilderberg Group Plans. PRWeb: May 22, 2009: _http://www.prweb.com/releases/Bilderberg_Group_Meeting/Daniel_Estulin/prweb 2453144.htm_ (http://www.prweb.com/releases/Bilderberg_Group_Meeting/Daniel_Estulin/prweb2453144.htm) [10] James P. Tucker Jr., BILDERBERG AGENDA EXPOSED. American Free Press: June 1, 2009: _http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/bilderberg_2009_179.html_ (http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/bilderberg_2009_179.html) [11] James Quinn, Tim Geithner to reform US financial regulation. The Telegraph: May 21, 2009: _http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance /5359527/Tim-Geithner-to-reform-US-financial-regulation.html_ (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/5359527/Tim-Geithner-to-r eform-US-financial-regulation.html) [12] Greg Menges, U. S. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy F. Geithner speech before the Senate Banking Committee. Examiner: May 20, 2009: _http://www.examiner.com/x-8184-Boston-Investing-Examiner~y2009m 5d20-U-S-Secretary-of-the-Treasury-Timothy-F-Geithner-speech-before-the-Sena te-Banking-Committee_ (http://www.examiner.com/x-8184-Boston-Investing-Examiner~y2009m5d20-U-S-Secretary-of-the-Treasury-Timothy-F-Geithner-speech-befor e-the-Senate-Banking-Committee) [13] Robert Schmidt and Jesse Westbrook, U.S. May Strip SEC of Powers in Regulatory Overhaul. Bloomberg: May 20: 2009: _http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a18ctNv3FDcw_ (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a18ctNv3FDcw) [14] Rex Nutting, Fed could be completely retooled, Geithner says. Market Watch: May 20, 2009: _http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fed-could-be-completely-retooled-geithner- says_ (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fed-could-be-completely-retooled-geithner-says) [15] Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The G20 moves the world a step closer to a global currency. The Telegraph: April 3, 2009: _http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/5096524/T he-G20-moves-the-world-a-step-closer-to-a-global-currency.html_ (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/5096524/The-G20-moves -the-world-a-step-closer-to-a-global-currency.html) [16] Marie Magleby, Obama Wants U.S. to Loan $100 Billion to Global Bailout Fund. CNS News: May 20, 2009: _http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=48329_ (http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=48329) [17] Joe Bavier, Sub-Saharan Africa to receive $10 bln in SDRs-IMF. Reuters: May 25, 2009: _http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLP336909_ (http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLP336909) [18] Onno Wijnholds, The Dollar?s Last Days? International Business Times: May 18, 2009: _http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20090518/dollar-rsquolast-days.htm_ (http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20090518/dollar-rsquolast-days.htm) [19] MATTHEW SALTMARSH, Former I.M.F. Chief Sees Opportunity in Crisis. The New York Times: May 22, 2009: _http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/business/global/23spot.html?ref=global_ (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/business/global/23spot.html?ref=global) [20] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: in pursuit of the world's most powerful cabal. The Guardian: May 13, 2009: _http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/13/in-search-of-bilderberg_ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/13/in-search-of-bilderberg) [21] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: They're watching and following me, I tell you. The Guardian: May 15, 2009: _http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/15/bilderberg-charlie-skelton-disp atch_ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/15/bilderberg-charlie-skelton-dispatch) [22] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: I'm ready to lose control, but they're not. The Guardian: May 15, 2009: _http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/15/bilderberg-charlie-skelton-disp atch1_ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/15/bilderberg-charlie-skelton-dispatch1) [23] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: 'You are not allowed to take pictures of policemen!' The Guardian: May 17, 2009: _http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/17/charlie-skelton-bilderberg_ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/17/charlie-skelton-bilderberg) [24] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: Fear my pen. The Guardian: May 18, 2009: _http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/18/bilderberg-charlie-skelton-disp atch_ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/18/bilderberg-charlie-skelton-dispatch) [25] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: Let's salt the slug in 2010. The Guardian: May 19, 2009: _http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/may/19/bilderberg-skelton-greece_ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/may/19/bilderberg-skelton-greece) [26] Dutch Royal House, Work and official duties. Prince Constantijn: _http://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/english/content.jsp?objectid=18215_ (http://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/english/content.jsp?objectid=18215) [27] Deutsche Bank, Management Board. Our Company: _http://www.db.com/en/content/company/management_board.htm_ (http://www.db.com/en/content/company/management_board.htm) [28] InfoWars, Bilderberg 2009 Attendee List (revised). May 18, 2009: _http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2009-attendee-list/_ (http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2009-attendee-list/) [29] Demetris Nellas, Greek nationalists protest Bilderberg Club meeting. AP: May 14, 2009: _http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jep_nbEq1srzJHFQ8fRGNQO3P 38QD987H3200_ (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jep_nbEq1srzJHFQ8fRGNQO3P38QD987H3200) [30] InfoWars, Bilderberg 2009 Attendee List (revised). May 18, 2009: _http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2009-attendee-list/_ (http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2009-attendee-list/) [31] MRT, Top US official arrives in Greece. Macedonian Radio and Television: May 15, 2009: _http://www.mrt.com.mk/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6112&Ite mid=28_ (http://www.mrt.com.mk/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6112&Itemid=28) [32] InfoWars, Bilderberg 2009 Attendee List (revised). May 18, 2009: _http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2009-attendee-list/_ (http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2009-attendee-list/) [33] WND, Google joins Bilderberg cabal. World Net Daily: May 17, 2009: _http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=98469_ (http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=98469) [34] Adam Abrams, Are the people who 'really run the world' meeting this weekend? Haaretz: May 14, 2009: _http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1085589.html_ (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1085589.html) [35] YOCHI J. DREAZEN and PETER SPIEGEL, U.S. Fires Afghan War Chief. The Wall Street Journal: May 12, 2009: _http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124206036635107351.html_ (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124206036635107351.html) [36] M.J. Stephey, Stan McChrystal: The New U.S. Commander in Afghanistan. Time Magazine: May 12, 2009: _http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1897542,00.html_ (http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1897542,00.html) [37] PIIE, About the Institute. Peterson Institute for International Economics: _http://www.petersoninstitute.org/institute/aboutiie.cfm_ (http://www.petersoninstitute.org/institute/aboutiie.cfm) [38] PIIE, Board of Directors. Peterson Institute for International Economics: _http://www.petersoninstitute.org/institute/board.cfm#52_ (http://www.petersoninstitute.org/institute/board.cfm#52) [39] Jeffrey E. Garten, Needed: A Fed for the World. The New York Times: September 23, 1998: _http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/23/opinion/needed-a-fed-for-the-world.html_ (http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/23/opinion/needed-a-fed-for-the-world.html) [40] Jeffrey Garten, Global authority can fill financial vacuum. The Financial Times: September 25, 2008: _http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7caf543e-8b13-11dd-b634-0000779fd18c,Authorised=fal se.html?_i_ location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F7caf543e-8b13-11dd-b634-000 077 9fd18c.html&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwilliamnotes.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F09%2 F30%2Fgarten-on-a-global-monetary-authority%2F_ (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7caf543e-8b13-11dd-b634-0000779fd18c,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http://w ww.ft.com/cms/s/0/7caf543e-8b13-11dd-b634-0000779fd18c.html&_i_referer=http: //williamnotes.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/garten-on) [41] Jeffrey Garten, We Need a Bank Of the World. Newsweek: October 25, 2009: _http://www.newsweek.com/id/165772_ (http://www.newsweek.com/id/165772) [42] Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, IMF may need to "print money" as crisis spreads. The Telegraph: October 28, 2009: _http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans _pritchard/3269669/IMF-may-need-to-print-money-as-crisis-spreads.html_ (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/3269669/IMF-ma y-need-to-print-money-as-crisis-spreads.html) Andrew G. Marshall is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is currently studying Political Economy and History at Simon Fraser University. Andrew G. Marshall is a frequent contributor to Global Research. _Global Research Articles by Andrew G. Marshall_ (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=listByAuthor&authorFirst=Andrew G. &authorName=Marshall) ____________________________________ Please support Global Research Global Research relies on the financial support of its readers. (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=section§ionName=donate) Your endorsement is greatly appreciated _Subscribe to the Global Research E-Newsletter_ (http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=section§ionName=newsletter) _Spread the word! Forward to a friend!_ (javascript:sendarticle('sendEmailLink2', 'The Bilderberg Plan for 2009: Remaking the Global Political Economy');) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090528/6f66bef4/attachment-0001.html From papadop at peak.org Thu May 28 17:01:07 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Thu May 28 17:02:30 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Author Eduardo Galeano --Stories of Almost Everyone Message-ID: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/28/eduardo May 28, 2009 Fresh Off Worldwide Attention for Joining Obama's Book Collection, Uruguayan Author Eduardo Galeano Returns with Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone Galeanodouble-web We spend the hour with one of Latin America s most acclaimed writers, Eduardo Galeano. The Uruguayan novelist and journalist recently made headlines around the world when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave President Obama a copy of Galeano'ss classic work, The Open Veins of Latin America. Eduardo Galeano'ss latest book is Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone. We speak to Galeano about his reaction to the Chavez-Obama book exchange, media and politics in Latin America, his assessment of Obama, and more. [includes rush transcript] Guest: Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer and journalist. He is one of the most celebrated writers in Latin America. He is author of many books, including Open Veins of Latin America and the trilogy Memory of Fire. His latest book is titled Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone. ############# JUAN GONZALEZ: We re joined today for the hour by one of Latin America s most acclaimed writers, Eduardo Galeano. The Uruguayan novelist and journalist made headlines last month when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave President Barack Obama a copy of one of Galeano s books during a brief encounter at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent soon shot to near the top of the bestseller list. Hugo Chavez later told reporters, quote, "This book is a monument in our Latin American history. It allows us to learn history, and we have to build on this history." Since its publication in 1971, The Open Veins of Latin America has sold over a million copies worldwide, despite being banned in the 1970s by the military governments in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. AMY GOODMAN: In 1973, a military junta came to power in Uruguay. Eduardo Galeano was briefly, then he went into exile. He lived in Argentina and then Spain until 1984, when he returned to Uruguay. While in exile, he began writing his classic trilogy Memory of Fire, which rewrites five centuries of North and South American history. The writer John Berger said of Galeano, quote, To publish Eduardo Galeano is to publish the enemy: the enemy of lies, indifference, above all of forgetfulness. Thanks to him, our crimes will be remembered. His tenderness is devastating, his truthfulness furious. Eduardo Galeano'ss latest book is called Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone. He joins us today in our firehouse studio. ############## EDUARDO GALEANO: Hello, Amy. AMY GOODMAN: It s good to have you with us, Eduardo. EDUARDO GALEANO: Good for me. AMY GOODMAN: Stories of Almost Everyone is the subtitle. EDUARDO GALEANO: Yes, yes. AMY GOODMAN: Almost everyone, what do you mean? EDUARDO GALEANO: Well, it was it sounded, I don t know, so solemn and serious to say a universal history or something like this. I'mm not a historian. It was such a mad project. It was really a crazy adventure, trying to go beyond all the frontiers, all boundaries, boundaries of maps and time. It comes from 600 short stories trying to rebuild, to rediscover the human history from the point of view of the invisibles, trying to rediscover the terrestrial rainbow mutilated by racism and machismo and militarism and elitism and so many isms. That was the intention, at least, to speak about nobodies from nobodies' voices. JUAN GONZALEZ: And why the short stories or the vignettes that you ve increasingly gravitated to in recent decades? Why that form to express these huge stories? EDUARDO GALEANO: I am fighting against inflation, not monetary inflation, but the inflation of words. So many words to say nothing. I am trying to say to tell more with less. This is a challenge. And so, each one of the stories I tell has been written and rewritten ten times, fifteen times, I don t know how many times, til I get the words that really deserve to exist, which are the words that I feel are better than silence. AMY GOODMAN: One of the things we want you to do this hour is just read some of these short stories. And you can't add any extra words. But before we do, when President Chavez of Venezuela handed President Obama of the United States Open Veins of Latin America, your classic work, what were your thoughts? And how did you find out about it? You weren't at the Summit of the Americas, were you? EDUARDO GALEANO: I didn'tt know it. But I went to have my usual promenade with my dog Morgan, who's died recently he died after that one of our last promenades together. And I was surprised, because my neighbor said, Congratulations, Eduardo. You are selling so much. You re a bestseller, Eduardo. And I was horrified. Bestseller? I don't want to be sold. What's this? Something terrible must happened. What's this congratulations, you're so successful ? I don't want to be successful. What's this? Successful in the market? Yes, you're the bestselling man now in the world. The world's so proud. And it was terrible news for me. I don t want to be the first in the market. I just want to get in touch with people, writing. JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Chavez has become like the new Oprah now. You know, he did it for Noam Chomsky and made Noam Chomsky a bestseller. Now he's done it for you. EDUARDO GALEANO: No, it was a generous action. And indeed, the book tends to be, out of so many there's almost forty sort of a symbol. My style has changed a lot. Now I write in a very different way, but I'm not repentant of it, no estoy arrepentido, not at all, not a single comma, not a single period. And I think it may be a useful book, yes, to understand how richness and poverty are intimately connected, and also freedom and slavery are intimately connected. And so, there are no richness really innocent of any poverty, and there are no freedom that hasn't nothing to do to be with slavery. This was the intention of the book, trying to interlink histories that have been before told separately and in this codified language of historians or economists or sociologists. And so, I tried to write it in such a way that it could be read and enjoyed by anyone. And that's why it lost the Casa de las Americas Prize, because a jury considered it was not serious. At that time, the left-wing intellectuals were sure that to be serious, you ought to be boring. And it was not boring, so it was not enough serious. Afterwards, fortunately for me, the military dictatorships considered it was quite serious, and they burned it. And this was my best publicity and my best marketing JUAN GONZALEZ: Market tool. EDUARDO GALEANO: Yes. AMY GOODMAN: Well, we're going to break with some music of Victor Jara, back in the news now. EDUARDO GALEANO: OK. AMY GOODMAN: But when we come back, want to ask you if President Obama could read one of the stories in Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, which would you like him to read? Our guest today is Eduardo Galeano for the hour, the Uruguayan writer and journalist. He has a new book out; it s called Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone. Stay with us. ################# AMY GOODMAN: Our guest for the hour is Eduardo Galeano, the great writer and journalist. He is up from Uruguay. His new book is called Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone. I'mm Amy Goodman, with Juan Gonzalez. That question of Barack Obama being handed, by President Hugo Chavez, Open Veins of Latin America, your classic work, what you would like him to learn from this book, President Obama? EDUARDO GALEANO: No, I don't want to teach anybody anything. Never. I even insisted last evening, when I was talking in that theater AMY GOODMAN: At the Ethical Culture Society. EDUARDO GALEANO: Yes the fact that I would be glad if Obama and all the USA progressive governors or people here begin to change the word -- the word leadership by the word friendship -- because leadership implies the resistance in someone over, above the other ones. And in the real human relationships, the real ones are horizontal, horizontal, not vertical; solidarity instead of charity; and no borders and no classes to receive from anyone, because the Northern world acts as if God would made them the teachers of the South, and they are taking examination all the time. To Venezuela, for instance, is it really democratic country? We'll decide, because we are the teachers on democracy. And paradoxically, the teachers on democracy are the factories of military dictatorships. I mean, the United States, and not only the United States, also some European countries, have spread military dictatorships all over the world. And they feel as if they are able to teach democracy. So I don't want to teach anything to anybody. I just want to tell stories deserve to be told. That'ss all. AMY GOODMAN: Well, tell us a story of Open Veins before we get to readings of Mirrors. EDUARDO GALEANO: It's a funny story. I have yeah, I may tell the when you were saying that the best promotion for Open Veins were the military dictatorships, which prohibited it and burned it, but in Uruguay, something really strange happened. In the first months of the military dictatorship, Open Veins entered freely in the military jails, because the censors looking at the title, Open Veins of Latin America, thought it was a textbook on anatomy, a textbook on anatomy. And so, the medicine books were not forbidden, and the books enter during five or six months. And afterward JUAN GONZALEZ: Til somebody read it. EDUARDO GALEANO: they noticed that something was not exactly that. JUAN GONZALEZ: And when you say this issue of leadership, Latin America obviously has changed dramatically, and the American people, in their election, they more or less sort of followed a trend that was already going on in Latin America. Your own country has changed dramatically. Can you talk about that, what has happened now that there are the EDUARDO GALEANO: There is a new energy, which is not new at all. I think that history never ends. Some histories inside history have no happy ends, unhappy ends. But history doesn't end. She' s a stubborn lady, and she goes on walking, sometimes crying, sometimes laughing. But it never ends. When histories say goodbye, history is really saying, See you. See you later. See you soon. So this is like a subterranean river, who went on flowing and nowadays is reappearing with a very important energy coming from people, from the [inaudible] river how is it? From JUAN GONZALEZ: Below to above. EDUARDO GALEANO: below to above, yes, and not on the other side, on the other way. AMY GOODMAN: Trickle up, not trickle down. EDUARDO GALEANO: I have an engineer friend of mine who said, Lo nico que se hace desde arriba son los pozos, The only thing that you can make from up to down are holes. And it's true. All the other things are made are created from the bottom. And that's the way it 's going to be done, and it 's already going on doing in several Latin American countries, which is good news, indeed, for the world. AMY GOODMAN: Eduardo Galeano, can you read from Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone? You choose. EDUARDO GALEANO: I begin with the story of this cover. I mean, what's this? This image, so beautiful image. Where does it come from? And what does it mean? And the story is inside the book on page 267, I think. Yeah, 267. West African sculptors have always sung while they worked. And they do not stop singing until their sculptures are finished. That way the music gets inside the carvings and keeps on singing. In 1910, Leo Frobenius found ancient sculptures on the Slave Coast that made his eyes bulge. Their beauty was such that the German explorer believed they were Greek, brought from Athens, or perhaps from the lost Atlantis. And his colleagues agreed: Africa, daughter of scorn, mother of slaves, could not have produced such marvels like this one. But it did, though. And those music-filled effigies had been sculpted a few centuries previous in the bellybutton of the world, in Ife, the sacred place where the Yoruba gods gave birth to women and men. Africa turned out to be an unending wellspring of art worth celebrating. And worth stealing. It seems Paul Gaugin, a rather absent-minded fellow, but his name on a couple of sculptures from the Congo. And the error was contagious. From then on Picasso, Modigliani, Klee, Giacometti, Ernst, Moore, and many other European artists made the same mistake, and did so with alarming frequency. Pillaged by its colonial masters, Africa would never know how responsible it was for the most astonishing achievements in twentieth-century European art. JUAN GONZALEZ: One of the amazing things to me in your writing is how you re able to get a nugget of historical fact that has been largely overlooked by others and then weave it into a story that really sort of shines a spotlight on an aspect of human conflict that others have not paid attention to. One that struck me especially was the origin of concentration camps that you wrote, which relates very much to the last one you wrote, about Africa. I m wondering if you could read that one. EDUARDO GALEANO: Concentration camps, yes. Let me see where it is. 243, yes. This is also an unknown story, because this book is made comes from 600 unknown stories, or at least not so known as they deserve to be, because they re stories about the invisibles, women, black, Indians, the South of the world, China India. Who knows? Who knows? We are much more than we are told we are and we were told we are, the human terrestrial rainbow with so many colors, mutilated, mutilated by racism. And this is another story about racism. When Obama was elected, I wrote an article, months ago, remembering that the White House was built by black hands and asking him, please, do not forget it, never, never. So this is about the origin of concentration camps. When Namibia won its independence in 1990, the main avenue of the capital city still bore the name Goring. Not for Hermann, Hermann Goring, the Nazi, but in honor of his father, Heinrich Goring, one of the perpetrators of the first genocide in the twentieth century. That Goring, who represented the German Empire in the south-west corner of Africa, kindly approved in 1904 an annihilation order given by General Lothar von Trotta. [inaudible] General Lothar von Trotta was the grandfather or father of this great German movie director, cinema director, Margarethe von Trotta, which is a source of optimism, because it should prove that humankind is not doomed to decay, I mean, that we may improve the quality of our products. Well, an annihilation order given by General Lothar von Trotta. The Hereros, black shepherds shefferds or shepherds? JUAN GONZALEZ: Shepherds. EDUARDO GALEANO: Shepherds had risen up in rebellion. And the colonial authorities expelled them all and warned that any Herero found in Namibia, man, woman, or child, armed or unarmed, would be killed. Of every four Hereros, three were killed, by cannon fire or the desert sun. The survivors of the butchery ended up in concentration camps set up by Goring. And Chancellor Bernhard von Bulow pronounced for the very first time the word concentration camp in German language [Konzentrationslager]. The camps, inspired by a British forerunner in South Africa, combined confinement, forced labor, and scientific experimentation. The prisoners, emaciated from a life in the gold and diamond mines, served as human guinea pigs for research into inferior races. And in those laboratories worked Theodor Mollison and Eugen Fischer, who later became the teachers of Josef Mengele. Mengele carried forth their work as of 1933, the year that Goring, Goring the son, set up the first concentration camps in Germany, following the model his father pioneered in Africa. This is one of the many unknown stories that I think we should remember, for obvious reasons, because if you don't know your past, you are doomed to repeat it. It's an old proverb, but it's true. AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about President Obama, a little more about him. We recently had on the Pan-Africanist scholar Ali Mazrui, who s a Kenyan scholar, a chancellor at a Kenyan school and also at Binghamton University in New York. He said Barack Obama has become the most powerful single black individual in the history of civilization. What about the significance of Barack Obama becoming president? EDUARDO GALEANO: Well, it's a very important a very important victory in a long, long and difficult and painful fight against racism, especially in this country, in the United States. Here in the book, I tell some stories, unknown or almost unknown, happened fifteen minutes ago in historical terms. For instance, in 1942, 1942, the Pentagon, when the United States was entered in the Second World War, the Pentagon forbade, prohibited the transfusions of black blood. And at that time, the director of the plasma bank in the Red Cross was a scientific called Charles Drew, and he denied the order. He denied to obey it, saying it s stupid. Such a thing, such a thing, black blood, does not exist. Blood is red; it s not black. Blood is red. And he knew what it was he was speaking about. He was almost the inventor of the plasma, or at least the scientific who made it possible. He saved million of lives in the Second World War. But besides being a scientific of very high reputation, he was black. And he was black. And so, he was not he knew perfectly well what he was speaking about, and that's why he resigned or was resigned. And this happened just a while ago, it s yesterday. So it'ss very important, the fact that Obama is now president of the United States, being, as he is, black or half-black, no? The problem is that nobody is better or worse for being black or white, like this book also, Mirrors, contains a lot of stories about women, this half of humanity. I don t know why called a minority. I m not strong in mathematics, but how half of humanity may be a minority? And I tell a lot of stories that are badly known or unknown. Then, my friends I have some terribly perverse friends, saying, Well, now the system gave you as a gift that wonderful woman called Condoleezza Rice. And I say, Well, yes, it's true, because a woman is not better than a man or a man better than a woman. We are all made, you know, half-garbage and half-marble, half-beauty and half-[expletive].~ But we should have the same opportunities. And that's a problem. The discrimination have condemned so many people to be invisible. And this book tries to recover their memories and to recover their presence. The fact that Obama is black is very important in the fight against racism, but it s also a challenge. I mean, he should prove that blacks can do it better than whites, like women in power, which is unfortunately not the case of Margaret Thatcher, for instance. But they are at least at least Margaret Thatcher had the opportunity to show it. And sometimes I think Obama is doing it well, and sometimes not. But it must be very difficult for him. Yesterday I said perhaps he's lost in the bush, and meaning that there is all this war machine, for instance. He improved the war budget. He improved it. In the campaign, he was promising a quite different attitude. But he ended raising the war budget, which is mysteriously named in the United States defense budget. I don't know defense against who, because the last time this country was invaded was in 1812. Well, later there was a short invasion by Pancho Villa, but this was almost nothing, I mean. And I believe we should we should propose a new model of world, not consecrated to this human passion of killing each other. We are the only animal specialized in mutual extermination. By the way, advertising, I'm a member of a vast movement working for a big giant march for peace and against violence on October 2 in all countries, in all countries. And I hope we may have millions and millions of feet walking in the whole planet, in all cities, in all parts of the world, against the war, against this crazy mad world living against itself, this big factory of death that the world is nowadays. Each minute, each minute, the last official figures say, each minute, the world gives, each minute, $3 million to military expenses, $3 million per minute for military expenses, for the industry of death. And each minute, fifteen children die from hunger or curable diseases. So we ll march against it, because we believe another world is possible. AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Eduardo Galeano, and we're going to be back with him in a minute. ################ AMY GOODMAN: Our guest for the hour is the great writer Eduardo Galeano. His most celebrated book, decades ago, Open Veins of Latin America. President Chavez of Venezuela just gave it to Barack Obama. Well, he s out with a new book, and it's called Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone. And he doesn't come to this country very much, so we re very glad to have him in our studio for the hour. Juan? JUAN GONZALEZ: Eduardo, I d like to ask you our show yesterday was about President Obama s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court, born here in the United States of Puerto Rican parents. And I know you have over the years expressed yourself on the status of Puerto Rico itself. I think 2007 you joined with Garcia Marquez and other Latin American writers, calling for Puerto Rico s sovereignty. Could you let our listeners and viewers know how in Latin America this relationship of Puerto Rico and the United States is viewed? EDUARDO GALEANO: It s viewed, yes, as a colonial remain, a shameful situation, because Puerto Rico should be independent, obviously, as Guantanamo should be part of Cuba instead of being a colonial enclave consecrated to torture people. Obviously, yes. These are remains of all past times. And the worst thing about this is that there are so many people everywhere trained to accept these situations like normal, and they are not normal at all. So I m a friend of this stubborn, marvelous Puerto Rican people, women, men, that they fight for their right to freedom and independence. They are a minority of minorities, I know. But this is something speak to speak for them and not against, because it s very easy to be on the side of the majorities. The problem is when you are telling the truth and you are almost alone. That's the situation of so many, so many gullible persons and movements in the world. And we are prisoners of a dominant culture, who punished the failure instead of rewarding success and obliging each one to be successful. We are trained to consider the other one as a competitor, as a menace, as an enemy, not as a promise. The world is very well designed to change. AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the state of Latin America today, and particularly about the media in Latin America? I mean, you were the editor of Crisis magazine. EDUARDO GALEANO: Yes. AMY GOODMAN: It was censored. You decided the magazine should not publish EDUARDO GALEANO: Yeah, yes, yes. AMY GOODMAN: in the time of censorship. EDUARDO GALEANO: Yeah, I was working for several magazines and newspapers, and this Crisis was a very nice experience. It was a cultural magazine, consecrated to cultural subjects and items. AMY GOODMAN: In Argentina? EDUARDO GALEANO: In Argentina, when I was in exile. Once a month, a very, very beautiful magazine who sold about 35,000, 40,000 copies, which is a record in the Spanish language, because we could diffuse a new conception of culture. Instead of repeating the old story about culture being the specialized work of artists and perhaps scientists, we tried to recover culture as a collective expression of identity. And so, we were talking to people, but also hearing what people had to say, in the walls with the graffitis, in the factories. We went with recorders trying to ask what they thought, for instance, the worker thought about the sun, because we were speaking to workers that never saw the sun, except on Sundays. They were working the whole day. Or to the drivers, the bus drivers, who sometimes were working in Argentina that years, fifteen, twenty hours per day. It was unbelievable. So, with our records registers, no? Grabadoras? AMY GOODMAN: Tape recorders. EDUARDO GALEANO: Tape recorder, tape recorders. We went there, asking them, When you can sleep, what do you dream? What are your dreams? Do you have dreams? Nightmares? And this was culture for us also. So it was a quite an original experience, really strange. And it was very, very successful, til first the economy and later the dictatorship finished it. And when words cannot be better than silence, it s better to shut up. JUAN GONZALEZ: But now there is in many Latin American countries, you have, on the one hand, the huge media giants, Globovision, Venevision and these others. EDUARDO GALEANO: Yeah. JUAN GONZALEZ: But you also have all this community media now. I think in Uruguay in 2007, they passed la Ley de Radiodifusion Comunitaria EDUARDO GALEANO: Yes. JUAN GONZALEZ: for community media. What is the impact of these community media operations now on the people? EDUARDO GALEANO: Yes. Now it improved a lot, because community radios and even TV had been persecuted and chased and prohibited during years and years and years, but now they re spreading all over the region, and they are very successful. And they can tell the other side of like Democracy Now! the other side of events and other you know, there is a private property of news like there is a private property of memory, a private property of the right to talk, to the right to say, to the right to be heard. And against this monopoly, which is an enemy of democracy, we have some democratic answers coming from the bottom of society, from people themselves, saying themselves, telling themselves. And this is quite important. It's a change. Usually even some left-wing intellectuals used to believe that people, normal people, ordinary people, workers, were only able to repeat the voices of the masters, they were only able to have echoes, not voices. But they do have voices. Even my friends, my close friends, from the priests of the theology of liberation, when they say, We are the voice of those who have no voice, it's a big mistake. Everybody has a voice. The problems is that they cannot be heard. But everybody has something to say that deserves to be heard, perhaps celebrated, perhaps at least forgiven. AMY GOODMAN: You were a pallbearer in the last weeks for the great writer Mario Benedetti EDUARDO GALEANO: Yes. AMY GOODMAN: who died at the age of eighty-eight, a fellow Uruguayan. EDUARDO GALEANO: Yes. AMY GOODMAN: What did Mario Benedetti mean to you? What was your relationship with him? EDUARDO GALEANO: Well, he was very generous with me, a very generous person, since I began writing. I was lucky with the old writers, twenty, thirty years older when I when I began writing, I received help from Benedetti, from Onetti also. They were patient and generous with me. And Mario was especially generous, like Julio Cortazar, for instance, strange rara avis, strange specimen AMY GOODMAN: Specimen. JUAN GONZALEZ: Specimen. EDUARDO GALEANO: in the writers in the writers community, because if the world is a zoo, we should be in the jail reserved for, I would say, pavos reales, peacocks, right? Pavos reales? JUAN GONZALEZ: Pavos reales, real EDUARDO GALEANO: The pavos reales are the turkey. JUAN GONZALEZ: The turkey. EDUARDO GALEANO: Yeah, but the turkey with this beautiful, colorful AMY GOODMAN: Plume. JUAN GONZALEZ: Peacock. EDUARDO GALEANO: feathers. JUAN GONZALEZ: Peacock. EDUARDO GALEANO: The peacocks? So, the peacocks. We will be in the jail of peacocks. And each victory is not celebrated. When you find a colleague in the street, How are things going? Then, if he says, Fine. Great. Great. You can't imagine, then a liver attack is happening, and you can see it. The face turns green. You need immediately a doctor, an urgent service from a doctor. And Mario Benedetti or Julio Cortazar were able to celebrate other one s success. They were very generous, both of them. AMY GOODMAN: We just have a minute, and you have just recovered from cancer and lost half your lung. EDUARDO GALEANO: Yes, yes. AMY GOODMAN: In this last minute, what gave you hope and strength to battle your own cancer? EDUARDO GALEANO: What gave me strength, to write. I wrote Mirrors. It was an answer to this challenge. Perhaps we are always challenged by death, by the certitude that someday we will die. It's true. It's our destiny. But also, the possibility of doing some things, I mean, to go on believing that there is a possible way of stay alive in your queridos querientes, in the people you loved and were loved by. AMY GOODMAN: Well, thank you for sharing this book and your recovery with us through Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone. Thank you, Eduardo Galeano, for being in the studio with us. EDUARDO GALEANO: Thank you, Amy. From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Thu May 28 17:40:04 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Thu May 28 17:40:54 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Cheating gas pumps In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090529004006.1DA9DF59D@fep05.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> Problem for supermarkets is that they change prices daily on many items, either up or down (often down and labelled "special") to take advantage of ephemeral markets. It's one thing to change price tags on shelves and another to change them on each item on the shelf. All a customer need do to avoid being ripped off at the till is either memorise the prices or jot them down on the way through the supermarket. I never spend a minute more in a supermarket than I absolutely have to, because in Western Australia the managers insist on using loudspeakers to pipe horrible thumping, yowling and caterwauling, laughingly billed as "music", at high volume throughout the store. If they didn't do that I might spend longer and maybe buy more. Dion Giles At 22:59 28/05/2009, Chris wrote: > > To mark each item with a price tag, apart from the printed > > computer code, wouldn't be "efficient" in modern economic terms. > >That's the pretext they use here too, but it's not credible because >they have to print the sell-by date and use-by date on each item anyway, >so they could print the price on the same place too (as one chain still >does, but it already announced that it will abandon this practice due to >"competition pressure" -- although consumers want to keep the price tags!). >No, the real reason is to defraud the customers, both by ad-hoc price >increases and cheating at the checkout. > >The competition "thanks to EU competitors" is not for better quality >(of service and products), but only for higher profits... > >Cheers, >Chris > > > > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword >"igve". > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not From hermann at picknowl.com.au Thu May 28 19:02:33 2009 From: hermann at picknowl.com.au (John Hermann) Date: Thu May 28 19:03:06 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] ABC TV TONIGHT 8:30pm Thursday, 28 May 2009 Documentary - The Ascent Of Money - Dreams Of Avarice In-Reply-To: <200905281450320656.0079BD58@smtp.totisp.net> References: <499F5D56.7030903@ozemail.com.au> <49C38BA9.7050800@ozemail.com.au> <6728B7DA018348C29C00E874CF79D885@Archetype> <4A1E29C9.1090101@ozemail.com.au> <200905281450320656.0079BD58@smtp.totisp.net> Message-ID: <200905290202.n4T22XwT020404@mail14.tpg.com.au> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090529/8e19844f/attachment.html From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Thu May 28 18:47:24 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Thu May 28 19:16:16 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fw: Remaking the Global Political Economy Message-ID: <013001c9e003$48f5c5c0$11ad57ca@jfos> The Bilderberg Plan for 2009: Remaking the Global Political Economy By Andrew G. Marshall Global Research, May 26, 2009 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MAR20090526&articleId=13738 From May 14-17, the global elite met in secret in Greece for the yearly Bilderberg conference, amid scattered and limited global media attention. Roughly 130 of the world?s most powerful individuals came together to discuss the pressing issues of today, and to chart a course for the next year. The main topic of discussion at this years meeting was the global financial crisis, which is no surprise, considering the list of conference attendees includes many of the primary architects of the crisis, as well as those poised to ?solve? it. The Agenda: The Restructuring of the Global Political Economy Before the meeting began, Bilderberg investigative journalist Daniel Estulin reported on the main item of the agenda, which was leaked to him by his sources inside. Though such reports cannot be verified, his sources, along with those of veteran Bilderberg tracker, Jim Tucker, have proven to be shockingly accurate in the past. Apparently, the main topic of discussion at this year's meeting was to address the economic crisis, in terms of undertaking, ?Either a prolonged, agonizing depression that dooms the world to decades of stagnation, decline and poverty ... or an intense-but-shorter depression that paves the way for a new sustainable economic world order, with less sovereignty but more efficiency.? Other items on the agenda included a plan to ?continue to deceive millions of savers and investors who believe the hype about the supposed up-turn in the economy. They are about to be set up for massive losses and searing financial pain in the months ahead,? and ?There will be a final push for the enactment of Lisbon Treaty, pending on Irish voting YES on the treaty in Sept or October,?[1] which would give the European Union massive powers over its member nations, essentially making it a supranational regional government, with each country relegated to more of a provincial status. Shortly after the meetings began, Bilderberg tracker Jim Tucker reported that his inside sources revealed that the group has on its agenda, ?the plan for a global department of health, a global treasury and a shortened depression rather than a longer economic downturn.? Tucker reported that Swedish Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister, Carl Bildt, ?Made a speech advocating turning the World Health Organization into a world department of health, advocating turning the IMF into a world department of treasury, both of course under the auspices of the United Nations.? Further, Tucker reported that, ?Treasury Secretary Geithner and Carl Bildt touted a shorter recession not a 10-year recession ... partly because a 10 year recession would damage Bilderberg industrialists themselves, as much as they want to have a global department of labor and a global department of treasury, they still like making money and such a long recession would cost them big bucks industrially because nobody is buying their toys.....the tilt is towards keeping it short.?[2] After the meetings finished, Daniel Estulin reported that, ?One of Bilderberg?s primary concerns according to Estulin is the danger that their zeal to reshape the world by engineering chaos in order to implement their long term agenda could cause the situation to spiral out of control and eventually lead to a scenario where Bilderberg and the global elite in general are overwhelmed by events and end up losing their control over the planet.?[3] On May 21, the Macedonian International News Agency reported that, ?A new Kremlin report on the shadowy Bilderberg Group, who this past week held their annual meeting in Greece, states that the West?s financial, political and corporate elite emerged from their conclave after coming to an agreement that in order to continue their drive towards a New World Order dominated by the Western Powers, the US Dollar has to be ?totally? destroyed.? Further, the same Kremlin report apparently stated that, ?most of the West?s wealthiest elite convened at an unprecedented secret meeting in New York called for and led by? David Rockefeller, ?to plot the demise of the US Dollar.?[4] The Secret Meeting of Billionaires The meeting being referred to was a secret meeting where, ?A dozen of the richest people in the world met for an unprecedented private gathering at the invitation of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to talk about giving away money,? held at Rockefeller University, and included notable philanthropists such as Gates, Buffett, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, George Soros, Eli Broad, Oprah Winfrey, David Rockefeller Sr. and Ted Turner. One attendee stated that, ?It wasn?t secret,? but that, ?It was meant to be a gathering among friends and colleagues. It was something folks have been discussing for a long time. Bill and Warren hoped to do this occasionally. They sent out an invite and people came.? Chronicle of Philanthropy editor Stacy Palmer said, ?Given how serious these economic times are, I don't think it's surprising these philanthropists came together,? and that, ?They don't typically get together and ask each other for advice.? The three hosts of the meeting were Buffet, Gates and David Rockefeller.[5] [See: Appendix 2: Bilderberg Connections to the Billionaire?s Meeting]. Bilderberg founding member David Rockefeller, Honourary Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, Honourary Chairman and Founder of the Trilateral Commission, Chairman of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society, former Chairman and CEO of Chase Manhattan. At the meeting, ?participants steadfastly refused to reveal the content of the discussion. Some cited an agreement to keep the meeting confidential. Spokesmen for Mr. Buffett, Mr. Bloomberg, Mr. Gates, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Soros and Ms. Winfrey and others dutifully declined comment, though some confirmed attendance.?[6] Reports indicate that, ?They discussed how to address the global slump and expand their charitable activities in the downturn.?[7] The UK newspaper The Times reported that these ?leading billionaires have met secretly to consider how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the world?s population,? and that they ?discussed joining forces to overcome political and religious obstacles to change.? Interestingly, ?The informal afternoon session was so discreet that some of the billionaires? aides were told they were at ?security briefings?.? Further, ?The billionaires were each given 15 minutes to present their favourite cause. Over dinner they discussed how they might settle on an ?umbrella cause? that could harness their interests,? and what was decided upon was that, ?they agreed that overpopulation was a priority.? Ultimately, ?a consensus emerged that they would back a strategy in which population growth would be tackled as a potentially disastrous environmental, social and industrial threat,? and that, ?They need to be independent of government agencies, which are unable to head off the disaster we all see looming.? One guest at the meeting said that, ?They wanted to speak rich to rich without worrying anything they said would end up in the newspapers, painting them as an alternative world government.?[8] The Leaked Report Bilderberg investigative reporter Daniel Estulin reportedly received from his inside sources a 73-page Bilderberg Group meeting wrap-up for participants, which revealed that there were some serious disagreements among the participants. ?The hardliners are for dramatic decline and a severe, short-term depression, but there are those who think that things have gone too far and that the fallout from the global economic cataclysm cannot be accurately calculated if Henry Kissinger's model is chosen. Among them is Richard Holbrooke. What is unknown at this point: if Holbrooke's point of view is, in fact, Obama's.? The consensus view was that the recession would get worse, and that recovery would be ?relatively slow and protracted,? and to look for these terms in the press over the next weeks and months. Estulin reported, ?that some leading European bankers faced with the specter of their own financial mortality are extremely concerned, calling this high wire act "unsustainable," and saying that US budget and trade deficits could result in the demise of the dollar.? One Bilderberger said that, ?the banks themselves don't know the answer to when (the bottom will be hit).? Everyone appeared to agree, ?that the level of capital needed for the American banks may be considerably higher than the US government suggested through their recent stress tests.? Further, ?someone from the IMF pointed out that its own study on historical recessions suggests that the US is only a third of the way through this current one; therefore economies expecting to recover with resurgence in demand from the US will have a long wait.? One attendee stated that, ?Equity losses in 2008 were worse than those of 1929,? and that, ?The next phase of the economic decline will also be worse than the '30s, mostly because the US economy carries about $20 trillion of excess debt. Until that debt is eliminated, the idea of a healthy boom is a mirage.?[9] According to Jim Tucker, Bilderberg is working on setting up a summit in Israel from June 8-11, where ?the world?s leading regulatory experts? can ?address the current economic situation in one forum.? In regards to the proposals put forward by Carl Bildt to create a world treasury department and world department of health under the United Nations, the IMF is said to become the World Treasury, while the World Health Organization is to become the world department of health. Bildt also reaffirmed using ?climate change? as a key challenge to pursue Bilderberg goals, referring to the economic crisis as a ?once-in-a-generation crisis while global warming is a once-in-a-millennium challenge.? Bildt also advocated expanding NAFTA through the Western hemisphere to create an American Union, using the EU as a ?model of integration.? The IMF reportedly sent a report to Bilderberg advocating its rise to becoming the World Treasury Department, and ?U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner enthusiastically endorsed the plan for a World Treasury Department, although he received no assurance that he would become its leader.? Geithner further said, ?Our hope is that we can work with Europe on a global framework, a global infrastructure which has appropriate global oversight.?[10] Bilderberg?s Plan in Action? Reorganizing the Federal Reserve Following the Bilderberg meeting, there were several interesting announcements made by key participants, specifically in regards to reorganizing the Federal Reserve. On May 21, it was reported that US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner ?is believed to be leaning heavily towards giving the Federal Reserve a central role in future regulation,? and ?it is understood that the Fed would take on some of the work currently undertaken by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.?[11] On Wednesday, May 20, Geithner spoke before the Senate Banking Committee, at which he stated that, ?there are important indications that our financial system is starting to heal.? In regards to regulating the financial system, Geithner stated that, ?we must ensure that international rules for financial regulation are consistent with the high standards we will be implementing in the United States.?[12] US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Bloomberg reported that, ?The Obama administration may call for stripping the Securities and Exchange Commission of some of its powers under a regulatory reorganization,? and that, ?The proposal, still being drafted, is likely to give the Federal Reserve more authority to supervise financial firms deemed too big to fail. The Fed may inherit some SEC functions, with others going to other agencies.? Interestingly, ?SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro?s agency has been mostly absent from negotiations within the administration on the regulatory overhaul, and she has expressed frustration about not being consulted.? It was reported that ?Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was set to discuss proposals to change financial regulations last night at a dinner with National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers [who was also present at Bilderberg], former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker [also at Bilderberg], ex-SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt and Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard University law professor who heads the congressional watchdog group for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.?[13] The Federal Reserve is a privately owned central bank, owned by its shareholders, consisting of the major banks the make up each regional Fed bank (the largest of which is JP Morgan Chase and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York). This plan would essentially give a privately owned bank, which has governmental authority, the ability to regulate the banks that own it. It?s the equivalent of getting a Colonel to guard a General to whom he is directly answerable. Talk about the fox guarding the hen house. It is literally granting ownership over the financial regulator to the banks being regulated. As Market Watch, an online publication of the Wall Street Journal, reported, ?The Federal Reserve, created nearly 100 years ago in the aftermath of a financial panic, could be transformed into a different agency as the Obama administration reinvents the way government interacts with the financial system.? Referring to Geithner?s Senate appearance, it was reported that, ?Geithner was also grilled on the cozy relationships that exist between the big banks and the regional Federal Reserve banks. Before Geithner joined the administration, he was president of the New York Fed, which is a strange public-private hybrid institution that is actually owned and run by the banks.? In response, ?Geithner insisted that the private banks have no say over the policies of the New York Fed, but he acknowledged that the banks do have a say in hiring the president, who does make policy. The chairman of the New York Fed, Stephen Friedman, was forced to resign earlier this month because of perceived conflicts of interest due to his large holdings in Goldman Sachs.?[14] The IMF as a Global Treasury The Bilderberg agenda of creating a global treasury has already been started prior to the Bilderberg meeting, with decisions made during the G20 financial summit in April. Although the G20 seemed to frame it more in context of being formed into a global central bank, although it is likely the IMF could fill both roles. Following the G20 meeting at the beginning of April, 2009, it was reported that, ?The world is a step closer to a global currency, backed by a global central bank, running monetary policy for all humanity,? as the Communiqu? released by the G20 leaders stated that, ?We have agreed to support a general SDR allocation which will inject $250bn (?170bn) into the world economy and increase global liquidity,? and that, ?SDRs are Special Drawing Rights, a synthetic paper currency issued by the International Monetary Fund that has lain dormant for half a century.? Essentially, ?they are putting a de facto world currency into play. It is outside the control of any sovereign body.?[15] [See Appendix 2: Creating a Central Bank of the World] Following the Bilderberg meeting, ?President Obama has asked Congress to authorize $100 billion in loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help create a $500 billion global bailout fund,? which would give the IMF the essential prerogative of a global treasury, providing bailouts for countries in need around the world. Further, ?the bill would allow the IMF to borrow up to $100 billion from the U.S. and increase the U.S. fiscal contribution to the IMF by $8 billion.? Elaborating on the program, it was reported that, ?World leaders began on the global bailout initiative, called the New Arrangement for Borrowing (NAB), at the G-20 summit in early April. The president agreed at that time to make the additional funds available.? Obama wrote that, ?Treasury Secretary Geithner concluded that the size of the NAB is woefully inadequate to deal with the type of severe economic and financial crisis we are experiencing, and I agree with him.?[16] With the G20 decision to increase the usage of IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), forming a de facto world currency, it was recently reported that, ?Sub-Saharan Africa will receive around $10 billion from the IMF in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to help its economies weather the global financial crisis,? and that, ?As part of a $1.1 trillion deal to combat the world economic downturn agreed at April's G20 summit, the IMF will issue $250 billion worth of SDRs, which can be used to boost foreign currency reserves.?[17] Recent reports have also indicated that the IMF?s role in issuing SDRs goes hand in hand with the Bilderberg discussion on the potential collapse of the US dollar, and, ?Transforming the dollar standard into an SDR-based system would be a major break with a policy that has lasted more than 60 years.? It was reported that, ?There are two ways in which the dollar?s role in the international monetary system can be reduced. One possibility is a gradual, market-determined erosion of the dollar as a reserve currency in favor of the euro. But, while the euro?s international role ? especially its use in financial markets ? has increased since its inception, it is hard to envisage it overtaking the dollar as the dominant reserve currency in the foreseeable future.? However, ?With the dollar?s hegemony unlikely to be seriously undermined by market forces, at least in the short and medium-term, the only way to bring about a major reduction in its role as a reserve currency is by international agreement.? This is where the SDRs come into play, as ?One way to make the SDR the major reserve currency relatively soon would be to create and allocate a massive amount of new SDRs to the IMF?s members.?[18] This is, interestingly, exactly what is happening with Africa and the IMF now. Former IMF Managing Director Jacques de Larosi?re recently stated that the current financial crisis, ?given its scope, presents a unique opening to improve institutions, and there is already a danger that the chance might be missed if the different actors cannot agree to changes by the time economic growth resumes.? He is now an adviser with BNP Paribas, a corporation highly represented at Bilderberg meetings, and he was head of the Treasury of France when Val?ry Giscard d?Estaing was President of France, who is a regular of the Bilderberg Group.[19] The Guardian Covers Bilderberg The British paper, the Guardian, was the only major mainstream news publication to provide ongoing coverage of the Bilderberg meeting over the weekend. His first columns were satirical and slightly mocking, referring to it as, ?A long weekend at a luxury hotel, where the world's elite get to shake hands, clink glasses, fine-tune their global agenda and squabble over who gets the best sun loungers. I'm guessing that Henry Kissinger brings his own, has it helicoptered in and guarded 24/7 by a CIA special ops team.?[20] However, as the weekend dragged on, his reporting took a change of tone. He reported on the Saturday that, ?I know that I'm being followed. I know because I've just been chatting to the plainclothes policemen I caught following me,? and he was arrested twice in the first day of the meetings for attempting to take photographs as the limousines entered the hotel.[21] He later reported that he wasn?t sure what they were discussing inside the hotel, but that he has ?a sense of something rotten in the state of Greece,? and he further stated, ?Three days and I've been turned into a suspect, a troublemaker, unwanted, ill at ease, tired and a bit afraid.? He then went on to write that, ?Bilderberg is all about control. It's about "what shall we do next?" We run lots of stuff already, how about we run some more? How about we make it easier to run stuff? More efficient. Efficiency is good. It would be so much easier with a single bank, a single currency, a single market, a single government. How about a single army? That would be pretty cool. We wouldn't have any wars then. This prawn cocktail is GOOD. How about a single way of thinking? How about a controlled internet?,? and then, ?How about not.? He makes a very astute point, countering the often postulated argument that Bilderberg is simply a forum where people can speak freely, writing: ?I am so unbelievably backteeth sick of power being flexed by the few. I've had it flexed in my face for three days, and it's up my nose like a wasp. I don't care whether the Bilderberg Group is planning to save the world or shove it in a blender and drink the juice, I don't think politics should be done like this,? and the author, Charlie Skelton, eloquently stated, ?If they were trying to cure cancer they could do it with the lights on.? He further explained that, ?Bilderberg is about positions of control. I get within half a mile of it, and suddenly I'm one of the controlled. I'm followed, watched, logged, detained, detained again. I'd been put in that position by the "power" that was up the road.?[22] On Sunday, May 17, Skelton reported that when he asked the police chief why he was being followed, the chief responded asking, ?Why you here?? to which Skelton said he was there to cover the Bilderberg conference, after which the chief stated, ?Well, that is the reason! That is why! We are finished!?[23] Do reporters get followed around and stalked by police officers when they cover the World Economic Forum? No. So why does it happen with Bilderberg if all it is, is a conference to discuss ideas freely? On the Monday following the conference, Skelton wrote that, ?It isn't just me who's been hauled into police custody for daring to hang around half a mile from the hotel gates. The few journalists who've made the trip to Vouliagmeni this year have all been harassed and harried and felt the business end of a Greek walkie-talkie. Many have been arrested. Bernie, from the American Free Press, and Gerhard the documentarian (sounds like a Dungeons and Dragons character) chartered a boat from a nearby marina to try to get photos from the sea. They were stopped three miles from the resort. By the Greek navy.? As Skelton said himself, ?My dispatches on the 2009 conference, if they mean anything at all, represent nothing more acutely than the absence of thorough mainstream reporting.?[24] Skelton?s final report on Bilderberg from May 19, showed how far he had gone in his several days of reporting on the meeting. >From writing jokingly about the meeting, to discovering that he was followed by the Greek State Security force. Skelton mused, ?So who is the paranoid one? Me, hiding in stairwells, watching the pavement behind me in shop windows, staying in the open for safety? Or Bilderberg, with its two F-16s, circling helicopters, machine guns, navy commandos and policy of repeatedly detaining and harassing a handful of journalists? Who's the nutter? Me or Baron Mandelson? Me or Paul Volker, the head of Obama's economic advisory board? Me or the president of Coca-Cola?? Skelton stated that, ?Publicity is pure salt to the giant slug of Bilderberg. So I suggest next year we turn up with a few more tubs. If the mainstream press refuses to give proper coverage to this massive annual event, then interested citizens will have to: a people's media.? Amazingly, Skelton made the pronouncement that what he learned after the Bilderberg conference, was that, ?we must fight, fight, fight, now ? right now, this second, with every cubic inch of our souls ? to stop identity cards,? as, ?It's all about the power to ask, the obligation to show, the justification of one's existence, the power of the asker over the subservience of the asked.? He stated that he ?learned this from the random searches, detentions, angry security goon proddings and thumped police desks without number that I've had to suffer on account of Bilderberg: I have spent the week living in a nightmare possible future and many different terrible pasts. I have had the very tiniest glimpse into a world of spot checks and unchecked security powers. And it has left me shaken. It has left me, literally, bruised.? Pointedly, he explains that, ?The identity card turns you from a free citizen into a suspect.?[25] Who was there? Royalty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, the largest shareholder in Royal Dutch Shell Among the members of the Bilderberg Group are various European monarchs. At this years meeting, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands was present, who happens to be the largest single shareholder in Royal Dutch Shell, one of the world?s largest corporations. She was joined by one of her three sons, Prince Constantijn, who also attended the meeting. Prince Constantijn has worked with the Dutch European Commissioner for the EU, as well as having been a strategic policy consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton in London, a major strategy and technology consulting firm with expertise in Economic and Business Analysis, Intelligence and Operations Analysis and Information Technology, among many others. Prince Constantijn has also been a policy researcher for RAND Corporation in Europe. RAND was initially founded as a global policy think tank that was formed to offer research and analysis to the US Armed Forces, however, it now works with governments, foundations, international organizations and commercial organizations.[26] Also present among European Royalty was Prince Philippe of Belgium, and Queen Sofia of Spain. Private Bankers As usual, the list of attendees was also replete with names representing the largest banks in the world. Among them, David Rockefeller, former CEO and Chairman of Chase Manhattan, now JP Morgan Chase, of which he was, until recently, Chairman of the International Advisory Board; and still sits as Honourary Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, Chairman of the Board of the Americas Society and Council of the Americas, Honourary Chairman of the Trilateral Commission, which he founded alongside Zbigniew Brzezinski; also a founding member of the Bilderberg Group, prominent philanthropist and is the current patriarch of one of the world?s richest and most powerful banking dynasties. Also present was Josef Ackermann, a Swiss banker who is CEO of Deutsche Bank, also a non-executive director of Royal Dutch Shell; Deputy Chairman of Siemens AG, Europe?s largest engineering corporation; he is also a member of the International Advisory Council of Zurich Financial Services Group; Chairman of the Board of the Institute International of Finance, the world?s only global association of financial institutions; and Vice Chairman of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum.[27] Roger Altman was also present at the Bilderberg meeting, an investment banker, private equity investor and former Deputy Treasury Secretary in the Clinton Administration. Other bankers at this years meeting include Ana Patricia Botin, Chairman of the Spanish bank, Banco Espa?ol de Cr?dito, formerly having worked with JP Morgan; Frederic Oudea, CEO and newly appointed Chairman of the Board of French bank Societe Generale; Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, an Italian banker and economist, formerly Italy?s Minister of Economy and Finance; Jacob Wallenberg, Chairman of Investor AB; Marcus Wallenberg, CEO of Investor AB; and George David, CEO of United Technologies Corporation, who also sits on the board of Citigroup, member of the Business Council, the Business Roundtable, and is Vice Chairman of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. [For more on the Peterson Institute, see: Appendix 1] Canadian bankers include W. Edmund Clark, President and CEO of TD Bank Financial Group, also a member of the board of directors of the C.D. Howe Institute, a prominent Canadian think tank; Frank McKenna, Deputy Chairman of TD Bank Financial Group, former Canadian Ambassador to the United States, former Premier of New Brunswick; and Indira Samarasekera, President of the University of Alberta, who is also on the board of Scotiabank, one of Canada?s largest banks. Central Bankers Of course, among the notable members of the Bilderberg Group, are the world?s major central bankers. Among this years members are the Governor of the National Bank of Greece, Governor of the Bank of Italy, President of the European Investment Bank, James Wolfensohn, former President of the World Bank, and Nout Wellink, on the board of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).[28] Jean-Claude Trichet, the President of the European Central Bank was also present.[29] There is no indication that the Governor of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke was present, which would be an odd turn of events, considering that the Federal Reserve Governor is always present at Bilderberg meetings, alongside the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, William C. Dudley. I have contacted the New York Fed inquiring if Dudley visited Greece or went to any meetings in Greece between May 14-17, or if another senior representative from the New York Fed went in his stead. I have yet to get a response. The Obama Administration at Bilderberg National Security Adviser General James Jones The Obama administration was heavily represented at this years Bilderberg meeting. Among the attendees were Keith B. Alexander, a Lieutenant General of U.S. Army and Director of the National Security Agency, the massive spying agency of the United States; Timothy Geithner, US Treasury Secretary and former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration?s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan; General James Jones, United States National Security Advisor; Henry Kissinger, Obama?s special envoy to Russia, longtime Bilderberg member and former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor; Dennis Ross, special advisor for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; David Patraeus, Commander of CENTCOM, (U.S. Central Command, in the Middle East), Lawrence Summers, Director of the White House's National Economic Council, former Treasury Secretary in the Clinton administration, former President of Harvard University, former Chief Economist of the World Bank; Paul Volcker, former Governor of the Federal Reserve System and Chair of Obama?s Economic Recovery Advisory Board; Robert Zoellick, former Chairman of Goldman Sachs and current President of the World Bank;[30] and Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg.[31] Other Notable Names Among many others present at the meeting are Viscount ?tienne Davignon, former Vice President of the European Commission, and Honourary Chairman of the Bilderberg Group; Francisco Pinto Balsem?o, former Prime Minister of Portugal; Franco Bernab?, CEO of Telecom Italia and Vice Chairman of Rothschild Europe; Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden; Kenneth Clarke, Shadow Business Secretary in the UK; Richard Dearlove, former head of Britain?s Secret Intelligence Services (MI6); Donald Graham, CEO of the Washington Post Company; Jaap De Hoop Scheffer, Secretary-General of NATO; John Kerr, member of the British House of Lords and Deputy Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell; Jessica Matthews, President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Richard Perle of the American Enterprise Institute; Romano Prodi, former Italian Prime Minister; J. Robert S. Prichard, CEO of Torstar Corporation and President Emeritus of the University of Toronto; Peter Sutherland, former Director General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), first Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and is currently Chairman of British Petroleum (BP) and Goldman Sachs International as well as being a board member of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Chairman of the Trilateral Commission, Vice Chairman of the European Roundtable of Industrialists, and longtime Bilderberg member; Peter Thiel, on the board of directors of Facebook; Jeroen van der Veer, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell; Martin Wolf, Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator of the Financial Times newspaper; and Fareed Zakaria, US journalist and board member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[32] There were also some reports that this years meeting would include Google CEO Eric Schmidt, as well as Wall Street Journal Editor Paul Gigot,[33] both of whom attended last years meeting.[34] Conclusion Clearly, it was the prerogative of this year?s Bilderberg meeting to exploit the global financial crisis as much as possible to reach goals they have been striving toward for many years. These include the creation of a Global Treasury Department, likely in conjunction with or embodied in the same institution as a Global Central Bank, both of which seem to be in the process of being incorporated into the IMF. Naturally, Bilderberg meetings serve the interests of the people and organizations that are represented there. Due to the large amount of representatives from the Obama administration that were present, US policies revolving around the financial crisis are likely to have emerged from and serve the interests of the Bilderberg Group. Given the heavy representation of Obama?s foreign policy establishment at the Bilderberg meeting, it seemed surprising to not have received any more information regarding US foreign policy from this year?s meeting, perhaps having to do with Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, the US recently decided to fire the general who oversaw the Afghan war, being replaced with ?Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a former Green Beret who recently commanded the military's secretive special operations forces in Iraq.?[35] From 2003 to 2008, McChrystal ?led the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which oversees the military's most sensitive forces, including the Army's Delta Force,? and who Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh singled out as the head of VP Cheney?s ?executive assassination wing.?[36] So, given these recent changes, as well as the high degree of representation Obama?s foreign policy establishment held at Bildebrerg this year, there were likely to have been some decisions or at least discussion of the escalation of the Afghan war and expansion into Pakistan. However, it is not surprising that the main item on the agenda was the global financial crisis. Without a doubt, the next year will be an interesting one, and the elite are surely hoping to make it a productive one. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- APPENDIX 1: Bilderberg Connections to the Billionaire?s Meeting Peter G. Peterson, one of the guests in attendance at the secret billionaires meeting, was the former United States Secretary of Commerce in the Nixon administration, Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb Inc., from 1977 to 1984, he co-founded the prominent private equity and investment management firm, the Blackstone Group, of which he is currently Senior Chairman, and in 1985, he became Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, taking over when David Rockefeller stepped down from that position. He founded the Peterson Institute for International Economics and was Chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Bank from 2000-2004. The Peterson Institute for International Economics is a major world economic think tank, which seeks to ?inform and shape public debate,? from which, ?Institute studies have helped provide the intellectual foundation for many of the major international financial initiatives of the past two decades: reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), adoption of international banking standards, exchange rate systems in the G-7 and emerging-market economies, policies toward the dollar, the euro, and other important currencies, and responses to debt and currency crises (including the current crisis of 2008?09).? It has also ?made important contributions to key trade policy decisions? such as the development of the World Trade Organization, NAFTA, APEC, and East Asian regionalism.[37] It has a prominent list of names on its board of directors. Peter G. Peterson is Chairman of the board; George David, Chairman of United Technologies is Vice Chairman, as well as being a board member of Citigroup, and was a guest at this year?s Bilderberg meeting; Chen Yuan, Governor of the China Development Bank and former Deputy Governor of the People?s Bank of China (China?s central bank); Jessica Einhorn, Dean of Washington's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of the Johns Hopkins University, former Visiting Fellow of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), former Managing Director of the World Bank, and currently on the board of Time Warner and the Council on Foreign Relations; Stanley Fischer, Governor of the Central Bank of Israel, former Vice President at the World Bank, former Managing Director at the IMF, former Vice Chairman of Citigroup, and has also been a regular participant in Bilderberg meetings; Carla A. Hills, former US Trade Representative, and was the prime negotiator of NAFTA, she sits on the International Advisory Boards of American International Group, the Coca-Cola Company, Gilead Sciences, J.P. Morgan Chase, member of the Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission, Co-Chair of the Council on Foreign Relations, and played a key part in the CFR document, ?Building a North American Community,? which seeks to remodel North America following along the lines of the European Union, and she has also been a prominent Bilderberg member; David Rockefeller also sits on the Peterson Institute?s board, as well as Lynn Forester de Rothschild; Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, who is at every Bilderberg meeting; Paul A. Volcker, former Governor of the Federal Reserve System, regular participant of Bilderberg meetings, and current Chair of Obama?s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Honourary Directors of the Peterson Institute include Bilderbergers Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, a prime architect of the current crisis; Frank E. Loy, former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, and is on the boards of Environmental Defense, the Pew Center for Global Climate Change, Resources for the Future, and Population Services International; George P. Shultz, former US Secretary of State in the Reagan administration, President and Director of Bechtel Group and former Secretary of the Treasury.[38] APPENDIX 2: Creating a Central Bank of the World Jeffrey Garten, Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade in the Clinton administration, former Dean of the Yale School of Management, previously served on the White House Council on International Economic Policy under the Nixon administration and on the policy planning staffs of Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Cyrus Vance of the Ford and Carter administrations. He also was a managing director of Lehman Brothers and the Blackstone Group, is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. As early as 1998, Garten wrote an article for the New York Times in which he advocated the creation of a global central bank.[39] Amid the current financial crisis, Garten wrote an article for the Financial Times in which he advocated for ?the establishment of a Global Monetary Authority to oversee markets that have become borderless,? acting as a global central bank.[40] In late October, Garten wrote an article for Newsweek in which he said that world ?leaders should begin laying the groundwork for establishing a global central bank.?[41] Three days after the publication of Garten?s Newsweek article, it was reported that, ?The International Monetary Fund may soon lack the money to bail out an ever growing list of countries crumbling across Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia, raising concerns that it will have to tap taxpayers in Western countries for a capital infusion or resort to the nuclear option of printing its own money.? Further, ?The nuclear option is to print money by issuing Special Drawing Rights, in effect acting as if it were the world's central bank.?[42] [For a detailed look at the moves to create a global central bank, regional currencies, a global reserve currency and a world governing body, see: Andrew G. Marshall, The Financial New World Order: Towards a Global Currency and World Government: Global Research, April 6, 2009] Endnotes [1] CFP, Annual Elite Conclave, 58th Bilderberg Meeting to be held in Greece, May 14-17. Canadian Free Press: May 5, 2009: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/10854 [2] Paul Joseph Watson, Bilderberg Wants Global Department Of Health, Global Treasury. Prison Planet: May 16, 2009: http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-wants-global-department-of-health-global-treasury/ [3] Paul Joseph Watson, Bilderberg Fears Losing Control In Chaos-Plagued World. Prison Planet: May 18, 2009: http://www.prisonplanet.com/bilderberg-fears-losing-control-in-chaos-plagued-world.html [4] Sorcha Faal, Bilderberg Group orders destruction of US Dollar? MINA: May 21, 2009: http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/6807/53/ [5] Kristi Heim, What really happened at the billionaires' private confab. The Seattle Times: May 20, 2009: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thebusinessofgiving/2009244202_what_really_happened_at_the_bi.html [6] A. G. Sulzberger, The Rich Get ? Together (Shhh, It Was a Secret). The New York Times: May 20, 2009: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/the-rich-get-together-shhh-it-was-a-secret/ [7] Chosun, American Billionaires Gather to Discuss Slump. The Chosun Ilbo: May 22, 2009: http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/05/22/2009052200772.html [8] John Harlow, Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation. The Sunday Times: May 24, 2009: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6350303.ece [9] Press Release, Investigative Author, Daniel Estulin Exposes Bilderberg Group Plans. PRWeb: May 22, 2009: http://www.prweb.com/releases/Bilderberg_Group_Meeting/Daniel_Estulin/prweb2453144.htm [10] James P. Tucker Jr., BILDERBERG AGENDA EXPOSED. American Free Press: June 1, 2009: http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/bilderberg_2009_179.html [11] James Quinn, Tim Geithner to reform US financial regulation. The Telegraph: May 21, 2009: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance /5359527/Tim-Geithner-to-reform-US-financial-regulation.html [12] Greg Menges, U. S. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy F. Geithner speech before the Senate Banking Committee. Examiner: May 20, 2009: http://www.examiner.com/x-8184-Boston-Investing-Examiner~y2009m 5d20-U-S-Secretary-of-the-Treasury-Timothy-F-Geithner-speech-before-the-Senate-Banking-Committee [13] Robert Schmidt and Jesse Westbrook, U.S. May Strip SEC of Powers in Regulatory Overhaul. Bloomberg: May 20: 2009: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a18ctNv3FDcw [14] Rex Nutting, Fed could be completely retooled, Geithner says. Market Watch: May 20, 2009: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fed-could-be-completely-retooled-geithner-says [15] Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The G20 moves the world a step closer to a global currency. The Telegraph: April 3, 2009: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/5096524/The-G20-moves-the-world-a-step-closer-to-a-global-currency.html [16] Marie Magleby, Obama Wants U.S. to Loan $100 Billion to Global Bailout Fund. CNS News: May 20, 2009: http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=48329 [17] Joe Bavier, Sub-Saharan Africa to receive $10 bln in SDRs-IMF. Reuters: May 25, 2009: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLP336909 [18] Onno Wijnholds, The Dollar?s Last Days? International Business Times: May 18, 2009: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20090518/dollar-rsquolast-days.htm [19] MATTHEW SALTMARSH, Former I.M.F. Chief Sees Opportunity in Crisis. The New York Times: May 22, 2009: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/business/global/23spot.html?ref=global [20] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: in pursuit of the world's most powerful cabal. The Guardian: May 13, 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/13/in-search-of-bilderberg [21] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: They're watching and following me, I tell you. The Guardian: May 15, 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/15/bilderberg-charlie-skelton-dispatch [22] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: I'm ready to lose control, but they're not. The Guardian: May 15, 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/15/bilderberg-charlie-skelton-dispatch1 [23] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: 'You are not allowed to take pictures of policemen!' The Guardian: May 17, 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/17/charlie-skelton-bilderberg [24] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: Fear my pen. The Guardian: May 18, 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/18/bilderberg-charlie-skelton-dispatch [25] Charlie Skelton, Our man at Bilderberg: Let's salt the slug in 2010. The Guardian: May 19, 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/may/19/bilderberg-skelton-greece [26] Dutch Royal House, Work and official duties. Prince Constantijn: http://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/english/content.jsp?objectid=18215 [27] Deutsche Bank, Management Board. Our Company: http://www.db.com/en/content/company/management_board.htm [28] InfoWars, Bilderberg 2009 Attendee List (revised). May 18, 2009: http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2009-attendee-list/ [29] Demetris Nellas, Greek nationalists protest Bilderberg Club meeting. AP: May 14, 2009: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jep_nbEq1srzJHFQ8fRGNQO3P38QD987H3200 [30] InfoWars, Bilderberg 2009 Attendee List (revised). May 18, 2009: http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2009-attendee-list/ [31] MRT, Top US official arrives in Greece. Macedonian Radio and Television: May 15, 2009: http://www.mrt.com.mk/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6112&Itemid=28 [32] InfoWars, Bilderberg 2009 Attendee List (revised). May 18, 2009: http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2009-attendee-list/ [33] WND, Google joins Bilderberg cabal. World Net Daily: May 17, 2009: http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=98469 [34] Adam Abrams, Are the people who 'really run the world' meeting this weekend? Haaretz: May 14, 2009: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1085589.html [35] YOCHI J. DREAZEN and PETER SPIEGEL, U.S. Fires Afghan War Chief. The Wall Street Journal: May 12, 2009: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124206036635107351.html [36] M.J. Stephey, Stan McChrystal: The New U.S. Commander in Afghanistan. Time Magazine: May 12, 2009: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1897542,00.html [37] PIIE, About the Institute. Peterson Institute for International Economics: http://www.petersoninstitute.org/institute/aboutiie.cfm [38] PIIE, Board of Directors. Peterson Institute for International Economics: http://www.petersoninstitute.org/institute/board.cfm#52 [39] Jeffrey E. Garten, Needed: A Fed for the World. The New York Times: September 23, 1998: http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/23/opinion/needed-a-fed-for-the-world.html [40] Jeffrey Garten, Global authority can fill financial vacuum. The Financial Times: September 25, 2008: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7caf543e-8b13-11dd-b634-0000779fd18c,Authorised=false.html?_i_ location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F7caf543e-8b13-11dd-b634-000077 9fd18c.html&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwilliamnotes.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F09%2F30%2Fgarten-on-a-global-monetary-authority%2F [41] Jeffrey Garten, We Need a Bank Of the World. Newsweek: October 25, 2009: http://www.newsweek.com/id/165772 [42] Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, IMF may need to "print money" as crisis spreads. The Telegraph: October 28, 2009: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans _pritchard/3269669/IMF-may-need-to-print-money-as-crisis-spreads.html Andrew G. Marshall is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is currently studying Political Economy and History at Simon Fraser University. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Centre for Research on Globalization. The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this article. To become a Member of Global Research The CRG grants permission to cross-post original Global Research articles on community internet sites as long as the text & title are not modified. The source and the author's copyright must be displayed. For publication of Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: crgeditor@yahoo.com www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner. For media inquiries: crgeditor@yahoo.com ? Copyright Andrew G. Marshall, Global Research, 2009 The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=13738 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ? Copyright 2005-2007 GlobalResearch.ca Web site engine by Polygraphx Multimedia ? Copyright 2005-2007 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090529/9ce2d5a8/attachment-0001.html From creuss at bluewin.ch Fri May 29 04:35:37 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Fri May 29 04:39:07 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Cheating gas pumps Message-ID: Dion Giles wrote: > Problem for supermarkets is that they change prices daily on many > items, either up or down (often down and labelled "special") to take > advantage of ephemeral markets. It's one thing to change price tags > on shelves and another to change them on each item on the shelf. In this country, prices used to be stable (often for years per product) for decades, all tagged on the product, and in case of an ad-hoc rebate they simply put a red "50%" (or so) sticker on the few affected products. The daily price gambling and shelf-tagging only came about when cheapo EU chain stores pushed in and the Wall Street gamblers started to misuse food as commodities of speculation. At the same time, all stores entered a war (started by the EU chains) of whole-page ads in the newspapers advertising their latest cheapo crap -- wasting millions for these ads while they say they can't afford the expense of putting price tags on the products anymore! *ARRGH* Of course the press bribed by these ads is absolutely fond of the EU chains and praises the rat-race to the bottom while ignoring the loss of quality & service... > All a customer need do to avoid being ripped off at the till is either > memorise the prices or jot them down on the way through the supermarket. Great service, eh... > I never spend a minute more in a supermarket than I > absolutely have to, because in Western Australia the managers insist > on using loudspeakers to pipe horrible thumping, yowling and > caterwauling, laughingly billed as "music", at high volume > throughout the store. If they didn't do that I might spend longer > and maybe buy more. They probably figure that shopaholics (their best customers) do like the "music". Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From creuss at bluewin.ch Fri May 29 14:29:52 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Fri May 29 14:33:17 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Human trafficking in Poland worsens since EU: UN expert Message-ID: More evidence that EU/Schengen is "BY the gangsters FOR the gangsters"... http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1243619228.0 Human trafficking in Poland worsens since EU: UN expert 29 May 2009, 19:47 CET (GENEVA) - Human trafficking in Poland has worsened since the country joined the European Union and Europe's borderless Schengen zone, a UN independent expert said Friday. "The scale of trafficking in persons is not only serious in Poland but has been somewhat aggravated in the past five years by virtue of Poland joining the European Union and also acceding to the Schengen zone," said Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, special rapporteur on human trafficking. "These developments unarguably helped to transform Poland from being mainly a source country to clearly becoming a transit and a destination country combined," she said in statement following a mission to Poland this week. Trafficking for labour and prostitution is already endemic in Poland, said Ezeilo, adding that data from the police indicates that cases of human trafficking are "growing by the day." Despite the growth, inspectors did not have the "necessary capacity" to deal with the issue. Ezeilo called on the Polish government to strengthen its laws to deal with trafficking for labour exploitation. In addition, she said victims should receive compensation by law. Text and Picture Copyright 2009 AFP. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From clementclarke at ozemail.com.au Sun May 31 11:23:51 2009 From: clementclarke at ozemail.com.au (Clement Clarke) Date: Sun May 31 11:24:23 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] [Fwd: [GJM] FW: crumbly situation] Message-ID: <4A22CB37.7000000@ozemail.com.au> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090601/7af49a3a/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion@globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net -------------- next part -------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.339 / Virus Database: 270.12.46/2144 - Release Date: 05/30/09 17:53:00