Iraqis Toss Us Out

As Last British Troops Leave Iraq, a Coalition Ends - NYTimes.com

The Iraqi Parliament recessed Monday and left a ream of undecided legislation behind — including an extension to an agreement that would allow the British military to keep a residual training force of 100 soldiers in Iraq. As a result, those troops will withdraw to Kuwait by Friday, according to a British diplomat, who declined to be identified in keeping with his government’s practice.

The other two small remnants of the coalition, the Romanians and Australians, will also be gone on Friday, if not before then.

This Is Big

Or at least, it SHOULD be...

Glenn Greenwald picks up on a NYT story about how Dick Cheney wanted to deploy the US military on home soil barely a month after 9/11.

We Need To Toughen Anti-Terror Laws!

Yes, we need to make sure that the lying bastards in government are all locked up for terrorizing the planet LO! these many years... Let's make the laws so tough that anyone who says anything that strikes fear into the heart of anyone over the age of 4 gets locked away for good.

Sarcasm sparked by reading this bit from Your Democracy.

BTW I just spent two hours waiting for my youngest boy to see a doctor. He had a flu but was eager to see a doctor because he was scared it was swine flu. Or more to the point, was scared it was fatal (which is a very real fear for an 11-year-old and not something that should be readily encouraged). And yeah - two hours to see a doctor! Does Obama really want to copy our Medicare model? There MUST be a better way!

PS: Barak, if you are reading this blog (as your predecessors in the Oval Office did) I think the answer lies in Denmark. Or maybe the 1960s.

Ave Atque Vale

The last of the noblest generation:

"War," he said, "is organised murder, and nothing else."

Transparent Farce

So who supplied the arms that helped Sri Lanka commit virtual genocide on their Tamil ethnic minority? For fuck's sake... This money is going straight into more US/UK military spending, that's how the game works. BBC news is totally disgraceful these days. Sad!

BBC NEWS | Business | IMF grants Sri Lanka $2.6bn loan

The International Monetary Fund has approved a $2.6bn (£1.6bn) loan to help Sri Lanka weather the global economic crisis and rebuild war-torn regions.

The first $322m tranche of the 20-month loan is available immediately, with the rest subject to quarterly reviews.

Britain and the US abstained from the vote, citing humanitarian concerns during the government's recent fighting against Tamil Tiger rebels.

JFK - - > 911

Oliver Stone: JFK and the Unspeakable

All of these steps caused him to be regarded as a virtual traitor by elements of the military-intelligence community. These were the forces that planned and carried out his assassination. Kennedy himself said, in 1962, after he read Seven Days in May, which is about a military coup in the United States, that if he had another Bay of Pigs, the same thing could happen to him. Well, he did have another "Bay of Pigs"; he had several. And I think Kennedy prophesied his own death with those words.

Why does it matter? The death of JFK remains a critical turning point in our history. Those who caused his death were targeting not just a man but a vision -- a vision of peace. There is no calculating the consequences of his death for this country and for the world. Those consequences endure. To a large extent, the fate of our country and the future of the planet continue to be controlled by the shadowy forces of what Douglass calls "the Unspeakable." Only by unmasking these forces and confronting the truth about our history can we restore the promise of democracy and lay claim to Kennedy's vision of peace.

Bush's National Guard years

This is not going to end well for CBS | Media Matters for America

Rather has vowed to never settle the case out of court.

Getting Out Of Honduras

I actually flew out of Tegucigalpa 20 years ago and I can confirm the airport was crappy and dangerous even back then. At the time, I was planning to bus my way to Colombia, but then the USA sent 10,000 troops to the border with Nicaragua overnight, and I figured a few days on a Carribbean beach might be a better idea.

Zelaya, Negroponte and the Controversy at Soto Cano

The mainstream media has once again dropped the ball on a key aspect of the ongoing story in Honduras: the U.S. airbase at Soto Cano, also known as Palmerola. Prior to the recent military coup d’etat President Manuel Zelaya declared that he would turn the base into a civilian airport, a move opposed by the former U.S. ambassador. What’s more Zelaya intended to carry out his project with Venezuelan financing.

For years prior to the coup the Honduran authorities had discussed the possibility of converting Palmerola into a civilian facility. Officials fretted that Toncontín, Tegucigalpa’s international airport, was too small and incapable of handling large commercial aircraft. An aging facility dating to 1948, Toncontín has a short runway and primitive navigation equipment. The facility is surrounded by hills which makes it one of the world’s more dangerous international airports.

Palmerola by contrast has the best runway in the country at 8,850 feet long and 165 feet wide.

War Criminals At Large

As Minister of Defense, Robert Hill was also the guy who helped Bush invade Iraq. He should be in jail.

Greens angry over 'political' Hill appointment - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Senator Brown says Mr Hill does not have a great track record of tackling climate change.

"[He is] the same man who for years blocked the ratification of the Kyoto protocol as the effective minister for climate change in the Howard government," he said.

"What a choice by the Rudd Government, with a failed former minister on climate change now getting this plumb job."

Bravo

'The Chasers' Confront Torture Lawyer John Yoo in Class | CommonDreams.org

Gao Is Gone, Gone, Gone

We all have to take responsibility for our actions, don't we?

Kiwi behind runaway millions faces sack

"The only reason she's getting it in the neck is because the a***hole took off with the money."

Meanwhile, Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Loper, who is heading the police investigation, said efforts to track down Gao were "progressing as expected".

"We're still doing our investigations and we're getting closer," he said.

But he dismissed as "media stuff" recent claims that Hurring, who had an on-again off-again relationship with Gao, planned to come home soon and cut a deal with police to give evidence against Gao.

There have been other claims that it will be impossible to bring Gao to justice in New Zealand without co-operation from Chinese authorities.

This is because there is no extradition agreements between the two nations and Gao, with his millions, could be considered an attractive asset to China.

Pandora's Box

Business, government - what's the difference???

Nuttall case sparks calls for business/govt probe - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Mr Crooke has told ABC 1's Stateline program he supports a calm consideration of the broader issues.

"As time has passed the relationship between politicians and business people has developed," he said.

"It may have developed in a completely acceptable way in many instances.

"There may be instances where it does need close scrutiny and it would be a good idea to look at what are the proper boundaries and areas of regulation that are needed."

It's Taken Them Eight Years To Work This Out?

Editorial - Illegal, and Pointless - NYTimes.com

Two things seem disturbingly clear. First, President Bush and his top aides panicked after the Sept. 11 attacks. And second, Mr. Cheney and his ideologues, who had long chafed at any legal constraints on executive power, preyed on that panic to advance their agenda.

What A Farce

Think you are innocent? You must be delusional!!!

BBC NEWS | Americas | Chaos besets 9/11 court hearing

Mr Bin Attash asked the judge whether he could question a witness.

When told he could not, he asked: "Even if he told lies?"

When the judge again insisted he could not question the witness, Mr Bin Attash replied: "This is good justice!"

Thursday's hearing was meant to focus on whether Mr Hawsawi and a fourth defendant, Ramzi Binalshibh, were mentally competent to represent themselves.

The US military lawyer representing Mr Binalshibh said he suffered from a delusional disorder.

When the lawyer went into detail about how he had been deprived of sleep, her microphone was cut off.

Gotta Be A Lesson Here Somewhere...

Am I the only one who sees the irony?

Fiji freemasons held for sorcery:

A group of freemasons have had to spend a night in jail in Fiji, after local villagers complained they were practising witchcraft.

The 14 men, including eight Australians and a New Zealander, had been holding a night-time meeting on Denerau island.

The New Zealand man told reporters he had spent a "wretched" time in jail, and blamed the mix-up on the actions of "dopey village people".

Police also seized wands, compasses and a skull from the freemasons' lodge.

"YOU WANNA KNOW THE TRUTH???!!!"

C'mon, John. Lay it on me...

John Yoo: Why We Endorsed Warrantless Wiretaps - WSJ.com

Hmmn, why do you think this cockroach is crawling out of the woodwork NOW? Could it have something to do with a certain ex-VP being slowly boiled in hot water?

Book 'em, Danno.

Danno? Hey, where are you Danno...???!!

Am I the only one in the world who realises the GOP is gone, gone, gone?

Why is the US media still taking this stuff seriously? Palin is a joke, the GOP is a joke, the whole US political system is a joke.

Op-Ed Columnist - She Broke the G.O.P. and Now She Owns It - NYTimes.com

No Sex Please, We're British

It's a very nice house in the country

"The organisers were very polite and well-spoken. Perhaps the alarm bells should have rung when they asked for a chill-out room filled with beds and silk sheets, but we thought they were going for a Moroccan feel and might want mint tea or something."

Become The Change You Want To See In The World

... but what if the change everybody wants to see is the disintegration of all these old lies and vile institutions?

I went to a football game last weekend where over 30,000 people booed the democratically elected state premier. It was illuminating.

Nobody likes politicians any more.

Nobody trusts newspapers.

People want change, but not the Barak Obama kind of change. And not violent change. Just change.

The answers, to most of us, seem obvious. Why should they be so hard to attain?

We don't really care which party is in power, just so long as they don't kill our children and stop screwing us over.

Yoof!

Oh and by the way,

The very fabric of society is breaking down around us. What the hell is there left to believe in?

How Teenagers Consume Media: the report that shook the City | Business | guardian.co.uk

No teenager that I know of regularly reads a newspaper, as most do not have the time and cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text while they could watch the news summarised on the internet or on TV.

Did they Pay You To Say That?

BBC NEWS | Business | Goldman Sachs sees bumper profit

"Goldman should be celebrated, not demonized."

Gobbledygook

We all know Rudd can speak Mandarin, but can he speak English?

Rudd defends action on 'complex' Hu case - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

"This a complex case. Cases like this in the past have also exhibited complexity as well. We work our way through each of these as we work our way through consular cases around the world," he said.

"I don't intend to go to the details of those consular and diplomatic engagements at this stage. My interest to advance the interests of the individual concerned.

"We're working on a whole range of details on the case and at multiple levels. That is what you do in these circumstances."

Mr Rudd says Australia's economic relationship will be conducted on its own terms.

"A continued concern for all of us engaged with the China economic relationship is to make sure that the economic relationship is pursued in its own terms," he said.

"My view is that in the case of the Australian economic relationship we need to conduct that within its own terms.

"At the same time we will not shy away from making representations on behalf of individual Australian companies, on behalf of individual Australian citizens, or on the broader question of human rights concerns."

"Values"

Rachel Maddow: GOP Sex Scandal Exposes Secretive Conservative Religious Group -- 'The Family' | Politics | AlterNet

Why Is Every Possible Explanation A "Conspiracy Theory"???

Are we supposed to believe they just got lucky, or were so much more competent than their competitors? Really?

BBC NEWS | Business | Controversy to surround Goldman success

Conspiracy theories abound about how it has managed to turn things around.

wonder if this BBC reporter ever reads Glennzilla?

Statistics Still Hiding the Ugly Truth in BushWorld

I know the barren wastelands of the USA are Obama's world now, but it's still Bushworld to me. He - and the people who created him - created it.

The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think - WSJ.com

The cumulative job losses over the last six months have been greater than for any other half year period since World War II, including the military demobilization after the war. The job losses are also now equal to the net job gains over the previous nine years, making this the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all job growth from the previous expansion.

Of Course George Just Signed The Papers Dick Gave Him And Pretended Cheney's Ideas Were His Own

CIA Vet: Agency Doesn't Need Secret Program To Target al Qaeda | TPMMuckraker

As for what the program did involve, Cannistraro suggested that it involved Americans as targets, and that it went beyond surveillance, but declined to elaborate. He added that, though Cheney may have directly ordered the CIA to keep Congress in the dark, the veep wasn't acting alone. "The approval was from the president," said Cannistraro.

Non-core promise?

I hope not.

Steel Guru : Mr Palmer indigenous health foundation likely to delay

Businessman Clive Palmer has confirmed that a philanthropic donation aimed at establishing an indigenous health foundation was unlikely to be delivered until late 2010.

As per report Mr Palmer had pledged to donate AUD 10 million per year from Citic Pacific's Sino Iron ore project to set up the foundation, but the project has since been delayed.

Too Funny!

NYT has it's own in-house ethicist running a blog!!!

Ethics Analysis - The Moral of the Story Blog - NYTimes.com

OR Could It Be Because Of Rampant Corruption?

They report, you decide.

Goldman Sachs May Report Strong Profit - NYTimes.com

Up and down Wall Street, analysts and traders are buzzing that Goldman, which only recently paid back its government bailout money, will report blowout profits from trading on Tuesday.

Analysts predict the bank earned a profit of more than $2 billion in the March-June period, because of its trading prowess across world markets.

Money Makes The World Go Round...

Governments seeking an out-of-court settlement, UBS claiming Swiss law prevents them releasing client details (never mind they repeatedly broke US laws)...

US, Switzerland seek delay in tax cases

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is urgently telling Chinese and Middle East investors their money is safe in the United States.

And a crazy rogue Russian hacker might have brought Goldman Sachs to its knees. Or maybe not!

Genocide? Qu'est ce que c'est?

Amazing that the BBC can get through this story without mentioning Armenia. Have we really "moved on" that far... ?

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Turkey attacks China 'genocide'

Bankers Are Wankers

McNamara's Other Debacle

McNamara’s time at the World Bank is as much his lasting infamy as his Vietnam record. A World Bank biography noted that during McNamara’s tenure, “the previous Bank strictures against lending to public sector banking institutions or enterprises were relaxed.” The official sketch of McNamara’s presidency noted that “his reliance upon government intervention sometimes meant turning a blind eye to coercive practices ... and could lead the Bank to ignore the inefficiency and economic cost of government policies.”

McNamara’s favorite foreign leader was Julius Nyerere, ruler of Tanzania, which received more bank aid per capita than any other country in that decade. In the early 1970s, with World Bank aid and advice, Nyerere sent the Tanzanian army to drive the peasants off their land, burn their huts, load them onto trucks, and take them where the government thought they should live. The peasants were then ordered to build new homes “in neat rows staked out for them by government officials.”

Nyerere wanted to curb his countrymen’s individualist and capitalist tendencies and make them easier to control. He even outlawed people’s sleeping in their gardens at night, which meant that monkeys were free to help themselves to their crops. In many cases, the new government villages were far from the farmers’ own lands, and so they simply gave up tilling the land, with the result that hunger in Tanzania soared.

Bush The Dickhead

You have to think that when all this finally unravels it will be dumbass Dubya who ends up carrying the can. Cheney will probably die before they nail him.

Bush Personally Ordered Visit to Ashcroft’s Hospital Bed | The Washington Independent

According to notes from Ashcroft’s FBI security detail, at 6:20 p.m. that evening Card called the hospital and spoke with an agent in Ashcroft’s security detail, advising him that President Bush would be calling shortly to speak with Ashcroft. Ashcroft’s wife told the agent that Ashcroft would not accept the call. Ten minutes later, the agent called Ashcroft’s Chief of Staff David Ayers at DOJ to request that Ayers speak with Card about the President’s intention to call Ashcroft. The agent conveyed to Ayers Mrs. Ashcroft’s desire that no calls be made to Ashcroft for another day or two. However, at 6:45 p.m., Card and the President called the hospital and, according to the agent’s notes, “insisted on speaking [with Attorney General Ashcroft].” According to the agent’s notes, Mrs. Ashcroft took the call from Card and the President and was informed that Gonzales and Card were coming to the hospital to see Ashcroft regarding a matter involving national security.

Will Obama Disclose This One?

Was The CIA Hiding Cheney's "Executive Assassination Ring"?

So what are the "significant actions" that these seven lawmakers insist were kept from Congress? Another theory being bandied about concerns an "executive assassination ring" that was allegedly set up and answered to former Vice President Dick Cheney. The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh, building off earlier reporting from the New York Times, dropped news of the possibility that such a ring existed in a March 2009 discussion sponsored by the University of Minnesota.

"It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently," Hersh said. "They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. They did not report to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or to Mr. [Robert] Gates, the secretary of defense. They reported directly to him. ...

"Congress has no oversight of it," he added. "It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on. Just today in the Times there was a story that its leaders, a three star admiral named [William H.] McRaven, ordered a stop to it because there were so many collateral deaths. Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us."

Asked if this was the basis of her letter to Panetta, Eshoo said she could not discuss what was a "highly classified program." She did, however, note that when Panetta told House Intelligence Committee members what it was that had been kept secret, "the whole committee was stunned, even Republicans."

Who's Gonna Report THIS Story?

Murdoch papers paid out £1m to gag phone-hacking victims | Media | The Guardian

Oh My!

Google Maps | property | real estate | search | Australia

Google's offering is open to all comers, potentially giving renters and buyers a much bigger choice.

But this development is likely to be viewed by existing publishers as a grab for their business at a time when margins are under pressure and paid listings are being affected by the prevailing economic climate.

The service is launching with listings provided by the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia and homehound.com.au, the free property listing service owned by Michael Hannan's Independent Print Media Group.

The two leading Australian online advertising portals are realestate.com.au, which is 60 per cent owned by News Corp, and domain.com.au, which is owned by Fairfax Media, publisher of this website.

John Brand, general manager, key categories, at Fairfax Media said domain.com.au would not at this stage be taking up the Google offer to contribute listings to the new service.

"We are quite confident that we provide a better service than Google is offering," he said in a telephone interview. "We are a specialist property portal and we think this will stand us in good stead going forward."

Wanker of the Day

Let's not "Move On" hey???? There's so much in this story it's beyond my capacity to explain right now, but some idiot in the comments still thinks we need to focus on the other stuff....

Raw Story » UK weapons inspector who was found dead was writing expose: paper

15 hours ago Add rating 0 Subtract rating 8
satan

I’m sure if he were alive today he’d be working to end the war instead of crying over 7 year old news.

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs Goldman SachsGoldman Sachs Goldman SachsGoldman SachsGoldman Sachs Goldman Sachs

The Great American Bubble Machine : Rolling Stone

From Matt Taibbi's "The Great American Bubble Machine" in Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83.

The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.

Any attempt to construct a narrative around all the former Goldmanites in influential positions quickly becomes an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying to make a list of everything. What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain — an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.

They achieve this using the same playbook over and over again. The formula is relatively simple: Goldman positions itself in the middle of a speculative bubble, selling investments they know are crap. Then they hoover up vast sums from the middle and lower floors of society with the aid of a crippled and corrupt state that allows it to rewrite the rules in exchange for the relative pennies the bank throws at political patronage. Finally, when it all goes bust, leaving millions of ordinary citizens broke and starving, they begin the entire process over again, riding in to rescue us all by lending us back our own money at interest, selling themselves as men above greed, just a bunch of really smart guys keeping the wheels greased. They've been pulling this same stunt over and over since the 1920s — and now they're preparing to do it again, creating what may be the biggest and most audacious bubble yet.

That Meeting In Rome

This CQ guy Jeff Stein seems to have some good contacts. One to bookmark?  Check out his July 1st post where AIPAC spy Franklin says a secret agent tried to arrange for his "death":

Who was the man who approached him?

"Well, the guy was definitely a Zionist," Franklin said. "And he was a true believer. And like a lot of true believers, he's beyond good and evil. They're not subject to the laws the rest of us are."

And the next day this - CQ Politics | ‘Secret’ Rome Meeting Recounted by AIPAC Spy Case Figure

All such accounts were based on anonymous sources.

But this week, one of the participants, Franklin broke a yearslong public silence to discuss what happened in Rome.

Or at least his version of events...

Ghorbanifar, the middleman in the so-called Iran-Contra/Arms-for-Hostages scandal in the Reagan administration, had fabricated so much bad intelligence and empty schemes that the CIA had put him on a no-contact list.

Nevertheless, when Michael Ledeen, a high profile Republican intelligence operative and longtime associate of Ghorbanifar, came calling during the panicky weeks after 9/11, Bush administration neoconservatives couldn’t resist.

The Iranian had a plan for regime change in Teheran — again.

Senior White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley and his deputy, Zalmay Khalilzad, “were enthusiastic,” Ledeen told me. Pentagon officials Douglas Feith and Paul Wolfowitz , the deputy and undersecretary, respectively, of Defense, were also game, Franklin said.

His immediate boss, William Luti, a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney who headed Near East issues at Defense, put him on the team.

“He said, ‘We’d like you to go on this mission,’” Franklin recalled in an interview. “Feith, Wolfowitz, they’re in favor of it.”

...

How about the phony Niger uranium documents? I asked. Did that come up?

“No it did not, not that I can remember.”

Then why did he meet with Italian intelligence officials, who were said to have a role in peddling the phony documents?

“They gave us safe houses, restaurants,” Franklin said. “They were our shield. Mike [Ledeen] had good relations with them.“

Did Ledeen clear the meeting with CIA station chief Jeff Castelli? I asked. He was reportedly furious about being kept out of the loop.

“Yes,” Franklin said. “Mike talked to him.”

Ledeen: “Who’s Castelli?”

All clear?

I don't buy it, he's only telling half the story, if that. But interesting nevertheless.

And Ledeen should have his ass hauled before Congress, not that they would know what to ask him. Or even want to know the truth. But maybe just for old times' sake?

UPDATE: On further reflection, and particularly having read this longer piece from Stein, it's quite possible that Franklin was handed over to the Feds because he was getting in the neocons' way.

"Rosen boasted of his contacts in the NSC and the State Department - he was dropping all these names that I recognized -- he dropped the name of Elliott Abrams, head of Middle East policy for the national security staff," Franklin said.

"When Rosen dropped his name, among others, I seized upon that ... If I could get [Abrams] to slow things down, maybe I could get Rice - Condoleezza Rice, to pause and say, 'Hey, maybe we really do need a foreign policy on Iran before we invade the country next door.'"

Rosen assured him he would get his Iran information to Abrams, Franklin said.

"But he didn't do that. He went to The Washington Post and the political officer at the Israeli embassy." (Rosen's indictment spelled out those acts.)

"He was duped -- he was duped real, real good," said a senior law enforcement official involved in the case. Another said, "My feeling was that they took advantage of him."

Franklin shook his head.

"No...this was my initiative. I was not directed by him," he said.

Is he protecting Rosen, or scared of him? As always, a million questions and no answers.

Another US Coup?

Honduran military ousts president ahead of vote

Honduran soldiers have seized the national palace and sent President Manuel Zelaya into exile, hours before a disputed constitutional referendum.

Zelaya, a leftist ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, says he's the victim of a coup.

Hours later, Congress voted to accept what it says is Zelaya's letter of resignation, but Zelaya said the letter isn't his and vowed to remain in power.

White House Watched

The journey Froomkin describes here really ties in closely with mine...

White House Watch - White House Watched

Today's column is my last for The Washington Post. And the first thing I want to say is thank you. Thank you to all you readers, e-mailers, commenters, questioners, Facebook friends and Twitterers for spending your time with me and engaging with me over the years. And thank you for the recent outpouring of support. It was extraordinarily uplifting, and I'm deeply grateful. If I ever had any doubt, your words have further inspired me to continue doing accountability journalism. My plan is to take a few weeks off before embarking upon my next endeavor -- but when I do, I hope you'll join me.

It's hard to summarize the past five and a half years. But I'll try.

I started my column in January 2004, and one dominant theme quickly emerged: That George W. Bush was truly the proverbial emperor with no clothes. In the days and weeks after the 9/11 terror attacks, the nation, including the media, vested him with abilities he didn't have and credibility he didn't deserve. As it happens, it was on the day of my very first column that we also got the first insider look at the Bush White House, via Ron Suskind's book, The Price of Loyalty. In it, former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill described a disengaged president "like a blind man in a room full of deaf people", encircled by "a Praetorian guard,” intently looking for a way to overthrow Saddam Hussein long before 9/11. The ensuing five years and 1,088 columns really just fleshed out that portrait, describing a president who was oblivious, embubbled and untrustworthy.

When I look back on the Bush years, I think of the lies. There were so many. Lies about the war and lies to cover up the lies about the war. Lies about torture and surveillance. Lies about Valerie Plame. Vice President Dick Cheney's lies, criminally prosecutable but for his chief of staff Scooter Libby's lies. I also think about the extraordinary and fundamentally cancerous expansion of executive power that led to violations of our laws and our principles.

And while this wasn't as readily apparent until President Obama took office, it's now very clear that the Bush years were all about kicking the can down the road – either ignoring problems or, even worse, creating them and not solving them. This was true of a huge range of issues including the economy, energy, health care, global warming – and of course Iraq and Afghanistan.

How did the media cover it all? Not well. Reading pretty much everything that was written about Bush on a daily basis, as I did, one could certainly see the major themes emerging. But by and large, mainstream-media journalism missed the real Bush story for way too long.

WHIG SCUM: Where Are They Now?

Guess Who's Selling Wall Street's Bull? | Mother Jones

Jim Wilkinson, a one-time senior aide to former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, is part of a campaign, spearheaded by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), to quell the upsurge of "populist" anger directed at the financial sector.

Strange Indeed

FBI Ignored Evidence of bin Laden Role in Khobar Attack by Gareth Porter -- Antiwar.com

"We had thought that the Riyadh and Khobar blasts were a sufficient signal to sensible U.S. decision-makers to avert a real battle between the Islamic nation and U.S. forces," said bin Laden, "but it seems that they did not understand the signal."

According to Coleman, one of the FBI’s top investigators on al-Qaeda, bin Laden always took credit for terrorist actions he had planned but not for those he had not planned. For example, bin Laden issued no claim about the World Trade Center bombing and told his former business agent turned FBI informer, Jamal al-Fadl, that he had nothing to do with it, Coleman says.

Happiness Is Just An Illusion

Do we really want to solve the world's financial problems, or would we rather just go back to pretending that everything is OK?

I guess it's a stupid question...

Late in, early out of the downturn

Shocking Statistics

A quarter of prisoners are indigenous

One in four prisoners in Australia is indigenous and their over-representation in the jail system is only getting worse, a new report states.

Aborigines are 13 times more likely to be locked up than other Australians, while the proportion of indigenous women being incarcerated has tripled in the past 20-odd years.

Half of the 10- to 17-year-olds in corrective institutions are indigenous.

Documents Back Saudi Link to Extremists - NYTimes.com

Even if the 9/11 families were to get their trial in the lawsuit, they might have difficulty getting some of their new material into evidence. Some would most likely be challenged on grounds it was irrelevant or uncorroborated hearsay, or that it related to Saudis who were clearly covered by sovereign immunity.

And if the families were to clear those hurdles, two intriguing pieces of evidence in the Saudi puzzle might still remain off limits.

One is a 28-page, classified section of the 2003 joint Congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks. The secret section is believed to discuss intelligence on Saudi financial links to two hijackers, and the Saudis themselves urged at the time that it be made public. President George W. Bush declined to do so.

Kristen Breitweiser, an advocate for Sept. 11 families, whose husband was killed in the World Trade Center, said in an interview that during a White House meeting in February between President Obama and victims’ families, the president told her that he was willing to make the pages public.

But she said she had not heard from the White House since then.

Another Beautiful Mind

Tapes Reveal Nixon’s View of Abortion - NYTimes.com

“There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,” he told an aide, before adding: “Or a rape.”

Kibbutz's Gone Crazy

Fictions on the Ground

Israel needs “settlements.” They are intrinsic to the image it has long sought to convey to overseas admirers and fund-raisers: a struggling little country securing its rightful place in a hostile environment by the hard moral work of land clearance, irrigation, agrarian self-sufficiency, industrious productivity, legitimate self-defense and the building of Jewish communities. But this neo-collectivist frontier narrative rings false in modern, high-tech Israel. And so the settler myth has been transposed somewhere else — to the Palestinian lands seized in war in 1967 and occupied illegally ever since.

It is thus not by chance that the international press is encouraged to speak and write of Jewish “settlers” and “settlements” in the West Bank. But this image is profoundly misleading. The largest of these controversial communities in geographic terms is Maale Adumim. It has a population in excess of 35,000, demographically comparable to Montclair, N.J., or Winchester, England. What is most striking, however, about Maale Adumim is its territorial extent. This “settlement” comprises more than 30 square miles — making it one and a half times the size of Manhattan and nearly half as big as the borough and city of Manchester, England. Some “settlement.”

Much More To Come

"Suck on Our Yachts": Goldman Sachs Issues Non-Apology for Destroying the World Economy | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet

This isn't really commerce, but much more like organized crime: it was a gigantic fraud perpetrated on the economy that wouldn't have been possible without accomplices in the ratings agencies and regulators willing to turn a blind eye. Imagine a meat company that bred ten billion rats, fattened them on trash and sewage, ground their bodies into chuck, and then sold it all as grade-A ground beef to McDonald's and Burger King, right under the noses of the USDA: this is exactly the same thing, only with debt instead of food. We're eating it, they're counting the money.

Where's The Australian Inquiry?

Those Downing Street Memos are set to resurface, and Phillipe Sands has some good comments about transparency in this article.

   Confidential memo reveals US plan to provoke an invasion of Iraq   : Information Clearing House - ICH

This year, the Dutch government launched its own inquiry into its support for the war. Significantly, the inquiry will see all the intelligence shared with the Dutch intelligence services by MI5 and MI6. The inquiry intends to publish its report in November - suggesting that confidential information about the role played by the UK and the US could become public before Chilcott's inquiry reports next year.

So How Is This Possible?

Goldman Sachs to make record bonus payout | Business | The Observer

Staff at Goldman Sachs staff can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm's 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year, sparking concern that the big investment banks which survived the credit crunch will derail financial regulation reforms.

A lack of competition and a surge in revenues from trading foreign currency, bonds and fixed-income products has sent profits at Goldman Sachs soaring, according to insiders at the firm.

Staff in London were briefed last week on the banking and securities company's prospects and told they could look forward to bumper bonuses if, as predicted, it completed its most profitable year ever. Figures next month detailing the firm's second-quarter earnings are expected to show a further jump in profits. Warren Buffett, who bought $5bn of the company's shares in January, has already made a $1bn gain on his investment.

WAPO Actively Pursuing Complete Irrelevance

Wapo sacked Froomkin, can you believe it?

Letters: Email from John Harris: regrets dispute with Dan Froomkin - Salon

Blair Knew

Tony Blair knew of secret policy on terror interrogations | Politics | The Guardian

Tony Blair was aware of the ­existence of a secret interrogation policy which ­effectively led to British citizens, and others, being ­tortured during ­counter-terrorism investigations, the Guardian can reveal.

The policy, devised in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, offered ­guidance to MI5 and MI6 officers ­questioning detainees in Afghanistan who they knew were being mistreated by the US military.

British intelligence officers were given written instructions that they could not "be seen to condone" torture and that they must not "engage in any activity yourself that involves inhumane or degrading treatment of prisoners".

But they were also told they were not under any obligation to intervene to prevent detainees from being mistreated.

"Given that they are not within our ­custody or control, the law does not require you to intervene to prevent this," the policy said.

That Took A While

tUS Senate approves apology for slavery

The US Senate approved a fiercely worded resolution formally apologising for the "fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery" of African-Americans.

The unanimous voice vote came five months after Barack Obama became the first black US president, and ahead of the June 19 "Juneteenth" celebration of the emancipation of African-Americans at the end of the US Civil War in 1865.

The non-binding resolution now heads to the House of Representatives, where a similar resolution passed by voice vote in July 2008, only to wither in the upper chamber.

House approval, which could come as early as next week, would make it the first time the entire US Congress has formally apologised on behalf of the American people for one of the grimmest wrongs in US history.

The bill, which does not require Obama's signature, states that the US Congress "acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow laws" that enshrined racial segregation at the state and local level in the United States well into the 1960s.

The Congress "apologises to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow laws."

And it "expresses its recommitment to the principle that all people are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and calls on all people of the United States to work toward eliminating racial prejudices, injustices, and discrimination from our society."

Who Needs Therapy?

Bush Breaks Silence, Goes After Obama In Speech

"I told you I'm not going to criticize my successor," he said. "I'll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don't believe that persuasion isn't going to work. Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind."

Typical

This is what Israeli politicians always do - announce some abomination, gauge the outcry, then packpedal a foot or two and say that is compromise.

Retreat? Hutton and Butler 'back public Iraq inquiry' - UK Politics, UK - The Independent

Fit To See?

Maybe it's great that ABC is showing bloody videos of demonstrators being shot in Iran, but one has to ask why they don't show similar videos of civilians being killed by US and Australian troops in Iraq?

Video - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Howard's Australia

The bastard's gone but the legacy lives on....

More in jail as Australia tinkers with justice system - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Prisoner numbers in Australia have increased by more than 50 per cent over the last decade or so.

How Do You Say "Adios USD$" In Russian?

I wonder if he was smiling when he said this?

Emerging giants issue dollar warning at key summit

But he also emphasized that Moscow did not want to see a sudden plunge in the dollar's value.

"There is an understanding that the last thing we need now is turmoil on financial markets," Dvorkovich said. "No one wants to ruin the dollar, including us."

Iran: It's Not All About The Politicians

Iran Updates (VIDEO): Live-Blogging The Uprising

6:03 PM ET -- "What I have witnessed." A powerful note from a female medical student in Iran, translated from Farsi by a trusty reader.

Hello,


It's painful to watch what's happening.

I don't want anything to do with what has been said this far, as I neither have the strength nor the resilience to face all these unfathomable events.

I only want to speak about what I have witnessed. I am a medical student. There was chaos last night at the trauma section in one of our main hospitals. Although by decree, all riot-related injuries were supposed to be sent to military hospitals, all other hospitals were filled to the rim. Last night, nine people died at our hospital and another 28 had gunshot wounds. All hospital employees were crying till dawn. They (government) removed the dead bodies on back of trucks, before we were even able to get their names or other information. What can you even say to the people who don't even respect the dead. No one was allowed to speak to the wounded or get any information from them. This morning the faculty and the students protested by gathering at the lobby of the hospital where they were confronted by plain cloths anti-riot militia, who in turn closed off the hospital and imprisoned the staff. The extent of injuries are so grave, that despite being one of the most staffed emergency rooms, they've asked everyone to stay and help--I'm sure it will even be worst tonight.
Story continues below

What can anyone say in face of all these atrocities? What can you say to the family of the 13 year old boy who died from gunshots and whose dead body then disappeared?

This issue is not about cheating(election) anymore. This is not about stealing votes anymore. The issue is about a vast injustice inflected on the people. They've put a baton in the hand of every 13-14 year old to smash the faces of "the bunches who are less than dirt" (government is calling the people who are uprising dried-up torn and weeds) .

This is what sickens me from dealing with these issues. And from those who shut their eyes and close their ears and claim the riots are in opposition of the government and presidency!! No! The people's complaint is against the egregious injustices committed against the people.

As if Israel (and the USA) would NOT be involved...

Interestingly, Twitter has been taken down today for scheduled maintenance, which was delayed 24 hours due to the Iranian protests....

OTOH you have to wonder thy the Jpost would out these guys, if they are Mossad. Hmmn.

Proof: Israeli Effort to Destabilize Iran Via Twitter | Charting Stocks

Why would a news organization post a story about 3 people who JUST JOINED TWITTER hours earlier? Is that newsworthy? JPost was the first (and only to my knowledge) major news source that mentioned these 3 spammers.

Desperation

This is really just pathetic.

BBC NEWS | Business | BA asks staff to work for nothing

BA's chief executive Willie Walsh has already agreed to work unpaid in July, forgoing his month's salary of £61,000.

Yeah, let's Listen to The Sith Lord

TheHill.com - Cheney hopes CIA director was misquoted

"I hope my old friend Leon was misquoted," said Cheney in a statement provided to The Hill. "The important thing is whether or not the Obama administration will continue the policies that have kept us safe for the last eight years."

Torture Doesn't Work

Unless of course it is false evidence you are looking for.

Detainee says he lied to CIA in harsh interrogations - Los Angeles Times

"I make up stories," Mohammed said, describing in broken English an interrogation probably administered by the CIA that concerned the location of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

"Where is he? I don't know. Then he torture me," Mohammed said. "Then I said, 'Yes, he is in this area.' "

Here Comes The Flood

 The American Empire Is Bankrupt     : Information Clearing House - ICH

There are meetings being held Monday and Tuesday in Yekaterinburg, Russia, (formerly Sverdlovsk) among Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The United States, which asked to attend, was denied admittance. Watch what happens there carefully. The gathering is, in the words of economist Michael Hudson, “the most important meeting of the 21st century so far.”

It is the first formal step by our major trading partners to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. If they succeed, the dollar will dramatically plummet in value, the cost of imports, including oil, will skyrocket, interest rates will climb and jobs will hemorrhage at a rate that will make the last few months look like boom times. State and federal services will be reduced or shut down for lack of funds. The United States will begin to resemble the Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe. Obama, endowed by many with the qualities of a savior, will suddenly look pitiful, inept and weak. And the rage that has kindled a handful of shootings and hate crimes in the past few weeks will engulf vast segments of a disenfranchised and bewildered working and middle class. The people of this class will demand vengeance, radical change, order and moral renewal, which an array of proto-fascists, from the Christian right to the goons who disseminate hate talk on Fox News, will assure the country they will impose.

Another Waste Of Money

British PM announces Iraq war inquiry - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A committee of independent diplomats and non-partisan public figures will conduct the inquiry which will be held entirely in private and is expected to take a year to complete.

There has been widespread disappointment about the terms of the inquiry and the fact that there will be no scope for the committee to apportion blame or to question the legality of the invasion.

A Bit Of Background On the Post Below

More in depth coverage from antiwar.com... Youhave to wonder whether this guy (and hence Obama) really has any idea at all what's going on inside the CIA.

Leon Panetta and the C.I.A.: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

Since January, the C.I.A. has become the focus of almost daily struggle, as Obama attempts to restore the rule of law in America’s fight against terrorism without sacrificing safety or losing the support of conservative Democratic and independent voters. So far, he has insisted on trying to recalibrate the agency’s policies without investigating past mistakes or holding anyone responsible for them. Caught in the middle is Panetta, who is seventy years old and has virtually no experience in the intelligence field. Indeed, his credentials for running the world’s foremost spy agency are so unlikely that when John Podesta, the head of Obama’s transition team, asked him to take the job he responded, “Are you sure?” Podesta assured Panetta that his outsider status was actually an advantage: “He said, ‘You don’t carry the scars of the past eight years. Besides, the President wants somebody who will talk straight to him on these issues.’ ”

If anyone is still reading this blog, you should read this article. Or go read Glenn Greenwald...

Clever Politics

I like this. He's drawing a circle around Cheney, saying "If something happens, this is where to look".

Now maybe he should dig out the Cheney loyalists within his own organisation and put them to the fire...

CIA head says Cheney almost wishing US be attacked - Yahoo! News

Panetta said of Cheney's remarks: "It's almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that's dangerous politics."

Bye Bye Peter

Costello won't contest another election

You Tell 'Em!

Rupert’s helping hand in apartheid | Antony Loewenstein

Mr Mitchell, your editorial was meant to defend the trip but soon it became an attack at any one who dares to question the policies and actions of Israel. It is one thing to defend the trip and it is another to savage the citizens of conscience who want the Palestinians and the Israelis to reach a Just and lasting peace.

Those who criticise the trip are the same citizens who helped defeat apartheid South Africa and who kept the pressure on Indonesia to give the East Timorese their freedom. Your flurry of expletives is not justified nor warranted. I’m not sure who you had in mind when you described us as: “fanatics”, “loud lobbies with no interest in compromise”, “Israel’s opponents”, “Israel’s enemies”, “extremists and political amateurs”. Your outburst is a testament that our campaigns and mobilisation is making a difference. I’m sure you have received the media release showing that 28% of Australians support the Palestinian position as compared to 24% who support the Israeli position. Are you accusing 28% of the Australian people of being extremists, Israel enemies and political amateurs, Mr Mitchell?

Michael Moore's Hometown To Be Bulldozed

US cities bulldoze their way to survival

Flint, 96 kilometres north of Detroit, was the original home of General Motors. The car giant once employed 79,000 local people but that has shrunk to about 8000. Unemployment is approaching 20 per cent and the population has almost halved to 110,000.

The exodus, coupled with the consequent collapse in property prices, has left sections of the city almost abandoned. In the centre, the once grand Durant Hotel — named after William Durant, GM's founder — has been empty since 1973, roughly when Flint's decline began.

Just Shoot Me

Bush Gives Shout-Out To Troops On "Colbert"

Yoo Suck

It's interesting that Yoo and Gonzales both have immigrant backgrounds. Were they trying to hard to fit in with the cool kids on the block?

National Briefing - Washington - Bush Lawyer Ordered to Testify - NYTimes.com

A federal judge has ruled that John Yoo, a former Bush administration lawyer who wrote crucial memorandums justifying harsh interrogation techniques, will have to answer in court to accusations that his work led to a prisoner’s being tortured and deprived of his constitutional rights. The government had asked Judge Jeffrey S. White of Federal District Court in San Francisco to dismiss the case filed by Jose Padilla, an American citizen who spent more than three years in a military brig as an enemy combatant. Judge White denied most elements of Mr. Yoo’s motion and quoted a passage from the Federalist Papers that in times of war, nations, to be more safe, “at length become willing to run the risk of being less free.”

Desperate

Anne Summers

I lived in New York during the recession of the early '90s and saw the shops being boarded up and apartment prices falling. I saw people cutting back and some being laid off, but it was nothing like now.

On the surface, people are gritty, determined and looking for ways to survive. Underneath there is a level of desperation I have never seen before.

Bravo (but really he should just get out of the corrupt system)

Promotion for Hicks' US military lawyer - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

His client returned to Australia after five years in Guantanamo Bay and Major Mori was sent to Iraq.

"I had been working at the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in the Staff Judge Advocates office and had gone to Iraq for a short tour there ... working as a prosecutor," he said.

After 18 years in the Marines and after being knocked back for a promotion, he was looking to retire from the military.

But now he has been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and made a senior military judge...

Although a vocal critic of the military commission process while he was representing David Hicks, Lt Col Mori is now more guarded.

"Luckily I have moved beyond my time at Guantanamo, back into the real court martial system and I think I would leave it at that. David escaped and so did I."

Daddy, we hardly knew ye...

  Did an Ausse sell Nukes to Iran?     : Information Clearing House - ICH

"It is amazing to me, but my dad was an arms dealer who was turning over hundreds of millions of dollars," Sam said this week.

"He was close to some seriously dangerous people and he lived an incredible, jet-set life.

"But in the end, I believe, it caught up with him. The deals and the intrigue, that's what killed him."

Too Harsh?

For 300 years Britain has outsourced mayhem. Finally it's coming home | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian

The great British adventure – three centuries spent pillaging the labour, wealth and resources of other countries – is over. We cannot accept this, and seek gleeful revenge on a government that can no longer insulate us from reality.

Bushworld Still Thriving

BBC NEWS | Business | Military spending sets new record

Global military spending rose 4% in 2008 to a record $1,464bn (£914bn) - up 45% since 1999, according to the Stockholm-based peace institute Sipri.

Interesting that "peace-keeping" has now become a multi-billion-dollar industry in its own right. And of course the killer stats remain the same:

The top 10 military spenders:

USA $607bn
China $84.9bn
France $65.74bn
UK $65.35bn
Russia $58.6bn
Germany $46.87bn
Japan $46.38bn
Italy $40.69bn
Saudi Arabia $38.2bn
India $30.0bn

Gosh, I wonder how Obama can save the US economy....

No. Balls.

Bligh has win on asset sell-off - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Hundreds of unionists staged an angry protest outside the conference, but Ms Bligh's speech inside was greeted with polite applause and just a single boo.

Why does the US press have an agenda?

AFP: Obama hits back at Euro snub rumors

"So stop it, all of you," said Obama, with a smiling scold of reporters.

"I know you have to have something to report on but we have more than enough problems out there without manufacturing problems."

Capitalism is inherently a conspiracy

A good point. But I think that's why government regulation is supposed to exist.

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Bilderberg: The ultimate conspiracy theory

"Shouldn't we expect that the rich and powerful organise things in their own interests. It's called capitalism."

The view from Pakistan

My bold...

Jewish 911 Connections | Pakistan Daily

Jewish 911 Connections PDF Print E-mail
Written by www.daily.pk
Sunday, 07 June 2009 00:00
Who leased the WTC only seven weeks before 9/11?

Larry Silverstein — Explains his reason for purchasing the towers as "I felt a compelling urge to own them." Larry had breakfast in "Windows on the World" restaurant every single morning. On 9/11 he never showed up. Neither did his daughter who worked in building 7.

Frank Lowy — Owner of Westfield America. In May 2001, Westfield paid $US127 million for a 99-year lease on the retail area beneath the New York World Trade Center. Lowy was a member of the Golani Brigade, and fought in the Israeli war of independence. Lowy steered clear of the WTC on 9/11.

Who authorized the lease of the WTC complex to Silverstein?
Lewis Eisenberg — Chairman of the New York Port Authority.

All three men are high ranking Jews in the Anti Defamation League and United Jewish Appeal.

Who pushed the WTC for privatization?
Ronald S. Lauder

He was on the board of directors of the NY board of privatization. He is the key individual who lobbied for the privatization of the WTC, but he also got Stewart Airport, formerly Stewart AFB, to become privatized. Oddly, the flightpaths of flight 175 and flight 11 converged directly over this airport.

Lauder is active in the following organizations:

-Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
-Jewish National Fund
-World Jewish Congress
-American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
-Anti-Defamation League
-Jewish Theological Seminary


Lauder has funded a school for the Mossad in Herzliya, Israel.

Who ran security at all three airports of "alleged" hijackings?
ICTS International / Huntsleigh USA (wholly owned subsidiary)

Owned by Ezra Harel and Menachem Atzmon. Both Israeli Jews.

It is run by "experts" in the security and intelligence field. Israeli intelligence that is. Most employees were ex- Shin Bet agents.

Is this airport security company, who ran the security at Dulles, Logan, and Newark, really that shoddy to allow 19 arabs on board 4 different planes with boxcutters, mace, and even a gun, or is there something else going on here?

Menachem Atzmon was involved in an Israeli political scandal involving Ehud Olmert and other Likudnits in Israel.

ICTS was also in charge of airport security when the shoe bomber Richard Reid boarded a plane with a shoe bomb (allegedly).

A few hours before the Patriot Act was voted on, it was edited to make foreign companies in charge of security on 9/11 immune to lawsuits. This would prevent American courts from demanding that ICTS provide testimony or hand over the missing surveillance videos from the airports.

Who was on board flight 11?
Daniel Lewin

Lewin, an Israeli Jew, was confirmed to be a member of the special Israeli commando unit, the Sayeret Matkal, which specializes in "anti-hijack" takeovers and assassinations. Originally, Betty Ong pointed to his seat, 9B, as the one shooting people with a gun and leading the hijacking. It was later changed to him being shot, later revised to him being stabbed.

Who had the contract to run security at the WTC?
Image Associates, owned by...
Jules Kroll - Jewish

Kroll was run by...
Jerome Hauer

Hauer was also the guy chosen to run Mayor Rudy Guiliani's office of emergency management from 1996 to 2000.

Jerome Hauer is also Jewish. Hauer's mother, Rose Muscatine Hauer, is the retired Dean of the Beth Israel School of Nursing and the Honorary President of the New York Chapter of Hadassah, the Daughters of Zion movement that is one of the central Zionist organizations involved in the creation and maintenance of the State of Israel.

Hauer, however, told journalist Sander Hicks in a phone conversation that Larry Silverstein hired a "private" security team on his wtc complex. I wonder who manned this "private" security team, since they are the lead suspects in the placing of explosives.


P.S. Imagine if there were this many Muslim connections to 9/11.

How long before Obama faces widespread social unrest?

Just saw TPM saying Obama holds all the cards on Israel and might be trying to force Netanyahu out, which he can probably do as long as he stays popular. But how long can he stay popular?

Mich. Shutting 3 Prisons, 5 Camps to Save Money - NYTimes.com

Three state prisons will be shut down in coming months and their inmates released or moved elsewhere to save money as Michigan grapples with a budget deficit, officials said Friday.

The sweeping announcement by Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration also affects the state's five minimum-security prison camps. It drew immediate criticism from the state correction officers union, which warned that public safety would be compromised.

The eight prisons cost $118 million to run and hold about 4,600 inmates.

Tax revenues are continuing to slide in a state hit hard by the recession and the auto industry's problems. Michigan is facing a budget shortfall of at least $1.7 billion in the next fiscal year.

there are no good guys

Berlusconi accuses Murdoch media of orchestrated attack

Baby Steps

We should not be too cynical, I suppose.

Antiwar.com today highlights the fact that Obams is the first US president to admit they screwed over the Iranians back in 1953. And this is from their main article today:

Obama Hits A Home Run

Obama's arrival in Saudi Arabia and Egypt was greeted in two ways. First, it had the trappings of a visit by an all-powerful but distant Great White Father--okay, he's black, but anyway--on whose words the fate of the Arab and Muslim world hangs, which is understandable in light of the fact that American troops and sailors are everywhere. And second, in contrast, sophisticated Arab opinion was truly hopeful that Obama's remarks would make concrete the sharp break with the Imperial America as represented by the administration of George W. "Crusader" Bush. I think the latter prevailed. Obama was appropriately humble, and he laid down important markers that signal a new U.S. approach to the Middle East and beyond.

And, as CNN reported, "No one threw a shoe at his head."

I guess that's progress.

The Big Questions

Can he survive? Ten questions that may decide Gordon Brown's fate | Politics | The Guardian

3. Can Brown afford to replace Darling with Balls?

Bye Bye Fitzy

You'd have to think it was the Chinese link that did the real damage. He lost his department back then. And those Defence guys know how to hurt you.

Fitzgibbon resigns as Defence Minister - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Sell up and piss off

Some of the best land in Australia is currently tenanted by the Defence Dept, for example the beautiful headlands at Watsons Bay and Balmoral Beach in Sydney, which would make fine national parks. 

These land tenures are a residue from older wars where a sea-borne invasion was considered a real threat. Nowadays the land could be put to some much better purpose. Maybe Peter Garrett should get involved here?

Defence won't rule out base sell-off - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

WAAAAHHH!!

Obama's not playing by the unofficial rules?

And who knew Bush was a closet Zionist? Hmmmn.

Israelis Say Bush Officials Agreed to Limited Settlement Growth - NYTimes.com

Senior Israeli officials expressed irritation on Wednesday that President Obama had declined to acknowledge what they called clear understandings with the Bush administration that allowed Israel to build West Bank settlement housing within certain guidelines while still publicly claiming to honor a settlement “freeze.”

Bye Bye Gordon

When a Guardian editorial calls for a Labor leader to go, and 80% of readers agree, he's gone. Curiously, the editorial doesn't once mention Iraq - if Brown had the balls to hold Blair responsible for Iraq, things would be very different now. Ah, but of course he was fully complicit as well.

Gordon Brown: Labour's dilemma | Editorial | Comment is free | The Guardian

Krugman Blames Reagan

And don't forget how Thatcher was transforming the UK at the same time, and how the corporate media lionized both these horrid legacies for 25 years.

Op-Ed Columnist - Reagan Did It - NYTimes.com

There’s plenty of blame to go around these days. But the prime villains behind the mess we’re in were Reagan and his circle of advisers — men who forgot the lessons of America’s last great financial crisis, and condemned the rest of us to repeat it.

Cheney's Baby

Cheney Led Briefings of Lawmakers to Defend Interrogation Techniques - washingtonpost.com

The CIA made no mention of his role in documents delivered to Capitol Hill last month that listed every lawmaker who had been briefed on "enhanced interrogation techniques" since 2002. For meetings that were overseen by Cheney, the agency told the intelligence committees that information about who oversaw those briefings was "not available."

WHOO HOO!! A Double Trifecta!

If you wonder what shapes Australia's political landscape, this has gotta mean something...

Wealthy Australian Jews score Rich List trifecta (June 2, 2009)

FOR the first time, Jewish businessmen have taken up the top three positions in the BRW Rich 200 list.

Despite the tough economic climate, the top three positions were taken by Jewish people Anthony Pratt ($4.3 billion), Frank Lowy ($4.2 billion) and Harry Triguboff ($3.66 billion).

Jewish families also took out the top three positions in the wealthiest family list Smorgon family ($2.2 billion), Liberman family ($1.8 billion) and Besen family ($1.73 billion).

For Sale: Queensland

Forget about raising petrol prices to "save taxpayers money" (eh???).

Take a look at the list of assets being sold off:

Ms Bligh has also announced which publicly owned assets will be put up for sale in this month's state Budget.

She says the Port of Brisbane, Queensland Motorways, Forest Plantations Queensland, Queensland Rail's (QR) coal business, and the Abbot Point Coal terminal, north of Bowen in north Queensland, will be sold.

She told Parliament options for the sale of QR's bulk freight services will also be investigated.

And guess who is building a 490 kilometre railway line and a two-berth export terminal at Abbot Point?

Yes, Clive Palmer, arguably Australia's richest man, who also happens to be suing Anna Bligh for a million dollars.

So has Clive Palmer, the man who bankrolls the failed rightwing Liberal National Party, just bought the supposedly lefwing Queensland Labor Party Government? Looks like that to me.

Or will Clive's mates in the Chinese government be buying up the state? And if so, is that "Socialism" we can believe in? Jeez, I'm confused!

Forget the ideological debate. I just don't see how selling off all your public assets during a massive global downturn can be a good thing. Unless maybe it gets you off the hook in a $1 million lawsuit?

Who Could Have Guessed...?

Michael Moore

I write this on the morning of the end of the once-mighty General Motors. By high noon, the President of the United States will have made it official: General Motors, as we know it, has been totaled.

As I sit here in GM's birthplace, Flint, Michigan, I am surrounded by friends and family who are filled with anxiety about what will happen to them and to the town. Forty percent of the homes and businesses in the city have been abandoned. Imagine what it would be like if you lived in a city where almost every other house is empty. What would be your state of mind?

It is with sad irony that the company which invented "planned obsolescence" -- the decision to build cars that would fall apart after a few years so that the customer would then have to buy a new one -- has now made itself obsolete...

Twenty years ago when I made "Roger & Me," I tried to warn people about what was ahead for General Motors. Had the power structure and the punditocracy listened, maybe much of this could have been avoided.

Time To Play 10-Year Predictions

Here's my prediction.

Over the next ten years, the Western public's confidence in democratic government by either or any side or party will erode to the point where civil unrest will become a major issue. This will feed into the hands of the wingnuts, some of whom are already moving their parties in that direction at full speed. Add the financial collapse, global warming, swine flu and whatnot, and you have the perfect environment for hordes of angry mobs marching through the streets.

Either that, or Bush and Cheney will be in jail.

The middle path is that everything just carries on as normal, the pretence that our economic system is fine becomes self-fulfilling, and greed over-rides everything in sight. For another decade at least.

Am I The Only One Who Sees What's Happening Here?

My mum just bought a new home, a 2 br villa for $340K. She was competing in a very volatile market, because all these first home buyers thought they had only weeks to buy a house before the first home buyers grant disappeared. So of course, Australian housing figures for the last quarter look good (and lazy journos can't be bothered breaking it down to see what's happening at the high end of the market). Even the new home builders have been rushing to get a piece of that sweeeeeet $21K freebie.

Similarly, the government gave away millions of dollars in "stimulus" and retails sales are also looking good. Who could have guessed, eh!!!

So on the surface, everything is fine, right? The band is still playing, and the ship has barely begun lilting to starboard. We'll all just keep pretending we didn't hear that mighty SMACK! when we hit the iceberg...

New home sales show signs of life - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Teh Stoopid (It really DOES hurt)

Go back to the last days of Clinton, and what kind of odds would you have got on General Motors going bankrupt within 10 years? A billion to one?

What really hurts is that if Bush & Co had just admitted that global warming was real, they could have turned these big companies around by now.

Assuming they were not just greedy, or stupid, or both.

BBC NEWS | Business | GM ready to file for bankruptcy

Evil Begets Evil Bets Evil Begets Evil

It's hard nowadays to see modern day Israel as anything more than a bastardized offshoot of the horrific Nazi regime. The evil committed against Jews by the Nazis has spawned not just one or two or three generations of traumatized Israelis, but a seemingly unending cycle of fear, hysteria, lies and violence.

Beware! The Palestinians and others are today living through the same nightmare, and may well respond with similar levels of hysteria.

Israel Launches ‘Doomsday’ Drill -- News from Antiwar.com

Someone Gets It

Colorado Independent » Late-term abortion doctor decries Tiller killing: ‘This is a fascist movement’

“I’m profoundly sad and I’m furious and I think the American people need to understand that we have a fascist movement in this country,” Dr. Warren Hern told The Colorado Independent on Sunday. “We don’t have to invade Iraq to find terrorists. They’re right here killing abortion doctors.”

“Every doctor that does abortions has been under an assassination threat for decades,” Hern said. “The anti-abortion movement message is, ‘Do what we tell you to do or we will kill you,’ and they do. This is a fascist movement.”