Posts Tagged ‘plan’
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Best of the Web: Calling All Rebels
Chris Hedges
Truthdig
Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:53 EST
© AP / Ben Margot
Student Natalia Garcia protests last week on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley during a day of nationwide demonstrations against cuts in education funding.
There are no constraints left to halt America’s slide into a totalitarian capitalism. Electoral politics are a sham. The media have been debased and defanged by corporate owners. The working class has been impoverished and is now being plunged into profound despair. The legal system has been corrupted to serve corporate interests. Popular institutions, from labor unions to political parties, have been destroyed or emasculated by corporate power. And any form of protest, no matter how tepid, is blocked by an internal security apparatus that is starting to rival that of the East German secret police. The mounting anger and hatred, coursing through the bloodstream of the body politic, make violence and counter-violence inevitable. Brace yourself. The American empire is over. And the descent is going to be horrifying.
Those singled out as internal enemies will include people of color, immigrants, gays, intellectuals, feminists, Jews, Muslims, union leaders and those defined as "liberals." They will be condemned as anti-American and blamed for our decline. The economic collapse, which remains mysterious and enigmatic to most Americans, will be pinned by demagogues and hatemongers on these hapless scapegoats. And the random acts of violence, which are already leaping up around the fringes of American society, will justify harsh measures of internal control that will snuff out the final vestiges of our democracy. The corporate forces that destroyed the country will use the information systems they control to mask their culpability. The old game of blaming the weak and the marginal, a staple of despotic regimes, will empower the dark undercurrents of sadism and violence within American society and deflect attention from the corporate vampires that have drained the blood of the country.
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Best of the Web: Target Iran: US Neocons in bed with Iranian terrorist groups
Russia Today
YouTube
Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:30 EST
The Rigi brothers who were captured by Iran may have connections or ties to the Shah of Iran. Wayne Madsen says that the Rigi brothers cousin is a member of the royal court. There are also new claims that United States conservatives may have ties to the two brothers.
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Best of the Web: 9/11 Truth is going mainstream
Russia Today
YouTube
Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:59 EST
There is a growing number of Americans who believe 9/11 was an inside job. 9/11 truthers, as they are known, attended a two day conference that was called Treason in America, in the hopes of bringing awareness to their cause. Is this a signal that the movement is gaining traction?
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Best of the Web: The Anti-Empire Report
William Blum
www.killinghope.org
Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:12 EST
© Unknown
Informed consent
About half the states in the US require that a woman seeking an abortion be told certain things before she can obtain the medical procedure. In South Dakota, for example, until a few months ago, staff was required to tell women: "The abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being"; the pregnant woman has "an existing relationship with that unborn human being," a relationship protected by the U.S. Constitution and the laws of South Dakota; and a "known medical risk" of abortion is an "increased risk of suicide ideation and suicide." A federal judge has now eliminated the second and third required assertions, calling them "untruthful and misleading."1
I personally would question even the first assertion about a fetus or an embryo being a human being, but that’s not the point I wish to make here. I’d like to suggest that before a young American man or woman can enlist in the armed forces s/he must be told the following by the staff of the military recruitment office:
"The United States is at war [this statement is always factually correct]. You will likely be sent to a battlefield where you will be expected to do your best to terminate the lives of whole, separate, unique, living human beings you know nothing about and who have never done you or your country any harm. You may in the process lose an arm or a leg. Or your life. If you come home alive and with all your body parts intact there’s a good chance you will be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Do not expect the government to provide you particularly good care for that, or any care at all. In any case, you may wind up physically abusing your spouse and children and/or others, killing various individuals, abusing drugs and/or alcohol, and having an increased risk of suicide ideation and suicide. No matter how bad a condition you may be in, the Pentagon may send you back to the battlefield for another tour of duty.
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Best of the Web: In Denial: The Meltdown of the Climate Campaign
Steven F. Hayward
The Weekly Standard
Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:23 EST
© The Weekly Standard
Exposed! The global warming campaign enters its emperor’s-new-clothes phase
It is increasingly clear that the leak of the internal emails and documents of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in November has done for the climate change debate what the Pentagon Papers did for the Vietnam war debate 40 years ago – changed the narrative decisively. Additional revelations of unethical behavior, errors, and serial exaggeration in climate science are rolling out on an almost daily basis, and there is good reason to expect more.
The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), hitherto the gold standard in climate science, is under fire for shoddy work and facing calls for a serious shakeup. The U.S. Climate Action Partnership, the self-serving coalition of environmentalists and big business hoping to create a carbon cartel, is falling apart in the wake of the collapse of any prospect of enacting cap and trade in Congress. Meanwhile, the climate campaign’s fallback plan to have the EPA regulate greenhouse gas emissions through the cumbersome Clean Air Act is generating bipartisan opposition. The British media – even the left-leaning, climate alarmists of the Guardian and BBC – are turning on the climate campaign with a vengeance. The somnolent American media, which have done as poor a job reporting about climate change as they did on John Edwards, have largely averted their gaze from the inconvenient meltdown of the climate campaign, but the rock solid edifice in the newsrooms is cracking. Al Gore was conspicuously missing in action before surfacing with a long article in the New York Times on February 28, reiterating his familiar parade of horribles: The sea level will rise! Monster storms! Climate refugees in the hundreds of millions! Political chaos the world over! It was the rhetorical equivalent of stamping his feet and saying "It is too so!" In a sign of how dramatic the reversal of fortune has been for the climate campaign, it is now James Inhofe, the leading climate skeptic in the Senate, who is eager to have Gore testify before Congress.
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Signs of the Times News for Tue, 09 Mar 2010
Tags: Acts Of Violence, Afghanistan, Al Gore, American Empire, Asia, australia, Bill, Brown, Campaign, Canada, change, Chris Hedges, climate, Cyprus, dark undercurrents, despotic regimes, Detroit, economic collapse, Fergana Valley, Fictional City, France, Georgia, harsh measures, India, Iran, Israel, James, Joe Glenton, John Avlon - Conspiracy, John Edwards, Kandahar, Marja, news, Nigeria, plan, Quot, random acts of violence, Read More, Russia, Secretary Gates, Steven F. Hayward, suicide, Truthdig, U.S., U.S. Climate, UK, Ukraine, university of california at berkeley, US, Vietnam, war, Web, world Posted in headlines | No Comments »
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Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Reuters
Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:09 EST
© Agence France-Presse
A Jamaat-i-Islami activist protesting at a rally in Karachi. The US Congress wishfully thinks its aid package will counter strong anti-US sentiment.
The Obama administration sent lawmakers this week a plan for $1.45 billion (Dh5.32bn) in aid for Pakistan this year, funding media campaigns to counter extremist views as well as water, energy and other projects.
The 2010 spending plan, obtained by Reuters, was sent to lawmakers as part of the US administration’s obligation to consult Congress over the civilian aid package.
"It represents a rebalancing of the military and civilian assistance," Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew told Reuters of the package, part of a $7.5bn, five-year aid plan passed by Congress for Pakistan last year. There is strong anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and the hope is this new assistance will help ease that tension.
About $50 million is set aside for a "comprehensive communications strategy" to counter extremist views and strengthen Pakistani institutions and moderate voices, the report to Congress said.
"This effort will reduce the ability of Al Qaeda and other extremists to influence public perceptions and attitudes and support Pakistan’s people and government as they establish a more secure, prosperous and lasting state," the report said. This would include a so-called rapid response team to monitor Pakistani and regional media and "swiftly correct inaccurate reporting," of which the US complains it is often a target.
The US has a difficult relationship with Pakistan and at the end of last year, Islamabad said US funding had slowed despite promises of a big injection of aid, which was more than $10bn in the past nine years.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/203995-US-announces-50-million-propaganda-blitz-to-convince-Pakistanis-that-obliterating-their-country-is-for-their-own-good
Tags: administration, Agence France Presse, aid, Al Qaeda, anti american sentiment, comprehensive communications, congress, Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew, Extremist, extremist views, Islamabad, jack lew, Karachi, media campaigns, package, Pakistan, plan, public perceptions, Quot, rapid response team, Reuters, sentiment, support pakistan, US, Us Congress, year Posted in Global governance, Israel, The soon to be former USA, finance, propaganda, war, world | No Comments »
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Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
by Ellen Brown
Global Research, March 2, 2010
Web of Debt – 2010-02-28
In addition to mandatory private health insurance premiums, we may soon be hit with a “mandatory savings” tax and other belt-tightening measures urged by the President’s new budget task force. These radical austerity measures are not only unnecessary, however, but will actually make matters worse. The push for “fiscal responsibility” is based on bad economics.
When billionaires pledge a billion dollars to educate people to the evils of something, it is always good to peer closely at what they are up to. Hedge fund magnate Peter G. Peterson was formerly Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations and head of the New York Federal Reserve. He is now senior chairman of Blackstone Group, which is in charge of dispersing government funds in the controversial AIG bailout, widely criticized as a government giveaway to banks. Peterson is also founder of the Peter Peterson Foundation, which has adopted the cause of imposing “fiscal responsibility” on Congress. He hired David M. Walker, former head of the Government Accounting Office, to spearhead a massive campaign to reduce the runaway federal debt, which the Peterson/Walker team blames on reckless government and consumer spending. The Foundation funded the movie “I.O.U.S.A.” to amass popular support for their cause, which largely revolves around dismantling Social Security and Medicare benefits as a way to cut costs and return to “fiscal responsibility.”
The Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform has pushed heavily for action to stem the federal debt. Bills for a budget task force were sponsored in both houses of Congress. The Senate bill was narrowly defeated, and the House bill was tabled; but that was not the end of it. In Obama’s State of the Union speech on January 27, he said he would be creating a presidential budget task force by executive order to address the federal government’s deficit and debt crisis, and that the task force would be modeled on the bills Congress had failed to pass. If Congress would not impose “fiscal responsibility” on the nation, the President would. “It keeps me awake at night, looking at all that red ink,” he said. The Executive Order was signed on February 17.
What the President seems to have missed is that all of our money except coins now comes into the world as “red ink,” or debt. It is all created on the books of private banks and lent into the economy. If there is no debt, there is no money; and private debt has collapsed. This year to date, U.S. lending has been contracting at the fastest rate in recorded history. A credit freeze has struck globally; and when credit shrinks, the money supply shrinks with it. That means there is insufficient money to buy goods, so workers get laid off and factories get shut down, perpetuating a vicious spiral of economic collapse and depression. To reverse that cycle, credit needs to be restored; and when the banks can’t do it, the government needs to step in and start “monetizing” debt itself, or turning debt into dollars.
Although lending remains far below earlier levels, banks say they are making as many loans as they are allowed to make under existing banking rules. The real bottleneck is with the “shadow lenders” – those investors who, until late 2007, bought massive amounts of bank loans bundled up as “securities,” taking those loans off the banks’ books, making room for yet more loans to be originated out of the banks’ capital and deposit bases. Because of the surging defaults on subprime mortgages, investors have now shied away from buying the loans, forcing banks and Wall Street firms to hold them on their books and take the losses. In the boom years, the shadow lending market was estimated at $10 trillion. That market has now collapsed, leaving a massive crater in the money supply. That hole needs to be filled, and only the government is in a position to do it. Paying down the federal debt when money is already scarce just makes matters worse. When the deficit has been reduced historically, the money supply has been reduced along with it, throwing the economy into recession.
Another Look at the Budget Reform Agenda
That raises the question, are the advocates of “fiscal responsibility” merely misguided? Or are they up to something more devious? The President’s Executive Order is vague about the sorts of budget decisions being entertained, but we can get a sense of what is on the table by looking at the earlier agenda of Peterson’s Commission on Budget Reform. The Peterson/Walker plan would have slashed social security entitlements, at a time when Wall Street has destroyed the home equity and private retirement accounts of potential retirees. Worse, it would have increased the social security tax, disguised as a “mandatory savings tax.” This added tax would be automatically withdrawn from your paycheck and deposited to a “Guaranteed Retirement Account” managed by the Social Security Administration. Since the savings would be “mandatory,” you could not withdraw your money without stiff penalties; and rather than enjoying an earlier retirement paid out of your increased savings, a later retirement date was being called for. In the meantime, your “mandatory savings” would just be fattening the investment pool of the Wall Street bankers managing the funds.
And that may be what really underlies the big push to educate the public to the dangers of the federal debt. Political analyst Jim Capo discusses a slide show presentation given by David M. Walker after the “I.O.U.S.A.” premier, in which a mandatory savings plan was proposed that would be modeled on the Federal Thrift Savings Plan (FSP). Capo comments:
“The FSP, available for federal employees like congressional staff workers, has over $200 billion of assets (on paper anyway). About half these assets are in special non-negotiable US Treasury notes issued especially for the FSP scheme. The other half are invested in stocks, bonds and other securities. . . . The nearly $100 billion in [this] half of the plan is managed by Blackrock Financial. And, yes, shock, Blackrock Financial is a creation of Mr. Peterson’s Blackstone Group. In fact, the FSP and Blackstone were birthed almost as a matched set. It’s tough to fail when you form an investment management company at the same time you can gain the contract that directs a percentage of the Federal government payroll into your hands.”
What “Fiscal Responsibility” Really Means
All of this puts “fiscal responsibility” in a different light. Rather than saving the future for our grandchildren, as the President himself seems to think it means, it appears to be a code word for delivering public monies into private hands and raising taxes on the already-squeezed middle class. In the parlance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), these are called “austerity measures,” and they are the sorts of things that people are taking to the streets in Greece, Iceland and Latvia to protest. Americans are not taking to the streets only because nobody has told us that is what is being planned.
We have been deluded into thinking that “fiscal responsibility” (read “austerity”) is something for our benefit, something we actually need in order to save the country from bankruptcy. In the massive campaign to educate us to the perils of the federal debt, we have been repeatedly warned that the debt is disastrously large; that when foreign lenders decide to pull the plug on it, the U.S. will have to declare bankruptcy; and that all this is the fault of the citizenry for borrowing and spending too much. We are admonished to tighten our belts and save more; and since we can’t seem to impose that discipline on ourselves, the government will have to do it for us with a “mandatory savings” plan. The American people, who are already suffering massive unemployment and cutbacks in government services, will have to sacrifice more and pay the piper more, just as in those debt-strapped countries forced into austerity measures by the IMF.
Fortunately for us, however, there is a major difference between our debt and the debts of Greece, Latvia and Iceland. Our debt is owed in our own currency – U.S. dollars. Our government has the power to fix its solvency problems itself, by simply issuing the money it needs to pay off or refinance its debt. That time-tested solution goes back to the colonial scrip of the American colonists and the “Greenbacks” issued by Abraham Lincoln to avoid paying 24-36% interest rates.
Economic Fearmongering
What invariably kills any discussion of this sensible solution is another myth long perpetrated by the financial elite — that allowing the government to increase the money supply would lead to hyperinflation. Rather than exercising its sovereign right to create the liquidity the nation needs, the government is told that it must borrow. Borrow from whom? From the bankers, of course. And where do bankers get the money they lend? They create it on their books, just as the government would have done. The difference is that when bankers create it, it comes with a hefty fee attached in the form of interest.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve has been trying to increase the money supply; and rather than producing hyperinflation, we continue to suffer from deflation. Frantically pushing money at the banks has not gotten money into the real economy. Rather than lending it to businesses and individuals, the larger banks have been speculating with it or buying up smaller banks, land, farms, and productive capacity, while the credit freeze continues on Main Street. Only the government can reverse this vicious syndrome, by spending money directly on projects that will create jobs, provide services, and stimulate productivity. Increasing the money supply is not inflationary if the money is used to increase goods and services. Inflation results when “demand” (money) exceeds “supply” (goods and services). When supply and demand increase together, prices remain stable.
The notion that the federal debt is too large to be repaid and that we are imposing that monster burden on our grandchildren is another red herring. The federal debt has not been paid off since the days of Andrew Jackson, and it does not need to be paid off. It is just rolled over from year to year, providing the “full faith and credit” that alone backs the money supply of the nation. The only real danger posed by a growing federal debt is an exponentially growing interest burden; but so far, that danger has not materialized either. Interest on the federal debt has actually gone down since 2006 — from $406 billion to $383 billion — because interest rates have been lowered by the Fed to very low levels.
They can’t be lowered much further, however, so the interest burden will increase if the federal debt continues to grow. But there is a solution to that too. The government can just mandate that the Federal Reserve buy the government’s debt, and that the Fed not sell the bonds to private lenders. The Federal Reserve states on its website that it rebates its profits to the government after deducting its costs, making the money nearly interest-free.
All the fear-mongering about the economy collapsing when the Chinese and other investors stop buying our debt is yet another red herring. The Fed can buy the debt itself – as it has been stealthily doing. That is actually a better alternative than selling the debt to foreigners, since it means we really will owe the debt only to ourselves, as Roosevelt was assured by his advisors when he agreed to the deficit approach in the 1930s; and this debt-turned-into-dollars will be nearly interest-free.
Better yet would be to either nationalize or abolish the Fed and fund the government directly with Greenbacks as President Lincoln did. What the Fed does the Treasury Department can do, for the cost of administration. There would be no shareholders or bondholders to siphon earnings, which could be recycled into public accounts to fund national, state and local budgets at zero or near-zero interest rates. Eliminating debt service payments would allow state and federal income taxes to be slashed; and the public managers of this money, rather than hiding behind a veil of secrecy, would be opening their books for all to see.
A final red herring is the threatened bankruptcy of Social Security. Social Security cannot actually go bankrupt, because it is a pay-as-you-go system. Today’s social security taxes pay today’s recipients; and if necessary, the tax can be raised. As Washington economist Dean Baker wrote when President Bush unleashed the campaign to privatize Social Security in 2005:
“The most recent projections show that the program, with no changes whatsoever, can pay all benefits through the year 2042. Even after 2042, Social Security would always be able to pay a higher benefit (adjusted for inflation) than what current retirees receive, although the payment would only be about 73 percent of scheduled benefits.”
Today incomes over $97,000 escape the tax, disproportionately imposing it on lower income brackets. Projections over the next 75 years show that just removing that cap could eliminate the forecasted deficit. When the Democratic presidential candidates were debating in the fall of 2007, Barack Obama and Joe Biden were the only candidates willing to seriously consider this reasonable alternative. President Obama just needs to follow through with the solutions he espoused when campaigning.
The Mass Education Campaign We Really Need
What is really going on behind the scenes may have been revealed by Prof. Carroll Quigley, Bill Clinton’s mentor at Georgetown University. An insider groomed by the international bankers, Dr. Quigley wrote in Tragedy and Hope in 1966:
“[T]he powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences.”
If that is indeed the plan, it is virtually complete. Unless we wake up to what is going on and take action, the “powers of financial capitalism” will have their way. Rather than taking to the streets, we need to take to the courts, bring voter initiatives, and wake up our legislators to the urgent need to take the power to create money back from the private banking elite that has hijacked it from the American people. And that includes waking up the President, who has been losing sleep over the wrong threat.
Ellen Brown developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles. In Web of Debt, her latest book, she turns those skills to an analysis of the Federal Reserve and “the money trust.” Her eleven books include Forbidden Medicine, Nature’s Pharmacy (co-authored with Dr. Lynne Walker), and The Key to Ultimate Health (co-authored with Dr. Richard Hansen). Her websites are webofdebt.com, ellenbrown.com, and public-banking.com.
Ellen Brown is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Ellen Brown
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, Austerity Measures, blackstone group, budget task force, David M. Walker, debt, federal, FSP, government, government accounting office, Greece, health insurance premiums, I.O.U.S.A., Iceland, interest, Jim Capo, Latvia, Main Street, medicare benefits, money, Mr. Peterson, pew commission, plan, Private Health Insurance, retirement, social security and medicare, Supply, tax, U.S., US, wall street Posted in The soon to be former USA, activism, bilderburg, finance, laws/politics, nation, the former republic that was America | No Comments »
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Monday, March 1st, 2010
by Shamus Cooke
Global Research, March 1, 2010
It’s difficult to understand a subject when those explaining it are motivated not by truth, but profit. In the case of health care, both Democrats and Republicans have huge financial incentives to obscure, mislead, or lie. Instead of common sense and honesty directing the debate, bags of money facilitate the conversation, funneled in from the health care industry via lobbyists into Congressmen’s pockets. This is the real reason that Obama’s “health care summit” was full of free-market jargon, staged debate and fake rage.
The majority of working people in this country are completely alienated from this nonsense, and are growing progressively hostile to the lies of both parties and their respective media mouthpieces. Polls continue to show rising opposition to the Democrats’ health care shenanigans, while showing no upgrade in status for the Republicans.
The ability for millions of people to see through the muddle in Washington points to a larger distrust of the two-party system. Even as “progressive Democrats” and other liberal pundits bow before the health care industry by urging passage of “an imperfect” health care bill, workers, the poor and the elderly aren’t taking the bait.
And why should they? The Democrats want millions of uninsured people to be mandated into buying crappy health insurance from the most hated companies in existence, where co-pays, premiums and other fees will prevent millions from benefiting from their new, shoddy health care. This individual mandate is reason enough to solidly reject Obama’s health care scheme, but it’s just the beginning.
The Democrats don’t like to talk about how their health care vision slashes Medicare. The New York Times explains in detail how Obama’s new plan attacks Medicare; here are some examples:
“President Obama’s budget would make a down payment toward his goal of covering the uninsured, and he would pay for it in part by cutting federal payments [Medicare] to hospitals, insurance companies and drug companies.”
Later, the article reads: “Mr. Obama said he would save $176 billion over 10 years by cutting Medicare payments to health insurance companies that provide comprehensive care to more than 10 million of the 44 million Medicare beneficiaries.”
And: “Mr. Obama also proposed squeezing $37 billion out of the [Medicare] payments to home health agencies over the next decade.” (February 26, 2010).
The article fails to connect these blandly stated numbers with the gigantic human suffering that will result. All that seems to matter is that the “uninsured will be [poorly] insured,” not that those currently receiving quality services will have their health care stripped from them.
Equally disastrous is the bi-partisan consensus over health care rationing. The Democrats plan aims to save billions of dollars by simply providing less health care. In fact, rationing health care is the philosophical backbone of the Democrats’ plan, which amounts to boosting the profits of health care corporations by allowing them to provide less service.
In Obama’s recently released plan, a large section is entitled “policies to crack down on waste, fraud and abuse.” The mainstream media and both political parties have made it abundantly clear that “waste” means “excessive tests and procedures that doctors routinely perform.” In essence, this means that the “new normal” for health care will be less tests and less procedures for those mandated to pay for corporate health care. Of course these measures will continue to be performed for those who can afford more expensive plans.
Contrary to the foolish accusations of the Republicans, the Democrats health care bill does not represent “the government takeover of health care,” but the corporate takeover. The fact that this corporate coup is being conducted through the hands of government only proves that both political parties are wholly owned by the corporations.
Federally run Medicare and state run Medicaid are being slashed, pushing soon-to-be mandated people into the corporate sphere, where services will be cut to push up profits.
Another way that the corporate takeover of health care will be achieved is through the tax on so called “Cadillac health care plans.” Employers will be taxed for offering their workers quality health care after a certain threshold; the worse the health care offered, the lower the tax. Labor unions correctly interpreted the tax to be an attack on their health care plans, since union workers typically have better health care plans than the unorganized.
Sadly, many labor leaders agreed not to fight this tax after Obama “compromised” by raising the tax threshold and delaying its implementation until 2018. But to think that such a tax can be ignored until 2018 is a perilous delusion. Employers will use every contract negotiation until 2018 to attack health care plans, so that the plans are below the threshold by the time the tax kicks in. Those employers without a unionized workforce will simply drop their health care plans and force their workers into the treacherous waters of Obama’s health care mandate.
Both political parties love this idea. And despite the Republicans furious playacting, they are giddy that the Democrats have adopted long held conservative Republican beliefs about health care. This is what the Wall Street Journal said about the health care summit:
“To listen to President Obama and his closest Democratic allies, you’d think John McCain had won the election and their bill had been drafted by Paul Ryan, Tom Coburn and the scholars at the American Enterprise Institute [a rightwing think tank].” (February 26, 2010).
The above-described dynamics will drastically alter the health care landscape in the U.S. The high standards of health care embodied in Medicare and union plans are being undermined, setting a much lower standard nationally. Once these plans are killed, the corporate vultures will swoop in with their “individual mandate” to make billions of dollars, while the threshold for “quality care” will be lowered drastically with the mass rationing of health care.
Anyone interested in saving health care must fight the Democrats’ plans, while demanding that Medicare be extended to everyone. To ensure that Medicare is financially sound, taxes on the wealthy and corporations must be raised, while the health care monopoly corporations should be nationalized and run as public utilities.
These ideas can be made a reality only through the united and organized effort of the Labor Movement, retiree organizations, community groups and anyone else interested in saving and extending real health care in the U.S.
Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action (www.workerscompass.org). He can be reached at shamuscook@yahoo.com
Shamus Cooke is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Shamus Cooke
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17857
Tags: care, debate, Democrats And Republicans, financial incentives, HEALTH, Health Care Bill, Health Care Industry, health care scheme, health care summit, industry, Insurance, liberal pundits, Medicare, Mr. Obama, Obama, plan, President Obama, progressive democrats, Reason, Shamus Cooke, takeover, taking the bait, tax, Washington Posted in HEALTH, The soon to be former USA, bilderburg, finance, nation, the former republic that was America | No Comments »
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Thursday, February 25th, 2010
CLG’s BREAKING NEWS and COMMENTARY
Last updated: 02/25/2010 11:40:45
Blackwater guards stole weapons in Kabul and went on deadly rampage 25 Feb 2010 Private American security guards working for the US military in Afghanistan removed hundreds of handguns and automatic weapons from stores intended for the exclusive use of the Afghan police and used them on drunken shooting rampages that killed two Afghan civilians and injured at least two more. The guards included a former US Marine with a criminal record of assault and battery and a former soldier discharged from the US Army after testing positive for cocaine, Congress heard yesterday. Justin Cannon, Christopher Drotleff and a guard using the name “Eric Cartman” from the cartoon South Park were employees of a subsidiary of the Blackwater Worldwide group, implicated in a litany of extrajudicial shootings since 2003 in Afghanistan and Iraq. [Here is the deal. It's time to admit that the actual enemy is not the Taliban but is *Blackwater.* Soon, this terrorist organization, backed entirely by the US government, will be too big to destroy and will be used to quell uprisings on US soil. --LRP]
Australia warns Israel over passport abuse 25 Feb 2010 Australia warned Israel today that its alleged use of fraudulent Australian passports in the assassination of a senior Hamas militant was not considered the "act of a friend". In the most robust international response yet to the Dubai killing, Stephen Smith, the Foreign Minister, summoned the Israel ambassador to demand his co-operation into the murder in a Dubai luxury hotel.
Habib cleared to sue federal government 25 Feb 2010 Former Guantanamo Bay detainee prisoner Mamdouh Habib has been given the green light to sue the Australian government in a landmark Federal Court ruling. Mr Habib claims Australian authorities were complicit and sometimes present during torture he allegedly endured while detained in Pakistan, Egypt, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, the US army base in Cuba. [He needs to sue the USociopaths after he's done with the Australian government.]
H1N1 shot blamed for Calgary woman’s rare disorder 24 Feb 2010 A Calgary woman regrets getting the H1N1 shot after her doctor told her it likely caused a rare and painful disorder. Soon after getting the shot last winter, Norma Goldring felt ill… "By the time I got to emergency, it spread pretty bad and turned to blisters." Her kidneys were shutting down. Doctors eventually diagnosed it as vasculitis, an inflammation that destroys blood vessels. Her doctor, who asked not to be named, concluded it was probably connected to the H1N1 shot.
Virtually Everyone Should Get a Flu Shot: CDC 25 Feb 2010 All Americans 6 months of age and older should get a flu shot each year, a panel of U.S. advisers is recommending. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted Wednesday to expand the current recommendations on who should get a flu shot to include almost everyone. [No one wants the pharmaterrorists' squalene-laden, mercury-filled, Polysorbate 80-laced deadly flu vaccines, or their lab-generated pandemics that precede them.]
Useless is as useless does: Obama may cave on consumer protection agency –Administration may also compromise on regulating banks’ risky behavior 25 Feb 2010 The Obama administration is no longer insisting on the creation of a stand-alone consumer protection agency as a central element of the plan to remake regulation of the financial system… The administration may also have to compromise on Obama’s recent proposal for a rule to limit risky activities at banks by prohibiting them from engaging in many kinds of speculative investments.
New Home Sales Drop 11 Percent In January –Level Is Lowest In Nearly Half A Century 24 Feb 2010 Sales of new homes plunged to a record low in January, underscoring the formidable challenges facing the housing industry as it tries to recover from the worst slump in decades. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that new home sales dropped 11.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 309,000 units, the lowest level on records going back nearly a half century.
Toyota troubles could mean redemption for Minn. man sent to prison for 8 years in fatal crash –Prosecutor who sent man to prison thinks case merits another look 25 Feb 2010 Ever since his 1996 Toyota Camry shot up an interstate ramp, plowing into the back of an Oldsmobile in a horrific crash that killed three people, Koua Fong Lee insisted he had done everything he could to stop the car. A jury didn’t believe him, and a judge sentenced him to eight years in prison. But now, new revelations of safety problems with Toyotas have Lee pressing to get his case reopened and his freedom restored.
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Contractors outnumber full-time workers at DHS; lawmakers ‘astounded’ –200,000 contractors outnumber civilian work force of Homeland Security 24 Feb 2010 The Department of Homeland Security has more contractors working for it than full-time employees, a situation two members of Congress said Tuesday was "unacceptable, untenable and unsustainable." Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and ranking Republican Susan Collins said they were "astounded" to learn there are more than 200,000 contractor employees at the department. The civilian work force of Homeland Security numbers 188,000, according to an estimate provided to the senators by Homeland Security.
CIA briefed 68 lawmakers on torture program 23 Feb 2010 CIA officials briefed at least 68 U.S. lawmakers between 2001 and 2007 on enhanced interrogation torture methods like simulated drowning that were being considered or used against captured ‘al Qaeda’ members, according to declassified documents released on Tuesday. The once-secret CIA papers, obtained in a lawsuit by the conservative legal foundation Judicial Watch, shed new light on which lawmakers knew the details of the controversial interrogation program and when.
MI5 and MI6 not to be investigated over torture claims –MI5 and MI6 will not be investigated over allegations they were complicit in the torture of terror suspects abroad, the Attorney General has decided. 23 Feb 2010 Baroness Scotland considered the cases following a report by the pressure group Human Rights Watch, published last November. In a statement released yesterday the Attorney General’s department said the time taken to respond reflected "careful consideration of the report."
Iraqi parliamentarian won’t campaign, fears U.S. assassination attempt 24 Feb 2010 Abu Mahdi al-Mohandas is one of more than 6,000 candidates who are running in the Iraqi parliamentary elections next month, but he’s probably the only contender who won’t set foot on the campaign trail for fear of a U.S. assassination attempt. "I was told, officially, by the speaker of parliament and a high-ranking Iraqi official that it’s preferable I don’t show up before the election because they couldn’t assure I would be protected," al-Mohandas told McClatchy Newspapers in a rare, two-hour telephone interview Wednesday from Tehran, Iran. "Since 2005, the Americans have conveyed a message through an Iraqi mediator that they’ll kidnap or assassinate me."
Iran to reveal evidence of Jundallah ties with US 23 Feb 2010 Iran says it has irrefutable evidence confirming that terrorist ringleader Abdolmalek Rigi had been aided and abetted by the US government before his arrest. The leader of the Jundallah terrorist group was on a flight from the United Arab Emirates to Kyrgyzstan when he was tracked down by Iranian security forces on Tuesday. An informed source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Press TV that Rigi and one of his deputies were captured after Iranian security forces forced their plane to land at an airport in the Persian Gulf city of Bandar Abbas. Iranian security forces said he was at a US base in Afghanistan 24 hours before his capture and had a forged Afghan passport issued by the US in his possession when he was detained.
Dubai Hamas assassination: 12 suspects carried British passports –Dubai police have named a further six Britons whose cloned passports were used in the killing of a top Hamas agent last month, as they raised the number of those involved in the assassination to 26. 25 Feb 2010 An emailed police statement said an additional 15 people using western passports were thought to have played a role in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a[n alleged] leading arms buyer for Hamas. As well as the six using British passports, three had French passports, three Irish and three Australian. Five of the 15 were women.
Blackwater workers took police assault rifles, hearing told –Employees of American defence contractor Blackwater took more than 500 assault rifles intended for Afghan police force 24 Feb 2010 Employees of American defence contractor Blackwater took more than 500 assault rifles that were intended for the Afghan police force and routinely carried weapons without permission, it emerged in a hearing of the Senate armed services committee today. It also emerged that to shed its sullied reputation and win contracting business in Afghanistan, Blackwater created what one senator called a shell company.
Senate slams US Army on Blackwater 24 Feb 2010 The US Army’s careless supervision of private security firm Blackwater allowed its employees to use weapons without authorization in Afghanistan, a Senate inquiry says. Following a month-long probe, the Senate’s Armed Service Committee revealed Tuesday that the US Army had put a blind eye to the activities of Blackwater now known as Xe Services in Afghanistan. "Blackwater operated in Afghanistan without sufficient oversight or supervision and with almost no consideration of the rules it was legally obligated to follow," Senator Carl Levin, the committee’s chairman said.
Nato admits that deaths of 8 boys were a mistake 25 Feb 2010 A night-time raid in eastern Afghanistan in which eight schoolboys from one family were killed was carried out on the basis of faulty intelligence and should never have been authorised, a Times investigation has found. Ten children and teenagers died when troops stormed a remote mountain compound near the border with Pakistan in December.
Army must recruit more than 100,000 soldiers to continue Afghan fighting –Military chiefs say more troops needed for conflict 24 Feb 2010 Army chiefs insist that thousands more soldiers need to be recruited if Britain is to continue fighting in operations such as Afghanistan. The force, a senior army source said yesterday, should be increased by 7 per cent to around 108,000 troops. It has been acknowledged for some time that the British Army’s commitment in Helmand province, as well as previous operations in Iraq, has left it overstretched.
US toll in Afghanistan war reaches 1,000 –The US death toll in Afghanistan has reached 1,000 with the number of soldiers killed doubling since last year. 23 Feb 2010 The icasualties.org website, which tracks military deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq, said 54 US soldiers had died in the war so far this year, as the coalition tries to regain momentum in its eight-year campaign. It was the worst toll for two consecutive months since the US-led invasion of 2001 and compared with a toll of 30 in the same period last year.
US military: Soldier dies in Iraq in accident 23 Feb 2010 The U.S. military says an American soldier has died in an accident in western Baghdad. According to a statement released by the U.S. military, the soldier died in a vehicle related accident on Tuesday.
Despite Taliban activity in Helmand, NATO won’t alter Kandahar plans 24 Feb 2010 Although the publicity-heavy military strategy NATO adopted ahead of its ongoing offensive in Helmand province allowed the Taliban time to plant "hundreds" of makeshift bombs that are slowing troop progress, a similar operation planned in Canadian-led Kandahar province will largely use the same tactic, its commander says. The Canadian commander of the coalition’s Task Force Kandahar, Brigadier-General Daniel Ménard, said troops in Helmand have come across about 400 or 500 of the improvised explosive devices in 10 days since the start of the big attack, dubbed Operation Moshtarak.
Latin America creates bloc sans US [Awesome!] 23 Feb 2010 Latin America and Caribbean leaders united Tuesday to create a regional bloc excluding Canada and the United States… Bolivian President Evo Morales, one of Hugo Chavez’s strongest allies, suggested that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was a U.S. agent sent to sabotage the bloc. "What’s my conclusion?" Morales said. "Since we are debating a new organization without the United States, the agents of the United States have come to bog this down to make this event fail."
Greek Police, Protesters Clash in Nationwide Strike 24 Feb 2010 Greek police fired tear-gas and clashed with demonstrators in central Athens after a march organized by unions to oppose Prime Minister George Papandreou’s drive to cut the European Union’s biggest budget deficit. Hooded youths threw rocks, marble and other objects at riot police after the march today to the country’s Parliament building. At least one person was detained.
Explosive News 22 Feb 2010 A lingering technical question about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks still haunts some, and it has political implications: How did 200,000 tons of steel disintegrate and drop in 11 seconds? A thousand architects and engineers want to know, and are calling on Congress to order a new investigation into the destruction of the Twin Towers and Building 7 at the World Trade Center. "In order to bring down this kind of mass in such a short period of time, the material must have been artificially, exploded outwards," says Richard Gage, a San Francisco architect and founder of the nonprofit Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth. Mr. Gage, who is a member of the American Institute of Architects, managed to persuade more than 1,000 of his peers to sign a new petition requesting a formal inquiry. [See also: CLG 9/11 Exposition Zone.]
High school friends of confessed subway bomb plotter will face more terror charges –Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Tuesday more people were directly involved in Zazi’s plan to bomb the subway system last year. 24 Feb 2010 Two high school pals of confessed subway bomb plotter Najibullah Zazi will face more charges now that he’s talking to the feds, the Daily News has learned. Flushing High School friends Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay are already charged in connection with Zazi’s trip to an Al Qaeda [al-CIAduh] training camp in Pakistan in 2008. It’s unclear what additional charges they may face when they appear in Brooklyn Federal Court tomorrow.
Senate set to extend Patriot Act without new restrictions By Josh Rogin 23 Feb 2010 The Senate is preparing to bring up and pass a short-term extension of some key provisions of the Patriot Act, setting aside changes to the law that were carefully negotiated by a Senate committee last fall. The Judiciary Committee approved a bill last October that would extend key provisions of the controversial law but add new restrictions to the use of so-called national security letters, a procedure used by the FBI to demand records from U.S. businesses. But according to leading senators, those new restrictions might have to wait for another year.
Australia to use face-scanning and fingerprints to combat terrorism –Australia plans to fingerprint and face-scan visitors from 10 high-risk countries in an attempt to combat terrorism, which has become a "permanent" threat to the country. 23 Feb 2010 Unveiling the government’s long-awaited white paper on counter-extremism, Kevin Rudd, the prime minister, said Australia was also concerned about the rising threat from home-grown militancy, just one week after five Sydney men received long jail terms for planning a violent jihad attack. Under the plans, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship would begin collecting the fingerprints and facial images this year, and cross-check them with immigration and law enforcement databases in Australia and overseas.
Full-body scanner arriving at O’Hare –Civil liberties groups call machines an unacceptable intrusion 23 Feb 2010 The first full-body scanner is finally set to arrive at O’Hare International Airport next week… When the scanner begins operating in early March, randomly selected local passengers will be confronted with the option of going through the revealing imaging devices or being subjected to a pat-down. The scanner will be installed at United Airlines’ Terminal 1 within the next two weeks, Jim Fotenos, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, said Tuesday.
Federal judge orders school district to stop spying on students 24 Feb 2010 A Pennsylvania school district has been ordered to disable equipment allowing officials [possible pedophiles] to watch students using cameras on their laptops. The order, issued Wednesday by a federal judge, will prevent school administrators from turning on cameras installed on students’ school-issued laptops remotely [and watch them getting undressed]. The move arrives at the request of a Lower Merion family, which claimed school officials were wrong to activate the camera, snap a photo of their son and confront him about its contents.
Heads up! Panel recommends annual flu vaccinations for all 24 Feb 2010 A government panel is now recommending that virtually all Americans get a flu shot each year, starting this fall. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices had gradually been expanding its recommendation for flu shots – 85 percent of Americans were already included. On Wednesday, the panel voted to recommend a seasonal flu vaccination for everyone except babies younger than 6 months and those with egg allergies or other unusual conditions. The panel’s recommendation now goes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Leaked ACTA Draft Treaty Reveals Plans for Net Clampdown –Proposal makes ISPs (Internet service providers) liable under civil law for content their subscribers upload or download using their networks 19 Feb 2010 The U.S., Europe and other countries are secretly drawing up rules designed to crack down on copyright abuse on the Internet, in part by making ISPs liable for illegal content, according to a copy of part of the confidential draft agreement that was seen by the IDG News Service. It is the latest in a series of leaks from the anticounterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA) talks that have been going on for the past two years.
Gag me with a chainsaw: Obusha gave a press conference to announce that he’s a big fan of the ‘free’ market and NOT a socialist. Well, that’s five minutes of my life I’ll never get back. Birthers: Please find (or fabricate) a Kenyan birth certificate so that we can get a real progressive to run in 2012. -LRP
Doctors’ group: Obama plan leaves millions uninsured, boosts private insurers (PNHP) 24 Feb 2010 President Obama’s health care proposal, preserving as it does a central role for the for-profit, private health insurance industry, is incapable of achieving the kind of universal, comprehensive and affordable reform the country needs, a spokesman for a national doctors’ group said Wednesday. "Regrettably, the president’s proposal is built on some of the worst aspects of the Senate bill," said Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, an organization of 17,000 doctors who support a single-payer, Medicare-for-All approach to reform.
With social crisis mounting: Record demand for heating assistance in US By Tom Eley 24 Feb 2010 With the number of US households requesting home heating assistance reaching a record for the third consecutive year, state officials have warned that they may begin to refuse further applications unless Congress allocates more money for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP. Over 8.8 million households will have received heating assistance by winter’s end, up from 7.7 million last year and 5.7 million in 2008, according to a new report from the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association (NEADA).
Senate Approves $15 Billion Jobs Bill 24 Feb 2010 The Senate on Wednesday easily approved a $15 billion plan to spur job creation, a vote that lawmakers hoped would show that they were taking steps to improve the nation’s employment outlook. The coalition that passed the relatively modest measure by 70 to 28 included 55 Democrats, 2 independents and 13 Republicans. Democratic leaders said they hoped to follow up with other measures that would encourage small businesses to expand and would provide assistance to those who remain out of work.
Vermont Senate wants leaking nuclear reactor shut in 2012 24 Feb 2010 The Vermont Senate said on Wednesday it has voted to shut Entergy Corp’s Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant when its license expires in 2012, after a leak releasing radioactive tritium into the groundwater was discovered last month. While the Obama administration advocates a nuclear revival, opponents of Vermont Yankee have used the leak to show Entergy is not operating the reactor safely and that it license should not be renewed.
The region is said to compare with the well-documented ‘great Pacific garbage patch’. Plastic rubbish blights Atlantic Ocean 24 Feb 2010 Scientists have discovered an area of the North Atlantic Ocean where plastic debris accumulates. The region is said to compare with the well-documented "great Pacific garbage patch". Karen Lavender Law of the Sea Education Association told the BBC that the issue of plastics had been "largely ignored" in the Atlantic.
Deaths from Runaway Toyotas Put at 39 by Investigators –"If the Camry and the Prius were airplanes, they would be grounded," says House Committee Chairman 24 Feb 2010 As the CEO of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, took his place at a Congressional hearing, the committee chairman said the death toll from runaway Toyotas had reached 39. "To give that horrifying number some perspective, there were 27 deaths attributed to the famous Pinto exploding gas tank of the 1970s," said Rep. Edolphus Towns, D.-N.Y., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "In short, if the Camry and the Prius were airplanes, they would be grounded," said Towns in his opening statement.
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U.S. plans for possible delay in Iraq withdrawal 23 Feb 2010 The U.S. military has prepared contingency plans to delay the planned withdrawal of all combat forces in Iraq, citing the prospects for political instability and increased violence as Iraqis hold national ‘elections’ next month. Under a deadline set by President Obama, all combat forces are slated to withdraw from Iraq by the end of August, and there remains heavy political pressure in Washington and Baghdad to stick to that schedule. But Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Monday that he had briefed officials in Washington in the past week about possible contingency plans.
Israel turns to US for backup plan against Iran 23 Feb 2010 After failing to win support in Russia for tough sanctions against Iran, Israel turns to its closest ally, the United States, for a backup plan to curb Tehran’s enrichment program. On Tuesday, the Israeli military radio reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak will be travelling to Washington to share his concerns over Iran’s refusal to stop its nuclear activities. Barak will meet several US officials during his five-day tour, including US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Middle East ‘peace’ envoy George Mitchell.
‘Iran will respond forcefully to any attack’ 22 Feb 2010 Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Ahani says that Iran is not a belligerent country but it will respond forcefully to any act of aggression. "Iran has no intention of launching a war but will respond strongly to any attack," AFP quoted the Iranian deputy foreign minister for European affairs as telling the Croatian daily Vecernji List in an interview published on Monday. Israel has made threatening remarks about Iran and has not excluded the possibility of striking Iran’s nuclear sites.
Iran grounds plane with Rigi holding US-issued passport 23 Feb 2010 Iran’s security officers grounded the plane carrying the ringleader of Jundullah terrorist group Abdolmalek Rigi in one of Iran’s southern ports, informed sources say. As initial reports indicated that Iran’s most wanted man was captured on a flight en-route to Kyrgyzstan from Dubai, a source talking to Press TV on condition of anonymity confirmed that Rigi and one of his deputies were captured after their plane was brought down by security forces in an airport in the Iranian Persian Gulf city of Bandar Abbas. Iran’s intelligence minister says the leader of Jundallah terrorist group was at a US base in Afghanistan 24 hours before his capture, in possession of a US-issued, forged Afghan passport.
Hamas to EU: Put Israel on terrorism list [Add the US, too.] 22 Feb 2010 Hamas asked the European Union to include Israel on a list of countries that support terrorism. "We urge the EU to include the Zionist entity on the list of countries that support terrorism, as it represents a threat to international peace," Hamas said in a statement released Monday. Hamas has accused Israel of being responsible for last month’s assassination of a Hamas commander, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in a Dubai hotel.
Livni on Dubai hit: A dead terrorist is good news 23 Feb 2010 Opposition leader and Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni on Tuesday praised the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai last month, marking the first such comment from a top Israeli official. Tzipi Livni, speaking at the closing panel of the board of trustees of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem, said the death of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was good news, but did not say who was behind the killing.
More British passports found in hunt for Hamas assassins 23 Feb 2010 Eight forged British passports were used in the assassination of a top Hamas agent in Dubai, it was revealed yesterday, as pressure mounted on Israel to co-operate with European investigations into the identity thefts. Chris Bryant, Minister for Europe, said that police in Dubai had discovered details of another two fraudulent British passports used by suspected Mossad agents, in addition to the six already cloned from the passports of real-life Britons.
Rachel Corrie’s family bring civil suit over human shield’s death in Gaza –Parents want case to highlight events that led to American activist’s death under Israeli army bulldozer 23 Feb 2010 The family of the American activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza seven years ago, is to bring a civil suit over her death against the Israeli defence ministry. The case, which begins on 10 March in Haifa, northern Israel, is seen by her parents as an opportunity to put on public record the events that led to their daughter’s death in March 2003.
‘Senator Roberts listened carefully and gave his assent.’ Destroying C.I.A. Torture Tapes Wasn’t Opposed, Memos Say 22 Feb 2010 At a closed briefing in 2003, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee raised no objection to a C.I.A. plan to destroy videotapes of brutal interrogations, according to secret documents released Monday. The senator, Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, also rejected a proposal to have his committee conduct its own assessment of the agency’s harsh interrogation torture methods, which included wall-slamming and waterboarding, the documents say. But Mr. Roberts, through a spokesman, denied having approved the destruction of the videotapes, which is under criminal investigation, and defended his record in overseeing the interrogation program.
MI5 facing five more torture investigations –MI5 may face up to five new torture investigations that threaten to [hopefully] paralyse the Security Service. 22 Feb 2010 A senior lawyer in the office of Baroness Scotland, the attorney general, has been studying the cases of five British men alleged to have been unlawfully detained and tortured in Pakistan with the complicity of MI5. Baroness Scotland is expected to decide this week whether there is sufficient evidence to refer the cases to Scotland Yard for a full investigation.
Poland admits role in CIA rendition programme –Warsaw air control service confirms that at least six CIA flights landed at disused military air base in northern Poland in 2003 22 Feb 2010 The Polish authorities have for the first time admitted their involvement in the CIA’s secret programme for the rendition kidnapping of high-level terrorist suspects from Iraq and Afghanistan, it emerged today. After years of stonewalling, Warsaw’s air control service confirmed that at least six CIA flights had landed at a disused military air base in northern Poland in 2003. "It is time for the authorities to provide a full accounting of Poland’s role in rendition," Adam Bodnar, of the Warsaw-based Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, said.
Blackwater up for Afghan police training contract? By Laura Rozen 23 Feb 2010 Controversial defense contractor terrorist group Blackwater, now known as Xe, is being told that it is likely to win a major contract to do police training mentoring and logistics in Afghanistan, a source tells POLITICO. According to the well-informed source, U.S. authorities in Iraq including Gen. Stan McChrystal and US Ambasador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry had urged the Defense Department to issue the police training contract through DoD as opposed to through State/International Narcotics and Law Enforcement. [Thanks, Obusha!]
Pakistan warns US over Operation Moshtarak 22 Feb 2010 Islamabad has criticized the US over the ongoing military offensive in neighboring Afghanistan, saying the anti-Taliban offensive could threaten the stability of Pakistan. "The US administration has been informed formally of [the] spillover effect of Helmand operation and also the danger that could pose threats to Pakistan’s stability", a senior government official, requesting anonymity, told Press TV on Monday.
Nato air strike kills 27 civilians in Afghanistan –A Nato air strike has killed at least 27 civilians including women and a child who were travelling in a convoy of minibuses. 22 Feb 2010 The botched attack on Sunday was the third ‘mistaken’ strike in a week and threatened to further strain relations between the Nato powers and President Hamid Karzai’s administration. General Stanley McChrystal, the senior coalition commander in Afghanistan, personally apologised to the president hours after the deaths, but the Afghan cabinet on Monday condemned the attack as "unjustifiable". Nato had mistaken the convoy in Uruzgan province as carrying militants towards a base.
At least seven civilians killed in Helmand blast 23 Feb 2010 A remote-controlled [Blackwater?] bomb killed at least seven Afghan civilians and wounded 14 in front of a government building in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, a government official said. The blast was in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand, Afghanistan’s most violent province. Nato-led troops are in the 10th day of an operation to flush the Taliban out of nearby Marjah district, where the militants had set up their last big stronghold in Helmand.
US to launch major campaign in Afghanistan in next 18 months 22 Feb 2010 US and NATO forces are all set to roll out an "intensive 18-month" ground campaign in Afghanistan to stamp out Taliban and al-Qaeda militants, top US generals have said warning the insurgents that Marjah offensive was just the start. "Marjah campaign where the Taliban resistance has only been disjointed is just an initial operation of what will be a 12 to 18 month campaign to overun the Taliban," General David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command told NBC television’s ‘Meet The Press’ programme. [Gee, looky here. There's *lots* of money to spend on mercenaries to preserve the opium and gas pipelines in Afghanistan, right? --LRP]
Shooting at Luke Air Force Base kills 1, injures another 23 Feb 2010 One man was killed and another man injured late Monday when they drove a stolen car through the Luke Air Force Base security gate and were shot by guards there, officials said. The stolen vehicle broke through the gate about midnight and was about to cross a bridge that connects the two parts of the base when the shooting occurred, said Capt. Jerry Gonzalez, a spokesman for Luke. Base security had set up a barricade on the bridge and at least one of the guards opened fire when the vehicle drove toward the security personnel, authorities said.
Zazi Pleads Guilty in New York to Subway Bomb Plot 22 Feb 2010 Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty to supporting al-Qaeda [al-CIAduh] and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction for his role in a plot to bomb New York subways around the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Zazi, an Afghan immigrant who once lived in Queens, New York, also pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit murder. The former airport shuttle-van driver in Denver was charged in September with training at an al-Qaeda terrorist camp and conspiring to detonate an improvised explosive device in New York. He previously pleaded not guilty.
Daughter says pilot in Texas IRS crash was a hero 22 Feb 2010 The daughter of a man who crashed his small plane into a building housing offices of the Internal Revenue Service called her father a hero for his anti-government views but said his actions, which killed an IRS employee, were "inappropriate." Joe Stack’s adult daughter, Samantha Bell, spoke to ABC’s "Good Morning America" from her home in Norway. Asked during a phone interview broadcast Monday if she considered her father a hero, she said: "Yes. Because now maybe people will listen."
Heads up! US pharmaterrorists working on a new pandemic to create vaccine demand: Deadly Hybrid Flu Possible –Stronger strain could develop if avian, seasonal viruses combine, scientists warn 22 Feb 2010 Research in mice [to create a new pandemic] suggests the avian flu virus and the ordinary seasonal flu virus could combine to create a new deadly kind of flu, researchers say. A single bit of genetic material from the seasonal virus converted the avian flu — officially known as H5N1 — into a very dangerous form, the scientists report in a study published in the Feb. 22-26 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
US school district spied on students through webcams, court told –Pennsylvania district accused of using remote-control laptops to photograph teenage students at home without their knowledge 19 Feb 2010 A school district in Pennsylvania spied on students through web cameras installed on laptops provided by the district, according to a class action lawsuit filed this week… According to student Blake Robbins, assistant principal Lindy Matsko said the school had retained the ability to activate the laptop webcams remotely, at any time. Backed by his parents, Robbins filed a lawsuit on behalf of all students provided with laptops by the school. The suit claims that since the laptops were used by students and their friends and family at home, images of "compromising or embarrassing positions, including … in various states of undress" have been captured.
Cheney tests showed evidence of mild heart attack 23 Feb 2010 An aide to Dick Cheney says tests on the former vice president [sic] showed "evidence of a mild heart attack." Cheney was admitted to a Washington hospital on Monday after experiencing chest pains. Aide Peter Long issued a statement Tuesday saying lab tests at George Washington University Hospital found "evidence of a mild heart attack."
Wall Street bonuses top $20bn –Huge payouts will be a ‘bitter pill’ for many [I got your 'bitter pill' right here, pal.] –Investment banks on track to make $55bn profit for 2009 23 Feb 2010 Despite calls for restraint in multi-million dollar pay packages, Wall Street bonuses jumped by 17% to $20.3bn (£13bn) for 2009 as America’s financial services industry rebounded swiftly from the credit crunch to healthy profitability, according to New York’s tax department. New York state’s comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, said the average taxable bonus on Wall Street was $123,850, a figure he described as a "bitter pill" for many people still struggling with record unemployment and ongoing economic weakness on the high street.
Obama proposes $950 billion ‘health’ bill with no public option 22 Feb 2010 President Barack Obama made a last-ditch bid to revive his stalled U.S. healthcare overhaul insurance company bailout on Monday with a plan to make insurance coverage more affordable and to bolster government authority to regulate premium hikes. Republicans declared the effort dead on arrival. [Such efforts to 'regulate' insurance cartel rate hikes would be overturned by this High Whore Court in five pico-seconds, and constitutional 'scholar' Obama knows it. This proposal is like every other Obama initiative, steeped in soaring rhetoric but baked in a lie. As to the GOP declaring the bill dead on arrival: Obama -- the unpopular kid in high school who can't get a date -- is still *begging* to be let into the clique! Oh, please, please GOP - please like me! What a joke. At least Bush and Cheney (war criminals both) never wavered and didn't give a rat's rump what *anyone* thought about them! I CANNOT respect Obama, a cowardly sycophant, nor his defenders. [See: Barack Obama: Change We Can Deceive In --A critique from the Left By Lori Price 19 Aug 2009.]
Anthem Blue Cross broke law more than 700 times, official says –California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner says the insurer failed to pay medical claims on time and misrepresented policies from 2006 to 2009. The firm faces up to $7 million in fines. 23 Feb 2010 California’s largest for-profit health insurer violated state law more than 700 times over a three-year period by failing to pay medical claims on time and misrepresenting policy provisions to customers, the state’s insurance commissioner said Monday. Anthem Blue Cross of Woodland Hills could face fines of up to $7 million stemming from the alleged violations from 2006 to 2009.
Read His Lips: Obama Calls for Increasing Payroll Taxes on ‘Households’ Earning Less Than $250,000 Per Year 23 Feb 2010 President Obama presented a new health care plan on Monday that calls for raising the Medicare payroll tax on some households earning less than $250,000, an apparent breach of his campaign pledge not to raise taxes on families earning less than that amount. The president’s plan also calls for increasing taxes on interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents.
Bank lending plummets by $587B in 2009 23 Feb 2010 Lending by the banking industry fell by $587 billion, or 7.5 percent, in 2009, the largest annual decline since the 1940s, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported Tuesday. FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said that some small banks have dialed back on lending because of financial weakness, a problem the Obama administration aims to address [Yeah, right!] with a proposal to pump $30 billion in new federal aid into community banks.
Job Bill Clears Senate Hurdle With Republican Support 22 Feb 2010 A $15 billion jobs bill cleared a test vote in the U.S. Senate after a handful of Republicans broke with their party leaders to help advance the Democratic measure. The vote today was 62-30, with 60 needed to overcome Republican stalling tactics. Most Republicans opposed the bill after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scaled back an $85 billion jobs-related measure that had been crafted in committee by a group of Democrats and Republicans.
Michael Steele’s spending spree angers donors 23 Feb 2010 Republican National Chairman Michael Steele is spending twice as much as his recent predecessors on private planes and paying more for limousines, catering and flowers – expenses that are infuriating the party’s major donors who say Republicans need every penny they can get for the fight to win back Congress. Most recently, donors grumbled when Steele hired renowned chef Wolfgang Puck’s local crew to cater the RNC’s Christmas party inside the trendy Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, and then moved its annual winter meeting from Washington to Hawaii.
Alaska lawmakers have little appetite for $15 meal limit 23 Feb 2010 Alaska lawmakers are talking about rolling back one of the highest-profile pieces of ethics reform passed during the heat of the federal corruption investigation: the requirement lobbyists report when they buy legislators any meal or drink over $15. The law has proven unpopular with legislators who say it’s pretty much impossible to get a decent dinner in Juneau for less than 15 bucks. Lawmakers who want to keep the limit counter that lobbyists can pick up the tab for more than $15; they just need to disclose it to the Alaska Public Offices Commission and publicly name the legislator or legislative staff member they treated.
Citizens For Legitimate Government
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