Okay, sigh, here is the Carlyle Group item

DO I fall for this?

No, I do not, but as I keep being sent links about it via email, I've chosen to publish this one.

Believe me, the Big GuyZ money is safe, it's the little suckers, just as in the Great Depression who are gonna eat this one.

Anybody know the good offshore safe havens for the Robber Barons these days??

The BuZh plan is to "do" Asia, trust me on this .. think that they are the new Rothschilds with their crime syndicate and will funnel all the drugs and arms through Asia right over to Mexico. One failure like this won't set THEM back very much. They think the noble rights of KINGS is in their blood.

Take their religion and shove it, their strategy has worked a charm, though, eh???

The spiral will continue, nobody's seen it all yet, no one CAN call it .. we are KlusterfucKed, but the Big Money at Carlyle Group is not.

When do these lawsuits really get on a boil?? Where is the EVIDENCE that the SEC of anyone else will take the really Big Players to court for RICO acts??

Lots and lots of hedge funds will bite the dust, so what?

Let's get the GARDN plan going to save our properties and not get too het up about this BS.

Veeger


Carlyle Capital Nears Collapse as Rescue Talks Fail (Update7)

By Edward Evans

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Carlyle Group said creditors plan to seize the assets of its mortgage-bond fund after it failed to meet more than $400 million of margin calls on mortgage- backed collateral that plunged in value.

Carlyle Capital Corp., which began to buckle a week ago from the strain of shrinking home-loan assets, said in a statement it defaulted on about $16.6 billion of debt as of yesterday. The dollar fell to a 12-year low against the yen and European stocks tumbled.

The fund fell 87 percent in Amsterdam trading. Carlyle Group, co-founded by David Rubenstein, tapped public markets for $300 million in July to fuel the fund just as rising foreclosures caused credit markets to seize up. In the past month, managers led by Peloton Partners LLP have closed at least a dozen funds, sold assets or sought fresh capital as banks tightened lending standards.

``If Carlyle's lenders want their money right away, they'll liquidate the fund,'' said Hank Calenti, a London-based analyst at RBC Capital Markets. ``That will put pressure on already stressed credit markets.''

Lenders will ``promptly'' take over all of its remaining assets after it failed to reach an agreement with lenders, Carlyle Capital said. Any remaining debt is expected to go into default ``soon,'' the fund added.

`Single Fund'

The fund's losses were caused by ``excessive leverage,'' said Arthur Levitt, a senior Carlyle adviser, in a Bloomberg Radio interview today. `

`This did not affect the overall Carlyle enterprise,''

said Levitt, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and a board member of Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News.

``This was a single fund, and I suspect as this plays out, you are going to see a lot of other private-equity companies, a lot of banks, going down the same road,'' he said.

Carlyle Capital's plea for refinancing on residential mortgage-backed securities failed late yesterday after a pricing service used by some lenders reported a decrease in the value of the assets, the firm said.

``The basis on which lenders are willing to provide financing against the company's collateral has changed so substantially that a successful refinancing is not possible,'' Carlyle said in the statement. It expects additional margin calls today of $97.5 million.

`All Options'

Carlyle Group and its funds are not liable for repurchase agreements that Carlyle Capital used to buy residential mortgage-backed securities, Hong Kong-based spokeswoman Dorothy Lee said in an e-mail today. ``The Carlyle Group's only material financial exposure to CCC is through a $150 million unsecured subordinated revolving credit agreement with CCC,'' she said.

``At this point we are exploring all options'' for Carlyle Capital, Emma Thorpe, a spokeswoman for Carlyle Group in London, said in a telephone interview. She declined to specify the options being considered.

Carlyle Group said in a statement it had worked ``exhaustively'' with the fund to negotiate new financing.

``Carlyle took extraordinary measures to help CCC manage through its liquidity crisis,'' the e-mailed statement said. ``Unfortunately, extreme volatility and market movement during this liquidity crisis created a hostile environment for CCC and similar types of vehicles.''

Carlyle's fund has said its so-called agency debt has an ``implied guarantee'' from the U.S. government.

Contagion Delay

The industry is reeling from its worst crisis because bankers -- staggered by almost $190 billion of asset writedowns and credit losses -- are raising borrowing rates and demanding extra collateral for loans.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell as much as 2 percent today, gold traded at $1,000 an ounce for the first time in New York and Treasuries extended gains as investors took the collapse of the talks as a sign that credit losses are deepening.

``This is not only a problem for Carlyle,'' Jochen Felsenheimer, the Munich-based head of credit strategy at UniCredit SpA, wrote in a note to clients today. ``We expect a further flood of downgrades especially of higher-rated securities, putting enormous pressure on the system.''

Carlyle Capital originally delayed and then cut the size of its IPO by about 25 percent as the subprime contagion began. In all, the fund used about $670 million of equity to amass a $22 billion portfolio of mortgage debt. For every dollar of equity, the pool borrowed $32.

``It was a poorly conceived fund launched at the worst time,'' said Toby Nangle, a member of the strategic policy group at Baring Asset Management in London, which manages $55 billion.

The shares, first sold to investors for $19 each, fell $2.45 to 35 cents today.

`Monitoring Developments'

``At this moment there's no cause for us to suspend trading'' in Carlyle Capital, Paul van Dijk, a spokesman for the Dutch securities regulator AFM in Amsterdam, said in an interview today. ``We're closely monitoring developments.''

Carlyle's counterparties are a dozen Wall Street firms including Citigroup Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG, according to the fund's annual report. The banks use repurchase agreements to lend money and require securities be put up as collateral. As the perceived creditworthiness of asset-backed bonds declined, the amount of money that can be borrowed using them as collateral fell.

Not the End

Drake Management LLC, the New York based-firm started by former BlackRock Inc. money managers, said yesterday it may shut its largest hedge fund, while GO Capital Asset Management BV blocked clients from withdrawing cash from one of its funds. Other funds hit include Peloton Partners LLP's $1.8 billion ABS Fund, Tequesta Capital Advisor's mortgage fund and Focus Capital Investors LLC, which invested in midsize Swiss companies.

``Carlyle won't be the end of it,'' said Greg Bundy, executive chairman of Sydney-based merger advisory firm InterFinancial Ltd. and a former head of Merrill Lynch & Co.'s Australian unit. ``There's more to come. The problem is no one can give you an educated guess about how much.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Edward Evans in London at at eevans3@bloomberg.net

THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH ABOUT WATERBOARDING

Ex-spy offers details on waterboarding
CIA chief promises explanation of decision to destroy videotapes

Dec 12, 2007

Tim Harper
WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON–A former CIA agent's detailed description of the waterboarding of an Al Qaeda suspect provided a spectacular public backdrop to closed Capitol Hill hearings on a burgeoning scandal yesterday.

CIA chief Michael Hayden met behind closed doors with a Senate committee for 90 minutes, pledging to lay out all the facts behind the 2005 decision to destroy videotaped interrogations of key suspects in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The hearing came as a heretofore unknown agent named Mike Kiriakou told reporters about the interrogation of suspect Abu Zubaydah. (there is no Mike Kirakou, I assure you. But the CIA has correctly calculated that CONgress and the CIA-dominated press isn't gonna question that, for ahem! national security reasons, you know, how death, torture, rape, suicide seems to follow everywhere the CIA goes .. and no one says a word about it. Same with other various contentions that are made. Why trouble your little minds over another lie? But I digress .. )

In interviews with ABC News, then NBC, CNN and The Washington Post, Kiriakou revealed that Zubaydah asked him to smother him with a pillow when he emerged from a coma in U.S. custody after being shot by Pakistani police during his capture in 2002.

"No, no,"

Kiriakou said he replied.

"We have plans for you."

Kiriakou said the waterboarding was approved by the White House and it worked.

(how are we to know "it worked" - worked for what? To keep a coverup going? To "prove" torture works? To start another complex issue that causes overwhelm among the US taxpayes who are PAYING FOR ALL THESE CRIMES SO THAT THE US OIL AND GAS CARTEL CAN SMASH MIDDLE EAST COUNTRIES INTO SUBMISSION? JUST HOW DID IT WORK??? How did this work for the person it was done to? And for US international standing in the world? HOW DID IT WORK? For God's sake - someone tell me

JUST HOW DID IT WORK?

(What a stoopid twat comment!!!!!!)

However, he said he has since struggled with the now-outlawed procedure, and considers it torture and something Americans should not do. (no, that's strictly for the MURKAN plutocracy to do - and then for us to say that every nation that indulges in it SHOULD NOT DO. Oh, friggin great! Such rue this man shows. Real friggin regret, eh? Give me a break.)

He said Zubaydah was able to withstand 35 seconds of the procedure, which involves covering a prisoner's mouth with plastic or cloth and pouring water over his face. The prisoner quickly begins to inhale water, causing the sensation of drowning.

Kiriakou said when he was subjected to waterboarding as part of his training he could last only five seconds.

"It's entirely unpleasant,"

he told CNN.

"(Your body) almost seizes up. You're so full of tension that you just tense up. Your muscles tighten up, and it's very uncomfortable."

Kiriakou said he did not personally witness the waterboarding but was told by other agents that after Zubaydah was subjected to it, it was like "flipping a switch" and he soon told his interrogators Allah had visited him in his cell and told him to co-operate to make things easier for his brothers.

He told his interrogators about alleged Sept. 11 accomplice Ramzi Binalshibh, and the confessions of the two of them led the U.S. to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, whom the U.S. government said was the mastermind behind the attacks.

The White House would not be drawn into a discussion of specifics on interrogation, despite Kiriakou's public statements.

"All interrogations have been done within the legal framework that was set out after Sept. 11,"

(and what friggen legal framework is that dear ole stoopid Dana, the grrrrrl who cannot recall the Cuban Missle crisis? Oh, you are such a pro!)

said White House spokesperson Dana Perino.

"They are measures that have been tough and limited. They are safe, and they've been very effective in helping prevent terrorist attacks on this country."

(Yeah, let's get that ole terrorism BACK ON THE TABLE! UNPROVABLE ALLEGATIONS ABOUT IT ABOUND, BUT ALL THESE TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS SPENT ON WAR DESTRUCTION, VIOLENCE, DRUGS, GENOCIDE, CORRUPT DEFENSE CONTRACTORS HAVE ALL BEEN DEFENSABLE, EH WHAT? you are feeling safe and confident are you Dana! You think all this is so defensible and rational? You are delusional IN THE EXTREME!)

She repeated the Bush administration assertion that the government does not torture.

It's called catapulting the propaganda, dear Dana! Yer boss said so.

But on the Senate floor, Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada upped the ante, saying torture and the destruction of the CIA tapes strips the U.S. of its moral authority in the world.

"This damage to our moral authority will matter to the history books, but more importantly, it matters right now,"

he said.

"It puts our troops at greater risk if captured. It impairs our relationships with nations who ought to be our allies. It impedes our ability to fight an effective war on terror."

The CIA is believed to have waterboarded at least three prisoners but says it has not used the technique since 2003. Hayden outlawed the practice when he took over the agency last year. Hayden's appearance yesterday was brief because he was not the CIA chief when the tapes were made in 2002 or when they were destroyed in 2005.

(yeah, how goddammed convenient! And who thought that up?

"Hey! they said, "let's get someone on board who cannot be 'nailed to the ground' for the use of torture and the violation of international law when the erasures of Saudi Arabian involvment in 9/11 surfaces! Someone we can trot out when, finally, at very long last, one of these highly questionable cases makes it to the Supreme Court! Now there's an idea!"

Again, my guess is that the tapes were destroyed not because of the practice, but the information on 9/11 that came to light that clearly implicated Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 plot to destroy America.

Meanwhile the BAE investigations continue to stonewalled and covered up. How bloody convenient. It just never stops, does it?)

another round of anti Big Pharma notes as they do in the kidz

Teen screen

unscrupulous doctors

irresponsible parents

kids with no human rights or advocates

Adrenal system breakdown

Bush family profit$

Big Pharma lies

foster care

schools geared toward behaviour modification

breakdown in the RULE OF LAW
(which prevent child abuse to some degree)

MSM propaganda machine

Essay over

Ricky's diagnois based on mom's input

Jack Kresnak
Special to the State Journal

For nearly three years, Dr. Aurif Abedi, a child psychiatrist at Jackson's Foote Hospital, treated Ricky Holland's strange and reportedly violent behavior with drugs, adjusting them based on reports from Ricky's mom, Lisa Holland.

Abedi first diagnosed the boy with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, using assessments from a psychologist and a therapist, Lisa's accounts of Ricky's behavior and his own observations.

Abedi prescribed stimulants such as Ritalin for the ADHD and the antidepressant trazadone to help Ricky sleep.

"He had periods where he did better and then he had periods where he was not doing well," Abedi recalled recently. "When we started finally addressing it as a mood disorder, he did very well."

Abedi prescribed the anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa to help stabilize Ricky's moods. Some of the drugs given to him - trazadone and Zyprexa - are not FDA-approved for children, but their use is fairly common, said Dr. Sheila Marcus, a child psychiatrist and director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School. The "off-label" use of such medications may occur in children who have disruptive or aggressive behaviors, she said.

In the wake of Ricky's case, Abedi said, he and others working with children in Jackson meet regularly to communicate concerns about kids in the foster care or adoption system.

"Everybody is aware that you could be taken for a ride" by bad parents, he said. "Could this happen again? I hope not. Will it happen again? Unfortunately, I can see it happening again."

Post a Comment View All Comments

Reader Comment	Wed Dec 05, 2007 6:03 pm
OGIC, That's what ticked me off. The child is now an adult, who does not now or ever did have seizures or epilepsy. It was prescribed off label from the psychiatrist. THIS pyschiatrist. Not a medical doctor or neurologist. Brandy, Did you follow the controversy about the State of Maine prescribing birth control pills for children as young as 11 years old, through the school health clinics? They will not share medical information with parents without a release from the student. state law, which allows the students to decide whether to inform their parents about the SERVICES they receive. There are no national figures on how many middle schools provide such services. Most middle schoolers range in age from 11 to 13. http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/10/18/middleschool.contraception.ap/index.html Permission is needed by the parent to treat the child, but once you give your permission, all bets are off unless litte susie wants to include you. Most children would tell their parents that the school doctor wanted to prescribe them prozac for their depression after sally broke up with johnny, but not all of them. The schools don't have to tell you either. The schools in Illinois don't even have to tell you they are testing your children for depression or bipolar, they just do it. It's "MANDATORY". http://www.aapsonline.org/confiden/mhspaul.htm The state of Illinois has also approved a mental health screening program. The Illinois legislature passed the Children's Mental Health Act of 2003 which will provide screening for "all children ages 0-18" and "ensure appropriate and culturally relevant assessment of your children's social and emotional development with the use of standardized tools." In addition, all pregnant women in Illinois are to be screened for depression. Dr. Karen R. Effrem, another physician and leading opponent of mandatory screening recently stated, "Universal mental health screening and the drugging of children, as recommended by the New Freedom Comission [presidential commission], needs to be stopped so that many thousands if not millions of children will be saved from receiving stigmatizing diagnoses that would follow them for the rest of their lives. America's school children should not be medicated by expensive, ineffective, and dangerous medications based on vague and dubious diagnoses." Sounds nice. Check out all the people who collect a check for getting their hands in the cookie jar of the pharmaceutical industry. But it's all in the best interest of the children. Riiiiiiiiiight. http://www.ivpa.org/childrensmhtf/pdf/2007ICMHPAnnualReport.pdf For the sheep and constitutionalists alike. Don't miss this. Where else can you get NCLB being a portal for drugging children AND the FBI saying that people who defend the constitution are "mentally unstable" in one page? I knew some lawyers were pretty whacko, but all of them? http://edaction.org/2004/082704.htm
Reader Comment	Wed Dec 05, 2007 2:38 pm
I also think that children are prescribed far too much medication. I also think that children are diagnosed with ADD and ADHD when it really is not the case. However, there are times when children are in need of medication. Phenobarbital is prescribed for seizures. Epilepsy can be tested for, and if children who have seizures are denied medication to control their seizures, they can die or end up brain damaged. My oldest son is an epileptic and was prescribed Phenobarbital as a toddler. As he got older, the medications changed and he eventually was prescribed other medication. There aren't too many FDA approved medications for babies with epilepsy. nineball, if your friend’s child has seizures and doesn't give her child their medication, he could die, end up with brain damage and she could be charged with medical neglect. Dr's should not be so eager to prescribe non-lifesaving medications, however medication for children should not be automatically dismissed in accurately diagnosed conditions.
Reader Comment	Wed Dec 05, 2007 2:22 pm
Yep, I have to agree too. My husband and I are against it too. I told the school we would have to work together to achieve the goals we want my child to have.
medicating our children	Wed Dec 05, 2007 2:18 pm
My youngest in still in middle school and it has a Health Center and as far as I know Im still the parent to the minor child and they HAVE to tell me of his medical condition. He is a minor and I am his parent. HIPPA doesnt apply to a minor. I do agree with society/parents wanting to put our kids on drugs because they cannot control them, well lets start w/ a good butt whipping and see what happens. I bet they wisen up quickly. My son came home from 6th grade and told me not to tell anyone but his math teacher asked him if he was taking medication (ritalin) and if so had he taken it today. WTH! If he was on it which he's NOT its not of their business. He is a hyper kid but aren't all kids or shouldnt they be. My husband has refused to get him tested and says the teachers just want an easy way out. I have to agree w/ him.
Reader Comment	Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:43 pm
My son will tell me if they slip him anything. As long as they don't give it to him in a drink. but even then, he should be suspicious.

Naomi Wolf: America's Fascist Coup

Naomi Wolf: America's Fascist Coup Owes to Bush's Nazi Grandfather

Author of "10 steps" speaks publicly for the first time about legacy of modern-day tyranny

Prison Planet | November 29, 2007

Paul Joseph Watson

Author Naomi Wolf, who made headlines earlier this year after she identified the ten steps to fascism that were being followed to a tee by the Bush administration, spoke publicly for the first time yesterday about the origins of what we see unfolding today, Prescott Bush's attempt to launch a Nazi coup in 1930's America.

Speaking on the Alex Jones Show, Wolf said that she was first alerted to begin researching America's slide into fascism when her friend, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, warned her that the same events that laid the foundations for the rise of the Third Reich in early 1930's Germany, when it was still a Parliamentary democracy, were being mirrored in modern-day America.

"A small group of people began very systematically to use the law and dismantle the Constitution and put pressure on citizens to subvert the law - and that opened the door for everything that followed,"

said Wolf.

"When I started reading, not only are tactics and strategy being reproduced exactly right now by the Bush administration - but actual sound bytes and language and images and scenarios are being reproduced," she added.

Wolf's essay, Fascist America, In 10 Easy Steps , has received plaudits for how it succinctly describes the ways in which dictatorships the world over thro ughout the 20th century have evolved by following the exact same blueprint for tyranny that we see unfolding in America today.

"Everybody that wants to close down a Democracy does the exact same ten things, the same classic steps and unfortunately we're starting to see these ten steps being put in place in the United States,"

said Wolf.

For the first time publicly, Wolf traced the origins of contemporary developments back to President Bush's Nazi grandfather, Prescott Bush, and his plan to launch a fascist coup in the 1930's.

"There was a scheme in the 30's and Prescott Bush was one of the leaders of this scheme, an industrialist who admired fascism and thought that was a good idea - to have a coup in the United States along the lines of the coup they saw taking place in Italy and Germany," said Wolf, referring to the testimony of Marine Corps Maj.-Gen. Smedley Butler, who was approached by a wealthy and secretive group of industrialists and bankers, including Prescott Bush - the current President's grandfather, who asked him to command a 500,000 strong rogue army of veterans that would help stage a coup to topple then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Prescott Bush and George Herbert Walker Bush.

A recent BBC radio report confirmed that there was an attempted coup led by Prescott Bush.

"Smedley Butler had been involved with violent regime change throughout his career, but he was approached by these conspirators, including Prescott Bush, and he outed them and he testified to Congress that they were planning a coup in the United States - it's in the Congressional record," said Wolf, adding that the coup was being bankrolled by German industrialist and one of Hitler's chief financiers Fritz Thyssen.

"What is amazing to me and resonant to me is that when the Nuremberg trials were finally put in place, these Nazi industrialists, some of whom had colluded with Americans including IBM, were about to be brought to trial and sent to prison - there was a moment at which they were going to look into turning the spotlight on their American partners," said Wolf.

The author added that laws such as the Military Commissions Act of 2006 were consciously designed to protect current President Bush and his co-conspirators from being indicted for war crimes, harking back to Prescott Bush's history.

"The family history is that you can make so much money uniting corporate interests with a fascist state that violently represses people, that's why when I saw the recycling of so much Nazi language, Nazi tactics, Nazi strategies, Nazi imagery in the Bush White House and then finally belatedly people brought to me this history of Prescott Bush's attempted coup and Smedley Butler's revelations - it gives me absolute chills," said Wolf.

ENDGAME 1.5: THE PhD COURSE IN UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL ELITE Endgame 1.5 documents how the global elite are seizing the infrastructure of the United States as part of a long-term plan to integrate the U.S. with Canada and Mexico. Watch it online at Prison Planet.tv!

The fact that Bush's grandfather was a Nazi cannot be presented alone as proof that President Bush is carrying on the legacy, but his policies and rhetoric, which in her essay Wolf clearly documents are borrowed from the Nazi playbook, and in particular the recent move to smear administration critics as potential terrorists, are evidence that George W. Bush is the figurehead for a modern-day fascist coup in America led by the Neo-Cons.

Wolf concluded that history shows the only safe course for preserving freedom in such a climate is to prosecute and jail the protagonists of the coup as early as possible, a process many would argue should have been enacted several years ago.

Click here to listen to the MP3 interview with Naomi Wolf.

Posted by CRIMES AND CORRUPTION OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS mparent7777 Marc Parent CCNWON

Friday, September 14, 2007

Iraq, deep in your bones

A war that isn't really a war, the great humiliation that's ours forever. Is there any upside?

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Friday, September 14, 2007

We are, of course, mostly fighting against ourselves.

It must be repeated every so often, just as a painful, necessary, ego-tweaking reminder: Iraq was never a war. Not really, not in any sense that mattered or that we could actually define and understand or to which we could truly submit ourselves or our national identity.

It never mattered how many little American flags appeared on how many bloated Chevy Avalanches, how many right-wing radio shows found a new reason to pule, how many furiously blindered uber-patriots happily ignored all the harsh words from all those naysaying generals or even all the "turncoat" anti-war Republicans and insisted we're really over there to fight some sort of great Islamic demon no one can actually see or locate or define but that we must, somehow, attempt to destroy -- even though doing so only seems to make the situation far, far worse.

There was never any coherent, justifiable heroic cause. Indeed, the truth about Iraq, as evidenced by Gen. David Petreaus' muted, bleak testimony before Congress just this week, is much more simple, nefarious, pathetic. Iraq is, was, and forever will be our very own massive strategic blunder, a failed land grab for position and power in a tinderbox region defined by furious instability and corruption and death.

It's the great unspoken subtext. Iraq has always been a war between our dueling national identities, a battle over how we are to move and breathe and behave in the new millennium. Are we really this violently paranoid bully, this rogue pre-emptive screw-em-all ideological war machine defined by the dystopian Bush/Cheney/ Rumsfeld vision of permanent, ongoing global conflict?

Or do we try, instead, to move forward and reinvent ourselves over and over again as the world's most commited, forceful peacekeeper, ever striving for balance and cooperation and tact, even in the face of hardship and fundamentalist rage, refusing to be taunted and dragged down lest we take the bait and lose our minds and engage in torture and misprision and ultraviolence and become little better, ideologically speaking, than our taunters? Have we already made our choice?

Because the truth is, we are well past the point of salvaging anything noble or honest from Bush's massive, historic debacle. We have only this brutal reality: Iraq is, and forever will be, one of the most extraordinary wastes in all of American history.

A waste of money. A waste of time. A stunning, almost unspeakable waste of life. A waste of resources and intellectual capital and a massive waste of national spirit. A waste of energy and hope and a giant squandering of any goodwill or empathy our former allies might've had for America in its post-9/11 state. Heard it all before? Sure
you have.

Some scenes remain almost comical in their absurdity. Perhaps you saw that money, those enormous, ridiculous piles of American cash, the photos floating around of American soldiers guarding giant, shrink-wrapped pallets of U.S. currency known as "cashpaks," each reportedly containing about $1.6 million in stacks of $100 bills, all airlifted by the ton straight from the Federal Reserve and set down in the Iraqi sun like rotting fruit, small mountains of your tax dollars earmarked to buy off various warlords and pay for covert, unauthorized operations all over the Middle East in an attempt to buy our way into some sort of impossible, forced stability. Right.

Or maybe it's the bodies, the sheer waste of American flesh, not merely the thousands of U.S. dead or even the countless tens of thousands of dead Iraqi citizens but also the lesser-known horrors, like the epidemic of brain-damaged U.S. soldiers, thousands of them, so many that they're becoming their own category of study in medical textbooks given how they're beginning to exhibit combinations of trauma doctors have never seen before. What a recruitment poster this is. Come fight in the American military. We're exhausted, overstretched, bewildered, have lowered our entrance barrier to accept D-grade students and former inmates, have almost zero idea what we're actually fighting for, and serve under a Commander in Chief who cares more about trying to shore up his wretched legacy than for the loss of American life. Oh and by the way, odds are extremely high you will return home permanently wounded, traumatized, or brain damaged. How very proud we are.

We all know the current reality: We are not safer. We are not better off in any measurable way. We are not stronger or more unified or prouder or more respected or healthier or wealthier or wiser and we have done exactly zero to stem the flood of radical Islam or the general outpouring of global disgust at what America has become under this president. This is our scar. This is our great American shame.

So, what do you do with it? Or with the prospect of still more weeks, months, even years of this dull slog of war? Because the fact is, as Petreaus' testimony essentially confirmed, we will be in Iraq at least through the (blessed) end of Bush's nightmare term, and likely well beyond, given how entrenched and ensnared our forces have become.

Perhaps we can take the long view, the wide view, the spiritual or karmic view, even, insofar as the short and linear view has become so stifling and deadly and useless. Perhaps this is the only way.

Because truly, many in the alternative set, the lightworkers and the gurus and the healers and the deep teachers, those who think outside the war room and beyond the bland academic platitudes, these people tend see Iraq, BushCo, the American right and all the sanctimonious bleakness surrounding them as merely the inky remnants of a passing disease, the last, vicious gasp of a dying ideology, the violent struggle of resistance that always erupts before any great cosmic shift.

Which is to say: The screeching of the Christian right, the shrill alarmism from cultural conservatives regarding everything from sex and drugs and music to gays and nipples and creationism, the rejection of science, the attacks on women's rights, the abuse of the environment, all the way up to the bleakest and ugliest manisfestation of all, a brutal and unwinnable war -- taken as a whole, these can, if you so choose, be seen as merely the embers of a hugely failed -- and yes, nearly extinct -- worldview.

Here is the hesitant optimism, the hint of the new, the tentative suggestion that all is not lost: By many measures, the worst of it is over. There really is light coming, a new awareness, a shift away from the bleakness and the rot and the wallowing in bland violence. Perhaps you can feel it. Or perhaps you need to be ready to feel it. Either way, it's there. You have but to do the most easy/difficult thing of all: you must look behind the veil, see the two dueling Americas, and make your choice.

* Company Focus 8/29/2007

Military contractors that set up utilities, prepare food or make
bulletproof vests are getting a big boost from the conflict. Here's who's
getting the most money.

By Michael Brush

In a few weeks, Gen. David Petraeus and the Bush administration will
report to Congress on the progress of the U.S. military's troop surge in
Iraq.

But some of the war's winners are already clear: military contractors
who supply everything from bodyguards to bombs, clean socks to
ready-to-eat meals. "For the companies involved, this has been a real gravy
train," says William Hartung, who tracks defense spending for the New
America Foundation.

The White House has proposed military spending of $647 billion in 2008.
Adjusted for inflation, that would be the highest level since World
War II -- topping even expenditures during Vietnam and the Reagan years,
calculates Hartung. The current request for Iraq-related spending for
2008 is $116 billion, which would raise total Iraq war spending to $567
billion.

Who's getting all that money? Sometimes it can be difficult to tell.
"There isn't good visibility on where the money goes," says Steven Kosiak
of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. But you can get
a snapshot of who's been getting a good chunk of the Iraq-related
spending in two ways.

- Talk back: What's your view on companies that profit from the Iraq
war?

The first step is to scour a vast database of more than $400 billion in
annual government contracts, more than 70% of which are from the
Department of Defense. It's called the Federal Procurement Data System. I
turned to a private contractor of my own, Eagle Eye, for some (free)
expert assistance in navigating the database.

Eagle Eye mined the database for all Iraq-related contracts from 2003
through 2006 (the most recent year for which numbers are available).
That catches everything from spending on base maintenance and bulletproof
vests to ammo and combat boots. We tallied the numbers to find the top
10 companies out of thousands of contractors.

The second step is to look at the Pentagon's own budget to see which
companies are building the major weapons systems that support the war in
Iraq.

** The Top 10 It's no surprise that KBR Inc. (KBR, news, msgs), a
division of Halliburton (HAL, news, msgs) during the years we examined, tops
the first list, compiled by Eagle Eye, with $17.2 billion in
Iraq-related war revenue for 2003-2006. KBR is one of the largest construction
and energy field-service companies in the world. It has a long history
of collaborating with the U.S. government on war-related construction.

- Videos: Recent news on Halliburton

In Iraq, KBR has been working on base construction and maintenance,
oil-field repairs, infrastructure projects and logistics support. KBR got
about a fifth of its revenue from the Iraq war in 2006, according to
our calculations.

"We are proud to serve the troops," says a KBR spokeswoman. "We are
providing the troops with essential services and the comforts of home that
allow them to stay focused on the dangerous and important missions
they face daily."

Continued: The No. 2 slot

But why does a private-equity shop called Veritas Capital Fund take the
No. 2 slot? That's easy. It specializes in investing in defense and
aerospace companies. So Veritas owns a portfolio of companies -- and has
a stake in others -- that pull down big Iraq-related contracts.

DynCorp International (DCP, news, msgs), which Veritas bought in 2005
and spun out last year, offers security services and police training, as
well as logistical services. Veritas' McNeil Technologies provides
interpreter and translation services to the military and U.S. government
agencies in Iraq. Another of its companies, Wornick, supplies military
rations.

It's also no big surprise that U.S.-based companies like Washington
Group International (WNG, news, msgs), Fluor (FLR, news, msgs), Perini
(PCR, news, msgs) and Parsons are on our top 10 list. They've landed many
of the contracts to restore, repair and maintain oil fields, power
plants, schools, public water systems and military bases. But the award of
contracts to build the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to First Kuwaiti General
Trading & Contracting left many analysts scratching their heads.

Environmental Chemical does munitions disposal, while International
American Products sets up systems that deliver electricity to military
camps. L3 Communications (LLL, news, msgs) offers security screening
services, linguists, training and law-enforcement services, and some
equipment replacement. 10 companies making the most in Iraq* (millions of
dollars)Rank CompanyAmount


*Goods and services contracted specifically for Iraq. Source: Eagle Eye


Two companies that have seen their revenue shoot up the most in the
ongoing military buildup -- largely because of Iraq-related spending --
are Armor Holdings and Renco, according to Hartung's calculations. They
don't make our list because their overall defense-related revenue is too
small. But they have done phenomenally well.

Armor Holdings, which sells vehicle and personnel armor, saw
defense-related revenue shoot up 2,747% between 2001 and 2006, to $634.9 million.
Armor is now a division of BAE Systems (BAESY, news, msgs).

Renco, which makes the extra-wide all-terrain vehicle known as the
Humvee, saw Defense Department revenue rise 1,260% over the same period, to
$1.9 billion.

** Misspent funds Not all of the Iraq-war money is well spent. "Because
of the urgency of the war, a lot of these contracts have been subject
to less scrutiny," says Hartung. Another problem is that the war has
been funded outside of the regular defense budget process. Instead, it
gets funded through "emergency" spending bills called supplementals,
which offer much less detail and get less scrutiny on Capitol Hill.

Hartung believes we've only seen the tip of the iceberg in allegations
of fraud and corruption related to Iraq war spending. "Congress is
starting to look into it, but it has not yet gotten down to specific
questions," says Hartung.

Details of wrongdoing are being uncovered by the Office of the Special
Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, and you can also find
summaries of misconduct here.

** Hidden winners Of course, there's a vast collection of military
hardware and technology from fighter jets and naval vessels to spy
satellites that are used in the Iraq war effort. But they're paid for by the
broader Pentagon budget, so they won't show up in a scan of the federal
procurement database for Iraq-related spending.

To see who has benefited from the underlying buildup in defense
spending under the Bush administration for the Iraq war and other anti-terror
and defense efforts, I calculated who got the most in Department of
Defense contracts from 2002 through 2006. You can see the top seven in my
second chart.U.S. Department of Defense contracts* (billions of
dollars)

*More than $25,000 for any field of operation. Source: Department of
Defense

While all of these companies have benefited from the Bush
administration' s defense spending ramp-up since the terror attacks of Sept. 11,
2001, not all are equally exposed to the Iraq war effort, says defense
sector analyst Paul Nisbet of JSA Research.

In addition to ships and Gulfstream planes, General Dynamics (GD, news,
msgs) makes ground vehicles and ammunition, so it generates a fair
amount of revenue directly from Iraq war spending. But Lockheed Martin
(LMT, news, msgs), which is working on next-generation military aircraft
and also makes military electronics and satellites, has little direct
exposure to the war, says Nisbet. Neither does Northrop Grumman (NOC,
news, msgs), which makes ships designed to last three decades or more.

- Videos: Recent news on Lockheed Martin

Of all the companies on my second list, KBR saw some of the biggest
revenue gains from the Iraq war. It was No. 37 on the Defense Department's
top-100 list of military contractors in 2002. By 2006, KBR had climbed
to No. 6.

Michael Brush

At the time of publication, Michael Brush did not own or control shares
of companies mentioned in this column.

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Below is a great, short summation of the TRUTH about George Bush and the Bin Laden's.

In addition, one should make a short visit to the library or do a google on the Chinese region `called Tajik which will net you info on exactly where Osama went .. to go stay with fellow Muslims with no fear whatsoever of being pursued. Uygur could have handily provided him with facilities to keep up his kidney diolysis, as well as appreciating all that lovely money, which I have read totalled $28 billion.

It is HIGHLY unlikely that the US would have taken on the Chinese to pursue into China AFTER he left Afghanistan.

This excellent little posting is on the FRONT PAGE of Digg! Allelujah! and getting the attention it deserves.
Virginia

Osama bin Laden who planned and executed the attacks of September 11th, 2001, murdering three thousand people is still not even a target of the President of the United States some six long years later should tell everyone in this country one thing: George W. Bush has no intention of ever capturing or bringing him to justice.

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