Blackwater can kill you...no really!

Blackwater Fever is the common (but rarely heard) name for a deadly strain of malaria and recently Iraqis have put this name back into popular use - and they are linking it to the other deadly Blackwater, the private security firm hired by the Bush Administration. This is the impression we are leaving globally - yikes!

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YouTube Unplugged (and human rights)

As Foreign Governments Block Sensitive
Content, Video Site Must Pick Between
Bending to Censorship, Doing Business

By JANE SPENCER and KEVIN J. DELANEY
March 21, 2008; Page B1

On Sunday, access to Google Inc.'s YouTube inside China was cut off after the Web site was flooded with graphic images from Tibet, including videos of burning trucks and monks being dragged through the streets by Chinese soldiers.

Blocking Western Web sites is routine in China, where the government has tightly controlled the flow of information. But the new YouTube blackout is the latest in a string of clashes between the site and foreign governments in Asia and the Middle East that's forcing the company to grapple with the consequences of its increasingly global reach.

TIBET ON YOUTUBE

Click the images to watch the videos at YouTube.

	Chinese police scatter a crowd of Tibetan protesters in East Tibet. "Tibetan culture is being suppressed," an unidentified Tibetan monk says.
	On March 10, the Tibetan Freedom Movement launches protests around the world. In New York City, supporters gather at City Hall and march to U.N. headquarters.
	A composition of photographs from the Tibetan protests around the world, with the song "Come Home" by the American band, OneRepublic.
	Video taken with a mobile phone of Tibetan protesters gathering in front of a Chinese office in Labrang, Amdo, Tibet, March 15.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt raised the issue in a meeting in Beijing with Cai Mingzhao, vice minister of the State Council Information Office, on Monday, the company said. The Council denied any knowledge of the blockage and promised to investigate, according to Google. On Thursday, YouTube remained inaccessible from China except to users who took extra technical steps to circumvent the ban.

Last Friday, a Turkish court banned YouTube over a clip deemed disrespectful to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey's founder. In February, Pakistan briefly banned YouTube because of an anti-Islam video clip posted on the site that the government said was so inflammatory it could spark riots. In the fall, Thailand blocked YouTube after the site refused to remove a video considered insulting to the nation's king. (The clip showed a pair of women's feet -- considered the most offensive part of the body -- above the king's head.) And citizens in a number of other countries, including Syria, United Arab Emirates and Morocco, have reported YouTube outages after sensitive content was posted.

The clashes have implications for YouTube's growth abroad, potentially forcing the company to choose between bending to censorship and losing business opportunities.

"This is a situation that the company and all Internet companies will be facing in many countries with all types of political systems as the Internet matures and millions more people log on," says Robert Boorstin, Google's director of policy communications in Washington. "At all times, our goal is to maximize the amount of information available to citizens around the world."

Nowhere is the issue more pressing than in China -- home to the world's largest population of Web users -- where agreeing to government censorship has been a basic condition of doing business for years. YouTube is still a relatively small player in China, lagging behind homegrown competitors like Tudou.com and Yoku.com. But it has a loyal following among young urban Chinese, who use it to find cutting-edge animation clips from Korea and Japan. Many Chinese also know YouTube as a place to find sensitive clips that have been removed from other Chinese sites.

The site has been blocked in China several times before, including for an extended period in October. That was around the time that YouTube launched a site in Taiwan, the U.S. Congress awarded the Dalai Lama its gold medal and the Chinese Communist Party congress was under way. YouTube has localized versions of its site in Taiwan and Hong Kong, but not one hosted in China itself, a move that would require an Internet-content license from the Chinese government. Google has said it doesn't plan to host user-generated content, such as video, blogs or email, on computer servers in China. Such materials would be vulnerable to seizure by the government if located on servers there.

Google previously grappled with censorship issues in China when it released a Chinese search service in January 2006. At the time, it decided to censor its search results to comply with Beijing's strict limits on access to information, concluding that was better than not offering any regularly accessible service at all. On Thursday, a Google search for "Tibet" and "riots" turned up few results. The same search on Google's U.S.-based English search site produced some 461,000 results.

So far, YouTube is taking a similar approach, despite ongoing debate at Google over the strategy. In Thailand, in order to be accessible, it agreed to block Thai users from seeing clips deemed insulting to the king in violation of Thai law. In Turkey, YouTube has suspended the account of the person who uploaded the Ataturk video, though the site remains banned there. In Myanmar, YouTube was banned after clips of protesting monks appeared on the site. In that case, YouTube declined to remove the clips and remains banned.

Media analysts say YouTube's string of censorship flare-ups -- and the site's sometimes inconsistent responses -- indicate it needs to develop a more transparent strategy for dealing with these issues. YouTube's community guidelines state the site encourages "free speech and defend[s] everyone's right to express unpopular points of view." But the site also reserves the right to remove content it deems inappropriate, which gives it significant discretion when it comes to politically sensitive content.

"We have a delicate balancing act between being a platform for free expression and also obeying local laws around the world," says YouTube spokesman Ricardo Reyes.

YouTube reviews videos when they are flagged by users to determine whether they violate its terms of use, which prohibit such content as graphic violence. YouTube users can appeal the removal of videos, which can trigger a secondary review.

After being alerted by users last month, YouTube removed a video clip that appeared to document abuse of prisoners at a Russian prison camp that YouTube determined violated the site's graphic-violence policy. It eventually restored the video but required viewers to click to consent to watch a clip that "may contain content that is inappropriate for some users." YouTube says its staff hadn't initially been aware that the video was meant to document alleged human-rights abuses.

The stakes are high because material distributed on YouTube is affecting some of the world's most incendiary political situations. "It's actually changed the whole political scenario in Pakistan," says Shahzad Ahmad, an activist with the civil-rights group Bytes for All in Pakistan, who believes the site played a role in the defeat to Pervez Musharraf's party in recent elections.

Google has reached out to the U.S. State Department for assistance with the censorship issue in China, says a person familiar with the matter. The company, along with Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others, has been working for more than 18 months with human-rights groups, academics and socially responsible investors to develop a code of conduct for operating in countries that limit free expression and individual privacy. A bill to be considered by Congress would require U.S. companies to provide the U.S. government with details of any compliance with censorship in Internet-restricting countries.

-- Juliet Ye contributed to this article.

US buckling on Kosova independence ?? Or ..

This is TBA - I am writing prior to 9 am and this was released via Russian sources

Feb 19 2008 11:18AM

Kosovo autonomy is no precedent for other territorial conflicts - U.S.

TBILISI. Feb 19 (Interfax) - The U.S. Department of State issued a statement on Tuesday saying that any territorial conflict is unique and cannot be resolved using the fact of unilateral declaration of autonomy by Kosovo.

In its statement, the U.S. Department of State said separatist conflict in the world is unique and called on the international community to refrain from making public statements that jeopardize a peaceful settlement for conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The Department of State also called on all countries and organizations to re-confirm the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia within the borders recognized by the UN Security Council.

This was in this morning press briefing with Dana Perrino

Q Apparently the President did make some comments on this with NBC, The Today Show. So is his view that the United States is going to recognize their independence?

MS. PERINO: He didn't announce that, and as I said yesterday, that I'm not going to get in front of the process. I expect you'll hear from the State Department today. But he did say that the United States has long supported the Ahtisaari plan which, as I told you yesterday, called for a period of time of supervised independence for Kosovo and that the United States had been supportive of that. And so I expect that you'll hear something from the State Department and, as I said, you'll hear from the President tomorrow morning before he leaves.

Q He actually said that -- didn't he actually say that Kosovo is now independent?

MS. PERINO: What he meant by that is that the Kosovars have declared their independence.

Q He just stated the facts, not a policy or a position.

MS. PERINO: Correct. Correct.

Q Dana, when will we hear from the State Department?

MS. PERINO: At some point today, I mean, it's only in the morning there, so --

Q Four hours, three hours? Any idea?

MS. PERINO: I wish I could tell you, Roger; I don't know.

Q Why is he not making a statement today?

I would guess discussions of Kosova have been going on over the RED PHONE.

Here is timely reminder - a BLAST FROM THE PAST: BUILDING PEACE IN KOSOVA

July 23, 2000: "Th[e Airlie Conference] did, in fact, provide the first opportunity since the war for a broad group of representatives of Serb and Albanian communities to meet face to face. Perhaps the most difficult decision in a peace process is the choice to meet the other and to work together. At this meeting, the participants crossed that threshold. The event featured a productive, useful, and yet emotional and difficult dialogue among the participants. There was talk of suffering and of guilt. There were accusations, but there was also talk of reconciliation and the way forward. And it is a joint way forward that was discussed.

After an arduous, sometimes contentious process, there was a declaration upon which the participants agreed. The declaration is a very good start, but it is a beginning only. The dialogue begun at Airlie House will have to continue in Kosovo. Both sides understand this, and the Department endorses this effort.

As you can see, the declaration commits both sides to cooperate in the areas of elections, media, civil society, security, and returns . . .

--Ambassador John Menzies, Director of the Office of Kosovo Implementation
Excerpt from briefing on Kosovo leaders' "Pact Against Violence" declaration

Office of the Special Advisor
Bureau of European Affairs Home Page
Department of State Home Page

Yet, here is the "official" Kosova Bush "line", just two hours ago -

Bush Says Kosovo Independence Is Right

2 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — With President Bush leading the way from Africa, U.S. officials are working across a broad international front to shore up support for Kosovo's declaration of independence.

"The independence of Kosovo is an historic step for the Balkans region," Bush said Tuesday in Tanzania before flying to Rwanda. "It presents an opportunity to move beyond the conflicts of the past and toward a future of freedom and stability and peace."

With actions unfolding in the United Nations and the European Union to back Kosovo, Bush made clear it was all part of a calculated effort.

This strategy was well planned," Bush said, noting that "we had worked out with our European allies the sequencing of it, to make sure that there was a concerted and constant voice supporting this move."

He said Russia was involved in those consultations even though it does not back Kosovo's move.

"Actually, we have been working very closely with the Russians, as we have with the Europeans and other nations on Kosovo's independence, because we believe it's the right thing to do," Bush said. "You know, there's a disagreement, but we believe, as do many other nations, that history will prove this to be a correct move, to bring peace to the Balkans." He added that "we have been in close consultation with the Russians all along. This wasn't a surprise to Russia."

Bush urged Kosovo to uphold its agreement to protect the rights of minorities and pledged the United States will work with other nations to bring about a smooth and peaceful transition to independence.

Earlier, Bush in a letter promised Kosovo's new president, Fatmir Sejdiu, that "the United states will be your partner and your friend."

Serbia recalled its ambassador from Washington over the U.S. decision, and it has threatened to recall its envoys from all countries that establish diplomatic ties with Kosovo, though it said it would not sever relations.

"We feel that this is a travesty of international law. We feel that the negotiations should go on," Ambassador Ivan Vujacic said at a news conference Monday evening at the Serbian Embassy in Washington, adding that he would leave the United States within 48 hours. "We feel that the imposed solution concerning Kosovo is not the right solution and will not add to stability."

Russia and Serbia maintained at a U.N. Security Council emergency session that an independent Kosovo violates the council's orders.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice welcomed "the commitments Kosovo made in its declaration of independence" to implement a United Nations-backed plan, "to embrace multi-ethnicity as a fundamental principle of good governance, and to welcome a period of international supervision."

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Rice telephoned him on Monday and that he "stressed our fundamental position that Pristina's unilateral actions in declaring the territory's independence of the territory are unacceptable." A ministry statement said Lavrov also emphasized "the danger of such a step, which threatens the destruction of the world order that has developed over centuries, and of international security."

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, at a news conference Monday, said, "I do not expect any kind of crisis with the Russians over this."

Burns said the nearly 17,000 NATO troops in Kosovo, including 1,600 U.S. forces, would remain in the country.

He also said that a donors conference would be held soon, and announced the United States was committing $334 million in U.S. assistance to Kosovo this year in addition to the $77 million provided in 2007.

Rep. Howard Berman, acting chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he supported the diplomatic recognition but added, "Now the work begins. The challenges ahead include tackling high unemployment and bolstering the country's weak economy, strengthening political institutions and the rule of law, and preserving security throughout the region."

Nothing that happens is really surprising on the world stage with the Bushistas at the helm. They do not slow moving diplomatic efforts - ask any country in the world!!

And here we all "go again" - wonder where the bumpy ride is going to take us. Meanwhile BuZh is in Africa and the rest of the crew are Turkey, figuring out how to line their pocket$ with the administration ends.

Condi better start tapdancing furiously in those high priced pumps of hers - the showdown continues ..

Time for impeachment? Obviously it's long overdue. The list of crimes just gets longer and longer.

Veeger

OUTRAGE!! Israel's New Policy of Terrorism in the US

Remember the DEA report last year about hundreds of Israeli spies posing as art students and stalking federal agents that were deported by the U.S. government.

A while back I got interested in a conspiracy "theory" that suggest that Monica Lewinsky was actually a MOSSAD agent. It was alleged that she had set up William Clinton in order to get state secrets. This little investigation of Monica lead me to the information that you see quoted above. I was most curious as to how Mossad agents enter the country - and amazingly I found the report in a file that listed things that had been tracked by US Treasury Department as the money was located when they deposited the money in the bank. An amazing feat for the GWOT actually to uncover some real terrorists. But this terrorism (and they were stalking and threatening DEA agents, it was terror) went UNREPORTED, I had to dig it out.

Monica's indescretion with her older sugar daddy who just "happened" to have a TOPPEST HIGH SECURITY clearance made me wonder - how many other government agents have been targetted by MOSSAD? This question of mine made sense since having blow jobs by a foreign agent can certainly pose a national security threat. The grim inferences one can make when looking at some of our presidential misdeeds in the light of the seriousness of the consequences can be, to put it mildy, mind boggling.

America has seen many good GOP members go down in the past seven years due to sex scandals - and if you are new, only recently Larry Craig went "down" in the Senate Ethics Committee and censured. But although the hypocracy of Craig as well as Senator Vitter has been haunted by the shrill cresendo of "For Shame! They're hypocritics", the underlying critical issue of where that could have lead gets begged. Hey, under Protect America they swoop me up and let me languish in prison and no one know where I am for the rest of my days - the Senate and the President sure get a free ride, don't they and they are the ones with SECRETS.

Ole Bushikins has been free in the sexual scandal department, but some of those in the know are more than a little suspicious when it comes to America having its secrets exposed to foreign governments - or let me be a bit more explicit, it is concerning when some high level officials hold dual nationalities (in which Israel trumps the US in the loyalty department) and have TOP LEVEL SECURITY CLEARANCES. The Treasury's been looted, the Attorney General say "Whoops! Not gonna follow international law, can't make me!" and someone with dual nationality decrees that America is now as something grotesquely named The Homeland. All without so much as a vote.

WHAT IS BUZH THINKING!!

and what is CONgress doing letting this happen?

Now with that background I present YOU with the scariest item I have seen in a very very long time. The US appears to be allowing a foreign government to perform assassination on whomever it wishes, whenever it wishes, and wherever it wishes. I'm not saying that MOSSAD was not capable of all this before - they most certainly were, but you aren't going to hear much about that in the Zionist State of Israel's supporting mainstream newspapers. What is most frightening is the assumption that now OFFICIALLY Israeli's have been declared above the law by the US State Department and the United States Attorney General - I do not hear anyone in Congress {{{{{{screaming}}}}}}}}}} about this piece of "news"

If you think the so-called Global has not wrecked insanity and mayhem on the United States, then take the red pill. Is there ANY Rule of law left?

Why does this reporter state that terrorism is acceptable in "third world countries"? It most emphatically is not. Murder is murder.

I cannot believe I read this. I've read it over a dozen times and I just cannot believe I read what I read ..

Look at the histronics suggested as a solution below. Anyone EVER hear of the rule of law? This might be a right wing plant job - but who knows? It is not surprising that I would find this item highly highly troubling.

V

ISRAEL'S NEW POLICY OF TERRORISM
ON AMERICAN SOIL

By: Joe Sansone

A recent UPI report outlined Israel’s new policy of assassinating suspected terrorists on American soil. In other words, Israel is now going to officially carryout terrorism on U.S. soil.

Isn’t that what murder is? As an American citizen you cannot murder, why should agents of a foreign government have any such right in your country?

The UPI report read, “Israel is embarking upon a more aggressive approach to the war on terror that will include staging targeted killings in the United States and other friendly countries, former Israeli intelligence officials told United Press International.” UPI claims to have verified this information with a dozen informants. The report goes on to say that Israel will go forward with this policy,

“even if it risks complications to Israel's bilateral relations."

Such a policy by Israel that has no regard for the national sovereignty of the United States requires a reevaluation of an existing allied relationship. It is a callous disregard for not only the laws of the United States, but also the security, safety, and rights of its citizens.

What Israel terms as targeted assassinations is really the commencement of a low-grade war against its enemies. By carrying out acts of war on American soil, Israel will be committing acts of war against the United States.

Bringing its war to America, Israel is endangering the lives of Americans, including American Jews. Surely, as Israel’s campaign of terror is carried out against its enemies, there will be retaliatory action in the United States by Islamic militants. Are synagogues and Jewish schools immune from such horror? They will likely be the first targets. While less than three percent of Americans are Jews, and respectively three percent are Muslims, do we want them battling it out in our streets?

By proclaiming its license to kill on American soil, Israel places itself on the list of rogue nations diametrically opposed to the United States. Terrorism may be acceptable in the third world. It is not acceptable in the United States. This policy by definition is state sponsored terrorism. Maybe there should be weapons inspectors taking a look at Israel’s nuclear program next?

How exactly do we determine the innocence of the murdered victims? Since Israel now has no regard for the nation where it murders perceived terrorists, it is safe to say that they would also have no regard for the nationality of the alleged terrorist. What if some of them are American citizens? Are we going to allow a foreign nation to murder U.S. citizens too?

The UPI report also says,

“Israeli hit teams, which consist of units or squadrons of the Kidon, a sub-unit for Mossad's highly secret Metsada department, would stage the operations”.

If Israeli hit teams are in place in the United States, what will prevent them from targeting U.S. officials that aren’t willing to send billions of dollars in foreign aid to Israel? Far fetched, not really when we’re talking about a nation that is openly planning terrorism in the United States.

Yes, openly, because a story this sensitive would have never leaked unless it was meant to be leaked.

If Israel is going to have a policy of terrorism on U.S. soil then it is not only plausible that it will kill American citizens that it considers to be enemies, but it is also likely that they will attack American targets and try to blame it on the enemies of Israel.

It’s bad enough that according to a PBS Transcript Senator Graham of the Select Committee On Intelligence said that classified evidence reveals that foreign governments were involved in the September 11th attacks. Now another nation is threatening to expand its terrorism to America.

No ally of the United States can commit act on war on its soil. Theoretically Israeli hit teams could already be here. Remember the DEA report last year about hundreds of Israeli spies posing as art students and stalking federal agents that were deported by the U.S. government. If Islamic terrorist cells may already be here it is entirely possible that Israeli hit squads are in place.

The U.S. should immediately pull all foreign aid, both monetary and military assistance from Israel. Immigration should be halted across the board, but especially from Middle Eastern countries, including Israel. Israeli citizens must be deported immediately.

If the United States does not have the political will to protect and defend its sovereign territory, then it does not have a right to exist, and probably won’t.

Either UPI fabricated the report and manufactured the Israeli government informants quoted in it or Israel is an enemy of the United States.

The Bush administration should send a clear signal that if Israel carries out acts of terrorism in the United States then war will follow.

Mail this article to a friend(s) in two clicks!

Joe Sansone is the founder and president of USA Daily as well as a weekly columnist. Mr. Sansone is the co-founder and former vice-chairman of the American Reformation Project Joe has previously hosted a Central Jersey Talk Radio Show and is the former chairman of the Reform Party of New Jersey as well as the former chairman of Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign in New Jersey. He is a regular columnist for Ether Zone.

Published in the January 21, 2003 issue of Ether Zone.
Copyright � 1997 - 2003 Ether Zone.

Today in Belgrade

Photo by Balkan Insight

17 February 2008 Belgrade _ Hundreds of protesters clashed with Serbian police on Sunday evening, hours after Kosovo’s leaders unilaterally declared the province’s independence from Serbia.

At least 12 protesters, mainly fans of local soccer clubs and skinheads, were injured and arrested in several skirmishes in the Serbian capital.

The crowd damaged the Slovenian embassy, a McDonald’s restaurant and about a dozen shop windows.

“We hate the West, we hate Western values and civilization,”

said a club-wielding protestor who identified himself as Nikola.

They chanted «Kosovo is Serbia» and slogans against Kosovo Albanians, Serbian President Boris Tadic and pro-Western opposition leaders, but also against conservative Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.

Masked thugs chanted the name of the Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic, accused of genocide in the Bosnian 1992-95 war, who is still at large.

Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets in a skirmish at the downtown Terazije square, forcing the crowd to disperse, leaving overturned garbage containers, broken glass, stone fragments and other debris behind.

Eyewitnesses said that protesters stoned the Belgrade headquarters of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, the only Serbian political party that has supported the possibility of Kosovo’s independence, and a nearby café.

B92 television reported that at 9 pm several groups were still in the streets, regrouping and returning to places from which police had earlier chased them away. The station reported that at least 11 policemen had been injured in clashes.

The protesters also smashed windows at the embassies of France and Brazil, according to local media and eyewitnesses, where later re-reinforced police protected and restore order.

«Then police started fighting back at demonstrators,» said a journalist from a Belgrade daily «Alo» who himself got beaten by police but was not seriously hurt.

He said that protesters were smashing everything they came across before police stepped in

Although officials have publicly called for calm, B92 also reported that journalists had seen officials of Democratic Party of Serbia, the party of Vojislav Kostunica, the current prime minister, among protesters in the northern city of Novi Sad.

Also spotted, according to the report, were representatives from the Socialist Party of Serbia, the party previously led by Slobodan Milosevic, the late wartime president.

Protesters in Novi Sad threw stones at two bakeries and a local McDonald’s restaurant.

A strong police presence was expected to remain in place in downtown Belgrade through Sunday night, guarding government buildings and embassies

Earlier in the evening, protesters had blocked the United States embassy in downtown Belgrade, pelting the embassy building and police with stones and signal torches. At least one policeman was carried away in an ambulance.

Serbian police in full riot gear had cordoned off the embassy and managed to push protestors away from the embassy.

“We want to show we hate Yanks and Shiptars,” said a young protester who identified himself only as Dejan. “Shiptar” is a derogatory Serbian term for Kosovo Albanians.

The protest was staged despite repeated warnings from top officials, including Serbia’s president, prime minister and parliamentary speaker, who urged people to remain calm while promising that they would employ peaceful means to annul Kosovo’s declaration of independence.

“Serbia will not turn to violence. This is the only approach that will allow us to fulfill our legitimate goal aimed at preserving integrity of the country,” Boris Tadic, the president, said in a statement .

In an emotional address to the nation, Vojislav Kostunica, the prime minister, said that the United States had “humiliated and forced Europe Union to discard its basic principles.”

“Europe bowed before America and it will be held responsible for all the consequences that will arise from Kosovo’s independence,” Kostunica said.

Meanwhile, Tadic’s office announced he would travel to New York to take part in an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council, called by Russia.

Serbia and Russia staunchly oppose Kosovo’s independence, which has been backed by the US and most EU member states.

Also see:

Here are some other links: Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSL1 ... , And an other Video: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ebb_1203277087 .
That's what happens when some people don't like reality. If you slaughter people, you just can't assume that they'll like you after all... Especially not if you're not sorry at all.

• Protesters Stage Anti-US Rally in Belgrade
• Security in Serbia’s South Stable
• Albania Hails Kosovo Independence
• Bosnia Remains Calm but Tense over Kosovo Independence
• Mixed Reactions in Romania to Kosovo Independence
• Protesters in Belgrade Block US Embassy
• Montenegro: Mixed Emotions on Kosovo
• Macedonia’s Albanians Celebrate Kosovo Independence
• Albania: US, EU states first to recognize Kosovo
• Kosovo's Obelisque of Independence

ACTVISM ALERT - Rove in Vancouver tomorrow 18 Feb 2007

Tomorrow night Karl "War Criminal " Rove is coming to make some blood
money at the Vancouver Art Gallery courtesy of the Fraser Institute.

Evetn starts at 6:00 pm Monday Feb 18 so be there by 5:30

This grotesque creature should be arrested at YVR and rerouted
straight to the Hague.

I call on you to email blast your membership and inform them that a
non-violent welcoming reception needs to happen outside the gallery.

The clowns spending $500 a plate need to hear that we don't
appreciate their supporting a war criminal and Karl needs to hear
LOUDLY that he is not welcome here.

http://www.fraserinstitute.org/commerce.web/eventdetail.aspx?
productID=5138

Please help me

Thanks

DJ BALL

Karl Rove on U.S. Politics


Date(s): Monday, February 18, 2008

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Expect a new Lebanon PM soon ..

and I would guess any day soon, as this is significant and of course, BuZh-style super secretive.

The "spin" is given by Missie State Department is lovely. Such an excellent proponent of freedom and democracy SHE is. That's why innocent mean are sitting in Bagram and Guantanamo and no one can decide to do with Blackwater mercenaries, cuz she is just on the top of her game, right??

Can the US get Price Saud to go along with the plot to dump the Lebanonese PM? Grudges last long at the White House ... and I also want to know what the Israeli's wanted said to the Saudi FM.

Also, funny NO mention of the new Iranian bourse about to be birthed is mentioned in this story .. now do YOU suppose .. that SOME thing is being "covered up" ..

ENQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW.

Go get yer bike, George, and ride outta town. Take Condi with you. Maybe you could both peddle over to New Orleans and take a good look.

V

Bush meets Saudi FM at White House

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush held talks here Friday with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal on what was expected to touch on the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and Lebanon, officials said.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said Bush planned to meet the Saudi foreign minister in the Oval Office in the morning, with another official confirming that the meeting actually took place.

Bush "looks forward to discussing with him a wide range of regional issues including the president's recent trip to the Middle East, to the region, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the situation in Lebanon," Stanzel said.

A spokeswoman for the National Security Council later confirmed that the meeting between the president and Prince Saud took place but declined to provide any details about what was discussed.

The Saudi embassy in Washington also declined to comment.

Prince Saud, whose country is the world's biggest oil producer, joined Bush last November in Annapolis, Maryland for an international conference to launch the first serious Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations in seven years.

A US official who was not privy to the meeting told AFP that US and Arab officials have recently discussed key issues concerning Beirut, including UN plans to set up a Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

The international court is designed to try suspects in the murders of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri and 22 others in a massive bombing on February 14, 2005. It will also look into attacks against other anti-Syrian figures.

"The US has discussed the Lebanon tribunal with a number of Arab allies in recent days," including funding for it, according to the official who asked not to be named.

On the third anniversary of Hariri's death, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced the United States intends to double its pledge to the tribunal's first year budget from seven million dollars to 14 million dollars.

Washington suspects Syria of having assassinated anti-Syrian figures like journalists, lawmakers and security officials in a bid to destabilize Lebanon and regain the influence it once had there.

The deadlock in Lebanon over electing a new president has also been a topic of US concern.

"In the last several weeks there have been a number of discussions between American, European and members of the Arab League on Lebanon," the US official said.

David Satterfield, a senior State Department official who deals with Iraq, said in Paris Friday that Syria was "directly responsible" for the political crisis in Lebanon and the accompanying violence.

"The role Syria has to play is very simple: to allow the Lebanese to proceed with free elections. It's not a complicated proposition,"

he said.

Satterfield also said Damascus had taken action to reduce the number of anti-American insurgents passing into Iraq from Syria, but had done so mainly for its own internal reasons.

A 9/11 Every Day for Ten and Half Years: Most of Us Will Eat Shit Until the Day We Die

A 9/11 Every Day For Ten and a Half Years: Most of Us Will Eat Shit Until the Day We Die

By Arthur Silber

12/02/08 "Once Upon A Time" - -- -Let us begin with the proposition of greatest importance. From my essay, "The Missing Moral Center: Murdering the Innocent":

There is one final point to be made about all this -- and that has to do with the supreme value of a single human life. In our desensitized, dehumanized age, most people have almost no appreciation for what I'm talking about, and our political establishment and media only make this grievous failing worse. Each of us is unique; not one of us can be replaced. Each of us has a family, loved ones, friends and a life that is a web of caring, interdependence, and joy. When even one of us is killed or horribly injured for no justifiable reason, the damage affects countless people in addition to the primary victim. Sometimes, the survivors are irreparably damaged as well. Even the survivors' wounds can last a lifetime.

This is of the greatest significance. There is nothing more important or meaningful in the world. No moral principle legitimizes our invasion and occupation of Iraq, just as it will not justify an attack on Iran. Therefore, when the first person was killed in Iraq as the result of our actions, the immorality was complete. The crime had been committed, and no amends could ever suffice or would even be possible. That many additional tens or hundreds of thousands of people have subsequently been killed or injured does not add to the original immorality with regard to first principles. It increases its scope, which is an additional and terrible horror -- but the principle is not altered in the smallest degree.

So think of the five-year-old Iraqi girl who is no more, or think of any one of the countless other victims of this criminal war and occupation. Think of their families and friends. Think of the lives that have been altered forever, and of the wounds that will never heal. Think about all of that.

Contemplate the devastation and the horror. Make it real to yourself. And ask yourself if forgiveness is possible.

We now know -- at least, those of us who are minimally honest know -- that the United States government has murdered in excess of one million Iraqis. In yet another attempt to break through the massive wall of resistance erected by our government, the U.S. media, and the American public, I once put this in terms that I hoped would hit home more directly:

For ease of computation, we'll use approximate figures. Assume the U.S.'s war crimes have resulted in one million deaths. That is roughly 1/26 of the total Iraqi population. An equivalent number of American deaths would be 11.5 million people. 3,000 Americans were murdered on 9/11. In terms of casualties, 11.5 million deaths represent 3,800 9/11s -- or a 9/11 every day for ten and a half years.

Let me repeat that: a 9/11 every day for ten and a half years.

Perhaps you think these casualty figures are highly inflated. Fine. Cut them in half. That's a 9/11 every day for a little over five years.

Every day.

Do you begin to understand now?

Our government, our media and most Americans remain absolutely determined not to understand.

Let us proceed to a second proposition of great significance. The ruling elites in the United States have been committed to a foreign policy of American hegemony for over a century; this has been especially true in the decades following the end of World War II. This foreign policy of global hegemony, to be actualized by overthrow, assassination, war, murder, torture and occupation as required, has been and remains a fully bipartisan affair. Both Republicans and Democrats, insofar as the parties bearing those names are central institutions of power in the United States, embrace this policy; very often, Democrats have been notably more aggressive and ruthless in pursuit of this end than Republicans (always excepting the current war criminals in charge of the executive branch). I have detailed this bipartisan policy of murder and conquest in numerous essays; see all of my "Dominion Over the World" series (all the essays in that series are linked at the end of that article), and the other articles linked in those pieces. Scan the archives for still more.

The Democrats were never going to end the occupation of Iraq, as I noted in a post just prior to the 2006 election: "An Election Conceived in Nausea." The other predictions in that post have also been borne out by events. Predicting how loathsome the loathsome Democrats will be is not a difficult task -- not if you are minimally honest.

In a new article, Matt Taibbi details the nauseating depths of the Democrats' abominable record over the last year. Taibbi notes the Democratic leaders' lofty calls to inspirational principles -- from Harry Reid ("We have the presidential election," Reid said recently. "Our time is really squeezed."), and from Nancy Pelosi ("We'll have a new president," said Pelosi. "And I do think at that time we'll take a fresh look at it.") Reid and Pelosi offer such resounding calls to first principles as more and more people are slaughtered every day. Couldn't you just die? Lots of people are dying, but not anyone you know (or Reid or Pelosi knows) -- so you don't give a shit.

Taibbi writes:

Working behind the scenes, the Democrats have systematically taken over the anti-war movement, packing the nation's leading group with party consultants more interested in attacking the GOP than ending the war. "Our focus is on the Republicans," one Democratic apparatchik in charge of the anti-war coalition declared. "How can we juice up attacks on them?"

The story of how the Democrats finally betrayed the voters who handed them both houses of Congress a year ago is a depressing preview of what's to come if they win the White House. And if we don't pay attention to this sorry tale now, while there's still time to change our minds about whom to nominate, we might be stuck with this same bunch of spineless creeps for four more years. With no one but ourselves to blame.

Taibbi makes two errors here, one that is obvious and one that is implied. The obvious error is to speak of the Democrats' "betrayal." It is only betrayal if the Democrats had, in fact, been committed to ending the occupation. That in turn would require that they question the basic assumptions of United States foreign policy. But they weren't and they don't, as many of my essays demonstrate. It was betrayal only to those stupid enough to have believed what the Democrats said, as opposed to what their actions -- and the underlying dynamics at work -- showed. I suppose I should add that one need not necessarily have been stupid (and here, I cast my eye around the "progressive" blogosphere): a person might be so consumed with achieving power for the Democrats above all else that he or she is willing to lie endlessly -- so as to curry favor with those in power (or who might be), to wield "influence," and/or to make a sufficient number of mindless readers happy (or keep them suitably intellectually sedated).

Taibbi's implied error is his talk about "whom to nominate." He names Hillary Clinton as one of those who peddles endless "bullshit" about wanting "to do the right thing" -- and he notably fails to mention Obama. Memo to Taibbi: if you're thinking that Obama represents a genuinely different point of view on these questions, you're wrong -- he doesn't. (I'll have more about the particular dangers represented by Mr. Obama, and they are considerable, in the next few days.)

Later in his article, Taibbi offer these sickening details concerning the mechanics of the Democrats' actions:

Rather than use the vast power they had to end the war, Democrats devoted their energy to making sure that "anti-war activism" became synonymous with "electing Democrats." Capitalizing on America's desire to end the war, they hijacked the anti-war movement itself, filling the ranks of peace groups with loyal party hacks. Anti-war organizations essentially became a political tool for the Democrats — one operated from inside the Beltway and devoted primarily to targeting Republicans.

This supposedly grass-roots "anti-war coalition" met regularly on K Street, the very capital of top-down Beltway politics. At the forefront of the groups are Thomas Matzzie and Brad Woodhouse of Americans Against the Escalation in Iraq, the leader of the anti-war lobby. Along with other K Street crusaders, the two have received iconic treatment from The Washington Post and The New York Times, both of which depicted the anti-war warriors as young idealist-progressives in shirtsleeves, riding a mirthful spirit into political combat — changing the world is fun!

But what exactly are these young idealists campaigning for? At its most recent meeting, the group eerily echoed the Reid-Pelosi "squeezed for time" mantra: Retreat from any attempt to end the war and focus on electing Democrats. "There was a lot of agreement that we can draw distinctions between anti-war Democrats and pro-war Republicans," a spokeswoman for Americans Against the Escalation in Iraq announced.

What the Post and the Times failed to note is that much of the anti-war group's leadership hails from a consulting firm called Hildebrand Tewes — whose partners, Steve Hildebrand and Paul Tewes, served as staffers for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). In addition, these anti-war leaders continue to consult for many of the same U.S. senators whom they need to pressure in order to end the war. This is the kind of conflict of interest that would normally be an embarrassment in the activist community.

Worst of all is the case of Woodhouse, who came to Hildebrand Tewes after years of working as the chief mouthpiece for the DSCC, where he campaigned actively to re-elect Democratic senators who supported the Iraq War in the first place. ...

With guys like this in charge of the anti-war movement, much of what has passed for peace activism in the past year was little more than a thinly veiled scheme to use popular discontent over the war to unseat vulnerable Republicans up for re-election in 2008.

Taibbi goes on:

Even beyond the war, the Democrats have repeatedly gone limp-dick every time the Bush administration so much as raises its voice. Most recently, twelve Democrats crossed the aisle to grant immunity to phone companies who participated in Bush's notorious wiretapping program. Before that, Democrats caved in and confirmed Mike Mukasey as attorney general after he kept his middle finger extended and refused to condemn waterboarding as torture. Democrats fattened by Wall Street also got cold feet about upsetting the country's gazillionaires, refusing to close a tax loophole that rewarded hedge-fund managers with a tax rate less than half that paid by ordinary citizens.

After all this, the liberal-progressive blogosphere continues to propagandize endlessly and raise huge amounts of money for "more and better Democrats" -- on the model of Jim Webb, I suppose, one of those "better" Democrats who offered one of the most pathetically stupid defenses in the history of the universe in support of his vote for last summer's atrocious FISA legislation.

Here's a rule you can take to the bank:

Any individual who rises to the national political level is, of necessity and by definition, committed to the authoritarian-corporatist state. The current system will not allow anyone to be elected from either of the two major parties who is determined to dismantle even one part of that system.

Yes, yes: there are a handful of exceptions. That's so some of you can continue to prattle about the virtues of "participatory democracy." That's so you don't notice that the ruling elites don't give a damn what you think, except for brief periods surrounding elections -- when they'll tell you what you want to hear, even though history, including yesterday's history, proves they don't mean a single damned word of it. And please note that the two or three exceptions are not those individuals championed by these same liberals and progressives: note how the leading progressive bloggers themselves led the marginalization of Dennis Kucinich.

I'll be blunt, even rude: You can call it Republican shit. You can call it Democratic shit. You can call it progressive shit. It's still shit. It's still murder, and torture, and criminal war, and a growing surveillance state. If you vote for the Democratic or the Republican candidate for president -- and if you vote for almost any of the candidates for national office -- you're voting for murder. You're voting for torture. You're voting for criminal war. You're voting for the growing surveillance state.

Is that what you choose to do? Is that what you choose to support? Is it?

At the end of his article, Taibbi writes:

How much of this bullshit are we going to take? How long are we supposed to give the Reids and Pelosis and Hillarys of the world credit for wanting, deep down in their moldy hearts, to do the right thing? Look, fuck your hearts, OK? Just get it done. Because if you don't, sooner or later this con is going to run dry. It may not be in '08, but it'll be soon. Even Americans can't be fooled forever.

Perhaps not forever, but most Americans are perfectly willing to be fooled (hell, they're enthusiastic about it) until the Empire begins to crumble around them -- that is, in ways that directly affect them in their lives. That day may be coming, perhaps sooner than we might prefer to think.

Some of them won't be fooled at that point. But then it will be too late. A lot of you will eat shit until the day you die.

Posted by Gaime at 6:13 AM

Agent Orange Deforming a Third Generation in Vietnam

By Tom Fawthrop, Comment Is Free. Posted February 13, 2008.

Washington denies responsibility for the effects of chemical warfare, fearing that legal precedent may limit future military endeavors

Long after the last bullet has been fired in a war, unexploded bombs, landmines and toxic chemicals continue to maim and kill civilians. This is particularly true of the Vietnam war. Three decades after US soldiers and diplomats scrambled aboard the last planes out of Saigon in April 1975, the toxins they left behind still poison Vietnam. Relations with the United States have been normalized since the 1990s, but the denial of justice to the victims of Agent Orange remains a major bone of contention.

Not only are Vietnamese still maimed from treading on unexploded bombs, they are also victims of this insidious scourge that poisons water and food supplies, causing various cancers and crippling deformities. Eighty million liters of Agent Orange were sprayed on the jungles of Vietnam, destroying swathes of irreplaceable rainforest through massive defoliation and leaving a toxic trail of dioxin contamination in the soil for decades. The legacy of this chemical warfare can even be inflicted on the unborn, with Agent Orange birth deformities now being passed on to a third generation.

In the 3,160 villages in the southern part of Vietnam within the Agent Orange spraying zone, 800,000 people continue to suffer serious health problems and are in need of constant medical attention. Last month, members of a US Vietnamese working group reported that it will cost at least $14 million to remove dioxin residues from just one site around the former US airbase in Danang. The cost of a comprehensive clean-up around three dioxin hot spots and former US bases is estimated at around $60 million. The $3 million pledged by US Congress last year is a pathetically inadequate amount set against the billions spent in waging war and deploying weapons of mass destruction.

The recent study of one Agent Orange hot spot, the former US airbase in Danang, found dioxin levels 300 to 400 times higher than internationally accepted limits. The study confirmed that rainwater had carried dioxin into city drains and into a neighboring community that is home to more than 100,000 people.

Dr Arnold Schecter, a leading expert in dioxin contamination in the US, sampled the soil around former US airbase in Bien Hoa in 2003 and found dioxin levels that were 180 times above the safe level set by the US environmental protection agency. The US government was aware of these findings (pdf) back in 2003.

The US government's Veterans Administration officially recognizes 13 medical conditions linked to Agent Orange and provides free medical treatment to US soldiers who can prove their exposure to the herbicide. But Washington has adamantly denied all responsibility and evaded any kind of accountability for the estimated four million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians who suffered far greater exposure to the dioxin than the US war veterans.

In February 2004, the Vietnamese Association of Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA) filed a class action law suit in a New York court, against Monsanto, Dow Chemicals and 35 other manufacturers of the herbicides deployed in Vietnam. The plaintiffs and their lawyers deliberately chose the very same court that had presided over the only previous lawsuit brought against Agent Orange manufacturers, by US war veterans.

The original lawsuit was settled in 1984, when seven American chemical companies paid out $180 million to 291,000 US citizens over a period of 12 years. The out-of-court settlement was linked to a let-out clause for the chemical companies that refused to accept liability, claiming the science did not prove that Agent Orange was the cause of a diverse range of cancers, autoimmune diseases and birth deformities. In 2005, a US court predictably rejected the Vietnamese claim for massive compensation in respect of war crimes and crimes against humanity inflicted on the civilian population. It is still being appealed in the US courts.

Why has Washington been so doggedly determined to deny any compensation to Vietnamese victims, even refusing to come up with humanitarian aid? A clue can be found in the intervention of the White House counsel in the Vietnamese lawsuit against the chemical companies. The US government intervened to argue that if the court permitted the case to prosper, it would undermine national security and limit presidential options in a time of war.

In the New York Court Seth Waxman, defense counsel for the chemical companies, argued there was a lack of legal precedent for punishing those who used poisons during warfare, and said US battlefield decisions could be harmed. "This does affect our ongoing diplomacy," he said, citing the use of depleted uranium shells by US forces in Iraq.

To accept US responsibility for Agent Orange could expose Washington to claims relating to the use of napalm, phosphorous bombs and various My Lai-type massacres.

Tragically, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese victims are denied compensation because the US government and its military want no limits placed on their arsenal of weapons, and few restrictions on their methods of interrogation and torture. They are also deeply anxious to guarantee that international justice is confined to putting developing nations and other weak regimes in the dock -- Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Serbia. The US government, in refusing to sign up to the international criminal court, has ensured that they are beyond the reach of international law.

See more stories tagged with: vietnam war, agent orange, vietnam, washington, birth defects, veterans

A London-born journalist, Tom Fawthrop has extensively covered the developing world. He has been working in South-East Asia for the past 25 years and is currently based in Chiangmai, Thailand.

He is co-author of Getting away with Genocide, the history of the Cambodia Tribunal.

Venezuela's Chavez threatens oil cut-off indicating he's got HIS finger on the pulse

Tough talk is in response to Exxon Mobil's attempts in court to win assets of state oil company.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States if Exxon Mobil wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.

"If you end up freezing (Venezuelan assets) and it harms us, we're going to harm you," Chavez said. "Do you know how? We aren't going to send oil to the United States. Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger."

Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500) has gone after the assets of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA in U.S., British and Dutch courts as it challenges the nationalization of a multibillion dollar oil project by Chavez's government.

A British court has issued an injunction "freezing" as much as $12 billion in assets.

"I speak to the U.S. empire, because that's the master: continue and you will see that we won't sent one drop of oil to the empire of the United States," Chavez said during his weekly radio and television program, "Hello, President."

"The outlaws of Exxon Mobil will never again rob us," Chavez said, accusing the Irving, Texas-based oil company of acting in concert with Washington.

Chavez has repeatedly threatened to cut off oil shipments to the United States, which is Venezuela's No. 1 client, if Washington tries to oust him. Chavez's warnings on Sunday appeared to extend that threat to attempts by oil companies to challenge his government's nationalization drive in courts internationally.

"If the economic war continues against Venezuela, the price of oil is going to reach $200 (a barrel) and Venezuela will join the economic war," Chavez said. "And more than one country is willing to accompany us in the economic war."

Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Margaret Ross said the company had no comment. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Caracas did not return a call.

The U.S. imported 1.23 million barrels of crude oil a day from Venezuela in November, making it the fourth-biggest source of oil imports behind Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Energy Department.

Those four countries, along with Nigeria, accounted for 74 percent of U.S. crude oil imports in November, the government said. By itself, Venezuela accounted for about 12% of U.S. crude imports, the figures showed.

Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez has argued that court orders won by Exxon Mobil have "no effect" on the state oil company PDVSA and are merely "transitory measures" while Venezuela presents its case in courts in New York and London.

Exxon Mobil is also taking its claims to international arbitration, disputing the terms it was granted under Chavez's nationalization last year of four heavy oil projects in the Orinoco River basin, one of the world's richest oil deposits.

Other major oil companies including U.S.-based Chevron Corp., France's Total, Britain's BP PLC, and Norway's StatoilHydro ASA have negotiated deals with Venezuela to continue on as minority partners in the Orinoco oil project.

ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil, however, balked at the tougher terms and have been in compensation talks with PDVSA.

Gas prices pull back

Background

Big oil tanks up: Exxon's profit nears $10B

By Matt Krantz, USA TODAY

While drivers have been painfully paying up at the pump, oil companies have been racking up eye-popping profits.

Thursday, ExxonMobil (XOM) became the most stark example yet of how much big oil companies benefited from the huge run-up in oil prices during the third quarter even as two major hurricanes ripped through the industry's Gulf Coast infrastructure. Exxon reported:

• Net income up 75% to $9.92 billion. That is the most a U.S. company has earned from operations in a three-month period and greater than the annual gross domestic product of entire nations including Cameroon and Zimbabwe.

• Revenue up 32% to $100.7 billion. That is greater than the annual GDP of all but just 38 of the world's economies.

Exxon illustrates the energy's sector's tremendous profit amid record-high energy prices. The industry is on pace to earn $96 billion this year — more than what the USA's industrial and telecom companies will earn, combined, says Standard & Poor's based on members of the S&P 500 index. (Vote: Are oil companies' high profits justified?)

And it's not just ExxonMobil that's raking it in. Royal Dutch Shell reported net income up 68% to $9 billion Thursday. Earlier this week, BP (BP) reported a $6.5 billion third-quarter profit and ConocoPhillips (COP) a $3.8 billion profit. Today, ChevronTexaco (CVX) is expected to post 53% higher earnings of $3.9 billion, says Reuters Estimates.

The massive profit gains were widely expected giving the soaring price of oil. The price of a barrel of oil hit a record $70 during the third quarter and, even though it has backed off to $60.80 currently is still up 40% in 2005.

It's not as if the industry didn't have difficulties with the damage of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In fact, ExxonMobil said oil production fell 5% during the third quarter and natural-gas production fell 9%.

But those disruptions had little effect on the flow of oil companies' profits.

"The strong commodity price offset any affect of the hurricane," says analyst Lysle Brinker at John S. Herold.

That's because oil companies were selling gasoline to wholesalers at record prices. The profits from were more than enough to offset any hit the big oil companies suffered when the price of oil and gas rose faster than they could boost the price of gas sold at their own company-owned stations, says Tina Vital, oil stock analyst at S&P.

Vital says the difference between the price of oil and the price ExxonMobil charges wholesalers hit a record. But, due to public outcry and consumer sticker shock at the pump, Vital says the company charged less than their cost for gasoline during the period.

Meanwhile, the oil industry has tried to soften criticism of its current boom times by pointing out the cyclical nature of its business.

Government data backs that up. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that although the 20 big oil companies it tracks earned a combined $22.55 billion last quarter, those same 20 companies, together, earned only $1.59 billion in the fourth quarter of 2001.

In fact, Big Oil was weathering tough times then, reporting combined quarterly profits of less than $10 billion from the third quarter 2001 through the fourth quarter of '02.

Also see;

Globalization, Economic Development, and Inequality: An ... - Google Books Result

by Erik S. Reinert - 2004 - Business & Economics - 352 pages
Technical progress and obsolescence of capital and skills: theoretical foundations of nineteenth-century US industrial and trade policy Michael Hudson This ...
books.google.com/books?isbn=1858988918...

Globalization, Speculative Capital and U.S. Hegemony

(Michael Hudson, Harper’s, April, 2005). The proposed privatization of Social Security will destroy a secure source of income for older Americans while ...
www.lrna.org/2-pt/v16ed5art2.html - 18k

Standard Schaefer: an Interview with Michael Hudson on Chile
As economic historian Michael Hudson pointed out to me, a recent interview in ... In the following interview, Michael Hudson elaborates on the Chicago Boys' ...
www.counterpunch.org/schaefer10202003.html - 120k

and

Narco News: Bank of the South

28 Mar 2007 ... It was then that a new idea for a Bank of the South was first hatched. Still, no one in the economic world took Chavez or his radical ...
www.narconews.com/Issue45/article2613.html

http://www.optevi.net/newstracker/default.aspx?f=1&e=756

Optevi News Tracker - World News - Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

Hugo Chavez and leaders of six other South American nations launched a regional development ..... Michael Hudson - financial consultant, michael-hudson.com ...

You will find tons of relevant articles that are definitive at that last link and don't forget to read Confessions of an Economic Hitman - Hugo read it: so should you!!

Challenge to freedom lovers - give Dennis Kucinich your bucks$ My letter to Mparent's readers re Dennis Kucinich's need for money

It's difficult to make a lot of sense out of what I am posting if you read the other post I just made previously, but here is my appeal to you to go to M Parent's blog
www.maparent7777-2.blogpost.com
and leave a comment below the post saying WHY you chipped in ..

The comments will echo long and loud throughout the blogosphere.

Dennis is the voice of sane people everywhere. If you don't "get it" get over yourselves, he is a fine ambassador for us all in Congress.

Veegermatic

EXCLUSIVE! Pelosi & AIPAC put the Squeeze on KUCINICH!

Submitted by impeachthem on Sun, 2008-02-03 17:24.

— 3 February 2008 — Exclusive to New Jersey Impeach Groups - ImpeachThem.com — We received a phone call today from a source in the Kucinich for President campaign, telling us there’s more to the story of Rep. Kucinich’s withdrawal than is publicly known. The source gave us permission to publish this, but without attribution. We can say the source is high up in the campaign. Most progressives are aware there’s been a large flood of money feeding a campaign by a democrat who seeks to win the primary for Dennis Kucinich’s seat in Ohio’s 10th congressional district, where Dennis has served the interests of working people for 6 consecutive terms — since 1996. Here’s the rest of the story, untold ‘til now. — Click the KUCINICH BANNER to read the rest —

Before the Nevada primary, Dennis was visited by representatives of Nancy Pelosi and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — AIPAC. They told Dennis that if he would drop his campaigns to impeach Cheney and Bush, they would guarantee his re-election to the House of Representatives.

Kucinich threw them out of his office.

Dennis now faces the toughest election campaign of his entire tenure in congress, with huge amounts of money being spent to turn his constituents against him due to “his neglect of his district while he ran for president.”

So yes, Virginia, it is exactly as you suspected. This man the mainstream media say is not relevant, poses such a threat to the powers that be that they are hellbent to destroy him, and remove that troublemaker from congress.

It’s up to us, all who understand the crucial voice of Dennis Kucinich speaking up for justice and working to stop our country’s fall into fascist barbarity, to come forward to help him continue the peoples’ work. There’s no better time than right now, so go to CONTRIBUTE TO DENNIS KUCINICH. Help Dennis now. Help him TODAY.

My letter to mparent7777-2's readers:

I rushed over here to MAKE SURE THAT THIS GETS POSTED HERE.

I do wish that the headline was much better, though. IT should read that we are all in a fight with AIPAC and here's where to send your money today to help the cause for human rights, for justice and for sustainability.

Many many forces doubted my read of this situation as it exists with Dennis - but FINALLY they are now convinced that I am right, at long long last.

It disappoints me greatly to see Dennis doing without enough funds and I post long lenghthy editorials on my site and on OpEd News suggesting it is time to LINE UP BEHIND DENNIS, not just with words on threads on the blogosphere but actually digging some money outta yer pockets. The time is NOW and it has been all along.

ATTORNEYS!! are you listening? Put your money on the honest man. The real threat to the defense industry, the polluters, the law breakers who want a two-tiered justice system is Dennis Kucinich. I know some in the "legal community" have already seen the devastation that is caused in AIPAC's wake - many attorneys have been to Guantanamo, represent the POWs (hate the eupemization detainees), seen the hardships on their tortured men's families and know that without real representation in CONgress our human rights agenda will go nowhere.

Nanay Pelosi MUST GO! We must work very very hard and get her and her "defense" contractor husband and her AIPAC and lobbyist friends held accountable to the AMERICAN PEOPLE. They must continue to be exposed.

Personally i have a real sense of URGENCY as I watch the daily destruction of this planet from my blogosphere seat and have a pretty good grasp of the damage - damage that is escalating in the concentration camp known as Gaza, in Kurdistan where self determination is being undermined and people are dieing daily, unbeknowst to most of you, I know about the famines in China and its effects on crops to come and how these NEOCONS do not want you to know about any of that. I know about the nuclear proliferation going on and how Hillary and Bill Clinton have given nuclear power and uranium mining to Khazakstan, a totally rogue nation. Do a google check on Frank Guistra and just see what this Imperial Queen and Her Court have been up to.

I believe BOLD STEPS are necessary if anyone of us to survive as the CONgressional leaders are absolutely deluded. Dennis knows, many who read this blog know, but if we are to "stay in the loop" we cannot allow Dennis to be a "martyr" to our cause. He and Elizabeth both have unique and articulate voices that demand attention be paid to their words. Let them continue to speak for us.

And don't forget!!

DUMP PELOSI!!

The power, the real power in this world comes from US, we cannot allow AIPAC to shut up one of our best advocates, particularly in the halls of Congress.

So - send him your buck$ .. do it today!! This election is NOT a one issue election. This is an election about preserving values, values that are life enhancing. Values that Dennis Kucinich clearly represents. The one trick pony show of a vanity campaign has left me cold and I want our movement to succeed. It's a real rough road in 2008 - so let's let Cleveland lead our way.

And I challenge anyone else coming by Marc's site to PUT YOUR REASONS DOWN HERE for sending him some BUCK$. Help us show why people should contribute.

No, Dennis is not pretending to let you keep all your tax money. No, Dennis is not going to take your lobbyists money and from extreme fringe people with hidden agendas. No, Dennis is not going to get rid of the Federal Reserve Bank which has been set up to be The Big Boogie Man. But if you look to the YES! Yes! for planning seven generations down the road then Dennis is your man.

Dennis is one of America's very finest organizers and please put down here in the comments why YOU will send him your buck$. Let people see why they should open up their wallets as widely as possible today.

Put your money where your mouths is and then call up another person you know who cares about this planet and get them to do the very same thing - and do it right away.

Please.

Virginia
ladybroadoak.blogspot.com