World-News

http://www.americanherds.blogspot.com/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=horses

Henry A. Giroux and Susan Searls Giroux, Truthout: "As the financial meltdown reaches historic proportions, free-market fundamentalism, or neoliberalism as it is called in some quarters, is losing both its claim to legitimacy and its claims on democracy."

http://www.truthout.org/123108A



Was the "Credit Crunch" a Myth Used to Sell a Trillion-Dollar Scam?

Joshua Holland, AlterNet: "There is something approaching a consensus that the Paulson Plan -- also known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP -- was a boondoggle of an intervention that's flailed from one approach to the next, with little oversight and less effect on the financial meltdown."

http://www.truthout.org/123108D



Mid-Tunnel Glimmerings

Jean-Jacques Roth, Le Temps: "What a year! Wherever one turns: vertigo. Financial massacre, destruction of value unprecedented in human history, the unanticipated become an everyday occurrence, the most learned predictions trampled by phenomena deemed unthinkable just twelve months ago ..."

http://www.truthout.org/123108F



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+meltdown
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=neoliberalism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paulson
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Giroux
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Joshua+Holland
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jean-Jacques+Roth

Stephen Foley, The Independent UK: "Three weeks ago he was one of Wall Street's grandees and one of its most sought-after investment professionals. Today, he is under house arrest at his $7m ... Manhattan apartment, accused of being the biggest swindler that the world of finance has ever seen. Bernard Madoff faces a court deadline this morning for declaring all that remains of his clients' money, and for setting out the personal fortune he amassed over the decades, including homes in Palm Beach, Florida, and New York's Long Island. What is it going to add up to?"

http://www.truthout.org/123108M

--------

I was fleeced by Madoff

Salon
by Geneen Roth

01/07/09

Since Madoff’s arrest in December on charges of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, I’ve read many articles about how we Madoff investors should have known what was going on, how believing in Madoff was no different than believing there were WMD in Iraq. And I wish I could say I had reservations about Madoff before ‘the Call.’ I wish I could say I knew better about getting such consistently good returns, but I did not. Besides, everything I ‘knew better’ about — stocks, smart financial advisors, real estate — had also proved disastrous: Our financial advisor embezzled a quarter of our money 10 years ago, I lost another third in the stock market during the boom times, and we bought our house at the top of the market and sold at the bottom. Considering that, Madoff seemed like a respite — his fund showed occasional losses, along with small, steady gains. (I’m keeping a list of people who want to be notified of our next investment so they can sprint in the other direction. Feel free to add your name.)...

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2009/01/07/madoff/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Madoff
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Wall+Street
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=ponzi
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Stephen+Foley

http://www.truthout.org/123108J



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=William+Rivers+Pitt

Salon
by Katharine Mieszkowski

12/31/08

Before hailing the close of the Bush administration’s eight-year attack on the environment and scientific integrity, and celebrating Barack Obama’s takeover, let us pause to imagine an alternative future with John McCain and Sarah Palin in the White House. Even a grizzly bear shudders to think of it...

http://www.salon.com/env/feature/2008/12/31/environment_2008/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McCain
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Palin
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Katharine+Mieszkowski

Independent Country
by James Leroy Wilson

12/30/08

If our government took our country’s security concerns seriously, it would pledge neutrality over the conflict in that speck on the globe, which is no larger or more populous than New Jersey. And it would cease open and covert aid to both sides. Palestinian civilians wouldn’t get killed by weapons paid for by the U.S. But this isn’t how the U.S. government works or thinks. For our politicians and bureaucrats are driven by power and influence, not the good of the American people. Aid to Israel is about controlling Israel to some degree. Aid to international agencies and to other countries is for the same purpose. The motive is not compassion or solidarity with foreign peoples, but rather to control them and their affairs...

http://independentcountry.blogspot.com/2008/12/its-about-power.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=James+Leroy+Wilson

By Craig Nisbet

PARENTS of youngsters attending Ardrossan's newly-rebuilt Stanley Primary say they are shocked and alarmed at plans to site a 50-foot-high mobile phone mast around 50 metres from the school playground.

Read More...
http://www.ardrossanherald.com/articles/1/32350



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=school+mast

by Greg Ciola

Every year when flu season rolls around the public is barraged with news stories about the reasons to get a flu shot. This year is no different. From coast to coast the headlines are blaring “Get Your Shot!” Within the past few months the CDC even lowered the recommended age for the flu shot to children as young as six months old. Basically, that means they think that just about everyone in the country should get the shot except for newborns in order to stay well......

http://www.newswithviews.com/Ciola/greg109.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=flu+pandemic
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=flu+shot
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Greg+Ciola
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/Ciola

Auch in diesem Jahr sorgte der deutsche Geheimdienst für Skandale und Untersuchungsausschüsse.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/29/29434/1.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=BND

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/30-3



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Deborah+Storie

Tim Jones, The Los Angeles Times: "It wasn't long ago that thousands of moose roamed northwest Minnesota. But in two decades, the number of antlered, bony-kneed beasts from the North Woods has plummeted from 4,000 to fewer than a hundred."

http://www.truthout.org/123008EA

Cullen Murphy and Todd S. Purdum, Vanity Fair: "The threat of 9/11 ignored. The threat of Iraq hyped and manipulated. Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Hurricane Katrina. The shredding of civil liberties. The rise of Iran. Global warming. Economic disaster. How did one two-term presidency go so wrong? A sweeping draft of history - distilled from scores of interviews - offers fresh insight into the roles of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and other key players."

http://www.truthout.org/123008T

--------

From “Mission Accomplished” to “So What?”

TruthDig
by Eugene Robinson

12/23/08

Understanding isn’t the same as forgiving. The history-be-my-judge interviews that President Bush and Vice President Cheney have been giving recently help me understand why they acted with such contempt for our Constitution and our values — but also reinforce my confident belief, and my fervent hope, that history will throw the book at them. The basic argument that they’re making deserves to be taken seriously. I don’t think either man would object to my summing it up in one sentence: We did what we did to keep America safe. That terse formulation of the Bush-Cheney apologia leaves out important details. Cheney came into office with preconceived ideas about restoring executive branch powers and prerogatives that he believed had been lost after Vietnam and Watergate; Bush either shared Cheney’s views or was willing to go along...

http://tinyurl.com/9q3xn3


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+White+House
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=9/11
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Abu+Ghraib
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Hurricane+Katrina
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=civil+liberties
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=economic+disaster
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Constitution
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Vietnam
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Watergate
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cheney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cullen+Murphy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Todd+S.+Purdum
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Eugene+Robinson

Oh du Fröhliches Hartz IV - oder was uns Frau Merkel & Co. dieses Jahr unter den Weihnachtsbaum legen.

Kurz vor dem Jahreswechsel möchten wir eine kleine Rückschau halten, welche Veränderungen im sozialen Bereich die Bundesregierung "geschaffen" hat.

Lesen Sie weiter:
http://www.gegen-hartz.de/nachrichtenueberhartziv/hartziv773622.php



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Hartz+IV

http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north672.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Keyn
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/north

In Moscow, Igor Panarin's Forecasts Are All the Rage; America 'Disintegrates' in 2010.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html



Retailers may close 73,000 stores in the first half of 2009

"You'll see department stores, specialty stores, discount stores, grocery stores, drugstores, major chains either multi- regionally or nationally go out".

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGQ__icNMvzI&refer=home



List of Troubled Banks: Ready to see where your bank stands?

While lists of troubled banks obviously exist, none of them seem to be readily available to the public. Why? Because the bankers do not want you to have this.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/024615.html


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=retail
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bankrupt

Joel Brinkley: Does His Article on Richard Falk Demonstrate the Right "Frame of Mind" to Teach Journalism at Stanford?

By Elizabeth Woodworth

Is it not extraordinary that Brinkley, a former New York Times reporter deemed qualified by Stanford University to teach its journalism students, had not been aware that many Americans believe that 9/11 was a false flag operation, carried out to provide a pretext for attacking Muslim countries?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21587.htm



Kyrie Eleison

By John S. Hatch

They took Mohammed out of his father's view and fired a gun. Probably the General wept some more. They said they would kill his other sons. Then they stuffed him into a sleeping bag head first, broken ribs and all, and sat upon him. He died.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21578.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=9/11
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=false+flag+operation
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Joel+Brinkley
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Richard+Falk
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Elizabeth+Woodworth
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+S.+Hatch

Diana Washington Valdez, El Paso Times: "A U.S. Army War College report warns an economic crisis in the United States could lead to massive civil unrest and the need to call on the military to restore order. Retired Army Lt. Col. Nathan Freir wrote the report 'Known Unknowns: Unconventional Strategic Shocks in Defense Strategy Development,' which the Army think tank in Carlisle, Pa., recently released."

http://www.truthout.org/123008B



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=economic+crisis
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=civil+unrest
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Diana+Washington+Valdez

Andre Pratte, La Presse and the authors writing as the Chronicles of Favilla for Les Echos look beyond technical causes to human psychology and medieval codes of chivalry to diagnose the roots and prescribe remedies for the financial crisis.

http://www.truthout.org/123008O



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+crisis
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Andre+Pratte

James Rainey, The Los Angeles Times: "A Mexican reporter who wrote about drug violence in his homeland is being held in custody by none other than the US government and its immigration service. Yes, we reporters might get stuck covering the late shift or -- egad! -- a parade. When disaster strikes or a source calls back on deadline, the nights can be long. Newspaper layoffs and hard economic times can cast a pall over just about everything we do. But those concerns seem a piffle every time I read dispatches from around the world about journalists who, fighting for the story, also must fight for their lives."

http://www.truthout.org/123008L



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=immigration+service
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=freedom+of+the+press
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=James+Rainey

Heise Newsticker - Germany

Die Hacker empfehlen daher den Einsatz eines in wenigen Minuten selbst zusammenlötbaren RFID-Zappers. Zugleich betonen sie, dass der Pass [--] oder später ...

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/25C3-CCC-raet-zum-Selbstschutz-vor-biometrischer-Vollerfassung--/meldung/120999



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=biometri
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=RFID
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=CCC

9:58am Tuesday 30th December 2008

By Morwenna Blake »

A NEW mobile phone mast for Laverstock has been given the go-ahead despite the misgivings of both residents and local councillors.

A planning inspector has upheld an appeal by Vodafone against the decision of Salisbury District Council to refuse the application for the 13.4m pole on land at Riverside Road.

People living near the site say the mast will be intrusive and out of place and should not be placed in an area designated as being of high ecological value.

Read More...
http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/headlines/4009064.Laverstock_phone_mast_approved/

30 December 2008

Mobile phone operator O2 has said it could have to build three masts up to 30 metres high in Colkirk if it is forced to seek an alternative site for one new mast it has proposed.

The mobile phone giant, part of BT, wants to put up a 30-metre mast in the village to replace one it already has there but now has to remove.

But Colkirk Parish Council has objected to the proposed new site, which would have six antennae and six dishes on grain trader H Banham's land near the existing site in Church Road.

They say it would be an eyesore, unscreened like the existing mast, and could devalue their homes.

Read More...
http://tinyurl.com/8w9dbn

Debt, wealth and law

Nolan Chart
by Lou Poumakis

12/28/08

We are all very much aware that America is in trouble today. Our foreign policy is in shambles, the economy is in free-fall, personal and government debt have grown to astronomical proportions, disaster is at our doorstep and to top it all off, no one in any position of responsibility seems to know what to do about it. I submit that this is the case because no one is willing to look deep enough into the roots of the problems to develop a strategy that has any chance of success. The preference seems to be to come up with a solution that doesn’t require any real change in how we live and think as a people...

http://www.nolanchart.com/article5719.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=foreign+policy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=government+debt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Lou+Poumakis

Information Liberation
by Vincent Gioia

Congress has put two trillion dollars, about 1/20 of world GDP , under the control of one man, with no checks and no accountability, and we don’t know where the money went, or to whom. …. You think Madoff’s $50 billion fraud was something? He’s a piker compared to these guys...

http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=26342



Spending other people’s money

The Voluntaryist
by Carl Watner

12/08

The bailout is wrong because it steals from some and gives to others. And it makes no difference if it is the poor stealing from the rich, or the rich stealing from the poor. It is the stealing that is wrong; not what or how or to whom it is dispensed. Spending other people’s money is wrong because you cannot rightfully spend what belongs to someone else. Spending other people’s money without their permission is simply theft...

http://www.voluntaryist.com/forthcoming/bailoutobservations.php



The bailout

The Libertarian Enterprise
by A.R. Salyer

12/29/08

If you will take the time to study history, and I mean truly look into things not just read a few passages here and there, you will find the road we are traveling ain’t gonna turn out pretty.

Those that look into American history and economics know that what FDR did during the depression very arguably deepened and prolonged the depression itself. Tripling taxes, raising tariffs, etc… None of it worked...

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2008/tle499-20081228-04.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bailout
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Federal+Reserve
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=GDP
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=depression
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Madoff
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Vincent+Gioia
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Carl+Watner
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=A.R.+Salyer

Change in the nick of time

News With Views
by Edwin Vieira

12/29/08

A militarized police state is coming to this country—into your own neighborhood, and with you and your family as its targets—unless you start, right now, to enforce the Constitution, as is your right and your duty. In addition to their long-standing strategy of “federalizing” and para-militarizing State and Local police departments under the General Government’s Department of Homeland Security, the big brains in the Disgrace of Columbia have two additional schemes openly in the works: (i) the overtly military, which depends upon the deployment of the Armed Forces as domestic police; and (ii) the covertly military, which depends upon the creation of SOME new, ostensibly civilian, “national-security force”...

http://www.newswithviews.com/Vieira/edwin187.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=police+state
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Constitution
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Homeland+Security
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=domestic+security
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Edwin+Vieira
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/Vieira

Robert Parry, Consortium News: "As George W. Bush and Dick Cheney make their case for some positive legacy from the past eight years, two arguments are playing key roles: the notion that torturing terror suspects saved American lives and the belief that Bush's Iraq troop 'surge' transformed a disaster into something close to 'victory.' Not only will these twin arguments be important in defining the public's future impression of where Bush should rank on the presidential list, but they could constrain how far President Barack Obama can go in reversing these policies. In other words, the perception of the past can affect the future."

http://www.truthout.org/122908R



Under Bush, OSHA Mired in Inaction

R. Jeffrey Smith, The Washington Post: "Current and former career officials at OSHA say that [deregulation was] a recurrent feature during the Bush administration, as political appointees ordered the withdrawal of dozens of workplace health regulations, slow-rolled others, and altered the reach of its warnings and rules in response to industry pressure. The result is a legacy of unregulation common to several health-protection agencies under Bush: From 2001 to the end of 2007, OSHA officials issued 86 percent fewer rules or regulations termed economically significant by the Office of Management and Budget than their counterparts did during a similar period in President Bill Clinton's tenure, according to White House lists."

http://www.truthout.org/122908HA

--------

Many questions left in Bush scandals

ABC

12/29/08

As the clock winds down on the Bush administration, historians and critics are coming to grips with how little they know about some of the scandals which helped make the president one of the least popular leaders in modern U.S. history. From the secret wiretapping program to the so-called ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ to the firing of a number of U.S. Attorneys, the question remains of how high up administration officials were involved in authorizing many of these scandals...

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6519064&page=1


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cheney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=wiretapping
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=interrogation
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=firing+attorneys
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=OSHA
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Parry
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=R.+Jeffrey+Smith

- Éoliennes et Irradiations artificielles ÉlectroMagnétiques: "ils ont osé !"
- Une première en pollution environnementale, une dérive inimaginable . .

http://www.next-up.org/France/Eolienne.php#1

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig9/worthington7.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Stephen+Abraham
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Andy+Worthington
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=/worthington

Belt-tightening is required by all, including government.
http://list.lewrockwell.com/t/1232096/12759198/69765/0/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=recession
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Peter+Schiff

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff251.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Federal+Reserve
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/rozeff

Die britische Tageszeitung forderte in einem Leitartikel die Errichtung eines globalen Regimes als einzigen Weg zur Lösung globaler Probleme.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/29/29413/1.html

George W. Bush hat seine Chance nach dem 11.9. vergeben, drei Viertel der Amerikaner sind froh, wenn er endlich geht.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/29/29436/1.html

http://targetfreedom.typepad.com/targetfreedom/2008/12/glenn-greenwald.html


Informant: John Perna



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Glenn+Greenwald
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Moyers