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"Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few" -- George Bernard Shaw
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 Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard via rialator, Thursday, Sep 20 2007, 1:05pm
Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East.
international /
social/political /
other press
 Google Wants to Track Your Medical History -- And Your Genome
Jesse Reynolds via reed, Wednesday, Sep 19 2007, 11:51pm
In a recent review of 23 internet companies by a consumer watchdog group, Privacy International, Google was the only one to receive the lowest grade, reserved for those with "comprehensive consumer surveillance and entrenched hostility to privacy." (story and 1 image)
international /
social/political /
other press
Failing banks, toxic bonds and mortgage laundering
Mike Whitney via rialator, Monday, Sep 17 2007, 8:03pm
“The entire global financial structure is becoming uncontrollable in crucial ways that its nominal leaders never expected, and instability is its hallmark. The scope and operation of international financial markets, their “architecture”, as establishment experts describe it, has evolved haphazardly and its regulation is inefficient — indeed, almost nonexistent. Banks do not understand the chain of exposure and who owns what: senior financial regulators and bankers now admit this.” Gabriel Kolko “An Economy of Buccaneers and Fantacists” (story and 1 comment and 1 image)
Last Commented Tuesday, Sep 18 2007, 10:46am
international /
social/political /
other press
Greenspan admits Iraq was about oil, as deaths put at 1.2m
Peter Beaumont and Joanna Walters via rialator, Saturday, Sep 15 2007, 9:54pm
The man once regarded as the world's most powerful banker has bluntly declared that the Iraq war was 'largely' about oil. Appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1987 and retired last year after serving four presidents, Alan Greenspan has been the leading Republican economist for a generation and his utterings instantly moved world markets. (story and 2 comments and 2 images)
Last Commented Saturday, Sep 15 2007, 11:08pm
international /
imperialism /
other press
Phase III of Bush's War
Pat Buchanan via rialator, Wednesday, Sep 5 2007, 11:43am
If you ever doubted the destructive and paralysing power of DISUNITY, read on! For the want of a modicum of commitment a world was plunged into chaos and conflict. This message is not for our 'leaders' it is for the people who are able to override any government on the planet if they so wish!
None of us need to learn that principles of harmony, peace and UNITY offer our only chance for survival on this planet. The brutish logic of beasts, 'might is right,' would result in annihilation in today's world. If you doubt it remain divided, powerless and alienated and watch social conditions continue to deteriorate worldwide!
We are One or we are nothing! [Ed.]
international /
peace/war /
other press
"So much damage has been done"
P.M. Carpenter via reed, Sunday, Sep 2 2007, 10:47pm
Compared to all the truly gargantuan troubles brought down on us by the Bush administration -- two incomprehensibly executed wars; a hopelessly broken military; fiscal policies that make the subprime industry look thoughtful; the utterly unaddressed baby-boomer boomerang; a string of constitutional and other crises -- this is a relatively minor story. Yet it lays bare, in microcosmic form, the Bushies' macrocosmic traits: favoritism, incompetence, bullying, buck-passing, malfeasance, negligence, blindness, stubbornness, recklessness, deceit, distortion, laissez-faire lassitude and free-market fundamentalism. In short, boneheaded madness.
international /
social/political /
other press
The Next Quagmire
Chris Hedges via rialator, Sunday, Sep 2 2007, 10:18pm
The most effective diplomats, like the most effective intelligence officers and foreign correspondents, possess empathy. They have the intellectual, cultural and linguistic literacy to get inside the heads of those they must analyze or cover. They know the vast array of historical, religious, economic and cultural antecedents that go into making up decisions and reactions. And because of this—endowed with the ability to communicate and more able to find ways of resolving conflicts through diplomacy—they are less prone to blunders. (story and 1 image)
international /
imperialism /
other press
Even I question the 'truth' about 9/11
Robert Fisk via reed, Sunday, Aug 26 2007, 10:06pm
Each time I lecture abroad on the Middle East, there is always someone in the audience – just one – whom I call the "raver". Apologies here to all the men and women who come to my talks with bright and pertinent questions – often quite humbling ones for me as a journalist – and which show that they understand the Middle East tragedy a lot better than the journalists who report it. But the "raver" is real. He has turned up in corporeal form in Stockholm and in Oxford, in Sao Paulo and in Yerevan, in Cairo, in Los Angeles and, in female form, in Barcelona. No matter the country, there will always be a "raver".
international /
social/political /
other press
Ten Reasons Why Russia Can’t Trust Uncle Sam
Robert Bridge via rialator, Sunday, Aug 26 2007, 12:45pm
The West says that it is perplexed by Russia's "aggressive" behavior of late, and suggests that Moscow is desirous to regain its past superpower status, and even a little empire. But if cashing in on oil is imperialism, how do we explain the following U.S. moves: (story and 1 image)
international /
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other press
More War on the Horizon
Paul Craig Roberts via rialator, Saturday, Aug 25 2007, 1:22pm
No pullout from Iraq while I’m president, declares George W. Bush. On to Iran, declares Vice President Cheney!
international /
peace/war /
other press
East Timor Rioters Fight With Machetes, Challenging Government
Ed Johnson via reed, Thursday, Aug 23 2007, 12:29pm
Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Hundreds of people armed with machetes clashed in East Timor, destroying a market and burning down homes in rioting that poses a further challenge to the Southeast Asian nation's new government. (story and 2 images)
international /
imperialism /
other press
CLIMATE CHANGE: Deniers Jump on NASA Gaffe, While Greenland on Verge of Meltdown
Stephen Leahy via reed, Thursday, Aug 16 2007, 11:31pm
TORONTO, Aug 16 (IPS) - Scientists warn that climate change tipping points are imminent, and will lead to potentially catastrophic events like a seven-metre sea level rise. Meanwhile, conservatives in the North American media are focusing on a NASA admission of a climate calculation error. (story and 1 comment and 2 images)
Last Commented Friday, Aug 17 2007, 11:20am
international /
environment /
other press
Will there be a run on the banks?
Mike Whitney via rialator, Sunday, Aug 12 2007, 11:51pm
On Friday, the Dow Jone’s clawed its way back from a 200 point deficit to a mere 31 point loss after the Federal Reserve injected $38 billion into the banking system. The Fed had already pumped $24 billion into the system a day earlier after the Dow plummeted 387 points. That brings the Fed’s total commitment to a whopping $62 billion. (story and 1 comment)
Last Commented Monday, Aug 13 2007, 12:27am
international /
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other press
China’s 'Nuclear Option' is real
Paul Craig Roberts via rialator, Friday, Aug 10 2007, 1:53pm
Twenty-four hours after I reported China’s announcement that China, not the Federal Reserve, controls US interest rates by its decision to purchase, hold, or dump US Treasury bonds, the news of the announcement appeared in sanitized and unthreatening form in a few US news sources.
The Washington Post found an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin to provide reassurances that it was “not really a credible threat” that China would intervene in currency or bond markets in any way that could hurt the dollar’s value or raise US interest rates, because China would hurt its own pocketbook by such actions. (story and 1 image)
international /
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other press
Hicks Trial a Charade -- Oz Law Council
Stephen de Tarczynski via reed, Wednesday, Aug 8 2007, 10:03am
MELBOURNE, Aug 8 (IPS) - The Law Council of Australia’s third and final report on the trial of former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks slams the Australian Government’s acquiescence in the process and faults the overall trial. (story and 2 images)
international /
injustice/law /
other press
Hacking Capitalism
Andy Greenberg via Kismo, Monday, Aug 6 2007, 10:28pm
LAS VEGAS -- Lost seconds mean lost dollars on Wall Street. But the race for faster transactions risks security disaster.
Employees of banks could shut down computers that make quick arbitrage trades across markets, using denial-of-service attacks to overwhelm servers and potentially cause millions in losses. Ultra-fast electronic trades may be especially vulnerable to sabotage. And the need for speed has made things worse -- with financial institutions avoiding software security features that might cause crucial millisecond delays.
international /
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other press
Stock Market Meltdown
Mike Whitney via rialator, Saturday, Aug 4 2007, 11:31pm
On Friday the Dow Jones took a 280 point nosedive on fears that that losses in the subprime market will spill over into the broader economy and cut into GDP. Ever since the two Bears Sterns hedge funds folded a couple weeks ago the stock market has been writhing like a drug-addict in a detox-cell. Yesterday’s sell-off added to last week’s plunge that wiped out $2.1 trillion in value from global equity markets. New York investment guru, Jim Rogers said that the real market is “one of the biggest bubbles we’ve ever had in credit” and that the subprime rout “has a long way to go.”
international /
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other press
Return of the Robber Barons
Paul Craig Roberts via rialator, Thursday, Aug 2 2007, 11:41am
Anyone who imagined that grubby little racist and U.S. lackey John (despicable coward) Howard, had an original thought in his head read the following article relating to the U.S. and remove all doubts regarding Howard's status as slave to Bush, importer of the unfair U.S. labour system, lackey to the Corporations, especially the criminal directors and CEOs. Read, learn and discover for yourself the American lackey that Howard really is. Never in Oz history has the nation witnessed a Prime Minister surrender the entire nation and culture to a foreign power – treason would not be too strong a word! (story and 2 images)
international /
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other press
A Blurry Line Between Propaganda and News
Khody Akhavi via rialator, Saturday, Jul 28 2007, 11:23am
WASHINGTON, Jul 27 (IPS) - A shocking thing happens midway through Norman Solomon's documentary film "War Made Easy".
While analysing the George W. Bush administration's lead-up to the Iraq invasion, Solomon plays a news clip of Eason Jordan, a CNN News chief executive who, in an interview with CNN, boasts of the network's cadre of professional "military experts". In fact, CNN's retired military generals turned war analysts were so good, Eason said, that they had all been vetted and approved by the U.S. government. (story and 2 images)
international /
mass media /
other press
Rise of the "unwashed" Blogosphere
Joe Conason via reed, Wednesday, Jul 25 2007, 7:02pm
Not so long ago, the Republican right expected to dominate American politics for generations to come. Karl Rove, “boy genius” of the GOP, believed that his generation had achieved a partisan realignment that would overturn the progressive achievements of the past century.
international /
mass media /
other press
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