[WAR: Quite day in the Whorehouse...]
The leader of Germany's beleaguered Social Democrats warned Chancellor Merkel on Sunday that a 2-year honeymoon period was over for their grand coalition government. After a long slide in opinion polls, Kurt Beck has been pushing the SPD to the left before a party congress next week and said he was fed up with his party being blamed for coalition failures while Merkel gets the credit for its accomplishments.
After a campaign troubled by violence and widely criticized as racist, Switzerland's far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP) strengthened its position as the biggest single party in Parliament on Sunday, according to initial electoral projections. The SVP campaigned on an aggressively anti-immigrant ticket featuring posters that showed white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag.
A pro-business opposition party that wants Poland's troops out of Iraq ousted Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski's government in parliamentary elections Sunday, as Poles opted for leadership offering a more cooperative approach to the EU. The election result means Poland will no longer have twin brothers holding the two highest offices.
So he did what we all suspected he would. Gordon Brown agreed to the EU "reform treaty" without granting a referendum. This is, of course, a political matter, par excellence, on which a humble economist can have little to say. But there are economic aspects to our European future to which this matter most definitely relates. Anyone who has observed the EU process over the years is bound to recognise that things to do with the EU are not quite what they seem. Constitutional and legal niceties are observed at first but can then be over-ridden in pursuit of the ultimate goal, which is the creation of a European state, whether super or otherwise.
So forget the idea that this treaty is minor and forget the protection afforded by the so-called "red lines". That protection may well not survive the first onslaught in the European courts. What matters is the political will across Europe to forge a European state. As many a European politician has been honest enough to admit, this treaty bears a striking resemblance to the recently abandoned Constitution and as such represents another major step along the road to surrendering national sovereignty altogether. If that result were to emerge, quite apart from the political implications, it would have major economic consequences.
The likelihood of a Turkish military attack on northern Iraq has increased after Iraq-based Kurdish guerrillas killed 17 Turkish soldiers and took others prisoner in a cross-border raid. "Our anger, our hatred is very great," said Turkey's Prime Minister after calling a crisis meeting of his government to discuss retaliation.
Turkey will launch military action against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq despite frantic appeals for restraint from America and NATO, its Prime Minister has told The Times. Speaking hours before the PKK killed at least 17 more Turkish soldiers yesterday, he said that Turkey had urged the US and Iraqi governments repeatedly to expel the separatists but they had done nothing. Turkey's patience was running out and the country had every right to defend itself, he said. "Whatever is necessary will be done. We don't have to get permission from anybody."
The ambushing and killing of at least 12 Turkish soldiers appear to have been deliberately designed to provoke maximum retaliation from the Ankara government. There is already an appetite within the Turkish military for a full-scale incursion across the Iraq border to take on the 3,000-3,500 PKK fighters who are based in camps in the mountainous region along the frontier. However, any overt invasion of northern Iraq would have huge political and security implications, not just for the Kurdish state, but also for American strategy in the region and Washington's relations with Ankara.
Leaders of the Hamas terrorist group yesterday praised the man enthroned as Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem for his reported reluctance to sell property to Jews. The Israeli government has withheld support for Theofilos III, elected patriarch in 2005 amid charges of church irregularities, due to his position on canceling the sale to Jewish groups of church land comprising much of a key entrance to Jerusalem's Old City. Theofilos also has been quoted by church officials as opposing the sale of Jerusalem property to Jews. Ownership of the land in question – two hotels that comprise a large section of the Jaffa Gate, the principal entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem – could be crucial in the future status of Jerusalem.
Condoleezza Rice was busy "lowering expectations" after her 5-day tour of the Middle East. In truth, Israel had its expectations fully realised, and, amongst the Palestinians, only the Abbas regime would have entertained any other outcome. Rice made clear that Palestinian demands for a document addressing future borders, Israel's West Bank wall, Palestinian prisoners, refugees and Jerusalem on a set timeline would be denied in favour of the general statement insisted on by Israel.
What is certain is that, should a peace conference be convened, Abbas and other Arab leaders would attend only in order to attempt to impose a rotten compromise on an increasingly restive Palestinian population. Abbas's key advisers were clear about the implications of failure. The Palestinian Information and Foreign Minister warned that, "without a document to resolve this conflict, we can't go to the conference next month." The chief Palestinian negotiator said that "If the talks fail, we can expect a third and much more severe intifada."
There are similarities between violent extremists of all the Abrahamic religious faiths, according to a new study of ultra-Zionist settlers in Israel, fundamentalist Muslims in Britain and white supremacist Christians in the US. The study found that extremists of all three religions shared a black-and-white, them-and-us mentality; saw themselves as victims; and tended to be drawn from alienated communities that were either culturally or geographically isolated from the mainstream of society.
"Religiously motivated violence exists across all of 3 of the Abrahamic faiths," reads the study, which aimed "to better comprehend and confront recruitment and incitement to violence, regardless of which faith is claimed as ideological justification" by "focusing on what compels individuals to take violent action in the name of religion, and to recruit others to do likewise - and in what manner religion plays a role in these decisions."
Allegations that a Syrian envoy admitted during a UN meeting Oct. 17 that an Israeli air strike hit a nuclear facility in September are inaccurate and have raised the ire of some in the US intelligence community, who see the Vice President's hand as allegedly being behind the disinformation. Recent news articles continue to make allegations and suggest that a nuclear weapons facility was hit - something that the Syrian government has denied, the Israeli government has not officially confirmed and US intelligence does not show. What concerns intelligence officials is what appears to be manipulation of the press and strategic leaks to the public of false information, undercutting professional intelligence analysis, similar to what occurred before the Iraq war in an apparent effort to bolster support for engaging Iran.
The shock resignation of Iran's chief nuclear negotiator has cast a shadow of uncertainty over the country's future co-operation with UN inspectors, heightening the risk of US military strikes. Iran's nuclear policy is, however, decided by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
(DW: EU to continue dialogue)
In the harshest speech against Iran given by a top Bush administration official to date, Vice President Dick Cheney Sunday warned the Islamic Republic of "serious consequences" if it did not freeze its nuclear program and accused it of "direct involvement in the killings of Americans." Cheney's speech was remarkable on several counts, beginning with the fact that it came less than a week after Gates gave a much more restrained presentation on US Middle East policy and the threat posed by Iran to a yet more hawkish pro-Israel group. Indeed, the rhetorical differences – including the contrast between the 2 speeches – including Gates' effort to distinguish between Sunni jihadism and Iran and Cheney's attempts to blur the 2 – could not be more pronounced.
The forum chosen by Cheney to deliver his speech was in many ways as significant as its timing and context. WINEP, a generally hawkish think tank, was founded some 20 years ago by the research director of the highly influential lobby the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and is funded by many of the same donors. AIPAC, in turn, has led a high-powered effort to persuade Congress to impose tough new sanctions against Iran and foreign companies that do business with it, and, more recently, to have Tehran's Revolutionary Guard declared a "terrorist" organization. As Cheney himself noted Sunday, his own national security adviser, John Hannah, once served as WINEP's deputy director.
The Air Force's Friday report on the August 29-30 nuclear weapons incident which saw 6 armed cruise missiles flown across the continental US in launch position on a B-52H bomber leaves all the big questions unanswered, attempting to shuck the whole thing off as an "unacceptable mistake." How can it be that Air Force ground crew people at Barksdale could spot the nukes in a flash while nobody at Minot noticed they were nuclear warheads?
Nobody, apparently, asked the Air Force about 6 mysterious violent deaths of Air Force personnel from Minot and Barksdale, and from a mysterious Air Force Special Commando Group, all of which occurred in the days and weeks immediately before, during and after the incident. Two of those deaths—of the Special Commando Group officer and of a Minot weapons guard—were reportedly "suicides."
So what we have is pretty clearly a cover-up here. A cover-up of what though? Here we're into speculation. One thing we need to keep in mind is that Barksdale AFB, on its website, advertises itself proudly as the base that prepares B-52s for duty in the Middle East Theater. Another thing we need to keep in mind is that Vice President Dick Cheney is trying hard to gin up a war against Iran, against the better judgment of top military leaders and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
And a third thing to remember is that these particular 6 warheads, called M80-1 warheads, are able to be adjusted to have a power of anywhere from 150 kilotons down to just 5 kilotons—a so-called "tactical" size. Perfect for a tactical strike on an Iranian nuclear processing or research site, or for a "false flag" type attack that could be blamed on a fledgling nuclear power…like Iran.
US border agents have stepped up scrutiny of Americans returning home from Mexico, slowing commerce and creating delays at border crossings not seen since the months after the Sept. 11 attacks. The increased enforcement is in part a dress rehearsal for new rules, scheduled to take effect in January, that will require Americans to show a passport or other proof of citizenship to enter the US. Border officials said agents along the southern border were asking more returning US citizens to show a photo identity document. At the same time, agents are increasing the frequency of what they call queries, where they check a traveler's information against law enforcement, immigration and antiterror databases.
[WAR: As y'all may remember, a few weeks back I hinted about me possibly "firing a shot" across the Mexican border. My plans for this have been temporarily put on hold, and may even try another venue of attack. But I was going to cross into Mexico, do some sightseeing, and then attempt to cross back - with my papal/pagan "birthdate" marked-out on my DL. I was (am?) going to do this to start the legal process of challenging the legal status of the Gregorian Calendar - not to "change the system," but to set the precedent and provide the legal cover (even though it already exists since there is no law, nor can there be one) for others to opt-out from using the GC in the very near future.) The challenge will happen - it's just a matter of exactly when, where and how.]
World oil production has already peaked and will fall by half as soon as 2030, according to a report which also warns that extreme shortages of fossil fuels will lead to wars and social breakdown. The German-based Energy Watch Group will release its study in London today saying that global oil production peaked in 2006 - much earlier than most experts had expected. The report, which predicts that production will now fall by 7% a year, comes after oil prices set new records almost every day last week. "The world soon will not be able to produce all the oil it needs as demand is rising while supply is falling. This is a huge problem for the world economy."
European shares have fallen sharply in today's morning trading, mirroring earlier falls in East Asia as worries about the US economy continue.
The US dollar tumbled to a new euro low in early Asian trade as concerns over the state of the US economy deepened. Analysts say the US Federal Reserve will have to cut rates again and this could weaken the dollar further.
The US government's adherence to the "strong-dollar" mantra, even as the currency plumbs record lows against the euro, has made markets skeptical that a finger will be lifted to stop a broad decline. In all likelihood, the US Treasury will not step in to save the dollar any time soon and the Bush administration may be the first since the gold standard was dropped in 1971 to not intervene in the currency market.
Poor quarterly results from banks across the US over the past 2 weeks suggest credit problems once confined to high-risk mortgage borrowers are spreading across the consumer landscape, posing new risks to the economy and weighing heavily on the markets. US banks have raised reserves for loan losses by at least $6bn over the 2nd quarter and by even larger amounts from last year, indicating financial executives believe consumers will be increasingly unable to make payments on a variety of loans.
The calculus of living paycheck to paycheck in America is getting harder. What used to last 4 days might last half that long now. Pay the gas bill, but skip breakfast. Eat less for lunch so the kids can have a healthy dinner. Across the nation, Americans are increasingly unable to stretch their dollars to the next payday as they juggle higher rent, food and energy bills.
It's starting to affect middle-income working families as well as the poor, and has reached the point of affecting day-to-day calculations of merchants like Wal-Mart, 7-Eleven and Family Dollar. Food pantries that serve the needy report severe shortages and reduced government funding at the very time that they are seeing a surge of new people seeking help. Industry analysts and some economists fear the strain will get worse as people are hit with higher home heating bills this winter and mortgage rates go up.
The IMF has forecast a growth rate of 4.8% for the world economy in 2008 in its latest World Economic Outlook, a slowdown from the growth rate of 5.2% for this year. While the expected rate is 0.4% lower than the estimate of last July, it appears to indicate a still healthy expansion. Upon closer examination, however, a different picture begins to emerge. The expansion in the world economy over the next year is heavily dependent on just 3 regions: China, Russia and India. The IMF calculates that these 3 economies alone accounted for one-half of global growth in the past year, with expansion also taking place in other so-called emerging market economies. It is a different story in the major economies.
If there are no borders or tariffs, transnational conglomerates, banks and central banks, etc. would be able to operate at will and impoverish just about everyone. It is the old British mercantilism on the loose again. The major banks of the world think they control the world presently and to a great extent that is about to come to an end. The financial system worldwide is now out of control and there is no way to regain control. All the elitists can do is stop a crash landing.
The power of the mind has been overestimated when it comes to fighting cancer, US scientists say. They said they found that a patient's positive or negative emotional state had no direct bearing on cancer survival or disease progression. "The hope that we can fight cancer by influencing emotional states appears to have been misplaced."
What does a woman want? The answer is that a woman wants to be the master of her fate. From the point of view of psychoanalysis a female is not only a real creature but rather a mythological one. Myths and reality get so closely interlaced that one can hardly see the distinction between them in a person's psychical world. Mythological aspects in human psyche and understanding of shadowy sides of the soul are the way to learn the depth of human nature. To win a woman's heart a man should perceive her dual nature completely. Anyone living close to a woman has to share the life with two women at once: an inward woman and an external one.
Peter Berg's latest film The Kingdom, about an FBI investigation into a bombing in Saudi Arabia, has been called controversial in a number of recent reviews, primarily for its treatment of Middle Eastern politics and terrorism. In reality, the film is far from controversial in any meaningful sense. In treating its various subjects, the work represents an adherence to the "official line" of some of the most official sources. The Kingdom is simply a film that gets it all wrong. Or, depending on your point of view, all right.
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