Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Chancellor Merkel's conservative party lost its absolute majority in the Hamburg state election on Sunday, a new setback for the party in the run-up to the federal elections next year. The Left party, founded by a group of formerly disgruntled SPD members, is expected to enter the Hamburg parliament for the first time with 6.5% of the votes.
(And: CDU weaker after key vote)
(And: New radicals win seats)
German politics, gridlocked in a 5-party system, is in the throngs of open up to new coalitions, as is reported by virtually every German newspaper this morning.
Yesterday state elections in Hamburg, produced a result that is relatively typical of the country as a whole, with a strong CDU, a recovering SPD, and no traditional majorities. None of the traditional centre-left, centre-right alliance is possible, so Hamburg's CDU is now reaching out the Greens, in what would be the first such alliance in Germany on state level.
Chancellor Merkel today ruled out seeking early German national elections after a string of state votes increased tensions in her governing coalition.
[Europress] [Russopress]
A planned meeting between the leaders of France and Germany for 3 March has been postponed until June amid speculation that disagreement over Paris' proposed Mediterranean Union is the cause -- the two sides are unable to find a common position on the proposed union.
At the end of last year, Chancellor Merkel said the union could threaten the "core" of the European Union and if EU funds were used for the idea it could release "explosive forces" within the bloc.
Serbia went back on the offensive over Kosovo's independence on Sunday by blaming the US for a crisis in the Balkans while its ally Russia accused the Americans of destroying "world order".
"The United States must annul the decision to recognize a false state on the territory of Serbia. It must reaffirm UN Security Council resolution 1244, which guarantees Serbia's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Continuation of the policy of force will deepen the crisis that undermines the foundations of world order and threatens peace and stability in the Balkans."
(And: The real story behind Kosovo)
The decision by Britain, America and certain other European countries to recognise Kosovo as an independent state is mind-blowingly stupid and suicidal and of a piece with their obvious determination to capitulate in the war for civilisation.
Most important of all, an independent Muslim Kosovo is a beachhead for radical Islam in Europe. In 2006, Human Events reported that the German intelligence service BND had confirmed that the 2005 terrorist bombings in Britain and the 2004 bombings in Spain were organized in Kosovo.
It was at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 that some 70,000 died to keep the Islamic Ottoman Empire from advancing further into Europe. What is the point of fighting the jihad in Iraq when we are cheerfully opening the door to it in that very same place?
President Putin has warned that recognising Kosovo will rebound very badly upon the countries who have blundered into endorsing it. Putin is on the right side and Britain and America are utterly wrong. That is the measure of this debacle.
The US attack on Kosovo has come back to haunt Washington, and not just with the burning of the American embassy in Belgrade. A chain reaction is setting in, and its effects cannot be confined to the Balkans. The unrest is already spreading to Austria – and beyond.
This is the new essence of "international law" – an edict from Washington. The UN, the EU, and other international bodies all must rubber-stamp decisions made essentially by the American president and his advisers.
While it's true that the Kurds claim a lot more territory than the current "Kurdish Regional Government" now commands, the same is true of the Kosovars, whose "Greater Albania" encompasses parts of Macedonia, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia.
As the US and its EU allies do everything to encourage this ultra-nationalist expansionism by recognizing Kosovo, why shouldn't the Kurds join in the fun and put "Greater Kurdistan" on the agenda?
Russia's ambassador to NATO suggested that Kosovo's split from Serbia was the result of an imperialistic American effort to "divide and rule." In heated remarks in a televised interview, he also reiterated Russia's warning that Western recognition of Kosovo could encourage separatism worldwide, using Germany's large ethnic Turkish population as an example. Ethnic Turks in Berlin might one day ask: "Why should we not create our own — not Kosovo but Berlinosovo?"
By recognizing Kosovo over the opposition of Serbia and without UN approval, he said, Western nations were replacing international law with a system in which "there will be only one rule: he who has brute physical power is strong and is right."
After Kosovo's independence has been declared, the US will try to separate Russia. According to the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the US will use the precedent to urge Russia to acknowledge the independence of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Trans-Dniester, and then it will support independence of republics of the Northern Caucasus that are now parts of the Russian Federation. He believes that China, Turkey and a number of other states are in danger of separation.
The Foreign Ministry has begun a strategic overhaul of relations with the EU and its member nations, increasingly "plugging into" EU institutions and, in turn, allowing Europe to play a greater role in Israeli diplomatic and economic processes, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
So central has Europe become to Israel's well-being, diplomatic officials have told the Post, that the Foreign Ministry believes it is time to reassess the Jewish state's traditional reliance on "2 pillars" for Israeli survival: a strong IDF and an unbreakable alliance with America.
Given the growing importance of the EU in world events, and in the Middle East particularly, the officials said, a 3rd pillar has become necessary: deepening ties to Europe.
"Increasingly, Europe is involved in everything that touches us. Developing a strong relationship with Europe is becoming the third pillar safeguarding Israel's survival."
Kurdish separatists today threatened a new campaign of violence against Turkish cities as the country's army pressed on with its latest offensive against guerrilla positions in northern Iraq. In a tactic that could dramatically escalate the conflict, the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, vowed to "move the theatre of combat to the heart of Turkish cities" unless Ankara ended the military campaign.
The rebel group is believed to have numerous "sleepers" within Kurdish communities in cities like Istanbul and Ankara, who are primed to carry out bomb attacks on military and government targets.
(And: Turkey ignores pull-out plea)
(And: PKK, the common enemy?)
The global proceeds of the Afghan drug trade is in excess of $50 billion a year. There is mounting evidence that this illicit trade is protected by the US military.
Historically, starting in the early 1980s, the Afghan drug trade was used to finance CIA covert support of the Islamic brigades. The 2003 war on Afghanistan was launched following the Taliban government's 2000-2001 drug eradication program which led to a collapse in opium production in excess of 90%.
The following report, which accuses the US of using military transport planes to ship narcotics out of Afghanistan confirms what is already known and documented regarding the Golden Crescent Drug Trade and its insiduous relationship to US intelligence.
President Musharraf's spokesman today dismissed a suggestion from 3 US senators that the embattled leader make a "graceful exit" from power his opponents' victory in Pakistan's elections.
Musharraf was elected to a new 5-year presidential term last year by Pakistani lawmakers, "not by any senator from the United States," his spokesman said. "So I don't think he needs to respond to anything that is said by these people."
Osama bin Laden's half-brother is planning to build the world's 2nd longest bridge to connect Africa and Arabia with a 6-lane motorway and a railway. Tarek Bin Laden has been wooing the governments of Djibouti and Yemen with his £35bn idea to bridge the 18 mile span across the narrowest stretch of the Red Sea.
Iran has reinforced its borders after Turkish forces launched an offensive into northern Iraq targeting Kurdish rebels, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said. "Necessary measures have already been taken to reinforce our borders. Regarding the PKK and other terrorist factions active in the region, we stress that the best way to face regional terrorists is for security cooperation between the regional countries."
A loud explosion shook Iran's northern city of Tabriz today, local officials said, without giving details of the cause of the blast.
Iran said Sunday that it has started using new centrifuges that can churn out enriched uranium at more than double the rate of the machines that now form the backbone of the Islamic nation's nuclear program.
Iran said it had cleared up all past outstanding issues over its nuclear programme with the IAEA and accused the US of providing intelligence that was fake.
The Iranian president says no global hegemony can threaten Iran since it has successfully faced down world powers in its nuclear program. "The world powers were united in mobilizing and using all the political, economic and military resources available to them to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear technology, but it was the Iranian nation that finally achieved victory." He said the Iranian nation has imposed its will on world powers and now Iran is more powerful than ever.
Prime Minister Olmert called today for new UN sanctions to be imposed on Iran. "The basic fact doesn't change. There is a plan to create non-conventional weapons. It must be stopped."
Officers at Human Resources Command are drilling deep into branch personnel data, mining for soldiers who have yet to pull a combat tour so that those eligible can be served with a set of deployment orders.
After more than 6 years of fighting in Afghanistan, and nearing the 5-year mark in Iraq, the Army is exhausted. Soldiers are weary, family members are fed up, gear is worn out and readiness levels are suffering.
This paper addresses the possibility of a coup d'état by national emergency before the end of Bush's last year in office, citing recent institutional actions that can be reasonably interpreted as being consistent with and preparatory to such an undertaking.
Of course, the real story here is that the Manchurian candidate, likely the most unpalatable and downright ugly presidential candidate in recent memory, is bought and sold by "lobbyists," a polite and rather neutral noun for corporate pimps involved in prostituting the business of the American people.
In fact, the McCain-Iseman sex scandal "story" does a fairly fine job of papering over the larger, more portentous story — McCain is a robotron for "special interest money," that is to say filthy lucre dispensed by corporate fascist determined to destroy what remains of the late, great United States.
(And: McCain bounces back)
In his first major public address since a cancer crisis, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said Sunday that presidential candidate Barack Obama is the "hope of the entire world" that the US will change for the better.
"This young man is the hope of the entire world that America will change and be made better. This young man is capturing audiences of black and brown and red and yellow. If you look at Barack Obama's audiences and look at the effect of his words, those people are being transformed. A black man with a white mother became a savior to us. A black man with a white mother could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall."
(And: The low down on Obama)
Yes, global capitalism may be resilient. But it looks like its options are increasingly limited
Skyrocketing oil prices, a falling dollar, and collapsing financial markets are the key ingredients in an economic brew that could end up in more than just an ordinary recession. The falling dollar and rising oil prices have been rattling the global economy for sometime. But it is the dramatic implosion of financial markets that is driving the financial elite to panic.
We hope that ECB hammers the euro by cutting big, because that is the single greatest event that could drive gold way past $1000 and on its way to $2000. That could also send Chancellor Merkel and her haus fraus reaching for their kitchen implements as they dance Rhinelanders on Trichet's head and demand the return of the Deutsche Mark so they can put an end to the rampant inflation being visited upon them due to the profligate financial practices of their weaker partners in the EU.
Over the past 2 decades, few industries have lobbied more ferociously or effectively than banks to get the government out of its business and to obtain freer rein for "financial innovation." But as losses from bad mortgages and mortgage-backed securities climb past $200 billion, talk among banking executives about a major government rescue plan is suddenly coming into fashion.
How the cartel resists the move to gold, but not its greed; threats of inflation; metals rampage; Oil peaks; resource stocks will have their day
Once the bond markets go down, everything else will come down with them, as they are the pillar of our financial system. The toxic waste from the subprime debacle has greatly devalued many types of bonds by destroying trust and confidence and therefore liquidity. Without buyers for bonds, nothing can get financed, and without financial credit, business comes to a screeching halt.
Recent developments in grain markets point to prolonged international supply shortages and price spikes, exposing billions of people to hunger and malnutrition. US commodity exchanges have seen extreme volatility in the past week, with speculation on spring wheat crops driving per-bushel prices to record levels, while high oil prices and severe weather have contributed to rising corn and soybean prices.
The US Department of Agriculture has warned that the nation's wheat inventories are dropping dangerously low. In part, this is due to the fevered rate of exports driven by the weakening dollar and relative strengthening of currencies of many importing countries.
The world food shortage cannot be understood as a temporary phenomenon or a simple supply and demand dilemma. Rather, a number of complex and interrelated forces are behind the development, all of which underscore the inability of capitalist markets and institutions to rationally plan and provide for human needs.
Agricultural commodities are seen as a "safe bet" for investors; people need to eat, no matter how inflated the price of food. It is precisely this attitude that makes agricultural markets extremely vulnerable to crises, and increases the hunger threat posed to the world's population.
E-mail format for military: YAHOO! WARriors
WAR fund: PayPal (payable to thedailywarrior@gmail.com)
