Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
The Catholic Church has a vital role to play in shaping SOCIAL policies but does not seek to usurp secular authorities, Pope Benedict said on Saturday. In a homily to pilgrims in southern Italy, he said the Church's role in politics was not intended to take the place of western secular ways of government.
"The Christian community cannot and does not want ever to substitute the legitimate and right competencies of institutions." He said the Church had the role of "supporting (governments) in their work and always proposes cooperating with them for the good of all."
The Vatican has banned the makers of Angels & Demons, the latest Dan Brown thriller to be filmed, from shooting scenes not only in the Vatican but in any church in Rome on the ground that it is "an offence against God" and "wounds common religious feelings".
Angels & Demons revolves around a plot by a sinister elite known as The Illuminati to seize control of the papacy during a conclave to elect a new Pope.
Every European newspaper covers the mess left by the Irish referendum, and the inevitable differences of views expressed by politicians.
After Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, a split began to emerge Sunday in European capitals over whether to press Dublin to hold another vote - with an implicit threat to consign the Irish to an outer tier of the European Union should they say no again.
(And: Fears of permanent rift)
It would be "risky" for EU nations to declare that they are going to save the EU's Lisbon Treaty, the EU's Slovenian presidency warned today. "It is time for a little bit of thinking and analysis. It would be risky to say we are going to bring the treaty back to life when we are facing a blockade."
European Union foreign ministers will meet in Luxembourg today to attempt to salvage the Lisbon Treaty and prepare the ground for a crisis summit in Brussels on Thursday.
EU leaders will try to save the treaty following its rejection in the Irish referendum. Rescue efforts are also being led by Gordon Brown, who plans to ignore calls to suspend Parliament's approval of the treaty this week.
The Prime Minister is determined to press ahead with ratification, which will be completed if the House of Lords votes it through on Wednesday.
(And: EU crisis talks begin)
The major European powers, led by Germany and France, have made clear they will seek to defy Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. A propaganda campaign has been mounted to claim that a vote by less than 1% of the EU's 490 million population should not scupper a treaty already ratified by 18 member states.
The prospect of a "2-speed Europe" is being discussed in European capitals as an answer to the deep crisis that would face the EU if the Irish Government were to rule out a rerun of its referendum.
Under the plan, a group of countries that ratified the Lisbon treaty would find a legal way of forging ahead in a "core EU", while Ireland — and anyone else not willing to join the advance party — would be frozen out.
Serious consideration to this idea is under way in Germany, France and Luxembourg, but Britain and others are firmly opposed.
A cadre of "true believers" cannot push on with a president of the European Council or extra powers for the European Parliament without a fresh treaty signed by all members. Ultimately, the only way a hard core could go it alone is by doing just that — by reforming as a "Lisbon treaty club" and leaving the EU behind.
Kosovo saw an historic transfer of power on Sunday when its Albanian majority took control of the government for the first time. The UN, which has run the former Serb province since the war of 1999, handed over the administration to the local authorities under Kosovo's independence constitution.
But the Serb minority, supported by Belgrade, refused to recognise the new government's authority and declared that it would form its own parliament on June 28. Serbia's president declared that his country "does not accept the proclamation of Kosovo's constitution as a legal fact."
(And: Tensions mount)
"What would it look like if someone told the US administration that it had no authority to develop Washington," Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) told Ynet on Sunday following harsh statements made by visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice against construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
An outraged Yishai said Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem was no different than American's over Washington D.C. Minister Yitzhak Cohen, a fellow member of the National Security Cabinet along with Yishai, also slammed Rice's remarks.
The American-led war on terror cannot be allowed to spread into Pakistan's Pashtun tribal area. The killing of 11 Pakistani soldiers by US air and artillery strikes last week shows just how quickly the American-led war in Afghanistan is spreading into neighbouring Pakistan. This latest US attack on Pakistan could not come at a worse time.
Iran offered conciliatory words over its nuclear programme yesterday, indicating its willingness to find a diplomatic solution to the confrontation with the international community.
The apparent softening of Iran's position came after Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, led a delegation of senior diplomats from 5 countries, including Britain, on an official visit to Tehran.
They formally offered to help Iran with a civilian nuclear programme and extend other economic and political concessions, but only if Tehran obeys the UN and stops enriching uranium.
Hopes of a negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis have suffered a major setback after Iran appeared to rebuff an offer of incentives from world powers in return for suspending its uranium enrichment programme.
The US, backed by leading European countries, is now set to pursue further sanctions against Tehran while American sabre-rattling is likely to grow louder.
Britain will freeze assets of Iran's largest bank in a further move to discourage the country from developing nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said today. Speaking at a news conference with President Bush, said that Britain will work to convince Europe to follow suit.
Iran has withdrawn around $75 billion from Europe to prevent the assets from being blocked under threatened new sanctions over Tehran's disputed nuclear ambitions.
Iran's Foreign Minister has dismissed the possibility of a US military attack on the Islamic Republic. "Given the failures it has experienced in the decisions it has so far made concerning the region, I don't think the US would harbor any intention of launching a third war in this part and causing another crisis for the American people."
Iraq's Foreign Minister says Washington has 'other alternatives' for launching attacks in the Middle East than Iraq.
Alex Salmond dropped a cultural bombshell yesterday when he claimed that the Stone of Destiny, one of Scotland's most famous relics, was a medieval fake. Scottish, English and British monarchs have been crowned on the ancient coronation stone since the 9th century.
Scotland's First Minister is convinced that it may be no more than a worthless lump of Perthshire sandstone. He believes it was passed off as the real coronation stone when Edward stormed Scone Abbey in 1296.
He is not even convinced that the "fake" stone plundered from Scone was the same one that was returned to Scotland in 1996.
On Christmas Day 1950, the Stone of Destiny was stolen from below the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey by a group of radical nationalist students. Ian Hamilton, a QC who was 1 of the 4 students who stole the relic 58 years ago, said he remained convinced it was the real thing.
"Had it been a substitute for Edward to carry off it would have been produced when the king (Robert the Bruce) regained his kingdom. It wasn't," said Hamilton, whose book, the Stone of Destiny, is published this week.
In Old Europe, they've moved on, assuming that the American president has done all the damage that he can do. The blazing hostility toward W. has faded to indifference and a sort of fatigued perplexity about how les imbéciles de régime cowboy got into office, and how America could have put the world through all this craziness.
(Cartoon: Bush on the world stage)
I smell a false-flag op brewing...
Barack Obama may depart this summer from his road-warrior tour of election-battleground states to take a trip around the world, one intended to shore up his credentials on foreign policy. With a foreign trip under discussion in the Obama camp, any itinerary almost certainly would include a stop in Iraq.
The pundits agree that this election is all about "change," so naturally we have 2 presidential nominees who present identical positions on the major foreign policy issue of the day: the looming prospect of the US launching a "preventive" war against Iran.
An even sadder fact is the likelihood that the next president of the US, will discuss and consult with the Israeli government before going to war with Iran, without bothering to extend the same courtesy to the elected representatives of the American people.
This year's election has been a history making event no doubt. While most focus on the first woman, first African-American and the first retiree; I see much more.
The US in the final 6 months of the Bush administration
Unhindered by a neutered Congress and a compliant Court, President Bush has 6 months remaining to pursue his agenda of expanding the war in the Middle East and ensuring the continuation of the Global War on Terror beyond his tenure in office.
Despite time constraints, there are clear signs that the president, the vice-president and their neocon collaborators are not finished. With just a half year left in what many believe has been the worst presidency in American history the possibilities are many, and some of them are truly frightening.
World Problems and US Power
At age 89, Doug Dowd is a wonder. He's witnessed history longer than most others and cites his concerns.
"The world now stands on 'a cliff's edge' " below which he sees "4 related groups of horrors: existing and likely wars, a fragile world economy, pervasive and deepening corruption, and the earth dangerously near the 'tipping point' of environmental disaster."
Add one more for good measure - a disdainful administration heading the world for potential disaster, uncaring about what it's doing, and leaving its mess for a successor. For Dowd, it's ominous and disturbing.
As Allen Roland writes for Salon blogs, reposted on the Global Research website, "the real purpose of FEMA is to not only protect the government but to be its principal vehicle for martial law" and this is why "FEMA could not respond immediately to the Hurricane Katrina disaster — humanitarian efforts were no longer part of its job description under the Department of Homeland Security."
The treatment of Russert's demise, in its own peculiar fashion, speaks more eloquently about the state of American journalism and the milieu of which he was a part than it does about Russert.
He was a typical representative of what passes for journalism in the United States' corporate-controlled media: conformist and philistine in his views, a purveyor of received wisdom who had no doubts whatever about the values and legitimacy of the political establishment.
Only a year ago, Wall Street reveled in an era of superlatives: record deals, record profit, record pay. But a mere 12 months later, nearly half of the profits that major banks reaped during that age of riches have vanished. The numbers are staggering.
What's The Difference Between Lehman Brothers & Bear Stearns? Lehman's CEO Sits On the Board Of The NY Fed. In his latest post, Olagues discusses the fate of Lehman Brothers, the nation's 4th-largest investment bank and the next faltering bank expected to fail.
Unlike Bear Stearns, which got decimated by the JPM buyout using Federal Reserve money, Lehman Brothers is probably in line for a massive bailout from the Fed.
The US dollar is down in the dumps. No longer is its name modified by almighty, a word in its noun form reserved for God. Today the phrase is used in gleeful derogation.
Inflation in the eurozone has a climbed to a record level amid higher food and fuel costs, official figures show. There are concerns that price growth will keep accelerating, and the European Central Bank warned it will raise interest rates to slow inflation.
Oil surged to a new record high today of $139.89 a barrel, propelled by weakness in the US dollar which offset the bearish impact of plans by Saudi Arabia to boost output.
Here, in some of the best soil in the world, the stunted stalks of Dave Timmerman's newly planted corn are wilting in what sometimes look more like rice paddies than the plains, the sunshine glinting off of pools of collected water.
Although time is running out, he has yet to plant all of his soybean crop because the waterlogged soil cannot support his footsteps, much less heavy machinery. For Timmerman and the thousands of other farmers who have seen their fields turn to floodplains, the rain and flooding could not have struck at a worse time, and their plight extends far beyond the Midwest.
Many farmers have yet to plant soybeans, which are planted later than corn. And some corn has yet to go in.
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[Moses] got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up 12 stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel... (Exo 24:4-16)
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