Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Pope Benedict XVI's week-long trip to Cameroon and Angola is the 11th foreign voyage of this pontificate, and the first to Africa.
Judging by their near-complete silence about the papal trip, the mass media evidently are not expecting much interesting news. They should know better by now...
(And: B16 ARRIVES IN AFRICA)
(And: B16'S ARRIVAL ADDRESS)
Pope Benedict XVI provoked a furious response from AIDS campaigners on the first day of his visit to Africa when he declared that distributing condoms only "aggravates" the problems inflicted by the condition.
(Op-ed: AIDS AND THE VATICAN)
(Cartoon: B16's NEW HAT)
Pope Benedict XVI admitted that he made mistakes in his handling of the far-right Society of St. Pius X and the Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson. But the pope has a history of being used by the extreme right.
Prendete la merda che pagano off!...
Ahead of Pope Benedict XVI's May visit to Israel, the rabbi of the Western Wall has said that it is not proper to come to the site wearing a cross.
The pope wears a cross in all public appearances and is slated to visit the Western Wall on May 12 after a meeting with Muslim religious leaders at the Dome of the Rock.
After the visit, which will include a meeting with the rabbi, the pope is slated to meet with Israel's 2 chief rabbis.
"My position is that it is not fitting to enter the Western Wall area with religious symbols, including a cross. I feel the same way about a Jew putting on a tallit and phylacteries and going into a church."
(Damn: B16 MAY WEAR CROSS)
Serbia's Foreign Minister said that Vatican will not recognize the unilaterally declared Kosovo independence and that there are no indications it will alter its stance.
In the headquarters of Germany's Left Party, a new poster on the office wall shows Karl Marx tipping his top hat and saying "Good day, I am here again".
Actually he is saying "Gruess Gott!" - the greeting in Bavaria, the richest, most conservative and, some would say, smuggest part of Germany.
But is he back, and should the rich and conservative be worried?
Socialists the world over hope the newly poor and unemployed will turn to their philosophy during what we can with a straight face call a "crisis of capitalism".
Marxists claim that Marxism is a science. It is not. It is a sort of pagan religious cult. It is a theology. It is a form of superstition.
(And: MARXISM UNMASKED)
[WAR: Just like Christianity!]
Germany and France are at the forefront of an initiative urging G20 nations to come up with concrete measures for revamping the global financial system at their upcoming summit in London.
Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy have said the G20 meeting of rich and emerging nations needs to produce "concrete results for reinforcing international financial regulation" and an action plan aimed at strengthening the role of global financial institutions.
"The top priority is the putting in place of a new global financial architecture."
A test that it will fail!...
Five years ago, a confident European Union added 10 new members in what was celebrated as the "Big Bang" expansion, a bold initiative that was supposed to spread prosperity across the continent.
These days, there is growing alarm that the EU's Big Bang is on the brink of becoming the Big Bust.
As the global recession deepens and spreads, the economies of Hungary, Latvia, Bulgaria and Romania are teetering on the brink.
And instead of rushing to the rescue, their rich neighbors to the west, most notably the Germans, appear to be averting their eyes.
Former European Commission President Jacques Delors has expressed pessimism about the ability of the eurozone to survive the current economic crisis.
"I could well imagine that the pressure of the strong on the weak to carry out better policy or leave the monetary union increases."
He said that while the 16-nation eurozone is not yet ripe enough for economic governance as the economic cultures among the single currency countries are too different, there must be more readiness to communicate.
He demanded that "federal" Germany, in particular, should accept a greater degree of co-operation.
At NATO's 60th anniversary summit meeting next month, the stage is set for celebrations and self-congratulations.
But Obama may have to face some very uncomfortable questions about the alliance's future.
(And: WILL NATO BREAK UP AT LAST?)
Russia is moving aggressively to extend its influence throughout the former Soviet empire, while Turkey is rousing itself from 90 years of post-Ottoman isolation.
Both are clearly ascendant powers, and it would seem logical that the more the two bump up against one other, the more likely they will gird for yet another round in their centuries-old conflict.
But while that may be true down the line, the two Eurasian powers have sufficient strategic incentives to work together for now
If Netanyahu succeeds, then his will be the most right-wing government in Israel's history — beholden to parties based on the Jewish settlers in the Occupied Territories and with a racist advocate of ethnic cleansing as its international representative.
The naming of such a provocateur and warmonger as a potential foreign secretary signifies a further stage in the political and social degeneration of Zionism.
The prospective foreign minister is the personal embodiment of the dead end into which Zionism has led the Israeli people.
With Likud and Yisrael Beitenu having signed a coalition agreement, it looks increasingly likely that far-right politician Avigdor Lieberman will be the next Israeli foreign minister. German newspapers are concerned that such an appointment would signal the end of the peace process.
Benjamin Netanyahu has tapped a former spy feared by the United States as his national security advisor. Sources close to Netanyahu have confirmed that Uzi Arad will be Israel's next national security adviser. The former Mossad chief has been denied entry into the US during the past 2 years based on the grounds that he is a security risk.
Russian Intelligence reports are stating today that Israel
Not being reported in the US about its worst ever case of financial fraud involving former Mossad agent Bernard Madoff is that the billions in funds collected from the wealthiest American-Israelis were used to finance Israel's Global intelligence network reported to have been responsible for numerous attacks against its perceived enemies, including the catastrophic attacks upon America on September 11, 2001.
According to these reports, Madoff was the chief financier.
These reports further state that Madoff was 'convicted' in a 'one of a kind' designed trial in which his guilty plea kept all evidence against Israel's betrayal of the US from being entered into official American records.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to withdraw from all of the Golan Heights during indirect peace talks with Damascus, Syrian President Assad told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
In an interview which appeared in today's edition, Assad said Israel and Syria were within "touching distance" of clinching a peace agreement.
Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Tanvir Ahmed on Tuesday said that the Pakistan Air Force had been made nuclear for giving it the status of a real deterrent force.
Barack Obama and his national security advisers are considering expanding the American covert war in Pakistan far beyond the unruly tribal areas to strike at a different center of Taliban power in Baluchistan.
(And: PAKISTAN DISMISSES REPORT)
AFGHAN WAR (Cartoons)
The Arab League rejected an international arrest warrant for Sudan's president on charges of war crimes in Darfur, and its leader said Qatar has done the same, clearing the way for the beleaguered Sudanese leader to attend an Arab Summit there later this month.
The International Criminal Court acted unlawfully in issuing an arrest warrant for President Bashir, the head of state of the sovereign nation of Sudan.
The world will suffer greatly if this "one world government" court is not forced to dissolve as a result of this heinous violation of national sovereignty.
While Obama has so far displayed a cautious posture regarding US support of this provocation of Sudan, the immediate danger is that, with key Africa posts still unfilled in his administration, Khartoum-hater Susan Rice, the US Ambassador to the UN, is able to exert undue influence over Africa policy, particularly with respect to Sudan.
Rice was a dangerous menace in the Clinton Presidency as Under Secretary of State for African Affairs. She was co-responsible for the criminal decision to bomb the al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum in 1998.
Rice is also included in the small inner circle of advisors to Obama, giving her unprecedented influence for a UN ambassador. She controls the flow of intelligence to Obama, giving her enormous influence to promote her personal vendetta against the government of Sudan.
Rice is using the "Big Lie" tactic to manipulate the US population, the Congress, and Obama into supporting a militarily insane no-fly zone over Darfur or other acts designed to force the dismemberment of Sudan.
During a meeting in Riyadh between Iran's Foreign Minister and Saudia Arabia's Foreign Minister, the former conveyed a message from President Ahmadinejad to Saudi King Abdallah.
Iran's FM said that consultations between their countries could constitute a basis for regional decision making and plans in favor of the interests of the countries of the region, and the both countries could bring about stability and unity in the Islamic world.
The Islamic Republic of Iran rejected Tuesday a British suggestion that Tehran should "make the right choice" in its stand-off with the West over its controversial uranium-enrichment program, reports say.
Russia signed a contract with Iran to deliver air defense systems S-300. Russia has not made any deliveries of such systems to Iran before, Russian defense officials said.
Ruh-roh!...
The coalition agreement that the Likud signed with Israel Beiteinu not only makes party leader Avigdor Lieberman foreign minister, it also puts him in charge of Israel's strategic dialogue with the US on issues such as Iran.
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said that while Israel was interested in exhausting diplomatic options against Iran's nuclear program, the army must nevertheless prepare itself for a military attack.
Lies, exaggerations, and speculations are rampant about Iran's nuclear program.
That the War Party and the Israel Lobby started the latest round of propaganda is not a surprise. What is a surprise is the emergence of a whole new source of speculation and skewed interpretations of what the IAEA actually reports.
The outspoken president of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday accused the US of demonizing Iran's president.
"I don't think anyone can doubt that in our part of the world ... Ahmadinejad has been demonized. The United States has been in the business of the demonization of people forever and the canonization of the worst of dictators."
After 4 decades of decay, and 8 years of the worst Presidential administration since before the Civil War, our nation stands on the brink of collapse.
There are many reasons for this, some of them involving serious shortcomings among ourselves, but we have also been subject to a continuous assault by the most determined and dangerous adversary we have faced in our existence: the British Empire.
Barack Obama's presentation of DVD copies of Psycho and ET to visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown suggests, that Obama has a rather clear understanding of the British Empire's threat to our United States at this time.
Obama is no Harry S Truman. His refusal to fly the British flag at the meeting, his cancellation of what the Prime Minister had hoped would be a proposed ceremonial press conference, and the return to the Washington British Embassy of a bust of the Winston Churchill beloved of Harry Truman, are clear evidence of Obama's insight into the character of his British visitor's assignment.
Judge Roy Moore, former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, says it is incumbent on Congress to determine if Barack Obama is a usurper.
Why is the Obama administration causing such chaos against his own nation, his own people who just elected him? It's chaos theory.
Perhaps no recent event better proves the point that the US, and the Obama Presidency in particular, is under a vicious assault from an apparatus that, a half century ago, would have been openly called what it is — a bunch of lying Fascists — than the forced resignation of Ambassador Chas Freeman from his designated post as head of the National Intelligence Council.
(And: OBAMA 0 / NEOCONS 1)
(And: THE RAPE OF WASHINGTON)
A recent government policy change has taken a bite out of the nation's already stressed ammunition supply, leaving arms dealers scrambling to find ammo for private gun owners.
The US is drawing up comprehensive plans to help Mexico in its fight against drug-trafficking, a senior military official has told Congress.
General Gene Renuart, head of the US Northern Command, told a Senate hearing that troops or anti-narcotics agents would be sent to the Mexican border.
It may not be obvious today, and certainly it's not how the corporate media reported it, but future historians are likely to look back at March 13, 2009 as the day that American imperialism began it's inexorable decline.
Barack Obama has been in power for just over 50 days, but already critics believe his plans to save America from disaster are doomed.
Large constituencies, notably business, are voicing their scepticism openly.
Obama's much-vaunted $787 billion stimulus package is being widely interpreted, even by some of those (such as Warren Buffett) who openly supported Obama for the presidency, as a serious failure.
(And: OBAMA'S REAL TEST)
(And: OBAMA'S WAR ON RECOVERY)
The Obama administration has organized a major push by the Federal Reserve to jawbone the economy and boost the stock markel.
Economist Michael Bolser said the Federal Reserve is deliberately manipulating the Dow by injecting billions of repurchase agreements, or "repos," into the market in conjunction with a rare interview Sunday by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on the CBS 60 Minutes television show.
The AIG story gets uglier by the day. The Wall Street Journal has a story that AIG paid money to a hedge fund – set up by Deutsche Bank – that speculated on falling house prices.
This looks like blowing into a major scandal, as the US media, and Congress, are getting extremely angry.
And Treasury Secretary Jim Geithner once again looks weak and defensive.
It may seem odd, but the public outrage against $135 million in AIG bonuses is a godsend to Wall Street, AID scoundrels included.
How can the media be so preoccupied with the discovery that there is self-serving greed to be found in the financial sector?
Every TV channel and every newspaper in the country, from right to left, have made these bonuses the lead story over the past 2 days.
What is wrong with this picture?
(Cartoons: AIG BONUSES)
Canada and the world are facing a long and deep recession that will fundamentally alter the nature of capitalism, former Canadian central bank chief David Dodge told the Globe and Mail in an interview.
According to LEAP/E2020, there are only 2 options left for the G20 leaders who gather next April 2nd in London:
1) either they rebuild a new international monetary system, creating the conditions for a new global system that involves all the main global players, and reducing the crisis to a maximum of 3 to 5 years;
2) or they strive to prolong the current system, thrusting the world into a decade long tragic crisis starting at the end of 2009.
The situation appears all the more worrying in that tensions are growing on the eve of the April 2nd summit.
Indeed a number of thinly disguised threats on the part of some G20 leaders, as well as various attempts to manipulate public opinion on the part of others are to be observed.
China will face a key test of its willingness to take a more active role in helping to rescue the global economy when the G20 crisis-summit opens in London next month.
China has already said it will not to give more money to the IMF until it is reformed, but Britain will argue that the current global turmoil is so severe that there is no time for foot-dragging.
Just how high could the price of gold go? Really high, according to analyst Daniel Brebner and others at UBS Securities.
They plotted out a number of scenarios using various levels of strength for inflation and the US dollar, and predicted that gold will not fall below $500 an ounce between now and 2015, and could rise to $2,500.
The United States Mint has officially announced the suspension of another slate of gold and silver products.
The Kremlin published its priorities Monday for an upcoming meeting of the G20, calling for the creation of a supranational reserve currency to be issued by international institutions as part of a reform of the global financial system.
The International Monetary Fund should investigate the possible creation of a new reserve currency, widening the list of reserve currencies or using its already existing Special Drawing Rights as a "superreserve currency accepted by the whole of the international community," the Kremlin said in a statement issued on its web site.
The SDR is an international reserve asset, created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement the existing official reserves of member countries.
(And: "ACMETAL" WORLD CURRENCY?)
Russia unexpectedly supported George Soros's idea to turn the drawing rights of the IMF into the world's supercurrency.
The idea is clear: the dollar is too risky to become the stronghold of the financial system. One should not forget who runs the show at the IMF.
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Mobilized by the theocratic bombast of Bush-era Republicans, America's growing number of atheists are pushing for greater recognition.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were the work of the Sadducees, a class of Jewish priests dating back to the time of King Solomon, an academic has claimed.
Rachel Elior, a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, claims the 930 scrolls were written by the Sadducees, and that the Essenes did not exist.
She said the scrolls shows recorded practices of priests descended from Zadok, the first high priest in Jerusalem after the conquest of the city by the Israelites hundreds of years earlier.
She claims the Sadducees later took the scrolls to Qumran.
(And: SCHOLARS IN UPROAR)
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