And that is all.

Click Me! Support The Keith Richards Home For Aging Sluts

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Comrade Comiternov Goes to Mars


Soviet Propaganda
Interplanetary Revolution
1924

WATCH AS GLORIOUS RED WARRIOR COMRADE COMITERNOV
SAVES THE MARTIAN WORKERS FROM CAPITALISM!



David Bowie ~ Life on Mars

Missing Links: The Wrath of My Bombast


Iron Maiden ~ Wrathchild

Iraqis led by Mookie stage massive anti-US rally

Sadr urges Iraqi MPs to reject US security pact

MAY 2007: Republiwhore compliciots and the rapid dhimmise of Western Civilization

U.S. Resurrects Afghan Air Force It Once Helped Destroy

Iran's army air force begins military exercise

Jordan ambassador takes up Baghdad post

Iran Begins Regular Flights to Iraq

Russia to ship equipment to finish Iranian nuclear plant

Military officials clarifying Gen. Odierno’s claim about Iran

China To Help Pakistan Build 2 Nuke Plants

China blocks new Iran sanctions talks


Venezuela in talks to buy Russian tanks

HANGED FOR BEING CHRISTIAN IN IRAN

The summit called for a revamp of the global financial system to prevent the recurrence of the current financial crisis, pushing for a global summit by the end of this year, said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is also current EU President. He said he would invite U.S. President George W. Bush to the summit this weekend and would also invite leaders of the emerging economies, such as China and India, to take part in the refounding the world financial system.

Tovarich Bush, Socialist

Koom Bah Humbug, ya MFers: Bush to meet Sarkozy, EU leader on reforms

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Arabic the "language of the future, of science and of modernity,"
and expressed the hope that "more French people share in the language that expresses great civilizational and spiritual values."

India invokes new code of business for deals with Israel

Funeral of Austrian not so Crypto-Nazi draws thousands

European Fascism again on the rise

Grigory Pasko: Rascism in Russia

Russia's tallest volcano erupts


Belarus blasts NATO after EU concessions

Russia extends its ABM system to Belarus

New British ambassador to Russia takes office

Russia's next revolution has started - at the bank

Serbia expects to dance at the GazProm by year-end

Gazprom considers new gas pipeline via Romania

Naftogaz (Ukraine) to ink a contract with Gazprom

Gazprom deputy chief triples stake in gas giant

Gazprom officials discuss Alaskan projects

UN court throws out Georgian claim against Russia
Naturally! Europe needs gas.

Russia rouble not at risk of sharp weakening
Naturally! Europe needs gas!

Bad Vlad to buy good stocks, bonds

UN Security Council Seats: Japan over Iran, Turkey & Austria Over Iceland

Q&A: Czar Paulson on the Bank Initiative

The World According to TARP

Questioning the New Republic of Goldman Sachs

Soon we nationalize you too: Goldman Sachs cuts US auto sales estimates

Goldman Sachs suggests easy credit policy, tight fiscal policy

Goldman Says Sell BP, Buy Shell on Cash-Flow Growth Forecast


NATURALLY!

Got 55 Million? You can live like a Goldman Sachs Man!

Don Paulson made them an offer they couldn't refuse

Chevron: Unfazed by crisis

OPEC may take action to prop up plunging oil prices

Opec's weakest must bow to will of the Saudis


AIG Agrees to Withhold $10 Million From CFO Bensinger
Mighty white of them

A passenger was arrested at Long Island's MacArthur Airport Thursday after officials found a potential "improvised explosive device" and other suspicious items in his luggage

Term Limits: Who’s For, Who’s Against

Bid launched to build Scotland's first mosque

First mosque opens in Germany's ex-communist east

Queens Temple Reborn as Mosque

Georgia: Marietta mosque to reapply for permit

Muslim terrorists seek OIC, UN help

OIC: ‘Islamophobia’ is the threat to global peace

OIC standing committee to convene in Turkey's Istanbul

Be Afraid: OIC Finalising Action Plan for Womens Empowerment

6.5 on Mexican/Guatemalan Border

5.8 in Eastern New Guinea


The Fall ~ My Bombast

Friday, October 17, 2008

WFRL: My Chemical Romance


My Chemical Romance ~ "Mama"



My Chemical Romance ~ "I'm Not Okay"

Pat: Crying Over Spilled Tainted Commie Milk

..As well we should.



Bell, Biv, DeVoe ~ Poison


Chinese hospital disposing of contaminated milk


While the investigations continue on an international level, a clear picture is emerging of the extent of this purposeful contamination of milk products. And it is not flattering to the Chinese government and industry. But first some background.

China is usually not associated with cows milk and for good reason. While mares milk and the milk of sheep and goats was common in certain northern pastoral areas of China, milk was rarely drunk with the exception of fermented milk in Mongolia/Tibet. Historical record reveal that milk and milk products, particularly cheese, were common in China until the introduction of Buddhism. The form of Buddhism adopted by China (and Japan) inexplicably proscribed milk and cheese products. Thus one of mankind's most important food products, cheese, easy to store, very high nutritional and calorie content, and butter, were dropped from the Chinese culinary repertoire. And while other strictures of Buddhism gradually disappeared, the taste for dairy products did not re-emerge.

Of course milk was not commonly drunk in America or Europe in the 1800 either. It was the advent of the icebox that allowed milk to become associated first with breakfast and as a cooking ingredient and later as a drink for children. But unlike China, the Americans were well aware of milk's health benefits and the need for mothers to supplement breast milk. Or for the many infants without mothers to have a sterile supply. Two vast fortunes were built on canned milk, the first mass marketed canned goods in America: Borden's and Carnation. And it was no accident. Parents from the inner-cities to the vast plains lined up to make sure their infants and sick had this irreplaceable product.

As China's infrastructure developed, the Chinese government made a conscious decision to introduce dairy products into the Chinese diet .Farmers were encouraged to raise cows for extra income. Recipes using butter were encouraged. Cows and semen were imported from around the world. Dairies started up, as well as manufacturers of dairy equipment. It was a huge success. While the average Chinese will tell you they did not buy a single helping of cheese, government analysis shows Chinese now eat cheese three times a week, on average. Yogurt is extremely popular, particularly among the young, as is ice cream for all ages. No middle class mother of a young child would think of being without milk in the fridge for her only child. and the health of the young clearly have improved in the last 15 years. Milk production was doubling every 8 years or so.

Then it all went wrong.
Sanlu recalls 700 tons of melamine-tainted milk powder
Dateline:September 12, 2008.

"The Shijiazhuang-based dairy producer Sanlu announced that the company will recall 700 tons of infant feeding formula ("baby milk powder" 婴幼儿奶粉) that was produced before August 6.

In the announcement Sanlu admitted that some of the products were contaminated by melamine. Previously the company had insisted that the milk products suspected of causing kidney stones in 59 babies were fake products using the Sanlu label."

Now, Sanlu is China's largest baby formula processor out of 175. It is 43% owned by Fronterra, a New Zealand Dairy co-op. Fronterra discovered the problem and asked Sanlu to immediately recall all products. Sanlu refused. Fronterra reported the problem to the New Zealand government which in turn reported it urgently to the Chinese government. After a week or so, the Chinese government ordered Sanlu to recall all affected milk products. When did Fronterra notify Sanlu? August 2, 2008 is the best estimate of a highly secretive communication. The 6 days before the Olympics opened. So the implication is the Chinese government ignored, hid, and downplayed the contamination in order not to detract from the same and give thousands of reporters a story.

Did the Chinese government actually know of the contamination. I think so. Because:

From News.com. Australia:

"A CHINESE company at the centre of the scare over tainted milk powder had asked for government help to cover up the extent of the problem, state media said in the newest development in the widening scandal.

In the Communist Party newspaper the People's Daily , Shijiazhuang city government spokesman Wang Jianguo said they had been asked by the Sanlu Group for help in "managing" the media response to the case when first told of the issue on August 2, six days before the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing."
"Please can the government increase control and coordination of the media, to create a good environment for the recall of the company's problem products," the People's Daily cited the letter from Sanlu as saying. "This is to avoid whipping up the issue and creating a negative influence in society," it added."
And The Asia Times:

"Sanlu Dairy Co, the epicenter of the milk scandal, contributed 330 million yuan (US$48.5 million) of taxes to the municipal government of Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, last year. Many companies invite local officials to become "silent partners" in their corporations - in return for "protection" rendered by the powers-that-be. Former Sanlu chairman Tian Wenhua, for example, is said to be on "comradely terms" with Shijiazhuang officials. It is perhaps for this reason that Tian was given the honorary position of deputy to the provincial people's congress."
Now one wonders at the sheer gall of the perpetrators of this crime. Not a year before, Canada, America, and Mexico went nuts when Melamine was added to wheat germ and some 3,600 dogs and cats died. And there was no idea if the wheat germ had made it's way into human products. China went into a defensive aggressive posture, claiming it was being picked on while reassuring the world that its food products were safe.

This was immediately followed by a multi-country ban on Chinese shrimp products, cosmetics, toothpaste, and dumplings for various contaminants. The entire Chinese food industry appeared to be dangerously filthy. As it turn out, this is truth:

"Inexplicably, the GAQSIQ has in the past couple of years awarded dairy giants Sanlu, Meng Niu, and Yili - whose products were found to be tainted with the chemical - the coveted "famous brand" designation. This status meant their products were exempted from routine inspection by quality-control watchdogs."

So a year after wheat was found to be contaminated with melamine in order to boost it's apparent protein content, Sanlu employs a protein test method that cannot detect melamine? We here are highly sceptical. There is no doubt that the purchasing records for this milk will never see the light of day. For they will likely reveal that Sanlu purchased watered down milk at a discount, thus making them complicit, likely at the expense of Fronterra.

"The issue of fake or tainted milk powder is not new. In 2004, at least 12 infants died after taking in baby formula with no nutritional value. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ), which is responsible for checking milk and related merchandise, has been aware of the illegal use of melamine for a long time."

So where do we stand now?

Four infants, in a one child nation are dead. 60,000 are ill, many with dangerous kidney stones. Recently a mother who was unable to express milk became the first to file suit for the death of her infant. Her husband is handling this nasty business. They have lost their only allowed son and the mother has been in perpetual grief since his death.

More than 20 large milk processors are implicated, giving credence to the theory that the companies intentionally engaged in contamination for profit. Hundreds of Chinese contaminated products have been found throughout Asia, including Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines ,as well as Australia, Africa, and who knows where. One of the sources of contamination is milk chocolate, baby cereals, candy,snacks, ice cream, cookies, etc.

As learned in the pet food episode, it is simply dangerous to buy food stuffs from China. The government is not only corrupt, but industry as well. Imagine the thought process behind intentionally poisoning food inorder to earn another $10 for 100 pounds of milk?

When America informed Japan after WWII that many of it's food products were not up to our safety standards, Japan responded by asking who was the best to teach these techniques, then hired them. When Thailand was told buy it's American distributors that it's canned seafoods, particular tuna, were unappetising, it responded by hiring American experts to create clean canning lines.

China has responed by trying to poison the world.

It is worth noting again that the Sanlu Chinese executives were likely complicit. Here is how the scheme likely worked. If milk were going for $100 per 100 pounds , milk watered down to 90% would have a real economic value of $90. The supplier, after adding the melamine, then sells the milk to Sanlu for $98. This appears to Fronterra as very good business because it is below market. The supplier then kicksback $4 to the Chinese executives. So the companies books look good and the corrupt Chinese executives get rich.

So how do we know the executives were aware? Even if the melamine went undetected as such, the actual protein and solids content of the adulterated milk would show up in the production figures as much too low. If the adulterated milk only made up 5% of the total milk deliveries, solids production and milk fats would be down by a whole half a percent. Rather noticeable when you are dealing in tons of missing product. And in the milk industry you would first check for the oldest trick in the books, a watered product, The bane of milk processors, ice cream and cheese manufacturers from the beginning if time

So, what is melamine and how does it spoof the protein levels in baby formula milk?

melamine-structureMelamine is an organic compounds, a base with chemical formula C3H6N6 . Officially it is 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine in the IUPAC nomenclature system (CAS #108-78-1). It is has a molecular mass of just over 126, forms a white, crystalline powder, and is only slightly soluble in water. It is used in fire retardants in polymer resins because its high nitrogen content is released as flame-stifling nitrogen gas when the compound is burned or charred.

Indeed, it is this high nitrogen level - 66% nitrogen by mass - in melamine that gives it the analytical characteristics of protein molecules. Melamine can also be described as a trimer of cyanamide, three cyanamide units joined in a ring. It is described as being harmful according to its MSDS sheet : “Harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Chronic exposure may cause cancer or reproductive damage. Eye, skin and respiratory irritant.” Not something you would want in your infant’s milk.

Other Sources:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26742456/
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tih/story/328472.html


Nirvana ~ Milk It

Friday Morning Cartoon


Betty Boop, MD

Thursday, October 16, 2008

WFRL: Unhinged Purple Proles


Gogol Bordello
Start Wearing Purple

Start wearing purple wearing purple
Start wearing purple for me now
All your sanity and wits they will all vanish
I promise, it's just a matter of time...
I met you when you were a twenty, and I was twenty,
but thought that some years from now
a purple little little lady will be perfect
for dirty old and useless clown...
I know it all from Diogenis to Foucault
from Lozgechkin to Paspartu
I ja kljanus obostzav dva paltza
schto muziko poshla ot Zzukov Mu!...
Party!
So Fio-Fio-Fioletta! Etta! Va-va-va-vaja dama ti moja!
Eh podayte nam karetu, votetu, i mi poedem k ebenjam!
So yeah, start wearing purple wearing purple
Start wearing purple for me now
All your sanity and wits, they will all vanish
I promise, it's just a matter of time!...



Deep Purple
Pictures of Home

Somebody's shouting
Up at a mountain
Only my own words return
Nobody's up there
It's a deception
When will I ever learn?
I'm alone here
With emptiness eagles and snow
Unfriendliness chilling my body
And whispering pictures of home
Wondering blindly
How can they find me
Maybe they don't even know
My body is shaking
Anticipating
The call of the black footed crow...
Here in this prison
Of my own making
Year after day I have grown
Into a hero
But there's no worship
Where have they hidden my throne
I'm alone here
With emptiness eagles and snow
Unfriendliness chilling my body
And screaming out pictures of home



Deep Purple
What's Going on Here?

Missing Links: Chasing Crazy


"Chasing Crazy"
From a score written in 1999 for the 1922 film Nosferatu
by "The Skin"

EU Leaders Call For Global Regulation Of Financial System

Leaders 'United in Commitment' on Crisis, G-8 Says


Berlusconi says he wants Russia to join the EU

India's Manmohan Singh Calls for Reform of G8, United Nations


This will be the first round of recapitalization of the banks, Roubini said

An Explainer on Treasury’s Stake in US Banks and What It Means

United States to disclose $250 billion European style banking bailout


Prudential, Aviva Fall After Goldman Says They May Need Capital

Goldman Sachs Government

Iran hails world financial crisis as 'end of capitalism'

Iran blames US "hegemony" for financial crisis


German official attended Tehran's 'destroy Israel' rally

The evolution of Henry Paulson

Space engineer blasts into US bank rescue efforts

Kazakhstan Set To Increase Energy Cooperation With Iran

Nuclear pact with Kazakhstan likely during India's PM’s visit

Georgia-Russia talks break down

GAZPROM in Serbia

GAZPROM in ALASKA
You heard me right!

Russian GAZPROM execs meet with Palin team


GAZPROM strongarming BP (Again)


Gazprom bank buys Russia's (privately owned) Sobinbank


EU Summit Defers Decision Over Relations With Russia

Pyongyang makes the deal of the century


AUSTRALIA: Rudd breaks pledge on Iran

UK: Spy suspect 'embarrassed general'

Iraq criticised as "inappropriate" on Wednesday comments by US commander General Raymond Odierno accusing Iran of trying to bribe Iraqi MPs to derail a planned military pact with Washington

Czech military warns of country's influence in Iraq conflict

DHS and DOJ Sign Agreement on Enhancing Cooperation in Preventing and Combating Crime with the Slovak Republic

AqsaTube - like YouTube, but for terrorists

DHS and the State of Michigan Team up to Advance Secure ID Initiatives

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today reached an agreement with the state of Michigan to enhance the security features of the state’s driver’s license, which may serve in the future as an acceptable alternative document for crossing the United States’ land and sea borders.

Women Protesters beaten in southern Zimbabwe

Iran, Russia and China supply the arms to Sudan

Secretary Chertoff Hosts Blogger Roundtable on Cybersecurity
And I wasn't invited? WTF? ;~)

FBI investigating WaMu’s collapse

Keith "Koran" Ellison holding Forum on Voting rights Monday

Rice pledges to pursue Israel-PA peace until she leaves office


GRAMMY CRACKER: Condappeasa: Israel Must Do More For Palestinians. Olmert, Livni Agree

Anonymous "US official" gives CNN new evidence of Iranian meddling in Iraq


The Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, considered that the actions taken by Israel to construct a synagogue on an endowed Islamic land near the Al-Aqsa mosque an aggression against the Masrah [Ascent to heaven] of Prophet Mohammed [Peace be upon Him], and an aggression against the holy sites of the Islamic nation.

The Secretary General condemned Israel for committing this criminal act, placing on Israeli authorities the blame for the consequences of this blatant abusive act which represents a flagrant violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions that prohibit occupying nations from staging any aggression against the holy shrines or the religious and historical monuments in the territories they occupy.

Prof. Ihsanoglu conducted urgent contacts with a number of officials across the world to discuss this heinous crime and sent messages to both the Secretary General of the United Nations, the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Director General of UNESCO, to take a stand against the brutal attacks perpetrated by Israel against the blessed Al- Aqsa Mosque and other holy Muslim shrines in the city of Al Quds.

Israeli workers taken hostage on Caribbean island by Chinese Communists
NO..... I did NOT make it up!
Fellini couldn't make this shit up!

Thousands of Christians march in Jerusalem parade



"Long Journey's Night into Day"
From a score written in 1999 for the 1922 film Nosferatu
by "The Skin"

The New Peoples Republic of GlowBall ChaChing Welcomes You!


Deep Purple ~ Place in Line

Sept/Oct 2006 Issue


Socialism Comes to America

AIM Report| By Cliff Kincaid | October 15, 2008


In his classic 1932 book, Toward Soviet America, Communist Party boss William Z. Foster wrote about how “The United Soviet States of America” would come about. As a result of various capitalist crises, the national government would assume more and more control over the economy. “In finance,” he wrote, “it will mean the nationalization of the banking system and its concentration around a central State bank…”

It would be an exaggeration to say that we are getting close to anything resembling the Soviet system. But it is also a big mistake to call massive federal intervention in the economy a “rescue” or even a “bailout.”

Over at Political Affairs Magazine, a publication of the Communist Party USA, writer John Case was gloating. His article about the crisis was headlined, “A Dose of Socialism to Forestall Disaster.” He thought that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke had been reading the works of closet Marxists.

While many of the talking heads and pundits on TV were providing calming words of reassurance about federal intervention in the financial system, analyst Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital had been accurately warning for years about a financial meltdown and says that the worst is yet to come. Asked for comment on media coverage of the financial meltdown, he told Accuracy in Media, “Absent when they have me on, it’s pretty bad.”

Many commentators, Schiff said, were telling people that if the bailout doesn’t go forward, there would be an economic crisis. However, “if we do it, there will be a bigger crisis,” he predicts. “The politicians want to make believe we can avoid paying the piper if we pass these bailouts,” he said. “It’s just not true. It’s going to collapse the currency. It’s going to make a worse economic crisis because the money they’re printing is not going to buy anything.”

While he continues to make a number of media appearances, he says that the CNBC cable network won’t have him on the air. “I predicted all this stuff, and they laughed at me,” he said. “So maybe they’re embarrassed.”

Schiff, who labels the government takeover of the financial sector as socialism and refers to the Federal Reserve Board chairman as “Comrade Bernanke,” told AIM, “The government doesn’t have the authority to do any of this stuff. This whole bailout bill is illegal. They don’t have the authority to buy up mortgages. Nothing in the Constitution says they can do this.” “Who needs Bolsheviks when you have the Fed?” he had written.

The author of “Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse,” Schiff said that “The government doesn’t solve problems. It makes them bigger. So if we’re broke, which is the reality—that’s why these mortgages are not worth much because Americans can’t afford to pay the money back that they borrowed—the bottom line is we’ve borrowed and spent ourselves into bankruptcy following the government’s advice. They’re the ones that encouraged all this reckless borrowing and spending.”

Interviewed by AIM before the House of Representatives had initially voted down the “bailout” scheme, at a time when it looked like the plan would actually pass, Schiff had shocking advice for ordinary Americans.

“The first thing you do if you have a mortgage is you stop making the payments,” he said. “That’s the number one thing for people who have mortgages based on this plan. And use that money to buy gold or stock up on food. You’re going to need it. Meanwhile, no one is going to kick you out of your house. You’re going to be able to live in your house for probably a year or two before the government calls you up to give you a lower mortgage because nobody is going to foreclose on you right now. Why would you foreclose? You sell the loan to the government. This plan is a huge moral hazard and it’s going to lead to a surge in mortgage delinquencies.”

In an article on his website, Schiff had praised House conservatives for trying to preserve American-style capital-ism by resisting the scheme.

But when the House of Representatives, led by conservatives, initially defeated the proposed $700- billion takeover scheme, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera of CNBC brought up the subject of “four ways around Congress,” adding, “I know it’s a flippant title and those who believe in the checks and balances in the Constitution will probably be upset by the title.” One panelist wondered if the Federal Reserve could just intervene on its own.

What they were entertaining was the notion of bypassing Congress and establishing an economic dictatorship in the United States. The exchange between Caruso-Cabrera and her colleagues demonstrated that those who posture as “pro-business” can really be socialists at heart.

On CNBC, news analysts frequently complained that the “ideology” of the House Republicans had gotten in the way of the planned takeover of the financial sector. That “ideology” is free enterprise capitalism.

The Return Of Karl Marx

Libertarian thinker and writer Martin Masse captured public attention with an article insisting that the proposed federal takeover of the financial sector in the U.S. represents a comeback by Karl Marx, the father of communism, who had proposed government control of capital. “If he were to rise from the dead today,” Masse writes, “Marx might be delighted to discover that most economists and financial commentators, including many who claim to favor the free market, agree with him.” He cites commentaries in favor of the “bailout” plan from so-called conservatives at the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal and other places.

The Heritage Foundation endorsed the takeover, even though it admitted that “constitutional concerns remain” about the plan and the “centralization of power” is worrisome.

Don Lambro of the Washington Times was extremely upset that conservative House Republicans had “cowardly” listened to their constituents and had voted against the plan. “Free-market advocates said that America’s free-enterprise capitalist system rewards success and punishes failure, and government has no business intervening in the marketplace to pick the winners and losers,” he said. “That is unarguable when the economy is working as it should, but when entire economic sectors are failing as a result of a credit collapse or a loss of confidence in the nation’s banking and other financial institutions, then it is sometimes necessary for government to step in to restore them. This is one of those times.”

Indeed, Marx would be pleased.

But many conservatives understood that, by capitulating to the political Left, McCain and the Republican Party were ceding unnecessary ground to Barack Obama and his “progressive” Democrats.

If they had been honest about this debacle, they would have had to admit that, of all the Republicans running for president, only Rep. Ron Paul had predicted the crisis that was coming. But they couldn’t admit this because their proposed “solution,” which amounted to more government, more spending, and more debt, would only make things worse in the long run. And that is why Rep. Paul and so many House conservatives so strongly opposed it. The takeover plan, in their view, will only postpone the inevitable and leave us with a much bigger government.

The “debate” taking place in Washington and the media was being carefully controlled. The Republican Bush Administration supported the plan and Congressional Democrats wanted to take it further. The Democrats wanted even more federal involvement in the firms that are being acquired. In other words, it was a question of how much socialism they want.

“Government bailouts and takeovers are nothing new,” pointed out financial advisor Ric Edelman.

He cited the following: “In 1971, Richard Nixon rescued Lockheed by providing $250 million in loan guarantees. When the Penn Central Rail-road failed in 1971, Nixon created Am-trak. Jimmy Carter gave $1.5 billion in loan guarantees to Chrysler in 1979. Under Ronald Reagan, the FDIC in 1984 spent $4.5 billion to rescue Continental Illinois, which still holds the record as the largest U.S. bank failure. Then, during the S&L crisis of the 1980s, George H. W. Bush approved the bailout of 747 savings and loans at a cost to taxpayers of $124.6 billion. In 1998, under Bill Clinton, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York bailed out Long Term Capital Management at a cost of $3.6 billion. During the Mexican Peso Crisis, Clinton arranged for loans and guarantees to Mexico totaling almost $50 billion. Then, following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, George W. Bush approved $15 billion in subsidies and loan guarantees to aid the faltering airline industry. This year, the Federal Reserve approved a $30 billion credit line to help JP Morgan Chase acquire Bear Stearns and engineered takeovers of Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and AIG. The names, dates and amounts are different, but that’s about it.” In fact, however, the massive scope and price tag made this plan far different. Many conservative members of Congress called it socialism.

A GLOBAL TAX FOR GLOBAL SOCIALISM

Meeting in New York on the occasion of the 63rd session of the U.N. General Assembly, members of the Socialist International (SI) called for the establishment of a World Financial Organization to provide “global stability” and regulate the financial systems of the nations of the world. This will be the inevitable result of the U.S. Congress passing a socialist-style takeover of the U.S. financial sector. This centralization of power will make it easier to integrate the U.S. into a global socialist system.

The U.N. has long played host to meetings of the SI and former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was a former vice-president of the SI. This year’s meeting, which was held on September 26, included “invited guests” from the United Nations such as Juan Somavía, Director-General of the International Labor Organization; Kemal Dervis, Administrator of the United Nations Development Program; and Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The proposed World Financial Organization (WFO) would “fill up the gap in the existing structure of the financial system by monitoring and regulating private capital flows,” its proponents say. Those “private flows” represent capitalism.

The WFO, a long-time dream of officials of the United Nations, could lay the groundwork for a global tax to drain away some of that money for government purposes on a global basis. A proposed “World Tax Organization,” which has been on their drawing board for years, would collect and dispense the revenue.

The SI, which shares the same basic economic goals as international Communism, is an association of 170 political parties and organizations from all continents, including the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), whose Chicago branch has backed Barack Obama’s political career from the start.

Obama’s backers in the Democratic Socialists of America were ecstatic and preparing for a complete government takeover in the U.S. “While recognizing the critical limitations of the Obama candidacy and the American political system,” the organization said in a statement, “DSA believes that the possible election of Senator Obama to the presidency in November represents a potential opening for social and labor movements to generate the critical political momentum necessary to implement a progressive political agenda.”

The DSA cautioned, however, that the Left should not be so involved in the national presidential campaign that it ignores the general election races for the U.S. House and Senate. “We need more progressives in Congress as well as increased Democratic majorities,” it said.

The Socialist International, meanwhile, is preparing for a high-level meeting in Mexico on November 17-18, “to discuss an agenda with the urgent world financial situation at its center, following U.S. elections.”

MORE BAILOUTS ON THE WAY

Two more bailouts are pending before Congress—both of them sponsored by Senator Barack Obama. One is the Jubilee Act, which would cancel as much as $75 billion worth of Third World debt, and the other is the Global Poverty Act, which would cost an estimated $845 billion. Total potential cost: $920 billion.

If they don’t pass Congress this year, they could come back in an Obama Administration.

Citing AIM research on the topic, commentators such as Andrew C. McCarthy pointed out that Obama’s Global Poverty Act (S. 2433) would cost even more than the $700 billion socialist takeover of the U.S. financial sector. Obama’s bill passed the House and Senator Joe Biden’s Foreign Relations Committee and now awaits full Senate action. But the Jubilee Act (S. 2166), which is co-sponsored in the Senate by Barack Obama, has also passed the House and awaits Senate action.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain is not an official sponsor of the Jubilee Act or Obama’s Global Poverty Act. But the pressure was mounting on McCain, as well as running mate Sarah Palin, to endorse the legislation. In fact, McCain recently asked the wealthy rock star Bono, an advocate of more U.S. foreign aid spending, for advice on how to help the rest of the world.

“The ONE Campaign and co-founder Bono spoke by telephone this afternoon with Senator John McCain, Governor Sarah Palin, and members of the McCain campaign policy staff about the issue of extreme poverty, especially in Africa,” a September 24 ONE campaign news release declared. “The call today was part of ongoing conversations between ONE and both the McCain and Obama presidential campaigns.” No details of the conversations were provided.

The ONE campaign organization has been urging Senate passage of the Jubilee Act, which would cancel the debts of 26 foreign countries even while the U.S. suffers through its own financial crisis and Americans are losing their homes and savings. It passed the House in April on a 285-132 vote.

While the Global Poverty Act has started getting more serious attention, the implications of passage of the Jubilee Act have been generally ignored. Yet, a representative of the Treasury Department, Assistant Secretary For International Affairs Clay Lowery, testified at a Senate hearing in April that “The Jubilee Bill represents an unfunded international mandate to fully cancel roughly $75 billion worth of debts owed by the potentially eligible countries to official bilateral and multilateral creditors.” This is on top of the $110 billion in debt reduction already being granted to various countries, he said.

Despite foreign aid having cost the American people $2 trillion since World War II, Bono’s ONE organization believes in “allocating more of the U.S. budget toward providing basic needs” for the rest of the world.

ONE also promotes compliance with the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals, the same expensive effort set forth legislatively in Obama’s Global Poverty Act.

Hypocrite Bono

Bono, the lead singer of the rock band U2, is one of the richest entertainers in the world and gets tremendous access to the media—and politicians—because of his anti-poverty campaign. Less well-known is the fact that his band came in for criticism two years ago when it transferred part of its business empire out of Ireland to avoid high tax rates.

ONE campaign “partner” organizations include the United Nations Association, the pro-U.N. lobbying group, and Ted Turner’s United Nations Foundation, which financially supports the U.N.

While the ONE campaign is generally regarded as a left-wing organization, it claims support from such notables as Pat Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network and Purpose Driven Life author and pastor Rick Warren.

Also bowing to the Left, before he came to Washington, D.C. to work on the $700-billion federal takeover plan for the U.S. financial sector, McCain had taken time to attend and speak at the “Clinton Global Initiative,” a campaign underwritten by big companies and rich individuals to promote the pet causes of the disgraced former president. One of these causes has been an international tax on airline tickets to generate funds to fight HIV/AIDS.

Obama, as well as Bono, also spoke at the Clinton event.

On September 25, after conversing with McCain and Palin, Bono and his collaborators were scheduled to hold a “United Nations emergency summit on the Millennium Development Goals.” Bono’s ONE organization described them as “eight goals” that were “drawn from the targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted by 189 nations—and signed by 147 heads of state and governments during the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000.”

Similar language is incorporated in Obama’s Global Poverty Act, which has passed the House and Senator Joe Biden’s Foreign Relations Committee, and now awaits full Senate action. As AIM has documented repeatedly, a careful analysis of the legislation, as well as the follow-up 2002 U.N. Financing for Development Conference, which was designed to make the “goals” into a reality, leads to the conclusion that the U.S. will have to provide $845 billion in increased foreign aid spending, generated if necessary by a global tax on the American people.

At the Clinton Global Initiative meeting, Obama reaffirmed a “commitment” to “embracing the Millennium Development Goals, which aim to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015.” He added, “This will take more resources from the United States, and as President I will increase our foreign assistance to provide them.”



Hugo Likes it!
Chavez says "Comrade Bush" turns left in crisis
Wed Oct 15, 2008

CARACAS (Reuters) - Socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez mocked George W. Bush as a "comrade" on Wednesday, saying the U.S. president was a hard-line leftist for his government's intervention of major private banks in the U.S. financial crisis.

Chavez, who calls capitalism an evil and ex-Cuban leader Fidel Castro his mentor, ridiculed Bush for his plan for the federal government to take equity in American banks despite the U.S. right-wing's criticism of Venezuelan nationalizations.

"Bush is to the left of me now," Chavez told an audience of international intellectuals debating the benefits of socialism. "Comrade Bush announced he will buy shares in private banks."

Chavez, who has insulted Bush in the past as a drunkard or the devil, called him clueless on Wednesday. He accused him of simply parroting the words of his aides without understanding the new policies that rely on heavy state intervention.

"I am convinced he has got no idea what's going on," said Chavez, who has nationalized swaths of the OPEC nation's economy in recent years and is in negotiations to take over a Spanish bank in Venezuela.

Chavez lauds his nationalizations for allowing the state to refocus companies' activities on helping the poor rather than creating value for their shareholders.

The Bush administration, which has promoted free-market policies throughout Latin America, resisted taking equity in banks for weeks. But, faced with a spiraling financial crisis, it reversed course this week with a $250 billion plan.

Chavez, who the United States labels an autocrat, is popular among his supporters at home for criticizing Bush and sometimes wins praise abroad for voicing anti-U.S. opinions.

Despite the ideological differences between the two governments and the diplomatic sparring that led weeks ago to the countries expelling each other's ambassador, Venezuela remains a major oil supplier to the United States.


Deep Purple ~ LAZY

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

WFRL: Underdog World Strike



Gogol Bordello

Underdog World Strike


I am a foreigner
and I'm walking
through new streets
But before I want to
I see the same deeds
Inherited by few
a power machine
That crushes you
and strangles you
Right in your sleep
But be it me,
or it's you,
the leisure class
I think we all know:
That be it punk,
hip-hop,
be it a reggae sound
It is all connected through
The gypsy part of town...
Let's go!
It's the underdog world strike!
And let your Girl Scouts lip-synch
about the freedom
Just the way you like them,
but soon enough you'll see them
Soon enough they all turn around
And soon enough you'll see them
in a different part of town
But be it me, or it's you, the leisure class
I think we all know:
That be it punk, hip-hop, be it a reggae sound
It is all connected through
The gypsy part of town...
Let's go!
It's the underdog world strike!

The Third Jihad

JANUARY 14, 2008:
US President George W. Bush's motorcade is escorted by Arabian horses as he arrives with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud at the Guest Palace in Riyadh


THE THIRD JIHAD
Dr. Zuhdi Jasser

JANUARY 14, 2008:
Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud and US President George W. Bush shake hands after Bush was presented with the King Abdul Aziz Order of Merit at the Riyadh Palace in the Saudi capital.


JANUARY 14 2008:
The trip where he was awarded the medal for service to the Saudi State coincided with this :


Bush delivers 20 Billion Dollar Arms Deal to Saudi Arabia






The Prophet Zimmy ~ 1966
Ballad of a Thin Man

Missing Links: Beans & Barley


Der Fuhrer iz Movin' On Up!

Haider 'drunk' in fatal car crash

Demise of Der Drunken Demon has DeWinter Depressed
Naturally!

Marx "Das Kapital" fashionable again among young Germans

Don't Wanna go Kaboom Kaboom.....

Kurdish Jews recall a paradise lost

Passengers overcome Turkish plane hijacker

Flying Dutchmen Consciously Sought to Infect People With AIDS


The Greeks Get Their Piece On

"The EU regularly turns a crisis into an opportunity to extend its own role," their defence spokesman Geoffrey Van Orden said
Naturally!

BBC: Media should treat Islam more sensitively than Christianity

The office of International Mideast envoy Tony Blair says the Gaza Strip's banks are on the verge of collapse

AHEM

Condi pushes investments in PA

Bahrain Islamic Bank profit up 84 per cent

CIMB Islamic is the world's top arranger of sharia bonds

YESTERDAY: CIMB Islamic Bank has launched FXOP-i, a foreign exchange instrument with syariah-compliant option features which allows customers to hedge their foreign exchange (forex) risk.
The foreign exchange (currency or forex or FX) market refers to the market for currencies. Transactions in this market typically involve one party purchasing a quantity of one currency in exchange for paying a quantity of another. The FX market is the largest and most liquid financial market in the world, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, corporations, governments, and other institutions. The average daily volume in the global forex and related markets is continously growing and was last reported to be over US$ 4 trillion in April 2007 by the Bank for International Settlement.
I wonder what the "pressure" was:

"We must restore confidence in our financial system," Paulson said. "The needs of our economy require that our financial institutions not take this new capital to hoard it, but to deploy it."

While the name of the nine banks weren't announced at this morning's press conference, they are widely assumed to be Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch (which was recently bought by BofA0, Morgan Stanley, State Street and Bank of New York Mellon.

"These are healthy institutions, and they have taken this step for the good of the U.S. economy," Paulson said.

According to the Wall Street Journal, "some of the big banks were unhappy about the government taking equity stakes, but acquiesced under pressure from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in a meeting Monday."

2007: Currency manipulation, protectionism, Henry Paulson and the Bank of Japan

2007: Paulson re-activates secretive support team to prevent markets meltdown

Hank Paulson, the market-wise Treasury Secretary who built a $700m fortune at Goldman Sachs, is re-activating the 'plunge protection team' (PPT), a shadowy body with powers to support stock index, currency, and credit futures in a crash.

Otherwise known as the working group on financial markets, it was created by Ronald Reagan to prevent a repeat of the Wall Street meltdown in October 1987 .

Mr Paulson says the group had been allowed to languish over the boom years. Henceforth, it will have a command centre at the US Treasury that will track global markets and serve as an operations base in the next crisis.

The top brass will meet every six weeks, combining the heads of Treasury, Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and key exchanges. Mr Paulson has asked the team to examine "systemic risk posed by hedge funds and derivatives, and the government's ability to respond to a financial crisis".

"We need to be vigilant and make sure we are thinking through all of the various risks and that we are being very careful here. Do we have enough liquidity in the system?" he said, fretting about the secrecy of the world's 8,000 unregulated hedge funds with $1.3trillion at their disposal.

The PPT was once the stuff of dark legends, its existence long denied. But ex-White House strategist George Stephanopoulos admits openly that it was used to support the markets in the Russia/LTCM crisis under Bill Clinton, and almost certainly again after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"They have an informal agreement among major banks to come in and start to buy stock if there appears to be a problem," he said.

"In 1998, there was the Long Term Capital crisis, a global currency crisis. At the guidance of the Fed, all of the banks got together and propped up the currency markets. And they have plans in place to consider that if the stock markets start to fall," he said. The only question is whether it uses taxpayer money to bail out investors directly, or merely co-ordinates action by Wall Street banks as in 1929. The level of moral hazard is subtly different.

[SNIP]
US dollar set to be major casualty of Hank Paulson's bailout

The monetary union will entail the creation of a central bank to issue the single currency

Blankfein's $70 Million Would Survive Paulson's Rules

Big Brother in Britain


U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have agreed on a draft security pact that would govern the presence of American troops in Iraq after January, Bush administration officials say


The Afghan government has told the UN Security Council that the former Taliban rulers have become a threat to the country seven yearster they were toppled from power

MEANTIME......

Afghanistan seeks Saudi help to talk with Taliban

Karzai offers Taliban government office


Taliban vows more suicide attacks from women


"Middle East" to be replaced by "World of Islam"


Obama ad space now in video games

Candidates positions exactly the same re: immigration

Obamanable SnowJobsters Responds to Jesse Jackson's Comments on ‘Zionists’



Traffic ~ John BarleyCorn Must Die

They've hired men with the scythes so sharp,
To cut him off at the knee,
They've rolled him and tied him by the way,
Serving him most barbarously

They've hired men with the sharp pitchforks,
Who pricked him to the heart,
And the loader, he has served him worse than that,
For he's bound him to the cart