Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Europe Rejects US Rebuke Over Debt

geithner hypocrisy
European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet says the financial position of the 17-member euro zone is better than that of other major economies.

Trichet spoke Saturday at the end of a two-day meeting of European Union finance ministers in Wroclaw, Poland. He described the medium-term prospects for euro zone countries as "quite encouraging."

His remarks follow comments Friday by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who urged the EU to take quick action on its financial crisis. Geithner also said political wrangling in Europe is making the situation worse.

Geithner's appearance at the Poland meeting signaled growing American concern that Europe's financial crisis may threaten the U.S. economic recovery.

Bad Guys

US: 30,000 Children Face Destitution from Welfare Cut in Michigan

Governor Rick Snyder.
Governor Rick Snyder.
On September 6, Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed into law a new lifetime limit of 48 months for receiving cash welfare benefits in the state of Michigan.

It is estimated that 12,600 families, including 11,188 adults and 29,707 children, will be affected immediately. These families will lose an average of $515 a month beginning October 1.

"Since cash assistance is the source of income for some families and is how they pay for rent, they will have to find a different place to live," Judy Putnam, communications director for the Michigan League for Human Services, told the media. "We're very fearful that many families will be left homeless."

Bad Guys

Thought Crime: London Orchestra Suspends Four Musicians Who Opposed Israeli Musicians' Concert

London Philharmonic Orchestra punishes cellist and violinists who wanted Proms appearance by Israeli players cancelled

Tim Walker
© Martin Godwin/GuardianTim Walker of the London Philharmonic Orchestra said the suspensions sent 'a strong and clear message' - For those with eyes to see, it certainly does.
The London Philharmonic Orchestra has suspended four musicians for nine months for using its name when they called unsuccessfully for the cancellation of a concert by an Israeli orchestra at the Proms.

The move follows the indefinite suspension of an unnamed LPO violinist after she allegedly launched an anti-Israel "rant" when Israeli musicians appeared at the Royal College of Music before the concert at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this month.

In a statement, Tim Walker, the LPO's chief executive, and Martin Hohmann, its chairman, said the suspensions sent "a strong and clear message that their actions will not be tolerated ... the orchestra would never restrict the right of its players to express themselves freely, however such expression has to be independent of the LPO itself.

Sheeple

Surprise! Canada's PM Harper Rejects Palestinian Statehood Bid

Harper Israel Flag
© unknown
The intractable Middle East conflict threatens to overshadow Prime Minister Stephen Harper's trip to the United Nations next week. Harper is travelling to the large General Assembly gathering ostensibly for meetings on Libya and child and maternal health. On Friday, the Prime Minister was drawn into the brewing showdown over the Palestinian bid for statehood recognition at the UN. "We view this unilateral action on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to be not helpful," Harper said during a stop in Saskatoon.

"No unilateral actions like this are helpful in terms of establishing a long-run peace in the Middle East. Canada views the action as very regrettable and we will be opposing it at the United Nations."

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, who will be accompanying Harper to New York, has already expressed Canada's opposition to the Palestinian plan. Canada supports a two-state solution to the conflict but only after a negotiated settlement between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

The Prime Minister is not expected to address the General Assembly, and will leave that duty to Baird the following week.

Star of David

Israel - Negev's Bedouins: A New Nakba in the Making

demolished bedouin home Israel
© Agence France Presse/Hazem BaderA Palestinian Bedouin looks for belongings after Israeli army bulldozers destroyed their shacks and tents near the Jewish settlements of Maaon and Karmel, south of the West Bank.
Bedouins in the Negev continue to be targeted by Israeli efforts to displace them. The Israeli government has now approved a plan that would uproot 30,000 Palestinians and place them in "recognized villages."

The situation of Palestinians inside the green line is bleak, especially when compared to the hopeful atmosphere sparked throughout the region by the Arab Spring. Plans are underway to forcibly relocate tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouins to designated towns that are in a deplorable condition.

The relocation scheme was among the recommendations of the Prawer Report, which called for relocating more than 30,000 Arab Bedouins in the Siaj section of the Negev to housing compounds elsewhere in the desert region south of the country.

Star of David

Palestinians left homeless as Israel demolishes West Bank houses

israel home demolition
© Amnesty InternationalPalestinian children in 'Aqaba on a road demolished this morning
Israeli military bulldozers demolished three homes and water cisterns in 'Aqaba village in the northern West Bank on Thursday morning, leaving 22 people, including 12 children, homeless.

Since the beginning of the year, over 750 Palestinians in the West Bank have been displaced after their homes were demolished by the Israeli military, nearly five times more than in the same period last year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The bulldozers destroyed the homes of Khaled Sbeih, Basem Sbeih and Abdel Nasser Sbeih, leaving the three families with a few salvaged belongings on the street.

"This happened without warning. We had received a letter informing us that we had no permit to build, but there was no date for a demolition or anything like that," Khaled Sbeih told Amnesty International.

"We woke up in the morning and the children went to school. When they came back we had no home. I don't know how to explain it to them," he said.

Israeli army bulldozers also dug up more than two kilometres of main road in the area of the village.

Newspaper

Geithner's "succinct" message irks Europeans

Timothy Geithner
© Czarek Sokolowski / APU.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner steps out of an informal meeting of European Union finance ministers in Wroclaw, Poland, Friday, Sept. 16, 2011. Geithner joined the meeting in Wroclaw, Poland, the first time that a U.S. finance chief has attended such a gathering, in a sign of how the U.S. is getting increasingly concerned over the global impact of the eurozone debt crisis.


It was an unprecedented visit designed to spur the euro zone into action. But Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's high-profile trip to Europe left some European officials more dumbstruck than starstruck.

Geithner's decision to travel to the small city of Wroclaw to discuss the sovereign debt problems of Greece, Ireland, Italy and the wider euro zone was the clearest indication yet of the severity of the near two-year-old crisis, which now threatens the global economy not just the single currency bloc.

Officials said Geithner was coming to propose how the region might try leveraging its emergency bailout fund -- the 440 billion euro European Financial Stability Facility -- to better tackle the crisis, much as the United States used leverage to handle the fallout from the subprime collapse.

Star of David

Israel to retroactively legitimize illegal settlements that were "looted from their owners"

Illegal settlement
© Vos Iz NeiasIllegal settlement

One of the West Bank's largest illegal Israeli settlements, Ofra, is now going to be legitimized and upheld by the state of Israel regardless of the fact that much of it was built on privately owned Palestinian land.

Does this represent the state of Israel spitting in the face of the Palestinian people in preparation for their bid for UN statehood? Is this a warning of what is to come if the Palestinians will not back down and kowtow to their Israeli occupiers?

We can't be sure, but we do know that this is yet another instance of Israel flouting international law without hesitation.

Blackbox

US: Clinton Popularity Prompts Buyer's Remorse

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The most popular national political figure in America today is one who was rejected by her own party three years ago: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans hold a favorable view of her and one-third are suffering a form of buyer's remorse, saying the U.S. would be better off now if she had become president in 2008 instead of Barack Obama.

The finding in the latest Bloomberg National Poll shows a higher level of wishful thinking about a Hillary Clinton presidency than when a similar question was asked in July 2010. Then, a quarter of Americans held such a view.

"Looking back, I wonder if she would have been a stronger leader, knowing the games and the politics and all that goes on," said Susan Dunlop, 50, a homemaker in New Port Richey, Florida. "I don't think she would have bent as much."

Penis Pump

Critics of Berlusconi's womanising just jealous: Putin

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© Agence France-PresseRussian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (left) and his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi talk during a joint press conference at the Villa Gernetto in 2010. Putin has made light of the sex scandals surrounding Berlusconi, saying critics were simply jealous of his sexual prowess
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday made light of the sex scandals surrounding Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, saying critics were simply jealous of his sexual prowess.

"However much they nag Signor Berlusconi for his special attitude to the beautiful sex, and by the way they nag him mainly because of jealousy, he has shown himself as a responsible statesman," Putin said at an international investment forum in Sochi, quoted by the state RIA Novosti news agency.

He was speaking in praise of Berlusconi's financial belt-tightening to battle Italy's economic woes.

Berlusconi is facing charges of paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl and eight people were charged Thursday with procuring prostitutes for his parties in an attempt to curry favour.