April 1st I participated in a debate in San Francisco that raised the question of US aid to Israel.
It was highly appropriate that this debate was held two weeks before tax day, since in Israel's sixty years of existence, it has received more US tax money than any other nation on earth.
During periods of recession, when Americans are thrown out of work, homes are repossessed, school budgets cut and businesses fail, Congress continues to give Israel massive amounts of our tax money; currently, about 7 million dollars per day.
Puppet Masters
Iran is sufficiently powerful to broker a ceasefire deal
Based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Pepe Escobar writes The Roving Eye for Asia Times Online. He has reported from Iraq, Iran, Central Asia, US and China. He is the author of the recently published Red Zone Blues. Pepe is a regular analyst for The Real News Network.
Based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Pepe Escobar writes The Roving Eye for Asia Times Online. He has reported from Iraq, Iran, Central Asia, US and China. He is the author of the recently published Red Zone Blues. Pepe is a regular analyst for The Real News Network.
Please note I am saying "the wheels fall off China's boom" not "off China." That distinction is important. If the Chinese government mishandles the economic/ financial bust which has just started, then the wheels could indeed fall off China, Inc.
I have posted here for years that factories have been moving from China to Vietnam, Thailand and elsewhere. Now BusinessWeek confirms the trend: China's Factory Blues
The days of ultra-cheap labor and little regulation are gone. As manufacturers' costs climb, export prices will follow
I have posted here for years that factories have been moving from China to Vietnam, Thailand and elsewhere. Now BusinessWeek confirms the trend: China's Factory Blues
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| ©www.oftwominds.com |
The days of ultra-cheap labor and little regulation are gone. As manufacturers' costs climb, export prices will follow
Norm Ornstein, of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, commented, "I cannot think of one good reason" for denial. Ornstein added, "I find it inexplicable and probably reflective of the usual, knee-jerk overextension of executive power that we see from this White House." (2)
The story, ignored by the mainstream press, involved more than the usual tussle between the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. Government. What was at stake was a contest between Congress's constitutional powers of oversight, and a set of policy plans that could be used to suspend or modify the constitution.
There is nothing wrong with disaster planning per se. Like all governments, the U.S. government must develop plans for the worst contingencies. But Congress has a right to be concerned about Continuity of Government (COG) plans refined by Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld over the past quarter century, which journalists have described as involving suspension of the constitution. (3)
An obvious reason why the mainstream US press can't handle the Iraq truth is that to do so would mean that President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, a host of other US officials and even some prominent journalists could be regarded as war criminals, says Robert Parry.
With the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War and the grim milestone of 4,000 US dead, the nation has been awash with news retrospectives on the war and speeches by politicians, mostly offering sanitized versions of what's transpired.
So, you have President George W. Bush, the chief author of this catastrophic war, declaring that "normalcy is returning back to Iraq" even as fighting rages across much of the country and rockets rain down on the highly fortified Green Zone in Baghdad.
Bush's comment invited comparisons to the acronym coined by U.S. Army soldiers during World War II: SNAFU for "situation normal, all f*cked up."
With the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War and the grim milestone of 4,000 US dead, the nation has been awash with news retrospectives on the war and speeches by politicians, mostly offering sanitized versions of what's transpired.
So, you have President George W. Bush, the chief author of this catastrophic war, declaring that "normalcy is returning back to Iraq" even as fighting rages across much of the country and rockets rain down on the highly fortified Green Zone in Baghdad.
Bush's comment invited comparisons to the acronym coined by U.S. Army soldiers during World War II: SNAFU for "situation normal, all f*cked up."
It's a relatively straightforward story: Iraq is ablaze today as a result of an attempt to impose Colombian-style democracy on the unstable country: Maliki's goal, shared by the like-minded allies among the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities that dominate his administration, and with at least tacit U.S. approval, is to kill off the opposition and then hold a vote.
Egypt has agreed to replace Israel as the leading electricity supplier to the Gaza Strip.
The regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has decided to increase electricity to the Hamas regime by nearly nine-fold in 2008. Officials said the agreement reflected weeks of negotiations that included Israel and the United States.
The regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has decided to increase electricity to the Hamas regime by nearly nine-fold in 2008. Officials said the agreement reflected weeks of negotiations that included Israel and the United States.
"They make a desolation and call it peace." -Tacitus
Was Alan Greenspan really as dumb as he looks in creating the late housing bubble that threatens to bring the entire Western debt-based economy crashing down?
Was something as easy to foresee as this really the trigger for a meltdown that could destroy the world's financial system? Or was it done, perhaps, "accidentally on purpose"?
And if so, why?
Let's turn to the U.S. personage that conspiracy theorists most often mention as being at the epicenter of whatever elite plan is reputed to exist. This would be David Rockefeller, the 92-year-old multibillionaire godfather of the world's financial elite.
Was Alan Greenspan really as dumb as he looks in creating the late housing bubble that threatens to bring the entire Western debt-based economy crashing down?
Was something as easy to foresee as this really the trigger for a meltdown that could destroy the world's financial system? Or was it done, perhaps, "accidentally on purpose"?
And if so, why?
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| ©Unknown |
| David Rockefeller at Harvard in 2006 |
Let's turn to the U.S. personage that conspiracy theorists most often mention as being at the epicenter of whatever elite plan is reputed to exist. This would be David Rockefeller, the 92-year-old multibillionaire godfather of the world's financial elite.
Web users in China are able to view the BBC News website for the first time in years. So how does the so-called great firewall of China work?
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| ©AFP |
| The Chinese government oversees what people do online |
BEIJING - China expressed concern and dissatisfaction with the United States on Wednesday after the Pentagon said it mistakenly shipped four fuses for nuclear missiles to Taiwan in 2006.
Beijing had urged the United States to thoroughly investigate and report the details promptly to China so as to "eliminate the negative effect and severe consequences," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang was quoted on a ministry Web site as saying.
Beijing had urged the United States to thoroughly investigate and report the details promptly to China so as to "eliminate the negative effect and severe consequences," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang was quoted on a ministry Web site as saying.
