Turkey Doing the Bidding of the Dying Democracies Within the Antiquated Structure of NATO?

[S]ince the war against Libya was launched by U.S. Africa Command under the codename Operation Odyssey Dawn to the present NATO-run Operation Unified Protector in place since March 31, air operations have been run from NATO’s Air Command Headquarters for Southern Europe in Izmir, Turkey.

[T]urkey hosted a conference of Syrian opposition forces called “Change in Syria” from May 1-June 2 in the city of Antalya. Although held under the sponsorship of the Egyptian-based National Organisation of Human Rights, logistics and security were provided by the host country.

“[T]he West wants to put the region under Turkish control like in the Ottoman days. Turkey is a NATO member and embodies a safe kind of Islam for the West, so they have done a deal to give everything to Ankara.”
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/turkish-actions-designed-to-trigger-nato-confrontation-with-syria/

SHANGHAI: In a statement that may be interpreted as the harshest response yet to the escalating 13-month-old Syrian crisis, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the first time on Wednesday raised the possibility of calling on the NATO military alliance to protect Turkey’s border against incursions by Syrian forces.
http://syria360.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/turkey-can-invoke-natos-article-5-for-syrian-intervention/

Istanbul (CNN) -- Turkey officially considers the shooting down of one of its military fighter jets by Syria to be a hostile act, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Sunday.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/24/world/meast/turkey-syria-plane/index.html

[T]he Turkish warplane shot down by Syria's air defense forces might have violated Syrian airspace, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Saturday.
"It is routine for jet fighters to sometimes fly in and out over [national] borders... when you consider their speed over the sea," Gul told the state-run Anatolia news agency. "These are not ill-intentioned things but happen beyond control due to the jets' speed."
http://en.rian.ru/world/20120623/174202636.html


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned Syria's downing of a Turkish fighter yet as "brazen and unacceptable" on Sunday and vowed close U.S. cooperation with Turkey to promote a political transition in Syria.
"The United States condemns this brazen and unacceptable act in the strongest possible terms," Clinton said in a statement following a conversation on Saturday with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-syria-crisis-clintonbre85n0l2-20120624,0,5568280.story


Turkish fighter jets violated Greek air space on February 9 2010, Greek daily Kathimeriny reported on February 10.
Reportedly, this was the first such trespassing of sovereign air space at the Aegean Sea perpetrated by the Turks since the turn of the new year, the report said quoting Greek defence officials.
The violation, as on previous occasions, was conducted by four F-16s and four Phantoms F-4s which penetrated Greek airspace at the south-eastern island of Samos, a touching distance from mainland Turkey.
Kathimerini said that the Phantoms peeled off from the initial formation and conducted a low flight over the islet of Farmakonisi. Greek fighter jets chased off the Turkish planes, the report said.
The Greek embassy in Ankara lodged an official complaint.
http://sofiaecho.com/2010/02/10/855589_eight-turkish-planes-violate-greek-airspace-and-are-chased-off-by-greek-fighters


The Associated Press
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish warplanes have bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts deep inside northern Iraq, and Kurdish rebels killed one policeman and wounded three others in a roadside bomb attack inside Turkey on Sunday, authorities said.
http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/turkey-hits-kurdish-rebels-1463570.html

Democracy My Fat White Ass

Corporate profits as a percent of GDP

Wages paid as percent of GDP

WTF?

No purchase, payment, or contribution necessary to enter or win. Contributing will not improve chances of winning. Void where prohibited. Entries must be received by June 30, 2012. You may enter by contributing to Sponsor here or click here to enter without contributing. Three winners will each receive the following prize package: round-trip tickets for winner and a guest from within the fifty U.S. States, DC, or Puerto Rico to a destination to be determined by the Sponsor; hotel accommodations; and dinner with President Obama on a date to be determined by the Sponsor (approximate retail value of all prizes $4,800). Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. Promotion open only to U.S. citizens, or lawful permanent U.S. residents who are legal residents of 50 United States, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico and 18 or older (or of majority under applicable law). Promotion subject to Official Rules and additional restrictions on eligibility. Sponsor: Obama for America, 130 E. Randolph St., Chicago, IL 60601.                   

Desperate

Hitler Screwed by CNBC, Goldman, Geithner and Bernanke

Hu's On First?

China’s President Hu Jintao, left, is followed by Kyrgyzstan’s President Almaz Atambayev, second left, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, second right, and Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmonov as they walk to attend a signing ceremony in Shanghai

Shannon Van Sant

 

June 07, 2012

BEIJING – A regional security alliance led by China and Russia announced its opposition to outside intervention in the Syrian crisis in a joint statement released Thursday.

http://www.voanews.com/content/sco-opposes-military-option-for-syria/1204441.html

Insanity

LONDON — While the Spanish government was able to sell all the bonds it wanted to Thursday, it was the usual suspects that did most of the buying: Spain's increasingly fragile banks.
[First Sentence From a NY Times Puff Piece. No Need to Provide Link, it won't work]

[M]eanwhile, the same happens in Spain, where the government is forced to borrow money (at nearly 7%) it can hardly raise in order to shore up banks that are borrowing from the ECB (at 1%) to lend to the Spanish government at (7%) so that the latter can… bail them out. Not even the sickest of minds could make this up!
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/06/much-much-more-than-it-fears-syriza.html

What Could Go Wrong?

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian pro-democracy campaigners called for a new uprising on Sunday, enraged that a court had spared former leader Hosni Mubarak his life over the killing of protesters during the street revolt that ended his three-decade rule.


Separately, Egypt planned to sell $496 million of treasury bills on Sunday, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.
The planned sale of debt will be split one-third in three-month and two-thirds in nine-month maturities. The yields at last week’s auction were 14.388% for the three-month debt and 15.825% for the nine-month issue, the news service reported.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/egyptians-continue-protests-debt-sale-planned-2012-06-03?link=MW_home_latest_news

History Rhymes

A truck driver waits to pass through the Salang Tunnel. NY Times

Entrance to the Salang Tunnel circa 1989

The Salang tunnel fire occurred on 3 November 1982 in Afghanistan's Salang tunnel during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Details are uncertain, but the incident may have been the deadliest known road accident, and one of the deadliest fires of modern times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salang_tunnel_fire

Soviet troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan, nine years after they swept into the country.

/

The journey is especially dangerous on the Salang Pass through the Hindu Kush Mountains, where more than 10,000 mujahideen operate.

The mujahideen - Afghan Islamic fighters - have been involved in heavy battles to try to force a Soviet retreat.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/15/newsid_4160000/4160827.stm

SALANG PASS, Afghanistan — Nowhere is the impact of Pakistan’s ban on NATO truck traffic more visible than here at the top of the Hindu Kush, on one of the only alternative overland routes for supply convoys to reach Kabul and the rest of the country.

/

This is the only passable route for heavy truck traffic bringing NATO supplies in from the Central Asian republics to the north, as they now must come.

There are other roads, but they are often single-lane dirt tracks through even higher mountain passes, or they are frequently subject to ambushes by insurgents and bandits. So a tunnel built to handle 1,000 vehicles a day, and until the Pakistani boycott against NATO in November handling 2,000, now tries — and often fails — to let 10,000 vehicles through, alternating northbound and southbound truck traffic every other day.

“It’s only a matter of time until there’s a catastrophe,” said Lt. Gen. Mohammad Rajab, the head of maintenance for the Salang Pass. “One hundred percent certain, there will be a disaste[r]"

/

“I’d rather be driving to Kandahar,” he said. Trucks need to have armed guards because of insurgents on that route, he said, “but I’d rather do that than all this waiting.”

/

[P]akistan has expressed willingness to reopen the frontier: for a fee of thousands of dollars per truck, compared with $250 previously. “We’re not about to get gouged in the price,” Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/world/asia/us-pakistan-dispute-chokes-an-afghan-supply-route.html

There is one downside to the northern routes, however. Bringing supplies overland on trucks and railroads all the way from Europe and across Central Asia costs two or three times as much as shipping them by sea and moving them up through Pakistan.

"Cost is a huge issue, obviously, for anything we're doing in the [Defense] Department and the government right now," says Mitchell. "But obviously the protection of our forces and the ability to achieve our mission is also extraordinarily important, so we need to balance the cost with the urgent requirements on the ground."

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/16/140510790/u-s-now-relies-on-alternate-afghan-supply-routes

WASHINGTON — The U.S. is paying six times as much to send war supplies to troops in Afghanistan through alternate routes after Pakistan’s punitive decision in November to close border crossings to NATO convoys, the Associated Press has learned.

/

Pentagon figures provided to the AP show it is now costing about $104 million per month to send the supplies through a longer northern route. That is $87 million more per month than when the cargo moved through Pakistan.

/

Over the past year or so, the U.S. military has been shrinking its reliance on the Pakistani routes, which are used to transport fuel and other non-lethal supplies. U.S. officials say they could manage indefinitely without that access if Pakistan either makes the closure permanent or offers to reopen it under unacceptable conditions.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2012/01/ap-us-costs-soar-for-new-war-supply-routes-011912/

History Rhymes

Nayirah Testimony refers to the controversial testimony given before the non-governmental Congressional Human Rights Caucus on October 10, 1990, by a female who provided only her first name, Nayirah. In her emotional testimony, Nayirah stated that after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers take babies out of incubators in a Kuwaiti hospital, take the incubators, and leave the babies to die. Though reporters did not then have access to Kuwait, her testimony was regarded as credible at the time and was widely publicized. It was cited numerous times by United States senators and the president in their rationale to back Kuwait in the Gulf War.

In 1992, it was revealed that Nayirah's last name was al-Ṣabaḥ (Arabic: نيره الصباح‎) and that she was the daughter of Saud bin Nasir Al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. Furthermore, it was revealed that her testimony was organized as part of the Citizens for a Free Kuwait public relations campaign which was run by Hill & Knowlton for the Kuwaiti government. Following this, al-Sabah's testimony has largely come to be regarded as wartime propaganda.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_(testimony)

Shaam News/AFP/Getty Images

A handout picture released by the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network shows UN observers at a hospital morgue in the central Syrian town of Houla on Saturday.

It's hard to look at the images coming out of Syria today. They show the bloodied bodies of dozens of children strewn on the floors of morgues. Some of them are just babies, their gazes frozen, still wearing the outfits they had on when they were killed by government forces. In one image, there are so many dead children on a single rug, their limbs are overlapping. One of them is a little girl covered in blood. She's wearing a pink shirt dress with a yellow duckling.
As we've told you on this blog, the images from Syria are distributed by the opposition and taken by citizen journalists. But this time, we have confirmation from United Nations observers on the ground that this massacre in Houla did happen, yesterday.
According to the U.N., their observers visited the city today and counted bodies: More than 32 children under the age of 10 and 60 adults. Some of them killed during the shelling, but others, reports the BBC, were "summarily executed, or butchered" by a regime militia.
"This appalling and brutal crime involving indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force is a flagrant violation of international law and of the commitments of the Syrian Government to cease the use of heavy weapons in population centers and violence in all its forms," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement. "Those responsible for perpetrating this crime must be held to account."
The United States said it was "horrified" by the killings.
"These acts serve as a vile testament to an illegitimate regime that responds to peaceful political protest with unspeakable and inhuman brutality," said Erin Pelton, of the president's National Security Council.
NPR Reports Must Coincide with US Government Propaganda or Their Funding Will be Cu


The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) has said that ‘armed terrorist groups’ were responsible for the violence in Houla which reportedly killed 92 people.
Over the last few months many armed criminals have been arrested in Syria. Among these criminals there were 26 foreign Terrorists (many of the Al-Qaida members).
Reportedly, the terrorists are:
http://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/who-is-responsible-for-houla-massacre/

Bloomberg's Market Commentary

Go to this link, http://finviz.com/news.ashx , scroll down on the left to 5:22 am and you see this headline; Saudi Shares Advance on US Confidence, China Pledge.

Scroll up to 10:20 am and the headline reads, Saudi Shares Drop on Concerns About Europe, Oil prices.

Obviously contradictory tick by tick market commentary but the interesting part to me at least is the fact that if you click on the earlier link it no longer exists and you are redirected to the latter post.

Bloomberg never get's it wrong.

G-8

The gathered leaders of the world's largest democracies. What could go wrong?

Jamie and Ben

The unit at the centre of JPMorgan Chase’s $2bn trading loss has built up positions totalling more than $100bn in asset-backed securities and structured products – the complex, risky bonds at the centre of the financial crisis in 2008.
/
The unit, the chief investment office (CIO), has been the biggest buyer of European mortgage-backed bonds and other complex debt securities such as collateralised loan obligations in all markets for three years.
/
J.P. Morgan, the nation’s largest financial firm by assets, is struggling to contain the damage, which already has shaved off more than $25 billion in shareholder value
Ritholtz


"We should say we want smaller institutions so that they can safely fail if they need to fail," he said, although he also called J.P. Morgan "a good player."
Bulltard


JPM is the US' largest investment bank. They are Too Big To Fail. $!00b in worthless, if they prove to be, asset-backed securities means nothing to the good doctor. He can monetize those losses at the speed of light.

Merkel Tells Greece to Back Cuts or Face Euro Exit

Berlusconi ‘called Merkel an unfuckable lard-arse’
http://www.theweek.co.uk/europe/fall-berlusconi/2191/berlusconi-%E2%80%98called-merkel-unfuckable-lard-arse%E2%80%99

Merkel Dictates Austerity or Else

Are JPM and the other Too Big to Fails Burning the Furniture to Heat Their House?

Down In Monterey

MONTERREY, Mexico — Forty-nine decapitated and mutilated bodies were found Sunday dumped on a highway connecting the northern Mexican metropolis of Monterrey to the U.S. border in what could be the latest outburst in an escalating war of terror among drug gangs.
Down In Monterey

Terrorist Plot Foiled by Jetblue Airlines. Be Afraid America. Be Very Afraid

This beautiful 3 year old girl was thrown off a Jetblue flight in Fort Lauderdale due to her name being on a no fly list. Fear sells and further enriches the powered elites.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/240720.html

What a Dumb Fat Bastard

Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos said there was no clear mandate for any single party. He called for a national unity government, comprised of all pro-EU parties, regardless of their position on the harsh fiscal adjustment programme.

Venizelos said that the electorate completely upset the political scene, and he attributed the electoral disaster to the fact that Pasok on its own had to manage the crisis all on its own.

“We embittered the people to protect the future of the nation. History will judge,” Venizelos said after the 9.30pm results. “Let the God of Greece help us!” he proclaimed, declaring that the party must be “reborn”.

Fat Drunk and Stupid is no way to Go Through Life, Son

Nuevo Laredo

Nuevo Laredo (along with Laredo, Texas) is the most important trade border crossing of Latin America (approximately 8500 trucks cross the border each day).^[4][5] Its geographical position has enabled this city to grow and specialize in the international trade business. Nuevo Laredo has a very developed logistics and transportation industry, complemented with a variety of hotel chains, restaurants and a cultural center where events such as the Tamaulipas International Festival take place.
Nuevo Laredo is located on the primary trade route connecting Canada, the United States and Mexico. Both Nuevo Laredo and Laredo, Texas are now the gateway to Mexico's burgeoning industrial complex, offering diverse markets, business opportunities and profit potential, which both business and industry cannot not find anywhere else.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuevo_Laredo

MEXICO CITY -- Another 23 bodies were discovered Friday in the embattled border city of Nuevo Laredo, including five men and four women hanging from a highway overpass, authorities said.
/
Also Friday in Nuevo Laredo, 14 headless bodies were found in black garbage bags in a truck parked outside a government customs building, authorities said. The heads were later found in three ice chests near City Hall.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/05/23-killed-mexican-border-city-decapitated-hanging-bridge-nuevo-laredo.html

Just Another Day in the Sleepy Little Country South of the Border

The renowned journalist Regina Martinez, Process correspondent in Veracruz, was found dead, apparently strangled in her own home in Colonia Reforma, Xalapa. La PGJE ya abrió una investigación sobre los lamentables hechos de quien fuera una periodista crítica del gobierno y reportara durante años los violentos hechos relacionados con el narcotráfico en el estado. The PGJE has opened an investigation into the tragic events of a journalist who was critical of the government for years and will report the violent drug-related events in the state.









Hitmen in Sinaloa military attack ... could be 50 dead

At dawn today, Mexican military officials were surprised by unknown gunmen traveling in cloned units of the Ministry of Defence, Federal Police and the State Preventive Police.
Los militares fueron atacados por los sicarios en el municipio de Choix, Sinaloa, durante la madrugada de hoy sábado. The soldiers were attacked by gunmen in the town of Choix, Sinaloa, in the early hours of Saturday. Los sicarios se encontraban esperando a los soldados entre las localidades de San Simón y Potrero de Los Fierros. The gunmen were waiting for the soldiers between the towns of San Simon and Potrero de Los Fierros.
Mexico. Never realy been but I'd sure like to go.

U.S. Secret Service Agents Banging Colombian Whores, Bombs and Obama

CARTAGENA, Colombia (AP) - Alleged misconduct by a dozen Secret Service agents sent to provide security for President Barack Obama in Colombia threatened to overshadow his diplomatic mission to Latin America.
On Friday night, a caller who said he had knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press that the misconduct involved prostitutes in Cartagena, site of the Summit of the Americas this weekend. A Secret Service spokesman did not dispute that.
The White House had no comment, but also did not dispute the allegations.
Colombian Chicks are Hot

CARTAGENA, Colombia (AP) - Colombian officials are reporting no injuries or damage from three small explosions as Western Hemisphere leaders arrived for a summit.
Two of the low-intensity blasts occurred in Cartagena where the summit is being held and one was close to the U.S. Embassy in Bogota.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20120414/D9U4EA6O4.html

CARTAGENA, Colombia (AP) - Putting an election year spin on his international agenda, President Barack Obama on Friday cast Latin America's rapid rise as a business opportunity for the U.S. economy.
Secret Service Agents Banging Colombian Whores is Good for U.S. Economy Says Obama

I Want to Stick My Tongue Down the Throat of Ex-FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair

"Best of all, it will mean that none of us have to work for a living anymore.
/
Under my plan, each American household could borrow $10 million from the Fed at zero interest. The more conservative among us can take that money and buy 10-year Treasury bonds. At the current 2 percent annual interest rate, we can pocket a nice $200,000 a year to live on.
/
Of course, we will have to persuade Congress to pass a law authorizing all this Fed lending, but that shouldn’t be hard. Congress is really good at spending money, so long as lawmakers don’t have to come up with a way to pay for it.
/
[m]y proposal won’t cost taxpayers anything because the Fed is just going to print the money.
/
Because we will be making money in basically the same way as hedge fund managers, we should have to pay only 15 percent in taxes, just like they do. And since we will be earning money through investments, not work, we won’t have to pay Social Security taxes or Medicare premiums. That means no more money will go into these programs, but so what? No one will need them anymore, with all the cash we’ll be raking in thanks to our cheap loans from the Fed.
/
We can stop worrying about education, too. Who needs to understand the value of pi or the history of civilization when all you have to do to make a living is order up a few trades? Let the kids stay home with us. They can play video games while we pop bonbons and watch the soaps and talk shows. The liberals will love this plan because it reduces income inequality; the conservatives will love it because it promotes family time.
I’m really excited! This is the best American financial innovation since liar loans and pick-a-payment mortgages. I can’t wait to get my super PAC started to help candidates who support this important cause. I think I will call my proposal the “Get Rid of Employment and Education Directive.”
/
That couldn’t happen here. This is America. Why should hedge funds and big financial institutions get all the goodies?
Look out 1 percent, here we come."
Sheila Bair is Hot

"In support of security, peace, freedom and democracy everywhere."

Video of Blackwater Supporting Democracy in Iraq

Meet the New Boss. Same as the Old Boss

President Obama threw his support behind Yemen's Vice President just days before an election expected to enshrine him as the new leader of a country the US sees as crucial to the fight against al-Qaeda.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-02-19/obama-supports-yemen-vice-president/53156486/1

BREAKING NEWS: YEMEN REVOLUTION Yemeni forces fire on protesters in Taizz; casualties reported
http://www.presstv.ir/

bin Laden's staed goal was to bring about the financial collapse of the US so they could no longer afford to prop up puppet governments or place their soldiers on Muslim land. One way he hoped to achieve this was by having as little as two men wave a flag, call themselves al-Qaeda and watch the US military industrial complex burn through billions of taxpayer dollars to attack these "terrorists."

What is never discussed in the US, by the government or in the extremely lame media is the fact that Yemen and Bahrain have a large Shia population. A sect of Islam that Saud royals use as a tool for uniting thier Wahabist's behind them as they do the biddings of Israel and the US in seeking to kill Shia's and forment hatred, to goad Iran into taking actions that can be twisted into offensive acts of terrorism

Ten Heads All in a Row

Incredible this doesn't get covered by the US MSM,

Brutal Photo warning:
Ten Heads Left on Display
Scroll down for ten heads, won't link direct

Barofsky Cries Fraud

It's a Recovery. No Really, the eCONomy is Expanding

Pot Meet Kettle

"Despite years of urging and oversight by American advisers, President Hamid Karzai’s government has yet to prosecute a high-level corruption case."
/
"The players include people tied to President Hamid Karzai’s inner circle, many of whom have profited from the crony capitalism that has come to define Afghanistan’s economic order, and nearly brought down Kabul Bank."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/08/world/asia/corruption-remains-intractable-in-afghanistan-under-karzai-government.html?hp

Missing Iraqi money may have been stolen:
Reporting from Washington — After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration flooded the conquered country with so much cash to pay for reconstruction and other projects in the first year that a new unit of measurement was born.
Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/13/world/la-fg-missing-billions-20110613

Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton Each Prosecuted Financial Crime More Aggressively than Obama

Top economists and financial experts agree that our economy will never recover unless Wall Street fraud is prosecuted. See this and this.
But the government has more or less made it official policy not to prosecute fraud, and instead to do everything necessary to cover up for Wall Street
.http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/11/obama-prosecuting-fewer-financial-crimes-than-under-either-bush-presidency.html

Ryssdal: What about the argument, though, that the financial system is so fragile still, and these cases so complicated, that we can’t really tear things apart with substantive investigations and prosecutions because it will all fall apart again?

Black: Yeah, that’s an excellent point. We should leave felons in charge of our largest financial institutions as a means of achieving financial stability

When more junior officials took actions discouraging criminal investigations against Charles Keating that were considerably less harmful than Geithner’s actions the Congress, the administration, and the media treated those actions as infamous and the head of the Office of Thrift Supervision, Danny Wall, had to resign. Why aren’t Geithner’s and Holder’s far more harmful and unprincipled actions, and failures to act, with regard to the elite criminals that caused the Great Recession a national scandal? Why isn’t Attorney General Mukasey, who was even more derelict than Holder, considered a national embarrassment? Have we lost our capacity as a nation for outrage? Are these elite ethical failures too powerful to hold accountable?
http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/04/reflections-on-geithners-hatred-for-prosecuting-criminal-contributors.html

“This is not some evil conspiracy of two guys sitting in a room saying we should let people create crony capitalism and steal with impunity,” said William K. Black, a professor of law at University of Missouri, Kansas City, and the federal government’s director of litigation during the savings and loan crisis. “But their policies have created an exceptional criminogenic environment. There were no criminal referrals from the regulators. No fraud working groups. No national task force. There has been no effective punishment of the elites here.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/business/14prosecute.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1331219877-EgbUWAfRX7xJGIpPXntv8A

To stop the theft from continuing, it requires that the most basic rules of capitalism be applied to our banks and that our future national wealth be safeguarded by the U.S. Government. The current custodian of America's wealth, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, is not doing a good job of either. The time for corrective action is now.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33586124/ns/msnbc_tv-the_dylan_ratigan_show/t/why-keep-geithner/

[A]bout how money dominates politics, distorting free markets and endangering democracy. “As a result,” Stockman says, “we have neither capitalism nor democracy. We have crony capitalism."
http://billmoyers.com/episode/crony-capitalism/

Heads Still Rolling in Mexico

Don't know what will stop this evil.
Three Heads are Better Than One

Sacre bleu! Sarko Runs But he can't Hide

Sarkozy would get 23 percent of votes and Hollande 30.5 percent in a first round of the election on April 22. The gap between the two candidates widened to 7.5 percentage points in the survey conducted on March 2-3 from six points on Feb. 19, the poll published today by LH2 poll for Yahoo! showed.
/
Sarkozy is also increasingly trailing Hollande in the May 6 second round of the election with support at 42 percent, against 58 percent for his Socialist rival. That 16-point gap is more than the 10-point difference measured on Feb. 19.
Sarko is Dog Meat

Guido's Still Pissed

November, 2010:
 Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega has been saying out loud what his colleagues have been whispering: the time of the US dollar as reserve currency is over.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/LK13Aa01.html

Although nations now have the tools to defuse a standoff, the possibility of a currency war "absolutely" remains, Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said at the conclusion of the two-day summit.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/13/world/la-fg-obama-g20-20101113

July 2011:
Brazil's Finance Minister Guido Mantega recently told the Financial Times that the global currency war "was absolutely not over," and cited two countries that, according to him, have not ceased the hostilities: China and the United States.
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/9498/brazil-caught-between-titans-in-global-currency-war

February 2012:
Brazil has declared a fresh “currency war” on the US and Europe, extending a tax on foreign borrowings and threatening further capital controls in an effort to protect the country’s struggling manufacturers.

Guido Mantega, the finance minister who was the first to use the controversial term in 2010, said the government would not “sit by passively” as developed nations continue to pursue expansionary monetary policies at the expense of Brazil.

“When the real appreciates, it reduces our competitiveness. Exports are more expensive, imports are cheaper and it creates unfair competition for businesses in Brazil,” he said on Thursday after announcing changes to the so-called IOF tax
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/

The Fed is a patsy. It is a pathetic dependent of the big Wall Street banks, traders and hedge funds. Everything (it does) is designed to keep this rickety structure from unwinding

"I'm a libertarian. If someone wants to do leveraged buyouts, more power to them. If they want to have a brothel, let them run a brothel. But it doesn't mean that public policy ought to be biased dramatically to encourage one kind of business arrangement over another. And right now public policy and taxes and free money from the Fed are encouraging way too much debt, way too much speculation and not enough productive real investment and growth."
Bernanke is a Coward Thief

“Do they want Chinese banks to turn into liars and parasites?” said Du.

Yes Du, they do.

“State-owned industry should not be privatized,” Du shouted as Zoellick was talking, adding, “this report from the World Bank is poison.”
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/229186.html

How Does One Unintentionally Burn Books?

A senior U.S. military official said Tuesday that the Korans were removed from the prison library because they had radical or inflammatory messages scrawled in them.
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 "[I] assure you . . . I promise you . . . this was NOT intentional in any way.” Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said.
NATO Burns Korans


If the Koran's were removed due to radical or inflammatory scrawlings, how can this General claim the burnings weren't intentional? They were accidently dropped into a fire after being removed from the library?

Criminogenic-Producing or Intended to Produce Crime and Criminality

"At a time of continuing unrest in Yemen and the threat of escalating violence, we see it as helpful for President Saleh to be out of the country in the run up to interim presidential elections in February," the British spokesman said.
http://www.france24.com/en/20120129-yemen-president-saleh-arrives-usa-medical-treatment-power-transfer-protests

That, in a nutshell, is how many Yemenis see the US role in their country. The United States “should have never made counterterrorism a source of profit for the regime, because that increased terrorism,” asserts Iryani. “Their agenda was to keep terrorism alive, because it was their cash cow.” The US bombings, he said, were “a bad mistake. Military action often backfires by killing civilians, by the violation of sovereignty. That offends a lot of Yemenis.” For the United States, the most serious question that lingers over Yemen after Ali Abdullah Saleh is: Did US counterterrorism policy strengthen the very threat it sought to eliminate? “It was a major fiasco,” Iryani says of the past decade of US counterterrorism policy in Yemen. “I think if we had been left alone, we would have less terrorists in Yemen than we do now.”
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/15-8

Criminogenic-Producing or Intended to Produce Crime and Criminality

“There is no more low- hanging fruit out there - all the low-hanging fruit is gone. Difficult structural reforms are what lie ahead.” said IMF Greece mission head Poul Thomsen

In a letter obtained by Reuters Friday, the Federation of Greek Police accused the officials of "...blackmail, covertly abolishing or eroding democracy and national sovereignty" and said one target of its warrants would be the IMF's top official for Greece, Poul Thomsen.
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"Since you are continuing this destructive policy, we warn you that you cannot make us fight against our brothers. We refuse to stand against our parents, our brothers, our children or any citizen who protests and demands a change of policy," said the union, which represents more than two-thirds of Greek policemen.
"We warn you that as legal representatives of Greek policemen, we will issue arrest warrants for a series of legal violations ... such as blackmail, covertly abolishing or eroding democracy and national sovereignty."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/10/us-greece-police-idUSTRE8190UC20120210

16.09 The Greek police federation Poasy is now offering a bounty of €1 for each of the mission chiefs from the troika, dubbing them, quite poetically, as the "undertakers of our people's dreams". Obviously they think that the Greek people don't need much of a financial incentive to assist in bringing them in...
For two years, the national federation of police officers has warned you that the policies you dictate and demand to be implemented at gunpoint will explode social cohesion and kill off any hope to restore the Greek economy. We will ask for the immediate issue of arrest warrants
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt-crisis-live/9073437/Debt-crisis-live.html

Ignorant Elitist Media and State Dept. Pricks Abound

BAGHDAD — Less than two months after American troops left, the State Department is preparing to slash by as much as half the enormous diplomatic presence it had planned for Iraq
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[t]he Americans have been frustrated by Iraqi obstructionism and are now largely confined to the embassy because of security concerns, unable to interact enough with ordinary Iraqis to justify the $6 billion annual price tag.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/world/middleeast/united-states-planning-to-slash-iraq-embassy-staff-by-half.html

How Did the BLS Arrive at the Figure of 243,000K New Jobs Created in January?

Total non-farm employment in the U.S., before seasonal adjustments, fell by 2,689,000 jobs in January. However, because it's typical for the economy to lose a large number of jobs after the holidays, largely in retail trade, construction, and manufacturing, the BLS estimated that the "normal" seasonal decline in employment should have been 2,932,000 jobs in January. The difference between the two numbers, of course, was 243,000 jobs, which was reported as an increase in employment. The fact that the size of the seasonal adjustment was more than 12 times the number of reported jobs, and more than 30 times the "beat" in economists' expectations, should provoke at least some hesitation in taking the number at face value.

Notably, the January 2011 and 2012 seasonal adjustment factors ( seasonally adjusted payrolls divided by unadjusted payrolls) have been the two largest factors used by the BLS since the 1960's, at 1.0166 and 1.0165, respectively. This compares with a January seasonal factor of 1.0155 a decade ago, and a factor of 1.0152 as recently as 2009. Now, a range of 0.0014 in the seasonal factors for January may not seem like much, until you consider that non-seasonally adjusted payrolls are presently about 130 million jobs, so variation in the seasonal adjustment factor alone amounts to a difference of 182,000 reported jobs. I'm not suggesting there's anything nefarious going on here, it's just that part of what we're seeing here is most likely a statistical artifact of the adjustment process.
http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc120206.htm

Promoting Democracy?

View from the propoganda based US MSM:
CAIRO — The Egyptian authorities have referred 19 Americans and two dozen others to face criminal trials, the state media reported Sunday. The move is part of a politically charged investigation into the foreign financing of nonprofit groups that has shaken the 30-year alliance between the United States and Egypt.
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The International Republican Institute and its sister organization, the National Democratic Institute, are independent nonprofit groups, with close ties to the Congressional leadership, that promote democracy in countries around the world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/world/middleeast/egypt-will-try-19-americans-on-criminal-charges.html?hp

Now, the rest of the story...

Criminogenic-Producing or Intended to Produce Crime and Criminality

The NY Times has discovered that the Banks that were rescued by the public have turned into serial fraud offenders. JP Morgan is near the top of their ranks, with Goldman Sachs and Bank of America not far behind.   Only Citigroup seems to have fallen out of favor.
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Obama talks a good game, and presents a moral face through the media, but an examination of his actions and his record shows that his administration serves the monied interests to the detriment of the public interest. In many cases they are merely following the same practices begun in the Clinton Administration and carried on by Bush.  It is a bad situation indeed when the 'reformer' elected by the people has failed to reform. 

He may not be as brazen and open as his Republican opponents in promoting the interests of the Wall Street, perhaps, and certainly is not as favorable to Big Oil, but the corruption of justice for all in American politics seems to have become pervasive over the last fifteen years.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/02/sec-allows-americas-biiggest-wall-st.html

WASHINGTON — Even as the Securities and Exchange Commission has stepped up its investigations of Wall Street in the last decade, the agency has repeatedly allowed the biggest firms to avoid punishments specifically meant to apply to fraud cases.

By granting exemptions to laws and regulations that act as a deterrent to securities fraud, the S.E.C. has let financial giants like JPMorganChase, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America continue to have advantages reserved for the most dependable companies, making it easier for them to raise money from investors, for example, and to avoid liability from lawsuits if their financial forecasts turn out to be wrong.

An analysis by The New York Times of S.E.C. investigations over the last decade found nearly 350 instances where the agency has given big Wall Street institutions and other financial companies a pass on those or other sanctions. Those instances also include waivers permitting firms to underwrite certain stock and bond sales and manage mutual fund portfolios.

Criminogenic-Producing or Intended to Produce Crime and Criminality

A U.S. Justice Department source has told The Daily Caller that at least two DOJ prosecutors accepted cash bribes from allegedly corrupt finance executives who were indicted under court seal within the past 13 months, but never arrested or prosecuted.
The sitting governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, his attorney general and an unspecified number of Virgin Islands legislators also accepted bribes, the source said, adding that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is aware prosecutors and elected officials were bribed and otherwise compromised, but has not held anyone accountable.
The bribed officials, an attorney with knowledge of the investigation told TheDC, remain on the taxpayers’ payroll at the Justice Department without any accountability. The DOJ source said Holder does not want to admit public officials accepted bribes while under his leadership.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/01/bribery-compromised-officials-leave-indicted-financial-crime-suspects-free-from-prosecution-under-holders-doj/8/

How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent’

by George Lakey

[S]weden and Norway, for example, both experienced a major power shift in the 1930s after prolonged nonviolent struggle. They “fired” the top 1 percent of people who set the direction for society and created the basis for something different. Both countries had a history of horrendous poverty. When the 1 percent was in charge, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated to avoid starvation.

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They realized that, with the 1 percent in charge, electoral “democracy” was stacked against them, so nonviolent direct action was needed to exert the power for change. In both countries, the troops were called out to defend the 1 percent; people died.

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In the 1920s strikes increased in intensity. The town of Hammerfest formed a commune in 1921, led by workers councils; the army intervened to crush it.

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The Norwegian 1 percent decided not to rely simply on the army; in 1926 they formed a social movement called the Patriotic League, recruiting mainly from the middle class. By the 1930s, the League included as many as 100,000 people for armed protection of strike breakers—this in a country of only 3 million.

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Many people then found that their mortgages were in jeopardy. (Sound familiar?) The Depression continued, and farmers were unable to keep up payment on their debts.

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The 1 percent thereby lost its historic power to dominate the economy and society.

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When Conservatives eventually tried a fling with neoliberal policies, the economy generated a bubble and headed for disaster. (Sound familiar?)

/

Labor stepped in, seized the three largest banks, fired the top management, left the stockholders without a dime and refused to bail out any of the smaller banks. The well-purged Norwegian financial sector was not one of those countries that lurched into crisis in 2008; carefully regulated and much of it publicly owned, the sector was solid.

https://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/26-3

Criminogenic-Producing or Intended to Produce Crime and Criminality



"I don't know where the $1.2 billion of client money invested with a primary dealer of my Federal Reserve went to. Three ring tosses for $1, only takes one to win a prize."



the findings so far suggest that a "significant amount" of the money could have "vaporized" as a result of chaotic trading at MF Global during the week before the company's Oct. 31 bankruptcy filing, said a person close to the investigation."
The Worlds Largest Central Bank Staffed by Carnies

The Second Tier Simulacrum that is the U.S. Economic Recovery

Plato speaks of two kinds of image-making. The first is a faithful reproduction, attempted to copy precisely the original. The second tier is distorted intentionally in order to make the copy appear correct to viewers.

"The Obama administration has been touting the “recovery” of the American economy and yet this recent data seems to demonstrate that the average household is still waiting for some of the benefits seen in the stock market."

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"If we are in recovery, why have American’s incomes dropped more during the recovery than they did in the recession? The facts are clear:
Personal incomes fell during the recession by 3.2%.
During the recovery (since July 2009), personal incomes have fallen an additional 6.7%
Personal Incomes Fall Faster and Further During the "Recovery" than During the Recession

Criminogenic-Producing or Intended to Produce Crime and Criminality

"Information on CPCE and the other measures of inflation is available monthly. There’s no reason (that I can think of) why the Fed chose to deliberately omit two years of data that would conflict with the “desired’ conclusion. To me, it looks like the authors manipulated the report."
All bankers are liars. All central bankers are liars and money printers

Criminogenic-Producing or Intended to Produce Crime and Criminality



Shoplift a $4 T-Shirt from Wal-Mart and you'll be maced, beaten and incarcerated. Steal billions of dollars from US taxpayers and the head of the US Justice Department will run interference for you.

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(Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, were partners for years at a Washington law firm that represented a Who's Who of big banks and other companies at the center of alleged foreclosure fraud, a Reuters inquiry shows.

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Law professors and other federal ethics experts said that federal conflict of interest rules required Holder and Breuer to recuse themselves from any Justice Department decisions relating to law firm clients they personally had done work for.
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Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said Holder and Breuer had complied fully with conflict of interest regulations, but she declined to say if they had recused themselves from any matters related to the former clients.
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Reuters reported in December that under Holder and Breuer, the Justice Department hasn't brought any criminal cases against big banks or other companies involved in mortgage servicing, even though copious evidence has surfaced of apparent criminal violations in foreclosure cases.
The evidence, including records from federal and state courts and local clerks' offices around the country, shows widespread forgery, perjury, obstruction of justice, and illegal foreclosures on the homes of thousands of active-duty military personnel.
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AG Holder Protects His Own

Audit the Fed, then End the Fed

Just released transcripts from a Federal Reserve Board meeting held five years earlier:
“I really believe that the drop in housing is actually on net going to make liquidity available for other sectors rather than being a drain going forward, and that will also get the growth rate more positive,” Ms. Bies told colleagues at the committee’s June meeting. Ms. Bies could not be reached for comment Thursday.
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And even Ms. Yellen did not believe that the problems in the housing market would have broader consequences. “Of course, housing is a relatively small sector of the economy, and its decline should be self-correcting,” she said.
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“I would say that the capital markets are probably more profitable and more robust at this moment, or at least going into the six-week opportunity, than they have perhaps ever been,” Kevin Warsh, the Fed governor who watched Wall Street most closely, said at the meeting in September 2006. Three months later Mr. Warsh said almost exactly the same thing. He did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment Thursday.
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For the Fed 2006 began with the departure of Mr. Greenspan, who presided in January over his final meeting as Fed chairman and was then widely regarded as the epitome of a central banker, a master who had guided the American economy through almost 20 years of remarkably consistent growth.
“I’d like the record to show that I think you’re pretty terrific, too,” Mr. Geithner said in adding his voice to the chorus of tributes at that final meeting. “And thinking in terms of probabilities, I think the risk that we decide in the future that you’re even better than we think is higher than the alternative.”
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Ms. Yellen said: “It’s fitting for Chairman Greenspan to leave office with the economy in such solid shape. The situation you’re handing off to your successor is a lot like a tennis racquet with a gigantic sweet spot.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/business/transcripts-show-an-unfazed-fed-in-2006.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

Though little Timmay and the silver fox Yellen could not of been more wrong, both were promoted to postitions of higher authority and power with Yellen often mentioned as next in line for Fed chair.

In Amerika, When One Protests a Law Authorizing Unconstitutional Arrests, they are, well, Arrested

US Unemployment Rate is only 8.5 Percent?

That's the government version. Headlines read UE falls to lowest level in three years! But wait. How can this be? March 2009 BLS Employment Situation News Release:
"...the unemployment rate rose from 8.1 to 8.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today."
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_04032009.htm

Okay, great. UE rate is the lowest in nearly three years. But wait.
Covered employment, those eligible to file for unemployment as of March 2009: 133,886,830
                                                                                                Dec.   2011: 126,188,733
Click weekly claims data for historic levels:
http://www.ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/wkclaims/report.asp

MF Global Sold Millions in Assets to GS Days Before Going Bust

Line of credit extended to MF Global by JPM was $1.2B, the same amount of customer funds that have gone "missing." Did JPM seize assets, customer funds of MF Global so they would be made whole while fucking over the clients of MF Global? Not far fetched at all when you consider the US governemnt is an organized crime syndicate with nukes and the politicians need donations from the finance sector to be re-elected.

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/01/mf-global-sold-assets-to-goldman-days.html

Greece will exit from the crisis President of the Republic says, while asking for "austerity with dignity".

http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/8/51922

«The country has no need for elections, but rather a capable government that will work towards averting the danger it faces,»
http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/8/51327

Greece now tops a list of European countries where the suicide rate has risen.
http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/1/51289

Heating oil is now considered a luxury item in Greece.
http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/9/51295

Teachers' unions are warning that incidents of children turning up hungry in school are rising, due to benefit cuts and a sharp increase in unemployment
http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/14/51149


Show dignity Greek people, the birthplace of democracy, as you shiver from the cold, your children go hungry and you hold a pistol to your head. Do all of this with dignity for the bankers must be made whole. If they are not, an undignified austerity will follow. You have been warned.

I Had No Idea Sarko was this Short in Stature

The Current State of the US Government Prophesied Over 70 Years Ago

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

He May be a Bloodthirsty Murdering Sonuvabitch but He's Our Bloodthirsty Murdering Sonuvabitch

SANAA, Yemen (AP) - Tens of thousands of Yemenis held demonstrations around the country Friday to demand their longtime president face trial for the killings of hundreds of unarmed protesters in the pro-democracy uprising that began 10 months ago.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power for 33 years, signed a deal granting him immunity from prosecution in return for stepping down.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20111230/D9RUUNO81.html

Embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh will be allowed to come to the United States for medical treatment in New York, a senior Obama administration official said Tuesday.
US Welcomes Murderous Yemen Leader