Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.

Thursday 09.02.2010

Crew safe after oil rig catches fire in Gulf
AP - The Toronto Star
NEW ORLEANS - A Mariner Energy offshore petroleum rig caught fire and was burning Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico about 130 kilometres south of Vermilion Bay.
The U.S. Coast Guard says no one was killed in the fire, which was reported by a commercial helicopter flying over the site around 10 a.m.
All 13 people aboard the rig have been accounted for, with one injury. The extent of the injury was not immediately known but the person had been airlifted for treatment.

Older Work Force Has an Ugly Wrinkle
By LIAM DENNING - WSJ.com (free)
Summertime, and the living is easy ... for many, too easy. This July was the worst on record for youth employment: Less than half of all 16- to 24-year-olds had a job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Add in those who were looking for a job and the overall labor-force participation rate, at 60.5%, was also the worst for any July since 1948.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, more than 40% of over-55s have work or are looking for it, the highest share since JFK was in office.
The graying of America's work force is a fact of (longer) life. But it is amplified by changing work habits among different age groups.

Obama Needs Your 401(k) to Balance His Budget
WRITTEN BY BOB ADELMAN - TheNewAmerican.com
The Obama administration is "taking the first steps to confiscate retirement dollars," according to Dr. Jerome Corsi who predicts that the end result will be retirees with 401(k) plans holding near-worthless government debt "that will be paid off in a devalued currency worth ... pennies on the dollar."
The move to confiscate those retirement dollars for government purposes was best illustrated by Christina Kirchner, President of Argentina, in 2008 when she announced plans to seize her citizens' private pension funds. Writers at the Heritage Foundation said that while Kirchner claimed such seizure was necessary to protect her citizens' investment accounts from the global meltdown, "most observers believe[d] her real motive [was] to use the $30 billion in seized assets to ease the massive debt obligations her leftist spendthrift government [had] run up." The Wall Street Journal agreed, saying that "taking over the ... pension fund assets [would] ease the cash crunch faced by [her] government."

IMF ponders the improbable: Will U.S. default?
By Howard Schneider - WashingtonPost.com
Will the U.S. government ever default?
It's not a pleasant thought for anyone holding some of the roughly $9 trillion in U.S. government bonds and notes currently in public hands - or for anyone hoping the global economy can stay on an even keel.
But the economists at the International Monetary Fund are paid to ponder the improbable, and in papers published on Wednesday fund staff examined where the U.S. and other developed countries fit on a continuum between easy living and disaster.
We're farther along than you might think.

Hints Of Change In The World Monetary System
BY MICHAEL CASEY - WSJ.com (free)
NEW YORK--Ever since its inception 66 years ago, the International Monetary Fund has fancied itself at the center of the global economy.
But only now does the prospect of a multilateral monetary authority providing stability to the international financial system seem even remotely possible. That's because for the first time in decades there are legitimate uncertainties surrounding the one institution that does play that role: the U.S. dollar.
In that context, a couple of recent IMF-related announcements are more important than they normally would be.

Death By Globalism
Paul Craig Roberts - Infowars.com
Have economists made themselves irrelevant? If you have any doubts, have a look at the current issue of the magazine, International Economy, a slick endorsed by former Federal Reserve chairmen Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan, by Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, by former Secretary of State George Shultz, and by the New York Times and Washington Post, both of which declare the magazine to be "ahead of the curve."
The main feature of the current issue is "The Great Stimulus Debate." Is the Obama fiscal stimulus helping the economy or hindering it?

Left's double standard on Kochs and Soros
By: Timothy P. Carney - Senior Examiner Columnist
I was the main speaker of the night at a fancy dinner. The crowd included millionaire business owners and corporate executives. And the man who introduced me, and who had invited me to speak, was billionaire industrialist Charles Koch.
My topic was what it always is: the evils of corporate welfare and bailouts, and the destructive influence of the Big Business lobby in Washington. In my talk, I blasted "regulatory robber barons" and "subsidy sucklers."
But if you follow the Left's talking points, my talk was part of Koch's "pro-corporate movement."
I report this both as fair disclosure and to make a point: The Koch-created Institute for Humane Studies has, over the past two years, paid me on a few occasions to speak to various audiences (and also to mentor interns). The Koch-funded Heritage Foundation and Cato Institute have also hosted book talks for me.

Jim Rogers on CNBC 8/29/10 (Part 1/3):
Investors Must Own Real Assets

Jim Rogers on CNBC 8/29/10 (Part 2/3):
More Upside for Euro-Dollar

Jim Rogers on CNBC 8/29/10 (Part 3/3):
Choose Silver Over Gold

Obama struggles with urgent task of fixing economy
By Caren Bohan
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama has declared fixing the U.S. economy his "central mission" but he has few tools to bring down nearly double-digit unemployment or jump-start the faltering recovery this year.
To get a quick fix, he would need a big initiative, but the president stands almost no chance of getting Congress to pass any substantial legislation in the few weeks left before the mid-term elections -- a stretch of time he calls the campaign "silly season."
Even if he could, it would be too late to help his Democratic party before Election Day on November 2.

Top Obama adviser wants more stimulus spending
By Kara Rowland - The Washington Times
President Obama's top economist, in her final speech before stepping down Friday, urged Congress to "find the will and wisdom" to spend more money to create jobs - even though lawmakers' appetite for new government spending has waned ahead of November's elections.
Describing the current recession as "terrifying and so difficult to cure," Christina Romer, head of the Council of Economic Advisers, used a Wednesday address at the National Press Club to call for continued stimulus dollars to help tackle stubbornly high national unemployment. While she acknowledged concerns about the nation's long-term debt, which has passed the $13 trillion mark under Mr. Obama's watch, she said those worries shouldn't preclude additional spending.

How the Bankers Have Trapped Bernanke
by Gary North - LewRockwell.com
I had a little fun over the weekend at the expense of Dr. Bernanke. I translated his Jackson Hole speech out of academic Keynesianism into investment-grade English. I added a little humor, because Dr. B. is not what I would call a laugh-a-minute guy when he gets behind a podium.
In his speech, he opened with praise for what a great job the world's central bankers and politicians did to save the economy in 2008.
On the whole, when the eruption of the Panic of 2008 threatened the very foundations of the global economy, the world rose to the challenge, with a remarkable degree of international cooperation, despite very difficult conditions and compressed time frames.

Quantitative Easing, Money Velocity Inflationary Armageddon
By: DeepCaster LLC - MarketOracle.co.uk
"The crucial passage comes in Chapter 17 entitled "Velocity". Each big inflation -- whether the early 1920s in Germany, or the Korean and Vietnam wars in the US -- starts with a passive expansion of the quantity of money. This sits inert for a surprisingly long time. Asset prices may go up, but latent price inflation is disguised. The effect is much like lighter fuel on a camp fire before the match is struck.
People's willingness to hold money can change suddenly for a "psychological and spontaneous reason", causing a spike in the velocity of money. It can occur at lightning speed, over a few weeksÉ
"Velocity took an almost right-angle turn upward in the summer of 1922," said Mr. O Parsson. Reichsbank officials were baffled. They could not fathom why the German people had started to behave differently almost two years after the bank had already boosted the money supply. He contends that public patience snapped abruptly once people lost trust and began to "smell a government rat".

Marc Faber on Bloomberg August 29, 2010

Easy Money Will Not Boost Economic Activity Nor Create Jobs in the US, says Marc Faber - LewRockwell.com
Marc Faber the Swiss fund manager and Gloom Boom & Doom editor said the market will eventually perceive the easing moves, announced by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last Friday, as being inflationary and that the next five years could be a possibe disaster for Treasury bonds investors.
"It is a fallacy to believe that easy money and the purchase of treasuries will boost economic activity in the US," Faber told Bloomberg in a phone interview from Thailand.
"Money will flow into equities at least over the next couple of weeks, and into commodities," Faber said.

A Termite-Riddled House: Treasury Bonds
Gonzalo Lira
When termites eat your house, you don't notice a thing. You don't hear a thing, you don't see a thing - you're house stands there, silent and staid, while you and your family happily go about your days, without a care in the world -
-until your house crashes on top of your head.
Right now, we are at a stage where Treasury bonds are as weakened as a termite-riddled house. They look fine: Nice glossy coat of paint, pretty shingles, bright clear windows, sturdy-looking plankings on the open-aired porch.
But Treasuries are well on their way to a complete collapse. Why? Because of the way they have been mishandled and mistreated by the Federal Reserve Board, and the U.S. Treasury. Whether by incompetence or by design, U.S. Treasury bonds have become the New & Improved Toxic Asset. The question is no longer if they will collapse - it's when.

Two Fed officials say more easing won't help on jobs
By Kristina Cooke and Ann Saphir
(Reuters) - Two top Federal Reserve officials said on Wednesday the U.S. central bank should not rush into more monetary easing, which would do little do lower the high U.S. unemployment rate.
The Fed should only embark on additional monetary stimulus if deflation forces its hand, Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser told Reuters in an interview.
Lowering long-term interest rates further "is not going to solve the unemployment problems and it is dangerous to think that it will," Plosser said. If the Fed were to send a signal that it is trying to control the jobless rate, now at 9.5 percent, and then fails to do so, it could hurt its ability to ensure price stability should it face a real threat of deflation, he said.

Political uncertainty hurting economy: Dallas Fed's Fisher
Says the U.S. central bank has done its part to foster a recovery
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Political uncertainty about taxes and the costs of hiring workers is holding back the U.S. economy, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday.
"What is restraining the economy is not a shortage of current liquidity; rather, it is uncertainty, high household debt burdens and a lack of confidence in future income growth," said Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, during speech in Houston. A copy of his remarks was made available in Washington.
Fisher repeated a theme he's hit before: Businesses are reluctant to hire and to expand because they aren't sure about tax and regulatory rules. Politicians are acting "in a capricious manner that makes long-term planning, including expanding payrolls, difficult, if not impossible," Fisher said.

Investors Spooked As Glitch Sends Gold To $3400
Paul Joseph Watson - Prison Planet.com
Investors were briefly panicked yesterday when the Yahoo Finance website indicated that gold had soared to over $3400 dollars an ounce, an instant jump of 175 per cent. Possible reasons for the shocking spike ranged from a simple mistake to a secret signal being communicated to insiders as to where the commodity was really heading.
Just after 11am eastern time, the Yahoo Finance website gold graph indicated that the precious metal had jumped from $1235.60 an ounce to a whopping $3401.50 an ounce in the space of minutes. The commodity then quickly returned to its previous level almost immediately.

Gold Imminent Breakout and Investment In Failure
By: Jim Willie CB - MarketOracle.co.uk
Many observers to the wild gyrations, deep contortions, extreme measures, and other bizarre activity in the government and banking arenas are suffering from severe confusion. The public is alarmed, even frightened, by the sequence of events, without much benefit of comprehension of what is happening or which clans are in control. The degree of deception hit a peak during the TARP Fund creation and disbursement, done behind private closed doors for the replenishment of sacred preferred stock, that bridge between corporate bonds and stock equity. The deception hit a very high pitch with the financial titan failures, the entire string of them. It has never stopped since.

Gold flash spike to $3401
Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan is missing Aug. 30.2010

Hyperinflation, Part II: What It Will Look Like
Gonzalo Lira
I usually don't do follow-up pieces to any of my posts. But my recent longish piece, describing how hyperinflation might happen in the United States, clearly struck a nerve.
It was a long, boring, snowy piece of macro-economic policy speculation, discussing Treasury yields, Federal Reserve Board monetary reaction, and the difference between inflation and hyperinflation - but considering the traffic it generated, I might as well been discussing relative breast size in the porn industry. With pictures.

Government Debt Defaults and Inflation Are the Norm
Not the Exception - By: Claus Vogt
The past 15 years have certainly been exciting for investors. During the second half of the 1990s we experienced one of the largest stock market bubbles of all times ... and its bursting. Then, only a few years later, one of the biggest real estate bubbles ... and its bursting.
In the aftermath of these events the world stumbled into the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. And the banking system came to the brink of a total collapse.

Chief economist calls on Congress
to 'finish the job of economic recovery'
By Lori Montgomery - WashingtonPost.com
Departing White House chief economist Christina Romer called Wednesday on Congress to summon the political will to "finish the job of economic recovery" by pumping more cash into the economy through additional tax cuts for businesses and middle-class families, as well as fresh investments in the nation's infrastructure.
In an advance copy of her remarks before the National Press Club, Romer did not say how much more she thinks Congress should spend to combat a jobless rate stuck at 9.5 percent. With massive deficits looming, Romer said much of the cost of any new package should be covered by spending cuts or tax increases in the future, after the economy has fully recovered.

Is America Headed Toward Japanese-style Economic "Lost Decades"?
WRITTEN BY THOMAS R. EDDLEM - TheNewAmerican.com
Just one week after James Bullard of the St. Louis branch of the Federal Reserve Bank released his August 6 paper declaring that "the U.S. is closer to a Japanese-style outcome today than at any time in recent history" (meaning that the United States will likely have decades of economic stagnation, which Bullard blames on "deflation"), the news media have taken up a chorus against the bogeyman of "deflation" to explain the need for further social spending by the government and more debasement of the U.S. dollar (causing consumer prices to rise through inflation).

Demise of Dollar as International Currency?
Niall Ferguson and James Fallows debate the statement by Zhou Xiaochuan, head of China's central bank, calling for the replacement of the dollar as the dominant world currency with the creation of an international reserve currency.

Fuld Says Lehman Could Have Been Saved
NYTimes.com
Richard S. Fuld Jr. told a federal commission that his firm, Lehman Brothers, failed only because the Federal Reserve refused to step in as it did with other firms.
Mr. Fuld said that if temporary financing had been available or if Lehman had been allowed to convert to a bank holding company among other steps, bankruptcy could have been averted.
In testimony before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Mr. Fuld said:
Lehman was forced into bankruptcy not because it neglected to act responsibly or seek solutions to the crisis, but because of a decision, based on flawed information, not to provide Lehman with the support given to each of its competitors and other nonfinancial firms in the ensuing days.

Lehman's Fuld: U.S. regulators had 'flawed information
when denying bailout help
By Ariana Eunjung Cha - WashingtonPost.com
U.S. regulators acting on "flawed information" denied Lehman Brothers the bailout assistance that its Wall Street competitors received, dooming the bank to collapse, former company CEO Richard S. Fuld said Wednesday.
In testimony prepared for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission set up by Congress, Fuld--a central figure in the crisis criticized for taking too much risk--argued that the sudden collapse of Lehman that shocked markets could have been avoided as late as the weekend before had the government taken action.

Defiant Dick Fuld blames false rumours and the Fed
for collapse of Lehman
Andrew Clark in New York - guardian.co.uk
Boss of Lehman Brothers attacks regulator for lack of action, but admits: 'I myself did not see the depth and violence of the crisis'
Former Lehman Brothers boss Dick Fuld delivered a defiant defence of his management of the defunct Wall Street bank today, telling an official inquiry that the firm's 2008 bankruptcy was down to false rumours about a solvency crisis, uncontrollable market forces and a refusal by the US government to come to the rescue.

Pennsylvania capital, Harrisburg, skips payment
may move closer to bankruptcy
By Michael A. Fletcher - Washington Post Staff Writer
The city of Harrisburg has said that it will not make a $3.3 million municipal bond payment due in two weeks, a decision that could move the Pennsylvania capital closer to bankruptcy.
The city's decision, announced in a letter dated Monday, is highly unusual because it saves a relatively small sum of money while compromising Harrisburg's ability to restructure its overwhelming debt and raise money in the future.
"This shows that the city is failing to function," said Matt Fabian, managing director of Municipal Market Advisors, a Massachusetts-based research firm. "Now it seems that a municipal bankruptcy filing is almost a foregone conclusion."

Commercial Real Estate Finance Council
spent $140,000 in 2nd quarter lobbying government
Associated Press - WashingtonExaminer.com
WASHINGTON - The Commercial Real Estate Finance Council, which represents buyers and sellers of investments backed by commercial property loans, spent $140,000 in the second quarter lobbying the federal government.
The trade group lobbied on accounting, bankruptcy and tax issues, credit rating agencies, regulation of the financial system, mortgage securities, taxes, terrorism and flood insurance, according to a July 20 filing with the House clerk's office.

'Your homeowner's association shall make no law...'
By: Timothy P. Carney - Senior Examiner Columnist
I don't really like talking about things in terms of "rights." It seems more helpful to talk about duties and prohibitions. In other words, rather than talking about a "right to life," it makes more sense to me to say "you may not intentionally take the life of an innocent person."
So, do you have a "right" to fly a flag from your house? I'd rather say, the government may not prohibit you from flying a flag from your house.
The distinction becomes relevant in the story of Andy McDonel:
Andy McDonel wants to fly the Gadsden ("Don't Tread on Me") flag from the roof of his house in Laveen, Arizona, and the state chapter of the ACLU says he is entitled to do so. The problem: McDonel is not fighting an intrusive local ordinance or boneheaded state law; he is fighting the rules of his own homeowners' association, rules that he accepted when he bought his house. As the lawyer for the Avalon Village Community Association notes, "anyone considering residing in a community association should carefully review the association's governing documents beforehand to ensure that the community is a good fit for them."

Communities to get first shot at foreclosed homes
By Gregory Korte, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON - Major mortgage lenders will now give state and local governments the right to buy foreclosed properties before they go on the market, giving them "a leg up" on speculators who have often thwarted local redevelopment efforts, Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan announced Wednesday.
The First Look program will give communities a 48-hour heads up on foreclosed properties and the ability to buy them at a 1% discount, Donovan said. The effort is intended to help improve the $7 billion Neighborhood Stabilization Program, he said.
"First Look is good for our housing market because it will bring much-needed speed" to the sale of bank-owned homes, Donovan said. Data show that vacant homes are more than three times more destructive to neighboring home values than those early in the foreclosure process.

ADP says private-sector employment fell 10,000 in August
By Ruth Mantell, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. private-sector employment fell 10,000 in August, according to the ADP employment report released Wednesday, breaking a six-month run of increases.
"The decline in private employment in August confirms a pause in the recovery already evident in other economic data," said Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, which produces the report from anonymous payroll data supplied by ADP, in a statement.
However, the ADP private-payrolls report has been weaker than official government data based on surveys from business establishments and households. On Friday, the government is scheduled to report nonfarm payrolls for August, and economists polled by MarketWatch are looking for an overall decline of 105,000, including an expected increase of 25,000 jobs in the private sector.

City Council members propose $25 fee for garage sales in Dallas
Steve Thompson/Reporter - The Dallas Morning News
Two Dallas City Council members have proposed charging a $25 fee next year to anyone who wants to have a garage sale in city limits.
City managers have floated the idea of charging $5, as a way to help balance next year's tough budget.
Council members Delia Jasso and Dwaine Caraway upped the ante today in a memo to City Manager Mary Suhm.
"We recommend the fee should be $25," the memo said.

Automakers say U.S. sales turn frail in Aug.
By Dee-Ann Durbin and Tom Krisher - AP - WashingtonTimes.com
DETROIT (AP) - Auto sales, once a bright spot in the economic recovery, stalled last month as the nation's largest car companies reported falling sales.
General Motors Co.'s August sales fell 7 percent from July, and an even sharper 25 percent from August 2009, when sales were boosted by the government's "Cash for Clunkers" rebates. Ford saw sales slip 5 percent from July. Subaru, whose strong lineup of smaller cars benefited from clunkers last year, also suffered.

Old G.M. Being Sold for Parts
By PETER LATTMAN and MICHAEL J. de la MERCED - NYTimes.com
The new General Motors appears to be thriving.
Having emerged from bankruptcy, the revitalized company has recently reported $1.3 billion in quarterly earnings, paraded out a new chief executive and filed an initial public offering that seeks to pay back a portion of its approximately $60 billion in government loans.
But the old G.M. - a grim collection of shuttered auto plants, vacant office space and toxic industrial sites - is one step closer to extinction.
The fate that awaits the old G.M., officially the Motors Liquidation Company, the entity that houses the unwanted assets that were cleaved off in General Motors' bankruptcy, was spelled out in its reorganization plan filed late Tuesday in federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan.

Car Sales Crash
Auto sales: Worst August since 1983
By Chris Isidore,
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The nation's top automakers reported disappointing sales Wednesday, resulting in the worst August for industrywide auto sales in 27 years.
According to sales tracker Autodata, U.S. new vehicle sales fell just short of 1 million vehicles, a drop of 21% from a year ago, which included Cash for Clunkers. That federal program created a sugar rush of sales by dangling an incentive of up to $4,500 in cash for buyers who traded in older gas guzzlers for more efficient models.

Outer Banks evacuate ahead of Hurricane Earl's arrival
By The Washington Times
NAGS HEAD, N.C. (AP) | Hurricane Earl steamed toward the Eastern Seaboard on Wednesday as communities from North Carolina to New England kept a close eye on the forecast, worried that even a slight shift in the storm's predicted offshore track could put millions of people in the most densely populated part of the country in harm's way.
Vacationers along North Carolina's dangerously exposed Outer Banks took advantage of the typical picture-perfect day just before a hurricane arrives to pack their cars and flee inland, cutting short their summer just before Labor Day weekend.

Should We Sell American Citizenship? - Michael Sandel
Political philosopher Michael Sandel weighs the ethics of using free market principles to solve America's immigration problem. He analyzes Gary Becker's proposal to solve the immigration debate by asking if "the US should simply set a price and sell American citizenship."

Border Sweeps in North Reach Miles Into U.S.
By NINA BERNSTEIN - NYTimes.com
ROCHESTER - The Lake Shore Limited runs between Chicago and New York City without crossing the Canadian border. But when it stops at Amtrak stations in western New York State, armed Border Patrol agents routinely board the train, question passengers about their citizenship and take away noncitizens who cannot produce satisfactory immigration papers.
"Are you a U.S. citizen?" agents asked one recent morning, moving through a Rochester-bound train full of dozing passengers at a station outside Buffalo. "What country were you born in?"

Michelle Malkin: Obama throws Arizona to U.N.'s human rights dogs
By: Michelle Malkin - Washington Examiner
An indignant President Obama complained last week, "I can't spend all of my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead." Fine.
How about plastering a copy of his presidential oath of office there instead? The kowtowing commander-in-chief is in dire need of a daily reminder that his job is to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" -- not international law or global diktats.
Case in point: Last week, Obama's State Department handed in America's first-ever report to the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights in conjunction with something called the "Universal Periodic Review." In short, the 29-page document is a self-aggrandizing report card touting the administration's far-left domestic and foreign policy initiatives for the world's approval.

Survey charts 'sharp decline' in illegals
Economy, enforcement credited
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times
Illegal immigration has been in a "sharp decline" over the past two years, the Pew Hispanic Center said in a report released Wednesday, and the Obama administration immediately touted the data as proof that it has made progress on securing the nation's borders.
The first significant reduction in illegal immigration in two decades coincides with a slowing economy and stepped-up enforcement under President George W. Bush and the early months of Mr. Obama's administration, though the report's authors said there is no way to tell from the numbers whether the economy or the enforcement was the bigger factor.

Signs in Arizona warn of smuggler dangers
Drivers advised to travel north
By Jerry Seper and Matthew Cella - The Washington Times
The federal government has posted signs along a major interstate highway in Arizona, more than 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, warning travelers the area is unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers, and a local sheriff says Mexican drug cartels now control some parts of the state.
The signs were posted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) along a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 8 between Casa Grande and Gila Bend, a major east-west corridor linking Tucson and Phoenix with San Diego.

Obama's Department of Justice Puts Out Master Patriot Hit-list
Kurt Nimmo - Infowars.com
The Department of Justice has fired a salvo in the war against patriotic Americans supporting the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The DOJ has issued Investigating Terrorism and Criminal Extremism -Terms and Concepts, a 120-page propaganda addendum described as "a glossary designed primarily as a tool for criminal justice professionals to enhance their understanding of words relating to extremist terminology, phrases, activities, symbols, organizations, and selected names that they may encounter while conducting criminal investigations or prosecutions of members of extremist organizations."

What Obama Didn't Say About Afghanistan
Ray McGovern - Consortiumnews.com via InfoWars.com
My Fellow Americans,
.... so much for Iraq. Turning now to Afghanistan, let me be clear. My learning curve has been steep, as the New York Times noted last weekend. The curve has also been jagged as I have tried to assimilate the not-always-consistent advice the four-star generals have given me.
It's been more than a little confusing. When I took office, Gen. David McKiernan was running the war in Afghanistan. He had expressed himself openly and strongly against an Iraq-style "surge" of forces, emphasizing that Afghanistan is "a far more complex environment than I ever found in Iraq," where he had led U.S. ground forces.

Tehran pushes Hizballah hard to attack Israel
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
intelligence and Persian Gulf sources report that on August 30, Hizballah put its forces on a state of war alert and issued a partial call-up of reservists. According to DEBKAfile's military sources, Hizballah appears to be preparing a major attack on Israel straight after the ceremonial start of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Washington Thursday Sept. 2. A second target date is the Jewish New Year festival starting on Sept. 8. The pressure from Tehran for the Lebanese Shiite terrorists to strike Israel has intensified in the wake of the example the Palestinian Hamas gave Tuesday night Aug. 31 in the drive-by murder of four Israeli civilians on a road near Hebron.
A large-scale attack appears to be in the works judging by the heavy influx of armed Hizballah units to southern Lebanon in the last few days. Our military sources report that they include special units trained especially for deep-strike incursions into northern Israel in response to Israeli counter-attacks.

Obama warns Middle East leaders 'chance may not come again soon'
Direct dialogue begins between leaders in Washington as Barack Obama heralds 'moment of opportunity' to clear way for two-state solution - Chris McGreal in Washington - The Guardian,
The Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, begin direct talks in Washington today after Barack Obama launched his initiative to forge a Middle East peace agreement within a year, which he described as a "moment of opportunity that may not soon come again".
The US president said that he recognised the task would be difficult after so many failed efforts, and that passions and mistrust ran deep. But he said that the occupation and accompanying conflict were unsustainable.

Obama urges Israelis, Palestinians to compromise for peace
By Scott Wilson - WashingtonPost.com
President Obama urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders Wednesday to take advantage of this moment and make peace after decades of conflict, pledging his administration's sustained support to help them do so.
Appearing in the Rose Garden, Obama spoke sternly to both parties and to the Middle East's Arab leaders, whom he tacitly scolded for endorsing the creation of a Palestinian state in principle while often doing little to help bring one about.
But he warned that, ultimately, only Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, with whom he met individually earlier in the day, could make the compromises necessary to secure peace between their peoples.

Leaders Call for Peace as Mideast Talks Begin
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR and BRIAN KNOWLTON - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority appeared together Wednesday with President Obama, who urged the leaders to produce "lasting change" during their peace talks in Washington.
Mr. Obama opened a dinner with remarks calling the gathering an event that would have consequences for future generations.
"Though we all hold a different title, we are bound by one title we share: we are fathers blessed with daughters, so we must ask ourselves what kind of world we want to bequeath to our children and our grandchildren."

You Ain't Seen This Before
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN - NYTimes.com
President Obama is embarking on something I've never seen before - taking on two Missions Impossible at the same time. That is, a simultaneous effort to heal the two most bitter divides in the Middle East: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Shiite-Sunni conflict centered in Iraq. Give him his due. The guy's got audacity. I'll provide the hope. But kids, don't try this at home.
Yet, if by some miracles the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that open in Washington on Thursday do eventually produce a two-state solution, and Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis do succeed in writing their own social contract on how to live together, one might be able to imagine a Middle East that breaks free from the debilitating grip of endless Arab-Israeli wars and autocratic Arab regimes.

Iran develops primitive flying bombs for Israeli cities
nearby US targets
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis
After watching the performance of Iran's new, locally-produced Karrar bomber drone, DEBKAfile's military sources summed it up as a primitive copy of an obsolete unmanned US cruise missile from the 1950s that was derived from the V1 "buzz bomb" which the Germans fired against London at the end of World War II. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a big production of unveiling the Karrar (Ambassador of Death) Aug. 22 in a showy ceremony.
Even so, Western intelligence sources believe that mass-produced with extended range, large swarms of these flying bombs could cause death and destruction if released over densely populated Israeli areas and US military facilities and warships in the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tony Blair memoirs:
we must be prepared for attack on Iran
Telegraph.co.uk
The international community has to be prepared to take military action against Iran if the regime develops a nuclear weapon, Tony Blair has said in an interview to promote his memoirs, A Journey.
He said it was ''wholly unacceptable'' for Tehran to seek a nuclear weapons capability and insisted there could be ''no alternative'' to military force ''if they continue to develop nuclear weapons''.
Speaking to BBC journalist Andrew Marr, Mr Blair said: ''I am saying that I think it is wholly unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapons capability and I think we have got to be prepared to confront them, if necessary militarily.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Archived Page Link
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -