Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.

Friday 02.17.2012

U.S. Dollar Will Take Beating in the End
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
In the simplest of terms, the U.S. dollar will take a beating in the end. That is going to be the result of all the bailouts and money printing to save an insolvent banking system. Today, I bring you two videos that speak to the dollar calamity that lies in front of the entire planet. The first is an audio interview with one of my favorite economists, John Williams of Shadowstats.com. Williams has a paid subscription newsletter that features analysis of what I call the "real" or "true" numbers such as unemployment, GDP and inflation. These are areas where the government uses accounting gimmicks to make the economy look better than reality. For example, unemployment is reported by the government to be 8.3%; but if it was computed the way the government dit it in 1994 or earlier, the true unemployment would be 22.5% (according to Shadowstats.com). The government numbers hide the fact the country and the U.S. dollar are both headed for deep trouble. The second video also talks about the dollar calamity and the effect it will have not only on the U.S. but the entire world. The videos are not long, but they are current and very thought provoking. Please enjoy.

John Williams of Shadow Stats
"This is end of the world type stuff"

The Largest Event In Human History

China soon will overtake India as top gold market
By Kelvin Chan-Associated Press - WashingtonTimes.com
HONG KONG — China is poised to overtakeIndia to become the world’s biggest gold market this year as rising incomes fuel demand for the precious metal and a weak rupee diminishes Indian purchases, an industry group said Thursday.
The amount of gold bought in China rose 20 percent in 2011 over the year before to 770 metric tons, the World Gold Council said in its annual report. That put China behind only first-place India, where 933 metric tons were bought.

Shanghai Futures Exchange cuts gold margins by over 30%
BEIJING (Commodity Online): The Shanghai Futures exchange (SHFE) has lowered its margin requirements for trading in gold in a bid to attract more investors and boost trading volumes. The new margins will be effective from March 01, 2012
The exchange has cut margin required for the first trading day of the month before delivery from 15% to 10%- a more than 30% cut in margin requirements. For the last two days before the final trading day of the contract, margin has been halved, from 40% to 20%.

The Deflationary Undertow Before The Inflationary Wave
By Gonzalo Lira
War between Israel and Iran now seems inevitable. Leon Panetta claimed that it would be this coming spring—and I see no reason to doubt him.
How an Israeli-Iranian war will play out—that is, whether it will draw in more geopolitical actors (such as the U.S.), or if it will be a series of limited attacks, counter-attacks, and then stalemate—is impossible to predict. War tends to take on a life of its own.
But we can predict how it will affect the global markets.

The Ameliorate Effects of Debt and Defaults
BY PAUL NOLTE - FinancialSense.com
Going back to the halcyon days of the Nixon administration, the duo of Woodward & Bernstein were admonished to follow the money. In the wonderful world of the internet, following the money might be a bit easier. The numbers are certainly much larger and their impact is just as important to investors as it was to the investigative reporters attempting to put all the puzzle pieces together.
Coming into office, Ben Bernanke had the unseemly moniker of "helicopter Ben" in reference to his comment regarding his "solution" to a Depression type of event in the US economy. Unfortunately for investors around the world, not only has Ben fired up the helicopter, but global central banks have expanded their balance sheets to incredible levels that investors would have never thought possible even in late 2008 as TARP began. According to Bianco Research, combined balance sheets of the Fed, ECB, Bank of Japan and Bank of England have more than tripled in size in just over three years from just over $4 trillion to nearly $14 trillion by yearend 2011. Consumers may be wondering where all that money has gone, as it hasn’t found its way into their back pockets. Economic growth, while better than the depths of the recession in early 2009, remain a long way from what historically has been a "normal" recovery. Thanks to the debt overhang that remains looming over the economy, this recovery is indeed very different than those of any since the Great Depression.

The Uptick’s Downside
Nouriel Roubini - Project-Syndicate.org
RIO DE JANEIRO – Since late last year, a series of positive developments has boosted investor confidence and led to a sharp rally in risky assets, starting with global equities and commodities. Macroeconomic data from the United States improved; blue-chip companies in advanced economies remained highly profitable; China and emerging markets slowed only moderately; and the risk of a disorderly default and/or exit by some members of the eurozone declined.
Moreover, under its new president, Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank appears willing to do anything necessary to reduce stress on the eurozone’s banking system and governments, as well as to lower interest rates. Central banks in both advanced and emerging economies have provided massive injections of liquidity. Volatility is down, confidence is up, and risk aversion is much lower – for now.

Just as Greece complies at last, Europe pulls the plug
Officials from the EU and the International Monetary Fund made two grave errors when they swooped into Greece in mid-2010 and dictated the now hated "Memorandum".
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
The regime of drastic cuts has tipped the economy into a violent downward spiral. They thought that private industry would muddle through as the state went through the austerity mincer. What the EU-IMF "Troika" did not fully understand is how many firms were really part of the state in disguise.
"The Greek government outsources everything," said one official with close knowledge of the events.

March 23, 2912
GREEK DEFAULT EXCLUSIVE:
SENIOR US BANKERS GIVEN EXPLICIT TIMETABLE
FOR ATHENS DEFAULT
DOCUMENTS RAISE AWKWARD QUESTIONS
FOR WASHINGTON, IMF & BERLIN
Hat4UK Blog
A written document giving firm dates and detailed actions for a planned Greek default has been in the possession of two top Wall Street bank currency trading bosses since the second week in January. The Slog has separate but corroborative sources affirming the existence of the document, and a conviction among senior bank staff that – at least at the time – the plan represented "a timetable, not a contingency". The plan gives a firm date of March 23rd for default to be announced after the close of business.
Senior bankers on Wall Street have been given detailed documentation setting out a timetable to Greek default, including firm dates and technical ‘orders’ about last use of the euro as a currency there. The revelation arrived at Slogger's Roost last Monday, since when I have been trying to obtain corroboration. This arrived in the early hours of today (Thursday). One of the banks is Barclays Capital (Barcap) run by controversial figure Bob Diamond. The other must remain anonymous for the time being, in order to protect sources.

Keiser Report: German Empire vs Greek Carthage (E250)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss a 'Grexit' after the Carthaginian peace deal and also safety net critics and collateralized hemlock futures. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Chris Whalen of Tangent Capital about Greek deals, gold and raising interest rates to save the economy.

Bail-out delay prompts fear of Greek euro exit
BY VALENTINA POP - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS - Greece fears it is being pushed out of the euro after eurozone ministers delayed a decision on its second bail-out for another five days.
"We are continually faced with new terms ... In the euro area, there are plenty who don't want us anymore. There are some playing with fire, domestically and abroad. Some are playing with torches and some are playing with matches. But the risk is equally great," Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos told reporters in Athens on Wednesday (15 February) after a three-hour conference call with his 16 counterparts from the eurozone.
Greek politicians have pledged not to undo spending cuts after April elections and to find another €325 million of flesh to trim from the budget.

Plot Thickens in Eurozone Crisis
Despite fresh austerity measures, Greece could still fail to secure a new EU-IMF bailout and default on its debt. But the plan for a fiscal compact to accelerate European integration forges ahead, explains this Backgrounder.
Author: Christopher Alessi - CFR.org
The euro was introduced in 2002 as the single currency of the European Union, consolidating the largest trading area in the world and soon rivaling the dollar for global supremacy. However, the accumulation of massive and unsustainable deficits and public debt levels in a number of peripheral economies threatened the eurozone's viability by the end of its first decade, triggering a eurozone sovereign debt crisis. The crisis highlighted the economic interdependence of the EU, while also underscoring the lack of political integration needed to provide a coordinated fiscal and monetary response. Germany--and, to a lesser extent, France--reluctantly stepped into this political vacuum. The eurozone's wealthiest members called on weaker states to embrace strict austerity measures, inciting popular unrest and toppling governments in Portugal, Spain, Greece, and Italy. Yet in spite of a number of euro rescue deals agreed upon by EU leaders, market volatility persisted into 2012, calling into question the future of the euro.

Europe’s fiscal union still lacks a blueprint
by Nicolas Véron - Bruegel.org (Brussels think tank)
The improvement of eurozone market conditions in January can be attributed to several factors, including the progress made by Prime Minister Mario Monti in Italy, and some constructive if Delphic signals coming from Berlin. It also suggests that a lot of bad news was already priced in in December, including a "credit event" on Greek debt that would trigger payment of credit-default swaps, as now looks very likely. But the eurozone’s fundamental design problems remain unresolved. Even the main positive driver of investor sentiment, the European Central Bank’s long-term refinancing operations offering cheap 3-year liquidity to banks, creates risks of its own. The ECB must have decided to open that window with a heavy heart. A few hard realities have not changed, and if anything have become more inescapable.

Auditor: EU agencies mismanaging their budgets
BY VALENTINA POP - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS - A report by the European Court of Auditors has found problems in the way the EU's 31 agencies manage their budgets. The findings are likely to fuel the debate about the usefulness of the bodies in a time of austerity.
The report - sent on Wednesday (15 February) to the European Parliament and seen by EUobserver - analyses the costs, financial management and "operational efficiency" of 22 out of the EU's 31 autonomous agencies.

'The Troika's Policies Have Failed'
European Doubts Growing over Greece Debt Strategy
For months, European leaders have been trying to find a way out of the Greek debt crisis. But austerity is merely driving the country deeper into economic despair. Is it time for a radical rethink? Many think the answer is yes.
By SPIEGEL Staff
It would have been hard for German Chancellor Angela Merkel to find a more appropriate setting from which to promote her policies for Greece. She is sitting in a wide leather chair in Berlin's Neues Museum, home to Egyptian treasures and classical antiquities. The ancient columns towering behind her lend the scene an Acropolis-like air.
It's Tuesday of last week, and Merkel has been invited by a foundation to join in a discussion on the future of Europe. A young woman stands up and identifies herself as a foreign student studying in Germany and a "despairing representative of a younger Greek generation." She says that, of course, she would like to return to her home country after completing her studies. "But whenever I make inquiries about work in Athens," she says, "I'm only offered jobs in Germany."

House Republicans warn of European-style debt crisis
Geithner says balancing budget in three 'would kill this economy'
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch)—House Republicans clashed repeatedly Thursday with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner over the budget, warning that the White House’s proposal made a European-style debt crisis more likely.
Rep. Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin and chairman of the House Budget Committee, asserted that the Obama plan doesn’t lay out a plan to reduce health-care spending over the long run.
President Barack Obama’s budget plan seeks to stabilize the debt as a percentage of GDP over the next decade, and proposes $360 billion in savings from Medicare and Medicaid.

Iran Warns 6 Countries in Europe It Will Cut Off Oil
By RICK GLADSTONE and ALAN COWELL - NYTimes.com
Besieged by international sanctions over the Iranian nuclear programincluding a planned oil embargo by Europe, Iran warned six European buyers on Wednesday that it might strike first by immediately cutting them off from Iranian oil.
Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency said the threat was conveyed to the ambassadors of Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Greece and Portugal in separate meetings at the Foreign Ministry in Tehran. Officials said in an earlier report by Press TV, Iran’s state-financed satellite broadcaster, that Iran had already cut supplies to the six countries was inaccurate — but not before word of the Press TV report sent a brief shudder through the global oil market, sending prices up slightly.

165 Banks On the Brink
By Philip van Doorn - TheStreet.com
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- With year-end data for 99% of the nation's savings and loan associations now available, there are 165 undercapitalized institutions on the TheStreet'sBank Watch List, which is 12 more than last quarter. This is despite 13 banks being shuttered by regulators since the final third-quarter watch list was published in November.
Based on fourth-quarter regulatory data supplied by HighlineFI for the nation's banks and savings and loan associations -- and factoring-in the 13 bank and thrift failures -- 155 institutions were undercapitalized at year-end, according to the regulatory guidelines that apply to most institutions.

YOU have bank risk...
MFGlobal Reveals You Are A Bank Counter-Party
By Barry Ritholtz
The esteemed former Fed Chairman, Paul Volcker, introduced a very simple regulatory concept that bears his name: The Volcker Rule. It was part of the Dodd-Frank regulatory reforms passed after the financial crisis of 2008-09.
There has been enormous pushback against what should be a simple piece of prophylactic rules on proprietary trading by depository banks (see this Jamie Dimon commentary as an example). Why? The profits of speculation goes to banks, driving bonuses and compensation; but the ultimate risk of loss lay with the FDIC and taxpayer. If the banks blow up, someone else besides the banker pays.
Privatized gains, socialized losses.
I want to take a few moments to briefly explain why this rule is so important to taxpayers, especially following the collapse of MF Global and the loss of billions of client assets.

From the globalists...
Does it Matter Who Runs the World Bank?
By Nancy Birdsall - Global Development: Views from the Center
With Robert Zoellick’s announcement that he will step down from the World Bank presidency at the end of June, now comes the question of who his successor will be, particularly whether it will be an American. Just a few days ago I commentedon the awkwardness of the situation for the White House. The White House has committed in international fora to an open, merit-based, transparent process, but domestic politics (including some would argue continued support for the World Bank from the Congress) dictates that it make every possible effort to place an American once again in that office.
It does matter who runs the World Bank and how she or he arrives there. Why?

Capital Shrugged
Mark Spitznagel - Project-Syndicate.org
LOS ANGELES – Capitalism’s greatest strength has been its resiliency – its ability to survive the throes and challenges of crises and business cycles to fuel innovation and economic growth. Today, however, more than four years into a credit crisis, a conspicuous enigma calls this legacy into question.
Despite recent hopes of recovery in the US, including an inventory catch-up in the fourth quarter of 2011, real US GDP growth has remained persistently below trend. Moreover, although seasonally adjusted January employment data have brought the unemployment rate down to 8.3% (while total jobs were actually lost in January), the more realistic rate of "underemployment" remains over 15% and the labor-force participation rate is at a record 30-year low. And the US is clearly not alone in its malaise, with the eurozone fighting a far more urgent sovereign-debt crisis.

Percent of mortgage loans In-Foreclosure by State
by CalculatedRisk
The MBA noted that judicial states generally have the most loans in the foreclosure process. The graph below shows the percent of loans in the foreclosure process by state and by foreclosure process. Red is for states with a judicial foreclosure process. Because the judicial process is longer, those states typically have a higher percentage of loans in the process.
Nevada is an exception. But Nevada had the largest quarterly decline, and for the first time in years is not in the #2 spot behind Florida - Nevada has dropped to #4.

The Grand Game of Perception Management
BY CHARLES HUGH SMITH - FinancialSense.com
he economy will expand if you believe it is expanding--because you'll be "animal spirited" into buying a lot of stuff on credit that you can't afford.
It all boils down to perception--that's the insight at the heart of the Grand Game of Perception Management. Economists speak of magical "animal spirits" that fuel economic expansion, but this is simply a colorful term for perception management: when people perceive others reaping outsized gains in profits or pleasure from taking risky bets and freely spending borrowed money, then they will feel an overpowering urge to follow the herd and leverage their capital (if any) and disposable income (if any) into risky bets and zealous over-consumption, i.e. "animal spirits."
Conversely, when said risky bets blow up and participants have lost their ever-lovingderrieresby following the herd, then "animal spirits" quickly dissipate as the herd thunders off a cliff to its financial demise.

* * * * *

The Great Depression Is The Best Case

CBO says jobless benefits encourage joblessness
By Stephen Dinan-The Washington Times
Generous unemployment benefits are a great way to boost the economy in the short term but are leading hundreds of thousands of workers to stay out of the workforce longer than they would otherwise, according to the latest report byCongress’s official scorekeeper.
The report by the Congressional Budget Officecomes as President Obama and lawmakers on Capitol Hill are trying to forge an agreement to extend those generous benefits, as well as continue the 2 percentage-point payroll tax holiday for the rest of this year.

WHO KILLED THE JOBS?
By John Hinderaker - PowerlineBlog.com
This chart tells you just about everything you need to know as you prepare to vote in 2012. Prepared by the Republican Study Committee, it depicts the percentage of Americans in the labor force from January 2005 (commonly known as the "good old days" through January 2012. The decline in the number of working Americans is staggering. And note that Barack Obama became president in January 2009, about 3/4 of the way through the gray "recession," and just before the "stimulus" that is marked with a red dot. What has happened since Obama took office is that the jobs situation has steadily deteriorated:

More Doctors 'Fire' Vaccine Refusers
Families Who Reject Inoculations Told to Find a New Physician; Contagion in Waiting Room Is a Fear
By SHIRLEY S. WANG - WSJ.com
Pediatricians fed up with parents who refuse to vaccinate their children out of concern it can cause autism or other problems increasingly are "firing" such families from their practices, raising questions about a doctor's responsibility to these patients.
Medical associations don't recommend such patient bans, but the practice appears to be growing, according to vaccine researchers.
In a study of Connecticut pediatricians published last year, some 30% of 133 doctors said they had asked a family to leave their practice for vaccine refusal, and a recent survey of 909 Midwestern pediatricians found that 21% reported discharging families for the same reason.

Overreach: Obamacare vs. the Constitution
By Charles Krauthammer - WashingtonPost.com
Give him points for cleverness. President Obama’s birth control “accommodation” was as politically successful as it was morally meaningless. It was nothing but an accounting trick that still forces Catholic (and other religious) institutions to provide medical insurance that guarantees free birth control, tubal ligation and morning-after abortifacients — all of whichviolate church doctrine on the sanctity of life.
The trick is that these birth control/abortion services will supposedly be provided independently and free of charge by the religious institution’s insurance company. But this changes none of the moral calculus. Holy Cross Hospital, for example, is still required by law to engage an insurance company that is required by law to provide these doctrinally proscribed services to all Holy Cross employees.

Obama Budget Director
Undermines Legal Case For ObamaCare
Peter Suderman | Reason.com
Part of the Obama administration's legal defense of ObamaCare's individual mandate to purchase health insurance rests on the argument that the penalty for not paying is justifiable under the conressional power to tax. ObamaCare doesn't actually require anyone to purchase anything, the argument goes; the law just makes people pay a tax if they don't.
Courts have so far not been kind to this argument (in part because taxes must be intended to raise revenue rather than control behavior), and now a senior member of President Obama's staff seems to deny it as well. Here's an exchange between GOP Rep. Scott Garrett and newly appointed White House budget chief Jeffrey Zients from a congressional budget hearing earlier:

Rep. Scott Garrett grills OMB director Jeffrey Zients

Foreclosures on the Rise Again
By: Diana Olick - CNBC Real Estate Reporter
One in every 624 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing in January, up 3 percent from the previous month, according to a new report from RealtyTrac. Foreclosure activity froze in many states in 2011, due to processing delays after fraud, or so-called "Robo-signing," were uncovered in the fall of 2010. The thaw is now on.
"We expect the pattern of increasing foreclosures to continue in the coming months, especially given the finalized mortgage and foreclosure settlement reached in early February between 49 state attorneys general and five of the nation's largest lenders," said RealtyTrac's CEO Brandon Moore in a written release. "Foreclosure activity increased on a year-over-year basis for the first time in more than 12 months in Florida, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania, following a pattern we saw in late 2011 in states such as California, Arizona and Massachusetts."

Mortgage Settlement Not Only Thing Plunging Prices
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
New data just released revealed delinquency rates for mortgage holders is up in the last quarter of 2011. Now, the national mortgage delinquency rate is 6.01%, up from 5.88% in the third quarter of 2011 according to TransUnion. This downward trend in real estate prices will not be slowed by this bad news. Also, keep in mind, because of the $26 billion foreclosure fraud deal just agreed to (that lets the biggest banks off the hook for forgery and perjury), the banks are only going to be empowered to spike the pace of foreclosures in 2012. This is all negative for prices in a market where nearly half of all homes in America (11 million) are worth less than the mortgage. More mortgage delinquencies plus more foreclosures will equal more bank owned inventory, and when you have a lot of something, the price goes down. It is a law of economics not even the Federal Reserve can defeat.

Apple's Mac Makeover
'Mountain Lion' Software Brings Mobile Features to Mac
By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO - WSJ.com
CUPERTINO, Calif.—Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook wants to make its Mac more like an iPhone.
In an interview at the company's headquarters here, Mr. Cook unveiled a new version of the company's Mac operating system that incorporates several features from the software that powers Apple's hit mobile devices.
Named "Mountain Lion," the new version of OS X is the clearest sign yet of Apple's belief that the mobile, laptop and desktop world are destined to converge—and that Apple wants to be a catalyst.

Google Must Remember Our Right to Be Forgotten
Authors: Richard A. Falkenrath, Shelby Cullom
and Kathryn W. Davis Adjunct Senior Fellow
for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security - CFR.org
Last month the European Commission proposed adding a new "right to be forgotten" to privacy law. This deceptively simple idea is a ticking time-bomb in the booming internet economy. It is also essential – both for Europeans and Americans – to protect personal privacy in the age of pervasive social media and cloud computing.
The stakes are huge. Two weeks ago Facebook announced aninitial public offering that could value the company at up to $100bn. Facebook is worth so much because of the data it holds on its 845m users. Yet it succeeds only to the extent it can monetise the data. If a sizeable fraction of users could easily compel Facebook to delete all their personal data, the company's value would be lower.
Google's new privacy policy, released last month, points even more firmly to the need for a right to be forgotten. The new policy is clear: it explains Google's practices of maintaining digital files on its users indefinitely; of identifying its users across all its services; and of integrating this data across all Google's digital services – search, Gmail, Picasa, YouTube, Earth, Voice, Android, Chrome, Wallet, etc.

Obama Pushes Global Tax
by GARY DEMAR - GodFatherPolitics.com
When taxes are high in one state, businesses and individual tax payers have the freedom to move to another state. The number of millionaires who have left New York is getting to Red Sea proportions. Rush Limbaugh moved his operation to Florida, a state that doesn’t have a state income tax. Lebron James was considering joining the New York Knicks until he found out how much he would be paying in New York state and city taxes. Like Limbaugh, he chose Florida. He plays for the Miami Heat.
It’s not just the politicians who want to stick it to the rich. A Siena College poll reported that 72% of New York voters support the tax to avoid further budget cuts. The union-backed "99 New York" rally supported extending the "millionaire’s tax" on New Yorkers with incomes over $200,000. It was due to expire December 31, 2011.

Navy Seal Warns False Flag is Coming:
Ed Asner Reports 1/2
On this Monday, February 13 edition of the Alex Jones Show, Alex talks with film, television, stage, and voice actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild, Ed Asner. Mr. Asner will play the chairman of a new investigation of the September 11th attacks in the film "A Violation of Trust," formerly "Confessions of a 9/11 Conspirator." The film will pit the 9/11 Commission Report and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reports against the work of 9/11 researcher Dr. David Ray Griffin and the scientific research highlighted by leading 9/11 truth organizations, including Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

Navy Seal Warns False Flag is Coming:
Ed Asner Reports 2/2

Military Chaplains to be Charged
with Sedition and Treason for Preaching Against Sin
by DA TAGLIARE - GodFatherPolitics.com
One of the main news topics this past week involved President Obama’s mandate that Catholic and other religious institutions were required to provide free medical coverage for birth control. Then the president seemed to offer an olive branch, but upon closer examination the branch turned out to be deadly hemlock and not olive. He said that the insurance companies would have to provide the free birth control to the employees of religious institutions, which is virtually the same disregard for strong religious beliefs and to many Americans an outright violation of the Frist Amendment.
In all of the news and discussions, no one paid any attention to the effects this was having on our military personnel, especially the chaplains. The Catholic Church had issued a denomination wide letter in which they informed parishioners that the Church "cannot and will not comply with this unjust law."

UN general assembly backs call
for Assad to quit as Syrian president
Russia and China oppose resolution which backs Arab League plan calling on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to step down
By David Batty - Guardian.co.uk
The UN general assembly has approved a resolution backing an Arab League plan that calls on the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to step down and strongly condemns human rights violations in Syria by his regime.
The vote in the 193-member body was 137-12 with 17 abstentions.
Russia and China, who vetoed a similar resolution in the security council, voted against the resolution.
There are no vetoes in the general assembly and its resolutions are not legally binding, but they do reflect world opinion on major issues.

A ‘cosmic wager’ on the Muslim Brotherhood
By David Ignatius - WashingtonPost.com
President Obama’s outreach to the Muslim Brotherhood began three years ago in his famous June 2009 speech in Cairo.
Ten members of the Brotherhood were invited to listen to the address, and they heard a passage crafted especially for them:
"America respects the right of all peaceful and law-abiding voices to be heard around the world, even if we disagree with them. And we will welcome all elected, peaceful governments — provided they govern with respect for all their people."
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak didn’t attend the speech, but there was a message tailored for him, too, when Obama said: "Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away." Obama certainly had that right.

Eagle vs Dragon: 'US, China rivalry leads to new arms race'
Paul Craig Roberts - Chinese Vice President Shi Jin-ping has met with US President Barack Obama in Washington in an effort to smooth out their differences. Tension between the two nations have escalated recently with the US criticizing China's currency policies and Washington bolstering its military presence in the Asia Pacific.

Sanctions may be changing Iran’s nuke plans
Tehran offers to resume U.N. talks
By Shaun Waterman-The Washington Times
Iran’s leaders "may be changing their mind" about pressing ahead with their nuclear program in the teeth of international sanctions, the U.S. intelligence chief told senators Thursday.
Tehran has offered to resume stalled talks with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, according to a letter from its chief nuclear negotiator reported by Agence France-Presse.

The Iranian Nuclear Threat Goes Global
Itamar Rabinovich - Project-Syndicate.org
TEL AVIV – The current drive to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear arsenal reflects two important, and interrelated, changes. From Israel’s perspective, these changes are to be welcomed, though its government must remain cautious about the country’s own role.
The first change is the escalation of efforts by the United States and its Western allies to abort the Iranian regime’s nuclear quest. This was instigated in part by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s finding in November 2011 that Iran is indeed developing a nuclear weapon, and that it is getting perilously close to crossing the "red line" – the point beyond which its progress could no longer be stopped. Moreover, the US and its allies understand that failure to take serious action might prompt Israel to launch its own unilateral military offensive.

Iran and the U.S.-Saudi Relationship

SLOUCHING TOWARD TEHRAN
By Scott Johnson - PowerlineBlog.com
It’s hard to escape the feeling that events are building toward a cataclysm in the Middle East. Iran appears to have engaged in three or four assassination attempts against Israelis in foreign countries this week — in New Delhi, in Bankgkok, in Tbilisi, and in Singapore (this last one reportedly denied by Israel). The bombs fit a pattern.
Iranian denials of involvement are a little bit hard to square with events in Bangkok, where an Iranian man blew off his legs and injured several bystanders as a series of explosions rocked the city. Andrew Buncome’s Independent story on the Bangkok bungle includes a photo with a straight-on view of the would-be bomber’s stumps. Somewhere inside that legless man is a Monty Python joke struggling to run free.

Life in America Under Agenda 21
with whistleblower Charlotte Iserbyt 1/4
Charlotte Iserbyt is the consummate whistleblower! Iserbyt served as Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, during the first Reagan Administration, where she first blew the whistle on a major technology initiative which would control curriculum in America's classrooms. Iserbyt is a former school board director in Camden, Maine and was co-founder and research analyst of Guardians of Education for Maine (GEM) from 1978 to 2000. She has also served in the American Red Cross on Guam and Japan during the Korean War, and in the United States Foreign Service in Belgium and in the Republic of South Africa. Iserbyt is a speaker and writer, best known for her 1985 booklet Back to Basics Reform or OBE: Skinnerian International Curriculum and her 1989 pamphlet Soviets in the Classroom: America's Latest Education Fad which covered the details of the U.S.-Soviet and Carnegie-Soviet Education Agreements which remain in effect to this day. She is a freelance writer and has had articles published in Human Events, The Washington Times, The Bangor Daily News, and included in the record of Congressional hearings.

Life in America Under Agenda 21
with whistleblower Charlotte Iserbyt 2/4

Life in America Under Agenda 21
with whistleblower Charlotte Iserbyt 3/4

Life in America Under Agenda 21
with whistleblower Charlotte Iserbyt 4/4

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