Glenn Greenwald: How Wall Street owns Washington

2009-04-06 Richard Moore Just think about how this works.  People like Rubin, Summers and Gensler shuffle back and forth from the public to the private sector and back again, repeatedly switching places with their GOP counterparts in this endless public/private sector looting.  When in government, they ensure that the laws and regulations are written to redound … Read more

Mike Whitney: Mike Spitzer to the Rescue

2009-04-06 Richard Moore The Spitzer case brings up some unsettling questions about Bush’s surveillance programs: mainly whether they are really being used to investigate potential terrorists or simply a means of destroying political enemies. … Just days before the scandal broke, The Washington Post published an article by Spitzer which linked the Bush administration to the mortgage fiasco. … Read more

Uri Avnery re/Israel: It’s A Lieberman Government

2009-04-06 Richard Moore http://www.countercurrents.org/avnery050409.htm It’s A Lieberman Government By Uri Avnery 05 April, 2009PalestineChronicle.com On the first day of the new Israeli government, the fog cleared: it’s a Lieberman government. The day started with a celebration at the President’s office. All the members of this bloated government – 30 ministers and 8 deputy ministers – … Read more

Obama & auto workers: total betrayal

2009-04-06 Richard Moore The double standard between the administration’s treatment of Wall Street and the auto industry is blatant. It was already prefigured in the personnel appointed by Obama to his Auto Task Force. The group is headed by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who was the president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank prior … Read more

Obama ignores Congress to enrich his cronies

2009-04-06 Richard Moore In one program, designed to restart small-business lending, President Obama’s officials are planning to set up a middleman called a special-purpose vehicle — a term made notorious during the Enron scandal — or another type of entity to evade the congressional mandates, sources familiar with the matter said. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/03/AR2009040303910.html Administration Seeks an … Read more

Ralph Nader: We should have known

2009-04-06 Richard Moore http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/04/04-0 Published on Saturday, April 4, 2009 by CommonDreams.org The Ones Who Got It Right by Ralph Nader Why is it that well regarded people working the fields of corporate power and performance who repeatedly predicted the Wall Street bubble and its bursting receive so little media and attention? Instead, the public is … Read more

G20 communiqué: Point by point analysis

2009-04-03 Richard Moore Under the G20 agreement, funding for the IMF will be increased by $500 billion to $750 billion. Japan agreed to provide $100 billion of the extra funding, the European Union $100 billion and China about $40 billion. Interesting how China is participating, yet holding back, given that they could contributed a whole … Read more

3 Detained in Afghanistan Can Take Challenges to U.S. Court

2009-04-03 Richard Moore U.S. District Judge John D. Bates rejected the government’s argument, first made by the Bush administration and later adopted by the Obama Justice Department, that it could detain prisoners indefinitely in a “war zone.” Change you can believe in? rkm ___ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/02/AR2009040201796.html 3 Detained in Afghanistan Can Take Challenges to U.S. Court … Read more

Geithner causes crisis then makes excuses

2009-04-03 Richard Moore Billions of dollars worth of financial instruments known as credit derivatives were being traded daily, as banks and investors worldwide tried to protect against losses on increasingly complex and risky financial bets. But the buying and selling of these exotic instruments was stuck in a pencil-and-paper era. Geithner, then head of the … Read more

Dominique Moïsi: Obama and the End of Privileges

2009-04-02 Richard Moore In the eyes of a good part of American public opinion, Barack Obama’s economic team, from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to the president’s Chief Economic Advisor Larry Summers, like the king’s entourage at the end of the Ancien Régime, has inherited all the bad reflexes of the “court,” combining an excessive sympathy … Read more

2012 may bring the “perfect storm” – solar flares

2009-04-02 Richard Moore The solar maximum is expected in 2012.  University of New Hampshire scientist Jimmy Raeder states, “”We’re entering Solar Cycle 24. For reasons not fully understood, CMEs in even-numbered solar cycles (like 24) tend to hit Earth with a leading edge that is magnetized north. Such a CME should open a breach and … Read more

* George Galloway: audio speech re/banishment from Canada *

2009-04-02 Richard Moore http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/needs-no-introduction/galloway-gaza his speech is free: Galloway on Gaza BY HOST/PRODUCER: MEAGAN PERRY  | APRIL 1, 2009 Show Notes: You’re listening to a special edition of Needs No Introduction, Fresh ideas from speakers of note. British MP George Galloway was refused entry into Canada this week, Conservative Minister of Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney … Read more

Martial law being field-tested in Mexico

2009-04-02 Richard Moore In reading this article, one must keep in mind that the CIA runs the international drug trade, and that Calderón’s election was fraudulent. He was brought in to privatize Pemex, and there is a huge movement, and I’m not talking about drug barons, which opposes his administration. rkm ___ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/01/AR2009040104335.html As Mexico Battles … Read more

Kevin Gosztola: Give Obama a Chance to Do What?

2009-04-02 Richard Moore http://www.opednews.com/articles/Give-Obama-a-Chance-to-Do-by-Kevin-Gosztola-090402-285.html Give Obama a Chance to Do What? By Kevin Gosztola   If it weren’t for all the excuses being made for Obama’s and his administration’s actions, I would feel a whole lot better. I think others who suffered under the Bush Regime would too.   The populist anger across America is … Read more

Anna Mundow: Politics and humanitarianism

2009-04-02 Richard Moore http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2009/03/22/politics_and_humanitarianism?mode=PF Politics and humanitarianism By Anna Mundow  |  March 22, 2009 Mahmood Mamdani, a third-generation East African of Indian descent, grew up in Uganda, studied at Harvard, taught at various African and American universities, and is currently Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University. A political scientist and anthropologist, he is best … Read more

Tom Burghardt: US Officials “Rediscover” ISI-Taliban Nexus

2009-04-01 Richard Moore While an open secret in Washington, Obama’s new product roll-out in the form of an ill-conceived plan to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat” al-Qaeda and the Taliban has everything to do with the construction of the $7.6 billion dollar “Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline that would cross western Afghanistan east of Herat and advance south … Read more

Daniel Taylor: CFR Unveils Global Governance Agenda

2009-04-01 Richard Moore http://www.infowars.com/cfr-unveils-global-governance-agenda/ CFR Unveils Global Governance Agenda Daniel TaylorOld-Thinker News March 31, 2009 The Council on Foreign Relations, often described as the “real state department”, has launched an initiative to promote and implement a system of effective world governance. The program, titled “ The International Institutions and Global Governance Program,” utilizes the resources of … Read more

Rise of sea levels: ‘greatest lie ever told’

2009-04-01 Richard Moore The reason why Dr Mörner, formerly a Stockholm professor, is so certain that these claims about sea level rise are 100 per cent wrong is that they are all based on computer model predictions, whereas his findings are based on “going into the field to observe what is actually happening in the … Read more

The silence surrounding Sri Lanka

2009-04-01 Richard Moore http://www.truthout.org/033109T http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/03/31/the_silence_surrounding_sri_lanka/ ARUNDHATI ROY The silence surrounding Sri Lanka By Arundhati Roy  |  March 31, 2009 NEW DELHI THE HORROR that is unfolding in Sri Lanka becomes possible because of the silence that surrounds it. There is almost no reporting in the international press – or in the mainstream media in India, where … Read more

Surprise: CFR launches project for global governance

2009-03-31 Richard Moore The program draws on the resources of CFR’s David Rockefeller Studies Program to assess existing regional and  global governance mechanisms and offer concrete recommendations for U.S. policymakers… http://www.cfr.org/content/thinktank/CFR_Global%20_Governance_%20Program.pdf Council on Foreign Relations   International Institutions and Global Governance Program  World Order in the 21st Century   A New Initiative of the Council … Read more

* Michael Hudson: Does US Face G20 Mutiny?

2009-03-31 Richard Moore Strange as it may seem – and irrational as it would be in a more logical system of world diplomacy – the “dollar glut” is what finances America’s global military build-up. It forces foreign central banks to bear the costs of America’s expanding military empire – effective “taxation without representation.” Keeping international … Read more

Ken Cole: Understanding the Bolivarian Alternative

2009-03-30 Richard Moore After opposition to neoliberalism in Seattle, Genoa, the World Social Forum and elsewhere; Third World governments’ inability to agree to further trade liberalization at the WTO; and regional opposition organized by the Alianza Social Continental, it became politically impossible for Latin American government representatives to reach agreement on the ALCA proposal at … Read more

The G20 summit: are the outcomes already known?

2009-03-30 Richard Moore London – Mar 14, 2009 – Finance ministers and central bankers from the world’s big economic powers moved Saturday to paper over sharp differences in their efforts to combat the global recession with a pledge to return the international economy to growth. … following the meeting … the finance ministers had ‘reached a consensus for … Read more

Obama’s Afghan escalation: where is it leading?

2009-03-30 Richard Moore Obama’s plan calls for replicating in Afghanistan Bush’s military “surge” in Iraq and launching military strikes at will in Pakistan. It confirms that Obama’s candidacy was not a move towards peace, but the expression of a struggle inside the American ruling elite over the strategic priorities of US imperialism. The region has … Read more

FLASH ** US Backing for World Currency Stuns Markets **

2009-03-30 Richard Moore US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner shocked global markets by revealing that Washington is “quite open” to Chinese proposals for the gradual development of a global reserve currency run by the International Monetary Fund. … The Chinese proposal, outlined this week by central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan, calls for a “super-sovereign reserve currency” under … Read more

Chossudovsky: The Canada-Israel “Public Security” Agreement

2009-03-29 Richard Moore Under the proposed agreement, the Deputy Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness of Canada is in liason with his Israeli counterpart the Director General of Public Security for the Government of the State of Israel. Together they chair a joint Management Committee.  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12913 British MP George Galloway barred from Canada under the Canada Israel … Read more

Mexico: the next Iraq?

2009-03-29 Richard Moore There is ample evidence that US bankers are among the principal beneficiaries of drug profits. Earlier this year, the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said his agency had found mounting indications that money from drug trafficking was playing a key role in the bailout of failing … Read more

The return of Hoovervilles

2009-03-29 Richard Moore Far from implementing a new reform agenda, Obama made clear on Tuesday that a massive attack on social programs was being readied, to be implemented as soon as the bank bailouts are complete. He referred repeatedly to the high cost of healthcare and the need for “Entitlement reform”—i.e., the debts building up … Read more

Number Of Chronically Hungry Tops One Billion

2009-03-29 Richard Moore The number of chronically hungry people has surpassed the 1bn mark for the first time as the economic crisis compounds the impact of high food prices, the United Nations’ top agriculture official has warned. In an interview with the Financial Times, Jacques Diouf, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, warned that the … Read more

Jonathan May reveals insider secrets

2009-03-28 Richard Moore … the controlling interest of the prime banks is held by the same people who have the controlling interest in the major oil companies. They control through a joint stock trust which was set up by the original Rockefellers here in America in 1870. This was three years before the United States … Read more

Insider reveals how banks promote credit card debt

2009-03-28 Richard Moore http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5029530.stm Britain’s streets of debt: Whistleblower THE WHISTLEBLOWER  “ The most profitable customers are those that are perhaps the most vulnerable ”  A powerful insider breaks the banking industry’s code of silence and reveals how the High Street banks deliberately target their customers and push borrowing. Speaking exclusively to the BBC, this whistleblower is … Read more

James P. Tucker: Next Bilderberger: Vouliagmeni, Greece, May 14-17

2009-03-28 Richard Moore According to wikipedia, James Tucker has been investigating Bilderberger meetings for some time. rkm ___ http://www.prisonplanet.com/plutocrats-to-meet-in-greece.html Plutocrats To Meet In Greece James P. Tucker, Jr.American Free Press Friday, March 27, 2009 Related: Reports: Bilderberg To Meet in Athens Note: As we previously reported, Bilderberg may have disseminated reports of meeting in Greece … Read more

comparing bailouts – banks vs. automakers

2009-03-27 Richard Moore President Obama said yesterday that his administration will offer the auto industry an aid package that will require General Motors and Chrysler to make “painful” and “pretty drastic” changes. … “If they’re not willing to make the changes and the restructurings that are necessary, then I’m not willing to have taxpayer money chase after bad … Read more

Expanded Americorps has an authoritarian feel

2009-03-27 Richard Moore http://www.infowars.com/senate-passes-national-service-bill/ http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Expanded-Americorps-has-an-authoritarian-feel-41889742.html Expanded Americorps has an authoritarian feel By Examiner Editorial – 3/26/09 With almost no public attention, both chambers of Congress in the past week advanced an alarming expansion of the Americorps national service plan, with the number of federally funded community service job increasing from 75,000 to 250,000 at a cost of … Read more

Big brother marches on

2009-03-27 Richard Moore http://www.truthout.org/032709D http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090326/ap_on_bi_ge/states_welfare_with_strings States Consider Drug Tests for Welfare Recipients Thursday 26 March 2009 by: Tom Breen       Charleston, West Virginia – Want government assistance? Just say no to drugs.     Lawmakers in at least eight states want recipients of food stamps, unemployment benefits or welfare to submit to random drug testing.     The … Read more

Here come killer robots

2009-03-27 Richard Moore “The pressure of an increasing battlefield tempo is forcing autonomy further and further toward the point of robots making that final, lethal decision,” he predicted. “The time available to make the decision to shoot or not to shoot is becoming too short for remote humans to make intelligent informed decisions.” How easily … Read more

Steve Watson: DoD Announces Civilian Expeditionary Workforce

2009-03-27 Richard Moore http://infowars.net/articles/january2009/300109workforce.htm many links in original Defense Department Announces Civilian Expeditionary Workforce Obama’s promise of a civilian security force is set in motion Steve Watson Infowars.net Friday, Jan 30th, 2009 The Defense Department has established a “civilian expeditionary workforce” that will see American civilians trained and equipped to deploy overseas in support of … Read more

Excerpts from Obama’s “Organizing for America” training video

2009-03-27 Richard Moore http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EglMVfUB74 ___________________________ subscribe mailto: •••@••.••• websites:  http://www.governourselves.org/ http://escapingthematrix.org/ http://cyberjournal.org recent archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newslog/messages http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cyberjournal/messages old archives:  http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/?lists=newslog http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/ Moderator: •••@••.•••  (comments welcome)

The GIVE Act: NY Times view

2009-03-27 Richard Moore http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/national-service-corps-bill-clears-senate-hurdle/ National Service Corps Bill Clears Senate Hurdle By KATE PHILLIPS Following overwhelming House passage last week, the Senate tonight voted74 to 14 on a procedural move that essentially guarantees a major expansion of a national service corps, a cornerstone of volunteerism that dates back to the era of President Kennedy. It’s … Read more