SAN ANTONIO DATA CENTER IN SONY MICROCHIP

OVIOUSLY THIS DATA MINING BASE AND THE EU WILL BE CONNECTED TO KEEP TRACK OF ALL AMERICANS AND WORLDS DATA THROUGH MICROSOFT,GOOGLE AND ALL OTHER SOURCES.

The panopticon economy
http://www.sacurrent.com/news/story.asp?id=69607
Anti-Terrorist Data Mining Doesn't Work Very Well
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/07/1827229&tid=172

Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists:A Framework for Program Assessment
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12452

NSA Is Building a New Datacenter In San Antonio
Posted by kdawson on Sunday December 07, @02:17AM
from the panopticon-economy dept.

An anonymous reader writes in with an article from a Texas paper on the NSA's new facility in San Antonio. America's top spy agency has taken over the former Sony microchip plant and is transforming it into a new data-mining headquarters... where billions of electronic communications will be sifted in the agency's mission to identify terrorist threats. ... [Author James] Bamford writes about how NSA and Microsoft had both been eyeing San Antonio for years because it has the cheapest electricity in Texas, and the state has its own power grid, making it less vulnerable to power outages on the national grid. He notes that it seemed the NSA wanted assurance Microsoft would be here, too, before making a final commitment, due to the advantages of having their miners virtually next door to the mother lode of data centers. The new NSA facility is just a few miles from Microsoft's data center of the same size. Bamford says that under current law, NSA could gain access to Microsoft's stored data without even a warrant, but merely a fiber-optic cable. The article mentions the NRC report concluding that data mining is ineffective as a tactic against terrorism, which we discussed a couple of months back.

October 7, 2008 9:30 AM PDT Government report: Data mining doesn't work well
Posted by Declan McCullagh

The most extensive government report to date on whether terrorists can be identified through data mining has yielded an important conclusion: It doesn't really work. A National Research Council report, years in the making and scheduled to be released Tuesday, concludes that automated identification of terrorists through data mining or any other mechanism is neither feasible as an objective nor desirable as a goal of technology development efforts. Inevitable false positives will result in ordinary, law-abiding citizens and businesses being incorrectly flagged as suspects. The whopping 352-page report, called Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists, amounts to at least a partial repudiation of the Defense Department's controversial data-mining program called Total Information Awareness, which was limited by Congress in 2003. But the ambition of the report's authors is far broader than just revisiting the problems of the TIA program and its successors. Instead, they aim to produce a scholarly evaluation of the current technologies that exist for data mining, their effectiveness, and how government agencies should use them to limit false positives--of the sort that can result in situations like heavily-armed SWAT teams raiding someone's home and shooting their dogs based on the false belief that they were part of a drug ring. The report was written by a committee whose members include William Perry, a professor at Stanford University; Charles Vest, the former president of MIT; W. Earl Boebert, a retired senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories; Cynthia Dwork of Microsoft Research; R. Gil Kerlikowske, Seattle's police chief; and Daryl Pregibon, a research scientist at Google. They admit that far more Americans live their lives online, using everything from VoIP phones to Facebook to RFID tags in automobiles, than a decade ago, and the databases created by those activities are tempting targets for federal agencies. And they draw a distinction between subject-based data mining (starting with one individual and looking for connections) compared with pattern-based data mining (looking for anomalous activities that could show illegal activities). But the authors conclude the type of data mining that government bureaucrats would like to do--perhaps inspired by watching too many episodes of the Fox series 24--can't work. If it were possible to automatically find the digital tracks of terrorists and automatically monitor only the communications of terrorists, public policy choices in this domain would be much simpler. But it is not possible to do so.

A summary of the recommendations:

* U.S. government agencies should be required to follow a systematic process to evaluate the effectiveness, lawfulness, and consistency with U.S. values of every information-based program, whether classified or unclassified, for detecting and countering terrorists before it can be deployed, and periodically thereafter.

* Periodically after a program has been operationally deployed, and in particular before a program enters a new phase in its life cycle, policy makers should (carefully review) the program before allowing it to continue operations or to proceed to the next phase.

* To protect the privacy of innocent people, the research and development of any information-based counterterrorism program should be conducted with synthetic population data... At all stages of a phased deployment, data about individuals should be rigorously subjected to the full safeguards of the framework.

* Any information-based counterterrorism program of the U.S. government should be subjected to robust, independent oversight of the operations of that program, a part of which would entail a practice of using the same data mining technologies to mine the miners and track the trackers.

* Counterterrorism programs should provide meaningful redress to any individuals inappropriately harmed by their operation.

* The U.S. government should periodically review the nation's laws, policies, and procedures that protect individuals' private information for relevance and effectiveness in light of changing technologies and circumstances. In particular, Congress should re-examine existing law to consider how privacy should be protected in the context of information-based programs (e.g., data mining) for counterterrorism.

By itself, of course, this is merely a report with non-binding recommendations that Congress and the executive branch could ignore. But NRC reports are not radical treatises written by an advocacy group; they tend to represent a working consensus of technologists and lawyers.

The great encryption debate of the 1990s was one example. The NRC's so-called CRISIS report on encryption in 1996 concluded export controls--that treated software like Web browsers and PGP as munitions--were a failure and should be relaxed. That eventually happened two years later. Declan McCullagh, CNET News' chief political correspondent, chronicles the intersection of politics and technology. He has covered politics, technology, and Washington, D.C., for more than a decade, which has turned him into an iconoclast and a skeptic of anyone who says, We oughta have a new federal law against this. E-mail Declan.

AUTO BAILOUT DIES IN SENATE

Israelis and Palestinians reach secret peace deal, says Blair
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=17731

International Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair told the largest Palestinian newspaper this week that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas have reached a unsigned secret peace agreement.Blair was quoted by the Jerusalem-based daily Al Quds as saying that continuous meetings between Abbas and Olmert...have produced an agreement, though he said he would abide by an decision by both leaders to keep the details of the agreement secret for the time being.The agreement remains unsigned because Israeli law forbids Olmert to make significant policy changes or decisions while he is head of a transition government.

However, anything Olmert and Abbas agreed to will be expected by the international community to form the basis for peace negotiations going forward, regardless of who wins Israel's upcoming general election.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

MANIPULATION THROUGHT THE MEDIA AND NEW WORLD ORDER ELITES WILL MAKE A MICRO-CHIP IMPLANT SEEM COOL AND UNAVASIVE.WE ARE BEING DECIEVED!!!!

IN AUSTRALIA IT IS ALREADY MANDATORY TO MICROCHIP THEIR DOGS.

Microchip cancer report.
http://www.antichips.com/
http://www.antichips.com/cancer/index.html
http://www.antichips.com/press-releases/verichip-faq-report.html

People can't wait for ID cards NOV 7,08 BBC

Jacqui Smith is phasing in the introduction of the new ID card
Jacqui Smith says public demand means people will be able to pre-register for an ID card within the next few months. The cards will be available for all from 2012 but she said: I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don't want to wait that long.The home secretary made the claim as she unveiled revised ID scheme plans.

Opposition parties say they would scrap the ID card scheme. The Tories call it a complete waste of money. The Lib Dems call it a laminated poll tax. They accused Ms Smith of backtracking on plans to issue ID cards in 2009 for all airside workers, by announcing they would pilot them at just two airports. The first biometric cards are being issued to students from outside the EU and marriage visa holders this month, and it had been planned to make them compulsory for all 200,000 airside workers from 2009.

Saving face

But instead the government announced there would be an 18-month trial, for airside workers at Manchester and London City airports only, from late next year. Campaigners No2ID said it was a transparent attempt to save ministerial face amid opposition from unions and airline bosses, who say it is unjustified and would not improve security. Unions had argued airside workers were already extensively vetted and believe they would have to pay £30 for a card - although it is understood they would be free during the trial period. I believe there is a demand, now, for cards - and as I go round the country I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don't want to wait that long Jacqui Smith Home Secretary

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve described the decision to trial ID cards at just two airports as clearly a climbdown and just a gimmick aimed at selling the scheme to the public. But a Home Office spokesman said they had always said that ID cards for critical workers would be starting in the second half of 2009 and we are on track to meet this commitment. He added ID cards would definitely be issued to the remaining airside workers in due course, before being rolled out to the wider population.

Supermarket enrolment

In a speech to the Social Market Foundation Ms Smith said cards would be issued on a voluntary basis to young people from 2010 and for everyone else from 2012. She must be ignoring twice the number of people who are coming up to her and saying I don't want my details on any database whatsoever Phil Booth NO2ID.She added: But I believe there is a demand, now, for cards - and as I go round the country I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don't want to wait that long. I now want to put that to the test and find a way to allow those people who want a card sooner to be able to pre-register their interest as early as the first few months of next year.
Biometric cards are being issued to some foreign nationals from this month She told the BBC: We'll see where that interest is, and then we'll see if we can issue some cards to those who've expressed an interest by the end of next year.People applying for cards and passports from 2012 will have to provide fingerprints, photographs and a signature, which Ms Smith believes will create a market worth about £200m a year.

And in changes to earlier plans the Home Office is talking to retailers and the Post Office about setting up booths to gather biometric data.

Trusted environment

The government believes it would be more convenient for people and cheaper than setting up its previously planned enrolment centres in large population centres. In her speech Ms Smith rejected claims handing enrolment over to private firms would compromise security. Provided that it is conducted in a secure and trusted environment, by service providers accredited and verified by the IPS and to high and rigorously enforced standards, enrolment should be able to happen at the convenience of the customer - on the high street, at the nearest post office, or at the local shopping centre.The overall cost of the ID card scheme over the next 10 years has risen by £50m to £5.1bn in the past six months, according to the government's latest cost report. Phil Booth, national coordinator of the NO2ID campaign, said Jacqui Smith's claim that people were saying they wanted an ID card beggared belief and would come back to haunt her. She must be ignoring twice the number of people who are coming up to her and saying I don't want my details on any database whatsoever, said Mr Booth. He said the government would struggle to find private firms willing to bid for the ID card contract. What company is going embarrass itself to the tune of millions for a contract that everyone outside the Home Office itself knows will be cancelled by a new administration? he said. For the Conservatives Mr Grieve said his party would axe the whole scheme because it was a complete waste of money and had asked for break clauses to be inserted into government contracts so it could be ended without massive cost and waste to the public purse. The government's plan to involve retailers in enrolling people was worrying given the government's IT track record, he added. Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: Ministers are choosing a limited number of guinea pigs at two smaller airports because they are aware of how unpopular ID cards are. The government is too scared to force ID cards on voters before an election because they know it would be a laminated poll tax. The problem is not the ease with which we can give up sensitive personal data, but the ease with which the Home Office loses it. The Government cannot be trusted to keep personal information safe.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Storm cuts power to more than 1 million customers By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI, Associated Press Writer DEC 12,08

CONCORD, N.H. – An ice storm to compare with some of the Northeast's worst made a mess of the region Friday, leaving 1.25 million homes and businesses in seven states without power as it forced schools to close and toppled ice-laden trees and power lines onto slippery roads.Most of the outages were in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and New York, and it was expected to take several days to completely restore electricity. The storm wreaked havoc from Maine to Pennsylvania, leaving a sparkling, ice-covered landscape that was too destructive for many to find beautiful.

This is pathetic, said Bob Cott of Portland, Maine, who lost power for the first time in 10 years. I'm already sick of winter and we have nine days to go before it officially begins.At least one death was related to the storm: New Hampshire officials said a 49-year-old Danville man who lived in a camper died of carbon monoxide poisoning after turning on his generator when his power went out Thursday night.For New Hampshire, the power outages dwarfed those during the infamous Ice Storm of '98, when some residents spent more than a week in the dark.In Hampstead, N.H., Mark Cegelis, 36, said things were hectic at his neighborhood gas station, which was jammed with people trying to get gas for home generators.It's kind of lawless out there right now, he said. There's a lot of people very frustrated stacking up at the gas stations. It's pretty ugly.He bought 21 gallons for himself and tried to deliver some to friends in Derry but couldn't get there because downed trees blocked roads. So the two friends came to him instead, and were expected to hunker down with Cegelis' family, his parents and another friend until power was restored.

So nine people here. But you know what? We've got the juice, and we're willing to let these folks come in. I'm sure they'd do the same thing for us, he said. It's treacherous out there.Nearly two dozen shelters were set up across the southern part of the state, and authorities were working to get generators to several nursing homes. About 20 people, mostly elderly, had settled in at a shelter at Portsmouth High School by early afternoon, though officials expected more families with young children by evening.The big worry is really about seniors when temperatures drop in a few hours, New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch said Friday afternoon.Both Lynch and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick declared states of emergency Friday morning and called up members of the National Guard. Five hundred Massachusetts Guard members were cleaning up debris and clearing access to downed power lines. Lynch put 150 on alert and deployed 20.All of the resources at our disposal have been made available to try to get the roads clear and power restored, said Patrick, adding that it would be ambitious to think power would be restored by Monday to the 350,000 homes and businesses in his state left in the dark.This is not going to be a couple of hours, Patrick said. It's likely to be several days.Utilities reported more than 400,000 homes and businesses without power in New Hampshire, including 320,000 served by the state's largest utility, Public Service Company of New Hampshire. By contrast, the 1998 storm left 55,000 Public Service customers without power.This is the absolute, most significant power restoration effort we've ever had. There has not been a storm before that has affected more customers, Public Service spokesman Martin Murray said.

Public Service officials said they do not know yet how long it will take to restore all power, but suggested repairs for at least some homes and businesses will go into next week. They have lined up 300 crews from as far away as Maryland and Ohio to be in the state by Sunday, are looking for more, and hope to be able to give a better estimate of restoration late Sunday.Crews from Canada and South Carolina were headed to Maine, where Gov. John Baldacci declared a limited emergency allowing utility crews to work longer hours. Central Maine Power Co. said more than 215,000 customers in the dark as of late Friday morning, mostly in southern and coastal areas. Bangor Hydro Electric Co. reported more than 12,000 outages. Two people were taken to Maine Medical Center after being overcome by fumes from a portable generator in their basement. Their names and conditions were not immediately available. In eastern New York, particularly around Albany, the state capital, outages at National Grid and other utilities brought the statewide total to more than 255,000. Trees were down on all the roads, said Miguel Figueroa, 28, as he waited for coffee at a Starbucks in Colonie, N.Y. ... I couldn't even get on the Thruway today.In Vermont, at least three shelters were being set up in southern Vermont for the more than 30,000 customers who were without power Friday afternoon. It could be days before some homes and businesses get their lights back on, officials said. The ice storm extended to Pennsylvania, where about 4,700 customers, most of them in the Poconos, lost power, and Connecticut, where some 17,000 customers were without electricity at the height of the storm. Those states mostly got heavy rain or rain changing to snow. Though blue skies appeared in some areas by Friday afternoon, temperatures were expected to fall below freezing again, with single digits forecast for Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire Saturday night. Associated Press writers Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H.; Beth LaMontagne Hall in Portsmouth, N.H.; Mark Pratt in Boston; Clarke Canfield in Portland, Maine; John Curran and Lisa Rathke in Montpelier, Vt.; and Mike Hill and Jessica M. Pasko in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.

Heavy rains pound Italy, Rome declares emergency DEC 12,08
By ALESSANDRA RIZZO, Associated Press Writer

ROME – Rome declared a state of emergency as the swollen Tiber river threatened to flood Friday and the death toll from the heavy rains battering much of Italy rose to four.The Civil Protection Department said the Tiber had risen about 16 feet (5 meters) in the past two days and warned it might burst its banks.Officials evacuated Gypsy camps along the Tiber's banks and boats broke loose from their moorings in the surging water. The smaller Aniene river, which flows into the Tiber, already overflowed, forcing officials to close down some streets in Rome and evacuate hundreds of people.It is as if there has been an earthquake, Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno told the daily La Repubblica.Tourists snapped pictures as the roiling Tiber surged underneath the city's bridges. Lumir, an Afghan hound, sported a blue raincoat Friday as his owner watched the Tiber rise in Rome.Italy has been hit by days of bad weather, and TV footage has shown entire neighborhoods flooded or submerged by mud.Downpours disrupted traffic Friday from Milan in the north to Palermo, Sicily, in the south, as trains were delayed and many streets were flooded or blocked by fallen trees. A few inches (centimeters) of water again covered Venice's lowest parts, including the landmark St. Mark's Square, while Alpine rescuers saved a group of boy scouts who had been trapped on Mount Etna.Four people were reported killed. Rescuers recovered the body of a man in southern Italy who was swept away in the heavy rains, while an elderly man died after his car was hit by a tree and another one was killed in a car crash in a rainstorm, police in the southern city of Reggio Calabria said.A woman was killed Thursday after her car was submerged in an underpass in Rome.

In Rome and Venice, two of the hardest-hit cities, union officials called off local transport strikes.Shows at the Auditorium, an exhibition and concert center in northern Rome designed by architect Renzo Piano, were canceled Friday night.On Thursday, more rain fell in Rome than the usual average for the entire month of December, city officials said.On Mount Etna, eight boy scouts were rescued Friday after being trapped by a snowstorm at a refuge on the mountain's north slope at an altitude of 1,700 meters (5,577 feet).In Venice, alarms sounded early in the morning as the high tide came in and parts of the city flooded. Still, the water was far less than the unusually high tide recorded in the lagoon city last week, when residents and tourists waded through knee-high water, shops were flooded and much of the city was brought to a halt.

FAMINE

REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)

FAMINE

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

Drought means workers hungry in US produce capital DEC 12,08 By TRACIE CONE, Associated Press Writer

MENDOTA, Calif. – Idled farm workers are searching for food in the nation's most prolific agricultural region, where a double blow of drought and a court-ordered cutback of water supplies has caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.This bedraggled town is struggling with an unemployment rate that city officials say is 40percent and rising. This month, 600 farm families depleted the cupboards of the local food bank, which turned away families — more than 100 of them — for the first time.We're supposed to supply the world, said Mendota Mayor Robert Silva, and people are starving.The state's most dire water shortage in three decades is expected to erase more than 55,000 jobs across the fertile San Joaquin Valley by summer and drive up food prices across the nation, university economists predict.People being thrown out of work are the ones who can least afford it, said Richard Howitt, a professor of agriculture economics at the University of California-Davis, who estimates that $1.6 billion in agriculture-related wages across the valley will be lost in the coming months because of dwindling water.Already the wage losses have hit businesses that are the backbone of the small farm communities that sustain nearly a quarter of the nation's agriculture production.A lot of problems with this country's economy can't be fixed fast, said Alan Hansen, whose family-owned hardware store on the main drag is suffering a 25 percent decline in sales.But this can be fixed like that, he said, snapping his fingers. All they have to do is get the water here.

California's population has ballooned from 10 million to more than 36 million since water began flowing through the state's network of canals in middle of last century, delivering water from the wet north to the arid south.After years of discounting the environmental consequences, court orders seeking to protect threatened fish such as the Delta smelt have slowed the flows even as prolonged drought left some reservoirs at just 12 percent of capacity.This year federal water deliveries were 35 percent of the normal allocations, fallowing hundreds of thousands of acres and causing $260 million in crop losses statewide. The governor issued a disaster declaration for the region.Now farmers are relying on dwindling groundwater supplies and keeping their fingers crossed for 10 percent of their water allotments. Last week a coalition of farmers and urban water users filed a lawsuit claiming that state officials overstepped their authority by approving another round of potential cuts.The valley produces 80 percent of the world's almonds. But grower Shawn Coburn has held off spending $350,000 to fertilize his 1,000 acres this month because he fears he will not have enough water for a 2009 crop.If you like foreign oil, you're going to love foreign food, he scoffed.This month, the government could further restrict water deliveries during the drought — and that would mean crop loans would be harder to get.I think that's the next shoe to drop, said Sarah Woolf, spokeswoman for the Westlands Water District, which encompasses Mendota.Already the $40 million losses in Fresno County cotton production this fall permanently closed half a dozen gins. And roughly four square miles of lettuce fields went unplanted, resulting in $13 million in lost sales.Think of all of the tractor drivers, truck drivers and pickers that processing all of that lettuce would take, said Tom Nyberg, deputy county agricultural commissioner. Those jobs were lost, too.Two hundred more jobs vanished when the Spreckles Sugar plant east of Mendota closed this fall. A farmers co-op wanted to buy it but could not find water for their beets. The local hardware store lost $5,000 a month in sales to Spreckles and had to lay off one of its nine workers. Hansen, the store owner, said he understands there is an environmental balance to be struck and that the Delta smelt are a necessary link in the food chain. But if you follow that chain up, he said,eventually it leads to us.

Farmworkers, who make up the majority of Mendota's 9,600 population, are at the bottom of the employment ladder. Rosa Lopez misses her husband, who moved eight hours south to Brawley to pick lettuce. Luis Suarez, 12, tears up when he talks about his retriever Bambi, whom the family took to a Fresno shelter when they could not afford food or shots. Micaela Mendez and Maria Diaz have taken relatives into their cramped apartments so they can share expenses. At sunset Wednesday, a dozen residents of a trailer park prepared their Christmas nativity scene and prayed for rain. If we don't have faith, we've lost everything, said Otilia Suarez in Spanish. We thank God for the small amount of food that we do have, and we keep praying for a better tomorrow.

NOW THE TRUE OBAMA IS COMING OUT.

OBAMA WATCH CENTRAL Obama to address Islamic world Plans major speech in Muslim capital to reboot America's image December 11, 2008 3:11 pm Eastern By Aaron Klein 2008 WorldNetDaily

Jakarta mosque
JERUSALEM – President-elect Barak Obama declared in an interview he plans to deliver a major address in an Islamic capital as part of his global outreach, which he said would target the Muslim world. I think we've got a unique opportunity to reboot America's image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular, Obama said in a free-ranging interview yesterday with the Chicago Tribune, promising an unrelenting desire to create a relationship of mutual respect and partnership in countries and with peoples of good will who want their citizens and ours to prosper together.The Tribune reported Obama spoke of a major address in an Islamic capital but did not provide specific details. The message I want to send is that we will be unyielding in stamping out the terrorist extremism we saw in Mumbai, Obama said.

In the interview, Obama went on to discuss his strategy for his first year in office as well as reflect on his role as the first African American to be elected president. Obama's comments come days after WND reported an Egyptian cleric broadcast on state-funded television a plea urging Obama to convert to Islam while claiming the president-elect has roots in Islam. You, Obama, are among those who have pledged before Allah – Allah who created you, sustained you, and brought you to this position – to be a Muslim who believes that Allah is the one God, especially since you have some kind of roots in Islam, declared Egyptian cleric Hassan Abu Al-Ashbal, speaking last week on the state-funded Al Nas religious television network.

Convert to Islam, and you will be saved. All glory and honor lie in following Allah and his messenger, Muhammad. Know that the true religion is the religion of Islam, and all other religions are fabricated religions, which are null and void – religions that were abrogated by the Shariah of Muhammad, Ashbal said.

Obama was quite religious in Islam

Obama repeatedly has denied he is a Muslim. His presidential campaign website contained the statement, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised as a Muslim, and is a committed Christian.But as WND has reported, public records in Indonesia listed Obama as a Muslim during his early years, and a number of childhood friends claimed to the media Obama was once a mosque-attending Muslim. Obama's campaign several times had wavered in response to reporters queries regarding the senator's childhood faith. Commenting on a Los Angeles Times report quoting a childhood friend stating Obama prayed in a mosque. Obama's campaign released a statement explaining the senator has never been a practicing Muslim.Widely distributed reports have noted that in January 1968 Obama was registered as a Muslim at Jakarta's Roman Catholic Franciscus Assisi Primary School under the name Barry Soetoro. He was listed as an Indonesian citizen whose stepfather, listed on school documents as L Soetoro Ma, worked for the topography department of the Indonesian Army. Catholic schools in Indonesia routinely accept non-Catholic students but exempt them from studying religion. After attending the Assisi Primary School, Obama was enrolled also as a Muslim, according to documents in the Besuki Primary School, a public school in Jakarta. Laotze blog, run by an American expatriate in Southeast Asia who visited the Besuki school, noted: All Indonesian students are required to study religion at school, and a young Barry Soetoro, being a Muslim, would have been required to study Islam daily in school. He would have been taught to read and write Arabic, to recite his prayers properly, to read and recite from the Quran and to study the laws of Islam.Indeed, in Obama's autobiography, Dreams From My Father, he acknowledged studying the Quran and describes the public school as a Muslim school.

In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Quranic studies, wrote Obama. The Indonesian media have been flooded with accounts of Obama's childhood Islamic studies, some describing him as a religious Muslim. Speaking to the country's Kaltim Post, Tine Hahiyary, who was principal of Obama's school while he was enrolled there, said she recalls he studied the Quran in Arabic.
At that time, I was not Barry's teacher, but he is still in my memory claimed Tine, who is 80 years old. The Kaltim Post said Obama's teacher, named Hendri, had died.

I remember that he studied mengaji (recitation of the Quran), Tine said, according to an English translation by Loatze. Mengaji, or the act of reading the Quran with its correct Arabic punctuation, is usually taught to more religious pupils and is not known as a secular study. Also, Loatze documented the Indonesian daily Banjarmasin Post interviewed Rony Amir, an Obama classmate and Muslim, who described Obama as previously quite religious in Islam.We previously often asked him to the prayer room close to the house, Amir said. If he was wearing a sarong (waist fabric worn for religious or casual occasions) he looked funny.The Los Angeles Times, which sent a reporter to Jakarta, quoted Zulfin Adi, who identified himself as among Obama's closest childhood friends, stating the presidential candidate prayed in a mosque, something Obama's campaign claimed he never did. We prayed, but not really seriously, just following actions done by older people in the mosque, said Adi. But as kids, we loved to meet our friends and went to the mosque together and played.

Friday prayers

Obama's official campaign site contained a page titled Obama has never been a Muslim, and is a committed Christian. The page stated, Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ.But the campaign changed its tune when it issued a practicing Muslim clarification to the Los Angeles Times. An article in March by the Chicago Tribune apparently disputed Adi's statements to the L.A. paper. The Tribune caught up with Obama's declared childhood friend, who now describes himself as only knowing Obama for a few months in 1970 when his family moved to the neighborhood. Adi said he was unsure about his recollections of Obama.

But the Tribune found Obama did attend mosque.

Interviews with dozens of former classmates, teachers, neighbors and friends show that Obama was not a regular practicing Muslim when he was in Indonesia, states the Tribune article. It quotes Obama's former neighbors and third-grade teacher recalling how the young Obama occasionally followed his stepfather to the mosque for Friday prayers.Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, notes the Tribune article cited by liberal blogs as refuting claims Obama is Muslim actually implies Obama was an irregularly practicing Muslim and twice confirms Obama attended mosque services. In an interview with the New York Times, Obama described the Muslim call to prayer as one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.The Times' Nicholos Kristof wrote Obama recited, with a first-class [Arabic] accent, the opening lines of the Muslim call to prayer.

The first few lines of the call to prayer state:

Allah is Supreme!
Allah is Supreme!
Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that Muhammad is his prophet ...
Some attention also has been paid to Obama's paternal side of the family, including his father and his brother, Roy. Writing in a chapter of his book describing his 1992 wedding, Obama stated: The person who made me proudest of all was Roy. Actually, now we call him Abongo, his Luo name, for two years ago he decided to reassert his African heritage. He converted to Islam and has sworn off pork and tobacco and alcohol.Still, Obama maintains he was raised by his Christian mother and repeatedly has labeled as smears several reports attempting to paint him as a Muslim. Let's make clear what the facts are: I am a Christian. I have been sworn in with a Bible. I pledge allegiance [to the American flag] and lead the Pledge of Allegiance sometimes in the United States Senate when I'm presiding, he told the Times of London earlier this year.

CNN NEWS VIDEO
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LAURIE ROTH SHOW 10PM-1AM MON-FRI
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HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS FRI DEC 12,2008

09:30 AM -4.06
10:00 AM -76.70
10:30 AM -111.99
11:00 AM -54.32
11:30 AM -91.04
12:00 PM -108.56
12:30 PM -59.02
01:00 PM +51.41
01:30 PM -27.16
02:00 PM -48.27
02:30 PM -81.40
03:00 PM +54.16
03:30 PM +25.72
04:00 PM +64.59 8629.68

S&P 500 879.73 +6.14

NASDAQ 1540.72 +32.84

GOLD 821.70 -4.90

OIL 46.63 +1.36

TSE 300 8515.45 +123.55

CDNX 718.54 +5.10

S&P/TSX/60 515.76 +8.03

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

Dow -214 points at low today so far.
Dow -32 points at high so far.
Dow -214 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
WSJ:Honda cuts North American output by 114,000 additional units.
GM:Prepared to work closely with White House.

BERNARD L MADOFF
-Investment Securities,Former Nasdaq Chairman.
-Madoff Charged in $50 BILLION fraud at Investment Advisory firm.
-Sec seeking emergency relief for investors,including Asset freeze.
-Madoff told Employees Business was Giant PONZI SCHEME.

MADOFFS VICTIMS
UBP,Banco Santander(Optimal fund),Tremont,FSG,Nomura,Kingsgate,Frontbridge,Bank Syz,Lombard Odier,Ascot Fund Limited(Ezra Merkin),Sterling Stamos(Wilpon Family),Maxam Capital(Sandra Manzke),Loeb Family,Palm Beach Country Club.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS

Dow -214 points at low.
Dow -32 points at high.
Government could be as high as $10 TRILLION DOLLARS wasted since bailouts began.
Bush Administration pushes for Auto aid,change of mind.Government may take money out of TARP.
5 of last 15 sessions have been minus if minus today.
REPORT:Wachovia bonuses cut.

WHAT IS THE P.B.G.C
-Pension benefit guaranty Cooporation.
-Protects 44 MILLION workers.
-29,000 Pension Plans.
-$11 BILLION shortfall.
-Portfolio -6.5% yeart to date (YTD).
PBGC protects 1.2 MILLION Auto workers with Detroits big 3.
The PBGC steps in to take over failed Pension funds.
PBGC concerned it might have to cover billions in Pensions.
PBGC in stronger financial condition than it was last year.
The PBGC has about $11 BILLION more in liabilities than Assets.
PBGC deficit is down over $3 BILLION this year.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS

Dow -214 poits today.
Dow +64 points today.
Stocks erase early losses.
Dow closes 0.8% higher today after erasing 2.5% drop.
Dow slips 0.1% this week.
Nasdaq up 2.1% this week.
Nasdaq +1.9% today.
S&P ends up with gain of 0.7% today after erasing 2.6% drop.
S&P up +0.4% this week.
STOCKS HIGHER DESPITE SENATE REJECTION OF AUTO BAILOUT.

LA TIMES 8.5 TRILLION - NOV 30,08
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fi-pricetag30-2008nov30,0,5435854.story?track=rss

White House promises new last-ditch auto rescue By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent DEC 12,08
F 3.04 +0.14
GM 3.94 -0.18
^GSPC 879.73 +6.14

Friday, Dec. 12, 2008. Festering animosity … WASHINGTON – With Congress gridlocked and the economy floundering, the Bush administration declared Friday it would step in and prevent the precipitous collapse of the U.S. auto industry and the disastrous national economic impact of the hundreds of thousands of job losses sure to follow.

The day after the sudden demise of emergency legislation in Congress, administration officials said no decisions had been made on the size or duration of the new rescue plan, or what type of concessions, if any, would be demanded from the struggling automakers, their workers, stockholders or others.In a reversal, the most likely option under consideration involved billions of dollars originally ticketed for the bailout of the financial industry. President George W. Bush had long declared that money off-limits to the beleaguered automakers.General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC have warned they are running out of cash and face bankruptcy without some form of assistance. Ford Motor Co., which is in somewhat better shape financially, has been seeking access to a line of credit.Urgent requests for White House intervention to save the automakers came from President-elect Barack Obama, Republican and Democratic members of Congress and outside groups.Under normal economic conditions we would prefer that markets determine the ultimate fate of private firms, White House press secretary Dana Perino said after the failure of a $14 billion bailout bill in Congress. The legislation died when Senate Republicans demanded upfront pay and benefit concessions from the United Auto Workers that union officials rejected.

Perino added, Given the current weakened state of the U.S. economy, we will consider other options if necessary including use of the TARP program to prevent a collapse of troubled automakers. A precipitous collapse of this industry would have a severe impact on our economy, and it would be irresponsible to further weaken and destabilize our economy at this time.TARP is the $700 billion Troubled Assets Recovery Program, the financial industry bailout plan enacted in October. All but $15 billion of the first $350 billion has been dedicated to troubled banks or insurance companies, and the Treasury Department is barred from dipping into the second $350 billion without a formal notification of Congress.No decision has been reached about such a notification, administration officials said. If one is made, Congress could then vote to prevent the action, but it would be unlikely to prevail in a showdown with the president.Obama, who will inherit the problem next month, even if bailout billions are handed over in the meantime, said, My hope is that the administration and the Congress will still find a way to give the industry the temporary assistance it needs while demanding the long-term restructuring that is absolutely required.In a letter to Bush, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged the president to demand the same tough accountability and taxpayer protections from the automakers as was contained in legislation that cleared the House at midweek.

Michigan Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a conservative Republican from a state where Ford, GM and Chrysler are headquartered, said, With the legislative opportunities now exhausted, I urge the president of the United States to immediately release Wall Street TARP funds to the domestic automakers to avoid their impending bankruptcy and its consequent devastation of working families and the depression of our American economy.It was unclear what role was left to lawmakers after an extraordinary week in which prospects for industry relief seemed to change by the hour.A week ago, the government reported the loss of 533,000 jobs in November, the worst monthly showing in more than 30 years.In the days between then and now, the White House and congressional Democrats agreed on a $14 billion measure that would have extended short-term financing to the industry while establishing a powerful new car czar to make sure the money was used to turn the Big Three into competitive companies. That bill passed the House on Wednesday but immediately ran into opposition from Senate Republicans who said it did not go far enough.On Thursday, they demanded the United Auto Workers union agree to accept a lower pay and benefits package that would be in line with compensation earned by workers at U.S. factories producing cars for Japanese companies such as Honda, Toyota and Nissan. In an unprecedented series of negotiations, lawmakers met with representatives of industry and labor on the first floor of the Capitol in hopes of striking a deal — the effort that ultimately collapsed when the UAW balked at the terms demanded.At a news conference on Friday, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger accused GOP senators who blocked emergency loans of trying to pierce the heart of organized labor.Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who played a leading role for Republicans, told reporters at the Capitol that the talks came close to success but failed when the UAW refused to commit to lowering its pay-and-benefits package in 2009 so it would be at parity with the Japanese companies. He also laid blame at the feet of the administration. I think it being known that the White House at the end of the day would probably blink probably helped keep us from a deal, he said. Whatever the reason, the effort stalled when Republicans voted en masse against advancing the original House bill to a final vote late Thursday night.
Associated Press writers Laurie Kellman in Washington and Tom Krisher and Kimberly S. Johnson in Detroit contributed to this story.

EU hails climate deal as example for the world By ROBERT WIELAARD and ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press Writers DEC 12,08

AFP BRUSSELS, Belgium – European nations on Friday dared the United States, Russia and China to follow their lead on global warming after agreeing on a plan to meet the so-called 20-20-20 targets: reducing greenhouse emissions by 20 percent and ensuring that 20 percent of energy comes from wind, sun and other renewable sources by 2020.But activists said the plan was fatally weakened by a raft of concessions to eastern Europe and heavy industry at a time of worldwide economic crisis.Stavros Dimas, the European environment commissioner, said the package put the 27-nation European Union on a path to a low-carbon economy.We are the only region in the world that is reducing emissions, Dimas said on the sidelines of a U.N. climate conference in Poznan, Poland, calling the bloc an example that others should follow.

Environmentalists said the concessions made the plan ineffective.The deal is a disaster, it's disgraceful, said Stephen Singer, a climate specialist for WWF International. If the world follows the example of the EU, it is on a trajectory to disastrous climate change.The plan increased the amount of emissions Europeans could offset by sponsoring green projects in developing countries. Armed with that opt-out, Singer said Europe's actual emissions reductions would be a mere 4 percent, not the 20 percent the EU claims.The Brussels summit coincided with the end of a two-week, 190-nation U.N. conference in Poznan that worked on a global climate treaty to be adopted next year in Copenhagen, Denmark. The treaty would replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol, which required the EU and other industrial countries to cut carbon emissions by an average 5 percent by 2012.The EU leaders held out an inducement to the Poznan negotiators: If a global climate deal can be reached in Copenhagen, the EU will go even further, cutting its greenhouse gases by 30 percent by 2020.

President George W. Bush has refused to accept mandatory restrictions on the U.S. economy intended to cut carbon emissions, both as outlined in the Kyoto accord and those now being considered. While the United States signed the Kyoto agreement, it was never ratified by the Senate and Bush essentially scrapped it. Since 1990 U.S. emissions have increased by 16.7 percent.Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who was at the Poznan conference, said he expects the United States to have a climate policy in place within a year that will allow it to join the worldwide effort to combat global warming.President-elect Barack Obama has called for Congress to establish greenhouse gas limits that would reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and cut them another 80 percent by 2050. He also pledged to invest $15 billion a year to develop clean energy projects that produce fewer greenhouse gases.Yvo de Boer, the top U.N. climate official, said the EU deal showed that difficult roadblocks (to a global accord) can be overcome and resolved.He said the EU deal was a sign of developed countries' resolve and courage the world has been waiting for in Poznan. It shows the world that ambitious emission reduction goals by 2020 are in line with moving economic recovery in a green direction.The EU leaders spent two days sorting out differences over sharing the burden of cutting greenhouse emissions by 20 percent and ensuring that 20 percent of energy comes from wind, sun and other renewables by 2020.When it was over, they claimed global climate change leadership, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the summit chairman, declaring, No other continent has given itself such binding rules as we have just adopted.However, environmental groups called the EU deal a sellout.Claude Turmes, a Luxembourg Green Party member of the European Parliament, said EU governments were using the economic downturn as an excuse to water down climate policies.The heart of the EU agreement is a system — starting in 2013 — of auctioning industrial emission permits that are now issued free of charge. Major polluters will eventually pay $66.1 billion a year for this permission to pollute. Governments will use that income for clean energy development. But critics say loopholes allow some industries, especially in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, to get largely off the hook, with no incentive to embrace green technologies. Turmes called the selling of pollution credits ethically wrong. It implies a neocolonial approach to climate policy.Jos Cozijnsen, a carbon-trading expert for the New York-based Environmental Defense Fund, calculated Europe would meet half its 20 percent goal by cutting emissions, and half by buying credits. That's not bad, he said. It's expensive to do everything domestically.Elise Ford of the relief organization Oxfam complained that a proposal requiring some auction revenues to go to poor nations was swept from the table. The cost of the plan had alarmed eastern European countries at a time of economic slowdown. Desperate to get a deal, France backed several opt-outs to the strict reductions it wants industries to make. The opt-outs are aimed at heavy industries that might flee abroad to regions with looser environmental rules. The European Parliament must vote on the climate change package next week. They can expect a pep talk from Sarkozy, who made the climate plan the central goal of his six-month run as EU president. France's tenure ends Dec. 31. EU officials stressed Europe's pollution reduction targets could breathe new life into the U.N. climate talks. The EU plan also pushes eco-friendly cars, fewer power-draining buildings, greener consumer goods and energy deregulation. People will not follow Europe unless we set the example, said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. EU governments agreed in principle to the emissions cuts last year, but spent months working it out. Friday's resulting plan came after diplomats worked through the night for a final compromise. It is highly detailed, with targets and timetables differing from country to country. The leaders also agreed on a $258 billion European economic stimulus package to ease the effects of a recession. In the past decade, the EU has largely stayed on track to meet pollution-cutting targets of the 1997 Kyoto agreement. In November, the European Environment Agency said the 15 nations that belonged to the EU at the time are on target to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent in the 2008-12 period. Twelve nations have already surpassed or are set to meet the targets, while Denmark, Italy and Spain will not. Arthur Max reported from Poznan. Associated Press writers Constant Brand and Aoife White in Brussels contributed to this report.

Auto bailout dies in Senate By John Crawley and Richard Cowan DEC 11,08

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate failed on Thursday night to reach a last-ditch compromise to bail out automakers, effectively killing any chance of congressional action this year.The $14 billion legislation officially died in the Senate late on Thursday after supporters failed to get enough support in a procedural vote.Republican-brokered talks faltered, leaving the chamber at a dead end on an approach for extending $14 billion in loans to avert a threatened collapse of one or more automakers, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in remarks on the floor.It's over with, Reid said.Markets across the Asia-Pacific region were down more than three percent after news the talks had collapsed, with Japan's Nikkei average and Hong Kong's Hang Seng both down more than five percent.U.S. crude prices fell by nearly $2 to $46.11 a barrel.The White House said it would evaluate its options in light of the collapse of the bailout legislation.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto declined to say what those options included. The Bush administration has resisted Democrats' past demands to use some money from the $700 billion bailout package approved in October to help struggling financial institutions to help the automakers.Fratto said the failed legislation had presented the best chance to avoid a disorderly bankruptcy while ensuring taxpayer funds only go to firms whose stakeholders were prepared to make difficult decisions to become viable.Lawmakers planned to move ahead with a procedural vote on a Democratic-sponsored bill negotiated with the White House that Reid admitted would not succeed.

There is too much difference between negotiators to reach an agreement, the Nevada Democrat said.The late night development followed intense discussions on a possible compromise that participants said fell apart over proposed wage concessions by the powerful United Auto Workers.We were three words away from a deal, said Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican who proposed the alternative and led the talks.Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said the main issue of disagreement was the date to require the Detroit autoworkers' pay parity with foreign auto manufacturers.General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC are seeking billions of dollars in immediate aid, while Ford Motor Co wants a hefty line of credit.The industry is reeling from depressed sales, made worse by the credit crunch and the recession and GM and Chrysler said government intervention was required now to avert potential failure.The House of Representatives passed its version of a Democratic-sponsored bailout on Wednesday but Senate Republicans rejected that measure.A Senate aide said congressional debate on the bailout legislation is over for this year and is now up to Secretary Paulson on whether to use Treasury Department's TARP funds to help the industry.Polls show Americans split on bailing out the Detroit automakers, widely criticized for fighting tougher fuel efficiency standards and poor model designs that have left the companies gasping for life with a stable of products losing popularity with consumers.Because of their shared suppliers and vendors, industry fears the failure of one Detroit manufacturer could drag down the other two as well as other businesses.GM, Ford and Chrysler employ nearly 250,000 people directly, and 100,000 more jobs at parts suppliers could hang on their survival. The companies say 1-in-10 U.S. jobs are related to the auto sector.(Reporting by John Crawley; Editing by Philip Barbara and Todd Eastham)

World Bank offers $2B to developing nations DEC 11,08 World Bank puts $2 billion in aid on fast track for poor nations.Fund is available to 78 nations identified as most poverty-stricken By Katy Byron

(CNN) -- The World Bank announced a fast-track assistance program for countries in dire economic straits Wednesday, aiming to make $2 billion in financial aid available more quickly for struggling nations.Under previous guidelines, a country could wait as long as six weeks to receive money from the World Bank. The new program aspires to make funds available within a month, bank officials told CNN.We want to help countries manage this downturn with financing to help minimize its impacts and by assisting them in designing supportive policies, World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick said in a statement announcing the plan.The $2 billion will come from the institution's $42 billion International Development Association program. The money will be available to the 78 countries that are a part of the IDA borrowers list, which consists of the most poverty-stricken nations worldwide.The bank said it had not received any requests yet for funds through the fast-track program, but it expected to see application in the next few days.

Commerzbank Expects EU Approval for Bailout This Week (Update1)
By Aaron Kirchfeld DEC 11,08

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Commerzbank AG Chief Executive Officer Martin Blessing said he expects Germany’s second-biggest lender to get the European Commission’s approval for its government bailout by the end of the week. I expect we’ll get approval from Brussels by the end of the week, Blessing said at a conference in Frankfurt today. Up until now, not a cent has flown” from the capital injection. Commerzbank will get an 8.2 billion-euro ($10.6 billion) capital injection from the German government as part of the state’s 500 billion-euro bank-rescue plan. Officials from the commission, the European Union regulator, have been meeting with German authorities to discuss changes to the bailout this week. Blessing also said it could become harder for companies to get loans as the economy contracts and corporate defaults rise. At the moment there is no credit crunch in Germany, and Commerzbank and the country’s other banks are lending more, he added. To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Kirchfeld in Frankfurt at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net

Commission seeks shorter, shallower recession by relaxing EU bank bail-out rulesDavid Gow in Brussels The Guardian, Tuesday 9 December 2008

The European Commission is relaxing state aid rules to allow EU governments to bail out companies and inject capital into financially sound banks to encourage lending to industry and individuals, it emerged yesterday.Neelie Kroes, the EU's competition commissioner, said Brussels was moving beyond shoring up banks to ensure that the recession across Europe was shorter and shallower than threatened.Her move came as the commission approved a €21bn (£18bn) French scheme for recapitalising sound banks so they could increase lending to the real economy, and indicated it would swiftly approve amended German and Austrian bank rescue plans. But companies are continuing to lay off thousands of staff and close plants for extended periods because of frozen credit lines.Kroes said she intended to announce extra measures before Christmas to enable EU governments to rescue specific companies in trouble with targeted aid.I therefore intend to authorise the quick grant of higher amounts of state guarantees and loans and to allow more aid to be given without notification, she said. This will help the financing of the real economy through investments, but also through coping with temporary liquidity difficulties and stress on working capital.EU competition rules allow governments to give aid of up to €200,000 to companies without having to notify Brussels. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is pressing Kroes to raise this to €400,000.Kroes has been at loggerheads with national governments over delays in approving bank rescue plans, and has faced repeated demands to act tough to avoid any distortion of competition that would give rescued banks advantages over competitors.

The approved French scheme sets a benchmark for other recapitalisation plans by setting an average 8% interest coupon on any state capital, higher than France wanted. This will vary according to the solvency of each bank and will initially be fixed for five years.Kroes indicated that riskier banks would pay more interest. She said: The pricing mechanism needs to carry a sufficient incentive to keep the duration of state involvement to a minimum, for example, through a remuneration rate that increases over time.The volume of work has held up negotiations between the EC and UK government over the bail-out and subsequent nationalisation of Northern Rock. Kroes indicated there would be a decision before the holiday.

World looks to EU for leadership on climate change: UN chief Thu Dec 11, 5:20 am ET

AFP POZNAN, Poland (AFP) – The European Union summit in Brussels holds great consequences for the whole world, which looks to the EU for leadership on climate change, UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned on Thursday.What we need today is leadership, Ban said at the start of a two-day ministerial-level meeting in Poznan to round off the United Nations climate talks.We look for leadership from the European Union. The decisions currently being made by European leaders in Brussels are (of) great consequences for the whole world.Ban also called for a Green New Deal under which part of the massive stimulus to tackle the world financial crisis would be devoted to weaning economies from carbon pollution.EU leaders, meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, face rifts on how to implement a scheme to slash European greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 compared with the benchmark year of 1990.It is the most ambitious target set by any advanced economy.The Poznan forum, under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is tasked with advancing towards a new global pact for braking the dangerous rise in greenhouse-gas emissions, blamed for damaging the world's climate system.The EU has championed demands for tough measures, and its internal row on how to achieve the 2020 goal has sparked fears that this could cripple momentum in the global process.Ban praised president-elect Barack Obama for declaring the fight against global warming and ending America's dependence on fossil fuels a priority of his administration.

We look for leadership from the United States, the UN secretary-general also said in his speech.It is therefore encouraging to hear about the incoming administration's plan to put alternative energy, environmentalism and climate change at the very centre of America's definition of national security, economic recovery and prosperity.

Israel's Netanyahu tells EU he will pursue peace By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer – Thu Dec 11, 1:46 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu sought Thursday to reassure Europeans that he will continue peace talks with the Palestinians if he wins February's general election, despite a rightward tilt in his Likud Party.He was speaking to Israel-based EU ambassadors in the wake of Likud primaries, which catapulted several ultra-hawks into the top 30 places on the party's slate of candidates for Feb. 10 elections.Netanyahu was the guest speaker at a lunch hosted by the European Union and arranged long before Monday's primaries. He used the occasion to try to quell concerns fueled by the outcome, which delivered significant advances for a wing of Likud seeking to halt peace talks, ban minority Arab citizens of Israel from the parliament, encourage non-Jews to leave the country and pull Israel out of the United Nations.Following the primary results, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of the rival Kadima Party warned that a victory for a Likud slate peppered with die-hard opponents of concessions to the Palestinians could plunge Israel into international isolation.Netanyahu resisted peace efforts when he was prime minister from 1996-1999 but says he will carry on existing negotiations with the Palestinians if he is returned to power, as polls indicate, though with more emphasis on encouraging Palestinian economic growth rather than a speedy transition to a sovereign Palestinian state.

I told them that a Likud government under my leadership will continue the peace talks, stressing security and economic development, Netanyahu said in a brief statement after Thursday's lunch. We intend to interlace them with economic development, rapid economic development for the Palestinians and regional cooperation with Jordan and Egypt.Likud spokeswoman Amit Koren said the party has dropped ultra-hawk Moshe Feiglin far down on its list of candidates for Feb. 10 elections despite his strong showing in the primary. Feiglin opposes peace talks with the Palestinians, encourages non-Jews to leave the country and advocates recapturing the Gaza Strip.Feiglin finished in 20th place in the voting, but Koren said Likud's court dropped him to the 36th position.

Vatican team discusses papal visit to Israel Thu Dec 11, 2:33 am ET

JERUSALEM, (AFP) – Israeli President Shimon Peres has met a Vatican delegation to discuss preparations for a possible visit by Pope Benedict XVI next year, his spokeswoman said on Thursday.We are waiting for the official declaration of this visit which must come from Rome, but the president on Wednesday started discussing with a Vatican delegation the programme of this visit which could take place in spring, said spokeswoman Ayelet Frish.During a visit to Italy in September 2007, Peres invited the pope to travel to Israel to strengthen the message of peace, reconciliation and hope throughout the Middle East.Uneasy relations between the Vatican and Israel have been further strained by plans to declare Nazi-era Pope Pius XII a saint, despite widespread criticism of his inaction during the Holocaust.The controversy, which has lingered for decades resurfaced in October as the pontiff defended the memory of his wartime predecessor and said he wanted him beatified soon -- a first step towards declaring him a saint.But, citing Jewish sensitivities, the Vatican later indicated Benedict was holding off the process of having Pius declared a saint.Peres has stressed the row should not affect plans for the proposed papal trip.Pope Paul VI was the first pontiff to visit Israel, in 1964, and Pope John Paul II visited in 2000.

New Israeli radar to pinpoint rocket launchers in preparation for conflict with Hamas

With an eye to a future conflict with Hamas and Hizbullah, the IDF's Artillery Corps is preparing to integrate a new radar system that will help locate and destroy rocket launchers more quickly than ever before, Chief Artillery Officer Brig.-Gen. Michel Ben-Baruch has told The Jerusalem Post.The radar will be operational within a few months.Under production by Elta Systems - a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries - the new radar will be able to provide artillery cannons with a 360-degree view of a battlefield and detect the exact location of rocket launchers.The location will then be transmitted digitally to the cannons or rocket systems deployed nearby, which will be able to fire at the launchers and destroy them.There is no radar like this in the world, Ben-Baruch told the Post on Monday. It can pinpoint the location of the launch and then find the range the cannons will need to aim at to fire.The new radar is one of several new technologies the Artillery Corps has been integrating into service since the Second Lebanon War in 2006.But the highlight of the Artillery Corps's recent accomplishments came in last month's IDF draft, when for the first time in the corps's history, all of its new inductees are soldiers who had asked to serve there.This 100% match beat out the Armored and Engineering Corps, and put Artillery at the same level as the Givati and Kfir infantry brigades.This is an unbelievable success, Ben-Baruch said. These are high-quality soldiers who realize that in the Artillery Corps they will operate advanced technology and have the opportunity to try out for some of the most elite units in the world.

Since the Second Lebanon War, during which the artillery featured prominently, Ben-Baruch has sent officers to schools and homes of draftees around the country to describe the corps, particularly the different technologies and opportunities that soldiers will encounter during their service.Among the hundreds enlisted, Ben-Baruch revealed that 35 of the soldiers will be trained to become operators of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for the IDF's Ground Forces.In the coming weeks, the Defense Ministry is scheduled to rule on a tender for the production of a small, lightweight UAV for field units that will be operated by the Artillery Corps. IAI and Elbit Systems Ltd. are competing for the contract.When people think of the Artillery Corps they imagine a small cannon being dragged on a wagon, Ben-Baruch said. In reality, though, we have some of the most fascinating and advanced technology in the IDF.

OBAMA DOESN'T TALK THIS TIME HINT

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

Ireland promises Lisbon ratification by end of 2009
ELITSA VUCHEVA Today DEC 11,08 @ 18:49 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Ireland has promised to ratify the EU's Lisbon Treaty by November next year in exchange for concessions from the other EU states on its key demands.A document green-lighted by EU leaders gathered in Brussels on Thursday (11 December) reads: The Irish government is committed to seeking ratification of the Lisbon Treaty by the end of the term of the current [European] Commission, in November 2009.Irish voters said No to the Lisbon Treaty on 12 June. (Photo: EUobserver)It is important to Irish society and to future generations that we make the right decision now in terms of retaining an active, influential role at the heart of the European Union, Irish foreign minister Micheal Martin told RTE Radio prior to the decision.In exchange, EU leaders have agreed that each member country will keep one commissioner in the next European Commission if the Lisbon Treaty enters into force.In its current form, the Lisbon Treaty foresees a reduction of the commission whereby as of 2014 just two-thirds of the member states would have a commissioner at any one time. The reduction can be changed by the EU countries however, if they agree to such a move unanimously.Dublin has said that according to their research into why their citizens voted No, keeping their commissioner had been a key concern, together with holding on to its traditional neutrality. Ireland has also sought assurances that the EU would not impose rules concerning taxation or ethical issues, such as abortion, euthanasia and gay marriages.

Ireland has secured concessions on these points as well. The European Council [EU member states] has carefully noted the other concerns of the Irish people presented by the taoiseach as set out in the statement annexed relating to taxation policy, family, social and ethical issues, and Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) with regard to Ireland's traditional policy of neutrality, reads the document.The European Council agrees that these concerns shall be addressed to the mutual satisfaction of Ireland and the other member states by way of the necessary legal guarantees, it continues.The Irish commitment to pass the Lisbon Treaty means the country is likely to hold a second referendum on the document sometime next year, possibly before the end of October. The Irish first rejected the text on 12 June by a vote of 53.4 to 46.6 percent.An Irish Times poll last month showed that given such assurances, voters would approve the treaty in a second referendum, however, with 43 percent of respondents saying they would now vote Yes, 39 percent No and 18 percent having no opinion.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Storms drench Italy, 1 dead in Rome By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer DEC 11,08

weather.com ROME – Violent storms flooded parts of Rome on Thursday, killing at least one person as the sea threatened to once more inundate Venice.Firefighters in the capital said they had to evacuate dozens of people trapped in cars on flooded streets and on ground floors of buildings. Civil protection officials said more rain was expected Friday, further swelling the roiling Tiber river, which runs through the city.Rescuers found one woman dead inside her car, which was submerged in an underpass as hail and rain poured down on Rome early Thursday, spokesman Gennaro Tornatore said.From midnight to 8 a.m. Thursday, 60-101 millimeters (2.36-3.98 inches) of rain fell in Rome — more than the average for the entire month of December, said Fabrizio Santori, head of the city's security commission.Aerial pictures of the capital showed the streets of entire neighborhoods submerged by brown mud.Snow has fallen in northern Italy over the last few days, and the bad weather is now reaching across the center and south of the country.The situation in Rome is critical, but the weather conditions tell us we need to keep an eye on the south too, Tornatore said.Mayor Gianni Alemanno asked authorities to declare a state of emergency, and Italy's largest union scaled back a planned general strike because of the weather. The civil protection said it was monitoring several swelling rivers, including the Tiber and Florence's Arno.Authorities urged Italians not to travel by car unless strictly necessary. The weather has been snarling traffic in cities and causing delays at train stations and airports across the country.In Venice, alarms sounded early in the morning as the high tide came in, flooding the city's lowest parts, including the landmark St. Mark's Square.The historic piazza was covered only in a few inches (centimeters) of water, far less than last week, when an unusually high tide caused one of the worst floods in the city's recorded history.However, the municipality said strong southern winds pushing water into the lagoon could increase the high tide level.

Rare snow covers south Louisiana, Miss.By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer DEC 11,08

NEW ORLEANS – A rare snowfall blanketed south Louisiana and parts of Mississippi Thursday, closing schools, government offices and bridges, triggering crashes on major highways and leaving thousands of people without power.Parts of Louisiana were expected to get up to four inches of snow. Snow also covered a broad swath of Mississippi, including the Jackson area, and closed schools in more than a dozen districts. The National Weather Service in Jackson said up to 8 inches was possible in the southern and eastern parts of the state.A heavy band of snow coated windshields and grassy areas in New Orleans, where the National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning.Office workers stepped out of high-rises to catch a snowflake, snap pictures with cell-phone cameras and swap snow stories.At a park in New Orleans' Uptown neighborhood, Sara Echaniz, 41, snapped photos and dodged snowballs thrown by her son, 3-year-old Sam. He didn't believe it was snow until it started sticking to the ground, said Ecahniz, a native of Rochester, N.Y., who was pregnant with the child the last time it snowed in New Orleans, in December 2004.

In Alabama, heavy rains prompted forecasters to issue a flood watch for parts of the state. Wintry precipitation also was possible later Thursday as temperatures were expected to drop.Flood watches were issued through Thursday night for much of North Carolina ahead of the storm system. Colder air behind the front could produce snow late Thursday and early Friday in the mountains.In Louisiana, nearly 7,000 power outages were reported in south-central parishes as falling tree limbs snapped under the weight of ice and snow.Some flights at Louis Armstrong International Airport outside New Orleans were delayed and canceled. Airport spokeswoman Michelle Wilcut said deicing equipment was being used on planes. Cleco Corp., one of the state's largest power providers, said the number of outages was expected to grow.Forecasters said the mix of sleet and snow was expected to diminish later in the day as the weather system moved east.In southeast Louisiana, temperatures were above freezing so accumulations were not expected to linger much beyond Thursday. An inch was forecast for New Orleans.The wintry weather is rare in south Louisiana, though the state's northern parishes see it about once a year. New Orleans' last snowfall, in 2004, was a dusting that came nine months before Hurricane Katrina struck. The record snowfall for the city is about 5 inches, recorded Dec. 30, 1963.The weather service said the previous earliest date for measurable snowfall in New Orleans was Dec. 22, 1989.

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HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS THU DEC 11,2008

09:30 AM -50.23
10:00 AM -57.51
10:30 AM -2.23
11:00 AM -10.59
11:30 AM -44.13
12:00 PM +10.25
12:30 PM -4.14
01:00 PM +28.99
01:30 PM -35.28
02:00 PM -65.63
02:30 PM -80.13
03:00 PM -164.39
03:30 PM -204.46
04:00 PM -196.33 8565.09

S&P 500 873.59 -25.45

NASDAQ 1507.88 -57.60

GOLD 820.10 +11.30

OIL 47.22 +3.70

TSE 300 8391.90 -242.10

CDNX 713.44 +7.90

S&P/TSX/60 507.73 -17.32

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

Dow -208 at low so far today.
Dow +32 at high so far today
Dow -124 at 4 minutes of trading today.
All 50 Democratic Senators want Blagojevich to resign.
House passes bailout 237-170,sends $14 BILLION plan to Senate.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS

Dow -248 points at low.
Dow +32 points at high.

Dow -2.2% today.
S&P -2.8% today.
Nasdaq -3.6% today.
Dow,S&P 500 has risen 10 times in last 13 sessions but down today.
Oil prices surge more then 10% today.
Energy stocks rebound as oil prices rise.
Financials lead stocks lower.
4 of 30 Dow stocks up at close.
Stocks trim losses in last 20 minutes.

Wall Street tumbles on auto bailout worries By JOE BEL BRUNO and TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer DEC 11,08

NEW YORK – Wall Street's anxiety about Detroit automakers welled up Thursday, sending stocks sharply lower in an afternoon sell-off as investors grew fearful that a bill to rescue the companies wouldn't make it through the Senate.The pullback follows mostly moderate moves in stocks since mid-November and is a fresh reminder of investors' fears about the economy.Prospects for the $14 billion in loans to cash-starved General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC dimmed Thursday afternoon as opposition from both parties mounted.Lawmakers opposed to the plan are arguing that any support for the nation's auto industry should carry significant concessions from autoworkers and creditors and reject tougher environmental rules imposed by House Democrats. The House approved the plan late Wednesday on a vote of 237-170 to infuse money within days to the two struggling automakers. Ford Motor Co. has said it does not need aid.The heads of the three automakers said that even one of the companies going into bankruptcy would slam an already battered economy with thousands of job losses.Wall Street has been betting Washington would extend a lifeline to the automakers and even recovered early Thursday from a sell-off at the opening bell that followed weak readings on unemployment and the trade deficit. But the worries about the carmakers weighed on a market that managed to trade flat for much of the session.What we had was a little bit of a jumping of the gun, overreaction to the auto-rescue bill, said Jon Nadler, senior analyst at Kitco Bullion Dealers Montreal. The Dow tried to put a good face on things, but at the end of the day, reality set in.According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 196.33, or 2.24 percent, to 8,565.09. The decline comes a day after the Dow added 70 points after a surge in gold and other commodities prices gave investors reason to snap up energy and materials stocks.The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 25.65, or 2.85 percent, to 873.59, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 57.60, or 3.68 percent, to 1,507.88.The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies tumbled 25.19, or 5.3 percent, to 451.21 as investors looked for the safety of larger companies expected to fare better in a weak economy.

Declining issues on the New York Stock Exchange outnumbered advancers by more than 3 to 1, while trading volume came to a moderate 1.47 billion shares. Lighter trading can exacerbate the market's swings.What's going to happen in the Senate is really weighing on the market in a big way, said Dr. Robert Froehlich, chief investment strategist for DWS Investments. He contends that a failure of the auto bailout would trigger a sell-off similar to what occurred when a financial sector rescue plan didn't make it out of Congress on the first try. The Dow Jones industrials tumbled 777 points on Sept. 29 as the plan failed an initial House vote.Wall Street remains on edge, as was clear by Thursday's pullback, but trading has been generally more orderly since the S&P 500 and the Dow hit multiyear lows on Nov. 20. Even some big moves in stocks in recent weeks don't compare with the enormous swings in September and October.One measure of unease in the market is still elevated but well off its highs. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, known as the VIX, is at 56. Ordinarily what's known as Wall Street's fear gauge might be in the 20s and 30s but it had near 90 in October.Ed Hyland, global investment specialist for J.P. Morgan's Private Bank, said investors are hoping the government's medicine, from interest rate cuts to financial infusions in banks, will eventually help lift the economy but that it remain unclear how soon the economy will recover.There is still a high degree of uncertainty out there, he said. All you have to do is look at the Treasury market to get a gauge of how much fear there is in the overall investment community.In Treasurys, the yield on the three-month T-bill stood at 0.02 percent, unchanged from late Wednesday. The low yield still indicates a high degree of investor unease. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which also moves opposite its price, fell to 2.63 percent from 2.69 percent late Wednesday.The one-month T-bill's yield was at 0.01 percent, down from 0.04 percent late Wednesday. It was auctioned on Tuesday with a yield of zero percent, a sign that institutional and foreign investors were so eager to preserve principal they were willing to forgo interest. The dollar was mostly lower against most other major currencies, while gold rose. Oil prices surged 10 percent as the dollar weakened and as investors hoped for a significant OPEC production cut next week to boost the market. Light, sweet crude jumped $4.46 to settle at $47.98 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Chevron Corp. rose $1.02, or 1.3 percent, to $79.46 following the rise in oil, while Hess Corp. advanced $3.02, or 6.8 percent, to $47.71. U.S. automakers declined as investors worried about the prospects for a bailout. GM fell 48 cents, or 10.4 percent, to $4.12, while Ford fell 35 cents, or 10.8 percent, to $2.90. Chrysler isn't publicly traded. Financials fell amid worries about their balance sheets. US Bancorp warned it is earmarking more than $1 billion in the fourth quarter for bad loans. US Bancorp fell $2.82, or 10.2 percent, to $24.85. JPMorgan Chase & Co. fell $3.58, or 10.7 percent, to $29.94, while Wells Fargo & Co. declined $3.29, or 11.3 percent, to $25.90. Consumer stocks fell after a surprise jump in weekly unemployment claims touched off fresh worries about weak consumer spending. Costco Wholesale Corp. fell $1.63, or 3 percent, to $52.06 after the warehouse chain's first-quarter earnings fell short of Wall Street's projections following a drop in sales of discretionary items. Overseas, Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.70 percent. Britain's FTSE-100 rose 0.49 percent, Germany's DAX slipped 0.78 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.43 percent. On the Net: New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

Auto bailout stalled, GOP seeks UAW concessions By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS and DAVID ESPO, Associated Press Writers DEC 11,08

WASHINGTON – A $14 billion auto industry bailout bill stalled in the Senate on Thursday, and Republicans demanded upfront concessions from the United Auto Workers as the price for support needed for passage.UAW officials were in talks with key Republicans and Democrats at the Capitol, although it wasn't clear what, if any, givebacks the union was willing to discuss.The developments unfolded after Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky joined other GOP lawmakers in announcing his opposition to a White House-backed bill that was approved by the House on Wednesday. He called for an alternative that would reduce the wages and benefits of the Big Three automakers to bring them in line with those paid by Japanese carmakers Nissan, Toyota and Honda.Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the sponsor of that proposal, was in closed-door meetings with UAW officials and Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, the Banking Committee chairman, to see if it could be modified to win the support of Democrats, who count labor unions among their strongest political allies.A growing number of Republicans and Democrats were turning against the House-passed bill — itself the product of hard-fought negotiations between the Bush White House and congressional Democrats — despite urgent entreaties from both President George W. Bush and President-elect Barack Obama for quick action to spare the economy the added pain of a potential automaker collapse.

The rescue plan would speed emergency short-term loans to cash-starved General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.Ford Motor Co. would be eligible as well but has said it has enough cash to survive without federal help.The measure would create a Bush-appointed overseer — a kind of car czar — to dole out the money but also with authority to yank it back if the carmakers didn't cut quick deals with their unions and creditors, among others, to restructure.McConnell said that measure isn't nearly tough enough.Pushing to convert skeptics in both parties, Democrats agreed to drop at least one unrelated provision that threatened to sink the measure, a congressional official said. They eliminated a pay raise for federal judges after Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who represents an automobile manufacturing state, announced she would oppose the carmaker aid unless that provision was removed.Supporters had an uphill battle pressing the rescue package on a bailout-fatigued Congress — particularly a measure designed to span the administrations of a lame-duck president and his successor. Forced together by growing economic turmoil, the incoming and outgoing presidents were united in pressing hard for swift approval.In Chicago, Obama told reporters that an industry shutdown would have a devastating ripple effect on the already ragged economy.

Earlier, just after the Labor Department reported new applications for jobless benefits were at their highest level in 26 years, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said the country couldn't afford an auto industry meltdown.On Capitol Hill, patience was wearing thin as the clock ticked down on the current Congress.Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the majority leader, called for swift separate votes Thursday on compromise legislation backed by Democrats and the White House as well as the GOP proposal. If not, he promised a test vote Friday morning to force a final up-or-down decision within days.We have danced this tune long enough, Reid declared.But many Republicans remained staunchly opposed to the rescue, and some Democrats were ill or absent from the emergency, postelection congressional session. Supporters of the bailout acknowledged that in this scenario, getting the needed 60 votes to pass it would be very difficult.It's a challenge for us, but we're working as hard as we can and I would just say it's very close, said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. Republicans were directly challenging Bush, arguing that any support for the domestic auto industry should carry significant, specific concessions from autoworkers and creditors. They are also bitterly opposed to tougher environmental rules carmakers would have to meet as part of the House-passed version of the rescue package — something that also faces some Democratic opposition. The House approved its plan late Wednesday on a vote of 237-170. Supporters cited dire warnings from GM and Chrysler executives, who have said they could run out of cash within weeks. A pair of polls released Thursday indicated that the public is dubious about the rescue plan. Just 39 percent said it would be right to spend billions in loans to keep GM, Ford and Chrysler in business, according to a poll by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. Just 45 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of Republicans supported the idea. In a separate Marist College poll, 48 percent said they oppose federal loans for the struggling automakers while 41 percent approved. Associated Press Writers Ken Thomas and Alan Fram contributed to this report.

THIS RIGHT OFF BY OBAMA SOUNDS LIKE THE LEWINSKI SCANDLE,HE GOT THE RIGHT PEOPLE ON HIS LIST ALL EX CLINTON LEADERS. CLINTON:QUOTE I NEVER HAD SEXUAL RELATIONS WITH THAT WOMAN.OBAMA QUOTE:I NEVER TALKED TO THE GOVERNOR ABOUT SELLING MY SEAT TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER. PAY TO PLAY SCHEME.

THE DEEPER THIS SCANDLE GOES THE MORE I KNOW MY PREDICTION THAT AMERICA WILL COME TO NOT IS COMING TO LIGHT QUICK,OBAMAS NOT EVEN IN OFFICE YET AND THIS SCANDLE WHICH HE KNOWS NOTHIN ABOUT AND THE BIRTH CIRTIFICATE SCANDLE WHAT HE SAYS IS A REAL CERTIFICICATE AND NOT A KENYAN BORN BUT HAWAIIAN BORN IS COMPLETE (HINT).

WITH 41 DAYS TILL THE INAUGURATION OBAMAS PAL JESSE JACKSONS'SON IS #5 PERSON THAT WAS TRYING TO GET THE SEAT. ON OCT 31,08 SOMEONE TOLD BLAGOJEVICH:WE WERE APPROCHED 'PAY TO PLAY' THAT,YOU KNOW,HE RAISE ME 500 GRAND($500,000).AN EMISSARY CAME. THEN THE OTHER GUY WOULD RAISE A MILLION ($1 MILLION),IF I MADE HIM (SENATE CANDIDATE 5)A SENATOR. COULD THIS RAISER BE NON OTHER THAN JESSE JACKSON SR,ONLY TIME WILL TELL.

Obama denies link in Illinois scandal Anne Davies, Washington December 11, 2008 FBI reveals Governor's brazen bid to sell right to succeed president-elect in US Senate.

FOWL LANGUAGE (BE PREPARED)

PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama has denied any knowledge of a staggering web of corruption that came to light in his home state of Illinois, after the state's Governor, Rod Blagojevich, was arrested, taken away in handcuffs, and charged with trying to sell the right to replace Mr Obama in the US Senate.President-elect Barack Obama says he had no contact with the Illinois Governor accused of trying to sell his vacant Senate seat.

- Obama denies knowledge of alleged plot
- FBI taps conversations
- Governor: 'I can parachute me there' claim

The Governor, who has the sole right to appoint Mr Obama's replacement in the Senate, was caught by wiretaps in his campaign office and on his home phone,plotting ways to leverage personal financial benefit from the appointment, including — at one stage — a cabinet post in the Obama administration.According to an FBI affidavit, Blagojevich was caught on wiretaps saying the Senate seat is a f---ing valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing. He was also recorded saying that unless I get something real good, he would appoint himself to the vacancy.In another conversation, he described the power to appoint as f---ing golden. I'm just not giving it up for f---ing nothing. I'm not going to do it, and I can always use it. I can parachute me there.Despite the fact that it is well known that the FBI has been running a five-year investigation into corruption in Illinois politics — 15 people have already been charged — Blagojevich brazenly discussed with aides and lobbyists acting as advisers how he could make money out of the Senate appointment and other decisions before him.As late as Monday, as he faced the media outside a shuttered factory in Chicago, Blagojevich was denying that he was the target of any probe.

He was secretly recorded canvassing the idea of getting a cabinet position in Mr Obama's administration — he wanted Health and Human Services or an ambassadorship for appointing Mr Obama's preferred candidate and close friend, Valerie Jarrett — but he later realised this was aiming too high.He then turned to schemes to get the president-elect to appoint him to a non-profit organisation and to lean on several wealthy individuals to fund it, in return for which he would appoint Mr Obama's preference. He also talked to aides about getting Mr Obama to help his wife get a $US150,000-a-year ($A228,000) board position.Blagojevich's chief of staff, John Harris, has also been charged. Both were granted bail and their passports confiscated.It is unclear whether these schemes were relayed to Ms Jarrett or to the Obama transition team, but Mr Obama explicitly said he had not spoken with the Governor about the appointment.US attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said at a press conference: We make no allegations that he (Mr Obama) was aware of anything.He went on to describe the allegations against the Governor as a political corruption crime spree that revealed a pattern of pay to play in Chicago politics.Other tapes revealed Blagojevich planning how to get the financially stressed Tribune Group, which publishes the Chicago Tribune, to remove one of its editors and certain critics from its editorial board, before he would consider giving state assistance for the sale of Wrigley Field, the famous baseball venue owned by the company.

The Tribune Group did not sack the individual or the board members — indeed, it continued its investigation of Blagojevich and at one stage refrained from publication at the request of the FBI to protect the bureau's investigation.The indictment also alleges Blagojevich was seeking $US2.5 million in campaign contributions by the end of the year from companies and individuals.The investigators said the pay to play culture in Illinois politics was deeply entrenched. If it isn't the most corrupt state in the United States, it's certainly one hell of a competitor, said Robert Grant, head of the FBI's Chicago office.The arrest of Blagojevich poses questions over how the vacant Illinois Senate seat can now be filled. Moves are afoot to pass urgent legislation allowing Illinois to hold a special election to fill the spot.Unless Blagojevich resigns or is impeached, he could fill the Senate position tomorrow with his choice of candidate.

Pan-Europe Libertas Party launched to fight anti-democratic Brussels
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today DEC 11,08 @ 16:00 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Declan Ganley, the Irish businessman behind the Libertas campaign group, of the key organisations that defeated the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland's referendum on the text in June, has launched Libertas as the first truly pan-European political party.The new Libertas Party, which aims to run candidates in all 27 European Union states for the European Parliament elections in June 2009, says it wants to democratise the European institutions, with an elected commission and a president.We are founding the party to campaign for the people of Europe to respond to the growing anti-democratic tendency in some of the institutions in Brussels, Mr Ganley told reporters on Thursday (11 December) in the organisation's new offices just metres away the European Council building where European premiers and presidents were arriving to meet for their last summit of the year.The Irish taoisheach, Brian Cowen, is expected at the meeting to tell European leaders that he will hold a second referendum on the treaty if his counterparts accede to two requests: A declaration that Irish taxation policy, family, social and ethical issues, and common security and defence policy with regard to Ireland's traditional policy of neutrality should all be safeguarded; and a pledge to maintain the one-commissioner-per-state principle abolished in the Lisbon Treaty.Pointing out that a greater percentage of Irish citizens voted against the treaty than the percentage of US citizens that voted for Barack Obama, Mr Ganley said that it is undemocratic to force Ireland to hold a second referendum and that other European citizens have been prevented from voting on the text.We will give [the EU leaders] the referendum they did not want to give the people of Europe.We are at a fork in the road, between the Europe of the Lisbon Treaty, an anti-democratic Europe that does not derive its legitimacy from the citizens ... and a democratic Europe.He insisted that the new party is not anti-EU or eurosceptic.

We want Europe to be strong and stand tall in the world, but based on democratic principles, he said. This is a pro-European organisation. There is no future for Euroscepticism. The European Union is necessary, he added.It is the status quo that if left as it is, will allow euro scepticism to grow.The new party will not partner with other political parties, but rather run all its candidates under the Libertas banner in each of the EU states.Beyond its position on democracy in Europe, Libertas' social and economic positions will be centrist, in order to attract people from across the political spectrum, although Mr Ganley was not sure about communists.
The left in Ireland played a prominent role in campaigning against the treaty, as did the left during the French and Dutch referendums that defeated the Lisbon Treaty's precursor, the Constitutional Treaty.However, at the press conference announcing the new party, Mr Ganley was light on policy details much beyond the treaty and the structure of the EU.Pressed by reporters to flesh out its other positions, Mr Ganley said that the party would be broadly free-market oriented, that European defence was very serious and that climate change could be addressed by a pan-European competition for entrepreneurs to develop innovative new technologies.

He also said that abortion and gay marriage were not issues Libertas had campaigned on in Ireland, suggesting that these are not issues the pan-European party will either.The party will hold a congress in Brussels the spring and hammer out its policy positions.Mr Ganley said that no candidates had been picked yet and would not say whether any prominent politicians had signed up to his cause. He did however say that should Philippe de Villiers, the French leader of the right-wing Mouvement pour la France so wish, he would be very pleased to have him as a candidate.Declan Ganley said he would like to be a candidate himself, but had not yet made a decision.The party's offices were bankrolled by Mr Ganley's Libertas Institute in Ireland, but is inspired by the online fundraising success of the Obama campaign. He encouraged EU citizens to visit Libertas.eu, and donate a euro or a zloty or any European currency up to the €12,000 maximum.We badly need it, he said.Speaking directly to voters, he said: [Voting for Libertas] may be the only opportunity you ever have to have a referendum on Europe.Although there are umbrella groupings in the European Parliament, such as the Party of European Socialists - the centre-left political family, and the European People's Party - its centre-right counterpart, they are still very loose and split along national lines, with very different platforms. Libertas will be the first genuinely pan-European political party with a common programme.

UKIP grumbles at competition

Britain's eurosceptic party, the UK Independence Party, said there was absolutely no common ground on Europe between Declan Ganley's new party, Libertas, and UKIP.UKIP's leader, Nigel Farage, said: Libertas has nailed its colours firmly to [UK Tory chief] David Cameron's mast of wishing to stay within the European Union and try to reform from inside.I think it will come as a surprise to many to learn just how pro EU Mr Ganley is, he added.Graham Watson, head of the Liberals in the European Parliament, described the new party as anti-European, but welcomed the challenge coming from Libertas and said that it ironically may even galvanise pro-Europeans to defend the EU.We are far from condemning this initiative of Declan Ganley. He is doing Europe a favour by stimulating interest and debate about the EU, which may result in a higher turnout at next year's European elections, the Liberal leader said.

Greek-inspired protests spread across Europe By PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Writer DEC 11,08

MADRID, Spain – The unrest that has gripped Greece is spilling over into the rest of Europe, raising concerns the clashes could be a trigger for opponents of globalization, disaffected youth and others outraged by the continent's economic turmoil and soaring unemployment.Protesters in Spain, Denmark and Italy smashed shop windows, pelted police with bottles and attacked banks this week, while in France, cars were set ablaze Thursday outside the Greek consulate in Bordeaux, where protesters scrawled graffiti warning about a looming insurrection.At least some of the protests were organized over the Internet, showing how quickly the message of discontent can be spread, particularly among tech-savvy youth. One Web site Greek protesters used to update each other on the locations of clashes asserted there have been sympathy protests in nearly 20 countries.More demonstrations were set for Friday in Italy, France and Germany.Still, the clashes have been isolated so far, and nothing like the scope of the chaos in Greece, which was triggered by the police killing of a teenager on Saturday and has ballooned into nightly scenes of burning street barricades, looted stores and overturned cars.Nevertheless, authorities in Europe worry conditions are ripe for the contagion to spread.As Europe plunges into recession, unemployment is rising, particularly among the young. Even before the crisis, European youths complained about difficulty finding well-paid jobs — even with a college degree — and many said they felt left out as the continent grew in prosperity.In Greece, demonstrators handed out fliers Thursday listing their demands, which include the reversal of public spending cuts that have brought more layoffs, and said they were hopeful their movement would spread.

We're encouraging nonviolent action here and abroad, said Konstantinos Sakkas, a 23-year-old protester at the Athens Polytechnic, where many of the demonstrators are based. What these are abroad are spontaneous expressions of solidarity with what's going on here.Across the continent, Internet sites and blogs have popped up to spread the call to protest.Several Greek Web sites offered protesters real-time information on clash sites, where demonstrations were heading and how riot police were deployed around the city. Protest marches were arranged and announced on the sites and via text message on cell phones.In Spain, an anti-globalization Web site, Nodo50.org, greeted visitors with the headline State Assassin, Police Executioners and told them of hastily called rallies Wednesday in Barcelona and Madrid.We stand in solidarity with the Greek protesters, the site said.Elsewhere in Europe, reports about the clashes in Greece were quickly picked up online by citizen journalists, some of whom posted details of confrontations on Twitter. At the Independent Media Center, photos and video of the demonstrations were uploaded and plans were listed for upcoming solidarity actions in London, Edinburgh and Berlin.One writer on the site london.indymedia.org exhorted people to follow the Greek example and reclaim the streets. Burn the banks that robbed you ... It is a great opportunity to expand the revolution in all europe.What's happening in Greece tends to prove that the extreme left exists, contrary to doubts of some over these past few weeks, French Interior Ministry spokesman Gerard Gachet told The Associated Press.

But, he added, the coming days and weeks would determine whether there's a danger of contagion of the Greek situation into France.In cities across Europe, protests flared in solidarity with the demonstrations in Greece. One rally outside the Greek Embassy in Rome turned violent on Wednesday, damaging police vehicles, overturning a car and setting a trash can on fire. In Denmark, protesters pelted riot police with bottles and paint in downtown Copenhagen; 63 people were detained and later released. And in Spain, angry youths attacked banks, shops and a police station in Madrid and Barcelona late Wednesday. Some of the protesters chanted police killers and other slogans. Eleven people — including a Greek girl — were arrested at the two rallies, which drew a total of about 200 protesters. Daniel Lostao, president of the state-financed Youth Council, an umbrella organization of Spanish youth groups, said young people in Spain face daunting challenges — soaring unemployment, low salaries and difficulty in leaving the family nest because of expensive housing. Still, he said he doubted the protests in Spain would grow. We do not have the feeling that this is going to spread, Lostao said. Let's hope I am not wrong.In France, protesters set fire to two cars and a garbage can filled with flammable material outside the Greek consulate in Bordeaux Thursday and scrawled graffiti threatening more unrest, Greek Consul Michel Corfias said. Graffiti reading solidarity with the fires in Greece, was scrawled on the consulate and the word insurrection was painted on the doors of neighboring houses. The events in Greece are a trigger for French youth angry by their own lack of economic opportunity, Corfias said. Associated Press reporters Matt Moore in Berlin, Daniel Woolls in Madrid, Ariel David in Rome, John Leicester and Jamey Keaten in Paris, and Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, contributed to this report.

Suicide bomber kills 55 in packed Iraq restaurant By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer DEC 11,08

BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber killed at least 55 people Thursday in a packed restaurant near the northern city of Kirkuk where Kurdish officials and Arab tribal leaders were trying to reconcile their differences over control of the oil-rich region. The brazen attack — the deadliest in Iraq in six months — occurred at a time of rising tension between Kurds and Arabs over oil, political power and Kirkuk.No group claimed responsibility for the attack at the upscale Abdullah restaurant, which was crowded with families celebrating the end of the four-day Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha. The U.S. blamed the blast on al-Qaida, which uses suicide bombings as its signature attack.Police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir, who gave the casualty figures, said the dead included at least five women and three children. About 120 people were wounded.It appeared, however, that the target was a reconciliation meeting between Arab tribal leaders and officials of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the Kurdish party of President Jalal Talabani, on ways to defuse tension among Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen in the Kirkuk area.Kurds want to annex Kirkuk and surrounding Tamim province into their self-ruled region of northern Iraq. Most Turkomen and Arabs want the province to remain under central government control, fearing the Kurds would discriminate against them.Iraq's parliament exempted the Kirkuk area from next month's provincial elections because the different ethnic groups could not agree on how to share power.A guard at the entrance said the blast occurred moments after a man parked his car and walked inside. He was not searched because the guards had not been told to frisk customers, the guard said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears for his own safety.At the city's main hospital, family members wept and screamed in the blood-smeared corridors as doctors tried to save lives. Many victims were horrifically wounded, and mangled bodies lay unattended on the emergency room floor.

Salam Abdullah, a 45-year-old Kurd, said he was having lunch with his wife when they saw shrapnel flying through the room.I held my wife and led her outside the place. As we were leaving, I saw dead bodies soaked with blood and huge destruction, he said. Abdullah was wounded in his head and left hand; his wife suffered head and chest injuries.I do not know how a group like al-Qaida claiming to be Islamic plans to attack and kill people on sacred days like Eid, said Awad al-Jubouri, 53, one of the tribal leaders at the luncheon. We were only meeting to discuss our problems with the Kurds and trying to impose peace among Muslims in Kirkuk.The attack was the deadliest in Iraq since June 7, when a car bomb killed 63 people in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad.U.S. officials say attacks are down 80 percent nationwide since March, though major bombings still occur. A double truck bombing killed 17 people on Dec. 4 in the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah west of Baghdad.It was unclear what effect Thursday's attack would have on reconciliation efforts in Kirkuk, since the victims included both Arabs and Kurds. Mass attacks against civilians have prompted many Sunnis to turn against the insurgency.But ethnic competition is intense in Kirkuk and elsewhere in the volatile north, the most ethnically mixed part of the country.The U.N. mission, which has been trying to defuse tension in Kirkuk, urged community leaders to demonstrate responsible leadership and to urge restraint by their followers at this difficult time.In a joint statement, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and the top U.S. commander Gen. Ray Odierno condemned the bombing and accused al-Qaida of trying to divide Iraqi communities and halt the progress toward a stable, inclusive and tolerant society.

U.S. commanders have long believed that resolving differences among the ethnic communities is the key to defeating the insurgents in the north because al-Qaida and the dozen other Sunni extremist groups there exploit those tensions. But progress has been difficult because of deep-seated suspicions and conflicting claims on Kirkuk, the center of Iraq's vast northern oil fields which the Kurds have long wanted to bring into their autonomous region. Kirkuk has been hit by at least 41 suicide attacks since May 2005, according to an Associated Press tally. The deadliest attack occurred July 17, 2007, when a suicide truck bomber struck a Kurdish political office, killing at least 80 and wounding more than 180. Iraq's constitution provides for a referendum to be held in Kirkuk to determine whether it would be annexed to the Kurdish regional administration. But the vote has been repeatedly postponed because of fears that the balloting would worsen ethnic tension. At the same time, relations between the Kurds and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have worsened because of differences over control of oil resources, Kirkuk and power-sharing. A draft law to regulate the oil industry has been stalled for nearly two years because the Kurds withdrew their support, maintaining it gave too much control to the national government. The Kurds also want a bigger say in decision-making within the ruling coalition. Al-Maliki has accused the Kurds of breaking the law by sending Kurdish troops outside the self-ruled region, ostensibly to protect Kurdish communities in central government territory. Associated Press reporters Yahya Barzanji in Sulaimaniyah, Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad and the AP News Research Center in New York contributed to this report.