PAUL - NOT THE LAST BAILOUT

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

Ron Paul: This Bailout Won't Be the Last
September 19, 2008 05:35 PM ET

I recently chatted with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) about the gigantic financial bailout that the government is preparing to undertake.Some excerpts from the interview:

What's your take on this huge financial bailout?
It's more of the same. More debt and more inflation and more pressure on the dollar. Ultimately, although the markets are responding very favorably at the moment, I think it is going to be devastating to the dollar and to our financial situation in this country.

But don't we need to get these toxic assets off banks' balance sheets?
Sure, they need to be removed. Somebody needs to suffer the consequences [but] not the taxpayer. Everybody knows that they have to be removed. They are priced too high. The assets don't have real value—some have zero and some have 10 cents on the dollar.

The people who had been making profits for all these years and dealing in all of this debt creation and derivatives—that now is becoming unwound—are claiming that it would be so painful if somebody went bankrupt and therefore we have to put so much burden on the taxpayer and on the dollar because the alternative is worse. But quite frankly, if they destroy the dollar and the dollar system, then they have a much bigger problem that they are going to have to deal with and it would be the collapse of the whole international monetary system—which is conceivable.

So instead of having taxpayers buy the bad debt, the market should take care of it by itself?
Sure, prices need to go down. Bad debt needs to be eliminated. The taxpayer ought to be protected. Taxes ought to be lowered...We are following the same routine that we did in the Depression, and that is artificially try to keep prices up. People were starving in the Depression and the only thing they did was try to keep wages artificially high and keep food prices high. We are doing the same thing now—we are trying to keep housing prices high. Low prices for houses mean poor people could buy a house. This is the most important part of a free market economy and that is free market pricing. Without free market pricing, the market can't work. And this is in a way a major effort to price fix.

So you think the government should not have bailed out an y companies during this crisis?
That would have been the best thing. It would have been painful, but housing prices would have come down sharper and faster, and it would have been over by now. But this whole idea of price fixing—that's what they are doing—has been trying to keep housing prices up and trying to stimulate home building. Well, if you have 100 percent more homes than the market really wants, you can't keep prices up and you can't stimulate home building. If the prices go down, then people will go out and buy homes again. So they should allow the liquidation of debt.

Before the Depression, [the government] generally allowed these kinds of problems to unwind. They were very severe. They would last six months or a year—a lot of liquidation of debt would be wiped off the books. And then it would go back to work again. What we've been doing now—especially since 1971—is preventing the real liquidation of the malinvestment and the excess of debt . . . If this process continues, we're going to own General Motors and Ford, then we will have to own the airlines. We are socializing our country without even a vote by the Congress. It's a horrible situation.

Will this bailout stabilize the crisis?
I personally don't think so. It might be temporary, but no, there is much more involved. I mean, we are talking about trying to unwind trillions of dollars of derivatives . . . You have to get rid of all that stuff.

Will this bailout be the last?
No, no. This won't be the last one. There will be something else later on. But that doesn't mean you might not have a few months of a reprieve. But it will continue.

Will we have to bail out the auto makers?
Oh I think so. We are not going to let them fail. Our policy is such that everybody gets bailed out. It's like a drug addict, they've got to take their fix. It's too tough getting off these drugs. And the drug here is easy credit.

Exclusive: Foreign banks may get help Mike Allen
Sun Sep 21, 8:24 AM ET

In a change from the original proposal sent to Capitol Hill, foreign-based banks with big U.S. operations could qualify for the Treasury Department’s mortgage bailout, according to the fine print of an administration statement Saturday night.

The theory, according to a participant in the negotiations, is that if the goal is to solve a liquidity crisis, it makes no sense to exclude banks that do a lot of lending in the United States.Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson confirmed the change on ABC's This Week, telling George Stephanopoulos that coverage of foreign-based banks is a distinction without a difference to the American people.If a financial institution has business operations in the United States, hires people in the United States, if they are clogged with illiquid assets, they have the same impact on the American people as any other institution, Paulson said.That's a distinction without a difference to the American people. The key here is protecting the system. ... We have a global financial system, and we are talking very aggressively with other countries around the world and encouraging them to do similar things, and I believe a number of them will. But, remember, this is about protecting the American people and protecting the taxpayers. and the American people don't care who owns the financial institution. If the financial institution in this country has problems, it'll have the same impact whether it's the U.S. or foreign.The legislative outline that went to Capitol Hill at 1:30 a.m. Saturday had said that an eligible financial institution had to have its headquarters in the United States. That would exclude foreign-based institutions with big U.S. operations, such as Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS.

But a Treasury Fact Sheet released at 7:15 Saturday night sought to give the administration more flexibility, with an expanded definition that could include all of those banks: Participating financial institutions must have significant operations in the U.S., unless the Secretary makes a determination, in consultation with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, that broader eligibility is necessary to effectively stabilize financial markets.The major change in the suggested eligibility requirements is the biggest change that Treasury publicly made after a day of briefings and conversations with Capitol Hill, and is likely the first of many. Aspects of the $700 billion, two-year proposal that are still under negotiation include what, if anything, will be added to the administration’s simple but sweeping proposal. And the parliamentary route, such as what committees or hearings might be involved, has not been finalized.House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has a hearing scheduled for Wednesday that is likely to focus on the proposal.Under what congressional officials called a likely scenario, the measure could go to the House floor on Thursday, with passage expected the same day.The Senate could take the package up as soon as Friday and send it to President Bush for his signature, although the Senate schedule is less predictable and had not been determined.Officials expect passage by huge margins in both chambers because Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have told congressional leaders the country’s financial stability depends on it.House Democrats plan to insist on adding protections for homeowners facing foreclosure. They also want to add a measure to help homeowners facing bankruptcy and an executive compensation restriction designed to prevent golden parachutes for the heads of troubled institutions.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who was supportive of the bailout concept in a statement released Friday, believes that whatever gets done in Congress has to protect Main Street, senior adviser Stephanie Cutter said on MSNBC on Saturday.On Fox News Sunday, Paulson told Chris Wallace that he would resist the Democrats' desired limits on executive compensation.If we design it so it's punitive and institutions aren't going to participate, this won't work the way we need it to work, Paulson said. Let's talk executive salaries: There have been excesses there. I agree with the American people. Pay should be for performance, not for failure. We've got work to do in that regard. We need to do that work. But we need this system to work. And so reforms need to come afterwards. My whole objective with the plan we have is to give us the maximum ability to make it work.And the secretary told NBC’s Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press that he doesn’t want new regulations simultaneously: That's not doable to do that immediately. But we very much need new regulations.Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) told Stephanopoulos on ABC: If we’re going to spend taxpayer money to get rid of bad debt in these places, what is the reciprocal obligation … from the firms? … I think there’s going to be a strong interest to deal with the Main Street aspects.Appearing with him, House Republican Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio retorted: We’ve already dealt with that, when we had the housing bill last summer. I didn’t vote for it, because it’s $300 billion bailout for scam artists and speculators and others around the housing industry. But there are a lot of tools in there to help the Federal Housing Administration deal with the foreclosure problem that’s out there. We need to rise above partisan politics … and deal with this as adults.

Paulson resists calls for added help in bailout By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer SEPT 21,08

WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Sunday that the nation's credit markets remain frozen and Congress must move quickly to pass a $700 billion bailout package for financial firms. But key Democrats said the legislation needs changes to provide better protections for taxpayers and homeowners in danger of losing their homes. The credit markets are still very fragile right now and frozen, Paulson said in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press. We need to deal with this and deal with it quickly.Paulson made the rounds of the television talk shows to stress the need for speed in getting the bailout package approved. The administration spent the weekend negotiating the details of the proposal with members of Congress with the expectation that it can be passed in the next week.Paulson said that it pains me tremendously to have the American taxpayer put in this position but it is better than the alternative.Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said that what Congress was being asked to approve was the mother of all bailouts which Shelby said would end up costing more like $1 trillion rather than $700 billion when the costs of the government taking over mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and insurance giant American International Group Inc. were added.Democrats said they understood the need for urgency but insisted that the measure needed to provide help for homeowners threatened with losing their homes, perhaps by changes in bankruptcy laws to allow for mortgages to be modified, and by capping pay and benefit packages for executives at the huge Wall Street firms that will be selling their bad debt to the government.I don't want the American taxpayer to get this bad debt and then the guy (whose company once held the bad loans) gets millions of dollars on his way out the door, said House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass.Paulson and President Bush have argued that the alternative would be credit markets that remain frozen, meaning that businesses will fail because they can't get the loans they need to operate and the economy will grind to a halt because consumers, who account for two-thirds of economic activity, won't be able to get the credit they need to keep spending.Bush said Saturday the White House is ready to work with Congress to quickly enact legislation to allow the government to purchase hundreds of billions of dollars worth of bad debt linked to the collapse of the housing market.

The administration proposal would be the biggest government intervention since the Great Depression. It would dole out huge sums of money to financial firms to purchase their holdings of bad mortgage-backed securities so that these firms can resume normal lending operations. The bad mortgage debt has been at the heart of the current credit crisis which hit more than a year ago but erupted with special ferocity in the past two weeks forcing extraordinary government actions.Two weeks ago, the government seized control of the nation's two largest mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and then last week, it took control of the country's largest insurance company, American International Group Inc.The measure that the administration sent up to Congress on Saturday is a mere three pages in length. While Paulson emphasized the need for speed, Democrats said Sunday that they could do it quickly while also adding necessary protections for taxpayers and help for people facing the threat of mortgage foreclosures.Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., appearing on ABC's This Week, said if all of this help was being directed to Wall Street there was also a need to provide help for people on Main Street.But Paulson, also appearing on ABC, said, We need this to be clean and to be quick.Paulson resisted suggestions being made by Democrats that the program be changed to include further relief for homeowners facing mortgage foreclosures and to include an additional $50 billion stimulus effort. Some Democrats have also suggested capping compensation of executives at firms who get the bailout help.Paulson said he was concerned that debate over adding all of those proposals would slow passage of the bill, delaying the rescue effort that is so urgently needed to get financial markets moving again.The biggest help we can give the American people right now is to stabilize the financial system, Paulson said.

But Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said that he believed there would be changes to Paulson's plan and that agreement could still be reached quickly. Schumer said that he was pushing to get a provision where the government would receive stock warrants in return for the bailout relief and for creation of a government oversight board to supervise the huge operation, which under Paulson's plan would be run out of the Treasury Department. He said Paulson seemed receptive to changes when he had discussed his ideas with him. I have told him ... we need changes related to housing, we need to put the taxpayer first ahead of bondholders, shareholders, Schumer said on Fox News Sunday.However, Republican lawmakers said that the Democratic efforts risks slowing down a measure that was urgently needed. This would be the most serious financial crisis that the world has ever dealt with. It is not a time to be playing games, said House Republican Leader John Boehner. Paulson said in the interviews that he had been talking to other governments about the need for them to offer similar relief because the current financial crisis is global. He said that the nation's outdated regulatory system for financial markets must be overhauled but the first job is to get the most sweeping rescue package since the Great Depression passed by Congress in coming days. The proposal would raise the statutory limit on the national debt from $10.6 trillion to $11.3 trillion to make room for the massive rescue.

I THINK GOD GOT PALIN IN AS VP RUNNER TO PROVE HOW THE GODLESS AND LUKEWARM LIBERAL DEMOCRATES AND THE MEDIA HATE TRUE CHRISTIANS. THIS WILL FORCE THE JUDGEMENTS ON THE EARTH BECAUSE PROOF THE GODLESS ARE GETTING WORSE AND WORSE AND SIN WILL BE JUDGED AND THE SINNERS WLL BE TAKEN CARE OF IF THEY DO NOT REPENT AND ACCEPT JESUS AS GOD AND KING OF THE EARTH. AND THAT GODS COMMANDMENTS ARE TRUTH AND MANS IMAGINATIONS ARE SATANS PLAYGROUND.

DEMOCRATES MOCK PALIN
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbpalinhumor0919sbsep20,0,3416290.story

CARTOON MOCKS PALINS FAITH
http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=75703

MUSLIM MAN MARRIES BEATS 10 YR OLD BRIDE
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-nujood20-2008sep20,0,6825083.story?track=rss

Canadian columnist's diatribe against Palin stokes anger in the U.S.
Sat Sep 20, 6:57 PM By Lee-Anne Goodman, The Canadian Press

WASHINGTON - Canadian journalist Heather Mallick is facing an ugly onslaught from the U.S. right-wing media and its fans for an online column she wrote maligning Sarah Palin as white trash.The Sept. 5 column on CBC.ca, entitled A Mighty Wind Blows Through the Republican Convention, had already been on the receiving end of vitriol from some Canadian news organizations. But Fox News picked up on it this week, and unleashed its full fury on Mallick for stating that Palin, the Republicans' vice-presidential nominee, appeals to the white trash vote with her toned-down version of the porn actress look.Mallick says those comments pale in comparison to the abuse that's come her way in the wake of the column. She's been called a pig by Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren, has been branded an insane Pakistani Muslim by commentators on Fox message boards and has received violent and threatening email, some of which include anti-Semitic slurs - despite the fact that she's neither Jewish nor Muslim. I'd love to punch you right in your chops and knock every tooth out of your head. Come see me bi---, I have something for you! someone named Dave Jones wrote in an email to Mallick. Messages left on the Fox News website also contain a lot of anti-Canadian sentiment.

Canada is made up of small towns and many if not most trace their ancestry back to their redneck cousin and they still have relatives here in the U.S., one wrote.

Wrote another, Those morons up north just can't keep their ignorant mouths shut when it's really none of their socialist business ... the People's Republic of Canada is no friend of the USA! The Toronto-based Mallick admits she's been shaken by the violence suggested in hundreds of emails similar in tone to Jones', but adds the messages have simply served to underscore her point about the bigotry and small-mindedness of some Republican supporters. The responses to my column proved me correct about the extreme right in the United States: they have a great misogynist rage in them, Mallick said in an interview from Toronto on Saturday. The violent and obscene threats against me were one thing - it's easy to filter those - but the anti-Semitic hate mail was very troubling. I am not Jewish but I am honoured to be taken for one. I consider it a great compliment.The CBC said Saturday it had no plans to remove Mallick's article from its website despite the criticism. She's an opinion columnist, she expresses her opinion. Her opinions don't represent the views of CBC in general or CBC News in particular, said spokesman Jeff Keay. The people who object to her opinions have an opportunity to comment on the website as they've done.

Mallick was certainly not alone in attacking Palin in the days following John McCain's surprise pick of the Alaska governor as his running mate. Among many others in the mainstream media and in the blogosphere, Salon.com's Cintra Wilson had a column about Palin that was in the same vein as Mallick's. Ideologically, she is their hardcore pornographic centrefold spread, Wilson wrote. She's such a power-mad, backwater beauty-pageant casualty, it's easy to write her off and make fun of her. But in reality I feel as horrified as a ghetto Jew watching the rise of National Socialism.The rage of women about Palin in the so-called blue states - those that routinely vote Democrat in presidential elections - has, in fact, been well-documented. All of my women friends ... were on the verge of throwing themselves out windows, author and political activist Nancy Kricorian told the New York Sun earlier this week. People were flipping out. ... Every woman I know was in high hysteria over this. Everyone was just beside themselves with terror that this woman could be our president - our potential next president.But the woman-versus-woman slurs haven't just focused on Palin. Van Susteren levelled some Mallick's way when she repeatedly called her a pig while discussing the controversy with the Ottawa Citizen's David Warren on her Fox News Channel show Thursday. There's no part of me that thinks this woman published this as part of a grand motive to expose others. I think she just wrote it for selfish reasons and because, as I noted, I think she's a pig, Van Susteren said. One lone participant on Van Susteren's blog, amid the many cheerleaders, took her to task for the remarks. It seems particularly ironic that you decry Mallick's lack of tact/professionalism, etc., when she name-calls by doing precisely the same thing: what sort of journalistic integrity is there in calling someone a pig? wrote someone named Hope.

The media blog Media Bistro also defended Mallick. We kind of think Heather Mallick has some balls to be that snarky in a country that tries to legislate politeness, it wrote. Mallick was unapologetic about the column Saturday, adding the CBC has been supportive of her right to expression. Columnists have been opinionating since newspapers were invented, she said. And now journalism is online which makes reaction even more hyper than it used to be. I'm a confident writer and some of this new audience is not used to that.

Scholar claims to find medieval Jewish capital By MANSUR MIROVALEV, Associated Press Writer Sat Sep 20, 2:13 PM ET

MOSCOW - A Russian archaeologist says he has found the lost capital of the Khazars, a powerful nation that adopted Judaism as its official religion more than 1,000 years ago, only to disappear leaving little trace of its culture. Dmitry Vasilyev, a professor at Astrakhan State University, said his nine-year excavation near the Caspian Sea has finally unearthed the foundations of a triangular fortress of flamed brick, along with modest yurt-shaped dwellings, and he believes these are part of what was once Itil, the Khazar capital.By law Khazars could use flamed bricks only in the capital, Vasilyev said. The general location of the city on the Silk Road was confirmed in medieval chronicles by Arab, Jewish and European authors.The discovery of the capital of Eastern Europe's first feudal state is of great significance, he told The Associated Press. We should view it as part of Russian history.Kevin Brook, the American author of The Jews of Khazaria, e-mailed Wednesday that he has followed the Itil dig over the years, and even though it has yielded no Jewish artifacts, Now I'm as confident as the archaeological team is that they've truly found the long-lost city,The Khazars were a Turkic tribe that roamed the steppes from Northern China to the Black Sea. Between the 7th and 10th centuries they conquered huge swaths of what is now southern Russia and Ukraine, the Caucasus Mountains and Central Asia as far as the Aral Sea.Itil, about 800 miles south of Moscow, had a population of up to 60,000 and occupied 0.8 square miles of marshy plains southwest of the Russian Caspian Sea port of Astrakhan, Vasilyev said.It lay at a major junction of the Silk Road, the trade route between Europe and China, which helped Khazars amass giant profits, he said.

The Khazar empire was once a regional superpower, and Vasilyev said his team has found luxurious collections of well-preserved ceramics that help identify cultural ties of the Khazar state with Europe, the Byzantine Empire and even Northern Africa. They also found armor, wooden kitchenware, glass lamps and cups, jewelry and vessels for transporting precious balms dating back to the eighth and ninth centuries, he said.But a scholar in Israel, while calling the excavations interesting, said the challenge was to find Khazar inscriptions.If they found a few buildings, or remains of buildings, that's interesting but does not make a big difference, said Dr. Simon Kraiz, an expert on Eastern European Jewry at Haifa University. If they found Khazar writings, that would be very important.Vasilyev says no Jewish artifacts have been found at the site, and in general, most of what is known about the Khazars comes from chroniclers from other, sometimes competing cultures and empires.We know a lot about them, and yet we know almost nothing: Jews wrote about them, and so did Russians, Georgians, and Armenians, to name a few, said Kraiz. But from the Khazars themselves we have nearly nothing.The Khazars' ruling dynasty and nobility converted to Judaism sometime in the 8th or 9th centuries. Vasilyev said the limited number of Jewish religious artifacts such as mezuzas and Stars of David found at other Khazar sites prove that ordinary Khazars preferred traditional beliefs such as shamanism, or newly introduced religions including Islam.Yevgeny Satanovsky, director of the Middle Eastern Institute in Moscow, said he believes the Khazar elite chose Judaism out of political expediency — to remain independent of neighboring Muslim and Christian states. They embraced Judaism because they wanted to remain neutral, like Switzerland these days, he said.In particular, he said, the Khazars opposed the Arab advance into the Caucasus Mountains and were instrumental in containing a Muslim push toward eastern Europe. He compared their role in eastern Europe to that of the French knights who defeated Arab forces at the Battle of Tours in France in 732.

The Khazars succeeded in holding off the Arabs, but a young, expanding Russian state vanquished the Khazar empire in the late 10th century. Medieval Russian epic poems mention Russian warriors fighting the Jewish Giant.In many ways, Russia is a successor of the Khazar state, Vasilyev said. He said his dig revealed traces of a large fire that was probably caused by the Russian conquest. He said Itil was rebuilt following the fall of the Khazar empire, when ethnic Khazars were slowly assimilated by Turkic-speaking tribes, Tatars and Mongols, who inhabited the city until it was flooded by the rising Caspian Sea around the 14th century. The study of the Khazar empire was discouraged in the Soviet Union. The dictator Josef Stalin, in particular, detested the idea that a Jewish empire had come before Russia's own. He ordered references to Khazar history removed from textbooks because they disproved his theory of Russian statehood, Satanovsky said. Only now are Russian scholars free to explore Khazar culture. The Itil excavations have been sponsored by the Russian-Jewish Congress, a nonprofit organization that supports cultural projects in Russia.

Khazar studies are just beginning, Satanovsky said.

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN Russians moving into Syria,Strategic alliance include fleet, missiles September 19, 2008 8:05 pm Eastern 2008 WorldNetDaily

Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.

The coast of Syria, where Tartus is located

Just as Russia has reasserted its power in the Black Sea, it now plans to make waves in the Mediterranean Sea by establishing a major base in Syria, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.This decision not only will allow a permanent presence of Russia's nuclear-armed Black Sea fleet in the Mediterranean, but it also offers the potential for future confrontations between Russia and Israel, as well as with the United States.The Russian navy has begun to upgrade facilities in Tartus, Syria, and already has backed this up by moving to Syria a flotilla of its powerful warships led by the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. The flotilla includes the Russian navy's biggest missile cruiser Moskva and some four nuclear missile submarines.From 1971 to 1992, the former Soviet Union operated a naval maintenance facility at Tartus. It then fell into disrepair. Only one of its three floating piers remained operational.But the facilities now are being restored.

It is much more advantageous to have such a facility than to return ships that patrol the Mediterranean to their home bases, said former Black Sea Fleet commander Admiral Eduard Baltin.The establishment of the permanent base also is viewed as Moscow's response to the upcoming installation of U.S. missile interceptors along Poland's Baltic coast at Redzikowo. Such an agreement was signed last month between the U.S. and Poland.Syria, meantime, also is considering a request from Moscow to base missiles in the country due to tensions between Russia and the West over its invasion of Georgia in the Caucasus.Russia would send in the surface-to-surface Iskander missile which Moscow says is capable of penetrating any missile defense system.With a NATO code name of the SS-26 Stone, the Iskander is a road-mobile system. It has a range of 300 kilometers, or 186 miles, giving Damascus the capability of striking Tel Aviv in Israel.

LIKE THE SONG GOES THERES SOMETHING IN THE AIR. I THINK IRAN AND THOSE COUNTRY DEMONIC SPIRITS CONTROLLING IRAN KNOW SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN SHORTLY BECAUSE AHMADINEJAD IS REALLY THREATENING THESE DAYS AGAIN.

Iran warns against attack on nuclear facilities By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer SEPT 21,08

TEHRAN, Iran - Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that Iran's military will break the hand of anyone targeting his country's nuclear facilities.

The president spoke during a military parade displaying various types of Iranian-made missiles, including Shahab-3 and Ghadr. Also taking part in the parade was a military truck carrying a huge banner saying Israel should be eliminated from the universe in both English and Farsi.If anyone allows himself to commit even a tiny offense against Iran's legitimate interests, borders and sacred land, our armed forces will break his hand before he pulls the trigger, Ahmadinejad said during the parade.The phrase legitimate interests is Iranian parlance for the country's nuclear program, which the West says is a cover for developing nuclear weapons. Iran, which denies the charge, already is under three sets of sanctions by the U.N. Security Council over the issue.Washington and its Western allies are pushing for quick passage of a fourth set of sanctions to underline the international community's resolve.But Ahmadinejad said Sunday that sanctions only help Iran achieve self-sufficiency.Those who once imposed sanctions, today should open their eyes and see our nation's technical achievements, he said.Both the United States and its ally Israel say they support a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff with Iran but cannot rule out the military option.Today, Iran is not in a position to show softness toward its enemies, said Ahmadinejad, but added that threats made against Iran's nuclear facilities amounted to only psychological warfare.Sunday's parade commemorated the start in 1980 of Iran's ruinous eight-year war with neighboring Iraq.

Meanwhile, the official IRNA news agency reported that on the sideline of the parade, the air force chief of the Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Hossein Salami, rejected the notion that Iran had any ambitions for nuclear weapons, describing them as ineffective.Any report about Iran's intention to use nuclear weapon is a sheer lie, he said, while adding that our missiles are able to target the enemy's points in the region.

Fatah officials in Egypt for inter-Palestinian talks SEPT 21,08

CAIRO (AFP) - Members of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas' Fatah movement arrived in Egypt on Sunday for talks with officials aimed at starting a national dialogue between rival factions, the MENA news agency said. The Fatah delegation -- headed by senior Abbas adviser Nabil Shaath -- was to meet Egyptian intelligence supremo and chief negotiator Omar Suleiman on Tuesday, MENA said.The meeting is part of a series of bilateral talks between Egypt and the Palestinian factions aimed at defining a unified Palestinian position to be presented at the comprehensive meeting of the factions which will take place in the second half of October, it reported.Egypt has been holding separate talks with rival Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah which have been bitterly divided since June 2007 when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from forces loyal to Fatah.Cairo has been acting as a mediator between the two groups, and between Hamas and Israel, which views the Islamist movement as a terror group.A delegation from Hamas is expected in Cairo on October 8, the agency said.

LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

Scandal-hit Olmert to resign formally Sunday
By Jeffrey Heller SEPT 21,08

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will hand his resignation to President Shimon Peres on Sunday, Olmert's office said, but the scandal-hit leader could stay in office for weeks or months until a government is formed.Olmert, who faces criminal indictment in corruption probes, said earlier at the weekly cabinet session he was stepping down in accordance with good governance and history would judge the achievements of his administration.The ongoing political uncertainty has dimmed even further prospects of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal which the United States had hoped Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas could achieve this year.In a statement, Olmert's office said he would meet Peres at the president's residence at 7:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. EDT) in order to hand him his letter of resignation.After Olmert does so, he will become caretaker prime minister until Israel has a new government through a coalition deal or an early election.Olmert was replaced by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as leader of the ruling Kadima party in an internal election on Wednesday, raising her chances of becoming Israel's first woman prime minister since Golda Meir in the 1970s.Peres will on Sunday hold talks with leaders of the four largest parliamentary factions -- Kadima, Labour, Likud and Shas -- before officially asking Livni to form a new government.Olmert had promised to resign once a new Kadima chief was chosen. At the cabinet session, Olmert wished Livni well, shook her hand and called on the country to support her.If Livni, Israel's chief negotiator in peace talks with the Palestinians, gets the nod from Peres to try to form a new government, she will have up to 42 days to put together a coalition.Failure to build a coalition would lead to an early parliamentary election.

Livni appeared to face an uphill battle to retain a political partnership with Defense Minister Ehud Barak's Labour Party.In a snub to Livni, Barak met opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud on Saturday to discuss the political situation.Political commentators said it appeared both men were trying to work out a deal for an early election, and by keeping Olmert on as caretaker prime minister, freeze Livni out of the top leadership spot before a national ballot.

Opinion polls predict Netanyahu would win a general election, amid speculation he would keep Barak as defense chief.(Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

Israel's Olmert announces Sunday resignation By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer SEPT 21,08

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, crippled by a series of corruption investigations, announced he would resign Sunday, clearing the way for his foreign minister to try to succeed him as Israel's next leader. The prime minister's office said Olmert would submit an official letter of resignation to President Shimon Peres later Sunday, freeing the president to formally tap Livni to try to put together a new government. Weeks ago, Olmert promised to step down after his governing Kadima Party elected a new chief to replace him.Livni, a rival of Olmert's, won that race last week by a narrow margin, but that victory did not assure her the premiership. Peres must first assign her the task of trying to cobble together a government, giving her six weeks to forge a coalition. Should she fail, parliamentary elections would be called for early 2009, a year and a half ahead of schedule.Olmert is expected to stay on as caretaker prime minister until a successor is in place.

At the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Olmert notified ministers of his intention to resign, pledging to help Livni with all my might to form a government.Livni and Olmert have had a tense working relationship since she called on him to resign in May 2007 after a government report harshly criticized his handling of the war against Lebanon the previous year. Livni also was one of the first voices to call on him to leave office this year after a key witness in a corruption case said he had given illicit payments and fancy gifts to Olmert.Polls show that in the event of a parliamentary election, Kadima would be in a tight race with the hawkish Likud Party, headed by opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, a former prime minister.As prime minister, Livni would be expected to pursue a moderate and pragmatic course in peacemaking with the Palestinians and Syria. Netanyahu takes a tougher line in peace talks, and Israel's relations with the Arab world suffered when he was prime minister in the late 1990s.Any accords that might emerge from talks with the Palestinians and recently renewed, indirect negotiations with Syria would benefit from broad-based parliamentary backing.Over the weekend, Livni met with potential coalition partners, including two small factions that are not part of the current government, which controls 67 of parliament's 120 seats.

Neither Kadima nor its coalition partners appear eager for a new election, fearing they would be ousted from power. But the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, which could be key to building a new coalition, has already said it would not join a government willing to share Jerusalem with the Palestinians.As lead peace negotiator, Livni is committed to discussing all the outstanding issues between Israel and the Palestinians. The fate of Jerusalem, whose eastern sector the Palestinians claim for a future state, is at the core of the conflict.Kadima was founded in 2005 by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. But Sharon suffered a debilitating stroke in early 2006, pushing Olmert into the leadership role.Olmert led Kadima to victory in 2006 parliamentary elections. But his term in office was troubled by a series of police investigations, Israel's inconclusive 2006 war against Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas and months of peace talks with the Palestinians that have yielded no breakthroughs.

The police investigations focus on Olmert's financial dealings in the years before he became prime minister. Police have recommended he be indicted on counts that include bribery and money laundering, but prosecutors have not decided whether to press charges. Olmert denies any wrongdoing.

EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

GOD SAYS, U WANT TO KILL EACH OTHER WITH VIOLENCE, I WILL KILL THE KILLER WITH VIOLENCE FROM THE EARTH, EARTHQUAKES, TORNADOES, FIERCE HURRICANES AND FINALLY THE ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION OF MURDERER TO MURDERER WW3 TO ABOLISH THE MURDERERS FROM THE EARTH.

Al-Qaida, Pakistani Taliban eyed in Marriott bomb By ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writer SEPT 21,08

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Rescuers pulled more bodies from the shell of the truck-bombed Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital Sunday, pushing the death toll from one of the country's worst terrorist strikes to 53, including the Czech ambassador and two Americans. The five-story hotel, a favorite spot for foreigners and the Pakistani elite — and a previous target of militants — still smoldered from a fire that raged for hours after the previous day's explosion, which also wounded more than 250 people.No group immediately claimed responsibility, though suspicion fell on al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban. IntelCenter, a U.S. group that monitors and analyzes militant messages, noted that al-Qaida's 9/11 anniversary video threatened attacks against Western interests in Pakistan, where many are angered by a wave of cross-border strikes on militant bases by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.The bomb went off close to 8 p.m. Saturday, when the restaurants inside would have been packed with Muslim diners breaking their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.The owner of the hotel accused security forces of a serious lapse in allowing a dump truck to approach the hotel unchallenged and not shooting the driver before he could trigger the explosives.

If I were there and had seen the suicide bomber, I would have killed him. Unfortunately, they didn't, Sadruddin Hashwani said.The government released footage from a hotel surveillance camera showing the heavy truck turning left into the gate at speed, ramming a metal barrier and coming to a halt about 60 feet away from the hotel.Guards nervously came forward to look, then scattered after an initial small explosion.Several guards tried repeatedly to douse flames spreading through the cab of the truck as traffic continued to pass on the road behind. There is no sign of movement in the truck and the footage played did not show the final blast.Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the bomber attacked the hotel only after tight security prevented him from reaching Parliament or the prime minister's office, where the president and many dignitaries were gathered for dinner.The purpose was to destabilize democracy, Gilani said. They want to destroy us economically.Officials said vehicles carrying construction materials are allowed to move after sunset, meaning the sight of a dump truck near the government quarters might not have aroused suspicion.Rescue teams searched the blackened hotel room by room Sunday, but the temperatures remained high, and fires were still being put out in some parts. Officials feared the main building would collapse.Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said the bomb contained an estimated 1,300 pounds of military-grade explosives as well as artillery and mortar shells and left a crater 59 feet wide and 24 feet deep in front of the main building.Khalid Hussain Abbasi, a rescue official, confirmed that six new bodies had been found, but would not say if the dead were foreigners. He said he expected more charred remains to be discovered.Gilani said the death toll had reached about 53 and that Czech Ambassador Ivo Zdarek was among the dead. Zdarek, 47, only moved to Islamabad in August after four years as ambassador to Vietnam.

Malik said two Americans were confirmed dead as well as one Vietnamese national. Officials in Pakistan said at least 21 foreigners were among the wounded, including Britons, Germans, Americans and several people from the Middle East.TV footage showed at least two bodies partially visible from the wrecked facade Sunday morning. Outside, the hotel was surrounded by torched vehicles and debris. The bombing came just hours after President Asif Ali Zardari made his first address to Parliament, less than a mile away from the hotel. Malik said authorities received intelligence there might be militant activity linked to Zardari's address and security had been tightened. The attack drew condemnations from around the world, including the United States, which has pressured Pakistan to do more to wipe out militant hide-outs on its side of the Afghan border. Washington worries about Taliban and al-Qaida fighters using Pakistan as a training, recruiting and regrouping ground to aid the insurgency in Afghanistan. President Bush said the attack was a reminder of the ongoing threat faced by Pakistan, the United States, and all those who stand against violent extremism.A recent series of suspected U.S. missile strikes and a rare American ground assault in Pakistan's northwest have signaled Washington's impatience with Pakistan's efforts to clear out militants. But the cross-border operations have drawn protests from the Pakistani government, which warned they would fan militancy. Terrorism researcher Evan Kohlmann told the AP the attack was almost certainly the work of either al-Qaida or the Pakistani Taliban. It seems that someone has a firm belief that hotels like the Marriott are serving as 'barracks' for Western diplomats and intel personnel, and they are gunning pretty hard for them, Kohlmann said. The Marriott blast could prompt diplomats and aid groups in Islamabad, some of whom already operate under tight security, to re-evaluate whether nonessential staff and family members should stay. U.N. officials met Sunday to discuss the security situation and, for now, made no decision to change their measures, said Amena Kamaal, a spokeswoman. Zardari, who on Sunday was headed to New York to lead a delegation to the United Nations and was expected to meet with Bush during the week, spoke out against the cross-border strikes in his speech to Parliament. He condemned the cowardly attack afterward in an address to the nation.

Make this pain your strength, he said. This is a menace, a cancer in Pakistan which we will eliminate. We will not be scared of these cowards.In January 2007, a security guard blocked a suicide bomber who triggered a blast just outside the Marriott, killing the guard and wounding seven other people. The country's deadliest suicide bombing was on Oct. 18, 2007, and targeted ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto —Zardari's wife — who survived. It killed about 150 people in Karachi during celebrations welcoming her home from exile. Bhutto was assassinated in a subsequent attack on Dec. 27, 2007. On Aug. 21, 2008, suicide bombers blew themselves up at two gates into a mammoth weapons factory in the town of Wah, killing at least 67 people and wounding more than 70. Associated Press writer Nahal Toosi, Stephen Graham and Asif Shahzad contributed to this.

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).

Bush: Trade deal with Colombia is in US interest By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer Sat Sep 20, 9:56 PM ET

WASHINGTON - President Bush and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe renewed their push on Saturday for Congress to approve a free-trade deal before lawmakers leave town to campaign for re-election. It's in our economic interest that we continue to open up markets in our neighborhood, particularly with a nation that is growing like yours, Bush told Uribe in the Rose Garden. And yet we can't get a vote out of Congress. I've been asking the Democrat leadership in Congress for a vote, and they've consistently blocked the vote.Congressional Democrats say they are delaying votes on trade deals involving Colombia, Panama and South Korea until the Bush administration resolves questions about the impact on U.S. jobs and other issues. But time is running out on the legislative calendar. The Colombian pact was negotiated in late 2006.Bush urged lawmakers to reconsider their opposition, but seemed resigned that it might not happen on his watch. Bush called Uribe an honest man who has responded to U.S. concerns about crime in Colombia and has been successful in reducing homicides, kidnappings and terrorist attacks.What happens in Colombia can affect life here in the United States, Bush said. You've got a strong supporter here. And after I leave office, it's going to be very important for the next president and the next Congress to stand squarely by your side.Uribe said a free-trade agreement would help increase U.S. investment in Colombia and provide jobs for people as an alternative to engaging in terrorism, illegal drug-trafficking and violence.Free trade agreement for us is the possibility to give certainty to investors for them to come to Colombia, and the more the investors come to Colombia, the less difficult for us to defeat terrorism, Uribe said. Investment is the real alternative to illicit crops. Investment is the real possibility for our people to find high-quality jobs.Later in the evening, Uribe was greeted at the North Portico by Bush and first lady Laura Bush, who had invited the Colombian president and other guests for a dinner of gazpacho, petite rib-eye steaks and coconut cake.

In remarks before dinner, Bush continued to pressure Congress to approve the free-trade deal while addressing a crowd of about 150 dinner guests, including members of the House and Senate, such as Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.The American people, Mr. President, are proud to call the Colombian people our friends and our allies, Bush told Uribe in the White House's East Room. My sincere hope is that the United States Congress will pass the Colombia free trade agreement as soon as possible.In a toast, Uribe praised Bush for his strong support to our policy but promised this is not the end of a U.S.-Colombia relationship, which will continue to grow stronger.In recent months, Bush has tried new ways to bolster his free-trade agenda. In May, a concrete mixer, crates of cauliflower, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and chunks of cheese were displayed on the White House lawn as examples of a lopsided tariff structure the U.S. has with those three countries.

A White House event in July was billed as a celebration of the day in 1810 when Colombia declared its independence from Spain, but the main message was trade.

Union leaders are not sold on the plan.

On Friday, the Teamsters, which represents 1.4 million workers, protested Uribe's visit, saying he was trying to promote a trade deal that threatens American jobs. The Teamsters and members of other unions and Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch held signs and passed out fliers in front of the National Press Building.With little hope the Colombian deal will be approved before Congress recesses for the November elections, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said that if there is a lame-duck session after the elections, lawmakers could ratify the agreement then.In light of recent divisive statements and rash actions by some Latin American leaders, ratification of the agreement would also send a strong signal to the region that the United States stands by its friends, said Lugar, top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, expelled the U.S. ambassador this month, accusing the diplomat of conspiring to oust him. Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, who claims the U.S. was behind a failed 2002 coup against him, quickly followed suit. That's enough ... from you, Yankees, Chavez said, using a barnyard expletive.

Associated Press writer Christine Simmons contributed to this report. On the Net:
Background on trade deal: http://tinyurl.com/3hrjgv

CERN: Damage to new collider forces 2-month halt By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer Sat Sep 20, 2:07 PM ET

GENEVA - The world's largest atom smasher — which was launched with great fanfare earlier this month — has been damaged worse than previously thought and will be out of commission for at least two months, its operators said Saturday. Experts have gone into 17-mile (27-kilometer) circular tunnel housing the Large Hadron Collider under the Swiss-French border to examine the damage that halted operations about 36 hours after its Sept. 10 startup, said James Gillies, spokesman for CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.It's too early to say precisely what happened, but it seems to be a faulty electrical connection between two magnets that stopped superconducting, melted and led to a mechanical failure and let the helium out, Gillies told The Associated Press.Gillies said the sector that was damaged will have to be warmed up well above the absolute zero temperature used for operations so that repairs can be made — a time-consuming process.A number of magnets raised their temperature by around 100 degrees, Gillies said. We have now to warm up the whole sector in a controlled manner before we can actually go in and repair it.The $10 billion particle collider, in the design and construction stages for more than two decades, is the world's largest atom smasher. It fires beams of protons from the nuclei of atoms around the tunnels at nearly the speed of light.It then causes the protons to collide, revealing how the tiniest particles were first created after the big bang, which many theorize was the massive explosion that formed the stars, planets and everything.Gillies said such failures occur frequently in particle accelerators, but it was made more complicated in this case because the Large Hadron Collider operates at near absolute zero, colder than outer space, for maximum efficiency.When they happen in our other accelerators, it's a matter of a couple of days to fix them, Gillies said. But because this is a superconducting machine and you've got long warmup and cool-down periods, it means we're going to be off for a couple of months.He said it would take several weeks minimum to warm up the sector.

Then we can fix it, Gillies said. Then we cool it down again.CERN announced Thursday that it had shut down the collider a week ago after a successful startup that had beams of protons circling in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions in the collider.It was at first thought the failure of an electrical transformer that handles part of the cooling was the problem, CERN said. That transformer was replaced last weekend and the machine was lowered back to operating temperature to prepare for a resumption of operations.But then more inspections were needed and it was determined that the problem was worse than initially thought, said Gillies.The CERN experiments with the particle collider hope to reveal more about dark matter, antimatter and possibly hidden dimensions of space and time. They could also find evidence of a hypothetical particle — the Higgs boson — which is sometimes called the God particle because it is believed to give mass to all other particles, and thus to matter that makes up the universe.Smaller colliders have been used for decades to study the makeup of the atom. Scientists once thought protons and neutrons were the smallest components of an atom's nucleus, but experiments have shown that protons and neutrons are made of quarks and gluons and that there are other forces and particles.The LHC provides much greater power than earlier colliders.Its start came over the objections of some who feared the collision of protons could eventually imperil the Earth by creating micro black holes — subatomic versions of collapsed stars whose gravity is so strong they can suck in planets and other stars.