EVENTS IN TIME (BIBLE PROPHECY LITERALLY FULFILLED)(BY GOD)

I WRITE NEWS ABOUT AND PUT NEWS ARTICLES ABOUT ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM PERTAINING TO BIBLE PROPHESY HAPPENINGS.JOEL 3:20 But Judah (ISRAEL) shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.(THATS ISRAEL-JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DESTROYED AGAIN)-WE CHRISTIANS ARE ALL WAITING PATIENTLY FOR THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE TO OCCUR.SO WE CAN GO TO JESUS AND GET OUR NEVER DYING BODIES.SO WE CAN RULE OVER CITIES OURSELVES.WHILE JESUS RULES FROM DAVIDS THRONE FOREVER IN JERUSALEM.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

A NEW WORLD ORDER EMERGES

THE NEW WORLD ORDER OR ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT,NEW AGE OCCULT NUTCASES.

www.digitalangelcorp.com-israelsmessiah.com-picture THE FUTURE FALSE POPE WILL MAKE ALL ON EARTH ACCEPT THE NUMBER,OR NAME OF THE FUTURE WORLD EU DICTATOR IN THEIR MICROCHIP IMPLANTED IN THEIR RIGHT HAND OR FOREHEAD TO PLEDGE ALEGIENCE TO THIS WORLD DICTATOR AS GOD OR YOU WILL BE BEHEADED BY THE NEW WORLD ORDER FOR OBEYING THE REAL GOD KING JESUS.

CHARLIE SHEENS VIDEO MESSAGE TO OBAMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyKR2-A0KPU&feature=player_embedded

NOW WE HAVE THE ARCTIC SEA IN THE NEWS YET TO.WOW IS PROPHECY COMING TOGETHER QUICK,COME QUICKLY KING JESUS TO TAKE THE TRUE CHRISTIANS HOME WITH YOU TO HEAVEN FOR THE 7 YEARS OF HELL TO COME ON THE EARTH.

From Times Online September 10, 2009 Israel admits Binyamin Netanyahu's secret trip to Moscow(Sovfracht/EPA)The Arctic Sea - seized by pirates in Swedish waters By Sheera Frenkel, Jerusalem

Israeli officials have been forced to admit that Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, made a secret trip to Moscow this week. The revelation, which comes after denials of Israeli and Russian press reports, reinforces speculation that the Israelis played a role in stopping an alleged shipment of Russian arms to Iran. The fact that Mr Netanyahu had used a false cover story for his absence on Monday — his military attaché told reporters that he was busy touring security facilities — prompted anger among Israeli commentators, who accused the Prime Minister of bad faith.The visit appears to be linked to the story of the Arctic Sea, a cargo ship meant to be carrying wood whose reported seizure by pirates on July 24 as it passed through Swedish waters.It was the first recorded act of piracy in northern European waters for centuries and set off a modern-day maritime mystery that was not entirely solved even after Russian forces seized the ship near Cape Verde, off the West African coast, on August 17. It was some 2,500 miles off course. The Russian Government this week denied reports that the ship had been transporting an illegal shipment of S-300 surface-to-air missiles destined for Iran or Syria.Reports suggested that the shipment had been aborted after it came to the attention of Mossad, the Israeli secret service.Israeli security officials have been reluctant to speak about the incident, although several admitted to The Times that the full story had yet to be told. What exactly happened on that ship is still unknown, and everyone, from Moscow to Jerusalem is working hard to keep it a secret,said one diplomatic official in Israel.

Unfortunately, they are tripping over themselves and being caught in the very web they are spinning. At this point, we have more denials over this story than actually facts.Mr Netanyahu’s trip to Moscow appears to have been kept a secret even from some members of his own staff.He made great efforts to conceal the trip from the public, as both he and the Russians agreed that it should be kept quiet,one official said.Nor is it clear whom he met. Russian authorities said that the Israeli premier had met neither his counterpart, Vladimir Putin, nor President Medvedev, although they did not explicitly deny the trip itself.Officials in the Prime Minister's office admitted that they had misled the public over Mr Netanyahu’s whereabouts.

There were many considerations, many reasons that the Prime Minister’s schedule on Monday was not made public. It was in the interest of national security, which has now been damaged by these leaks, one official told The Times.He added that Mr Netanyahu took great care to keep the Moscow trip a secret, including spending $20,000 to hire a private jet from a company owned by the Israeli mogul Yossi Maiman.Israel has long kept a close eye on dealings between Russia and Iran. On August 18, the day after the seizure of the Arctic Sea, President Shimon Peres visited Moscow and said that he had secured a promise from Mr Medvedev that Russia would review its decision to sell the S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran. Those missiles would clearly help Iran protect its nuclear sites from an air strike if Israel were to decide that Tehran's nuclear programme needed to be stopped. The Islamic regime insists that it is simply trying to build up a nuclear power industry and is not trying to manufacture atomic weapons.

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE INFOWARS.COM
http://www.infowars.com/
OBAMA DECEPTION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw
ENDGAME GLOBAL ENSLAVEMENT
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1070329053600562261
BOHEMIAN GROVE NWO OCCULTISTS
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-82095917705734983
WITCHCRAFT IN THE WHITE HOUSE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmaiX86sUoc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF2eILED00s&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZARWvlz_yKI&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbh7KrUwawI&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IG0tmvCozU&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgP-SyrooKI&feature=channel
OBAMA SCAM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V1nmn2zRMc&feature=player_embedded

OZONE DEPLETION JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH DUE TO SIN

ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:

MATTHEW 24:21-22,29
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake (ISRAELS SAKE) those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

Interview with Piers Corbyn: What happens when the SUN heats up a planet? Climate Realists Wednesday, Sept 9th, 2009

There has been so much talk about the melting icecaps recently I thought I would try enlighten people as to how and why this analysis is ongoing and spurious in it’s outcome.After sifting through several articles of both parties (AGW & Climate Realists) I contacted WeatherAction.Com Astrophysist Piers Corbyn and put it to him that there is too much misinformation going on and that the general public should be able to have a better understanding on how our planet warms and cools. This is what he said…. there seems to be a vital piece of the jigsaw missing in the public domain in these articles, and that’s the physics of …..what happens when the SUN heats up a planet.I have put together a simple guide to assist those who wish to hang on to the belief that what they see from their results at the poles somehow Proves the AGW theory.The first point of warming on a planet from several years of an Active succession of solar cycles is at the Equator and the last point of warming is at the Pole’s. The reason for this delay is that it takes many years for the warmer ocean current’s to filter through from the Equator to the Poles.The reverse can then be said that the first point of cooling from several years of low solar activity is the Equator and the last is the Poles.

What seems to be put forward by the people that support the AGW theory is that the so called proof they have, is that they can show the result of a few melting icebergs, what they do not pass on is that the world temperatures at the Equator have become cooler. It’s as if they want to say if they can show melting ice then the rest of the world is becoming warmer. It is essential that people realize that the poles are the LAST place of warming NOT the FIRST.The notion that CO2 warms the world has come to a dead end, what you see is desperation from the people who support AGW, they try and prop up a scientific theory that has run out of so called facts. CO2 follows warming it does NOT lead. We will continue to see an increase of CO2 for many years but the world will continue to cool and that in itself will be an end of this scientific theory. The Poles will be pocketed with small warm areas for a time due to the warmer Ocean currents NOT CO2!

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.

Hurricane Linda forms, Hurricane Fred weakens SEPT 10,09

MIAMI – Hurricane Linda has formed far out over the Pacific while Hurricane Fred weakened to a Category 2 storm in the Atlantic.Earlier Wednesday, Hurricane Fred became the second major hurricane of the Atlantic season before weakening and remains far out at sea without threatening land.The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Fred's maximum sustained winds have weakened to near 105 mph (165 kph). It's projected five-day path will keep it over the open ocean until it loses steam.

The storm is centered about 645 miles (1,040 kilometers) west of the Cape Verde Islands and moving northwest near 10 mph (17 kph).Meanwhile, Hurricane Linda's maximum sustained winds are near 80 mph (130 kph) but is expected to weaken Thursday night and Friday.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

MIAMI (AP) — Hurricane Fred became the second major hurricane of the Atlantic season but remains far out at sea without threatening land.The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Fred weakened slightly Wednesday but remained a Category 3 storm. It's projected five-day path will keep it over the open ocean until it loses steam.Fred's maximum sustained winds were near 115 mph. The storm is expected to weaken more in the next two days.The storm is centered about 595 miles west of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands and moving northwest near 13 mph.Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Linda was gaining strength slowly far out over the Pacific with maximum sustained winds near 70 mph. Forecasters expect it to become a hurricane soon but it doesn't threaten land.

Hurricane Fred weakens in Atlantic SEPT 9,09

MIAMI (Reuters) – Hurricane Fred weakened on Wednesday after briefly flaring into a powerful Category 3 storm in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and was forecast to fizzle as it churned far away from land.Fred's sustained winds dropped to 105 miles per hour (165 km per hour), making it a Category 2 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale.Earlier in the day Fred's winds had whipped up to 120 miles per hour (195 km per hour), making it the second major hurricane -- Category 3 or higher on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale -- of the 2009 Atlantic season, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.Dry air and shearing winds were expected to weaken Fred further until it dissipated into a tropical depression by Monday night, forecasters said.At 11 p.m. EDT on Wednesday (0300 GMT on Thursday), the storm was about 645 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands and was moving northwest at about 10 mph, the hurricane center said.Fred was expected to turn north in the next couple of days, forecasters said.The forecast track would keep it in the eastern Atlantic, far from the Gulf of Mexico, where U.S. oil and gas operations are clustered.(Reporting by Jane Sutton; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Heaviest rains in 80 years kill 31 in Turkey By Murad Sezer and Ayla Jean Yackley – Wed Sep 9, 3:57 pm ET

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Flash floods killed 31 people in northwest Turkey, sweeping through the city of Istanbul, swamping houses, turning highways into fast-flowing rivers and drowning seven women in a minibus that was taking them to work.Twenty-six died in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city with 14 million inhabitants, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said late on Wednesday, after two days of the heaviest rain in 80 years produced sudden flood waters which engulfed low-lying areas.Another five died in Saray, west of Istanbul, reportedly all from the same family. Nine more were missing, Erdogan said.In Istanbul rescue workers, some on boats, put out planks and ladders to help drivers, stranded in fast-flowing waters, reach the safety of bridges and high land. Military helicopters also assisted bringing stranded people to safety.The worst flooding occurred in areas in the west of the city, on the European side, where drainage is often poor.The waters began to recede late Wednesday revealing wrecked buildings and debris scattered across the streets, as distressed residents and workers started the clean-up.Interior Minister Besir Atalay said the death toll could rise as waters continued to recede.Witnesses said waves of muddy waters pulling cars, trees and debris crashed into homes and buildings early Wednesday as people were getting up to break their fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.We heard a crashing sound and then saw the waters coming down carrying cars and debris, said Nuri Bitken, a 42-year-old night guard at a truck garage.We tried to wake up those who were still asleep in the trucks but some didn't make it. The dead had to be retrieved by boats,Bitken told Reuters.

CNN Turk television showed scenes of white blankets covering the bodies of people found in the western Halkali neighborhood near Ataturk International airport. Airport officials said there was no disruption to flights.My friend got stuck in the truck after the water rose all at once. The vehicle stopped working after filling with water. We rescued him with a winch,Kamil Coskun told Reuters TV in Ikitelli district.Istanbul's ancient district of Sultanahmet, with its famous mosques, the palaces of the waterfront and Beyoglu's area of narrow streets were largely unaffected.In the Ikitelli commercial district, residents scrambled for office equipment amid debris. In other parts of the city, people waded chest-high through swamped highways.

HUGE DAMAGE

Insurance company Axa Sigorta Deputy General Manager Ali Erlat said damage from the floods could total $70 million-$80 million, the state-run Anatolian news agency reported.Public Works Minister Mustafa Demir, who toured the worst hit areas, said there was huge damage to infrastructure.Ali Erdem, chief analyst at the Istanbul Meteorology Department, told Reuters Tuesday's rainfall was the heaviest recorded in the last 80 years. The bodies of seven women were discovered in Bagcilar, a working-class suburb of Istanbul, Wednesday. They had drowned in a minibus that was taking them to jobs at a textile factory, Anatolian said.Istanbul is situated on the steep banks of the Bosphorus strait, which divides Europe from Asia and is one of the world's busiest waterways -- a major conduit for cargo ships and oil tankers passing between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.Elsewhere in northwest Turkey, two bridges were demolished by floodwaters on the Bahcekoy-Saray highway.Istanbul authorities have been more occupied in their disaster planning with making provisions for earthquakes in a city crossed by a major faultline. A quake killed 18,000 people in northwest Turkey in 1999.(Additional reporting by Can Sezer, Selcuk Gokoluk in Ankara and Alexandra Hudson in Istanbul; writing by Ibon Villelabeitia; Editing by Charles Dick)

WORLD GOVERNMENT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnq5cQMiAB8&feature=related
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2009/07/we-are-already-under-global-government.html#links
DICK MORRIS-This truly creates a global economic system. From now on, don’t look to Washington for the rule making, look to Brussels.

EPHESIANS 6:10-13
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,(DEMONIC ANGELS IN HIGH PLACES) against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.(SPIRTIUAL DEMONIC PERSONS)
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

LUKE 4:5-7(BECAUSE SATAN OFFERS WORLD POWER, WORLD ORDERERS HAVE ACCEPTED SATANS GIFT)
5 And the devil, taking him (JESUS) up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

DANIEL 12:4,1
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

REVELATION 13:1-3,7,8,12,16-18
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
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.

REVELATION 17:3,7,9-10,12,18
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent.James Paul Warburg appearing before the Senate on 7th February 1950

Like a famous WWII Belgian General,Paul Henry Spock said in 1957:We need no commission, we have already too many. What we need is a man who is great enough to be able to keep all the people in subjection to himself and to lift us out of the economic bog into which we threaten to sink. Send us such a man. Be he a god or a devil, we will accept him.And today, sadly, the world is indeed ready for such a man.

EU CALLS FOR WORLD GOVERNMENT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7D21rPpBrk&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Feuro%2Dmed%2Edk%2F%3Fp%3D1277&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFs99zBTRO0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTfv6uOHgqQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVeMBNB0cII&feature=related
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4291770489472554607&ei=iaRTSrzHAoqUqQL1gMGqDw&q=EU&hl=en
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVeMBNB0cII&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVmtbLc4t6M&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Feuro%2Dmed%2Edk%2F%3Fp%3D1277&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv5cqh26CC0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Feuro%2Dmed%2Edk%2F%3Fp%3D1277&feature=player_embedded
EU-NEW SOVIET UNION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM2Ql3wOGcU&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Cj1b-rp1E&feature=player_embedded
WORLD GOVERNMENT UNDER TREATYS-INTERNATIONAL LAW
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_government
TRANSATLANTIC POLICY
http://www.tpnonline.org/
JOAN VEON ON TAMAR YONAH 2008 (WORLD GOVERNMENT)
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2009/07/we-are-already-under-global-government.html#links
GEORGE HUNT-WORLD BANK ,RELIGION&RULERS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OvpjRglW9U&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFnxNowaaIU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=584x0zkmHgw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsZvQcZ9Mu4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGl3DHrVMFY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg90X7OkEsU&feature=related
INSIDE VIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BANKERS
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=36666041
UNDERSTANDING WORLD GOVERNMENT
http://www.womensgroup.org/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=504526035342184251
BANK OF INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENT PRESS
http://www.bis.org/events/agm2009/pcvideo.htm
HISTORY OF WAR AND THE FEDERAL RESERVE
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1874212534444628577&hl=en

Lisbon will steal your children advert denounced by MEPs
LEIGH PHILLIPS 09.09.2009 @ 17:44 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A newspaper advertisement appearing in an Irish Catholic newspaper warning that the Lisbon Treaty will allow the EU to take children, alcoholics and people with mental illness away from their families has shocked Yes side campaigners, who are saying the church must take a stand against such blatantly false information.The ad from a Eire go Brach (meaning Ireland Forever) campaign in Alive, a Catholic monthly freesheet distributed widely in churches, quotes Article 6 of the Lisbon Treaty, saying that the treaty permits: the lawful detention of persons for the prevention of the spreading of infectious diseases, of persons of unsound mind (mental illness, depression, alzheimers [sic], autism, special needs), alcoholics, drug addicts or vagrants (homeless).The group then warns: The new legal directive will automatically allow the EU state to take possession of people's children, homes and financial savings. Under new EU laws, the above people are incapable of managing their own affairs.Under the Lisbon Treaty, the EU could seize elderly people's savings and homes and can take children off people who suffer from mild forms of alcoholism or depression or who do not own a family home.The language in the advert actually comes from Article 6 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and provides that everyone has the right to liberty and security of person, with the normal exceptions reserved by most existing democratic societies. In the Lisbon Treaty, the Charter is put on a legal standing for the first time.

Targeting vulnerable families

A cross-party group of Irish MEPs on Wednesday called on Catholic leaders in Ireland to ban scurrilous anti-Lisbon literature from their churches and from church publications, and warned that right-wing Catholics opposed to the treaty are one of the main obstacles to its passage.At the Brussels launch of a campaign to call on Irish expats to get involved in the Lisbon debate and encourage their countrymen and women to vote Yes, Fine Gael, Labour and independent eurodeputies demanded the church dissociate itself from such activities.Marian Harkin, an independent MEP who sits with the Liberals in the parliament, said that while some people might think no sensible person would believe such nonsense, she was unnerved to find that people from care facilities with which she had a long history had called her worried that their loved ones would be snatched by Brussels.This is nothing short of disgraceful, she told reporters.It's made up as they go along. I've had calls from carers from County Clare saying people are frightened that the EU state will to take control of their homes.The church needs to look at it. This is misleading, false and designed to frighten and terrorise people. How can the church have this in their porches, we need to ask. It is particularly shameful how they are targeting vulnerable families, families with people with special needs.

Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins, a former junior finance minister, said that Coir, a conservative Catholic group linked to anti-abortion campaigners Youth Defence, had to be combatted.Coir are extremely active on the ground. They're getting money from somewhere. We don't now where, but a lot of money.His fellow Fine Gael MEP, Mairead McGuinness, said the church should be more robust in its support for the treaty.The onus is on the Catholic Church where these scurrilous publications concerned, she said.The church has supported Lisbon in a gentle way. It now needs to take on board things said in its name or in its porches.Labour MEP Proinsias de Rossa used the opportunity to criticise the left-wing No campaigners to suggest they were inadvertently aiding the very people they would normally oppose.They are only strengthening reactionaries with their campaign. They are handing a victory on a plate to the likes of Coir and the far right.

No links with Coir

Coir for its part told EUobserver that they have never heard of the Eire go Brach Campaign and are not linked to the group, but they suggested that the MEPs are less concerned about this particular advert than the Alive paper as a whole.I don't know anything about this campaign,spokesman Scott Schittl said. This is more about attacking Alive as a paper than any particular ad. This is what this is about. Alive's been publishing information, telling the truth about the treaty and they're worried that people will actually learn about what the treaty contains.That's why they don't want Alive available in churches.Ireland will have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty on 2 October, having rejected it in a previous referendum in June last year.

Next commission set for human rights post
HONOR MAHONY Today SEPT 10,09 @ 09:00 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The next European Commission is likely to have a commissioner responsible for fundamental rights and civil liberties, it emerged after negotiations between Jose Manuel Barroso and liberal deputies in the European Parliament.Trying to drum up support for a second term as commission president, Mr Barroso has this week appeared before political groups in the parliament to discuss his policies for the next five years.Summing up the meeting on Wednesday (9 September), liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt said the hearing had given rise to many clarifications after the group had been unconvinced by his proposed policies, published last week.According to the Liberal, Mr Barroso, a centre-right politician, promised that he would create a separate portfolio for fundamental rights and civil liberties.Currently the commission has a justice, freedom and security commissioner, but critics have long argued that it is too broad to give enough attention to data protection issues as well as the pressing problem of immigration and the rights of migrants in member states - an issue that has come to the fore recently after Italy's controversial handling of Roma and immigrants from Africa.

A second post is expected to focus on interior security.A single financial supervisor.Mr Barroso also committed to being more ambitious in tackling the aftermath of the economic crisis promising a review of the situation in three years time.Mr Verhofstadt reported Mr Barroso as saying: I shall then come forward with more ambitious ideas to create a European financial supervisor.The idea has been floated for several months but a recent commission-sponsored report on dealing with the economic crisis rejected the idea because it felt it would not be accepted by member states.In addition, Mr Barroso also promised to have a big fight with member states on what is known in EU jargon as own resources or the creation of some sort of EU tax when the club's multi annual budget is next up for discussion.Mr Verhofstadt, who along with the socialists was instrumental in postponing a planned July parliamentary vote on Mr Barroso in order to win policy concessions, indicated he was satisfied with the hearing.He said the three issues were contained in the five-point list that the liberal group wanted from Mr Barroso.

No decision until Tuesday

However, the liberal chief said his group would not decide on whether to support Mr Barroso until he made the same three commitments before the entire plenary next Tuesday (15 September).The decision means that both the liberals and the socialists, as third and second largest groups in the parliament respectively, will only make their positions on Barroso clear on Tuesday evening, just before the plenary vote, due on 16 September.While he can count on the support of most the centre-right EPP deputies as well as those in the anti-federalist ECR group, Mr Barroso needs wider cross-party backing to secure the post. But as the ballot is secret and Mr Verhofstadt as well as the Socialists' Martin Schulz will have difficulty finding a unified group line on Mr Barroso - who remains a divisive figure for both political families - the result is likely to be close.

A year after financial crisis, a new world order emerges By Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Newspapers – Tue Sep 8, 3:41 pm ET

WASHINGTON — One year after the near collapse of the global financial system, this much is clear: The financial world as we knew it is over, and something new is rising from its ashes.Historians will look to September 2008 as a watershed for the U.S. economy.On Sept. 7 , the government seized mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac . Eight days later, investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, sparking a global financial panic that threatened to topple blue-chip financial institutions around the world. In the several months that followed, governments from Washington to Beijing responded with unprecedented intervention into financial markets and across their economies, seeking to stop the wreckage and stem the damage.One year later, the easy-money system that financed the boom era from the 1980s until a year ago is smashed. Once-ravenous U.S. consumers are saving money and paying down debt. Banks are building reserves and hoarding cash. And governments are fashioning a new global financial order.Congress and the Obama administration have lost faith in self-regulated markets. Together, they're writing the most sweeping new regulations over finance since the Great Depression. And in this ever-more-connected global economy, Washington is working with its partners through the G-20 group of nations to develop worldwide rules to govern finance.Our objective is to design an economic framework where we're going to have a more balanced pattern of growth globally, less reliant on a buildup of unsustainable borrowing . . . and not just here, but around the world, said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner .

The first faint signs that the U.S. economy may be clawing its way back from the worst recession since the Great Depression are only now starting to appear, a year after the panic began. Similar indications are sprouting in Europe , China and Japan .Still, economists concur that a quarter-century of economic growth fueled by cheap credit is over. Many analysts also think that an extended period of slow job growth and suppressed wage growth will keep consumers — and the businesses that sell to them — in the dumps for years.Those things are likely to be subpar for a long period of time,said Martin Regalia, the chief economist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce .I think it means that we probably see potential rates of growth that are in the 2-2.5 (percent) range, or maybe . . . 1.8-1.9 (percent).A growth rate of 3 percent to 3.5 percent is considered average.The unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent in August and is expected to peak above 10 percent in the months ahead. It's already there in at least 15 states. Regalia thinks that it could be five years before the U.S. economy generates enough jobs to overcome those lost and to employ the new workers entering the labor force.

All this is likely to keep consumers on the sidelines.

I think this financial panic and Great Recession is an inflection point for the financial system and the economy,said Mark Zandi , the chief economist for forecaster Moody's Economy.com. It means much less risk-taking, at least for a number of years to come — a decade or two. That will be evident in less credit and more costly credit. If you are a household or a business, it will cost you more, and it will be more difficult to get that credit.The numbers bear him out. The Fed's most recent release of credit data showed that consumer credit decreased at an annual rate of 5.2 percent from April to June, after falling by a 3.6 percent annual rate from January to March. Revolving lines of credit, which include credit cards, fell by an annualized 8.9 percent in the first quarter, followed by an 8.2 percent drop in the second quarter.That's a sea change. For much of the past two decades, strong U.S. growth has come largely through expanding credit. The global economy fed off this trend.China became a manufacturing hub by selling attractively priced exports to U.S. consumers who were living beyond their means. China's Asian neighbors sent it components for final assembly; Africa and Latin America sold China their raw materials. All fed off U.S. consumers' bottomless appetite for more, bought on credit.That's over. Consumers can do their part — spend at a rate consistent with their income growth, but not much beyond that, Zandi said.If U.S. consumers no longer drive the global economy, then consumers in big emerging economies such as China and Brazil will have to take up some of the slack. Trade among nations will take on greater importance.

In the emerging new normal,U.S. companies will have to be more competitive. They must sell into big developing markets; yet as the recent Cash for Clunkers effort underscored, the competitive hurdles are high: Foreign-owned automakers, led by Toyota , reaped the most benefit from the U.S. tax breaks for new car purchases, not GM and Chrysler .Need a loan? Tough luck: Many U.S. banks are in no condition to lend. Around 416 banks are now on a problem list and at risk of insolvency. Regulators already have shuttered 81 banks and thrifts this year.The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported on Aug. 27 that rising loan losses are depleting bank capital. The ratio of bank reserves to bad loans was 63.5 percent from April to June, the lowest it's been since the savings-and-loan crisis in 1991.For all that, the U.S. economy does seem to be rising off its sickbed. The latest manufacturing data for August point to a return to growth, and home sales are rising. Indeed, there are many encouraging signs emerging in the global economy.It's all growth from a low starting point, however, and many economists think that there'll be a lower baseline for U.S. and global growth if the new financial order means less risk-taking by lenders and less indebtedness by companies and consumers.That seems evident now in the U.S. personal savings rate. It fell steadily from 9.59 percent in the 1970s to 2.68 percent in the easy-money era from 2000 to 2008; from 2005 to 2007, it averaged 1.83 percent.Today, that trend is in reverse. From April to June, Americans' personal savings rate was 5 percent, and it could go higher if the unemployment rate keeps rising. Almost 15 million Americans are unemployed — and countless others are underemployed or uncertain about their job security, so they're spending less and saving more.

A few years ago, banks fell all over themselves to offer cheap home equity loans and lines of consumer credit. No more. Even billions in government bailout dollars to spur lending haven't changed that.The strategy that was stated at the beginning of the year — which is that you would sustain the banking system in order that it would resume lending — hasn't worked, and it isn't going to work,said James K. Galbraith , an economist at the University of Texas at Austin .Over the course of 2008, the nation's five largest banks reduced their consumer loans by 79 percent, real estate loans by 66 percent and commercial loans by 19 percent, according to FDIC data. A wide range of credit measures, including recent FDIC data, show that lending remains depressed.Why? The foundation of U.S. credit expansion for the past 20 years is in ruin. Since the 1980s, banks haven't kept loans on their balance sheets; instead, they sold them into a secondary market, where they were pooled for sale to investors as securities. The process, called securitization, fueled a rapid expansion of credit to consumers and businesses. By passing their loans on to investors, banks were freed to lend more.Today, securitization is all but dead. Investors have little appetite for risky securities. Few buyers want a security based on pools of mortgages, car loans, student loans and the like.The basis of revival of the system along the line of what previously existed doesn't exist. The foundation that was supposed to be there for the revival (of the economy) . . . got washed away, Galbraith said.Unless and until securitization rebounds, it will be hard for banks to resume robust lending because they're stuck with loans on their books.

We've just been scared,said Robert C. Pozen , the chairman of Boston -based MFS Investment Management . He thinks that the freeze in securitization reflects a lack of trust in Wall Street and its products and remains a huge obstacle to the resumption of lending that's vital to an economic recovery. Enter the Federal Reserve. It now props up the secondary market for pooled loans that are vital to the functioning of the U.S. financial system. The Fed is lending money to investors who're willing to buy the safest pools of loans, called asset-backed securities.

Through Sept. 3 , the Fed had funded purchases of $817.6 billion in mortgage-backed securities. These securities were pooled mostly by mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae , Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae . In recent months, the Fed also has moved aggressively to lend for purchase of pools of other consumer-based loans. Today, there's little private-sector demand for new loan-based securities; government is virtually the only game in town. That's why on Aug. 17 , the Fed announced that it would extend its program to finance the purchase of pools of loans until mid-2010. That suggests there's still a long way to go before a functioning securitization market — the backbone of consumer lending — returns to a semblance of normalcy.

The Latest Healthcare Rumor: Microchip Implants
September 8, 2009 - by Donny Shaw

There’s a new rumor going around about the Democrats’ healthcare bill that’s so absurd and off-base that I hesitate to even bring it up here in order to debunk it. The rumor, which is being spread mostly in online forums and hasn’t yet received any kind of validation from a national political figure, is that the bill would require all Americans to get a microchip embedded in their body so the government can track them.Or, at least, I think that’s what they are claiming. I’ve seen a few variations, including claims that everyone would need to get the microchips, only people who enroll in the public option would have to get it, and that the bill doesn’t require the implants, but it leaves it open to the government to decide after it is passed if they want to require them. You can view forum threads on the topic here, here, here and here, for examples. The rumor first came to my attention when someone wrote into the OpenCongress Facebook group asking for information on it.

The portion of text people have been referencing to support their claims can be read here, in Title V, Subtitle C – National Medical Device Registry. If you read the actual bill text, it’s very clear that this microchip rumor is just completely made up.What this section of the bill actually does is call on the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a national medical device registry to facilitate analysis of post-market safety and outcomes data on all Class III medical devices and all implantable, life-supporting, or life-sustaining Class II medical devices that have been used on a patient. In other words, it establishes a registry designed to gather data on the effectiveness and safety of the most highly-regulated medical devices.The key to understanding this section is knowing what these different classes of medical devices are. The Food and Drug Administration has divided up all medical devices that are used on patients into three classes according to their potential to cause harm. Class I devices include things like tongue depressors, latex gloves and handheld surgical instruments. They are subject to very little control from the FDA. Class II devices are a little more sophisticated, but still not subject to a great amount of FDA oversight. They include things like wheelchairs, surgical needles and x-ray machines. Class III devices require the most FDA oversight, including pre-market testing and approval. They include things like implantable pacemakers, silicone breast implants, and replacement heart valves.

The registry that would be set up by the bill is aimed at tracking the safety of Class III devices and some of the most critical, borderline-Class III devices that are technically classified as Class II. The bill specifies Class II devices that are implantable, life-supporting, or life-sustaining, which is lifted almost verbatim from the FDA’s own definition of Class III devices. Class III devices usually sustain or support life, are implanted, or present potential unreasonable risk of illness or injury, the FDA writes on their website. From my limited knowledge of the matter, Class II devices that would be tracked in registry would include things like dental implants, IV bags and catheters.This rumor about the bill requiring people to have microchips implanted in them by the government seems to be based on a combination of fear of government, paranoia and simply the appearance of the word implantable in the bill text. There’s no real analysis going into the rumor, so it’s hard to come up with a more thorough debunking beyond saying that it’s baseless and simply not in the bill.For more debunking of false rumors about the healthcare bill see this post linking the rumors to the actual bill text.

Microchip Implants, Mind Control, and Cybernetics
Friday, July 17, 2009 at 4:36pm

In 1948 Norbert Weiner published a book, Cybernetics, defined as a neurological communication and control theory already in use in small circles at that time. Yoneji Masuda,Father of the Information Society,stated his concern in 1980 that our liberty is threatened Orwellian-style by cybernetic technology totally unknown to most people. This technology links the brains of people via implanted microchips to satellites controlled by ground-based supercomputers.The first brain implants were surgically inserted in 1974 in the state of Ohio, USA and also in Stockholm, Sweden. Brain electrodes were inserted into the skulls of babies in 1946 without the knowledge of their parents. In the 1950s and 60s, electrical implants were inserted into the brains of animals and humans, especially in the U.S., during research into behavior modification, and brain and body functioning. Mind control (MC) methods were used in attempts to change human behavior and attitudes. Influencing brain functions became an important goal of military and intelligence services.Thirty years ago brain implants showed up in X-rays the size of one centimeter. Subsequent implants shrunk to the size of a grain of rice. They were made of silicon, later still of gallium arsenide. Today they are small enough to be inserted into the neck or back, and also intravenously in different parts of the body during surgical operations, with or without the consent of the subject. It is now almost impossible to detect or remove them.

It is technically possible for every newborn to be injected with a microchip, which could then function to identify the person for the rest of his or her life. Such plans are secretly being discussed in the U.S. without any public airing of the privacy issues involved. In Sweden, Prime Minister Olof Palme gave permission in 1973to implant prisoners, and Data Inspection's ex-Director General Jan Freese revealed that nursing-home patients were implanted in the mid-1980s. The technology is revealed in the 1972:47 Swedish state report, Statens Officiella Utradninger (SOU).
Implanted human beings can be followed anywhere. Their brain functions can be remotely monitored by supercomputers and even altered through the changing of frequencies. Guinea pigs in secret experiments have included prisoners, soldiers, mental patients, handicapped children, deaf and blind people, homosexuals, single women, the elderly, school children, and any group of people considered marginal by the elite experimenters. The published experiences of prisoners in Utah State Prison, for example, are shocking to the conscience.Today's microchips operate by means of low-frequency radio waves that target them. With the help of satellites, the implanted person can be tracked anywhere on the globe. Such a technique was among a number tested in the Iraq war, according to Dr. Carl Sanders, who invented the intelligence-manned interface (IMI) biotic, which is injected into people. (Earlier during the Vietnam War, soldiers were injected with the Rambo chip, designed to increase adrenaline flow into the bloodstream.) The 20-billion-bit/second supercomputers at the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) could now see and hear what soldiers experience in the battlefield with a remote monitoring system (RMS).

When a 5-micromillimeter microchip (the diameter of a strand of hair is 50 micromillimeters) is placed into optical nerve of the eye, it draws neuroimpulses from the brain that embody the experiences, smells, sights, and voice of the implanted person. Once transferred and stored in a computer, these neuroimpulses can be projected back to the person’s brain via the microchip to be reexperienced. Using a RMS, a land-based computer operator can send electromagnetic messages (encoded as signals) to the nervous system, affecting the target's performance. With RMS, healthy persons can be induced to see hallucinations and to hear voices in their heads.Every thought, reaction, hearing, and visual observation causes a certain neurological potential, spikes, and patterns in the brain and its electromagnetic fields, which can now be decoded into thoughts, pictures, and voices. Electromagnetic stimulation can therefore change a person's brainwaves and affect muscular activity, causing painful muscular cramps experienced as torture.The NSA's electronic surveillance system can simultaneously follow and handle millions of people. Each of us has a unique bioelectrical resonance frequency in the brain, just as we have unique fingerprints. With electromagnetic frequency (EMF) brain stimulation fully coded, pulsating electromagnetic signals can be sent to the brain, causing the desired voice and visual effects to be experienced by the target. This is a form of electronic warfare. U.S. astronauts were implanted before they were sent into space so their thoughts could be followed and all their emotions could be registered 24 hours a day.

The Washington Post reported in May 1995 that Prince William of Great Britain was implanted at the age of 12. Thus, if he were ever kidnapped, a radio wave with a specific frequency could be targeted to his microchip. The chip’s signal would be routed through a satellite to the computer screen of police headquarters, where the Prince’s movements could be followed. He could actually be located anywhere on the globe.The mass media has not reported that an implanted person's privacy vanishes for the rest of his or her life. She can be manipulated in many ways. Using different frequencies, the secret controller of this equipment can even change a person's emotional life. She can be made aggressive or lethargic. Sexuality can be artificially influenced. Thought signals and subconscious thinking can be read, dreams affected and even induced, all without the knowledge or consent of the implanted person.A perfect cyber-soldier can thus be created. This secret technology has been used by military forces in certain NATO countries since the 1980s without civilian and academic populations having heard anything about it. Thus, little information about such invasive mind-control systems is available in professional and academic journals.The NSA's Signals Intelligence group can remotely monitor information from human brains by decoding the evoked potentials (3.50 HZ, 5 milliwatt) emitted by the brain. Prisoner experimentees in both Gothenburg, Sweden and Vienna, Austria have been found to have evident brain lesions. Diminished blood circulation and lack of oxygen in the right temporal frontal lobes result where brain implants are usually operative. A Finnish experimentee experienced brain atrophy and intermittent attacks of unconsciousness due to lack of oxygen.

Mind control techniques can be used for political purposes. The goal of mind controllers today is to induce the targeted persons or groups to act against his or her own convictions and best interests. Zombified individuals can even be programmed to murder and remember nothing of their crime afterward. Alarming examples of this phenomenon can be found in the U.S.This silent war is being conducted against unknowing civilians and soldiers by military and intelligence agencies. Since 1980, electronic stimulation of the brain (ESB) has been secretly used to control people targeted without their knowledge or consent. All international human rights agreements forbid non consensual manipulation of human beings — even in prisons, not to speak of civilian populations.Under an initiative of U.S. Senator John Glenn, discussions commenced in January 1997 about the dangers of radiating civilian populations. Targeting people’s brain functions with electromagnetic fields and beams (from helicopters and airplanes, satellites, from parked vans, neighboring houses, telephone poles, electrical appliances, mobile phones, TV, radio, etc.) is part of the radiation problem that should be addressed in democratically elected government bodies.In addition to electronic MC, chemical methods have also been developed. Mind-altering drugs and different smelling gasses affecting brain function negatively can be injected into air ducts or water pipes. Bacteria and viruses have also been tested this way in several countries.Today's super technology, connecting our brain functions via microchips (or even without them, according to the latest technology) to computers via satellites in the U.S. or Israel, poses the gravest threat to humanity. The latest supercomputers are powerful enough to monitor the whole world’s population. What will happen when people are tempted by false premises to allow microchips into their bodies? One lure will be a microchip identity card. Compulsory legislation has even been secretly proposed in the U.S. to criminalize removal of an ID implant.

Are we ready for the robotization of mankind and the total elimination of privacy, including freedom of thought? How many of us would want to cede our entire life, including our most secret thoughts, to Big Brother? Yet the technology exists to create a totalitarian New World Order. Covert neurological communication systems are in place to counteract independent thinking and to control social and political activity on behalf of self-serving private and military interests.When our brain functions are already connected to supercomputers by means of radio implants and microchips, it will be too late for protest. This threat can be defeated only by educating the public, using available literature on biotelemetry and information exchanged at international congresses.One reason this technology has remained a state secret is the widespread prestige of the psychiatric Diagnostic Statistical Manual IV produced by the U.S. American Psychiatric Association (APA) and printed in 18 languages. Psychiatrists working for U.S. intelligence agencies no doubt participated in writing and revising this manual. This psychiatric bible covers up the secret development of MC technologies by labeling some of their effects as symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia.Victims of mind control experimentation are thus routinely diagnosed, knee-jerk fashion, as mentally ill by doctors who learned the DSM symptom list in medical school. Physicians have not been schooled that patients may be telling the truth when they report being targeted against their will or being used as guinea pigs for electronic, chemical and bacteriological forms of psychological warfare.Time is running out for changing the direction of military medicine, and ensuring the future of human freedom.This article was originally published in the 36th-year edition of the Finnish-language journal SPEKULA (3rd Quarter, 1999). SPEKULA (circulation 6500) is a publication of Northern Finland medical students and doctors of Oulu University OLK (Oulun Laaketieteellinen Kilta). It is mailed to all medical students of Finland and all Northern Finland medical doctors.

RFID News Roundup Two additional hospitals implement RFID-enabled surgical sponges; RF Code announces wire-free liquid detection sensor; ThingMagic releases new open API for its RFID readers; Italian soccer leagues to offer RFID cards to fans; Malaysian libraries implement UHF RFID system; SmarTrac announces UHF RFID transponder for laundry applications.AUG 27,09

Aug. 27, 2009—The following are news announcements made during the past week.

Two Additional Hospitals Implement RFID-enabled Surgical Sponges
St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart, Ind., and Saint Vincent Hospital, in Worcester, Mass., have implemented an RFID-enabled system for tracking and locating surgical sponges from RF Surgical Systems, a privately held medical device company headquartered in Bellevue, Wash. The RF Surgical Detection System consists of a handheld scanning wand connected to compact, self-calibrating RFID reader. The system is used in conjunction with passive 145 kHz RFID tags embedded in a variety of surgical gauzes and sponges. When the wand is passed over a patient prior to closing procedures, an audible and visual alarm immediately signals the presence of any retained object fitted with a tag. The system received U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulatory approval in November 2006 (see Medline Markets RFID System for Surgical Sponges), and according to RF Surgical Systems has been used in more than 640,000 surgical cases at more than 70 hospitals. In a prepared statement, Glenn Carlos, MD, chairman of surgery at St. Mary Medical Center, noted that the new technology adds very little time or effort to the surgical process, and it will be used in addition to traditional tracking methods. It also offers great peace of mind to patients and their families.The implementation of the RFID-enabled system at Saint Vincent Hospital is a direct outcome of the hospital's recent patient-safety initiative, announced in April.We have taken a proactive approach to preventing retained sponges by utilizing the RF Surgical Detection System in all our surgical areas,Saint Vincent's chief medical officer, Octavio Diaz, said in a prepared statement.This includes open-cavity surgeries in the OR, Labor and Delivery and in our Electro-Physical Lab for pacemaker and ICD implants.

RF Code Announces Wire-Free Liquid Detection Sensor
RF Code, an RFID hardware and systems provider based in Austin, Texas, has introduced a real-time liquid detection sensor that can be used to determine whether there is any liquid or excessive moisture that could damage IT assets. The wireless sensor eliminates the need to wire or cable a data center, according to RF Code. The sensor combines thin-film fluid sensing technology developed by Korea-based Yumin System Technology Co. with RF Code's real-time, wire-free environmental monitoring technology. The sensor can be wrapped around floor or ceiling pipes, attached to vulnerable areas, including under or above a raised floor, installed by water delivery systems and chillers, including those found under raised floors in older data centers, or attached to air conditioning units and walls. The fluid sensor is wired to an RF Code active RFID tag via a 3-meter-long cord to allow maximum placement flexibility. Like all of RF Code's wire-free sensors, information captured by the tag is automatically sent to the company's Sensor Manager software, which provides real-time monitoring and alerting about environmental conditions at a site (see RFID Protects 911 Center From IT Emergencies). According to RF Code, if a film-based sensor detects a leak, it can be wiped down and immediately readied for use, compared to other available leak detection sensors that need time to air-dry between water incidents. In addition, the amount of liquid presence needed to initiate a leak alert is minimal, the company says.

ThingMagic Releases New Open API for its RFID Readers
RFID interrogator supplier ThingMagic has announced a newly redesigned application programming interface (API) that developers can use to configure, control and access the company's line of embedded, fixed and integrated UHF RFID readers. By providing a common, open API for all its readers, ThingMagic says it will make it easier for developers to create custom applications.Altogether, this dramatically reduces time to market, speeds ROI and supports our goal of making RFID readers easy for our customers to use,Yael Maguire, cofounder and CTO of ThingMagic, said in a prepared statement. Called the Mercury API, the programmatic interface lets developers design and test reader and tag commands; program advanced reader functions such as setting antennas, protocols and filtering criteria; program advanced tag operations such as killing and locking tags; create privacy and security features; and optimize performance and memory. Available now, the Mercury API works across the M5e reader module family, the Mercury5 reader, the enterprise-grade Astra reader, the ruggedized Vega reader and the USB desktop reader. The Mercury API is available for several programming languages. It is written in Java and C# and supports .NET applications in the .NET Compact Framework 2.0, Windows applications in the .NET Framework, and Windows, Linux (Intel) and MacOSX applications in the Java Framework. The interface communicates with readers through a TCP-based network connection or via local serial ports.

Italian Soccer Leagues to Offer RFID Cards to Fans
Lega Pro, a group of professional soccer leagues in Italy, is working with Telecom Italia, an Italian provider of fixed-line and mobile telecommunications, Internet and media solutions and services, and business systems and solutions, to provide soccer fans RFID-enabled ID cards for entrance into stadiums where the more than 90 affiliated clubs of Lega Pro play. Soccer fans will use the RFID cards to purchase tickets for matches, as well as access various services at the stadium grounds, such as fast-track turnstiles. The Tessera del Tifoso (Fan's Card) also doubles as a Visa credit card. Each card contains a 13.56 MHz RFID tag compliant with the ISO 14443 standard and leverages a network platform built by Telecom Italia and hosted at one of the its data centers. The platform automatically records tickets purchased online or at ticket offices made by Tessera del Tifoso cardholders. Employees manning turnstiles at football grounds are being issued special RFID reader-equipped mobile terminals. When the Tessera del Tifoso is waved in front of a terminal, the handheld device reads the cardholder's name and other data encoded to the RFID microchip embedded in the card, and ensures that the fan has a valid match day ticket by communicating (via high-speed mobile broadband) with the back-end system at the data center and checking against the data stored there. Although the cards are designed to provide fans with easier access to service and benefits, they are also being used to help Lega Pro enforce rules recommended by Italy's National Monitoring Center on Sporting Events, and enable Lega Pro to promote the concept of official fans who voluntarily abide by a code of conduct, according to Telecom Italia. Other soccer leagues around the world are also leveraging 13.56 MHz RFID technology, including the Manchester City Football Club (see Soccer Fans Use RFID Cards to Gain Admission and Buy Food).

Malaysian Libraries Implement UHF RFID Systems
The Penang Public Library in Malaysia is outfitting its six libraries with RFID technology from RFID tag manufacturer UPM Raflatac. The solution is compliant with the EPC Gen 2 standard and was developed and implemented by RFID systems provider Smartag Solutions. The Penang Public Library houses about 500,000 copies of reading materials and serves more than 800,000 people. The RFID system uses UPM Raflatac DogBone tags and includes RFID stations that library patrons can use to check in and check out materials, review their account status and renew materials in real time. It also includes RFID interrogators with read ranges of up to 7 meters at library entrances. The devices are programmed to detect tagged books that don't have a checkout code; an alarm is triggered when items pass through that haven't been coded as borrowed.The tagged library materials enable patrons to self-checkout and return materials quickly and efficiently. There's no more bar-code scanning or date stamping—items are placed on the RFID reader, and within seconds the material and user information are updated in the library system,said Shukriah Yon, director of the Penang Public Library, in a prepared statement.

SmarTrac Announces a UHF RFID Transponder for Laundry Applications
SmarTrac, an RFID inlay supplier headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, has announced SmartFlexibleTag, a UHF RFID transponder designed for use with laundry applications. The transponder features a silicone coating and is able to withstand temperatures of up to 180 degrees Celsius, high pressure and aggressive chemicals. It features an integrated anti-collision algorithm so that stacked garments can be read simultaneously at distances of more than several meters, according to SmarTrac. The SmartFlexibleTag is equipped with Alien Technology's Higgs 2 chip, which operates at extremely low power levels and conforms to the EPC Gen 2 standard.

OIL BENEATH THE CLIFFS IN ISRAEL
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133372

Moratinos to Meet Lieberman at the United Nations
Reported: 17:55 PM - Sep/10/09

(IsraelNN.com) Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos telephoned his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday and asked to reschedule the Friday meeting that was canceled earlier Thursday.The two agreed to meet at the United Nations General Assembly at the end of the month.

Former Netanyahu Official: Bibi Agreed to Give Up Golan Heights
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu SEPT 9,09

(IsraelNN.com)
Danny Yatom, Mossad director during Binyamin’s Netanyahu’s term as Prime Minister a decade ago, claims the Likud leader agreed in 1998 to give up the Golan Heights. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office denied the claim, and Yatom stated Thursday morning that the alleged document in Netanyahu’s name does not obligate him to the future.Israeli media spotlighted Yatom's claim, included in his new book in which he states that a letter presented to former U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1998 states that Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to hand over the strategic Golan Heights to Syria in return for a security treaty. The Prime Minister stated during his campaign last year that he would not surrender the Golan, a position he has maintained since then, but he has not stated categorically that he would not give up parts of the area.Israeli media, most of which promote an agenda for surrendering much of Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, omitted Yatom’s background in the former Netanyahu administration.

Yatom, who was a Knesset Member for the Labor party in the previous government, resigned his position as head of the Mossad because of a critical report of the intelligence agency’s botched attempt to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal following suicide bombings in Jerusalem.Yatom also has a long-time partnership with Israeli diamond mogul Lev Levayev. This connection played a part in the letter to President Clinton by Ron Lauder, an American businessman who also deals in diamonds. He traveled to Syria to talk about Netanyahu’s readiness to withdraw from the Golan and reported to former President Clinton.Yatom’s claims are not the first time the story has been reported. Clinton’s autobiography published three months ago also refers to Netanyahu and Syria. He wrote that Netanyahu suggested a security treaty based on giving up the Golan, but it was not specified how much of the area was involved.When Syria asked for specifics, Netanyahu said Israel would retain part of the Golan bordering the Kinneret, according to Clinton and Yatom.Netanyahu previously denied any agreement and said in one interview,I never agreed to withdraw from the Golan Heights in any situation or in any talks. The negotiations were unsuccessful because I insisted that the final international border be located miles eastward of the current border.Another letter that the Israeli media failed to mention was written by Lauder, who wrote in 2004,Prime Minister Netanyahu never approved a retreat to 1967 borders. None of the documents that were drafted during these talks was official, and no document was approved by Prime Minister Netanyahu.

50 Nations Meet in Israel to Discuss Counterterror Tactics-VIDEO
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133362

Hamas Escalates Attacks on IDF, Threatens Fire and Iron
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu SEPT 10,09

(IsraelNN.com)
Gaza terrorists continued to escalate attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers Wednesday afternoon. The IDF neutralized several roadside bombs but did not respond to three shooting attacks on civilians carrying out maintenance work at the Gaza separation fence and at soldiers patrolling the areas.The IDF denied a stream of allegations that Israeli forces made incursions into northern Gaza, reported by the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency, which has close ties with Fatah and the Palestinian Authority. The same news organization claimed Thursday that IDF bulldozers and armored helicopters destroyed farmland near Beit Hanoun. Military spokesmen said no bulldozers entered the area. Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades military wing of Hamas, warned Israel that "if it carries out a new war on the Gaza Strip, the responses won't by words; it will be by fire and iron. The only language the Israeli enemy understands is the language of force. The daily incursions carried out by the Zionist enemy is [sic] part of a programmed aggression. They fear anything [that] moves near the borders, even trees, foliage or sands.”

Wednesday's attacks followed a an increasing number of mortar and gunfire attacks on Israel. Eight days ago, Hamas took responsibility for firing three mortar shells within a 24-hour period, one of the most intense assaults on Israel in months. The IDF retaliated by bombing a tunnel, designed to help terrorists infiltrate into the western Negev. Arab terrorists responded the following day with a rocket attack on a Negev farm, causing no injuries or damage.In Judea and Samaria, Jewish motorists have been subjected to daily terrorist attacks with firebombs and rocks, but the Israeli mainstream media has ignored most of the incidents despite damage to several vehicles. The army, under orders from Defense Minister Ehud Barak, has drastically reduced the number of roadblocks, checkpoints and patrols on highways.PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has maintained that the PA has honored American Roadmap obligations that it halt violence and incitement. Keeping up an image that there is peace and quiet throughout Judea and Samaria strengthens the PA’s position in its demands, backed by U.S. President Barack Obama, that Israel stop all building for Jews in the areas where it wants to create a new Arab state.

CHARLIE SHEEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT ABOUT 911 (SEPT 08,09)
http://rss.nfowars.net/20090908_Tue_Alex.mp3
http://prisonplanet.tv/alex-jones-live.html
911 MEDIA OUTRAGE CONTINUES (SEPT 09,09)
http://rss.nfowars.net/20090909_Wed_Alex.mp3

VIDEOS-LINKS TO SHEEN STORY CHALLENGE ME ABOUT FACTS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYB0Qhz50rg&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UmxPYiP9go&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhtlzpqaNUY&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU-qfQEGDEg&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0A2Lyo0_yg&feature=player_embedded
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/march2006/230306Sheen_CNN.htm
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2006/230306jonesreport.htm
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2006/280606juggernautoftruth.htm
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/170406mediacomplicit.htm
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2006/200306charliesheen.htm
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2006/240306challengeme.htm
http://prisonplanet.tv/audio/240306sheen.htm
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/170406mediacomplicit.htm
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/150406sheenchallenges.htm

Breaking Three Years of Silence: Alex Jones Interviews Charlie Sheen
Kurt Nimmo Prison Planet.com Wednesday, September 9, 2009

In the audio clip below, aired today on the Alex Jones Show, Charlie Sheen, popular actor and winner of the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series, tells Alex Jones why he wrote 20 Minutes with the President, an open letter to president Barack Obama calling for a new investigation into the September 11, 2001, attacks.Enough stonewalling, Sheen told Jones, enough media manipulation, enough media-mantra speak. The families deserve better, America deserves better.Charlie said he cannot sit idly by and hope that a new investigation will fall out of the heavens and into our Congress. We must demand Obama deliver honest promises, Sheen explained. We must demand a new investigation.Alex mentioned John Farmer, a senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission, who revealed earlier this year that the government agreed not to tell the truth about 9/11. Other members have said that the Pentagon and the government were engaged in deliberate deception about their response to the attack. Farmer’s book about his experiences working for the Commission is entitled The Ground Truth: The Story Behind America’s Defense on 9/11, and is set to be released this month (see Paul Joseph Watson, 9/11 Commission Counsel: Government Agreed to Lie About 9/11).

Charlie said the call for a new investigation will not be silenced by the corporate media. This message will not be silence anymore by the media-fueled mantras insisting on how they feel and deciding for them [the American people and most importantly the victim family members] for eight long years what can thought, what can be said, what can be asked.Alex noted that even as the whitewash commission conducted its hearings, there were outraged family members in the audience demanding the truth be told. Charlie added that these family members were ignored by the commission and thus deeply offended. The questions they asked never saw the light of day” and their words never found their way into the final report generated by the commission, itself a fraud as Farmer others have noted. We know that [the families] have been calling for a new investigation, Sheen noted.The government is demanding the public suspend logical thought and dismiss all questions about the investigation’s report, which is a work of fiction, in essence a fairy tale, Charlie argued. The establishment, he said, demands we worship a new form of physics and accept a new form of reality that is inconsistent with everything we know in each and every cell of our entire being.The American people are instructed by the government to believe such obvious nonsense and then are systematically demonized for asking questions, he explained.

The official 9/11 story is an absolute fairy tale,Charlie declared,a complete work of fiction, and not even a very good one.Sheen hopes 20 Minutes with the President will get Obama’s attention. If for some reason this doesn’t make it into his hands and I am never granted 20 minutes with my president, I would urge the American people — I would urge anybody and everybody that has a stake in this, which would be all of us — to continue to apply the pressure, to continue to ask the questions, to continue to demand the truth.Charlie Sheen will further expand on his open letter this Friday on the Alex Jones Show.

Challenge Me On The Facts – How Charlie Sheen Energized The 9/11 Truth Movement Steve Watson Infowars.net Tuesday, Sept 8, 2009

Charlie Sheen’s exclusive article today published at Prisonplanet.com and Infowars.com provides a lengthy and detailed bibliography of facts relating to the 9/11 cover up.Back in 2006 when Sheen first went public with his views on 9/11 as an inside job an the Alex Jones show, he was subject to months of abuse and personal attacks completely unrelated to the issue he was attempting to push into the mainstream.Sheen asked the media to challenge me on the facts, however that challenge was lost in a sea of disinformation disseminated by the corporate media.

This time Sheen has meticulously planned his approach, so as to focus the attention on the undeniable facts he presents in his open letter to the president.Sheen told Alex Jones in a twenty minute interview last week, now available exclusively on Prisonplanet.tv, that his intention was to create a public document specifically rooted in fact.The truth is unchanging. Sheen added.Everything in this letter will withstand the critical assault I am more than prepared to endure.Since Sheen appeared on the Alex Jones show and subsequently at the national American Scholars Symposium on 9/11 in the Summer of 2006, there is no doubt that the issue of the 9/11cover up has shifted into mainstream consciousness.Since that time we have seen a barrage of hit pieces from major media corporations such as The History Channel, the BBC, Popular Mechanics and the National Geographic Channel.Each attack has fallen flat on its face, however, and has actually had the opposite effect that was intended, in waking more people up to the fraud that is the official version of events surrounding the attacks.Now Sheen is back, in response to the call for him to stand up again and continue where he left off in 2006. With so many more people now awake to the whitewash that was the official 9/11 investigation, and with everything that has ensued in the fallout of the 21st century’s defining event, Sheen can help us generate a second massive wave of public awakening.For newer readers, uninformed media representatives, and as a way of providing more context to Charlie Sheen’s latest efforts to push for a new investigation into 9/11, here are links to articles and stories arising from Sheen’s original groundbreaking effort to shatter the mainstream media silence on the official conspiracy theory.

Mr. Roff, 9/11 Truthers Are No Fringe Movement.U.S. News & World Report hit piece omits that fact that the majority of the 9/11 Commission members question the official story Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Wednesday, September 9, 2009

An acerbic attack on Charlie Sheen for the crime of questioning the official story behind 9/11, a sentiment shared by the majority of Americans and indeed the majority of the 9/11 Commission itself, appearing in U.S. News and World Report this morning relies upon cliched and completely unfounded terms of reference in a poor effort to smear Sheen as part of a conspiracy fringe.In his hit piece, author Peter Roff labels 9/11 truth as an extremist theory and compares its adherents with those who believe Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone in killing Kennedy.So that’ll be over two thirds of the entire population of the U.S. then, Mr. Roff! In what possible way can this be described as fringe thinking? An ABC News poll conducted on the 40th anniversary of the JFK assassination found that 7 in 10 Americans believe that the murder of Kennedy was the result of a wider plot, not the lone actions of Oswald.

The establishment media are still operating under a deluded and contrived perception of public opinion that has no correlation whatsoever to reality itself.Roff goes on to reference Van Jones and dismiss 9/11 truthers as a fringe element but concedes that they are politically influential and that establishment Democrats and Republicans need to deal with them.Just by coincidence, while arguing that 9/11 truthers represent a fringe element, Roff fails to mention that the majority of American citizens doubt the official government version of events.He also fails to acknowledge the fact, as strongly emphasized in Charlie Sheen’s letter to the President, that the majority of the 9/11 Commission members publicly denounced the official story and stated that the government agreed not to tell the truth.He also conveniently fails to highlight the fact that literally thousands of credible individuals both in and out of government, military leaders, intelligence professionals, legal scholars, architects and engineers, have all publicly questioned the official 9/11 story.

If there was every any doubt that people with serious questions about 9/11 are the majority, a cacophony of respondents moved quickly to slam Roff’s hit piece within minutes of it being posted.I challenge anyone to refute any of the 20 claims that Charlie Sheen makes. He has done his research and knows what he is talking about. Argue him on the facts. Don’t resort to baseless ad hominem attacks or throw up straw men,wrote one.You can say what ever you want about the truth movement. Just recognize that 60% of the 911 commission says the 911 commission report is a FRAUD!! added another.Charlie Sheen brings up a lot of insightful points and questions in this creative piece. There remain a lot of unanswered questions about this awful day that now dictates the geopolitical strategy of powerhouse nations,writes another.

Establishment talking heads like Roff, idly strolling through their careers on the gravy train of corporate media, remain blissfully unaware that their terms of reference and cliched quips about grassy knoll conspiracy theories are about three decades out of date. The establishment media is a complete laughing stock, which is why it is in terminal decline as more and more seek an alternative in the face of ceaseless government lies and propaganda, dutifully parroted by an ever-obedient fourth estate.

Media Floodgates Open On Sheen’s 9/11 Letter To The President
Prisonplanet.com Wednesday, Sept 9th, 2009
http://www.prisonplanet.com/media-floodgates-open-on-sheens-911-letter-to-the-president.html (LINKS)

This morning the LA Times covered the Prisonplanet.com exclusive Twenty Minutes WIth The President – penned by Charlie Sheen.Now the media floodgates have opened and it has become a national and international story. The whole world will now see Sheen’s meticulously researched bibliography on the 9/11 cover up, vindicating Charlie’s innovative approach of a fictionalized interview with Barack Obama.Here are links to major media coverage of the story:FOX NEWS: Report: Charlie Sheen Seeks Meeting With Obama to Discuss 9/11 Cover-Up.LONDON TIMES: Charlie Sheen, Obama and a 9/11 conspiracy.E! ONLINE: Charlie Sheen the Truther Teaches Obama About 9/11.HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Sheen wants White House visit to talk about 9/11.THE INQUISITR- Charlie Sheen/Barack Obama fanfic, as written by… Charlie Sheen.GAWKER.COM – Charlie Sheen’s Fantasy 9/11 Truther Grilling of the President.

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

DRUG PUSHERS AND ADDICTS

REVELATION 18:23
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries (DRUGS) were all nations deceived.

REVELATION 9:21
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries (DRUGS), nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

PSYCHIATRY INSANITY
http://www.infowars.com/psychiatric-insanity/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b30iwhEw9ho&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY0IPcTO8lM&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGEme6OpZrU&feature=player_embedded
NBC News to Bloggers: Don’t Say or Think Anything Controversial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28ohz-zfM6c&feature=player_embedded

Swine Flu: Path to Martial Law?
John Griffing Global Research September 9, 2009
http://www.infowars.com/swine-flu-path-to-martial-law/ (LINKS)

Could a form of martial law be imminent? Obama appears ready to cross the Rubicon, and all he needs is a killer virus.Let’s connect some dots.Remember President Obama’s Executive Order basing 80,000 active troops at home for the first time in the history of the peacetime military establishment to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack….Now connect that information to the recent announcement that the military has established regional deployment locations all across the United States to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials.Civil unrest and crowd control? Significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall? What do they know that we don’t? Swine flu has been made into a crisis in the minds of the public, even though swine flu, or H1N1, is the most non-lethal killer virus ever uncovered. As a cataclysmic event demanding military assistance, it ranks near zero.It is doubtful whether swine flu could even be classified as an epidemic,much less a pandemic.Regular influenza, the common flu, kills 36,000 people every year.The 1918 flu pandemic killed an estimated 50-100 million people worldwide over a period of two years, approximately one-third the population of Europe at that time.Global swine flu deaths topped just 1,000 this year. But President Obama is predicting death tolls of 90,000 and possible infection of up to half the US population.While every life matters, in statistical terms swine flu is a comparatively minor problem, which makes the hype by those in government and the military all the more suspicious.

The National Guard is even practicing mock takeovers of public schools in the event of an H1N1 riot, a description that elicits mixed responses. What kind of riot could arise out of a flu that has only killed 1,000 worldwide? Washington certainly seems to be looking for some rationale for enhanced domestic military involvement, whether credible or not.Martial law has essentially been on the table since President Obama took office, thanks to the Bush Administration’s dramatic revisions of the Posse Comitatus Act —which limited deployment of the US military at home—in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. With impeccable timing, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has gone before Congress asking for the unprecedented authority to base 400,000 soldiers in communities all across the United States.A recent US Army War College Report even outlined the conditions under which martial law could be introduced, listing:
unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters are all paths to disruptive domestic shock. [Emphasis added.]

The CDC is finalizing quarantine regulations formulated during the Bush years that provide for quarantining a large group of persons suspected of having swine flu or other illnesses listed in an executive order.This means that President Obama can quarantine anyone as long as they have an illness he determines to be dangerous. These new regulations even permit provisional quarantine of persons not actually carrying any virus.In one section, the regulations empower the president to quarantine anyone that does not agree to be vaccinated, an ominous condition since recent investigations have revealed that swine flu vaccines can cause serious medical complications.Thousands of doctors have voiced strong opposition to the proposed swine flu vaccine, due to its association with neurological disorders.No matter, a bill before the Massachusetts State Senate would permit authorities to enter homes and detain without warrant citizens who do not agree to be forcibly vaccinated.Iowa just released a new Orwellian quarantine policy directive that states in the event of a swine flu outbreak, your home and other less restrictive alternatives are not acceptable.These moves appear to be the result of federal incentives advancing mandatory vaccination. The Army hasn’t missed a step, putting out ads for Internment/Resettlement Specialists.And, though most of the wild claims about FEMA camps have been appropriately and properly discredited, the fact remains that the Homeland Security Department has signed a $385 million contract with Halliburton subsidiary KBR Construction to build such facilities on an as-needed basis.If you’re not already feeling nervous, revisit President Obama’s spine-chilling campaign pledge:We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

With the Serve America Act, this alarming proposition has become reality.The broad authority given to this force is staggering.Section 1505 gives the newly created National Civilian Community Corps the power to address national needs related to natural and other disasters,infrastructure improvement,environmental stewardship and conservation,energy conservation, and urban and rural development.The legislation reiterates that the corps will combine the best practices of civilian service with the best aspects of military service.Nowhere have these two spheres ever been combined that tyranny has not resulted.If these recent events were mere coincidence, Americans could peacefully go about their business.But Obama is no ordinary President.This is the man who began his political career in the home of terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, former members of the notorious Weather Underground that plotted the deaths of 25 million Americans in re-education camps.Even so, it sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Mass internment and quarantine of Americans? Martial law used illegally to quell opposition to government policies? After all, this is America, not some banana republic.But this is not the America of even 10 years ago. This is President Obama’s brave new America. Differences of opinion are criminalized, violating freedom of conscience in the deepest sense.Freedom of the press is assaulted with newspaper bailouts and diversity requirements imposed on local radio stations.Children face the possibility of weeklong, year-round education, effectively circumventing parents and making children wards of the state. Czars govern in the place of elected officials.Key private sector companies are now under the direct control of the President.

The President has even proven willing to use healthcare reform to target the elderly, recasting human life in terms of the collective good.The White House has even urged fellow citizens to inform on opponents of Obama’s healthcare bill. In this environment, the prospect of martial law doesn’t sound that far-fetched.But isn’t this unconstitutional? No matter.The Constitution means nothing to President Obama, who has repeatedly implied the need to break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution….

Thomas Jefferson had a different view:Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism…In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.But when the President considers the Constitution to be nothing more than an archaic suggestion, no travesty is unthinkable.And the unthinkable is only a manufactured flu pandemic away.I desperately hope I am wrong in connecting these dots, but in light of the President’s stated agenda, and his known track record on ethical issues, the possibility of abuses must be considered.After all, stranger things have happened.

SPEECHES ON EU ENLARGEMENT
http://europa.eu/rapid/searchResultAction.do?search=OK&query=enlarge&username=PROF&advanced=0&guiLanguage=en
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/09/373&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/09/368&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/09/358&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/09/292&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Olli Rehn EU Commissioner for Enlargement EU Enlargement five years on – a balance sheet and what next European Economic and Social Committee, plenary debate on Enlargement 5 years Brussels, 10 June 2009

European Economic and Social Committee, plenary debate on Enlargement 5 years
Brussels, 10 June 2009

President, Honourable members of the European Economic and Social Committee, Ladies and Gentlemen,Let me first thank you for your kind invitation to this thematic plenary debate of the European Economic and Social Committee. I very much appreciate the support of your Committee for the gradual and carefully managed accession process of the European Union.The subject of today's debate, the historic double anniversary of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain and the 5th anniversary of the 2004 enlargement, is indeed worth celebrating.These historic events are shining examples of the importance and the power civil society can and must have in a functioning democracy.The civic courage of the people on the streets of Gdansk, Berlin, and Prague overcame the oppression of their crumbling political systems. They came from whole spectrum of civil society backgrounds, ranging from parishioners to environmentalists, from artists to trade unionists.Today is the right time to make a balance sheet on EU enlargement. A fair and factual debate on the political and economic impact of the 2004 enlargement will also help us reflect the future of the EU.First of all, EU enlargement has served as an anchor of stability and democracy and as a driver of personal freedom and economic dynamism. It has advanced the rule of law and the protection of human rights. It has extended the area of freedom and prosperity to almost 500 million people. For the citizens of the new Member States, this marked a return to their historical European home.Enlargement has also increased the EU's weight in the world – be it in international trade talks or when addressing other issues of global nature, such as climate change or development. It has increased our crisis management capacity, especially for peace-keeping missions.

In economic terms, the Eastern enlargement has been a win-win process, beneficial for the people both in new and not-so-new member states. To give but one example, trade between the new and the not-so-new Member States grew almost threefold in less than ten years. Even more illustrative is the fivefold growth of the trade among the new members. These are a key factor that explains why, from 2004 until the outbreak of the current financial crisis, there was robust growth in employment in both new and older Member States.Hence, the Eastern enlargement was not only a historic mission for Europe, but also a matter of the EU's enlightened self-interest – to enhance our own security and stability, freedom and prosperity.In the context of today's economic crisis which is threatening European jobs and welfare, some say that EU enlargement should take a back seat and argue that it is time to look inward for a while.It is perfectly clear to me that the economy and jobs are the first and foremost concerns of our citizens today. And it is only right that employment and economic issues do dominate the EU agenda today.That is why we are implementing the European Economic Recovery Plan. We have taken policy initiatives to reinforce financial regulation and supervision, which led to bold decisions at G20 level.The current crisis has in fact underlined the crucial role of social partners and dialogue in tackling the recession and mitigating unemployment, and in preparing for a renewed post-crisis economy.However, while combating the economic recession, we must not make EU enlargement a scapegoat for a problem it did not create. Questioning our commitments concerning the present enlargement agenda will not help us at all to tackle the economic downturn.Europe's economic troubles were not created by Czech auto workers or Serbian civil servants. They stem from system errors of financial capitalism – and originate from Wall Street, not the Main Streets of Prague or Belgrade. We must tackle myths with facts, and address our citizens' concerns with smart and effective economic policies.To achieve this we must continue our own reforms so that the EU can deliver the results its citizens expect. This is what the Lisbon Treaty is about and why we need it now. Reconciling further deepening of European integration and gradual widening of our Union is a tested and the best recipe for building a stronger and united Europe.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Communicating the successes and challenges of enlargement is a common challenge for us all. As civil society representatives, you are the bridge between the EU institutions, national authorities and citizens. You can raise awareness of these issues, and you can strengthen confidence between citizens in the EU and the candidate countries. You can support the reforms in South East Europe.Civil society organisations are essential for building much needed social capital. As documented in many of our progress reports about the countries of the region, we are witnessing that non-governmental organisations help transform societies for the better.Western Balkan and Turkish civil society organisations have spread the European spirit by promoting democracy, human rights, good governance and the rule of law. Together with independent media, they have resisted nationalism and fundamentalisms, and helped building bridges of inter-ethnic confidence.Obviously, civil society in Southeast Europe still has its challenges. Further efforts are required to deepen freedom of association and facilitate the development of civil society organisations. Local NGOs require training and need to strengthen their capacities in order to play an effective role in the process of European integration.For instance, your 2008 Opinion on Civil Society in Serbia rightly identified a deplorably large gap between well-developed CSOs in urban areas against relative inactivity in rural areas. We are working hard to target our assistance programming in order to address this kind of practical and most helpful remarks.Informed communication and debate within the EU and within the enlargement countries is one of the main areas where we are reliant on the role of Civil Society and, by extension, of the European Economic and Social Committee.Developing structures of social dialogue at European and national levels calls for our full commitment if we want to reach the main goal to reinforce democratic governance and enable social partners to be involved in decision-making processes, at all levels.The joint consultative committees, working with Croatia and Turkey, constitute necessary bridges to exchange experiences and best practices particularly concerning social dialogue within the countries. It is indeed essential that the practice of social dialogue developed by the Committee is transmitted to countries where this has not always been the case. I hope that the joint consultative committee with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will start its work soon.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As in Central and Eastern Europe before, the European perspective is once again exercising its magnetic pull in South East Europe today.Compared to many other regions in the world, South Eastern Europe benefits from relative political stability at the moment – not least thanks to its European perspective.All these arguments – the gains from enlargement and the risks of wavering – underline why we must maintain the European perspective in South East Europe, with the ultimate goal of EU membership, once the conditions have been met by each country on its own merits.Dear Friends,Today's Europe is free and reunited. Let's keep it that way. And let us complete our work also in South East Europe, for the sake of our common principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. In that task, the civil society continues to play a key role.Thank you for your attention.

Europe’s Complicity in Evil Paul Craig Roberts Lew Rockwell.com
Wednesday, Sept 9th, 2009

Address to Mut zur Ethik Conference, Sovereignty or Imperialism, Feldkirch, Austria, September 5, 2009.There is a widespread supposition that Obama, being black and a member of an oppressed race, will imbue US foreign policy with a higher morality than the world experienced from Bush and Clinton. This is a delusion.Obama represents the same ideology of American exceptionalism as other recent presidents. This ideology designates the United States as The Virtuous Nation and supplies the basis for the belief that America has the right, indeed the responsibility, to impose its hegemony upon the world by bribery or by force. The claim of American exceptionalism produces a form of patriotism that blinds the US population to the immorality of America’s wars of aggression.Nothing is any different under Obama. Obama has escalated war in Afghanistan; started a new war in Pakistan; tolerated or supported a military coup that overthrew the elected president of Honduras; is constructing 7 new US military bases in Colombia, South America; is going forward with various military projects designed to secure US global military hegemony, such as the Prompt Global Strike initiative that intends to provide the US with the capability to strike anywhere on earth within 60 minutes; is working to destabilize the government in Iran, with military attack still on the table as an option; supports America’s new military African Command; intends to encircle Russia with US bases in former constituent parts of the Soviet Union; has suborned NATO troops as mercenaries in US wars of aggression.How should Europe react? Europe should disassociate from the United States and go into active opposition to US foreign policy. Europeans should demand that their governments withdraw from NATO as it serves no European interest. The two aggressive militarist powers, the US and Israel, should be sanctioned by the UN and embargoed. Instead, Europe is complicit in US and Israeli war crimes.

Because of the cold war, Europe is accustomed to following US leadership. The financial convenience of the shelter provided by US military power negated independent European foreign policies. In effect, Western European countries became US puppet states.How does Europe escape from a subservient relationship of many decades? Not easily. The US is accustomed to calling the shots and reacts harshly when it meets opposition. For example, French opposition to Bush’s invasion of Iraq brought about instant demonization of France by the US media and members of Congress.

The US government uses financial sanctions and threatened leaks of sensitive personal information gathered by its worldwide spy networks to discipline any independent-minded European leader.Europe is essentially captive and forced to put US interests ahead of its own. Consequently, unless Europeans find their courage and discard their servile status, Europe will be badgered into more wars and eventually led into a devastating war with Russia. One European country can do little, but concerted action would be effective. For example, why do not Europeans protest that the war criminal Tony Blair was given a post in the EU? The Obama administration’s attitude towards self-determination and the sovereignty of the people is that these grand-sounding concepts are useful platitudes with which to mask the hegemonic interests of the US government. US money and propaganda foment velvet or color revolutions that turn more countries into American puppet states.The platitudes are useful also to disguise the overthrow of US civil liberties, such as habeas corpus, due process, and prohibitions against torture and preemptive arrest.During the cold war era, one of the mainstays of US propaganda against the Soviet Union was the inability of Soviet citizens to travel within their country without the government’s permission. This indignity has now been inflicted upon US citizens. As of September, 2009, US citizens can no longer travel within their country by air without the permission of the Transport Security Administration.The Obama administration has adopted the Bush administration’s search procedures. Under these rules travelers’ computers, cell phones, and other devices can be seized for searches that can take up to 30 days. If you are on your way to a meeting and your presentation is on your computer and your contacts’ numbers are on your cell phone, you are out of luck.

Terrorist threat is the excuse for these Gestapo practices. However, there have been no domestic acts of terrorism in 8 years. The few plots that led to arrests were all instigated by FBI agents in order to keep the nonexistent threat alive in the public’s mind. Yet, despite the lack of any real terrorist threat the police state continues to gain ground. Considering the extent of America’s oppression of peoples abroad, one would expect much more blowback than has occurred, assuming that 9/11 was not itself an inside job designed to provide an excuse for America’s wars of aggression in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan.Europe must look beyond the empty American political rhetoric about freedom and democracy and recognize the emerging Brownshirt American State. Democracy is slipping away from America. Its place is being taken by an oligarchy of powerful interest groups, such as the financial sector, the military/security complex about which President Eisenhower warned, and AIPAC. Political campaign contributions from interest groups determine the content of US domestic and foreign policy. A country in which political elites are above the law and can violate with impunity both laws against torture and constitutional protections of civil liberties is not a free country.American political leaders and the American people need Europe’s help in order to avoid the degeneration of the American political entity. American freedom, as well as sovereign independence elsewhere in the world, require criticisms of US foreign and domestic policies. The US media, which was concentrated into a few hands during the Clinton administration, functions as a Ministry of Propaganda for the government. It was the New York Times that gave credibility to the neoconservative propaganda and forged documents that were used to sell the invasion of Iraq to the public. It was the New York Times that sat for one year on the evidence that the Bush administration was committing felonies by violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It was not until after Bush was re-elected that the reporter was able to force his story through editorial opposition. Americans need criticism from Europe to compensate for the absence of an independent American media. Americans need outside help in order to reach an understanding of the immorality of their government’s policies, because they receive no such help from their own media. Without Europe’s help, Americans cannot regain the spirit of liberty and tolerance bequeathed to them by their Founding Fathers. America herself is a victim of the neoconservative and liberal internationalist pursuit of US hegemony.

We in America need to hear many voices telling us that it is self-defeating to become like an enemy in order to defeat an enemy. As Germans learned under Hitler and Russians learned under Stalin, it is the internal enemy – the unaccountable elite that controls a country’s government – that is the worst and most dangerous enemy.If America has enemies who are against freedom and democracy,then America herself must make certain not to sacrifice her own civil liberties, and the sovereignty of other peoples, to a war on terror.Acts of terror are a small cost compared to the cost of the erosion of civil liberties that took centuries to achieve. Far more people died to achieve liberty than have died in terrorist attacks.

The United States cannot pretend to be a guarantor of liberty when the US government takes away liberty from its own citizens.The United States cannot pretend to be a guarantor of peace and democracy when the US government uses deception to attack other lands on false pretenses.Europe, whose culture was wrecked by 20th-century wars, Europe, which has experienced tyranny from the left-wing and from the right-wing, has a right to its own voice.America needs to hear this voice.

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/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/site/14081545/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS THU SEPT 10,2009

09:30 AM -8.01
10:00 AM -5.44
10:30 AM -12.47
11:00 AM +24.34
11:30 AM +21.77
12:00 PM +16.93
12:30 PM +25.09
01:00 PM +33.41
01:30 PM +50.11
02:00 PM +78.37
02:30 PM +72.25
03:00 PM +65.30
03:30 PM +48.75
04:00 PM +80.26 9627.48

S&P 500 1044.14 +10.77

NASDAQ 2084.02 +23.63

GOLD 996.10 -1.00

OIL 72.31 +1.00

TSE 300 11,146.43 +146.26

CDNX 1249.49 +13.84

S&P/TSX/60 668.89 +9.08

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +8.78%
S&P +14.41%
Nasdaq +30.65%
TSX Advances 739,declines 764,unchanged 242,Volume 514,717,578.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 375,Declines 465,Unchanged 342,Volume 215,010,267.

Dow +4 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -38 points at low today.
Dow +24 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $990.70.OIL opens at $71.19 today.

INVENTORIES
CRUDE OIL -5.9 MILLION BARRELS.
GASOLINE +2.1 MILLION BARRELS.
DISTILLATE INV +2 MILLION BARRELS.
REFINERY UTILIZATION UNCHANGED AT 87.2%
NATURAL GAS INVENTORIES +69 BCF

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -38 points at low today so far.
Dow +83 points at high today so far.

DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 2,156,declines 1,336,unchanged 151,New Highs 141,New Lows 47.
Volume 2,249,021,128.
NASDAQ Advances 1,361,declines 1,166,unchanged 117,New highs 86,New Lows 02.
Volume 1,022,168,404.
TSX Advances 727,declines 534,unchanged 216,Volume 214,637,665.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 321,Declines 295,Unchanged 247,Volume 95,479,567.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -38 points at low today.
Dow +87 points at high today.
Dow +0.84% today Volume 234,103,442.
Nasdaq +1.15% today Volume 2,354,015,210.
S&P 500 +1.04% today Volume N/A

CONGRESSWOMAN TO BIRTHER,I AGREE WITH YOU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YshG_Ok8idc&feature=player_embedded
DERIVATIVES COLLAPSE AND THE CHINA GOLD AND SILVER MARKETS
http://www.infowars.com/derivatives-collapse-and-the-china-gold-and-silver-markets/

THE WORLD CALLS FOR A GLOBAL CURRENCY BECAUSE THE AMERICAN DOLLAR IS SHOT AND WE HAVE THIS HEADLINE,THATS SO DECEPTIVE.

Fed survey shows US recession may be over By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer – SEPT 10,09

WASHINGTON – The recession is ending and the economy is finally growing again.

That's the message implicit in the Federal Reserve's latest survey of businesses around the country, which found economic activity stabilizing or improving in most regions.Economists warn the expansion is fragile and will have staying power only if consumers start spending more money. Rising unemployment that keeps Americans cautious could make for a plodding recovery in the months ahead.The Labor Department will report on Thursday the number of new jobless claims filed last week, which could indicate whether the incipient recovery is slowing the pace of layoffs.Wall Street economists expect that first-time claims for unemployment insurance benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 560,000 from 570,000 the previous week, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.Economists closely watch initial claims, which are considered a gauge of layoffs and an indication of companies' willingness to hire new workers.While the figures are volatile, first-time claims have trended downward in recent months. Initial claims topped 600,000 for most of this year, until falling below that level in early July.The total number of people receiving benefits, meanwhile, is expected to drop by about 30,000 to 6.2 million. The figures on so-called continuing claims lag initial claims by a week.

All but one of the Fed's 12 regions, meanwhile, indicated economic activity either was stable, showed signs of stabilization or had firmed, according to the Fed's survey. The one exception was the St. Louis region, which reported the economic decline is moderating.Businesses in most Fed regions said they were cautiously positive about the economic road ahead. The survey, known as the Beige Book, does not include precise figures.Analysts predict the economy is growing in the current quarter, which ends Sept. 30, at an annual rate of 3 percent to 4 percent. That's mostly because businesses, which had slashed investments during the recession, are spending more.Auto sales have been lifted by the government's recently ended Cash for Clunkers program. Manufacturing and the battered housing market, which led the country into recession when it collapsed, have also shown signs of improvement.The problem for the economy is that the expected growth this quarter comes mainly from the auto companies and other manufacturers, which are refilling their depleted stockpiles.Those inventories had dwindled as factories and retailers sought to bring what they had more in line with reduced sales. Any robust growth in the economy might be short-lived if shoppers don't step up their spending.In the Fed survey, most regions of the country reported that the clunkers program had boosted sales. Other merchants struggled. And consumer spending remained soft in most places.Still, the assessments of businesses on the front lines of the economy were brighter than those they provided for the last edition of the Fed survey in late July.At that time, most regions of the country reflected only that the recession was easing its grip.That's a pretty significant change in tone from the previous Fed report,said Brian Bethune, economist at IHS Global Insight.

The survey's findings will figure into discussions when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues meet Sept. 22-23. The Fed is expected to keep interest rates at record lows, probably for some time, to help nurture the recovery. There are presently some signs that the economy is stabilizing and even reviving in certain areas, despite mixed signals,Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said in a speech in Texas.There was plenty of bad news in the survey. In the commercial real estate market, demand stayed weak, and construction fell in all parts of the country. And the job market was still sickly all over the nation. The nation's unemployment rate, which stood at 9.7 percent in August, could top 10 percent this year. Fisher, of the Dallas Fed, called for uncomfortably high unemployment as businesses keep cutting costs.

EU offers poor nations billions in climate aid By AOIFE WHITE, AP Business Writer – SEPT 10,09

BRUSSELS – The European Union proposed Thursday to offer up to euro15 billion ($21.8 billion) a year in aid to poor developing countries to persuade them to sign a new global climate change agreement.However, development and environmental campaigners blasted the offer as insufficient because it assumes that poorer nations will bear most of the costs of reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the promised funding was Europe's first meaningful proposal to urge faster progress toward a new United Nations global climate pact at Copenhagen in December.Europe now wants to put the pressure on other major polluters such as the United States and China to get them to either promise emission cuts or pledge funding toward poorer nations.

The EU will not and cannot bankroll the negotiations alone, Dimas said.Five EU foreign ministers from Britain, France, Denmark, Sweden and Finland said Thursday that they would press the U.S., China, Brazil, India and Russia to do more to tackle climate change in a series of EU meetings in coming weeks.Time is now short and the need is urgent, British Foreign Minister David Miliband said at Copenhagen University. His Danish counterpart, Per Stig Moeller, said the EU must also do all it can to engage key players.The prime ministers of Sweden and Denmark, meanwhile, were traveling to South Africa and India to discuss a new climate change treaty.The EU funding was expected by poor countries and by aid and environment groups which argue that centuries of economic growth in Europe and North America are largely to blame for the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and that those countries should provide billions in compensation and aid to developing nations that will suffer from a warming climate.

But environmental campaigners criticized that as too little.

The environmental group WWF said the EU was assuming that developing countries would pay out of their own pockets for the kind of energy efficiency reductions that richer nations haven't managed.Greenpeace said EU governments had watered down earlier plans to give up to euro24 billion ($35 billion) a year by 2020 and that the EU was now trying to get away with leaving a tip rather than paying its share of the bill to protect the planet's climate.Oxfam said the EU was urging countries to take climate change funding from money earmarked to increase overseas aid.William Chadza of Malawi's Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy said the EU would need to offer far more than euro50 billion to cope with global warming by creating low-carbon economies.Some booming emerging nations — such as China — say they should not have to cut emissions sharply because they need the chance to grow their industries.

Europe says only the very poorest nations should avoid preparing low-carbon growth plans by 2011 to set out how they plan to restrict greenhouse gas emissions in coming decades.The EU plan, if agreed to by all 27 EU nations, says developing countries will face annual costs of some euro100 billion ($146 billion) a year by 2020 if they are to meet climate change commitments.The European Commission said governments worldwide will likely have to contribute some euro22 billion to euro50 billion a year and that the European Union's share of that would be euro2 billion to euro15 billion by 2020. Between 20 and 40 percent of the money needed would come from developing nations — either from governments or private projects to raise cash. Up to euro38 million — or 40 percent — could come from global carbon trading. The rest would come from rich nations. The EU plans to use around half of the money it raises from auctioning pollution permits as part of a cap-and-trade program to help tackle climate change at home and abroad. That program will expand to cover most industrial sites and other polluters, including airlines, by 2020.The bloc also suggests that global aviation and maritime transport could provide financing with some sort of international cap-and-trade program.The EU is promising to start funding developing nations as soon as a climate change pact is reached in December. It says it will lay out between euro500 million to euro2.1 billion a year from 2010 to 2012. That could increase to euro900 million to euro3.9 billion in 2013.The European Union is seeking for a deal that will limit the increase in global warming by 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) Fahrenheit?). It is promising to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by a fifth below 1990 levels by 2020 — and says it will increase that reduction to 30 percent if other major polluters do the same.

This week, Japan pledged to cut emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels. The U.S. is considering a far lower cut — 17 percent from 2005 levels or about 3.5 percent from 1990.Dimas, the EU environment commissioner, refused to criticize the U.S. effort, saying President Barack Obama's administration was fully committed to fighting climate change and that the final U.S. target reduction has not yet been decided.A panel of U.N. scientists has recommended that developed countries make cuts of between 25 percent and 40 percent by 2020 to avoid a catastrophic rise in sea levels, harsher storms and droughts and climate disruptions.Associated Press writers Jan Olsen in Copenhagen and Constant Brand in Brussels contributed to this story.

Oil edges higher on weak dollar, forecast By MARK WILLIAMS, AP Energy Writer – SEPT 10,09

Oil prices edged higher Thursday on a weaker U.S. dollar, OPEC's decision to maintain production levels and a new report that says the slump in global oil demand will not be as bad as initially feared.Benchmark crude for October delivery edged up 25 cents to $71.56 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the day, the contract rose as high as $72.44. On Wednesday, the contract rose 21 cents to $71.31.Crude has jumped from $68 a barrel in two days as the dollar weakened to its lowest level this year. Because crude is priced in the U.S. currency, it becomes cheaper when the dollar falls. Some investors also use commodities like oil and gold as a hedge against inflation and dollar weakness.The euro was slightly lower Thursday at $1.4585 after breaking through $1.46 on Wednesday.The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, responsible for about 40 percent of the world's oil production, confirmed Thursday at its meeting in Vienna that it will keep crude production levels the same.OPEC said in a statement that market fundamentals have remained weak and that whilst there are signs that economic recovery is under way, there remains great concern about the magnitude and pace of this recovery, especially in the West.Meanwhile in Paris, the International Energy Agency said the slump in global oil demand in 2009 will be less severe than previously forecast and predicted consumption would rise in 2010 as the world economy stabilizes.

The IEA said Thursday that crude demand will reach 84.4 million barrels a day this year, down 2.2 percent from 2008 levels, but better than the 2.7 percent decline the agency forecast previously. The IEA also raised its forecast for oil demand in 2010 to 85.7 million barrels a day, or half a million barrels a day more than its previous forecast.Also, investors were awaiting the release of the U.S. government weekly inventory data later Thursday morning.Analysts expect a decline in crude and gasoline stocks, but are looking for a rise in distillates stocks used to make diesel fuel and heating oil, according to Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.Prices at the pump remained mostly flat overnight, climbing 0.3 cents to $2.576 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Prices are 6.7 cents below levels of a month ago and down $1.092from a year ago.In other Nymex trading, gasoline for October delivery was down 1.4 cents $1.8141 a gallon, and heating oil fell 0.33 cents to $1.7911 a gallon. Natural gas was off 1.2 cents to $2.817 per 1,000 cubic feet.In London, Brent crude was down 27 cents to $69.56 on the ICE Futures exchange.Associated Press writers Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Alex Kennedy in Singapore, Greg Keller in Paris and Tarek El-Tablawy in Vienna contributed to this report.

Chinese students grill EU trade commissioner
ANDREW WILLIS Today SEPT 10,09 @ 09:29 CET

EUOBSERVER / BEIJING – Chinese students at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) in Beijing put European trade commissioner Catherine Ashton through her paces on Wednesday (9 September), in a sign that a new generation of tough negotiators is waiting in the sidelines.Ms Ashton is currently in China as a follow-up to the High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue (HED) discussions held in Brussels in May, a regular forum for EU-China trade meetings that was set up in 2007 and is co-chaired by Ms Ashton and Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan.The students clapped politely throughout Ms Ashton's speech - peppered with the careful diplomatic language characteristic of dealings between the two sides - but got straight to the point in a questions and answers session afterwards. Why has the EU given market economy status to Russia but not China, yet the Chinese economy is clearly more open? asked one post-graduate student in international relations to loud applause.Market economy status is a technical label that, once awarded, would limit the EU's ability to use anti-dumping measures against China in trade disputes.

You have made a very good representation of the feeling in the room, acknowledged the commissioner, adding:We are not trying to hold this [status] up … but we can't do it until we are ready.Independently on Wednesday, Ms Ashton's predecessor in the commission's trade portfolio, current UK business secretary Peter Mandelson who is also in Beijing, called on the commission to speed up the process and warned member states not to hold it up for political reasons.The commission says that so far China meets one of the five technical criteria to qualify as a market economy.

Building confidence

EU anti-dumping measures imposed on imports from China have been a growing cause of tension between the two sides since the economic crisis broke out last year.Ms Ashton said such disputes were an accepted part of advanced trade relations, used to combat unfair trade, but that they highlighted the need to continue to build stronger relationships.We need to communicate – to speak frankly – to exchange ideas and to recognise there have been and will be some difficult moments as our relationship matures,she said, adding that the anti-dumping duties currently affect less than 1 percent of China's exports to the EU.Confidence is vital because I firmly believe that the future of international trade lies in relationships rather than in the mathematical formulae used to crunch tariffs in the past,she continued.

IPR

While Chinese officials complain about the anti-dumping measures, a primary EU concern is the lack of protection for intellectual property rights in China, especially patents, which can harm European companies doing business there. As part of her visit, Ms Ashton also spoke at the EU-funded China IPR / SME Helpdesk, which was set up a year ago to aid European companies doing business in China. In a global economy, small and medium-sized enterprises [SMEs] are among the most likely victims of property theft. The European Commission is committed to address the needs of SMEs with regard to the infringement of their intellectual property rights,said Ms Ashton.

She pointed out that concern over IPR was a common deterrent for EU businesses looking to invest in China, and therefore also in China's interest to rectify. As part of the strategy to improve IPR, the commission is currently working with Chinese custom officials in an attempt to clampdown on illegally produced goods.

Small airports considered lifeline for EU regions
VALENTINA POP Today SEPT 10,09 @ 09:16 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – With EU rules on regional airports up for review by 2010, officials from Dutch, Polish and Spanish regions are making the case for partnerships with low-cost airlines, which have created jobs and mobility between far-flung parts of Europe.Regional airports are engines for economic growth and they can spur contacts with remote regions in Europe, Harry Dijksma, deputy governor of the Dutch Flevoland region said at a conference organised by the Assembly of European Regions (AER), an independent network of 270 regions in and outside the EU.

He noted that by 2020, more than half of all passengers travelling in Europe will be using low-cost airlines and pressed for EU regulations that strike a balance between market protection and market freedom.The Flevoland region hopes to get approval from the Hague to develop a regional airport for low-cost flights in Lelystad, which would also take over some of the traffic from the congested Schiphol airport near Amsterdam. Passengers would need around 40 minutes by train to reach Amsterdam from Lelystad.The Spanish region of Valencia – home to an important ceramic tiles industry – highlighted the importance of regional business people being able to have direct flight connections to their customers or EU policy makers. A regional airport in Castellon helps towards this aim and has also contributed to the success story of a football club from Viarreal, a town of only 40,000 inhabitants.For the region of Lower Silesia in south-western Poland, the development of the local airport in Wroclaw, serving both low cost and national airlines, led to a five-fold increase in passengers: from 300,000 passengers a year in 2004 to 1.5 million in 2008. Low-cost flights from Wroclaw to Ireland, the UK, Germany, Turkey, Egypt or Spain meant that many Poles who could not afford to travel the long distance to Warsaw and an expensive regular ticket to these destinations were suddenly able to do so.

The current EU guidelines only apply to airports with more than 5 million passengers a year, but we worry that the authorities in Warsaw might pass a law which will go below this threshold, Jaroslaw Sztucki, vice-president of the Copernicus airport in Wroclaw, said.EU guidelines on state aid for regional airports were drafted in 2005, a year after the EU executive fined Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair for receiving what it called illegal state aid from the Belgian region of Wallonia, when it developed the airport near Charleroi for its low cost flights.But in December last year, the commission's decision was overruled by the EU court of first instance, who stated that the regional aid received by Ryanair was part of normal economic activity. The mere fact that that activity is carried out in the public sector does not mean that it can be categorized as the exercise of public authority, judges said.

To AER secretary general Klaus Klipp, the commission's ruling in the Charleroi case seemed to ignore the fact that no highways, railways or airports were ever built without taxpayer's money, but then nobody complained about illegal state aid.The European Commission must ensure that its revisions to the guidelines support, rather than hinder, the development of such assets with a minimum of administrative burdens, Mr Klipp added.Consultations for the review have not started yet and they don't necessarily imply a revision of the guidelines, Fabio Pirotta, a spokesman for the EU commission told this website.

Americans Believe That This Is The Katrina Of Recessions. Folks Are On Their Rooftops Without A Boat. The Water Is Rising, And Many See No Way Out.Washington’s Blog Wednesday, Sept 9th, 2009

The director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University – Carl Van Horn – made the following statement about a new Rutgers survey on unemployment:Millions of unemployed Americans are suffering economic and personal catastrophes. This is not your ordinary dip in the business cycle. Americans believe that this is the Katrina of recessions. Folks are on their rooftops without a boat. The water is rising, and many see no way out.The Rutgers survey found, among other things, that many of those who have lost their jobs are poorly positioned to deal with their circumstances:The survey finds that 60% of the recently unemployed lost their jobs suddenly, without advance warning. Eight in ten got two week’s notice or less. Just 15% of the jobless received any severance, and virtually none were offered retraining. Three in four unemployed workers say the economic situation has had a major impact on them and their family.Only 40% of the currently unemployed received unemployment insurance to help them weather the economic crisis and 83% of those who did receive aid are concerned that their benefits will run out before they find a job. Underscoring another important debate, only half of the jobless have health benefits.

Obama to seal US-UN relationship By Harvey Morris at the United Nations
September 8 2009 19:59

Barack Obama will cement the new co-operative relationship between the US and the United Nations this month when he becomes the first American president to chair its 15-member Security Council.The topic for the summit-level session of the council on September 24 is nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament – one of several global challenges that the US now wants to see addressed at a multinational level.

Her remarks were the latest by the Obama administration to emphasise a shift from the strategy of the previous Bush administration, sometimes criticised by its UN partners for seeking to use the world body principally to endorse its own unilateral policies. The US currently holds the month-long rotating presidency of the Security Council.Mr Obama will join other heads of government in New York during the week of the nuclear summit for the opening of the 64th session of the UN General Assembly. The annual meeting of world leaders is this year raising expectations on a number of fronts.UN officials hope a climate change debate on September 22 will give fresh impetus to the search for a global climate deal at Copenhagen in December. There are also hopes a possible meeting between Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority president, that Mr Obama would host, could lead to a breakthrough about a timetable for Middle East peace.Heads of state are also likely to consider how to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Mr Obama gave Tehran a September deadline to reply to his offer of negotiations. Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadi-nejad will attend the General Assembly to encourage Iranian views in managing the world,an aide said.US officials are concerned Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi might try to steal the limelight during his first visit to New York. A public outcry at the Libyan leader’s visit after he last month welcomed home Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the freed Lockerbie bomber, has already stymied his plans to pitch his tent in Central Park.How President Gaddafi chooses to comport himself, when he attends the General Assembly and the Security Council in New York, has the potential either to further aggravate those feelings and emotions or not,Ms Rice said.

The State Department has not ruled out the possibility that Mr Obama and Colonel Gaddafi would cross paths. They are both due to address the General Assembly on the same day, and the Libyan leader, whose country is a temporary member of the Security Council, is entitled to attend the nuclear summit session that Mr Obama will chair.
The Financial Times Limited 2009.

Adam Smith would not be optimistic in today's economic world.Adam Smith once commented that there is a great deal of ruin in a nation. He meant that bungling governments imposed only a limited check on the economic performance of a Great Nation.6:59PM BST 06 Sep 2009

As Nathanael Smith and I show in our study of US economic contractions, Adam Smith would be much less sanguine were he confronted by today's financial crisis and the US government's response. Indeed, it is not impossible that the US will experience the kind of economic collapse from first- to third-world status experienced by Argentina under the national socialist governance of Juan Peron. The US economy suffers from a growing culture of indebtedness that has increasingly contaminated the federal government since 2001 and has spilled over dramatically into private household behaviour. The combination of the ill-conceived fiscal-furnace fired by President Bush and the US Congress and the reckless monetary-furnace fired by Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke throughout the period 2001-2007, created unsustainable housing market and stock market bubbles whose collapse brought on the financial crisis and economic contraction of 2008-2009.The prognosis is catastrophic if projected government policies are not cut back. According to the White House's own estimates, the federal budget deficit in 2009 will be $1.6 trillion, approximately 11.2pc of the overall economy, the highest on record since the end of the Second World War. In 2019, the national debt will represent 76.5pc of the US national economy, the highest proportion since just after the Second World War. In such circumstances, the international reserve status of the US dollar will not survive. As it fades, so interest rates on government securities will rise and the real burden of servicing the debt will increase. In such circumstances, the US economy will teeter on the edge of a black hole.

Prosperity and full employment in the US will only be restored by a return to laissez-faire capitalism. Our study outlines a radical, but politically feasible, approach. Monetary policy should be expansionary. But, on the micro-economic side, tariffs and other trade barriers should be repealed unilaterally; a "Right-to-Work" Act should reduce the minimum wage and curtail the powers of unions; and business regulation should be reduced. Individual banks and their counterparties should not be bailed out, although the system should be protected by ensuring that failing banks are wound up in an orderly fashion – this is the only way to restore market discipline.Charles K Rowley is Duncan Black Professor of Economics at George Mason University and general director of The Locke Institute.

WILL ARGENTINA COLLAPSE BE REPEATED BY AMERICA
http://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2009/04/09/what-is-coming-next-for-america-argentinas-economic-collapse/
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http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/South_America/Argentina_Disint_Revol.html

Argentina Between disintegration and revolution by James Petras Henry Veltmeyer CovertAction Quarterly magazine, Fall 2002

Throughout the early and mid-nineties, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the G-7 countries, all praised Argentina's liberalization program as an economic model for the Third World. Then President Carlos Menem and Economic Minister Domingo Cavallo promised the Argentine people that they would soon become part of the First World.Today, Argentina is in total disintegration. Not only is the economy in its fifth year of recession/ depression, but its banking system has collapsed, the unemployment rate has skyrocketed, and over half the population lives below the poverty line.No country in contemporary Latin American history has fallen swifter and further into mass poverty and experienced as prolonged an economic collapse as Argentina. Though most Latin American countries have applied neoliberal policies, none has been as thorough and rapid as Argentina. Moreover, no Latin American country was as industrially advanced or had as diversified an economy. Finally, Argentina had the highest standard of living in the region, the most qualified and skilled labor force, and the political leadership most determined to follow the precepts of the International Financial Institutions (IFls) and the G-7.

Argentina is a test case for the efficacy or failures of the neoliberal approach under optimal conditions: a willing government, a well-developed infrastructure, a skilled labor force, long-term links to world markets, and a significant middle class with Euro-American patterns of culture and consumption.The number of Argentines below the poverty line has grown geometrically: Ten years ago there were less than 15%, two years ago it was 30%. In June 2002 the percentage exceeded 50%. In that month, Eduardo Duhalde's regime acknowledged 18.2 million people (51%) below the poverty line. Of these, 7.8 million are indigents according to SIEMPRO (Spanish acronym for System of Information, Monitoring and Evaluation of Social Programs), an official institution under the jurisdiction of the President. Children and adolescents living in poverty number almost 8.2 million. Between January and May 2002, the number of poor grew by 3.8 million, or 762,000 a month, or 25,000 a day. The rate of indigence is growing even faster. In 1998, 29% of the poor were indigent; in June 2002, 43%. The massification of extreme poverty is manifested in the high rates of child malnutrition-over 58% in Matanzas, a working-class suburb of Buenos Aires. In the interior there are numerous reports of children fainting in school for lack of food, and over 60% of newborns in Misiones suffer from anemia-a direct result of government cutbacks to meet G-7 and IMF demands.

INTO THE ABYSS
Apart from the top 10% of the population, all working sectors and pensioners have experienced an average 67% income decline. In 1997, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) calculated per capita annual income at $8,950. In March 2002 it was $3,197. The decline affects all regions of the country. If we use as rough indicators of class the different regions of the province of Buenos Aires, we can approximate the social impact of the crisis. The income in the capital city of Buenos Aires, which we can take as largely middle class, saw the average fall from $909 a month in December 2001 to $363 in March 2002; in the working-class suburbs (conurbano) of the city of Buenos Aires income fell from $506 to $202; in the province of Buenos Aires, from $626 to $250. The largest decline is among workers in the informal sector (work without benefits or employment protections) and among pensioners. In the capital, income of the informals dropped from $643 to $257; in the working class suburbs from $334 to $134; in the province from $394 to $158. Among pensioners the decline was from $437 to $175 in the capital; from $320 to $128 in the working-class suburbs and from $360 to $144 in the province. The situation is far worse in the other provinces, where pay scales are lower, unemployment is higher, and where there are frequently three to six month delays in payment of salaries and pensions.For the working and middle classes, the loss of formal employment means a sharp decline in income. Employed wage earners in the private sector of the capital earned $904 in December 2001. Those who were forced into under-employment were earning $257 in the informal sector three months later. A 30% rise in prices during the same period accompanied the skyrocketing loss of jobs.The decline of income among the different occupational categories indicates both the absolute and relative decline of the middle class, a clear process of proletarianization. Bank employees in the capital have seen their income decline by nearly 60%, from $1,081 to $432 per month, and public employees have experienced a drop from $1,144 to $458 per month. As of April 2002, income of the former middle class did not cover the basic necessities of rent, food, transport, school and health expenses.

If we take the figure of $400 as the cutoff for the poverty line and $250 as the cutoff line for indigence, we find that every occupational category in the working class in the suburbs of greater Buenos Aires is below the poverty line and several categories are indigent.Those whose main income is a pension are indigent in all geographical sectors, as are all unemployed workers (30% of the labor force) living in the suburbs and greater Buenos Aires. Even if we assume that some workers classified as unemployed are actually working in the informal sector, almost all are near or below the line of indigence. The massive growth of unemployment to 30% nationally, from 40 60% in the working-class suburbs, and even higher in some of the former one-industry towns of the interior, is reminiscent of the worst years of the U.S. depression of the 1930s and of Weimar Germany in the 1920s.Accompanying and interrelated to the impoverishment of the mass of the middle and working classes is the concentration of wealth in the ruling and upper middle classes and foreign capitalists and bankers. In 1974 the top 10% received 28% of national income, in 1992 slightly over 34% and in 2001 over 37%, while the poorest 10% received 2.2% in both 1974 and 1992 and 1.3% in 2001- before the devaluation and sharp increase of unemployment.Together the upper classes-the ruling elite plus the upper middle class-receive 53% of declared income. Because the upper classes were able to withdraw their funds (estimates run as high as $40 billion) from the banks and send their money outside the country, avoiding the confiscation of December 2001, the percentage of wealth in the hands of the upper classes is probably close to 80%.
In that confiscation, the government froze all bank accounts, and subsequently converted them to pesos. The conversion rate in June 2002 was 3.5 pesos to the dollar. In effect, the accounts were reduced from $45 billion to approximately $13 billion and declining. The regime's attempt to convert the remainder into state bonds redeemable in ten years at 2% interest would devalue these personal savings accounts even further, given the 30% rate of inflation for the first quarter of 2002. This attempt by the regime to swindle the account holders out of their savings was prevented by massive demonstrations by the impoverished middle class-the potbanging cacerolazos-which threatened the Congress and stormed the banks.

MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS
During the first three months of 2002, industrial activity declined by over 18%. Textiles and manufacturing were down 48% over the previous year. The number of plant closures accelerated throughout the 1999-2002 period, reaching unprecedented levels in the last trimester of 2001 and the first half of 2002. Unused industrial capacity was running at more than 50% in most sectors of the economy, including metal, textiles and auto parts.Between 1990 and 1998, the foreign debt grew from $58 billion to $140 billion. Over the same period the cumulative sum of capital flight plus interest payments rose from $75 billion to $197 billion. In other words, external borrowing largely financed capital flight and part of the mushrooming debt payments, leaving a net deficit in capital flow. This eroded the economy's capacity to sustain growth and subsequently led to the recession, further budget cuts, and later turned the recession into a depression. The foreign and domestic elites' massive withdrawal of funds-aided and abetted by the foreign banks led to the confiscation of savings of millions of Argentines and the virtual collapse of the financial system. Throughout 1999-2001, IMF loans merely served to pay back private banks and the IFls, while exacerbating the debt problem, deepening the recession, and lowering living standards. In order to get short-term loans, Argentina was paying 16% over U.S. Treasury notes as late as August 2001. Once the fall took place, neither the IFls nor the G-7 were willing to lend new money, unless the central government repealed its Economic Subversive Law (a law designed to prosecute illicit banking practices), abolished the provincial currencies which kept the local economies afloat, and fired several hundreds of thousands of health, educational and other public employees.The key concern of the IFls with repealing the Economic Subversive Law was that it was an instrument to prosecute G-7 banks that were involved in the illegal transfer of over $50 billion in the year 2001-02. In June 2002, under IMF pressure, the law was repealed. While the IMF blamed the Argentine savers for the financial crisis-by making panic withdrawals-substantial data demonstrate that the private, principally foreign-owned banks had already consummated a massive transfer of funds out of the country and were not willing to re-capitalize the banks. Furthermore, the IMF and World Bank pressured the Argentine government to assume the private banks' obligations to their depositors and issue ten-year state-guaranteed bonds in lieu of direct payments to holders of savings accounts. Lacking funds and facing total unwillingness of foreign bank corporations to recapitalize their Argentine subsidiaries, the foreign and national private banks claimed to be on the verge of bankruptcy, at exactly the moment that the rightful claimants attempted to withdraw their savings.

The immediate cause for the collapse of Argentine capitalism was the role of the foreign-owned banks and the IFls, led by the IMF, in emptying the Argentine financial system. The longer-term reasons are rooted in regressive structural changes including privatization, Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), open markets, and quasi-criminal deregulation of the economy. All these led to the collapse of domestic production, wholesale pillage of the economy, and the confiscation of millions of saving accounts.In the months leading up to the crisis, the ten leading banks moved approximately $27 billion out of the Argentine financial system. This system operated on two levels: a formal system of deposits and loans and an informal sector where mega-accounts operated, largely to launder funds and carry out speculative activity in the financial sector. The other categories in February 2001 amounted to $57 billion in assets and $60 billion in obligations. By November the totals of others declined to $25 billion for assets and $35 billion in obligations. A closer analysis reveals that of the $25 billion decline in assets, over 74% of it took place among the ten biggest banks. The IMF loans to Argentina served to cover the growing drain of resources out of the financial system by the financial elites, while imposing harsher cuts in public spending and investment. The triple phenomena of deepening economic depression, financial flight, and growing indebtedness were caused by the alliance of the IFls, the foreign and local big financiers, and the foreign-owned banks. The small and medium Argentine depositors were victims of a covert financial swindle, and not the perpetrators, as the apologists charged. Their desperate and belated effort to withdraw their savings was a reaction to the financial swindle executed by the financial elite. Most small and medium savers, however, were not successful. Bank liabilities after the flight of big accounts and the drying up of overseas credits far exceeded their assets; with the economic crisis, many of their outstanding loans were delinquent and there was no way that headquarters would inject new funds to cover the demands of depositors. The government intervened to save the banks by freezing all deposits and preventing depositors from recovering any of their savings. The gross class character of the government's financial rescue plan infuriated the dispossessed middle and lower classes. The subsequent devaluation of the peso in effect robbed them of two-thirds the face value of their frozen savings and depressed their incomes, while the upper middle and ruling classes who got their money out of the financial system were able to lower their cost of living, production and consumption by a commensurate 65%.

FREE TRADE
Argentine industry was pressured both by inexpensive consumer imports from low-wage areas (Asia) as well as upmarket goods from high-tech, large-scale, heavily subsidized Euro-American manufacturers. The liberal argument that competition would make Argentine enterprises more efficient was false few Argentine companies had the scale and financing to compete with the top U.S. and European multinationals, and even the lowest paid Argentine workers could not compete with a Chinese worker earning a dollar a day. The rapid lowering of barriers also precluded any preparation for competition, and the lack of reciprocity in lowering subsidies and barriers in the U.S. and Europe prevented Argentine companies that were competitive from capturing overseas markets.Historically, the U.S. and EU countries have undergone a gradual process of selective liberalization, in stark contrast with the Argentine experience. Free convertibility in Europe did not take place until the economies were on their way to sustained expansion-which for some did not take place until well into the 1960s. Trade barriers, including quotas, tariffs and non-traditional constraints (health barriers, unfair trade and anti-dumping rules) are still frequently and extensively used to protect non-competitive sectors. Mass state subsidies and fiscal deficits are used to promote exports and to stimulate domestic growth.

PUBLIC FIRESALE
The Menem regime gave the appearance of an affluent regime thanks to heavy borrowing and windfall income from the selloff of public properties. Most of the inflows of capital raised upper class consumption and facilitated wholesale corruption by the entire political class and their entourages of public officials, judges, customs officers, police, and military officials. Foreign bankers were willing to lend because the interest rates were 10 to 20 points above the Euro-U.S. rates and there was easy liquidity given free convertibility, and the de facto dollarization of the economy ensured monetary stability. Thus, each step of the liberalization process weakened the fundamentals of the economy: The domestic economy shrank, entrepreneurs fled into apparently lucrative financial-speculative activity, debt payments skyrocketed, the loans-for-privatization deals were approaching their limits, and external flight of capital accelerated as the upper classes sensed that the whole liberal edifice would eventually collapse, leaving neither a productive system nor monetary resources to revive it.Crucial to the collapse of the bubble economy was the behavior of the Argentine big bourgeoisie. Powerfully ensconced in the Menem regime, they were the initial beneficiaries of the privatization process and the loans from overseas lenders. They were also the group that dictated economic policy. The Menem regime's point of reference for developing the liberal agenda was, first and foremost, the dominant classes in Argentina who had investments overseas, were tightly linked to overseas banks via joint investments in privatized banks and via foreign loans, and who demanded a peso easily convertible into dollar equivalence. Liberalization to the maximum allowed this transnational Argentine bourgeoisie to buy public banks and enterprises on the cheap and sell them to foreign capital. Deregulation of the banks allowed massive transfers of funds out of the country and the laundering of illicit gains. Cheap imports, easy loans and fast exits of funds were the Argentine elite's definition of liberalization.For obvious reasons the G-7 countries and the IFls were wildly enthusiastic: They gained control over banks and deposits, lucrative telecommunications, airlines, oil and other money-earning public enterprises. They encouraged the regime to proceed full speed ahead with reckless abandon.

As the domestic economy, particularly in the provinces, collapsed, the provincial governments ran up huge debts-partly to finance corrupt political machines to sustain the national government, and partly to avoid provincial popular revolts. Unlike South Korea, China, and Japan, large-scale corruption did not grease the wheels of national production: Bribes greased the hands that sold off lucrative public enterprises to foreign investors who stripped assets and reduced local production in favor of large-scale speculative activity. There was an inverse relation: As corruption grew, industry declined, tax receipts were negligible and competitiveness became an empty slogan.Meanwhile, foreign investors moved in on the agro-industrial sectors, retail trade (mega malls), real estate and hotels, in association with a small nucleus of the Argentine economic elite and sectors of the kleptocratic political class, headed by the extended Menem family and its political entourage.The first major adverse effect was the slashing of employees in the process of preparing public enterprises for privatization. The state fired hundreds of thousands of workers in the telephone, railroad, and waterworks sectors, assuming the economic costs and taking responsibility for repressing the ensuing protests. Many cities in the interior, like the petroleum city of Neuquen, were turned from prosperous cities to ghost towns, with 30-40% unemployment rates. Promises of alternative employment were never kept, as provincial and local officials linked to the central government either stole the funds outright or used them to finance their political machines, through expansion of unproductive administrative jobs.
The centralization of legislative and executive powers in the presidency-in his very person-and the dictatorial methods Menem used to legislate (most industries and banks were privatized via presidential decrees) facilitated rapid and extensive liberalization.

DISINTEGRATION & DESTITUTION
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill weighed in on the side of the IMF's final squeeze, endorsing the IMF bailout of the bankers and the takeover of the remaining sectors of the economy. But he demanded, in typical euphemistic language, a political solution. He called for a strong authoritarian regime capable of ramming the mass job firings, budget cuts and abolition of local currencies policy down the throats of the impoverished Argentines. O'Neill questioned the leadership capacity of the Duhalde government. According to an interview, O'Neill said Argentina's problem boiled down to a single question: Will the Argentine government do what it has to do, namely, implement the IMF policies? What O'Neill and others in the IFls and G7 mean by political will is precisely to override the interests and survival of thirty-three million Argentines, elected congressional officials, governors, and mayors, and force upon them further bankruptcies and unemployment-to push beyond the 53% poverty level to satisfy overseas bankers and investors.Probably the most obscene remarks came from Anne Krueger, second in command at the IMF, a U.S. appointee and a former Stanford professor. In an interview in the Financial Times, she claimed that the Argentine authorities are not sufficiently realistic as they should be.Realism, according to Krueger, means that in the midst of a depression, cut public spending, lower living standards and increase unemployment. The realism referred to is the world of finance capital and its voracious appetite to squeeze even more interest payments from bankrupt provinces, businesses and public treasuries; to withdraw more savings from Argentina with impunity.

The U.S. embassy staff in Argentina went even further. Political attaché Michael Matera claimed the crisis was due not only to Argentina's political leaders but to the entire Argentine people. The viewpoint of international economists is incompatible with the national mentality of the Argentines. Argentineans have a collective incapacity to change; they are immature and paranoid.The racist ideology explicit in such statements is inescapable.The style and substance of Argentine relations with the G-7 speaks to a new imperialism: the pillage of the economy, the growth of vast inequalities, economic stagnation followed by a profound and enduring depression, and the massive impoverishment of the population as a consequence of the greatest concentration of wealth in contemporary Argentine history. The new imperialism works directly through the inter-state system and subsidiary financial institutions like the IMF to dictate policy. The April mission of the IMF, with its public pronouncements on every aspect of the Argentine economy, the blatant dictates of the U.S. embassy and the G-7 economic ministers, strongly resonate with the colonial relationship of the past.In a trip to Tucuman Province in April 2002, we visited the vast villas de miseria, or slums, and spoke to the multitude of poor and destitute. They told us that between 2001 and 2002, in just one year, the number of children suffering from malnutrition increased six-fold. The combination of mass firings, inflation, and the cutoff of food rations turned the poor into destitute, unable to meet even their basic food needs.A week later, while meeting with a delegate from the bank workers' union in Buenos Aires, we were informed that the banks were planning massive firings. A month later, on May 19, a newspaper close to the financial elite, La Nacion, reported that banks were planning to fire two-thirds of their employees (80,000 of the 120,000), and reduce the pay of remaining staff.
By early July the streets were noisy with demonstrators, crime was rampant, university professors with three positions (catedras) were making $200 a month, highways were blocked and the pot-banging impoverished retirees and former middle class were meeting to demand the ouster not only of the regime, but of the entire political class.

The deepening polarization in Argentina has taken a variety of social and political forms: a national uprising that overthrew the De la Rua regime in December 2001; permanent rebellion in the provinces; constant mass mobilizations of the unemployed (piqueteros); and popular assemblies (caceroleros) in the impoverished middle and working class neighborhoods.On December 19 and 20, 2001, hundreds of thousands of Argentines took to the streets to protest the government's declaration of a state of siege banning public demonstrations, the confiscation of $40 billion in savings, the deepening recession and 23% unemployment rate. The uprising which finally forced President De la Rua to resign and exit from the presidential palace via a helicopter was the culmination of a series of mass road blockages by the unemployed piqueteros, potbanging neighborhood marches and assemblies, provincial mobilizations and attacks on governors, mayors and federal officials. While each of the particular mass actions has its own specific social base, forms of direct action, and priority demands, they all converge in rejecting repayment of the foreign debt, implementation of IMF austerity programs, and the confiscation of savings.The mass unemployed workers' movement was the detonator for the uprising of December 19/20, even if the organized unemployed were not a decisive force on the day of the ouster of the President. The unemployed workers' movements (MTDs, for Movimientos de Trabajadores Desocupados) have spread throughout Argentina and escalated over the past six years as the recession has turned into a depression and millions of former unionized factory workers have become long term unemployed. The MTDs are organized territorially-by barrio, municipality, and more recently across municipalities, and in some cases as competing national organizations. Their main tactics are to barricade major highways, blocking the transportation of goods, services, and labor to and from industries, banks and other sectors. Their demands invariably include state-financed jobs and food. They are usually autonomous from the main trade unions and political parties, though there are important exceptions. The MTDs usually meet in assemblies in their neighborhoods to decide on tactics, demands, and the distribution of jobs secured in successful struggles. By early 2002, over 200,000 unemployed workers were organized, though many more workers and underemployed participate in the street blockages and marches.

The MTDs draw support from rank and file trade unionists, regional trade union leaders and the Marxist parties. The MTDs clearly spearheaded the opposition to the neoliberal regime in the absence of any sustained opposition from the political parties and the official trade unions.Several theoretical points emerge from an analysis of the MTDs. First, the idea that the unemployed, outside the factories, cannot be organized because they are too dispersed, fragmented and without social leverage is false. The MTDs demonstrate that their common social situation, the leadership from below rooted in formerly unionized workers expressing themselves through popular assemblies in horizontal structures can succeed in organizing in the midst of a depression, despite the hostility and indifference of the entire trade union and political party leadership.The activist mass has become in large part feminized as women are in most cases the head of the household and have taken the lead in organizing the barricades and the logistical support systems (roadside soup kitchens). Women from working class families bring to the MTDs the experience of two decades of neighborhood organizing, first via neighborhood reform schemes of the various regimes and over the past seven years through the autonomous militant MTDs. The road blockages have evolved from sporadic, quasi-spontaneous actions into systematic, organized activities coordinated among thousands of unemployed. There were 51 road blockages in 1998, 252 in 1999, 514 in 2000, and nearly a thousand in 2001. In 2002 the road blockages were often combined with generalized uprisings, particularly in the provinces of the interior, but also in the greater Buenos Aires region. In January 2002, for example, road blockages accompanied popular mobilizations in Cordoba, Santa Fe, Chaco, Misiones, Santiago del Estero, Salta and Formosa. The combined struggles included both the demands of the MTDs and those of other protesting sectors, such as back pay for public employees, housing for the homeless, an end of the confiscation of savings, and food distribution. In some cases municipal buildings were sacked, supermarkets were raided, and governors' mansions and state legislatures were occupied.

It is clear that the piqueteros are not all that they appear to be, unemployed workers fighting for social justice. Particularly the Peronist party, now in power, has used the job subsidies to try to divide the MTDs, handing out job application forms via their barrio ward bosses and organizing thugs to disrupt local meetings. In addition, local Peronist bosses have hired some unemployed to assault and intimidate assemblies n popular barrios, though they seldom attempt to threaten the MTDs.The radical MTDs are dispersed throughout the country and in the greater Buenos Aires region. They include Anibal Veron, General Mosconi, Almirante Brown, Teresa Rodriguez, Solano the names of the communities in which they are based-and many others, including regional affiliates of the CCC (Coordinadora de Collectivos Clasistas) which have a militant confrontational style of social action, advocate total blockage of highways, and have retained autonomy from all the trade union confederations.However, the radical MTDs are themselves internally divided along political lines, with the Trotskyist Workers Pole (Polo Obrero), the Communist Land and Liberation( Terra y Liberacion) and other formations competing for hegemony. The result is that the radical MTDs at best have only tactical alliances, while more often than not they are in conflict, even to the point of separate negotiations with the regime.

THE UPRISING OF DECEMBER 2001
The usually ubiquitous red flags and banners of the Marxist Left, dissident trade unions and piqueteros were almost completely absent when tens of thousands of Argentineans marched to the Plaza de Mayo facing the presidential palace, the Casa Rosada, on the hot summer afternoon of December 19, 2001.The absence of the Left on the first day of the uprising can be attributed to several factors, both ideological and organizational. Most of the Left operated from a rigid class analysis from which it deduced political behavior. The Left was generally workerist, in the sense that what didn't come out of the factories was suspect. This rigidity generally took the following logic: factory worker-unionization-revolutionary party general strike-revolution. In the meantime, the unionized workers became a minority, most workers were un- and underemployed and many were organized in MTDs. Belatedly the Left turned to organize, mobilize and fragment the MTDs.Likewise, the Left missed the dynamics of class mobility: The rapid downward mobility of the middle class, its impoverishment and proletarianization. Having lost all their savings, the middle class had nothing to lose. They had become deeply alienated from their traditional conservative moorings. They were open to a radical democratic style of street politics and direct forms of assembly-style democracy.The Left only joined the uprising on the second day, December 20, and then only the activists and militants, as the leaders remained in headquarters strategizing. Important contingents of public sector trade unionists, piqueteros, Marxist activists and tens of thousands of independent radicalized middle class people poured into the streets. Thousands of young people, from lower middle class students to young unemployed piqueteros, joined the march and the eventual battles with the police in front of the Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires and in other major cities. The downwardly mobile middle class demonstration was the detonator of the mass and continual assault on power. Four governments came and went in fourteen days.

The uprising was successful on several important counts. The Saa regime declared that Argentina would not meet its debt obligations. The populace was able to force the resignation of four presidents. The political class and the judicial system were delegitimized, their venality and anti-national, anti-popular character were fully exposed.The December 19-20 mass uprising was historically unique for several reasons: It was the first time in Argentine history that a popular uprising had overthrown a bankrupt elected or dictatorial leader. It was the first time in history that the majority of Argentines had confronted and rejected the entire political class. The uprising and the solidarity that ensued led to new and creative forms of direct popular representation in the shape of barrio assemblies, and new tactics of struggle, such as pot-banging demonstrations capable of blocking state decisions adversely affecting the people. Preventing Duhalde from converting the confiscated savings accounts into the junkiest of junk bonds is one important example.The popular assemblies increasingly relied on the work commissions to implement policy changes as the Marxist sects began to penetrate, debate, argue over tactics, programs and party turf, alienating many and recruiting few. There was a temporary retrocession from the high point of December 2001.The pot-banging movement has demonstrated its capacity to veto presidential nominations and decrees. The internal warfare of the Left sects undermined the assemblies' attractiveness to many participants. Despite emerging weaknesses, the political experience and the sense of power have sustained an increasingly radical and growing current of opinion among the impoverished middle class. Public opinion polls on presidential candidates in late May 2002 favored a Marxist, Luis Zamora, over any and all of the persona from the major parties.

PHOENIX OR PROMETHEUS?
In light of the complete and total collapse of the Argentine neoliberal model, several alternative models of development have emerged. One of them, Plan Phoenix, put forth by over 100 economists and political scientists, is the most widely circulated and influential in intellectual circles. The other, which we can call Plan Prometheus is not yet a formal proposal or document, but a body of demands and proposals now being articulated within the emerging revolutionary democratic organizations.Phoenix is both a critical diagnosis of neoliberal policies and a prescription for change and development. The critical diagnosis covers a wide range of economic policies, from taxation, public spending, ALCA (Area Libre Commercio de America) and MERCOSUR (Market of the Southern Cone) to privatization and technology policy. Phoenix's main virtues are found in its criticism of the total deregulation of the economy, the indiscriminate opening to the world market, the unilateral and radical reduction of tariff barriers (without reciprocity), the loss of control over monetary policy via the de facto dollarization, the dismantling of the state as an instrument of economic policy, the great concentration of economic power, and the lack of transparency in the privatization of public enterprise. Phoenix's rejection of globalization ideologues' argument that the nation-state is no longer a viable tool for policy making is part of a new project to revitalize the role of the state in pursuit of an industrial policy which prioritizes development of the internal market and international competitiveness.In the area of reforms, Phoenix advocates reductions in debt payments via a moratorium or reduced payments-the document is self-contradictory. Its moderate proposals have been bypassed by subsequent events, since three months after Phoenix was published the government defaulted. Phoenix favors increased taxes on the rich, the financial groups and other non-productive sectors, and elimination of subsidies to privileged classes. The revenues raised would be channeled toward employment-generating investments in socially useful areas (schools, low income housing, child care centers), as well as worker training programs. The basic premise of the Phoenix document is that a coalition of political parties, productive private sectors, and civil society would be the political bases for a new regulatory regime. The state would direct financial capital to fund productive capitalism; foreign capital to reinvest profits in the national economy; and productive (as opposed to speculative) capital to invest in socially useful activities. Phoenix seeks to devise an economic policy to reorient capital toward the domestic market, regional (re-)industrialization and processing of raw materials to generate more value added to exports in the international markets. The priority of Phoenix would be to develop a national plan of development to reactivate the economy, fix social priorities, selectively protect local producers, seek sources of domestic funding and then negotiate with the IFls, including the IMF. The focus would be on internal transformation and the role of the national state, not on external agreements with the IFls.The Phoenix document is without any connection to the powerful social movements and political uprisings that have occurred. They are not even mentioned in passing. The organized unemployed, the popular assemblies, the factory takeover movements, and the provincial rebellions-all of which have the most direct stake in the welfare, development and employment goals of Phoenix-are ignored. Instead, Phoenix looks to the discredited trade union bureaucrats of the confederations, the political parties and leaders who have been the main cause of the disaster to reenact a new national-popular coalition with foreign capital and credit from the IFls.

THE REVOLUTIONARY ALTERNATIVE
For Plan Prometheus, the people's movements are the point of departure. First and foremost is the need for a new social coalition of the 80% of Argentines suffering a severe decline in living standards, including the 55% below the poverty line. Employed and unemployed workers alone amount to close to 50%, and the impoverished middle class includes another 20-30%. This is a broad-based coalition, which is not linked to overseas banks. This gives a socialist state the social basis to re-nationaiize the banking and financial system and provides a political base to resist pressures from the G-7 bankers. The nationalization of foreign trade would provide the state with a mechanism for reorienting foreign exchange to finance public investment and national industrialization. The re-nationalization of petroleum would provide income and revenues to stimulate job training, infrastructure and social projects generating employment. Progressive taxes and tax collection can be enforced by threats to expropriate the property of tax evaders and tax delinquents.
The state reforms proposed by the Phoenix document should be articulated through new assembly forms of popular representation and the incorporation of the new social movements (piqueteros) in local and municipal governments. Popular assemblies should exercise direct control of budget allocations and expenditures, an advanced form of participatory public finance. Public ownership of strategic sectors of the economy is essential to sustain redistributive policies, as the recent decades attest. With privatization the inequalities widened, and decision-making power over macro-economic policies was monopolized by powerful economic groups.The economic crisis has cut per capita income by two-thirds. Given the scarce resources and the disintegrating productive base, only a public takeover under workers' control can expand the material base and generate greater equality. Greater equality depends on social control of the income to be distributed. Social ownership is at the center of Plan Prometheus. It combines the tax and expenditures of Phoenix but within a vastly expanded social property sector, democratically controlled by the direct producers and administered by a meritocratic public administration. The plan is Promethean because it aims at the total reconstruction of a disintegrating economy with a shattered social fabric in the face of powerful U.S.-Euro imperial adversaries. Having control over the basic economic sectors, however, means the return and reinvestment of earnings in Argentina. Debt default means the savings of over 50% of export earnings. The diversification of production and the reactivation of the economy mean that optimal use can be made of existing unused capacity-over 50% of the total. MERCOSUR, China, the Arab countries and sectors of the EU and Russia offer alternative markets to any IFI-organized boycott. Public investments in innovation, technology, research and development can incorporate Argentina's highly trained but currently underutilized labor force. The reactivization of internal markets and selective protection of provincial producers can expand markets. Public investments in infrastructure can employ the unemployed and facilitate inter-provincial and inter-MERCOSUR trade.Plan Prometheus incorporates the criticisms of Plan Phoenix and extends them from modifying the behavior of the private actors to transforming their structural position. Prometheus incorporates some of the specific welfare reforms of Phoenix but locates them in a more realistic political-economic properly framework that avoids the constraints and threats of private/foreign non-cooperation. Prometheus replaces Phoenix's proposed national-popular social coalition with a more realistic popular coalition rooted in the really existing social movements and their interests.

CONCLUSION
As of September 2002 there is no sign of recovery or outside relief-on the contrary, the crises have deepened. The collapse of the Argentine economy and the impoverishment of the majority of its people following the zealous application of free market doctrine is a warning to the rest of the Third World. By early summer the Brazilian and Uruguayan economies began their descent: Uruguay is in the midst of deep recession (with 15% unemployed) and was temporarily saved from collapse by a $1.5 billion IMF loan; in Brazil it took a $30 billion loan to stave off collapse. What is called a financial contagion is in reality the collapse of an economic model based on U.S. pillage, local corruption and joint exploitation.In June, during a march organized by the Anibal Veron MTD, two piqueteros were executed by police officers-the act videotaped. The result was a massive protest which forced President Duhalde to announce new elections for early 2003. In response to the continuing crises and the IMF refusal to provide any support, a newly organized, massive popular rebellion is in the works. Date and place to be announced.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS James Petras has 50 books and 375 scholarly articles to his credit. His work has been translated into 28 languages. Globalization Unmasked (with Henry Veltmeyer) is his most recent book. His web site: (Spanish), and (English).Henry Veltmeyer teaches Sociology and International Development at St. Mary & University Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Universidad Aut6noma de Zacatecas, Mexico. Recent publications include: America Latina: Capital Global y la Perspectiva Del Desarrollo Alternativo, and Globalization Unmasked.

Text of Obama's speech By The Associated Press - Wed Sep 9, 9:03 pm ET

Text of President Barack Obama's address to Congress on health care reform Wednesday, as prepared for delivery and provided by the White House.Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, members of Congress, and the American people:When I spoke here last winter, this nation was facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We were losing an average of 700,000 jobs per month. Credit was frozen. And our financial system was on the verge of collapse.As any American who is still looking for work or a way to pay their bills will tell you, we are by no means out of the woods. A full and vibrant recovery is many months away. And I will not let up until those Americans who seek jobs can find them; until those businesses that seek capital and credit can thrive; until all responsible homeowners can stay in their homes. That is our ultimate goal. But thanks to the bold and decisive action we have taken since January, I can stand here with confidence and say that we have pulled this economy back from the brink.I want to thank the members of this body for your efforts and your support in these last several months, and especially those who have taken the difficult votes that have put us on a path to recovery. I also want to thank the American people for their patience and resolve during this trying time for our nation.But we did not come here just to clean up crises. We came to build a future. So tonight, I return to speak to all of you about an issue that is central to that future — and that is the issue of health care.I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last. It has now been nearly a century since Theodore Roosevelt first called for health care reform. And ever since, nearly every president and Congress, whether Democrat or Republican, has attempted to meet this challenge in some way. A bill for comprehensive health reform was first introduced by John Dingell Sr. in 1943. Sixty-five years later, his son continues to introduce that same bill at the beginning of each session.

Our collective failure to meet this challenge — year after year, decade after decade — has led us to a breaking point. Everyone understands the extraordinary hardships that are placed on the uninsured, who live every day just one accident or illness away from bankruptcy. These are not primarily people on welfare. These are middle-class Americans. Some can't get insurance on the job. Others are self-employed, and can't afford it, since buying insurance on your own costs you three times as much as the coverage you get from your employer. Many other Americans who are willing and able to pay are still denied insurance due to previous illnesses or conditions that insurance companies decide are too risky or expensive to cover.We are the only advanced democracy on Earth — the only wealthy nation — that allows such hardships for millions of its people. There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage. In just a two year period, one in every three Americans goes without health care coverage at some point. And every day, 14,000 Americans lose their coverage. In other words, it can happen to anyone.But the problem that plagues the health care system is not just a problem of the uninsured. Those who do have insurance have never had less security and stability than they do today. More and more Americans worry that if you move, lose your job, or change your job, you'll lose your health insurance too. More and more Americans pay their premiums, only to discover that their insurance company has dropped their coverage when they get sick, or won't pay the full cost of care. It happens every day.One man from Illinois lost his coverage in the middle of chemotherapy because his insurer found that he hadn't reported gallstones that he didn't even know about. They delayed his treatment, and he died because of it. Another woman from Texas was about to get a double mastectomy when her insurance company canceled her policy because she forgot to declare a case of acne. By the time she had her insurance reinstated, her breast cancer more than doubled in size. That is heartbreaking, it is wrong, and no one should be treated that way in the United States of America.

Then there's the problem of rising costs. We spend one-and-a-half times more per person on health care than any other country, but we aren't any healthier for it. This is one of the reasons that insurance premiums have gone up three times faster than wages. It's why so many employers — especially small businesses — are forcing their employees to pay more for insurance, or are dropping their coverage entirely. It's why so many aspiring entrepreneurs cannot afford to open a business in the first place, and why American businesses that compete internationally — like our automakers — are at a huge disadvantage. And it's why those of us with health insurance are also paying a hidden and growing tax for those without it — about $1000per year that pays for somebody else's emergency room and charitable care.Finally, our health care system is placing an unsustainable burden on taxpayers. When health care costs grow at the rate they have, it puts greater pressure on programs like Medicare and Medicaid. If we do nothing to slow these skyrocketing costs, we will eventually be spending more on Medicare and Medicaid than every other government program combined. Put simply, our health care problem is our deficit problem. Nothing else even comes close.These are the facts. Nobody disputes them. We know we must reform this system. The question is how.There are those on the left who believe that the only way to fix the system is through a single-payer system like Canada's, where we would severely restrict the private insurance market and have the government provide coverage for everyone. On the right, there are those who argue that we should end the employer-based system and leave individuals to buy health insurance on their own.I have to say that there are arguments to be made for both approaches. But either one would represent a radical shift that would disrupt the health care most people currently have. Since health care represents one-sixth of our economy, I believe it makes more sense to build on what works and fix what doesn't, rather than try to build an entirely new system from scratch. And that is precisely what those of you in Congress have tried to do over the past several months.During that time, we have seen Washington at its best and its worst.We have seen many in this chamber work tirelessly for the better part of this year to offer thoughtful ideas about how to achieve reform. Of the five committees asked to develop bills, four have completed their work, and the Senate Finance Committee announced today that it will move forward next week. That has never happened before.

Our overall efforts have been supported by an unprecedented coalition of doctors and nurses; hospitals, seniors' groups and even drug companies — many of whom opposed reform in the past. And there is agreement in this chamber on about 80 percent of what needs to be done, putting us closer to the goal of reform than we have ever been.But what we have also seen in these last months is the same partisan spectacle that only hardens the disdain many Americans have toward their own government. Instead of honest debate, we have seen scare tactics. Some have dug into unyielding ideological camps that offer no hope of compromise. Too many have used this as an opportunity to score short-term political points, even if it robs the country of our opportunity to solve a long-term challenge. And out of this blizzard of charges and countercharges, confusion has reigned.Well the time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action. Now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together, and show the American people that we can still do what we were sent here to do. Now is the time to deliver on health care. The plan I'm announcing tonight would meet three basic goals:It will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance. It will provide insurance to those who don't. And it will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government. It's a plan that asks everyone to take responsibility for meeting this challenge — not just government and insurance companies, but employers and individuals. And it's a plan that incorporates ideas from Senators and Congressmen; from Democrats and Republicans — and yes, from some of my opponents in both the primary and general election.

Here are the details that every American needs to know about this plan:First, if you are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who already have health insurance through your job, Medicare, Medicaid, or the VA, nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have. Let me repeat this: nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have.What this plan will do is to make the insurance you have work better for you. Under this plan, it will be against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition. As soon as I sign this bill, it will be against the law for insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick or water it down when you need it most. They will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime. We will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get sick. And insurance companies will be required to cover, with no extra charge, routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies — because there's no reason we shouldn't be catching diseases like breast cancer and colon cancer before they get worse. That makes sense, it saves money, and it saves lives.That's what Americans who have health insurance can expect from this plan — more security and stability.Now, if you're one of the tens of millions of Americans who don't currently have health insurance, the second part of this plan will finally offer you quality, affordable choices. If you lose your job or change your job, you will be able to get coverage. If you strike out on your own and start a small business, you will be able to get coverage. We will do this by creating a new insurance exchange — a marketplace where individuals and small businesses will be able to shop for health insurance at competitive prices. Insurance companies will have an incentive to participate in this exchange because it lets them compete for millions of new customers. As one big group, these customers will have greater leverage to bargain with the insurance companies for better prices and quality coverage. This is how large companies and government employees get affordable insurance. It's how everyone in this Congress gets affordable insurance. And it's time to give every American the same opportunity that we've given ourselves.

For those individuals and small businesses who still cannot afford the lower-priced insurance available in the exchange, we will provide tax credits, the size of which will be based on your need. And all insurance companies that want access to this new marketplace will have to abide by the consumer protections I already mentioned. This exchange will take effect in four years, which will give us time to do it right. In the meantime, for those Americans who can't get insurance today because they have pre-existing medical conditions, we will immediately offer low-cost coverage that will protect you against financial ruin if you become seriously ill. This was a good idea when Senator John McCain proposed it in the campaign, it's a good idea now, and we should embrace it.Now, even if we provide these affordable options, there may be those — particularly the young and healthy — who still want to take the risk and go without coverage. There may still be companies that refuse to do right by their workers. The problem is, such irresponsible behavior costs all the rest of us money. If there are affordable options and people still don't sign up for health insurance, it means we pay for those people's expensive emergency room visits. If some businesses don't provide workers health care, it forces the rest of us to pick up the tab when their workers get sick, and gives those businesses an unfair advantage over their competitors. And unless everybody does their part, many of the insurance reforms we seek — especially requiring insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions — just can't be achieved.That's why under my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance — just as most states require you to carry auto insurance. Likewise, businesses will be required to either offer their workers health care, or chip in to help cover the cost of their workers. There will be a hardship waiver for those individuals who still cannot afford coverage, and 95 percent of all small businesses, because of their size and narrow profit margin, would be exempt from these requirements. But we cannot have large businesses and individuals who can afford coverage game the system by avoiding responsibility to themselves or their employees. Improving our health care system only works if everybody does their part.While there remain some significant details to be ironed out, I believe a broad consensus exists for the aspects of the plan I just outlined: consumer protections for those with insurance, an exchange that allows individuals and small businesses to purchase affordable coverage, and a requirement that people who can afford insurance get insurance.

And I have no doubt that these reforms would greatly benefit Americans from all walks of life, as well as the economy as a whole. Still, given all the misinformation that's been spread over the past few months, I realize that many Americans have grown nervous about reform. So tonight I'd like to address some of the key controversies that are still out there.Some of people's concerns have grown out of bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost. The best example is the claim, made not just by radio and cable talk show hosts, but prominent politicians, that we plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens. Such a charge would be laughable if it weren't so cynical and irresponsible. It is a lie, plain and simple.There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false — the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.And one more misunderstanding I want to clear up — under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.My health care proposal has also been attacked by some who oppose reform as a "government takeover" of the entire health care system. As proof, critics point to a provision in our plan that allows the uninsured and small businesses to choose a publicly sponsored insurance option, administered by the government just like Medicaid or Medicare.

So let me set the record straight. My guiding principle is, and always has been, that consumers do better when there is choice and competition. Unfortunately, in 34 states, 75 percent of the insurance market is controlled by five or fewer companies. In Alabama, almost 90 percent is controlled by just one company. Without competition, the price of insurance goes up and the quality goes down. And it makes it easier for insurance companies to treat their customers badly — by cherry-picking the healthiest individuals and trying to drop the sickest; by overcharging small businesses who have no leverage; and by jacking up rates.Insurance executives don't do this because they are bad people. They do it because it's profitable. As one former insurance executive testified before Congress, insurance companies are not only encouraged to find reasons to drop the seriously ill; they are rewarded for it. All of this is in service of meeting what this former executive called Wall Street's relentless profit expectations.Now, I have no interest in putting insurance companies out of business. They provide a legitimate service, and employ a lot of our friends and neighbors. I just want to hold them accountable. The insurance reforms that I've already mentioned would do just that. But an additional step we can take to keep insurance companies honest is by making a not-for-profit public option available in the insurance exchange. Let me be clear — it would only be an option for those who don't have insurance. No one would be forced to choose it, and it would not impact those of you who already have insurance. In fact, based on Congressional Budget Office estimates, we believe that less than 5 percent of Americans would sign up.Despite all this, the insurance companies and their allies don't like this idea. They argue that these private companies can't fairly compete with the government. And they'd be right if taxpayers were subsidizing this public insurance option. But they won't be. I have insisted that like any private insurance company, the public insurance option would have to be self-sufficient and rely on the premiums it collects. But by avoiding some of the overhead that gets eaten up at private companies by profits, excessive administrative costs and executive salaries, it could provide a good deal for consumers. It would also keep pressure on private insurers to keep their policies affordable and treat their customers better, the same way public colleges and universities provide additional choice and competition to students without in any way inhibiting a vibrant system of private colleges and universities.

It's worth noting that a strong majority of Americans still favor a public insurance option of the sort I've proposed tonight. But its impact shouldn't be exaggerated — by the left, the right, or the media. It is only one part of my plan, and should not be used as a handy excuse for the usual Washington ideological battles. To my progressive friends, I would remind you that for decades, the driving idea behind reform has been to end insurance company abuses and make coverage affordable for those without it. The public option is only a means to that end — and we should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal. And to my Republican friends, I say that rather than making wild claims about a government takeover of health care, we should work together to address any legitimate concerns you may have.For example, some have suggested that that the public option go into effect only in those markets where insurance companies are not providing affordable policies. Others propose a co-op or another nonprofit entity to administer the plan. These are all constructive ideas worth exploring. But I will not back down on the basic principle that if Americans can't find affordable coverage, we will provide you with a choice. And I will make sure that no government bureaucrat or insurance company bureaucrat gets between you and the care that you need.Finally, let me discuss an issue that is a great concern to me, to members of this chamber, and to the public — and that is how we pay for this plan.Here's what you need to know. First, I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits — either now or in the future. Period. And to prove that I'm serious, there will be a provision in this plan that requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promised don't materialize. Part of the reason I faced a trillion dollar deficit when I walked in the door of the White House is because too many initiatives over the last decade were not paid for — from the Iraq War to tax breaks for the wealthy. I will not make that same mistake with health care.

Second, we've estimated that most of this plan can be paid for by finding savings within the existing health care system — a system that is currently full of waste and abuse. Right now, too much of the hard-earned savings and tax dollars we spend on health care doesn't make us healthier. That's not my judgment — it's the judgment of medical professionals across this country. And this is also true when it comes to Medicare and Medicaid.In fact, I want to speak directly to America's seniors for a moment, because Medicare is another issue that's been subjected to demagoguery and distortion during the course of this debate.More than four decades ago, this nation stood up for the principle that after a lifetime of hard work, our seniors should not be left to struggle with a pile of medical bills in their later years. That is how Medicare was born. And it remains a sacred trust that must be passed down from one generation to the next. That is why not a dollar of the Medicare trust fund will be used to pay for this plan.The only thing this plan would eliminate is the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud, as well as unwarranted subsidies in Medicare that go to insurance companies — subsidies that do everything to pad their profits and nothing to improve your care. And we will also create an independent commission of doctors and medical experts charged with identifying more waste in the years ahead.These steps will ensure that you — America's seniors — get the benefits you've been promised. They will ensure that Medicare is there for future generations. And we can use some of the savings to fill the gap in coverage that forces too many seniors to pay thousands of dollars a year out of their own pocket for prescription drugs. That's what this plan will do for you. So don't pay attention to those scary stories about how your benefits will be cut — especially since some of the same folks who are spreading these tall tales have fought against Medicare in the past, and just this year supported a budget that would have essentially turned Medicare into a privatized voucher program. That will never happen on my watch. I will protect Medicare.

Now, because Medicare is such a big part of the health care system, making the program more efficient can help usher in changes in the way we deliver health care that can reduce costs for everybody. We have long known that some places, like the Intermountain Healthcare in Utah or the Geisinger Health System in rural Pennsylvania, offer high-quality care at costs below average. The commission can help encourage the adoption of these common sense best practices by doctors and medical professionals throughout the system — everything from reducing hospital infection rates to encouraging better coordination between teams of doctors. Reducing the waste and inefficiency in Medicare and Medicaid will pay for most of this plan. Much of the rest would be paid for with revenues from the very same drug and insurance companies that stand to benefit from tens of millions of new customers. This reform will charge insurance companies a fee for their most expensive policies, which will encourage them to provide greater value for the money — an idea which has the support of Democratic and Republican experts. And according to these same experts, this modest change could help hold down the cost of health care for all of us in the long-run.Finally, many in this chamber — particularly on the Republican side of the aisle — have long insisted that reforming our medical malpractice laws can help bring down the cost of health care. I don't believe malpractice reform is a silver bullet, but I have talked to enough doctors to know that defensive medicine may be contributing to unnecessary costs. So I am proposing that we move forward on a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first and let doctors focus on practicing medicine. I know that the Bush Administration considered authorizing demonstration projects in individual states to test these issues. It's a good idea, and I am directing my Secretary of Health and Human Services to move forward on this initiative today.Add it all up, and the plan I'm proposing will cost around $900 billion over ten years — less than we have spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and less than the tax cuts for the wealthiest few Americans that Congress passed at the beginning of the previous administration. Most of these costs will be paid for with money already being spent — but spent badly — in the existing health care system. The plan will not add to our deficit. The middle-class will realize greater security, not higher taxes. And if we are able to slow the growth of health care costs by just one-tenth of one percent each year, it will actually reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the long term.

This is the plan I'm proposing. It's a plan that incorporates ideas from many of the people in this room tonight — Democrats and Republicans. And I will continue to seek common ground in the weeks ahead. If you come to me with a serious set of proposals, I will be there to listen. My door is always open.But know this: I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it's better politics to kill this plan than improve it. I will not stand by while the special interests use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are. If you misrepresent what's in the plan, we will call you out. And I will not accept the status quo as a solution. Not this time. Not now.Everyone in this room knows what will happen if we do nothing. Our deficit will grow. More families will go bankrupt. More businesses will close. More Americans will lose their coverage when they are sick and need it most. And more will die as a result. We know these things to be true.That is why we cannot fail. Because there are too many Americans counting on us to succeed — the ones who suffer silently, and the ones who shared their stories with us at town hall meetings, in e-mails, and in letters.I received one of those letters a few days ago. It was from our beloved friend and colleague, Ted Kennedy. He had written it back in May, shortly after he was told that his illness was terminal. He asked that it be delivered upon his death.In it, he spoke about what a happy time his last months were, thanks to the love and support of family and friends, his wife, Vicki, and his children, who are here tonight . And he expressed confidence that this would be the year that health care reform — that great unfinished business of our society, he called it — would finally pass. He repeated the truth that health care is decisive for our future prosperity, but he also reminded me that "it concerns more than material things.What we face,he wrote, is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.

I've thought about that phrase quite a bit in recent days — the character of our country. One of the unique and wonderful things about America has always been our self-reliance, our rugged individualism, our fierce defense of freedom and our healthy skepticism of government. And figuring out the appropriate size and role of government has always been a source of rigorous and sometimes angry debate.For some of Ted Kennedy's critics, his brand of liberalism represented an affront to American liberty. In their mind, his passion for universal health care was nothing more than a passion for big government.But those of us who knew Teddy and worked with him here — people of both parties — know that what drove him was something more. His friend, Orrin Hatch, knows that. They worked together to provide children with health insurance. His friend John McCain knows that. They worked together on a Patient's Bill of Rights. His friend Chuck Grassley knows that. They worked together to provide health care to children with disabilities.On issues like these, Ted Kennedy's passion was born not of some rigid ideology, but of his own experience. It was the experience of having two children stricken with cancer. He never forgot the sheer terror and helplessness that any parent feels when a child is badly sick; and he was able to imagine what it must be like for those without insurance; what it would be like to have to say to a wife or a child or an aging parent — there is something that could make you better, but I just can't afford it.That large heartedness — that concern and regard for the plight of others — is not a partisan feeling. It is not a Republican or a Democratic feeling. It, too, is part of the American character. Our ability to stand in other people's shoes. A recognition that we are all in this together; that when fortune turns against one of us, others are there to lend a helping hand. A belief that in this country, hard work and responsibility should be rewarded by some measure of security and fair play; and an acknowledgement that sometimes government has to step in to help deliver on that promise.This has always been the history of our progress. In 1933, when over half of our seniors could not support themselves and millions had seen their savings wiped away, there were those who argued that Social Security would lead to socialism. But the men and women of Congress stood fast, and we are all the better for it. In 1965, when some argued that Medicare represented a government takeover of health care, members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, did not back down. They joined together so that all of us could enter our golden years with some basic peace of mind.

You see, our predecessors understood that government could not, and should not, solve every problem. They understood that there are instances when the gains in security from government action are not worth the added constraints on our freedom. But they also understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, and the vulnerable can be exploited. And they knew that when any government measure, no matter how carefully crafted or beneficial, is subject to scorn; when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as un-American; when facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom; and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter — that at that point we don't merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves.What was true then remains true today. I understand how difficult this health care debate has been. I know that many in this country are deeply skeptical that government is looking out for them. I understand that the politically safe move would be to kick the can further down the road — to defer reform one more year, or one more election, or one more term.But that's not what the moment calls for. That's not what we came here to do. We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it. I still believe we can act even when it's hard. I still believe we can replace acrimony with civility, and gridlock with progress. I still believe we can do great things, and that here and now we will meet history's test.Because that is who we are. That is our calling. That is our character. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

EVENTS IN TIME (BIBLE PROPHECY LITERALLY FULFILLED)(BY GOD)

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Thursday, September 10, 2009

A NEW WORLD ORDER EMERGES

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