DEMOCRATES BECOME BIRTH CERTIFICATERS

MUSLIM NATIONS

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

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

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

DANIEL 11:40-43
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

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

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

ISRAELS INHERITED LAND IN THE FUTURE

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.

ARMEN SAGINIAN WANTS TO OVERTHROW IRANS CURRENT MUDEROUS REGIME OF ISRAEL HATERS.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1866

Iran's leader predicts Israel's destruction
Wed Jan 27, 1:31 pm ET

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's supreme leader predicted the destruction of Israel in comments posted on his Web site on Wednesday, in some of his strongest remarks in years about the Jewish state.In the past, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called Israel a cancerous tumor that must be wiped from the map, but the new comments mark the first time in years he has openly speculated about Israel's demise.Definitely, the day will come when nations of the region will witness the destruction of the Zionist regime, Khamenei was quoted as saying. How soon or late (Israel's demise) will happen depends on how Islamic countries and Muslim nations approach the issue. He did not elaborate.Khamenei, who made the comments during a meeting with the Mauritanian president on Tuesday, also accused Israel of trying to destroy the Palestinians through continued pressure, blockades and genocide. He said the Jewish state will not succeed.Khamenei's comments come as the world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Wednesday, the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi-run Auschwitz death camp.Iran does not recognize Israel, and the two countries have been bitter enemies since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, and current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel's destruction.Tehran is accused of supporting Lebanon's Shiite Muslim militant group, Hezbollah, which fought Israel until it withdrew it soldiers from southern Lebanon in 2000. Hezbollah continues to launch occasional attacks against Israeli troops in a disputed strip of land on Lebanon's southern border. Iran also backs Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls the Gaza Strip.

Iran's Supreme Leader: Zionist Regime to be Annihilated
by Hana Levi Julian JAN 28,10

(IsraelNN.com) Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promised Wednesday at a meeting with Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz that Israel would be annihilated soon. Abdel Aziz was winding up a two-day visit to Iran aimed at strengthening bilateral ties.According to the Iranian state-run Fars News Agency (FNA), Khamenei said the region would soon witness annihilation of the Zionist regime. He added that the timetable for the destruction would depend on the functioning of the Islamic countries and Muslim nations.Khamenei controls Iran's foreign policy, including its nuclear technology development and its decisions to defy the United Nations mandate against its uranium enrichment program. However, some doubt has recently been cast on the strength of his position, given the powerful anti-government protests across the country. His family members have already been spirited out of the country to a safer location, opposition activists reported several weeks ago.The Iranian leader praised Mauritania's severing of diplomatic ties with Israel last year following the IDF's launch of the counter-terrorist Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. Israel's military incursion was largely successful in stilling the thousands of rocket and mortar shell attacks that had been constantly fired by terrorists from the region at civilians in southern Israel for eight years.

The Zionist regime is a big danger to the Muslim world, [one] which hatches plots every day to expand its infiltration and dominance in the region, Khamenei claimed. He accused Israel of carrying out a campaign of harassment against Palestinian Authority Arabs, and said the Netanyahu government was continuing pressures, siege and genocide in Palestine to remove the country's Islamic identity. However, he said,it will surely fail.The Mauritanian president responded with praise for Iran's efforts to establish peace and tranquility in the region.

Imam in Spain charged for menacing woman over veil By CIARAN GILES, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jan 28, 11:39 am ET

MADRID – Charges have been filed against an imam in northeastern Spain accusing him of threatening a woman who refused to wear an Islamic headscarf or abide by certain Islamic customs, prosecutors said Thursday.The prosecutors are seeking a five-year jail sentence for Mohamed Benbrahim, a Moroccan, on charges of calumny, coercion and menacing behavior against fellow Moroccan Muslim Fatima Ghailan. The two live in Cunit, a town in Catalonia, a region with a sizable Muslim population.The court filed similar charges against the president of the Islamic Association in Cunit and lesser ones against Benbrahim's wife and his daughter.In a statement to the court in the nearby town of Vendrells, Ghailan, 31, said Benbrahim had harassed her and campaigned to have her removed from her job in the town hall's cultural department purely because she had a job, dressed in a Western style, drove a car and associated with non-Muslims.She said the imam and his supporters also pressured her husband and children.Ghailan filed a complaint in December, 2008, after she said she and her husband were accosted in the street by the imam, who told them they would be run out of the town.Benbrahim was quoted by the Spanish daily El Pais as denying the charges and claiming Ghailan concocted the story. He said he simply felt the woman was not suitable for the job.

But the prosecutors office said the judge investigating the case had found the woman's account credible and decided to press charges.Ghailan and the imam cold not be reached for comment Thursday.The prosecutors office said it could be a year before a trial is held.About 725,000 Moroccans live in Spain.

Denmark urges full use of rules limiting face veil By JAN M. OLSEN, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jan 28, 10:57 am ET

COPENHAGEN – Denmark's government said Thursday that face-covering Muslim veils don't belong in Danish society but no ban is needed because their use can be limited under existing rules.The center-right government said the burqa — an all-covering dress — and the niqab face veil are diametrically opposed to the values on which Danish society is built. It called for the full use of existing rules that allow schools, as well as both public and private employers, to demand that students, teachers and workers show their faces.The use of the burqa or niqab ... deprives women of the right to interact in the Danish society on equal footing with men and women who do not wear the burqa or niqab, the government said.The statement followed months of discussion about whether Denmark should ban burqas and niqabs — a debate also taking place elsewhere in Europe. In France, a parliamentary panel recommended Tuesday that all public services should be off-limits to Muslim women wearing them.

And Wednesday in Sweden, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said face-covering veils represent the oppression of women. But he said he didn't support a ban, because that would make some women more isolated.While the debate in Europe is widespread, use of the veils is not. A report commissioned by the Danish government found that only two or three women in the country wear burqas, and perhaps 200 wear niqabs.The government said it didn't base its position on the number of wearers but on the extensive and humiliating limitations and difficulties associated with the coverings.

The nationalist Danish People's Party — a key ally of the minority government — criticized the government's stance and said stronger action was needed to curb the use of face-covering veils.It is a pity that the government won't do anything about it,deputy party leader Peter Skaarup said.

Social forum leftists decry climate talks failure
Thu Jan 28, 9:27 am ET

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil – Activists at the World Social forum say world leaders' failure to forge a new climate change treaty in Copenhagen shows the planet's most powerful nations are incapable of setting important global policy.Patrick Bond of South Africa's Centre for Civil Society says the outcome of December's climate change talks means that people cannot trust the elites to generate a new world order for the climate.Bond spoke Thursday, on the fourth day of the forum. The gathering is an annual countercultural demonstration against the World Economic Forum now under way in Davos, Switzerland.He also said rich countries and big emerging-market nations want to promote and expand fossil fuel industries that contribute to global warming.

US, EU deficits not sustainable: Trichet
JAN 28,10

PARIS (AFP) – The head of the European Central Bank warned Thursday that US and European Union deficits were unsustainable and urged authorities to take tough measures to strengthen public finances.We all have a very, very big challenge there, Jean-Claude Trichet told CNBC television.The levels of public finance deficit are not sustainable on both sides of the Atlantic -- that's absolutely clear.We have to reinforce the confidence of our own people, also our entrepreneurs, in our capacity to go back to a sustainable position.He appealed to all European countries to stick to the rigorous implementation of the programs that have ... been decided.The programs aim to curb public spending, which surged as governments spent heavily to beat back recession.Trichet cited no eurozone member in particular but market concerns have focused lately on worrisome debt and deficit levels in Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal.A finance crisis in Greece, which last month was hit by downgrades from all three international rating agencies, is seen by analysts and officials as posing a threat to the cohesion and health of the eurozone.Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday, lashed out at speculators he said were targeting his country as a weak link in the eurozone.

He admitted that Greece has a credibility gap but insisted that he had not sought a bailout from the country's European partners.He spoke after the French newspaper Le Monde said eurozone governments were considering financial support for Greece, whose massive debt has shaken the euro single currency.Responding to the report, Papandreou said: We haven't asked for money from the European Union.Underlining the pressures that Greece faces, the yield on Greek 10-year bonds soared to 7.126 percent on Thursday from 6.706 percent on Wednesday, hitting its highest level since Greece joined the eurozone in 2001.The turmoil in Greece has meant that the country must pay substantially more than many of its eurozone partners to attract investors to buy its debt.On Thursday, the yield on Greek bonds was nearly 4.0 points higher than that on the benchmark German Bund.Earlier this month a group of prominent researchers warned that the United States was heading down a path towards lower living standards and diminished confidence unless it reined in a huge budget deficit.

The federal government is currently spending far more than it collects in revenues, and if current policies are continued, will do so for the foreseeable future, said the report from the National Research Council and National Academy of Public Administration.No reasonably foreseeable rate of economic growth would overcome this structural deficit. Thus, any efforts to rein in future deficits must entail either large increases in taxes to support these programs or major restraints on their growth -- or some combination of the two.The US government closed its 2009 fiscal year with a record 1.416-trillion-dollar budget deficit and the White House forecasts an even bigger gap of 1.502 trillion dollars in fiscal 2010, said the report.

EARTHQUAKES

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

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

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

Teenage girl rescued 15 days after quake is stable By VIVIAN SEQUERA and BEN FOX, Associated Press Writers – JAN 28,10

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – A 16-year-old girl pulled from the rubble more than two weeks after a deadly earthquake was in stable condition Thursday, able to eat yogurt and mashed vegetables to the surprise of doctors, who said her survival was medically inexplicable.Hundreds of thousands of other survivors hoped for a breakthrough of another kind — the delivery of badly needed food aid.Key players in the Haiti earthquake relief effort, in what may prove to be a pivotal meeting Wednesday, decided to better coordinate by dividing up the shattered capital, giving each responsibility for handing out food in certain areas.Food distribution thus far has often been marked by poor coordination, vast gaps in coverage, and desperate, unruly lines of needy people in which young men at times shoved aside the women and weak and took their food.These things should be done in a systematic way, not a random way,Dr. Eddy Delalue, who runs a Haitian relief group, Operation Hope, said Wednesday of the emergency food program.It's survival of the fittest: The strongest guy gets it.Wednesday's rescue of teenager Darlene Etienne from a collapsed home near St. Gerard University, 15 days after Haiti's great quake killed an estimated 200,000 people, was the first such recovery since Saturday, when French rescuers extricated a man from the ruins of a hotel grocery store.Etienne is stable, drinking water and eating yogurt and mashed vegetables, said Dr. Evelyne Lambert, who has been treating the girl on the French Navy hospital ship Sirocco, anchored off the shore of Port-au-Prince.

Lambert said that Etienne has a 90 percent chance of survival.

We cannot really explain this because that's just (against) biological facts, Lambert told a news conference. We are very surprised by the fact that she's alive. ... She's saying that she has been under the ground since the very beginning on the 12th of January so it may have really happened — but we cannot explain that.
Etienne may have had some access to water from a bathroom of the wrecked house, and rescuers said she mumbled something about having a little Coca-Cola with her in the rubble.Experts say it's unclear how long people can survive with little or no water.
It depends on so many variables — on temperature, on how hydrated she was when she got into this situation, said Randall Packer, a biology professor at George Washington University and an expert on salt and water balance. Packer also said Etienne's youth was likely to have helped her survive.Even when fluids are withdrawn for terminally ill patients,it can take a week or a little bit more for them to die, he said.Her family said Etienne had just begun studies at St. Gerard when the disaster struck, trapping dozens of students and staff in the rubble of school buildings, hostels and nearby homes. We thought she was dead, said cousin Jocelyn A. St. Jules.Then — a half-month after the earthquake — neighbors heard a voice weakly calling from the rubble of a private home down the road from the destroyed university. They called authorities, who brought in the French civil response team.

French search and rescue team member Dr. Claude Fuilla walked along the dangerously crumbled roof, heard her voice and saw a little bit of dust-covered black hair in the rubble. Clearing away some debris, he reached the young woman and saw she was alive — barely.Digging out a hole big enough to give her oxygen and water, they found she had a very weak pulse. Within 45 minutes they managed to remove her, covered in dust.She was in very bad shape, Fuilla said Thursday.We had to rehydrate her for 15 minutes before flying her by helicopter to the Sirocco.Now, her condition is stabilized. She ate. She is speaking ... She is not very lucid, but she is OK.At least 135 people buried in rubble have been rescued by search teams since the quake, most in the immediate aftermath. An Israeli team that earned international praise for its rescue efforts in Haiti returned home Thursday with a 5-year-old boy in need of urgent heart surgery. Back in Haiti, the United Nations World Food Program urgently appealed to governments for more cash for Haiti supplies — $800 million to feed 2 million people through December, more than quadruple the $196 million already pledged. The WFP, partnered with local and international organizations, had delivered 3.6 million food rations to 458,000 people by Tuesday, U.N. officials said Thursday.

But food remains scarce for many of the neediest survivors. Relief experts said the scale of this disaster and Haiti's poor infrastructure are presenting unprecedented challenges, but Haitian leaders complain coordination has been poor. The WFP also noted that rising tensions and security incidents have hampered deliveries. Desperation boiled over earlier this week as young men rushed forward to grab U.S.-donated bags of beans and rice. A pregnant woman collapsed and was trampled. Since the relief effort's first days, however, other problems have also delayed aid: blocked and congested roads, truck shortages, a crippled seaport and an overloaded airport. The south pier near Port-au-Prince — the fastest route for moving large pallets of food and medical supplies into Haiti — was more badly damaged than U.S. officials realized and won't be repaired for another eight to 10 weeks, Gen. Douglas Fraser, head of U.S. Southern Command, said Thursday. At the moment, troops are only able to move 200 containers a day from ships anchored offshore using connectors, landing craft and helicopters, Fraser said. Meanwhile, looting remained a constant threat in Port-au-Prince. A block away from U.S. troops who were knocking down the remaining walls of otherwise collapsed buildings, thieves armed with sledgehammers smashed what was left of destroyed shops Thursday, making off with everything from candy to perfume. With the country still barely functioning, Haitian President Rene Preval canceled legislative elections scheduled for next month. The Parliament building partially collapsed in the earthquake, killing one senator, and other candidates also died in the disaster. We don't need elections right now, said 37-year-old store clerk Martine Poulard.Elections cost a lot. They should use the money to feed the people who are starving in the streets, and they need to build houses for the homeless as well. Associated Press writers contributing to this report include Michelle Faul, Carolina Correa, Ben Fox, Gregory Bull, Pierre Richard and Jean-Baptiste Rommel in Port-au-Prince; Anne Flaherty in Washington; and medical writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee.

Human Predators Stalk Haiti's Vulnerable Kids By TIM PADGETT WITH BOBBY GHOSH / PORT-AU-PRINCE – Wed Jan 27, 7:40 pm ET

Mia Pean's heart sank last week when she saw the Toyota pickup truck cruising the debris-cluttered streets of Leogagne, ground zero for the earthquake that has devastated Haiti. Each time the driver saw a child - especially a young teen - he would stick his head out of the window and shout, Manje, manje, Creole for eat. Pean says she watched the hungry kids, four or five at a time, hop into the back of the pickup, which then disappeared.I saw the same man again a few days later in Carrefour,a poor suburb of Port-au-Prince, says Pean.I asked him, What are you doing with all those children? He said, Don't worry, we're going to put them in safe homes.Then he drove off.But Pean, a Haitian-American emergency consultant for the Andrew Young Foundation, doubts that altruism is the motive of the pickup driver, and others like him, who are now prowling Haiti's streets. The quake that has killed 150,000 people has left thousands of children orphaned, and vulnerable to being preyed upon by child traffickers and Haiti's shameful tradition of keeping child slaves known as restaveks. I really fear, says Pean,that most of the kids you see being picked up on the streets in Haiti right now are going to become restaveks or victims of sexual trafficking.(See TIME's exclusive photos from the Haiti earthquake.)

Pean isn't the only one concerned. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive on Tuesday expressed the fear that amid the clamor to airlift Haitian orphans out of the devastated country to waiting adoptive parents in the U.S. and Europe, others are being trafficked. The U.N. says it's on alert to prevent the exploitation of the thousands of Haitian kids who've lost or been separated from their parents and who wander aimlessly in search of food, water and shelter. UNICEF, the U.N.'s child advocacy arm, as well as groups like Save the Children and the Red Cross, say they're registering at-risk kids and setting up shelters exclusively for them. Says one UNICEF official monitoring reports of scenes like the one witnessed by Pean, Traffickers fish in pools of vulnerability, and we've rarely if ever seen one like this.The earthquake seems to have shaken more Haitians into vigilance as well - and perhaps, unfortunately, some vigilantism. In the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Petit Place Cazeu on Wednesday, a crowd of quake survivors living in tents surrounded a pickup truck and beat up the driver, saying he had for several days been trying to kidnap young girls. Bleeding from his nose, mouth and scalp, he managed to get back in his truck and flee. (The angry crowd then threatened to beat up a journalist for even asking questions about child trafficking.) But the problem remains daunting, and it is exacerbated by the fact that children are not accorded much if any protection under Haitian law or culture. That's a big reason restaveks are still so prevalent today, not just in Haiti but even in Haitian-American enclaves in the U.S., such as New York and Miami, as TIME first reported in 2001. Restavek in Creole means to stay with,an innocuous term for a far more sinister practice - children, often given up by their poor Haitian families, stay with more affluent families as slaves. And like most slaves, they're usually subject to physical, emotional and sexual abuse. (See more pictures from Haiti's devastating earthquake.)

Before the earthquake, the Haitian government itself estimated that more than 300,000 Haitian children were living as restaveks in the country, and more of them abroad. Those numbers are likely to grow, says Danielle Romer, a Haitian-American social worker and head of Haitian Support Inc. in Miami, who has long fought the restavek practice - her efforts still often met with denial and even anger by many Haitians. We were starting to see some improvement before the earthquake, both in terms of getting more of these children into orphanages and missions and in terms of getting some teaching about it out to Haitians,says Romer.But I'm afraid the earthquake just opens the box to a scarier situation.Joan Conn, executive director of the Jean Cadet Restavek Foundation in Cincinnati, agrees. We had been building more awareness in Haiti than ever before, says Conn.At least people were actually starting to say the word restavek out loud for once. But with so many children now abandoned and alone, the task could become even harder. Conn's organization - named for Jean-Robert Cadet, a former restavek whose 1998 autobiography, Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to Middle Class American, lifted the lid on the problem - works to give restaveks refuge in Haiti. In the wake of the earthquake, its staff and volunteers have fanned out across Port-au-Prince and the provinces to watch out for vulnerable kids. (See a TIME video with former President Bill Clinton speaking on Haiti.)Under prodding from the U.N., the Haitian government last year had finally begun to move against the restavek practice. Last May, some 500 Haitian officials attending a conference with Conn and other child advocates had pledged to make restavek and child-protection a legislative priority. But word has yet to trickle down to the general Haitian population, says Conn, and most restavek recruiters and other child traffickers still feel they have carte blanche to funnel kids to wealthier Haitian families, or abroad. Worse, says Pean, many of them are exploiting the rush to get Haitian children out of the quake-ravaged country. She recalls the man in the Toyota pickup telling her that Senators in Washington want us to expedite getting the kids to the U.S. But, she adds,the Senators are talking about kids who already have adoption papers ready. These guys are trying to exploit all that confusion.The situation for Haitian youths was difficult enough before the earthquake. Now, in addition to losing their families, many are under the threat of losing their childhoods as well.

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.

Rains in Brazil fill 2 dams, threaten more floods
Wed Jan 27, 12:02 pm ET

RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazilian officials say heavy rains have filled two dams to capacity in Sao Paulo state, threatening 12 soaked cities with more flooding.More than 100 people have been killed by mudslides and floods triggered by downpours across southeastern Brazil since Jan. 1.Heaviest hit have been Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo states.An official who oversees dams in Sao Paulo state told the Agencia Estado news agency Wednesday that at least 6,000 people need to be evacuated.Helio Castro said two dams in the state can no longer hold water.While there is no sign they are in danger of bursting, any more rain will flow into already full rivers and worsen the flooding.

GEITHNER GRILLED AT QUESTIONING
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JddzKea7ClU&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI__AwCvQtU&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcSRCXW-79A&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGczVEWKgl8&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsp3T0wcJdE&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk-1f1Cw6sA&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgtprlxOcks&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uImMz9IMlVI&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69AXZbQMKek&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAWLRWRwOOk&feature=player_embedded
OTHER GEITHNER VIDEOS ON PAGE
http://www.infowars.com/videos-geithner-grilled/

BERNANKE CLEARS KEY HURDLE IN SENATE VOTE 77-23,BERNANKE CONFIRMED BY SENATE.

Political Risk: The Bernanke Nomination and the Return of American Populism
The Institutional Risk Analyst January 28, 2010

Anybody who says we don’t have to do anything, we can just keep on doing what we’re doing, has got their head in the sand. Social Security and Medicare are both cash negative today. They are both headed for insolvency. Those who say we don’t have to do anything, they are guaranteeing a disaster.Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND)
January 26, 2010

The 2010 elections promise to be the most contentious and significant since the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828. In the last presidential election, the issues before the country were President George Bush and the war in Iraq vs. the promise of change via a young and untested Democratic Senator from Illinois named Barack Obama. The Federal Reserve and the banking industry were not even factors in the election.
Today the Federal Reserve and the bailouts for the largest banks are the central issues in American politics. The upset defeats of Democrats John Corzine in New Jersey and Martha Coakley in Massachusetts, following the earlier Democratic loss in Virginia, were driven by the public’s growing disgust with the management of the economy.The 2010 elections promise to be the most contentious and significant since the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828. For those of you who missed that particular episode in American history, Jackson was the first American leader who was actually chosen by popular vote and not selected by the nation’s founders or their offspring. And one of the key issues which drove the hero of New Orleans into the presidency was popular anger at the central bank.The 2010 mid-term elections and the general election in 2012 likewise promise to see the unseating of an entrenched elite and the start of an extended period of political instability in America. Below we discuss why a yes vote for Ben Bernanke may doom members of the Senate in both parties who are up for re-election to defeat in November.

Politics

The White House is telling members of the Senate that a vote in support of Ben Bernanke will not be a political liability. Indeed, in meetings and telephone calls, President Obama is urging a yes vote on Bernanke as a way to support the recovery of the US economy. The White House also claims that the defeat of Bernanke will be bad for the financial markets.But wait a minute. Fewer than 1 in 5 Americans support the re-nomination of Chairman Bernanke, a remarkable poll statistic since few members of Congress much less most Americans have any idea about the job responsibilities of Bernanke and other Fed governors. More, Chairman Bernanke was a Bush appointee, and then reappointed by Obama, so he is associated with two unpopular political figures. His confirmation is being managed by Linda Robertson, the former chief lobbyist of Enron. Chairman Bernanke is toxic measured in any political terms and is perceived as more friendly to Wall Street than Main Street by a 2 to 1 margin.A vote for Bernanke is an endorsement of all financial policies undertaken from 2007-2009. These issues are not going away, and will remain salient for the foreseeable future, especially as credit remains tight and the real economy continues to shrink. Indeed, the negative impact of the Bernanke years could doom President Obama and many incumbent members of the House and Senate. And while the markets might initially react negatively to a defeat of Chairman Bernanke’s re-nomination, the impact of his continued service at the Fed in the weeks and months ahead may be far more problematic, both for global financial markets and political careers.

The Economy & Jobs

Chairman Bernanke is responsible both for the economy and the bailouts. He has overseen an economy with 10% unemployment and no credit, with massive bonuses for bankers who were rescued at public expense. The high unemployment was inevitable after the boom years of Alan Greenspan, but Chairman Bernanke was also at the Fed during that period. More, Chairman Bernanke is also on record advocating policies that would suppress employment levels rather than increase them.Regardless of what one believes about Bernanke’s involvement in covering up undue manipulation of Bank of America (BAC) CEO Ken Lewis, excess payments to American International Group’s (AIG) bank counterparties or attempts to stymie the investigation of abuses committed during the bailout by SIGTARP, the reality is the Fed has a dual mandate – price stability and full employment. One either measure of his job, Chairman Bernanke has not been a success.

Fed Deception of Congress Regarding AIG

Even as the Senate prepares to vote on the Bernanke nomination, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) has asked the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to subpoena AIG-related documents from the Fed, documents which apparently prove that Chairman Bernanke played a major role in deciding to bail out AIG and, indirectly, Goldman Sachs (GS) and other large bank dealers.In a January 26, 2010 letter obtained by The IRA, Issa claims that Bernanke overruled a recommendation by Fed staff that AIG be allowed to declare bankruptcy just like Lehman Brothers and instead authorized the bailout of the crippled insurance giant over the objections of Fed staff in Washington. The Fed appears to be withholding these documents from Congress until after the Senate votes on the Bernanke nomination.Rep. Issa, the ranking member of the Committee, refers to a statement by Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY), whose staff has been examining these same documents under strict rules of confidentiality imposed by the Fed’s staff, to the effect that Chairman Bernanke overruled the recommendation of his staff and pushed the bailout of AIG. How can the Senate vote on the Bernanke nomination when the Fed is refusing to come clean on AIG?

Members of the Senate need to ask themselves a question: With the current disclosure by the Fed, what further revelations will surface regarding the central bank, AIG and the bailout of the large New York banks between now and November? So given the above, why is Chairman Bernanke seemingly en route to confirmation? Why do members of the Senate seem to indifferent to the mounting popular anger at Chairman Bernanke and the Fed? There are several reasons the Senate is making a major political and economic miscalculation in its appraisal of Ben Bernanke’s role at the Federal Reserve. The most significant is that Senators think that the Federal Reserve and the bailouts are not voting issues, because there are no traditional organized constituent groups that lobby around them.Staffers who frame issues for Senators do not know that Fed and its profile in American politics has changed in a way reminiscent of the days of President Jackson and the battle over the Second Bank of the United States. After all, issue groups have an incentive to mislead incumbent Senators in a way biased towards the interest of incumbent financial interests. This is a terrible mistake for the political health of any Senator who wants to get reelected in 2010 or 2012. The bailouts happened from 2008-2009, and voters now understand them and loath them. And this applies equally to Democrats and Republicans in the Senate.Look at how the Fed and AIG are changing the dynamic for incumbent GOP Senators. Republicans are seeing bailout-themed primary campaigns, where incumbents like Utah Senator Bob Bennett and Arizona Senator John McCain are explicitly attached to the bailouts. As noted above, democrats saw losses in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. And Brown voters in Massachusetts showed significant dissatisfaction with Democratic ties to Wall Street. But the same populist wave will carry away Republicans as well.

Bottom line: A yes vote for Chairman Bernanke raises the likelihood of defeat for every member of the Senate standing for election in 2010 and 2012. And in any event, the rising tide of popular unhappiness with Washington and Wall Street promises to remake the American political landscape in a way not seen in the post WW II era. The comfortable assumption of stability in American political life is about to be replaced by instability and change, but that is what democracy is all about.

EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH

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

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.

Mad Scientists Want To Simulate Volcanoes To Block Sun
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Thursday, January 28, 2010

Even as the very foundation of the global warming fraud collapses as a result of scandal after scandal, and the manufactured link between CO2 emissions and temperature increases is vehemently debunked, mad scientists with sympathetic allies in the White House are proposing to simulate volcanoes in order to block out the sun.

Despite the fact that Climategate, Glaciergate, Amazongate, and a host of other mammoth, caught red-handed examples of global warming alarmists engaging in outright fraud to manufacture a link between CO2 emissions and climate change have been exposed over the last two months, geoengineering nuts are still insisting on the necessity of carrying out their own man-made climate change by loading the atmosphere with sulphuric particles in an effort to block the very source of all life on earth – the sun.A geoengineering project to block the sun by simulating volcanic eruptions would be 100 times cheaper than cutting greenhouse gas emissions, climate change scientists said, reports the Telegraph.The environmental scientists, David Keith of the University of Calgary in Canada, Edward Parson of the University of Michigan and Granger Morgan of Carnegie Mellon University, were writing an editorial in the journal, Nature.They called for governments to establish a multimillion-pound fund for research into the simulated volcanoes and other solar-radiation management techniques for shielding the Earth against sunlight.No, this isn’t a script from V or some tacky alien invasion B movie – esteemed scientists are really proposing to treat the sun – without which all life on earth would perish – as a mortal enemy to the environment.With no justification whatsoever, and with scant regard for the health consequences, these lunatics actually want to create artificial volcanoes in an attempt to produce global dimming.No doubt the following benefits that are associated with exposure to sulphur will be enjoyed as an added bonus by the same kind of people who advocate genocidal measures of population reduction.

- Neurological effects and behavioral changes
– Disturbance of blood circulation
– Heart damage
– Effects on eyes and eyesight
– Reproductive failure
– Damage to immune systems
– Stomach and gastrointestinal disorder
– Damage to liver and kidney functions
– Hearing defects
– Disturbance of the hormonal metabolism
– Dermatological effects
– Suffocation and lung embolism

As we have previously highlighted, a prominent supporter of geoengineering proposals is none other than White House science czar John P. Holdren, a key Obama advisor who infamously co-authored a book in which he called for a planetary regime to enforce draconian population control measures such as forced abortion, infanticide and mandatory sterilization, as well as poisoning the water supply.In April last year, Holdren revealed that high-level talks had already taken place to explore the possibility of geoengineering the environment by shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays.It’s got to be looked at, Holdren was quoted as saying,We don’t have the luxury of taking any approach off the table.The AP also reported that Holdren said he had raised the concept in administration discussions.But for some, simply launching gargantuan atmospheric experiments to block out the sun doesn’t go far enough. A new book staunchly advocated by none other than NASA’s James Hansen calls for cities to be razed to the ground, industrial civilization to be destroyed, and acts of sabotage and eco-terrorism in the name of halting whatever invented environmental catastrophe alarmists are threatening this week.The only way to prevent global ecological collapse and thus ensure the survival of humanity is to rid the world of Industrial Civilization, writes author Keith Farnish, adding that people will die in huge numbers when civilization collapses.

As we have repeatedly stressed, the innumerable scandals currently rocking the global warming establishment are eating away at whatever credibility the climate change authodoxy had left, but unless we follow through and weed out the systemized detritus that already infests every level of our society in the name of climate change, these sophisticated crackpots are just going to keep pushing ahead with their lunacy.This starts with a wholesale rejection and noncompliance with any policy, regulation, or mandate instituted in the name of stopping the manufactured fraud that is man-made global warming.

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

EU single market needs tax co-ordination, says Monti
ANDREW WILLIS Today JAN 28,10 @ 17:29 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Former EU commissioner Mario Monti gave MEPs an indication of what to expect in his upcoming report on the single market on Thursday (28 January), saying greater market integration must be complemented by collateral policies to avoid unintended negative consequences. In particular, greater tax co-ordination between member states should be considered, said the Italian who formerly ruled over the EU's internal market (1995-1999) and competition (1999-2004) portfolios. No one wants to eradicate completely tax competition,he said, as it disciplines member states,but policymakers should prevent a further breakdown of internal market barriers favouring capital at the expense of labour markets. Tax policy is touchy subject for many EU governments. Ireland is amongst those that have successfully used its low corporation tax as a means of attracting foreign businesses, with several newer member states adopting similar policies. Other countries such as Germany complain these low rates hamper the government's ability to raise the necessary tax receipts to provide adequate public services. As member states strive to bring their budget deficits into line with EU rules, taxes are expected to rise across the union in the coming years. A badly co-ordinated approach to this could accentuate capital flows to low-tax areas at the expense of European citizens, said Mr Monti. Perhaps countries in central and eastern Europe might be able to consider a less aggressive tax policy if they at the same time could provide greater labour into the other member states,he said, referring to current restrictions on workers from several newer member countries.

Relaunch

Despite the 1986 Single European Act and subsequent initiatives to promote greater free trade between member states, analysts and politicians tend to agree that the bloc's stated goal of a barrier-free single market still has a significant way to go. An EU directive intending to liberalise the provision of services across Europe ran into considerable opposition, while the post-crisis environment has seen an increase in political rhetoric on the need to protect national businesses and jobs, led primarily by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The single market has lost considerably its authority and prestige, warned Mr Monti. He added that the crisis could be used as a springboard to relaunch the internal market, with his report's recommendations set to focus on both methods to do this and methods to make it politically acceptable.For instance, the report will look at measures to address fears surrounding the services directive and ensuring consumer rights are protected under Europe's digital agenda.Temporary support measures for European business must not continue indefinitely, added Mr Monti. We want to have respect for Keynes but we don't want to shut away Schumpter, he said, referring to two of Europe's most famous economists, the former a strong advocate of recession spending, the latter known for his theories on entrepreneurship and the fall of established companies.

New EU laws to target Facebook-Facebook's chief says privacy is over, but the EU says otherwise (Photo: Tom Rydquist)LEIGH PHILLIPS Today JAN 28,10 @ 17:58 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Two weeks ago, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of social networking site Facebook, told the world to just get over it - no one cares about privacy anymore, provoking a storm of protest across cyberspace.On Thursday (28 January), the European Commission responded to the 24-year-old billionaire and announced plans for comprehensive new laws that have in their sights the massively popular website.The commission is concerned that its existing rules on data protection date back to 1995, the very early days of what was at the time called the information superhighway and are extraordinarily out of date. Brussels is not just worried that the internet has sped ahead of its regulatory grasp, but also that many technologies, in particular Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), behavioural advertising and even airport security devices have proceeded apace, leaving EU legislation in the lurch.The commission on Thursday, also the continent's official Data Protection Day, warned that data protection rules must be updated to keep abreast of technological change to ensure the right to privacy.Underscoring its new powers under the Lisbon Treaty and the legal basis given to the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the commission said it wants to create a clear, modern set of rules guaranteeing a high level of personal data protection and privacy. Earlier legislation was also limited in that it was restricted to issues concerning the European Community - the so-called first pillar of the EU, but not foreign policy or policing and judicial affairs - the second and third pillars.Mentioning Facebook, Myspace and Twitter by name, Ms Reding said she will start this year with a revision of the 1995 Data Protection Directive, in a speech that outlined the main principles and goals of her upcoming work as Europe's top fundamental rights watchdog. It is clear that privacy issues are at the forefront of her ambitions.Innovation is important in today's society but should not go at the expense of people's fundamental right to privacy,she said.

Whether we want it or not, almost every day we share personal data about ourselves. These data are collected, processed and then stored out of our sight. By booking a flight ticket, transferring money, applying for a job or just using the Internet we are exposing our private lives to others. Sometimes it is necessary, she continued. Data are being collected without our consent and often without our knowledge. This is where European law comes in.She said that people should have the right to say no ...whenever they want.The commissioner is frustrated that companies are tackling privacy issues - or, more commonly being forced to tackle privacy issues - only after a product or service has been developed. We need a change of approach: Businesses must use their power of innovation to improve the protection of privacy and personal data from the very beginning of the development cycle,she said.Ms Reding finished by saying that Europe must set the global agenda in terms of privacy protection.The commissioner also warned that body scanners at airports have not escaped her gaze.I am convinced that body scanners have a considerable privacy-invasive potential. Their usefulness is still to be proven. Their impact on health has not yet been fully assessed. Therefore I cannot imagine this privacy-intrusive technique being imposed on us without full consideration of its impact.The forceful speech comes just two weeks after Facebook's CEO made his own speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which has been widely interpreted as announcing the end of privacy.People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that's evolved over time,Mr Zuckerberg said in a speech on 11 January, referring to the company's recent privacy policy change that made user's main information accessible by default. He described these changes as merely reflecting current social norms wherein young people have a much more relaxed attitude to privacy.Across the Atlantic on Wednesday, Canada's privacy commissioner also announced a fresh investigation of Facebook after receiving complaints about the company's new privacy policy.

Nato strategy to look at EU relations, says Albright
VALENTINA POP Today JAN 28,10 @ 17:24 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Relations between the EU and Nato are to be included in the new strategic concept for the military alliance currently being developed by a group of experts led by former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright.We need to maximise collaboration with the EU and make more use of political consultation, Ms Albright told MEPs in Brussels during a special hearing on Wednesday (27 January).
Ms Albright (r) briefed MEPs about Nato's new strategic concept (Photo: EUobserver)
Ms Albright was the US' foreign policy supremo during 1997-2001 when Nato launched its first military action in the former Yugoslavia. The 72-year old has now been appointed to chair an expert panel tasked to advise Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Ramussen on an updated strategic concept for the military alliance.The document will outline new security threats ranging from cyberattacks to terrorism and energy security and the way the military alliance, founded during the Cold War to protect Europe from a potential Soviet invasion, can respond.With 20 plus members, Nato can be slow and caught flat-footed by change, Ms Albright argued, highlighting internal complacency as a major threat.She said the founding principle of the alliance – the military defence of its members in case of an armed attack – would remain at the centre of the organisation.But the alliance had to take into account new threats and its own enlargement to 28 members since the last strategic concept, dating back to 1999. In addition, Nato must take into account the EU's own expansion and its military and civilian missions abroad.In this era of scarce resources, when national coffers are near empty and military budgets have been slashed, avoiding duplication between Nato and the EU is of particular importance, Ms Albright argued.For their part, MEPs called for a clear division of labour and more co-ordination between the two organisations.

Polish centre-right MEP Jacek Saryusz Wolski, in charge of EU-Nato relations, said he was struck how the two institutions were working in totally separate worlds, despite having the same concerns and roughly the same armies and citizens, on the European side.Of the EU's 27 members, only Austria, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Malta and Cyprus are not part of the military alliance.At the same time, Mr Saryusz-Wolski identified converging trends as Nato looks to developing a soft, civilian side in Afghanistan, while the EU is going for increased military capabilities within its foreign and security policy. If the two are going more towards each other, the question arises how to make their roles complementary and avoid overlapping, he said.

UK Liberal MEP Andrew Duff asked Ms Albright if she was worried about the possibility of a core group of military-capable states establishing their own club within the EU – a provision enshrined in the bloc's new legal framework, the Lisbon Treaty.Ms Albright kept her remarks general and pointed out that her team's work was still ongoing. A draft concept is to be issued by Nato's secretary general in time for the November summit in Lisbon, when Nato leaders are meant to adopt the final document.

Member states deny plans for Greek bailout
ANDREW WILLIS Today JAN 28,10 @ 17:38 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Officials from France and Germany have denied claims in an article published by French daily Le Monde on Thursday (28 January), which said a number of EU member states are exploring a financial support mechanism to help Greece tackle its deficit crisis. The news comes after yield spreads between 10-year Greek bonds and benchmark German Bunds widened dramatically on Wednesday, sparked by Greek government denials it had mandated US investment bank Goldman Sachs to sell debt to China.A French finance ministry official said EU countries had no plans to bail out Greece or make bilateral loans to the embattled country, reports Dow Jones.

Germany also rejected the claims.There is absolutely nothing to these rumors, German finance ministry spokeswoman Jeanette Schwamberger said in a statement from Berlin, reports Bloomberg.They are without any foundation.But despite the denials, EU and member state officials are widely considered to be looking into a means of transferring financial support to Greece, in a bid to prevent a potential government debt default and knock-on negative effects for other EU states.The Le Monde article suggested any financial aid would be conditional upon the Greek government introducing new measures to clean up the country's public finances. European Commission economy spokeswoman Amelia Torres refused to comment on the speculation at a news conference in Brussels, saying the commission would shortly issue its opinion on Greek plans to bring its deficit into line with EU rules.

Eurobonds

Struggling non-eurozone countries can apply to the EU's balance-of-payments assistance facility for support, the ceiling of which was raised last year, but no similar mechanism currently exists to help euro area members.The idea of a common bond for the currency bloc periodically raises its head as a potential solution. This would be likely to lower borrowing costs for weaker members, but marginally raise costs for members with stronger public finances, giving rise to German opposition in the past. On Thursday, European Parliament Socialist group leader Martin Schulz called on the commission to bring forward urgent proposals for the launch of Eurobonds in order to deal with the Greek situation. It is unacceptable that the European Union is not showing more solidarity with Greece. The EU is about partnership and mutual support,he said. My political group has called for the launch of Eurobonds. We believe that this measure would help Greece and other member states in their current difficulties. We now repeat our call and ask the European Commission to come forward with urgent proposals,he added. Parliament's Liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt also recently called for Eurobonds to be considered.

Brussels examines finances of four member states
ANDREW WILLIS Today JAN 28,10 @ 09:04 CET

The European Commission ruled on the public finances of four member states on Wednesday (27 January), deciding to grant Malta and Lithuania an extra year to bring their deficits into line. Hungary and Latvia were denied this privilege however. Both countries have had to turn to the International Monetary Fund and the European Union for bailouts as a result of the financial crisis, but the commission said they are now making progress in improving the health of their accounts. Downtown Athens: Member-state debt levels have risen dramatically as a result of the financial crisis (Photo: EUobserver.com)Under EU rules, member states are required to limit their deficits to three precent of national GDP, although stimulus spending and falling tax receipts over the last year means 20 members are now in breach of this rule. In the case of Malta and Lithuania ... the worsening in the economic situation since the recommendations were made justifies extending the deadline by one year, said economic and monetary affairs commissioner Joaquín Almunia. Hungary and Latvia, which are benefiting from conditional balance-of-payments support, seem on track to bring their deficits to below three percent by the agreed deadlines, but they need to pursue their efforts to ensure this really happens,he added. Following the extension, Malta now has until 2011 to dip below the three percent threshold, with eurozone accession frontrunner Lithuania getting until 2012.

The deadlines for Hungary and Latvia remain unchanged on 2011 and 2012 respectively.

A constitutional court ruling against pension cuts in Latvia last month caused concern in Brussels that the country might not meet its lending terms, as the union slowly exits the worst recession since the Great Depression. Runaway spending has also caused doubts over the cohesion of the 16-member euro area, with Greece and Portugal seen as particularly problematic. Speaking from Davos, Switzerland, where leaders are gathered for the annual World Economic Forum, New York University professor Nouriel Roubini, known for his early prediction of the economic crisis, said Spain also posed a major threat to the stability of the European currency club.
The eurozone could drift, essentially with a bifurcation, with a strong centre and a weaker periphery, and eventually some countries might exit the monetary union, he warned on Wednesday (27 January).If Greece goes under, that's a problem for the eurozone. If Spain goes under, it's a disaster,he added.

Financial supervision still on track, says Larosiere
ANDREW WILLIS 27.01.2010 @ 17:42 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Jacques de Larosiere, arguably the person who has had the single greatest influence over Europe's plans to overhaul its financial supervision system, has told the European Parliament that the region's plans are still on the track.The former managing director of the International Monetary Fund and former governor of the Bank of France headed up a high-level group of experts, whose report last February on financial supervision was largely reflected in European Commission proposals put forward last autumn. Speaking in front of members of parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee on Wednesday (27 January), Mr Larosiere said the subsequent political agreement reached by EU leaders in December should not be viewed as a backdown. I think that one can say most of the recommendations that are in our report on the organisation of supervision in Europe are reflected in the compromise of the council [which represents member states],he told MEPs. I think that would have been impossible to achieve three to four years ago, he added.We shouldn't minimize the achievements of the council.The Frenchman went on to say he was also impressed by the momentum that had been maintained in Brussels, telling MEPs it was now over to them to put their mark on the bloc's legislative plans to prevent future financial crises. A series of rapporteurs within the parliamentary committee are set to come forward with reports on the proposed financial reforms next month, with the documents set to shape the debate within the legislature.

Watered down?

Mr Larosiere's initial report called for a common rulebook for financial institutions in Europe, and the setting up of a systemic risk board to monitor for the buildup of risks in the bloc's financial system as a whole.It also set out the need for three supervisory authorities in the banking, insurance and securities sectors, with the power to settle disputes between national supervisors, for instance on whether or not to recapitalise a particular bank. But a complex appeals system agreed by member states in December that allows governments to challenge decisions made by the three authorities, has led various EU officials to question the bloc's progress. Following the political agreement, commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said the financial supervision proposals had been diluted a bit too much, and called on the European Parliament to steer them back closer to the commission's original suggestions. While generally supportive of the member state agreement, Mr Larosiere also said he was concerned by the erosion of the binding powers he had originally envisaged for the European Supervisory Authorities. I think honestly that this absence of binding decision making does not go in the direction of credibility for these authorities,he said.

EU climate offer unchanged
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today JAN 28,10 @ 09:29 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - European diplomats on Wednesday (27 January) decided to retain the EU offer of a 30 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions on 1990 levels by 2020 if other powers make comparable reductions in the hope that by holding to its previously committed level of ambition, it will regain its international climate change leadership.The bloc will stick with its 20 percent reduction pledge but will neither make the leap to 30 percent unilaterally nor abandon the conditional offer, as some countries had favoured.The EU is to send a letter to the United Nations on Thursday notifying the body of its carbon reduction commitment. By the end of January, rich countries were supposed to have inscribed their CO2 reduction targets in an annex to the Copenhagen Accord, the controversial document bashed out by a handful of powers in the Danish capital during last month's UN climate summit, while developing countries were not strictly bound by this date.A number of member states, led by Italy and Poland argued against a maintenance of the upper offer, saying that the carbon reduction pledges of other powers, especially the United States, did not compare to what the EU had put on the table.

The US has promised to cut its emissions by 17 percent on 2005 levels. Using the same 1990 baseline as Europe and most other players, the American cut amounts to a three percent reduction.They also argued that in the current economic climate, such a move would endanger domestic industry.Likewise, European business leaders have favoured a shelving of the 30 percent offer.In December, Business Europe - the lobby representing many of Europe's major industries and employers - said that offers on the table from other powers are not sufficient to warrant making the jump.The EU must not increase in any way its current unilateral 20 percent carbon reduction requirement, the business group said in an open letter to European leaders.Other states, notably the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain and Germany, favoured sticking with the upper conditional pledge as a way to regain international leadership on the issue after the bloc was sidelined during the UN climate summit in Copenhagen last month. In the dying hours of the conference, the four leading emerging economies and the US met without the EU in the room to hammer out the three-page Copenhagen Accord.In the end, the EU's emissions reduction offer is the same as it has been for the last year.Belgium, which backs the 30 percent stance, at one point had suggested a half-way offer of 25 percent, but this was not embraced.
Scientists however say that aggregate global cuts of at least 40 percent are needed if the planet is to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Europe and Israel cement relations at Holocaust solemnities-A sign at the Auschwitz concentration camp: over 1 million people were murdered at the facility (Photo: icrf)ANDREW RETTMAN 27.01.2010 @ 09:44 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Sixty five years after Soviet troops liberated the German death camp in Auschwitz, Poland, European leaders will on Wednesday (27 January) pay tribute to Jewish suffering during the Holocaust.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Polish president and prime minister, education ministers from around 30 countries and European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek will take part in the main solemnities at the concentration camp.Nazi forces murdered over 1 million people at Auschwitz, the vast majority of them Jews, as well as tens of thousands of Poles, Roma and Soviet prisoners of war.I say to God my rock, Why have you forgotten me? Rabbis and Roman Catholic priests will say, in the words of Psalm 42 from the Old Testament, during a prayer at the events in Poland.The Israeli president, its foreign minister and deputy foreign minister will also take part at ceremonies in Germany, Hungary and Slovakia.With contemporary politics intertwined in the commemorations, the Israeli delegations on Tuesday in Warsaw and Berlin pressed the EU to impose sanctions on Iran due to the country's intransigence over its nuclear programme. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, has described the Holocaust as a myth.Mr Netanyahu in Warsaw thanked Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk for his support for Israeli interests at EU level and unveiled a plan to hold annual summits with Polish leaders in future.Poland and Germany, together with France, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, are part of a pro-Israeli bloc inside the union, which, for example, diluted a recent EU declaration on Palestinian rights to East Jerusalem and attacked a UN report into alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

A study out on Sunday by the Jewish Agency for Israel, the organisation in charge of immigration by the Jewish diaspora, said that anti-Semitism is rife in the EU despite the behaviour of its political elites.The report noted that there were more anti-Semitic incidents in Europe in the first three months of 2009, in the wake of a bloody Israeli attack on Gaza, than in all of 2008.In Poland, 72 percent of respondents to a survey agreed with the statement that: Jews try to take advantage of having been victims during the Nazi era.

Buzek under fire

The Polish head of the EU parliament, Jerzy Buzek, the most senior EU representative at the Auschwitz ceremony, has himself come under fire from Jewish scholars in recent days.Mr Buzek's support for an EU parliament declaration, which put Nazi and Stalinist crimes on a similar moral level, is part of a movement to diminish the importance of the Holocaust, Shimon Samuels from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Paris told Israeli press. Mr Buzek's office was surprised by the attack, pointing out his past work on behalf of the Auschwitz museum.The Auschwitz camp is the largest human cemetery in history, a place where the memory of murdered Jews, Poles, Russians and the citizens of many other countries, reposes. The Holocaust, the Shoah, is a unique and repulsive act of its kind, of the greatest genocide in the deeds of humanity,Mr Buzek told this website. Jewish activists say that anti-Semitism is often cloaked in language criticising the Israeli state. A line has to be drawn,Michael Jankelowitz, the Jewish Agency's spokesman, said.The minute people start using Holocaust similarities [comparing Israeli actions to those of the Nazi regime], they start being anti-Semitic.We have often been accused of anti-Semitism. Some of our workers are Jewish and have been called self-hating Jews,Bill Esveld, the Jerusalem-based analyst for Human Rights Watch, told EUobserver.Groups like my own try to be constructively critical of Israeli policies but do not criticise the Israeli state and certainly not Jewish people.

EU presidency reconsidering China arms embargo
ANDREW WILLIS 27.01.2010 @ 09:25 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Spanish EU presidency has indicated it is willing to reconsider the bloc's arms embargo with China, implemented over 20 years ago following the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on Chinese pro-democracy protesters.
Following a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Tuesday (26 January), Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said his country was weighing the pros and cons of lifting the ban. We are all aware of the new role which China is assuming in the world, he added. China considers an end to the ban to be long overdue.The embargo is outdated, it does not go along with the partnership between China and the EU,Wang Xining, spokesman for the Chinese mission to the EU, told EUobserver. Its a political principle on the definition of the relationship, he added, indicating that China was not necessarily going to place a large military order should the embargo be lifted.France has been a vocal supporter of ending the ban, a line Moratinos said Spain would now follow, but other member states have traditionally indicated China's human rights record did not merit an end to the EU restriction. Last October saw the EU lift an arms embargo against Uzbekistan however, despite continuing concerns about human rights in the central Asian nation, suggesting a reluctance to allow full Chinese access to EU military capabilities is also a factor.European diplomats also queried whether the Spanish decision to visit the perennial issue would win the backing of all 27 member states this time round, with any decision requiring unanimity for a change of position.

The United States, which also maintains an arms embargo on China, is a further complicating factor, with the country likely to be reticent towards a unilateral European move. The European Parliament has shown its support for the ban, voting in 2008 to maintain it as long as Beijing supports armed forces and groups involved in African conflicts in general.News that Spain would revisit the thorny issue first hit the headlines last week following a China Daily interview with Spain's ambassador in Beijing.The issue has subsequently attracted considerable media attention in the Asian powerhouse.

LIFE WITH BIG BROTHER Killer way to slay the Google beast! They're telling us they will turn data over to the feds January 27, 2010 8:51 pm Eastern By Chelsea Schilling 2010 WorldNetDaily
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6111nS66Dpk&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6e7wfDHzew&feature=player_embedded


Who in the world knows as much about you and your private thoughts as Google? That's the question Katherine Albrecht, radio talk-show host and spokeswoman for Startpage, a search engine that protects user privacy, is posing to American Internet surfers. It would blow people's minds if they knew how much information the big search engines have on the American public, she told WND.In fact, their dossiers are so detailed they would probably be the envy of the KGB.Google exposed in Joseph Farah's Stop the Presses! autographed only at WND's online store. It happens every day, Albrecht explained. When an unfamiliar topic crosses people's minds, they often go straight to Google, Yahoo or Bing and enter key terms into those search engines. Every day, more than a billion searches for information are performed on Google alone. If you get a rash between your toes, you go into Google, she said. If you have a miscarriage, you go into Google. If you are having marital difficulties, you look for a counselor on Google. If you lose your job, you look for unemployment benefit information on Google.Albrecht said Americans unwittingly share their most private thoughts with search engines, serving up snippets of deeply personal information about their lives, habits, troubles, health concerns, preferences and political leanings. We're essentially telling them our entire life stories – stuff you wouldn't even tell your mother – because you are in a private room with a computer,she said.We tend to think of that as a completely private circumstance. But the reality is that they make a record of every single search you do.

The search engines have sophisticated algorithms to mine data from searches and create very detailed profiles about Americans. She said those profiles are stored on servers and may fall into the wrong hands. She pointed to the recent cyber attacks that infiltrated Google's operations in China. Bloomberg News reported that Yahoo was also among the victims.Albrecht said the government may also subpoena citizens' private information after it has been stored by Google, Yahoo and Bing. In a December 2009 interview with CNBC, Google CEO Eric Schmidt divulged that search engines may turn over citizens' private information to the government. If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place,Schmidt said.But if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines, including Google, do retain this information for some time. And it's important, for example, that we are all subject to the United States Patriot Act. It is possible that information could be made available to the authorities."

A video of Schmidt's statements follows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6111nS66Dpk&feature=player_embedded

My jaw hit the floor when I heard that,Albrecht said.Now they are just coming right out and telling us that they will turn our data over to the feds. Based on what I know about how much information they have on us, it's really terrifying.In addition to information collected from searches, Google also saves sent and received e-mails, including e-mail drafts, attachments and chat messages through its Gmail system. What these big search engines have is the eye in the sky, Albrecht said.It's like the totalitarian dictator's dream. They know everything, and with a couple of mouse clicks, they could find every single person in the country who observes Passover or attends a Catholic or Baptist church or who buys ammunition.She continued,They've gotten so sophisticated that they actually boast that they can tell when their own employees are going to quit because they monitor their employees' mouse clicks.

Albrecht said she was alarmed to discover that another application, Google Flu Trends, used aggregated Google search data to track flu activity around the world. The organization boasted that it could spot a flu outbreak even before the Centers for Disease Control suspected one. The search-engine giant collaborated with the CDC on the project. The following is a Google video illustrating how the Google Flu Trends works:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6e7wfDHzew&feature=player_embedded

We have found a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms, Google explained.Of course, not every person who searches for flu is actually sick, but a pattern emerges when all the flu-related search queries are added together. We compared our query counts with traditional flu surveillance systems and found that many search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening. By counting how often we see these search queries, we can estimate how much flu is circulating in different states and countries around the world.Albrecht said Google monitored search patterns that indicated a person may have had the flu. Then it would pinpoint a person's location using an IP address. They turned that map over to the government, she said.They didn't give any personal information about individuals. They didn't give individual IP addresses or say who the people were – but they could have.The search-engine giant uses its search records for marketing purposes, Albrecht explained. She said some people wonder why Google would give them all this free cool stuff like Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Groups, Google Spreadsheets, Google Earth and Gmail.

When was the last time a company making billions of dollars gave you every single thing they offered for free? she asked.They're not giving you those products for free. You're the product, and that's the bait.But she said there's good news. Startpage, and its European brand Ixquick,, are introducing a new search alternative that will protect and never store private information about its users. Startpage will launch its new proxy service tonight at 10 p.m. EST. Startpage, a private search engine, launches new proxy service tonight.The proxy service allows users to search and surf the Web anonymously. With each Startpage search, the word proxy appears under each result. If a user clicks proxy, they may view the result privately. Startpage visits the selected website, retrieves the information and shows it to the user in a privacy-protected window. A private user's browser never interacts directly with the external website so the websites cannot capture or record personal data or load malware onto a private computer. Websites only see that a site in the Netherlands is visiting the website, she said. The search engine never records personal information, search data or IP addresses. Startpage doesn't have any information, so even if it was served with a subpoena or, like Google, if it got hacked, there would be no records to obtain because it doesn't keep any records, Albrecht explained. She said she hopes people will start supporting companies like Startpage and move their traffic away from the other big search engines, so Google, Yahoo, Bing and others will learn to respect user privacy. As consumers, we almost have an obligation to stop using them until they behave themselves,Albrecht said. Sometimes you want to know private stuff. It doesn't mean you have something to hide or are doing anything wrong. It just means you don't want other people knowing what you're thinking about and looking up. It's nobody's business.

BORN IN THE USA? Democrats suddenly interested in Obama birth certificate-Senate campaign director has plan to harm Republicans running for office January 27, 2010 9:30 pm Eastern By Bob Unruh 2010 WorldNetDaily

During this year's U.S. Senate races, it will be Democrats raising the issue of President Obama's eligibility to occupy the Oval Office.Politico reported Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chief Robert Menendez is distributing a memo to U.S. Senate campaign offices stating Democrats need to demand that their opponents answer a series of questions, including, Do you believe that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen?
The report said Menendez wants to use the questions to frame opponents and drive a wedge between moderates belonging to the GOP and those who have adopted the tea party standards advocating limited government, lower taxes, fewer regulations and more freedom for Americans. The Democrat memo said, Given the pressure Republican candidates feel from the extreme right in their party, there is a critical – yet time-sensitive – opportunity for Democratic candidates. We have a finite window when Republicans candidates will feel susceptible to the extremists in their party. Given the urgent nature of this dynamic, we suggest an aggressive effort to get your opponents on the record.

The Politico report listed the following questions for Democrat to ask of Republican opponents:Do you believe that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen?
Do you think the 10th Amendment bars Congress from issuing regulations like minimum health care coverage standards?
Do you think programs like Social Security and Medicare represent socialism and should never have been created in the first place?
Do you think President Obama is a socialist?
Do you think America should return to a gold standard?
The memo instructs that if a GOP candidate says no, make his or her primary opponent or conservative activists know it.Demand the truth by joining the petition campaign to make President Obama reveal his long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate!

Democrats dominated the Senate agenda in President Obama's first year in office because of their filibuster-proof 60-40 vote majority. But since Republican Scott Brown's stunning victory in Massachusetts, winning a U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Ted Kennedy for nearly five decades, Menendez has urged his party's candidates to run scared,Politico said. The website for the Democrat committee already has started demonizing Republicans in the tea party movement challenging Washington's tax-and-spend agenda, massive health care takeover and plans for huge new energy taxes. Is the angry, irrational mob known as the Tea Party one and the same as the Republican Party? the site says.After a summer of yelling about socialism and death panels at town hall meetings, they have mobilized behind a number of Republican Senate candidates. We saw how energized they were in Massachusetts. If more of these candidates are elected in November, it will become harder and harder to make any progress in Washington.Wall Street Journal blogger James Taranto questioned the logic of Democrats raising the eligibility issue.Are we given to understand that the Democrats intend to run for office by raising questions about Barack Obama's eligibility to be president? he asked.That has got to be the most brilliant campaign strategy since Michael Dukakis and Max Cleland raised questions about their own patriotism.One participant in a forum at New Jersey.com said the Democrats obviously just don't understand the level of concern Americans have.

Menendez you are so far out of touch you have no idea of what you talk about. You don't even know what the tea [party] movement stands for. You somehow think they are all right wing conservatives. How wrong you are. They are from every walk of life from all parties and none. They represent everything good in this country and what has made us great. Thats (sic) something you and yours will never understand. All you know is take take take and spend spend spend. Thats (sic) what the teabager movement wants to stop.WND has reported efforts to raise the question of Obama's eligibility at the state and national levels. Several state legislatures are working on proposals that would require presidential candidates to submit proof of their eligibility. Since Obama's election, numerous lawsuits have been filed alleging he did not meet the U.S. Constitution's requirement that a president be a natural born citizen.The lawsuits have asserted he either was not born in Hawaii as he claims or was a dual citizen because of his father's British citizenship at the time of his birth. The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.However, none of the cases filed to date has been successful in reaching the plateau of legal discovery, so that information about Obama's birth could be obtained. Among the states where election qualification or eligibility requirements are being considered or developed include Oklahoma, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Virginia, New York and others. The proposals essentially are moving the same direction as a federal measure proposed by Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla.

Posey's H.R. 1503 states:To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require the principal campaign committee of a candidate for election to the office of President to include with the committee's statement of organization a copy of the candidate's birth certificate, together with such other documentation as may be necessary to establish that the candidate meets the qualifications for eligibility to the Office of President under the Constitution.

The bill also provides:Congress finds that under … the Constitution of the United States, in order to be eligible to serve as President, an individual must be a natural born citizen of the United States who has attained the age of 35 years and has been a resident within the United States for at least 14 years.The sponsors' goal is for the bill to become effective for the 2012 presidential election. The legislation now is pending in a House committee and has more than a dozen co-sponsors. Key to the arguments over Obama is the fact is original long-form birth certificate never has been released. A second significant factor is the multitude of documents that Obama has kept from the public. Besides his actual birth documentation, the still-concealed documentation includes kindergarten records, Punahou school records, Occidental College records, Columbia University records, Columbia thesis, Harvard Law School records, Harvard Law Review articles, scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, passport, medical records, his files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records, and his adoption records. Thirdly, another significant factor is the estimated $1.7 million Obama has spent on court cases to prevent any of the documentation of his life to be revealed to the public.Where's The Birth Certificate? billboard helps light up the night at the Mandalay Bay resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

Because of the dearth of information about Obama's eligibility, WND founder Joseph Farah has launched a campaign to raise contributions to post billboards asking a simple question: Where's the birth certificate? The campaign followed a petition that has collected more than 490,000 signatures demanding proof of his eligibility, the availability of yard signs raising the question and the production of permanent, detachable magnetic bumper stickers asking the question. The certification of live birth posted online and widely touted as Obama's birth certificate does not in any way prove he was born in Hawaii, since the same short-form document is easily obtainable for children not born in Hawaii. The true long-form birth certificate – which includes information such as the name of the birth hospital and attending physician – is the only document that can prove Obama was born in Hawaii, but to date he has not permitted its release for public or press scrutiny. Oddly, though congressional hearings were held to determine whether Sen. John McCain was constitutionally eligible to be president as a natural born citizen, no controlling legal authority ever sought to verify Obama's claim to a Hawaiian birth.

LAW OF THE LAND Ex-federal prosecutor launches probe of Holder-It is time, before lasting damage is done to our national security January 27, 2010 10:18 pm Eastern By Bob Unruh 2010 WorldNetDaily

Larry Klayman

A former federal prosecutor and relentless litigator whose enemies in Washington include politicians on both sides of the aisle has announced he is launching an investigation of Attorney General Eric Holder. Larry Klayman, founder of Freedom Watch USA, still is known in Washington as the biggest enemy of the city's elite, and his battles against corruption in the Clinton administration became so well known the West Wing character Harry Klaypool was based on his work. Eric Holder is typical of the corrupt establishment crowd that voters rebelled against last Tuesday when they voted to elect as senator Scott Brown from Massachusetts, Klayman told WND. In fact, the decision by the Obama administration to go soft on non-citizen terrorists was a key factor in this vote. Now, it is time to investigate and create the climate to get rid of Eric Holder, before lasting damage is done to our national security. Independents, liberals and conservatives rose up in Massachusetts and now it's time for Freedom Watch to finish the job,he said. Klayman, a former Justice Department prosecutor and founder of both Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, said his new organization has launched an investigation of Holder.

The attorney general's refusal to prosecute admitted terrorists, like the Christmas Day bomber and the infamous Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM), as so-called 'enemy combatants' has resulted in the hindrance of national security and law enforcement agencies,he said in a prepared statement.This refusal by Holder not only resulted in Miranda rights being read to the Christmas Day bomber – preventing the FBI and other agencies from obtaining meaningful intelligence from him when his lawyer stopped the interrogation – but with regard to KSM, has also jeopardized the safety of New York City residents, due to the insistence of investigating an act of terror as if it were a common crime.Klayman, whose new book Whores: Why and How I Came to Fight the Establishment is an exposé about corruption, abuse and lapsed ethics in the U.S. government, judiciary and media, said Holder's actions make New York, already attacked twice by terrorists,a major target for al-Qaida. Klayman said Freedom Watch is filing document requests to uncover the underlying reasons why Holder has taken a dive in prosecuting terrorists, who are non-U.S. citizens, as enemy combatants.He said he expects Holder to stonewall on the document requests, and Freedom Watch will respond with a lawsuit in the federal courts in Washington in 20 days as allowed by law. Given Mr. Holder's history, it is surprising that he would have been chosen by President Obama and then confirmed by a bipartisan Senate of Democrats and Republicans,Klayman said.As Deputy Attorney General, Holder not only greased the now-infamous pardons during the Clinton administration to Marc Rich and others who made substantial contributions, but also indicted Nolanda Hill to try to keep her quiet when, as former Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown's confidant, she started to talk about fundraising illegalities at the Clinton Commerce Department.Klayman takes no prisoners and subscribes to no political ideology in his battles against corruption. He currently has pending a lawsuit in federal court against President Bush and Vice President Cheney over the wiretapping of Scott Tooley, an American citizen.

When Klayman returned to Washington to further attack corrupt activities, he told Lou Dobbs, with CNN at the time, I've never seen it like this.Among other agenda points Holder has pursued was the federal hate crimes legislation signed into law by Obama. Critics say it is a first step toward criminalizing Christianity. Klayman also already has started the legal attack on Obama's health care takeover plan. He's filed a lawsuit over Obama's secret meetings with Planned Parenthood and other lobbyists on the plan. His action focuses on the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires disclosure of records of meetings between the executive branch and outside industry lobbyists. It also requires access to meetings. Klayman raised the same issues during the early years of the Clinton administration, contributing to the demise of the health care proposal championed by Hillary Clinton.The lawsuit charges that in Obama's haste to socialize medicine in the United States, and increase government control generally,he has violated his commitment to transparency.
Klayman also has taken on Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the nation of Cuba in his legal battles. Eric Kampmann, president of Midpoint Trade Books, the national distributor for WHORES,said Klayman's exposure of corruption comes at just the right time, with confidence in Washington plummeting. Klayman names names and pulls no punches,he said.It is no secret that Larry Klayman is feared and hated in Washington, which is why the reading public will love him.

MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH-Planned Parenthood sparks teen-pregnancy boom?
When you don't tell kids to remain abstinent, they have more sex January 27, 2010
10:56 pm Eastern By Chelsea Schilling 2010 WorldNetDaily

A new study shows American teen pregnancy and abortion rates are escalating – and while abortion advocates fault supporters of abstinence, one group is placing blame for the pregnancy boom squarely with Planned Parenthood-style sex education. A study released today by the Guttmacher Institute, formerly a division of Planned Parenthood, shows teenage pregnancy increased by 3 percent in 2006 as 750,000 women younger than 20 – or 7 percent of America's teen girls – became pregnant. This trend follows a decade of declining pregnancies among teenagers. Also in 2006, there were 42 births for every 1,000 teenage girls – 4 percent higher than 2005. Abortions increased by 1 percent from 2005 to 2006.

What caused the boom?

Planned Parenthood claims the culprit is abstinence-only sex education programs. This new study makes it crystal clear that abstinence-only sex education for teenagers does not work, and it should serve as a wake-up call to anyone who still believes that teenagers aren't sexually active or that abstinence-only programs curb the rate of teen pregnancy,Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said in a statement.We applaud President Obama and members of Congress who have recognized that abstinence-only programs do not work, and who are investing in medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education for our teenagers.Heather Boonstra, Guttmacher Institute senior public policy associate, added,After more than a decade of progress, this reversal is deeply troubling. It coincides with an increase in rigid abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, which received major funding boosts under the Bush administration. A strong body of research shows that these programs do not work.However, the American Life League says that while the abortion provider seeks to portray the unsettling statistics as an indictment against the Bush administration's abstinence policy, the timeline points to a different culprit – Planned Parenthood. This is not rocket science,American Life League Vice President Jim Sedlak said.When you don't tell kids to remain abstinent, they have more sex and more of them get pregnant. Pregnancy rates go down when kids don't have sex.American Life League pointed to the following trends as evidence that Planned Parenthood's sex-ed programs are to blame: Prior to 1990, teen pregnancy rates were increasing just about every year as Planned Parenthood's sex-ed programs dominated public and even private school sex-education courses.

In the early 1990s, it became popular to teach the abstinence message to teens and preteens. Teen pregnancy rates began to fall. The Guttmacher Institute claims the decline was the result of more use of contraceptives among sexually active teens.
By 1995, the federal government was funding an abstinence-only message while pregnancy rates continued to fall.By 2000, Planned Parenthood began lobbying the various states to refuse abstinence money and reduce abstinence programs and, predictably, in 2006, the teen pregnancy rate increased for the first time in 15 years.Today, partnering with President Obama, Planned Parenthood lobbying has succeeded in virtually cutting off abstinence-only funds. State-level data are not yet available for 2006, but varied widely in 2005, according to the Guttmacher Institute report. The highest pregnancy rates were in New Mexico (93 per 1,000 women, ages 15 to 19), Nevada (90), Arizona (89), Texas (88) and Mississippi (85). The lowest rates were in New Hampshire (33), Vermont (40), Maine (48), Minnesota (47) and North Dakota (46).In its 2008 study, the American Journal of Health Behavior reported that adolescent students who received abstinence education were one-half as likely as non-participants to initiate sexual activity after one year. Additionally, a 2007 Zogby poll revealed more than twice as many parents said they preferred abstinence education to comprehensive sex education, once they learned facts about the two approaches. However, the Obama administration slashed funding for abstinence education in its 2010 budget. We can only imagine how high the teen pregnancy rates will go,Sedlak said.Planned Parenthood's reach extends far beyond their vice grip on the nation's classrooms. Their work can also be felt in pop culture, the internet, advertising and television – all excellent vehicles in their long-term goal to sexualize our children. Sadly it's working.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123267

Help wanted: $24,000 to stop Glenn Beck, tea-baggers-Grass-roots' organizers sought to counter hysteria and lies January 26, 2010 9:16 pm Eastern By Chelsea Schilling 2010 WorldNetDaily

Help-wanted ads are appearing on Craigslist that offer to pay citizens $24,000 a year, plus health insurance, to counter the hysteria and lies of Glenn Beck and other talking heads and stop the tea-baggers! The ads are being posted by Grassroots Campaigns, a for-profit canvassing group that has performed services for the Democratic National Committee and MoveOn.org. Its postings can be found among Craiglist listings in Chicago, Ill.; San Francisco, Calif.; Boston, Mass.; Philadelphia, Penn. and Austin, Texas. Whose agenda will win in 2010? the ad asks. You decide.Craiglist posting offers salary to stop the tea-baggers.

It continues, Change takes work. After the 2008 election, we know what's possible when millions of people commit themselves to creating the world they want to see – but we also know that one election is only the beginning. Across the country, the struggle for human rights, marriage equality, and reproductive rights continues. To counter the hysteria and lies of Glenn Beck and other talking heads, progressives need to get organized and get activated – and we don't have a moment to lose!! Get the prescription for reclaiming America's heritage of liberty, justice and morality –Joseph Farah's Taking America Back,autographed only at the WND SuperStore. Grassroots Campaigns explains that it is seeking to immediately hire directors to run 32 canvass offices across the nation in the following locations: California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and Washington, D.C. A message to Grassroots Campaigns inquiring about its positions was not returned.

According to the postings, qualified candidates must expect to work 80 to 100 hours a week, meaning they would make less than the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Grassroots Campaigns was criticized in 2006 because canvassers said they were paid less than state minimum wages and told to go door-to-door advocating for a minimum-wage increase.I worked 37 hours one week and got paid around $130 [after taxes], recalled one canvasser who quit after two weeks. Yet another worker reported working for 45 hours at Grassroots Campaigns for five days and receiving just $56.Workers for the advertised position are expected to recruit and build teams of 15-50 canvassers within local communities. They must be: Committed to and motivated by progressive politics and social change. Leaders, with the ability to think strategically and motivate a team. Goal-oriented, excellent communicators, team players.Get on the frontlines of some of the most crucial campaigns of our time! the ad urges.Work on the ground bringing progressive change to America! As WND reported, this is not the first time Craigslist has been used to lobby for Democratic Party goals. Help-wanted ads appeared in August 2009 offering to pay citizens between $9 and $16 an hour to lobby for the passage of Obama's health care. Several of those ads declared,Help pass Obama's health care reform! Earn $325-$550 per week! WND also reported when Organizing for America, the movement some call Obama 2.0,recruited college students and offered to provide credits toward degree plans in exchange for their advocacy skills. The group has also descended upon college campuses, knocking on dorm doors to recruit students and slam lawmakers with phone calls pushing health-care reform.

U.N. accused of setting up Israeli officials-Real danger is that unsupported war crimes charges will develop January 27, 2010 11:46 pm Eastern 2010 WorldNetDaily

Judge Richard Goldstone

An organization that holds special consultative status with a branch of the United Nations is accusing the international body of setting up Israeli officials for unjustified war crimes prosecutions with a biased report on the nation's 2008 conflict with Hamas. The charge is being leveled by officials with the European Centre for Law and Justice, an international law firm focusing on the protection of human rights and religious freedom in Europe and worldwide. In an evaluation of the U.N.'s Goldstone Report on the military conflict, the ECLJ challenged the objectivity of the report that levels accusations of war crimes against Israel and encourages states and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to exercise universal jurisdiction to prosecute the Israelis.The real danger from the Goldstone Report is that countries will believe the many falsehoods contained in it and urge the International Criminal Court to try Israeli officials for war crimes that they did not commit and, in fact, took Herculean measures to avoid,said Robert Ash, a senior litigation counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, the ECLJ's American division, and an attorney who worked extensively on the report. The U.N. Human Rights Council authorized a fact-finding mission the ECLJ said was pre-loaded with critics of Israel to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law.But the ECLJ said even the authorizing resolution was biased, determining that Israel was an occupying power and calling the Gaza Strip Occupied Palestinian Territory.

The Goldstone Report makes a mockery of objective fact-finding, Ash said.Instead of commending Israel for its efforts to avoid the Gaza conflict in the first place and then to avoid civilian casualties once the war began, the Goldstone Report blames Israel and gives a pass to Hamas and its terrorist allies who triggered the conflict. By exonerating Hamas from its responsibility for causing the war and for placing Palestinian civilians at risk, the Goldstone Report provides Hamas terrorists with a propaganda victory which encourages them to try the same thing again,he warned. The ECLJ has posted its comments online and also is making available a full copy of its analysis. The ECLJ is concerned about the flawed methodology of the mission's report, the pre-conceived biases of its authors and the speculative legal and factual conclusions that exceeded the scope of the mission's mandate,the ECLJ said. The organization challenged the U.N.'s report on the conflict that began Dec. 27, 2008, when Israel soldiers, in response to Hamas' renewed rocket and mortar attacks on civilian targets, launched a three-week military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The U.N. reporting,the ECLJ report said, relied exclusively upon one-sided sources who had only second-hand knowledge (at best) of facts and had no knowledge of any intelligence relied upon by Israeli forces in deciding what to target and when. The mission selected 36 incidents to investigate, which, by the mission's own acknowledgment, were selected to further the conclusion that Israel's actions were unjustified.The U.N. documentation omitted critical information about Hamas, such as the fact that it is considered a terrorist group by most of the world, or that its founding charter declares that Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it and that there is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad, the ECLJ report said. The Goldstone Report lacks credibility; it should not be relied upon by any international body, including the [U.N.] Security Council, or any court seeking to serve the cause of justice,the ECLJ said. While the U.N., for example, accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians, retired British Col. Richard Kemp told the BBC, I don't think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more effort to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the [Israel Defense Forces] is doing … in Gaza.The ECLJ report said the bias is not limited just to the single report, either. Nearly half of [the U.N. Human Rights Council] resolutions condemning specific states (23 out of 48) have been directed at Israel. On 30 January 2006, the UNHRC even voted to review potential Israeli human rights abuses at every session, the report said. The report was named after Richard Goldstone, an international jurist who admitted in an interview with Bill Moyers he chose the 36 incidents to investigate because they seemed to be, to represent the most serious, the highest death toll, the highest injury toll. And they appear to represent situations where there was little or no military justification for what happened,the ECLJ report said. In other words, the mission purposely selected incidents that it thought would reflect most poorly on Israel. Clearly, that sort of biased, agenda-driven methodology could not possibly produce an accurate account of the overall facts,the ECLJ said. The ECLJ report also said the Goldstone report's four authors all previously had indicated a bias against Israel, including one, Christine Chinkin, who had accused Israel of war crimes.

Human rights group: Hamas targeted civilians
Jan 28 12:18 PM US/Eastern By JOSEF FEDERMAN
Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM (AP) - A U.S.-based human rights group on Thursday rejected a Hamas claim that it did not target civilians during last year's war against Israel, putting new pressure on the Islamic militant group days ahead of a U.N. deadline to respond to war crimes allegations. The new claims against Hamas could carry extra weight because they came from Human Rights Watch, a group Israel has accused of unfair bias against the Jewish state. The criticism from the New York-based human rights organization drew fresh attention to Hamas actions in the three-week war, during which about 1,400 Palestinians—most of them civilians—and 13 Israelis were killed. Most international criticism, including by Human Rights Watch, has been directed toward Israel. Both Israel and Hamas face a Feb. 5 deadline to respond to allegations in a U.N. report that they committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the fighting. The report, put together by former war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, accused Israel of using disproportionate force and deliberately targeting civilians. It also accused Hamas of firing rockets indiscriminately toward communities in southern Israel. The U.N. investigation called on each side to conduct independent investigations into the allegations. Neither has delivered a formal response, and both have signaled they will not comply. Hamas said in an internal document obtained by The Associated Press that its rocket and mortar fire were directed solely at military targets and that any civilian casualties were accidental.

Palestinian militants fired some 800 rockets and mortar shells into Israel during the conflict, killing three civilians and wounding about 80. A frequent target was Sderot, next to the Gaza border, where there are no military bases. The rocket fire forced hundreds of thousands of Israelis to seek cover in bomb shelters. Human Rights Watch said its new criticism of Hamas is a response to the militant group's internal report. Most of the rocket attacks on Israel hit civilian areas, which suggests that civilians were the target and Hamas' claim of aiming for military targets is belied by the facts, said Bill van Esveld, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. He added that statements from Hamas leaders during the fighting made clear that they intended to harm Israeli civilians. Deliberately targeting civilians is a war crime,van Esveld said. He said Hamas also committed war crimes by launching rockets from populated areas, which endangered the local population in Gaza by raising the likelihood of Israeli retaliation. Fighters intentionally fired rockets from near civilians in order to shield themselves from counterattacks,he said.

Hamas officials were not immediately available for comment. Human Rights Watch has leveled serious accusations at Israel over its conduct during the Gaza war. It has released three lengthy reports about Israel's wartime practices, including accusations that the Israeli army misused white phosphorous, an illuminating agent that can cause severe burns to people. It has also charged that Israeli troops unlawfully shot civilians as they waved white flags. Israel denies the allegations.
Israeli officials and pro-Israel groups have accused Human Rights Watch of focusing excessive attention on Israel. The complaints gained steam after pro-Israel groups questioned Human Rights Watch's fundraising in Saudi Arabia, and discovered the group's senior military analyst was an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia. The analyst was subsequently suspended. The complaints also prompted Human Rights Watch's founder, Robert L. Bernstein, to accuse the organization of anti-Israel bias. In an Oct. 20 op-ed piece in the New York Times, he said the group condemned Israel for violating international law more than any other country in the region.

He also argued that Israel was paying a price because it is far more open than its Arab neighbors, making it easier for rights groups to work. Van Esveld rejected any allegations of bias. He noted that the group has also issued two reports criticizing Hamas' conduct during the Gaza conflict. We focused a lot on the Gaza war, but that's because it was a war in which there was a lot of controversy,he said.This is the kind of incident that we want to report on. But it's the incident rather than the fact that Israel was involved that made us do that.Israel did not cooperate with the U.N. commission and rejected its findings as biased and unfounded. It says the military operation was launched in self-defense, and that it did everything it could to limit civilian casualties. By rejecting calls for an independent inquiry, both Hamas and Israel could open themselves up to international war crimes proceedings. 2010 The Associated Press.

Alito disparages Obama's Supreme Court criticism By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer – JAN 28,10

WASHINGTON – Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito didn't like hearing President Barack Obama publicly criticize the high court's ruling removing corporate campaign spending limits — and he didn't try to hide it.Alito made a dismissive face, shook his head repeatedly and appeared to mouth the words not true or possibly simply not true when Obama assailed the decision Wednesday night in his State of the Union address.The president had taken the unusual step of publicly scolding the high court, with some of its robed members seated before him in the House. With all due deference to the separation of powers, he said, the court last week reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections.A reliable conservative appointed to the court by Republican President George W. Bush, Alito was in the majority in the 5-4 ruling.White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton on Thursday defended the president's statement.One of the great things about our democracy is that powerful members of the government at high levels can disagree in public and private, Burton told reporters traveling with Obama to Tampa, Fla.This is one of those cases. But the president is not less committed to seeing this reform.

Vice President Joe Biden also sided with Obama, calling the ruling dead wrong and saying we have to correct it.The president didn't question the integrity of the court. He questioned the judgment of it, Biden told ABC's Good Morning America.
Senate Democratic leaders sitting immediately behind Alito and other members of the high court rose and clapped loudly in their direction, with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., leaning slightly forward with the most enthusiastic applause.The court did upend a 100-year trend that had imposed greater limitations on corporate political activity. Specifically, the court, in a 5-4 decision, said corporations and unions could spend freely from their treasuries to run political ads for or against specific candidates.In his dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said the court's majority would appear to afford the same protection to multinational corporations controlled by foreigners as to individual Americans.Obama said corporations can spend without limit in our elections. However, corporations and unions are still prohibited from contributing directly to politicians.Associated Press Writer Ben Feller contributed to this report.

Senate permits gov't to borrow an additional $1.9T By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer – JAN 28,10

WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats needed all the 60 votes at their disposal Thursday to muscle through legislation allowing the government to go $1.9 trillion deeper in debt.Democratic leaders were able to prevail on the politically volatile 60-39 vote only because Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts has yet to be seated. Republicans had insisted on a 60-vote, super-majority threshhold to pass the measure. An earlier test vote succeeded on a 60-40 vote.The measure would would put the government on track for a national debt of $14.3 trillion — about $45,000 for every American — and it served as a vivid reminder of the United States' dire fiscal straits.The massive increase in the debt limit would allow majority Democrats to avoid another vote until after the midterm elections this fall. New estimates released by the Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday show that the U.S. this year could run a deficit matching last year's record $1.4 trillion shortfall.To win the votes of moderate Democrats, President Barack Obama promised to appoint a special task force to come up with a plan for dealing with the spiraling debt.And to get the support of moderate Blue Dog Democrats in a House vote next week, the measure includes tough new pay-as-you-go budget rules to make it harder to run up the deficit with new tax cuts or federal benefit programs. Senate Democrats had been reluctant to approve the new deficit curbs but relented and approved them by a 60-40 vote.

Several Republicans who had earlier voted for the new rules, which would make it more difficult to permanently extend some tax cuts that expire at the end of this year, switched their positions and opposed it.They include John McCain or Arizona, who's facing a primary battle with former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, who's winning support from conservative tea party activists.The current $12.4 trillion debt ceiling is expected to be reached in mid-February.Congress has never allowed the United States to default on its obligations, which would roil markets and likely cause the government to lose its AAA credit rating.We have gone to the restaurant, we have eaten the meal. Now the only question is whether the government will ... pay the bill,said Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.Democrats and Republicans alike share responsibility for running up the debt, but it fell upon Democrats to pass the measure since they control the government. It makes no difference that Republicans routinely backed increases in the debt when former President George W. Bush was in office.Republicans blame recent generous spending bills enacted by the Democratic-controlled Congress for driving up the debt. Those measures, however, are just one relatively small part of the problem. The far bigger element is a sharp drop-off in tax revenues because of the recession and the economy's slow recovery, as well as higher costs, since more people are taking unemployment benefits and food stamps in tough times.Why $1.9 trillion? said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. So that Congress doesn't have to face up to the debt ceiling until after the next election. We ought to face up to it before the next election because the people in this country have a right to know whether or not this Congress is going to do something about controlling ... the debt.Earlier Thursday, Obama's Democratic allies in the Senate rejected a plan attempting to adopt a modified version of the president's proposal to freeze spending on domestic spending passed by Congress in annual spending bills.A 56-strong majority of senators supported the plan, but it failed because 60 votes were required. It serves as a marker for later this year when Congress passes its budget.

Fed chief awaits key Senate vote on confirmation By JIM KUHNHENN and JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press Writers – JAN 28,10

WASHINGTON – Senate critics arrayed themselves against Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday, determined to take issue with his bid for a second term leading the nation's central bank even as his confirmation seemed assured.Bernanke needed a 60-vote super majority to beat a filibuster aimed at blocking his reappointment. Even his opponents predicted he would prevail in the vote scheduled for mid-afternoon.Bernanke fiddled while our markets burned, said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., voicing a common complaint that Bernanke did not detect the coming crisis and failed to rein in the banking industry.His supporters argue that once the crisis was upon him he used aggressive and creative measures to bring stability to the financial system.He has kept a steady hand on the tiller in a perfect economic storm,Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said.The vote could still be the slimmest for a Federal Reserve nominee, eclipsing the opposition to Paul Volcker in 1983, when he was confirmed for a second term by a vote of 84-16. No Fed chairman nominee has been rejected by the Senate.The stock market has been rooting for Bernanke. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged last week amid news of mounting opposition, then recovered when his prospects brightened.

The Federal Reserve wields enormous power over American pocketbooks. It has the power to set interest rates that influence economic activity, employment and inflation. And it helps maintain economic stability by making emergency loans to banks when they can't get cash elsewhere.I believe that the chairman is going to be confirmed by a bipartisan vote, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday.Widely credited with avoiding a financial catastrophe, Bernanke has angered the public and lawmakers with his support of Wall Street bailouts — especially the $182 billion rescue of insurance giant American International Group Inc. The criticism has mounted as unemployment has risen to double digits and banks paid out huge bonuses to their executives.He was asleep at the switch while Wall Street became a gambling casino, said Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who is among the opposition.The biggest challenge facing the Fed this year will be how and when to reverse course and raise interest rates. To foster the recovery, the Fed on Wednesday kept interest rates at a record low and pledged to hold them there for some time.Though Bernanke may overcome a filibuster threat with 60 or more votes, his support on the final confirmation vote will probably be smaller. Several senators have said they would oppose blocking a vote on his confirmation but would vote against his reappointment.Sanders stopped short of conceding that Bernanke would be confirmed, but he said the close tally would send a message to President Barack Obama.The confirmation fight and the attacks on the Fed have become a test of central bank independence. The Fed jealously guards its autonomy as a crucial element for carrying out monetary policy, even if it isn't popular with politicians.

Bernanke, 56, was first tapped by President George W. Bush to run the nation's central bank. Obama picked him for a second term in August. His term expires Jan. 31.
Most of his professional career was in academia. He spent 17 years teaching economics at Princeton.Bernanke came to Washington to take a job at the Federal Reserve, working with then-Chairman Alan Greenspan. Bush selected him to be his top economist. After that, he went on to run the Fed, starting in 2006. On the Net:
Federal Reserve: http://www.federalreserve.gov/

Disappointing tech forecasts drag stocks lower By STEPHEN BERNARD and TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writers – JAN 28,10

NEW YORK – The stock market resumed its slide Thursday as disappointing forecasts from technology companies brought new concerns about the economy.A weaker outlook from technology maker Qualcomm Inc. dragged the Nasdaq composite index lower. Drops in Motorola Inc. and Apple Inc. also hurt tech stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average skidded 125 points after falling five of the last eight days.The market also fell in response to a report from Standard & Poor's that said it no longer considers Britain's banking system among the most stable and low-risk. The report added to concern about rising debt levels other countries, such as Greece, and drove the dollar higher as investors sought safety. That sent some commodities prices lower, hurting materials stocks.The tech forecasts and debt worries were yet more concerns for investors who have been focused on politics, not the economy. Stocks have been sliding as concern builds that a fragile economic recovery could be derailed by missteps in Washington. The questions have some analysts saying that a 10-month surge of 62.2 percent in the Standard & Poor's 500 index isn't warranted.President Barack Obama's plan to overhaul banking regulations and restrict trading at large financial institutions spooked the market during the past week. The possibility Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke wouldn't be confirmed for a second term also had investors on edge, though those worries have subsided as the vote neared.

Our full-contact politics is really beginning to affect the markets as it's migrating into subjects that investors care deeply about like who is our Fed chairman going to be,said Lawrence Creatura, portfolio manager at Federated Clover Investment Advisors.That wasn't uncertain two weeks ago. Now it is.The Senate scheduled a vote Thursday to determine whether Bernanke can win approval from at least 60 senators to defeat a filibuster aimed at preventing his reappointment. His term ends Sunday. Senate leaders from both parties said he would be reappointed.

During his State of the Union address Wednesday evening, Obama avoided talking about the banking overhaul plan. Uncertainty over details of how that plan might be enacted are adding to investors' uncertainty.Concerns about economy are also creeping back to the forefront. The Fed said Wednesday it would keep interest rates at historic lows and that the economy was showing signs of improvement. That helped stocks reverse a slide to end higher.The enthusiasm faded Thursday after the Labor Department said weekly jobless claims fell by less than expected last week and the Commerce Department reported durable goods orders didn't rise as fast as anticipated last month. The reports provided reminders that the economic recovery is likely to be slow.In midafternoon trading, the Dow fell 125.45, or 1.2 percent, to 10,110.71. The drop put the psychological barrier of 10,000 back in investors' sights. The Dow hasn't traded below that level since Nov. 6.The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 13.31, or 1.2 percent, to 1,084.19, while the Nasdaq fell 44.74, or 2 percent, to 2,176.67.The recent drop in stocks is particularly worrisome for some analysts because the last trading day of January arrives Friday. Traders often note that as goes January, so goes the year. The so-called January barometer holds that the performance of the S&P 500 index in January is a predictor of how stocks will end the year. There have been only five major errors since 1950, for an accuracy rate of 91.5 percent, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac.

The S&P 500 index was down 1.6 percent for January before Thursday's drop. It was down 5.8 percent since closing at a 15-month high last week, still short of a correction, which is generally defined as a drop of at least 10 percent.Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, was unchanged at 3.66 percent late Wednesday.The dollar rose against other major currencies, while gold fell.Crude oil fell 9 cents to $73.58 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.Tech shares slid after Qualcomm, which makes chips and other technologies used in cell phones, fell $6.92, or 14.7 percent, to $40.28 after it said it expects a subdued rebound in the economy and reduced its full-year sales forecast. Motorola fell 92 cents, or 12.4 percent, to $6.48 after its profit forecast fell short of expectations. Apple Inc., whose stock has more than doubled in the past year, fell $8.30, or 4 percent, to $199.59 as investors showed doubts about a new tablet-style computer that looks like a large iPhone. The stock closed higher Wednesday after making the announcement. In economic news, new requests for unemployment benefits fell modestly, dropping to 470,000 last week. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had been expecting a bigger drop to 450,000 new unemployment filings. Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods rose less than expected in December, increasing just 0.3 percent. Economists had been expecting a 2 percent increase in orders. For all of 2009, durable goods orders — items expected to last at least three years — tumbled 20.2 percent. It was the largest drop on records that go back to 1992. On Friday, the government releases its initial reading on fourth-quarter gross domestic product. The GDP number, which measures the entire country's economic output, likely rose at an annualized rate of 4.5 percent during the final three months of 2009.

Three stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 627.5 million shares. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 10.58, or 1.7 percent, to 607.80. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.4 percent, Germany's DAX index dropped 1.8 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 1.9 percent. Earlier, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 1.6 percent.

Hacker breaks into 49 House sites, insults Obama
JAN 28,10

WASHINGTON – A hacker broke into 49 House Web sites of both political parties to post a crude attack on President Barack Obama after his State of the Union address.
Jeff Ventura, spokesman for the House chief administrative officer, said the sites were managed by a private vendor — GovTrends of Alexandria, Va.Most House Web sites are managed totally by House technicians but individual offices are permitted to contract with a third party to manage new features and updates.Ventura says GovTrends let its guard down while performing an update, allowing the hacker to penetrate sites of individual members and committees overnight.The attacker used an obscenity in referring to the president, who spoke from the House chamber Wednesday night.Ventura said 18 House sites managed by GovTrends were defaced last August. The House is looking into continued use of the company, he said.Phone messages left for GovTrends were not immediately returned.

Natural gas prices fall for fourth day By CHRIS KAHN, AP Energy Writer – JAN 28,10

NEW YORK – Natural gas prices slid Thursday for the fourth straight day as a fresh stack of economic data provided little evidence that the U.S. will increase its appetite for oil and gas anytime soon.The Energy Information Administration said that natural gas supplies dropped by 86 billion cubic feet last week, less than analysts expected.During the past year, the country has been working off a massive oversupply of natural gas, which is used to heat homes and run power generators. But the EIA report said that the 2.52 trillion cubic feet in storage is still above the five-year average for this time of year.The natural gas contract for March delivery gave up 8.6 cents to settle at $5.138 per 1,000 cubic feet on the New York Mercantile Exchange.Meanwhile, retail gasoline prices have eased off their highs for the year, falling for 15 consecutive days to a national average of $2.69 a gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.Still, a gallon of regular unleaded is 8.2 cents more expensive than it was last month, and it's 84.8cents more expensive than the same time last year.Oil prices doubled from February to December last year as experts predicted that Americans would start burning more fuel as the economy recovered. That hasn't happened yet, and this week government data continued to show the American economy still needs time to wake up.

We keep kicking this market to see if it's alive and it doesn't really move, analyst Peter Beutel said.The Labor Department said Thursday that the four-week average for jobless claims rose for the second straight week. The Commerce Department added that orders for big-ticket manufactured goods increased only slightly in December and less than what economists expected.Benchmark crude for March delivery fell 3 cents to settle at $73.64 a barrel on the Nymex. In London, Brent crude for March delivery rose 30 cents to $72.54 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.In other Nymex trading in February contracts, heating oil added less than a penny to settle at $1.9191 a gallon, while gasoline dropped 2.18 cents to settle at $1.9174 a gallon.Associated Press writers Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.

Book: Pope John Paul II Whipped Himself, Weighed Retiring By Jeff Israely – Thu Jan 28, 5:00 am ET

A new book by the priest in charge of the Vatican's official case for Pope John Paul II's sainthood is packed with fascinating - and, apparently, meticulously verified - revelations. The one that grabbed most of the headlines has been the claim that John Paul whipped himself with a belt, an act of corporal penitence designed to draw the flagellator closer to Christ's suffering that is usually associated with a very distant century, or a Dan Brown novel. As some members of his close entourage in Poland and in the Vatican were able to hear, John Paul flagellated himself, writes Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Polish prelate who collected testimony in his role as postulator for the Pope's canonization.In his armoire, amid all the vestments and hanging on a hanger, was a belt which he used as a whip.(See pictures of Obama meeting Pope Benedict XVI.) But the book, Why He Is a Saint, also contains a revelation that puts John Paul in a decidedly more modern light, and has much deeper implications for the Church's future. Oder confirms lingering rumors that the long ailing Pope had approved plans that would have allowed for his resignation from the papacy for health reasons, effectively ending centuries of papal commitment to lead the Church until death.

According to the book, John Paul on Feb. 15, 1989 signed a document clearing the way for him to step down if necessary. Five years later, suffering from a growing number of ailments, including the lingering effects of a 1981 assassination attempt, the Pope updated details of the procedure in the case of infirmity which is presumed incurable, long-lasting and which impedes me from sufficiently carrying out the functions of my apostolic ministry.He also charged his then doctrinal chief, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - now known as Pope Benedict XVI - to investigate the implications of the Church having a living Pope Emeritus while his successor tried to establish his reign. The vexed question of papal resignation had become increasingly necessary as a result of modern medicine's ability to potentially extend a pontiff's life long past his ability to effectively run a 1 billion-strong global church. (See pictures of spiritual healing around the world.)John Paul, as we know, went on to serve for life, despite a very public battle with the debilitating effects of Parkinson's disease. By all accounts, he had all his mental faculties up until his April 2005 death. Still, behind closed doors, top Vatican officials had been debating the implications of John Paul's declining physical condition, including his grave difficulties in speaking. Others have noted that as the pope became weaker, infighting and maneuvering escalated among some of his deputies. Cardinal Ratzinger never openly questioned John Paul's decision to stay on, though some reports cited his concerns about a potential leadership vacuum.

It is not known whether Pope Benedict, who at 82 is considered in excellent health, has signed any specific new directives about his own succession. John Paul's stance on the issue, however, is largely seen as signaling a green light on papal retirement that Benedict may very well take into account if his own health began to deteriorate. Conservative Catholic writer Vittorio Messori, who has co-authored books with both John Paul and Ratzinger, noted that the canonical question of resignation was never in doubt, citing Celeste V's decision to step down in the 13th century. (See the top 10 religion stories of 2009.)Messori explained that if a Pope decided he was no longer capable of leading the Church, he would convoke a Consistory of all the world's cardinals at the Vatican. After they accept his resignation, the cardinals would elect a successor, and the ex-pope would return to the status of simple priest in some hospital or monastery. But wouldn't this bring the risk of internal conflict, particularly if the former pope doesn't agree with the decisions his successor makes? Look, I loved [Karol] Wojtyla, said Messori, referring to the former Pope's baptismal name.But if he would have decided to resign, I would have continued to pray for him, but I would have obeyed his successor.(See pictures of Pope John Paul II taken by Gianni Giansanti.)

Right now, John Paul fans are praying for his rapid rise to sainthood. Benedict had already waived the five-year waiting period after death to start the process. The next step would be beatification, which some predict will happen in October, once a miracle has been officially attributed to his intervention. Other eye-opening details of the new book include the fact that in 1981 John Paul II forgave his would-be assassin as he was rushed to the hospital after being shot in St. Peter's Square. At first, he believed the gunman had a member of the left-wing Italian terrorist organization the Red Brigades [he was, in fact, a Turkish nationalist named Mehmet Ali Ağca, who last week was released from prison]. Also, beyond the self-flagellation, John Paul sought to move closer to God by sleeping on the hard floor of his papal bedroom. The physical suffering he inflicted upon himself may, in fact, help propel John Paul II to sainthood faster than anyone before him.

Israeli threats against Hezbollah target Lebanon: PM
Thu Jan 28, 12:33 pm ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Israeli threats against the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah are threats against Lebanon itself, the country's Prime Minister Saad Hariri during a visit to Cairo on Thursday.We take Israeli threats seriously, Hariri said after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.Any threat against Lebanese territory, whether in the south, Bekaa, Dahie (Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold) or any any place in Lebanon is a threat against all of Lebanon and the Lebanese government, Hariri said.The protection of any place in Lebanon is the responsibility of the Lebanese government, he told a news conference, calling for Arab solidarity with Beirut to counter these threats.Hariri said last week in an interview with the French daily Le Monde that he he feared an Israeli intervention following an increase in overflights over his country by Israeli warplanes.An Israeli minister without portfolio, Yossi Peled, said last week that a new confrontation between the Jewish state and Hezbollah was inevitable in the long run.

An Israel-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006 killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, almost all of them soldiers.On the 26 men accused of planning attacks in Egypt on behalf of Hezbollah, the Lebanese premier said it was in the hands of Egypt's judiciary and we regard this business as strictly Egyptian.An Egyptian prosecutor this week demanded the death sentence for the 26 alleged Hezbollah militants.The group, which include Lebanese, Palestinians and Sudanese, is accused of plotting attacks against ships in the Suez Canal and tourist sites, of spying, and other crimes.The defendants say they never planned the attacks but sought to help the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which rules Gaza and has close ties with Hezbollah.

Experts find source of ancient Roman aqueduct
JAN 28,10

ROME – Experts have located the source of an ancient aqueduct built by Emperor Trajan nearly 2,000 years ago to supply Rome.Archaeologists and officials said at a news conference Thursday that the find near lake Bracciano, north of Rome, was made by a British documentary crew that was filming in the area and was told by residents about an aqueduct believed to date back to the 18th century.Archaeologist Lorenzo Quilici, an expert on aqueducts, visited the site in June and confirmed it was much older.Experts believe the labyrinth of underground galleries and vaulted chambers was built to collect spring water for Trajan's aqueduct, inaugurated in A.D. 109. It was one of 11 supplying Rome with water.Quilici said it will need to be restored before opening to the public.