STOCK RESULTS DEC 13,10

DOUG HAGMANN ON DEREK GILBERT
http://vftb.net/?p=4106
CALLER CALLS WAL-MART-CONFERMED HOMELAND SECURITY CONNECTION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oabg4ido8xI&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUYCBfmIcHM&feature=player_embedded
Tax Exempt Foundations and Think Tanks: The Process of Invisible Power
Daniel Taylor Old Thinker News December 12, 2010

Philanthropy is the essential element in the making of Rockefeller power. It gives the Rockefellers a priceless reputation as public benefactors which the public values so highly that power over public affairs is placed in the Rockefellers’ hands. Philanthropy generates more power than wealth alone can provide. – Myer Kutz Rockefeller Power (1974)

Some have suggested that the large foundations are monopolizing development. The hidden influence of tax-exempt foundations and think tanks in the halls of power has dramatically impacted our society, and in turn the world. The Rockefeller dynasty paved the way for eugenics in 20th Century America and heavily influenced the education system. Now Bill Gates’ various philanthropic institutions are impacting the globe, with a new initiative promising to make the next several years the Decade of vaccines. These institutions are impacting the globe to such an extent that some have suggested that the large foundations are monopolizing development. The United States has seen a shift of power to individuals who have been called action intellectuals. Who’s agenda are they serving? We didn’t elect these individuals, but large foundations are functioning like national governments.The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense has picked up on this trend in its Strategic Trends program. The MoD’s Global Strategic Trends – Out to 2040 document foresees …the emergence of a global elite, a powerful network of individuals and institutions that sits above the level of individual states and influences the global agenda…Our health, society and future are all impacted by these elites. Who are they? What agenda are they pursuing?

A look back…

The U.S. Congress first investigated the activities of the large foundations in 1915 under the Commission on Industrial Relations. The Commission found that,The domination by the men in whose hands the final control of a large part of American industry rests is not limited to their employees, but is being rapidly extended to control the education and social survival of the nation. This control is being extended largely through the creation of enormous privately managed funds for indefinite purposes, hereafter designated foundations, by the endowment of colleges and universities, by the creation of funds for the pensioning of teachers, by contributions to private charities, as well as through controlling or influencing the public press…Again in 1953 the Reece Committee found that tax-exempt foundations were wielding an unprecedented amount of influence over American society, including the education system. Norman Dodd served as the chief director of research for the Committee. In the monumental interview below, Dodd outlines what he found:Foundations serve another, much less discussed purpose. The wealth of the individuals who own the large foundations is protected from taxation. The Rockefeller Foundation was conveniently founded in 1913, the same year that the income tax was ratified. John D. Rockefeller Sr. pioneered this art of so called scientific giving, and modern day philanthropists have followed in his footsteps. When John D’s public image became tarnished by his notoriously ruthless nature in his business dealings, he hired the PR man named Ivy Lee. Lee suggested that Rockefeller begin giving away his wealth, and give it away he did; with strings attached.

Gary Allen explains in The Rockefeller File,He [Rockefeller] would give money away to foundations under his control and then have those foundations spend the money in ways which brought even more power and profits to the Rockefeller empire. The money given away would be bread cast upon the waters. But bread that always had a hook in it. John D. Jr. was to refer to this as the principle of scientific giving.The influence of large foundations on American society is documented by Dr. Lily E. Kay in her book The Molecular Vision of Life: Caltech, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rise of the New Biology. Kay writes, Their numerous projects and the unprecedented scope of their financial and institutional resources shaped the development of culture and the production of knowledge in the United States. Through education, public opinion, stimulation of specific research agenda, and the promotion of selective categories of knowledge and research, the Foundation played a key role in the creation of a hegemonic bloc…

Foundations Today

In May of 2009 several top philanthropists met at the home of Sir Paul Nurse, president of Rockefeller University. David Rockefeller Jr, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey were all in attendance. According to the London Times, the meeting was so secret that, …some of the billionaires’ aides were told they were at security briefings. The Times reports, Over dinner they discussed how they might settle on an umbrella cause that could harness their interests. The Times interviewed a guest at the meeting, who said that the group wanted to meet in secret because they didn’t want their statements ending up in the media, painting them as an alternative world government.A brief overview of the activities of these groups will show that they have been acting as an alternative world government, and that they have been for decades. Through their grant-making power and immense wealth, they can effectively choose which scientific research projects are funded, what education reforms are initiated, and in turn the entire direction of society at large.In an interview with the Seattle Times, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was asked, Some say the emergence of super rich philanthropies like the Gates Foundation has undermined the effectiveness of the U.N. and its member organizations, like the WHO. Moon responded,

On the contrary that is what we really want — contributions from the business community as well as philanthropies. We need to have political support, but it doesn’t give us all that we need. NGOs and philanthropies and many foundations such as Bill Gates Foundation — they’re taking a very important role…In October of 2007, the Global Impact Investing Network was established by the Rockefeller Foundation. The GIIN will help solve social and environmental problems by encouraging investment that will bring both profit and produce real world change. The GIIN is taking John D’s principle of scientific giving to another level. This conglomerate of various banks and foundations will attempt to mold industry and society by investing in selected social programs and screening out investments for Co2 emitters and others deemed to be unworthy. A few of the banks and organizations involved with GIIN include:

Acumen Fund
The Annie E. Casey Foundation
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Calvert Foundation
Capricorn Investment Group
Citigroup
Deutsche Bank
Equilibrium Capital
Generation Investment Management
J.P. Morgan
The Rockefeller Foundation
Think Tanks: A profile on an action intellectual

Herman Kahn has been a major figure in one of the most fascinating shifts of power in U.S. History: from identifiable public leaders to the action intellectuals. – Life Magazine, December 6, 1968.Herman Kahn is known as one of the founding fathers of future studies. After working for the RAND Corporation, Kahn founded the Hudson Institute in 1961. The satirical film Dr. Strangelove is largely based on real documents and ideas that came from RAND. The December 6, 1968 edition of Life Magazine details Kahn’s career, and the larger implications of an unprecedented shift of power to unelected action intellectuals.…Herman Kahn has been a major figure in one of the most fascinating shifts of power in U.S. History: from identifiable public leaders to the action intellectuals. As counselors to the decision-makers, men such as Kahn often have access to future technology (what is known, but not yet disclosed) and official intelligence (what is known, but not yet revealed, about the capacities and plans of other nations).Thus, decisions – based on private knowledge, analyzed by private consultants and debated in private – can become public policy. This is a process of invisible power. At its extreme this influence can commit a nation to social programs and military actions which have neither been fully explained nor publicly debated. One day, as that power pervades and grows more sophisticated, it may so affect the course of government that any nation’s policies may be locked in, as if by automatic pilot, years before the men who are elected to govern ever take office.Whos agenda are they serving? We didn’t elect these individuals. The historical record is ripe with open admissions on part of the elite to use their philanthropic power to manipulate society at large. The world is now in their sights. Whether the elite’s intent is good or bad, are they giving us a choice?

Forex market jumps thanks to electronic revolution: BIS
– DEC 12,10

GENEVA (AFP) – The foreign exchange market has posted sharp growth through the financial crisis thanks to an electronic revolution that is allowing individuals to trade from home, the Bank for International Settlements said Sunday.The 2010 Triennial shows a 20 percent increase in global foreign exchange market activity over the past three years, bringing average daily turnover to 4.0 trillion dollars, said the central bank for central bankers.Against the backdrop of the global financial crisis of 2007-09 and the recent turmoil in European sovereign bond markets, the continued growth demonstrates the resilience of this market,it added.In an article deciphering the 4 trillion dollar question of who has been behind the growth in forex trade, the bank said that the growth has been driven by so-called high-frequency traders -- a form of automated trading launched by a computer equation.It addition, banks acting as clients of the biggest dealers, as well as online trading by retail investors have also contributed largely to the growth in forex trade.

And it is electronic trading in particular that is popularising foreign exchange market activity.An important structural change enabling increased FX trading by these customers is the spread of electronic execution methods, noted the BIS.
Electronic trading and electronic brokering are transforming FX markets by reducing transaction costs and increasing market liquidity.These changes, in turn, are encouraging greater participation across different customer types.The BIS noted that electronic trading has particularly opened up the foreign exchange market to retail investors.Trading by households and small non-bank institutions has grown enormously, with market participants reporting that it now accounts for an estimated 8-10 percent of spot FX turnover globally, said the BIS, noting that this is equivalent to 125 to 150 billion dollars daily.Japanese retail investors are most active, with estimates suggesting that they make up 30 percent or more of spot Japanese yen trading -- more than 20 billion dollars per day.

Vatican Bank mired in laundering scandal By VICTOR L. SIMPSON and NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press – Sun Dec 12, 12:25 am ET

VATICAN CITY – This is no ordinary bank: The ATMs are in Latin. Priests use a private entrance. A life-size portrait of Pope Benedict XVI hangs on the wall.

Nevertheless, the Institute for Religious Works is a bank, and it's under harsh new scrutiny in a case involving money-laundering allegations that led police to seize euro23 million ($30 million) in Vatican assets in September. Critics say the case shows that the Vatican Bank has never shed its penchant for secrecy and scandal.The Vatican calls the seizure of assets a misunderstanding and expresses optimism it will be quickly cleared up. But court documents show that prosecutors say the Vatican Bank deliberately flouted anti-laundering laws with the aim of hiding the ownership, destination and origin of the capital. The documents also reveal investigators' suspicions that clergy may have acted as fronts for corrupt businessmen and Mafia.The documents pinpoint two transactions that have not been reported: one in 2009 involving the use of a false name, and another in 2010 in which the Vatican Bank withdrew euro650,000 ($860,000) from an Italian bank account but ignored bank requests to disclose where the money was headed.The new allegations of financial impropriety could not come at a worse time for the Vatican, already hit by revelations that it sheltered pedophile priests. The corruption probe has given new hope to Holocaust survivors who tried unsuccessfully to sue in the United States, alleging that Nazi loot was stored in the Vatican Bank.

Yet the scandal is hardly the first for the centuries-old bank. In 1986, a Vatican financial adviser died after drinking cyanide-laced coffee in prison. Another was found dangling from a rope under London's Blackfriars Bridge in 1982, his pockets stuffed with money and stones. The incidents blackened the bank's reputation, raised suspicions of ties with the Mafia, and cost the Vatican hundreds of millions of dollars in legal clashes with Italian authorities.On Sept. 21, financial police seized assets from a Vatican Bank account at the Rome branch of Credito Artigiano SpA. Investigators said the Vatican had failed to furnish information on the origin or destination of the funds as required by Italian law.The bulk of the money, euro20 million ($26 million), was destined for JP Morgan in Frankfurt, with the remainder going to Banca del Fucino.Prosecutors alleged the Vatican ignored regulations that foreign banks must communicate to Italian financial authorities where their money has come from. All banks have declined to comment.In another case, financial police in Sicily said in late October that they uncovered money laundering involving the use of a Vatican Bank account by a priest in Rome whose uncle was convicted of Mafia association.Authorities say some euro250,000 euros, illegally obtained from the regional government of Sicily for a fish breeding company, was sent to the priest by his father as a charitable donation, then sent back to Sicily from a Vatican Bank account using a series of home banking operations to make it difficult to trace.

The prosecutors' office stated in court papers last month that while the bank has expressed a generic and stated will to conform to international standards, there is no sign that the institutions of the Catholic church are moving in that direction. It said its investigation had found exactly the opposite.Legal waters are murky because of the Vatican's special status as an independent state within Italy. This time, Italian investigators were able to move against the Vatican Bank because the Bank of Italy classifies it as a foreign financial institution operating in Italy. However, in one of the 1980s scandals, prosecutors could not arrest then-bank head Paul Marcinkus, an American archbishop, because Italy's highest court ruled he had immunity.Marcinkus, who died in 2006 and always proclaimed his innocence, was the inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola's character Archbishop Gilday in Godfather III.

The Vatican has pledged to comply with EU financial standards and create a watchdog authority. Gianluigi Nuzzi, author of Vatican SpA, a 2009 book outlining the bank's shady dealings, said it's possible the Vatican is serious about coming clean, but he isn't optimistic.I don't trust them, he said. After the previous big scandals, they said we'll change and they didn't. It's happened too many times.He said the structure and culture of the institution is such that powerful account-holders can exert pressure on management, and some managers are simply resistant to change.The list of account-holders is secret, though bank officials say there are some 40,000-45,000 among religious congregations, clergy, Vatican officials and lay people with Vatican connections.The bank chairman is Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, also chairman of Banco Santander's Italian operations, who was brought in last year to bring the Vatican Bank in line with Italian and international regulations. Gotti Tedeschi has been on a very public speaking tour extolling the benefits of a morality-based financial system.He went to sell the new image ... not knowing that inside, the same things were still happening, Nuzzi said. They continued to do these transfers without the names, not necessarily in bad faith, but out of habit.It doesn't help that Gotti Tedeschi himself and the bank's No. 2 official, Paolo Cipriani, are under investigation for alleged violations of money-laundering laws. They were both questioned by Rome prosecutors on Sept. 30, although no charges have been filed.

In his testimony, Gotti Tedeschi said he knew next to nothing about the bank's day-to-day operations, noting that he had been on the job less than a year and only works at the bank two full days a week. According to the prosecutors' interrogation transcripts obtained by AP, Gotti Tedeschi deflected most questions about the suspect transactions to Cipriani. Cipriani in turn said that when the Holy See transferred money without identifying the sender, it was the Vatican's own money, not a client's.Gotti Tedeschi declined a request for an interview but said by e-mail that he questioned the motivations of prosecutors. In a speech in October, he described a wider plot against the church, decrying personal attacks on the pope, the facts linked to pedophilia (that) still continue now with the issues that have seen myself involved.As the Vatican proclaims its innocence, the courts are holding firm. An Italian court has rejected a Vatican appeal to lift the order to seize assets. The Vatican Bank was founded in 1942 by Pope Pius XII to manage assets destined for religious or charitable works. The bank, located in the tower of Niccolo V, is not open to the public, but people who use it described the layout to the AP.Top prelates have a special entrance manned by security guards. There are about 100 staffers, 10 bank windows, a basement vault for safe deposit boxes, and ATMs that open in Latin but can be accessed in modern languages. In another concession to modern times, the bank recently began issuing credit cards.In the scandals two decades ago, Sicilian financier Michele Sindona was appointed by the pope to manage the Vatican's foreign investments. He also brought in Roberto Calvi, a Catholic banker in northern Italy.Sindona's banking empire collapsed in the mid-1970s and his links to the mob were exposed, sending him to prison and his eventual death from poisoned coffee. Calvi then inherited his role.Calvi headed the Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in 1982 after the disappearance of $1.3 billion in loans made to dummy companies in Latin America. The Vatican had provided letters of credit for the loans.Calvi was found a short time later hanging from scaffolding on Blackfriars Bridge, his pockets loaded with 11 pounds of bricks and $11,700 in various currencies. After an initial ruling of suicide, murder charges were filed against five people, including a major Mafia figure, but all were acquitted after trial.While denying wrongdoing, the Vatican Bank paid $250 million to Ambrosiano's creditors.Both the Calvi and Sindona cases remain unsolved.AP reporter Martino Villosio contributed from Rome.

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

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

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

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

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

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS MON DEC 13,2010

09:30 AM +3.25
10:00 AM +11.13
10:30 AM +27.59
11:00 AM +43.86
11:30 AM +35.95
12:00 PM +40.43
12:30 PM +43.42
01:00 PM +44.12
01:30 PM +49.27
02:00 PM +50.82
02:30 PM +58.01
03:00 PM +61.34
03:30 PM +56.23
04:00 PM +18.24 11,428.55

S&P 500 1240.46 +0.06

NASDAQ 2624.91 -12.63

GOLD 1,394.90 +10.00

OIL 88.41 +0.62

TSE 300 13,295.90 +56.40

CDNX 2130.75 +6.45

S&P/TSX/60 759.18 +2.50

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +24 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -1 points at low today.
Dow +50 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,396.30.OIL opens at $89.19 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -1 points at low today so far.
Dow +74 points at high today so far.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -1 points at low today.
Dow +74 points at high today.

GOLD ALLTIME HIGH $1,427.40 (NOT AT CLOSE)

SURPRISE SURPRISE SOROS IN IN ON THIS CLIMATE SCAM DEAL.

Small climate deals forged outside int'l talks By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press - DEC 12,10

CANCUN, Mexico – Walmart is going green in its Chinese factories. George (SPOOKY DUDE) Soros is exploring investments in the restoration of drained peatlands in Indonesia. Denmark is joining South Korea in a new fund to transform developing economies.As delegates to the latest U.N. climate talks struggled to come up with a modest pair of global warming accords, governments, businesses and individuals working behind the scenes forged ahead with their own projects to cut emissions.Regardless of what happens in these negotiations, we shouldn't be waiting. We should be doing practical things on the ground, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in an interview before the talks wound up Saturday.Nearly 200 governments have been working for 20 years toward an all-encompassing treaty to constrain human influence on the climate through industrial pollution, vehicles and agriculture.The Cancun Agreements, adopted to cheers and ovations early Saturday after two tortuous weeks of talks, created a Green Climate Fund to manage and disburse tens of billions of dollars a year, starting in 2020, for green development in poor countries.

The fund also will help developing nations adapt to climate change that already has occurred, through such methods as shifting to drought-resistant crops or building sea walls against rising ocean levels and storm surges.The accords also create a new mechanism for giving green technology to developing states and set guidelines to compensate countries that are preserving their forests.The ideal global treaty — the one on which governments have not been able to agree during two decades of talks — would set targets and create incentives for countries and industries to reduce emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases and invest in green economic growth.

Officials in both the public and private arena have decided not to wait for such a global agreement, instead taking the initiative on their own.The sidelines of the Cancun conference provided a convenient platform to discuss old projects they were already working on as well as to unveil new ones, most of them valued at just a few million dollars.There were actually two summits in Cancun, said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program, referring to both the official negotiations and project discussions outside the main conference.Individually, they may not sound like a lot ... but the reality is, on the ground there is a tremendous groundswell of activity on climate change," he told reporters.While the conference was under way, Zoellick announced a new $100 million World Bank fund to help countries set up carbon-trading programs.China, India, Chile and Mexico are among countries that have expressed an interest in drawing on the fund, he told The Associated Press.People get lost in the negotiating part of this, he said. The fund is an example of an ongoing innovation that doesn't depend on treaty text.Three miles (seven kilometers) from the climate talks' principal negotiating venue, Walmart chairman Rob Walton attended a function that addressed using everything from cattle in Brazil to palm oil in Indonesia as sustainable sourcing for the giant retailer founded by his father.Walmart says it plans to reduce its carbon footprint over five years to what would be the equivalent of taking 3.8 million cars off the road. Much of that will come by reducing the energy used by suppliers in China, where most of its nonfood products come from.

People are spending less time on the negotiations and shifting more focus on concrete action, said Stephen Cochran, vice president of the New York-based nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, which works with Walmart in China and in the U.S. That doesn't mean there isn't still a need for a global accord, however, Cochran added.Such an agreement would set common rules and firm up guarantees that green investment pays.Financier George Soros discussed a private rescue plan for depleted Indonesian peatlands. The former jungle areas, which were cleared for rice paddies or palm oil, release huge amounts of stored carbon as they dry out and burn.
Marcel Silvius of Wetlands International, who accompanied Soros to Indonesia earlier this year, said several billionaires were applying to Jakarta for concessions for degraded land. By blocking drainage channels and allowing the peatlands to re-flood, natural forests may regenerate, and local communities could be enlisted to manage the new growth.Investors can make returns on carbon credits under the forestry strategy outlined in the Cancun Agreements. But some people, including Soros, see it as philanthropy from which they expect no return, Silvius said. He said 6 million to 7.5 million acres (2.5 million to 3 million hectares) of land, an area the size of the Netherlands, could be restored in Indonesia.For its part, Denmark announced that it will donate $15 million over three years to the Global Green Growth Initiative, founded six months ago by South Korea to help countries develop eco-friendly technologies. Seoul kicked in $30 million, or $10 million a year.

The fund already has projects in Ethiopia and Cambodia, with more in the pipeline in Indonesia and the Philippines, said Rae-kwon Chung, a director of the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.The initiative is the machinery for promoting green growth, and is designed to promote a lifestyle totally different from the fossil-fuel economies of the West — a paradigm shift, Chung said. This is more meaningful than what's happening here, said Chung, a former South Korean climate negotiator, nodding toward the negotiating rooms.In the U.S., statewide trading strategies are in place and expanding internationally, even as Congress fails to act on climate legislation.California reached agreements this year with the southern Mexican state of Chiapas and Brazil's Acre province for pilot projects on forest preservation in exchange for carbon credits. Emissions trading was a pillar of California's 2006 climate bill, which called for reducing pollution to 1990 levels by 2020.

Cancun climate deal restores faith in UN process-Inhabitants of some small island nations are already suffering the effects of climate change (Photo: Oxfam)
ANDREW WILLIS Today DEC 12,10 @ 11:42 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Negotiators have reached an agreement at UN climate talks in Cancun, Mexico. Although far from the legally binding deal on carbon emission cuts called for by campaigners, officials argue progress in a number of areas has restored faith in the UN multi-lateral process and laid the groundwork for a more conclusive agreement in South Africa next December. A formal recognition that the world's emission pledges need to go further, progress in developing a monitoring system to verify cuts, together with support for a Green Fund to help developing nations finance the fight against climate change in the long-term, were among the successes held up at the close of play. Many of us when we came to Cancun feared there was a real risk that nothing would be done, EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard told a news conference shortly after the discussions ended on Saturday morning (11 December). We got the Cancun Agreement, that is progress.Delegates heaped praise on the Mexican presidency for their inclusive approach to the talks, with backroom dealmaking leading to a major breakdown in trust at last year's acrimonious UN meeting in Copenhagen.

Only 24 hours before this year's finish, the prospect of reaching an agreement at Cancun was looking decidedly bleak, said participants. On Thursday night there was considerable pessimism, Greenpeace policy director Wendel Trio told EUobserver by phone from the conference hall. But a lot of progress was made on Friday as participants realised time was running out.As the clock ticked down, a final draft text produced by the Mexicans at 7pm on Friday evening appeared to contain enough for the 193 participating nations to agree a final deal, prompting a flurry of last-minute negotiations as each side sought to achieve the best possible result.

Components of the deal

The resulting Cancun Agreement acknowledges for the first time in a UN document that global warming must be kept below 2 degrees centigrade compared to pre-industrial levels, with signatories also conceding that their emission pledges, made in Copenhagen and now also enshrined in the UN document, need to go further if this is to be achieved. This is very important,said Mr Trio. The recognition of the current gap between pledges and what is necessary offers opportunities for campaign groups to push governments to do more. Europe's ongoing debate about whether to move beyond its pledge to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent over the next decade, based on 1990 levels, is expected to re-start in earnest early next year. Researchers from the Climate Action Tracker who were crunching numbers throughout the talks said global pledges so far set the world on track for a 3.2 degree centigrade temperature rise, far above what scientists say is acceptable. At the same time, the World Meteorological Organization announced earlier this month that 2010 is on tract to being in the top three warmest years since record taking began in 1850.Countries at the Cancun talks also reached agreement on a major sticking point within the negotiations, the need to establish a set of rules for the measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of emission reductions. Prior to leaving Brussels, Ms Hedegaard said failure to move forward on the MRV issue could result in a breakdown of the talks, a reflection of European concerns that pledges from major polluters such as China might not be kept.In Saturday's agreement nations also backed a global Green Fund to provide €100 billion a year to developing nations to fight climate change from 2020 onwards. As with many of the other issues however, tough questions such as where the money will come from still remain to be answered.

Governments need to identify innovative sources of finance, such as levies on the currently unregulated international aviation and shipping sector, that would both address eight percent of global emissions while simultaneously securing billions of dollars in long-term financing, said Gordon Shepherd, head of WWF's Global Climate Initiative.Progress was also made in establishing a plan for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). The scheme is intended to channel money from rich countries to forested nations such as Indonesia and Brazil in order to slow deforestation, a major cause of global warming. REDD has attracted controversy however, with activists saying money is likely to flow into the hands of businesses rather than the local communities who need it.

Criticism

Despite the relief at securing a tangible agreement in Cancun and avoiding a repeat of last year's disaster, analysts were quick to point out that many of the tough questions have merely been kicked into the future. EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard herself admitted that a huge amount of work remained to be carried out if a comprehensive package is to be achieved in South Africa.Everyone needs to be aware that we still have a long and challenging journey ahead of us to reach the goal of a legally binding global climate framework, she said.Environmental NGO Friends of the Earth brandished the deal as weak.Real substance to prevent catastrophic climate change is missing, said Susann Scherbarth, a climate justice campaigner with the group.Rich countries also failed to sign up to a second commitment period (post 2012) under the Kyoto Protocol, arguable the most significant omission from the Mexican package. While the world makes glacial progress towards an all encompassing deal on carbon emission cuts, developing nations are extremely keen to hang on to what already exists, especially as the Kyoto Protocol clearly outlines the greater effort richer countries must play in fighting climate change, which historically they created.They had to kick the Kyoto can down the road as delegates realised it was simply too big an issue to address, German Marshall Fund expert, Thomas Legge, told this website.And as Mexican foreign secretary Patricia Espinosa sought to bring the process to close on Saturday morning, one country - Bolivia - was still unhappy with the final text. In the end Ms Espinosa overruled the Bolivian negotiator who repeatedly took the floor and insisted the agreement needed complete consensus, leading the South American country to brandish the deal as tantamount to genocide.

EARTH WORSHIP

DEUTERONOMY 17:3-4
3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:

2 KINGS 23:5
5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.

Abdication of the West at COP16 Cancun, Mexico By Lord Christopher Monckton Friday, December 10, 2010 CFACT / CC BY 3.0

I usually add some gentle humor when I report. Not today. Read this and weep. Notwithstanding the carefully-orchestrated propaganda to the effect that nothing much will be decided at the UN climate conference here in Cancun, the decisions to be made here this week signal nothing less than the abdication of the West. The governing class in what was once proudly known as the Free World is silently, casually letting go of liberty, prosperity, and even democracy itself. No one in the mainstream media will tell you this, not so much because they do not see as because they do not bl**dy care.The 33-page Note (FCCC/AWGLCA/2010/CRP.2) by the Chairman of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Co-operative Action under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, entitled Possible elements of the outcome, reveals all. Or, rather, it reveals nothing, unless one understands what the complex, obscure jargon means. All UNFCCC documents at the Cancun conference, specifically including Possible elements of the outcome, are drafted with what is called transparent impenetrability. The intention is that the documents should not be understood, but that later we shall be told they were in the public domain all the time, so what are we complaining about?

Since the Chairman’s note is very long, I shall summarize the main points:

Finance:
Western countries will jointly provide $100 billion a year by 2020 to an unnamed new UN Fund. To keep this sum up with GDP growth, the West may commit itself to pay 1.5% of GDP to the UN each year. That is more than twice the 0.7% of GDP that the UN has recommended the West to pay in foreign aid for the past half century. Several hundred of the provisions in the Chairman’s note will impose huge financial costs on the nations of the West.

The world-government Secretariat:
In all but name, the UN Convention’s Secretariat will become a world government directly controlling hundreds of global, supranational, regional, national and sub-national bureaucracies. It will receive the vast sum of taxpayers’ money ostensibly paid by the West to the Third World for adaptation to the supposed adverse consequences of imagined (and imaginary) global warming.

Bureaucracy:
Hundreds of new interlocking bureaucracies answerable to the world-government Secretariat will vastly extend its power and reach. In an explicit mirroring of the European Union’s method of enforcing the will of its unelected Kommissars on the groaning peoples of that benighted continent, the civil servants of nation states will come to see themselves as servants of the greater empire of the Secretariat, carrying out its ukases and diktats whatever the will of the nation states’ governments. Many of the new bureaucracies are disguised as capacity-building in developing countries. This has nothing to do with growing the economies or industries of poorer nations. It turns out to mean the installation of hundreds of bureaucratic offices answerable to the Secretariat in numerous countries around the world. Who pays? You do, gentle taxpayer. Babylon, Byzantium, the later Ottoman Empire, the formidable bureaucracy of Nazi Germany, the vast empire of 27,000 paper-shufflers at the European Union: add all of these together and multiply by 100 and you still do not reach the sheer size, cost, power and reach of these new subsidiaries of the Secretariat.In addition to multiple new bureaucracies in every one of the 193 states parties to the Convention, there will be an Adaptation Framework Body, a Least Developed Countries’ Adaptation Planning Body, an Adaptation Committee, Regional Network Centers, an International Center to Enhance Adaptation Research, National Adaptation Institutions, a Body to Clarify Assumptins and Conditions in National Greenhouse-Gas Emission Reductions Pledges, a Negotiating Body for an Overall Level of Ambition for Aggregate Emission Reductions and Individual Targets, an Office to Revise Guidelines for National Communications, a Multilateral Communications Process Office, a Body for the Process to Develop Modalities and Guidelines for the Compliance Process, a Registry of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions by Developed Countries, a Body to Supervise the Process for Understanding Diversity of Mitigation Actions Submitted and Support Needed, a Body to Develop Modalities for the Registry of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions, an Office of International Consultation and Analysis; an Office to Conduct a Work Program for Development of Various Modalities and Guidelines; a network of Developing Countries’ National Forest Strategy Action Plan Offices; a network of National Forest Reference Emission Level And/Or Forest Reference Level Bodies; a network of National Forest Monitoring Systems; an Office of the Work Program on Agriculture to Enhance the Implementation of Article 4, Paragraph 1(c) of the Convention Taking Into Account Paragraph 31; one or more Mechanisms to Establish a Market-Based Approach to Enhance the Cost-Effectiveness Of And To Promote Mitigation Actions; a Forum on the Impact of the Implementation of Response Measures; a Work Program Office to Address the Impact of the Implementation of Response Measures; a Body to Review the Needs of Developing Countries for Financial Resources to Address Climate Change and Identify Options for Mobilization of Those Resources; a Fund in Addition to the Copenhagen Green Fund; an Interim Secretariat for the Design Phase of the New Fund; a New Body to Assist the Conference of the Parties in Exercising its Functions with respect to the Financial Mechanism; a Body to Launch a Process to Further Define the Roles and Functions of the New Body to Assist the Conference of the Parties in Exercising its Functions with respect to the Financial Mechanism; a Technology Executive Committee; a Climate Technology Center and Network; a Network of National, Regional, Sectoral and International Technology Centers, Networks, Organization and Initiatives; Twinning Centers for Promotion of North-South, South-South and Triangular Partnerships with a View to Encouraging Co-operative Research and Development; an Expert Workshop on the Operational Modalities of the Technology Mechanism; an International Insurance Facility; a Work Program Body for Policy Approaches and Positive Incentives on Issues Relating to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries; a Body to Implement a Work Program on the Impact of the Implementation of Response Measures; and a Body to Develop Modalities for the Operationalization of the Work Program on the Impact of the Implementation of Response Measures.

The world government’s powers:
The Secretariat will have the power not merely to invite nation states to perform their obligations under the climate-change Convention, but to compel them to do so. Nation states are to be ordered to collect, compile and submit vast quantities of information, in a manner and form to be specified by the secretariat and its growing army of subsidiary bodies. Between them, they will be given new powers to verify the information, to review it and, on the basis of that review, to tell nation states what they can and cannot do.

Continuous expansion:
The verb enhance, in its various forms, occurs at least 28 times in the Chairman’s note, Similar verbs, such as strengthen and extend, and adjectives such as scaled-up, new and additional, are also frequently deployed, particularly in relation to funding at the expense of Western taxpayers. If all of the enhancements proposed in the note were carried out, the cost would comfortably exceed the annual $100 billion (or, for that matter, the 1.5% of GDP) that the note mentions as the cost to the West over the coming decade.

Intellectual property in inventions:
Holders of patents, particularly in fields related to global warming and its mitigation, will be obliged to transfer the benefits of their inventiveness to developing countries without payment of royalties. This is nowhere explicitly stated in the Chairman’s note, but the transfer of technology is mentioned about 20 times in the draft, suggesting that the intention is still to carry out the explicit provision in the defunct Copenhagen Treaty draft of 15 September 2009 to this effect.

Insurance:
The Secretariat proposes, in effect, to interfere so greatly in the operation of the worldwide insurance market that it will cease to be a free market, with the usual severely adverse consequences to everyone in that market.

The free market:
The failed Copenhagen Treaty draft stipulated that the government that would be established would have the power to set the rules of all formerly free markets. There would be no such thing as free markets any more. In Cancun, the Chairman’s note merely says that various market mechanisms may be exploited by the Secretariat and by the parties to the Convention: but references to these market mechanisms are frequent enough to suggest that the intention remains to stamp out free markets worldwide.

Knowledge is power:
The Chairman’s note contains numerous references to a multitude of new as well as existing obligations on nation states to provide information to the Secretariat, in a form and manner which it will dictate. The hand of the EU is very visible here. It grabbed power from the member-states in four stages: first, acting merely as a secretariat to ensure stable supplies of coal and steel to rebuild Europe after the Second World War; then as a registry requiring member states to supply it with ever more information; then as a review body determining on the basis of the information supplied by the member states whether they were complying with their obligations on the ever-lengthier and more complex body of European treaties; and finally as the ultimate law-making authority, to which all elected parliaments, explicitly including the European Parliament, were and are subject. Under the Cancun propsoals, the Secretariat is following the path that the plague of EU officials here have no doubt eagerly advised it to follow. It is now taking numerous powers not merely to require information from nation states but to hold them to account for their supposed international obligations under the climate-change Convention on the basis of the information the nations are now to be compelled to supply.

Propaganda:
The Chairman’s note contains several mentions of the notion that the peoples of the world need to be told more about climate change. Here, too, there is a parallel with the EU, which administers a propaganda fund of some $250 million a year purely to advertise its own wonderfulness to an increasingly sceptical population. The IPCC already spends millions every year with PR agencies, asking them to find new ways of making its blood-curdling message more widely understood and feared among ordinary people. The Secretariat already has the advantage of an uncritical, acquiescent, scientifically illiterate, economically innumerate and just plain dumb news media: now it will have a propaganda fund to play with as well.

Damage caused by The Process:
At the insistence of sensible nation states such as the United States, the Czech Republic, Japan, Canada, and Italy, the Cancun outcome acknowledges that The Process is causing, and will cause, considerable economic damage, delicately described in the Chairman’s note as unintended side-effects of implementing climate-change response measures. The solution? Consideration of the catastrophic economic consequences of the Secretariat’s heroically lunatic decisions will fall under the control of – yup – the Secretariat. Admire its sheer gall.

Damage to world trade:

As the power, wealth and reach of the Secretariat grow, it finds itself rubbing uncomfortably up against other supranational organizations. In particular, the World Trade Organization has been getting antsy about the numerous aspects of the Secretariat’s proposals that constitute restrictions on international trade. At several points, the Chairman’s note expresses the decision – in fact, no more than an opinion and a questionable one at that – that the Secretariat’s policies are not restrictive of trade.

The Canute provision:The conference will reaffirm the decision of its predecessor in Copenhagen this time last year to hold the increase in global average temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, just like that. In fact, temperature in central England, and by implication globally, rose 2.2 Celsius in the 40 years 1695-1735, as the Sun began to recover from its 11,400-year activity minimum, and rose again by 0.74 C in the 20th century. There has been no warming in the 21st century, but we are already well over 2 Celsius degrees above pre-industrial levels. The Canute provision, as some delegates have dubbed it (after the Danish king of early England who famously taught his courtiers the limitations of his power and, a fortiori, theirs when he set up his throne on the beach and commanded sea level not to rise, whereupon the tide came in as usual and wet the royal feet), shows the disconnect between The Process and reality.

Omissions:There are several highly-significant omissions, which jointly and severally establish that the central intent of The Process no longer has anything to do with the climate, if it ever had. The objective is greatly to empower and still more greatly to enrich the international classe politique at the expense of the peoples of the West, using the climate as a pretext, so as to copy the European Union by installing in perpetuity what some delegates here are calling transnational perma-Socialism beyond the reach or recall of any electorate. Here are the key omissions:

•The science: The question whether any of this vast expansion of supranational power is scientifically necessary is not addressed. Instead, there is merely a pietistic affirmation of superstitious faith in the IPCC, where the conference will recognize that deep cuts in global [greenhouse-gas] emissions are required according to science, and as documented in the [IPCC’s] Fourth Assessment Report.
•The economics: There is no assessment of the extent to which any of the proposed actions to mitigate global warming by cutting emissions of carbon dioxide or to adapt the world to its consequences will be cost-effective. Nor, tellingly, is there any direct comparison between mitigation and adaptation in their cost-effectiveness: indeed, the IPCC was carefully structured so that mitigation and adaptation are considered by entirely separate bureaucracies producing separate reports, making any meaningful comparison difficult. Though every economic analysis of this central economic question, other than that of the now-discredited Lord Stern, shows that mitigation is a pointless fatuity and that focused adaptation to the consequences of any global warming that may occur would be orders of magnitude cheaper and more cost-effective, the Cancun conference outcome will continue to treat mitigation as being of equal economic utility with adaptation.
•Termination: Contracts have termination clauses to say what happens when the agreement ends. Nothing better illustrates the intent to create a permanent world-government structure than the absence of any termination provisions whatsoever in the Cancun outcome. The Process, like diamonds, is forever.
•Democracy: Forget government of the people, by the people, for the people. Forget the principle of no taxation without representation that led to the very foundation of the United States. The provisions for the democratic election of the new, all-powerful, legislating, tax-raising world-government Secretariat by the peoples of the world may be summarized in a single word: None.
How did this monstrous transfer of power from once-proud, once-sovereign, once-democratic nations to the corrupt, unelected Secretariat come about? The story begins with Sir Maurice Strong, an immensely wealthy UN bureaucrat from Canada who, a quarter of a century ago, established the IPCC as an intergovernmental, political body rather than as a scientific body precisely so that it could be maneuvered into assisting in the UN’s long-term aim, reiterated at a summit of senior UN officials this May by Ban Ki-Moon himself, of extinguishing national sovereignty and establishing a world government.

The Process began in earnest in 1988, when the IPCC was established. Shortly thereafter, on a June day in Washington DC deliberately chosen by Al Gore because it was unusually hot, his political ally and financial benefactor James Hansen appeared before a Congressional committee and put before it a wildly-exaggerated graph predicting global warming over the coming 20 or 30 years. Yet June 2008, the 20th anniversary of his testimony, was cooler globally than June 1988, and worldwide warming has happened at less than half the rate he predicted.The Rio Earth Summit in 1992 allowed environmental groups and world leaders to grandstand together. From that summit emerged the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which began holding annual conferences on global warming.The Kyoto Protocol in 1997 committed its signatories to cut back their national CO2 emissions to 1990 levels by 2012. Most are not going to make it. The US Senate, with Al Gore as its president, voted 95-0 to reject any treaty such as Kyoto, which bound only the West while leaving developing nations such as China to emit carbon dioxide without constraint.Very little progress had been made by the time of the Bali conference in 2007: but at that conference a road-map was constructed that was to lead to a binding international treaty in Copenhagen in 2009.Just one problem with that. The US Constitution provides that, even if the President has signed a treaty, his signature is meaningless unless the treaty has been debated in the Senate, which must ratify it by the votes of at least 67 of the 100 Senators. It became clear to everyone, after the Obama administration failed to cajole or bully even 60 Senators into passing the Waxman/Markey cap-and-tax Bill, that no climate treaty would pass the Senate.

Worse, the Secretariat grossly overreached itself. Believing its own propaganda to the effect that none but a few vexatious, fossil-funded sceptics believed that “global warming” would be small enough to be harmless, it drafted and posted up on its website a 186-page draft Treaty of Copenhagen, proposing to turn itself into an unelected world government with unlimited powers to impose direct taxation on member nations without representation, recourse or recall, to interfere directly in the environmental policies of individual nations, and to sweep away all free markets worldwide, replacing them with itself as the sole rulemaker in every marketplace (treaty draft, annex 1, articles 36-38). Some quotations from the draft reveal the sheer ambition of the UN:The scheme for the new institutional arrangement under the Convention will be based on three basic pillars: government; facilitative mechanism; and financial mechanism. … The government will be ruled by the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change with the support of a new subsidiary body on adaptation, and of an Executive Board responsible for the management of the new funds and the related facilitative processes and bodies. (Copenhagen Treaty draft of September 15, 2009, para. 38).The three central powers that the UN had hoped to grant itself under the guise of Saving The Planet from alleged climate catastrophe were as follows:Government: This use of the word government is the first use of the term to describe a world government in any international treaty draft.

Financial mechanism: The financial mechanism was a delicate phrase to describe a new power of the UN to levy unlimited taxation directly on the peoples of its member states: taxation without representation, and on a global scale.Facilitative mechanism: This mechanism would, for the first time, have given the UN he power directly to coerce and compel compliance on the part of its member states, by force if necessary. The Treaty draft describes it as –… a facilitative mechanism drawn up to facilitate the design, adoption and carrying out of public policies, as the prevailing instrument, to which the market rules and related dynamics should be subordinate.In short, there was to be a New World Order, with a government having at its command a financial mechanism in the form of unlimited rights to tax the world’s citizen’s directly, and a facilitative mechanism that would bring the rules of all formerly free markets under the direct control of the new UN government, aided by an already-expanding series of bureaucracies.At no point anywhere in the 186 pages of the Treaty draft do the words democracy, election, ballot, or vote appear. As the EU has already demonstrated, the transfer of powers from sovereign democracies to supranational entities brings those democracies to an end. At the supranational level, in the UN, in the EU and in the proposed world government, decisions are not made by anyone whom we, the voters, have elected to make such decisions.The exposure of the draft treaty in major international news media panicked the UN into abandoning the draft before the Copenhagen conference even began. Instead, the UN is now legislating crabwise, as the European Union does, with a series of successive annual agreements, the last of which was the Copenhagen Accord, each transferring more power and wealth from individual nations to its supranational bureaucracy. The latest of these agreements is being finalized here in Cancun.The European Union, which has stealthily stamped out democracy over the past half-century by a series of treaties each transferring a little more power and wealth from elected hands in the member states to unelected hands in Brussels, has been advising the Secretariat on how to do the same on a global scale.

After the spectacular bloody nose the Secretariat got in Copenhagen, it was most anxious not to endure a second failure in Cancun. To this end, it obtained the agreement of the German government to host a monthly series of conferences in Bonn in the early part of 2010, some of which were open to outside observers and some were behind closed doors in a comfortable suburban palace, where the new way of legislating for the world – in secret – first came into use.The Chinese regime, anxious to get a piece of the action, agreed to host an additional session in Tientsin a few weeks ago. The purpose of this near-perpetual international junketing – which the national delegates have greatly enjoyed at our expense – was to make sure that nearly all of the elements in the Cancun agreement were firmly in draft and agreed well before Cancun, so as to avoid what too many journalists have tediously and obviously described as a Mexican stand-off.It is precisely because of all this massive and expensive preparation that the note by the Chairman, whose main points are summarized above, may well reflect what is finally decided and announced here in a couple of days’ time. The Chairman is not simply guessing: this Note reflects what the Secretariat now confidently expects to get away with.However, following the Copenhagen disaster, our grim future New Masters are taking no chances. They persuaded their friends in the mainstream news media, who cannot now easily back out of their original declarations of blind faith in the Church of Global Warming and are as anxious not to lose face as the Secretariat is, to put it about that at Cancun this year and even at Durban next year very little of substance will occur.

The intention is that, after not one but two international climate conferences, the second of them in Rio in 2012 on the 20th anniversity of the Earth Summit that began it all, the Secretariat will have become so wealthy and will have accreted so much power to itself that no one – not even the US Senate – will dare to resist ratifying the Treaty of Rio that brings democracy to an end worldwide and fulfils Lord Mandelson’s recent statement that we are now living in a post-democratic age.Over my dead body. The people know best what is best for the people. The governing class no doubt knows what is best for the governing class, but does not necessarily know what is best for the people, and must always be kept in check by the ballot-box.If we are to have a world government at all (and, as the science of global warming alarm continues to collapse, the current pretext for world domination by a privileged few is wearing more than a little thin), then it is essential that the world government should be an elected government, and that, as Article 1, Section 1 of the US Constitution makes plain when it grants All legislative power to the elected Congress and to the now-elected Senate, none shall make laws for the world or impose taxes upon the world except those whom the people of the world have elected by universal secret ballot.How can we, the people, defeat the Secretariat and keep the democracy we love? Simply by informing our elected representatives of the scope, ambition, and detail of what is in the Cancun agreement. The agreement will not be called a Treaty, because the Senate, particularly after the mid-term elections, will not pass it. But it can still be imposed upon us by the heavily Left-leaning Supreme Court, which no longer makes any pretence at judicial impartiality and may well decide, even if Congress does not, that the Cancun agreement shall stand part of US law on the ground that it is customary international law.I call on COP16 delegates and the citizens of the world to repent of this dangerous course and so inform their government officials. It is the power of individual nations and individual citizens that is being taken away.It is democracy, that will perish from the Earth unless this burgeoning nonsense is stopped.

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

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

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

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

DANIEL 11:21-23
21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
23 And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.
24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.

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

JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

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

Israel's leader does not want to share Jerusalem By Amy Teibel, Associated Press – Sun Dec 12, 11:52 am ET

JERUSALEM – Israel's leader on Sunday dismissed a call from a key government partner to share the holy city of Jerusalem with the Palestinians, a reminder of the obstacles facing already troubled peacemaking efforts.Conflicting claims to east Jerusalem lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The dispute over the area, home to sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites, has derailed past peace talks and spilled into violence. Palestinians claim the sector as the capital of their future state.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reaffirmation of his intention to hold on to east Jerusalem drew criticism from the Palestinians and was likely to increase friction with the Americans. The White House Mideast envoy is scheduled to arrive this week in another attempt to push peace efforts forward.

Netanyahu's defense minister, Ehud Barak of the centrist Labor Party, called for sharing Jerusalem with the Palestinians. But a government official said Barak's idea does not reflect the government's view.The Palestinians want to establish their future state in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel later annexed east Jerusalem in a move that is not recognized by the international community.Israel's internal diplomatic flare-up came just days after the U.S. dropped its effort to persuade Israel to reinstate a moratorium on new building states in the West Bank as a way of restarting peace talks.Instead, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said indirect talks would resume, while insisting that the two sides must now deal with core issues. Those include the status of Jerusalem, as well as borders, settlements and refugees.

Palestinians blasted Israel's rejection of their claim to east Jerusalem.Mr. Netanyahu is distancing himself not from Barak, he is distancing himself from international consensus, he's distancing himself from international resolutions and distancing himself from international law, said Palestinian spokesman Husam Zomlot. And most importantly, he's distancing himself from any possible negotiated settlement based on the two-state solution.Jordanian Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh on Sunday urged the U.S. to come up with a new formula to push the process forward.Interviewed on ABC-TV, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the U.S. might have to express its own ideas.It may be unavoidable, actually, for the United States acting as a broker at some point to come in with bridging proposals so we make this happen, he said.Since Netanyahu came to power nearly two years ago, he has grudgingly accepted the principle of a Palestinian state next to Israel. He has carefully refrained from getting into specifics about the core issues, however, saying these must be negotiated.Clinton expressed frustration with the Israeli-Palestinian impasse over the weekend, though she did not suggest a new way forward. She spoke at a forum in Washington.

Addressing the same gathering, Barak said the holy city will have to be shared as part of a future peace deal.An Israeli official told The Associated Press that Barak was expressing a personal opinion, not the government's position.Those remarks were not coordinated with the prime minister, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because Netanyahu has not responded publicly to Barak's remarks or to Clinton's speech.Since Netanyahu came to power nearly two years ago, Israelis and Palestinians have not been close to tackling major issues. Netanyahu's more moderate predecessor offered a Palestinian state with joint control of key Jerusalem holy sites among other features, but the Palestinians did not accept it. In her speech Friday, Clinton urged both sides to lay out their positions on these core issues without delay and with real specificity. She pointedly called for compromise on the contested holy city, observing that there will surely be no peace without an agreement on Jerusalem — the most sensitive of all the issues.U.S.-led negotiations broke down after just three weeks and Israel refused to renew a 10-month moratorium on new settlement housing. Palestinians said they would not return to the talks unless there was a total freeze in West Bank and east Jerusalem construction. Israel countered that such a condition had never been made before, and the issue should be part of the negotiations.Washington's special envoy to the Mideast, George Mitchell, is expected to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week.

Palestinians express doubts over 2-state future By DAN PERRY and TIA GOLDENBERG, Associated Press - DEC 12,10

JERUSALEM – Conventional wisdom on Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking has long held that Israel should relinquish most of the lands it occupied in 1967 in favor of a Palestinian state — the two-state solution that much of the world has supported for years.But the utter lack of progress in peace talks and continued Jewish settlement in the West Bank has many people warning that Israel might instead be headed toward a one-state reality, with a permanent occupation of the West Bank and a Jewish minority ruling over an Arab majority — unless, perhaps, the world forces it to give the Palestinians the right to vote.If Israel continues with these measures that it is employing today, the possibility of a two-state solution becomes very slim, if any, Mohammed Ishtayeh, a senior adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Sunday. In the long run Israel is in the losing track. The Israeli leadership today is very shortsighted.The startling departure from the widely accepted notion of Israel as the stronger side is increasingly common and a function of demographics: In the contiguous land mass formed by Israel proper and the areas the Palestinians want for their state, Arabs have probably caught up to the Jews numerically, and they have the higher birthrate. Viewed through this prism, it is in Israel's vital interest — hardly a concession — to seek partition.

Ishtayeh said the two-state solution is a win-win situation for both sides, and warned: If Israel loses this opportunity then you are going into the 'South Africanization' of the Palestinian question — a situation in which a minority rules over a disenfranchised majority, and that majority demands equal rights in a shared state.Officially, both sides remain committed to the U.S.-led effort, which began in September, to negotiate the creation of a Palestinian state within a year.But those talks ran aground three weeks after they began, when the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ended a 10-month freeze on new Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank, prompting a Palestinian walk out. The Obama administration last week announced it was ending two months of efforts to coax Israel into resuming the freeze.Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev insisted the 120 West Bank settlements — home to 300,000 people — only encompassed a small part of West Bank territory and noted that Israel pulled some 8,000 settlers out of Gaza in 2005. Israel is ready for a two-state solution and we don't believe that the limited building that has been going on in any way undermines that goal, he said.In a speech Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed to push the parties to grapple with the core issues and said the establishment of a Palestinian state through negotiations is inevitable.

Not everyone here would agree with that assessment. The gaps between Netanyahu and Abbas on questions like sharing Jerusalem and the future of Palestinian refugees seem very far apart, and the Palestinians have failed to embrace past offers from far more accommodating Israeli leaderships.The Palestinians are already running a parallel track, lobbying nations to recognize a Palestinian state in the entire West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — without Israeli acquiescence.What if that effort fails? Abbas himself has spoken of resigning, declaring the Palestinian Authority — an autonomy government set up as an interim phase in the 1990s — defunct.It is a serious threat, maybe the only serious threat and the only real weapon the Palestinians have, said Yossi Beilin, a veteran peace negotiator and former senior Israeli Cabinet minister. Then the responsibility is back with Israel.Meanwhile, Israel is creating facts on the ground with the construction of hundreds of new housing units in the West Bank. Each additional settler, critics warn, deepens an already great intertwining of the two peoples and will make it more difficult to carve out a separate Palestine.There is a right-wing government that refuses to halt settlement construction, encourages Jews to move to the West Bank, and is leading us to an irreversible situation, said Arnon Soffer, a professor emeritus of geostrategy at the University of Haifa.Soffer has long warned the combined population of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza would eventually tilt in favor of an Arab majority, and official statistics from both sides seem to bear out his predictions.Israel in September said its population was 7.6 million, which includes 5.8 million Jews, a figure which counts the 300,000 West Bank settlers, and 1.6 million Arabs. The Palestinian Bureau of Statistics says the West Bank has 2.5 million Palestinians and the Gaza Strip 1.5 million. That means the entire area has a roughly similar number of Jews and Arabs — just under 6 million each.

But the Arab birth rate is significantly higher. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, the average Jewish woman had 2.9 children, compared to 3.73 for Muslim women. According to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, the fertility rate among all Palestinian women was 4.6 births — much higher than Israel's, yet in decline.Some in Israel say that they have gained some demographic time by unilaterally pulling troops and settlers out of Gaza, which is now ruled by the Hamas militant group. Some members of the Israeli right have even embraced the one state idea, believing that without control of Gaza, Israel still might be able to absorb the West Bank's 2.5 million Palestinians.They would be willing to increase the already large Arab minority because beyond Israel's biblical ties to the West Bank, security hawks fear the loss of the territory's strategic highland. It surrounds Jerusalem on three sides and reaches within 20 miles (30 kilometers) of Tel Aviv.Others say the demographic threat is exaggerated because Arab population figures are inaccurate.When people say that the demographic threat necessitates a separation, my reply is that the lesser danger, the lesser evil, is a single state in which there are equal rights for all citizens, Israeli speaker of parliament Reuven Rivlin, who is from Netanyahu's rightist Likud party, told the Israeli daily Haaretz in July.Another Likud lawmaker, Tzipi Hotovely, has been floating ideas about gradual annexation of territory and the offering of citizenship only to certain Palestinians who would have to have equal obligations and accept Israel as a Jewish state.None of that will work, Beilin predicted. At the last minute, he said, any Zionist Israeli leader would simply withdraw unilaterally from much of the West Bank.And what of the Palestinians? Nobody will ask them,Beilin said.AP writer Daniella Cheslow contributed to this report.

Former EU leaders challenge Ashton on Israel-Graffiti on Israel's wall in East Jerusalem. Time is fast running out the letter says (Photo: Reham Alhelsi)
ANDREW RETTMAN 10.12.2010 @ 09:30 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A large group of former EU leaders and commissioners, including Catherine Ashton's predecessor Javier Solana, has urged the Union to take sanctions against Israel on settlements. But Ms Ashton's reply indicates the plea will go unheard.The group in a letter to EU capitals and the leaders of the EU institutions on 6 December, seen by EUobserver, says that Israel like any other state should be made to feel the consequences and pay a price tag for breaking international law by building thousands of new Jewish homes on Palestinian land.It asks EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels on 13 December to state as doctrine that the EU: Will not recognize any changes to the June 1967 boundaries, and clarify that a Palestinian state should be in sovereign control over territory equivalent to 100 percent of the territory occupied in 1967, including its capital in East Jerusalem.It also asks ministers to set an ultimatum of April 2011 for Israel to fall into line or see the Union seek an end to the existing US-led peace talks in favour of a UN solution. On top of this, the bloc should: officially link its informal freeze on an upgrade in EU-Irsael diplomatic relations to a settlement freeze; block imports of products made in settlements but labelled as made in Israel; make Israel pay the lion's share of aid to Palestine; send a high-level delegation to East Jerusalem to back Palestinian claims; and reclassify EU support for Palestine as nation building instead of institution building.The letter warns in a note of urgency that time is fast running out because Israel's continuation of settlement activity ... poses an existential threat to the prospects of establishing a sovereign, contiguous and viable Palestinian state.Criticising existing EU policy, it adds that tough action is a matter of fundamental credibility for the bloc, which risks deterioration in its ties with Arab trade partners. The EU needs to act more pro-actively in its relations with the US, Israel and others to promote the fulfillment of this objective,it says. The letter is signed by 26 notables including 10 former leaders of European countries, 10 former ministers and several former EU commissioners. The roll-call includes former German chancellor Helmut Schmid, former German president Richard von Weizsacker, one-time Spanish leader Felipe Gonzales, ex-EU commission president and Italian PM Romano Prodi and the UK's former EU commissioner Chris Patten. It also represents the first time that the forerunner of EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, Javier Solana, has come out of the wings to challenge the newcomer.

The proposals read like a red rag to a bull as far as Israel is concerned.Israel lobbied last year to stop the EU from saying that East Jerusalem, which Israel considers part of its indivisible capital, should be the centre of a new Palestinian state. It also has a vested interest in keeping its closest ally, the US, in charge of the peace process instead of involving hostile Arab countries under the UN umbrella.EU ministers are set to discuss the Middle East at their 13 December meeting, but the bloc is currently in wait-and-see mode on US efforts to try to resume peace talks, which stalled in September. Ms Ashton has over the past year invested plenty of energy in building a relationship with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Middle East envoy George J. Mitchell on the peace process. Her policy has been to accept US leadership on big diplomacy, while focusing on help for Palestinian Authorities to build institutions, such as a normal treasury and judicial system, so that Jews and Arabs can live side-by-side more easily pending a long-term solution.In a letter of response to the former leaders, dated 7 December and also seen by this website, she indicates that her approach will remain unchanged for the time being.Ms Ashton says the idea of 1967 borders is commonly accepted but does not mention the thorny issue of how to share East Jerusalem, indicating that its status as a future Palestinian capital is up for negotiation.She goes on to support the current format for international Middle East diplomacy and does not mention any threat to formally freeze the EU-Israel upgrade. While accepting that it is important settlement-origin products do not get preferential EU tariffs, she also ignores the idea of an EU trade block on mislabelled goods.The implementation of the [EU's previous] conclusions is proceeding on several fronts, Ms Ashton says.The European Union will continue to be at the forefront of efforts to advance the peace process and engage with both the Palestinians and the Israelis to find a way to resolve the conflict.Her approach is in line with the US' long-standing vision for the EU's role in the region.In a leaked US cable dating back to a pre-Ashton-period meeting between senior US diplomat Phil Gordon and EU counterparts in July 2009, Mr Gordon said: There might be benefits in Washington focusing its efforts on getting a stop to settlement activity while the EU focused on efforts to build security in the PA-administered [Palestinian-Authority-administered] territories.

Left, Right Clash on Support from European Right
by Gil Ronen DEC 12,10

A show of support for Israel's settlements in Judea and Samaria by a delegation of right-wing European politicians has led to a highly charged yet fascinating debate between left-wing and nationalist spokesmen in Israel.Samaria spokesman David Ha'ivri sees the European Right's support for settlements as a revolutionary opportunity for Israel and is already planning a follow-up visit to Europe, including joint appearances with the right-wing European politicians.In Left-wing Ha'aretz, Adar Primor blasted the Europeans' visit and the reasoning behind it. In an article titled The unholy alliance between Israel's Right and Europe's anti-Semites, it mocked the Israeli nationalists who believe they have tamed this bunch of extremists they brought over from Europe but warned that the Europeans have not genuinely cast off their spiritual DNA, and in any event, they aren't looking for anything except for Jewish absolution that will bring them closer to political power.
Filip Dewinter, a member of the delegation, is a leader of the Vlaams Belang party, a successor to the Flemish National Movement, many of whose members collaborated with the Nazis,wrote Primor. Among its current members are a number of Holocaust deniers. Dewinter himself moved about in anti-Semitic circles and has ties to European extremist and neo-Nazi parties. In 1988, he paid his respects to the tens of thousands of Nazi soldiers buried in Belgium, and in 2001, he opened a speech with an oath used by the SS.

Primor had worse words for Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of Austria's Freedom Party. If Jorg Haider was Hitler's spiritual grandson,then Strache is his extremely illegitimate great-grandson. His grandfather was in the Waffen-SS, and his father served in the Wehrmacht. As a university student, Strache belonged to an extremist organization from which Jews were banned, hung out with neo-Nazis and participated in paramilitary exercises with them. Commentators in Austria say that Strache is trying to copy Haider but that he is less sophisticated and ultimately more extreme than his role model.

Ha'ivri headed for Europe?
Ha'ivri, one of the settler movement's most prominent representatives on the world media stage, was unfazed by the leftist riposte. If these European leaders – with their ties to anti-Semitic groups and their past – come around and declare that Israel has a right to exist securely in all of the areas under our control, and that Europe has a moral responsibility because of the crimes of their past, then I believe that we should accept their friendship,he told Israel National News.Their statements are the strongest possible tool in the war against antisemitism, Ha'ivri contended. No skinhead cares what [Anti-Defamation League Chairman] Abe Foxman has to say, but if Filip Dewinter and Heinz-Christian Strache make these statements they will have real impact. For that reason I am considering appearing with them in their countries for pro-Israel rallies. I think that it is worth the risk of being defamed by Ha'aretz and the like if we can cause a shift in the European nationalist movements, moving them away from their traditional Jew-hatred and bringing them closer to appreciation of Zionism. I don't think that I am naive to feel that this is a revolutionary opportunity.I agree that we should be careful,Ha'ivri added on his Facebook page. The Left on the other hand will never let up; they will use fascist tactics and brand us as fascists. Their historic heroes [Chaim] Arlozorov and [Rudolf] Kastner actually collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust. But the Left never excused Avraham Stern ('Yair') for exploring the option of working with the Germans against the British before the Holocaust began.Arlozorov, Kastner and Stern are well known figures from Israel's pre-statehood and early statehood era. Labor party functionary Arlozorov was killed by unknown assassins in 1933, Lechi underground leader Stern was murdered by British authorities in 1942 and prominent Hungarian Jewish leader Kastner was shot dead by a Holocaust survivor in 1957.The debate between Israel's left wing and right wing over the subject of the European Right is as old as Israeli politics. While the Left tends to despise all things nationalist, including Jewish nationalism, the Right tends to differentiate between anti-Jewish nationalism and other forms of nationalism. However, cooperation with politicians from right-wing European parties is a subject of controversy within the Israeli nationalist camp as well.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

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

Storm Causes Damage, Replenishes Water Supplies
by Maayana Miskin DEC 12,10

Storms raged in Israel on Sunday, bringing heavy rain to the center and north of the country and clouds of dust to the south. Seawalls broke down in Caesaria and Tel Aviv, leading to concerns for the security of the ancient Caesaria port.In Be'er Sheva, which was hit by a dust storm blowing up from Egypt, the level of particles in the air was 10 times the limit deemed acceptable for pollutants. In Jerusalem air quality was over the limit by a factor of eight, and in Tel Aviv, by a factor of four.High winds were reported throughout the country, with wind speed reaching 100 kilometers per hour in some places. The winds pushed storm clouds north.Several people suffered storm-related injuries, including a man in Netanya who was moderately wounded when a falling tree branch struck his car.While the storm caused some damage, it also brought much-needed rain. In Haifa a total of 130 millimeters fell, approaching the monthly average of 140mm. Tzfat got 164mm, and Naharia, 143.

Less rain fell in the central coast. In Tel Aviv, only 15mm fell. However, experts said they expect water levels in streams and other reserves to continue to rise overnight.Snow fell in the Hermon. Weather forecasters said snow will continue to fall Monday as well.The dust is expected to subside by Monday morning, while stormy weather is expected to continue.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

Storm socks Midwest, cancels flights, closes roads By SOPHIA TAREEN, Associated Press - DEC 12,10

CHICAGO – A powerful winter storm roared across the upper Midwest on Sunday with high winds and mounds of snow closing roads in several states and canceling more than 1,400 flights in Chicago.At least one weather-related death was reported Sunday as the storm system that dumped nearly 2 feet of snow in parts of Minnesota and caused the Metrodome's inflatable, Teflon roof to collapse moved east. The Minnesota Vikings-New York Giants game was pushed to Monday night at Detroit's Ford Field.A blizzard warning was in effect Sunday for parts of eastern Iowa, southeastern Wisconsin, northwestern Illinois, and northern Michigan, according to the National Weather Service. Surrounding areas, including Chicago, were under winter storm warnings. It's going to be blustery, said Ben Deubelbeiss, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Romeoville, Ill.The winter weather, with blowing snow that severely limited visibility, wreaked havoc on air and road travel. In the Chicago area, wind gusts of up to 50 mph, temperatures in the teens, wind chills well below zero were expected along with up to 8 inches of snow.

More than 1,200 flights were canceled at O'Hare International Airport and more than 250 were canceled at Midway International Airport, Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Karen Pride said. Both airports expected more cancellations and reported significant delays.Major highways in several states were closed due to poor driving conditions and accidents.Illinois State Police closed a section of Interstate 80 in the north central part of the state Sunday after a multiple-car pileup west of Peru. An injury report wasn't immediately available.Interstate 90 from Albert Lea, Minn., to Exit 410 in South Dakota reopened Sunday afternoon after being closed Saturday because blowing snow reduced visibility. Minnesota state highways also reopened, although transportation officials warned that many were still snow-compacted, icy and, in numerous cases, down to a single lane.In Iowa, Interstate 29 from the state line to Sioux Falls, S.D. remained closed, although other portions of it and Interstate 80 reopened.Although roads were open in Wisconsin, state officials urged drivers to stay home because blowing snow severely limited visibility. Tod Pritchard, a spokesman for Wisconsin Emergency Management, said travel was expected to become even more difficult in the afternoon because temperatures were falling and at a certain point, road salt would no longer be effective.We're really urging everyone to stay off the roads today and stay hunkered down at home, Pritchard said.

The storm had already dropped up to 18 inches of snow in parts of northern and central Wisconsin, he said, and light snow continued Sunday.AAA-Michigan said it has been a busy day for its roadside assistance crews, with 850 calls from midnight through 12:30 p.m. Sunday.A lot of cars in ditches, spinouts, dead batteries, spokeswoman Nancy Cain said. It's really the first big blast of winter weather statewide.Travel conditions were hazardous in much of the region. Six people were injured Saturday when a van carrying 13 people hit a guardrail and overturned in Mecosta County, near Stanwood, Mich., in the north-central Lower Peninsula. Authorities said Sunday that weather played a role in the death of Douglas Munneke, 55, of St. Cloud, Minn. He died of a heart attack after collapsing while he was snow-blowing his driveway Saturday.The weather was an unexpected burden for a Minnesota man who had pledged to camp out on the roof of a coffee shop to help his daughter's school raise money.Hospital executive Robert Stevens donned four layers of long underwear, heavy boots and a down coat before embarking on his quest Friday night. He had vowed not to come down until he had raised $100,000, but he reconsidered about 3 p.m. Saturday after high winds shredded his tent canopy.But Sunday morning, Stevens headed back up to brave the subzero wind-chills. He had only raised $54,000 and said if he didn't get to his goal the school would likely close. Mother Nature won out yesterday — but I'm looking for the win today,Stevens said.Associated Press writer Dirk Lammers in Sioux Falls, S.D., David Goodman in Detroit, Dinesh Ramde in Milwaukee and Patrick Condon in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

Bill Would Grant Rabbis Immunity Regarding Freedom of Speech
by Gil Ronen DEC 12,10

National Union Knesset Member Michael Ben-Ari is proposing a bill that would give rabbis who work for the state immunity from prosecution regarding actions and pronouncements that are part of their leadership duties, or over pronouncements of Jewish law (Halacha). The bill would grant the rabbis immunity similar to that of Knesset members, as far as their freedom of speech is concerned.The bill is a response to the public debate around a decree signed by an estimated 300 rabbis, calling upon citizens not to sell or rent out homes to Arabs.The bill was originally drafted by former MK Shmuel Halpert of Agudat Yisrael.The explanatory notes to the bill note that since Israel's laws grant immunity to negative elements like Arab MKs Ahmed Tibi and Hanin Zouabi – who openly side with Israel's foes – it is only proper to give immunity to Israel's chief rabbis and to the rabbis of cities, towns and neighborhoods. Rabbis must not be made to refrain from publishing Halachic rulings – or to twist the true meaning of Jewish law – because they fear the Prosecution, the notes explain.In a separate statement, MK Ben Ari added that the Left in Israel must remember that freedom of speech is the heart and soul of democracy and we must ensure that a rabbi should have no fear of publishing Torah opinion in the letter and spirit of Halacha.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

Saudi still favors $70-$80 oil, OPEC holds supply By Amena Bakr and Hugh Bronstein – Sat Dec 11, 6:45 pm ET

QUITO (Reuters) – Leading OPEC producer Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it still favored a $70-$80 price range for oil, a restatement of a two-year-old policy that will be welcomed by consumer nations worried that rising oil prices may get out of control and hamper global economic recovery.Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters at an OPEC meeting in Quito: $70-$80 is a good price.The comments came as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed, as expected, to keep production restraints unchanged, despite a recent surge in crude prices to $90 a barrel.With OPEC's next meeting not scheduled until June 2, markets are likely to test Saudi Arabia's resolve to keep prices below $80.The real issue here is whether additional supplies will be added, said Lawrence Eagles, global head of oil research at JP Morgan in New York. Minister Naimi said $80 was the top end of the range; let's see if he follows up with higher supplies.U.S. crude closed at $87.79 a barrel on Friday having touched a two-year high of $90.76 earlier in the week.Saudi, OPEC's most influential producer, is likely to face opposition to any change in policy from other members who argue that demand is not strong enough to warrant more oil and that speculators are to blame for driving prices up.

Price hawk Venezuela called for $100 oil and said OPEC should not lift output again through the end of 2011.We believe that the market should compensate high production costs. $100 appears to be an adequate price, said Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez.Iranian Oil minister Massoud Mirkazemi said global oil demand was not good and that nominal prices are good, real prices are not.Riyadh may decide the best way to stop prices rising further is to quietly lift supplies to buyers through its monthly sales process rather than via OPEC policy.When you have Venezuela saying $100 is adequate and Iran saying demand is weak even as it skyrockets, I think if they (the Saudis) don't want a confrontation they will quietly supply more to the market, said Edward Morse, Managing Director at Credit Suisse in New York.OPEC agreed its biggest ever supply curbs at the end of 2008 after a price collapse from $147 to just over $33 caused by a recessionary drop in fuel demand. It has not changed policy since.Many OPEC ministers say supplies are sufficient and that they will only open the taps to meet extra demand.Once there is a shortage in the market, or once we feel there is a shortage in the market, we of course will increase production but it is not just a function of the price, Libya's head of delegation Shokri Ghanem said.If prices go high because of speculation we can do nothing about it, said Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri.When you go to buy oil and you cannot find it, that's when OPEC will interfere and solve it.Inventories held among the industrialized nations of the OECD are high at 60 days of forward demand. But the International Energy Agency, adviser to consumer nations, said on Friday that world demand, bolstered by an early winter cold snap, is rising more quickly than expected.Extra demand has flattened the oil futures price curve and reduced the discount for prompt crude, cutting the incentive for traders to store oil, likely meaning inventories will start dropping.Eagles at JP Morgan said: Really these (OPEC) comments underscore that OPEC wants lower inventories, and if it thinks the market will allow that to happen without higher prices it is mistaken.

German minister says open to EU fiscal union talks
– Sun Dec 12, 9:05 am ET

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany is open to a discussion over whether countries that share the euro currency should harmonize their fiscal policy, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.In an interview published on Sunday in Bild am Sonntag newspaper, Schaeuble said the decision made at the euro's creation to not integrate state finances into a European framework could be addressed anew.The basic decision was for fiscal and budgetary policy to be decided on the national level. If that is to be changed, then we can talk about it, he said.Berlin has opposed calls by Spain and other countries to move toward a full-fledged fiscal union in the 16-nation bloc but appeared last week to have agreed to a limited form of policy coordination.

Looking forward, Schaeuble predicted that member states of the European Union would come ever closer politically.In ten years we will have a structure that corresponds much stronger to what one describes as political union, he said.In an advance portion of the interview released on Saturday, Schaeuble said the euro currency is here to stay, and warned those betting against its survival that they are making a mistake.European leaders meet next week to discuss ways to solve a euro zone debt crisis which has triggered bailouts for Greece and Ireland and which analysts say could engulf other countries. They are expected to agree the terms of a permanent rescue mechanism for the bloc.Germany and France have pledged to better align their tax and labor policies to foster convergence in the euro zone, but have rejected calls for an increase in the bloc's rescue fund and joint sovereign bonds.Pressure on high-deficit euro members eased slightly over the past week after the European Central Bank bought government bonds in a thin end-of-year market, pushing down the borrowing costs of countries on Europe's southern periphery.(Writing by Brian Rohan; Editing by Louise Heavens)