NATIONAL LAWS HAMSTRING EU ELECTIONS

OTHER CARBON TAX READING
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=121152

Replace Kyoto protocol with global carbon tax, says Yale economist ,The Kyoto protocol is reckless gamble that penalises participating countries, Copenhagen climate change congress told Guardian March 12, 2009 Byline: Oliver Tickell

The world should dump the inefficient and ineffective Kyoto protocol and replace it with a global carbon tax, leading economist William Nordhaus said yesterday.To bet the world's climate system on the Kyoto approach is a reckless gamble, he told the climate change congress in Copenhagen. Taxation is a proven instrument. Taxes may be unpopular, but they work. The Kyoto model is largely untested and the experience we have tells us it will not meet our objective -- to stablise the world climate system.

This week's meeting of more than 2,000 scientists and policy-makers is intended to lay the groundwork for a major UN summit in Copenhagen in December that hopes to negotiate a new climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto protocol.Nordhaus, professor of economics at Yale university, critricised the Kyoto system in trenchant terms. The developed countries that have emissions reductions targets account for only half of the world's carbon emissions. Our models show that a 50% non-participation results in a 250% increase in the cost to those who are participating, and this is a huge penalty we can no longer afford.He also attacked the Kyoto protocol's clean development mechanism (CDM), which allows industrialised countries that are not meeting their Kyoto targets to comply by 'buying in' carbon credits from projects in developing countries. The CDM produces highly opaque instruments which are the climate equivalent of mortgage-backed securities and structured credit derivatives, he said.He proposed that a carbon tax, levied on fossil fuels and transport, would be simple and effective. It would create a reliable carbon price which would create the incentive we need to shift towards a low-carbon economy. Initially a carbon tax would affect producers, but as the price signal was passed through the economy it would drive the transformation to low-carbon technologies and efficient use of energy at every level.Nordhaus insisted that his tax plan was achievable.Many countries are very scared of signing up to emissions reductions commitents under the Kyoto protocol because they don't know if they can achieve them and are concerned as to the consequences if they don't. My suggestion is that they should be allowed, as an alternative to emissions targets, to commit to imposing a carbon tax at a minimum level. As a small country I would find this carbon tax model very attractive.

Cambridge economist Professor Michael Grubb agreed that there is no doubt that governments will respond far better to climate change if they believe that there will be a substantial carbon tax in the future that everyone will have to pay. Jacqueline McGlade, director of the European Environment Agency, based in Copenhagen, also backed Nordhaus's plan.His idea is very sensible. We need to move the burden of taxation away from labour to resources -- and tax not just on carbon but other resources such as water to tackle the far wider environmental and resource problems we face.Dan Kammen, professor of economics at Berkeley, said the world needs more than a carbon tax to tackle climate change.. A uniform carbon tax may be very nice in theory, but we are not going to make climate policy on theory alone. Any carbon tax would need to be supplemented by policy, legislation, regulation and efficiency standards.For example, Kammen said, huge investment is needed to rebuild electricity grids to accommodate a higher proportion of renewables and a carbon price could not achieve that in the necessary time frame. How many of us would have a cellphone if we had to pay for 20 years of minutes upfront? We need financing to enable people to build clean energy into their homes on terms which makes it available to owners, landlords, renters and low-income groups.2009, Guardian

EARTHQUAKES

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

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

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

Quake rocks Melbourne for second time in fortnight Wed Mar 18, 3:56 am ET

MELBOURNE (AFP) – An earthquake shook Australia's second largest city, Melbourne, for the second time in a fortnight Wednesday, rocking buildings and dislodging furniture.

The 4.5 magnitude quake struck at 4:28pm (0528 GMT) some 100 kilometres (62 miles) southeast of the city, the Seismology Research Centre said, in almost exactly the same spot as a March 6 quake.The centre said its magnitude and depth of 10 kilometres meant it was unlikely to cause major damage.This earthquake has been felt widely throughout the epicentral region and across Melbourne, the centre said on its website.

The aftershock sequence is expected to continue. We have had no reports of damage and it is unlikely that an earthquake of this magnitude and depth will cause any significant damage.Emergency services said they had received no reports of damage from the quake, which some residents of the city say lasted up to 20 seconds.Andrew Harris was in his 26th floor city centre apartment when he felt the building sway, describing the tremor as much stronger than earlier this month which registered at 4.6.This was much longer and much more severe, the pot plants and the furniture actually rocked,he told Sky News.It was a little bit unsettling to feel the building rock, it did actually move the building. In the last one, it just felt a little bit unstable.

Just three Australian earthquakes are known to have caused fatalities, the University of Western Australia says on its website, with the worst being in 1989 in Newcastle in New South Wales state, which killed 13 people.

Moderate quake hits off Indonesia: officials Wed Mar 18, 7:43 am ET

JAKARTA (AFP) – A moderate, 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi Wednesday, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage and no tsunami warning.The quake, which hit at 05:03 pm (0903 GMT), was centred at 321 kilometres (199 miles) northeast of North Sulawesi's capital of Manado and at a depth of 59 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.The Indonesian archipelago sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire where continental plates meet, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

Strong quake between Philippines, Indonesia Mon Mar 16, 3:33 pm ET

JAKARTA (AFP) – A strong 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck in the ocean between the Philippines and Indonesia Monday, geologists said, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.The US Geological Survey said the epicentre was about 294 kilometres (183 miles) south-southeast of General Santos in the Philippines.The quake, which struck at 10:15 pm (1415 GMT) was located around 35 kilometres below sea level.The magnitude of the quake was revised to 6.3 by the geological survey after it initially reported it to be 6.0.It was followed around 10 minutes later by an aftershock with a magnitude of 5.0.No tsunami warning was immediately issued.

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.

Accuweather sees fewer U.S. hurricanes in '09 season Wed Mar 18, 8:36 am ET

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Private forecaster AccuWeather.com said on Wednesday it expects four tropical storms to strike the U.S. coastline during the 2009 Atlantic season, which begins June 1, compared with eight last year.AccuWeather's Chief Long-Range and Hurricane Forecaster Joe Bastardi said the greatest risk this year may be to the U.S. East Coast, but a storm in the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico could not be ruled out.I do think the Eastern Seaboard and the Canadian Maritimes will need to watch more than normal, Bastardi told Reuters.The Gulf of Mexico is much less active than in the past, but that doesn't mean we can't get something together in the Gulf.Bastardi's weather forecasts can have tremendous sway over U.S. energy market traders' outlook for national supply and demand.Bastardi forecasts three of the storms striking the U.S. coast to be hurricanes with one a major hurricane packing winds of at least 111 miles per hour, rated as a category 3 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.

Accuweather's forecast is in line with those of other metrologists, which expect reduced activity compared with 2008 when storms shut offshore oil platforms and onshore refineries for weeks.Offshore production in the U.S.-regulated areas of the Gulf of Mexico provide a quarter of national crude oil supply and 15 percent of natural gas, while 43 percent of the country's refining capacity lies along the shores of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.Among the factors forecast to reduce the number of storms is a weak El Nino weather pattern expected to form in the mid to late hurricane season, Bastardi said.El Nino weather patterns occur when water temperatures are warmer than normal in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. During an El Nino, Atlantic hurricane activity is reduced.Stronger trade winds across northern Africa are forecast to increase dust and dry air blowing into the Atlantic, reducing temperatures where storms form.Cooler water temperatures in the tropical Atlantic may reduce the number and intensity of storms, but those moving to the north and east may have more time to strengthen, he said.For the entire Atlantic season, Bastardi predicts 13 named storms including eight hurricanes with two of those rated as major storms of category 3 or higher.Colorado State University's Tropical Metrology Project issued a forecast at the end of December calling for 14 named storms including seven hurricanes three of which are expected to become category 3 or stronger.(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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

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

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

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

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

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

DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.

DANIEL 11:36-40
36 And the king shall do according to his will;(EU PRESIDENT) and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS A EUROPEAN JEW) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(HES A MILITARY GINIUS) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds (CONTROL HEZBOLLAH,AL-QUAIDA MURDERERS ETC) with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south(EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR PROTECTING ISRAELS SECURITY) and the king of the north(RUSSIA) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).

ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU Obama official wants talks with terrorists
Believes deadly group can be part of peace process March 18, 2009 7:12 pm Eastern
By Aaron Klein 2009 WorldNetDaily

Zbigniew Brzezinski
JERUSALEM – A group of former senior American officials and one current top adviser to the Obama administration are petitioning the U.S. president to open talks with the Hamas terrorist organization, believing the group can be part of the Palestinian peace process. Paul Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman who was selected by Obama to head his new economic recovery advisory board, reportedly signed a letter advocating dialogue with Hamas. The letter was also signed by nine other Washington veterans, according to a report in the Boston Globe. Other signatories include Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to George Bush Sr., and Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was President Jimmy Carter's security adviser. Brzezinski's pro-Hamas views have been aired publicly in newspaper opinion pieces and policies speeches.

I see no reason not to talk to Hamas,Scowcroft told the Globe.

The main gist (of the letter) is that you need to push hard on the Palestinian peace process,Scowcroft said. Don't move it to the end of your agenda and say you have too much to do. And the U.S. needs to have a position, not just hold their coats while they sit down.Other signatories of the letter reportedly included former House International Relations Committee chairman Lee Hamilton; former United Nations ambassador Thomas Pickering; former World Bank president James Wolfensohn; former U.S. trade representative Carla Hills; Theodore Sorensen, former special counsel to President John F. Kennedy; and former Republican Sens. Chuck Hagel and Nancy Kassebaum Baker. The Telegraph of London reported the group is expected to be granted an audience at the White House as early as this week to make their case to Obama that lines of communication should be opened with Hamas. Just last week, WND reported there was concern among Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization the Obama administration already changed its attitude toward Hamas and may be ready to end the terrorist group's isolation. Three years of the siege against Hamas is ending,said a top PA negotiator, speaking from Ramallah on condition his name be withheld.There is a new policy in the Obama administration regarding Hamas. We are concerned Hamas is starting to be a legitimate player in the equation of the Mideast and the PA.The negotiator met earlier this month with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Asked by WND whether Clinton or any other U.S. official expressed direct support for opening U.S. dialogue with Hamas, the PA negotiator replied,No. But there are troubling signs.He pointed to recent U.S. support for a unity government between Hamas and Fatah. This is the first time the U.S. has supported such a unity government. There was no objection from the U.S. about Hamas joining the PA,he said. He also pointed to Sen. John Kerry's visit last month to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Massachusetts lawmaker's reported acceptance of a letter from the Islamist group as legitimizing Hamas.Kerry, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, became the most senior U.S. government official to enter Gaza since 2000. The senator announced his trip – which focused on U.N. facilities in Gaza – did not signal any change in U.S. policy toward Hamas, while it was reported he accepted a letter from the group to deliver to President Obama. A Kerry spokesman said the senator was not aware the letter, provided to him by a U.N. employee, originated with Hamas.

Mushir al-Massri, a Hamas spokesman and parliament member, told WND from Gaza: Kerry can say there is no change, but Hamas controls Gaza. It's very important that he came here. I hope next time the U.S. can more openly support Hamas.Hamas' official charter calls for the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel. The Islamist group is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shootings and rocket attacks aimed at Jewish civilians. A spokesman for the State Department told WND yesterday there is no change in the U.S. policy of isolating Hamas. Al-Massri, however, claimed Hamas is in direct communication with members of Congress. We are speaking to U.S. congressmen, he claimed,also members of the European Parliament.Ahmed Yousef, Hamas' chief political adviser in Gaza, also told WND his Islamist group was in contact with members of the U.S. Congress, but he wouldn't divulge any names. Official U.S. policy supports sidestepping Hamas, but the group has been making major inroads toward ending its isolation. In January, Tony Blair, the former British prime minister and Mideast envoy for the international Quartet, which includes the U.S., told a London newspaper Hamas should be included in the peace process.Following his remarks, Yousef claimed to WND that Hamas had been in direct contact with Blair for months. Blair's sister-in-law, Lauren Booth, was part of a British delegation that held a solidarity meeting in Gaza yesterday with Hamas leaders, including the terrorist group's former prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh. Some trace Hamas' claim of newfound international dialogue to Jimmy Carter's visit to the region in April, when the former president met with top Hamas officials. Immediately after Carter's meeting, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner confirmed Paris held talks with Hamas, and Norway's deputy foreign minister, Raymond Johansan, admitted meeting with Hamas leader Ismail Haniya.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum confirmed to WND that Hamas last year met a delegation from the European Parliament, from France, and from Italy, and Norway, and from the EU parliament and from Carter.All of these are supporting Hamas, and they have a plan to support Palestinian rights and interests,Barhoum said, speaking from Gaza.

Israeli dad blames Olmert over failure to free son Wed Mar 18, 2:45 pm ET

JERUSALEM – The father of an Israeli soldier held captive in Gaza for nearly three years blames outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for failing to free his son.Noam Schalit said his son, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, was captured while Olmert was in office, so his family expected Olmert to bring him home. But, the father said, we were wrong.

Talks between Israel and Hamas over a prisoner exchange that would have brought Schalit home broke down this week with both sides blaming the other.Noam Schalit spoke at a protest tent the family set up in front of Olmert's residence. He said they would dismantle the tent Saturday night, marking 1,000 days since the soldier was captured.Olmert is expected to step down, possibly later this week.

Israel's envoy still concerned by UN racism draft By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writer – Wed Mar 18, 5:04 pm ET

GENEVA – Israel is dissatisfied with the latest draft declaration for next month's U.N. racism meeting because the Jewish state feels it is still being singled out for criticism, its ambassador in Geneva said Wednesday.A new version circulated Tuesday removed all direct references to Israel but affirmed support for a 2001 declaration that linked the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the problem of racism.In its very first paragraph, the current paper reaffirms the 2001 outcome document which singles out Israel and characterizes the conflict as one of race, ambassador Aharon Leshno-Yaar said.This is something that is totally unacceptable to Israel, he told The Associated Press.Israel and Canada have said they won't attend the April 20-25 meeting in Geneva over concerns about a possible repeat of the anti-Semitic outbursts that marred the first such meeting in Durban, South Africa, eight years ago.The U.S. and the 27-nation EU have also threatened to boycott the event unless Muslim countries backed down from demands to name Israel and limit free speech that criticizes Islam or other faiths.Senior U.N. officials on Wednesday welcomed the revised declaration as an opportunity to salvage the conference.I believe there should now be no major barrier to reaching a successful outcome, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said.Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi, president of the global body's 47-nation Human Rights Council, said he was confident that minor differences remaining in the draft could be resolved ahead of the meeting.Leshno-Yaar said Israel's stance could change depending on how negotiations continue over the course of the next month.When I will see a situation that will allow Israel to re-engage I will immediately recommend to my government to reconsider, he said, adding: We are far from being there.Algeria's ambassador, who plays a key role in the negotiations, said it was now time for Western nations to make concessions on issues ranging from the lasting legacy of colonialism to religious hatred.If it's politically incorrect to attack someone because they are Jewish, we want it to be politically incorrect to attack someone because they are Muslim too,he told The AP.On the Net:http://www.un.org/durbanreview2009

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

Values to form core of EU Eastern Partnership
ANDREW RETTMAN 18.03.2009 @ 17:42 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Promotion of human rights and rule of law in former Soviet states is to form the "core" of the EU's new Eastern Partnership policy, according to a draft EU summit declaration seen by EUobserver. Shared values including democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights will be at its core, as well as the principles of market economy, sustainable development and good governance,the text says.The Eastern Partnership should provide the foundation for new Association Agreements between the EU and those partners who have made sufficient progress towards the principles and values set out [above].EU leaders are set to formally adopt the document, which was drafted by the Czech EU presidency, at a summit in Brussels on Thursday (19 March). The text could be changed at the last minute.

Apart from values, the declaration says the region is of strategic importance and the EU has an interest in developing an increasingly close relationship with its Eastern partners, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
The inclusion of Belarus prompts the question whether values or geopolitics are paramount in the initiative. EU diplomats agree that the country's authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has done little to merit involvement in the policy at this stage. But the EU fears Russia will strengthen its grip on Minsk if it is left out.The decision on whether or not to personally invite Mr Lukashenko to the Eastern Partnership [EP] launch summit in Prague on 7 May will be taken closer to the date.Everyone knows Lukashenko is not the right man in the right place. But as we develop this long-term project, Lukashenko will become less important, a Polish diplomat said.Even if no one from Belarus comes [to Prague], it doesn't mean they can't be included [in the Eastern Partnership]. The technical-level co-operation that has already begun with Belarus, the regional projects in the future, these are more important.The other Eastern Partnership countries are no angels either. Armenian security forces during election protests last year shot eight people. In Ukraine, the going rate for a seat in parliament is €3 million.Apart from the largely symbolic Association Agreements, the Eastern Partnership process envisages legal approximation and joint institution building leading to the creation of a new free-trade zone embracing the 27 EU states and the six partners.

Crucially, the policy would see visa-free travel to the EU for the 76 million people -46 million of them in Ukraine - living in the region. Steps toward visa liberalisation are to be taken on a long-term perspective and on a case-by-case basis.
The draft declaration rules out the idea of the Eastern Partnership as a back door to enlargement.Work under the Eastern Partnership will go ahead without prejudice to individual participating countries' aspirations for their future relationship with the European Union,it says.

Nuts and bolts

In terms of mechanics, EU leaders are to hold joint summits with Eastern Partnership country leaders once every two years. EU and Eastern Partnership foreign ministers are to meet once a year.The draft declaration does not mention funding. But Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski on Monday said EU ministers have agreed to give the initiative a modest €600 million up to 2013. It is unclear whether the €600 million will be new money, or whether €250 million of it will come from the existing EU neighbourhood policy budget and will be re-labelled as Eastern Partnership funds.

The draft declaration gives no nod to Russian sensitivities, unlike earlier proposals by the European Commission.Russia is not mentioned in the Czech text at all. Commission drafts last year had said the Eastern Partnership should be pursued in parallel with EU-Russia relations, or even complementary to the Russia relationship.

EU summit must tackle social problems, Barroso says
ELITSA VUCHEVA 18.03.2009 @ 17:43 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso has one day before an EU summit in Brussels called on member states to put a special emphasis on the social consequences of the economic crisis.It would be a fundamental error to think that the EU can focus on financial regulation and supervision and not pay due attention to the social consequences of the economic crisis, he told journalists in Brussels on Wednesday (18 March).Our public opinion would not understand, it would be unacceptable that EU leaders meet at the highest level and that they discuss the problems of the banks and not social problems. That they discuss the problems of the financial sector and not that of employment. That would be really unacceptable.The remarks come ahead of an EU leaders' meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. The Czech EU presidency has also tabled special summit on social affairs in Prague on 7 May. The Prague event will be a good occasion to see what has been done so far and what we can do for the future,Mr Barroso added.A document to be adopted by EU leaders at the end of their meeting on Friday has been modified to include one specific point on the social impact of the economic crisis.The rapid increase of unemployment is central to our concerns. Timely, temporary, and targeted measures are needed as a matter of priority to stimulate employment and to prevent and limit job losses and negative social impacts,reads a draft of the document seen by EUobserver.

Particular attention should be given to the most vulnerable and to new risks of exclusion, it adds.EU heads of state and governments are also to dedicate a part of their dinner on Thursday to the preparation of the May employment summit.

The statements come amid soaring unemployment in the EU.

The average jobless rate hit 7.6 percent in January this year, with the figure higher in some countries (15 percent in Spain, more than seven percent in Germany and eight percent in France).Business Europe, the EU's main business lobby, predicts 4.5 million more jobs to go in the bloc this year.

Member states should do more

The commission president insisted on the need for member states to implement measures agreed in December to stimulate the European economy - the European Economic Recovery Plan.What we need now is not words, but action. We need implementation of the recovery plan, Mr Barroso stressed.If member states are in a position to do [even] more, they should do more.Energy and broadband projects worth up to €5 billion have proven to be the thorniest part of the plan so far, with no agreement on the spending by member states.A source from the Czech EU presidency indicated that a compromise on the €5 billion seems to be approaching and that it was realistic to expect this compromise to be reached at the summit.We are on the right track,the diplomat said.

National laws hamstring EU elections, MEP says
HONOR MAHONY 18.03.2009 @ 17:30 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A leading MEP has said that some member states' electoral laws are contributing to the well-documented low turnout in the European elections.Jo Leinen, German Socialist MEP and head of the constitutional affairs committee, said there should be a common code of conduct, common standards for selecting candidates and voter lists should be issued early in order to raise the level of turnout and candidates.Citing a study carried out by his committee, the MEP on Tuesday (17 March) noted that there is a real north-south divide, with Greece representing the worst case.Under Greek election law, the list of candidates only needs to be presented two weeks prior to election day. Under these conditions, a respectable campaign by the candidates is barely possible, said Mr Leinen. In addition, the party leader often decides personally who will be on the EU election list.The countries with the best practices, according to the study, are Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, where most parties have primaries, meaning a decentralised way of deciding who gets on the list.The euro-deputy also criticised politicians who come to Brussels although they have no interest in practising European politics, referring to French justice minister Rachida Dati, who was recently strong-armed by President Nicolas Sarkozy to run in the June elections.These practices are not going to make people more inclined to go to the polls, noted Mr Leinen, with the parliament having seen a decline in voter turnout every election year since direct elections began in 1979.

A new Europe of citizens

Mr Leinen admitted that stepping into member states' electoral territory was highly controversial adding that it pertains to the transition from a Europe of states to a Europe of citizens.The constitutional affairs committee has already dipped its toe into such electoral waters, however. A report by UK liberal MEP Andrew Duff, which is on hold as the current legislature draws to an end but due to be taken up in September, makes a number of bold of suggestions to shake up the European elections and give them a pan-European feel.His draft paper suggests creating a transnational constituency for a small number of additional seats; moving the elections to May to avoid summer holidays and to weekends or one single day; and having member states use semi-open list systems allowing greater choice for the voter.The report suggests the changes - including harmonising the minimum age at which EU citizens can vote (16) and be candidates (18); special constituencies for minority languages; and redistributing seats before each election on the basis of resident populations - should take place by 2014.The ideas are likely to cause wrangling in the parliament and among member states.Governments have regularly clashed when it comes to determining the number of seats in the parliament and how they are distributed, while a bill changing MEPs' pay took many years of fighting before it was eventually agreed.

EUROPEAN UNION ARMY

DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.( BE HEAD OF 3 NATIONS)
25 And he (EU PRESIDENT) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.(3 1/2 YRS)

DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.

DANIEL 11:36-39
36 And the king (EU DICTATOR) shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS JEWISH) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.(CLAIM TO BE GOD)
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(WAR) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god,(DESTROY TERROR GROUPS) whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.

REVELATION 19:19
19 And I saw the beast,(EU LEADER) and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse,(JESUS) and against his army.(THE RAPTURED CHRISTIANS)

French parliament backs return to NATO
ELITSA VUCHEVA 18.03.2009 @ 09:16 CET

The French National Assembly on Tuesday backed France's return to NATO's military structures, despite claims from the opposition that this would reduce the country's independence and align it with the US.The deputies supported the move by 329 to 238 votes. The parliamentary vote was not obligatory and was scheduled in order to offer the opposition a chance to express their opinion due to the sensitivity of the issue in the country.But French President Nicolas Sarkozy had already hinted on several occasions that Paris was to make a complete return to NATO and confirmed the come-back last week.With the large majority of Mr Sarkozy's conservative UMP party in the assembly, it was virtually guaranteed that the outcome would be affirmative, especially after Prime Minister Francois Fillon transformed the vote into a confidence motion on the government.Our nation doesn't take orders from anyone, Mr Fillon told the house in defence of the move. France will remain France, with its demand for truth and its demand for grandeur,he added.Mr Fillon also confirmed that in exchange for returning to NATO's military structures, Paris would doubtless be given a key command in Norfolk, Virginia.We want to take our place where the future of NATO is discussed,he said.France – one of NATO's founding members in 1949 – has been out of the organisation's military command for more than four decades.In March 1966, in the middle of the Cold War, then-president Charles de Gaulle withdrew French forces in a bid to assert France's diplomatic and military autonomy and to protest against what he saw as US dominance emerging within the organisation.But the country never left the overarching North Atlantic Alliance, which also has a strong political component. French forces have consistently been among the top five contributors to NATO operations – such as the presence in Afghanistan, where it currently has some 3,000 troops, and pays around 12 percent of the NATO budget, or around €2 billion per year.We send our soldiers onto the terrain but we don't participate in the committee where their objectives are decided? Mr Sarkozy said last week. The time has come to end this situation. It is in the interest of France and the interest of Europe, he added.

French independence at stake, opposition says

The move has faced strong criticism, however, both from the opposition and from within the UMP party, with, notably, former premier Dominique de Villepin saying the decision would harm the independence of French foreign policy.Another former prime minister, Laurent Fabius of the Socialist Party, said that by fully rejoining NATO, France would be trivialised and aligned to the decisions of the United States.Our independence is at stake,he said.For his part, Francois Bayrou, leader of the centrist Democratic Movement (MoDem) warned that the move would bring very heavy consequences.I believe that France is abandoning something infinitely precious here, which was the sign of its independence. In exchange for what? Nothing,he added.

Prime minister Fillon defended the government's position, stressing that France would be an ally, but not a vassal and loyal, but not dominated by the US.The French decision is to be formalised during NATO's 60th anniversary summit from 2-4 April in Strasbourg and Kehl, when the commands attributed to France are to be announced as well, according to defence minister Herve Morin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

SPECIAL CONFERENCE MAR 23-24,2009,ALL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS WILL BE THERE,ALL THE EU MEMBERS WILL BE THERE,AND THE G-20 WILL BE THERE.THIS SAME GROUP OF EU,BANKERS,G-20 WILL ALSO BE IN LONDON IN APRIL TO LAY PLANS FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER,ESPECIALLY THE G-20.https://futurefinance.wsj.com/index.php

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS THU MAR 19,2009

09:30 AM +10.51
10:00 AM -24.14
10:30 AM -8.53
11:00 AM -19.20
11:30 AM -50.34
12:00 PM -80.05
12:30 PM -81.80
01:00 PM -88.81
01:30 PM -64.25
02:00 PM -44.37
02:30 PM -70.65
03:00 PM -92.87
03:30 PM -84.78
04:00 PM -85.78 7400.80

S&P 500 784.04 -10.31

NASDAQ 1483.48 -7.74

GOLD 959.30 +70.20

OIL 50.99 +2.85

TSE 300 8703.24 +74.14

CDNX 903.57 +37.86

S&P/TSX/60 529.59 +3.98

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -14.70%
S&P -12.06%
Nasdaq -5.44%
TSX Advances 899,declines 612,unchanged 290,Volume 2,776,234,251.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 353,Declines 349,Unchanged 353,Volume 179,382,091.

Dow +44 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -85 points at low today.
Dow +59 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $952.40.OIL opens at $50.94 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -120 points at low today so far.
Dow +59 points at high today so far.

DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 1,793,declines 1,581,unchanged 85,New Highs 4,New Lows 22.
Volume 2,053,573,609.
NASDAQ Advances 1,116,declines 1,546,unchanged 121,New highs 11,New Lows 31.
Volume 1,349,270,567.
TSX Advances 942,declines 472,unchanged 250,Volume 2,053,088,811.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 388,Declines 224,Unchanged 302,Volume 143,848,697.

HOUSE PASSES BILL:BANKS that get over $5 BILLION in TARP money,90% of bonuses over $250,000 are TAXED.

THE BANKS HAVE AND FED HAVE ROBBED THE AMERICAN PUBLIC OF OVER $13 TRILLION DOLLARS NOW AND CLIMBING.

Commodities are skyrocketing now which will increase food prices at least 3 times the price now and the dollar is collapsing which will bring bigtime INFLATION in the very near future. WE THE WORLD ARE IN BIG TROUBLE.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -120 points at low today.
Dow +59 points at high today.
Dow -1.15% today Volume 559,917,522.
Nasdaq -0.52% today Volume 2,147,483,648.
S&P 500 -1.30% today Volume N/A
OIL rises to 2009 high.
Dow trades closes near 7400 after peaking at 7548 today.
Major Indexes finish near days lows today.
STOCKS fall for just 2ND time in last 8 SESSIONS.
Nasdaq on pace for best monthly percentage gain since OCT 2003.
S&P 500 on pace for best monthly percentage gain since APR 2003.
Dow on pace for best monthly percentage gain since APR 2007.

RECORD LOWS DOW
-Sept 30,1996 5,882.17
-Oct 30,1996 5,993.23
-Nov 6,1996 6,177.71
-Dec 16,1996 6,268.35
-Apr 15,1997 6,587.16
-Apr 21,1997 6,660.21
-Apr 28,1997 6,783.02
-May 1,1997 6,976.48
-May 7,1997 7,085.65

RECORD LOWS S&P 500
-Sept 5,1996 649.44
-Sept 6,1996 655.68
-Sept 11,1996 667.28
-Sept 12,1996 671.13
-Oct 1,1996 689.08
-Oct 28,1996 697.26
-Nov 4,1996 706.73
-Nov 5,1996 714.14
-Dec 17,1996 726.04

Dodd facing fresh political firestorm– Wed Mar 18, 6:13 pm ET

Dodd just admitted on CNN that he inserted a loophole in the stimulus legislation that allowed million-dollar bonuses to insurance giant AIG to go forward – after previously denying any involvement in writing the controversial provision.We wrote the language in the bill, the deal with bonuses, golden parachutes, excessive executive compensation that was adopted unanimously by the United States Senate in the stimulus bill,Dodd told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer this afternoon. But for that language, there would have been no language to deal with this at all.Dodd had previously said that he played no role in writing the controversial language, and was not a part of the conference committee that inserted the language in the bill. As late as today, Dodd’s spokeswoman denied the senator’s involvement. The AIG bonuses have caused a political firestorm, with Republicans and Democrats alike looking to lay blame for who’s responsible, and leading lawmakers looking to revoke the bonuses.Dodd’s role in the legislation will likely come up as he faces the likelihood of a tough re-election. Former GOP congressman Rob Simmons announced he was running this week, and has already taken issue with Dodd’s stewardship as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

Delors pessimistic about eurozone future
HONOR MAHONY 18.03.2009 @ 09:18 CET

Former European Commission President Jacques Delors has expressed pessimism about the ability of the eurozone to survive the current economic crisis.In an interview published in German economic monthly Capital, the French politician said I could well imagine that the pressure of the strong on the weak to carry out better policy or leave the monetary union increases.He said that while the 16-nation eurozone is not yet ripe enough for economic governance as the economic cultures among the single currency countries are too different, there must be more readiness to communicate.

If the basic idea that there is a necessity for more prior consultation is not accepted, then I am pessimistic about the future of the euro,said Mr Delors.He demanded that federal Germany, in particular, should accept a greater degree of co-operation. Mr Delors - who served as president of the commission from 1985 to 1995, often referred to as Europe's greatest economic integration period and the heyday of Franco-German EU co-operation - indicated today's relations between Paris and Berlin are in dire straits.Quite frankly, little or nothing is working [in that relationship], he said, suggesting it is due to the fact that memories of a post-war Europe are fading and are treated with indifference.He was also critical of the way the European Union as a whole is handling the economic crisis, saying it is so poor that he thought his political legacy was in danger, referring to the fear that member states may retreat into protectionism as a way of combating the downturn, undermining the single market.He said Europe is reacting slowly and ploddingly in areas such as new rules in financial supervision or on cleaning up banks.Mr Delors is seen as the father of both the internal market and the monetary union. His comments come ahead of an EU leaders summit, where member states will try and agree a common position on financial regulation ahead of the G20 meeting in London at the beginning of April.

The summit, starting on Thursday, is also due to agree that more money be made available to member states outside the eurozone who are in trouble, with fears in recent weeks that Europe is creaking not just due to the pressures on the single market but from the perceived lack of solidarity between EU nations.An informal meeting earlier this month saw Hungary - which suggested setting up a fund for central and eastern European countries - talk of an economic iron curtain, a phrase then splashed across newspapers throughout the EU.

Fed launches bold $1.2T effort to revive economy By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer MAR 18,09

WASHINGTON – With the country sinking deeper into recession, the Federal Reserve launched a bold $1.2 trillion effort Wednesday to lower rates on mortgages and other consumer debt, spur spending and revive the economy. To do so, the Fed will spend up to $300 billion to buy long-term government bonds and an additional $750 billion in mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues wrapped a two-day meeting by leaving a key short-term bank lending rate at a record low of between zero and 0.25 percent. Economists predict the Fed will hold the rate in that zone for the rest of this year and for most — if not all — of next year.The decision to hold rates near zero was widely expected. But the Fed's plan to buy government bonds and the sheer amount — $1.2 trillion — of the extra money to be pumped into the U.S. economy was a surprise.

The Fed is clearly ready, willing and able to be the ATM for the credit markets, said Terry Connelly, dean of Golden Gate University's Ageno School of Business in San Francisco.Wall Street was buoyed. The Dow Jones industrial average, which had been down earlier in the day, rose 90.88, or 1.2 percent, to 7,486.58. Broader indicators also gained.And government bond prices soared. Heralding a coming drop in mortgage rates, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped to 2.50 percent from 3.01 percent — the biggest daily drop in percentage points since 1981.The dollar, meanwhile, fell against other major currencies. In part, that signaled concern that the Fed's intervention might spur inflation over the long run.If the credit and financial markets can be stabilized, the recession could end this year, setting the stage for a recovery next year, Bernanke has said in recent weeks. The Fed chief and his colleagues again pledged to use all available tools to make that happen, and economists expect further steps in the months ahead.Since the Fed last met in late January, the economy continues to contract, Fed policymakers observed in a statement they issued Wednesday.Job losses, declining equity and housing wealth and tight credit conditions have weighed on consumer sentiment and spending, they said.The Fed's announcement that it will spend up to $300 billion over the next six months to buy long-term government bonds was something that in January it had hinted it would do. But some officials had seemed to back off from the idea in recent weeks.

Such action is designed to boost Treasury prices and drive down their rates, as it did Wednesday. Rates on other kinds of debt are likely to fall as well.This is going to help everybody, said Sung Won Sohn, economist at the Martin Smith School of Business at California State University. This might help the Fed put Humpty Dumpty back together again.The last time the Fed set out to influence long-term interest rates was during the 1960s.The Fed's decision to buy an additional $750 billion in mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie comes on top of $500 billion in such securities it's already buying. It also will double its purchases of Fannie and Freddie debt to $200 billion.Since the initial Fannie-Freddie program was announced late last year, mortgage rates have fallen. Rates on 30-year mortgages now average 5.03 percent, down from 6.13 percent a year ago, according to Freddie Mac. The Fed's decision to expand the program could further reduce rates, analysts said.

This is not only going to keep mortgage rates low for a long period of time, said Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com.The mere announcement may produce a honeymoon effect and bring mortgage rates down to even lower levels in the coming days.The goal behind all the Fed's moves is to spur lending. More lending would boost spending by consumers and businesses, which would revive the economy. The Fed also said it would consider expanding another $1 trillion program that's being rolled out this week. That program aims to boost the availability of consumer loans for autos, education and credit cards, as well as for small businesses. Where does the Fed get all the money? It prints it. The Fed's series of radical programs to lend or buy debt has swollen its balance sheet to nearly $2 trillion — from just under $900 billion in September. Sohn believes the Fed's balance sheet could grow to $5 trillion over the next two years. The Fed has said it's mindful of the risks of pumping more money into the economy, bailing out financial institutions and leaving a key rate near zero for too long. There's the potential to plant the seeds for higher inflation, put ever-more taxpayer money at risk and encourage moral hazard. That's when companies make high-stakes gambles knowing the government stands ready to rescue them.

Across the Atlantic, the Bank of England last week began buying government bonds from financial institutions as it turned to new ways to help revive Britain's moribund economy. The Bank of England, like the Fed, already had lowered its key interest rate to a record low of 0.5 percent.Finance leaders from top economies have discussed coordinating actions from their governments and central banks to provide a more potent punch against the global financial crisis. The Fed is taking the new steps as the U.S. economy sinks deeper into recession. Businesses are facing weaker sales prospects as customers in the United States and abroad cut back, the policymakers said.Still, the Fed said it hoped its actions, the government's bank rescue effort and President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus of increased government spending and tax cuts eventually will help revive the economy. Although the near-term economic outlook is weak, the committee anticipates that policy actions .... will contribute to a gradual resumption of sustainable economic growth,the Fed said. But even in this best-case scenario, the nation's unemployment rate — now at quarter-century peak of 8.1 percent — will keep climbing. Some economists think it will hit 10 percent by the end of this year.The recession, which began in December 2007, already has snatched a net total of 4.4 million jobs and has left 12.5 million searching for work.

Russia backs EU in pre-G20 stimulus debate
LEIGH PHILLIPS 18.03.2009 @ 17:42 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Russia is siding with the European Union ahead of the April G20 summit in London in opposing new stimulus measures and instead putting the focus on regulatory reform. But Moscow has warned against IMF meddling in the social affairs of its neighbours in eastern Europe.On Tuesday (17 March), Arkady Dvorkovich, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev's economic advisor and negotiator or sherpa in diplomatic discussions leading into the London summit met with the head of European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso's cabinet in Brussels to discuss his country's perspective on the financial crisis.Mr Dvorkovich told reporters afterward that Moscow was on the same wavelength as the EU on its perspective on additional stimulus, saying: It is important to avoid easy comparisons in terms of who did this and that. It is too simplistic when every country has its own specific situations and compare the amount of money raised.The most important thing is to implement what has already been announced rather than deliver new commitments and new promises.His language is similar to the refrain of senior European leaders and other officials in recent days.On Tuesday, in response to Nobel-prize-winning economist Paul Krugman's accusation that the EU and US are not spending enough to save the global economy, commission spokesperson Johanes Laitenberger told reporters that much of the announced European stimulus had yet to be implemented and that any assessment of whether the package has worked should wait until the money has been spent.In recent days, a minor breach has opened up across the Atlantic, with the United States arguing that more stimulus is needed, and France and Germany saying publicly that they feel enough has been spent.On Monday, the Kremlin published its proposals for a restructuring of the global financial system ahead of the G20. Consideration of the proposals formed the bulk of the discussion between Mr Dvorkovich and his EU counterpart. The Russian advisor described the European reception as positive.Like the EU and US, Russia backs a reform in the leadership of the main international financial institutions, the IMF and World Bank, to more accurately represent the new balance of economic forces in the world, dropping the tradition of the IMF being headed by a European and the World Bank by an American.

But Moscow also warned the IMF to back off from imposing conditions that are too strict in terms of cuts to social spending, which could provoke popular opposition and lead to political instability in eastern Europe.Given the experience we had with the IMF [in the 1990s] when conditionality heads towards impacts on social obligations such as pensions or wage growth, then this becomes really politically sensitive and creates unnecessary political concerns. The IMF should avoid these political risks,he said.He spoke out against structural reforms the IMF has already demanded in return for bail-out packages in eastern Europe.Ukraine should have a stabilisation programme, but the IMF should not try to impose anything artificially on any country.Consensus in Ukraine is non-existent. It first needs more political dialogue to come to an agreement on what is acceptable. When the political situation is stable, then it can formulate an agreement with the IMF, [unlike] the current situation where the IMF is imposing something without public support.This is very dangerous.

New role for rouble?

Russia's G20 proposals also include the establishment of an international reserve currency or at least a diversification of the number of existing reserve currencies to include the rouble, a proposal that is unlikely to meet with any support from the EU or other G20 attendees. The dollar and the euro are the world's two main reserve currencies.It is necessary to take into consideration that most countries of the world place their international reserves in international currencies and would like to be confident in their reliability, the proposal reads.Moscow also wants the summit to agree to a new international supervisor for the financial sector - the Standard Universal Regulatory Framework - which would monitor key economic indicators of countries that dominate the global economy. Perhaps most controversial, Russia's proposals call for the mandatory regulation of macroeconomic and budgetary policies at the international level.We need to develop and adopt internationally agreed standards in the field of macroeconomic and budgetary policies which would be mandatory for leading global economies,says the document.

Intestinal strife

Mr Dvorkovich was in Brussels as an internal scuffle over Russia's response to the crisis broke out after Kremlin deputy chief of staff Vladislav Surkov this past week attacked him and another of the president's economic advisors, Igor Yurgens, for criticising the government's handling of the financial crisis.Mr Yurgens had suggested that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's social contract, in which citizens concede a curtailing of freedoms in return for better economic conditions, is broken now that the economic boom is disintegrating.

Stocks jump after Fed says it will buy Treasurys By TIM PARADIS and MADLEN READ, AP Business Writer – Wed Mar 18, 6:30 pm

NEW YORK – The Federal Reserve kept Wall Street's big rally alive — and gave the Treasury market a huge boost as well.Both markets surged Wednesday after the Fed said it would pump more than $1 trillion into the economy to help revive the housing market. The plan includes buying up to $300 billion of long-term government bonds during the next six months.Investors expect the move to drive down borrowing costs for everything from mortgages to credit cards. The Dow Jones industrial average reversed early losses to end up 91 points and the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note plunged, indicating strong demand for the note.The dollar fell as investors worried the government's actions would eventually fan inflation.The Fed's move, analysts said, is likely to produce an immediate drop in mortgage rates, of 0.25to 0.5 percent percentage points. The central bank also made clear it would be able to purchase the majority of new mortgage-backed securities for at least the rest of the year, possibly longer.That's great news for those borrowers with good incomes and healthy credit scores who are able to qualify for a loan. But dramatically tighter lending standards have made it tough for many borrowers to qualify.Still, it was a plus for the housing industry, which many analysts believe must recover in order for the overall economy to prosper again. Homebuilder and financial company stocks shot higher on the news, which came a day after the Commerce Department reported better-than-expected housing start numbers for February.

The sheer magnitude of the Fed's proposal indicates they have a lot of weapons still in the arsenal, said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank in Cleveland.The Fed said it would build on a plan to buy mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It also will buy an additional $750 billion, bringing its total purchases of these securities to $1.25 trillion. It also will boost its purchase of Fannie and Freddie debt to $200 billion.The Fed's announcement accompanied its decision to keep interest rates at historically low levels. Chairman Ben Bernanke has said in recent weeks that the recession could end this year if the credit and financial markets can be stabilized. Bernanke and other officials have said they would deploy whatever tools necessary to revive the economy.

They are certainly, assertively doing everything they can to intervene, said David Darst, chief investment strategist of Morgan Stanley's Global Wealth Management Group.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 90.88, or 1.2 percent, to 7,486.58.

Broader stock indicators also jumped. The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 16.23, or 2.1 percent, to 794.35, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 29.11, or 2 percent, to 1,491.22.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies jumped 14.04, or 3.5 percent, to 417.63.

More than four stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to a heavy 9 billion shares compared with 6 billion shares traded Tuesday.

The market had traded lower ahead of the Fed's decision.

Stocks have risen for six out of the last seven days. Since the market rally began last week, the Dow has jumped 14.4 percent, and the S&P 500 has soared 17.4 percent. Those are the types of gains that would normally make for a great year in the stock market.Government bond prices surged. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, tumbled to 2.50 percent from 3.01 percent late Tuesday. The yield on the three-month T-bill, considered one of the safest investments, slipped to 0.20 percent from 0.22 percent late Tuesday. The dollar fell against other major currencies. Gold prices also slid as demand for safe haven holdings fell.For both the stock and bond markets, the Fed's announcement was a welcome surprise. After the last Fed meeting in January, policy makers said they were considering buying government debt. But investors were skeptical the Fed would actually go through with it. We've suffered over the last month or so with disappointment that a lot of the initiatives out of the administration haven't materialized, and here is the Fed moving in with very strong actions to get things back on track,McCain said. The Fed move — which economists call quantitative easing — is another way to push interest rates lower by essentially adding more money to the financial system. The Fed is using this tool now since its other main policy lever, the federal funds rate, has already been ratcheted down as low as it can go.

Bank stocks — including Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. — got an extra boost after the Fed announcement. The Fed's actions are intended to keep interest rates low and also to unfreeze borrowing activity, which could be a huge help for banks. Citi and Bank of America each jumped more than 22 percent, while Wells Fargo rose 17.5 percent and JPMorgan added 7.8 percent.Home builders put up huge gains as well. Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. jumped 50 percent to $1.44, while Toll Brothers Inc. rose 5.7 percent. Home improvement retailers jumped as well. Home Depot Inc. rose 5.1 percent and Lowe's Cos. added 4.7 percent.Technology stocks rose on news that International Business Machines Corp. is in discussions to buy Sun Microsystems Inc. for at least $6.5 billion in cash. Sun skyrocketed 79 percent, rising $3.92 to $8.89. IBM fell 96 cents, or 1 percent, to $91.95.Investors are growing more hopeful that the rally in stocks might have staying power, though many remain cautious. Stocks gained 20 percent from late November until the start of the year, only to come crashing down to levels not seen in more than a decade as worries grew about the stability of the financial system and the economy's ability to turn higher.As the Federal Reserve announced its plans, Capitol Hill focused on the millions of dollars in bonuses American International Group Inc. recently granted executives. AIG is roughly 80 percent owned by the government after receiving billions in federal bailout money.President Barack Obama said he is seeking greater regulatory authority over financial institutions like AIG. Obama said the new powers he is seeking would be similar to those now exercised over banks by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. It would be part of the broader financial regulatory steps the administration is creating.

AIG rose 44 percent to $1.38.

Meanwhile, an unexpected build in gasoline inventories helped send oil prices lower. Light, sweet crude fell $1.02 to $48.14 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.Overseas, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.4 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.2 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.3 percent. Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.3 percent.On the Net: New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

Harper says U.S. must fix banking problem Wed Mar 18, 1:08 pm ET

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada's economy cannot recover from recession until the United States fixes the problems with its financial system, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Wednesday.The Canadian economy cannot turn the corner on the recession until we see really a fixing or a significant improvement in the American financial system, in particular, and in the global financial system more generally, Harper told reporters.That problem has to be fixed.Harper was reacting to remarks by former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge, who said in an interview with the Globe and Mail newspaper that the recovery in Canada would not be as quick as everybody thinks -- casting doubt on the government's outlook.(Reporting by Cameron French, writing by Randall Palmer; Editing by Peter Galloway)

Water scarcity stalking Europe north and south, says report
LEIGH PHILLIPS 18.03.2009 @ 09:10 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Europe's use of water is unsustainable and is facing water scarcity and drought, the European Environment Agency has warned in a new report. The solution is no longer expanding supplies, the EEA argues, but cutting demand and the introduction of water pricing across all sectors.The EEA, the European Union's environment advisory body, says that it is no longer just southern European member states such as Spain and Italy that are experiencing water stress, but the phenomenon is growing in northern Europe as well.We are living beyond our means when it comes to water,said Jacqueline McGlade, the agency's director. The short-term solution to water scarcity has been to extract ever greater amounts of water from our surface and groundwater assets. Overexploitation is not sustainable.Adding to the threat to already stretched supplies, climate change will increase the severity and frequency of droughts in the future, exacerbating water stress, especially in the summer.

Although the EEA says there is some room for expansion by authorities of the use of alternative water supplies, such as treated wastewater, greywater (domestic wastewater), and ‘harvested' rainwater, the agency says fundamentally, there needs to be a shift in policy focus from increasing supply to minimising demand.We have to cut demand, minimise the amount of water that we are extracting and increase the efficiency of its use,Ms McGlade added.In response, the agency recommends that member states do a better job of implementing drought management plans and focus on the risk of water stress rather than waiting for a crisis and then attempting to manage it.The report also warns against the use of bioenergy crops, whose cultivation is very water-intensive, in areas of water scarcity. The authors also say that desalination is no real answer, given its high energy requirements and brine by-product.Elsewhere in agriculture, the agency says that a combination of crop selection and irrigation methods can substantially improve agricultural water efficiency if backed-up with farmer advisory programmes, and that national and EU funds including the EU's Common Agricultural Policy should be deployed in ways that promote sustainable water use in the sector.Leakage in public water supply systems must also be addressed, argues the report, noting that in some parts of the continent, water loss as a result of leakage exceeds 40 percent of supplies.The agency also recommends beefed up surveillance of water systems and stronger penalties for illegal water abstraction, a phenomenon it describes as widespread in some regions.However, the major recommendation is that water pricing be introduced across all sectors, including agriculture.The agency suggests that effective water pricing requires the implementation of water metering and needs to be based on the volume of water used, rather than adopting a flat-rate approach. At the same time, in order to guarantee universal access to clean water and sanitation, pricing should not result in anyone compromising their health in order to pay their water bill.

BILDERBERG COLOR OF LAW PARTS 1&2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6l1ak-A354
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGoJwMT-cUk&feature=related

MEET THE BILDERBERGS
http://www.allfaith.com/prophecy/bilderberg.html
http://www.crystalinks.com/bilderberg.html
http://www.bilderberg.org/bilder.htm
http://home.alphalink.com.au/~radnat/austindependence/bilderberger.html

THERES A FEW OCCATIONS THAT THIS WRITING IS LIKE OBAMAS JULY 24,08 GERMANY SPEECH.........INTERESTING.

THE BIRTH OF THE GLOBAL NATION by Strobe Talbott Time Magazine
July 20, 1992

The human drama, whether played out in history books or headlines, is often not just a confusing spectacle but a spectacle about confusion. The big question these days is, which political forces will prevail, those stitching nations together or those tearing them apart? Here is one optimist's reason for believing unity will prevail over disunity, integration over disintegration. In fact, I'll bet that within the next hundred years (I'm giving the world time for setbacks and myself time to be out of the betting game, just in case I lose this one), nationhood as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority. A phrase briefly fashionable in the mid-20th century -- citizen of the world -- will have assumed real meaning by the end of the 21st century.All countries are basically social arrangements, accommodations to changing circumstances. No matter how permanent and even sacred they may seem at any one time, in fact they are all artificial and temporary. Through the ages, there has been an overall trend toward larger units claiming sovereignty and paradoxically, a gradual diminution of how much true sovereignty any one country actually has.

The forerunner of the nation was a prehistoric band clustered around a fire beside a river in a valley. Its members had a language, a set of supernatural beliefs and a repertoire of legends about their ancestors. Eventually they forged primitive weapons and set off over the mountain, mumbling phrases that could be loosely translated as having something to do with vital national interests and a manifest destiny. When they reached the next valley, they massacred and enslaved some weaker band of people they found clustered around some smaller fire and thus became the world's first imperialists.Empires were a powerful force for obliterating natural and demographic barriers and forging connections among far-flung parts of the world. The British left their system of civil service in India, Kenya and Guyana, while the Spaniards, Portuguese and French spread Roman Catholicism to almost every continent.Empire eventually yielded to the nation-state, made up primarily of a single tribe. China, France, Germany and Japan are surviving examples. Yet each of them too is the consequence of a centuries-long process of accretion. It took the shedding of much blood in many valleys for Normandy, Brittany and Gascony to become part of France.

Today fewer than 10% of the 186 countries on earth are ethnically homogeneous. The rest are multinational states. Most of them have pushed their boundaries outward, often until they reached the sea. That's how California became part of the U.S. and the Kamchatka Peninsula part of Russia.The main goal driving the process of political expansion and consolidation was conquest. The big absorbed the small, the strong the weak. National might made international right. Such a world was in a more or less constant state of war.From time to time the best minds wondered whether wasn't a hell of a way to run a planet; perhaps national sovereignty wasn't such a great idea after all. Dante in the 14th century, Erasmus in the 16th and Grotius in the 17th all envisioned international law as a means of overcoming the natural tendency of states to settle their differences by force.In the 18th century the Enlightenment -- represented by Rousseau in France, Hume in Scotland, Kant in Germany, Paine and Jefferson in the U.S. -- gave rise to the idea that all human beings are born equal and should, as citizens, enjoy certain basic liberties and rights, including that of choosing their leaders. Once there was a universal ideology to govern the conduct of nation toward their own people, it was more reasonable to imagine a compact governing nations' behavior toward one another. In 1795 Kant advocated a peaceful league of democracies. But it has taken the events in our own wondrous and terrible century to clinch the case for world government. With the advent of electricity, radio and air travel, the planet has become smaller than ever, its commercial life freer, its nations more interdependent and its conflicts bloodier. The price of settling international disputes by force was rapidly becoming too high for the victors, not to mention the vanquished. That conclusion should have been clear enough at the battle of the Somme in 1916; by the destruction of Hiroshima in 1945, it was unavoidable.

Once again great minds thought alike: Einstein, Ghandi, Toynbee and Camus all favored giving primacy to interests higher than those of the nation. So, finally, did the statesmen. Each world war inspired the creation of an international organization, the League of Nations in the 1920s and the United Nations in the '40s.The plot thickened with the heavy-breathing arrival on the scene of a new species of ideology -- expansionist totalitarianism - as perpetrated by the Nazis and the Soviets. It threatened the very idea of democracy and divided the world. The advocacy of any kind of world government became highly suspect. By 1950 one-worlder was a term of derision for those suspected of being wooly-headed naïfs, if not crypto-communists.At the same time, however, Stalin's conquest of Eastern Europe spurred the Western democracies to form NATO, history's most ambitious, enduring and successful exercise in collective security. The U.S. and the Soviet Union also scared each other into negotiating nuclear-arms-control treaties that set in place two vital principals: adversary states have a mutual interest in eliminating the danger of strategic surprise, and each legitimately has a say in the composition of the other's arsenal of last resort. The result was further dilution of national sovereignty and a useful precedent for the management of relations between nuclear-armed rivals in the future.The cold war also saw the European Community pioneer the kind of regional cohesion that may pave the way for globalism. Meanwhile, the free world formed multilateral financial institutions that depend on member states' willingness to give up a degree of sovereignty. The International Monetary Fund can virtually dictate fiscal policies, even including how much tax a government should levy on its citizens. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade regulates how much a nation can charge on imports. These organizations can be seen as the protoministries of trade, finance and development for a united world.

The internal affairs of a nation used to be off limits to the world community. Now the principal of humanitarian intervention is gaining acceptance. A turning point came in April 1991, shortly after Saddam Hussein's withdrawal from Kuwait, when the U.N. Security Council authorized allied troops to assist starving Kurds in northern Iraq.Globalization has also contributed to the spread of terrorism, drug trafficking, AIDS and environmental degradation. But because those threats are more than any one nation can cope with on its own, they constitute an incentive for international cooperation.However limited its accomplishments, last month's Earth Summit in Rio signified the participants' acceptance of what Maurice Strong, the main impresario of the event, called the transcending sovereignty of nature: since the by-products of industrial civilization cross borders, so must the authority to deal with them.

Collective action on a global scale will be easier to achieve in a world already knit together by cables and air-waves. The fax machine had much to do with the downfall of tyrants in Eastern Europe. Two years ago I was assigned an interpreter in Estonia who spoke with a slight southern accent because she had learned English watching Dallas, courtesy of TV signals beamed over the border from neighboring Finland. The Cosby Show, aired on South African television, has no doubt helped erode apartheid.The ideological and cultural blending strikes some observers as too much of a good thing. Writing in the Atlantic, Rutgers political scientist Benjamin Barber laments what he calls "McWorld." He also identifies the countertrend, the re-emergence of nationalism in its ugliest, most divisive and violent form.Yet Azerbaijan, Moldova, and Czechoslovakia we part of the world's last, now deceased empire. Their breakup may turn out to be the old business of history, not the wave of the future. National self-assertiveness in the West can be mighty ugly, especially in its more extreme Irish and Basque versions. But when Scots, Quebecois, Catalans and Bretons talk separatism, they are, in the main, actually renegotiating their ties to London, Ottawa, Madrid and Paris.They are the disputatious representatives of a larger, basically positive phenomenon: a devolution of power not only upward toward supranational bodies and outward toward commonwealths and common markets, but also downward toward freer, more autonomous units of administration that permit distinct societies to preserve their cultural identities and govern themselves as much as possible. That American buzzward empowerment - and the European one, subsidiary - is being defined locally, regionally and globally all at the same time.Humanity has discovered, through much trial and horrendous error, that differences need not divide. Switzerland is made up of four nationalities crammed into an area considerably smaller than what used to be Yugoslavia. The air in the Alps is no more conducive to comity than the air in the Balkans. Switzerland has thrived, while Yugoslavia has failed because of what Kant realized 200 years ago: to be in peaceful league with one another, people-and peoples -- must have the benefits of democracy.

The best mechanism for democracy, whether at the level of the multinational state or that of the planet as a whole, is not an all-powerful Leviathan or centralized superstate, but a federation, a union of separate states that allocate certain powers to a central government while retaining many others for themselves.Federalism has already proved the most successful of all political experiments, and organizations like the World Federalist Association have for decades advocated it as the basis for global government. Federalism is largely an American invention. For all its troubles, including its own serious bout of secessionism 130 years ago and the persistence of various forms of tribalism today, the U.S. is still the best example of a multinational federal state. If that model does indeed work globally, it would be the logical extension of the Founding Fathers' wisdom, therefore a special source of pride for a world government's American constituents.As for humanity as a whole, if federally united, we won't really be so very far from those much earlier ancestors, the ones huddled around that primeval fire beside the river; it's just that by then the whole world will be our valley.Strobe Talbott is the President of the Brookings Institution, having previously served as Deputy Secretary of State from 1994 through 2001. He entered government after 21 years as a journalist for Time. His last position there was the magazine's Editor-at-Large and foreign affairs columnist. Prior to that, he was Washington Bureau Chief for 5 years. His earlier assignments for Time were Diplomatic Correspondent (1977-84), White House correspondent during the Ford Administration (1975-76), State Department correspondent when Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State (1974-75), and Eastern Europe correspondent for 2 years in the early 1970s. In addition to his numerous awards for writing and public service, Mr. Talbott was awarded the Norman Cousins Global Goverance Award in 1993 in part for his publication below.

FROM JEROME CORSI'S RED ALERT Is Obama manipulating the stock market? Economist claims president jawboning economy to boost Dow March 17, 2009 10:01 pm Eastern 2009 WorldNetDaily

The Obama administration has organized a major push by the Federal Reserve to jawbone the economy and boost the stock market, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports. Economist Michael Bolser, the author of a highly successful Internet newsletter, InterventionalAnalysis.com, told Corsi the Federal Reserve is deliberately manipulating the Dow by injecting billions of repurchase agreements, or repos,into the market in conjunction with a rare interview Sunday by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on the CBS 60 Minutes television show. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is fully manipulated by the federal government,Bolser asserted. Appearing on 60 Minutes, Bernanke predicted the current recession would end this year. Bernanke said the financial system must be stabilized to set the basis for a recovery.Asked whether the U.S. economy had averted a new American Depression, Bernanke answered: I think we've averted that risk. I think we've gotten past that and now the problem is to get the thing working properly again.Bolser said Bernanke's appearance on 60 Minutes appeared to be part of the Obama administration's plan to influence the stock market and push the economy in a positive direction.

Last week, the Obama administration engaged in a dramatic transformation of rhetoric, abruptly halting the gloom and doom Obama articulated when he warned the U.S. economy might suffer an irreversible catastrophe if Congress did not immediately pass the administration's proposed $787 billion economic stimulus program,Corsi wrote. He said the president appeared to be highly optimistic as he declared the national crisis is not as bad as we think and advised Americans to avoid being driven by either bad or good news. Bolser noted the Fed was backing up the Obama administration's positive rhetoric with a series of highly complicated market transaction designed to build up the stock market by pumping billions into various avenues, including the purchase of futures contracts, aimed at forcing the Dow to rally. Bolser noted that last Wednesday the Fed added $4.56 billion in securities lending to repurchase agreements, edging the pool up to a total of $379.8 billion and giving the Fed ample ammunition to steer markets this week.On Feb. 4, 2008, when the DJIA closed at 12,635.16, down 108.03 points, Bolser correctly predicted that the Dow would fall dramatically, to below 8,000 points. For more on Obama's manipulation of the stock market and what Bolser expects to happen next, subscribe to Jerome Corsi's Red Alert.

US endorses UN gay rights text By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer – Wed Mar 18, 3:08 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Wednesday formally endorsed a U.N. statement calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality, a measure that former President George W. Bush had refused to sign.The move was the administration's latest in reversing Bush-era decisions that have been heavily criticized by human rights and other groups. The United States was the only western nation not to sign onto the declaration when it came up at the U.N. General Assembly in December.The United States supports the U.N.'s statement on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity and is pleased to join the other 66 U.N. member states who have declared their support of the statement,said State Department spokesman Robert Wood.The United States is an outspoken defender of human rights and critic of human rights abuses around the world, Wood told reporters.As such, we join with other supporters of this statement, and we will continue to remind countries of the importance of respecting the human rights of all people in all appropriate international fora.The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that the administration would endorse the statement.

Gay rights groups hailed the move.

The administration's leadership on this issue will be a powerful rebuke of an earlier Bush administration position that sought to deny the universal application of human rights protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals, said Mark Bromley of the Council for Global Equality, which promotes equal rights for homosexuals.This is long past overdue and we are encouraged by the signal it sends that the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people will now be considered human rights, said Rea Carey, the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.Human rights groups had criticized the Bush administration when it refused to sign the statement when it was presented at the United Nations on Dec. 19. U.S. officials said then that the U.S. opposed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation but that parts of the declaration raised legal questions that needed further review.According to negotiators, the Bush team had concerns that those sections could commit the federal government on matters that fall under state jurisdiction. In some states, landlords and private employers are allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation; on the federal level, gays are not allowed to serve openly in the military.But Wood said a careful interagency review by the Obama administration had concluded that supporting this statement commits us to no legal obligations.When it was voted on in December, 66 of the U.N.'s 192 member countries signed the nonbinding declaration, which backers called an historic step to push the General Assembly to deal more forthrightly with anti-gay discrimination. It was endorsed by all 27 European Union members as well as Japan, Australia and Mexico.

But 70 U.N. members outlaw homosexuality — and in several, homosexual acts can be punished by execution. More than 50 nations, including members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, opposed the declaration.Some Islamic countries said at the time that protecting sexual orientation could lead to the social normalization and possibly the legalization of deplorable acts such as pedophilia and incest. The declaration was also opposed by the Vatican.

MUSLIM NATIONS

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reports: Russia confirms Iran missile contract Wed Mar 18, 9:38 am ET

MOSCOW – Russian news agencies cited a top defense official Wednesday as confirming that a contract to sell powerful air-defense missiles to Iran was signed two years ago, but saying no such weapons have yet been delivered.Russian officials have consistently denied claims the country already has provided some of the S-300 missiles to Iran. They have not said whether a contract existed.The state-run ITAR-Tass and RIA-Novosti news agencies and the independent Interfax quoted an unnamed top official in the Federal Military-Technical Cooperation Service as saying the contract was signed two years ago. Service spokesman Andrei Tarabrin told The Associated Press he could not immediately comment.Supplying S-300s to Iran would change the military balance in the Middle East and the issue has been the subject of intense speculation and diplomatic wrangling for months.Israel and the U.S. fear that, were Iran to possess S-300 missiles, it would use them to protect its nuclear facilities — including the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz or the country's first atomic power plant, which is now being built by Russian contractors at Bushehr.That would make a military strike on the Iranian facilities much more difficult.It was not clear why the missiles have not been delivered, but the reports cited the defense official as saying fulfillment of the contract will mainly depend on the current international situation and the decision of the country's leadership.

That could indicate that Russia intends to use the contract as a bargaining chip before next month's meeting between President Dmitry Medvedev and President Barack Obama.But the defense official said Russia does not intend to abandon the contract, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, ITAR-Tass said,A prominent Russian analyst, Ruslan Pukhov of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, said the missile contract was seen by the Kremlin as primarily a political rather than commercial matter.The S-300 contract, and cooperation with Iran in general, is regarded by Moscow only as an instrument of political bargaining with the West and not as a way of realizing the fundamental defense and commercial interests of Russia,he was quoted as saying by RIA-Novosti.

Czech government postpones vote on missile defense By KAREL JANICEK, Associated Press Writer – Tue Mar 17, 5:18 pm ET

PRAGUE – The Czech government postponed a parliamentary vote Tuesday on a deal to place a U.S. missile defense installation in the country.Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said the coalition government withdrew the item because it did not have enough votes to pass. The government does not have a majority in the 200-seat lower house, and several lawmakers it had been relying on for the vote were unable to attend the session, Topolanek said.It does not mean that we would give up the ratification process, Topolanek said, suggesting the vote may be held after a NATO summit in April and negotiations with the new U.S. administration of President Barack Obama.Obama, who is due to visit Prague on April 4-5 after the summit, has never said if the U.S. would go ahead with the deal, brokered under President George W. Bush, to build a radar base near Prague while placing 10 missile defense interceptors at another facility in neighboring Poland.Washington has said the shield would protect Europe from attacks by rogue states in the Middle East.Topolanek and Polish President Lech Kaczynski said they believed the U.S. would honor the agreement.But Czech opposition parties and most of the population are against the missile defense plans, and Russia has vehemently opposed the prospect of U.S. military installations so close to its borders.The Czech upper house has already approved the planned missile shield.