Ta | Marisacat

Ta 16 January 2009

Posted by marisacat in 2008 Election, Afghanistan War, DC Politics, Iraq War, The Battle for New Orleans, WAR!.
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bush

George W Bush enters the White House East Room to say goodbye to staff and friends after his farewell speech to the nation [REUTERS]

Good for a dart board… maybe.

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1. Madman in the Marketplace - 16 January 2009: A friend emailed me this, Dan Savage responds to “Faithful Obama Girl” (FOG), who is upset that her hero has Rick Warren reading chicken entrails on an altar, or something: Saddlebacked.

Whatever you do, FOG, don’t do those things you, um, already said you don’t want to do. No one should boo or throw shoes or do anything disruptive. The American Taliban love to pretend that they’re the persecuted ones around here, and booing or throwing shoes or even just turning your back on Warren—the gay-hatin’, right-wing Christian bigot Barack Obama invited to give the invocation at his inauguration—will invariably be spun as an attack on people of faith, as a vicious assault on prayer itself, as the moral equivalent of a syphilitic rent boy pissing directly into the open mouth of a crying baby Jesus.

Instead, borrow a page from those long-suffering gay Catholics. To register their displeasure with the pope’s revealing obsession with gay sex, gay marriage, and gay shoes (the douchebag wears Prada), some gay Catholics wear rainbow sashes to mass. Perhaps folks disappointed by Warren’s participation could coordinate a similar sartorial protest? Everyone wear a button with that rainbow-striped version of the Obama logo? Wave little rainbow flags during Warren’s remarks? Head to the Mall in nothing but rubber chaps?

.

They do that? Oh, how funny. Do they sing hymns in the style of showtunes too, because if they do, that would ROCK.

And speaking of Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church and author of The Purpose Driven Life…

My life’s purpose over the last week was reading thousands of proposed new definitions for “saddlebacking” sent in by my readers. As with the new definition of santorum crafted by Savage Love readers (“the frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes a byproduct of anal sex”), the new definition of “saddlebacking” has to be some act that (1) needs a name but doesn’t already have one (we can’t just rename “reverse cowgirl,” people) and (2) is naughty enough to discomfort, say, a Reverend Warren, but something that actual people might actually do because that’s the only way the actual word will actually get used.

So I’ve disqualified proposed definitions that were too literal (“putting an actual saddle on someone’s actual back and actually riding them”), too gross (“to crap on someone’s back and then sit on it, moving forward and back while making horse-riding-related noises like ‘giddyap!’ and ‘whoa!'”), too complicated (“one person on all fours with a strap-on strapped to their midsection, a second person riding said strap-on, and a third person hitting the first person from behind while holding on for dear life/giving a handjob to the second person”), or too bitter (“when you give someone some kind of basic human right, like marriage, and then take it away again after a few months”). Here are the proposed definitions that made the cut:

(1) “Logically, if ‘barebacking’ means having butt sex with no condom, then ‘saddlebacking’ should mean having butt sex with a condom.”

(2) “Saddleback (verb): to submit someone to any kind of humiliating, unreciprocal sex act, either literally or metaphorically, consented to by passive partner due to submissive/masochistic tendencies, desire for approval, or other darker motive. E.g., ‘I don’t know why Obama is letting Rick Warren saddleback him into presiding over his inauguration.'”

(3) “The saddleback position involves placing your lubed dick between the butt cheeks of your partner. This position can be performed on your sides or on top of a facedown partner (maybe with a pillow under his or her hips). My favorite way of finishing up the saddlebacking is to lift up and come on my wife’s sweaty back. The saddleback is a nice compromise position when your partner won’t allow anal entry.”

(4) “To saddleback is to rail against gay sex in public while secretly indulging in the same in private. Ted Haggard? Total saddlebacker. Larry Craig? Saddlebacker. Rick Warren? Probably a saddlebacker.”

(5) “‘Saddlebacking’ should be the term for the phenomenon of Christian teens engaging in unprotected anal sex in order to preserve their virginities. ‘After attending the Purity Ball, Heather and Bill saddlebacked all night because she’s saving herself for marriage.’ Please, please adopt this definition!”

(6) “Saddleback (verb): to ejaculate on the back of a partner at the culmination of doggy-style anal sex.”

(7) “Before being invited to give the invocation, Mr. Warren was most noted for his book The Purpose Driven Life. Therefore, ‘to saddleback’ is to fuck with a purpose, i.e., to procreate. A heterosexual couple asked if they’re trying to have children could reply, ‘No, we’re not ready for kids yet, but we’ll probably start saddlebacking next year.'”

Those are the nominees, ladies and gentlemen.

But before we open the polls for a vote—you’re going to pick the winning definition!—let me quickly handicap the candidates:

(1) I like the idea that “sex” is understood to include condoms and that sex without condoms—bareback sex—needs a special term. But tons of people suggested that “saddlebacking” should be the opposite of “barebacking,” so here it is. (2) Seems a bit tortured and unlikely to come into common usage, but I like the point the reader is making with this definition, so I included it. (3) Technically this kind of assfuckery—butt-cheek fucking à la titty fucking, with no actual penetration—is a form of frottage, but like a woman doing a man in the butt with a strap-on dildo (dubbed “pegging” by Savage Love readers), this particular brand of rubbing off could use a name of its own. (4) One of my favorites—but does a Haggard or Craig tumble out of the closet often enough for the term to come into use? (5) Hilarious—and an entirely appropriate way to honor Reverend Warren, who is a proponent of abstinence education, the “sex ed” that has convinced so many Christian girls and boys that buttfucking isn’t actually sex. (6) A common move—and not just in porn—that could use a name. (7) Makes sense, so here it is. But I imagine Warren would approve of this definition—except when lesbians used it (even you, Melissa E.!).

Okay, Savage Love readers, “saddlebacking” is in your hands now. Vote for your favorite definition from the list of nominees by sending an e-mail to saddleback@savagelove.net. You must include “saddleback” and the number of your preferred definition in the subject line to have your vote count (“saddleback: 1,” “saddleback: 2,” etc.). Vote now!

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2. Madman in the Marketplace - 16 January 2009: Greenwald: Establishment Washington Unifies Against Prosecutions

The word “liberal” has undergone a remarkable transformation over the last eight years. All that has been necessary to qualify is a belief in such radical, exotic and fringe-leftist concepts as search warrants before the Government can eavesdrop on our communications; due process before the state can encage people for life; adherence to decades-old Geneva Conventions restrictions which post-World-War-II America led the way in implementing; and the need for an actual, imminent threat from another country before we bomb, invade, occupy and destroy it.

Now added to the pantheon of “liberal” dogma is the shrill, ideological belief that high government officials must abide by our laws and should be treated like any other citizen when they break them. To believe that now makes you not just a “liberal,” but worse: a “liberal score-settler.” Apparently, one can attain the glorious status of being a moderate, a centrist, a high-minded independent only if one believes that high political officials (and our most powerful industries, such as the telecoms) should be able to break numerous laws (i.e.: commit felonies), openly admit that they’ve done so, and then be immunized from all consequences. That’s how our ideological spectrum is now defined.

The more important development highlighted by Ignatius’ name-calling is how important it has obviously become to establishment media and political figures to vigorously argue against investigations and prosecutions for Bush crimes and even to rehabilitate Bush officials as well-intentioned leaders who, at worst, went a little overboard in protecting us. Digby raised this question the other day: given that there is virtual unanimity among our political and media elites that we do not and should not hold American political officials accountable when they break the law and (especially) when they commit war crimes — indeed, outside of civil liberties groups and a few political advocates here and there, it’s virtually impossible to find anyone advocating that Bush officials should be criminally investigated — why has it become such a priority for establishment figures to defend Bush officials and urge that there be no prosecutions?

Because they were all in on it, enabled it, BELIEVE in it, of course. The establishment LOVES torture … look at our prison system, the way they treat people who need help in gov’t offices, the way they reward companies that mis-treat workers.

Why isn’t this obvious?

Glenn seems to be waking up to this:

First, Bush officials didn’t commit these crimes by themselves. Virtually the entire Washington establishment supported or at least enabled most of it. It isn’t merely that leading Congressional Democrats were, to one degree or another, complicit in these acts and are therefore hamstrung in investigating crimes of which they were aware and did nothing to stop, though that is true. The enabling of all of this extends far beyond the leadership of the two parties.

As confirmed accounts emerged years ago of chronic presidential lawbreaking, warrantless eavesdropping, systematic torture, rendition, “black site” prisons, corruption in every realm, and all sorts of other dark crimes, where were journalists and other opinion-making elites? Very few of them with any significant platform can point to anything they did or said to oppose or stop any of it — and they know that. Many of them, even when much of this became conclusively proven, were still explicitly praising Bush officials. Most of them supported the underlying enabling policies (Guantanamo and the permanent state of war in Iraq and “on terror”), and then cheered on laws — the Military Commissions Act and the FISA Amendments Act — designed to legalize these activities and retroactively immunize the lawbreakers and war criminals from prosecution.

So when these media and political elites are defending Bush officials, mitigating their crimes, and arguing that they shouldn’t be held accountable, they’re actually defending themselves. Just as Nancy Pelosi and Jay Rockefeller can’t possibly demand investigations for crimes in which they were complicit, media stars can’t possibly condemn acts which they supported or, at the very best, towards which they turned a blissfully blind eye. They can’t indict Bush officials for what they did because to do so would be to indict themselves. Bush officials need to be exonerated, or at least have their crimes forgotten (look to the future and ignore the past, they all chime in unison), so that their own involvement in it will also be cleansed and then forgotten.

Second, and quite relatedly, is that establishment elites have, by definition, a vested interest in glorifying and protecting the Washington establishment. It’s perfectly fine to have a President who is inept or even somewhat corrupt. A titillating, tawdry sex scandal is also fun, even desirable, as that keeps entertainment levels high. That’s all just part of the political cycle.

But to acknowledge that our highest political officials are felons (which is what people are, by definition, who break our laws) or war criminals (which is what people are, by definition, who violate the laws of war) is to threaten the system of power which, above all else, they are desperate to maintain, as it is their role within it as royal court spokespeople that provides them with their access, prominence, wealth and self-esteem. Their prime mandate is to protect and defend establishment Washington — most media figures are integrals parts of that establishment, not outside of it — and that means, above all else, attacking anyone who would dare suggest that the establishment has been rotten, criminal and evil at its core.

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3. marisacat - 16 January 2009: I read the full entry at Talk2Action on Warren (linked in the previous thread, here it is).

It is horrifying.

I noticed in commetns some raise has Warren had contact with Coe, of The Family, which I wondered about as well. that same reverence for whomever can mystify, lobotomise AND lead people, no matter the message, no matter the killing done in the name of the herd.

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4. Madman in the Marketplace - 16 January 2009: Warren scares me.

On a lighter note: Save a CEO

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5. marisacat - 16 January 2009: Well he is like Pastor Margaritaville.

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6. Madman in the Marketplace - 16 January 2009: Oh, and I’d forgotten about Coe’s use of Hitler and others in his anecdotes.

Good memory.

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7. Madman in the Marketplace - 16 January 2009: George Galloway on Gaza

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8. marisacat - 17 January 2009: The fiction is flying.. Rahm on with Charlie R.

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9. bayprairie - 17 January 2009: Mondoweiss posts a youtube which he captions:

Member of Parliament Gerald Kaufman is the most beautiful Jew in the world. His speech before the House of Commons denouncing the Gaza slaughter will be played for generations to come. His grandmother killed by the Nazis, his tie clip made from a war prize given to an Israeli soldier friend. “Israel was born out of Jewish terrorism,” he says. “Hamas is a deeply nasty organization, but it was democratically-elected and must be talked to”. Look on Kaufman, ye members of Congress, and weep at your complete absence of courage in the face of atrocities. (Thanks to AC)

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10. marisacat - 17 January 2009: ugh… and Kaufman is the seat warmer for Hunter Biden. As I recall. LOL Hail Obama.

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11. bayprairie - 17 January 2009: transcript (at the bottom of the page)

Sir Gerald Kaufman (Manchester, Gorton) (Lab): I was brought up as an orthodox Jew and a Zionist. On a shelf in our kitchen, there was a tin box for the Jewish National Fund, into which we put coins to help the pioneers building a Jewish presence in Palestine.

I first went to Israel in 1961 and I have been there since more times than I can count. I had family in Israel and have friends in Israel. One of them fought in the wars of 1956, 1967 and 1973 and was wounded in two of them. The tie clip that I am wearing is made from a campaign decoration awarded to him, which he presented to me.

I have known most of the Prime Ministers of Israel, starting with the founding Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Golda Meir was my friend, as was Yigal Allon, Deputy Prime Minister, who, as a general, won the Negev for Israel in the 1948 war of independence.

My parents came to Britain as refugees from Poland. Most of their families were subsequently murdered by the Nazis in the holocaust. My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town of Staszow. A German soldier shot her dead in her bed.

My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza. The current Israeli Government ruthlessly and cynically exploit the continuing guilt among gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians. The implication is that Jewish lives are precious, but the lives of Palestinians do not count.

On Sky News a few days ago, the spokeswoman for the Israeli army, Major Leibovich, was asked about the Israeli killing of, at that time, 800 Palestinians—the total is now 1,000. She replied instantly that

“500 of them were militants.”

That was the reply of a Nazi. I suppose that the Jews fighting for their lives in the Warsaw ghetto could have been dismissed as militants.

The Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni asserts that her Government will have no dealings with Hamas, because they are terrorists. Tzipi Livni’s father was Eitan Livni, chief operations officer of the terrorist Irgun Zvai Leumi, who organised the blowing-up of the King David hotel in Jerusalem, in which 91 victims were killed, including four Jews.

Israel was born out of Jewish terrorism. Jewish terrorists hanged two British sergeants and booby-trapped their corpses. Irgun, together with the terrorist Stern gang, massacred 254 Palestinians in 1948 in the village of Deir Yassin. Today, the current Israeli Government indicate that they would be willing, in circumstances acceptable to them, to negotiate with the Palestinian President Abbas of Fatah. It is too late for that. They could have negotiated with Fatah’s previous leader, Yasser Arafat, who was a friend of mine. Instead, they besieged him in a bunker in Ramallah, where I visited him. Because of the failings of Fatah since Arafat’s death, Hamas won the Palestinian election in 2006. Hamas is a deeply nasty organisation, but it was democratically elected, and it is the only game in town. The boycotting of Hamas, including by our Government, has been a culpable error, from which dreadful consequences have followed.

The great Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, with whom I campaigned for peace on many platforms, said:

“You make peace by talking to your enemies.”

However many Palestinians the Israelis murder in Gaza, they cannot solve this existential problem by military means. Whenever and however the fighting ends, there will still be 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza and 2.5 million more on the west bank. They are treated like dirt by the Israelis, with hundreds of road blocks and with the ghastly denizens of the illegal Jewish settlements harassing them as well. The time will come, not so long from now, when they will outnumber the Jewish population in Israel.

It is time for our Government to make clear to the Israeli Government that their conduct and policies are unacceptable, and to impose a total arms ban on Israel. It is time for peace, but real peace, not the solution by conquest which is the Israelis’ real goal but which it is impossible for them to achieve. They are not simply war criminals; they are fools.

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12. marisacat - 17 January 2009: ugh too late at night. Somoene named Kaufman is ALSO the seat holder for Hunter Biden… NOW I see “Parliament” in the Mondo Weiss snip….. Too little coffee, too little roast chicken.. my brain is failing.

😳

We are so screwed.

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13. marisacat - 17 January 2009: 11

what a remarkable statement.

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14. marisacat - 17 January 2009: Gosh. They even broke Sabbath.

Officials said the Israeli security cabinet would hold a rare meeting at the end of the Sabbath to make a unilateral decision to cease fire. A truce without a deal that included Hamas would rely on the assistance of the United States and Egypt in suppressing arms smuggling into Gaza.

The announcement left confusion over an Egyptian ceasefire plan negotiated separately with Hamas and Israel which would wind up Operation Cast Lead. Hamas officials were preparing to announce their position on the deal within hours.

Reports said that a UN school in northern Gaza was shelled early on Saturday, killing six.

“The incident yet again illustrates the tragedy that there is no safe place in Gaza. Not even a UN installation is safe,” Christopher Gunness, a UN spokesman said. “There is no place to flee.” …snip…

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15. BooHooHooMan - 17 January 2009: Continuing with Madoff,
Tax Evasion in Switzerland and Liechtenstein
Straight up: This is LONG.

Bear with me, but set against other foreign crisis that have a way of popping up then falling into retreat, I think it shows how some of the stakes get shuffled around then get dropped like so much financial polonium..

Hopefully mattes or someone can distill it better.

A real Poop Your Pants article from the Jerusalem Post
this New Years Eve.

JPost.com » Business » Commentary » Article
Dec 31, 2008 11:04 | Updated Dec 31, 2008 12:12
Your Taxes: Liechtenstein opens up

Before the present financial crisis, we were concerned with a fiscal crisis centered on Liechtenstein. It was reported that the German secret service paid a Liechtenstein bank employee to reveal the identity of the bank’s customers. Germany apparently shared this information with the tax authorities of a number of other countries.

Until then, tiny Liechtenstein was considered one of the more secretive “offshore” locations, even though it is far from offshore; it is landlocked between Switzerland and Austria.

Now, for good measure, the United States and Liechtenstein have signed a “tax information exchange agreement” that may affect you even if you do not reside in either country.

The agreement establishes the means by which the tax authorities of the US (the Internal Revenue Service) and Liechtenstein may exchange information that is “foreseeably relevant to the administration and enforcement or collection of tax with respect to persons subject to such taxes, or the investigation or prosecution of criminal tax matters.”

When does the agreement begin?

The agreement was signed on December 8, 2008, and will enter into force when each country has notified the other of the completion of necessary internal procedures. It will have effect for information requests made on or after the date of entry into force with regard to tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2009. The internal procedures in the US will not take too long; unlike income-tax treaties, information-exchange agreements do not need to be approved by the US Senate or ratified.

This is why the appointment over Treasury/ IRS Enforcement and the DOJ Criminal Division AAG is crucial

FFS tho- Obama is appointing Geithner
for Treasury Secretary, a central banking tax beat.

But the appointment of Lanny Breuer as AAG to Head the DOJ Criminal Division is especially troubling, given the kind of criminality coming into view with Madoff et al. Breuer represented Yvgeney Adamov, The Russian Atomic Minister turned Mafiosa who ripped off the DOE via his US Partner”s hole-in-the-wall front company in Pittsburgh. He was also suspected of shipping spent nuclear fuel to Israel and playing the Black Market with Everglow.

Via his position in Russia he went to Khazakstan and developed a relationship with for a uranium franchise that – what a coinkydink!–

ultimately landed in Bill Clinton’s lap,

along with the Big Dawgs White House Lawyer for himself, and coincidently, the Big Dawg’s former US Attorney in Pittsburgh, Frederick Thieman, to defend his Partner there against the current USA, Mary Beth Buchanan.

Anybody want to wager Robert Rubin didn’t get a cut?

Mary Buchanan, the DOJ’s USA in Pittsburgh has dug in deep to the Alpine trail of Jewish Mob money and doesn’t want to resign, but, short of going public quick with some indictments soon, she is going to get burried in an avalanche..her aspect of the money laundering and tax fraud cases along with it.

Again, U.S.efforts to sweep it under the rug aside, I still think this is going to get nasty as there are a slew of cases brewing alongside Madoff. Germany through their BND (their CIA) has been tracking a web that crosses into Switzerland and Liechtnstein for six years as the Germans see it as a threat to their National Security.

I know this meanders.
As does the scam and protection racket of the Jewish Mafia that is only tangentially assailed.

Buchanan’s op in Pittsburgh nabbed Adamov’s US partner Mark Kuashansky, and was bearing down on him for under 20 mil here- small change really –
the Russians got beat for 150 mil cash + nuke tech –
when Adamov bolted Russia and had his ass, family, and money holed up in Switzerland— where he was arrested on US AND Russian Warrants – LOL.

In 2005, with his ass in a Swiss jail, An extradition fight raged on between Putin and the US. Breuer, who was Clinton’s fuckin lawyer, his fixer for Craig at the WH Counsel’s Office during Travelgate, Whiewater and Impeachment, – Breuer was pushing hard to get his client Adamov to the US.

Nonetheless, Putin got him back to Russia, threw him in the slammer for 5 years min, then quickly released him after 5 months via some deal. .All this shit went down as Polonium – extracted from uranium ore– the Polonium Poisoning case in Britain popped up with full diplomatic crisis then
just.as. suddenly. just. went. away.
How Very Well Played,PTB. Jolly-O! and all that.

All of this was going on with German Intelligence digging in to it since the polonium and money passed through Germany. NOT a Russian Op was their conclusion. The Russian reactors that yield some had been shut down for two years, the decay of trace amounts found didn’t point to Putin.

Spiegel-

A nuclear smuggler or more?

In Hamburg, police consider Kovton to be a nuclear smuggling suspect. “The traces make it hard for us to rule out that he had Polonium 210 on him,” says Thomas Menzel, who is heading the investigation.

But Kovtun claims he had visited the London security company Erinys much earlier — on Oct. 16. But again, unlike the radioactive traces found on the Hamburg photo, the traces found at Erinys could not be dated. Kovtun’s Hamburg attorney, Stefan Knief, says his client was probably already contaminated when he flew from London to Moscow, and thus from there via Hamburg back to London. There is no way he knowingly transported Polonium.

This theory of an earlier poisoning is Kovtun’s last hope. If it cannot be confirmed, he will likely be indicted.

But investigators still don’t know what kind of crime they are dealing with: Was renegade agent Litvinenko to be liquidated? Was his death the result of an accident during the illegal sale of the material? Or was it the work of dark forces who wished to discredit Russian President Vladimir Putin?

What IS for certain is this-
Putin did well: For one, he got Adamov’s ass. to do with as he wished. Putin ultimately shelved Adamov in a former academic post and is now under 24 / 7 surveillance. As part of his parole,he can’t leave the country.

Secondly, Putin got his relations smoothed over with Britain despite all those pointy fingers who tried to stick him with the polonium poisoning. To be blunt, Adamov is one Russian Jew who is never leaving the Kremlin’s grasp. His retention was the price for the polonium poisoners – either the Mossad or our CIA for taking the tacit hit on it with the Brits. Maybe everybody except the Germans went to a “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” agreement WRT international money laundering. The JPost doesn’t mention Germany by name but they are the ones that got the dope on Liechtenstein as Jewish Tax dodge and Tel Aviv money funnel :

Last February – IHT –

BERLIN: Investigators probing suspected tax evasion by hundreds of people in Germany mounted raids across the country Tuesday, ahead a visit by the prime minister of Liechtenstein, where much of the money is believed to have been stashed.

More on that in a bit.
Back to the JPost “Watch Your Ass” piece
re the Liechtenstein Tax Dodge part of the puzzle:
The piece is offering hope given that the agreement moves forward from 2009

Which information can be accessed?

The agreement obligates each country to provide assistance through the exchange of information upon request that might be relevant to the administration and enforcement of the tax laws of the other. The agreement will provide the US with access to information it needs to enforce US tax laws, in both civil and criminal matters, including information related to bank accounts in Liechtenstein.However, it allows the US to request information only for 2009 and years following. Documents or other information created before 2009 can only be obtained from Liechtenstein if the request relates to an investigation of a post-2008 year. With respect to pre-2009 years, the US can currently obtain information regarding criminal tax matters under the US-Liechtenstein Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty.

Which taxes are covered?

The taxes covered by the agreement include all US federal income taxes and all Liechtenstein taxes imposed on the countrywide level.

Who is affected?

Under the agreement, the US can obtain information regardless of whether the person to whom the information relates is not a resident of either country. For example, if an Israeli (or Canadian or Australian) resident fails to pay US tax on US real-estate income and hides the income in a Liechtenstein bank, the IRS will apparently be able to obtain that information from the Liechtenstein tax authority. This is the case even if Liechtenstein does not need the information for its own tax purposes or does not consider the matter a crime under Liechtenstein law.

{Snip}

Is the information obtained confidential?

Any information received shall be treated as confidential and may only be disclosed to authorities of the requesting country concerned with the assessment, collection, enforcement or prosecution of taxes covered in the agreement. The information may be disclosed in public court proceedings or judicial decisions. It remains to be seen whether this prevents the IRS from passing on information so received to another tax authority, such as the Israel Tax Authority.

Implications

In the past, Liechtenstein has been criticized for its tradition of banking secrecy; it is currently included on the list of “uncooperative tax havens” of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The agreement with the US is the first such agreement entered into by Liechtenstein. It purports to make Liechtenstein’s banking system more transparent and to assist in the administration and enforcement of US taxes.

Parallel to the agreement, the US is extending Liechtenstein’s treatment as an eligible Qualified Intermediary jurisdiction by one year until the end of 2009. This means Liechtenstein financial institutions can continue to apply US tax treaties on behalf of their investors without generally disclosing the investors’ names. This one-year extension is intended to provide Liechtenstein with time to enact the legislation necessary for full implementation of the agreement – i.e. a one-year probation period for Liechtenstein.

{Plenty of time to move the money. Also, it’s no wonder the Dems are giving Bill and Hillary a one year reporting window , rather than an immediate file for Conflict of Interest with the SOS moving forward. they don’t have to report back FOR A YEAR.-BHHM…JPost again- :::}

What’s next?

It is assumed the EU might want a similar agreement with Liechtenstein.

As always, consult experienced tax advisors in each country at an early stage in specific cases.

The real worry for chosen people inon these scams is
what the Germans Will do…LOL

We can confirm that there was an investigation at our office in Munich,” UBS spokesman Serge Steiner in Zurich, Switzerland, told The Associated Press. “I have no other information or details.”

Hamburg-based Berenberg Bank said investigators were at its office for about “10 minutes,” spokesman Karsten Wehmeier said, adding that they focused one particular case, not the bank itself.

Dresdner Bank AG confirmed Tuesday that one of its branch offices in Munich had been searched by investigators on Monday.

“There was a short visit yesterday,” the bank told AP, without providing any more details.

Other banks that have been searched included
—–> Bankhaus Metzler.<——
{The oldest, richest, PRIVATE, still family owned Jewish Bank in Europe, 300+ years. Founded 1674. Fucking OWNS Jewish Wealth Management and privately placed commercial paper throughout the EU. More on Freidrich Metzler:::I say jump,you say:: / World Bank / Wolfowicz ..over the next day or so..}The private investment bank said its offices in Frankfurt and Munich had been investigated. Similarly, private bank Hauck & Aufhaeuser also said its offices were searched.

So far no suspects have been identified, but the government has acknowledged that its Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, paid an informant as much as 5 million euros ($7.3 million) for a CD-ROM that allegedly lists account holders from a Liechtenstein bank.

The Wall Street Journal, citing officials in Liechtenstein, reported that the investigation was the result of customer data that a former employee of LGT Group offered to the BND.

The paper, citing people familiar with the situation, reported the employee had offered private customer records to tax officials in several countries.

LGT has not been singled out by name, but this weekend it said that there were “indications that client data” stolen from its LGT Treuhand AG subsidiary in 2002 had been “unlawfully disclosed.”

Another subsidiary of LGT Group, LGT Bank, is known for setting up foundations of a type similar to one that German investigators are looking into.

LGT Group has said it will file charges and “will do everything in its power to protect the interests of its clients.”

Germany’s Finance Ministry maintains that it broke no law in acquiring the list from the informant, whom it has not identified.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel made it clear on Monday that she would press Liechtenstein for greater financial transparency, singling out foundations set up in Liechtenstein that German investigators have alleged can be used for evading taxes.

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16. BooHooHooMan - 17 January 2009: Sorry.Very long post in mod.

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17. BooHooHooMan - 17 January 2009: Foof! Another one. LOL.
350 Million-
Foof! – No genie.
Foof!- Foof!– STILL No Genie. Or Bernie or Ari or

Fund manager gone and possibly $350 million with him

Investors in a Sarasota-based hedge fund could be out $350 million, and the man behind it has vanished.

{Like I said- Buy EL AL! – Booked FULL to Tel Aviv, Baby!}
{EL AL and Mental Health Stocks ~ Diversify if they Testify~ }

Managers of the fund are telling clients that their money is gone, and they do not know if any will be recovered.

{Oh- and buy Snoe Shoe Companies –
– Doggy Neck Cask and Flask Manufacturers too-
-now that every motherfucker in Florida is headed
to the Alps with their St Bernard to find their fuckin money-LOL}

Fund principal Arthur G. Nadel, a prominent player in Sarasota social and philanthropic circles, disappeared this week. His wife, Peg, filed a missing person report with law enforcement after finding a suicide note.

Investors — from individuals to the Sarasota YMCA Foundation — in the funds branded Viking, Valhalla and Scoop were stunned this week to learn they may be victims in what could become the largest investment swindle in Southwest Florida history.

LOL.Now the MoFo’s are having REGIONAL Playoffs~~

Despite the carnage on Wall Street last year, investors had been told their investments earned more than 8 percent as of November.

Some are already calling it a “mini-Madoff,” after accused investment scammer Bernard Madoff of New York, who has been accused of creating an alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme that yielded similarly large percentage returns.

“I feel abused. I feel beaten. I don’t know who to believe,” said Dr. Brad Lerner, who expects to lose nearly $730,000 in an IRA fund with Nadel and Moody.

{Get a hold of yourself you wussy. Quit grubbling, Doc.- }
These are TAX DODGES.
They need to be thought of and prosecuted as such!
Charge these fuckers – along with their in-on-the-scam customers,
Slam em into a line up, take the humiliating mug shot, prosecute them, fine them, TAKE THEIR MONEY and, yes- PUT THEM IN JAIL.

These people have ruined the economic and political well being of 99.999999% of the people around the globe.
TO JAIL! Free up space by freeing kids held for minor crimes.

Again with the Wealth Management and Charitable Foundation Scam, the very thing the Europeans are taking the torchlights to…Its a Lawyered Up accounting scam where the gift is “given” , the tax write off taken – the money -if it even exists dollar for dollar- is “managed” who the fuck knows where- with the income – paltry split income provisions aside – the income of these “Charitable” Investments are able to be retained in many instances during the lifetime of the “Grantor”. You’re not supposed to have control, so you have your buddy from the Synogogue handle it..LOL.
What a fuckin joke– Short of real cash injections into REAL charities the state of Philanthropy is FUCKED.

Neil V. Moody, the president of Viking Management, declined to respond to interview requests.In a statement issued Thursday to investors, Moody confirmed the funds appear depleted.

WTF is “Appear to be depleted”? LOL.
Ain’t no “appeared” about anything. If the funds “appear”, it’ll be a fuckin miracle. LOL. They APPEAR to be DISAPPEARED.- LMAO.
Here comes Gomer Pyle bit:

“Unfortunately, just yesterday afternoon we became aware of an extremely serious situation suggesting that the funds may have virtually no remaining value,” Moody wrote.

Moody, who lives part time in Evergreen, Colo., has told several investors interviewed by the Herald-Tribune the funds value totaled $350 million. He said he has contacted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and “all appropriate authorities” to report the situation.

Moody is telling clients that Nadel did all the fund trading, and that Moody had no idea anything was wrong until this week.

Nadel, 75, and Moody, 70, operated under the name Scoop Management Inc. in a double storefront at 1816 Main St., across from the Bank of America building.

Management appeared in a state of turmoil. Peg Nadel and son Geoff Quisenberry said they could not comment on the size of the company’s assets under management, the number of clients, how much has been lost, or even whether it is accurate to call them a hedge fund operator.

“The way I want to be represented is we are totally open and cooperative with all our clients and the authorities, and that includes the SEC,” Peg Nadel said. “We have nothing to hide. But until our counsel has a statement prepared for us to make public, we cannot comment on what is happening here.”

She and Quisenberry both denied reports that employees were emptying out the office.

The Nadels were known for their civic activities, serving on boards and donating money.

Habitat For Humanity, Jewish Family & Children’s Services and Girls Inc. all received cash gifts and pledges from the couple in recent years. None had any money invested in the hedge funds.

“We’re very fortunate in that way,” said Rose Chapman, president of Jewish Family & Children’s Services. Moody was co-chair of the organization’s capital campaign.

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18. marisacat - 17 January 2009: Honestly I think the handwriting was on the wall in the late 90s.. with the whole and specific bail out of Long Term Capital Management. I was horrified. I am sure they just laughed.

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19. marisacat - 17 January 2009: LOL I had figured this one out… but … nice of them to tell us. I guess.

Barack Obama plans a ‘paparazzi presidency’

[B]ut Democratic strategists say his aides have seen an opportunity in the insatiable appetite of the public for information on the new first family.

They plan to use Mr Obama’s status as the world’s leading “Celebritician” or “Polebrity”, offering pictures of the Obama family and soft focus interviews with glossy magazines to maintain his popularity and help sell his political plans directly to middle America, starting with his plans for a trillion dollar stimulus plan to kickstart the economy.

Using his celebrity to appeal to the public over the heads of his opponents in Congress is just one way Mr Obama hopes to change politics in Washington. He is also planning to mobilise his vast network of supporters, and the database of 13 million email addresses he gathered during the campaign, to build pressure on Senators and Congressmen to push through his ambitious agenda. …slapslap…

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20. marisacat - 17 January 2009: And this too… but nice of them to tell us… 😆

Gary Morgan, a British journalist who runs Los Angeles-based Splash News, one of the largest paparazzi agencies in the world, says Mr Obama’s Secret Service men assisted his photographers in getting pictures of the President-Elect on the beach.

If they don’t push the pecs, they push the marriage, if they don’t push those, they push the smile popping kids.

We are so blessed.

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21. BooHooHooMan - 17 January 2009: {HTML corrected-sorry}

Strange – Arbitrary Header it seems to me – given the story that reveals a bomber almost breached the wall of Camp Eggers, US Torture Compound and Special Forces HQ in Kabul just barely dressed up for the article as a “US recruitment and training compound” for Afghani’s.
.
Here’s the Bogey:
Deadly Blast Outside German Embassy in Kabul

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide car bomb attack Saturday on a heavily guarded road between the German Embassy and a U.S. military base in the Afghan capital killed one U.S. service member and four Afghan civilians, officials said.

A separate suicide bomber attacked a convoy of NATO and Afghan police in eastern Afghanistan later in the day, killing one civilian, officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for both attacks and said German military personnel in Kabul and other foreign troops in the east were the targets.

Really – How do we know this? How do they do this? There is no explanation. What are the mechanics and lines of communication The Taliban takes in claiming responsibility? Issuing some type of verifiable-to-the- public statement? Who is issuing this to the press? There is no explanation. Simply take the DOD’s word for it as they misconstrue a story that clearly shatters the myth that Kabul is secure under Uncle Sam.

This sounds like utter bullshit tagging it to the German Embassy given the casualties and description that follows.

U.S. military spokesman Col. Jerry O’Hara said one U.S. service member died from wounds received in the 9:45 a.m. attack on a busy Kabul street.The blast also wounded six American forces and one U.S. civilian, he said.

The German Embassy shares a small, two-lane road with Camp Eggers, a U.S. base that serves as the headquarters for soldiers training Afghan police and army personnel. Dozens of armed Afghan security personnel guard the street, and blast walls of concrete and sand-filled mesh-wire boxes line the road.

“It did not breach the wall (of the base),” said Lt. Col. Chris Kubik, a U.S. military spokesman. “It was fairly close but I can’t tell you if they were targeting us or not.”

All Hail -The Era of Ignorance. Nobody knows ANYTHING. Well somebody wants to send a message to the German Public and it doesn’t seem to be a bomber headed for the US Compound and Police training facility. As near as I can figure the German Public wants to get the fuck out.

From the 2005 IHT article on Torture at Eggers in Kabul
prior to shipment to Gitmo.:

By Carlotta Gall
Published: MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2005

KABUL: Eight men at the American prison camp in Guantánamo Bay have separately given their lawyers “consistent accounts” of being tortured at a secret jail in Afghanistan at various periods between 2002 and 2004, the New-York based Human Rights Watch said Sunday.

The men, five of whom were identified by name, told their lawyers that they had been arrested in various countries, most commonly in Asia and the Middle East, the rights group said. Some recounted having been flown to Afghanistan and then driven just a few minutes from the landing strip to the prison and hearing from Afghan guards that they were near Kabul.

<i.[Snip]

The [ Guantanimo] prisoners said that they were guarded by Afghans and Americans in civilian clothes, the report said, and that their American interrogators did not wear uniforms, leading the rights group to suggest that “the prison may have been operated by personnel from the Central Intelligence Agency.”

American military officials in Afghanistan declined to comment on the report of the men’s accounts and referred all questions to the Department of Defense in Washington. The United States does not release the names of prisoners at Guantánamo.

But mid-level Afghan intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not permitted to talk to the press, said they were aware of several places where Americans detain people. One official named the main military headquarters, Camp Eggers, in Kabul, and the Hotel Ariana, a hotel near the presidential palace that CIA officials have occupied since 2001.

“Bombing at U.S. Command in Afghanistan” is more like it.
Basically we have 32000 there now sending another 30k , and won’t/can’t divert more from Iraq. Right While Israel has completely fucked off the Muslim World, oh -AND We’re BROKE. Brilliant!
SOoo, Get your commemorative Obama kitsch now, cause there ain’t gonna be a second term.

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22. marisacat - 17 January 2009: Really – How do we know this? How do they do this? –BHHM

Well we know the Taliban did it as we need to ramp up in Afghanistan. So naturally it follows.

Not to worry, his pecs will save us. I think they should be put on the dollar bill. The most common piece of commercial tender. That’d be the dollar bill I guess.

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23. BooHooHooMan - 17 January 2009: Thanks for the HTML correct, mcat.

The degree the DOD, the IDF just continues to plow on – and plow on the plop for domestic numbskull consumption is amazing. They just plow on – on a record of loss – then plow on some more for further diminishing returns. Under the direction of Civilian Lunatics on the Right and acquiescence from Dilletentes of the Leftiddle-diddle – Obama and the Dems a clear example here-
It’s mindboggling…

No Questions.
No Answers.
JussssssssssstTay the Course.
Preeeeeetty.much.
Pretty much palaver and Stay the Course.

Afghanistan ll – Back to the Future of the Past or whatever..
or PakistanIran: The Movie, A Bollywood Production
It’s going to be definitive ruin.

The only way the ZioNeoCons and the Vichy Dems
CAN further their folly is to provoke India into the War.

Its crazy anyway you think about it: Without India drawn in via this Mumbai gambit- surely others are to come – they are occupying an indomitable region of a Billion People with a couple of gun nuts or Future Senators from Delaware with their circumcised dicks in their hands…So you stoke up the conflict between India and Pakistan to gain what? Europe would walk, and China and Russia would supply Pakistan Syria and Iran with whatever they needed to balance power. It’s fucking insane from start to finish.

Occupation is what has started these hostilities – all hostilities and and Wars in the first place. We are Rome well into The Fall.

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24. Madman in the Marketplace - 17 January 2009: Found this link in the Mondoweiss thread, at Norman Finklestein’s site:

THE GRANDCHILDREN OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS FROM WORLD WAR II ARE DOING TO THE PALESTINIANS EXACTLY WHAT WAS DONE TO THEM BY NAZI GERMANY…

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25. Madman in the Marketplace - 17 January 2009: Israel Criticized for New Deaths as Cease-Fire Looms in Gaza

JERUSALEM — Israeli tank fire killed two young brothers sheltering at a United Nations school in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya on Saturday, Palestinian and United Nations officials said, even as Israel prepared to declare a unilateral cease-fire in Gaza.

The deaths brought a new round of sharp condemnation for Israel from the United Nations, including aid officials who raised questions about whether the attack, and others like it, should be investigated as war crimes. The Israeli Army said that it was investigating the reports at the highest level but that initial inquiries indicated that troops were returning fire from near or within the school.

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26. mattes - 17 January 2009: In Persepecive: A modest proposal

Why not give Diaspora Jews their own address in Israel?

When we lived in the States, periods like this were agonizing for me, providing, as they did, massive overdoses of cognitive dissonance. I was thinking about only one place, but I’d chosen to live in another. I was concerned about one group of people more than anyone else, but I’d elected not to live with them. The gap between what I felt and where I made my home felt unbearable.

snip
IN THE tradition of Jonathan Swift, I herewith offer a “modest
proposal” that would permit many more Diaspora Jews to be part of our angst and our joy, the tears and the celebrations of Israeli life. They’d understand us better than they can from either their perches in suburban America or the luxury hotels in which they park themselves when they come for visits, and inevitably, they’d then make our case in ways that they simply can’t right now.

Imagine a world in which every synagogue, every federation and every JCC purchased an apartment in Israel for its members to use on their visits. Not some million dollar apartment in Baka or the German Colony, or an apartment in one of those tourist neighborhoods that turns into a ghost town between Succot and Hanukka, and then again until Pessah. The kind of apartment that I’m suggesting would cost substantially less than that. It wouldn’t have to be palatial. It could be in Tel Aviv, or Haifa, or Kfar Saba.

Forget the contribution to the country’s economy that this would make. Infinitely more important is the impact that this would have on Diaspora Jews. Were I a member of a synagogue in Dayton or Denver, the mere fact of my membership would mean that I also have an address in Israel. When I wanted to go there, I would just call the synagogue or the JCC, and sign up for dates that are free. No more hotels for me.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231950863200&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

??? Do they have a clue how this looks?

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27. mattes - 17 January 2009: Forceful transfer openly discussed:

It’s not clear from what you’re saying if it’s impotent to you to keep Israel with a Jewish majority. Would you support moving heavily populated Arab areas to the future Palestinian state, to secure a Jewish majority within Israel?

http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/rosner/entry/marc_aronson_on_why_he

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28. mattes - 17 January 2009: Articles of interest:

Masked motives in China’s piracy push

The arrival of a Chinese armada in the Gulf of Aden could rightly be described as Beijing’s “expansionism by a thousand strides”. The naval fleet will hunt a few pirates for sure, but only because prudence requires that it not draw too much attention to China’s broader focus well beyond the Somali coast. Washington may not be braced for this latest escalation of Africa’s strategic stakes. –

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KA15Ad01.html

Taking more land:

Tunnel vision beneath Gaza

Jerusalem believes that the only way to protect Israelis is to secure the Philadelphi Corridor, the 14-kilometer border between Gaza and Egypt, beneath which lie some 300 makeshift tunnels used by Hamas to smuggle food, fuel and enormous amounts of weapons. But whoever or whatever patrols the border, indulging Israel’s tunnel vision will not keep weapons out of Gaza. –

snip
To that end, one idea making the rounds in hawkish Israeli circles is to make all Gazan territory within three kilometers of the corridor a “closed military zone” and to ask Cairo to do the same on its side of the border – forcing any future tunnel to be at least six times longer than today’s average length of one kilometer.

This would require not only destroying all the buildings in a given area, but also a massive population transfer in one of the most densely populated places on Earth. The southern city of Rafah alone, with a population exceeding 150,000, would fall in a zone that extended only one kilometer into the Strip.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KA13Ak02.html

It seems Europe is not falling for the usual Israel/US/Oligards BS.

More battles ahead in Russia’s ‘gas war’

Moscow’s 13-day “gas war” with Kiev ended with a temporary solution that allows Russian gas to once again flow to Europe via Ukraine. The shrill condemnation of Russia in the United States over the spat failed to click in Europe – Washington underestimated that for Europe, a war over energy security is not the stuff of propaganda, but is a flesh-and-blood issue for their economies. Unresolved is the root of the impasse: Ukraine’s admission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. –

snip

War had just causes

The factors leading to the gas war are well known. On October 2 last year, the Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers signed a memorandum envisaging the two countries’ intention to switch to market prices in the business between their gas companies – Gazprom and Nafotgaz – with the Russian side allowed to sell directly to end users in Ukraine.

The follow-up negotiations were in an advanced stage by end-November when Kiev inexplicably began stalling on the repayment of pending debts for gas supplied to it earlier (an amount of US2.4 billion), which was a precondition for a new gas deal for 2009.

The transfer to market prices is important for Russia as it has been heavily subsidizing the supplies for Ukraine at an average cost of $179.5 per 1,000 cubic meters, whereas it buys and delivers from the Central Asian producers at $375 per 1,000 cubic meters. Russia sought a reduction of the subsidies with a gradual increase in gas price to $250 per cubic meters for the 2009 contract, but Ukraine declined and broke off negotiations. (Gazprom also pays a transit fee to Ukraine for getting the gas across to the European market at $1.6 per 1,000 cubic meters per 100 kilometers.)

With no contract to supply gas for 2009 in place, Moscow cut off the gas supplies to Ukraine on January 1. Ukraine retaliated by refusing to allow the transit of Russian gas to Europe. A related problem is that Ukraine had been illegally siphoning off gas destined for the European market and creating a gas reserve of its own at no cost. [??who]

snip
But Russia has no easy solutions, given the nature of the Soviet-era pipeline network. Russia has no dedicated pipeline to Europe, as all the pipelines also serve Ukrainian customers. Therefore, Kiev knows that as long as the gas remained cut off, Russia would lose revenue and Russia’s ties with its European customers would get complicated, while Kiev has gas reserves to last for as much as six months even if Russia cuts off supplies.

At the height of the gas war, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed to bypass Ukraine and send gas to Europe via the Yamal Peninsula pipeline that runs through Belarus and Poland to Germany as well as the Blue Stream pipeline that crosses from Russia to Turkey across the Black Sea. But this offers no permanent solution, as the two pipelines can supply not more than 20% of the gas that is transported through the massive Ukrainian trunk route.
snip

Clearly, Moscow realized that it might simply walk into a trap set by the hardliners in Washington at this juncture of the transition of power to president-elect Barack Obama. The Kremlin has been cautiously optimistic about a fresh start to US-Russia relations under the Obama presidency. Interestingly, the George W Bush administration has utilized the hullabaloo of the gas war in Europe to wrap up the last act in its Russia policy – concluding a security pact with Georgia on January 9, which according to reports might lead to some form of permanent US presence in the Caucasus for the first time ever.

snip
[propaganda]
Stratfor, which is linked to the US security establishment, said, “Russia is once again threatening to cut natural gas supplies to Europe in the dead of winter. This time, however, Moscow’s focus is much tighter. Russia is not only looking to smash the Ukrainian government, but it is looking for some specific changes in Kiev.”

snip
It seems the Europeans eventually saw through the Ukrainian game, despite the adverse media publicity that Moscow received in the early stages. They decided to associate with the new monitoring mechanism suggested by Moscow to ensure that Kiev does not any more steal from the Russia gas transiting to the European market. In the medium term, European countries may also seek to create their own strategic gas reserves with Russian help. Gazprom is reportedly planning to build the biggest gas storage facility near the city of Hinrichshagen (Meklenburg-Upper Pomerania Federal Land) with a huge capacity of 10 bcm of natural gas, with some of it earmarked as strategic reserves for Germany.

Another positive fallout for Russia is that the European countries may take a renewed interest in Russian pipeline projects – the Nord Stream under the Baltic Sea and the South Stream under the Black Sea – which aim at bypassing Ukraine for supply of gas to the European market. At a joint press conference with the visiting Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek (the Czech Republic currently heads the EU presidency), Putin said in Moscow last week, “The current crisis confirms that there is a need for a true diversification of the ways to deliver our energy resources to the main consumers in Europe.”

Asia Times

Asia Times

Alittle background:

The ultimate composition of the ruling coalition is of great importance to Ukraine’s oligarchs, who, like their counterparts across the former Soviet Union, conduct their affairs in the manner of Mafioso and consider the official levers of governmental power little more than mechanisms for self-enrichment and settling old scores.

The two largest factions in parliament represent two regionally distinct oligarchic groups. The Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko represents, in the first place, the interests of its founder and her husband, who are among the richest people in the country.

Tymoshenko has gathered around her other business interests that orient towards the US and the European Union (EU) and resent the dominance of the industrial oligarchs in the east of the country, who are closely tied to Russian big business. Though herself originally from the southeastern city of Dnipropetrovsk, Tymoshenko has positioned herself as the leader of the most anti-Russian forces from the west of Ukraine.

She is a representative of an ambitious and unprincipled layer that prospered under Stalinist rule.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/apr2006/ukra-a06.shtml

And who is the gas princess?

Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko
During that time she was nicknamed “gas princess” in light of accusations that she has been reselling enormous quantities of stolen gas and avoiding taxation of those deals. She was also accused of “having given Pavlo Lazarenko kickbacks in exchange for her company’s stranglehold on the country’s gas supplies”

Tymoshenko is the daughter of Ludmila Nikolaevna Telegina and Vladimir Abramovich Grigean (her father left the family when Yulia was three years old). She was born in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine (then the Ukrainian SSR). In 1979, she married Oleksandr Tymoshenko, son of a mid-level Soviet communist party bureaucrat, and began rising through a number of positions under the Komsomol, the official Soviet Communist youth organization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yulia_Tymoshenko

[The EU depends on Russian gas via Ukraine for a fifth of its supplies. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gyiQ-8gHUSxTcXNlkRIfBiIwES5Q ]

QUESTION…how do these oligards secure financing for buying up all the natural resources across eastern europe/asia?? Kazakhstan, too.

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29. Madman in the Marketplace - 17 January 2009: The Myth of the Virtuous Middle

In ’99 Europe and North America rallied to condemn Serbian attacks. Indeed, Serbia was charged with genocide and since then several Serbian figures have been brought to trial in the Hague. Kosovo did attack Serbian forces and in some cases civilians. But this did not stop the charges against Serbia. Casualties rates among Kosovars were then what Palestinian casualty rates are now approaching. And Kosovo had not suffered months of crippling blockades and years of occupation and land theft.

Now, however, nothing comparable to the charges leveled against Serbia is being leveled against Israel.

There was no privileged “middle” in the Serbian-Kosovan conflict. But here there is.

The middle is not the privileged position of “Truth”. It is the fig leaf for wrongdoing. For political reasons, among others, neither the US nor Europe will charge Israel with the crimes is unambiguously committing. So, assert the “Virtue of the Middle”, assert — tacitly — the equal moral status of the two sides (while arming and funding one and often explicitly asserting the moral superiority of that one) to avoid a costly admission regarding the crimes of the client.

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30. Madman in the Marketplace - 17 January 2009: For Christ’s Sake, He Isn’t the Messiah

Look, I am as excited as anyone about Obama getting elected, but the media coverage of this is starting to get absurd. I know that it is a historic moment, and I know a lot of the enthusiasm is relief that we are simply pushing C plus Augustus out the door into the dustbin of history, but the fact that the media is doing live, non-stop commentary on the train from wherever to DC is just ridiculous. Shut up, already.

You don’t have to be a bitter Republican to think the glowing media coverage is over the top. Protip: the economy is still going to suck on Tuesday at 1 pm.

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31. mattes - 17 January 2009: GAO: 83% of big U.S companies, contractors use offshore tax havens

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has just issued a report showing that most of the nation’s largest public companies and government contractors rely on offshore subsidiaries to do business and cut their tax bills. Some of these same firms — including big banks and insurers — have already received tens of billions in taxpayer money from the federal bailout fund.

Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, American International Group, American Express have set up hundreds of tax-haven subsidiaries, the report states. All have taken billions from the bailout fund. Pepsi and Caterpillar, both of which have received billions in tax dollars from being major government contractors, also shelter revenue in offshore subsidiaries, The Washington Post says.

There’s a big “but,” however: It’s legal under the U.S. tax code.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2009/01/gao-most-big-us.html

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32. marisacat - 17 January 2009: mattes out of moderation… sorry!

I was washing the sleep out of my eyes and preparing the chicken for the oven… 8)

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33. mattes - 17 January 2009: Mondoweiss…always great.

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34. marisacat - 17 January 2009: 31

it is hte loss of commercial, businesses and corporate tax that is killing us.

I mean, I am very saving of water as an example, I never unlearned what I learned in the 70s.. but I ALSO know it is bullshit. The heavy use is ag in CA, the heavy diversion of water in CA is ag.

All veyr nice to fiddle with the idea of refunds or lowered taxes to the middle or a fake promise of raising taxes on a top sliver, but the game is elsewhere. The real game that is.

A friend of mine just pointed out to me that his father’s business in the 50s was taxed at 47%, a not insubstantial multi location business in CA… today it would be at around 10%, if it had to pay taxes at all.

One of the original big kills to raising state funds, being solvent and able to properly fund needed services, came otu of CA, “Prop 13” in ’78… it froze RE taxes… but it included commercial RE in the deal. And even as we are dying out here, badly mismanaged (by design) by Arnold, literally on the brink of bankruptcy… you still cannot get forward motion on at least changing the commercial RE end of Prop 13.

And Prop 13 directly rose from elements in CA that wanted to starve the state of monies POST INTEGRATION.

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35. marisacat - 17 January 2009: Meet the Press: Emanuel. Roundtable with Tom Brokaw, David Brooks, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Tavis Smiley, Chuck Todd

Fox News Sunday: Pelosi, Gibbs

This Week: Axelrod. Roundtable with Donna Brazile, E.J. Dionne, Matthew Dowd, Gwen Ifill, George Will

Face the Nation: Larry Summers

State of the Union: Axelrod, Dana Perino, Ed Gillespie

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36. mattes - 17 January 2009: And CEO and upper management pay 15% on capital gains….then think of the money that goes to non-profits. How many relatives get plum jobs at the same non-profits?

I say tax all donations.

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37. mattes - 17 January 2009: Zionists need an excuse to start ethnic cleansing Israel:

Young men barred from Temple Mount

For the third Friday in a row, Jerusalem police will impose restrictions on Muslim entrance to the Temple Mount due to tensions over the IDF offensive in Gaza.

All men under the age of 45 will be barred from midday prayers in the ancient compound.

In an effort to prevent violence, thousands of police officers will be deployed throughout the Old City. • Etgar Lefkovits
http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx

Maye he should be paying taxes:

Birthright nails down tycoon Adelson’s $20m pledge for youth trips

Birthright Israel, one of the most prominent identity organizations for young Jews, has worked out a deal with its largest donor to confirm a $20 million pledge that had been in question for the coming year.

Officials at Birthright Israel, which sends young Jews on free trips to Israel, say that the organization has made an arrangement with casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson to match his $20 million pledge for 2009 with $10 million in new gifts. Adelson had pledged the $20 million in the summer of 2008, but Birthright insiders had been so worried about whether the money would come through that they were planning on the assumption the money wouldn’t come through.

Adelson, tagged by Forbes as “the world’s richest Jew” in 2007

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1055177.html

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38. marisacat - 17 January 2009: Many family and charitable “foundations” are a scam. LOL Start with Bill, for one. Add in Buffett and Gates… start right at the top.

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39. marisacat - 17 January 2009: Of course I am screaming with laughter.

It’s no secret Barack Obama is trying to seduce Republicans these days. But his conservative courting runs much deeper and wider than is publicly known.

Obama has had meetings with his former opponent John McCain, GOP congressional leaders and some of the country’s leading conservative commentators. He’s also honoring McCain and Colin Powell in high-profile pre-inaugural dinners, where Obama is expected to toast the Republicans.

Behind the scenes, Obama and his team are working just as hard, courting prominent Republicans and conservatives through frequent phone calls, e-mails and private sit-downs.

The selection of evangelical pastor Rick Warren for the inaugural invocation and Obama’s dinner with right-of-center writers at George F. Will’s home drew significant buzz. But the transition also has quietly reached out to other prominent figures atop the Southern Baptist Church, Charles Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministry and the Jewish Orthodox Union.

“I think he’s done an extremely good job so far,” said Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who received a call from the president-elect last week. “On both the quality of his nominees and the contact that he personally or his skeleton staff have had with members on the Hill — I think they’ve done just an exceptional job at that.”

Burr, who declined to share what he and Obama spoke about, said it helps to have one of the Senate’s own now in the White House, a rare thing in the modern presidency. …snipsnipsnip….

BTW I heard out here that it was not just DiFI (as if I care) ande Rockefeller who got shafted on a heads up, to say nothing of a consult, on the Intel pick… I heard he advised NO CHAIRS in the senate of any picks in their area…. Apparently Boxer quietly told someone out here (no advisory that he picked Chu or Jackson, etc for energy/environment) and it is getting around.

But he has time for Colson’s fellowship. And again I could give a flying hoo hoo about the senators. I wonder if he thinks they just automatically LIKE him… if so he will be surprised.

“It has certainly helped the president-elect to get more of a hearing from evangelicals when he invited Rick Warren,” said Richard Land, a well-known social conservative and chief of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm. “I don’t think that would have happened had Hillary Clinton been elected.”

Land, who said he had been contacted by Obama aides since the election, praised the new president and suggested that he would receive a fresher look from Christian conservatives because of both his approach and his generation.

“He’s done a pretty good job making it clear that he doesn’t have the knife out,” said Land. “Just because you disagree with him on some issues doesn’t mean you can’t agree with him on other issues.”

And Obama, unlike the Clintons and President Bush, is somebody who is neither shaped nor scarred by baby boomer battles, noted Land, 62, himself a product of the era.

Oh lets just roll back Civil Rights legislation. He is so fucking UNSHAPED by the domestic wars.

What an asshole.

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40. Madman in the Marketplace - 17 January 2009: Colson?!?!

ugh

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41. marisacat - 17 January 2009: lol… filthy lucre! Wapo

Barack Obama’s inaugural organizing committee has struck deals with three television networks to the tune of more than $5 million, giving the networks exclusive access to inaugural events. But the arrangement is prompting questions about the president-elect’s efforts to raise money by turning his inauguration into made-for-TV productions.

All told, Obama’s licensing of inaugural events to TV is the most ambitious and expensive in presidential history. Bill Clinton’s committee licensed events to HBO and CBS during his first inauguration in 1993, but other presidential committees have generally shied away from selling exclusive rights to official events.

For $2.5 million, HBO purchased the rights to air Sunday’s all-star kickoff concert at the Lincoln Memorial, which Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden will attend. The concert, featuring the musical stylings of Beyoncé, U2, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder, among others, will be available on television only to those who receive HBO and to households that receive digital cable. In the Washington area, between 60 and 75 percent of cable subscribers will be able to see the concert on cable systems owned by Comcast and Cox Communications. …

The exclusive deals also have riled some in the news media who say the events are of historic importance and thus newsworthy.

A C-SPAN spokesman, John Cardarelli, said the network was told by the inaugural committee that it could not cover the neighborhood ball.

C-SPAN and other networks faced a similar situation in 1993 when HBO had exclusive rights to carry an inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial. The networks were permitted to cover remarks by Clinton and Vice President-elect Al Gore along with readings, but were banned from showing live footage of such musical acts as Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. …..snip…

elect a franchise hamburger.

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42. marisacat - 17 January 2009: 40

Land?

Jimmie publicly told Land off and withdrew

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43. mattes - 17 January 2009: Clintons:

The $31.3 million donation, which was previously undisclosed, came from the Radcliffe Foundation run by Frank Giustra, a Canadian who has made millions financing mining deals around the world. Mr. Giustra has become a member of Mr. Clinton’s inner circle, joining him on global trips and lending him the use of his private MD-87 jet.

For weeks, Clinton Foundation officials had suggested that the $31.3 million contribution listed on its tax return did not come from a single donor. They then said it came from a single source, but declined to identify it. Wednesday afternoon, a representative of Mr. Giustra contacted The Times and acknowledged the Radcliffe contribution.

This year, Mr. Giustra announced separate plans to give the Clinton Foundation $100 million, plus half of his future earnings from natural resource business ventures, for a joint project to spur economic growth in poor Latin American mining communities. Taken together, the contributions make Mr. Giustra one of the foundation’s largest benefactors, if not the single largest.

Unlike more established competitors, Mr. Giustra was a newcomer to uranium mining in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. But what his fledgling company lacked in experience, it made up for in connections. Accompanying Mr. Giustra on his luxuriously appointed MD-87 jet that day was a former president of the United States, Bill Clinton.

Upon landing on the first stop of a three-country philanthropic tour, the two men were whisked off to share a sumptuous midnight banquet with Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, whose 19-year stranglehold on the country has all but quashed political dissent.

Mr. Nazarbayev walked away from the table with a propaganda coup, after Mr. Clinton expressed enthusiastic support for the Kazakh leader’s bid to head an international organization that monitors elections and supports democracy. Mr. Clinton’s public declaration undercut both American foreign policy and sharp criticism of Kazakhstan’s poor human rights record by, among others, Mr. Clinton’s wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

Within two days, corporate records show that Mr. Giustra also came up a winner when his company signed preliminary agreements giving it the right to buy into three uranium projects controlled by Kazakhstan’s state-owned uranium agency, Kazatomprom.

Interesting no wiki on Mr. Giustra’s Radcliffe Foundation. Precious little in net.

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44. ms_xeno - 17 January 2009: I thought Danny Savage loved him some dead Mid-East folk, cuz Iran hates gays ‘n stuff. So if bombing is good enough for Arabs, why isn’t a turned back good enough for Ricky-Poo, Danny ? Do tell.

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45. BooHooHooMan - 17 January 2009: Kestrel,
The Anvil Imprint on Forehead/ Fence Board Up The Do-Dah DJ,

Waxes Poker, Politics, and Stealth Oblaabahhahmma:

It didn’t make me happy either. (5+ / 0-)

I want to play poker with you. I’d take you to the cleaners.
You obviously are incapable of comprehending simple concepts like,”not tipping your hand”, “bluffing”, and “keeping your cards close to your vest.”

“Bush legacy”, my ass. Criminals don’t have “legacies”. Criminals have RECORDS.

by kestrel9000 on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 03:41:01 PM PST

Kestrel, I’m pretty sure you read here-
You’re a Fucking MORON.

LOL. Yeh, This should be good: Obama Peeling away all those OTHER poker faces of “The Stunt Doubles” we ONLY THOUGHT were Hillary, Rahm, Larry Summers, Holder, Panetta etc, the operational entirety of the Last Clinton Administration or guys like Daschle who was as ineffectual and lackluster then as Harry Reid is now.
The List goes on: Vilsack! Stealth AgriBiz Pwogwessive at Agriculture!

But What a fuckin putz, Kestrel with his Hamster-lite rip-off of
“I wanna Play Poker”..

Somebody needs to Foghorn-Leghorn this he-yah Bird Brained Boy of the BBB. Now Boy, I say, Boy: “Keep your enemies close” is a maxim that works only if you’re operating from a Position of Strength and indeed have command of a situation. Obama has neither. He is weak and taking orders. “Keeping your enemies close” is not so smart if, like Obama and Kestrel, you’re really a parakeet.

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46. mattes - 17 January 2009: Everything you wanted to know about how Zionists control US policy

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2009/01/i-was-recently-asked-to-answer-the-following-question-in-the-original-post-there-is-mention-of-israel-controlling-us-policy.html

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47. mattes - 17 January 2009: NO more upload to google:

In a few months, we will discontinue support for uploads to Google Video. Don’t worry, we’re not removing any content hosted on Google Video — this just means you will no longer be able to upload new content to the service. We’ve always maintained that Google Video’s strength is in the search technology that makes it possible for people to search videos from across the web, regardless of where they may be hosted. And this move will enable us to focus on developing these technologies further to the

http://googlevideo.blogspot.com/2009/01/turning-down-uploads-at-google-video.html

We already know ADL has taken over youtube.

The vise tightens.

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48. marisacat - 17 January 2009: Via Angry Arab… JPG

Ahdaf Souif sent me this [photo linked above —Mcat] from (Egyptian) Rafah (I cite with her permission):

“Outside the general Hospital in Egyptian Rafah a city of tents has sprung up. I counted 200. But the soldiers there told me they have many more and can set them up immediately. They said the beds and furnishings for all the camps are ready. I was also told that other camps are being set up, in el-Arish and other locations.

I was told these camps were being set up for “the Palestinian refugees.” Where will they come from? From Gaza. When? When they open the border. Officers then arrived and insisted that we leave immediately. Any information we wanted we could get from the headquarters of the Second Army in Ismailia. A soldier added that some TV stations had been here already – but they were with the Army.”

Posted by As’ad at 11:26 AM

no embedded links…

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49. marisacat - 17 January 2009: Matt Taibbi slaps Thomas Friedman around in NY PRess.

[B]eautiful, I thought. Just when you begin to lose faith in America’s ability to fall for absolutely anything—just when you begin to think we Americans as a race might finally outgrow the lovable credulousness that leads us to fork over our credit card numbers to every half-baked TV pitchman hawking a magic dick-enlarging pill, or a way to make millions on the Internet while sitting at home and pounding doughnuts— along comes Thomas Friedman, porn-stached resident of a positively obscene [114,000 strike thru in original text] 11,400 square foot suburban Maryland mega-monstro-mansion and husband to the heir of one of the largest shopping-mall chains in the world, reinventing himself as an oracle of anti-consumerist conservationism.

Where does a man who needs his own offshore drilling platform just to keep the east wing of his house heated get the balls to write a book chiding America for driving energy inefficient automobiles? Where does a guy whose family bulldozed 2.1 million square feet of pristine Hawaiian wilderness to put a Gap, an Old Navy, a Sears, an Abercrombie and even a motherfucking Foot Locker in paradise get off preaching to the rest of us about the need for a “Green Revolution”?…nip..

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50. marisacat - 17 January 2009: LOL We’re back to the idea of giving a speech in a major muslim capital. Few weeks ago obama distanced from it. Ping pong anyone?

BARACK OBAMA is planning to reach out to the Islamic world, seeking a rapprochement with Muslim opinion alienated by the Bush administration.

He believes a personal initiative will dramatise his wish to reassure Muslims, and intends to give a speech in an Islamic capital during his first 100 days in office as a sign of his engagement.

He has not said where. Egypt and Pakistan are obvious possibilities, but there has been speculation that he could choose Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, where he spent part of his childhood. …snip…

Second act is water into wine. Oops no second act is now it might take FOUR years to close Gitmo. And there will be secret loopholes on interrogation.

Water into blood anyone?

However, he is considering retaining a secret loophole, which would allow the CIA to use some methods outside the army rulebook.

One move that has been ruled out is the immediate closure of the Guantanamo detention centre for terrorist suspects, the focus of much Muslim anger.

Although Obama is committed to closing it – and the process has begun – he has hinted it could take as long as four years.
…snip…

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51. Enjoy - 18 January 2009: Good by old fart…

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52. wu ming - 18 January 2009: another good one at chapati mystery about clinton/kerry’s focus on kipling and alexander the great instead of, y’know, actual pakistani history or politics.

it really is about empire for them. they don’t even pretend it isn’t.

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53. Madman in the Marketplace - 18 January 2009: It’s not an empire if you bring democracy and consumer culture!!

/ugly American>

😈

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54. marisacat - 18 January 2009: Not just on the border recently, but there from before the air war started. And helping.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Army Corps of Engineers has been helping the Egyptian government detect tunnels used to move weapons and other contraband into Gaza, the Pentagon said Thursday.

A small number of US civilians with the Corps have been providing technical advice to the Egyptians over a period of months, said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary.

“There has been a concerted effort for some time by the Egyptians to go after some of these tunnels — detect them, block them, eliminate them — and I think the Army Corps of Engineers has provided some technical advice on how to do so,” Morrell said.

The Army Corps of Engineers role was providing “strictly technical advice,” he said.

Morrell said no US civilians were working near the border with Gaza currently because of the violence arising from an Israeli ground offensive. …

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55. mattes - 18 January 2009: [Trying to hide a smile and a sense of self-satisfaction Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced the cameras at the Defense Ministry and declared to the Israeli public, “We won.” The Israel Defense Forces objectives for its operation in the Gaza Strip were “obtained in full.” Hamas was “surprised and badly beaten,” the government “made decisions responsibly and wisely,” the IDF’s performance was excellent and the southern home front “displayed resilience.” http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056248.html%5D

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56. mattes - 18 January 2009: [Gershom Gorenberg: Who says U.S. Jews will turn on Obama if he presses Israel? http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056270.html ]

Author of Accidental Empire. Great book.

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57. mattes - 18 January 2009: ok….how does one embed links here??

Wu, great article in Pakistan. Thanks.

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58. Madman in the Marketplace - 18 January 2009: I love Taibbi’s graphs … priceless.

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59. Madman in the Marketplace - 18 January 2009: other contraband into Gaza

like <a href="food, medicine, other goods and supplies …

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60. Madman in the Marketplace - 18 January 2009: oops .. here’s the gaza link:

Gaza conflict hampers Egypt smugglers

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61. wu ming - 18 January 2009: that taibbi article was hilarious. if only we realized that the purpose of the NYTimes wasn’t to be a great paper, but to sell bullshit ideology to educated liberals who consider themselves well informed he might be less confused.

or, rather, if taibbi had read chomsky he wouldn’t be perplexed by friedman’s acid-dropping, rubbing alcohol-drinking editors.

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62. wu ming - 18 January 2009: we=he

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63. Madman in the Marketplace - 18 January 2009: what a load of fucking shit.

And yet while our problems may be new, what is required to overcome them is not. What is required is the same perseverance and idealism that those first patriots displayed. What is required is a new declaration of independence, not just in our nation, but in our own lives – from ideology and small thinking, prejudice and bigotry – an appeal not to our easy instincts but to our better angels.

Sure Mr. Pretzledent, that’s EXACTLY what the founding fathers did when they wrote the Declaration & Constitution. Adams sat in a circle with Hamilton and his cronies singing along with Washington singing hymns and Jefferson playing a fife.

Constitutional scholar my ass.

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64. Madman in the Marketplace - 18 January 2009: These are the needs of New York, as New Yorkers see them

DAVID BYRNE

Musician and artist

Let’s assume, just for a minute, that we’ve learned a lesson: that amassing billions is no longer seen as a road to happiness and the enjoyment of life. Security, it may be dawning on us, lies elsewhere.

The educational system needs a huge influx of money. Schoolteachers should all be paid twice what they get now, as they are the ones who will make this city financially and socially livable in the future. An educated generation will create, will be employed, will be healthier and more involved. Crime will diminish, so money will be saved there as well as on welfare and unemployment (assuming there will be any jobs out there to be had). After a while, I think, the benefits will outweigh the costs.

A make-work policy that focuses on education, health, parks, public transportation and quality of life will make this city secure, safe and sexy.

ARTHUR GOLDSTEIN

Teacher of English as a Second Language, Francis Lewis High School, Fresh Meadows, Queens

I teach in a trailer in the back of a building. My school is built for 1,800 kids, and we have over 4,500. They build a wall in the middle of the room and say we have two rooms. It’s unconscionable.

There’s an entire school in the Bronx made of trailers. Meanwhile, we’re building more seats in stadiums down the street. What do you think will happen if we build stadiums and not schools? Kids get it. They’re smart.

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65. Madman in the Marketplace - 18 January 2009: Economic Distress and Fear

This was the Quotation of the Day from January 12:

Part of the debtor mentality is a constant, frantically suppressed undercurrent of terror. We have one of the highest debt-to-income ratios in the world, and apparently most of us are two paychecks from the street. Those in power — governments, employers — exploit this, to great effect. Frightened people are obedient — not just physically, but intellectually and emotionally. If your employer tells you to work overtime, and you know that refusing could jeopardize everything you have, then not only do you work the overtime, but you convince yourself that you’re doing it voluntarily, out of loyalty to the company; because the alternative is to acknowledge that you are living in terror. Before you know it, you’ve persuaded yourself that you have a profound emotional attachment to some vast multinational corporation: you’ve indentured not just your working hours, but your entire thought process. The only people who are capable of either unfettered action or unfettered thought are those who — either because they’re heroically brave, or because they’re insane, or because they know themselves to be safe — are free from fear.

Quote is from The Likeness, a novel set in Ireland, by Tana French.

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66. Madman in the Marketplace - 18 January 2009: Congress Debates Adding Elaborate Dance To Obama’s Inauguration Ceremony

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67. Madman in the Marketplace - 18 January 2009: Oakland is Closed!

The rebellion which shook the streets of Oakland a week ago has irreversibly changed the political equation surrounding the murder, as rebellions tend to do. The Midas touch of popular action leaves little intact. Several days ago, rumors swirled that California Attorney General Jerry Brown was leaning hard on Alameda Country District Attorney Tom Orloff to conclude his investigation and charge Mehserle quickly in order to head off any potential disruption at a scheduled Wednesday rally. This pressure yielded quick results: Orloff issued a warrant for murder, claiming that “the evidence indicates is an unlawful killing done by an intentional act, and from the evidence we have there is nothing that would mitigate that.” Moreover with the Grant family claiming that he and other officers used racial slurs the night of the execution, many will no doubt push for a hate crime enhancement. Mehserle was duly arrested, not in California, but across state lines in Nevada. While this was ostensibly for security in the face of death threats, state lines are more effective against police jurisdiction than death threats.

It would seem that all was well in Oakland, but it’s worth asking how such pressure came to bear on the Attorney General and D.A. in the first place. Protest organizers insist on avoiding this thorny question, for fear that they may be painted with the brush of violence, but only those in bad faith could realistically deny that it was the street-level resistance of a week ago that led the state to act. Could anyone actually argue with a straight face that Mehserle’s arrest resulted from anything but the threat of continued rebellion on the streets?

“Listening to George Jackson”

But it is this most basic of truths that protest organizers from the newly-formed Coalition Against Police Executions (CAPE) have insistently ignored. After the events of last week, the ostensible organizers of the demonstration at Fruitvale BART were among the first to attack the anger expressed later that night. One organizer was brought to tears by the scenes on the television, claiming that his hard work had been “destroyed by a group of anarchists.” There is a distinct irony here, as those who peddling the “outside agitators” line were almost without exception absent on Wednesday, admitting that they watched events unfold on television. The insistence that it was “anarchists” who led the youth astray that night has been thoroughly discredited by those actually present, including KPFA reporter and Prisoners of Conscience Committee (POCC) Minister of Information JR, who insists that: “I have seen many reports talking about white invaders taking over the rebellion, which is b.s.” He adds:

I’m proud of Oakland people in general and youngstas specifically for standing up to the occupying army in our community: the police and the city officials that support the system that lets the police kill us wantonly. The rebellion was just the beginning of a longer political education class in Amerikkkan politics and how it fails to meet the needs of its Black and Brown low income dwellers.

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68. Madman in the Marketplace - 18 January 2009: more:

In a written response to the murder of Oscar Grant, revolutionary Bay Area rapper Paris had the following to say on the subject of a “peaceful” response to police murder:

Hopefully we won’t see the same course of events take place that always seem to happen –brutality/murder, then outrage, the protest, then acquittal, then more outrage… followed by a cooling off period and eventually back to business as usual. That’s why I don’t fuck with protests–the powers that be do what they want to do regardless of what the people say.

Rather, Paris insists that only militant action will be able to create any change: “I’ve heard the calls for calm after our brother’s murder and to stop the violence…and I disagree… If an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind, then I guess we’ll all be bumpin’ into shit, ‘cause this has to stop now.” Whether we agree or not with Paris’ strategic prescriptions, at the very least he has grasped better than many the political dynamics that have unfolded in the case of Oscar Grant. The city only responded when threatened with continued militant action in the streets: it is this that explains the sudden interest that Mayor Dellums , the District Attorney, and the state Attorney General showed in the case, and it is this alone that explains the hasty arrest carried out Tuesday.

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69. Madman in the Marketplace - 18 January 2009: TVA Disaster Spreads Far and Wide

Let’s be honest. Usually when I am called into an environmental disaster, I anticipate that industry isn’t going to step up to the plate and do what’s right by the people. Lawsuits almost always ensue; it would be foolish for me to walk into a situation like this without an attorney. Besides, I consult with two law firms in the United States: Girardi & Keese in Los Angeles and Weitz & Luxenberg in New York. I traveled to the area with an attorney, Robin Greenwald from Weitz and Luxenberg, along with some experts. In many instances such as this disaster, government agencies are absent due to lack of funds and can only rely on the information that industry gives them; and industry generally operates under concealment.

When I first arrived on the site, I was pretty quiet. It took a while to absorb what I was looking at. I knew there was a lake but an entire area was gone. I kept wondering “Where did the water go?” I couldn’t decide if it looked more like a tornado had gone through, a mudslide, landslide, maybe a volcano erupted or a tidal wave. It is now a “moonscape.” The landscape has completely changed. It is almost unidentifiable.

Watching TV never gives you an idea of the extent of damage. It’s only when you stand there that you can actually feel the magnitude.

It struck me that I had an unusual taste on my lips and in my mouth. I asked others if they noticed that, and they did. Some experienced scratchy throats, respiratory problems, itchy and burning eyes and tasted what one expert believed to be sulfuric acid. If we were experiencing this much discomfort after a few minutes, what on earth are the people who live here feeling?

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70. Madman in the Marketplace - 18 January 2009: I have something new up: Praise or Blame

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71. marisacat - 18 January 2009: Sorry Madman three of yours uut of Moderation…

****

mattes

let’s see if I can make this show up… for embedding links…

[a href=”url”[words you want seen[/a]

where you see”[” or “]” use the little arrows that are over the period and comma keys.

If that was confusing, google “html tutorial” and any one that comes up will show you what to do.

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72. marisacat - 18 January 2009: 68

When I first arrived on the site, I was pretty quiet. It took a while to absorb what I was looking at. I knew there was a lake but an entire area was gone. I kept wondering “Where did the water go?”

Speaking of the environment…I saw this during the night. IIRC Hanson was influential in getting Gore interested in the environment…

Only the US now had the political muscle to lead the world and halt the rise, Hansen said. Having refused to recognise that global warming posed any risk at all over the past eight years, the US now had to take a lead as the world’s greatest carbon emitter and the planet’s largest economy. Cap-and-trade schemes, in which emission permits are bought and sold, have failed, he said, and must now be replaced by a carbon tax that will imposed on all producers of fossil fuels. At the same time, there must be a moratorium on new power plants that burn coal – the world’s worst carbon emitter.

Hansen – head of the Goddard Institute of Space Studies and winner of the WWF’s top conservation award – first warned Earth was in danger from climate change in 1988 and has been the victim of several unsuccessful attempts by the White House administration of George Bush to silence his views. ….

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73. Madman in the Marketplace - 18 January 2009: no prob, I got link happy!

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74. diane - 18 January 2009: ..so many gods, godesses, and self proclaimed hermaphrodites,…who likely lay claim to a , male or female energy (which makes them not hermaphrodites…doesn’t it?)………abound…………………………it gets rather confusing…………..real caring….. is so unfortunately absent…….on this spider web/fish net…….hmmmm…….we all hate each other …..don’t we?

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75. marisacat - 18 January 2009: Ten Hut!

Nu post

LINK

…….. 😆 …………

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76. mattes - 19 January 2009: <a href="http://www.freespeechzoneblog.com/showComment.do?commentId=46376"<words you want seen

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