Paradise lost? The Obama effect: his policies are destroying the economy and his demeanor is destroying civility!
UPDATE: MIAMI 'WAR ZONE' DURING URBAN WEEKEND
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Summer of discontent?: Memorial day week-end one to forget
Let’s play 20 questions about the second ‘summer of recovery’
20 Questions To Ask Anyone Foolish Enough To Believe The Economic Crisis Is Over
If you listen to Ben Bernanke, Barack Obama and the mainstream media long enough, and if you didn't know any better, you might be tempted to think that the economic crisis is long gone and that we are in the midst of a burgeoning economic recovery. Unfortunately, the truth is that the economic crisis is far from over.
In 2010, more homes were repossessed than ever before, more Americans were on food stamps than ever before and a smaller percentage of American men had jobs than ever before. The reality is that the United States is an economic basket case and all of these natural disasters certainly are not helping things.
The Federal Reserve has been printing gigantic piles of money and the U.S. government has been borrowing and spending cash at a dizzying pace in an all-out effort to stabilize things. They have succeeded for the moment, but our long-term economic problems are worse then ever.
We are still in the middle of a full-blown economic crisis and things are about to get even worse.
If you know someone that is foolish enough to believe that the economic crisis is over and that our economic problems are behind us, just ask that person the following questions....
#1 During the 23 months of the "Obama recovery", an average of about 23,000 jobs a month have been created. It takes somewhere in the neighborhood of 150,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth. So shouldn't we hold off a bit before we declare the economic crisis to be over?
#2 During the "recession", somewhere between 6.3 million and 7.5 million jobs were lost. During the "Obama recovery", approximately 535,000 jobs have been added. When will the rest of the jobs finally come back?
#3 Of the 535,000 jobs that have been created during the "Obama recovery", only about 35,000 of them are permanent full-time jobs. Today, "low income jobs" account for 41 percent of all jobs in the United States. If our economy is recovering, then why can't it produce large numbers of good jobs that will enable people to provide for their families?
#4 Agricultural commodities have been absolutely soaring this decade. The combined price of cotton, wheat, gasoline and hogs is now more than 3 times higher than it was back in 2002. So how in the world can the Federal Reserve claim that inflation has been at minimal levels all this time?
#5 Back in 2008, banks had a total of 27 billion dollars in excess reserves at the Fed. Today, banks have a total of approximately 1.5 trillion dollars in excess reserves at the Fed. So what is going to happen when all of this money eventually hits the economy?....
#6 If the U.S. economy is recovering, then why are shipments by U.S. factories still substantially below 2008 levels?
#7 Why are imports of goods from overseas growing much more rapidly than shipments of goods from U.S. factories?
#8 According to Zillow, the average price of a home in the U.S. is about 8 percent lower than it was a year ago and that it continues to fall about 1 percent a month. During the first quarter of 2011, home values declined at the fastest rate since late 2008. So can we really talk about a "recovery" when the real estate crisis continues to get worse?
#9 According to a shocking new survey, 54 percent of Americans believe that a housing recovery is "unlikely" until at least 2014. So how is the housing industry supposed to improve if so many people are convinced that it will not?
#10 The latest GDP numbers out of Japan are a complete and total disaster. During the first quarter GDP declined by a stunning 3.7 percent. Of course I have been saying for months that the Japanese economy is collapsing, but most mainstream economists were absolutely stunned by the latest figures. So will the rest of the world be able to avoid slipping into a recession as well?
#11 Next week, Republicans in the House of Representatives are going to allow a vote on raising the debt ceiling. Everyone knows that this is an opportunity for Republican lawmakers to "look tough" to their constituents (the vast majority of which do not want the debt ceiling raised). Everyone also knows that eventually the Republicans are almost certainly going to cave on the debt ceiling after minimal concessions by the Democrats. The truth is that neither "establishment Republicans" nor "establishment Democrats" are actually serious about significantly cutting government debt. So why do we need all of this political theater?
#12 Why are so many of our once great manufacturing cities being transformed into hellholes? In the city of Detroit today, there are over 33,000 abandoned houses, 70 schools are being permanently closed down, the mayor wants to bulldoze one-fourth of the city and you can literally buy a house for one dollar in the worst areas.
#13 According to one new survey, about half of all Baby Boomers fear that when they retire they are going to end up living in poverty. So who is going to take care of them all when the money runs out?
#14 According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, an average of about 5 million Americans were being hired every single month during 2006. Today, an average of about 3.5 million Americans are being hired every single month. So why are our politicians talking about "economic recovery" instead of "the collapse of the economy" when hiring remains about 50 percent below normal?
#15 Since August, 2 million more Americans have left the labor force. But the entire period from August to today was supposed to have been a time of economic growth and recovery. So why are so many Americans giving up on looking for a job?
#16 According to Gallup, 41 percent of Americans believed that the economy was "getting better" at this time last year. Today, that number is at just 27 percent. Are Americans losing faith in the U.S. economy?
#17 According to the U.S. Census, the number of children living in poverty has gone up by about 2 million in just the past 2 years, and one out of every four American children is currently on food stamps. During this same time period, Barack Obama and Ben Bernanke have told us over and over that the U.S. economy has been getting better. So what is the truth?
#18 America has become absolutely addicted to government money. 59 percent of all Americans now receive money from the federal government in one form or another. U.S. households are now receiving more income from the U.S. government than they are paying to the government in taxes. Americans hate having their taxes raised and they hate having their government benefits cut. So is there any hope that this will ever be turned around before disaster strikes?
#19 The combined debt of the major GSEs (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Sallie Mae) has increased from 3.2 trillion in 2008 to 6.4 trillion in 2011. How in the world is the U.S. government going to be able to afford to guarantee all of that debt on top of everything else?
#20 If the U.S. national debt (more than 14 trillion dollars) was reduced to a stack of 5 dollar bills, it would reach three quarters of the way to the moon. The U.S. government borrows about 168 million dollars every single hour. If Bill Gates gave every penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for 15 days. So how in the world can our politicians tell us that everything is going to be okay?
Suspicious: IMF head told friends Putin seeking his ouster from IMF – Is Putin covering his tracks?
Statement meant to shift suspicion from himself?
Vladimir Putin claims Dominique Strauss-Kahn is the victim of a conspiracy to force him out
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has claimed that Dominique Strauss-Kahn may be the victim of a shadowy conspiracy to force him out of his job as head of the International Monetary Fund.
Mr Putin is the first world leader to display any serious doubts over the sex charges against the 62-year-old Frenchman.
But his remarks will certainly surprise the disgraced former IMF boss, who reportedly said before his arrest that he believed Mr Putin was actively plotting his downfall.
Doubtful: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, left, believes Dominique Strauss-Kahn, right, is the victim of a shadowy conspiracy
The prime minister jumped to Mr Strauss-Kahn’s defence in comments posted on the official Kremlin website.
He suggested that charges that the French presidential candidate sexually assaulted and tried to rape a 32-year-old chambermaid may have been trumped up by the U.S. authorities.
Mr Putin said: ‘It’s hard for me to evaluate the hidden political motives but I cannot believe that it looks the way it was initially introduced. It doesn’t sit right in my head.’
American prosecutors put the claims down to mischief making by the Russian premier.
Days before his arrest on May 14 for the alleged attack at a hotel in Times Square, New York, Mr Strauss-Kahn reportedly told friends that Mr Putin was seeking to oust him from the IMF.
DNC Chair, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D.-Fla.), doesn’t know what the word ‘illegal’ means!
Does she agree that illegally taking another’s property is a crime?
DNC Chair: Republicans Believe Illegal Immigration 'Should be a Crime'
Japan experiences unprecedented wave of UFO sightings after earthquake and tsunami
Do you believe in UFO’s? I do, I’ve seen at least one. I don’t think they’re from another planet though but from another dimension…the dimension of demons! They are part of the new world order deception.
Astonishing UFO footage from Japan heralds open alien contact
Michael Cohen m.cohen@allnewsweb.com
The unprecedented wave of UFO sightings and footage that accompanied the tragic earthquake and tsunami that occurred in Japan has not abated. Only this week what is being billed as some of best UFO footage (see video below) ever captured has been filmed at various locations around the country. In one clip a clear saucer-shaped UFO is seen hovering above power lines during daytime hours. In other clips fleets of UFOs are performing manoeuvres that many Japanese observers and scientists are suggesting might well be messages of hope along with the promise of open contact, by aliens with humanity, by the year's end.
To emphasize the connection between natural disasters and UFOs it should be noted that only three weeks ago this publication reported a UFO fleet seen crossing over the Krasnodar region in Russia: Now a crop circle has been discovered in a field in the area and many are interpreting it as a warning of a devestating earthquake that might hit the region.
Russian scientists linked with government sponsored UFO research units are suggesting, in light of this and other events, that open contact might take place as early as September 10 of this year when a UFO following the comet Elenin might land and its alien occupants announce their presence to humanity.
Did Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY 9″)Weiner tweet weiner, if so, was it hard to do?
Police spokeswoman says “It’s no big thing.” (just kidding)
Weinergate: Claims ‘Facebook Hacked’ as Lewd Photo Hits Twitter
by PubliusHacked or hung?
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY 9″) finds himself in a late night online pickle.
This evening a photo surfaced on Congressman Weiner’s yfrog account and in his verified Twitter timeline of a man in his underwear with an erection. The photo was reportedly sent to a woman on Twitter. We’ve protected her name and her account, which was at one time verified to be active but has since been deleted after the photo in question was deleted. Coincidentally, the rest of the photos in the congressman’s alleged yfrog account were also deleted around 11 p.m. eastern.
Is this the Tweet in question? Was Weiner hacked?
Weiner, who married Hillary Clinton’s longtime assistant, Huma Abedin, last year, has been Tweeting about hockey this evening. Confusion reigns online as puzzled Weiner followers wonder what occurred to Weiner’s timeline.
The photo, stored at Weiner’s alleged yfrog account, is connected to his verified Twitter account. Were his yfrog and Twitter accounts hacked as well?
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer
More residents (was going to say Americans but illegals get them too) get food stamps, rich (congress, Obama regime) get more limos and offices
Congress Mulls Cuts to Food Stamps Program Amid Record Number of Recipients
Number of federal-owned limousines has soared under Obama
REPORT: Senate's 100 members spend $40M for 700 offices nationwide
32 signs that Freedom is on the wane in the ‘land of the free’!
32 Signs That The Entire World Is Being Transformed Into A Futuristic Big Brother Prison Grid
The American Dream
May 31, 2011
We witnessed some really bad totalitarian regimes during the 20th century, but what is coming is going to be far more restrictive than any of the despots of the past ever dreamed was possible. Today, nearly every government on earth is tightening their grip on their citizens.
Paranoia has become standard operating procedure all over the planet and nobody is to be trusted. Global politicians will give speeches about liberty and freedom even as they undermine them at every turn. There are very, very few nations on the planet where liberty and freedom are increasing. Instead, almost everywhere you turn the “control grid” is getting tighter.
Governments don’t want us gathering together and interacting with one another. Instead, they want us to work our tails off to support the system, they want us enslaved financially and constantly drowning in debt, and they want us addicted to television and other forms of entertainment.
They want us as numb and docile as possible. Meanwhile, all over the globe they continue to construct a futuristic “big brother” control grid that will ensure that they will always be able to control us.
Sadly, this is not the plot to some post-apocalyptic science fiction movie.
This is really happening.
When you read the list below, each of the 32 signs may not seem to be all that significant individually. However, when they are all taken together, they paint a truly frightening picture….
#1 The days of the free and open Internet are slowly coming to an end. Many nations around the world have implemented strict Internet censorship and many other nations are moving in that direction. With each passing year the level of freedom on the Internet diminishes.
Regulation of the Internet has even become a primary topic of discussion at G-8 meetings. According to The New York Times, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is leading the charge for a more “civilized Internet”….
Leaders of the Group of 8 industrialized countries are set to issue a provocative call for stronger Internet regulation, a cause championed by the host of the meeting, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, but fiercely opposed by some Internet companies and free-speech groups.
Why are free speech groups strongly opposing what Sarkozy is trying to do?
It is because western governments want to kill liberty and freedom on the Internet just like China is doing. The Internet has been a great tool for waking people up and distributing information, and the control freaks that want to run all of our lives do not like that one bit.
#2 Internet censorship in China, the largest nation on earth, is absolutely brutal. The Chinese government blocks any websites that talk about such topics as the Dalai Lama, the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters and Falun Gong.
Even web searches for the English word “freedom” are blocked.
#3 Starting next year, all new cellphones will be required to contain a chip that will allow the president to broadcast “emergency alerts” to the cellphones whenever the president wants. Cellphone users will not be allowed to opt out of the presidential messages.
The following is how a CBS news report describes the new system….
A new national alert system is set to begin in New York City that will alert the public to emergencies via cell phones.
It’s called the Personal Localized Alert Network or PLAN. Presidential and local emergency messages as well as Amber Alerts would appear on cell phones equipped with special chips and software.
#4 The U.K. has more surveillance cameras per citizen than anywhere else in the world. In fact, according to one estimate, there are 4.8 million video cameras constantly watching every move citizens make.
#5 A “certified TSA official” was brought in to oversee student searches at the Santa Fe High School prom last weekend.
Will this kind of thing soon be happening at every high school in America?
#6 The U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending huge amounts of money to install surveillance cameras in the cafeterias of public schools so that government control freaks can closely monitor what our children are eating.
The following is how a recent article posted on Infowars.com describes this new program….
Billed as part of an effort to reduce obesity and improve eating habits, small cameras are programmed to take snapshots of lunch trays before and after each student eats. Each child is uniquely identifiable via a barcode attached to the tray. The amount of calories and nutrients that each child has consumed is then calculated via a database containing 7,500 different varieties of food.
#7 The EU is spending hundreds of millions of euros on propaganda campaigns in an attempt to convince the citizens of Europe that the EU is good for them.
#8 Today, FBI surveillance teams regularly employ warrantless GPS tracking to monitor the movements of peaceful activists – even if they are not suspected of ever committing a crime. The Obama administration is fighting in court to keep this practice legal.
#9 According to FBI Director Robert Mueller, “homegrown terrorists” represent as big a threat to American national security as al-Qaeda does.
#10 Federal VIPR teams are establishing a series of “internal checkpoints” all across the United States. The following is how a recent article by Paul Joseph Watson described these VIPR team activities….
The TSA has announced its intention to expand the VIPR program to include roadside inspections of commercial vehicles, setting up a network of internal checkpoints and rolling out security procedures already active in airports, bus terminals and subway stations to roads and highways across the United States.
By the way, who in the world decided that it would be a good idea to call them “VIPR teams”?
What is next? Are we going to find out that the TSA has hired Cobra Commander and Destro as consultants?
#11 Thousands of “dysfunctional” families in the U.K. are being subjected to intensive 24-hour surveillance to make sure that their children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.
#12 U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer says that Amtrak should have a “no ride list” similar to the “no fly list” used at U.S. airports.
Before you can get on an airplane today, your name is checked to make sure that it is not on any international watch lists.
So what do you have to do to get on an international watch list?
Nobody really knows.
What is next?
A “no breathe list”?
#13 U.K. authorities are now admitting that every phone call, text message, email and website visit made by private citizens will be stored for one year and will be available for monitoring by government agencies.
#14 The amount of cell phone surveillance that goes on is absolutely staggering. For example, one German politician named Malte Spitz recently went to court to force Deutsche Telekom to reveal how often his cell phone was being tracked. What he found out was absolutely amazing. It turns out that in just one 6 month period, Deutsche Telekom recorded the longitude and latitude coordinates of his cell phone 35,000 times.
#15 DARPA has now developed new video surveillance technology that many are warning will bring about the end of public anonymity. The following is how the ExtremeTech blog is describing this new technology….
To be in public is to be on camera, but most video footage is discarded, as only so much can be sorted and analyzed — until now. DARPA has created a technology that can index and analyze video in real-time, marking the end of anonymity in public places.
#16 In the U.K., it is now illegal to photograph the police for any reason whatsoever.
#17 Police in the U.K. have purchased software that will enable them to easily follow the “digital footprints” of virtually anyone. The following is how one recent news report in the U.K. described this new software….
The Metropolitan Police has bought Geotime, a security programme used by the U.S. military which tracks suspects’ movements and communications and displays them on a three-dimensional graphic.
The software aggregates information gathered from social networking sites, GPS devices like the iPhone, mobile phones, financial transactions and IP network logs to build a detailed picture of an individual’s movements.
#18 In Tacoma, Washington a seventh grade student was recently questioned by the Secret Service about a message that he posted on his Facebook page.
Be very careful about what you put up on Facebook or Twitter. The entire world can see it.
#19 According to the ACLU, state police in Michigan are using “extraction devices” to download data from the cellphones of motorists that they pull over. This is taking place even if those pulled over are not accused of doing anything wrong.
The following is how an article on CNET News describes the capabilities of these “extraction devices”….
The devices, sold by a company called Cellebrite, can download text messages, photos, video, and even GPS data from most brands of cell phones. The handheld machines have various interfaces to work with different models and can even bypass security passwords and access some information.
#20 Last year, one shocking poll found that 51 percent of Americans agree with this statement: “It is necessary to give up some civil liberties in order to make the country safe from terrorism.”
#21 The MPAA and RIAA have submitted their master plan for enforcing copyright rights to the new Office of Intellectual Property Enforcement and it includes installing spyware on everyone’s computers that would detect and delete any infringing materials.
#22 The U.K.’s new Internet law includes a “three strikes” rule that allows your entire family to be cut off from the Internet if anyone who lives in your house is accused of copyright infringement – without proof or evidence or trial.
#23 Would you like to have your face scanned and your ID recorded every time you attend a public event? Don’t laugh. The San Francisco Entertainment Commission is actually proposing a new rule which “would require all venues with an occupancy of over 100 people to record the faces of all patrons and employees and scan their ID’s for storage in a database which they must hand over to law enforcement on request.”
#24 Today, the U.S. government and governments all over the industrialized world have become so obsessed with reducing carbon emissions that now they even tell us what kinds of light bulbs we are allowed to buy.
#25 The Obama administration is developing a universal “Internet ID” program that would watch, track, monitor and potentially control your activity on the Internet. These “trusted identities” are being touted as a way to increase safety and security on the Internet and as a way to eliminate the need for dozens of different usernames and passwords.
#26 As I have written about previously, the “Internet kill switch” is rapidly becoming one of the favorite new tools of tyrannical governments all over the globe….
Once upon a time, the Internet was a bastion of liberty and freedom, but now nation after nation is cracking down on it. In fact, legislation has been introduced once again in Congress that would give the president of the United States an “Internet kill switch” that he would be able to use in the event of war or emergency. Of course there would be a whole lot of wiggle room in determining what actually constitutes a true “emergency”. The members of Congress that are pushing this “Internet kill switch” bill want the U.S. to become more like China in this regard.
#27 A shocking document released by Wikileaks proves that high level U.S. government officials have been pushing for North American integration. According to the document, some of the goals of this integration would be to turn North America into an economic zone similar to the EU, to have one common currency for the entire continent and to have one common “security perimeter” for the entire continent.
Let us hope that a plan like this never comes to pass.
#28 One of the most liberty-killing pieces of legislation in recent years was the Patriot Act. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Republicans and the vast majority of Democrats will never vote against the renewal of the Patriot Act because they don’t want to look “soft” on terrorism.
About the only U.S. Senator to stand up against the Patriot Act is Rand Paul. He is doing all he can to fight a one man battle against the Patriot Act but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is doing his best to extend the Patriot Act without any debate taking place.
Stock up with Fresh Food that lasts with eFoodsDirect (Ad)Top Democrats are attempting to claim that even debating the renewal of Patriot Act provisions would “endanger” national security.
Of course most Republicans are not going to stand in the way because they absolutely love the Patriot Act.
If you still believe that the Patriot Act is a good idea, you should watch this video, and you should read this recent article.
#29 If you display the wrong political message on your car, you may find law enforcement officials cracking down on you.
A 73-year-old Virginia resident was recently kicked out of a national park for displaying a sticker promoting “Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty” on his car.
The following is an excerpt from a recent Rutherford Institute report about this incident….
The Rutherford Institute has come to the defense of a 73-year-old Virginia resident who was allegedly ordered by a park ranger to remove his car from a national military park in South Carolina because of political messages attached to his vehicle. Jack Faw, whose ancestors fought in the historic battle memorialized at Kings Mountain National Military Park, contacted The Rutherford Institute after being told by a park ranger that the decal promoting a political organization associated with Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), which was displayed on the back window of Faw’s car, was not allowed in the park.
#30 Brutal crowd control techniques are not just for major events anymore. Recently, riot police in Illinois used tear gas, LRAD sound weapons and crowd suppression tactics against a bunch of college students that were just blowing off some steam at a year-end block party at Western Illinois University.
#31 The U.S. government is gathering more information on all of us than ever before. According to a recent article in the Baltimore Sun, every six hours the volume of information that the NSA gathers is equivalent to the entire Library of Congress.
Nobody is anonymous anymore. The truth is that the U.S. government, governments across the globe and major international corporations have more information about you than you probably ever dared to imagine.
#32 If you think things are bad now, just wait until you see what global authorities have planned for the future.
Are you ready to live in a “Planned-opolis”? Are you ready to use a “calorie card” and to have what you eat determined by a “global food council”?
The following video was originally produced by the Forum for the Future, a major NGO funded by big corporations such as Time Warner and Royal Dutch Shell. In this video, the Forum for the Future presents their chilling version of the future….
“All we need is the right major crisis”–The question you have to ask is, would they manufacture that crisis?
"We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nation will accept the New World Order."
-- David Rockefeller speaking at a UN Business Conference, Sept. 14, 1994
"[The New World Order] cannot happen without U.S. participation, as we are the most significant single component. Yes, there will be a New World Order, and it will force the United States to change it's perceptions."
-- Henry Kissinger, World Affairs Council Press Conference, Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel , April 19th 1994
1972 - Pres Nixon's speech giving in Peking from UPI 2-25-72......."and the hope that each of us has to build a new world order....."
Monday, May 30, 2011
Lavish aid to Africa is turning the continent into a ‘spoilt child’
Mandela aide: Lavish handouts are making Africa the 'spoilt child of the planet'
Lavish aid to Africa is turning the continent into a ‘spoilt child’, according to the head of a charity backed by Nelson Mandela.
Mike Kendrick, founder of the respected Mineseeker Foundation, warned that aid often increased the hardship faced by the world’s poorest people.
In a devastating verdict, he told the Daily Mail last night: ‘I sometimes use the analogy of a spoilt child. We have all seen rich parents give their child everything they need, without earning it.
Well connected: Nelson Mandela, left, supporter of Mike Kendrick, right, whose charity Mineseeker Foundation, warns Africa is turning into a 'spoilt child'
‘Africa is a spoilt child of the planet. It is not their fault. It is ours.
‘It is completely pointless and totally detrimental to spend endless billions on projects that are well intentioned but badly thought out and poorly implemented.
‘The current government is apparently determined to repeat the mistakes of the former one.’
Mr Kendrick decided to speak out as David Cameron defended of his controversial pledge to increase spending on international aid by 34 per cent while cutting budgets at home.
He is now seeking a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss his experiences of the impact of aid on developing countries.
The Mineseeker Foundation was established ten years ago with the backing of Sir Richard Branson to help the victims of landmines in former conflict zones, including many parts of Africa.
Mr Kendrick said he had witnessed the failure of international aid at first hand and his views were ‘shared’ by Mr Mandela.
He said that as well as making people dependent on handouts, aid money often undercut local businesses and initiatives.
‘International financial aid, unless specifically targeted toward practical and ongoing projects, is of little use and should be stopped immediately to prevent yet more suffering,’ he added.
‘We need to change lives permanently, not just whilst funds last, and develop sustainable sturdy economies that will transform lives on a long-term basis.
‘The problem is that aid, when badly directed, actually kills people and this is a matter of fact – not opinion. In the past few decades the West has provided several trillion dollars in aid, yet the average African is now twice as poor as he was before all that started.’
Mr Kendrick said that even well-meaning initiatives, such as Gordon Brown’s project to supply £100million of mosquito nets to Africa, could have damaging unintended consequences.
‘I doubt he realised that in doing so he was committing many hundreds of people into a poverty trap that would possibly reduce them to starvation.
‘Making and repairing mosquito nets is one of the few remaining cottage industries in Africa and by dumping millions of dollars worth of nets in various areas it simply shut all of those local businesses down.’
Mr Kendrick is pioneering a series of ‘aid-free zones’ in Mozambique to attract investors to directly support local businesses. The first project, to create a major coconut plantation, could eventually sustain 50,000 people and is being set up without a penny of aid.
Mr Kendrick said similar projects could transform Africa in the long term, while aid would never be more than a quick fix.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Obama didn’t kill Osama, he found his grave. That’s how they had the DNA evidence so quickly
Former CIA Agent Claims Americans Did Not Kill bin Laden
19.05.2011 | Source: Pravda.Ru
The journalists of Channel One first met this man in 2008. At the time he was featured in the documentary "Plan Caucasus," talking about the attempts of the western intelligence services in the early 1990's to separate the Northern Caucasus and, in particular, Chechnya from Russia. Chechen by nationality, Berkan Yashar is now a Turkish politician, but in those years he was one of the ideologists of Johar Dudayev. He asked for a meeting, promising to tell the truth about the death of Osama bin Laden whom he met in the early 90-ies in Chechnya.
"In September of 1992 I was in Chechnya, that's when I first met the man whose name was Bin Laden. This meeting took place in a two-story house in the city of Grozny; on the top floor was a family of Gamsakhurdia, the Georgian president, who then was kicked out of his country. We met on the bottom floor; Osama lived in the same building, "said Berkan Yashar. Berkan said he did not know why bin Laden visited while in Grozny, and said only one thing about his meetings: "Just wanted to talk."
However, according to Channel One, in those years the former employee of Radio Liberty Berkan Yashar already had an operational name Abubakar, given to him by the CIA. According to Berkan, after that trip Chechen nationals appeared in Osama bin Laden's circle. Berkan Yashar emphasized that they did not participate "directly in the terror bombings." "They protected bin Laden, it was his choice because he trusted them entirely, and knew that they would never betray," said Yashar. According to Yashar he was not the only one who knew about it, but the Russian security services and the CIA were aware of this as well.
Answering the question whether he believed that the Americans killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, Berkan Yashar answered: "Even if the entire world believed I could not possibly believe it." "I personally know the Chechens who protected him, they are Sami, Mahmood, and Ayub, and they were with him until the very end. I remember that day very well, there were three sixes in it: 26 June 2006. These people, as well as two others from London and two Americans, all seven of them, saw him dead. He was very ill, he was skin and bones, very thin, and they washed him and buried him," said Berkan Yashar.
Yashar stressed that although the two American Muslims and two British Muslims the guards of bin Laden and saw him dead, they did not participate in the funerals. "Only three Chechens buried him, according to his will," said Yashar. Bin Laden was buried, according to Yashar, in the mountains on the Pakistan-Afghan border. "There was no assault," said Yashar. "I know the American operations from the inside: they find the grave, dig out bin Laden and tell everyone about this. They need to show how technologically the security services worked, how each step was controlled, and then present it as a great victory to show that taxpayers are not paying taxes for nothing. "
Berkan now blames himself for the fact that the Chechens from the protection of bin Laden, "the terrorist number one" are no longer alive after the U.S. intelligence services began to tap Berkan's telephone conversations. He said he was the first one who announced the date of death of bin Laden. "I was the first one who announced the date of his death in November of 2008 at a conference in Washington, not naming any names, and it looks like it was when the Americans began to track my contacts," he said.
The last security guard Berkan saw Sami, who, according to him, a few days before bin Laden was declared killed, was kidnapped by the U.S. intelligence agencies. According to Berkan, most likely, it was him who disclosed to them the exact place of burial in the mountains on the Pakistan-Afghan border.
In any case, the last call from Sami was from Pakistan. Berkan explained why he informed the journalists of Channel One: he feared for his life. According to him, only wide publicity around the world can protect him from the CIA. However, just in case, the Turkish secret services, according to him, provided him with guards and weapons.
REPORT: TSA agents grabbed wounded vet in crotch
One more reason why this odious federal agency should be abolished
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Friday, May 27, 2011
Two injured US military veterans traveling to a ceremony to honor the lives of fallen friends who gave their lives to protect the rights enshrined in the Constitution were harassed by TSA thugs, with one of them having his crotch grabbed, according to David Bellow, an Army National Guardsman and a State Republican Executive Committeeman.
“One of the wounded warriors, a friend of mine who personally told me what happened, has bullet fragments in his leg. The other wounded warrior has shrapnel in his face,” wrote Bellow on the Texas GOP Vote website.
The TSA agents responded to the men having set off metal detectors by interrogating them about what they were hiding in their bodies. “What are you hiding in your face?” screamed one.
“My friend told me that one TSA agent came up to him and asked what he was hiding in his leg, but before my friend could answer he said that the TSA agent grabbed him, without notice, right in the crotch area as if trying to find something hidden,” writes Bellow.
When the TSA goon grabbed his crotch and didn’t let go, the veteran felt inclined to lash out violently but was somehow able to control his fury.
This story is just one of hundreds if not thousands of examples that underscores the fact that low-grade TSA morons who have proven themselves prone to predatory, perverted and criminal behavior have no place in a free society.
Airports need to act now by kicking out the TSA and replacing them with private security.
But it’s not just airports that are being manned by this cadre of cretins – sports stadiums, prom nights, highways, bus terminals and train stations are all being patrolled by this literal occupying army that is turning America into a checkpoint-festooned police state.
Efforts in Texas to pass a law that would have made TSA groping a felony, scuttled at the last minute by a threat of financial terrorism on behalf of the feds that would have imposed a no fly zone over the state, are now being replicated nationwide as the growing resistance movement against TSA tyranny accelerates.
Iran’s Largest Lake Turning To Salt
Oroumieh Lake Turning To Salt
By Shella Marie Gutierrez on May 27, 2011 in Middle East, Weird, World• No comments
Image Credit: AP Photo/Vahid Salemi
Oroumieh Lake in Tehran, Iran is turning to salt, according to several news sites reported on May 25, 2011. It was said to be the third largest saltwater lake in the world and a popular lake to migrating flamigos, gulls and pelicans.
Related Blog Post: Photos Of Oroumieh Lake That Turned Into Salt
However, 60% of the lake was said to have shrunken and may disappear entirely in just few years, according to reports.
Business near the area and the tourism activities were said to have weakend because of this situation.
Reports said that the lake’s lack of water was caused by misguided irrigation policies, development and the damming of rivers that feed it. Drought is also one of the reasons that drained the lake.
Italian government charges seismologists with manslaughter for not predicting quake
This is insane; no one, other than a prophet from God, can predict earthquakes. You see why ‘government’ has to be kept in check!
They would be laughed out of the country except for the fact that they have the power. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The US government, especially the executive branch, has gotten way too big and has way too much power!
Italian seismologist charged with manslaughter for failure to predict earthquake
AP Photo/Italian Police
April 6, 2009: An aerial photo provided by the Italian Police shows the debris of a collapsed building in an area near L'Aquila, central Italy, after a powerful earthquake shook central Italy.
Italian government officials have accused the country's top seismologist of manslaughter, after failing to predict a natural disaster that struck Italy in 2009, a massive devastating earthquake that killed 308 people.
A shocked spokesman for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) likened the accusations to a witch hunt.
"It has a medieval flavor to it -- like witches are being put on trial," the stunned spokesman told FoxNews.com.
Enzo Boschi, the president of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), will face trial along with six other scientists and technicians, after failing to predict the future and the impending disaster.
Earthquakes are, of course, nearly impossible to predict, seismologists say. In fact, according to the website for the USGS, no major quake has ever been predicted successfully.
"Neither the USGS nor Caltech nor any other scientists have ever predicted a major earthquake," reads a statement posted on the USGS website. "They do not know how, and they do not expect to know how any time in the foreseeable future."
John Vidale, a Washington State seismologist and professor at the University of Washington, agreed that earthquake forecasting is simply impossible.
"We're not able to predict earthquakes very well at all," he told LiveScience.
"One problem is, we don't know how much stress it takes to break a fault," Vidale told the site. "Second we still don't know how much stress is down there. All we can do is measure how the ground is deforming."
Not knowing either of these factors makes it pretty tough to figure out when stresses will get to the point of a rupture, and an earth-shaking quake, LiveScience explained.
The seven scientists were placed under investigation almost a year ago, according to a news story on the website of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) -- the world's largest general-science society and a leading voice for the interests of scientists worldwide.
Alan Leschner, chief executive of AAAS, said his group wrote a letter to the Italian government last year -- clearly, to no avail.
"Whoever made these accusations misunderstands the nature of science, the nature of the discipline and how difficult it is to predict anything with the surety they expect," Leschner told FoxNews.com.
The case could have a "chilling effect" on scientists, he noted.
"It reflects a lack of understanding about what science can and can't do," he said. "And frankly, it will have an effect of intimidating scientists ... This just feels like either scapegoating or an attempt to intimidate a community. This really seems inappropriate."
Judge Giuseppe Romano Gargarella said that the seven defendants had supplied "imprecise, incomplete and contradictory information," in a press conference following a meeting held by the committee 6 days before the quake, reported the Italian daily Corriere della Sera
In doing so, they "thwarted the activities designed to protect the public," the judge said.
Boschi's lawyer, Marcello Melandri, has been taking the news badly, reported the AAAS story. He was particularly stunned because -- despite of the near impossibility of predicting earthquakes Boshi had been indicating that a large earthquake would be coming, though he did not say when.
Melandri told the AAAS that Boschi never sought to reassure the population of L'Aquila that there was no threat. On the contrary, the INGV head made it clear that "at some point it is probable that there will be a big earthquake."
In addition to Boschi, those facing trial are:
* Franco Barberi, committee vice president;
* Bernardo De Bernardinis, at the time vice president of Italy's Civil Protection Department and now president of the country's Institute for Environmental Protection and Research;
* Giulio Selvaggi, director of the National Earthquake Center;
* Gian Michele Calvi, director of the European Center for Training and Research in Earthquake Engineering;
* Claudio Eva, an earth scientist at the University of Genoa; and
* Mauro Dolce, director of the office of seismic risk at the Civil Protection Department
Congressman challenges inhuman auto-pen 'signature'
The so-called Patriot Act would have been unimaginable before 9/11. The ‘new world order’ crowd were extremely lucky that such an event happened so as to advance their agenda dramatically.
Rep. Graves questions Obama's autopen signing of Patriot Act extension
By Daniel Strauss - 05/27/11 11:17 AM ET
Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) is questioning President Obama's use of an autopen in signing an extension of the Patriot Act.
In a letter Friday, Graves asks Obama to confirm that he saw the law prior to its autopen signing.
"Mr. President, I write to request your confirmation that S. 990, as passed by Congress, was presented to you prior to the autopen signing, as well as a detailed, written explanation of your Constitutional authority to assign a surrogate the responsibility of signing bills passed into law," Graves wrote.
Obama signed the bill into law late Thursday night. The autopen was used because the president was in France, meeting with G8 leaders, and the bill's provisions expired at midnight.
Graves cited Article 1 Section 7 of the Constitution, which says that the president must sign a bill to approve it into law.
"Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approves he shall sign it," the article reads.
Big Brother: Anti-Patriot Act signed into law by a machine, appropriately!
Patriot Act clears House, Senate
Republican leaders blocked Sen. Patrick ‘Leaky’ Leahy from getting a vote on his bipartisan amendment. | AP Photo Close
By SCOTT WONG | 5/26/11 6:10 PM EDT Updated: 5/27/11 11:48 AM EDT
Capping a week of political bickering and parliamentary delays, the House joined the Senate on Thursday to pass a four-year extension of key provisions of the Patriot Act that was set to expire at midnight.
Because President Barack Obama was traveling in Europe, he signed the bill into law using an autopen, a machine that replicates the president’s signature.
POLITICO 44
The House voted 250-153 to renew three parts of the counter-terrorism surveillance law. Thirty-one House Republicans joined most Democrats in opposing the extension, while 54 Democrats supported it.
Hours earlier, the bill cleared the Senate on a 72-23 vote, with 19 Democrats and four Republicans voting no, mostly over concerns the Patriot Act violates personal privacy and civil liberties.
The week-long fight over parliamentary procedures and amendments left a trail of bruised egos and bad feelings in the upper chamber.
Freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a Patriot Act opponent who had used procedural tactics to delay a final vote on the bill for much of the week, eventually worked out a deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to get votes on two of his amendments – but not before Reid accused the libertarian, tea-party darling of “political grandstanding” and trying to protect terrorists.
While Paul’s amendments ultimately failed by wide margins, Republican leaders blocked Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) from even getting a vote on his bipartisan amendment that would have required greater congressional oversight of the anti-terrorism tools in the law.
Leahy briefly threatened to delay the final vote himself – a rare move for the chairman tasked with shepherding the bill through the Senate. But he later backed off, vowing to introduce his amendment as a stand-alone bill.
“I do feel this really ruins the chances to make the Patriot Act one that could have had far, far greater bipartisan support, and we have lost a wonderful chance,” Leahy said on the Senate floor, “but I understand that we have to do what the Republicans want on this bill.”
The longtime liberal from Vermont voted no and rejected assertions by Republicans that his objections would have been to blame for the Patriot Act provisions expiring, something top Obama administration officials warned could threaten national security during a time of heightened alert.
“There is no conceivable way this thing can get passed and signed by the president anyway [before the provisions expire],” Leahy told two reporters before the vote, unaware that the White House intended to attach the president’s signature via autopen. “So that was the most bogus, damn argument that’s been made in this place today.”
Utah To Follow Texas Lead In TSA Grope-down Revolt
OK, Utah, get ready for the TSA take-down! Now they’re going to grab you by the b@lls and squeeze! This is what the Constitution and Bill of Rights was supposed to protect us from.
Steve Watson Prisonplanet.com May 27, 2011
Utah looks likely to be the next state to follow the example set by Texas in attempting to make TSA grope downs a felony
Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman has introduced a bill into the Utah House of Representatives that would ensure TSA agents would have to abide by the same Fourth Amendment limits that police do when performing searches on Americans.
“It is a work in progress,” Wimmer told the Utah Daily Herald. “What it would do right now is simply say TSA agents are not exempt from the requirement of reasonable suspicion or probable cause to pat down a citizen.”
Like the bill that was recently unanimously passed in the Texas House, Wimmer’s legislation would make it an offense to touch the private parts of the person on the receiving end of the pat-down.
As we reported yesterday, the man who was instrumental in working with the federal government to sabotage the Texas bill was Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a former CIA agent and establishment insider considered to be the wealthiest man in Texas politics.
The bill stalled in the Texas Senate, after the Department of Justice sent a letter threatening to impose a no fly zone over Texas and shut down Texas airports. The warning was nothing short of a federal blockade and an act of financial terrorism.
Rep. Wimmer, a long time champion of states rights, told the Utah Daily Herald that it is untrue that the federal government has supremacy over the state of Texas in the matter.
“The absolute overbearing audacity of the federal government in threatening Texas while Texas is trying to protect their citizens should really offend any red-blooded American,” Wimmer said, adding that the issue has been transformed from solely a Fourth Amendment concern to an assault on the Tenth Amendment and states rights.
As a former police officer, Wimmer is adamant that TSA agents should be held up to the same standards as law enforcement officers, and that law abiding citizens should not be subjected to personal searches without reason.
“It does not feel like America when you are going through a TSA checkpoint at the airport,” Wimmer said.
Wimmer’s bill will be considered and debated in the new year when the 2012 legislative session begins in Utah.
Lawmakers in other states, including New Hampshire and California, have already looked into banning TSA gropedowns.
A number of other lobby groups, state and local authorities around the country have also resolved to either block the TSA body scanners or kick the TSA out of airports altogether, including New Jersey, where Republican state Senator Mike Doherty has vowed to push for legislation that will ban both the scanners as well as invasive groping techniques.
Should several more states follow the same example set by Texas, the TSA and the Justice Department will have a major job on their hands threatening half the country with no fly zones and convincing Americans that it is the prudent course of action.
Top 10 things the TSA could do if its power is not sensibly limited
The TSA is a monster who gains strength everyday it’s allowed to continue to exist
Mike Adams
NaturalNews
May 27, 2011
Let’s ask the commonsense question: If the TSA can run security checkpoints at not only airports but also local high schools, and if the TSA can reach down your pants and feel your genitals in complete violation of your Fourth Amendment rights, and if the TSA says it has the complete authority under the U.S. Constitution to do whatever it wants, then what are the limits on the TSA’s power?
TSA claims supreme power over Americans
According to the TSA’s current explanations, there are no limits to its power. It can do whatever it wants. But America’s founding fathers, not surprisingly, strongly disagreed. In fact, they penned two documents that specifically defined strict limits to government power. Those two documents are, of course, the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights.
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are, technically, anti-government documents. They spell out the limits of government in order to protect the freedoms of the People. Remember, these were documents that came out of a time when British soldiers would conduct house-to-house searches — looting homes and sexually assaulting women — without any legal justification whatsoever. The early American colonists were infuriated at this abuse of power, so they created the Fourth Amendment which specifically forbade searches of people or their private property without court-approved warrants that specifically named the things to be searched or seized.
The Fourth Amendment, in other words, was specifically written to stop rogue governments from abusing their power and conducting illegal police operations against the People. It’s no stretch to say that the Fourth Amendment was written to halt almost exactly the kind of behavior now being pursued by the TSA — illegal bodily searches without cause or justification, without warrants and without any legal proceedings whatsoever.
The TSA, in other words, is doing to Americans today what the occupying British Army did to the American colonists before the Revolutionary War.
The TSA recognizes no law and no limits to its power
It all makes you wonder: What are, exactly, the limits of the TSA’s power? If the TSA will not recognize the limits of government power set forth in the U.S. Constitution — nor the rights of the People enumerated in the Bill of Rights — then what set of written rules or guidelines provide any boundaries for the TSA?
The answer is simple: There are no limits to the TSA’s power! If it simply ignores the Bill of Rights — and if the People do not assert their own rights in the face of a growing tyranny — then the TSA can do essentially whatever it wants. This is how tyranny works: tyrants keep expanding their power grabs until they are stopped (usually by force).
That’s why today, I’ve outlined the top 10 things the TSA could do if its power is not limited. These are what’s probably next on the TSA’s wish list. And if America does not rise up against this outrageous tyranny and abuse of power, we will become victims of it.
Here are ten things the TSA could do in America starting right now:
Ten things the TSA could do in America
1) Conduct house to house searches without warrants or justification of any kind (and arrest people who resist).
2) Shut down your state’s highways, railroads and airports at any time, for any reason, without explanation or justification.
3) Conduct body cavity searches at polling stations. This could literally mean TSA agents reaching into your anus to see if they can find any “hanging chads” in there.
4) Search parking lots for cars with Ron Paul stickers, then impound the vehicles under suspicion of terrorism.
5) Begin carrying firearms and using them to enforce its agenda. Right now, TSA goons don’t carry guns, but before long they could be sticking them in your face while planting cocaine in your carry-on luggage just to have you arrested and molested in the back room.
6) Demand to install TSA representatives in local Sheriff’s offices and police departments. These would function as TSA spies who report on the activities of local law enforcement and keep them in line. It’s a classic Nazi tactic, also used throughout the KGB.
7) Announce a TSA fee collection mandate from air travelers, then shut down any airport that refused to comply. This would basically be a for-profit racketeering operation. Pay up or lose your airport.
8 ) Demand veto power over ALL state legislation involving security, then boycott states that refuse to comply. Yes, the TSA could start having a say in local politics and could even demand the power to veto local legislation it didn’t like (such as the recent attempt in Texas to criminalize the TSA’s obscene pat-downs).
9) Set up official TSA naked inspection rooms at airports, where TSA officials take travelers into the back room and demand they disrobe as a “security measure.” The TSA would effectively operate as a gang of serial molesters.
10) Visit local malls and sporting arenas and demand they pay TSA “protection fees” if they wish to keep their events safe from terrorists. This is classic mob behavior — a “protection racket” that extracts money from businesses if they don’t want to be bombed or burned down. The TSA has already started running bomb exercises in airports just to see how police might react (http://www.naturalnews.com/032458_T…).
Don’t believe any of this can happen? Well go back in time a decade and ask yourself in 2001: Would you have believed that in 2011 the U.S. government would be reaching down your pants and feeling your genitals as a requirement for you to board an airplane?
More importantly, for those who say this could never happen, I ask the crucial question: What would YOU do to stop it? Tyranny grows in power because people go along with it. Perhaps 90 percent of the sheeple in America would go right along with whatever outrageous and tyrannical schemes the TSA would come up with. The mainstream media would report it all as “business as usual,” too. Oh, the TSA is now molesting women in house-to-house searches? Well, it’s all to protect us from Al Qaeda, so it must be okay.
The TSA is demanding cash fees from travelers at airport security checkpoints? Oh, it’s just another reasonable fee to protect us all from terrorists, people would reason. There seems to be nothing the TSA can do now that will awaken the sheeple of America who have been drugged, fluoridated and vaccinated into a state of near-total cognitive compliance.
So share this list, friends: Let your friends and social networkers know what’s coming soon if the TSA is not stopped. This is a rogue government agency that lusts for power, and it absolutely will not stop until it is running the secret police infrastructure in America that molests and extorts individuals and businesses, all under the false cover of “fighting terrorism.”
I will be discussing all this on the Alex Jones Show, the Friday, May 27, 2011 edition. You can tune in and hear more discussion on this at www.PrisonPlanet.com or catch this in the archives by subscribing as a member there.
Are you following the tree?
Is the Internet Leaving Humanity Behind?
May 27, 2011 8:58am by Social Intelligence Monitor
Proliferating Internet-connected animals and inanimate objects might not come as a shock to anyone who has ever checked Twitter from their refrigerator, or set up a Facebook profile for their dog.
But to Dave Evans, chief futurist for network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc., the fact that things have been outnumbering people online since last year represents the first true evolution of the Internet since the instant communication network was first created.
“We’re seeing devices that historically we never would have dreamt of being connected to the Internet become commonplace,” he said in a presentation on Thursday.
Specifically, Mr. Evans highlighted a new line of running shoes from Nike that can track a wearer’s progress and post updates online and a special tag worn by some livestock to keep tabs on their diet and overall health. There is even a tree in Belgium packed with sensors and cameras that constantly posts local environmental updates on Twitter.
“That tree in Brussels has 3,000 followers,” he said. “How many people on Twitter can say they have 3,000 followers?” (this reporter cannot)
In talking about what Mr. Evans has dubbled “The Internet of Things,” it is first important to distinguish the Internet from the World Wide Web, which many see as synonymous but is actually an application running atop the complex communication network that is the true Internet.
What’s causing the spike in oil prices?
In 2008 it was speculators. That should make you mad.
In 2011 it may be the falling value of the dollar caused by the TARP, stimulus, bailouts, and QE, all paid for by the FED printing more and more money. That should make you scared, as well as mad!
Wikileaks: Speculators Helped Cause Oil Bubble
Update: Oil rises to near $101 on weaker dollar
Saudi King Abdullah and President Bush at the King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh, May 16, 2008.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
When oil prices surged to a ridiculous $147 a barrel in the summer of 2008, conventional wisdom held that normal supply and demand issues were the cause. Both the Bush administration (in the form of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission) and most of Wall Street (through both media figures and market analysts) blamed such factors as increases in oil demand from the Chinese industrial machine, and the failure of Americans to conserve, for the surge in crude prices.
Goldman Sachs, while outrageously predicting a "super spike" that might cause oil to reach as high as $200 a barrel, blamed piggish American consumers and preached conservation as a bulwark against oil supply disruptions. The bank's "Oracle of Oil," Arjun Murti, even broadcast the fact that he owned two hybrid cars.
Well, thanks to Wikileaks, we now know that when the Bush administration reached out to the Saudis in the summer of '08 to ask them to increase oil production to lower prices, the Saudis responded by saying they were having a hard time finding buyers for their oil as it was, and instead asked the Bush administration to rein in Wall Street speculators.
According to the McClatchy report, the Wiki cables show that Saudi ministers repeatedly told Bush administration officials that increasing production might be counterproductive.
The cables show that at the height of the bubble, in May 2008, U.S. officials met in Riyadh with the Saudi assistant petroleum minister, Prince Abdulazziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud, who told the U.S. he was "extremely worried" that high prices would destroy the demand for crude.
"Aramco is trying to sell more, but frankly there are no buyers," he reportedly said, referring to the Saudi state oil company. "We are discounting buyers."
The issue here, which I covered somewhat in Griftopia and in "The Great American Bubble Machine," revolves around the influx of speculative money into the commodities markets. Because of various changes to the way commodities were traded -- including a series of semi-secret exemptions handed out to commodities speculators, allowing companies like Goldman Sachs to popularize commodities speculation -- there was, by the summer of 2008, a cascade of investor money pouring into commodities, mostly all betting on a rise of commodity prices. Much of this might have been due to money flowing out of mortgages and into the "safe" haven of commodities, with exploding energy prices being an unwelcome side effect. While there was less than $20 billion of speculative activity in commodities in the early 2000s, by 2008 that number had jumped up to well over $200 billion, with virtually all that money being "long" money, i.e. bets on a rise in prices. All of that new money turned into a battering ram pushing prices through the roof. We are seeing the same phenomenon this year.
The Wiki documents show that the Saudis had long ago concluded that this increased investor flow was a threat to disrupt the markets. An embassy cable from 2007 recounted a meeting U.S. officials had with Yasser Mufti, an Aramco planner. "The Saudi analysts indicated a link between higher oil prices and the influx of investor funds into the oil markets," it read.
The cables also show that the Saudis urged the Americans to enact reforms to rein in Wall Street, calling for speculative limits and other changes. It also showed that some Saudi officials believed that speculation added as much as $40 to the oil price during the height of the bubble.
All of this is significant because both the Bush administration and the Obama administration have denied this narrative to various degrees. The CFTC only recently admitted that speculation played a role in the 2008 mess, having originally (and stubbornly) blamed supply and demand issues. Subsequent analyses have shown that the Saudi position, that worldwide demand for oil never increased nearly enough to account for the gigantic 2008 price spike, was almost certainly correct.
More on this to come later. Given the surge in commodities prices in the last year (which may in part have caused the rise in food prices that led to disturbances in the Middle East) and the Obama administration's seeming reluctance still to rein in speculators, it's remarkable that this issue doesn't get more press. It'll be interesting to see how much ink these Wiki cables get.
The world suffers along as the Obama administration and his love sick media live in a fanciful ‘land of recovery’
Global Economic Rebound Weakens on Quake, Oil Price, European Debt Crisis
By Simon Kennedy - May 27, 2011 7:13 AM ET Fri May 27 11:13:02 GMT 2011
The world economy is losing strength halfway through the year as high oil prices and fallout from Japan’s natural disaster and Europe’s debt woes take their toll.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now expects global economic growth of 4.3 percent in 2011, compared with its 4.8 percent estimate in mid-April, while UBS AG has cut its projection to 3.6 percent from 3.9 percent in January. Downside risks also include a shift to tighter monetary policy in emerging markets.
“The world economy has entered a softer patch with the incoming growth data mostly disappointing,” said Andrew Cates, an economist at UBS in Singapore. “We suspect this soft patch will endure for longer.”
Lech Walesa snubs Obama, fellow Nobel winner. Real freedom lovers know a fraud when they see one!
You can’t be nice to a serpent; when are American freedom loving political figures going to get this kind of grit…
Lech Walesa snubs Obama
Lech Walesa, Poland's Solidarity-era legend, ex-president and 1983 Nobel Peace Prize winner said Friday he would not accept an invitation to meet with fellow Nobel winner US President Barack Obama.
"It's difficult to tell journalists what you'd like to say to the president of a superpower. This time I won't tell him, I won't meet him, it doesn't suit me," Walesa told Poland's public broadcaster TVP.
Obama is due to arrive in Poland later Friday after the G8 summit in France.
Walesa was originally scheduled to meet Obama Saturday along with other key figures in Poland's post-1989 transition from communism to democracy.
According to sources close to Walesa, he was expecting a personal invitation from Obama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 shortly after taking office.
The US president is Friday scheduled to attend a working dinner with more than a dozen presidents of ex-communist states focusing on what lessons their democratic transformation could hold for the Arab Spring.
On Saturday, Obama is due to hold bilateral talks with his Polish counterpart Bronislaw Komorowski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk on the last leg of his European tour which has also covered Ireland and Britain.