Tuesday, May 25, 2010

North Korea threatens military action in disputed waters

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea on Tuesday threatened military action if the South continued to violate its waters off the west coast, adding to escalating tension on the peninsula following the sinking of a South Korean warship by the North.

The increasingly war-like rhetoric hit Seoul's financial markets, prompting financial policymakers to hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to look for ways to calm investors.

"Should the South side's intrusions into the territorial waters of our side continue, the DPRK (North Korea) will put into force practical military measures to defend its waters as it had already clarified and the south side will be held fully accountable for all the ensuing consequences," North Korea's KCNA news agency quoted a senior official as saying.

The furious war of words -- the North referred to the South's government as "military gangsters, seized by fever for a war" -- follows a report by international investigators last week which accused the hermit north of torpedoing the Cheonan corvette in March, killing 46 sailors.

On Monday, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak cut trade with his impoverished neighbor and blocked its commercial ships from sailing through the South's waters.

He also plans to take the issue to the U.N. Security Council.

Most analysts doubt either side would risk a war, which would be suicidal for the North and economy-ruining for the South.

The initial markets falls were triggered by a story by the South's Yonhap news agency quoting a local report that the North was gearing up for war. It later emerged that the report said only that the North would fight back if it was attacked.

"The Yonhap report ... chilled investor sentiment as it highlighted South Korea's geopolitical risks. And the timing for such news could not be worse, as market sentiment was already shaky with renewed euro zone financial fears," said Hwang Keum-dan, a stock market analyst at Samsung Securities.

Key economic and financial authorities will meet early on Wednesday to discuss ways to stabilize local financial markets.

Stocks on the main index tumbled to their lowest close in 15 weeks and the currency slid to a 9-month closing low against the dollar, but came off its lows after news of the emergency meeting.

Some in the market saw the selling as overdone and triggered mostly by foreign selling.

"North Korea and related risks have always been there. It is like telling investors to quit the Japanese market because it has earthquakes. War is wanted neither by the North nor the South," one fund manager at a foreign investment management house said.

FURIOUS RHETORIC

Both sides have stepped up their rhetoric over the Cheonan incident, one of their deadliest since the 1950-53 Korean War.

The North charged South Korea's government with fabricating the issue, partly to help the ruling party in next week's local elections -- important to cement President Lee's power in the second half of his single five-year term.

The incident appears to have done nothing to dent Lee's popularity, which one recent opinion poll shows running at well over 40 percent, unusually high for recent South Korean presidents halfway through their term.

A strong showing for Lee's party in the June 2 local election, which many expect, will give him greater authority to push aside a fragmented opposition in parliament and continue with sweeping pro-business reforms.

Since taking office in 2008, Lee has sometimes struggled to push through reforms he says are needed to bring more vitality to Asia's fourth largest economy, which depends heavily on manufactured exports.

His rule has also seen relations with the North turn increasingly chilly as he turned his back on a decade of generous aid to the North by his predecessors which had failed to end its attempts to build nuclear weapons.

PUSHED TOO FAR?

Some worry pushing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il too far may leave him little choice but to fight back to try to save his family's more than 60-year hold over the destitute country as he tries to secure the succession for his youngest son.

Analysts say the main risk is that small skirmishes along the heavily armed border could turn into broader conflict.

China, the North's only major ally and which effectively bankrolls its economy, has studiously tried to keep out of the fray, urging calm and refusing to voice support for the international report on the Cheonan sinking.

It means that South Korea has almost no chance of winning further U.N. sanctions against its neighbor.

The issue is certain to dominate talks in Seoul on Wednesday with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is arriving from Beijing.

The United States, which backs Seoul, has said the situation was "highly precarious" and said it would take part in a joint naval exercise with the South.

(Additional reporting by Christine Kim, Jungyoun Park, Yoo Choonsik, Kim Yeon-hee and Jack Kim in Seoul and Linda Sieg in Tokyo; Editing by Paul Tait)

Best Buy's Anti-Sales Trick People Into Overpaying for Computers

Best Buy's Anti-Sales Trick People Into Overpaying for ComputersHow's this for scummy? Lately, Best Buy has been raising the price of and advertising one computer per week. People assume its on sale and get suckered into overpaying for items that drop in price the following week.

A Consumerist reader noticed the trend and broke it down:

In this week's ad, there is a Dell, sku 9693191, for $649.99. Regular price is $629.99. An HP, sku 9705373, is advertised for $699.99; regular price is $649.99. Last week, a Toshiba, sku 9705221, was advertised for $499.99, this week it's back to regular price, $479.99. Likewise, a Dell, sku 9693191, was advertised for $649.99 last week, and this week it's back to its regular price of $629.99.

Now, this isn't false advertising, as Best Buy never claims these items are on sale. But by sticking them in their weekly ads with the prices highlighted, they're certainly giving the impression that they are. So when someone sees the ad, assumes the computer they want is available for cheaper than normal and then buys it, they're essentially paying an idiot tax for not doing their homework.

It's pretty low, even for Best Buy. So much for building trust with your customers!

Candid Conversation about 2010 College Grads and Generation Y

Click this link ..... http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=12003

The Sinking of the Cheonan: We Are Being Lied To

There is no doubt about it, there is no longer any reason to hold back, I have looked at the “evidence” and have concluded that we are being lied to, again, by our “leaders” in the White House in order to fabricate a measure of moral justification for yet another “regime change” campaign or an all out war with North Korea.

There simply is no “perfect match” like the recent unsigned report claims there is.

The White House said Monday that President Barack Obama “fully supports” the South Korean president and his response to the torpedo attack by North Korea that sank a South Korean naval ship. MSNBC

South Korea’s president said Monday his nation will no longer tolerate North Korea’s “brutality” and said the regime would pay for a surprise torpedo attack that killed 46 South Korean sailors. ABC News

North Korea has denied responsibility for the sinking of the South Korean warship, the Cheonan, on March 26, which left 46 sailors dead. A growing body of evidence assembled by the South has suggested a North Korean torpedo sank the ship. New York Times

The Growing Body Of Evidence

Clinton told reporters the evidence announced Thursday that North Korea sank the Cheonan “is overwhelming and condemning.”

… Daniel Pinkston, a North Korea expert with the International Crisis Group, a multinational not-for-profit organization, said Friday that evidence that North Korea caused the sinking is “pretty irrefutable.” Stars and Stripes

The International Crisis Group was founded by World Bank Vice-President for External Affairs, Malloch Brown and is funded by other globalist institutions. Their stated mission is to “prevent” international conflict yet somehow or another they always seem to come up with suggestions involving invading other nations or imposing strict sanctions like the kind that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children. Oh yeah, the nations they target usually have a state-owned central bank system… till we invade that is.

So lets take a look at all the “overwhelming” and “irrefutable” evidence. 1. Someone wrote “number 1.” on one single piece of the salvaged torpedo… 2. they claim the torpedo remains are a “perfect match” of a North Korean type of weapon, a “CHT-02D” torpedo. This conclusion was reached via an international research team from US, the UK, Australia, and Sweden. Here is their May 20th, 2010 report. In the report, they make the following conclusion;

The torpedo parts recovered at the site of the explosion by a dredging ship on May 15th, which include the 5×5 bladed contra-rotating propellers, propulsion motor and a steering section, perfectly match the schematics of the CHT-02D torpedo included in introductory brochures provided to foreign countries by North Korea for export purposes. The markings in Hangul, which reads “1번(or No. 1 in English)”, found inside the end of the propulsion section, is consistent with the marking of a previously obtained North Korean torpedo.

… Based on all such relevant facts and classified analysis, we have reached the clear conclusion that ROKS ”Cheonan” was sunk as the result of an external underwater explosion caused by a torpedo made in North Korea. The evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a North Korean submarine. There is no other plausible explanation. Investigation on the Sinking of the Cheonan

That’s it. That’s all their “evidence” that the international investigators presented in their UNSIGNED report. That’s right, no one knows who the “investigators” were since they didn’t take the time to sign their work.

A Perfect Match?

This is the presentation refered to in the paper linked above. They mention that during a presentation of their findings, they showed the schematics of a CHT-02D torpedo in relation to the evidence they found. They claimed in their investigation that these are a “perfect match” and that claim is being repeated endlessly on both sides of the fake political divide. (please click on image for a larger view)

This is by no means a “perfect match”. No wonder they didn’t want to sign that “investigation” of theirs. (please click on image for a larger view)

There are 4 clear differences in the design of these weapons and one is without a doubt, the key to proving these are not the same.

* “A” & “D” – Here you can clearly see major differences in the design of the hub of the propellers. In the diagram above you can see it has a smaller hub whereas in the evidence below it, the hub is larger.

* “B” – The actual shape of the propellers is very different. You can see a notch in the diagram above that doesn’t exist in the actual evidence propeller below. The overall shape of the blades are vastly different as well, both the front and the rear propeller sets.

All of this might be explained away by suggesting that these propellers were switched out. Thought it might be possible, remember that these are finely tuned and designed systems; one just can’t switch these hub designs “willy nilly” like one would on their John-Boat. But, that aside, though it may be possible to have put different kinds of propellers on this fish, it is certainly NOT a “perfect match”.

Now, the last point proves they are not the same torpedo.

* “C” - As you can plainly see, the stabilizers (or propulsion system?) in the diagram above are clearly shown IN FRONT of the separation plate as it is lined up in the display with the evidence below. However, the torpedo below houses that same stabilizer (or propulsion system) BEHIND the separation plate (separating the body and the tail section of the torpedo).

This is a major difference that cannot be explained by saying it was some kind of after market modification. This is part of a key design of the workings of these weapons and can not have been changed. This difference clearly indicates these are different weapons altogether.

(there are other differences that have been pointed out to this researcher; “Jan” noticed that the axle shape is tapered on the evidence and straight on the diagram. A good point. There are probably others as well (I noticed a difference in the shape of the “fin” in the guidance section in the back as well…. clearly there is no way to say these are a “perfect match”)

It is no wonder the “investigators” chose not to sign their work.

The Forgotten Investigation

On May 6th, 2010 a report came out conducted by South Korea and others that said the torpedo’s metal and explosive residue indicated that it had come from a German origin.

The team of South Korean and foreign investigators found traces of explosives used in torpedoes on several parts of the sunken ship as well as pieces of composite metal used in such weapons, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said quoting a senior government official.

The metallic debris and chemical residue appear to be consistent with a type of torpedo made in Germany, indicating the North may have been trying to disguise its involvement by avoiding arms made by allies China and Russia, Yonhap quoted the official as saying. REUTERS News Agency

This report has been all but forgotten by the media and the Clinton led state department as they press for crippling sanctions and perhaps more. But there is a confirmation of sorts in the May 20th unsigned “investigation”.

The first thing they should do, rather than attempt to convince the people that the two are “perfectly matched” in design (when they clearly aren’t) is a chemical and metallic debris analysis of the evidence. The May 20th “investigation” does not make mention of this crucial part of the investigation at all… they don’t mention it at all.

The reason for that is clear; if they were to address these two key scientific points, they would have to have admitted that the science shows these pieces of evidence are of German construction and therefore not of North Korean origin.

By ignoring these two important parts of the investigation, the May 20th paper confirms the earlier work of the May 6th study… the torpedo is of German origin.

The “CHT-02D” Torpedo

An earlier report stated that there were only 4 different types of North Korean torpedos that could have caused this damage.

Type EO-6 and ET-80A “Some experts downplayed the possibility of homing torpedoes, citing the low capability of North Korea’s Sang-O (Shark) class submarines.”

Russian Type 53-56

Russian Type 53-59

There had been no mention of the CHT-02D torpedo, and in fact, this researcher can’t find any information on this torpedo aside from links to this story. There is various info on all the other types of North Korean torpedos, but there seems to be none on this one. Why is that? According to the official unsigned report this torpedo is “listed in a brochure” as something North Korea sells, but they do not offer the brochure nor a link to where it can be found. I am still looking for other sources on this matter.

But it appears this weapon came out of no-where.

In a paper I wrote yesterday I questioned whether or not the German-made DM2-A3 looked more like what was found.

The DM2 A-3 version is also used by the Norwegian Ula class (German Type 210 subs) with an option for a later upgrade). The Italian Type 212 B submarines use the DM2 A-4 version. The Israeli Dolphin-class (German Type S-300) are also being equipped with the DM2 A-4 Torpedo.”

It is only a possibility but it is of German design. More investigation into the schematics of this weapon are needed before any conclusion can be reached.

Questions Being Asked

Most MSM and “progressive” parrot websites are running with the “evil North Korea” story without any investigations what-so-ever. But questions are being asked on a few sites.

Democratic Underground has compiled a list of issues surrounding the “official story” and they deserve to be reviewed. They bring up some very good points and I would hope that someone who posts there might provide them with a link to this study of mine. “What if North Korea didn’t fire the torpedo?” Democratic Underground

They bring out many points that I have not addressed here that need to be. One such point is that North Korea vehemently denies the allegations and they have asked to see the evidence inspect it themselves and they have been denied access to it.

Conclusion

It is clear that we are being lied to and manipulated into believing that North Korea is behind the sinking of the South Korean vessel, the Cheonan. It is impossible to draw conclusions at this time as to who is responsible but we can conclude based on the evidence, that the official story is yet another lie being pawned off on the American people. This lie is obvious and could be used to instigate military action against the people of North Korea.

Senate Takes Up 'Emergency' War Bill Despite Obama Pledge to End Practice

A year after President Obama pledged to end the practice of funding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with "emergency" spending bills, the Senate is taking up a $60 billion request that would do exactly that.

A year after President Obama pledged to end the practice of funding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with "emergency" spending bills, the Senate is taking up a $60 billion request that would do exactly that.

The spending bill, which includes $33 billion for the two wars in addition to disaster relief funds and aid for Haiti, is running headlong into concern from war-weary Democrats and deficit-conscious Republicans.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called the bill a "heavy lift" in her chamber. But the Senate, which is taking up the request first, could be the scene of a spending stand-off between Democrats and Republicans.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., plans to offer an amendment requiring Congress to offset the cost of the package with spending cuts elsewhere. He slammed the administration for continuing to use the "emergency" supplemental to fund the wars -- by designating the spending bill as "emergency," Congress avoids having to find a way to pay for it.

"The last day war funding was unforeseen was September 10, 2001," the first-term senator said in a written statement. "This legislation is designed to bail out career politicians who want to avoid the hard work of prioritizing spending."


The Bush administration routinely used supplemental spending bills to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama criticized the practice as a candidate and when he came into office pledged to keep war funding within the traditional budget

request.

"For seven years, we have been a nation at war. No longer will we hide its price," he said in his February 2009 address to a joint session of Congress.

When Obama requested $83 billion in additional funding last spring for the wars, he said he would draw the line there.

"This is the last planned war supplemental," he wrote in April 2009 to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling for "an honest, more accurate and fiscally responsible estimate of federal spending" after years of "budget gimmicks and wasteful spending."

But while Congress provided $130 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan at the end of last year as part of the traditional budget process, Obama this year came back to Capitol Hill for the additional $33 billion -- mostly to cover the cost of sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

"The irony certainly isn't lost on us," a Senate GOP aide told FoxNews.com. "Obviously they stuck with that pledge about as well as they stuck with most the other pledges they made."

But the aide said pending the consideration of the Coburn amendment, "the process for the supplemental could move relatively expeditiously."

The aide said House Democrats could pose a bigger hurdle. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said earlier this month that it would be easier to get the legislation passed in the House if it were approved by the Senate first since that would limit a back-and-forth debate.

The bill includes money for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, aid for Haiti earthquake relief and money for flood relief in Rhode Island and Tennessee.

The White House Office of Management and Budget defended the package in a statement Monday, calling the funding "essential" and urging Congress to act quickly to approve it.

"The administration looks forward to working with the Congress to further refine the bill as the legislative process moves forward and to meet these urgent and essential needs," the statement said.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, also defended the package after his committee unanimously approved it earlier this month.

"This bill is neither a bailout nor a stimulus. Instead it is the minimum necessary to meet emergency requirements and the cost of war," he said. "We recognize that many on both sides of the aisle believe we simply shouldn't spend more, but I say to you the nation still has legitimate needs and a responsibility to act."

Major Change Down Below...

I've put everything back into proper chronological order, and have begun adding images and video for documentary purposes.

I've been watching the live Spillcam, and discussing it with folks, here all day long. About 5pm last night, we all started taking note of gas bubbling out of the seabed floor. It started earlier than that, actually-- see pic a few posts down. About 1am this morning, the eruptions began to increase in spew volume.

The First Noted Venting Hole (TNVH).


At about 8am, CDT, as I watched, things started changing rapidly. Where the water around the two major gush points used to be very clear, it is now super turbid, and detritus is flying everywhere in a chaotic manner. seabed venting is obvious to see when ROV cameras pan around.

Yet-to-be-confirmed rumors are that the casing wall has finally worn through, about 300 feet below seabed, at an annulus (coupling), and the gas and oil are now finding a new way out to the seabed.

Not good news, as it will make the Top-Kill/Junk Shot nearly ineffectual... At the least, it means that more pressure and mud/cement is going to be required.

We'll see.

See for yourself, here: via BP Live Spillcam

Screengrab of the early Morning Chaos Event. Everthing went up all at once. ROV was perfectly stationary. EVERYTHING went "BOOM" and black:

I am looking for video of this event. Most people started taping after the actual start.
The entire range of field erupted at once. Everything. Everywhere, and then the pipe went GUSH!

Update: Here's a screen grab showing the new hole in the seabed. That's not the riser end from a new angle. This was grabbed while the ROV on the riser end was panning around. The BOP is over 600 feet away, so it is not that, either.

What the First Noted Venting Hole (TNVH) turned into 18 hours later.
Same pair of broken pipes, Riser end is in same position, except everything has settled down a few feet, and the hole is bigger. that's an ejection rim. Those two broken pipes are more exposed.
A lot of earth got moved down and away all at once.


UPDATE: The riser pipe used to be pretty clean all along it's top. Now, it is piled over with sediment.

Something had happened to the dispersant mechanism, too. Pipes and connectors got knocked loose, green liquid (antifreeze?) was pouring out of the machine, and we watched the ROV repair the leak.



Seabed seems to have sunk rapidly (perhaps scoured away rapidly?). Riser end is now in a big crater. Side pipes more exposed-- different angle?

UPDATE 1:20pm CDT: While watching, ANOTHER major "explosion" occurred. ROV Cam now covered in Oil. It was pushed around by the force of expulsion, or moved back a few feet by controllers. Our Favorite Disaster Bot is taking a beating. Gush seems to have at least doubled in size and volume.

Grabs:

Provided by BSC:

Photo series equating 12:23 minutes from "WTF?" to BOOOM! No need for ROV "reading" lectures, The pipe end billowed out, and then everywhere around billowed up, and then SPLAT!:



Corroborating grabs in order... BOOM! Splat... WTF???:









UPDATE 5:45pm CDT: A brand new MAJOR eruption is happening. tune into the SpillCam at BP.com . It's black, all you can see is a cable. It started with yet another GUSH plume/tornado.

Oh, dear-- now, we can see that that is a LOT of oil-- and a BLIZZARD of Hydrates..


UPDATE 6:03pm CDT: The current eruption is way, way worse than the several that occured earlier. I think this might be a "Main Event" situation.

UPDATE 6:45pm CDT: An hour after the start of this most recent eruption, and it is still just a wall of oil, methane crystals, and gack.

Our Favorite Disaster Bot is damaged, and needs an oil change and the windshield cleaned. Up it goes.

Oh, fuck... look at all the giant plumes in the water column... wow!:



Cut to black.

UPDATE 7:35pmCDT: Live feed of recent blowout froze-up, requiring a reload of page. All of a sudden-- no more black chaos-- just the current clear-water gusher view. I suspect loop tape, but I have the screen grabs from the entire day, below.

If there is another delay in the "Top-Kill/Junk Shot," you'll know why.

Grab of the last moment as OFDB left site, below. You can dimly make out the lights of the lighting rig, lower center of pic image-- That is the signature of a major event... not some bot churn. Those lights should be illuminating more than a foot radius. (click for BIG):




UPDATE 8:15pm CDT:
Top-Kill Delayed. Imagine my surprise.

UPDATE 11:51pmCDT: Another major eruption. These are not coming from the riser. They are coming in to view from elsewhere, even in the long, high-view shots. Sometimes from behind the ROV. Twenty-four hours of near non-stop SpillCam viewing, and not one look at the BOP.

Grab of the latest (11:51pm) eruption-- that is the Floodlighting Rig... Occluded:


I am sorry. This is not simple Bot Fan churn. This one came out of the riser end, along with an all-around Ker-BOOM action. Everything went up. One noticed the pipe-end exploding, but then there was gack flying everywhere, all around, too. Impact-directional-- not" going with the flow."

More as I can provide.

I think this stands on its own. I am sure there is more out there to post, and I'll do my best to get it here. A series of bad things happened on Sunday, May 23, 2010 at the Deepwater Horizon disaster site.

If this is becoming sort of routine to clear the RITT (Sippy Straw) , then I wonder why the hell they are continuing with something that isn't working? Send something better down every damned day, until you get the fucker stopped and filtered. Get your Company Einsteins working. New fix and tweak and peak every day... not every other fucking week, BP. Your faulty machineery is showing signs of compromise. Do more, faster.

Magnitude 6.5 - ACRE, BRAZIL

Earthquake Details

Magnitude6.5
Date-Time
Location 8.095°S, 71.558°W
Depth565.3 km (351.3 miles) set by location program
RegionACRE, BRAZIL
Distances125 km (80 miles) ESE of Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil
330 km (205 miles) E of Pucallpa, Peru
460 km (285 miles) SSW of Tabatinga, Amazonas, Brazil
2700 km (1680 miles) WNW of BRASILIA, Distrito Federal, Brazil
Location Uncertaintyhorizontal +/- 5.1 km (3.2 miles); depth fixed by location program
ParametersNST=294, Nph=294, Dmin=721.7 km, Rmss=0.82 sec, Gp= 25°,
M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=8
Source
  • USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event IDus2010wrbc
  • This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.
  • Did you feel it? Report shaking and damage at your location. You can also view a map displaying accumulated data from your report and others.

Cuts to Child Care Subsidy Thwart More Job Seekers

TUCSON — Able-bodied, outgoing and accustomed to working, Alexandria Wallace wants to earn a paycheck. But that requires someone to look after her 3-year-old daughter, and Ms. Wallace, a 22-year-old single mother, cannot afford child care.

Last month, she lost her job as a hair stylist after her improvised network of baby sitters frequently failed her, forcing her to miss shifts. She qualifies for a state-run subsidized child care program. But like many other states, Arizona has slashed that program over the last year, relegating Ms. Wallace’s daughter, Alaya, to a waiting list of nearly 11,000 eligible children.

Despite a substantial increase in federal support for subsidized child care, which has enabled some states to stave off cuts, others have trimmed support, and most have failed to keep pace with rising demand, according to poverty experts and federal officials.

That has left swelling numbers of low-income families struggling to reconcile the demands of work and parenting, just as they confront one of the toughest job markets in decades.

The cuts to subsidized child care challenge the central tenet of the welfare overhaul adopted in 1996, which imposed a five-year lifetime limit on cash assistance. Under the change, low-income parents were forced to give up welfare checks and instead seek paychecks, while being promised support — not least, subsidized child care — that would enable them to work.

Now, in this moment of painful budget cuts, with Arizona and more than a dozen other states placing children eligible for subsidized child care on waiting lists, only two kinds of families are reliably securing aid: those under the supervision of child protective services — which looks after abuse and neglect cases — and those receiving cash assistance.

Ms. Wallace abhors the thought of going on cash assistance, a station she associates with lazy people who con the system. Yet this has become the only practical route toward child care.

So, on a recent afternoon, she waited in a crush of beleaguered people to submit the necessary paperwork. Her effort to avoid welfare through work has brought her to welfare’s door.

“It doesn’t make sense to me,” she says. “I fall back to — I can’t say ‘being a lowlife’ — but being like the typical person living off the government. That’s not what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to use this as a backbone, so I can develop my own backbone.”

As the American social safety net absorbs its greatest challenge since the Great Depression, state budget cuts are weakening crucial components. Subsidized child care — financed by federal and state governments — is a conspicuous example.

When President Clinton signed into law the changes he declared would “end welfare as we know it,” he vowed that those losing government checks would gain enough support to enable their transition to the workplace.

“We will protect the guarantees of health care, nutrition and child care, all of which are critical to helping families move from welfare to work,” Mr. Clinton pledged in a radio address that year.

Now, with the jobless rate hovering near double digits and 6.7 million people unemployed for six months or longer, some states are rolling back child care.

“We’re really reneging on a commitment and a promise that we made to families,” said Patty Siegel, executive director of the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network, an advocacy organization. “You can’t expect a family with young children to get on their feet and get jobs without child care.”

As part of last year’s package of spending measures aimed at stimulating the economy, the Obama administration added $2 billion for subsidized child care programs for 2009 and 2010, on top of the expected $5 billion a year. The administration has proposed a $1.6 billion increase for 2011. But even as this extra money has limited cuts and enabled some states to expand programs, officials acknowledge that it has not kept pace with the need.

Canadian Government Pays Organization To Troll Political Chat Forums

Canadian Government Pays Organization To Troll Political Chat Forums 240510top2


The next time you struggle to comprehend how someone could spend their time trolling the Internet in order to defend and downplay whatever government cover-up or abuse is in the news this week, consider the fact that they may be on a government payroll.

The Canadian government has been caught paying a media group to monitor online political discussion and respond to “misinformation,” in order words to spread state-sanctioned propaganda, in the latest scandal to hit the Harper administration.

“Under the pilot program the Harper government paid a media company $75,000 to monitor and respond to online postings about the east coast seal hunt,” reports News1130.

“The government has a lot of power, that it feels the need to monitor public bulletin boards, or places where people express views and then to respond to that, seems to me going beyond a reasonable action the government should be taking,” said UBC Computer Science professor and President of the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, Richard Rosenberg.

A poll carried on the News1130 website shows that the majority of respondents, 77 per cent, are not intimidated by the fact that the government is monitoring their online conversations, and would not regulate the information they post on the Internet.

Accusations that people who defend the seemingly indefensible in the aftermath of government atrocities, wars and scandals are in the pay of unscrupulous authorities, circulate on a regular basis. But the fact is that governments and transnational corporations have made a habit of using the Internet to spread propaganda by using individuals who pose as neutral observers.

The innovator of these “black propaganda” techniques was undoubtedly Monsanto, who as far back the late 90’s were creating “fake citizens” via their PR front company Bivings to post messages on Internet bulletin boards lauding the virtues and scoffing at the dangers of genetically modified food.

In the 21st century, governments try to harness the power of manufacturing fake consensus in order to dictate reality and justify their actions.

Last year, the Israeli government announced that it would be setting up a network of bloggers to combat websites deemed “problematic” by the Zionist state following a massive online backlash to Israel’s brutal bombing of Gaza.

Israel’s goal was to flood Internet message boards in English, French, Spanish and German with their own PR agents who would attempt to manufacture a contrived consensus that the IDF’s actions were justified.

Like Israel, the U.S. military industrial complex hires armies of trolls to spew propaganda in defense of the war on terror and in support of bombing whatever broken-backed third world country is being targeted next.

CENTCOM has programs underway to infiltrate blogs and message boards to ensure people, “have the opportunity to read positive stories,”presumably about how Iraq is a wonderful liberated democracy and the war on terror really is about protecting Americans from Al-CIAda.

In May 2008, it was revealed that the Pentagon was expanding “Information Operations” on the Internet with purposefully set up foreign news websites, designed to look like independent media sources but in reality carrying direct military propaganda.

More recently the New York Times published an exposé on how privately hired operatives were appearing on major US news networks promoting the interests and operations of the Pentagon and generating favorable news coverage of the so-called war on terror while posing as independent military analysts.

This operation was formally announced In 2006 when the Pentagon set up a unit to “better promote its message across 24-hour rolling news outlets, and particularly on the internet”.
Again, the Pentagon said the move would boost its ability to counter “inaccurate” news stories and exploit new media.

Last year, the US Air Force announced a “counter-blog” response plan aimed at fielding and reacting to material from bloggers who have “negative opinions about the US government and the Air Force.”

The plan, created by the public affairs arm of the Air Force, includes a detailed twelve-point “counter blogging” flow-chart that dictates how officers should tackle what are described as “trolls,” “ragers,” and “misguided” online writers.

Italy suspends mark-to-market accounting on eurozone bonds

Forget the BaFin naked short-selling ban (for a second).

Tuesday’s other desperate European regulatory act took place in Italy:

MILAN (Dow Jones)–The Bank of Italy Tuesday said Italian lenders holding European government bonds in their available-for-sale portfolio don’t have to take into account possible capital gains or losses on them, in a move to safeguard capital ratios.

The decision came after volatility on European government bonds skyrocketed in recent weeks following several rating agencies downgrades, temporarily affecting the capital ratios of Italian, as well as other European, banks.

According to Italian securities laws Italian banks must deduct all the losses linked to the value of those bonds, but can only partially book capital gains.

That’s right — in another echo of US regulatory actions during the financial crisis, the Italian central bank has decided to partially suspend some mark-to-market accounting.

Unsurprisingly, this has led to some criticism.

For example, from Bank of America’s Jeffrey Rosenberg (via Zero Hedge):

Count Bank of Italy’s decision to allow banks holding European government bonds in AFS portfolios to suspend mark to market accounting rules as the latest iteration of unintended consequences. By suspending the rules, inadvertently market uncertainty increases as confidence over the value of the holdings, exposures and hence capitalization erodes.

Viva Italiana trasparenza.

Oh wait.

Is “Elie Wiesel” His Real Name?

1. Hello goys and girls, are you feeling good today? Are you in a good mood cause you are reading this on the weekend before going out to some honkey tonk somewhere and looking for sex with complete strangers? Maybe you are in a good mood because you are not sitting in the middle of Afghanistan dodging IED’s and bullets? Or maybe you are in a good mood because you are not living under Israeli occupation in Gaza while Israeli snipers take pot shots at you and your children wearing those nice, no doubt ADL-approved t-shirts celebrating the joy of murdering Palestinians? Maybe you have tickets to some sports game where all the players are multi-millionaires and who, when push comes to shove, have no respect for you whatsoever? Maybe you are in a good mood because you’ve taken all your money out of Swiss banks and deposited them in Israeli banks where the new law against hiding money in Swiss banks does not apply and so the Israeli Revenue Service [thanks for that one goes to Rick Adams] can’t get at them?

Well, for whatever reason you may be in a good mood dear Mantiqiyyiin and Mantiqiyyaat, all of the tuyuur here at Mantiq al-Tayr have made it our goal today to ruin it. By the time you are done reading today’s blog if you are not totally enraged, embittered, aggravated, irritated, angered, pissed off, incensed, infuriated, livid and just plain madder than a beautiful prostitute who has just found out that her “john” for the evening is Abe Foxman, then you are either as brain dead as a follower of Big Fat John Hagee or you are smoking something that you really do need to tell the rest of us about.

Oh, and one more thing. If you laugh at anything in today’s blog, then you are a bad person.

Let’s get ready to rumble, tumble, and piss off the worshipers of Zion, the Synagogue of Satan, all of the Judas Goats.

2. Last week we discussed these two bozos having lunch. They so seem to enjoy each others company, don’t they?

Who are those guys?

In a way, it truly would be fitting if these two dudes were in fact asshole-buddies from way back, because they both have something in common, well maybe more than one thing, but I want to point out the more interesting thing that they have in common, we really don’t know what their real names are or where they were born.

Now Obama’s limbo status is widely written about and commented on, some of that stuff I find interesting and some of it, like the crap that Oiley Taitz puts out – she’s sort of the Alan Derwoshitz of the birther movement, isn’t worth getting into.

But I’d like to bring to light some great research done on the holocaust carpetbagger known as Elie Wiesel [and it is pronounced "Weasel" I am not making this up. I mean, if I stole someone's identify it wouldn't be someone named "skunk" or "weasel" or "pig". I think I'd prefer "Fred Eclectus" or something like that. But I digress.]

Anyway, it may well be that Elie Wiesel is not who he says he is and he may also be a plagiarist and he is almost certainly a liar. This is all in addition to the fact that he is a Palestinian-hating bigot. No doubt all of these fine attributes contributed to his getting the Nobel Prize for Peace – very possibly the most disgusting award ever created. Oh, Obama got one of those too. Proves my point. But again, I digress.

An alert reader of this site posted a link to an article by a Carlo Mattogno, whom we had never heard of. So, as we often do when readers post links in comments, we went to the link and actually read it. If Mr. Mattogno is correct, then Elie Wiesel has stolen the identity of a person named Lazar Wiesel, a man who really was at Auschwitz. In addition, if Mr. Mottogno’s research is correct then Wiesel may never have been in a concentration himself at all – at least it would seem quite possible that he was not. Also, if Mr. Mattogno’s research is in the right direction, it may very well be that the piece of shit book called “Night” that Wiesel “wrote”, and which sold 10 million copies, is not only full of misrepresentations and lies, but it may also have been, at least in part, stolen from the work of the man whose identity Wiesel may have stolen. [Those of you who right now are thinking, "gee, did Bill Ayers write Obama's stuff" are definitely on the right frequency here.]

Mr. Mattogno’s research can be found right here. Go read it. I will just note below one of the (many) interesting things that Mr. Mattogno has brought up in his paper.

Mr. Mattogno first tells us the story of a man named Miklos Gruner who, at the age of 15, was a prisoner at Auschwitz. He quotes from an English translation of an article in a Hungarian newspaper entitled “Auschwitz Survivor Claims Elie Wiesel is an Imposter.” According to this article, Miklos Gruner ended up alone at the camp and then “two elder Jewish inmates who were also Hungarians and friends with his late father took him under their protection. These two protectors of the young Miklos were the Lazar and Abraham Wiesel brothers.”

Here is where it starts to get very interesting. Again, for Shas Party members, the red highlights are mine.

In the following months, Miklos Gruner and the Wiesel brothers became good friends. Lazar Wiesel was 31 years old in 1944. Miklos never forgot the number Lazar was tattooed with by the Nazis: A-7713. In January 1945, as the Russian army was coming, the inmates were transferred to Buchenwald. During the ten days this transfer took, partly by foot, partly by train, more than half of the inmates died and amongst them was Abraham, the elder brother of Lazar Wiesel. In April 8, 1945, the US army liberated Buchenwald. Miklos and Lazar were amongst the survivors of the camp. As Miklos had tuberculosis, he was sent in a Swiss clinic and therefore was separated from Lazar. After recovering, Miklos emigrated to Australia while his elder brother, who also survived the war, established himself in Sweden.

So, Miklos and Lazar (who was 31 years old at the time and had A-7713 tattooed on his arm) were separated after the camp was liberated. About 40 years later they were reunited, er – sort of. This is pretty damn interesting. Read on and enjoy.

Years later, in 1986, Miklos was contacted by the Swedish journal Sydsvenska Dagbladet in Malmo and invited to meet “an old friend” named Elie Wiesel… As Miklos answered that he doesn`t know anyone with this name, he was told Elie Wiesel was the same person Miklos knew in the Nazi camps under the name Lazar Wiesel and with the inmate number A-7713… Miklos still remembered that number and he was therefore convinced at that point that he was going to meet his old friend Lazar and happily accepted the invitation to meet him at the Savoj Hotel in Stockholm on December 14, 1986. Miklos recalls:

So, Elie Wiesel and Miklos Gruner, having seen only through a glass darkly for 40 years, now come face to face on December 14, 1986, a day that shall live in infamy. [Oh wait, that day was actually June 8, 1967 when Israel deliberately and with malice of forethought attacked and tried to sink the USS Liberty, but I digress. Oh, btw, soon a new and great book about the murder of 34 US sailors and the wounding of over 170 others will be available. It will knock your socks off. You will be able to read about it here as soon as it is available. But yet again, I digress.]

And here’s what happened when the light was shone on “Elie Wiesel’s” face.

I was very happy at the idea of meeting Lazar but when I confronted the so-called ‘Elie Wiesel’, I was stunned to see a man I didn`t recognize at all, who didn`t even speak Hungarian or Yiddish and instead he was speaking English in a strong French accent. Therefore our meeting was over in about ten minutes. As a goodbye gift, the man gave me his book entitled ‘Night’ of which he claimed to be the author. I accepted the book I didn`t know at that time but told everyone there that this man was not the person he pretended to be!”

Well, hell what about that tattoo on his arm, the A-7713 number. I mean, if “Elie Wiesel” had that number on his arm everything about him be kosher, right? Turns out “Elie Wiesel” is a little shy.

Miklos recalls that during this strange meeting, Elie Wiesel refused to show him the tattooed number on his arm, saying he didn`t want to exhibit his body. Miklos adds that Elie Wiesel showed his tattooed number afterward to an Israeli journalist who Miklos met and this journalist told Miklos that he didn`t have time to identify the number but… was certain it wasn`t a tattoo. Miklos says:

“After that meeting with Elie Wiesel, I spent twenty years of research and found out that the man calling himself Elie Wiesel has never been in a Nazi concentration camp since he was not included in any official list of detainees”.

Hey birther people, when you hold your big march in September asking the Israeli Vice President for American Affairs [IVPFAA] Barack Obama for his birth certificate, also ask “Elie Wiesel” to show his tattoo. But again, I digress.

So this interesting little story got Mr. Mattogno, well, interested. So he did something unbelievably shocking, horrifying, and no doubt damnable. He did some research. Here is just one small, but “very interesting” piece of it.

He found Miklos Gruner’s registration card at Buchenwald. He also found the card for Lazar Wiesel. Mr. Mattogno writes:

However, the key person here is Lázár Wiesel. Fortunately, the file card concerning his stay at the Buchenwald camp also exists and allows us to verify Miklós Grüner’s assertions. This file card [6], has in its upper left hand corner the handwritten entry “Ung. Jude” (Hungarian Jew), in the center, “Ausch. A 7713”, i.e. “Auschwitz A-7713”, the former Auschwitz ID number, and, on the right, “Gef.-Nr.:123565”, (Detainee number 123565, the new Buchenwald ID number). This detainee was born on 4 September 1913 (Lázár Wiesel’s year of birth according to Miklós Grüner) at Maromarossziget and was the son of Szalamo Wiesel, who was at Buchenwald, and of Serena Wiesel née Feig, interned at KL Auschwitz. The stamp “26.1.45 KL. Auschwitz” indicates that Lázár Wiesel was registered at Buchenwald on 26 January 1945 coming from Auschwitz.

Here is the registration card, taken right from Mr. Mattogno’s article.

For Shas Party members, let me summarize this:

Lazar Wiesel was born on September 13, 1913. [If he were alive today, he would be 96 years old.] The town of his birth is Maromarossziget, which is also called Sighet, and which is in what is today Romania. His father was Szalamo [the same as the name "Shlomo"] Wiesel and his mother was Serena Feig. Lazar Wiesel’s Auschwitz detainee number was A-7713. It also appears that Lazar spoke Hungarian and Yiddish. According to Gruner, “Elie Wiesel” did not.

Let’s compare the above info, just as Mr. Mattogno does in his article, with Elie Wiesel’s biographical info which you can also find on “Elie Wiesel’s” wiki page.

“Elie Wiesel” claims to have been born on September 30th, 1928 in Sighet (the same place as Maromarossziget, mentioned above. He says his father was Shlomo Wiesel and his mother was Sarah Feig. He also claims that he bears the tattoo of A-7713 from Auschwitz.

Mr. Mattogno’s conclusion is:

“Miklós Grüner is perfectly right: Elie Wiesel has taken on Lázár Wiesel’s identity.”

Mr. Mattogno’s article covers many more things about this creature known today as “Elie Wiesel” including what a bunch of bullshit the book “Night” is.

3. There’s so much more about “Elie Wiesel” that I’d like to cover and plan to in the future. I do want to thank the reader using the name “tvlies” who provided the link to the article discussed above. TVlies also made a funny video about the story that you can find here. I also want to point out, and again this is in part due to “tvlies” letting me know about some of this, that Carolyn Yeager is another person who follows “Elie Wiesel” closely. She even announces “Elie Wiesel’s” upcoming speaking engagements so people can go to them in order to protest. According to Ms. Yeager, the next two “Elie Wiesel” speaking engagements are:

A - LEHIGH UNIVERSITY, BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA Eliezer ”Elie” Wiesel will deliver the address at Lehigh University’s 142nd commencement ceremony on May 24.

[Comment from Mantiq: I think PA is the perfect place for "Elie Wiesel" to speak. It is the state of single bullet theory zionist Arlen Spector and the state from which Israel stole nuclear weapons-grade uranium. But I digress.]

and

7713 – [And this one is truly "bring your own barf-bag material"] BETH TZEDEC SYNAGOGUE, TORONTO, CANADA Monday, May 31, Elie Wiesel and Salman Rushdie in an open forum moderated by former Prime MinisterBrian Mulroney. The Sprit of Hope Benefit is hosted by Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for HolocaustStudies; dinner begins at 5 pm, followed by main presentation at 7:30. Tickets cost $200.00 to $3600.00.Synagogue is at 1700 Bathurst St. (south of Eglinton Avenue) Latest: Tickets are sold out. Remember all money goes to benefit the Simon Wiesenthal Centerfor Holocaust Studies.

There is also no doubt that Ms. Yeager has a little bit of Mantiqiyyan in her. This is really kind of funny. She’s sponsoring a “Find Elie Wiesel’s Tattoo” contest. You can read it about it on her website.

Also, go here to listen to her talk at length about Mr. Mattogno’s article. Great listening while taking a walk.

4. It’s video time. In honor of “Elie Wiesel” here is the Israeli National Anthem, translated no doubt by “Elie Wiesel”. Anyone who laughs at the Israeli National Anthem is a bad person.



Burden of Irish debt could yet eclipse that of Greece

OPINION: What will sink us, unfortunately but inevitably, are the huge costs of the September 2008 bank bailout, writes MORGAN KELLY

IT IS no longer a question of whether Ireland will go bust, but when. Unlike Greece, our woes do not stem from government debt, but instead from the government’s open-ended guarantee to cover the losses of the banking system out of its citizens’ wallets.

Even under the most optimistic assumptions about government spending cuts and bank losses, by 2012 Ireland will have a worse ratio of debt to national income than the one that is sinking Greece.

On the face of it, Ireland’s debt position does not appear catastrophic. At the start of the year, Ireland’s government debt was two- thirds of GDP: only half the Greek level. (The State also has financial assets equal to a quarter of GDP, but so do most governments, so we will focus on the total debt.)

Because of the economic collapse here, the Government is adding to this debt quite quickly. However, in contrast to its inept handling of the banking crisis, the Government has taken reasonable steps to bring the deficit under control. If all goes to plan we should be looking at a debt of 85 to 90 per cent of GDP by the end of 2012.

This is quite large for a small economy, but it is manageable. Just about. What will sink us, unfortunately but inevitably, are the huge costs of the bank bailout.

We can gain a sobering perspective on the impossible disproportion between the bailout and our economic resources by looking at the US. The government there set aside $700 billion (€557 billion) to buy troubled bank assets, and the final cost to the American taxpayer is about $150 billion. These sound like, and are, astronomical numbers.

But when you translate from the leviathan that is America to the minnow that is Ireland, it would be equivalent to the Irish Government spending €7 billion on Nama, and eventually losing €1.5 billion in the process. Pocket change by our standards.

Instead, our Government has already committed itself to spend €70 billion (€40 billion on the National Asset Management Agency – Nama – and €30 billion on recapitalising banks), or half of the national income. That is 10 times per head of population the amount the US spent to rescue itself from its worst banking crisis since the Great Depression.

Having received such a staggering transfusion of taxpayer funds, you might expect that the Irish banks would now be as fit as fleas. Instead, they are still in intensive care, and will require even larger transfusions before they can fend for themselves again.

It is hard to think of any institution since the League of Nations that has become so irrelevant so fast as Nama. Instead of the resurrection of the Irish banking system we were promised, we now have one semi-State body (Nama) buying assets from other semi-states (Anglo) and soon-to-be semi-States (AIB and Bank of Ireland), while funnelling €60 million a year in fees to lawyers, valuers and associated parasites.

What ultimately matters for national solvency, however, is not how much the State invests in its banks, but how much it is likely to lose. It is alright to invest €70 billion, or even €100 billion, to rescue your banking system if you can reasonably expect to get back most of what you spent. So how much are the banks and, thanks to the bank guarantee, you the taxpayer, likely to lose?

Let’s start with the €100 billion of property development loans. We’ll be optimistic and say the loss here will be one-third. Remember, Anglo has already owned up to losing about €25 billion of its €75 billion portfolio, so we have almost reached that third without looking at AIB and Bank of Ireland. I think the final loss will be more than half, but we’ll keep with the third to err on the side of optimism.

Next there are €35 billion of business loans. Over €10 billion of these loans are to hotels and pubs and will likely not be seen again this side of Judgment Day. Meanwhile, one-third of loans to small and medium enterprises are reported already to be in arrears. So, a figure of a 20 per cent loss again seems optimistic.

Finally, we have mortgages of €140 billion, and other personal lending of €20 billion. Current mortgage default figures here are meaningless because, once you agree a reduction of mortgage payments to a level you can afford, Irish banks can still pretend that your loan is performing.

Banks in the US typically get back half of what they loaned when they foreclose, but losses here could be greater because banks, fortunately, find it hard to take away your family home. So Irish banks could easily be looking at mortgage losses of 10 per cent but, to be conservative, we will say five.

So between developers, businesses, and personal loans, Irish banks are on track to lose nearly €50 billion if we are optimistic (and more likely closer to €70 billion), which translates into a bill for the taxpayer of over 30 per cent of GDP. The bank guarantee may have looked like “the cheapest bailout in the world, so far” in September 2008, but it is not looking that way now.

Adding these bank losses on to the national debt means we are facing a debt by late 2012 of 115 per cent of GDP. If we are lucky.

There is more. The ability of a government to service its debts depends on its tax base. In Ireland the proper measure of tax base, at least when it comes to increasing taxes, is not GDP (including profits of multinational firms, who will walk if we raise their taxes) but GNP (which is limited to Irish people, who are mostly stuck here). While for most countries the two measures are the same, in Ireland GDP is a quarter larger than GNP. This means our optimistic debt to GDP forecast of 115 per cent translates into a debt to GNP ratio of 140 per cent, worse than where Greece is now.

And even this catastrophic number assumes that our economy does not contract further. For the last two years the Irish economy has not been shrinking, so much as vaporising. Real GNP and private sector employment have already fallen by one-sixth – the deepest and swiftest falls in a western economy since the Great Depression.

The contraction is far from over, to judge from the two economic indicators I pay most attention to. Redundancies have been steady at 6,000 per month for the last nine months. Insolvencies are 25 per cent higher than this time last year, and are rippling outwards from construction into the rest of the economy.

The Irish economy is like a patient bleeding from two gunshot wounds. The Government has moved competently to stanch the smaller, budgetary hole, while continuing to insist that the litres of blood pouring unchecked from the banking hole are “manageable”.

Capital markets are unlikely to agree for much longer, triggering a borrowing crisis for Ireland. The first torpedo, most probably, will be a run on Irish banks in inter-bank markets, of the sort that sank Anglo in 2008. Already, Irish banks are struggling to find lenders to leave money on deposit for more than a week.

Ireland is setting itself up to present an early test of the shaky EU commitment to bail out its more spendthrift members. Probably we will end up with a deal where the European Central Bank buys Irish debt and provides continued emergency funding to Irish banks, in return for our agreeing a schedule of reparations of 5-6 per cent of national income over the next few decades.

To repay these reparations will take swingeing cuts in spending and social welfare, and unprecedented tax rises. A central part of our “rescue” package is certain to be the requirement that we raise our corporate taxes to European levels, sabotaging any prospect of recovery as multinationals are driven out.

The issue of national sovereignty has for so long been the monopoly of republican headbangers that it is hard to know whether ordinary, sane Irish people still care about it. Either way, we will not be having it around much longer.

We have long since left the realm of easy alternatives, and will soon face a choice between national bankruptcy and admitting the bank guarantee was a mistake. Either we cut the banks loose, or we sink ourselves.

While most countries facing bankruptcy sit passively in denial until they sink – just as we are doing – there is one shining exception: Uruguay. When markets panicked after Argentina defaulted in 2002, Uruguay knew it could no longer service its large external debt. Instead of waiting for a borrowing crisis, the Uruguayans approached their creditors and pointed out they faced a choice.

Either they could play tough and force Uruguay into bankruptcy, in which case they would get almost nothing back, or they could agree to reduce Uruguay’s debt to a manageable level, and get back most of what they lent. Realising Uruguay’s problems were largely not of its own making, and that it had never stiffed its creditors in the past, the lenders agreed to a debt restructuring, and Uruguay was able to return to debt markets within a few months.

In one way, our position is a lot easier than Uruguay’s, because our problem is bank debt rather than government debt. Our crisis stems entirely from the Government’s gratuitous decision on September 29th, 2008, to transform the IOUs of Seán FitzPatrick, Dermot Gleeson and their peers into quasi-sovereign instruments of the Irish state.

Our borrowing crisis could be solved before it even happens by passing the same sort of Special Resolution legislation that the Bank of England enacted after the Northern Rock crisis. The more than €65 billion in bonds that will be outstanding by the end of September when the guarantee expires could then be turned into shares in the banks: a debt for equity swap.

We need to explain that the Irish State has always honoured its debts in the past, and will continue to do so. However, the State is a distinct entity from its banks and, having learned the extent of the banks’ recklessness, we now have no choice but to allow the bank guarantee to lapse and to share the banks’ losses with their bondholders. It must be remembered that when these bonds were issued they had no government guarantee, and the institutions that bought them did so in full knowledge that they could default, and charged an appropriate rate of interest to compensate themselves for this risk.

Freed of the impossible bank debt, the Irish State could concentrate on the other daunting problems left by its decade-long credit binge: unemployment, lack of competitiveness and indebted households. The banks would be soundly capitalised and able to manage themselves free of political interference.

There are two common objections to sharing the banks’ losses with their bondholders, both of them specious. The first is that nobody would lend to Irish banks afterwards. However, given that soon nobody will be lending to Irish banks anyway, this is not an issue. Either way, the Irish State and banks are facing a period of relying on emergency funding. After a debt-for-equity swap, Irish banks, which were highly profitable before they fell into the clutches of their current “management”, will be carrying little debt, making them attractive credit risks.

The second objection is that Ireland would be sued in every court in Europe. Again wrong. Under the EU’s winding-up directive, the government that issues a bank’s licence has full power to resolve the bank under its own laws.

Of course, expecting politicians to sort out the Irish banks is pure fantasy. Like their British and American counterparts, Irish politicians have spent too long believing that banks were the root of national prosperity to understand that their interests are frequently inimical to those of the rest of the economy.

The architect of Uruguay’s salvation was not one of its politicians, but a technocrat called Carlos Steneri. The one positive development in Ireland in recent months is that control of the banking system has passed from the Government to similar technocrats.

This transfer did not take place without a struggle – one that was entirely missed by the media. When Anglo announced they wanted to take over Quinn Insurance despite the objections of the Financial Regulator, journalists seemed to view this as just another case of Anglo being Anglo. They should have remembered that Anglo cannot now turn on a radiator unless the Department of Finance says so, and what was going on instead was a direct power struggle between the Financial Regulator and the Minister for Finance.

Having been forced to appoint a credible Financial Regulator and Central Bank governor – first-rate ones, in fact – the Government must do what they say. Were either Elderfield or Honohan to resign, Irish bonds would straight away turn to junk.

Now you understand the extraordinary shift in power that lay behind the seeming non-headline in this newspaper last month: “Lenihan expresses confidence in regulator”.

The great macroeconomist Rudiger Dornbusch observed that crises always take a lot longer to happen than you expect but, once started, they move with frightening rapidity. Or, as Hemingway put it, bankruptcy happens “Slowly. Then all at once.” We can only hope that the Central Bank is using whatever time remains to us as an independent State to devise an intelligent Plan B – or is it Plan C?

European bank jitters as Spain steps in to save Cajasur

Investors are braced for fresh turbulence in European bank shares after Spain's authorities stepped in to rescue Cajasur, one of the country's largest regional lenders.


The Bank of Spain intervened over the weekend after merger talks with Unicaja broke down. Cordoba-based Cajasur can draw €550m (£477m) immediately from the state's Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring. "This will guarantee that it can continue to operate and fulfil its obligations," said the central bank.

The collapse of Cajasur is likely to revive fears over the health of Spanish banks, which skirted the US subprime crisis but are succumbing to local property busts. Cajasur is heavily exposed to second homes on the Costa del Sol, where prices are in free fall. Goldman Sachs said Spain's property companies have debts of €445bn, or 45pc of GDP, mostly owed to savings banks known as cajas. The stock of unsold homes reached 926.000 at the end of last year.

"Banks may not be able to recoup large parts of these loans. These losses will have to be recognised eventually, bringing down many institutions," it said. The bank added that the two giants, Santander and BBVA, are in good health.

The rescue follows a move by the Bank of Italy last week to suspend mark-to-market accounting for eurozone government bonds, thus alleviating strains on banks' capital ratios.

The rule change brings Italy closer in line with other eurozone states and keeps the lending taps open, but has raised eyebrows in the City.

"It means that they don't have to take a capital hit, which makes you think one or more Italian banks have very significant exposures to countries whose debt is under pressure," said John Hitchins, a banking expert at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Ireland was rattled by warnings from Morgan Kelly, professor of economics at University College Dublin, that the open-ended rescue of the Irish banks would ruin the country. "What will sink us, unfortunately but inevitably, are the huge costs of the bank bailout," he wrote in the Irish Times. "Even under the most optimistic assumptions about government spending cuts and bank losses, by 2012 Ireland will have a worse ratio of debt than Greece."

Mr Kelly said Irish banks were likely to lose €50bn to €70bn, adding a further 30pc of GDP to public debt. The professor was scorned when he warned in early 2008 that the banking system would have to be rescued. This time markets may pay attention.

30,000 in NJ protest state budget cuts

Public employees, nonprofit groups face cuts

Image: New Jersey protest
Thousands of people fill the street near the New Jersey Statehouse on Saturday in Trenton, N.J., to protest Gov. Chris Christie's proposed budget cuts.
Mel Evans / AP



TRENTON, N.J. - A crowd estimated at 30,000 to 35,000 people gathered Saturday near New Jersey's Statehouse to protest Gov. Chris Christie's proposed budget cuts.

State police, who gave the crowd estimate, said no problems were reported.

The crowd is believed to be one of the largest ever to protest in state history. It was mostly comprised of public employee union members and several community and nonprofit groups that would lose some or all their funding if Christie's plans are adopted.

Christie has called for workers to accept wage freezes, and he's pushed for them to contribute toward their health benefits. The governor was not in the Statehouse on Saturday and was not at the rally.

He has said that protesters have a right to speak their minds.

MIT Team Unveils Airplane that Uses 70 Percent Less Fuel Read more: MIT Team Unveils Airplane that Uses 70 Percent Less Fuel

MIT, airplane, aircraft, nasa, energy efficient, fuel efficient, less fuel, lower emissions

Today a team of researchers at MIT unveiled their latest feat of engineering — an airplane that uses 70% less fuel than conventional aircraft. The MIT team was one of six groups — and the only university led team — across the US chosen by NASA to help redesign current aircraft to increase fuel efficiency, lower emissions and allow planes to take off on shorter runways. The team accomplished all of NASA’s set goals with their innovative D-series plane, lovingly referred to as the “double bubble”.

MIT, airplane, aircraft, nasa, energy efficient, fuel efficient, less fuel, lower emissionsMIT also unveiled its “hybrid wing body” H-series, which is intended to replace 777 class aircraft

NASA is calling this government-funded initiative the “N+3″, signifying that the planes are meant to revolutionize the aircraft industry in three generations. MIT, Boeing, GE Aviation and Northrop Grumman were given the task of rethinking the subsonic commercial aircraft market while teams from Boeing and Lockheed-Martin were entrusted with creating supersonic commercial aircraft — passenger planes traveling faster than the speed of sound! NASA’s goals were to reduce fuel consumption while taking into account that in 3 decades air traffic is set to double. Now that the designs have been revealed the teams are awaiting news in the next few months of which designs will receive funding to go on to the second phase of the program.

MIT designed their D-series as a 180 passenger aircraft meant to replace the domestic 737 market. Conventional airplanes utilize a single fuselage design, while the D-series uses two partial tubular shapes placed beside each other — which accounts for the bubble nickname. The plane utilizes a host of technological advances to decrease its fuel consumption. It has thinner longer wings and a smaller tail and engine placement at the rear of the plane instead of on the wings. All of these features account for part of the reduction in fuel usage. The MIT team also unveiled their H-series — a “hybrid wing body” plane that seats 350 passengers and could replace the 777 overseas market. NASA expects designs from this program to take flight in 2035.

+ MIT

The Toronto G20 Police State Crackdown

It appears as if the G20 summit in Toronto is shaping up to be a showdown between anarchists and police. Caught in the middle of the security circus are local residents. If there is violence and property damage, peaceful protesters will also be demonized. The recent bombing of a bank, perpetrated by a so-called anarchist group, has given an excuse to enact more police state measures during the summit. The curious timing of the attack emphasizes the threat of terrorism and further justifies the huge security apparatus being assembled.

A group calling itself FFFC-Ottawa has claimed responsibility for the recent firebombing of a Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) branch. It was targeted because of the RBC’s sponsorship of the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, as well as its role in financing Alberta’s tar sands projects. The group has threatened to make an appearance at the meetings. “On June 25-27 2010, the G8/G20 ‘leaders’ and bankers are meeting in Huntsville and Toronto to make decisions that will further their policies of exploitation of people and the environment. We will be there.” Some have labelled the bombing as an act of domestic terrorism and have compared the radical anarchist community to terrorist groups. There are fears that the incident might inspire copycat attacks. With Toronto set to play host to the G20, it has become a national security issue. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service recently warned of homegrown terror in Canada. It is also interesting to note that in an effort to revive post-9/11 powers in late April, the Conservative government introduced the Combating Terrorism Act.

The G20 Integrated Security Unit continues to monitor any potential threats. Police are now asking truck drivers and carriers to act as lookouts before and during the G8/G20 summits. This includes reporting on suspicious behaviour or irregular activity in regards to terrorism, extremists, anarchists, public order (protests), along with any other threats. There are already various programs training citizens to fight terrorism and crime which are part of ongoing efforts to create a domestic spying system. It is unclear if the recent bombing was an isolated incident or part of a trend that could lead to more domestic political violence in Canada. Many likeminded individuals and groups have tried to distance themselves from FFFC-Ottawa while others have defended their actions. There is speculation that the attack might have been a false flag operation carried out by agent provocateurs to blame anarchists and give police a reason to further ramp up security. Some anarchists are still vowing to disrupt the meetings with threats of confronting the police state and the corporate culture.

Queen’s Park North is now the location of the designated demonstration area during the G20 summit. It was changed after residents opposed a plan to use Trinity-Bellwoods Park. Some activists reject the notion of an official protest site, but if they choose to gather elsewhere it could lead to arrests. Ultimately, police tactics and behaviour will play a big part in determining the outcome of any protests. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association stated, “Freedom of expression is protected throughout Canada: our country, and all of Toronto is a ‘free speech zone.’ Protesters cannot be prevented from demonstrating outside of the‘designated demonstration area,’ particularly when the area set aside is situated in a place that is so remote from the meetings that protesters cannot be directly seen or heard by the leaders. All protesters voices need to be heard, but they must remain peaceful as any violence will taint their message and provoke a police response.

In support of preparations for the G8/G20 summits, there has been more security drills In early May, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) conducted Exercise Amalgam Virgo which involved military aircraft flying at low altitudes over the south-central Ontario region. With the meetings fast approaching, additional security measures are being implemented across Toronto. Over 70 new CCTV cameras are being installed throughout the city’s downtown core. Due to security concerns, the CN Tower will be closed to the public during the summit. The Toronto Blue Jays series has also been moved to Philadelphia for security reasons. Police are expected to release more details about the size of the planned security zone within the next week. It was already announced that there will be an outer and inner security perimeter. As a result of the bank bombing, there are calls for an extra 500 police for the event. This is on top of the over 5000 officers who will be deployed, along with thousands of private security personnel and an unspecified number of Canadian soldiers. A Toronto Police Accountability Bulletin proclaimed, “In the name of security, the police are being given a very free hand with the city.”

The G20 summit will undoubtedly promote globalization and advance the goals of world government. This will benefit bankers and multinational corporations at the expense of the poor and middle class. The fact that it is being held in Toronto signifies that Canada is further falling under the control of the new world order system. The event will provide a perfect opportunity to push the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement currently being negotiated. Canada has fared better then most countries during the current financial crisis, but deeper economic ties with Europe could prove disastrous. In many ways, the whole security operations for the G8/G20 summits are a sideshow designed to serve as a distraction. Any violence and mayhem before or during the meetings plays right into the globalists hands and will be used to justify a police state crackdown.

Related articles by Dana Gabriel
Police State Canada 2010 and the G20 Summit
Advancing the Transatlantic Agenda
Police State Canada 2010 and the Olympic Crackdown
The War on Terrorism and the Countdown to the 2010 Olympics
Police State Canada 2010 and the Dark Side of the Olympics

Other related articles
Ottawa Bank Torched: Direct Action of False Flag?
Police State Toronto: Terror Drill Caught On Tape
Press For Truth Arrested While Reporting On The G20 Summit
Downtown Toronto To Be Transformed Into Locked-Down Police State This Summer

Dana Gabriel is an activist and independent researcher. He writes about trade, globalization, sovereignty, as well as other issues. Contact: beyourownleader@hotmail.com.

Image by CasaZaza

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