Wall Street Meets Main Street at the Courthouse

With the gap between Wall Street and Main Street never wider, the American public is left wondering who truly is looking out for their interests. The Wall Street lobbying machine is working overtime to dilute real regulatory reform. The financial regulators themselves are increasingly exposed as overmatched and incompetent, if not worse. Where can the American public turn to get some relief? Slowly but surely the courts are taking action to address the gross injustices that the American public has had to bear at the behest of Wall Street and with the protection of Washington.

Make no mistake, the slope of the mountain of injustice is quite steep. Furthermore, we are just starting the trek. Little doubt there should be many stops along the way. You can rest assured that the Wall Street lawyers and financial lobbyists are working diligently to put out the smoldering ruins of fires and campsites which wreaked havoc upon our economic landscape. There appears, however, to be mounting evidence that the Wall Street fires were fed by Washington and financial regulators looking the other way.

Bloomberg highlights some initial progress made on behalf of the American public in the fight for truth, transparency and integrity on our financial and economic landscape. This morning Bloomberg writes, Judges Punish Wall Street as Regulators Just Talk About Reform:

As the White House and Congress debate how to regulate financial firms to avoid another economic crisis, judges have assumed the point position in punishing Wall Street for causing the worst recession since the 1930s.

The executive and legislative branches have been discussing reforms such as more regulation of hedge funds and transparency for derivatives as a response to the financial crisis that began a year ago. As that battle with a reluctant Wall Street inches forward about how to prevent another disaster, judges are taking the first steps toward the same goal, punishing executives and issuing rulings with national impact.

I can only hope the momentum in the courtroom accelerates given the slow and painstaking rope-a-dope game being played out between Wall Street and Washington. Wall Street clearly wants a ‘mulligan’ from the excessive improprieties that led to our current economic crisis. The courts are starting to get wise and adjudicating otherwise. Bloomberg highlights some recent rulings for the public and against the Wall Street-Washington cabal including:

» Last week, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin threw out a key free-speech defense that credit raters had used for years to thwart investors’ fraud suits, knocking $1.5 billion off the market value of Moody’s Investors Service Inc.and the parent of Standard & Poor’s LLC.

» In sentencing imprisoned con man Bernard Madoff June 29 to the maximum penalty of 150 years in prison, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin described Madoff’s crimes as “extraordinarily evil.” He made the sentences of Madoff’s various offenses run consecutively, rather than the more common concurrent method.

» Frank DiPascali, Madoff’s chief financial officer, got harsh treatment too even though he was helping prosecutors incriminate Madoff’s other co-conspirators. After pleading guilty in August to helping his boss carry out a $65 billion Ponzi scheme, he was immediately sent to jail as a flight risk by U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan. The judge ignored a request by prosecutors to grant DiPascali bail to make it easier for him to cooperate than if behind bars.

» Former Monster Worldwide Inc. Chief Operating Officer James Treacy, who had proposed no prison time for what his lawyer called a “technical” crime, was sentenced to two years in jail for improperly accounting for backdated stock options.

» After a jury found Eric Butler, a former Credit Suisse Group AG broker, guilty of securities fraud on Aug. 18, U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein in Brooklyn told lawyers on both sides that, in their sentencing briefs, they should put Butler’s acts in the context of “how pernicious and pervasive was the culture of corruption” on Wall Street that “brought our financial system to its knees.” (emphasis added)

The pot that is the American public is boiling. The public is now getting wise that the improprieties and malfeasance not only occurred within financial firms but also within the regulatory structure as well. Bloomberg succinctly but appropriately writes:

Judges are also demanding more accountability from regulators and are urging rule changes to punish wrongdoers.

Will we get real accountability from the SEC? Do not bet on it. Why? The SEC receives immunity. Where and when may we begin to get accountability within our regulatory framework? When FINRA is compelled to open its books and records. In the process, we may learn if this Wall Street SRO neglected to fulfill its duty to protect investors given conflicts of interest and business relationships stemming from its internal investment portfolio.

The American public deserves nothing less.

By Larry Doyle

Selling Death: Wall Street’s Newest Bubble

When Wall Street’s commodities bubble crashed last year, I asked whether the next bubble might be in securitized body parts. Wall Street would search the world for transplantable organs, holding them in cold storage as collateral against securities sold to managed money such as pension funds. Of course, it was meant to be an apocryphal story about unregulated banksters gone wild. But as the NYT reports, Wall Street really is moving forward to market bets on death. The banksters would purchase life insurance policies, pool and tranch them, and sell securities that allow money managers to bet that the underlying “collateral” (human beings) will die an untimely death. You can’t make this stuff up.

This is just the latest Wall Street scheme to profit on death, of course. It has been marketing credit default swaps that allow one to bet on the death of firms, cities, and even nations. And the commodities futures speculation pushed by Goldman (NYSE:GS) caused starvation and death around the globe when the prices of agricultural products exploded (along with the price of gasoline) between 2004 and 2008. But now Goldman will directly cash-in on death.

Here is how it works. Goldman will package a bunch of life insurance policies of individuals with an alphabet soup of diseases: AIDS, leukemia, lung cancer, heart disease, breast cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. The idea is to diversify across diseases to protect “investors” from the horror that a cure might be found for one or more afflictions–prolonging life and reducing profits. These policies are the collateral behind securities graded by those same ratings agencies that thought subprime mortgages should be as safe as US Treasuries. Investors purchase the securities, paying fees to Wall Street originators. The underlying collateralized humans receive a single pay-out. Securities holders pay the life insurance premiums until the “collateral” dies, at which point they receive the death benefits. Naturally, managed money hopes death comes sooner rather than later.

Moral hazards abound. There is a fundamental reason why you are not permitted to take out fire insurance on your neighbor’s house: you would have a strong interest in seeing that house burn. If you held a life insurance policy on him, you probably would not warn him about the loose lug nuts on his Volvo. Heck, if you lost your job and you were sufficiently ethically challenged, you might even loosen them yourself.

Imagine the hit to portfolios of securitized death if universal health care were to make it through Congress. Or the efforts by Wall Street to keep new miracle drugs off the market if they were capable of extending life of human collateral. Who knows, perhaps the bankster’s next investment product will be gansters in the business of guaranteeing lifespans do not exceed actuarially-based estimates.

If you think all of this is far-fetched, you have not been paying attention. From Charles Keating’s admonition to his sales staff that the weak, meek and ignorant elderly widows always make good targets, to recent internal emails boasting about giving high risk ratings to toxic securities, we know that Wall Street’s contempt for the rest of us knows no bounds. Those hedge funds holding CDS “insurance” fought to force the US auto industry into bankruptcy for the simple reason that they would make more from its death than from its resurrection. And the reason that most troubled mortgages cannot obtain relief is because the firms that service the mortgages gain more from foreclosure. It is not a big step for Wall Street and global money managers with big gambling stakes at risk to slow efforts to improve health. Indeed, it is easy to see some very nice and profitable synergies developing between Wall Street sellers of death and health insurers opposed to universal, single-payer health care. As AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Trumka recently remarked on NPR, we already have committees deciding when to cut-off care—the private health insurers decide when to deny coverage. It would not be in the interest of securities holders or health insurers to provide expensive care that would prolong the life of human collateral—a natural synergy that someone will notice.

It should be amply evident that Wall Street intends to recreate the conditions that existed in 2005. Virtually every element that created the real estate, commodities, and CDS bubbles will be replicated in the securitization of life insurance policies. If Wall Street succeeds in this scheme, it will probably bankrupt the life insurance companies (premiums are set on the assumption that many policyholders will cancel long before death—but once securitized, the premiums will be paid so that benefits can be collected). But it is likely that the bubble will be popped long before that happens, at which point Wall Street will look for the next opportunity. Securitized pharmaceuticals? Body parts?

Here’s the problem. There is still—even after massive losses in this crisis—far too much managed money chasing far too few returns. And there are far too many “rocket scientists” looking for the next newest and bestest financial product. Each new product brings a rush of funds that narrows returns; this then spurs rising leverage ratios using borrowed funds to make up for low spreads by increasing volume; this causes risk to rise far too high to be covered by the returns. Eventually, lenders and managed money try to get out, but de-levering creates a liquidity crisis as asset prices plunge. Resulting losses are socialized as government bails-out the banksters. Repeat as often as necessary.

Reform of the US financial sector is neither possible nor would it ever be sufficient. As any student of horror films knows, you cannot reform vampires or zombies. They must be killed (stakes through the hearts of Wall Street’s vampires, bullets to the heads of zombie banks). In other words, the financial system must be downsized.

By L. Randall Wray

中國‧1314520終生有效‧新娘自製超貴火車票送愛人

（中國‧河南）甚麼禮物最能讓愛人一輩子受用？

河南一名火車站女職工鐘暉在婚禮前冥思苦想，最終決定製作一張獨一無二的火車票作為禮物結婚送給新郎，票價是131萬4520元人民幣，有效期是永遠。

新娘鐘暉製作的一張獨一無二的火車票，開往她的婚姻旅程，票價1314520，取意“一生一世我愛你”有效期永遠，讓新郎王輝在婚禮上感動不已。（圖：互聯網）

車票末端印有他們的結婚證號。新郎指出，這張花費30元製作的火車票成為妻子送給他最好的禮物。

河南商報報導，9月6日，這張超大號火車票，出現在鄭州一場婚禮上，作為新娘鐘暉送給新郎王輝的結婚禮物。

最好的禮物

報導指出，這張火車票的創意，來自鐘暉。作為火車站的一名職工，婚前一個月已開始苦思冥想的她，最終決定用最熟悉的火車票作為一生中最重要的一份禮物送給愛人。

她的這個創意，沒有告訴任何人。拿著一張火車票，她悄悄在街頭找到了一家店鋪，讓店員按照車票的模式為她製作一張獨一無二的車票，開往她的婚姻旅程，“票價1314520，取意一生一世我愛你；有效期永遠是希望我們能執子之手、與子偕老。”

據報導，當這張花費30元的“火車票”出現在婚禮上時，王輝覺得，這是他這輩子收到的最好的禮物。

新加坡‧新加坡男子疑欠債上吊‧兄弟伴屍2天2夜

（新加坡）男子上吊死，兄弟伴屍2晝夜。

中年漢疑欠債想不開，選擇走上絕路，在睡房內的窗口旁上吊身亡。可憐2名不知情的兄弟，包括年邁的哥哥和智障的弟弟，在伴屍2天2夜後，才揭發這起案件，哥哥悲痛欲絕哭倒屍旁。

這起悲劇發生在週二（9月8日）早上10時許，地點是位於女皇鎮一帶，美嶺街第152座組屋一個3房式的單位。死者已被證實為51歲的洪財保（譯音），他生前是一名送貨員。

據瞭解，死者尚有另外11名兄弟姐妹，多數都有各自的家庭，他在雙親過世後，多年來和70來歲的的哥哥以及40來歲的智障弟弟同住，照顧兩兄弟。

死者的哥哥說，死者在週日（9月6日）下午4時許走進睡房，將房門關上之後，便一直沒有出來過，他去敲門但卻沒人應門，起初以為他在睡覺，不以為意。

“週二早上10時許，我發現已經整整2天沒有看到弟弟出來，心裡開始覺得不妥，弟弟的房門是反鎖的。”

屍體懸掛窗口旁

他說，親人過來破門而入之後，他看到弟弟的身體懸掛在睡房窗口上的鐵條，頸項和鐵條上纏有一塊布和一團白色電線，身體背向著窗外，發黑的面部朝房門，一動也不動的，哥哥眼見這一幕悲從中來，當場哭倒。

哥哥表示，死者在出事的前幾日，顯得郁郁寡歡，像是有心事的樣子。死者的姐姐說，死者有賭博的習慣，相信欠人錢，曾有阿窿多次上門潑漆鎖門。

警方受詢時證實了這起事件，並表示案件仍在調查中。

新加坡‧街邊賣電話卡紙巾‧88歲老翁被劫打破頭

（新加坡）不靠子女，不領救濟，88歲阿伯街邊賣電話卡，竟被劫匪打破頭入院。

過去5年多，阿伯魏天成每天推著小推車，到住家對面的橋北路巴剎與熟食中心，擺攤賣電話卡和紙巾。

他每早8點多“上班”，中午回家煮飯吃，下午約4時又開工，直到晚上8點多。一天做足8小時，賺取10到20元（24令吉至48令吉）。

儘管收入微薄，他還是被不法之徒盯上。

“有一晚，我回家經過矮樹叢時，突然有人棒打我的後腦，我昏眩倒下，那人對我拳打腳踢。迷糊中，感覺有人扯我的吊帶包，我死命抓住，還好附近大廈的保安員來援救，劫匪才逃跑。”

他回憶說，頭和手腳都流血、瘀傷，住院3天後，還在兒子家修養幾天。

靠自己不想增加兒子負擔

擔心事件重演嗎？他說︰“擔心又怎樣？手腳能動，就要自己討生活。我不覺得辛苦啦，不必申請救濟金，也不想靠兒子，他照顧他母親不容易，最近又失業，手頭也不寬裕，我不想增加他的負擔。”

他共有6個兒女，但他20年前就離家。“子女獨立了，不用我操心，就搬出來住咯。”

他和一名阿伯合租一間租賃組屋。他的85歲妻子與未婚次兒子同住，他每週回去探望。

Never Talk to the Police

I’ve run this very important talk before, but it is something we all need to know, understand, and internalize. (Thanks to Scott Fields)

The Alex Jones Show: Charlie Sheen Requests Meeting With Obama Over 9/11 Cover-Up

The Alex Jones Show: Charlie Sheen Requests Meeting With Obama Over 9/11
Cover-Up
Actor demands investigation be reopened after majority of 9/11 Commission
members say government lied about official story.




AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- According to syndicated talk show host
Alex Jones, actor and television star Charlie Sheen has publicly requested a
meeting with President Barack Obama to urge him to reopen the official
investigation into 9/11; in light of the fact that the majority of the 9/11
Commission members have now publicly gone on record to express their
conviction that the government agreed to lie about the official story.

Sheen will appear live on The Alex Jones Show on Wednesday and Friday to
discuss the content of his "20 Minutes With The President" piece and how he
plans to move forward with this exciting new initiative. You can listen free
here or subscribe to prison planet.tv to watch live streaming video.

Sheen's request takes the form of a letter to the President in the context of
a fictional meeting between the two entitled "20 Minutes With The President,"
published exclusively on radio talk show host Alex Jones' Infowars.com and
Prison Planet.com websites. Clip:
http://www.infowars.com/media/20090908-CharlieSheenINT-Promises.mp3 .

The letter cites evidence, backed up by a substantial online bibliography,
that alleges to prove the official story behind 9/11 is a fraud and that this
conclusion was also reached by the majority of the 9/11 Commission members, a
fact that mandates President Obama to reopen the investigation into the
terrorist attacks.

Sheen expresses his hope that President Obama will follow through on his
promises of change, accountability and government transparency by using his
executive powers to re-examine 9/11, adding that he voted for Obama with the
understanding that he would follow a different course to the Bush
administration.

However, as Sheen highlights in his letter, the course of Obama's first year
in office clearly indicates that he will do nothing to reverse policies
crafted by the Bush regime, and in fact has sought to exceed outrages of the
previous administration in areas such as warrantless wiretapping, rendition,
detention without trial, and wars in the Middle East - all of which arrived as
a consequence of 9/11.

Sheen's letter is a public declaration demanding the truth behind 9/11 as
America approaches its eighth anniversary since the tragic events of that day.
His questions are shared by a majority of victims' family members, according
to Bill Doyle, the representative of the largest 9/11 families group.

The letter focuses around the fact that no less than 60 per cent of the 9/11
commissioners have now publicly stated that the government agreed not to tell
the truth about 9/11 and that the Pentagon was engaged in deliberate deception
about their response to the attack.

Sheen also presents a plethora of other evidence to illustrate how the
official story is a fraud, including the revelations of whistle blowers like
FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, who recently broke a Federal gag order to expose
how Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were working for the U.S. government right up until
the day of 9/11.

The issues highlighted by Sheen do not represent idle speculation or
conspiracy fodder, they are documented facts that have been deliberately
ignored by other 9/11 programming that is now airing  as the anniversary
approaches, particularly last months' 9/11: Science and Conspiracy which was
aired by the National Geographic Channel and wasted little time in portraying
people who have doubts about the official 9/11 story as extremist cranks,
while failing to acknowledge that the majority of the members of the 9/11
Commission have publicly expressed similar concerns.

Charlie Sheen is once again using his prominent public platform in an attempt
to expand a national debate about the disturbing unanswered questions behind
9/11, having first spoken out on the issue in March 2006 on The Alex Jones
Show. After he first went public, Sheen was asked to do more and now he is
doing more as he feels there is a chance to get more traction behind a new
investigation with a new President in the White House.

Sheen is directly appealing to Barack Obama to read his letter and to look
into the lies surrounding 9/11 for himself.

Regardless of whether or not President Obama agrees to meet with him, Sheen is
confident that his letter will serve as a catalyst from which questions
surrounding 9/11 and other false flag events will be brought to national
attention.

This is a call to action and a declaration of war on the alleged lies of 9/11
that have formed the foundation of the endless wars abroad and the police
state at home as the Republic falls. Sheen is demanding that truth activists
and those who simply care about the future of the country stand up beside him
and speak truth to power.

Sheen is now urging grass roots political organizations and individuals across
the country to go to press conferences and other public events and demand
answers about the truth behind 9/11. As much awareness as possible around the
issue of false flag terrorism needs to be generated in order to prevent
tragedies like 9/11 from happening again. Sheen emphasizes in his letter that
we cannot let 9/11 become ancient history, try and forget about it or just
move on, because if a nation forgets its history then it is doomed to repeat
it.

We cannot allow governments to continue to advance their political agendas by
exploiting forged pretexts, argues Sheen, and the fact that big budget hit
pieces against 9/11 truth are still being rolled out proves that the
establishment is upset that the population is waking up to false flag terror.

No matter what your views are on 9/11, Sheen is asking the thinking public to
look at how many members of the 9/11 Commission itself have questioned the
official story, along with the scores of other highly credible former and
current government officials, intelligence professionals, military officials,
scientists, structural engineers and architects, and legal scholars who have
all publicly denounced the fraud that continues to masquerade as the official
9/11 story.

For media requests on this subject email sheen@infowars.com.

The Alex Jones Show broadcasts live from Austin, TX from 11am - 3pm Central.
Alex Jones' show and websites www.infowars.com and www.prisonplanet.com are a
focal point and a forum where many prominent figures from academia, the
political world and Hollywood have spoken out about what really happened on
September 11th.

More information:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/twenty-minutes-with-the-president.html

*(PHOTO: www.Send2Press.com/mediaboom/09-0908-CSheen_72dpi.jpg)

*(Caption: Charlie Sheen. Credit: Alex Jones.)

This release was issued on behalf of the above organization by Send2Press(R),
a unit of Neotrope(R). http://www.Send2Press.com


SOURCE  The Alex Jones Show

台灣‧ 僅剩國防外交需總統親徵詢‧吳敦義：大部份人事底定

（台灣‧台北）據國民黨政高層週二（9月8日）透露，吳敦義徵詢作業大致底定，僅剩國防、外交需總統馬英九親自徵詢，希望週三（9月9日）能確定並公佈名單。

吳敦義證實4人可望留任

外傳交通部長毛治國、陸委會主委賴幸媛、勞委會主委王如玄，以及衛生署長楊志良等首長將留任，吳敦義表示“不能否認”，間接證實這4人可望留任。

吳敦義說，內閣規劃已經接近底定，但如果現在就“把鍋蓋打開”，就會“半生不熟”，希望外界再給他一點時間。

此外，內政部政次林中森已答應任行政院秘書長一職。林中森曾與吳敦義在高雄市政府共事多年，也嫻熟災後法規，林中森表示希望在災後重建盡一份心力。

詹春柏任國民黨秘書長

與此同時，國民黨主席吳伯雄週二證實，總統府祕書長詹春柏將出任國民黨祕書長。他說，詹春柏是他能接受，也是馬英九總統希望的人。

外傳總統府秘書長遺缺由內政部長廖了以升任。

印度‧抗議公司辭退兩人‧400機師集體請病假

（印度‧真奈）印度J et航空公司的約400名飛機師集體請病假抗議管理層辭退兩名資深同事，導致週一（9月7日）晚上一班從印度真奈飛往吉隆坡的航班被取消。

在飛機師於晚上11時15分臨時請病假的情況下，一班載有144名乘客、原訂在午夜12時飛往吉隆坡的航班被逼取消。此外，另兩班從真奈飛往吉隆坡及布魯塞爾的航班也被取消。

飛機師集體請病假之舉，也導致J e t航空的約20班國內及2班國際航班無法起飛，機場一片混亂。

美國‧眾議長破例圖書館設宴‧高規格宴請吳邦國

（美國‧華盛頓）美國國會眾議長佩洛西週二（9月8日）打破慣例，在華盛頓國會圖書館設宴，高規格宴請在美國進行正式友好訪問的中國全國人大常委會委員長吳邦國。

這是佩洛西首次以美國眾議長的身份，在國會宴請外國客人，同時也是美國國會圖書館首次被用來舉辦宴會。

吳邦國是是20年來首次訪問美國的中國全國人大常委會委員長，他在當地時間週二下午飛抵華盛頓，開始此次訪美行程中最受矚目的一站。

在華盛頓訪問期間，吳邦國將在白宮會見美國總統奧巴馬及多名高層官員，討論議題包括能源合作。

自奧巴馬政府今年1月上台以來，吳邦國是白宮接待的職務最高的中國領導人。

吳邦國促堅持自由貿易原則

此前，吳邦國在出席中美經貿合作論壇開幕式時指出，在當前情況下，中美經貿合作尤其要堅持自由貿易原則，防止各種形式的貿易保護主義。

因此，他希望兩國政府及有關方面把企業合作作為加強和改善中美經貿合作的優先方向，積極為企業合作牽線搭橋，加強知識產權保護，努力改善政策和法制環境，推動雙邊貿易和投資便利化。

吳邦國週一（9月7日）參觀美國第一太陽能公司時表示，希望這間公司加強與中國企業的合作，提高太陽能技術的研發應用水平，共同開拓市場。

美國第一太陽能公司贏得了在中國內蒙鄂爾多斯市，興建全球最大的太陽能發電廠的合同，發電量達20億瓦特；整個發電廠佔地64平方公里，發電量相當於兩座煤炭發電廠，可以為300萬戶提供電力。

中國‧感覺被歧視‧南京300回教徒示威

（中國‧南京）江蘇省南京市逾300名回教徒週二（9月8日）到市政府門前示威抗議，呼吁社會不要歧視回教徒。

中國人權民運信息中心報導，烏魯木齊市“針刺黨”猖獗，盛傳殃及江蘇、浙江的回教徒，他們自感被歧視，乘坐巴士時其他民眾會刻意避開搭德士又被拒載。

此外，他們認為漢人對回教徒的尊重已大不如前，在齋戒中的回教徒及回教堂前大吃大喝的情況增加。

為此，300多名身穿白衣、頭戴白帽的回教徒，週二聚集在南京市政府外示威，他們在衣服上貼著“政府要講誠信”，背面則為“不准歧視少數民族”的標語，要求當局勿歧視少數民族。

示威活動大約進行5小時，當局出動數百名防暴警察在場戒備，但未有發生衝突。

此外，溫州的回教徒週一（9月7日）也發出公開信，稱當地一家回教堂被佔用，令信眾沒有宗教活動場所，要求政府歸還資產。

中國‧與日訪華團交流議題‧溫家寶盼儘快晤鳩山

（中國‧北京）中國總理溫家寶今日（週三，9月9日）讚賞日本民主黨對華態度積極，中方願與其合作，又期待可以早日與將任新首相的鳩山由紀夫會晤。

這是民主黨在眾院選舉中大勝後，中國領導人首次對日本新政府作出的具體表態。

溫家寶當天在北京人民大會堂，接見到訪的日本經團聯會長御手洗富士夫等日中經濟協會訪華代表團一行，會談涉及如何克服全球經濟不景氣、日中兩國在環境、高科技等領域的合作方案等多項議題。

溫家寶在會上說，中方讚賞民主黨領導人，在對華關繫上的積極態度。中方願與日本的新內閣，加強溝通與合作，增進互信，繼往開來，推動中日戰略互惠關係持續深入發展。

他還表示希望有機會再次訪問日本。

他說，兩國領導人早日會晤很重要，希望儘快見到即將出任首相的鳩山由紀夫，就兩國關係今後的方向廣泛交換意見。

日方盼扶持民間企業

日方則希望兩國政府能繼續保持良好的雙邊關係，扶持民間企業的合作。

民主黨大勝後，中國政府已迅速安排了副外長武大偉訪日，與民主黨高層會面。

武大偉週三在東京會晤了鳩山由紀夫，討論雙邊關係，即將上任外長的民主黨幹事長岡田克也亦在場。3人進行了約10分鐘的會晤。

據共同社稱，雙方確認了中日兩國戰略互惠關係的重要性，並就新政府成立後進一步加強合作達成共識。

英國‧說閒話是天性‧人類談話80%“八卦”

（英國‧倫敦）愛聽八卦是人的天性，但你可知，人的一輩子所說的話有80%是“八卦”閒話。

英國薩里大學的社會心理學家埃姆勒近日向300人進行的一項研究顯示，說他人閒話佔人類的談話內容80%。

而且說人閒話，並沒不好，因為它能促進人與人間的信任和合作，容許人類建立的社會，較諸其他生物所建立的更大、更有趣和更複雜。

隨時間流逝，說閒話已可以證明是一種重要的生存工具，互相分享趣聞有助史前穴居人捉賊和選領袖。

埃姆勒說：“我們（人類）和黑猩猩的分別就在我們能交談。我們可以交換社會資訊。我們可以建構出比起其他動物所建構的更複雜的社會，因為我們會七情上面地說閒話。一個人的觀看和觀察所得是有限的。但只要說閒話，你不必去親身認識10萬人也可以對這個數目的人略知一二。”

雖然閒話佔我們的談話內容達80%，但有惡意的閒話卻不足5%。雖然女性被定性為比男性更愛說閒話，但其實男性以負面態度談論人們外觀的機會比女性高出一倍。

Gold breaks out, U.S. dollar breaks down

Focus: Gold, U.S. dollar, ABX, KGC, GG, ERJ, PCLN, BA, GES

CINCINNATI (MarketWatch) -- For the time being, the U.S. markets continue to absorb technical challenges.

And while the near-term backdrop favors further consolidation -- at least sideways chopping around, if not a retest of the August low -- the longer-term uptrend is intact.

The hourly chart on the Standard & Poor's 500 index details the past three weeks.

After breaking down last week--- driven by 15-to-1 negative market breadth -- the S&P has reversed to the breakdown point on lighter volume.

And while its longer-term uptrend is intact, further near-term consolidation would typically be needed to work off last week's breakdown.

From current levels, initial support holds at 1,016, followed by another floor around the 1,010 mark.

Meanwhile, the Dow industrials' near-term view is similar.

Like the S&P, the Dow sold off sharply last week, before establishing support around 9,250.

It subsequently reversed to the breakdown point, keeping its near-term outlook in flux.

And the Nasdaq's near-term backdrop is the most volatile.

After bottoming last week at 1,958, it's reversed to the breakdown point, matching the upper end of its three-week range.

Widening the view to six months highlights the real technical issues taking shape.

Notice that the Nasdaq, along with all major U.S. benchmarks, is gravitating to the early-August peak.

It staged a false break higher last month and then tried to sell off, but the net result is a stalemate near the highs.

Moving to the Dow, its technical backdrop is similar.

Most importantly, the blue-chip benchmarks remains within a longer-term uptrend, but the early-August peak marks the near-term battleground for the bulls and bears.

Along with the other benchmarks, the S&P 500 has whipsawed around the early-August peak.

Its recent price action resembles the June consolidation phase, the month before the second-quarter earnings reports hit.

The current consolidation phase is arguably similar, taking shape just a month before financial results for the third quarter.

The bigger picture

As traders return from the holiday, the U.S. markets' backdrop can be broken down with three charts.

Starting with the S&P's hourly chart, it broke down last week with conviction.

The initial violation of the 1,016 area was driven by 15-to-1 negative breadth, and the index has since staged a reflexive lift to the breakdown point.

Widening the view to six months, the chart for the SPDR Trust S&P 500 /quotes/comstock/13*!spy/quotes/nls/spy (SPY 102.86, -0.08, -0.08%) furthers the "corrective-bounce" argument.

Notice last week's breakdown came on the SPY's strongest volume since April, while its subsequent lift has come on unusually light volume.

While all trends technically point higher -- the S&P holds atop its 20-day, 50-day and 200-day moving averages -- a sideways consolidation phase is likely underway.

The S&P 500's six-month view rounds out the backdrop.

Setting aside last week's volatility -- the whipsaws around the early-August peak -- this wider view points to a longer-term uptrend.

The S&P is positioned atop both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, and both trending indicators are upward sloping.

Summing up the backdrop

Technically speaking, the U.S. markets remain within a longer-term uptrend.

Yet within this framework, the S&P has suffered two 15-to-1 downdrafts in less than three weeks, cementing S&P 1,039-to-1,044 as significant resistance.

Looking ahead, further near-term consolidation is likely in order - reduce risk, and avoid lower-quality names - but until proven otherwise, the broader uptrend is intact.

Tuesday's watch list

The charts below highlight names well positioned technically. These are intended as radar-screen names -- sectors or stocks positioned to move in the near term. For the original comments on the stocks below, check out The Technical Indicator Library.

ETF	Symbol	Fri Close	Support	Resistance
SPDR Gold Shares	GLD	$97.53	$96.20	New High

Drilling down to sectors, gold's breakout is the most obvious technical event taking shape.

As the chart illustrates, the SPDR Gold Shares /quotes/comstock/13*!gld/quotes/nls/gld (GLD 97.43, -0.10, -0.10%) spiked late last week, clearing resistance at the August and June peaks.

The rally came on strong volume -- meaning this is a valid breakout -- and while near-term extended, its backdrop favors eventual follow-through to record highs.

While the GLD ETF tracks spot prices, the charts below illustrate gold miners positioned to rise: Barrick Gold /quotes/comstock/13*!abx/quotes/nls/abx (ABX 39.30, -0.74, -1.85%) , Kinross Gold /quotes/comstock/13*!kgc/quotes/nls/kgc (KGC 21.80, -0.08, -0.37%) and Goldcorp /quotes/comstock/13*!gg/quotes/nls/gg (GG 40.93, -0.62, -1.49%) .

ETF	Symbol	Fri Close	Support	Resistance
U.S. Dollar Index	UUP	$23.25	$23.15	$23.50

In a related move, the U.S. dollar /quotes/comstock/13*!uup/quotes/nls/uup (UUP 22.99, -0.26, -1.12%) has started the week with a breakdown.

Fundamentally, gold and the dollar are inversely correlated, and the chart above reflects this relationship.

Looking ahead, a sustained posture under the August low supports the bull case for stocks, leaving the door open to another leg higher for the S&P 500.

Company	Symbol	Fri Close	Support	Resistance
Embraer	ERJ	$21.86	$20.60	$22.50

Embraer /quotes/comstock/13*!erj/quotes/nls/erj (ERJ 22.81, +0.95, +4.35%) is a Brazilian-based manufacturer of jets and turboprop aircraft.

Technically speaking, it broke out decisively in late July after posting strong second-quarter financial results.

By comparison, the ensuing pullback has been flat, and its near-term outlook should remain higher barring a violation of the breakout point.

Company	Symbol	Fri Close	Support	Resistance
Priceline.com	PCLN	$153.79	$148.00	$156.50

Priceline.com /quotes/comstock/15*!pcln/quotes/nls/pcln (PCLN 157.64, +3.85, +2.50%) is a well positioned mid-cap name.

It initially gapped higher last month after posting strong quarterly results.

Since then, it's maintained a stance above the top of the gap, and its tight one-month range positions the shares to build on the initial breakout.

Company	Symbol	Fri Close	Support	Resistance
Boeing	BA	$49.15	$47.75	$52.50

Boeing Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!ba/quotes/nls/ba (BA 49.50, +0.35, +0.71%) is a well positioned large-cap name.

Late last month, it gapped sharply higher after announcing an earlier delivery schedule for its 787 model aircraft.

The ensuing pullback has come on lighter volume, placing the Dow component's shares at a better entry near support, and 6.5% under the August peak.

Company	Symbol	Fri Close	Support	Resistance
Guess Inc.	GES	$34.47	$33.50	$36.20

Initially profiled Aug. 7, Guess Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!ges/quotes/nls/ges (GES 35.09, +0.62, +1.80%) has returned 14.1% and remains well positioned.

As the chart illustrates, it recently gapped sharply higher after reporting strong second-quarter results.

Since then, it's held the top of the gap as support, and its tight band near recent highs positions the shares to extend their gains.

By Michael Ashbaugh, MarketWatch

US commodities rattled by China derivatives stance

BEIJING/CHICAGO, Aug 31 (Reuters) - U.S. gold and soybean markets fell on Monday following a weekend report that China's state companies may default on commodity derivative contracts with banks providing over-the-counter hedging services.

Traders in other commodities markets in the United States were cautious, underscoring China's predominance as a buyer in global markets from metals to grain to oil after it played a key role in rallying prices to record highs last year.

In a measure of the country's influence over the global economy, U.S. stocks fell after the Shanghai Composite index .SSEC fell nearly 7 percent to a three-month low on fears Beijing is trying to moderate growth and choke off speculation in its stock market by tightening bank lending.

Commodities markets were chilled by a report in Caijing magazine quoting an unnamed industry source as saying Chinese state-owned companies will be allowed to default on commodity derivative contracts. The report provoked anger and dismay among investment banks that feared a damaging precedent.

China's regulator of state owned enterprises, the Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), has told six foreign banks that SOEs reserved the right to default on contracts, the magazine said in an article published on Saturday.

A government official said that the Bureau of Financial Supervision and Evaluation under SASAC was handling the issue. The official declined to be named and did not elaborate.

"A Chinese agency said they reserve the right to walk away from bad derivatives contracts and that stirred up a lot of worry not only about the stock market but soybeans as well," said Paul Haugens, vice president at Newedge USA.

China, the world's top importer of soybeans, has been an aggressive buyer of U.S. supplies, helping drive prices higher as stockpiles fell to the lowest level in over three decades.

US SOY, GOLD MARKETS FALL, COTTON RECOVERS

Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures for November delivery SX9 fell 31-1/2 cents, or 3 percent, to $9.79-1/2.

December gold GCZ9 fell $5.30 to $953.50 an ounce at the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division. U.S. cotton futures fell in early trading due to the news, but closed higher on month-end position squaring.

"Historically, it is not so unusual for China to either renegotiate or abandon some deals that have been made. Some traders who have been around for a while are certainly aware of that possibility," said Bill O'Neill, managing partner at New Jersey-based LOGIC Advisors.

Spokespersons at Goldman Sachs (GS.N), UBS (UBSN.VX), JPMorgan (JPM.N) and Morgan Stanley declined to comment, along with the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and International Swaps and Derivatives Association Inc.

The reported letter to the six banks follows an order from SASAC in July that required all state companies trading in derivatives to make quarterly reports about their investments, including details of holdings and performance.

"I won't be surprised if more state firms emerged with big derivatives trading losses. Or else SASAC won't come out with such a radical move," a Hong Kong-based derivatives analyst said.

"As far as I know, there are another number of state firms bogged down in such losses besides those surfaced ones," said the analyst, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

'ABNORMAL PRACTICE'

A SASAC media official said he was waiting for the "relevant department's" official comment before clarifying the situation with the media.

The report deals another blow to investment banks hoping to sell more derivatives hedges in China, the world's fastest-expanding major economy and top commodities consumer.

"It's a handful of companies who are being encouraged by regulators to renegotiate. It's outrageous, but it's China so everyone is treading very carefully," said a banking source.

Beijing-based derivatives lawyers said the so-called "legal letter" has no legal standing -- SASAC as a shareholder of SOEs has no business relationship with international banks.

"This can also lead to market chaos. For example, a foreign bank can tell its Chinese clients that it can reserve the right to default on contracts that will bring losses to the bank," said a lawyer from the derivatives risks committee of the Beijing Lawyers Association.

No bank names were reported in the Caijing report. The SASAC media officer also declined to specify any.

Chinese state firms, especially those that have suffered big losses in derivatives trading, have been complaining that their foreign banks sometimes did not disclose full information of potential risks when selling them complicated products.

For a factbox of China's derivatives debacles: [ID:nPEK206094] (Reporting by Eadie Chen and Chen Aizhu in Beijing, Alfred Cang in Shanghai, George Chen and Michael Flaherty in Hong Kong, Sam Nelson in Chicago and Carole Vaporean and Steve Eder in New York. Writing by K.T. Arasu, Eadie Chen and Chen Aizhu; editing by Jim Marshall)

By Eadie Chen and Chen Aizhu

China's SOEs May Terminate Commodities Contracts

Any such move would be a major blow to investment banks which service commodities hedging operations for Chinese SOEs on the international market.

(Caijing.com.cn) China's state-owned enterprises may unilaterally terminate commodities contracts as they try to cut massive losses from financial derivatives, an industry source told Caijing on August 28.

According to the source, China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) has sent notice to six foreign financial institutions informing them that several state-owned enterprise will reserve the right to default on commodities contracts signed with those institutions.

Keith Noyes, an official with the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, a trade organization, confirmed that he is aware of the matter, but provided no further comment.

Foreign brokerages usually work through their Hong Kong operations to sign over-the-counter derivative hedging contracts, according to an investment banker whose firm is involved in the business. Hong Kong and Singapore usually serve as venues for arbitration over such transactions.

Most investment banks may "just swallow" any losses arising from canceled contracts, the executive said, adding that any losses are usually made up for with compensating trades.

Investment banks "just earn less" from such transactions, he said.

But any such move would be a major blow to investment banks which service massive commodities hedging operations for Chinese SOEs on the international market, said the executive.

Chinese SOEs have suffered massive losses from hedging contracts since the onset of the global financial crisis. SASAC and the National Auditing Office has been investigating derivatives positions trading since the beginning of the year.

A source from a state-owned company told Caijing that most of China’s SOEs engaging in foreign exchange and international trade have participated in derivatives trading, involving capital topping 1 trillion yuan.

4 Signs that China is Moving Out of the Dollar

There are 3 recent signs that China is moving out of the dollar.

First, in June, China was a net seller of U.S. Treasury bonds (and shorter term notes) for the first time ever. As Mike Larson writes:

A few days ago, the U.S. Treasury Department revealed that China actually REDUCED its note and bond holdings by $25 billion in June. Although China did NOT sell shorter-term Treasury bills — and isn’t expected to — it’s still the largest amount of Treasuries China has ever sold in a single month.

Second, China will issue a non-Dollar denominated Renminbi bond sale on September 28th (6 Billion Renminbi worth).

Third, China has agreed to purchase $5o billion dollars worth of IMF bonds (denominated in the IMF Special Drawing Rights currency).

And fourth, the former vice-chairman of China's Politburo Standing Committee (the highest and most powerful decision-making body in China) - Cheng Siwei - recently said:

We will diversify incremental reserves into euros, yen, and other currencies. Gold is definitely an alternative, but when we buy, the price goes up. We have to do it carefully so as not to stimulate the markets.

As Edward Harrison correctly notes:

To be sure, there are other voices in Chinese officialdom that are striking a less alarmist tone. One cannot rely on the words of one Chinese official to represent policy makers in China. And Cheng never said the Chinese are now actively diversifying away from the U.S. dollar. Nevertheless, Chinese officials have been talking along this dollar bearish line for months now and I tend to believe their words will lead to action.

That is, at a minimum, bullish for Gold and bearish for the U.S. Dollar.

Fed: Consumers Slash Debt by Record $21.6B in July

The Federal Reserve reported Tuesday that consumers ratcheted back their credit by a larger-than-anticipated $21.6 billion from June, the most on records dating to 1943.

Consumers slashed their borrowing in July by the largest amount on record as job losses and uncertainty about the economic recovery prompted Americans to rein in their debt.

Economists expect consumers will continue to spend less, save more and trim debt to get household finances decimated by the recession into better shape. However, such action is a recipe for a lethargic revival, as consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.

The Federal Reserve reported Tuesday that consumers ratcheted back their credit by a larger-than-anticipated $21.6 billion from June, the most on records dating to 1943. Economists expected credit to drop by $4 billion.

Wary consumers and hard-to-get credit both factor into the scaled-back borrowing. But economists are split on which force -- lack of demand by consumers or lack of supply from banks -- is having the bigger influence.

"It's really a tug of war," said Mark Williams, professor of finance and economics at Boston University and a former Fed bank examiner. "It's true that consumers are being more responsible, saying 'I don't really need that extra credit card,' but it is more related to banks clamping down on lending."

But Erik Hurst, economics professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, says it is impossible to know for sure. "We are seeing declines in demand for loans from consumers but also declines in the supply of loans from banks. How much of the credit cutback is due to the decline in supply or demand, you can't really tell."

Last month, the Federal Reserve, in a survey of bank loan officers, found somewhat weaker demand for all types of consumer loans. But fewer banks reported tightening their standards on credit card and other consumer loans, the Fed survey said.

Still, a report earlier this year by the company that produces the most widely known credit scores found that companies slashed limits for an estimated 58 million card holders in the 12 months ended in April, even though a high percentage had good credit scores when their limits were cut.

The cuts affected about a third of consumers, according to the study by FICO. But most people did not see a big impact on the credit scores because lenders often cut limits on cards that were unused or lightly used.

In Tuesday's report, demand for non-revolving credit used to finance cars, vacations, education and other things fell by $15.4 billion, also a record decline. That 11.7 percent pace was on top of an 8 percent annualized decline in June.

Consumers' appetite for revolving credit, primarily credit cards, declined by $6.1 billion in July, an annualized rate of 8 percent that followed a 6.4 percent drop in June.

July's retreat translated into an annualized decline of 10.4 percent. That followed a cut of $15.5 billion in June, or a 7.4 percent annualized drop, and the most since a 16.3 percent decline in June 1975.

The latest cut left total consumer credit at $2.47 trillion.

The magnitude of the drop surprised analysts. Some thought the Cash for Clunkers program -- which began in July and aided auto sales and car loans -- would have blunted cutbacks in other lending areas.

The Fed's measure of consumer borrowing does not include debt secured by real estate, such as mortgages or home equity loans.

Even though the unemployment rate dipped in July, it jumped in August to a 26-year high of 9.7 percent. Already, the recession has snatched 6.9 million jobs and unemployment is expected to top 10 percent this year as employers keep cutting.

That will make it harder for Americans to keep up with payments on credit cards and other kinds of loans, analysts said.

"As great as the clunkers program has been, it's tough to head out and buy a big ticket item when you don't have a job," said Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus Research. "Don't expect consumer credit to increase any time soon; the job situation is dismal, at best."

FAKE TERROR - THE ROAD TO WAR AND DICTATORSHIP

t's the oldest trick in the book, dating back to Roman times; creating the enemies you need.

In 70 BC, an ambitious minor politician and extremely wealthy man, Marcus Licinius Crassus, wanted to rule Rome. Just to give you an idea of what sort of man Crassus really was, he is credited with invention of the fire brigade. But in Crassus' version, his fire-fighting slaves would race to the scene of a burning building whereupon Crassus would offer to buy it on the spot for a tiny fraction of it's worth. If the owner sold, Crassus' slaves would put out the fire. If the owner refused to sell, Crassus allowed the building to burn to the ground. By means of this device, Crassus eventually came to be the largest single private land holder in Rome, and used some of his wealth to help back Julius Caesar against Cicero.

In 70 BC Rome was still a Republic, which placed very strict limits on what Rulers could do, and more importantly NOT do. But Crassus had no intentions of enduring such limits to his personal power, and contrived a plan. Crassus seized upon the slave revolt led by Spartacus in order to strike terror into the hearts of Rome, whose garrison Spartacus had already defeated in battle. But Spartacus had no intention of marching on Rome itself, a move he knew to be suicidal. Spartacus and his band wanted nothing to do with the Roman empire and had planned from the start merely to loot enough money from their former owners in the Italian countryside to hire a mercenary fleet in which to sail to freedom.

Sailing away was the last thing Crassus wanted Spartacus to do. He needed a convenient enemy with which to terrorize Rome itself for his personal political gain. So Crassus bribed the mercenary fleet to sail without Spartacus, then positioned two Roman legions in such a way that Spartacus had no choice but to march on Rome. Terrified of the impending arrival of the much-feared army of gladiators, Rome declared Crassus Praetor. Crassus then crushed Spartacus' army and even though Pompey took the credit, Crassus was elected Consul of Rome the following year.

With this maneuver, the Romans surrendered their Republican form of government. Soon would follow the first Triumvirate, consisting of Crassus, Pompeii, and Julius Caesar, followed by the reign of the god-like Emperors of Rome. The Romans were hoaxed into surrendering their Republic, and accepting the rule of Emperors.

Julius Caesar's political opponent, Cicero, for all his literary accomplishments, played the same games in his campaign against Julius Caesar, claiming that Rome was falling victim to an internal "vast right wing" conspiracy in which any expressed desire for legislative limits on government was treated as suspicious behavior. Cicero, in order to demonstrate to the Romans just how unsafe Rome has become hired thugs to cause as much disturbance as possible, and campaigned on a promise to end the internal strife if elected and granted extraordinary powers.

What Cicero only dreamed of, Adolph Hitler succeeded in doing. Elected Chancellor of Germany, Hitler, like Crassus, had no intention of living with the strict limits to his power imposed by German law. Unlike Cicero, Hitler's thugs were easy to recognize; they all wore the same brown shirts. But their actions were no different than those of their Roman predecessors. They staged beatings, set fires, caused as much trouble as they could, while Hitler made speeches promising that he could end the crime wave of subversives and terrorism if he was granted extraordinary powers. Then the Reichstag burned down; a staged terrorist attack. The Germans were hoaxed into surrendering their Republic, and accepting the total rule of Der Fuehrer. Hitler had German troops dressed in Polish uniforms attack the radio station at Gleiwitz, then lied to the Germans, telling them Poland had invaded, and marched Germany off into World War Two

The state-sponsored schools will never tell you this, but governments routinely rely on hoaxes to sell their agendas to an otherwise reluctant public. The Romans accepted the Emperors and the Germans accepted Hitler not because they wanted to, but because the carefully crafted illusions of threat appeared to leave no other choice. Our government too uses hoaxes to create the illusion that We The People have no choice but the direction the government wishes us to go in.

In 1898, Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal were arguing for American intervention in Cuba. Hearst is reported to have dispatched a photographer to Cuba to photograph the coming war with Spain. When the photographer asked just what war that might be, Hearst is reported to have replied, "You take the photographs, and I will provide the war". Hearst was true to his word, as his newspaper published stories of great atrocities being committed against the Cuban people, most of which turned out to be complete fabrications. On the night of February 15, 1898, the USS Maine, lying in Havana harbor in a show of US resolve to protect her interests, exploded violently. Captain Sigsbee, the commander of the Maine, urged that no assumptions of enemy attack be made until there was a full investigation of the cause of the explosion. For this, Captain Sigsbee was excoriated in the press for "refusing to see the obvious". The Atlantic Monthly declared flat out that to suppose the explosion to be anything other than a deliberate act by Spain was "completely at defiance of the laws of probability". Under the slogan "Remember the Maine", Americans went to war with Spain, eventually winning the Philippines (and annexing Hawaii along the way). In 1975, an investigation led by Admiral Hyman Rickover examined the data recovered from a 1911 examination of the wreck and concluded that there had been no evidence of an external explosion. The most likely cause of the sinking was a coal dust explosion in a coal bunker imprudently located next to the ship's magazines. Captain Sigsbee's caution had been well founded.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt needed a war. He needed the fever of a major war to mask the symptoms of a still deathly ill economy struggling back from the Great Depression (and mutating towards Socialism at the same time). Roosevelt wanted a war with Germany to stop Hitler, but despite several provocations in the Atlantic, the American people, still struggling with that troublesome economy, were opposed to any wars. Roosevelt violated neutrality with lend lease, and even ordered the sinking of several German ships in the Atlantic, but Hitler refused to be provoked. Roosevelt needed an enemy, and if America would not willingly attack that enemy, then one would have to be maneuvered into attacking America, much as Marcus Licinius Crassus has maneuvered Spartacus into attacking Rome.

The way open to war was created when Japan signed the tripartite agreement with Italy and Germany, with all parties pledging mutual defense to each other. Whereas Hitler would never declare war on the United States no matter the provocation, the means to force Japan to do so were readily at hand. The first step was to place oil and steel embargoes on Japan, using Japan's wars on the Asian mainland as a reason. This forced Japan to consider seizing the oil and mineral rich regions in Indonesia. With the European powers militarily exhausted by the war in Europe, the United States was the only power in the Pacific able to stop Japan from invading the Dutch East Indies, and by moving the Pacific fleet from San Diego to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Roosevelt made a pre-emptive strike on that fleet the mandatory first step in any Japanese plan to extend it's empire into the "southern resource area". Roosevelt boxed in Japan just as completely as Crassus had boxed in Spartacus. Japan needed oil. They had to invade Indonesia to get it, and to do that they first had to remove the threat of the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. There never really was any other course open to them.

To enrage the American people as much as possible, Roosevelt needed the first overt attack by Japan to be as bloody as possible, appearing as a sneak attack much as the Japanese had done to the Russians. From that moment up until the attack on Pearl Harbor itself, Roosevelt and his associates made sure that the commanders in Hawaii, General Short and Admiral Kimmel, were kept in the dark as much as possible about the location of the Japanese fleet and it's intentions, then later scapegoated for the attack. (Congress recently exonerated both Short and Kimmel, posthumously restoring them to their former ranks).

But as the Army board had concluded at the time, and subsequent de-classified documents confirmed, Washington DC knew the attack was coming, knew exactly where the Japanese fleet was, and knew where it was headed. On November 29th, Secretary of State Hull showed United Press reporter Joe Leib a message with the time and place of the attack, and the New York Times in it's special 12/8/41 Pearl Harbor edition, on page 13, reported that the time and place of the attack had been known in advance! The much repeated claim that the Japanese fleet maintained radio silence on it's way to Hawaii was a lie. Among other intercepts still held in the Archives of the NSA is the UNCODED message sent by the Japanese tanker Shirya stating, "proceeding to a position 30.00 N, 154.20 E. Expect to arrive at that point on 3 December." (near HI)

President Lyndon Johnson wanted a war in Vietnam. He wanted it to help his friends who owned defense companies to do a little business. He needed it to get the Pentagon and CIA to quit trying to invade Cuba. And most of all, he needed a provocation to convince the American people that there was really "no other choice". On August 5, 1964, newspapers across America reported "renewed attacks" against American destroyers operating in Vietnamese waters, specifically the Gulf of Tonkin. The official story was that North Vietnamese torpedo boats launched an "unprovoked attack" on the USS Maddox while it was on "routine patrol". The truth is that USS Maddox was involved in aggressive intelligence gathering in coordination with actual attacks by South Vietnam and the Laotian Air Force against targets in North Vietnam. The truth is also that there was no attack by torpedo boats against the USS Maddox. Captain John J. Herrick, the task force commander in the Gulf, cabled Washington DC that the report was the result of an "over-eager" sonar man who had picked up the sounds of his own ship's screws and panicked. But even with this knowledge that the report was false, Lyndon Johnson went on national TV that night to announce the commencement of air strikes against North Vietnam, "retaliation" for an attack that had never occurred.

President George H. W. Bush wanted a war in Iraq. Like Crassus, George Bush is motivated by money. Specifically oil money. But with the OPEC alliance failing to keep limits on oil production in the Mideast, the market was being glutted with oil pumped from underneath Iraq, which sat over roughly 1/3 of the oil reserves of the entire region.

George wanted a war to stop that flow of oil, to keep prices (and profits) from falling any further than they already had. But like Roosevelt, he needed the "other side" to make the first move. Iraq had long been trying to acquire greater access to the Persian Gulf, and felt limited confined a narrow strip of land along Kuwait's northern border, which placed Iraqi interests in close proximity with hostile Iran. George Bush, who had been covertly arming Iraq during its war with Iran, sent word via April Glaspie that the United States would not intervene if Saddam Hussein grabbed a larger part of Kuwait. Saddam fell for the bait and invaded. Of course, Americans were not about to send their sons and daughters to risk their lives for petroleum products. So George Bush arranged a hoax, using a public relations firm which has grown rich on taxpayer money by being most industrious and creative liars! The PR firm concocted a monumental fraud in which the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States, went on TV pretending to be a nurse, and related a horror story in which Iraqi troops looted the incubators from a Kuwaiti hospital, leaving the premature babies on the cold floor to die. The media, part of the swindle from the start, never bothered asking why the "nurse" didn't just pick the babies up and wrap them in blankets or something. Enraged by the incubator story, Americans supported operation Desert Storm, which never removed Saddam Hussein from power but which did take Kuwait's oil off of the market for almost 2 years and limited Iraq's oil exports to this very day. That our sons and daughters came home with serious and lingering medical illnesses was apparently not too great a price to pay for increased oil profits.

Following the victory in Iraq, yet another war appeared to be in the offering in the mineral rich regions of Bosnia. Yet again, a hoax was used to create support for military action. The photo (right) of Fikret Alic staring through a barbed wire fence, was used to "prove" the existence of modern day "Concentration Camps". As the headline of "Belsen 92" indicates, all possible associations with the Nazi horrors were made to sell the necessity of sending yet more American troops into someone else's nation.

But when German Journalists went to Trnopolje, the site of the supposed Concentration Camp. to film a documentary, they discovered that the photo was a fake! The camp at Trnopolje was not a concentration camp but a refugee center. Nor was it surrounded by barbed wire. Careful examination of the original photo revealed that the photographer had shot the photo through a broken section of fence surrounding a tool shed. It was the photographer who was on the inside, shooting out at the refugees. Once again, Americans had been hoaxed into support of actions they might otherwise not have agreed with.

While several American Presidents have willingly started wars for personal purposes, perhaps no President has ever carried it to the extreme that Bill Clinton has. Coincident with the expected public statement of Monica Lewinsky following her testimony, Bill Clinton ordered a cruise missile attack on Sudan and Afghanistan, claiming to have had irrefutable proof that bogeyman extraordinaire (and former Afghani ally) Osama Bin Ladin was creating terrorist chemical weapons there.

Examination of the photos of the debris revealed none of the expected structures one would find in a laboratory that handled lethal weapons-grade materials. Assurances from the CIA that they had a positive soil test for biological weapons fell on their face when it was revealed that there had been no open soil anywhere near the pre-bombed facility. Sudan requested that international observers come test the remains of the factory for any signs of the nerve gas Clinton had insisted was there. None was found. The Sudanese plant was a harmless aspirin factory, and the owner has sued for damages.

Later examination of the site hit in Afghanistan revealed it to be a mosque.

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Meanwhile, back in Kosovo, stories about genocide and atrocities were flooding the media (in time to distract from the Sudanese embarrassments), just as lurid and sensational and as it turns out often just as fictional as most of William Randolph Hearst's stories of atrocities against the Cubans. Again, the government and the media were hoaxing Americans. The above photo was shown on all the American networks, claiming to be one of Slobodan Milosovic's Migs, shot down while attacking civilians. Closer examination (click on the photo) shows it to be stenciled in English! Like Germany under Chancellor Hitler, there have been events in our nation which strike fear into the hearts of the citizens, such as the New York World Trade Tower bombing, the OK City Federal Building, and the Olympic Park bomb (nicely timed to divert the media from witnesses to the TWA 800 shoot down). The media has been very quick to blame such events on "radicals", "subversives", "vast right wing conspiracies", and other "enemies in our midst", no different than the lies used by Cicero and Hitler. But on closer examination, such "domestic terrorist" events do not appear to be what they are made out to be. The FBI had an informant inside the World Trade Tower bombers, Emad Salam, who offered to sabotage the bomb. The FBI told him "no". The so-called "hot bed" of white separatism at Elohim City, occasional home to Tim McVeigh in the weeks prior to the OK City bombing, was founded and is being run by an FBI informant!

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And nobody has ever really explained what this second Ryder truck was doing in a secret camp half way from Elohim City to Oklahoma City two weeks before the bombing.

So, here we are today. Like the Romans of Crassus' and Cicero's time, or the Germans under a newly elected Hitler, we are being warned that a dangerous enemy threatens us, implacable, invisible, omnipresent, and invulnerable as long as our government is hamstrung by that silly old Bill of Rights. Already there have appeared articles debating whether or not "extraordinary measures" (i.e. torture) are not fully justified under certain circumstances such as those we are purported to face.

As was the case in Rome and Germany, the government continues to plead with the public for an expansion of its power and authority, to "deal with the crisis".

However, as Casio watch timers are paraded before the cameras, to the stentorian tones of the talking heads' constant dire warnings, it is legitimate to question just how real the crises is, and how much is the result of political machinations by our own leaders.

Are the terrorists really a threat, or just hired actors with bombs and Casio watches, paid for by Cicero and given brown shirts to wear by Hitler?

Is terrorism inside the United States really from outside, or is it a stage managed production, designed to cause Americans to believe they have no choice but to surrender the Republic and accept the totalitarian rule of a new emperor, or a new Fuhrer?

Indeed, given that acts of terror undermine the very public support needed by the so-called "terrorists" to bring about change, it may be argued that there are in fact no genuine acts of terror; that they are all manufactured events to be blamed on the groups wiching to challenge the status quo.

Once lost, the Romans never got their Republic back. Once lost, the Germans never got their Republic back. In both cases, the nation had to totally collapse before freedom was restored to the people.

Remember that when Crassus tells you that Spartacus approaches.

Remember that when thugs in the streets act in a manner clearly designed to provoke the public fear.

Remember that when the Reichstag burns down.

Remember that when the President lies to you about weapons of mass destruction.

by Michael Rivero