Monday, 15 November 2010 10:09 'Things are happening day by day," Dermot Ahern, told RTE television when asked whether he would promise that Dublin would not apply for financial assistance. EU sources confirmed yesterday that talks between the two sides about a rescue package had continued through the weekend. However Mr Ahern denied the existence of any discussions. "There are no negotiations going on. If there were, the government would be aware of it, and we are not aware of it," he said. adding that he had spoken to Prime Minister Brian Cowen on Sunday and to Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.' Read more: Ireland Leaves Door Open to EU Bail-Out Monday, 15 November 2010 08:53 'There was a bank run in Ireland on Wednesday. LCH Clearnet, a London based clearinghouse, surprised the markets by announcing it would increase margin requirements on Irish debt by 15 percent. That's all it took to send investors fleeing for the exits. Yields on Irish bonds spiked sharply as banks tried to close positions or raise the capital needed to meet the new requirements. The Irish 10-year bond soared to 8.9 percent by day's end, more than 6 percentage points higher than "risk free" German sovereign debt. The ECB will have to intervene. Ireland is on its way to default. This is what a 21st century bank run looks like. Terms suddenly change in the repo market, where banks get their funding, and the whole system begins to teeter.' Monday, 15 November 2010 10:01 'The story of Rigoberta Menchú, a Quiché Mayan from Guatemala whose autobiography catapulted her to international fame, won her the Nobel Peace Prize and made her an international emblem of the dispossessed indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere and their attempt to rebel against the oppression of European conquerors, has now been exposed as a political fabrication, a tissue of lies. It is one of the greatest hoaxes of the 20th century. Equally remarkable, and also indicative of the cultural power of the perpetrators of this hoax, is the fact that the revelation of Menchú's mendacity has changed nothing. The Nobel committee has already refused to take back her prize, the thousands of college courses that make her book a required text for American students will continue to do so and the editorial writers of the major press institutions have already defended her falsehoods on the same grounds that supporters of Tawana Brawley's parallel hoax made famous: Even if she's lying, she's telling the truth.' Monday, 15 November 2010 09:57 'They are letting their second homes and so will not be caught by new rules introduced in the wake of the expenses scandal. In some cases MPs are moving into rented properties while letting out the flats the taxpayer has already funded. The "property merry go-round" is thought to be costing the Exchequer millions of pounds a year as MPs move into properties within miles of houses that they own and have already been largely funded by the state. The disclosure is expected to lead to calls for greater transparency in the expenses system to allow the public to see for which property their MP is claiming expenses.' Read more: MPs Pocket Rents From Homes Paid For by Taxpayer Monday, 15 November 2010 09:34 'Nothing more poignantly reflects the collapse of the great global warming scare than the decision of the Chicago Carbon Exchange, the largest in the world, to stop trading in "carbon" – buying and selling the right of businesses to continue emitting CO2. A few years back, when the climate scare was still at its height, and it seemed the world might agree the Copenhagen Treaty and the US Congress might pass a "cap and trade" bill, it was claimed that the Chicago Exchange would be at the centre of a global market worth $10 trillion a year, and that "carbon" would be among the most valuable commodities on earth, worth more per ton than most metals. Today, after the collapse of Copenhagen and the cap and trade bill, the carbon price, at five cents a ton, is as low as it can get without being worthless. Here in Britain, as the first snows fall, heralding what may be our fourth cold winter in a row, it is time we addressed one of the most glaring political "disconnects" in our sadly misgoverned country.' Read more: The Climate Change Scare is Dying, But do our MPs Notice? Monday, 15 November 2010 09:31 'The European president Herman van Rompuy offers a tempting target for jokers. But his call for for the imposition of a common economic policy, backed up with surveillance and punishments, has a decidedly sinister ring.' Read more: Herman van Rompuy: The Man Who Wants to Control Your Money Monday, 15 November 2010 09:26 'Educated Americans with private insurance plans are becoming increasingly less prone to vaccinate their children, according to this year's annual State of Health Care Quality report released by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). The report states that there was a four percentage point drop in vaccination rates among middle- and upper-class families between 2008 and 2009. "This was the first time we'd seen a drop -- and it was a pretty big drop," Sarah Thomas, vice president of public policy and communication at NCQA, is quoted as saying to HealthDay. "We didn't really explore the reasons [for the trend], but one leading hypothesis is that parents have decided not to get their children vaccinated because of concerns about the potential for side effects and even autism".' Read more: Educated Families Increasingly Refusing Vaccinations Monday, 15 November 2010 09:18 'As the bipolar Cold War system ended, a transitory phase of globalization was initiated in order to pave the way for global governance. The color revolutions of the 21st century were a highly sophisticated method of transforming nation states into such a world system. Mongolia experienced the draft form of color revolution in its "Red Rose Revolution" in the 1990's. The sparsely populated country was easier to manipulate due to its corrupt politics and post-Communist identity crisis. As with many buffer states, Mongolia regarded it as beneficial economically, geo-strategically and security-wise to cooperate with larger powers such as the U.S.' Read more: Mongolia's 'Color Revolution' & Banker Colonization Monday, 15 November 2010 09:14 'Among the banks helping General Motors with its initial public stock offering next week are two identified by initials only: ICBC and CICC. Americans uncomfortable with U.S. government ownership of General Motors may want to hear more: One of those banks is the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, one of China's four big central government banks. The other, China International Capital Corp., is a joint venture run primarily by Central Huijin Investment Ltd., an arm of the state, and Morgan Stanley. This is the first time Chinese government banks have participated in a major U.S.-issued IPO, according to IPO tracking firm Dealogic. The banks are listed as co-managers in the offering, meaning they will sell a portion of the new shares.' Read more: US Government Sells Taxpayers Share of General Motors to China Monday, 15 November 2010 09:07 'Ten years of rule by the Bush and Obama regimes have seen the collapse of the rule of law in the United States. Is the American media covering this ominous and extraordinary story? No the American media is preoccupied with the rule of law in Burma (Myanmar). The military regime that rules Burma just released from house arrest the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. The American media used the occasion of her release to get on Burma’s case for the absence of the rule of law. I’m all for the brave lady, but if truth be known, “freedom and democracy” America needs her far worse than does Burma.' Read more: American Hypocrisy: Destruction of the Constitution, Collapse of the Rule of Law Monday, 15 November 2010 09:03 “The strategic significance of the region between Yemen and Somalia becomes the point of geopolitical interest. It is the site of Bab el-Mandab, one of what the US Government lists as seven strategic world oil shipping chokepoints. The US Government Energy Information Agency states that "closure of the Bab el-Mandab could keep tankers from the Persian Gulf from reaching the Suez Canal/Sumed pipeline complex, diverting them around the southern tip of Africa. The Strait of Bab el-Mandab is a chokepoint between the horn of Africa and the Middle East, and a strategic link between the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean….” “An excuse for a US or NATO militarization of the waters around Bab el-Mandab would give Washington another major link in its pursuit of control of the seven most critical oil chokepoints around the world, a major part of any future US strategy aimed at denying oil flows to China, the EU or any region or country that opposes US policy. Given that significant flows of Saudi oil pass through Bab el-Mandab, a US military control there would serve to deter the Saudi Kingdom from becoming serious about transacting future oil sales with China or others no longer in dollars, as was recently reported by UK Independent journalist Robert Fisk.' Read more: Al-Qaeda, Yemen, the New 'Axis of Terror' and the 'Great Game' Monday, 15 November 2010 08:31 'The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) created a safe haven in the United States for Nazi war criminals following the Second World War, a new report says. The New York Times says it has obtained a 600-page report, kept secret by the US Justice Department, which describes how dozens of Nazi war criminals were held in the US. Read more: US Gave Nazis Criminals 'Safe Haven' Sunday, 14 November 2010 11:43 'Millions of homeowners living near the sea or rivers face being hit with a new "flood tax" under controversial coalition plans to plug a £260m shortfall in spending on flood defences. The controversial proposal comes as the residents of Cumbria prepare to mark the anniversary of the floods which devastated the Lake District last year. The Independent on Sunday has learned water minister Richard Benyon believes the cost of protecting homes and businesses from the elements should be "shared" between the government and those who benefit from defences directly. From April 2012, the government wants to see a new structure in place which combines public and private funding.' Sunday, 14 November 2010 11:34 'It is scant solace, but parents whose children have been taken from them by social services on what they consider insufficient grounds now know that they are not the only ones. Over the year since I first described the plight of Emma and Martin, and looked into Essex's child protection and adoption procedures, scarcely a day has gone by without a distraught parent bringing another case to my attention. These parents cannot understand why seemingly minor or passing problems have become magnified or distorted by social services. Time and again, rather than investigate and observe - or support and rehabilitate - the chosen solution has been to take a child, and often then that child's siblings, into care. A major factor seems to be the Government's target, set in 2000, for a 40 per cent increase in adoptions. The motive was to take children off the care register but, like many well-meant initiatives, it has had undesirable consequences. The target has encouraged social services departments to achieve Beacon status by arranging the adoption of easy-to-adopt children - young, healthy and white - rather than strive to find permanent homes for older children, or those from ethnic minorities, or those with disabilities.' Read more: How Social Services Can Seize our Children Sunday, 14 November 2010 11:27 'Chief constables have asked ministers to change the law to give officers “a power to randomly check any driver”. The request from the Association of Chief Police Officers has emerged as ministers draw up new rules on driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Some police forces already use checkpoints to stop and check drivers, but police chiefs want to be able to go much further.' Read more: Drivers to Face Random Drink and Drug Tests Under New Police Powers Sunday, 14 November 2010 09:12 'A day before Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats party (CDU) meeting, nearly 100,000 Germans marched across the country in Stuttgart, Dortmund, Nuremberg and Erfurt. "We don't want a republic in which powerful interest groups decide the guidelines of politics with their money, their power and their influence," Berthold Huber, head of Germany's largest trade union IG Metall, told a crowd of protesters in Stuttgart. The rallies were organized by the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB), which is demanding higher wages for workers and a mandatory minimum wage.' Read more: Mass Anti-Government Rallies Held in Germany
According to the Times, some of them were employed for post-war intelligence purposes, including Otto Von Bolschwing, an SS officer who had previously planned to leave no trace of the Jewish community in the German Reich.
Some of the Nazis criminals “were indeed knowingly granted entry” to the United States, even though government officials were aware of their pasts.'
Monday, 15 November 2010
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