Friday, 17 December 2010 11:13 'The cause of the major political story of last week – the row over tuition fees, students rioting and all – was, as we all know, “public spending cuts”. But how much money does the Government actually hope to save on tuition fees? If the immediate problem is our massive state deficit, it seems odd that the Government should risk such unpopularity, not for any immediate saving, but in the hope that it will get the money back over the next 30 years, as students can afford to repay it. In the short term, the Government’s own projection as to how much it will save is that the funding of university tuition will be cut by £2.9 billion by 2014. As it happens, £2.9 billion is the sum ring-fenced, by the same public spending review, to be given to developing countries to help them fight global warming with windmills and solar panels. It is also slightly less than the £3 billion by which our public debt is rising every week. These much-vaunted “cuts” are not all we are led to believe.' Read more: Student Fee 'Savings' Will Fund Windmills in Africa Friday, 17 December 2010 10:47 'Cuban-born journalist and author Alex Abella was allowed exclusive access inside the RAND Corporation to view their archives. What he discovered was a plot driven by mad scientists, behaviorists, and generals who were intent on starting world war three and fleecing the American people in the process. Once he was a skeptic on the subject of conspiracy theories and the new world order, but after his work with the RAND Corporation he is now convinced that this top secret think tank has been pulling the strings of American government for at least 60 years.' Read more: Insider Reveals Diabolical Secrets Of The Rand Corporation Friday, 17 December 2010 10:41 'You’ve heard of no fly and no buy lists – get ready for no work lists. Millions of workers now must apply to the DHS and prove they are not terrorists in order to be granted permission by the government to work.' Friday, 17 December 2010 09:57 'Kissinger did many favours for the heirs of Stalin and Mao: telling president Gerald Ford not to invite Alexander Solzhenitsyn to the White House, for example, and making lavish excuses for the massacre in Tienanmen Square. He is that rare and foul beast, a man whose record shows sympathy for communism and fascism. Christopher Hitchens, Dec. 12. 2010 Friday, 17 December 2010 09:36 Friday, 17 December 2010 09:21 'If you’re reading this and under 30, let me be absolutely clear about one indubitable point: your government is going to sacrifice your future in order to pay for its own mistakes from the past. To give you an example, students in London came out to the streets in droves last Friday to protest the British parliament’s most recent austerity measures which tripled the cap on their university tuition to $15,000. Sure, Britain is imposing all sorts of austerity measures on its citizens… and while I won’t get into a discussion about the absurdity of government controlled education, I will point out that students are having their benefits cut far more drastically than any other segment of the population.'
It comes from a natural hatred of the democratic process, which he has done so much to subvert and undermine at home and abroad, and an instinctive affection for totalitarians of all stripes ... Let this character at last be treated like the reeking piece of ordure that he is.'
Read more: Henry Kissinger was a 'Soviet' Agent
Friday, 17 December 2010 08:42
'Bank of America will pay $137.3 million to settle allegations that it defrauded schools, hospitals and dozens of other state and local government organizations, federal officials said Tuesday. The settlement stems from a long-running investigation into misconduct in the municipal bond business that raises money for localities to pay for public services.
Bank of America is accused of depriving local organizations of millions of dollars by engaging in illegal behavior when investing the proceeds of municipal bond sales.'
Read more: Bank of America to Pay $137 Million in State Fraud Cases
Friday, 17 December 2010 08:17
'The continued emergence of drug-resistant "superbugs" has created an urgent need for either better antibiotics or an entirely new approach to dealing with infectious diseases. But drug companies hardly seem concerned about investigating any solutions to the problem because they can make more money by devoting their time to creating other, more lucrative drugs, says the head of a prominent medical agency.
Thomas Lonngren, soon-retiring chief of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), recently announced that his organization may need to step up and act as "watchdog" for the pharmaceutical industry to prod it to better meet public health needs. According to Lonngren, there is little incentive for drug companies to work towards creating better antibiotics at this time because the sales of such drugs will only be a fraction of what other potential "blockbuster" drugs will likely be.'
Read more: EU Regulator Slams Drug Companies for Putting Profit Before Public Health
Friday, 17 December 2010 08:11
'A substantial portion of the more than 1600 State Department documents Wikileaks has published during the past two weeks refer to the ongoing efforts of US diplomacy to isolate and counter the Venezuelan government.
Since Hugo Chavez won the presidency for the first time in 1998, Washington has engaged in numerous efforts to overthrow him, including a failed coup d'etat in April 2002, an oil industry strike that same year, worldwide media campaigns and varios electoral interventions. The State Department has also used its funding agencies, USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), to channel millions of dollars annually to anti-Chavez NGOs, political parties, journalists and media organizations in Venezuela, who have been working to undermine the Chavez administration and force him from power.
When these interventionist policies have been denounced by the Chavez government and others, Washington has repeatedly denied any efforts to isolate or act against the Venezuelan head of state. Nonetheless, the State Department cables published by Wikileaks clearly evidence that not only has Washington been actively funding anti-Chavez groups in Venezuela, but it also has engaged in serious efforts during the past few years to convince governments worldwide to assume an adversarial position against President Hugo Chavez.'
Read more: Documents Confirm US Plans to Destabilize Venezuela
Friday, 17 December 2010 08:07
Friday, 17 December 2010 07:11
'Leaders of the 27 European Union countries, who held their record seventh summit so far this year in the Belgium capital Brussels on Thursday, approved a two-sentence amendment to the EU treaty at Germany's request to pave the way for creation of a European Stability Mechanism (ESM) in an effort to tackle financial crises effective June 2013, Reuters reported, quoting European Council President Van Rompuy.
The ESM, which replaces a temporary European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) crafted in May, will require changes to EU's Lisbon Treaty, and has stipulated a string of strict measures for granting loans to debt-laden member states, with private sector bondholders sharing the cost of any write-downs.
However, the leaders brushed aside growing concerns that the existing rescue fund needs an increase in order to financially buttress countries such as Spain and Portugal if they plunge into a Greece-style economic bankruptcy.'
Thursday, 16 December 2010 11:53
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