Monday, 01 November 2010 11:40 Monday, 01 November 2010 11:33 'Britons have been robbed of the chance to vote on a power grab by Brussels despite promises of a referendum. In the wake of the Lisbon Treaty fiasco, David Cameron vowed Britain would never again give away powers to Brussels without first holding a referendum. In a spectacular U-turn, however, Mr Cameron has now backed plans to sneak changes into the Lisbon Treaty without triggering referendums across Europe. It is a significant victory for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was last night dining with the Camerons at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country retreat in Buckinghamshire.' Read more: Cameron U-Turn Denies Britain Referendum on EU Monday, 01 November 2010 11:23 'In Greece, the bankster loan sharking operation popularly known as the International Monetary Fund has proposed creating special courts and tribunals to prosecute tax evaders. Greek’s finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, a socialist Bilderberg member and a graduate of the London School of Economics, has “suggested the effective management of whistle-blowing” to protect people who rat out tax scofflaws. “The idea of tax courts concerns either the setting up of special tribunals that would deal with tax cases without having to go through normal courts or the appointment of an adequate number of specialized judges to the existing structure of administrative courts who would deal exclusively with tax cases,” reports Kathimerini, a supplement to the International Herald Tribune in Greece.' Read more: IMF Tax Tribunals Coming to America Soon? Washington Post political correspondent David Broder has kind words for President Barack Obama in in his opinion columnSunday, arguing that it isn't the president's fault the economy is stuck in reverse. But the four-decade-plus veteran of Washington politics offers a startling solution to the president's political and economic woes: March off to war with Iran. The president, who is "much smarter" and "more inspirational" than any of his opponents, could benefit from a confrontation with Iran because it would strike up a war machine that would pull the US out of economic stagnation, Broder argues. He writes that there are "essentially" two ways that an economy can be grown: Through the natural economic cycle, and through war. Look back at FDR and the Great Depression. What finally resolved that economic crisis? World War II. Here is where Obama is likely to prevail. With strong Republican support in Congress for challenging Iran's ambition to become a nuclear power, he can spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating a showdown with the mullahs. This will help him politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve. "I am not suggesting, of course, that the president incite a war to get reelected," Broder qualifies. "But the nation will rally around Obama because Iran is the greatest threat to the world in the young century." Broder's column has come in for almost instant criticism from economic and political policy experts. In a blog entry entitled "Has David Broder Lost His Mind?," Foreign Policy managing editor Blake Hounshell writes that Broder's proposal is "crazy for a number of reasons." One is that markets don't like tensions, and certainly not the kind that jack up oil prices. Second, World War II brought the United States out of the Great Depression because it was a massive economic stimulus program that mobilized entire sectors of society. Today's American military has all the tools it needs to fight Iran, and there isn't going to be any sort of buildup. Hasn't Broder been reading his own newspaper? The Pentagon is looking to find billions in cuts as it confronts the coming world of budget austerity. Writing at the same magazine, Marc Lynch argues that Broder's column is "an interesting study in how really dumb ideas bounce around Washington DC," and asserts that the Obama administration finds such an idea "ridiculous." [I]t's not an idea which seems to have any support at all in the Obama White House. ... [T]he Obama team can see perfectly clearly that the American people have no appetite for a third major war in the Middle East and that launching a war with massive strategic consequences for short-term political gain would be epically irresponsible. ... Even if they were primarily interested in their electoral fortunes in designing Iran policy, they would quickly see that such [a strategy] would wipe out their support on the left and gain absolutely zero votes on the right. Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research argues that Broder's idea for government-driven stimulus isn't wrong, but it doesn't need to be military in nature. "If spending on war can provide jobs and lift the economy then so can spending on roads, weatherizing homes, or educating our kids. Yes, that's right, all the forms of stimulus spending that Broder derided so much because they add to the deficit will increase GDP and generate jobs just like the war that Broder is advocating (which will also add to the deficit)," Baker writes. But the harshest criticism comes from Matt Duss at ThinkProgress. "Especially in light of what has just occurred in Iraq, what kind of moral degenerate seriously suggests we get ready to do it again in neighboring Iran, just as a way to spur job growth?" he asks. "The kind who writes a regular column in the Washington Post, apparently." Read Broder's full column here. Monday, 01 November 2010 09:11 'The French are not just protesting to stop the retirement age from being raised. They are also fighting to save their country from government sleaze and the dismantling of democracy.' Monday, 01 November 2010 08:51 'This propaganda alert claims the environmental movement has been wrong for decades in opposing GMO foods and nuclear power. It's a clear indication that the real environmental movement has been hijacked by the crowd that promotes CO2 as more dangerous than depleted uranium, or genetically-mutated pesticide-ready crops. It's convenient for the establishment to force the world's population to choose between the lesser of their two evils, both of which thoroughly enrich them and continue to poison the planet.' Read more: Leading Environmental Campaigners Flip-flop to Support Nuclear Power and GM Foods Monday, 01 November 2010 08:38 'The first blast on the morning of July 7th – at 11 minutes to 9* – ripped apart the second coach of a Circle line train, shortly before it entered Aldgate station. Was it done by a suicide bomber, or by explosives placed under the train? We are at last in a position to evaluate this question, thanks to the detailed map of the coach provided at the Inquest. Inevitably, the material discussed here is rather macabre. However, we can now ask the questions: Who died? Who was injured? What were the nature of the injuries? You, reader must be the judge, as to the frightful evidence placed before you.' Read more: Nick Kollerstrom: The Aldgate Blast Monday, 01 November 2010 08:19 'A campaign is growing within the medical establishment, calling for the screening of all children for high cholesterol so that more of them can be put on cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. Currently, U.S. medical guidelines recommend cholesterol screening for children whose parents or grandparents suffered from heart disease or very high cholesterol. The purpose of these tests is to detect a relatively rare genetic condition, affecting 0.2 percent of children, that leads to high cholesterol.' Read more: Huge Push is Now on to Screen Kids for High Cholesterol and Put Them on Cholesterol Drugs Monday, 01 November 2010 08:05 'Russia should be allowed to enter a strategic alliance with Nato, according to a new report. The report, by the International Institute of Security Studies (IISS) and the Russian Institute of Contemporary Studies, envisages the creation of a “common security community from Vancouver to Vladivostok”. It claims Cold War mistrust should be replaced with a focus on common ground, suggesting the new alliance could tackle questions such as Nato force withdrawal from Afghanistan, distrust over Iran, global arms supply and the reduction of weapon of mass destruction. The proposals, which will be published tomorrow, come just a few weeks before a Nato summit in Lisbon, to be attended by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.'A superb article by Christopher Booker. Anyone who thinks they live in a free country should read this and see the scale of tyranny in their daily midst.
This system and the soulless ones who support it and benefit from it at the expense of innocent children and parents are evil beyond the imagination. That includes you, Billy boy, on the Isle of Wight. Sold any horses lately?
Read here...
WashPost: War with Iran would rescue economy
Monday, 1 November 2010
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