Obama Declares H1N1 Flu 'National Emergency'

Fox
President Obama signed a proclamation declaring the H1N1 influenza a national emergency, giving doctors and medical facilities greater leeway in responding to the flu pandemic.

Obama signed the declaration late Friday, which the White House said allows medical treatment facilities to better handle a surge in flu patients by waiving federal requirements on a case-by-case basis.

"The foundation of our national approach to the H1N1 flu has been preparedness at all levels -- personal, business, and government -- and this proclamation helps that effort by advancing our overall response capability," the White House said in a statement.

In the proclamation, Obama said the pandemic keeps evolving, the rates of illness are rising rapidly in many areas and there's a potential "to overburden health care resources."

Because of vaccine production delays, the government has backed off initial, optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million doses would be available by mid-October. As of Wednesday, only 11 million doses had been shipped to health departments, doctor's offices and other providers, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The government now hopes to have about 50 million doses of vaccine for the so-called swine flu out by mid-November and 150 million in December.

The flu virus has to be grown in chicken eggs, and the yield hasn't been as high as was initially hoped, officials explained.

H1N1 is more widespread now than it's ever been. Health authorities say almost 100 children have died from the flu, and 46 states now have widespread flu activity.

Worldwide, more than 5,000 people have reportedly died from swine flu since it emerged this year and developed into a global epidemic, the World Health Organization said Friday. Since most countries have stopped counting individual swine flu cases, the figure is considered an underestimate.

The flu has infected millions of Americans and killed nearly 100 children in the U.S. The chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that over a thousand people have died as a result, with 46 states reporting widespread H1N1 activity.

"Since the beginning of the pandemic, we've seen more than 1,000 deaths and 20,000 hospitalizations," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of the CDC. "We expect it to occur in waves, but we can't predict when those waves will happen."

Schiff: No one in their right mind would buy U.S. Treasuries

Peter Schiff - Red Alert -- Get out of US Dollar

Michelle Obama's Hillary Moment

MICHELLE OBAMA SAT IN DADDY'S LAP WHEN SHE WAS 20 YEARS OLD?
Turns out Carl Lewis first competed in the Olympics in 1984 when Michelle Obama was already 20 years old. So either she was lying or she had a very strange relationship with her father.

I Smell a Bank Holiday Coming

When FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Biar puts a video on the FDIC website to sooth the public about the safety of deposit insurance and the sound state of the FDIC, you know something big is up. Especially since the FDIC is BROKE. A few days ago Bair testified before the Senate Banking Committee that the bank fund will be in the red until 2012.

Major Networks Threatened Boycott of White House in Support of Fox

Obama has resorted to paranoid Stalinist tactics which simply cannot be tolerated. What's next, dissident concentration camps?

Minneapolis Conservative Examiner

Officials invited the White House press pool to 5 minute interviews with Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg to discuss Feinberg's announcement to cut executive pay at at least 7 companies.

The press pool is made up of the 5 major news organizations including CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX. FOX has been a member of the White House press pool since 1997.



Officials invited the entire press corps to the round robin interview process with the express exception of FOX News. The Washington Bureau Chiefs of all of the 5 major networks consulted. The group agreed that if FOX were not allowed to participate, that they would boycott the interview with Feinberg in protest.

The White House eventually relented and granted 2 minute interviews for each network including FOX.

This comes on the heels of several Obama administration officials making the rounds on the weekend talk shows on the other 4 major networks and claiming that FOX News is more like "talk radio" and "not really a news organization" like ABC or CNN.

http://www.examiner.com/x-2927-Minne...corps-protests

Fraud in home buyers' tax program includes IRS employees and 4-year-olds

I can't wait to see the myriad of scams erupt in healthcare reform. It's all downhill from here. All that remains of this country is waste water -- a giant cesspool of corruption.

By Dina ElBoghdady
Washington Post Staff Writer

Hundreds of millions of dollars may have been paid to people who fraudulently or mistakenly took advantage of a lucrative tax credit for first-time home buyers, including some who were employees of the Internal Revenue Service and even children, an IRS watchdog told a House panel on Thursday.

The findings, documented in a report by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, come as debate heats up in Congress over whether to extend the $8,000 tax credit beyond its Nov. 30 deadline.

While the report alarmed lawmakers, supporters of the tax credit on Capitol Hill pressed forward with efforts to keep the refund alive. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) is working on a proposal to extend the full $8,000 credit for four months and then gradually phase it out by the end of next year, according to his office.

Meanwhile, experts who are closely tracking the existing program say it's unlikely that the report released Thursday will undermine efforts to extend the credit given the bipartisan support it has received, especially from lawmakers representing states heavily hit by foreclosures. These lawmakers say the tax credit has helped boost home sales.

"There are simply too many Democrats and Republicans that want to see this program extended for it to get derailed by the inspector general's report," said Jaret Seiberg, a policy analyst at Washington Research Group.

4-year-olds claimed credit

The report found that more than 19,300 people claimed a total of $139 million on their 2008 tax returns before purchasing a home even though the law requires the purchase to take place first, J. Russell George, the inspector general, told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.

Nearly 74,000 buyers -- including some IRS employees -- claimed a total of $500 million in tax credits despite indications that they may have owned a home before, George said. The law bans people from getting this credit if they have owned a home in the previous three years.

Even children claimed the tax credit, said George, adding that 580 taxpayers under age 18 -- including some 4-year-olds -- claimed $4 million, presumably so their parents could dodge the income limitations imposed by the program.

George went on to criticize the IRS for not requiring buyers to attach documents that verify when they purchased their homes, something his office has been advocating. The IRS's deputy commissioner for services and enforcement, Linda E. Stiff, said the agency does not have the ability to accept such documents electronically, nor does it have the legal authority to disallow a claim if the documents are not attached, which would make such a requirement moot. Lawmakers indicated they would look into granting that authority.

Both Stiff and George said that there's a chance that some of the suspicious tax credit claims may prove to be legitimate once they are more thoroughly examined.

About 1.4 million households have claimed nearly $10 billion in tax credits as of Aug. 22, and about 60 percent of them had adjusted gross income of less than $50,000, according to a Government Accountability Office report also released Thursday.

Stiff said all those claims have been resubmitted through a computer filter designed to catch potential problems. As a result, the IRS has identified more than 160 potential tax credit schemes that have resulted in scores of criminal investigations, and the agency has selected for reexamination 107,000 claims, some of which have been frozen. More...

Gerald Celente on The Corbett report

A great interview of Gerald Celente by James Corbett of the Corbett report.

The Dollar Is Finished

Economic historian Niall Ferguson warns that China's love affair with the dollar is fading faster than anyone realizes.

TechTicker: "The idea they don't have anywhere else to go or would shoot themselves in the foot if there were a steep decline in the dollar or appreciation of their currency
reassures many people in Washington ‘we can relax'," he says. "An appreciation of the renminbi may reduce value of their international reserves but increases the value of every other asset the Chinese own," most notably the commodity assets they have been buying all over the world.

China's "current strategy is to diversify out of dollars and into commodities," Ferguson says. Furthermore, China's recent pact with Brazil to conduct trade in their local currencies is a "sign of the times."

Perhaps most importantly, China's massive stimulus program is helping to generate internal consumption in the People's Republic, meaning local manufacturers are less dependent on exports. Because of the "rapid growth" of Chinese domestic consumption, Ferguson predicts China's international trade surplus could be gone by next year.

You Don't Want the FCC to Regulate the Internet

Image via Wikipedia

Corynne McSherry

Is Net Neutrality a FCC Trojan Horse?

On Thursday, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to unveil draft rules aimed at imposing network neutrality obligations on Internet Service Providers (ISPs). In the excitement surrounding the announcement, however, many have overlooked the fact that the this rulemaking is built on a shoddy and dangerous foundation – the idea that the FCC has unlimited authority to regulate the Internet.

Genachowski has announced that the draft regulations will require ISPs to abide by the "Four Freedoms" set forth in the FCC's 2005 Internet Policy Statement, as well as the additional principles of nondiscrimination and transparency. EFF strongly believes in these six principles. Our work speaks for itself: we are developing software tools to Test Your ISP in the wake of uncovering Comcast’s meddling with BitTorrent traffic, seeking a DMCA exemption to let you run applications of your choice on your mobile phone, and fighting Hollywood’s efforts to force DRM restrictions into your television.

But Congress has never given the FCC any authority to regulate the Internet for the purpose of ensuring net neutrality. In place of explicit congressional authority, we expect the FCC will rely on its "ancillary jurisdiction," a position that amounts to “we can regulate the Internet however we like without waiting for Congress to act.” (See, e.g., the FCC's brief to a court earlier this year). That’s a power grab that would leave the Internet subject to the regulatory whims of the FCC long after Chairman Genachowski leaves his post.

Hence the danger. If “ancillary jurisdiction” is enough for net neutrality regulations (something we might like) today, it could just as easily be invoked tomorrow for any other Internet regulation that the FCC dreams up (including things we won’t like). For example, it doesn't take much imagination to envision a future FCC "Internet Decency Statement." After all, outgoing FCC Chairman Martin was a crusader against "indecency" on the airwaves and it was the FCC that punished Pacifica radio for playing George Carlin’s “seven dirty words” monologue, something you can easily find on the Internet. And it's also too easy to imagine an FCC "Internet Lawful Use Policy," created at the behest of the same entertainment lobby that has long been pressing the FCC to impose DRM on TV and radio, with ISPs required or encouraged to filter or otherwise monitor their users to ensure compliance. After all, it was only thanks to a jurisdictional challenge -- ironically, by many of the same groups currently celebrating Genachowski's rulemaking announcement -- that we defeated the FCC's "broadcast flag" mandate which would have given Hollywood and federal bureaucrats veto power over innovative devices and legitimate uses of recorded TV programming.

EFF's concerns are born from more than just a general skepticism about government regulation of the Internet. Experience shows that the FCC is particularly vulnerable to regulatory capture and has a history of ignoring grassroots public opinion (see, e.g., media consolidation). That makes the agency a poor choice for restraining the likes of Comcast and AT&T.

Fortunately, there are two opportunities to reign in the FCC’s expansive views of its own “ancillary jurisdiction.” A federal court is considering this important question as part of Comcast's challenge to the FCC's order last year regarding interference with BitTorrent traffic (PFF filed a strong amicus brief in the case, arguing against the FCC's power grab). Or Congress could limit the FCC's power by authorizing to regulate only to ensure network neutrality.

So while we look forward to evaluating Chairman Genachowski’s proposed net neutrality regulations, the first step must be a clear rejection of any suggestion that those regulations can be based on “ancillary jurisdiction.” Otherwise, "net neutrality" might very well come to be remembered as the Trojan Horse that allowed the FCC take over the Internet.

U.S. Empire in Decline; on Collision Course with China

Image via Wikipedia

Aaron Task
The U.S. is an empire in decline, according to Niall Ferguson, Harvard professor and author of The Ascent of Money.

"People have predicted the end of America in the past and been wrong," Ferguson concedes. "But let's face it: If you're trying to borrow $9 trillion to save your financial system...and already half your public debt held by foreigners, it's not really the conduct of rising empires, is it?"

Given its massive deficits and overseas military adventures, America today is similar to the Spanish Empire in the 17th century and Britain's in the 20th, he says. "Excessive debt is usually a predictor of subsequent trouble."

Putting a finer point on it, Ferguson says America today is comparable to Britain circa 1900: a dominant empire underestimating the rise of a new power. In Britain's case back then it was Germany; in America's case today, it's China.

"When China's economy is equal in size to that of the U.S., which could come as early as 2027...it means China becomes not only a major economic competitor - it's that already, it then becomes a diplomatic competitor and a military competitor," the history professor declares.

The most obvious sign of this is China's major naval construction program, featuring next generation submarines and up to three aircraft carriers, Ferguson says. "There's no other way of interpreting this than as a challenge to the hegemony of the U.S. in the Asia-Pacific region."

As to analysts like Stratfor's George Friedman, who downplay China's naval ambitions, Ferguson notes British experts - including Winston Churchill - were similarly complacent about Germany at the dawn of the 20th century.

"I'm not predicting World War III but we have to recognize...China is becoming more assertive, a rival not a partner," he says, adding that China's navy doesn't have to be as large as America's to pose a problem. "They don't have to have an equally large navy, just big enough to pose a strategic threat [and] cause trouble" for the U.S. Navy.

The New Debtors Prisons

Image by Melody Kramer via Flickr

Charles Hugh Smith
Local government is desperate for new funding but doesn't dare tap the wealthy. So they're busily criminalizing poverty and filling new Debtor's prisons.

Correspondent Jeff Ray sent in this story Milking the Poor: One Family's Fall Into Homelessness (The Atlantic) which is representative of the trend in local government to criminalize poverty for its own enrichment.

Here's the deal. Local government has grown fat in a decade of gargantuan capital gains and real rising real estate taxes. Employees pulling down over $100,000 each are legion, as are public retirees pulling down over $100,000 a year in pension payments. Local government has added 15% more employees even as population grew by a meager 3%. (The numbers may vary in your area but the percentages won't.)

Now the seven fat years are over and local government is not liking the seven lean years. Now that housing has plummeted, so have the tax rolls; capital gains have dried up and even sales tax revenues are crashing. Despite the usual bleatings of hope, the chances of tax revenues recovering are slightly lower than the proverbial snowball's chance of remaining frozen in Heck.

Foreclosures: 'Worst three months of all time' Despite signs of broader economic recovery, number of foreclosure filings hit a record high in the third quarter - a sign the plague is still spreading.

Meanwhile, a perfect storm is gutting public pension funds. More Pain for State's Taxpayers, Cities: CALPERS losses $50B. In order for the State amd local governments of California to meet their future pension obligations (paid by CALPERS, the massive public pension fund), they need to kick in hundreds of millions of dollars more in coming years, even as their revenues are falling.

The conclusion that the medical and pension benefits which were promised in the fat years are no longer payable is anathema to public unions and managerial staff alike, and so the machinery of local government has geared up to stripmine the citizens like a giant trawler stripmines the sea: parking tickets have been jacked up to $60 or more, traffic violations are in the hundreds of dollars, speed traps abound, and as noted in the top story, fees for "crimes" like driving without auto insurance now cost more than the insurance itself.

And gosh forbid if you don't pay on time--the penalties double the original fine and then go up from there.

Is there anything more pernicious, malicious and immoral that this criminalization of poverty to engorge the coffers of local government? If John Q. Citizen defaults on his credit card, he might have to endure harrassing phone calls from bill collectors. But worst case, he can unplug his phone or cancel that number and get another phone number. Fortunately, the bank cannot have him imprisoned (yet).

But local government isn't quite as kind and gentle as the bankers. Mess with their revenues (i.e. don't pay the hefty fines they levy) and they'll haul your carcass into court and then into jail (can't make bail? Too bad. You're a full-blown criminal now.)

Exactly what is the difference between racking up $1,000 in fines off an innocuous violation and being imprisoned for lack of payment and a 19th century-era Debtors prison?

Isn't this part of the reason why the Parisian mobs tore down the Bastille?

Does this make any sense at all, arresting people who can't pay their nonsensically stupendous fines and penalties just so government employees don't have to take a cut in pay and benefits? When did a ticket go from $50 to $300 and up? And why? Does anyone think the cost leaped up "for the public good"?

Is getting nailed for a ticket you can't pay really a deterrent to being too poor to keep your auto insurance current?

Let's follow this all the way to the end. Now that John Q. Citizen is in jail because he was nabbed driving without insurance and a big fat fine is outstanding, aren't the taxpayers throwing away $50,000 to $100,000 a year to process his tortured journey through the Kafkaesque court and jail system with those other "dangerous criminals"?

Hey, the war-on-drugs/prison/gulag pays very well, thank you, and filling cells with Mr. Citizen is just grist for the mill.

Now when Mr. Citizen is released (darn it, we can't get blood from a turnip!), his car has been impounded and he owes the towing yard $1,000 which he doesn't have. So he no longer has a car to get to work, or even drive to an interview.

OK, so maybe he was irresponsible in not setting aside enough money for the car insurance. Is that now a criminal offense? Is this the best use of police officers, judges, jails and the "justice" system? Is anyone being deterred by the ruthless criminalization of poverty? Please make the case for that, local politicos and bureaucrats.

Great work, local government. You've not only stolen the citizen's last few dollars, you've also deprived him of his employment opportunities and livelihood.

Here's a thought: you need more tax revenue? Then make the case to the citizens at the ballot box to pay more. Prove you're not squandering the tax money you're already getting by the boatload. Show us how you're going to spend our money as carefully as we do.

If you really want to stripmine somebody's cash assets, why not start with your local Wal-Mart? I can guarantee you they won't leave town when you enact a new ordinance taxing all retail establishments of 50,000 square feet or more.

Or impose a tax on all homes worth more than triple the median price in your zip code. You want to nail somebody with higher taxes? Then go after the top 5% who still have assets. Don't trawl the streets for the folks who can least afford your rapacious imposition of authority.

Bankers aren't the only rapacious greedheads in this nation. Look no farther than city hall, the county building and the State capitol. Just hope it isn't you who runs low on cash and gets nailed with that $395 ticket which soon morphs into $695 and an arrest warrant.

You can't blame local government avarice on Washington or the bankers. All this greed is homegrown, local and entirely unnecessary. As it stands now, 10% or maybe even 20% of the citizenry will soon have outstanding arrest warrants for what amounts to local government Debtors Prison.

Come November 2010, we can only pray that the citizenry "takes care of business" at the ballot box, and all the incumbent politicos who approved this evil criminalization of poverty get tossed out en masse, regardless of party affiliation.

Largest US Financial Companies Lose FDIC Debt Guarantees

American Banking News
Some of the nation’s largest financial companies, including Citigroup (NYSE: C), GE Capital (NYSE: GE), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and others will no longer have certain debt guaranteed by the federal government through the FDIC’s Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program as of October 31st.

The FDIC voted on Tuesday to end the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program that is being used to guarantee certain debt issued by some of the nation’s largest banks, but also setup a 6-month safety net facility as part of the process. All five members of the FDIC’s panel of regulators voted to end the program as scheduled on October 31st.

New debt can be issued and guaranteed under the program up until the deadline. The deadline on the newly placed debt would expire no later than December 31st, 2012.

FDIC Chairman, Sheila Bair, stated, “It should be clear that this is not a continuation of the program but an ending of the program.”

The program does leave open a 6-month safety-net feature for banks suffering from “market disruptions” beyond their control. Under the transitional facility, banks can have new debt guaranteed through April 30th, 2010 if the FDIC approves the guarantee.

During the month of September, the FDIC requested public comment about two different approaches to ending the program. One of the programs would let the program finish by the end of the month and the other would include a 6-month guarantee facility for some banks on a case-by-case basis.

The FDIC established the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program last October in order to boost confidence in the banking industry, add more liquidity, and reduce the possibility of bank runs. The TLGP program places a government guarantee on some senior unsecured debt and mandatory convertible debt, as well as on banks’ transaction deposit accounts.

Regulators are hoping to phase out the program now that stress on the credit market has eased. FDIC officials are also want to avoid promoting reliance on government aid by the financial industry. As of October 14th, 2009, the FDIC had $309.4 billion in outstanding debt-guarantees.

Oath Keepers Ready to Revolt

ALAN MAIMON
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Launched in March by Las Vegan Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers bills itself as a nonpartisan group of current and retired law enforcement and military personnel who vow to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution.

More specifically, the group's members, which number in the thousands, pledge to disobey orders they deem unlawful, including directives to disarm the American people and to blockade American cities. By refusing the latter order, the Oath Keepers hope to prevent cities from becoming "giant concentration camps," a scenario the 44-year-old Rhodes says he can envision happening in the coming years.

It's a Cold War-era nightmare vision with a major twist: The occupying forces in this imagined future are American, not Soviet.

"The whole point of Oath Keepers is to stop a dictatorship from ever happening here," Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper and Yale-trained lawyer, said in an interview with the Review-Journal. "My focus is on the guys with the guns, because they can't do it without them.

"We say if the American people decide it's time for a revolution, we'll fight with you."

That type of rhetoric has caught the attention of groups that track extremist activity in the United States.

In a July report titled "Return of the Militias," the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center singled out Oath Keepers as "a particularly worrisome example of the Patriot revival."

The Patriot movement, so named because its adherents believe the federal government has stepped on the constitutional ideals of the American Revolution, gained traction in the 1990s and has been closely linked to anti-government militia and white supremacist movements. More...

Average life span of greatest civilizations is 200 years

Image by Argenberg via Flickr

Paul B. Farrell
MarketWatch
Like Diamond, Faber also sees the historical imperative: "Every successful society" grows "out of some kind of challenge." Today, the "life cycle" of capitalism is on the decline.

He asks himself: "How are you so sure about this final collapse?" The answer: "Of all the questions I have about the future, this is the easiest one to answer. Once a society becomes successful it becomes arrogant, righteous, overconfident, corrupt, and decadent ... overspends ... costly wars ... wealth inequity and social tensions increase; and society enters a secular decline." Success makes us our own worst enemy.

Quoting 18th century Scottish historian Alexander Fraser Tytler: "The average life span of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years" progressing from "bondage to spiritual faith ... to great courage ... to liberty ... to abundance ... to selfishness ... to complacency ... to apathy ... to dependence and ... back into bondage!"

Where is America in the cycle? "It is most unlikely that Western societies, and especially the U.S., will be an exception to this typical 'society cycle.' ... The U.S. is somewhere between the phase where it moves 'from complacency to apathy' and 'from apathy to dependence.'"

In short, America is a grumpy old man with hardening of the arteries. Our capitalism is near the tipping point, unprepared for a catastrophe, set up for collapse and rapid decline.

15 more clues capitalism lost its soul ... is a disaster waiting to happen

Much more evidence litters the battlefield:

1. Wall Street wealth now calls the shots in Congress, the White House

2. America's top 1% own more than 90% of America's wealth

3. The average worker's income has declined in three decades while CEO compensation exploded over ten times

4. The Fed is now the 'fourth branch of government' operating autonomously, secretly printing money at will

5. Since Goldman and Morgan became bank holding companies, all banks are back gambling with taxpayer bailout money plus retail customer deposits

6. Bill Gross warns of a "new normal" with slow growth, low earnings and stock prices

7. While the White House's chief economist retorts with hype of a recovery unimpeded by the "new normal"

8. Wall Street's high-frequency junkies make billions trading zombie stocks like AIG, FNMA, FMAC that have no fundamental value beyond a Treasury guarantee

9. 401(k)s have lost 26.7% of their value in the past decade

10. Oil and energy costs will skyrocket

11. Foreign nations and sovereign funds have started dumping dollars, signaling the end of the dollar as the world's reserve currency

12. In two years federal debt exploded from $11.2 to $23.7 trillion

13. New financial reforms will do little to prevent the next meltdown

14. The "forever war" between Western and Islamic fundamentalists will widen

15. As will environmental threats and unfunded entitlements

"America Capitalism" is a "Lost Soul" ... we've lost our moral compass ... the coming collapse is the end of an "inevitable" historical cycle stalking all great empires to their graves. Downsize your lifestyle expectations, trust no one, not even media.

Faber is uncertain about timing, we are not. There is a high probability of a crisis and collapse by 2012. The "Great Depression 2" is dead ahead. Unfortunately, there's absolutely nothing you can do to hide from this unfolding reality or prevent the rush of the historical imperative.

"Yes, There’s Racism in the Pentagon"

Hersh/Image via Wikipedia

Neil Offen
DURHAM — The U.S. military is not just fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, America’s most renowned investigative journalist says.

The army is also “in a war against the White House — and they feel they have [President] Obama boxed in,” Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh told several hundred people in Duke University’s Page Auditorium on Tuesday night. “They think he’s weak and the wrong color. Yes, there’s racism in the Pentagon. We may not like to think that, but it’s true and we all know it.”

In a speech on Obama’s foreign policy, Hersh, who uncovered the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War and torture at Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraqi war, said many military leaders want Obama to fail.

“A lot of people in the Pentagon would like to see him get into trouble,” he said. By leaking information that the commanding officer in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, says the war would be lost without an additional 40,000 American troops, top brass have put Obama in a no-win situation, Hersh contended.

“If he gives them the extra troops they’re asking for, he loses politically,” Hersh said. “And if he doesn’t give them the troops, he also loses politically.”

The journalist criticized the president for “letting the military do that,” and suggested the only way out was for Obama to stand up to them.

“He’s either going to let the Pentagon run him or he has to run the Pentagon,” Hersh said. If he doesn’t, “this stuff is going to be the ruin of his presidency.”

Hersh called the “Af-Pak” situation — the spreading conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan — Obama’s main challenge.

The war in Afghanistan has destabilized Pakistan, which has 80 to 100 nuclear weapons, said Hersh, who recently returned from a visit to South Asia. “And the nuclear situation [in Pakistan] is more dire than you could know. It sucks.”

The only way for the U.S. to extricate itself from the conflict, Hersh said, is to negotiate with the Taliban.

“It’s the only way out,” he said. “I know that there’s a lot of discussion in the White House about this now. But Obama is going to have to take charge, and there’s no evidence he’s going to do that.”

While critical of the president on Afghanistan, Hersh, who travels to the Middle East three or four times a year, did praise his foreign policy initiatives toward Iran.

“When it comes to Iran, he’s changed the paradigm,” he said. “[President] Bush always said we’ll negotiate with those duty Iranians about their nuclear enrichment plans when they stop enriching nuclear material. Obama understands there is some room there to maneuver. That’s a huge change.”

He also praised Obama for also changing the paradigm with his decision to shelve plans for a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. Doing that, he said, would help U.S. relations with Russia.

“It’s about time we realize we have a lot in common with the Russians, like worrying about China and global terrorism,” Hersh said.

The missiles, he added, were just a continuation of the Cold War, and “it’s about time for us to capture some of the benefit we were supposed to get from ending the Cold War.”

German Chancellor and cabinet members to get adjuvant free H1N1 vaccine

Image via Wikipedia

The Local
Just a week after it emerged that the German armed forces was getting a different kind of A/H1N1 vaccine to the general population, Der Spiegel magazine reports that the government will also get special treatment.

The general population will be offered the GlaxoSmithKline vaccine, called Pandemrix, which contains a new booster element, or adjuvant, as well as a preservative containing mercury.

Controversy has grown around the rapid licensing of the GSK vaccine – and a similar one being made by Novartis. Critics said not enough testing had been conducted before European licensing authorities rushed an approval.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, her cabinet members and ministry civil servants as well as those working for other agencies will get Celvapan, produced by US firm Baxter, which does not have the adjuvant or the preservative, according to Der Spiegel.

It is thought the adjuvant may lead to a stronger reaction in the patient – which to a certain degree is the point, meaning the vaccine can contain less of the virus yet still provoke the crucial immune system reaction.

But this is also what some say is the additional risk – and has led to stocks of the traditional kind of vaccine being bought in for pregnant women and young children.

Celvapan does not contain the adjuvant or the preservative. Rather, it contains entire dead viruses rather than the pieces which are in the traditional vaccine. The Baxter version is the one being given to the armed forces, as well as being made available for pregnant women and children.

It seems now that ministers and civil servants are to be included in that category.

“We have bought 200,000 doses of the non-adjuvanted vaccine Celvapan from the company Baxter,” Christoph Hübner, spokesman for the Interior Ministry confirmed to Der Spiegel.

It will be used for "state servants responsible for the maintenance of public order," the magazine reported. Next to members of the cabinet and civil servants, this includes staff of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, which took the decision to order the new vaccine from GSK for the rest of the country. No explicit reason was offered as to why they should get the Baxter vaccine rather than the GSK version.

Chairman of the German Medical Association’s Drug Commission Wolf-Dieter Ludwig said the situation was a scandal. “We are unhappy about this vaccination campaign,” he said. The point of it was unknown, he suggested. “The health authorities have succumbed to a campaign by the pharma companies, which simply want to earn money from a supposed threat.”

Meanwhile some medical associations are advising their members not to administer the new vaccine. President of the German Association of General and Family Medicine, Michael Kochen, has called on German general doctors not to give it to patients. “The risks outweigh the benefits,” he said.

Wolfram Hartmann, president of the Association of Paediatricians, accused the government of making false scientific statements. He said children under the age of three should not be given the shots.

“The vaccine has not been tested on them, thus the risk is simply too great for it to be used,” he said, adding that children’s immune systems tend to overreact, which could be exacerbated by the adjuvants. He also criticised the use of mercury-containing preservatives. “One has deliberately kept this stuff out of vaccines for small children,” he said.

USA in a DEPRESSION Says Biden

US VP Biden has officially declared the US economy is in a depression.

Thousands Losing Unemployment Benefits Daily

by Adam Doster on October 16, 2009 - 10:27am

According to an analysis from the National Employment Law Project, 400,000 workers exhausted their federally-funded jobless benefits in September and another 200,000 will do so by the end of this month, resulting in an average of 7,000 workers a day seeing their benefits end. By year’s end, 1.3 million workers will exhaust their jobless benefits, reflecting today’s record rates of long-term unemployment.

America's Unrestrained Schutzstaffel

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SS stands for Schutzstaffel, which translated literally means Protective Squad.

“The zeal which begins with hypocrisy must conclude in treachery; at first it deceives, at last it betrays” -- Francis Bacon

Nat Hentoff
In the last weeks of the Bush-Cheney administration, FBI Director Robert Mueller and then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey rushed into law such unbounded expansions of the FBI's domestic surveillance powers that I was stunned. Years ago, I had often and critically reported on J. Edgar Hoover's ravenous invasions of Americans' personal privacy rights, including mine; but these new FBI guidelines, taking effect last Dec. 1, are unsparingly un-American.

As described by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an ever-watchful guardian of the Constitution, these Attorney General's Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations authorize the FBI — without going to a court — "to open investigative 'assessments' of any American without any factual predicate or suspicion. Such 'assessments' allow the use of intrusive techniques to surreptitiously collect information on people suspected of no wrongdoing and no connection with any foreign entity. These inquiries may include the collection of information from online sources and commercial databases."

The press has largely been uninterested in this suspension of the Bill of Rights — but we know a lot about David Letterman.

President Barack Obama has expressed no objections to these radical revisions of the Constitution, a founding document he used to educate students about at the University of Chicago. His attorney general, Eric Holder, said calmly during his Senate confirmation hearing: "The guidelines are necessary because the FBI is changing its mission ... from a pure investigating agency to one that deals with national security."

It was the same Eric Holder who said, while George W. Bush was president: "I never thought that I would see the day when a president would act in direct defiance of federal law by authorizing warrantless NSA (National Security Agency) surveillance of American citizens."

But then-Sen., and now President, Obama approves of the all-seeing NSA — in keeping with his lack of interest in reforming the perilous health of our founding values as they are being systematically infected by the FBI.

It was only on Sept. 29 that we citizen civilians were able to actually, though partially, look inside the 258-page "FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guidelines (DIOG)." For months, the Electronic Frontier Foundation had been trying, through the Freedom of Information Act, to find out if we'll have any privacy left. At last, the lurking report came heavily censored.

According to the Associated Press (Oct. 1), Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney David Sobel is "more concerned with what the FBI removed from its guidelines for public consumption than what it disclosed." He added that this heavily "edited version blacked out descriptions of how the FBI pursues investigative 'assessments' of Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing — and how it uses informants in political, civil and religious organizations …"

I ask again: Is this America?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is going back to court to get the Obama administration to remember why we — and they — are Americans …

On "Inside the FBI" (www.fbi.gov/inside/archive/inside011609.htm) on Jan. 16, the FBI's leading attorney, General Counsel Valerie Caproni, talks about surveilling college students interning at technology businesses for links to terrorists. "Are they a bunch of English majors and music majors? If so, they're probably not stealing high technology. On the other hand, if they're engineering or computer science people, then you might be more interested in them."

It's "enough to open an investigation," she continued. For example, "if someone comes in (to the FBI) and says 'Charlie seems to be acting really hinky, and he's staying in labs after hours and I saw him taking papers home.'"

This "hinky" student, Charlie, could be a grind, obsessively trying to get to the top of his class. But according to the FBI's Caproni, why not see what his contacts are? What sites does he visit a lot on the Web?

Broke Families Can't Afford to Bury Their Dead

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USA TODAY reports Cemeteries are having trouble expanding because of the high cost of real estate and a drop in revenues as strapped families increasingly turn to cheaper cremations.

Communities struggling with budget deficits have also had to curtail spending on public cemeteries, which means many people may find that their hometown cemeteries are full. Cemeteries are not only seeing a drop in money coming from municipalities. Customers are scaling back as well.

Gary Brown, who oversees six cemeteries for the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, said they've seen a 17% decrease in prepaid plots over the past two years. That leaves the diocese with a lot less money for expansion. "People are at this time reluctant to take their extra funds and spend it on items that are not necessary," Brown said.

Cemeteries also haven't been able to rely on investments to bail them out. David Heisterkamp, president of the Pennsylvania Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association, said most cemeteries invest part of their income into perpetual care funds for the maintenance of graves. The return on those investments is used to pay for daily operations.

Heisterkamp said those investments have been clobbered by the recession, forcing cemeteries to cut back on maintenance and lay off workers.

CIA Black Ops In Iran Escalates

Iran Vows Revenge On US And UK After Attack
Ashish Joshi, Gulf correspondent

Iran has warned it will take revenge against the US and Britain, accusing them of being involved in a suicide bombing that killed several Revolutionary Guard commanders.

General Noor Ali Shooshtari was among the Revolutionary Guard victims

Six senior commanders and dozens of civilians died in the attack.

The headquarters of the armed forces blamed the bombing on "terrorists" backed by "the Great Satan America and its ally Britain", the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

"Not in the distant future we (Iran) will take revenge."

Earlier, Iranian state television said Sunni rebels carried out the bombing.

It said the militant group Jundallah (Soldiers of God) had claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in Iran in recent years.

State media cited sources as saying "Britain was directly involved" - a common tactic used to divert attention away from the country’s internal problems.

Attack was near border with Pakistan

The UK Foreign Office said it rejected "in the strongest terms" any assertion of British involvement.

"The British Government condemns the terrorist attack in the Province of Sistan and Baluchistan in Iran and the sad loss of life which it caused," it added in a statement.

The US also condemned the bombing and denied it had anything to do with it.

"We condemn this act of terrorism and mourn the loss of innocent lives. Reports of alleged US involvement are completely false," US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.

The allegations of foreign involvement are likely to raise tension between Tehran and the West, a day before nuclear talks in Vienna.

The military commanders were inside a car on their way to a meeting with tribal leaders when an attacker with explosives strapped to his body blew himself up.

The victims include General Noor Ali Shooshtari, the deputy commander of the Guard's ground force, and Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh, the Guard's chief provincial commander, the IRNA news agency said.

Up to 30 other people, including civilians and tribal leaders, are reported to have been killed and more than 20 wounded.

The attack took place in the south-eastern Pishin region near Iran's border with Pakistan.

Iran's parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, condemned the assassination, saying the bombing was aimed at disrupting security in the region.

"We express our condolences for their martyrdom," he said.

"The intention of the terrorists was definitely to disrupt security in Sistan-Baluchistan Province."

Revolutionary Guard soldiers

Over the past few years Jundallah has waged a low-level insurgency and has been at the centre of several violent attacks.

In May, the group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a Shi'ite mosque that killed 25 people in Zahedan.

Thirteen members of the group were convicted for the attack and hanged in July.

Jundallah accuses the mostly Shi'ite government of persecution.

This latest bombing comes at a time when Iran is still reeling from the fallout of its disputed June presidential elections.

A successful attack on such a high profile target marks a significant victory for the attackers.

The Revolutionary Guard was created after the 1979 Islamic Revolution as an ideological and impenetrable wall to defend Iran's clerical rule.

The 120,000-strong elite force controls Iran's missile program and has its own ground, naval and air units.

Today the unit has evolved into a socio-military force with political and economic influence.

It is now an inextricable part of Iran's power structure.

Seymour Hersh: US Training Jundullah and MEK for Bombing Preparation

According to an interview July 8, 2008, with Seymour Hersh, the US is training terrorist groups to cause chaos inside Iran, provoking an aggressive reaction from the Iranians, which will serve as a pretext for military action from the US.

Source: CASMII

Seymour Hersh: US Training Jondollah and MEK for Bombing preparation

In an interview with NPR on his latest New Yorker Article, titled ‘Preparing the battlefield’, the renowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reveals more striking details of his findings on the aim of the $400 million budgeted US covert operations inside Iran. He provides valuable information on US military preparations to strike the country, on the total expansion of the Bush Administration’s executive power, about the US recognition of Iran’s overall positive role in Iraq and on the US support for the anti-Iran terrorist organisations Jondollah, PJAK and MEK.

Hersh explains that the aim of the US covert operations inside Iran is to create a pretext for attack with the goal of regime change. “The strategic thinking behind this covert operation is to provoke enough trouble and chaos so that the Iranian government makes the mistake of taking aggressive action which will give the impression of a country in acute turmoil”, he said. “Then you have what the White House calls the ‘casus belli’, a reason to attack the country. That is the thinking and it is very crazy.”

On Iran’s role in Iraq, Hersh points out: “There is absolutely no clear evidence known to the American government that the Iranian leadership has any interest in provoking trouble with the United States in Iraq by sending in people to cause mayhem or kill Americans. There is just no evidence for it.” He continues further on: “Frankly, the guys I know in the inside– in the Special Forces, high up in DoD, high up in the intelligence community–if you push them hard enough, they tell you that Iran has been more of a force for stability in Iraq than negative”.

Hersh comments that the decision to launch these covert operations was prompted by the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate’s verdict that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons programme and that the approval by the US Congress leadership of the $400 million budget for the operations “is totally an expansion” of the executive powers of the Bush Administration.

He explains how the Bush Administration’s policy of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” has led the US to support the Baluchi organisation Jondollah and the MEK (Mujahideen-e-Khalq a.k.a PMOI), both of which have clear track records of terrorist activities including against the US. He reiterates that the US has been giving arms and cash to the terrorists in the MEK for years and reveals that “most of the [MEK] leaders have been taking our money and cashing it in an awful lot of bank accounts in London.” He also reveals for the first time that the US has trained MEK teams in the state of Nevada and that “they do a lot of crazy stuff inside Iran”.

Hersh warns that “we have been moving cruise missiles there for a few months now”, and that the US military is ready. “Our submarines are there, our destroyers are there with cruise missiles aboard, our aircrafts are there, our soldiers are there” to attack Iran within “10 to 12 hours” of the go-ahead order by President Bush, he says, stressing that troops have to go on the ground in Iran in order to destroy Iran’s defensive systems.

He finally points out that Bush “is going to be a very active president, I am afraid, until 11:59:59 seconds on January 20, 2009” and raises the alarm about an “October surprise”, a military attack on Iran, in particular if Obama continues to have a lead in the polls.

Listen to the whole interview here .

For more information or to contact CASMII please visit http://www.campaigniran.org

Decline in State Revenue "Unprecedented in Modern Times”

Bloomberg reports U.S. state tax collections tumbled the most in almost half a century in the second quarter as the economic recession curbed levies on incomes and sales.

The 16.6 percent plunge was the biggest since at least 1963, the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government said today. For the 12 months to June 30, the fiscal year for most states, revenue declined 8.2 percent, or $63 billion, about twice what states got from the $787 billion U.S. economic stimulus package, the institute said.

State revenue has dwindled for two straight quarters and continued to decline in July and August, the Albany-based research organization said. Budgets for the year that began July 1 already face $26 billion of deficits, the Washington, D.C.- based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said Aug. 12, forcing state lawmakers to confront additional spending cuts.

“We’re looking at a multiyear problem hitting essentially every state,” Robert Ward, the institute’s deputy director, told reporters. “It has happened during recessions before, but the depth of this decline is unprecedented in modern times.”

Collections dropped in 49 states in the second quarter as sales and personal-income taxes slid for the third consecutive period, the institute said. Income tax was down 27.5 percent and sales tax fell down 9.5 percent, its study said. Both categories fell by the most in 45 years.

“Many economists believe that the national recession has ended and that a tepid recovery is now underway,” Rockefeller analysts Lucy Dadayan and Donald J. Boyd wrote. “Unfortunately for states, an emerging economic recovery does not spell instant budget relief.”

‘Considerably More’

Figures for July and August for 36 early-reporting states showed tax collections down 8 percent, the Rockefeller Institute said. At least 17 states have announced budget shortfalls since July, with “considerably more” expected, Boyd said.

New York’s tax revenue from April 1 to Sept. 15 was $634.5 million below projections and $3.6 billion less than a year ago, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said yesterday. California reported last week that revenue trailed a forecast made less than three months earlier by $1.1 billion, or 5.3 percent.

States are anticipating more cuts to current-year budgets, already pared once to bring them into balance. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour told managers on Oct. 13 to cut spending 5 percent because tax collections in the first three months of fiscal 2010 were 7.7 percent below estimates. Florida Governor Charlie Crist told department heads on Oct. 12 not to request more money for next year, when the state faces a $2.6 billion deficit.

“It’s clear that when governors propose their budgets in January, the vast preponderance will be looking for more spending cuts and tax increases,” Boyd said.