Monday, August 27, 2007

COMING SUBWAY SERIES NOVEMBER 2008

Go to fullsize image Go to fullsize image
Mayor Giuliani (Hizzoner): The Brooklyn-er who cleaned up Times Square. He also bagged 'The Don' of Brooklyn, John Gotti, and straightened out The Mob. Finally accepted his receding hairline. Faced cancer, divorce, and did not succumb to either. Gave a command performance following September 11. Was Brooklyn District Attorney; Always a staunch advocate for law and order. The 'A' Train.

First Lady Rodham Clinton: aka The Out-of Towner: The Chicago lady (by way of Washington D.C., and Little Rock, Arkansas) who cleaned out the White House, and bagged Vince Foster. Currently Junior Senator from New York. Her hubby works in Harlem. The lady who refuses to get off the carousel. Booed off the stage in a September 11 memorial. Was an intern lawyer in the Watergate case. Metro North Commuter.

I MEAN, STAY THE COURSE!

MEXICO'S ROBBER-BARON CONCESSIONS

Editorial Observer

Mexico’s Plutocracy Thrives on Robber-Baron Concessions

Published: August 27, 2007

Growing up in Mexico City, I always knew Mexico was an unjust country — a place where small coteries of the privileged control all power and wealth while half the population lives in poverty. But it never occurred to me that Mexico would have billionaires.

It does. According to Forbes magazine, last year there were 10 Mexicans among the world’s 946 billionaires.

That might not seem out of line in a country with 100 million-plus people, which accounts for about 1.6 percent of the global economy. But here’s what takes the cake, especially if you’re Mexican like me. Earlier this month, Fortune reported that Carlos Slim Helú, a Mexican, had just surpassed Bill Gates to become the world’s richest man, with a fortune worth $59 billion.

To put it in perspective, Mr. Slim’s treasure is equivalent to slightly less than 7 percent of Mexico’s total production of goods and services — one out of every 14 dollars’ worth of stuff made by all the people in the country.

The income distribution in the United States may be fast approaching Mexican levels of inequality, but in relative terms, Mr. Gates isn’t even in Mr. Slim’s league. His $58 billion fortune is less than 0.5 percent of the nation’s G.D.P.

Indeed, by this measure, Mr. Slim is richer even than the robber barons of the gilded age. John D. Rockefeller, America’s richest man, was worth the equivalent of about 1.5 percent of the nation’s G.D.P.

It takes about nine of the captains of industry and finance of the 19th and early 20th centuries — Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John J. Astor, Andrew Carnegie, Alexander Stewart, Frederick Weyerhaeuser, Jay Gould and Marshall Field — to replicate the footprint that Mr. Slim has left on Mexico.

But the momentous scale is not the most galling aspect of Mr. Slim’s riches. There’s the issue of theft.

Like many a robber baron — or Russian oligarch, or Enron executive — Mr. Slim calls to mind the words of Honoré de Balzac: “Behind every great fortune there is a crime.” Mr. Slim’s sin, if not technically criminal, is like that of Rockefeller, the sin of the monopolist.

In 1990, the government of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari sold his friend Mr. Slim the Mexican national phone company, Telmex, along with a de facto commitment to maintain its monopoly for years. Then it awarded Telmex the only nationwide cellphone license.

When competitors were eventually allowed in, Telmex kept them at bay with some rather creative gambits, like getting a judge to issue an arrest warrant for the top lawyer of a competitor. Today, it still has a 90 percent share of Mexico’s landline phone service and controls almost three-quarters of the cellphone market.

Monopolies tend to generate a ton of money. Mr. Slim, a shrewd investor, deployed it well — buying up hundreds of Mexican companies and entering wireless markets across Latin America. It’s hard for a Mexican to spend a day without handing him some money.

But Mexico has paid, dearly. In 2005, there were fewer than 20 fixed telephone lines for every 100 Mexicans, and less than half had cellphones. Just 9 percent of households had Internet access. Mexicans pay way above average for all these services.

Mr. Slim’s style of wealth accumulation is not rare in modern Mexico. From television to tortillas, vast swaths of the Mexican economy are controlled by monopolies or oligopolies. Many of Mexico’s billionaires were created by the government during the privatization of state-owned companies in the 1990s.

That is what is most difficult to swallow for a Mexican. The United States government split up Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company. A court imposed a consent decree on Mr. Gates’s Microsoft to curtail its monopoly practices. In Mexico, Mr. Slim’s monopoly is understood to be the natural order of things. Ask former President Vicente Fox, who appointed a former Telmex executive as minister of communications in 2000.

The United States today is heading toward a Mexican-style social contract. The concentration of 44 percent of the nation’s income among the top 10 percent of taxpayers is on a par with Mexico’s disparities. It’s getting hard to find government officials in Washington without deep ties to corporate interests.

But perhaps the United States and its moguls can still provide a positive example for Mexico’s coddled titans. Mr. Gates is giving his fortune away to tackle diseases in Africa and help poor Americans graduate from high school. (He has given more than $30 billion to his foundation.)

Earlier this year, Mr. Slim said he would increase the donations to his companies’ foundations to $10 billion from $4 billion. He has another $20 billion to go to catch Mr. Gates.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/opinion/27mon4.html?th&emc=th

Saturday, August 25, 2007

...ONE NATION UNDER GOD

". . . one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Who is the God mentioned in our pledge of allegiance? The God mentioned here is the only true God - the God who created the earth and all things therein, and mankind as His crowning act. He is the God who loved us so much, that from the beginning He gave us the freedom of choice, the freedom to love, and the freedom to worship and obey Him. He does not force us to do anything! We are free moral agents to choose Him or choose Satan, His number one enemy. Satan, on the other hand, cannot grant freedom of choice because he is void of all love and compassion. All who choose not to serve God will choose to serve Satan, and the working out of his plans in their lives.

Our nation was founded under the one true God and upon His principle of freedom of choice with liberty and justice for all. America is the greatest nation on earth, and will continue to be a great power for good as long as she does not violate this great principle she was founded upon. And yes, she even extends this freedom of choice to her enemies! And it is this freedom that led wicked men to carry out the massacre of September 11, 2001.

Do not be afraid! The Muslims have already had their day of glory. For centuries they were a great power, and may continue to terrorize to some degree, but in the book of Revelation, long before the latest terrorist attacks, God predicted that the Muslims would be a united civil and religious power that would rise and fall. Her rise began in 1299 A.D. and she fell on August 11, 1840. The followers of Muhammad ruled the entire Arab world and many Christian countries during that time, but God never predicted that Islam would conquer our country because the United States is the last great super power spoken of in the Bible.

God predicted the rise and fall of great civilizations before it happened so that we would know that He is in control of our lives. Great kingdoms such as Babylon, the Medes and Persians, Greece, and the Roman Empire would come and go as foretold in the book of Daniel. The Holy Scriptures and history can prove it all. Yes! Even the rise of our great nation was predicted in the Bible long before it came into existence. It was prophesied that America would be a haven for the pilgrims who were searching for a land where they would be able to worship God according to the dictates of conscience. They looked for a land without a king and a church without a pope - thus she became a Protestant republic. In freedom her citizens worshipped the God of the Bible and formed a civil government that protected them from criminals within their own country and abroad.

Whenever nations, states, religions, or individuals violate a person's freedom of choice, they exalt themselves above God, and walk on dangerous ground. In the Muslim religion, separation of church and state is a foreign thought, and is the reason for all the atrocities perpetrated against its own people and for its desire to take down America. The success of the United States is owed to the First Amendment to its constitution, that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; . . ." When America enforces religious laws that violate freedom of choice, then she will no longer be under God's favor.

From the beginning of creation our loving heavenly Father has been interested in bestowing upon his creatures rich blessings. In the first two chapters of Genesis we find many rich gifts God gave to us: The sun, the moon, the stars, the water, all the animals and vegetation. He wanted His creation to have all these wonderful gifts to remember Him as the Creator of all. And to seal the week of His creation God gave us His best gift, the gift that denotes Himself as Creator. That best gift is His special day of rest: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work, which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made" (Genesis 2:1-3). Only the God of Creation is the kind and loving Father who can give such a gift. In the moral law, again God reminds His children of the blessing He placed in their hands when He gave them the seventh day of rest. "Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy, six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hollowed it" (Exodus 20:8-11). The seventh day is a gift from God to His children both now and through eternity. When our civil government, influenced by Sunday-keeping Protestants, enforces Sunday, the first day of the week, as a day to worship God, and she does not give those who choose to worship God on the seventh day their freedom of choice, then our nation will loose God's favor.

Bible prophecy indicates that the great controversy between good and evil is building to a climax. Soon Jesus will come to rescue those who have surrendered their lives to Him. Will you be one of them? Please dear friend, if you haven't already, invite Him to take complete control of your life. Do it now! You will be eternally thankful that you did.


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Source: http://www.gospelworkers.net/Articles/1nation.htm

NO LONGER PRAY FOR A CORPORATE CHURCH

When God Says to No Longer Pray for a Corporate Church

There are modern-day "bleeding heart types," not unlike the old man who remained to roam the streets of Jerusalem, still praying for her and warning her AFTER THE SAVED OF HER HAD SEPARATED AND FLED TO THE MOUNTAINS OF PELLA IN THE LAND OF PERAEA, [SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 5, 75]. These "bleeding heart types" cite the example of Moses and Daniel in identifying with apostate Israel and Judah and supplicating God in prayer for his apostate once chosen people. They cite all the time God gave Israel before giving up on her. They forget the principle that Israel and Judah were given more time because they did not have an ensample as we have in Judah and Israel! They forget that the people of Noah's day were given only 120 years to repent of their gross apostasy! They forget that the followers of Korah, Dathan and Abiram were given a very short time to renounce their apostasy before they were forever destroyed! They forget that the unrepentant apostates in the golden calf incident were destroyed before Moses prayed for the rest of the people who did repent! They forget that Moses separated the faithful from Korah, Dathan and Abiram before Korah and party were destroyed! They forget that Moses separated the repentees of the golden calf incident from those who refused to repent and removed the tabernacle from the organized camp! They forget or are ignorant of the following admonition given by God to Jeremiah (Scripture cited below). They forget that Scripture and Ellen White make very clear the point at which a corporate church body is become fallen and we are to no longer pray for such a corporate body. We are always to pray for individuals within fallen churches, but not any fallen corporate church body. Here is what inspiration tells us concerning this most important issue:

"And the Lord said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers. Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.
Then shall the cities [equateable to churches] of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense [honor, tribute, recognition etc.]: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble. Then shall the cities [now churches] of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem [the church per Ezekiel 9] go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.
For according to the number of thy cities [now churches] were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal [now ecumenical fraternity fallen churches].
Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble. What hath my beloved [Christ's bride] to do in mine [once] house, seeing she [the church] hath wrought lewdness with many [fallen churches and the world], and the holy flesh [God, Christ and the Holy Spirit] is passed from thee? when thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest [commences to celebration mode of worship]." Jeremiah 11:9-15.

Some of the "bleeding hearts" among professing Seventh-day Adventists, are so ignorant of all the above Scripture and Spirit of Prophecy counsel, that they say we would need another prophet to know when to give up on a people, when God has already clearly spelled it all out! Like the old man of Jerusalem, "My people perish for lack of knowledge." The old man who remained too long to warn Jerusalem, was destroyed with her. Such will be the case with his counterparts among apostate Seventh-day Adventism.

Ellen White Also Told us Precisely When to Separate From the Apostate Seventh-day Adventist Corporate Body

God made it all plain enough in Jeremiah 11, but Ellen White made it just as plain in the following statement:

"'They that forsake the law praise the wicked.' Proverbs 28:4. When those who are uniting with the world [and fallen churches that cannot be distinguished from the world, Early Writings, 273], yet claiming great purity [that they are the pure remnant bride of Christ], plead for union [association, girding, counsel and confederacy Isaiah 8:9-20] with those who have ever been the opposers of the cause of truth [the fallen churches that cannot be distinguished from the world and/or the world], we should FEAR AND SHUN THEM AS DECIDEDLY AS DID NEHEMIAH. Such counsel is prompted by the enemy of all good. It is the speech of timeservers, and should be resisted as resolutely today as then. Whatever influence would tend to unsettle the faith of God's people in His guiding power, should be steadfastly withstood." E.G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 660.

The Anti-Christ Conspiracy of the Professing Seventh-day Adventist Church

The DIRECTORY CHRISTIAN COUNCILS, published by the World Council of Churches, lists Adventists as MEMBERS in at least six different countries of the world. The number has increased since the time of that publication in 1985. Page 244 of that publication also says that the World Council of Churches is in WORKING RELATIONSHIP with the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. "Working Relationship" and MEMBERSHIP is more than "observer status"! All that is required for membership in the World Council of Churches, is membership in one subsidiary National Council of Churches, such as the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., which the SDA church is also a member of. Another subsidiary to the World and National Councils of Churches, is the more local Ministerial Associations which are a local arm of the World Council of Churches, and nearly every SDA pastor is a member of that local arm of the World Council of Churches, and is so encouraged to be so by Andrews University and other SDA Seminaries around the world. You cannot call people out of Babylon, and be a member of it and in working relationship with it yourself!
The church conspired this confederacy with fallen Babylon, without the permission of its constituents, never taking this act to vote by a General Conference Session! This confederacy with Baal, is in total violation of the following counsel by God and Ellen White:

"Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken n pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us. For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way o this people, saying, Say ye not, a confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear [that Christianity will disappear if all the churches do not teach in common], nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread....To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isaiah 8:9-13, 20.

Notice the words "broken in pieces," which are mentioned three times for emphasis. These words are mentioned again in the marginal explanation for the words "a slaughter weapon," in Ezekiel 9:2. The marginal reference for these words is: "a weapon of his BREAKING IN PIECES."

Ellen White said that the SDA church will meet with another literal manifestation of Ezekiel 9! That literal slaughter of men, maidens and little children, will occur at SDA churches around the world because of its association, counsel, girding and confederacy with fallen Babylon. Here are her words:

"Study the 9th chapter of Ezekiel. These words will be literally fulfilled; yet the time is passing, and the people are asleep. They refuse to humble their souls and to be converted. Not a great while longer will the Lord bear with the people who have such great and important truths revealed to them [SDA's], but who refuse to bring these truths into their individual experience. The time is short. God is calling; will you hear? Will you receive His message? Will you be converted before it is too late? Soon, very soon, every case will be decided for eternity." Letter 106, 1909, pp. 2, 3, 5, 7. (To 'The churches in Oakland and Berkeley, September 29, 1909.) E.G. White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 1, 260.

There you have it friend! Ezekiel 9, the destruction of Jerusalem, will be literally manifested at SDA sanctuaries around the world! That is where it begins:

"Here we see that the church--the Lord's sanctuary--was the first to feel he stroke of the wrath of God. The ancient men, those to whom God had given great light and who had stood as guardians of the spiritual interests of the people, and betrayed their trust. They had taken the position that we need not look for miracles and the marked manifestation of God's power as in former days. Times have changed. These words strengthen their unbelief, and they say: The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil. He is too merciful to visit HIS PEOPLE in judgment. Thus 'Peace and safety' is the cry from men who will NEVER AGAIN lift up their voice like a trumpet to show God's people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. These dumb dogs that would not bark are the ones who feel the just vengeance of an offended God. Men, maidens, and little children all perish together." E.G. White, Testimonies, vol. 5, 211.

Why the Ezekiel 9 slaughter at SDA churches? Because of corporate responsibility for unpardonable fraternity with Babylon, after knowing the truth, the Everlasting Gospel of Revelation 14, and turning their backs on that gospel.

Corporate Responsibility for a Corporate Church

Scripturally, the example of Achan spells out the corporate responsibility of every member of a church body for the actions of the corporate body. Ellen White endorses the corporate responsibility of every individual in support of scripture:

"The plain straight testimony must live in the church, or the curse of God will rest upon His people as surely as it did upon ancient Israel because of their sins. God holds His people, AS A BODY, responsible for the sins existing in individuals among them." Testimonies, vol. 3, 269.

"Should a case like Achan's be among us, there are many who would accuse those who might act the part of Joshua in searching out the wrong, of having a wicked, faultfinding spirit...God's displeasure is upon His people, and He will not manifest His power in the midst of them while sins exist among them and are FOSTERED BY THOSE IN RESPONSIBLE POSITIONS." Testimonies, vol. 3, 270.

ARMED CONFLICT IN THE LAST DAYS


Armed Conflict in the Last Days

Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. Jer. 25:32.


Soon grievous troubles will rise among the nations-- trouble that will not cease until Jesus comes. As never before we need to press together, serving Him who has prepared His throne in the heavens and whose kingdom ruleth over all. God has not forsaken His people, and our strength lies in not forsaking Him. {Mar 174.1}

The judgments of God are in the land. The wars and rumors of wars, the destruction by fire and flood, say clearly that the time of trouble, which is to increase until the end, is very near at hand. We have no time to lose. The world is stirred with the spirit of war. The prophecies of the eleventh of Daniel have almost reached their final fulfillment. {Mar 174.2}

Soon strife among the nations will break out with an intensity that we do not now anticipate. The present is a time of overwhelming interest to all living. Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes, have their attention fixed upon the events taking place about us. They are watching the strained, restless relations that exist among the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession of every earthly element, and they realize that something great and decisive is about to take place, that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis. {Mar 174.3}

A moment of respite has been graciously given us of God. Every power lent us of Heaven is now to be used in working for those perishing in ignorance. There must be no delay. The truth must be proclaimed in the dark places of the earth. . . . A great work is to be done, and to those who know the truth for this time, this work has been entrusted. {Mar 174.4}

In the last scenes of this earth's history, war will rage. There will be pestilence, plague, and famine. The waters of the deep will overflow their boundaries. Property and life will be destroyed by fire and flood. We should be preparing for the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for them that love Him. There is a rest from earth's conflict. {Mar 174.5}

Maranatha (1976) Ellen G. White, Page 174.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

LOUIS ALEXANDRE BERTHIER (GENERAL)

Louis Alexandre Berthier

Louis Alexandre Berthier, Marshal of France.
Louis Alexandre Berthier, Marshal of France.

Louis Alexandre Berthier, prince de Neuchâtel (February 20, 1753June 1, 1815), marshal of France, Vice-Constable of France beginning in 1808, and Chief of Staff under Napoleon, was born at Versailles.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Alexandre_Berthier

Actually, in 1797 the French general Berthier came to Rome and did not subdue it. A year later, in 1798, Berthier took the pope prisoner, and took him back to France, where he died. Most people thought the papacy was dead. This was at the time of the French Revolution and the Age of Reason. Atheism and Man's reason was thought to be supreme. For this and other reasons, people started to flee to the recently populated United States. The United States became a refuge from political and religious persecution. A slogan in the United States that came out of this time period was "A country without a king, and a church without a pope!"

Source: http://www.tagnet.org/glenburnie/littlehorn.html

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

'RULERS OF EVIL'

'Rulers of Evil' - Divide & Conquer:The Jesuit Way
by URI DOWBENKO

'Rulers of Evil' - Divide & Conquer:The Jesuit Way Book Review:
Rulers of Evil: Useful Knowledge about Governing Bodies
by F. Tupper Saussy
www.tuppersaussy.com


American history is intimately entangled with occult politics.

The secret science of Masonic, Roman and Babylonian symbology figures
prominently. The semiotics of cabalistic signs as well as Sumerian iconography also points to a subliminal influence which has been virtually ignored by mainstream historians.

Tupper Saussy's "Rulers of Evil" is a well-honed and highly readable account of the hidden history of America.

In great detail, the author circumscribes the influence of the Roman
Catholic Church and its Jesuit cadres in promoting the governance of the Church Militant and the US Federal Government -- both of which he equates with the proscribed rulership by those bearing the Mark of Cain.

Well-versed in the nuances of Jesuitic and specious reasoning, Tupper
Saussy maintains that American history has been dominated by the subrosa machinations of the Jesuits.


Other Reviews: Book: Rulers of Evil by Tupper Saussy

'Rulers of Evil' - Divide & Conquer:The Jesuit Way by URI DOWBENKO

Source: http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/review.cfm?rtype=23


JOHN PAUL II & I.G. FARBEN

Pope John Paul II: Zyklon B Salesman
by TONY BUSHBY

Pope John Paul II: Zyklon B Salesman


In his book 'Behold a Pale Horse,' former US Naval Intelligence Officer William Cooper relates a story associated with the IG Farben Chemical Company.

In the early 1940s, that company employed a Polish chemist and salesman who sold cyanide gas, Zyklon B and Malathion to the Nazis for extermination of groups of people in Auschwitz.

After the war the salesman joined the Catholic church and was ordained a priest.

In 1958 he became Poland's youngest bishop and after Pope John Paul I's mysterious death, the ex-cyanide gas salesman Karol Wojtyla was elected to the papacy as Pope John Paul II in October 1978.

In March 2000, he publicly apologized not for his war effort, but for the wickedness of the Christian religion. The plea for forgiveness also sought to pardon the use of 'violence in the service of truth' an often used fragile and treoubling referenece to the Inquisition.

The apology read by the Pope was the result of four years of work by a panel of 28 theologians and scholars and was by far the most sweeping act by a leader of a major religion.

More

Source: http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=98&contentid=2055

SUNDAY: PRIMORDIAL NUCLEUS...

SUNDAY: PRIMORDIAL NUCLEUS OF THE LITURGICAL YEAR

VATICAN CITY, DEC 1, 2006 (VIS) - Made public today was a Message from Benedict XVI to Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, for a study day organized by that dicastery, which takes place today and is dedicated to the theme of: "Sunday Mass for the sanctification of Christian people."

In the text, which is dated November 27, the Pope recalls how the study day falls on the anniversary of the promulgation of the Constitution "Sacrosanctum Concilium," and is the third of its kind following one dedicated to the Roman Martyrology and another to sacred music.

"Sundays," writes the Pope, "remain the fundamental seedbed and the primordial nucleus of the liturgical year; ... a fragment of time pervaded by eternity, because its dawn saw the Risen Christ enter victoriously into eternal life."

"For the first Christians, participation in Sunday celebrations was the natural expression of their belonging to Christ, of their communion with His mystical Body, in joyous expectation of His glorious return."

"Today," the Holy Father continues, "it is more than ever necessary to reiterate the sacred nature of the Lord's day and the need to participate in Sunday Mass. The cultural context in which we live, often marked by religious indifference and secularism that obscure the horizon of transcendence, must not cause us to forget that the People of God who came into being with the events of Easter must return [to those events] as an inexhaustible spring, in order to better understand ... their own identity and the reasons for their existence."

"Sunday was not chosen by the Christian community," he writes, "rather by the Apostles, indeed by Christ Himself Who on that day, "the first day of the week," arose and appeared before the disciples. ... Each Sunday celebration of the Eucharist enacts the sanctification of Christian people, until that Sunday without end, the day of the definitive encounter of God with His creatures."

Benedict XVI closes his message by expressing the hope that the study day "may help to recover the Christian meaning of Sunday in ... the life of all believers."

WAITING FOR SCHOOL BUS IN THE DARK



WHY ARE CHILDREN SUBJECTED TO WAITING FOR SCHOOL BUSES IN THE DARK (BEFORE SUNRISE), BY THEMSELVES, AND IN SECLUDED PLACES?
DOES ANOTHER CHILD NEED TO BE ABDUCTED AND KILLED?

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, SAVE THE CHILDREN!

VIETNAM REJECTS BUSH'S IRAQ COMPARISON



Vietnam rejects Bush's Iraq comparison


Associated Press
Thursday August 23, 2007


Guardian Unlimited


President George Bush's latest effort to rally support for his Iraq policy has touched a nerve in Vietnam, where previous US intervention led to the deaths of millions of people.

In a speech to US war veterans yesterday, Mr Bush invoked the Vietnam war, saying that widespread death and chaos would envelop Iraq if the US troops left too quickly, as he claimed had happened when America pulled out of Vietnam three decades ago.

But people in Vietnam, where opposition to the US intervention in Iraq is strong, said today that Mr Bush had drawn the wrong conclusions from the conflict.

"Doesn't he realise that if the US had stayed in Vietnam longer, they would have killed more people?" said Vu Huy Trieu of Hanoi, a veteran who fought against US troops in Vietnam. "Nobody regrets that the Vietnam war wasn't prolonged except Bush."

Vietnam's official government spokesman offered a more measured response. "With regard to the American war in Vietnam, everyone knows that we fought to defend our country and that this was a righteous war of the Vietnamese people," said the foreign ministry spokesman Le Dung. "And we all know that the war caused tremendous suffering and losses to the Vietnamese people."

Mr Dung said Vietnam hoped that the Iraq conflict would be resolved "very soon, in an orderly way, and that the Iraqi people will do their best to rebuild their country".

Although Vietnam opposed the US intervention in Iraq, Mr Dung stressed that ties between Hanoi and Washington had been growing closer since the former foes established friendly relations in 1995.

In his remarks in Kansas City yesterday, Mr Bush said that a hasty retreat from Iraq would lead to terrible violence.

"One unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,' 're-education camps' and 'killing fields'," he said.


But many people in Vietnam said the comparison was ill-considered.

The US could not have overcome the will of the Vietnamese people no matter how many bombs it dropped, said Mr Trieu.

"Does he think the US could have won if they had stayed longer?" Mr Trieu asked. "No way."

The only way to restore order in Iraq was for the US to leave, said Trinh Xuan Thang, a Hanoi university student.

"Bush sent troops to invade Iraq and created all the problems there," he said, adding, "suicide bombing was unheard of before."

If the US withdrew, he said, the violence might escalate in the short term but the situation would eventually stabilise. "Let the Iraqis determine their fate by themselves," Mr Thang said. "They don't need American troops there."

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007


Wednesday, August 22, 2007

'GATT'

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (typically abbreviated GATT) was originally created by the Bretton Woods Conference as part of a larger plan for economic recovery after World War II. The GATT's main purpose was to reduce barriers to international trade. This was achieved through the reduction of tariff barriers, quantitative restrictions and subsidies on trade through a series of different agreements. The GATT was an agreement, not an organization. Originally, the GATT was supposed to become a full international organization like the World Bank or IMF called the International Trade Organization. However, the agreement was not ratified, so the GATT remained simply an agreement. The functions of the GATT have been replaced by the World Trade Organization which was established through the final round of negotiations in the early 1990s.

The history of the GATT can be divided into three phases: the first, from 1947 until the Torquay round, largely concerned which commodities would be covered by the agreement and freezing existing tariff levels. A second phase, encompassing three rounds, from 1959 to 1979, focused on reducing tariffs. The third phase, consisting only of the Uruguay Round from 1986 to 1994, extended the agreement fully to new areas such as intellectual property, services, capital, and agriculture. Out of this round the WTO was born.

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GATT 1947

The first version of GATT, developed in 1947 during the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment in Havana, Cuba, is referred to as "GATT 1947". On January 1, 1948 the agreement was signed by 23 countries: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Burma, Canada, Ceylon, Chile, the Republic of China, Cuba, the Czechoslovak Republic, France, India, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Southern Rhodesia, Syria, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. 45,000 tariff concessions were made influencing over $10 billion in trade which comprised 20% of the total global market at the time.

GATT 1947 in the US

The GATT, as an international agreement, is similar to a treaty. Under United States law it is classified as a congressional-executive agreement. Based on the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act it allowed the executive branch negotiating power over trade agreements with temporary authority from Congress. At the time it functioned as a provisional, but promising trade system. The agreement is based on the "unconditional most favored nation principle." This means that the conditions applied to the most favored trading nation (i.e. the one with the least restrictions) apply to all trading nations. In the US, there was large opposition against the International Trade Organization (which had been ratified in several countries, including Australia), and thus President Truman never even submitted it to Congress.

GATT 1949

The second round took place in 1949 in Annecy, France. The main focus of the talks was more tariff reductions, around 5000 total.

GATT 1951

The third round occurred in Torquay, England in 1951. 8,700 tariff concessions were made totaling the remaining amount of tariffs to three-fourths of the tariffs which were in effect in 1948.

GATT 1955-1956

The fourth round returned to Geneva in 1955 and lasted until May 1956. $2.5 billion in tariffs were eliminated or reduced.

GATT "Dillon" 1960-1962

The fifth round occurred once more in Geneva and lasted from 1960 to 1962. The talks were named after Under Secretary of State General of the US, Douglas Dillon, who first proposed the talks. Along with reducing over $4.9 billion in tariffs, it also yielded discussion relating to the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC).

GATT "Kennedy" 1964-1967

The sixth round was the last to take place in Geneva from 1964 until 1967 and was named after the late US President Kennedy in his memory. Concessions were made on $40 billion worth of tariffs. Some of the GATT negotiation rules were also more clearly defined.

GATT 1973-1979

The seventh round of GATT took place in Tokyo from 1973 until 1979. The talks managed to reduce several trade barriers in addition to $300 billion in tariffs. Negotiations covered a range of topics including government procurement, customs valuation, subsidies, countervailing measures, antidumping, standards and import licensing.

Uruguay Round 1986-1993

The Uruguay Round began in 1986. It was the most ambitious round to date, hoping to expand the competence of the GATT to important new areas such as services, capital, intellectual property, and agriculture.

Agriculture was essentially exempted from previous agreements as it was given special status in the areas of import quotas and export subsidies, with only mild caveats. However, by the time of the Uruguay round, many countries considered the exception of agriculture to be sufficiently glaring that they refused to sign a new deal without some movement on agricultural products. These fourteen countries came to be known as the "Cairns Group", and included mostly small and medium sized agricultural exporters such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, and New Zealand.

GATT and the World Trade Organization

In 1993 the GATT was updated (GATT 1994) to include new obligations upon its signatories. One of the most significant changes was the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The 75 existing GATT members and the European Communities became the founding members of the WTO on January 1, 1995. The other 52 GATT members rejoined the WTO in the following two years (the last being Congo in 1997). Since the founding of the WTO, 21 new non-GATT members have joined and 28 are currently negotiating membership.

Of the original GATT members, only the SFR Yugoslavia has not rejoined the WTO. Since FR Yugoslavia, (renamed to Serbia and Montenegro and with membership negotiations later split in two), is not recognised as a direct SFRY successor state; therefore, its application is considered a new (non-GATT) one. The contracting parties who founded the WTO ended official agreement of the "GATT 1947" terms on December 31, 1995.

Whereas GATT was a set of rules agreed upon by nations, the WTO is an institutional body. The WTO expanded its scope from traded goods to trade within the service sector and intellectual property rights. Although it was designed to serve multilateral agreements, during several rounds of GATT negotiations (particularly the Tokyo Round) plurilateral agreements created selective trading and caused fragmentation among members. WTO arrangements are generally a multilateral agreement settlement mechanism of GATT.[1]

Rounds of GATT trade negotiations

GATT signatories occasionally negotiated new trade agreements that all countries would enter into. Each set of agreements was called a round. In general, each agreement bound members to reduce certain tariffs. Usually this would include many special-case treatments of individual products, with exceptions or modifications for each country.

  1. Havana Round (1947): 23 countries. GATT enters into force.
  2. Annecy Round (1949): 13 countries.
  3. Torquay Round (1950): 34 countries.
  4. Geneva Fourth Round (1956): 22 countries. Tariff reductions. Strategy set for future GATT policy toward developing countries, improving their positions as treaty participants.
  5. Dillon Round (1960-1961): 45 countries. Tariff reductions. Named after C. Douglas Dillon, then U.S. Undersecretary of State.
  6. Kennedy Round (1962-1967): 48 countries. Tariff reductions. This was an across-the-board reduction rather than a product-by-product specification, for the first time. Anti-dumping agreement (which, in the United States, was rejected by Congress).
  7. Tokyo Round (1973-1979): 99 countries. Reduced non-tariff trade barriers. Also reduced tariffs on manufactured goods. Improvement and extension of GATT system.
  8. Uruguay Round (1986-94): 125 countries. Created the World Trade Organization to replace the GATT treaty. Reduced tariffs and export subsidies, reduced other import limits and quotas over the next 20 years, agreement to enforce patents, trademarks, and copyrights (TRIPS), extending international trade law to the service sector (GATS) and open up foreign investment. It also made major changes in the dispute settlement mechanism of GATT.
  9. Doha Round: see WTO.

Source: Jackson, John H. The World Trading System Second Edition, page 74

See also

References

External links

SUPER HIGHWAY AMENDMENT PASSES HOUSE


HUNTER NAFTA SUPER HIGHWAY AMENDMENT PASSES HOUSE {Security and Prosperity Partnership}

July 25, 2007


Posted on 07/26/2007 6:54:50 AM PDT by 3AngelaD

Washington, D.C. – Late last evening, Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) successfully offered an amendment to H.R. 3074, the FY2008 Transportation Appropriations Act, prohibiting the use of federal funds for participation in working groups under the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), including the creation of the NAFTA Super Highway. The Hunter amendment gained strong bipartisan support, passing the House by a vote of 362 – 63.

“The proposed NAFTA Super Highway presents significant challenges to our nation’s security, the safety of vehicle motorists, and will likely drive down wages for American workers,” said Congressman Hunter. “Much like NAFTA, the super highway is designed to serve the interests of our trading partners and will lead to neither security nor prosperity.

“This 12 lane highway, which is already under construction in Texas, will fast-track thousands of cargo containers across the U.S. without adequate security. These containers will move from Mexico, a country with a record of corruption and involvement in the drug trade, across a border that is already porous and insufficiently protected.

“Unfortunately, very little is known about the NAFTA Super Highway. This amendment will provide Congress the opportunity to exercise oversight of the highway, which remains a subject of question and uncertainty, and ensure that our safety and security will not be comprised in order to promote the business interests of our neighbors.”

SPP working groups are advancing a plan to build the NAFTA Super Highway – an international corridor extending between the U.S., Mexico and Canada.


Source: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1871880/posts

U.S. ADULTS & WORLD POLITICS

Most U.S. Adults In Dark About World Politics
08-22-2007

AFP

Two-thirds of US adults admit to being in the dark about political issues outside the United States, and only a third are well-versed in US politics, the results of a poll published Tuesday showed.

Candidates in the US presidential primaries "may have their work cut out for them as they work to get people interested in the election," wrote the Harris Poll group, which surveyed 2,225 adults between July 6 and 13 for the poll.

A separate survey gave New York Senator Hillary Clinton a healthy lead over her main rival Barack Obama for the Democratic primary race.

More than 40 percent of those who would vote in a Democratic primary or caucus would vote for Clinton while 27 percent said they would vote for Obama, the poll showed.

In the Republican race for the candidacy, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani has a three-percentage point lead over ex-senator Fred Thompson, who hasn't yet declared that he is running, that poll, which surveyed 2,870 adults in the first week of August, showed.

Global political knowledge was miniscule, with just three percent of women and 14 percent of men saying they are extremely knowledgeable on world politics.

One reason for the knowledge gap is lack of interest, according to the poll.

"Well over half (57 percent) say they do not like learning about political issues in other countries," and 32 percent expressed a lack of interest for homespun politics, the Harris Poll group said.

Source: http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=3619