Monday, November 09, 2009

Free Markets & Free People


Topic: Capitalism
Free Markets & Free People

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A treatise on the virtues of free markets and why free people cannot exist without equally free markets.
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by Alexander Massa
(libertarian)


Monday, November 2, 2009


Many left-wing liberals, who have long been the self-crowned champions of civil liberties, are now pining for a socialist command economy. They forget the long established concept that the free market and civil liberties are intertwined. One cannot live in a country that practices central planning while still retaining civil liberties. Likewise, one cannot live in a free market country that is devoid of freedom. Free markets and free people are one and the same; inseparable.

Leftists do not understand that people cannot be free under a socialist government. They see things through the red tinted glasses of a communist; they truly believe that what we see as economic freedom is actually the exploitation of the working class, and that it should be destroyed. However, that is an asinine assumption that fails when put to the test by facts. Communism and socialism are actually systems in which the worker is exploitated; the fruits of his labors are confiscated by the government and he is stripped of his civil liberties, reducing him to little more than a meaningless slave to the almighty State.

Capitalism and the free market actually empowers the worker, despite what the Red rhetoric and propaganda claims. In a free society, the worker has the right to choose his or her place of employment, join or even create a labor union, collectively bargain, and when he wants (if ever) to quit or change his job. Under a collectivist system, the worker has none of those choices. If, for example, a textile worker in the former Soviet Union (a communist state) wanted to change jobs, he would have to appeal to a myriad of bureaucracies and internal bureaus. Even after several months of bargaining, he most likely would stay where he was. If he spoke further about the matter of took action by staging a strike, he'd be either jailed or executed, probably both.

A prime example of the oppression inherent in collectivist systems comes from Maoist China during Chairman Mao Tse-tung's Cultural Revolution. During the Cultural Revolution and the ensuing Great Lead Forward (both failed government programs which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of millions of ethnic Chinese), people were forced by the provisional revolutionary government to take whatever job they were ordered to perform. During the Cultural Revolution, most, if not all doctors were executed for supposedly being "bourgeoisie" and, thus, an enemy of the People's Republic. Obviously, the country needed doctors to carry out medical care for the massive population, so they had to replace the workforce of doctors. Who did they pick to do this? Nurses, nurses assistants, and janitorial staff. Nurses, who had no real surgical training to speak of, were routinely ordered by armed soldiers of the PLA (Chinese People's Liberation Army) to carry out surgical procedures they were woefully unprepared to do. If they refused, they were executed for being "counterrevolutionary". How would you feel if you were having surgery that day? Moreover, how would you feel as a lowly nurse to be standing over a man on an operating table all the while being forced to carry out open-heart surgery with a gun pressed to the back of your head? So much for the "worker's paradise", huh?

Communist and socialist countries worldwide are notorious for their wanton use of propaganda and blatant lies when it comes to the true workings (and failures) of their economic system. The Soviet Union pioneered the usage of such techniques when used for communist means. The Soviets had several phrases to describe their type of government to make it attractive to others: "people's republic", "dictatorship of the proletariat", "worker's paradise", etc. These phrases in and of themselves are meaningless and often contradictory words. However, these words can be wielded as weapons by socialists, who still use them today to make Marxism look appealing to the masses of workers, who often buy into the lie that communism "sets them free" (from what, happiness?). The real tragedy inherent in Marxist theory is that the workers only realize they've been tricked after they've already been enslaved. Unfortunately for them, once you've sold yourself lock, stock, and barrel into slavery, there isn't an easy way out of it, short of armed revolution.

As I stated above, free markets equal free people. Generally speaking, the freer the market, the freer the people. The sinister danger lurking in the feel-good socialist policies of the Marxists is that totalitarianism is simply inevitable under a socialist economic system. No government can totally own the economy and not touch civil liberties. The socialist state has an inherent, unquenchable thirst for total power and control over the populace, and the economy is simply the first casualty in an ongoing Marxist crusade against liberty. Civil liberties come after the economy; liberty under a collectivist system is sequentially eliminated like dominoes knocking each other over, a chain reaction, if you will.

Evidence supporting the above statement abounds. Take, for example, East and West Germany. After World War Two, Germany was carved up into two parts, a Communist East controlled by the Soviet Red Army, and a Capitalist West controlled by the Allied armies. Soon enough, the infamous Berlin Wall was built to prevent East Germans from defecting to West Germany and border crossings in general. Over the next forty years, East Germans illegally climbing the Berlin Wall were shot in droves for trying desperately to escape the tyranny of Communism. Men of all walks of life literally gave their lives in an elusive search for freedom. East German soldiers jumped over the Wall themselves to perhaps get a taste of freedom. Even children defected - a twelve year old boy was shot at least five times in the back by East German border guards (Grenztruppen) while swimming across a canal to West Germany. He miraculously survived, and went on to be a successful West German doctor.

All the while, not a single West German died in an attempt to defect to East Germany. This, of course, was due to the fact that the West was a capitalist country with a free market, and, thus, a free people. East Germany, a socialist nation and puppet state of the USSR (Soviet Union), was a terribly oppressive nation. The population constantly lived in fear, and were always under the watchful eyes of the Stasi, the East German equivalent of the KGB. The tyranny was simply too much for some people to take, and they died trying to escape rather than tolerate socialism. Think of it this way - if children are being shot trying to escape the country with their lives, chances are something very wrong is going on there. That, of course, would be Marxism, which people would rather die than endure. This led to the anticommunist chant "better dead than Red". We must never forget the terror of socialism, and we should never let anyone try to bring socialism to the United States.
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Insider reveals secrets of North America plot


PREMEDITATED MERGER


No ‘conspiracy theory,’ scheme hatched by CFR was sold to Bush, now Obama



Jerome R. Corsi - October 23, 2009



NEW YORK – The integration of the United States with Canada and Mexico, long deemed by many as little more than a fanciful “conspiracy theory,” was actually an idea promoted by the Council on Foreign Relations and sold to President Bush as a means of increasing commerce and business interests throughout North America, according to a top Canadian businessman.

Thomas d’Aquino, CEO and president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives – the Canadian counterpart to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – confirmed in an interview recently published in Canada the accuracy of what WND first reported over three years ago: namely, that the Council on Foreign Relations was the prime mover in establishing the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP.

Published by the Metropolitan Corporate Counsel Oct. 4, the d’Aquino interview verifies that the creation of the SPP was not a “conspiracy theory” but a well-thought-out North American integration plan launched by his organization, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, along with the Council on Foreign Relations in the United States.


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U.S. knew of Fort Hood shooting suspect's ties to extremist


11:59 PM CST on Monday, November 9, 2009


By BROOKS EGERTON and JIM LANDERS / The Dallas Morning News


Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan sent repeated e-mails over the last year to a Muslim cleric known for extremist views, but federal terrorism investigators deemed the contact harmless and took no action.


The cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, praised the Fort Hood massacre suspect on Monday as "a hero."

"He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people," al-Awlaki's blog said.

Hasan, who is recovering from gunshot wounds in a San Antonio military hospital, is believed to have met al-Awlaki as early as 2001, when the cleric led a large northern Virginia mosque where Hasan sometimes worshipped. At the time, the U.S.-born imam styled himself as a moderate who condemned the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted between 10 and 20 e-mails from Hasan to al-Awlaki beginning in late 2008. He said al-Awlaki – living in Yemen since 2002 – responded to Hasan at least twice.

The responses seemed "innocent," Hoekstra told The Washington Post. But "for me, the number of times that this guy tried to reach out to the imam was significant."

Hoekstra wrote FBI Director Robert Mueller and high-ranking government officials over the weekend to complain that "serious issues exist with respect to the performance of U.S. intelligence agencies in connection with what appears to have been a terrorism-related attack at Fort Hood."

The FBI acknowledged late Monday that Hasan came to the attention of one of its Joint Terrorism Task Forces in December as it pursued an unrelated investigation.

Agents who reviewed communications between Hasan and the unidentified subject of that investigation decided that they were "consistent with research being conducted by Maj. Hasan in his position as a psychiatrist" at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., an FBI statement said.

"Because the content of the communications was explainable by his research and nothing else derogatory was found, the JTTF concluded that Major Hasan was not involved in terrorist activities or terrorist planning," the FBI said. "Other communications of which the FBI was aware were similar to the ones reviewed by the JTTF."

An Internet posting in May, by someone using the name Nidal Hasan, seemed to equate a suicide bomber with a U.S. soldier who throws himself on a grenade to save comrades. The FBI would not elaborate on what it meant by "other communications."

"To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate," the posting said. "It's more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause."

Under federal law, Hasan's purchase of the handgun used in last week's attack triggered a criminal background check. But counterterrorism officials were not alerted to the purchase – made in August, shortly after Hasan moved to Texas – because federal law bars such information-sharing, investigators said.

A motive has yet to be determined for the Fort Hood shootings, which left 13 people dead and 29 wounded. But the FBI said, "The investigation to date indicates that the alleged gunman acted alone and was not part of a broader terrorist plot."

The FBI director ordered a review of whether investigators overlooked signs that Hasan, 39, might be a threat. Members of Congress were briefed on the investigation late Monday.


Praising al-Qaeda

Al-Awlaki, who is in his late 30s, was born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents. He served at mosques in Denver and San Diego before going to Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va., one of the nation's largest, where the Virginia-born Hasan sometimes worshipped.

Al-Awlaki – whose name is sometimes spelled al-Aulaqi in English – told The New York Times shortly after the 9/11 attacks that Muslim leaders in the U.S. had sometimes gone too far with their rhetoric.

"In the past we were oblivious," he was quoted as saying. "We didn't really care much because we never expected things to happen. Now I think things are different.

"There were some statements that were inflammatory, and were considered just talk, but now we realize that talk can be taken seriously and acted upon in a violent, radical way."

In spring 2002, al-Awlaki moved to his parents' Middle Eastern homeland, where he began praising al-Qaeda online.

He also blamed Israelis for the U.S. terror attacks and accused the FBI of fabricating evidence to implicate Muslims.


Detained, released

U.S. authorities ultimately concluded that three of the 9/11 hijackers had spent time at al-Awlaki's mosques. Yemeni authorities detained al-Awlaki in mid-2006 at the request of the U.S. government but released him in late 2007.

At the Falls Church mosque Monday, a spokesman condemned the Fort Hood massacre and al-Awlaki's blog comments.

"Mr. al-Awlaki has clearly set himself apart from this community," said Johari Abdul-Malik, who is an imam and outreach director.

He said al-Awlaki left the mosque because he felt the role of an American imam after 9/11 included too many extra duties, including dealing with the media. Al-Awlaki wanted to focus on teaching, Abdul-Malik said.

"To go from that individual we knew to one who is projecting these words from Yemen is a shock," Abdul-Malik said. "I don't think we read him wrong. I think something happened."

He said that to his staff's knowledge, Hasan worshipped at Dar Al-Hijrah only occasionally, when visiting relatives nearby, and was not close with al-Awlaki. After Hasan's mother died in 2001, Abdul-Malik said, the military psychiatrist "seemed more withdrawn, quiet, and to some staff members, disoriented."


Investigation begins

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman suggested that the attack on Fort Hood was part of a pattern of anti-military activity in the U.S.

Three men in North Carolina were accused in a September indictment of targeting the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va. Five New Jersey men were convicted in December of conspiring to attack the Army's Fort Dix, in New Jersey. And in June, a recent Muslim convert was suspected of firing on two Army recruiters at a Little Rock, Ark., shopping mall, killing one and wounding the other.

Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, pointed to a bipartisan report the committee issued last year on the "homegrown terrorist threat."

It concluded, he noted, that "no longer is the threat just from abroad, as was the case with the attacks of September 11, 2001; the threat is now increasingly from within, from homegrown terrorists who are inspired by violent Islamist ideology to plan and execute attacks where they live."

The Fort Hood rampage "appears to be a further example of that threat," Lieberman said in a news release.

He said his committee would hold a public hearing next week to begin investigating Hasan's motives, "whether the government missed warning signs that should have led to expulsion, and what lessons we can learn to prevent such future attacks.

"As this investigation continues, we would do no favor to the thousands of Muslim Americans who are serving our military with honor and the millions of patriotic and law-abiding Muslim Americans by ignoring real evidence that an individual Muslim American soldier may have become a violent Islamist extremist."

Staff writers Tom Benning, Todd J. Gillman and Dave Michaels contributed to this report.
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Navies of 2 Koreas Exchange Fire




Published: November 10, 2009

SEOUL — Navy patrol boats from North Korea and South Korea exchanged fire in disputed waters off the western coast of the Korean peninsula on Tuesday, the South Korean military said.


“Our high-speed patrol boat repelled the North Korean patrol boat,” the South Korean Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. “We are fully prepared for further provocations from the North Korean military.”


There was no immediate report of the incident by the official North Korean news agency.
The skirmish comes just days before President Barack Obama is due to begin a nine-day visit to Asia. North Korea’s nuclear weapons program will be a key topic when Mr. Obama stops in Seoul next week to meet with President Lee Myung-bak.


One North Korean warship was partially destroyed in the fighting on Tuesday, according to a report by the Yonhap news agency, and the vessel managed to retreat to the North. The military said there were no casualties on the South Korean side.


The Yonhap account, citing an unidentified government source in Seoul, said fighting erupted when a North Korean navy boat ventured across the so-called Northern Limit Line, a sea border drawn by the United Nations at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The demarcation line has never been accepted by North Korea.


The South Koreans first issued warning broadcasts, then fired warning shots when the broadcasts were ignored.


“It was then that the North Korean patrol boat attacked our high-speed patrol boat,” the military’s statement said. “Our ship returned the fire.”


It was unclear how many warships were engaged in the fighting. Nine South Korean fishing boats had been in the area but were safely evacuated, Yonhap said.


The fighting took place near Daecheong-do, a South Korean-held island about 125 miles west of Seoul. The island is located just 18 miles off the North Korea coast.


The disputed waters remain the most volatile section of the Korean border, with North Korea regularly warning that a skirmish there could trigger a full-blown war. It claims a maritime borderline far below the North Limit Line.


There have been a number of accusations of North Korean naval intrusions over the past decade. In one recent incident, in June, the South charged that a North Korean patrol boat had breached the line..


The two navies engaged in bloody skirmishes in the disputed area in 1999 and 2002.
In the 1999 incident, two North Korean warships were sunk with an unknown number of casualties, and seven South Korean sailors were injured. In the fighting in 2002, one South Korean patrol boat was sunk and six South Korean sailors were killed.


Afterward, South Korea beefed up its forces in the disputed waters.


The Korean peninsula is still technically at war; fighting ended in 1953 with a truce, not a formal treaty. The uneasiness of the peace is best symbolized by the naval skirmishes in the western waters and the North’s territorial claim there.


After a long-range rocket launching in April and a second nuclear test in May, North Korea has recently begun reaching out to both Seoul and Washington. In September, for example, it allowed a new round of temporary reunions of Korean relatives who were separated by the war. The South responded by offering 10,000 tons of corn in humanitarian aid.


Washington has indicated that it would start bilateral talks with Pyongyang to persuade it to return to six-nation talks about ending its nuclear weapons program.

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The Dollar Meltdown





I had the pleasure of reading a final finished copy of The Dollar Meltdown by Charles Goyette this past week.
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Congressman Ron Paul offers an opinion on the front cover to which I certainly concur: "Goyette does a great job explaining why America faces a looming financial crisis and outlines commonsense strategies for individuals to protect themselves and their families. This book truly is a must read."
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Before publication, I read a preliminary copy which explains this quote on the back jacket "The Dollar Meltdown is the definitive guide to where we are, how we got here, and what the best investment opportunities are looking ahead, regardless of one's personal views on the raging inflation/deflation debate" - Mike "Mish" Shedlock
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Others on the back jacket endorsing the book include Jim Rogers, Lew Rockwell, and Peter Schiff.
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Step by step Goyette outlines Where we are, How we got here, and What to do. The book is a nice blend of facts, humor, and practicality. It is easy reading and very difficult to put down.
Each chapter begins with a few thought provoking quotes on which Charles expounds. Here is the kickoff to Chapter 7, How It Comes Down.
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"Don’t ask me where we’re going to find the money. I’m going to get it where Paulson found it”. - Charles Rangel, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman
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Today was Presidents’ Day. Congress commemorated George Washington’s throwing a dollar across the Potomac by throwing $780 billion down a rat hole. - Jay Leno, The Tonight Show
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Chapter 8, Toppling the Dollar, Your New World Order Is Waiting! begins with the following quotes for discussion.
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"We have in many ways humiliated ourselves as a nation with some of the problems that have taken place here." - Henry Paulson, U.S. Treasury Secretary
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"I think there is a question mark over the durability of any power that relies as heavily as the United States on importing capital and borrowing from abroad." - Niall Ferguson
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I started to write more excerpts but the problem was I ended up with pages from every chapter.
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Doug French writing for LewRockwell.Com had this to say:
"Charles Goyette provides a roadmap for survival with his newly released book, The Dollar Meltdown: Surviving The Impending Currency Crisis With Gold, Oil, And Other Unconventional Investments. The former Phoenix radio talk-show host has learned from some of the brightest minds in economics and investing. It's the rare book that engagingly teaches sound economic theory, provides the history of how we got in this mess and then provides solid investment advice that considers the precarious times we live in. As ambitious as this sounds Goyette's fast-paced book gets it all done."
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At first glance it may seem that Goyette's opinion and mine on the US dollar are dramatically different. However, I would like to point out that he gives no timeline for the collapse, only that a collapse will eventually occur if the US stays on this economic path. That is an idea I hope everyone agrees with.
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Monday Night, 10 p.m. PST. Charles will be on Coast to Coast AM George Noory to discuss his book and the coming currency crisis. The program will be broadcast live in every major city in the country.
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Please click here for a list of Coast To Coast Affiliate Stations.
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George Noory is a fabulous talk show host as is Charles Goyette himself. This is one interview you will not want to miss.
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Mike "Mish" Shedlock

Updated: Crist: Main threats from Ida high winds, storm surge, heavy rains, isolated tornadoes


Atlantic - Caribbean Sea - Gulf of Mexico
Tropical Weather Outlook (en Español*)100 PM EST MON NOV 9 2009
Tropical Weather Discussion105 PM EST MON NOV 09 2009
Tropical Storm IDA
Storm Archive
...IDA TURNS NORTHWARD...SHOULD MAKE LANDFALL OVERNIGHT...
3:00 PM CST Mon Nov 9Location: 28.4°N 88.5°WMax sustained: 70 mphMoving: N at 18 mphMin pressure: 991 mb
PublicAdvisory #24 300 PM CST
AvisoPublico #23A 1200 PM CST
Forecast/Advisory #24 2100 UTC
ForecastDiscussion #24 300 PM CST
Wind SpeedProbabilities #24 2100 UTC

NWS LocalStatements
US Watch/Warning 300 PM CST

****************************************************
Democrat staff report • November 9, 2009





4:30 P.M.
Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency as Tropical Storm Ida was downgraded from hurricane strength Monday and state agencies went on full alert to help Panhandle residents hit by high winds and flooding.


"The main threats from Ida are high winds, storm surge, heavy rains and isolated tornadoes," Crist said at an afternoon briefing in the Emergency Operations Center. "We were reminded during Tropical Storm Fay that a storm does not have to be a hurricane to be life-threatening."


Tropical storm warnings were posted for the Panhandle to the Aucilla River.


Ruben Almaguer, director of the Division of Emergency Management, said there are three weeks left in hurricane season. He noted that Ida had been a Category 2 hurricane on Sunday, though it was expected to weaken significantly before making landfall early Tuesday.


Almaguer said the EOC went to "Level One" operational status, with officials of all state agencies called to duty. The Florida Highway Patrol told officers to be ready to move into the Panhandle, if needed, and Florida National Guard units were also alerted to have supplies and vehicles ready.


Crist and Almaguer said residents should stay informed of storm news, avoid downed power lines or flooded areas and check on neighbors who might need help. The state also has a preparedness site on the Internet at www.floridadisaster.org for late information on storm status, evacuation routes and other updates.

-- Bill Cotterell, Florida Capital Bureau


3:30 P.M.
Tropical Storm Ida is causing little more than heightened awareness in areas around Tallahassee.


Residents and emergency officials seem aware, but not concerned.


People at the Shell Island Fish Camp in St. Marks this afternoon were taking Ida in stride, carrying on with their usual activities. Murry Stokes, who had been fishing earlier with his girlfriend near the St. Marks lighthouse, tossed red-fish guts to a hungry otter from the marina as he cleaned the day’s catch. He said the seas weren’t “too bad.”


Source:http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20091109/NEWS01/911090311/Updated--Crist--Main-threats-from-Ida-high-winds--storm-surge--heavy-rains--isolated-tornadoes


Source:

Celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall?



Occupation zone borders in Germany, 1947. The territories east of the Oder-Neisse line, under Polish and Soviet administration/annexation, are shown as white as is the likewise detached Saar protectorate. Berlin is the multinational area within the Soviet zone.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map-Germany-1947.svg)



Yalta summit 1945 with Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin.jpg



People often ignore why the Berlin Wall was erected; During the same period another barrier the Iron Curtain was raised.
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On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall; it's fitting to examine how the division of the country occurred. Along with the changes in boundaries of Germany there was the partition of Europe between the western Allies, and the eastern Iron Curtain: Communist (Soviet) Bloc.
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In essence after the Second World War, Europe was divided between the Soviet (USSR & Poland, Chechoslovakia; Axis: Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria; Yugoslavia, and Albania ) Bloc, and the Western Allied Forces; This was the beginning of two separate realities: The Free West and the Communist East. The Allied countries (Russia, Great Britain, and the U.S. A.) that lead the resistance to Hitler's Third Reich agreed to protect (occupy) the defeated territories. Germany (East Germany and West Germany) was just one of those countries divided between the Allies and the Soviet Bloc. Berlin became a multi-national area within the Soviet Zone.
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The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a concrete barrier erected by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (East Germany) that completely encircled the city of West Berlin, separating it from East Germany, including East Berlin. The Wall included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses.
The separate and much longer inner German Border (the IGB) demarcated the border between East and West Germany. Both borders came to symbolize the Iron Curtain between Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc.
Prior to the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans had avoided Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and escaped into West Germany, many over the border between East and West Berlin. During its existence from 1961 to 1989, the Wall stopped almost all such emigration and separated the GDR from West Berlin for more than a quarter of a century.[1] After its erection, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the wall, with estimates of the resulting death toll varying between around 100 and 200.
During a revolutionary wave sweeping across the Eastern Bloc, the East German government announced on November 9, 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, parts of the wall were chipped away by a euphoric public and by souvenir hunters; industrial equipment was later used to remove almost all of the rest. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Berlin_Wall



Having understood the reasons why the Berlin Wall was erected gives people a better impression of how modern Germany has been born. It reminds us that Germany's leading role in the current "Putsch" for the unification of Europe, is but an expansion of its desire to enlarge its influence on the world scene. Helmut Scmidt and Helmut Kohl, and now Angela Merkel are (have been) all proponents of Germany's pivotal role on the international scene.
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Now, twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall the world joins Germans in their festivities; We all wish the German people many years of peace. But, we wait and watch for what their politicians have in mind when they attempt to lead the free world; And as the German dignitaries call for compulsory 'global' monetary reforms and climate change.
I in particular question their motives; I wonder who died and left them in charge?
How did Germany become an authority on what is best for the whole world?
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Was ist das?

Arsenio.
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I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal


1 Kings 19


1And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.

2Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time.

3And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.

4But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.

5And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.

6And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.

7And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.

8And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.

9And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?

10And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

11And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:

12And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

13And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

14And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

15And the LORD said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria:

16And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room.

17And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay.

18Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.

19So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him.

20And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee?

21And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.
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Sunday, November 08, 2009

Heaven and Earth – Professor Ian Plimer’s new book


April 10, 2009
Posted by honestclimate in Discussions.
Tags: climate change, global warming, Professor Ian Plimer


Heaven and Earth

From the Australian Conservative Bookshop

Heaven and Earth
IAN PLIMER

Recommended by Václav Klaus, President of the EU, 2009.

“This is a very powerful, clear, understandable and extremely useful book. Ian Plimer fully exploits his unique scientific background in geology, his life-long academic experience, and his broad, truly interdisciplinary knowledge to dismantle the currently popular, politically correct but rationally untenable and indefensible position that the Earth is approaching catastrophic climate change and that we have to react – at all costs – to prevent it.

Professor Plimer argues that the undergoing climate change is not unprecedented in history and that the temperatures in the 20th Century are not outside the range of natural variability. He rejects the unscientific idea that the explanation of climate change can be reduced to one variable (CO2), the proposition that there is a strong relationship between measured temperature and CO2 emissions, and the almost religious belief that we will stop climate change by reducing CO2 emissions. He rightly assumes that humans will be able to adapt to any future coolings or warmings.

He also convincingly criticizes the UN, the IPCC, UK and US politicians as well as “Hollywood show business celebrities”. He strictly distinguishes science and environmental activism, politics and opportunism. The book I wrote two years ago “Blue Planet in Green Shackles” comes to very similar conclusions but I have to say that if I’d had a chance to read Professor Plimer’s book, my book would have been better.” (Václav Klaus.)

The hypothesis that humans can actually change climate is unsupported by evidence from geology, archaeology, history and astronomy.

The Earth is an evolving dynamic system. Current changes in climate, sea level and ice are within variability. Atmospheric CO2 is the lowest for 500 million years. Climate has always been driven by the Sun, the Earth’s orbit and plate tectonics and the oceans, atmosphere and life respond. Humans have made their mark on the planet, thrived in warm times and struggled in cool times.
The hypothesis that humans can actually change climate is unsupported by evidence from geology, archaeology, history and astronomy. The hypothesis is rejected.

A new ignorance fills the yawning spiritual gap in Western society. Climate change politics is religious fundamentalism masquerading as science. Its triumph is computer models unrelated to observations in nature. There has been no critical due diligence of the science of climate change, dogma dominates, sceptics are pilloried and 17th Century thinking promotes prophets of doom, guilt and penance.

When plate tectonics ceases and the world runs out of new rocks, there will be a tipping point and irreversible climate change.

Don’t wait up.

Over 500 pages, over 50 diagrams

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ian Plimer is Professor of Mining Geology at The University of Adelaide and Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciences at The University of Melbourne where he was Professor and Head (1991-2005). He was previously Professor and Head of Geology at The University of Newcastle (1985-1991). His previous book, A Short History of Planet Earth, won the Eureka Prize.

CONNOR COURT
ISBN: ISBN 9781921421143
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P.S."Global Warming hysteria is big business, just follow the money." (Page 470).
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Taliban Still Working for the CIA?


Taliban Still Working for the CIA?

November 6, 2009

by Henry Makow Ph.D.


As President Obama ponders whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, there is mounting evidence the Taliban is supported by the CIA. If correct, the Afghan war is a charade with a hidden agenda.
First, we have many reports that unmarked helicopters are ferrying the Taliban to targets, and relieving them when cornered.

"Just when the police and army managed to surround the Taliban in a village of Qala-e-Zaal district, we saw helicopters land with support teams," an Afghan soldier said. "They managed to rescue their friends from our encirclement, and even to inflict defeat on the Afghan National Army.

"This story, in one form or another, is being repeated throughout northern Afghanistan. Dozens of people claim to have seen Taliban fighters disembark from foreign helicopters in several provinces. "I saw the helicopters with my own eyes," said Sayed Rafiq from Baghlan-e-Markazi.

"They landed near the foothills and offloaded dozens of Taliban with turbans, and wrapped in patus (a blanket-type shawl)."

"Our fight against the Taliban is nonsense," said the first soldier. "Our foreigner 'friends' are friendlier to the opposition."

CIA AIR BASES IN PAKISTAN

Last February, there were reports of CIA airbases within Pakistan used for drones. If this is true, Pakistanis are being attacked by drones based in their own country. Obviously, the Taliban helicopters could also come from these CIA bases.

In May, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, told NBC News that the CIA and the (U.S.-Funded) Pakistani ISI intelligence service "has created the Taliban."

Zardari said that the CIA and the ISI are still supporting the Taliban.

On Oct 29, 2009, Hillary Clinton infuriated Pakistani officials by saying she found it "hard to believe" the ISI didn't know where Al Qaeda leaders were hiding. Her role is to maintain the fiction that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are not CIA creations.

Just the day before, (Oct. 18) four American citizens were caught photographing sensitive buildings in Islamabad. All four were dressed in traditional Afghan outfits and were found to be in possession of illegal weapons and explosives.

Their vehicles contained 2 M-16A1 rifles, 2 handguns and 2 hand-grenades. The police held the American citizens in custody for an hour before the Interior Ministry interfered and had them released without charge even as preliminary investigation was being carried out.

The CIA could be involved in the recent "Taliban" attacks on Pakistani institutions. Who knows? In some cases, the Afghan "Taliban" could be CIA mercenaries.

In Feb. 2008, the British were caught planning a training camp for the Taliban in Southern Afghanistan supposedly to make them "change sides." Karzai expelled two top British "diplomats."

THE HIDDEN AGENDA

All wars are charades. This is true of the world wars, the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, 9-11 and the current war on terror. The human race is caught in a hologram controlled by the Illuminati Rothschild central bankers.

Wars are necessary to divide, distract and dehumanize us. Otherwise, we might focus on the small network of Masonic families, based in London, who control government credit. Therefore, the central banking cartel uses pawns like Bush and Obama, and intelligence agencies like the CIA, Mossad, MI-6 and ISI to foment war. They finance these wars by issuing debt repayable to them by the taxpayer.

As I have said, the ultimate goal is to translate their monopoly over government credit into a worldwide monopoly over power, wealth and culture; in other words, to disinherit and enslave the human race. This is called world government.

I'm not an expert on the politics of the Asian subcontinent. But it appears that the Afghanistan war should be seen in a larger regional context. Zbigniew Brzezinski advocated a "global-zone of percolating violence," that included Central Asia, Turkey, southern Russia, and the western borders of China. It also included the entire Middle East, the Persian Gulf (Iran), Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The plan to destabilize this vast area was outlined in Brzezinski's book, "The Grand Chessboard" (1997) . Ostensibly, the purpose was to prevent Russia from becoming an imperial power again. But that doesn't make sense.

What do these countries have in common? They are Muslim. Islam is the last redoubt of faith in God. The Illuminati are Satanists. Put two and two together.

The Afghan war has some immediate "benefits" to the bankers: perpetual war, arms spending, drugs, pipelines etc. But it is part of a larger "war of civilizations" designed to degrade and destroy Islam. Look for it to expand and go on forever. -----------------------

On a related note, citing current and former U.S. officials, The New York Times reported Oct. 28, 2009 that the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been getting regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency.

"Ahmed Wali Karzai is a suspected player in Afghanistan's opium trade and has been paid by the CIA over the past eight years for services that included helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the CIA's direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar," the newspaper reported. ----


Even the BBC Recognizes "Cynical" Nature of Western Intervention





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3 Women Shot to Death as They Sat in Car With Kids

Sunday, November 08, 2009



EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — Investigators on Sunday captured a man they believe opened fire on a car parked at a gas station, killing three women, including an acquaintance of the suspect, state investigators said. Children inside the bullet-riddled vehicle escaped harm.

All the wounded in Saturday night's shooting outside the Crown Food Mart in East St. Louis were shot several times, mostly in the torso, and died later at a hospital, Illinois State Police Lt. James Morrisey said. At least one victim knew the gunman, Morrisey said, though the precise relationship was not clear.

Jay Makhluf, a co-owner of the convenience store, told The Associated Press he was working behind the counter when he heard what sounded like about 14 gunshots.

"He just emptied the whole gun," said Makhluf, who hustled outside to offer medical assistance but quickly found it was futile. "The women were already dead. It didn't take long for them to die. They were shot in the head, in the chest, in the neck. It's sick."

Makhluf said it looked like one of the women had covered a child with her body to shield the youngster.

Police in neighboring St. Louis arrested the suspect Sunday night at an apartment after an intensive search for the white, four-door 1993 Mercury Grand Marquis he supposedly drove to and from the shooting, Morrisey said.

The suspect's name was not released because charges had not been filed.

Police accounts conflicted Sunday night about how many children were in the car at the time. Morrisey said the children numbered three, one more than East St. Louis police Detective Ken Berry's number reported by the Belleville News-Democrat.

Their ages and relationships to the slain women — Canikia Harvey, 26, Raykel Gathing, 26, Jaimaca McDaniel, 24, all of East St. Louis — were not readily available.

"It's a bad enough tragedy as it is, but I think it's very fortunate none of the children were struck," Morrisey said.

Messages left with East St. Louis police and St. Clair County Coroner Rick Stone were not immediately returned.

Morrisey said the women and children were sitting in a car about 9:30 p.m. Saturday on the convenience store's lot when the suspect drove up, exchanged words briefly with at least one of the women and began firing with a handgun. The shooter then sped away, Morrisey said.

By Sunday night, Makhluf said, the gas pump where the women were gunned down was a makeshift memorial, adorned with flowers and a teddy bear. The pump was out of service for the day as a sign of respect for the victims' families, Makhluf said.

McDaniel's father, Willie Holmes, told the Belleville newspaper the murdered women were good friends and that his daughter had three sons. It was not clear whether those boys were the children in the car.

The killings bring the number of homicides in East St. Louis this year to 27. There were 19 in 2008.




Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,573046,00.html

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Fort Hood triggerman aided team on Homeland Security task force

Posted: November 06, 20099:21 am Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi© 2009 WorldNetDaily




Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan


NEW YORK – Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter in yesterday's massacre at Fort Hood, played a homeland security advisory role in President Barack Obama's transition into the White House, according to a key university policy institute document.


The Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University
published a document May 19, entitled "Thinking Anew – Security Priorities for the Next Administration: Proceedings Report of the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force, April 2008 – January 2009," in which Hasan of the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine is listed on page 29 of the document as a Task Force Event Participant.

Hasan received his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University School in Bethesda, Md., in 2001.

Noting that the Obama administration transition was proceeding, the GWU Homeland Security Policy Institute report described on the first page the role of the Presidential Transition Task Force as including "representatives from past Administrations, State government, Fortune 500 companies, academia, research institutions and non-governmental organizations with global reach."

While the GWU task force participants included several members of government, including representatives of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, there is no indication in the document that the group played any formal role in the official Obama transition, other than to serve in a university-based advisory capacity.

Daniel Kaniewski, deputy director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, affirmed to WND in a telephone interview this morning that the Nidal Hasan listed as attending the meetings of the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force was the same person as the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood massacre.

Video of Hasan at the event, carried originally by C-SPAN and reported by MSNBC, can be seen below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwHe-o9lPco&feature=player_embeddedhttp://


Kaniewski said Hasan attended the meetings in his capacity as a member of the faculty of the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine, not as a member of the HSPI Presidential Task Force.

Kaniewski believed Hasan applied on the institute's website to attend the meeting and was accepted because of his professional credentials.

Kaniewski could not tell WND whether or not Hasan made comments from the audience that influenced the task force recommendations or not.
He further confirmed Hasan had attended several meetings held by the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University and that the institute is currently searching conference records to see if it is possible to determine what additional institute conferences he attended.

According to the "About Us" section of the GWU Homeland Security Policy Institute, the group is a "nonpartisan 'think and do' tank whose mission is to build bridges between theory and practice to advance homeland security through an interdisciplinary approach."

The Homeland Security Policy Institute is led by Frank J. Cilluffo, who formerly served in the White House as special assistant to President Bush for homeland security, and by Kaniewski, who formerly served in the White House as special assistant to President Bush for homeland security and senior director for response policy.

"Muslims should stand up and fight the aggressor," Hasan said about America before he and possibly other Muslim soldiers at Fort Hood shot 43 fellow soldiers, killing 13.

"He said Muslims had a right to attack" the U.S., said Col. Terry Lee, who worked with Hasan at the Texas post, where the devout Sunni Muslim refused deployment. "He said Muslims shouldn't be fighting Muslims," he added. "He was very clear on that."

According to an explosive new book, "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," Hasan is just the tip of a jihadist Fifth Column operating within the ranks of the U.S. military – which is too blinded by political correctness to see the threat.

Quoting from a classified military briefing, "Muslim Mafia" reveals that this Fifth Column has penetrated "every branch of the U.S. military." The Islamist enemy has even infiltrated the al-Qaida detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Shortly after this story was posted, the Huffington Post ran a piece claiming WND was attempting to "smear" President Obama by naming him "as the man who guided Nidal Malik Hasan to his murderous rampage at Ft. Hood yesterday."

However, Hasan is being reported as a participant in the GWU Homeland Security Policy Institute's Presidential Transition Task Force, not as a member, noting the group was a university think-tank, not part of the Obama administration official transition team.

Further, the institute's deputy director is quoted saying he is unable to say if Hasan made any input to the group's final recommendations.

Other participants in the task force included many members of congressional staff who work with both the House and Senate homeland security committees, as well as staff from the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice.
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Nidal Hasan: Ft. Hood Shooter Participated in Homeland Security Disaster Preparation


Nidal Hasan: Ft. Hood Shooter Participated in Homeland Security Disaster Preparation
The gunman who killed 12 people today at Ft. Hood appears, based on current media reports, to be Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan who was listed as a participant in a Homeland Security Policy Institute's presidential transition task force last year


Catholic Bishops Help Pass Pelosicare



Written by Cliff Kincaid
Sunday, 08 November 2009 17:47


The AARP and American Medical Association supported H.R. 3692, the Affordable Health Care for America Act of 2009, but a careful analysis of the media coverage demonstrates that it was the U.S. Catholic Church that provided the winning margin. Yet, the liberal media are failing to raise the issue of the alleged separation of church and state.

Contrary to some media reports, the U.S. Catholics Bishops never opposed a national health care scheme. In fact, their main objection was to a provision for federal funding of abortion. Once that provision was eliminated, the Catholic Bishops embraced the bill.

On Saturday, after Catholic lobbyists had finalized a deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the most prominent Catholic in the U.S. Government, the Politico reported that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops had "delivered a critical endorsement" to Pelosi "by signing off on late-night agreement to grant a vote on an amendment barring insurance companies that participate in the exchange from covering abortions." The anti-abortion amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak, a Catholic Democrat, passed. Hence, the Bishops are now officially in favor of a bureaucratic plan that could spell the end to freedom of choice in health care and financially bankrupt the U.S.


"A half dozen lobbyists for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops joined negotiators in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office to come to terms," reported the Christian Science Monitor.

The Hill newspaper reported that Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) had been trying to broker a deal and appealed to the Catholic Bishops. "I would like the [U.S. Conference of Catholic] Bishops, who as I understand it want a bill, to help us work out a plan where we don't have winners and losers," Waxman was quoted as saying. "Because the losers will make us lose the bill and the winners won't have won anything."


NBC's Doug Adams reported that the Catholic Bishops were "lobbying hard."

The shocking turn of events once again demonstrates the extreme left-wing drift of the Catholic Church, which is the nation's largest religious denomination with 67 million members and run by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. But their role in passing Pelosicare is not the only evidence of such a turn. The Bishops poured more than $7.3 million of parishioners' money into the corrupt left-wing organization ACORN over the last decade before publicity over the organization's scandals forced suspension of the funding.

The Bishops were in favor of the health care plan, as long as abortion funding was deleted. In fact, as we noted in an October AIM Report, "On domestic matters, it is frequently reported that the Roman Catholic Bishops in the U.S. oppose the Obama health care plan. In fact, the bishops believe that 'health care is a basic human right,' which is the premise of the Obama plan and it is driving the campaign to have the federal government take over the health care sector. The Bishops disagree with Obama on tax-funding of abortion, but on other matters-such as health care for immigrants and the poor-the Bishops are to the left of the plans introduced by Congressional Democrats."

Blogger Steven Waldman of Beliefnet.com made the critical point that while most pro-life groups were either opposed to Democratic-style universal health care plans or neutral, "The Catholic Bishops are the only major pro-life group that wants health care reform."

But why? In addition to a socialist philosophy about the role of government, the Catholic Church operates 600 Catholic Hospitals, many of which serve legal and illegal immigrants. A national health care plan is a means by which these costs could be dumped on taxpayers.


Another factor could be the influence of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which recently announced a major agreement with the Catholic Bishops to make it easier for workers in Catholic hospitals to join unions. These hospitals have 525,193 full-time employees and 233,934 part-time workers who would normally be entitled to employer-paid health insurance. But under Pelosicare they could be transferred to a government plan offered under a so-called "health insurance exchange." Once again, taxpayers would be stuck with the bill.
"Health reform will bring the U.S. closer to a true, coordinated health care system. We need and deserve a solid health care infrastructure that serves everyone and promotes the common good," says the Catholic Health Association.

In addition to supporting "provisions in the legislation that will make health care more affordable for low-income people and the uninsured," a November 7 Bishops' letter to Congress cautioned against watering down provisions in the bill covering immigrants. It said, "We remain deeply concerned that immigrants be treated fairly and not lose the health care coverage that [they] have now."

The Bishops are so radical on health care reform that in a November 6 letter to Congress they endorsed government health care for illegal aliens. The letter said they "support access for immigrants to the health-insurance exchange, regardless of legal status, and support removal of the five-year ban on legal immigrants accessing Medicaid and other federal health-care programs..." (emphasis added).


Kathy Saile, director of domestic social development with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying that illegal aliens should be included in any health care plan because health care is "a basic right" and "you can't start cutting people out."


Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of Accuracy in Media, and can be contacted at cliff.kincaid@aim.org




Source:http://www.rightsidenews.com/200911087208/editorial/catholic-bishops-help-pass-pelosicare.htm

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P.S. Common Good: A Jesuit buzz word.
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Hurricane watch issued for coastal La., Miss.

This image provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Ida taken at 12:02 a.m. EST Sunday Nov. 11, 2009. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Ida's winds had picked up to 75 mph (120 kph), making it a Category 1 storm. Ida plowed into Nicaragua's Atlantic coast on Thursday as a Category 1 hurricane, damaging 500 homes along with bridges, power lines, roads and public buildings. The hurricane was on a path that would take it through the middle of the Yucatan Channel that separates Mexico and Cuba on Sunday. Forecasters predict Ida will enter the Gulf of Mexico, eventually weaken again to tropical storm strength and possibly brush the U.S. Gulf Coast next week. (AP Photo/NOAA)


By Catherine E. Shoichet
Associated Press Writer / November 8, 2009


Source: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/11/08/ida_becomes_hurricane_as_it_nears_cancun_mexico/


MIAMI—A hurricane watch has been issued for coastal Louisiana and Mississippi as Hurricane Ida begins making its way through the Gulf of Mexico toward the U.S.


Ida could reach the northern Gulf Coast by Tuesday.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sunday morning that the watch does not include New Orleans and stretches from Grand Isla, La., to the Mississippi-Alabama state line. The watch means hurricane conditions are possible within 36 hours.

A hurricane warning remained in effect for parts of the Yucatan Peninsula meaning hurricane conditions are expected within 24 hours.

Ida's winds remained at 90 mph (150 kph), making it a Category 1 storm. It was moving toward the northwest at 10 mph (17 kph) and was centered about 75 miles (120 km) northeast of Cozumel, Mexico.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

CANCUN, Mexico (AP) -- Ida grew into a hurricane for a second time as it roared over the Caribbean on a path that could take it between Mexico's resort-studded Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba before heading for the southern United States.

Tour operators and fishermen along Mexico's Caribbean coast, including Cancun, pulled their boats out of the water Saturday in anticipation of rains and winds from Ida's outer bands. But the hurricane appeared unlikely to make direct hits on either Mexico or Cuba, with its forecast track passing over the Yucatan Channel that separates the countries on Sunday.

Cancun's beaches were empty on Saturday as rain began pelting down, but tourists walked the streets under umbrellas or improvised rain ponchos. Most appeared unconcerned.

"We're not too worried. I'll get some good pictures," said Steve Rydgren, a 30-year-old photographer from Seattle, as he arrived in Cancun for a one-year anniversary vacation with his 29-year-old wife Stacy.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Ida's winds had picked up to 90 mph (150 kph), making it a Category 1 storm. Ida plowed into Nicaragua's Atlantic coast on Thursday as a Category 1 hurricane, laying waste to 500 homes and damaging bridges, power lines, roads and public buildings, before weakening into a tropical storm.

Forecasters predicted Ida would weaken over the Gulf of Mexico to tropical storm strength and possibly brush the U.S. Gulf Coast next week. The hurricane center forecast that Ida could strengthen to Category 2 later Sunday.

Realtor Beth Conway, 41, from Sacramento, California, said she was happy just to be in Cancun.

"We don't really care if it's rainy or sunny," Conway said as she gathered her luggage at the Cancun airport. "We were just hoping they weren't going to cancel our flight."

Mexico issued a hurricane warning for parts of the Yucatan Peninsula, from Playa del Carmen to Cabo Catoche, including Cancun and Cozumel. That means hurricane conditions are expected within 24 hours. Continued...
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Government: 40 dead in El Salvador flooding

AP
posted: 29 MINUTES AGOcomments:

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -Forty people have died in El Salvador following three days of heavy rains, Interior Minister Humberto Centeno said Sunday.

Centeno told a news conference that the deaths happened in at least five of the 14 provinces of the mountainous Central American country, where it has been raining since Thursday.
Centeno said at least two dozen of the deaths happened in the central San Vicente province. He did not provide details.

Hurricane Ida passed through Nicaragua on Thursday, slamming the country's Atlantic coast, and damaging or destroying about 500 homes, as well as roads and bridges.

The rains in El Salvador were caused by a low pressure system off the country's Pacific coast, and while the presence of Ida in the Caribbean may have played some indirect role in helping steer the system, the deaths are not directly linked to the hurricane, said Dave Roberts, a Navy hurricane specialist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida.

"Because Ida is in the northwest Caribbean, there is a very large weakness in the steering currents in the middle levels of the atmosphere that's making this thing move on shore near El Salvador from the eastern Pacific," he said. "If there were deaths associated with this rainfall amount in El Salvador, I would not link it to Ida."

Ida is a Category 1 hurricane with 90-mph (145-kph) winds and is passing close to Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.


Source: http://news.aol.com/article/government-40-dead-in-el-salvador/758013

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Saturday, November 07, 2009

House passes health care bill


House passes health care bill
(AP) – 32 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — The Democratic-controlled House has passed historic health care legislation to provide medical coverage to millions more Americans.

Most Americans would be required to carry insurance and large employers would be obliged to cover their employees.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Triumphant Democrats steered landmark health care legislation to the brink of passage in the House late Saturday night, spurred by a summons from President Barack Obama to "answer the call of history" and expand coverage to millions who lack it.

After months of struggle, Speaker Nancy Pelosi projected confidence and likened the bill to the creation of Social Security in 1935 and Medicare 30 years later.

"It provides coverage for 96 percent of Americans. It offers everyone, regardless of health or income, the peace of mind that comes from knowing they will have access to affordable health care when they need it," said Rep. John Dingell, the 83-year-old Michigan lawmaker who has introduced national health insurance in every Congress since succeeding his father in 1955.

In the runup to a final vote, conservatives from the two political parties joined forces to impose tough new restrictions on abortion coverage in insurance policies to be sold to many individuals and small groups. They prevailed on a roll call of 240-194.

Ironically, that only solidified support for the legislation, clearing the way for conservative Democrats to vote for it.

Passage would clear the way for a Senate debate expected to begin in several days. Democratic leaders have been working on a self-imposed deadline for passing a final compromise, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid signaled recently that may slip.

United in opposition to the health care bill, minority Republicans cataloged their objections across hours of debate on the 1,990-page, $1.2 trillion legislation.

"We are going to have a complete government takeover of our health care system faster than you can say, `this is making me sick,'" jabbed Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., adding that Democrats were intent on passing "a jobs-killing, tax-hiking, deficit-exploding" bill.

But with little or no doubt about the outcome, the rhetoric lacked the fire of last summer's town hall meetings, when some critics accused Democrats of plotting "death panels" to hasten the demise of senior citizens.

The legislation would require most Americans to carry insurance and provide federal subsidies to those who otherwise could not afford it. Large companies would have to offer coverage to their employees. Both consumers and companies would be slapped with penalties if they defied the government's mandates.

Insurance industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions would be banned, and insurers would no longer be able to charge higher premiums on the basis of gender or medical history. In a further slap, the industry would lose its exemption from federal antitrust restrictions on price gouging, bid rigging and market allocation.

At its core, the measure would create a federally regulated marketplace where consumers could shop for coverage. In the bill's most controversial provision, the government would sell insurance, although the Congressional Budget Office forecasts that premiums for it would be more expensive than for policies sold by private firms.

The bill is projected to expand coverage to 36 million uninsured, resulting in 96 percent of the nation's eligible population having insurance.

To pay for the expansion of coverage, the bill cuts Medicare's projected spending by more than $400 billion over a decade. It also imposes a tax surcharge of 5.4 percent on income over $500,000 in the case of individuals and $1 million for families.

The bill was estimated to reduce federal deficits by about $104 billion over a decade, although it lacked two of the key cost-cutting provisions under consideration in the Senate, and its longer-term impact on government red ink was far from clear.

Democrats lined up a range of outside groups behind their legislation, none more important than the AARP, whose support promises political cover against the cuts to Medicare in next year's congressional elections.

The nation's drug companies generally support health care overhaul. And while the powerful insurance industry opposed the legislation, it did so quietly, and the result was that Republicans could not count on the type of advertising campaign that might have peeled away skittish Democrats in swing districts.

Over all, the bill envisioned the most sweeping set of changes to the health care system in more than a generation, and Democrats said it marked the culmination of a campaign that Harry Truman began when he sat in the White House 60 years ago.

Debate on the House floor had already begun when Obama strode into a closed-door meeting of the Democratic rank and file across the street from the Capitol to make a final personal appeal to them to pass his top domestic priority. While the session was private, he later said he had told the rank and file "that opportunities like this come around maybe once in a generation.... This is their moment, this is our moment, to live up to the trust that the American people have placed in us..."

"I urge members of Congress to rise to this moment. Answer the call of history, and vote yes for health insurance reform for America," he said.

Participants also said Obama had referred to this week's shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, in which 13 people were killed. His remarks put in perspective that the hardships soldiers endure for the country are "what sacrifice really is," as opposed to "casting a vote that might lose an election for you," said Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J.

As drafted, the measure denied the use of federal subsidies to purchase abortion coverage in policies sold by private insurers in the new insurance exchange, except in cases of incest, rape or when the life of the mother was in danger.

Democratic abortion foes, joined by Republicans, won far stronger restrictions that would rule out abortion coverage except in those three categories in any government-sold plan. It would also ban abortion coverage in any private plan purchased by consumers receiving federal subsidies.

Disappointed Democratic abortion rights supporters grumbled about the turn of events, but appeared to pull back quickly from any thought of opposing the health care bill in protest.

One, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., detailed numerous other benefits for women in the bill, including free medical preventive services and better prescription drug coverage under Medicare. "Women need health care reform," she concluded in remarks on the House floor.

Republicans offered an alternative that relied heavily on loosening regulations on private insurers to reduce costs for those who currently have insurance, in some cases by as much as 10 percent. But congressional budget analysts said the plan would make no dent in the ranks of the uninsured, an assessment that highlighted the difference in priorities between the two political parties. It fell by a near party line vote of 258-176.

It was a theme of Obama's remarks to Democrats at midmorning.

The president said Democrats have a 70-year history of creating and defending programs like Social Security and Medicare, Andrews said afterward, adding Obama had said the day's vote "is going to define the difference between the Republican and Democratic parties for decades."

Associated Press writers Phil Elliott, Alan Fram and Erica Werner contributed to this report.




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