Thursday, November 29, 2007

END OF DAYS

Thursday, November 29, 2007

A Gathering of Seventy Wolves

The Annapolis charade has come and gone. Dozens of nations came this week to divide Yerushalayim in two. Along with this they have hope in their hearts to impoverish and make homeless one hundred to two hundred thousand Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria. Gog W. Bush is on a mission. As the leader of this plot to keep the Saudi royal family happy and pumping lots of oil, G-d has allowed him to literally explode Gog UMagog in our faces. The gematriah (numerical value) of Gog UMagog is 70, the total number of national/language spinoffs of Hebrew to span out of the Tower of Bavel. It represents the combined will of Mankind in their vain attempt to defy the Almighty. In their minds and in the mind of Armilus (Olmert) and Armolgus (Peres), Yerushalayim belongs to Mankind to do with it what it wishes. From Zecharia 14 we see that the Creator has other plans. The prophet very specifically says that there will be a plague that will go out against those nations that dare to divide Yerushalayim. This week the trap has been set, and forty or fifty nations have flung themselves after the bait.

You may ask, "Are there not supposed to be seventy nations that gather against Yerushalayim." This is where the math becomes tricky. Apparently there are forty or fifty nations that want to play ball with Gog. There are another twenty or thirty nations that will reject all compromises with the American king of Edom in exchange for economic largess. These nations are in Iran's (Persia's) corner. They cannot be bought. It is with them that Gog will need to fight his final war. According to the prophets and the medrashim, it is precisely that war that begins the process of our redemption.

It is truly history's crowning moment that these nations have gathered in Annapolis to proudly spit at G-d's plan for his treasured nation. Let the plagues begin.
posted by Dov Bar-Leib at 11/29/2007 02:46:00 AM

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Hand in hand for oil Click to expand image
HAND IN HAND FOR OIL

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DEBKAfile

DEBKAfile Reports: Two surfaced Iranian Kilo-class submarines spotted in Persian Gulf by US warship

November 30, 2007, 9:48 PM (GMT+02:00)

Iran's new small submarine Ghadir

Iran's new small submarine Ghadir

The USS Vicksburg cruiser tracked and photographed the Iranian Russian-designed diesel-electric attack subs some weeks ago. There was no communication between them. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that this was the first time US warships have run into a par of surfaced Iranian subs.

Wednesday, Nov. 28, Iranian Navy commander Adm. Habibollah Sayyari claimed it was expanding its sub fleet, including a new home-built small submarine called Ghadir, equipped with sonar-evading technology. He said the new craft would “give a crushing answer to enemies when needed, thanks to domestically-made equipment.” They can fire missiles to hit Israel, the admiral claimed.

Tehran media said Iran's two domestically built submarines can fire missiles and torpedoes simultaneously, but gave no information on the weapons' ranges. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Iran must therefore have recently received systems for firing missiles from subs underwater, instead of shooting them from torpedo tubes as before.

Officials have also been boasting for some weeks of their underwater crafts’ new capability to reach remote targets, including the Israeli coast.

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Zechariah Chapter 14

א הִנֵּה יוֹם-בָּא, לַיהוָה; וְחֻלַּק שְׁלָלֵךְ, בְּקִרְבֵּךְ. 1 Behold, a day of the LORD cometh, when thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
ב וְאָסַפְתִּי אֶת-כָּל-הַגּוֹיִם אֶל-יְרוּשָׁלִַם, לַמִּלְחָמָה, וְנִלְכְּדָה הָעִיר וְנָשַׁסּוּ הַבָּתִּים, וְהַנָּשִׁים תשגלנה (תִּשָּׁכַבְנָה); וְיָצָא חֲצִי הָעִיר, בַּגּוֹלָה, וְיֶתֶר הָעָם, לֹא יִכָּרֵת מִן-הָעִיר. 2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, but the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
ג וְיָצָא יְהוָה, וְנִלְחַם בַּגּוֹיִם הָהֵם, כְּיוֹם הִלָּחֲמוֹ, בְּיוֹם קְרָב. 3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fighteth in the day of battle.
ד וְעָמְדוּ רַגְלָיו בַּיּוֹם-הַהוּא עַל-הַר הַזֵּיתִים אֲשֶׁר עַל-פְּנֵי יְרוּשָׁלִַם, מִקֶּדֶם, וְנִבְקַע הַר הַזֵּיתִים מֵחֶצְיוֹ מִזְרָחָה וָיָמָּה, גֵּיא גְּדוֹלָה מְאֹד; וּמָשׁ חֲצִי הָהָר צָפוֹנָה, וְחֶצְיוֹ-נֶגְבָּה. 4 And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleft in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, so that there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
ה וְנַסְתֶּם גֵּיא-הָרַי, כִּי-יַגִּיעַ גֵּי-הָרִים אֶל-אָצַל, וְנַסְתֶּם כַּאֲשֶׁר נַסְתֶּם מִפְּנֵי הָרַעַשׁ, בִּימֵי עֻזִּיָּה מֶלֶךְ-יְהוּדָה; וּבָא יְהוָה אֱלֹהַי, כָּל-קְדֹשִׁים עִמָּךְ. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel; yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and the LORD my God shall come, and all the holy ones with Thee.
ו וְהָיָה, בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא; לֹא-יִהְיֶה אוֹר, יְקָרוֹת יקפאון (וְקִפָּאוֹן). 6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that there shall not be light, but heavy clouds and thick;
ז וְהָיָה יוֹם-אֶחָד, הוּא יִוָּדַע לַיהוָה--לֹא-יוֹם וְלֹא-לָיְלָה; וְהָיָה לְעֵת-עֶרֶב, יִהְיֶה-אוֹר. 7 And there shall be one day which shall be known as the LORD'S, not day, and not night; but it shall come to pass, that at evening time there shall be light.
ח וְהָיָה בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא, יֵצְאוּ מַיִם-חַיִּים מִירוּשָׁלִַם, חֶצְיָם אֶל-הַיָּם הַקַּדְמוֹנִי, וְחֶצְיָם אֶל-הַיָּם הָאַחֲרוֹן: בַּקַּיִץ וּבָחֹרֶף, יִהְיֶה. 8 And it shall come to pass in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem: half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea; in summer and in winter shall it be.
ט וְהָיָה יְהוָה לְמֶלֶךְ, עַל-כָּל-הָאָרֶץ; בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא, יִהְיֶה יְהוָה אֶחָד--וּשְׁמוֹ אֶחָד. 9 And the LORD shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall the LORD be One, and His name one.
י יִסּוֹב כָּל-הָאָרֶץ כָּעֲרָבָה מִגֶּבַע לְרִמּוֹן, נֶגֶב יְרוּשָׁלִָם; וְרָאֲמָה וְיָשְׁבָה תַחְתֶּיהָ לְמִשַּׁעַר בִּנְיָמִן, עַד-מְקוֹם שַׁעַר הָרִאשׁוֹן עַד-שַׁעַר הַפִּנִּים, וּמִגְדַּל חֲנַנְאֵל, עַד יִקְבֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ. 10 All the land shall be turned as the Arabah, from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and she shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananel unto the king's winepresses.
יא וְיָשְׁבוּ בָהּ, וְחֵרֶם לֹא יִהְיֶה-עוֹד; וְיָשְׁבָה יְרוּשָׁלִַם, לָבֶטַח. {ס} 11 And men shall dwell therein, and there shall be no more extermination; but Jerusalem shall dwell safely. {S}
יב וְזֹאת תִּהְיֶה הַמַּגֵּפָה, אֲשֶׁר יִגֹּף יְהוָה אֶת-כָּל-הָעַמִּים, אֲשֶׁר צָבְאוּ, עַל-יְרוּשָׁלִָם; הָמֵק בְּשָׂרוֹ, וְהוּא עֹמֵד עַל-רַגְלָיו, וְעֵינָיו תִּמַּקְנָה בְחֹרֵיהֶן, וּלְשׁוֹנוֹ תִּמַּק בְּפִיהֶם. 12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the peoples that have warred against Jerusalem: their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their sockets, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
יג וְהָיָה בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא, תִּהְיֶה מְהוּמַת-יְהוָה רַבָּה בָּהֶם; וְהֶחֱזִיקוּ, אִישׁ יַד רֵעֵהוּ, וְעָלְתָה יָדוֹ, עַל-יַד רֵעֵהוּ. 13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.
יד וְגַם-יְהוּדָה--תִּלָּחֵם, בִּירוּשָׁלִָם; וְאֻסַּף חֵיל כָּל-הַגּוֹיִם סָבִיב, זָהָב וָכֶסֶף וּבְגָדִים--לָרֹב מְאֹד. 14 And Judah also shall fight against Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the nations round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance.
טו וְכֵן תִּהְיֶה מַגֵּפַת הַסּוּס, הַפֶּרֶד הַגָּמָל וְהַחֲמוֹר, וְכָל-הַבְּהֵמָה, אֲשֶׁר יִהְיֶה בַּמַּחֲנוֹת הָהֵמָּה--כַּמַּגֵּפָה, הַזֹּאת. 15 And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in those camps, as this plague.
טז וְהָיָה, כָּל-הַנּוֹתָר מִכָּל-הַגּוֹיִם, הַבָּאִים, עַל-יְרוּשָׁלִָם; וְעָלוּ מִדֵּי שָׁנָה בְשָׁנָה, לְהִשְׁתַּחֲו‍ֹת לְמֶלֶךְ יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת, וְלָחֹג, אֶת-חַג הַסֻּכּוֹת. 16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
יז וְהָיָה אֲשֶׁר לֹא-יַעֲלֶה מֵאֵת מִשְׁפְּחוֹת הָאָרֶץ, אֶל-יְרוּשָׁלִַם, לְהִשְׁתַּחֲו‍ֹת, לְמֶלֶךְ יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת--וְלֹא עֲלֵיהֶם, יִהְיֶה הַגָּשֶׁם. 17 And it shall be, that whoso of the families of the earth goeth not up unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, upon them there shall be no rain.
יח וְאִם-מִשְׁפַּחַת מִצְרַיִם לֹא-תַעֲלֶה וְלֹא בָאָה, וְלֹא עֲלֵיהֶם; תִּהְיֶה הַמַּגֵּפָה, אֲשֶׁר יִגֹּף יְהוָה אֶת-הַגּוֹיִם, אֲשֶׁר לֹא יַעֲלוּ, לָחֹג אֶת-חַג הַסֻּכּוֹת. 18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, they shall have no overflow; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the nations that go not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
יט זֹאת תִּהְיֶה, חַטַּאת מִצְרָיִם; וְחַטַּאת, כָּל-הַגּוֹיִם, אֲשֶׁר לֹא יַעֲלוּ, לָחֹג אֶת-חַג הַסֻּכּוֹת. 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations that go not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
כ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא, יִהְיֶה עַל-מְצִלּוֹת הַסּוּס, קֹדֶשׁ, לַיהוָה; וְהָיָה הַסִּירוֹת בְּבֵית יְהוָה, כַּמִּזְרָקִים לִפְנֵי הַמִּזְבֵּחַ. 20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses: HOLY UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD'S house shall be like the basins before the altar.
כא וְהָיָה כָּל-סִיר בִּירוּשָׁלִַם וּבִיהוּדָה, קֹדֶשׁ לַיהוָה צְבָאוֹת, וּבָאוּ כָּל-הַזֹּבְחִים, וְלָקְחוּ מֵהֶם וּבִשְּׁלוּ בָהֶם; וְלֹא-יִהְיֶה כְנַעֲנִי עוֹד בְּבֵית-יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת, בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא. {ש} 21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holy unto the LORD of hosts; and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein; and in that day there shall be no more a trafficker in the house of the LORD of hosts. {P}

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

US DOLLAR

Wed Nov 28, 2007, 11:12 am EST

Business

Forecast: U.S. dollar could plunge 90 pct

RHINEBECK, N.Y., 19 (UPI) -- A financial crisis will likely send the U.S. dollar into a free fall of as much as 90 percent and gold soaring to $2,000 an ounce, a trends researcher said.

"We are going to see economic times the likes of which no living person has seen," Trends Research Institute Director Gerald Celente said, forecasting a "Panic of 2008."

"The bigger they are, the harder they'll fall," he said in an interview with New York's Hudson Valley Business Journal.

Celente -- who forecast the subprime mortgage financial crisis and the dollar's decline a year ago and gold's current rise in May -- told the newspaper the subprime mortgage meltdown was just the first "small, high-risk segment of the market" to collapse.

Derivative dealers, hedge funds, buyout firms and other market players will also unravel, he said.

Massive corporate losses, such as those recently posted by Citigroup Inc. and General Motors Corp., will also be fairly common "for some time to come," he said.

He said he would not "be surprised if giants tumble to their deaths," Celente said.

The Panic of 2008 will lead to a lower U.S. standard of living, he said.

A result will be a drop in holiday spending a year from now, followed by a permanent end of the "retail holiday frenzy" that has driven the U.S. economy since the 1940s, he said.


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Stephen King: When banking is in crisis, no one wants to be parted from their cash

The hoarding of money points to a banking system in crisis ... Without money, our economies will simply grind to a halt

Published: 26 November 2007

Imagine you're in Starbucks buying your café latte. As you hand over your coins, the barista tells you the money you're giving him is unacceptable. What do you do? You might politely point out that your coins are universally exchangeable, and thus he is a fool to refuse your attempted payment. If that fails, you might resort to some good old-fashioned Anglo-Saxon phraseology. If you're in a particularly aggressive mood, you might lean across the counter, grab the barista by his apron strings and nut him.

If, though, you were an economist, you might gently remind the barista that your coins are backed by the Bank of England. They will always, therefore, be acceptable because the Bank of England, through its inflation target, has made a public commitment to safeguarding the value of money.

This is true, but only up to a point. Notes and coins are generally acceptable unless there's either an enormous counterfeiting problem or a major difficulty with inflation.

In the Weimar Republic, under the twin strains of reparations and macroeconomic incompetence, inflation swiftly became hyperinflation and people had to wheel their near-worthless notes and coins around in wheelbarrows.

In some parts of Germany, notes and coins were replaced by other currencies. Cigarettes, for example, became increasingly acceptable as a means of exchange. Cigarettes, though, were not produced by the central bank, nor were they in any sense normal "money". They were good enough, though, to serve as both a medium of exchange and, within limits, a store of value, and therefore they had, for a while, the properties we commonly associate with money.

This little story should be enough to convince you that money can exist independently of central banks, an observation that sometimes seems to be forgotten. It's easy to prove historically, of course, because we know of societies whose monies ranged from shells to jewellery to animal teeth. But it's also the case that money today can easily be created – and destroyed – without the involvement of the central banks and their printing presses.

In the UK, for example, the value of notes and coins in circulation is a little short of £50bn whereas M4 – a broad measure of money supply which includes all sorts of interest-bearing deposits – is well over £1trn.

Economics textbooks try to tie these narrow and broad definitions of money together using the so-called deposit multiplier. The attraction of this device is its arithmetical elegance. Sadly, though, it's not connected with reality. But the idea behind the deposit multiplier,is straightforward and does demonstrate something about the creation of money at the stroke of a pen (or, these days, at the touch of a keyboard).

Suppose I walk into a bank with a suitcase of money. Assuming that the bank has no suspicions about money laundering, its manager will take my money and perhaps put it on deposit. The bank then loans 60 per cent of my money to another customer by creating a deposit in that customer's name. The customer then spends some of his money which then is deposited by the recipient in another bank which can now also create new loans. It's not long before the value of deposits far outstrips the amount of notes and coins in circulation. Put another way, if everyone simultaneously tried to withdraw funds from banks, the system would topple over. There simply aren't enough notes and coins to go round.

So how does the system work? Ultimately, it works through trust. We trust banks to look after our money to ensure that we will always be able to get access to our funds on demand.

So long as we don't all demand access to our funds at the same time, the system works well. If, though, there's a panic, and everyone wants their money at once, all sorts of horrible things can happen as the depositors and now the shareholders of Northern Rock have discovered.

In a modern banking system, money is created via collateral. When you go to your bank to ask for a top up mortgage to fund next year's holiday, the friendly manager may give you a loan but the loan, in turn, has been secured on the value of your house. Imagine you bought your house five years ago on a 100 per cent mortgage. In the intervening period, perhaps the value of your house has doubled. Now with only a 50 per cent mortgage, the bank may feel more confident lending you the money. When house prices rise, money is created. When house prices fall, driving down the collateral against which loans are made, money is destroyed. Loans are called in, credit lines are shut off, and monetary conditions tighten up.

Within the banking system, the collateral value against which loans are made was rising rapidly earlier in the decade. Much of this collateral was tied up in products which, now, have turned sour. Up until the summer, most banks were happy to accept as collateral the full range of increasingly exotic products ultimately linked, at least in part, to the now rapidly deteriorating US housing market.

Now, though, mortgage-backed securities, asset- backed collateralised debt obligations and the full paraphernalia of structured products are no longer regarded as safe collateral. In many cases, there is no longer a market price.

In the absence of collateral and, hence, in the absence of money creation, there's a perceived shortage of money. And, with a shortage of money, banks hoard whatever money they can get their hands on. Each bank eyes other banks warily. Banks will still lend to each other, but only at penalty rates. As a result, interbank rates remain well above official interest rates in the US, UK and eurozone (it's also why banks are now offering higher deposit rates – your bank needs your money.)

The effects of this monetary "shortage" are already seeping out into the broader economy. One way this is visible is through the financial market reaction to the US interest rate cuts seen so far. Outside the housing market, there's not much sign of the US economy weakening at the moment.

One might have thought, therefore, that rate cuts would be greeted well by equity investors (lower rates are good for growth) and not so well by government bond investors (in the absence of economic weakness, lower rates might lead to inflationary risks).

And, for a fleeting moment, that's exactly what happened. Following the Federal Reserve's decisions to cut policy rates in August and September, equities rallied and bonds sold off. But the initial reaction didn't last. More recently, equity prices have plunged to levels last seen before the initial rate cuts while bonds have shown an explosive rally, with yields dropping like a stone.

Why is this? Basically, any asset that looks a bit like money has become very attractive. Ten-year government bonds aren't entirely like money – try buying your café latte with one of those – but they're a lot closer to money than equities, which ultimately give you exposure to only one company at a time.

The hoarding of money – and near-money substitutes – points to a banking system in crisis. Central banks may still be hopeful that 2008 will be a reasonable year for economic growth. If, though, there's any hope of achieving a reasonable outcome, our policymakers will have to work a lot harder to get the monetary system working again, whether through rate cuts or through an increase in acceptable assets against which central banks can supply money to the banking system as a whole.

Money is, after all, the lubricant that allows our modern economic systems to function. Without it, our economies will simply grind to a halt.

Stephen King is managing director of economics at HSBC

stephen.king@ hsbcib.com

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Tuesday, November 27, 2007

PATRICK J. BUCHANAN








NEW BUCHANAN BOOK DECLARES 'END OF AMERICA'
Sun Nov 25 2007 20:40:15 ET

**Exclusive**

"America is coming apart, decomposing, and...the likelihood of her survival as one nation...is improbable -- and impossible if America continues on her current course," declares Pat Buchanan. "For we are on a path to national suicide."

The best-selling author and former presidential candidate is on the eve of launching his new epic book: DAY OF RECKONING: HOW HUBRIS, IDEOLOGY AND GREED ARE TEARING AMERICA APART.

[The book's release date has been moved up to this week. It ranked #237 on AMAZON's hitparade Monday morning.]


This time, Buchanan goes all the way:

"America is in an existential crisis from which the nation may not survive."

The U.S. Army is breaking and is too small to meet America’s global commitments.

The dollar has sunk to historic lows and is being abandoned by foreign governments.

U.S. manufacturing is being hollowed out.

The greatest invasion in history, from the Third World, is swamping the ethno-cultural core of the country, leading to Balkanization and the loss of the Southwest to Mexico.


The culture is collapsing and the nation is being deconstructed along the lines of race and class.

A fiscal crisis looms as the unfunded mandates of Social Security and Medicare remain unaddressed.

All these crises are hitting America at once -- a perfect storm of crises.

Specifically, Buchanan contends:

• Pax Americana, the era of U.S. global dominance, is over. A struggle for global hegemony has begun among the United States, China, a resurgent Russia and radical Islam

• Bush’s invasion of Iraq was a product of hubris and of ideology, a secular religion of “democratism,” to which Bush was converted in the days following 9/11

• Torn asunder by a culture war, America has now begun to break down along class, ethnic and racial lines.

• The greatest threat to U.S. sovereignty and independence is the scheme of a global elite to erase America’s borders and merge the USA, Mexico and Canada into a North American Union.

• Free trade is shipping jobs, factories and technology to China and plunging America into permanent dependency and unpayable debt. One of every six U.S. manufacturing jobs vanished under Bush

• “Sovereign Wealth Funds,” controlled by foreign regimes and stuffed with trillions of dollars from U.S. trade deficits, are buying up strategic corporate assets vital to America’s security

• As U.S. wages are stagnant, corporate CEOs are raking in rising pay and benefits 400 to 500 times that of their workers

• The Third World invasion through Mexico is a graver threat to our survival as one nation than anything happening in Afghanistan or Iraq

* European-Americans, 89% of the nation when JFK took the oath, are now 66% and sinking. Before 2050, America is a Third World nation

• By 2060, America will add 167 million people and 105 million immigrants will be here, triple the 37 million today.

• Hispanics will be over 100 million in 2050 and concentrated in a Southwest most Mexicans believe belongs to them

Buchanan’s Recommendations:

• A new foreign-defense policy that closes most of the 1000 bases overseas, reviews all alliances, and brings home U.S. troops

• A purge of neoconservative ideology and the “Cakewalk” crowd” from national power.

• To avert a second Cold War, the United States should “get out of Russia’s space and get out of Russia’s face,” and shut down all U.S. bases on the soil of the former Soviet Union

• To reach a cold peace in the culture war, Buchanan urges a return to federalism and the overthrow of our judicial dictatorship by Congressionally mandated restrictions on the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

• To end the trade deficits and save the dollar, Buchanan urges a Hamiltonian solution: a 20% Border Equity Tax on imports, with the $500 billion raised to be used to end taxation on American producers

• To prevent America becoming “a tangle of squabbling nationalities” Buchanan urges: No amnesty for the 12-20 million illegal aliens; a border fence from San Diego to Brownsville; Congressional declarations that children born to illegal aliens are not citizens and English is the language of the United States; and a “timeout” on all immigration.

Developing...

RIOTING RETURNS TO "FRANCE"

Sarkozy urges calm as riots return to Paris



· Violence in suburbs after youths die in police crash
· Angry residents accuse officers of fleeing scene


Emilie Boyer King in Paris
Tuesday November 27, 2007
The Guardian


Rioters in front of a burning truck throw stones at the police in Villiers Le Bel, a northern suburb of Paris
Rioters in front of a burning truck throw stones at the police in Villiers Le Bel, a northern suburb of Paris. Photograph: Philippe de Poulpiquet/EPA


Police fired teargas and rubber bullets at rioters armed with molotov cocktails and firecrackers last night, in the second day of violence after two youths died in a motorcycle accident involving a police car.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, visiting China, called for calm, while police braced themselves for more unrest after hours of running street battles. The riots broke out on Sunday, hours after the two teenagers collided with a patrol car.

The accident resembled the event that triggered suburban riots in France in 2005, sparking fears of more violence to come. Two years ago the death of two boys allegedly fleeing the police in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois sparked weeks of violence in France's rundown estates.



Dozens of youths descended on Villiers-le-Bel on Sunday evening, torching the police station, looting shops and setting cars and dustbins on fire. The police station in neighbouring Arnouville was ransacked, as well as at least one petrol station, in more than six hours of violence.

Nine people were arrested yesterday morning, according to police.

The crash that sparked the riots occurred at around 5pm on Sunday, when a mini-motorcycle and a police car on patrol collided, killing a 15-year-old, Moushin, and his friend, Larami, 16. Police said the teenagers were driving an unregistered vehicle and were not wearing helmets.

"We are sorry about the death of these young people, but it appears that they were unfortunately the victims of a traffic accident," said Francis Debuire, of the Force Ouvrière police union.

However, residents said police fled the scene and failed to help the youths. "They hit them from behind," Calbo, a rapper and local resident, told Reuters. "They saw they were in pain [but] they didn't help. The police tried to drive off by starting their car. They couldn't start their car because it was damaged, so they ran away."

An investigation on suspicion of possible manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident has been opened by police.

Last night, during an official visit to Beijing, Sarkozy said: "I call on everyone to calm down and let the justice system decide who was responsible."

Shortly after the riots broke out the local mayor and a police chief arrived, but were forced to turn back after the policeman was hit in the face and his car set on fire. Riot police were then brought in.

The mayor, Didier Vaillant, urged local people not to resort to violence. "We must make sure this doesn't happen again ... I am calling all the men and women of Villiers-le-Bel to help me do this."

Omar Sehhouli, the brother of one of the victims, said the police involved should be convicted. "Everyone knew the two boys here," he told French radio. "What happened, that's not violence, it's rage."

The Socialist head of the opposition, François Hollande, condemned the violence but said it revealed a "social and political crisis", and blamed the government for not improving the situation in destitute suburbs since the 2005 riots.

Monday, November 26, 2007

"FINANCIAL MELTDOWN"

"A Generalized Meltdown of Financial Institutions"

Take a Look at Professor Roubini's Crystal Ball


Global Research, November 24, 2007
Information Clearing House


Reality has finally caught up to the stock market. The American consumer is underwater, the banks are buried in debt, and the housing market is in terminal distress. The Dow is now below its 200-Day Moving Average -- the first big "sell" signal. Anything below 12,500 could trigger program-trading and crash the market. The increased volatility suggests that we are watching a "real time" meltdown.

International Business editor for the UK Telegraph, Ambrose Evans Pritchard, summed up yesterday's action in the Asian markets:

"The global credit crisis has hit Asia with a vengeance for the first time, triggering a massive flight to safety as investors across the region pull out of risky assets. Yields on three-month deposits in China and Korea have plummeted to near 1pc in a spectacular fall over recent days, caused by panic withdrawals from money market funds and credit derivatives.

"'This' is a severe warning sign,' said Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas. 'Asia ignored the credit crunch in August but now we're seeing the poison beginning to paralyze the whole global economy.'" (Credit 'Heart attack' engulfs China and Korea" Ambrose Evans Pritchard,UK Telegraph,)

The credit storm that began in the United States with subprime mortgages has spread to markets across the globe. In fact, the train has already crashed. What we're seeing now is the boxcars piling up on top of each other.

On Tuesday Chinese government officials ordered a complete halt to bank lending to slow the speculative frenzy that has created an enormous equity bubble in the stock market. According to the Wall Street Journal:

"Chinese authorities are slamming the brakes on bank lending, in their latest attempt to curb the runaway investment threatening to overheat what is soon to be the world's third-largest economy. In recent weeks, regulators have quietly ordered China's commercial banks to freeze lending through the end of the year, according to bankers in several cities. The bankers say that to comply, they are canceling loans and credit lines with businesses and individuals." ("China freezes lending to Curb Investing Frenzy" Wall Street Journal)

The move illustrates how concerned the Chinese are that a slowdown in US consumer spending will trigger a crash on the Shanghai stock market. It also shows that the Chinese are having difficulty dealing with the inflation generated by the hundreds of billions of US dollars absorbed via the trade imbalance with the US. China is awash in USDs and that surplus is causing a steady rise in food and energy costs. This could be mitigated by allowing their currency to "float" freely. But a sudden, steep increase in the Chinese yuan's value could also send the world headlong into a global recession. For now, the lending freeze and price fixing appear to be the way out.

Another sign that the markets have reached a "tipping point" appeared in a Reuters article on Wednesday; "Interbank Covered Bond Trading Halted on Volatility":

"Renewed credit turmoil and volatility led the European Covered Bond Council (ECBC) on Wednesday to suspend inter-bank market-making in covered bonds until Monday, Nov. 26.

The move is a sign of the stress in the covered bond market, which is dominated by German institutions that have almost a trillion euros of covered bonds outstanding.

Covered bonds -- backed by pools of assets that remain on the borrower's balance sheet -- are usually highly liquid and typically rated triple-A by ratings agencies. The ECBC's recommendation is aimed at relieving the pressure on market makers who are forced to quote prices at a fixed bid-offer spread.

"In light of the current market situation and in order to avoid undue over-acceleration in the widening of spreads, the 8-to-8 Market-Makers & Issuers Committee recommends that inter-bank market-making be suspended," the ECBC said in a release."

Note: This isn't mortgage-backed junk that's being sold, but highly liquid bonds that are usually easy to cash in. The ECBC's action is a sign of pure desperation and indicates that credit paralysis has infected the entire euro banking system.

Reuters: "Due to general market conditions and the specific mechanics of the inter-dealer market making it even seems possible that inter-dealer market making will not be resumed this year."

That's bad. The mechanism for converting covered bonds into cash has broken down.

The dollar took another pasting on Wednesday, sliding to $1.49 on the euro; another new record. Gold shot up to $814 per ounce. Oil continues to flirt with the $100 per barrel mark, and the yen rose to 107 per dollar forcing a sell-off of hedge fund assets levered through the carry trade.

Jon Basile, economist at Credit Suisse, summed it up like this: "There's a heck of a lot of bad news out there." Indeed.

In California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has joined with four mortgage lenders to freeze adjustable interest rates (ARMs) for some of the state's highest-risk borrowers; another unprecedented move. The Governor hopes to avoid a collapse of the California real estate market which has gone into a tailspin. Home sales have plummeted more than 40 per cent for the last two months. Prices have dropped sharply---roughly 12 per cent statewide. New construction has slowed to a crawl. Layoffs are steadily rising. Jumbo loans (mortgages over $417,000) have been put on the "Endangered Species" list. Even qualified borrowers can't get mortgages. Nothing is selling. California housing is "off the cliff".

Schwarzenegger's plan to keep over-extended subprime mortgage-holders in their homes faces an uncertain future. What incentive is there for homeowners to continue paying exorbitant monthly rates when their payments are not applied to the principle? The homeowners would be better off bailing out, accepting foreclosure, and starting over with a clean slate.

It's unrealistic to thinks that Schwarzenegger can stop the tidal wave of foreclosures that are sweeping across the state. An estimated 3 million homeowners will lose their homes nationwide.

If you want to blame someone; blame Alan Greenspan. He's the one who created this mess. According to the economist Mike Shedlock:

"The Fed caused the credit crunch by slashing interest rates to 1 per cent to bail out its banking buddies in the wake of a dotcom bubble collapse. All the Fed did was create a bigger bubble. This bubble is so big in fact that it cannot even be bailed out. It's the end of the line for a serially bubble blowing Fed.

"So not only was this the biggest credit bubble in history, this was also the biggest transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the already enormously wealthy. That is the real travesty of justice regardless of whether or not the price tag is $1 trillion, $2 trillion, or $10 trillion." (Mike Shedlock, "Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis")

The problem has gotten so serious that even Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, is putting up red flags. Last week, Paulson ignited a sell-off on Wall Street when he made this statement:

"The nature of the problem will be significantly bigger next year because 2006 [mortgages] had lower underwriting standards, no amortization, and no down payments....We're never going to be able to process the number of workouts and modifications (to mortgages) that are going to be necessary doing it just sort of one-off. I've talked to enough people now to know that there's no way that's going to work."

The desperation is palpable. Like Schwarzenegger, Paulson is trying to get mortgage-lenders to provide a safety net for struggling borrowers who are defaulting on their loans.

Paulson is calling for emergency legislation that will allow the Federal Housing Administration to play a greater role in the relief effort. The FHA has already expanded its traditional role by taking on hundreds of billions in extra debt just to keep a few "private" mortgage lenders and banks from going bankrupt. Of course, when Paulson's plan goes kaput and the debts pile up; it'll be the taxpayer that foots the bill.

"Paulson also called the Senate's failure to pass legislation overhauling mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac frustrating," saying that the two government-sponsored entities need to be playing a bigger role in the housing market.

"If we ever need them it's during times like today, and they're most valuable when there is distress in the mortgage market," he said. "I'd like to see them playing an even bigger role."(Wall Street Journal)

Fannie and Freddie, have already posted enormous quarterly losses and don't have the capital reserves to put millions of subprime mortgage-holders under their "government-sponsored" umbrella. Paulson is just grabbing at straws.

Similar troubles are brewing in the broader market where late-payments and defaults have spread to credit card debt and new car loans. Every area of "securitized" debt has suddenly veered off the road and into the ditch. Last week the Fed injected more credit into the teetering banking system than anytime since 9-11.

No one has predicted the downward-spiral in the market more accurately than Nouriel Roubini. Roubini is a Professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University. His analysis appears regularly on his blogsite, Global EconoMonitor. Last week's prediction was particularly dire and is worth reprinting here:

"It is increasingly clear by now that a severe U.S. recession is inevitable in next few months...I now see the risk of a severe and worsening liquidity and credit crunch leading to a generalized meltdown of the financial system of a severity and magnitude like we have never observed before. In this extreme scenario whose likelihood is increasing we could see a generalized run on some banks; and runs on a couple of weaker (non-bank) broker dealers that may go bankrupt with severe and systemic ripple effects on a mass of highly leveraged derivative instruments that will lead to a seizure of the derivatives markets... massive losses on money market funds with a run on both those sponsored by banks and those not sponsored by banks; ..ever growing defaults and losses ($500 billion plus) in subprime, near prime and prime mortgages with severe knock-on effect on the RMBS and CDOs market; massive losses in consumer credit (auto loans, credit cards); severe problems and losses in commercial real estate...; the drying up of liquidity and credit in a variety of asset backed securities putting the entire model of securitization at risk; runs on hedge funds and other financial institutions that do not have access to the Fed's lender of last resort support; a sharp increase in corporate defaults and credit spreads; and a massive process of re-intermediation into the banking system of activities that were until now altogether securitized." (Nouriel Roubini's Global EconoMonitor)

"A generalized meltdown of the financial system".

Looks like Chicken Little might have gotten it right this time; "The sky IS falling."

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com


Global Research Articles by Mike Whitney

TRENT LOTT TO RESIGN


Lott expected to announce resignation at noon Monday

David Edwards and Nick Juliano
Published: Monday November 26, 2007

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Onetime Senate GOP leader Trent Lott is expected to announce his resignation at a noon press conference Monday, giving Republicans another open seat to defend in next year's election, according to several reports Monday.

By resigning before Jan. 1, 2008, Lott will dodge new ethics laws that would require him to wait two years before taking on a lucrative lobbying gig in Washington, NBC correspondent Kelly O'Donnell reports. And the early resignation will give the Mississippi senator more influence in who would become his successor.

A "well placed Republican source" tells the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call that Lott is not resigning because of ethics charges or illness, but because of a desire to spend more time with his grandchildren and a general distaste for Congress -- "He's fed up," the source says.

"This is a significant development because Trent Lott is a former majority leader in the Senate and has been a powerful force, high-ranking Republican and he represents another departure," O'Donnell said, noting that Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel also has announced his intention not to seek reelection in the Senate.

Lott, the senior senator from Mississippi, came under fire in 2002 for his controversial comments praising Sen. Strom Thurmond, saying the country would be better off if the then-segregationist had won his presidential bid in 1948.

O'Donnell noted that there has been some distance between Lott and the White House, which did not vigorously defend the majority leader for the comments which contributed to his losing his top spot in the Senate.

DEVELOPING ...

This video is from MSNBC's Morning Joe, broadcast on November 26, 2007.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

DEBKA EXCLUSIVE - "ANNAPOLIS"


DEBKAfile

DEBKAfile Exclusive: By pumping up the Lebanese crisis to explosion level, Tehran and Damascus steal Middle East interest away from Annapolis conference

November 22, 2007, 12:24 PM (GMT+02:00)

Lebanese army chief Gen. Michel Suleiman - in line as Lebanese strongman

Lebanese army chief Gen. Michel Suleiman - in line as Lebanese strongman

After Tehran and Damascus vetoed all six candidates for the presidency to succeed pro-Syrian Emil Lahoud on Nov. 24, candidates have been dropping by the wayside almost daily. The 79-year old former minister Michel Edde was the latest to be disqualified after he took instructions in Damascus for safeguarding Syrian interests in Lebanon.

DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources: Tehran and Damascus have joined hands to bring the Hizballah Shiite to the fore in Beirut and sabotage the Annapolis conference to demonstrate how Tehran & Co. is calling the shots in the Middle East - not Washington.

Our sources outline the worst-case scenario - failing a breakthrough in Beirut on an agreed president in the next 48 hours.

The outgoing pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud president will exit the Baabde palace Saturday, Nov. 24, and transfer his powers to the Lebanese chief of staff Gen. Michel Suleiman, who is considered moderately pro-Syrian and a Hizballah supporter.

The army will then rally behind the general rather than the pro-Western prime minister Fouad Siniora. This will leave Siniora with the option of calling on the backing of the Sunni militias led by majority leader Saad Hariri, Walid Jumblatt’s Druze forces and Samir Geagea’s Christian Phalangists. This bloc will find itself ranged against the bulk of the Lebanese army and Hizballah’s armed forces.

All the ingredients for turmoil and civil strife will then be in place, with the advantage held by the anti-West grouping in terms of numbers, training and weaponry, lavishly supplied by Syria and Iran.

President George W. Bush and every world leader he can rope in have been engaged in frenzied diplomacy in the last 24 hours to fend off this development. A conflagration in Lebanon would jeopardize the US administration’s policies not only there but also in relation to Iran, Syria and the Palestinians. The Washington-Annapolis meeting would become an empty charade.

Russian president Vladimir Putin in particular has lent his weight to Washington’s effort by applying to Bashar Assad and asking him to attend the meeting and work with the US to solve the crisis over the election of a Lebanese president. The Syrian president has not so far responded.

Nicolas Sarkozy also phoned Assad, the first time a French president communicated with the Syrian president in the two years since the Hariri assassination. He too drew no response. Many of France’s foreign policy eggs repose in the Lebanese basket and their loss leaves the relationship Sarkozy hoped to develop with Damascus and Tehran going nowhere.

Another caller to the presidential palace in Damascus was Italian prime minister Roman Prodi.

For Israel, the emergence of Gen. Suleiman as Lebanon’s strongman would add a serious setback to those Israel suffered in its 2006 Lebanon War with Hizballah. The UN peacekeeping force, which is required to cooperate with the Lebanese army, would be paralyzed and the last barrier removed for keeping Hizballah out of South Lebanon and at a distance from the Israeli border.

For the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group, Damascus and Tehran, this development would cap their strategic gains of last year.

Israel’s prime minister would be better occupied dealing with this new security crisis on its borders, Israeli security sources tell DEBKAfile, than posing with Mahmoud Abbas at a photo-op in America.

Arab League foreign ministers, called into session Thursday, Nov. 22 to decide on a delegation to the US-promoted Middle East conference, postponed their Cairo meeting to Friday, for another attempt to solve the Lebanese crisis. The lines between Arab capitals have been humming day and night.

The Middle East special envoy Tony Blair traveled to Riyadh Wednesday but failed to persuade the king to send a minister to Annapolis. The Saudi ambassador to Washington will therefore head his country’s delegation. Syria is not expected to attend.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

"OLMERT" IS "NUTS"

DEBKAfile Reports: Overriding IDF and Shin Bet objections, Olmert approves arming Palestinian West Bank forces with 50 Russian APCs, 1000 rifles and 2 million bullets

November 21, 2007, 9:27 AM (GMT+02:00)

Olmert approves these Russian BTR armored personnel carriers for the Palestinians

Olmert approves these Russian BTR armored personnel carriers for the Palestinians

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the armored personnel carriers which can carry 10 fighters were promised Mahmoud Abbas by Russian president Vladimir Putin. Whichever of the models supplied - the BTR-60PB, BTR-70 or BTR-80 – these combat vehicles are armed with turret heavy machine gun mounts designed to hit ground and low-flying air targets. The 14.5-mm large caliber KPVT machine guns and coaxial 7.62-mm PKT machine gun, with a traverse of 360 degrees, mounted on each turret, make this APC a highly mobile anti-air unit for attacking low-flying targets at a range of up to 2,000 meters.

DEBKAfile reports the IDF and security service fear their presence will seriously hamper Israel’s regular counter-terror activities with helicopter support, which have kept the country relatively secure in recent years by thwarting Palestinian suicide incursions and attacks.

Furthermore, there are grounds to expect the APCs will end up in terrorist hands, considering that Mahmoud Abbas’ own Fatah adherents continue to engage in terror against Israelis together with the radical Palestinian groups. Israelis living on the West Bank will now require anti-tank weapons for protection against enhanced Palestinian weaponry, as will the police contingents securing Israeli border areas.

Our military sources add that the Russian APCs have devices to protect its personnel from blast effects, nuclear radiation, bacteriologic agents and toxic chemicals. An OU-3GA3M searchlight provides illumination for night firing and six 3D6 smoke grenade launchers produce smoke screens for camouflage.

Even if one or two of its wheels are disabled, the BTR vehicle can keep going with the help of a centralized tire air control system. And even after being hit by an anti-tank mine, the vehicle can carry on fighting and travel for another 300 km before it stops.

DEBKAfile’s Moscow sources report that since his October interview with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has invested time and effort in this relationship with a view to contributing to greater US-Russian understanding. The objects are to draw Putin onto the side of a tough US stance on Iran’s nuclear program and enlist his influence for extricating Damascus from its pact with Tehran. This stratagem has failed. The Russian president is sticking to an independent policy on Iran, as he has with the Palestinians, both Abbas and the radical Hamas. He is therefore following through on his promise of 50 APCs to the Fatah leader.

Monday, November 19, 2007

THE END OF OIL

The End of Oil is Upon Us. We Must Move On - Quickly.

By Chuck Squatriglia EmailNovember 07, 2007 | 6:30:33 PMCategories: Alt Fuel, Current Affairs

Oilonwater If there are any lingering doubts as to whether the age of oil is nearing its end, the International Energy Agency has put them to rest and made it clear that only a massive and immediate investment in sustainable energy will prevent a global crisis.

The agency states in no uncertain terms in its annual World Energy Outlook that "alarming" growth in worldwide energy needs will within a generation threaten energy security, accelerate global climate change and possibly bring worldwide shortages and conflicts.

It's an unusually pessimistic view from an agency that has long said oil production, with trillions of dollars of investment, could meet rising energy needs. But the explosive growth of China and India has caused a seismic change in thinking at the IEA, which says we must move swiftly, boldly and decisively beyond fossil fuels if we are to avert a crisis.

"All countries must take vigorous, immediate and collective action to curb runaway energy demand," Nobuo Tanaka, head of the IEA, said. "The next ten years will be crucial for all countries... We need to act now to bring about a radical shift in investment in favor of cleaner, more efficient and more secure energy technologies."

Find out why after the jump...

The burgeoning economies of China, which will within three years surpass the U.S. to become the world's leading energy user, and India have inalterably changed the global energy landscape, making them the focus of the 675-page report released today.

Its projections are staggering. To cite a few: China's energy needs will grow 5.1 percent annually through 2015. Fuel needs will quadruple as its vehicle fleet approaches 270 million in 2030 - at which point China also will need an additional 1,300 gigawatts of electricity, an amount equal to what the United States currently produces.

The projections for India are no less daunting. The IEA makes a point of saying the two nations' growth has improved the quality of life for two billion people and therefore "must be accommodated and supported." But it also says "the consequences of unfettered growth in global energy demand are alarming for all countries."

That demand is expected to increase 55 percent by 2030, with China and India accounting for almost half the growth, the IEA says. Fossil fuels will remain the leading source of energy, providing 84 percent of the world's needs, and oil will continue to dominate the picture as daily demand rises from 85 million barrels today to 116 million in 2030.

The IEA says we've got enough oil to make it to 2030 even if we don't do anything to change course, but you've got to wonder how, and at what cost? The CEO of the French oil firm Total recently told the Financial Times the industry is going to have a hard time producing even 100 million barrels a day, and IEA officials told the Guardian that crude oil could hit $159 a barrel by 2030.

More and more of the energy we need will come from the Middle East, as oilfields in the North Sea and Mexico peter out and Canada's oil sands generate just 3 million barrels a day, the IEA says. That will leave the industrialized world ever more dependent on an increasingly volatile region for its energy.

As an overall piece of the global energy pie, oil will shrink as demand for coal skyrockets 73 percent and the use of natural gas and electricty climb too, the IEA says. Meeting the demand for all that fossil fuel will require investing $22 trillion in the supply infrastructure.

But of perhaps greater concern is the environmental impact of such growth. Without sweeping changes, the report states, carbon dioxide emissions will rise 57 percent to 42 gigatons by 2030. Even under the best case-scenario, which assumes the various proposals by industrialized nations to reduce emissions come to pass, emissions will climb 25 percent.

China and India will account for two-thirds of the increase, and even under the best circumstances any meaningful effort to cut emissions below current levels will require "exceptionally quick and vigorous policy actions by all countires, and unprecedented technological advances, entailing substantial costs," the report states.

So what can we do? The IEA doesn't offer a whole lot of solutions beyond saying improving energy efficiency - of everything, from automobiles to refrigerators - will be the quickest and cheapest way to begin curbing energy demand and carbon emissions. Clearly that won't be enough, and the IEA makes that point clear when it says we must explore every option and "a substantial increase is called for in public and private funding for energy technology research, development and demonstration."

How much funding? As we reported in "How Hydrogen Can Save America," the U.S. could shift much of its economy from oil to hydrogen within a decade for $100 billion - about what we spent in today's dollars to put a man on the moon.

Hydrogen is not without significant hurdles, but they are engineering issues, not scientific ones, which means they can be overcome with enough money. Wind, solar and geothermal power and cellulosic ethanol, to name a few, also hold promise, and nuclear power can serve as a stopgap while they mature. As we noted in "Why $5 Gas is Good For America," all of these options grow more attractive - and viable - as the price of oil moves ever closer to $100 a barrel, and all of them should be pursued. Market forces and other factors will sort out what's feasible and what's not.

The IEA says "we do not have the luxury of ruling out any of the options for moving the global energy system onto a more sustainable path," and it's right. It's time to move beyond oil.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

"JERUSALEM"

theTrumpet.com - Understand Your World
« The Israeli Knesset motions to prevent the division of Jerusalem.
(Getty Images)

New Knesset Bill to Block Division of Jerusalem

November 16, 2007 | From theTrumpet.com

Legislation has been proposed that could hinder any change in the current status of Jerusalem.

A new bill intended to hinder any future division of Jerusalem has been approved in its preliminary reading in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. The bill proposes an amendment that would require a two-thirds majority vote of 80 members of the Knesset in order to relinquish Israeli sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem, as opposed to the current requirement of a simple majority of 61 votes. This would make it more difficult for concessions to be made over Jerusalem at the upcoming Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland.

The bill passed its preliminary reading on Wednesday by a vote of 54 to 24, but it has not passed into law. The legislation must make it through a committee and three votes on the Knesset floor.

“But if the governing coalition does not oppose it—and it has not so far—it has a good chance,” the New York Times reports.

Likud party MK Gideon Sa’ar, who sponsored the bill, stated that its adoption, “two weeks before the Annapolis conference, sends an important and clear signal to the entire international community that all of the people of Israel and parliament oppose concessions in Jerusalem.”

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that he is willing to negotiate on core issues relating to a two-state solution at the Annapolis conference later this month. One of the issues Olmert has put on the bargaining table is the final status of Jerusalem.

This latest move by Israel’s parliament, however, indicates that there will continue to be strong opposition to Olmert’s proposals among some politicians. The Trumpet.com has previously pointed out that the Temple Mount would be a particular sticking point for the Jews in any negotiations over Jerusalem.

Biblical prophecy tells us that half of Jerusalem will fall (Zechariah 14:2). Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has written about how the Jews’ determination to hold on to parts of East Jerusalem would lead to this prophecy being fulfilled through violence rather than negotiation. For more, read “Jerusalem Is About to Be Cut in Half.”

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DEBKAfile

DEBKAfile: In a dramatic reverse swing, Putin decides to send uranium to fuel Iran’s atomic power station in Bushehr

November 16, 2007, 8:50 PM (GMT+02:00)

Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrate Plant prepares uranium for Iran's Bushehr reactor

Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrate Plant prepares uranium for Iran's Bushehr reactor

The Russian president Vladimir Putin indicated Friday that Moscow would send uranium to Iran’s atomic reactor in Bushehr (a reactor unconnected with Iran’s suspect military program) after all. International Atomic Energy inspectors were invited to the Novosibirsk Plant on Nov. 26 to verify and seal the fuel before shipment. On that day, too, the US-promoted Middle East conference is provisionally set to open in Annapolis, Maryland. The Quartet of which Russia is a member will not be there.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that by this step, Moscow has backed away from the commitments Putin gave President Bush and Israeli prime minister Olmert, after his mid-October talks with Iranian leaders in Tehran broke down in discord. He then promised to withhold the fuel from the Bushehr reactor and indeed pulled all the Russian staff out before they had completed work on the project’s final stages.

Olmert received Putin’s commitment to withhold the uranium fuel from Iran when they met in the Kremlin on Oct. 18 and passed it on to President Bush and later to French president Nicolas Sarkozy and British premier Gordon Brown in special trips he made to Paris and London. The Israeli prime minister announced then that Israel had a true friend in the Russian leader.

He is deeply embarrassed by Putin’s about-face. It also bodes ill for the third round of sanctions, for which the Bush administration is pushing at the UN Security Council, where Russian holds a veto, now that the nuclear watchdog confirmed in its latest report Nov. 15 that Iran had not given up uranium enrichment.

DEBKAfile’s Moscow sources report that the Russian president has reverted to his previous tactic of broadcasting to Muslim nations a message that Moscow has its own agenda and is willing, unlike Washington, to help them develop their nuclear programs.

The question mark hanging over UN sanctions also affects the decision on military action against Iran’s suspect military nuclear facilities, which President Bush had put on a back burner under the influence of Putin’s breach with Tehran. There was a brief thaw in the tense relations between Washington and Moscow and signs of a new willingness for compromise on both sides on such matters as the US plan to deploy anti-missile systems in East Europe.

The month-long détente was abruptly curtailed Friday, Nov. 16, with Moscow’s decision to let Iran have the uranium to fuel its Bushehr reactor six months before its scheduled start-up. The step was gladly welcomed in Tehran.

Friday, November 16, 2007

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Two historic articles on this week's JTF.ORG web site:

Why Jews Must
Oppose Gun Control

French Nazis
Vs. French Right-Wingers

Print and xerox JTF.ORG for your friends and relatives,
a righteous deed for which G-d will bless you



Over the years, JTF has been far ahead of its time on many vital issues. From time to time in the following weeks, we will be posting some of our old JTF articles, to remind our many readers of just how right we have been.

Why Jews Must
Oppose Gun Control

(Originally published by JTF.ORG on November 25, 1998)
A little Jewish boy in the doomed Warsaw ghetto

"Every Jew a .22" was the slogan of Rabbi Meir Kahane, pictured as a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces

"Every Jew a .22" was a slogan coined by HaRav (The Rabbi) Meir Kahane, zecher tzadik livracha (may the memory of this saint be immortalized). HaRav Kahane actually preferred other guns to the small-caliber .22, but used this slogan because it rhymes.

The concept that every Jew must possess firearms and know how to use them is not a new one.

"Jews, learn to shoot!" - Right-wing Jewish activist Zeev Jabotinsky vainly pleaded with Europe's Jews to arm themselves on the eve of the Holocaust

"Jews, learn to shoot!" right-wing Zionist leader Zeev Jabotinsky exhorted the Jews of Europe in the 1920s and 1930s.

But many European Jews were horrified with the notion of Jews bearing arms. So European Jews remained unarmed and defenseless, and when the Germans and the many other European Jew-killers came to murder them in the Holocaust, the Jews were easy targets as usual.

Millions of Germans owned guns in the Weimar Republic, which preceded the Nazi rise to power - In the face of left-wing advocacy for gun confiscation - an advocacy in which left-wing Jews played a prominent role - the Nazis promised to keep gun ownership legal, a promise promptly broken by Hitler after he seized power

Because they had no guns, millions of European Jews were led to their deaths like sheep to the slaughter

In pre-Hitler Weimar Germany, the Jews frantically pushed for strict gun control legislation.

Germans, especially in rural areas, were enraged over this attempt to take their weapons. Hitler and the Nazis campaigned on a promise to protect the "historic German right to bear arms."

Hitler promised that he would void all "Jew-inspired anti-gun laws" if elected Chancellor.

After the "broken glass" pogrom of November 1938, in which hundreds of Jews were beaten to death by Hitler's Nazi stormtroopers and ordinary German citizens, "all persons considered Jews under the Nuremberg laws" were forbidden to own guns

Of course, Hitler and the Nazis broke their promise when they did actually seize power in 1933. One of the first things the Nazis did was to seize the vast majority of guns which law-abiding citizens had in their possession.

But the point here is that gun control efforts by the Jews were instrumental in giving Hitler crucial ammunition which helped him to take over Germany and implement the Holocaust.

Heroic Jewish freedom fighters of the Warsaw ghetto, armed mostly with pistols, held off the German Nazi army while the world watched in amazement

Furthermore, if the Jews had listened to Jabotinsky and were all armed and fully trained, it would have been far more difficult to annihilate them.

When there were only 50,000 Jewish men, women and children left in the Warsaw Ghetto, these heroic Jews who finally decided to resist held out longer against the German Wehrmacht than all of cowardly France, which had a larger standing army than Germany but surrendered almost immediately to the Nazis. Even though the Jews were divided and fighting among themselves until the end, with their home-made weapons they killed several thousand German soldiers and bogged down the German Army for weeks.

Imagine if millions of Jews, fully armed and trained, had put up this type of resistance.

We know from the resistance put up by other groups targeted for annihilation during World War II, such as the valiant Serbs, that ferocious
armed struggle frustrated German plans to wipe them out.

Armed Serbian resistance fighters ferociously struggled against the Nazis,
preventing them from completely exterminating the Serb population

But the Jews always make the wrong decisions. The Jews always trust those who wish to destroy them and mistrust those like Jabotinsky who come to save them.

When Rabbi Kahane urged Jews in America to arm and train themselves, he was condemned in the same manner as Jabotinsky.

Imagine if during the Crown Heights pogrom, the Hassidic Jews had listened to Rabbi Kahane. Would the black Jew-haters have been able to rampage and murder in a Jewish community for four days and nights with no resistance? Would Yankel Rosenbaum have been murdered if he had drawn a .45 on the black Nazi mob that came to murder him?

Allied soldiers and a pile of bodies at the Buchenwald death camp

Gun control laws accomplish a number of things, and all of them are terrible. They take guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens so that it becomes impossible to defend one's home or business from murderous criminals. These fascistic laws also ensure that the only people in society who will be armed will be the violent criminals, since they will obtain their illegal firearms no matter what the law says.

These laws, which self-hating Jewish traitors like our new Judenrat Senator, Schmuck Schumer, play such a prominent role in passing, also cause tremendous anti-Semitic resentment.

Worst of all, these laws render Jews who wish to defend themselves helpless in the face of numerous mortal threats that very much endanger the American Jewish community.

Would criminal black mobs have rampaged in the peaceful Jewish neighborhood of Brooklyn's Crown Heights if every Jew there had been armed? - The New York Post featured a picture of an Orthodox boy squatting next to his father, beaten senseless by bestial black Jew-haters. (The "fair and balanced" headline reads: "Blacks, Jews and cops battle in the streets".)

The Kahanist Jews and righteous Gentiles of JTF oppose all laws that in any way limit the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Such laws are unconstitutional, un-American and immoral.

Isn't it a disgrace that JTF does not have millions of dollars to reach all of the Jews in Israel with this vital message?

Especially now when most Israeli Jews are very disappointed with how the war in Lebanon was conducted, and are very fearful about the future. The time is ripe for JTF's message.

Now more than ever, we must reach as many Israeli Jews as possible with our vital message of truth.

The more money we raise, the more Jews we reach.

Jewish advocacy of gun confiscation in the United States causes tremendous anti-Semitism - Senator Charles Schumer hypocritically enjoys the armed protection from crime which he denies "ordinary" Americans. (During a 1990s Congressional investigation into gun confiscation, Schumer joined black Congressman Mel Reynolds (D-IL), later convicted of pedophilia, in verbally attacking a young woman, the survivor of a Texas restaurant massacre, who testified that, had she been armed, her parents might still be alive.)

JTF supports the political activities of the Hilltop Youth, and therefore is not tax-deductible.

The Voice of Jewish Activism (VJA) is strictly non-political. It supports the educational efforts and the humanitarian needs of the Hilltop Youth and right-wing Jewish dissidents and therefore is tax-deductible.

Your generous checks and money orders made out to "VJA" can be sent to:

VJA
POB 650327
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Visit the JTF Forum in English, created and maintained by friends of our organization

We need loyal, idealistic, Torah-true Jews to lead the struggle against the traitor Sharon's suicidal plan to create an independent PLO terrorist state in the heartland of Biblical Israel.

We have the Torah-true leaders and we have the thousands of young idealists. But they need more money
to conduct such a huge and sophisticated campaign.

The Jewish people's present-day Nazi terrorists enemies, the Arab Muslims, have no qualms about arming themselves to the teeth for a genocidal campaign

In the historic struggle for Israel's survival, this is the moment of truth.

Which is why we strongly urge our many loyal readers - both Jews and righteous Gentiles - to immediately do the following four things:

First, if you are a wealthy Jew or a wealthy righteous Gentile, and you have wealthy friends and associates, you can hold a fundraising party for JTF (which is political but not tax-deductible) or VJA (which is tax-deductible and non-political). Even if you are not wealthy - but have wealthy friends and associates - you can organize a fundraising party. If you are interested, please contact us.

Visit the JTF forum in Hebrew, created and maintained by friends of our organization

Second, make out a generous check or money order (which can be anonymous) to "JTF" or "VJA" and send it out right away. If you prefer, you can also mail a cash donation.

Third, zealously spread the word about the JTF.ORG web site. Posting portions of JTF.ORG on popular internet message boards is especially effective. We do get many new hits when we are posted.

Fourth, please remember to include the "Jewish Task Force (JTF)" and/or the "Voice of Jewish Activism (VJA)" in your will.


French Nazis
Vs. French Right-Wingers

(Originally published by JTF.ORG on February 22, 2006)
French neo-Nazi Jean-Marie Le Pen has shown his true colors by embracing the Nazi agenda of France's Muslims

Many patriotic right-wing French Christian voters foolishly turned in desperation to the neo-Nazi National Front party of Jean-Marie Le Pen - But in classic Nazi style, he has betrayed them by embracing an anti-Western, anti-American, anti-Jewish agenda which apologizes for Muslim Nazi terrorism

Left-wing Frenchmen like President Jacques Chirac have embraced their nation's burgeoning Muslim terrorist fifth column

Many French Christian voters who are alarmed over the growing power of France's growing Muslim minority have voted in recent elections for the neo-Nazi National Front party of Jean-Marie Le Pen. The National Front Nazis have pretended that they are against the Muslim Nazis and that they will fight to preserve "France for the French."

The National Front Nazis also have pretended to be a right-wing party.

Chirac is greeted by his frenzied Muslim supporters during France's 2002 national elections

However, like all Nazis, the National Front was simply saying whatever seemed popular in order to seize power. Once in power, the Nazis always pursue an agenda that is very different from what they promise in election campaigns.

But many French were convinced that the National Front were genuine right-wing French patriots who would save France from the very real threat of a Muslim takeover of the country.

French Christians are stunned to see the neo-Nazis of Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front party embracing France's internal Muslim enemies

Now the French Christians who voted for the National Front are stunned to see their party become the biggest defender of the Muslim Nazis who are seeking to take over France.

Le Pen and his neo-Nazi party have turned from attacking Muslims to defending them

Actually, it should have been obvious from the start that the National Front and its leader Le Pen were lying all along.

Le Pen gained popularity early in his political career by pretending to espouse the common man

In 1999, Le Pen's son in law, Samuel Marechal, who is also one of the party's top leaders, stated that France was becoming "a multiethnic and multireligious society," and that the French should be willing to accept the fact that "Islam is now France's second religion."

More recently, Jean-Claude Martinez, a National Front member of the European Parliament and Le Pen's "strategic adviser," argues in a new book that he has written that the party must support "globalization" and that the party should stop
pretending to be like "Joan of Arc fighting an alien invasion."

Right-wing French Christian patriots mistook for one of their own the neo-Nazi Le Pen, who served with the French military in the murderous Algerian uprising of the 1950s and 1960s, the occasion of almost inconceivably vicious Muslim massacres - At left, an Arab worker for the French whose eyes were gouged out during torture by his Algerian Muslim terrorist captors; at right, an Arab worker whose flesh was stripped from his limbs while he was still alive

Le Pen, gripping a haunch of meat, plays the populist during a 2002 campaign visit to France's ministry of agriculture

Martinez says that the party will now welcome black and Arab Muslim members. He further expresses enthusiasm for black and Arab "rap."

Le Pen's eldest daughter and heir apparent in the party, Marine, strongly endorsed Martinez's views.

A high-ranking member of Le Pen's National Front enjoys black and Arab "rap"

The National Front has become one of France's most militant defenders of the Muslims.

A good friend of French Nazi Jean-Marie Le Pen is homosexual Austrian Nazi Joerg Haider - Haider paid an adulatory visit to the silk-suited Muslim terrorist dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, in February 2001

During the massive Islamic rioting in France last year, when even communist and socialist mayors were condemning the rioters and demanding the deployment of the French army in urban communities to restore order, the National Front was the only political party that refused to condemn the Muslim attacks.

Le Pen as Hitler during a
1992 French demonstration

Bruno Megret, leader of the National Republican Movement, one of the National Front's rival political parties, condemned Le Pen for staying silent in the face of the "barbaric Islamic anarchy that is swallowing up France."

Le Pen's eldest daughter Marine strongly endorses the party's pro-Muslim views - Marine, a lawyer, is a member of the European Union parliament, her father's likely successor and a left-wing believer in "national socialism," the government ownership of all companies whose stock is publicly traded - the same system which existed in Nazi Germany

Only after criticism by Megret and others, Le Pen felt compelled to issue a mild, perfunctory condemnation of the Muslim rioters.

In recent weeks, as a result of the Mohammed cartoon in a small Danish newspaper, mobs of Muslim Nazis have again engaged in murderous rioting, this time in dozens of countries throughout the world.

Le Pen's party has turned from attacking the European Union to defending its goal of "globalization"

The National Front totally supports the Muslim terrorist rioters, proclaiming that "religious sensibilities must be respected."

Like all Nazis, the National Front is fanatically anti-American and openly supports the Al Qaeda Muslim terrorists who murdered 3,000 innocents on September 11th. Le Pen's "strategic advisor," Jean-Claude Martinez, expressed "admiration" for Osama Bin Laden and for the "sacrifices of the Islamic martyrs" who carried out the September 11th attacks.

"Slay! Behead! Butcher!" - "Peaceful" Muslims demonstrate in London over the Mohammed cartoon, openly threatening to perpetrate 9/11-style terrorist attacks and a holocaust against Europeans

A Citibank burns in Pakistan during Muslim rioting over a cartoon of Mohammed published in a small Danish newspaper

The National Front also strongly supports the efforts of Muslim terrorist Iran to build nuclear bombs, which the Iranian terrorist mullahs have openly vowed to use against America and Israel.

Le Pen's Nazi party has also said that it agrees completely with the goals of the Hamas terrorists who boast of their desire to commit genocide against 5 million Israeli Jewish men, women and children.

Muslims are already 25% of all French under the age of 21

By supporting the destruction of America and Israel, the National Front has adopted positions universally popular among Muslims, which is why polls show that Le Pen's party is now adored among Muslim voters despite its past history of pretending to be anti-immigration.

There are currently 8 million Muslims in France out of a total population of 62 million. Thus, the Muslims are 13% of France's population. But the huge Muslim birthrate and continued Muslim immigration are drastically increasing that percentage very quickly.

Muslims are already 25% of all French under the age of 21. And studies have shown that several hundred million Muslims from Africa and Asia anxiously dream of entering France and other European countries, and are planning at some time in the future to try to find a way to get in.

Villiers is a French count understandably alarmed by the prospect of seeing his homeland drowned in a sea of enraged Muslim faces

Philippe de Villiers and his new anti-Muslim party, Mouvement Pour la France (MPF), opposes the European Union and Muslim immigration - Villiers voiced his opposition to the entrance of Turkey into the European Union

These new Muslim immigrants will find an enthusiastic new ally in the National Front, which correctly believes that a majority Muslim France and a majority Muslim Europe will be much more receptive to the party's viciously anti-American and anti-Semitic Nazi ideology.

Meanwhile, the French Christian right-wingers, who supported the National Front for years and have now been betrayed, have formed a new anti-Muslim party, Mouvement Pour la France (MPF). The party's leader is Philippe de Villiers, who also opposes the European Union and other "New World Order" schemes designed to erase national boundaries and destroy national sovereignty.

Patriotic right-wing French Christian voters are forming new alliances in an attempt to break the treasonous stranglehold on Gallic politics by groups like Le Pen's Nazi organization and the multinational corporate moneyed interests behind Jacques Chirac

Le Pen warmly greets
a political opponent

The neo-Nazi National Front, on the other hand, now supports the European Union, the Common Market, the United Nations and other efforts at "globalization," which is a code word for eliminating national sovereignty.

The moral of this story is that when you make a pact with Satan, you will always be betrayed. Supporting neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic and anti-Israel movements goes against the will of G-d. Any false promises made by such movements will automatically be violated in the end. Furthermore, G-d Himself will severely punish anyone who supports such evil causes. Those who make a pact with the devil, regardless of their motives and excuses, are doomed to get burned both figuratively and literally.

When you make a pact with Satan, you will always be betrayed

Le Pen at a massive
1997 Strasbourg rally

There is no way to save America from moral and spiritual destruction - which will lead to physical destruction - unless right-wing righteous Gentiles are prepared to lead a massive civil disobedience revolt against the traitors destroying this once great nation.

If we are willing to mobilize now, it is not too late to save America. For the sake of America, Israel and the West, we hope and pray that we can motivate G-d-fearing American patriots to act.

In your heart, you know we're right. And in your guts, you know they're nuts.

Le Pen takes off his mask!

"A detail of history" - Le Pen, whose party is filled from top to bottom with Holocaust deniers, is infamous for calling the slaughter of 6 million innocent Jewish men, women and children "a detail of history." (The photograph is of a Jewish woman who survived Nazi Germany's barbaric death camp medical experiments.)

Every generous check or money order (which can be anonymous) made out to "JTF" (which is political and not tax-deductible) or to "VJA" (which is fully tax-deductible and non-political) makes a huge difference. You can also send cash donations if you wish.

Do not depend on others to do your part! G-d only blesses those who do their own part!

May G-d bless all of our loyal supporters and their loved ones.

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