Link: http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/a-must-read-the-crash-of-09-the-collapse-of-10/

My dear Muhammad Ali - I told you that it’s a funny world getting funnier. Many American analysts are saying that America’s real economic collapse could come by the end of this year. “It will come to known as The Crash of 09,” they say. Others, especially a Russian political analyst, are predicting its physical collapse too. There’s no doubt that the country is up the dirtiest of imaginable creeks without a paddle. But what’s amazing is that America remains mired in stunning denial, continuing to make bad situations worse with useless bailout plans and messing around with the world instead of facing up to the reality that its time as a hyper-power is up, that’s its economic system has failed and that its only recourse is to end its adversarial doctrine and get out of its lost wars as painlessly and honorably as possible. There’s no point in going on flogging dead horses. The only sensible thing that survival demands is to craft a new moral economic and financial system and a moral foreign policy.

Link: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/14/surveillance/index.html

Right-wing polemicists today are shrieking in self-pitying protest over a new report from the Department of Homeland Security sent to local police forces which warns of growing "right-wing extremist activity." The report (.pdf) identifies attributes of these right-wing extremists, warning that a growing domestic threat of violence and terrorism "may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration" and "groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority."

Link: http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=3614

The tiny desert town of Abeche, in eastern Chad, offers a curious sight: Sandwiched between the mud huts that most people call home and the compounds belonging to international aid workers is a humble Chinese restaurant catering to Chad's growing population of Chinese engineers and managers. Significantly, no equivalent American-style restaurant is to be found. The same holds true across the resource-rich, institution-poor developing world, in countries as remote as East Timor and as dangerous as Somalia. While much of the military establishment in Washington continues to plan for a possible conventional war with China, Beijing is studiously avoiding a direct confrontation, instead expanding its influence through means other than traditional warfare. Principal among them is the deployment of Chinese technocrats abroad on profit-seeking missions for the world's third-largest economy.04/18/09

Link: http://www.aclu.org/pizza/

The government and corporations are aggressively collecting information about your personal life and your habits. They want to track your purchases, your medical records, and even your relationships. The Administration's policies, coupled with invasive new technologies, could eliminate your right to privacy completely. Please help us protect our privacy rights and prevent the Total Surveillance Society. Government programs such as MATRIX and Carnivore are destroying our privacy. We live in a democratic society and government-controlled data systems are a dangerous step toward establishing a 24-hour surveillance society. Recently Northwest Airlines provided the names, addresses, travel plans and credit card numbers of its customers to a NSA project in complete violation of its own privacy policy. In another example, JetBlue provided information from over a million of its customers to the Transportation Security Administration, also in violation of its own privacy policy. Tell Congress to enact privacy laws that protect us from these intrusions into our private lives. If you want to protect your personal privacy, take action right now, tell your friends and family.

Link: http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/content/mexican-drug-lord-officially-thanks-american-lawmakers-keeping-drugs-illegal

Guzman Loera thanks US presidents for making him a billionaire.Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera reported head of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico, ranked 701st on Forbes' yearly report of the wealthiest men alive, and worth an estimated $1 billion, today officially thanked United States politicians for making sure that drugs remain illegal. According to one of his closest confidants, he said, "I couldn't have gotten so stinking rich without George Bush, George Bush Jr., Ronald Reagan, even El Presidente Obama, none of them have the cajones to stand up to all the big money that wants to keep this stuff illegal. From the bottom of my heart, I want to say, Gracias amigos, I owe my whole empire to you."

Link: http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/02/news/economy/food_stamps.reut/index.htm?section=money_topstories

A record 32.2 million people -- one in every 10 Americans -- received food stamps at the latest count, the government said Thursday, a reflection of the recession now in its 16th month. Food stamps, the major U.S. anti-hunger program, help poor people buy groceries. The average benefit was $112.82 per person in January. The January figure marks the third time in five months that enrollment set a record. "A weakened economy means that many more individuals are turning to SNAP/Food Stamps," said the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger group, using the acronym for the renamed food stamp program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Link: http://www.henrymakow.com/post_18.html

[Apparently this appears in a magazine "Science et Avenir" March 2009] Fiche signalétique établie par les Services de Renseignements Généraux (RG) en 1924. Né en 1880 à Passau Hitler Adolphe, Jacob, le Mussolini allemand Profession: journaliste Ne serait que l'instrument de puissances supérieures: n'est pas un imbécile mais un très adroit démagogue. Aurait Ludendorf derrière lui. Organise des Sturmtruppen genre fasciste. Tentative de coup d'Etat de novembre 1923: Condamné à 5 ans de forteresse avec possibilité de sursis après 6 mois de détention. TRANSLATION: [Descriptive card established by the French Police in 1924 Born in 1880 in Passau Hitler Adolphe, Jacob, the German Mussolini Profession: journalist.] Appears to only be the instrument of higher powers: is not a dumb but a very skillful demagogue. Seems to be backed up by Ludendorf. Organizes Sturmtruppen fascist style Attempt of a Coup d' Etat in November the 23rd: Convicted to 5 years of fortress with a possible suspension after 6 months of detention.

Link: http://www.foxnews.com:80/politics/first100days/2009/03/23/fusion-centers-expand-criteria-identify-militia-members/

Do you like Ron Paul or oppose abortion? You may be a member of a militia, according to a new report by a government information collection agency. If you're an anti-abortion activist, or if you display political paraphernalia supporting a third-party candidate or a certain Republican member of Congress, if you possess subversive literature, you very well might be a member of a domestic paramilitary group. That's according to "The Modern Militia Movement," a report by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC), a government collective that identifies the warning signs of potential domestic terrorists for law enforcement communities.

Link: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover/

The global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution. We're officially, royally fucked. no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline — a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the country's heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire.

Link: http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/16/europe/16kiev.php

A quarter century ago, a Ukrainian historian named Stanislav Kulchytsky was told by his Soviet overlords to concoct an insidious cover-up. His orders: to depict the famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the early 1930s as unavoidable, like a natural disaster. Absolve the Communist Party of blame. Uphold the legacy of Stalin. Professor Kulchytsky, though, would not go along.

The other day, as he stood before a new memorial to the victims of the famine, he recalled his decision as one turning point in a movement lasting decades to unearth the truth about that period. And the memorial itself, shaped like a towering candle with a golden eternal flame, seemed to him in some sense a culmination of this effort. "It is a sign of our respect for the past," Professor Kulchytsky said. "Because everyone was silent about the famine for many years. And when it became possible to talk about it, nothing was said. Three generations on." The concrete memorial was dedicated last November, the 75th anniversary of the famine, in a park in Kiev, on a hillside overlooking the Dnieper River in the shadow of the onion domes of a revered Orthodox Christian monastery. More than 100 feet tall, the memorial will eventually house a small museum that will offer testimony from survivors, as well as information about the Ukrainian villages that suffered.

Link: http://fdralloveragain.blogspot.com/2009/03/soon-illegal-to-grow-your-own-food.html

Congress is about to make it illegal to grow your own food, or for any farm not to purchase and use government mandated chemicals, additives, and pesticides on all food consumed in the United States, violations are subject to a $1,000,000 dollar fine. HR 875 Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009
(sponsored by Rosa DeLauro whose husband Stanley Greenburg works for Monsanto) (growing an organic tomato in your backyard is now illegal) oprah.com

Link: http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=109037&catid=3

STARK COUNTY -- A story that already has people talking nationwide is certain to get more attention with a billboard that encourages former female inmates to report jail abuse. The billboard along Route 62 near Root Avenue in Stark County was put up as a result of the civil lawsuit brought by Hope Steffey against Stark County Sheriff Tim Swanson. Steffey's clothes were forcibly removed by both male and female deputies and she was left completely naked inside the Stark county jail for six hours. Sheriff Swanson says Steffey was considered suicidal so her clothes had to be removed for her own safety. Steffey has denied she was suicidal. The woman's lawyers discovered during the lawsuit that at least 128 women between 1999 and 2007 were strip-searched or forced to remove their clothing or placed on suicide watch, homicide watch or "naked detention." This Stark County Sheriff Tim Swanson is like a concentration camp commandant. When asked about the ethics of stripping prisoners - young women, naked in his jail Swanson justified his 'Abu Ghraib' style treatment of human beings by stating that he has hundreds of prisoners that are stripped naked in his jail. Swanson thinks the large scale of the crime somehow legitimizes it. Sheriff Swanson should know that many thousands of Jews were also stripped naked in concentration camps and it didn’t make the dehumanizing practice any less of an atrocity. In fact it made it much worse.

Link: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/patriot/38979prs20090311.html

The American Civil Liberties Union released a comprehensive report today examining widespread abuses that have occurred under the USA Patriot Act, a law that was rushed through Congress just 45 days after September 11. In the almost eight years since the passage of the controversial national security law, the Patriot Act has led to egregious government misconduct. “From the gagging of our nation’s librarians under the national security letter statute to the gutting of time-honored surveillance laws, the Patriot Act has been disastrous for Americans’ rights,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “In the panic following the events of 9/11, our nation’s lawmakers hastily expanded the government’s authority to a dangerous level and opened a Pandora’s box of surveillance.”

Link: http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/federal-loan-guarantees-0204.html

Bailout estimates for failed projects could range from hundreds of billions to more than a trillion. The nuclear power industry is pressuring Congress to dramatically expand federal loan guarantees for building new plants, which would put taxpayers and ratepayers at significant financial risk, according to a report released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Congress already has authorized $60 billion for loan guarantees in which the federal government would shield utilities and private investment firms from the risk of default on loans for building new electricity generation plants. The Department of Energy (DOE) has allocated $18.5 billion of that money for new nuclear plants over the next few years. Given the average projected cost of building one reactor is currently $9 billion, the industry is clamoring for considerably more. To date, the DOE has received $122 billion in applications for loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants.

Link: http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:_XSDPC4u2KgJ:www.blackcommentator.com/309/309_col_lavena_johnson_raped_murdered_military_base_iraq_printer_friendly.pdf+LaVena+Johnson:+Raped+and+Murdered+on+a+Military+Base+in+Iraq+The+Black+Commentator&hl=en&ct=clnk&

Have you heard about the story of LaVena Johnson? Well, maybe you should read on. LaVena Johnson, a high school honor student, decided to enlist in the Army in order to pay for college. On July 19, 2005, after serving eight weeks in Iraq, she was killed, just eight days short of her twentieth birthday. Private Johnson, posthumously promoted to Private First Class - was found dead on a military base in Balad, Iraq, in a tent belonging to military contractor KBR, a spinoff and former subsidiary of Halliburton, Dick Cheney’s company. She was the first woman from Missouri to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. And the U.S. Army officially ruled her death a suicide, she shot herself in the head, case closed. But this is where the story begins. Johnson’s family knew something was wrong. They had talked to her on the phone a few days earlier, and she was in a great mood as usual, and was planning to come home for the holidays, earlier than expected. Questions were raised when LaVena’s family viewed her body. There were suspicious bruises, and while the military claimed that this right-handed soldier had shot herself in the head with an M-16 rifle, the gunshot wound was on the left side of her head. Others who committed suicide were murdered in Iraq: LaVena Johnson | Ted Westhusing | Alyssa Peterson | Sgt Melissa Valles | Jennifer A. Valdivia | Pat Tillman | US Army Cover-Up of Rape and Murder?

Link: http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=western_support_for_islamic_militancy_2848#western_support_for_islamic_militancy_2848

Two Israelis, Salvador Gersson Smike, 34, and Sar Ben Zui, 27, are arrested in the Mexican Congress Building in Mexico City. Smike is carrying a plastic 9 mm sophisticated Glock 9 mm pistol tucked into his underwear in his lower back. He also has with him a briefcase reported to contain 58 bullets, bomb-making materials, three detonators, and nine grenades. The two were apprehended after ex-sugarcane workers, who were waiting for a congressional hearing, saw the two Israelis behaving strangely at around 4:00 p.m.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2009/01/12/theyre-wiping-out-entire-families

AS ISRAELI forces began what officials called "phase three" of their onslaught on Gaza--moving into the cities--stories of atrocities are emerging that confirm the inhuman barbarism of the attack so far. For example, in an eastern section of Gaza City, one extended family named the Samounis, whose members lived near one another in several homes, were herded by Israeli forces into a single building--which was then repeatedly shelled. The dead lay together with those left alive, but the Israelis prevented ambulances from coming to their aid for days on end.

Link: http://www.presstv.ir:80/detail.aspx?id=86597&sectionid=351020105

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Hassan Qashqavi, has said that Hollywood film makers have thirty anti-Iranian movies in the offing. "Hollywood has thirty anti-Iranian movies in the offing with the subject of hostility towards Iran's historical and Islamic identity," Qashqavi told reporters at a weekly news conference in Tehran on Monday. "The subject of making various movies has directly targeted not only Iran's religious and historical identity but also the country's social values including hospitality in an attempt to show hostility towards the Islamic Republic," he added. "There are certain political objectives behind a number of movies under the pretext of creating art," he explained. The controversial anti-Iranian Hollywood film '300', made by Zack Snyder, is an example of such films. 300 was severely criticized due to its historically inaccurate version of the events described in the movie. Persians in the film are also depicted as ugly and violent creatures rather than realistic human beings.

Link: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/38782prs20090223.html

Government Should Not Maintain "Other Gitmos," Says ACLU NEW YORK – The Obama administration told a federal court late Friday that military detainees in Afghanistan have no legal right to challenge their detention. The move, which is a continuation of the Bush administration's detention policy, comes in a lawsuit filed on behalf of several prisoners who have been indefinitely detained at the Bagram Air Force base for years without trial. The American Civil Liberties Union calls on the new administration to reconsider this troubling position. "The Obama administration did the right thing by ordering Guantánamo closed. But a restoration of the rule of law and American ideals cannot be achieved if we allow 'other Gitmos' to be maintained around the globe," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "Detainees at Bagram, like at Guantánamo, are under U.S. control and custody. It is therefore the responsibility of the U.S. to ensure that basic fundamental rights apply there. As its review of detention facilities continues, we strongly urge the Obama administration to reconsider this position."
►Is Aafia Siddiqui Bagram’s Prisoner 650?
►Dr Afia Siddiqui "The Grey Ghost Lady of Bagram"
►Vanishing into the American Gulag

Link: http://gigapan.org:80/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c

If you attended the presidential inauguration and were among the millions of people in the crowd in front of the Capitol, it would seem that you would just blend into such a crowd, but not so. If you were there, ‘they’ knew you were there, and they knew exactly where you were sitting and probably who you are. This is just a little sample of the technology that is used to monitor us.