Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Whered-the-bailout-money-go-apf-13889514.html?ref=patrick.net

Where'd the bailout money go? $350 billion later, banks won't say how they're spending it. It's something any bank would demand to know before handing out a loan: Where's the money going? But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation's largest banks say they can't track exactly how they're spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it. "We've lent some of it. We've not lent some of it. We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing it,'" said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to." The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what's the plan for the rest? None of the banks provided specific answers.

Link: http://www.truthout.org/122408R

The US economy shrank in the third quarter, official data confirmed Tuesday, as the IMF's top economist warned of a second Great Depression offering no respite from relentless gloom ahead of Christmas. The abrupt 0.5 percent contraction of gross domestic product (GDP) in the world's largest economy was seen as marking the start of a steep downturn for the United States after GDP growth of 2.8 percent in the second quarter. Stocks on Wall Street rose in early trading, however, as the contraction had been expected and was unrevised from a previous estimate. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.54 percent and the Nasdaq rose 0.60 percent.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/19/us_auto_giants_workers_face_uncertain

GREGG SHOTWELL: Well, you know, I think that we need to advocate for a national industrial policy that supports and sustains the expansion, rather than the destruction, of the middle class. And I would advocate for a policy that strengthens our economy, our national security, and makes the dream of a higher standard of living attainable for a wider number of citizens. You know, the working class is the backbone of this nation. And I think that we need to strengthen the American worker. I would like to see, first and foremost, that we have national healthcare, because this is the one solution that would help everyone. It would help the employers. It would help the employees. It would help the consumers. And that is the biggest factor that takes away our competitiveness. That’s the one factor that would level the playing field, because all of our competitors have national healthcare and stronger pension systems in their country—and by “pension,” I mean government pension—so that when Toyota, you know, imports all these cars, they’re not paying for healthcare, they’re not paying for the pensions on those employees that are working overseas.

Link: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Police_assault_12yearold_girl_after_mistaking_1219.html

It was a little before 8 at night when the breaker went out at Emily Milburn's home in Galveston. She was busy preparing her children for school the next day, so she asked her 12-year-old daughter, Dymond, to pop outside and turn the switch back on. As Dymond headed toward the breaker, a blue van drove up and three men jumped out rushing toward her. One of them grabbed her saying, "You're a prostitute. You're coming with me." Dymond grabbed onto a tree and started screaming, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." One of the men covered her mouth. Two of the men beat her about the face and throat. As it turned out, the three men were plain-clothed Galveston police officers who had been called to the area regarding three white prostitutes soliciting a white man and a black drug dealer. police went to the wrong house, two blocks away from the area of the reported illegal activity, Milburn's attorney, Anthony Griffin, said. After the incident, Dymond was hospitalized and suffered black eyes as well as throat and ear drum injuries. Three weeks later, police went to Dymond's school, where she was an honor student, and arrested her for assaulting a public servant. Griffin says the allegations stem from when Dymond fought back against the three men who were trying to take her from her home. Update: This is from the officers' lawyer, William Helfand: "The city has investigated the matter and found that the conduct of the police officers was appropriate under the circumstances," Helfand also said the little girl will face consequences for her actions... The police are always right in a police state.

Link: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1088437

In yet another sign of mounting troubles for Detroit's three automakers, Chrysler LLC announced yesterday it would idle all 30 of its North American manufacturing plants for at least four weeks after its last shift tomorrow. The move will put thousands of auto workers across the country out of work until at least mid-January. North America's third-largest automaker said the drastic measure was needed to bring its production levels in line with inventories, after a lack of consumer credit for car buyers in the United States has left new vehicles gathering dust on dealership lots. The plant shutdowns will remain in effect until at least Jan. 19, Chrysler said. The move follows similar announcements at General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. in recent weeks. GM said last Friday it would halt operations at 30% of its plants, including those in Oshawa, for the first three months of 2009, which would result in 250,000 fewer vehicles.

Link: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2008/12/03/the-wholesale-destruction-of-the-american-economy.aspx

There is only one organization in the world with the power to destroy the American economy. Throughout 2008, it has waged a terrible war that has severely damaged -- likely beyond quick repair -- the very foundations of that economy. If left unchecked, the pain we're feeling now will seem minor in comparison to the devastation yet to come.

And no, this brazen cabal isn't based in radical shrines in the Middle East or the mountainous border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Its headquarters is a hundred square mile plot of swampland between Virginia and Maryland. Regardless of the intent of the U.S. government's economic interventions, the consequences of all that help are shaping up at minimum to rival the Great Depression in depth and scale. The ultimate cost may be far larger: the complete loss of our country.

You're being killed with kindness. The weapons of economic destruction have been forced marriages through bailouts, coerced investments in banks, and cash infusions into utter failures. Every time the government steps in, it crowds out private capital, distorts the signaling value of prices, and impedes the market's ability to cleanse itself by sweeping away its failures. Rather than helping the economy and markets recover, all this "help" is prolonging the agony.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1092165/Rush-hour-driver-asked-police-use-hardshoulder-wife-labour-hospital--got-issued-70-traffic-ticket.html

Jennifer Davis's contractions were just three minutes apart when she and her husband John got stuck in rush hour traffic as they tried to get to the hospital in Cambridge, Boston. Mr Davis said he drove in the breakdown lane and stopped to ask a state trooper if they could take the lane to the next exit. But the officer not only refused, he made them wait on the roadside while he finished writing someone else's ticket, then returned to their car and told them they would be getting a ticket in the post. The case, reported in local media today, outraged Bostonians so much that the couple have been flooded with calls and interview requests and even offers from people who wanted to pay their ticket - offers the couple have declined. A State Police spokesman said the trooper was not expected to be disciplined over the incident...

Link: http://www.nbcactionnews.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=0fdb5281-8ea3-40ef-892f-b08fb6519952

LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. -- A man who spent five years behind bars after a detective accused him of sexual abuse now wants the detective fired.

Ted White, formerly of Lee's Summit, convinced a federal jury that the detective, Richard McKinley, violated his civil rights. White found out McKinley had been having an affair with his wife, which White believes led to the abuse accusations, according to court documents.

Thursday, White went before the Lee's Summit City Council to demand action against the detective. The city responded by saying it has the detective's employment status under review. Mayor Karen Messerli did not attend the council meeting, even though White had agreed to address her over the issue.

A federal jury awarded White $16 million over the wrongful conviction. The city will have to pay $14 million of the total award, if McKinley does not win an appeal. My god, five years of an innocent man's life and $16 million dollars lost and they still haven’t fired this despot cop.

Link: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/37818prs20081119.html

The American Civil Liberties Union released Department of Defense documents today that provide further evidence that prisoner abuse in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq was systemic. The documents, obtained as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, also show that Army investigations of abuse in Iraq were compromised by missing records, flawed interviews and problems with witness recollection.

"The Bush administration created a climate in which abuse was tolerated even when it wasn't expressly endorsed," said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. "With a new administration entering the White House, we should remember that the tone set by senior military and intelligence officials has very real implications for what takes place in U.S. detention facilities overseas. The new administration should make clear from the outset that it won't turn a blind eye to torture and abuse."

Link: http://plasma-lamp.blogspot.com/2008/11/obama-ignored-congratulations-to.html

Elected U.S. President Barack Obama has ignored wins in the elections of Russia. President Dmitry Medvedev has not been among the world leaders that Senator Democrat called with gratitude for the congratulations, said "RBC daily" referring to the agency Associated Press. In addition, Obama and Medvedev did not meet in Washington at the summit on the economic crisis.

According to the AP, Obama has contacted the leaders of nine countries: Australia, Britain, Germany, Israel, Canada, Mexico, France, South Korea and Japan. In particular, during talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy Obama has agreed to hold "soon" face-to-face meeting to discuss global financial crisis and political situation.

- At the summit "a big twenty" Medvedev and Obama did not meet

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper also congratulated Senator with the victory and expressed confidence that closer U.S. and Canada in overcoming the financial crisis.

Recall, Medvedev sent a greeting telegram Obame immediately after the elections in the USA, 5 November. In addition, during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Moscow, Medvedev expressed hope that the new U.S. president will be able to build a solid foundation for relations between the two countries.

Link: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/nov/06111306.html

MOSCOW, Russia, November 13, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A young man dressed in military gear attacked a Moscow abortion clinic in an attempt to stop his girlfriend from undergoing an abortion, Interfax reported Nov. 8. Identified as ‘Alexander’, the student from the Ulyanovsk region burst into the hospital clinic wearing camouflage gear from his army service and carrying what appeared to be a grenade and a pistol. According to reports, the man took a nurse hostage and ordered her to take him to the operating room, arriving just before the doctors began the abortion. Begging his girlfriend not to have the abortion, he threatened the doctors, ordering them to release the girl. The man was restrained by guards and taken to a local police station. His grenade was discovered to be a plaster cast, while the pistol was an air gun. In his defense the man said he had not intended to do anything wrong, but that he loved Tatiana, the girl, and wanted to marry her and raise a child. He was released without charges. The couple married. Their child will be born next spring.

Washington D.C., America, November 13, 2006 A young man dressed in military gear attacked a Washington abortion clinic in an attempt to stop his girlfriend from undergoing an abortion. Identified as ‘Alexander’, the student from a mid western university burst into the hospital clinic wearing camouflage gear from his army service and carrying what appeared to be a grenade and a pistol. According to reports, the man took a nurse hostage and ordered her to take him to the operating room, arriving just before the doctors began the abortion. Begging his girlfriend not to have the abortion, he threatened the doctors, ordering them to release the girl. Police arrived and ordered the distraught student to lay down his weapon and give up. When Alexander hesitated police snipers shot him in the head seriously wounding him and accidentally wounding a nurse. The student's grenade was discovered to be a plaster cast, while the pistol was an air gun. Police said: "A tragedy was narrowly avoided, had they arrived any later innocent people could have been hurt. The police responded in in the only way they could have under the circumstances." Alexander died of his wounds the following day. Had he lived he would have faced many years in federal prison for acts of domestic terrorism. Tatiana, went back to the doctor and had the abortion. She has since joined the U.S. Army and is now serving in Iraq.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7738489.stm

Despite its looks, Buran was not a facsimile of the US shuttle. Some 20 years ago, on 30 September 1988, many readers of the Pravda newspaper - the official mouthpiece of the Soviet communist party - could not believe their eyes. Published somewhat inconspicuously on the second page, there was a photo depicting the familiar shape of the US space shuttle, but with Soviet insignia on its wings. Finally, years of rumours about a Soviet "copy" of the shuttle had been confirmed. However, the official Soviet press was quick to point out that despite its superficial resemblance to the US counterpart, the Russian shuttle, dubbed Buran or "snowstorm", was better and more capable. Within days, the new ship got a chance to prove it. On November 15, 1988, as snowy clouds and winds were swirling around Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Buran orbiter, attached to its giant Energia rocket, thundered into the gloomy early morning sky. They obliterated this crowning achievement of the Soviet space programme. Three hours and two orbits later, the 100-tonne bird glided back to a flawless landing just a few miles from its launch pad.

Link: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/37721prs20081107.html

Photos Depict Abuse At Facilities In Afghanistan And Iraq

NEW YORK – The Bush administration petitioned a full appeals court late Thursday to reconsider a decision ordering the Defense Department to release photographs showing detainee abuse by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. In September, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered the government to release the photos as part of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking information on the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody overseas.

"This petition is a transparent attempt to delay accountability for the widespread abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody abroad by keeping the public in the dark," said Amrit Singh, staff attorney with the ACLU. "These photographs demonstrate that the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody abroad was not aberrational and not confined to Abu Ghraib, but the result of policies adopted by the highest-ranking officials in the administration. The immediate release of these photos is critical to bringing an end to the Bush administration's torture policies and for preventing prisoner abuse in the future." ► Judge asks media whether to release Guantanamo Bay 'torture' evidence ► Judge Opens First Habeas Corpus Hearing on Guantánamo Detainees

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21324.htm

A leading Russian political analyst has said the economic turmoil in the United States has confirmed his long-held view that the country is heading for collapse, and will divide into separate parts.

Professor Igor Panarin said in an interview with the respected daily Izvestia published on Monday: "The dollar is not secured by anything. The country's foreign debt has grown like an avalanche, even though in the early 1980s there was no debt. By 1998, when I first made my prediction, it had exceeded $2 trillion. Now it is more than 11 trillion. This is a pyramid that can only collapse."

The paper said Panarin's dire predictions for the U.S. economy, initially made at an international conference in Australia 10 years ago at a time when the economy appeared strong, have been given more credence by this year's events. ►Colossal Financial Collapse The Truth behind the Citigroup Bank "Nationalization"

Full story »

Link: http://www.observer.com/2008/politics/erica-jong-tells-italians-obama-loss-will-spark-second-american-civil-war-blood-will-r

It seems that the final days of the presidential campaign have made Erica Jong and her friends more than a little anxious.

A few days ago, Jong, the author and self-described feminist, gave an interview to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, the choicest bits of which were brought to my attention by the reliably sharp-eyed Christian Rocca, the U.S. correspondent of Il Foglio, who published excerpts on his Camillo blog. Basically, Jong says her fear that Obama might lose the election has developed into an "obsession. A paralyzing terror. An anxious fever that keeps you awake at night." She also says that her friends Jane Fonda and Naomi Wolf are extremely worried that Obama will be sabotaged by Republican dirty tricks, and that if an Obama loss indeed comes to pass, the result will be a second American Civil War.

Here's a translation of Jong's more spirited quotes to the Milan-based Corriere, as selected by Rocca.

Link: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/45726,opinion,the-torturers-tale

Lagouranis saw people crippled through prolonged use of the stress positions he forced them to adopt, and driven to the verge of insanity through weeks of sleep deprivation and psychological disorientation. But maybe it was worth it if it produced valuable intelligence in the fight against the insurgency? No, he says. As a method of getting intelligence it was useless. And besides, the aim of interrogations shifted subtly. "A lot of what we ended up doing was trying to gather confessions, not intelligence. I think that the commanders wanted to show that they were doing a good job and were picking up guilty people. But in fact we were just rounding up whoever was on the street. They just wanted us to force people to confess so that they could brief their commanders and say that they had captured all the terrorists."

Link: http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/2008/10/its-fascinating-to-read-the-commentators-in-mainstream-journals-like-the-financial-times-and-the-wall-street-journal--all-st.html

It's fascinating to read the commentators in mainstream journals like The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal all strenuously pretending that "the worst is over" (maybe... we hope... fingers crossed... hail Mary full of grace... et cetera). The cluelessness would be funny if it didn't involve a world-changing catastrophe. All nations that have reached the fork-and-spoon level of civilization are now engineering a vast network of cyber-cables that lead directly from their central bank computers to the Death Star that is hovering above world financial affairs like a giant cosmic vacuum cleaner, sucking up dollars, euros, zlotys, forints, krona, what-have-you. As fast as the keystrokes create currency-pixels, the little electron-denominated units of exchange are sucked out of the terrestrial economies into the black hole of money death.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/sep2008/mili-s25.shtml

For the first time ever, the US military is deploying an active duty regular Army combat unit for full-time use inside the United States to deal with emergencies, including potential civil unrest.

Beginning on October 1, the First Brigade Combat Team of the Third Division will be placed under the command of US Army North, the Army’s component of the Pentagon’s Northern Command (NorthCom), which was created in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks with the stated mission of defending the US “homeland” and aiding federal, state and local authorities.

The unit—known as the “Raiders”—is among the Army’s most “blooded.” It has spent nearly three out of the last five years deployed in Iraq, leading the assault on Baghdad in 2003 and carrying out house-to-house combat in the suppression of resistance in the city of Ramadi. It was the first brigade combat team to be sent to Iraq three times.

Link: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/voices/2003/Pattern_of_Megalomania.htm

The hand full of men who seized power in the United States used the Supreme Court, “a small but critical segment of the state apparatus,” to facilitate their immediate takeover. The day after the September 11th, 2001 hijackings the Neocons established a shadow government absent of both legislative and judicial branches. On October 26th, 2001 President Bush signed the USA Patriot Act into law, abrogating Constitutional rights and the Bill of Rights, and facilitating the declaration of Martial Law. On November 5th, 2002 Bush signed The Homeland Security act, consolidating the duties of 22 federal agencies into one cabinet level Department of Homeland Security and strengthening Public Law 101-647. Signed by his father in November 1990, Law 101-647 allows Bush to declare a national emergency for almost any reason, an earthquake, a terrorist attack, or even an economic crisis. In the event of a Bush declared emergency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency – FEMA, is empowered to implement the horrific Executive Orders 10995 through 11005. As acting president of the United States during the declaration of a national emergency and Martial Law Bush can also issue Executive Orders, granting him far reaching powers to unilaterally create law without congressional oversight and approval.

Link: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080924193222.3r9aw25a&show_article=1

The intensity of the sun's million-mile-per-hour solar wind has dropped to its lowest levels since accurate records began half a century ago, scientists say.
Measurements of the cosmic blasts of radiation, ejected from the sun's upper atmosphere, were made with the Ulysses spacecraft, a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

The solar wind "inflates a protective bubble, or heliosphere, around the solar system," which protects the inner planets against the radiation from other stars, said Dave McComas, Ulysses' solar wind principal investigator and senior executive director at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

"With the solar wind at an all-time low, there is an excellent chance the heliosphere will diminish in size and strength," said Ed Smith, NASA's Ulysses project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"If that occurs, more galactic cosmic rays will make it into the inner part of our solar system," added Smith.

Scientists say the weakening of solar wind appears to be due to changes in the sun's magnetic field, but the causes of these changes are unknown.