Stocks stumble on Bernanke's gloomy economic outlook

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street sank for a second straight session Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the slumping housing market remains a "significant drag" on the economy.

Bernanke's speech Monday night at the New York Economic Club elevated concerns that the summer credit crisis might persist into the winter — a sobering thought for investors, who are sifting through mixed third-quarter earnings and watching energy costs rise.

WHAT HE SAID: Bernanke's comments

"First of all, the worry is we're getting more bad news on housing. No. 2 is higher oil prices. That's a pretty bad combination," said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer of Johnson Illington Advisors.

Crude oil prices briefly spiked to a record above $88 a barrel Tuesday, and a National Association of Home Builders' index that tracks developers' expectations of future home sales fell for the eighth consecutive month to the lowest point since January 1985.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Standard | Dow | Nasdaq Composite Index | Bernanke | Hang Seng Index

Johnson added: "Of particular concern were the comments by Bernanke. That sort of injected a fairly high level of uncertainty into the economic and earnings outlook. That comes at a time when earnings results are not particularly exciting — in fact, are dismal."

The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index posted their biggest point drops in five weeks Monday, after Citigroup (C) reported a steep third-quarter profit decline and announced plans with a consortium of banks to set up a fund to help bail out the credit markets.

Then Tuesday, Wells Fargo (WFC) shares fell more than 3% after the bank said third-quarter earnings increased less than analysts anticipated and that it boosted loan loss reserves in anticipation of further problems in consumer credit. KeyCorp (KEY) shares declined more than 5% after the Midwest regional bank posted a 33% drop in third-quarter profit.

In mid-afternoon trading, the Dow was dwon 72.27, or 0.5%, to 13,912.53.

Broader indicators also fell. The S&P 500 index slid 9.44, or 0.6%, to 1539.27, and the Nasdaq composite index dipped 13.48, or 0.5%, to 2766.57.

Bond prices rose as investors pulled money out of stocks, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.64% from 4.68% at Monday's close. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions. The dollar rose against most currencies. Gold also rose.

On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson echoed Bernanke's sentiments, saying the housing market is a signficant risk to the economy. Bernanke had said Monday the deepening housing slump will probably keep dragging on economic growth.

Still, Bernanke again pledged to "act as needed" to help financial markets that seized up this summer, and said inflation remains in check. Inflation could be a key factor for policymakers when deciding whether to cut interest rates for the second month in a row at their Oct. 30-31 meeting.

While core inflation — which excludes volatile food and energy prices — is mild, oil prices are pushing further into record territory on speculation about supply disruptions.

Crude futures rose $1.38 to $87.51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after briefly surpassing $88.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume came to a fairly light 804.23 million shares.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 1.3% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 2.0%. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.5%, Germany's DAX index fell 0.1%, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.6%.

Industrial Output Down in September

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. industrial output turned in another weak reading in September as the short strike at General Motors contributed to a big drop in auto production.

The Federal Reserve said that industrial output edged up 0.1 percent in September following no change at all in August. The August reading had been reported a month ago as a stronger 0.2 percent gain.

The concern is that the deep slump in housing and a severe credit crunch will trigger further cutbacks in industrial production as businesses grow cautious about the future.

Delivering his latest assessment on the economic prospects, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday night the deepening slump in housing will be a "significant drag" on the economy into next year and it will take time for financial markets to fully recover from the credit crisis that erupted in August.

Many analysts believe the Fed, which cut a key interest rate for the first time in four years at its September meeting, will follow up with further rate cuts to make sure the economic troubles don't push the country into a recession.

The Fed report showed that output of autos and auto parts fell by 3.3 percent in September following a 1.6 percent drop in August. Part of the September weakness was blamed on the brief two-day strike at General Motors.

All of manufacturing posted a small 0.1 percent increase in September after a sharp 0.4 percent drop in August. That weakness followed solid gains of 0.6 percent in June and 0.8 percent in July.

The nation's utilities saw output decline by 0.1 percent in September after a 4.6 percent surge in August that had reflected a heat wave that hit much of the country.

Output in mining, a category that includes oil well production, edged up 0.2 percent in September, a rebound following a 0.6 percent drop in August.

Analysts believe that U.S. factories will be under pressure in the months ahead, reflecting waning demand for domestic-made cars and weakness in such housing related industries as building materials.

Global Insight, a private forecasting firm, said it expected manufacturing output in the July-September quarter will post a strong gain of 4.2 percent, thanks to the good momentum at the beginning of the quarter, but it forecast that manufacturing growth would slow to just 1.2 percent in the current quarter and fall below 1 percent in the first three months of next year.

With the tiny increase in output in September, the nation's factories, mines and utilities operated at 82.1 percent of capacity, unchanged from August.

British Templars call on Pope to apologise

From Times Online

October 16, 2007

A British order of Templars that claims direct descent from the original Knights Templar is calling on the Pope to apologise after a newly-discovered but ancient Vatican document shows that the knights were absolved of crimes laid against them seven centuries ago.

The charges led to the disbanding of the order and Grand Master Jacques de Molay was burnt at the stake. The Vatican will next week publish a collector's edition of documents on the Knights Templar, the fabulously-wealthy medieval crusading order mentioned in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code novels and which to this day remains at the centre of numerous Holy Grail conspiracy theories and intrigues.

One of the documents, the Chinon Parchment, shows that in the early 14th century, Pope Clement V's investigation of the order absolved the knights of the heresy charges that led to many of them being tortured and burned.

Ben Acheson, a member of a Templar order based in Hertford which claims direct descent from the original Poor Fellow Soldiers of Jesus Christ and the Temple of Solomon Grand Preceptory, said publication of the documents is a "turning point" but called for Pope Benedict XVI to apologise formally.

Related Links

• Vatican reveals Templar secrets

He said: "The word sorry is conspicuous by its absence. But basically, they have said we were absolved, which is an historic admission. For me, that makes it all the more astonishing that the tortures and executions were allowed to continue. For me, that is why the apology is still the missing piece of the puzzle.

Nevertheless, I would like to think that this could be a turning point. After this, I hope we will be able to be more outward facing, less introverted. There are signs of that happening. Others like me are doing what we can to make things move in that direction."

Three years ago the order, which operates out of a PO box address in Hertford, wrote to the Pope formally requesting an apology “for the torture and murder of our leadership”, instigated by Pope Clement V.

“We shall witness the 700th anniversary of the persecution of our order on 13th October 2007,” the letter said “It would be just and fitting for the Vatican to acknowledge our grievance in advance of this day of mourning.”

The Templars were hoping for an apology in the same vein as those made already by the Church for the persecution of Galileo and for the Crusades.

At the time, Ben Acheson's twin brother Tim Acheson, who is descended from the Scottish Acheson family that has established Templar links and whose family lived until recently in Bailey Hall, Hertford, told The Times: “This letter is a serious attempt by a Templar group which traces its roots back to the medieval Order to solicit an apology from the Papacy.”

He added: “The Papacy and the Kingdom of France conspired to destroy the Order for reasons which modern historians judge to be primarily political. Their methods and motives are now universally regarded as brutal, unfair and unjustified.

“The Knights Templar officially ceased to exist in the early 1300s, but the order continued underground. It was a huge organisation and the vast majority of Templars survived the persecution, including most of their leaders, along with much of their treasure and, most importantly, their original values and traditions.”

The Hertford Mercury newspaper has chronicled the crusade for an apology, along with newly-unearthed Templar links with Hertford, including a warren of tunnels beneath the town. At the heart of the maze of tunnels is Hertford Castle, where in 1309 four Templars from Temple Dinsley near Hitchin, were imprisoned after their arrest by Edward II, who believed that they were holding a lost treasure. The treasure was never found.

The Templars captured Jerusalem during the Crusades and were known as “keepers of the Holy Grail”, said to be the cup used at the Last Supper or as the receptacle used by Joseph of Arimathea to catch Christ’s blood as he bled on the Cross, or both.

The Knights Templar were founded by Hugh de Payens, a French knight from the Champagne area of Burgundy, and eight companions in 1118 during the reign of Baldwin II of Jerusalem, when they took a perpetual vow to defend the Christian kingdom. They were assigned quarters next to the Temple. In 1128, they took up the white habit of the Cistercians, adding a red cross. The order knights, sergeants, farmers and chaplains amassed enormous wealth.

Rome is understood to have given the request for an apology serious consideration. Ben Acheson said the Hertford Temple had received a secret letter from the Vatican, but this had not been seen by any except a select few at the top of the order.

NIST Admits Total Collapse Of Twin Towers Unexplainable

Implicitly acknowledges controlled demolition only means by which towers could have fallen at free fall speed

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The National Institute for Standards and Technology has been forced to admit that the total free-fall collapse of the twin towers cannot be explained after an exhaustive scientific study, implicitly acknowledging that controlled demolition is the only means by which the buildings could have come down.

In a recent letter (PDF link) to 9/11 victim's family representatives Bill Doyle and Bob McIlvaine, NIST states, "We are unable to provide a full explanation of the total collapse."

A 10,000 page scientific study only offers theories as to how the "collapse initiation" proceeded and fails to address how it was possible for part of a WTC structure to fall through the path of most resistance at freefall speed, completely violating the accepted laws of physics.

In addition, NIST's own studies confirmed that virtually none of the steel in either tower reached temperatures hotter than 500 degrees. The point at which steel weakens is 1000 degrees and melting point is reached at 1,500 degrees, according to NIST itself.

"NIST'S 10,000-page report purports to explain what it calls "collapse initiation" -- the loss of several floors' vertical support," writes Kevin Barrett of Scholars for 9/11 Truth. "In order to dream up this preposterous scenario, NIST had to ignore its own tests that showed that virtually none of the steel got hotter than 500 degrees f. It had to claim that somehow the planes took out many core columns, despite the fact that only a direct hit by an engine would have been likely to do so, and that the chances of this happening even once are fairly low. It had to preposterously allege that the plane that nicked the corner of the South Tower took out more core columns than the one that hit the North Tower almost dead center. It had to tweak all the parameters till they screamed bloody murder and say that the steel was far weaker than it actually was, the fire was far hotter than it actually was, the sagging was far greater than it actually was, and so on. And so NIST hallucinated a computer-generated fantasy scenario for "collapse initiation"--the failure of a few floors."

"But how do you get from the failure of a few floors to total collapse at free-fall speed of the entire structure? The short answer: You don't. Anyone with the slightest grasp of the laws of physics understands that even if all of the vertical supports on a few floors somehow failed catastrophically at exactly the same moment--a virtually impossible event, but one necessary to explain why the Towers would come straight down rather than toppling sideways--the top part of the building could not fall THROUGH the still-intact, highly robust lower part of the building, straight through the path of most resistance, just as fast as it would have fallen through thin air."

"Thus total free-fall collapse, even given NIST's ridiculous "initiation" scenario, is utterly impossible. The probability of it happening is exactly equal to the probability of the whole building suddenly falling upward and landing on the moon," concludes Barrett.

NIST have yet to properly address the sudden freefall collapse of WTC Building 7, which imploded on the late afternoon of 9/11 despite not being hit by a jetliner.

In August 2006, NIST promised to scientifically evaluate whether explosive devices could have contributed to the 47-story building's collapse but no answers have been forthcoming.

In August of this year, James Quintiere, Ph.D., former Chief of the Fire Science Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, called for an independent inquiry into NIST's investigation of the collapse of the twin towers.

Quintiere said NIST's conclusions were "questionable", that they failed to follow standard scientific procedures and that their failure to address Building 7 belied the fact that the investigation was incomplete.

Oil surges near $88 a barrel

Javier Blas
Financial Times
Tuesday October 16, 2007

Flashback: $200 Dollar a Barrel Oil Is Bilderberg Plan To Destroy Middle Class

Oil prices rose to fresh records on Tuesday, with US crude surging near $88 a barrel, and pushing gold to a new 28-year high as investors feared a spike in inflation.

The threat of a Turkish military operation against Kurdish militia in northern Iraq contributed to the oil price increase, but traders said the main factor of the rally was low US inventories, strong demand and a timid production increase from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Francisco Blanch, chief commodities strategist at Merrill Lynch, added that an early winter cold snap or a serious geopolitical problem in the Middle East “could drive oil prices even to $100 a barrel.”

Doug Leggate, of Citigroup in New York, added: “A run to $90 is now seen as reasonable.”

Nymex November West Texas Intermediate rose to a high of $87.97 a barrel and later was trading $1.57 higher to $87.70 a barrel. ICE November Brent rose to an all-time high of $84.26 a barrel.

Low inventories prompted Opec recently to agree to boost output by 500,000 barrels a day from November. The cartel opted for a meagre increase on concerns about the strength of the global economy and oil consumption. However, Opec on Monday acknowledged that demand for its crude oil will be stronger than expected this winter.

“Downward [economic] pressure has receded in recent weeks, following the US Federal Reserve’s decision to cut US interest rates by half a percent,” Opec said.

Paul Horsnell, of Barclays Capital in London, said that demand growth was strong relative to non-Opec weak supply increases.

Spot gold prices in London surged to a 28-year high of $766.60 an ounce as the oil price jump sparked worries about an inflation spike and investors continued to seek refuge against a weakening US dollar. Gold hit an all-time record of $850 an ounce in January 1980.

Precious metals traders reported strong buying from Japanese investors.

Spot platinum traded at $1,420 an ounce, just below Monday’s all-time record of $1,428 an ounce.

The World Gold Council on Monday cut its forecast for India’s gold consumption this year to 15-25 per cent, in the first sign that record high gold prices are beginning to dent jewellery demand, one of the main supports of gold’s recent price surge.

Earlier in the year, the WGC, which is backed by the gold industry, had predicted that gold consumption in India, the world’s biggest gold consumer, would rise almost 40 per cent this year.

Ajay Mitra, WGC managing director in India, said: “Due to the spike in prices, we are a little cagey.”

Base metals were also stronger, with the exception of copper with traded flat at $8,155 a tonne. Aluminum rose 0.1 per cent to $2,492 a tonne while lead rose 0.3 per cent to $3,823 a tonne.

Coffee continued to slide as rain fell over Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer. Euronext.Liffe November Robusta coffee prices in London fell 2.3 per cent to $2,028 a tonne, below a 10-year high of $2,234 a tonne reached last Friday.

Wheat prices in Chicago fell to $8.26 a bushel, the lowest level in four weeks.

Experts Fear Repeat Of 1929 Economic Crash

Kuttner blames "insiders with conflicts of interest" for meltdown danger, tanking of dollar

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Two prominent economic experts have warned that "insiders with conflicts of interest" allied to the Fed's policy of tanking the dollar to bail out Wall Street could lead to a repeat of the economic crash of 1929, during a segment on Bill Moyers' PBS show.

"I think there are three big parallels between what happened in the 20's and what has been happening in Wall Street lately," Robert Kuttner told Moyers.

Kuttner is a veteran economic journalist and a former legislative assistant in congress.

"One is insiders with conflicts of interest that are not fully disclosed to the public generally, secondly - there's much too much borrowed money....particularly in the financially engineered parts of the economy....and third is the lack of transparency - regulators and the public don't get any kind of disclosure," added the former BusinessWeek writer.

Kuttner blamed an economy based on "asset bubbles" for the rising tension in the markets and said that, similarly to the 1920's, "engineered euphoria" and companies cooking the books had combined to endanger the safety of the economy.

A clip of the PBS discussion, for the full video, click here.

Kuttner called for more transparency and slammed the Fed for recycling a vicious circle of cheapening the dollar to bail out Wall Street, inviting another round of speculative excess.

"The risk is that every time we repeat this cycle, we get bigger and riskier bubbles. And with the dollar being in the tank-- it's not a costless kind of bailout," said Kuttner. "One would have thought that if the dollar were down to 140 Euros there'd be a run on the dollar. We're gonna see inflationary pressures as a result of the cheap dollar. So it's not as if the Fed can simply print more money to bail out these excesses, and there be no cost to everybody else."

William Donaldson, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, also warned that the dollar was "disappearing" through the floor as a result of the Fed's policy of bailing out "devious" investors.

So I think that the central banks have a greater technique and ability to meet this problem," said Donaldson. "But insofar as they do-- we run into a moral hazard, i.e. we bail out the people who made bad or devious, or whatever you wanna call 'em, investment decisions. So you sort of are saying, "Go ahead and do whatever you want, and you can count on the good old Fed to bail you out."

Fox News Promotes verichip

Youtube
Monday October 15, 2007

Pentagon acted with little oversight in spying on Americans, documents show

Nick Juliano
Raw Story
Tuesday October 16, 2007

The Department of Defense has conspired with the FBI to "circumvent the law" in accessing hundreds of Americans' telephone, e-mail and financial records, say two civil liberties groups that released reams of new documents obtained in a contested public records request.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has challenged the Bush Administration's post-Sept. 11 spying authority, says the Pentagon has issued 455 National Security Letters in concert with the FBI to obtain Americans' private information it is not entitled to receive.

"The documents make clear that the Department of Defense may have secretly and illegally conducted surveillance beyond the powers it was granted by Congress," ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said. "It also appears as if the FBI is serving as a lackey for the DoD in misusing the Patriot Act powers. At the very least, it certainly looks like the FBI and DoD are conspiring to evade limits placed on the Department of Defense's surveillance powers."

The 455 letters were issued to investigate potential terror threats posed by people directly connected to the Defense Department, including civilian employees, contractors, active duty troops, reservists and their families, military officials told the New York Times.

Recipients of the letters -- usually financial institutions, telephone companies or internet service providers -- are prohibited from disclosing that they received them, the ACLU says. And although the Pentagon-issued letter do not require cooperation, those from the FBI are mandatory, records show that the letters are coercive and unclear that compliance to Defense-issued letters is voluntary.

"The expanded role of the military in domestic intelligence gathering is troubling. These documents reveal that the military is gaining access to records here in the U.S. – in secret and without any meaningful oversight," said Melissa Goodman, staff attorney with the ACLU's National Security Project. "There are real concerns about the use of this intrusive surveillance power."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation joined the ACLU in filing a request for the documents under the Freedom of Information Act. The groups filed a lawsuit against the Defense Department when it tried to withhold the documents earlier this year.

The New York Times first reported in January that the Pentagon was issuing National Security Letters, but the documents released this weekend provide the first glimpse at internal machinations behind their use.

A Pentagon review initiated after the Times article appeared, which was included in the heavily redacted documents, shows the letters were issued "with little guidance or training, no coordination within the military, no real recordkeeping, and an inadequate review process," the ACLU says.

"The Fourth Amendment protects against the government's effort to rummage broadly through the papers and documents of individuals without narrow and specific justifications," said Arthur Eisenberg, Legal Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which joined in the suit. "Yet the excessive secrecy surrounding the military's use of national security letters opens the door to abuse. Without oversight and accountability, there is nothing to stop the Defense Department from engaging in broad fishing expeditions."

Terror drill will test city's response coordination in Portland

By Susan Harding, Brian Barker and KATU Web Staff

Video

PORTLAND, Ore. - It's the largest terror drill in U.S. history, and the nation will have its eyes on Portland.

This week, the city becomes ground zero as a fake dirty bomb goes off on a set resembling the Steel Bridge, covering the city in "make believe" radiation.

Beyond a terror attack, it's also a test for any catastrophic disaster - to prevent the fatal mistakes the nation witnessed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

System-wide failures left thousands in jeopardy as emergency officials at all levels misjudged, mis-communicated and underestimated the storm.

In Portland, new communication plans, equipment and people will be put to the test.

"I'd rather much see if there are things we need to do to improve through this exercise than waiting till a real-life event came," Mayor Tom Potter said.

The mayor will be among 6,000 responders and volunteer victims working on the drill at Portland International Raceway and at local hospitals, where triage stations are ready to evaluate the wounded.

The drill scenario goes like this: terrorists who have been planning attacks in Oregon, Arizona and the U.S. Territory of Guam are able to bring radioactive material into the U.S. The first of three coordinated attacks occurs in Guam with the detonation of a dirty bomb and widespread contamination in a populous area near a power plant. Similar attacks then occur in Portland and Phoenix.

Despite the size of the drill, don't expect to see any real-life disruptions on the roads, highways, bridges or hospitals. Most of the action will be behind the fence at Portland International Raceway and out of sight. The only thing you might see is emergency vehicles racing around town.

If you notice anything unusual and wonder if it is a part of the training exercise, you can call 211. The phone number will be activated on Tuesday.

President Bush Defends Rapist-Murderer To Appease Mexico

Chuck Baldwin
Tuesday October 16, 2007

It seems President George W. Bush will stop at no lengths to appease Mexico and place the United States under international authority. His latest fiasco, however, twists logic, mocks justice, and defies decency.

I am referring to the fact that President Bush is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the death penalty of an illegal Mexican alien convicted of brutally raping and murdering two Houston, Texas teenagers back in 1993. (I wrote about this case already. See http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2007/cbarchive_20070413.html )

Here is Word Net Daily's (WND) latest report of the story: "At issue is the death penalty verdict for Jose Medellin, who confessed in 1993 to participating in the rape and murder of two Houston teenagers. Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena were sodomized and strangled with their shoe laces. Medellin then boasted of keeping one girl's Mickey Mouse watch as a souvenir of the crime.

"The Bush administration is before the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to overturn the death penalty, at the behest of the International Court of Justice, a division of the United Nations.

"Medellin and four others were convicted of capital murder and sent to Texas' death row. A juvenile court sentenced Medellin's younger brother, who was 14 at the time, to 40 years in prison."

(See the full WND report at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58063 )

Why, you ask, would President Bush appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of an illegal alien who murdered two American teenagers? According to administration officials, it is because "the Texas court [that convicted and sentenced Medellin] is undermining the president's efforts to conduct foreign policy."

You read it right. President Bush is defending a rapist-murderer, because the man is an illegal alien and, therefore, should be turned over to the authority of a UN "world court." And, according to Bush, for the State of Texas to refuse to do so undermines the President's efforts to conduct foreign policy.

One has to wonder: just what kind of foreign policy does President Bush want to conduct? Apparently, Bush's foreign policy determines that it is more important to appease the Mexican government than see justice done for two American families who had their teenage daughters raped and murdered by an illegal alien from Mexico.

Remember, this is from a President who, when he was Governor of Texas, signed more than 150 death warrants. This is the same man who mocked condemned prisoner Karla Faye Tucker after she had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as her personal Savior and had appealed to Bush for clemency. In fact, George W. Bush just might be the only chief executive in American history to publicly mock someone who was about to die.

See http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/karla.html

See also http://www.geocities.com/rainforest/canopy/2525/karlamain.html

See also http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17670

In his autobiography, "A Charge To Keep," G.W. Bush addressed the subject of granting clemencies for people convicted of capital crimes. He said that it was not his job "to replace the verdict of a jury unless there are new facts or evidence of which a jury was unaware, or evidence that the trial was somehow unfair." He has now obviously forgotten this principle.

Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz is arguing on behalf of the state court and its death penalty. He called Bush's actions "breathtaking." He told the Houston Chronicle, "It is emphatically not the province of the president to say what the law is. If this president's assertion of authority is upheld in this case, it opens the door for enormous mischief from presidents of either party. What might these presidents be inclined to do if they had the power to flick state laws off the books?"

According to WND, Alliance Defense Fund Chief Counsel Benjamin Bull said he expected justices Souter, Stevens, Breyer, and Ginsburg to side with President Bush. For example, when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was General Counsel with the ACLU, she wrote a law review article "advocating that American foreign policy be under the United Nations." According to Bull, the Medellin case "is manna from heaven" for Ginsburg.

The Medellin case might be manna from heaven for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but it is rotten potatoes for the American people. And President Bush is the cook in the kitchen serving up this garbage.

Is it any wonder that former Mexican President Vicente Fox told Larry King Live last Tuesday evening that he and President Bush had agreed to "create a new regional currency in the Americas." (See the story at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58052 )

Fox was asked by a listener what he felt about the possibility of having a Latin America united with one currency. According to the CNN transcript obtained by WND, "Fox answered in the affirmative, indicating it was a long-term plan. He admitted he and President Bush had agreed to pursue the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas--a free trade zone extending throughout the Western Hemisphere, suggesting part of the plan was to institute eventually a regional currency."

Is there anyone who cannot see what Bush is doing? He has committed the United States to a trilateral, hemispheric government in which each of the three nations--the U.S., Mexico, and Canada--are united under one regional authority. This is why President Bush demonstrates such stubborn resistance to any plan that would attempt to keep the United States independent of this newly formed regional authority.

Because of Bush's plan to merge the U.S. into a North American Community, he is determined to grant illegal aliens amnesty, and he is willing to demand that illegal aliens who rape and murder American citizens must be turned over to a "world court."

It is time the American people face the reality that President Bush is deliberately and intentionally sacrificing America's sovereignty and independence in order to fulfill his elitist plans for global unification. If our congressmen and senators had any real courage, they would impeach this man and his Vice President for treason.

The sad reality is, however, many of our congressmen and senators are just as guilty as Bush and Cheney. Furthermore, if the American people themselves would break away from "American Idol" and their favorite college football games long enough to see what was really happening in this country, we would not have these bozos in Congress to begin with.

America's biggest threat is not from al Qaeda; it is from these conniving internationalists in Washington, D.C. An al Qaeda terrorist can possibly knock down a building or bridge and kill a few of us, but these traitors (from both major parties) in Washington have the power to enslave the whole country--and that is exactly what they are in the process of doing.

So, in the name of "conducting foreign policy," President George W. Bush is doggedly defending a Mexican rapist-murderer. However, what he is really doing is working to appease his elitist Mexican counterparts so they together can implement their New World Order agenda. I don't know about anyone else, but it makes me want to puke!

Army Tests Bio-Weapons on U.S. Citizens

YouTube
Tuesday October 16, 2007

But our government wouldn't kill 3,000 of us on 9/11. Our government loves us.

NIST: "We are Unable to Provide a Full Explanation of the Total Collapse"

George Washington's Blog
Tuesday October 16, 2007

On April 11th, 2007, family members Bill Doyle and Bob McIlvaine, scientists Steven Jones and Kevin Ryan, architect Richard Gage and the group Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice filed a petition with NIST demanding that it correct its erroneous methods and findings.

On September 27th, NIST finally replied.

While the reply is mainly bogus, and the filers of the petition intend to appeal the decision of NIST not to correct the many fatal errors in its reports, attorney James Gourley (who drafted the petition) has pointed out one interesting statement. Specifically, NIST says in its reply:

"We are unable to provide a full explanation of the total collapse".

Well, yes! That's exactly the point the petitioners are trying to make. No modern steel frame high-rise building has ever collapsed before or after 9/11 due to fire other than at WTC 1, 2 and 7, even though other fires have burned longer and hotter. And even if they somehow did start to collapse, the collapse would not have occurred at virtual free-fall speeds while creating enormous dust clouds right from the start.

So yes . . . NIST will forever be "unable to provide a full explanation of the total collapse" unless it stops covering up the evidence that the Twin Towers and Building 7 were brought down by controlled demolition.

Phone carriers quiet on U.S. surveillance program

Peter Kaplan
Reuters
Tuesday October 16, 2007

Major U.S. telephone carriers refused to answer questions from the Democratic-led Congress about their possible participation in President George W. Bush's warrantless domestic spying program, according to documents released by lawmakers on Monday.

At issue are reports that surfaced last year that some big telephone companies allowed the U.S. government access to millions of telephone records for Bush's anti-terror efforts following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Officials from AT&T, Verizon Communications and Qwest Communications International told the House Energy and Commerce Committee they could not discuss specifics about their companies' roles in any such effort.

The phone companies said it would be illegal for them to discuss the kind of program lawmakers were asking about without permission from the Bush administration.

AT&T "essentially finds itself caught in the middle of an oversight dispute between the Congress and the executive relating to government surveillance activities," AT&T General Counsel Wayne Watts said in a letter to the committee.

"Unfortunately, under current circumstances, we are unable to respond with specificity to your inquiries," Watts added in the letter to the panel headed by Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat.

Bush has demanded retroactive immunity from liability for telecommunication firms that participated in warrantless surveillance as part of any new bill to revise the laws governing the tracking of suspected enemy targets.

House Democratic leaders have refused, saying that the administration must first explain what these firms did before they will even consider granting immunity.

The phone companies' responses to Dingell were sent to the committee on Friday.

Full article here.

Americans could face Internet tax

Katrina Smith
WSTM
Tuesday October 16, 2007

Congressman Jim Walsh today called on Congress to act immediately to permanently extend the current Internet tax moratorium set to expire on November 1, 2007.

"The Internet is growing in importance as a resource for businesses and consumers today," said Walsh. "In the last twenty years, it has revolutionized the way we communicate, the way our children learn, and the way we conduct business. Taxing Internet access will have a detrimental impact upon our economy and our quality of life, and Congressional leadership should quickly put forward a bill that permanently bans this detrimental tax."

According to a February-March 2007 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, an initiative of the Pew Research Center, 71% of American adults regularly use the Internet, and usage by adults between the ages of 18 and 29 is as high as 87%.

Further, Internet usage is widespread across race, ethnicity, geography, household income, and educational attainment. Urban (73%), suburban (73%) and rural (60%) Americans all rely on Internet service.

If Congress allows the tax moratorium to expire on November 1st, Americans could face taxes of up to 20% for simply accessing the Internet. On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee passed a temporary short-term extension of the moratorium, refusing to consider legislation with bipartisan support that would enact a permanent ban.

Walsh is a co-sponsor of H.R. 743, the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act, which amends the Internet Tax Freedom Act to make permanent the ban on State taxation of Internet access and on multiple or discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce. The measure has 237 co-sponsors, suggesting the bill would have little trouble passing the full House if called for a vote.

"We rely upon the Internet today to find a job, a new place to live, or the best treatment for a loved one's illness," added Walsh. "Congress should not begin taxing this resource that improves our lives and contributes to our economy."

Witness alleges man who died was Tasered 4 times

CBC News
Tuesday October 16, 2007

An eyewitness with cellphone footage spoke out Monday night about what she saw at the Vancouver International Airport when a man was Tasered by RCMP and later died.

Sima Ashrafinia, who filmed the incident at the airport on her cellphone, told CBC News that RCMP officers stunned the man four times and handcuffed him after he fell on the floor.

"The third and fourth ones were at the same time," she said. "The officer at his right and the officer at his left, they Tasered him at the same time and he fell down on his right."

"As he fell down, four or five officers gathered around him and handcuffed him while he was on the floor," Ashrafinia said.

She also alleges she offered to tell the RCMP officers what she witnessed. One officer said, "I'll be with you in a few minutes," she said. But the officers did not take a statement from her, she alleges.

Ashrafinia said she never felt the man was a threat.

Meanwhile, RCMP speculated Monday the man may have had a rare condition known as excited delirium, though the coroner's office has not yet determined the cause of death. Richmond RCMP Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre said witnesses reported seeing the man, whose identity has not been released, sweating profusely and showing the whites of his eyes when he began violently tossing chairs and luggage inside the airport early Sunday.

Excited delirium is described as an agitated state, when a person experiences an irregular heartbeat then suddenly dies. It can happen to psychiatric patients and people using drugs such as cocaine.

Officers physically restrained the man and applied handcuffs, Lemaitre said.

"He was on his back and being combative and still fighting. Even though he had received what they call pulses, two pulses from Taser, he was still out of control," Lemaitre told CBC Newsworld on Monday morning.

Lemaitre denied links between the Taser jolts and the man's death, saying deaths are often not directly related to the stun gun but rather caused by some pre-existing medical condition or drug use.

The violent episode happened after the man passed through customs and picked up his luggage, police said. Witnesses reported the man yelled in what sounded like an Eastern European language and had arrived on an international flight.

The coroner's office is still performing toxicology and other tests, and has not yet released the cause of death. Police have identified the man, but are not releasing his name pending notification of family.

Lawyer calls for moratorium on Taser use
The death has renewed debate about the use of Tasers by police officers, with one Vancouver lawyer calling for a moratorium on the use of the weapons.

Cameron Ward said police typically blame deaths on medical conditions, and the coroner's office often comes to the same conclusion.

"My feeling is they're being overused. They're being used on people who are in medical or emotional distress and often there are tragic consequences," said Ward.

Lemaitre said in an earlier interview that police considered using pepper spray but it would have affected other people in the airport. He also said officers decided against using batons to subdue the man because of how it would have looked to the public.

Of the 16 stun gun-related deaths in Canada in the past four years, six have occurred in British Columbia.