Dollar Falls, Gold Rises in Europe

LONDON (AP) — The U.S. dollar was mostly lower against other major currencies in European trading Tuesday. Gold rose.

The euro traded at $1.4710, up from $1.4696 late Monday in New York. Later, in midday trading in New York, the euro fetched $1.4721.

Other dollar rates in Europe, compared with late Monday, included 109.67 Japanese yen, up from 109.03; 1.1150 Swiss francs, down from 1.1162; and 0.9986 Canadian dollars, down from 1.0061.

The British pound was quoted at $1.9735, up from $1.9697.

In midday New York trading, the dollar bought 109.20 yen and 1.1127 Swiss francs, while the pound was worth $1.9727.

Gold traded in London at $874.20 per troy ounce, up from $857.30 late Monday. In Zurich, gold traded at $871.60 bid per troy ounce, up from $857.75.

Silver traded in London at $15.51, up from $15.13.

A New Low for Privacy in the U.S.

Bill Hahn
JBS
Tuesday January 8, 2007

Anyone, particularly anyone living in "the West" — that is Great Britain, the United States, etc. — who thinks that they aren’t falling prey to random surveillance might as well employ a rather well-known Sopranos technique and "fuhgetaboutit!"

Follow this link to the original source: "The US Sets the Standard … in Lack of Privacy!"

In a new online exclusive, and as a follow-up to his popular and in-depth article "Living Under Surveillance" for The New American, engineer and author Wilt Alston reveals that even he didn’t think America was as bad as it actually is when it comes to trading liberty and privacy for security. But, according to Alston, a new report sheds additional light on the situation and reveals how far down the slippery slope America has fallen.

The new report on surveillance around the world ranks nations with regard to the amount of effort they put into conducting surveillance on innocent citizens. Alston states that the study’s rankings are an indicator of the health of participatory government and freedom in a nation. The more pervasive the surveillance, the greater the attack on freedom. Unfortunately, as Alston notes, the report finds that the U.S., along with Great Britain and a few other nations, now has an "endemic surveillance society." In such a society freedom is much more likely to be trampled, a point not lost on America’s Founding Fathers.

Once again confirming that our Founders were indeed visionaries of freedom, Benjamin Franklin hit the nail on the head when he noted: "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Franklin and his compatriots knew that a federal government was a necessary evil that needed to be limited in its scope and power to prevent it from interfering with the rights and liberties of the people. To that end, the Founding Fathers attempted to prevent the government they created from expanding beyond its purpose by binding it with the Constitution. Unfortunately, politicians enamored with the idea of power have, over time, worked to loosen the bindings the Constitution placed on the growth of federal power, with the result that the nation was turned first into a welfare state and now into aforementioned endemic surveillance society.

This transition conflicts with the 4th Amendment which specifically guards a citizen’s right against unreasonable searches and seizures. After all, what is continuous public surveillance of citizens if not an ongoing unreasonable search? Such a practice runs counter to our most basic legal assumption, that we are innocent until proven guilty. Constant surveillance, on the contrary, is predicated on the idea that at any moment any person may commit a crime, or, in other words, that each citizen carries an incipient measure of guilt that has simply not been fully manifested. Endemic surveillance, in short, assumes guilt from the first.

Nothing could be more contrary to basic American beliefs and principles. Perhaps if Americans dusted off their copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, they would learn that government’s role to protect its citizens is not to be accomplished by monitoring and gathering and compiling information on the masses. This merely leads to trampling the privacy and Constitutional rights of law abiding citizens.

War-Hawks Attack Ron Paul With Smears

Abelardo J. Arias
Nolan Times
Tuesday January 8, 2007

The war-hawks will do anything to stop Ron Paul. They simply don't want his message of freedom and peace getting out. Fox News is losing market shares because they try to censor those who want to stop this war.

Now the war-hawks resort to calling Ron Paul a racist.

First, the New York Times claims that Ron Paul is in cahoots with KKK racists. Then they retract the story because the paper failed to properly investigate its own story.

Jamie Kirchick of the pro-war publication "New Republic", owned in part by Roger Hertog (a neoconservative), went on Tucker Carlson's show tonight to supposedly prove that Ron Paul is a racist, that he called Martin Luther King horrible things and is a secessionist (i.e. he probably supports slavery as well).

This is all hogwash. Brace yourself for the truth.

More and more Americans are realizing that Abraham Lincoln was a big-business white supremacist who wanted to forcibly deport the Negro slaves to Liberia in Africa. He said over and over that if he could win the Civil War without having to free one slave he would! Lincoln didn't fight to help the Negro slave in either the Northern territories or the South. He fought to prevent secession for his own political purposes. Lincoln, as Senator of Illinois, even supported a law keeping free Negro citizens out of that state. He only freed the slaves as a last resort because he was losing the war, but he still kept slavery alive in federal territories. Some hero of liberty!

There is no doubt that radical wackos and even racists are attracted to Ron Paul's message of liberty. But that does not for one second diminish the truth of Ron Paul's campaign or our need to return to the Constitution and end all foreign entanglements and occupations. The real racists are narrow-minded losers like these who oppose Ron Paul.

What some fringe associates of Ron Paul wrote in a newsletter years ago is as relevant to his candidacy today as Barack Obama's coke-snorting, Mike Hucabee's AIDS hysteria or Rudy Giuliani's cross-dressing. The war is real. The killing has to stop. And the time for the peace movement is now. MLK stood up to the pro-war establishment and forcefully spoke out against the Vietnam Quagmire and against Jim Crow. His critics silenced him with a bullet.

On Martin Luther King's Birthday, show the haters that Ron Paul's message of peace, freedom and prosperity is for all Americans, regardless of race, culture or religion. This will be the best money bomb yet for Ron Paul. We already broke the record in U.S. election history and we will do it again!

Ron Paul, muffled by Fox, wows Jay Leno

Andrew Malcolm
LA Times
Tuesday January 8, 2007

Last week, Mike Huckabee gave up the last half-day of campaigning for the Iowa Republican caucus and flew to Burbank, Calif., to appear on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Next day, Huckabee won.

So tonight, the night before the big New Hampshire primary, Ron Paul tried to pull a Huckabee. He flew all the way across the country for his own second appearance with Jay. And Leno, now a developing political kingmaker, greeted him with a most sympathetic hearing. You can see it on your NBC stations in a couple of hours. Paul's supporters, who financed a new eight-state ad blitz for their man, will be very happy with tonight's program.

It's not easy for a 72-year-old, 10-term congressman from Texas, who once before ran for president on the Libertarian ticket, to get much media attention. He's been polling a long time in single digits. But then a couple of things happened. Paul's thousands of outspoken, fervent followers set a new one-day fundraising record and reaped almost $20 million for him in the fourth quarter, likely more than any other GOP candidate. Then last week Paul came in fifth in Iowa with 10%, a lot better than the 4% of Rudy Giuliani, who'd criticized Paul strongly in an early debate.

But the best thing that happened to Paul in recent days was that despite his $20 million and his 10% showing in New Hampshire polls, Fox News excluded Paul from its Sunday night Republican debate with the big five -- Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Huckabee, Mitt Romney and John McCain. So Paul gets 10% in Iowa and gets excluded, but Rudy gets 4% and sits on the left end of the Fox Box desk. Hmmm.

There was quite an uproar and the New Hampshire GOP withdrew its sponsorship of the debate. Paul supporters, mocking the network's "Fair and Balanced" motto, flooded Fox with protests, calls and e-mails and are organizing a boycott of Fox sponsors. Never one to miss an opportunity, NBC's Leno invited Paul to appear and explain.

Introducing his guest as "a long-shot maverick," Leno said, "I'm trying to figure out why Fox News chose not to put you on."

"You know," Paul replied, "we tried to find that out. But they didn't return our call."

"You seem like a gentleman," notes Leno. "You don't seem like that type. But it seems like you should be kicking somebody's ass right now." [Laughter] [Applause] "You're being extremely polite for something I think you got screwed over, quite, you know, ....

I mean, I might not necessarily agree with you, but I think, as an American, we like to see everybody get an equal shot."

Paul speculates that Fox "didn't want to hear the message. Maybe they're intimidated. Maybe they're frightened. Maybe they don't want to hear the truth. Who knows?"

Full article here.

China planning to secure North Korea's nuclear arsenal: report

AFP
Tuesday January 8, 2007

China has contingency plans to dispatch troops into North Korea and secure nuclear weapons in the event of instability in the hardline communist state, according to US experts who have talked to Chinese military researchers.

Any intervention by Beijing would be done as far as possible after consultations with the United Nations but unilateral action was not ruled out, the experts said in a report published on the websites of two US think tanks.

"If deemed necessary, PLA troops would be dispatched into North Korea," the report said, referring to the Chinese People Liberation Army (PLA).

"China's strong preference is to receive formal authorization and coordinate closely with the UN in such an endeavor," it said.

"However, if the international community did not react in a timely manner as the internal order in North Korea deteriorated rapidly, China would seek to take the initiative in restoring stability."

The report was compiled by experts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the US Institute of Peace -- which published the report -- and Asia Foundation following their visit to China in June last year.

North Korea, which reportedly has up to 10 nuclear bombs, is currently involved in a denuclearization program in return for energy aid and diplomatic and security guarantees under a six-party mechanism involving also the United States, China, Russia, South Korea and Japan.

The program hit a snag recently after Washington accused Pyongyang of not meeting a December 31 deadline for a full declaration of its nuclear programs.

"According to PLA researchers, contingency plans are in place for the PLA to perform three possible missions" in North Korea -- humanitarian and peacekeeping missions and "environmental control" measures, the report said.

The measures are intended "to clean up nuclear contamination resulting from a strike on North Korean nuclear facilities" near the Sino-North Korean border and "to secure nuclear weapons and fissile materials."

The report -- entitled "Keeping An Eye On An Unruly Neighbor -- Chinese views of economic reform and stability in North Korea" -- said that in the event of instability in North Korea, China's main priority would be to prevent a flood of refugees.

This would be done by assuring supplies of food and strengthening border controls, it said.

"PLA officers maintain that they would attempt to close the border, but admit a lack of confidence that they could do so successfully, since the border extends 866 miles (1,394 kimometers) and can be easily penetrated," the report said.

Trans Texas Corridor Plans to Pave over Branch Davidians

Stu Nelson
JonesReport.com
January 7, 2008

Lets go back in time to February 28, 1993. We watch on the TV news as agents from the BATF storm a building somewhere outside Waco Texas. We hear that 4 BATF agents are killed. The news tells us all these people are religious gun freak fanatics whose leader is a child molester. Is that an accurate summation?

Well, for those of us in Texas, we have largely considered the best view of Waco was in the rear view mirror. Waco was a city you drove thru to get somewhere else. And, we had certainly never even heard of "those Branch people" before. Most of us did not really know what to make of this standoff outside Waco. The FBI, BATF, DPS, etc. ran pretty good propaganda…for a while.

This map shows the Branch Davidian property (in light red) off of Double EE Ranch road and the rebuilt Davidian church itself (circled in red) directly under the planned route of the Trans-Texas Corridor (the diagonal dotted line.

Now let’s remember April 19, 1993. This day was the 217th anniversary of the first battles of the American Revolution. Carol Moore points out in her book "The Davidian Massacre" that in 1775 a British expedition raided a Minuteman weapons stockpiles in Concord Massachusetts resulting in the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

That day, April 19, 1993 we were stunned to see tanks smashing into the side of those familiar walls. Tanks spraying nerve gas inside. Tanks used on a community of Americans. Then the fire started and everyone watching collectively said "Oh My God". The fire was blamed on the Davidians. Another collective word came out from all across America that starts with bull.

As the pictures come out of the aftermath, we see government agents grabbing "souvenirs", proudly having pictures taken and acting as though they had just won the Battle of the Bulge or Iwo Jima. Then researchers and film makers reveal the horror of "the truth" of the Waco Massacre. Video footage reveals snipers shooting Davidians escaping the fire. We find out about the gassing of women and children in the storm shelter. Later a sham trial in San Antonio for 9 survivors. Sent to prison for surviving something that is suppose to happen in Bosnia or Soviet Union or some distant African country run by war lords but NEVER, NEVER in America. We that love liberty and actually understand WHAT that is have said collectively…"NEVER AGAIN" "Remember Waco". This should be the "new collectivism".

Well, the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) has its pavement rolling right over the top of the property called "Mt Carmel". We have the actual map route through Waco. We have since gotten copies, though McClendon county (Waco) claims they "no longer have them". We thought there was a moratorium of 2 yrs on the TTC. Well, as of Wednesday, 7-11-07, surveyors are out in force doing their job just outside the Davidian property.

The TTC route actually passes directly over the memorial church built there by volunteers over 7 months. Alex Jones, Mike Hanson and George Pullium put the call out and together literally hundreds of volunteer from many states and foreign countries answered the call to do something to honor the murdered at Mt Carmel.

Body parts from the 9-11 government sponsored attack are being found in lower Manhattan as you know. Paving roads with the remains of those that were murdered on 9-11. Now, the darkness continues with the TTC and the road going right over the crime scene at Mt Carmel. Psalm 94

Bill To Paul's Supporters: You're Nuts

Mike Memoli
NBC
Tuesday January 8, 2007

KEENE, NH -- Several Ron Paul supporters shadowed a much larger Clinton entourage as Bill Clinton greeted supporters downtown. The former president later called them "nuts."

During his third stop of the day, the former president posed for pictures and shook hands as he strolled down Main Street on this unseasonably warm Primary Eve day. Across the street, a few Paul supporters shouted his name.

Eventually, Clinton stopped outside a bakery, offered some remarks, and took questions. As he was answering one on Iraq, one of the Paul backers interrupted and shouted that the Sept. 11 attacks were an inside job, and that the U.S. didn’t need to be in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When he dropped an F-bomb, the crowd booed. Clinton, who had tried to talk over the man, gave up.

"You wanna know what I think?” Clinton said. “You guys who think 9/11 was an inside job are crazy as hell. My wife was the senator from New York when that happened. I was down at Ground Zero. I saw the victims' families. You're nuts."