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."

Paulson Predicts Signs of `Slower Growth' Ahead

By Kevin Carmichael and John Brinsley

Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said investors remain wary of U.S. markets and that further signs of ``slower growth'' will emerge before the economy shakes off the effects of the housing crisis.

``It will take additional time for markets to regain confidence,'' Paulson said in a speech to the New York Society of Security Analysts today in New York. ``We will likely have further indications of slower growth in the weeks and months ahead.''

The comments come as the Bush administration considers ways to invigorate an economy that some economists say may be on the verge of recession. The U.S. stock market is off to its worst start since 2000 as the housing slump and credit crunch weaken job growth and manufacturing.

Paulson didn't address the prospect of an economic stimulus package directly in his prepared remarks. While acknowledging that growth ``looks to have slowed considerably'' at the end of 2007, Paulson said the economy ``remains resilient'' and that he expects it to ``continue'' to expand.

``Let me be clear that no single policy or action will undo the excesses of the last few years,'' Paulson said. ``President Bush and his administration recognize the risk we face, and the primary importance of keeping the economy as strong as possible as we weather this housing correction.''

Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and the rest of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets met with President George W. Bush on Jan. 4.

Work With Congress

After the meeting, Bush said he will work with Congress to ``do everything we can'' to ensure the economy doesn't slip into a recession. The U.S. economy likely grew at an annual rate of 1 percent in the fourth quarter, according to the median estimate of economist surveyed last month, compared with a 4.9 percent rate in the third quarter.

Paulson, the former head of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., used the speech to assess the state of various capital markets.

He said equity and Treasury markets were functioning ``well.'' The U.S. market for ``high-grade debt'' is ``performing satisfactorily,'' and the ``high yield'' market is ``impaired but operational,'' Paulson said. The asset-backed paper market is showing ``progress,'' he said.

The speech was Paulson's first since a three-state trip last month to promote his plan to ease the subprime mortgage crisis, which includes freezing interest rates on loans to some borrowers. He said he expected mortgage servicers to ``begin fat-tracking borrowers in the next few weeks.''

In the remarks today, Paulson repeated a request that Congress pass legislation toughening oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-chartered enterprises that are the country's biggest sources of mortgage financing. With a stronger regulator, Paulson said the administration would back a temporary, higher limit on the size of loans the GSEs are allowed to securitize.

Iran confirms incident with U.S. ships: agency

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran on Monday confirmed there was an "incident" between Iranian and U.S. ships but gave no details, an Iranian news agency reported, after Washington said Iranian vessels threatened their ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Pentagon said five Iranian boats made aggressive maneuvers and showed hostile intent against three U.S. Navy ships on Saturday in the narrow entrance to the Gulf, a major oil shipping route.

The Pentagon said the incident was serious. It described the Iranian actions as "careless, reckless and potentially hostile" and said Tehran should provide an explanation.

But Iran played down the incident saying it was not unusual. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said that, as in other cases, this "incident" was resolved when the two sides identified each other.

"The example that happened on Saturday was similar to previous cases and is an ordinary and natural issue," Hosseini told Iran's official IRNA news agency.

"This is an ordinary issue that happens for the two sides every once in a while and after the identification of the two sides the issue is resolved," he added without giving details.

The incident was the latest sign of tension between Washington and Tehran, at odds over a range of issues from Iran's nuclear program to U.S. allegations of Iranian support for terrorism.

U.S. President George W. Bush is due to travel to the Middle East this week on a trip he has said is partly aimed at countering Iranian influence and what he has described as Tehran's "aggressive ambitions".

"We urge the Iranians to refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Oil prices briefly rose on the news about the confrontation as dealers weighed the threat to oil shipments along the key shipping route. Crude futures jumped 49 cents to $98.40 a barrel before slipping back.

(Reporting by Hossein Jaseb and Zahra Hosseinian; writing by Edmund Blair; editing by Sami Aboudi)

IMF warns of economic doom

Story by JEFF OTIENO - DAILY NATION Publication Date: 1/7/2008

The International Monetary Fund Sunday warned that Kenya was facing an economic catastrophe if the current post-general election standoff is not addressed. IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn also said the institution was concerned that supply disruptions due to violence in the country was affecting other countries in the region. Some of the countries that are already feeling the pinch of the post-election violence are Uganda and Rwanda which heavily depend on the port of Mombasa for imports like petroleum, machinery and other products. As a growing regional economic hub, Kenya is the transit point for one quarter of the GDP of Uganda and Rwanda, and one third that of Burundi. “I very much hope that the political leaders in Kenya will quickly and peacefully resolve the current dispute over the election results. This would open the way to further progress toward economic prosperity which could benefit all Kenyans,’’ said Mr Strauss-Kahn. Economic reform The fund was ready to support Kenya in its economic reform efforts. The concerns were supported by economic analyst, Dr David Ndii, who said the political violence experienced in Kenya will be felt for a long time. “It is important that there be political stability and confidence in the government of the day for the eroded investor confidence to be restored,” said Dr Ndii. He said the notion that calm would restore investor confidence as argued by some politicians was misplaced. Dr Ndii added that transit trade was a leading foreign exchange earner, apart from tourism and agriculture. “With the chaos that has been witnessed in the country it will not be surprising if the landlocked countries look for alternatives other than wholly relying on Kenya for their essential commodities,” he added. He said influential people who took part in the election fraud had done harm not only to the country but also to their businesses. “Investor confidence will be fully restored once Kenya holds another election that is deemed to be free and fair, whether it is next month or after five years,” Mr Ndii added. He said the cost of insuring buildings and infrastructure from political risks will skyrocket following the violence witnessed. Mr Strauss-Kahn said the Bretton Woods institution had noted with sadness the violence that has caused the deaths of many innocent Kenyans in the aftermath of the December 27 elections. “I offer my condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones to the violence and pay tribute to the people of Kenya who exercised their democratic and constitutional rights to vote. I note with concern that supply disruptions emanating from the developments in Kenya are affecting other countries in the region,’’ he said. The IMF and local economists concerns come a few days after a statement issued by the donor community which said the country was losing Sh2 billion daily. The joint statement, issued last week by the World Bank, Canada, Denmark, the European Commission, France, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, warned that the gains made in the past few years could dissipate due to the ongoing destruction. Business confidence “At stake is the pre-election Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of seven per cent, rising business confidence, increasing tourism, measurable progress in firm level productivity, significant gains in democratic development and the lifting of over two million Kenyans out of poverty,” said the statement. The donor community said Sh40 billion–about five per cent of market capitalisation– was wiped off the value of shares when business resumed at the Nairobi Stock Exchange after the elections.

Pentagon Says Iran Boats Provoked US Warships in Strait of Hormuz

By VOA News 07 January 2008

U.S. officials say five Iranian naval boats provoked three American warships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Sunday.

Military officials said Monday that the American ships prepared to fire after the Iranian military speedboats acted aggressively, charging the U.S. boats before veering away and dropping boxes in the water.

Pentagon officials say the Iranians used an open radio frequency to warn the U.S. ships that they would blow up after a couple of minutes.

The White House called the incident "provocative" and warned Tehran to refrain from such actions that could lead to a "dangerous incident in the future."

The Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the United Arab Emirates is a key shipping route for oil. Both the Iranian and the U.S. navies patrol the waterway.

Jesuits gather in Rome to elect new "black pope"

By Philip Pullella

ROME (Reuters) - There won't be any white smoke to tell the world he has been elected, but another sort of secret conclave began in Rome on Monday -- to chose the worldwide Jesuit leader who is known as the "the black pope".

At Jesuit headquarters a block from the Vatican, 225 delegates from around the world will choose a new superior general to run the largest and perhaps most influential, controversial and prestigious Catholic clerical order.

Their leader is traditionally known as "the black pope" because of the colour of the simple cassock he wears and because -- like the pope who dresses in white -- he has worldwide influence and usually keeps the position for life.

But this year's general congregation, as the meeting is known, is different. The current superior general, Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, 79, received permission from Pope Benedict to retire for reasons of age.

A soft-spoken Dutchman with white hair and a goatee, Kolvenbach has been in the job since 1983 and has won widespread praise for steering the Jesuits through one of their most difficult periods in their 468-year history.

Kolvenbach's charismatic predecessor, a Basque named Pedro Arrupe, had several conflicts with Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul, who believed the order had become too independent, leftist and political, particularly in Latin America.

When Arrupe suffered a stroke in the early 1980s Pope John Paul appointed a personal delegate to run the order to make sure it would not drift further leftwards, a move some Jesuits at the time resented as "papal martial law".

Kolvenbach, by contrast, has been credited with re-establishing good relations with the Vatican over the past 25 years while dealing with issues such as declining vocations and the future of the order founded by St Ignatius Loyola in 1540.

DECLINING VOCATIONS

In the 1960s, the all-male order officially known as the Society of Jesus peaked with some 36,000 members worldwide. It now has about 19,200 members involved in education, refugee help and other social services.

The election of Kolvenbach's successor is expected to take place in mid-January after days of prayer and what is known in Latin as "murmuratio", or murmurings, among the delegates about who might make a good superior general.

While politicking for the post is strictly banned -- delegates are obliged to 'turn in' anyone who actively seeks the top job -- some names have already circulated in religious media.

One is Father Lisbert D'Sousa of India, and some Jesuits have said it is time for the top job to go to someone from the developing world.

"This (the developing world) is not only the new center of gravity for the Society of Jesus but for the Church," Father James Martin wrote in America, the weekly of the U.S. Jesuits.

"And an election of a developing world general would be interesting as a possible bellwether for the next papal conclave, whenever that will be," he wrote.

The new Jesuit leader is elected by a secret ballot. After he is chosen, the delegates are not allowed to leave the room until Pope Benedict is informed, in keeping with a centuries-old tradition that the "white pope" be the first to know who the new "black pope" is.

But unlike a conclave to elect the real pope, a Jesuit general congregation can continue for weeks or even months after the new head has been elected in order to discuss the order's future challenges and priorities

Pope Benedict Calls for Global Commitment to Security

By VOA News 07 January 2008

Pope Benedict has given his annual "state of the world" speech, calling for a global commitment to security.

Pope Benedict XVI waves as he leaves St. Peter's square, 31 Dec 2007

In Vatican City Monday the Roman Catholic leader urged the world to prevent terrorists from obtaining weapons of mass destruction. He called for diplomatic efforts over Iran's nuclear program, which the United States fears will be used to build nuclear weapons. Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful.

Pope Benedict also appealed for peace in many of the world's troubled regions, mentioning Burma, the Middle East, Kenya, and Sudan's Darfur region.

And he praised the agreement made by Israeli and Palestinians leaders in November to try to reach a peace deal by 2008. He urged the world to support that effort.

Israel to brief George Bush on options for Iran strike

Uzi Mahnaimi
London Times
Monday January 7, 2007

ISRAELI security officials are to brief President George W Bush on their latest intelligence about Iran’s nuclear programme - and how it could be destroyed - when he begins a tour of the Middle East in Jerusalem this week.

Ehud Barak, the defence minister, is said to want to convince him that an Israeli military strike against uranium enrichment facilities in Iran would be feasible if diplomatic efforts failed to halt nuclear operations. A range of military options has been prepared.

Last month it was revealed that the US National Intelligence Estimate report, drawing together information from 16 agencies, had concluded that Iran stopped a secret nuclear weapon programme in 2003.

Israeli intelligence is understood to agree that the project was halted around the time of America’s invasion of Iraq, but has “rock solid” information that it has since started up again.

While security officials are reluctant to reveal all their intelligence, fearing that leaks could jeopardise the element of surprise in any future attack, they are expected to present the president with fresh details of Iran’s enrichment of uranium - which could be used for civil or military purposes - and the development of missiles that could carry nuclear warheads.

In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot this weekend, Bush argued that in spite of the US intelligence assessment, Iran still posed a threat.

“I read the intelligence report carefully,” Bush said. “In essence, what the report said was that Iran had a secret plan to develop nuclear weapons.

“I’m saying that a state which adopted a nontransparent policy and had a secret plan for developing nuclear weapons could easily develop an alternative plan for the same purpose. So to conclude from the intelligence report that there is no Iranian plan to develop nuclear weapons will be only a partial truth.”

Israeli security officials believe the only way to prevent uranium enrichment to military grade is to destroy Iranian installations. Many Israelis are eager to know whether America would give their country the green light to attack, as it did last September when Israel struck a mysterious nuclear site in Syria.

China Communists sacked for having too many children: state media

AFP
Monday January 7, 2007

Authorities in a central China province have expelled hundreds of people from the Communist Party or their government posts for having more than one child, state media said Monday.

At least 93,084 people in Hubei province last year had more children than they were allowed under the policy of one per family, Xinhua news agency said quoting the provincial family planning commission.

They included 1,678 officials or party members, it added, saying about 500 had been expelled from the party and 395 stripped of their official posts.

Previous reports said the officials had also been fined.

The violators included seven national and local lawmakers or political advisors, Xinhua added.

"More party members, celebrities and well-off people are violating the policies... which has undermined social equality," commission director Yang Youwang was quoted as saying.

No information was given as to the punishments meted out to the more than 90,000 other people in Hubei who violated the "one-child" policy last year.

China's family planning policy began in the late 1970s as a way to control the world's largest population, now at 1.3 billion people.

Generally, urban families can have one child and rural families can have two if the first is a girl. About 400 million births have been averted thanks to the policy, the government has said.

But in recent years the policy has been routinely ignored in rural areas, while increasing numbers of China's urban new rich have been able to afford the requisite fines for violating the rules.

Chinese parents have traditionally favoured large families -- and sons, in particular -- to support them in their old age.

The policy has been notorious from the start for the harsh punishments and brutal methods used to enforce it, such as forced late-term abortions and the sterilisation of women.

Several areas of the poor southern province of Guangxi erupted in riots last year after officials launched a harsh crackdown to enforce the policy, with residents saying forced abortions were among the methods used by authorities.

Double Agent Gadahn Threatens Bush In Neo-Con Stunt

Jewish Zionist who once called Muslims "bloodthirsty terrorists" helps Giuliani's flagging numbers before New Hampshire primary

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Monday, January 7, 2008

Adam Pearlman, the Jewish Mossad agent who once wrote stinging essays condemning Muslims as "bloodthirsty terrorists", has once again popped up as an "Al-Qaeda spokesman" to boost the Neo-Con's imperial agenda by threatening George Bush on the eve of his trip to the middle east.

In a new videotape, Pearlman, now calling himself Adam Gadahn, states, "The occupied territories are awaiting their first visit by the crusader Bush and the mujahideen are also waiting for him," reports ABC News.

According to the tape, Gadahn promises to welcome Bush "with bombs and traps."

Gadahn's appearance is also perfectly timed to boost the flagging poll numbers of Rudy Giuliani and other establishment Republican candidates who have invoked the imaginary threat of terror for political points scoring before the New Hampshire primary tomorrow.

But who is the mysterious Adam Yehiye Gadahn?

The FBI lists Gadahn's aliases as Abu Suhayb Al-Amriki, Abu Suhayb, Yihya Majadin Adams, Adam Pearlman, and Yayah.

Adam Pearlman is his real name and his grandfather is none other than the late Carl K. Pearlman; a prominent Jewish urologist in Orange County. Carl was also a member of the board of directors of the Anti-Defamation League, which was caught spying on Americans for Israel in 1993. Mike Rivero has the scoop at WhatReallyHappened.com.

Israel's Mossad intelligence agency was caught in 2002 creating a phony Al-Qaeda group to justify attacks on Palestinians.

Pearlman has a knack of releasing his tapes at the most politically opportune time for Bush, having first burst onto the scene shortly before the 2004 presidential election and then again right after Katrina when the President's approval rating was tanking fast.

Even more mainstream publications, like the Los Angeles City Beat, have dismissed Pearlman before as nothing more than "cartoonish propaganda."

Pearlman had a hippy upbringing, a brief but intense flirtation with death metal and before a sudden transformation, once referred to Muslims as “bloodthirsty, barbaric terrorists.” Pearlman was a hardcore Jewish Zionist and wrote essays and screeds bashing the Muslim faith. He even got into fights at mosques and beat up Muslim worshippers.

Pearlman, the hardcore Jewish Zionist who trashed Muslims and beat them up, grows a beard and suddenly becomes an "Al-Qaeda spokesman" - nothing suspicious here, move along!

Pearlman's personal history and the highly suspicious nature in which he suddenly professed his conversion to Islam in a single Internet posting and later appeared on the scene as a spokesman for "Al-Qaeda" are all the ingredients needed to draw the conclusion that Pearlman is working as a double agent and most likely for Mossad.

The new tape is once again the work of As Sahab, Al-Qaeda's alleged media arm and was released by the U.S. government affiliated IntelCenter organization.

The previous Pearlman tape, released at the end of May last year, was also obtained by the IntelCenter group, a U.S. government contractor, and its head Ben Venzke gave the tape credence in media interviews concerning the story, as he has done again on this occasion.

It also emerged that Gadahn was the scriptwriter for the September 11, 2007 Bin Laden tape in which segments of Bin Laden's previous statements were hastily slapped together and the contrast altered to make his dubious beard appear darker, an attempt to hoodwink viewers into thinking the tape was new material.

In our previous groundbreaking expose, we unveiled the ties between Intelcenter, a group that regularly 'obtains' Al-Qaeda tapes and the Pentagon. Intelcenter is an offshoot of IDEFENSE, which was staffed by a senior military psy-op intelligence officer Jim Melnick, who has worked directly for Donald Rumsfeld.

Intelcenter were behind the October 2006 release of the "laughing hijackers" tape that showed Mohammad Atta and Ziad Jarrah allegedly attending a 2000 Al-Qaeda meeting and reading their last will and testament.

Segments of the video that were interspersed with footage of the "laughing hijackers," Jarrah and Atta, showing Bin Laden giving a speech to an audience in Afghanistan on January 8 2000, were culled from what terror experts described as surveillance footage taken by a "security agency."

News reports at the time contained the admission that the U.S. government had been in possession of the footage since 2002, while others said it was found when the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, and yet it was still bizarrely reported that the tape, bearing all the hallmarks of having been filmed and edited by undercover US intelligence and having admittedly been in US possession for five years, was released over the weekend of September 31/October 1 by Al-Qaeda.

The video also contained segments that were first broadcast in a British documentary called The Road to Guantanamo, which was originally aired in March 2006. The context of the corresponding scene in the dramatized documentary featured U.S. interrogators attempting to coerce Gitmo detainees into confessing Al-Qaeda membership by showing them fake videos where their likeness had been computer generated to appear as if they were in attendance during Bin Laden's January 8 2000 speech.

The new Pearlman/Gadahn propaganda tape will no doubt be seized upon by bellicose Neo-Cons who desperately yearn for another terror attack like junkies yearn for their next hit. Unfortunately for them, crass videotapes presented by discredited intelligence double agents don't have nearly the same impact they did before masses of people started waking up to the fact that the entire war on terror is a complete fraud propped up by crude smoke and mirror stunts which manage to fool only the dumbest of Americans.

Sean Hannity on the run

Sean Hannity retreating to his hotel after protesters rallied outside of a restaurant he was visiting in Manchester, New Hampshire.

U.S. says Iran gunboats harassed warships

Officials describe incident as a 'significant provocative act'

BREAKING NEWS

By Jim Miklaszewski

Chief Pentagon correspondent

NBC News

updated 8:47 a.m. ET, Mon., Jan. 7, 2008

WASHINGTON - Iranian Revolutionary Guard gunboats harassed three U.S. Navy warships in the Strait of Hormuz Sunday, in what the U.S. military considers a "significant provocative act."

Military officials told NBC News that two U.S. Navy destroyers and one frigate were heading into the Persian Gulf through the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz when five armed "fast boats" of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard approached a high speed, darting in and out of the formation.

At one point a radio message from one of the Iranian boats warned, "You are going to blow up within minutes."

The Navy warships went into defensive mode, radioed the usual warnings to steer clear, and in the end no shots were fired. U.S. military warships believe the Revolutionary Guard boats were "testing our defenses," the officials said.

The United States expressed concern when the Revolutionary Guard forces took over Iranian naval operations in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz from the regular navy more than five months ago.

However, Sunday’s incident was the first significant act of provocation since then.

Revolutionary Guard forces also briefly took a number of British sailors into custody even though the British claim they were operating in international waters off the coast of Iraq.

Jim Miklaszewski is the NBC News Chief Pentagon Correspondent.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22537199/

Giuliani Targets Apocalypse Voters In New Campaign Ad

Prison Planet
Thursday, January 3, 2008

Rudy piggy-backs his ailing presidential aspirations onto a potential World War 3 clash of civilizations - fantastic - this is precisely the bold vision of hope that America needs to move forward!

Unfortunately for Ghouliani, the primaries will move too thick and fast for his campaign management team to realize that only a tiny and dwindling amount of Americans on the lunatic fringe actually want to bring about the apocalypse.

The Republicans employed a similar tactic in 2006 and it cost them both houses.

Watch the video.

Bill O'Reilly Admits He Is "Frightened" By Ron Paul

Fox News talking head says he agrees with decision to ban Congressman from presidential forum

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, January 3, 2008

Talking head blowhard Bill O'Reilly admitted on Fox News last night that Ron Paul frightens him and that he completely agrees with the decision to exclude him from a Fox presidential forum this weekend.

"Ron Paul, when you look at the totality of his positions, is a pretty frightening guy," barks O'Reilly.

O'Reilly then proceeds to play a clip that proves the Congressman completely right and makes Billo look ridiculous.

The clip is from O'Reilly's September 2007 interview with Paul in which he dismisses the Iranian threat and voices his opposition to the Neo-Cons spreading the war further throughout the middle east.

The fact that the CIA's National Intelligence Estimate, which was released less than three months later, concluded that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, is lost on Bill, who claims that Paul's desire to bring American troops home puts the country in danger.

Reason Magazine's Nick Gillespie ably puts Bill in his place.

Watch the video.

Oil at $100 not our fault: OPEC

Fredrik Dahl
Reuters
Thursday, January 3, 2008

OPEC officials lined up to say the exporter group could do little to tame oil prices that hit $100 a barrel for the first time on Wednesday and world markets had enough crude oil.

The comments underline the view of the producer group that factors other than supply are driving oil's record run. Officials said there was no plan for an emergency OPEC meeting before a scheduled February 1 gathering.

"The problem is not shortage of supply," Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, international affairs director at the National Iranian Oil Company, told Reuters on Thursday. Iran is OPEC's second-largest producer after Saudi Arabia.

"I think the main problem is outside the oil market. Too much liquidity is available," Ghanimifard said. "A big part of it is in the paper market of crude oil."

Oil in New York hit $100 a barrel on Wednesday, the first trading day of the year, and analysts said the price could make further gains. Crude rallied almost 58 percent last year and is up from below $20 in early 2002.

OPEC, source of more than a third of the world's oil, decided to keep oil output steady at a December 5 meeting, rebuffing calls from consumer countries for more supply to rein in prices then trading around $90.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cannot tame the price rise because it is not a result of supply problems, Qatar's oil minister told Reuters on Wednesday.

"I don't think OPEC can do anything," Qatar's Abdullah al-Attiyah said. "If this was related to supply then we could move."

Full article here.

Funding sought for 50 flights dragging huge "Revolution" banner

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, January 3, 2008

Ron Paul supporters are being urged to take the revolution to the air as funding is sought for a squadron of 50 flights to take to the skies before the end of January, dragging behind them gigantic 90 by 30 feet banners promoting the Congressman's presidential campaign.

The Genesis Communications Network is hoping to follow in the footsteps of the Ron Paul Blimp by attracting sponsors for flights over key demographic battlegrounds as the Republican primaries take shape over the next few months.

The first flight sets off today and will be cruising over Cedar Rapids, Iowa from 2pm CST onwards.

Approximately $465 is needed to keep each plane in the sky for an hour which can also be moved to other key markets at a cost of $200 per night.

Huge 90 by 30 foot banner that will trail behind the planes.

Each billboard costs $3,695 to make an the organizers are hoping to raise around $120,000 in total which would buy 300 flight hours.

Please visit http://www.ronpaulaircorps.com and pledge your support for this exciting new activist adventure!

This video details the great efforts of other activists in taking to the skies for the cause of freedom.

FBI to use digital billboard alerts

Mark Sweney
London Guardian
Thursday, January 3, 2008

The FBI is to use a nationwide network of digital billboards to flash "hot pursuit" alerts and "most wanted" bulletins to help catch criminals.

In a deal with Clear Channel Outdoor, the US law enforcement agency will use billboards to run messages about wanted criminals, crime in progress and "high security" alerts about homeland security.

The agreement, which follows a successful trial in Philadelphia that led to the swift arrest of three criminals, will primarily be used to run "most wanted messages" on more than 150 digital billboards in about 20 US cities.

Billboards will also be used to display "high security messages to relevant communities" and the FBI also plans to establish a "protocol" for high priority "hot pursuit" messages to run straight after crimes are committed.

"The success of our 'wanted' messages on Clear Channel's digital billboards in Philadelphia was an impressive testament to this new technology's effectiveness in aiding law enforcement," said Brett Hovington, community relations unit chief at the FBI.

He added that a key benefit of the billboards is that they allow a "degree of separation between the tipster and the authorities", helping the FBI to protect the sources of anonymous tip-offs.

Clear Channel has previously used its billboards for public safety purposes such as informing commuters in Minneapolis that there had been a bridge collapse within 15 minutes of the event occurring.

Global Property Bubbles to Implode in 2008

Global Property Bubbles to Implode in 2008

The Telegraph is reporting UK Landlords face office rent crisis.

One of the UK's leading commercial property agents has warned that office rents may tumble next year, dealing a second devastating blow to landlords who have already seen the value of their portfolios plummet in recent months.

DTZ is predicting a 15pc-20pc fall in office demand in 2008 as banks and other financial institutions reduce their overheads, which will almost inevitably lead to a softening of rents and the increase in incentives such as rent-free periods.

DTZ's report added that the current financial crisis is symptomatic of a much wider problem than the US sub-prime market.

A spokesman said: "Sub-prime is a red herring. It was simply the most stretched segment of an over-stretched debt market. As such, it has to be seen as a catalyst rather than the cause of the recent turmoil."

My Comment: DTZ has this correct. Yet we still hear (at least in the US) how all of this is related to subprime. Alt-A and Pay Option ARMs are going to be at least as big if not a bigger problem than subprime.

The concern over rental growth in the commercial property market comes against a backdrop of a falling number of deals in the sale and purchase of commercial property.

Research from property agent Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) reveals that the volume of transactions across the UK commercial property market dropped 25pc in 2007 to £48bn as investors fled the sector. Falling prices and reduced availability of debt restricted the flow of deals, especially larger ones, across the second half of the year.

My Comment: Commercial Real Estate Transactions Plunge in the US as well. A plunge in transaction preceded the bursting of the housing bubble in the US. Expect the same scenario to play out in the Commercial Real Estate bubble.

JLL director of capital markets Andrew Hynard said: " I think the first quarter of 2008 will be pretty slow, and we will see the pick-up in quarter two. However, the fall in capital values is likely to keep the overall value of transactions lower in 2008 than 2007."

My Comment: JLL is an amazing optimist. The US, UK, and EU all likely headed for what Shiller calls a Japanese Style Recession.

A Real Estate Bubble in Spain



Click Here To Play Video

Spanish property dreams seem to be reaching for the sky. The new skyline of the Spanish capital Madrid features 250 meter high office buildings - a symbol of the country's economic boom.

But as the city grows higher it is also becoming too expensive for many residents. Rocio Ramos and her partner bought themselves an apartment outside the city and now they are struggling to keep up with rising interest rates. At the same time, prices are stagnating after the years of building boom. On the coast many of the newly built appartments are empty. Ute Brucker took a look at developments in Madrid and Valencia.

The above property cost 200,000 Euros ($292,000+-) for 65 square meters (about 700 square feet) in a building constructed in the 1970's. That is a bubble folks.

Property Bubbles Are Everywhere You Look

Florida has been ground zero of bubble popping but California, Arizona, and Nevada are catching up. Internationally, there are enormous bubble in Spain, the UK, Canada (especially Vancouver and Toronto), and China.

Credit expansion in the UK and EU was just as rampant as the US. Global property bubbles were the result. Here is an interesting chart from HousePriceCrash.Co.UK



The dotted line is an alternate trendline that I drew. The ramifications should be obvious.

Global property bubbles are poised to implode in 2008.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

The US sub-prime crisis in graphics

The US sub-prime mortgage crisis has lead to plunging property prices, a slowdown in the US economy, and billions in losses by banks. It stems from a fundamental change in the way mortgages are funded.
bbc

THE NEW MODEL OF MORTGAGE LENDING

How it went wrong

Traditionally, banks have financed their mortgage lending through the deposits they receive from their customers. This has limited the amount of mortgage lending they could do.

In recent years, banks have moved to a new model where they sell on the mortgages to the bond markets. This has made it much easier to fund additional borrowing,

But it has also led to abuses as banks no longer have the incentive to check carefully the mortgages they issue.

THE RISE OF THE MORTGAGE BOND MARKET

In the past five years, the private sector has dramatically expanded its role in the mortgage bond market, which had previously been dominated by government-sponsored agencies like Freddie Mac.

They specialised in new types of mortgages, such as sub-prime lending to borrowers with poor credit histories and weak documentation of income, who were shunned by the "prime" lenders like Freddie Mac.

They also included "jumbo" mortgages for properties over Freddie Mac's $417,000 (£202,000) mortgage limit.

The business proved extremely profitable for the banks, which earned a fee for each mortgage they sold on. They urged mortgage brokers to sell more and more of these mortgages.

Now the mortgage bond market is worth $6 trillion, and is the largest single part of the whole $27 trillion US bond market, bigger even than Treasury bonds.

HOW SUB-PRIME LENDING AFFECTED ONE CITY

THE SUB-PRIME CRISIS IN CLEVELAND

	Sub-prime lending		Black areas
	Foreclosures (repossessions)		Deutsche Bank properties

For many years, Cleveland was the sub-prime capital of America.

It was a poor, working class city, hit hard by the decline of manufacturing and sharply divided along racial lines.

Mortgage brokers focused their efforts by selling sub-prime mortgages in working class black areas where many people had achieved home ownership.

They told them that they could get cash by refinancing their homes, but often neglected to properly explain that the new sub-prime mortgages would "reset" after 2 years at double the interest rate.

The result was a wave of repossessions that blighted neighbourhoods across the city and the inner suburbs.

By late 2007, one in ten homes in Cleveland had been repossessed and Deutsche Bank Trust, acting on behalf of bondholders, was the largest property owner in the city.

THE CRISIS GOES NATIONWIDE

Sub-prime lending had spread from inner-city areas right across America by 2005.

By then, one in five mortgages were sub-prime, and they were particularly popular among recent immigrants trying to buy a home for the first time in the "hot" housing markets of Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, and the suburbs of Washington, DC and New York City.

House prices were high, and it was difficult to become an owner-occupier without moving to the very edge of the metropolitan area.

But these mortgages had a much higher rate of repossession than conventional mortgages because they were "balloon" mortgages.

The payments were fixed for two years, and then became variable and much higher.

Consequently, a wave of repossessions is likely to sweep America as many of these mortgages reset to higher rates in the next two years.

And it is likely that as many as two million families will be evicted from their homes as their cases make their way through the courts.

The Bush administration is pushing the industry to renegotiate rather than repossess where possible, but mortgage companies are being overwhelmed by a tidal wave of cases.

THE HOUSING PRICE CRASH

The wave of repossessions is having a dramatic effect on house prices, reversing the housing boom of the last few years and causing the first national decline in house prices since the 1930s.

There is a glut of four million unsold homes that is depressing prices, as builders have also been forced to lower prices to get rid of unsold properties.

And house prices, which are currently declining at an annual rate of 4.5%, are expected to fall by at least 10% by next year - and more in areas like California and Florida which had the biggest boom.

HOUSING AND THE ECONOMY

The property crash is also affecting the broader economy, with the building industry expected to cut its output by half, with the loss of between one and two million jobs.

Many smaller builders will go out of business, and the larger firms are all suffering huge losses.

The building industry makes up 15% of the US economy, but a slowdown in the property market also hits many other industries, for instance makers of durable goods, such as washing machines, and DIY stores, such as Home Depot.

Economists expect the US economy to slow in the last three months of 2007 to an annual rate of 1% to 1.5%, compared with growth of 3.9% now.

But no one is sure how long the slowdown will last. Many US consumers have spent beyond their current income by borrowing on credit, and the fall in the value of their homes may make them reluctant to continue this pattern in the future.

CREDIT CRUNCH

One reason the economic slowdown could get worse is that banks and other lenders are cutting back on how much credit they will make available.

They are rejecting more people who apply for credit cards, insisting on bigger deposits for house purchase, and looking more closely at applications for personal loans.

The mortgage market has been particularly badly affected, with individuals finding it very difficult to get non-traditional mortgages, both sub-prime and "jumbo" (over the limit guaranteed by government-sponsored agencies).

The banks have been forced to do this by the drying up of the wholesale bond markets and by the effect of the crisis on their own balance sheets.

BANK LOSSES

The banking industry is facing huge losses as a result of the sub-prime crisis.

Already banks have announced $60bn worth of losses as many of the mortgage bonds backed by sub-prime mortgages have fallen in value.

The losses could be much greater, as many banks have concealed their holdings of sub-prime mortgages in exotic, off-balance sheet instruments such as "structured investment vehicles" or SIVs.

Although the banks say they do not own these SIVs, and therefore are not liable for their losses, they may be forced to cover any bad debts that they accrue.

BOND MARKET COLLAPSE

Also suffering huge losses are the bondholders, such as pension funds, who bought sub-prime mortgage bonds.

These have fallen sharply in value in the last few months, and are now worth between 20% and 40% of their original value for most asset classes, even those considered safe by the ratings agencies.

If the banks are forced to reveal their losses based on current prices, they will be even bigger.

It is estimated that ultimately losses suffered by financial institutions could be between $220bn and $450bn, as the $1 trillion in sub-prime mortgage bonds is revalued.

Ex-Secret Service Man: Bhutto Killing A "Professional Job"

Government explanation loses all credibility as Musharraf looks for Britain, US to bail him out

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Wednesday, January 2, 2007

Former Secret Service Assistant Director Bill Pickle tells CNN that the killing of Benazir Bhutto was a "professional job" as the credibility of the initial government explanation for her death dwindles into an outright farce.

With the official government explanation for Bhutto's death (that she died after hitting her head on a sunroof) now completely discredited after footage emerged clearly showing a gunman firing at her before the explosion, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has been forced to bring in London's Scotland Yard to whitewash the ugly aftermath.

The military dictator was no doubt impressed by the Metropolitan Police's execution of innocent Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, as well as their disgraceful success in avoiding any reprisals for his murder.

Musharraf is so dependent on his British and American handlers to bail him out of this mess that he is even prepared to hand over control of his nuclear arsenal to them, according to a report in the UK Herald.

"US special forces snatch squads are on standby to seize or disable Pakistan's nuclear arsenal in the event of a collapse of government authority or the outbreak of civil war following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto," reported the newspaper.

"The troops, augmented by volunteer scientists from America's Nuclear Emergency Search Team organisation, are under orders to take control of an estimated 60 warheads dispersed around six to 10 high-security Pakistani military bases."