EU-DIGEST

China Urges U.S. to Counter Crisis, Prepares for ‘Worst Case’ - by Li Yanping and Dune Lawrence

Chinese officials urged the U.S. to do everything possible to restore calm to financial markets and said they are preparing for a “worst-case scenario” as the global crisis deepens. The comments in Beijing today by Vice Premier Wang Qishan and central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan came as U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson praised China’s “responsible role” in combating the crisis. Zhou told U.S. officials that, while China remained confident of maintaining growth in the world’s fourth-biggest economy, it needed to prepare for the worst, central bank official Jin Qi said. “We hope that the U.S. can take all necessary measures to stabilize its financial markets and economy as soon as possible and ensure the safety of China’s assets and investments in the U.S.,” Wang said. “To work together to tackle the financial crisis is the most pressing task that we are facing.” Zhou urged the U.S. to increase savings, after excessive consumption and debt helped to trigger the crisis.

Labels: China, USA, World Economic Order

Poverty stricken Haitian cooking food for family

For the complete report from the Weekly Standard click on this link

Haiti: Crushing poverty and despair - by Nicholas Eberstadt

Haiti--the beautiful, perpetually tormented tropical purgatory that occupies the western third of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola--cannot help but focus the comfortable and well-fed foreign visitor's attention on two profound issues of the modern era: the reasons for the persistence of so much misery in an ever more affluent world, and the practical measures that might permit our world's poorest countries to escape from the heart-rending deprivation that they continue to suffer. With an area comparable to the state of Maryland and a population (at about eight and a half million) roughly the size of New York City's, Haiti is closer to Florida--just an hour and a half from Miami by jet--than is Washington, D.C. But in a very real sense, the distance between the United States and Haiti is almost unimaginable. By the yardstick of income, Haiti is by far the poorest spot in the Western Hemisphere, and in fact one of the very poorest places on the planet. State Department and CIA guesses put the country's per capita income at about $550 a year, or about a dollar and a half per day--but these formal, exchange-rate based estimates are highly misleading, if not meaningless. (Could anyone in the United States today survive for a year consuming no more than $1.50 worth of goods and services a day?) A better sense of Haiti's plight comes from comparisons of purchasing power. Perhaps the most authoritative global estimates of this sort have been done by Angus Maddison,the eminent economic historian. At the start of this decade, according to Maddison, Haiti's per capita output was thirty-five times lower than that of the United States. To get a sense of what this means: Think how things would go for your family if you had to get by for the entire year on just ten days of your current earnings. Many Haitians have to eat dirt "cookies," a mixture of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening, just to survive

Note EU-Digest: Adding to the misery in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation are hurricanes -- Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike this year left 790 people dead and hundreds more injured, and now facing life-threatening food shortages. Haiti’s development has also been fettered by an ongoing cycle of corrupt regimes, debilitating natural disasters, lack of institutional planning and organization and the non-regulation of the use and distribution of natural resources. It is amazing to realize that a country which is so close to the US homeland and a part of the US controlled Organization of American States is being allowed to slip so deep into despair and poverty while it could be a showcase of US ingenuity and support.

Labels: Aid programs, Caribbean, Haiti, OAS, USA

The Era of Consumption Is Over - Dying of Consumption - by Stephen Roach

"It's game over for the American consumer. Inflation-adjusted personal consumption expenditures are on track for rare back-to-back quarterly declines in the second half of 2008 at a 3.5 percent average annual rate.There is a deeper, potentially positive, meaning to all this: Consumers are now abandoning the asset-dependent spending and saving strategies they embraced during the bubbles of the past dozen years and moving back to more prudent income-based lifestyles. This is a painful but necessary adjustment. Since the mid-1990s, vigorous growth in American consumption has consistently outstripped sub-par gains in household income. This led to a steady decline in personal saving. As a share of disposable income, the personal saving rate fell from 5.7 percent in early 1995 to nearly zero from 2005 to 2007.

Labels: Consumerism, Economy, USA

Kennedy shot dead in Dallas

Remembering November 22, 1963 - The President of the United States has been assassinated by a gunman in Dallas, Texas. John F Kennedy was hit in the head and throat when three shots were fired at his open-topped car.Dallas Times Herald photographer Bob Jackson was in the motorcade close behind the Democrat leader's car and heard the shots as it entered Dealey Plaza. "As I looked up I saw a rifle being pulled back from a window - it might have been resting on the windowsill - I didn't see a man," he said.The president was alive when he was admitted, but died at 1400 local time (1900 GMT) - 35 minutes after being shot.

Note EU-Digest: "There are crazy and fanatic people out there and it pays more than ever to be vigilant".

Labels: Barack Obama, John F.Kennedy, security, US Secret Service, USA

Europe's Road Ahead - by Michael Elliott

If Obama is as wise as he seems, non-Americans will appreciate soon enough that he has just been elected President of the United States, not Secretary-General of the United Nations. For Europe's great and good, this will not be easy. Europeans love thinking about America, part in longing, part in envy, part in disdain. You could spend a nice year trotting from Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire to Salzburg, from the Italian lakes to German castles, doing nothing but ponder in earnest detail the state of the Atlantic alliance. It's a monumental waste of time. Nearly six years after those passionate disagreements on the invasion of Iraq, U.S.-Europe relations are just fine, with a clutch of Atlanticists heading the governments of Britain, France and Germany — and leading the European Commission in Brussels, too. The thing now is to figure out what the world's collection of rich democracies can do with their substantial power. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the New York Times recently that she once said to European leaders, "Can we take the trans-Atlantic relationship off the sofa? And stop analyzing it and analyzing whether it's healthy, and actually put it to work in common causes?" She has a point.

Many in Europe know just what to do with this peace and prosperity: lie back and enjoy it. As Gideon Rachman argued in a provocative column in the Financial Times in May, Europe has become a "giant Switzerland." Its people do not consider themselves threatened by the turmoil in the world around it, and see little point in going out looking for dragons to slay. Barack Obama may be Europe's darling, but he will find that his suitor's ardor cools pretty quickly the moment he asks European parents to volunteer their sons and daughters to beef up NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Labels: Atlantic Alliance, EU, Europe, USA

"Megan Fox a big fan of Obama"
For the complete report from E! Online click on this link

Megan Fox on Barack Obama: "He's Very Sexy" - by Mark Malkin

"I think he's very sexy," the sultry starlet said at last night's party celebrating GQ's annual Men of the Year list (Obama is among the honorees). "And God help me because I hope I don’t get in trouble for saying this, but I think he's so articulate and so intelligent and so charismatic when he delivers speeches, that there is something very sexy about that—very! And he's also very slim and lean."

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Labels: Barack Obama, Megan Fox, Sex Appeal, USA

Great Lakes eyed for offshore wind farms

Imagine sections of the Great Lakes dotted with rows of gleaming, 12-story turbines, blades whirring in the stiff breeze as they generate electricity for homes and businesses onshore. It's only an idea — for now. But government regulators are bracing for an expected wave of proposals for offshore power generation in a region that never seems to run short of wind. Despite its allure as a plentiful source of clean energy, they say, offshore wind power could affect the aquatic environment and commerce. State and federal officials are taking initial steps toward writing rules, as conservation activists watch closely.

Labels: Alternative Energy, Great Lakes, Offshore Wind Energy, USA

The damage to Brand USA needs urgent repair - by Francis Fukuyama

"The implosion of America's investment banks... the vanishing of more than a trillion dollars in stock- market wealth in a day: the scale of the Wall Street crack-up could scarcely be more gargantuan. Yet even as Americans ask why they have to pay a mind-bending $700 billion to prevent the economy from imploding, few are discussing a potentially much greater cost to the United States - the damage to America's “brand”.

The biggest change that America must make is in its politics. The Reagan revolution broke the 50-year dominance of liberals and Democrats in US politics but what were once fresh ideas have hardened into dogmas. The ultimate test for the US model will be its capacity to reinvent itself. Good branding is not a matter of putting lipstick on a pig. It's about having the right product to sell in the first place. American democracy has its work cut out."

Labels: Image, US elections, USA

USA - Offshore Windfarms: Green light for New Yersey Garden State Wind Energy<

New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities gave a green light to Garden State Wind Offshore Energy, a joint venture between PSEG Renewable Generation and Deepwater Wind, one of several competitors, including BlueWater Wind, Fishermen’s Energy of New Jersey LLC, Occidental Development & Equities LLC, and Environmental Technologies LLC. The $1 Billion project will generate 350 megawatts of power, enough for 125,000 homes, and meet approximately 5% of New Jersey’s needs. The $1 Billion cost for the 350 mw facility is $2.86 per watt for construction, compared to $1.87 for the Atlantic City wind farm, and $6.00 per watt, according to Rebecda Smith in the Wallstreet for Florida Power & Light’s proposed Turkey Point 3 & 4 nuclear plants. The wind farm will be generating energy within four years, and be completed by 2013. The first 1 gw wind farm that T.Boone Pickens Mesa Power, is building in Texas is forecast to cost $2.00 per watt and be operational by 2011.
New Jersey’s wind farm will be historic. It will be the first offshore wind farm in New Jersey, and with the Delmarva Wind Farm that BlueWater Wind is building off Delaware, and the plant that Deepwater Wind is building off of Rhode Island, one of the first three offshore wind farms, possibly the first in the United States.

TO ORDER OUR SPECIAL REPORT ON WINDMILL POWER DEVELOPMENTS IN THE US, INCLUDING MANY LINKS TO RESOURCES CLICK ON THIS LINK

Labels: Alternative Energy, Offshore Wind Energy, USA, Wind farms

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES’ PASS RENEWABLE ENERGY CREDITS BILL

Following the U.S. House of Representatives’ passage of the Economic Stabilization Act, Greg Wetstone, Senior Director of Governmental and Public Affairs at the American Wind Energy Association, released the following statement: “We salute Members of Congress in both parties who fought under difficult conditions to keep the renewable energy production tax credit and small turbine investment tax credit on the agenda until the very end, and then pushed them across the finish line. These tax credits are essential to the continued growth of wind energy, to the economic and energy security of the United States, and to a successful beginning in the fight against global warming. We look forward to working next year with a new Congress and Administration to fashion a serious long-term clean energy policy that increases domestic energy, increases our reliance on clean renewable energy, and creates jobs for Americans.”

Labels: Alternative Energy, Legislation, USA

Turkey says 'control your borders' to U.S., Iraq

Turkey relayed a "control you borders" message both to Iraq and the United States, which is leading coalition forces in this country, on Sunday following Friday's attack by outlawed PKK separatists. Turkey gave a note to Iraq and urged this country to take all the necessary measures to find and punish the perpetrators and to prevent any similar incidents, according to diplomatic sources. The sources also said the Turkish Embassy in the United States was launching initiatives with U.S. officials, as this country leads the coalition forces.

Fifteen Turkish soldiers were killed, 20 others were wounded and two soldiers went missing, Friday in an assault staged by PKK terrorists from north of Iraq on Aktutun Gendarmerie Border outpost in Semdinli town of southeastern province of Hakkari. Twenty-three PKK separatists were also killed in the clashes.

Labels: Iraq, Kurdish PKK terrorists, Turkey, USA

Alternative energy - Windpower - U.S. wind power grew 45 percent in 2007: AWEA - by Bernie Woodall

U.S. wind power grew by 45 percent in 2007, blowing away past annual growth marks, industry group American Wind Energy Association said.

Utilities seeking green alternatives, some in states requiring more renewable power, helped wind power account for $9 billion invested and 30 percent of all new U.S. power generation in 2007, the AWEA said in its annual year-end report. In 2006, wind power grew by 20 percent. when about $4 billion was spent in the industry. The AWEA said this year's new wind power installation will be about the same as in 2007. Growing fast has its pains, and one is that growth in 2008 will be limited by a shortage of wind turbines. The AWEA said wind turbines are sold out for the year, a condition it says will ease as more manufacturers enter the burgeoning market.

The 5,244 megawatts of new wind turbines installed in 2007 can power about 1.5 million U.S. homes. Installed U.S. wind power capacity by the end of 2007 was 16,818 megawatts.For the first time, wind power accounts for more than 1 percent of overall U.S. electricity production and can power about 4.5 million homes, the AWEA said.

Labels: USA, Windpower

Turkey - US warship sails through straits, Russia suspicious

The guided missile destroyer USS McFaul passed through the Dardanelles and the Bosporus, and two other ships, the US Coast Guard cutter Dallas and the command ship USS Mount Whitney, will follow in the coming days. "The USS McFaul is under way now, having taken on humanitarian supplies for the people of Georgia," a spokes-man for the US Navy in Europe said.

Russia, which occupied part of Georgia in response to a Georgian military offensive in the pro-Russia breakaway region of South Ossetia early this month, expressed concern over the US Navy ships' trip to the Black Sea. "From the Russian point of view … the usefulness of this operation is extremely dubious," Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff was quoted by Reuters as saying when asked about the US Navy mission to deliver aid to Georgia.The rising tensions have increased opposition pressure on the government at home. The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), which views government efforts to create a Caucasus regional platform to resolve regional crises with suspicion, yesterday formally requested a statement on whether the US ships transiting the Turkish Straits met Montreux standards. The CHP's Onur Öymen issued a formal inquiry to Foreign Minister Ali Babacan over whether the United States complied with Montreux requirements that all warship transits have to be declared to Turkish authorities eight days in advance.

Labels: EU, Russia, Turkey, USA

Euro spray painters held in US

A couple said to have spray-painted their way across Europe were held by police when they flew home to the US. Jim Harper and Danielle Bremner are suspected of putting their graffiti tags on train carriages in cities across the Continent including London, Madrid, Paris, Frankfurt and Hamburg. New York Police Department arrested native New Yorkers Jim Clay Harper and his girlfriend Danielle Bremner for domestic graffiti offences – but say they have intelligence that links the couple to tags in several cities across Europe. The suspected criminals – whose tags are 'Ether' and 'Dani' – are said to have defaced trains in London, Madrid, Paris, Frankfurt and Hamburg, before returning to the US to be greeted by police.

Labels: EU, Graffity, USA

Mikhail Gorbachev - A Path to Peace in the Caucasus - by Mikhail Gorbachev

What happened on the night of Aug. 7 is beyond comprehension. The Georgian military attacked the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali with multiple rocket launchers designed to devastate large areas. Russia had to respond. To accuse it of aggression against "small, defenseless Georgia" is not just hypocritical but shows a lack of humanity. Mounting a military assault against innocents was a reckless decision whose tragic consequences, for thousands of people of different nationalities, are now clear. The Georgian leadership could do this only with the perceived support and encouragement of a much more powerful force. Georgian armed forces were trained by hundreds of U.S. instructors, and its sophisticated military equipment was bought in a number of countries. This, coupled with the promise of NATO membership, emboldened Georgian leaders into thinking that they could get away with a "blitzkrieg" in South Ossetia.

In other words, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was expecting unconditional support from the West, and the West had given him reason to think he would have it. Now that the Georgian military assault has been routed, both the Georgian government and its supporters should rethink their position.

Labels: EU, Russia, USA

US Pres. Elections - Obama and Biden To Start Campaigning in Springfield Illinois today - by Philip Fernando

It’s final. Barrack Obama and Joe Biden will head the Democratic Party ticket at the presidential election. Obama used the vice-presidential announcement to extend until the very last minute, and teed up the coverage of the convention. Speculation was rampant and they gained control of the media waves for days. Senator Joe Biden would definitely attract white, blue-collar voters, an apparent vacuum that Obama had to fill to win the presidency. Whatever weaknesses Biden has may be fodder for the Republicans who would be pouncing on them soon. He has said a number of politically incorrect things over the years and, in the days following his selection those snippets would be aired again and again. Generally speaking, US voters are smart enough to forgive the genuine flaws of candidates, most observed.

But over the long haul, Biden provides what Obama needed most. He will also be getting a substantial catholic voter support. After serving in the world’s most pompous workplace, the Senator, Biden retained an ostentatiously unpretentious manner. He could be described an honest working class Democrat who has disdain for privilege and for limousine liberals, said one commentator. This year, Democrats in general, and Obama in particular, have trouble connecting with working-class voters, especially Catholic ones. Biden would be considered the bridge.

Labels: Elections, John McCain, Obama, USA

Bush rebuking Russia? Putin must be splitting his sides - by Simon Jenkins

Putin would die laughing if he read this week's American newspapers. The president, George Bush, declared the Russian invasion of Georgia "disproportionate and unacceptable". This is taken as a put-down to the vice-president, Dick Cheney, who declared the invasion "will not go unanswered", apparently something quite different. Bush says that great powers should not go about "toppling governments in the 21st century", as if he had never done such a thing. Cheney says that the invasion has "damaged Russia's standing in the world", as if Cheney gave a damn. The lobby for sanctions against Russia is reduced to threatening to boycott the winter Olympics. Big deal.What is clear is that the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, is a poor advertisement for a Columbia University education. He thought he could reoccupy South Ossetia and call Russia's bluff while Putin was away at the Olympics. He found it was not bluff. Putin was waiting for just such an invitation to humiliate a man he loathes, and to deter any other Russian border state from applying to join Nato, an organization Russia had itself sought to join until it was rudely rebuffed.

Saakashvili thought he could call on the support of his neoconservative allies in Washington. Tbilisi is one of the few world cities in which Bush's picture is a pin-up and where an avenue is named after him. It turned out that such "support" was mere words.

Labels: EU, EU Russia, Georgia, USA

Basketball - U.S. brings pain to Spain and soars past them, 119-82, in Olympic men's basketball game - by Mark Heisler

After buttering up undefeated Spain for two days, or convincing themselves the Spaniards were a threat, the U.S. routed them, 119-82, Saturday night in the Wukesong Arena. The U.S. is 4-0, leading Pool B. The only other undefeated team is Lithuania, which is 4-0 in Pool A. Despite the skepticism that comes with seven losses in the last three world competitions, it's becoming ever clearer this is an old-fashioned, dominant U.S. team. "When you commit to something, the hard work that you put in, you want the prize at the end, and they've identified the prize," said Jay Triano, the Toronto Raptors assistant who coached the U.S. select team against the big team in practices in Las Vegas.Posting up NBA-style, Gasol was like a human bull's-eye. The U.S. players have spent weeks adjusting to the international drive-and-kick game with its premium on three-point shooting. Post basketball is something they already know from the NBA. So the U.S. players double-teamed Spain's Gasol as if he were Shaquille O'Neal in his prime. Just for good measure, they ran the offense through Gasol's man, usually Dwight Howard, at the other end.

Labels: Basketball, Dream team, Olympics, USA

Russian combat aircraft could return to Cuba

Russian combat aircraft could return to Cuba in a bid to counter U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Central Europe, a Russian daily reported on Monday. Moscow has strongly opposed the possible deployment by the U.S. of 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and an accompanying radar in the Czech Republic as a threat to its national security. Washington says the defenses are needed to deter a possible strike from Iran, or other "rogue" states. "While they are deploying the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, our strategic bombers will already be landing in Cuba," a high-placed military aviation source told the Izvestia newspaper.

Labels: Cuba, Missile Crises, Russia, USA

Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. is disappointed by a recommendation that a $35 billion U.S. Air Force tanker contract that it won with an American partner be reopened for bidding, the company's chief executive said Wednesday. The US Government Accountability Office said it found "a number of significant errors that could have affected the outcome of what was a close competition between Boeing and Northrop Grumman." The GAO decision is not binding, but it puts heavy pressure on the Air Force to reopen the contract and could help Boeing capture part or all of the award.

Note EU-Digest: one can only hope the EU takes good note of this US Government intervention on behalf of Boeing when Boeing or US Aircraft builders try to sell their aircraft in Europe.

Labels: Airbus, Airbus Tanker, Politics, USA

Bloody reality bears no relation to the delusions of this President - Robert Fisk

The President sat chummily beside the all-too-friendly monarch yesterday, enthroned in what looked suspiciously like the kind of casual blue cardigan he might wear on his own Texan ranch; he had even received a jangling gold "Order of Merit" – it looked a bit like the Lord Chancellor's chain, though it was not disclosed which particular merit earned Mr Bush this kingly reward. Could it be the hypocritical merit of supplying yet more billions worth of weapons to the Kingdom, to be used against the Saudi regime's imaginary enemies.

Over the past decade, the Gulf Arabs have squandered billions of their oil dollars on American weapons. The statistics tell their own story. In 1998 and 1999 alone, Gulf Arab military spending came to US$ 78bn. Between 1997 and 2005, the sheikhs of the United Arab Emirates – Mr Bush's hosts before he continued to Riyadh – signed arms contracts worth US$17bn with Western nations. Between 1991 and 1993 – when Iraq was the "enemy" – the US Military Training Mission was administering more than US$ 27bn in Saudi arms procurements and US$23bn in new US weapons acquisitions. By this time, the Saudis already possessed 72 American F-15 fighter-bombers and 114 British Tornados.

Note EU-Digest: Unfortunately several EU states are also playing along with this weapons sale charade in the Middle East. Unfortunately one day these weapons will be turned around and used against the countries which sold the weapons."

Labels: Cécilia Sarkozy, EU, George Bush, USA, Weapons Industry

An Ottoman warning for indebted America - by Niall Ferguson

Future historians will look back on the current decade as a turning point comparable with that of the Seventies. No, not the 1970s. This is not going to be another piece pointing out the coincidence of an unpopular Republican president, soaring oil prices, a sagging dollar and an unwinnable faraway war. I am talking about the 1870s. At first sight, the resemblances across 130 years may not seem obvious. The 1870s were a time when conservative leaders such as Benjamin Disraeli, British prime minister, were powerful and popular. It was a time of falling commodity prices, after the financial crash of 1873 and the opening up of the American plains to agriculture. And it was an era of currency stability, as one country after another followed the British lead by pegging to gold. Yet, on closer inspection, we are indeed living through a global shift in the balance of power very similar to that which occurred in the 1870s. This is the story of how an over-extended empire sought to cope with an external debt crisis by selling off revenue streams to foreign investors. The empire that suffered these setbacks in the 1870s was the Ottoman empire. Today it is the US.

Labels: Ottoman empire, US Economy, USA

Is Russia Democratic? - (Maybe even more so than the US)- by Justin Raimondo

The Russian system is far more democratic than, say, the American system, where a party that gets 7 percent – or even 10 or 20 percent – is by no means guaranteed a single seat in Congress. That is, if they even manage to get on the ballot. Parties other than the state-sanctioned and state-subsidized Democrats and Republicans face almost impossible hurdles to achieve ballot status – and, even if they do, these "third" parties operate at a tremendous disadvantage not only legally, but in terms of being taken seriously by the "mainstream" media. Is this any better than in Russia? One could make a convincing case that it is far worse. What would we have thought if Putin had sent observers to, say, Florida, where the drama of the "hanging chads" and the intricacies of the Electoral College denied the White House to the candidate who got the most votes? It's outrageous – especially when we're giving full military, political, and diplomatic support to real dictators like Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, who is now in the process of setting up a hereditary "presidency" and has taken to locking up bloggers for violating political and cultural "norms." And what about Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who is beating the crap out of his opponents in the streets of Islamabad, arresting the Supreme Court, and installing himself as "president" of Pakistan in a procedure that is a cruel mockery of democracy? The difference is that dictator like Musharraf, Mubarak, King Abdullah and some other dictators meet the "pro-American" test, which consists of kowtowing to Washington when it comes to the conduct of foreign affairs, and particularly when it comes to providing full access to American economic and military interests.

Labels: Democracy, EU, Putin, Russia, USA

Europeans Offered Bargain Priced Homes And Estates In Scenic And Unspoiled Maine, USA

The low dollar rate versus the euro and the depressed Real Estate Market has provided Europeans great Real Estate investment opportunities in the US. Europeans are snapping up homes, apartments and estates in the US like "hot cakes". Buying similar properties in Europe, which they can now buy in the US, would cost them at least three times as much.

Recent US Real Estate sales figures show most of the European purchases so far included vacation homes in Florida, the Carolinas and California, where Real Estate prices are still relatively high. The more serious investors are now also looking at Maine and other "off the beaten track" areas to buy property. For instance, a 14 acres, 5 bedroom ocean side fully equipped property, with its own private beach and unspoiled Pine forest near the picturesque lobster village of Cutler, Maine is selling for $700,000. This is a "steal" for Europeans at approximately 475.000 euro's.

For more information click on this link

Labels: Bargains, EU, Europe, Maine, Profit, Real Estate, USA

U.S. friends and foes grabbing power - are they following US example? by Helen Thomas

While President Bush has been distracted with his unpopular war against Iraq, friends and foes are busy grabbing power to perpetuate themselves in office. Among them are Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan; Russian President Vladimir Putin; Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia. There is little the United States can do about the drift toward authoritarian rule.

Bush -- with pressure from his neo-conservative vice president and staff -- has himself expanded presidential power in the name of the "war on terror." The power grab-bag of the US Bush administration extends from its warrantless wire tapping to the president's outrageous abuse of "signing statements" that he issues when putting his signature on new legislation; the statements are his claims that he won't be bound by certain sections of the bill he just signed into law. His decision to name as attorney general retired federal judge Michael Mukasey -- who believes the president is above the law in wartime -- is good insurance for Bush's power surge. Unfortunately, Bush's actions show that America is not in a prime position to preach to friends and foes about abuse of power (or democracy for that matter).

Labels: Diplomacy, USA

Open Source: The Internet must not be proprietary - by Dana Blankenhorn

"There is an important lesson which can be drawn as a string through a host of recent stories, from Comcast and Cox Cable throttling BitTorrent to Verizon doing the SiteFinder thing to depredations concerning the iPhone and open spectrum.The whole idea of the Internet is that it’s a network of networks in which competition is assured. When anyone tries to close down progress, consumers are able to route around it. What began with the network spread to software in the form of open source. The two are linked. The end of the software monopoly is tied directly to the end of the network monopoly. Recreate the latter and you can recreate the former.But the big stories of this year all show that network monopolies are coming back, at least in the U.S. If I want to dump Comcast as my home ISP, my only choice is AT&T. That’s no choice. A network defined by a single owner is not the Internet. Only choice and competition enable the Internet we’ve come to love for over a decade to function."

Labels: EU, Internet, Open Source, USA

World Economy : Supply Side Economics - Cooking the books - by Johann Hari

In the mid-1970s, a group of men who were untrained in economics - and, as it happens, borderline-insane - emerged in Washington DC and invented a whole new approach to economics. In the past, it had been thought that if you wanted to cut taxes, you had to ploddingly pay for it by either cutting spending or increasing borrowing. No more. This new group preached something called "supply-side economics", which claimed that you could cut taxes, increase public spending, and hold down borrowing and inflation, all at the same time. It's easy, they said: if you cut taxes, the economy will grow even faster - and make up the difference.

The story of the supply-siders' strange rise begins when three grey-suited men met in a swish Washington hotel in the gloomy aftermath of Watergate to turn this untested idea into a governing philosophy. They were the economic consultant Arthur Laffer, the journalist Jude Wanniski and Gerald Ford's chief of staff - a man called Dick Cheney. The core principle is that economic performance hinges almost entirely on how much incentive investors and entrepreneurs have to attain more wealth, and this incentive in turn hinges almost entirely on their tax rate." It was an economic recipe for tax cuts for the rich.

Almost everyone else saw the idea as preposterous. George Bush Sr dismissed it as "voodoo economics". But a string of eccentrics, with no serious knowledge of economics, began to preach the gospel - and they were swiftly employed by Ronald Reagan's burgeoning presidential campaign. Most of these men were, it turned out, mad.

Labels: Dick Cheney, Supply Side Economics, USA

"Turkey PM in 'decisive' US talks"

Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in Washington for what Ankara has called a decisive meeting with President George W Bush on Kurdish rebels in north Iraq. Turkey has threatened to send troops across the border to hit bases used by the Kurdish PKK rebels unless the US and Iraq do more to stop attacks. The Turkish government is under public pressure to use force against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party).

Labels: EU, Kurdish PKK terrorists, Turkey, USA

U.S. move on Iran alienating for Europe - by Paul Richter

The Bush administration's new package of sanctions against Iran widens the gap between the United States and its European allies over how to confront Tehran. For two years, the administration has sought to work closely with Europeans and other world powers, convinced that collective action offered the best chance to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. But efforts to push through a third round of United Nations sanctions snagged and prospects for a new international coalition to impose economic penalties appear unlikely, so the administration decided to strike out on its own Thursday.

U.S. officials have been frustrated recently by the Europeans' reluctance to impose sanctions through the European Union. At a meeting last week in Brussels, Britain and France showed support for the idea, whereas Italy and Austria opposed it and German officials were lukewarm.

Labels: EU, Iran, Sanctions, USA

Turkish and US relations: Led astray - by Stephen Kinzer

Pushing the Armenian genocide resolution through Congress is a reckless act that reflects the corruption of the American political system.Last year's Pulitzer prize for non-fiction was awarded to a devastating book called Imperial Reckoning. It is a triumph of historical research that accuses Britain of having committed genocide in Kenya during the 1950s. Will the United States Congress endorse this claim and pass a resolution condemning Britain? Of course not. Congress is not equipped to make such judgments. More important, that is not the job of Congress. It exists to make laws, no to condemn evil-doers from past centuries.There is another reason why Congress will never condemn the British for killing hundreds of thousands of Kenyans, and for what Imperial Reckoning calls "their campaign of terror, dehumanizing torture and genocide." Kenyans in the United States do not have a powerful lobby that wins influence in Washington by channeling millions of dollars into election campaigns.

That is not the case with Armenian-Americans. After years of intense effort, they have persuaded the house committee on foreign affairs to approve a resolution declaring that Turks were guilty of genocide against Armenians in eastern Anatolia during the spring of 1915. The speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi, has pledged to bring this resolution to a vote by the full House, where it will almost certainly pass. In doing so, she satisfies the wealthy Armenian community in her home state of California. She also commits a reckless act that reflects the deep corruption of the American political system - and does no good for Armenia or Armenians.

Labels: Armenian Genocide, EU, Turks, USA

For the complete report by BuzzFlash.com click on this link

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - by Naomi Klein

“The Shock Doctrine is the damning Truth Commission the powerful have sought to keep locked away in the Guantanamo prison of history. Naomi Klein has smashed the padlock of secrecy and revealed the violent contents within. She masterfully exposes the dark roots of the staples of today's borderless bloody war: torture, economic terror, disaster profiteering and international conquest. Klein traces the doctrine of shock, applied across the globe from Latin America to the Soviet Union to Africa and the Arab world, through more than half a century of refining by evil geniuses who have used the poor of the world as their lab rats. The Shock Doctrine will change forever how you see the epic battle between the haves and the have nots. This is the defining, covert history of our era. This extraordinary expose is the work of a journalist embedded not with the militaries of the powerful, but with the poor, the tortured and those who fight for justice against all odds."

The Shock doctrine is available at most bookstores and can also be ordered at Amazon.com.

Labels: Corporate Integrity, EU, Multi-National Corporations; World Trade, USA

World Economy (US)Cash-strapped Americans raiding their 401(k)s -- by Jilian Mincer

Despite potential tax and investment problems, more investors have been borrowing from their 401(k) plans or taking hardship withdrawals in recent months, some retirement plan providers say. Many in the field expect more borrowing in 2008, as consumers struggle with tighter credit and potentially higher mortgage payments.

Labels: USA, World Economy

Bush Backs Turkey, Opposes Resolution on Massacres of Armenians- by Edward DeMarco and Roger Runningen

President George W. Bush expressed his opposition today to a congressional resolution on the World War I-era massacres of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, during a conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A U.S. House resolution would ask the president to declare the killings of as many as 1.5 million Armenians nine decades ago a genocide. In today's phone call, ``Bush reiterated his opposition to this resolution, the passage of which would be harmful to U.S. relations with Turkey,'' National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in an e-mailed statement.

Note EU-Digest: This issue needs to be resolved for once and all by an independent commission under the auspices of the United Nations.

Labels: EU, Genocide, Turkey, United Nations, USA

Eight Iraqi parliamentary blocs push for bill against US act

Eight Iraqi parliamentary blocs representing different ideological and political tendencies called Sunday for probing the recent act of the US Senate on splitting Iraq at an extraordinary parliament session. The session has to reach a decision on preventing the implementation of the US act under any pretext, said a joint statement issued here by the eight political forces. The forces are the Sadrist Trend, the Iraqi Accord Front, the United Iraqi Alliance, the National Dialogue Front, the Virtue Party, the Iraqi National List, the Turkmen Front and the Arab Front. The statement, read at the premises of the Iraqi House of Representatives here by the Iraqi National List MP Ezzat Al-Shabanderi, reacted to the move sponsored by US Democrat senator Josef Baden.

"His act constitutes a grave precedence that could define the nature of the future relationship between Iraq and the United States," it underlined. "The US Senate seems to be planning for a long-term occupation of Iraq.
"The act runs counter to all rules and norms of the international relations and infringes on the rights of the Iraqi nation to self-determination.
"The act, worse still, came at a time when the Iraqi sectarian violence was escalating and the Iraq national texture was dissolving," according to the statement.

Labels: Iraq war, USA

Dollar tumbles to new low against the euro after Fed's half-point rate cut

The dollar fell against almost all major currencies and hit a record low against the euro Tuesday after the Federal Reserve made an aggressive half-point cut in a key interest rate. The euro rose as high $1.3979 after the long-awaited decision before settling back to $1.3971 in late New York trading, up from 1.3867 Monday. The dollar fell against the pound, too. The British currency bought $2.0131 in New York trading, up from $1.9939 Monday.

Labels: Dollar, EU, euro, USA

Overseas Travel to US plunged 20% since 9/11 : Europe and Canada picking up the slack- by Doreen Hemlock

Overseas travel to the United States has plunged 20 percent since Sept. 11, 2001, but a new U.S. law could help stem the slide, especially for South American visitors vital to South Florida, participants said at a travel industry conference in Hollywood.

Travelers requiring visas are forgoing the United States, partly because Washington now requires personal interviews to apply for visas but lacks staff to handle them. In Brazil, for example, wait times for visa interviews now top 60 days. Foreign visitors also rate U.S. border entry as the world's most unfriendly, worse than the Middle East, surveys show.

Europe is picking up some of the Latin American business that used to go to the US, as the number of direct flights between Europe and Latin America expands.Travelers requiring visas are forgoing the United States, partly because Washington