As he and
To pull Greece back from the edge, Papandreou has promised to cut the deficit to 3 percent of GDP by 2012. For the
Labels: EU, Financial Regulatory Controls, Greece, The Financial Meltdown, USA
U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell, a Democrat representing
Post-9/11 travel rules, anti-American sentiment stemming from the Bush administration and the poor global economy all have discouraged travel to the U.S. in recent years.
Note EU-Digest: the name this bill carries does not reflect its main purpose which is to collect money up front from foreigners for the "priviledge" to visit the USA. It certainly will not be considered an incentive by foreign tourists.
AIG, which was kept alive by a $182.5 billion rescue by the U.S. government in September 2008, will get $25 billion in cash — $20 billion of that from a Prudential rights issue — and $10.5 billion in new shares and securities for the sale of AIA Group Ltd.
The combined group will be the leading life insurer in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines, as well as the biggest foreign life insurer in China and India, Prudential said.
AIG said it would use cash from the sale to redeem $16 billion worth of preferred interests held by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and to repay about $9 billion to a Fed credit facility. Prudential securities would be sold over time to make additional payments on debt, AIG said.
For more: UK's Prudential buys AIG's Asian unit for $35.5B - Yahoo! NewsLabels: AIG, Britain, EU, Insurance Industry, USA
Speaking in Paris, Clinton said she and others who support additional sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program are lobbying China to back new U.N. penalties on the Iranian government.
She said she understood China's reluctance to impose new penalties on Iran, its third-largest supplier of oil. But she stressed that a nuclear-armed Iran would destabilize the
One year had taken him from a self-professed unifier to a historically divisive president; from the man selected to solve the country's problems to the person often disparaged as their cause. He squinted against the lights and stared hard at the audience for his first State of the Union address, looking a little grayer, a little older than when he assessed the country in the same venue last February. A circus of cameras and power brokers stirred around him, yet he stood alone at a single microphone, quieting the crowd with a series of somber nods.
It had been, Obama told the audience, "one of the most difficult years in the US history" -- and it had been one of his most difficult years, too.
But Obama's most revealing remarks came in a quieter moment, inside a Washington area church on Jan. 17. "I have a confession to make here," he said. "There are times where I'm not so calm. . . . There are times when progress seems too slow. There are times when the words that are spoken about me hurt. There are times when the barbs sting. There are times when it feels like all these efforts are for naught, and change is so painfully slow in coming, and I have to confront my own doubts."
Ten days later, as he concluded the State of the Union, Obama closed not with a confession but with a resolution: "We don't quit. I don't quit. Let's seize this moment to start anew". He stepped away from the podium, shook more of the same hands, walked back up the same aisle and exited the chamber through the same doors as a year before. But this time it was into year number two.
For more go to: Obama's State of the Union address takes a harder tone - washingtonpost.com
Labels: Barack Obama, USA
The 5-4 ruling by the US Supremem Court — which dismissed the idea that corporate wealth could distort the political debate and rejected corporate restrictions asLabels: Corporate America, Political System, USA
Today the US is cleaning up the mess from the largest financial collapse in history – one that originated in the US and was caused by the actions of American public and private sector players. Perhaps the best way of expressing how much has changed is to recall the reaction of Chinese students in Beijing this year when
The biggest difference, therefore, is in America’s declining intellectual hegemony. In the 1990s the US was the model to which to aspire. It was Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, and an erstwhile cheerleader for the American model of capitalism, who pronounced the death of the Washington consensus at the G20 summit in London last April. Over the next decade US publicly held debt is forecast to more than double to 85 per cent of gross domestic product – the highest rate since the second world war. And that is without including the intragovernment debt in Social Security and Medicare, the government health scheme for the elderly, which would push US indebtedness well above 100 per cent of GDP during Mr Obama’s second term. Hegemons cannot for long survive such rising indebtedness.
Given the sclerotic condition of America’s political system, the smart money is on decline. Uncharacteristically for a country built on optimism, most Americans believe their country is on the wrong track. An even higher number believe their children will be worse off than them. Until Americans reacquire their optimism, observers will keep remarking on that rust in their soul.
Labels: Capitalism, Multi-Polar, USA
Meanwhile, Wall Street is restructuring (the financial equivalent of re-gifting) old
Wall Street’s return to robustness and Main Street’s continued deterioration are the main takeaways for 2009 that stemmed from the 2008 choices to flush the
1) The economy has improved.
2) If you give banks capital, they will lend it out.
3) Taxpayers are being repaid.
4) Homeowners are being helped.
5) Big banks will help small businesses.
6) The Fed values transparency.
7) History will not repeat itself.
8) The pay czar will fight against – pay.
9) The lobbyists made us do it.
10) Citigroup is the picture of health and too-big-to-fail is over.
For the complete report: Wall Street's 10 Greatest Lies of 2009 | Media and Technology | AlterNetLabels: Barack Obama, US Economy. Banking Industry, USA, Wallstreet
Olympics - Early knockout: Chicago fails to land 2016 Summer Olympics - Vicki Michaelis
Even the First Couple couldn't keep the USA from finishing dead last in the race for the 2016 Summer Olympics. In the boldest rejection yet of U.S. attempts to regain premier standing in the Olympic world, the International Olympic Committee on Friday sent Chicago out in the first round of voting for the 2016 host. Madrid and Rio de Janeiro are still in the final round of voting. The winner will be announced at 1 p.m. ET.
Over the last couple of months a really smart guy, James Rucker, put a web site together to bring the Forces of the Civil to bear on one, Glenn Beck. The man got tired of the racist rants being put forth by Glenn Beck and did something about it. ColorOfChange.Org asked web surfers to lend their names to a list after reading a call to arms about Glenn Beck. Travel the link and lend your name too, if you like. As a result of this movement a number of big ticket sponsors have left the Beck echo chamber and the main stream media has double clutched.
Unfortunately Time Magazine has done a complete cover package with Glenn Beck sticking his tongue out at the rest of us. Time has, in the name of The Almighty Dollar, undone what Mr. Rucker has set to do by giving Glenn Beck this forum. This is the beginning of a rehab job for Beck. Time Magazine is trying once again to make it okay for people to sponsor this “person”. Yes, the cover of Time, as they like to tell all of us who will listen, is for really important people or subjects. This gives Beck credence where he should be reviled. (I guess this is where I can say Time has had Hitler, not only on the cover a number of times, but as Man-of-the-Year 1938.) Beck is controversial and confrontational for the same reasons as Jerry Springer and Nancy Grace, to make a buck.
Note EU-Digest: Instead of crying about injustice from the right the left needs to apply the same tactics. Has anyone forgotten that in most western democracies we have freedom of speech. The right is using it to perfection while the left needs a refresher course. Moaning about it won't work.
Labels: Glenn Beck, Right Wing, USA
"No more troops to Afghanistan" - by HDS Greenway
With General Stanley A. McChrystal’s report calling for additional troops now public, President Obama will soon have his King Henry moment; whether or not to send more troops into the ever-worsening war in Afghanistan. Much depends on his definition of the mission. Is it to defeat the Taliban in battle as Henry defeated the flower of French chivalry? There will be no famous victories in the irregular warfare that has so marked Afghanistan over the centuries. Is it to create a viable, democratic, centralized state on a Western model? When he came to power, Obama seemed to realize that the mission of his predecessor, George W. Bush, was too ambitious and that he should settle for simply making Afghanistan inhospitable to Al Qaeda. In the meantime, however, “mission creep’’ - the tendency of any mission to expand and grow if it is not carefully pruned - has been the order of the day. Obama runs the risk of turning Afghanistan into a full-fledged dependency of the United States.
Recently, when asked if he risked the fate of Lyndon Johnson whose presidency was consumed by a war started by his predecessors, but which he chose to reinforce, Obama replied: “You have to learn lessons from history. On the other hand, each historical moment is different. You never step into the same river twice. And so Afghanistan is not Vietnam.’’
Labels: Afghanistan, EU, Obama, USA
US economy - through the first nine months of fiscal 2009, the government has racked up a $1.086 trillion deficit
The $1.086 trillion deficit for the first nine months of 2009 compares with a shortfall of only $285.85 billion in the comparable year-ago period, underscoring the sharp deterioration in the U.S. fiscal picture. "The Federal deficit is now at a post-World War II high and is likely to continue to rise in the near term as deficits rise and the economy remains weak," said John Silvia, chief economist for Wells Fargo Securities. "These deficits will influence the allocation of global savings for the foreseeable future. No doubt where this train is going," Silvia said. The record budget deficit for June was not an all time high. that was February when it was $194 billion, a department official said.
The recession and related government rescue efforts have put the budget on track for its longest-ever stretch of consecutive monthly deficits. The current record is 11 straight months, which has been reached three times. Some Wall Street economists see the deficit heading higher, some suggesting a $1.5 trillion deficit for fiscal 2009 as the ranks of the jobless grow and hiring remains stubbornly weak as the economy struggles to emerge from recession.
Labels: Economy, US Budget Deficit, USA
USA - President Obama's popularity slipping
In a land of instant and fast food the people also seem to want instant success from their President who is tackling 8 years of Bush economic mismanagement. A recent Rasmussen poll shows hat 30% of the US voters now strongly approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-eight percent (38%) strongly disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential approval rating of –8. Thirty-nine percent (39%) now give the President good or excellent marks for handling the economy while 43% say he is doing a poor job. Overall, 51% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance so far. Forty-eight percent (48%) disapprove.
Labels: Barack Obama, Politial, Polls, Popularity, USA
Canadians' disposable income growing two times faster than their American neighbours
Canadians' real disposable income grew twice as fast as that of Americans' in the last four years - a trend that will continue in the post-recession economy, finds a new report from CIBC World Markets Inc. Since 2005, per capita real disposable income in Canada has risen by C$2,600, whereas in the U.S. it has risen by just over US$1,300. This is a complete reversal of the trend seen in the 1990s when Canadian income Disposablestagnated compared to surging U.S. earnings. "So quick was the revival of Canadian income that in a short four year span, per capita real income in Canada was able to wipe out no less than 15 years of income underperformance vs. the U.S.," says Benjamin Tal, senio economist and author of the report. "In fact, when measured in common currency, real per capita disposable income in Canada relative to the U.S. is now back to the 1990s level."
Labels: Canada, disposable income, Economy, USA
Michael Jackson dead at 50
International Pop Superstar Michael Jackson dies at 50 following heart attack
Michael Jackson died today at the UCLA Medical Center after he was brought in by paramedics who found him not breathing at his home after he had apparently suffered a heart attack, according to various reports. Jackson became a global megastar in 1982 with the release of his album "Thriller," which gave him seven Top 10 hits and the album still remains one of the two bestselling albums in history. Following the release of "Thriller" Michael Jackson remained a major star for the next decade, but as the years passed he began receiving more attention for his eccentric behavior than for his music.
Jackoson, the King of Pop, had already sold-out 50 concerts at London’s O2 Arena, which were scheduled to begin July 13th. The concerts were intended to save him from the giant debt he had accumulated during his lengthy absence from the world's pop concert circuit.
Europe and U.S. Accuse China of Unfair Trade Practices - by Jack Healy
The United States and European Union accused China of unfair trade practices on Tuesday, saying the Chinese government was restricting exports of raw materials to give manufacturers in that country a competitive advantage. Ron Kirk, the United States trade representative, said China had imposed quotas, export duties and other costs on raw materials used in the production of steel, chemicals and aluminum. In effect, he said, China was putting its thumb on the scale and giving Chinese manufacturers an unfair edge. He said that restrictions on exports of bauxite, zinc, yellow phosphorus and other raw goods make it more expensive for manufacturers to produce finished goods and threatened thousands of jobs in industries already rocked by the global recession.
“Trade has to be fair,” Mr. Kirk said in a news conference in Washington. “If you’re going to do business with the United States, you’re going to have to play by the rules.” The United States and European Union filed complaints with the World Trade Organization, the first step in what could be a yearslong process of trying to resolve grievances against China.
Labels: China, EU, USA, World Trade
Europe: Some hits, some misses for Obama - by Jennifir Loven
Stop after stop, crowds are thronging, leaders gushing, headlines blaring. Even a roomful of foreign reporters applauded after President Barack Obama's London news conference. They love him over here. But are they giving him anything else to take home? It's a mixed bag: some success, several failures and much still to be determined.
Labels: Council of Europe, Obama, USA
He’s not the Barack Obama Europe Knew - by Abe Greenwald
Where Ronald Reagan tore down a wall, Barack Obama has hit one – and it’s made of bricks. European support for the American president is suffering. As Gregor Peter Schmitz asserts in Der Spiegel, “it has become clear that the most contentious issues [between the U.S. and Europe] have been shelved.” This means Obama is no longer asking Europe to replicate his idea of a stimulus plan and he’s not pushing for military help in Afghanistan. On both issues European leaders have declared, “No we can’t.” When it comes to instituting a global stimulus plan, the American president is further to the Left than Europe -- and Europe still objects. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy say they favor more government regulation in lieu of more government spending. Obama sought to immediately clarify. He told the Financial Times on Sunday, "The press has tended to frame this as an 'either/or' approach. I have consistently argued that what is needed is a 'both/and' approach. We need stimulus and we need regulation." In other words, Europeans are choosing their statist options from an a la carte menu, but in the U.S. we’re going family style. Nevertheless in Europe putting blame for the global financial crisis squarely on America’s shoulders is a relished pastime, and no matter how statist Obama gets, the Continent can’t be seen to follow the U.S.’s lead.
Labels: Barack Obama, EU, USA
For the complete report from the NYTimes.com click on this link
Sarkozy and Merkel Try to Shape European Unity - by Steven Erlanger and Nicholas Kulish
They are an extremely odd couple — he is short and hyperactive, she is dour and shy. He believes in the power of the state and big interventions; she believes in a softer role for the state, guiding and prodding the market. But the French president and the German chancellor find themselves in a forced marriage in these days of economic crisis. Responsible for the two largest economies among nations that use the euro, known as the euro zone, they are trying to shape European unity in the days before the Group of 20 economic summit meeting this week.
In general, when France and Germany agree, they bring the European Union along, so the two leaders’ relationship is crucial in a period of crisis. While they have produced very different national responses to the economic downturn — with Mrs. Merkel authorizing a larger stimulus package than France has — they have worked together to keep fiscal discipline in the euro zone, and resist American calls for even greater government spending. They have found common cause as well in a call for much tougher global regulation of financial markets, putting the blame for the crisis directly on the “Anglo-Saxons” — the United States and Britain, whose free-market practices, not widely copied in continental Europe, are viewed by France and Germany as not sufficiently disciplined by the state.
Note EU-Digest: The G20 could turn out to be very interesting, not only for the results it might produce, but also as it will be the first "match" opposing the eloquent populist US President Barack Obama, with his unique political showmanship qualities against the EU's pragmatic leadership team of Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy. To keep it in boxing terms, Obama might "sting like a bee", but Angela and Nicholas are the true "heavy weights" in this contest. Europe must rally behind them and win.
Labels: Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, EU, European Monetary Zone, G20, Nicolas Sarkozy, USA
Obama launches media blitz ahead of G20, at home and abroad
Writing in 31 newspapers around the globe, Obama warned that it was up to world leaders holding an emergency summit in London next week to come up with a comprehensive solution to the global recession. Back at home, Obama planned to hold the second press conference of his presidency Tuesday night amid growing public anger over the government's bail-out of Wall Street firms considered critical to the survival of the US financial system. 'My message is clear: The United States is ready to lead, and we call upon our partners to join us with a sense of urgency and common purpose,' Obama wrote in the newspaper piece.
Labels: Barack Obama, EU, G20, USA
Inside U2's Plans to Rock Stadiums Around the Globe - by Brian Hiatt
Toward the end of U2's last tour, in November 2006, longtime show director Willie Williams presented the band with sketches of a four-legged monster — a massive structure with speakers mounted on each side that would allow the group to play stadium shows in the round. On the new U2 360° Tour, which hits the U.S. beginning September 12th, in Chicago (and kicks off in Barcelona, on June 30th), Williams' vision will finally come to life. "The band is just sitting in the palm of the audience's hand," says Williams. "It really works." Adds Bono, "It creates this real physical proximity to the crowd." With 120 trucks needed just to cart the stage around, the tour will be U2's most expensive ever — the band will defray costs in part by taking on a corporate sponsor for the first time, BlackBerry. (Conscious of its environmental impact, the group will be purchasing carbon offsets.)
Still divided over the best way to fight the global economic downturn, finance officials of the leading industrial nations agreed on Saturday to commit more money to help developing countries, step up efforts to revive bank lending and regulate hedge funds. Still divided over the best way to fight the global economic downturn, finance officials of the leading industrial nations agreed on Saturday to commit more money to help developing countries, step up efforts to revive bank lending and regulate hedge funds. The United States Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, took pains on Saturday to present a united front, saying that the world was committed to increasing consumer demand — despite stated European reluctance on that matter. “The world is with us on this,” Mr. Geithner said. “We will do what is necessary to get the economy moving again.”
Germany and France were the only two countries to give a joint news conference following the meeting, in which they reiterated their position that the focus of the G-20 meeting in London next month should be on reforming regulation rather than additional stimulus measures to deal with the global economic emergency. Note EU-Digest: the EU approach is the right one - without taking the medicine the patient can't get better.
Breaking the Taboo on Israel's Spying Efforts
Scratch a counter intelligence officer in the US government and they'll tell you that Israel is not a friend to the United States. This is because Israel runs one of the most aggressive and damaging espionage networks targeting the US. The fact of Israeli penetration into the country is not a subject oft-discussed in the media or in the circles of governance, due to the extreme sensitivity of the US-Israel relationship coupled with the burden of the Israel lobby, which punishes legislators who dare to criticize the Jewish state.
According to the 1979 CIA report, the Israelis, while targeting political secrets, also devote “a considerable portion of their covert operations to obtaining scientific and technical intelligence.” These operations involved, among other machinations, “attempts to penetrate certain classified defense projects in the United States.”
The penetrations, according to the CIA report, were effected using “deep cover enterprises,” which the report described as “firms and organizations, some specifically created for, or adaptable to, a specific objective.” At the time, the CIA singled out government-subsidized companies such as El Al airlines and Zim, the Israeli shipping firm, as deep cover enterprises. According to Jim Bamford, who cites knowledgeable sources, Verizon’s eavesdropping program is run by a competing Israeli firm called Verint, a subsidiary of Comverse Technology, which was founded by a former Israeli intelligence officer in 1984. Incorporated in New York and Tel Aviv, Comverse is effectively an arm of the Israeli government: 50 percent of its R&D costs are reimbursed by the Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Labels: Intelligence, Israel, Israel Lobby, USA
Euthanasia USA - Die with Dignity starting March 5, 2009
On March 5, 2009, Washington State’s Death with Dignity Act will go into effect, allowing competent adults, expected to die within six months, to request a lethal dose of medication from a licensed pharmacist or physician. However, the patient must administer the drugs themselves. The “law provides safeguards for patients and physicians. For example, patients would need a medical opinion from two doctors verifying that they have less than six months to live. Physicians who prescribe the medicine and follow the rules would be protected from legal prosecution for promoting or participating in a suicide.”
Washington is the second state to enact a “Death with Dignity” law. Oregon has had a similar act in effect since 1997, under which 341 people have died.
Labels: Euthanasia, Oregon, USA, Washington State
A parallel? - bailout of the banks in 2009 and bailout of Dutch slave owners in 1863 - by Rick Morren
There is an interesting historical parallel between todays bailout of the banks by governments in the US and Europe and the bailout of Dutch slave owners in 1863 by the Netherlands Government.
When slavery was abolished in all colonies of the Dutch Kingdom on July 1, 1863 there were some 45.000 slaves. Most of them (34.000) lived in the former Dutch colony of Suriname, on the North Eastern coast of South America. Even though the Netherlands in 1848 had already decided that there should come an end to slavery, it took another 15 year before they got their act together as to the procedures which had to be put in place to make this happen. The main issue facing the Dutch Government at that time was how to re-activate the plantation based local colonial economies after their "free labor pool" would cease to exist.
Then, as is the case today, when it comes to bailouts, the Netherlands government of that time hardly considered what the economic impact of the abolishment of slavery would have on the freed slaves, but instead worried more about how to compensate the slave owners for the loss of their "free workforce" and on keeping them tied to the local economy.
Eventually the Dutch Government came up with a "bailout plan" which provided slave owners 300 "guilders" (euro 130) compensation for each slave they had lost as a result of the "emancipation process" in the hope that the slave owners would reinvest this capital back into the local economy, or by hiring former slaves to work their plantations. Unfortunately, nothing of the sort happened. Many unscrupulous plantation owners "cooked" the information on their books about the number of slaves they had and were compensated even for slaves that had died, or ran away; some sold their plantations to speculators; but most of them took their money and left the country. The formally thriving Suriname agriculture based economy could not be reactivated without the active participation of all the parties involved. History seems to tell us over and over again that economic trickle down policies, which failed in the past will also not work today.
WINDPOWER 2009 Conference and Exhibition - Chicago May 4 - 7, 2009, Illinois
WINDPOWER 2009 Conference and Exhibition is the largest annual wind conference and exhibition in the world featuring over 13,000 attendees and over 776 exhibitors. Each year, wind energy professionals gather at this event to learn about the latest industry developments and technologies, review new products and services in the expansive exhibit hall, and network with leading industry decision makers.
Labels: Alternative Energy, EU, USA, Windpower Conference and Exhibition
US wind energy market strongest market in the world for the fourth time in succession
In Berlin, the German Wind Energy Association (Bundesverband WindEnergie, BWE) and the Association of German Machinery and Plant Manufacturers (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau, VDMA) announced that the US market is the strongest market in the world for the fourth time in succession with approximately 8000 to 9000 MW of newly installed capacity (2007: 5244 MW). It will also continue to maintain its leadership role due to the climate package intended by the new US Administration, which provides for a doubling of renewable energy sources in the next three years. The associations also announced that the German market has maintained a steady level in 2008 amidst a continually growing world market. According to the current statistics from the German Wind Energy Institute (Deutsches Windenergie-Institut, DEWI), the domestic market saw 866 (2007: 883) new wind turbines with a capacity of 1,665 (2007: 1,667) megawatts (MW) installed in 2008. With that, the addition of new systems moved at the level of the previous year. There were a total of 20,301 wind turbines with an overall capacity of 23,902 MW installed in Germany by the end of 2008. It is also forecast that the world wind industry will show double-digit growth this year and next year.
Labels: Alternative Energy, EU, Germany, Global Economy, USA, Wind Industry
US Deficit 41% of GDP by 2080
For the complete report from Esquire click on this link
What's So Bad About Socialism Anyway? - by Stephen Marche
Roland Barthes, the French theorist and semiotician, once wrote that sex is everywhere in America, except in sex. For the past 40 years, the same has been true for socialism, which has been simultaneously nowhere and everywhere in America, falsely denied by its politics and falsely claimed by its popular culture. Obama's followers want results, on the financial crisis, the environment, and the war in Iraq. Who has time to watch four-and-a-half-hour movies about dead guerrillas?
Labels: Barack Obama, Socialism, USA
USA - The consumer party is over - Shoppers find much to dislike about malls
Close your eyes and you could be in any mall, anywhere. At each end is an overstuffed department store with roving fragrance spritzers and makeup artists. In between are children's stores showing pink clothes on the left, blue on the right, interspersed with teen clothing stores where the lighting is dim and the salespeople are rail-thin. Throw in numerous shoe stores. Hungry? Don't fret -- somewhere in this mall are warm cinnamon buns.Today's mall shoppers are underwhelmed by the nation's 1,200 enclosed and open-air lifestyle centers, filled with chain stores designed specifically for success in the mall environment. "People go to the mall and nothing stands out or makes the experience fun or exciting," Hoch adds. "There is no sense of discovery. Nothing catches the eye. It's the same restaurants and the same stores in every mall." Hoch predicts as much as 10 percent of the nation's retail infrastructure could disappear by the time the current recession ends.
Labels: Consumerism, Europe, USA
Obama aide Brzezinski, ex-Carter adviser, sees Iran ties modeled on China opening - by Indira A.R. Lakshmanan
A campaign adviser to President-elect Barack Obama who helped President Jimmy Carter open full diplomatic ties with communist China said eventual normalization of relations with Iran would benefit the U.S. Zbigniew Brzezinski, 80, a former national security adviser who traveled to Beijing 30 years ago to pave the way for the new relationship, said today that taking a similar path with Iran may help reshape its anti-American government. "One of the reasons that I do favor a dialogue with the Iranians, and if it is feasible, the establishment of normal diplomatic relationships, is that I think that would help promote political change in a country which is far less centrally controlled, far less subject to effective state authority than was or is the case in the People's Republic of China," he said.
Labels: Barack Obama, Iran, USA
Europe has to guard democracy amid crisis
Europe has to guard democracy amid crisis - by Anatol Lieven
A fraction of the trillion and a half dollars now spent on rescuing western economies from the consequences of their elites’ greed and recklessness would have been enough to have greatly reduced African misery, stabilized Pakistan and other Muslim states – or put a human being on Mars. In fact, whatever was left over from the west’s relentless pursuit of material satisfactions has been largely burned up by the Bush administration’s tax cuts and by misconceived and appallingly executed American wars. The European Union in this period does, however, have two substantial achievements to its credit. The first is that, albeit far too slowly and inadequately, the EU has placed the issue of man-made climate change squarely on the international agenda. The second is the democratization and economic development of eastern and central Europe. Pray God that this is not endangered as a result of the present economic crisis. If we are lucky and the latest actions by western governments take hold, the inevitable economic depression that we are facing will be short and shallow.
Labels: Economic Crises, EU, George Bush, USA
U.S. and Europe join forces for future Mars missions - by Stephen Clark
NASA and the European Space Agency have agreed on a strategic partnership for future robotic missions to explore Mars, officials announced last week. Ed Weiler, the associate administrator for NASA's science mission directorate, unveiled the plan during a Thursday news conference announcing a two-year delay of the agency's next Mars rover.The next two Mars rovers, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and ESA's ExoMars mission, are multi-billion dollar flagship missions. "It will be a long term cooperation where NASA could contribute to an ESA-led mission, like ExoMars, and ESA could contribute to NASA-led missions," said Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA director general. The partnership will help lay the groundwork for the Mars Sample Return mission, which is likely to cost between $6 billion and $8 billion, according to Weiler.
Labels: ESA, EU, Nasa, Space Exploration, USA
Prime Minister suspends parliament to avoid censure
The Canadian Parliament was shut down Thursday after an unprecedented request by Prime Minister Stephen Harper allowed him to avoid a vote that would have surely toppled his government.Harper had scheduled a confidence vote on several budget proposals for next Monday, but once the opposition Liberal and New Democratic Party (NDP) released a public agreement to bring the government down and form a coalition to replace it, Harper asked the Governor General, Michaëlle Jean, to prorogue Parliament until January. Opposition leaders cried foul, saying the Prime Minister’s request was an overt attempt to save his own job. "We must realize the enormity of what has happened here today. For the first time in the history of Canada, the Prime Minister of Canada is running away from the Parliament of Canada," said Liberal leader Stéphane Dion after the suspension was made official.
Note EU-Digest: Suspending parliament is something only dictators do. Mr. Harper's 44 % popularity with the Canadian voters does not sound like an overwhelming vote of confidence to do so? All we need now is that President Bush and his confidants find this an appealing idea and declare Martial Law in the US before the inauguration of President elect Barack Obama, giving the economic meltdown there as the excuse to do so. If he does, he should realize the US population will not be as passive as the Canadians have been so far.
Labels: Canada, George Bush, Martial Law, Revolution, Stephen Harper, USA
AUTO Industry: US Big Three Promise Green Future But Spent Almost $50 Million Since 2007 Lobbying Against It - European car makers forced into frugality
Executives of the Big Three have been on Capitol Hill asking ( begging)for $34 billion in government aid, lamenting their financial straits and vowing their commitment to fuel-efficient cars - GM CEO Rick Wagoner even pulled up to the capitol in a light-blue Chevy Volt electric prototype. But during the hearings, Wagoner and his colleagues have yet to mention the millions of dollars they've spent this year lobbying Congress. In less than two years, the auto industry has spent $120 million lobbying Congress - much of which was used to fight legislative proposals to boost fuel economy requirements.
Note EU-Digest: With higher fuel prices European car makers have been forced for some time now to produce more fuel efficient cars, but are lobbying against higher emission standards to meet future European CO2 emission goals.
Labels: Automotive Industry, EU, USA
Further delay forecast for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner
Another major delay appears certain for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, the record-selling jet that has been plagued by production problems, the most recent of which have been wrongly installed fasteners and a two-month strike by Boeing workers. The Dreamliner which is one of the first of the largely composite jets isn't likely to be delivered before mid-2010, more than two years behind schedule. But a source close to the program said the jet's launch could occur even later, especially if flight tests for the all-new aircraft take longer than the aggressive schedule that Chicago-based Boeing has planned. The 787 Dreamliner has already been delayed three times
Labels: Aircraft Industry, Boeing Dreamliner 787, USA
Auto Industry - Bailout baloney
Last month, the CEOs of GM, Ford and Chrysler arrived via private jets still clinging to their multi-million-dollar annual compensation packages, which didn't exactly give the impression of abject poverty they were pleading. They were sent away empty-handed amidst much public and congressional mockery. So this time, they drove to Washington in their own company vehicles and have pledged to take salaries of just $1 next year. That's better theater, but the answer from lawmakers still should be "no." The issue isn't whether the auto executives have scraped and bowed enough to earn an infusion of public cash, nor whether their new business plans have merit. Congress should not be appropriating tax dollars to prop up failing businesses under any circumstances, nor should it be engaged in shaping how those businesses restructure. Those decisions inevitably would be influenced by political, not market, forces.
Labels: Automotive Industry, USA
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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
European Weather - Amsterdam
