February 2009 – Page 12 – Infinite Unknown

Treasury rethink hits defence budget

February 3, 2009 by Infinite

Britain’s deepening financial crisis has prompted the Treasury to pull back from funding any unexpected costs from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, putting further pressure on the core defence equipment budget.

Gordon Brown, as chancellor, set up the Treasury reserve to pay for any equipment urgently needed for operations and half of any unforeseen costs. But Treasury officials have recently told the Ministry of Defence to cover the entire cost of any overruns itself.

The Treasury sees the move as increasing the incentive for the MoD accurately to estimate the costs of operations. But it was attacked as a cost-cutting measure that would put further pressure on the strained military budget and have a negative impact on troops in the field.

Glenn Beck: Economic Apocalypse

February 2, 2009 by Infinite

Glenn Beck on the coming devaluation of the dollar.

“We have pumped all of this money in (see chart) and devalued our money.”

“How is it not going to be worthless?”

“This has never ever been done by anybody ever before.”

“This is real trouble, not in a thousand years, perhaps the next year.”

Added: February 02, 2009
Source: YouTube

Dubai Real Estate Crash

February 2, 2009 by Infinite

February 01, 2009
Source: YouTube

Dissent beginning to spread across Russia as crisis bites

February 2, 2009 by Infinite

Thousands protest at Putin’s handling of economy while rift with Medvedev grows

Supporters of the banned National Bolshevik party protest against Moscow’s rulers

The Kremlin’s rule is beginning to look much shakier than at any time since Vladimir Putin came to power, after a series of protests in cities across its vast landmass this weekend by Russians disgruntled about the economy. And as the country starts to feel the effects of the global credit crunch, there are also signs of a growing rift between Prime Minister Putin, and his hand-picked successor as President, Dmitry Medvedev.

In Vladivostok, 2,000 protesters took to the streets, with some carrying banners reading “Kremlin, we are against you”, and other people chanting directly for the removal of Mr Putin. The Pacific port city, seven time zones away from Moscow, has become a focal point for dissent after riot police broke up a march last year over car imports and detained 100 people. Saturday’s demonstration, under the watchful eye of the police, passed off peacefully.

Nearly every major city had a street rally, and though most were low key, the unusual scale of dissatisfaction is likely to worry the authorities. The Russian economy has been hit hard by falling oil prices, many oligarchs have seen billions of pounds wiped off the value of their shares, and ordinary Russians are feeling the pinch as factories struggle to stay afloat and companies lay off employees.

In Moscow, a motley band of communists, anarchists and liberals gathered at several points across the city to protest against Kremlin rule. At one spot, a dozen protesters taped over their mouths with white tape, held up white placards with no slogans, and handed blank white flyers to passers-by. Bemused by such a conceptual approach to protest, the police rounded them up and arrested them anyway, and the organiser got five days in prison.

Global News (02/02/09)

February 3, 2009February 2, 2009 by Infinite

– Riot police clash with protesters at Davos summit (Sunday Herald):
RIOT POLICE fired tear gas and water cannons at bottle-throwing demonstrators in Geneva who protested?yesterday against the annual World Economic Forum meeting in the Swiss Alps.

– Riot police fire tear gas at Greek farmers (AP)

– Heaviest snow in 20 years brings large parts of Britain to a halt (Times Online)

– Travel chaos as Europe shivers in heavy snowfalls (ABC News)

– California delays $3.5B in payments (CNN Money)

– Europeans are finally waking up to the demise of democracy (Telegraph)

– Let banks fail, says Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz (Telegraph)

– Personal bankruptcies soar 33% (MSN Money)

– Macy’s cutting 7000 jobs (CNN)

– Nuclear power workers join wildcat strike action over foreign labour (Guardian)

– Italy bans kebabs and foreign food from cities (Times Online)

– Huge rise in speed cameras (Telegraph):
The number of speed cameras sites nearly trebled in just six years, according to figures released by the Government.

– Jamie’s food fuels pupils’ brain power (Times Online):
An independent study shows the performance of 11-year-old pupils eating Oliver’s meals improved by up to 8% in science and as much as 6% in English, while absenteeism due to ill-health fell by 15%.

– Fed Monetizes Debt, Investors Buy Gold (Gold Seek)

– Where Are US Consumer Goods Prices Headed? (Lew Rockwell)

– WEF 2009: Global crisis ‘has destroyed 40pc of world wealth’ (Telegraph):
The past five quarters have seen 40pc of the world’s wealth destroyed and business leaders expect the global economic crisis can only get worse.

– Vladimir Putin faces more protests over economy (Telegraph):
Russian opposition groups are planning new protests over the economy after weekend demonstrations that challenged the authority of Vladimir Putin.

– Nuclear workers join UK wildcat strikes (Financial Times)

– Number of UK long-term jobless set to soar (Financial Times)

– Australia faces first budget deficit for 7 years (Financial Times)

– Two children should be limit, says green guru (Times Online)

– Folding dealers shock car buyers with unpaid liens (AP)

– India risks losing its nuclear ally in Washington (The National)

– Wars And Economic Failure Have Been Marching Us Towards One World Government (The International Forecaster)

– Welfare Aid Isn’t Growing as Economy Drops Off (New York Times)

– Federal Agency Kills Thousands of Birds with Pesticide (Natural News)

Unpaid taxes return to haunt Obama cabinet

February 2, 2009 by Infinite

Tom Daschle: Nominated as Health Secretary despite $140,000 tax debt

The high ethical standards which Barack Obama set for his administration have hit a bump on the road, after revelations that his choice for Health Secretary, Thomas Daschle, waited nearly a month after being nominated before revealing to the President that he was a tax delinquent.

Mr Daschle, one of Mr Obama’s earliest backers, only paid the back taxes totalling $140,000 (£97,000) on 2 January and told the White House about it two days later. The money covered tax owed on additional income from consulting work, undertaken for a wealthy New York investor, as well as the exclusive use of a Cadillac limousine complete with driver.

The Senate finance committee meets today to discuss Mr Daschle’s nomination. He is the second of Mr Obama’s cabinet picks to have found themselves scrambling to smooth out their financial records. Tim Geithner’s confirmation as Treasury Secretary was delayed after it was discovered he had failed to pay $34,000 in taxes.

Barack Obama to allow anti-terror rendition to continue

February 2, 2009 by Infinite

The highly controversial anti-terror practice of rendition will continue under Barack Obama, it has emerged.

Barack Obama is to allow the highly controversial anti-terror practice of rendition to continue Photo: AP

Despite ordering the closure of Guantanamo and an end to harsh interrogation techniques, the new president has failed to call an end to secret abductions and questioning.

In his first few days in office, Mr Obama was lauded for rejecting policies of the George W Bush era, but it has emerged the CIA still has the authority to carry out renditions in which suspects are picked up and often sent to a third country for questioning.

The practice caused outrage at the EU, after it was revealed the CIA had used secret prisons in Romania and Poland and airports such as Prestwick in Scotland to conduct up to 1,200 rendition flights. The European Parliament called renditions “an illegal instrument used by the United States”.

According to a detailed reading of the executive orders signed by Mr Obama on Jan 22, renditions have not been outlawed, with the new administration deciding it needs to retain some devices in Mr Bush’s anti-terror arsenal amid continued threats to US national security.

Britain ‘must revive farms’ to avoid grave food crisis

February 2, 2009 by Infinite

GMOs are not the solution:
– Austrian Government Study Confirms Genetically Modified (GM) Crops Threaten Human Fertility and Health Safety (Institute For Responsible Technology)
– Exposed: the great GM crops myth (The Independent):
“Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.”
– Life running out of control – Genetically Modified Organisms (Documentary)
– The World According to Monsanto (Documentary)
– Greenpeace: No need for condoms – GE corn can do the job (Greenpeace)
– Europe’s secret plan to boost GM crop production (The Independent)
– FDA Considers Engineered Animals For Food (CBS NEWS)
– Genetically ‘improved’ oysters behind France’s shellfish plague (Telegraph)
– Prince Charles warns GM crops risk causing the biggest-ever environmental disaster (Telegraph)
– At stake is no less than control of the world’s food supply (Edmonton Journal)
– BIODIVERSITY: Privatisation Making Seeds Themselves Infertile (IPS)

Yes, there will be a engineered global food crisis – like the engineered financial crisis – in the near future and the elite is preparing for it:
‘Doomsday’ seed vault opens in Arctic (msnbc):

They are storing “real” seeds. Take a close look who is behind this:
Investors Behind Doomsday Seed Vault May Provide Clues to Its Purpose (Natural News):
“The group of investors includes The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Monsanto Corporation, Syngenta Foundation, and the Government of Norway.”

If there would be no crisis coming and/or GMOs would not be a problem for the environment then why would they do this ‘now’?

Source: The Observer

Top thinktank issues stark warning of unrest over prices and says GM crops could offer a solution

Britain faces a major food crisis unless urgent steps are taken to revive its flagging agricultural sector, warns one of the world’s most influential thinktanks.

Following a week in which world leaders and the United Nations expressed deep concern about the prospect of global food shortages, Chatham House suggests there needs to be a major shake-up in the UK’s supply chain if the country is to continue feeding itself.

Controversially, the report’s authors claim the debate about the use of GM crops in the UK will have to be reopened if productivity is to be increased, a suggestion likely to spark anger from the green lobby.

Sir Jock Stirrup: Even a US surge won’t beat the Taliban

June 20, 2009February 2, 2009 by Infinite

Sir Jock Stirrup, Britain’s chief of the defence staff, tells Carey Schofield only politics can bring peace to Afghanistan

Fighter reconnaissance pilots possess steely resolve. Having served his time flying Strikemasters during Britain’s “secret war” in Oman in the 1970s and a Jaguar reconnaissance aircraft during the cold war, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, now chief of the defence staff, knows something about steering a difficult course into hostile territory. Indeed, he’s still doing it today. He is described by many in the services as “Gordon’s favourite defence chief” – and it is not meant as a compliment.

At a time when the armed forces are stuck in two unpopular wars, Stirrup has come under heavy fire for his willingness to work with his political masters. Typically, he brushes aside suggestions that the defence budget is in trouble. There is “serious pressure” he admits, but “we have to adjust our programme so that we can live within the available resources”. It is not hard to see why this frustrates troops waiting on the ground in Afghanistan for a helicopter that may or may not arrive to deliver supplies.

Now Hiring: Lehman Brothers

February 2, 2009 by Infinite

Then & Now

Then:

CEO: Richard Fuld (above)

Employees: 25,158

Cash on balance sheet: $3.3 billion

Now:

CEO: Bryan Marsal, (above)

Employees: 500

Cash on balance sheet: $7 billion

It’s bankrupt. Its reputation is in tatters. And it has been forced from its plush headquarters building. Yet working for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. — what remains of it — has become one of the hottest jobs on Wall Street.

That’s because Lehman, though a shadow of its former self after selling many of its businesses to Barclays PLC and Nomura Holdings Inc., retains a broad patchwork of assets. It has some $7 billion in cash and more than 1,400 private investments valued at $12.3 billion. Then there’s a thicket of about 500,000 derivative contracts with 4,000 trading partners worth some $24 billion.

So for now, Lehman is seen as a relatively secure home for throngs of finance professionals thrown out of work in recent months. It’s even become a place for former Lehman CEO Richard Fuld to informally hang his hat.

“We’re getting swamped with résumés,” says Bryan Marsal, a turnaround expert who is now Lehman’s chief executive officer. The inquiries, he says, are from people affiliated with marquee names such as Bank of America, Citigroup Inc., and Morgan Stanley.

“It’s just a tough, tough time, and there are a lot of good people out there looking for work.”

The wages are not great by past standards. But there are hidden benefits. It could take two years or more to wind down the firm. Such a timeline promises the kind of job security that’s a rarity on Wall Street today.

Charged with untangling the mess is Alvarez & Marsal, the New York-based restructuring firm where Mr. Marsal is a co-founder. With 150 full-time employees working on the case, its chief task is to sell off Lehman’s remaining assets and maximize recovery for creditors, which are owed more than $150 billion.

Passport RFIDs cloned wholesale by $250 eBay auction spree

February 2, 2009 by Infinite

Video demo shows you how

Using inexpensive off-the-shelf components, an information security expert has built a mobile platform that can clone large numbers of the unique electronic identifiers used in US passport cards and next generation drivers licenses.

The $250 proof-of-concept device – which researcher Chris Paget built in his spare time – operates out of his vehicle and contains everything needed to sniff and then clone RFID, or radio frequency identification, tags. During a recent 20-minute drive in downtown San Francisco, it successfully copied the RFID tags of two passport cards without the knowledge of their owners.

Paget’s contraption builds off the work of researchers at RSA and the University of Washington, which last year found weaknesses in US passport cards and so-called EDLs, or enhanced drivers’ licenses. So far, about 750,000 people have applied for the passport cards, which are credit card-sized alternatives to passports for travel between the US and Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. EDLs are currently offered by Washington and New York states.

“It’s one thing to say that something can be done, it’s another thing completely to actually do it,” Paget said in explaining why he built the device. “It’s mainly to defeat the argument that you can’t do it in the real world, that there’s no real-world attack here, that it’s all theoretical.”

Violent unrest rocks China as crisis hits

February 2, 2009 by Infinite

The collapse of the export trade has left millions without work and set off a wave of social instability, writes

China’s new year of the ox portends calm but there is little sign of it as workers in Shezhen protest over unpaid wages as factories shut

Bankruptcies, unemployment and social unrest are spreading more widely in China than officially reported, according to independent research that paints an ominous picture for the world economy.

The research was conducted for The Sunday Times over the last two months in three provinces vital to Chinese trade – Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu. It found that the global economic crisis has scythed through exports and set off dozens of protests that are never mentioned by the state media.

Related article:
40 Million Chinese Set to Lose Their Job as New Year Celebrations End (The Telegraph)

While troubling for the Chinese government, this should strengthen the argument of Premier Wen Jiabao, who will say on a visit to London this week that his country faces enormous problems and cannot let its currency rise in response to American demands.

The new US Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, has alarmed Beijing and raised fears of a trade war by stating that China manipulates the yuan to promote exports.

Hyperinflation is a possibility, say Morgan Stanley

February 2, 2009 by Infinite

That’s not in Zimbabwe by the way.

Morgan Stanley’s Jocahcim Fels and Spyros Andreopoulos look at the possibility of hyperinflation hitting the western shores of the UK, Europe and the US in their latest note. Their conclusion is a little scary (our emphasis).

One stark lesson from the ongoing financial and economic crisis is that so-called black swans – large-impact, hard-to-predict and seemingly rare events – can occur more frequently than generally believed.

With policymakers around the world throwing massive conventional and unconventional monetary and fiscal stimuli at their economies, we think that it is worth exploring the black swan event of very high inflation or even hyperinflation.

While such an outcome is clearly not our main case, the risk of hyperinflation cannot be dismissed very easily any longer, in our view. We discuss the historical evidence, the conditions that can lead to very high or hyperinflation, and whether and how it might happen again.

Treasury Real Yields at 16-Month High as Deflation Bets Die

February 2, 2009February 1, 2009 by Infinite

“Investors in 30-year bonds lost 14.6 percent last month, according to Merrill Lynch & Co. index data. January was the worst month for government securities since Merrill Lynch began tracking returns on the securities in 1988.”

The bond bubble is bursting (this year).

The dollar will be destroyed through hyperinflation and the “Greatest Depression” is about to happen (this year).

Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) — For the first time since 2007, Treasury investors are betting that inflation will accelerate.

The yield on 10-year notes exceeds the consumer price index by 2.74 percentage points, the most since December 2006. The gap between two- and 10-year rates widened at the fastest pace in a year last month as traders demanded more compensation for longer-term debt. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities that signaled falling prices as recently as Nov. 20 show they will increase in the U.S. this year.

Deflation was the growing concern for investors in 2008 as government bond yields fell to historic lows in December, the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of commodities tumbled 53 percent since July and home prices plunged 18 percent amid a deepening recession.

Now, the bond market is saying Federal Reserve interest rates at zero percent, President Barack Obama’s $819 billion planned stimulus package and $8.5 trillion of U.S. initiatives to revive credit markets will reignite inflation.

“When the Fed gets finished here they will have an inflation nightmare on their hands,” said Mark MacQueen, who helps oversee $7 billion as co-founder of Sage Advisor Services Ltd. in Austin, Texas. “There is a lot of downside in conservative government bonds.”

MacQueen is selling 30-year Treasuries, which are more sensitive to inflation expectations than shorter-maturity debt.

Fate of UBS hangs on tax evasion case

February 1, 2009 by Infinite

The future of UBS, the giant Swiss bank, rests on the outcome of tense negotiations with US investigators as its long-running multi-billion-dollar tax evasion case concludes this month.

A series of hearings in Washington over the next four weeks will determine whether UBS faces criminal prosecutions and possibly even the loss of its US bank licence.

The bank is being investigated by US authorities for its alleged part in what is claimed to be a massive tax evasion scheme. The US has accused UBS of helping rich Americans hide billions of dollars. Last November, a senior member of the executive board of UBS was charged by US authorities with tax evasion. He has resigned from the board to defend himself. UBS has been co-operating with investigators and has made it plain that it is taking the issue seriously.

Global News (02/01/09)

February 3, 2009February 1, 2009 by Infinite

– Google blacklists entire internet (Guardian):
Glitch causes world’s most popular search engine to classify all web pages as dangerous

– Davos Delegates in ‘Denial’ as $25 Trillion of Wealth Vanishes (Bloomberg)

– Exclusive: Peers for cash investigation – new undercover footage (Times)

– Barack Obama to dilute ‘Buy American’ plan after Europe threatens US with trade war (Telegraph)

– Obama Proposes Defense Cut (To Above 2007 Levels): Wingnut Outrage (Crooks and Liars):
The Pentagon’s budget (not including expenditures for Iraq and Afghanistan) has grown from $316B in 2001 to $536B in 2009. This represents a 70% increase. So a 10% decrease is funding will take us from $536B to $483B, which is still more than the $463B the Pentagon had for 2007. All Obama is doing is preventing the budget from growing an average of 10% year after year when there’s no discernible advantage to doing so.

– Obama prepares to unveil plan to rescue US banking industry from from $2 trillion hole (Times Online): It is believed that President Obama has estimated that total losses among America’s lenders could cost the US (Taxpayers’) up to $2 trillion.

– €7bn to be pumped into Irish banks (Times Online)

– Exxon and Chevron made $6m an hour amid record profits (Telegraph):
Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the two biggest oil companies in the world, made a combined profit of almost $6m (£4.1m) an hour in the final quarter of 2008, despite a 56pc slump in the oil price during the period.

– Hedge fund to offer shares priced in gold (Telegraph):
A hedge fund is to offer its shares priced in ounces of gold rather than pounds or dollars to investors worried that inflation will take hold as a result of countries around the world printing more money.

– Sewage yields more gold than top mines (Reuters)

– Florida, Maryland, Utah Banks Shut as Financial Crisis Deepens (Bloomberg):
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) — Banks in Florida, Maryland and Utah were closed yesterday as regulators wrapped up the busiest month for failures since the housing slump began in 2006.

– GlaxoSmithKline to slash 6000 jobs (Telegraph)

– Financed by the British taxpayer, brutal torturers of the West Bank (Daily Mail)

– Intervening to prop up pound is ‘recipe for failure’, says Brown (Independent):
(The Bank of England is ‘printing money’ which will destroy the pound. The pound is beyond help.)

– Russian newspaper mourns another murdered reporter (AP)

– Treasuries purchases will depend on risk – China’s Wen (Reuters):
(Looks like the Obama/Geithner strategy pays off already.) China is the single biggest foreign investor of U.S. Treasuries, with $681.9 billion as of November, according to U.S. data.

– Scientist see holes in glacier at Alaska volcano (AP):
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Geologists monitoring Mount Redoubt for signs of a possible eruption noticed that a hole in the glacier clinging to the north side of the volcano had doubled in size overnight — and now spans the length of two football fields.

– Fines fraud hits Italian drivers (BBC News):
Thousands of drivers in Italy are expected to seek compensation after it was revealed that a system to catch them jumping red lights was rigged.

– How the BBC’s stand on Gaza made a front-page protester out of me (Independent)

– Intervening to prop up pound is ‘recipe for failure’, says Brown (Independent)

– Americans’ saving more, spending less (AP)

– Joblessness Probably Rose to 16-Year High: US Economy Preview (Bloomberg)

– Rio Tinto in £6bn talks with China (Times)

Gaza desperately short of food after Israel destroys farmland

February 1, 2009 by Infinite

Officials warn of ‘destruction of all means of life’ after the three-week conflict leaves agriculture in the region in ruins

Gaza’s 1.5 million people are facing a food crisis as a result of the destruction of great areas of farmland during the Israeli invasion.

According to the World Food Programme, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation and Palestinian officials, between 35% and 60% of the agriculture industry has been wrecked by the three-week Israeli attack, which followed two years of economic siege.

Christine van Nieuwenhuyse, the World Food Programme’s country director, said: “We are hearing that 60% of the land in the north – where the farming was most intensive – may not be exploitable again. It looks to me like a disaster. It is not just farmland, but poultry as well.

“When we have given a food ration in Gaza, it was never a full ration but to complement the diet. Now it is going to be almost impossible for Gaza to produce the food it needs for the next six to eight months, assuming that the agriculture can be rehabilitated. We will give people a full ration.”

AP Investigation: Banks sought foreign workers during meltdown

February 1, 2009 by Infinite

The use of visa workers by ailing banks angers Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

“In this time of very, very high unemployment … and considering the help these banks are getting from the taxpayers, they’re playing the American taxpayer for a sucker,” Grassley said in a telephone interview with AP.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) – Major U.S. banks sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers into the country for high-paying jobs even as the system was melting down last year and Americans were getting laid off, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.

The dozen banks now receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households.

World is getting colder: It’s the sun, not CO2, that’s to blame

February 1, 2009 by Infinite

David J. Bellamy is a professor at three British universities and an officer in several conservation organizations. Mark Duchamp, a retired businessman, has investigated global- warming theory and written more than 100 articles.

After the wet and cold centuries of the Little Ice Age (around 1550-1850 A.D.), the world’s climate recuperated some warmth, but did not replicate the balmy period known as the Middle Age Warm Period (around 800-1300 A.D.), when the margins of Greenland were green and England had vineyards.

Climate began to cool again after World War II, for about 30 years. This is undisputed. The cooling occurred at a time when emissions of C02 were rising sharply from the reconstruction effort and from unprecedented development. It is important to realize that.

Related article: BBC abandons ‘impartiality’ on warming (Telegraph):
Again and again the BBC has been eager to promote every new scare raised by the advocates of man-made global warming. As late as August 28 this year it was still predicting that Arctic ice might soon disappear, just as this winter’ s refreezing was about to take ice-cover back to a point it was at 30 years ago.

By 1978 it had started to warm again, to everybody’s relief. But two decades later, after the temperature peaked in 1998 under the influence of El Nino, climate stopped warming for eight years; and in 2007 entered a cooling phase marked by lower solar radiation and a reversal of the cycles of warm ocean temperature in the Atlantic and the Pacific. And here again, it is important to note that this new cooling period is occurring concurrently with an acceleration in CO2 emissions, caused by the emergence of two industrial giants: China and India.

To anyone analyzing this data with common sense, it is obvious that factors other than CO2 emissions are ruling the climate. And the same applies to other periods of the planet’s history. Al Gore, in his famous movie “The Inconvenient Truth,” had simply omitted to say that for the past 420,000 years that he cited as an example, rises in CO2 levels in the atmosphere always followed increases in global temperature by at least 800 years. It means that CO2 can’t possibly be the cause of the warming cycles.

So, if it’s not CO2, what is it that makes the world’s temperature periodically rise and fall? The obvious answer is the sun, and sea currents in a subsidiary manner.

Joint Chiefs chairman calls fiscal calamity a bigger threat than any war

February 1, 2009 by Infinite

Though he’s a warrior, not an economist, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, ranks the financial crisis as a higher priority and greater risk to security than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The scope of it is, to me, mind-boggling,” said Mullen in an interview with Military Update Wednesday, just hours before President Barack Obama made his first visit to the Pentagon as commander in chief.

Mullen said it is a testament both to the nation’s strength and to the severity of the fiscal crisis that Congress last fall swiftly approved a relief fund of $700 billion to bail out banks and try to thaw frozen credit markets.

The amount nearly matched last year’s defense budget, Mullen noted, contrasting the speed of that action to the long, detailed process of setting military requirements, debating programs and passing a defense budget.

That’s “not even to speak of discussions, literally today, of a stimulus package that’s going to be another 800 or 900 billion (dollars). I think that’s going to affect all of us much more than personally,” Mullen said.

“I’ve been concerned and remain concerned about the impact of this on security,” he continued. “It’s a global crisis. And as that impacts security issues, or feeds greater instability, I think it will impact on our national security in ways that we quite haven’t figured out yet”

Court rules that private school can expel lesbian students

February 1, 2009 by Infinite

Relying on the 1998 state Supreme Court ruling which allowed the Boy Scouts of America to deny admittance to gays and atheists, a San Bernardino, California court has ruled that California Lutheran High School does not have to follow anti-discriminatory laws.

California state law forbids anti-gay bias in public schools, but the court determined that California Lutheran is actually a “social organization” and is not subject to such laws. It was decided, therefore, that the school was within its rights to expel two students for admitting to their sexual orientation.

– You can read the court’s ruling by clicking here.

The case came about as a result of two 11th grade girls who were questioned by the principal about their sexual orientation. The principal was ‘alerted’ by another student who saw comments written on the girls’ My Space page.

The girls were suspended as a result of the answers given to the principal.

Afghans threaten US troops over civilian deaths

February 1, 2009 by Infinite

An Afghan villager elder holds his walking stick, as he talks with US soldiers who have come to pay money for repairing of the homes which were destroyed during the recent US raids in Inzeri village of Tagab Valley in Kapisa province north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009. An angry Afghan man with a thick black beard and one eye ranted wildly at the U.S. officials, shouting about how their raid had killed 16 civilians in his village. An Afghan elder cried out in grief that his son and four grandsons were killed. (AP Photo/Jason Straziuso)

MEHTERLAM, Afghanistan (AP) – An angry Afghan man with a thick black beard ranted wildly at the U.S. officials, shouting about how their overnight raid had killed 16 civilians in his village. An Afghan elder cried out in grief that his son and four grandsons were among the dead.

One after another, a long line of government officials, villagers and community leaders told American military officials at the Laghman governor’s compound that Afghan soldiers must be allowed to take part in such raids. Several predicted increased violence against U.S. forces if more nighttime operations take place.

Three recent U.S. Special Forces operations killed 50 people – the vast majority civilians, Afghan officials say – raising the ire of villagers and President Hamid Karzai, who set a one-month deadline for his demand that Afghan soldiers play a bigger role in military operations.

“If these operations are again conducted in our area, all of our people are ready to carry out jihad. We cannot tolerate seeing the dead bodies of our children and women anymore,” Malik Malekazratullah, the Afghan who ranted at the Americans, told The Associated Press. “I’ve already told President Karzai we are out of patience.”