Change? What Change? Obama Sends 17,000 Additional Soldiers to Afghanistan : President Barack Obama said the "war" in Afghanistan is "still winnable" as he signed an order increasing U.S. troops there by 17,000 combat and support personnel. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a4Z44._h7ZNY&; Change? What Change? Obama's War on Terror May Resemble Bush's: In little-noticed confirmation testimony recently, Obama nominees endorsed continuing the C.I.A.'s program of transferring prisoners to other countries without legal rights, and indefinitely detaining terrorism suspects without trials even if they were arrested far from a war zone. http://tinyurl.com/c9phtg === Change? What Change? Obama, not Bush, now seeking delay of Rove deposition: In a court brief quietly filed Monday, Michael Hertz, Obama's acting assistant attorney general, said it was necessary to delay an effort to force Rove to be deposed in a congressional investigation into the firing of nine US Attorneys and the alleged political prosecution of a former Alabama governor. http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_not_Bush_now_seeking_delay_0217.html === "Looking Ahead" or Overlooking Crimes Against Humanity?: "Somewhere in Texas, former President George W. Bush is clearing brush in perfect peace." Former Vice President Dick Cheney is likely out duck hunting in Wyoming, as if he has every right to be walking around free. http://tinyurl.com/bwkldb ==== Finance Capitalism Hits a Wall The Oligarchs' Escape Plan - at the Treasury's Expense By Prof. Michael Hudson The financial "wealth creation" game is over. Economies emerged from World War II relatively free of debt, but the 60-year global run-up has run its course. Finance capitalism is in a state of collapse, and marginal palliatives cannot revive it. The U.S. economy cannot "inflate its way out of debt," because this would collapse the dollar and end its dreams of global empire by forcing foreign countries to go their own way. http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22026.htm === Strange Math By Ignacio Merino Right now President Obama is a new broom and the country thinks he is resolving a problem left to him by a Republican administration. He is about to sign in a stimulus package that will fail to stimulate the economy. Then in three months he'll be back at the trough looking for more money. Six months will pass, things will get worse, and it will be viewed as his problem to clean up. By the end of 2009, assuming he follows the path laid out with the stimulus bill, he will be viewed by the American public as inept and the "wrong man for the job". Things will be a lot worse than they are now. http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22027.htm === 10,000 Americans Going Into Foreclosure Every Day It's Time to Treat America's Homeowners as Well as We've Been Treating Wall Street's Bankers By Arianna Huffington Why hasn't the foreclosure crisis gotten the attention it deserves? http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22032.htm === Rahm's Rent Is Just The Tip Of The Ethics Iceberg By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann NEWS broke last week that Rahm Emanuel, now White House chief of staff, lived rent- free for years in the home of Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.) - and failed to disclose the gift, as congressional ethics rules mandate. But this is only the tip of Emanuel's previously undislosed ethics problems. http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22029.htm === Imagine By David Pérez I imagine being in a room of maimed, deformed and tortured Iraqis, Afghans and Palestinians, accompanied by widows and orphans mourning because their entire family has been exterminated. I imagine this roomful of walking dead sitting around while my friends and I discuss how "realistic" we in the U.S. must be with our electoral politics, how our expectations need to "practical," how peace is just so damn "complicated." http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22030.htm === A Day of Reckoning for the USA By Norm Lowry We can die or live, dependent on the Mercy of those we have offended... or... we can simply suffer the consequences of a terrible Day of Reckoning, with its guarantee of more destruction & death than any of us would like to see. http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22031.htm === Gaza Convoy - A Movement Of The Streets "We Come In Peace. We Will Not Be Stopped" By George Galloway and By Yvonne Ridley A convoy of more than 110 vehicles has snaked its way out of London for Gaza to deliver more than £1m worth of aid, including ambulances and a fire engine. http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22028.htm === It's Time To Rethink Zionism By Daphna Baram The desire for ethnic purity that drove out Palestinians and bars the way to democracy in Israel is the rotten fruit of an old debate. http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22033.htm === Greed and Corruption Jailing Kids for Cash By Amy Goodman As many as 5,000 children in Pennsylvania have been found guilty, and up to 2,000 of them jailed, by two corrupt judges who received kickbacks from the builders and owners of private prison facilities that benefited. The two judges pleaded guilty in a stunning case of greed and corruption that is still unfolding. http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22034.htm === Italy to boost troops in Afghanistan: gov't: Italy was also looking at deploying 200 to 250 extra troops to help safeguard an Afghan presidential election, due in August, he said. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090218/wl_sthasia_afp/afghanistanunrestitalydiplomacy Germany drafts bank takeover law: Germany has approved a draft law allowing the forced nationalisations of banks, saying it would use its new powers to take control of giant propery lender Hypo Real Estate. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/02/200921817362186380.html === European Union Says Cannot Support All of East Europe: The European Union may only be able to play a limited role in financially supporting countries on its eastern fringes like Ukraine and Croatia, Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aM8CKyexK5o4&; === G.M. To Cut 47,000 Jobs While Chrysler Will Dump 3,000 Positions: One thing is certain about the plan top officials at GM and Chrysler have come up with for restructuring and staving off bankruptcy - it's going to come with a huge price tag both monetarily and from the workforce. http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_32166.aspx === Goodyear posts loss, plans 5,000 job cuts: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co plans to cut 5,000 jobs worldwide in 2009, or 6.7 percent of its staff, after a prolonged downturn in vehicle demand led to a deeper-than-expected loss in the fourth quarter. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090218/bs_nm/us_goodyear === Obama unveils massive mortgage plan: Obama said the measures would help between seven to nine million middle-class families restructure or refinance their mortgages and avoid foreclosure. http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=86032§ionid=3510203 === Homeowners' rallying cry: Produce the note: Kathy Lovelace lost her job and was about to lose her house, too. But then she made a seemingly simple request of the bank: Show me the original mortgage paperwork. http://tinyurl.com/cqspc5 === Little-known agency that insures pensions of 44 million workers braces for recession fallout: The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. already has an $11 billion deficit that seems sure to grow larger as Corporate America suffers through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. http://www.kfsm.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-pension-bailout,0,4468385.story === Consumers Cut Food Spending Sharply: Markets and Restaurants Feel the Pinch as People Purchase Generic Brands and Stay Home http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123448606475780133.html ---- http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ShadowGovernment" group. 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