Our Awful Situation

Archive for June, 2008

US military deny that new prison is planned as ‘Guantanamo Two’

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 22nd, 2008

You’d think they could think of a more clever name than “Gitmo Two”:

A US military spokeswoman has dismissed suggestions that a new prison planned for Afghanistan is intended to receive prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, the detention centre in Cuba that is facing increasing criticism in America.

“This is not going to be Guantanamo Two,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Rumi Nielson-Green, spokeswoman for Combined Joint Task Force 101 based at Bagram Airfield, north of the Afghan capital Kabul. “That is absolutely false.”

Dow Hits 3-Month Low, Sheds 4% for Week

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 21st, 2008

Its going to be a rough summer for the stock market and for the sheep who depend on it:

Stocks closed sharply lower Friday as oil prices climbed about $3 and a concoction of rumors and bad news shook up the banking sector.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average broke through the key 12000 mark, tumbling 220.97, or 1.8 percent, to finish at 11842.12.

The Dow shed 4 percent for the week, finishing at its lowest point in three months and just 100 points above its March low.

Feds arrest Miami Beach munitions dealer

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 21st, 2008

Strange, strange, strange:

A 22-year-old munitions dealer and others in his Miami Beach company were arrested on charges of selling prohibited Chinese weaponry to the U.S. government to supply allied forces in Afghanistan, according to law enforcement officials.

Efraim Diveroli, president of AEY Inc., and three other employees were arrested Thursday night and Friday morning — accused of conspiring to misrepresent the types of munitions they sold to the U.S. Department of Defense as part of a $300 million Army weapons contract, officials said.

Diveroli and the others are charged with violating the Arms Export Control Act stemming from an investigation that began earlier this year by the Pentagon and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Israel getting ready for an offensive against Iran?

Posted by patriot on June 19th, 2008

Something smells like fish…

Israel carried out a major military exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Several American officials said the Israeli exercise appeared to be an effort to develop the military’s capacity to carry out long-range strikes and to demonstrate the seriousness with which Israel views Iran’s nuclear program.

More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters participated in the maneuvers, which were carried out over the eastern Mediterranean and over Greece during the first week of June, American officials said.

The exercise also included Israeli helicopters that could be used to rescue downed pilots. The helicopters and refueling tankers flew more than 900 miles, which is about the same distance between Israel and Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, American officials said.

Rhode Island school district to begin using RFID to microchip students

Posted by patriot on June 19th, 2008

Another reason why we all love public education:

A Rhode Island school district has announced a pilot program to monitor student movements by means of radio frequency identification (RFID) chips implanted in their schoolbags.

The Middletown School District, in partnership with MAP Information Technology Corp., has launched a pilot program to implant RFID chips into the schoolbags of 80 children at the Aquidneck School. Each chip would be programmed with a student identification number, and would be read by an external device installed in one of two school buses. The buses would also be fitted with global positioning system (GPS) devices.

House leaders fund another year of Iraqi disaster

Posted by patriot on June 18th, 2008

Lovely.. no restrictions on your tax dollars:

House Democratic and Republican leaders have reached a deal on a war funding bill that will fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into early 2009, several congressional sources said Tuesday.

The bill includes $165 billion to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through the rest of this year and into early 2009, without any restrictions on the money.

Oklahoma sticks it to the Fed

Posted by patriot on June 18th, 2008

Oklahoma tells the Feds to mind their own business:

The Oklahoma House passed an unprecedented joint house resolution declaring its sovereignty over matters not “enumerated” to the U.S. government under the text of the Constitution. It also sent a “Notice and Demand” to the federals to cease and desist unconstitutional activity. The resolution numbered HJR 1089 passed by a vote of 92 Yeahs, 3 Nays, and 6 abstentions. Presently, it appears hung up in a rules committee in the Oklahoma Senate.

I’d love to talk to one of the Nay votes… what do these people think?

Iran urges OPEC to move off the dollar

Posted by patriot on June 17th, 2008

Looks like we’re closer to “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” (since Iraq was trying to move off the dollar before we invaded there):

Speaking at a ceremony to open the 29th ministerial meeting of the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeated his proposal made about six months ago in a rare summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’s heads of states.

“The fall in the value of US dollar is one of the pressing problems of the world today,” warned the Iranian president at the conference in Isfahan on Tuesday.

He further expressed concern over the adverse effect of the dollar depreciation on the international community, especially energy exporting countries through increasing the price of commodities like wheat, rice and oilseeds.

Ahmadinejad said he warned six months ago in the summit conference in Riyadh that there were many indications pointing to continued fall in the value of the greenback.

“And we see that this continues to happen and the resources and wealth of OPEC member countries have been hugely damaged.

“I again repeat my previous proposal; we should have a basket of different international hard currencies as the basis or the member countries should come up and produce a new hard currency for petroleum contracts,” he stressed.

“They get our oil and give us a worthless piece of paper,” Ahmadinejad said earlier after the close of the summit in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.

Bush Becoming a Catholic?

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 16th, 2008

Forgive me Father for I have sinned…

President Bush may follow in the footsteps of his brother Jeb and convert to Catholicism, several European papers are reporting.

In the wake of the president’s visit to see Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, Italian newspapers, citing Vatican sources, said Bush was open to the idea of converting to Catholicism.

The Italian newspaper Il Foglio referred to such talk about Bush’s possible conversion and stated that “anything is possible, especially for someone reborn like Bush.”

Central bank body warns of Great Depression

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 16th, 2008

A stunning warning from the central bank of central banks:

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the organisation that fosters cooperation between central banks, has warned that the credit crisis could lead world economies into a crash on a scale not seen since the 1930s.

In its latest quarterly report, the body points out that the Great Depression of the 1930s was not foreseen and that commentators on the financial turmoil, instigated by the US sub-prime mortgage crisis, may not have grasped the level of exposure that lies at its heart.

According to the BIS, complex credit instruments, a strong appetite for risk, rising levels of household debt and long-term imbalances in the world currency system, all form part of the loose monetarist policy that could result in another Great Depression.

The report points out that between March and May of this year, interbank lending continued to show signs of extreme stress and that this could be set to continue well into the future.

It also raises concerns about the Chinese economy and questions whether China may be repeating mistakes made by Japan, with its so called bubble economy of the late 1980s.

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