Police Probe Possible Leads To More Manson Bodies...

If at first you don't succeed, try a scroll!...

Countrywide CEO to get $10M...

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged he may have miscalculated by failing to foresee the strong backlash that his offensive, which began Tuesday, provoked in areas of Baghdad and other cities where Shiite militias wield power.

In the recent landmark Hannah Poling case, filed in Federal "Vaccine Court," officials conceded that Hannah's underlying mitochondrial dysfunction was aggravated by her vaccines, leading to fever and an "immune stimulation that exceeded metabolic reserves."

Katrina victims may have to repay money...

A White House aide has resigned amid a Justice Department investigation into allegations that he misused an unspecified amount of U.S. grant money intended to promote democracy in Cuba.

The Oceanside Police Department on Thursday defended its investigation into an incident in which an off-duty San Diego police officer shot a woman and her 8-year-old son after a traffic altercation.

A newly surfaced memo from banking giant JPMorgan Chase provides a rare glimpse into the mentality that fueled the mortgage crisis.

The memo's title says it all: "Zippy Cheats & Tricks."

It is a primer on how to get risky mortgage loans approved by Zippy, Chase's in-house automated loan underwriting system. The secret to approval? Inflate the borrowers' income or otherwise falsify their loan application.

The spectacle of Bertie Ahern's secretary reduced to public tears has inflicted substantial political damage on the Irish Prime Minister, whose personal finances are being investigated by a tribunal in Dublin.

The battle for control of southern Iraq is continuing for a fifth day.

In one of the latest offensives, eight people died, including two women and a child, in an air raid.

Meanwhile a witness in Baghdad has told Al Jazeera he saw up to 40 Iraqi army and police surrendering their weapons to supporters of the Mahdi Army.

Its leader, Muqtada Al-Sadr, is calling on Arab nations to support his fight against US forces in Iraq.

James Bays reports from Baghdad.

One of the things that Apple has always prided itself over and promoted in no uncertain terms, has been the so-called 'robust security' offered by its OSX operating system. However this supposition of Apple's took a huge beating on Thursday when a team of researchers from Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) managed to hack a MacBook Air in just two minutes using a previously unknown security vulnerability in Apple's own safari browser.

In a freak accident today on the strip of Harvard, Professor Stephen Walt was crushed to death under a Caterpillar tractor. The incident happened in front of the Kennedy Government Center. A school spokesperson said the land was being cleared for new law student settlements. The Dozer operater, A. Dershowitz, was on loan to The Harvard Defense Forces from another department when the incident occurred. Dershowitz said he did not see Walt jumping up and down in a red vest in front of the tractor nor did he hear his screams of agony.

Under pressure from federal regulators, Comcast Corp. reversed its stance over hampering online file-sharing by its subscribers and promised Thursday to treat all types of Internet traffic equally.

Virtual Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The Vietnam Wall)...

The future of Iraq could be decided by the power struggle raging in the country's second city

Democrat officials want to force Clinton to quit, fearing her bitter fight with Barack Obama will cost them the presidency

Will Ben "The Mad Hatter" Bernanke Send the U.S. Economy Down the Rabbit Hole?...

Anti-American Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers Saturday to defy government orders to surrender their weapons, as U.S. jets struck Shiite extremists near Basra to bolster a faltering Iraqi offensive against gunmen in the city.

Al-Sadr, in an interview aired Saturday by Al-Jazeera television, said his Mahdi Army was capable of "liberating Iraq" and maintained al-Maliki's government was as "distant" from the people as Saddam Hussein's.

Police say a pastor who was reported missing from his home in western New York has been found at an Ohio strip club.

As if beekeepers in the United States didn't have enough problems dealing with... a disease that has been devastating their bee colonies, now they're complaining thieves are stealing their precious insects.

"Our race is the Master Race. We are divine gods on this planet. We are as different from the inferior races as they are from insects. In fact, compared to our race, other races are beasts and animals, cattle at best. Other races are considered as human excrement. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races. Our earthly kingdom will be ruled by our leader with a rod of iron. The masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves." Former Israeli Prime Minister Menechem Begin

The abysmal performance of western TV and radio interviewers when dealing with issues surrounding Israel - that 'Rogue Regime' or 'Zionist Entity', as many now call it - is not only embarrassing but a blot on the escutcheon of journalism.

Even the most fearsome inquisitors purr like a *censored*cat. Their rottweiler instincts evaporate, their investigative skills desert them, objectivity takes a nosedive. Penetrating questions are seldom asked, lies go unchallenged. Any Israeli spokesperson or cheerleader is guaranteed an easy ride.

Have the nation's truth-seekers fallen under some wicked Zionist spell? Are their researchers on strike? Did somebody nobble the programme editors?

The MacBook Air went first; a tiny Fujitsu laptop running Vista was hacked on the last day of the contest; but it was Linux, running on a Sony Vaio, that remained undefeated as conference organizers ended a three-way computer hacking challenge Friday at the CanSecWest conference.

Will we accept the challenge and endure the costs for those who engage in the great and arduous struggle for liberty? Or are we disposed to be those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so greatly concern our present condition? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

Anti-American Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers Saturday to defy government orders to surrender their weapons, as U.S. jets struck Shiite extremists near Basra to bolster a faltering Iraqi offensive against gunmen in the city.

Speaking on state television, Mr Maliki said troops would not leave Basra until "security is restored" and described the militants as "worse than al Qaeda".

This week the United States suffered its 4,000th military death in Iraq. That number will surely increase, as violence is now exploding across the country. Iraqi forces are clashing with the powerful Shiite militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. As if to offer denial in the face of disaster -- and commit the U.S. to losing many more soldiers and Marines -- the Bush administration has begun negotiations with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for years, even decades, after President George W. Bush leaves office.

A thief sneaked under the sport utility vehicle with a battery-powered saw, slicing from the Toyota's underbelly what may be one of the most expensive small parts of the auto world: the catalytic converter, an essential emissions-control device made with small amounts of metals more precious than gold. Who knew? Mr. Fernandez didn't.

In a place just a few miles from sandy beaches and soaring sky-scrapers, white stone villas and sky-blue swimming pools, it seems the epitome of irony and injustice that over 1.5 million people would be subjected to drinking sewage-contaminated water. When there is such a fine line bordering wealth and poverty, privilege and need, how unsettling to realize that just a stones throw away, mothers and fathers must nourish their families with poison. As if the occupier could not find one more creative way to torment his victim.

When the hypnotized patsy, Sirhan Sirhan, opened fire on Robert Kennedy from the front, a CIA agent fired the kill shot at close range into the back of Kennedy's head.

The same agent who coordinated the operation and was at the scene, was later brought out of retirement to "handle" the congressional investigation into the assassination.

All 3 members of the assassination team are now dead, but many of those connected to them still hold high offices in government.

"The reason why it's ... important to be successful in Iraq, is because, one, we want to help establish a democracy in the heart of the Middle East, the most volatile region of the world," President George W. Bush said at a White House news conference with visiting Australian Premier Kevin Rudd.

Shortages and high prices for all kinds of food have caused tensions and even violence around the world in recent months. Since January, thousands of troops have been deployed in Pakistan to guard trucks carrying wheat and flour. Protests have erupted in Indonesia over soybean shortages, and China has put price controls on cooking oil, grain, meat, milk and eggs.

A new BBC documentary supports the conclusion that the CIA planned and executed the assassination of Robert Kennedy. The new video and photographic evidence -- the result of a three year long investigation --"puts three senior CIA operatives" at the scene of the murder.

Abu Iman barely flinched when the Iraqi Government ordered his unit of special police to move against al-Mahdi Army fighters in Basra.

His response, while swift, was not what British and US military trainers who have spent the past five years schooling the Iraqi security forces would have hoped for. He and 15 of his comrades took off their uniforms, kept their government-issued rifles and went over to the other side without a second thought.

The Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki backed off its ultimatum to the Mahdi Army militia of fiery Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday, giving the group's members 10 more days to lay down their weapons in return for amnesty and financial rewards.

The failure of Mr Maliki to make good his threat so far to eliminate the Mehdi Army and growing signs of dissent in army units is damaging his authority, "It is possible that Muqtada and the Mehdi Army will emerge from this crisis stronger than they were before," warned one Iraqi politician who did not want his name published.

Fears that Mr Maliki's surprise assault on the Mehdi Army is faltering without any real gains on the ground probably explains why US aircraft are dropping bombs in Basra and US armoured vehicles made an incursion into Sadr City in Baghdad. The explosion of violence over the past four days is making a mockery of George Bush's claim that America had turned the corner in Iraq.

A measure of the anarchy in Iraq is that it is unclear who controls large swaths of the country. By one report the Mehdi Army has taken over the centre of the city of Nassariya.

U.S. jets widened the bombing of Basra on Saturday, dropping two precision-guided bombs on a suspected militia stronghold north of the city, British officials said.

Home Price Decline Steepest in 21 Years.

The younger Diveroli's munitions experience appeared to be limited to a short-lived job in Los Angeles for Botach Tactical, a military and police supply company owned by his uncle, Bar-Kochba Botach.

REALLY, there are no permanent Friends of Bill. For the former President and his wife, a tandem of duplicity and ambition unrivaled in American history, there are only temporary alliances. New Hampshire is learning this now, as so many others have before.

The Fed would be given broad authority to oversee financial market stability. That would include new powers to examine the books of any institution deemed to represent a potential threat to the proper functioning of the overall financial system.

Last October, 2007, Moktada al Sadr and Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, two of Iraq's most powerful Shiite leaders, agreed to put their differences aside in an effort to confront their common enemy, the US occupation. For a while the two groups pulled their heads in while they reconfigured their approach to the problem.

It seems now that they are ready to take on the US and the Iraqi puppet government. With the support of Iran, who are backing and supplying the insurgent Shiite forces opposed to the US occupation and the Quisling-style Iraqi government, Shiite fighters have launched attacks against the Iraqi Army and US and allied forces in Basra and Baghdad.

The Agency that brought you bogus intelligence on the Iraq war -- a Defense Intelligence Agency operative who knew that a key US intelligence source was unreliable sat in on meetings with then-Secretary of State Colin Powell when he incorporated claims about mobile Iraqi weapons labs into his portfolio -- now brings you the Iran that is actually Iraq.

Where is the Bottom in Housing?...

"They are moving to euros, pounds, Australian dollars or even quoting prices in renminbi," David Wei, chief executive, told the Financial Times. Moreover, he added, prices quoted in dollars were now often valid for just seven days compared with the 30-60 days common previously.

Arkansas Flooding Drowns Fields, Futures...

In another cautionary tale about the potential danger of toxic pesticides, scientists have published a new study on further evidence of a possible link between Parkinson's disease and long-term chemical exposure. As the UK's Guardian reports, a study of more than 300 people with the neurological disease found that sufferers were more than twice as likely to report heavy exposure to pesticides over their lifetime as family members without the disease.

Why are we propping up the pro-Iranian Maliki faction in Iraq?

The Pentagon entrusted a 22-year-old previously arrested for domestic violence and having a forged driving licence to be the main supplier of ammunition to Afghan forces at the height of the battle against the Taliban, it was reported yesterday.

...

AEY also supplied weapons to US agencies, and rifles to Iraqi forces.

The world's physicists have spent 14 years and $8 billion building the Large Hadron Collider, in which the colliding protons will recreate energies and conditions last seen a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Researchers will sift the debris from these primordial recreations for clues to the nature of mass and new forces and symmetries of nature.

But Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a "strangelet" that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called "strange matter." Their suit also says CERN has failed to provide an environmental impact statement as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

On March 20 White House officials were informed of allegations that Felipe Sixto, who was a special assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs, "had engaged in improprieties using USAID (US Agency for International Development) grant money," said spokesman Scott Stanzel.

In a more sane nation, such shills prostituting themselves for a foreign nation might be labeled agent provocateurs, rounded up and tossed into prison for their treasonous actions.

Hillary Clinton's New Video Game: 3AM Call of Duty

Cars lining the street. A house full of young people. A keg and drinking games inside. Police thought they had an underage boozing party on their hands. But though they made dozens of teens take breath tests, none tested positive for alcohol. That's because the keg contained root beer.

Laser plane could destroy tanks from 10 miles...

Former Vice President Al Gore is about to launch a major advertising campaign to raise awareness of global warming and will appear on 60 Minutes this Sunday to promote it.

Pubs ban British treasury chief after alcohol tax hike...

Heavy fighting has spread across Shia-dominated enclaves in Iraq over the past two days. The U.S.-backed regime of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered 50,000 Iraqi troops to "crack down" -- with coalition air support -- on Shiite militias in the oil-rich and strategically important city of Basra, U.S. forces have surrounded Baghdad's Sadr City and fighting has been reported in the southern cities of Kut, Diwaniya, Karbala and Hilla. Basra's main bridge and an oil pipeline connecting it to Amara were destroyed Wednesday. Six cities are under curfew, and acts of civil disobedience have shut down dozens of neighborhoods across the country. Civilian casualties have reportedly overwhelmed poorly equipped medical centers in Baghdad and Basra.

Terrible rumors from Russia continue to swirl around the Middle East that the Cheney-Bush junta has decided to bomb Iran on April 4th or 6th, targeting not only nuclear-power research facilities but ships, planes, antiaircraft installations, and the Iranian pentagon. Apparently the nuclear-power reactor being built by Russian companies will be spared, but not much else. Will it happen? Certainly the neocon hate network is working overtime to make it so.

Mukasey, who did not elaborate and did not take questions, said his department is devoting increasing resources to prosecuting such crimes and filed 7 percent more IP cases in 2007 than in 2006 and 33 percent more than in 2005.

Only since public opinion polls indicated that she had no hope of winning the Democratic presidential nomination if she continued to support the war, did she start talking about the war's negative consequences.

In reality, until very recently, Clinton was one of the leading senators supporting the war. Even after the U.S. forces invaded and occupied Iraq and confirmed that - contrary to Clinton's initial justification for the U.S. conquest - Iraq did not have "weapons of mass destruction," active WMD programs, offensive delivery systems, or ties to al-Qaeda as she and other supporters of the war had claimed, she defended her vote to authorize the invasion anyway. When Representative John Murtha (D-PA) made his first call for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq in November 2005, she denounced his effort, calling a withdrawal of U.S. forces "a big mistake." In 2006, when Senator John Kerry sponsored an amendment that would have required the redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq in order to advance a political solution to the growing sectarian strife, she voted against it.

A closely held U.S. military intelligence analysis of the fighting in Basra shows that Iraqi security forces control less than a quarter of the city, according to officials in both the United States and Iraq, and Basra's police units are deeply infiltrated by members of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army.

Bring Your Daughters To War Day...

The Treasury Department will propose on Monday that Congress give the Federal Reserve broad new authority to oversee financial market stability, in effect allowing it to send SWAT teams into any corner of the industry or any institution that might pose a risk to the overall system.

The invasion of Iraq may be the greatest self-inflicted blunder in the history of U.S. foreign policy. The case for war rested on false information, dubious assumptions and mendacious analysis. Neoconservatives inside and outside the Bush administration persuaded the president, vice president, and the American people that Saddam was an imminent threat, that war would be easy and pay for itself, and that ousting him would bring far-reaching benefits to the region. They were wrong on all counts, and their responsibility for this catastrophe should not be forgotten.

Five states are locked in fierce competition over a proposed bioterror lab host to the world's most feared human and animal pathogens.

Unlike any other nation, Palestine has nothing positive to celebrate at this point in time. There are two 'major holidays' on the Palestinian calendar, the first being The Nakba, a commemoration of the day Palestine was literally wiped off the map by the zionists....

Negotiations on the "two-state solution" have been voided of all substance. The Palestinian national liberation movement has lost all its sources of strength as a liberation movement, including its ability to rely on the Arab community instead of the "international community". It lost and forfeited its sources of strength before ever becoming a state and securing national sovereignty. It became the Palestinian Authority, an entity totally dependent upon negotiations, America's and Israel's good intentions, Israeli public opinion and other such factors. Negotiations over the Palestinian state have been reduced to a process of blackmail in which concessions are demanded and offered and fundamental rights are bartered away.

Yesterday a mass demonstration was held in New York in support of Mumia. I was impressed by the representation of every race and age group that was in attendance. The following photos were all taken by my activist cousin Bud who was there with the family...

Prominent journalist Seymour Hersh says the US is 'in real trouble' because news coverage on Iraq is anything but balanced and unbiased.

Put Impeachment Back on the Table...

The fighting between Iraq's Shi'ite factions appears to be metastasizing. What started in Basra and jumped to Baghdad's Sadr City has now spread across the capital, eyewitnesses tell Iraqslogger.

Abu Iman barely flinched when the Iraqi Government ordered his unit of special police to move against al-Mahdi Army fighters in Basra.

His response, while swift, was not what British and US military trainers who have spent the past five years schooling the Iraqi security forces would have hoped for. He and 15 of his comrades took off their uniforms, kept their government-issued rifles and went over to the other side without a second thought.

Obama gets boost; Clinton urged to quit...

The intense fighting means that Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, is likely to tell the Commons next week that British troop levels will remain at about 4,100 for the next few months, abandoning plans to reduce numbers to 2,500 from the spring.

The Mahdi militiamen are holding government troops at bay, and parading US-supplied armoured vehicles they had captured in front of television cameras.

HONOLULU ADVERTISER FRONT PAGE FROM THE WEEK PRIOR TO PEARL HARBOR...

US officials have portrayed the four-day operation as evidence that the Iraqi government has the political will, and its security forces the capability, to tackle militias. The death toll in the four days of fighting since Mr Maliki launched operation Sawlat al- Fursan, or Charge of the Knights, was unclear, but appeared to have risen above 200.

Mr Maliki is understood to have provided no advance warning to the coalition about the offensive.

A closely held U.S. military intelligence analysis of the fighting in Basra shows that Iraqi security forces control less than a quarter of the city, according to officials in both the United States and Iraq, and Basra's police units are deeply infiltrated by members of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army.

"This is going to go on for a while," one U.S. military official said.

The number two commander overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, US Army Lieutenant General Martin Dempsey, temporarily took charge of US Central Command in a ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.

The Federal Reserve announced Friday it will auction another $100 billion in April to cash-strapped banks as it continues to combat the effects of a credit crisis.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is losing more guns but fewer laptops than it was about five years ago, the Justice Department's inspector general said Friday.

How much longer will it take Western citizens to wake up to the fact that all those scary terror organisations such as Al Qaeda and Hezbollah are actually creations of their own governments, or to be more precise, Mossad, CIA, MI5 and alike. Their sole purpose is to scare ordinary citizens into blind support of their criminal governments, enabling them to dismantle civil rights and social services in the name of combatting terror and create excuses for brutal oppression of whoever is in the way of profit maximisation for their neo-fascist corporations. Sure, there might be many naive, true believers amongst ordinary members of those phony terror organisations, but the people in power, the likes of Saudi billionaire Osama Bin Laden, are actually part of the Orwellian elite.

U.S. forces stepped deeper Friday into the Iraqi government's fight to cripple Shiite militias, launching airstrikes in the southern city of Basra and firing a Hellfire missile in the main Shiite stronghold in Baghdad.

Iraq's Prime Minister was staring into the abyss today after his operation to crush militia strongholds in Basra stalled, members of his own security forces defected and district after district of his own capital fell to Shia militia gunmen.

Greek neo-Nazi gets 14 months for book denying the Holocaust...

A UN commission investigating the death of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri says the evidence suggests a network of people was responsible for the attack.

No individuals were named, but the investigators said what it called the "Hariri Network" might also be behind other deadly attacks in Lebanon.

In hopes of reducing injuries during arrests, every police officer patrolling the streets will be issued a Taser within months.

A newly released video has corroborated the account of Danny Riley, a supporter of income tax protesters Ed and Elaine Brown, who claimed that he was fired at by US federal agents hiding in the woods outside the Brown's New Hampshire home last Summer.

While Israeli officials continue to deny they are engaged in either direct or indirect talks with Hamas, the uneasy calm along the Israel-Gaza border has held for a third consecutive week, despite Israeli provocations.

"WAR IS much too serious a thing to be left to military men," in Talleyrand's memorable words. In the same spirit, one could say: The American presidential elections are much too serious to be left to the Americans.

INSTEAD..... Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim will lead an orchestra of 33 young Israeli and Palestinians in Jerusalem Friday in what he called a concert "against ignorance and lack of curiosity" on both sides of the conflict.At a news conference Thursday in the concert hall of the YMCA on the Jewish side of the city, Barenboim said Friday's two performances, entitled "A concert for two peoples," will be the first time the young musicians have played together in public.

PALESTINE IS STILL THE ISSUE ~~ NOTHING HAS CHANGED...

Word is the cash feeding into Hillary Clinton's campaign coffers has not only slowed down in a big way, undisclosed campaign debts that have yet to be made public could signal the end and have insiders biting their nails.

Hillary Rodham Clinton trails Barack Obama by every reasonable measure, and it's become obvious to nearly everyone that she has virtually no hope of winning the nomination.

Yet the former first lady trudges on in some phantom contest oblivious to the sea of doubt around her.

Desperation on the Cusp of Madness...

Britain's GCHQ, the government communications agency that electronically monitors half the world from space, has confirmed the claim by the Dalai Lama that agents of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the PLA, posing as monks, triggered the riots that have left hundreds of Tibetans dead or injured.

The FBI has narrowed its focus to "about four" suspects in the 6 1/2-year investigation of the deadly anthrax attacks of 2001, and at least three of those suspects are linked to the Army's bioweapons research facility at Fort Detrick in Maryland, FOX News has learned.

The dollar headed for its biggest weekly decline in a month against the euro as traders raised bets the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates to avert a recession.

Bob Casey to endorse Obama, join bus tour...

Bush Sees Iraq Violence As Defining...

Secretary Chertoff is riding into the sunset--dragging the fence behind him. As mentioned in yesterday's immigration blog by Steve Elliott the Sun Sets on the Border Fence On 12/31/08. This sunset provision of the Omnibus bill H.R. 2764 declares that the Secretary of Homeland Security loses all authority to build the fence--even if he wants to.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) today called on Hillary Rodham Clinton to drop out of the presidential race, saying there is no way the New York senator can wrest the nomination from her rival Barack Obama.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AROUND THE WORLD...

"We know that some of the rockets launched against Israel are launched by Fatah militants. The objective is to push Israel to punish Hamas in Gaza" - Crisis Group interview, Hamas official in exile, November 2007, found at page 23 of ICG Report No. 73.

American International Group Inc., the world's largest insurer by assets, sued the company's former chief executive officer, Maurice ``Hank'' Greenberg, claiming he ``misappropriated'' AIG shares worth $20 billion.

AIG said Greenberg and six other former executives, including ex-Chief Financial Officer Howard Smith, took over company stock held by an AIG affiliate, Starr International Co., or SICO, in 2005. The defendants seized control of the board of Starr, AIG's largest shareholder, and converted the firm into a private investment vehicle for their benefit, AIG alleged.

Controversial conductor to lead orchestra of Israeli, Palestinian youths in concert 'against ignorance' in Jerusalem, says he will not partake in upcoming festivities marking Israel's independence out of respect for Palestinian suffering

If I accurately picked up the basic plot of the show, average, freedom-loving citizens in the Western U.S. are fighting against tyrannical elements of their own government, including military forces. The State of Texas has declared its independence from the corrupt new government and another civil war is breaking out in America. And all this was predicated upon a nuclear attack, which some believed was an inside job. Am I close?

The newspaper industry has experienced the worst drop in advertising revenue in more than 50 years.

New pest plagues Thai farmers: rice thieves...

The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion" in a casual manner, think about whether you want the "politicians" spending YOUR tax money. A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

President Bush said Friday that the flare up in violence in oil-rich southern Iraq and parts of Baghdad presents "a defining moment in the history of Iraq" as the government there seeks to rout out Shiite militias.

Here is the what the U.S. job market will look like in the near future the way the economy is going.

The Taliban announced the start of a spring offensive in Afghanistan, promising "painful strikes" to force all enemy soldiers to leave, according to a Web message seen by a U.S.-based monitoring service on Thursday.

Bush (and the ever-compliant press) portray the operation as an attempt to show that the Iraqis can handle their own security problems. A successful demonstration of this in Basra would then hasten the withdrawal of (some) U.S. troops -- so the story goes. But in fact, the operation seems expressly designed to prove the opposite point: that the Iraqi government can't possibly control its own country, and thus a major U.S. presence is still needed.

This is why the White House has backed al-Maliki's assault on the strongholds of Moqtada al-Sadr in Basra. But to say that Bush has "backed" or assisted this major escalation of the Iraqi civil war is probably putting it too mildly. As the operation unravels into the inevitable blood-drenched fiasco -- exposing the Iraqi "government" as the weak, corrupt, ineffectual, infiltrated puppet show that it has always been -- it becomes more and more likely that al-Maliki was ordered to launch the attack by his masters in Washington -- or at the very least was "marshall'd in the way he was going" by the Americans, with Bush playing Lady Macbeth to the power-hungry but uncertain al-Maliki.

The attacks on the "I.Z.," or "International Zone," as the U.S. military has dubbed the former Karkh neighborhood, represent one of the biggest challenges to the American forces in Iraq to date. The enclave covers fewer than seven square kilometers (2.7 square miles) and houses the headquarters of the U.S. armed forces and their allies. Until the beginning of the week, the enclave was considered the safest place in a country plagued by violence and terror.

``There are further declines ahead for the dollar,'' said Antje Praefcke, a Frankfurt-based currency strategist at Commerzbank AG, Germany's second-largest lender. ``The U.S. is probably facing a recession and the Fed will cut rates further. There are ongoing problems with the financial sector. All of this is not good news for the dollar.''

Small farmers, mill workers and construction people live here. And they work hard--or at least they do when they can get employment. There's a dry nuts and prunes plant just outside town, as well as a Country Coach facility that manufactures motor homes. Many of the residents hold down several jobs to make ends meet. Yet for an increasing number of people in Alvadore, getting a paycheck--or even several paychecks--is not the same as earning enough to put food on the table.

U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in Sadr City, the vast Shiite stronghold in eastern Baghdad, as an offensive to quell party-backed militias entered its third day. Iraqi army and police units appeared to be largely holding to the outskirts of the area as American troops took the lead in the fighting.

Four U.S. Stryker armored vehicles were seen in Sadr City by a Washington Post correspondent, one of them engaging Mahdi Army militiamen with heavy fire. The din of American weapons, along with the Mahdi Army's AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, was heard through much of the day. U.S. helicopters and drones buzzed overhead.

Plans to bring home 1,600 troops from Iraq this spring are in disarray, Ministry of Defence officials said last night.

The admission came as the Iraqi Government's offensive against Shia militias in Basra appeared to be failing.

BUSH'S IRAQ BUBBLE OF DENIAL IS BURSTING...

This video report portrays the New World Order Gestapo at it's finest. Hundreds of Stormtroopers raid an entire block and lock it down. Watch as the Stroomtroopers Round up the citizens and drag them into the streets. Utilized by the Illuminazis an excellent tactic, so the rest of the people will submit to their Power of Fear.

Ten months is a long, long time when only their hands are near the pilot's wheel of the ship of state and water's already seeping through the hull. It's an eon for an administration capable of sinking New Orleans in a matter of days, and Iraq in little more than months. Or, thought of another way, it's plenty of time if your expertise happens to lie in deconstruction. After all, barring a miracle, you're talking about the little administration that couldn't, no matter how hard Ben Bernanke may try.

So, even if you, like me, know next to nothing about economics, you already know enough to be afraid, very afraid.

Calls for a new 9/11 inquiry are reaching a crescendo, with well-respected authorities and celebrities alike adding their voices to the cause, as the official 9/11 story crumbles under the weight of revelations of White House ties to the 9/11 Commission, and other cover-ups on behalf of authorities staffed with investigating the attacks.

In the past two weeks, the Federal Reserve, long the guardian of the nation's banks, has redefined its role to also become protector and overseer of Wall Street.

To look at the mainstream news you wouldn't think much was happening in places where a whole lot is happening. The Mahdi Army of 60,000 strong has done what armies in occupied lands have always done. They have waited for their moment.

President Bush, saying that "normalcy is returning back to Iraq," argued Thursday that last year's U.S. troop "surge" has improved Iraq's security to the point where political and economic progress are blossoming as well.

Cops were caught on video apparently striking a man who was lying on the ground and threatening to kill two people at a Free Tibet rally in front of the United Nations this month.

How obvious do they have to get before people wake up? They are running out of muslim shills so now they are "converting" to "radical Islam" and then scaring people with mainstream media. Just like Adam Gadahn.

U.S. forces were drawn deeper into Iraq's four day-old crackdown on Shi'ite militants on Friday, launching air strikes in Basra for the first time and battling militants in Baghdad.

A Reuters witness said Mehdi Army gunmen had seized control of the southern city of Nassiriya. Mehdi Army fighters have also held territory or fought with authorities in Kut, Hilla, Amara, Kerbala, Diwaniya and other towns throughout the Shi'ite south over the past several days.

WASHINGTON, YOU'RE FIRED!...

A congresswoman calls for a probe after finding tapes that still contain bank account numbers, tax and benefit information, expense reports, and more

NORAD, responsible for intercepting errant aircraft over the U.S., has a standard operating procedure for scrambling planes for interception which takes less than 15 minutes

They did this successfully (on time) 129 times in 2000 and and 67 times between September 2000 and June 2001.

Yet, on September 11th, they failed to do their job 4 times in a single day:

Clashes are now taking place across Iraq and most of the Shia districts in Iraq. In the middle of last year a Mehdi Army commander said that his militia controlled 80 per cent of Shia Baghdad and 50 per cent of the capital as a whole. This is probably only a slight exaggeration. There has also been heavy fighting in Kut on the Tigris, where 44 have been killed and 75 wounded, and in Hilla on the Euphrates where 60 people died. In past months the Sadrists have been locked in a struggle for Diwaniya, also on the Euphrates south of Baghdad, where they have been fighting police units controlled by Badr, the militia of the other great Shia party, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI).

I think I pretty much summed up here the scenario that is now unfolding:

"I have to laugh when I hear criticisms from the Democrats and the growing number of antiwar Republicans in Congress who complain that we don't belong in Iraq any longer because, you know, it's a civil war. This is largely seen as an unintended consequence of the American invasion - but what if it was intended?

"It would, after all, make perfect Bizarro 'sense.' If, instead of trying to build a stable, democratic Iraq, you're trying to wreak as much destruction as possible and turn Arab against Arab, Muslim against Muslim, and the Kurds against everyone else, then the invasion and occupation of Iraq was the right thing to do."

Two Creationists take home schooled kids on a tour of a natural history museum filling their minds with Young Earth Creationist Bullshit.

US military spokesman Major General Kevin Bergner refused to comment on what would happen if the Iraqi government failed to complete the Basra operation, saying only that it was "a very hypothetical question at this time". However, the Pentagon and the White House undoubtedly have contingency plans and are watching the situation very closely. The Christian Science Monitor noted that the US-funded television station Al Hurra reported that a contingent of US marines was in Basra, involved mainly in sniper operations.

Despite American military support and superior firepower, the Iraqi offensive in Basra, which involves nearly 30,000 soldiers and police, appears to have stalled. According to a New York Times article, as much as half the city was under militia control yesterday. "Witnesses said that from the worn, closely packed brick buildings of one Madhi stronghold, the Hayaniya neighbourhood, Mahdi fighters fired mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, automatic weapons and sniper rifles at seemingly helpless Iraqi army units pinned on a main road outside, their armoured vehicles unable to enter the narrow streets," it stated.

Rising numbers of Chinese exporters are shunning the US dollar or devising ways to offset the impact of the falling currency as they confront rising labour and raw material costs at home.

YouTube - The Bones of Station H...

The U.S. economy seems to be slipping into recession and the Federal Reserve must cushion the pain and make it as brief as possible, a Fed policy maker said on Thursday.

I think to myself, "My God! This is beyond staggering! This is the kind of inflation in prices that causes revolutions and rioting!" and then I nervously think to myself, "Do I have enough guns and ammo to defend myself?" and then I remember that I do, and I think to myself, "Hahaha! More than enough! Bring 'em on!", and then I think to myself, "Do I have enough gold, silver and oil to defend myself against that kind of inflation in prices?" and then I remember that I don't, because nobody ever has enough gold, silver and oil, or any combination of any of them in the face of such inflation in prices.

A classified memo written by a top military official stationed in Western Iraq reveals that a prison in downtown Fallujah is so overcrowded and dirty that it does not even meet basic "minimal levels of hygiene for human beings."

"The conditions in these jails are so bad that I think we need to do the right thing in terms of caring for the prisoners even with our own dollars, or release them," says the memo, written late last month by Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commander of U.S forces in western Iraq.

Every 11 years or so, the sun gets a little pissy. It breaks out in a rash of planet-sized sunspots that spew superhot gas, hurling clouds of electrons, protons, and heavier ions toward Earth at nearly the speed of light. These solar windstorms have been known to knock out power grids and TV broadcasts, and our growing reliance on space-based technology makes us more vulnerable than ever to their effects. On January 3, scientists discovered a reverse-polarity sunspot, signaling the start of a new cycle -- and some are predicting that at its peak (in about four years) things are gonna get nasty. Here's a forecast for 2012.

Countrywide exec gets $28 million from Bank of America...

Pollard accuses Olmert of mishandling funds allocated to freeing him...

Officials with the Spanish toll road operator Cintra have announced that the company has secured $430 million in loans from the U.S. government to build and operate two segments of a toll road in central Texas.

America has reached a point where almost half its population is described as being in some way mentally ill

The Israeli occupation and its relentless attacks destroy the mental health and lives of children of Gaza.

The developer of the World Trade Center in New York is seeking $12.3 billion in damages from the airlines and other companies associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks, his spokesman said Thursday.

A premature withdrawal from Iraq would endanger Israel, John McCain said.

U.S. forces were drawn deeper into Iraq's four day-old crackdown on Shi'ite militants on Friday, launching air strikes in Basra for the first time and battling militants in Baghdad.

We, the undersigned, believe that is immoral to enshrine History in law.

Frontline's "Bush's War" on PBS Monday and Tuesday evening was a nicely put-together rehash of the top players' trickery that led to the attack on Iraq, together with the power-grabbing, back-stabbing, and limitless incompetence of the occupation.

The U.S. Federal Reserve prepared to pump $75 billion into frozen credit markets following moves by European central banks on Thursday to help lenders who scrambled to meet quarter-end funding needs.

The Fed was ready to exchange billions in low-risk U.S. government bonds for underperforming mortgage investments from primary dealers as part of steps announced this month to help them raise capital and to encourage broader lending.

An Orange County sheriff's deputy on Thursday shocked an 11-year-old girl with a Taser gun at an elementary school after the girl punched her in the face, authorities said.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki offered Shiite militants a cash for weapons deal on Friday in an attempt to end violent clashes across Iraq that have killed more than 120 people.

A U.S. helicopter fired a Hellfire missile during fighting in a Shiite militia stronghold of Baghdad on Friday, while U.S. pilots conducted their first airstrikes on the southern city of Basra to aid Iraqi forces battling powerful Shiite militias.

A U.S. helicopter fired a Hellfire missile during fighting in a Shiite militia stronghold of Baghdad Friday, killing at least four people as deadly clashes broke out in Iraq's oil-rich south for the fourth day.