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We are all connected - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "Peter W. Galbraith, an influential former American ambassador, is a powerful voice on Iraq who helped shape the views of policy makers like Joseph R. Biden Jr. and John Kerry. In the summer of 2005, he was also an adviser to the Kurdish regional government as Iraq wrote its Constitution tough and sensitive talks not least because of issues like how Iraq would divide its vast oil wealth. A worker at the Tawke field in Iraq's Kurdistan region, where oil was struck in 2005. The Kurds are claiming control of their oil. Now Mr. Galbraith, 58, son of the renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith, stands to earn perhaps a hundred million or more dollars as a result of his closeness to the Kurds, his relations with a Norwegian oil company and constitutional provisions he helped the Kurds extract. In the constitutional negotiations, he helped the Kurds ram through provisions that gave their region rather than the central Baghdad government sole authority over many of their... - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "Never has the phrase "not fit for purpose" been more applicable in Whitehall than to the shambles that today passes for the Ministry of Defence. Whether it is wasting billions of pounds on equipment that is completely irrelevant for the conflicts the military is fighting, or failing to get even the most basic kit to the front line, the MoD is a department drowning in the mire of its own institutional incompetence. The bulk of Britain's military efforts are focused on low-intensity but highly challenging counter-insurgency campaigns. First in Iraq, and now in Afghanistan, the Army has been stretched to breaking point in its efforts to defeat a determined and resourceful enemy. But rather than equipping our troops with adequate numbers of helicopters, or vehicles that afford proper protection against deadly roadside bombs, or the equipment necessary to detect and defuse such devices, the MoD has blithely pressed ahead with a range of high-profile and highly expensive... - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "Lord Mandelson is being tipped as a possible "minister for information" under a shake-up of the way Downing Street holds its media briefings announced today. Officials planning the overhaul believe that one option would be for the business secretary to hold weekly news conferences to explain government policy. The prime minister's spokesman announced the setting up of a working group to review the way Downing Street conducts media briefings in "an increasingly fast-moving and online media world". One option being considered would involve Mandelson giving a televised briefing to reporters every Monday about government business, according to a Westminster insider. If Mandelson were to hold a weekly televised briefing, he would in effect add "minister for information" to his long list of titles. In the past some governments have appointed an official "minister for information", although the title has not officially been used in recent years. Such a role would not involve... - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: Three members of the Government's drugs advisory panel resigned last night after Alan Johnson failed to persuade them to stay on after his sacking of David Nutt as the body's chairman. A source close to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) named the three advisers as Simon Campbell, Dr Ian Ragan and John Marsden. Two other members of the committee, Les King and Marion Walker, resigned last weekend in protest at the Home Secretary's dismissal of Professor Nutt for questioning government policy on the classification of Ecstasy and cannabis. The latest resignations come as a blow to the Home Secretary, who had hoped to prevent further departures from the council by meeting its remaining 28 members this afternoon to discuss their concerns. - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "According to a British study, the amount of carbon dioxide able to be absorbed into Earth's oceans is much larger than previously thought. In the author's paper â€oeIs the airborne fraction of anthropogenic CO2 emissions increasing?,which is published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the capacity of the oceans on Earth to absorb carbon dioxide is much larger that previously thought by scientists." - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "Spain was celebrating its commitment to renewable energy yesterday after wind turbines dotted across the country produced more than half of all its electricity for the first time. High winds across Spain on Sunday meant that for over five hours, over 53 per cent of the country's power came from wind energy. The towering white wind turbines which loom over Castilla-La Mancha, home to Cervantes's hero Don Quixote and which dominate other parts of Spain, set a new record in wind energy production. Most of the wind power was used immediately, 6 per cent was stored and 7.7 per cent was exported to France, Portugal and Morocco. In the past decade Spain has relentlessly invested in wind power, along with other renewable sources, making it the third-biggest supplier after the United States and Germany. Luis Atienza, president of Red Electrica which runs Spain's electricity grid, said:"This makes us proud. There is no other country of our size which has completed and bettered a... - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: Shoplifting has surged to record levels in the UK, fuelled by the recession, according to a study. The value of retail goods stolen rose 20% to £4.88bn in the year to June, the Centre for Retail Research said. The UK had the highest amount in value of shoplifted goods in Europe and was third behind the US and Japan globally, data from 1,069 retailers suggests. Checkpoint Systems, which commissioned the report, said there had been a rise in "middle-class" shoplifters. It said more people were now stealing goods simply to maintain their standard of living rather than to sell them on. - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "The pound fell sharply today after ratings agency Fitch warned that Britain was "potentially most at risk" of losing its triple-A sovereign debt rating. Britain's ballooning budget deficit has caused similar warnings from other ratings agencies and Fitch said it expected the British government to soon articulate stronger plans to reduce the deficit. But nervy foreign exchange markets did not like the reminder of Britain's deficit, which is heading for a record of 12.5% of national income in the current fiscal year." - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "LONDON -The trade-in-goods deficit expanded to 7.2 billion pounds in September, official data showed on Tuesday. The figure compared with a revised deficit of 6.1 billion pounds in August, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. August's trade-in-goods deficit had originally been put at 6.2 billion pounds." - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "Concern is increasing among judges and magistrates that thousands of cautions are being handed out by police or prosecutors for violent assaults that should come before courts. Keir Starmer, QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, has told The Times that no offence above the level of common assault should be dealt with â€oeout of court”. He has called for data from all prosecuting areas in England and Wales to find out if this was happening. " - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "Lord Browne, the ex BP boss once said to be Prime Minister Tony Blair,s favourite captain of industry, returned to the public spotlight today" just two years after dramatically quitting as head of the oil giant after admitting lying to a court. He accepted the high profile job of chairman of the government inquiry into university tuition fees. Lord Browne,s appointment was widely welcomed today although there was flak for ministers who were accused of a conspiracy to put higher fees on the back burner until after the election. Lord Browne of Madingley was appointed by Business Secretary Peter Mandelson two years after admitting lying in court in an attempt to block revelations about his private life. He said at the time it was a matter of great regret that he lied over how he had first met his partner of four years, Jeff Chevalier. Yesterday he was appointed as head of a seven-man panel to carry out the review. The team also includes former student leader Rajay Naik,... - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "Last year, despite the world recession, China-Africa trade leapt to $107 billion " a rise of 45 per cent in one year and even beating African trade with the US. Direct Chinese investment in Africa grew from $491 million in 2003 to $7.8 billion in 2008. The results are visible everywhere. Chinese workers are building roads, ports, dams, railways, football stadiums, hotels and office blocks. China angrily rebuts suggestions that it wants a neocolonial-style expansion but knows that it can count on the votes of African states whenever it faces possible censure over human rights abuses at home or controversial issues such as Tibet. The Vice-Minister of Commerce, Chen Jian, said this week: China's aid to Africa is based on Africa's needs without imposing any political pre-conditions." - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "Too many violent criminals are being let off with the equivalent of a "parking ticket", the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has warned. Sir Paul Stephenson said there had been an almost "uncontrollable" increase in soft penalties such as cautions and on-the-spot fines. His comments came as official figures showed a steep rise in the number of offenders issued with multiple cautions. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Sir Paul said efforts to ease pressure on the courts and prison system have led to officers being expected to hand out punishments, distracting them from their traditional policing role of preventing and detecting crime. He said: "The outcome of that has been an almost uncontrollable increase in cautions and the introduction of the fixed penalty ticket, which in the public's mind equates to a parking ticket, which should not be (the case) with theft and thuggery. "It's put the police in the correctional business, instead of what we should be in, the... - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "WASHINGTON - November 6 - Following a statement on the Floor of the House of Representative, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following statement: "Why is it we have finite resources for health care but unlimited money for war? "The inequities in our economy are piling up: trillions for war, trillions for Wall Street and tens of billions for the insurance companies. Banks and other corporations are sitting on piles of cash of taxpayer's money while firing workers, cutting pay and denying small businesses money to survive. "People are losing their homes, their jobs, their health, their investments, their retirement security; yet there is unlimited money for war, Wall Street and insurance companies, but very little money for jobs on Main Street. "Unlimited money to blow up things in Iraq and Afghanistan, and relatively little money to build things in the US. "The Administration may soon bring to Congress a request for an additional $50 billion for war. I... - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "Credit card companies are rushing to increase interest rates to historic highs of more than 30 percent, cut credit limits, and add new fees, even for customers who pay their bills on time. Lenders are making the moves in advance of tougher federal regulations for credit cards scheduled to take effect on Feb. 22. The new rules will limit how companies can modify credit card agreements, specifically prohibiting them from retroactively raising interest rates and fees on existing balances. US Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the Financial Services Committee and is a leader in the effort to revamp credit card policies, said banks have eabused the nine-month period granted them to re-tool their practices. I didn't think they would be as blatant as they were about doing this,he said. There's no justification for raising rates retroactively. This is really just a way for them to make more money." - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: Could there be a more accurate description of the Obama-Brown message of congratulations to the fraudulently elected Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan? First the Palestinians held fair elections in 2006, voted for Hamas and were brutally punished for it - they still are - and then the Iranians held fraudulent elections in June which put back the weird Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whom everyone outside Iran (and a lot inside) regard as a dictator. But now we have the venal, corrupt, sectarian Karzai in power after a poll far more ambitiously rigged than the Iranian version, and - yup, we love him dearly and accept his totally fraudulent election. And now we are still trying to persuade his opponent to join a national unity government, an administration led by the man whose vote-stuffing was the very reason that same leader of the opposition - the good pseudo-Pashtun Abdullah Abdullah - refused to run in a second round of elections. And Karzai got his fawning congrats from the... - runawaymule/Chris

Eisenhower on the Military Industrial Complex - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: Ludwig von Mises was snubbed by economists world-wide as he warned of a credit crisis in the 1920s. We ignore the great Austrian at our peril today. Mises's ideas on business cycles were spelled out in his 1912 tome "Theorie des Geldes und der Umlaufsmittel" ("The Theory of Money and Credit"). Not surprisingly few people noticed, as it was published only in German and wasn't exactly a beach read at that. Taking his cue from David Hume and David Ricardo, Mises explained how the banking system was endowed with the singular ability to expand credit and with it the money supply, and how this was magnified by government intervention. Left alone, interest rates would adjust such that only the amount of credit would be used as is voluntarily supplied and demanded. But when credit is force-fed beyond that (call it a credit gavage), grotesque things start to happen. Government-imposed expansion of bank credit distorts our "time preferences," or our desire for saving versus... - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: Amid the ongoing financial regulation overhaul, the banking industry is hoping to pull off a quiet power grab that has eluded its grasp since the Great Depression, by stripping the independence of the board that sets financial accounting standards. The move could effectively let banks set their own accounting standards in rough economic times. Astonishingly, at a time when the public is crying out for greater regulation to limit excessive risk-taking by financial institutions, the banks are trying to get Congress to agree that the next time there's a big downturn, they should have the ability to alter their accounting standards -- essentially, fudge the numbers -- so that the public and investors won't be able to tell how insolvent they really are. By ignoring their declining asset values, they can avoid the standard requirement of raising more capital. The mechanism is contained in an amendment set to be introduced in mid-November by Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) that... - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "Gordon Brown faced embarrassment yesterday after his suggestion of a worldwide tax on financial transactions was publicly shot-down by the US and International Monetary Fund. The Prime Minister suggested the tax at a meeting of the G20 finance ministers in St Andrews as a means of funding future bank bailouts. The so-called 'Tobin tax', named after the US economist who invented it, would be levied on international financial transactions, but would not be added to individual foreign currency transactions, typically carried out by holidaymakers. Mr Brown stressed that financial institutions had a 'global responsibility' to prevent the need to spend billions of public money in future banking bailouts and the tax was a possible way of ensuring this. However, his suggestions had been rebuffed within hours by the IMF, US and Canada, even though he said the IMF would review the issue and report back next April. " - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "The public are not convinced the UK's Afghanistan mission is "doable," the head of the armed forces has said. Sir Jock Stirrup told BBC One's Andrew Marr show it was "incredibly important that we do better at explaining the successes we are having". It comes as a BBC poll found 64% of Britons believe the war is "unwinnable", up from 58% in July. But Defence secretary Bob Ainsworth said the UK's presence there could not be determined by public opinion. Sir Jock acknowledged that progress was "painful, slow and halting", but he said that the troops doing the fighting believed that they were gaining ground. " - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "Plans to fast-track a new generation of nuclear power stations are set to be unveiled by the Government, it has been reported. Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband will on Monday announce a series of national policy statements analysing 11 sites for power stations and raising many more potential locations, the Sunday Telegraph reports. Under changes to the planning laws, the Infrastructure Planning Commission will be able to speed through the proposals for new schemes in a year if it decides they fit in with the policy statements. Alongside nuclear power, the Government will also issue policy statements on renewables, fossil fuels, gas and infrastructure." - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "After a seminar on the evolution of international policy up to 2003, the Iraq inquiry committee can be in no doubt that the purpose of that year's invasion, from both a UK and US perspective, was regime change. Weapons of mass destruction (WMD) barely got a mention and even assertions that sincere efforts were made to avert war were based on the possibility that regime change could be engineered by other means. The US wanted regime change. It got regime change. The seminar, which was the first of three in which the inquiry appears to be making a genuine attempt to understand some of the key issues, was open to the media and, as inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot pointed out, firmly on the public record. Chilcot hinted that there had been some opposition to this from the government, which would not be surprising. Chairing the event was Professor Michael Clarke of the Royal United Services Institute, accompanied by Dr Toby Dodge of Queen Mary University, who has written... - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: More members of the government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs are set to resign unless they receive reassurances on its future independence from the home secretary, Alan Johnson. Johnson will meet members of the council on Tuesday, when he will attempt to placate them following the sacking of the council's chairman, Professor David Nutt. Nutt was forced to resign after Johnson accused him of campaigning against ministers' decisions on the reclassification of cannabis and ecstasy. His dismissal prompted a furore among the scientific community and two members of the council resigned in protest. "It's hard to see how the remaining members of the council can continue to work under the current arrangements," Nutt said. In an attempt to defuse the row, the science minister, Lord Drayson, has pledged that the government will issue new guidelines to ensure the independence of its scientific advisers. Drayson acknowledged that there was "serious concern" over Nutt's... - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "The Copenhagen summit is unlikely to produce a "signed and sealed" climate change solution because leading countries are not ready to commit, the Environment Agency's chief will claim. Lord Smith is calling for a reality check on the UN gathering, saying a treaty with "clear targets and measurable rapid reductions in emissions" is doubtful this year. In his keynote address at the Environment Agency's annual conference in central London, he will say Copenhagen "won't solve all the issues - some of the most significant emissions countries aren't yet ready to conclude a deal, not least the US, where the Senate won't have made its decisions until the New Year." Earlier this week Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that he was working hard to ensure a global deal on tackling carbon emissions at next month's environmental negotiations. But Lord Smith says the summit must not be the last word in achieving a climate change solution but a "crucial start" for doing so." - runawaymule/Chris

Green Day - Basket Case - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "The authors of the biggest financial catastrophe in world history -executives and traders at US investment and commercial banks will see their year-end bonuses rise by an average of 40 percent compared to last year, according to a report issued Wednesday by Johnson Associates, a Wall Street-based compensation consulting firm. Traders in stocks, bonds and derivatives are likely to significantly exceed even that lofty average, with projected bonuses 60 percent higher than in 2008, the company said. Wall Street is making the bulk of its profits this year from such financial speculation, not from more traditional lending to finance business activities in industry and commerce. According to a Johnson Associates press release, The improved trading performance we are seeing at investment and commercial banks this year is translating into significantly higher bonuses for traders. It noted that results on trading of derivatives, the most volatile and lucrative form of... - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: "Guantanamo Bay was used as a "recruiting tool" for terrorism more than anything else, US homeland security chief Janet Napolitano said Friday, during a visit to the European parliament. "Guantanamo has been used more as a recruiting tool than anything else," she told members of the European parliament's civil liberties committee in Brussels. Therefore "it needs to be closed and the individuals dealt with appropriately," she added. Napolitano stressed President Barack Obama's commitment to close down the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba in January. "The president's executive order that it be closed remains in effect... we are working through individual by individual," she said. Napolitano said the United States thanked some member states for agreeing to take some of the Guantanamo inmates and said the State Department was negotiating with others. "Some need to be prosecuted in the United States," she added. There are still 215 detainees at Guantanamo. Obama's administration... - runawaymule/Chris

From the page: Capt Doug Beattie, who served two tours in Afghanistan working with the ANP, said many police officers are in the paid of insurgents and were more loyal to their tribes than the Afghan government. British officers say that among low-ranking Afghan police, and particularly in more rural areas away from central control, there is widespread corruption and disloyalty. Parts of the ANP play an active role in helping the Taliban and drug warlords get opium and heroin onto the international market. The police are poorly paid and educated, earning about $200 a month, so are vulnerable to corruption. More worryingly, a number are regular opium users and their addiction makes their behaviour unpredictable. There has also been reports of police sexual abuse that has antagonised the local population. Capt Beattie, who has retired from the Army, said: "It is absolutely right to say that the Afghan police are infiltrated by the Taliban at every level, from the very lowest to the very... - runawaymule/Chris