Is Miliband set to desert sinking ship? - UK Politics, UK - The Independent

The likelihood that Mr Miliband will desert Labour as the party heads towards defeat at the election rose with the disclosure that the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, is backing him for the post.

While Mr Miliband has publicly insisted he is "not available" and "not a candidate", he is understood to be genuinely interested after senior EU figures at the Brussels summit last week said he would be ideal. Yet his interest in the role means he is prepared to give up the Blairite hope of succeeding Gordon Brown as leader before the election and minimise or even avert electoral catastrophe.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Brown defends SATs amid union boycott fears - Education News, Education - The Independent

Tests for 11-year-olds are just as important as GCSEs and A-levels in holding schools to account, Gordon Brown declared yesterday.

His intervention in the row over national curriculum SATs tests comes just as heads and teachers prepare to ballot on a boycott of them next year.

The stand-off between the two sides makes it likely that the row over tests will be the Government's next major confrontation with trade unions following the post office workers' strike.

My head is spinning from the many acronyms in the article. Someone with a handy rundown of what this is all about?


*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Berlusconi corruption trial 'to start November 27' | France 24

AFP - The corruption trial against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will take place on November 27, judicial sources said Saturday, after a high court this month stripped him of his immunity.

The trial was suspended last year after Italy's parliament passed legislation giving the premier immunity, but the Constitutional Court struck down the law on October 7, paving the way for legal cases against Berlusconi to resume.

Berlusconi is accused of paying his British former tax lawyer, David Mills, 600,000 dollars (400,000 euros) to give false evidence in two trials in the 1990s.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Irish judge: Roma ethnics from Romania raise their children to steal - Regional Europe - HotNews.ro

A judge presiding over a children tribunal in Dublin, Ireland, declared after a trial that "Roma people raise their children with the intent of teaching them how to steal, apparently this is their culture, this is the way in which, unfortunately, these families function. It is a different culture, it has nothing in common with ours and our shops are constantly robbed." During the trial, a young Roma woman from Romania was accused of theft.

<speechless>


*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Child numbers at immigration centres revealed - Home News, UK - The Independent

More than 1,300 children were detained at three immigration removal centres in the UK during a 15-month period, figures revealed today.

A total of 884 children were held at Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire between July 2008 and July 2009, 328 children at the Tinsley House centre near Gatwick Airport between September 1 2008 and August 31 2009, and 103 children at the Dungavel centre in Scotland between October 2008 and September 18 2009.

<speechless>


*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Six drugs service scientists may resign over sacking of chairman - Science, News - The Independent

Dr Les King, a respected chemist and former head of the Drugs Intelligence Unit in the Forensic Science Service, said that anger over the "disgraceful" decision by the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, to remove Professor David Nutt could lead to a meltdown in the 40-year-old organisation.

He claimed that as many as six of its scientists will resign from the independent organisation, putting further pressure on the Government over its handling of the affair. Dr King cautioned that the Government's whole drugs programme could be at risk.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

FT.com / Germany - German industry warns on tax cuts

Germany's main industry lobby group has sounded the alarm over the tax cutting plans of chancellor Angela Merkel's new government, warning that priority should be given instead to bringing the country's spiralling deficit back under control.

The comments on Sunday by the president of the BDI business association highlight growing concern that the centre-right coalition in Berlin will jeopardise Germany's reputation for fiscal prudence by pushing ahead with sweeping tax cuts.

They followed veiled warnings from the European Central Bank and Germany's Bundesbank that excessively expansionary policies could backfire and that European Union fiscal rules be upheld. Central bankers fear breaches of fiscal rules would send a disastrous signal to other eurozone countries.

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char

FT.com / Europe - Scandal holds back Spain opposition

A messy bribery scandal with high-profile casualties is dividing Spain's centre-right opposition Popular party and undermining Mariano Rajoy, its leader, as a potential future prime minister.

The widening scandal, which began over the alleged exchange of expensive gifts for lucrative contracts from the Popular party (PP), has "affected the probability of Mr Rajoy winning the next elections", according to 73 per cent of respondents to a recent poll published by the left-leaning El País newspaper.

The fact that 72 per cent of PP voters thought this, too, reflects frustration among opposition supporters. Mr Rajoy is seen to be squandering a chance to exploit the bumbling response by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, prime minister, to the worst recession in decades.

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char

Schweinegrippe: Schutz mit Wodka | Frankfurter Rundschau - Panorama		Swine flu: vodka as protection
Schulen und Kindergärten sind dicht, in Kinos und Konzertsälen herrscht Stille, neun Bezirke des Landes stehen unter Quarantäne: Die Menschen in der Ukraine sehen sich drastischen Einschränkungen ausgesetzt, seit das Land plötzlich in den Brennpunkt der Schweinegrippe-Epidemie gerückt ist. Die Zahl der Grippetoten steigt stündlich. Inzwischen seien mehr als 50 Menschen in der von der Schweinegrippe betroffenen Region im Westen des Landes gestorben, erklärte gestern Präsident Viktor Juschtschenko. Von über 184.000 Erkrankungsfällen berichtet das Gesundheitsministerium in Kiew, rund 200 Menschen schwebten in Lebensgefahr. Dabei wurden nach offiziellen Angaben erst 14 Fälle des Virus vom Typ A/H1N1 nachgewiesen. Besonders betroffen von der aktuellen Epidemie sind die Regionen Ternopil, Lwiw (Lemberg) und Iwano-Frankiwsk. Die Krankenhäuser dort sind inzwischen hoffnungslos überfüllt.		Schools and kindergartens are shut, cinemas and concert halls are silent, nine districts of the country are under quarantine: the people of the Ukraine are finding themselves subject to draconian restrictions since the country suddenly became a focal point of the swine flu epidemic. The number of flu deaths is rising by the hour. To date, over 50 people have died in the western regions of the country affliced by swine flu, president Viktor Yushenko declared yesterday. The Ministry of Health in Kiev is reporting 184,000 flu cases, with around 200 in mortal danger. According to official data, only 14 instances of the A/H1N1 virus have been proved. The regions of Ternopil, Lviv and Ivano-Rankivsk are affected particularly severely. Hospitals there are now hopelessly overloaded.
Die ukrainische Führung hat Militärärzte und Reservisten abgestellt, die sich um die wachsende Zahl an Patienten kümmern sollen. Inzwischen kommt es im ganzen Land offensichtlich zu einem dramatischen Mangel an Grippe-Medikamenten. Die Apotheken sind praktisch leer gekauft. Das Gesundheitsministerium hatte noch am Samstag die Apotheker im Land gewarnt, Profit aus der Krise schlagen zu wollen. Jeder, der die Preise für Grippe-Medikamente erhöhe, werde schwer bestraft. Die Realität aber sieht aber offensichtlich anders aus. Immer wieder wird gemeldet, dass Ärzte und Apotheker für das Grippemittel Tamiflu fast 400 Euro verlangen würden. Das ist über zehn Mal mehr als der übliche Marktpreis. Ausverkauft sind auch Zwiebeln, Knoblauch und Wodka, alte Hausmittel zur Bekämpfung von Erkältungen.		The Ukrainian government has called out military doctors and reservists to deal with the growing number of patients. At the moment the entire country is facing a dramatic shortage of flu medicines. Pharmacies are virtually sold out. On Saturday, the Ministry of Health warned pharmacists against profiteering from the crisis, threatening to severely punish anyone raising their prices for flu medicines. However, the reality is obviously different. There are repeated reports that doctors and pharmacists have been asking as much as 400 euros for the flu medicine Tamiflu - more than ten times the normal market price. Also sold out are onions, garlic and vodka, traditional home remedies against colds.

There's no such thing as original sin - Elvis Costello

Government to create three new high street banks - Home News, UK - The Independent

According to The Sunday Telegraph, Alistair Darling will announce that Treasury-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group are to be broken up.

As part of a bid to increase competition and recoup taxpayers' cash following last year's bailout, some of the banks' assets will be sold off to leave three new-look high street chains.

They will include the return of TSB - whose branches were taken over by Lloyds - and Williams & Glyn's, which is owned by RBS.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Romania tops economic negatives in Central and East Europe - Regional Europe - HotNews.ro

With an 8% lower GDP in 2009, Romania gets in front of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in a central and Eastern Europe top 10, according to a World Bank analysis published on Wednesday, October 28. Regarding the budget deficit, Romania is only behind Latvia and Lithuania. The analysis also shows that Romania is the only country of the 10 considered which adopted only one measure in response to the economic crisis, addressing the labour market, out of a 9 measures set stipulated in the document.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Run on Iceland McDonald's as chain flips last burgers | France 24

AFP - Noisy crowds, long queues, and traffic jams plunged McDonald's restaurants in Iceland into a state of siege Saturday, as the chain served its final burgers on the island.

Icelanders flooded the three branches of the US fast-food restaurant in Reykjavik several hours before the outlets shut for the last time, forced to close after the island's economic collapse caused running costs to soar.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

FT.com / China - China's economic recovery broadens

China's manufacturing sector grew last month at the fastest pace since April 2008, according to the country's official purchasing managers' index released on Sunday.

Analysts said the survey results confirmed that the country's economic recovery was broadening as recovering export demand and consumption joined government stimulus as drivers of growth.

The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said its index rose to 55.2 from 54.3 a month earlier, the eighth straight monthly reading above 50, the threshold marking economic growth.

The index had dropped to 38.8 last November but moved back into positive territory in March this year.

The reading for new export orders rose to 54.5 from 53.3 in September, and imports, which had lagged the overall index in showing recovery, jumped to 52.8 from 50.7 a month earlier.

Zhang Liqun, an economist at a think tank under the State Council, China's cabinet, said the broad recovery in demand reflected in these readings was an indication that economic growth would accelerate. "The growth rate in the fourth quarter is likely to be 9.5 per cent," he said.

The government has said that gross domestic product increased by 8.9 per cent in the third quarter and 7.9 per cent in the second.

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char

FT.com / Europe - IMF warns Ukraine on aid

The International Monetary Fund has warned that it could cut financial assistance to Ukraine, one of the world's most recession hit economies, after the country veered "off track" by adopting populist wage and pension increases.

The warning came after Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's president, on Friday signed the increases into law, ignoring warnings from the IMF and Yulia Tymoshenko, his prime minister and bitter rival. The standoff is rooted in a rivalry between Ukraine's political leaders ahead of a hotly contested presidential election to be held in January.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF head, said he was "very worried" over Mr Yushchenko's decision to sign the bill. Almost $11bn in IMF assistance received since the global financial crisis broke has kept Kiev afloat financially. The IMF is mulling whether to disburse an additional $3.8bn (€2.6bn, £2.3bn) in November. It is seen as crucial to keeping Kiev stable in coming months, but Mr Strauss-Kahn said the 20 per cent wage and pension increases should be cancelled first.

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char

FT.com / Comment / Opinion - Mother of all carry trades faces an inevitable bust - By Nouriel Roubini

So what is behind this massive rally? Certainly it has been helped by a wave of liquidity from near-zero interest rates and quantitative easing. But a more important factor fuelling this asset bubble is the weakness of the US dollar, driven by the mother of all carry trades. The US dollar has become the major funding currency of carry trades as the Fed has kept interest rates on hold and is expected to do so for a long time. Investors who are shorting the US dollar to buy on a highly leveraged basis higher-yielding assets and other global assets are not just borrowing at zero interest rates in dollar terms; they are borrowing at very negative interest rates - as low as negative 10 or 20 per cent annualised - as the fall in the US dollar leads to massive capital gains on short dollar positions.

Let us sum up: traders are borrowing at negative 20 per cent rates to invest on a highly leveraged basis on a mass of risky global assets that are rising in price due to excess liquidity and a massive carry trade. Every investor who plays this risky game looks like a genius - even if they are just riding a huge bubble financed by a large negative cost of borrowing - as the total returns have been in the 50-70 per cent range since March.
...
But one day this bubble will burst, leading to the biggest co-ordinated asset bust ever: if factors lead the dollar to reverse and suddenly appreciate - as was seen in previous reversals, such as the yen-funded carry trade - the leveraged carry trade will have to be suddenly closed as investors cover their dollar shorts. A stampede will occur as closing long leveraged risky asset positions across all asset classes funded by dollar shorts triggers a co-ordinated collapse of all those risky assets - equities, commodities, emerging market asset classes and credit instruments.

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char

CIT to File for Bankruptcy Soon - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com

Three months ago, the CIT Group barely averted what it considered to be a ruinous bankruptcy filing that would likely have put the 101-year-old lender out of business.

On Sunday afternoon, the company is expected to file for Chapter 11 -- but under a so-called prepackaged bankruptcy plan that will enable it to emerge from court protection by the end of the year.

Sunday's filing, to be made in a Manhattan federal court, caps months of efforts by CIT to stay alive. After being denied another bailout by the federal government, the company bargained with its creditors over a restructuring plan that would keep it operating and slash its heavy debt load, including $30 billion in bond debt.

[...]

CIT's filing will test whether a financial company can survive the Chapter 11 process. Bankruptcy has long been considered a death knell for lenders, whose very existence depends on the confidence of its creditors and customers. The company's struggles have been watched with interest and trepidation by analysts and the thousands of small and mid-sized businesses that borrow from CIT.

Yet the filing will still mean much pain for many parties, beginning with taxpayers. CIT received $2.3 billion in government aid last year, a bailout that came in the form of preferred stock. That will almost certainly be wiped out in the bankruptcy process, the first definitive loss in the government's rescue of the financial system.

There's no such thing as original sin - Elvis Costello

Galbraith Says Administration's Sole Goal is to Restore System of 5 or 10 Years Ago, But Confidence Won't be Restored Unless Fraud Which Caused the Crash is Investigated « naked capitalism

But prominent economist James Galbraith recently told Bill Moyers:

JAMES GALBRAITH: The overwhelming emphasis, in the administration's program, I think, has been to return things to a condition of normalcy, to use a 1920s word, that prevailed five and ten years ago. That is to say, we're back to a world in which Wall Street and the major banks are leading, and setting the path-

BILL MOYERS: To restore what was.

JAMES GALBRAITH: To restore what was-

BILL MOYERS: Instead of reform what is.

JAMES GALBRAITH: And I don't think what was can be restored.

BILL MOYERS: And you say that's the objective of the administration's policies? Geithner, Bernanke, Summers, the President himself?

JAMES GALBRAITH: To the extent that there's a defined objective, that's it, yes. I think in the immediate day-to-day work, they've largely been preoccupied with keeping the existing system from collapsing. And the government is powerful. It has substantially succeeded at that, but you really have to think about, do you want to have a financial sector dominated by a small number of very large institutions, very difficult to manage, practically impossible to regulate, and ruled by, essentially, the same people and the same culture that caused the crisis in the first place.

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char

How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash | McClatchy

In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.

Goldman's sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation's premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies.

Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk.

Now, pension funds, insurance companies, labor unions and foreign financial institutions that bought those dicey mortgage securities are facing large losses, and a five-month McClatchy investigation has found that Goldman's failure to disclose that it made secret, exotic bets on an imminent housing crash may have violated securities laws.

Hat tip naked capitalism

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char

Confidence Won't be Restored Unless Fraud Which Caused the Crash is Investigated  Guest post by George Washington in Naked Capitalism

As I have repeatedly written, the largest U.S. banks have repeatedly gone bankrupt due to wild speculation which was blessed by the Fed, and then the government covered up their bankruptcy.

[Washington then quotes from James Gailbraith's  on the occasion of the publication of a new edition of J. K. Gailbraith's The Great Crash, 1929]:

BILL MOYERS: So what should we do?

JAMES GALBRAITH: We need to find another path for economic expansion. We need to set a strategic direction.

Our problem now, our big social and environmental problem, is energy. It's climate change. It's the greenhouse gas emission issue. If we built a set of institutions that could deal with that problem effectively, you could employ a large part of the labor force for a generation, dealing with that. And you'd then make that profitable for private enterprise to get into in a serious way.

BILL MOYERS: The candidate Obama talked a lot about this, green energy, in the campaign. And he's talked a lot about it since he became president. Do you see signs that those aspirations are being implemented, in institutional ways?

JAMES GALBRAITH: They made a start, and certainly in the stimulus package, there were important initiatives. But the stimulus package is framed as a stimulus, as something which is temporary, which will go away after a couple of years. And that is not the way to proceed here. The overwhelming emphasis, in the administration's program, I think, has been to return things to a condition of normalcy, to use a 1920s word, that prevailed five and ten years ago. That is to say, we're back to a world in which Wall Street and the major banks are leading, and setting the path--

BILL MOYERS: To restore what was.

JAMES GALBRAITH: To restore what was--

BILL MOYERS: Instead of reform what is.

JAMES GALBRAITH: And I don't think what was can be restored.

[Thus, in James Gailbraith's view, the implicit goal of Obama Administration policy is to restore the un-restorable--public confidence in our financial system.

Washington finishes with a killer quote from Mario Seccareccia - editor of the International Journal of Political Economy]:

   The Great Crash of 1929 taught us that a modern monetary market economy is governed by confidence. As John Maynard Keynes put it, monetary relations and, more precisely, asset values, are held up by one's belief in the future. Without it, the whole credit-driven economic system comes to a halt and economic agents scramble for cover by seeking to acquire liquidity.

    While in a non commodity-based monetary system a central bank can quite easily supply liquidity in its role as lender of last resort, a central bank cannot single-handedly instill confidence in the future. When confidence is lost, monetary policy is impotent in building up asset values, which can only be sustained if people believe in future revenue arising from future production. The economy remains trapped in a state of paralysis in which everyone is seeking to remain liquid. History tells the tale: Excessive optimism prior to the Great Crash turned to hopelessness during the early 1930s.

Without a thorough investigation like the Pecora Commission, and without prosecuting those who are guilty, confidence and hope in the future will not be restored, consumer confidence will remain depressed, and we will remain in an economic slump.

The Obama Administration and Wall Street's (non)policy towards financial reform seems similar to the attitude of an abusive husband, who, after blackening his wife's eyes, blooding her nose and mouth and then raping her then tells her "Honey, I'm sorry, it won't happen again. Trust me."  If she is lucky, she escapes to a battered women's shelter, brings in the police, files charges and starts rebuilding her life. Too often she is too intimidated to leave and ends up dead. 99% of the US population is currently in the position of that battered wife, but all are not yet clear about their situation.  I can only hope we wisen up while there is still time.

Washington links to the October 30 Huffington Post article:"Roosevelt Institute Celebrates A New Agenda for America": Eliot Spitzer, Elizabeth Warren And 13 Others Reflect On The 80-Year Anniversary Of The Stock Market Crash Of 1929". The original articles can be found at The Roosevelt Institute's web site New Deal 2.0. The articles on New Deal 2.0 are shown in summary form with clicks for the full articles and the earlier articles in the series are on the second page, accessed by a click on "Previous Entries" at the bottom of page 1.

Huffington Post is one of the more widely read on-line progressive news sources in the US.  I am glad to see the work of New Deal 2.0 and the Roosevelt Institute getting broader exposure.

 

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash

WASHINGTON -- In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.

Goldman's sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation's premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies. Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk.

Now, pension funds, insurance companies, labor unions and foreign financial institutions that bought those dicey mortgage securities are facing large losses, and a five-month McClatchy investigation has found that Goldman's failure to disclose that it made secret, exotic bets on an imminent housing crash may have violated securities laws.

"The Securities and Exchange Commission should be very interested in any financial company that secretly decides a financial product is a loser and then goes out and actively markets that product or very similar products to unsuspecting customers without disclosing its true opinion," said Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economics professor who's proposed a massive overhaul of the nation's banks. "This is fraud and should be prosecuted."

John Coffee, a Columbia University law professor who served on an advisory committee to the New York Stock Exchange, said that investment banks have wide latitude to manage their assets, and so the legality of Goldman's maneuvers depends on what its executives knew at the time. "It would look much more damaging," Coffee said, "if it appeared that the firm was dumping these investments because it saw them as toxic waste and virtually worthless."

So, Kotlikoff or Coffee, who will Obama, Giethner and Holder believe? Is there even any doubt about Mary Shapiro?  Fraud?  NAW! It's just a matter of appearances! Prosecutorial discretion and judicial venue will be key.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

Honor, yes, but tough questions also await Merkel in Washington | Americas | Deutsche Welle | 01.11.2009

There is an eagerness in the US to finally engage in serious talks with Berlin. The German election campaign put many important topics on ice until a new government was elected.

"Washington and the new US administration gladly granted Merkel this grace period," said Himmelreich. "But now President Obama would like to know what the new German government thinks about transatlantic relations and Obama himself will surely also express his ideas and wishes."

His colleague Hulsman put it more bluntly, calling it "put up or shut up time."

(The Empire is undead.)


*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

President Kiir urges "yes" on independence vote | France 24

AFP - Southern Sudanese president Salva Kiir on Satuday backed independence for the semi-autonomous region in its upcoming referendum, warning that unity would make southerners "second class" citizens.

The south will vote in a referendum slated for January 2011 as part of the 2005 peace deal that ended Sudan's 22-year civil war -- the African continent's longest armed conflict.

"You want to vote for unity so that you will become a second class in your own country, that is your choice," said Kiir, speaking at Saint Teresa's Catholic Cathedral in the southern capital Juba at the end of a service.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

One candidate run-off vote likely to take place despite Abdullah's withdrawal | France 24

After President Hamid Karzai snubbed a series of measures put forward by Abdullah in a bid to avoid a repeat of the massive first-round fraud, Abdullah said he saw no point in standing in the second round, but stopped short of calling for a boycott.

Election officials said the November 7 vote would go ahead with both names on the ballot but with Karzai the only candidate.

"Based on election laws and based on the constitution there should be a second round. The constitution is clear," Daoud Ali Najafi, chief electoral officer of the government-appointed Independent Election Commission (IEC), told Reuters.

But a spokesman for U.N. mission chief Kai Eide voiced doubt about the practicality of carrying on with the election. "It's difficult to see how there can be a run-off with only one candidate," said spokesman Aleem Siddique.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

250,000 flee army offensive on the Afghan border | France 24

AFP - Up to 250,000 people have fled a tribal region on the Afghan border where the Pakistani army is in the third week of a major offensive against the Taliban, an official said Sunday.

The figure is higher than the 200,000 which the army reported had fled the conflict zone in South Waziristan last week.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Bike bomb kills five in deadly day of attacks | France 24

AFP - A spate of bombings across Iraq, including two suicide attacks and a bicycle bomb, killed seven people and wounded more than 40 on Sunday, police said.

In the deadliest attack, five people were killed and 37 wounded when a bomb hidden in a cooler on the back of a bicycle ripped through a market in the Shiite city of Mussayib at around 9:30 am (0630 GMT).

The two-wheeler had been parked at the market in Mussayib, 60 kilometres (35 miles) south of Baghdad and in Babil province, police said.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Six Guantanamo Uighurs sent to Palau | France 24

Reuters - The Obama administration has sent six Uighur Chinese detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the Pacific island nation of Palau, the Center for Constitutional Rights said on Saturday.

The transfer leaves 215 detainees at the detention camp which President Barack Obama has pledged to close by Jan. 22, though political and legal hurdles are making it difficult for his administration to meet that goal.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Obama lifts ban on US entry for foreign HIV patients | France 24

The United States will put an end to a 22-year-old travel ban on foreign patients infected with the AIDS virus, President Barack Obama has announced, hailing the move as a step towards ending the stigma of the disease.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

US and Colombia sign military bases deal | France 24

Colombia and the United States have signed a pact on increasing US access to Colombian military bases, despite objections to the deal from left-leaning South American leaders.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Clinton pursues Mideast peace efforts in Morocco | France 24

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived Sunday in the Moroccan city of Marrakech on the next stop in her diplomatic mission to relaunch the stalled Middle East peace process.

(From the no-news-news department)


*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Elusive presidential election set for new delay | France 24

Ivory Coast's long-awaited presidential election will not be taking place next month as scheduled, the website of President Laurent Gbagbo has announced, signalling the latest in a string of postponements that have stretched over the past five years.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

FT.com / Global Economy - Battle looms over UN funding

The UK's cash-strapped Foreign Office is leading the charge in a looming battle over the rising cost of funding the UN and who should pay for it.

Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, last week asked for $4.9bn (€3.3bn, £2.9bn) to finance the organisation's so-called regular budget over the next two years.

Before a further adjustment for inflation, that represented a 0.5 per cent increase over the previous two years. However, diplomats from countries that pay the bulk of the bill said uncosted extras in the budget proposal could push the final total to nearer $5.4bn.
...
At a time of departmental cutbacks, the Foreign Office has been told that any extra expenditure at the UN will have to be met by savings elsewhere. Diplomats at the UN said the UK appeared particularly sensitive to additional budgetary pressures. France, the UK's permanent European partner in the 15-member UN Security Council, shares its concerns.They noted that the UK hasinsisted that a UN three-person inquiry team, established last week to investigate violence in Guinea, be financed from existing funds.

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char

Zuma Rallies S. Africa to Fight AIDS - NYTimes.com

JOHANNESBURG -- In a culmination of his party's major shift on AIDS, a disease that has led to plunging life expectancies here, President Jacob Zuma last week definitively rejected his predecessor's denial of the viral cause of AIDS and of the critical role of antiretroviral drugs in treating it.

Almost 10 years to the day after President Thabo Mbeki first suggested that AIDS drugs could pose "a danger to health" in an Oct. 28, 1999, speech in Parliament, Mr. Zuma declared Thursday in the same chamber, "Knowledge will help us to confront denialism and the stigma attached to the disease."

In a country that now has more H.I.V.-infected people and annual AIDS deaths than any other, Mr. Zuma's clarion call for a battle against the disease, six months into his term as president, led to rejoicing among advocates who had long sought such national leadership.

Finally. Just a shame so many people had to die before they got the memo.

There's no such thing as original sin - Elvis Costello

Mugabe takes sharp dig at Tsvangirai - Mail & Guardian Online: The smart news source

President Robert Mugabe took a sharp dig at his estranged governing partner Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday, but said they were still allies in Zimbabwe's troubled coalition.

Speaking Saturday at the state funeral of a former guerrilla leader who fought for independence from Britain in 1980, Mugabe, speaking of Tsvangirai's temporary withdrawal from the Cabinet, said: "Even if some person is not mentally stable he is still your partner.

"We bound ourselves to work together even though we had disparate positions. We will continue talking, no matter what," Mugabe told mourners at the Heroes Acre cemetery west of the capital as Mischek Chando was buried. The 85-year-old leader wore his trademark tailored suit and dark sunglasses for the occasion.

Mugabe said his Zanu-PF party and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change had taken "positive steps" despite having faced difficulties.

This can only go more wrong...

FT.com / Middle East / Politics & Society - Palestinian ire as Clinton backs Israel

Palestinian officials accused Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, of backtracking on pledges by the Obama administration after she endorsed the Israeli prime minister's stance that a renewal of talks should not hinge on a settlement freeze.

During a visit to Israel on Saturday, she hailed Benjamin Netanyahu's offer of a "restraint" on settlement activity as "unprecedented in the context of prior negotiations" and added that the issue should not be made a con­dition for more talks.

Mrs Clinton appeared to depart from the US administration's previous insistence that Israel completely freeze the construction of Jewish settlements in occupied territory, an issue that has become the sticking point for the resumption of the peace process.

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char

Afghanistan copper-mine deal unearths uproar   AP, via AR Democrat-Gazette

WASHBURN, Mo. -- At a former al-Qaida stronghold southeast of the Afghan capital, a state-owned Chinese company is at work on a $3 billion mine project to tap one of the world's largest unexploited copper reserves, a potential financial boon for an impoverished country mired in war.

The promise of a bright future at Aynak, however, cannot conceal the troubling reality of how business often is done in Afghanistan, according to critics of the Kabul government's decision to reject bids from competitors in the United States, Canada and other countries.

The bidding process unfairly favored China, they have said, and epitomized the backroom deals and abuse of power that have turned Afghans against their government and undercut the U.S. military effort there.
....

Said Tayeb Jawad, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, said the bidding process was aboveboard. He said he pushed for the U.S. bidder, Phelps Dodge International Corp., to be awarded the Aynak rights, but that China offered to start work right away while Phelps wanted to wait until the country was safer.

"We can't afford to give the mining rights to a company that will sit on them for the next 10 or 15 years," Jawad said.

I'm LMAO! So is the US going to be able to make Afganistan safe for Chinese miners?  I'm sure we have told them we are just there to stop terrorism, not to grab their resources.  See! We weren't lying! Must be those pesky anti-bribery laws Congress passed. Damed liberals! Puts our businessmen at such a disadvantage.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

Typhoon batters storm-weary Philippines | France 24

AFP - Typhoon Mirinae smashed through the Philippines overnight, killing at least one person and worsening floods in areas that were struggling to recover from recent deadly storms, officials said Saturday.

...The typhoon, which had maximum winds of 185 kilometres (115 miles) an hour, was the third major storm to hit the Philippines main island of Luzon in just five weeks, with the previous two claiming more than 1,100 lives.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Air France is first European airline to receive Airbus A380 | France 24

French flagship carrier Air France became the first European airline to take delivery of the new Airbus A380 superjumbo passenger jet Friday, at a ceremony in the German city of Hamburg.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Aerosols cloud the climate picture   By Sid Perkins  Science News

New work suggests scientists and policy makers can't ignore interactions between greenhouse gases and light-scattering particles

Modeling the climate just got a little more complex. A new simulation that considers chemical interactions between various gases and atmospheric aerosols is giving scientists and policy makers better estimates of the climate-altering effects of those gases, scientists report.

Some atmospheric gases -- known as greenhouse gases -- trap heat and boost the planet's surface temperature. This process keeps Earth habitable, but nowadays, many scientists say, the planet may be getting too much of a good thing. Though most climate simulations include the direct, heat-trapping effects of these atmospheric constituents, which can readily be measured in a lab, few account for how their presence either increases or decreases atmospheric concentrations of planet-cooling aerosols, says Drew Shindell, a climate scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City. "These effects are generally understood but not well quantified," he notes.
....

New portions of the revised model consider the influence of methane, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides on the atmospheric concentration of hydroxyl radicals, highly reactive molecules sometimes referred to as the atmosphere's detergent. Hydroxyl concentrations can be depleted as these radicals react with gases in the atmosphere, and this slows the reactions that produce light-colored, light-scattering sulfate aerosols, Shindell says. "And a lower number of aerosols means a lower cooling effect," he notes.

Analyses using the revised model suggest that the aerosol-stifling power of methane and carbon monoxide considerably boosts the planet-warming effect of these gases. Previous studies have shown that a kilogram of methane, over the course of a century, warms Earth about 25 times more effectively than a kilogram of carbon dioxide does. But add in methane's hydroxyl-consuming effect, and its planet-warming potential jumps to 28 times that of CO2, an increase of 12 percent, Shindell says. (Scientists use carbon dioxide as a baseline largely because it is a common, long-lived greenhouse gas in the atmosphere and its warming effects are well known.)

Similarly, carbon monoxide's greenhouse warming potential rises from 2.2 times to 3.3 times that of CO2 when its hydroxyl-consuming effect is considered. If the inhibiting influence of these two gases on the formation of planet-cooling clouds is also incorporated into the model, their greenhouse effect increases even further.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

ICANN opens Web addresses to multilingual characters | France 24

Global Internet regulator ICANN on Friday approved a new multilingual address system which ends the exclusivity of Latin characters for Internet addresses. Domain names will be the first to be affected by the change.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

The battle over renaming streets in Eastern Europe since the fall of communism reflects their importance as symbols of identity, history and power - Regional Europe - HotNews.ro

What's in a name? More than you might think, especially when it comes to streets, which is why analysis of their names is a revealing exercise. A Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) project.

Whilst in east Berlin, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, many street names remain unchanged, monuments to almost 50 years of communism, most countries in the Balkans have rushed to rid themselves of these outward signs of their socialist baggage.

In Bucharest, where once you might have marched down Victory of Socialism Boulevard, you can now take a stroll along Unity Boulevard.

In Serbia, however, things are moving full circle. There are calls in Belgrade for streets renamed after Belgrade's Soviet liberators in the 1940s, and which reverted in the 1990s to their pre-revolutionary names, to revert once more to remember Lenin, the Red Army and Soviet military leaders.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Berlin Return for Lost Classic: Film Festival to Show Restored Uncut 'Metropolis' - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

One of the most important works in cinematic history is to be shown in its complete uncut version at next year's Berlin International Film Festival. The restored version of Fritz Lang's silent classic "Metropolis" is to hit the silver screen 83 years after it first premiered in Berlin.

(The lost 30 minutes.)


*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Marijuana growers upend hard-luck California town

Reporting from Hayfork, Calif. -- Education has long been preached as a way to keep kids away from drugs. It's the walk to school that has Supt. Tom Barnett worried.

This hardscrabble Northern California town has become a hotbed for medical marijuana farming. Kids stroll much of the year past pungent plants flourishing in gardens and alleys. The red-and-black clad Timberjacks football team moved its halftime huddle on a recent Friday night to avoid the odor of marijuana smoke wafting over the gridiron from nearby houses. Some students talk openly of farming pot after graduation, about the only opportunity in this depressed timber town.

"It's not a subculture here," said Barnett, who heads the Mountain Valley Unified School District. "Marijuana is drying in their houses. It's falling out of their pockets."

Los Angeles isn't the only place struggling with repercussions unleashed by its permissive medical marijuana laws. Here in Trinity County, cannabis cultivation is upending the rural culture and economy of one of the state's most hard-luck regions.
....

The sheriff's office estimates 10,000 plants are growing in a single remote subdivision known as Trinity Pines. Lots on its southwest-facing slope sell for as much as $50,000, up from about $3,500 five years ago, according to Steven Hanover, an area real estate broker.

For the times they are a changing!

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

Masten Space Systems takes lead in Lunar Lander Challenge

On Friday, only days after NASA tested its next big-ticket rocket, a ragtag group of space junkies in the Mojave Desert flew a bargain-basement rocket ship that could be the real future of spaceflight in the 21st century. Masten Space Systems sent its 10-foot-tall Xoie (pronounced Zoey) rocket soaring over a patch of scrub desert that stood in for the moon, a move that appeared to vault the company into the lead in the $2-million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

The contest is sponsored by NASA as part of its long-range effort to give a boost to private companies in the hope that they will someday take on such routine space tasks as delivering cargo to the International Space Station. Four teams registered for a total of six prize-winning attempts. The potential savings to taxpayers is significant: NASA's next-generation rocket, the Ares 1X, which was test-launched Tuesday, has cost tens of millions of dollars. Xoie and her predecessors have cost about $2 million.
....
The Lunar Lander Challenge requires competitors to launch unmanned rockets from a pad, fly to a different pad and land, then repeat the process, all within a specified period of time....With just minutes to spare of the allotted two hours and 15 minutes, the rocket touched down on its return flight, settling only inches from the center of the landing pad.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

Vettel wins Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Hamilton forced to retire | France 24

Germany's Sebastian Vettel won the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after outgoing world champion Lewis Hamilton was forced to retire from the race for safety reasons.

(For me man of the race was Japanese rookie Kobayashi -- only 6th in the end, but no respect for anyone when overtaking.)


*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Pressing Issues

It seems that Monty Pythoners are not amused by a campaign commercial ripoff of an old Michael Palin skit, and are now going after New Jersey GOP candidate for governor Chris Christie. Here's what Christie is running:

Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell. Frank Borman

"If you've got my feely-touchy" | Bloomberg | 2 Nov 2009

In June, [Philip] Green announced a possible television entertainment joint venture with his friend [Simon] Cowell. Green told students at London's Fashion Retail Academy on Oct. 15 that he planned to help Cowell transform the talent shows into global merchandising brands. Cowell could not be reached for comment.

Green says Topshop's U.S. outlet will be profitable in its first year thanks in part to his retailing flair.

"If you've got my feely-touchy, I think America's our sort of market," he says, rubbing his index finger and thumb together.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Via Marisa:

The Dartz Prombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition armoured car sells for one million euros. It has gold plated bulletproof windows, pure tungsten exhausts, speed gauges encrusted with diamonds - and seats made from whale penis leather. Picture: BARCROFT MEDIA

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.