random notes

A Davos i Grandi della finanza
Draghi: criteri globali anti-crac

DAVOS - Banchieri centrali, governi, organizzazioni economiche internazionali, lavorano ad una "riforma su tre pilastri" per mettere il sistema finanziario mondiale al sicuro dal rischio di fallimenti di grande banche, una lezione che ci ha dato la crisi. Mario Draghi, il governatore di Bankitalia, sintetizza così i perni del "progetto del Financial Stability Board che va avanti da 5-6 mesi", e su cui a Davos, in un serrato programma di riunioni ai massimi livelli a margine del World Economic Forum, si è tentato di definire una soluzione: "Ridurre il rischio di fallimenti di grande dimensione; ridurre la probabilità di questi fallimenti; mettere in campo dei meccanismi che permettano una gestione ordinata di questi fallimenti".

Tra i possibili strumenti emerge l'ipotesi forte di una authority "che abbia il potere, i fondi, il budget, e la competenza per gestire i fallimenti in maniera ordinata", dice Draghi; così come quella di una soprattassa "per gli istituti che sono troppo grandi per fallire o che sono sistemicamente importanti".
Obiettivi chiari, confronto ancora aperto sulle soluzioni.

... mancano quelli che hanno le risposte vere ...
... in queste "assemblee" delle elites che vogliono mantenere i propri benefici ...
... senza considerare, o magari senza nemmeno "capire" la realta' ...
... questi tizi sono tutti come la moglie del re sole ...

"Giustizia, l'Italia è dietro il Gabon.
Con più giudici sì al processo breve"

L'allarme del Procuratore generale:
"Sistema malato, ora riforma vera".
Mancino: "Però stop intimidazioni".
Alfano: le riforme le fa il Parlamento

... richiamate l' oscar e lasciategli fare le riforme ...
... lui lo aveva detto quindici anni fa' che finiva cosi' ...
:)

Slime Mold Proves to Be a Brainy Blob



... maybe we need some interfacing between biology and computing ...
:)

Ron Paul; CIA coup? Is he a fool or a tool?

Ron Paul and a Timeline of CIA Crimes and Atrocities



... is a quite realistic picture ...
... but instead then blaming the puppets ...
... the puppet masters should carry the responsibility ...
... of their corporatist international personal interest and profit ...
... the CIA folks are just the gophers, just like the presidents are the puppets ...
... the real puppet masters are the Jekyll island conspiracy bankers ...
... and successors ...
... so if you change the worlds "CIA" and "president" with "wall street nazi bankers" ...
... you get the "real" picture ...
... now, this may also explain things the CIA and presidents have not too much control of ...
... such as Fort Knox gold and the dollar convertibility ...
... or printing 600 trillions of towelette paper derivative credits ...
... by the way, where are the missing 800 tons of gold ? ...
... prescribe them gold bond medicated powder ...
:)

Welcome to Orwell's world

Barack Obama's deceptions over the Afghanistan war should remind people of the lessons of George Orwell's 1984.





January 11, 2010

IN 1984, George Orwell described a superstate, Oceania, whose language of war inverted lies that "passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past,' ran the party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'"

Columnist: John Pilger


John Pilger is a renowned investigative reporter and documentary filmmaker who was called "the most outstanding journalist in the world today" by the Guardian. He is the author of numerous books, including most recently Freedom Next Time: Resisting the Empire, a collection of investigations into the effects of war crimes and globalization. His books and films are featured at JohnPilger.com.


Barack Obama is the leader of a contemporary Oceania. In two speeches at the close of the decade, the Nobel Peace Prize-winner affirmed that peace was no longer peace, but rather a permanent war that "extends well beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan" to "disorderly regions, failed states, diffuse enemies." He called this "global security" and invited our gratitude. To the people of Afghanistan, which the U.S. has invaded and occupied, he said wittily: "We have no interest in occupying your country."

In Oceania, truth and lies are indivisible. According to Obama, the American attack on Afghanistan in 2001 was authorized by the United Nations Security Council. There was no UN authority. He said that "the world" supported the invasion in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks. In truth, all but three of 37 countries surveyed by Gallup expressed overwhelming opposition. He said that America invaded Afghanistan "only after the Taliban refused to turn over Osama Bin Laden." In 2001, the Taliban tried three times to hand over Bin Laden for trial, Pakistan's military regime reported, and they were ignored.

A sophisticated FBI-produced spyware program has played a crucial behind-the-scenes role in federal investigations into extortion plots, terrorist threats and hacker attacks in cases stretching back at least seven years, newly declassified documents show.



The documents, which are heavily redacted, do not detail the CIPAV’s capabilities, but an FBI affidavit in the 2007 case indicate it gathers and reports a computer’s IP address; MAC address; open ports; a list of running programs; the operating system type, version and serial number; preferred internet browser and version; the computer’s registered owner and registered company name; the current logged-in user name and the last-visited URL.

After sending the information to the FBI, the CIPAV settles into a silent "pen register" mode, in which it lurks on the target computer and monitors its internet use, logging the IP address of every server to which the machine connects.

The documents shed some light on how the FBI sneaks the CIPAV onto a target’s machine, hinting that the bureau may be using one or more web browser vulnerabilities. In several of the cases outlined, the FBI hosted the CIPAV on a website, and tricked the target into clicking on a link. That’s what happened in the Washington case, according to a formerly-secret planning document for the 2007 operation. "The CIPAV will be deployed via a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address posted to the subject’s private chat room on MySpace.com."

In a separate February 2007, Cincinnati-based investigation of hackers who’d successfully targeted an unnamed bank, the documents indicate the FBI’s efforts may have been detected. An FBI agent became alarmed when the hacker he was chasing didn’t get infected with the spyware after visiting the CIPAV-loaded website. Instead, the hacker "proceeded to visit the site 29 more times," according to a summary of the incident. "In these instances, the CIPAV did not deliver its payload because of system incompatibility."

The agent phoned the FBI’s Special Technologies Operations Unit for "urgent" help, expressing "the valid concern that the Unsub hackers would be ’spooked.’" But two days later the hacker, or a different one, visited the site again and "the system was able to deliver a CIPAV and the CIPAV returned data."

The software’s primary utility appears to be in tracking down suspects that use proxy servers or anonymizing websites to cover their tracks. That’s illustrated in several cases in the documents
...
The documents appear to settle one of the questions the FBI declined to answer in 2007: whether the bureau obtains search warrants before using the CIPAV, or if it sometimes relies on weaker "pen register" orders that don’t require a showing of probable cause that a crime has been committed. In all the criminal cases described in the documents, the FBI sought search warrants.

The records also indicate that the FBI obtained court orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which covers foreign espionage and terrorism investigations, but the details are redacted.

SWIFT - EU to grant USA nearly unlimited access to all EU banking data

The EU justice and home affairs minister are about to agree on a large-scale banking data sharing plan with the United States. The agreement will have a massive impact on the privacy of banking data of European businesses and citizens.
...
No reciprocity
The most suprising fact related to the EU negotiations with the US is the missing demand of reciprocity. In other words: while the US will be able to access EU banking data no access to US banking data by EU authorities is being foreseen.

Open questions
It is unclear to me what exact legal form the agreement with the United States will have. To my knowledge it will probably not require any ratification by national parliaments. It needs to be seen whether procedures against the deal will be able to be launched at the European Court of Justice. They could potentially be based on the EU’s current, rather strict data protection legislation.

... this is "the end" of the European community ...
... I doubt reciprocity exists ...
... the US is an "occupying power" in Europe ...

Anti-tobacco movement in Nazi Germany

The National Socialist leadership condemned smoking[7] and several of them openly criticized tobacco consumption.[6] Research on smoking and its effects on health thrived under Nazi rule[8] and was the most important of its type at that time.[9] Adolf Hitler's personal distaste for tobacco[10] and the Nazi reproductive policies were among the motivating factors behind their campaign against smoking, and this campaign was associated with both antisemitism and racism.
...
Reproductive policies
The Nazi reproductive policies were a significant factor behind their anti-tobacco campaign.[11] Women who smoked were considered to be vulnerable to premature aging and loss of physical attractiveness; they were viewed as unsuitable to be wives and mothers in a German family. Werner Huttig of the Nazi Party's Rassenpolitisches Amt (Office of Racial Politics) said that a smoking mother's breast milk contained nicotine,[20] a claim that modern research has proven correct.[21][22][23][24] Martin Staemmler, a prominent physician during the Third Reich, opined that smoking by pregnant women resulted in a higher rate of stillbirths and miscarriages. This opinion was also supported by well-known female racial hygienist Agnes Bluhm, whose book published in 1936 expressed the same view. The Nazi leadership was concerned over this because they wanted German women to be as reproductive as possible. An article published in a German gynaecology journal in 1943 stated that women smoking three or more cigarettes per day were more likely to remain childless compared to nonsmoking women.
...
Association with antisemitism and racism
Apart from public health concerns, the Nazis were heavily influenced by ideology;[28] specifically, the movement was influenced by concepts of racial hygiene and bodily purity.[46] Nazi leaders believed that it was wrong for the master race to smoke[28] and that tobacco consumption was equal to "racial degeneracy".[47] The Nazis viewed tobacco as a "genetic poison".[46] Racial hygienists opposed tobacco use, fearing that it would "corrupt" the "German germ plasm".[48] Nazi anti-tobacco activists often tried to depict tobacco as a "vice" of the "degenerate" Africans.[46]

The Nazis claimed that the Jews were responsible for introducing tobacco and its harmful effects. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Germany announced that smoking was an unhealthy vice spread by the Jews.[48] Johann von Leers, editor of the Nordische Welt (Nordic World), during the opening ceremony of the Wissenschaftliches Institut zur Erforschung der Tabakgefahren in 1941, proclaimed that "Jewish capitalism" was responsible for the spread of tobacco use across Europe. He said that the first tobacco on German soil was brought by the Jews and that they controlled the tobacco industry in Amsterdam, the principal European entry point of Nicotiana.[49]

... with the problems of world overpopulation ...
... maybe smoking should be given incentives ...
... like in China ...
... unless you want to stand the side of the cannibals ...
... that is where overpopulation leads to ...

Nano-medici, guide spaziali e piloti
Ecco i lavori che faranno i nostri figli


... piloti di qualcosa di diverso dagli aeroplani di linea ...
... perche' non si sa se esisteranno ancora le compagnie aeree ...
... che spariscono per fallimento attorno agli 8$ al gallone ...

Marchionne: la Tav è fondamentale

L'amministratore delegato di Fiat:
è la più grande occasione per l'Italia
di modernizzare la rete instrattuturale
...
E il leader della Lega Nord Umberto Bossi, che ieri aveva detto «Non so nemmeno se il Piemonte ha bisogno della Tav», oggi precisa: «È evidente a tutti che sono favorevole alla Tav e ne ho anche spiegato le motivazioni. Come il traforo sul Frejus è stato importante per il rilancio del Piemonte a suo tempo, oggi lo sarà la Tav».

Why Americans Should Care About the Debt Crisis in Greece


Posted Jan 21, 2010 10:52am EST by Peter Gorenstein
Related: TBT, TLT, GLD, RSX, EUO, FXE, FEZ

Is Greece about to go bust? The Greek government says they don't need a rescue package but they are exploring all options to claw out of a mounting debt crisis to cover their near-term budget shortfall.

Investors are still skeptical. Yields on Greece's benchmark 10-year bond are trading near record premiums to comparable German debt after briefly touching a record high on Wednesday. The cost of insuring that debt through credit default swaps is also near unprecedented levels.

Caos sulla Tav, sondaggi e polemiche
Bossi: "Non so se servirà al Piemonte"



... forse e' geloso che non l'hanno fatta a legnano ...
:)

"Gratis mappe e navigazione Gps"
La svolta di Nokia piace ai mercati
Il colosso finlandese sfida l'iPhone di Apple. E TomTom crolla in Borsa

Almost-close encounter: Meteorite hits Lorton doctor's office

By Paul Duggan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 21, 2010

Much later, after the hole in the roof had been fixed and the debris cleaned up, after the cause of the damage finally had become clear, Frank Ciampi wondered: What are the odds?

He is a doctor. He has worked for 18 years in the two-story building in Lorton that houses the Williamsburg Square Family Practice, in the 9500 block of Richmond Highway. He spends his days walking in and out of examining rooms, seeing patients.

AP – Explaining the Supreme Court on campaign finance

AP – Common Cause Public Campaign President Nick Nyhard, right, accompanied by Common Cause President Bob …
By LIZ SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer – Thu Jan 21, 2:25 pm ET



WASHINGTON – Big business and free speech won. Campaign finance reform lost. Political parties and many candidates, too. And for voters, there's both an upside and a downside.

The Supreme Court's monumental decision upending decades of campaign finance law has a slew of winners and losers.

It frees corporations, and by extension unions, to spend as much as they want to call for the victory or defeat of federal political candidates — by name — in commercials and literature. As long as there's no coordination with the candidates or campaigns.

... the doors wide open to the US corporatism absolute power ...
... starting tomorrow all congressmen and senators ...
... are going to wear the uniform of their sponsors ...
:)

Apprendisti-studenti a 15 anni
Scontro durissimo Per il Pd si fa carta straccia della legge. Ma Sacconi: "Critiche ideologiche"



... in America possono lavorare dai 14 ai 16 anni per 9 ore la settimana massimo ...
... per due ore al giorno massimo ...
... e con il permesso scritto della scuola ...
... (cioe' solo se vanno bene a scuola) ...
... per alcuni e' un incentivo ...
... guadagnano qualche spicciolo ed imparano un mestiere ...

... dai 16 anni possono lavorare 32 ore ...
... ed esistono programmi diurni e serali per un esamino diploma equivalente ...
... che da' solo accesso ad un AA in un college ma non all' universita' ...
... per ogni tipo di altra laurea necessitano di un normale diploma superiore con esami ...

... considerate che in america le superiori sono solo 4 anni ...
... e l' AA (laurea associata) e' due anni ...
... in pratica equivalente al completamento del primo anno di una nostra universita' ...

Brown vince il seggio di Kennedy
e sfida la riforma della Sanità



... la riforma obama non porta benefici alla gente ...
... per cui che stia o crolli non cambia assolutamente nulla ...
... per l'uomo qualunque ...
... ma forse a DC cambia chi riceve le tangenti della medicina privata ...
... ma questo e' un probblema dei demo-ladri e repubbli-ladri ...

Credit crunch, in Francia le imprese lanceranno una loro banca - 19/01/2010
Le banche non concedono prestiti? Varrà dire che ne creeremo una nostra...

Le banche non concedono prestiti? Varrà dire che ne creeremo una nostra. In difficoltà a causa della crisi finanziaria globale e del conseguente razionamento del credito, sedici imprese piccole, medie e grandi, di diverse nazionalità (francesi, inglesi, irlandesi, svizzere e americane) hanno lanciato la proposta di mettere in piedi un proprio istituto di credito.

Il progetto, che dovrebbe portare alla nascita di una “cooperativa a statuto bancario”, costituisce - riferisce Le Monde - un vero e proprio inedito. E, sebbene non possa prendere vita entro pochi giorni, è già entrato in una fase di “studio formale”. Un comitato strategico si riunirà infatti il prossimo 27 gennaio, secondo quanto riportato nei giorni scorsi da La Tribune, e l’obiettivo - qualora arrivino i fretta i via libera delle autorità di controllo - è di aprire l’istituto entro la fine del 2010.

La nuova banca, probabilmente, avrà la propria sede legale in Francia, ma sarà di proprietà di una holding irlandese, per ragioni commerciali. «La crisi finanziaria impone ormai un ripensamento del modello di finanziamento del sistema - ha spiegato a Le Monde Sylvain de Forges, consigliere speciale del progetto -. Le banche sono concentrate nello sforzo per aumentare i propri capitali, e per questo le loro capacità di concedere credito diminuiscono».

L’idea di creare una banca francese gestita dalle imprese è nata tre anni fa da tre ex banchieri di Natixis e dell’istituto tedesco Dresdner Kleinwort. All’epoca, tuttavia, il credit crunch non mordeva il freno della crescita in tutto il mondo, per cui si è deciso di aspettare. Oggi le condizioni sono invece favorevoli: potrebbe essere un primo importante passo per un nuovo modo di pensare la finanza, al servizio dell’economia reale.

... grande mossa ...
... andrebbe organizzata a livello universale ...
... mandare in malora i parassiti ...
... loro lo hanno fatto agli altri, meritano "almeno" lo stesso trattamento ...

Insitu NightEagle


Print Page E-mail Link Building on more than 15 years of development, production, and unmatched field performance is NightEagle. NightEagle incorporates the superior unmanned aircraft system (UAS) technology of ScanEagle with the ability to capture high-quality ISR data and imagery at night.

... hoping they fix the $34 software problem ...

EADS Warns It May Freeze Drone Program

European aerospace and defense giant EADS is warning that, in addition to the problems it is having with its A400M military transport plane program, it may soon reconsider plans for the Talarion drone. If Germany, France and Spain do not commit orders and funding by summer, the program may be suspended.

Just days after reporting that its ambitious A400M military transport is in jeopardy, European aerospace and defense giant EADS warned on Monday that plans to build an unmanned military drone could also be in trouble.

Corruption in Afghanistan
UN Report Claims Bribes Equal to Quarter of GDP

Need a driver's license in Kabul? $180 will get you one within hours. $60,000 will get you out of jail in Afghanistan. A new UN study shows just how rampant corruption has become in the war-torn country. Indeed, bribery is equal to a quarter of the Afghan GDP

polemiche negli states dopo la rivelazione della abc
I versetti della Bibbia
nei mirini dei fucili americani
(bible verses in the scopes of US rifles)

La ditta che rifornisce l'esercito Usa ignora il divieto di proselitismo imposto ai militari in Afghanistan e in Iraq

WASHINGTON - Ai militari americani in Afghanistan e in Iraq è vietata qualsiasi forma di proselitismo religioso, verbale o scritta, per rispetto all’Islam. Ma la ditta fornitrice dei mirini dei fucili ad alta precisione dei marines ha sempre ignorato e continua a ignorare il divieto. La tv Abc ha rivelato che la Trijicon del Michigan iscrive in codice sui mirini passi del vecchio e nuovo testamento. Un esempio è JN 8:12 (Gv 8: 12), l’invito di Gesù sul vangelo di Giovanni: «Chi segue me non camminerà nelle tenebre ma avrà la luce della vita». Un altro è 2 COR 4:6, un passo della seconda lettera di San Paolo ai Corinzi, dove si parla della «gloria divina che rifulge sul volto di Cristo».

... la crociata della petroleo-cristo-mafia continua ...
... (the cruisade of the petroleum-christ-mobsters continues) ...

Obama confidant's spine-chilling proposal
Glenn Greenwald

Cass Sunstein has long been one of Barack Obama's closest confidants. Often mentioned as a likely Obama nominee to the Supreme Court, Sunstein is currently Obama's head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs where, among other things, he is responsible for "overseeing policies relating to privacy, information quality, and statistical programs." In 2008, while at Harvard Law School, Sunstein co-wrote a truly pernicious paper proposing that the U.S. Government employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-"independent" advocates to "cognitively infiltrate" online groups and websites -- as well as other activist groups -- which advocate views that Sunstein deems "false conspiracy theories" about the Government. This would be designed to increase citizens' faith in government officials and undermine the credibility of conspiracists. The paper's abstract can be read, and the full paper downloaded, here.

Sunstein advocates that the Government's stealth infiltration should be accomplished by sending covert agents into "chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups." He also proposes that the Government make secret payments to so-called "independent" credible voices to bolster the Government's messaging (on the ground that those who don't believe government sources will be more inclined to listen to those who appear independent while secretly acting on behalf of the Government). This program would target those advocating false "conspiracy theories," which they define to mean: "an attempt to explain an event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who have also managed to conceal their role." Sunstein's 2008 paper was flagged by this blogger, and then amplified in an excellent report by Raw Story's Daniel Tencer.

... glenn becks must be one of them, LOL ...

Clusterfuck Nation
Comment on Current Events by the Author of "The Long Emergency"
Too Stupid To Survive

California's proposed high-speed rail project by Jon Gertner.
The article began with a description of California's current rail service between the Bay Area and Los Angeles. A commission of nine-year-olds in a place like Germany could run a better system, of course. It's never on schedule. The equipment breaks down incessantly. A substantial leg of the trip requires a transfer to a bus (along with everybody's luggage) with no working toilet. You get the picture: Kazakhstan without the basic competence.
...
The sad truth is it's too late now. But the additional sad truth, at this point, is that Californians (and US public in general) would benefit tremendously from normal rail service on a par with the standards of 1927, when speeds of 100 miles-per-hour were common and the trains ran absolutely on time (and frequently, too) without computers (imagine that !). The tracks are still there, waiting to be fixed. In our current condition of psychotic techno-grandiosity, this is all too hopelessly quaint, not cutting edge enough, pathetically un-"hot." The fact that it is not even considered by the editors of The New York Times, not to mention the governor of California, the President of the United States, and all the agency heads and departmental chiefs and think tank gurus and university engineering professors, is something that will have historians of the future rolling their eyes. But for the moment all it shows is that we are collectively too stupid to survive as an advanced society.

Ironically (if you go for gallows irony) a sidebar in the same issue of The NY Times Sunday Magazine featured the latest architect's wet dream of an airport-of-the-future (p.35). Note to the editors and architects: commercial aviation is toast (we just don't know it yet). We're back in the $70-plus a barrel-of-oil aviation death-zone for airlines.

... the sad truth is that there are imbeciles planet wise ...
... following the moves of today's America ...
... after 20 years of rhetoric of the "superiority" of the US system ...
... they all now think is true ...

Bass Boats and Queer Marriage
The battle for the American soul is over and Jay Leno won

A month or so ago I watched news footage of some fat guy being interviewed inside his the three car garage of his $300,000 cardboard house. The poor fellow was about to lose his bass boat, and maybe his home too.
...
Our system, owing to the magic of its "checks and balances," holds all possible solutions. So we must "work within the system" for any desired change. Be an active factor within the rules.
...
These rules are sanctioned by big shots, a big shot being defined as anyone whose bullshit is beyond questioning because he has made his fortune by bullshitting millions of typical Americans. Which is not difficult because as both Goering and Hitler pointed out, then proved, if the bullshit is huge enough, normal people will not believe that anyone would have the balls to tell such a lie, and accept it as the truth. And so The Big Lie is sold.
...
Political assurances of the sanctity of the middle class come down to promising that the six percent of the world's population called Americans may continue to rip through 36 percent of the earth's resources in its endless pursuit of obesity and carcinogenic intake. Not to mention taking everybody else out with us in the process through ecocide.

Nobody but an unmitigated psychopath would even make such a case, much less hawk it to the American people as being in their best interests. In their best interests to wipe out our dwindling planetary sustenance and to piss off the rest of the world enough that a significant number are willing to strap on explosives and buy a plane ticket for the States.

"Unfortunately, the psychopaths are in charge"

... checks an balances ? ...
... like bounced checks and empty balances ? ...
... the nazis of wall street exposed ? ...
... god-man sucks on a mission for god ? ...
... "Unfortunately, the psychopaths are in charge" <- correct ...
... what can you expect from "a nation under god" ? ...

Il ministro della Pubblica amministrazione Renato Brunetta in diretta da Hammamet su Rtl
«Bamboccioni? Ci vuole una legge che obblighi i figli ad uscire di casa a 18 anni»



... "obbligare" forse e' eccessivo ...
... ma cambiare lo stato giuridico da "figli" in "ospiti" sarebbe opportuno ...
... sembra inconcepibile che genitori vecchi abbiano l' "obbligo giuridico" ...
... di mantenere adulti nullafacenti ...
... senz' altro ne conservano una parte della responsabilita' morale ...
... perche' la loro generazione e' stata parte nel creare il probblema ...
... ma la soluzione e' da trovarsi nel 100% di opportunita' di occupazione ...
... e questa e' una responsabilita' da imputare alla politica ed all' economia del paese ...

Il Senegal offre la terra agli Haitiani:
«per il ritorno nella loro patria»
«Non hanno scelto - dice il presidente Wade - di andare in quell'isola. Per loro un tetto e un pezzo di terra»



... per un paese essenzialmente povero come il senegal ...
... e' un bel gesto ed una grande offerta di fratellanza universale ...
... si spera che il senegal sia in grado di continuare a progredire ...
... ed a risolvere in modo incruento i proprii seri probblemi di disoccupazione ...

Energy crisis may cripple country by 15th
Friday, January 01, 2010
By Khalid Mustafa

ISLAMABAD: The country may plunge into the worst imaginable energy crisis as virtually all refineries are teetering on the verge of financial default and may close down operations by Jan 15.

All the oil refineries of the country, currently working on a negative gross revenue margin, and with their borrowing limits already exhausted, are likely to shut down within the next two weeks following their expected default to retire the existing L/Cs to import crude oil. The shutdown would mean no oil supplies for thermal power generation plants and the picture turns outright dark.
...
The functionary said that after generating over Rs 85 billion from banks by marketing TFCs (Terms Finance Certificates), the circular debt has again started to haunt all the players involved in the energy sector.

“Some players in the energy sector, including Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and refineries have termed the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) responsible for the monster of circular debt, which has surfaced again, saying this is the most disorganised company which failed to pay the dues of PSO which have amounted to Rs69.7 billion,” the source said, adding: “The refineries have also informed the government that they will not be able to get fresh loans to continue functioning, as their borrowing limits have already been exhausted.”

The functionary further said that the refineries faced with losses had not being paid Rs 60.1 billion by the government owned entity Pakistan State Oil and that the refineries have warned the government that in the event of the non-payment of their dues their operations will be closed down “because of the liquidity crisis and, moreover, their equity too would be wiped out.”

Today's Must Read

Today's Must Read
By Spencer Ackerman - November 23, 2007, 9:00AM

It's not just foreign-to-domestic calls involving suspected terrorists. Nor library, business and medical records of American citizens in (mostly) terrorism-related cases. The list of circumstances under which law enforcement can jettison probable cause as a standard for obtaining information is expanding to include... carrying a cellphone.
Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers.

In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives.


Basically, as carriers increasingly offer subscribers the ability to stay informed of where their associates are at all times, law enforcement gets an investigative tool. In one recent case, a DEA agent sought a drug-trafficking suspect's Nextel tracking information from a judge simply by asserting that the suspect was trafficking drugs, thereby turning probable cause on its head. The agent didn't get away with it in this case, but in several other recent cases, courts issued warrants based on a determination that the location information provides "specific and articulable facts" relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation.

What does the Justice Department say about the practice? According to national-security division spokesman Dean Boyd, the department "strongly recommend[s]" retaining the probable cause standard. But judges have ruled that it's not always necessary.
Since 2005, federal magistrate judges in at least 17 cases have denied federal requests for the less-precise cellphone tracking data absent a demonstration of probable cause that a crime is being committed. Some went out of their way to issue published opinions in these otherwise sealed cases.

"Permitting surreptitious conversion of a cellphone into a tracking device without probable cause raises serious Fourth Amendment concerns especially when the phone is in a house or other place where privacy is reasonably expected," said Judge Stephen William Smith of the Southern District of Texas, whose 2005 opinion on the matter was among the first published.

But judges in a majority of districts have ruled otherwise on this issue, Boyd said. Shortly after Smith issued his decision, a magistrate judge in the same district approved a federal request for cell-tower data without requiring probable cause. And in December 2005, Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein of the Southern District of New York, approving a request for cell-site data, wrote that because the government did not install the "tracking device" and the user chose to carry the phone and permit transmission of its information to a carrier, no warrant was needed.

Pardon me while I disable my Twitter account.

... even orwell would have been surprised ...
... how creative are the amerikkkan kristo-nazis ...

Benedetto XVI riceve i partecipanti alla plenaria della congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede
Appello al mondo scientifico e politico impegnato sulla manipolazione genetica dell'embrione e del Dna
Bioetica, l'appello del Papa a politica e scienza
"La legge morale vale anche per non credenti"



... al di la' della natura etica ...
... il probblema delle modificazioni genetiche non e' solo umano ...
... e' una tecnologia con il potenziale ...
... per diventare l'arma di distruzione di massa piu' potente dell' universo ...
... gli effetti si sono gia' visti con le api, con i topi ...
... e con il numero di suicidi di agricoltori indiani ...

Crisi, il pessimismo di Bankitalia
"Ripresa debole, prospettive incerte"



... sembra una analisi realista ...
... escludere dati che sono "fatti" e' forse meno scientifico che "stimarli" ...

... i dettagli sono irrilevanti ...
... il probblema e' sistemico ...
... peak di un numero di materie prime ...
... peak energetico ...
... la realta' e' che la crescita industriale non e' sostenibile ...
... almeno sulla terra, su altri pianeti potrebbe essere un modello per il futuro ...

... poi peak del petrolio ...
... sovrappopolazione ...
... sbilanciamento della eta' della popolazione ...
... ritorno nullo e negativo di investimenti in un mercato inflazionario in contrazione ...
... incompetenza generalizzata ...

... i rimedi esistono ma richiedono cambi strutturali ...
... senza precedenti nella storia dell' umanita' ...
... ma il processo politico, etico-religioso e democratico ...
... non e' capace di cambiare ...
... cosa volete che vi dica, io direi che dio ha cambiato idea ...

... ma il cambiamento nei fatti non si verifichera' ...
... all' establishment fa' piu' comodo la soluzione tradizionale delle guerre civili ...
... e se questa guerra diventera' mondiale, come e' quasi certo ...
... sara' sicuramente sufficiente a ridurre la popolazione ai numeri ...
... dove avrebbe dovuto essere se gli esseri umani ragionassero ...
... invece di adorare tesi irrazionali di fantasia ...

Haiti: Where will all the money go?



... probably in the swiss bank accounts ...
... of the Haitian "elite" ...
... the puppets put there by their money masters ...

... when a society has to resort to charity ...
... charity is the final and ultimate insult to the preyed people ...
... of a failed system of politics and economic theory ...

... I would suggest the Haitian to regroup the military ...
... and quickly execute the responsible ...
... fast ...
... before the ones that want to protect the corrupt ...
... get there to save them ...

AMERICA 2.0: Constitutional Politics



... dove l'america avrebbe potuto essere ...
... ma non potra' essere finche' esistera' la cristo-mafia di DC e wall street ...

Oliver Stone riabilita Hitler e Stalin
«Vittime di letture convenzionali»

Il regista prepara serie tv di 10 ore sulla storia del Novecento

Non puoi capire le persone se non entri in empatia con loro, comprese quelle che potenzialmente dovresti odiare».
Secondo il regista, che proporrà il suo lavoro per la tv via cavo Showtime, gli americani hanno bisogno di un nuovo corso di storia perché «non sanno cosa sia successo tra la Prima e la Seconda guerra mondiale».

Un film-documentario di dieci ore che avrà come titolo «Oliver Stone's Secret History of America» (La storia segreta d'America di Oliver Stone). «Si tratta - ha detto Stone - di una rivisitazione degli avvenimenti principali del Novecento, con un occhio particolare a ciò che è successo tra le due guerre. Capire meglio quel periodo significa guardare con occhio diverso a figure come Hitler e Stalin, e rendersi conto che la storia è la risultante di una serie di cause ed effetti».

... prendiamo atto ...

... commenteremo dopo aver visto il film ...
... perche' e' interessante vedere cosa ci dira' ...
... della rivoluzione di ottobre finanziata da wall street ...
... per gli interessi dei pozzi di petrolio di baku ...
... e del nazismo finanziato da wall street ...
... per demolire la competizione degli "alleati" inglesi ...
... ed impadronirsi degli interessi di petrolio in arabia saudita ...
... vediamo se alla fine fa' santa standard oil o la "sacra famiglia" ...
... come il vaticano che vuol far santo pio dodicesimo ...

... perche' ci potranno essere altre ripercussioni future ...
... come sant hitler in meno di cinquanta anni ...
... e magari san stalin dopo che il compromesso storico sia esteso su scala mondiale ...
... ed altri ancora, san trumann, san nixon, e fior fiore di tutti ...
... san gw bush ...

... aveva ragione l'imperatore della cina ...
... ed e' preoccupante che hollywood prepari l' america ...
... a cio' che la attende ...
... una dittatura cristo-mafio-banco-industriale ...

STIMULUS WATCH: Unemployment unchanged by projects

WASHINGTON – A federal spending surge of more than $20 billion for roads and bridges in President Barack Obama's first stimulus has had no effect on local unemployment rates, raising questions about his argument for billions more to address an "urgent need to accelerate job growth."

An Associated Press analysis of stimulus spending found that it didn't matter if a lot of money was spent on highways or none at all: Local unemployment rates rose and fell regardless. And the stimulus spending only barely helped the beleaguered construction industry, the analysis showed.

With the nation's unemployment rate at 10 percent and expected to rise, Obama wants a second stimulus bill from Congress including billions of additional dollars for roads and bridges — projects the president says are "at the heart of our effort to accelerate job growth."

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood defended the administration's recovery program Monday, writing on his blog that "DOT-administered stimulus spending is the only thing propping up the transportation construction industry."

Road spending would total nearly $28 billion of the Jobs for Main Street Act, a $75 billion second stimulus to help lower the unemployment rate and improve the dismal job market for construction workers. The Senate is expected to consider the House-approved bill this month.

But AP's analysis, which was reviewed by independent economists at five universities, showed the strategy of pumping transportation money into counties hasn't affected local unemployment rates so far.

... a joke ...
... this is indirect subsidy ...
... for the Detroit mafia ...
... to keep building junk ...

Optimum Population Trust

Dangerously rapid climate change and rising food, water and fuel scarcity are already threatening human populations. And many other species, on a finite planet. Yet by 2050 world population is expected to grow by another 2.3 billion from today's 6.8 billion - unless urgent action is taken.
What's the population solution?
GLOBALLY: reduce birth rates. NATIONALLY: reduce or keep birth rates low and/or balance migration to prevent population increase. All countries need environmentally sustainable population policies to underpin other green policies. PERSONALLY: have fewer children and work a few more years before retiring.

... Mao made possible the miracle of feeding 1 billion people ...
... but his communist regime failed in containing population ...
... so did the western "capitalist" "cristo-clerical" establishment ...
... all western countries doubled in population ...
... and the failure is in the "need of growth" of the market and the monetary system ...
... or, your choice, the "need of progress" of communist planned economy ...
... religion, capitalism and communism are products of the same culture ...
... the "power game" ...
... none of the three can be trusted ...

housebreaking the corporations

The core difficulty is simple enough to describe. Corporations, under the laws of the United States and most other nations, are legal persons; they have many, though not all, of the same rights that “natural persons” – that is, you and me – have under the law. Still, the most obvious difference between corporate persons and natural persons these days is that the corporate kind are noticeably more antisocial. They pursue their purposes – primarily, making money – with a single-mindedness and a lack of concern for consequences that, in natural persons, would be accurately labeled psychopathic; they’ve proven themselves consistently willing to lie, cheat, steal, and kill whenever the likely return on these acts outweighs the risk of punishment.

... the US citizens are simply F***ED ...
... instead than the European masters pre US revolution ...
... now they have their home breed inbreed masters ...
... and instead than importing slaves from africa ...
... they are now creating the "born in the USA" slaves ...

Al Franken's SUPPLY SIDE JESUS: An animated comic strip.



... LOL ...

They’ve Seen the Future and Dislike the Present

That’s where Mr. Fresco came in, an author, lecturer and former aircraft engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio who has spent the last six decades working on the Venus Project, a futuristic society where (adjust your seatbelts, now) machines would control government and industry and safeguard the planet’s fragile resources by means of an artificially intelligent “earthwide autonomic sensor system” — a super-brain of sorts connected to, yes, all human knowledge.

If this sounds vaguely like a disaster scenario out of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Mr. Fresco did not seem worried in the least. Machines are unemotional and unaggressive, unlike human beings, he told the crowd during the question-and-answer phase. “If you took your laptop and smashed it in front of 50 other laptops, trust me, none of them would care.”

... for as bad as computers may "think" ...
... surely will be more reliable ...
... than neuro-mobster nazi banksters and fana-lunatic tele-evangelists ...

Brrrr, the thinking on climate is frozen solid

Here’s how it is down our way. The oil tank that powers our central heating is running worryingly low, but for days fuel lorries have been unable to navigate the frozen track that links us to the nearest main road. We would have gained much welcome heat from incandescent light bulbs, but as those have been banned by the government as part of the “fight against climate change”, no such luck.

... there are some interesting solutions to replace the energy lost from incandescent bulbs ...
... like going to get free bibles at your churches in town, they burn slower and cleaner than coal ...

... now jokes apart ...
... there are criticality issues to consider ...
... for "abating the main cost drivers" ...
... coal will peak "way" later than oil ...
... so "before" dismantling coal plants ...
... after reconverting partially railroads and totally maritime transport to nuclear ...
... first oil power plants, trucking and endothermic cars ...
... should be "eliminated" and "recycled" ...
... this is beneficial because we are running out of steel as well ...
... the next plants to dismantle are nuclear ...
... nuclear materials are closer to the peak than coal ...
... "unless" we can get the breeders technology to work safe ...
... coal is the last to dismantle ...
... but the first to retrofit to recirculation ...
... because of pollution and waste of chemical and thermal energy ...

... tidal plants on the UK east coast (and US west coast) ...
... natural gas, wind, geothermic, solar ...
... all good technology, but won't replace neither oil nor coal nor nuclear ...
... will just make people life less miserable ...
... when prices will be non affordable ...

... now this problem could have not came to a worse time in history ...
... because the monetary interest of multinationals ...
... leads to extinction ...
... so unless multinationals and the monetary system all go down the tubes ...
... at one point there will be a very strange and new war ...
... because multinationals can not afford self defense ...
... they may think they can defend themselves with the "pistoleros" ...
... until they see a matra magic or a maverick ...

United States Economic Collapse Facing Its Weimar Moment

According to the World Economic Forum, forty percent of the entire world's wealth has been destroyed in the recent financial collapse. In the U.S. alone, between housing and the stock market, more than $18 trillion in wealth has already been destroyed.

The private mega-banks that anchor the financial systems of the western world are bankrupt. This makes it all but impossible to jump-start the western world's economies which are heavily dependent on bank-system credit to operate.

More than 10,000 homes go into foreclosure every day. More than 20,000 people lose their job every day. And the collapse is accelerating, developing its own self-reinforcing dynamic. Job losses breed foreclosures, reducing demand, leading to more job losses and further degradation of the financial system. None of the stopgaps designed to stanch the bleeding have yet worked. There is no bottom in sight.

Meanwhile, debt has risen to astronomical levels. Reagan and Bush I quadrupled the national debt in only twelve years. Bush II doubled it again in only eight. It is now ten times higher than it was in 1980 when Reagan was elected. Total public and private debt exceeds 300% of GDP, half again higher than it was in 1929.

... that is exactly what you get ...
... when you let cristo-nazi-bankers, big car mafia and big oil run your country ...
... but they know everything, they are infallible, at least for their own predatory agenda ...

Update on Our Brave New Slavery: Yes, It Applies to American Citizens, Too

I wrote a piece here a few days ago on a recent ruling by the Supreme Court, in which the justices agreed with the passionate plea of the Obama Administration to uphold -- and establish as legal precedent -- some of the most egregious of the Bush Administration's authoritarian perversions. This was the gist of the ruling:

The Supreme Court acquiesced to the president's fervent request and, in a one-line ruling, let stand a lower court decision that declared torture an ordinary, expected consequence of military detention, while introducing a shocking new precedent for all future courts to follow: anyone who is arbitrarily declared a "suspected enemy combatant" by the president or his designated minions is no longer a "person." They will simply cease to exist as a legal entity. They will have no inherent rights, no human rights, no legal standing whatsoever -- save whatever modicum of process the government arbitrarily deigns to grant them from time to time, with its ever-shifting tribunals and show trials.

One of the attorneys involved in the case rightly likened the ruling to the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision, in which the Court declared that any person of African descent brought to the United States as a slave -- or their descendants, even if they had been freed -- could never be citizens of the United States and were not protected by the Constitution. They were non-persons under the law; sub-humans.

I noted the grim irony that this principle of non-personhood had now been reintroduced into the law of the land by our first African-American president. (But this is only to be expected, given the law of opposites that so often governs American politics: only a lifelong Red-baiter like Nixon could make an opening to Communist China; only a supposed liberal like Bill Clinton could gut the federal welfare system. And only an African-American president could reintroduce the principle of slavery and get away with it. No doubt it will be a woman president who finally re-imposes a total ban on abortion.)

... nice ...
... could you live interesting times ...

THE GOOD NEWS:
THE MARKET IS FANTASTICALLY INEFFICIENT

Yes, that is correct: The “market system” is fantastically inefficient! [4] Our present way of distributing goods and services wastes enormous amounts of natural resources, but gigantic resource savings are possible. As an illustration, let’s make a rough estimate of per capita food energy requirements and current waste:

If we wanted our government to distribute food directly instead of using the market, how much energy would be required to produce and deliver provisions to each and every American?

Adults need about 3,000 nutritional calories of food each day. Let’s allow 30,000 calories to produce and another 3,000 calories to deliver food to every American. That’s a total of 36,000 calories per day.

Just how much energy did the American “market system” actually consume? In 2006, Americans consumed an average of 231,008 calories per day, so 231,008 minus 36,000 equals 195,008 calories wasted each day. This simple calculation suggests that Americans could be wasting something like 2 billion tonnes of oil equivalent per year! [5]That’s FAR more oil wasted than all the oil produced in the Middle East!

If we change a few of our founding beliefs and assumptions—and reorganize politically—more than enough energy remains to mitigate the worst.

Hybrid VTOL PROTOTYPE AIRCRAFT Mammouth

Aeroscraft - An Extraordinary Flying Experience

Flying the Zeppelin NT with Airship Ventures

Gravity Plane

Lockheed-Martin "Skunk Works" P791 LTA ACLS dynmicpara

Amateurs Only
German Women's Magazine Ditches Professional Models

German women's magazine Brigitte has declared it will no longer use professional models in its fashion shoots. But reaction to the first all-amateur issue has been mixed, with observers criticizing the magazine for not going far enough to fight anorexia.

Biofuel Backlash - World



Are you prepared to starve??? (World Wide Food Crisis)



Biofuels scandal + food prices. Biofuel crisis, biofuel oil, biofuel production, cars, algae, systems and basics introduction to facts about biofuels. Conference keynote speaker Patrick Dixon


... cristo-nazi wall street amerikkka ...
... wants to starve the planet ...
... and its own country ...

... "the final solution" 2.0 ...
... "kleptocide" ...
... brought to you by big oil, big car, big churches and big banks ...

A Milano 2 nuovi casi di infezione da Hiv al giorno
Io, 21, anni, bocconiana, sieropositiva
Non chiudete gli occhi sull'Aids


Pubblichiamo la lettera inviata al Corriere della Sera da una ragazza di 21 anni, iscritta alla Bocconi

... controllo delle nascite ...
... profilattici e difese immunologiche ...
... ricordate galileo ...

Una replica ai pensabenisti sull'Islam

...
Ecco perché, allora, l’integrazione dell’islamico nelle società modernizzate diventa più difficile che mai. Fermo restando, come ricordavo nel mio fondo e come ho spiegato nei miei libri, che è sempre stata difficilissima.

... per i "catastrofisti" ...
... qualcuno deve spiegarmi perche i turchi sono in germania da 400 anni ...
... i mussulmani africani in america da 250 ...
... e gli altri mussulmani di varie provenienza da 150 anni ...
... e queste catastrofi non sono nei fatti mai avvenute ...

... qualcuno mi deve anche spiegare ...
... perche' l'informazione non parla di cose importanti ...
... come la crisi del petrolio ...
... la depressione, ed il crollo dei mercati mondiali ...
... invece di vendere fumo su questioni "irrilevanti" ...
... crocifissi, ballerine, transessuali, corna ...
... cronaca nera, "terrorismo" che fa' ridere ...

... a confronto dei 63000 omicidi l'anno di cittadini nati e cresciuti ...
... nel nostro "grandioso" sistema "cristiano" occidentale americano ...
... si vede che la realta' di sempre e' che vendere fumo paga ...
... mentre i cleptocrati sono occupati ...
... a ripulire i salvadanai del popolo bue ...
... i beoti vengono indottrinati su crocifissi, ballerine ed integrazione ...

Hedge Funds and the Global Economic Meltdown (Part 1)



Hedge Funds and the Global Economic Meltdown (Part 2)



Hedge Funds and the Global Economic Meltdown (Part 3)

disability discrimination cases in the US


... that explains the number of people living in the streets ...
... the US is a world model of "social" failure ...
... or better, the inspiration of the modern concept of eugenics ...
... the klepto-cide of private health at work ...

Will latest jobs bill really produce jobs?

WASHINGTON – When the Senate takes up a jobs bill later this month or early in February, the debate will center on whether it really will create jobs and be worth plunging the government tens of billions of dollars further into debt.

Republicans scoff at the "Jobs for Main Street Act" title that House Democrats put on their $174 billion package last month. They refer to it as "son of the stimulus," the $787 billion economic recovery plan of nearly a year ago that they say was ineffective at producing jobs.

In its last vote of 2009, the House narrowly passed the bill, 217-212, without a single Republican supporter.

Democrats tick off the job prospects from the House bill's $75 billion in infrastructure and public sector spending: tens of thousands of new construction jobs, 5,500 more police officers, 25,000 additional AmeriCorps members, 250,000 summer jobs for disadvantaged youth, 14,000 part-time jobs for parks and forestry workers.

... they won't ...
... is better than nothing, but is not enough ...
... takes care only of bottom of the hill physical work ...
... but does not help with the "big picture" ...
... looks like the 10 millions mcdonald jobs at the reagan times ...
... "politics" ...

... why not create government telecommuting jobs ...
... why not give tax credit for telecommuting employees and contractors ...
... why not give tax credit for "in home" doctors visits ...
... why not give tax credits for "remote diagnostics" ...
... why not give tax credits for "railroad" infrastructure ...
... or tax credits for atomic railroad engines development ...

Bernanke Says Low Rates Didn’t Cause Housing Bubble (Update2)

Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank’s low interest rates didn’t cause the past decade’s housing bubble and that better regulation would have been more effective in limiting the boom.

“The best response to the housing bubble would have been regulatory, rather than monetary,” Bernanke said today in remarks to the American Economic Association’s annual meeting in Atlanta. The Fed’s efforts to constrain the bubble were “too late or were insufficient,” which means that regulatory actions “must be better and smarter,” he said.
...

... he is probably right ...
... the dismantling of oversight over the banking system ...
... has made profitable to create the bubble ...
... and the dismantling of oversight ...
... was the result of excessive power of the financial world ...
... over the public interest ...
... and this has not changed since the creation of the banking cartel ...
... at jekyll island ...
... so the only practical solution ...
... is nationalizing the federal reserve ...
... and put in charge fbi, cia and irs ...
... inspecting the books ...
... of "all" financial institutions in the country ...

L’economista: falle nel sistema di distribuzione
Milano butta via ogni giorno
180 quintali di pane
I fornai: nessuno lo vuole, neanche i proprietari dei canili. Distribuirlo o grattugiarlo non conviene

... mandare l'esercito a prenderlo ...
... refrigerarlo e distribuirlo gratuitamente ...
... sportello del pane nelle caserme ...
... cosi' avremo i tempi di Bava Beccaris alla rovescia ...
... "restituzione" ...
:)

Brunetta: "Cambiare articolo 1 Costituzione" E scoppia la polemica
Si apre il dialogo sulle riforme. Il ministro della Funzione Pubblica ha proposto di modificare l'articolo 1 della Costituzione: "Non significa nulla che l'Italia è una repubblica fondata sul lavoro". Secco no di Pd e Idv, la Lega frena

... in un certo senso ha ragione ...
... quando non ci sara' piu' lavoro ...
... non ci saranno piu' i fondi per mantenere la repubblica ...
:)

Cina, Apple censura il Dalai Lama
Il colosso Usa si adegua alle leggi locali
Dall'I-Phone spariscono le applicazioni

... nulla da stupirsi ...
... da quelli che hanno censurato i fumatori dalla garanzia ...