David Gow and Helena Smith - Greek Government on Brink of Collapse Over Debt Crisis

Published on Thursday, November 3, 2011 by The Guardian/UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/03/greek-government-brink-of-collapse

by David Gow and Helena Smith in Athens

The Greek government stands on the point of collapse, with the country set for a general election over membership of the euro rather than the referendum planned for early December.

Calls for a national unity government embracing the opposition also intensified as EU political leaders and financial markets demanded an end to the regional uncertainty unleashed by a small country on the periphery of the eurozone and called for measures to prevent a slide into Europe-wide slump.

George Papandreou called an emergency meeting of his cabinet for noon local time (10am GMT) on Thursday after his finance minister broke ranks over the referendum and several socialist deputies quit or threatened to quit his Pasok bloc in parliament.

Click to read more ...

William Blum - It Doesn’t Matter to Them If It’s Untrue. It’s a Higher Truth.

November 02, 2011

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/11/02/it-doesnt-matter-to-them-ff-its-untrue-its-a-higher-truth/

by WILLIAM BLUM

“We came, we saw, he died.”

— US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton,
giggling, as she spoke of the depraved murder of Moammar Gaddafi

Imagine Osama bin Laden or some other Islamic leader speaking of 9-11: “We came, we saw, 3,000 died … ha- ha.”

Clinton and her partners-in-crime in NATO can also have a good laugh at how they deceived the world. The destruction of Libya, the reduction of a modern welfare state to piles of rubble, to ghost towns, the murder of thousands … this tragedy was the culmination of a series of falsehoods spread by the Libyan rebels, the Western powers, and Qatar (through its television station, al-Jazeera) — from the declared imminence of a “bloodbath” in rebel-held Benghazi if the West didn’t intervene to stories of government helicopter-gunships and airplanes spraying gunfire onto large numbers of civilians to tales of Viagra-induced mass rapes by Gaddafi’s army. (This last fable was proclaimed at the United Nations by the U.S. Ambassador, as if young soldiers needed Viagra to get it up!)

The New York Times (March 22) observed:

Click to read more ...

Robert Scheer - Too Big to Jail

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/too_big_to_jail_20111102/

Posted on Nov 2, 2011

By Robert Scheer

Can we all agree that a $1 billion swindle represents a lot of money, and the fact that Citigroup agreed last week to pay a $285 million fine to settle SEC charges for “misleading investors” demonstrates a damning admission of culpability? 

So why has Robert Rubin, the onetime treasury secretary who went on to become Citigroup chairman during the time of the corporation’s financial shenanigans, never been held accountable for this and other deep damage done to the U.S. economy on his watch?

Rubin’s tenure atop the world of high finance began when he was co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, before he became Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary and pushed through the reversal of the Glass-Steagall Act, an action that legalized the formation of Citigroup and other “too big to fail” banking conglomerates.

Click to read more ...

Ralph Nader - The Road to Twenty One Presidential Debates

Published on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/11/02-12

No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties secretly Control the Presidential Debates

by Ralph Nader

What people would not want Presidential Debates in multiple cities all over America in September and October 2012? Why, the people at the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). CPD is a private corporation created in 1987. It is controlled by the Republican and Democratic Parties and acts as the iron gatekeeper regarding the number of debates, who is chosen to ask the questions and who is excluded from most important forums for reaching millions of people interested in the presidential elections

Powered by the television networks that transmit the debates to the public, the CPD is set in concrete when it comes to entrenching the status quo for the two party dictatorship's orchestrated bubble of exclusion and manipulation.

Click to read more ...

HOPE YEN and LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ - Poorest poor in US hits new record: 1 in 15 people

Poorest poor in US hits new record: 1 in 15 people

By HOPE YEN and LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ - Associated Press 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The ranks of America's poorest poor have climbed to a record high — 1 in 15 people — spread widely across metropolitan areas as the housing bust pushed many inner-city poor into suburbs and other outlying places and shriveled jobs and income.

New census data paint a stark portrait of the nation's haves and have-nots at a time when unemployment remains persistently high. It comes a week before the government releases first-ever economic data that will show more Hispanics, elderly and working-age poor have fallen into poverty.

In all, the numbers underscore the breadth and scope by which the downturn has reached further into mainstream America.

"There now really is no unaffected group, except maybe the very top income earners," said Robert Moffitt, a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University. "Recessions are supposed to be temporary, and when it's over, everything returns to where it was before. But the worry now is that the downturn — which will end eventually — will have long-lasting effects on families who lose jobs, become worse off and can't recover."

Click to read more ...

BBC News - Fracking tests near Blackpool 'likely cause' of tremors

2 November 2011 Last updated at 14:42 ET

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-15550458

It is "highly probable" that shale gas test drilling triggered earth tremors in Lancashire, a study has found.

But the report, commissioned by energy firm Cuadrilla, also said the quakes were due to an "unusual combination of geology at the well site".

It said conditions which caused the minor earthquakes were "unlikely to occur again".

Protesters opposed to fracking, a gas extraction method, said the report "did not inspire confidence".

Six protesters from campaign group Frack Off climbed a drilling rig at one of Cuadrilla's test drilling sites in Hesketh Bank, near Southport, ahead of the report.

They oppose the controversial extraction method which pumps water and chemicals underground at high pressure to shatter rock formations and release gas, claiming it can be unsafe.

Click to read more ...

Jim Lobe - House Committee Okays Sweeping Sanctions on Iran

Published on Thursday, November 3, 2011 by Inter Press Service

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/11/03

by Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - Amid growing tensions in the Middle East, including speculation about a possible Israeli attack on Iran, a key U.S. Congressional committee Wednesday approved two bills that would impose sweeping new economic and diplomatic sanctions against Tehran.

The legislation, which includes sanctions against Iran's Central Bank and strict curbs on official diplomatic contacts between Washington and Tehran, was approved unanimously by voice vote of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives.

The Committee chairperson and major sponsor of the legislation, Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said she hoped the whole House and the Senate would act quickly on the two bills so that their enactment would "hand the Iranian regime a nice holiday present", presumably a reference to the Christmas holidays.

Click to read more ...

Emma Hurd - Israel Considers Pre-Emptive Attack on Iran

Published on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 by Sky News

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16101552

by Emma Hurd

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to rally support in his cabinet for an attack on Iran, according to government sources.

The country's defence minister Ehud Barak and the foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman are said to be among those backing a pre-emptive strike to neutralise Iran's nuclear ambitions.

But a narrow majority of ministers currently oppose the move, which could trigger a wave of regional retaliation.

The debate over possible Israeli military action has reached fever pitch in recent days with newspaper leader columns discussing the benefits and dangers of hitting Iran.

Mr Lieberman responded to the reports of a push to gain cabinet approval by saying that "Iran poses the most dangerous threat to world order."

Click to read more ...

David Gow - Greece Gets Ultimatum: Accept Austerity Plan or Forego Extra Bailout Cash

Published on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 by The Guardian/UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/02/greece-ultimatum-austerity-forego-eu

by David Gow in Athens

Greece has been given an ultimatum that it will get no more money from the European Union and International Monetary Fund until its people have voted to accept the austerity measures demanded by the bailout package.

The latest tranche of bailout aid, worth €8bn (£7bn) and agreed just two weeks ago, is seen as vital for ensuring that Greek public sector workers can continue to be paid. But it will now be delayed until after the country decides in a referendum whether it accepts the new rescue package or even wants to stay in the euro.

The threat to send Greece closer to bankruptcy emerged on the margins of the G20 summit in Cannes – due to start on Thursday – and follows a blunt warning from Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the eurogroup, that the sixth tranche of the original €110bn bailout was now in jeopardy.

Click to read more ...

Center for Constitutional Rights - Gaza-Bound Humanitarian Flotilla Reaches International Waters

CONTACT: Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) press@ccrjustice.org http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/11/02-6

NEW YORK - November 2 - Two boats carrying twenty-seven human rights activists from five countries, including the United States, have made it to international waters and are headed to Gaza. Today, the flotilla set sail unannounced from Turkey with the aim of ending the siege and isolation of Gaza. The boats are carrying letters from people in the United States to the people of Gaza, as well as medicine.  This latest attempt comes less than six months after the “Stay Human Flotilla” was detained and sabotaged in Greece by local port authorities in response to mounting pressure from the United States and Israel.

In light of Israel’s attack on the May 2010 flotilla, which killed nine civilians including 18-year old U.S. citizen Furkan Doğan, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) calls on the international community to ensure the safe passage of the ships through international waters into Gaza and prevent a repetition of last year’s lethal assault by Israeli forces.

Click to read more ...