Archive for November, 2010
I’ll never sign Tariq Aziz death sentence – Iraq prez
Posted by smeddum on November 17, 2010
Posted in Iraq | Leave a Comment »
Dr Kelly was murdered: British experts
Posted by seumasach on November 17, 2010
16th November, 2010
Experts also called on the police to launch a murder inquiry into Dr Kelly’s death, casting serious doubt on the official claim the scientist overdosed on painkillers.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: David Kelly | Leave a Comment »
On housing benefit cuts, British public reveals shocking lack of empathy and compassion
Posted by seumasach on November 17, 2010
Andy Worthington
Such is the hostility in this country towards the poor and the unemployed — a sure sign of the distressing decline of empathy and compassion in the last 30 years — that a poll conducted by Channel 4 News this week found that 58 percent of people thought that the govermment’s proposed welfare cuts should have been more severe, or were “about right,” and 66 percent of people answered yes to the question, “Should there be a maximum limit of £400 a week on the amount of housing benefit that people can claim, even if this means people are forced to move house?”
Posted in UK economy | Tagged: no reposessions no evictions!, no repossesions | 1 Comment »
NATO’s Iran ‘threat’ conundrum
Posted by seumasach on November 17, 2010
Kaveh L Afrasiabi
17th November. 2010
Ahead of its much-anticipated summit in Lisbon this weekend, the 28-nation military alliance North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is in a conundrum – to name or not to name Iran as a threat. Either way, there will be unwanted side-effects.
Posted in Disband NATO!, Iran | Leave a Comment »
Have (infinite) war, will travel
Posted by seumasach on November 17, 2010
Pepe Escobar
18th November, 2010
Anyone aware enough to think that Washington’s goal is not to “win” the unwinnable AfPak quagmire but to keep playing its bloody infinite war game forever is now eligible for a personal stimulus package (in gold).
Posted in Afghanistan | Tagged: End of empire, Obama agenda | Leave a Comment »
Death of Dr. David Kelly: disinformation, censorship and coverup by the British media
Posted by seumasach on November 17, 2010
Dr Stephen Frost
17th November, 2010
Editor’s note:
Global Research is publishing what the “progressive” British press has refused to publish concerning the mysterious death of Dr. David Kelly.
Disinformation and censorship at the Guardian re: Dr David Kelly
In August 2010, I sent the letter immediately below in response to a Guardian editorial (see ANNEX 1) and an edited version of my letter was published (see ANNEX 2). In October 2010, I sent a letter (see below the letter immediately below) in response to Vikram Dodd’s article (see ANNEX 3) and despite much discussion no response was ever published, even in edited form.
Posted in Drive to Global War | Tagged: David Kelly | Leave a Comment »
Ruling on behalf of Wall Street’s “super rich”: the financial end time has arrived
Posted by seumasach on November 17, 2010
Prof. Michael Hudson
17th November,2010
Now that President Obama is almost celebrating his bipartisan willingness to renew the tax cuts for the super-rich enacted under George Bush ten years ago, it is time for Democrats to ask themselves how strongly they are willing to oppose an administration that looks like Bush-Cheney III. Is this what they expected by Mr. Obama’s promise to rise above partisan politics – by ruling on behalf of Wall Street, now that it is the major campaign backer of both parties?
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: stop the bailout | Leave a Comment »
Tory MPs urge Cameron to block British money being used to bailout ailing Irish economy
Posted by seumasach on November 17, 2010
The eurosceptics are sniping away as usual being too foolish to see that it’s UK banking that is on the line:
Sources close to Chancellor George Osborne made clear that the Government views the Irish crisis as much more important for Britain than the Greek bailout earlier this year – in which only members of the eurozone were forced to contribute.
One said: ‘It’s not in our interests to see Ireland get into trouble.’
The idiocy of the semi-nationalisation of the likes of RBS without first putting it through bankruptcy now becomes clear:
Royal Bank of Scotland is also under threat since the state-owned bank has £53billion of exposure to Irish loans, more than £40billion of which are underwritten by British taxpayers.
In other words, the bailout is automatic in this case
15th November, 2010
Tory MPs today urged David Cameron not to allow British taxpayers’ money to be used to bail out crisis-hit Ireland.
Posted in UK economy | Tagged: no new bailout | Leave a Comment »
The Stench of American Hypocrisy
Posted by smeddum on November 16, 2010
“If truth be known, there is more justice in Burma under the military regime than in the USA. The military regime put Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest in her own home. The military regime did not throw her into a dungeon and rape and torture her under cover of false allegations and indefinite detention without charges. Moreover, the military “tyrants” released her either as a sign of good will or under pressure from international human rights groups, or some combination of the two.”
“The most massive change brought by Obama is his assertion of the right of the executive branch to murder whomever it wishes without any interference from US and international law. The world has not seen such a criminal government as Obama’s since Joseph Stalin’s and Hitler’s.”
Paul Craig Roberts
15th November , 2010
— Ten years of rule by the Bush and Obama regimes have seen the collapse of the rule of law in the United States. Is the American media covering this ominous and extraordinary story? No the American media is preoccupied with the rule of law in Burma (Myanmar). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: "War on Terror", Burma | Leave a Comment »
UK economy may need more stimulus, says Bank of England’s Martin Weale
Posted by seumasach on November 16, 2010
The “UK economy” is largely a fiction, a spending bubble which is coming to an end- it is already beyond stimulus and requires total reconstruction from the base. QE will be directed at purchasing the kind of “assets” that RBS is desperately hawking at knockdown prices and UK government bonds which China will likely be minded to ditch after Cameron’s comments in Beijing. As before the money will spread around the world in search of higher interest rates and returns in a final frenzy of parasitism.
16th November, 2010
The “most likely” outcome at the end of 2013 is that the UK’s real gross domestic product will remain about 6pc below its pre-crisis trend, said Martin Weale, a member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).
Posted in UK economy | Tagged: no new bailout | Leave a Comment »
A crisis we can’t afford to ignore
Posted by seumasach on November 16, 2010
RBS owns the Ulster Bank in Ireland and Lloyds offshoot HBOS went on a mad expansion spree in Ireland at the peak of the credit boom in 2005.
Now we can see why Cameron is so keen on an EU bailout of Ireland- with £143 bullion invested in Ireland, much of it directly into Ireland’s collapsing property market, it would be to a large extent a bailout of Britain’s banks. This is in any case inevitable given the collapse of our own economy and property market, but it would be a coup for the City if they could get the EU to cough up for a large chunk of it. The EU has yet to deal with the “British question”- the fact that they have left their western flank exposed to city of London financial operations. This could be an opportunity to do so. Interesting that after the rebuff of the Obama/Cameron offensive in Seoul, the focus turns immediately to the euro rather than to the infinitely more vulnerable pound and dollar.
Alex Brummer
16th November, 2010
No one in Britain can look at the rapidly unfolding Irish financial crisis with any kind of calm because the UK and Irish banking systems – and the countries’ wider economies – are inextricably bound together.
Posted in Battle for Europe, UK economy | Tagged: no new bailout | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 