Greenspan sees U.S.
economy as rebounding: pointed to the record rate of existing home sales posted in January, which while "impressive," was "unsustainable" in part because consumers are servicing record levels of debt. Yesterday's report showing a 14.8 percent drop in new home sales in the same month showed the trouble consumers are having sustaining such high levels of housing performance, he said. Low interest rates, inflation and energy prices should continue to bolster consumers, he said, but their incomes may be held back by rising unemployment, which the Fed said should crest at close to 6.25 percent this year before turning down again. spending is up because corporations are being forced to give away merchandise at a loss. consumers, sensing the end of good times approaching, but up cheap goods before shit hits fan. energy prices fixed by trading support for chechnya aggression for russian oil glut. st greenspan points to key to process ie sustainability. anybody can make money abandoning sustainability. i could chop up the roof of my house on a sunny day and sell it for firewood. or better yet your house saying i need it to protect you from terrorists.

1,011 Sarin Exposed Veterans Dead: (VA) report showing extraordinarily high death rates among some Gulf War veterans exposed to chemical warfare agents near Khamisiyah, Iraq in 1991. "The NGWRC thanks VA Secretary Anthony Principi for releasing the new Gulf War statistics that show a dramatically higher death rate among a segment of Khamisiyah veterans initially notified by the military of exposure to sarin chemical warfare agents, who then received a conflicting statement from the Pentagon saying they had not been exposed. “The NGWRC asks VA to immediately launch medical research into the circumstances of the Khamisiyah veterans’ deaths as well as to broaden research regarding the illnesses among many other Gulf War veterans. see what you can accomplish when you monopolize the mass media press. rumsfeld has never lied and never will, but they can deny using chem weapons with one face while negotiating for compensation with victims with the other and not a single network newswhore calls them on it. bother asking rumsfeld if chem weapons will be used this time.

The U.S. government will finance and host the largest- ever gathering of former Iraqi military and security officers at a conference to plan the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, U.S. and Iraqi opposition officials said yesterday. Leaders of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), the London-based umbrella group dedicated to Saddam's ouster wwiii stage 4. buy iraqi version of northern alliance. promise them power in new iraqi state with loads of my ssi money to distribute as they see fit. never mind the benevolent effects of war on afghanistan.

Watkins Criticizes Lay for the First Time: Watkins said she was certain that Lay would act on her recommendations. "I fully expected Mr. Lay to conduct a full investigation into my concerns. I was disappointed that such was not the case. I was incredibly frustrated by Mr. Lay's actions or lack thereof." She went on to say that "Enron had a brief window to rescue itself last fall, but we missed that opportunity because of Mr. Lay's failure to recognize or accept that the company had manipulated its financial statements." okay, kenny boy was not ignorant, he was in denial

Rumsfeld: Pentagon Closing Office. Rumsfeld said the Office of Strategic Influence would not have spread misinformation and that news reports and commentary have made it impossible for the agency to do its job. see below for defense depts own statement regarding disinformation function of osi

"Pentagon planners say it will take six months to produce enough Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), the precision systems that guided 1,000-pound bombs to Taliban and al-Qaeda targets, to contemplate an attack on Saddam Hussein's Iraq.” And "it could take up to a year before the United States is ready to launch a coordinated assault likely to achieve the administration's goals of destroying Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capability and replacing Hussein's regime.” administration's goals of destroying iraq's weapons of mass blah blah blah go straight from outright denial to foregone conclusion. but what's going on here is not the apparent level headed disclosure of wwiii progress. this is a feeler sent out to guage public reaction. the public will assume they missed the part where war on iraq was discussed, justified and resolved upon. since were now just talking about when rather than if. the bushoilcia neednt fear. americans dont react to anything anymore.

Revenge of the war IPOs: Only Integrated Defense Technologies Inc., a major technology provider to the United States military, is braving the troubled waters of initial public offerings this week. the Nasdaq's fall probably won't affect the offering from Integrated Defense Technologies, which makes products used in military aircraft, submarines, battle tanks and missile systems. Customers also include Boeing Co., Northrop Grumman Corp., Raytheon Co. and General Dynamics. what do i mean (see many posts below) when i say that war is the real economic recovery package? tax giveaways to the rich and corporations and interest rate manipulations are just legalized embezzlement. military spending does not depend on full employment or supply and demand consumerism. it's just a matter of appropriation of public funds and wild spending while proposing to give current ssi recipients guarantees that their benefits are secure. oh, and a big war killing a lot of people to keep production up.

"One slide about special operations in Afghanistan said: Thinking Outside the Box--Poisoning Food Supply. Miller was shocked and showed it to Rice. The United States doesn't know how to do this, Miller reminded her, and we're not allowed. It would effectively be a chemical or biological attack--clearly banned by treaties that the United States had signed, including the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. Why this wasn't a major story in itself is beyond me: The Secretary of Defense wanted to propose to the President that he poison Afghanistan's food supply! the last time rumsfeld is going to go through these channels with his out of the box thinking

these documents illustrate, the United States knew sanctions had the capacity to devastate the water treatment system of Iraq. It knew what the consequences would be: increased outbreaks of disease and high rates of child mortality. And it was more concerned about the public relations nightmare for Washington than the actual nightmare that the sanctions created for innocent Iraqis. The Geneva Convention is absolutely clear. In a 1979 protocol relating to the "protection of victims of international armed conflicts," Article 54, it states: "It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive." But that is precisely what the U.S. government did, with malice aforethought. It "destroyed, removed, or rendered useless" Iraq's "drinking water installations and supplies." the coming iraq war will dwarf 1991

The Social Security guarantee idea was the brainchild of economist Bruce Bartlett, a columnist for The Washington Times. Three years ago he wrote a column in which he proposed that the Republicans "pass a law saying that under no circumstances will any changes in the Social Security system affect the benefits of any current retiree." "The benefit of this approach is that it removes the main barrier to reform, which is the fear current benefits will be cut" when a republican guarantees you that no current recipients benefits will be cut, what can you assume about future recipients benefits?

Former Employee Says Enron Manipulated California Power Market: David Fabian, a former employee for Enron's trading unit who wrote the company's trading software for electricity and natural gas sales, claims Enron congested the te's transmission lines and then resold the power in the state's wholesale electricity market at skyrocketing rates. Mr. Fabian worked at the unit from 1997 until the end of 2000. "I never witnessed this but this is what the traders talked about," Mr. Fabian told Dow Jones Newswires. "I spent a lot of time with traders writing the software programs and they discussed how they could use tricks to get high prices for electricity." execute the retarded and imprison the insane, but kenny lay and pinochet dont feel like coming to court today

Senate probes Clinton loans for Enron deals right wing propaganda mill feverishly tarring dems with enron brush as national elections loom

U.S. stocks could find some cheer from a trend of upbeat economic data: A lot hinges on the numbers. If they're good, the market rallies. If we get any suspicious numbers, or more accounting-related stories coming into the fray, we're looking at lower prices again. but this situation makes all the numbers suspicious. its not like reading a thermometer. people put them together and there are many opportunities to round things up if rounding them down means a panic. note that one of the two ipo's announced for this week to feed the illusion of a recovery is a pentagon jet fighter contractor. note also that the british are moving warships to join the massing american fleet in the indian ocean while the israelis are mobilizing their patriot missiles "for defense against 911 type plane attacks"

U.S. Transportation officials ordered that VIP lines, some of which fed into separate screening checkpoints, be eliminated to make overall security changes equitable. The elite services were established to remedy time-consuming security demands at airports imposed after the Sept. 11 hijack attacks. While the separate screening checkpoints will not be back, officials said the airlines can continue to set up additional lines for their top customers anti terror police powers to protect the rich from the poor. no protection for the poor from the rich

Concern At Pentagon Over 'Strategic Influence' Disfinformation Plan: But some other defense officials said even the suggestion of mixing clandestine activities with the traditional work of public affairs could create major questions of credibility. One confirmed that the new office, headed by Air Force Gen. Simon Worden, was considering a broad-ranging effort, perhaps including "black" disinformation and other covert activities in addition to accurate news releases. "The saying goes that 'all's fair in love and war', But if we (the Pentagon) get the reputation for spreading false information, then what is anyone to believe and not believe that comes out of this building?" what indeed. another of course. of course this is a brand new idea never before tested

There are a number of insiders -- government insiders -- who know people in the anthrax field who have a common suspect,"We can draw a likely portrait of the perpetrator as a former Fort Detrick scientist who is now working for a contractor in the Washington, D.C., area," Rosenberg said. "He had reason for travel to Florida, New Jersey and the United Kingdom. . . . There is also the likelihood the perpetrator made the anthrax himself. He grew it, probably on a solid medium and weaponized it at a private location where he had accumulated the equipment and the material. "We know that the FBI is looking at this person, and it's likely that he participated in the past in secret activities that the government would not like to see disclosed," Rosenberg said. "And this raises the question of whether the FBI may be dragging its feet somewhat and may not be so anxious to bring to public light the person who did this. or maybe present activities like faking anthrax attacks. this ronseberg doesn't seem to have a clue that the cia is a washington dc contractor

The U.S. war on terrorism will soon come to prime-time television as a new ABC "reality" show called "Profiles From the Front Line," with the help of the Pentagon and Hollywood action king Jerry Bruckheimer, the Disney-owned network said on Wednesday. The program, which will focus on the stories of ordinary men and women in uniform, is being produced with the "unparalleled support and cooperation of the Defense Department," the network said in announcing the show slated for summer airing. of course, the first time since wwii that the defense department has played producer in hollywood. five big war blockbusters with one top priced star each in a row on top of such gripping dramas as jag were the independent inspiration of filmmakers and tv producers. is tinkerbell going to introduce scenes of massacred iraqi civilians with her magic wand every night?

ast Wednesday something strange happened. The American population was instructed to panic. Place themselves, that is, on a state of highest vigilance. Some cataclysmic act of terrorism would happen - within hours. But nothing terrible happened. Something creepy did. On Thursday there was an inconspicuous news item. John M Poindexter had been appointed to head a new agency "to counter attacks on the US", such as Wednesday's no-show. he agency which Poindexter will run is called the Information Awareness Office. You want to know what that is? Think, Big Brother is Watching You. IAO will supply federal officials with "instant" analysis on what is being written on email and said on phones all over the US. Domestic espionage. Poindexter is, once again, one of the most powerful men in America. His job description is "crisis manager". How do you put a man with Poindexter's record back in the manager's box? Well, a spurious crisis would be convenient. Now do you understand what was going on last Wednesday - or must I spell it out for you? not for me god knows. terrorism skepticism makes the main stream press, at least in england. no longer worth comment that the bushoilcia that took power under reagan has kept it all these years and democracy in america is dead in all but name. but the guardian columnist says: "he gave himself the right to run America's foreign policy behind the back of the commander in chief. Who the hell voted for John M Poindexter?" but who the hell voted for George W Bush? no way, of course, that the iran contra engineer indicted and convicted (overturned on appeal) for deciding what constitutional rules were not in the nation's interests given the keys to all the high tech backdoors in america and privacy to work in peace, could affect new high tech election processes

Babel, the newspaper of President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday, said that as part of the "psychological war against our country" the United States "concentrates on reiterating its aggressive intentions on Iraq to prepare peoples minds to accept this." It said the U.S. administration was preparing for military action against Iraq after the failure of its policy to "dismantle Iraq and its territorial integrity" -- a reference to the 1991 Gulf war over Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. its funny that monopoly corporate media critics all displayed their polysylabbic vocabularies last week calling denzel washington's new movie propaganda for socialized medicine while five major war blockbusters and one pseudo military basketball movie went by with no intimation of propaganda. its strange that the iraqis are only now realizing that theyre on the menu as i have been ranting about it to skeptics for over almost two years. my claim is that it is not terrorists or weapons of mass destruction that make this war (which will be bigger than anything we've seen since vietnam) necessary, but the crash of the globalized capitalist macroeconomy. while we are provided a tv serial of government officials debating its relative wisdom, the troops and equipment continue to roll out and the systematic destruction of baghdad's defenses continues the course its followed for the last two years. there is no automatic rebound function built into the economy. history shows that there is a limited number of options for restoring gdp to growth mode. these options run out and war is all that remains.

IBM will give greater detail in its quarterly financial statements, according to a published report Tuesday, after questions were raised late last week about whether it improperly used the sale of a unit to top analysts' forecasts in the fourth quarter. apropos of below. roughly the same graph as walmart: a bubble, followed by a deep crash barely altered by 9/11, followed by a miraculous take off. only, unlike walmart, in the last two months this one shows the consequences of admitting to book cooking instead of shredding the docs and taking the fifth. im sure the lesson wont be lost on the capitalists.

A Moscow band hunting for heads. For scientists’ heads: it was already third death of a scientist, that witnessed it hardly could be a coincidence. Only within this January, Russian Academy of Science lost two scientists with world name –academician I. Glebov (who died as a result of a bandit attack in St Petersburg) and Corresponding Member of the Academy of Science A. Brushlinski (who was killed in Moscow). So, what is happening? This scientist has probably invented a vaccine protecting from any biological arm, or – quite the contrary – created such an arm, like Brushlinski who suffered for his creation. this bad translation from pravda does not mention the two american microbiologists, one from harvard, who died suspiciously in the months following the anthrax attacks

BIRDS are opting not to migrate, lawns are continuing to grow and frogs are waking up weeks early. The natural world, it would seem, is in a state of utter confusion. According to the calendar, Britain should be trying to shake off the winter gloom. But unusually warm weather has kicked off the earliest spring in recorded history. Temperatures between January 13 and February 12 were the warmest since records began in 1659, averaging 8-10c compared to the normal 4-6c. Scientists observing the activity of trees, plants and birds reckon nature is approximately three weeks ahead of itself. With newborn lambs already gambolling among the daffodils, the picture is a happy contrast to spring last year, which was marked by the sorry sight of a lamb stranded in a quagmire in Norfolk, unable to be moved because of foot-and-mouth restrictions. 'There's absolutely no question there is something going on when you see the figures for the
last 30 years.' But while many people will welcome spring's early arrival, it could have a serious downside. Research in Oxfordshire has shown that some birds could struggle to find food if they start to nest earlier. Similarly, trees which respond quickest to the warmth may in the longer term force out those which react more slowly. Rats also favour warmer weather and breed in greater numbers during mild winters. 'We suspect there will be all sorts of knock-on impacts, many of which we don't yet know about.' Scientists meeting in Boston last weekend heard that global warming will continue for the next 100 years, even if the use of fossil fuels is dramatically reduced. more rats? cant have the tourists stepping over rats on their way to the macy's. oh well, nothing that a few tons of poison spread around the green spots where the children play cant fix right up. this is a useful instrument for measuring the monopoly corporate media discourses relative accuracy: (1) another push for anwar drilling is on the political agenda. ergo, many media voices expressing sometimes considered, sometimes sarcastic skepticism about the certainty of global warming science (2) kenny boy didnt know how his overenthusiastic underlings were running his company

The Enron belly flop stunned almost everyone, but a select circle of Wall Street pros had an early warning system you can't access.: Just as Citigroup used the credit-protection approach to insure $1.4 billion in loans to Enron, other banks and security firms shrewdly sidestepped a big hit by purchasing credit-protection contracts on Enron. "It's like taking out extra fire insurance just as your house starts smoking," But for now the quotes are known only to a small circle of professionals trading credit insurance in a wholesale-only market. apropos of next item. the big players in insuring themselves against impending losses invisible to the public protects their capital in the short run, but just as it took years of unabated capital accumulation to convince working and middle class investors that the stock market was a better haven for their meager savings than banks, and iras and 401ks riding the ups and ups of the market better than guararteed pensions, and paid managed care better than employee provided or single payer health coverage as it helped insure the up and up of their savings, once the sense that corporate accounting really is radically and not just slightly unreliable will create a new understanding that they are not risking that porsche they were dreaming of buying down the road, but decades of retirement above the poverty line, and that the risk cannot be measured by the public discourse of corporate interests which little more than stock commercials on whose sale their obscene wealth depends, which only another decade of unabated growth will be able to reverse.

Wal-Mart hits 4Q profit forecast for months ive been saying that certain key corporations and banks must be lying about their profits. large market movers like cisco and american express always seemed to come out with posititive numbers when the markets were threatening a selling panic. the capitalist chattering about enron/andersen and the problems with corporate transparency only confirmed my suspicion that among very large corporate entities, market manipulation is being worked through conspiratorial shifting of capital around and book cooking. walmart here seems a case in point. the graph shows that 9/11 was a bare blip in a steady crash beginning in july that had brought it off a bubble that started in june. after 9/11 it continued down until the beginning of october when it miraculously started to climb, past 9/10, past the height of its june bubble and onward and upward. i suppose its godzila vs king kong destruction of kmart can account for a better market position, but it is nonetheless a better position in a shrinking market of a stable 2 million a year layoff rate (that layoffs have stabilized at this historic level was actually touted by the bloomberg radio boosters club as just one more sign that the recession is over). it is now no longer left wing hystrionics to claim that capitalists distort their figures to deceive the public into buying their stock. no one, nevertheless, seems to be asking walmart to account for its wonderful achievements in the midst of this recession.

Bush Withdraws Documents On Major Germ Weapons: ``We're working hard for a set of guidelines so terrorists can't use information that this country produces against us.'' like in a war crimes trial? translate: (1) we will use bioweapons against iraq (2) the lesson of enron is no documents = a lot of whining but no prosecution

FTC Charges TV Psychic 'Miss Cleo' With Deceptive Practices threatened with extinction for being too independent of corporate political interests, the ftc turns its attention to petty thieves.

America's laser of death cleared for take-off: he advantage of laser weapons is that they strike at the speed of light. In the Coil, the power of a chemical reaction is converted to laser energy, and the weapon can carry on firing as long as its power source is intact. Paul Wolfowitz, the US deputy defence secretary, has given the go-ahead for the next-generation AC-130, which includes full funding for the "integration of a direct-energy weapon". im so glad to have another weapon to protect me from my enemies that im happy to give up another thousand dollars a year of my social security tax money. wait a minute. i dont have it, the bushoilcia does. its a good thing their enemies will always be my enemies.

Sprint Corp. said on Friday it will cut 3,000 customer service jobs and close five call centers at its Sprint PCS Group wireless telephone unit, in a move to cut costs. It expects to add 3 million or more subscribers in 2002 3 million more customers with 3000 fewer customer servicers. genius capitalists at work, do not disturb. next time try taking a job with marathon corp

India Rejects Pakistan Demand For Military De-Escalation the media noise level rises and falls; the road to world war is straight and flat

Lay Sold Shares for $100 Million: Mr. Lay, Enron's former chairman and chief executive, had previously disclosed selling $29.9 million in shares in public markets from January through the end of July. The new disclosures showed he took in $70.1 million from selling Enron stock back to the company from February through October. A spokeswoman for Mr. Lay, Kelly Kimberly, said that Mr. Lay had "remained confident in Enron's stock through late 2001" and said "the vast majority" of the money he got from Enron was used to pay loans that had been secured by his stake in Enron. She said the sales were unrelated to developments at Enron, including the Watkins letter. Ms. Kimberly added that Mr. Lay and his wife did not expect to have to file for bankruptcy. "While they are experiencing liquidity problems, they believe they will be able to work through them," she said of the Lays. i'm so relieved. i'd hate to think that some godless liberals could hurt those nice people with their anti american entrepeneur agenda. some cynics might take the sale of 100 million dollars worth of stock he was touting to his employees while some ethically challenged underlings were arranging to lock them into them as evidence that kenny boy was talking out of both sides of his face. i'm confident that the corporate monopoly media will set the record straight in the coming weeks that he was a naive and gullible victim of his own magnanimity in trusting his underlings to be as obsessively ethical as he. god will reward those who are on the side of truth with half million dollar book contracts and punish those who are not with suicide bullets in the brain.

Health-care information systems and services provider VantageMed Corp. said Friday that embattled Arthur Andersen had quit as its independent auditor. In a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, VantageMed said Anderson told the company that it resigned because it was unable to rely on VantageMed management's "on certain issues concerning the financial statements." we were so shocked that enron's systematic ethically fraudulent practices might appear to some cynics to violate the few corporate laws that still exist after twenty years of right wing corporate sponsored legislation, and that their fraud (not kenny boy's but his overenthusiastic ethically challenged underlings') might be construed by some cynics as implying our complicity, that we went right to work examining other companies that use our services for anything that some cynics might construe as fraudulent.

Two employees of a Hamilton laboratory which tests water and soil have been arrested and face fraud charges. "The certificates of analysis were either altered or they were filled out with the tests not being completed." A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment says there's no reason to believe public health is at risk. the reason is that evidence of health risks would create political pressure on polluting corporations to undergo costly refitting, and these corporations currently own most of the political process. given such conditions, we should assume that the health risks are systematically understated both by the corporations themselves and by the governments they finance. this is why i have a pur filter on my drinking tap.

Judge: Microsoft must give states Windows code in order to verify claim it could not offer a simpler version of the Windows personal computer operating system, stripped of features like the Internet Explorer browser. this would mean the death of the leviathan. i'll believe it when i see it

Sherron Watkins, the Enron whistle-blower, is to sign a $500,000 (£350,000) book deal to give the inside story on the energy giant's collapse. across from a half page ad for shellgame oil we learn how god smiles differently on watkins who exhonorated kenny boy to a global audience than on baxter who didn't

Ex-CIA Official To Head September 11 Congress Probe despite some objections he was too close to the spy agency to have an independent eye, congressional sources told Reuters on Wednesday. Former CIA Inspector General Britt Snider, who reviewed the agency's internal probe of the computer misuse scandal involving former CIA Director John Deutch, was selected to lead the congressional investigation, sources said. Snider retired from the CIA last year. this doesn't mean theyre planning a whitewash, kenny boy is an innocent victim, and global warming science is uncertain

Flaming death no accident, FBI says.Gasoline found on clothes of license examiner Her testimony came during a probable cause and bond hearing for three of Smith's five co-defendants in an alleged scheme to get Tennessee driver's licenses using false information for men with Middle Eastern ties who lived in New York City. cia, fresh from staging enron suicides, make one look like terrorists

The single most important impression of my time in the US is that Americans as a group are the most brainwashed and mind controlled people on earth; they are putty in the hands of the media controllers and believe almost everything they are told. This is a complex problem which involves not just media control and manipulation. When I go back to Zimbabwe as I did in October of last year, I was aware, as I always am, that I am not subject to certain subliminal forces at work on the psyche which are definitely operating in the US and Europe - I am "out of the loop" somehow. I also know people who have lived under communism and they are innoculated to propaganda and mind control - they recognize it for what it is - though they fall headlong into consumerism because they have been so deprived. an africans view of american culture. i agree, but sometimes i wonder if we are not all really out of the loop and the media create the illusion that everybody else is buying their crap

South Africa is collapsing quietly: There have been a number of most troubling things which have happened in South Africa in recent days which shows that the country's economic base is slowly crumbling and falling apart. another small insignificant state economy to go under. shucks, right when the global economy is about to zoom into recovery mode.

Alert issued for potential teddy bear bombs dont buy things that might be used in bombs unless you dont mind being interrogated and watched by the fbi

US Cargo Plane Crashes As Powell Hints Iraq Is Bush's Next Target: Powell's fine-tuning of Bush's stance follows criticism from some European leaders of the direction in which Washington's anti-terror campaign is developing. now do you believe me that powell's dovey rhetoric about iraq has been a good imperialist bad imperialist side show. translate no war plans against iran and korea in terms of iraq. give up? it means war plans against iraq. and though we have no plans against iran (as powell et al has consistently claimed about iraq), they might have no plans to let us lob missiles over them from afghanistan.

Indonesian Rainforests Pulped To Extinction: The Indonesian pulp and paper industry is destroying rainforest at such an astonishing rate that it will run out of wood in five years, according to a report being published today. Environmental groups are concerned that rare wildlife, such as Sumatran tigers and a sub-species of elephant, in some of the most biodiverse rainforests in the world is threatened with extinction. They also warn western investors that they may lose hundreds of millions of pounds as pulping companies run out of trees to fell. while the millions of pounds might get some capitalists attention, few americans understand the importance of biodiversity beyond a fun day at the zoo with the kids. the problem with rainforest destruction is that species depend on them for survival that dont live there. they make the oxygen in our air.

Daschle takes back criticism of Bush's 'axis of evil 'Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican, said Mr. Daschle's comments are more proof of his political plans for 2004. "Only thing I can figure is he's going to run for president," Mr. Lott said. "I can't explain it any other way." Mr. Lott told a U.S. Chamber of Commerce audience yesterday that Mr. Bush's rhetoric against nations that sponsor terrorism is having the same effect that President Reagan's "evil empire" remark had against the former Soviet Union. that lie went over so easy, we figured this one would too (bush sr wrote both of them).

Iran's Rafsanjani Warns US Of 'Bloody' War If It Attacks: Rafsanjani told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran. "America will have the choice to enter Iran, but not the choice to leave," he said to chants of 'Death to America' and 'Death to Israel'. "We won't be distributing food in this quagmire. There will be blood." The latest spat with Washington has strengthened the hand of conservatives against reformers, who had tried to improve ties with Washington, cut after revolutionaries seized US diplomats in Iran in 1979. Hardliners have seized the opportunity. if bushoilcia was really interested in peace and security, they would not kill the reformist movement in iran and ensure hardline fundamentalist extremists a bully pulpit. they are interested in war and insecurity as these are the only real way out of industrial depression. tax and interest rate cuts only shift more of the shrinking gdp into the hands of the capitalist class. growing gdp depends on the high value of labor increasing the spending power of the working class and increasing industrial production brought about by war time. the iran/iraqis are laboring under the same delusion as the taliban that any rules of conflict beyond public relations which can be manipulated by control of media coverage will protect them from every dirty weapon we possess, which is all of them. bushoilcia knows that dead americans is bad pr, and will sooner genocide civilians with tactical nukes, chemical and biowarfare than risk significant us casualties. on the other hand, a war that fails to kill off a significant portion of the working class, bringing unemployment down so that the value of labor can increase, will not do the job of returning the economy to an upswing. it may be that, because of thorough globalization of the macroeconomy, it will be sufficient to kill off working class of any nationality.

NYS DEC, DEC Issues New Drought Advisories for New York Counties: some water supply reservoirs have dropped to record low levels. Stream flows and ground water levels are significantly below normal in most of the state. Below normal precipitation during the past six months, including well-below normal rainfall for the last two months has compounded the problem. Ground water levels are not expected to improve in the immediate future. this was a month ago. it has rained in new york shortly once since then but i haven't heard any injunctions to conserve in weeks.

US Lining Up Support For Attack On Iraq: U.S. military commanders for the region have been transferring their headquarters from U.S. locations to the Persian Gulf since late last year. Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and U.S. officials talked last week about how Israel might respond to an Iraqi retaliatory attack. Nervous Iraqi neighbors appear to be reluctantly accepting action against Iraq. USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll conducted over the weekend. In the survey of 1,001 adults, 82% agreed with Bush that Iraq is ''evil,'' and 88% said it is important to remove Saddam from power. i'm now fairly convinced that distorted poll results are being regularly published by major organizations. i first suspected this when bush approval ratings began mysteriously to rise after the second debate with gore in which even with the exclusion of nader, bush was obviously exposed as ignorant and not focused on average american interests. today, after the bush/lay partnership has been made clear to the dimmest christian right winger, and ashcroft's fascist police powers to the dimmest bigot militia patriot, we are told that the bushoilcia continues to command unprecedented approval ratings and 9 out of 10 americans are eager to send their kids to die in iraq. well, maybe its true. nobody ever went broke underestimating american intelligence. as to the war, a careful review of my archives will show that i have been unambiguously predicting invasion of iraq for over a year. many months before 911, the systematic bombing of anti aircraft installations showed that invasion was in the planning during the bushoilcia campaign. that 911 serves as the catalyst allowing them to put the plan into concrete and public form is the main reason i side with those who finger bushoilcia as the 911 culprit.

Armed to the teeth: Typically, it has been left to the French, traditionally suspicious of US global hegemony, to find the best words to describe it. Gigantisme militaire they call it, in a phrase that describes both the scale of America's ambitions and also a pathological condition: an organism grown so large it is sick. The question the rest of the world is asking itself is: Who is the enemy America is arming itself so against? And why? 'Ostensibly,' says one European diplomat, 'this is about security. But quite how a massive increase in defence spending is supposed to prevent another terrorist attack remains unclear. while youre figuring it out mind if we put these missiles here?

After being holed up in his 33rd-floor apartment at the posh Huntingdon tower for days, he turned up at church seconds before the service began. On the way in, he paused on the sidewalk to autograph a baseball for a passer-by - then took a seat in the balcony. Leaving the church, Lay was asked how he was feeling. He replied, "With God's help, we'll get through." "Everyone here knows what it is to hurt," Wende said, introducing a prayer. Later, the minister told the congregation, "If someone is whispering in your life that things cannot be fixed, that's a lie." A few days earlier, Wende told The Post that Lay and his wife, Linda, have been under enormous stress. "They hurt a lot," the pastor said. "We've prayed together." Lay has been subpoenaed to appear before the Senate why dont you put a thorny crown on his head and get it over with. somehow running from the hotel to the church reporters managed to catch him on the way in. when the capitalist's robber baron colors start to show, turn him into a persecuted disciple of christ on the national news and half the republican idiots in the country make him another victim of godless liberals. it worked wonders for bush

The Enron Black Magic, Part Five BIG Oil and BIG Electricity: those who rule us do so ONLY with our consent. It is the basis of our organic law, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Despite that, however, BIG OIL and BIG ENERGY and their front men and women, some appearing and re-appearing in our website stories, have decided our lives if not our actual destinies, as ordinary Americans, for at least 40 years and more. what i mean by bushoilcia

Leaders of Enron Inquiry Challenge CEO's Testimony, Perjury Possibility Raised: Tauzin and Greenwood cited instances in which Skilling said he couldn't recall details of key conversations that subordinates testified they had with him concerning Enron's finances. In one, Enron's new president and chief operating officer, Jeffrey McMahon, said he was transferred out of his job as treasurer shortly after he complained to Skilling about the partnerships in a 30-minute meeting in March 2000. Hiler, in a statement, disputed Tauzin's assertions that Skilling's administrative assistant had provided information that undermined his version of events. Hiler did not address, however, the statements by other Enron employees that conflicted with Skilling's testimony. take the money en ron. but cashing out on your pyramid scam on national tv puts all the other pyramid scams at risk including the stock market. looks like were in for a pig fight

Attack on Iraq is unavoidable: US official's warningUS President George W. Bush was now on "a very clear path" heading toward war with Iraq, said Perle as quoted by the Financial Times Deutschland. The newspaper said if Perle was right even Iraq's meeting the US demand for the return of international inspectors would do nothing to prevent American military strikes. The German foreign ministry on Monday warned against a military strike against Iraq by the United States. "There are no signs and no evidence that Iraq is involved in the terrorism that we have been discussing for several months" if ive been saying for a year that the war on terrorism is simply a cover story for major military invasion of baghdad, why is it news to the germans?

Enron: The real face of the "new economy": For six years in a row Fortune magazine named it the most innovative corporation and only last August listed the firm as one of the ten growth stocks to last the decade. As recently as last year, the Economist in Britain praised Enron for having created what might be the “most successful Internet venture of any company in any industry anywhere.” The publicity campaign did not stop there. As an article in the December 4 edition of the Financial Times noted: “The books of various gurus have singled out the company as paragon of good management, for Leading the Revolution (Gary Hamel, 2000), practising Creative Destruction (Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan, 2001), devising Strategy Through Simple Rules (Kathy Eisenhardt and Donald Sull, 2001), winning the War for Talent (Ed Michaels, 1998) and Navigating the Road to the Next Economy (James Critin, scheduled for publication in February 2002—and now, presumably being rewritten).” The hype generated around the company was summed up by Hamel, who wrote: “As much as any company in the world, Enron has institutionalised a capacity for perpetual innovation ... [it is] an organisation where thousands of people see themselves as potential revolutionaries.” the socialist view youll never hear on corporate monopoly media. of course all these economic sages have been fired for talking out of their asses.

Dear George Bush: Kenny has always been there for you. You needed a way to fly around to all the primaries and campaign stops in the 2000 election -- so Kenny gave you his corporate jet. Did you tell the voters when you arrived in each city that the bird you flew in on was from a billionaire who was secretly conspiring to give the bird to all his employees and investors? He flew you around America on the Enron company jet, and for that favor you touched down on tarmac after tarmac to tell your fellow citizens that you were "going to restore dignity to the White House, the people's house." You said this standing in front of an Enron jet! you interrupted an important campaign trip in April, 2000, to fly back to Houston for the Astros opening day at the new Enron Field -- just so you could watch Kenny Boy Lay throw out the first pitch. How sentimental! I mean, you loved this man so intensely that, when you were awarded a set of keys the Supreme Court had made for you so you could live in the White House, you invited Kenny Boy to set up shop -- at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue! He interviewed those who would hold high-level Energy Department positions in your administration. You not only let Kenny Boy decide who would head the regulatory agency that oversaw Enron, you let him hand-pick the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Harvey Pitt -- a former lawyer for his accountant, Arthur Andersen! Kenny and the boys at Andersen also worked to make sure that accounting firms would be exempt from numerous regulations and would not be held liable for any "funny bookkeeping" (don't you wish you were this forward-thinking?). The rest of Kenny Boy's time was spent next door with his old buddy, Dick Cheney (Enron and Halliburton, as you'll recall, got the big contracts from your dad to "rebuild" Kuwait after the Gulf War). long summary of bushoilcia's political wisdom linked to all relevant documentation

Make Them Accountable: The Republicans are shameless in promoting their latest Enron-like economic plan that gives to the rich and takes from the rest. It is clear as daylight in the Bush budget. The President robs Social Security and Medicare in order to guarantee additional, future tax breaks to the richest Americans, the special interests, and mega corporations. His budget not only cuts job training, but also slashes funding for needed state projects like highway repair and construction. That means fewer jobs and more people without work. several comments and links from the 15% who dont approve of bushoilcia tyranny

World Bank Insider TODAY’S WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS Speaks Out : including how the IMF and US Treasury fixed the Russian elections. Stiglitz helped translate one from bureaucratise, a "Country Assistance Strategy." There’s an Assistance Strategy for every poorer nation, designed, says the World Bank, after careful in-country investigation. But according to insider Stiglitz, the Bank’s staff ‘investigation’ consists of close inspection of a nation’s 5-star hotels. It concludes with the Bank staff meeting some begging, busted finance minister who is handed a ‘restructuring agreement’ pre-drafted for his ‘voluntary’ signature (I have a selection of these). Each nation’s economy is individually analyzed, then, says Stiglitz, the Bank hands every minister the same exact four-step program. Step One is Privatization - which Stiglitz said could more accurately be called, ‘Briberization.’ Rather than object to the sell-offs of state industries, he said national leaders - using the World Bank’s demands to silence local critics - happily flogged their electricity and water companies. "You could see their eyes widen" at the prospect of 10% commissions paid to Swiss bank accounts for simply shaving a few billion off the sale price of national assets. Step Two of the IMF/World Bank one-size-fits-all rescue-your-economy plan is ‘Capital Market Liberalization.’ In theory, capital market deregulation allows investment capital to flow in and out. Unfortunately, as in Indonesia and Brazil, the money simply flowed out and out. Stiglitz calls this the "Hot Money" cycle. Cash comes in for speculation in real estate and currency, then flees at the first whiff of trouble. A nation’s reserves can drain in days, hours. And when that happens, to seduce speculators into returning a nation’s own capital funds, the IMF demands these nations raise interest rates to 30%, 50% and 80%. Step Three: Market-Based Pricing, a fancy term for raising prices on food, water and cooking gas. This leads, predictably, to Step-Three-and-a-Half: what Stiglitz calls, ‘The IMF riot.’ as when the IMF eliminated food and fuel subsidies for the poor in Indonesia in 1998. Indonesia exploded into riots. the Bolivian riots over water prices last year and this February, the riots in Ecuador over the rise in cooking gas prices. The secret report notes that the plan to make the US dollar Ecuador’s currency has pushed 51% of the population below the poverty line. The World Bank "Assistance" plan simply calls for facing down civil strife and suffering with, "political resolve" . There are lots of losers in this system but one clear winner: the Western banks and US Treasury. Step Four of what the IMF and World Bank call their "poverty reduction strategy": Free Trade. This is free trade by the rules of the World Trade Organization and World Bank, Stiglitz the insider likens free trade WTO-style to the Opium Wars. "That too was about opening markets," he said. As in the 19th century, Europeans and Americans today are kicking down the barriers to sales in Asia, Latin American and Africa, while barricading our own markets against Third World agriculture. In the Opium Wars, the West used military blockades to force open markets for their unbalanced trade. Today, the World Bank can order a financial blockade just as effective. the new global order has "condemned people to death" by imposing impossible tariffs and tributes to pay to pharmaceutical companies for branded medicines. "They don’t care," said the professor of the corporations and bank loans he worked with, "if people live or die." World Bank plans, devised in secrecy and driven by an absolutist ideology, are never open for discourse or dissent. And they don’t work. Black Africa’s productivity under the guiding hand of IMF structural "assistance" has gone to hell in a handbag. Did any nation avoid this fate? Yes, said Stiglitz, identifying Botswana. Their trick? "They told the IMF to go packing." Every time their free market solutions failed, the IMF simply demanded more free market policies. "It’s a little like the Middle Ages," the insider told me, "When the patient died they would say, ‘well, he stopped the bloodletting too soon, he still had a little blood in him.’" I took away from my talks with the professor that the solution to world poverty and crisis is simple: remove the bloodsuckers. i don't think they want to go and are currently ramping up their military and police powers to make sure it will be up to them from now on. that's funny: this is what those crazy mixed up anti globalization kids said about the wto/imf who dont really understand all the subtleties of capitalism. well here's a good simple measure of the relative accuracy of left and right wing discourses. the right says increasing hydrocarbon emissions (see just below) will help; the left says they will hurt. lets find out

Thousands of Milosevic supporters demand his release the socialist waits it out in jail while the capitalist kenny boy waits it out in the lincoln bedroom. cant take him to trial until they can trump up the death count to somewhere near rumsfelds

NASA Extinguishes Global-Warming Fire: We can only eagerly await the upcoming congressional hearings on Mr. Bush's vs. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's energy plans. The former wants oil from Alaska, and the latter wants to restrict combustion because of global warming. Perhaps Mr. Hansen could be called to testify alongside the skeptics. In all fairness, Mr. Hansen still calls for emissions reductions. That position seems remarkably illogical, except that it is likely to keep him from being stoned by the greens corporate global warming deniers make their move with one nasa expert, attributing his recommentation for emissions reductions to cowtowing to greens. of course his scale back of original predictions cant be cowtowing to corporate sponsors. note the condition: unless emissions increase exponentially, which they will only be stopped from doing by economic depression. but a depression that slows down emissions will also kill regulatory controls perhaps making up the difference. this corporate apologist's irony would be more compelling if it werent 50 degrees today in new york. and of course it is plain talking and not the money involved in drilling oil in anwar that motivates it.

Washington Steps Up Pressure On Iraq: Within top layers of Bush's Republican party, said Joseph Cirincione, a strategy specialist at the Carnegie Endowment, "it's not a question of should we attack Iraq, but rather when." Korb said such an assault could begin with support of armed operations by the Iraqi opposition, and be followed, if necessary, by the military engagement of as many as 50,000 troops -- a number bandied about by the Pentagon, according to US media reports. It is also important to remember, suggested Jon Wolfsthal of the Carnegie Endowment, that unless the United States has a clear mandate and the support of regional allies, occupying Iraq and the resulting need to rebuild the country "threatens to be more than even Washington can handle." "Baghdad is not Kabul and (Saddam Hussein's) Republican guard is not the Taliban," he said. in order not to kill 50000 americans in an unjustifiable war against iraq's 500000 dedicated troops, we'll have to use all the nasty weapons we have before sending them in. that means the multi thousand civilian deaths in afghanistan will look like childs play

Unknown Toll in the Fog of War: Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan: Most often, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and military spokesmen have dismissed accusations of mistakes as enemy propaganda. They express confidence in their targeting and voice regret for any "collateral damage." They maintain that extraordinary efforts have been taken to minimize civilian losses, something that even most critics of the war effort would not dispute. Nevertheless, certainly hundreds and perhaps thousands of innocent Afghans have lost their lives during American attacks, a scattering of bodies extraordinarily difficult to tabulate. Many mournful Afghan families demand a reckoning. "Tell me why our homes were destroyed and 55 people — even little children — are dead?" asked an angry young man named Gul Nabi, standing in December among the 15 obliterated houses of a village named Madoo. "There were no Arabs here," he said, referring to Al Qaeda fighters. "There were only farmers who lived a good life and prayed to Allah for peace." the war theyre planning on iraq and now iran will dwarf the "collateral damage" in afghanistan.

CIA Says Chances Of India-Pakistan War Highest Since 1971: "Both India and Pakistan are publicly downplaying the risks of nuclear conflict in the current crisis. We are deeply concerned, however, that a conventional war -- once begun -- could escalate into a nuclear confrontation." India in January tested a new short- range version of its intermediate, nuclear-capable Agni missile. India and Pakistan have been readied for war -- with an estimated 800,000 troops massed on their common border while everybody's watching the olympics, somebody should be keeping tabs on wwiii

Israeli Cities Ordered To Ready Bomb Shelters somebody thinks US invasion of iraq is coming

Russia Rips CIA Report on Technology stop playing host to iraqi irani interests or you'll find yourselves on the wrong side of wwiii

GE reaffirms guidance its a good thing that giving kids leukemia with pcb's doesnt prevent you from growing your profit margin in a crashing economy. it gives me a secure feeling

CIA Gets Big Boost in Bush Budget what bushoilcia? republicans are gonna have to show some restraint and cut back on those teacher salaries

J'Accuse: Bush's Death Squads: When Senator Frank Church had a committee in the Senate that found out that the CIA was conducting
assassination missions against foreign leaders and they passed very stringent laws against the CIA to prevent any abuses. And
now what we're hearing is that the late Senator Church went too far. Well Senator Church was responding to some very severe abuses of authority by the CIA. And now we're hearing basically history is being changed on us here and we're hearing that Senator Church went too far in what he did. "Especially in countries in South East Asia, we have a President who is very much in it with the US multi-national companies. What if they decide that West Papua independence movement in Irian Jaya - West Papua - could be a terrorist organization. And they could decide well we're going to target their leadership for assassination because they happen to be against the interests of Freeport McMoran - one of the biggest mining companies in West Papua. Or what if they decide that the Aceh movement in Northern Sumatra happens to be ……. to the interests of Exxon Mobil corporation, and they decide to target their leadership for assassination. I think this is the problem with this type of wide sweeping authorization to assassinate foreign leaders. We may find ourselves assassinating people because they just so happen to be against US interests. " what if that's the plan? what if this is the real economic recovery package?

Penguins are starting to desert parts of
Antarctica because the icy wastes are getting too hot: Like miners' canaries, the dinner-jacketed penguins of Antarctica
are providing an early warning of danger to come. For global warming is heating up the frozen continent faster than the
rest of the world, and the penguins are among the first to feel the effects. if antartica is too hot, where do they go? global warming and ecodestruction did not make the bushoilcia state of the union agenda or any of the follow up speeches to gop cronies or idiot constituents. the carving up of the world by oil interests ensures that it will stay off the monopoly corporate media until reality forces its way past the capitalist information ministry

We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel’s defense. The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose – and we shall take no part in them. wwiii hits a snag. yesterday sharon talked about peace and a palestinian state

Bush Promotes Plans at GOP Retreat: said his plan for giving workers more control over their retirement
accounts is "part of ushering in the responsibility era, not only from the individual basis but on the corporate." in other words: undo everything weve been working to get done for the past two decades. not everyone took a bath with enron. a small number of particularly smart people made fortunes. they or their political whores make up bush's audience for this sideshow. witness the tragicomedy script: "In a brief question-and-answer session that was closed to the press, the president took a couple of well-placed shots at his audience, according to participants. After Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.) made a lengthy statement about welfare reform." though its hard to see what welfare is left to "reform," with ballooning unemployment, its still the lazy poor people preventing hard working capitalists like kenny boy from leading the nation to universal prosperity. trans. my clients want to pay out less capital gains on the hundred million they took out of the enron pyramid. "Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), pressed the president to make enough spending cuts to
balance the budget by 2003. Sources said Bush replied that after the national crisis was over, he would support a constitutional
amendment requiring a balanced budget. But he said he "never dreamed" the nation would experience what he called the trifecta of war, recession and a national emergency, all of which he said justify heavy spending. He pleaded with lawmakers to hold the line elsewhere." closed to the press, the script continues on cue. delay presses bush to slow down ransacking the community chest; bush magnanimously admitting that he saw neither the recession nor the fake terrorism nor the war that's been in the planning since 1999 coming, laments having to haul more billions out of your social security donations to his cronies in the pentagon and "pleads" with gop pigs not to succumb to the temptation to throw so many dollars at poor and working class interests. "House Republicans engaged in a heated debate over campaign finance legislation, lawmakers said, but failed to settle on a strategy aimed at defeating a bipartisan bill to ban unlimited "soft money" contributions." scene three: after a bloody battle, now one side winning, now the other, the opponents prove equal to each other and cant determine which way exactly their money tree should be cut down. scene four (or prologue depending on the particular production): "Earlier, Bush stepped into the Roosevelt Room at the White House to introduce James Towey, a 45-year-old Democrat, as the new director of his Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Towey, a Catholic lawyer and former Capitol Hill aide who spent years working for Mother Teresa, tells associates that his career goal is to get to heaven." deus ex machina descends from heaven and points smilingly on bushoilcia

Top Ten Things You Need to Know About Enron: Wendy Gramm, the wife of Senator Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) chaired the Commodity Futures Trading Commission until 1993. While there, she helped make sure that Enron's brand of derivatives trading would be free of government oversight. Weeks after she left that committee, she was offered a lucrative position on Enron's board. In the end, who got screwed? Enron's employees, clearly, were hurt the most. As many as 12,000 of them lost their life savings or their entire pension. They were forced to keep a certain percentage of their 401(k)s in Enron stock, and encouraged to invest solely in Enron. In the last few months, just as the share price was tumbling, Enron management switched pension plans and froze employee accounts. Employees watched in horror, their hands tied, as the stock lost most of its value. Illegal? Employees are suing, and intend to find out. Who else got screwed? Thousands of American investors have lost money on Enron stock, individually and through outfits like the Osprey Trust, an Enron entity that financed some of the company's sketchy partnerships and investments abroad. Over 50 mutual funds and insurance companies invested $2.4 billion dollars in the trust, which then lost most of its value. And don't forget investors and power plant workers in Brazil and India. Enron's reach is broad. Oddly, even Kmart employees can claim Enron victim status: Kmart's bankruptcy may have been precipitated in part by the Enron collapse. Cliff Baxter, the 43-year-old former Enron exec who allegedly committed suicide, also complained (he also killed hiimself only two days after telling an un-named friend who spoke to the New York Times that he might need a bodyguard). It isn't only true believers who lost money on Enron, supposedly conservative investors sank millions into Enron stocks and funds. And they continue to sink money -- including, possibly, parts of your retirement -- into other existing Enron-esque companies. Enron was never alone in its ways. The CEO of Global Crossing Unlimited, the largest telecommunications company ever to go belly up, is walking away with over $700 million from his bankrupted company, while the shareholders weep. Global Crossing's accounting firm is Arthur Andersen. The share price of a Bermuda-based, Beverly-Hills-run conglomerate called Tyco is dropping after word got out that it practices "aggressive accounting." Tyco's two top execs swore their faith in the company, saying they rarely if ever sold their own stock in it. They neglected to mention the $100 million they had already cashed out. The corporate raiders are, by in large, making a killing at everyone else's expense (even if Kenneth Lay does have to sell his ski houses). Wall Street isn't likely to stand up and demand greater accountability and systemic change. It's going to have to be the public. capitalism for dummies. its bad times when rational objective intelligent people have to refer to the alleged suicides of upstanding corporate citizens. two points: as pernicious as these corporations practices are, investigations will determine that most of it is legal as through the good capitalist bad capitalist governments from reagan to bushoilcia, making them legal has been a full time job (not really protecting fetuses and jesus from godless perverted liberals). small criminals breaks laws; big criminals change them. second: once again the pigs were too successful at rewriting the rules of the game to free themselves up to screw the working class. while they whine about the now perfect legality of their practices and the fact that noone forced the employees to work for them or buy their intentionally deceptively valued stocks, the cost for their quick multi hundred million dollar legal embezzlements (which have of course all ceased with enron) is that employees and investors who no longer trust them will not continue enthusiastically to feed their money pyramid. nevertheless, if it has to be the public who calls them to account as their own whores running official investigations wont, then its not going to happen. witness bush's approval rating untouched (unless arthur andersen is doing the polling). americans have been conditioned by decades of corporate monopoly media panagyrics to capitalism and political dumbing down to ignore anything that threatens to demand political thought and action and go watch the superbowl

Enron Probe Reaches Into White House: Herbert Winokur--a member of a panel created by Enron's board of directors to look into the company's collapse--is an Enron board member who led its finance committee and approved many of the transactions under review. "Mr. Winokur is essentially investigating his own actions and approving or disapproving the resulting report" Critics also have raised questions about William Powers chairman of Enron's internal investigating committee's independence. Powers has had responsibility for law school fund-raising since he became dean in September 2000. Enron has contributed more than $50,000 to the law school since he took the post. But Powers downplayed suggestions of a conflict of interest. "As with any report by a committee of a board, readers can and should evaluate the fact that it was written by people commissioned by the company" now why didn't the mafia think of that?

State of emergency declared; ice storm called worst ever the fact that ecodestruction did not make the bushoilcia state of the union agenda tells us that our fate is sealed. unlike the threat of phantom terrorist hoards thousands of miles away, the threat of climate change does nothing to further bushoilcia power but only hinders it. ergo it is a fantasy not worth mentioning. you would think hail stones dropping on their stupid heads would be more compelling than the mass media circuses of capitalist power elites in forming their world views.