Heartland Coin Gallery - Economic & Financial News Headlines

HEADLINE Economic, Financial & Global News...
every weekday, to keep you better informed.

Monday 02.06.2012

In warning to neighbors,
Iran threatens to hit any country
that originates attack against it
AP - WashingtonPost.com
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran will target any country where an attack against it is staged, a senior Guard commander warned Sunday, the latest Iranian threat tied to growing tensions over its nuclear program and Western sanctions.
Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the elite Revolutionary Guard, Iran’s most powerful military force, did not elaborate. His comments appeared to be a warning to Iran’s neighbors not to let their territory or airspace be used as a base for an attack.

Iran - Israel ready to Cripple Iran

IRAN WARNS WORLD OF COMING GREAT EVENT
Says 'evil hegemony' soon will be defeated by power of Allah
By Reza Kahlili - WND.com
Amid crippling sanctions over its nuclear weapons program, Iran is continuing to prepare itself for war against the West, and now is warning of a coming great event.
"In light of the realization of the divine promise by almighty God, the Zionists and the Great Satan (America) will soon be defeated," Ayatollah Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, is warning.
Khamenei, speaking to hundreds of youths from more than 70 countries attending a world conference on the Arab Spring just days ago, told a cheering crowd in Tehran that "Allah’s promises will be delivered and Islam will be victorious."

In case you're interested in the propaganda...

The Coming is Upon Us - Translation:
Reza Kahlili (Author of "A Time To Betray")

More Iranian propaganda... but THEY believe it, making the situation touchy and dangerous.

AYATOLLAH: KILL ALL JEWS, ANNIHILATE ISRAEL
Iran lays out legal case for genocidal attack
against 'cancerous tumor'
By Reza Khalili - WND.com
The Iranian government, through a website proxy, has laid out the legal and religious justification for the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of its people.
The doctrine includes wiping out Israeli assets and Jewish people worldwide.
Calling Israel a danger to Islam, the conservative website Alef, with ties to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the opportunity must not be lost to remove "this corrupting material. It is a ‘jurisprudential justification' to kill all the Jews and annihilate Israel, and in that, the Islamic government of Iran must take the helm."

Ahmadinejad "Jesus WILL Return"
(As a Servant to Imam Mahdi) and I will be his President

'Engineering War on Iran: All Options on the Table?'
RT.com - News
Question: How do you convince the world that – even though you’re armed to the teeth and have a bad track record of invading countries - you really have "no choice" but make a "pre-emptive military strike" against another country you don't like?
This must be the question over which the political, military and psychological warfare planners are wracking their brains in the key global power elite decision-making centres in New York, London, Tel-Aviv and Washington….
No, I’m not referring to the State Department, Pentagon, White House, Congress and their counterparts in Britain and Europe. Those folks just take their orders and execute them.
I’m referring to the real decision-makers at Bilderberg, Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations and AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee) meetings.

In a Focus on Gold, History Repeats Itself
By FLOYD NORRIS - NYTimes.com
As it was in 1980, could it be again in 2012?
The 1980 presidential election was fought by a Democratic incumbent weakened by a poor economy amid worries that the United States had lost its ability to compete in the world. Gold prices had risen to unprecedented levels as the election approached, and the Republican nominee hinted he might propose a return to a gold standard.
That Republican, Ronald Reagan, won the election and soon appointed a commission to study the role of gold in monetary systems. To gold bugs, it appeared to be the best chance in decades to move the country toward gold and away from what they like to call "fiat money," a currency anchored by nothing more than government dictates.

Peter Hambro:
Gold prices to surge as trust in currencies falls
RT.com - Business
Gold price may reach up to $5.000 per ounce if the debt crisis gets worse and people begin to panic predicts Peter Hambro, founder of one of the largest gold producers in Russia Petropavlovsk plc.
However, Mr. Hambro says a more realistic forecast for the nearest future is "somewhere between $1.850 – $2200, somewhere around $2000 on average for 2012".
Peter Hambro believes that as the debt crisis escalates and the euro along with the dollar drop, gold will turn into a safe asset gaining in value.
"There is so much uncertainty, financial uncertainty in Europe, the need to stimulate American economy is being done in effect by printing money. There is political instability in Syria, in Iran and it’s causing a lot of problems. The financial imbalances between the West and China and India are causing the system to creek as well. The only way to solve these issues is for money, the Dollar, the Euro to be devalued against real assets", says Peter Hambro.

Global liquidity may chase gold bullish: HSBC
LONDON (Commodity Online): Global liquidity could chaseGold prices higher. An important foundation of the gold rally is rising global liquidity levels, said HSBC in a research note.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told a House of Representatives committee Thursday that the bank would consider additional quantitative easing if progress toward full U.S. employment remains inadequate. There has been a ramp-up in the European Central Bank’s balance sheet, in conjunction with the Fed’s and Bank of England’s already-expansionary monetary policies.

Gold: Debt, Deficits, Doom, and Gloom
BY JOHN R ING - FinancialSense.com
Last month gold plunged more than $200 in less than a week and the dollar soared, trumping even gold. The move caused a catfight among letter writers with investors and central bankers questioning gold’s safe haven status. By contrast, the US Treasury sold more debt despite growing concern about the US economy and politically dysfunctional Washington. In the seventies, gold corrected more than 50 percent, dropping $100 before heading higher. In the eighties, gold pulled back $100 after reaching $510 per ounce before reaching new highs. So, why the disconnect?

Is US Mint gold coin January sales signal return to fundamental driven demand?
CommodityOnline.com
Dr. Constantin Gurdgiev, a non Executive member of the GoldCore Investment Committee, has analyzed the data of US Mint coin sales in January and has looked at them in their important historical context going back to 1987.
January data from the US Mint on sales of Gold coins presents an interesting picture, both in terms of seasonality and overall demand for the asset class.
Some background to start with. Gold prices have been moving sideways with some relatively moderate volatility in recent months. Between August 2011 - the monthly peak in US Dollar-quoted price and January 2012, price has fallen 4.55%, but in the last month, monthly move was 10.82% and year on year prices are up 30.4%.

Greece on "knife edge" in last hours to agree bailout
By Angeliki Koutantou and George Georgiopoulos
(Reuters) - Greece's prime minister scrambled on Sunday to convince lenders and politicians to sign off on a 130 billion euro ($171 billion) rescue, after hisfinance minister said just hours remain before the euro zone abandons the country to its fate.
A technocrat appointed in November, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is trying to ensure cash-strapped Greece avoids sinking into a chaotic default when big bond redemptions come due next month.

Euro zone insists no Greek rescue without reforms
By Jan Strupczewski
(Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers told Greece it could not go ahead with an agreed deal to restructure privately held debt until it guaranteed to implement reforms to secure a second financing package from the euro zone and the IMF.
Euro zone ministers had hoped to meet on Monday to finalize the second Greek bailout, which has to be in place by mid-March if Athens is to avoid a chaotic default, but the meeting was postponed because of Greek reluctance to commit to reforms.

The Euro: to be or not to be?
The future of the Euro is becoming increasingly dull
RT.com - Business News
None of the experts at the Russian Forum 2012 are in doubt. Even if the ‘end of the world’ scenario for the Euro doesn’t play out, the economic recovery will be painful and long lasting.
So will it be farewell to the Euro?…
Paul Krugman, renowned economists and a Nobel laureate is all but pessimistic about the future of Greece.

"They (Greece) will default on their debt. In fact they already have. The question is whether they will also leave the Euro, which I think at this point is more likely than not," he said.
Charles Wyplosz, Professor of International Economics, shares the doom and gloom scenario. A major crisis is most likely to take place, with Greece and Portugal defaulting at some point soon. "These are small countries, small debts – that’s ok," Wyplosz comments. But Italy is likely to be the next, with the banks following suit. That’s when the European Central Bank will come in, which may take around a year or so to happen.

Romania, IMF Agree on $664 Million Tranche
as Balkan Nation’s Growth Slows
By Irina Savu and Andra Timu - Bloomberg.com
Romania and the International Monetary Fund reached a staff-level agreement to unlock about 505 million euros ($664 million) in funds from its standby loan, IMF Mission Chief Jeffrey Franks said.
The eastern European country met the terms of its 5 billion-euro accord by narrowing its budget deficit to 4.35 percent of gross domestic product last year from 6.5 percent in 2010, Franks said at the end of a two-week visit to the capital Bucharest to conduct the fourth review of Romania’s accord.

Quantitative Easing and Money Growth:
Potential for Higher Inflation?
The enormous quantity of excess reserves can create an even greater expansion in the money supply.
by Daniel L. Thornton - Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
After Lehman Brothers announced on September 15, 2008, that it was seeking bankruptcy protection, the Federal Reserve massively increased the size of its balance sheet through a wide range of new lending facilities. As reliance on these facilities waned, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) undertook a large-scale asset purchase program, commonly referred to as "quantitative easing" (QE), whereby it purchased $1.75 trillion in longer-term debt; this first program is commonly called QE1. In November 2010, the FOMC announced it would purchase an additional $600 billion in longer-term Treasury securities (QE2). These actions and the FOMC’s decision to reinvest principal payments from maturing securities more than tripled the Fed’s balance sheet: from about $900 billion before Lehman’s announcement to about $2.8 trillion currently. This essay discusses the potential of these actions for growth of the money supply and inflation.

Jim Rogers on Ben Bernanke, the Dollar and "Saving the Saver"

Expect China to Shape the Next Bretton Woods Pact
By Philip Coggan - Bloomberg.com
When the world economy heads into crisis, the international currency system often breaks down. This occurs either because debtors can’t meet their obligations, or because creditors fear they are not being repaid in sound money. The first condition exists today in the euro zone; the second is likely to emerge in the China-U.S. relationship.
So how might these conditions change the system? Much discussion concerns whether the U.S. dollar will be replaced as the global reserve currency by the Chinese yuan or whether it will simply be one of a number of reserve currencies that includes the euro, yuan and yen.

GERALD CELENTE:
War, Bank Runs, Riots n Gold Going Mainstream Pt 1/4
(info wars, alex jones)

GERALD CELENTE:
War, Bank Runs, Riots n Gold Going Mainstream Pt 2/4
(info wars, alex jones)

GERALD CELENTE:
War, Bank Runs, Riots n Gold Going Mainstream Pt 3/4
(info wars, alex jones)

GERALD CELENTE:
War, Bank Runs, Riots n Gold Going Mainstream Pt 4/4
(info wars, alex jones)

SEC Allows Some of America's Biggest Wall St. Banks To Continually Flout the Law
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
The NY Times has discovered that the Banks that were rescued by the public have turned into serial fraud offenders. JP Morgan is near the top of their ranks, with Goldman Sachs and Bank of America not far behind. Only Citigroup seems to have fallen out of favor.
This is not news to any of the regular patrons of the Cafe, but it is good to see the mainstream media taking notice. Perhaps they might have a look at the Silver manipulation investigation that the CFTC has been sitting on for over three years. Not to mention the outrageous theft of customer money by MF Global and the Banks.

Goldman Sachs Mortgage-Backed Securities Suit
Granted Class-Action Status
By Bob Van Voris - Bloomberg.com
A suit against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) may go forward as a class action on behalf of all investors in a $698 million mortgage-backed securities offering, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled.
U.S. District Judge Harold Baer Jr. granted a request by the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi to let it represent more than 150 investors in the offering, according to an opinion Baer gave to the parties yesterday. The opinion hasn’t been released publicly, and a clerk in Baer’s chambers declined to provide a copy today.

Obama administration to move forward
with closing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
By Brady Dennis - WashingtonPost.com
The Obama administration plans to push forward this spring with efforts to wind down government-backed housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and attract more private funding to mortgage markets, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said Thursday.
Geithner told reporters that administration officials have begun more intensively exploring legislative options for overhauling the nation’s housing finance system with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, as well as with academics and outside advocacy groups.

Risk of new bank failures grows
Dayton Business Journal by Ginger Christ, Reporter
As many as 17 Ohio banks could close or fail within the next two years without corrective action or a merger occurring, according to New York-based Invictus Consulting Group LLC, which completed stress and sustainability tests on all banks insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation . More than 750 banks nationwide are at risk of failing in the next several years, which could further extend the financial crisis, according to the report.
Of the 231 financial institutions in the Buckeye State, 17, or 7.4 percent, have a five ranking, meaning they are the most-vulnerable for closure.

Jeffrey Tucker makes the Case
Against the Federal Reserve and the Banking Cartel

Summers Says U.S. Economy on 'Right Road'
.... Mitt says he's skeptical
By Cheyenne Hopkins - Bloomberg.com
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said the latest jobs report shows the economy is "on the right road" while Glenn Hubbard, an adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, said he’s skeptical about the meaning of the January numbers.
"Unlike many of the favorable past reports, if you look beneath the surface of this one almost every indicator within it is favorable," Summers said today on ABC’s "This Week," where he appeared with Hubbard, dean of the Columbia Business School.

Bullard Says Fed Bond Purchases Not Needed
as U.S. Unemployment Rate Falls
By Steve Matthews - Bloomberg.com
A new round of Federal Reserve bond purchases isn’t warranted because the U.S. job market and broader economy are strengthening faster than expected, according to St. Louis Fed President James Bullard.
"The economic news and economic data, including today’s data, has been surprising to the upside," Bullard said yesterday, referring to employment gains. "I need to see significant deterioration in the economy and some threat of deflation or inflation moving significantly below our inflation target before" backing more bond buying by the Fed, he said in a Bloomberg News interview.

Everything We Know About the Long-Term Unemployed
Who they are, where they are, and how they got left behind.
By Derek Thompson - TheAtlantic.com
.... Who are the long-term unemployed? They're mostly the very-long-term unemployed. Of the 5.5 million people out of work for more than 27 weeks, 4 million have been out of work for more than 52 weeks, according to this fantastic report from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Here are four things we know about the very-long-term unemployed:

1) They're older.
2) They're pretty well educated.
3) They're more likely to be black or Asian.
4) They're ... everywhere (except for maybe the deep south).

Keiser Report: The Vaporized & The Deleted (E245)

I Can’t Take It Anymore!
When Will The Government Quit
Putting Out Fraudulent Employment Statistics?
TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
On Friday, the entire financial world celebrated when it was announced that the unemployment rate in the United States had fallen to 8.3 percent. That is the lowest it has been since February 2009, and it came as an unexpected surprise for financial markets that are hungry for some good news. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nonfarm payrolls jumped by 243,000 during the month of January. You can read the full employment report right here. Based on this news, pundits all over the world were declaring that the U.S. economy is back. Stocks continued to rise on Friday and the Dow is hovering near a 4 year high. So does this mean that our economic problems are over? Of course not. A closer look at the numbers reveals just how fraudulent these employment statistics really are. Between December 2011 and January 2012, the number of Americans "not in the labor force" increased by a whopping 1.2 million. That was the largest increase ever in that category for a single month. That is how the federal government is getting the unemployment rate to go down.

Biderman's Daily Edge 2/3/2012: Is BLS Data Skewed?

Employment Stats and Charts
St Louis Fed Research - FRED [Federal Reserve Economic Data]
A few examples [34 pages, 50 charts/page]:

Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers plus total employed part time for economic reasons (U6RATE)

Special Unemployment Rate:
Unemployed and Discouraged Workers (U4RATE)

Civilian Employment-Population Ratio (EMRATIO)

Average Weekly Earnings of All Employees:
Total Private (CES0500000011)

BNY Mellon Sues Alabama's
Bankrupt Jefferson County Over Sewer Revenue
By Joel Rosenblatt - Bloomberg.com
Bank of New York Mellon Corp., as trustee for $3.6 billion of sewer warrants, sued bankrupt Jefferson County, Alabama, claiming it’s entitled to all of the county’s system revenue.
The bank, in a lawsuit filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Birmingham, Alabama, seeks a judgment that it is entitled to the system revenue, capital expenditures, the payment of sewer warrants and revenue for non-operating expenses, according to the filing.
If the court disagrees, it should issue a judgment "granting the trustee such other and further relief" that it determines to be "just and appropriate," according to the filing by the New York-based bank.

Renting out foreclosures
By Misty Williams - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Throughout metro Atlanta, thousands of vacant homes now owned by the federal government sit languishing — dragging down home values and adding to a mass of housing woes that stunt the region’s economic recovery.
Atlanta’s nearly 4,600 government-owned foreclosed properties is No. 1 in the nation, far outnumbering those in Phoenix, Las Vegas and other major metro areas hit hard by the housing bust, according to a report last month from the Federal Reserve. Statewide, Georgia has more than 6,400 of the homes, second only to California, with nearly 9,000.

Gene B. Sperling: Obama’s jobs creator
By Zachary A. Goldfarb - WashingtonPost.com
Just before 1:30 p.m. Aug. 3, a frustrated President Obama gathered Gene B. Sperling and the economic team in the White House and told them to design a jobs package he could offer the American public.
Obama had spent much of the year locked in negotiations with Republicans over the national debt, with little to show for the effort but a sagging approval rating. He had wanted to argue publicly for ideas to create jobs, but hesitated in the midst of negotiations. Liberal critics reprised a familiar critique of the Obama White House: that it too often bows to political constraints and forfeits what’s right for what’s possible or easy.

Print News Media Go Live With Video Programming
By BRIAN STELTER - NYTimes.com
The newest addition to the newsroom of Politico makes a statement about the news Web site’s priorities. It’s a stage set with lights, microphones, an anchor desk and five high-definition cameras so that reporters and editors can produce hours of live programming for Internet viewers.
The race is on at places that, until recently, did not think they could be or would be in the live video business. The Internet and a fleet of devices like the iPad have made it possible for, say, The Wall Street Journal to compete with CNBC and CNN for viewers’ time.

American Airlines’ plan for pension bailout draws criticism
By Steven Mufson - WashingtonPost.com
American Airlines has saved $2.1 billion since 2006, thanks to two congressional measures that allowed it to reduce contributions to its pension plans. The company said it would make up any shortfall later.
Later has come, but there’s been a change in that plan.
American Airlines, whose parent company filed for bankruptcy in November, said this week that it wants to terminate its four pension plans for 130,000 workers and retirees and ask the federal government’s Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. to bail out its unfunded pension obligations to the tune of $9 billion. It would be the largest PBGC bailout ever. Without the congressional relief, the gap would have been smaller, the PBGC said.

Boeing lands $1.8B deal with India
Dayton Business Journal by Joe Cogliano, Senior Reporter
The Boeing Co. will get nearly $1.8 billion to build C-17 airplanes for India.
Late Thursday, the Defense Department announced the award, which includes delivery of 10 aircraft for the Indian Air Force during the next two years. The contract is being administered by the Air Force Security Assistance Center, or AFSAC, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
The C-17’s will be built by Boeing in Long Beach, Calif. However, Boeing's deals have a big impact in the Dayton region, where it has 23 different suppliers based on its 2010 annual report. The aerospace giant has roughly 500 suppliers in Ohio and spent more than $4.7 billion in purchases from Ohio companies in 2010, supporting an estimated 150,000 jobs in the state. Boeing, which has an office in Dayton, has 600 employees in Ohio and more than 6,600 retirees.

Forget Romney or Obama, the voters want Tim Tebow: poll
By Ben Berkowitz
(Reuters) - He won't be in this Sunday's Super Bowl and his Denver Broncos are already 50-to-1 longshots for next year's National Football League title, but if Tim Tebow swapped the pigskin for politics, he just might be a shoo-in for the White House.
Asked which NFL playoff quarterback they would choose for president of the United States in the coming election, more than one in four voters go for Tebow, according to the results of a new Reuters/Ipsos poll of likely voters released on Friday.

Politics makes for strange bedfellows...
For Romney and Paul,
a strategic alliance between establishment and outsider
By Amy Gardner - WashingtonPost.com
RENO, NEV. — The remaining candidates in the winnowed Republican presidential field are attacking one another with abandon, each day bringing fresh headlines of accusations and outrage.
But Mitt Romney and Ron Paul haven’t laid a hand on each other.
They never do.
Despite deep differences on a range of issues, Romney and Paul became friends in 2008, the last time both ran for president. So did their wives, Ann Romney and Carol Paul. The former Massachusetts governor compliments the Texas congressman during debates, praising Paul’s religious faith during the last one, in Jacksonville, Fla. Immediately afterward, as is often the case, the Pauls and the Romneys gravitated toward one another to say hello.

Is Ron Paul Selling Out To Mitt Romney -- Already?
By Joe Conason - NationalMemo.com
Watching Ron Paul and Mitt Romney campaign for president, they would seem to be polar opposites in their perspectives on critical issues, from economic policy to foreign affairs. Romney has never suggested anything as radical as abolishing the Federal Reserve system or returning the nation’s currency to the gold standard (and as a conventional capitalist, he never will).
The ideological chasm between them may be even deeper on national security and foreign relations. To Romney, Paul’s opposition to war and promises to slash defense spending represent left-wing apostasy, while his neoconservative advisers and bellicose rhetoric must be equally appalling to the Texan.

A Battle the President Can't Win
By Peggy Noonan - PatriotPost.us
His decision on Catholic charities makes Romney's big gaffe look trivial.
What a faux pas, how inept, how removed from the essential realities of America. Yes, I'm referring to President Obama. But let's do Mitt Romney first.
He's taken heavy fire for his interview with CNN's Soledad O'Brien, in which he said, "I'm not concerned about the very poor."
Every criticism has been true. It was politically inept, playing into stereotypes about Republicans and about his own candidacy. It was Martian-like in its seeming remove from the concerns of everyday citizens. We're in a recession here! It was at odds both with longtime American tradition and with rising conservative concern over the growth and changing nature of what used to be called the underclass.

According To The FBI,
Internet Privacy Is Now Considered To Be Suspicious Activity
EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
When you use the Internet in a public place, do you prefer to have as much privacy as possible? Well, that makes you a potential terrorist. According to the FBI, Internet privacy is now considered to be suspicious activity. If you are out in public and you attempt to keep snoopers from peeking at your computer screen, then according to the FBI they should gather as much information about you as they can and they should report you to the authorities immediately. If this seems completely and totally ridiculous to you, then you are not alone. Millions of Americans have become deeply concerned about the constantly expanding definition of "suspicious activity" in the United States. Sadly, the federal government is now engaging in an all-out attempt to have us all spy on one another. All over America, the Department of Homeland Security is running ads promoting the "See Something, Say Something" campaign. They even had 8,000 stadium workers at the Super Bowl this year go through special training on how to spot potential terrorists. So the next time you see a hot dog vendor, keep in mind that he might also be part of a special anti-terrorism task force.

US Intel Director Prepares Public for False Flag Event
Tony Cartalucci - TheIntelHub.com
"…it would be far more preferable if the United States could cite an Iranian provocation as justification for the airstrikes before launching them. Clearly, the more outrageous, the more deadly, and the more unprovoked the Iranian action, the better off the United States would be.
Of course, it would be very difficult for the United States to goad Iran into such a provocation without the rest of the world recognizing this game, which would then undermine it.
(One method that would have some possibility of success would be to ratchet up covert regime change efforts in the hope that Tehran would retaliate overtly, or even semi-overtly, which could then be portrayed as an unprovoked act of Iranian aggression.)"

New False Flag! U.S. Intel Director Prepares Public.
Infowars Nightly News

SOPA: Anti-Piracy or Censorship?
Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales vs.
Copyright Alliance’s Sandra Aistars
DemocracyNow.org
Congressional support for a pair of anti-piracy bills is weakening after Wednesday’s historic online protest in which thousands of websites went dark for 24 hours. Hollywood film studios, music publishers and major broadcasters support the anti-piracy legislation, saying it aims to stop the piracy of copyrighted material over the internet on websites based outside the United States. "We’re talking about sites that are operated and dedicated to piracy and that are really preventing individual creators across the country from having an economic livelihood from their creative pursuits," says Sandra Aistars, executive director of the Copyright Alliance, whose members include the Motion Picture Association of America, NBCUniversal, Time Warner, Viacom, ASCAP and BMI. But critics say the bills could profoundly change the internet by stifling innovation and investment, hallmarks of the free, open internet. "Wikipedia could be defined as a search engine under these [bills]," says Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales. "That would mean that it would be illegal for Wikipedia to link to a site, even if we’re writing an encyclopedia article explaining to the public what is The Pirate Bay, what is going on here, and we want to send you there so you can go and take a look for yourself. That would become illegal. This is outrageous, and it’s just not acceptable under the First Amendment."

CITIZEN SUSPECT:
WE’RE ALL UNDER ATTACK IN THE WIKILEAKS CASE
Truthdig.com
Our civil liberties and First Amendment rights are threatened by the Supreme Court’s decisions in the Julian Assange case; if Mitt Romney’s father was still around, he’d probably endorse Obama; meanwhile, Fox News is ruining the GOP. These discoveries and more below.

Occupy the Super Bowl: Indiana’s New Anti-Union Law Sparks Protest at Sport’s Biggest Spectacle
DemocracyNow.org
Occupy protesters in Indianapolis are gearing up to use the media spotlight on Sunday’s Super BowlXLVI to rally for union rights outside the statehouse. Earlier this week, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a so-called "right to work" measure into law that critics say will result in lower wages and diminished collective bargaining rights. Indiana workers have received the backing of the National Football League Players Association, which has called "right to work" "a political ploy designed to destroy basic workers’ rights."

The United Nations Wants To Crash
The World Economy In Order To Save The Environment
TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
The United Nations says that the earth is in great danger and that the way you and I are living is the problem. In a shocking new report entitled, "Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing" the UN declares that the entire way that we currently approach economics needs to be changed. Instead of focusing on things like "economic growth", the UN is encouraging nations all over the world to start basing measurements of economic success on the goal of achieving "sustainable development". But there is a huge problem with that. The UN says that what we are doing right now is "unsustainable" by definition, and the major industrialized nations of the western world are the biggest culprits. According to the UN, since we are the ones that create the most carbon emissions and the most pollution, we are the ones that should make the biggest sacrifices. In addition, since we have the most money, we should also be willing to finance the transition of the developing world to a "sustainable development" economy as well. As you will see detailed in the rest of this article, the United Nations basically wants to crash the world economy in order to save the environment. Considering the fact that the U.S. and Europe are in the midst of a horrible economic crisis and are already drowning in debt, this is something that we simply cannot afford.

U.N. leaders consider world tax
to fund social protection, services
'We will need a modest but long-term way
to finance this transformation'
By Susan Roylance, Deseret News
NEW YORK — Outside the United Nations headquarters, hundreds of people were shouting and waving banners Tuesday that read "China and Russia – No Veto." These people wanted support from the Security Council of the U.N. to oust the President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad.
Inside the U.N., another group of civil society leaders demanded a basic level of social security as they promoted a "social protection floor" at a preparatory forum for the Commission on Social Development, which began Feb. 1.

"Gasland" Director Josh Fox Arrested
at Congressional Hearing on Natural Gas Fracking
DemocracyNow.org
The Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox was handcuffed and arrested Wednesday as he attempted to film a congressional hearing on the controversial natural gas drilling technique known as fracking, which the Environmental Protection Agency recently reported caused water contamination in Pavillion, Wyoming. Fox directed the award-winning film, "Gasland," which documents the impact of fracking on communities across the United States, and is now working on a sequel. Fox says he was arrested after Republicans refused to allow him to film because he did not have the proper credentials. "We wanted to report on what happened [at the hearing]. I was not interested in disrupting that hearing. It was not a protest action," says Fox. "I was simply trying to do my job as a journalist and go in there and show to the American people what was transpiring in that hearing, so that down the line, as we know there will be a lot of challenges mounted to that [Pavillion, Wyoming] EPA report

Tens of thousands protest against Putin
By Charles Clover Courtney Weaver
and Catherine Belton in Moscow - FT.com
Tens of thousands of Muscovites rallied against Vladimir Putin’s regime on Saturday, defying expectations that the protest movement was losing steam or would be kept indoors by temperatures of minus 20C.
Organisers said more than 160,000 attended the rally, on Bolotnaya square 800m from the Kremlin, though the consensus was 60,000 – 100,000. Organisers had given themselves the goal of at least equalling the turnout at the last major rally, on December 24, which numbered up to 100,000.

Clinton Calls for ‘Immense Pressure’ on Assad
By Glen Carey and Elizabeth Konstantinova - Bloomberg.com
The U.S. will work with its allies to put “immense pressure” on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down after Russia vetoed a resolution aimed at ending fighting, Secretary of State Hillary Clintonsaid.
"Faced with a neutered Security Council, we have to redouble our efforts outside of the United Nations with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people’s right to have a better future," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Sofia today. "Assad must go."

Russia, China veto U.N. resolution on Syria
By Colum Lynch and Alice Fordham - WashingtonPost.com
UNITED NATIONS — Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a U.N. resolution condemningSyria’s violent repression of anti-government demonstrators, effectively quashing efforts to isolate President Bashar al-Assad’s government as it intensifies a nearly year-long crackdown.
The veto dealt a blow to attempts by the United States and its European partners to rally behind an Arab League plan that would require Assad to yield power and make way for a democratically elected unity government. The vote followed weeks of negotiations in which diplomats had significantly watered down the resolution in a bid to win broad support.

France calls for EU-Arab action group on Syria
BY ANDREW RETTMAN - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS - France has warned that China and Russia's UN veto will not stop the EU and its Arab allies from helping the opposition in Syria.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy wrote in a communique on Saturday (4 February) night: "France is not giving up. It is in consultations with its European and Arab partners to create a 'Friends of the Syrian People Group' with the aim of providing help from the international community for implementing the Arab League initiative."
He added that China and Russia are effectively "encouraging the Syrian regime to continue with its cruel and hopeless policy."

Syria: It’s not just about freedom
By Charles Krauthammer - WashingtonPost.com
Imperial regimes can crack when they are driven out of their major foreign outposts. The fall of the Berlin Wall did not only signal the liberation of Eastern Europe from Moscow. It prefigured the collapse of the Soviet Union itself just two years later.
The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s Syria could be similarly ominous for Iran. The alliance with Syria is the centerpiece of Iran’s expanding sphere of influence, a mini-Comintern that includes such clients as Iranian-armed and -directed Hezbollah, now the dominant power in Lebanon; and Hamas, which controls Gaza and threatens to take the rest of Palestine (the West Bank) from a feeble Fatah.

'Israel to strike Iran in April, May or June' – US Defense Sec
RT.com - News
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said that Israel could attack Iran in the next few months. This follows Israeli reports that Iran has the capability to develop four nuclear bombs and reach the US with a missile strike.
Panetta sees a 'strong possibility' of an Israeli strike on Iran in either April, May or June, according to Thursday’s Washington Post. The attack would occur before Iran enters a so-called 'immunity zone', when its nuclear facilities will be too heavily fortified for an attack to succeed.
Post columnist’s David Ignatius, who broke the story, believes the overriding fear in Israel is that Iran has come close enough to making a nuke that only the USA will be capable of militarily stopping them.

War of nerves: Iran’s warships arrive in Saudi Arabia
RT.com - News
Two Iranian naval ships have docked in the Saudi port of Jeddah. Iranian officials say the move aims to project the country's "power on the open seas" and "confront Iranophobia."
The supply ship Kharg and destroyer Shaid Qandi docked on Saturday in the Red Sea port in line with orders from the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Iran’s news agency, Fars.
"This mission aims to show the power of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the open seas and to confront Iranophobia," Fars quoted navy commander Admiral Habibollah Sayari as saying.
The commander added that the mission would last between 70 and 80 days, but did not specify its route.

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