Financial Crisis in Dubai: Towards a Nightmare Scenario? by Mike Whitney

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by Mike Whitney
Global Research, November 28, 2009

The default in Dubai is not the beginning of Financial Meltdown 2. Don’t look for dominoes here. Yes, it does raise serious questions about the vast debt-overhang in emerging economies–particularly East Europe. But, this is not a “sovereign default” in the strict sense, nor is there any great risk of contagion. Oil-rich Abu Dhabi is loaded with liquid assets, possibly as much as $800 billion. They could pay off Dubai World’s measly $60 billion debt without batting an eye. But Abu Dhabi wants to send its wastrel younger brother a wake-up-call by forcing Dubai to restructure its debt. That means that banks, bondholders and contractors will have to take a haircut, which is not surprising given the abysmal condition of the commercial real estate market.

Washington alters US Air Force document to hide intentions behind military accord with Colombia by Eva Golinger

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by Eva Golinger
Postcards from the Revolution
27 November 2009

In an explicit attempt to hide Washington’s military objetives in South America, a US Air Force document submitted to Congress in May 2009 that provoked deep concerns in the region has been modified and re-published on November 16, 2009. The official US Air Force document, revealed and denounced by this author on November 4th, explained the justification for a $46 million request to improve the military installations in one of the seven bases Washington will occupy under the military accord signed on October 30th between Colombia and the United States. The modified document has eliminated all mention of war and military operations in the region, as well as offensive language directed at Colombia’s neighbors, Venezuela and Ecuador. Nevertheless, Washington’s intentions remain the same.

The original Air Force document dated May 2009 outlined the importance of the military base in Palanquero, Colombia to enable “full spectrum military operations” in South America. The original military document also detailed the necessity of investing $46 million to improve the airfield, ramps and other essential installations on the base, converting it into a Cooperative Security Location (CSL) for US military missions in the region.

[…]

via Postcards from the Revolution: BREAKING NEWS: Washington alters US Air Force document to hide intentions behind military accord with Colombia

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Official US Air Force Document Reveals the True Intentions Behind the US-Colombia Military Agreement By Eva Golinger

Colombia

Troop deployment to begin shortly after Obama’s war strategy speech By Greg Jaffe

Dandelion Salad

By Greg Jaffe
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, November 28, 2009; 3:56 PM
KABUL

Days after President Obama outlines his new war strategy in a speech Tuesday, as many as 9,000 Marines will begin deploying to southern Afghanistan to renew an assault on a Taliban stronghold that stalled earlier this year amid a troop shortage and political pressure from the Afghan government, senior U.S. officials said.

The extra Marines — the first to move into the country as part of Obama’s escalation of the eight-year-old war — will double the size of the U.S. force in the southern province of Helmand and provide a critical test for Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s struggling government and Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s counterinsurgency strategy.

[…]

via Troop deployment to begin shortly after Obama’s war strategy speech – washingtonpost.com

h/t: CLG

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Dennis Kucinich: Afghanistan is not a Left-Right issue

You Get What you Vote For! by Cindy Sheehan

Afghan children are dying from the cold

Amy Goodman calls the Afghan Peace Vigil

‘Yes We Can’. ‘No We Won’t!’ By William Bowles

Obama to Announce Afghan Escalation Plan Dec. 1st

Afghanistan on Dandelion Salad

Soaring Unemployment and Double-dip Recession? Blame N.W.O. Larry By Mike Whitney

Dandelion Salad

By Mike Whitney
November 26, 2009 “Information Clearing House”

Barack Obama’s chief economic advisor, Lawrence Summers, is determined to sabotage a second round of stimulus. And, he’s getting plenty of help, too. Congressional Democrats are dragging their feet because they’re worried about the political backlash and midterm elections, the GOP deficit hawks are looking for a way they can derail the Obama agenda and reestablish their bone fides as fiscal conservatives, and the bailout-traumatized American people are simply opposed to anything that generates more red ink. Even Obama has joined the fray and started badmouthing stimulus stressing the importance of living within our means and trimming the deficits. So it looks like a done-deal; no more stimulus. There’s only one problem, without another blast of stimulus the economy is headed for the skids.

Summers knows this because he is an extremely bright and competent economist. With Summers, the issue is loyalty, not intelligence. To prove this point, consider Summers comments in a Washington Post editorial (September of 2008) where he explains what needs to be done to put the economy back on track:

Chavez’s historic call for international socialist unity by Federico Fuentes

Dandelion Salad

Posted with permission from Green Left Weekly

by Federico Fuentes
Green Left
Caracas
27 November 2009

Addressing delegates at the International Encounter of Left Parties held in Caracas, November 19-21, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that with the capitalist crisis and threat of war risking the future of humanity, “the people are clamoring” for greater unity of those willing to fight for socialism.

Chavez used his speech on November 20 to the conference, which involved delegates from 55 left groups from 31 countries, to call for a new international socialist organisation to unite left groups and social movements.

“The time has come for us to organise the Fifth International”, he said.

Bill Moyers Journal: Dr. Jane Goodall + Roots & Shoots + The Daily Show

English: Jane Goodall attending the 18th Annual Hamptons International Film Festival at the Maidstone Hotel in East Hampton, New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Bill Moyers Journal
November 27, 2009

Dr. Jane Goodall

Despite dire warnings for our endangered planet, Jane Goodall says all is not yet lost — we can change course if we act now.

video and transcript: Bill Moyers Journal . Watch & Listen | PBS

US to recognise Honduras poll result + Elections as coup laundering

Dandelion Salad

AlJazeeraEnglish
November 27, 2009

Honduras is gearing up for Sunday’s crucial national election, five months after a military coup ousted Manuel Zelaya, the president.

The election has received a last-minute boost after the US decided to endorse it, with or without Zelaya in the next government.

Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman reports from the capital, Tegucigalpa.

Dennis Kucinich: Afghanistan is not a Left-Right issue

Dandelion Salad

researchris2
November 27, 2009

Dennis Kucinich says to GET OUT of Afghanistan / FOX adds ‘fluff’ topic into interview 11/27/09

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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You Get What you Vote For! by Cindy Sheehan

Afghan children are dying from the cold

Amy Goodman calls the Afghan Peace Vigil

‘Yes We Can’. ‘No We Won’t!’ By William Bowles

Obama to Announce Afghan Escalation Plan Dec. 1st

Christmas 2009: U.S., NATO To Expand New Millennium’s Longest War by Rick Rozoff

Dennis Kucinich: More jobs & GET OUT of Afghanistan! + Obama plans to send 34,000 more troops

A True Bipartisan Effort To End The War!

Afghanistan on Dandelion Salad

Tragedy: Dozens dead as Moscow-St Petesburg train derails + Crash might be terror attack + Explosives found

Dandelion Salad

Sad news, condolences to all who had family and/or friends killed or injured on this train.

RussiaToday
November 28, 2009

At least 25 people have been killed and dozens injured when a train partially derailed on its way from Moscow to St Petersburg on Friday night. It’s feared the death toll could rise with 18 people still unaccounted for.

Hacked climate change emails – a tempest in a teapot or a real storm?

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TheRealNews
November 27, 2009

Hacked climate change email furor

Hacked climate change emails – a tempest in a teapot or a real storm? Paul Jay talks to Michael Brklacic

Michael Brklacich is Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa. Mike Brklacich’s teaching and research interests reflect his long-term interests in interdisciplinary approaches for assessing relationships between human use and impacts on environmental and natural resources, and in the application of science to public policy.

Geopolitical Crossroads: Pentagon, NATO Complete Conquest Of Balkans by Rick Rozoff

by Rick Rozoff
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com
28 November, 2009

Bosnia and Montenegro being incorporated as full NATO members and Macedonia following suit would expand the world’s only military bloc to 31 nations, almost twice that of ten years ago when it first began its drive into Eastern Europe. And with Serbia and Kosovo, which even before becoming a member is the world’s first NATO political entity, included the Alliance’s numbers will have more than doubled since 1999, a decade after the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. All seventeen new acquisitions would be in Eastern Europe, and the majority of NATO member states would be former Warsaw Pact members or Yugoslav republics and a province.
———-

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen visited the capital of Montenegro on November 26 and that of Bosnia the following day.

A Balkans news source wrote of the visits that Rasmussen would “discuss the possibility of approving Montenegro’s action plan for NATO membership” and “discuss strengthening NATO and BiH [Bosnia and Herzegovina] cooperation.” [1]