Super Rich: The Greed Game

Artwork Title: For the Love of God, 2007
Diamond covered platinum skull
Damien Hirst

Google Videos:
BBC: Super Rich: The Greed Game
As the credit crunch bites and a global economic crisis threatens, Robert Peston reveals how the super-rich have made their fortunes, and the rest of us are picking up the bill.
Zeitgeist: Addendum
Brilliant explanation of the banking and Federal Reserve system and the resulting debt slavery.

FEMA sources confirm coming martial law

WMR has learned from knowledgeable Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sources that the Bush administration is putting the final touches on a plan that would see martial law declared in the United States with various scenarios anticipated as triggers. The triggers include a continuing economic collapse with massive social unrest, bank closures resulting in violence against financial institutions, and another fraudulent presidential election that would result in rioting in major cities and campuses around the country.

Thousands of Troops Are Deployed on U.S. Streets Ready to Carry Out "Crowd Control"

The fix is in
NEW YORK - Tens of thousands of eligible voters have been removed from rolls or blocked from registering in at least six swing states, and the voters' exclusion appears to violate federal law, according to a published report.

Greg Palast on Vote Rigging and Suppression Ahead of the 2008 Election
BBC investigative journalist Greg Palast travels to New Mexico, Michigan and Colorado to investigate how both Democrats and Republicans are accusing each other of trying to steal the election. Palast also discusses his new comic book Steal Back Your Vote, co-written with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner on Voter Rights, Faulty Electronic Voting Machines, Voter Fraud and GOP Voter Challenges
Ohio is a key swing state that ended up deciding the outcome of the 2004 election. But the state was riddled with voting problems, ranging from breakdowns in electronic voting machines to accusations of widespread voter disenfranchisement. We speak to Democrat Jennifer Brunner, who was elected Secretary of State of Ohio in November 2006.

Report: Voter Purging Process Is Shrouded in Secrecy, Prone to Error and Vulnerable to Manipulation
A new study by the Brennan Center for Justice has found voters across the country are being purged through a process that is shrouded in secrecy, prone to error and vulnerable to manipulation. The Brennan Center is calling on states to develop and publish uniform, non-discriminatory rules for purges; provide public notice of pending purges; make purge lists publicly available; and develop rules for individuals to challenge the purge list.

AIG Plans Meeting at California Ritz-Carlton Resort Next Week

American International Group Inc., the insurer facing criticism for hosting a $440,000 event at a California resort less than a week after a federal takeover, plans another gathering for its brokers at a Ritz-Carlton hotel next week.

The Federal Reserve: History of Lies, Thievery, and Deceit
Frederick Morton wrote in his book, The Rothschilds:
"...the wealth of the Rothschilds consists of the bankruptcy of nations."

Partial Nationalization of US Banks Considered
In an effort to restore confidence in the financial system, the Treasury Department is considering partially nationalizing the US banking system by taking ownership stakes in certain banks. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Wednesday the recently approved $700 billion financial bailout bill gives him wide authority to inject capital into the banking system. Earlier this week, Britain announced plans to partially nationalize its banks by spending $87 billion to buy major stakes in eight banks, including Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Barclays. Iceland has already taken control of its three largest banks, bringing virtually the entire Icelandic banking sector under state control.

Sheriff Refuses to Evict Residents from Foreclosed Homes in Chicago
In Illinois, the Cook County Sheriff has announced he will no longer evict residents from foreclosed properties in Chicago. The department was on pace to conduct 4,700 foreclosures this year, nearly triple the number from two years ago. Sheriff Tom Dart said he took the measure because an increasing number of the residents being evicted were renters who might have been dutifully paying their rent. Under a new Chicago law, renters are entitled to a ninety-day grace period, starting at the time a foreclosure sale is confirmed, before they can be evicted. This comes as the Wall Street Journal reports the relentless slide in home prices has left nearly one in six US homeowners owing more on a mortgage than their home is worth.

Mexico to Invest $4.4 Billion in Infrastructure to Combat Financial Crisis
In Mexico, President Felipe Calderon has vowed to increase spending to help the country combat the global financial crisis, which has seen the peso plunge to a sixteen-year low. On Wednesday, Calderon unveiled plans for $4.4 billion in emergency spending to invest in roads, railways, schools, hospitals and an oil refinery.

Felipe Calderon: "It's true the world is going through a tough moment. However, the program to promote growth and jobs announced today will help our economy to confront adversity and to retake the route of prosperity and growth with stability."

What a great idea! Why didn't anyone in this country suggest it for us?

National Debt Clock Runs Out of Space
The National Debt Clock in New York City has run out of digits to record the growing figure. When the national debt topped the $10 trillion point last month, the sign could not display the full amount. A larger debt clock is scheduled to be installed next year. Meanwhile, the prominent political analyst Larry Sabato has criticized both the McCain and Obama campaigns for their handling of the economic crisis.

Larry Sabato: "On this, I'm going to be critical of both candidates. One lives in Disney World, and the other lives in Disneyland. They're separated by a continent, but they're united in proposing loads of new tax cuts and lots of new spending. You know, apparently, no one on their staff has told them that we're bankrupt, that we have ten trillion in national debt, with trillions more being ladled on top."

CodePink Protests on Wall Street
Protests are also continuing on Wall Street. Earlier this week, Dana Balicki and other members of the group Code Pink demonstrated outside the New York Stock Exchange.

Dana Balicki: "Over the past two weeks, in fact, protesting the bailout; protesting the billions more for Wall Street, for the friends of Henry Paulson and the Bush administration; and recognizing that with all of that money going for the bailout, there was going to be way less money to go for any of the social issues that we are—social programs that actually stabilize our society, that actually bring strength to the American economy."

Robert Fisk: Iraq Carries Out Secret Executions
Robert Fisk of the Independent of London has revealed secret executions are being carried out in prisons run by Nouri al-Maliki's government. Hangings are now carried out regularly in Saddam Hussein's old intelligence headquarters at Kazimiyah. Fisk reports hundreds, including many insurgents, have been secretly executed at the death chamber.

US Intel Analysis: Sectarian Tensions in Iraq Could Unleash More Violence
The McClatchy Newspapers report a nearly completed high-level US intelligence analysis warns that unresolved ethnic and sectarian tensions in Iraq could unleash a new wave of violence, potentially reversing gains achieved over the last year.

US Report: Afghanistan in a "Downward Spiral"
The New York Times reports a draft report by US intelligence agencies concludes that Afghanistan is in a "downward spiral" and casts serious doubt on the ability of the Afghan government to stem the rise in the Taliban's influence. The Times also reports the Bush administration is considering arming tribal militias in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban in places where Afghanistan's army and police forces have been ineffective.

Bush Signs India Nuke Deal
Bush has signed legislation to lift a three-decade ban on nuclear trade with India. The deal will allow India to expand its nuclear power industry without requiring it to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty as other nations must. Critics say say the agreement encourages nuclear production worldwide, because it effectively rewards India for developing nukes outside the treaty.
Iran is a signatory to the treaty; Israel isn't.

FCC to Probe Pentagon Propaganda Program
The Federal Communications Commission has launched a probe into what critics say was a Pentagon propaganda program ahead of the Iraq war. Beginning in 2002, the Pentagon recruited more than seventy-five retired military officers to appear on TV outlets as so-called military analysts to portray Iraq as an urgent threat. Congressional Quarterly reports the FCC is looking into whether TV networks and certain on-air analysts broke the law by failing to disclose to viewers that the apparently independent analysts were in fact part of a Pentagon-funded information campaign.

Court Blocks Release of Chinese Guantanamo Prisoners
A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked a judge's decision to immediately free seventeen Chinese Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo Bay into the United States. The judge's initial ruling had marked the first time an American court has ordered the release of a Guantanamo prisoner. US District Judge Ricardo Urbina said the administration has failed to provide proof the prisoners were so-called enemy combatants or security risks.

New Documents Reveal "Effort to Create a Gitmo Inside the United States."
Newly released military documents show a US Naval officer warned the Pentagon in 2002 that an American detainee was being driven nearly insane by months of punishing isolation and sensory deprivation in a US military brig. The detainee, Yaser Hamdi, was one of two US citizens held on a Navy brig in South Carolina for years without charge after the Sept. 11 attacks. The documents show that the US military exported the brutal interrogation techniques from Guantanamo prison to the US jail housing Hamdi and Jose Padilla. The techniques included sleep and sensory deprivation, prolonged isolation and death threats.
Jonathan Hafetz of the ACLU said, "These documents are the first clear confirmation of what we've suspected all along, that the brig was run as a prison beyond the law. There was an effort to create a Gitmo inside the United States."

San Francisco Bars Sale of Cigarettes in Pharmacies
A new San Francisco law has prohibited the sale of cigarettes in pharmacies. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said, "Pharmacies should be places where people go to get better, not where people go to get cancer." Walgreens and Philip Morris have filed lawsuits against the ban.

Bush Signs Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act
President Bush has signed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. The law will give the Justice Department $10 million a year to examine unsolved murders from the civil rights era. The bill is named after Emmett Till, the fourteen-year-old African American teenager who was beaten and killed in 1955 in Mississippi after he reportedly "wolf-whistled" at a white woman.