digest commentary:

USrael failed to defeat the Palestinian resistance despite murdering 1500 children and adults, mutilating countless more, destroying the concentration camp they are imprisoned in by israel in their own ancient homeland, destroying its food and medical supplies, hospitals, mosques, schools, shelters and universities. Genocide. Designed to dis-empower, if it couldn't destroy, Palestinian national resistance.

Now a made-in-usa "peace" -- like all imperialist 'peace'" a continuation of war by other means -- has set up Obama admin.'s next move in the futile 60+ yr. war to crush the Arab resistance standing between it and the broader agenda for a "new middle east" -- and U.S. global hegemony.

The military strategist Clausewitz said 'war is politics by other means'. So is 'peace'. The world knows now how Imperialist-zionist politics runs this 'war' and why -- and must support the struggle that will continue against its deadly 'peace'.

The politics of the oppressed, just war for just peace: never surrender because finally we can never be defeated. There is a world of 'us', As Juan Santos says below, "Palestine is everywhere".

Fred Hampton, murdered BPP leader told the truth we need to learn: 'you can kill revolutionaries, but you can never kill the revolution'.

====

A people living under the perpetual menace of war and invasion is very easy to govern. It demands no social reforms. It does not haggle over expenditures for armaments and military equipment. It pays without discussion, it ruins itself, and that is an excellent thing for the syndicates of financiers and manufacturers for whom patriotic terrors are an abundant source of gain
Anatole France, pseudonym of Jacques Anatole Thibault (1844-1924)

from Statement of Comrade Sa'adat: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
http://www.pflp.ps/english/?q=comrade-saadat-unity-and-confrontation-occ...
Comrade General Secretary Ahmad Sa'adat of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine issued a statement from behind the bars of the occupier's prison on January 14, 2009, calling for full unity of all national and Islamic forces as the immediate task of our people in resistance to the occupier that has continued to fail to achieve its political objectives.. run up against and be confronted by the steadfastness of our people, the valiant resistance, and Arab and international solidarity with our people's struggle. He called for... Concerted and unified efforts of all of our political and social forces and unity in resistance against the occupation... the formation of a unified national leadership of all national and Islamic political factions...
Any talk of long-term truce must be discussed only in the context of protecting our people and achieving the national rights of our people - return, self-determination and independence and sovereignty with Jerusalem as our capital....
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine rejected the presence of so-called international forces in the Gaza Strip on January 12, 2009, noting that the real objective of such a force under the hegemony of the United States is to protect the occupier and repress the resistance of the Palestinian people.

Any form of resistance to this barbarity is ethical
For many different reasons the US has emerged as guru of this war-hungry global system. The survival of the US as a superpower, expansion of its hegemony and the function of global capitalism actually depending on war machine and militarism are evident. This has become visible since the Korean War.
Anu Muhammad
http://www.newagebd.com/2006/aug/13/oped.html#1

America's Geopolitical Nightmare and Eurasian Strategic Energy Arrangements
By F. William Engdahl
May 7, 2006
http://www.countercurrents.org/baroud160109.htm
1/16/09
As Israel unleashed its [digest: u.s. supplied] military fury against Lebanon for several weeks in July-August 2006, it had one major objective: to permanently ‘extract’ Hezbollah from the South as a fighting force, and to undermine it as a rising political movement, capable of disrupting, if not overshadowing the ‘friendly’ and ‘moderate’ political regime in Beirut.
As Israeli bombs fell, and with them hundreds of Lebanese civilians, and much of the country’s infrastructure, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sprung into action.... to delay a ceasefire... hoped that the Israeli bombs would succeed in achieving... a New Middle East.

In a friendly meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem, on July 25, 2006, Rice... wished to interpret to equally eager journalists the political promise that lies within the Israeli onslaught. "As we deal with the current circumstances, we need always to be cognizant of and looking to what kind of Middle East we are trying to build. It is time for a new Middle East," she said. Olmert nodded... It was very clear to both Israel and the United States that their Middle East policies were failing, and miserably so; but both governments were still insistent that the problem is not in the use of force, but rather, not using enough of it. It’s, perhaps, the kind of arrogance that accompanies power. But arrogance can also be the powerful downfall. As world patience began running out, especially following the second Qana Massacre of July 2006, Rice still insisted on beautifying the horror in Lebanon. The Israeli war against Lebanon, despite the tremendous hurt it caused was, according to Rice, the "birth pangs of a new Middle East".

And a New Middle East it was, although not the one that Rice and Olmert reflectively envisioned in Jerusalem; a different one, which changed the political landscape in Lebanon in favor of Hezbollah, and denied Israel any sense of victory. In fact, the new ‘New Middle East’ did more than that. It once more renewed a long abandoned idea in the minds of many Arabs, especially Palestinians, that resistance was not futile after all... Words that were not uttered, at least not in any realistic context, in decades, began encroaching into Arab vocabulary: ‘victory’, ‘resistance’, ‘Arab nation’...
Israel hoped that Gaza would grant it a victory, any victory, even if a small token of triumph. Starting December 27 and for many days, Israel pulverized entire neighborhoods, killed and wounded thousands, mostly civilians, mostly children and women. Another New Middle East was in the making with its own “birth pangs.” Entire families perished; children died in droves, in their homes, in schools; a panicking population ran in circles, hopelessly trying to flee the death machines that hovered everywhere, but there was no escape. Borders remained sealed as the region’s ‘moderates’ watched the demise of the ‘extremists.’ Rice, again, grinned, brazenly justifying Israel’s new war. The world watched in horror as the drama unfolded. But Gaza fought back, withstood, resisted, and the language once again was altered. Arabs are now speaking of ‘victory’, hailing the ‘resistance’, singing the praise of the Palestinians in Gaza.

Gaza’s resistance is nothing short of a ‘miracle’, said Aljazeera’s military expert. Millions of Arabs around the world agree. The New Middle East defined in Lebanon in July-August 2006, was confirmed in Palestine in December-January 2008-2009...springing up from the ashes and the rubble of Gaza. Arabs are eager to define themselves and shed years of defeat and defeatism.
A New Middle East, indeed.

"It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion."

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."

Dr. Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945

"Ceasefire" made in WA. by Bush-Obama admins: USRAEL genocide fails to crush Palestinian resistance
Israeli Cabinet Appears Ready to Declare a Gaza Cease-Fire
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/world/middleeast/17mideast.html?pagewa...
JERUSALEM — Israel’s security cabinet is expected to meet Saturday night to declare a cease-fire in Gaza and will keep its forces there in the short term while the next stage of an agreement with Egypt is worked out....The most promising element for bringing the three-week conflict to a close occurred in Washington on Friday, where Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of Israel signed an understanding on a range of steps the United States would take to stem the flow of new arms to Hamas from the Egyptian Sinai, mostly via tunnels....

US and Israel agree Gaza deal
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/01/2009116164457134763.h...
Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister and her US counterpart, Condoleezza Rice, have signed an agreement aimed at preventing arms smuggling into Gaza for the Palestinian group Hamas.
Livni, who travelled to Washington DC, the US capital, on Friday for the signing, said both sides had agreed on a "series of actions" in the memorandum of understanding to halt weapons smuggling. Rice said at the signing ceremony that the move, coupled with other current international diplomatic efforts, would "contribute to a durable ceasefire".
Livni said that the memorandum was "a vital component for the cessation of hostilities" and that Israel had shown restraint for years under Hamas rocket attacks.
However, she said Hamas had held "Gaza hostage" and had to pay "a high price for terror". .... Unlike the last one , this will be written down, in Israel’s case, in the form of an agreement with Egypt and the understanding with the United States. Israel and Hamas do not speak officially but Egypt has been brokering terms between the two. Israel was unwilling to have an accord that might confer legitimacy on Hamas...

The agreement hammered out in Washington, would provide American technical assistance, as well as international monitors, to crack down on the tunnels. It would not, however, involve the deployment of American troops in the region. The composition of the monitoring force was not yet clear, a senior American official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The agreement stipulates that the United States would work to interdict weapons with its NATO partners, expanding significantly the responsibility to keep Hamas disarmed.
After meeting with Ms. Rice, Ms. Livni, who has been hawkish on continuing the assault aimed at stopping Hamas rockets from coming into Israel, stressed that the nation had met its war aims and was prepared to enter a cease-fire cautiously. “Israel embarked on the campaign in order to change the equation and restore its deterrent capacity,” she told Israel Radio. “We did that a few days ago, in my opinion. It has to be put to the test. If Hamas shoots, we’ll have to continue. And if it shoots later on, we’ll have to embark on another campaign.”

The Bush administration agreed to the deal after consulting Mrs. Clinton and Gen. James L. Jones, who will be Mr. Obama’s national security adviser. Ms. Rice discussed the terms over lunch with Mrs. Clinton on Thursday, the State Department spokesman said, and briefed Mr. Obama by phone...
The agreement came on the last business day of the Bush administration and set the stage for the Obama administration to play a more active role in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. President-elect Barack Obama and Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton signed off on the plan, the State Department said...

Hamas & Other Resistance Groups Agree to One-Week Cease-Fire in Gaza
JERUSALEM — European leaders gathered in Jerusalem on Sunday evening as Israel sought help in converting a fragile pause in the fighting in Gaza into a blueprint for a more durable calm. ...Earlier Sunday, Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, and other militant groups announced an immediate, week-long cease-fire in the confrontation with Israel....
Mr. Regev, the Olmert spokesman, said that the international support for preventing Hamas’s rearmament was a “crucial element” in Israel’s decision late Saturday to stop its military campaign. A memorandum of understanding signed on Friday in Washington by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and the outgoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, officials here said, was also a major factor.
President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, which is trying to broker a longer-term deal between Israel and Hamas, and President Nicholas Sarkozy of France, hosted a summit meeting on Sunday afternoon in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheik. There, the leaders of eight European and Arab nations pledged their support for rebuilding Gaza, and called for an end to arms smuggling and the opening of the Gaza borders as a way to build a longer-term peace. While Hamas demands the opening of the Gaza border crossings as a condition for a truce, Israel’s main concern is to obtain an internationally guaranteed mechanism to prevent weapons smuggling into Gaza and to make it harder for Hamas to re-arm.
“We are ready to use all methods — diplomatic, ground and coastal — to stop the smuggling” of weapons into Gaza, Mr. Sarkozy said at a news conference after the meeting. “We support the idea of a major summit to put in place a structure for a continuous peace.” French, British, German, Spanish, Italian and Czech leaders then made their way to Jerusalem for dinner with Prime Minister Olmert...
Another issue likely to be on the agenda is the reconstruction of Gaza. Israel and Hamas’s rival, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, would prefer international assistance for rebuilding to be funneled in such a way that it will not boost or give legitimacy to Hamas... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/world/middleeast/19mideast.html?hp

USRAELI 'PEACE': NEXT STEP IN THE WAR IT CANNOT WIN
Israel plans to complete Gaza pullout before Obama inauguration
Israel plans to complete Gaza pullout before Obama inauguration Senior officials tell visiting European leaders that, barring any unforeseen developments, Israel will withdraw all IDF forces from Strip as gesture to incoming US president and to continue its cooperation with the US in the global fight against Islamist terror and the prevention of arms smuggling into Gaza, in accordance with the "memorandum of understanding" signed this week by Livni and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice... French President Nicolas Sarkozy, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Spanish Premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Czech PM, Mirek Topolánek, all traveled to the Middle East over the weekend to assist in the Gaza ceasefire efforts. Senior officials who attended a dinner party with the world leaders at the PM's residence, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu.... http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3658377,00.html

Hamas has not yet met terms for ceasefire: US State Dept. official
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090114/pl_afp/mideastgazaconflictegypthama...
Asked whether the conflict might still be raging when US president-elect Barack Obama takes office next week, Perino replied: "President Bush didn't want this situation to arise in the first place." White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said... "the president has no time limit on" protecting innocent Palestinians, whether there is a countdown to a new presidency or not.

'LOOKING FORWARD' TO OBAMA ADMIN., GAZA IS THE TIP OF USRAELI "NEW MIDEAST" ICEBERG...AND PALESTINIAN NATIONAL LIBERATION
“Gaza is an important test of whether we can defend ourselves within the 1967 boundaries,” Mr. Halevi said, noting that Hamas had been attacking Israel proper, not settlements. “Will we be able to defend ourselves if we need to from the West Bank? Will the international community let us?”...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/world/middleeast/18mideast.html?hp=&pa...

the 'ethics' of genocide: deliberately bombing private homes, hospitals, shelters, medical and food supply warehouse, ambulance drivers and doctors, families trying to flee their burning homes waving white flags, journalists, resistance leaders
CREATING LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR ITSELF & FELLOW STATE TERRORISTS
Weighing Crimes and Ethics in Urban Warfare
By STEVEN ERLANGER
Israel is facing accusations over the legality of its military conduct, but investigations into battlefield war crimes are especially difficult in urban guerrilla warfare. “How does an army fight a terrorist group?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/world/middleeast/17israel.html?th&emc=...

U.S. - Israeli democracy in action
Gaza: Residents waving white flags 'shot dead as they flee their burning homes'
Terrified residents said to be fleeing from many homes which had been set alight. At least three Palestinians in Gaza were shot dead yesterday after Israeli soldiers fired on a group of residents leaving their homes on orders from the military, waving white flags, according to testimony taken by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. Munir Shafik al-Najar told B'Tselem that members of his extended family started trying to leave their homes after the Israeli army began demolishing buildings in the area of Kuza'a, close to the Israeli border with south-eastern Gaza. Mr Najar said the Israeli soldiers using gunfire to signify residents should leave, then started shooting...". He testified his relative Rawhiya stepped out of the family-owned building, one of whose walls had been destroyed by a bulldozer, expecting her family to follow, but she was shot. The military subsequently attacked another group escaping leaving two more of his relatives dead. The military...found the claim to be "without foundation". http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/gaza-residents-waving-...

"Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it."
Arabic Proverb

"Very Bad Arabs"
The National Council of Arab Americans/NCA Position on Israeli Colonial Conquest
The Sun Rises from the South

UNITED STATES, JULY 14, 2006
US Destabilization of the Arab World
...Fully supported by the United States, the current Israeli
war against the people of Lebanon aims to destroy the
popular resistance movement and ignite an internal
confessional strife within Lebanon with the ultimate goal
of creating a proxy state buffered with a "colonized zone"
and severed from its Arab surrounding, particularly Syria
and Palestine. Such has been the US-Israeli design for
Lebanon for decades.

In its veto on July 12 of the United Nations resolution
condemning the Israeli actions in Gaza, the Bush
administration is sending a clear message that Israeli
conquests complement US policies for the region, as
manifested in the occupation and destruction of Iraq.
Effectively, three Arab states (Palestine, Iraq and
Lebanon) are now simultaneously under a violent siege and
are being drawn into internal strives.

Remaining in the cross-hairs of destabilization are Syria
and Iran. Pretenses have long been put forward as a prelude
to various forms of action against these two states. In
both cases, there are plans underway to plant US proxy
forces within the political fabric of the society to
function in sync with the overall plan of conquest for the
area. US-Israeli strategists hope to ultimately control the
remaining contiguous anchor of resistance to empire:
Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran. With that
control, US-Israeli hegemony over the Middle East would be
complete.

The Role of Arab Regimes
Given that nearly all Arab regimes have already been
transformed into proxy status, they are incapable of
affecting any change in the political process, even if they
chose. The roles for these regimes have been well defined
and choreographed, hence their deafening silence and
shameless complacency. Arab states would, at the very
least, be expected to immediately severe all Israeli
diplomatic relations and the economic exchanges they have
fostered and to stand in support of the popular resistance
movement. On the contrary, Arab regimes are striking with
an iron fist against the Arab people who dare to rise
against injustice.

The most atrocious of Arab positions thus far came from
Saudi Arabia who shamelessly entered the conflict on the
side of the colonizer. The Saudi monarchy is overtly
blaming the resistance movement in Lebanon and Palestine
and is holding it accountable for the ongoing Israeli
destruction and mayhem. Fully supported by the Egyptian and
Jordanian regimes, the Saudi position appears to be an
attempt to provide an "Arab voice", albeit a token one,
that would isolate the resistance in South Lebanon and
Palestine as "illegitimate" and "adventurous" forces
outside "acceptable behavior". This is a dangerous
destabilizing role played on behalf of the US-Israeli
alliance. It serves to open the gates for what is expected
to come - widening the attacks to include Syria and Iran in
some form or another.

In the same context, and in yet another serious
development, President of the Palestinian National
Authority, Mahmud Abbas, has attempted to disassociate the
Palestinian flank from the Lebanese, hoping to strike a
deal and exit the ongoing anti- colonial struggle. Abbas
has stated that the Palestinian decision regarding the
captured Israeli soldier is independent from developments
in Lebanon and its forces, in a clear reference to the
popular Lebanese resistance. This is a blow to the
Palestinian-Lebanese solidarity and must be opposed.

Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq ˆ Inseparable
The coming period is critical. Attempts to destabilize Iran
and Syria are likely to escalate, along with an even larger
attack on the resistance in South Lebanon and Palestine.
The confluence of these policies with US designs in Iraq
constitutes the overall defining strategy for the
US-controlled "New Middle East". In this "New Middle East",
the US hopes that natural resources, land and sea access,
and political servitude would be at will....
Naiveté in the understanding of geopolitics is a hindrance to peace and
justice - Iraq is inseparable from Palestine and Lebanon.

And as we build a movement to oppose war and occupations,
it is also critical that we prevent any attempt to corrupt
this movement from within by means introduced by US proxy
regimes and institutions. These attempts are well under
way, particularly within the Arab community. Millions of
dollars are being offered to set up functionary think tanks
and centers, all to introduce, or worse yet, to purchase defeatism.
These attempts must be challenged.

"Very Good Arabs"

"PEACE" BACKGROUND U.S.' COMPRADOR ARAB PARTNERS
The 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, the Agreement of Principles, and Annapolis, all part of strategy for defeating Arab resistance to establish USRAELI dominance through the “New Middle East” project
The 2002 Arab Peace Initiative
The Council of the League of Arab States at the Summit Level, at its 14th Ordinary Session,
Reaffirms the resolution taken in June 1996 at the Cairo extraordinary Arab summit that a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East is the strategic option of the Arab countries, to be achieved in accordance with international legality, and which would require a comparable commitment on the part of the Israeli government.
Having listened to the statement made by his royal highness Prince Abdullah Bin Abdullaziz, the crown prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in which his highness presented his initiative, calling for full Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories occupied since June 1967, in implementation of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, reaffirmed by the Madrid Conference of 1991 and the land for peace principle, and Israel's acceptance of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, in return for the establishment of normal relations in the context of a comprehensive peace with Israel. ...

Arab diplomacy has not stopped with the launching of the Arab initiative, however. Ever since President Bush made his speech on June 24, 2001, committing the United States to a two-state solution in three years as a solution to the conflict, key Arab states have tirelessly worked with the US and the Quartet to develop a realistic plan to see this vision implemented. It is a plan that fully realizes Israel’s security needs, and deals with them...

This road map should also lead to a successful conclusion not only on the Palestinian-Israeli track, but on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks as well. We do not view comprehensiveness as a concession to Arabs, as some have attempted to do. Comprehensiveness means the ability to trigger all the elements of the Arab initiative, in particular the ones I outlined above. We hope, therefore, that the three-year framework will apply to the Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese tracks with Israel in a way that can bring a permanent, comprehensive peace by mid-2005.

Optimistic, maybe, but certainly doable. Today, we have a clear international consensus on how to solve the conflict, going further than UNSC Resolution 242 did. It offers a two-state solution within a fixed time period, two elements missing from that famous resolution. More importantly, we have a willingness, and a contractual commitment, from all Arab states, to see an end to the longest conflict of the twentieth century. "

PRICELESS OBSCENITY
Obama & co. - finance capitalism's hope

Obama Urged to Move Swiftly to Rescue Banks
With many financial institutions continuing to hemorrhage billions of dollars, the central issue Barack Obama faces is how to relieve banks of rapidly deteriorating assets.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/us/politics/18assets.html?th&emc=th

Bailout Is a Windfall to Banks, if Not to Borrower
Most banks that received bailout money are using it to pay down debt or to make investments, not lending.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/business/18bank.html?th&emc=th

"An aggressive TARP capital infusion program is therefore the only way to combat this banking system capital-depletion problem..."
A New Chapter in the U.S. Financial Crisis Unfolds
by Brian Bethune
http://www.globalinsight.com/Perspective/PerspectiveDetail15677.htm
16 Jan 09
President-elect Obama requested the second half of TARP funds, $350 billion, from Congress. Bank of America to receive a $20-billion additional capital infusion from TARP I resources, and other official support of troubled assets. President-elect Obama moved swiftly, and we think wisely, over the past several days to request approval from Congress to have access to the second tranche of TARP funds—$350 billion. The Senate voted on January 15 not to disapprove of the disposition of these funds, and we expect the House to follow suit in the next few days.
While there has been considerable controversy over the effectiveness of the TARP I program, the facts speak for themselves. Bank credit (on balance sheet) to the private sector expanded by $323.7 billion in fourth-quarter 2008, up from only $195.3 billion in third-quarter 2008. Without the disposition of TARP funds, this expansion of bank credit simply would not have happened anywhere near this scale.

The main choke point with credit flows remains in the securitization markets—including mortgage-backed securities, auto loans, and credit card debt. We estimate that securitized credit actually declined in the fourth quarter, possibly by as much as $50 billion, as private investors both in the United States and abroad remained severely risk averse. Clearly, without the TARP capital infusions, the credit crunch in the fourth quarter of 2008 would have been far worse than it was.
While there is an ongoing debate as to how to deploy the second $350 billion of TARP funds, a considerable portion of these funds will likely be used for further capital infusions into the banking system. We estimate that roughly $200–$250 billion in additional capital will be needed to stabilize capital ratios in the banking system over the next several quarters and keep bank credit flowing, in order to support a rebound in the economy.
The U.S. Treasury will invest $20 billion in capital in Bank of America, and the bank will comply with enhanced executive compensation restrictions and implement a mortgage loan modification program. The $20-billion additional capital for Bank of America raises the total capital provided to that institution to $45 billion, close to the $50 billion provided cumulatively to Citigroup. The capital funds will be drawn from remaining TARP I funds that have not yet been disbursed. As a result, some lower priority pending applications for general funds will be deferred to the TARP II program.

In addition, the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will provide insurance protection against the possibility of unusually large losses on an asset pool of approximately $118 billion of troubled assets (primarily by residential and commercial real estate) assumed by Bank of America as a result of its acquisition of Merrill Lynch. In addition, and if necessary, the Federal Reserve stands ready to backstop residual risk in the asset pool through a non-recourse loan.

The bottom line here is that the TARP program is working in terms of forestalling a more severe credit crunch, and it is functioning as a critical tool to break the adverse feedback loop from depleted banking system capital, tighter credit conditions, and a weak economic performance.

The main problem that we are dealing with now is a rapidly deteriorating economic environment that is putting additional downward pressure on bank capital, and access to private sources of capital virtually ground to halt in the summer of 2008.
An aggressive TARP capital infusion program is therefore the only way to combat this banking system capital-depletion problem. Taking this approach will potentially increase the effectiveness of both monetary and fiscal policies in terms of ultimately reviving the economy. The president-elect is on the right track so far in terms of understanding these issues and taking prompt action to secure the second tranche of TARP resources.
About Global Insight: Global Insight provides the most comprehensive economic, financial, and political coverage of countries, regions, and industries available from any source—covering over 200 countries and spanning more than approximately 170 industries—using a unique combination of expertise, models, data, and software within a common analytical framework to support planning and decision making.
Recognized as the most consistently accurate forecasting company in the world, Global Insight has over 3,800 clients in industry, finance, and government with revenues in excess of $100 million, 700 employees, and 25 offices in 14 countries covering North and South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

Obama's inauguration to be the most expensive in US history
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/14/barack-obama-inauguration-cost
President Barack Obama's inauguration next week is set to be the most expensive ever, predicted to reach over $150m (£102m). This dwarfs the $42.3m spent on George Bush's inauguration in 2005 and the $33m spent on Bill Clinton's in 1993. Part of the spending includes emergency funding announced by the White House on Tuesday to help with the soaring costs. Most of this new federal funding will be to deal with the huge influx of people, estimated 1.5 million to 2 million.... President Bush "declared an emergency exists in the District of Columbia".
If there is snow, the costs will grow higher. The long-term forecast suggests there is a chance of snow on Sunday and again on the day of inauguration, on Tuesday....
One of the biggest costs is transport, and the Washington DC transport authority has also put in a request to the federal government for extra funding....

Carole Florman, spokeswoman for the joint congressional committee on inaugural ceremonies ... deals specifically with the inauguration ceremony at the Congress, which is relatively modest... told the New York Daily News, which estimated the cost at $160m: "We're always very budget conscious. But we're sending a message to the entire world about our peaceful transition of power, and you don't want it to look like a schlock affair. It needs to be appropriate to the magnitude of events that it is." The surge in spending is partly because of the Obama's decision to open the entire Mall to the public. The federal government has budgeted $49m for the inauguration. But this does not take account of other demands, such as from Virginia and Maryland, the states surrounding the capital, that have also asked for emergency funding.

In addition, funding will come from Obama's own fund-raising efforts and from private contributors.

Obama today issued a statement calling on people [ the homeless, ill without healthcare, the unemployed and all those he's bailed out ...of the ship] across the nation to participate by holding their own neighbourhood events, including their own balls....

Obama Nation Upholds US Terror
By Mickey Z.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21771.htm

Let’s start with two facts:
1. The United States of America is a rogue state built on and maintained by terror
2. Barack Obama will do absolutely nothing to change or challenge the realities behind fact #1

In the name of providing context, let’s look back to the "good war" (a phrase in which—as Studs Terkel said—the noun and adjective don’t match) for an example of time-honored US terror tactics: In World War II’s Pacific theater—cheered on by the likes of Time magazine, which explained that "properly kindled, Japanese cities will burn like autumn leaves"—US General Curtis LeMay’s Twenty-first Bomber Command, laid siege on the poorer areas of Japan’s large cities. On the night of March 9-10, 1945, the target was Tokyo, where tightly packed wooden buildings took the brunt of 1,665 tons of incendiaries. LeMay later recalled that a few explosives had been mixed in with the incendiaries to demoralize firefighters (96 fire engines burned to ashes and 88 firemen died). The attack area was 87.4 percent residential. By May 1945, 75 percent of the bombs being dropped on Japan were incendiaries and LeMay’s campaign took an estimated 672,000 lives.

In a confidential memo of June 1945, Brigadier General Bonner Fellers, an aide to General MacArthur, called the raids, "one of the most ruthless and barbaric killings on non-combatants in all history." Secretary of War Henry Stimson declared it was "appalling that there had been no protest over the air strikes we were conducting against Japan which led to such extraordinarily heavy loss of life." Stimson added that he "did not want to have the United States get the reputation for outdoing Hitler in atrocities." After the "good war," LeMay admitted: "I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal. Fortunately, we were on the winning side."

The men that devised and carried out this heinous attack are widely considered to be part of this country’s "greatest generation" yet, by any sane definition, what I just described is terrorism…far worse than anything allegedly perpetrated by official US enemies.

Rosa Luxemburg sez: "The first revolutionary act is to call things by their true names." Well then, here goes: Whether we—or Lord Obama—choose to admit it or not, the vaunted "American way of life" was built on a nearly exterminated indigenous population, the African slave trade, and all those killed in places like Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Southeast Asia, Central America, the Middle East, etc. It was built on stolen land using stolen oil. Our way of life was built on terror and it is maintained by terror: e.g. cops, prisons, military, and the psychological oppression of propaganda.
The exalted Pope of Hope is merely shilling old Kool-Aid in shiny new recyclable bottles. Until we act, we remain accomplices to his global and domestic crimes.
Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net .

state terrorists to officially legalize genocidal crimes against humanity
'New rules for new wars'
Conference brings Israeli, US experts together to 'fine tune' international law
Yaakov Lappin
The Geneva Convention on armed conflict and the 100 year-old Hague Rules on war need to be "fine tuned" to meet the challenges posed by 21st century asymmetrical warfare, Israeli and American experts said..."We're not calling for an abandoning of international law or an extreme change, but for an internationally accepted platform,"The Herzliya conference will be followed by a meeting in Washington DC in October, in which experts in international law and national security are expected to list recommendations for reforming international law on warfare. http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,...

This approach backfired ... on to fascism with a friendlier face
“All this talk about first we are going to do Afghanistan, then we will do Iraq... this is entirely the wrong way to go about it. If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely and we don't try to piece together clever diplomacy, but just wage a total war... our children will sing great songs about us years from now.”
Richard Perle

MORE CONTINUITY IN HIGHER POWER WAR AGENDA
...Obama will be keeping another holdover from the Bush administration on his national security team — Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, who will keep his job coordinating Iraq and Afghanistan policy out of the National Security Council, according to transition officials...will report to Mr. Obama through the president’s National Security Adviser, Gen. James L. Jones... General Lute recently completed a review of Afghanistan policy for President Bush one Obama transition official said there were elements of... which General Jones might seek to keep.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/war-czar-for-bush-to-keep-...

Obama-Bush officials conduct 'war' games
Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama's incoming chief of staff, spoke to reporters with Mr. Bush's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, outside the White House before beginning the several hours of security briefings and exercises.
Mr. Bolten said that the day would start off with briefings for the key members of Mr. Obama's incoming cabinet and senior White House staff. "And then later that group will be joined by their counterparts in the current administration - key members of the Cabinet and White House senior staff - for an actual homeland security exercise," Mr. Bolten said...."about who does what, under what authorities, and with that coordination in the event of a homeland security incident. Mr. Bolten said that the exercises were part of what he said is "the smoothest and most effective transition in the history of the presidency." "We've certified nearly a thousand members of the Obama transition team for access to information and briefings at nearly a hundred agencies around the government, and we've expedited clearances for key members of the national security team so that they're in a position to hit the ground running," he said.
Mr. Bolten has also chaired a series of transition council meetings inside the White House that began in the fall. Mr. Emanuel agreed with Mr. Bolten's assessment. "This is just one example of what has been an unprecedented integration of transition," he said. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/13/obama-bush-officials-con...

US anti-terror policy to focus on Pak: Clinton
BS Reporter / New Delhi /washington January 15, 2009, 0:21 IST
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/us-anti-terror-policy-to-foc...
Pakistan and Afghanistan will be at the centre of the US radar in its “global counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism” efforts.... US Secretary of State- designate Hillary Clinton, at her Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, said elements of US power — diplomacy, development and defence — would be used “to work with those in Afghanistan and Pakistan who want to root out the Al-Qaeda, Taliban and other violent extremists.” She said no effort would be spared to tackle what US President-elect Obama has called “the central front (Afghanistan and Pakistan) in the fight against terrorism”. The Afghanistan conflict needs a comprehensive solution that includes “Pakistan, India and Iran, and the larger region,” she added... “Pakistan has a particular complexity because of its nuclear weapons capacity...For now, Richard Holbrooke, former US envoy to the UN, is tipped to be the special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan...